The Projector #91: Ranked: The Movies I Saw, Mostly For Free, in the Summer of 1991 (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

Thirty years ago I spent the summer between high school and college working at a movie theater in Dayton, Ohio. (Technically Trotwood, Ohio, I guess.) It was a place of crumbling grandeur that, in the first two decades of its existence, had a Polynesian theme. (This is what happens when you open a movie theater in 1968 and want to stand out a bit, I guess.) I’ve been thinking about that place, and that summer, a lot lately. Maybe I’ll write about it someday. But, in the meantime, here’s an annotated ranking of all the movies I saw that summer.

Thelma & LouiseWe covered this on the show so there’s probably no need to expand on it here. Great movie, and a great catalyst for conversation, then and now.

The Fisher KingYeah, that’s a movie and a half. We should do this on the show someday.

Terminator 2: Judgment DayThis was the one real blockbuster our theater, which rarely got the biggest movies, showed that summer and for me it’s still the gold standard for action blockbusters and sequels. It never lets up and it runs with the themes of the first movie without repeating itself. It had me hooked from the moment Schwarzenegger stepped on the rose. One object of debate among my friends that summer: Was Edward Furlong movie-ruiningly bad? (I said “no.”)

Jungle FeverThis, in retrospect, might not be top-tier Spike Lee, but it was eye-opening for me then, not least of all because Samuel L. Jackson was such a revelation. I watched the final stretch many times over waiting to clean up the theater.

Boyz n the HoodAdmittedly I missed a few along the way, but I don’t know that John Singleton ever approached the power of his debut. It doesn’t really matter, though. The last time I gave this one a look it was as powerful as ever. (Also, I may need to rewatch some other Singleton films. I remember Higher Learning being screamingly paranoid, particularly with its depiction of neo-Nazis being a clear and present threat. And then history happened.)

The RocketeerPure fun, even with its slanderous depiction of don’t-call-him-Errol Flynn.

What About Bob?“A vacation from my problems!” I recall this being pretty uneven but a joy when it worked. Dreyfuss and Murray apparently hated each other. Maybe that helped?

Dead AgainHmm… Did I overrate this at that moment 30 years ago when Kenneth Branagh seemed like the Next Great Renaissance Man? Did everyone? Maybe. I guess I’d have to revisit to find out. I thought it a pretty remarkable bit of Hitchcockian filmmaking then, though.

Doc HollywoodI remember little about this movie beyond it being perfectly amiable, but I don’t know that it needed to be anything else.

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of FearThe problem with gag-a-minute comedies is that the gags have to work more often than they flop. That’s what makes the first Naked Gun movie so great and the sequels… ehh.

Body PartsAnother movie that’s mostly a faint memory, but I remember it being the kind of horror schlock I’ll watch anytime.

V.I. WarshawskiPrivate eye V.I. Warshawski lives on in Sara Paretsky’s novels but only got one shot at movie stardom. I watched this after being asked to clock out early because business was slow. It’s fine.

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead“The dishes are done, man.” A bad movie, and yet if it has a line that lodges itself into your brain for 30 years, is it really that bad?

Hot Shots!See the Naked Gun 2 1/2 entry above, though I don’t remember much about this movie working at all. I’m kind of surprised it’s remembered fondly. But maybe I was just in a bad mood?

Pure LuckMartin Short, Danny Glover: each great in their own way. But as a comedy team? Not really.

Drop Dead FredThe question: Could Rik Mayall’s British TV comedy stardom translate to a big-screen American comedy? The answer: Eh. Not really. (R.I.P. Rik Mayall. The Young Ones remains one of the great British comedies.)

MobstersWhat if Young Guns but gangsters? As bad as it sounds. Maybe worse?

And that was it. Then it was off to college, where being carless pretty much limited my big-screen outings to the weekly movies shown on campus for a while. Great if you wanted to watch say, Backdraft but only catch about half the dialogue. There was a classic, single-screen theater downtown that closed within weeks of my first days at school. (A friend and I found out when we walked to it trying to see the final A Nightmare on Elm St. movie.) The theater where I worked closed a few years later. I miss it still.

Enough with the summer of ’91. Let’s go back to the summer of ’69. Hopefully you enjoyed the first installment of our Woodstock / Summer of Soul pairing, with special guest Steven Hyden. Look for part two later this week.

In the meantime, you guessed it, here are some pieces you might enjoy.

• There’s been a lot of excitement out of Cannes. Here’s our pal Rachel Handler’s rundown.

• For Vulture, Robert Daniels wrote about the Emmys blowing a chance to nominate some excellent Black stories.

• Ahead of our next pairing (spoiler?), here's The New Yorker’s Helen Rosner on the Anthony Bourdain documentary Roadrunner, and Chris Lee talking to director Morgan Neville about his controversial decision not to approach Asia Argento when making the film.

• For the LA Times, Peter Labuza wrote about how streaming is changing what we watch.

• Finally, Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps have dueling anniversary pieces on Escape from New York. Here’s Scott’s at The Guardian and Keith’s at GQ.