Artwork of the Day: Nude in the Mirror

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Dazzling Erin

by Harry Barton

Music Video of the Day Update

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I should be back tomorrow. Also, I will have to go for a couple days during the coming week because of a hospital procedure, but I’ll post before I do that. Thanks!

A Movie A Day #159: Gangster No. 1 (2000, directed by Paul McGuigan)

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

While at a boxing match, an aging gangster (Malcolm McDowell) learns that his former mentor and eventual rival, Freddy Mays (David Thewlis), is about to be released from prison. The gangster flashes back to when he was a young man (played by Paul Bettany) who worked as an enforcer for and eventually betrayed Freddy.

Gangster No. 1 came out at the height of America’s fascination with British gangsters but this is no Guy Ritchie heist film. Gangster No. 1 is brutal and violent, with little humor to alleviate the savagery. Even though Gangster No. 1 does a good job recreating and capturing the look and feel of the swinging London of the 1960s, it still does away with almost all of the romantic revisionism that made many British crime films so popular in the late 90s and early aughts. The gangster (who is nameless throughout the film) is not an eccentric anti-hero. He’s not a Kray brother. Unlike Freddy, who has integrity and is redeemed by his love for Karen (Saffron Burrows), the gangster is a violent sociopath who, when young, will do anything to be number one and who, when old, is disillusioned to discover just how empty life is at the top. As violent and uncompromising as it is, it may not be a film for everyone but it still an interesting twist on the typical gangster film.

Even though it is hard to imagine Bettany growing up to look like McDowell, they both contribute good and complimentary performances as the same character. David Thewlis also gives a good performance as Freddy Mays. Since Thewlis is usually typecast as a villain, it’s always interesting to see him play a hero (or as close as anyone in Gangster No. 1 can come to being a hero).

Book Review: HOPE: Entertainer of The Century by Richard Zoglin (Simon & Schuster, 2014)

Posted on June 16, 2017 by gary loggins

cracked rear viewer

He was unquestionably one of the most famous, most recognized persons of the 20th Century, the father of what we now know as stand-up comedy, the first true multi-media star. A patriot and a philanderer, a giver and a taker, a smart-mouthed comic and a friend to presidents and generals. But who was Bob Hope, really? This ambitious 2014 biography by Richard Zoglin attempts to answer that question, a meticulously researched tome that tries to uncover the private man behind the public mask.

with vaudeville partner George Byrne

Zoglin digs deep into the available archives and uses interviews with those that knew him to paint his portrait of the notoriously reticent Bob Hope, reaching all the way back to his hardscrabble beginnings as an immigrant in Cleveland with six brothers, an alcoholic father who was an itinerant stone cutter, and a stern but loving mother who served as the de facto head…

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Artwork of the Day: Strangers in Paradise

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Dazzling Erin

Artist Unknown

Music Video of the Day: Loverboy by Billy Ocean (1984, dir. Maurice Phillips)

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I’m not very knowledgable about Billy Ocean. But if there’s a stranger Billy Ocean video, then I wanna see it.

The video starts off, and we see Ocean get trapped inside a triangle.

After traveling through the universe, we finally land on the alien planet of the UK.

More specifically, the outdoor set of the video for Shout by Tears For Fears.

Shout by Tears For Fears (1984)

We follow this guy along the beach for some reason…

even though our hero looks different when he arrives.

After posing for the music video thumbnail…

we start to enter this cave along with the Billy Ocean triangle. There’s all kinds inside, but our hero goes right over to the BarBot.

Ocean continues to be trapped inside of a triangle.

Our hero spots, who I assume he’s here to find.

They exchange some glances, and he responds by whipping his tongue in the air.

Oral sex? It’s not a stretch considering the lyrics, the song title, and these followup shots.

Dog sailor.

Horny.

Johnny Wadd.

If this car is rockin’, don’t come knockin’.

After that, we see that Ocean is now trapped in the mirror from Superman 2.

He gets hit by some sort of phaser, which appears to force him into the shape of a cube.

Back in the bar, things are coming to a head, as he, and the people around the woman he wants, exchange some glances. This includes our hero once again, throwing his tongue up in the air.

The BarBot…

and one of Kang and Kodos’ cousins has to see what’s about to happen.

Someone is a fan of Star Wars because I have no idea who shot first.

Let’s go!

Meanwhile outside, the sand people who are indigenous to the limestone ridge on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England–or Durdle Door for short–are worshipping the Billy Ocean cube.

Look honey, I know you’re not exactly enthusiastic about this, but it’s for the best.

Cliff Richard needs this set in 6 years to do a music video for the song Saviour’s Day.

Saviour’s Day by Cliff Richard (1990)

They ride off, and we get our hero raising his hand in…victory?

So, he saved the girl, but he seems to have left poor Billy Ocean trapped in a cube.

Speaking of which, was that cube supposed to be a window to that island in the background?

I came across this one by pure chance. Occasionally YouTube surfaces an older music video I haven’t seen or written about. This is one of them.

The video was directed by Maurice Phillips, who seems to have done only a handful of videos in the 1980s. A couple of them are kind of weird as well–like the one for Lies by Thompson Twins that includes a giant rabbit. Phillips would go on to work in film and TV. He directed Another You (1991). He passed away in 2012.

Enjoy!

30 Days Of Surrealism:

A Movie A Day #158: The Girl Hunters (1963, directed by Roy Rowland)

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

Private detective Mike Hammer (Mickey Spillane) has spent the last seven years in the gutter. Ever since his secretary, Velda, disappeared, Hammer has stopped working cases and, instead, spends all of his time drinking and passing out in alleys. That is where he is found by his old friend, Captain Pat Chambers (Scott Peters). Pat tells Mike that there has been a shooting. A man named Richie is dying in the hospital and want to speak to him. According to Richie, he was shot by the Dragon, the same communist super villain that Velda is currently hiding from. That sobers Hammer up. In fact, Mike Hammer is so tough that it only takes him a few minutes to shake off seven years of alcoholism. Mike discovers that Richie’s murder is also connected to the murder of a senator. Mike’s investigation leads him to both the senator’s bikini-clad wife (Shirley Eaton) and a communist conspiracy to take over the world. What is strange is that it never leads him to Velda. Maybe he would have found her if The Girl Hunters had gotten a sequel.

Many films were based on Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels but The Girl Hunters is unique because it stars Mickey Spillane as Hammer. Spillane was not much of an actor but he was a genuine tough guy who, even after he became a successful writer, still looked like he had gone a few rounds with the world so he was not necessarily miscast in the role of Hammer. The main problem with The Girl Hunters is that the mystery is not that interesting. Mike Hammer does not really investigate anything. He just goes from fight to fight. At the end of the movie, he does come up with a clever trick to catch the killer but since there is only one suspect, the killer’s identity is not a surprise.s The Girl Hunter is worth seeing for Shirley Eaton in a bikini and the novelty of Mickey Spillane playing his most famous creation but Kiss Me Deadly is still the best Mike Hammer film.

The French poster leaves no doubt about The Girl Hunters’ main selling point.

Artwork of the Day: 3-Way Paradise

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Dazzling Erin

Artist Unknown

Music Video of the Day: Freaks by Live (1997, dir. Paul Cunningham)

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Back in the 1990s, I could recite the standard line-up: Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, The Offspring, Green Day, and others. Live would always be the band I would recall after that–despite them being one of my favorites. For me, it’s Ed Kowalczyk’s voice. I’m sure it’s changed by now, but I recall during one of the SNL anniversary shows that they were the only band that received standing ovations during the two times that they played the show. According to Wikipedia, they played I Alone the first time and Lakini’s Juice the second time. There’s just something so powerful and uplifting about his voice.

Also, back in the 1990s, I saw a couple of Live music videos, but the only one I could definitively recall is Lightning Crashes. I had faint memories of something involving a tiny tub. It took me a bit to find out that was the video for Lakini’s Juice. I knew the song. I just never saw the video. Or, if I did, I had no memory of it.

There are several parts of this music video that I like a lot. Peter Guinness–the actor playing the guy who enters the nightclub. The ending is memorable because of its syncing with the music and because that’s when it gets really weird.

Finally, I love this shot below.

That doesn’t look like something Kowalczyk was told to do. That looks like he was smiling at something off-camera or thought the shot was done.

I looked around and couldn’t find anything on this video other than where it was in the playlist for MTV in 1997 according to Billboard magazine. I also still haven’t come across any books that cover music videos after the first ten years of MTV. In fact, it looks like it hasn’t been till the current decade that people have started writing bios and general history of that period of music videos and MTV.

The video was directed by Paul Cunningham.

It was produced by Niki Amos.

It was edited by Scot Crane.

I can find only a handful of music video credits for any of them.

Enjoy!

30 Days Of Surrealism:

A Movie A Day #157: Pacific Heights (1990, directed by John Schlesinger)

Posted on June 14, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

Michael Keaton is the tenant from Hell in Pacific Heights.

In San Francisco, Patty (Melanie Griffith) and Drake (Matthew Modine) have just bought an old and expensive house that they can not really afford. In order to keep from going broke, they rent out two downstairs apartments. One apartment is rented by a nice Japanese couple. The other apartment is rented by Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton). Carter convinces Patty and Drake not to check his credit by promising to pay the 6 months rent up front. The money, he tells them, is coming via wire transfer.

The money never arrives but Carter does. Once he moves into the apartment, Carter changes the locks so that no one but him can get in. At all hours of the day and night, he can be heard hammering and drilling inside the apartment. Even worse, he releases cockroaches throughout the building. When Drake demands that Carter leave, the police back up Carter. After goading Drake into attacking him, Carter gets a restraining order. Drake is kicked out of his home, leaving Patty alone with their dangerous tenant.

Pacific Heights is the ultimate upper middle class nightmare: Buy a house that you can not really afford and then end up with a tenant who trashes the place to such an extent that the property value goes down. As a thriller, Pacific Heights would be better if Drake and Patty weren’t so unlikable. (When this movie was first made, people like Patty and Drake were known as yuppies.) Much like Drake’s house, the entire movie is stolen by Michael Keaton’s performance as Carter Hayes. Carter was not an easy role to play because not only did he have to be so convincingly charming that it was believable that he could rent an apartment just by promising a wire payment but he also had to be so crazy that no one would doubt that he would deliberately infest a house with cockroaches. Michael Keaton has not played many bad guys in his career but his performance as Carter Hayes knocked it out of the park.

One final note: Keep an eye out for former Hitchcock muse (and Melanie Griffith’s mother) Tippi Hedren, playing another one of Carter’s potential victims. Her cameo here is better than her cameo in In The Cold of the Night.