Well, I did kind of ask about a dinosaur in the last quiz. What are the chances I’ll ask about Las Vegas this time? Let’s go!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot
1) The Song Viva Las Vegas was originally sung by Elvis, but is what his co-star in the film that sung the song on the soundtrack. Who was that actress?
2) Jane Krakowski is one of those people who seem like they are in a ton of random stuff. National Lampoon’s Vacation for example. She introduced a question about Viva Rock Vegas on an episode of Jeopardy! On that she was introduced as Jane Krakowski from BLANK. What television show fills in the blank?
3) Kristen Johnston plays Wilma in the movie. She won two Primetime Emmys for what television series?
4) We’ve almost completed the 2000 Razzie Worst Razzie slate. Battlefield Earth, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, and Little Nicky are three of the four other nominees. The fourth is a romantic comedy called The Next Best Thing starring which singer who is not unfamiliar with Worst Actress nominations?
5) We are now half way through Las Vegas films. The biggest outstanding one stars Elizabeth Berkley. What is that film?
Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: Viva Rock Vegas couldn’t have played on television, but Viva Las Vegas could. It played at 10PM on August 13, 1992. You could have watched this BMT Friend earlier that night:
What do you think the chances are I ask a question about dinosaurs in this quiz. Let’s go!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot
1) In the film there is a children’s playground called Jurassic Park. In the Lost World novel, the first sequel Crichton wrote, which character did Crichton “resurrect”, in reference to Sherlock Holmes, who had died in the original novel?
2) The best bit from the soundtrack is that the band The B-52s (as the BC-52s) perform the theme song. The B-52s are famously from Athens, GA, which is the same hometown as what other incredibly famous 80s/90s band?
3) I guess this could be a tough one. Elizabeth Taylor’s final theatrical performance is in The Flintstones as Wilma’s mother. She was famously married 8 times to 7 men. Besides Richard Burton can you name any of those men?
4) The Flintstones is famously a primetime animated sitcom, much like the Simpsons. After the Simpsons premiered to gangbuster ratings, other animated sitcoms followed. Can you name the one season wonder animated sitcom involving rodents who live under the White House? This is rather obscure.
5) John Goodman didn’t want to play Fred, but felt like he had to because otherwise the movie wouldn’t have been made. It was during a table read for what 1989 Spielberg film that Spielberg himself announced that he wanted Goodman to play Fred (much to Goodman’s chagrin)?
Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: The Flintstones had its primetime premiere on February 21st, 1997 (yeah, it must have been doing great home video sales to take over two years to premiere). Naturally, TMC brought out the big guns. Name this Kurt Russell classic:
“Sorry, I didn’t mean indecent. I meant impossible,” the theater owner says, correcting himself. “It’s just that I can’t possibly afford a showing of Cobra at my theater.” Patrick thinks for a moment, contemplating how long it might take to boost the profile of this small theater using the Bad Movie Twins bodacious brand. He looks back through the window of the restaurant where Jamie and Samantha are eating and observes that the make out session has progressed from ‘proper necking’ to ‘hot and heavy.’ He slams his fist into the table. “There just isn’t time,” he rasps through gritted teeth. “Maybe if you ask Sylvester Stallone nicely he’ll do you a solid,” Kyle suggests. Patrick scoffs. Sure he was a social acquaintance of Sly, but one didn’t just ask Sly politely for anything. “Or maybe a friend of a friend,” he adds. Patrick is about to double scoff directly in Kyle’s face, but suddenly has a thought. Unless it was one of the many very realistic daydreams he and Jamie have had recently, he’s pretty sure Kevin James was now one of their best friends. He checks his phone and he finds that KJ is indeed in his contacts (and not headless as a result of a well placed Twin Kick). Hooray! He speed dials the number and gets the man himself on the horn. After briefly confirming that they never kicked him in the head, he asks after Sly. KJ laughs, “That old dog? Did you know that he didn’t even have to show up to the set of Zookeeper but he insisted on wearing the Lion costume every day.” Patrick laughs. Classic Sly. “We’re actually doing a new film together. Why don’t you swing by the set sometime? You can check out Bedrock for yourself.” That’s right! We are finally doing it. The double dose of Flintstones action that is The Flintstones and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. There isn’t much more to say (other than yabba-dabba-do, I guess). Let’s go!
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) – BMeTric: 82.0; Notability: 96
StreetCreditReport.com –BMeTric: top 1.2%; Notability: top 0.0%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 23.2%; Higher BMeT: Battlefield Earth, Dungeons & Dragons, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2; Lower RT: Fortress 2: Re-Entry, 3 Strikes, My 5 Wives, The in Crowd, Battlefield Earth, Down to You, Bless the Child, Lost Souls, Heavy Metal 2000, Dungeons & Dragons, Circus, The Skulls, I Dreamed of Africa, Ed Gein, Screwed, Urban Legends: Final Cut, The Watcher, Supernova, Boys and Girls, The Ladies Man, and 37 more; Notes: For BMeTric it is 8/10 watched and 14/20 which is quite good I think. The 10-20 films are weird though. Loser, Hanging Up, Lost Souls, The Next Best Thing? I literally cannot believe that Notability either … for The Flintstones sequel!
RogerEbert.com – 0.5 Stars – “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas” has dinosaurs that lumber along crushing everything in their path. The movie’s screenplay works sort of the same way. Think of every possible pun involving stones, rocks and prehistoric times, and link them to a pea-brained story that creaks and groans on its laborious march through unspeakably obvious, labored and idiotic humor.
(Really close to the very rare 0 star film from Roger Ebert (which is a straight thumbs down). And yeah, compared to the first this one is ultra dumb and the first was effectively Shakespeare.)
(Oh wow, and then this one looks like absolute garbage. Fred and Barney are just the worse immediately. Only Betty is any good. Oh man, Gazoo looks horrifying.)
Directors – Brian Levant – ( Known For: Max 2: White House Hero; Future BMT: Beethoven; The Spy Next Door; Snow Dogs; BMT: Jingle All the Way; The Flintstones; Are We There Yet?; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Problem Child 2; Notes: I’m a little bowled over they got the same director back. Snow Dogs … that will be an 00s crown jewel once we get around to it.)
Writers – William Hanna and Joseph Barbera – ( Known For: The Man Called Flintstone; Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear; Tom and Jerry: Cowboy Up!; Tom and Jerry: Snowman’s Land; Future BMT: Tom and Jerry: The Movie; BMT: Tom & Jerry; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Notes: They made all of the cartoons obviously back in the day. Amazingly, only one of their films played on television in the 90s at all since they didn’t get a credit on the first film. It was Tom & Jerry: The Movie which played exactly once, in 1996. I’m not sure I totally buy it, it maybe was just called Tom & Jerry places, but still a fun fact.)
Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont – ( Known For: Can’t Hardly Wait; Josie and the Pussycats; A Very Brady Sequel; Future BMT: Leap Year; Surviving Christmas; BMT: Made of Honor; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Notes: Oooo Can’t Hardly Wait. Honestly … not a super great movie, but only because there is a huge bit in the middle where he leaves the party and it really deflates things. Watched it on Criterion. Wild stuff.)
Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. – ( Known For: Top Gun: Maverick; Top Gun; Turner & Hooch; Dick Tracy; The Secret of My Success; Legal Eagles; BMT: Anaconda; Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Notes: All of their 80s/90s films played a ton on tv. Cash died in 2000 and Epps seemed to maybe retire afterwards. Their Anacondas 2 credit is for characters only.)
Actors – Mark Addy – ( Known For: Robin Hood; A Knight’s Tale; The Full Monty; Mary Poppins Returns; Downton Abbey; Barney’s Version; The Lost King; It’s a Wonderful Afterlife; Heartlands; Lies We Tell; The Runaways; Future BMT: The Time Machine; Jack Frost; Down to Earth; The Order; BMT: Around the World in 80 Days; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Notes: Remember when The Full Monty was just absolutely the hugest thing in the world … I guess it is again since they are doing some weird American TV special for whatever reason.)
Stephen Baldwin – ( Known For: The Usual Suspects; Born on the Fourth of July; Casualties of War; The Beast of War; Last Exit to Brooklyn; A Simple Twist of Fate; Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle; Sky Kids; The Sex Monster; Homeboy; Xchange; Mercy; Magi; Shark in Venice; Fall Time; The Genius Club; I’m in Love with a Church Girl; Back to the Jurassic; Friends & Lovers; Six: The Mark Unleashed; Future BMT: Half Baked; Fred Claus; Threesome; Fled; 8 Seconds; Posse; BMT: Bio-Dome; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Notes: Alec apparently told him that going Bio-Dome would ruin his career. It really did. Went from Usual Suspects to Bio-Dome to … well, this I suppose.)
Kristen Johnston – ( Known For: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; Austin Powers in Goldmember; Music and Lyrics; Swiped; Vamps; Strangers with Candy; Life Happens; The Wedding Year; Lovesick; Finding Bliss; Hurricane Bianca: From Russia with Hate; For the Love of George; Bad Parents; Small Town Wisconsin; Colin Fitz Lives!; Thrill Ride; BMT: Bride Wars; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Notes: Obviously huge on 3rd Rock From the Sun. She was Ivana Humpalot in the Austin Powers films. I didn’t recognize her with black hair, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out who she played.)
(Oooooof. The budget was kind of unavoidable. You have to make giant sets and costumes and pay for the rights and everything. And then this just tanked. And they have never thought of a live-action version again. You think they’ll ever do The Jetsons.)
Rotten Tomatoes – 25% (18/72): The prequel to the first full-length feature set in Bedrock, Viva Rock Vegas is a surprising improvement over The Flintstones. Aimed towards an audience of adults and children alike, critics feel Viva will appeal to a broad range of viewers.
(WHAT. A surprising improvement? AND IMPROVEMENT?! Ludicrous. You having a laugh?)
Reviewer Highlight: It’s not delightful or funny or exciting, and for long stretches, it looks exactly like hapless actors standing in front of big rocks and reciting sitcom dialogue. – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
(Remember when I said I was a sucker for a drawn poster? This isn’t exactly what I meant. Still. It could be way worse than this if they had went for photos of the actors and the font is still good. The car, though… it’s tough. C+)
Tagline(s) – Get ready to rock! (D+)
(No. To generic. Too lame. Not into it.)
Keyword(s) – 1991-1999
Top 10: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Hook (1991), Batman & Robin (1997), Batman Forever (1995), Big Daddy (1999), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), Godzilla (1998), Event Horizon (1997), Demolition Man (1993), The Bone Collector (1999)
Future BMT: 86.8 Street Fighter (1994), 82.9 Inspector Gadget (1999), 79.3 Home Alone 3 (1997), 75.4 Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), 74.9 Junior (1994), 72.3 The Next Karate Kid (1994), 71.9 Mr. Magoo (1997), 67.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 67.1 Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997), 67.0 Mr. Nanny (1993), 63.5 Showgirls (1995), 61.7 Pet Sematary II (1992), 61.5 Cop & ½ (1993), 61.1 Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), 60.4 The Mangler (1995), 60.1 Spawn (1997), 59.7 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992), 59.5 Jury Duty (1995), 58.1 Child’s Play 3 (1991), 57.9 Holy Man (1998)
BMT: Batman & Robin (1997), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), The Avengers (1998), Baby Geniuses (1999), Spice World (1997), Barb Wire (1996), Kazaam (1996), Super Mario Bros. (1993), RoboCop 3 (1993), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), Universal Soldier: The Return (1999), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Steel (1997), Bio-Dome (1996), Striptease (1996), Species II (1998), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Double Dragon (1994), Anaconda (1997), It’s Pat: The Movie (1994), Cool as Ice (1991), Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1995), Wing Commander (1999), Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), On Deadly Ground (1994), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Dudley Do-Right (1999), Double Team (1997), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), Ed (1996), The Flintstones (1994), The Haunting (1999), Leprechaun (1993), Bats (1999), Fair Game (1995), Cool World (1992), Body of Evidence (1993), Problem Child 2 (1991), Chairman of the Board (1997), The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), The Mod Squad (1999), Lost in Space (1998), Sliver (1993), Toys (1992), Weekend at Bernie’s II (1993), …
Best Options (Gothika):67.1 The Flintstones (1994), 55.0 Eye of the Beholder (1999), 46.8 B*A*P*S (1997), 41.9 Black & White (1999), 41.0 Feeling Minnesota (1996), 39.9 In Dreams (1999), 37.0 Girl 6 (1996), 35.2 The Fan (1996), 34.7 Father Hood (1993), 30.3 The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), 28.5 The Rich Man’s Wife (1996), 26.7 The Pagemaster (1994), 26.4 Race the Sun (1996), 24.9 A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994), 22.9 Nick of Time (1995), 21.9 Screamers (1995), 20.2 Strictly Business (1991), 16.6 U.S. Marshals (1998), 14.7 The Bone Collector (1999)
(We watched this as a BONUS because we were going through Halle Berry. I’ve actually already seen the Bone Collector. It is incredibly silly … and I kind of want to read the books. I’m sure they are equally ludicrous.)
Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 20) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Alan Cumming is No. 7 billed in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas and No. 4 billed in Get Carter, which also stars Sylvester Stallone (No. 1 billed) who is in The Expendables 4 (No. 2 billed) which also stars Jason Statham (No. 1 billed) who is in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (No. 1 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (7 + 4) + (1 + 2) + (1 + 1) + (3 + 1) = 20. If we were to watch The Sin Eater, and 40 Days and 40 Nights we can get the HoE Number down to 13.
Notes – Although he died eleven years prior to this movie’s release, Mel Blanc received credit for the voice of Baby Dino. The voice was re-used from The Flintstones (1960).
Harvey Korman (Colonel Slaghoople) was the original voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones (1960).
The creators of the original animated series, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, can be seen briefly during the wedding scene at the end of this movie. There’s one quick shot of the two of them together singing along to the Flintstones theme song.
The producers opted for the prequel approach in this second movie mainly due to John Goodman’s refusal to reprise his role as Fred Flintstone.
On the shelf in Betty O’Shale’s (Jane Krakowski’s) kitchen is a box of Post Fruity Pebbles, a real-life breakfast cereal derived from the original animated series.
Awards – Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Picture
Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor (Stephen Baldwin)
Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress (Joan Collins)
Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel
“Sorry, I didn’t mean indecent. I meant impossible,” the theater owner says, correcting himself. “It’s just that I can’t possibly afford a showing of Cobra at my theater.” Patrick thinks for a moment, contemplating how long it might take to boost the profile of this small theater using the Bad Movie Twins bodacious brand. He looks back through the window of the restaurant where Jamie and Samantha are eating and observes that the make out session has progressed from ‘proper necking’ to ‘hot and heavy.’ He slams his fist into the table. “There just isn’t time,” he rasps through gritted teeth. “Maybe if you ask Sylvester Stallone nicely he’ll do you a solid,” Kyle suggests. Patrick scoffs. Sure he was a social acquaintance of Sly, but one didn’t just ask Sly politely for anything. “Or maybe a friend of a friend,” he adds. Patrick is about to double scoff directly in Kyle’s face, but suddenly has a thought. Unless it was one of the many very realistic daydreams he and Jamie have had recently, he’s pretty sure Kevin James was now one of their best friends. He checks his phone and he finds that KJ is indeed in his contacts (and not headless as a result of a well placed Twin Kick). Hooray! He speed dials the number and gets the man himself on the horn. After briefly confirming that they never kicked him in the head, he asks after Sly. KJ laughs, “That old dog? Did you know that he didn’t even have to show up to the set of Zookeeper but he insisted on wearing the Lion costume every day.” Patrick laughs. Classic Sly. “We’re actually doing a new film together. Why don’t you swing by the set sometime? You can check out Bedrock for yourself.” That’s right! We are finally doing it. The double dose of Flintstones action that is The Flintstones and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. There isn’t much more to say (other than yabba-dabba-do, I guess). Let’s go!
The Flintstones (1994) – BMeTric: 67.1; Notability: 105
StreetCreditReport.com –BMeTric: top 3.2%; Notability: top 0.0%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 24.2%; Higher BMeT: Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (52), Street Fighter (6), Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (10), Junior (2), The Next Karate Kid (89), It’s Pat: The Movie (13), Double Dragon (11), On Deadly Ground (36); Lower RT: Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (52), It’s Pat: The Movie (13), Death Wish: The Face of Death (31), Wagons East (9), The Silence of the Hams (11), House Party 3 (24), Car 54, Where Are You? (71), Holy Matrimony (61), Getting Even with Dad (52), A Low Down Dirty Shame (49), Major League II (66), Exit to Eden (38), Lightning Jack (58), Leprechaun 2 (9), The Next Karate Kid (89), Trial by Jury (38), Blank Check (50), Intersection (28), The Specialist (33), Trapped in Paradise (47), and 39 more; Notes: I filled in all the counts in parenthesis in this one. The Flintstones, much like a lot of big films in the late 90s, seemed to resist showing too much on television. Only twice in 1997 and once in 1999. You can see with the higher BMeT films that the bigger ones (Street Fighter, Junior) counter-intuitively played fewer times on television. Top Notability though, that’s sweet. FYI I’m not going to fill in the counts for all of them, too much work, but fun still.
RogerEbert.com – 2.5 stars – If “The Flintstones” had been able to devise a story as interesting as its production values, it would have been some kind of wonderful. This is a great-looking movie, a triumph of set design and special effects, creating a fantasy world halfway between suburbia and a prehistoric cartoon. The frame is filled with delightful and inventive notions, all based on the idea that modern America might somehow be reconstructed out of rocks. Just watching it is fun. … Maybe kids just plain won’t mind; they’ll disregard the story and enjoy the stone age gags. But “The Flintstones” does so well with the hard part of creating its world that it’s a shame the earlier part – putting a story into it – doesn’t measure up.
(I can tell you … I didn’t give a shit when I was a kid. This movie was fucking dope. I still can’t believe it is considered a bad movie.)
(Jeez, Moranis and Goodman are so good. I really hate the bait and switch at the beginning, but my god this looks incredible. People must have been like shit we can just make cartoons now.)
Directors – Brian Levant – ( Known For: Max 2: White House Hero; Future BMT: Beethoven; The Spy Next Door; Snow Dogs; BMT: Jingle All the Way; The Flintstones; Are We There Yet?; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Problem Child 2; Notes: Kind of incredible that Jingle All the Way was I think by far his biggest film. He was doing something right. We need to smash out all of the Beethoven films at some point … well, maybe not all of them.)
Writers – Tom S. Parker and Jim Jennewein – ( Known For: Stay Tuned; Future BMT: Richie Rich; Major League II; Getting Even with Dad; BMT: The Flintstones; Notes: Wait … we are watching two of their films in this cycle alone? That’s nuts. Getting Even with Dad, Richie Rich, and Major League II both came out in ‘94 and were huge cable hits. Crazy.)
Steven E. de Souza – ( Known For: Die Hard; Die Hard 2; Commando; The Running Man; 48 Hrs.; Ricochet; Blast; The Return of Captain Invincible; Future BMT: Street Fighter; Bad Dreams; BMT: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life; Judge Dredd; Beverly Hills Cop III; The Flintstones; Hudson Hawk; Another 48 Hrs.; Knock Off; Notes: It is incredible we are almost done with this filmography. As a matter of fact … I just have to watch Blast, Bad Dreams, and The Return of Captain Invincible to seemingly finish off his filmography personally. That’s crazy.)
Actors – John Goodman – ( Known For: Monsters, Inc.; The Big Lebowski; Argo; Cars; Monsters University; Flight; 10 Cloverfield Lane; Kong: Skull Island; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Artist; The Emperor’s New Groove; Atomic Blonde; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets; Bee Movie; The Princess and the Frog; Inside Llewyn Davis; Raising Arizona; The Campaign; Barton Fink; Patriots Day; Future BMT: The Hangover Part III; The Internship; Evan Almighty; The Monuments Men; Coyote Ugly; Death Sentence; One Night at McCool’s; Dirty Work; Love the Coopers; The Jungle Book 2; King Ralph; We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story; Ratchet & Clank; The Survivors; Burglar; Born Yesterday; Stella; BMT: Transformers: Age of Extinction; Transformers: The Last Knight; The Flintstones; Confessions of a Shopaholic; Notes: Guess which one of his many films played the most on television in the 90s? That’s right, let’s say it together … Born Yesterday? Huh. Literally the second least popular available BMT qualifier for him, but played over 90 times in the 90s. That’s patently insane.)
Rick Moranis – ( Known For: Ghostbusters; Ghostbusters II; Spaceballs; Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; Little Shop of Horrors; Parenthood; Honey, I Blew Up the Kid; L.A. Story; Little Giants; Streets of Fire; My Blue Heaven; Strange Brew; The Wild Life; Howard; Future BMT: Brother Bear; Brewster’s Millions; Club Paradise; Big Bully; Splitting Heirs; Head Office; BMT: The Flintstones; Notes: It is insane that Ghostbusters II played over 200 times on television in the 90s. Moranis is such an incredible 90s actor. If his films played on different days each time then over 30% of the dates in the 90s would have a Moranis film playing. What?!)
Rosie O’Donnell – ( Known For: Tarzan; Sleepless in Seattle; Pitch Perfect 2; A League of Their Own; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Beautiful Girls; A Very Brady Sequel; Harriet the Spy; Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey; Wide Awake; I’ll Do Anything; I’m Going to Tell You a Secret; Teenage Paparazzo; The Undefeated; The Twilight of the Golds; Everything Is Copy; Being Mary Tyler Moore; ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway; Future BMT: Another Stakeout; BMT: The Flintstones; Now and Then; The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas; Fatal Instinct; Exit to Eden; Car 54, Where Are You?; Notes: She gets a bunch of plays on television in supporting roles … but the weirdest one is The Twilight of the Golds. I think I even brought this one up before, it is about a debate a family has about an unborn child which genetic will be born gay. Like WHAT?!)
(Holy shit, that is a lot of money. Not surprising. The film is genuinely good and everyone else was dumb and wrong at the time.)
Rotten Tomatoes – 23% (11/48): The Flintstones wastes beloved source material and imaginative production design on a tepid script that plunks Bedrock’s favorite family into a cynical story awash with lame puns.
(Fine, alright … yeah, it is kind of a waste. They aren’t wrong about that. But man, imagine the sequel we could have gotten with the original awesome cast? Phew.)
Reviewer Highlight: Mostly rock jokes stretched to feature length – New York Times listing
(There is a lot going on in this poster, but I am a sucker for a classic drawn poster. Like look at that detail! It’s pretty great. Nice font. The only thing I’d do is 86 the bird. It’s too much. Keep it to the main characters. A-)
Tagline(s) – Yabba-Dabba-Doo! (C)
(That’s a fastball right down the middle. Can’t blame them. Can’t reward them.)
Keyword(s) – 1991-1999
Top 10: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Hook (1991), Batman & Robin (1997), Batman Forever (1995), Big Daddy (1999), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), Godzilla (1998), Event Horizon (1997), Demolition Man (1993), The Bone Collector (1999)
Future BMT: 86.8 Street Fighter (1994), 82.9 Inspector Gadget (1999), 79.3 Home Alone 3 (1997), 75.4 Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), 74.9 Junior (1994), 72.3 The Next Karate Kid (1994), 71.9 Mr. Magoo (1997), 67.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 67.1 Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997), 67.0 Mr. Nanny (1993), 63.5 Showgirls (1995), 61.7 Pet Sematary II (1992), 61.5 Cop & ½ (1993), 61.1 Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), 60.4 The Mangler (1995), 60.1 Spawn (1997), 59.7 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992), 59.5 Jury Duty (1995), 58.1 Child’s Play 3 (1991), 57.9 Holy Man (1998)
BMT: Batman & Robin (1997), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), The Avengers (1998), Baby Geniuses (1999), Spice World (1997), Barb Wire (1996), Kazaam (1996), Super Mario Bros. (1993), RoboCop 3 (1993), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), Universal Soldier: The Return (1999), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Steel (1997), Bio-Dome (1996), Striptease (1996), Species II (1998), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Double Dragon (1994), Anaconda (1997), It’s Pat: The Movie (1994), Cool as Ice (1991), Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1995), …
Best Options (Gothika):67.1 The Flintstones (1994), 55.0 Eye of the Beholder (1999), 46.8 B*A*P*S (1997), 41.9 Black & White (1999), 41.0 Feeling Minnesota (1996), 39.9 In Dreams (1999), 37.0 Girl 6 (1996), 35.2 The Fan (1996), 34.7 Father Hood (1993), 30.3 The Distinguished Gentleman (1992), 28.5 The Rich Man’s Wife (1996), 26.7 The Pagemaster (1994), 26.4 Race the Sun (1996), 24.9 A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994), 22.9 Nick of Time (1995), 21.9 Screamers (1995), 20.2 Strictly Business (1991), 16.6 U.S. Marshals (1998), 14.7 The Bone Collector (1999)
(Wowza. Amazing it is the best option because we really started to have our hands tied going back in time and then jumping back up to a 2024 film. But yeah, this was a blockbuster (in the BMT sense))
Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 17) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Elizabeth Perkins is No. 2 billed in The Flintstones and No. 4 billed in The Ring Two, which also stars Naomi Watts (No. 1 billed) who is in Diana (No. 1 billed) which also stars Naveen Andrews (No. 2 billed) who is in Rollerball (No. 4 billed) which also stars Chris Klein (No. 1 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 2 billed) => (2 + 4) + (1 + 1) + (2 + 4) + (1 + 2) = 17. If we were to watch Must Love Dogs, and The Glass House we can get the HoE Number down to 10.
Notes – Danny DeVito was Steven Spielberg ‘s first choice for the part of Barney. DeVito felt his acting style was too gruff to properly portray Barney, and turned the part down. Subsequently, DeVito recommended Rick Moranis for the part.
Since the entire cast performed barefoot, glassware was banned from the set to prevent injuries.
The appearance of the Flintstones’ sabre-toothed cat marks one of the first times for a furry CG character in a feature film. A specific, complex algorithm (for its time) had to be developed to calculate the movement of every single hair of the fur.
On Dame Elizabeth Taylor’s first day onset, she was greeted with 30 bouquets of flowers, a Cartier watch, a prehistoric bowling ball with her name engraved on it and a bottle of her Passion perfume, redesigned in Bedrock-style fashion. The same bottle appears in the film.
Mel Blanc receives a credit for the voice of Dino five years after his death. The dialogue is taken directly from The Flintstones (1960).
Awards – Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel (Bruce Cohen)
Winner for the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress (Rosie O’Donnell)
Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress (Elizabeth Taylor)
Winner for the Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay (Tom S. Parker, Jim Jennewein, Steven E. de Souza, Al Aidekman, Kate Barker, Cindy Begel, Ruth Bennett, Bruce Cohen, Robert Conte, Rob Dames, Lon Diamond, Michael J. Di Gaetano, Fred Fox Jr., Lloyd Garver, Daniel Goldin, Joshua Goldin, Richard Gurman, Jason Hoffs, Brian Levant, Babaloo Mandel, Mitch Markowitz, Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, David Richardson, Leonard Ripps, Gary Ross, Dava Savel, David Silverman, Nancy Steen, Stephen Sustarsic, Roy Teicher, Neil Thompson, Michael G. Wilson, Peter Wortmann)
Given the state of erotic thrillers I presume at some point we will burn through them all (at least the major releases) and be considered some kind of experts. Putting on my glasses (as I do before watching any erotic thriller… for science) I think the key to a successful erotic thriller is this: an attractive man who also can come across a little smarmy to stand opposite your extremely hot lady. Redford is interesting in that role because I don’t know if he’d think he was coming off smarmy, but obviously in this film as he throws around money and buys up real estate trying to have sex with Demi Moore it comes off as strange and off putting. He’s no Michael Douglas, but he’s closer than he thinks. I only note this because along these lines Wild Orchid fails… note that I said the man has to be a “little” smarmy… just a little. Hear that Mr. Rourke?
To recap, Diana and David are IN LOVE. He’s an architect and she’s a real estate agent, but a downturn in the housing market (exciting) leaves them teetering on the edge of losing their unfinished dream house. They head to Vegas where they risk it all and win!… and then like a couple of dummies also lose it all. A charming(ish?) super rich dude, John Gage, takes a liking to Diana and after a whirlwind night of being his good luck charm at craps and getting their stay paid for he offers them a proposal. And let me tell you, this proposal is not decent. He wants to sleep with Diana (gasp). David is like “No!” Diana is like “Wellll.” Ultimately they draw up a contract and off she goes. Returning home a million dollars richer they find that Gage did a totally normal thing and bought their dream house from under them. Ultimately this leads to their life falling apart. Gage returns to the scene and pursues a real relationship with Diana. She’s like “No!” but eventually is like “Wellllll…” Now David falls apart alone. After hitting rock bottom he finds his bootstraps there keeping him company. He decides to pull himself up by them and becomes a teacher. Eventually he finds Gage and Diana at a zoo benefit and donates the whole one million dollars to the charity (are you insane?! Build the house!) and agrees to a divorce. Diana is like “Yes!” but eventually is like “Welllll…” and knowing that he’s lost her, Gage makes up a story about being real smarmy (you know, cause he’s not actually smarmy) and Diana gratefully accepts, rushes to be with David, and they smooch hard by the ocean. THE END.
I liked this. Despite all the parts of it that sounds gross and terrible and creepy, it really is a straight romance about David and Diana being in love, hitting a rough patch, and then having a crazy journey back to realizing that they are meant to be together. It feels like critics really turned on this film because the expectation of Indecent Proposal is a thriller or something really crazy like Wild Orchid where it comes off like a cartoon. This doesn’t come off like a cartoon. It comes off like Sabrina, but with someone offering money for sex. So there is this big hullabaloo over the proposal itself, but the content of the film doesn’t deliver on that controversy and it made people angry. Even the controversy itself hasn’t aged well. The film actually has an interesting and arguably progressive view on women’s rights. Like both Gage and David treat Diana like their property. David legally, Gage financially. Diana is like “Nah, I get to choose,” and you can think it’s morally wrong that she would accept money for sex with this rich dude, but in the end she does get to decide. And most importantly she isn’t ruined by that choice.
Hot Take Clam Bake! The moment after the credits roll Diana pulls away from the smooch and is like “you didn’t really give away the money for the hippo, right?” and David is like “Wellll…” So David is in deep shit with her. Divorce is on the table again. What is an architect to do? Aha! He goes to the zoo and is like “I love this hippo I gave a million dollars to, I would like to build it a house.” they are like whatever, it’s your hippo. He builds a house and no one can see the hippo and there is a sign outside that says: “This hippo was bought with a million dollar my wife earned by having sex with John Gage.” Now people want to see that goddamn million dollar hippo. “$10” David says. A year later he’s got that million back and more. Diana is not super thrilled, but at least she got the money she earned. Hot Take Temperature: Wild Orchid.
Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! *gif of me trying to convince my wife that erotic thrillers are totally cool and not at all creepy and gross* Let’s go!
Right off the bat: this is a good movie.
And I mean that even outside of Demi Moore at exactly this point in time might be one of the most attractive women ever. Like, the movie is very silly, but also interesting and genuinely good for the most part.
I don’t think it is like … an Oscar film. Harrelson is a weenie throughout the film. Redford is a creep throughout the film. Moore is for the most part a normal human being throughout the film and seems like she just loves Harrelson and will do anything for him and he just goes fucking bananas in a nonsensical way.
Anyways, the good? Redford is good at being a creep. It offers a weird but interesting proposition (that honestly only really works in the 90s) that you would think about. The thing about it in the end is that I think a lot more people in the 2020s would be like: don’t care. If my wife could move past it and it was for like $25 million or something I would do it in a heartbeat. Not me specifically, I just mean that there are a lot more people who would just slam dunk that proposal. They’d probably basically go back for seconds and be like “hey can we have more money?” So the proposal isn’t really indecent by today’s standards. It is more like an Intriguing Proposal.
Also Oliver Platt is incredible in the film. Very funny in a perfectly response-to-the-80s-greed kind of way.
The bad? Harrelson is a total dweeb and goes clinically insane during the film. The most insecure weirdo. This is a trend in 90s films though. Remember Message in a Bottle? Literally, women looking at Kevin Costner barely talking and them being like “oh shit he’s so broken. Is this the sexiest a man can be?” Harrelson is a prototype of that. Like “Oh shit, this guy is the most jealous weird possessive garbage man of all time … yes please, I love you so much, husband material right there”. That is the main issue.
As far as BMT is concerned, the issue is the film is good! There is no way it gets into BMT because the film is too good. It is entertaining. Demi Moore is devastatingly attractive. Redford is a solid creep. Too good.
I’m going with a kind of Product Placement (What?) for the Thierry Mugler dress that gets all the guys going in the film. Great Setting as a Character (Where?) for Las Vegas where all you nightmares can come true. I actually like this for a Specific Temporal Setting (When?) just for just how late-80s/early-90s recession vibes it gives. Let’s go with a MacGuffin (Why?) for the pursuit of those underwater mortgage payments. And a Worst Twist (How?) for the throwing away the money and meeting on a pier for love ending. This movie is Good though, it is not BMT.
Learn about … lust I guess? In the quiz. Cheerios,
Hmmmm, should we learn about extramarital affairs? Naw. Let’s go!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot
1) In the movie they play Craps to win most of their money (and then lose it in Roulette). What is is called when you roll a 7 or 11 on the come-out roll?
2) The director Adrian Lyne was nominated for an Oscar for a true blue (and some would say original and best) erotic thriller. What is the name of this affair-from-hell film?
3) No one knows how to play baccarat right? In the game face cards are worth nothing and aces are worth 1. The player is initially given two cards face up and the total is modulo 10. What do the two cards have to add up to for the game to immediately end?
4) Indecent Proposal has been spoofed a bunch across movies and television. The funniest one I think is in a 1994 episode of a television show based on a movie in which Lisa offers Gary a million “game tokens” in exchange for spending the night with her. What is that television show?
5) In the film there is a song called Help Me Make It Through the Night that is sung by an actor/singer who was in many films. One in particular is one of four versions of the film. Name the singer and film.
Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: I’m going to have to ask for an exact title for this one. This is upcoming and the title here is quite generic:
“I guess I’m surprised. Given how you guys talk about that film, I expected something a bit more exciting… and for Sylvester Stallone to show up more than once,” Kyle says, confused. Patrick grabs him by the shirt and growls, “That wasn’t Cobra. I don’t know what the hell that was, but it wasn’t Cobra and don’t you forget it.” His eyes search wildly around on the ground until they find what they’re looking for. “Aha,” he howls and picks up the ‘S’ that had fallen from the marquee. The film they had just spent the last 87 minutes watching was actually ‘Cobras.’ “Saboteur!” Patrick yells and runs back into the theater. He finds the owner enjoying one of his small pleasures in what was otherwise a fairly dull life running a small theater specializing in wildlife films, a small bucket of buttered popcorn. “Check this shit out,” Patrick says with a sneer and throws the ‘S’ at him, knocking over the bucket and spilling the popcorn everywhere. The theater owner sighs. “Ah yes,” he says, sighing loudly again, “that ‘S’ has given me all kinds of trouble.” But as he reaches for it Patrick slaps his hand away. “Don’t you dare pretend you didn’t know. I don’t think Sly Stallone would appreciate you riding his coattails to an unwarranted financial windfall and I certainly don’t think theatergoers like ourselves appreciate getting duped by false promises of unparalleled Sly Stallone action.” He waits a beat before dropping the bomb. “I’m going to sue you. I’m going to sue you for false advertising and ruin you.” Kyle is aghast. He’s never seen Patrick like this. “Unless,” Patrick continues cryptically and then whispers a proposal into the theater owner’s ear. The poor man gasps. “My heavens, man! That’s indecent!” That’s right! We are watching one of the biggest BMT qualifying films of all time. It’s got stars! It’s got box office boffo! It’s got an indecent proposal. It’s Indecent Proposal. Let’s go!
StreetCreditReport.com –BMeTric: top 13.6%; Notability: top 4.0%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 27.0%; Higher BMeT: Super Mario Bros., RoboCop 3, Jason Goes to Hell, Look Who’s Talking Now, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Leprechaun, Mr. Nanny, Body of Evidence, Cop & ½, Beethoven’s 2nd, Sliver, Boxing Helena, Weekend at Bernie’s II, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, The Beverly Hillbillies, Son of the Pink Panther, Made in America, Coneheads, Carnosaur, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, and 14 more; Higher Notability: Hocus Pocus, The Meteor Man, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Coneheads, RoboCop 3, We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, Rising Sun, The Three Musketeers, Son of the Pink Panther, Life with Mikey; Lower RT: Look Who’s Talking Now, Warlock: The Armageddon, Deadfall, Golden Gate, Son of the Pink Panther, Mr. Nanny, Body of Evidence, RoboCop 3, Hexed, Best of the Best II, Ghost in the Machine, Father Hood, Calendar Girl, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, Weekend at Bernie’s II, My Boyfriend’s Back, Cop & ½, Only the Strong, Ernest Rides Again, Gunmen, and 45 more; Notes: A true blue rewatchable, played 48 times on television in the 90s. High notability as well. We are 10/10 for the top 20 there on BMeT, which is pretty good, but points to us needing to still get out and do some 90s films … except not Boxing Helena, I never want to see that film.
RogerEbert.com – 3.0 stars – “Indecent Proposal” is in a very old tradition, in which love is put to the test of need and desire and triumphs in the end, although not without a great many moments when it seems quite willing to cave in to passion. It is artificial and manipulative, and in the real world this sort of thing would never happen in this way, but then that’s why we line up at the ticket window: We want to leave the real world, for a couple of hours, anyway.
(Hell yeah, Ebert. This is what I’m talking about. Indecent Proposal is a cult classic and Ebert recognized it for the amazing slop it was. Bring it on.)
(Ooooof the music. If they did a remake I wonder how much the money would be … $10 million maybe. The point is that it is enough to buy a house straight up. And a nice one. So you would have to have an idea of it buying something like oceanside real estate in LA. $10 million I think.)
Directors – Adrian Lyne – ( Known For: Jacob’s Ladder; Fatal Attraction; Unfaithful; Lolita; Deep Water; 9½ Weeks; Foxes; BMT: Indecent Proposal; Flashdance; Notes: Genuinely, it is a bit unbelievable that a guy could just go for (effectively) erotic thrillers. And he got away with it! Even made Deep Water. He was nominated for an Oscar for Fatal Attraction, arguably the OG erotic thriller.)
Writers – Jack Engelhard – ( BMT: Indecent Proposal; Notes: I didn’t realize it was based on a book. The author himself doesn’t have a wikipedia page so something tells me he was something of a one hit wonder there.)
Amy Holden Jones – ( Known For: Mystic Pizza; The Slumber Party Massacre; Maid to Order; Love Letters; Future BMT: Beethoven; The Relic; Beethoven’s 2nd; The Getaway; The Rich Man’s Wife; BMT: Indecent Proposal; Notes: Big television person now, wrote/created The Resident. She still gets random Beethoven credits, like for Beethoven’s Treasure Trail.)
Actors – Robert Redford – ( Known For: Avengers: Endgame; Captain America: The Winter Soldier; The Sting; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Spy Game; All the President’s Men; Out of Africa; The Last Castle; All Is Lost; A River Runs Through It; Three Days of the Condor; Sneakers; A Bridge Too Far; Pete’s Dragon; The Old Man & the Gun; Charlotte’s Web; The Horse Whisperer; The Discovery; Jeremiah Johnson; The Company You Keep; Future BMT: Lions for Lambs; Up Close & Personal; Havana; BMT: Indecent Proposal; Notes: I have to be honest … of the four films Redford acted in which qualify I genuinely kind of only recognize this one. Won an Oscar for directing Ordinary People, but was nominated for three more (acting in The Sting, and directing/producing Quiz Show). He also has an honorary Oscar.)
Demi Moore – ( Known For: A Few Good Men; Ghost; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent; Mr. Brooks; Margin Call; Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle; G.I. Jane; Beavis and Butt-Head Do America; LOL; Rough Night; Disclosure; St. Elmo’s Fire; Deconstructing Harry; Bobby; The Joneses; Flawless; We’re No Angels; Bunraku; About Last Night; Future BMT: The Juror; The Seventh Sign; The Butcher’s Wife; Young Doctors in Love; BMT: Indecent Proposal; Striptease; Now and Then; Nothing But Trouble; The Scarlet Letter; Blame It on Rio; Notes: We’ve basically seen her big ones, The Juror probably being outstanding. Was nominated for an Emmy for If These Walls Could Talk, and getting a lot of buzz for The Substance. Was married to Bruce Willis for a long time.)
Woody Harrelson – ( Known For: No Country for Old Men; The Hunger Games; The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; Now You See Me; Zombieland; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1; Friends with Benefits; Solo: A Star Wars Story; The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2; War for the Planet of the Apes; Seven Psychopaths; Venom: Let There Be Carnage; Natural Born Killers; Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; Anger Management; Zombieland: Double Tap; The Thin Red Line; Triangle of Sadness; The Edge of Seventeen; Future BMT: Venom; Now You See Me 2; Seven Pounds; Semi-Pro; After the Sunset; Free Birds; Wildcats; Play It to the Bone; The Cowboy Way; Palmetto; BMT: 2012; Indecent Proposal; Money Train; Notes: Nominated for three Oscars (The People vs. Larry Flint, The Messenger, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). Probably most notably broke out on the scene with Cheers, and again (in television) with the first season of True Detective.)
Budget/Gross – $38 million / Domestic: $106,614,059 (Worldwide: $266,614,059)
(That is a bonafide phenomenon. Not much room for a sequel. Isn’t that always the case with erotic thrillers. And when they buck the trend (I’m looking at you Basic Instinct), they are awful.)
Rotten Tomatoes – 34% (16/47): Lurid but acted with gusto, Indecent Proposal has difficulty keeping it up beyond its initial titillating premise.
(All I need is that titillating premise baby! What are these people on, we are just here for the vague suggestion that Robert Redford has a giant dick, and also some wealth porn with him having a gaudy house and a yacht. It ain’t complicated.)
Reviewer Highlight: Not once in the whole silly exercise does he approximate a genuine emotion. Unable to dramatize marital love, he sells it, as if he were pitching perfume. Having nothing credible to play, Moore and Harrelson strike poses of love and anguish. – David Ansen, Newsweek
(This poster always made me think that Harrelson was the one making the proposal… and then I’d be like “wait, Demi Moore is married to Robert Redford in this movie?” Never made sense and now I know why. I think the poster is intriguing because it’s steamy, but it’s not interesting. C.)
Tagline(s) – A husband. A wife. A millionaire. A proposal. (A+)
(Man that’s good. That’s as good as it gets (but not the film As Good As It Gets, which is not about a millionaire proposing to have sex with someone’s wife)… but just to pick at this a bit. He’s just a millionaire? I guess given that he’s betting a million on single rolls and giving away millions to have sex with people that he would be somewhere in the low billions, even back in the 90’s.)
Keyword(s) – 1991-1999
Top 10: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Hook (1991), Batman & Robin (1997), Batman Forever (1995), Big Daddy (1999), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), Godzilla (1998), Event Horizon (1997), Demolition Man (1993), The Bone Collector (1999)
Future BMT: 86.8 Street Fighter (1994), 82.9 Inspector Gadget (1999), 79.3 Home Alone 3 (1997), 75.4 Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), 74.9 Junior (1994), 72.3 The Next Karate Kid (1994), 71.9 Mr. Magoo (1997), 67.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 67.1 Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997), 67.0 Mr. Nanny (1993), 63.5 Showgirls (1995), 61.7 Pet Sematary II (1992), 61.5 Cop & ½ (1993), 61.1 Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), 60.4 The Mangler (1995), 60.1 Spawn (1997), 59.7 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992), 59.5 Jury Duty (1995), 58.1 Child’s Play 3 (1991), 57.9 Holy Man (1998)
BMT: Batman & Robin (1997), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), The Avengers (1998), Baby Geniuses (1999), Spice World (1997), Barb Wire (1996), Kazaam (1996), Super Mario Bros. (1993), RoboCop 3 (1993), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), Universal Soldier: The Return (1999), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Steel (1997), Bio-Dome (1996), Striptease (1996), Species II (1998), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Double Dragon (1994), Anaconda (1997), It’s Pat: The Movie (1994), Cool as Ice (1991), Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1995), …
Best Options (Romance): 75.4 Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), 74.9 Junior (1994), 61.1 Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), 54.2 The Bachelor (1999), 52.2 Superstar (1999), 45.4 Home Fries (1998), 44.7 King Ralph (1991), 44.6 I Love Trouble (1994), 38.8 Nowhere to Run (1993), 38.5 My Father the Hero (1994), 38.5 Intersection (1994), 38.4 If Lucy Fell (1996), 38.1 The Butcher’s Wife (1991), 37.7 Mad Love (1995), 36.9 The Beautician and the Beast (1997), 36.8 Milk Money (1994), 36.5 Two If by Sea (1996), 36.4 Booty Call (1997), 35.5 Something to Talk About (1995), 34.8 The Crush (1993), 34.6 Drive Me Crazy (1999), 34.3 Woo (1998), 33.7 ‘Til There Was You (1997), 33.4 Career Opportunities (1991), 33.0 Indecent Proposal (1993), …
(Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do an erotic thriller classic. But yeah, The Bachelor would have been something else indeed. Does that movie even really exist? Some day people will ask wait … Chris O’Donnell was in movies?)
Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 14) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Demi Moore is No. 2 billed in Indecent Proposal and No. 1 billed in Striptease, which also stars Burt Reynolds (No. 2 billed) who is in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (No. 5 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (2 + 1) + (2 + 5) + (3 + 1) = 14. If we were to watch Havana we can get the HoE Number down to 12.
Notes – Director Adrian Lyne was originally dismissive of casting Woody Harrelson as David, but changed his mind after watching White Men Can’t Jump (1992). Harrelson said in one interview that doing love scenes with Demi Moore was uncomfortable because he was good friends with Moore’s then-husband, Bruce Willis.
Director Adrian Lyne and Demi Moore often fought on-set over her character, with Woody Harrelson trying to be mediator between the two. Lyne had argued that he wanted Moore to show vulnerability, while the actress defended herself. It was later while Lyne was editing this movie that he realized she was portraying what he wanted all along, and he soon apologized to Moore.
During the auction scene, John Gage (Robert Redford) is to leave the room. Redford kept missing his cue because he was listening to the jokes that auction emcee Sir Billy Connolly was saying.
Demi Moore’s black cut-out Thierry Mugler-designed dress generated such immense interest after the movie’s release, it was often copied by other designers.
The tears shed by Demi Moore in the touching “girl that got away scene” in which Gage describes a past chance meeting with a beautiful girl are genuine. This scene was filmed without co-star Moore knowing any of Redfords dialogue, instead just being told to listen.
Awards – Winner for the Razzie Award for Worst Picture (Sherry Lansing)
Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor (Robert Redford)
Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Actress (Demi Moore)
Winner for the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor (Woody Harrelson)
Nominee for the Razzie Award for Worst Director (Adrian Lyne)
Usually I like to pretend I’m writing this before I’ve actually seen the movie. But this story is too good. So my mom was at my house helping out for a bit and as happens evening rolls around and I’m like “wanna watch a movie?” She’s like sure, but then says that she doesn’t care what we watch. That’s she’ll “watch anything.” I put that in quotes because it’s important. I ask “are you sure? Because I have this real weird movie I need to watch for BMT.” She assures me that yes… she’ll “watch anything.” Flash forward to the next night as we finish up Sleepwalkers and she’s like out of her mind about how horrible the film is. Talking about how she didn’t even want to finish it but she also couldn’t stop thinking about how horrible it was so she felt she had to finish it to see if it continued to be as terrible as it was. And in the end it perhaps got even more horrible. So that’s where we were with Sleepwalkers. The movie that made my mom realize that she would in fact not “watch anything.”
To recap, Mary and Charles are mother and son shapeshifting werecats that feed on the energy force of virgins. They arrive in a small Indiana town looking to feed. They are, of course, incestuous and hope and pray to find others of their kind in order to procreate. Meanwhile, the incest (obviously). Attending a local high school, Charles scopes out Tanya with the end goal of feeding his mother. A few people, like his teacher, are suspicious of Charles, but when he confronts him Charles nonchalantly murders him. Meanwhile cats (the only thing that can kill or harm the sleepwalkers) begin to gather as Charles and his mother weaken. Charles attempts to subdue Tanya, but she is able to ward him off. The police arrive and while Charles is able to dispatch them a cat severely injures him. Stumbling back home, Mary is like “Oh no! But the incest!” Knowing that Tanya is the only thing that can help him, Mary storms Tanya’s home and kills her family (one of them by fatal corn cob stabbing… it’s dope). Mary brings Tanya back to Charles but before he can feed she kills him in his weakened state. The police attempt to help to no avail, but at Mary’s power dims she is attacked by numerous cats and the sleepwalkers are no more. THE END.
No matter what my mom claims, this movie is actually kind of fun and good. If not for the (arguably) unnecessary incest subplot and the unpleasant and brutal attack by Charles on Tanya in the cemetery, I think this film might have a better reputation as a cult film. I hate to leap to conclusions or make bold proclamations about objectively bad movies, but it does appear to me that Stephen King knew exactly what he was doing and making when he wrote this film. He wanted to make an old school exploitation horror film with some interesting special effects. He wanted to make a bad movie and he succeeded. This is a fun bad movie. It’s a hard needle to thread, but I actually think he was able to do it. By the time the corn cob stabbing happened I was all in on the film. One of the best of the year I daresay.
Hot Take Clam Bake! I’m going to say it. I don’t think they needed to do the incest. They clearly weren’t replenishing the earth with werecats no matter how hard they tried. So I think they could have probably cut it out and just, you know, maybe took a regular beau every once in a while and just… maybe… I don’t know, tried it out for a hot second. Maybe regular old sex would have felt fine. Maybe you didn’t need to do the incest. Hot Take Temperature: Steamy regular old sex.
Patrick?
Patrick
‘Ello everyone! *gif of my mother talk about how much she hates this film and how gross it was and how she can’t believe we were watching it* Let’s go!
I’ve mentioned on multiple occasions that I don’t like horror films very much because I get so spooky scared. That doesn’t really have anything to do with this movie (I never thought this would be spooky scary, just silly). It has more to do with Stephen King and how I never really read his books because I thought they would be spooky scary. But turns out … books aren’t spooky scary. So I’ve read a bunch of Stephen King as an adult. I like his stuff. So getting around to Sleepwalkers is always enticing.
The good? Uh, I like practical effects. That’s nice. I like how silly it is as well. It is very very heightened and silly at times. The end bit is so crazy it finally gets around to being as wild and crazy as the premise suggests. I also like the idea of energy vampires in a way. They are something I’ve heard of, but they are done so rarely it is interesting to see them in the wild.
The bad? Well, the film looks like absolute garbage. For real, as good as practical effects are, when they are bad they are really really bad and this one is bad. The premise is so silly it feels like a comedy, but it isn’t funny. And then the film just turns on a dime. All of a sudden the main character is committing sexual assault in a graveyard and Stephen King cameos and the the movie kind of explodes.
The main issue is the film seems to be barely there for most of its runtime. It isn’t necessarily dull, but it is also a bit too weird and self-aware to be amusing for most of it. The end it fun, but even then, the corn cob murder seems more like it belongs in a horror comedy rather than what seems like a genuine horror film.
Regardless, the level of antipathy this film has towards this film will always make me smile.
Oh, also this film makes you wonder “how wasn’t Mädchen Amick the most famous 90s actress?” She was solid in Twin Peaks, and is fine in this, but her career never really took off. Kind of odd.
Anyways, a real deal Setting as a Character (Where?) for the small town of Travis, Indiana, a fun Indiana film at least. That’s it. I think this film is Bad, mainly for being poorly made and dull more than fun, which I think is about what I would have expected.
Learn about … cats? Maybe, about cats. In the quiz. Cheerios,
Oh wow, I guess I’ll learn about monsters. And cats. Although, surprisingly, probably not about cat monsters. Let’s go!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) The soundtrack features Boadicea by Enya. Enya had a single number one single in the UK, Orinoco Flow. The Orinoco River in South America discharges near what nation of the Lesser Antilles?
2) In the movie the villains are, implicitly at least, energy vampires. Energy vampires feed on the lifeforce of others. Elsewhere is popular culture, the character of Colin Robinson is also an energy vampire in what television show?
3) The beginning of the film takes place in Bodega Bay, California. A famous thriller from 1963 also took place in Bodega Bay (although it starts at a pet store in San Francisco). Which film?
4) Somehow the character of Tanya has her own wikipedia page (the character!). In it she is described as a classic Damsel in Distress. We’ve seen one of the original DiDs in the classic BMT film Clash of the Titans. She was to be sacrificed to the Kraken to appease the Gods … what was her name?
5) You know, there was apparently a sequel in development at one point written by King’s wife. It involved a women’s basketball team somehow. Can you know both the first (1982) and most recent (2024) NCAA Division 1 Women’s Basketball champions?
Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: Is this a tough one? Maybe, but I bet Jamie could get it.
Patrick and Kyle sit in the back of the kitchen watching Jamie and Samantha enjoy their PB&J sandwiches (aka The Assassins) while staring dreamily into each other’s eyes. “Boy, young love sure is amazing,” Patrick says. “Yeah,” Kyle agrees, “almost as amazing as the fact that I’ve never seen Cobra starring Sylvester Stallone.” The color drains from Patrick’s face and he recoils in disgust at this unexpected segue. He tries to remember back to when they first hired Kyle onto Bad Movie Twins and whether they went through their typical rigorous background check. Apparently not as determining Sly Stallone street cred was one of the primary ways in which they would separate the wheat from the chaff in the hiring process. “That’s OK,” Patrick croaks, but things weren’t OK at all. How was he going to get rid of Kyle? Before he could craft a plan to remove Kyle from the equation he notices Kyle is trying to get his attention. “What is it?” he snaps. “I just was saying, isn’t it funny that I mentioned Cobra and it happened to be playing at the theater across the street?” Indeed, when Patrick looks out the window of the kitchen he sees those beautiful words: “Cobra special 12:30pm showing”. Thank god! Patrick looks over at Jamie and is relieved to see that after finishing the PB&J sandwiches he and Samantha have started smooching pretty hard. That should progress into a full on make out session and that should give them the necessary 87 minutes to take in Cobra in all its glory. “Grab your shit,” Patrick says rudely and drags him across the street. Exactly 87 minutes later they stumble back into the sunlight. They are both stunned into silence, the glazed look of sleepwalkers on their face. That’s right! We are watching the Stephen King penned film Sleepwalkers which is about incestuous werecats shapeshifters. Totally normal film for a couple of totally normal guys like us. Let’s go!
StreetCreditReport.com –BMeTric: top 2.0%; Notability: top 8.4%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 17.9%; Higher BMeT: Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Cool World, Pet Sematary II, Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice, Toys; Higher Notability: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Toys, Cool World, Newsies, The Bodyguard, Freejack, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Universal Soldier, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Mighty Ducks, Innocent Blood, The Distinguished Gentleman, Radio Flyer, This Is My Life, Kuffs, Man Trouble, Encino Man, Mom and Dad Save the World, and 1 more; Lower RT: Once Upon a Crime…, Live Wire, Folks!, Year of the Comet, Love Crimes, Frozen Assets, Cool World, Man Trouble, The Opposite Sex and How to Live with Them, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, Passed Away, Mr. Baseball, Mom and Dad Save the World, The Distinguished Gentleman, Ladybugs, The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Aces: Iron Eagle III, Mo’ Money, and 22 more; Notes: We really are hitting some top BMeT and Notability films. This having a Notability of 40+ in particular is wild. This played an amazing 54 times on television. Was this a rewatchable film? Unclear. Premiered Cinemax primetime on May 12, 1993, a Wednesday, which indeed was the “premiere” slot for Cinemax 8 P.M. in 1992. As for the rest of the high BMeT, just those two horror sequels left, Pet Sematary II and Children of the Corn II.
Variety – Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers is an idiotic horror potboiler. New approach to the vampire legend is really a variation on TriStar’s 1988 flop The Kiss. Brian Krause and mom Alice Krige are incestuous monsters called Sleepwalkers who survive by draining the life force from virgin girls. – Staff
(Wait wait wait … what’s The Kiss now? Do I need to watch The Kiss?! Do I have homework?! Anyways, I do like the sound of “idiotic”, give me that all day.)
(That is glorious in an 80s kind of way. A very 80s cast. A Stephen King cameo in the trailer seems like something special. I wonder how many trailers he’s been in.)
Directors – Mick Garris – ( Known For: Riding the Bullet; Nightmare Cinema; BMT: Sleepwalkers; Critters 2: The Main Course; Notes: What a wild career. Was hired as the secretary for the Star Wars Company when it started, then he hosted some Z-Channel interview show, then he did Making Of shorts for a bunch of films, and then he started doing Stephen King stuff. He directed The Shining mini-series that King thought was better than the Kubrick one.)
Writers – Stephen King – ( Known For: The Shawshank Redemption; The Green Mile; The Shining; It; Stand by Me; The Mist; It Chapter Two; 1408; Misery; Doctor Sleep; Secret Window; Carrie; The Running Man; Carrie; Gerald’s Game; Pet Sematary; Pet Sematary; Christine; The Dead Zone; 1922; Future BMT: Children of the Corn; Thinner; Creepshow 2; Needful Things; The Mangler; Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice; BMT: The Dark Tower; Dreamcatcher; The Lawnmower Man; Firestarter; Maximum Overdrive; Sleepwalkers; Firestarter; The Rage: Carrie 2; Graveyard Shift; Notes: Oh wow he straight up wrote this. That’s … nuts. One sec. Yeah, so this is the first film written by King to not be based on one of his preexisting works. Also there is only one other film where he was the sole writer, Maximum Overdrive being the other.)
Actors – Brian Krause – ( Known For: Growth; Hollywood.Con; Plan 9; Naked Souls; Red Sky; Poseidon Rex; Toolbox Murders 2; Cyrus; Triloquist; Alien Rising; Protecting the King; Absolute Killers; BMT: Sleepwalkers; Return to the Blue Lagoon; Notes: Still acting, although, honestly in what appears to be a whole lotta schlock. He was in 145 episodes of Charmed.)
Mädchen Amick – ( Known For: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me; Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces; Dream Lover; The Boyfriend School; The Borrower; Scenes of the Crime; Bombshell; French Exit; Future BMT: Trapped in Paradise; BMT: Priest; Sleepwalkers; Notes: Still acts, most notably in 117 episodes of Riverdale. I recognized her from Twin Peaks.)
Alice Krige – ( Known For: Thor: The Dark World; Reign of Fire; Star Trek: First Contact; Solomon Kane; Chariots of Fire; Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Gretel & Hansel; The Contract; Lonely Hearts; Barfly; A Christmas Prince; A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding; The Little Vampire; A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby; Skin; Will; She Will; The Bay of Silence; The Betrayed; The Calling; Future BMT: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; Ghost Story; King David; BMT: Silent Hill; Sleepwalkers; Notes: Ah ha! It’s the Borg Queen from Star Trek: First Contact. That’s incredible. She does have a look. She did the voice in the Picard show as well.)
Budget/Gross – $15 million / Domestic: $30,524,763 (Worldwide: $30,524,763)
(This actually is an interesting about of money. King always seemed like a difficult person to make a movie with so I doubt a sequel of any kind would have been in the cards … is a little weird he never got the shot to write another original though.)
(The consensus is funny really, it is basically: Same old stuff, feels like King just cashed that check … he probably did. It’ll be over 40% soon I think, every recent review is good.)
Reviewer Highlight: As it sleepwalks towards its ungrand finale, the new King invention falls back on familiar things. – Malcolm Johnson, Hartford Courant
(This is fun. Like the cover of an old school paperback. I love it. Maybe just a tad more of the dusk sky would have made it pop a little more. Still, it’s great. A.)
Tagline(s) – They feast on your fear – and it’s dinner time. (C-)
(Wait… what? They eat your fear? I don’t think that’s true. I think they eat you… like physically consume you. So this tagline is lying to you. Do not believe it.)
Keyword(s) – 1991-1999
Top 10: Armageddon (1998), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Hook (1991), Batman & Robin (1997), Batman Forever (1995), Big Daddy (1999), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), Godzilla (1998), Event Horizon (1997), Demolition Man (1993)
Future BMT: 86.8 Street Fighter (1994), 82.9 Inspector Gadget (1999), 79.3 Home Alone 3 (1997), 75.4 Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), 74.9 Junior (1994), 72.3 The Next Karate Kid (1994), 71.9 Mr. Magoo (1997), 67.9 The Crow: City of Angels (1996), 67.1 Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997), 67.0 Mr. Nanny (1993), 63.5 Showgirls (1995), 61.7 Pet Sematary II (1992), 61.5 Cop & ½ (1993), 61.1 Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), 60.4 The Mangler (1995), 60.1 Spawn (1997), 59.7 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992), 59.5 Jury Duty (1995), 58.1 Child’s Play 3 (1991), 57.9 Holy Man (1998)
BMT: Batman & Robin (1997), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), The Avengers (1998), Baby Geniuses (1999), Spice World (1997), Barb Wire (1996), Kazaam (1996), Super Mario Bros. (1993), RoboCop 3 (1993), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991), Jason Goes to Hell (1993), Universal Soldier: The Return (1999), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Steel (1997), Bio-Dome (1996), Striptease (1996), Species II (1998), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Double Dragon (1994), Anaconda (1997), It’s Pat: The Movie (1994), Cool as Ice (1991), Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1995), …
Best Options (Horror): 61.7 Pet Sematary II (1992), 60.4 The Mangler (1995), 59.7 Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992), 58.1 Child’s Play 3 (1991), 57.5 An American Werewolf in Paris (1997), 50.8 Sleepwalkers (1992), 48.7 Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995), 46.9 Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), 45.8 House on Haunted Hill (1999), 44.1 Bordello of Blood (1996), 43.9 Diabolique (1996), 43.4 Village of the Damned (1995), 42.1 Ghost in the Machine (1993), 41.7 Disturbing Behavior (1998), 40.4 End of Days (1999), 39.9 In Dreams (1999), 38.7 Dr. Giggles (1992), 38.6 Hideaway (1995), 38.1 Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), 36.9 Thinner (1996), 36.4 The Relic (1997), 35.3 Warlock: The Armageddon (1993), 35.1 Man’s Best Friend (1993), 32.6 Mary Reilly (1996), 31.4 My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), 28.4 Deep Rising (1998), 27.7 Bad Moon (1996), 26.6 Stigmata (1999), 26.5 The Puppet Masters (1994), 26.0 Brainscan (1994), 25.8 Idle Hands (1999), 23.2 Popcorn (1991), 21.9 Screamers (1995)
(Those are some solid options, and … Jesus, so many of them are King horror films. This one is fun though because it just looks wild.)
Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 17) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Ron Perlman is No. 6 billed in Sleepwalkers and No. 2 billed in Season of the Witch, which also stars Nicolas Cage (No. 1 billed) who is in The Wicker Man (No. 1 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 6 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (6 + 2) + (1 + 1) + (6 + 1) = 17. If we were to watch King David, Nights in Rodanthe, and The Glass House we can get the HoE Number down to 15.
Notes – Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett, who played Tanya’s parents, were also married in real life at the time of filming. (They had met when they appeared in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), where they also played a married couple).
Both Mick Garris and Mädchen Amick are allergic to cats, as revealed in the recent Scream Factory Blu-ray release. Amick didn’t reveal this to anyone until right as the film went into production.
According to director Mick Garris, Stephen King’s wife Tabitha King wrote a treatment for a sequel that would have involved a women’s basketball team.
During a Q&A celebrating the film’s 25th anniversary, director Mick Garris revealed the Enya song “Boadicea” was chosen for the film only because, of all the songs provided to him by Sony Music at the time for cross-promotion, it was the one song he felt fit the tone of the film.
Mick Garris cast Alice Krige as Mary Brady after remembering her appearance in Ghost Story (1981), which he had publicized when he worked as a publicist for Universal Pictures.
Bad Movie Twins 