#joseph ruben

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

#movies #polls #sleeping with the enemy #90s movies #joseph ruben #julia roberts #patrick bergin #kevin anderson #requested #have you seen this movie poll

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Dreamscape (1984)

#dreamscape gif #80s sci-fi #80s movies #dennis quaid #tw flashing #stop motion animation #snake-man #joseph ruben #cory yothers #nightmares #dreams #1980s #1984 #gif #chronoscaph gif

[666frames]

Dreamscape (1984)

#dreamscape #my posts #horror #sci fi horror #fantasy horror #dreams #nightmares #1980s horror #80s horror #1980s movies #80s movies #film #movies #screencaps #horrorcaps #1980s #80s #horror movies #horrorstills #joseph ruben #psychological horror #this was on my old blog so maybe it's still floating around #horror aesthetic #movie titles #title screen #horroredit

[ladamarossa]

The Stepfather (1987)

#comfort slasher #like a rainy day in the fall #the stepfather #joseph ruben #terry o'quinn #jill schoelen #shelley hack #horror #slasher #thriller #80s horror #80s slasher #80s thriller #women in horror #final girl #scream queen #1980s movies #1980s fashion #halloween 2022 watchlist

[vintagewarhol]

#sleeping with the enemy #movies #joseph ruben #nancy price #ron bass #julia roberts #patrick bergin #kevin anderson #illustration #vintage art #alternative movie posters

[theinsatiables]

The Stepfather (1987) : Joseph Ruben

#The Stepfather #Joseph Ruben #Film #Horror #Terry O'Quinn

[ivovynckier]

I have talked about the great Jerry Goldsmith many times but here’s something I didn’t discuss yet: he was able to mix the synthesiser with the “old-fashioned” orchestra in such a way that you can’t distinguish the two.

He did that very successfully in this score, “Sleeping with the Enemy”, and in the Sharon Stone movie “Basic Instinct”, that other thriller from the early nineties.

I’m betting that most people who listen to the music simply don’t notice the role of the synthesisers. That’s because he succeeded in creating a warm electronic sound.

Quite a feat when you consider how cold electronic music can be. (The booklet speaks of “adroit electronics”.)

This is another expanded collector’s item published by La-la Land Records.

#jerry goldsmith #julia roberts #joseph ruben #sleeping with the enemy #film music #soundtrack #soundtracks #film score #movie music #film composer #composer #composers #orchestra #music #musician #musicians #movie #movies #film #ffilms #cd #cd collection #cd collector #thriller

[cyberbabka]

The good son (1993) // dir. Joseph Ruben

#the good son #the good son 1993 #joseph ruben #elijah wood #macaulay culkin #screencaps

[darktripz]

#DREAMSCAPE #VHS #1984 #action #adventure #scifi #horror #nightmares #dreams #david patrick kelly #christoper Plummer #Dennis Quaid #max von sydow #Joseph Ruben #David Loughery #Chuck Russell

[90smovies]

#The Good Son #Macaulay Culkin #Elijah Wood #Wendy Crewson #Joseph Ruben #Ian McEwan #90s

[whosthatknocking]

Dreamscape (1984), dir. Joseph Ruben

#dreamscape #joseph ruben #thriller #science fiction #science fiction aesthetics #dennis quaid #max von sydow #sf #scifi #kate capshaw #s f #sci fi #david patrick kelly

[the-eerie-zone]

The Stepfather (1987)

#The Stepfather #film #Horror #Joseph Ruben #Terry O'Quinn #Slasher #80's

[schlock-luster-video]

On September 3, 1987, The Stepfather debuted in Italy.

Here's a new drawing of Terry O'Quinn!

#the stepfather #joseph ruben #terry o'quinn #psychological horror #80s horror #horror film #horror thriller #horror movies #horror #horror art #the last drive in with joe bob briggs #tcm underground #indie movies #indie movie #80s slasher #slasher art #slasher film #slasher movies #movie art #art #drawing #movie history #pop art #modern art #pop surrealism #cult movies #portrait #cult film

[1day1movie]

Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) Joseph Ruben.

#Sleeping with the Enemy #Joseph Ruben #1day1movie

[60minutesin]

Sleeping with the Enemy (Joseph Ruben, 1991)

#julia roberts #sleeping with the enemy #joseph ruben #1991 #90s #film #cinema

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Good Son (1993)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Dammit, I already used “Good Son, Bad Movie” the last time I wrote a review for this thriller. I could wrack my brain to think of something clever but that pretty much summarizes it. The Good Son brings nothing new to the “Bad Seed” story. Its characters are flat and what’s set up doesn’t pay off in any satisfying way. This means you have the entire movie figured out as soon as the main characters are introduced.

10-year-old Mark Evans (Elijah Wood) is still grieving his recently deceased mother when he's sent to live with his aunt (Wendy Crewson) and uncle (Daniel Hugh Kelly) while his father is away on business. Befriending their son, Henry (Macaulay Culkin), Mark soon realizes the boy pretends to be nice and well-mannered but is actually a cruel sadist obsessed with death.

The story goes that in the early '90s, Hollywood felt like the time was right for a “classy” thriller about children and evil. Macaulay Culkin was cast as the malicious kid as a way to show audiences that he had greater range than they had seen previously. The problem is that Caulkin didn’t fit this part. Even if you don’t see his face and flashback to a Christmas favorite, you don’t feel intimidated. I'm not saying that because there are few things as non-threatening as a 10-year-old. To compensate, the film takes many cheap shortcuts. Rather than make the film feel darker and edgier, these actually make it feel uninspired. We see Henry smoke but that's only shocking because it's something a little kid shouldn’t do. You see it as a tactic to provoke a reaction. There’s of course the obligatory curse word thrown in to make the sensitive mothers in the audience clutch their pearls and the standard stuff you’d expect out of this movie - the kind of bad behavior anyone with a brain would notice and bring up in a family therapy session. Henry wears creepy masks around the house. He has a shed in the woods where he collects animal bones, hangs dolls with nooses and has built a lethal crossbow. Most important of all, he speaks in a tone that screams “evil” because he never shows any vulnerability or emotion and delivers all of his lines as if they come from a teleprompter. I’m not saying that Culkin gives a bad performance but his dialogue clearly comes from an adult. You never buy it.

Despite all of these issues, I’m going to say that the biggest problem with The Good Son is that everything surrounding the titular child is so thin and poorly written. The assumption is that Henry’s parents are too busy grieving over their dead baby (I’ll give you three guesses of what happened) to recognize what’s hiding in plain sight. That theory doesn’t hold up. Shouldn’t Aunt Susan be so paranoid about her remaining son and daughter (she’s played by Quinn Culkin) that she’d never let them out of her sight? Instead, the kids are free to do whatever they want all day. I know this story takes place in a small town but it just doesn’t feel right. No, Henry gets away with everything because she’s too busy standing on the edge of a cliff all day (I bet you can see where that’s going too), as if she’s a 15th-century maiden waiting for her pirate husband to sail back after months away. Even with all of these “factors” hindering Mark’s believability… there’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to expose Henry for who he is. Over and over, you think director Joseph Ruben (who also directed the lousy Sleeping with the Enemy the previous year) will use the tools he has on hand. The child psychologist who surely won't be fooled by the pre-teen's facade, the numerous incidents around town, the way a child who is still grieving his mother might actually act out and misbehave… but no. It’s nothing but squandered potential.

Upon release,The Good Son was criticized for the way it took a child star and placed him in a film decidedly not appropriate for children. I’m not sure that's a fair criticism. If the movie had been really good, no one would’ve complained, particularly with the MPAA rating making it clear that this movie isn’t meant for young audiences. But it isn’t good, and when you combine that with the way it misuses its big names, The Good Son is just a waste. (February 25, 2022)

#The Good Son #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Joseph Ruben #Ian McEwan #Macaulay Culkin #Elijah Wood #Wendy Crewson #David Morse #Jacqcueline Brookes #1993 movies #1993 films