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Basic Instinct

  • Title: Basic Instinct
  • IMDb: link

It’s hard to describe how big director Paul Verhoeven‘s stylish neo-noir was when it hit theaters in 1992. Splitting audience and critics, the controversial erotic thriller cashed in big at the box office (providing a boom for the genre that was never quite duplicated, despite many imitators) while stirring up controversy for from both the left, for its depiction of a bisexual woman as a nymphomaniac serial killer, and right with the kind of explicit sexuality usually reserved for softcore porn shown late at night on Cinemax. The film made Sharon Stone a star moving her on to bigger and better projects including being the rare woman to headline a western in The Quick and the Dead and a supporting role in Casino both just three years later.

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Drop Zone

  • Title: Drop Zone
  • IMDb: link

Obviously an attempt to cash into the success of Point Break 3 years earlier, Wesley Snipes stars as U.S. Marshal Pete Nessip consumed a prison escape at 30,000ft. masterminded by skydiver Ty Moncrief (Gary Busey) disguised as a terrorist attack in which his brother (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) was killed. Moncrief plans to use the rescued computer expert (Michael Jeter) to hack the DEA’s mainframe. Suspended for his theories, Pete continues to investigate on his own leading him to ex-con Jessie Crossman (Yancy Butler) and her skydiving school in the Florida Keys.

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Final Destination

  • Title: Final Destination
  • IMDb: link

Flashback Friday takes us back 25 years to Final Destination. Filled with young stars of the moment, some of whose careers have turned out better than others, but not great dialogue nor acting, the 2000 horror film is nevertheless notable for its premise. At a time where slashers and monsters still owned the horror market, Final Destination offered something new with victims who escaped death, but still being marked for it, are attacked through elaborate sequences of inanimate objects moving themselves into a position to lead to to a grizzly end.

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Tombstone

  • Title: Tombstone
  • IMDb: link

More notable for Val Kilmer‘s supporting role as Doc Holliday than anything else, 1993’s Tombstone comes to 4K for the first time. After a bit of gunplay highlighting the Cowboys who will make up the film’s villains, the film opens with Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) along with his brothers Virgil (Sam Elliott) and Morgan (Bill Paxton) and their wives (Paula Malcomson, Lisa Collins, and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) relocating out West to the bombing town of Tombstone. Done with their public service, or so they believe, the Earps are looking to retire and make their fortune in the West starting with Wyatt getting the family a stake in a local Saloon by cleaning out the trash (Billy Bob Thornton).

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Scream 4

  • Title: Scream 4
  • IMDb: link

Scream Sunday takes us back to the world of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in the worst movie (at least so far) of the 30 year-old franchise. The characters feel far too long-in-the tooth at this point as the film goes extra-hard with Stab parody sequel cameos (featuring the likes of Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Shenae Grimes, and Lucy Hale) and new Ghostface killings (this time with the killer filming their own murders) while limping to an unsatisfying twist ending that ties in social media feeding narcissism and fame-seeking without delivering a satisfying conclusion.

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