Movie Review: Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone (1983)

Genre: Science Fiction  

Director: Lamont Johnson  

Starring: Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Michael Ironside  

Running Time: 90 minutes  

Synopsis: A tourist spaceship explodes in a faraway galaxy, and an escape pod carrying three surviving women crash-lands on a dangerous planet. Space adventurer Wolff (Peter Strauss) is interested in the reward money and races to rescue them, but after partnering with scrappy local girl Niki (Molly Ringwald), he faces competition from fellow-rescuer Washington (Ernie Hudson). The planet is full of dangers, but the biggest threat is Overdog (Michael Ironside), a half-man half-machine crazed scientist who rules over the forbidden zone and wants the captured women for his pleasure.

What Works Well: Some of the garage-level hardware is imaginative, and Elmer Bernstein's music score deserves an entirely different movie. Sidekick character Chalmers (Andrea Marcovicci) enlivens the opening 20 minutes.

What Does Not Work As Well: Filmed in 3-D, this soulless mix of Star Wars and Mad Max is hampered by a low budget and the mis-casting of Peter Strauss and Molly Ringwald: he is charisma-free, and she is whiny and annoying. The flat script lacks wit and anything that resembles character depth or a thematic arc, surrendering instead to a choppy episodic structure overwhelmed by cheesy sets and stiff derivative action. The three captive women are vacuous non-entities, while Michael Ironside as the antagonist looks impressive but barely features apart from some cartoon-level villainous hollering.

Key Quote:

Niki: Us loners got to stick together.



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Movie Review: Malicious (1995)

Genre: Stalking Thriller

Director: Ian Corson

Starring: Molly Ringwald, Patrick McGaw, John Vernon, Sarah Lassez

Running Time: 92 minutes

Synopsis: In Seattle, Doug Gordon (Patrick McGaw) is a pre-med college student and star baseball player attracting professional scouts. When his girlfriend Laura (Sarah Lassez) leaves town for the weekend, Doug succumbs to a seduction by troubled medical student Melissa (Molly Ringwald). He tries to pass it off as a fling and move on with his life, but Melissa has other plans.

What Works Well: The reimagining of Fatal Attraction among college students benefits from a sympathetic central character in Doug, a (mostly) smart and athletic college student quick to regret an ill-advised dalliance. His relationship with girlfriend Laura is also warm. Vancouver and the University of British Columbia (doubling for Seattle locations) offer attractive backdrops.

What Does Not Work As Well: Molly Ringwald struggles mightily to shed her wry good-girl persona and find the darkness within - it's simply not there. She does not flounder alone: all the acting wallows at rudimentary levels, in company with the writing. The attempts to fill-in Melissa's backstory and justify her rage are clumsy in the extreme. As a parable about the dangers of illicit sex, nothing here is subtle, and once the thriller and horror elements shove eroticism out of the way, the plot rushes into ridiculous territory.

Conclusion: Whether in pursuit of a sexual thrill or an image refresh, temptation can lead to darkness.



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Movie Review: Tempest (1982)

A midlife crisis drama, Tempest explores a painful transition from the vigour of youth to the wisdom of experience. The film enjoys a stellar cast and some excellent highlights, but is also both overlong and emotionally truncated.

New York architect Phillip Dimitrius (John Cassavetes) is experiencing a severe middle age crisis. His work designing casinos for his boss Alonzo (Vittorio Gassman), a semi-respectable mobster, is now a boring chore, and Phillip has lost interest in his wife Antonia (Gena Rowlands), a retired actress attempting a comeback. He also finds his teenaged daughter Miranda (Molly Ringwald) irritating.

When he stumbles upon Antonia seeking intimacy outside their marriage, Phillip packs up his life and heads to Greece with Miranda, desperate to rediscover his passion. In Athens they meet nightclub singer Aretha (Susan Sarandon), and she quickly becomes Phillip's lover. In search of a rustic lifestyle Philip, Aretha and Miranda relocate to a rugged and isolated island, where the only other resident is goat farmer Kalibanos (Raul Julia).

Inspired by Shakespeare's play, Tempest is directed, co-written and co-produced by Paul Mazursky. At a meandering 142 minutes, the signs of bloat are obvious, particularly when the third act loses all focus and falls well short of capping the preceding profundity.

Philip's story is presented in two timelines. On the Greek island, he desperately tries to reinvent himself as a happy recluse, satisfied without all of modernity's luxuries. Aretha and Miranda are less impressed and quite tired of the isolation. In  multiple flashbacks, Philip circulates among New York's elites, living in an elegant condominium of his own design, married to Antonia and working for Alonzo. He has all the ingredients for happiness but is imprisoned by the eternal is-this-all-there-is question.

Mazursky plays lightly on many themes. Phillip's tortured state of mind is represented by electric storms, conjured up as bookends to his crisis. His attempt at island celibacy, leaving Aretha quite hot and bothered, is the product of a disoriented psyche still partially loyal to Antonia. Philip's inability to come to terms with Miranda blooming into a young adult is a further demonstration of his creeping shortcomings. And joyous singing interludes punctuate the drama, often helping to boost spirits threatened by the eccentricities of a futile battle with the advancing years.

With Raul Julia unconstrained, Kalibanos' buffoonish pursuit of Miranda occupies too much screen time, although his lecherous quest affords Molly Ringwald plenty of scene-stealing opportunities. The rest of the cast members find depth within their characters, Cassavetes allowing the weight of unmet expectations to etch his face, Rowlands matching him as a resilient wife who will find alternatives to an inattentive, distracted and self-obsessed husband.

Phillip's old and new lives are on an inevitable collision course, but whilst the Tempest build-up is spasmodically turbulent, the resolution is simplistically tepid. 



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The Movies Of Molly Ringwald

All movies starring Molly Ringwald and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Tempest (1982)

Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone (1983)

Sixteen Candles (1984)

The Breakfast Club (1985)

Pretty In Pink (1986)

For Keeps? (1988)

Betsy's Wedding (1990)

Malicious (1995)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: For Keeps? (1988)

A reality-bites romance and drama with tinges of humour, For Keeps? (the title is known with and without the question mark) tackles weighty issues but suffers an identity crisis.

In the small town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, aspiring writer Darcy Elliott (Molly Ringwald) and budding architect Stan Bobrucz (Randall Batinkoff) are high school sweethearts wondering how to maintain their relationship now that Stan is planning to attend CalTech. Their lives are thrown into disarray when Darcy learns she is pregnant. Her mother Donna (Miriam Flynn) is obsessed with French culture and insists on an abortion, while Stan's loud father (Kenneth Mars), a shoe store owner, argues for an adoption.

Instead, Darcy and Stan decide to keep the baby and break off relations with their families. They get married, rent a derelict apartment, and start their life together. Soon they face severe money pressures and once the baby arrives Darcy suffers through postpartum depression, adding stress to the lives of the young couple.

Moviedom's favourite high school student Molly Ringwald tackles the transition from student to adult, and For Keeps? does not spare many grown up agonies. Before completing school Darcy has to deal with an impending separation from her boyfriend, an unexpected pregnancy, a less than useless mother, parental estrangement, night school, poverty, post-delivery depression, and a young husband suddenly adrift in life.

The film deserves credit for not sugarcoating serious issues. This is more drama than comedy or romance, and the stresses facing the young couple are portrayed as real and painful, with every compromise, sacrifice and trade-off spiraling into further grim consequences.

Amidst the doom and gloom of mounting responsibilities, director John G. Avildsen working from a script by Denise DeClue and Tim Kazurinsky still wedges in moments of humour, tender romance and growing-up wonder. The resultant movie is not so much dissonant as distant. As Darcy and Stan experience ups and downs, the emotional fluctuations are less than convincing, and appear theatrically scripted rather than natural.

Ringwald is by far the stand-out performer, radiating warmth and genuineness whether in giddy excitement as to what life has to offer or in the depths of depression. The unfortunate Randall Batinkoff is miscast and horribly outmatched as Stan, his arc defeated by bland scripting and superficial delivery. Miriam Flynn is monotonal as Darcy's mom and Kenneth Mars gets too much screen time as Stan's obnoxious father.

For Keeps? stands up to reality, but wobbles a bit from the variety of punches.

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Movie Review: Betsy's Wedding (1990)

A boisterous comedy, Betsy's Wedding finds laughs by refreshing the story of a father overwhelmed by his daughter's impending nuptials.

Eddie Hopper (Alan Alda) is a contractor based in Long Island, New York, and married to Lola (Madeline Kahn). Their daughter Betsy (Molly Ringwald), a budding fashion designer, announces plans to marry boyfriend Jake (Dylan Walsh), who comes from a wealthy family. Despite mounting debts, Eddie gets carried away and offers to pay for a lavish wedding event.

With money pressures mounting, Eddie turns to his brother-in-law Oscar (Joe Pesci), a sleazy developer and slum landlord, for help. Oscar is cheating on his wife Gloria (Catherine O'Hara), who in turn is surreptitiously profiting from Oscar's business dealings. Oscar connects Eddie with mobster turned investor Georgie (Burt Young). Soon enough, Georgie's nephew Stevie Dee (Anthony LaPaglia) starts an exceedingly gentlemanly romantic pursuit of Eddie's other daughter Connie (Ally Sheedy), a police officer.

Directed and written by Alda, Betsy's Wedding is inspired by Father Of The Bride, and almost as good. While Betsy is essentially reduced to an observer in her own movie, Alda embraces the surrounding madness. The film is all about the insanity that swirls around the main event, and Alda finds plenty of wacky characters and unexpected events to throw at the screen. And with a strong cast and no crass body fluid jokes to be found, this is a classier comedy that scrupulously avoids the lowest common denominator.

Oscar is the husband of Lola's sister, but still close enough to the family to gradually occupy the eye of the storm. With Joe Pesci in fine form, Oscar, whether intentionally or not, opens up the door to mobster mayhem as first Georgie and then Stevie Dee become central players in Eddie's life. Burt Young imports all shades of knock-off Godfather colours into the film, unsettling Eddie and eventually thrusting him into the twilight zone of mafia drive-by shootings.

Meanwhile Anthony LaPaglia steals the movie already stolen by Pesci. Alda deserves credit for clever writing that allows Stevie Dee to shine as a genuine gentleman despite his dubious roots and the gun in his jacket. He pursues his love in courteous style and persistently sets about melting the heart of the tough-as-nails Connie.

Elsewhere enough is going on to maintain admirable energy. Oscar thinks he is hiding an office affair with his assistant who invites herself to the wedding, while all along his wife Gloria is gaining her revenge through shark-like financial dealings. Meanwhile tensions mount between Betsy and Jake, her liberal upbringing and wild fashion sense disturbing the conservative sensibilities of his parents.

The film is just the right length at 94 minutes, and the editing is exceptionally sharp: every scene ends exactly when it should, and not a second later. Betsy's Wedding is not a smooth affair, but it's a memorably chaotic event.

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Movie Review: Pretty In Pink (1986)

A high school comedy, romance and drama wrapped into a pink package, Pretty In Pink delves into the politics of love across social class divides, and finds real teenagers grappling with the details of growing up.

Andie (Molly Ringwald) comes from a lower income family and lives on the wrong side of the tracks with her father Jack (Harry Dean Stanton), who has not yet recovered from being abandoned by his wife. Andie is clever, resourceful and takes on the responsibility of keeping her father somewhat functional. At a high school dominated by rich kids, Andie fends off the sexual advances of the lecherous Steff (James Spader), but harbours a crush on his shy friend Blane (Andrew McCarthy). Both Steff and Blane come from monied families and social norms dictate that they stay away from poor girls like Andie. Meanwhile, Andie's best friend since childhood is the extroverted Duckie (Jon Cryer). He is deeply infatuated with her, but she just considers him a reliable if sometimes annoying buddy.

Blane finds the courage to approach Andie and they start dating. Steff is incredulous that his best friend is associating with what he considers an unworthy girl, while Duckie is heartbroken that the love of his life has eyes for someone else. With the big night of the prom approaching, Andie finds herself at the centre of a turbulent romantic drama with ripple effects disturbing established expectations.

Written by John Hughes, directed by Howard Deutch, and packed with new wave music from the likes of The Psychedelic Furs, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order, Pretty In Pink is a cultural milestone. It followed on the heels of Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, as Hughes established himself the dean of smart high school films, with Molly Ringwald his primary muse and a generational role model. Andrew McCarthy's presence helps to classify Pretty In Pink as part of the loosely defined 1980s brat pack series of films.

The story itself is a simple riff on Romeo and Juliet, with teenage emotions exaggerated by throbbing hormones and the intensity of the high school experience. Pretty In Pink may be a touch over-scrubbed. Andie is just a shade too perfect, Blane carries a hint of white knight, and Duckie's individualistic free spirit at times reaches into comic relief territory. The ending (changed from the original intent) caters more to fairy tale fantasies rather than gritty reality.

But Hughes again demonstrates his unusually high level of respect for many his characters, with Andie, Duckie, Blane and Jack all developed into rounded people worth knowing. Even Andie's friend and boss at the mall record store Iona (a sparkly Annie Potts) benefits from creditable depth. And the characters all come to life within an efficient 96 minute package.

Through his characters and with a mix of humour and pathos driven by the thumping soundtrack, Hughes delves into some of his favourite issues, including the fuzzy borders between friendship and love, the cliques that dominate high school social interaction, and building difficult bridges across chasms of wealth and privilege. Other than Jack, this is a discovery world made up exclusively of teens, the school teachers a mere inconvenience to be navigated on the road to understanding the truths that define adulthood.

Molly Ringwald is at her best, her subtle expressions a constant source of critical embellishment. Ringwald narrows her eyes, cocks her head and purses her mouth just so, never over elaborating and always with the quizzical innocence of a mature teenager walking the tightrope towards becoming a grown-up. Andie loves pink; Ringwald adds the texture, shades and patterns to bring the one colour to cheerful life.

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Movie Review: The Breakfast Club (1985)

A coming-of-age high school dramatic comedy, The Breakfast Club is a sharply defined study of five memorable characters under stress. With the feel of an intimate play and career-defining performances from the young cast, director and writer John Hughes established his reputation as the voice of youth and mentor for a new generation of actors.

It's Saturday in suburban Chicago, and five Shermer High School students have to spend the entire day in detention as punishment for poor behaviour. Andy (Emilio Estevez) is the jock on the school wrestling team, Claire (Molly Ringwald) is the princess primarily interested in shopping and make up, Bender (Judd Nelson) is the psychological bully from a rough home, Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) is the nerd, and Allison (Ally Sheedy) is just weird. The five barely know each other. Under the supervision of assistant principal Richard Vernon (Paul Gleason), they are confined to the library for the day and ordered to write a 1,000 word essay each.  But with Bender as prime catalyst and mood disruptor, they do little writing and plenty of talking.

Initially the conversations are difficult and confrontational, and there is plenty of teasing, insulting and acrimony. But over the course of the day, they get to know each other, including uncovering family backgrounds and the reasons why they all ended up in detention. As they try to stay one step ahead of Vernon's authoritarianism, the green shoots of respect and understanding begin to appear within the group.

Written by Hughes and pulled together as an ensemble piece on essentially a single set, The Breakfast Club delves into the anxieties of teenagers, scraping away the hardened outside shells to find real people inside. As the external postures are stripped away, surprising commonalities are found, emotions are shared and previously unthinkable bonds are allowed to form under the umbrella of shared burdens.

The Breakfast Club is not without its creaky moments. The pacing is episodic, with the emotions and confrontations that are laid bare in one scene frequently all but forgotten in the next. And the ending, with sudden attractions materializing, appears rushed and predetermined for the sake of generating some warm kisses and unconvincing romantic sparks.  And assistant principal Vernon is just too deserving of any trouble that the kids manage to dish out.

But to the sounds of what became the generational anthem Don't You (Forget About Me) by the Simple Minds, the five young actors overcome the weaknesses in the script with outstanding performances, Judd Nelson leading the group. Bender is the troubled kid convinced despite all contrary evidence that he is tougher than his surroundings, and Nelson plays him with a cool eyed intensity that never wavers. He is merciless in picking on Claire, but is smart enough to stop just short of assaulting Vernon when fully afforded the opportunity. Nelson explores the coiled internal tension that only comes from an abusive household, as Bender's restlessness means that he cannot help but stir things up to spread the misery. Hughes explains Bender's attitude but never softens him up into a victim or a potential reformed kid.

Molly Ringwald, just 16 when filming The Breakfast Club, embodies every popular, rich, pretty girl more interested in friends, shopping and hanging out than reaching out or stretching academically. Ringwald brings a tough naiveté to Claire, a privileged girl fully enjoying the entitlement of coasting through high school and not having to deal with neither effort nor kids like Bender. On this Saturday Claire has to share time and space with a group of students that are typically beneath her, and Ringwald conveys vulnerability as an easy target but also a gradual awakening to new realities.

Allison is the most opaque character, and Ally Sheedy nails the dark kid who hovers like a ghostly presence at the back of the room. Allison is the slowest among the group to reveal herself, and she just gets weirder and more interesting the more she opens up, the pieces of her puzzle adding to the confusion rather than assembling into a whole.

Andy and Brian are the relatively straightforward personalities, Emilio Estevez projecting uneasy conflict as he walks the line between being trying to be cool and stepping in to protect Claire from Bender's browbeating. Anthony Michael Hall further develops his screen nerd persona, trying to fit in but always just a little bit clumsy in his social interactions. Andy and Brian find common ground when they both admit to the enormous pressure they feel from their parents to perform, Andy on the wrestling mat and Brian on all his exams.

In baring the souls of five disparate characters, The Breakfast Club shines as a unique examination of the teenager, and as an impossible to forget film experience.

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Movie Review: Sixteen Candles (1984)

A wistful coming-of-age high school comedy, Sixteen Candles was the first in a series of landmark John Hughes films exploring teen angst, and his first collaboration with Molly Ringwald. The film easily swims in the turbulent waters of the teen world, where the briefest of glances between boy and girl can carry the most exaggerated of meanings.

It's the sixteenth birthday of Samantha Baker (Ringwald), but none of her family members are even aware of her big day. Mom (Carlin Glynn) and Dad (Paul Dooley) are preoccupied with the upcoming wedding of Sam's older sister Ginny (Blanche Baker). To make matters worse, Sam is kicked out of her bedroom to make room for the arrival of two sets of annoying grandparents, while her younger brother (Justin Henry, of Kramer vs. Kramer fame) insults her for sport. And somehow, a Chinese exchange student by the name of Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe) also arrives to stay at the Baker's house.

But Sam's real problems are at school. She covets the attention of hunky Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), although she is convinced (wrongly) that he does not even know that she exists. Jake's trophy girlfriend Caroline (Haviland Morris) is proving to be a major pain, while the obnoxiously sweet Ted, better known as just Geek (Anthony Michael Hall) is doing all he can to gain Sam's attention, mainly to win bets with his friends (including a young John Cusack).

Hughes fills every frame of Sixteen Candles with manic activity, and there is always something going on in the background and in every corner of what the camera casually captures. As much as Hughes understands and reflects the conversations, hopes, fears and embarrassments of teens, it's the entire overwhelming teen experience of life flooding in to clear out the security blanket of childhood misconceptions that he nails, from the highs to the lows and everything in between.

Ringwald, in her breakout role, provides an affecting performance as Sam, her eyes and mouth conniving to create a victimized pout that can't quite succeed in hiding a slightly mischievous character. Understated, vulnerable, sassy and resigned to thrashing her way through the turbulence of high school crushes, Ringwald's Samantha  radiates the natural and awkward charm of a girl opening her eyes to the chaos of adulthood, coveting the attention of her parents while beginning to carve her niche in the world.

Michael Schoeffling did not have much to work with, the handsome yet sensitive personality of Jake almost too good to be true, although the character became a durable legendary ideal for teen girls. His only problem is his girlfriend, and Caroline is all too easy to dispose of after a few drinks. Anthony Michael Hall leaves a stronger impression as the Geek, a uniquely self-aware personality struggling to make a breakthrough with girls while adhering to the confines of nerdiness. Hall used this springboard for several further collaborations with Hughes and a brief reign as the most likable brainy persona in the movies. Cusack, as one of the Geek's even more geeky friends, emerged from the supporting cast to enjoy a stellar career.

Sixteen Candles is funny, thoughtful, heartfelt, and sometimes chaotic -- a good metaphor for what being sixteen is all about.

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