The screenwriters of "Stand by Me," Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, recall the making of Rob Reiner's coming-of-age classic on its 30th anniversary and showing the film to Stephen King.
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the coming-of-age classic "Stand by Me," Andy Lindberg tells what it was like to be the central character in an unforgettable scene: the blueberry pie Barf-o-Rama.
Thirty years ago this week, the fantasy film Labyrinth brought together the talents of two legendary, gone-too-soon artists: Jim Henson, who conceived and directed the dark comic fairy tale, and David Bowie, who starred as goblin king Jareth and composed the film’s songs. Working alongside them was Jim’s son Brian Henson, who served as the film’s “puppeteer coordinator” and co-performed the dyspeptic goblin Hoggle. Already an accomplished puppeteer and effects artist at age 21 (he figured out how to make the Muppets ride bicycles in The Great Muppet Caper), Brian Henson went on to become a director (The Muppet Christmas Carol) and producer (Farscape, Sid the Science Kid), and now serves as Chairman of the Jim Henson Company. To celebrate the film’s anniversary, Yahoo Movies spoke with Brian Henson about his experience working at the center of Labyrinth.
Legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer talks 'Top Gun' memories
All last week, we’ve been covering the 10 essential classics from the Summer of ’86. But the list of great movies that opened in theaters that summer doesn’t stop at 10. Whenever big hits like Aliens, Top Gun, and Stand by Me were sold out at the movie theater — or checked out at the video store — there were plenty of other, less-heralded films to keep us entertained. The Yahoo Movies staff dug into our memory banks and revisited some our personal favorites from the Summer of ’86, films that imprinted themselves on our minds… and maybe yours as well.
Inforgraphic shows the biggest money-makers of the season 30 years ago
'The Karate Kid, Part II' made money; 'Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives' foreshadowed 'Scream'; 'Poltergeist II: The Other Side' haunted by memories of Spielberg; plus, 'Psycho III' and 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2'
Technically, the first film Spike Lee directed was his head-turning, $11,000 student effort, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. But the movie most people consider to be the first official “Spike Lee Joint” is She’s Gotta Have It, his breakthrough, sex-laced comedy that will celebrate its 30th anniversary this August. She’s Gotta Have It established several Lee trademarks, and its biting satire and sociological pot-stirring laid the foundation for the filmmaker’s entire career, including classics like Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), and The 25th Hour (2002).
Prince, Madonna, George Lucas, Tim Robbins, and many more A-List talents were in the mix for "honors" due to some of their more dubious achievements, another reason moviegoers never had a more interesting popcorn-movie season than 30 years ago
Muppets, puppets, and jugglers
The not-so-great of 1986
All this week, we’re celebrating the great movies that hit screens 30 years ago in 1986. Go here to read more.
All this week we’ve been revisiting the best movies that were released during the storied Summer of ’86. But “best” doesn’t necessarily have to mean “good.” You don’t have to be a regular listener of How Did This Get Made? to know that an epic bad movie can provide just as many thrills — and be as endlessly rewatchable — as a quality effort. And the Summer of ’86 had a plethora of terrible films, some of which we’re only vaguely ashamed to admit that we’ve seen more times than modern classics like The Fly or Manhunter. Here are 12 of the best bad movies that played in multiplexes that summer…and then in an endless loop on cable TV afterwards.
Don't let Rob Lowe and Demi Moore's presence fool you: This adaptation of David Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" is no Brat Pack movie
By the dog days of the summer of 1986, inveterate horror junkies (including yours truly) were in a funk. Not even James Cameron’s white-knuckle Aliens could wipe out the stench of Critters, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, and Psycho III. All that changed, however, in mid-August, when a freaky film announced itself with five immortal words: Be afraid. Be very afraid. David Cronenberg’s The Fly arrived in theaters Aug. 15 of that year, an instant classic that seared itself into the pop consciousness thanks to star Jeff Goldblum’s mesmerizing, metastasizing “Brundlefly,” a twitchy, oozy monstrosity made of bug parts and slime.
The smash hit also had a blockbuster soundtrack
John Carpenter's sly, subversive comedy adventure
Life movies pretty fast...
Hannibal Lecter became a legendary big-screen bogeyman in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 Best Picture winner The Silence of the Lambs — but it wasn’t the first time the iconic villain appeared on-screen. Instead, that momentous debut took place in Michael Mann’s 1986 crime thriller Manhunter. An adaptation of Thomas Harris’ first Lecter-related novel Red Dragon (it was remade — terribly — in 2002 by Brett Ratner), Manhunter helped usher in an age of serial-killer dramas that were as interested in twisted psychology as they were in fast thrills.
Had it been our choice, we probably would have pushed for “Transformers: The Movie,” which opened the same weekend. Since there was no way my parents were going to a “Transformers” feature, “Stand By Me,” based on Stephen King’s 1982 novella, “The Body,” became the default option. Up on the screen, I saw kids not that much older than myself — Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell were just entering their teen years when the movie was shot — smoking cigarettes, firing guns, dodging trains and cursing with wild, wonderful abandon on their weekend journey to find the body of Ray Brower.
(Photo: Everett)
By 1986, actor Rick Rossovich had several film credits to his name, including The Lords of Discipline, Streets of Fire, and The Terminator. Not only did that movie lead to more high-profile parts—in the years that followed, he starred in numerous film and TV projects, including Roxanne, Navy Seals, and E.R.—it also gave Rossovich the opportunity to power-flex his way into the Movie Abs Hall of Fame. Rick Rossovich: It’s funny because we had a read-through of the script…and the volleyball scene’s like an eighth of a page, a quarter of a page.