Push Comes to Shove

We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.

Thrills, karate, and '80s sex comedy.

THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE (1992)

Director Curtis Hanson’s psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is a movie that I went decades without revisiting, and yet it’s also a movie that has always held a special place in my heart, because I have clear memories of watching it in the theatre with my mom when I was just eight years old. This may seem an odd choice to take an eight year old to see, but chances are high that I was the one who requested that we go see it in the first place. By eight, I was already a well-established fan of horror movies and thrillers, and had even seen Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies on the big screen by then. So this was fairly tame compared to some of the other stuff I was watching.

Written by Amanda Silver, the film stars Annabella Sciorra and Matt McCoy as married couple Claire and Michael Bartel, with Madeline Zima as their young daughter Emma. The Bartels have an intellectually disabled handyman named Solomon (Ernie Hudson) helping them with projects around their property, but when Claire gives birth to a second child, they also go looking for a nanny. They find a woman who claims to be named Peyton Flanders, played by Rebecca De Mornay – but before Peyton even enters the Bartel home, we already know that her real last name is Mott, as she was the wife of obstetrician Dr. Victor Mott (John de Lancie), who sexually assaulted Claire during a routine check-up. Facing serious charges, Victor committed suicide and the shock of his death, along with the revelation that she wouldn’t have access to any of his money, caused his wife to have a miscarriage. She blames the Bartels for all of her misfortune and is out for revenge.

Rewatching The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, I was surprised to find that all of this information was delivered right up front. If the movie were made these days, it would probably play out like a mystery. “Why is Peyton messing with these people?” It’s never a question here; we know from the start that this is a straightforward case of misguided revenge.

Rebecca De Mornay delivers one of the all-time great villain performances in this movie, seeming nice and charming when Peyton is around other people, but carrying out twisted schemes when nobody’s looking. She breastfeeds Claire’s baby so he’ll reject his mother’s milk, turns her daughter against her, messes with Michael’s career (and attempts to seduce him), tries to sabotage their marriage, ruins their relationship with their friend Marlene (Julianne Moore), and even drives Solomon out of their lives. Of course, this is all building up to physical violence, and more people than Victor Mott will be dead by the time the end credits roll.

This movie has stuck with me over the years for a variety of reasons. One is the strength of De Mornay’s “bad girl” performance, another is the fact that Claire has intense asthma, which my mom also suffered from. When I saw her having asthma attacks in this movie, it was something I was very familiar with, having seen my mom have asthma attacks. There’s also a moment where Peyton does something so awful to an extremely likeable character (that’s Solomon; Ernie Hudson gave an incredibly endearing performance), my mom gasped out loud in the theatre. I’ll always remember that moment and that gasp.

If you’re a fan of thrillers, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is a must-see. It’s a great one.

SPEAK NO EVIL (2024)

When I was in my teens, I would purposely seek out movies that would test the limits of what I could handle when it came to violence and brutality. A prime of example of this is Cannibal Holocaust, which contains a mixture of real animal deaths and brutal murders that were brought to the screen in such a convincing way that the filmmakers had to prove in court that they hadn’t really killed the actors. I sat through Cannibal Holocaust – in fact, I’ve sat through it more times than I would have liked to – and can handle it, but it still leaves me feeling deeply depressed in the end. It didn’t take me long to figure out that testing my limits with movies wasn’t something I gained anything from, aside from bad feelings. So I started avoiding things that I knew would get to me. When a theatrical horror movie marathon I was attending showed A Serbian Film, I spent the duration of the movie waiting it out in the lobby, and when I heard that director Christian Tafdrup’s Danish thriller Gæsterne, a.k.a. Speak No Evil, had an ending that was so downbeat that it was soul-crushing, I decided to skip that one as well. Adult life is difficult enough. The real world gives us all plenty of things to feel bad about. I don’t need to see movies that will drag me down as well. 

Tafdrup’s movie received an English-language remake from writer/director James Watkins, and when it came out that Tafdrup was disappointed with the remake because Watkins had told a story of good versus evil that had the audience clapping, laughing, and whooping during the climactic sequence instead of leaving the screening traumatized, that’s when I decided I would give the remake a chance. And I’m glad I did, because it turned out to be an engrossing and thoroughly satisfying thriller – and it didn’t have to leave me feeling traumatized and depressed to be a worthwhile viewing experience.

Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis star as Ben and Louise Davis, an American couple who crosses paths with British couple Paddy and Ciara (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi) while vacationing in Italy. The couples hit it off so well, Paddy and Ciara invite them and their young daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) to visit them and their young son Ant (Dan Hough) at their home in the England countryside. Ben and Louise are having marriage troubles and Agnes has anxiety issues, so they think the vacation might be good for all of them... but once the Davis family arrives at the home of the British family, Paddy and Ciara start displaying strange, disrespectful, passive-aggressive behavior. Their treatment of Ant is also questionable, and sometimes the boy – who is unable to speak – seems to be trying to warn their guests about his parents.

Soon, it becomes very clear that the Davis family has put their lives in danger by coming to visit Paddy and Ciara, who are not who they appeared to be when everybody was having fun in Italy... and to leave their property, they’re either going to have to escape or fight to the death. From what I gather, the characters in the Danish movie weren’t able to do much to defend themselves, but the Davis family puts up quite a fight, in a climactic sequence that brought to mind the classic 1971 thriller Straw Dogs in some ways. 

This Speak No Evil can be an unsettling watch and sometimes a frustrating one, especially when we see how Ben initially reacts to the bizarre behavior being displayed by their hosts, but it ends up being a good time.

COBRA KAI SEASON SIX (2024 – 2025)

As I’ve said before, I feared the worst when the TV series Cobra Kai, a continuation of the Karate Kid franchise from the ‘80s, was first announced. Although it was cool that Ralph Macchio and William Zabka were going to reprise their Karate Kid roles of Daniel LaRusso (the Karate Kid himself) and his nemesis Johnny Lawrence, the show was coming from the creative team behind the Harold and Kumar movies. I figured this was going to be a comedic mess, something that would make a mockery of the Karate Kid franchise. Thankfully, the Harold and Kumar guys (Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg) went on to prove me wrong season after season, making a show that’s so entertaining and captivating that it has become one of my all-time favorites, and displays such a heartwarming reverence to the Karate Kid films of the ‘80s that watching Cobra Kai has even enhanced my own appreciation for those movies. This show is the best, most respectful follow-up to The Karate Kid that we ever could have hoped for. My worries evaporated after I watched the first season and I looked forward to each new one with nothing but excitement and curiosity... until season 6, the series finale.

Consisting of fifteen episodes (five more than previous seasons), Cobra Kai season 6 was released through the Netflix streaming service in three parts – and my new worries didn’t come up until after I had watched the five episodes that made up “Part 1.” For me, this season didn’t start off in a promising way. In fact, it seemed like those five episodes might have been the sloppiest episodes of Cobra Kai we had ever gotten. It felt like the show was just scrambling to wrap up loose ends while neglecting to give viewers important information. I was still having fun watching the show, but I didn’t like how one character just seemed to vanish between the third and fourth episodes and was shocked when the villainous karate sensei Kreese (Martin Kove) seemed to be able to bounce in and out of the United States with no problems even though he had escaped from prison at the end of the previous season.

Thankfully, questions are answered (or situations are brushed aside) and the ride gets smoother in the remaining episodes. Some things could have been handled better along the way, but this final season ended up being very satisfying overall.

Although the Cobra Kai dojo appeared to be defeated at the end of season 5, Kreese and Kim Da-Eun (Alicia Hannah-Kim) are able to revive it in time to participate in the Sekai Taikai, an international tournament that our heroes at Miyagi-Do, headed up by senseis Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, have also gotten into. The first stretch of this season shows how Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai prepare and choose their fighters for the Sekai Taikai. The second part of the season shows us the tournament, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain. Then the final batch of episodes bring the characters back home to California for one last confrontation between our heroes and villains.

Along the way, there are twists and turns, Kreese’s friend-turned-enemy Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) returns, Daniel and Johnny continue to struggle to work together, and issues between the younger characters are resolved.

The season got off to a shaky start, but the creative team was able to stick the landing, giving most of our favorite characters the appropriate endings. While I understand that the show had to end at some point because the Cobra Kai “karate war” couldn’t go on forever, I am really going to miss getting to see these characters live out new storylines. I would have gladly watched many more seasons of this show, just to get to spend more time with the characters. Whether through spin-offs or movies, I hope we’ll be able to catch up with them as time goes by. We’ve already seen Daniel and Johnny in another movie since the show came to an end, but we need more. 

HOT MOVES (1984)

Fifteen years before American Pie, but three years after Porky’s and two years after The Last American Virgin, director Jim Sotos teamed with screenwriters Larry Anderson and Peter Foldy to bring us the sex comedy Hot Moves, which centers on a group of male high school students who are determined to lose their virginity during summer break. These characters are played by Michael Zorek, Adam Silbar, Jeff Fishman, and Johnny Timko, but don’t expect to see much variation between the characters. They’re mostly interchangeable knuckleheads.

Although Zorek gets top billing (he stands out from the group because he’s beefier and dimmer than his buddies), it’s Silbar’s character Michael who’s really the lead of the movie, since he’s seen as “the most sensible” of the boys. He has a girlfriend, Jill Schoelen as Julie Ann, but she’s not ready to have sex yet, so Michael spends most of the movie looking elsewhere for someone who would be willing to have sex with him. He doesn’t want to waste his time with Julie Ann because their dates just leave him frustrated.

Reaching a running time of 85 minutes only because it’s stuffed to the bursting point with filler like extended credit sequences, an ending montage, and footage of people doing random activities on and around Venice Beach (the setting of the movie), Hot Moves is very episodic in nature, following the boys on one near-miss with sex after another. One almost hooks up with a waitress, but is sabotaged by his friends. They spy on a nude beach, where more than a dozen women are shown running down the sand, completely naked. They stop by a porn shop. They attempt to pick up some hookers, but their language is too uncouth, even for professional ladies of the night. There’s also some homophobic and transphobic humor along the way, which isn’t surprising to see in an ‘80s movie.

While Julie Ann tries to figure out what she’s going to do with her love life now that Michael has gone out of his mind, the boys end up going on a quadruple date with a group of girls that includes Debi Richter and Deathstalker II’s Monique Gabrielle – who wasn’t given the opportunity to be as funny in this movie as she was in Deathstalker II a few years later.

It’s easy to see why Hot Moves hasn’t endured like Porky’s, The Last American Virgin, and American Pie have, as it’s not as good or funny as it could have been, but if you like sex comedies, it’s worth a look. You’ll just have to brush aside some of the humor that wouldn’t fly these days.