Scenes I Love: Peter Weir’s Witness

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes from Peter Weir’s 1985 film, Witness.  In this scene, the Amish come together and raise a barn.  This scene celebrates community and also gives Harrison Ford a chance to show off his real-life carpentry skills.

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix for To Live and Die In L.A!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties.  On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday.  On Mastodon, I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We tweet our way through it.

Tonight, at 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix!  The movie?  1985’s To Live And Die In L.A!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find To Live and Die In L.A. on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  I’ll be there happily tweeting.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

See you there!

 

 

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Peter Weir Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

August 21st is the birthday of the great director Peter Weir.  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Peter Weir Films

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975, dir by Peter Weir, DP: Russell Boyd)

The Last Wave (1977, dir by Peter Weir, DP: Russell Boyd)

Witness (1985, dir by Peter Weir, DP: John Seale)

The Truman Show (1998, dir by Peter Weir, DP: Peter Biziou)

Music Video of the Day: I’m The Man by Anthrax (1987, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

One of the first rap/metal songs, I’m The Man was originally meant to be a collaboration between Beastie Boys and Anthrax.  However, because the two bands could never work out their schedules, Anthrax ended up just doing the song on their own, with Frank Bello, Charlie Benante, and Scott Ian tying to do their best Beastie Boy impersonation.  Even though the band viewed the song as just being a joke between friends, it went on to become one of Anthrax’s most unexpected hits.

Most listeners will recognize a sample of Sam Kinison as the source of the song’s primal screams.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.17 “The Last Kill”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Hunter helps an ex-girlfriend.

Episode 1.17 “The Last Kill”

(Dir by Bruce Kessler, originally aired on April 20th, 1985)

Internationally famous model Christine Le Masters (Stephanie Blackmore) thinks that her husband, Kerry (Madison Mason), is cheating on her. Christine tells Kerry that she’s heading to the airport to catch a flight for Europe and a new ad campaign. Instead, she follows Kerry when he heads over to a cheap motel. Christine is expecting to catch her husband with his mistress. Instead, she finds a prostitute who has been shot in the back of the head by a hitman.

Not wanting her husband to know that she lied about leaving the country, Christine goes to an ex-boyfriend for help. The name of that ex-boyfriend? Rick Hunter.

Hunter and McCall do investigate and discover that the prostitute is just one of many low-level criminals who have apparently all been killed by the same assassin. Hunter uses his little-mentioned mob contacts to dig into the murders and finds out that there’s a hitman named George who has been killing everyone involved in a plot to blackmail a mob boss. However, George appears to be doing this out of the kindness of his heart. Hunter suspects that George is just trying to get close to the mob boss so that he can kill him. He also suspects that George is actually Kerry Le Masters!

Is Hunter just jealous that Kerry is married to his ex-girlfriend, or is he correct about Kerry being a killer? It turns out that both things can be true! Don’t worry, though. Even though Kerry is holding a gun at his wife’s head at the time, Hunter is still able to shoot him without hurting Christine. Hunter tells police dispatch to send “the coroner’s wagon.” The police dispatcher doesn’t sound surprised. Hunter kills an average of three people a day.

This episode never really made it clear why Kerry would decide to become a hitman in the first place. I mean, he’s already rich. But I did appreciate that the Hunter family’s mob ties were mentioned again and that we got to learn a little about his past. When Kerry told Hunter that the two of them were heading for a standoff that only one would survive, Hunter replied, “Works for me.” It was a cool moment on an otherwise standard episode of Hunter.

Brad’s Beach Books!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

My wife is due a good, relaxing vacation at the beach. Back in June, we took off from central Arkansas in our Toyota Camry, eventually making our way to the Canadian border and back home over the course of about 9 days. We drove around 3,500 miles with stops in Nashville, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, White River Junction (VT), Niagara Falls, Louisville, and Memphis. We had a blast, and it was a special trip, but we were worn out when we got home. Well next week I’m taking her to the beautiful white sands of Perdido Key, FL. She told me that she may not want to leave the condo all week! While I suspect that may not be completely true, I do understand her desire to relax with a beautiful view, a brisk gulf breeze, and a few opportunities to dig her toes into the sand. We can’t wait! 

I’m also looking forward to settling in with a few of the entertainment related books on my shelf. I’m definitely taking these three:

“Boxed In – Trapped in 80’s Television,” by Fanacek:  I’ve read the first 100 pages of this exhaustively researched book on 80’s TV. It’s a very funny read, and it’s full of so much good info, especially for someone like me who went from 7 to 17 during that decade. I literally grew up on the shows he discusses. And just in case you’re worried I’ll finish it too early in the week, rest easy because it’s about 750 pages long. I may not get to anything else!! 

“Marlon Brando – Hollywood Rebel,” by Burt Kearns:  I must confess that I don’t know as much about Marlon Brando as I should, especially if I want to call myself a serious film buff. Burt has been a guest on the This Week in Charles Bronson podcast a couple of times, and I enjoyed his book on troubled Hollywood tough guy Lawrence Tierney. I think he’ll be the perfect guide as I enter the world of Brando. 

“Winner Takes All – a life of sorts,” by Michael Winner: I really need to read this one. Michael Winner directed the first three DEATH WISH films, and a total of six Charles Bronson films, so I know there will be a lot of good information on my movie hero. Winner also directed a lot of other good movies and even spent time as a restaurant/ food critic in his later years. It’s well past time for me to cross this one off the list. 

There are others that I’ll probably take as well, such as Dwayne Epstein’s “Killin’ Generals: The Making of the Dirty Dozen” and “Lee Van Cleef” by Mike Malloy. I can definitely see some Brad’s Book Reviews in the near future! I’m just excited to have some time to slow down, relax and read about the people who interest me.

Retro Television Review: Harry’s Battles 1.1 “Pilot”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  This Thursday, I will be reviewing Harry’s Battles, which aired its only episode on ABC in 1981.  The show can be found on YouTube!

Episode 1.1 “Pilot”

(Dir by Adam Rafkin, aired on June 8th, 1981)

Harry Fitzsimmons (Dick Van Dyke) is a grocery store manager who doesn’t understand why life has to be so complicated. During the opening credits, we watch as a gas station attendant (Joe Regalbuto) changes the price of unleaded while Harry is filling up his tank. We watch as the car-wash guy (Joe Regalbuto again) changes the radio station in his car. We watch as a postman (played by, you guessed it, Joe Regalbuto) clumsily tosses Harry’s package into the street after Harry tells him that it’s fragile.

Harry is easily frustrated, and anyone who has ever had to deal with any sort of bureaucracy will be able to understand where he’s coming from. In this episode, he and his wife, Mary Carol (Connie Stevens), are planning a night at the theater with their best friends, Herb (Danny Wells) and Diane (Marley Sims). They’re going to see Kate Jackson in Evita. But then Mary Carol gets something in her eye, and Harry decides to run her by the emergency room to get it checked out. It should only take a few minutes….

Two hours later, Harry is demanding to know where his wife is, the nurse on duty (Brooke Alderson) is more interested in talking on the phone than talking to him, and Dr. Harwood (Joe Regalbuto) is making jokes like, “We may lose patients on the operating table but not in the halls.”

It turns out the ER is short-staffed because everyone is at a party for the departing head of psychiatry. Harry talks to the incoming head of psychiatry, Dr. Jorgensen (David Ruprecht), who starts talking about the wrath that he’s going to bring down on the world. Only Harry seems to notice that the incoming head of psychiatry is apparently insane.

When Dr. Harwood announces that he’s found Harry’s wife, he rolls out an elderly woman (Florence Halop) in a wheelchair. When Harry insists that the woman is not his wife, both Dr. Harwood and the nurse reply that the woman is named “Mrs. Fitzsimmons” and therefore she is Harry’s wife. Eventually the woman announces that she’s escaping and rolls out of the hospital. Only then does it occur to the doctor and the nurse that the woman might not be Harry’s wife despite her last name. They have a good laugh over it.

When Mary Carol is finally found, she’s on a gurney and can barely walk or talk because of the painkillers she’s been given for her broken collarbone. “See,” Harwood says, looking at the X-ray, “look at that finger-shaped bone!” “That is my finger!” Mary Carol finally manages to say. Harry loses it and accuses Dr. Harwood of being incompetent. The doctor responds that not everyone can afford to go to the theater and that he is proud to be a doctor for those people. All of the patients in the ER applaud….

I’ve watched a lot of pilots for this feature and most of them are pretty bad. Harry’s Battles is actually really good and still funny and relatable nearly 45 years after it first aired. (It’s amazing to think that Dick Van Dyke, who was in his fifties when he did this pilot, is still with us.) Harry’s anger is the anger that everyone feels while dealing with incompetence. His frustration with paperwork and bureaucratic nonsense remains relatable. If anything, it’s probably even more relatable today than when this pilot first aired. We live in an overly regulated society and, sadly, there are a lot of people currently running for office who want to make things even more regulated. Dick Van Dyke may be a DSA supporter, but Harry Fitzsimmons definitely would have known better. I also really like the idea of Joe Regalbuto playing everyone who annoys Harry. Watching this pilot, it was easy to imagine week after week of various Regalbuto characters making Harry’s life difficult.

Sadly, this pilot was not turned into a television series. If Harry’s Battles had become a series, it probably would have been a classic. As it is, we’ve got this one episode that encourages us to consider what could have been.

Villain of the Day: Boyd Crowder (Justified)

Posted on by Arleigh

“I’ve been accused of being a lot of things, inarticulate ain’t one of them.” — Boyd Crowder

Boyd Crowder, as portrayed by Walton Goggins in Justified, stands as one of television’s most compelling villains, a character whose depth and complexity elevate him far beyond the typical antagonist. What makes Boyd so fascinating is his multidimensionality—he is at once a criminal mastermind, a charismatic preacher, and a man deeply rooted in the moral ambiguities of his Kentucky upbringing. Unlike one-dimensional villains who exist solely to oppose the hero, Boyd is a fully realized character with his own code of honor, twisted though it may be. His intelligence, wit, and ability to manipulate those around him make him a constant challenge for Raylan Givens, the show’s protagonist. Boyd doesn’t just oppose Raylan; he understands him, often mirroring his quick thinking and sharp tongue, which creates a dynamic tension that drives the series forward.

What truly sets Boyd apart is his ability to evolve throughout the series. He begins as a white supremacist with a violent streak, but his character arc takes him through a journey of self-discovery, reinvention, and even moments of redemption. Walton Goggins’ performance is a masterclass in balancing menace with charm, making Boyd both terrifying and oddly likable. His speeches, often laced with biblical references and folksy wisdom, reveal a man who sees himself as a kind of outlaw philosopher, justifying his actions through a warped moral lens. This intellectual and verbal sparring with Raylan—another man of sharp intellect and a complicated past—creates some of the show’s most electric scenes. Their relationship is less about good versus evil and more about two sides of the same coin, each man representing a different path taken from the same starting point.

Boyd’s role as a foil to Raylan is central to Justified’s appeal. Where Raylan is the cool, collected lawman who operates by a strict personal code, Boyd is the chaotic force who bends the rules to his will. Yet, both men share a deep connection to Harlan County and its culture of violence, loyalty, and survival. Their mutual respect, and even affection, adds layers to their rivalry. Boyd doesn’t just hate Raylan; he enjoys their cat-and-mouse game, often taunting him with a grin that suggests he’s always three steps ahead. This dynamic keeps the audience guessing—who will outsmart the other? Their confrontations are less about physical violence and more about psychological warfare, with Boyd frequently getting under Raylan’s skin by exposing his vulnerabilities.

Another aspect of Boyd’s greatness as a villain is his unpredictability. Just when it seems he’s cornered, he finds a way to flip the script, whether through sheer audacity, manipulation, or brute force. His ability to command loyalty from his followers, even as he betrays and discards them, speaks to his magnetic personality. Walton Goggins imbues Boyd with a physicality that’s both intimidating and mesmerizing—whether he’s calmly negotiating or exploding into rage, every movement feels deliberate and dangerous. This unpredictability makes him a constant threat, but it also makes him endlessly watchable. The audience is drawn to him, even as they root for Raylan to bring him down.

Ultimately, Boyd Crowder’s brilliance as a villain lies in his humanity. He’s not a monster; he’s a man shaped by his environment, his past, and his own flawed sense of justice. His relationship with Raylan is the heart of Justified, a dance between two men who are more alike than either would care to admit. Boyd forces Raylan to confront his own demons, while Raylan represents the path Boyd could have taken—if only he had chosen differently. Their final confrontation is a testament to the power of their dynamic: it’s not just about winning or losing, but about the legacy each leaves behind. Boyd Crowder, as written and performed, is a villain for the ages—one who challenges, fascinates, and lingers in the mind long after the screen fades to black.

Villain of the Day