Little Giants (1994)

3/5

Little Giants is one of those 90's movies that just don't get made anymore. It has a silly story, cheesy moments, and all the charm you can stuff in 100 minutes. Brothers Danny (Moranis) and Kevin (O'Neill) O'Shea are as different as you can get. Kevin escaped his small town home and became a football super-star while Danny remained at home and raised a family. When Kevin comes back to create a championship peewee football team, Danny feels bad for all the kids who weren't picked, including his own daughter Icebox (Waldron). Danny decides to create his own team and manages to wrangle all the misfits in town, and it suddenly turns into classic David vs. Goliath tale.

The movie is neither clever nor subtle, but it works precisely because it hams it up. Like all those cult classics you avoid unless you're part of the cult, you watch this movie with nostalgia for your youth and innocence. It reminds you of the times when you thought snot was funny and misheard words or misunderstood phrases were strokes of genius. The script is full of those awesome laugh-out-loud moments. The acting is passable but not believable. The characters are more exaggerated than circus drawings. The plot is more predictable than a Disney film. But it doesn't matter. It's senseless fun that you can appreciate it for what it is: a silly romp that never apologizes for being guilty fun.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110364/

Final Destination (2000)

2/5

Final Destination is about a boy (Sawa) who can see the future. He gets off a flight to France because of a premonition, along with about five other people, and as soon as the plane takes off, it explodes. When his best friend (who had also gotten off the plane) dies in a freak accident soon after, he realizes that Death is "tying up loose ends." The boy and the few others he saved try to fend off all the possible ways that Death might reclaim them, but Death has a few unexpected surprises for them. If that doesn't sound exciting to you, I don't know what will!

This movie is a thrill rush--a poorly-acted, poorly-written, poorly-filmed thrill rush. Still, I have to admit, I don't really regret watching it. I loved seeing the build-up to the freak accidents. But even better than that was how the filmmakers tricked you into thinking someone would die in one way only to have them die in a completely unexpected alternate manner. The ludicrous nature of the deaths was also often hilarious. If you're anything like me, I'm sure you'd enjoy this movie, so don't turn it off if it comes on TV.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195714/