Throwback Thursday Movie Reviews: A weekly old school movie review series. Every Thursday, Gary Smith revisits the films worth remembering.
Thirty-two years after renting *Hocus Pocus* from Movie Gallery, I'm revisiting the Sanderson sisters, childhood crushes, talking cats, and Halloween nostalgia. Does Disney's 1993 cult classic still hold up, or is nostalgia casting its own spell? Find out in Throwback Thursday #14!
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In honor of Eva Marie Saint, who passed away at 102, Throwback Thursday heads back to 1959 for Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. Cary Grant, spies, trains, Mount Rushmore, one very determined crop duster, and Eva Marie Saint at her absolute best. Nearly seventy years later, this thing still moves better than most thrillers made today.
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Critics hated it, audiences stayed away, and I couldn't care less. Death to Smoochy remains my favorite comedy ever made, thanks to Robin Williams going completely off the rails, Edward Norton playing the world's most sincere fuchsia rhino, and one very unfortunately shaped batch of cookies.
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The Nun's Story is one of Audrey Hepburn's greatest performances and one of the most overlooked films of her career. Patient, beautiful, and devastating. Available free on Tubi.
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Howard Hawks' Sergeant York is exactly the kind of movie that used to get made and doesn't anymore. Gary Cooper's Oscar-winning performance makes this one worth every minute.
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Warrior Queen arrives in the Dungeon with stock footage, a wasted Sybil Danning, and Donald Pleasence committing fully to his paycheck. The Never-Ending Countdown gets its first rankings movement.
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The Dungeon opens with Deathstalker, the 1983 Roger Corman sword and sorcery film that defines the genre at its most unfiltered. Theia condemns it. Thalia has feelings about Lana Clarkson. The Never-Ending Countdown begins.
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This week on Throwback Thursday, I review First Kid. It's one of those 90s Disney comedies that actually holds up. Sinbad is funny, the chemistry with Brock Pierce works, and the nostalgia hits hard if you grew up with it.
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The Indian in the Cupboard had one of the best premises of any 90s kids movie. Toys coming to life as real people with real histories. It just never had the nerve to follow through on what it set up.
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Patton isn't really a war film in the traditional sense. It's a character study of one of history's most complicated military minds, anchored by George C. Scott's all-time great performance.
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Stanley Donen directs Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in their only film together — a mystery thriller dressed up as a romantic comedy, and one of the most underrated films of the 1960s. The Audrey Hepburn Rewatch series rolls on, this time doubled up as the fourth Throwback Thursday feature.
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Mel Gibson at his peak, Jodie Foster at her most charming, and one of the most likable supporting casts of the nineties. Maverick (1994) is still an absolute blast.
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Kid me watched Blank Check twenty or thirty times and loved every minute of it. Adult me can see the seams. Still a decent watch for the nostalgia and Karen Duffy and Tone Loc make it worth revisiting at least once.
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With a new Mummy film on the way, it felt like the right time to revisit the 1999 original. Twenty-five years later it holds up remarkably well. Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and John Hannah are all excellent, and nothing that followed has come close.
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