Miracle Mile

When Goose (Top Gun) meets the woman of his dreams, he'll go far and above to save her.

Plot: Having had a few dates, Anthony Edwards is rather smitten by his new lady and arranges for an evening of dancing, with the promise of some hardcore snoggin' to follow. That is until he accidentally stands her up and while waiting on a snack, is mistakenly called by a missile silo operator, informing him of the coming apocalypse. In an effort to save everyone in the diner and her, he must steal cars, shoot pistols, blow up gas stations and generally go far beyond what your average trombone playing, Jazz enthusiast might, in a regular day.

It ain't great. Don't believe the poster. Surprisingly, this film did attract a fan base, but, unsurprisingly, not a box office great.

The legendary film reviewer- Roger Ebert believed the film to have a sense of "real terror" but, having watched it, I can only assume he meant the acting and not so much the scripting.

Budget: $3,700,000

Gross: $1,145,404

Fun Fact: The film has appearances from Bubba (Forrest Gump), Tasha Yar (Star Trek- Next Generation) and features music from soundtrack supremo's- Tangerine Dream (The Keep, Street Hawk, Near Dark and Legend).

The Video Dead

This is definitely the kind of film a ten year old David would have loved. The poster makes this film look all kinds of awesome...shame really.

Plot: A writer, living somewhere in middle America, out of the blue, receives a wooden box with a TV inside. He puts it in the living room and goes about his business. The TV is not to be ignored however and turns itself on repeatedly, displaying a black and white zombie movie. Some blue lightning later, our writer is dead.
Skip to three months later and the murder house has been sold to a family, sight unseen. The new tenants; a teenage boy and college girl (awaiting their parents arrival for the Middle East) find the TV and all manner of Zombiness ensues.

It's a shame, as I said, because this film lacks story. I mean, it really lacks it. The acting is terrible, the direction is in fact non-existent and the camera work is lazy and unimaginative. There are but a few things that make this film watchable in any way; the Zombie make-up, which is in fact, some of the best for it's day and still looks good now, a washing machine death (spinning legs) and the end of the film where-in the lead actress finds herself holding a dinner party for the undead. Yep. I know.

Budget: $80,000 (most of the budget must have gone on the poster)

Gross: $?

Fun Fact: One of the actors took his role so seriously (that of a zombie) that he would only grunt and growl at other members of the cast once in make-up. That's dedication. The film is now available on Netflix and DVD...sweet.