cycle: the one and only – Page 4

The Good Son Recap

Jamie

The Good Son is a good movie… and by that I mean the last movie we watched in the “good movie” series. It’s also the first in the series of films we watched that aired on the same date as Citizen Kane. On December 30, 1994, The Good Son aired in the primo 10pm spot on Cinemax. Earlier in the day on AMC, 5pm to be exact, Citizen Kane aired. Phew. No need for a Sophie’s Choice on this one. You have plenty of time to watch CK, eat dinner, smooch the wife, put the kids to bed, and fire up The Good Son. “But Daddy! I want to watch the Culkin film too!” They’ll scream. No, no children, this one’s for Mom and Dad. Then you waggle your eyebrows cause you just noticed that Body of Evidence comes on at 12:30am. It’s gonna be a looong night. How do we know all this? Cause Patrick has a big ol’ genius brain that can rip apart the nytimes tv listings and produce pristine movie data for our perusal. We’re through the looking glass, folks. Cycles in BMT will never be the same.

To recap, Elijah Wood’s mom is dying, but understandably he can’t cope with that so he promises that she won’t die (he won’t let her) which then kinda fucks him up when she does die. His dad just needs ONE BIG DEAL so that he can be there for his son forever, so he sends him to Maine to stay with his bro and his family. They have also not too long ago come through a tragedy. Their little baby accidentally drowned in the bath. But they still have Macaulay Culkin and his younger sister and are happy to have a third kid in the house. Elijah is having a grand old time with Macaulay… that is until he starts doing some real bad stuff. Like he creates a gun that shoots nails and kills a dog and then he drops a mannequin onto a busy road and causes a big crash. Elijah is legit like WTF, mate?!?! But every time he tries to tell someone they don’t believe him or Macaulay is one step ahead of him, expressing concern over Elijah or Macaulay is like “you better not tell” in a creepy kid voice. He then starts threatening his little sister and Elijah becomes focused on keeping her safe… unfortunately he snoozes on the job and Macaulay is able to fling her through the ice while skating. She survives but Elijah starts to get the mom thinking. She decides to take Macaulay for a walk and confront him. This results in Macaulay using his super human brain and strength to throw her from a cliff where she is left dangling. Elijah finds them and starts to battle Macaulay and before they roll off the cliff together, the mom is able to climb back up and grab them both. Now it really is a Sophie’s Choice as she has to decide between the angelic nephew and the full blown serial killer son. She chooses Elijah and drops Macaulay to his death. THE END.

Well they did it guys. They actually did it. They made a movie where a mom had to look in the eyes of her psycho child and drop him off a cliff to the rocks below. I really didn’t think they had the guts. But they did. My main assessment of this film is that it effectively accomplishes the creepy kid psycho movie that it was trying to make with some decent writing. You can certainly quibble with the accuracy of Macaulay’s character. And you can definitely agree with Ebert that this is a real miscast of Macaulay Culkin both for the reason that Ebert is railing against (this looks like a kids movie when it is not), but also because Culin plays it very similar to Home Alone. His same Culkin kinda flat delivery. He doesn’t seem to make a choice on how to play the sociopath character. He just plays it kinda like himself. Overall I kinda liked it though. I was engaged.

Hot Take Clam Bake! I do not buy that in a matter of weeks Culkin’s character goes from perfect angel, never done anything wrong in his parents’ eyes, never done anything wrong in the community kid, to admitting to killing his sibling and trying to kill his mom all in the time that Elijah Wood is hanging around. Sure he’s making a nail gun and building dummies, but before this week he’s just building his Good Son brand so strong that no one will ever believe Wood. Bullshit. I think the parents knew the whole time. The dad probably brought Elijah Wood into the fold to see if he could be a good influence. But he wasn’t…. Ooooooh, quite the opposite my friend. Just the sight of the real Good Son made Culkin go crazy. Good job dad. This is all your fault. Hot Take Temperature: Poison Ivy.

Patrick?

Patrick

‘Ello everyone! The Good Son? More like Word, Son, amirite? What up Macaulay, you’re a bad guy now? Reprising your villain role from Home Alone? Heyoooo. Let’s go!

Yo, Macaulay … youz a psycho in this film.
Within the core of this film is a good film. An interesting film about a young sociopath and the adults who are willfully blind to all the signs of his pathology all revealed by another young person they force themselves to not believe.
The film itself? I found it interesting. Not good. Not really bad. It has a reason to be (more than most BMT can say), but still, is it good? No, I don’t think so.
Culkin is actually disturbing in the film, but more in a way that makes you wonder about the writer of the film. Shooting a dog with a bolt out of a crazy self-made crossbow? That’s weird. Throwing a dummy off a highway and hightailing it out of there without a second thought? That’s straight from the headlines I suppose. Killing your brother and then trying to kill your sister? That’s actually bonkers though.
In that same way I guess there is an argument that the writers get some things right (the obsession with death, the trophy he keeps, killing animals, etc.) and some things wrong (I’m not sure, but I would think the escalation would have gone from animals to a random person, not one’s own brother, just out of a sense of self-preservation). I think I understand the complaint that the entire thing falls apart under the weight of trying to explain Culkin’s sociopathy.
I definitely understand Ebert’s complaint that the film is a dark, twisted, crazy movie with a question of precisely who it is being made for.
Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin in a film together though? Ages like wine. Kind of stunning to see two incredibly good child actors carrying a movie together.
The setting of Maine also is just chef’s kiss. Obviously a nod to the Stephen King undertones to the film. It feels precisely like a King short story in the vein of The Body.
The movie itself is pretty tight, and entertaining, and tense when it needs to be. Probably the silliest bit is the ending. The contrived cliffhanger moment with the mother having to choose between her son and nephew is a bit beyond credulity.
Definite Setting as a Character (Where?) for Maine. And a solid Worst Twist (How?) for the ultimate final scene and the forced choice between killing Wood or Culkin. I think the film is closest to Good, although it really walks that line between Good and Bad (all I know is it isn’t BMT).

Check out the sequel, The Good Man, in the Quiz. Cheerios,

The Sklogs

The Good Son Quiz

Oh man, so get this, I was hanging (literally, from a treehouse) with my cousin, when he was all like “You think you can fly?” and dropped me right on my noggin! Now I can’t remember a thing. Do you remember what happened in The Good Son?

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) We’ll just skip Mark’s mother dying and go straight to the reason why he is getting left with his uncle in Maine. Why?

2) Henry has created two odd inventions (of a sort) during the course of the film. What are they?

3) We actually only actually see Henry kill one thing during the course of the film. What? And what do they do with it?

4) What trophy did Henry keep from when he (obviously) killed his brother?

5) In the end they head out to Chekov’s Cliff which was mentioned earlier in the film. What significance does it hold in Henry’s family?

Bonus Question: Years and years later Mark is a happily married family man, but then one day he gets a call. From whom?

Answers

The Good Son Preview

“Sit down, Jamie and Patrick,” Kyle says solemnly. He has an angry look on his face, but there is sadness in his eyes. “We love you,” he says once they are seated, “and that’s why it hurts so much to see you going down this bad road.” Jamie and Patrick protest. Look around, they’ve given up that flashy New York lifestyle for the simple life. Sure, they haven’t watched Citizen Kane, but that’s only because they haven’t finished their GMT Rulez. “Maybe Citizen Kane doesn’t even qualify for GMT, ever think about that?” Jamie says, pointing at his temple. Kyle is unamused. “So what are these magical rules? What rules are going to save you from yourselves,” Kyle says, throwing down newspaper headlines detailing their latest escapades. “Bad Movie Twins Kill Man in Train Battle!” one says. “Bad Movie Twins Put the Fresh Back in Fresh Horses!” another one screams. “Bad Movie Twins Win Delaware Breakdancing Championships!” the last one reads. Jamie winces as that one hits the table. Entering the DBC was certainly a bad move, no matter how dope their routine was. Jamie hangs his head in shame, but Patrick isn’t going down without a fight. “We are good. Look… look at these rulez!” He screams pulling out Rule #8 – Sequels, Please, but now it’s crossed off and reads “Beginning, Middle, End.” “Really,” Kyle scoffs and begins to walk over to Patrick’s desk. “Don’t go near that!” he squeals in horror, but it’s too late. Kyle pulls out Patrick’s latest draft of Citizen Kane 2: The Legend of Charlie’s Gold. “Let’s get out of here,” Patrick sputters in rage, gathering up the draft, but as they open the front door Scott Bakula is standing in their way. “Sit down… my sons… my good sons.” That’s right! We are diving into a 90’s classic with the Elijah Wood/Macaulay Culkin vehicle The Good Son. This movie kind of freaked me out as a kid. Probably because the film centers on a young boy getting terrorized and we were young boys when it came out. But time to get over my fears. I’m a man! I’m forty! Let’s go!

The Good Son (1993) – BMeTric: 20.2; Notability: 33

StreetCreditReport.com – BMeTric: top 24.4%; Notability: top 18.4%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 17.2%; Higher BMeT: Super Mario Bros., RoboCop 3, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Look Who’s Talking Now, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Mr. Nanny, Leprechaun, Beethoven’s 2nd, Cop & ½, Sliver, Boxing Helena, Weekend at Bernie’s II, The Beverly Hillbillies, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Son of the Pink Panther, Made in America, Coneheads, Carnosaur, Surf Ninjas, Dennis the Menace, and 41 more; Higher Notability: Last Action Hero, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, The Meteor Man, Hocus Pocus, We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, Coneheads, RoboCop 3, Rising Sun, Life with Mikey, Son of the Pink Panther, The Three Musketeers, Loaded Weapon 1, Super Mario Bros., Indecent Proposal, Once Upon a Forest, Made in America, Look Who’s Talking Now, Josh and S.A.M., Sliver, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and 26 more; Lower RT: Look Who’s Talking Now, Warlock: The Armageddon, Deadfall, Son of the Pink Panther, RoboCop 3, Mr. Nanny, Hexed, Weekend at Bernie’s II, Best of the Best II, Carnosaur, Father Hood, Calendar Girl, Surf Ninjas, Ghost in the Machine, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, My Boyfriend’s Back, Only the Strong, Cop & ½, Sliver, Gunmen, and 21 more; Notes: Look Who’s Talking Now, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Weekend at Bernie’s 2. What a time to be alive. Meanwhile, let’s make Culkin a psycho.

RogerEbert.com – 0.5 stars – Who in the world would want to see this movie? Watching “The Good Son,” I asked myself that question, hoping that perhaps the next scene would contain the answer, although it never did. The movie is a creepy, unpleasant experience, made all the worse because it stars children too young to understand the horrible things we see them doing.

(I feel like there is an argument that Ebert is clutching pearls a bit here. Wood and Culkin are too young to understand? I’m not really sure about that. Besides that I get what Ebert is talking about though. The movie does seem unpleasant.)

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gHxeAadqOs/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gHxeAadqOs/

(If I let you go … you think you could fly? That line is seared into my brain. I think this was a trailer on one of the VHS tapes I had growing up. I wonder if there is a database for stuff like that? Sadly, probably not.)

Directors – Joseph Ruben – ( Known For: The Stepfather; The Ottoman Lieutenant; Dreamscape; Return to Paradise; True Believer; The Pom Pom Girls; The Sister in Law; Blindsided; Gorp; Our Winning Season; Joyride; Future BMT: The Forgotten; BMT: Sleeping with the Enemy; The Good Son; Money Train; Notes: Sleeping with the Enemy, The Good Son, and Money Train were back-to-back-to-back. He wrote and directed Dreamscape which seems like a wild film.)

Writers – Ian McEwan – ( Known For: Atonement; The Cement Garden; On Chesil Beach; The Children Act; The Comfort of Strangers; Enduring Love; The Innocent; The Ploughman’s Lunch; First Love, Last Rites; Soursweet; BMT: The Good Son; Notes: Huh. He is a novelist writing the novel that would be adapted into Atonement. He apparently had a screenwriting career as well, which is where The Good Son comes from. Like, legit famous person outside of film.)

Actors – Macaulay Culkin – ( Known For: Uncle Buck; Home Alone; Jacob’s Ladder; My Girl; Entergalactic; Saved!; Party Monster; Changeland; Only the Lonely; Rocket Gibraltar; Sex and Breakfast; The Nutcracker; Adam Green’s Aladdin; See You in the Morning; The Wrong Ferarri; Future BMT: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York; Richie Rich; The Pagemaster; Getting Even with Dad; BMT: The Good Son; Razzie Notes: Nominee for Worst Actor in 1995 for Getting Even with Dad, Ri¢hie Ri¢h, and The Pagemaster; Notes: Y’all know Macaulay. He is probably the quintessential child-actor-who-couldn’t-quite-make-it-as-an-adult-actor, but he almost maybe didn’t want to? He appears on Red Letter Media shows quite a bit, and I know he had a music career of some kind. He also notably sued to get his parents removed from his trust fund, which it appears he did successfully.)

Elijah Wood – ( Known For: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; Sin City; The Faculty; Back to the Future Part II; Deep Impact; I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore; Spy Kids 3: Game Over; Maniac; Green Street Hooligans; Cooties; 9; Happy Feet; Internal Affairs; The Ice Storm; Forever Young; Celeste & Jesse Forever; Future BMT: Radio Flyer; Flipper; The War; Black & White; Paradise; BMT: The Last Witch Hunter; The Good Son; North; Notes: And you know Elijah. He did make the transition from child star to adult star, mainly via The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Notably, his appearance is Back to the Future Part II is merely as the kid who makes fun of McFly for playing a baby game in the future diner.)

Wendy Crewson – ( Known For: Room; Air Force One; What Lies Beneath; Away from Her; On the Basis of Sex; Antiviral; The Nest; The 6th Day; Eight Below; Kodachrome; Into the Forest; The Santa Clause; The Kid Detective; Better Than Chocolate; The Santa Clause 2; Gang Related; The Doctor; A Home at the End of the World; Mercy; The Clearing; Future BMT: The Vow; Bicentennial Man; The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause; Corrina, Corrina; Skinwalkers; Folks!; To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday; BMT: The Covenant; Death Wish; The Good Son; The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising; Notes: Apparently is good friends with Harrison Ford.)

Budget/Gross – $17-28 million / Domestic: $44,789,789 (Worldwide: $60,613,008)

(That feels like a legit hit. And yet, I suppose it isn’t surprising that they didn’t make a sequel … you’d have to watch the movie to really understand why that doesn’t make sense.)

Rotten Tomatoes – 25% (7/28): The Good Son is never good enough to live up to its unsettling potential, failing to drum up much suspense and unable to make Macaulay Culkin a credible psychopath.

(I’m not so sure. It feels to me like Culkin is precisely the mold you want. Specifically, someone so charming and innocent looking you can’t possibly believe that they are a sociopath. Feels credible to me.)

NY Times Short Review: Anything but, evil personified.

Poster – The Downright Bad Son

(What a bizarre poster. No wonder Ebert was shocked and horrified at the marketing for this film. Other than the tagline this really does look like a pleasant romp with America’s favorite Good Son, Macaulay Culkin. All around bad effort. D)

Tagline(s) – Evil has many faces (D-)

(Sure… I’m not giving this an F, but it’s close. This could be the tagline for numerous films across history. That is unacceptable.)

Keyword(s) – good

Top 10: Good Will Hunting (1997), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), The Great Gatsby (2013), Hot Fuzz (2007), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Man on Fire (2004), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

Future BMT: 67.1 Phat Girlz (2006), 63.2 Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015), 60.7 Like a Boss (2020), 51.8 Playing with Fire (2019), 51.6 The Boss (2016), 51.1 Johnny Be Good (1988), 50.7 The Hot Chick (2002), 47.2 Barney’s Great Adventure (1998), 45.1 Fly Me to the Moon 3D (2007), 40.4 No Good Deed (2014), 39.5 Good Burger (1997), 37.2 The Great Wall (2016), 37.1 Stroker Ace (1983), 36.3 Milk Money (1994), 34.7 Mad Money (2008), 34.3 Mo’ Money (1992), 32.1 Good Deeds (2012), 31.3 The Nude Bomb (1980), 28.9 A Good Man in Africa (1994), 25.8 Two for the Money (2005)

BMT: Epic Movie (2007), Fantastic Four (2015), The Ridiculous 6 (2015), Cool as Ice (1991), Cool World (1992), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), Hot Pursuit (2015), The Fly II (1989), One for the Money (2012), Fire Down Below (1997), Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988), Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998), Fire Birds (1990), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), Be Cool (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), Chill Factor (1999), Money Train (1995), Hot to Trot (1988), The Golden Child (1986), Righteous Kill (2008), Sweet Home Alabama (2002), The Wizard (1989), Fresh Horses (1988), Killer Elite (2011), The Good Son (1993), Hunter Killer (2018)

Best Options (Citizen Kane): 39.5 Good Burger (1997), 34.3 Mo’ Money (1992), 22.4 Hot Pursuit (1987), 20.2 The Good Son (1993)

(Yeah there were a few options, but The Good Son has been on my radar for years. It is one of those films I distinctly remember watching when I was a kid, but also one of those films I maybe just watched the same 30 minutes of on HBO four or five times.)

Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 18) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: David Morse is No. 4 billed in The Good Son and No. 5 billed in Drive Angry, 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) => (4 + 5) + (1 + 1) + (6 + 1) = 18. If we were to watch Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and Jimmy Hollywood we can get the HoE Number down to 15.

Notes – Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood became very close friends during production, and remain so to this day.

Jesse Bradford was originally slated to play Henry. Macaulay Culkin’s father wanted his son to star, saying he would pull Macaulay out of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) if he wasn’t cast in this movie. Fox agreed due to Macaulay’s bankability.

Richard and Connie are played by Macaulay Culkin’s real-life brother, Rory Culkin, and sister, Quinn Culkin.

The cigarette that Mark and Henry smoke was an empty tube filled with dried parsley and lettuce leaves.

The original director, Michael Lehmann, was replaced due to clashes with Macaulay Culkin’s father.

The film was not released theatrically in the UK because of the James Bulger case. It was released on video in 1995, with an 18 certificate. The scene in which Henry deliberately drops a mannequin over an overpass was edited because the BBFC feared that children would try to imitate the stunt. The 2002 DVD was passed uncut with an 18 certificate.

In 1988, Michael Klesic was cast as Henry Evans. The film was soon after put on hold due to a lack of funding. A few years later, the original child actors had grown too old for their roles, and Jesse Bradford was cast as Henry. The project was shelved again and again, and the actors outgrew their characters. The project was re-cast again, and finally shot and released in 1993.

Henry wears two different colored shoes – one black Nike and one white. It was stated by the director it represents evil and good respectively.

The movie is partly inspired by The Bad Seed (1956).

This is Quinn Culkin’s second and final acting role with her first film being an uncredited cameo in “Home Alone” (1990). She ultimately decided to not to follow in the same footsteps of her brothers.

The sight on Henry’s crossbow is a hood ornament from a Buick Riviera.

Elijah Wood later admitted that he was delighted as a child actor to be in an R-rated movie, since he was routinely watching horror movies at the time and had sophistication on dark subject matter.

Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood were trained by stunt coordinator Jack Gill, and rehearsed for six weeks before shooting the climactic scene so that they could be comfortable acting while hanging from a cliff 180 feet above water. When Henry’s mother dropped him, a shot of Culkin himself falling away from the camera on the actual cliff was required. After discussions with Culkin and his parents, he agreed to do a 30-foot fall on a cable on the actual cliff, 180 feet above the freezing lake, but he wanted one thing in return for this act of bravery: a BB gun. Culkin performed the cable fall perfectly and was given his BB gun.