Walt Disney, part XLVI: Bad and good luck tales

DUCKTALES THE MOVIE: TREASURE OF THE LOST LAMP

1990

Directed by Bob Hathcock

Written by Alan Burnett

Spoilers: moderate

You're selfish, you're crazy, and you're scared

DAYS OF THUNDER

1990

Directed by Tony Scott

Written by Tom Cruise and Robert Towne

Spoilers: high

I killed a man who I hated today

REVENGE

1990

Directed by Tony Scott

Written by Jim Harrison and Jeffrey Alan Fiskin (based on the novella by Jim Harrison)

Spoilers: moderate

In fabric

JU DOU

1990

Directed by Zhang Yimou and Yang Fenglian

Written by nobody, apparently? (based on the novel Fuxi Fuxi by Liu Heng)

Spoilers: moderate

Walt Disney, XLI: ...He doesn't even know how to fold a map

THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER

1990

Directed by Hendel Butoy and Michael Gabriel

Written by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, and Joe Ranft

Spoiler alert: high

Walt Disney, part XL: CMYK: The Motion Picture

DICK TRACY

1990

Directed by Warren Beatty

Written by Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr., Bo Goldman, and Warren Beatty (based on the comic strips by Chester Gould)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Walt Disney, part XXXIX: Disney princess

PRETTY WOMAN

1990

Directed by Garry Marshall

Written by J.F. Lawton

Spoiler alert: moderate

King Week: Everyone's a critic

In which Halloween-related marathoning has resulted in reviews of several spooky movies from the mind of the world's favorite horror author, Stephen King.

MISERY

1990

Directed by Rob Reiner

Written by William Goldman (based on the novel by Stephen King)

Spoiler alert: high

Predator Week, part II: Oh, it's the urban jungle, I get it

PREDATOR 2

Predator 2 never quite justifies its existence, but it mostly earns your attention, and that will have to do.

1990

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Written by Jim Thomas and John Thomas

With Danny Glover (Lt. Mike Harrigan), Ruben Blades (Danny Archuleta), Maria Conchita Alonso (Leona Cantrell), Bill Paxton (Jerry Lambert), Gary Busey (Peter Keyes), Kevin Peter Hall (a Predator, why is he credited as "the Predator"? the Predator is dead)

Spoiler alert: moderate

...He doesn't even know how to fold a map

THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER

Better than you could possibly have expected from a sequel to The Rescuers, Down Under was and remains the most unsung—ha ha—masterpiece of the Disney Renaissance, and one of the most uniquely great films the studio ever made.

1990

Directed by Hendel Butoy and Michael Gabriel

Written by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, and Joe Ranft

With Eva Gabor (Bianca), Bob Newhart (Bernard), Tristan Rogers (Jake), John Candy (Wilbur), Adam Ryen (Cody), Frank Welker (Marahute and Joanna), and George C. Scott (McLeach)

Spoiler alert: high

Joe Dante, part X: Fun—but in no sense civilized

GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH

Everything that the first one, burdened with establishing the basic premise, simply couldn't be.

1990

Directed by Joe Dante

Written by Charles S. Haas 

With Zach Galligan (Billy Peltzer), Phoebe Cates (Kate Beringer), John Glover (Daniel Clamp), Havilland Morris (Marla Bloodstone), Dick Miller (Murray Futterman), Robert Picardo (Chief Forster), Robert Prosky (Grandpa Fred), Gedde Watanabe (Mr. Katsuji), Christopher Lee (Dr. Catheter), Neil Ross (The Voice of Clamp Enterprises), Hulk Hogan (himself), Howie Mandell (Gizmo), Frank Welker (Mohawk), and Tony Randall (The Brain Gremlin)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Steven Spielberg, part XVIII: Spyder, spyder, burning bright

ARACHNOPHOBIA

At the halfway mark of our Steven Spielberg retrospective, we consider his influence upon the industry not only as a director but as a businessman; although, if we're honest with ourselves, we're mainly in it for the GODDAM SPIDER.

1990

Directed by Frank Marshall

Written by Don Jakoby, Al Williams, and Wesley Strick

With Jeff Daniels (Dr. Ross Jennings), Harley Jane Kozak (Molly Jennings), Dr. James Atherton (Julian Sands), Mark L. Taylor (Jerry Manley), Henry Jones (Dr. Sam Metcalf), Stuart Pankin (Sheriff Lloyd Parsons), and John Goodman (Delbert McClintock)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Robert Zemeckis, part VIII: Tempus quiescit

BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III

Back to the Future takes a vacation in the Old West, which doesn't seem like it should be the summing up of a box office-shattering, pop culture-redefining trilogy, and guess what?  It really isn't—but there we have it, and there's no changing it now.  And yet it's still an awful lot of fun on its own lessened terms, and that doesn't just count for something; it's damned near the whole ball of wax.

1990
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis
With Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly and Seamus McFly), Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown), Mary Steenburgen (Clara Clayton), and Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen)

Spoiler alert: severe