Everybody Wants Some!! (USA, 2016)

Everybody Wants Some!! (USA, 2016)
Director: Richard Linklater.  Starring: Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman, Zoey Deutch...

Whereas Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993) [previously covered in this post] was the high school years, this one is Dazed and Confused Goes To College. A disappointing movie, but the director's love of pinball shines once again with this lineup of very classic machines in beautiful condition, including Black Knight (Williams, 1980), Gorgar (Williams, 1979), Lost World  (Bally, 1978), Space Invaders (Bally, 1980), Kiss (Bally, 1979), and Capt. Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (Bally, 1976).

There are also a couple of classic video arcade games... Battlezone (Atari, 1980), which is a slight anachronism, since the movie takes place August 28 to September 1, 1980, but this machine was released in November of that year), and Space Invaders (Midway Manufacturing Co., 1978)...

Project X (USA, 1987)

Project X (USA, 1987)

Director: Jonathan Kaplan.  (Human) Stars: Matthew Broderick, Helen Hunt, William Sadler...

Most of the cast are chimpanzees, but alas none of them play pinball.

There is a short scene in a bar where we can spot some machines behind Broderick's buddies...

From left to right:
- Jungle Hunt (Taito, 1982) video game (but the front of the cabinet seems to be wrong)
- Contact  (Williams, 1978)
- Firepower  (Williams, 1980)
- Skylab (Williams, 1974)
- Asteroids (Atari, 1979) video game

Ghostbusters (USA, 1984)

Ghostbusters (USA, 1984). Director: Ivan Reitman. Stars: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis...

Others have mentioned this one before, but I had spotted this one before I knew that and there’s been a dearth in new pinballspottings for me lately.

I saw this movie when it was originally released, and it was great fun. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis were on fire in the late 70s, early 80s, writing some crazy comedies. Although Bill probably ad-libbed one of my favorite lines with: “...dogs and cats living together...”.

Anyway, in a corner of the Ghostbusters headquarters we can spot a Star Gazer (Stern, 1980), as well as two arcade games: Missile Command (Atari, 1980) (probably) on the left and a Star Castle (Cinematronics, 1980)...

Before Sunrise (USA, 1995)

Before Sunrise  (USA, 1995). Director: Richard Linklater. Stars: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy...

Perhaps this is not really a USA film, since it was shot entirely in Europe, mostly Vienna. Anyway, it’s an interesting, talky romance which became a sociological movie experiment of sorts, since Linklater, Hawke and Delpy went on to make two sequels (so far!), each set 9 years apart.

Linklater manages to fit yet another pinball machine in one of his films, this time a widebody Space Riders (Atari, 1978). Although associated mostly with video games (at least in my mind), Atari did produce about a dozen different pinball machines between 1976-1983...

Sadly,  the sequels do not have any pinball in them, although the characters did refer to this playing session in one of them.

Out Of The Blue (USA, 1980)

Out Of The Blue (USA, 1980). Director: Dennis Hopper. Stars: Linda Manz, Dennis Hopper, Sharon Farrell...

Pinballspotting “blue period”. Great film. Linda Manz is unforgettable. There's a scene in a bowling alley where she plays a SuperStar (Williams, 1972). It looks like the other machine is a Time 2000 (Atari, 1977).