Action, Action

This week for our final Spooktober episode we check out 1983's Of Unknown Origin

Bart Hughes has a pretty good life, a beautiful wife, a young son, a good job with promotion prospects, and a renovated brownstone in New York. When wife and child leave for a vacation, Bart inadvertently destroys the house while in pursuit of a rat.

Release date: November 24, 1983 (USA)

Director: George P. Cosmatos

Distributed by: Warner Bros.

Based on: The Visitor; by Chauncey G. Parker III

Box office: $1.1 million (U.S.)

Budget: CAD$4 million

This week we cover an all time banger in 1985's Re-Animator.

At the University of Zurich, Herbert West brings his dead professor back to life. Following the horrific side-effects involved in the procedure, West moves to the USA to further his studies.

Release date: October 18, 1985 (USA)

Director: Stuart Gordon

Story by: H. P. Lovecraft

Distributed by: Empire International Pictures

Adapted from: Herbert West–Reanimator

Budget: $900,000-$1.3 million

We kickoff Spooktober with this delightfully gory movie about killer Slugs taking over a small town. A health inspector (Michael Garfield) and two helpers hunt mutant killer slugs that call the sewer home.

Release date: February 5, 1988 (USA)

Director: Juan Piquer Simón

Distributed by: New World Pictures

Adapted from: Slugs

Music by: Tim Souster

Production company: Dister Films

A train to New Delhi becomes a combat battleground as a pair of commandos faces off against an army of invading bandits.

Release date: July 4, 2024 (USA)

Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat

Distributed by: AA Films

Box office: est. ₹47.12 crore

Cinematography: Rafey Mehmood

Music by: Score: Ketan Sodha; Songs:: Vikram Montrose; Shashwat Sachdev; Haroon-Gavin

This week we cover 1988's Midnight Run

When Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) hires tight-lipped bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) to locate a mob accountant named "The Duke" (Charles Grodin) and bring him to L.A., Eddie tells Jack that the job will be simple, or a "midnight run." But when Jack finds The Duke, the FBI and the mob are anxious to get their hands on him. In a cross-country chase, Jack must evade the authorities, hide from the mob and prevent The Duke's erratic personality from driving him mad.

Release date: July 20, 1988 (USA)

Director: Martin Brest

Box office: 81.6 million USD

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Cinematography: Donald E. Thorin

Edited by: Chris Lebenzon; Michael Tronick; Billy Weber

This week we take a trip back to Dustin's childhood and watch "Best of The Best"

Martial arts drama in which a misfit team of American kickboxers must undergo rigorous training for an all-important contest against a ruthless Korean team. Along the way, the hardened fighters learn to lay their personal ghosts to rest.

Release date: November 10, 1989 (USA)

Director: Robert Radler

Sequel: Best of the Best II

Distributed by: 20th Century Studios, Taurus Entertainment

Box office: $1.7 million (US)

Music by: Paul Gilman

I can't believe we haven't covered this movie yet! So this week we get on it and cover 1984's Beverly Hills Cop.

After his childhood buddy is murdered while visiting Detroit, rebellious cop Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) follows the leads to Beverly Hills, Calif., under the auspices of a vacation. He checks in with old friend Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher) and starts to believe her boss, art dealer Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), might somehow be involved in the murder. However, Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox) of the Beverly Hills Police Department does not trust Foley, and hinders his search for evidence.

Release date: December 5, 1984 (USA)

Director: Martin Brest

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

Box office: $234 million

Music by: Harold Faltermeyer

Produced by: Don Simpson; Jerry Bruckheimer

A drug dealer (Nina Li Chi) joins forces with two mismatched cops (Yun-Fat Chow, Conan Lee) to crack a band of heroin dealers.

Release date: March 19, 1988 (Hong Kong)

Director: Lau Kar-leung

Box office: 27.87 million HKD

Nominations: Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Choreography

Distributed by: Cinema City Enterprises

Language: Cantonese

This week we check out the directorial debut of Dev Patel with Monkey Man (2024)

A young man ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he's beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, he discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city's sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

Release date: April 5, 2024 (Canada)

Director: Dev Patel

Budget: 10 million USD

Producers: Dev Patel, Jordan Peele, Samarth Sahni, Basil Iwanyk, MORE

Distributed by: Universal Pictures

Box office: $34.7 million

We are back! Dustin and James catch up on what they have been watching.