Adam Shankman's adaptation (or remake) of the Broadway musical Hairspray was released to wide release in US July 20, 2007. The Broadway musical was adapted from John Water's original cult classic Hairspray, released in 1988.
The 2007 release starred John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, and Allison Janney. It opened to positive reviews and set a record for the biggest box office opening for a musical until Mama Mia! in 2008.
Shankman's version won numerous awards and was nominated for three Golden Globes and a Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album.
Best known for being notoriously bad, Robot Monster was released in theaters across the US June 25, 1953. Produced on a miniscule budget, the movie follows a monster in a gorilla suit and a TV set with antenna, who has eliminated everybody on Earth, except for one family. It seems the Robot Monster had feelings for the family's teenaged daughter.
It has been included on many of the 'worst movie' lists, but has gained a cult following.
Logan's Run, the Saul David production based on the novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, was released June 23, 1976. It starred Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Peter Ustinov, and Farrah Fawcett(-Majors) and was directed by Michael Anderson.
It depicts a utopian, hedonistic society where every wish can be fulfilled, but at a cost. When a person reaches the age of 30, they are executed.
Reviews were all over the place when Logan's Run was released. Roger Ebert gave it 3 out of 4 stars, but Gene Siskel gave it 0 out of 4 stars. However, it was a success at the box office, earning $2.5M in its first 5 days of release, which was substantial for that time.
It was nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. There were no visual effects nominations that year, because the committee didn't consider any of the movies to attain the level needed for accolades. The Academy reversed the decision and awarded Special Achievement Awards in Visual Effects to Logan's Run and King Kong. The visual effects committee resigned in protest.
It won 6 Saturn Awards (see my post from Jan 15, 2025).
Director Ang Lee released his superhero film Hulk in US theaters June 20, 2003, to mixed reviews. Based on the Marvel Comics character the Incredible Hulk, the movie starred Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, and Nick Nolte.
Although reviews were mixed, it topped the box office in its first weekend beating Finding Nemo, earning $62.1M, making it the 16th highest-ever opening at the time. Roger Ebert gave it a positive review, and he doesn't seem to like anything.
Hulk was nominated for five Saturn Awards, but was up against X2, Return of the King, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park was released in US theaters June 11, 1993 and set box-office records across the world. Based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, the movie follows a billionaire's attempt to regenerate dinosaurs on an isolated island.
What could possibly go wrong?
Jurassic Park starred Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jeff Goldblum. It became the highest grossing film at that time. It reached $100M in a record nine days. It was the first film to gross over $500M overseas.
Jurassic Park won three Academy Awards: Bet Sound, Best Sound Effects, and Best Visual Effects. Since it was a mix of science fiction and horror, it could not be nominated for Best Picture or any of the acting awards. Spielberg won Best Directing but for Schindler's List, a drama film.
Jurassic Park did not receive any Golden Globe awards because the science fiction adventure did not align "with the types of films that were often nominated" for Golden Globes.
It won four Saturn Awards: Steven Spielberg for Best Direction, Best Science Fiction Film, Best Special Effects, and Best Writing. Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello, and Arian Richards were nominated for their work. John Williams was nominated for Best Music, and Jurassic Park received a nomination for Best Costumes.
John Williams was also nominated for a Grammy Award for his original score.
Steven Spielberg released The Goonies, directed by Richard Donner June 7, 1985. A group of kids find a pirate map and set out to find the buried treasure. It starred Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Martha Plimpton, and Anne Ramsey, who won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mama Fratelli. Actor Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk, was nominated for a Saturn for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.
The Goonies was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2017.
George Lucas's third movie in the Star Wars saga, Return of the Jedi, was released in US theaters May 25, 1983. It opened to positive reviews and received numerous awards. It won a Special Achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects. It was nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Original Score for John Williams, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Sound.
Of course, the nominations for the top Oscars were reserved for the dramas and biopics. Terms of Endearment is a good movie, and I've seen The Right Stuff, but were they better than Return of the Jedi for Best Picture? I can tell you which one I've seen more than once. No plans to see any of the others.
John Williams's score lost to Bill Conti's score for The Right Stuff? Yeah, right. The Oscar committee stands by its "no horror, no science fiction" movies for any of the acting awards. Good thing the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror films gives due credit. Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher won Saturns for their acting prowess.
Richard Donner's medieval fantasy film Ladyhawke was released in the US April 12, 1985, with Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Hauer and Pfeiffer play lovers who have been cursed by a bishop. Hauer's character is human by day, and turns into a wolf at night. Pfeiffer's character is a hawk by day and human at night.
Despite a poor box-office performance, Ladyhawke was nominated for two Oscars: Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing.
It did win Saturn Awards for Best Fantasy Film and Best Costumes for Nana Cecchi. Michelle Pfeiffer was nominated for Best Actress and Andrew Powell was nominated for Best Music.
I enjoyed the soundtrack which was Alan Parsons the music score producer. The music sounded like an Alan Parsons Project album.
Gamera vs. Jiger, released March 21, 1970 in Japan, is the sixth movie in the Gamera franchise. When a statue on Wester Island in the Pacific Ocean is requested for an exhibition for Japan's Expo '70, a tribal member tries to prevent the removal of the statue. However, removal of the statue proceeds and Gamera shows up to hamper the process. Only the children seem to know that Gamera isn't a threat, but the statue is removed.
Soon Jiger appears and Gamera must come to the rescue of Osaka. Interestingly, Gamera uses his smarts rather than his brute strength to win the day.
ABBA released their second studio album Waterloo March 4, 1974. It was their first album to be released internationally. The single Waterloo was released the same day, and it was the song that won ABBA the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
The single reached #1 in many countries. It reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and ended the year at #49. The album only reached #145 on the Billboard 200 charts.
The album generated the singles Honey, Honey, which peaked at #27 US Billboard Hot 100, and Hasta Manana.
Buster Keaton's silent comedy The Haunted House was released February 21, 1921. Keaton plays a bank clerk that finds a house, reportedly haunted, that is actually a hideout for thieves, who disguise themselves as ghouls to keep people away.
How Scooby-doo!
It is full of Keaton's characteristic physical, slapstick humor, and very funny.
Camp Cold Brook, a horror film directed by Andy Palmer, was released February 14, 2018. The movie is about a group of paranormal investigators who set out to check out Camp Cold Brook in Oklahoma, where a mass murder occurred a few decades prior. Joe Dante was its executive producer and it starred Chad Michael Murphy.
Camp Cold Brook won Best Horror Feature at the Shriekfest. Joe Dante won the Best Feature award at the Horrorhound Film Festival.
I enjoyed the movie but found it to be a little light on the horror. And the trope of an abandoned campground, haunted by a decades old crime is rather tired. To me, it was mainly a suspense thriller, because most of the paranormal activity was witnessed by the audience and not the characters. For example, when a girl escapes the shower imagining the room is filled with spiders, the ghost appears behind her. She never sees it. Another time, a character passes a wooden sign and fingers curl around the edge after the character walks past.
La Maison ensorcelee (The House of Ghosts or The Witch House), released February 9, 1906 in Denmark, is one of the first haunted house movies. Directed by Segundo de Chomon, it uses stop-motion animation and superimposition photography to ramp up the spooky activity.
Two men and a woman take refuge in a small house in the woods and experience paranormal activity such as disappearing furniture, a knife cuts food by itself, and a ghost.
Blondie released Call Me, January 29, 1980 and it became their second # 1 hit and biggest-selling single. It stayed in the #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 for six consecutive weeks. It was Billboard's #1 single for the year-end chart.
Giorgio Moroder composed the music and Debbie Harry wrote the lyrics for the main theme song for American Gigolo starring Richard Gere.
Sleeping Beauty, released by Walt Disney Productions January 29, 1959, is based on a 1697 fairy tale by Charles Perrault. The movie tells the story of Princess Aurora, who was cursed by the evil Maleficent to die on her 16th birthday by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. She is saved by three good fairies and a handsome prince.
It opened to mixed reviews. Some critics praised its art direction and musical score, but bashed the plot and characters. The plot? It's a two-hundred and fifty year old story! Jeez.
Although it was a box office bomb upon its release it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.
Since then, following re-releases, it has become one of Disney's most beloved films and has been selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry.
Talk about a powerhouse movie with two phenomenal actresses, Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, as the leads. Notes on a Scandal was released in the US January 26, 2006. Dench and Blanchett play high school teachers in England. When Blanchett's character begins an affair with a teenager, Dench's character tries to use the knowledge to her own benefit.
Dench and Blanchett both received Oscar nominations for their performances.
The J. Geils Band released Freeze Frame, their second single from their tenth studio album of the same name. It became the second consecutive million-selling, gold-certified hit from the album, after Centerfold, the first single.
It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Sam Mendes' WWI epic 1917 was released in US theaters January 10, 2020. It told the harrowing journey as two British soldiers are sent on a mission to deliver a message to halt an attack that could cost 1600 men their lives. It boasted an impressive cast including Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Richard Madden.
Mendes shot the movie such that it looks as it was filmed in only one, continuous shot, a technique invented by Alfred Hitchcock in his movie Rope.
It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Visual Effects, and Best Achievement in Sound Editing.
1917 was nominated for 207 awards. Cinematographer Roger Deakins won about 40 awards for his work.
My girls released He's So Shy, the first single from their Special Things album, July 23, 1980. The was written initially as She's So Shy by Tom Snow and Cynthia Weil for Leo Sayer, but Richard Perry, the Pointer Sisters' producer, thought it had greater potential if the gender of the song was adjusted.
The Pointer Sisters' single went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1980 and held the spot for three weeks. They performed He's So Shy on an episode of The Love Boat, which aired February 7, 1981.
Another bad movie that I enjoy watching Jaws 3-D was released into theaters July 22, 1983. It had a stellar cast with Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Simon MacCorkindale, Lea Thompson, and Louis Gossett, Jr. Roy Scheider absolutely wanted no part of this movie. Quaid plays the grown up son Michael Brody of Scheider's previous role of Police Chief Martin Brody of Amity Island.
Jaws 3-D takes place in SeaWorld Orlando, where a young great white shark manages to enter from the sea and begins attacking and killing park employees. Mike Brody is a chief engineer for SeaWorld with his girl friend Kay Morgan as the senior biologist. After they capture the shark, they realize that a much larger shark has also infiltrated the park.
Although it fared well at the box office, it did not enjoy the same success as its predecessors. It was largely criticized, receiving an 11% rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Jaws 3-D was nominated for five Razzie awards in 1984: Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Supporting Actor Louis Gossett, Jr. The dolphins were also nominated for Worst New Star which is unfair, considering the material they had to work with. Also, who said their acting was terrible?
