The Wraith (1986)

Leighton: ** Sabine: ***
NetFlix Rental

Sabine felt I had been monopolizing the NetFlix rentals, so she gave me a list of some 80s movies that she has fond memories of. Of the five or six on the list only this one is available on DVD. Charlie Sheen, back when he actually was pretty good looking (as opposed to the "rode hard and put away wet" look he has on Two and a Half Men), is back from the grave with a mystical car avenging his death against the gang of crazy car racers/thieves who killed him. Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks) is the girl the gang leader obsesses over (and killed Charlie Sheen over). Randy Quaid (Independence Day, Vacation) is the local sherrif. You probably won't have heard of anybody else in the movie. It's sort of like The Crow without the goth atmosphere or rock/industrial soundtrack or a crow. And with lots of road racing and a bad 80s soundtrack. Sabine liked it more than me since she had seen it before and remembered liking it before. I didn't think it was horrible. Heck, it had Clint Howard looking kind of like a lovechild of Egon from Ghostbusters and Eraserhead. How can you not like that?

(Fun Trivia: Both The Wraith and The Crow have crazy homicidal gang member characters named Skank. Coincidence or homage? You decide.)

MirrorMask (2005)

Leighton & Sabine: ***
NetFlix Rental

MirrorMask is a new fantasy movie from Jim Henson's production company, the one's that brought you Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. It's also very similar in style to The Neverending Story. It's about a girl who works in a circus run by her parents, who falls asleep and finds herself in a fantastic world populated by all kinds of amazing looking CGI characters. The story was written by the author Neil Gaiman (American Gods, Sandman) and is directed by Gaiman's long-time comic illustrator Dave McKean.

Equilibrium (2002)

Equilibrium
NetFlix DVD
Leighton/Sabine: ***

Similar to 1984 or V for Vendetta, Equilibrium takes place in a near-future dystopian world where feelings and emotions are outlawed and the population forced to take daily injections of an emotion-supressing drug, Prozium. Christian Bale plays a high-level enforcement Cleric, trained in guns and martial arts, who stops taking the Prozium and begins to question his orders. There's lots of action eye-candy along with the message. Not a great movie, but a pretty enjoyable one, overall.