June 1982

June of 1982 was an exciting month in my life. A kind of big deal happened - I was born. While I was a young movie lover, I didn't spring from the womb and immediately start going to the theater. If I had, though, I would have gotten to see a handful of iconic movies in their original theatrical runs.

There were nine major theatrical releases in June 1982. Four of them - Hanky Panky, Grease 2, Author! Author!, and Firefox - either bombed or have mostly been lost to time. The other five, though, were either huge hits right away or became widely loved classics in the intervening years. 

The month started strong with Poltergeist and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan opening on June 4th. Of all these June releases, Poltergeist was easily the one I saw first. I have distinct memories watching this when I was 6 or 7 and being terrified by certain scenes, most notably the clown puppet attacking the little boy in his bed. It's a movie that still holds up today. I showed it to my son when he was 7 and he liked it well enough, too. The performances are all solid, plus the writing and direction are top notch. Some of the effects might feel dated, but I normally don't let stuff like that effect my enjoyment of a movie. It's a shame that Poltergeist is mostly talked about today for either the "curse" that supposedly befell several cast and crew members or the tidbit about the production using real human skeletons for one scene. I swear those are the only two things I ever see discussed online, but the movie is still an effective example for a horror film for older kids and families to share together. It's scary, but not too scary.

I didn't become a Star Trek fan until sometime in late 1993 or early 1994. I started with The Next Generation TV show and then moved backwards to the original series movies. I probably watched The Wrath of Khan during the summer of 1994 and it immediately impressed me. It was such a fantastic action/adventure movie - and so, so much more enjoyable compared to The Motion Picture. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones, and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise struck me as larger than life characters. Even without ever seeing any of the original series, the characters and stories made sense. The performances, especially William Shatner, could be a bit broad and hammy, but that didn't deter 12 year old me in the slightest. Khan (the terrifically cheesy Ricardo Montalban) is an iconic villain, not just for Star Trek movies or science fiction movies, but iconic for the history of the medium. The ending is decidedly downbeat, but I think that's one of the best aspects. I've always been a sucker for a sad ending. All in all, Wrath of Khan is generally considered the best of all the Star Trek movies. I don't quite agree with that - I give the edge to Star Trek 6: The Undiscover Country - but it's definitely the most influential. If Khan hadn't been a hit, I don't think the movies would have continued and Star Trek itself probably would have died out entirely. 

One week later, on June 11, one of the biggest movies of all-time opened and took the country and world by storm. Up until two years ago, I had never seen E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It was easily the most well known and beloved movie that I had just never gotten around to. Thanks to Covid-19 (you don't hear that phrase very often, do you?), the summer of 2020 was filled with one of my local theaters playing old movies each week. Seeing E.T. on the big screen for my first viewing just made sense. I didn't expect to be blown away, but I very much was. I loved pretty much every moment. It made me laugh and cry and feel absolute joy while marveling at the spectacle. Steven Spielberg has long been one of my favorite directors and this is just another jewel in his crown of achievements. The music - by the legendary John Williams - was, of course, spectacular. What really surprised me was how great the child actors were. Generally, you don't get these types of performances out of young actors, but Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore were both outstanding. Even with several major plot points and moments spoiled for me by years and years of clips and references, this movie just works. If anyone reading this hasn't seen E.T. yet, don't be like me and put it off for nearly 40 years. It deserves and demands to be seen still, even after all these years.   

On June 25, just two days before I debuted, two of the most well loved and appreciated science fiction films of all-time debuted in theaters. Neither performed well at the box office, but that didn't stop them from gaining critical and cultural esteem over the years. The Thing has been one of my favorite horror films for the last five years. I first watched it in early 2016 and thought it was good, but it's only grown in quality for me with the intervening four or five viewings. There is so much depth - in the story and in the characters - that repeat viewings really pay off. The first time I watched it, I was caught up with the horror/suspense elements and awesome practical effects, but now I love it for all sorts of reasons. Pretty much every negative in my original review is now a plus. I think it's director John Carpenter's best work and is filled with terrific performances, an excellent score, wonderful visuals, those groundbreaking effects, and a nice balance of humor to counteract the terrible sense of horror and dread. One of my favorite subgenres of horror is the "trapped in snow" category and The Thing is just a notch behind The Shining for the best example of how wonderful movies like this can be. 

Blade Runner is a movie that took me a few tries to actually get through. I think I started three separate times and never made it more than 20 or 30 minutes before getting bored or distracted and shutting it off. When I finally did manage to get all the way through, I was wowed by the visuals - it's one of My Most Beautiful Films after all - but left moderately cool on the movie as a whole. Well, I've since revisited it in preparation for Blade Runner 2049 and it went up a couple of ratings points for me with the second full viewing. Director Ridley Scott has a career full of ups and downs, but this one definitely places in the top third or so of his career for me. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, M. Emmet Walsh, and Brion James all turn in solid performances and the neo-noir plot that bored me at first now really appeals to me. Blade Runner famously has several different versions available and I've only seen "The Final Cut", but that is - according to internet consensus at least - the best of all the versions. If you're going to watch it for the first time, buy the Blu-ray or 4K disc and watch it on the biggest screen you have access to. I don't think you'll be disappointed. 

It's incredibly rare for any one month to have this many films that all hold up so well. I looked at other notable Junes - 1987 (my 5th birthday month), 1992 (10th), 1997 (15th), 2000 (18th), 2003 (21st), 2007 (25th), 2012 (30th), and 2017 (35th) - during my lifetime to see if maybe it was a repeating event, but couldn't find any that had more than one or two noteworthy releases. I then opened my search up to any month in 1999 and 2000 (two of my favorite movie years) and still couldn't find any months that came close to June 1982 so I guess there really must have been something special about my birth month. I always suspected as much, but it's nice to have empirical evidence like this to back up my claim. 

Thanks for reading and celebrating my birth month with me! What movies were released the month you were born? Are any of them amongst your favorites?

My Favorite Actors - Bill Murray

Bill Murray is an actor I grew up loving thanks to his role in Ghostbusters, but it wasn't until much later that I realized exactly how fantastic he is, in movies and in real life, too. He's a tremendous, but sometimes unmotivated performer, so he definitely has a fair share of "misses" on his resume. It might be my overwhelming love of the man clouding my vision, but he rarely turns in a bad performance - the dreadful Ghostbusters remake is the exception that proves the rule - and is almost always inherently watchable. 

As the imitable Peter Venkman in the classic Ghostbusters, Murray shines in every scene, in every moment that he's on screen. Each line is delivered perfectly, from the sarcastic to the excited to the deadpan. He can make me laugh with just a look, a rise of an eyebrow, or a shrug of the shoulders. Murray plays excellently with all of his co-stars, but especially so with Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. As the three founders of the Ghostbusters, they have a tremendous rapport and an easy back and forth quality. You can believe that they're all longtime friends, even (or maybe because of) when they're sniping at each other. When Venkman is turning on the charm and trying to woo the lovely Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), Murray gets to show another side altogether. As a kid, the romantic side plot could have been boring or draggy, but when you have two such sublime performers as Murray and Weaver, that's just not going to happen. Ghostbusters is a lean 105 minutes and I don't think there's a wasted moment to be had in the whole film. It is a rare "perfect" movie, in my opinion at least. 

Ghostbusters is my favorite Murray movie, but just a microscopic step behind is Groundhog Day, which contains his very best performance. In a much more cerebral and lowkey film and performance, Murray shines as Phil Connors, a weatherman stuck reliving the same day over and over and over again. Connors starts out as condescending, brash, and downright mean, but eventually transforms into a thoughtful, caring, and selfless individual. In between, Murray gets to play pretty much every emotion there is, from confusion and frustration to suicidal to acceptance. Murray appears in nearly every scene and is flawless throughout. If I had to introduce him to someone who had never seen any of his movies, Groundhog Day is the film and performance I'd pick to use. It's a movie I've seen at least two dozen times, but could watch it once a month for the rest of my life and probably never get tired of seeing it. 

In 1998, Murray began a longtime (and, as of this writing, ongoing) collaboration with writer/director Wes Anderson. Anderson's second film, Rushmore, featured a wonderfully funny co-lead performance from Murray and sort of kicked off his middle aged career resurgence and a phase where he was just as likely to play dramatic parts compared to comedic ones. Murray reteamed with Anderson for supporting roles in The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The French Dispatch. He also contributed stellar voice work in Anderson's two stop motion animated gems The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs. I'll take my dosage of Murray in any size available, so I'm always happy to see him pop in these films, but his most impressive work with Anderson was his starring role in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. As the titular character, Murray gets to show why Anderson keeps him in his cadre of actors - he delivers the writer's lines absolutely perfectly and embodies the character with heart, soul, and a deep humanity. The movie (and Murray) is still funny, but it's also surprisingly deep and thoughtful. I look forward to every new Anderson film, but if he ever casts Murray as the lead again, it would instantly become my most anticipated movie of the year. 

Lost in Translation is a polarizing film - people either seem to love it or hate it. I'm firmly in the "love it" camp and have been ever since I first saw it in the theater. My wife absolutely hates it, but I don't hold that against her. Hell, she doesn't even really love Bill Murray. I'm pretty sure if I ever wanted to file for divorce, that'd be grounds enough all on it's own. Murray's character Bob Harris is a washed up, alcoholic Hollywood actor who is staying in Tokyo, Japan to shoot a whiskey commercial. While there, he becomes friends with a young woman (Scarlet Johansson's Charlotte) and the two share an oddly intimate and personal few days together. In the beginning, Murray imbues Harris with a world weariness and apathy that slowly fades away as he allows himself to swept up in Charlotte's story. It's a quiet performance, but absolutely one of his best. The movie is filled with wonderful, memorable scenes, but the ending is probably what gets talked about most: Harris walks up to Charlotte and whispers in her ear before heading away on his own, back to his own life. As the audience, we can't hear what's said and Johansson has never revealed the message, which drives the internet wild with speculation. Regardless of what was actually said, it remains a terrific ending and a captivating Murray performance.

I'm generally not a fan of "stupid" or "gross out" comedies, so it might surprise some people to know that Kingpin, the underrated and/or overlooked Farrelly Brothers bowling flick, is one of my all-time favorites. A big part of my love for this movie is Murray's work as Ernie "Big Ern" McCracken, a professional bowler and semi-professional asshole and womanizer. The role is so iconic, hilarious, and infinitely quotable, it would be #1 or 2 on most actor's career achievements list. The fact that it's down farther on my list just goes to show what an amazing career Murray has compiled. Big Ern is the epitome of sleazy, arrogant, and manipulative and Murray hits every joke and every physical note just perfectly. The final bowling tournament has some of my very favorite comedy moments and almost everyone of them involves Big Ern. The highlight is probably watching his ludicrous toupee get more and more disheveled as the game goes on, ending with it flipped off his head, just hanging on by a thread or patch of glue. It's one of the greatest hairpieces in film history, in my opinion. If you haven't seen Kingpin, get to it as quick as possible. 

Two of Murray's more recent and underappreciated films are St. Vincent and On the Rocks. In the former, he plays a curmudgeonly war vet who reluctantly befriends a young boy who moves in next door. Murray and the young actor (Jaeden Martell) have wonderful chemistry together and their performances elevate a pretty standard plot. The rest of the cast is solid, but Murray blows them out of the water with his interesting and offbeat performance. On the Rocks, directed by Sophia Coppola, centers around a new mother (Rashida Jones) who suspects her husband may be having an affair. Her own philandering father (Murray) offers to help her track down the truth and the two have a series of adventures throughout NYC. Murray and Jones are terrific together and Murray is nothing short of radiant in the role. He gets to play a range of emotions, from fun-loving and childlike to serious and protective. There's one scene in particular where he talks his way out of a speeding ticket that really proves Murray hasn't lost even one step since his debut 45+ years ago. On the Rocks is worth the price of an Apple TV+ subscription, even if you don't watch anything else on the service.  

Bill Murray works a lot - which is kind of odd, since he's known for being so difficult to get ahold of when directors and producers want to offer him projects - but he's not the type of movie star who only accepts lead roles. From the very beginning of his career, he's been open to supporting roles and even popping up in cameos. While none of these movies rank amongst my all-time favorites, I love Murray's supporting work in Caddyshack (he's arguably the most remembered aspect of this still very funny movie), Tootsie, and the HBO mini-series Olive Kitteridge (where he pops up in an important role near the end of the series). If you're a loyal reader of this blog, you know how much I love his cameo in Zombieland, but he's nearly as good in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (a movie I think was unfairly maligned) and as the masochistic patient to Steve Martin's sadistic dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. I guess it's safe to say I love Murray no matter the size of the role! 

As of this writing, Murray's got three film projects completed and awaiting release or in post-production. The completed film is The Greatest Beer Run Ever. I recently read this memoir about a merchant marine who decides to bring beer from his hometown in NYC to his buddies serving in the Army in Vietnam. It's a fun story, but I can't recommend the book due to the author's poor writing skills. I imagine it'll make an entertaining movie, but I don't know who Murray will be playing. There were plenty of older parts available, but none of them will probably get much screen-time. Asteroid City is Wes Anderson's newest and is set for a 2022 release, but there isn't much known about it at this time. Like I said above, I'd love to Murray get the lead in another Anderson flick, but I'm not getting my hopes up. The final project is, oddly, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The fact that Bill-fucking-Murray is going to be in an MCU movie, much less Ant-Man 3, just blows my mind. It just doesn't seem like something he'd be interested in doing. He doesn't have a character name identified on IMDB yet, but the movie isn't supposed to come out until next year, so that's not so surprising, but I'm not positive this rumor is accurate. I'm sure I'll see the movie, but until Murray appears on screen, I'm going to remain skeptical of it's veracity. 

I've seen almost exactly half of Murray's movies, so if I wanted to be a completionist, I'd have a lot left to watch. Thankfully, I don't have that particular compulsion, because if I did, I'd have a lot of stuff to watch that I have absolutely no interest in. Stuff like both Garfield flicks, Dumb and Dumber To, Hyde Park on the Hudson, Passion Play, Hamlet (2000), and Where the Buffalo Roam. None of these movies have the best reputations and none of them have anything going for them, besides including Murray among the cast. That being said, there are a few of his projects that are still on my radar. The most popular is Meatballs, his first big role and a movie I've heard good things about for most of my life. I'm not sure why I haven't seen it yet - it's even readily available on Amazon Prime, so I could watch it for free at any time. I hope to get around to it in the near future. Two other movies that aren't quite so available are The Razor's Edge (Murray's first foray into dramatic work) and Ed Wood. Both come highly recommended from different people I trust for movie recommendations, but I still haven't sought them out. Well, I've always got something to look forward to! 

One of the things I like best about Bill Murray is his public persona, from his many appearances on shows like The Late Show with David Letterman, his appearances at award shows, on the golf course, at baseball games, and to his ongoing interactions with random people all across the country. He's got such a history of stopping and chatting with people that there was even a tremendous documentary released in 2018 called The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man. The doc includes all sorts of hilarious, impactful, and touching stories from people who have had run-ins with the star over the years. Murray's known to crash weddings, house parties, and do random acts of charity like stopping in a coffee shop and buying everyone inside drinks. If I lived in a big city where he's known to spend a lot of time like Chicago or NYC, I'd probably walk around as much as possible just hoping to run into him. 

And, since I love to list and rank things, here's my ranking of all of Murray's movies that I've seen. Some of these haven't been seen in years, so I'm going by my IMDb ratings. If I re-watched some, the ratings and rankings would probably change. 

1. Ghostbusters - 10/10

2. Groundhog Day - 10/10

3. Parks and Recreation (one episode) - 9.5/10

4. Fantastic Mr. Fox - 9.5/10

5. The Royal Tenenbaums - 9.5/10

6. Lost in Translation - 9/10

7. Kingpin - 9/10

8. Isle of Dogs - 9/10

9. The Grand Budapest Hotel - 9/10

10. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - 9/10

11. Rushmore - 8.5/10

12. St. Vincent - 8/10

13. Ghostbusters: Afterlife - 8/10

14. On the Rocks - 8/10

15. Mad Dog and Glory - 8/10

16. Tootsie - 8/10

17. Olive Kitteridge - 7.5/10

18. Zombieland - 7.5/10

19. The Darjeeling Limited - 7.5/10

20. Caddyshack - 7/10

21. Moonrise Kingdom - 7/10

22. Get Low - 7/10

23. Little Shop of Horrors - 6.5/10

24. Wild Things - 6/10

25. What About Bob? - 6/10

26. Charlie's Angels - 6/10

27. Scrooged - 5.5/10

28. Quick Change - 5/10

29. A Very Murray Christmas - 5/10

30. The Monuments Men - 5/10

31. Stripes - 4.5/10

32. Broken Flowers - 4.5/10

33. Ghostbusters 2 - 4/10

34. The Jungle Book (2016) - 4/10

35. Rock the Kasbah - 3.5/10

36. Get Smart - 3/10

37. Aloha - 2/10

38. Ghostbusters (2016) - 1/10

What do you think of Bill Murray? What are some of your favorite performances or movies of his? Do you prefer his starring roles or his supporting performances? 

Thanks for reading! 

My May 2022 Recap

Favorite First Time Viewing

George Carlin's American Dream (2022) - 9.5/10

After his amazing 2018 documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, Judd Apatow returns to the stand-up comedy scene with this informative, inspiring, and hilarious two-part film about quite possibly the greatest comedian of all-time, George Carlin. I've been a pretty big Carlin fan for the majority of my adult life, so I knew most of the information presented here, but everything was done in such an entertaining fashion that I didn't mind a bit. The doc covers Carlin's whole life, from his rocky young life to his start in the entertainment industry as part of a comedy duo to his counter-culture rebirth and all the way through to his death. Interviewees include his family (daughter, brother, and both wives), business partners, and other standups (Patton Oswalt, Robert Klein, Jerry Seinfeld and many more). The final act showcases just how brilliant and timeless Carlin's comedy was since, more than a decade after his death, many of his bits still resonate with our American system and culture today. Any excuse to watch Carlin's material is fine by me and this doc is highly recommended to both fans and newcomers alike.  

Worst First Time Viewing

Old (2021) - 1/10

I do not give out 1 ratings willy-nilly. They make up just about 1.5% of my nearly three thousand total rankings on IMDb, but Old definitely deserves to join that exclusive club. This M. Night Shyamalan directed travesty is easily the most disappointing movie I've seen in several years - and I didn't even have high hopes for it! I expected a dumb, fun, action/horror thriller, but what I got was pretty much just dumb. All it takes for a movie to get a 2/10 rating from me is one decent aspect: a good performance, some solid dialogue, interesting directing or cinematography, or an intriguing plot. Old had none of this. The plot - about people stranded on a beach that rapidly ages them - came closest, but everything was handled so maddeningly stupidly by horrendous characters spouting ridiculous dialogue. The only entertainment I got out of the 110 minutes was watching my wife slowly get more and more upset watching it. It's so bad that I'd almost recommend someone give it a chance, but it's not bad in a fun way, just in a way to drive you nuts. 

Favorite Rewatch

Three Kings (1999) - 9/10

Another month, another terrific George Clooney starring rewatch. Three Kings is a kinetic, insightful, funny, and emotionally powerful action/drama about a small group of U.S. Army soldiers in the final days of the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Clooney leads a surprisingly good cast including Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and amateur actor Spike Jonze. The foursome decide to "liberate" some Kuwaiti gold stolen by Sadam Hussein and set themselves up for a life of luxury after the war ends. Of course, things don't go as planned. The film is expertly written and directed by David O. Russell, a filmmaker who is kind of hit-or-miss for me. This one's definitely a hit, though. Russell uses filmmaking flourishes like slow motion, fast zooms, and quick editing in such a masterful, engaging way. The characters sound and act like real human beings (something Mr. Shyamalan should learn to write) and the story is propulsive, never slowing down or becoming dull. I loved it in the theater in 1999 (a fantastic movie year, by the way) and still love it today. 

Worst Rewatch

The Quick and the Dead (1995) - 3/10

I didn't rewatch a lot of movies this month, so there wasn't a lot of competition for this "award" but The Quick and the Dead easily takes first place. This wasn't something that I originally loved or anything - my previous rating was 6/10 - but I was looking forward to the rewatch, thinking it might have grown in my esteem in the last 20 years or so. I was wrong. Things that I either forgot about or didn't care about back then - most notably director Sam Raimi's annoyingly in your face style - really jumped out to me this time. With a more straight forward approach and a better, tighter script, the movie would have been back in the 5-6/10 range. The main cast - Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio - are all solid, but nothing more. All four have done much better on other projects over the years. The supporting cast is filled with fun character actors like Lance Henriksen, Pat Hingle, Keith David, Mark Boone Junior, Tobin Bell, Gary Sinise, and Bruce Campbell and they're really the most interesting part of the whole film. Unfortunately, like most character actor roles, they just don't have enough screen time to save the film from being utterly unremarkable. This is one of those somewhat high concept films that really should be remade, but probably won't since it didn't make much money and westerns are an even harder sell these days. 

My month, in watch order: 

    * = rewatch

The Forever Purge (2021) - 5/10

Candyman (2021) - 6/10

Respect (2021) - 4/10

* The Quick and the Dead (1995) - 3/10

* Taken (2008) - 5/10

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) - 7/10

Brad's Status (2017) - 6/10

The Favourite (2018) - 7.5/10

Old (2021) - 1/10

Late Night (2019) - 8/10

George Carlin's American Dream (2022) - 9/10

Dear Evan Hansen (2021) - 5/10

* Three Kings (1999) - 9/10

* Burn After Reading (2008) - 7/10

What about you guys? Have you seen any of these movies? If so, what did you think? Did you watch anything great or really disappointing in May?

Thanks for reading and commenting!