Walt Disney, part XLIII: You ain't never had a friend like me

ALADDIN

1992

Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker

Written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Ron Clements, John Musker, and what appears to be the entire staff of Walt Disney Feature Animation

Spoilers: moderate

Disney's Challengers, part XI: Après moi, le déluge

ROCK-A-DOODLE

1992

Directed by Don Bluth

Written by David N. Weiss and numerous others (based on the play Chantecler by Edmond Rostand)

Spoilers: moderate

Disney's Challengers, Part XII: Humans will always lend a hand with the destruction of this worthless jungle land

FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST

1992

Directed by Bill Kroyer

Written by Jim Cox (based on the novella by Diana Young)

Spoilers: moderate

And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere "modernity" cannot kill

BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA

1992

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Written by James V. Hart (based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker's Bram Stoker, Bram Stoker)

Spoilers: high?

Auld acquaintance

PETER'S FRIENDS

1992

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Written by Rita Rudner and Martin Bergman

Spoilers: mild

Kick me in the jimmy

THE STORY OF QIU JU

1992

Directed by Zhang Yimou

Written by Liu Heng (based on the novella "The Wan Family's Lawsuit" by Chen Yuabin)

Spoilers: mild

Love you wife

THE ABYSS

Now, the box office doesn't bear this out, and reasonable minds can differ, but if you were to ask me, James Cameron's career through the 80s and its holdover years in the 90s was one of unstoppable ascent, each picture being better than his last.  But even if his fourth film didn't stay his best film (though it gives his fifth, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which did remain his best, a very serious run for its money), then, for the sheer difficulty of its achievement, The Abyss remains Cameron's most impressive work—and his most personal.

1989 (theatrical release)/1992 (the proper, finished film, as people watch it today)

Written and directed by James Cameron

Spoiler alert: severe

Alien Week, part III: The planet of the vampires

ALIEN³

Well, I strongly doubt it's gotten any less tedious.

1992

Directed by David Fincher

Written by David Giler, Walter Hill, Larry Ferguson, and Vincent Ward

With Sigourney Weaver (Ellen Ripley), Charles Dance (Dr. Jonathan Clemens), and Charles S. Dutton (Dillon)

Spoiler alert: mild

Note: this is a slightly reworked review from my David Fincher retrospective, written two years back, which may explain why it's shorter (and no doubt better) than anything I manage to produce now; but the point, of course, is that if you thought I was going to actually watch this movie again, then the real joke, my friend, is on you

Robert Zemeckis, part IX: The aging process

DEATH BECOMES HER

An hour plus of the finest possible Zemeckian slapstick sadly becomes a strident harangue in its final act; yet there's too much here that's good and even great to let this one go without a fight.

1992

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Martin Donovan and David Koepp

With Meryl Streep (Madeline Ashton), Goldie Hawn (Helen Sharp), Bruce Willis (Dr. Ernest Menville), and Isabella Rossellini (Lisle Von Ruhman)

Spoiler alert: moderate

John Carpenter, part XX: Give me back my molecules!

MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN

Memoirs of an Invisible Man is a film that only rarely rises above the simple playing-out of its premise—but, in doing just that, still offers a great deal to enjoy.

1992

Directed by John Carpenter

Written by Robert Collector, Dana Olsen, and William Goldman (based on the novel by H.F. Saint)

With Chevy Chase (Nick Halloway), Daryl Hannah (Alice Monroe), Michael McKean (George Talbot), and Sam Neill (David Jenkins)

Spoiler alert: moderate

Putting the "list" in miserablist! (or, the films of David Fincher ranked, nos. 10-9)

For going on twenty years now—my how time flies—David Fincher has been our preeminent auteur of gross, depressing tales of murder and mayhem.  Almost uniquely, Fincher has mastered a high-wire balancing act in the thriller genre, crafting films that are formally pristine, morally bracing, thematically insidious, emotionally devastating, and—most important of all—highly entertaining.  Though chiefly noted for this selfsame prediliction toward the pleasantly unpleasant, Fincher has tried his hand at other things, too—one time it was good, one time it was the worst thing ever.  On this episode: we fervently hope that he never, ever tries one of those particular things again, because we love him, and want him to succeed in life.

Spoiler alert: high