Movies I enjoyed as a child

  This article lists some of my favorite movies that were aired in India (during the 90’s) on Saturday afternoons. I have fond memories of watching all these movies and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget them. The following list is in no particular order, so lets get started

Lucas

   This movie is about 14 year old Lucas (played by the late Corey Haim). Lucas is a poor, nerdy little boy that lives in a trailer with his alcoholic dad. He tries to show the world that he is a rich kid and tells people that he stays in a nice, big mansion. He has a job and loves collecting insects. On one of his ‘insect hunts’, he meets Maggie (Kerri Green) who he falls in love with instantly. Maggie is really pretty and she’s taller than Lucas. In other words, she is waaay out of his league. She thinks Lucas is an interesting kid, but has no romantic feelings for him. Lucas is also the school loser. He is always being bullied by a couple of older kids at school (one of them played by a young Jeremy Piven). During one of these ‘bully attacks’, Cappie (Charlie Sheen) comes to Lucas’ rescue. The two of them become good friends after that. Another friend of Lucas’ is Rina (Winona Ryder in her first movie role). Rina likes Lucas, who likes Maggie, who likes Cappie. So, the movie is basically a love triangle… well a ‘love diamond’ between the four of them. Lucas even joins the football team to impress Maggie. The rest of the story, well… I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, so go out and watch it. Entertainment Weekly ranked this as #16 on its list of 50 best High School movies. In my opinion this is the best high school movie ever made. It’s got a great story line, covers nearly every aspect of your stereotypical American high school (the jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, popular kids etc.) and has some excellent performances. The movie ends with the now over-used and clichéd ‘Slow-Clap’.

 The Paper Brigade

 The Paper Brigade was a made-for-TV movie. It was about Gunther (played by Kyle Howard, a very popular child artiste back in the 90’s) who moves in to the small town of Pleasant Valley from New York along with his family. Gunther moves into a suburban neighborhood where he meets Allison (Kylee Cochrane). Gunther wants to take Allison to a ‘Screaming Banshees’ concert (in the movie they were a very popular band), but the tickets are sold out. The only guy that has tickets is the local bully. He is willing to part with the tickets for $150. The only way Gunther can get the money is by getting a job, so he decides to become a paper boy. At first, he sucks at this job earning no tips. Soon, he starts getting better and better and becomes the best paper boy in the neighborhood. The rest of the movie is about how he earns the money, outwits the bullies, with the help of an old man (Robert Englund, the guy that played Freddy Krueger) and gets the girl. This is a typical kiddy Disney flick. It was a pretty average movie and I had a great time watching it with a bunch of friends

The Karate Kid

Everyone knows about the Karate Kid. This movie achieved cult status in the USA in the 80’s. It had 2 sequels (3, if you count the crappy Hillary Swank movie), an animated series, a video game, action figures and other memorabilia. The story was about Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) who moves to Los Angeles from Newark, New Jersey with his mother. He is fascinated with karate and has been trying to learn it from various books and the YMCA. Daniel meets Ali Mills (Elizabeth Shue) at school. He tries to impress Ali at a party, however her jealous ex-boyfriend, Johnny Mills (who is a student of the Cobra Kai Karate school that Daniel can’t afford), kicks his ass in front of everyone. Daniel is the victim of repeated beatings from Johnny and his buddies. During one of these beatings, Daniel is saved by his neighbor, Mr. Miyagi (played by the late Pat Morita), who whoops the entire gang’s ass. Daniel begins to learn Karate from Mr. Miyagi at his residence. Here he learns the infamous wax on-wax off technique. Daniel eventually learns how to defend himself. The latter part of the movie deals with Daniel facing and defeating his Rival, Johnny, in a Karate tournament. Johnny’s mentor is John Kreese, a Vietnam War veteran and leader of the Cobra Kai Karate school. In the final scene of the movie, Daniel defeats Johnny with the infamous ‘Crane Kick’. This movie, and Mr. Miyagi in particular had a lot to say about finding balance, about choosing mentors wisely, about disguising defensive martial-arts techniques in home improvement . It was a simply brilliant, first-of-it’s-kind movie. Some say it spawned the whole 80’s ‘karate-craze’. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. The remake of the karate kid, starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan is due for release in October 2010.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I really like high-school, and under-dog movies.

Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler

Ralph and Tommy Tricker on Stamps

    Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveler was a 1988 Canadian Children’s film. The story is about Ralph, his sister Nancy and their trouble making friend, Tommy Tricker. Ralph collects stamps, so when he comes across a mysterious old stamp, he accidentally discovers the magical ability of stamp traveling (traveling to far off places on a postal stamp). The three of them have a bunch of adventures as they start stamp traveling by mistake. They travel to distant places like China and Australia, making new friends and learning about their cultures. Along the way, they start looking for Charles Merriweather, another stamp traveler that went stamp traveling 75 years back and never returned. There was a sequel to this movie that wasn’t as good as the original. This is another coming-of-age movie. Ralph, the main protagonist, has a stutter at the start of the movie. He is insecure and shy. By the end of the movie, he is more confident and his stutter completely disappears. For 1988, the special effects were brilliant. Clubbed with a great story line and excellent cinematography, this movie is a must watch. On a rating of 5, I’d give Tommy Tricker and the stamp traveler a rating of 4.

Yes, I know you must be sick and tired of reading about ‘coming-of-age’ teen movies. So, the next one is a bit different.

The air up there

The air up there is one of the best basketball movies I have ever seen. The story starts with Jimmy Dolan (Kevin Bacon), a college basketball assistant coach searching for a new star player for his team so that he has a bigger chance of being promoted to head coach. He sees a video of a player in Africa. Convinced that this player could be his next big star, he travels to the African continent in search of him. He finally reaches the village (with the help of a British missionary). When he gets there, he meets Saleh, a 6’6’’ Basketball ace, who is also the head man’s son. Saleh is the future of the village. His father has immense faith in Saleh to lead the people of the village in the future and take his place. The village however, is being threatened by a mining company, the leader of whom was a former member of the village. The mining company wants to get hold of the mineral rich village land. They constantly terrorize the villagers and even kill and steal their livestock. The rest of the movie shows John Dolan, a money hungry westerner, who cares about nothing but his career, transform into this caring person, who helps the villagers fight for their rights. He forms a Basketball team in the village and challenges the mining company to a game, the winner of which will have ownership of the village land.  One of the most dramatic and exciting scenes in the film involves the tuition of Saleh by Dolan regarding the "Jimmy Dolan Shake & Bake," a basketball style made famous by the Bahr Brother's in the mid 1990's. The air up there has some great comedy, jaw dropping scenery, excellent basketball sequences and carries a wonderful message. Jimmy Dolan even goes through the right of passage and becomes one of the villagers. Another influence on his character in the movie is the nurse (stationed in the village with the missionary), that helps him find himself and do the right thing.




Well, that is my list for now. Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Keep checking this space for more in the future.





Later...

5 awesome TV shows that were aired during the 90’s

1. The Wonder Years



The Wonder Years was my favorite show of the 90’s. I grew up watching Kevin Arnold deal with the ups and downs of everyday life. The Wonder Years was set in the 1960’s. The show revolved around Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage), his family (mom Norma, dad Jack, Older brother Wayne and Older Sister Karen), his friends (Paul and Jeff) and his love interest Winnie Cooper (played my Danica McKellar). I liked all the characters on the show except for Winnie Cooper. She made Kevin’s life miserable because she could never figure out whether she wanted to be with him or not. Wayne (played by Jason Hervey) was a laugh riot. He was your stereotypical ‘bully’, older brother. He made Kevin’s Life miserable. Paul (Josh Saviano, rumored once to be rocker Marilyn Manson) was Kevin’s best friend throughout the series. The show aired between 4 to 5 pm on weekdays in the early 90’s. I remember running home from school to watch the wonder years. A couple of years’ back, a certain TV channel aired the re-runs of this popular show. The show ran for 6 seasons until its cancellation in 1993. In my opinion, the Wonder Years was and is the greatest ever ‘growing-up’ TV show ever made.


2. Home Improvement


Home Improvement was an American family sitcom that ran between 1991 and 1999. Its central character was Tim Taylor (Tim Allen). The other main characters were Jill (Tim’s wife), Brad, Randy and Mark (Tim and Jill’s three teenage sons), Wilson (their helpful and wise neighbor) and Al (Tim’s co-host on the in-sitcom TV show, Tool Time). The show followed the life of the family, throughout school, work, relationships and life in general. Tim’s constant mis-adventures and accidents made him the funniest and goofiest TV dad of the 90’s. Tool Time was the in-sitcom TV show that Tim ‘the-tool-man’ Taylor hosted. The line “we’ll be right back!” was used whenever there was an accident on the sets of Tool Time. Home Improvement was also the launching platform of then, unknown actress Pamela Anderson. The show ran for 8 seasons and had a tearful finale in which Wilson finally revealed his face, which he had kept half concealed for the entire duration of the series. The story had some long-running gags like Wilson’s face, Al’s love for Flannel and the man-grunt. The show also introduced ground-breaking special effects especially when the scenes changed. Home Improvement was unfortunately never re-aired by any Indian TV channel after its removal from the Star network.

3. Happy Days


Happy Days was a typical American TV sitcom that ran for 11 seasons. It was set in the USA in the 1950’s. It was about the Cunningham family. The family consists of Howard Cunningham, a hardware store owner, his homemaker wife Marion and the couple's two children, Richie (Ron Howard), an optimistic if somewhat naive teenager, and Joanie, Richie's sweet but feisty younger sister. The Cunninghams also had an older son named Chuck, a character who disappeared during the second season. The earlier episodes revolve around Richie and his friends, Potsie Weber (Anson Williams), Ralph Malph (Donny Most) and local dropout Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler), but as the series progressed, "Fonzie" proved to be a favorite with viewers and soon more story lines were written to reflect his growing popularity. The long-running TV series spurned several other spin-off shows like Mork and Mindy and Joanie loves Chachi. None of the spin-offs were as successful as the original show. Happy Days shared American culture with the rest of the world. Elements of American culture like school dances, letterman jackets, drive-in movies etc were extensively used throughout the series. The series lost its huge fan following towards the end, mostly because some of the old characters left the show.

4. The Crystal Maze


The crystal maze is the only game show to make it onto my list. This show ran between 1990 and 1995. The original host of the show was Richard O’Brien. It was a unique game show. The set was divided into four 'Zones' (originally Aztec, Futuristic, Medieval and Industrial; Industrial was replaced by Ocean from series four onwards), as well as the Crystal Dome, a giant geometric acrylic glass 'crystal' at the centre of the maze, where the teams play their final challenge after playing games in each of the four Zones. The objective of the show was to gather as many ‘time-crystals’ as possible throughout the 4 zones in order to play the last round in the crystal dome. In each episode, a team of 3 men and 3 women would enter the game, playing about 3 to 4 games in each of the zones, before moving to the crystal dome. Originally, prizes consisted individual adventure days out, such as a flight in a Tiger Moth or a day spent mud-plugging, and contestants chose their own gold and silver grade prizes off set, just in advance of filming the Crystal Dome part of the show. From series four onwards, the contestants would choose a single prize (usually once-in-a-lifetime adventure holidays) shared by the whole team. Winning teams were few and far between; a testament to how much of a challenge the show actually was, or, as many observers would say, a reflection on the types of contestants that were selected for the show. The Crystal Maze was an Interesting, Brilliant and entertaining game show, unlike the ones we see today.

5. The X-files


Who doesn’t remember the X-files? From the spooky theme music to the line “The truth is out there”. The X-files was every sci-fi geek’s favorite show. The plot of the show revolved around 2 FBI agents, Mulder (David Duchivny) and Skully (Gillian Anderson) that investigate supernatural and bizarre cases around the USA. They had skeptical colleagues and would not be able to solve the mystery or catch the criminal quite often. The program had 9 seasons, airing between 1993 and 2002. The X-files (until recently) was the longest running sci-fi TV series. The show was adapted into a movie in 1998, which did relatively well at the box office. The X-files was one of those ‘pioneering’ shows that paved the way for a number of other science fiction shows. The X-files has achieved cult status and it has a huge fan following even today.


This was my first list and there will be many more to come. Stay tuned for more :)

My Favourite Cartoon Characters

Huckleberry Hound


I really loved watching huckleberry hound when I was a kid. He has been everything from a fireman to a police officer. He was even a superhero in an episode of Yogi's Ark or whatever that show was called. My three favorite Huck Hound cartoons are the freeway patrol. The one with fox stealing the chickens and lastly the cartoon where he was a Mounty. I think that has to be my favorite. Throwing the snowballs part is my favorite simply because of the outcome. He gets it in the end but ends up catching Jock or whatever his name is in the end. Huckleberry Hound was always silly but he was fun enough to watch over and over again.

Daffy Duck


The one duck who is a spotlight stealer. He is jealous and ego driven. I find daffy duck to be a very funny character. I have seen all of his cartoon and he makes me laugh every time and that is what a great cartoon character should do. He or she should make you laugh every time they are on screen. In Duck Amuck and Robin Hood Daffy. Daffy Duck does just that and then some. Duck Amuck is awesome because Daffy is put through different scenes and has to change things outfits and things. There is even times where he isn't even there. I love that cartoon and in fact it is my second favorite cartoon of all time. Overall Daffy Duck is hilarious and pun intended will quack you up.

Goofy


The ever popular dog bi-ped dog friend of Mickey Mouse. I always liked goofy because no matter how clumsy he is. Goofy always seems to succeed at anything. I think everyone remembers those shorts with the narrator such how exercise or how to get a date. Goofy's been in ever era plus has had a TV show and two movies. Not to mention he has appeared in other movies that he wasn't the star such as Mickey and The three musketeers and Disney's Christmas Carol as Jacob Marley. I don't really count him as a star of the Three Musketeers simply because Mickey's name is in the title. Goofy always clumsy and always funny. Goofy seems to be a perfect pick for my number 2 spot.


Bunny


What can be said about Bugs Bunny that hasn't already been said. He is a great character and very well among fans of cartoons. The very first cartoon I saw was a Bugs Bunny cartoon. You know I actually got in trouble when I was a kid because of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. This line was the line that I was grounded for," Goodnight rover don't forget your rubbers." Of course he threw a pair of slippers to a dog that was outside. My dad and mom both got me in trouble for it. Until I showed them the cartoon and then I was let off the hook for it. I think that is when I knew that cartoons were never really made for kids. If they were then lines like that wouldn't be allowed. Now cartoons are taken in as a Children's medium. That is one bugs bunny memory that will always be with me.