“Forever Young” (1992) is like a labradoodle. It’s a harmlessly cute cross-breed (the result of mating romantic comedy with science fiction). What’s amazing is how easily this film could have become mutant offspring. You’ve got Mel Gibson as a 1939 test pilot who agrees to get cryogenically frozen after his girlfriend falls into a coma, then gets accidentally thawed out after he’d been accidentally forgotten for 50 years. Hijinks ensue: culture shock, military conspiracies, awkward romance, etc. Thankfully, every time the plot could have crashed and burned, the filmmakers pull back on the throttle, so to speak. “Forever Young.” Labradoodle.
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In 1984, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer made a movie with no helicopters. Not a single goddamn thing blows up. “Thief of Hearts” is an erotic thriller in which Steven Bauer robs a suburban couple’s house, then seduces the wife, all while looking extremely pretty. (The opposite of pretty? Bauer’s crime partner, a young David Caruso.) A couple more sex scenes and it would have been perfect for the Friday night 11:30 timeslot on Skinemax. But there aren’t. And it isn’t. It was the lowest-grossing film Simpson/Bruckheimer ever made. Their next effort was “Beverly Hills Cop.” The rest is history.
ZZ Top released “Eliminator” in 1983 and Chevy Chase released “Fletch” in 1985. Both are period pieces (cue the synthesizers). Both are also, respectively, the greatest work of a talented and prolific rock band and greatest work of a talented and prolific actor (“Caddyshack” notwithstanding). Amazingly, “Fletch” is able to have a coherent plot (investigative reporter Chase uncovers a bigger story than he bargained for) and still make room for an enormous amount of Chevy schtick. John Cocktoastin. The Lakers fantasy sequence. Everybody in the movie seems to be having fun, even the bad guys. I had fun watching it.
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