Cleaning Out the DVR Pt 9: Film Noir Festival Redux

Posted on August 16, 2016 by gary loggins

Welcome back to the decadently dark world of film noir, where crime, corruption, lust, and murder await. Let’s step out of the light and deep into the shadows with these five fateful tales:

PITFALL (United Artists 1948, D: Andre DeToth) Dick Powell is an insurance man who feels he’s stuck in a rut, living in safe suburbia with his wife and kid (Jane Wyatt, Jimmy Hunt). Then he meets hot model Lizabeth Scott on a case and falls into a web of lies, deceit, and ultimately murder. Raymond Burr costars as a creepy PI who has designs on Scott himself. A good cast in a good (not great) drama with a disappointing ending. Fun Fact: The part of Scott’s embezzler boyfriend is played by one Byron Barr, who is not the Byron Barr that later changed his name to Gig Young.

THE BRIBE (MGM 1949, D:Robert Z. Leonard) Despite an…

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Here’s The Latest Image of It’s Pennywise The Clown!

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, as you may know, there’s a new version Stephen King’s It coming out. It’s scheduled to be released next year and it’ll star Bill Skarsgard as everyone’s favorite killer clown, Pennywise!

A new image of Pennywise’s costume appeared earlier today in Entertainment Weekly and here it is:

I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of this look. According to the EW article, the film’s costume designer decided to incorporate ideas from all eras of clowning, in order to show that Pennywise has been around for centuries.

But, to me, that kind of misses the point. In the book, It appeared in many different forms, depending on who it was dealing with and it’s goal was at the time. It used the form of Pennywise the Clown to both get the attention of and to scare the Hell out of children. In the book, Pennywise kills Georgie Denbrough in 1957. In the upcoming film, the timeline has been updated so that Georgie dies in 1989. But, in both cases, why would Pennywise use the form of a Victorian-era clown to attack children in the 20th Century? Wouldn’t Pennywise appear as a contemporary clown?

I may be overthinking this but, honestly, it’s difficult for me to look at this Pennywise without thinking about the time that Bobby Hill performed as Tartuffe the Spry Wonder Dog on King of the Hill.

Am I right? Am I wrong? What do you think of this new Pennywise?

Who Is “Superwoman,” Anyway?

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Trash Film Guru

Way back in the dim and foggy past — as in, less than five years ago — DC rolled out their “New 52” publishing initiative, and while the then-new line was understandably heavy on books that fell under the loosely-defined “Superman Family” and “Batman Family” umbrellas, a certain amount of space was also carved out for “weird” or “offbeat” titles like Dial H, Frankenstein, Agent Of SHADE, Justice League Dark, I, Vampire, OMAC, All-Star Western, and others that trod a path somewhat less beaten. It was something of a gutsy call, and while most of these series were given a pretty short sales leash (with a good many of them biting the bullet sooner rather than later), I gave ’em props for being willing to throw a lot of shit at the wall in order to see what would stick.

And what stuck, of…

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Here’s The Full Trailer For Arrival!

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in a movie directed by Denis Villeneuve? Could Arrival be this year’s sci fi best picture nominee? Or will it turn out to be more like Interstellar?

I’m hoping for the former!

(But then again, who isn’t?)

Check out the full trailer below!

The Original Godzilla is BACK! Check out this trailer for Godzilla Resurgence (a.k.a. Shin Godzilla)!

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The first, the best, the original Godzilla — HE’S BACK!

Check out this trailer for Shin Godzilla (a.k.a. Godzilla Resurgence). Eventually, it’ll make its way over the States. Until it does, why not reread my review of my favorite Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah?

Music Video of the Day: Zombie by The Cranberries (1994, dir. Samuel Bayer)

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Valerie Troutman

Wow. That was a pretty terrible music video. Again, I thought I was done with Ministry, but I apparently had The Cranberries’ Zombie picked out to spotlight after 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up. If you don’t know, The Cranberries were very much a college rock band with their album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? before moving on to the album with Zombie on it. The first album has the songs you have most likely heard such as Dreams and Linger. Good stuff, but nothing like the go for the jugular songs such as Zombie or Salvation. Too bad this video doesn’t go for the jugular. I started watching it, and just wanted to take Dolores O’Riordan away and wash that gold stuff off of her.

Let’s talk about the director of this music video for a moment because he is the one behind some of the best known music videos of the era. Samuel Bayer directed Smells Like Teen Spirit, No Rain, and Bullet With Butterfly Wings to name a few of the more than 70 music videos he has done. He is also the director of the 2010 version of Nightmare On Elm Street. According to IMVDb, he made a music video as recent as this year for the group Jesse & Joy. What happened here?

It’s a simple song about the IRA. Why is it getting Heart-Shaped Box in my Cranberries? The kids around her look like those creatures from the music video for Schism by Tool. The best parts are when it is simply the band performing while intercut with black and white footage of the streets with soldiers on them. Simple! But no, we need O’Riordan panted gold and kids on the street who look like they are laughing at times. Not because that’s what they are supposed to be doing, but I believe because of what they were being asked to do. That’s great considering I would imagine the group intended this song to be taken quite seriously. Heck, this came out only a year after In The Name Of The Father (1993).

I guess this is what the music video for Steve Perry’s Oh Sherrie might have looked like if they had stuck with the one they were filming at the start of the actual video. It’s ridiculous and unnecessarily artsy just to be artsy. If this were a feature film, then I would say skip it, but this is only about five minutes. So behold, one of the worst music videos I have done a post on.