My God, the original 1992 Meet the Parents was pretty fuckin’ dark, wasn’t it? No making a sequel out of that.
Never saw the movie, but I remember the Donald Westlake novel. Any idea why they changed the ringleader’s name from Dortmunder to Ballantine?
I Married a Monster from Outer Space A 1950’s Sci Fi offering, a pretty good film despite the title.
Did that have Olympia Dukakis as Tom Selleck’s mom?
Only the Lonely with John Candy, Maureen O’Hara, and Ally Sheedy. Written and directed by Chris Columbus. Sort of like a comic version of Marty. It’s not available on DVD, doesn’t stream anyplace, totally gone.
ETA - Wait - it’s now streaming on Starz, according to the linked IMDB page. I swear it wasn’t before.
StG
Where did you read that? I remember reading Barry Longyear’s novella in IASFM when it came out.
I liked the movie, too.
Supposedly because the producers didn’t want people to think that Bank Shot was a sequel The Hot Rock. Westlake suggested Ballantine (Dortmunder is the name of a German beer brand.) So the lead character could have been Schlitz or Schaefer or MIller.
Even more mystifying is the casting of Robert Redford and George C. Scott as John Dortmunder.
Nope.
I remember now. It was Dad, with Ted Danson and Jack Lemmon (1989).
I don’t remember where I first read it, but there are so many places the similarity is mentioned. There is probably just about zero chance it is all a big coincidence.
I’ve always assumed Larry David was a fan of that version, if only because of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where he accidentally jabs Ben Stiller’s eye with a toothpick.
Both films (and the Longyear story) were beaten to the trope by Frank Sinatra’s None but the Brave.
I remember watching this one a while ago. It was surprisingly poignant.
I used to have the VHS or DVD, as my [ex-]husband loved it. Quite enjoyable.
Look up “product placement” in the dictionary, and there’s a picture of this flick.
Not only did I see this movie, I was at an appearance by Joan Rivers (who directed) hyping the movie about a week before.
And after I saw it it sunk , like a rock, out of sight. I don’t think I’[ve seen it on any television outlet, although I think I saw a VHS tape of it once.
As a Harryhausen fan (and a Bermard Herrmann fan) I loved that film, although it would’ve been a lot better without the voiceover narration. Interesting to see Ealing comedy regular Joan Greenwood in a leading role.
The introduction to the relatively recent publication of Verne’s unfinished and forgotten novel The Shipwrecked Family (a sort of precursor to Mysterious Island) defends the use of mutated animals in the film, because Verne included them in Shipwrecked (although not the novel “The Mysterious Island”)
I didn’t see Hawmps! However, I remember when the movie was released because it was released at the same time as Midway (with Sensurround!) I think back in 1976. The ticket line for Midway extended well into the parking lot. At one point the theater manager walked outside and announced that seats would likely be sold out for the next two show times of Midway, but if anyone wanted to see Hawmps it was a funny movie, there was loads of seating available and no line to wait in. Two people as I recall ended up switching over to see Hawmps.
As it happened, I recall enjoying the movie Midway, but found the Sensurround was so deafeningly loud it detracted from the experience.
I haven’t seen Mysterious Island in about 40 years, and I don’t run into many people who remember seeing it. I don’t remember a single line of dialogue and I had forgotten about the giant bees until I saw the preview on YouTube. I remembered the crab though.
I saw Only the Lonely once time. In the theater opening weekend.
We thought it was cute.