Monthly Archives: July 2018

Lisa’s Week In Review: 7/9/18 — 7/15/18

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

What a week it’s been!  We had the second Friday the 13th of 2018 and I hope everyone enjoyed it because it’s going to be 14 months before we have another one.  Hopefully, people will be smart enough to spend those 14 months making sure that their local camp ground is a Jason-free zone.

I spent three days in Alabama and, due to bad weather, I nearly didn’t make it back home.  (My flight was diverted to Ft. Smith due to thunderstorms in Dallas.  I lived in Fort Smith for a few months when I was a child and I still have friend and family so it wasn’t a big deal to me but I think the other passengers were on the verge of rioting.  Seriously, people get upset over the tiniest of things….)  Still, despite all that, I managed to get quite a bit watched and read last week.

Movies I Watched:

  1. 6 Balloons (2018)
  2. Americana (1973)
  3. Anger Management (2003)
  4. Attack of the Eye Creatures (1965)
  5. Counterfeiting in Suburbia (2018)
  6. Crossroads (2002)
  7. Evita (1996)
  8. Family Vanished (2018)
  9. A Field in England (2013)
  10. Killer Caregiver (2018)
  11. Lost River (2015)
  12. My Husband’s Double Life (2018)
  13. My Husband’s Secret Life (2018)
  14. The Spy Who Sexed Me (2017)
  15. The Swarm (1978)
  16. The Tale (2018)
  17. What If…. (2010)
  18. X, Y, and Zee (1972)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. Ask the Undertaker
  2. The Bachelorette
  3. Bar Rescue
  4. Big Brother 20
  5. Big Brother After Dark
  6. Cheaters
  7. House Hunters
  8. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
  9. King of the Hill
  10. Kitchen Nightmares
  11. Last Call With Carson Daly
  12. Married at First Sight
  13. Mita y mita
  14. Murder Comes To Town
  15. Picnic at Hanging Rock
  16. Twin Peaks: The Return
  17. The Wonderland Murders

Books I Read:

  1. Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell
  2. Hating You, Love You (2018) by Cyrstal Kaswell
  3. I Ran Against Jimmy Carter (1979) by Stanley Arnold
  4. Mistake of Magic (2018) by Alex Lidell
  5. A New Beginning (1980) by Ed Clark
  6. A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising (2018) by Raymond A. Villareal

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Big Data
  2. Bob Dylan
  3. The Chemical Brothers
  4. DJ Judaa
  5. Elle King
  6. Fitz and the Tantrums
  7. Froggy Fresh
  8. Iggy Pop
  9. Jackalope
  10. Jamie Liddell
  11. Joywave
  12. Keenan West
  13. Kongos
  14. Lynard Skynard
  15. Moby
  16. Muse
  17. Pixies
  18. Robert De Long
  19. Saint Motel
  20. Sleigh Bells
  21. Underworld
  22. Yelawolf

Links From Last Week:

  1. On her photography site, check out these clouds!
  2. Variety says these were the bigest Emmy snubs and surprises.  Twin Peaks is the only snub that matters.
  3. From Ferguson Ink, Books That For One Reason Or Another Stay On My Desk
  4. Zombieland 2 confirmed for October 2019!
  5. From Nighthawk News, A Century of Film: Supporting Actor
  6. How To Make A Good Movie Sequel
  7. The Horror of Party Beach is coming to Blu-Ray!
  8. Jim Jarmusch is Making a Zombie Movie With Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and Tilda Swinton
  9. The Creeping Progressiveness of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
  10. From my music site, here’s the love theme from Friday 13th!
  11. Meet Dr. Eugene Gu and his girlfriend, Eugene Gu?

Links From The Site:

  1. Erin profiled the artist Frank Cozzarelli!
  2. Jeff reviewed Americana and gave us our weekly trailer round-up!
  3. Doc wished everyone a happy Friday the 13th!
  4. Gary reviewed Cotton Comes To Harlem, The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Bikini Beach, Pajama Party, and Retro Fan Magazine!
  5. Ryan reviewed Roopert and the Strange, along with sharing his weekly reading round-up!
  6. I shared my personal Emmy nominations!
  7. In honor of Friday the 13th, here’s my 12 Things You May Or May Not Have Known About Friday the 13th!

Want to see what I accomplished last week?  Click here!

Weekly Trailer Round-Up: Mary Queen of Scots, Colette, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, The Favourite, Goosebumps 2, A Simple Favor, The Extinction, The Package, Life Itself, Along Came The Devil, Little Italy, Unfriended: Dark Web, Wonder Park, Castle Rock

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s time for the weekly trailer round-up!  We’ve got fourteen today so let’s get down to business:

First off, we have the trailer for one of the most anticipated films of the year: Mary, Queen of Scots.  This movie brings together two of last year’s nominees for best actress, with Saoirse Ronan playing the title character and Margot Robbie playing Queen Elizabeth I.  It is set to be released in December for Oscar consideration.

Also getting early Oscar buzz is Keira Knightley for her performance in Colette.  Colette premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year and will be released on September 21st.

Another film that generated buzz at Sundance was The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which stars Chloe Grace Moretz as a teenage girl forced into gay conversation therapy.  The Miseducation of Cameron Post will be released into theaters on August 3rd.

Following the arthouse success of The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos returns with The Favourite.  Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone play cousins who compete to be the favorite of Queen Anne.  The Favourite will be released on November 23rd.

The books and the monsters are back but Jack Black is nowhere to be seen in the trailer for Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.  This film will be released on October 12th.

When Blake Lively disappears, her new best friend, Anna Kendrick, teams up with Lively’s husband to find her.  Directed by Paul Feig of Ghostbusters and Bridesmaids fame, A Simple Favor will be released on September 14th.

Everyone’s favorite sidekick, Michael Pena, finally gets the leading role in The Extinction, a sci-fi thriller that will be premiering on Netflix on July 27th.

Also coming to Netflix is The Package, a teen comedy from the creators of Workaholics.  The Package will be delivered on August 10th.

The second film to be directed by This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman, Life Itself will be released on September 21st.

According to this trailer, Along Came The Devil is “an exorcism film for a new generation.”  This film will be released on August 10th.

Have you ever wondered what happened to Danny Aiello?  He’s in Little Italy, with Emma Roberts and Hayden Christensen.  Little Italy will be released in August.

The internet is still the most dangerous place on Earth in the second trailer for Unfriended: Dark Web.  See for yourself on July 20th.

After a long and troubled production that saw original director Dylan Brown fired for “inappropriate conduct,” the animated film Wonder Park will finally be released on March 15th, 2019.

Finally, here is the long-awaited official trailer for Castle Rock, the new Hulu series from J.J. Abrams and Stephen King.  Castle Rock premieres on July 25th.

 

Important Film News From January 18th, 1929

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Let us begin the rest of 2018 with this article that I found while looking through the January 18th, 1929 edition of the Deseret News (which was published out of Salt Lake City):

The lesson?

(Other than the fact that I’m an unapologetic history nerd, of course.  Seriously, I love this stuff.)

History is unpredictable but movies are forever.

Weekly Reading Round-Up : 07/08/2018 – 07/14/2018

Posted on by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)'s avatarRyan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

It’s a veritable cavalcade of first issues this week, so let’s skip the stage-setting and get right down to the business of telling you which of these new series are worth your time (and, more importantly, money) to follow —

The major “event” book of the week is, of course, Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen : The Tempest #1, which marks the beginning of the end not only for this two-plus-decade-old franchise, but for the legendary comics careers of the two creators behind it (although, at least in Moore’s case, we’ve heard that before). “Going out with a bang” seems to be the operative philosophy behind this six-parter, as well as settling every possible score on the way out the door, but this is, as you’d  no doubt expect, far more than simply a combination vanity project/victory lap — although elements of both are certainly…

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Cleaning Out The DVR: My Husband’s Secret Life (dir by Philippe Gagnon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I recorded My Husband’s Secret Life off of Lifetime on March 25th.

Agck!

That looks like quite an accident, doesn’t it?

Lying on the ground is Freddy (Brett Donahue).  Freddy owns a flower store so you might wonder how exactly he ended up lying in the middle of the street, covered in blood.  Some of it could have to do with the fact that Freddy is the husband who is mentioned, in the title, as having a secret.  Freddy may seem like a nice guy but he sure is shady about certain aspects of his past.  For instance, why does he carry a lighter that was made in Russia?  And when he talks in his sleep, why does he speak with slightly foreign accent?  And then there’s his slightly creepy and rather overprotective mother.

As for why he’s lying in the middle of the road, he’s just been run by a man named Arthur (Joe Cobden).  Arthur drinks too much and is frequently a nervous wreck.  Interestingly enough, he once had a respectable job and a strong family.  Whenever Freddy and Arthur meet, it’s on one of those park benches that practically screams, “Secret spy meeting place!”

Hovering over him is Jennifer Jones (Kara Killmer).  Jennifer is Freddy’s wife and, to be honest, she was a bit concerned about her marriage even before Freddy ended up in the middle of the street.  They’ve been married for seven years and yet, there’s still things that Jennifer doesn’t really known about Freddy.  And when she just happens to spot him in the city, getting yelled at by an angry woman, Jennifer’s suspicions become even stronger.  It gets even worse when she twice tries to call him and, after first ignoring her, he answers the second time and blatantly lies about where he is.

Later, when she confronts him, he admits that he was lying about where he was but then asks her why she didn’t call him out if she knew he was lying.  I mean, how dare she allow him to lie!?  That’s classic gaslighting and enough to make everyone watching the film shout, “Get away from him!”

But, shortly afterward, Freddy ends up in the middle of the street and, suddenly, the whole idea of leaving him gets a lot more awkward.  Freddy’s in a coma now and how can you leave someone when they’re in a coma?  While Jennifer waits for Freddy to wake up, her mother-in-law continues to push her away.  What was Jennifer’s husband hiding and why is his mother searching through his house in the middle of the night?  Jennifer is determined to find out!

In all probability, you’ll figure it out long before Jennifer does.  I mean, honestly, when a guy starts speaking in a foreign accent in his sleep, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he’s probably not who he says he is.  In fact, it takes a certain suspension of disbelief to accept that Freddy could have fooled Jennifer for all this time.

But — hey, this is Lifetime and Lifetime is all about suspending your disbelief and having a good time!  Kara Killmer gives a sympathetic lead performance and Joe Cobden has a few good scenes as the perpetually shaky Arthur.  At its most effective, My Husband’s Secret Life deals with a question that we’ve all asked (whether we admit it or not): How well do we know the people we love?

My Husband’s Secret Life is also known as Sleeper.

Drive-In Saturday Night 2: BIKINI BEACH (AIP 1964) & PAJAMA PARTY (AIP 1964)

Posted on by gary loggins

gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

Welcome back to Drive-In Saturday Night! Summer’s here, and the time is right for a double dose of American-International teen flicks, so pull in, pull up a speaker to hang on your car window, and enjoy our first feature, 1964’s BIKINI BEACH, starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello:

BIKINI BEACH is the third of AIP’s ‘Beach Party’ movies, and this one’s a typical hodgepodge of music, comedy, and the usual teenage shenanigans. The gang’s all here, heading to the beach on spring break for surfing and swinging. This time around, there’s a newcomer on the sand, British rock star The Potato Bug, with Frankie playing a dual role. Potato Bug is an obvious spoof of the big Beatlemania fever sweeping the country, with all the beach chicks (or “birds”, as he calls ’em) screaming whenever PB starts singing one of his songs, complete with Lennon/McCartney-esque “Wooos” and “Yeah, yeah, yeahs”…

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Cleaning Out The DVR: Family Vanished (dir by Mark Sanderson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I recorded Family Vanished off of the Lifetime Movie Network on July 6th!

“Give me my wedding ring, you white trash bitch!”

— Lisa (Kelly Packard) in Family Vanished (2018)

Here’s two lessons that I learned from Family Vanished:

  1. Be careful how much information you post online.

Seriously, Lisa (Kelly Packard) thought it would be a good idea to post how much she had sold a painting for online.  She also thought it would be a good idea to let the world know that she, her husband (Madison Dirks), and her daughter (Elisa Luthman) would all be in Hawaii on a work vacation.

What happened as a result?  Well, Mike (Todd Cahoon), Carol (Jennifer Taylor), and their daughter (Megan Littler) saw Lisa’s posting.  And they decided that Lisa and her family must have a lot of money.  So, they broke into the family’s house.  They lived there for several days.  They tried on everyone’s clothes.  They slept in everyone’s beds.  They made the house their own and, since they never took off their black gloves, they managed to do it without leaving behind any DNA or fingerprint evidence.

Of course, they quickly discovered that Lisa and her family wasn’t as rich as they assumed.  In fact, a quick perusal of Lisa’s diary revealed that the family itself wasn’t particularly happy.  Still, Mike and Carol were determined to get something for all of their trouble so they stayed in the house until Lisa and the family returned from their vacation.

Second lesson learned:

2. You can only push people so far before they snap.

Sure, Mike and Carol had a lot of fun tormenting Lisa and her family.  They revealed that Lisa had been unfaithful.  They forced Lisa’s husband to bark like a dog.  They taunted Lisa’s daughter for having won so many trophies in school.  Mike and Carol had a lot of fun but they failed to consider just how far some people will go to get revenge.

When their initial ordeal finally ended, Lisa and her husband were not happy to learn that the police had no real leads as to where Mike and Carol went off to.  So, they decided to investigate on their own.  And when they did track down Mike and Carol, well, let’s just say that even the most normal-seeming people can be pushed too far…

So, Family Vanished was a film that I had mixed feelings about.  I’m not a huge fan of movies about people being held hostage.  Films about hostage situations are always a bit too predictable for me.  It always starts with the hostages pleading for their lives and then the nosy neighbor comes over and there’s the big tense scene where the main hostage has to try to get rid of him while someone stands behind the front door with a gun or a knife pointed at his back.  The hostage takers always start taunting the hostages.  I’ve seen it so many times that I just automatically get bored with the situation.

So, the first half of Family Vanished didn’t do much for me but then Lisa and her husband set out to get revenge and it became this totally different, wonderfully over-the-top movie!  I loved watching Kelly Packard and Madison Dirks get mean and vengeful.  Kelly Packard has appeared in many Lifetime movies but I think this is the first one where she actually gets to kick some ass and both she and Dirks seemed to be having a lot of fun with the role reversal.  Add to that, Mike and Carol were so obnoxiously cruel that it was impossible not to get some guilty pleasure out watching Lisa demanded the return of her wedding ring.

With its theme of a terrible crime leading to an even worse revenge, Family Vanished is what I imagine a Wes Craven-directed Lifetime movie would have been like.   It’s Lifetime’s Last House On The Left.