Tagged: Casio digital watch
Bottle Rocket: Owen Wilson’s Cabana Shirt
Owen Wilson in Bottle Rocket (1996)
Vitals
Owen Wilson as Dignan, small-time crook and big-time dreamer
Texas, Fall 1995
Film: Bottle Rocket
Release Date: February 21, 1996
Director: Wes Anderson
Costume Designer: Karen Patch
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Wes Anderson and his friend—and frequent collaborator—Owen Wilson shared their respective directorial and acting debuts thirty years ago today when Bottle Rocket premiered on February 21, 1996.
The director and brothers Owen and Luke Wilson had previously filmed the story as a 13-minute black-and-white short that was screened at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, where it caught the attention of James L. Brooks, who agreed to finance a full-length version. Brooks’ financial involvement bumped the budget to $5 million, attracting co-star James Caan to bring experience and credibility alongside Anderson and the Wilson brothers’ freshman talent. Continue reading
Back to the Future: Marty McFly’s Denim and DeLorean from 1985 to 1955
Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985)
Vitals
Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, time-traveling high schooler and guitarist
Hill Valley, California, Fall 1985—then 1955
Film: Back to the Future
Release Date: July 3, 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
If my calculations are correct… anyone with a functioning DeLorean time machine who punches in July 3, 1985 and floors it to 88 mph would indeed see some serious shit—the release of Back to the Future, which premiered 40 years ago today.
One of the most celebrated movies of all time (and featuring the now-iconic DeLorean very appropriate for Car Week), Back to the Future became an instant cultural phenomenon upon release. It earned an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing, grossed over $380 million worldwide to become the top-earning movie of 1985, and propelled the careers of director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis (then riding high off Romancing the Stone) and star Michael J. Fox (best known at the time for playing Reaganite teen Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties), who replaced Eric Stoltz in the now-iconic role of Marty McFly. Continue reading
Mission: Impossible — Tom Cruise’s Black Leather Blazer as Ethan Hunt
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible (1996). Photo by Murray Close.
Vitals
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Impossible Missions Force agent
Prague to London, Spring 1996
Film: Mission: Impossible
Release Date: May 22, 1996
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Penny Rose
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Despite how much I enjoy espionage-themed spy movies—indicated by the plethora I’ve written about James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Three Days of the Condor—I had strangely never seen Ethan Hunt in action until just last week, two months shy of my 36th birthday, when all the buzz around Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning convinced me that it was time for me to trust Tom Cruise’s almost-superhuman spy one… first… time.
And, of course, I loved it. I had either forgotten or didn’t know that the 1996 film was directed by Brian De Palma from a script co-written by Robert Towne—with David Koepp, from a story by Koepp and Steven Zaillain. None of that considerable talent was wasted in rebooting Bruce Geller’s TV series for the screen, resulting in a stylish and fun blockbuster that became the third highest-grossing movie of 1996 and spawned a successful film franchise with the eighth (and likely final) installment released last month.
Mission: Impossible reintroduces Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), a reimagining of the character originated by Peter Graves on TV decades earlier. The movie begins as Jim assembles his squad—Ethan Hunt, Sarah Davies (Kristin Scott Thomas), Jack Harmon (an uncredited Emilio Estevez), Jim’s wife Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart), and Hannah Williams (Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė)—at a Prague safe-house, where he briefs the team on their upcoming mission to surveil and stop a rogue agent from stealing a list of the CIA’s non-official cover (NOC) identities.
When the IMF team and their target are wiped out with the NOC list missing, suspicion falls on the mission’s lone survivor: Ethan Hunt, who now has to prove his innocence while finding the real mole at the center of the scheme.
Sounds impossible? Not for Ethan Hunt. Continue reading
Day Shift: Jamie Foxx’s Vampire-Hunting Aloha Shirts
Jamie Foxx as Bud Jablonski in Day Shift (2022)
Photo by Andrew Cooper/Netflix
Vitals
Jamie Foxx as Bud Jablonski, maverick vampire hunter
San Fernando Valley, California, Summer 2022
Film: Day Shift
Release Date: August 12, 2022
Director: J.J. Perry
Costume Designer: Kelli Jones
Background
When I saw that Day Shift, the latest Netflix action comedy, centered around Jamie Foxx killing vampires while wearing a rotation of Hawaiian shirts, I knew I had to check it out.
Foxx stars as Bud Jablonski, whose job cleaning pools in the San Fernando Valley provides cover for his more serious occupation of hunting the undead. Continue reading
Stranger Things: Hopper’s “Cutting-Edge” Aloha Shirt
David Harbour as Jim Hopper on Stranger Things (Episode 3.04: “The Sauna Test”)
Vitals
David Harbour as Jim Hopper, small-town police chief
Indiana, Summer 1985
Series: Stranger Things
Episodes:
– “Chapter Two: The Mall Rats” (Episode 3.02, dir. The Duffer Brothers)
– “Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard” (Episode 3.03, dir. Shawn Levy)
– “Chapter Four: The Sauna Test” (Episode 3.04, dir. Shawn Levy)
– “Chapter Five: The Flayed” (Episode 3.05, dir. Uta Briesewitz)
– “Chapter Six: E Pluribus Unum” (Episode 3.06, dir. Uta Briesewitz)
– “Chapter Seven: The Bite” (Episode 3.07, dir. The Duffer Brothers)
– “Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt” (Episode 3.08, dir. The Duffer Brothers)
Streaming Date: July 4, 2019
Creator: The Duffer Brothers
Costume Designer: Amy Parris
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Netflix recently announced that the fourth season of its sci-fi/horror runaway hit Stranger Things has commenced production, so we can likely expect it to hit within a year. In the meantime, as I’m enjoying a “spring break” of my own with a trip south to sunny Florida this week, I’m taking a much-requested look at the “cutting edge” Aloha shirt that Hawkins police chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) wears in all but one episode of the series’ third season.
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