There was a moment in Bad Influence that felt EXTREMELY familiar to me—I can't remember now what it was—but once I hit the sequence where Rob Lowe and James Spader are driving around and robbing random stores (JAMES SPADER IS WEARING AN ENORMOUS BUNNY MASK, BECAUSE SURE???), I knew I hadn't seen it, because I'd have remembered that for SURE. I think it must have just felt familiar because it was such a standard storyline and leaned so heavily on noir imagery?
Something About Spader, indeed—maybe it's just me, but I feel like you can stick him into a movie/role that is otherwise pretty rote, and he always elevates it?
I just love that the decades (at least for me) are so easily encompassed by individual actors. Mid-70's TV? Richard Hatch. Mid 80's? The inescapable Heather Locklear. And for movies in the early 90's?? Rob Lowe, and James Spader were freakin' everywhere. It's so weird, I think that they really figured that Spader was like a middle of the road every man because he had medium brown hair and a medium tall body and... He was just "medium." And Yet...
I'm so glad to remember his movies! Not sure how I had forgotten about him. (Well, not gonna to lie, it's mainly because I try to block out the 80s in their entirety.) Spader really did do Unhinged and Wimpy with equally believable intensity. (Or perhaps those two words are just good earmarks for the entire decade...😬😂)
I love that. I'll have to think about who my Decade Representatives would be—for me, Heather Locklear is a 90s person because of Melrose Place, a show that I have literally never seen an episode of, hahahaha. I had to look up Richard Hatch! His name wasn't familiar, but his face sure was. I associate Spader and Lowe with the 80s, Spader mainly because of Pretty in Pink, and Rob Lowe more so because of the scandal than because of me watching him in stuff. It's amazing how much stuff like this varies depending on our own personal touchstones.
A while back, we watched a horror movie from 1985 called The New Kids starring Lori Loughlin of all people, with James Spader as the lead creep, and he was INCREDIBLY NASTY in it, like skin-crawlingly so. It was clearly made for like 15 dollars, and he was just so. much. Directed by the guy who directed the first Friday the 13th movie! Eric Stoltz in a small part! We loved it, but YMMV, LOL. Anyway, it's so much fun to discover and engage with all of this semi-forgotten stuff. I love that I'll never run out, there's always just... more.
What a discovery it was, I'm *definitely* going to watch it again. So dumb, so fun, and the performances are way better than they even needed to be, heh.
Great, now I have to watch these. 😆 (I think maybe I have seen Bad Influence before but can't remember it?) There is just Something About Spader.
There was a moment in Bad Influence that felt EXTREMELY familiar to me—I can't remember now what it was—but once I hit the sequence where Rob Lowe and James Spader are driving around and robbing random stores (JAMES SPADER IS WEARING AN ENORMOUS BUNNY MASK, BECAUSE SURE???), I knew I hadn't seen it, because I'd have remembered that for SURE. I think it must have just felt familiar because it was such a standard storyline and leaned so heavily on noir imagery?
Something About Spader, indeed—maybe it's just me, but I feel like you can stick him into a movie/role that is otherwise pretty rote, and he always elevates it?
I just love that the decades (at least for me) are so easily encompassed by individual actors. Mid-70's TV? Richard Hatch. Mid 80's? The inescapable Heather Locklear. And for movies in the early 90's?? Rob Lowe, and James Spader were freakin' everywhere. It's so weird, I think that they really figured that Spader was like a middle of the road every man because he had medium brown hair and a medium tall body and... He was just "medium." And Yet...
I'm so glad to remember his movies! Not sure how I had forgotten about him. (Well, not gonna to lie, it's mainly because I try to block out the 80s in their entirety.) Spader really did do Unhinged and Wimpy with equally believable intensity. (Or perhaps those two words are just good earmarks for the entire decade...😬😂)
I love that. I'll have to think about who my Decade Representatives would be—for me, Heather Locklear is a 90s person because of Melrose Place, a show that I have literally never seen an episode of, hahahaha. I had to look up Richard Hatch! His name wasn't familiar, but his face sure was. I associate Spader and Lowe with the 80s, Spader mainly because of Pretty in Pink, and Rob Lowe more so because of the scandal than because of me watching him in stuff. It's amazing how much stuff like this varies depending on our own personal touchstones.
A while back, we watched a horror movie from 1985 called The New Kids starring Lori Loughlin of all people, with James Spader as the lead creep, and he was INCREDIBLY NASTY in it, like skin-crawlingly so. It was clearly made for like 15 dollars, and he was just so. much. Directed by the guy who directed the first Friday the 13th movie! Eric Stoltz in a small part! We loved it, but YMMV, LOL. Anyway, it's so much fun to discover and engage with all of this semi-forgotten stuff. I love that I'll never run out, there's always just... more.
I adore the pulpy brilliance of “Bad Influence” so much. It’s one of those objectively stupid movies that I can rewatch every year, loving it still.
What a discovery it was, I'm *definitely* going to watch it again. So dumb, so fun, and the performances are way better than they even needed to be, heh.