That Thing You Do! (1996, directed by Tom Hanks)

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

That Thing You Do! is the story of a one-hit wonder.

In 1964, an aspiring Jazz drummer named Guy (Tom Everett Scott) is a last minute addition to the a local band called the Oneders. (It’s meant to sound like Wonders but almost everyone mispronounces it as O-Needers.) The band’s egotistical leader, James (Jonathon Schaech) has written a slow ballad called That Thing You Do! but when Guy’s drumming causes the band to perform the song at a faster tempo, they end up with a local hit on their hands. That local hit becomes a national hit when The Oneders are signed by Play-Tone Records. First, Mr. White (Tom Hanks), their new manager, officially changes the name to The Wonders. Secondly, he makes sure that every teen in America is dancing to That Thing You Do! Third, he tells Guy to always wear sunglasses. Fourth, he tells James that he will record and perform what Play-Tone tells him to. Guitarist Lenny (Steven Zahn) and the unnamed Bass Player (Ethan Embry) are happy to be along for the ride but James chafes at his lack of artistic freedom. Guy, meanwhile, falls for James’s girlfriend (Liv Tyler, at her loveliest) and dreams of meeting his idol, jazzman Del Paxton (Bill Cobbs).

That Thing You Do! was Tom Hanks’s directorial debut and, with its careful recreation of a bygone era and its collection of authentic sounding early 60s rock on the soundtrack, it was obviously a labor of love. Considering the number of times that the song is played in the movie, it helps that it is a very good song. That Thing You Do! is a catchy tune, one that you can’t help but tap your feet to. At the same time, it also sounds like a one hit wonder. It’s good but not so great as to make you expect much else from The Wonders.

Not surprisingly, Tom Hanks gets great performances from the entire ensemble cast. Johnathon Schaech and Tom Everett Scott have never been better. Liv Tyler is lovely and vulnerable as James’s unappreciated girlfriend. Familiar faces like Peter Scolari, Kevin Pollak, Chris Isaak, and Clint Howard make welcome appearances. Hanks himself is surprisingly intimidating as Mr. White. When he says that the band will cover something the Play-Tone catalogue, it’s obvious that he’s not making a request.

The film is a tribute to being young and to loving music bit it’s also a study in the disillusionment of discovering that everything is ultimately a business. James is frequently an arrogant jerk and he treats his girlfriend terribly but it’s hard not to sympathize with him when he says that he wants to do more than just cover songs from the Play-Tone catalogue. To James and Guy, the Wonders are about self-expression and their love of music. To Mr. White, the Wonders are just another band that came up with one catchy tune and who probably aren’t ever going to be heard from again. That Thing You Do! pays tribute to all of the one-hit wonders out there, the bands who you forget about until you just happen to hear that one song on the radio or in a movie and suddenly, all the memories come flooding back.

Rush Week (1991, directed by Bob Bralver)

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

When campus coeds start to go missing, student journalist Toni Daniels (Pamela Ludwig) investigates. At first, she suspects that a local fraternity is responsible and that all of the disappearances are linked to the college’s notoriously wild rush week. But, after she starts dating Jeff (Dean Hamilton), the president of the fraternity, Toni decides that the killer is probably actually Arnold (John Donavon), a cook in the school’s cafeteria who asked all of the missing girls to model for him. While Toni and Jeff try to prove that Arnold is responsible for all of the recent disappearances, the school’s puritanical Dean (Roy Thinnes), tries to keep rush week under control. Good luck with that because no one controls rush week.

Rush Week is a mixes two genres, the campus comedy and the slasher film and it tries to proves that not even a string of murders can spoil a good frat party. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do a very good job at it. The comedy isn’t funny, the kills aren’t scary, and the identity of the murderer is obvious from the start. (Surprise, it’s not Arnold.) The best performance comes from Roy Thinnes, who gives a performance as the Dean that would make John Vernon proud. (Almost every actor eventually reaches a point where they have to start taking John Vernon roles to pay the bills.) Like a lot of bad 90s slashers, Rush Week used to be show up frequently on Late Night Cinemax. Most people who watched it probably did so because Kathleen Kinmont played the student whose disappearance sets the entire movie in motion. Kinmont plays a character named Julie Ann McGuffin. She’s an actual MacGuffin and that’s about as clever as the script gets.

Cinemax Friday: Final Impact (1991, directed by Joseph Mehri)

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

The girl on the back cover of the VHS box is only in the film for 5 seconds.

Danny Davis (Michael Worth) is the light heavyweight kickboxing champion of Ohio but he wants to be the national champion so he approaches Nick Taylor (Lorenzo Lamas) for training. Nick used to be the national champion but he is still haunted by his brutal defeat at the hands and feet of Jack Gerard (Jeff Langton). Nick is now an alcoholic who makes his money on the oil wrestling circuit. (The girls wrestle in oil while Nick kickboxes in a ring. Guess what most of the people in the bar end up watching?) When Danny and Nick first meet, the arrogant Nick refuses to have anything to do with him. But when Nick sees Danny win his match and shout out, “I am invincible!,” Nick decides to take him under his wing. The kid’s good but he needs to learn some lessons about making potentially ironic declarations in the ring.

Nick trains Danny and shows him that all of his talent won’t mean anything if he allows himself to become predictable. Soon, Nick and Danny are making the national circuit and fighting in Las Vegas. But as Danny becomes successful, Nick starts to grow jealous. He starts to feel as if his girlfriend, Maggie (the incredible Kathleen Kinmont), prefers Danny to him and he becomes so insecure that he can’t even perform long enough to cheat with a local prostitute that he picks up in a bar. Making matters worse is that, for Danny to become the champ, he’s going to have to defeat Jake Gerard, the man who ended Nick’s professional career.

Occasionally, late night Cinemax took a break from showing nudity-filled neo-noirs to show films like this one, a low-budget rip-off of Rocky, The Karate Kid, and Kickboxer. Of all the films that came out of this very 90s genre, Final Impact is one of the better examples. The fight scenes are exciting but the real appeal of this film is that it stars Lorenzo Lamas and Kathleen Kinmont, back when they were still a couple. Kinmont was one of the best of the 90s video vixens, beautiful and not a bad actress either. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Lamas was the male Shannon Tweed. Lamas may not have been a great actor but his total lack of shame and his ability to deliver deadpan dialogue like, “No one is invincible,” without cracking a smile made him more entertaining than many of his fellow direct-to-video stars. Lamas lurches drunkenly through Final Impact, taking both himself and the movie far too seriously and playing Nick’s emotional breakdown like an actor begging the Academy to just take a look. It’s fun to watch.

Final Impact ends as these films always do, with a champion being crowned. As far as I’m concerned, everyone in the film is champion, a champion of 90s Cinemax.