Cru Jones Society

Friday, Friday, my entire kingdom for want of a Friday! Sacrifice your kingdom not, for Friday comes each and every week, and this Friday’s special because lurking at the end of this weekend is one of the premier party events of the year. It’s Super Bowl weekend where we’re allowed to show up hungover on Monday without the boss questioning our ever-lurking alcoholism and your resultant bloat is not expected, but encouraged.

In addition to Super Bowl fun, we’ll kick off your weekend right with all-around badass William Shatner, Mike The Situation, MMA trash-talking from Chael Sonnen, the commander-in-chief, and Jake Jabs. Yep, the guy who sells cheap sofas and butchers old Waylon Jennings tunes.

Wait, what?

It’s all inside. Enjoy your Super Friday. Continue Reading »

Release Date: June 10, 1994
Box Office Gross: $121,248,145
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating: 90%
Pertinent Review Line: “Speed cinches its spot as the thrill ride of summer by providing characters to hiss at and root for. Jack and Annie actually manage to strike up a convincing romance even at hyperspeed and without taking their eyes off the road. It’s an impressive feat enhanced by the film’s knack — shared with The Fugitive — for serving up two hours of pure pow without gratuitous gore.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone 

That’s right. I’m claiming a movie that basically every critic liked and made over $100 million at the box office is totally underrated. “You’re defending popular blockbuster Speed,” asked an incredulous Lady E the other night. That’s right, baby! You probably enjoyed this movie way back when, but you almost certainly cannot remember why. That’s why I’m here. Continue Reading »

Release Date: August 13, 1999
Box Office Gross: $66,384,775
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating: 79%
Pertinent Review Line: “Bowfinger is smoothly directed and acted with glee, showing off the quick-witted comic spirit that is enjoying a welcome resurgence late this summer. (Dick, the diabolically bubbly Watergate satire, and The Muse, forthcoming from Albert Brooks, are in much the same literate vein.) But what makes it work, beyond a landslide of wily gags that would do a Mad magazine satire proud, is the rueful experience that colors its humor. Mr. Martin doesn’t flaunt this, but it shapes his screenplay effortlessly.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

For our next underrated movie we turn to the Steve Martin penned, Frank Oz directed satirical look at Hollywood, Bowfinger. Eddie Murphy teams up with Steve Martin in this farce to make us laugh and perhaps something more to show why this movie is underappreciated. Continue Reading »

Once per quarter, the CJS will dedicate a week to our favorite underrated movies. These are misunderstood masterpieces, poorly distributed or publicized shoulda-been-giants, and movies that have gotten lost in the shuffle over time. Got a movie you think is underrated? Send us an email at staff [at] crujonessociety.com and tell us your underrated favorite. We might write about it, or we might even ask you to pen a guest column for us. Here’s today’s entry.

Release Date: September 26, 1997
Box Office Gross: $27,873,386
Rotten Tomatoes Freshness Rating: 56%
Pertinent Review Line: “At this point we can easily predict the death of the assistant (Harold Perrineau). He’s an African American, and so falls under the BADF action movie rule (“The Brother Always Dies First”). The redeeming factor in this case is that Mamet knows that, and is satirizing the stereotype instead of merely using it. His approach throughout the movie is an amused wink at the conventions he lovingly massages.” – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

We open our new feature by taking a look at wilderness thriller The Edge. Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin fight a bloodthirsty grizzly bear as they fight for their lives in the unforgiving wilderness. But is there more here than meets the eye? If there weren’t, it probably wouldn’t be underrated, now would it? Continue Reading »

This week signals part one of a four part feature we will be doing throughout the year. We love movies, and we watch a lot of them, and we feel there are several we love that do not get the proper respect. So for four weeks throughout the year we will talk about twelve movies, three each week, we feel are underrated.

To kick off this new segment we looked to you, our loyal readers. And the best way to do that was with the Monday Confessional. We asked you: What movie do you think is underrated? As usual ours are first, and we picked a couple we talked about before that didn’t warrant a whole post. Then we move on to the wide variety of responses we got from you guys. Continue Reading »