Silly? Yes. Funny. Somewhat. Too scary for young kids? Nope. Hocus Pocus (1993) is just plain entertaining. Bette Middler’s performance is completely over the top, but perfect for a film that is weak in the script department, the laughs sometimes miss, and is not really scary enough to be a scary movie. Sort of along the same lines of film as Ghostbusters, but with fewer out loud laughing moments, that is only saved by performances that far exceed those of Bill Murray and company.

In the year 1693 the Sanderson sisters, Winifred, Mary and Sarah (Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker) were hanged for being witches. Just before their hanging, Winifred’s spell book allows her to cast one more spell, a curse that when a virgin lights the black flame candle on Halloween light, they will return.

Fast forward to 300 years later, Max (Omri Katz) on a late night excursion to the closed “museum” of the Sanderson sisters, decides to light the candle in order to scare his irritating sister Dani (Thora Birch) and his wannabe girlfriend Alison (Vinessa Shaw), enabling the sisters to return.

The fun ensues as the kids try to set things right, and the witches learn to deal with modern day Salem while attempting to create the potion that will enable them to suck the lives out of all the children in Salem. Now, the three Witches are back ready for a night of fun, magic and horror in the now modern area of Salem.

Not quite the classic children’s movie, like It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, but a lot more fun than some others, especially if you have little ones that aren’t ready for really scary Halloween films.

Almost an Angel(1990) pairs up the popular 80′s movie couple Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski, best known for their roles in the Crocodile Dundee trilogy. (Yes it was a trilogy, the released a third one in 2001. Didn’t see it? Me either.)

Anyway after the first two Dundee movies, and with an apparent budding romance going on (Hogan and Kozlowski were married in 1990) and looking to cash in on the popularity of the two, we find the movie Almost an Angel.

In this movie a small time crook named Terry Dean (Hogan) is convinced he was sent back by god to do good. He meets up with and befriends a bitter wheel chair cripple (Elias Koteas) that happens to be the sister of woman (Kozlowski) that runs a center for children. He uses his “skills” for good to help save the shelter from closing as we watch the tension of a potential relationship build between the two.

As a romantic comedy, this is not on the level of When Harry Met Sally. It isn’t even on the level of You Got Mail. But for a bit of an offbeat humorous story, there are far worse ways to spend some time, than to watch the chemistry between Hogan and Kozlowski on the screen.

There are a number of movies that come to mind when you try to list movies that define the 80′s. One of them is without a doubt, Dirty Dancing (1987). This relatively low budget film was a major hit, and the music won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe as well as being nominated for a Grammy Award.

Not normally what I would spotlight as I like to go typically with lesser known films, I thought now on the 20th anniversary of the release, it was worth mentioning. Despite several attempts (most dubiously, Dirty Dancing – Havana Nights) no “dance” film in the past 20 years has managed to catch the lighting in a bottle that this film produced.

No, Jennifer Grey (“Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman”) nor Patrick Swayze ( “Johnny”) would ever be mistaken as the best actors, and even accomplished veteran Jerry Orbach (Dr. Jake Houseman) gave a performance that was a bit wooden.  But the film, powered by an awesome sountrack, some great dancing, and a good story is able to keep people enthralled, tapping their feet to the beats of the music, and almost weeping for joy (that’s ok guys you don’t have to admit it), when Johnny comes over and takes ‘Baby’ up on the stage for that final dance number.

Like, I have mentioned of some actors and actresses in the past, sometimes when something gets “too popular” it becomes fair game to start to dislike it, “just because” and that seems to be the case with Dirty Dancing over the years as this wonderful film has been derided as a fluffy ‘chick flick’ and  as such does not get the recognition it deserves.

The pace of the film never gets too fast or too slow, the twists in the plot are not subtle or hard to pick out ahead of time, so there are few surprises.  But what the film does and does well, it make you feel like part of the Catskills Resorts of the 1960′s and brings you into a world of music and dance that is fun.  Watch it.  Or, go back and watch it again.  You may just be surprised to find it is even better than you remember.

If you take Raiders of the Lost Ark, and turn it into a romantic comedy, you get Romancing the Stone (1984).   This one is a little more popular and had a much bigger box office than the other movies I have listed in the TripleVenit Late Night Movie Club so far, but apparently at least around here, very few people seem to remember, or even have heard of this film, which was the first big breakout for Director Robert Zemeckis.  (Zemeckis’ next film would be Back to the Future).

In this story Joan Wilder (Turner),  a romance novelist has her peaceful, serene and somewhat mundane life turned on its head, when she receives a map in the mail from her recently murdered Brother-In-Law, and her sister is kidnapped by Columbians that want the map that Joan has received.

She decides to take the journey, and along the way meets Jack Colton (Douglas), a free-spirited adventurer who while used to only caring about himself gets roped into helping Joan.

They need to try and save Joan’s sister, but they must first survive various different groups that are out to get the map.  And what does the map reveal?  Should they follow the map?  As I said, this is a comedy, so while the movies has adventures, action (and snakes) much like an Indiana Jones film, silly and hillarious situations also ensue.   And of course, you get a somewhat cliche, but classic (with a twist) happy ever after ending. (which I will not spoil).