I stand my contention that September is a more sophisticated January on the movie calendar. That said, late September usually has higher quality releases than early September, and this week we see the anniversaries of the release of several iconic films--both good and bad.
Sorry this is a week late. I plan to have this week's out next weekend, and next week's out a couple of days after that, and then hopefully, we'll be back onto our normal schedule.
One Year Ago--September 20, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Downton Abbey--1/$31 million/$96.9 million/32/84%/64--The British period soap Downton Abbey, about the landed gentry who owned the titular estate and their servants in the years surrounding World War I, was a critical and commercial smash on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., it won numerous Emmys during its six-year run while getting ratings for PBS that it hadn't seen in decades. The sequel movie picked up the action in 1927, with the household expecting a royal visit. Most of the show's cast, including Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Joanne Froggatt, and Maggie Smith returned, joined by guest stars like Imelda Staunton. Box office wise, the film performed much more like a summer blockbuster than a costume drama, opening big and fading fairly fast.
Director: Michael Engler
Ad Astra--2/$19 million/$50.2 million/55/83%/80--Director James Gray has spent his career making low-budgeted, critically-acclaimed dramas. Given by far his biggest budget to date, he made a big-budget, critically-acclaimed drama, albeit one set in outer space. Brad Pitt starred as an astronaut who is offered a chance to investigate a space station near Neptune, one that Earth had long lost contact with and one that was commanded by Pitt's father (Tommy Lee Jones). Ruth Negga and Donald Sutherland played other astronauts, and Liv Tyler played Pitt's wife. Despite critical acclaim, it met with a cool reception from moviegoers. Its Sound Mixing was Oscar nominated.
Director: James Gray
Rambo: Last Blood--3/$18.9 million/$44.8 million/62/26%/26--Sylvester Stallone likes reviving his two most iconic characters in tandem. Two years after the unexpected success of Rocky Balboa in 2006, he brought back Rambo in the far less successful Rambo. And, after Rocky returned again in the two Creed movies (one of which netted Stallone an Oscar nomination), here comes Rambo, in a film whose title both harkens back to the first of the series, and seems to suggest the series has finally come to an end. In this one, the first half is a Taken knock-off, as Rambo goes to Mexico to rescue his friend's granddaughter from a ruthless drug cartel. The second half is a gory Home Alone, as Rambo dispatches the invading members of the cartel via booby traps. Of course, the ending does suggest that Stallone might take up the cross-bow again, and the grosses on this one were roughly equal to what Rambo did in 2008.
Director: Adrian Grunberg
Expanding:
Brittany Runs a Marathon--13/$1 million
Five Years Ago--September 18, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials--1/$30.3 million/$81.7 million/36/47%/43--The second entry in one of the more successful Hunger Games cinematic--lets call them homages--sees Dylan O'Brien and the other survivors of the first movie discover life outside the maze isn't any better than life inside it, what with the worldwide apocalypse and all, not to mention the evil government trying to track them down to turn them into experiments. Like a lot of these types of movies, this has a better supporting cast than it probably deserves, including Patricia Clarkson as the head evil scientist, Giancarlo Esposito as a resistance fighter, Barry Pepper as the head of the rebels, and Lili Taylor as a former evil scientist turned good. The third movie ended up being delayed by over a year after O'Brien was injured during production.
Director: Wes Ball
Black Mass--2/$22.6 million/$62.6 million/49/73%/68--Johnny Depp entered the teens as one of the biggest stars on the planet, and then suffered a swift fall from grace. Alice in Wonderland made a fortune, but Depp was lambasted for his performance, and most of his subsequent films were both critical and commercial duds. Black Mass was the one exception, as he got solid reviews for playing real-life Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, who informed on rival gangs to the FBI, who in turn left him alone to rule the Boston underworld with an iron fist. Benedict Cumberbatch played Bulger's brother, who just happened to be the president of the Massachusetts State Senate. Joel Edgerton played Bulger's FBI contact, Kevin Bacon, Edgerton's suspicious boss, and a number of other well-known actors, including Jesse Plemons, Dakota Johnson, Corey Stoll, David Harbour, Julianne Nicholson, and Adam Scott popped up in supporting roles. This wasn't Depp's highest-grossing lead role since Alice, but it was probably the highest-grossing where the final total wasn't considered a huge disappointment (though it did somewhat underperform).
Director: Scott Cooper
Everest--5/$7.2 million/$43.5 million/65/73%/64--In May 1996, 8 climbers died on Mt. Everest during a sudden blizzard. This drama vividly recreated the events leading up to the tragedy, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Clarke playing the leaders of competing teams, and Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, and Sam Worthington as some of the climbers. Robin Wright and Kiera Knightly played worried wives, and Emily Watson played the manager of the base camp. This became the first wide-release film since Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol in December 2011 to get an early IMAX exclusive release. While the film did decently, it didn't come close to matching what the Tom Cruise flick did in its exclusive IMAX week, and it performed fairly mediocrely when it did go wide the next weekend. Critics were dazzled by the images, but felt the story was a bit simplistic.
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
New Limited Releases:
Captive--$2.6 million/173/27%/36--In this Christian movie, Kate Mara played a young widow and drug addict who is taken hostage by David Oyelowo, who had killed a judge and a deputy while escaping the courthouse and was now the subject of a citywide manhunt. During the course of several hours together, Mara reasons with her captor and convinced him to let her go and to surrender to authorities, mostly from reading from then-popular Christian book The Purpose-Driven Life. Despite being based on a true story, critics scoffed, and not even Christian audiences turned out.
Director: Jerry Jameson
Sicario--$46.9 million/60/92%/82--This highly acclaimed thriller starred Emily Blunt as a dedicated but naïve FBI agent who joins an international task force seemingly designed to bring down a suspected Mexican drug kingpin, only to discover that its purpose is considerably more nefarious. Josh Brolin, in his second film of the weekend, played the head of the task force, Benicio del Toro (who, of course, won his Oscar for his role in another movie about fighting Mexican drug cartels) as another task force member, Victor Garber as Blunt's supervisor, and future Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya as Blunt's partner. Rave reviews made this a sleeper success, if not a blockbuster. It would be nominated for three Oscars, for Cinematography, Score, and Sound Editing. A sequel would follow in 2018.
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Pawn Sacrifice--$2.4 million/176/72%/65--Edward Zwick, whose films since Glory have tended to be expensive epics, made a relatively low key, low budget drama recreating the journey of American chess player Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) toward the world championship in 1972, even as he was suffering from increasing paranoid delusions. Liev Schreiber played Boris Spassky, a Russian and the defending world champ. Peter Saarsgaard was a former junior champion-turned-priest who attempts to help Fischer, Lily Rabe as Fischer's sister, Robin Weigert as his mother, and Michael Stuhlbarg as his lawyer. Despite decent reviews, the film sat on the shelf for a year after its debut at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival, before being released to little business.
Director: Edward Zwick
Racing Extinction--NA/NA/81%/81--This documentary, produced for the Discovery Channel, but getting a limited theatrical release before its television premiere, chronicled the ongoing mass extinction of numerous species around the world, due primarily to human activity. Among the interview subjects is Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk and famed scientist Jane Goodall. While the film did not make the Oscar documentary shortlist, it did end up a surprise nominee anyway, for its Song "Manta Ray" (it would be one of two documentaries nominated in that category that year). Since documentaries are frequently eligible to compete in both the Emmys and the Oscars, it did get an Emmy nomination for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.
Director: Louie Psihoyos
Expanding:
Grandma--10/$1.5 million
Ten Years Ago--September 17, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
The Town--1/$23.8 million/$92.2 million/36/93%/74--Proving that his acclaimed directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, wasn't a fluke, Ben Affleck received raves for this heist thriller, in which he also starred. The town in the title is the rough Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, where former hockey player Affleck and violent childhood friend Jeremy Renner are part of a bank robbing gang. When Affleck falls for the assistant manager (Rebecca Hall) that they briefly took hostage, and begins dating her, as she has no idea he was involved. Meanwhile, FBI agent Jon Hamm is closing in, and the mobster they work for (Pete Postlethwaite, in one of his final roles), hatches a scheme for them to rob one of Boston's most iconic landmarks. Chris Cooper played Affleck's incarcerated father, Blake Lively played Renner's sister, and Victor Garber, who co-starred with Affleck's then-wife Jennifer Garner on Alias, has a cameo as a bank manager. The film proved to be a commercial hit as well, and Renner would be nominated for Supporting Actor.
Director: Ben Affleck
Easy A--2/$17.7 million/$58.4 million/59/85%/72--After stealing movies like The House Bunny and Zombieland, Emma Stone made the most of her first lead role in this well-received high school comedy about a girl who, after lying about losing her virginity, is immediately labeled the school slut by Amanda Bynes (in her final acting role to date), and decides to lean in on her new reputation by pretending to sleep with various nerds who want her help in improving their reputations. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson played her parents, Thomas Haden Church played Stone's English teacher, Lisa Kudrow, his wife, the school's guidance counselor, Cam Gigandet Bynes's boyfriend, Dan Byrd a gay friend that Stone pretends to hook up with, Malcolm McDowell the school principal, Fred Armisen a priest, and Penn Badgley Stone's childhood friend.
Director: Will Gluck
Devil--3/$12.3 million/$33.6 million/87/50%/44--Even in the wake of The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan's name still meant something in 2010, which is why his involvement in this thriller was so heavily advertised (he produced and got story credit, but didn't direct it). It didn't help much. A group of strangers become trapped on an elevator, and strange and spooky and deadly things begin to happen. Is something supernatural going on (if you're not sure, check the title)? The modest budget, helped in no small part by the relatively little-known cast (the biggest names were probably Chris Messina as a detective and Logan Marshall-Green and Bokeem Woodbine as two of the trapped passengers), meant the film turned a profit, but Shyamalan's plan for this to be the first of a series of movies in which the supernatural would interact with modern technology did not come to fruition.
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Alpha and Omega--5/$9.1 million/$25.1 million/104/18%/36--The type of animated movie that proudly advertises the B-level celebrities who make up the vocal cast across the top of the poster, this is essentially Romeo & Juliet with wolves (and a happy ending) as a female alpha (Hayden Panettiere) and a male omega (Justin Long), who are forbidden to marry because of being from different classes, fall in love as they try to make their way back to their pack after being relocated from Alberta to Idaho (it's also a road trip movie). Danny Glover played Panettiere's father, Dennis Hopper the leader of another pack whose son Panettiere is supposed to marry, Larry Miller as a helpful goose, and Christina Ricci as Panettiere's sister. Even though this didn't do that well in theaters, it was a hit on DVD, which helped lead to numerous straight-to-DVD sequels.
Director: Anthony Bell and Ben Gluck
New Limited Releases:
GasLand--$0.03 million/409/98%/NA--Natural gas used to be considered the rarest of fossil fuels, until a technique called fracking, in which a water mixture is pumped deep underground to fracture the surrounding rock, releasing the gas trapped within, became cost-efficient. While gas is considerably cleaner-burning than oil or coal, "cleaner" does not equal "clean", and the fracking process itself can have devastating environmental impacts. This acclaimed documentary, which premiered that year in Sundance, and actually had an HBO run before its limited theatrical release, is credited with shedding light and helping to grow the anti-fracking movement. The film, which was followed by a sequel, would be nominated for Documentary at the Oscars, and would win an Emmy for Best Direction of a Nonfiction Special.
Director: Josh Fox
Fifteen Years Ago--September 23, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Flightplan--1/$24.6 million/$89.7 million/20/37%/53--A recent widow (Jodie Foster), accompanying her husband's body back home from Berlin to New York, discovers her young daughter has disappeared halfway across the Atlantic, and what's more, no one else on the plane can remember seeing her. After a search of the plane turned up nothing, everyone becomes convinced that Foster is just crazy with grief, but she knows something is very amiss on that flight. The second airplane-based thriller in the space of two months, this one did quite a bit better than Red Eye, but also got much worse reviews, with a lot of criticism about the improbability of the complicated plot. Peter Sarsgaard played an air marshal, Sean Bean the flight captain, Erika Christensen a flight attendant, and Greta Scacchi and Matt Bomer (in his first film) as passengers.
Director: Robert Schwentke
Roll Bounce--4/$7.6 million/$17.4 million/122/65%/59--Essentially a dance battle movie, the big twist on this one is that its set in 1978. Oh, and the dancing is on roller skates. Bow Wow stared as a kid living in a working-class neighborhood, who, after the local rink closes down, takes his skating action to the ritzy rink across town, where he runs into trouble with the rich kid skate dance crew. Naturally, there's a competition. Despite the cliched storyline, this got decent reviews, though it didn't exactly break out. This does have a pretty solid supporting cast, including Chi McBride as Bow Wow's widowed father, Meagan Good, Jurnee Smollitt, Brandon T. Jackson, Mike Epps, Charlie Murphy, Nick Cannon, and Wayne Brady.
Director: Malcolm D. Lee
New Limited Releases:
A History of Violence--$31.5 million/90/87%/81--Director David Cronenberg would have by far his biggest commercial hit since The Fly nearly two decades earlier with this thriller about a small-town diner owner (Viggo Mortensen) who, after killing a couple of would-be robbers, is visited by a badly scarred man (Ed Harris) who insists that Mortensen is really a former hitman who disappeared, leaving a trail of angry mobsters behind him. When protestations of his innocence do not convince Harris, Mortensen is forced to take increasingly drastic steps to protect his family. Maria Bello played Morensen's wife and William Hurt another mobster with business with Mortensen. The film would receive two Oscar nominations, for Hurt as Supporting Actor and for its Adapted Screenplay. It would also make history the following March when it would be the final major film ever released on VHS cassette.
Director: David Cronenberg
Expanding:
Corpse Bride--2/$19.2 million
Twenty Years Ago--September 22, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Urban Legends: Final Cut--1/$8.5 million/$21.5 million/96/9%/16--There didn't seem to be much need for a sequel to the forgettable 1998 slasher flick Urban Legend, but here we are. Other than a cameo at the end, the only cast member to return was Loretta Devine, who hopefully got a nice paycheck for reprising her role as a security guard on a (different) campus where a masked killer is picking off the students. Despite the title, this one mostly discards the first film's gimmick, in that the murders were inspired by urban legends. Here, the victims for the most part just get murdered. Among the potential victims and/or killers is Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Davis, Hart Bochner, Joey Lawrence, Anson Mount, Eva Mendes, and Anthony Anderson, most of whom have gone on to do better things. Another sequel, this time direct to DVD, came out in 2005.
Director: John Ottman
The Exorcist: Extended Director's Cut--2/$8.2 million/$39.7 million/60/83%/81--Coming close to knocking off Urban Legends for the top spot (and nearly doubling that film's final gross) was this re-release of the legendary 1973 horror classic, in which two priests (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) attempt to save the pre-teen daughter (Linda Blair) of a famous actress (Ellen Burstyn) from demonic possession. This release was of a new director's cut, with the biggest changes being a brief sequence in which Blair comes down the stairs walking backwards and upside down on all fours, and a somewhat extended ending which allows for one final appearance from Lee J. Cobb as a local cop investigating the bizarre goings-on. Critics weren't really impressed with the changes, but the rest of the film was strong enough that it attracted plenty of new fans.
Director: William Friedkin
Woman on Top--10/$2 million/$5 million/151/35%/41--Penelope Cruz was well known to fans of Spanish cinema but largely unfamiliar to the vast majority of American moviegoers when she landed her first (mostly) English language lead role playing a Brazilian chef who, after learning her husband (Brazilian actor Murilo Benicio) is cheating on her, moves to San Francisco where she ends up hosting a successful cooking show. There, she has to decide between her new producer (Mark Feuerstein) and her husband, who is seeking her forgiveness. There would be plenty of triumphs in Cruz's career (including an Oscar), but this would not be one of them.
Director: Fina Torres
New Limited Releases:
Dancer in the Dark--$4.2 million/157/69%/61--Lars von Trier, whose movies are usually bleak and stylized, made this, a musical that only he could make and in the only way he could. Icelandic singer Bjork, appearing in a rare acting role, played a Czeck immigrant in the US who is slowly going blind. Her life goes from bad to worse when she is put on trial for murder. Even though the film was set in Washington State, like nearly all von Trier films, it was filmed in Sweden. Catherine Deneuve played her friend, David Morse her neighbor, Joel Grey as a Czech actor, Zeljko Ivanek as the prosecutor, and Stellan Skarsgard as a doctor. The Song "I've Seen It All" would get an Oscar nomination (and Bjork would show up in her notorious swan dress to perform it).
Director: Lars von Trier
Twenty-Five Years Ago--September 22, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
Se7en--1/$14 million/$100.1 million/9/81%/65--Any doubt that Brad Pitt was a superstar was effectively eliminated when he helped make this dark, disturbing thriller into one of the biggest hits of the year. Pitt and Morgan Freeman play a pair of homicide detectives, one idealistic and naïve, the other cynical and world-weary, who investigate a series of gruesome murders that they come to realize were based on the Seven Deadly Sins. Gwyneth Paltrow, who at the time was in a relationship with Pitt, played his wife, R. Lee Emory played their captain, Richard Roundtree played the DA, a pre-Scrubs John McGinley played a SWAT team member, a pre-West Wing Richard Schiff played a defense attorney, and <spoiler>Kevin Spacey</spoiler> played the chief suspect (in the wake of <spoiler>The Usual Suspects</spoiler>, his participation in the film was kept quiet). This served as redemption for director David Fincher, who recovered from the critical and commercial disappointment of his first film, Alien 3. It would receive an Oscar nomination for Editing.
Director: David Fincher
Showgirls--2/$8.1 million/$20.4 million/80/21%/16--The first--and to date only--wide release NC-17 movie is this melodrama that's essentially All About Eve with boobs. Saved By the Bell star Elizabeth Berkley gleefully blew up her wholesome image by starring as a talented but troubled dancer who arrives in Las Vegas and immediately starts climbing the exotic dancing hierarchy, moving from a sleazy strip club to performing in a glitzy topless show at a major hotel. Gina Gershon, who seemed to be the only cast member aware of exactly what kind of movie they were making, and the only one who got a career boost from it, played the hotel show's star, who sees herself in Berkley and is alternately sweet or vicious to her. Robert Davi played the sleazy-but-brutally-honest strip club owner, and Kyle MacLachlan played the seemingly honest and good-natured hotel exec who takes a shine to Berkley, only to prove to be as awful as everyone else. Critics were aghast at the whole thing, and, after a solid opening weekend, so were audiences, as the film quickly plunged out of sight. While director Paul Verhoven would recover, writer Joe Eszterhas, at the time the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood would not, as this, coupled with October flop Jade, would be his last scripts to get a wide release. While the film's reputation is still largely awful, it is now regarded by many as a camp classic (and by others as a serious satire).
Director: Paul Verhoven
New Limited Releases:
A Month By the Lake--$2.1 million/184/71%/NA--A long way from the multiplexes showing Se7en and Showgirls was this pleasant, PG-rated, British romantic comedy, starring Vanessa Redgrave as a spinster vacationing at Italy's Lake Como shortly before World War II, when she meets and becomes infatuated with the dashing Edward Fox. Unfortunately, he becomes infatuated with bored American Uma Thurman, who had no idea that Fox was taking her harmless flirting seriously. Despite the slight, but decent reviews, Miramax probably could have turned this into a major Oscar contender, if it had wished, but the studio decided to concentrate on hit summer release Il Postino instead.
Director: John Irvin
Expanding:
Unstrung Heroes--6/$2.5 million
Thirty Years Ago--September 21, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Goodfellas--1/$6.4 million/$46.8 million/26/96%/90--Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese, who had last worked together in 1982's The King of Comedy, reunited, along with Raging Bull's Joe Pesci, for this instant classic chronicling the rise and fall of the New York mob through the eyes of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), who, as the opening narration reveals, had always wanted to be a gangster. The film follows him through 25 years, from his working for the local boss as a teen, through him entering the witness protection program after everything came crashing down. De Niro played his top associate, and Pesci played another close friend, who had a hair-trigger temper. Lorraine Bracco played Hill's wife, who found herself growing more and more involved in her husband's business, and Paul Sorvino played the local boss who Hill worked for. Scorsese cast numerous up-and-comers in small roles, including Samuel L. Jackson, Illeana Douglas, and Bracco's future Sopranos co-stars Michael Imperioli, Tony Sirico, Frank Vincent, and Vincent Pastore. The film would receive six Oscar nominations, including Picture, Director, Supporting Actress for Bracco, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing, and Pesci would win Supporting Actor.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Narrow Margin--4/$3.6 million/$10.9 million/97/57%/NA--This action thriller, a remake of a 1952 film, starred Gene Hackman as an assistant DA from Los Angeles sent to Canada to escort a reluctant murder witness (Anne Archer) home. However, the murderers want her silenced to keep her from testifying, so Hackman has to protect her from hitman on a long train journey. J.T. Walsh appears early on as the soon-to-be victim, and M. Emmitt Walsh played a cop. Critics were largely dismissive.
Director: Peter Hyams
Funny About Love--5/$3 million/$8.1 million/107/0%/NA--In the late 80s, several movies about babies, including Baby Boom, Look Who's Talking, and director Leonard Nimoy's own Three Men and a Baby, became big hits. This movie, about trying to have a baby, did not. Newlyweds Gene Wilder and Christine Lahti want to have a baby, but they can't ever seem to agree on when a good time to have one is. Mary Stuart Masterson (who is approximately 33 years younger than Wilder) played a recent college grad Wilder takes up with during a separation. Critics positively hated the film, and audiences mostly ignored it.
Director: Leonard Nimoy
Thirty-Five Years Ago--September 20, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Back to the Future--$3.9 million
New Wide Releases:
Creator--2/$2 million/$5.4 million/113/38%/NA--Continuing 1985's trend of sci-fi comedies, this one starred Peter O'Toole as a scientist trying to clone his late wife, while trying to stay ahead of the machinations of rival scientist David Ogden Stires. To help with that, O'Toole hires college kid Vincent Spano, who O'Toole becomes a mentor to, and Mariel Hemingway, who finds herself falling for the scientist (in real life, O'Toole was nearly 30 years older than Hemingway). Meanwhile, Spano starts dating Virginia Madsen. Even with O'Toole, critics were largely dismissive, and even though the fall movie season hadn't really started yet, audiences stayed away.
Director: Ivan Passer
New Limited Releases:
Plenty--$6.2 million/108/56%/NA--Meryl Streep played a young British vet of the French Resistance who finds post-life incredibly unsatisfying in this decades-spanning melodrama. The film had a strong cast, though many of the actors wouldn't rise to prominence until after the film. Charles Dance played her husband, Sting her boyfriend, Tracey Ullman her best friend, Sam Neill a fighter pilot she has a fling with during the war, and John Gielgud and Ian McKellen as colleigues of Dance. In addition, Hugh Laurie made his film debut as a soldier. This was clearly intended to be Oscar bait, but got overshadowed by Steep's other accent-heavy period film of the year, Out of Africa.
Director: Fred Schepisi
Expanding:
Kiss of the Spider Woman--10/$0.8 million
Forty Years Ago--September 19, 1980:
New Limited Releases:
The Big Brawl--$8.5 million/68/67%/NA--Even though martial arts films from China and Hong Kong were still doing good business at American grindhouses, a superstar known to even casual movie fans hadn't emerged since the death of Bruce Lee seven years earlier (Chuck Norris was pretty well known, but most of his films were American produced). A 26-year-old Jackie Chan figured he could fill that gap, and stared in this, which was not only his first film to get a wide release in the United States, but was also produced in English and filmed in Texas. Chan played the son of Chinese immigrants who run afoul of the mob, and to make it up, agrees to participate in the titular anything goes fight. Oscar winner Jose Ferrer played a mobster, and Oscar nominee Mako played Chan's trainer. Ten years before menacing Liam Neeson in Darkman, Larry Drake played one of the fight's judges. While the film (also known as Battle Creek Brawl) did decent business, it didn't do enough of it (it made less than half of what Norris's The Octagon made) to make Chan a star in America. He would make a couple more attempts to crack the US market, co-starring in the Cannonball Run movies and making a cop film in 1985, but it wouldn't be until the release of 1996's Rumble in the Bronx that Chan would finally become a household name in the US.
Director: Robert Clouse
He Knows You're Alone--$4.9 million/83/22%/NA--This standard issue horror movie, about a young bride-to-be (Caitlin O'Heaney) who is stalked by a wedding-hating psychopath, is primarily remembered for being the film debut of Tom Hanks. The soon-to-be Bosom Buddy had a small part as one of O'Heaney's friends (rumor has it that the producers liked Hanks so much that they didn't want to kill him off, so they cut out his murder). It was also the film debut of Dana Barron, the original Audrey of the Vacation franchise), as O'Heaney's younger sister, and marked an early appearance of prolific character actor James Rebhorn. This one was unable to break out of the rather large pack of Halloween ripoffs that invaded theaters in the late 70s and early 80s.
Director: Armand Mastroianni
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