The Sure Thing (1985)

A down-on-his-luck college student is seduced by the promise of a "sure thing" waiting for him in California, as he makes his way cross-country with a reluctant passenger by his side. This rom-com might seem dated by modern standards, but it's full of charming performances that stand the test of time.

3 hitchhikers out of 5

Beverly Hills Ninja (1997)

Chris Farley's next big screen outing proved that he could capably headline his own solo feature film. Adopted into a Japanese monestary as a baby and believed to be the prophecized "Great White Ninja," Haru is raised as one of their own and trained in the ninjutsu ways, but still grows up to be fat and clumsy. He is recruited on a mission to Beverly Hills by a beautiful woman where it becomes a strange fish out of water story, in a take on films like American Ninja and Beverly Hills Cop. The laughs are big and broad, which might not be suited to everyone's sensibilities, but it's funny if you bring yourself down to its level. These movies are sweet at their core and don't deserve the amount of critical vitriol they received at the time. I just want to live in the spaces where it exists because life seemed a lot simpler back then.

3½ astral projections out of 5

Spy Hard (1996)

A spoof of the spy genre (particularly James Bond/007), which also jam-packs other popular films of the time, like Speed, Sister Act, Home Alone, Rambo, etc. Leslie Nielsen portrays Special Agent Dick Steele, aka WD-40, while Nicollette Sheridan does a serviceable job as second banana Agent 3.14. Directed by Rick Friedberg, and written by nepo baby Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, who are credited with the demise of the spoof genre and gave them a bad name during the 2000s stretch of parody films. The movie was famously meddled with by Disney, who dumbed it down for audiences to try and (poorly) imitate the ZAZ style and hacked it apart by about 20 minutes. The latter half suffers for it and we're denied a proper denouement, but you can tell the potential is there and there are a lot of fun visual gags that are still memorable to me 30 years later. As usual, Nielsen carries the entire thing on his shoulders. I still enjoy it more than all the other films Friedberg & Seltzer became associated with later on.

2½ unlucky joggers out of 5