Movies Watched 2021 Part 1
by Chris Morris
So, I watch alot of movies, so many movies…I’ve decided to chronicle my movie watching journey cause why not? I have changed the blogs from, initially, just a list to doing reviews of the movies…some reviews are shorter, some longer…
Movies with *finally means this is the 1st time watching this, but it’s one of those movies I’ve always wanted to watch, but just didn’t for whatever reason…
Movies with *again means I’ve seen this before, some movies I’ve seen dozens of times, some hundreds of times…
I write “Ben Mank” for TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz cause his name is too long for me to write it all out every time cause I’m a lazy man…
I think that’s it…enjoy!
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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004
*one of my all-time favourites…Top 5 for sure…
Constantine 2005
*finally
*I’d heard this was a terrible adaptation, so I never watched it until now, even after liking Matt Reeves’ Contantine on Legends of Tomorrow…
*I’ll probably never “get” Keanu Reeves…I’ll never understand if he’s the best actor ever or the worst…
*the scene with the “mumble-off” between Reeves and Gavin Rossdale…wow
*after mumbling, smoking and murmuring his way through the movie, 90 minutes into the movie he becomes John Wick…
*at one point Rachel Weisz pulls out a gun and I was confused and then I remembered she was a cop…she is a cop right?
*wait this movie is over two hours? Why?
*and are we still looking for the Spear of Destiny? Has it been mentioned past the first few scenes? Or did I fall asleep at some point?
*okay, there it is…
*LaBeouf is down!
*Peter Stormare as Lucifer Morningstar, definitely a different take on the character compared to Tom Ellis’ Lucifer…
*when Stormare “hugs” Reeves and he opens his mouth, Reeves sure has had a lot of cavities…
*I’m not sure (again) if actors in movies like this have it tough or easy…when they have to sit/stand/lie around and yell and scream at imaginary things trying to eat them or whatever…are they having a blast or getting slightly traumatized?
*always great to see actors like Rachel Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Djimon Honsou…but this isn’t a great movie…I definitely prefer the DCTV versions of these characters…
*apparently a sequel is in the works…
Nighthawks 1981
*finally
*one of those movies I’d heard about…I especially remember seeing one scene where a bad guy grabs the shoulder of a blonde woman, she spins around and it’s a bearded Stallone wearing a blonde wig…that one image has always struck me as hilarious and I think it’s in this movie…we’ll see…
*with Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner
*according to Wikipedia, this was supposed to be “The French Connection 3” but Gene Hackman wasn’t interested (he was supposed to team with Richard Pryor which would have been interesting to me)…
*way more of Hauer’s character than I thought there would be…
*there are a lot of these “terrorism classes” or whatever, lots of Stallone writing notes and arguing with the British older dude…is he British? He looks British…like he’s trying to be Albert Finney…
*fun seeing Joe Spinelli, from Rocky, as a cop who isn’t the police chief but outranks Stallone as he gets to yell at him
*Billy Dee Williams has only had like ten lines of dialogue so far, an hour into the movie, but looks cool with his Superman t-shirt…
*long chase scene through an under-construction subway tunnel which looked pretty cool, but then they keep going…
*Hauer is holding an old woman hostage, Stallone won’t shoot, Billy Dee is yelling “take the shot…” basically saying “shoot the old woman, who gives a shit?”…
*after the chase, Hauer catches Billy Dee in the cheek with his knife and, sure, I’d cry like a b*tch if that happened to me, but they react as if he had his throat cut…in a movie world where people are constantly being shot in the shoulder and it barely phases them, this was unintentionally funny…
*in the hospital, Billy Dee again gives Stallone shit for not killing the old woman…at least he’s consistent
*so I’m guessing this puts Billy Dee on the shelf and the movie become even more Stallone-centric…?
*no I was wrong, Billy Dee is back a few scenes later and talks, despite getting his cheek sliced open…
*funny how this Stallone is, well, an actor…he seems baffled by Hauer and is listening to him when they talk, Stallone a few years later, like in, say “Cobra” is super cool and never shows weakness…kind of like Burt Reynolds was an actor pre-moustache but then post-moustache, he was just “Burt”…
*yup there it is!!! Stallone in a wig!!!
*like a true villain, Hauer is shot twice, falls through a glass window and down some stairs before he dies…
*anyway, this didn’t live up to the hype…
Dr. Who: Revolution of the Daleks 2021
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Murphy’s Romance 1985
*again
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Allie & Lara Make a Horror Movie Marathon 2018
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CLAIREvoyant Marathon 2018
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The Celluloid Closet 1996
*a great movie that brings up a lot of excellent points, going all the way back to early black and white movies to the present, with movies like “Basic Instinct” and “Silence of the Lambs”…
*something I’d never thought of…the quote in the movie is “Philadelphia is a great movie, but in the end, it’s still about a tragic gay character who dies…maybe at some point America will be ready for a gay character who lives…”
*I got annoyed with the lack of chyrons to identify the movies they were talking about…they would just start talking about a movie, one that I hadn’t seen and would like to, but they don’t say what the movie is…for example, apparently there was a movie where Rupert Everett and Cary Elwes were a couple? Cool, what’s it called? Sure I could do some investigating and look through their respective IMDB pages, but for a movie trying to show examples of gay filmmaking, wouldn’t the want to show the names of the movies they are talking about?
*never seen “Cruising” and this movie didn’t make me want to either…so it all works out…
*I have to admit to, when I was younger, being incredibly naive towards sexuality and, for one example, when I say “Rebel Without a Cause”, I never thought of the Sal Mineo character as gay…when I was a young I liked hanging around older men, ones with similar interests (one in particular introduced me to movies and here I am today) and there was nothing romantic about that…not saying the movie wasn’t saying that, but that’s why I didn’t see that when watching it…it’s obvious to me know of course, like when it was pointed out the two leads in “Rope” were a gay couple, sure that makes sense now looking back but at the time it just didn’t occur to me…
*loved seeing Edward Everett Horton, he’s always fun to watch…
*I think I misunderstood her, but when Shirley Maclaine talked about not understanding what her character was going through in “The Children’s Hour”, not sure I get that…
Bring it On: All or Nothing 2006
*w/Hayden Panettiere, Rhianna (as herself)
*kind curious, wasn’t expecting much, so I got what I deserved…
*not terrible really it was…a movie…
*also these are kind of fun as usually in the background you can see a character and say “Oh look, later on she plays a villain on Season 4 or Arrow…” but that didn’t happen here…or at least not that I noticed…
*the co-lead, Solange Knowles-Smith (as she is billed in the movie) is Beyonce’s little sister, and this is only the 2nd movie she would ever act in, besides “Johnson Family Vacation” (so far anyway)
*I also just learned that she attacked Jay-Z in an elevator once…had no idea…good for her…
*meh
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Teaching Mrs. Tingle 1999
*finally
*although I get this confused with “The Faculty”, although I also haven’t seen that one either…
*ah that Miramax logo…gross…
*Kevin Williamson at the peak of his powers, directing this movie with Katie Holmes, star of his “Dawson’s Creek”, as well as Barry Watson, from the co-WB show “7th Heaven”…this is the only movie he directed…
*Michael McKean is the Principal!
*Marisa Coughlan is Holmes’ best friend, she ended up in “Super Troopers”
*love this casting note on Wikipedia: “Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Sigourney Weaver and Sally Field were considered for the role of Mrs. Tingle…Gillian Anderson was offered the role but turned it down…” nice that they made the distinction between who was on Williamson’s dream list verses who they actually had the guts to offer the role to…
*teachers in this movie are Helen Mirren (who is top billed), Jeffrey Tambor, Molly Ringwald, Vivica A. Fox so that’s impressive
*kid brings a crossbow to class, nearly kills someone, and is then told to sit down…not exactly how it would happen today, but to be fair, I don’t think it would have happened like that in that time period either…
*but apparently me looking for realism in this movie is foolish…
*after having “Dawson’s Creek”, “The Vampire Diaries”, and the “Scream” movie franchise, today Williamson is doing the “Tell Me a Story” tv show for CBS All Access, although by coincidence I have watched the 2nd season on the CW while waiting for the Arrowverse shows to return…
*Tambor and Mirren are having an affair…didn’t see that coming…
*so Marisa Coughlan’s character is ruining the movie, she’s so obnoxious…not the actress, the character…
*Katie Holmes doesn’t have much to do here, at least at first…
*kind of surprised that I hadn’t seen this earlier as I had a crush on Holmes when she played Joey on “Dawson’s Creek” but I heard this was bad so…yet here we are!
*Molly Ringwald seems like a great teacher…
*so I admit to being half-listening to this but was there a reason why Mrs. Tingle was so evil to everyone, particularly Holmes? Did her mom (Lesley Ann-Warren) steal her husband or something so this is her way of getting revenge? Or is she just a big ol’ meanie??? In movie like this, does it matter?
*of course Helen Mirren is strong enough to fight off three teenagers (one boy, two girls), fall down some stairs…she’s Freddy Krueger all of a sudden…
*like I said in my “Bring it On 3” review, it’s fun to watch these movies and see young stars in background roles and see where they ended up…but nothing here…
*yeah, not good…
*I’m watching some random movies lately…
The Trotsky 2009
*again
*seen this a few times, but now I know more about Emily Hampshire from “Schitt’s Creek” and director Jacob Tierney, who is the co-creator of Canadian comedy series “Letterkenny”
*an all-star Canadian cast with Jay Baruchel, Colm Feore, Saul Rubinek, Jessica Pare, Ricky Mabe, Tiio Horn (Tanis on Letterkenny), Tommie-Amber Pirie…
*plus Genevieve Bujold, who was the original choice for Captain Janeway on “Star Trek: Voyager” but she backed out after two days of filming…
*plus Jesse Rath, who is brilliant and plays Brainiac 5 on “Supergirl”
*plus Ben Mulroney as himself…
*kinda weird, a Canadian indie film about a Canadian kid who thinks he’s the regeneration of Trotsky…there aren’t any “famous” Canadians he couldn’t be?
*Baruchel hooks up with Hampshire after knowing each other for two days and he is in high school (and I think she is ten years older than him), and I think she’s drunk…so that’s not cool…are we supposed to believe that Jay Baruchel (a great actor btw) has the charisma to seduce Emily Hampshire? Plus that’s illegal, right?
*”You’ve made us the laughing stock of the city…” “Its only half the city, the French don’t care…” great line
*this takes place in Montreal, btw
*so funny how in this movie, a Canadian indie, would launch so many careers, as opposed to big Hollywood movies like “Bring it On 3” and “Teaching Mrs. Tingle”…
*the movie gets pretty awesome with the high school kids taking things really seriously, planning a student strike like it’s a heist (and I always love it when there’s a heist or even the possibility of a heist…)
*oh and Michael Murphy is in this too, but he’s American…
*pretty cool with Trotsky having a mixed up family, a loving step mother (who he calls Mom) and a little sister who follows him around no matter what crazy scheme he is up to, defending him to the older brother who is a real dick head…
*cool cameo by another awesome talent, Liane Balaban…and the writer/director Jacob Tierney as “Lenin” at the end of the movie
*okay the Baruchel/Hampshire relationship I can’t really get behind but luckily it’s a really small part of the movie, so small in fact it could have been taken out…she really doesn’t do much in the movie, which sucks cause she’s awesome, I thought she’d show up at the end and be his lawyer but it’s the Murphy character who gets to have that moment…
*great movie though…
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Grace 2018
*just watching this for Katie Cassidy…that’s it…
*for a minute I thought this was “Gracie” the 2007 awesome girls soccer movie but no…
*also with Tate Donovan, Matthew Lillard, Missi Pyle…
*written and directed by Devin Adair
*so Cassidy is an aspiring writer who is hired to babysit a quirky writer played by Donovan…so I’m guessing they fall in love?
*30 minutes in, he’s gone from a crazy person to reasonable…that was easy…I’m guessing there will, just as they are connecting, be an “episode” that tears them apart…
*I’m getting some “As Good As it Gets” vibes…and I didn’t like that movie either…
*yup…something about his pool and he won’t let her swim in it…
*so in a random scene here and there, Katie Cassidy will smoke a cigarette…it’s not a part of the character, she just does it every fifth scene…random question, but why do actors do this? I always thought they would do this so that casting directors and producers would see them differently, as in, if the actress is type cast as the good girl, she will take a role where she smokes so that anyone seeing the movie will see her as a ‘bad girl’ and that could lead to different roles…just curious if that’s true…just a theory…
*Matthew Lillard’s speech to Donovan late in the movie is pretty good…Lillard is pretty good, the few times I’ve seen him play “straight” he’s done well (like in “The Descendants”)
*the idea of a writer writing a whole novel and burning the only copy out of spite…the person who wrote this movie apparently has no idea how hard it is to write a novel, or how long it takes…or maybe she does, I don’t know…
*seems to kind of end randomly…but I admit I wasn’t really paying attention that hard…
*good performances but there wasn’t anything that jumped out at me I have to admit
*in my defence, watched this movie on 1/6/21, trying to be distracted from reality…
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Rabid 2019
*just watching this to see Laura Vandervoort and also CM Punk acting!
*remake of the 1977 David Cronenberg movie
*why do so many “Mean Girls” scenes happen in the bathroom? Is this based on reality?
*I figured the early part was leading up to a “Carrie” type moment where Vandervoot’s character would be humiliated, but turns out her friend was actually trying to be nice to her
*this is a “body horror film” which sounds interesting…at least this is a Canadian body horror film…
*I haven’t seen the original so I have no expectations…back in the day, if I’d never heard of a movie I would think “well how good could it be?” but now I’m out of the loop so…it’s possible this is good…
*okay, so big reveal and…yes so that’s a body horror movie…ewww…
*that’s some really f*ed up make up
*so she goes to a special doctor and they do a surgery on her and when they do the surgery they (the doctor and the nurses) get dressed up in overly elaborate red suits that make them look like they belong in the KKK…or is it supposed to be something out of “The Handmaid’s Tale”?
*so she wakes up and takes off her bandages and she looks amazing, well she looks like Laura Vandervoot, and then makes out with a dude she likes, I assumed it was a dream but then she starts bleeding…
*but then in the next scene they talk about it as if it was a dream…
*seems weird that she is so angry at the nice guy who likes her, just because he asked her out at her friend’s request…
*he reminds me of that guy who has been on “Young and the Restless” forever…I think his character name is “Nick”?
*suddenly a totally different movie breaks out, we’re on the set of a movie/TV show and the main actor freaks out and starts eating someone…okay…
*then “complications” arise with Vandervoot…
*then CM Punk shows up, an hour into the movie!
*she kills him, as apparently the operation turns people into vampires or zombies…or both?…
*and then it gets all bloody!
*so it’s about blood, so it’s vampires then…
*researching the directors, the twin Soska sisters who are Canadian horror directors, specifically they make “Canuxploitation” movies, a term I was today years old when I found out existed…they’ve made movies like “Dead Hooker in a Trunk”, which they wrote, directed, produced and starred in!
*they are also apparently big WWE fans, as with CM Punk in this movie, Big Show and Kane in others and they have worked with WWE Studios a few times…
*Kevin Hanchard shows up! He has a line about “this strain of rabies could mutate and take over the world” means more in 2021 than it did when the movie came out…
*so a rabid (oh yeah, that’s the name of this movie…) Santa Claus comes into the ER, and is immediately shot by two cops in the back…sure it makes sense but they were kind of trigger-happy there…and is this supposed to take place at Christmas time? There is no snow on the ground…why was he dressed as Santa?
*Punk returns as a vampire and gets to go nuts…
*then the movie turns into a combination of a Marilyn Manson music video and “The Cell”
*and the dude finds Vandervoot with a tentacle coming out of her and seems totally okay with that and, on top of that, takes pictures…
*big finale, the doctor’s wife…that’s messed up…
*so apparently Vandervoot’s tentacle came from out of her armpit…sorry but was that supposed to be funny? Friggin hilarious that is…
*nice to see great Canadian actors Ted Atheron, Greg Bryk, Stephen McHattie…
*it was fun seeing Canadian actor Mackenzie Gray as a someone with hair, usually he’s cast to play bald people…
*wait AJ Lee was in this too? I totally missed that…and I’ve deleted the movie too, otherwise I’d go back and look for her…shit…
*pretty great little horror movie, I might be grading on a curve as, well, it’s Canadian and I don’t usually watch these kinds of movies so I’m not numb to it (maybe?)…it only has 55% on Rotten Tomatoes…but what do they know?
*the Soska sisters seem to usually film their movies in Vancouver (this was shot in Toronto) and from what I’ve heard from her in interviews, Laura Vandervoot wants to stay in Canada and make movies/TV shows here (as opposed to Hollywood) so that’s cool…so you should see this!
The Strange Affair of Uncle Henry 1945 Noir Alley
*I always like George Sanders but I just couldn’t get into this movie
*I admire that host Eddie Muller likes to “mix it up” with Noir Alley but sometimes, to me, it’s a swing and a miss…
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Terror Train 1980
*part of a Jamie Lee Curtis Canadian slasher movie double feature on cable
*although apparently I should have watched “Prom Night” first…
*fun to see Ben Johnson in this movie
*also Hart Bochner and some fine Canadian actors…
*directed by Roger Spottiswoode, who would later direct “Turner & Hooch”, “Air America” and “Tomorrow Never Dies”, a few movies I’ve watched lately…
*friggin David Coperfield is in this, never blinking and, even though it seems really obvious who the killer is going to be, at the same time if creepy Copperfield isn’t the killer he was a hell of a red herring…
*so it looks like this is the only movie where Copperfield “acted”, although his character is a magician, so not sure if this counts, but still…
*okay this movie seems to have potential, but already it’s hit a slasher-movie-cliche…Ben Johnson find a dead guy in the bathroom, in a lizard costume, covered in blood and walls covered in blood…he goes back a few minutes later with his co-worker and the person in the lizard costume is there, but alive, no longer covered in blood…okay fine but who had time to clean the walls? It’s not enough that this killer is knocking people off one by one but they have to do these misdirects? The screenwriters are trying to hard…
*oh and there’s Vanity!
*yeah this ends up going where you expect it to but, as stated in the “Rabid” review, I don’t watch a lot of these, so maybe I have low standards, but this was well done, I like the idea of “Halloween on a train”…
*and it’s Canadian so I grade on a curve…
Prom Night 1980
*again 1980 Canadian slasher movie starring Jamie Lee Curits
*apparently she shot this first, in Toronto, then “Terror Train” in Montreal back to back
*okay so there are time line/casting issues with this movie…
*a bunch of kids play at an abandoned house and one dies…then the movie jumps ahead 6 years and the kids are now about to graduate and go to prom…
*problem is the kids looked a lot younger than 11 years old (as it says on Wikipedia) and the teenagers look like they are 25 years old…when it said “6 years later” I was like, that’s not enough time….
*Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends in this movie all dress like they are teachers at the school, not students…
*who is this unabrow guy? He stands out but not really in a good way…
*the film looks like it was filmed with a camcorder, but they do a good job at establishing who the older characters are vs. who they were as kids
*oh and friggin Leslie Nielsen plays Curtis’ father, seemingly one of his last straight roles before going into “Naked Gun” territory
*Nielsen and Curtis disco dance together!
*suddenly it becomes “Saturday Night Fever” with a long sequence of disco dancing, with “Carrie” looming in the background…
*so unabrow got suspended in the afternoon yet is at the prom later that night? Pretty lax security…
*okay so the decapitation almost made unbrow worth it…
*so I figured the killer was Curtis’ sister (who would turn out to not actually be dead), Curtis’ dad Nielsen (who kind of just disappears) and Curtis’ brother (who was the dead girl’s twin)…I was right as it’s the brother, dressed as the sister, including makeup and lipstick for some reason…
*not as good as Terror Train but apparently it’s a prototype of slasher movies…not anywhere near as good as “Halloween” but what is?
Near Dark 1987
*finally
*been hearing about this forever as a cut classic, in the directing debut of Kathryn Bigelow
*starring Bill Paxton, Lance Hendriksen, Jenette Goldstein and a young Adrian Pasdar, who is 20 years old here but always seems like he’s in his 30’s
*”Aliens” on the marquee in the background is a nice touch
*seeing Jenette Goldstein reminds me of a really weird argument I got into a friend of mine in high school…we were watching “Terminator 2” and my friend and I got into a big argument that the foster mother in T2 was the same actor who played “Vasquez” in Alens…it seemed obvious to me but he was insistent that they were two different actors…I was just getting into movies and at that point if someone was that confident about their point of view, I wouldn’t necessarily argue with them but I knew I was right…this was before we had IMBD…in fact this was before the internet, believe it or not…so it wasn’t until weeks later before I could confirm it and he was stunned that I was right…anyway…of course I was right you think I would tell that story if I was wrong?
*so this is a cult classic but is it a movie I’m viewing “in the wrong order”? As in, if I’d seen this in 1987 I would have been blown away, but seeing it in 2021, after seeing “Buffy” and so many other versions of vampire stories, will I still be blown away?
*Jenny Wright is another great actress that I don’t see enough
*so there is a cure to vampire-ness? A blood transfusion…cool
*cool story about love and family overcoming…and that vampires blow up real good…
*wasn’t blown away but a really good movie! Glad I finally got to see it!
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Clifford 1994
*finally!
*I have a huge amount of admiration for Martin Short, and so since I’ve heard this is one of the worst movies ever, I decided to never watch this…but then it was on cable so what the hell?
*Short still stands by this movie after all these years so he can’t be that wrong can he?
*yeah it’s confirmed this is a bad movie
*at one point, Mary Steenburgen is wearing one outfit, they go upstairs and she has completely changed into a different outfit…how do they not catch that?
*Charles Grodin’s acting style…of yelling and then mumbling alternately, is really annoying
*wasn’t there a dog at some point?
*so many things don’t make sense, as if there was a scene taken out that explained stuff but they didn’t care…
*how was the conversation where Grodin says “Bombshell” recorded? How did Clifford become an expert in editing audio recordings together?
*they finally get to “Dinosaur World” and Grodin just drives up and says hi to the guy working there, as if he knows him, says “I will take full responsibility…” but this makes no sense…did Grodin design the place? Did he used to work there? - apparently I missed the scene where Grodin explains that he did in fact design the park, I read that on Wikipedia…shows how much I was invested in the movie…
*Dabney Coleman smokes inside a restaurant at one point…that really used to happen, didn’t it?
*how does the tape make the model explode?
*looks like they spent all the budget on the Dinosaur World set…
*why is there a “hyperdrive” setting on the ride at all?
*Short was 40 when he shot this (it was shot in 1990 but wasn’t released until 1994) and doesn’t quite seem plausible as a 10-year old…but according to some, that’s what makes it so funny…okay…
*even the “happy ending”, where Clifford wrote over 287 letters of apology and then Clifford is not only invited to their wedding but stands up at the alter with them…so Grodin didn’t have a best man? Geez, and he said Clifford was unlikable…
*the little kid, Ben Savage, is of course Fred Savage’s little brother and later would star in “Boy Meets World”
*yeah just horrible…horrible…all due respect to Martin Short but this is horrible…but I guess I can now say I’ve seen it, so there’s that…
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It Happened at the World’s Fair 1963
*finally
*been hearing about this for years as our cable affiliates are all based out of Seattle and whenever they talk about movies made locally, or the Space Needle in general, this comes up…
*Yvonne Craig, aka Batgirl!
*Elvis is kind of a creep in the sequence with Craig…he can’t even remember her name! She’s Batgirl!
*Gary Lockwood playing another pilot…he’ll pay an astronaut in “2001” 5 years later
*Elvis’ character is kind of a dope in this movie…he acts 12 years old around girls (although that might be insulting to 12 year old boys) and his business partner, Lockwood, keeps lying to him and losing all their money, yet he keeps forgiving him…kind hard to get any sympathy for him
*although he does take care of the little girl later on so that’s something…
*Kurt Russell has two scenes…that kid has something!
*so this female doctor (or nurse?) sees right through him from the first time they meet, yet they will fall in love…what a unique story…
*I went to the Space Needle in 2018(ish) and I remember it being a lot different than in this movie…
*at the police station, after the little girl was so attached to Elvis that she ran away from protective services to run around Seattle looking for him, she seems pretty okay when Elvis and the nurse walk out together…
*the last song in the movie is literally called “Happy Ending”…so that tells you how it wraps up…
*these kinds of movies are fun once in a while…
Tommy 1975
*again
*and now for a different kind of musical…
*no dialogue for the first ten minutes, and the Who songs don’t really kick in for the first twenty minutes…
*22 minutes in and Ann-Margaret says “Tommy” as a line of dialogue, the first in the movie, after everything up to this point was “sung”…
*Oliver Reed is sure greasy in this movie
*Tina Turner as the Acid Queen…apparently at one point Mick Jagger was supposed to play this role…did I read that right, Wikipedia?
*so Oliver Reed owns one porno theatre and that makes him a millionaire?
*about an hour in, Elton John shows up and sings “Pinball Wizard” and it seems like something has changed…before it was all just constant background music showing things happening with little to no dialogue…it almost seems like the movie is just starting…
*but to be fair, it does not seem like the movie has been going on for an hour
*Ann-Margaret was 33 when she filmed this…FYI
*Jack Nicholson singing!
*this movie has no real flow to it, if that’s the right word, or maybe it’s all flow…but the songs don’t really play out, they just play music, sometimes with lyrics, and then go to the next scene with more music, possibly with lyrics…
*however, it works due to the crazy set design, costumes, acting, cinematography…it’s all awesome
*the only sings that get to really play out through the movie are “Pinball Wizard” and, at the end, “See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You” which pays off as they had been teasing the song the whole movie…
*great stuff, but now I really want to watch “The Apple” again for some reason…
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I Am Burt Reynolds 2021
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Pret-A-Porter Ready to Wear 1994
*again, but not since it came out
*that Miramax f*n logo…if I could punch a logo…
*opening credits are making me dizzy
*so I remember this movie coming out and I was just starting to appreciate movies, and I think this is my first Robert Altman movie…not the best one to start on…
*lots of stuff happening, lots of cameos…
*ultimately I just don’t care about these characters and what is happening…if this same kind of movie was made about Hollywood I would love it and watch it over and over again…oh wait…it was!
*I remember after this watching “Short Cuts” and “The Player” and loving those but always thought Altman movies were a “mixed bag”
Hancock 2008
*again, but not since it came out
*I remember liking the first half, then the movie completely fell apart…let’s see if that is still true…
*Will Smith’s Hancock, in the first ten minutes, uses the “put _ in your ass” phrase, like five times?
*Jason Bateman is awesome, funny as always
*just curious is it addressed why the bully is French? And why he thinks he could stand up to a superhero? What’s his story? Where’s his movie?
*and there is Will Smith’s trademark homophobic humour…
*the balance of comedy and super heroism is not handled well
*this movie gave Nancy Grace money for that cameo? Lame.
*it makes no sense that, when Hancock goes to jail, all the prisoners want to fight him…after having been put in jail by him…so they know he can fly, has super strength…so they think they can over power him?
*the “head in the ass” scene is pretty funny despite the odd music choice
*the overall story of an alcoholic superhero with a adviser trying to change his image is friggin great but the execution just isn’t there…
*any scene with Jason Bateman is great…
*so Hancock shows he can escape but then comes back into the jail…somehow that makes the prisoners respect him? Wouldn’t that actually just piss them off even more, like he’s showing off?
*the first scene of Hancock as a superhero is really great, Smith is hilarious struggling to say “good job” and he a hero…
*”Do I have permission to touch your body…?” great line, especially in 2021
*so this firefight in the middle of LA has been going on for hours? How much ammunition to the bad guys have?
*again, Hancock shows up and the bad guys are confused…okay I guess he was supposed to be in jail, I get that, but when he shows up they just keep shooting at it…it’s a Superman trope how bad guys just keep shooting bullet after bullet…I guess…
*Screenwriters love the phrase ”Dead man’s switch”
*nice how it’s easily explained that Charlize Theron isn’t the kid’s mother…nice bit of screenwriting
*Bateman asks Hancock where he’s from, how he got his powers…they’ve been together a lot and this is the first time this has come up?
*and there it is, around 1:15(ish) into the movie…the big twist…let’s see if it’s as bad as I remember…
*”Hancock sneezed…” that is a funny line
*although if he is invulnerable, would dust makes him sneeze…
*it hasn’t been mentioned yet why Hancock is out of prison…did that one good deed wipe out all his bad stuff? They wanted to put him away for 8 years…
*the stuff with Smith and Charlize in the kitchen is funny…
*so initially the movie is about Will Smith and Jason Bateman, and they have great chemistry together and their scenes are great…
*and also, you wonder “Why is Charlize Theron in this movie?” and you figure she must have a big role later on…why else would they have her in this? Just to play Bateman’s wife? No way…
*but then the movie turns into being about Smith and Theron and Bateman takes a backseat…
*so it was just a coincidence that Hancock met Bateman…or apparently not?
*WHERE’S THE KID?
*I hate it when movies introduce characters, especially kids, who then just disappear when they aren’t needed anymore…
*okay I guess it’s good to have the backstory but the blah blah on going story by Theron gets kind of boring…especially when there are bad guys to catch!
*then after all the explaining about how he’s losing his powers, he has them back…
*oh, there’s the kid…
*lots of banging, lots of yelling…etc.
*slow motion and the music swells…I know they are going for “epic” but usually with movies at this point my butt is falling asleep so it’s like “get on with it!”
*so I’m guessing they wanted Smith and Theron’s characters to get together then realized that Bateman was just too good a character so they went with the anti-happy ending…the ending that is kinda/technically happy but it’s not what the movie had been building up to so ultimately the people leave the movie theatre unhappy or at least feeling unsatisfied…
*and it ends with Bateman getting probably the best line in the movie, as he sees that Hancock has vandalized the moon with his heart-symbol and Bateman asks “Can we get in trouble for that?” I was just thinking that as he said it…
*a mid-credits scene with Mike Epps…didn’t this come out the same year as Iron Man? I know there were post/mid credit scenes before Iron Man and the MCU but it’s funny how they have become so common place now…
*I know this movie had a huge opening weekend but it trailed off quickly through bad word of mouth, but there still, to this day, is talk of a sequel…probably not going to happen if it hasn’t already…rebooting or bringing back TV series is common now but movies? Not so much, and will probably just get harder now that the whole movie business is changing due to COVID
*a great movie that ends badly…too bad they couldn’t stick that landing…
==============
The Last of Sheila 1973
*Ian McShane, Raquel Welch, James Coburn, James Mason, Dyan Cannon
*weirdly written by actor Anthony Perkins and composer Stephen Sondheim, who apparently would do mystery scavenger hunts in Manhattan with their Hollywood friends and so they wrote a script about it…
*part of the “murder mystery” trend Hollywood was going through at the time, which Kenneth Branagh is trying so hard to bring back…although this movie looks like fun and not so pretentiously dramatic, so…
*when the group gets together, Coburn takes their picture with an old school camera and seconds later, he posts the picture on a board…was it an old school Polaroid?
*so this is one of those movies that (might be) more interesting for the behind the scenes stuff than the movie itself…
*apparently Raquel Welch and director Herbert Ross had an “altercation”, which resulted in Welch leaving the production and returning with a bodyguard…
*James Mason said in the press that Welch was “the most selfish, ill-mannered…” etc you get the idea
*at one point the yacht was too hard to film on so they had to film in a studio, but one didn’t exist where they were, but while they figured this out the cast was “stranded” on the mainland, going shopping and hanging out at the beach all day while they had to build an entire new studio
*and in the meantime the yacht sank…
*and a young Joel Schumacher worked as a costume designer on the film…
*and Bette Midler sang on the soundtrack
*so Sondheim didn’t do the score?
*so in the beginning, the Richard Benjamin character got his game card and crumbled it up, as if to throw it away…will this come up later?
*yes there it is!
*every character other than James Coburn smokes in this movie…I guess that’s meant to be a clue so it means something in the script but it still looks gross
*kinda surprised there wasn’t one last big twist, like Coburn was alive the whole time, but since I hate those kinds of things, then that’s a good thing!
*no Welch or Ian McShane in the last few scenes they just kind of disappear…which is sad cause they were the reason I was watching this in the first place…
*nice little mystery, and kinda cool ending with them arguing over who will do what in the movie adaptation…
==============
Clue 1985
*finally
*I remember exactly when I found out this movie existed…I was reading (I think) “Entertainment Weekly” and they were asking N’Sync (I think) what they thought the best movies ever were and Lance Bass (I’m pretty sure) said “Clue”…it was presented as if he was serious too…I am pretty sure he was serious…obviously I don’t completely remember the whole thing that well but that was the gist…but that always stuck with me…”Clue” was a movie? And it’s his favourite?
*so later that lead to a discussion with some co-workers (I worked at a movie theatre at the time) about what was the difference between “what I think is the best movie of all time” vs. “what is my favourite movie of all time”…my manager didn’t see the difference and her choice for both was “Footloose”…anyway I always try to keep remember the distinction…
*but what about this movie?
*who’s doing the ADR for Mr. Boddy?
*I have tried to get through this movie before but never did…
*amazing cast with Tim Curry stealing the movie but for some reason I just can’t connect to it…
*I don’t think I’ve ever played the board game “Clue” either…
*I got through it this time but didn’t want to…sorry but I didn’t get anything from this…
==============
The Last Seduction 1994
*again
*great stuff!
==============
The Killers 1964
*apparently this was a made-for-TV movie but was too violent so they ended up releasing it in theatres…
*hard to believe this was made for TV with this cast…
*Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes, Ronald Reagan, Normal Fell, Claude Akins…
*Marvin’s sidekick is played by Clu Gulager, but has a similar voice to Richard Jaeckel, who worked with Marvin in the Dirty Dozen…
*the next year, Marvin would win Best Actor for “Cat Ballou”, and three years later would make The Dirty Dozen” (with Cassavetes) and “Point Blank” (with Dickinson) in the same year (1967)
*Angie Dickinson starred in “Rio Bravo” five years earlier, and “Ocean’s Eleven” four years earlier…
*apparently director Don Siegel could have cast Steve McQueen in the race car driver role, but cast Cassavetes instead, but then it turned out that Cassavetes couldn’t drive…
*the first scenes in particular really does look like a TV movie…almost like a scene filmed for the Adam West TV series…
*this is the last film Ronald Reagan made before retiring to go into politics…apparently he regretted making it, mostly due to the scene where he slaps Dickinson
*I like how this movie is paced, with the flashbacks adding to the story…
*this isn’t a “Rashomon” type story (is it?) as in that kind of story they tell the same story repeatedly but from different points of view, whereas in this, the flashbacks tell different aspects of the stories…
*this Clu Gulager guy is kind of annoying…
*they dangle Dickinson out a window, that is really f*ed up…
*great movie, always great to see Dickinson, Marvin and this is a good remake
***this was on Noir Alley on TCM a few weeks later, Eddie Muller said that this differs from the original by not having an insurance investigators, and makes the killers, Marvin and his partner, the protagonists, especially Marvin in that he’s fascinated by finding out the reason why Cassettes accepts his death so calmy…said to be the 1st example of “neo-noir”
=================
Taking of Pelham 123 1974
*again for the hundredth time!
*love this movie, although this time I did kind of zone out whenever it was down on the hijacked subway car…no offence to Hector Elizondo or Robert Shaw, but I just wanted to hear Walter Matthau and the other distinctive voices of the character actors involved…
*Jerry Stiller, Doris Roberts, Tony Roberts, Dick O’Neill
*the guy who steals the movie, though is Tom Pedi, who plays Caz, who sinks his teeth into every line he delivers…
*”He stopped again…the crazy, dumb son of a bitch stopped again!….how the hell can you run a goddamn railroad without swearing?” New York everybody!
*side note: I wanted to own this movie, so I went to a local record/movie store to see if they could order it for me, they ended up ordering the 2009 Denzel/Travolta version (which I still bought, but I hated it…too shouty and no humour at all), then they tried again, ordered for me the 1998 TV movie version (starring Edward James Olmos, which was great) and then on the 3rd try they finally got me the correct version…and yet I still watch it everytime I see it on TV…
*side note 2: I’ve got nearly 70 movies saved on my PVR plus dozens of DVD/Blue rays to watch, yet I just want to watch movies like this that I’ve seen a hundred times already…as if the movies are comfort food…
===============
Columbo “Negative Reaction” 1974
*with commercials on MeTV, this is over 2 hours long, so it “counts”
*friggin love Columbo, and I kind of remember this one with a bearded Dick Van Dyke but not details…
*young John Ashton!
*these are always great, not much to critique, and I don’t want to talk about the big reveal cause SPOILERS!
*I’ve said before, but the premise of Columbo is so awesome…are there modern shows who copy the set up? Always loved the idea that we see who the killer is, then watch how Columbo solves it and how the killer always just goes off quietly without resisting cause they respect how Columbo “got em”. Plus it must have been cool guest starring on an episode, as the villain was basically the star of the show each week and Columbo was kind of in the background, at least at first…great stuff!
===============
The Silencers 1966
*Dean Martin spy-spoof movie
*never seen this before…before the movie they have a disclaimer “The following presentation is a product of it’s time. It depicts prejudices that were wrong then and remain unacceptable today. Silver Screen Classics does not condone discrimination of any kind. Rather than ignoring the past discriminatory practices, exhibiting work like this allows viewers to engage in thought or discussion that educates and promotes the importance of social justice and inclusivity. Viewer discretion is advised.”
*wow quite a mouthful…and I’m now looking for racist stuff in this movie…
*this is said to be a parody (I’m guessing similar to the old school “Casino Royale”) but I don’t see any laughs yet…granted there weren’t many in that movie either…
*Victor Buono is made up to look Chinese (which he apparently also did on an episode of “Wild Wild West”, according to Wikipedia)…
*he also worked with the Rat Pack a lot including in “Robin and the Seven Hoods” as well as playing “King Tut” on Adam West’s Batman
*lots of familiar faces like James Gregory, who plays Luger on “Barney Miller”, as well as Robert Webber, Arthur O’Connell
*lots of Bond girls, which I guess in this movie are Helm-girls…Stella Stevens, Cyd Charisse, Daliah Lavi (who was also in “Casino Royale”), Beverly Adams as Lovey Kravezit, which is the closest thing to a Bond parody so far
*apparently the girls have a name “The Slay Girls”…
*and later Roger Carmel appears as a henchmen…I recognized him as “Harry Mudd” on the original Star Trek…
*Bond never sang, so this movie has that “advantage”
*wow so apparently this is the 1st of four Helm movies, and it lead to a TV series but that only lasted for 14 episodes. I had no idea…
*Steven Spielberg might film a remake with Bradley Cooper playing Helm…this has been in development in various stages for over a decade so don’t hold your breath…
*then it becomes a standard bang-shoot explodey movie…
*Dean Martin ends up on the run with the clumsy Stella Stevens…they make out…isn’t she married to the Robert Webber character?
*at the bad guy HQ, the main baddy starts splaining the plot…he puts out a big map and where the missile is going to land, he makes it so a lot of red liquid comes out of a funnel and covers where the impact zone of the missile will be…couldn’t he just tell them to imagine this? Seems like a lot of work…
*apparently this is the first move ever to have a post-credits scene…I missed it I guess…
============
Nick of Time 1995
*finally
*opening credits are similar to a Columbo episode
*there was a time where I felt bad that Johnny Depp wasn’t getting cast in more movies…then Pirates of the Caribbean happened…
*and this was around the time where Christopher Walken was in everything…after “True Romance” and “Pulp Fiction” turned him into everyone’s favourite character actor
*so when an action movie came out with two great actors…clearly my reaction was…meh
*so let’s check it out!
*opening scene in Union Station, with Walken looking down on the crowd…I’ve been there many times and I don’t remember that being there…movie magic?
*Walken’s partner, Roma Maffia, goes on a rant about foreigners…out of place…
*Clark Johnson! A good Canadian actor and director, who at this time was on “Homicide: Life on the Street”…he’s credited as “Hackney Transportist”
*apparently Clark isn’t Canadian, he just worked in Canada a lot early in his career…clearly I am very invested in this movie…
*Gloria Reuben! An actual Canadian!
*of course this makes no sense, as I have no idea how I would react if I was in this situation in real life, but wow Depp’s character is annoying. He keeps stuttering and stammering, and of course I guess from Depp’s point of view it makes sense, but as a movie goer watching an action movie I want it to move along quickly…
*Charles S Dutton!
*all these side characters, like the Puerto Rican guy and the Japanese tourist with the camera, I’m guessing they will all be important later, right?
*so suddenly everyone is in on the conspiracy to kill Marsha Mason, and Dutton arranges an army of low-level hotel workers to help Depp fight back…okay…
*so did Gloria Reuben actually die or was that part of the dream sequence?
*so it takes Depp an hour of stuttering and stammering, and Mason gets it in four minutes…and people say women shouldn’t be in charge?
*John Badham directed “Saturday Night Fever”, “WarGames”, “Short Circuit”, “Stakeout” and others…after some bombs, like this movie, he switched to TV shows and TV movies, including “Constantine” and “Arrow” from the Arrowverse…
*why does Walken keep leaving Depp alone? Wouldn’t he just stick to him like glue until he killed Mason?
*wouldn’t have been more interesting if, after all that time, the woman started to like the girl and in the end, refused to hurt her?
*instead Dutton distracts her by pretending to wash her windshield, couldn’t he have blinded her instead?
*little girl gets shot at at least twice but she’s fine after wards…not even any ringing in her ears…
*I do like the idea of a movie taking place in real time but not this movie…
*other movies in real time “High Noon”, “Rope”, “Fail Safe”, “Time Code”…and “Tape” which I haven’t seen in forever…
======================
Swamp Thing 1982
*finally/again
*love Swamp Thing but honestly not sure if I’ve ever seen this, or maybe just seen parts of it….I now I’ve seen the sequel and watched a few episodes of the ’90’s TV series, and all of the recent DC Universe series, but this movie, which is supposed to be the best of them all…not sure…
*well I had no idea that Ray Wise played Alec Holland, so I guess I haven’t seen this…
*and I assumed Adrienne Barbeau played Abby Arcane, even with the fact Heather Locklear plays Arcane in the sequel, but she plays a female version of Matt Cable instead…
*Barbeau’s Cable is bad ass, actually beats up a few dudes and it’s only when they double team her that they manage to take her down…that’s cool…and really that didn’t mean to sound as bad as it came out…
*so many bullets are fired, no one ever seems to hit anything and no one is ever seen re-loading…
*Louis Jordan, from Octopussy, shows up as Anton Arcane to class up the place, wants Holland’s formula and kills his sister before causing Holland to fall into the swamp while covered in chemicals…explosions go off when Holland falls into the water which is weird…
*so Holland and Cable have just met and kissed once (and it wasn’t even romantic, he kissed her in a moment of celebration), and later Swamp Thing has to fight the bad guys to save her…seems he would maybe be pretty mad that his sister is dead too, right?
*the rubber Swamp Thing suit looks pretty good, considering the budget…I think I like it better than the more elaborate one they have later in the sequel and the TV series…
*Wes Craven directed this, two years before he made “A Nightmare on Elm Street”
*a boat runs into the side of a hovercraft…would it explode? I guess it’s more exciting on film than seeing them collide and it chips the paint…
*great when they finally meet up, Cable and Swamp Thing…he has his arm chopped off, she asks if it hurts and he says “Only when I laugh”…funny stuff
*okay so is Bruno, played by Nicholas Worth, an amazing character or a horrible one? I’m thinking amazing…
*so the formula “amplifies a person’s natural qualities” which is pretty great…
*so they couldn’t get Ray Wise to cameo in the new Swamp Thing TV series? Barbeau did…Wise could have played Alec Holland’s dad or something…
*okay, Arcane’s tranformation and Swamp Thing’s arm regenerating…maybe individually they would be fine but together…pretty funny and I don’t think it’s meant to be…
*Arcane grabs a sword…a freaking sword…off the wall for a weapon…I guess it’s better, for me and my eardrums, than him using more automatic weapons with the unlimited bullets…that was annoying…
*I kind of like the awkward final fight…Swamp Thing’s 1st big move is a good old fashioned shoulderblock…if this movie was made today they would be have ninja training and be flipping around all over…
*not to be crude but in saving Cable’s life, did Swamp Thing cop a feel? Couldn’t she have been stabbed in the stomach?
*so Jude isn’t the same kid as is in the sequel…I kinda remember there being two kids, one black kid and one chubby kid, and weren’t they also in the TV series? Not sure…
*so how does Arcane come back for the sequel? I guess he “just got better”?
*shocked that Siskel and Ebert gave this two big thumbs up back in 1982…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKin5wsNU_c
*so other than Batman and Superman, is Swamp Thing the most adapted DC Comics hero? Two feature films, the 90’s TV series (72 episodes), a cartoon show (5 episodes), various appearances on other cartoons and video games, plus the 2019 TV series (10 episodes)…
*great movie, glad I finally watched it…not for everyone but it’s got a lot of charm…but from what I remember they phoned in the sequel, although they did super-size the Swamp Thing suit, from what I remember…
=======================
Games 1967 TCM Underground
*1/9/21
*Katherine Ross, the same year as “The Graduate” came out, and James Caan, the same year as “El Dorado” where he played the Ricky Nelson part…
*so it starts with Caan and Ross throwing a old-timey party, where they talk about living the last two years with electricity, or something, then someone says “It’s not that kind of electricity…” or something…
*but they are in costume or something and it’s set in modern times after all, I guess…
*then this older German lady shows up and seems to be a con artist…
*I’m getting more from the Wikipedia page then the actual movie itself…
*Estelle Winwood, the same year “The Producers” came out!
*so they’ve been pranking each other with Lisa’s help, or “playing games” I guess, to get back to the title, then they shoot the delivery guy…did they check his pulse? Is this just another prank? did they consider that?
*so to get rid of the body they made him a statue? I didn’t see that coming…
*so Ross starts freaking out, having visions and such, so Caan decides to go out of town on a business trip…I’m gonna guess that this is Caan and the German woman playing a prank on her and it’s going to backfire somehow, like she kills herself or tries to or something…
*yup, except Ross killed the delivery guy, for real this time, after being set up by Caan and the German woman (whose name is Lisa apparently…)
*so Caan sets up Ross to inherit her money, then Lisa poisons him then walks off with the money…then the movie ends….how does that make sense for how Lisa gets away with it? Good thing he got all the money together in a briefcase like that…was there an explanation…that last scene took forever and I kind of blanked out…whatever…
*meh
===========
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw 1976 TCM Underground
*1/23/21
*Lynda Carter!!!
*okay, Lynda Carter is topless like fifteen minutes into the movie, then there are two sex scenes, with her topless again, within the first thirty minutes
*then she and her costars are all topless again two minutes later swimming…how have I never heard of this movie before? Wonder Woman is naked…a lot!
*he idolizes Billy the Kid and she wants to be a country singer…he’s got problems, if that wasn’t clear by the fact he idolizes Billy the Kid
*he drives around a lot in a car he stole…
*lots of continuity errors, as Carter’s tops are always changing…when she is wearing them…
*she hasn’t even spoken to the Billy the Kid guy and gets in his car and they drive off and five minutes later they are having sex…
*cop car gets driven off the road and explodes because it’s a movie…
*and the movie starts…
*there is a shootout in a trailer park that does’ make much sense logistically…
*the guy handling the explosions was having fun at least…
*pretty standard Bonnie and Clyde stuff
*they like that they end up on the front page of the paper and on TV
*they make a deputy squeal like a pig…Deliverance came out four years earlier
*they rob a bank and hook up the safe to a truck and drag it out…decades before they did it in that “Fast & Furious” movie…
*strangely about halfway through there is no more nudity or anything and it becomes a standard road movie
*pretty shocking to see Lynda Carter in a movie like this, just in the sense that I’ve only seen her in a few things over the years…other than Wonder Woman…the Super Troopers movies, as the President on “Supergirl”…I’ve seen clips of a TV show called “Hawkeye” she starred in…oh and I forgot she played Chloe Sullivan’s mother on “Smallville”…I’ve never seen “Sky High” but want to…
*and when I refer to Carter being topless, I don’t mean to point it out in a pervy way, I’m just legit shocked that this female icon, who is known for being Wonder Woman (not just playing but “being” Diana Prince), was in a movie like this and I’d never heard of it before…no judging her either, she’s an actress and apparently this was made just before she was cast as WW…again just a surprising turn of events…
*IF I were cynical, I would say that they filmed the movie, then went back and said “This movie needs some nudity” so they went back and re-shot those early scenes and they told Lynda Carter that in exchange to taking off her top, she’d get to show off her singing voice, and then she said “okay but I get to sing one full song!”…but that’s just me being cynical…
*the blonde in the movie, Pearl, is played by Marrie Lynn Ross who doesn’t have a Wikipedia page and not much on IMDB, but further investigation sees that she is “a renewed author of 8 books, award winning filmmaker and revered as daytime’s first comedienne…” really? she has a few producing credits on IMDB…apparently she’s married to someone named “Mark Lester” but not the director of this movie, who is Mark L. Lester…
*watching this was an eye-opening experience, but it wasn’t a good movie, other than the shock of seeing Carter topless constantly in the beginning of the movie, there isn’t much to it…a poor Bonnie and Clyde rip off
=================
Underworld 2003
*kinda
*so this movie is all about style over substance…
*Kate Beckinsale is a great actress but she never changes her expression (or her clothes either) in the whole film
*was it a choice to just rip off The Matrix with the look, the style…Beckinsale walking around in black leather, a long trench coat, with guns a blazing? Or is it an “homage”?
*kinda glazed over the beginning cause it was all shooty-shooty blam-blam
*then I glazed over the exposition stuff…it’s vampires vs. werewolves, got it…
*vampires hang out and smoke…would vampires get anything from smoking?
*hey it’s Wentworth Miller!
*the most interesting thing is behind the scenes…Beckinsale was married to Michael Sheen but divorced him to marry the film’s director Len Wiseman, and due to the timeline, I’m guessing all that happened behind the scenes here…maybe…
*Beckinsale’s Selene is motivated by the fact she falls in love with a human Scott Speedman…cause that’s the only motivation a woman in a movie can have…
*or does she…I, again, glazed over some stuff…and by “glazed”, I mean fast forwarded…
*Speedman plays his character like he did on Felicity…perpetually confused and occasionally annoyed…and with great hair…
*they made FIVE movies about this? Four with Beckinsale? She must have loved Wiseman a lot!
*I understand she loved playing this character as up to this point she was only being offered roles like in “Much Ado About Nothing”, period pieces, so this gave her a chance to do something different, be an action star so all due respect to that…but I guess it’s similar to Milla Jovovich and the “Resident Evil” movies…so, good for her but 5 movies? Although she only starred in four of them and cameoed in one but still…4 movies???
*so much standing around, posing, trying to look cool…then shooting guns, then more posing…
*then she’s hunted by her own people, while fighting the bad guys as well…has to find proof of something…then more splainy-splain…
*then, shocky-shock the supposed main good guy is a actually bad guy…double cross! Beckinsale was right all along!
*this movie is over 2 hours long…why?
*I hope Bill Nighy got a massive paycheque for this…
*everyone is dressed the same, looks the same under the lighting (is it de-saturization in post production? that steel-blue filter…) and frankly it’s hard to keep track of who is who…or it could be that I don’t really care…
*not one smile on this movie that I saw…unless smirks count…do smirks count as smiles?
*written by Danny McBride! Oh wait, not that Danny McBride…
*so has there always been a feud between vampires and werewolves? Or do I have to thank these movies for those awesome scenes in “What We Do in the Shadows”, both the movie and TV series…
*only four more movies to go…just kidding…
===================
Stunts 1977
*TCM Underground 1/23/21
*1st film produced by New Line Cinema
*directed by Mark L. Lester, who also directed “Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw” so that is the connection on this night of TCM Underground
*Bruce Glover, father of Crispin Glover, and Mr. Wint in “Diamonds Are Forever” is in this
*and Joanna Cassidy, from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” a masterpiece that I haven’t watched in way too long a time…need to watch that soon…
*Robert Forster plays a stunt man whose brother dies on a film set so he shows up to figure out what happened…
*apparently after a stunt man dies they throw his motorcycle into the ocean…pollution everybody!
*”Dialogue my ass, let’s wreck something” is written on the back of a stunt man’s T-shirt…
*tension on the set between the old school stunt team and the “special effects” team
*Forster has a reporter sit next to him as he flips a car…wow how wrong is this scene? He’s never heard of a lawsuit apparently…
*so two stunt men die on a film set and they keep going…not really realistic, but I guess they covered that earlier with the producer talking to the studio guy…
*they say that the stunt effects guy had two stunt people die on his last movie…so why do they take it so hard when two more die on this movie?
*producer comes and says “there is no proof he is incompetent!” I think there is…
*kinda eerie watching this, them talking about how easy it would be to sabotage a clip like that after everything I’ve seen about Owen Hart’s death in 1999
*so it was the producer…but why did he want Forster dead? He was the only one who rejected his wife…was he getting “too close”…didn’t seem that way…
*good enough movie, the ending seemed kind of thrown together, like they were missing some scenes, as if they ran out of time and didn’t get some closeups, lots of ADR to explain things…not great but good…
=================
The Abyss 1989
*again, but not since it came out
*I remember this as being “cool for the visual effects but not actually a great movie…” we’ll see…
*Mary Elizabeth Masterantonio is called “bitch” twice in the first ten minutes…did they call Ripley a “bitch” twice in the first ten minutes of “Alien”?
*”Hurricanes should be named after women…” geez, James Cameron tell us what you really think…
*apparently through production of this movie, Cameron was married to his producer Gale Anne Hurd, then got separated and then got divorced…so this explains where his head was at I guess…
*but then again it’s not like Cameron is a good screenwriter…in fact he sucks…
*is Michael Biehn playing two different characters in this…one as himself and one with a moustache…?
*Masterantonio is classing up this sausage fest…why isn’t she working more? Add her to the list of Bridget Fonda, Mary Stuart Masterson…
*apparently she has been on the TV show “Blindspot” and even was on “The Punisher” TV show too
*wait was that Chris Elliott? In a James Cameron movie?
*and also Dr. Kelso from “Scrubs”…
*according to Wikipedia, the rat in the movie was actually breathing that fluid and that stuff works but only on animals…weird…
*but seriously, is Biehn the one with the moustache? No one ever says their names (except Masterantonio, she’s Linds, or “queen bitch”) and they aren’t wearing name tags so…
*as I watch the underwater scenes I glaze over, not that they aren’t well done…they were groundbreaking at the time, but it’s really just watching people swim…like watching someone play a video game…
*also it becomes like a horror movie, waiting for something to jump out at you…
*reading the Wikipedia page, this was a horrible movie to shoot…Ed Harris won’t even discuss the movie apparently…Masterantonio had multiple breakdowns during filming…for a movie that didn’t get great reviews or make a ton of money…but at least Cameron invented filming equipment that helped him later make “Titanic”, right? I’m sure HE figures it was worth it…
*not sure if I’m watching the theatrical cut or the special edition…the big change was the ending so I guess I won’t find out until then…
*good thing the army guys brought a nuke-sized duffle bag…
*the conspiracy guy is kind of annoying in 2021, but back in 1989 it was cutting edge…
*so is the black girl gonna die first? Kimberly Scott deserves better…no, she survived never mind…
*so Cameron is horrible at dialogue and having realistic characters but is a master at creating tension…the scene where the crane falls down towards them, people are freaking out, but the crane misses them, so they laugh, but then the crane falls further and the rope/cable that connects them starts to fall too and they realize what’s happening and how that’s worse…great stuff…
*Harris is saved by his wedding ring…subtle…
*can’t believe I forgot about the water-creature thing…that was in all the trailers…
*”You gotta have bare skin or it won’t work…” I remember seeing tons of movies and shows like “ER” (not “ER” but shows like “ER”) and to this day, on TV shows they zap people with clothes on…is this a thing…not that I’m necessarily saying Cameron just wanted Masterantonio topless…
*apparently the stress of this scene, being cold, wet, being slapped and topless made Masterantonio flip out, rightfully so, when they would have her lying there and Cameron would worry more about technical stuff…at one point she freaked and stormed off the set and said “We are not animals”…good for her…Harris had to do his closeups talking to no one due to this…I wonder if Harris resented that or agreed with her, that’s usually a big no-no for actors to not be there for their fellow actors…I guess we’ll never know since Harris refuses to talk about this movie…
*anyway, all this and there is still 45 minutes left in this movie…Harris has to disarm the bomb of course…can’t just leave it there I guess…
*so Harris can only communicate through texting…in 1989 that would suck but today…piece of cake! Maybe not for Ed Harris…is Harris on Twitter? Wow there are a lot of Ed Harris’…don’t think any of them are him though…
*with the liquid oxygen stuff…guy says “Our bodies breathe liquid for nine months…it will remember…”
*but then again he has to type, like, words?? No emojis?
*two hours into the movie, sure the aliens showed up briefly before, but after all this underwater stuff, the technical splainy-splain stuff, how dangerous this is, “I knew it was a one-way ticket” blah…then dude is saved by aliens and is brought to Atlantis…
*I didn’t know the term “deus ex machine” back then but man…
*I know they joked about this on “Entourage”, but seriously why didn’t James Cameron make an Aquaman movie?
*so this won the Oscar for Best Effects which is deserved for sure…but is it true they tried to get Michael Bien nominated for Best Supporting Actor? Yeesh…with or without the mustache?
*so this is definitely the short version, the long version has the aliens and Harris chit-chatting more and the aliens nearly cause humans to be extinct but change their minds at the last minute or something…
*the longer version makes the film better, according to people who have seen it but I don’t be doing that…I’ve seen enough…
*good-not-great movie, probably never watch it again, feel bad for everyone involved in the production…except for James Cameron…
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Matilda 1996
*finally
*very cute movie!
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Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story 2005
*finally
*I’ve heard this was brilliant from some people, others not so much…I’ve become a big fan of these guys do to the “The Trip…” movies…
*good stuff but it didn’t make me laugh anywhere near “The Trip…” movies have…
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My Girl 1991
*finally
*apparently this movie traumatized alot of people from my generation…which is why I never watched it until now…
*Jamie Lee Curtis can do so much better than Dan Aykroyd, right? In both this and “Trading Places” right?
*very cute, I remember seeing Anna Chlumsky on “Veep” and I was like “who is that?” and then I remembered…she kind of disappeared for awhile but yet is on that list of actresses who need to work more…
*brutal ending with the death and funeral and all that…
*okay movie…and they made a sequel?
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Endings, Beginnings 2019
*watching this, getting deja vu like I’d seen it before, but I keep track of this stuff but there’s no evidence of it since it came out, so here we go…
*as I go along, I realize that I might have watched the first few minutes and turned it off…
*so Shailene Woodley is depressed after quitting her job, breaking up with her boyfriend and moving into her sister’s guest house…
*she’s going to be alone for six months, then meets two guys at the same New Year’s party and starts dating both of them…and they are friends too…
*she goes on a date with Jamie Dornan, where they smoke inside the restaurant…where is this supposed to take place? Or are they outside?
*she meets Sebastien Stan once, they talk for three minutes, two days later meet for a drink, he gives her a major guilt trip for going on a date with his friend, she needs to RUN from him but in stead she goes back to his place and they have sex…she hesitates once so that’s going to be a plot point…but then they have sex on a table…she is topless…it’s actually weird watching a sex scene in a movie…when did they become so rare…is it just because porn is so available now filmmakers are like “do we need to see the girls’ boobs? Really? Does it make sense for the story?” Or is it the actresses saying they won’t do it unless it fits the story…? Probably the latter…I doubt male filmmakers are turning down seeing their actresses naked…
*anyway she dates both guys and it’s going to blow up but she keeps doing it…
*actually I think she’s dating the Jamie Dornan character, even though she technically slept with the Sebastian Stan character first…
*oh Dornan asks her if they slept together and she lies…then if they still text and she lies…yeah bad idea…
*Shailene Woodley’s character chain smokes and is topless in the sex scene…the cynic in me ask why, is this like Katie Cassidy in “Grace” (or my interpretation) where it seems like she’s trying to look more grown up to get better roles….maybe? I have no idea but I have to admit that’s what I’m thinking as I watch this…
*Shamier Anderson (Canadian actor from “Wynonna Earp”) is in this, plays Woodley’s brother in law but I didn’t even notice, he gets almost no lines that aren’t yelling and the focus on the scene is what everyone else is feeling…
*watching this in 2021 is weird, it’s a new movie but watching a seemingly mediocre white girl with a rich family (her sister lives in LA and has a guest house and a pool in her backyard…), feels sad over the fact two hot guys like her…etc…
*so Dornan goes away, and Woodley and Stan have sex, with sad music playing in the background, while dog sitting Dornan’s dog…yeah that’s normal behaviour…this will be fine, I’m sure…
*they have sex on the floor…and again, these are rare, so why does the filmmaker think these scenes are necessary? I’m genuinely curious…they aren’t sexy, not the way they are filmed…especially after the second time, with the music, it’s like someone has died…which then moves it over from sad to parody…anyway I’m probably thinking about this too much…
*Woodley gets to sing in one scene, another scene for her demo reel…this really just feels like Woodley’s audition for better movies…
*she sees Stan doing drugs and the look on her face is like he’s standing over a dead body with a knife in his hand, covered in blood
*she walks out of her sister’s baby shower cause someone says something…I couldn’t hear it…it must have been bad but I don’t trust this characters instincts…
*so Dornan comes back from his trip and Woodley acts like nothing happened…her girlfriend (Kyra Sedgwick, what is she doing in this?) says she needs to be single…not you need to confess…which is different I guess…but again, I’m sure this will all be fine…
*so she’s hanging out with Dornan and the dog, I want the dog to just yell out “She’s banging your friend!”
*we learn in flashbacks that her old boss raped her…Dornan asks what’s going on with her and she says “I’m fine”…I’m sure this will be fine…
*she starts to feel sick…she’s a girl…she’s sick…guaranteed she’s pregnant! No woman is sick in a movie or TV show unless they are pregnant…or hung over…and of course both things are meant to be symbolic of them being slutty!
*the next scene there are children all around…oh the symbolism!
*she finds out she’s pregnant (told ya!) so she goes outside and has a smoke…she’s going to be a great mom!
*so we jump ahead six months and she’s at her mom’s wedding and they bicker…what is the point of this scene?
*her and Stan talk, he touches her belly…they seem to have a very intense conversation but I don’t care, I have to be honest…
*wait….her sister, who was pregnant at the start of the movie, is still pregnant at the same time Woodley is…how long has this movie been going on? Is the sister having a 3rd kid? What is happening…
*and it’s over…okay…
*I’m a big fan of Woodley, in particular from “The Descendants”, but also “The Spectacular Now” and “Fault in Our Stars”…she seemed wasted in the “Divergent Series”, but anyway…I hope she finds better scripts in the future…
*reviewers gave this mostly negative reviews…one singled out Wendy Malick and she’s always awesome..but she had like three scenes in this, with like ten lines of dialogue total…so I guess I’m wondering where her Best Supporting Actress nomination is…
*a whole lot of meh here…
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Witness to Murder 1954 Noir Alley
*so George Sanders kills a woman, presumably his wife, and across the street Barbara Stanwyck witnesses this…he’s not very discreet
*the cops show up and Sanders doesn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to get rid of the body…
*to be fair, the cops aren’t in much of a hurry either
*so the cops are dicks, so Stanwyck takes it upon herself to investigate…like you do…
*Gary Merrill plays the detective who is a dick, convinced Sanders is innocent and Stanwyck is crazy, yet he wants to date her as well
*Merrill dismisses Stanwyck and basically pats her on the head whenever she brings up Sanders, yet expects her to respect him…
*so Merrill is a detective during the day and at night goes to law school, when he’s not wooing Stanwyck…so maybe it’s not so hard to accept him being kind of confused, he’s probably exhausted…
*so anyway…Stanwyck ends up in an asylum…of course she does
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The Falcon and the Snowman 1985
*so I just recorded this cause it was on TCM and I’d never heard of it, so I trust them…a movie from 1985 on TCM and it’s not on TCM Underground? I’m intrigued…
*apparently it’s a great film, got full 4/4 stars from both Siskel and Ebert when it came out, but again, never heard of it, but I’m intrigued…
*Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Pat Hingle, Dorian Harewood and Lori Singer! Plus Chris Makepeace, a good Canadian actor…
*I love the David Bowie song “This is not America” and apparently this movie’s soundtrack is where it came from…
*making margaritas in the shredder…hmmm…
*Penn does his chameleon acting style with weird hair and a different voice…three years after “Fast Times…”
*Hutton and Penn worked together on “Taps” previously which I still haven’t seen…
*so Hutton finds out about the CIA interfering in Australia’s elections and immediately wants to sell the information to the Russians…and Penn goes along with it because he wants to make money…seems extreme but I guess this is right after Nixon and Vietnam…
*pretty great movie, I stopped taking notes and just watched it, so that’s usually a good sign…and why some movies don’t have notes or a review…
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Change of Habit 1969
*Elvis and Mary Tyler Moore!
*and Ed Asner? Geez was he stalking Mary Tyler Moore? Not that I blame him…
*Wikipedia describes this as a “crime drama musical film”…with Elvis and Mary Tyler Moore? The word I’m curious about is “drama”…
*this is Elvis’ final film acting role…
*”Rubberneckin’”!!!
*apparently “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” debuted the following year…
*wow Elvis is an asshole…
*”so you’re all pregnant…was it the same guy?”
*”two of the last nurses got raped, one even against their will…” F*ck you!
*the priest is an asshole too…
*wow this movie has no idea whether it’s a comedy or a drama…
*Sister Elaine wears a lace napkin thingy on her head, is it attached to her hair, with a bobby pin or something…I’ve seen those things before and always wondered…I guess it has to be attached somehow or it would blow off with the wind…just something I’ve thought about while watching this movie…
*so this movie…there is an f-bomb (the six letter f-word), jokes about rape and abortion, a guy sniffing paint fumes…
*so Moore wants to try to help an autistic girl, has five minutes and doesn’t get results so then Elvis takes over and makes the girl cry…because of course he knows best and it all works out in the end…
*so have people who treat autistic patients seen this and what is their thoughts on this treatment technique…just piss them off and they are cured…seems simple enough…
*wow these nurses believe in God but c’mon, he can’t compare to Elvis…
*One hour and ten minutes into the movie, Ed Asner shows up as a cop! Doesn’t share any scenes with Moore so that sucks…
*all these well meaning but silly girls…good thing Elvis and Asner are there to explain things…
*so things are headed towards a nice happy ending when Julio, the stutterer, who Moore tried to help earlier, tries to rape her and Elvis saves her…
*so it ends on a cliffhanger, with Elvis singing and Moore looking back and forth between him and statues of Jesus…with no resolution and credits roll…but really, what actually happens is she runs away with Asner, so that’s awesome!
*not a bad movie, not great, but not bad…
*so apparently this is on TCM as they are doing a special “Golden Turkey” night…”Change of Habit” is part of the list but compared to others on the list like “Plan 9 From Outer Space”, I’d say they were being pretty harsh on this movie…
The Food of the Gods 1976
*another Marjoe Gortner movie, after “Bobby Jo and the Outlaw”
*has TCM Underground switched nights?
*Ida Lupino!
*so this is another “Golden Turkey” movie, but with this movie, unlike “Change of Habit”, it fit in this category…
*not sure which effects are worse…the fake wasps or the fake rats…
*lots of shots where they try to make the rats look giant
*they have shots of the rats being shot, I assume they actually shot the rats, as opposed to putting tiny squibs on them…that sucks…
*kinda sad to see Ida Lupino in this…
*Marjoe Gortner is another person whose real life would probably make a more interesting movie, according to his Wikipedia page…
*this movie was released the same year as “Bobby Jo and the Outlaw” but he looks about ten years older…
*and then there’s a fake dam blowing up, with fake water…
*and as if that wasn’t enough, a girl is giving birth…what a day!
*wait…then she had the baby! So that wasn’t a long labour…
*and at some point Lupino’s character died…lots happening
*so this is supposed to take place on an island in British Columbia, which is where I live so that’s cool, I assume that’s where they filmed it too…
*but that’s about the only cool thing about it…
*apparently the lead actress, Pamela Franklin, was actually pregnant when she filmed this…
*set up for the sequel, which did come out in 1989 but is “a sequel in name only”…
*oh and the girl who gives birth in the movie is played by Belinda Balaski, who played Essie in “Bobbi Jo and the Outlaw”, so her and Marjoe Gortner worked together a few times…
*bad stuff…not really in the enjoyable-bad way either
Remember My Name 1978
TCM Underground 1/16/21
*Geraldine Chaplin in a lead role, not sure I’ve seen her in a lead role before…
*I’ve seen three black people in this movie and they’ve all been jerks so far
*young Alfre Woodard!!!
*young Jeff Goldblum!!!
*young Jeffrey Perry, from “My So Called Life”
*Chaplin’s character, Emily, is off…she’s never seen without a cigarette in her mouth, but it’s like she doesn’t know how to smoke, like Emily is trying to be a character herself
*so in a few minutes, she twists both Alfred Woodard’s nipples and knees her in the crotch, stabs Woodard’s boyfriend, steals his car, then crashes a car into Anthony Perkin’s car twice, then returns home like nothing’s happened…
*she’s then arrested, but for the broken window she smashed a few scenes earlier…oh and after she had done that, she broke into their house and threatened to stab Perkin’s wife with a knife…but she gets arrested for the broken window…
*wow, I was thinking that Perkins and his wife are an odd couple but what do I know…Perkins and the actress who played his wife, Berry Berenson, was his real-life wife and years later, she died on 9/11 aboard American Airlines Flight 11…
*wait so did Perkins and Chaplin get divorced? Does he have two wives?
*so she didn’t get in trouble for STABBING a person? Or stealing his car?
*so Perkins just casually walks away from his current wife to go back to Chaplin…I thought there was something going on, like Perkins had a plan or something, but no he just gets drunk with her, they drink and drive back to her place and have sex, then they wake up the next morning and Perkins seems okay with this arrangement, in fact he just hangs out at her place while she goes shopping…
*she’s been sleeping with (or just flirting with, maybe) the building super, who is also a cop, who freaks out when he finds Perkins in her apartment…
*so then Chaplin just drives away…I guess we are lead to believe that she manipulated everything, and the cop beat up or killed Perkins, and Perkins ruined his marriage so that made his other wife miserable…it was an abrupt end, where I actually rewound it to see if I missed something…
*I was waiting for Alfre Woodward and her boyfriend to show up and stab her or something…
*a good movie but kind of end anti-climactically
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Avalanche Express 1979
*Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, Maximillian Schell, Linda Evans, Joe Nemeth(!), Mike Connors
*this is Shaw’s last movie as he died of a heart attack on set, as did the director Mark Robson!
*Shaw’s voice was re-dubbed and it sounds weird…I know Shaw’s distinct voice (from “Jaws” mostly) but he also played a Russian in “From Russia with Love”…
*apparently they needed to dub him in the opening scene, due to when he died, so for continuity they just decided to re-dub all his dialogue…
*been watching a lot of Marvin lately and he really looks old here…he always did but he was like old but could still kick your ass…he’s a few years away from retirement here…
*the ADR stuff is distracting and I couldn’t really get into this…
Enemy Mine 1985
*finally
*directed by Wolfgang Petersen
*a space western? Cool!
*Dennis Quaid vs. Louis Gossett Jr.? Cool!
*so it’s a space dog-fight…Gossett Jr. is an alien who shoots down Quaid’s friend, Quaid disables his ship, he flies low into the local planet’s atmosphere, Gossett Jr. ejects, his ship’s remains nail Quaid’s ship, it crashes, Quaid’s co-pilot dies, Quaid sets out to find Gosset Jr. and kill him…
*nice part when Quaid basically says in a voiceover “I need to kill him, I hate him even though I’ve never seen one of them in person…”
*lots of production problems, they basically had to fire the director and bring in Wolfgang Petersen to fix it…they even waited until he was done with “The Never-ending Story”
*wait, Wolfgang Petersem directed “The Never-ending Story”?
*Quaid tries to fry his alien enemy (Gosset Jr.) but fails, later the alien saves him and ties him up, Quaid insists that he needs to feed him and is a dick about it…
*I imagine most of this movie will be Quaid talking, with the alien being a cool dude and eventually winning over Quaid…
*the alien has a great sense of humour and learns English really fast!
*Quaid builds a shitty house and it easily falls over, the alien has a great laugh…
*so lots of them talking over campfires…wasn’t there anything they could have salvaged from the original ship?
*Quaid is a whiny white guy, clearly supposed to be specifically American…on a side note, this was very popular in Russia
*so in the opening it said that the people of Earth have all found peace, so they went to explore the universe…so basically they were bored at home and had to go looking for trouble elsewhere…
*so of course you can tell where this is going…they hate each other but once they get to know each other, they depend on each other and become friends…that’s totally fine if we see the ending a mile away, it then all depends on the execution…
*so the alien, “Jerry”, gets pregnant…didn’t see that coming…
*interesting touch in that they use pistols and revolvers as opposed to laser guns…well “Jerry” has a laser gun…but the humans have regular guns with bullets
*the kid is cute, I like their relationship and the fact he calls Quaid “uncle”
*okay so he gets killed by Brion James, such a familiar face, and they FF through a ton of stuff…apparently he is rescued off camera, thought to be dead, comes back to life, is brought back to health in about four minutes…then they skip over the part where he is interrogated, explains what happened, the fact there is a kid he has to rescue…he just steals a ship, clean-shaven, and is off on a rescue mission…
*not that I mind…love the pace…as they aren’t messing around…I love it when movies just “get to it”
*I really liked this…I definitely see this as a “space western”, with the alien character representing a Native American
*great stuff!
Churchill and the Movie Mogul 2019
*about Winston Churchill working in the British film industry…
*a good doc…
*not something I’m fascinated by…I’m fascinated more by British comedy (Monty Python, Black Adder, Red Dwarf, Spaced) and British TV as opposed to British Filmmaking…
*so it was informative but it’s not like I was taking notes, as you can see…
Pipe Dreams 1976
*TCM Underground 1/16/21
*Gladys Knight follows her husband to Alaska, so the theme with this and “Remember My Name” is wives tracking down their husbands I guess…
*seems like a straightforward movie, not sure why it’s on TCM Underground but we’ll give it a chance…
*some amazing cinematography of Alaska…
*a good movie, pretty rough, the only thing I can see in common with a typical TCMU movie is that it’s low budget…it was a straight forward movie…
*Sally Kirkland is in this…
*Gladys Knight co-starred with her real-life husband…maybe that’s another connection with “Remember My Name”?
*lots of familiar faces here…
*so towards the end Knight gets a phone call and finds out someone has died, I think it was her father, who we haven’t met on screen, and then she up and leaves Alaska to return home just as she’d re-married her husband and got a good job…
The Last American Hero 1973
*Jeff Bridges, Gary Busey, Ned Beatty, Lane Smith, Valeri Perrine…
*Bridges is a moonshiner, then ends up as a race car driver…two years after “The Last Picture Show” and three years before “King Kong”
*Busey plays his younger brother…five years before “The Buddy Holly Story”
*yet more familiar faces, like William Smith II, who I remember from a bunch of movies and “The Rockford Files”
==============
The Slams 1973
*listed as “The Silent Partner” with Elliot Gould and Christopher Plummer, but a Jim Brown movie is good too
*Jim Brown is awesome, I know that now, but I remember seeing him in “Mars Attacks” and wondering who he was…I might have just been confused about that movie in general, so it might not have had anything to do with him, but now, if I see Jim Brown is in a movie, I look forward to it…
*and I should re-watch “Mars Attacks” and just see if I still feel the same as I did when I watched it in theatres…
*a prison movie, with Brown wanting to stay neutral while they are a bunch of gang wars going on around him
*early on the warden tries to get Brown to help them with an investigation, he turns them down and they try to let him know that he isn’t safe there without their help…
*”this prison was built for 1,200 people, and we currently have 5,000…you figure it out…”
*weird in that the tall bad guy, played by Ted Cassidy (Lurch from “The Addams Family”) actually seems to get beat up more that Brown
*in fact the white guys in the prison seem to get beat up more than the black guys which is a nice change…
Ball of Fire 1941
*again!
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Murder by Death 1976
*spoof on Agatha Christie novels, written by Neil Simon…
*all star amazing cast…Peter Sellers, Alex Guiness, Peter Falk, David Niven, Maggie Smith, James Cromwell and strangely, Truman Capote…
*this is a spoof, with all the actors playing characters who are parodies of famous detectives…Sellers plays Charlie Chan, Falk plays Sam Spade (although he’s really just playing Humphrey Bogart), James Coco plays Hercule Poirot, Niven and Smith play Nick and Nora Charles but with silly names (Falk plays Sam Diamond so they really aren’t trying hard to hide who they really are supposed to be)
*it’s hard with this, as the cast is great, and they are funny but ultimately the mystery isn’t to be taken seriously, as part of the joke will be that it’s all a joke…I guess…
*good stuff but, again, hard to get invested in it when the build up to the mystery leads to nothing…
*someone else might watch the same movie and be like “who cares about the mystery?” but that’s where I’m coming from…
*a great line from Falk talking about how he lost his true love in Paris just before the Nazis invaded, nice nod to “Casablanca”
*apparently there was a kind-of spinoff, with Falk playing another parody of Bogart, with Neil Simon again writing and Robert Moore again directing…Eileen Brennan, James Cromwell and James Coco also appear…along with Ann-Margret, Madeline Kahn, Dom Deluise, Louse Fletcher, Stackard Channing, Sid Caesar, John Houseman, ABE VIGODA, David Ogden Steienr, Scotsman Crothers and Paul Williams…that’s a stacked cast but it got terrible reviews…
*good but not great
Death on the Nile 1978
*a mystery movie based on an actual Agatha Christie novel
*another all star cast with Peter Ustinov playing Hercule Poirot, Maggie Smith and David Niven (again), Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, George Kennedy, Jack Warden, Olivia Hussey…
*takes a while to get going, it’s over an hour before anyone dies, although it does set up lots of characters’ motivations…
*they spend a lot of time establishing the Mia Farrow’s jilted ex character, in fact they do everything twice, whereas the one maid character is established as hating the eventual victim with little dialogue and some dirty looks…
*as I watch this I just can’t get into it, not sure why…they spend time establishing the characters and why everyone hates one character in particular, after that character is killed, the detective onboard (Poirot in this case) goes around interrogating everyone on board (on in the old house, etc), they all deny it, someone tries to kill him when he’s getting too close, finally the killer is revealed and it’s usually never the person you think it is or there is A TWIST! Not sure why I don’t’ get into these movies yet I can watch stuff like “Columbo”…
*btw, twists are so overrated…
*is it fun when every character gets to say a version of the phrase “You think I AM THE KILLER?”
*it’s fun watching David Niven and Ustinov in the same scene with George Kennedy or Angela Lansbury or Bette Davis, but other than that…
*and Kenneth Branagh is trying to get these movies to make a comeback, and a remake of this is coming out (should have come out already, I think…) and even with Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright and the reunited French & Saunders, I just look at Branagh with that stupid moustache and modern music in the trailer and roll my eyes so hard I see my own brain…
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Murderer’s Row 1966
*2nd Matt Helm movie
*Ann-Margret!
*hmm…there’s lots of dancing in this movie…Ann-Margaret is in it…must be a coincidence…
*a large hovercraft! Makes me think of Jackie Chan’s Rumble in the Bronx!
*Dean Martin blows up a huge Frank Sinatra picture…good stuff…
*a bad motivator circuit…I wonder if George Lucas got the idea from this movie…
*actually, Dean Martin’s pistol looks a lot like Han Solo’s blaster…
*villain has a piece of iron on his head, he’s named “Ironhead” btw…
*he’s the one person who could wear that T-shirt “I’m not going bald it’s a solar panel for a sex machine” and get away with it
================
The Killer That Stalked New York 1950
*Noir Alley
*about a virus that plagued New York…should be fun to watch in 2021!
*”a mix between film noir and a public service announcement…”
*Dorothy Malone!
*couldn’t get into this, could have been the subject matter and the time and place maybe…
*wasn’t really a strong story, could be because there were no stars I could identify with, other than Malone who had a small role…
*most interesting part was Eddie Muller’s intro and outro especially when he talked about how New York reacted to the Small Pox outbreak, how they did a great job with it, compared to today…
The Producers 1968
*for the millionth time!
Blazing Saddles 1974
*for the hundredth time!
Smoke Signals 1998
*finally
*I thought for years that I had seen this, but then watching I now realize I didn’t…
*great movie, I can see how Adam Beach became a star out of this, although that wig he had to wear through the last third of the movie is brutal…
*always thought this was a Canadian movie, all the actors (except Irene Bedard) are Canadian so I just assumed I guess…
*also interesting how almost all of these actors have appeared on “Longmire” to the point where I would doubt that the show was filmed in the US…
=======================
When a Stranger Calls 1979 TCM Underground
*1/30/21
*Carol Kane!
*so this is the movie that is being “spoofed” (or “homaged”) in the first ten minutes of “Scream”
*time jump - seven years later!
*Superfly is in this? As a cop?
*so I’m only watching this because it’s on TCM Underground, btw
*so Charles Durning, who is awesome, goes on a chase to find the killer, who escapes from an asylum…so we see their parallel journeys until Durning tracks him down…
*Durning meeting with the doctor from the asylum, who doesn’t seem to care that a murderer has escaped from her facility…one of the few women in the movie and she is a horrible person! Coincidence?
*back to Carol Kane, who is back babysitting, which is kind of incredible that she went back to that…seven years later she is still babysitting?
*but wait no, I’m wrong…these are her kids, her and her husband are going out for dinner and leaving a babysitter in charge…oh I like that role-reversal…
*oh and Kane gets a call at the restaurant…I thought he would have called the new babysitter but this is better…
*builds up to the conclusion that you would expect, of course…
*well done movie, the middle part dragged…so really Carol Kane’s stuff is great, just watch that…
*I mean, the stuff where the killer gets beat up…were we supposed to feel bad for him? Well, we aren’t, so…
The Caller 1987 TCM Underground
*1/30/21
*Malcolm McDowell!!!
*pretty standard stuff…Madolyn Smith is by herself in a cabin in the woods…McDowell shows up, they go back and forth getting to know each other…they get to know each other…accusations fly…etc.
*in one scene alone, she tells him to get out, he says he might be a cop, accuses her of beheading her husband, they find a doll hanging in a closet, they yell at each other, then a minute later she is begging him to make love to her, he refuses, she takes off, the truck she is in is set on fire, he saves her…so much going on…
*he puts her to bed, more accusations, he tucks her into bed and says “Get dressed…” the words don’t match the actions in this movie
*then she has an ax and destroys a door, goes after him…there’s a birthday cake in the hat box, which he thought was a decapitated head but doesn’t seem let down when it’s a cake…so much weird…
*okay so basically this ends up being a long episode of “The Twilight Zone”…I mean that as a compliment, too…
*so it ends up they are playing “a game” and it looks like he set up clues for her to figure out…okay but then there’s another twist, and another…
*it started slow, got good then just ended…
*as I get older I start to resent movies like this, where I spend two hours (give or take) and then they don’t give me an ending…I used to appreciate “original” endings but now I get annoyed…I’m officially an old man now, I guess…
================
*nothing
*kinda getting bored with movies, shows like Flash are coming back, Superman & Lois is coming back…
*binged Parks & Rec today instead…
================
Marriage on the Rocks 19??
*getting so much deja vu watching this, especially the 1st scene with Dean Martin talking about needing back up girls just in case
*I don’t remember an alcoholic bag pipe playing granny, though…
*Sinatra and Dean Martin in a disco…
*this is the only music in the movie…
*Trini Lopez!
*apparently the last time Sinatra and Martin appeared in a movie together until Cannonball Run II
*I’m getting deja vu again when Cesar Romero shows up in Mexico
*Deforest Kelly!
*okay this movie…so it’s all fine and dandy for the first hour or so then Sinatra and Deborah Kerr get a hasty divorce in Mexico but then reconcile five minutes later…then wackiness ensues, and when Sinatra and Kerr are supposed to re-marry, Dean Martin is there instead and they get married “by accident”…
*so then Sinatra is fine with this, moves out, makes Dean move in with his family…
*at some point he starts dating his daughter’s friend, although apparently I guess we are supposed to believe he’s just messing with everyone…
*Dean and Kerr are acting like they are married, and Dean is actually the parents to Sinatra’s kids…
*then it’s Thanksgiving, Dean doesn’t know how to carve a turkey and the next scene everything is back to normal…wtf?
*then in the last scene, Sinatra and Kerr have reconciled again, she tells him she’s pregnant and he’s cool with it…as if he wouldn’t suspect Dean was the father after month of them living together…that Sinatra is a pretty cool customer…I guess…
*Nancy Sinatra played Sinatra’s daughter…
*this was fine…too wacky in some parts and not wake enough in others…
=============
The Fly 1986
*finally
*one of those movies where all my friends would ask me “Have you seen The Fly? You must have…” and I would lie and say “Of course!” but I really hadn’t…
*so here we are…
*this movie doesn’t waste time, 1st scene is Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis meeting, two minutes later they are in his lab…the plot moves quickly!
*so they go from teleporting a stocking to a monkey?
*a half hour in and THAT happens…
*”Be afraid…be very afraid…” I actually didn’t know it came from this movie…
*the part that grossed me out the most? After he vomits, then his ear falls off and Davis goes in for a hug…I jumped!
==============
Friday Foster 1975 TCM Underground
*2/6/21
*PAM GRIER!
*an all star cast w/Yaphet Kotto, Eartha Kitt, Carl Weathers, Scatman Crothers, Ted Lange (Isaac from Love Boat), James Bernard, Thalmus Rasulala
*Grier and Kotto are a crime solving team!
*so apparently this was Carl Weathers’ first big role in a movie, he has no lines and his facials are…interesting…to say the least…only one year later and he was Apollo Creed…
*comes down to a shootout between the good black guys and the bad…this is important as at one point one of the bad guys jumps though a window but is shot by Grier…that bad guy is clearly a white guy in black face and an afro wig…so were there no black stunt men in the union? The same guy shows up and gets shot a few times…so can black guys run around shooting fake guns but they can’t get blown up with squibs? Just curious…
*too bad there aren’t more movies with this team, I would have watched more about Grier and Kotto solving crimes!
Fletch
*for the millionth time!
===============
nothing…
===============
Traffic 2000
*again
*Salma Hayek was in this?
===============
Walking Tall 1973
*finally
*been hearing about this for years, saw the meh remake, finally get to see it…
*although I hear the name Bo Svenson being Buford Pusser rather than Joe Don Baker…
*wait so the corrupt police chief in “Fletch” is the same guy who plays Pusser? Crazy…
*interesting that that actual Buford Pusser was going to play himself in the sequel when Joe Don Baker turned it down but then Pusser died in a car accident…which is apparently what the 3rd movie is about…so now I want to see them all!
*Buford Pusser, former wrestler “Buford the Bull”…”a crooked business…” indeed!
*Noah Beery Jr.!!! Rocky!!!
*pretty standard stuff until the big fight in the casino…when they finally get Buford down and then start cutting him, that’s pretty brutal…
*Bruce Glover!!!
*the evil sheriff drove off the road and yet EXPLODED on the way down…why?
*so the big boss is a lady?
*Pusser brings his hitting-stick into the morgue? IS he afraid the corpses will rise up?
*over an hour in and his wife is still alive…
*an hour and twenty minutes in and his wife is still alive…
*oh and there it is, killed by Pepper Martin, who was the bully in Superman II and a former (Canadian) pro wrestler…
*wait Pepper Martin played the bully in Superman 2, whose name was Rocky, and Noah Berry Jr. played Rocky on Rockford Files…
*wait she’s back, and it’s Christmas time…I guess I misunderstood that scene…
*I only keep bringing it up because it’s literally how the movie is described “Buford Pusser vows revenge after his wife is killed…” all this AND the wife’s death to “look forward to”?
*Bruce Glover is dead but the wife…an hour and forty minutes…they are really building up to this…
*so the wife, after being against this whole “sheriff-thing” the whole movie starts to accept it…yeah she’s definitely dying…
*wait so Bruce Glover didn’t die, he wasn’t shot when he walked into the bar? I really am paying attention, I swear…
*I went back and re-watched the scene, it definitely is Bruce Glover as Grady who walks in with Buford, is shot and and he goes down as Buford shoots the woman in the face…was he just shot in the shoulder?
*in the next scene Buford goes home, is covered in blood and his wife consoles him…I guess I assumed they were sad because Grady died? He says “Merry Christmas” so I guess it was just sad cause he nearly died on Christmas Day?
*in these car chases, how come no one ever thinks to hit the brakes?
*that was a hell of a drive by…”On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” came out in 1969…just wanted to look
*jeez Pusser gets shot up again! He’s been cut up, shot twice…
*that Lief Garrett scene where he walks in to the hospital with the gun to guard over his dad…that’s been the most powerful scene so far…
*Pusser has, among other things, a Hannibal Lecter mask on…is that because his jaw was broken?
*movie is way longer than I thought it would be…
*two hours in and they are having the wife’s funeral…
*Buford freaks out and kills two of the bad guys, but there were like six of them who shot at him, so I guess they were just setting up a sequel
*other than the few times I got confused, I really liked this, especially when the towns people help destroy the casino, showing clearly they are on his side and the tides had shifted…great stuff
Walking Tall 2004
*again but not since it came out…
*decided to watch this too, it just happened to be on cable…
*these opening credits are like they are from a TV movie from the 80’s
*always thought it was funny they got a former wrestler to play this role but it was the Rock, as opposed to Stone Cold Steve Austin who is a redneck like Buford Pusser
*although I guess it doesn’t matter since this isn’t Buford Pusser and it doesn’t take place in the South, it takes place in Washington State…
*actually filmed in Squamish, BC!
*although he walks around with a 2x4 so they should have cast Hacksaw Jim Duggan…Hooooo!!!
*was that opening theme song “Midnight Rider”? The Dusty Rhodes song?
*this little kid is a dick…
*the Rock with no shirt and with hair…this was along time ago…before the tribal tattoos…
*not much about this that is too horrible depending on your tolerance level for Johnny Knoxville
*the first segment, leading up to him getting arrested, being put on trial, getting acquitted and becoming sheriff is pretty much straight out of the original but it is fascinating to see the filming styles being so different…the remake having so many closeups! All closeups all the time!
*most eye rolling thing about this, I guess, is that Ashley Scott had to run around in that second to last shootout in her red bra…seriously?
*Neal McDonnagh us awesome, and after this got to sow it by playing Damien Darhk on “Arrow” and “Legends of Tomorrow” in the Arrowverse…
*oh and a “before-she-was-famous” Colbie Smulders is there, as “Exotic girl” sitting in the villain’s car when Rock pulls him over…she has no lines but makes a few faces…
*the remake is meh but the sequels, starring Kevin Sorbo…not even touching those…yeesh!
=============
Lord Jim 1965
*not much to this…opening scenes on the leaky boat are well done but it’s interesting as with the voiceover that carries the opening twenty minutes-ish, we kinda know what’s going to happen
*it’s probably fifteen minutes in when Peter O’Toole actually has any dialogue…or any substantial dialogue anyway…
*hard to keep interested in this
*wow Eli Wallach has had an interesting career, eh?
*Eli Wallach has played so many different races…here he plays “The General” and tortures O’Toole…
*Daliah Lavi is in this, from Dean Martin’s “The Silencers” and the 1967 “Casino Royale”…
*meh
=============
Dummy 2003
*I don’t think I’ve seen this before…
*although once I see Milla Jovovich, I’m starting to set deja vu
*so I now want to look up whether this came first of “Lars and the Real Girl”
*”Lars…” came out in 2007…I loved that movie but haven’t seen it since it came out…
*okay so Illena Douglas, Adrien Brody and Jovovich are all acting like their are 12 years old…are they supposed to be handicapped or something?
*Jessica Walter and Ron Liebman are Brody and Douglas’ parents! From their fist bits of dialogue they seem like cliches but they are such great actors they will probably make this work…
*wow Adrien Brody and Milla Jovovich doing slapstick comedy is not the thing I figured I would see today…
*Vera Farming is, like, an adult in this movie…she needs to run away…
*so is the Milla character going to get help at some point or is she just “quirky”?
*and will they let her out of the asylum in time for the Brody-Vera wedding at the end of the movie?
*so he sends her a stalker-y video and she finds it charming…ew…
*who was filming that video? He already had the big argument with Milla…
*okay the way Vera laughs at the dummy…she has issues too…
*the “it’s great that you live with your parents…” line, all the way back in 2003!
*I really don’t want to see Brody and Vera’s characters kiss…
*so Vera comes over for dinner with Brody’s family, time for some cringing…
*so Milla’s band trying to be Jewish, or trying to be a Jewish band, more cringe…
*okay so Milla and Brody are just friends again, they just made up off camera I guess
*the way Brody talks and makes gestures…and Vera too…is this supposed to be another “The Other Sister” type movie? That’s fine if it is, but it’s distracting trying to figure it out…
*suddenly this movie is about Illeana Douglas’ character…
*I don’t remember but was there a time when a character was casually racist and it was supposed to be a personality trait? In 2003?
*okay a gun shows up…
*well I was right about the movie finishing with a wedding
*the director of this movie doesn’t seem to want Brody and Vera to kiss either…
*so the ex and Vera were a couple at one point too? That came out of nowhere and seems kinda pointless…maybe if it was revealed that he was her ex that she was supposed to get married to or something…
*and the last scene…is that supposed to be a meet cute between two crazy people?
*a pretty weird movie and I know I won’t be watching this again…
============
nothing
*binging Superstore, re-watch Arrowverse’ crossover “Elseworlds”
=============
nothing
*binging Arrested Development
=============
Piranha 1978 TCM Underground
*so Steven Spielberg himself said this was “the best of the Jaws ripoffs”…so there’s that…
*1st scene has nudity…here we go…
*produced by Roger Corman
*written by John Sayles!!!! Okay I’m looking forward to this now…
*Keenan Wynn!
*Richard Deacon!
*Melody Scott Thomas - Nikki from Young and the Restless!
*Paul Bartel from “Eating Raoul”, “Death Race 2000” and “Chopping Mall”!!!
*Kevin McCarthy from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
*Dick Miller! - this is quite the cast!
*the “Jaws” video game is great!
*guy says “No way I’m doing that” and the next scene, they are doing that…I like that
*guy and girl go check out spooky place, he’s the fraidy-cat and she’s the one who keeps looking around…I like that too!
*Heather Menzies, the girl, is Canadian!
*Menzies was in the 1979 Captain America movie!!!
*wait, did they just have sex off camera?
*young Nikki and Bartel are camp counsellors
*wait did Keenan Wynn just die? No!!!
*the guy, Bradford Dillman, looks very familiar but looking at his bio I don’t see anything very specific I can remember him from…just one of those character actors whose been in everything I guess…
*Menzies plays a “skip tracer” a good word no one uses anymore…
*is that a job anymore?
*so they find the kid floating on the upside down canoe, McCarthy jumps into the water to save him, I guess and gets eaten by the piranhas…what was his plan? The kid was safe on the canoe…
*”What if he’s gay?” “Then I’ll distract him…” great stuff!
*JOHN SAYLES!!!!
*Menzies kicks the pipes loose of the sink…I’m no plumber but couldn’t she just have unscrewed it?
*Menzies is playing the role of the guy and Dillman is playing the damsel in distress…I like this movie!
*dumb deputy is out smarted by Menzies, the keys are chained to his pants though…gonna have to take off his pants…of course!
*”I would have thought you could take off a guys’ pants quicker than that…”
*they drive by the local Barney Fife-guy and throws the pants back in his face in a quick little moment that wraps up that storyline…I like this movie!
*this movie is longer than I thought it would be…
*so Dick Miller is basically playing the Mayor from “Jaws”…only he runs a water park…
*lots of red dye in this movie…
*Dillman comes up with a plan that sounds suicidal and Menzies is like “okay” and doesn’t try to talk him out of it at all…I like this movie!
*wow that’s a lot of dead bodies…like out of “Saving Private Ryan”…
*perfect ending to set up the sequel…
*weird looking back as the Piranha’s in one scene were walking around McCarthy’s lab and seemed more like aliens…but the were just crazy Piranhas…weird also in that they must have spent a lot of money on the effects for those walking Piranhas and yet it went no where, really…
*great movie, perfect example of TCM Underground!
=============
Tintorera 1977 TCM Underground
*2/20/21
*apparently this is a Quentin Tarantino favourite…
*starts off as a bunch of characters doing stuff, sharks are involved…
*a guy falls for a girl tourist, they hang out…then they split and she falls for another guy, the 1st guy is jealous, arguments ensue, punches thrown…etc.
*the girl then goes for an early morning skinny dip, totally nude, body hair included, and she’s eaten as a shark…
*not much is made of it…I guess they assumed she had left to go home but what happened to her luggage? Her belongings?
*then the two bros actually become friends and start partying with two girls and end up pairing up, then they switch partners, which got my attention…don’t see this a lot…
*I’ve mentioned this before, but the fact there is rarely any sex or nudity in movies these days so it stands out…
*more skinny dipping, then later the bros meet a blonde English girl who wants them both to herself…they all sleep together and call themselves the Three Musketeers, and at one point get wedding bands…again, not something we see in a lot of movies!
*they do have a discussion about how this could end badly but they dismiss it and decide just to enjoy it…
*the bros (or at least one of them) is a tiger shark hunter, they take the girl out and the one bro gets eaten by a shark…
*the girl is devastated and leaves, leaving the bro sad and alone
*bro ends up partying with two blonde American girls, one of which is Priscilla Barnes from “Three’s Company”…
*they all end up at a big party on the beach, the two girls from before show up and want to help the bro feel better after his friend died, they want to share him, while the two American girls find another dude to party with, who is an old man but has the write alcohol mixture…
*anyway, they all head to the beach and are going to skinny dip in the water…they are all making out with each other in the water while naked, swapping put with different partners…again, this got my attention!
*and then the stupid shark had to come along and ruin it by eating the hottest girl in the group…
*then the one bro wants revenge and kills the shark…and that’s it…you can see how invested I was in the “kill-the-evil-shark” storyline…
*the movie did start out with the idea that the humans are assholes killing sharks for/with tourists and the sharks are justified in eating them…as if “Jaws” had the shark as the hero…but then it get sidelined with lots of nudity and menage a trios…
*I was surprised how long they go in the middle without anyone dying…
*so could this movie be remade, with the same amount of nudity? Dated reference, but imagine “Into the Blue” with Jessica Alba, Paul Walker and someone else (Scott Caan?) in the same relationship? It would at least be more interesting I guess…I mean maybe a better reference is “Deep Blue Sea” but that movie’s awesome so nothing will make that movie better…
*would conservatives get upset with the portrayal of a happy polyamorous relationship?
*I have no doubt it was used and I missed it, but anyway I’ll ask…was the name “Tintorera” ever used?
*on Wikipedia, the plot summary concludes with “Steven awakens in a hospital room, minus his right arm, thinking happy thoughts about his menage a trios with Gabriella and Miguel…” not in the version I saw…it goes from the shark dying to some funky effects then shows the three of them taking touristy photos together and being happy as the credits rolled…no waking up minus an arm here…
*anyhow, good TCM Underground movie…not sure what it says about my life that the three-way storyline captured my attention over the blood-filled water…
*I’d love for TCM to one day have Tarantino intro this movie as I’m sure that would be great…not a fan of all his movies but his passion for movies is fun to see and hear…
==============
Coffy 1973
*again
*movie was made out of spite, as producer Larry Gordon wanted to make “Cleopatra Jones” but lost the rights after a handshake deal, so he had Jack Hill make a movie like this and beat it to theatres and it was a bigger hit
*Jack Hill had worked with Pam Grier on “The Big Doll House” and wanted to make her a star…and he did!
*wow she blew that guy’s head off with a shotgun and got nothing on her…that’s talent!
*then the junkie who brought them to the hotel room OD’s and she frames him for the murder…good for her!
*and then the cops just think it’s gangsters moving in like a turf war…
*bad guy threatens girl by pulling out a knife, exposing her breast and saying “I’ll cut it off…” interesting way to make it so the watcher gets to see a naked breast…although just before that this classy restaurant had a dancer dancing naked so I guess being subtle isn’t what this movie’s about…
*Coffy sleeps with her boyfriend, a politician and towards the end she pours some wine on his crotch and he reacts like it was acid…until she offers to clean it up with her mouth then he feels better…again, subtle!
*Coffy is just sitting in her car and some dude randomly grabs at her…she lives in a bad neighbourhood! Luckily the cop who is in love with her is stalking her and was watching…although I guess that could have been a coincidence…
*so does she really love the politician? I thought maybe she was using him for information but it sounds like they’ve been together for a long time…and if so, is she just stringing this cop along?
*thugs break in and attack Coffy and the cop…the thugs had ski masks on but I knew one of them was Sid Haig…could have guessed he would be in this…
*Robert DoQui as King George…I knew who he was cause the song “King George” started playing when he stepped out of his car and it kept just repeating the same thing “King George” over and over…this is how it’s done!!!
*that’s quite the “accent” Grier uses to fool King George…
*wow we see Grier’s bare breasts a lot in this movie
*at a party, Grier is undercover as a hooker, along with King George’s other hookers, one hooker gets jealous of her, spills a bunch of drinks on Grier and makes Grier leave to go get cleaned up…but it’s a good thing as that allows Grier to go look for King George’s stash…good thing she got all those drinks spilled on her!
*Allan Arbus…Dr. Sidney Freeman from MASH!
*Grier dumps a bowl of caesar salad all over the blonde and then is attacked by all the other hookers…at least they have solidarity and stand up for each other…good for them!
*of course that means we get to see more breasts as Grier’s big move is ripping open their dresses as she kicks their ass
*okay…blonde girl goes to grab Grier by the hair from behind but lets go and looks at her bloody hands…like really bloody hands as if she’s slit both her wrists…did Grier have razer blades in her afro?
*of course this is famously a favourite of Quentin Tarantino, as he cast Grier in “Jackie Brown” based on this role and others…is Tarantino helping program TCM now? Or has he just helped bring these films more attention? Probably the latter…
*so Grier tries to kill Sidney Freeman but is thwarted by Sid Haig, but she is a quick thinker and tells them King George sent her…
*so then the next scene has King George talking to the blonde, whose hands are bandaged and her face is messed up from the fight with Grier…he’s nice to her and accepts her apology, etc. So he’s a nice pimp/drug dealer?
*then Haig and thug friends take out King George by lynching him and dragging him behind a car…King George deserved better than that! He had his own theme song!
*but seriously why have him seem like a nice guy in the previous scene, or at least not such a bad guy, after Coffy framed him and caused a turf war…weird psychology there…
*then the politician is doing campaign stuff, walking around talking to people, then from off camera a director walks in and yells “Cut!” It was a set up and all political theatre…that’s great stuff!
*so Coffy is captured and turned on by her politician boyfriend, is taken away by Haig and some dirty cops, they force her to shoot up, but it’s with King George’s stash which she switched out with some sugar and she it doesn’t effect her at all and she is able to run off…okay so would injecting sugar into your bloodstream really not effect you at all? Just curious…
*so she goes to the bad guys and shoots them up with a shotgun…Freeman offers her a million dollars not to shoot him but she does anyway to get revenge for her sister and the nice cop…
*so then she confronts her politician boyfriend, wants to kill him too, he almost talks her out of it, but turns out there’s a white chick upstairs (the stripper from the restaurant?) so Coffy shoots him in the groin and leaves him to die…
*credits…
*great stuff!
*now I have bene thinking, has Tarantino done anything with TCM? I imagine if he hosted the Essentials it wouldn’t be all movies like this…he’d be perfect to host TCM Underground even though it doesn’t have a host…it did at first, Rob Zombie but hasn’t for a long time…anyway just thinking out loud…
Native Son 1951 Noir Alley
*premiere
*Richard Wright, who wrote the original novel, actually plays the lead role…the character is 20 and Wright himself is 40…okay you have my attention, TCM!
*this was filmed in Buenos Aires and pretended it was Chicago
*as a result a lot of the actors had thick accents so there is a lot of ADR
==============
Gun Crazy 1950
*guy who likes guns (but refuses to kill living creatures) meets a girl sharpshooter in a carnival
*they fall in love but the guy who runs the carnival fires them
*they start stealing things and robbing banks
*she’s pretty crazy, wants to kill people and enjoys it
*his friends try to reason with him but he’s in love
*at one point they have to take off fast and she wants to take a baby as hostage but he refuses
*he has problems with his vision so he’s not as good a shot as the movie goes on
*ends in a shootout of course
*one great sequence shot in one take where they do a bank robbery and apparently never told the locals about it, just the crew and actors knew about it so that must have been an interesting day in Montrose, CA
Gun Crazy 1992
*nothing like the original
*according to Wikipedia, it’s “inspired by the 1950 film but not a remake”
*Drew Barrymore, Jeremy Davies, Michael Ironside, Billy Drago, James LeGros
*directed by Tamra Davis
*IONE SKYE!?!?
*Barrymore is a teen in a small town with an abusive jerk as a roommate…her mother’s boyfriend but her mother took off
*he has sex with local boys, including a young Jeremy Davies, so they will leave her alone but it doesn’t work…
*she makes pen pals with a convict in a prison and they fall in love pretty quickly…
*the prisoner is James LeGros, who put out 5 movies in 1992 alone…
*Barrymore starts shooting guns, ends up killing the boyfriend after he rapes her
*LeGros is released from prison, they hook up, enjoy shooting guns together
*Barrymore is a quick learner with her guns
*wait Howard’s last name is Hickok?
*Ione Sky in a 2nd scene?
*she’s in this more than I thought…
*that truck scene, Sky unfortunately does the worst “pretending to smoke a joint” acting I’ve ever seen…I mean good for her that she didn’t do it I guess…
*so they get married…
*so director Tamra Davis was married to Mike D of the Beastie Boys which is how Ione Sky got involved, as she was dating Adam Horovitz at the time
*wait he likes guns but he’s impotent? Looks like this movie has more in common with “Bonnie and Clyde” than “Gun Crazy”…
*so they end up killing the local boys (including Davies) and the Howard character douses their car with gasoline to burn up the bodies but their truck won’t start so they have to take the car…he then douses the truck and burns it up instead…I thought there would be something were they made a joke about having to drive a car that is covered in gasoline but I guess not…
*stuff happens, no one seems to notice the dead people, they still have to go on the run when, strangely, the preacher who they are kinda friends with gets bitten by his own snake and somehow Howard gets in trouble so they take off and are on the run…
*I kinda thought that the convict would be the passive one, especially since he was impotent, and that the Barrymore character was the aggressive one but whatever…
*Ione Skye’s character has a water bed!
*Barrymore’s character is only 16…
*”Our autographs won’t be worth spit once we’re dead…” I think it’s the opposite…
*they finally consulate the marriage, which means the movie will be over soon…
*they end up at a house and squat there until the cops just show up and find them somehow…
*big shootout…
*he dies and she lies, pretends she’s innocent and is helped away by Ironside…
*okay movie but it really doesn’t have anything to do with the original so it’s weird they named it that…
*BTW director Tamra Davis directed this, then CB4, Billy Madison, Half Baked, Crossroads (yes the Britney Spears movie) and was removed as director from “Bad Girls” the female Western…then moved to TV and has directed episodes of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”, “God Friended Me” and “Stargirl”…
==============
Django Unchained 2012 Western
*again, but not since it came out
*wasn’t really impressed with this when it came out, but I wasn’t really into Westerns back then so let’s see…
*of course it’s a Tarantino movie so it looks great and the performances are great
*I remember feeling queasy at all the “n-words” and I still feel that way…I also hate all the smoking too, whether it’s historically accurate or not…still bugs me…
*so that town that had Tom Wopat as the Marshall…after all that, they just let Django and Schultz leave there even though they had beers in the saloon?
*didn’t know about Mandingo fighting (although after looking it up apparently there is some debate as to whether or not that’s accurate)
*always wondered about movies or scenes where they have people who are Nazis or KKK (although Tarantino says the “Bagheads” aren’t the KKK) and they make those scenes funny or show them as incompetent…always wondered if people saw those scenes and since they laughed at them, if that gave the wrong idea…maybe?
*one critic referred to Tarantino’s “historical elasticity”…nice turn of a phrase…
*most of the black females seem to be treated pretty well, seem to be allowed to walk around in nice dresses and speak freely which is…interesting
*James Remar has two roles, characters who seem to be unrelated which is kinda strange
*Walton Goggins is one of those actors who is in everything and it gets kind of annoying…
*Christoph Waltz is a good guy here so his speeches and monologues work better to me here, as opposed to being the “charming” Nazi in “Inglorious Basterds”
*when I watched it the first time I had no idea about Spaghetti Westerns, and so on that basis I definitely liked this better than “Basterds”
*I definitely enjoyed the Franco Nero cameo…
*the last half hour seemed gratuitous, as there is a big shootout, where seemingly 30-40 people die, then followed up by a smaller shootout where about 6 people die…
*Tarantino is a director who sometimes, especially in his last few movies, seems to need someone to tell him that he can edit some stuff out…but apparently there was 90 minutes cut out of the stuff filmed and stuff cut out of the initial script that was never filmed…so there’s that…
*apparently an idea was floated where there would be a Django team up with Zorro, with Antonio Banderas again playing Zorro which would be cool
*I can see why Leonardo DiCaprio wanted this role, I’m surprised he didn’t win an Oscar for his charming yet unhinged performance (Waltz did win Best Supporting Actor, his second Oscar working for Tarantino)
*surprised Will Smith turned down Django, with his excuse apparently being “It wasn’t the lead” which is…confusing…maybe that was just his nice way of turning down? Like how you say to someone “Sure I’ll house sit for you if you pay me a million dollars”…
*Tarantino’s largest budget yet and it was mostly spent on fake blood, even more blood that Kill Bill although I don’t remember heads being decapitated…
The Over the Hill Gang Rides Again 1970 Western
*again
*Walter Brennan, Fred Astaire, Edgar Buchanen, Pepper Martin (again), Andy Devine (who was the voice of Friar Tuck in the animated Robin Hood movie)
*an ABC Movie of the Week
*Brennan’s last role
*three old friends, who used to be Texas Rangers, get together to go try to help their friend, the Baltimore Kid…
*they just have to say the Ranger Code “Brazos!”…apparently it’s like “Avengers Assemble”
*they go and find their friend, Fred Astaire, and there is a whole thing where he’s supposedly dead but is actually hanging out in a saloon which is weird
*they dry him out and they try to help him get his confidence back…
*three gunslingers come to town, start shooting up the place, Astaire confronts them, tries to reason with them, while Brennan has the others go up to the roofs with rifles and scare the bad guys to just walk away, while saving Astaire’s ego…
*same thing later but with Pepper Martin (good to see him again) who isn’t intimidated at all by Astaire until Brennan comes up behind him and sticks a gun in his ribs…
*a gang comes to town to rob the bank, and a woman manipulates Astaire, shattering his confidence just as the others have to buckle down to stop the robbery…
*Astaire gets his confidence back just in time for the big shootout in the end
*they are totally out gunned but win by starting a bull stampede and dropping bales of hay from second story windows…
*but Astaire is shot and dies apparently…or does he?
*nope he doesn’t
*so he wanted to fake his death in order to live a life of peace because people kept coming after The Baltimore Kid…kind of like Gregory Peck in “The Gunfighter” I guess although I don’t think that’s true…all the bad guys who came to town were just jerks not specifically looking for Astaire…he confronted them because he was the sheriff not because he was the Kid…he could have just given up the badge…oh well…I may have missed something admittedly..
*not bad, always fun to see Brennan, especially if this is his last ever role…and Astaire doing something other than dancing…good stuff…
===============
Red River 1948 Western
*again
*Howard Hawks
*John Wayne wants to have a cattle ranch in Texas, crosses the Red River, claims some land, wants “the greatest ranch in Texas” with Walter Brennan and a kid whose family was killed by Natives
*cut 15 years into the future, Wayne is broke following the Civil War
*they decide to do a cattle drive to Kansas as they need the money but then argue over which way they should go…
*Montgomery Clift is the older boy, and he’s a sharpshooter
*another sharpshooter comes to their group and he and Clift “size each other up” in a scene that seems to have a lot of context
*alot of time spent setting up the cattle drive and the various characters involved
*Noah Berry Jr.! ROCKY!
*Hank Worden!
*the cattle drive has issues…debates on which route to take, the cattle stampede and have to be recovered, one of the men dies…
*one guy has a sweet tooth, keeps stealing sugar, is like a kid, he accidentally causes the stampede, Wayne is going to kill him but Clift shoots him in the shoulder to save his life…
*a guy comes along, says his group was going the same route as them but was ambushed, Wayne is insistent they keep going, men try to quit and he shoots them, people start to look at him sideways…
*Clift and Wayne start to argue…Wayne rules with an iron fist with no questions allowed and Clift thinks he’s earned the right to offer his opinion…
*more tension builds up, Wayne threatens to hang two more men, Clift has had enough, takes the cattle and says Wayne is out…
*Wayne says next time he sees Clift he will kill him…not subtle at all!
*this is the largest role I’ve seen Noah Berry Jr. have outside Rocky on Rockford Files
*so a bunch of gamblers and dance hall girls get attacked by Natives and Clift and a few others save them
*Clift talks to a girl who has some character to her and apparently this offends him as he assumes she’s a whore or something…
*she apologizes to him for fraternizing with “bad people” I guess…
*he forgives her and I guess they sleep together…
*Clift’s group leaves and week later Wayne shows up, the girl and Wayne talk…wait does she offer to sleep with Wayne and give him a son if he leaves Clift alone? All during a discussion about how much she loved Clift…?
*anyway Clift and the cattle make it to Kansas, Wayne and the girl are close behind, it comes down to a confrontation…
*OF COURSE Wayne, on his way to confronting Clift, gets into a 1st shootout with the other sharpshooter, Cherry, and gets shot in the side but keeps on going like he’s the Terminator or something…was that written into Wayne’s contract, or did they say “No way that little Clift is going to beat Wayne in a fist fight so we need him to have a bullet go into him first…to make it fair!”
*anyway they fight, the girls stops them, they all love each other and bam the movie is over…that was a quick resolution! Good!
*good movie…
Code 8 2019
*again
================
Dances with Wolves 1990 Western
*again but not for a long time
*starts with Costner unconscious on a table, wakes up, puts his boots back on and “heads back to the front, accepting death in battle over amputation of his foot, he takes a horse and rides up to the Confederate lines.
*Confederate forces fire at him repeatedly and miss, and the Union Army uses the distraction to mount a successful attack
*Costner survives and is thought of as a hero, given a citation for bravery and they fix his injured foot
*He’s awarded a great horse, Cisco, and his choice of posting, so he chooses to go to the Western frontier so he can see if before it disappears…”
*from Wikipedia…
*he arrives at Fort Hays, his commanding officer is nuts, kills himself just after Costner leaves
*he travels with Timmons (Robert Pastorelli) who drops him off at Fort Sedgwick and then heads back
*on the way back Timmons is killed by natives, so the only two people who know where Costner is are dead…
*Costner hangs out, fixes up the fort, likes the solitude but when no one comes, he tries to make friends with the local Sioux
*there is a language barrier, and luckily there is a white woman who lives with the Sioux who can translate…
*in the movie Sioux are seen as good guys whereas Pawnee (like the town in Parks & Rec!) are seen as villains, but apparently in real life Pawnee are a lot smaller tribe who the Sioux would take advantage of (probably an oversimplification; got that from Wikipedia of course)
*so eventually Costner falls for the woman (Mary McDonnell) and becomes best friends with Graham Greene and others, abandons his post and goes to live with them
*lots of big action scenes follow, including a Buffalo chase, a surprisingly one sided fight with the “bad guys” and later with some soldiers who come looking for Costner…
*so as before, this is a great movie, and I think I appreciated it even more as a Western fan
Irresistable 2020
*I think I liked the ending more than the rest of the movie
*should’ve been more like an episode like Columbo than Murder She Wrote
*love that Mackenzie Davis got such a great role…when I saw her I assumed she was just going to be the girl who falls for Steve Carell…and the movie assumed we’d assume that so good for them
*written and directed by JON F’N STEWART! So this is a little disappointing…but still good for him I guess…
==============
Vixen the Animated Movie 2016
*love the character but this was pretty meh
*funny as this was originally an animated series and then just pasted together to make it a “movie”…
*it might be the animation style of these, it just doesn’t “pop” at all, at least for me, some one who grew up on Bruce Timm’s style, although I have to admit that style took some getting used to at first…
===============
To Sleep with Anger 1990
*never heard of this before, but it’s on TCM so…
*looking at the reviews, some people call it a “masterpiece” and some don’t…so we’ll see…
*CARL LUMBLY!!!
*the younger girl is apparently Reina King, who is the sister of the great Regina King
Home Bird 2014
*Sarah Millican 90 minute stand up special
================
Storm Warning 1951
*Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, Ronald Reagan
*five minutes in town, Rogers witnesses the Klan kill a man
*Doris Day is her sister, one of the murderers is Day’s wife
*upon meeting, Rogers immediately confronts him, I assumed Day and the husband would deny it, no one would believe Rogers but he gives it up really fast and confesses which surprised me…
*Reagan is a local cop who knows what happened but no one will help his investigation…
*Rogers agrees to leave town in the morning and…that’s it…short movie…oh wait…never mind…
*so Rogers had left her suitcase at the bus depot and they planted the murder weapon in there to frame her…didn’t see that coming…
*nope I was giving the movie too much credit…although Reagan knowing she checked her bag at the depot around the same time the murder happened is okay too…
*Day’s husband is pretty dim…
*Reagan is having an inquest and the town is freaking out…apparently the Klan is a group that is like the local Neighborhood Watch? They pay dues?
*at one point the dim husband says “It was probably outsiders dressed like the Klan trying to cause problems…” wow ripped out of today’s headlines in 2021…
*after a quick start the movie slows down when the trial/inquest starts…
*skimming ahead in the Wikipedia plot summary, this movie gets dark!
*must happen pretty soon as it’s an hour and 15 minutes in and the Klan is celebrating at the bowling alley…
*so the Klan just got away with murder and the dim husband is screwing it up by antagonizing Rogers…
*Rogers is, again, about to leave town without making any more trouble and the dim husband ruins it…Days sees him trying to rape her and is ready to leave him finally…like before when he admitted to being part of a murder she wasn’t ready to leave him but this is too much…good…
*they take Rogers to a Klan meeting and even the Wizard guy is like “you dim husband…”
*wow that’s a lot of Klan…
*they actually whip Rogers five times before the cops show up
*horrifying moment…during the whipping a Klan mother picks up her Klan child so they can get a better look…wow that’s chilling
*so Reagan, Day and the deputy show up…outnumbered 3 on 50…Reagan pulls off his best John Wayne and walks through the crowd like they are nobodies even as they point guns at him…
*the dim husband grabs a gun and shoots Day, his pregnant wife and then he’s shot…
*the crowd disperses, leaving the Wizard guy and Rogers finally identifies him as the initial killer…can they re-open an inquest? Is it not like a trial where he would have been acquitted…
*so the Klan are shown as cowards who take off when a little trouble starts…hopefully Reagan left that town as I can’t imagine them just disbanding even with their Grand Wizard in jail…
*some pretty brutal stuff in this using 2021 eyes, critics back then said it was “soft”…
*good thing that dim husband was so dim otherwise…
Night of the Lepus 1972 TCM Underground
2/27/21
*a movie about killer rabbits…
*wish I’d seen this movie about ten years ago…the town where I went to Film School in had a rabbit “epidemic” then and I could have made a parody film…
*DeForest Kelly!!
*Janet Leigh!
*Rory Calhoun!
*”one of the worst movies ever made…”
*”Lepus is the Latin word for Rabbit” cause the studio didn’t want to call this movie “Killer Rabbits”…
*why is their daughter constantly around? They can’t afford daycare?
*oh that’s why…so the kid can make the plot move forward…
*so Stuart Whitman and Rory Calhoun look identical, other than Whitman’s hair dye job…
*just realized that they are showing this on TCM Canada instead of “Hiding Out” the Jon Cryer/Annbeth Gish movie…true story I loved that movie, that was one of those movies I had taped on VHS that I watched over and over again…haven’t thought of that for years…I would have loved to see that using 2021 eyes since Cryer is an adult who goes into hiding at a high school and falls in love with teenager Gish…
*anyway back to this movie…the rabbit attacks have started! Oh no that man is covered in ketchup! Someone help him!
*yeah this movie…we’re only twenty minutes in!!!
*so the rabbits get angry…and big!
*should have paired this with “Food of the Gods” and its giant rats!
*little girl in this movie, Leigh’s daughter, could have been played by Jamie Lee Curtis, maybe? Well, she was 14 apparently when this movie was made so maybe not…this is what my mind drifts to as I watch this movie…
*over an hour in…is it inspiring or sad to see these old school actors trying to make something out of this movie and the dialogue?
*still waiting for the mayor to show up and say “We can’t tell anyone about the rabbits…it will affect our summer tourist business…” although to be honest that could have already happened and I missed it…
*wow…sheriff goes to the drive thru, interrupts the movie, starts yelling at them that “there is a horde of killer rabbits coming this way…follow me…” AND THEY DO IT! No issues…no one yelling “I’m trying to watch the movie!” no “there’s a horde of killer WHAT?” they just do it…must be nice to be a sheriff of a town so nice and polite…
*remember in “Jaws” when Brody was trying to tell people about killer sharks in the water and they laughed at him? IN THIS MOVIE they say “killer rabbits” and everyone is like “How can we help?”
Out of Bounds 1986 TCM Underground
2/27/21
*Anthony Michael Hall, Jenny Wright (from Near Dark)
*so Hall is a kid from Iowa, is sent to live in LA with his brother, meets a cute girl on the plane, his bag gets switched for one with drugs, his brother is killed, he finds the girl he just met, convinces her to quit her job to help him, they go on the run…why not?
*at one point he’s being chased by cops, encounters a biker, jumps on the back of his bike and they do a car chase…
*then later, after a heart-to-heart, the biker gives him some advice, as the biker believes him of course
*later Hall gets on the bus, sees a loose grate, hides the bag of drugs there…good idea but does he realize how many buses there are in LA? I hope he wrote down the number…
*of course he finds the girl and she’s like, sure I’m bored, I’ll go on the run with you…
*Glynn Turman!
*not sure if Hall’s character is supposed to be “in character”, but once he dies his hair he tries acting like a tough guy and it’s unintentionally funny…maybe this is why his career went nowhere until the “Deadzone” tv series?
*great soundtrack though “Cities in the Dust” by Siouxsie and the Banshees stood out to me…heard it previously on the “Atomic Blonde” soundtrack…
*Jerry Levine! Styles!
*Turman’s partner looks like Kyle MacLachlan
*suddenly Hall is blonde again
*Meat Loaf!
*so the more dangerous it gets the more Jenny Wright wants to be involved…there could have been more done with this character, I think…
*anyway it just turns into a standard chase-and-shoot movie
*it’s unfortunate that Hall wanted to “branch out” into more adult roles but it just didn’t work out for him until later on…that baby face of his just couldn’t be taken seriously as a tough guy…
================
Anzio 1968
*Robert Mitchum, Peter Falk, Robert Ryan
*co-directed by Edward Dmytryk(!) and Duilio Coletti
*produced by Dino De Laurentiis
*apparently Giancarlo Giannini made his film debut here, who would later play Matthis in the Daniel Craig James Bond movies…
*Reni Santoni!
*Earl Holliman!
*so mostly the movie is Mitchum, Falk and a motley crew of Santoni, Holliman and a few others in a war movie…
*interesting concept as the army goes to invade but there is no one there, the Germans have all left…
*the general is too passive (as opposed to generals who think of soldiers as expendable) and due to this, the Germans have time to organize a counter attack
*German’s counter attack kills over 700 soldiers and only 7 are left…
*interesting to see Mitchum and Ryan on screen together but it was brief…
*interesting how Falk dies…it’s pretty abrupt and I didn’t see it coming
*older reporter Mitchum picks up his gun and suddenly he’s Captain America
*standard war movie stuff after that…
*happy ending…Mitchum doesn’t seem to feel anything for anyone like he’s made of teflon
Odds Against Tomorrow 1959 Noir Alley
*again
*Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelly Winters
*heist movie!
*although it’s an hour into the movie before the planning really starts; the rest was all set up and getting to know the characters
*good guys seems to be Belafonte, who also produced this but he’s a gambler who doesn’t seem to take much seriously, including his wife and daughter…well maybe his daughter…
*racist Ryan is in on the deal too and won’t work with Belafonte until he’s backed into a corner
*w/Shelly Winters, Wayne Rogers, Cicely Tyson, Ed Begley Sr., Gloria Grahame, Robert Earl Jones
*Belafonte apparently didn’t want it to have a happy ending like “The Defiant Ones” where the racist and the black man become friends…he wanted it more realistic
*Robert Wise is a legend, having edited “Citizen Kane”, and went on to direct “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “West Side Story”, “The Sound Of Music” and something I didn’t know, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”
*cool to find out that, despite making a career out of portraying racists, Robert Ryan was a cool guy and he and Belafonte were great friends
=================
nothing - binged Legends S5
=================
Police Academy 1986
*for the hundredth time
Vera Cruz 1954 Western
*As the American Civil War ended, another war was just beginning. The Mexican people were struggling to rid themselves of their foreign Emperor…Maximilian. Into this fight rode a handful of Americans (ex-soldiers, adventurers, criminals) all bent on gain. They drifted South in small groups….and some came alone.”
*Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster
*CESAR ROMERO!
*ERNEST BORGNINE!
*CHARLES BRONSON!
*JACK ELAM!
*so Cooper is riding along, his horse gets injured, comes across Lancaster who has an extra horse, Cooper buys the extra horse, the Mexican army shows up, turns out Lancaster stole the 2nd horse from a general so they go on the run
*Cooper and Lancaster end up fighting, Cooper ends up with Lancaster’s horse and rides into the nearby town
*there, Cooper runs into Lancaster’s crew, they see Cooper with Lancaster’s horse and assume the worst, so they are about to beat him up when Lancaster shows up…they make peace and head to Mexico together
*they show up in Mexico, are about to be hired by Romero, who is an agent of Maximilian, but the freedom fighters show up, threaten them and have them surrounded, say they can leave peacefully and not work for Maxmillian, but Lancaster gets out of it by threatening to kill children…
*Cooper, Lancaster and the crew (including Borgnine, Bronson and Elam) go with Romero to meet Maxmillian at a big party, the snooty leaders don’t like the crew and their manners, etc.
*they charm Maximillian though, he offers the $25,000 to escort Countess Duvarre to Veracruz, they get him to double the offer
*during a river crossing, Cooper notices the stagecoach is travelling heavy despite only having the countess inside
*later that night, Lancaster finds boxes inside full of gold coins, the countess sees him and Cooper talking, says it’s worth $3 million intended to pay for reinforcements from Europe. They form an uneasy alliance to steal and split the gold, but Romero is listening in on their plans
*they arrive in a small town and are ambushed but manage to escape but with casualties
*Lancaster’s crew, specifically Bronson, wants to rape a local girl but Cooper stops him and with Lancaster’s help, which the crew doesn’t like
*the girl is Nina who is an undercover agent
*she tells Cooper “how can the freedom fighters fight without guns and money?” and he seems already going to switch sides
*Cooper catches Nina inside the stagecoach at night, trying on a dress of the countess, Cooper confronts her, Lancaster catches them, she kisses Cooper and runs off, Lancaster then gets suspicious of Cooper
*Lancaster talks to the countess who is talking to a one of the Europeans
*Lancaster and countess talk, he slaps her around as he thinks she is going to betray him, due to the slapping around of course she is turned on
*Romero’s guys steal the stagecoach, Lancaster is shot in the arm during their escape
*Cooper and Lancaster don’t trust each other, are busy talking to their women and don’t notice
*Lancaster, Cooper and his gang go after the stagecoach, freedom fighters are waiting for them, blow up the stagecoach, Cooper and Lancaster go to look for the gold but the gang stops them, they now don’t trust Lancaster, they all look in the stagecoach but it’s empty and they did the switch back in the town so they are all angry but then notice they are surrounded by the freedom fighters
*Cooper and Lancaster talk to the freedom fighters, they switch sides for $100,000
*Romero succeeds in getting the gold to Vera Cruz with the captured Countess, reinforcements arrive…
*Cooper and Lancaster do to the freedom fighters’ base, Nina is there, she is the “Maid Marian” of the group, talks to Cooper…
*surprisingly, it cuts right to the next day with the fighting already going on…
*big fight, freedom fighters go straight for the front door and get taken out by a gatlin gun while Cooper, Lancaster and the gang go around the back
*Cooper and Lancaster get to the gatlin gun, bicker too long (Cooper thinks the freedom fighters are brave, Lancaster couldn’t care less) and a bad guy throws a grenade and blows it up
*they recover, Lancaster kills the snooty 3rd in command, go after the stagecoach and Romero
*most of the gang die, Lancaster turns on the countess, not wanting to split the gold with anyone, even kills one of his gang
*comes down to Lancaster vs. Cooper for the gold, with Cooper winning
*Cooper leaves the gold with the freedom fighters, walks away from the countess who saw the whole thing
*Cooper and Nina leave, with women search the dead for their loved ones
*Lancaster keeps smiling, showing off his teeth and it gets annoying, almost like he just paid alot of money on getting his teeth fixed so he wants to show them off or something…
*according to wikipedia, this is the movie that “The Three Amigos” is spoofing…okay…
*the amoral characters are said to have influenced future Westerns like “The Magnificent Seven”, “The Wild Bunch” and Spaghetti Westerns…
Unforgiven 1960 Western
*again
*if I remember this correctly, this is the movie where Burt Lancaster falls in love with his adopted sister Audrey Hepburn
*at the start of the movie, the patriarch of the Zachary family has died, so the sons, mother and adopted sister run the farm
*their neighbour Zeb Rawlins wants Hepburn to marry his shy son Charlie; Lancaster is already in love with her and doesn’t want this to happen
*Dr. No comes by the house, says he’s the angel of death or something, freaks them out but he leaves so they leave him alone
*Lancaster comes home, bring a piano with him (lifts it off the wagon himself, which was probably in his contract) for Hebburn and his mother (Lillian Gish)
*Lancaster shows up with a crew, one of whom is John Saxon, playing a Native, which means Audie Murphy’s character gets to show he’s racist
*Doug McClure plays the youngest brother in the “aw shucks” style of Western acting
*neighbours show up for a party, they are particularly racist, but want the families to marry, for Charlie (who seems differently abled) to marry Hepburn
*Gish is white as a ghost so is she going to die soon? I don’t remember
*I remember this lunch party thing takes forever
*Lancaster and Murphy go out in a sand storm to find Dr. No but don’t find him (although it seems Murphy clips him, kills his horse)
*Dr. No walks around…
*there is something that seems like the Calgary Stampede with horse wrangling and such…much rejoicing
*they are getting ready for a cattle drive to Wichita, Kansas
*John Saxon is goaded into trying a wild horse by Murphy, he tames the horse easily, looks at Hepburn and Lancaster throws him off his horse; the others mention “Ben is might touchy about Rachel” so everyone knows…
*Dr. No steals a horse from them as they are having fun, it’s Rachel’s horse
*Lancaster and Hepburn ride home together, Hepburn straight up talk about them getting married, Hepburn throws herself at him and he of course that’s when he decides Charlie can court her…
*a group of Kiowa Natives show up, say that Rachel is their sister and want to trade her for some horses, that Dr. No told them that and he believes it, but Lancaster says no way
*Charlie comes to court Rachel but on the way back home is killed by the Kiowa
*Charlie’s family is distraught and the mother freaks out at Hepburn, everyone is giving them side-eye, Lancaster puts off the cattle drive until they find Dr No
*they take off, see him in the distance, send John Saxon and three horses after him…when one horse gets tired he jumps on to another one and keeps going…pretty cool
*Saxon catches up to him, they take him back to Charlie’s family home, ask him to recant what he said about Hepburn, he refuses, they hang him but it doesn’t matter…he swears while holding the bible that Hepburn is Native so Dr. No is dead but they hate her
*Dr. No had been following them for years from town to town as this had been happening for years, the lies had followed them until their father had been killed
*the mother finally hits Dr. No’s horse and make it so he hangs
*the crowd believe Dr. No and say they are finished working together
*they go back to the house and bicker, with Murphy being an asshole…the mother admits what they said was true and their father brought home a Native baby and they lied all these years
*Murphy can’t handle his sister being a (bad word) and takes off
*they hunker down and the Kiowa attack…it’s one of those movie fights where the good guys hit every shot they take perfectly but there is just too many of them…
*there is an intermission in the middle of the attack, in that the Natives leave and play music at their camp, so Lancaster has his mother Gish play the piano, which draws out the Natives who apparently think it’s magic so they attack two or three at a time, get shot, but more attack, etc.
*Murphy is drunk at the neighbours, rolling in the hay with the redhead girl, thinks he hears gunfire at his house although it’s ten miles away, he heads back, turning down sex in the process…
*of course the mother is killed, she has to die as this is all her fault, of course…
*they are almost out of ammunition, so Lancaster takes some lead toy soldiers and melts them down, to make bullets I guess…
*just then Ben proposes to Rachel out of nowhere…okay…good as time as any…the family is all good with this too…
*I like the design of the house, built into the side of a hill although the horses and cows can stand on the roof and eat hay and that gets them into trouble here as the Natives cause a stampede on their roof…
*they actually set their own roof on fire then retreat to the root cellar as it’s almost like a panic room
*Ben is shot when Murphy returns to help…
*Hepburn kills her “brother”, choosing Ben and they live happily ever after I guess
*super long movie, I guess has the right message but sure takes it’s time…
*this movie is about racism but against whom? Hepburn, sure…does the John Saxon guy seem cooler than his white counterparts? It still comes down to a whites vs. Natives war and the whites are the good guys so…
*apparently Hepburn broke her back during production after falling off a horse (I’m guessing it was in one of the early scenes as she isn’t on a horse much; and it caused a miscarriage unfortunately) and production was delayed
*Lancaster was apparently hard to work with, as here with John Huston and with a longtime collaborator Robert Aldrich on “Vera Cruz”
==============
The Big Knife 1955
*another Robert Aldrich movie, completely by coincidence after watching Vera Cruz
*based on a play AND IT SHOWS!
*long movie, lots of monologues and ten pages of dialogue when two would have been enough
*Jack Palance plays a real character, no elaborate over acting or pauses in between words…kind a cool to see
*Rod Steiger, however…he chews up the scenery, has elaborate arm movements and yells a lot
*Ida Lupino, always great to see her
*also Shelly Winters, Wendell Corey, Everett Sloane (not sure if I’ve seen him in anything other than “Citizen Kane” before now), Jean Hagen, Wesley Addy
=============
Killer’s Kiss 1955 Noir Alley
*”first time we’ve shown a student film here on Noir Alley…” is a fun way to start this, Eddie Muller
*so Kubrick funded this himself cause he wanted to make a film noir in New York
*hilarious watching this knowing that Kubrick had no idea how to record sound and after filming it, had to work for ten months re-doing the score and soundtrack…explains lots of voiceovers, not much dialogue and the obvious ADR when there is dialogue…good to know that even the greats had to start somewhere…
*did the same thing on my 1st movie too…and that’s where my similarities to Kubrick end…
*cool to see where TCM got those clips for “Up All Night” stuff they show in between movies
*other than the cool factor of watching early Kubrick, not much else here…and if I hadn’t known about the “having to do re-do all the audio” part even that wouldn’t have been that interesting really…
Oprah interviews Harry & Meghan 2021
*it was two hours with commercials; this counts
*just…wow…#IStandwithMeghan
*Oprah is an awesome interviewer
*need I say more?
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man 1955
*it is what you’d think it is…
*from Abbott & Costello’s looks here, they seem to be really old but this is only a few years after they met Frankenstein
=============
My New Gun 1992
*between “Gas Food Lodging”, “Guncrazy” and this, I’m really getting into 1992 cinema, specifically films directed by women
*didn’t mention this in the “Guncrazy” review, but only heard about these two films thanks to the “A Year in Film Hollywood Suite” podcast #8
*w/Diane Lane, James Le Gros (again, from “Guncrazy”), Stephen Collins (ew) and a young Philip Seymour Hoffman
*Collins is a real dick…shocking!
*she screams cause of a nightmare, Skippy the neighbour (Le Gros) hears her and calls at 4am to make sure she is okay…I assume he’s next door and the walls are thin…
*the next day he comes from across the street to talk to her…she’s a loud screamer!
*cool seeing young Diane Lane…not “Streets of Fire” young but still…
*so Collins figures out that Skippy has stolen the gun, at first he thinks Diane Lane borrowed it, but then she confesses Skippy stole it…which is worse? Collins seems to think it’s worse that he stole it…I’d think it would be worse if my wife was so irresponsible to let a weirdo neighbour borrow a loaded gun…
*Collins shoots himself in the foot…funny stuff
*Hoffman!
*Diane Lane walks into the restaurant where Skippy and Hoffman works and faints…this movie is very random, almost like some scenes have been taken out
*okay so in between Collins shooting his foot and Lane showing up at the restaurant, the cops came, wanted to know what happened, Skippy stole back the gun, Lane covered for him, said that she threw the gun in a dumpster or something, she was at the hospital all night with Collins and now is here…
*Hoffman is really skinny here…he’s 25 years old here
*Lane is only two years older but plays older
*Le Gros is the oldest of the three…30 years old but plays it like he’s 18
*so someone shoots Hoffman thinking he’s Le Gros…it’s not Collins cause he’s in the hospital…Le Gros goes to check on him, drives him to the hospital just leaving Lane at the restaurant, unattended…
*did Lane close the restaurant? Or did she just leave it open and leave?
*so then Skippy borrows her car to drive his mother to Phoenix…Skippy is kind of a jerk…but Lane is also a real pushover…
*again stuff happens off screen…Collin’s brother shows up and tells Lane that Collins has food poisoning and is really sick…
*Maddie Corman is in this, from “Somekind of Wonderful”
*Skippy shows up in the middle of the night, wants to sleep there, by the door, doesn’t want a pillow or blanket, tells Lane not to be worried, she says she isn’t, doesn’t ask why she shouldn’t be worried, or why she would be worried…they play it like they are really high or something…this is weird…but entertaining at least!
*they end up sleeping on the floor together (yes just sleep) but again…weird!
*”You’re a fishy guy, aren’t you Skippy?” Yup…
*before she leaves she kisses him on the cheek…is she supposed to be his mom or big sister?
*too much weird to recap…stuff keeps happening…
*whatever happened to Hoffman?
*okay I just want Lane to run away and get away from all these people…
*so Lane comes home from the hospital, Skippy is in her house and his mother is sleeping on her bed…then he kisses Lane…so this is supposed to be a romance?
*I’m actively avoiding the Wikipedia plot summary cause I want to keep being surprised by this movie…
*so they go back to Skippy’s house, where they think someone is after Skippy and his mother, and have sex…that makes sense…
*so they take Skippy’s mother to a Ramada…
*cut to the next morning, Lane happily greets Collins when he comes home…he’s a dick to her…after all that, HE BREAKS UP WITH HER!!! And he doesn’t even know about Skippy…and she gets upset about it…asking why…
*”…your lack of common discretion is mind boggling to me…” I can’t totally argue with Collins here…
*she laughs at him, he slaps her and she slaps him back…should have kicked him in the foot!
*so time has passed (I think), she is having lunch with Maddie Corman, who tells her it’s okay that she bring a date to the wedding…just wacky…
*Skippy’s creepy father shows up…creeps out Lane…
*Skippy and Lane go back to the Ramada…so how much time has passed? How cheap is this Ramada?
*random maid is smoking a joint in Skippy’s mother’s room, dad comes in, breaks down the door…so much happening….
*Skippy, Lane and the mother take off in a Greyhound, go to a more expensive hotel…leave the mother’s clothes behind and she’s wet as she was in the hot tub…so…much…
*they go to the cops, Lane insists “I have to go to the wedding later…”…they go dress shopping of all things…the cop seems to enjoy it…the ladies get dresses and Skippy wants a suit…how expensive is all this?
*then the wedding…Lane had given the cop their gun, so then she steals Maddie’s gun…the creepy dad shows up at the wedding…creepy dad pulls a gun and is apprehended but then, all of a sudden, the mother is dead…they don’t say how, she just is…
*some kid plays “Here Comes the Bride” on the xylophone…why not?
*Lane does look amazing in that dress…
*so it just ends…they leave in the middle of the wedding and just drive off and the movie just ends…
*okay then…I wasn’t bored at all, didn’t see anything coming…good stuff…
================
The Westerner 1940 Western
*again
*”After the Civil War, America, in the throes of rebirth, set it’s face West where the land was free. First came the cattlemen and with them “Judge” Roy Bean, who took the law into his own hands, administering justice according to his lights. That he left his impress on the history of Texas is a tribute to his greatness. Then into his stronghold moved another army, the homesteaders, who ploughed the soil, fenced the fields, to bring security to their wives and children. War was inevitable, a war out of which grew the Texas of today…”
*w/Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, who won his 3rd Best Supporting Actor award for this
*cowboys come across barbed wire fence, cut it down and find the people doing it, they have a gun fight, one guy accidentally shoots a steer, gets hanged for it “the worst crime anyone can commit around here” by Judge Roy Bean
*Bean rules out of the back of a bar in Vinegaroon, Texas in 1882; he has an obsession with English actress Lily Langtry…kicks a guy out of his bar cause he could have seen her perform in England but just didn’t go…
*Bean is “the only law west of the Pecos”, makes a corrupt living collecting fines and seizing property unlawfully, those who stand up to him are usually hanged, given what Bean calls “suspended sentences”…
*Cooper shows up tied up by Bean’s deputies, they say he stole a horse, he says he bought it, they don’t care and sentence him to death, but he stalls them by buying the “jurors” alcohol and talks to Bean about knowing Lilly Langtry, lies in order to stay alive
*a girl shows up and stands up to Bean, he’s impressed and lets her go…
*Bean orders him guilty and will hang, but not for a few weeks so Bean can “look into the matter further” as no friend of Lilly can be that bad…
*another man comes in to the bar, Cooper accuses him of owing him $60, he throws Cooper down and walks out, Cooper follows him, KO’s him and says he was the one who stole the horse that Cooper bought, he pulls a gun and Bean kills him…not clear at first whether Cooper is lying or not and just got an innocent man killed…
*they drink and play cards all night, wake up the next morning, Cooper takes off, Bean chases after him, saying he promised Bean Lily’s lock of hair, Cooper wants to leave, Bean wants him to stay but Cooper steals Bean’s gun and takes off
*the homesteaders meet and are tired of playing it safe and leave, Cooper shows up and the girl who stood up to Bean earlier, he stays for dinner, they want to recruit him to help with their cause against Bean
*she flirts with him but doesn’t seem sincere
*the next morning, the homesteaders go to hang Bean, Cooper goes after them, arrives in time to warn Bean, the homesteaders show up, Bean gets the drop on all twelve of them, takes their guns, Cooper tells them that homesteaders in Kansas ruined the land, they leave despite being up 12-2 and look like losers
*they leave, Cooper then yells at Bean, tries to convince him to not be corrupt and think from their perspectives, says he will give Bean the lock of hair once the cattlemen take all their cattle off the homesteader’s land
*Cooper goes back to the Mathews’ farm, tells the homesteaders but they don’t believe him, they have a fist fight, then after Cooper flirts with the girl some more, takes a lock of her hair to pretend it’s Lily’s…
*Cooper gives Bean the lock of hair, they seem to make peace in the town, crops grow…time jump!
*Jane wants to marry Cooper and build a farm and a home…
*the homesteaders are celebrating but as they do, a corn crop is burned by Bean’s men
*the fire jumps to the Mathews farm house, Mr. Mathews is killed
*Cooper finds Jane, she tells him to get lost..
*the town is re-named Langtry by Bean in honour of his crush
*Cooper confronts Bean, Bean tells Cooper that Langtry is coming to a nearby town to perform and wants Cooper to introduce them, Cooper gets him to confess that Bean was behind the fire, Bean won’t apologize and thinks he was right, Cooper leaves…
*Cooper gets himself deputized by the county sheriff and gets an arrest warrant against Bean
*Cooper wants to arrest Bean but can’t due to being badly outnumbered
*Bean and his men take a long day’s ride after his men buy all the tickets to the show
*Bean and his men show up in his Confederate uniform, the men stay outside while Bean goes in alone, thinking he will get a private audience with her, but Cooper is there…
*Cooper and Bean have a shootout in the theatre, Bean is fatally wounded
*Bean gets to meet Langtry before he dies
*two years later, Cooper and Jane are married, have re-built the farm and watch as new settlers arrive
*this film doesn’t seem to be much of a tribute to Bean…
*apparently Cooper made this film “under protest”, thinking that his role would be insignificant with Brennan playing Bean but after this Cooper and Brennan made another six films together, a total of eight films all together…
===============
Fools’ Parade 1971
*from the description, I thought this was a Western, to be honest…
*it’s actually a Depression era story, set in 1935
*Jimmy Stewart, Kurt Russell, George Kennedy!
*pretty standard stuff at first; Stewart has a check for $25,000 from the prison but can only cash it in the town it was issued and Kennedy and the bank manager want him dead before he can cash it…
*they encounter a whole lot of weird characters…
*Anne Baxter! Totally unrecognizable from “All About Eve”
*she shoots the lock and blows up the houseboat! Ha!
*wait so did Kennedy rape the girl? That’s kind of glossed over…
*Baxter was going to sell her virginity for $100, and then says “She’s no good to me now…” so I guess so…
*Kennedy says “Never did like boys…” before killing the sharpshooter…weird…
*Kennedy shoots two men not that far away from the house where Stewart and the others are yet none of them hear the shots? I guess Kurt Russell and Maddy (Katherine Cannon) were busy losing their virginity, so I guess that makes sense…
*the dog playing fetch with the dynamite is fun
*so Stewart cashes the check right there…so was the reason the bad guys didn’t want him cashing the check was just so they could keep the money? Would cashing that much money from the bank hurt the town? Is there some kind of money laundering going on? Why was the bank manager arrested? Kennedy was the guy who killed people or arranged it…with Kennedy dead, and therefore not able to confess and say he was in on it, I’m kind of confused why he was arrested…
*but then the dog shows up! Yahoo!!!
*but besides that, I really liked this movie! Never heard of it before and only watched it cause I thought it was a Western, but I’m glad I did
=================
Robocop 1987 TCM Underground
*3/6/21
*again
*the guy holding the mayor hostage “look I want a re-count and no matter what it says, I want my job back…” sounds like a certain ex-President…
*man this movie just clicks by…an hour in and Robocop is “alive”, got his memories back, know who the bad guys are, and is visiting his old house…
*Ronnie Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Ray Wise, Nancy Allen, Dan O’Herlihy and of course Peter Weller
*Hard R-rating, lots of F*bombs, blood, guts spilling out, some horror (like the one goon being melted by Toxic Waste then run over by a car) and when it’s over, it’s over…almost a perfect action movie…
*one nitpick…so Murphy is shot to hell at the steel mill, then when recovering, Lewis takes him there for the final shootout…he didn’t have any flashbacks? I understand it’s a cool set to use and all but that doesn’t seem consistent…of all the things in the movie to set off him having flashbacks…
*one of those movies I remember seeing on TV, edited with lots of “Fudge you, man!” then I later saw the actual theatrical version and…well one is better than the other, let’s just say…
*one of those movies, like “Total Recall” and “Point Break” that is un-remakeable (and yet, they did…)
*great stuff
Robocop 2 1990 TCM Underground
*3/6/21
*again, I think?
*John Glover!
*the cops-on-strike storyline continues…
*in the first movie I kept wondering “How come Robocop never calls for backup…” I guess in this movie it makes sense with the cops on strike
*the cops are on strike and Robocop is still working, so does that make Robocop a scab?
*wait Lewis is still on duty too?
*when Lewis catches the baby it’s clearly a doll…
*Peter Weller’s face is three years older but looks ten years older
*so Robocop has been stalking his ex-wife?
*so she’s suing the cops for what they did to Murphy…
*yet she gets emotional when she sees him…I guess I misunderstood her perspective...
*he walks around the precinct and there are other cops there…I thought they were on strike and on the picket line…I guess I don’t get how police strikes work…
*so the fake commercials in this movie are pretty dumb…a guy commits suicide on camera and that’s a selling point? The fake commercials in the 1st one seemed pretty spot on…
*Frank Miller, from comics, wrote this…he’s thought of as a genius for “Dark Knight Returns” and he always wanted to get into movies…”Sin City” wasn’t bad, but then Miller got to show off his “genius” with “The Spirit” movie…
*wait this was directed by Irvin Kershner?
*okay Robocop and Lewis come to the precinct and are yelled at by the picketers…fair enough!
*the fat cops are always the dirty ones…
*Tom Noonan!
*this little kid is a piece of shit…
*so are the bad guys set up in the same steel mill as the first movie? They get a lot out of that location…
*from Wikipedia “The plot element of Detroit’s bankruptcy received attention from the news media after this actually happened in 2013…”
*also “a parody of it’s predecessor…”
*I do like that they try to make a 2nd Robocop, called Robocop 2, but they can’t replicate the success of the original…almost like they are saying “We tried”…
*the bad guys take down Robocop and chop him up pretty easily…
*a Robocop focus group…
*kinda funny when Robocop gets “reset”
*but still, one hour into this movie and I’m like…”how much longer is this?” One hour into the first and things were just getting good!
*and the “nice” Robocop doesn’t last long…a few minutes later he’s back to normal
*Fabiana Udenio in a kinda funny “Sunblock 5000” fake commercial
*so the actress who plays Dr. Juliette Faxx (Belinda Bauer) is now a psychologist in real life…
*there’s some humour in this movie, like the contortionist/violin player who breaks his violin, but it’s clearly downplayed and it’s like the movie doesn’t want it there…
*for a while Robocop disappears and the movie becomes more about Noonan’s character, whose brain is used to power Robocop 2, and his henchmen, including the 13 year old kid…reminds me of how Batman movies usually are actually about the villains and not Batman himself…
*the last line is horrible “Don’t worry Lewis, we’re only human…” terrible…
*really bad…way too long…
**the more I think about it, that ending is terrible…after all that stuff, almost two hours of bang bang, so the bad guys drive off in a limo and Robocop cracks wise…if i had seen that in theatres I would have been like WTF? Seems to set up the sequel but whatever.
===============
Pretty in Pink 1986
*finally
*JON CRYER!
*James Spader, Andrew McCarthy, Harry Dean Stanton, Annie Potts, Margaret Colin, Andrew Dice Clay and of course Molly Ringwald
*also Gina Gershon, Kristy Swanson, Kate Vernon, Dweezil Zappa
*just watching this, enjoying it…
*Duckie says “touche” just how it looks and that’s funny stuff…
*taped off TV so bad words are cut out…at least they aren’t doing the “Forget you…” stuff…
*great stuff with Ringwald comforting Stanton and her being the wise one of the two…
*when Ringwald confronts McCarthy in the hallway and runs off, the principal calls after her “Andy” in a nice way…between this and his speech to her earlier I like that guy…
*Annie Potts is a national treasure…
*okay, so McCarthy tells Spader to get lost but then insults Ringwald in front of Cryer, says she didn’t have faith in him, what a dick but of course she runs after him…so dumb!
*so Kristy Swanson is the one who ends up with Duckie…probably wouldn’t happen in real life considering how opposite they are politically but it is a movie after all…
*wow bad ending…famous story about how the original ending was Cryer and Ringwald getting together but the test audiences hated it and so they re-shot it with her ending up with McCarthy…yeah that sucked…#I’mWithDuckie
*so this movie I’m just now seeing but I knew all about it and could have probably told you the plot even without having watched it…that and “Sixteen Candles” were movies I never watched as a teen, I wasn’t a John Hughes acolyte…I liked “Ferris Bueller” and “Some Kind of Wonderful”…don’t ask me about “The Breakfast Club”
===============
Scissors 1991 TCM Underground
*3/13/21
*Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox
*in the timeline of Stone’s career, this takes place after “Total Recall” and before “Basic Instinct”
*this movie…so Stone is attacked in an elevator by a man with a red beard, and because of this she meets her neighbours, twin brothers, one of whom is in a wheelchair and the other is an actor…
*the actor hits on her, invites her to a party at their place, in this one party she meets the woman who wants the actor for herself, then the wheelchair brother shows her his art which are naked paintings of her which freaks her out, she goes to leave, sees the actor holding the woman, sees a red beard man, goes back to her apartment with the actor, he hits on her, she rejects him…wow this was a busy ten minutes…
*Stone “your brother is driving me crazy”…was this scene supposed to take place later? They’ve met twice and the second time, minutes earlier was when he showed her the naked painting…
*Stone then says, in therapy, that she wants to have sex with no one but Ronny Cox…he rejects her because he is happy married…
*so the actor comes over, makes out with Stone but she stops him, he leaves but it’s a positive thing, he understands and asks her to dinner but then she sees his twin through the blinds standing out of his wheelchair with the rejected woman…
*the twin threatens to come over but the woman stops him, Stone is terrified, wants to call the cops and while hiding in terror, the phone rings and she has a job lined up for the next day! Hooray! She celebrates with a little pig puppet while crying happy tears…I think they are happy tears…this movie…
*this movie is nuts!
*maybe she should move?
*Stone goes to an apartment the next day for her job and finds the man who attacked her dead…okay…or I think it is, he was killed with her red scissors…
*Stone acts her butt off here, for ten minutes she goes around the apartment, holding pieces of art with exhaustion and…well it’s a lot…
*Stone was definitely meant to be a star, she has that charisma where you want to watch what she is doing…no one else in the cast besides Cox can hold my attention though…
*the actor comes home, knocks on her door to go on their date but she’s still in the crazy apartment…
*who rents this apartment, the Joker?
*of course the place has lots of dolls so she’s fascinated…can’t leave cause the doorknobs fall off and she can’t open the windows…
*was Stone traumatized by filming this movie?
*she talks to dolls, talks to herself, talks to a bird…does a lot of crying when there’s nothing really to react to or play off so that deserves some credit…
*Stone gets the idea that the bird can help her escape if she sets it free with a note attached but it gets away from her, so that kills a few more minutes…this movie is kind of limping to the finish line here
*it’s revealed, sort of, that the rejected woman and the not-handicapped twin are behind all this…
*the actor breaks into Stone’s apartment, calls Cox to see if he has heard from Stone, he goes to leave but his twin is there, comes in to the apartment, reveals he isn’t crippled, the actor actually throws the first punch after saying something inaudible, something about how he threw his life away for something, they fight and then the twin just walks away…the actor then goes after Stone…what is going on with this movie…?
*okay there are some faces that Stone pulls in this movie that are just hilarious…the one where she hears the kettle boiling…amazing!
*suddenly the TV comes on, shows footage of her doll maker, where she went for work…someone put a lot of work into this, seems odd that people who only knew her for a few days threw this together…
Schizoid 1980 TCM Underground
*3/13/21
*hmmmm….
*a slasher movie, with Christopher Lloyd, Joe Regalbuto, Klaus Kinski who apparently is a big deal as his name is shown in big letters in the opening credits…
*so typical slasher movie where they introduce a bunch of people then they are picked off one by one and turns out, the person most likely to be the killer actually is! That is actually refreshing!
*people are picked off one by one, a bunch of different suspects are introduced, people act creepy just so you might suspect them but it’s a red herring…
*nothing too original here or of note
*Kinski apparently sleeps with half of his therapy group which isn’t really professional, is it?
*he also is never seen without a cigarette which gets annoying…
*not much to this
====================
Paris, Texas 1984
*finally
*been hearing about this for years (decades) so it’ nice I’m finally getting to see it
*Harry Dean Stanton (it’s a coincidence I’m seeing this right after “Pretty in Pink”), Dean Stockwell, Nastassja Kinski
*great movie, not much to say really…
*lots of trivia and stuff I learned while watching this…
*again, total coincidence I watched this right after “Schizoid”, which starred Nastassia Kinski’s father, Klaus Kinski who apparently was a terrible person and a worse father…
*Dean Stockwell was close to retiring before this movie came along…imagine if he had…no Al on “Quantum Leap”!
*the kid, Hunter Carson is the son of Karen Black!
*Harry Dean Stanton’s 1st lead role which is mind boggling…
*I admit it…I didn’t appreciate Nastassia Kinski enough when she was around more…she’s awesome…
*this is called a Western and I could totally see that…
====================
3 Godfathers 1948 Western
*again
*a rare Christmas Western, with this based on the story of the 3 Wisemen
*John Wayne, Harey Carey Jr. and Pedro Armendariz
*directed by John Ford
*and Ward Bond!
*the 3 men ride up to a town, used to be called Tarantula, but they changes the name, they fill up their water bag and get their plans figured out
*the 3 men ride into Welcome, Arizona, have a nice chat with the local sheriff, Bond, whose name is Pearly “Buck” Sweet and Wayne makes fun of his name, not knowing he’s the sheriff; his wife is nice to them and offers them some coffee
*Bond’s wife asks if they have seen his niece and her husband on the trail, on the way through “New Jerusalem”, but they had lied about which way they came into town
*they meet up with Miss Ruby who is back in town from Denver, daughter of the local banker
*Hank Worden is the deputy!
*they then rob the bank but lose the loot when Carey’s horse falls and Carey’s arm is injured
*Wayne goes back to get Carey, they flee into the desert, pursued by Bond, who managed to shoot a hole in their water bag before turning to go to the railroad depot
*Bond goes to the railroad depot, deputizes a bunch of people off the train in order to pursue Wayne; they load pack mules and horses onto the train and the local banker is talked into offering a $100 reward on top of their deputy pay…they take off in on the train…
*Wayne and the men drink their remaining water, head further into the desert, getting tired
*they come across the railroad’s water tank, celebrate but then see the train approaching, three men get off, Bond tells them to watch out, then the train and the rest of the men proceed…
*Wayne and the men are depressed, can’t rush the men as they are outnumbered with Carey injured, they come up with a new plan heading to the Mexican border
*they get stuck in a sand storm, try to find cover
*when they wake up, the storm is gone but so are their horses
*the trains tops at Apache Wells, where there is another water tank, they unload the rest of the horses and pack mule and the men, then the train leaves them there
*the men think they have found water but instead find a seemingly abandoned stagecoach and no water in the tanks
*a while later, Wayne comes back to the men, has a long monologue explaining what happened, in the stagecoach is a woman who is pregnant, she and her husband (who they refer to as a “Tenderfoot”) came across the water tanks which were low on water, the husband, instead of trying to dig for water, tried to blow the tank with dynamite and destroyed everything, scared their horses and he chased after them, leaving the wife alone for the past four days, with a little water, as she is about to deliver the baby…
*the men approach the stage coach to help her with the baby…
*Pete the Mexican stays with the mother while Wayne and Carey chop up some cactus and try to get some water…
*hours later, the woman has a baby boy, who she names after them, and makes them all the baby’s godfather before she dies, she names the baby “Robert William Pedro” after them
*they bury the mother and find some supplies in the stage coach, like condensed milk, an advice book and a Bible. Wayne throws away the Bible, Carey thinks they were sent there by God, like the Three Wise Men to the infant baby Jesus
*back at the Apache Wells, Bond says that Wayne should be on their way there but he knows that Wayne is super smart, so he decides to leave a few men there and head out to find them…
*the men have no clue how to take care of a baby but do their best…
*they head to “New Jerusalem” with the baby, with Carey feeling sick, maybe with his shoulder infected?
*Bond and his men come across the stagecoach and the grave, assume the men killed her and go after them…also find the dynamited water hole and think that they did that too
*Ben Johnson!
*the men walk across the desert with the baby, Carey struggles the most…he also carried the baby, the guy with the bad arm and is weak…not such a good idea?
*Carey dies
*Pete stumbles while carrying the baby, protects the baby but breaks his leg, tells Wayne to go ahead without him with the baby
*Wayne leaves his gun with Pete for the coyotes, they make amends, Wayne leaves, Pete says “Merry Christmas” as it’s Christmas Eve
*Pete kills himself as Wayne walks off
*Bond and his men are in pursuit but walking the horses across the desert
*Wayne continues on, starts to hallucinate, hears Carey and Pete talking to him, encouraging him not to break his word to the mother to protect the baby
*Wayne throws away the bible but then goes back and gets it, reads a passage about donkeys and then two donkeys appear infant of him, presumably from Bond
*Wayne, the baby and the donkeys arrive in New Jerusalem, Wayne walks into the saloon, where they are singing Christmas Carols, collapses at the bar, handing over the baby
*Bond shows up, wants to fight Wayne but he collapses
*a while later, Wayne is at Bond’s house, has breakfast with Bond and his wife, are about to go to court, they bicker about the baby’s name…they want Wayne to sign over the baby’s adoption papers
*Wayne is kind of a dick
*they go to court, Wayne is found guilty but the sentence, the judge says he can go free if he agrees to let Bond and his wife have permanent custody of the baby but he has to leave and never come back, Wayne says he will take the twenty years, the judge says he figured he’d say that, gives him the minimum sentence of one year and one day
*they see him off at the train as he goes to jail in Yuma, the girl from before asks if she can write to Wayne and he says yes as the train pulls away
Three Godfathers 1936 Western
*Walter Brennan!
*”Doc” goes into town to check things out, chats with the sheriff, has a deep cough and needs money to fix it
*they are shutting down the town due to the Church Christmas social…
*Brennan joins them in the saloon, tells different people a different alias
*Chester Morris is the 3rd man
*Leonid Kinsky!
*they all end up at the Social, act like they don’t know each other
*Morris knows a girl named Molly, they were a couple but now she’s going to marry another man…lots of backstory here…
*they end up back at the saloon
*lots more Christmas talk…Molly’s finance at the bank, Frank, dresses up as Santa Claus as they show up to rob the bank
*there is actually four of them, they have a Mexican on the street, singing a song as a lookout
*Morris kills Frank and says “There is no Santa Claus”
*they escape, the other bank guy comes after them and shoots, Doc is shot in the shoulder
*the Mexican is shot and left behind
*they escape but are chased by a posse
*they find a watering hole, take a drink, Doc isn’t sure about the water
*they find a man, who they call Tenderfoot, dead
*they find a stagecoach with a woman inside, she is sleeping, Doc looks after her, they start to take care of her, Morris doesn’t like it but Doc insists, they find the baby already delivered, the mother wakes up and wants to hold the baby
*they find the blown up waterhole, the mother explains that her husband tried to blow him up, they were on the way to New Jerusalem, she knows she is dying, makes them promise to take care of the baby
*unclear how they lost the posse
*they decided to make camp, take care of the baby, Morris is taking off alone in the morning
*they wake up in the morning, the horses are all dead, after they drank the watering hole water
*they rationed their water, Morris wants to drink the baby’s milk, Doc gives up his share of the money for the baby’s milk, they don’ have much options with 88 miles back to the town, need to go forward to New Jerusalem
*Doc’s shoulder was cleaned by Brennan by the dirty water so he’s probably going to die soon
*they head to New Jerusalem, with Morris saying he wants nothing to do with the baby after burying the mother
*Doc looks after the baby, Brennan worries about the both of them, Morris doesn’t care
*no posse chasing them
*Doc and Brennan talks about Macbeth and Shakespeare
*Brennan and Morris leave Doc alone, as they walk off with the baby they hear a gunshot…
*Brennan and Morris walk for a bit, set up camp, Morris wakes up the next morning and Brennan is gone (dead?) having walked off into the desert alone
*Morris walks off with the baby…Brennan left a note and his share of the loot to New Jerusalem
*they make it back to the poison well, Morris drinks a lot of the water, wants to die quickly before heading back into town, wants to die rather than get hung
*I thought they were heading to New Jerusalem, but he heads back into the other town where they came from, did they get turned around?
**it’s a long walk but they make it, walk into church, Morris walks in, hands Molly the baby then dies
*Molly carries the baby down the aisle, notices he is using the watch Morris had earlier to teeth with, Molly says “the watch was his mothers”
*not as good as the remake
===============
We’re No Angels 1955
*meh
================
Gosford Park 2001
*again but not since it was in theatres
*amazing job juggling so many characters and it all makes sense…
*great stuff!
=================
nothing - bingeing “Homicide: Life on the Street” S1
RIP Yaphet Kotto
=================
Jack of Diamonds 1967
**in Canada, no Noir Alley this week (it was “The Third Man” btw)
*so instead of Orson Welles and his Coo-Coo Clock speech, we get George Hamilton and Zsa Zsa Gabor playing herself…not sure this is a fair trade
*oh, I see why they are showing this movie…Joseph Cotton shows up thirty minutes into the movie as Hamilton’s mentor
*Cotton is the “Ace of Diamonds” whereas Hamilton is “Jack…” both are cat burglars, with Cotton looking to retire and move on, is trainmen Hamilton to be his replacement
*becomes a heist movie
*Hamilton’s sidekick reminds me of Keenan Wynn, but isn’t
*during the heist, as Hamilton climbs a wall, there is a repeated dog bark, I think it was part of the soundtrack, like a drum beat or something…it was really annoying…then it just stops…
*later it happens again, but with a guy yelling “Hey!” over and over…made me mute the TV…
*meh
=================
Hell’s Heroes 1929 Western
*the 4th adaptation of “The Three Godfathers” (the one with Walter Brennan being the 5th, and the John Wayne one being the 6th…the next one chronologically is “Ice Age” in 2002)
*directed by William Wyler, his 1st sound production
*three men come across the desert, come across a sign that says “3 Miles to New Jerusalem, a Bad Town for Bad People”
*one of the men is Mexican
*one of the men is already in the town, casing the bank
*”Rio”? is partying in the saloon, is questioned by the sheriff, is a smartass and the sheriff resents it but everyone else laughs
*Rio buys everyone drinks, leaves the saloon, sheriff asks where he’s going, he says “I’m going to rob the bank” and everyone laughs…
*the other three show up, the four men head to the bank, rob it
*the bank teller reaches for a gun, two of the men shoot him, bicker about who did it, Rio tells them to get going
*they take off, the sheriff and others from the saloon go after them, shoot one of them (the Mexican), and chase after the others…
*the three men hit a sandstorm, have to go for cover
*they hide out until the storm is over, discover their horses are gone, one is shot, they have to head for the closest watering hole on foot
*the watering hole is dried up, the one who was shot is in a lot of pain, they keep walking, hear a woman’s voice who is screaming in pain
*one of them approaches the wagon, sees the woman inside, tries to hide it from the other men, but they find out, he says “I saw her first”
*she hasn’t given birth yet
*there is another watering hold, but it’s dried up
*the woman is about to give birth, then does
*Bob (the one who was Rio) doesn’t want to see the baby, but the woman wants them to come and talk to her
*she makes them all her godfathers, makes them swear to protect the baby then she dies
*they bicker over whether to baptize the baby, how to take care of it, etc.
*before the mother died, she revealed that she was travelling to New Jerusalem to her husband who worked at the bank, the man they killed
*so then the two men bicker over who killed him, but in reverse
*they find baby stuff in the wagon
*funny moment with one guy pulling out a rattle, one of the others thinks he hears a rattle snake
*the men aren’t named officially, only referred to as “The Worst Bad Man”, “The Wounded Bad Man”, “The Youngest Bad Man”
*same “what’s a toiletty?” joke as in the John Wayne version, how they can use oil or lard to clean the baby instead of water, read out of a book to learn the “rules”
*they head back to town through the desert, start to run low on water, the wounded one trails behind, says he is staying put, says good bye to the baby and they leave him there
*as they walk away they hear a gunshot
*the two keep walking, stop for the night…
*the main guy wakes up, sees a note, reads it, it says that he’s going to leave the rest of the water for him and the baby as a christmas present
*main guy goes looking for him but he’s gone and presumably dead
*the main guy and the baby struggle through the desert, finally find a watering hole but it’s been poisoned
*so this keeps going and frankly, it’s just like the other adaptations…not much more to report…good but not great…
Jackie Brown 1997
*again but not since it was in theatres
*wasn’t blown away by this in theatres but we’ll see…
*didn’t know anything out Pam Grier back then, as opposed to now, so we’ll see…
*it’s cool that Tiny Lister, Chris Tucker and Sid Haig (as a judge!) are in this…
*there just isn’t the same “magic” in this as there is in “Pulp Fiction”…there is even a repeat scene where Samuel L Jackson talks to someone while standing next to a car with an opened trunk…the conversation with him and Tucker doesn’t have any “Royale with Cheese” magic
*Pam Grier is amazing here…
*I can’t remember where I heard it, or read it, but there was a theory that Tarantino specifically cast Robert DeNiro and Bridget Fonda in smaller roles as a message, as normal business in Hollywood would see them as the lead roles and if Grier and Robert Forster were even in the movie, they’d be lucky to have those roles, never mind the lead roles…not sure if that’s true but it’s a good story…
*I do love heist movies, and I really love the idea of a “soft heist” in that the heist doesn’t involve a “Heat-style” shootout or taking anyone hostage…although someone does get shot I guess…but I did love when Forster gets the bag and calmly walks out…even looking around and smiling when no one is after him…
*super cool that Michael Keaton got to play the same character in this and “Out of Sight”…
*just can’t love this movie, especially comparing it to “Out of Sight” which is infinitely cooler…
===============
It Happened to Jane 1959
*Doris Day, Jack Lemmon
*Lemmon was in between “Some Like it Hot” and “The Apartment”
*bad guy’s firm is called “E&P”…kept thinking that they were saying “EMP”
*not much to this
*weird that Lemmon was co-starring here with Doris Day (not that it’s a bad thing) but he does get a big speech about democracy late in the movie so…
*small town ethics defeat the big city corporate goons…
*and there’s trains…
==================
Bugsy 1976
*finally
*on TCM before the film, Alicia Malone interviewed Jodie Foster which was cool
*cute movie where kids play the adult roles (there are no adults in this movie)
*at one point we hear a baby crying, a little girl yelling out a window to the street so it’s suggesting that this little girl is a stereotypical New York mom who yells a lot as she cooks dinner and raises her kids but it was a smidge uncomfortable…
*the guns these gangsters use are filled with cream pies somehow
*they throw pies at each other, and then there is a evolution of the weapons and this is where the tommy guns with the pies come into it…funny stuff
*I thought that the movie was building to a point where someone would discover an actual gun with bullets and would kill someone and there would be one of those “aha” moments and it would be a message about how dangerous guns are but no that’s not where this movie was going
*some funny stuff where “Fat Sam” points out the subtitles and tells Knuckles “If you can’t understand what I’m saying read the translation…”
*it ends with a big sing along and that’s fun
*hard to watch Scott Baio now since his political views have been revealed…although the only really good performance from him was on “Arrested Development” and he was replaced on that show…
*Jodie Foster was always awesome, BREAKING NEWS!
*great stuff
================
Foxes 1980
*on TCM before the film, Alicia Malone interviewed Jodie Foster which was, again, cool
*Foster says this was a modern version of “Little Women” which I’m guessing means the individual characters…the plot isn’t…or is it?
*directorial debut of Adrian Lyne (“Fatal Attraction”, “91/2 Weeks”, “Jacob’s Ladder”)
*Sally Kellerman plays Foster’s mother (that’s a great combo!), also Randy Quaid and again Scott Baio…was there a shortage of male teen actors at this time?
*kids stay at Quaid’s house while he’s away, their “friends” find out, there is a huge party, stuff is broken and stolen…
*young Laura Dern!
*man that house if f*ed up!
*Scott Baio’s run out of socks, his feet are sweaty and stink so to fix this he throws out his boots…not sure of the physics of that…
*like the kids-adults relationships in this, especially the Foster-Sally Kellerman daughter-mother talks
*and people say that Kevin Williamson created the whole “Kids talking like adults” genre…
*once you get past the “yuck” factor of the age difference, and the fact that it’s Randy Quaid…do they want us to be happy for Madge when she gets married to Quaid?
*How much of a time jump has happened? Kellerman mentions “You’re going off to college…” but is she being literal…has two years past?
*Cherie Currie, from “The Runaways” in her acting debut does a good job
*Jodie Foster is just amazing here, steals the whole film and were there people doubting back then that she would be a major star?
===============
The High Note 2020
*great film, a bit “really?” in some parts, but I did enjoy it
===============
The Old Guard 2020
*I enjoyed this, always great seeing Charlize Theron, I liked this alot more than “Atomic Blonde” (but not the soundtrack, the “AB” one is fantastic!”
He Knows You’re Alone 1980 TCM Underground
*3/27/21
*show this in Canada instead of “Near Dark” along with “Slumber Party Massacre” which I’ve already seen
*opening has the characters watching a horror movie at a theatre, one goes to the bathroom, gets killed…just like the opening in “Scream 2”
*no blood when he pulls the knife out of the chair
*Tom Hanks’ 1st film role???
*Paul Gleason and James Rebhorn
*one hour in and Hanks shows up, as a guy who trips a female jogger in order to meet her…interesting strategy…
*not much to this, people get picked off one by one (mostly women of course)
*wait so the killer was actually the guy who had been following her the whole movie…interesting strategy…
*okay I have to admit my attention wandered…so Amy is engaged to Phil at the start of the movie but we barely see him…Amy mostly hangs out with this guy Marvin and in the end, Marvin is there at the end, and it’s implied that she is going to marry him now, but she is approached in the final scene by Phil then the movie ends abruptly…is this to imply Phil was the killer all along? Or he’s just taking up the mantle set down by the other killer? Do I bother to rewind and figure this out?
*Why did the killer kill the professor? I can see killing the guy who makes wedding dresses, but the professor? Does he hate adulterers? Does he hate people who get married in general? Cause that’s a lot of killing…
*What was the point of Tom Hanks character, and the whole scene at the amusement park, really?
*I skimmed the Wikipedia plot summary and it makes more sense now…amazing what happens when you pay attention…
*the Wiki entry also notes “Hanks’ character was originally written to be killed off with Nancy’s character, but because the filmmakers liked him so much, they omitted filming his death scene…” what does that sentence even mean? So he could come back for the sequel? Isn’t one of the main reasons to do a horror movie (besides the pay) is that you get to do a cool death scene, so wouldn’t he want to have done that?
*meh…other than seeing Tom Hanks’ film debut, not much here…when did they start “swerving” people and having twists at the end? I kinda expected Marvin or Phil to be the killer…whether that made sense or not isn’t the point is it?
===============
Kansas City Bomber 1972
*finally
*shown instead of “The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane” in the young Jodie Foster spotlight
*Raquel Welch!
*Jodie Foster plays Welch’s daughter and can skate pretty good…Welch moves around as a Roller Derby star so I’m not sure she’ll be around much…
*all about Roller Derby
*is this supposed to be a legit sport or the pro wrestling version? Cause the first the minutes is pure pro wrestling with the promos back and forth, the challenge for the “Loser Leaves Town” game one week from tonight…
*seems to be all pro wrestling, but it’s never said
*the blows seem fake but that could be just that the filmmakers are bad at this…
*Kevin McCarthy!
*so the “bad guy” in this, Helena Kallianiotes, got nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress…wouldn’t have guessed that…
*they have lots of fans in attendance at each game but the cameras seem to only focus on the ones with no teeth
*Welch is traded from Kansas City to Portland in the first few minutes…so why is this called “Kansas City Bomber” and not the “Portland Logger Bomber”?
*but then she goes to Portland but does’ play for Portland, plays for their rivals, yet lives in Portland and lives with/hangs out with the Logger players…
*the Loggers keep playing the Renegades…are there only two teams in the League?
*the first night in Portland, Welch and her new roommate are nearly raped in the parking lot…nice welcome to the neighbourhood!
*there seems to be a lot of teammates fighting each other…not sure about the strategy here…
*so it turns out anyone who is friends with Welch gets traded, men and women, cause the boss (McCarthy) doesn’t like it when someone other than him gets close to Welch
*Welch becomes a pariah on the team and no one likes her, especially her rival Jackie, who is an alcoholic and no one likes her either, apparently
*anyway, again, Welch challenges a teammate to a Loser Leaves Town match race, and is supposed to lose but “goes into business for herself” and wins…not sure why, not sure what the overall point is that she had to win, just to give her boss, aka her lover, the finger?
*and it doesn’t make sense really, as the boss wants her to lose but told Jackie that it was going to be a straight up race with a legit winner…later Welch tells her “Hey let’s race for real…” but did she have to say that?
*and by winning, doesn’t Welch screw herself, as by using she was going to get to move to Chicago and be the star of a new team there, with her family joining her…not sure what McCarthy did that was so terrible to cause her to suddenly not trust him THAT much…
*anyway, it’s silly at first but then towards the end gets really serious which is a real weird shift in tone
*”Jackie” is played by Helena Kallianiotes who is the one who got nominated for a Golden Globe for this performance…not to sound mean, but how much did that cost the producers?
*Raquel Welch could have made it as a manager in pro wrestling she’s pretty good at cutting a promo…not sure about her workrate though
*Jackie, however, when she was cutting her promo it looked like she was on SNL reading cue cards off screen…not great…
*overall a good movie, Welch is always interesting to watch and I’m glad I’ve finally seen this
*and this was apparently based on the life of Roller Derby star Ann Calvello who Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is always talking about so that’s something too…
Separated at Birth 2018
*only watching this because of Dominique Provost-Chalkley (Waverly from Wynonna Earp)
*and also Paige Turco…why isn’t she in more stuff?
*apparently she had been on “The 100”…
*shot in Montreal I think
*movie is a lot better than I thought it would be…a nice twist!
====================
Glass Bottom Boat 1963
*Dick Martin! Is Rowan in this too?
*Paul Lynd, Dom Deluise, Dick Martin…
*that Robert Vaughn cameo was pretty great!
=====================
Kaleidoscope 1966
*Warren Beatty, Susannah York
*this might be the 1st movie, other than the Superman films, that I’ve seen York in…
*so Beatty has a great idea by breaking into the factory where they make decks of cards and marks them, then goes to the casino in Monte Carlo and wins big
*Beatty makes lots and lots of money in one night, and taunts the people there…does he not think there will be consequences? Are the casinos in Europe classier than in Las Vegas where he would get killed for this?
*Couldn’t he make some good money there, then go to another casino, win some there, etc…wouldn’t that make more sense?
*so York’s father works for Scotland Yard, he wants Beatty to take down a bad guy using poker, I think…
*then this becomes a Bond movie, complete with a Bond villain and his henchmen
*then this becomes the poker scene from the Daniel Craig Casino Royale but longer…or if not longer than less interesting and more drawn out
*so Beatty wins, the Bond villain storms out, York runs after him for some reason, but before she leaves York tells at Beatty “can’t you ever lose?”…what? She’s mad at Beatty for winning? Wasn’t that the whole point? Isn’t it a good thing? I’m confused…
*weird, the voice of the dealer sounds a lot like the dealer from CR too…
*from Wikipedia: …producer Elliot Kastner cast Sandra Dee as the female lead mostly because Warren Beatty wanted to sleep with her…”
*also from Wikipedia: “they would rehearse scene but then “just as we were about to roll the camera, Warren would ask if he could try something different from what we had earlier settled upon. I wanted to be flexible in the event that what he wanted to do was better than what we had planned. Inevitably it wasn’t.”
*movies like this…the Behind the scenes stuff is way more interesting that the actual movie…
================
The Last Blockbuster 2020
*I picked this on Netflix based on the preview, it seemed like it was a history lesson on Blockbuster and it gets there eventually but the first twenty minutes is pretty bad
*it starts with having semi-famous people like Kevin Smith, Eric Close, Brian Posehn, Doug Benson talking about their memories of Blockbuster
*the most annoying part is a three minute bit where a voice actor does a Robin Williams style rant and it has nothing to do with the subject matter and frankly it’s annoying
*well then they have a guy who looks like a stoner go to the last blockbuster to demonstrate how to rent a movie…it goes on for probably only thirty seconds but the acting is terrible and I nearly turned it off…
*about twenty minutes in it finally gets to the point, gets to the part about “revshare” and the part where they talk about how Blockbuster could have bought Netflix but “laughed them out of the building”
*hearing some stories from Jamie Kennedy (who starred in Blockbuster commercials before getting roles in “Scream”), Paul Scheer (who worked at a Blockbuster as kid) and Kevin Smith, who famously made “Clerks” about working in a video store
*late in the movie it’s revealed Eric Close’s hometown is Bend, Oregon…well that would have made more sense before…when I saw him initially I was like “Why the hell are they talking to Eric Close?”
*a tale of two comedians - Doug Benson not funny; Ron Funches very funny…
*the fact they have to go to Walmart and Target to get some movies and they have to use old parts of obsolete computers (with FLOPPY discs!) is funny
*55 minutes in it seems like they are wrapping this up…Im stunned there is 31 minutes left…what is someone going to get murdered in the store or something? Will the store explode?
*Lauren Lapkus is awesome, but the narration is bad, she doesn’t have great material and the audio levels make it hard to hear her…
*people come from all over to see the last blockbuster…but they can’t rent a movie…so what do they do, buy T-shirts? I guess they can buy old DVD’s…
*there is some fun stuff like when John Oliver bought the Russell Crowe memorabilia and sent it to the Alaska store which is then sent to the Bend store…
*the history of the Blockbuster Mom’s bench is where I think I really tuned out…
*Ione Sky is awesome but I haven’t lived until I’ve heard her thoughts on how the last blockbuster can stay open…
*still 18 minutes to go…
*Doug Benson arrives to visit the store…he wanders around, explaining how he used to wander the store looking for a movie…like others had just explained…
*okay…I know who Doug Benson is, but do other people? He finds his “Super High Me” and shows it which might be the first time some people might know who this person is…
*Benson then does his won Robin Williams stuff…he’s trying but it’s not funny…
*Benson seems legit emotional about this and that last minute or so is great but…
*where is Samm Levine being interviewed? An old library?
*I forgot about the weirdest part of the whole movie…the Toxic Avenger guy, at the beginning of the movie, goes on a weird rant about stuff…what a weirdo…I might be interested in seeing a doc just about him and his weird life but in this it’s again a weird part of the opening twenty minutes…
*they do pull a fast one on me…the mom gets an important call and they make it seem like it’s bad news, that the store is closing but it’s actually good news and the store will be open for another year…
*they explain for the 12th time how Blockbuster works…I think we get it…I remember wandering the aisles of Blockbuster myself
================
The Apple Dumpling Gang 1975 Western
*again, technically, but not since I was a kid…so I don’t have any idea what this is really about other than Don Knotts and Tim Conway are in it…
*Bill Bixby (this will be the only time I’ve seen him outside of The Hulk TV series), Silm Pickens, Harry Morgan, Susan Clark…
*in 1879, a lone rider (Bixby) approaches Quake City en route to New Orleans…as he approaches the town, two thieves, Knotts and Conway, try to rob him but are unsuccessful…Bixby doesn’t even notice…
*three kids ride along the West to Quake City in a stage coach driven by Clark, who is a tomboy named “Dusty”
*Bixby sees an old friend in town, the friend is leaving town but some “valuables” are arriving the following day…Bixby agrees to take responsibility for it…
*the kids arrive, Bixby is shocked to find out the “valuables” are three kids, who he wants to ditch but Dusty makes him take them…
*he wants nothing to do with the kids, tries to pawn them off on other families but they aren’t interested
*the little girl, Celia, is the cutest…the other two boys don’t have much to do, the middle kid kicks people who touch him (which is a good thing to teach kids) but the oldest’s personality is basically that he’s the oldest and doesn’t really need to be there…the little girl keeps having to pee, which they never have her see a doctor about…which is fine cause the problem disappears until the end of the movie…
*Harry Morgan is pretty good as the town’s sheriff, barber, Justice of the Peace and judge…
*in a nice twist, Bixby tells the kids to go play, the kids have a deed from their parents for a gold mine, they go looking for it (after being told because of earthquakes, the mines were now empty or something), and find a large gold nugget and are suddenly rich
*Bixby (and the rest of the town) are all of a sudden in love with the kids and there is no shortage of people who want to adopt them now…Morgan says he has to make a ruling that someone has to take charge of them, and encourages Bixby to marry Dusty, even if they aren’t in love, just so the kids have a good home and people who will take care of them…
*they get married and are about to be made the kids’ guardians when the old friend shows up with a lawyer, says the kids are his kin and wants the kids…
*subplot is that Knotts and Conway are constantly trying to rob Bixby but keep screwing up, and then want to rob the bank of the gold nugget but can’t…
*there is a ladder gag which I laughed out loud at…Bixby’s reactions are great in these scenes too…
*Knotts and Conway try to rob the bank, get caught and are told by Morgan to show up at noon to be hung which is pretty funny…
*the kids then go to Knotts and Conway, actually want them to rob the bank and take the gold, as they know the only reason people now want to be with them is because of it so they’d rather be poor…
*Knotts, Conway and the kids plot to rob the bank which is funny, but the the real bad guy, Slim Pickens, shows up with his gang and they rob the bank instead…
*Slim Pickens’ name is Frank Stillwell (like the Jonah Hex villain?)
*Pickens poses as a priest to get more information about the bank
*the two bank robberies happen at the same time, Pickens recognizes Knotts and Conway as the used to be in his gang, and they shot him in the leg…
*there is a shootout, with the entire town having guns and shooting it out with Pickens’ gang
*Knotts and Conway are stuck in the bank with unstable, old sweaty dynamite
*Pickens’ leaves the gold and takes off with Celia as a hostage, Bixby and Dusty chase after them, save Delia, with Bixby KOing Pickens
*Knotts and Conway hide safely in the bank vault as the dynamite explodes, and the gold is blown into tiny pieces and collected by the town, so the kids are poor again and the friend takes off…
*Bixby and Dusty get married again, go with the kids to their new piece of land to live happily ever after…
*on their way there, they come across Knotts and Conway, who ask to come live with them and they all go off together…until the sequel…
*I love these kind of endings…
*great little movie…I thought that, since the sequel only starred Knotts and Conway, that they ended up stealing the movie and they were the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers of comedy…they were great but I did like Bixby, Dusty and the kids, and Harry Morgan, so it wasn’t that lopsided…
================
Almost Famous 2000
*again…on my “Top Five Fav’s of All Time” List…
================
Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again 1979 Western
*finally
*just Knotts and Conway return, and, strangely, Harry Morgan but as a totally different character
*there’s a lot going on in this movie, surprisingly
*they start with two obvious stand-ins for Knotts and Conway riding their mule across the Wild West over the credits
*then the actual movie starts with the B-plot, as a wagon, on fire, rolls into Fort Concho, and the people there try their best not to put out the fire (if you watch close, they throw water at the fire but it comes nowhere near it) as Harry Morgan talks about it being yet another supply wagon that got taken and how this is bad…they don’t come back to this for a long time…
*cut to the town of Junction City, where Knotts and Conway show up, get new clothes, want to start fresh…
*Conway mentions he loved living with the other family, as the last movie ended with him and Knotts living with Bill Bixby, Susan Clark and the three kids, but Knotts wanted to be remembered in the history books
*they get their picture taken and their mule caused havoc, then the local bank is robbed as they are depositing money (one of the robbers is Ciff Osmond, from “The Fortune Cookie”) and the locals think they did it, including Kenneth Mars, Sheriff Hitchcock with a weird accent
*there’s a weird other sub plot where Ruth Buzzi plays “Granny” who wants the sheriff to fail and laughs at him whenever he screws up, while the rest of the town adore him…I don’t know if this is ever explained…
*Knotts and Conway manage to embarrass the sheriff a few times, try to give the money back (they get it through some weird circumstance, or was it only part of the money?) and Knotts and Conway end up on another wagon headed to the Fort with young Tim Matheson
*another sub plot was with Matheson having to escort a spoiled army brat, Morgan’s daughter, as she arrives in town and she gets embarrassed, getting dumped in mud and is a really unlikable character…they bicker so clearly it will end with them as a couple…
*Elyssa Davalos plays Millie and she does a great job of being unlikeable…
*so they end up back at the Fort, and there is champagne and Knotts and Conway end up drunk and unconscious when they arrive at the Fort and are stowaways and etc.
*then the movie goes in a totally different way…
*the Fort is being sabotaged and it looks like Matheson is the bad guy but it’s a red herring as he’s the good guy undercover trying to figure out who is behind all the supplies being stolen from the Fort
*actually there is a pretty recognizable cast here, other than Morgan, Mars, Matheson there is Jack Elam as the Big Bad, with Robert Pine, Audrey Totter (from “Lady in the Lake”), Ralph Manza and Richard X. Slattery as “Sgt Slaughter”
*so Knotts and Conway are made to enlist in the army, are cooks for a big dinner but somehow the entire fort catches on fire…plus Mars has been following them all along, actually he followed their mule who followed them…Mars is driven nuts by them and their nutty ness
*the way Knotts and Conway spread the fire, while trying to help extinguish it, is pretty awesome…
*funny line as Mars is ranting at Knotts and Conway, he’s covered in soot from the fire, and as he is yelling at them, Conway says “You should put some butter on those hands…” just a great throwaway line…
*at one point Matheson and Millie leave the Fort (Matheson was suspected of being a deserter for some reason, he escapes during the fire and takes Millie with him), go to a ranch with a blind woman where Millie sees Matheson is in love with her, I guess, and we get the real story about how he’s undercover trying to find the real bad guys…Matheson and Millie bond and flirt over chopping up some firewood…like Captain America and Iron Man did in “Avengers: Age of Ultron”…
*meanwhile Knotts and Conway are claimed for the Fort burning down and are sent to a prison camp where the movie takes ANOTHER weird turn…
*inside the prison camp they find some weird old tunnels where the big bad, Jack Elam, called “Big Mac”, rules with a six other bad guys…
*the tunnels allow them to come and go and ride into town whenever they want…I guess no one who works for the prison (guards, the warden, etc) ever goes into town and recognizes them?
*Knotts and Conway go into town, go to tell the marshall but it’s Mars…did they not know which town they were in?
*anyway, the whole point of this is that Elam wants to rob a train for reasons and recruits Knotts and Conway…he had heard the legend of “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and wants them in his gang…yet by just looking at them he doesn’t suspect the legend is less than credible?
*I’m getting whiplash from trying to keep track of all these storylines…what’s going on with Matheson, Mille and Morgan at the Fort?
*okay so the town Knotts and Conway went to was a different town, the sheriff was out of town and Mars was just riding through town to get back to Junction City…
*at one point Knotts and Conway dress up as women…just cause…
*as the women, they are propositioned by the original bank robbers…I was wondering if they would ever come back…they must be drunk as the dresses Knotts and Conway are wearing are pretty revealing, Conway’s hairy chest in particular
*Knotts and Conway escape and head out of town ON THE VERY TRAIN Elam is going to rob…what are the odds?
*then Matheson shows up, kisses Millie, who is also on this train, as is a ton of army money…again what are the odds?
*Matheson forces a kiss on Millie, reveals he’s a Captain, which seems to make her like him now, which is weird, and he tells her they are getting married…a tale as old as time…
*Elam’s gang is about to rob the bank then suddenly a group of Natives charge the train…cause why not?
*reveal that Elam and the Robert Pine character were the real bad guys working together, they are caught by the Natives, as the Natives are just trying to help the good guys, I think…
*so the Natives aren’t just trying to help, they are after Knotts and Conway who traded two blankets for their mule…I think…did this happen off screen?
*Matheson shows up and saves the day…arrests Pine although admittedly he has no evidence…
*so it’s Matheson and Knotts and Conway against Pine, Elam and their gang, plus technically the Natives…not sure if that’s a fair fight but whatever the movie’s over…if I was watching this in the theatre my butt would be so sore…
*last scene is Knotts and Conway riding back through the West, apparently going back to Bixby’s ranch as life is better there and they have been acquitted and made heroes…off screen…the end…
*this movie is just all over the place…not sure I should commend the writers for keeping it all together or smack them…I guess, if they were alive they’d probably be pretty old so…
*I’m ready to pat myself on the back for being able to follow this…
*Mars’s guns look like Wynonna Earp’s “Peacemaker” gun…
*I had thought that this role, as an Army Colonel, was what MASH producers saw Harry Morgan portray and then brought him onto MASH to portray Colonel Potter…but Morgan had already joined MASH in fall 1975, four years earlier…not sure why, maybe because MASH is still on in repeats, but that kinda blew my mind…
*absolutely love Knotts and Conway, no way any movie with them could be bad, frankly…this was more like two movies in one so if I paid a dime to see this (or however much it was to see a movie in 1979), I can’t say I would have been disappointed…I got this on a Don Knotts Disney 4-pack for cheap, so I’d say it was worth the money…
*also in the 4-pack was the 1st Apple Dumpling movie, another Knotts Western “Hot Lead and Cold Feet” and “Gus”
Gus 1976
*I swear I’ve seen this, probably on TCM’s “From the Disney Vault” series, but if I did I didn’t write it down…
*the movie where a mule becomes a football player, on a team owned by Ed Asner and coached by Don Knotts…
*so on this 4-pack, three of the movies (so far) have mules playing major roles…I wonder if “Hot Lead and Cold Feet” does too…it’s a Western so there’s probably a good chance…
*so these are supposed to be NFL teams…the California Atoms is show playing the Green Bay Packers…
*Asner as the team owner is not only looking at getting a winning team but a good entertaining half time show…hears about a mule who can kick a field goal…
*Dick Butkus! Lots of familiar football faces…
*Harold Gould, Tom Bosley, Richard Kiel, Richard Schell
*Bob Crane is in this? He plays an obnoxious announcer and does a pretty good job…his colour commentator is Johnny Unitas playing himself...
*TIM CONWAY is in this??? Maybe I haven’t seen this as I might have remembered that…
*this came out the year after “The Apple Dumpling Gang”
*so maybe this is my weird need for things to be “too realistic”, but the idea they can’t get better cheerleaders for a team based in California…maybe in a team based in a smaller market or something…or back then did they not think of getting some out of work actresses/models/dancers by being so near Hollywood…
*suddenly one game, without consulting Knotts, the coach, Asner decided to put the mule in the game to kick a field goal…again, my brain won’t let me have fun…but is that legal? Did Gus the mule sign a contract? Did he clear waivers? Did he get a signing bonus? He’s from Yugoslavia, how much paper work was involved?
*they actually acknowledge this, saying that the word “player” isn’t defined in the NFL rulebook
*weren’t they down a lot of points? How did Gus getting three points help? Did he just kick a ton of field goals? I guess I wasn’t paying attention…
*32 minutes in and still no Tim Conway…
*so Gus kicks a lot of field goals…did the Atoms suddenly get better defensively? That’s a lot of field goals…
*Dick Van Patten!
*Kenneth Tobey!
*37 minutes in and finally Tim Conway shows up…with Tom Bosley!
*forgot to mention Titos Vandis, who plays Andy’s dad who is a very familiar face, especially for an fan of “Barney Miller”
*John Orchard!
*also Jackson Bostwick, who played Andy’s hero brother, played Shazam on the 70’s TV series
*drunk Gus!
*Asner constantly says dialogue while chomping on a cigar…can barely hear him sometimes…
*okay the animated Tom Bosley-Andy fight with the cat was pretty good…
*pretty standard stuff…bad guys trying to sabotage Gus and Andy and the team…team is heading to the playoffs…
*wasn’t the initial bet between Asner and Gould that the team would win 7 games? Did they make another bet about winning the Super Bowl? Did I miss that too?
*Andy and Gus must not be that close, as Andy doesn’t even notice when Gus is switched out
*okay I am getting deja vu watching the scene where Conway and Bosley are chasing Gus through the grocery store…
*Happy Days started airing in 1974, so Bosley playing a bad guy here must have been strange…
*this grocery store scene goes on a long time…is the Super Bowl over yet?
*Conway and the garbage bins bit is funny
*Asner and Andy go after Gus, looking for him in a helicopter…I was wondering how that would help, if they even did find Gus, but I guess they answered that for me…they just hooked Gus up to the copter and flew him there…
*I hope the Atoms are at least 3 points or less behind the other team…
*when did Butkis get traded?
*5 field goals later, so I guess they were more than 15 points behind…
*gag where Crane loses his voice near the end of the Super Bowl would have been maybe funnier if Crane hand’t let Unitas talk at all during the movie so far…Unitas had been the funniest so far just glaring at Crane and pulling faces…
*I think Andy needs to score the winning touchdown, as opposed to Gus kicking a field goal…
*hey look at that, they stole my idea…maybe I have seen this after all…
*so what’s the other team’s name? They are dressed in black so they look like the Rams but they have an elephant on their helmet…
*Gus winking in the last scene…perfect…
*Roger Ebert’s reviews for this and “Apple Dumpling Gang” are incredibly similar, referencing “Escape to Witch Mountain” as a good example of good Disney movies and “ADG” and “Gus” as the bad kind
*anyway, I liked it…come at me bro…
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Mank 2020
*good but not as great as I’d been lead to believe
==================
Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994
*again for the hundredth time
*this is the “F*ck” version, not the “Bugger” version
*never noticed the timeline of this movie is at warp speed…
*so Bernard and Lydia hook up at the 1st wedding, then get married 3 months later…
*and at the 2nd wedding, Carrie is there, now engaged and one month later she is sending out invitations, then another month later they are getting married
*I guess it’s possible Carrie was already engaged at the 1st wedding but just never mentioned it…
*so at the 3rd wedding, Carrie is marrying Hamish and he doesn’t know Hugh Grant and Carrie doesn’t know Hugh’s friends, so how did they get invited? Carrie kind of mentions that she wants Hugh’s brother to come but did Hugh have carte blanche to invite all his friends?
*Gareth even dies at warp speed…he dies so fast the groom isn’t even finished his speech…no one even tries CPR?
*I remember when I first watched this, I was devastated when Gareth died but re-watching it tonight I realize that he’s an example of great writing/acting/directing in that he has very few lines but the character is so great that we love him almost immediately…
*same with Rowan Atkinson’s Father Gerald…he’s in two scenes and in the 2nd we are rooting for him with all our hearts…
*Matthew’s amazing eulogy is great and very touching in the middle of a comedy
*Andie McDowell is tremendous and Kristin Scott Thomas too
*poor Duckface
======================
Hot Lead and Cold Feet 1978 Western
*part 4 in the Don Knotts tetralogy
*so this movie opens and I’m already confused…Don Knotts and Darren McGavin are talking to two old men, one of them talks about a bunch of things, then falls off a cliff, something about changing his will, then the same old man, who ends up being Jasper Bloodshy, falls off the cliff and dies…
*so there are two brothers who don’t know they exist and it becomes about who can get the inheritance…one brother is good and one is bad, of course..
*this plot summary on TCM’s website is better…“two brothers vie to rule a Western town while the mayor tries to get rid of them both…”
*Knotts plays the Sheriff “Denver Kid” and has a feud with “Rattlesnake” Jack Elam!
*haven’t seen a mule yet…or Harry Morgan…
*so the 1st old man and the twins are all played by Jim Dale who I hadn’t heard of before this…I looked him up and he was in a bunch of the “Carry On” movies from England…
*so the twins have to compete in a race, with the winner getting the inheritance…for some reason the mayor wants Eli (the good twin) to lose
*turns out the old man (Jasper) faked his death for some reason…
*so they have the race (over rapids, over a mountain, etc.) and the mayor wants them both dead, as if they die the money goes to him somehow
*eventually they all figure this out, and the brothers defeat the mayor with their “dead father’s” help, although the father doesn’t reveal he is actually alive
*they would randomly have Knotts and Elam face off in shootouts without even a set up, they would just suddenly be standing, facing each other, ready to draw…any excuse for them to act together onscreen I guess…I’m not complaining…
*so it ends with the mayor behind bars, Knotts still as sheriff but now with Elam as his deputy (and friend apparently…seems like, again, a scene or two was dropped on the cutting room floor), and the brothers are friends, use the money to rebuild the town, happy ending…
*it ends with the father and his butler, Mansfield, heading off to check on his twin daughters…planting seeds for a sequel or just a one off joke?
*Mansfield has a British accent and the only other person in the film with the same accent is Eli, the good twin…coincidence?
*anyway, not a good movie…seemed to be a showcase for Jim Dale but, while he had his moments, I couldn’t get attached to any of his three characters…
*now if they had made a movie all about the Knotts/Elam character dynamics…I would have been all in for that movie…
======================
Triple Frontier 2019
*saw a random reference on Twitter to a movie that starred Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal so I looked it up and it was on Netflix so here we are
*had never heard of this movie until today
*also Ben Affleck is in it…so there’s that…
*also Charlie Hunnam and Garrett Hedlund who seem to be fine young actors, I know who they are but I haven’t seen much with them in it so…
*not to go off on a rant here, but I have always questioned the Netflix model when it comes to movies (well, and TV shows too but that’s a whole other conversation)…here is a movie with an (I’ll say it) an all star cast of four young, up and coming actors (and Ben Affleck, who is a star) and I had never heard of this movie’s existence until today in 2021. Netflix is getting better with releasing trailers and email campaigns about specific movies (not awesome but better) but if this movie was released in theatres in 2019 it would have received a premiere, a junket, reviews/hype on talk shows…
*just the fact there is a heist movie starring Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal…I’m in…
*anyway, what about the movie…I liked it!
*with newer movies I try not to say too much and totally avoid spoilers but this was good. Some good twists that I didn’t see coming and good performances
===============
*nothing, watched Wynonna Earp series finale, then re-watched season 1 eps1-4
===============
Stan & Ollie 2018
*been watching a lot of Steve Coogan lately…although still no Alan Partridge…
*as with all “based on real people and events” movies, this isn’t completely factual but apparently it was mostly true…
*some really funny stuff, which I guess should be expected as it’s based on funny people but it is a drama about funny people…
*great movie…I don’t know a ton about Laurel and Hardy, at least not the behind the scenes stuff, so this was very interesting…
================
The Flying Deuces 1939
*by total coincidence, the day after I watch “Stan and Ollie”, this is on Silver Screen Classics…
*so Ollie wants to kill himself and insists Stan do it too, as “what would people think…”…an interesting take…
*wow that’s a lot of laundry hanging up to dry…how long did it take them to set that up?
*and that huge pile of clothes…same thing…
*so to get out of doing the laundry they set it on fire? okay…
*they do the “Shine on Harvest Moon” bit
*love the harp bit in the jail cell, although it makes me think of Harpo Marx
*the French Foreign Legion base kinda looks like a movie studio lot…
*the bit inside the plane goes on a little long…
*Ollie dies? WTF?
*ends with a reincarnation joke…Ollie comes back as a horse, just like he said he would want to earlier…jokes about suicide, death…quite the comedy!
*great stuff
====================
Lightning Bolt 1967
*was just in the mood for a spy movie, I guess
*apparently there was a trend of “Eurospy” movies, although on Wikipedia it says “the film was released too late to take advantage of the James Bond craze…” Really? Isn’t that still going on today?
*so much about this movie that is calling out to be commented on/slash/mocked but it’s late and there’s too much…
*at one point the bad guys are driving around in a deer truck (we know that cause the word “Beer” is written all over the truck) and there is what looks like a coffee mug on the roof, which I think is supposed to be a beer mug…this might be the most expensive prop in the whole movie…
*the main villain has an underwater city, a laser on the moon and is a beer baron…pretty ambitious guy!
*the worst part is when the good guy, Harry Sennett, to fight the bad guy named Rehte, gets captured, they have one of those good guy-bad guy heart-to-hearts, but inside the lair Rehte has what I think is supposed to be lightning laser guns that electrocute a few people during the movie, but the lightning is invisible, so the poor actors have to react to nothing (which I guess isn’t unusual) but we as the viewers usually end up seeing some kind of special effect…not here!
*so the bad guy is like Goldfinger, has a Dr. No underwater city and has a laser on the moon like Dr. Evil…this movie had to be one of the inspirations for Austin Powers…
*example of how this movie isn’t like a Bond movie…spy Sennet ends up floating in the ocean, waiting to be rescued with a male scientist…Bond would have ended up stranded with a Bond girl making out waiting to be rescued…they are at least rescued by beautiful ladies I guess…
*well he ends up sleeping with the girl as the credits roll so I guess all is right with the world…
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It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963
*for the dozenth time…
===================
The Ladykillers 1955
*finally
****not too fast…
***actually the TV listings say “The Ladykillers” but it’s actually
“The Scapegoat”, another Alec Guinness movie…
so…
The Scapegoat 1959
*was thinking “finally I’ll get to see “The Ladykillers” but no…again denied…
*one other time I had “The Ladykillers” recorded on my PVR but it died before I could watch it…
*so it took me a few minutes to catch on (apparently I was looking away when the title came on screen), but then Guinness shows up and looks like himself so I thought something was up…
*I know enough about “The Ladykillers” to know Guinness has weird teeth, so I re-watched the opening credits and here we are…
*what the heck let’s watch this anyway…
*so Guinness goes on vacation in Paris and runs into a person who looks exactly like him…the bartender assumes they are twins and they go along with it, drink together and get to know each other, assuming they aren’t related and it’s just a coincidence…
*Guinness gets drunk and his double go back to the double’s hotel room, Guinness passes out and when he wakes up the next morning, he’s alone and his passport and identification is gone
*the double’s valet shows up and assumes Guinness is the double, Guinness says he isn’t but goes along with it…
*Guinness shows up at the double’s house, he’s rich, married and has a daughter…he insists he’s not the double but no one believes him
*Guinness wants to storm out but seems to like the daughter who is very attached to him…I guess…
*at one point the girl threatens to jump out of her window if he won’t come talk to her and he has to run up the stairs and find her room…
*Guinness, after this, walks right to “his room” and lies down and wants to sleep…did he get a tour earlier? Weird how he seems to know his way around…
*Bette Davis plays his crazy mother who yells a lot and needs morphine…he’s brought back gifts for his family members that inadvertentley make the family love him more…so the double wasn’t that bad a guy?
*Guinness resigns himself to play along, as he was lonely and depressed before and now he’s rich with a family…the family plays along cause the double was a liar apparently so something like this isn’t that unusual
*Peter Bull, from “Dr. Strangelove”, is in this
*and of course the double has a mistress…Guinness goes along with this too
*he accidentally gives a present to his sister that is intended for his mistress
*seemingly everyone knows he has a mistress except his daughter…
*Guinness wants to find out what the doubles’ business is, how he makes his money, etc.
*the double’s family runs a glass making business, they are about to sell the company but Guinness decides that he doesn’t want to and wants to re build the business…mother Davis doesn’t like this…
*the double’s wife hates him but very quickly start to turn around when Guinness is even a little bit nice to her…
*Guinness goes again to see the mistress, and she reveals that she figured out Guinness isn’t the double but she loves him anyway…he’s relieved as he has someone to talk to…she kisses him…
*she says “I knew when you showed you cared about other people…” when? they spent an hour together a week earlier and from that she figured it all out?
*Guinness loves spending time with his “daughter”
*there’s supposed to be a skeet shooting demonstration and the double is the best one around, so Guinness intentionally injures his hand so he doesn’t have to participate…
*gets kind of complicated…the double and the wife had argued about changing their will, Guinness figures this out…
*one day Guinness is told by his valet that he got a message from the mistress, he goes to see her but she’s surprised to see him…
*back at the house the sister overhears the wife and the double arguing as he apparently returned to the house after Guinness left…
*Guinness returns to the house and the wife is dead
*they start an inquiry into the death, Davis gets out of bed to be involved
*the sister tells the police she overheard the couple arguing just before the wife died, but Guinness has an alibi as he was with the mistress and the valet covers for him…
*Guinness starts to think that the double is up to something…
*Guinness is innocent but the sister is adamant that he did it and vows to tell anyone who will listen…
*the double calls Guinness and wants to meet…
*the end of the movie becomes a bit convoluted and it seems like they just wanted to get it over with
*the two Gunness’ meet up, both have guns, the lights go out, both fire…
*then it cuts to the next day, Guinness, or who we think is Guinness, goes to see the mistress and they live happily ever after. It’s kinda insinuated that it could be the double but the movie just ends
*if this was remade, the sister would get a better ending, as she just disappears…so what did Guinness do with the double’s body?
*after getting over the disappointment of this not being “The Ladykillers”, I really liked this movie…I liked how Guinness took it all in stride and the movie didn’t treat anyone really like an idiot…he tried explaining it to them, they just don’t believe him, so now that he is in a weird situation he decides to just go along with it and really likes the daughter and the mistress…good stuff…
==================
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 1988
*again for the dozenth time
*one of my all time favourites, probably in the Top 20…
*still amazing to me that the script works so well, as there are so many movies that are ground breaking technology wise but the scripts suck so this is tremendous…
===================
nothing (binging Taskmaster on Youtube)
===================
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean 1972 Western
*apparently I’ve seen this before, but the only Judge Roy Bean I remember is Walter Brennan in “The Westerner”
*”Near the turn of the last century the Pecos River marked the boundaries of civilization in western Texas. West of the Pecos there was no law, no order, and only bad men and rattlesnakes lived there. Maybe this isn’t the way it was…it’s the way it should have been.” What?
*so this movie shows us how Roy Bean got to Texas, how he got beaten up there, and then how he took over…
*he’s nursed back to health by Maria Elena (played by Victoria Principal, of course), goes back to town and shoots everyone, then declares himself a judge and is now in charge, renaming the saloon “The Jersey Lilly” after Lillie Langtry…reading the Wikipedia plot summary is starting to jog my memory…
*I think I might remember the Wikipedia entry more than the movie…John Milius dissing the movie and making fun of it is more memorable than what’s on screen
*Milius wanted to make it cheap, shoot it in Mexico with Warren Oates playing Bean…I would love that version…anything with Warren Oates in a western!
*I think I do remember the old naked woman getting bathed…getting some deja vu from that…
*then Anthony Perkins shows up talking right into the camera…
*Perkins plays the Reverend LaSalle, who convinces Bean he should bury all the dead bad guys, whereas Bean (with a crooked neck) wants them to be eaten by the buzzards
*”There’s gonna be peace and I don’t care who I have to kill to get it…”
*Perkins mumbles through the whole movie while Newman grumbles and yells…must’ve been fun working in the audio department
*jumps ahead, Bean has re-named the saloon
*gang comes to town and instead of fighting them, Bean makes them deputies; one of the gang is Tector Crites played by Ned Beatty who ends up the saloon bartender…
*they kill a man named Sam Dodd…he does a voiceover while being hung, and when he dies fireworks go off…weird
*drunk shoots up the bar as they play cards but Bean doesn’t care, until the drunk shoots the picture of Lilly and then he’s shot dead
*Beatty does a voiceover explaining that Bean was civic minded…that the fines he’d take from the dead men would go to the town’s development
*a pimp and his whores come to town, he kicks out the pimp and makes the whores marry his deputies
*Bean wants a courthouse, factories, a railroad for the town
*alot has happened in 40 minutes of a two hour movie…
*director John Huston cast himself to play Grizzly Adams, who gives Bean a pet bear…actually the bear cage just falls off Adams’ cart and Adams just leaves the bear with Bean…
*Milius really makes fun of the next scene where Newman, Principal and the bear go on a picnic, play on a teeter totter and give the bear a bath as Andy Williams sings a song…it is pretty ridiculous…
*the voiceovers allow the movie to jump around a lot
*Stacy Keach shows up as an albino outlaw Bad Bob who chugs coffee straight out of the pot and shoots his horse just so he can have some breakfast and wants to shoot out Bean’s eyes…total cartoon character
*then he wants to have a shootout with Bean but Bean shoots him in the back, and a cartoon hole in his chest appears…like a Bug Bunny cartoon…weird
*oh and Bob shot off the toes of a man in town but he just looks at Bob ands says “You shot off my toes!” before walking off…I guess they hadn’t invented pain or blood yet?
*Milius wanted to make the movie about greed and wealth and Huston turned it into a comedy…
*Roddy McDowall shows up as lawyer Frank Gass who says he can claim the saloon as his own but Bean throws him into the bear cage
*McDowell ends up opening a law firm in town but vows revenge
*an assassin tries to kill Bean but the Bear is there and the they kill each other…after they have a funeral for the bear and they are sad
*the whores in town wear nice clothes, drink tea and gossip with Gass about Principal
*Gass gets the gang to try to get Bean to make the town more respectful in order to bring more people and the railroad to town but he refuses
*Bean finds out Lilly is coming to Texas and with Principal’s encouragement, he goes to see her
*then a bunch of bad things all happen to Bean at once…he gets robbed in San Antonio, doesn’t see Lilly, returns home to find that Principal is dying, having given him a daughter (not the son he wanted)…the doctor shows up drunk and Bean goes to hang him, the gang and Gass talk him out of it, as while he was gone the town elected Gass mayor…Bean gets on his horse and rides off…
*time jumps quickly…Bean’s daughter becomes Jacqueline Bisset, there are cars instead of horses, tommy guns instead of pistols…
*funny voiceover by Beatty says “then the women got the vote and everything went to hell…drinking and whoring went away…”
*they find oil in the town, Gass takes over, makes the old deputies the worst jobs, etc.
*finally one day, 20 years later, Bean returns to town, has a shootout and Gass is killed…presumably so is Bean…killing people bonds father and daughter…
*the movie ends with Lilly (Ava Gardner) showing up in town and going to the Judge Roy Bean museum inside the saloon…Beatty shows her a bunch of memorabilia and gives her Bean’s pistol
*tone was all over the place but good stuff
===================
Stone Cold Steve Austin A&E Biography
*2 hours long, so they are really going into detail here
*he’s got a great story to tell but when it came to his personal life they just skimmed the surface
*these are WWE puff pieces, so no talking about him getting arrested for beating up his second wife Debra McMichael, for example
*I used to follow wrestling hardcore, so there wasn’t anything that I didn’t already know, but it was cool seeing all the old footage of when I did watch wrestling full time
*great that they got to talk to The Rock, Mick Foley and Undertaker
*and while I guess they had stuff to say, the less I hear the voices of Triple-H, Paul Heyman and Bruce Prichard the better…hopefully they aren’t the only people interviewed for this series…
*weird that they jump cut a lot through his actual wrestling career, as if after King of the Ring 1996 then they jump to him and Rock main eventing Wrestlemania in 1999…no Bret Hart feud, nothing really with him and Mike Tyson in 1998…weird…
*next week is Rowdy Roddy Piper…
The Naked Spur 1953 Western
*Jimmy Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan
*in 1868 in the colorado Rocky Mountains, Stewart offers a grizzle prospector Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell, from Singing in the Rain) $20 for help tracking Robert Ryan, who killed a marshal, so they team up
*they track down Ryan who is at the top of a mountain and when they try to climb up, he starts avalanches…
*a 3rd man comes along, Ralph Meeker (whose discharge papers say is “morally unstable”), and he helps them tie up Ryan, and Janet Leigh is there too
*Ryan is smiley, cackling Ryan, like Cesar Romero’s Joker
*they tie up Ryan and Leigh but Ryan tells the whole story, that Stewart isn’t a sheriff and the reward is $5000, way more than he insinuated…Mitchell and Meeker want more of a cut, they bicker, Stewart points his gun at all of them
*Leigh’s horse is sick, Stewart shoots it, Leigh is upset, Ryan comforts her and tells her that they have to get them to turn on each other
*Meeker is after Leigh, and Ryan encourages her to flirt with him, as as long as they are looking at Leigh, they won’t be looking at Ryan
*a Native sees them and takes off…
*Stewart is always pissed off, wants to shoot Ryan but needs the reward money
*they all ride together, bicker, Ryan acts like a nice guy, Meeker flirts with Leigh, Stewart just wants to get it over with…
*Stewart and Millard see a dozen Natives nearby
*Meeker reveals that the Natives are after he raped the chief’s daughter, Stewart tells Meeker to get lost as they shouldn’t all die for his mistake
*Meeker leaves, the Natives catch up to the group, Meeker hides and watches them
*Stewart tries to make peace but Meeker shows up and shoots the chief and a few others
*a shootout starts, Ryan is about to be killed when Stewart saves him but is then shot in the leg, Leigh pulls him to safety…the natives leave (or are killed), Meeker shows up and gloats…Stewart wants to get up and start riding again even though he’s injured
*Stewart passes out and they make camp…Stewart hallucinates that Leigh his fiancé
*Ryan explains that Stewart’s finance betrayed him while he was away fighting in the Civil War, sold his ranch from under him and that getting only a portion of the reward won’t be enough, so at some point, Meeker and Millard should be scared that Stewart will kill them
*Leigh starts to feel bad for Stewart, take care of him
*Ryan loosens Stewart’s saddle and he falls off the side of a mountain but Stewart is saved by some trees
*Ryan likes that Stewart is falling for Leigh
*they duck into a cave for cover as it rains, Ryan tells Leigh to flirt with and distract Stewart and Ryan will escape, otherwise he will kill Stewart, so Leigh agrees
*keep getting deja vu, so I must have seen this before…
*Stewart kisses Leigh, Ryan tries to escape, causes a cave in, Stewart saves him again (moving pretty good for someone with a bullet wound in his leg), Ryan tries to escape but they all pull guns on him
*Stewart unties Ryan, wants to draw, Ryan refuses, Meeker wants Stewart to kill Ryan, points out the reward poster says dead or alive, but Stewart refuses to kill Ryan, Meeker goes for it but is stopped by Milard
*they head out again the next day, they have taken too long and the river is too high so they bicker about what to do next, Meeker wants to swim across and drag Ryan with him, Stewart goes to stop him, he and Meeker punch it out, Stewart wins
*they recover, Leigh looks for firewood and Ryan offers Millard the location of a gold mine to help him escape
*Millard, Ryan and Leigh escape, Ryan yells “Snake” to distract Millard, Ryan takes his rifle and kills Millard, so now Leigh sees him as a killer
*Ryan and Leigh climb up a cliff and Ryan shoots at Stewart and Meeker as they chase after them, they find Millard’s body and Ryan is about to shoot them but Leigh grabs the rifle, Ryan then decks her
*Ryan and Meeker shoot it out as Stewart uses a spur to help climb the cliff and get behind Ryan, sticks his spur into Ryan’s face and Meeker shoots Ryan
*Ryan’s body falls into the river, Meeker and Stewart try to snag it, as they can still cash in the reward, Meeker presumably dies trying this
*Stewart gets the body, wants to take it back for the reward, Leigh wants to go with him to California to marry him but he has to leave the body behind
*Stewart then buries Ryan for the closure I guess
*Millard died soon after making this movie…
*”one of the best Westerns ever made”
School of Rock 2003
*again, but not for a long time
*was trending on Twitter for some reason so…
*that Scott Rudin producing credit…woof…
*up there as one of my all time favourites but it’s not one that I watch a lot for some reason…
==============
Man with a Gun 1955 Western
*Robert Mitchum, Claude Akins, Emile Meyer
*Angie Dickinson uncredited!
*man rides into town, boy’s dog barks at him, he shoots him, boy is sad…
*the man is Pinchot (played by Leo Gordon) part of a gang run by Dale Holman
*Robert Mitchum comes to town to see a girl he’s interested in, Nelly (Jan Sterling from “Ace in the Hole”) but she wants nothing to do with him
*Jeff Castle is trying to build a house on Holman’s land, four men confront him but he manages to run them off, he’s in love with Stella and wants to impress her
*someone from the town recognizes Mitchum as Clint Tollinger, a “town tamer”, a gun for hire who cleans up lawless communities
*the town wants to hire Mitchum to get rid of Holman, Jeff Castle is against it, but he gets shot on the way home one night
*the town hires Mitchum for $500, the only person against it is the sheriff…
*the sheriff tries to warn Mitchum but he’s not leaving, Mitchum makes the sheriff deputize him, then tells him to stay out of his way
*Mitchum confronts two of Holman’s men, the Harkness Brothers, in the saloon, tells them to get out of town
*Mitchum disarms “Frenchy” the manager of a different saloon and makes it illegal for anyone to carry weapons, implies (or Frenchy assumes) that Mitchum is going to go arrest the Harkness Brothers
*Mitchum then walks next door and kills the Harkness Brothers
*four men come into town looking for Mitchum, he gets the drop on them with a shotgun, he tells them to put down their guns, one draws on Mitchum and he kills him…Akins has a gun in his hat, tries to get to it but Mitchum figures it out and kills him too; the last two men ride off with the dead bodies
*Mitchum tells Frenchy that the town now has a curfew of midnight, which Frenchy doesn’t like
*the town puts on a social event/dance; one of the fancy ladies says he needs to get rid of Nelly’s dancing girls too, unaware that he knows Nelly
*Jeff Castle is getting better, comes to the dance, confronts Mitchum as he thinks the town should fight back themselves (they are on the same side but have different methods), Mitchum tells Castle off at the dance and embarrasses him
*Mitchum confronts Nelly, they have a daughter that Nelly sent away, Mitchum tells her about the curfew, Nelly says her girls will be leaving soon just to get away from him
*Castle goes and gets lumber to start building the house again (they burned down the foundation when he was injured) Stella and Meyer want Mitchum to go after Castle but Mitchum doesn’t want to
*two men (one is Pinchot) come into town to tell Mitchum that they have Castle and want Mitchum to come get him at Holman’s place, they have guns so Mitchum arrests them, then has the sheriff send Holman a message that he will trade those two for Castle
*they wait, with some of the towns people worried that Holman is going to come kill everyone and that Mitchum is putting the town in danger
*Castle comes back to town unharmed, says Holman is waiting for the exchange, but doesn’t seem grateful about it and Stella scolds him
*Mitchum points out he’s never seen Holman and doesn’t know what he’s in for
*Mitchum again confronts Nelly for the last time, wants to know why she left him, turns out the daughter is dead, Mitchum is pissed
*Mitchum goes into the saloon, shoots his gun so everyone leaves except Frenchy, Mitchum tells Frenchy to get out of town tonight, Mitchum acts like a thug, shoots up the bottles at the bar then the fancy chandelier, which starts a fire, Mitchum goes to leave, Frenchy throws a knife at him, Mitchum ducks and shoots Frenchy
*Mitchum destroys the on-fire saloon, pissed at Nelly, while the sheriff calls the fire department to put the fire out
*they then throw fire on other buildings as the fire could take out the whole town, the town starts to see Mitchum differently now, Emile confronts Mitchum, Mitchum confesses he started the fire…Mitchum now wants the town to burn…just watches as they try to save the town from burning down
*they keep showing a guy in a rocking chair watching everything, I’m sure that’s Holman…but if so does no one in the town know what he looks like?
*men from the town go to Emile wanting to get rid of Mitchum, Stella stands up for him
*gets kinda complicated towards the end
*the man in the chair is Holman’s lawyer, who has come to town to set a trap for Mitchum
*Angie Dickinson is leaving town, and somehow out of that, Nelly figures out who the lawyer is, thinks that he’s there to set a trap for Mitchum, talks to Stella, Castle shows up with his arm bleeding for some reason, Holman shows up, he shoots Mitchum and Castle shoots Holman…
*Mitchum is lying in the street, bleeding, Nelly comforts him, the end…
*really good until the end when it got too complicated
Texas Across the River 1966 Western
*Dean Martin, Joey Bishop
*in 1845, Texas isn’t yet a state
*in Louisiana, Phoebe is about to marry Don Andrea Baldazar when some US Army soldiers show up. One of them, Yancy, used to date Phoebe and is pissed so he wants to disrupt the wedding
*Peter Graves and another solider are downstairs confronting Andrea while Yancy is upstairs basically trying to rape Phoebe
*Andrea defends Phoebe, Yancy dies falling off the balcony…the soldiers say Andrea did it in cold blood, chase after Andrea, Phoebe tells him to meet her in Texas across the river…she says Texas isn’t even a state so how big cold it be?
*Dean Martin and his Native sidekick Joey Bishop are in Texas as guides, Martin quarrels with Graves as he wants some Army men to go with them on a trip but Graves refuses, saying it’s too dangerous plus no one is that dumb, plus, again Texas isn’t a state so they don’t have jurisdiction.
*Andrea shows up and they hire him after he wins a crooked Turkey Shoot; weird as Bishop points out Andrea to Graves after Martin helps him out, I guess so that now Andrea is on the run so more likely to go with them? As if he wouldn’t if they just asked him nicely?
*so Andrea is naive and a fancy pants, while Martin and Bishop are older and cynical…
*they come across a bull and Andrea demonstrates his bull fighting skills, which somehow causes a bull stampede and while that happens, some Natives come along and try to steal their mules, but they stop them, but the Natives leave and will probably come back for them with a whole tribe…lots going on!
*they are transporting guns to Moccasin Flats btw…
*Andrea stands up to Martin, figures out what’s really going on, slaps Martin three times and Martin keeps his cool which is kinda funny actually…but this must have been a re-shoot or something, filmed on a really obvious looking green screen and the audio even sounds like it was recorded in a soundstage…it’s distracting especially since Martin’s reactions are the only good thing in the movie so far…
*they come across a Native girl tied up in a ritual killing by a rattlesnake…Andrea saves her, is bitten by the snake, the girl sucks out the poison, the girl and Andrea split from Martin and Bishop
*apparently the medicine man was played by Richard Farnsworth uncredited
*the Natives set out to attack Phoebe’s wagon train…with Michael Ansara (Kane from Buck Rogers) plays the Native Chief Iron Jacket…Martin and Bishop show up and warn them to head out…
*while this is happening, they play some weird Beach Blanket Bingo type music…
*Martin goes to get Phoebe who is taking a bath in a stream, a Native steals her clothes and bickering ensues…it’s filmed on a totally fake looking set that was probably filmed on a studio backlot
*Andrea is sick and he and the Native Girl Lonetta ride along with her taking care of him as they go to Mocosson Flats with the clumsy Medicine Man on their trail…at one point he KO’s himself by bonking his head on a tree branch
*Martin flirts with Phoebe but she’s not interested…I bet she will be by the end of the movie
*Andrea and Loretta arrive at the Flats, Commanches arrive, want her, the villagers are willing to hand her over, Andrea wants to defend her but she walks towards the Natives, Andrea tries to stop her, leads to fights…
*in the settlement, which is in Texas, which is across the US border inside Mexico, correct? There’s a lot of white people there and no one speaks Spanish…
*the wagon train, Martin and Bishop arrive at the Flats, Martin gets shot in the butt with an arrow…oh the hilarity…Martin doesn’t really sell feeling any pain though cause why would he do that?
*Andrea now wants to settle down with Loretta on some land, with some cows…at one point the cattle/bulls are headed towards some poisoned water, so they have to ride off and save them…lots going on here!
*the black poison lights on fire…is that oil?
*so then Andrea finds out Phoebe is there, calls her “my future bride” to Loretta, I’m sure that will go over well…
*Andrea finds Phoebe who is taking care of Martin who is pretending to be sick from the arrow…they are about to duel when they hear that Texas is now a state…the army shows up and want to arrest Andrea…so he takes off…wow how much longer is this movie?
*the Commanches attack the Flats…but the army is chasing Andrea and Loretta…
*apparently Andrea has no idea Loretta is in love with him…he doesn’t deserve her…plus this stuff is dragging out this movie…we know that they are all going to head back to the Flats and fight off the evil Natives together and live happily ever after…just get to it!
*they twice use the same shot of a obviously white guy dressed as a Native in a orangey coat fall off his horse…it could have been as a joke but who knows with this movie…
*after the fight they put Andrea on trial and find him guilty, are about to execute him but whole thing is resolved in the dumbest way possible…I don’t even want to describe it…so dumb…
*Andrea still wants to duel Martin…this movie is still going…
*the final duel takes forever to NOT happen…
*two years before this movie, Alain Delon was rumoured to have killed his ex bodyguard in Paris…reading about this on Wikipedia is more interesting than this movie…
*they don’t duel as they get distracted by the girls having a cat fight…if Phoebe wants to be with Martin and Loretta wants to be with Andrea, why are they fighting…okay they wink at each other so it was all a set up I guess…
*then they strike oil…okay is this over now…
*yup it’s over…wow this movie…
===================
Passion Fish 1992
*John Sayles! Love his stuff but when I look at his filmography I’m ashamed I haven’t seen more of his stuff…
*Alfre Woodard and Mary McDonnell!
*Roger Deakins!
*Angela Bassett!
*F*ck you Carlos!”
*this is one of those movies I rented from the local video store, either on the recommendation of my older friend who was a film buff and worked at the store…well either him or Siskel & Ebert…
*it was around this time I started watching better movies, as opposed to the typical Hollywood blockbusters…
*Woodard shows up at McDonnell’s house and the eggs from the 1st caretaker are still on the wall, after going through six other caretakers…so none of the other caretakers noticed the eggs?
*Vondie Curtis-Hall!
*David Strathairn!
*I almost didn’t recognize Nora Dunn!
*the scene with the actresses is great…the blonde actress “I didn’t ask for the anal probe!” with a long monologue ends up a way deeper character that I would have thought…
*”We don’t have time for cornrows…”
*ending kinda comes out of nowhere, which is weird for a move over two hours but in a great way
*wonderful movie!
=====================
The Professionals 1966 Western
*western with Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Jack Palance, Ralph Bellamy, Woody Strode
*circa-1917
*Marvin is training army people how to use a gatlin gun
*Ryan beats up a ranch hand for being too rough on one of his horses
*Woody Strode captures a bounty
*Burt Lancaster is busted in bed with a married woman and has to run away
*”In the later years of the Mexican Revolution, wealthy rancher JW Grant hires four men, all experts in their respective fields, to rescue his kidnapped wife, Maria…”
*opening has kind of a Dirty Dozen feel
*Marvin is Henry Rico Fardan, a weapons specialist
*Ryan is Hans, a horse wrangler
*Strode is Jake Sharp a scout who uses a bow and arrow
*Lancaster is an explosives expert
*Marvin and Lancaster fought under the command of Pancho Villa; they used to fight alongside Raza who is the one who kidnapped Grant’s wife, they respect him but have no problem taking money to go after him
*Ryan, Marvin and Strode get on a train with Grant, get to explaining the plot
*Ralph Bellamy is Grant
*Marvin says they need Lancaster, who is luckily in a nearby jail along the train tracks
*they recruit Lancaster and are on their way
*apparently Raza is played by Jack Palance!
*the four ride in on horses over the Mexican border, get into a fight with local bandits, they kill ten men, Ryan hates the suggestion of killing the men’s horses, Ryan sends the horses away…
*they hang out in a gorge, Ryan collapses due to exhaustion
*Lancaster has doubts, Marvin says he gave his word, so they are doing it
*they travel across the desert, with Lancaster riding ahead, leaving messages as he goes to let them know what’s going on
*he gets caught in a gorge by three bandits who rob him, the bandits say they caught up to him after Ryan let the other horses go, they save him and kill these three bandits too
*Lancaster likes doing his own stunts
*they end up setting it up to blow it up on the way back to block it as an escape route to slow down pursuers…
*it’s basically a heist movie, with Bellamy’s wife as the prize
*they watch as Jack Palance’s men rob an army supply train despite it being fully packed with a gatlin gun and lots of soldiers
*they then follow them back to Palance’s HQ and it’s heavily fortified with lots of men guarding her
*they notice a man delivering goat’s milk, follow him back to home near a train track, get information about where she is staying, say that they will attempt to save her the following night, let the goat milk delivery go ahead then change plans to doing it that night
*Ryan stays behind
*they use dynamite to blow up the clocktower, then Strode shoots arrows with sticks of dynamite attached as Marvin and Lancaster steal the girl, but catch her in the act of having sex with Palance
*she refuses to go as she is in love with Palance, Lancaster decks her and they leave
*they go back to the goat milk guy’s house, Palance’s men are waiting for them, Ryan warns them, they start shooting but stop as they don’t want to shoot the girl, the good guys manage to get away on the train eventhough Ryan is shot and Strode takes off on his own
*they make it back to where they’ve set charges, patch up Ryan, Strode catches up to them, she tries to get away on a horse but Lancaster blows up the dynamite as Palance closes in and blocks the canyon
*they start to head back, get to know the girl, she and Palance have been lovers since they were kids, she married Bellamy while still in love with Palance, it was a mistake, she wasn’t kidnapped but escaped, etc.
*when the girl shows up, Claudia Cardinale, I’m starting to get deja vu but I don’t see records of me watching this, at least not in the last few years
*they head back over the desert, with Palance and his men in pursuit
*they have to kill her horse along the way
*this was made the year after “Cat Ballou” and the year before “The Dirty Dozen” and “Point Blank”
*Palance and his men eventually catch up, also with a female solider that Lancaster had been admiring the whole time
*Lancaster stays behind to bottle neck Palance and his men inside a canyon while the others try to make it to the border
*soundtrack definatley has a “Magnificent Seven” vibe to it…it had come out 6 years earlier
*Lancaster shoots Palance in the leg, then Lancaster is shot in the ass…they have a chat as Palance’s men try to get into position to flank Lancaster
*Lancaster shoots them all, including Palance again in the arm, the female takes off
*Lancaster and Palance talk some more about the meaning of life and the usefulness of war, specifically the Revolution
*she charges Lancaster so Palance can get away, Lancaster shoots her, she dies in his arms
*the group ends up at a shelter at the border, more talking…
*Lancaster shows up with a bunch of horses, with Palance too but he’s bleeding to death, she gets to say goodbye as Bellamy shows up
*Bellamy thanks them, but she is tending to Palance, Bellamy wants to kill Palance, Marvin and Lancaster say “you haven’t earn the right to kill him”, they fight back, say that the real kidnapping was the girl by Bellamy, they let Palance and the girl take off in a wagon, the group forfeit the ransom money and take off together as Bellamy and his armed goons just stand by and watch
*weird ending, not that I didn’t see it coming, but that Bellamy would just let them all leave without a final shootout, like they just wanted it to end after two hours of movie…
*good but they could have tightened it up a bit, but that probably would have meant taking out some of Lancaster’s stuff, and Lancaster probably wouldn’t have allowed that…he’s the William Shatner of movie actors…or I guess Shatner is the Burt Lancaster of TV actors?
*I mean, Lancaster has the scene where he decides to sacrifice himself to the bad guys so the others can get away…he stays behind, is badly outnumbered, gets shot in the ass but never sells it, gets to kiss both the girls in the movie, in fact one dies in his arms saying how awesome he is, he kills everyone, is the one who saves Palance, survives the movie and gives everyone a happy ending…what a guy…
===================
more Taskmaster binging
====================
The Green Book 2018
*my mom wanted to watch it so…
====================
Stagecoach 1939 Western
*again
*Monument valley…of course
*”In June 1880, a group of strangers board the stagecoach from Tonto Arizona to Lordsburg, New Mexico”
*the Army/cavalry receive a message that is cut off before the line is cut “Geronimo…”
*on the stagecoach are Dallas, a prostitute being run out of town by the old ladies “Law and Order League”; pregnant Lucy Mallory; alcoholic Doc Boone and a whiskey salesman Sam Peacock
*the stage driver Buck, Andy Devine, looks for his shotgun guard, the Marshal Curley tells him that he is off searching for a fugitive, the Ringo Kid, who has broken out of prison and could be headed that way
*Marshall Curly decides to ride shotgun guard to protect them
*Claire Trevor!
*the Army show up and warn them that Geronimo is on the warpath, tell them not to go on the trip but they go anyway, with the Marshal with them they feel safe
*a gambler climbs aboard to “protect” the pregnant lady
*a small group from the army go along with them
*as they leave town the town banker, Henry Gatewood, waves down the coach and jumps on, unaware of the warnings and is eventually told, gets nervous…
*they eventually come across The Ringo Kid (John Wayne), who is stranded after his horse goes lame
*Curly takes Ringo into custody, even though they are friends…the stage coach is pretty crowded!
*they reach Dry Fork, but learn that the expected cavalry group has gone to Apache Falls; the pregnant lady’s husband is gone
*Buck wants to turn back but the others vote to proceed
*Ringo and Dallas (the prostitute) sit at the table, the others glare at them and move seats, Ringo thinks it’s because of him
*almost comical how they think Dallas will give them cooties…
*the pregnant lady questions the gambler, starts to doubt his motives, especially later after seeing his family crest
*they head out, and the soldiers follow them for awhile but then head off in a different direction
*they ride fast through the desert, the pregnant lady is feeling sick, the gambler makes a big deal about using a silver cup for the canteen but the others can’t use it, the banker shoots his mouth off, Doc gets drunker and drunker…Ringo and Dallas make eyes at each other…
*they go through a sandstorm, are all covered in sand, tired, etc.
*they arrive at Apache Falls, there are no soldiers there, they had left as the night before there was a battle with the Natives, the pregnant lady’s soldier husband was wounded and they left…
*the pregnant lady hears this and faints, they take her inside and she goes into labour
*Doc is drunk, but realizes he has to be sober so he drinks tons of coffee…the gambler ridicules him but Ringo and Dallas try to help sober him up
*the Mexicans who stay at Apache Falls take off at night with their spare horses, they feel trapped
*Dallas and the Doc deliver the baby, a little girl
*apparently no one knew she was even pregnant
*Doc goes back to drinking once the baby is born
*Ringo proposes to Dallas, doesn’t know she is a prostitute, Curley gives him lip cause he was outside, as if he was thinking of escaping
*they get awoken by the Mexican running the place, (who was married to an Apache woman), the wife has taken off with his horse and gun, they get worried she is going to get Geronimo and bring him to them
*Dallas has been up all night with the baby as formerly pregnant lady Mrs. Mallory slept…Mallory seems to be starting to like her, she’s too weak now to travel so Doc tells her to rest and get stronger
*Doc tells Dallas that Ringo is going to jail so there’s no point getting cozy but sees she won’t listen to him
*the men argue about staying or going…Doc says Mallory needs to stay another day at least, the banker is insistent they leave now…
*Dallas accepts Ringo’s proposal, tells him to escape and they can meet up on his ranch in Mexico
*Ringo starts to leave but sees smoke signals, which means an Apache attack
*they load everyone into the stage coach and take off, trying to meet a Ferry…they all bicker, although it’s mostly everyone telling the banker to shut up
*they reach the Ferry but the Apaches got there first and destroyed it
*they hook up huge logs to the stagecoach and float it over to the other side, then start heading out again
*the banker is apologetic now, they start to think they are safe but then the Apaches attack, injuring Peacock with an arrow to the chest
*long chase through the desert, with Ringo on top of the stage coach shooting, the gambler saves one bullet for Mallory
*they run out of ammunition, Ringo has to dive onto the horses to control them as Buck is shot in the arm
*the gambler is shot just as he’s about to kill Mallory
*just as they give out hope, they hear the bugles for the cavalry, who rides to the rescue
*the gambler apparently dies a heroes death despite being about to kill Mallory, kinda confusing
*Ringo is going to Lordsburg to get revenge…he broke out of prison because he heard that his father and brother were murdered by Luke Plummer and Ringo has vowed revenge…probably should have mentioned that earlier…
*they arrive at Lordsburg, they learn Mallory’s husband is going to be okay, Dallas hands over the baby as the ladies of this town glare at her
*townspeople recognize Ringo, go to warn Luke Plummer, everyone is distracted by the banker being arrested, Dallas tries to get Ringo to not to for revenge, Curley lets Ringo go off “for ten minutes” to get revenge, with Ringo making Curly promise that he’ll get Dallas to his ranch in Mexico, the Plummers go to face off with Ringo, Ringo sees Dallas going into a brothel
*Doc goes to the saloon, stares down Plummer, the bar manager and bartender take down an expensive mirror so it doesn’t get damaged…nice touch
*the Plummers are leaving the saloon, Doc tells him not to take a shot gun with him, so it’s a fair fight (still 3-on-1), they leave but Plummer’s girlfriend throws Plummer a shotgun from the balcony, the Plummers walk down main street looking for Ringo
*the shootout happens off screen, Dallas runs to find Ringo, he surrenders to Curly, but he lets Ringo and Dallas “escape” in the stagecoach
Sully 2016
*again
========================
Heat 1987
*Burt Reynolds
*too many movies named “Heat”
*supposed to have been directed by Robert Altman but he got out of it
*Reynolds decked the director…lead to lawsuits later on and a quick line referencing it in “The Player”…so another movie where the behind the scenes stuff is way more interesting…
*Five minutes in, Reynolds is an asshole, won’t leave this poor girl alone…he’s the hero of this movie?
*”I deserve an answer…” F*ck off pal!
*so it’s going to end up being an elaborate something where he’s not really a bad guy, right?
*okay so it’s like a pro wrestling match and the date Osgood is the face and Reynolds is the heel…he’s supposed to provoke a fight then get beat up so Osgood looks like a hero to the girl…okay but this opening takes nearly 15 minutes…was too long…who edited this? Did they not film enough footage for the rest of the movie?
*so Reynolds turns down an extra $200…what a great guy…
*the word “Mexican” is said about four times in two minutes by two different characters in two different scenes…
*Howard Hesseman!
*Peter MacNicol!
*this seems like a light hearted movie, a little rougher than the usual Reynolds “Smoky and the Bandit” material but then Molly comes into the movie…
*”Don’t mess with these guys…” Reynolds smirks…then the next scene has light hearted music…almost like the Molly scenes were done afterward to add some grit…
*about 35 minutes in, Reynolds pretends to be a pimp and walks through a Vegas hotel…wears a shiny black and grey outfit with a gold medallion necklace…wow!
*the editing of the fight scene is terrible, has slow motion and stuff…a young Zack Snyder must have seen this movie…
*Holly shows up and cuts off the tip of his penis…this movie’s tone is all over the place!
*Molly’s accent is all over the place…she’s played by Karen Young who I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, apparently she’s from New Jersey…
*Molly steals money, wants to give it to Reynolds but he refuses, but she insists…
*turns out Reynolds is a compulsive gambler and that’s why he’s in Vegas…and it’s better when he’s broke…
*Reynolds and McNicol hang out, Reynolds has a dream about going to Venice with the $100,000 he just won, but something tells me he’ll lose it all soon
*great job by the dealer, Cassie played by Diana Scarwid, who is in tears as she watches Reynolds lose it all
*now back to the gangster story, I guess?
*suddenly this turns into the Karate Kid, with Reynolds as Mr. Miyagi…this is more like a TV series but with ten minute episodes…
*now back to the gangster story…Baby (played by soap actor Joseph Mascolo) who is an intermediary between the guy who got his dick cut off and Reynolds, Baby refuses to kill Reynolds just on the dick-guy’s word, he doesn’t like that, vows revenge…
*I’m guessing dick guy and his goons beat up Reynolds and McNicol saves him by proving himself…
*actually, McNicol is killed, sacrifices himself for Reynolds…again almost a comical subplot that turns nasty...
*then it’s standard stuff…six guys chase Reynolds, he picks them off one by one until they end up in an abandoned factory or course…
*it ends up one on one back in dick-guy’s hotel suite, again it takes forever to unfold, then dick guy kills himself…okay
*wait McNicol didn’t die?
*I remember first seeing Peter McNicol (spelled that was according to autocorrect) in Ghostbusters 2, which he did a few years later…
*last shot is Reynolds in Venice…happy ending with happy music playing…again, so weird!
*apparently it was remade by Jason Statham…
Wild Card 2015
*so the opening scene is word-for-word the same as the Reynolds movie, but they cut out the 1st part where Reynolds was a real dick to the girl
*girl in this part is played by Sophia Vergara, guy is played by Max Casela
*in this movie Holly is played by Dominik Garcia-Lorido, who, just like the 1st movie, is an actress I’m not familiar with…apparently she is Andy Garcia’s daughter!
*Jason Alexander is playing the Howard Hesseman role
*on Wikipedia it says that Simon West (the director) worked with William Goldman and wanted to “fix the movie”, so they used the original shooting script for this movie…
*Statham, I think it goes without saying, is no Burt Reynolds…
*they skipped the scene where the guy pays off Statham for making him look good…oh wait there it is…they flipped the order…or did they?
*Anne Heche apparently! Looks nothing like her…
*Milo Ventimiglia plays the guy who gets his dick cut…
*obvious this is a movie made in modern times…Holly’s face is bruised even though she says they beat the shit out of her and the details of the rape are scarce…not that I’m complaining but at the same time it does take the edge off…kinda like how you rarely see anything extreme in modern movies, The Rock can blow shit up real good but you rarely see him kiss a girl, let alone have a sex scene…
*they used the same “at least it’s not racial…” in the scene with the cleaning lady…
*no smirk from Statham after the “Do not mess with these guys….”
*Hope Davis plays Cassandra, who was “Cassie” in the 1st movie…hmmmm Cassandra who tells him not to bet and he doesn’t listen…pretty on the nose…
*Vertimiglia plays a pretty convincing asshole…although his fake crying is awful…
*actual brief nudity…
*Holly shows up wearing a really interesting dress for someone who is going to cut off someone’s penis…
*Statham saying “You have mean eyes” is a throwaway line but when Reynolds said it, it was a great line that meant a lot…all about delivery…
*so the movie is word for word practically the same, so is it okay to FF…
*they show Statham freaking out after losing back the $500,000 he won…that’s new…Reynolds don’t do that…
*Statham wants to go to Corsica instead of Venice…
*fight scene…that’s new…
*wow Stanley Tucci plays Baby…hope he got paid amazingly for this!
*now this scene, with Baby and the explaining, is actually better in this film, as there is a resolution…Reynolds wouldn’t stoop to explaining anything, he’s a bad ass…Staham’s character at least seems to respect/possibly is intimidated by Tucci’s Baby
*they took out all the Mr. Miyagi stuff, but the Kinnick character still follows Statham around
*Statham kills all of the bad guys, yet leaves behind the knife he used and that has his fingerprints so he can go to Corsica…is there no extradition from Corsica?
*they seem to have mostly taken out the parts of the movie that involved Kinnick (McNicol’s character), played in this movie by Michal Angarano, who played the younger Patrick Fugit in “Almost Famous”
Biography of Rowdy Roddy Piper
*shocked that we are an hour in before Piper gets to WWE…all the old footage from LA, Portland and Mid Atlantic is awesome!
*also cool to see so much with his family, home movies etc. as you never saw that side of Piper
*like with the Austin doc, they actually (strangely) jump cut over the rest of this wrestling career after Wrestlemania 1, to when he returned at Wrestlemania 5, then suddenly he’s in WCW and they insinuate that he was always a bad guy and never turned babyface…they couldn’t have said “in wrestling, he was the ultimate bad guy and all bad guys eventually get so popular they have to turn face”…but whatever…
*need to watch “They Live” asap
They Came From Beyond Space 1967
*total coincidence that the movie I watch after writing “I need to watch “They Live” asap” is this movie that starts with “They”…
*dude comes into the movie five minutes in looking like John Steed form the Avengers…do you really want me comparing this movie to that classic?
*Wikipedia says they used left over props from “Dalek’s Invasion Earth 2150 AD”
*speaking of “The Avengers”, one review said “with more imagination and wit it might have been salvaged as an episode of “The Avengers”
*so it’s basically “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” but with energy beings taking over human bodies…
*Michael Gough shows up! We sure this isn’t an episode of “The Avengers”?…
*this movie…if only it had Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg in it…it would still be a bad movie but I would have been way more interested…
======================
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights 2011
*one of the stars of this? Rowdy Roddy Piper…as a total coincidence…or is it?
=======================
more Taskmaster binging (up to S8)
=======================
no movies…nothing I want to see…
*TCM is doing 31 Days of Oscar and I used to devour those movies and now it’s like I’ve seen them all (of course I haven’t but that’s what it seems like) and with no TCM Underground or Noir Alley…but it’s over soon so then it will be back to “normal”…after the TCM Film Festival!
=======================
Biography of Randy Savage 2021
*wow, this is dark…towards the end…compared to this, that Steve Austin doc really was a puff piece…
*they almost did the opposite of the Piper one, some early footage of Savage before WWF (although, granted he didn’t do much outside Memphis before WWF) and also covers him going to WCW and why, whereas in the Piper one just one day he’s jumped companies…
=========================
The Over-the-Hill Gang 1969 Western
*finally get to see the 1st movie after seeing the sequel a few times
*Walter Brennan, Jack Elam, Ricky Nelson, Bruce Glover, Andy Devine, Edgar Buchanen, Burt Mustin, Chill Wills…lots of familiar faces!
*a stage coach comes to town, Captain Oren Hayes comes to town to see his daughter and son in law (Nelson)
*he comes to town, sees the Sheriff shooting what he thinks is a “wanted poster” that has Nelson’s face on it, but it’s actually a campaign poster as Nelson is running for Mayor but he has powerful enemies
*the current corrupt mayor has Elam’s sheriff and a drunk judge (Andy Devine) backing him, the judge starts feeling guilty but doesn’t stand up for himself when the Mayor pressures him…
*Elam and his goons beat up Nelson, Hayes and destroys his printing press
*Hayes calls for backup, Brennan, Buchanen, Wills get telegrams, they are bored in retirement and are eager to come and help
*they all meet up, then head to town…basic plot as the sequel, they try to out smart the young guns
*they are successful at first but the evil mayor brings in some newer guns to fight, gives them until High Noon to leave town…they stay and fight of course
*they use mirrors, trip wires and such to fool the bad guys into thinking there are more of them than there are, the bad guys run off
*Nelson wins the election and all is good
*ten years earlier, Nelson was in Rio Bravo…
*long final scene where the three all talk, realize they are old and go their separate ways…
*so I think I liked the sequel more, due to seeing Fred Astaire and Walter Brennan in a movie together, plus in the sequel they just “get to it” without as much exposition (as far as i can remember)
==================
Hercules in the Haunted World 1961
*Christopher Lee is in this so….
*has there ever been a Hercules vs. Dracula movie? I’d watch…the trailer at the very least…
*so far Lee just stands in the background and watches/observes people dying
*”The Golden Apple”…now I want to ignore this movie, go on Youtube and watch the trailer for “The Apple”
*so suddenly at one point Swamp Thing walks on set…
*not anywhere near enough Lee
====================
Hairspray 1988
*again, but not for a long time…
*Divine, Ricky Lake, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, Jerry Stiller…such greatness!
*and a young Josh Charles!
*I’ve seen the remake recently, and this is defiantly a “rougher” version, and the remake is the Disney version, like for instance I don’t remember a bomb in the remake…
*weird seeing Divine dressed as a man, frankly…
*it might be controversial, but I think the remake has a better ending…for a movie about integration, the last dance is all the white people dancing with a few black people scattered around and Tracy being crowned the Queen…in the remake it’s all about Little Inez and I thought that was a way better ending…
*apparently John Waters has said this was a spoof of “message movies” so…what do I know?
*also funny seeing Waters playing the quack doctor…
*great stuff!
=====================
Cyrano de Bergerac 1950
*again, for the millionth time…
*when I was a kid I recorded WWF wrestling and cartoons on my VCR and watched them over and over…when I was a teenager, this was a movie I watched over and over…just fell in love with the movie
*I’ve seen lots of different versions of Cyrano, including the Gerard Depardieu version and Steve Martin’s “Roxanne” but none are able to match this…
*”your hand to kiss”…amazing scene and heartbreaking after seeing the movie a few times, how Cyrano could have found love if he looked at anyone other than Roxanne…
*in other versions, they have Christian at the theatre and at least share a look with Roxanne…I think that works as it at least shows they know each other before Roxanne tells Cyrano about him
*”I’ve done better since…”
*issues with this movie…why doesn’t Roxanne recognize Cyrano’s voice when he is speaking from under her balcony? To me, it’ snot a big deal…like when people scoff at the whole “Clark Kent wears glasses and Lois Lane can’t see he’s Superman?” stuff…either you go for it or you don’t…I do…
*another issue…the whole cousin thing…not great but you can just say “Times were different back then” right?
*”the blood was his…”
West Side Story 1961
*TCMFF OPENING NIGHT
*again
*amazing as always
====================
Wuthering Heights 1939
*TCMFF
*finally
*yes, I admit I’ve never seen this before, and hadn’t wanted to really, just didn’t appeal to me…
*but I watched Alex Trebek’s intro with Robert Osborne, it meant so much to him so now I’m going to watch it, even if it’s just a tribute to them…
*plus it’s TCMFF so let’s movie!
*so, it’s a long movie about a lot of really miserable, unhappy people?
*maybe this should have been called “Les Miserable”
Plan 9 From Outer Space 1959
*TCMFF
*again
*want to see this BEFORE I watch the Plan 9 Table read from Sketch Fest…
Plan 9 From Outer Space Table Read 2021
*TCMFF
Tex Avery: King of Cartoons 2008
*TCMFF
*never thought of Tex Avery cartoons as “the adult ones” but now i see it
Tex Avery at MGM 2021
*TCMFF
*actually I’ve seen a lot of these on MeTV lately…
Nichols and May: Take Two 1996
*TCMFF
Richard Glazier: From Broadway to Hollywood 2015
*TCMFF
Hollywood Home Movies: Stars at Work and Play 2021
*TCMFF
Biography of Booker T 2021
*great stuff…great to see them focus on a guy like Booker T
====================
Fame 1980
*TCMFF
*again, but not for a long time
*great movie
*Maureen Teefy was in a lot of movies then like a lot of great actresses kinda disappeared…
====================
Tab Hunter Confidential 2015
*great documentary, now I want to watch all the Tab Hunter movies, including “Grease 2”
Mean Streets 1973
*TCMFF
*finally
=====================
On an Island with You 1948
*Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalbon, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse, Marie Windsor (uncredited), Xavier Cugat, Dick Simmons…quite the cast
*that dog is freaking cute!
*no offence to the people who made this, but writing a movie like this must have taken like five minutes….initial setup, introduce the characters, introduce drama/love triangle, Xavier Cugat does a number, Jimmy Durante does a number, have a cute dog…
*so Cugat and Durante have a spat, Cugat insults Durante, Durante walks away, Cugat immediately feels bad and invites Durante on stage to perform…I like movies where people are nice, am I the only one?
*so Lawford kidnaps Esther Williams…in the old movies that means she’s going to fall in love with him, of course…
*yup, one dance and she’s all into Lawford
*apparently Williams and Charisse both got injured on the set and Williams didn’t get along with the director…
*so people stole the wheels off an airplane…how many people were there to help?
*wow Cugat had a huge band!
*Cugat and Durante do number together!
*cool dream sequence
*so they rescue Williams and Lawford…did they ever figure out who stole the plane’s wheels?
*so apparently the little girl is Kathryn Beaumont who did the voices for Alice in “Alice in Wonderland” and Wendy in “Peter Pan”.
*Cyd Charisse number!
*Esther Williams aquatic dance number!
*”stop being an actress, start being a woman…” F*ck off! I wonder if I actually tried that line what would happen…actually I probably don’t have to wonder…
*aside from the lame ending, and frankly the lame romantic storyline in general, I thought this was great, in that it was kind of like an all-star game where you got to see a bunch of stars each getting a chance to shine, dance, sing, swim…whatever
========
The Batman serial Part 1 1943
*TCM is now showing these on Saturday mornings
*never watched these before, would always see the costumes and be like “Nah I can skip this…”
*besides, I’m not a Batman fan so…
*anyway, I do like the portrayal of Bruce Wayne
*so early on, Bruce, Dick, Alfred and the girl (didn’t catch her name) are chasing bad guys in a car, the bad guys flip a switch, suddenly paint comes flying out of something in the front of the car and the car is painted white! Pretty cool actually!
*then it all goes to crap…the bad guys go to their hideout in Gotham’s Little Tokyo, which the narrator tells us is deserted “ever since our wise government rounded up all shifty-eyed J*ps…” WOW! F*ck you narrator!
*didn’t really pay much attention after that, honestly…
*although at one point Bruce starts changing into Batman in the back of the car in broad daylight on main street Gotham which is pretty risky
*girl’s name is Linda apparently
Coming to America 1988
*for the hundredth time
========================
nothing - 1st full day of NHL playoffs, 3 games back to back
========================
Biography of Shawn Michaels 2021
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 1986
*for the hundredth time
*Ferris’ dad doesn’t recognize his son’s girlfriend in the cab scene?
*I remember being shocked finding out Broderick lip synced the parade song…watching it now…was I an idiot or what? Apparently when I was a kid I didn’t listen to that many songs if they weren’t in movies…
*that musical number…all time great
*do you think Cameron and Sloan got together after high school? They seem to have more of a legit connection than Ferris and Sloan do…
*kinda weird how Mia Sara’s accent changes here and there…which is weird since she’s American
*Ferris’ theory on Cameron worshipping the first girl who sleeps with him…that hits home…
*Mia Sara married Sean Connery’s son, got divorced, then married Jim Henson’s son…interesting…
*so when does Jennifer Grey realize it was Principal Rooney who she kicked in the face? At the police station she says “some guy broke in”
*see Jeannie just needed a man to make her feel like a woman…fixed all her problems
*”he’s gonna marry me…” no he’s probably not…
*so Jeannie and Ferris race home yet once Jeannie gets there, she’s cool with Ferris…
*probably would’ve helped Ferris win his race with his sister if he didn’t go all slow motion
*so standing inside the house, listening to Rooney have Ferris right where he wants him, that’s when Jeannie “turns face”? okay…
*”You’re still here? It’s over…” so what’s the history of “easter eggs” or end credit scenes?
*doing some Wikipedia-ing…Alan Ruck was 29 when he played Cameron? Wow. Mia Sara was 18.
*when did schools stop having truant officers? When did they start having them? Whole concept is weird, really…people sent out to “bust” kids who are skipping school? Then what? Arrest them?
*saw something online that said “according to the Cubs game footage shown in the movie, Ferris Bueller would have taken his day off June 5th, 1985…”
*anyway, amazing film…
==================
Hollywood Shuffle 1987
*never heard of this but excited to watch it on TCM
*the 1st twenty minutes of this is brilliant
*the film noir skit kinda goes on too long
*started out awesome but kind of loses steam…still great though!
*okay so now having seen this and heard the story about how it was made, why didn’t I hear more about this movie when I was studying filmmaking or going to film school? You hear and re-hear the Kevin Smith/Robert Rodriguez stories but why not this?
===================
Private Screenings Robert Osbourne 2014
*for the dozenth time!
*Alec Baldwin interviews TCM’s Osbourne about his life and career…Baldwin could have talked less but it’s still great to see…
Three on a Couch 1966
*Jerry Lewis directed this, so why not?
*included in the book “The Fifty Worst Films of All Time…” so this should be fun…
*wow this movie is garbage
*basically, Jerry Lewis wants to move to Paris with Janet Leigh, but she’s a therapist/psychiatrist and only has three clients apparently but she doesn’t want to leave them in the middle of therapy, so she refuses to go to Paris so Lewis and his buddy (James Best aka Roscoe from “Dukes of Hazard”) scheme it up…
*all three girls have man-problems, so of course, Lewis will make all three fall in love with him (cause of course that would happen) and when they are “cured”, Leigh will move with him to Paris…
*so why couldn’t James Best seduce the girls, rather than Lewis? Or couldn’t they have divided the girls up? Besides that being incredibly cruel, of course…
*so Leigh goes to Best for advice and he tells her to think not as a doctor but “as a woman”…
*this whole movie sees this Lewis vs. Leigh and assumes Leigh is wrong…not to mention the women in the movie in general are treated like idiots…
*so Lewis has four women fall in love with him in this movie, is that a record?
*Kathleen Freeman is in this?
*I can’t believe I got through this without FFing or just giving up…it was kind of like watching a car accident or something…
*what was Janet Leigh doing in this?
*one of the girls is played by Mary Ann Mobley, whose name I couldn’t place but she married Gary Collins and was on TV a lot in the ’80’s
*so what was Lewis’ plan, really…he “cures” the three girls, heads to Paris with Leigh then he just disappears from the other girls’ lives? How amazingly awful that is…and he’s the ‘good guy’ we are supposed to be rooting for?
*at one point Leigh seems to figure it out, get the three girls to meet in her office, asks “Do any of you have a picture of your boyfriend?” and they say no…do you now have a picture of your fiancé???
*anyway, the whole movie is an excuse for Lewis to flop around, especially in the big party scene at the end where all four women are there and Lewis has to avoid them…
*In the end, Lewis is busted, Leigh is ready to leave but he forgives Lewis and they “live happily ever after…” How? How could she forgive him?
*and the three girls are totally supportive and encourage Leigh to forgive Lewis…why? He just betrayed and manipulated all of them, but they’re cool with it…sure…
*just garbage…
*I could go into more detail but why?
===================
Dark Side of the Ring S3 Ep1&2 “Brian Pillman”
Fatso 1980
*Anne Bancroft directed this? And wrote this?
*Ron Carey, Levitt from Barney Miller, is in this?
*”the box is too big for the hole…”
======================
Pajama Party 1964
*fourth of the seven beach films
*w/Annette Funicello
*and Buster Keaton(!), Don Rickles(!) and Dorothy Lamour(!)…plus Frankie Avalon is in the movie a lot, but we just see the back of his head until the end of the movie…
*aparently there was a play version of this movie and James Arness (Marshall Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke) in the lead…that would have been interesting to see him in this!
*Buster keeps saying “Cowabunga!” I wonder if this is where Bart Simpson got that saying…probably not…
*the Swedish girl keeps saying “Ya, ya, ya” just like the Swedish girl in “The Producers”…”The Producers” came out three years later…
*Buster Keaton is in this ALOT! I figured it would just be a quick cameo like in the other movies…
*star is Tommy Kirk who I saw in movie after movie when I was a kid from “Old Yeller” to “The Shaggy Dog” and many other movies…
================
Earth Girls Are Easy 1989
*again
*TCM Underground 5/22/21
*tonight’s theme is movies directed by Julien Temple, as this is being shown with “Absolute Beginners”
*this is one of those movies where people do strange things, physics don’t matter, stuff doesn’t make sense but well, does it matter?
*not sure if I like Valley Girl Geena Davis, as opposed to “The Fly” or “A League of Their Own” Geena Davis…
*Michael McKean!
*apparently this was the 3rd and final movie Davis and Jeff Goldblum made together, with “The Fly” and “Transylvania 6-5000”
*this came out after Davis had won Best Supporting Actress for “The Accidental Tourist”, which I’ve never seen…I always get it mixed up with “Green Card”
*co-written by Julie Brown and she gets all the good lines…
*I’d forgotten that the boys get shaved 45 minutes in and are “themselves” for the rest of the movie
*so there’s a party at the Griffin Observatory…does this happen often? When I went there it was just…an observatory…
*when you think about it, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans…if they made a movie today I’d watch the crap out of that…
*the dance off scene with Wayans…
*Robbie the Robot!
*the “Cause I’m Blonde” dance number is great
*the car chase scene with Carrey and Wayans driving the wrong way on the freeway…when Carrey hangs outside the car while driving with his feet…pretty cool
*then they end up crashing the car through the big Randy’s Donut which is fun…
*who is Angelyne?
*okay why do they take Carrey and Wayans to the hospital? As opposed to the police station? Other than they want to have them run into Charles Rocket?
*I watched the Siskel & Ebert episode where they reviewed this movie…five movies and Siskel hated all five of them which I hadn’t seen before…anyway, Ebert liked (but not loved) this movie and Siskel dismissed it…Ebert said there was no plot (which was bad) but still liked it…later in the same episode they criticized “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” because it was a movie that had to shoehorn in a plot about Kevin Spacey and Joan Severance stealing a rare coin…so if “Earth Girls” had added a subplot about a drug deal or something?…
*why does Davis keep going back to Rocket? It really makes me like her character less and less…
*so Davis is going to marry Rocket, then the spaceship starts to take off, Davis is literally kissing Rocket, then decides she loves Goldblum…was the spaceship emitting a love ray or something, cause that made no sense…
*then the movie just ends with Julie Brown and Michael McKean’s characters just being there for no reason…just to say goodbye I guess…
*good movie, fun to watch, not sure when I’ll watch it again
Absolute Beginners 1986
*TCM Underground 5/22/21
*getting some deja vu watching this opening sequence
*it could be that the frenetic opening, with the voiceover, really reminds me of the Guy Ritchie “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” type movies…
*apparently this bombed so hard, it delayed “Earth Girls Are Easy” three years, as director Julien Temple was considered box office poison…
*Patsy Kensit…I remember when I first saw her in “Lethal Weapon 2”…haven’t seen her in much since, stuff here and there but not a lot…
*the main character played by Eddie O’Connell is kind of a pretentious twit
*at one point Kensit sings a song where she just says “Having it all” over and over, then there is a pause, then she literally says “Having it all…” again…is this supposed to be campy?
*apparently Robbie Coltrane is in this?
*the failure of this film commercially is apparently one of the reasons the Brisih studio “Goldcrest Films” went out of business…
*Goldcrest Films made “Chariots of Fire”, “Gandhi”, “The Killing Fields” and other movies…
*but just because the film bombed commercially doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie…
*now I’m at the point where the movie is playing, but I go through a Wikipedia rabbit hole looking up random things associated with this movie…and write “apparently…” a lot..
*apparently the director Temple is Juno Temple’s father…
*Temple later directed “Bullet” an action film with Mickey Rourke and Tupac Shakur (and Peter Dinklage?) which is as far away from this material as it can get…
*this “Quiet Life” song…wtf?
*followed up by this other song where I can’t understand the lyrics but it has a gang goose stepping like Hitler…f*ck that…
*this part in the main character’s neighbourhood “Napoli” seems really familiar…I’m definitely starting to think I’ve seen this before…
*so this apparently builds up to the Notting Hill race riots of 1958…so this is supposed to be a British version of “Do the Right Thing”…
*so Colin builds up to calling Kensit, finally calls her, they talk to for two seconds and apparently he hangs up on her, and she’s fine with it….? so weird…
*about 50 minutes in, David Bowie shows up!
*the song/number for “That’s Motivation” is pretty great, the song itself seems a bit over produced, but the sequence itself is the first thing in this movie I’ve really liked…
*the tap dance parts with Colin and Bowie are the first time I’ve liked Colin at all
*Bruce Payne plays a white supremacist who leads the “White Defense League”…lots of immigrants moving to London, making (some of the) originals nervous…some things change but some never do…
*Sade!
*man this movie is all over the place…
*an hour and a half or so into the movie Robbie Coltrane shows up, has one line and that’s it…
*after being completely silly now it’s about race riots, burning down buildings where Black people live…geez…
*and of course, in the middle of it all is a white dude trying to save everyone
*Steven Berkoff is in this, plays “The Fanatic” in I think just one scene…he played Victor Maitland in “Beverly Hill Cop”
*so this is based on real race riots, it starts out deadly serious but then turns into West Side Story…so weird…the tone is just all over the place
*at least the final big battle is between the white supremacist and the main black character and not Colin and it has all the minority characters teaming up to stop the racists…and then racism was defeated, in 1986! Imagine the world if it hadn’t? Crazy…
*the happy ending is with the two straight white characters living happily ever after…I was worried for a second there…
*I think I watched this during a Bowie marathon after he died…or at least I started to…I don’t remember that final race riot sequence and I think I would have, with the West Side Story dancing…I watch so many movies that some sink in and some don’t…I think I got to the “Nazi get their own dance sequence…” and checked out…
*anyway, not a horrible movie, the best parts were anything with Bowie involved, in particular the soundtrack, but I’ll probably never watch this again…
*I give them credit, they song for the fences and that does get them points, that’s for sure…
=================
The Batman serial Part 2 1943
*giving this another chance despite the racist voiceover in Part 1
*starts with Batman and Robin getting their asses kicked by the bad guys, pretty easily too
*Batman is thrown over the side of the building and would have died except there are people cleaning the windows…
*Batman and Robin capture a bad guy and go back to the Batcave and interrogate the bad guy while Batman stand there with his Bat-shorts pulled up to his nipples, looks less-than-intimidating…
*Alfred reading a comic book is hilarious until Bruce and Dick show up and scare him, act like real assholes…
*Dick has one job, to look after Linda, but he screws around and she gets captured
*nothing racist in this episode that I could see…at one point Bruce Wayne smokes a cigarette so that was dumb…
====================
Dark Side of the Ring 2021
*”Collision in Korea”
*meh
Operation Mad Ball 1957
*opening theme sung by Sammy Davis Jr.
*I know nothing about this besides it stars Jack Lemmon
*lots of familiar faces
*okay this is why the military (or at least the military depicted in this movie) sucks…Jack Lemmon puts down his gun to help a girl find something and is now going to be court marshalled and possibly shot…gee sounds like a great outfit
*Mickey Rooney is in this?
*Dick York, Arthur O’Connell, Ernie Kovacs, William Hickey
*one hour 14 minutes in, Mickey Rooney shows up, his character speaks in rhyme cause reasons
*Lemmon’s first starring role, two years after “Mister Roberts” and two years before “Some Like it Hot”
*gets kinda complicated towards the end, stuff about a missing regimen…
*kinda like a heist movie but they are plotting a big party for the base…
*anyway, happy ending with everyone dancing so…
Wonder Woman 1984 2020
*would have seen this in theatres, but COVID
*heard bad reviews, so I refused to pay to see this, now it’s on free cable so here we are…
*absolutely loved the first one, was stunned to hear this wasn’t good, can’t imagine this being bad, so here we go…
*super cool finally seeing a live action version of the Amazonian Games…
*credits on the screen, keep seeing the names Geoff Johns, Zack Snyder…were they involved with the first one though, right? And that one was great…
*opening sequence at the mall…I didn’t like it…weird tone, the vibe was off somehow…
*Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord…blonde Lord (and blonde Pascal)…kinda odd
*funny too how Pascal was in the Wonder Woman pilot that Adrianne Palicki starred in, but I read an article where he had no memory of this which is funny…
*so it’s been like 80 years since the first movie, right?
*Etta Candy is dead then?
*Kristen Wiig as Barbara Minerva!
*”I forgot my keys…” makes no sense…
*Simon Stagg!
*back then, to research/learn stuff you had to read books…those were the days!
*typical 80’s trope, Wiig takes off her glasses and bam she’s hot!
*ever since the trailer came out, and I just saw the moment again here I’ve been wondering…when Gal Gadot gets out of the car for the party, do we get a “Basic Instinct” moment? I guess not but just something I noticed…that’s how into this movie I am…
*looking up “Controversy” on the WW84 Wikipedia page…there’s a lot!
*so Diana finds an invoice for Max Lord in the box for the Dreamstone, but the stone is in Barbara’s office…what was the invoice for?
*so wait…so some dude starts talking to Diana, says Steve Trevor stuff, she sees someone else but then sees Steve…I’m guessing this dude is really there but she’s seeing Steve and for out benefit they have Chris Pine there…but what?
*so they are talking after 80 years and they make futon jokes?
*I guess it’s because it’s supposed to take place in 1984 but Diana has changed, her hair is weird, way too much lipstick and makeup…it’s all wrong somehow…
*I’m guessing they are going to explain how Lord knew what the Dreamstone is?
*so Diana and Steve sleep together, but it’s using the other dude’s body…yeah now I get the “Controversy”
*so much happens so fast…
*how Lord gets rid of Stagg…the fashion show with Steve and Diana…they leave the apartment to find the stone but instead go on a tour of Washington DC…
*Chris Pine does a great job and it’s good stuff…
*and I notice once Steve shows up, Gal Gadot/Diana stops wearing wakeup and looks more “natural”
*Lord is going to be interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, then is suddenly in Cairo…
*they steal a jet, turn it invisible…luckily Steve can fly a modern plane and luckily it’s all gassed up with enough fuel to get to Cairo
*the invisible jet! She lost a coffee cup…okay that’s funny…
*the flying through the fireworks…more great stuff
*seems like a lot of movies that all the good stuff was in the trailer…
*Bialya!
*Barbara beats up the same guy Diana beat up earlier…shouldn’t he be in the hospital?
*okay are those kids playing soccer on the highway deaf? They can’t head the gunshots coming?
*no way the kids survive that crash…
*having Gal Gadot involved in a Middle East conflict…who thought this was the good idea? We know her legit background…
*they seem to have Lord getting headaches after granting wishes…couldn’t they have given him nose bleeds?
*Lord, Trevor and Diana all make it back to DC real fast…
*wow we seem to be only half way through…long movie…
*some funny stuff like the “what is it with you guys and Porsches?” lines but not enough
*okay, I guess I understand why there are riots and such…but maybe I don’t and don’t want to admit it…
*okay there’s the nose bleed…
*so Lord knows Steve isn’t “real”? How?
*Diana learning to fly is pretty cool, but if I was watching this in a theatre, my butt being sore, this late in the movie, I might not have enjoyed it as much…
*so they never established that Barbara likes big cats or apex predators…
*suddenly Lord can give two wishes? How else does Barbara become Cheetah?
*I do like how Diana, in the two Barbara fights, is always fighting defensively
*gold suit looks cool but it does come across like “hey we need a new action figure for Diana so…”
*are they gonna do the famous neck snap? In this movie it will come across as copying “Man of Steel” so I’m gonna bet they don’t do it…
*another Diana monologue that saves the day?
*Pascal’s “face-acting” gets annoying
*did they ever explain fully how Lord became the Wish-God or whatever? They talk with Barbara on the plane was kinda vague
*Lord’s business is Black Gold…should have been Blue Gold…
*I don’t hate the Diana-Steve love stuff, probably simply because it was handled so well in the 1st movie but really…they knew each other for like 3 days in the 1st movie, and now 6 days? “I will never love again…” that’s fine with me really…she’s freaking Wonder Woman…no one is worthy
*so this movie, if you somehow forgive the “no consent” stuff or the Gal Gadot in the Middle East “not reading the room” stuff, the movie itself has bad stuff and good stuff…it actually reminds me of “The Force Awakens”, which seemed to me was still in it’s first draft and if they had maybe spent another weekend working on it, it might have taken out some stuff that should have been easily explained and took me out of the movie…
*the tone was all over, there was funny lines, and I did think that the stuff with Diana and Barbara was good, but again, how does she become Cheetah? It couldn’t have been a second wish…Lord’s son wishes a 2nd wish, that Lord was there with him, but that doesn’t come true…
*anyway, not as bad as I’d heard, but still a bad movie…such a let down from the 1st film…
Biography of Ultimate Warrior 2021
*looking forward to this in a perverse way, just to see how this WWE spins this…
*funny how this is coming out, then next week will be the “Dark Side of the Ring” episode of Warrior…if I have to bet money, the Dark Side one will be better…
*one of Warrior’s daughter says “Don’t censor anything…show it all…” okay then, let’s go…
*geez Vince Russo…
*only thing sort of referring to him being as asshole is Sting saying “He was definitely outspoken…on any subject…”
*about an hour in, here is his wife Dana…who works for WWE so…
*they could have talked about how he got over, how at first he walked to the ring like anyone else, but then started running to the ring, how he had one of those Goldberg-like pushes where he would just squash everyone at first…but no…
*they are talking about Hogan losing to Warrior but will they talk about Hogan sabotaging him on the way out, probably not…or him flopping as champion?
*jumped from 1990 to 1991…
*about 30 minutes left and we’re just at the end of 1991…will they even get into his internet-rant period? Will they get to his “96 return or his horrible WCW run?
*okay lots happens in this past 30 minutes
*I have to give them credit, they addressed everything, but then have Dana talk about how he had changed as a person…funny I don’t remember him ever saying “I’m sorry, I was a dick…”
*no WCW but they do talk about the “Self Destruction” DVD
*so are they trying to show that Warrior couldn’t have been that bad cause he had a gay friend?
*he really never got over that DVD did he? He just kept bringing it up…although Hogan saying “I love you man…” I wouldn’t have believed a word Hogan said
*I remember watching Warrior’s speech on Raw and thinking “Wow he looks bad, is he going to pass out during this promo?” and then I heard he died the next day…and all I could think was “Wow they got lucky…he could have died right there live on Raw…”
*guy was a piece of sh*t but this was a good documentary…probably the best one so far of these A&E ones…but then again, all the good docs are about pieces of sh*t right? Talking about nice people is boring, right?
*he does seem to have a cool wife and great kids, who were willing to make this “worts and all” doc, so I guess that’s something…
===============
The Birdcage 1996
*again
*everytime I watch this I hate the son more and more…didn’t think that was possible but here we are…
*the son, Dan Futterman, has two Oscar nominations, for writing “Capote” and “Foxcatcher” and adapted the UK’s “Broadchurch” TV series into “Gracepoint”…none of these things make me like him more…
===============
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins 1975
*TCM Underground 5/15/21
*paired with “Foxes”, which I watched earlier
*w/Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, Mackenzie Philips, Alex Rocco, Harry Dean Stanton, Charles Martin Smith and Louis Prima
*interesting road movie…Arkin gets kidnapped by Kellerman and Philips at gunpoint as they want to go to New Orleans, he manages to ditch them but then goes back and picks them up, his life sucks so he decides to go on the trip with them after all
*go around meeting interesting characters, going on adventures…
*even a homeless, non-showering Sally Kellerman is still very attractive…
*go to Las Vegas and meet Alex Rocco
*when the guy said “350 a day” I kinda freaked but then a few seconds later I realised he meant “$3.50”…
*go to Tucson, Arizona and meet Charles Martin Smith
*Philips was 16 when she made this…reunited with Smith from “American Graffiti” two years earlier…
*there’s Harry Dean Stanton!
*I like the ending and how the movie had gradually built up the Philips-Arkin relationship and how that was the real heart of the movie…them riding off together as father and daughter is great…too bad Philips didn’t have that in real life…
=================
Simon 1980
*again, but honestly it’s been awhile and I don’t remember a thing…
*but it has Alan Arkin, Madeline Kahn, Max Wright…both Austin Pendleton AND Wallace Shawn
*okay 30 seconds in and I remember…5 geniuses living together in a compound together as a think tank…got it…I loved this movie last time I watched it…
*supposed to cure cancer, world hunger but ”we got into more interesting material…” like messing with Nielsen ratings
*”Don’t die, I don’t want to have to fill out a lot of forms…”
*”Don’t you want me to win a Nobel Prize?” “Only if you wear that to the ceremony…”
*Madeline Kahn arrives!
*so they basically hypnotize Arkin into thinking he’s an alien so they can mess with the world but it backfires…
*they want to use “dumb-gas” to get Arkin back in line but use it on themselves instead
*Fred Gwynne!
*hilarious moment when Gwynne come in, in full army uniform, and starts questioning Pendleton when Pendleton asks “You’re from the Army, right?” great little moment…plus the “That’s lovely” moment too a few seconds later…
*so the director and writer was Marshall Brickman, who co-write Annie Hall with Woody Allen…it definitely has that kind of vibe with the quick, intelligent dialogue
*Arkin’s girlfriend storms into his room, tells him they have to leave, the army wants to kill him, there has been a deadly gas released and his reaction is “Lisa, is there something wrong?”
*so Pendleton has sex with a super computer shaped like a giant phone…I thought Kahn did the voice but it was apparently Louise Lasser, who was married to Woody Allen ten years earlier
*lots of jokes that are specific to the time, about popular TV shows at the time
*then it talks about how the world is getting tired or bored of their alien saviour after hearing too much from him…that would totally happen!
*”See look what you did…they took away the table!”
*so Arkin sneaks out of the rocket…does the rocket have a back door?
*so I’m not sure I get the ending…so Simon and Lisa go to Canada to live in isolation, presumably with people thinking he, the alien, has “gone home” but that was Pendleton…but they are discussing the fact he might right a book or at least has many offers for his life story…so he’s not living in isolation? So people know he wasn’t on the rocket?
*anyway, great film…I don’t want to be one of those guys who say those things, but this could be remade today and be very “of the times”…
================
Hell Drivers 1957
w/Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan, William Hartnell (the 1st Doctor Who), David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, Sean Connery???
*had to think where I knew George Murcell from but he’d been on “The Avengers” episode “You Have Just Been Murdered” which is one of my favourites…
*McGoohan and Connery show up in the same scene about 30 minutes in…McGoohan has a fake looking scar and Connery’s hasn’t shaved so he looks a bit weird…
*”You act like you’re the only girl in this town…” you mean she isn’t?
*oh yeah there is the waitress from the restaurant but what is she like 13?
*main character has one friend in this group, and that friend has a girlfriend, so of course main character is going to fall for the same girl…
*according to this dance, there seems to be five girls in this town and about 100 men…so there won’t be any problems what so ever, will there?
*over an hour in, David McCallum shows up
*through the whole movie, McGoohan always has a cigarette in his mouth, even during a fist fight
*ends with a car (truck) chase, the bad guys (McGoohan and Hartnel) go over a cliff and their truck explodes, whereas the good guy’s truck also goes over (after he’s escaped of course) but doesn’t explode
*actually clever how they do this, as the day before the main character (Stanley Baker btw)’s best friend switched their trucks’ plates so that they could trick the bad guys, then in this scene, they take the other truck thinking it’s the best friend’s truck but it’s the main character’s truck, which the brakes had been cut by them, so that’s how they die, realizing at the last minute that they took the wrong truck…at least I think that’s what happened…
*and that’s basically how the movie ends…
*good movie…although I wonder if it would have been better with Connery in the lead role…
=======================
The In-Laws 1979
*again but not for a long time (or at least I’m pretty sure I have…)
*apparently TCM was having an Alan Arkin marathon…
*always weird seeing Peter Falk in anything other than “Columbo” but here we go…
*why doesn’t the guy take off his mask? It actually makes sense in the reality of the scene but it’s just looks weird, especially after it looks like he and Peter Falk know each other…I could see this in modern times with cameras everywhere but back then?
*Arkin says he’s calling off his daughter’s wedding…the idea of this is pretty hilarious…as if a parent could do that even in 1979
*Nancy Dussault who I remember from “Too Close for Comfort” aka “The Ted Knight Show”
*young David Paymer as the taxi driver…
*funny how they have stunt scenes in older movies and they look legit somehow, like “they hadn’t invented stunt drivers back then so they had to look like they were really almost killing people”…
*why does Falk think that Arkin, a dentist, can break into his safe…did I miss something?
*I guess I thought he meant that Arkin somehow was now a safecracker, but I guess he gave him the combination, Falk just can’t go himself…
*okay now Arkin should cancel the wedding…
*so he just left that lady in the dentist chair with that stuff in her mouth? I’d be so out of there…
*was it ever a thing where people would actually fire guns in the street indiscriminately? Or just in the movies?
*didn’t Falk have to deliver $1.5 million by like…now?
*okay so the whole idea was Falk was going to blackmail Arkin into helping him?
*the idea that Arkin is screaming at Falk about stealing stuff inside a New York restaurant and no one even cares is so hilarious…
*John Hancock!
*the wife finding one of the plates, just taking it to the bank and getting into trouble…nice twist…
*Falk being so calm is hilarious
*the daughter thinking it’s cool is funny too
*this movie is pretty funny…
*movie is “only” 88% on RT, these older movies seem to be either 100% or 30%
*James Hong!
*these bad guys are like Stormtroopers…they are horrible shots!
“Serpentine!” I think I may have just seen this clip over and over but not the whole movie…
*didn’t I hear something about that Peter Falk hated this movie? I’ll have to look it up…
*Ed Begley Jr!
*the whole storyline of the wife/daughter and the US government has been dropped…
*pretty amazing car chase on the freeway…eat that Fast and Furious whatever!
*Richard Libertini!
*the firing squad scene is funny but goes on a tad too long…
*in a modern movie, after Falk and Arkin drive off laughing, they get to the wedding and get the hell out of there…but I like how they took their time and told a story, since the whole movie was about this wedding, as opposed to the shooting and stuff
*great movie!
Grease 2 1982
*TCMFF 2021 - TCM Underground’s representation
*again but not in a LONG time, I think this was my sister’s favourite movie…
*forgot I recorded this, somehow
*nice intro by the TCM Slumberground crew
*SID CAESAR!!!
*Eve Arden, Tab Hunter(!), Connie Stevens are teachers
*Frenchy’s back!
*I’ve heard so much about this “reproduction” scene with Tab Hunter lately, I hope it lives up to the hype…
*I like the role-reversal with the Michelle Phiffer and Max Caufield roles
*Maureen Teefy again! Have to watch “Supergirl” again soon…
*Christopher McDonald!
*they mentioned this in the intro but I had to look it up to make sure I heard correctly…this movie opened on the same weekend as “ET”, “Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan”, “Rocky 3” and “Poltergeist”…wow that’s a major movie weekend…
*a half hour in and we’ve had to MAJOR musical numbers…
*strange how the bowling sequence seems to be setting up Johnny and Paulette as the main couple
*holy crap Dolores is young Pamela Segall now Pamela Adlon from “Louie” and “Better Things”
*Lorna Luft is Judy Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli’s half sister
*Connie Stevens was 44 when this was made!
*Michelle Pfeiffer is the star but she really hasn’t done much at all yet and we are over 30 minutes in…she’s been in a bunch of scenes but none where she is the main focus of the scene
*okay now that I said that, she has a solo…
*then it’s back to Pfeiffer being in the background
*that Reproduction number is pretty amazing! But again with Pfeiffer in the background with no lines…
*Janet Jones!!!
*so Pfeiffer also rarely wears a pink jacket…is that so she stands out?
*as soon as I said that, they address that and the Pink Ladies talk about her lack of devotion to the group…
*Max Caufield really picked up motorcycle driving quickly…
*okay so the T-Birds in the first movie were likeable, right? Or was it just John Travolta’s charisma?
*the reason I ask is that these T-Birds are really dickheads…
*even Adrian Zmed smoking is annoying
*wow these dance numbers, especially the Luau, are pretty amazing…
*there are more pictures of Sid Caesar in the Yearbook credits than he had in the actual movie…
*not great, not terrible…memorable for the dance sequences…
*outro points out there isn’t as much emotional attachments to the characters, compared to Stackard Channing in the first for example, and the songs aren’t as memorable, other than the “Conception” song of course…
Cowboy 1958 Western
*cool Saul Bass animated opening sequence
*Jack Lemmon, Glenn Ford, Dick York, Brian Donlevy, Richard Jaeckel
*just saw Lemmon and York together in “Operation Mad Ball”
*first of all, what a terrible title…
*and as soon as Glenn Ford comes on screen, I’m getting a deja vu feeling…
*so this is basically City Slickers…Jack Lemmon is a city boy who wants to be a cowboy to impress a girl so he goes on a cattle drive with Ford’s group…
*a Mexican family is staying at the hotel Lemmon works at, but he’s fallen in love with the daughter of a Mexican family who stays there…Lemmon tells her father he wants to marry her but the father refuses and they check out, talking to Ford on the way out as they are old friends…
*at first Ford is a big man, has sold his cattle and is rich, has no interest to listening to Lemmon’s whining…
*Ford loses all his money in a poker game, so then he has to take on Lemmon as a partner, as Lemmon offers his life savings to Ford as long as Lemmon comes along…
*Ford’s group was going to stay a week but they head out the next morning, Ford wants to pay Lemmon back the money but Lemmon wants to go with them
*the group heads out, meets up with Jaeckel and Donlevy, with Donlevy being a former hired gun who Ford recognizes, with Donlevy, or his character’s name Bender, says he just wants work with cattle now and Ford believes him for now
*Ford gives Lemmon a hard time for not dressing like a cowboy but won’t give him time to go shopping
*Lemmon has problems getting his new horse to be broken…
*they head out on the trail, Lemmon has issues with fitting in
*they are heading to Mexico to the Vidal’s ranch, the same family whose daughter Lemmon wants to marry
*Bender tells Ford about how he had become a hired gun with a reputation, a marshall, and he had become a target for everyone wanting to make their own reputation…sounds like Gregory Peck in “The Gunfighter”
*Strother Martin, the guy who has the “failure to communicate” line in “Cool Hand Luke”, dies early on when Jaeckel and York are messing around with a rattlesnake and Martin is bit
*Jaeckel doesn’t seem to care that he basically caused Martin’s death, even wants to claim Martin’s boots, Lemmon stands up to him, but Ford gets in his face, ordering Lemmon to dig Martin’s grave
*they arrive in Mexico 8 days later, go to the Vidal ranch
*Lemmon and Ford go to check out Vidal’s beef, Lemmon finds out that Maria, the girl Lemmon is in love with, has married another man in the last ten days, Lemmon is heartbroken
*they crew brands the beef the next day and stays for a local “fiesta”
*the new groom, Don Manuel Arriega, challenges one of the Americans, specifically Lemmon, to a game where they put a ring on one of a bull’s horns…Don Manuel succeeds but his horse is cut up by the bull’s horns
*Ford takes the challenge for Lemmon, and succeeds on foot, not wanting his horse to get injured…they all celebrate but Lemmon is pissed
*Lemmon and Maria meet up in private that night, she explains why she’s married (her father set it up) and they say goodbye
*Lemmon goes back to town, York is drunk and flirting with all the girls and pissing off the locals, so Lemmon tries to help him out, but they take Lemmon outside and make him go back to the camp, so they have York alone…
*Lemmon goes back to the camp and tries to get help but no one cares, Ford beats the crap out of him, even cheating to win, Lemmon says he cheated and is starting to learn to toughen up
*they head back to Chicago…is York dead?
*they notice Natives are following them
*is Bender going to be an important character at some point?
*I think I saw York in one crowd shot so he’s alive apparently…
*Lemmon goes off by himself to get 40 strays, the Natives ignore the main group and go after Lemmon, so Ford causes a stampede to help Lemmon…seems like a flawed plan…
*Ford is shot in the leg, Lemmon then takes over as trail boss
*they reverse roles, with Lemmon being an asshole boss and Ford getting softer, offers Lemmon advise but Lemmon refuses to listen
*Lemmon says thanks to the Stampede, they lost 200 head of cattle and it’s coming out of Ford’s cut of the profits
*Bender talks about going back to his town, could maybe live in peace if he wasn’t the Marshall, just wants to find a friend who lives there and then to live in peace alone…
*they make it back to a city with a train station, load the cows onto the train but York finds out that Bender had gone into town, got drunk at the saloon, kills his friend and then himself
*Lemmon tells the men to get back to work, not caring about Bender’s death, Lemmon tells Ford he learned that from him…
*on the train, Lemmon gets stuck in one of the cattle cars and is nearly trampled but Ford saves him and they make peace…
*they make it to Chicago, Ford and Lemmon rent out the same hotel from the beginning of the movie, get drunk and have fun to end the movie
Cattle King 1963 Western
*starring Robert Taylor and a young Robert Loggia…well as young as Loggia ever looked…
*Loggia was 33 when this came out…oh and btw he is playing a Mexican…
*1883 Wyoming there is a range war going on…on Taylor’s land one of his farm hands is killed and his barbed wire fence is cut down
*homesteaders vs. barbed wire fences…a common theme in a lot of these Westerns…
*Clay Mathews is Taylor’s opposite, he needs Wyoming to be an open range so he can take his cattle between Texas to Canada but Taylor thinks he is entitled to his own land behind his own fences
*President Chester A. Arthur arrives in Cheyenne at the same time Taylor shows up to talk to the local cattle association
*Taylor’s neighbour is Harry and Sharleen Travers, Taylor and Sharleen are a couple, Harry is a coward…Harry wants to sell to Matthews and Taylor tries to talk him out of it
*Loggia gets in trouble with the guy who initially cut Taylor’s barbed wire fence (Bodine), they get into a fight and Taylor beats up the guy, who vows revenge
*Taylor and Loggia head back home, with war seemingly on the horizon
*Taylor proposes to Sharleen while Harry is told by Mathews to say that he saw Taylor cutting his own fences
*Harry gets home and gets drunk, gets in Taylor’s face, Taylor punches him
*the next day, Harry apologizes to Taylor, leaves Taylor’s place
*Taylor’s nephew, Webb, wants to kill everyone so I’m sure that will end up being totally fine…
*Taylor goes to his neighbour, a sheep farmer, and wants peace, but as soon as they leave, Bodine and his men, claiming to be sent by taylor, destroy his sheep farm but only KO him…
*the sheepherder comes to kill Taylor, doesn’t, and refuses to believe it when Taylor says it wasn’t him…what an idiot…the guys who tore up his place wore masks but yet said they were sent by Taylor…
*President Arthur shows up at Taylor’s house, likes what Taylor says, the sheepherder overhears them talking and switches sides
*Harry is shot by Bodine, who also kills Sharleen while he’s at it
*Taylor vows revenge against Bodine and Mathews, a bunch of his neighbours back him up, including the sheepherder
*Taylor shoots Mathews, and Taylor and Loggia shoot Bodine, so all is right with the world
*”You can’t make time go backwards”
*good little movie although at times it did seem like it was a historical piece as opposed to a movie, not a bad thing just an observation
War of the Wildcats 1943 Western
*Silver Screen Classics disclaimer before the movie
*also known as “In Old Oklahoma”
*w/John Wayne, Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes!
*in 1906, a train is on it’s way to Oklahoma, Martha Scott has written a book that is scandalous (a romance novel) and she leaves town, on the same train as rich man, “Hunk” Gardner
*Gardner is smitten with Scott, on his way to digging some oil rigs, Gardner kisses Scott and she slaps him…
*John Wayne jumps on the train after his horse dies, Scott wants Wayne to stay to be a buffer between her and Gardner…
*they arrive at the junction and after the whole movie so far has taken place on the train, it’s starting to look like an actual movie…
*due to hijinks, Scott and Wayne end up stuck in the town with Gardner
*Gardner comes to town, wants to buy the land at too cheap prices, pisses a lot of people off
*a couple of times, Scott says she is a “school teacher” and from other people’s reactions seem to be that word is a pseudonym for “prostitute”
*this is basically a rom com set in a Western, with the love triangle of Wayne falling for Scott but she is falling for the rich guy Gardner
*Gardner hires Wayne as his bodyguard, replacing Cherokee Kid, but it backfires as they go to negotiate with Natives for their land, Wayne talks to them honestly and they want to make a deal with him instead of Gardner
*they go back to town, the town hates Gardner and wants Wayne, a cowboy, to go after the oil instead of Gardner and they will give him the money
*they both go to Washington DC to talk to President Roosevelt, Wayne knows him from the war to the President gives Wayne to contract, with four months to get the job done, so of course Gardner is going to sabotage Wayne…
*Wayne, like a dummy, hires Cherokee Kid and he blows stuff up when paid off by Gardner…one of Wayne’s workers is killed…
*Wayne confronts Gardner, who says he had nothing to do with it, Wayne shoots Cherokee, say she’s taking a Garnder oil rig to replace the one blown up…
*according to Wikipedia, Wayne and Gardner have a punch out and that settles everything…they have a fist fight but it does’ settle things at all…movie just keeps going…
*they try to take the oil out in barrels but Gardner has paid off a few of the drivers
*they encounter a forest fire, set by Gardner no doubt and Wayne says to go through the fire, just really quickly…interesting strategy…
*this movie is very long…
*quite an impressive sequence with them bringing the wagons full of oil to the refinery, lots of explosions, wagons flipping, etc…
*and it does come down to a fist fight with Wayne and Gardner only it’s off camera and ends quickly…
*not bad…not great either…weird seeing Wayne in a comedy and acting very happy go lucky, especially in the beginning…
=================
Man in the Wilderness 1971 Western
*from the Wikipediaa summary, this kinda sounds like “The Revenant”…kinda
*The Year is 1820. The Captain Henry Expedition has completed two years of fur trapping in the unexplored Northwest territory. Determined to reach the Missouri River before the winter snows, the trappers and their boat, towed by 22 mules, struggled through the wilderness. Once on the Missouri, they could sail south to the trading posts and sell their precious cargo. What occurred on this expedition is historically true.”
*according to Wikipedia, this isn’t technically a Spaghetti western, but was filmed in Spain, around the same area where David Lean shot scenes for “Doctor Zhivago”
*Richard Harris apparently only has 9 lines of dialogue in the whole movie
*he and a kid track deer, he shoots one, the kid knicks another, so Harris goes after the injured one while the kid takes the dead deer back to camp
*Harris has three lines here…
*immediately, Harris is attacked by a bear, is mauled, dragged around, bleeding like crazy
*the kid goes and gets help, the others, lead by John Huston as Captain Henry, shoot the bear, Henry insists the doctor stitch Harris up, even though the doctor says there is no point and he will die soon
*but then Henry makes a quick decision to leave Harris to die…two men stay behind to bury him, and if he isn’t dead by the morning, then they should kill him and then catch up to the group
*flashback to Harris as a child, his mother has died and he’s an orphan now…very short flashback
*the group heads out, with the Native of the group praying for him before leaving, puts a necklace around his neck
*the two left behind immediately start digging Harris’ grave, as they don’t want to stay a minute longer than when Harris dies
*the older one won’t shut up
*in the morning, before they can bury Harris, men on horses come along, the two try to keep low so they aren’t seen, the older man wants to shoot Harris but they will be heard, the old man wants to leave, the kid wants to say a prayer, he wants to do the right thing but has no idea what he’s doing and ends up leaving without burying him as Harris opens his eyes and regains consciousness
*flashback 2 - Harris is a boy in boarding school, the teacher/minister asks Harris questions about God, breaks his stick and gets in Harris’ face, nails Harris in the knuckles, etc
*Harris is alone, the other group of men come along, they are Natives but they pass him by
*the Natives paint a picture of Huston’s boat on wheels
*a wild dog finds Harris, bites him but Harris smacks him and he runs off, Harris rolls down to the water, feels it on his skin, brings some water to his mouth for a drink and starts to feel better
*Natives find Harris, see the necklace, leave him alone
*flashback to Harris with his wife who is pregnant, they talk, Harris has one line but it’s a run-on sentence, he feels the baby kicking inside her stomach, talks to his unborn child
*the two men catch up to the group, say that Natives were breathing down their necks so they couldn’t have buried Harris, Huston is pissed but when men volunteer to go back, Huston says no and they must keep going forward
*Harris goes for a swim, drags himself out of the water, covers himself with sticks and mud and leaves
*Harris wakes up, crawls and sees dogs eating a dead bison, he smacks the dogs with a stick and takes some meat for himself before crawling away and eating
*the group are being followed by Natives, they stop and Huston says “Battle stations!”, they have a cannon, fire once and the Natives take off, but Huston orders Benoit (“Scotty” James Doohan) to shoot again, apparently at nothing…the men start to think he’s looney…they change course and head north
*Harris tries to crawl up a hill but stumbles and slides down, tries to make a crutch out of a bone, eats some of the marrow but then sees two Natives (a couple?) coming towards him, he hides and watches them, another group rides toward them, they all just end up killing each other as Harris watches
*the survivors light fires, Harris crawls towards the fires to get warm, searches the remains, finds a knife and some supplies
*Harris starts his own fire with the knife and a spade, rips out pages of his bible for the fire
*time passes, Harris traps bunnies, is walking (as opposed to crawling) using his crutch, has visions of finding Huston and killing him
*Huston and the others are in the mountains, surrounded by snow, the men are worried that the ghost of Harris will come after them since they didn’t bury him properly
*Harris traps a cougar, kills it, keeps the fur, sews together some clothes
*Harris heads out, going after the group as it snows
*Harris comes across a pregnant Native woman, hides and watches as the woman squats and basically shits out the kid
*flashback to his wife being dead, Harris stands by her grave, his son is alive but the wife died in childbirth, Harris resents the child, lives with Harris’ parents, Harris doesn’t want to meet the child
*back to present, the Native woman bites off the umbilical cord and cradles the newborn child
*Fogerty (the old man who wouldn’t stop talking) talks to Huston, says them men think they should burn the boat, take the pelts and take off, Huston says no way, the boat was his first command and he won’t abandon it…says he knows Harris is still alive and coming after them, he’s know Harris most of his life, worked with him, Harris is “the only man I respect and fear”
*Harris comes after them, limping but moving faster, through the snow
*at night, Fogerty thinks he sees Harris coming at them, shoots him but he was seeing things, he’s shot the kid instead
*the group comes down from the mountain, but sees they are too late as the river has dried up, all muddy
*they try to keep going but get stuck in the mud as they are surrounded by Natives
*Harris finds the boat as the Natives attack
*a big fight breaks out, Harris comes down to get closer, the Native Chief stops everything, recognizes Harris from before, is amazed he is alive, pays his respect, gives Harris his crutch/spear back and lets him walk away…
*Harris walks towards the group, walks up to Huston, asks for his gun back (Huston had claimed it when they left him for dead), Huston gives it to him, Harris says all he wants is to get back to his son, smiles, and Huston smiles back as Harris walks off…
*pretty great movie!
========================
The Trap 1967 Western
*filmed in Vancouver, BC at Panorama Studios (it was one of the first films shot there)
*looking over the Wikipedia page this kinda sounds like “The Piano”…kinda…
*a mute orphan girl, Eve, lives with her extended family (Trader), she’s been mute after seeing her mother and father killed by Natives
*a trapper, Oliver Reed, shows up at the town
*in the town they have an auction where they sell wives like they are cattle, talk about them as if they are animals…mostly women who are widows or have done prison time…one sells for $75
*Reed shows up, wants to bid on a wife, is told it’s $750 as she has to get out of prison or something…
*the Trader sees Reed arrive, goes to two Natives who had told him that Reed was dead, they said they just said he wasn’t coming back, not that he was dead
*Reed goes to see the Trader, Trader is scared as he doesn’t have the money he owes Reed
*Reed gets some dinner, has a few drinks, is watched by the two Natives
*Reed goes to Trader’s house, wants his money or a woman, sees Trader’s wife and daughters, threatens Trader so Trader gives him $1000 and he leaves, making eye contact with the mute orphan girl Eve as he leaves
*Trader’s wife gets in his face and rips him a new asshole, tells Trader to get more money, as “We deserve nice things!!!!”
*Trader’s wife takes Eve down to Reed, sells Eve to Reed for $1000, Reed drags her away and they get on his boat and sail away
*they arrive at a camp, she tries to run away, he catches her, puts a leash on her, throws her around, she grabs a piece of wood from the fire and burns his face, he says “Tomorrow you will pay”
*so apparently this is a love story…like a Game of Thrones style love story…
*the next day, she walks and pulls his boat/canoe down the river, they arrive at another camp, she sees a bear and is scared, runs off a cliff, since she is tethered to Reed he has to pull her up or die too
*they arrive at his cabin, he tells her to go in an start a fire, there are rats there, he kills them, tells her to chop wood, which she’s never done before
*they spend their first night together in the cabin, he’s a gross eater, she lies down, he wants to lie with her but she picks up an ax, he gets the idea and lies down on the other side of the room
*the next day, he takes her hunting, gives her lessons on how to kill deer, eagles, etc. He talks and talks and she just watches, looking disgusted
*Reed gives her the rifle, tells her to go back to the cabin but she gets lost, encounters a cougar, runs off, drops the rifle, ends up back at the cabin but the two Natives are there, start to rape her but hear Reed coming back, they tie Eve up and get ready to kill Reed, Reed shoots one and wrestles the other, eventually killing him
*they have dinner, Reed eats with a fork, Reed isn’t as gross as he eats, won’t stop talking, she just stares at him, he plays his harmonica and dances for her, she actually smiles a little and dances with him, he goes too far, tries to kiss her, she pulls a knife on him, he freaks and trashes the place as it snows outside
*he heads out the next morning to hunt, she stays in the house, fixes the stuff he broke, they seem to come to an agreement on how they are stuck together…
*Reed check out his bear trap, is hunted by two cougars and he gets his own foot caught in his bear trap, he eventually frees himself but then has to crawl back to the cabin while being hunted
*Eve sets out to find him, they fend off the cougars together, end up back at the cabin, he tells her to go to the next town and get a doctor, it’s a two day trip
*Eve makes it to the town but it’s deserted, so she goes back empty handed, he tells her to chop off his leg and she does, he passes out from the pain
*as he recovers, she is the one who has to hunt and fish in order for them to survive, she takes care of him, and he learns how to say “please”
*they are intimate, but then she freaks out and leaves to go back to the village…
*actually pretty heartbreaking when Reed begs for her to not leave him…a big turnaround since before he was an asshole, although he could have been worse I guess…
*she hits some rapids and is knocked out, but is saved and taken back to the village
*she is in bed for two months, losing the baby that was Reed’s and is going to be sold as a wife to a man who flirted with her earlier in the film (the Trader’s assistant)…Eve’s foster sister loses it and wants to know if Eve ever killed an animal or Reed “tell me, tell me, tell me…” sheesh…
*but on the day of her wedding, she runs off, back to Reed and they live happily ever after…
*lots of cool shots of BC that look great
*good movie, although there is a big chunk (after he breaks his leg, she goes for help, can’t find any so she comes back empty handed) where nothing really happens…it shows that she is independent I guess but that part could have been edited out I guess…
*interesting how they made it look like Reed only had one leg…years before Gary Sinese in “Forrest Gump” and CGI
*Eve, played by Rita Tushingham, never says a word through the whole movie…they sure picked the right actress to “act with her eyes”
=============
Kelly’s Heroes 1970
*for the hundredth time
*Gavin McLeod RIP
Biography of Mick Foley 2021
*great stuff although sad to see how Foley struggles physically
=============
The Hook 1963
*Kirk Douglas!
*meh
*three soldiers are in charge of killing a POW during the Korean War, one is for it, one is against and one is neutral so the whole movie is them debating, yelling, at times in Douglas’ case, screaming…
*with the ending, might be fine as a “Twilight Zone” episode if it was tightened up (45 minutes rather than nearly 100 minutes)
*always curious about how writers come up with the names for things…this one “The Hook” is odd, the original book was called “Battle of the Hook” (or at least that was the translated version…but the Hook in this refers to a hook they use to, like, bring stuff from the lower decks to the upper deck…it’s not like the guy who dies (spoiler…someone dies…) was killed by the hook or anything…just curious…
==============
Dark Side of the Ring “Jim Hellwig” 2021
*weird watching two documentaries about the same subject in a week and they even use a lot of the same footage
*this one talks about his intensity, how his initial debut in WWF sucked, how the character evolved, how important the entrance music was once he got it, etc.
*guy was still an asshole
===============
The Warriors 1979
*again for the dozenth time
================
La La Land 2016
*again but not since it came out
*some amazing stuff, but for something it just doesn’t fully click for me…even at the time I saw it in theatre it didn’t sit right with me the whole sub plot of “white guy trying to save jazz”…
*Emma Stone is amazing, as always…
Dark Side of the Ring “Grizzly Smith” 2021
*wow this is messed up…
Red Dwarf Series I Documentary “The Bodysnatcher Collection”
*love this show, it was a huge awakening for me seeing funny sci-fi, which I don’t think I had seen at the time, but as the show keep going, I have lost touch with it, but one day I hope to get fully caught up…
==================
Sense and Sensibility 1995
*again but not since it came out
*so much stuttering, stammering, longing glances, “please forgive me…”, “I hope you don’t think me impertinent…” never noticed this the first time I saw it, or maybe I was just more patient back then?
*Harriet Walter freaks out on Imogen Stubbs…finally something happens, actually scared the crap out of me as I had been lulled into a near coma-like trance
*loved this when it came out, and it’s still pretty good but not as great as I remember
====================
Magic 1978
*TCM Underground 6/4/21
*Ann-Margaret, Burgess Meredith, David Ogden Stiers…and oh yeah Anthony Hopkins
*written by William Goldman, directed by Richard Attenborough
The Gumball Rally 1976
*again
*Raul Julia, Gary Busey…
*made by First Artists, a production company run by Barbra Streisand, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen and made this movie plus others like “The Getaway” and “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean”
*this was the first racing movie, even before “Smoky and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run”
*at one point, the ladies’ team goes over terms like “County Mountie” which I head heard in “Smoky and the Bandit” but it came out a year later
*this seems like a sequel, with them referring to “last time” and the cop, Roscoe after them knowing what’s going on because of the last race…although maybe that’s a good thing since they could have skipped the first “Cannonball Run” movie…
*at one point the motorcycle guy is riding along, is hit with a wave of yellow stuff and goes off the side of the road…I watched that scene three times and couldn’t figure out what caused it…
*they don’t give us updates as to which states they are in, really so that’s hard to keep track of…
=================
Biography of Bret Hart 2021
*my all time favourite wrestler, not much I didn’t already know, nice to see the present-day stuff with him and his family, his wife, etc.
The Gift 2000
*again, but not since it came out
*amazing cast…Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank, Katie Holmes, Gary Cole, Greg Kinnear, JK Simmons, Giovanni Ribisi, Rosemary Harris, Kim Dickens, Michael Jeter
*directed by Sam Raimi before “Spiderman”, written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, written before “Sling Blade”, according to Wikipedia
*I remember this as a disappointment, with creativity and talent overflowing out of this and then it ended up kind of meh…
*lot of the “Acting” ends up being “Shouting!!!” especially by Ribisi and Reeves
*the way Sam Raimi does closeups of Cate Blanchett is stunning…or is Blanchett is just stunning…
*Greg Kinnear is randomly smoking…he’s the bad guy! I’m calling it! Reeves is a red herring…
*Kim Dickens’ character smokes everytime you see her but she’s just a side character and they probably thought it gave her underwritten character some “personality”
*alot going on…I’m assuming the Ribisi subplot will go somewhere…
*the way Jeter rips apart Blanchett on the stand…will Blanchett stand up for herself at some point? She seems like she is so breakable…the only time she had any backbone is when Reeves tries to go after her kids which is great but she could have gotten a bit pissed at some point…
*back in the 90’s did they have focus groups who didn’t like aggressive women who stood up for themselves? Or is it because Blanchett’s character is Southern?
*how many times can Blanchett’s character walk down that spooky hallway scared?
*I don’t know but the Blanchett-Kinnear thing, especially her resting her head on his chest, comes out of nowhere…
*yep called it! Those evil smokers…
*Simmons says “Well, I talked to (Kinnear) and he admitted everything…” what if he hadn’t??? Not that I want this movie to be longer…
*I guess that wraps up the Ribisi storyline…did the fact Cole was also sleeping with Holmes matter at all? Or just another red herring…
*they made a big deal about her kids being jerks, then in the last scene they just are hugging…glad that resolved itself…
*Roger Ebert gave this a big thumbs up, very surprised by that…other than that, it has 57% on RT
==================
nothing - re-watching Red Dwarf S1, S2, part of S3
==================
Rio Bravo 1959 Western
*for the millionth time
*TCM Dean Martin marathon for his birthday, yet this is the one I want to watch first!
*always have some questions…this movie is like a sequel
*the movie starts with Dean Martin smacking John Wayne in the head with a piece of lumber (I’d guess in the original script Martin was to just punch out Wayne but Wayne said “No, he’d need to use a baseball bat to knock me out for a few minutes…), all the characters already know each other, have relationships…at the very least there was a shit ton cut out of the beginning, this opening scene was probably the fifth scene in the original…
*proving my point…seeing Harry Carey Jr.’s name in the credits (along with Malcolm Atterbury) yet they never actually are in the movie…
*I’ve loved this movie for years, for a long time it was the only Western I’ve ever liked (before falling in love with them in recent years), but I’ve never really “researched” it…
*when we meet Angie Dickenson, her conversation with Wayne is a continuation of one they had before, one we never saw or heard but we can figure out what the deal is…Wayne wanted her to leave town, she caused some problems the night before, maybe he caught her cheating (or assumed she was cheating) and told her to be on the stagecoach out of town the next day, but she defied him…couldn’t have been that bad since she is playing cards the next night, with Wayne giving her dirty looks…but that’s my assumption anyway…
*oh right there was the handbill about her husband…”Feathers!” but that comes up later…
*reading on Wikipedia Wayne’s thought on “High Noon”, how it was “Un-American”, how he didn’t regret helping run writer Carl Foreman out of the country…F*ck you Duke!
*that being said I like that this is a mirror-image of “High Noon” and how Wayne’s character, Chance, never shows fear or inner conflict, and has allies who want to help with no reward…not every movie can be like that, or like “High Noon” but we can have both…the world is big enough for both kinds of movies…
*Ward Bond!
=================
on the road again….hotel shockingly has TCM
Singing in the Rain 1952
*for the millionth time!
It Happened One Night 1934
*again
*Ward Bond? Is this actually a Western???
*for some reason, this time this connected with me, not sure why, but I’ve never loved this before but now I do…
=================
nothing
================
nothing
=================
nothing
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Begin Again 2013
*again but not since it came out
*I do own the soundtrack and love a few songs but not all
*coming off “Once”, one of my top 5 films of all time, this is a let down but a charming one for Joe Carney
*I’d almost say that this film is a perfect example of a “good-but-not-great” film as the charm is there, the skill and talent is there but it never quite gets there
*a weird mix of talent, with Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Catherine Keener and Hailee Steinfeld mixed with CeeLo Green and Adam Levine, who are both fine, but also stick out like sore thumbs
*Levine does a great job in his last scene, him performing in front of the crowd but otherwise I just see Adam Levine and not “Dave”…that guy would never be a “Dave”…
*and James Corden…seems like a super nice guy but is one of the people on my imaginary list who I don’t hate but just would be happy to see less of…supposedly he has a family, plus his talk show plus he guest stars in every third movie…the word “overexposed” doesn’t even scratch the surface…
================
home!
sleepy time!
===============
Adventures of Captain Fabian 1951
*Silver Screen Classics’ disclaimer beforehand
*w/Errol Flynn, Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead
“This is a story of New Orleans in 1860…The story of a violent love between a captain of the sea and a creole girl. New Orleans at this time was a city of fierce pride. Pride of blood, pride of name, and those endowed with both lived on St. Charles Street…”
*ten minutes in and it’s not great…
*this score makes this movie seem like it’s a different kind of Vincent Price movie…like “The Fly” or something like that…
*20 minutes in before Errol Flynn shows up…
*Flynn’s been in town ten minutes and is in everyone’s business…
*Flynn shows up at the trial and knows all that’s happened, based on heresay from some dude he met in a bar…shouldn’t he have made the dude testify?
*there are parts in this movie where it’s supposed to be dramatic but ends up funny…unfortunately each time this happens Micheline Presle is on screen…
*this movie is pretty convoluted…
*Flynn’s pirate ship crew save him…had we seen them before this? That shows a lot of loyalty from people who hadn’t been important until now…
*the Presle character bounces back and forth between Flynn and Price, yet at the end of the film we’re supposed to believe he loved Flynn all along
*at the end, she dies supposedly in Flynn’s arms, then she is taken away supposedly by Flynn, but in both cases we can’t see Flynn’s face…as if they filmed these scenes after Flynn wrapped production and after they had talked to a focus group or got studio notes…did they do that back then?
*Flynn and Price end the movie with an underwater fight…that’s different I guess…
*movie was all over the place…
=================
Fawlty Towers Re-Opened documentary 2009
*watched this on Youtube
*listened to the Fawlty Towers episodes on Audible so now watching this…
*the Audible episodes have intros by John Cleese talking about the show, and I’m pretty sure that those intros were taken from this doc as Cleese says a lot of the same stuff in both
===================
Starship Troopers 1997
*again but not for a long time
*biggest problem with this is the same problem I have with a lot of these shoot em up alien war movies…it seems to take 100 bullets to kill just one bug, so how are the “good guys” supposed to possibly win?
*I’m going to assume that the propaganda stuff is satirical and not actually supposed to be a right-wing “War is awesome” movie but I could be wrong, I’m not a mind reader…
*the scene where Rico inspects his new troops and they all look 12 years old…that has to be satirical, right?
*pretty good cast…there is Brenda Strong, Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside, Dean Norris, Seth Gilliam, even Rue McClanahan of all people…
*apparently Strong returned for the sequel, even though her character dies in this, although it is off screen I guess…
*apparently the first scene in the film was adapted shot-by-shot from “Triumph of the Will”
*wow this movie is freaking long…
*really convenient that Dina Meyer and Patrick Muldoon are killed to that Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards can be together…
*Dina Meyer is awesome…why isn’t she in more stuff?
*so the survivors are Casper, Richards, Harris, Busey, Clancy Brown
==================
True Lies 1994
*again but not for a long time
*loved the movie when it came out, as an action movie and as a spoof of an action movie
*looked this up on Wikipedia and kinda shocked that this is only 71% on RT and that some critics put this on their Top 10 Worst Movies of the year
*shocked to learn of the sub-plot in real life of this movie’s supposed sequel, that Tom Arnold was hired by Alec Gores, a billionaire, to make a sequel to this movie cause it was his son’s favourite movie, so they made the movie “The Kid & I” instead…kinda interested in watching that movie, actually
*there is some really funny stuff, great details in this…like Arnold saying “I’m sorry, excuse me” as he blows through the crowd of civilians, the bad guy’s video camera running out of power as he makes his speech, most of Tom Arnold’s lines and performance, like after Curtis knees him in the balls…
”Yeah, but they were all bad…”
*one thing they missed was at one point the bad guys fire their guns into the air…later when they are fighting Arnold they should have had to re-load their guns since they would be out of bullets…
*the pouring cement over the nuke so it couldn’t be stopped is a nice touch
*yeah, I guess that what Arnold puts Jamie Lee Curtis through, that could be traumatic I guess…I guess it was simpler times back then?
*wow they got to blow up a GD bridge for this movie…
*wow they shot the shit out of a skyscraper for this movie…
*this was the first movie to go into production with a $100 million budget and it’s there, on the screen…
*in the limo fight with Curtis and Tia Carrere…lots of “up the skirt shots in that cat fight…
*apparently Elisa Dushku was sexually assaulted by the stunt coordinator during the final big action sequence which is total bulls*it
*James Cameron refuses to ever make a sequel after 9/11 and has always turned down the chance…
*some tremendous action sequences and humour for an action movie, seemingly it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but then you remember it’s James Cameron who always takes himself too seriously…
*great movie but it’s hard not to watch it and not be mindful of the BS involved in making it…
Speed 1994
*for the hundredth time
*this is on cable ALL the time…it used to be one of those movies I always had to watch when it was on, but then I figured I could be maybe doing something else with my life…
*hasn’t seen it for a while now, though…
*amazing action sequences…a trilogy of them in fact, three great sequences in a row, with obviously the bus sequence being the longest and the best…
*Keanu Reeves’ performance is so wooden and bad that it turns a corner and is mesmerizing and you kind of can’t imagine anyone else doing it as well
Tremors: Shrieker Island 2020
*been so many of these, none of them will ever live up to the original, but then I don’t think they are trying, really…
T2: Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1991
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nothing (re watched Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths”)
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Gidget 1959
*finally
*have to be honest…TCM aired this a few days ago, I ended up deleting it as I thought “I’ll never watch this, let’s be honest…” then a few days later, here we are, TCM airs it again (something TCM rarely does) so someone is trying to tell me something…
*Gidget is based on a novel, the word apparently means “girl” or “midget”
*hard to imagine that this spawned many sequels but also a TV series…not to mention this is the beginning of the whole “beach party” movie craze AND apparently mainstreamed surfing culture…
*so this movie has a lot riding on it…
*so in this movie Gidget is about to turn 17…let’s keep that in mind…
*I forgot Sally Field played Gidget on the TV series…
*amazingly, Sandra Dee became a household name with this role but with all the sequels and other instalments in the franchise, Dee only played Gidget this one time…
w/Cliff Robertson, Arthur O’Connell, Doug McClure, Yvonne Craig
*so this is a love story with an underaged girl trying to seduce an older boy by hanging out with a group of horny dudes…okay…
*is it ever said how old the guys are? Gidget doesn’t mention knowing them from school so I’m guessing they are a lot older?
*this “heel turn” by the Cliff Robertson character in the last act is kinda weird…
*even weirder is the “happy ending” where they all make up as friends…
*AND THEN Gidget kisses the guy who has to be five years older at least…she’s 17!
*so weird…
Krush Groove 1985
*a movie about the formation of Def Jam Records
*awesome songs with Run DMC, Shiela E, Beastie Boys,
*Wikipedia has a breakdown on how this is a lot different than reality…
*”Introducing Blair Underwood…”
*okay so they have “hit records”, but can’t get any money to press records and sell them…they get turned down for a loan, Underwood even goes to his father for money but he turns him down…then he gets money from a loan shark…sound business move!
*and then they are on the billboard charts, selling out concerts…I like how this movie is moving along quickly…
*so apparently Sheila E wasn’t with Def Jam Records in real life, they just needed a girl for the sub-plot…is nothing sacred?
*teenage LL Cool J!
*so the Fat Boys change their name and then win a contest for a recording contract (with who? btw) and then the girl one of them has been chasing the whole movie, played by Lisa Gay Hamilton, suddenly is in love with him and makes out with him seconds later as the show is still going on, leaving her boyfriend sitting in the crowd…that girl is trouble…
*Run DMC leave Underwood to sign with an other label, and they refer to them signing contracts, yet when they decide they just want to go back to Underwood, they just do…contracts in the 80’s were pretty easy to get out of apparently…
*Underwood, the next day apparently, the next day after being broke now just has the money to pay back the loan shark…did they pass the hat around?
*good movie, loved the music…almost wish I didn’t know how much was made up but that’s true with most non-fiction movies these days…
White Line Fever 1975
*”a modern day Western” about truckers…
*Slim Pickens, Dick Miller, LQ Jones, Martin Kove…
*trucking company is called “Red River”
*so Vincent just walks into the warehouse with a shotgun and no one thinks twice…demands that the bad guys sign a work order and he’ll be on his way…sure that’s how business works…
*Jan Michael Vincent climbs to the top of his rig and shoots at the bad guys chasing them…so he just expects to make the delivery and get paid? This movie is as if a child wrote it who doesn’t understand…well, stuff…
*funny, I wonder where his wife is…hmmm…maybe she will end up as a hostage by the end of the movie…Vincent just didn’t think the evil bad guys would go THAT far and kidnap his wife…right…
*Vincent takes a load through Arizona and there is snow everywhere…is there snow in Arizona?
*Vincent arrives at the destination and turns out the stuff he hauled is rotten…he never checked before leaving?
*corrupt deputy shows up to arrest Vincent…he looks stunned but didn’t he and his buddies just beat up the deputy? Why is he surprised?
*they from Vincent for killing Slim Pickens and Vincent is again, shocked…how could they? TOO FAR!
*Vincent beats the charges, wants to go for revenge but his wife leaves him…why doesn’t she just understand his need for vengeance? WHY?
*so the wife isn’t kidnapped but the bad guys burn down their house while they are sleeping…still she doesn’t “get it”
*another one of those movies where the behind-the-scenes stuff sounds more interesting…Peter Guber at Columbia Pictures wanted to make a truck movie so he hires director Jonathan Kaplan, whose last movie was called “Truck Turner”…which has nothing to do with trucks…
===================
Sparkle 1976
*w/Lonette McKee, Mary Alice, Dorian Harewood, Philip M. Thomas…
*written by Joel Schumacher, his screenwriting debut
“with a plot inspired by The Supremes…”
*early on, lots of men forcing themselves on women here
*apparently this was remade in 2012, and that movie was Whitney Houston’s last movie…
=====================
The Blue Gardenia 1953
*Noir Alley
*w/Raymond Burr, Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, Nat King Cole…
*George Reeves is in this!!!
*so this was made while Reeves was in the middle of making “Superman”
*I guess this is an example of “I’ve seen this kind of material before…” for example they spend what seems like half an hour with Burr and Baxter in Burr’s apartment, we know that he’s going to get creepy and rapey…these days, all the actor would have to do is make a creepy look and we’d know exactly what the whole scene is about and where it’s going…
*so I’m guessing that the rest of this movie is Baxter being hesitant to turn herself in for killing Burr, worried that the police wii figure out it was her…
*so neither of her friends or this supposedly smart reporter can’t figure out Baxter is the killer?
*so Baxter wasn’t the killer…okay…
*a noir happy ending? weird
The Stepfather 1987
*TCM Underground 6/19/21
*Terry O’Quinn “the Stepfather has one wonderful element: Terry O’Quinn’s performance” according to Roger Ebert
*apparently this movie is a “critique of Reaganism” according to Wikipedia
*so looking at the cast, this was filmed somewhere in Canada, possibly Vancouver?
*according to IMDB Pro, filmed in the fall of 1985 in Vancouver
*on the one hand I appreciate movies who cut to the chase, as the movie starts with the evil stepfather and the mother already married, but at the same time, if this guy is so evil, how did he seduce the mother, how did he sweep her off her feet so fast? Her husband died “a year ago”, and she’s already met, fell for, and married this new guy? Was he that charismatic? Was she that lonely? Does she have a co-dependant tendencies?
*so the local cops and reporters know Terry O’Quinn is the same guy who murdered his family the year before, as does the step-daughter, but no one does anything…
*hilarious…cop tells reporter “get a gun and shoot him…” yeah, why don’t you just shoot him, reporter guy?
*cop says they have ZERO evidence, but go ahead and kill the dude
*I mean…WE know he’s guilty, but how do they? Did they read the script?
*”This guy is trying to rape our daughter!” they were kissing on the porch! “You could go to jail for this! She’s 16!” “So am I!” I admit I thought the kid was older than 16…but still over react much?
*so O’Quinn is found out because he doesn’t tell his wife that he switched jobs…wife calls the old job looking for him and the receptionist tells her he doesn’t work there anymore, so when he comes home, wife asks about it, he loses it and starts killing people…okay…
*so was there a reason he switched jobs? When he moved into the new house, introduced himself to the neighbour (played by Gabriel Rose, great Canadian actress!)…I mean we got to see Jackson Davies, another great Canadian actor who I remember from the “Beachcombers”, but what is the actual point of those scenes? Just to point out that he’s “cranking up the crazy?” Was the movie too short so they had to add come stuff?
*girl and mother survive but the reporter doesn’t…where was his gun? He should have killed the dude after all!
*in the last scene, girl cuts down the birdhouse that O’Quinn made…seems unfair to the birds…
*good movie, although the middle part lags and doesn’t make much sense, unless I missed something which is completely possible…
Wicked Stepmother 1989
*TCM Underground 6/19/21
*the last movie of Bette Davis
*another one of those movies where the behind the scenes seems more interesting than the movie itself..
*they started filming with Bette Davis as the lead, but she dropped out the project due to problems with director Larry Cohen (which he claims is because she was sick but refused to admit it), so they re-wrote the part for Davis’ “daughter” to be the lead instead…
*Tom Bosley, Richard Moll, Seymour Cassel, Colleen Camp, Lionel Stander, David Rasche
*the old lady police lineup, with the mini-witnesses is pretty funny
*not even ten minutes in and THIS is a TCM Underground movie…
*30 minutes in and it’s been too long since I’ve seen Bosley and the little people…
*but 30 minutes in and Barbara Carrera shows up…so is Bette Davis gone now?
*oh, no there she is…
*so Rasche’s court case is dismissed because all the prosecutor’s papers are all wrong, does that mean the evidence is gone too? Wouldn’t they just delay the case as opposed to dismiss it?
*private dick Richard Moll’s rate is $50 a day plus expenses…in 1989…Jim Rockford’s rate was $200 a plus expenses two decades earlier…he must suck, although I guess he’s pretty upfront about that…
*so Camp is locked out of her own house and Moll is there so he picks the lock…funny when I’m locked out of my own house, and there are people inside, I just knock on the door or even, in emergency situations, ring the doorbell…
*so Bette Davis is the cat now?
*the movie is just Rasche welcoming Carrera into the family and Camp hating Carrera…wash, rinse, repeat…
*Seymour Cassel shows up as the owner of a store like that one Giles and Anya had on, like, S4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer…
*Tom Bosley comes back, thank goodness!
*although really, Richard Moll is the highlight of this movie…just fun to see him on screen…
*lots of bad green screen towards the end
====================
The Thief Who Came to Dinner 1973
*Ryan O’Neal, Ned Beatty (RIP), Jacqueline Bisset, Jill Clayburgh, Gregory Sierra (Chano from “Barney Miller”), Austin Pendleton, Michael Murphy, John Hillerman and WARREN OATES!
*every movie is better when Warren Oates is in it!
*O’Neal robs the rich and leaves behind notes with chess moves on them…
*so there’s a random “Space Costume Party” in the movie and Bisset is dressed in a blue Wonder Woman-type costume…it’s great but totally random
*so it’s a cat and mouse type deal, with O’Neal the burglar and Oates the cop trying to catch the burglar, Oates knows O’Neal is guilty, O’Neal knows Oates knows he’s guilty, O’Neal even says “You should arrest him…”
*okay, apparently Oates isn’t a cop, he’s an insurance investigator…be he acts like a cop
*okay I am curious to see if this chess stuff goes anywhere…
*O’Neal has said that this is one of those movies he shouldn’t have done…so there’s that…
*I saw Polly Platt’s name in the credits…with her and O’Neal involved I’m surprised Peter Bogdanovich isn’t involved…this was made in between “What’s Up, Doc?” and “Paper Moon”…
*Platt and Bogdanovich divorced in 1971 yet kept working together, that’s kind of amazing…
*the Austin Pendleton character slowly losing his mind is funny
*although, with the chess subplot, didn’t it start with “The Chess Burglar” already having done two (or three) moves? Chess games don’t usually start that way do they?
*so THAT’S how it ends? The Chess stuff meant nothing, O’Neal got caught cause he just got sloppy and seemed to want to be caught by Oates, Oates catches him in the act, but O’Neal just runs off and Oates doesn’t arrest him…what?
*very good cast but this movie could have been a lot more…
==================
nothing - Supergirl S6 binge, then Harley Quinn S2
==================
The League of Gentlemen 1960
*again, apparently
*I started getting deja vu as I watched this, especially when Richard Attenborough asked for a ladder…
*I checked my records and I did watch this in 2019…I’m over an hour in and might as well keep going at this point…
*heist movie
*totally random Oliver Reed cameo as a very over the top gay actor in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene
*there are actually two heists, and the one they build to the whole movie is over very quickly
*I like these kinds of endings, similar to how the original Rat Pack version of Ocean’s Eleven ended (although that ending of E-O-11 is way better)
Biography: MTV 2020
=================
Rambo First Blood Part 2
*with that confusing title, I wasn’t sure if I’d seen whatever movie that came before but then I remembered that the first Rambo movie was simply called “First Blood” so here we go…
*Rambo is in jail to start the movie which makes sense once I remember the 1st movie which took a few seconds to register…this stuff isn’t exactly information in my brain that is “on deck”, so to speak…
*so this is the movie…Rambo is recruited for a mission, he goes on the mission, the completes his mission but is betrayed as he wasn’t supposed to complete his mission, he’s captured, he escapes, his girl is killed, he kills all the bad guys (who are both Vietnamese AND Russian!), saves the POW’s, completes his mission, does a speech and just walks off as the credits roll…did I miss anything?
*also in the movie is Richard Crenna, Charles Napier, Steven Berkoff, Martin Kove…
*Berkoff was busy in the 80’s, I know him as the bad guy from “Beverly Hills Cop”
*Kove was also busy in the 80’s, I know him as the bad guy from “Karate Kid”
*apparently they wanted Lee Marvin to play the Napier character but I can see why he turned it down cause that is the real bad guy in the movie…
*written by Sylvester Stallone and James Cameron, although of course like with all big blockbusters, there are probably a dozen writers who could get credit…
*politics stuff is interesting, how the mission was “designed to fail” and Stallone wasn’t supposed to find any POW’s and when he does it’s a bad thing…but unfortunately all that gets lost with all the bang-bang-boom stuff…
*also, at one point they wanted John Travolta to play Stallone’s nerdy-sidekick but Stallone said no…really it would have been contrived…
Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies 1969
*also known as “Monte Carlo or Bust!”
*what a wacky title
*apparently a sequel to “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines!” which might be an even wackier title…
*this movie has an all-star cast, with Tony Curtis, the amazing team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Gert Frobe (aka Goldfinger), Jack Hawkins (who just starred in “League of Gentlemen” as a coincidence), Terry Thomas
*Thomas, Goldfinger and Eric Sykes returned from the 1st movie…but only Thomas played the same character (I think…he might be playing the son of the character from the 1st movie…)
*looking up the first film, this is quite the upgrade, as the 1st movie’s biggest stars seemed to be Red Skelton and Benny Hill
*I love movies with animated opening credits, and this one had the theme song sung by Jimmy Durante!
*they also have an animated bit that “explains” how this whole thing works…I didn’t really understand what it said though…
*this Eric Sykes fellow wrote for the “Goon Show”!!! AND was a narrator on the freaking Teletubbies!!! This man is a legend!
*so this is a racing tournament, with four races going on at the same time and the winners advance? I think…
*after being in the first (or was it second) scene in the movie, it’s 45 minutes in before we see Cook and Moore again!!!
*Cook & Moore and Goldfinger at one point are racing over a frozen lake and skidding all over the place, interrupting a hockey game and it’s pretty funny…the first time I’ve thought that so far and we’re nearly an hour in…
*so was Tony Curtis trying to emulate Jack Lemmon’s performance in “The Great Race”, even just a little bit? He’s not as over the top but he’s close…
*there might be some funny lines in this but between the accents and the bad ADR…
*wow this movie is long…I admit I kinda phase in and out until I see Cook & Moore on screen…
*has Peter Cook been in any really great movies? I can only think of a few, including “Supergirl” which I love but I can’t ever admit it’s a great movie…just curious…he’s so brilliant…oh BEDAZZLED of course, duh…he was in “Princess Bride” but only one scene…”The Bed Sitting Room”…apparently he played Sherlock Holmes in 1978’s “Hound of the Baskervilles” which I would be interested in seeing…
*so after all that racing, they end up in Monte Carlo AND THEN also have to do a time trial to decide who wins? This seems over-complicated…
*over 2 hours into this movie and they do the time trial through the same famous highway that they raced through about ten minutes ago, although I think they are going int he other direction…regardless this movie could have used some editing…
*Tony Curtis is driving but starts yawning and nods off…I hear ya brother…
*funny when the main race official, whose accent is nearly indecipherable, goes to award Thomas with the trophy, pours champagne into the cup and then starts drinking the champagne…but then it keeps going…
*Eric Sykes, in his performance and facial expressions, remind me of Jonny Harris, who plays Crabtree on “Murdoch Mysteries”…just something I noticed…
*okay so who won this freaking race? I guess it doesn’t matter but still…over 2 hours and I think I know who won but I don’t care enough to rewind and find out…
*could’ve had a whole movie just of Cook and Moore driving around, being themselves, being funny…
===================
Lunatics: A Love Story 1991
*TCM Underground 6/26/21
*billed in Wikipedia as a “psycho-noir”
*starring Ted Raimi, so that means Sam Raimi is involved…
*produced by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell!
*this was made in between “Evil Dead 2” and “Army of Darkness”
*Deborah Foreman 8 years after “Valley Girl”
*apparently after this Foreman did two more TV episodes (“MacGyver” and “The Marshal”) and a movie “Beautiful Loser” in 2007 and that was it, plus a cameo in last year’s “Valley Girl” reboot…she should have been in more stuff! Hopefully her retirement (if that’s what it was) was her choice…)
*Deborah is pretty amazing in the scene where she meets Ted Ramie’s character, taking it all in, smiling…
*Deborah leaves the movie for about ten minutes and I kept wondering when she was coming back…
*I guess there is a happy ending, but watching this in 2021, interesting how these two characters with trauma and mental issues are cured so easily (with love, I guess) but 1991 was a simpler time…
*seems like she could do better though…
Mark of the Renegade 1951 Western
*Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse
*set in 1820’s Mexican-ruled Los Angeles
*”1825 - California became a territory of the newly born republic of Mexico. While the infant republic struggled to become a strong nation, pirates and cut-throats schemed and fought to steam the richest prize in history, the golden land called California…”
*Gilbert Roland, George Tobias
*so this is a Western with pirates?
*it starts with pirates coming to land, we don’t see their big pirate ship…I wonder if we will, that would have sure saved on the budget…
*Ricardo has an “R” carved into his forehead due to being a “renegade and a traitor”, is blackmailed into seducing Charisse although I’m not sure I’d need to be blackmailed to do that…
*lots of stuff back and forth with different characters trying to backstab other characters with Ricardo in the middle…kinda confusing honestly…
*not great despite Ricardo being great
The Young Savages 1961
*Burt Lancaster, Telly Savalas, Shelley Winters
*the teen gang leader, played by John Davis Chandler, looks like he’s 40 years old…he’s actually 26 years old
*Burt Lancaster’s DA keeps saying “I’m looking for the truth” but seriously he should be fired…
*the Chandler character freaks out in court and they literally gag him and tie him up and he sits there like that…seems weird
*I’ve changed as a person, when I was young I was rooting for Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men” but when I got older I could see Jack Nicholson’s side too…so the ending of this is pretty lame
*so three kids beat up and kill a blind kid and we are lead to think that maybe the white kids had a point, cause the blind kid wasn’t as innocent as initially thought, and his sister is a 16 year old hooker? Watching this in 2021…wow that’s quite the message…
====================
Walk a Crooked Mile 1948
*Noir Alley
*a procedural with a narrator and as little dialogue as possible…like Dragnet
*Raymond Burr has a beard and is of course a villain
*in the intro Eddie Muller says at one point the title was going to be “FBI vs. Scotland Yard”…
*have to admit, I had to go back and rewind a few times, my mind wandered off a few times…
*kinda a meh movie for me…
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936
*finally (I think)
*pretty sure I’ve never seen this, let’s see if my “
Spidey Sense” goes off as I watch it…
*I’m a Capra fan (not a huge one) but I think after “Mr. Deeds” came out it made me not want to watch this, or at least not be in a hurry to watch it…
*not totally what I was expecting…Deeds actually stands up for himself, I was thinking he would be all “gosh, golly gee…” he kind of is but instead of saying “aw shucks” he wants to punch people for being jerks
*his fish-out-of-water side does come out but in a different way, but when the poets all are making fun of him, he gets it and responds…
*so did the term “Doodling” become popular due to this movie?
*great movie!
=======================
Dark Side of the Ring - Dynamite Kid 2021
*quite the story…wow
=======================
Alen Nation 1988
*finally
*according to Wikipedia, this is a “buddy cop, neo-noir, science fiction, action film”
“theatre marquee says “Rambo 6”
*had no idea this spawned five TV movies, comic books and novels…I knew about the TV series but never watched it…
*the aliens get drunk on sour milk…
*on the news they talk about the alien quarantine ending, was there a time jump that I missed, as all of a sudden they are bartenders, running convenience stores, hookers, college students, hanging out smoking cigarettes (maybe watching Captain Kangaroo?)…
*James Caan is a racist, but just against aliens as he has a black partner…
*I really like his partner too bad he’s about to die…
*partner is played by Roger Aaron Brown who I don’t recognize…
*Mandy Patankin!
*surprised Caan volunteers to have an alien as his partner, I was anticipating the standard scene of Caan being forced by his captain to do it…yet the result is still the same, Caan volunteered yet he still treats Patankin as if it wasn’t his idea…
*some funny stuff early on, with Patankin’s name that was given to him is “Sam Francisco” and he tells Caan that, in his language, “Sykes” means “shit head”
*condom joke!
*Terrence Stamp!
*aliens don’t like salt water, eat beaver
*Stamp is very snarly in his role, maybe cause of the prosthetics?
*why would the bad guys steal a cop car? Not very inconspicuous…
*so the good guys are doing a cover up?
*wow Patankin really got on that helicopter fast…
*okay so they really missed out on something here…in the end, Caan has been saying he doesn’t want to go to his daughter’s wedding, but never really says why…the last scene is him walking her down the aisle, with Patankin there with his family, showing that they are partners now and he’s proud to call Patankin a friend, etc….but then he walks his daughter down the aisle, but then it fades to black…what if his daughter was marrying an alien, they get to the point where Caan has to hand over his daughter to the groom, he hesitates but then does it, smiling…and THAT’S why he hates aliens, cause one of them is taking away his little girl, but now, after getting to know Patankin, he accepts this as being okay…I don’t know, but that scene there just makes me want to see a remake with that in it…
*good movie, although, again, it ends with presumably the good guys participating in a cover up, so just for that I’d have liked to have seen a sequel…a sequel with them dealing with the aftermath of the cover up and now Caan has alien grandkids…did they cover any of this in the TV show or the TV movies?
Undercurrent 1946
*TCM Neo-Noir tribute
*weird as it’s listed as “Undercurrent” starring Katherine Hepburn, Robert Mitchum, Robert Taylor but it’s not, so I was confused when they started talking about Paul Newman movie “Harper”
*HA!! so they showed the Eddie Muller-Ben Mank intro to Harper, but are now showing Undercurrent…so strange, I guess TCM Canada doesn’t have the rights to Harper, but usually when that happens they just go right to the movie…
*so in the Harper intro they said a keep to neo-noir is that it’s not in black and white, so of course Undercurrent is in black and white but Wikipedia does list it as a film noir
*didn’t know Katherine Hepburn was ever in a film noir so let’s watch this…
*directed by Vincente Minnelli
*half-an-hour in and no Robert Mitchum yet…have they even mentioned him yet…as I write this, they say “your brother Michael” twice…
*okay so Robert Taylor is making faces, and the score sounds like something bad is happening, so something is starting to happen but so far it’s all been about Hepburn’s struggles to fit in Taylor’s high society stature…
*this Robert Taylor character freaks out every ten minutes or so…I guess Hepburn figures she can “fix him”
*this movie is super slow…
*Hepburn’s character is a stammering weak person who keeps apologizing to her asshole husband for all but existing…
*Robert Mitchum shows up to confront Taylor that he knows Taylor killed someone and is going to turn him in, but Taylor says he’s in love so Mitchum’s like “okay, we’re cool…”
*for like the tenth time, Hepburn tells Taylor something personal and he freaks out…you’d think she would, like, not do that anymore…or preferably, just leave the jerk…
*one review points out how there were misleading clues as to which brother is the bad guy (there was?) but also that Hepburn and Mitchum are cast against type (her being weak and Mitchum being sensitive) which I guess is true…
*Taylor is killed by a horse and the last scene is basically Hepburn and Mitchum telling each other that they love each other even though they kinda just met…okay…
*meh movie…
***SO WEIRD as Eddie & Ben do the outro for “Harper” after this movie…TCM usually never screws up like this…
Curtis Harrington shorts TCM Underground
Fragment of Seeking 1946
Picnic
On the Edge
The Assignation
Usher - made in 2000? or just released in 2000? his last film…
====================
California Typewriter 2016
*a documentary about typewriters…
*I heard about this really only because Tom Hanks is a big typewriter guy so I was intrigued about that, seeing his typewriter collection, etc.
*loved the story arc of the store the documentary is named after, the people who worked there, that they have to eventually sell the store, how that affects the workers, etc. that was tremendous…
*other than that, it at times border on an SNL sketch, with the collector who travels around the world searching for other typewriter stuff, how he’d love to meet the guy who invented them, etc.
*Collector is Canadian so I have to like him…
*wiat his license plate says Ontario so maybe not…a little Canadian humour…
*one guy uses typewriter pieces to create art, some pieces are really cool, but at one point he’s making a statue of a girl out of bits, there is a model there and the way he starts touching her, I was thinking “I hope that’s his girlfriend!”
*the band that uses typewriters to perform concerts…clearly there is some tension there, as the one guy keeps breaking typewriters at the end of concerts, as if he’s Jimi Hendrix, and one of the other band members specifically says “well there’s two songs we can’t play anymore cause he keeps breaking the instruments…”
*okay who is the white dancer guy from Herb’s birthday party? Where’s his documentary?
*they go on a bit long, seemingly trying to fill 90 minutes…the stuff with John Mayer would be good if it was a few minutes but they keep going back to him and he just unloads on the pretentious-ness…the way he’s always looking down and never looks at the camera, like everything he says needs to come from his soul and be amazing…
*geez, this movie is actually 103 minutes…
*I would love to go to one of those California swap-meets…when COVID is over, of course…
*okay I don’t really get the whole mystic-typewriter stuff…
*”I don’t mean to sound hocus pocus…” well too bad but you are Sam Sheppard
*the guy writing the Typewriter Manifesto…this is parody right?
*I like the contrast between typewriters (I keep having to write that word) and modern technology and I am “old school” but c’mon…
*I am “old school” in that I took typing classes in high school, when I was starting to be a writer I used (and still own, can’t bring myself to get rid of) an old typewriter, then for Christmas one year I got an electronic typewriter which had the HUGE technological advantage of including white out, so you could fix your mistakes (although it would ruin your “flow” as you’d have to wait for the white out to dry before you could start typing again), and one other drawback was it was REALLY LOUD and my family members kinda regretted buying me the thing cause it was a ruckus…
*but I also remember at one point deciding to switch to writing everything on a computer cause it just made more sense, as I could keep things stored on a hard drive and change things too, and I could print things out…do I really have to explain this part? Despite what John Mayer says, computers are easier and I do go back and look at stuff on old hard drives…
*I kinda get Meyer’s point about in the future no one will want to go to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and see the display on external hard drives that store the music of modern times, as opposed to Bob Dylan’s note pads he wrote songs on, but at the same time, I just want to say to him “grow up dude”…I doubt the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame will run out of things to display…
*I like the giant typewriter in that Bollywood film…why hasn’t that ever been in a Batman movie?
*the collector visits another collector with boxes of seriously old typewriters in his basement and he’s a typical collector…has no interest in selling anything and is content to just have them sit in boxes in his basement…I like Tom Hanks’ technique better, he just gives away typewriters to people, hoping they will enjoy them and use them…
*pretty cool that the standard “QWERTY” standard of how the letters are placed on keyboards has never changed…
*I do hope a typewriter revolution does happen and there is still a need for them, I would hate for them to go away, and I hope that young kids “discover them”, at least enough to keep this little store in business…
*but will they replace laptops or phone of course not…
*sad to hear that the last typewriter manufacturer in India shut down
*super cool that the artist made a giant lotus out of old typewriters…I would have liked to have known more about that, like how long did that take? But this part they kind of FF through…according to Jeremy Mayer’s Wikipedia page, it took him SIX MONTHS to make! That might have been an interesting tidbit to include…
*kinda funny that this was made in 2016 and the store didn’t have a website but I guess it makes sense…only five years ago but “back then” not all businesses had websites…
*I may have misunderstood, but is there a little bit of American ego here, in that Hanks and others say that only them and like five other people in the world still use typewriters, when they had said earlier that a lot of people still use them in Europe and Asia…I might have misunderstood what “a lot” encapsulates but still…
*looked up the store in 2021 and unfortunately it’s closed…I assumed due to COVID but apparently they announced they were closing in February of 2020…after this doc came out, business did initially go up but it wasn’t enough to sustain them, plus the owner, Herb, decided to retire. Ken managed to get another job at another typewriter store…so there was two in the same town, Berkeley? No wonder business sucked…
*good little doc, could have been shorter, the interesting stuff was really interesting but a lot of fluff…
Go 1999
*for the hundredth time
*love this freaking movie
*although it’s up there with “Out of Sight” as a movie that is amazing but with a horrible title
Batman: Soul of the Dragon 2021
*so I heard about this and was like “A Batman movie set in the 1970’s? Why?”
*they can’t do a Justice League Unlimited reunion movie but they can do this?
*I love the characters…Richard Dragon, Lady Shiva, Bronze Tiger, Cheshire, Judomaster, Silver St. Cloud…Batman might be my least favourite character…
*it is great to see a movie showcasing these characters, and having part of it set in Nanda Parbat, which we only saw glimpses of on “Arrow”, but again…”Why?”
*alot of fight sequences, even a car chase…in animated films these just don’t do much for me…I need great dialogue for an animated project to connect with me…
*weird that Judomaster turns heel in this, he was originally a Charlton hero, along with Captain Atom, Blue Beetle and The Question…
*the intro is an homage to James Bond movies, with not Bruce Wayne but Richard Dragon playing the super-spy…
*lots of blood and swears
*Judomaster kills Cheshire (although she isn’t called that in this, just “Jade” which makes her sound like Alan Scott’s daughter)
*although I should point out Judomaster is never called Judomaster, he first shows up on screen called “Rip” which at first I’m like “Rip? Rip Hunter?” as he’s the most famous Rip in the DCU…Judomaster was actually named Hadley Jagger but his nickname was “Rip” apparently…
*James Hong!
*Michael Jai White returns to Bronze Tiger after playing him in live action on “Arrow”
*Kelly Hu is here but not playing China White…
*Lady Shiva is supposed to be the best martial artist in the whole DCU and she gets treated with respect here…
*bad guy group is called “Kobra” and were invented in 1976…GI Joe’s “Cobra” debuted 1982
*King Snake is Bane’s father, because characters all have to be related to each other…
========================
Guilty Bystander 1950
*Noir Alley
*Eddie Muller says this is the TCM Premiere, and that this was considered a “lost film” until it was found recently, so that’s cool
*well this isn’t a masterpiece or anything…could have been edited tighter…
*at one point, the main character is being taken out of his prison cell (he was in the drunk tank) by a cop, he’s putting on his jacket, the cop says take your time, and then they proceed to walk down a hallway and we see them go all the way…as if “take your time” was a direction for the editor…
*lots of scenes that seem to go on for a few seconds (or even minutes) too long, like they had to stretch things out…
Warning Shot 1967
*Neo-Noir Alley
*all-star cast of David Janssen, Joan Collins, Keenan Wynn, Ed Begley, Stepfanie Powers, Carroll O’Connor, Steve Allen(!), Walter Pidgeon, George Sanders, Lillian Gish, Eleanor Parker, Sam Wanamaker (from Superman 4)
*apparently this movie’s source material was written by the same people who wrote the source material for “Guilty Bystander”
*David Janssen, star of the TV show “The Fugitive”, plays someone trying to prove he’s innocent…
*movie is basically Janssen going from person to person, talking to them, trying to prove he was innocent…
===================
3 Needles 2005
*never heard of this before, got a great cast and is a Canadian movie so let’s go…
*wow first of all what a depressing movie…don’t see it if don’t like those kinds of movies…definitely no happy ending but then again it’s a movie about AIDS so…
*am writing this review after I’ve seen it (some parts twice just to make sure I “got it” although frankly there are some parts where I know I didn’t…)
*Olympia Dukakis, Chloe Sevigny, Lucy Cliu, Shawn Ashmore, Stackard Channing, Sandra Oh, Chin Han (from “The Dark Knight” and a couple of “Arrow” episodes)
*weird I’ve never heard of this before…Lucy Liu was coming off two “Charlie’s Angels” movies at the time so this should have got some publicity
*three stories going on at the same time, one in Africa (Sevigny, Dukakis, Oh), one in China (Liu) and one in Canada (Channing and Ashmore) all dealing with the AIDS crisis in different ways…
*starts with a group of young men being circumsized in South Africa “symbolizing their change from boyhood to manhood”…I don’t get what this has to do with the rest of the movie…I’m a dumb dumb so…
*then a pregnant Liu gets caught with black market blood by the Chinese military and gets gang raped, this is ten minutes into the movie, BTW
*Chloe Sevigny is a nun who likes to cut herself…again, I’m not sure what this has to do with the rest of the movie, the whole part where we meet Sevigny’s mother isn’t necessary they could have just cut to her, Dukakis and Oh arriving in Africa…
*Ashmore is stealing his father’s blood in order to mask his AIDS tests when he goes to get his blood tested since he’s a porn star…okay this makes sense as his father is medicated and already has needles in his arm since he’s sick…but compare that to later when Channing does the same to Ashmore and that makes no sense…how dies he not wake up? I get my blood taken a lot and if someone did that to me when I was sleeping I’m pretty sure I’d wake up…and that scene in general is wacky, with Channing drinking his blood right from his vein, suddenly it’s a vampire movie? I assume they were going for a visual metaphor but it comes across as unintentional humour…
*one thing I learned though is that you can get AIDS/HIV from drinking an infected person’s blood…didn’t know that…
*so Liu is set up to be a kind of hero in this, yet she is the one seemingly responsible for the entire outbreak of AIDS in China so there’s that…
*and she’s pregnant…this, again, doesn’t seem to have a point…does she later feel bad for what she’s done because of her baby being born? She tells her husband that they have to move because “this is the third time this has happened…” so like F*ck you lady!
*or with all these women in a movie, someone had to film a birthing scene? It’s Hollywood law!
*I guess technically there are two birthing scenes…but we don’t see it as it’s done off camera behind a curtain…
*is Ashmore’s character storyline supposed to imply incest?
*okay so Ashmore, in one scene, is a plumber who is fixing a lady’s pipes, she bends down, grabs his crotch, he breaks the pipe and is splashed with water…later we see his father watching his porn video (weird) where he is a plumber who has sex with women…so was the initial scene part of a porn shoot? Or does he have a second job as an actual plumber? If not, and this was meant to be them filming a scene for the porno, could they not have panned out so show the camera crew? And also, so his father knows he’s a porn star but his mother doesn’t?
*so the part where Ashmore steals his dad’s blood, takes it to the clinic and later the doctor says according to the test, he’s dead…that was funny…
*so anyway, Ashmore knows he’s at least HIV positive, but is masking it so he can keep working in porn so he can make money…so F*ck you too, pal…
*although really, how does he switch the blood? the doctor leaves him alone in the room and he puts the vial of blood down…is he expected to take his own blood? If it was a urine sample okay I get that…unless the doctor was in on it and knew him but just before that she’s asking him his name so presumably they just met?
*Ashmore goes home, his father is dead, the cops and EMT’s are there and his mother is watching his porno, and so are some of the cops…that’s a totally reasonable reaction…
*later Channing is pouring a guy coffee, she sees her son’s face in the paper the guy is reading, she spills coffee on the guy, he jumps up and is mad, she slaps him, he feels bad and sits down…kind of a bad ass move on her part, but I guess his 3rd degree burns weren’t that bad?
*from this point on the Channing storyline is wacky…she gets a big health insurance policy, then, again, drinks her son’s infected blood to give herself HIV/AIDS, then sells the policy for a million dollars so they can live happily together while they are alive…quite the storyline…seems like they do get a happy ending except that one girl who Ashmore infected confronts them and makes him feel bad…other than that they are rich, so it all worked out right? Sure they probably both died in a lot of pain, but the movie doesn’t show us that so let’s assume they lived long happy lives right?
*and again, the scene where Channing drinks Ashmore’s blood right from the vein, it’s funny and wacky and confusing (I had to Google “Can you get AIDS from drinking blood?” and again you can especially if you have a cut in your mouth) and I guess you could say she went off camera and injected herself but just showing us that would have been way more effective…
*or did she take his blood and switch it and she didn’t actually get AIDS? Although, according to “Seinfeld”, you can tell a man’s blood from a woman’s blood right? Or am I remembering that wrong? The episode where Elaine is told she’s going through menopause, maybe? It’s been awhile…
*plus Liu just disappears from the movie…the scene where she confronts her husband is the last time we see her, right? And frankly I’m not exactly sad to write that either…was the birthing scene supposed to make her sympathetic, making her a desperate mom trying to feed her kids (as opposed to an enterprising person making money off people’s tainted blood) otherwise, according to the “movie rules”, we wouldn’t feel bad for her?
*the most effective storyline is with Tong Sam, who is the one person in his village who doesn’t have his blood taken and everyone dies except him, even his daughter and his wife…he gives up hope until the soldiers, who raped Lucy Liu earlier, show up and help him harvest his fields…see they aren’t such bad guys, right?
*Sook Yin Lee (former Much Music VJ) plays Tong Sam wife and I didn’t recognize her at first, I have to admit…
*at one point Sevigny argues with Dukakis, takes off in their jeep to track down some kids, take them to a village to find their uncle, which they don’t then they return to their homes…again what is the point of this, how does this relate to the AIDS crisis? did the uncle die of AIDS? Is this scene important as it shows Sevigny’s eventual decision to leave behind the church?
*Later there is a discussion about a boy who wants to marry a girl and the father shows up wanting ten cows so they arrange it so they can have ten cows and they have the wedding, show one cow being killed…okay that’s cool but again what does this have to do with AIDS? If this was a movie about Sevigny’s time in Africa and her battle with her faith, and they want to show stories about what her life was like there, fine, but I thought this movie was about AIDS…
*sub plot with a young African boy who gets infected and sleeps around, Sevigny gets the plantation guy to get him arrested and later he is the one, with some friends, who show up and rape Dukakis, Sevigny and Oh one night…yes a warning, this movie has multiple rapes…and yes, you see national treasure Olympia Dukakis acting out a rape scene…in case you had that on your F*cked up Bucket List…
*and then they show someone in the mud the next morning, dead, and I assume that’s supposed to be Dukakis, cause she disappears from the film at this point, other than being the narrator and apparently is now a Saint so there’s that…
*a great scene is, again with Tong Sam, where he takes an old neighbour to get a test for AIDS and it costs $10…they were paid $5 to have their blood taken so the old man refuses, saying it’s a scam which is such an old man thing to say…
*waitress confronts Ashmore and Channing, saying he gave her and all her friends for $800…
*one of the doctors says to the plantation owner, as Sevigny and Oh drive away, that the white man helped them save a hundred lives…how? At least that’s what I think he said, the man has a thick accent…
*weirdest thing about this movie is the Wikipedia entry…it says “the title refers to the three main characters who make a deal with the Devil in order to survive a global pandemic…” they do? I can maybe see Sevigny’s character doing that when she decides to have sex with the plantation owner, but he’s not exactly the devil…would the devil have bought all those baskets the older lady made…does Channing’s insurance scam count as a deal with the devil? Who is the 3rd person? Liu? Tong Sam?
*plus the last entry says that Dukakis, as the Saint narrator, says in the epilogue “she wonders why the human race will not unite in the face of their common enemy, AIDS, and decided that God, or at least the way people believe in him, is to blame for this failure…” she does? I rewound this five times and never heard this…is there a director’s cut?
*I very much admire what the writer/director Thom Fitzgerald is going for and good for him for making this movie with this message, I have no problem with that but at the same time I was taken out of the movie over and over with these little details and stuff where I was like “What, wait a minute…”
*Check out Fitzgerald’s debut movie, “The Hanging Garden” which is a wonderful movie…
*haven’t seen any of his other movies “Beefcake”, “The Wild Dogs”, “The Event”, “Cloudburst”, Splinters” or “Stage Mother” but I am curious for sure…
Judas and the Black Messiah 2021
*wow…highly recommended!
===================
The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show 2020
*in 1968, Belafonte was the guest host of “The Tonight Show” and it was an incredible thing, according to this documentary…
*highly recommended…it was great watching all these important, ground breaking moments and also getting the context behind it all…
Bad Boys 1983
*not that Bad Boys
*Sean Penn, Ally Sheedy, Clancy Brown, Alan Ruck, Esai Morales, Reni Santoni
*one year after “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, Sheedy, Brown and Ruck’s debut film roles
*Sheedy plays Penn’s girlfriend, who Morales has his eyes on…
*Ruck doesn’t last long…
*so Penn and Ruck are going to rob Morales as he’s on his way to a drug deal, but a gang shows up and it becomes a shootout, with Ruck dying, Penn racing off to escape the cops and running over Morales’ little brother
*Penn goes to Reform School
*Penn’s face is scarred up, but it looks like someone put war paint on his face
*Clancy Brown is one of the “barn bosses” who try to intimidate Penn, it ends badly for him
*there is off screen prison rape
*Penn is about to be beat up (or worse) by Brown and his friend, but he puts pop cans inside a pillow case and beats the shit out of them…pretty smart!
*Morales, in retaliation for Penn running over his kid brother, rapes Sheedy…it’s a long scene plus we see the aftermath with Sheedy’s face messed up..it’s a way better make up job than Penn’s war paint earlier…
*Penn is the new “barn boss” tries to escape to see Sheedy which seems like a dumb idea…
*Penn escapes, goes to see Sheedy and comfort her, then is arrested and goes peacefully…actually a nice scene…
*although now Penn is back in the dorm and Morales is placed there too, and they actually address this (like rational people would), and they warn Penn not to engage with Morales as he has a chance for early release…
*not sure how he has a chance for early release when he just successfully escaped, but are we supposed to believe the guys running this place are cool dudes and feel bad for Sheedy?
*Morales shows up, befriends Brown and they try to provoke Penn into a fight…the people in charge are aware of the pending fight but “can’t do anything about it”…how about put Morales into solitary?
*the other inmates start to think Penn is weak and buddy up to Morales…
*the whole time there has been a subplot with Penn’s roommate, Barry Horowitz (played by Eric Gurry) who has been tormented by Brown and also wants revenge and he’s a tech nerd and then managed to plant a bomb in Brown’s stereo and injures him somehow (it’s not shot very well, the stereo kinda goes “Bzzt” and suddenly Brown is covered in blood and screaming) and Horowitz spends the rest of the movie in solitary when the people in charge are easily able to figure out he did it…this is a pretty smart movie…
*it all builds to Penn vs. Morales, and Morales is pretty smart, faking an appendicitis, beating up Santoni, then attacking Penn while he is sleeping but Penn is too smart and is waiting for Morales and they fight…
*so what did Penn hit Morales with, a pillow?
*they have a very long, not very well choreographed fight and for a fight to the death there wasn’t enough biting, hair pulling, etc.
*there is a great moment where it looks like Penn has stabbed Morales, Penn stands up, we don’t see where the shiv has gone, then Morales turns his head and we see it in the floor, next to Morales’ head…a good reveal…
*Penn then drags Morales over to the authorities, as he’s being transferred the next morning out of there, so the threat is over, I guess…
*Penn did win the fight with Morales but didn’t kill him, and Penn still has a few months to go, so I can’t imagine this is the last fight he’ll be in before he’s released…
*movie ends with the prisoners going back to their cells and order restored…no happy ending with Penn being reunited with Sheedy?
*so this movie actually reminds me a well written (or booked in wrestling terms) face vs. heel program in old school wrestling…it builds to Penn vs. Brown & friend, Penn wins that fight, the friend loses a loser-leaves town fight, Morales comes in, is now Brown’s tag team partner, Penn, the babyface, refuses to fight Morales, so instead they build to the tag team partners, Horowitz vs. Brown, fighting…Horowitz wins but is suspended, so Penn is on his own and is fighting for his pride (or his lady’s pride) in the big PPV cage match fight with Morales…is the reason I was thinking this the fact one character’s name is Barry Horowitz…maybe…
*good movie, way better (and smarter) than I thought it would be…the “people in charge” were very well written, not the usual cynical people who turn a blind eye, actual three dimensional characters…
====================
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz 1974
*finally
*a Canadian movie with Richard Dreyfuss, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Denholm Elliott
*good movie, glad I finally watched it after all these years of hearing about it being the first “real Canadian movie”, whatever that means…
*Dreyfuss’ laugh is annoying but tolerable in small doses but here he is way overboard with it…
*movie just kind of ends…Dreyfuss screws over his friends to finally get what he wants, is happy but is a dick about it, loses people closest to him, but the last scene is him getting his father’s approval so that’s it?
*I’ve slept on director Ted Kotcheff…a Canadian director who has done “North Dallas Forty”, “First Blood”, “Joshua Then and Now”, “Switching Channels”, “Weekend at Bernies”(!)…this man is a legend apparently!!! Where is this man’s honorary Oscar!
Bonfire of the Vanities 1990
*again
*just watched this for the first time a year or so ago, now watching it again…because it’s good? Hell no…
*TCM is doing a podcast “The Plot Thickens” about the making of it so I need to watch it again
*plus the podcast is based on a book written by Julie Salamon, which Audible has an audio book for, so I will probably have to listen to that too…
*anyway, this movie is a mess and repeated viewings hasn’t helped
*Rita Wilson! She and Tom Hanks were married in 1988 so she is Mrs. Tom Hanks here…
*when Bruce Willis gets in the elevator and messes up that Salmon display…that right there is when that character is irredeemable…three minutes in and I hate you sir…what a dick move…
*what is with Kim Cattrall’s voice? It seem like every scene she is in is ADR’d
*Melanie Griffith’s accent gets annoying, and her constantly mis-pronouncing names I guess in theory is funny but not really…
*I think the scene where the movie goes off the rails (for me anyway) is when John Hancock’s Reverend Bacon is introduced and he is shown looking down into the barrel of the camera, no blinking…for some reason that shot just takes me out of the movie…they never do this again so why here?
*Mary Alice!
*F. Murray Abraham insisted on being uncredited, despite having a huge role, as he was annoyed they wouldn’t put his name above the title on the posters, along with Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith and Bruce Willis…if Morgan Freeman’s name isn’t up there than…
*although I guess it was for the best, I bet the others wanted their names removed too…
*scenes where Hanks pulls a gun on Kurt Fuller, where Alan King suddenly dies telling Willis a story, how the scene in the hospital room goes on about three minutes too long…there is a lot in this movie that didn’t need to be there…
*Uma Thurman auditioned to play the Griffith part and that would have been interesting but Thurman was like 19 at the time and Griffith being an older gold digger I think works better for the character…
*never really liked Kevin Dunn, probably cause he always played jerks, until I saw “Veep” and now I understand he’s awesome…
*I was thinking this was Saul Rubinek’s big debut but he was in Wall Street a few years earlier…haven’t seen that in years…Rubinek is a good Canadian boy, although I was today years old when I learned he was born in Germany…
*towards the end of this way-too-long movie, it gets wacky and Hanks is sent (by Willis) a tape where Griffith was recorded confessing, but Kevin Dunn (Hanks’ lawyer btw) says they can’t use it…Hanks tries to record Griffith confessing but she figures it out…Hanks takes the tape of her confessing to court and just plays it and Freeman sets him free…now I’m no lawyer but I have watched a shit-ton of “Law and Order” so…
*so the tape isn’t admitted into evidence…
*wouldn’t Freeman just declare a mistrial and they’d have to do it all over again?
*wouldn’t Kevin Dunn, who knows Hanks is committing perjury, have to say so in court or if it was ever found out, he’d be disbarred? And theoretically, it was found out as Willis wrote about it in his book cause it was part of the flashback this whole movie has been…
*Freeman’s speech at the end of the movie…all due respect to Freeman, this is directed at the character he played, but F*ck off…
*funny how it used to be standard in movies where a mob would be yelling at someone, he would give a speech and win them all over, or shame them or something and in even special occasions, one person would do the slow clap…here at least, after Freeman is done, when he tells Hanks to go home, they start yelling at him again…that’s something…
*I wouldn’t have minded a piece where Willis recaps what happened to Griffith (presumably she went to prison for perjury and for the hit and run) and all he says about Hanks is that he “moved away…” which is lame…
*bad movie…looking forward to the podcast…
===================
Trigger 2010
*great movie
*Bruce McDonald movie, he can be hit or miss, the hits are awesome (Like “Hard Core Logo”) and the misses bad (“Hard Core Logo 2”) so let’s see…
*apparently this was meant to be not a sequel but a “companion movie” to Hard Core Logo, starring Hugh Dillon and Callum Keith Rennie but it went nowhere and McDonald and Daniel MacIvor re-wrote it to be about two women, Molly Parker and Tracy Wright
*this was Wright’s final film as she died just after the movie was finished from pancreatic cancer; in fact she was getting treatment as she filmed the movie…
*Don McKellar, Sarah Polley, Julian Richings and Rennie as “Billy” is this supposed to be an older Billy Talent? According to Wikipedia it is but I’ve been burned before…
*had no idea the backstory of this movie, and I found out as I was watching…does that change the review? Does that make me want to root for the movie rather than just take it in? Who cares? It’s a great movie…shut up brain…
*great stuff and a fitting tribute to Wright, a great Canadian actress…
Kingpin 1996
*again but not since it came out
*this goes over the top (like any scene with the landlady) and this did get some rave reviews (like from both Siskel and Ebert) and it’s good but not great
*Farrelly Brothers’ previous movie was “Dumb and Dumber” and the next movie was “There’s Something About Mary” where they hit a homerun so this was a run through for that…
*Woody Harrelson today is seen as a dramatic character actor so I forget that he was on “Cheers” for years…
*there’s some stuff that’s just silly, like when Harrelson punches Vanessa Angel’s breasts, or a few minutes later when Randy Quaid cries a single tear as a parody of that pollution commercial, which can be great if you are in the mood…I guess I wasn’t in the mood
*Farrellys, to me, never hit the heights of “Mary” again, went on to do “Shallow Hal”, “Fever Pitch”, “The Three Stooges”…
*I actually loved “Stuck on You” but I was one of the few…
*whatever happened to Vanessa Angel?
*apparently at one point the Harrelson and Quaid’s roles where supposed to be played by Michael Keaton and Chris Farley…
*oh and Quaid being referred to as “the kid”…is he supposed to be like 18? He was like 45 when he made this…I guess that’s part of the joke?
*Quaid was in six movies in 1996, including this and “Independence Day”
*Chris Elliot, who I’ve never really “got” until I saw him in “Schitt’s Creek”
*apparently Angel was initially cast as Xena but had to pull out of the role due to illness…crazy
*there’s an “Indecent Proposal” joke…and it’s actually funny…
*in 1996 Bill Murray did this, “Larger than Life” and “Space Jam” and then decided to be a “real actor” and stopped doing straight comedies…that’s probably a huge oversimplification…but anyway…Blues Traveler joke…
*interesting ending, as I can’t remember an other sports movie ending with the bad guy winning the championship, especially when he had to get three strikes in a row to win…not the typical ending…
*nice happy ending…no mid-credit update on whether or not Bill Murray’s character got beat up?
*as I said good but not great…
===================
War for the Planet of the Apes 2017
*again
*I’ve written about this before, but what a great G*damn movie! Just spectacular! Not sure why more people don’t talk about this movie…
*Steve Zahn should have been nominated for an Oscar…just amazing…
*watched the 90 minute premiere of the Gossip Girl reboot does that count? It was fine…I probably won’t be watching any more episodes though…
===================
Resident Evil 2002
*finally(!)
*been curious about this film series…any series that has seven movies has to be investigated right?
*plus Milla Jovovich is amazing, I’ve always wondered why she isn’t making more movies and just does this over and over?
*Colin Salmon!
*okay, amnesia…did every other movie in the 00’s involved amnesia?
*okay, secret stuff…military stuff…evil corporation stuff…underground tunnel stuff…check…check…check…
*that dress Jovovich is wearing seems very impractical for fighting zombies but I guess some intel video game nerd designed it for the game so she has to wear it otherwise it would be disrespectful I guess?
*40 minutes in an alarms are going off, people yelling, lots of quick cuts…I’m muting it…
*Colin Salmon’s dead…sliced and diced…there’s half the cast now dead which is a nice twist although based on the movie’s poster I should have guessed
*Michelle Rodriquez is always a treat…her and her sarcastic smirk…
*this movie is bad in the sense of the characters mumble their dialogue, are barely audible, nearly whispering in order for the viewer to listen very closely and then someone attacks and they crank the volume and send a shock to your system…I hate that sh*t
*wait how did Rodriquez survive that zombie swarm? They just cut away and she’s safe?
*what’s with the kid voice over the PA?
*there’s some bad CGI but this was made in 2002
*so just for some perspective on how long ago this was made, David Boreanaz was offered a role but turned it down cause he was working on “Angel”…after Angel ended two years later in 2004, Boreanaz did TWELVE seasons of “Bones”, and is on season FIVE of “Seal Team”
*I do like the idea that, if I heard the dialogue correctly (which there is chance I didn’t but I’m not rewinding), the bad guy set off the virus, tried to escape this Hive place, but then got amnesia, tagged along with this group trying to save them and ended up right back inside the Hive building he wanted to escape initially…if I understood that all correctly…
*Jovovich is offered the antidote by British-kid-voice, all she has to do is kill Rodriquez, who she just met an hour ago, she refuses and instead smashes a TV monitor…
*then ten minutes later Rodriquez is shot in the head and killed by the last dude standing…quite the story arc for her character…
*it ends with Jovovich waking up in a hospital bed, then walking outside to a post-apocalyptic world…and from what I read on Wikipedia this is how the video game actually starts? Never played it, so…
*so this movie is actually a prequel to the game?
*this was fine, not quite sure how from this they got six sequels, including a reboot(!) that is coming out later this year, I guess hoping for seven more movies?
*out of this I get more respect for Paul W.S. Anderson cause…wow that guy…made a TON of movies, even married Jovovich…I wonder what his legacy will be…will be be studied like people have studied The Canon Group or Roger Corman?
*I am curious to see his version of “The Three Musketeers” though…
*side note…what a silly name “Raccoon City”…although I live in Canada and we have “Dildo, Newfoundland”, “Crotch Lake, Ontario”, “Moosejaw, Saskatchewan” and “Chilliwack, BC”
*and while this movie was made in Germany, from what I understand all the sequels were made in Toronto, so thanks to these movies for fueling the Ontario film industry…
*I guess I should give this series credit for having a strong female lead and other strong women in the other movies (from what I understand) so good for them…
*I had also recorded the sequel but I read the reviews and Roger Ebert says it’s an “utterly meaningless waste of time” and it got 20% on RT so…I have over a hundred other things saved on my PVR, plus tons of DVD’s/Blu-Rays I need to watch so I’m not watching that…my minimal “Resident Evil” itch has been scratched…
The Secret of NIMH 1982
*I just couldn’t get into this…that’s it…
=====================
Debug 2014
*Canadian sci-fi indie movie
*written and directed by David Hewlett
*starring Jason Mamoa although it is more of an ensemble
*movie looks amazing for an indie space movie, scripts isn’t amazing though
*pretty standard stuff, space prisoners are assigned to go do some work on an abandoned space ship and it’s “haunted” or something
*standard horror movie where the characters are picked off one by one, the only thing that can be interesting is whether or not when the characters are killed, it’s an interesting death…
*whole concept is kind of silly really…I mean if the Jason Mamoa AI-thing was crazy and wanted to kill them all couldn’t he just turn off the oxygen and suffocate them?
*so during all this one of the female characters decides to go for a bath which is silly but I guess they needed something provocative for the trailer?
*the way Adrian Holmes is super cool, though…
*when they start talking about how the main character can hack the AI, or she gets in a space suit and go outside to do…something…it might as well be one of the adults in a Peanuts cartoon talking cause I guess, okay, that makes sense if you say so but really it means nothing to me and therefore there are no stakes and I have no emotional investment…
*and really, why does she get in the space suit and go outside into outer space? To take a short cut?
*I’m glad Canadian indie movies are able to make movies like this and I’ve been a fan of David Hewlett since “Traders” and recently his few performances on “Murdoch Mysteries” so I hope he continues writing/directing stuff in Canada
*Jason Mamoa did a great job acting “against type” as the villain although he doesn’t really show up as a person until the end…most of his performance seemed to have been done on a green screen
*as for another David Hewlett-Canadian sci-fi-on a budget movie, check out “Cube” from 1997
Rambo 3 1988
*never seen this, never really had a desire to but it’s on so here we go
*saw “First Blood” years ago and liked it but had heard the other Rambo movies were blow-em-up action cliches so didn’t need to see them…just say #2 a while ago and now #3 is here
*when I was reading the synopsis of this while watching #2 and thought “oh that might actually be interesting considering what happened on 9/11”…if superficially…
*so Rambo left Vietnam and is now living in a monastery, but they want him to get involved in the Soviet-Afghan war
*Kurtwood Smith!
*I’m going to guess that Rambo turns down Richard Crenna, but Crenna goes without him and gets captures so then “it’s personal” and Rambo gets involved…
*wow Crenna got captured VERY easily…I guess it’s better to just get on with it…
*and so later will it turn out that Kurtwood Smith turned on Crenna and manipulated it so that Rambo would finally get involved…gotta be a twist!
*so Rambo meets the locals and sees them as people…what a concept…
*the Russians blow up the locals’ village and the army that is supposed to help Rambo instead head to the border, so it’s Rambo and his guide and a little kid…
*actually some pretty good action sequences where Rambo and his guide infiltrate “The Fort” and blow the crap out of it
*Rambo actually fails in his first attempt to save Crenna, due to the kid getting shot, then has to go back for him
*Rambo has shrapnel go through him but that’s not enough to stop him…he cauterizes the wound with gun powder which is a fun scene
*he later rolls around in the sand which you have to think will give him a massive infection
*Rambo has a super cool bow and arrow that has explosives on the end of them
*but then he leaves it behind in the caves which sucks
*and it goes on from there…becomes even more of a “shooty-shooty bang-bang” experience and the story isn’t strong enough to keep me interested, frankly…
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Fierce Creatures 1997
*reunion with the “A Fish Called Wanda” team that has been said to be terrible, including by John Cleese himself…so here we go…
*Cleese takes over a zoo and mandates that they only want vicious creatures on the zoo…which is weird, not sure if this is Cleese’s idea or the other Kevin Kline character’s
*the initial part where the zoo workers are trying to convince Cleese that anteaters are vicious is kinda funny
*Cleese firing a rifle at three employees, even in 1997, is pretty dumb and how he didn’t get arrested is baffling…
*later he gets in trouble for doubting that a visitor to the zoo is actually injured, but not for firing a rifle inside the office…
*Jamie Lee Curtis is awesome, although it did seem weird in that one scene where it looks like she is working in the office in a bikini that’s actually a dress
*Ronnie Corbett!
*Carey Lowell!
*Michael Palin’s character is super annoying in this movie…
*Cleese is trying to hard with the comedy, with the word play and such…at one point he is reaching back for a chart being held by Curtis but his hand goes right to her breast…how does his happen in any kind of realistic sense?
*the end of that scene has Kevin Kline catching Cleese and Curtis together, Kline goes to leave the office and, for some reason, goes out the window instead of the door…it’s absurd but hilarious…
*Kline is supposed to be the bad guy but he yells at Palin to shut up and suddenly he’s the hero…to me anyways…
*not much after this…it goes on and things happen and such…so yes confirmed…this is a bad movie…but I guess I can now say I saw it…quite the humble-brag…
Fido 2007
*finally
*I’ve heard stories about this movie since I went to film school…around the time I started film school in Kelowna, BC, this movie was either being filmed or had just stopped filming in Kelowna and grads from the film school had been involved…
*yet it’s taken me this long to watch it…that’s one bad thing about the loss of Blockbusters and the like…I can’t just go to the local store and pick up a movie to watch, now I have to get it from Amazon (which I try to avoid) or wait for it to be on streaming or on cable…and despite what “they” say, it is hard to find certain movies online…
*Carrie Ann Moss, Billy Connolly, Tim Blake Nelson, Dylan Baker, Henry Czerny
*filmed in 35 days
*so it’s meant to be a parody of zombie movies, plus “I Love Lucy”, “Lassie” movies…
*Carrie Ann Moss is awesome of course
*Dylan Baker is pretty perfect for his role as a weasley dad who likes to torture zombies
*I’m not sure I like the ending…nothing has really changed, Fido is with the family now, but look at Timmy’s friend Cindy…she still treats her pet zombie as a non-person, on a leash, even if that zombie is her dead father…I’m guessing Cindy represents the larger world outside Timmy and Moss’ white picket fence…
*the ending is kind of a mix of a happy ending and cynical ’00’s movie…
*a pretty good movie, glad I watched it
Speedway 1968
*Elvis and Nancy Sinatra!
*okay two minutes into this movie (maybe less), Elvis goes into his trailer and finds Bill Bixby basically raping Miss Charlotte…he was ferocious, if Elvis hadn’t walked in I’m pretty sure I know how that would have worked out…and it’s all laughed off cause Bixby’s character is just one of the boys…horrible…
*standard Elvis movie and also it’s about car racing which he had done before…
*this was Sinatra’s last ever film role…
*Elvis’ character is apparently based on Elvis’ real life generosity
*apparently this was originally supposed to star Sonny & Cher but their 1st movie flopped
*described on Wikipedia as “just another Presley movie” and Presley movies had long become formulaic”
*this came out in the summer of 1968…Roger Ebert wrote in his review that “if the late show viewers (of the future) will not discover from it what American society was like in the summer of 1968, at least they will discover what it was not like.”
*apparently six months later Elvis did his huge TV Special that re-started his career…
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Real Genius 1985
*again? or finally?
*or am I getting this mixed up with “Top Secret”?
*have I always had this confused with “Top Secret”?
*Ed Lauter!
*Jon Gries!
*Dean Devlin!
*Deborah Foreman is in this? Two years after “Valley Girl” and all she gets is two scenes?
*okay so this kid is 15…remember that…
*kind of amazing how the movie switches half way through from being about the kid to totally being about Val Kilmer…kind of brilliant actually…
*Kilmer’s performance goes from being a funny dick to an annoying dick to an actual person is pretty brilliant too…
*I’m avoiding using the word “genius”, I think for obvious reasons…
*alot of funny, witty stuff here, too much to mention
*great reveals like when the one government guy is driving William Atherton home, mentions vaguely about “an audit”, then they cut to a master shot of Atherton’s home being renovated…simple and we get the point no need to belabour it
*subtle mention by Atherton about hating popcorn, which sets up the big finale
*see on Wikipedia that it took the production three months straight making popcorn to have enough for that final scene…too bad since really, to me anyway, it doesn’t even look like popcorn on camera, they could have used something else, like how they make fake snow, and it wouldn’t have mattered really…
*the kid, Mitch, who is 15 remember, ends up with a girlfriend who is 19 and could have had sex with a much older woman but turned it down…oh the 80’s…
*I really liked Michelle Meyrink’s performance, too bad she retired soon after this to be a Buddhist…she was also in “Valley Girl” apparently, I haven’t seen that in awhile…
*nice touch that the Kent character is saved in the end…he was a jerk the whole movie and did nothing but sabotage Kilmer and Mitch, but in the end they didn’t want to hurt him and end up saving him from being suffocated by the popcorn…that’s what heroes do, after all…
*also read on Wikipedia that “Mythbusters” tried to prove whether the whole popcorn stunt could be done in real life and unfortunatley it couldn’t…
*also in the movie they use a 5 megawatt laser and in reality the most powerful laser is only 100 kilowatts…the more you know…
*great movie, really glad I finally got to see it…
Ruby in Paradise 1993
*again but not since it came out
*I remember loving this film when it came out and I have never seen it since…
*Ashley Judd is amazing here, in her first starring role…just a raw performance that is instantly likeable and has you rooting for her…you can definitely see why, after this, she became a huge star
*although watching it in 2021, it does almost seem like a different person than “big star” Ashley Judd…before Hollywood stylists and publicists “got to her”…although that is kinda dumb to say as she was part of the famous Judd family before this, but anyway…she’s great, is my point…
*it is slow paced but that’s totally fine as you want to follow Ruby on her journey
*before the movie starts, there is a disclaimer saying “The following film is presented as originally created. It contains non-consensual sexual activity that may be upsetting to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised”, plus a standard disclaimer on top of that saying there is nudity and course language…
*after seeing that I anticipated lots of nudity, and there are a few sex scenes early on, but the only nudity I can recall is when Judd steps into a strip club and one of the dancers is topless…
*and I wonder what was the point of that, just a quick shot of some TnA…did the director think, hey we got some F bombs so we’re already getting an R Rating so why not? Although I’m assuming there were some F bombs I can’t recall any off the top of my head…but this is an indie movie in the 90’s so…
*Todd Field smirking the crap out of his role…kind of amazing he’d go on to tons of acclaim for writing/directing two films (his only two to date) “In the Bedroom” and “Little Children” but has done nothing since on film, and barely any acting gigs either…does he do a lot of theatre?
*Bentley Mitchum plays Ricky, he is Robert Mitchum’s grandson
*Dorothy Lyman…from “Mama’s Family”!
*Allison Dean who I recognized immediately as the little sister from “Coming to America”
*Ruby moves away from an abusive boyfriend to Panama City, Florida, a tourist town in the off season and has trouble finding work…I also live in a tourist town so that might have been a small part of what appealed to me about the movie (Ashley Judd’s performance probably being the other 96%)
*the movie keeps going through all of Ruby/Judd’s adventures and some don’t even have any kind of solid resolution, such as her neighbour who lives with two guys, and they have fights, but nothing really happens…life goes on, as in life…
*Ruby dates Ricky briefly, then dates Field but then they just kind of grow apart…there’s no big break up or anything, they just want different things…as in life…
*I thought the movie would have ended after Ruby gets her job back but it keeps going, they open a second store, Ruby and Field date some more…which is great cause I didn’t want the movie to end…
*Ruby has a diary, and when Judd writes in it she also provide narration…I expected this to be a big subplot, like one of the neighbours would steal the diary and read it and that would lead to a big yelling scene but it doesn’t which is refreshing…
*only bad thing is that the movie introduces us to the character Persefina but she doesn’t last long, which is too bad…
*I remember being kind of stunned by the ending…I might be mis-remembering, but I think the ending, where Ruby/Judd doesn’t end up with a guy and seems okay with it being more shocking than any horror movie could…I probably thought at the time “Wait, you can do that? Is that against “Movie-Law”?”
*AND she actually seems to enjoy sex?
*AND the word “pregnant” is never said???
*also I remember flipping the channels back in the day (which we used to do, sometimes with our toes, like Ruby does in the movie) and coming across a Canadian talk show (I think “Dini”) where Ashley Judd was the guest for the whole hour and I remember first thinking “Wow she’s gorgeous” but then I heard Judd speak and she was so eloquent and had a lot to say, and she was also there talking about making this movie…that memory sticks out a lot, and I also remember a little while later seeing this movie on a shelf in the local Blockbuster and instantly grabbing it and renting it…funny the stuff you remember…
*and not long after that, Judd was appearing in “Heat” and “Smoke” and later “A Time to Kill”…
*after this, writer/director Victor Nunez made “Ulee’s Gold” another great movie…
*anyhow, great movie, highly recommended!
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The Caddy 1953
*Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
*this is a flashback movie, where it starts with Martin and Lewis basically playing themselves and then they flashback to show how they met…
*Lewis is the son of a golf pro who hates crowds so he goes to work at a store but slapstick ensues and he gets fired
*Martin tries a bunch of different things, like being a fisherman and working in construction, but doesn’t find anything he likes…
*Martin hasn’t been home in years, comes home in the middle of the night, goes to his room and is stunned, stunned I tell you, that his parents have rented out his room to Lewis…maybe he should have called home once in awhile?
*I am kind of curious to see how Martin & Lewis golfing ends up with them a singing duo
*40 minutes in and Donna Reed shows up!
*Lewis becomes Martin’s gold instructor (therefore Lewis is “The Caddy”) and again, how does this lead to them becoming a singing duo?
*Martin seems to have picked up gold pretty quickly…
*caddy’s are treated pretty badly back then…
*movies like this can be charming or annoying…like when Lewis is wrecking havoc as he’s drunk, why can’t someone just grab him and stop him? Or the misunderstanding where Donna Reed misunderstands the “brother in law” thing…can’t Martin just say “no, I’m her brother…” this movie is leaning way in the “annoying” category
*at least the “brother in law” mix up only lasts a few minutes…
*so later Martin and Lewis end up engaging in hijinks at the golf tournament and surprisingly Martin gets disqualified, but in doing so, they inadvertently come up with an act that makes everyone laugh, which they then perform at the father’s restaurant and THAT leads to them becoming a huge comedic duo…wow that was a long way around to get to that ending…
*fun meta ending as the “real” Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis show up at the same theatre that their dopplegangers are playing at, their girlfriends mistake them for each other, etc.
Blast from the Past 1999
*finally
*Nathan Fillion!
*Dave Foley!
*and Brendan Fraser is half-Canadian, so Canada is well represented in this film!
*I’m surprised they come up with the story Fraser’s character is from Alaska and say he was “from Canada” cause all Americans think we’re dumb anyway…or am I projecting here…I’m kinda of kidding…
*but it would have been a neat in-joke seeing as that a bunch of people in the cast are from Canada…
*I like cynical, sarcastic Alicia Silverstone…her and Foley make a good comedic team
*I have friends in LA and when I’ve visited they have always been very eager to show me around, show the sites, always have suggestions on places to go, what would be cool to check out…as opposed to New Yorkers who seem cynical and would rather not…just an observation…
*why are Brendan Fraser’s palm orange?
*the dance sequence is pretty great, as are Silverstone’s reactions
*I love how Foley, after having just met Fraser, is automatically on his side vs. Silverstone…
*okay so you know that part in these movies where something happens to split up the two main characters and just delays the inevitable…well I usually hate those but here it kind of makes sense…Fraser telling Silverstone and her thinking it’s nuts is pretty understandable
*Jenifer Lewis!
*Silverstone calls the psychiatrists on Fraser cause she cares about him, as opposed to her just flipping a switch and hating him is way better…
*SIlverstone trying not to laugh when Lewis goes after Foley is pretty good
*Silverstone and Foley jumping up and down in the porn store thinking Fraser’s shelter is underneath is hilarious
*their treatment of old and valuable baseball cards in his movie is atrocious!
*I like how they wanted the parents to stay underground so they could “get things ready” for them, to calmly break it to them that there was no nuclear war…Silverstone in particular is very sweet in automatically loving them, which probably wasn’t hard since it was Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek
*what a great, sweet movie…what cynical jerk wouldn’t like this movie? Seriously!
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Goodnight for Justice 2011
directed by Jason Priestley, starring Luke Perry
*Perry also gets a “created by” credit
*for the Hallmark Channel; the 1st of 3 “Goodnight” movies that I had no idea existed until recently
*so did judges in the Old West go town to town, arriving in a new place every three months, and if someone was in jail, did they have to wait three months for their trial?
*Lara Gilchrist is the female lead and I’ve never seen her before but she’s great
*I like this movie so far, it’s way darker than a typical Hallmark movie, but Luke Perry is quite the mumbler…
*so Perry meets the bad guy, who is probably the same guy who killed his parents when he was a kid, and the bad guy threatens Perry a few times…why doesn’t Perry just shoot him? It’s the Old West for F’s sake…
*Perry gets the bad guy into jail…again why doesn’t he just shoot him? The bad guy’s men, would they be so loyal that they would still want to avenge him?
*so Perry finds out that the girl’s father is the one who killed his parents…or was it her fiancé? Something happened anyway…
*Perry’s zero facial expressions kind of work for this role but at the same time, how do we know if he’s happy or upset? I guess that’s the point?
*it’s six on one until the Natives Perry freed earlier show up and even the odds, one shoots the bad guy with an arrow and I figured “That can’t be it…” no the bad guy survived the arrow so Perry can still “bring him to justice” later
*Perry disturbs the shit out of this town then just leaves, doesn’t even take the girl with him…I’m guessing the town gets burned down within a month…
*so the movie keeps going, Perry tracks down the man who killed his parents, he confesses, the man then dies and the girl shows up, Perry lies and says her father wasn’t the man…
*good ending, it does seem like this is the pilot episode of a series, as opposed to the first of a trilogy of TV movies
*this was really good, way better than I thought it would be…not saying this would have been a huge box office hit but I wonder if this same movie had a big budget, an A-list director and, say, George Clooney as the star, how it would have done…I respect Luke Perry creating his own character and wanting to “create his own art”, trying to “decide his own destiny” kind of thing…maybe this was a Stallone-making-Rocky kind of situation where it could have been a big movie but Perry said “no, I’m the star, I’m making this…”
*again good for him but not sure he had the weight to carry this…now that Perry has died and his last performance was in a Tarantino movie, maybe he had something I’m just not seeing…
*goes without saying but RIP…
GI Blues 1960
*Elvis in the army!
*Elvis and his army buddies make a bet that Elvis can sleep with a German girl…nice wholesome fun!
*at one point, Elvis and his band are singing in a restaurant, another army guy turns on the jukebox, plays “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis Presley…he’s asked why and says “I want to hear the real thing…” for a little meta joke…
*the dress the German girl “Lilly” is wearing looks like what Leeloo was wearing in “The Fifth Element”
*wow that baby is PISSED!
*lol the sergeant just shows up and asks Elvis and Lilly “so you won the bet right?” good for him, just getting down to the matter…
*two minutes later, Lilly has gone from hating Elvis to suggesting they get married…we’re getting the hell out of this movie, folks…
*this came out 8 years before “Speedway” and Elvis seems more engaged here
*I understand he filmed this after getting out of the army, it had been two years since Elvis had made a movie, so maybe he was more “into it”? Perhaps?
*Elvis is really good here, he’s the main character of course but he is the one instigating everything, as opposed to in Speedway when he was standing around reacting to Bill Bixby and the other characters…
*Lilly, played by Juliet Prowse, didn’t come across as much at first but her smile gets you eventually…apparently she was briefly engaged to Frank Sinatra at one point, and was supposed to reunite with Elvis in “Blue Hawaii” but didn’t…
*hmmm…Ben Mank in the outro says that Elvis and Prowse never “got together” cause she was with Sinatra at the time, but on Wikipedia it quotes Prowse as saying her and Elvis had a “short but intense fling…” I’ve been burned by Wikipedia before…
*Prowse was the first guest of the 1st season of “The Muppet Show”? Actually on Wikipedia it says she hosted S1 Ep19…
*the story itself isn’t much but whatever
Kid Galahad 1962
*Elvis boxing movie…
*did I mention Elvis is TCM’s Star of the Month for July 2021?
*”one of Elvis’ best performances”
*movie starts with Elvis, in his army uniform, hitching a ride “home”…is this supposed to be a sequel to “GI Blues”?
*Charles Bronson! Two years after “The Magnificent Seven” and a year before “The Great Escape”
*Gig Young!
*Elvis takes a job as a sparring partner, gets hit about twenty times in a row then KO’s his opponent after one punch…is this “Rocky”?
*Ned Glass!
*looking for the Ed Asner uncredited appearance…
*here is Lou Grant one hour in!
*Elvis’ girlfriend, Joan Blackman, doesn’t want him to get his brain beat in…this is “Rocky”!
*I guess that makes Charles Bronson Mickey?
*one kiss and Elvis and the girl are getting married?
*Gig Young is a real dick…
*wow the gangsters destroy Bronson’s hands so he won’t be able to help Elvis…kinda brutal
*Asner has TWO scenes…and he still goes uncredited?
*the final boxing match seems to be just getting going and just ends, then has a happy ending with everyone walking away smiling…so the gangsters just walked off, shrugging and being all like “Oh, well they got us this time, those numbskulls…”
*oh and this was a remake of the 1937 Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart movie…
*I liked how no one was buying Young’s BS and everyone knew what was going on, there were no scene where Elvis finds out and is shocked by the fact Young is crooked…everyone knows and goes along with it, Elvis because he needs the money to buy his own garage…
*at the start of the movie, Young and his girlfriend Lola Albright cynical jerks and are constantly smoking…the later when they are becoming softer, nicer characters they never smoke again…I’m sure that’s a coincidence…
*Elvis is miscast as a boxer but otherwise this is probably one of his better performances…
*pretty good and I honestly think Stallone was watching this movie when he wrote “Rocky”…
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Madonna: Truth or Dare 1991
*again but not since it came out
*they showed the same disclaimer before “Ruby in Paradise” about non-consensual sex
*I remember this being HUGE when it came out and for myself it was the first time seeing LGBTQ people represented as, well, real people with real emotions and feelings and it was very eye-opening in a very good way…
*this also was huge in showing a celebrity “backstage” and in their real life, leading to reality shows and those kind of shows
*very interesting that Madonna comes off stage and is yelling at her sound tech as she is getting her makeup done AFTER the show, as she has celebrities coming for a party, including Al Pacino, Mandy Patankin, Olivia Newton-John, Lionel Ritchie
*her “gagging” after Kevin Costner leaves is hilarious
*showing Warren Beatty as a bored boyfriend is pretty funny…he might as well have been holding her purse in all his scenes
*in Toronto Madonna is potentially going to be arrested if she “masterbates” on stage and Madonna doesn’t take it seriously…it makes Canada look bad but it is very interesting content
*Madonna is an amazing performer and the performances (shot in colour, as opposed to the behind the scenes stuff which is in black and white) are great but what makes the movie great is the other stuff, the personal stuff…the “Like a Virgin” sequence I guess we needed to see cause it was built up as a “will she or won’t she “do it” on stage, then “will she or won’t she get arrested” after…
*she wasn’t arrested, btw…
*the two-way mirror with cameras behind the mirrors were pretty brilliant and it would become the standard “confessional” interview in reality shows
*so it kind of becomes wacky when it gets to New York, Madonna gets sick and has to cancel some shows, there is drama in the tabloids with them saying she had dumped Beatty for her backup dancer, a black guy named Oliver, and the gay men in the troupe are being “catty” about the publicity Oliver is getting…
*funny to look back at those days, how just the idea that Madonna was sleeping with a black man was huge, let alone anything else regarding gay, bisexual, lesbian, etc.
*it is kind of concerning when a girl talks about being date raped the night before and no one takes her seriously…Madonna even starts laughing when she hears about it…
*Pedro Almodovar!
*over an hour and a half into the movie and I don’t think the phrase “Truth or Dare” has been said once…
*five minutes later, there it is!
*so apparently Madonna and Beatty broke up after their on-camera spat, where he said “What point is there of existing off-camera?”
*amazing looking back and seeing how that was so unusual back then and 30 years later, THIS IS REALITY NOW!
*apparently there was a lot more with Beatty but he wanted it taken out
*AND a few of the dancers, specifically Oliver, sued Madonna for “invasion of privacy…etc.” and the director has said they all signed releases and the cameras weren’t a secret, so he had no sympathy for them…I would tend to agree except back in 1990 when they filmed this, this hadn’t been seen before so I imagine it was a shock to see themselves on screen…maybe?
*it’s really remarkable about how much this movie influenced not only documentaries, music, but all of society as well…watching this is like watching a vision of the future…
*I”d love to see “Truth or Dare Part 2” 30 years later…Madonna has said she is proud of it but ashamed of her “bratty behaviour”
Clambake 1967
*Elvis is rich but wants to be poor!
*his 3rd movie with Shelley Fabares
*his first of two movies with Bill Bixby
*Elvis considered this to be his worst movie, so here we go…
*lots of rear-projection stuff with Elvis pretending to water ski
*so for a spoiled rich kid, Elvis knows how to ride a motorbike, water ski, drive a boat, can hear if an engine is about to die, majored in engineering, invented GOOP, …
*so Fabares is a gold digger, doesn’t know Elvis is actually rich, he agrees to help her land Bixby…I’m guessing they fall in love at some point and wackiness will ensue
*this “Confidence” song is pretty horrible
*James Gregory (Luther from “Barney Miller”)
*Gary Merrill (from “All About Eve”)
*so yeah this is pretty bad, the songs aren’t even good which is shocking for an Elvis movie…
*so it ends with Elvis, still pretending to be poor, proposes to Fabares, she agrees and then he confesses that he’s actually rich in a really awkward way and it would have been a lot easier just to end this movie with him saying “Well, have I got a surprise for you…” or something like that…
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Cotton Comes to Harlem 1970
*so Hollywood Suite are showing “TCM Underground” style movies on Friday nights, with hosts doing intros now?
*Ossie Davis wrote and directed this, called by the host “one of the best crime movies of the 70’s”
*Redd Foxx!!!
*okay…hilarious spot early on…the two main characters are confronted by four black militant-types (supposed to be Black Panthers maybe), one gets in in their faces, they pick him up and throw him twenty feet in the air and he lands on his friends…are they both Superman in plain clothes? If so they are terrible at protecting their secret identity…
*okay this movie is hard to keep up with it’s so amazing…
*so they are having a rally to raise money, people come along and rob them with machine guns, the main characters jump in their car and chase them, they are driving through the streets of Harlem shooting at each other, bad guys with machine guns, and no bystanders get hit, in fact no one seems to even notice it’s happening and it’s all played for comedy…
*eventually the good guys run into, of all things, a watermelon truck and the bad guys get away
*the amazing Helen Martin shows up, it’s a weird scene where she is apparently getting her picture painted by an artist who says nothing but ‘cha-cha cha-cha” over and over, as a distraction as his partner cuts open the bottom of her dress as apparently she has a smaller purse strapped to the inside of her leg…did people do this a lot back then?
*the guy steals her inside-purse but then gets run over as he tries to escape…good, serves him right for trying to rob Helen Martin!
*the main characters are called “Gravedigger Jones” and “Coffin Ed Johnson”, played by Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques
*apparently the bad guys stole $87,000!
*Iris is wearing a chain-mail top which can’t be comfortable…
*stupid white cop!
*Cleavon Little!
*wait was he the artist going “cha-cha” earlier?
*Theodore “Teddy” Wilson!
*wow the familiar faces just keep coming…too many to list…
*did they kill Redd Foxx off screen?
*okay the movie just got wacky again…Gravedigger and Coffin are trying to prevent an angry mob from…being angry I guess…first it has one of those speeches where, normally in movies, one of the good guys says something, everyone looks around and are suddenly not angry anymore then they go home…but this time, after the speech they are amazingly still angry…then a white guy rushes them and Digger hits him in the face with a pie…where the hell did the pie come from? Then the guy stumbles away, tries to grab his hat but Digger shoots the hat so he can’t get it, like some old slapstick routine…wouldn’t shooting a gun in a crowd like that be a big no-no?
*then Coffin starts throwing chickens yes chickens into the crowd and the crowd is distracted by the chickens, yes chickens…where the F did the chickens come from, did he have them in his pockets like he was a magician or something?
*the crowd disperses laughing, apparently the chickens were hilarious…so it worked…
*they show Coffin paying off a guy with now-empty chicken cages so there’s the explanation…
*Reverend O’Malley is released from prison wearing a freaking Dracula cape…amazing!
*that cotton bale gets around
*Digger has some kind of flare gun he shoots that explodes, almost like a pistol that’s a grenade launcher that no one makes note of…
*Digger says “Another fine mess you’ve gotten us into…” not sure where that came from, was that just for the trailer?
*the ending is a little hard to follow…Iris is going to shoot O’Malley but then next time we see her he’s gone, then they are both at the Apollo watching a strip-show where the cotton bale is on stage
*not sure how the cotton bale got to the Apollo as a prop to this musical striptease…
*so Violet and O’Malley are in on it together, the good guys find the cotton bale but there is no money…where did it go?
*I guess the cotton bale is supposed to be a metaphor?
*they go the local Mafia boss and get him to give them $87,000 and he just does it, so then they plant the money in the cotton and all is well…happy ending!
*they then get a postcard from Redd Foxx in Africa confessing he stole the money, faked his death and is living there now…I love that as an ending but is there no extradition with Africa? Kinda weird he would put all that incriminating evidence onto a postcard but whatever, Redd Foxx is alive and rich in Africa so who cares?
*great movie although a little strange at times, some of the tone shifts from hard-boiled detective stuff to comedy could give a person whiplash, but still great!
*apparently there was a sequel called “Come Back, Charleston Blue” that I’m curious to see…
*some say this is the first exploration film, others say this is just a movie that happens to be about black people…
Black Girl 1972
*also directed by Ossie Davis!
*lots going on, main character seems to be the young girl but there are lots of characters to keep track of
*lots of bickering and yelling, like most families but they are kind of all annoying so I’m not sure who I’m supposed to root for
*Brock Peters!!
*this family are a bunch of jerks, and yet I find myself nodding my head as if I can totally understand all of them like they are my own family
*Ruby Dee!
*you can tell this is based on a play, there are longs scenes with a lot of dialogue, and Davis frames everything tremendously with his moving camera…I’d almost want to watch this again but just paying attention to how many scenes are one take
*Claudia McNeil as Madear doesn’t do much for most of the movie but she knocks it out of the park later on
*Gloria Edwards as Norma really stands out, especially later in the scene with the four women when Netta comes home…an amazing performance, she doesn’t have a Wikipedia page and not many credits on IMDB
*Netta is played by Leslie Uggams who played “Blind Al” in Deadpool!
*great movie that kind of snuck up on me, by the end I was really invested in the characters and the scene with the three sisters and Netta really gripped me as I didn’t know where it was going next
What’s the Matter with Helen? 1971
*TCM Underground 7/3/21
*more with the Curtis Harrington TCM Underground Tribute
*w/Debbie Reynolds & Shelley Winters
*so two women run a dance studio for little Shirley Temple wannabes and wackiness ensues
*apparently in real life, Winters really was having a mental breakdown while filming this, so that must have been fun
*Debbie Reynolds was an uncredited producer on this and the story is really about her for the most part until the end when it switches to being about Winters…
*great to see two amazing actresses on screen together although it might not have been the best environment for filmmaking
*Reynolds has said she had a dream about her death scene (which they were filming the next day) and that the fake prop knife would be switched out and Winters would stab her with a real knife, so the next day she went to set and checked the knives and yes, they had been switched. She went to the prop master to ask about it, he didn’t know what happened and according to her they just laughed about it and never thought any more about it…maybe it was Winters?
*not a great film but I’m glad I watched it…
Restoration 1995
*again, I think?
*Robert Downey Jr., Meg Ryan, Sam Neill, David Thewliss, Ian McKellan, Ian McDiarmid…HUGH GRANT?
*ugh that Miramax logo…
*I think I saw this in theatres when it came out, although I might be confusing it with that Ian McKellan Richard III as a Nazi movie…
*RDJ with a British accent…like there aren’t enough movies with that in the world…
*this is an AIDS parable apparently?
*seeing this it makes me think of a time when movies had to have an American star in the lead, even if it was an American playing someone British…we have seemingly evolved to the point where British parts should be played by British actors, although that example really does it work when talking about RDJ does it?
*the closeup of the beating heart is gross
*alot happens quickly…RDJ saves the King’s dog’s life, becomes friends with the King (Neill), later is told by the King that he must marry his mistress but not fall in love with her, move out the country and abandon being a doctor, the wife never comes so RDJ throws parties and redecorates out of boredom…
*one night the wife does show up and doesn’t want to be but RDJ has fallen for her quickly…
*it’s basically RDJ and Ian McKellan (his butler) and their story at this point..
*Hugh Grant shows up 40 minutes in…
*Neill, for being the King, sure seems whipped by his wife and mistresses…they demand he stop seeing one of them and he goes along with it…wouldn’t he just have them killed and get another mistress?
*okay so this movie is basically about a spoiled, rich jerk who is sad cause his wife doesn’t love him…okay…
*one hour in and RDJ is banished cause the king finds out he loves his own wife
*is Meg Ryan showing up soon?
*Ian McDermid shows up
*”a young Irish woman” of course it’s Meg Ryan…
*so now the movie is about RDJ living in an asylum with Thewlis with some crazy people, including Ryan
*so this movie is a bunch of vignettes with the point being “Hey wasn’t this guy’s life a hoot?”
*he gets Ryan pregnant while he’s kind of her doctor, that seems a but unethical
*Thewlis dies and RDJ leaves with Ryan, so the place loses two doctors in one blow?
*Ryan has his baby then dies, that’s convenient…
*the plague hits the royal family, RDJ is masked when he treats his wife (so she doesn’t know it’s him) and then he talks to Neill who also doesn’t know it’s him…
*stuff happens, RDJ thinks his baby is dead, is back with Ian McKellan, then suddenly his daughter is alive and we get a happy ending
*again this is just a movie that’s about “wow how crazy was his life?” and I can see why the wardrobe people and production designers got accolades (the sets were amazing) but the movie itself is missable…
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Selma 2014
*finally
*when you look up the term “all-star cast” this movie is one of the examples
*so Martin Luther King’s plan in Selma is to get beaten up and get headlines in order to get the vote…interesting strategy
*kind of jumps around, one minute Malcolm X is talking to King’s wife and then King says X was killed weeks ago…
*John Lewis!
*so the first march happens and it’s a bloodbath which CBS airs live…Dr. King is with his family in Atlanta watching on TV, then suddenly he’s in Selma watching on TV with Tessa Thompson and the rest of the group, did he teleport there?
*it is a bit confusing why Dr. King turns around during the 2nd march…it seems strange he would just turn around and not say anything yet people still follow him but that’s how important this was…
*I do like the line “He owes me a bus ticket to Boston…”
*there are so many amazing moments in this movie, too many to list…I got goosebumps many times watching this…
*during the final march sequence, all the way up to the final montage, I was balling my eyes out…
*what a great movie, might be one of my favourites now, just sorry I never watched it sooner…
*some reported historical inaccuracies, specifically the relationship between Dr. King and Lyndon B. Johnson but in the end Johnson did do the right thing so…
*only thing I would take issue with is that, apparently, the FBI started following Dr. King under orders from JFK, not Johnson which I would imagine is a big point but would also cloud the narrative too…
*Ava DuVarney responded to criticism by saying it’s not a documentary which I totally agree with but also why I tend to avoid “historical” movies…most movie like this it sucks getting emotionally involved and then find out later it was 95% BS (see “Foxcatcher” which was nominated for “Best Original Screenplay” and this wasn’t)…but with this that isn’t the case…it was 95% accurate…perhaps more
*and in the end, it was only nominated for “Best Picture” (which it lost to “Birdman”) and “Best Original Song” (which it won)…no Best Director, no Best Actor or Supporting Actor…
*highly recommended!
I, the Jury 1982
*Armande Assante as Mike Hammer
*a film noir movie as a Bond film, complete with cold open, a Bond style opening credits sequence, cars blowing up in the first half, talk of government conspiracys…Mike Hammer - super spy!
*Laurene Landon! From “All the Marbles” and Canadian!
*Paul Sorvino!
*Geoffrey Lewis!
*Alan King!
*kinda seems like Assante is doing a Stallone impression…did they want Stallone but couldn’t get him?
*alot of stuff going on I don’t get and this movie isn’t encouraging me to either…just a bunch of stuff happening…
*did like the scene on the backlot of a movie where a stunts scene goes awry and stunt people’s squibs go off early…although I wonder, in 1982, did the average movie goer know what squibs were or did they think those people were all shot? Unless they saw movies like “Stunts”, maybe…
*Hammer goes to sex farm, is surrounded by gorgeous girls who want to have sex with him of course, including some beautiful blonde twins
*there is an orgy scene, complete with men and women and their “O face”, intercut with a cut slicing and torturing the twins…gee I wonder what type of reaction they were going for there…
*Hammer has an office right in Times Square…even in 1982 could he make that much money to afford that and his huge fish tank?
*okay Hammer is talking to a former sex therapist in a Japanese restaurant, he sits down and they start talking when suddenly the cook slashes her throat…so I rewound and checked the cook was there when Hammer showed up, so the cook was always going to kill her? Another scene right out of a Bond movie…funny I watch Bond movies for stupid shit where you just shrug and say “eh, it’s a Bond movie” but with a movie like this you expect a smidgen of realism
*speaking of Bond, the femme fatale is played by Barbara Carrera who was in “Never Say Never Again”
*did I mention there are quite a few sex scenes?
*Hammer’s office also has a piano…A PIANO!
*I do like the Velda character, taking the traditional PI secretary role and turning it up…she doesn’t pine after Hammer, she wants him to marry her…she follows suspects and even fires a gun and is tough!
*she wants to have Hammer marry her, and his response is “I wouldn’t be faithful” and that’s a completely reasonable answer…
*simultaneous scenes back and forth of Hammer and Veda being tortured…fun stuff…
*then it becomes fifteen minutes of shooty-blowey-uppy stuff…Hammer vs. twenty guys but hey he has a machine gun so…
*final scene has Carrera dying, shot by Hammer, lying on the floor, topless covered in blood…gee hard to miss the message here
*maybe I missed it…totally possible, btw…was there a scene where they gave us an update on Veda? Last I saw of her was lying on the ground, bloody and Hammer finds her but then just leave her there to go after the bad guy…and she probably still wants to marry him too…
*like the up beat theme song (which doesn’t fit this movie at all btw) but otherwise great to see Laurene Landon but this movie isn’t recommended…
To Live and Die in LA 1985
*part of TCM’s Neo-Noir tribute
*opening theme song (by Wang Chung btw) reminds me a lot of the soundtrack from “Somekind of Wonderful”
*five minutes in “I’m getting too old for this shit!”
*Jimmy Hart, whose name makes me smile, dies…guess how close he was to retirement? Guess…TWO DAYS!!!
*Hart was “too old for this shit” and “Two days from retirement” is this movie where that cliche comes from?
*John Turturro!
*Dean Stockwell!
*Robert Downey Sr. RIP
*Jane Leeves!
*William Petersen’s partner is John Pankow, who I wouldn’t think of as a cop’s partner (technically secret service I know) but I guess fits in with the 80’s trend of the funny sidekick…I saw him and thought “Hey, that’s Ira from Mad About You!”
*Petersen is wearing a lot of leather…
*so Petersen and Pankow are staking out the bad guy’s place, Willem Dafoe show up and kills him and this just happens to be when the good guys are sleeping…was this a coincidence?
*in the intro Eddie Muller and Ben Mank point out that William Friedkin didn’t use any famous LA landmarks in order to have it be a generic city…then why did he call it “To Live and Die in LA”?
*sex scene with Petersen and his blonde informant (which can’t be safe btw) and you can see Petersen’s junk in full view and he’s a brave man to have that immortalized on film…
*oh yeah Pankow is definitely going to die, right?
*wow Turturro totally made Petersen look like fool…
*Petersen is nuts and calls Pankow a pussy so he’s for sure going to die and “prove himself” by robbing a bad guy of $50,000
*Petersen again gets his butt kicked…hilarious!
*great car chase in LA and on the freeway
*Petersen goes back to the informant after failing to get any money, wants to have sex and she’s freaking out…did he end up raping her? She’s trying to get away and he’s laughing…geez
*Jane Leeves hasn’t had any lines yet…
*well then, Petersen shot through the forehead with lots of time left…genuinely shocked by that…
*comes down to Pankow vs. Dafoe, and the movie ends quickly after that…
*Pankow then “becomes” Petersen, visiting the informant and saying “you’re working for me now”…if the movie had kept going, would we have seen her kick Pankow in the balls, like she would have Petersen (and everyone else in the movie did?)
*good but not great, some parts were great other parts meh
*big fan of William Friedkin, or at least some of his stuff like “Sorcerer” but looking at his IMDB page it looks like this was his last big movie…after this was “Blue Chips”, “Jade”…”Killer Joe” was big in 2011 but I’ve never seen it…
Pulp 1972
*more of the TCM Neo-Noir Tribute
*more from the makers of “Get Carter”
*Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lizabeth Scott in her last film role
*about a pulp writer who gets involved in a murder
*okay at one point Caine is doing a voiceover, narrating what he is doing in the scene and says “I was wearing a navy blue suit…” and it’s a whitish-brown suit…so I’m confused already…
*there is a mix up in rooms, guy who gets his room is killed so was he the target or Caine?
*Caine is hired to write the autobiography of Mickey Rooney who seems to be playing himself…
*Lizabeth Scott as the classic film noir femme fatale
*Rooney is shot and killed…
*they watch a film, trying to identify a killer but it’s upside down so they watch it on their heads…pretty funny stuff
*so later a girl is in her bed, the voiceover says “I showed her the door” but on screen he joins her in bed…so the voiceovers are lying? So nothing he says in voiceover should be taken seriously? The voiceovers are done by Bizarro-Caine?
*in the next scene, Caine meets a dude and says “his eyes were like bloodshot oysters” so they aren’t like bloodshot oysters? Or are they?
*so Miller, the guys who died earlier, shows up again and is the one who killed Rooney, and then Caine kills him by slowly running him over on a beach…
*things you don’t normally see in movies: Caine is arguing with a dude, dude leaves the room (trying to get the last word in), Caine yells “Come back you coward” and the dude actually does come back!
*movie just kind of ends with rich dudes shooting pigs…okay…
*interesting film, has some cool ideas, Rooney is clearly having fun in his role, but I doubt I’ll ever see this again…
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Grand Canyon 1991
*again, finally
*saw this movie when it came out on video in 1991 and haven’t seen it since; I remember enjoying it
*mostly remember the Steve Martin character, I was a big Steve Martin fan then and it’s probably why I wanted to see it…it was the first “non-funny” performance I’d seen of his…
*he is probably the best part of the film, with his speeches
*in the limo coming back from the hospital, he goes on and on and finally Kevin Kline says “This is so much easier than an actual conversation…”
*then Martin says all that and Kline simply responds “on the other hand…” and Martin just smiles…they’ve been friend for so long things don’t need to be said…
*then Martin notices his girlfriend crying and she does a great job in the one scene where she’s allowed to do anything…actress is Sarah Trigger, btw…
*the one scene with Martin and Mary McDonnell where they are levelling with each other is so great too…two reasonable people talking is always great to see…
*the main storyline between Kline and Danny Glover is great, there’s never too much, they kind of bring up the subject of “white guilt” but not really, there’s never a scene where Glover explodes at Kline, which I was kind of anticipating after Glover and Alfre Woodard’s date and they wonder why Kline set them up…
*especially towards the end, when he talks about “how a huge abyss has opened up between the people who have stuff and people who don’t have shit…”
*Steve Martin’s character as a producer talking about being a producer vs. a director “I don’t have time for all that lighting and shit…” I feel that…I have loved the few films I’ve worked on and would like to again but really…there so much work!
*the “Sullivan’s Travels” bit is so true, I remember the lightning bulb going off after watching it, thinking comedies, and movies in general, don’t have to be full of meaning necessarily…my mom’s favourite movies were always feel good movies with happy endings and I would roll my eyes but after that it occurred to me that sometimes 90 minutes of fluff can make someone happy and what’s better than that?
*”All life’s riddles are answered are in the movies…”
*supposidely the “Big Chill” of the 90’s
*so if the Steve Martin producer tried to make this movie, it would turn out like “Crash”, right?
*baby Jeremy Sisto!
*apparently the Martin character is based on Joel Silver, producer of the “Die Hard” moves among other things…
*at first when I saw the scene on the bus I had to think if this movie came out before or after “Speed”…it was before, “Speed” came out two years later…
*even late in the film, when McDonnell and Kline have their big scene regarding whether or not to adopt the baby she had found earlier, they don’t yell and scream and nothing is thrown against the wall…so rare to see that, some actual restraint shown…
*the bad side of that is no Oscar nominations for the actors…the Academy doesn’t reward restraint…
*it was seeing the “cutting edge” technology of 1991 of how Glover communicated with his deaf daughter…
*even “the other woman” played by Mary Louise Parker is a great character…best part is when she says to Kline “it doesn’t have to make sense”
*I think I really liked this movie!
*I was anticipating some sappy stuff, a lot of yelling and “ACTING!” but that’s not what this was…highly recommended!
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No Sudden Move 2021
*directed by Steven Soderbergh with an all-star cast
*this movie just came out so no spoilers
*apparently this was a movie affected by COVID…this was to start filming just as COVID hit and production was delayed five months…
*the cast was supposed to include George Clooney, Sebastien Stan, John Cena and Cedric the Entertainer but they had to leave due to the production delays…I’m guessing Matt Damon replaced Clooney, David Harbour replaced Stan, Brendan Fraser replaced Cena and Bill Duke replaced Cedric but I’m just guessing…
*good movie but not great
*also binged AP Bio S1, I Think You Should Leave S1-S2
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Angel and the Badman 2009 Western
*remake of the John Wayne Western, but with Lou Diamond Phillips, Luke Perry and Deborah Kara Unger…
*I remember liking the Wayne version a lot, but honestly don’t remember details of the plot…
*I like a lot from this story…a lot of things that you just don’t expect like the bad guys backing down when they hear “Quirt Evans” name, Luke Perry’s bad guy offering $5000 for Evan’s land, Evans being a dick about it and Perry being all like…”okay, fine…”, the sheriff being kind of a dick, Evans is about to leave the ranch when Unger says “Why don’t you stay…” and he actually does…not your typical Western
*good story and the actors do fine, Unger in particular is great and you can see why Evans would want to give up his gunslinger life…
*had just FFed through another modern-made Western, “Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story” and it was mad by the same production team, The Nasser Family, so they like making low budget Westerns filmed in Canada…both movies started with using a supposedly dead body to set up a trap, and both movies had bad guys with eye patches…also “Stagecoach” had Michelle Harrisson in them, who plays “The Flash”’s mom, among other characters and is great…
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Cutter’s Way 1981
*TCM’s Neo-Noir tribute
*wasn’t going to watch this but the intro by Eddie Muller and Ben Mank sold me on it
*so Jeff Bridges is driving along, his car dies in an alley, as he’s sitting there, another car, half a block away, stops, dumps a body (or something), guy gets out and then gets back into his car and drives away, Bridges gets out, glances at the garbage cans but leaves going the other way…he then goes to a bar, talks to his friend, goes home, talks to the friends’ wife, goes to sleep, the friend comes home drunk…all that and Bridges had seen a dead body but never mentions it…I actually missed it the first time and had to rewind it…
*cops show up and ARREST Bridges, take him to the cop shop, he’s interrogated, there was a dead girl thrown into a garbage can and Bridges, again, glanced at it then walked away and never mentioned it…he then tells the cop he saw a man drive away but only saw sunglasses…so is he a witness or a suspect? From the line of questioning he seems like a witness but why was he arrested? I’m confused…
*John Heard’s running commentary on the parade takes like twenty minutes or at least it seems like it…
*then Heard questions Bridges like he’s Columbo…
*later Heard gets drunk, goes drunk driving, intentionally slams into the neighbours’s car, is an asshole about it, the neighbour wants to fight him but Bridges holds the neighbour back and defends him, they go inside and Bridges and the wife smirk at his jokes…what a f*cking prick…
*then the cops show up and go along with what Heard says, the neighbour is pissed but the cop doesn’t care…f*ck Heard, that neighbour should have kicked his ass…what a dick…can’t wait until the movie expects me to feel bad for him…
*apparently this is one of Muller’s favourite movies…
*so Heard then brings the dead girl’s sister to talk to Bridges…Bridges is the reluctant hero apparently
*so now we have our heroine threesome who are going to solve a murder…geez…
*Heard is an asshole until he makes a speech about losing limbs in Vietnam…btw no I don’t sympathize with him yet…
*all this is based on Bridges THINKING he MIGHT have seen some rich dude in the car that drove past him in the rain…pretty thin to pin a whole movie plot on…
*so why does this girl, the dead girl’s sister, believe that Bridges didn’t do it so easily?
*wait so Bridges wasn’t a bum who gets drunk hanging out with Heard? He’s actually a rich douche who hangs out with Heard but just looks like a bum?
*so they are going to send the bad guy a blackmail note that is SIGNED by Bridges? Isn’t that evidence that the bad guy can take to the police?
*btw, Bridges is the main character, but his name is Bone, Heard is Cutter yet the movie is called “Cutter’s Way”…
*movie was supposed to be called “Cutter and Bone” but they decided on “Cutter’s Way” instead…the studio thought the original title would make people believe it was about doctors or surgeons…
*wow that Mo is my favourite character…well she’s the only character I don’t hate at this point…
*Heard slaps Mo for telling the truth and Bridges goes “Hey, don’t do that…” F*ck off…
*Heard leaves Mo, says he’s sorry and because of the music playing in the background, I’m supposed to be manipulated into feeling bad about this…run Mo…RUN! Get as far away from these assholes as you can!
*Heard fires a gun in public and just walks off like it’s totally normal…even in 1981 I can’t imagine people just walk away…any chance the cops show up?
*and another movie cliche…Heard shoots his gun then puts it back in his pants…wouldn’t it be really hot and too hot to put in his pants? Wouldn’t it burn his skin?
*again Heard shoots the gun off in public…cops?
*no Heard just walks off…okay…
*Mo dies after having sex with Bridges…who says it’s only a slasher movie cliche that if a girl has sex she has to die?
*Heard points out that the bad guy plays polo and that the polo helmets are “funny looking” so dammit he’s convinced me…he’s the killer…
*wow this movie better end with Bridges having a cop say to him “Your friend was nuts…Mo died due to bad wiring that cause the fire…” but it’s Hollywood so it will end with a shootout I”m sure…
*okay the “evidence”…Bridges says he might have seen the bad guy’s face, then says he didn’t…so if they had seen the license plate of the car maybe that would be one thing…so dumb…sorry I don’t get the love for this movie…
*I guess the whole absurdity of the plot is supposed to be the point, that Bridges is just humouring his weird friend and then by the end of the movie it turns out maybe he was right all along…I guess…
*maybe I’m just in a crappy mood but I didn’t get this…
*and as a side note, Eddie Muller’s intros for these Neo-Noirs (like tonight’s “Blood Simple” in particular) he seems to just be “winging it”…I’m used to his long detailed Noir Alley intros so maybe I’m just spoiled, maybe? Not a horrible thing or anything, just something I noticed…
*oh and the bad guy is played by Stephen Elliott, the guy who was the Police Chief in “Beverly Hill Cop” who had one of the best line readings with “Is this the man who…WRECKED the buffet at the Harrow Club this morning?”
*oh I just looked it up, I remembered it wrong, it’s actually Eddie Murphy doing an impression of him who says “WRECKED the buffet…” Elliott’s actual delivery is still awesome, as he actually lowers his voice, as if ruining the buffet at the Harrow Club is one of the worst things done of all time ever…
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Karate Kid II 1986
*again but not since it came out
*doing a re-watch of the Karate Kid movies (or at least some of them) in case I decide to actually watch Cobra Kai on Netflix…
*funny how the write out the Elizabeth Shue character in the first five minutes after the first movie where their romance was such a huge subplot…just “she dumped me and crashed my car…” and that’s it…
*and Miyagi and Reese have their final showdown (for now) that we didn’t see in the 1st film which is a nice button but then they just leave all that behind…nice though that it sets up Part 3…
*I’m pretty sure I remember seeing this in a theatre, as opposed to the first Karate Kid which I saw on VHS, and it was the first time I was disappointed by a sequel, with them totally disregarding the first movie’s characters and having Diane and Miyagi go to Japan and introduce a whole new set of characters
*Daniel really does come off as a douche with his smirking, so if what I hear is true, and he’s actually the villain of Cobra Kai, brilliant move TV series creators!
*wow Daniel still constantly being beat up, and bad guys always sneaking up behind him and grabbing his arms…
*just read on Wikipedia that the bad guy’s nephew, Chozen, is involved in the TV series so it’s good I’m watching this I guess…
*really cool how Pat Morita went from Arnold on “Happy Days” to years later being “Mr. Miyagi” and was nominated for an Oscar for “Best Supporting Actor” and becoming a legend…
*cool that Miyagi and his brother make peace…all it took was a hurricane…
*Daniel drops the bridge and crushes those cute little boats that sucks…you suck Daniel!
*final fight was cool briefly as the girl fights back but then she gets punched in the face and is KOed
*another cool moment is when Daniel goes for the crane kick and Chozen blocks it easily…in your face Johnny Lawrence!
*and isn’t it another funny thing about Karate Kid that the crane kick technically would have been illegal, as kicks to the face aren’t allowed?
*the rattle-thing is fun, then Daniel has to punch Chozen in the face like twelve times to beat him
*end with Daniel and the girl hugging, not kissing, which I guess is good cause he’s about to abandon her and head back to America for Part 3…
*and we go out with “Glory of Love” by Peter Cetera…
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Selena 1997
*finally
*they start this movie showing how huge Selena was before her death…good because a lot of people had never heard of her…including myself…I was up on pop culture back in 1997 (or at least I thought I was) but until this movie came out, I had no idea who Selena was and had never heard of her…
*Jennifer Lopez, to me, was a huge star after “Out of Sight” and I had a crush on her at the time, so it is definately strange I have never seen this before…I did have a crush on her but after her “Jenny from the Block” album came out, the crush was over as there just seemed something off about her, I heard stories about how she was a jerk in real life…anyway, I still enjoyed her performances, but the crush was over…maybe I’m just fickle?
*Edward James Olmos!
*Jacob Vargas!
*Jon Seda! Been a fan of his since “Homicide: Life on the Street” and the pilot of “Oz”…
*so is Selena’s stocky sister going to have any scenes that don’t involve food?
*Lupe Ontiveros!
*so Yolanda, the character who kills Selena, is barely in the movie, and doesn’t show up until late in the movie…strange since this is an important character
*and just like that, the movie is over…I almost got whiplash from that…so Selena is talking to her mom about wanting a child, then bam, they jump ahead to Selena being taken out on a stretcher after being shot and she’s dead and that’s it…they show montages of the real Selena, which is a nice touch, but strange how the movie just ends…
*apparently the director Gregory Nava, said at the time they wanted to focus on her life rather than her death and “I don’t want to attender her murder”. Fair enough but it the ending does seem rushed…
*speaking of rushed, Selena dies on March 31st, 1995, her father is working on a movie of her life weeks later, casting calls start on March 16th, 1996 a year later…movie is released March 21, 1997…that’s fast…
*apparently Netflix just put out a Selena TV series that hopefully explains things a bit better…
*critics said this was too sanitized and it only has 65% on RT…I really enjoyed it, but it’s also weird seeing this in 2021 and Jennifer Lopez is “J-Lo” now and I only see her, hear her laugh as opposed to if someone had seen this in 1997 and could be absorbed into Lopez as Selena…
*recognized a bunch of her songs so that’s something…
*Constance Marie, as Selena’s mom, was great…
*anyway good movie, but not great…glad I watched it finally!
===================
The Money Pit 1986
*finally
*a Spielberg production? Really?
*a remake of “Mr.Blandings Builds His Dream House”
*always heard that this wasn’t that great, despite the cast, but here we are…
*yup it was as bad as I was told…same old joke over and over…
*final scene is good, Hanks’ bad guy dad buys a house and it’s revealed that he bought it from the same old woman who ripped off Hanks and Long…
*my ears glazed over and I have to admit I stopped paying attention at one point, but did Hanks’ dad embezzling funds come up again in the movie, other than the opening scene? Hanks and Long’s money issues seemed to be based on Long’s ex husband…the opening scene of the dad getting married and then the voiceover where Hanks and Long explain his dad is on the run and left him hanging seems tacked on, like a studio note…the scene with the voiceover we don’t even see Hanks or Long, just their hands, so it’s like they wanted to re-shoot scenes, or add new ones, but Hanks and Long didn’t want to do it…or I’m just overthinking it…
====================
Way Out West 1937 Western
*Laurel and Hardy in the Old West
*okay to this is the movie where they do the “At the Ball, That’s All” dance number that they do at the beginning of “Stan and Ollie” and is pretty great…so that’s cool…
*mostly what you would expect from a Stan and Ollie film, slapstick wackiness, stuff crashing…
*nice sequence to wrap up the film and they ride off into the sunset with the girl…one girl and two guys, eh? Hmmm…
*so they give the deed to the wrong person, that person makes the girl sign it over to them, then later they just take it back and that’s legal? Or were the bad people getting her to sign a different document, making them her guardian? If she’s a minor then does it matter?
*wait, is she a minor?
*great stuff…the slapstick can get old but it’s a short movie so it’s in and out…
Alice, Sweet Alice 1976
*TCM Underground
*actually called “Communion” in the opening credits
*Brooke Shields in her film debut, but dies quickly
*so I’m not much of a slasher fan…if this wasn’t on TCM Underground I wouldn’t have watched it…
*apparently according to Wikipedia this movie “is considered a contemporary classic of the slasher subgenera in critical circles. It has also been the focus of scholarship in the areas of horror film studied, particularly regarding it’s depictions of Roman Catholicism, child emotional neglect, and the disintegration of the American nuclear family.” Okay then…
*but here I am…I didn’t get any of that…
*maybe if I ever make a slasher film I’ll come back to this and study it, but as something to watch for entertainment, watching this wasn’t much fun for me…
===================
Family Viewing 1987
*Atom Egoyan’s 2nd feature film
*apparently I made no notes for this…
===================
Gilda Live! 1980
*again I think…
*it didn’t connect with me…
===================
Tequila Sunrise 1988
*again but not for a long time
*TCM Neo-Noir tribute; also TCM premiere
*Matt LeBlanc cameo in a TV commercial
*Raul Julia!
*”You go to a good deal of trouble to explain an inconsequential event…”
*so the “matches” scene is great…Pfeiffer goes from hating Russell to crying and possibly falling for him to knowing she can’t trust him in seconds with little dialogue
*so Pfeiffer is about to leave in a huff but Gibson calls her “Slick” and then they are in love…I should try that I guess…call a girl “Slick”…or maybe it’s only a move a guy like Mel Gibson can use? Maybe?
*okay they have sex in the hot tub then there is an 80’s montage…so was that all supposed to take place in the same night or a few weeks? The pics of Gibson and Pfeiffer at the restaurant makes it seem a few weeks but everything else makes it seem it’s the same night…
*Raul as Carlos and his dialogue…it’s the same night I guess but the pics made it confusing…
*Carlos LOVES PING PONG!
*funny how the phrase “Tequila Sunrise” is never said (unless I missed it), which is funny…they could have named the restaurant “Tequila Sunrise”, a lot of the inciting incidents occur there…
*apparently the hot tub sex scene caused problems in that it was poorly made and not chlorinated so Gibson, Pfeiffer and their doubles got rashes and such all over their bodies…hilarious!
*Pfeiffer tells Gibson “I love you” and he smacks her…it’s true movie love…and this is after ONE NIGHT? This is happening only hours after they had sex in the hot tub right?
*so forget Pfeiffer, this is really a love triangle with Gibson, Russell and Raul Julia and Gibson has to choose between them
*ending makes no sense…how can Russell explain how JT Walsh dies? So are Gibson and Pfeiffer going to run off together? Has Russell “cooked the books” so Gibson looks innocent? Is Pfeiffer going to just walk away from a successful restaurant business…a successful restaurant in LA!!! Or are they just going to live happily ever after…Gibson and Pfeiffer and Russell and his cigarettes…
*apparently Robert Towne wanted to kill Gibson in the finale but the studio wouldn’t let him…
*silly movie but pretty great…
Robin Hood: Men in Tights 1993
*again
*I love Mel Brooks, and I love Robin Hood but I’ve never found this funny…yet I’ve seen this a few times, so I keep giving it a chance…
*Roger Rees! Other than “Cheers”, where’s he been? He’s definitely the best part of this movie…without a doubt…
*the parody of the Little John fight is kinda funny when Dave Chappelle points out there’s not much water and that they could just jump over it…didn’t laugh on the outside but a little on the inside…
*”unlike most Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent…” oh burn!
*”White Men Can’t Jump” joke, a “The Club” joke, a “Godfather” joke…later a patriot missile joke, Arsenio Hall joke, Atlanta Braves joke…dated much?
*wow they do a “Malcolm X” joke…gutsy!
*Rabbi Tuckman, as opposed to Friar Tuck…I guess that’s clever…
*a gay joke…in 1993…not so gutsy…
*Marian’s last name is Bagel, so her and Robin get married and her last name will be Locksley-Bagel…a joke I wouldn’t have got in 1993…
*Brooks explains what a circumsizion is…in 1993 that was probably very helpful for me…
*Dom DeLuise doing a Marlon Brando impression…oh burn!
*almost 90 minutes in…the executioner kisses Robin Hood on the cheek and laughs about the fact he’ll be killing him…first time I’ve laughed out loud the whole movie…seriously
*earlier, they introduced a catapult, but don’t use it later when Robin is saving Marian…
*mostly a parody of the Kevin Costner Robin Hood, with some Adventures of Robin Hood thrown in…
*Picard! Or at least that’s what I would have yelled out when I watched this in the theatre, as I wasn’t into actor’s names back then but I was a big “Star Trek: TNG” fan…although I was probably confused with him having a English accent here…
*had a crush on Amy Yasbeck at the time…I think she was on “Wings” at the time…starred in “The Mask” a year later…a way better movie…
*nice “Blazing Saddles” Sheriff joke…
*so this is as if Mel Brooks sat down, watched all the Robin Hood movies he could and wrote down stuff note-for-note on what he could make fun of…
*this kind of movie, along with “Spaceballs”, I’m not a big fan of…I prefer “The Producers” (one of my all-time favourites), or “Blazing Saddles” or “Young Frankenstein”…
*but I love Mel Brooks, did I mention that? I’d much rather listen to him talk about making this movie for 90 minutes than actually watch this movie again…
A Rage in Harlem 1991
*directed by Bill Duke
*all star cast w/Forrest Whittaker, Robin Givens, Danny Glover, Gregory Hines, Wendell Pierce, Zakes Mokae, Ron Taylor and lots of other familiar faces
*George Wallace as GRAVEDIGGER JONES! and Stack Pierce as COFFIN ED, the characters from “Cotton Comes to Harlem”!!!
*Helen Martin again!
*according to Wikipedia, this is referred to as a comedy, which director Duke disagrees with…who the hell thought this was a comedy?
*great seeing Hines and Whittaker going back and forth, once they get on screen together
*of course the trans character dies…
==================
Tactical Force 2011
*Stone Cold Steve Austin, who apparently made a lot of movies, way more than I thought…
*and apparently all of them were made in Vancouver…
*with an all-star Canadian cast of Michael Shanks, Lexa Doig, Steve Bacic, Michael Eklund, Adrian Holmes, Peter Bryant, Jerry Wasserman
*and Michael Jai White, who works in Canada so much he should get honorary citizenship…
*this opening credits with machine gun sound effects is really annoying…
*LA SWAT Team stops a group from holding up a grocery store by blowing them all away with machine guns…seems extreme…
*they think they are going to get medals but then get the cliche Captain yelling in their faces saying they mess too much shit up, say they have to go back to training…Peter Bryant as the chief is great here…
*one review says “the film’s absurdity and blatant disregard for believability makes it enjoyable”…okay…
*Michael Eklund really likes having weird facial hair
*SWAT Team turns on the lights and sirens but then drive really slowly towards the warehouse where the bad guys are, allowing them to get ready for them…was that in the manual?
*oh, so the SWAT Team and the bad guys being all in the same place and the same time is a coincidence? Okay, I like this…
*and the SWAT Team is on a training mission, so all they have for ammunition are blanks…that’s great…
*”Where did this f*cking door come from?” that’s a great line…
*”Perhaps we should become Facebook friends…” Michael Shanks has got all the good lines..
*okay so always had this question…blanks still hurt, right? They are shot from a gun, and if they hit you they still hurt like a mofo, correct? I’ve always thought it was weird that in movies they act like they would hurt as much as a mosquito bite
*okay so I like this movie’s concept and cast, it has some funny dialogue, how long becomes a shooty-bangy blow up?
*Keith Jardine! Definitely has a look…
*filmed around 11/14/10 to 12/12/10 according to IMDB Pro in Vancouver
*opening the mysterious briefcase, having everyone react like it’s a big deal but not showing us what it is…that’s great as long as there is a payoff later…
*the good guys go into a sewer, split up but then both teams get captured…seems redundant…
*okay so it’s to get the two sets of bad guys, Italian and Russian, who have bene working together, to fight each other, okay that’s good…
*Shanks seems to have taken the “acting with a cigarette” class in acting school
*okay another thing that has bothered me about movies…Holmes picks up a briefcase, is happy, then looks inside, is mad cause the briefcase is empty…he couldn’t have figured out it was empty by the weight of it?
*one problem, they never really established how big this warehouse is, so now, towards the end, there are two stories going on simultaneously it’s hard to believe that suddenly this place is as big as a football stadium…not counting what’s going on in the sewers
*with the sewers, there are actually three stories going on…
*Jai White searches the bad guy for a cellphone, is frustrated he doesn’t have one…I like the attention to detail…
*Jai White says “Eat my grandma” before blowing up bad guys…what?
*good stuff when Shanks goes outside, waits for gunfire, doesn’t hear it, then goes back inside frustrated…
*alot of running from Stone Cold, which looks bad cause of his two messed up knees…
*Austin vs. Jardine fight is…fine…
*Eklund’s character isn’t dead…that’s stupid…
*Austin’s one funny line “Chief, are WE in on it?”
*Arrowverse connections: lots of actors on “Arrow”…Jai White played Bronze Tiger, Lexa Doig played Talia Al Ghul, Adrian Holmes played Frank Pike, Steve Bacic played Sean Sonus, Darren Shahlavi played Drakon, Jerry Wasserman played the President who gets assassinated during Invasion crossover (technically only appears on “The Flash”), the Michael Eklund played The Dollmaker…Eklund also played Rasputing on “Legends of Tomorrow”…Peter Bryan appears on Arrow, Flash and Legends…Michael Shanks played Hawkman on Smallville but no Arrowverse shows, but they are technically all connected thanks to Crisis on Infinite Earths…
144 2021
*documentary about the 2020 WNBA season that happened during the pandemic plus a ton of political turmoil…highly recommended!
The Bravados 1958 Western
*again
*seen this a few times, yet I can’t recall the details, so I’m watching it again
*Gregory Peck, Henry Silva, LEE VAN CLEEF!
*a revenge picture, if I remember that correctly…
*Gregory Peck rides into town, he’s stopped on the outskirts by deputies, say the town is shit off to strangers due to the upcoming hanging, Peck insists he be let in, they take his guns and take him to see the sheriff…
*town is called Rio Arriba
*four men are waiting to be hanged for robbing the bank and killing a teller, (as opposed to the death of Peck’s wife six months earlier), Peck is there to see them hanged…
*Sheriff asks Peck why he’s there but he wont’s say
*Peck watches the gallows being built
*Peck walks out, everyone comes up to him to introduce themselves, assume he’s Simms, the executioner, but he explains he isn’t, one guy points a gun at him, saying maybe he’s there to help the men escape, Peck doesn’t flinch, the sheriff comes out to break it up, Peck leaves to get a hotel room and a place for his horse to be fed
*Joan Collins sees Peck, they are old friends, she is happy to see him, they get caught up, Peck says he was married but is now widowed
*Simms shows up, has a drink with Peck, the Sheriff wants to show the prisoners to Simms but he wants to get freshened up, Sheriff takes Peck to check out the prisoners, who Peck says he’s been chasing for six months
*Simms is played by Joe DeRita, who later became “Curly Joe” in “The Three Stooges”
*Peck checks out the prisoners, Silva, Van Cleef, Stephen Boyd, Albert Salmi
*that night at midnight, people get ready for the hanging, go to church prior, Simms is stalling, while the Sheriff wants him to check out the prisoners…
*Simms goes to stretch his legs, throws a small rock into the cell through the window, which is the signal for the prisoners to get ready
*Collins convinces Peck to come to church with her, they take their time, Simms gets antsy, sees them go into the church and is ready to go now…
*Sheriff tells the deputy to go to church, leaving him and Simms alone with the prisoners…
*Simms asks the Sheriff to light a lantern and while he is distracted, Simms stabs the Sheriff, who then shoots Simms, but the four men grab the sheriff…
*Sheriff collapses, but the keys drop too far away, the four men try different techniques to get the keys
*the people inside the church settle in, are praying while this is going on…young girl Emma leaves the church to go get something for her father
*the prisoners get the keys, unlock their cell and then take Emma with them as a hostage
*the priest knows Peck and his history, starts the sermon as the prisoners are getting away
*Sheriff stumbles into the church, bleeding, asking for help before collapsing again
*bad guys ride out of town, kill the deputy guarding the road
*townspeople run out of the church, dude check on Emma, she’s gone, they form a posse to go after the bad guys, figure out they took Emma, Joan Collins goes on the posse too but Peck says he will wait until morning, says good night which pisses off Collins
*the posse go after them
*bad guys leave one guy behind to hold off the posse and agree on a rendezvous point
*Peck goes to bed, looking at a picture of his wife
*the next morning, the guy left behind shoots at the posse, hits a few men and are stuck
*Peck shows up, Collins tends to the wounded, Peck relaxes, tries to take charge but they don’t trust him cause he’s a stranger…
*posse bickers, eventually find the body of the real Mr. Simms, Peck tells dude (Tom) to go up into the mountains and fire off a shot every five minutes so the bad guys aren’t able to sleep
*bad guys camp for the night (all four of them and Emma), Boyd is infatuated with Emma, they hear the first shot, Silva knows what they are doing but it still annoys the others; Boyd and Salmi plot together on possibly double crossing Silva and Van Clef
*the next morning, the posse find the camp, they have left tracks going in the opposite direction but Peck knows it’s a trick
*Emma’s father shoots off a shot to let Emma know they are close, Peck is pissed that he gave them away
*the bad guys bicker, leave Van Cleef behind to kill Peck
*the posse approach, Van Clef hides in tall grass to ambush them, Peck thinks he sees him so they are cautious
*Van Clef sneaks up behind them but Peck is behind him, Peck shows him a picture of his wife, asks if Van Clef remembers her, he says no, Peck smacks him around, Peck describes what happened to his wife, Van Clef repeatedly says he never did it, Van Clef begs for his life, Peck beats him up
*Collins is back in town, helps people grieving in the church, talks to the priest, priest tells her about Peck’s back story and what happened to his wife; Collins reveals that it could have been her, as Peck proposed to her five years ago but she said no, Collins heads out to Peck’s ranch
*three bad guys and Emma are waiting for Van Clef, think they see Van Clef coming but Silva says it’s Peck wearing Van Cleef’s clothes
*Salmi stay behind to kill Peck, shoots at him but runs out of bullets, Peck chases him, lassoes him and then drags him to tire him out, then Peck strings him up by his feet in a tree and let shim hang there
*Boyd, Silva and Emma come across a house, Emma tries to get away but Boyd shoots her horse, she falls to the ground
*the posse find Salmi’s body hanging from the tree
*Silva, Boyd and Emma ride up to the house, inside the house is Gene Evans, who is Peck’s neighbour, Boyd kills him, Silva goes outside to check the body, finds a sack of coins in Butler’s pocket and see if anyone followed them and while he does this, Boyd rapes Emma (off screen)
*some riders show up, bad guys think it’s the posse, Silva and Boyd escape, leaving Emma behind, it’s Collins and a few of her ranch hands, Peck and the posse then also show up and find Evan’s body, then going the house and find Emma
*Collins had been trying to get Peck to leave it alone, but after she finds Emma, Collins says that Peck needs to find them and kill them all
*Peck and Collins head to his ranch for supplies and a fresh horse but the bad guys have taken his fresh horses
*Peck asks Collins to stay with his daughter at his ranch while Peck heads off to find the last two
*Peck and the posse arrive at the border, they can’t go any further due to jurisdiction so Peck goes over the Mexico border alone
*Peck goes into a bar and finds Boyd, tries to get Boyd to admit what he did to his wife but Boyd refuses, draws on Peck and Peck kills him
*Peck then chases Silva, finds Silva at his house with his family, Peck is going to pull his gun on Silva when Silva’ wife KO’s Peck with a flower pot…
*Peck wakes up, sits up and talks to Silva, who has no idea who he is or his wife, they talk calmly (because Sliva has a gun on Peck), Peck again wants Silva to admit what they did to his wife but Silva also pleads innocent, says they did go past Peck’s ranch, Peck sees the sack of coins (that Silva stole from Evans), Peck says the murderer is the one who stole the coins, Silva says he took them form Evans, so Peck realizes Evans was the killer all along…
*Peck realizes he just killed three men in cold blood, he rides back to the town, goes to the church to ask for forgiveness, priest forgives him
*Collins shows up with Peck’s daughter and they all leave together…
*the town is waiting for them outside, they applaud them and watch them leave the town…
***Peck did kill three guys (presuming the Salmi guy died while tied upside down in the tree), but they all were guilty of robbing the bank, killing the teller and Boyd also r*ped Emma so…
*great movie!
====================
Draft Day 2014
*I am a sucker for sports movies
*heard bad things about this, but it has a great cast
*Chadwick Boseman, Frank Lanfella, Denis Leary, Sam Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, Tom Welling, Terry Crews, Kevin Dunn, David Ramsey, Chi McBride, Rosanna Arquette, Sean Combs, Timothy Simons from “Veep”
*did they all just want to work with Ivan Reitman…
*Chris Berman’s voice…already hating this…
*so Jennifer Garner told Kevin Costner she was pregnant ON THE MORNING OF THE DRAFT? She couldn’t just waited one day?
*this seems so fake to me…”Moneyball” seemed authentic…this seems like a “movie version” of this
*so Costner trades (not thinks about but actually trades) for another teams #1 pick AND THEN goes into actually researching the player he’s drafting?
*W. Earl Brown tells Costner his #1 draft pick “had no one come to his birthday party” and the music cue makes us think that he is the murderer in the study with the candle stick…
*they do it again, with Brown telling the story about the $100 in the back of the playbook…like Costner hasn’t been around to know that story…
*wow this movie is SO DRAMATIC!
*okay so Costner finds out he is going to be a father, his mother comes by, they had the reading of his will of his father and they have to spread his ashes on the 50 yard line ON DRAFT DAY!
*Costner refuses to spread his ashes on the field and then he and Garner GO DOWN TO THE FIELD! He couldn’t have done that exact same thing but with his mother and just got it over with?
*let me guess…Costner will end up drafting Boseman #1 after all cause “it’s the right thing to do…”
*Costner confronts the #1 draft pick about whether or not his teammates went to his birthday party…again with the music cues tells us Costner is NOT DRAFTING HIM!
*no way…he gives up three #1 picks to get the guy he was going to draft at #7? FIRE HIS ASS!
*wait when did Kevin Dunn know this? His thumbs up to Langella…?
*I like Boseman’s brass knuckles phone case…
*so I want to know more about how in two drafts teams ran out of time and lost their picks? WTF?
*#6 pick for the next 3 years of 2nd round picks, after just trading the next three years of 1st round picks…wow he is so fired in real life…but this is a movie…
*wow the musical score is so annoying in this movie…
*okay so this guy they are going to draft next is Terry Crews’ son, from the beginning of the movie…okay that’s cool…
*Jim Brown!
*season opener…they better be playing the Seahawks…
*according to Wikipedia, this was on the infamous “Black List” on 2012 of the best unproduced screenplays…the more I see movies that have come out after being on the Black List I think maybe the List is overrated…or the filmmakers making these movies take a good script and screw them up…
*plus it’s hard to enjoy a movie that hypes the NFL…they suck and are run by assholes IMHO…
*David Ramsey, Diggle from “Arrow”, had a way bigger part that I thought he would…
*not a great movie about a fascinating subject…
=====================
Night Moves 1975
*TCM Neo-Noir Tribute
*Gene Hackman ladies and gentlemen…
*VERY young Melanie Griffith
*although whenever I see Gene Hackman with a moustache I think of the story about Richard Donner tricking Hackman into shaving his moustache for “Superman”…look it up if you haven’t heard it, it’s amazing…
*great movie, not many, if any, notes really…
======================
The Great Bank Robbery 1969 Western?
*Zero Mostel, Kim Novak, Clint Walker, Claude Akins, Elisha Cook Jr., Akim Tamiroff, John Anderson, John Fiedler, Peter Whitney, Mako!
*a group of Mexicans watch a train go by
*a group of cowboys, lead by Akins and Cook Jr., watch the same train
*train has a sheriff guarding the US Mint treasury box
*Zero Mostel and Kim Novak are on the train, posing as a preacher and his helper
*Akins and his cowboys attack the train, kill the sheriff easily, Akins takes over control of the train, hits the brakes, the train stops, the cowboys board the train, take the gold and ride off
*cowboys split up and agree to meet up later
*Mostel and Novak lead the other passengers by foot to the nearest town
*Texas Ranger Clint Walker, sees the train abaondoned, rides up to check it out, sees the dead bodies
*why does Kim Novak’s voice always sound like it’s ADR’d? Like, in every movie she is in…
*Walker pursues the bad guys, follows them to a town, sees that the horses parked outside have the same mud on their hooves as he saw by the train
*Walker goes inside, asks those who robbed the train to come peacefully, they laugh and start shooting but can’t shoot straight so he shoots them all
*Akim Tamiroff, who plays the lead Mexican, is another actor who’s dialogue always seems ADR’d…especially in “Ocean’s 11”
*Akins takes the gold to the town of Friendly and it’s unrobbable bank, John Anderson is the head of the bank, Akins puts the gold in as a secret deposit in the bank’s vault, Akins asks why no one will ever find the gold, Anderson says that if anyone wants to inspect the bank, they’d need a warrant signed by the mayor, which is also Anderson
*Mostel, Novak and the others arrive on foot to Friendly, just as the old preacher is leaving (going to Samoa)
*Novak takes a bath as the group of Mexicans rush into town trying to rob the bank, apparently this happens all the time and the bank is ready for them, with gatlin guns and bars on the windows, the Mexicans are defeated and ride away
*Akins and Cook Jr. see this and have a drink in the bar, satisfied that the bank is secure
*in El Paso, the Texas Rangers get a visit from Secret Service Agent Mako who wants to help them find out what’s hidden in the bank as they suspect Anderson is shady…Walker shows up with the bodies of the train robbers and say he has a new mission
*Walker shows up in Friendly with a wagon train full of Chinese men to start a undercover Chinese laundry
*Mostel and Novak run a sermon at the church, attended by Akins, Cook Jr. and Walker
*the Mexicans again attack the bank but are again defeated
*another man comes to town, he introduces himself to Mostel who says “Where have you been?”
*the group of five get together to plan how they will rob the bank on the 4th of July by tunnelling in through the bottom
*Walker talks to Mako, who’s Chinese men have already started digging a tunnel, Walker says they are too slow but Mako says people from the town keep coming in to get them to do their laundry…
*apparently they jump ahead as Mostel and the others already have their tunnel going, hit a rock and need noise to cover them trying to break the rock
*Mostel leads choirboys singing in the church, has them sing a song that includes banging a drum so no one hears the others digging the tunnel through the rock…a totally absurd scene
*Akins sends Cook Jr. to go talk to the other train robbers
*there only a few Mexicans left, the son of Akim tells him they need to give up, but Akim says it’s a matter of honour and they need to keep going
*in the very next scene, Cook Jr. returns to town and says all the other train robbers are dead, Cook wants to skip town but says a big Texas Ranger killed them, they see Walker and suspect him for some reason…surely there are other big men in Friendly?
*this movie tries as hard as possible to make Kim Novak be near-naked as much as possible
*Akins and Cook go confront Walker at the laundry, Akins slaps him around, to see if he’s a tough guy, Walker lets him do it so he doesn’t blow his cover as a Ranger, both laugh in his face
*they have a dance, one local woman (Anderson’s wife) flirts with Mostel, Novak sees Walker and is smitten with him, Mostel brainstorms how they can get rid of all the dirt from their tunnels, says they can pretend to be landscaping, Novak makes out with Walker after knowing him for a few minutes
*the next day, the group’s painter does a portrait of Anderson inside the jail so they have a picture of what the inside of the jail looks like
*the two tunnels converge and figure out they exist
*one guy hears Chinese voices and says “I didn’t think we dug THAT deep!”
*Akins and Cook watch as the diggers get rid of bags of dirt at night, get suspicious
*Mostel watches the painter paint pictures of the inside of the bank to scale, Novak gets high on “Indian candy” which is peyote
*Akins and Cook check out the landscaping, start to bicker, Akins says Cook shouldn’t be so suspicious of religious people, Cook slips and calls him crazy, Akins ends up mad at Cook and shooting Cook for no really reason at all
*the town sheriff is right there and doesn’t hear anything…moron…
*Akins digs a grave for Cook and buries him inside the “landscaping”
*Akins gets drunk, stumbles around town, drops his bottle and sheriff arrests him for littering
*Mostel figures out what Walker and the Chinese are up to, are insulted they are trying to “rob our bank”
*Mako and Walker find Mostel’s tunnel
*Mostel gets Novak to take Walker for a picnic to pump him for information, Walker wants Mako to try to get info from Mostel
*Mako and the Chinese go to Mostel for religious guidance
*Novak and Walker get high, talk, make out, etc…
*Mako tries to sneak a peek at their tunnel but Mostel kicks him out…Mostel uses line “What we have here is a failure to communicate” which is the line people actually use, as opposed to the line from “Cool Hand Luke” which they mis quote as “what we’ve GOT here is a failure to communicate”
*Novak and Walker presumably have sex
*the group make Mako’s tunnel collapse
*Akim and the Mexicans watch the town from the hills, are frustrated
*Mostel unveils plans for their getaway, a sermon in the air with a hot air balloon
*Akim comes into town, looks around
*the group have their plans ready to go, do the “before-the-heist meeting”
*Mako tells Walker they managed to clear the tunnel but they are slowed down
*Novak goes back to Walker in the back of the laundry, gets him to come with her in a wagon out into the forest…
*sheriff and deputy bring out a barrel of fireworks for the 4th of July, leave it, Akin drops a cigar into the barrel and it explodes, Sheriff arrests Akin
*Novak and Walker make out, she Ko’s him with a blackjack when he’s distracted by the fireworks (after he refuses more peyote)
*Novak takes Walker and locks him inside a cellar so he’s out of the way, she cares about him but can’t abandon Mostel
*Mostel breaks through the floor, the guard is distracted by Novak riding a horse through town naked, wearing only flowers over her breasts…all the guards see her and are all distracted…she does this a lot!
*they break into the bank, KO the guard inside the bank, put up the to-scale paintings of the walls of the bank so no one can see what they are up to, Mostel drills through the vault door
*they next morning, everyone wakes up, they have the hole, they put some dynamite inside the hole, what for Anderson to fire off the cannon outside (which he does cause it’s the 4th of July), the vault door blows
*they take all the money and gold out of the vault
*Mako shows up at the laundry, Mako says it’s too quiet, wakes up the sleeping Chinese, the Chinese looks inside Mostel’s tunnel, follow it inside the bank, come up out of the hole, they all fight (with Mostel and the bag guys winning, strangely), they KO Mako and put him under Anderson’s desk inside the vault
*Novak is having a bath, taking her time
*Mostel and the group bring the money and gold from the vault, stuff all of it inside their drum, they put the Chinese inside the vault for the sheriff to find, they put the drum on the back of their wagon
*Mako wakes up, reaches up to the desk and accidentally finds Anderson’s illegal ledger
*Mostel and the others arrive at the park, start loading the drum into the hot air balloon
*Novak says goodbye to still KOed Walker
*Sheriff and deputy show up at the bank, see it’s been robbed
*MOSTEL LEFT A NOTE saying that he did it…what is he the Riddler? They still haven’t left yet…
*Novak is late, rushing on a wagon to get to the park
*Mostel refuses to leave without Novak
*a posse heads to the park after them…
*Novak shows up, gets inside the hot air balloon, they start the sermon and lift off
*deputy brings the Chinese into the jail, tells Akins and Akim what happened, they all brawl and there is chaos
*Akim’s Mexican show up with a battering ram, finally are able to break through the door, celebrate but Akim tells them there is no gold to steal…
*the posse arrives and shoots at the hot air balloon just as they are getting away
*they get away but are too heavy and are about to hit a mountain, throw their musical instruments overboard
*the Mexicans follow them, notice the wind is changing…
*Akins is struggling to escape from the jail
*the wind changes and they end up back in Friendly, the Mexicans who use the town’s cannon to at them, blow up the church’s bell tower instead, they start throwing out bags of money (as opposed to the sand bags on the side of the balloon), start to escape again…but they keep the gold?
*Walker wakes up
*Chinese head out of town on a wagon with the ledger but also chasing the balloon
*the posse passes them, heading back int town after the balloon, but then turn around and head after the balloon in the other direction when the wind changes
*the Mexicans steal the fixed train, use it to chase the balloon
*so the posse, the Chinese and the Mexicans are all chasing the balloon
*Mostel gets them all to take off their clothes to make them lighter, the Mexicans stop the train under the balloon, it goes the other direction, they have to make the train go backwards
*the posse and the Chinese then collide as they are both heading towards the balloon but don’t see each other some how…in the end, Mako arrests Anderson…
*Mexicans are still chasing the balloon, as is Anderson’s wife who is still after Mostel but she crashes
*the Mexicans overheat the train, putting too much wood in the fire and it explodes, but they all survive somehow
*Akins finally escapes
*Mostel and the group arrive back in Friendly, Walker comes out of the jail and confronts them, tells them to give him the gold, Walker shows up, Akins confronts the bad guys and Walker, laughs at Walker, but Walker shoots him, revealing he’s a Texas Ranger
*Novak sacrifices herself and jumps into Walker’s arms, allowing the balloon to be light enough for them to escape…
*last shot is of the bad guys escaping, so I guess that’s their happy ending? The bad guys leaving with the gold?
=============
Dark City 1998
*again but not for awhile
*saw this in theatres after Roger Ebert raved about it on Siskel and Ebert…Ebert later called it THE BEST movie of the year which was shocking to pretty much everyone at the time ahead of “Shakespeare in Love”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Truman Show” and “Pleasantville” (Siskel’s pick was “Babe: Pig in the City” and as a side note, Siskel died a little over a month after their “Best of” show aired…)
*I’ve seen it a few times since then, always enjoy it but I go back and forth about it…sometimes I watch it and think “meh” after, then I watch it and am blown away…maybe it depends on my mood as I watch it?
*would any other actor than Rufus Sewell worked as the star? I’m wondering sincerely…imagine Tom Cruise in the same role…Sewell’s “unique” features make the character pop in a way a pretty man like Cruise might not have…
*Jennifer Connelly still has her “baby face” look here, like she did in “Career Opportunities” and others, as opposed to her more grown up look in “Requiem for a Dream” (which was only two years later)…hard to explain, just one of those actors who transitioned really well from child actor to adult star
*Kiefer Sutherland does a great job, is nearly unrecognizable
*kinda shocked to find out David S. Goyer was one of the screenwriters as I’m not a fan…back then he was probably young and hungry and eager to impress…maybe? At this point he had written the David Hasselhoff “Nick Fury” TV movie, the “Crow” sequel and not much else…
*Alex Proyas had made “The Crow” before this and, frankly, hasn’t done much else despite this being an acclaimed film…he’s done “I, Robot”, “Knowing” and the huge flop “Gods of Egypt”
*the effects, sets and costumes are amazing for a small budget…especially creepy are the bad guys’ (The Strangers) costumes, which were modelled after “Riff Raff” in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, which was played by Richard O’Brien who also plays “Mr. Hand” here…
*anyway, this time I watched this, I was blown away…next time I watch it…who knows?
=============
The Crow 1994
*finally
*kinda surprised myself that I’ve never seen this until now
*that Miramax logo…ugh
*Brandon Lee had some major charisma…that’s for sure…
*Ernie Hudson smokes in every scene…except for the scene where he’s a big hero…coincidence?
*big bad is Michael Wincott, who I had no idea was Canadian, and was awesome in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” as Alan Rickman’s sidekick…why hasn’t he been in more stuff?
*Tony Todd!
*Jon Polito!
*everyone in this movie seems “too cool for school”
*so apparently Brandon Lee died during the filming of the flashback sequences, as the production crew sent the firearms specialist home early…that sucks!
*so Paramount wanted to shelve the film, not thinking it would be worth it to finish filming after Lee’s death, but Miramax bought the rights and spent the money to finish the film…cause nothing like the main actor’s death was going to stop Miramax from making a profit…
*I guess some could argue that the movie is a tribute to Brandon Lee and needed to be finished…whatever…
*it is kinda creepy watching Brandon Lee’s character die on camera knowing what happened…
======================
Ride Em Cowboy 1942 Western
*Abbott and Costello comedy Western
*part of the A&C Day on TCM’s Summer Under the Stars
=======================
The Addams Family 1991
*finally
*been watching the original series on MeTV and realized I’d never seen this or the sequel “Addams Family Values”
*plus there are Raul Julia movies in the world I haven’t seen and that needs to be remedied…
*I really liked this until the “big twist” and just at the point it seems like the movie is ending, it’s actually just getting going
*The Addams Family find their long lost Uncle Fester who is an imposter, or is he?
*I watched the Siskel and Ebert review on Youtube and they didn’t like it…Siskel says that the problem is that most of the movie takes place inside the house and there is no one to give reaction shots…that’s not true, as Fester (the awesome Christopher Lloyd) has no idea what’s going on with these weirdos and he’s the straight man at first…
*I seemed to remember there was an MC Hammer music video for this movie, I looked it up on Youtube and yes, there it is, with MC Hammer dancing along with Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, Christina Ricci…wow I nearly fell over when I saw Huston there, I would have thought there would be no way she would be involved, not in a mean way but I was just surprised…when it comes to stuff like this I wonder if they had fun or is they had to be dragged to the set kicking and screaming…I hope it was fun…
*shooting the movie was terrible for Huston, though, as they wanted to have a certain effects with her eyes and the make up and hair needed for that was like torture for Huston…
*I really liked the storyline of Fester learning to love the family, especially the kids, which maybe meant more to me due to being an uncle myself
*seemed clunky at the end where they have a seemingly tacked on final scene where they reveal Fester actually isn’t an imposter and really is Fester…I like that he’s the real Fester but it just seemed like they wanted to hit the reset button
*Christopher Lloyd had an amazing streak of movies around this time, with the “Back to the Future” movies, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Eight Men Out”, “The Dream Team”, “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”…
*I thought the opposite of Siskel and Ebert, as I liked it but it was way too long…I am looking forward to seeing the sequel though…
=========================='
The Frighteners 1996
*finally
*co-written/directed by Peter Jackson (other writer is Fran Walsh) with his visual effects done by Weta Digital, at the time a new company
*was a big Michael J. Fox fan when this came out, but not a fan of movies with any kinds of horror or scares in it…
*immediately I saw the village and thought “This is totally New Zealand…”
*Jake Busey playing a serial killer…who would have guessed?
*Chi McBride
*John Astin plays the Judge…Astin played Gomez Addams in the original TV series…coincidence?
*so the rich woman sees her babies flying around the room, but kicks Michael J. Fox out of her house because of the headlines of the local paper…but what made the babies fly around the room?
*so the jerk guy dies off screen? I had to rewind to make sure I didn’t miss anything…
*so they have the scene from “Ghost” where Whoopi Goldberg “translates” what Patrick Swayze is saying for Demi Moore, but less interesting and less emotional
*Jeffrey Combs! I recognized his voice immediately as he played “The Question” on “Justice League Unlimited”
*wait how did I not know that Combs was the guy in “Re-Animator”? WTF? I have failed life apparently…sure I’ve only seen “Re-Animator” once and it was years ago, but still…
*so the young reporter dies (on screen this time) and the font of the “39” on his forehead looked like “37” so I again had to rewind it to make sure…
*so Astin’s Judge character makes love to/rapes a mummy?
*these deputies are sure trigger happy…as I’ve said before, cops who shoot guns in public like this, with civilians around…it’s so unrealistic…
*so Combs is interrogating Fox and does he keep saying “28 unsolved deaths…” does he mean 38? And really, it’s 40 now since the editor is dead…confusing…
*we’re an hour in and we’re only half way? Really? What else can happen in this movie that requires another hour?
*so trying to process the “rules” of this movie…so ghosts can kill other ghosts? Some are ghosts and some are spirits? Things like cars and trucks can affect ghosts but not hurt or kill them? Do I care at this point?
*R. Lee Ermey again reprising his “Full Metal Jacket” role…I wonder if he was happy to do this, just wanted the work, or if he resented it…
*so now they are doing “Flatliners”…first “Ghost” now “Flatliners”…
*Combs shows up to arrest Fox, and seemingly to fight ghosts, with a machine gun…makes sense…
*”My body is a road map of pain…” good stuff…
*so the cop car slowly rolls backwards and runs into a brick wall which collapses like it’s made of cards…
*so the fact the killer was Jake Busey…did that need to be a secret? I had assumed it was him all along…
*can understand why Robert Zemeckis was into this and helped produce it…he’s always been into visual effects and I think, along with George Lucas and James Cameron, should be seen as a forerunner with all the advancements in the VFX field…
*I just read the Wikipedia synopsis and the first line says “Frank Bannister’s wife, Debra, dies in a car accident…” wait didn’t Combs accuse Fox of killing his wife? It was a car accident…
*so the killer’s name is Johnny Bartlett and Fox’s character’s name is Frank Bannister…isn’t there a movie rule where names shouldn’t be too similar?
*so early in the movie, the mother tells Lucy that the Patricia character is crazy but the mother looks evil so no one believes her, plus Patricia is pretty so how can she be evil right?
*Fox is human again so how is he supposed to help Lucy defeat Busey?
*last twenty minutes are all running and shooty-shooty-bang-bang…during this time I looked on Youtube for the Siskel and Ebert “Frighteners” review…they didn’t like it…Siskel calls it “junk”…it was a bad week as they also reviewed “Multiplicity”, “Kazaam”, “Fled”, all of which they hated, and split on “Celestial Clockwork”, a foreign film…without looking, I have to guess this came out in late summer? Or January? - actually it came out in mid-July…7/19/96 to be exact…
*wait so how is Fox proved innocent? Did they just pin everything on Dee Wallace Stone? What about the people that “ghost-Busey” killed by “stopping their hearts?” I’m confused but I don’t care…
*bad movie that could have been half as long…but I’m guessing the fun Peter Jackson had with this and it’s VFX lead to the cool stuff in “Lord of the Rings” so I guess it was a win…
Logan Lucky 2017
*again
*saw this in theatres when it first came out, wasn’t impressed but here we are…
*I like Steven Soderbergh’s work, at least some of it but not all of it…
*quite the cast of Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Sebastian Stan…
*and also Seth MacFarlane
*advertised as a “Redneck Ocean’s Eleven”
*nepotism in Hollywood has come up recently and I’ve noticed a few things about the cast…Riley Keough is Priscilla Presley’s daughter, Katherine Waterston is Sam Waterston’s daughter, Brian Gleeson is Brendon Gleeson’s son, Jack Quaid is Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan’s son
*apparently there is some controversy as to who wrote this…it’s speculated that Soderbergh’s wife, Jules Asner, wrote the script but didn’t want to put her name on it as she didn’t want it to look like she just got the film made cause Soderbergh is her husband…god forbid anyone thinks that anything having to do with this movie would be considered “nepotism”…
*so there’s a door in the bathroom of the jail’s infirmary…been there the whole time…just waiting…did it just pop up out of nowhere? Does no one else know about this? Weird that the Logans knew about this but Daniel Craig, or any of the prisoners, knew about this…seems to be a big thing that this movie just brushes off as no big deal…
*also seems weird that Dwight Yoakam says “we don’t have riots here” did they know he would do that? IS there a precedent for this happening? Again, seems like a big coincidence…
*and who is driving the truck that helps Driver and Craig escape from the jail? It was just a guy, where was he when they stowed away?
*Mellie is their sister? Not Tatum’s girlfriend? Okay…
*good thing that purple car was driving by just as they drove past…
*suddenly Sebastien Stan shows up…
*okay the “Game of Thrones” stuff is pretty funny…
*so they are just sucking the money out?
*this whole mid-movie debate (when Driver’s arm is sucked up) is stupid…
*so how did they know Yoakam would call in the fire when he didn’t call in the riot?
*90 minutes in, the heist is over…still have to have the “uplifting moment” at the talent show and Hilary Swank hasn’t shown up yet…kind of amazing how much of this movie I remember…
*so Tatum just gives up, tells the cops where the money is…I’m sure that will turn out fine…I’m guessing they stole two sets of money, are “giving up” one set just to keep the cops off their scent? This part I don’t remember…
*over 95 minutes in and here is The Next Karate Kid herself, Hilary Swank!
*so Stan, off camera, told Swank that McFarlane is full of shit? Why?
*all this happened on May 28th…my birthday! Coincidence? Well yeah that’s probably a coincidence…
*”I hate their tight alibis…” yeah that is too bad…
*so what’s up with the coloured cockroaches?
*so what’s up with the smoke? Was that supposed to happen?
*wait so Craig gets out of prison, goes and sees Driver, Driver shrugs and says “nope, no money” and Craig is super cool with it…wow what a nice guy…so dumb…
*did Craig share any of his money with is brothers?
*what a self indulgent last 30 minutes of this movie…wow…
*has some bright spots but what a bad movie…
Framing Britney Spears 2021
*wow…
===========================
Dawn Rider 2012 Western
*so the movie starts with, in the credits, “Nasser Group North presents…A Nasser Group North Production…” okay then…
*low budget Canadian Western with DONALD SUTHERLAND, Christian Slater, Jill Hennessy…
*a remake of a John Wayne 1935 movie with the same name…
*same producers who did the remake of “Angel and the Badman”, and “Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story” so they like doing Westerns…
*”Dakota Territory, 1883”
*starts with someone pissing…nice…supposed to be Christian Slater’s character but we don’t see his face, so could have been a stunt pisser…
*Slater is hanging out in a cabin, with a leaky roof, getting drunk…
*Donald Sutherland and two others ride up, the other two get off their horses and just start firing into the cabin for no reason…Sutherland is pissed as he wanted Slater alive
*they go into the cabin, no one is in his bed, a puff of smoke comes out from under a rug on the floor, Slater has escaped out a tunnel under the cabin and “blew the tunnel, it’s flooded with rocks” okay then…
*jump ahead, in a town masked riders rob a bank, there’s a shootout with sheriff and deputies, riders take off…little kid watches this and smiles…what a jerk…
*Lochlyn Munro!
*turns out the gang stole letters and not money…not sure if this was on purpose or a screw up…I think a screw up…so they robbed the post office, not the bank? Lots of ADR dialogue so maybe something was changed in editing?
*local saloon, dudes playing poker…inevitably there is a showdown with guns…why does anyone play poker in the Old West? Everyone is a sore loser…
*two guys have a standoff, point guns at each other, Slater intervenes, says someone cheated, dialogue is weird I’m honestly confused whose side he’s on…
*twice they cut back to Slater and there is smoke puffing up around his face but there is no indication he’s smoking anything…the smoke is just there…it’s hilarious…
*apparently Slater’s character’s name is “Cincinnati John Mason”…but he’s never been to Cincinnati…
*filmed in Vancouver, same Old West town as before…
*Slater meets up with the guy who he apparently saved, he’s grateful, they talk…dude has a sweetheart back home…
*next day, go to Slater’s father’s house, the father decks Slater, points a gun at him, then says “Supper’s at six…”
*Slater and dude go to town, he bumps into Hennessy who is happy to see him, apparently they knew each other when they were kids…
*at supper, Slater, dude and father get drunk telling stories, Slater gets mad when his father speaks “Mexican”, someone comes to the door says the express is leaving in the morning without an escort for reasons…
*next morning, dude and the father leave to escort the express, dude just met this guy so…Slater refuses to go…
*masked riders rob the express, KO the dude but shoot the father…
*awkwardly staged, as the riders are seen riding up to town, there are five or six of them, Munro says “we don’t rob the stage” and it’s intercut with three masked riders entering the express office…six men talking, then cut to three men with masks…confusing…
*Munro’s character shoots the father, feels bad about it, stands over the father, the weak father reaches up, is able to practically rip off Munros’ shirt so he can see that he has two X’s craved into his shoulder…why didn’t he just strip him naked and check if he was circumsized? Or if he was still that strong after being shot, why didn’t he do something like wrestle Munro to the ground instead of trying to take off his shirt? Dumb…
*riders go to leave and suddenly Slater is there and shoots one of them as they leave the building, there is a shootout…at least this movie doesn’t F*ck around…
*actually Slater sees a masked man standing outside the express office and just shoots him…I guess it’s probably safe to assume he was up to no good but still, kinda funny Slater just blows the guy away and guy doesn’t even see it coming…
*riders slowly take off, lots of bullets fired, actually Slater isn’t a good shot as he fires like twenty bullets and can’t hit any of them…
*dude is KOed, father is shot and apparently so is Slater
*gang meets up, Munro is pissed someone died, there is now like eight people in this gang somehow, Munro challenges the boss to a shootout, Munro kills the boss and takes over the gang
*Slater is being taken care of by Hennessy, dude comes in, as does Munro, everyone keeps referring to the father as “Dad” which could be confusing…Hennessy and Munro both have the last name Gordon so are they married?
*funeral for the father last about three seconds…
*at the saloon, Munro talks about Slater having no idea that he killed Slater’s father, dude comes up to Munro and asks to speak to him in private…
*they go to the express office, dude apparently works there now, asks Munro why Slater and the father “hated” each other, Munro says Slater’s mother died and father remarried, which Slater hated but the new Mexican mother died, dude wants to marry Hennessy and asks for Munro’s permission as Hennessy is his sister, Munro says yes “what took you so long” as I guess she was the sweetheart he was talking about earlier although there’s been no evidence of that…maybe he just has a crush on her?
*Slater and Hennessy talk, they are intimate, as if we’ve skipped a scene…there is a joke as a gun goes off under his pillow, she takes it out, says it helps make her sleep…lame joke…and then they have sex…of course…again this movie doesn’t F*ck around…
*where’s Donald Sutherland?
*Munro goes to talk to Slater, Slater reveals to Munro what his father said to him as he died, Munro is ready to kill Slater but then doesn’t when he realizes Slater has no idea what it means…
*masked riders rob the stage coach and dude, they take the money and also dude’s engagement ring, Munro, unmasked, comes along and points a gun at the leader, tells them to leave, they ride off with the money and ring, so what’s the point? That they didn’t kill dude?
*Hennessy stitches up dude, Munro takes off…
*Munro runs into Sutherland and some other riders…lots of riders…Sutherland is looking for Slater…Munro says Slater came through town but left a few days earlier, possibly to Nevada…
*Munro meets up with the gang, slaps one of them, takes most of the money and the ring, leaving the gang pissed off…
*Slater meets up with the sheriff, nothing happens…
*Slater and Hennessy talk, she just wants to bang…
*Slater goes to see dude, he’s late but can’t say why, finally the rail worker’s pay has arrived, dude asks Slater about Hennessy, clearly he’s going to propose
*Sutherland walks into Hennessy’s house, she has a gun, he asks to come in, tells her all about Slater, she tells him to get lost…
*in this same year, 2012, Sutherland was also in “The Hunger Games” and a TV movie version of “Treasure Island” that starred Eddie Izzard and Elijah Wood, and a movie called “Assassin’s Bullet” also with Slater
*two seconds later, Sutherland is in town, waiting for Slater, says hello…this movie doesn’t F*ck around…
*Sutherland tells Slater he will give him two days to meet him and go back with him…why?
*people say “F*ck” a lot…is this not a TV movie? It sure ain’t going into theatres, or maybe they hoped it would…having naughty words limits where it can be sold on cable, I would imagine…
*we’re not even an hour into this…this movie doesn’t F*ck around but it’s somehow slow as hell too
*Sutherland and his goons ride out of town but are ambushed by the masked riders, Munro thinks he’s killed Sutherland but he opens his eyes…
*Munro goes to the house, says he found the masked men all dead in the forrest, Slater doesn’t believe him for some reason…
*at the saloon, dude, Hennessy, Munro, Slater celebrate
*Slater and the sheriff ride off to another town, apparently it’s only a ten minute ride from there…I kinda doubt that…
*Slater and the Sheriff interrogate the bad guy, he’s about to spill his guts but Munro shows up and shoots him, claims he was just saving Slater as the guy was going for his other gun, Slater doubts him…
*Slater and Hennessy bang…
*Slater and dude walk through the woods at night, dig up a grave, dude still calls Slater’s father “Dad”, says he talked about him a lot…so he worked for the Express prior to this? When they showed up at his place for supper it was a coincidence? Do I care?
*all the dead men they dig up, who are I think Sutherland’s gang, don’t have the XX brand…they don’t out them back in the ground when they are done…
*dude and Munro are drunk at the saloon, Slater comes in as dude is practicing how he will propose, Munro taunts Slater, knows he and Hennessy have been banging, Slater and Munro fight, dude makes them stop…was sure in the fight Munro’s shirt was going to come off, since it came off so easily before…
*Munro goes to see Slater at the express office, they both apologize, Slater tells Munro his plan to daw out the bad guys by saying the money will be transferred the next morning, then Slater, once he has revenge, will turn himself over to Sutherland (hasn’t it already been two days and I guess no one knows he’s supposed to be dead and I guess they really don’t know that he’s supposed to actually be alive?), Slater tells Munro exactly what he shouldn’t tell the leader of a gang of thieves…
*Slater and Hennessy are about to bang when dude sees them, storms out…Slater notices she’s wearing the engagement ring, she says Munro gave it to her
*Hennessy confronts Munro, asks about the ring…
*dude wants to come along with Slater, is pissed…
*the stage is robbed, sheriff inside the coach with a deputy, has the drop on them but is an idiot and gets shot, Slater and dude are the only ones who survive, Munro is far away, shooting with a rifle, Slater sees him, chases him back to the ranch…
*Munro arrives, Hennessy is there, knows what happened, Slater shows up, she had a gun but says she couldn’t shoot Munro so there is a whole other storyline going on we haven’t seen, she kisses Slater and says “come back to me”, even though he’s planning on leaving soon to turn himself in…
*Slater vs. Munro shootout in the streets, apparently Munro’s gang are now the new sheriff and deputies, wtf?
*Slater hid the money so they arrest him, which makes no sense…Hennessy comes along, one of the “deputies” carries her off and it sounds like he’s assaulting her and Munro does nothing about it…weird…
*dude goes back to the ranch, we see him looking around the house like he’s in a horror movie, going room to room…this movie chooses now, ten minutes left, so slow down to a crawl?
*dude finds a coat, or something, and has a “eureka” look on his face for some reason…
*Slater is in prison…Munro talks to him, says he will sacrifice his sister to save the farm…what?
*dude talks to Munro, asks the stupid question if Slater and Hennessy are doing it, really? Hennessy walks in, is unfazed by what happened, Munro leaves Hennessy with his goon…
*Slater is talking to the deputy, apparently does the cliche neck-snap thing…lame…
*Hennessy had lots of guns earlier, but has none now, seduces the goon, shoots him but he doesn’t even scream or yell, seems more annoyed than about to die…lame
*Slater hasn’t escaped yet as he has to get the keys…Hennessy shows up and helps him
*they go to get dude but he’s drunk, they try to sober him up, wait for the bad guys to show up
*dude and Hennessy have a scene together, he says “great coffee” before Slater comes in and interrupts…poor dude, I guess that’s not really an important storyline, they can’t even have any dialogue…
*Slater wants dude to take Hennessy out of town, so Slater can fight them alone, dude agrees REALLY quickly which is hilarious…
*cut to dude carrying a tied up Hennessy through the woods, that’s pretty funny
*gang gets ready to fight Slater…hurry up!
*less than ten minutes to go…
*Slater shows up with Sutherland’s Texas Ranger badge, says Munro and his four minions are under arrest…okay I’m foggy on the Old West rules, so can you just declare yourself a Ranger? Like the goons declared themselves Sherriff and deputies earlier?
*wait, so Sutherland actually is dead? When did Slater take the badge?
*oh the bad guys have dude and Hennessy too?
*shootout…Slater blows up the money for some reason, dude gets shot, good guys win…
*Hennessy calls Munro a “son of a bitch” which is weird? Doesn’t that make her a “daughter of a bitch?”
*Sutherland shows up, alive, arrests Munro and says Slater is all good now…
*or I guess the badge was the dead Sheriff’s badge? I thought the goons took it…
*so Hennessy and Slater walk off into the sunset together, she’s pretty happy for someone whose brother just got arrested and dude got shot…
*bad movie…
Barton Fink 1991
*again, but not for awhile
**this is one of those supposed “all time greatest” movies but I have to be honest it has never connected with me…oh well…
*maybe ten years from now I’ll watch it and the light bulb will go off and I’ll be “enlightened” but not today…
====================
Lonesome Dove Church 2014 Western
*again, the movie starts with, in the credits, “Nasser Group North presents…A Nasser Group North Production…” okay then…
*low budget Canadian Western with Tom Berenger shot in the same Old West town in Vancouver, BC
*two guys hold up a stage coach, the people inside fight back, all the passengers die except for one accountant who escapes as the guys bicker
*they celebrate, the one guy smokes some opium and passes out
*next day at a church, Berenger is the preacher, does his sermon about the evils of slavery which come people don’t seem to enjoy
*as people leave, pastor gives Berenger a lecture about what he said, pastor fires him, insults his wife then shows him his son’s wanted poster, just to pour salt on the wound apparently…what a dick!
*wife isn’t supportive at all, tells him that if he tries to go help his son she’s outta there…
*he takes off to find his son, she’s pissed…
*this document keeps changing Berenger to Bringer so I’m going to call him “preacher” from now on
*preacher camps for the night, falls asleep, two guys rob him of his supplies, they laugh at him when he draws on them, he just lets them get away
*preacher arrives at a saloon, looks for his son, finds him very quickly (what luck!), they talk about stuff…I’m sure the boy will gladly turn his life around and…no, he tells his father to piss off…
*preacher leaves, passes the father of the man who was killed earlier as he enters the saloon with the accountant from before, he points out the son, they start fighting but it’s 3-on-1, father is more concerned about getting his money back from the stage coach, son fights back, throws a knife into one guy’s eye and there’s no sound effect, bad guys shoot each other, son gets away, but they go after him…
*the next morning, preacher finds his supply wagon, the son is stealing it from the two guys who stole it from him, they bicker, guys are after son, preacher agrees to help him escape, blah…
*Captain Singh from the Flash!
*they want to check preacher’s wagon but he talks them out of it
*they stop and talk more about stuff…
*bad guy father-dude shows up, asks Singh about if they searched any wagons going through, is mad they let preacher get through, kills one of Singh’s friends, tells him he has a week to find preacher
*preacher and son have a campfire and talk about more stuff…
*son sees Singh’s men walking through the woods looking for him, he hides behind a tree and evades their detection…
*shootout, Singh is shot, the other two get away…
*Singh slowly dies, preacher tries to comfort him, son doesn’t care, blah…long scene…this movie is very slowly paced and there are lots of scenes of people looking at stuff
*preacher buries Singh
*they mosey on…
*another campfire, another talk…
*bad guys pursuing them…
*arrive in THAT Old West town!
*preacher and son go into a saloon, where I’m sure nothing bad will happen…
*son’s old friend from the robbery is in town at a whore house, son goes to see him, guy is about to cut up a what’s face, son wants his money back from the robbery…he only has a little left after spending it all…
*guy’s name is Dutch apparently…
*more preacher talking
*preacher goes looking for work with a guy building a house, gets the job…
*preacher and guy talk, score is so loud we can barely hear their dialogue…
*son talks to a girl in the saloon, he’s always loved her and come back just of her…okay…
*1st girl to have dialogue since the wife left the movie…
*preacher talks about wanting to build a church there, guy shows him a lot of land where a hotel burned down, guy suggests that’s where they can build a church
*son (whose name is Isaac apparently) is walking with the girl, preacher gets in his face, makes a scene in the middle of the road, calls the girl a tramp…since when is he a dick?
*preacher shows up, apoligizes to “Angie” (that’s the girls’ name apparently), she has a son, they talk, etc.
*son has a job as the bartender in the saloon, preacher shows up, they talk more…
*preacher shows up at the house to fix the drafts, talks to girl again
*preacher and guy talk, come up with the name “Lonesome Dove”
*they hold sermons in an old barn until he is able to build the new church
*the wife shows up, apparently the son sent the preacher’s letter that he was too afraid to send…no explanation how he got the letter, or I just didn’t see it…totally possible…
*bad guy beats up son’s friend, friend gives up where son is, bad guy shoots him as he does a weird voice over that is ADR’d like crazy
*at church, girl and the kid show up, one guy freaks out calling girl a whore, stomps out when preacher defends her
*bad guy shows up, confronts son at the bar, they beat him up, randoms show up, are shot by the bad guys but it allows son to escape out the back door
*son runs to the preacher’s house, preacher tells him to hide in the root cellar (same place Christian Slater hid in the beginning of “Dawn Rider”, I’m guessing)
*bad guys show up with the girls as hostages (they know a lot about the people about this town despite just showing up), bad guy wants to search the house, preacher says no, the bad guys search the house, preacher and bad guy talk…
*where’s the little kid?
*bad guy talks like Samuel L. Jackson in “Pulp Fiction”
*shootout, with preacher pulling a gun out of his bible and killing the bad guy…
*happy ending!
*son, girl and the rest of the town show up to help build the church
*where’s the little kid?
*”Although Grapevine, Texas is nothing like it was in 1846, the Lonesome Dove Church is a consented for the people of grapevine, still going to this day.”
*well at least I now know where the term “Lonesome Dove” came from…other than that, it was better than “Dawn Rider” but still too slow…
==================
I Walk Alone 1947
*Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas
*a few minutes in, I can pretty much see where this is going…
*Lancaster gets out of jail after 14 years, his best friend Kirk Douglas has done well since, opening a night club and never visited Lancaster in jail
*Lancaster is pissed, confronts Douglas but Douglas sucks up to him
*Lancaster is sleeping with Lizabeth Scott but engaged to a rich girl
*of course Scott falls for Lancaster, it builds to Lancaster to Douglas with Wendell Corey caught in the middle
*Mike Mazurki!
*pretty standard stuff…
Cash McCall 1960
*James Garner!
*a few minutes in, getting deja vu as if I’ve seen this already…
*alots of characters going back and forth, including the Chief from “Get Smart” and neither Garner nor Natalie Wood have shown up yet…
*Natalie Wood is an artist and her mother really wants her to just hurry up and get married…
*so Garner and Wood know each other, had a love affair before no one knows about, Garner wants to get back together and talk to her but she storms out…
*Wood stubbornness is annoying but the way Garner keeps grabbing her arm isn’t great either…
*Wood’s mother practically starts licking her lips at Garner and the idea of him marrying her daughter…
*Garner then kidnaps her in his airplane…
*flashback to how they met…so they danced at a party, then knew each other for like ten minutes in a cabin, kissed and then of course THEY WERE IN LOVE!!!!! Oh movies…
*now I’m just annoyed…at least in “Casablanca” Bogart and Hepburn had an actual love affair that has some weight to it…
*so the picture Wood painted of Garner as Robin Hood was based on that one night? okay…
*then the movie becomes about patents…
*the jingling ice in Garner and the general dude’s glasses is annoying…
*so Garner and Wood are in love again…mother is very happy, father is suspicious…how many times are they going to break up and get back together before the end of the movie?
*Garner and Wood get married and there is a lot of movie left so I’m sure everything will be just fine…those crazy kids…
*so crazy lady tells Wood (off-screen) that Garner is, I guess, banging her behind Wood’s back, even though Wood and Garner have been back together for a minute…at least I didn’t have to actually see Wood storming out again…
*once they break it all down it does seem pretty shady what Garner did…
*90 minutes in and still lots of stuff to get through…
*Wood just disappeared, eh?
*oh hey look at that, a happy ending!
*Wood comes across as the voice of reason which is surprising considering her character in this film up to this point but whatever…
*I’ll watch James Garner in anything but even he said this “isn’t much of a movie…”
==========================
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street 2021
*friggin’ awesome - a must see!
==========================
My Blue Heaven 1990
*again but not since it came out
*was a huge Steve Martin fan back in the day, would see anything he was in, I remember when this came out and I watched it over and over, but I don’t remember much of it now, other than the basics…
*Bill Irwin! aka Mr. Noodle!
*Rick Moranis is watching TV, the signal ends for the day, they play the anthem and he stands up…I have always been a night owl, and I remember when I was a kid and this would happen and I would do the same thing (only it was the Canadian anthem, of course), was this where I learned it? 1990…well probably not…
*Moranis as an FBI Agent…just that alone is funny
*baby Joan Cusack! She’s 28 here but looks like she’s 21…she’s amazing of course…I guess this was her biggest role so far, I guess prior to this it would have been in “Working Girl” I guess…
*so she’s supposed to be a divorced mother of two and a small town’s DA? It’s Joan Cusack so I’m totally in!
*the “battle of wills” over the mint…great stuff…
*Daniel Stern!
*one of Cusack’s kids is played by Jesse Bradford…
*William Hickey!
*Martin and Moranis’ third time working together after “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Parenthood”
*Martin getting together with the other mobsters in witness protection, comparing their new names…hilarious
*Cusack and Martin’s 2nd interrogation is awesome, with Martin thinking of his cover story as he goes and Cusack’s reactions are tremendous
*they go to a ball game at the stadium in San Diego (probably not IRL but whatever)…I’ve been outside that Stadium many times for San Diego Comic Con but never been inside…
*Carol Kane!
*okay this movie is losing steam…
*Bill Irwin’s dance number is weird…not only the dance itself but how it’s shot…Irwin is shot in silhouette so you can barely see his face, almost like what they’d do if they wanted to make it look like him but someone else is doing it…like how they had Daniel Stern fall out of the house two scenes later…weird…
*Joan Cusack’s blue eyes!
*wow they really kicked the shit out of that hotel door!
*happy ending of course…
*one year later the baseball stadium is built and Martin has dumped Carol Kane for the cop (Melanie Mayron) and not only got her pregnant but she had a kid who is already grown a bit…did he get her pregnant the night before the time jump?
*Steve Martin is so amazing in this role, everything from his line delivery to his body language…he should have been nominated for an Oscar for this but of course he wasn’t…
*the movie itself, like I said before, loses steam towards the end but I still liked it…part of that could be nostalgia too…
*the movie was supposed to have Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Vinny role and Martin in the Moranis role, but Arnold pulled out so he could do “Kindergarten Cop” and the rest is history…
*okay the behind the scenes of this movie is even better as it turns out Nora Ephron wrote the script for this movie after doing research on gangster Henry Hill…but her husband is Nicholas Pileggi, who write the book “Wiseguy”…that book is what the movie “Goodfellas” is based on…”Goodfellas” was released one month later in theatres…crazy…obviously one of those movies is remembered as an all-time classic…
=====================
Toy Soldiers 1991
*again but not for a long time
*saw this when I was a kid, thought it was cool that the kids fought back against the bad guys but looking back now…yeesh…
*actually watching this around the same time I’m re-watching Star Trek: The Next Generation from S1 and seeing Will Wheaton there and well…he’s pretty annoying…he left the show and says he regrets it but we should all thank him…
*there were some tense moments but it’s all pretty silly…
*always great to see Louis Gosset Jr.!
======================
Superman The Movie: Special Edition 1978
*actually THIS version came out in 2001, technically…
*and then later in 2006 the “Richard Donner Cut” of Superman II was released…
*still amazing, still one of my top ten movies ever…
*aren’t many differences…the scene with Superman and Jor-El in the Fortress that begins with “You enjoyed it…”…adding the scenes where Luthor tries to stop Superman as he walks towards his lair (with machine guns, fire and ice) is added, that scene was included in some TV versions but not in any “official version”…
*there are some things that you have to “go with”, the biggest one to me is where Luthor and company are discussing the Daily Planet’s interview with Superman and talking about Kryptonite…we just witnessed said interview and none of that was mentioned so…
*there are other things too that aren’t included, possibly for the better, like the scene (while Superman is turning back time) of Perry White pouring toothpaste onto his tooth brush and it going back and forth…or is that one of those scenes I only imagined…?
*so Superman finds Lois in the desert, her car has died, she gets out and starts giving him shit…so this is only the third time they’ve seen each other, right?
*then Jimmy Olsen cock blocks Supes and then he starts giving him shit…now this is the first time Jimmy has ever talked to Superman, right?
*so many things I could not pick over but who cares? Christopher Reeve will always be Superman (although Brandon Routh, Tyler Hoechlin are great and Henry Cavill could be if he ever works with a good script) and this is Superman…too bad Richard Donner was the only one involved in this franchise who seemed to “get it”…give the Salkinds credit for thinking that this character deserved a big screen adaptation, but then not having the money to go through with it, and then firing Donner before he could complete “Superman II”…would “Superman 3” and “Superman IV” been so bad if Donner had been involved? Maybe but I’d like to have found out…
=======================
The Movies: The 80’s 2019
*just a long list of movies that, in fact, did come out in the 80’s
=======================
The Rookie 1990
*finally
*Clint Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, RAUL JULIA!
*also Lara Flynn Boyle, Tom Skerritt, Xander Berkeley, Tony Plana, Hal Williams…
*overshadowed by “Home Alone”
*apparently Julia and Sonia Braga are cast as Germans…can’t wait!
*directed by Eastwood
*so Eastwood’s partner is killed by Julia (was he two days away from retirement too?) in a way that shows he probably should have retired…
*Eastwood chases after the bad guys, who are driving one of those trucks that transport other cars and they “throw” the cars at Eastwood…wasn’t that a scene in one of the “Fast and Furious” movies?
*so is this the movie where Charlie Sheen stopped ding facial expressions? I didn’t notice till years later, maybe when he was doing “Two and Half Men” that Sheen had evolved, or de-volved, as an actor and never moved his face anymore…if he was a woman people would speculate he got a bad face lift or something…but anyway he just has the same blank expression whether he’s happy or sad or whatever…
*standard buddy cop action movie, like “Lethal Weapon” but without the charm or humour or charisma…
*Eastwood goes to punch Sheen but he blocks it…his agent must have fought hard for that in his contract…
*so Julia and Braga’s characters are really supposed to be German? With Puerto Rican accents?
*Eastwood gets kidnapped, Sheen goes crazy…
*Sheen goes to the bad guy bar, freaks out, blows fire into the bartender’s face but then for the rest of the scene, the bartender just stands there and watches
*Sheen shoots a dog then throws the other, then shoots his gun off…didn’t he run out of bullets?
*no disrespect to the actor playing “Ray” Pepe Serna but he’s doing a terrible job here
*Sheen makes a joke ”Candy gram for Mr. Mongo” but someone forgot to tell his face that…
*”It’s not just a job it’s a f*cking adventure…” okay Ray…
*so apparently Braga “rapes” Eastwood…okay…they kiss at one point and he never says “no please stop” or “get off of me”
*Sheen takes off to save Boyle but he doesn’t run, he just lightly jogs off…
*he rides a motorbike to get there…where did he get it? Did he commandeer one? How, the bad guy has his badge?
*so, Boyle is smart and figures out that the bad guy isn’t Ray, throws hot coffee into the bad guy’s face, but can’t get away because she can’t open her own front door…boo…
*so, the bag guy is a typical movie bad guy…Boyle throws coffee into his face, the beans him with a phone, Sheen beats the shit out of him, Boyle has to shoot him four times right in the chest before he drops…then Sheen leans over and checks his pulse to see if he’s really dead…I’d check too, bud…
*Boyle saves Sheen’s life and he yells at her saying “I needed him alive”…she should have shot him too…
*Sheen says “next time aim for the kneecaps” and Boyle says “I was aiming for the kneecaps”…that’s actually funny…Sheen’s face reacts appropriately and doesn’t react…
*another joke where Sheen again makes fun of the bad guy’s choice in paint for his car (green)…not funny either time…
*Sheen says “he outta have his ass removed…” so, wait…people say some dumb shit in movies…like the movie I watched a little while ago where the sister calls the bad guy brother a “son of a bitch” (or was it “bastard”)…but is removing someone’s ass the first thing you think of when thinking of punishing someone?
*okay so Braga knocks Eastwood out of his chair, only to then try to help him stand up…why did she knock him out of the chair?
*he then KO’s her with a side head butt…not even a real head butt and she’s out like a light…women are weak AND bad shots, right Clint?
*so much going on here…so Eastwood then wrestles another bad guy to the ground…he’s just a little guy so shocked that Clint has this much trouble with him…they wrestle over a gun, the gun rolls down some stairs and a second later there is a “bang” sound…did the gun land at the bottom of the stairs and go off by itself? Do guns go that?
*oh and by the way when Braga was raping Clint, she recorded it with a cam corder…during the wrestling, Clint backs into the cam corder and it starts playing back the rape/sex scene…cause why not see it again?
*actually the gun didn’t roll down some stairs, it fell down an elevator shaft but same difference…
*Eastwood and the little guy both fall down the shaft and land badly but Eastwood is okay cause he’s Clint and of course the little guy is dead…cause he’s not Clint, you see…
*we are an hour and 36 minutes in and Sheen has rescued Eastwood (cause he totally needed rescuing…he would have been fine if he just had a few more minutes…) but Julia and Braga have got away…there’s still MORE!
*Julia has seen the video of Braga having sex with Eastwood…will that come up later?
*there’s more stuff…there’s a whole ransome drop thing that’s over complicated…Ray and Sheen’s father, Skerritt, shows up with $2 million after the cops tried to get away with an empty suitcase…bad guy picked up the suitcase but apparently hadn’t noticed it was empty…this scene is way too complicated…I guess Ray needed more screen time?
*it all ends up at the airport, Xander Berkeley finally shows up an hour and 45 minutes into the film as Julia’s private jet pilot…
*Julia and Braga take off when Eastwood and Sheen show up and shoot Xander…
*they give chase, with Julia dropping the money and lots of lights flittering and planes driving by casting shadows…just like in “Heat”
*so wait a minute…Xander Berkeley was just shot a minute ago, but then he shows up driving the plane after Eastwood and Sheen trying to run them over…I rewinded it and he was shot in the heart by Eastwood…that guy is bad ass!
*but then he dies…and it’s so memorable that I can’t remember it…he was driving a plane so I’m guessing there was a big boom involved?
*Sheen and Eastwood chase Julia and Braga through LAX…this TAKES FOREVER!
*they split up…Sheen shoots Braga but just before that, they were both running down a corridor and Sheen is literally running next to her, with some chairs in between them…I didn’t know this was to be decided by a foot race…
*Sheen shoots Braga twice in the chest and when she won’t drop, shoots her right between the eyes…bad guys don’t go down easy in this movie…these Germans are tough!
*Eastwood and Julia then run and end up in the LAX luggage conveyor belt…hey I’ve been there!
*Eastwood has TWO guns, one (in his left hand) runs out of bullets, Julia goes to shoot him, Eastwood still has the other gun in his right hand, but doesn’t shoot it…was it also out of bullets? Why is he still holding on to it? If I had cared at all at this point, I would have been screaming at my TV “you have another gun in your other hand!”
*Sheen shows up and shoots Julia (they shoot each other actually but Sheen gets it in the let), but doesn’t kill him, Eastwood gets that honour…
*Eastwood crawls over Julia’s body at one point, briefly straddling him…I was expecting a joke by Julia about “what now are you going to have sex with me too?” but no…
*so Eastwood takes the silver bullet that was around Julia’s neck and shoots him with it…okay another movie thing I’ve always wondered about…you can’t just take random bullets and put them in random guns and fire them, can you? Specific bullets fit in specific guns don’t they? That’s how they can recognize bullets and match them to guns when doing forensics, right? Not that this movie, made in the late 80’s, would give a crap about that but still…
*also, Eastwood shoots Julia right between the eyes a close range but there is barely any blood anywhere…
*so Sheen shuffles up to Eastwood, they sit there next to the conveyor belt as luggage goes by and banter…this scene takes forever…shouldn’t Julia’s dead body come back around at some point?
*Sheen mentions that he took Eastwood’s bike so I guess that clears up that plot hole…
*Eastwood is totally fine then slumps over next to Sheen, seemingly dead but Sheen has no reaction what so ever…I mean, he hasn’t this whole movie….but not even a “Nick? Are you okay, Nick?”
*also where are the cops? An ambulance? A random passenger who is like “Is Clint Eastwood dead?”
*then the next scene they pretend Eastwood is dead for the big laugh when it’s revealed he isn’t dead but got promoted and they do the mirror-scene of when Sheen and Eastwood first met…ha ha ha…
*Eastwood says Ray got promoted upstairs…yeah right…I’m guessing he retired to pursue a career in acting…
*Sheen finally smiles in this movie…not a lot…it’s a bit more than a smirk but not much…
*the girl “Torres”, no disrespect, is horrible here…even in this small role…apparently she’s a Playboy model the Centrefold in the November 1984 issue (you’re welcome)…did Eastwood let Sheen cast this role? She can’t even believably walk down a hallway over the closing credits…
*wow this was bad…so so bad…
*Raul Julia made this then Addams Family…also made “Havana” around this time, although he went uncredited when the producers wouldn’t give him an above-the-title credit…he only made “The Plague” in 1992, “Addams Family Values” in 1993 and “Street Fighter” in 1994 and that’s it…
*I understand Eastwood, as a director, doesn’t like to f*ck around and shoots very few takes but there are a bunch of scenes in this that really needed another take…and did he cast his own movies? Cause clearly he needed help there…
*why would Julia take a role in this? To work with Eastwood? To work with Braga again after “Kiss of the Spider Woman”? I hope he got paid a lot, at least…
======================
The Grifters 1990
*finally
*been hearing about this movie since it came out…I think I watched it as a kid on “Super Channel” back in the day but don’t remember any of it…
*written by Donald E. Westlake, the man behind the “Parker” novels
*a 1990 movie starring Xander Berkeley! Coincidence!
*Annette Bening!
*stuff in the beginning where John Cusack uses a $20 bill to scam people is interesting…
*Cusack gets caught trying to scam a bartender, gets hit in the gut with a bat, but not too hard, and he’s injured…later he has to go to the hospital and nearly dies from internal bleeding…I almost laughed at this…nothing against this movie, but it’s more the fault of every other movie…like when a similar scene would happen in another movie but he would have been beat up by multiple men with bats and run over by a car and he would limp away but be fine the next day…or the hundreds of times I’ve seen someone get shot WITH A GUN in the shoulder and be totally fine cause it’s only the shoulder…anyway this realistic depiction of violence is refreshing but still strange…
*weird music choice over this Anjelica Hustin torture scene, almost as if it’s supposed to be funny or something rather than suspenseful
*Bening is naked a lot in this movie…remember when people were naked in movies?
*gotta say I was underwhelmed by this movie…it’s so strange watching a movie like this, that has been obviously so influential, but I’m seeing it after I’ve seen those other movies…I think I read this somewhere as “The Simpsons” effect where people would see the Simpsons parody something before they saw the thing the Simpsons was parodying…I can think of that scene where Side Show Bob does the “Cape Fear” parody…I definitely saw that before I actually saw the “Cape Fear” movie…anyway…
*I liked the beginning but it kind of meanders after that…I guess it all depends on if you care about Cusack, Bening and especially Huston’s characters…
*the last fifteen minutes, when it’s just Huston and Cusack talking and she’s trying to seduce him (despite being his mother) and all that…I had zero interest in them and wasn’t rooting for either one, honestly…
=======================
nothing
========================
nothing (two days in a row, that’s rare…)
*re-watching Supergirl S2
=======================
Watermelon Man 1970
*saw this was directed by Melvin Van Peebles, so I’m going on that alone…
*disclaimer: “The following film is presented as originally created. It contains offensive racial or cultural language and depictions that may be upsetting so some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.”
*Estelle Parsons! Three years after winning the Oscar for “Bonnie and Clyde”
*so this is about a white guy who wakes up one day and is black, like “Metamorphosis” or “Black Like Me”
*so they have a black actor, Godfrey Cambridge, in white face for the first part of the movie…the make up isn’t that convincing, although is it supposed to be?
*this guy has a tanning machine in his house?
*he races the bus to work everyday…funny scene but all I can think of is “he’s going to be so sweaty in those clothes then he has to war them all day…”
*”that’s an old wives tale…”
*Parsons is pretty awesome in this…she freaks out at first but not too much, then becomes the supportive wife trying to help her husband out of a jam…
*he’s a dick though…I guess that works for the character, hopefully he changes into a better person soon…
*oh geez I just realized the little daughter is Erin Moran, Joanie from “Happy Days”
*the kids take it in stride, just think he over did his tan which is great…
*could they say the word “Soya Sauce” a few more times…
*okay, so Jeff’s co-workers, especially his boss, seem cool with him and try to get things back to normal but he’s a dick about it with them…
*and then his doctor is also just trying to help and he’s a dick about it
*and again his wife is worried about him…is he going to start a character arc soon?
*Paul Williams!
*so over an hour into the movie and there is a montage…is this where his “change” happens? Off screen?
*”Know what I’d look like with blonde hair? A Grilled Cheese Sandwich!”
*apparently there was supposed to be two endings, Van Peebles ending (which is in the film) and one where it’s all a dream…Van Peebles “forgot” to film the dream ending which is a great way to end the movie the way you wanted to…
*so this is pure Hollywood…this movie is distributed by Columbia Pictures…they are happy with the finished product, and it’s a success so they offer Van Peebles a three-picture deal…Van Peebles turns it down so he can make “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song”, which ends up being the highest grossing in film up to that point…Columbia in turn rescinds their three-picture deal offer because…reasons…
*great movie, glad I watched it!
Engraved on a Nation: On the Line 2019
*TSN’s version of “30 for 30”
*about the rivalry between Team Canada and Team USA in Women’s Hockey, mostly at the Olympics, from 1998 to 2018
*I remember when this rivalry started, Canada was dominant for years and people doubted if Women’s Hockey should be in the Olympics if there was really only one good team, then USA won in Nagano and everything changed after that…
*I remember watching that Gold medal game, if I remember correctly I had to get up at 3am or something like that to watch it then being heartbroken when Canada lost…I was hooked on Women’s Hockey though and have been watching all those other games since…
*Team USA had their “Wolf pack” mantra…Team Canada had “B*tches never win” mantra…
*anyway, like they said in the doc, it was actually the best thing that could have happened to Women’s Hockey for the US to win as it gave the game tons of exposure they wouldn’t have gotten if Canada had won…
*again, as they say in the doc, Americans don’t celebrate losers, only winners…
*but then Canada goes to to win the next few Olympics (after the teams go back and forth with the IIHF World Championships every year), then USA wins the latest round in 2018, the 20 year anniversary of Nagano…
*I was today years old when I learned that the whole “Team USA walked over the Canadian flag in their dressing room” story was made up…had no idea…but it worked as motivation didn’t it?
*was curious why they brought up 9/11 but then it makes sense…also cool that it turns out the Canadians reached out to the Americans after even though they “hated each other” and also that the Americans appreciated it…
*great seeing them talk to Caroline Oullette, Cassie Campbell then later telling the story of Marie-Philip Poulin’s rise to being Canada’s next captain…
*had no idea Team USA had twins…I knew they were sisters but didn’t know they were twins…I don’t pay much attention to Team USA apparently…they are the enemy after all…
*great doc but I would have loved a longer piece, even a TV series, about this subject…watching this just as the 2021 Women’s IIHF World Championships are getting going so I’m pumped for the game tonight (Canada vs. Russia, er, ROC)
*Go Canada Go!
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The Chase 1966
*based on the thumbnail used, I thought this was a Western but it isn’t, just a movie starring Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Robert Duvall and Angie Dickinson!
*well I can tell this was a play originally…
*really slow beginning to this movie…
*this Janice Rule character seems like trouble
*so is the whole movie just going to be Redford running through the woods, talking to himself while the town “reacts” to him escaping from prison?
*Marlon Brando saying “Bubber”…pure comedy…even though it’s not supposed to be…
*wow none of these people seem very likeable, especially when they are all drunk
*Brando mumbles through the whole movie, then about an hour in, he starts to smoke a cigarette and then mumbles with it in his mouth so his dialogue is even more unintelligible…a GENIUS this man is!
*so these people are not only assholes but racist assholes!
*what is the point of the scene with Redford’s mother (Miriam Hopkins) talking to Angie Dickinson? At least it’s short…
*how does the old man know everything?
*wow that Richard Bradford character has a knock out punch, he KOed Brando and didn’t even come three inches to his face…
*wow they really beat the shit out of Brando…apparently Brando said later this was “an example of method acting”, so I guess that means he really got the shit kicked out of him? Hope it was worth it, dude…
*wow this movie is LONG!
*wow this Redford-Fonda scene is long…
*Redford going to jail would be the only reason Fonda would leave him for James Fox…
*another movie with a young Paul Williams! A very young Paul Williams…he was 20 when this movie came out…
*well that whole scene at the junkyard was something…
*so the vigilantes end up killing Redford, Brando beats up the one who actually shoots him but the guy who nearly killed him gets away scott free?
*Brando and Dickinson just drive away…?
*Fonda loses her husband and her boyfriend, just walks off as the credits roll…
*that’s a terrible ending…if they wanted to make a statement, just show people going back to work the next day, the Bradford character going to work like nothing happened, the Janice Rule character and the Duvall character still continuing along in the same relationship…that would have sent more of a message, at least IMHO…
*Penn said he made concessions to the studio when he made this, then they took it away from him in post production and it ended up a bomb…
*Penn next made “Bonnie and Clyde”…
*way too long and it’s over and hour in before anything really starts to happen…if they had cut the first hour down, maybe it could have had a chance? Maybe?
*while I love it and appreciate it, it is still funny to watch Mank, after the movie plays, to talk about what a misfire and a bomb it was…someone could then argue “The why did TCM show it?” cause THEY ARE TCM that’s why! They show movies…
*I’m glad they showed it and glad I watched it but never will again…
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Wonder 2017
*only watched this because Izabela Vidovic (who plays young Kara on “Supergirl”) is in it…
*at first I admit I wasn’t into this…early on Izabela only has a few lines despite being in the background so I figured the whole movie would go by and she would only have a few lines…I was definitely wrong! She’s basically the 2nd most important character in the movie, despite Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson also being in it…
*the movie is two hours long, and I’m pretty sure that if she wasn’t so awesome, most of her scenes would have been left on the cutting room floor…ever read up on a movie and they say “so-and-so was in the movie a lot more but their storyline ended up on the cutting room floor” I can see this movie being one of the exceptions…I wonder if the director Stephen Chbosky, had to argue to keep those scenes in…I can see studio notes saying “Why is the sister in it so much? The story is about the boy…”
*actually Owen Wilson is the one left in the dust here he has the fewest lines/screentime out of the main four characters…
*the movie is like a two hour TV series, with new characters being introduced as the movie goes along, lots of twists and turns as far as friends betraying friends, animals dying, etc.
*Emma Tremblay, who played Ruby on “Supergirl” S3, has a small role here…apparently she is the older sister of star Jacob Tremblay…and is from Vancouver!
*Sonia Braga plays Izabela’s grandmother! I’m seeing the same actors a lot lately, all by total coincidence, at least from my perspective…
*the novel, and this movie’s title was inspired by the song Natalie Merchant’s “Wonder” which I had never heard until today…
*weird that, if I remember my own memories correctly, I heard this was supposed to be a remake of “Mask” (the Cher one, not the Jim Carrey one) but while the story is very similar, it’s not…
*kinda strange how they add stuff like Chewbacca showing up, and all the Minecraft stuff, which I guess is cool that they got Lucasfilm to cooperate but in 2021 it kind of takes me out of it as I’m thinking “wait, is Peter Mayhew under there or the new guy?”
*shot in Vancouver, other than the Coney Island stuff of course…
*Danielle Rose Russel, who plays Izabela’s on and off best friend in the movie, went on to also star on The CW and be one of the lead roles on “The Originals” and “Legacies”
*actually of all the things in the movies that were supposed to make me cry, the scene that got me was where Russell calls and talks to Tremblay’s character just to check on him, even though she isn’t friends with Izabela anymore…that got me…it immediately redeemed her character to me…
*it’s pretty amazing that, at one point, Izabela says to the Tremblay character “Not everything is about you” and isn’t portrayed as an absolute monster for it…
*that being said, this movie is very long so be prepared for that…
Jessica 1962
*it’s Maurice Cevalier day on TCM’s Summer Under the Stars…
*plus this had Angie Dickinson so I’m watching it…
*Dickinson plays a woman who married a man who dies in Sicily on their honeymoon so she decides to stay there and earns the resentment of all the women in the village cause Angie Dickinson is a goddess and they can’t deal…
*Maurice Chevalier was 74 when this movie came out…
*Dickinson was in this three years after “Rio Bravo”, two years after “Ocean’s Eleven” and four years before “The Chase”
*not much to see here, always good to see Chevalier and also Agnes Moorehead too…
*and I’ll watch anything with Angie Dickinson, so…
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Rumble Fish 1983
*finally
*I think I’ve always got this movie confused with “Drugstore Cowboy” and it’s always been seen as “lesser-coppola”, plus it’s not like it’s ever on TV so…
*Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper, Nicolas Cage, Chris Penn, Laurence Fisburne, Tom Waits…quite the cast!
*Sofia Coppola as Diane Lane’s little sister!
*Rusty James…Rusty James…can’t just call him Rusty?
*this is…quite the movie…
*so did Dillon have sex on that couch? I guess it was one of those Hollywood “sex with their clothes on” sex scenes…
*the guy Dillon fights didn’t need a knife if he could take a beating like that…
*the acting choices are definitely interesting here…
*the black and white and the cinematography really make me think of “Sin City”
*Diane Lane was 18 when this came out…
*Matt Dillon was 19 when this came out…
*so Dillon gets his stomach sliced open and doesn’t get stitches…did they at least crazy glue the wound closed?
*Dennis Hopper says all his dialogue with a cigar in his mouth…
*can’t understand Rourke…he’s so soft spoken, almost whispering, he’s hard to understand…
*so they break into someone’s house and party…lots of teen nudity…I think we even “get to” see Nicolas Cage’s ass…
*Dillon has sex with a girl with dark hair who I don’t think is Diane Lane…the way the scene is shot it’s unclear…
*okay based on the next scene, that definitely wasn’t Diane Lane…
*so Rourke is half deaf AND colour blind?
*Cage set it up so Dillon would cheat on Lane and then sweep in himself…pretty smart…
*so Coppola adds colour when Rourke and Dillon are looking at the Rumble Fish…neat effect but if they expect me to search for deeper meaning…not today…
*Richard Corliss’ review at the time said “In one sense, then, “Rumble Fish” is Coppola’s professional suicide note to the movie industry, a warning against employing him to find the golden gross. No doubt: this is his most baroque and self-indulgent film. It may also be his bravest.” okay then…
*after all that, then they play THAT music over the closing credits?
*okay, apparently Coppola saw this movie as a tribute to his brother which is very cool…good for him…but I’ll never be watching this again…
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nothing
*re-watching Community S2, AP Bio S3
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The Alphabet Murders 1966
*Tony Randall day on TCM Summer Under the Stars
*had no idea Tony Randall played Hercule Poirot…can’t be worse than Kenneth Branagh…
*so apparently this is a parody of Poirot movies…what, so Peter Sellers wasn’t available? They couldn’t get the rights to the Pink Panther?
*BTW 1st Pink Panther movie came out in 1963, three years before this…
*Randall has to wear a bald cap and fake nose, in addition to the crazy moustache, and there were scenes early on where I was like “Who is that? Is that supposed to be Poirot?”
*seriously, Poirot isn’t supposed to be silly or do slapstick…
*Patrick Newell, who played “Mother” on “The Avengers”…
*Miss Marple cameo! Is this the only time they had a crossover?
*Julien Glover from “Empire Strikes Back” AND “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”!
*meh, not much here…
Island of Love 1963
*Tony Randall day on TCM Summer Under the Stars
*Randall is top billed, with Robert Preston, but the reason I’m watching this is Walter Matthau!
*Matthau is in this the same year as “Charade”, a year before “Fail Safe”, three years before “The Fortune Cookie”…
*funny as Matthau played Oscar in “The Odd Couple” movie and Randall played Felix in “The Odd Couple” TV series…
*Matthau is a gangster with a lisp who Preston and Randall try to get to fund their “Adam and Eve” movie…
*Preston again plays a huckster after “The Music Man”, which came out a year before…
*geez a half hour in and they’ve already convince Matthau to fund the movie, filmed the movie and are at the premiere…
*so Preston and Randall are on the run and Matthau is after them for wasting his money, so they go to Greece and wackiness ensues…
*Matthau is after them, looking all over the world then also goes to Greece with his fiance as a coincidence…
*long stretches of the movie has a severe lack of Walter Matthau…
*Michael Constantine is the 3rd man in the Preston/Randall scheme…
*also long stretches where there is no Randall…just Preston…lots of Preston…
*so Matthau happens to be the uncle to the Greek girl who Preston is engaged to so then suddenly Matthau can’t kill him cause they are “flesh and blood”…I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works…
*kinda reminds me of the “Road to…” movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope but without alot of the charm…and no singing either…
*not bad but not good either…Matthau’s lisp got annoying after awhile which is strange since he really wasn’t in the movie that often
*I’ll watch anything with Matthau…at least once anyway…
*so after the first half hour goes by super quick, the rest of the movie slogs along…it ends up being 1 hour 45 minutes which is WAY TOO LONG! The stuff in Greece takes 1 hour 15 minutes and drags the movie to a halt…
**end of Part One…