BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) THE RIVER WILD
This movie doesn’t get nearly the amount of love it should. He was nominated for a best supporting actor award at the 1994 Golden Globes, but it still doesn’t get much attention. It’s such a good movie. Bacon is joined by John C. Reilly as two friendly seeming guys who end up being evil criminals who make a married couple (Meryl Streep and David Straithaim)’s camping vacation a living hell. I remember it blowing my young mind and making me scared of Kevin Bacon.
(THREE) ANIMAL HOUSE
Chip Diller was a dick. Many folks ignore the fact that Bacon played one of the assholes in this 1978 classic. He’s the typical military school jerk. He’s the guy who takes ROTC and being a stern dweeb a bit too damn seriously. He gets his in the end, but he more than earns it with some really fun bad guy scenes in the movie.
(TWO) WILD THINGS
Just when I got over Kevin Bacon being creepy in The River Wild and basically ruining my childhood for the guy, he had to go and do this movie. I grew to appreciate him as I got older. I also grew to appreciate girls and THAT is a main focus of this movie. It was 1998. Why else would a 15 year old want to see this movie? Plot? C’mon! And then yeah… Bam! Kevin Bacon! Creepy!
(ONE) THE AIR UP THERE
Whatever. I know most people didn’t see this movie or have forgotten it. How dare you? In 1994, Kevin Bacon played a man named “Jimmy Dolan”. Jimmy’s job was to go to Africa to recruit a really tall African basketball player. It sounds silly and dammit it was. It sounds like a movie that was made to capitalize on the Jordan era NBA popularity and dammit it was. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a lot of fun. It could have been a really hokey and racist movie, but it wasn’t. It’s got a lot of heart and is a charming and nice movie. It should be appreciated a helluva lot more.
|
