Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) - Nightmarish FX abound in the first Hellraiser sequel

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The horrific pinhead character is front and center on this chilling blue, black and blood red poster for Tony Randel's Hellbound: Hellraiser II

The daughter of the couple from the original Hellraiser (1987) is psychologically challenged and falls into the clammy embrace of a mental hospital, where everyone are deeply psychotic, and the doctor is not exactly pure as snow.

 

Hellbound: Hellraiser II is written by Peter Atkins (Wishmaster (1997)), based on a story by Clive Barker (Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)), and directed by debuting Tony Randel (Ticks (1993)). It is the 2nd film in the Hellraiser franchise (1987-).

The plot is actually enormously hard to follow and summarize from this deeply mysterious and staggering special effects-driven horror film, a fascinating sequel to the memorable, gruesome original film. The grand and goosebumps-inducing score (by Christopher Young (One by One (2018))) accompanies a string of nightmarishly horrific images perfectly, and the film transports the viewer to the experiences of horror from one's childhood, as scene after scene resolutely lunges at our subconscious instead of our reason.

The fact that the actors' performances are varying in quality, and that the story is somewhat forfeited, is not something that wrecks the experience for the hard-boiled horror fan here, who gets full value for their bucks, especially because of the dizzying, inventive practical effects. Hellbound: Hellraiser II is a type of horror film that's missed today.

 

Related post:

 

Hellraiser franchise: Hellraiser (1987) - Barker's legendary horror debut

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 3 mil.£, approximately 3.8 mil. $

Box office: 13.2 mil. $ (North America and United Kingdom only)

= Some uncertainty but at least a big hit (projected return of 4.21 times its cost)

[Hellbound: Hellraiser II premiered 9 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 93 minutes. Shooting took place around January 1988 in the UK. The UK-set plot of the first film was switched to the US, because the studio thought it would be more commercial. The film opened #8 to a 3.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, its peak there, where it grossed 12 mil. $. It made 980k £ in the UK, approximately 1.2 mil. $. It was released theatrically in at least 13 other markets. A cautious 16 mil. $ projected total gross would rank the film as a big hit. Roger Ebert gave the film a 0.5/4 star review, translating to 4 notches under this one. The Hellraiser franchise returned with Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), and 8 more sequels so far. Randel returned with Inside Out (1991, video) and theatrically with Children of the Night (1991). Ashley Laurence (The Green Fairy (2016)) returned in Monsters (1989, TV-series), Hunter (1989, TV-series) and theatrically in Face the Edge (1990); Doug Bradley (Back Fork (2019)) in Nightbreed (1990). Hellbound: Hellraiser II is rotten at 50 % with a 5.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hellbound: Hellraiser II? 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher

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The white mask of Michael Myers makes up most of this poster for Dwight H. Little's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Michael Myers is getting moved after ten years in the slammer, but he escapes, and again Dr. Loomis has to alarm the Haddonfield community, who nevertheless go through a raging bout with evil!

 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is written by Alan B. McElroy (Tekken (2010)), with Benjamin Ruffner, Larry Rattner (Horseplayer (1990)) and Dhani Lipsius (The Greed of Men (2013, executive producer)) contributing story elements, and directed by Dwight H. Little (KGB: The Secret War (1985)).

Formally Halloween 4 may not be too bad, but it bores and fails to affix new relevance to the franchise with a plot that's lacking in surprises, and which doesn't find new scares to compare with John Carpenter's 1978 original.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 17.7 mil. $ (North America only)

= Big hit (returned 3.54 times its cost domestically alone)

[Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was released 21 October (USA) and runs 88 minutes. After the lukewarm reception to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), the only Halloween movie not to feature Michael Myers, it was decided to bring him back for the following sequel. Shooting took place from April - May 1988 in Utah, including in Salt Lake City. The film opened #1 to a 6.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and one more in the top 5 (#5), grossing 17.7 mil. $. The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not made public. Little returned with Freddy's Nightmares (1989, TV-series) and theatrically with The Phantom of the Opera (1989). Donald Pleasence (Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959)) returned in Paganini Horror (1988). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is rotten at 29 % with a 4.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers?

The Great Outdoors (1988) - Deutch's low-brow comedy does the job

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A fun, magazine-styled poster for Howard Deutch's The Great Outdoors

A lovely family has headed off to vacation in a forest log cabin in Wisconsin, when their very different sister-in-law and her family turn up. - Will they be able to stand each other?

The Great Outdoors is written by John Hughes (Flubber (1997)) and directed by Howard Deutch (Pretty in Pink (1986)).

Stars John Candy (Stripes (1981)) and Dan Aykroyd (Unconditional Love (2002)) do what they can, while debuting Annette Bening (Being Julia (2004)) cackles her way through the film in the background. But there isn't much meat in this Hughes vegetable: There is a romance side story about two youths that's DOA. And then, well, what can one say about a film that's got eating a gigantic steak and killing an odd indoor bat as two of its significant plot points?

The Great Outdoors has good-looking bear scenes (with Bart the Bear (The Bear (1988))) and works as cozy entertainment, but it has lost lots of goodwill before its improbable ending binds a peculiar bow on the shenanigans. The Great Outdoors is no-one's best work.

 

Watch a clip from the film here

 

Cost: 24 mil. $

Box office: 43.4 mil. $ 

= Big flop (returned 1.80 times its cost)

[The Great Outdoors was released 17 June (USA) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in Chicago, Illinois and in California from October - December 1987. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Red Heat and holdover hit Big, to a 6.1 mil. $ in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 41.5 mil. $ (95.6 % of the total gross). The film seems to have had been given a very limited international release, which also is reflected in its numbers. Deutch returned with Tales from the Crypt (1989-90)) and theatrically in Article 99 (1992). Candy returned with a voice performance in Hot to Trot (1988) and physically in Who's Harry Crumb? (1989); Aykroyd in Caddyshack II (1988). The Great Outdoors is rotten at 40 % with a 4.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Outdoors?

The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie

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An original, virile poster for Buddy Van Horn's The Dead Pool

QUICK REVIEW:

Fame catches up with Detective Harry Callahan of the SFPD, who gets a new, Asian martial arts expert partner and a new assignment: A celebrity-killing serial killer maniac.

Dead Pool is a highly entertaining, appealingly compact sequel, (at just 91 minutes it is both the crime action movie series' last and shortest entry). 
It is definitely better than the first of the four sequels, the series' most commercially successful film, Magnum Force (1973). - Because the 80s truly shine through, and also because the film presents an imaginative story with some fun characters: Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)) as a heroin junkie rock star; Liam Neeson (Schindler's List (1993)) as an a-hole movie director, and Patricia Clarkson (Six Feet Under (2002-05)) as a sweet blond. - And Guns N' Roses cameos in the film.
Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry (1971)), the center of it all, is in physical top shape here, where he SPOILER ultimately gets to harpoon the villain!
The Dead Pool is written by Steve Sharon, based on a story by him, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw (Firefox (1982), scientific advisors, both), and directed by stunt man and stunt coordinator on more than 100 films Buddy Van Horn, who also directed three: Besides Dead Pool, the other two are also Eastwood vehicles; Any Which Way You Can (1980) and Pink Cadillac (1989).

Relate review:

Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life 
Buddy Van Horn: Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business!

A young Patricia Clarkson in Buddy Van Horn's The Dead Pool

An equally young Jim Carrey also in Buddy Van Horn's The Dead Pool

A flying car --- a trick that never grows old --- in Buddy Van Horn's The Dead Pool

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 31 mil. $
Box office: 37.9 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty
[Without international figures, it is not possible to tell if Dead Pool made a profit. It seems likely it just broke even theatrically or perhaps even incurred a minor loss.]

What do you think of The Dead Pool?
And the other four Dirty Harry movies?

Dead Ringers (1988) or, Brothers and Their Instruments

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One almost psychedelic poster for David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers

QUICK REVIEW:

Dead Ringers focuses on two identical twins and their lives as gynecologists.

This is a self-assured and wonderful adaptation of the novel Twins by Bari Wood (The Killing Gift (1975)) and Jack Geasland with the masterful Jeremy Irons (Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)) in a remarkable double role. He gives a performance, (two, in a sense), that makes the film. Irons is both unusually fragile and sexual in this visually taut film, held mostly in greys and strong reds, with photography by great Polish cinematographer Peter Suschitzky (Mars Attacks! (1996)).
At times the clichés in the script, by Canadian master filmmaker David Cronenberg (Scanners (1981)) and Norman Snider (Casino Jack (2010)), get a bit thick: The two pill-popping, high society brothers, their women and their gloomy, gloomy existential issues ... But then again the entire film is so morbid and bizarre that they kind of fit the bill: An example of this could be SPOILER when Irons as one of the twins performs deadly gynecological experiments in a blood-red robe! - Dead Ringers nears the absurd at times and is perhaps a bit artsy-fartsy, but it is also very entertaining.
The ending, SPOILER in which one brother murders the other in a bout of pill-induced madness in an attempt to rejoin the two into one body, is, as the film as a whole, bleak while inviting many interpretations.
- Dead Ringers is a fine film.

Related reviews:
 

Another film about twins: Adaptation (2002) or, Charlie Kaufman's Fictional Life  
David Cronenberg: Cosmopolis (2012) - Cronenberg/DeLillo/Pattinson's speculative limo lullaby
A History of Violence (2005) or, Who Is Tom Stall? 
Spider (2002) - Cronenberg takes us to the tormented (and slightly dull) mind of a schizophrenic 
The Brood (1979) or, Marital Fury and Craze!

Jeremy Irons gets ready for some experimental gynecological maneuvering in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: 13 mil. $
Box office: Between 8-9.1 mil. $ ((different reports), US only)
= Uncertainty
[Dead Ringers entered the US box office at #1 ahead of Die Hard and A Fish Called Wanda according to this news item from the period. Without foreign gross numbers, it is impossible to say whether the film became a hit, although it should surprise me if it did. It has been critically recognized, though, and also won the Genie Award for Best Canadian Film of 1988.]

What do you think of Dead Ringers?
Do you know any other interesting films about twins?

Die Hard (1988) - McTiernan's action masterpiece

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The explosive poster for John McTiernan's Die Hard

QUICK REVIEW:

Die Hard is a classic within the action genre, the sole masterpiece from New York-born master director John McTiernan (Last Action Hero (1993)), one of the all-time great action directors with such other credits as Predator (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990) and Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995).

John McClane is a tired New York City cop, who is going to his estranged wife Holly's place of work in Los Angeles, a major corporate complex, to reconcile. But when the company's Christmas party gets overtaken by German terrorists, their only hope is this weary city cop, who is loose in the building.

Bruce Willis (Looper (2012)) is a tough-guy messiah, as he whoops the Krauts in Die Hard. Funnily enough, he only got the part because several prestige action stars had turned down Fox's offer for the role. Willis at the time was mostly known for his comedic work in Moonlighting (1985-89)), and there were heavy doubts whether he could be turned into an action star. Perhaps as a way to negate these doubts, he was paid a hefty 5 mil. $ to play the part. And, boy, did he become John McClane. The film spurred a huge franchise as well as a long, explosive action star career for Willis.
Die Hard works for many reasons: Its story and characters are exciting; the script by Jeb Stuart (The Fugitive (1993)) and Steven E. de Souza (Commando (1985)) is based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp (The Detective (1966).
The action scenes are totally hardboiled, the suspense eminent. Alan Rickman (Help! I'm a Fish (2000), voice), in his big screen feature debut, creates one of the all-time great heavies in Hans Gruber, and Willis' humor is also a huge part of the film's lasting greatness.
Die Hard is smartly written, flawlessly, spectacularly executed, uninterruptedly thrilling, - and a Christmas season classic as well. One of the best action films of all time.
McTiernan has been involved in a very lengthy legal case (2006-14) involving wiretapping, the FBI and jail time. He is now finally free and in pre-production with a new project called Red Squad.

Related post:

Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in John McTiernan's Die Hard

Bruce Willis as John McClane in John McTiernan's Die Hard

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 28 mil. $
Box office: 140.7 mil. $
=  Big hit
[Die Hard entered #3 in the States, where it ended up making 83 mil. $ (59 % of the total gross.) It was well-received critically as well and has since come to be regarded as one of the best films of the action genre ever.]

What do you think of Die Hard?
What other films rank as all-time bests in the action genre in your opinion?

Child's Play (1988) - Chucky comes to life in classic, great horror

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The exciting original poster for Tom Holland's Child's Play

QUICK REVIEW:

A really ugly S.O.B. with some black magic expertise elapses violently inside a toy store, and his soul gets transferred into a large doll, whom a single-mom subsequently buys cheap from a vagrant for her boy...

The boy seems extremely dumb at first, but Alex Vincent (Curse of Chucky (2013)) then actually plays him believably through the coming horrors. And two male police characters overdo their Chicago accents, - but aside from these minor detractors, Child's Play is a really terrific horror film, full of dark scenes and an underlying, semi-perverted atmosphere. (A seemingly innocent toy imbued with the spirit of a serial killer goes amok killing ... - you see?)
The laborious doll work and effects are sublime. Child's Play is a catchy classic and franchise-starter: 3 Child's Play and 3 (more humorous) Chucky-films have since been made, with a 4th Child's Play film scheduled for release this year.
Child's Play is co-written by Don Mancini (Child's Play 2 (1990)), John Lafia (The Blue Iguana (1988)) and director Tom Holland (Fright Night (1985)). 
Holland is busy at the moment in pre-production with Killing Frank (2016), an English horror movie with Freddie Highmore and Rebecca De Mornay.

Watch the awesome original trailer here

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: 44.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[Child's Play opened # 1 in the States with 6.5 mil. $ and ended its domestic run with 33.2 mil. $ (75 % of the total gross.) It was critically well-received, although the series was and continued to be plagued by accusations that it inspired violence in children.]

What do you think of Child's Play?
And the following sequels?

Cannibal Holocaust II/Natura Contro/The Green Inferno (1988) - Climati's outrageous jungle adventure

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Barbarism and adventure exudes from this original Italian poster for Antonio Climati's Cannibal Holocaust II, [the Italian title means 'against nature']

QUICK REVIEW:

A professor gone missing in the Amazon must still be alive! - A sensationalist reporter and a group of adventure-seeking fellows set off on a danger-filled rescue mission.

Cannibal Holocaust II is a totally unrelated follow-up to Ruggero Deodato's original masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust (1980). This film is even missing cannibals!
Unsurprisingly, co-writer/cinematographer/director Antonio Climati's (This Violent World (1976)) original Italian title doesn't include any mention of the non-existing cannibals, and indeed the Cannibal Holocaust II-title was devised solely for the (somewhat appropriately exploitative) distribution-purpose of cashing in on the notorious earlier film.
Still, the English nonsense-title is actually somehow well in line with the entire film at hand, which is impressively produced with vicious animals of all kinds (a panther, crocodiles, piranhas, snakes galore etc.) and plenty of exotically presented adventure.
The film also has a bizarre 80s-style score (by Maurizio Dami (Top Line (1988)) in the jungle-context and extremely irregular editing.
Cannibal Holocaust II is silly, funny and not-so-disgusting. It is sometimes referred to as the film that ended the Italian cannibal exploitation sub-genre.

Watch a funky, short original trailer for the film here that showcases some of its many qualities

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Cannibal Holocaust II?
Other such nonsense-titled films that you can think of?

Cinema Paradiso/Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1988) - Tornatore's timeless masterpiece

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Irresistible Polish (?) poster for Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso

QUICK REVIEW:

Film director Salvatore receives a call from his old mother: His childhood father figure Alfredo has died. For the first time in 30 years, the man returns to his small childhood town in Sicily, where his first love and his love of films were founded.

Cinema Paradiso is a splendid, film-crazed film. "The people in this film are so full of emotions", I have heard one co-audience member say about the film, which is absolutely true: Especially in the flashback sequences, the cast are incredibly vivacious, full of thrill and excitement in the context of a pictorially magnificent film; cinematographer: Great job by Blasco Giurato (Passage to Paradise/Passaggio per il Paradiso (1998)).
It can all be interpreted as a parable about the joys and pains of growing up as well as a declaration of love and a celebration of cinema and of life itself.
Paradiso holds great acting performances from Jacques Perrin (The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004)), Leopoldo Trieste (The Name of the Rose (1986)), Agnese Nano (Barocco (1991)), Philippe Noiret (Les Grands Ducs (1996)), Marco Leonardi (Maradona, the Hand of God/Maradona, la Mano di Dio (2007)) and as Salvatore as a boy, 'Totò', Salvatore Cascio (Everybody Is Fine/Stanno Tutti Bene (1990)). Also Ennio Morricone's (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo (1966)) strong score deserves recognition.
Paradiso was shot mostly in its co-writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore's (Malèna (2000)) Sicilian childhood village Bagheria. He co-wrote the script with Vanna Paoli (Roma Roma Roma! (1990)).
The film is gripping, touching and funny. - A masterpiece and a must-watch for any movie-lover!

Salvatore Cascio as Totò in Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso

Watch the great original US trailer for the film here

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 12.3 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty
[But reportedly a big hit: The film had a bad release initially in Italy, which prompted Tornatore to cut nearly 30 minutes from the film (for the 124 minute international cut, - a 174 minute director's cut has since been issued on DVD, which elaborates Salvatore's lost love; Tornatore has stated that he loves both versions), and the new cut became a big hit internationally, winning the Best Foreign Film Oscar and other awards. I found two numbers that support its success story: 2 mil. people paid admission to see it in France and 1.3 mil. in Argentina. Some even credit the film with reviving the slumming Italian film industry overall.]

What do you think of Cinema Paradiso?

Cocktail (1988) - Cruise an iconic stand-out in Donaldson's masterful drama

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Young, clean-shaven Tom Cruise, ready to serve your drink of choice, for Roger Donaldson's Cocktail

Brian Flanagan has returned home from the military full of ambition to pursue his dreams, which lead him to bartending in New York City. But he must face complications in life as well as realizing that despite his tremendous drive, the millionaire life he dreams of doesn't come as he'd hoped.

Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July (1989)) is Oscar-worthy in his best part yet here; Flanagan reflects dreams of greatness and the frustration of making mistakes and meeting obstacles that most will be able to relate to. Cocktail tells a universal story of dreams, believing in them and keeping them alive, and of finding something greater on the way to achieving them: Love. There is more than meets the eye to Cocktail, which is in fact an example of hugely focused storytelling at its best and most charming. The film features a young Gina Gershon (Bound (1996)), Bryan Brown (Gods of Egypt (2016)) is terrific as Flanagan's condescending business partner-friend, and Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas (1995)) plays Flanagan's love interest with grace, charm and intellect. The two have real chemistry, and the film also benefits from a wealth of great songs and elegant photography by Dean Semler (Appaloosa (2008)).
Cocktail is written by Heywood Gould (Fort Apache the Brown (1981)) and directed by Australian master filmmaker Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days (2000)). It is funny, romantic, dramatic and uplifting, with great lines and no rough patches; a film that can be seen again and again, first-class storytelling.

Related review:

Roger Donaldson: Thirteen Days (2000) - Electrifying Cuban Missile Crisis thriller

The Cocktail trailer simply gives away nearly the whole movie, so here, instead, is a great scene from the film, for your viewing pleasure

Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 171.1 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Cruise was a lifestyle phenomenon and a teenage idol by the late 80's, (especially catapulted by the success of Top Gun (1986)), and Cocktail is a vehicle that exploits this status to great effect. It was a huge hit in the US, where it made 78.2 mil. $ (46% of the total gross), as well as internationally. It was Globe-nominated for Best Song and (in a ridiculous stunt of simply trashing what's popular) Raspberry-nominated for Worst Actor (Cruise) and Worst Director (Donaldson), winning for Worst Picture (producers Ted Field and Robert W. Cort) and Worst Screenplay (Gould).]

What do you think of Cocktail? 
Do you think it deserved any of the Razzie statuettes and nominations it received?

Coming to America (1988) - Landis and Murphy's second, amusing but less well-constructed collaboration

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The beautifully painted poster for John Landis' Coming to America

QUICK REVIEW:

An African prince is not satisfied with an arranged marriage at home in his kingdom and instead travels to America to fall in love with a woman who thinks for herself.

The first half of Coming to America is totally gaga in Africa with a high-spirited James Earl Jones (The Lion King (1994), voice) as the king. Eddie Murphy (Trading Places (1983)) lands fresh in the US with his beautiful traveling companion Arsenio Hall (Black Dynamite (2009)). The movie is silly and funny for a while.
But then the plot grows increasingly illogical; plot points get delayed (something has to fill out those excessive 117 minutes...), and the phony romance booms... The last 20 minutes of the film are downright embarrassingly poorly written (by screenwriters David Sheffield and Barry W. Blaustein (The Nutty Professor (1996)), following a story synopsis by Murphy.)
Coming to America was the second Murphy-starring comedy by master director John Landis (The Blues Brothers (1980)) after the much better Trading Places. They would work together again, despite Landis' complaining that Murphy was a "pig of the world" on the America set, in Beverly Hills Cop III (1994).

Related reviews:

John Landis: The Twilight Zone (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
An American Werewolf in London (1981) - Landis' great, funny, scary wolf
The Blues Brothers (1980) - Try to sit still to this one!

Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy in John Landis' Coming to America

Watch the funny trailer for the film here

Cost: 39 mil. $
Box office: 288.7 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The movie was the 3rd biggest hit at the US box office that year, and Paramount's biggest hit of the year. It was both big in the US (128.1 mil. $/44% of the total gross), where it was released without press screenings (due to negative reactions in a local New York press screening) and internationally (160.6 mil. $/56 %). In 1988, Eddie Murphy was hot!]

What do you think of Coming to America?
What's your favorite Eddie Murphy movie and why?