CLIFFHANGER (1993)

Hotshot mountain climber/rescue ranger/stud/'rock jock" Gabriel "Gabe" Walker (Sylvester Stallone) is having a bad day.  First, in the morning, while eating his breakfast, he watched ROCKY V on cable (this might not have actually happened in the movie) and then later, while on a rescue call, he drops his best friend's girlfriend off a 4,000 foot tall cliff.  D'oh!.  Gabe is riddled with guilt even though it wasn't his fault.  He gives up the mountain climbing rescue biz and splits town.

Eight months later, he returns to see if his girlfriend wants to join him.  Meanwhile, while Sly is packing his shit, an exciting mid-air robbery happens onboard a government airplane.  Long story short, three suitcases containing $100 million in cash are accidentally dropped at various locations around the mountain range.  The bad guys (John Lithgow and company) make a fake rescue call and then kidnap Sly and fellow rock jock Michael Rooker in order to force them to climb and get the suitcases.  Things don't go as planned.

For an older action movie, CLIFFHANGER looks surprisingly good and is pretty exciting.  Beautiful scenery, steady pace, a bunny rabbit, endearingly cheesy 90's special effects, awesome stunts and a impressive supporting cast including John Lithgow who does a good job as the bad guy despite having an annoying accent, burning stacks of money to keep warm despite literally being…in a forest.

Recommended for fans of older action movies.

RAISING CAIN (1992)

A child psychologist (Lithgow) takes a few years off to raise his daughter.  Sounds innocent enough, except for the fact that he's crazier than a shithouse rat (thanks to the severe abuse he suffered as a child).  Things get even worse when he finds out his wife is cheating on him.

Released just a year after THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, I suspect that the studio was wanting something more like that, but then when De Palma turned in this more challenging (both visually and in the storytelling) mind-bender he was pressured into changing it into a more straightforward narrative.  At least, that's what I've gathered from different interviews and articles over the years.

The official release though is still pretty good and although it's aged horribly it's a fun watch...Lithgow being creepy as fook, dream sequences, zero gore, very little blood, zero nudity, hardly any violence despite the gruesome subject matter, flashbacks, interesting visuals, nods to a bunch of different suspense films, 90's fashions, Cliff Clavin's mother,  90's cars, Satan awful looking 90's clocks, good supporting cast.

I've never been a fan of De Palma's style, but this is still an interesting time capsule of early 90's cinema.  I would love to see his original version.

If you need me, I'll be in my room watching Dexter season 4.