The Hunt for Red October (1990)

When Gary and I first got married, we bought of those huge "sit on the floor" console TVs for like $10 at a garage sale. One of the tubes was bad, so everything we watched had a pinkish hue and that's how I originally saw this film. All of the underwater missile scenes were impossible to decipher because it came over as just an unbroken wash of mauve. This viewing was much more interesting!

Great tension in this story about a handful of men in a Russian submarine executing their plan to defect to the United States. They have to hope that the Americans are smart enough to realize this while the Russians (including the bulk of the men on board their own craft) are kept in the dark. They're also having to deal with an on-board saboteur! Luckily, Jack Ryan's figured it all out. Now, will the American brass listen?

Though the special effects look a bit silly now, everything else still works pretty well. I did, however, get a little tired of the repetitive scenes that boiled down to Jack arguing that his gut is telling him they're defecting only to be slapped down by his superiors with the "too risky" argument. 

And wow -- Alec Baldwin was such a pretty young man.

B-

Pacific Heights (1990)

A couple buys a multi-family home, renovates it, and finds some renters for the other units. But they've been targeted by Carter Hayes, a professional squatter, whose plan it is to provoke them until they violate his rights, which will give him grounds to sue.

It's an interesting story and is generally well-done, but I had big issues with the male half of the couple, played by Matthew Modine. He was written as a bit of a trusting idiot with a hair-trigger temper, determined to screw things up and bring his girlfriend down with him.

C+

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Viet Nam vet Jacob is falling apart. He's mourning the death of his young son and has left his wife and other two children for a relationship with a co-worker. He's also experiencing hallucinations and terrifying flashbacks to a battle that left much of his platoon dead.

Though I generally dislike unreliable narrators, Tim Robbins is very very good here. That the film finally resolves to a well-trod trope, getting there is not as annoying as it could've been. But it's still just not my thing at all.

C+

Quick Change (1990)

Gary and I have remembered this fondly for more than 20 years, but we must’ve been starved for entertainment back then as this just doesn’t hold up. The comedy is extremely mild and the "wackiness" is way too tame.

C

Tremors (1990)

Big ol' sand worms start eating up a tiny desert town and the small group of surviving residents fights back.

And though that's about it, it's enough. Silly, cheesy fun.

B

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)

Young buck kidnaps the girl of his dreams…just until she falls in love with him. Hmmm…think she's gonna fall in love with him? Still, I liked it – except for the weird masturbatory scene with the scuba toy, that is. That scene may have had more to do with a gorgeous body than story-telling.

B

Cry-Baby (1990)

I realize that this is supposed to invoke memories of the teen films of the '50s & '60s, but it doesn't. Maybe it's because it can't quite capture the innocence that was part of the package back then -- that might not be it, but something is most definitely missing…perhaps it’s just the desire to see that kind of stuff!?

It does work really hard at making sure that nothing makes too much sense and stereotypes are firmly in place. No depth here! The songs are fun and Depp is wonderfully sincere. But, once you stop hoping that there'll be more to it, you start hoping it'll be over soon, and that ain't a good thing. Plus Kim McGuire (Hatchetface) is truly difficult to look at.

D+

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)

This is, perhaps, one of the most lonely films I've ever seen. India Bridge (Joanne Woodward) is just going through the motions as a well-to-do housewife who has lived for her husband and children. Her children obviously despise her weakness and her husband views her more as the furniture of his life than as a person. Woodward, in my opinion, should have taken home the Oscar for her performance.

As a matter of fact, I couldn't find a single fault with any of the actors - but my whole feeling was "so what." I was bored and, by the second half, I was beginning to feel that not only had India Bridge wasted her entire life, but I was compounding that tragedy by squandering precious time watching her!

D-