Music Video of the Day: I Wanna Go Back by Eddie Money (1986, directed by Nick Morris)


Eddie Money, who was one of the major voices of the 80s, died on Friday.  He had been in poor health for a while and had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer.  He was 70 years old and he will be missed.  He leaves behind a legacy of music that epitomized a decade.

I Wanna Go Back was not originally recorded by Eddie Money.  The song was first performed by a band called Billy Satellite.  Their version was released in 1984 and was their first song to place on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  Eddie Money’s cover version, which featured backing vocals by Marilyn Martin, came out in 1986 and was included on his Can’t Hold Back album.  Both the song and the video were released as a follow-up to Money’s monster hit, Take Me Home Tonight.

The song is about a man thinking about the past and wishing that he could go back to the way that things were.  The video features Eddie revisiting his old high school.  (I don’t know if that’s actually Eddie’s high school in the video or not.)  The scenes of Eddie wistfully remembering the past are interspersed with scenes of Eddie and his band playing for an enthusiastic audience so maybe the present wasn’t as bad as the song suggests.

Enjoy!

 

Belatedly, here’s the trailer for Friday the 13th: Vengeance


Did y’all know that there’s a new Friday the 13th film coming out?

Well, kind of.

Friday the 13th: Vengeance is a crowdfunded fan-made film that takes place 30 years after the conclusion of Friday the 13th: Jason Lives!  It features C.J. Graham, who previously played Jason in Jason Lives, as Elias Voorhees, the father of everyone’s favorite hockey mask-wearing, Oedipal complex-having zombie.  When Elias returns to Camp Crystal Lake, people start dying once again.  After Tommy Jarvis goes missing, his daughter launches an investigation of her own.

This film is currently in post-production and, if nothing else, it’ll probably be better than the Friday the 13th reboot that was released a few years ago.  This trailer was released a while ago but, given the date, today seems like an appropriate time to share it here on the Shattered Lens!

You can read more about this project over at Movies and Mania!

 

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Friday The 13th Edition


4 Shots From 4 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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

Admittedly, the Friday the 13th films aren’t exactly known for being the most visually impressive horror films ever made.  That’s especially true of the first 8 films, which were all shot on a low budget and in a hurry.  That said, today is Friday the 13th and there’s no way that I, as a lover of the horror genre, couldn’t use the 4 Shots format to pay a little bit of tribute to one of the most successful and influential horror franchises of all time.

So, with that in mind, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Friday the 13th Films

Friday the 13th (1980, dir by Sean S. Cunningham)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984, dir by Joseph Zito)

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986, dir by Tom McLoughlin)

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989, dir by Rob Hedden)

Back in 2012, I reviewed every single film in the Friday the 13th film franchise!  It was a lot of fun!

My Friday the 13th reviews:

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

Happy Friday the 13th From The Shattered Lens!


To all of our readers,

Happy Friday the 13th from the humans and the cats of the Shattered Lens!

Today is a very special day.  It’s the first Friday the 13th of 2019!  It’s the unluckiest day of the year so take our advice and be careful out there.  In fact, maybe don’t go out at all.  Are you reading this at work?  Well, make up an excuse and go home.  Are you reading this at home?  Well, get out of there and go some place safer, like maybe work.

Have you broken a mirror today?  If yes, it’s time to go into hiding.

Have you knocked on wood?  If no, get to knocking.

Have you thrown salt over your shoulder?  If yes, please be aware that the effectiveness of salt in warding off evil spirits has been greatly exaggerated.

Today is Friday the 13th so we advise you to either stay inside and watch the movies or maybe go camping and live them for yourself.  But, most of all, be careful and enjoy this day!

Maybe it would be safest for you to just spend today exploring this site.  We’ve been doing this for nearly ten years and there’s a lot of good reviews to be found in the archives.  Go back and read Lisa’s game-changing essay about why she loves grindhouse movies.  Or maybe the post that started it all, Arleigh’s review of Avatar.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

Guest Essay : Alex Graham On Art As A Vehicle For Reality Creation


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

Long-time readers of this site will know that Alex Graham is an artist whose work I’ve always been proud not just to review, but to active champion. The auteur responsible for Cosmic BE-ING is consistently one of the most fascinating voices in the medium, and is an accomplished painter, to boot. I’m therefore very pleased to present her essay on “Art As A Vehicle Of Reality Creation,” which offers tremendous insight not only on her process, but the overall aims of her entire artistic project. Take it away, Alex!

Art as a Vehicle for Reality Creation – 15 Years of Painting

Channeled by Alex Graham, written September 11 2019.


“Immolation,” October 2015

 I could have titled this essay sensationally –as, “Art & Witchcraft.” And the meat of the message would remain unchanged.

 In these rigid times, playful thinking is discouraged in theory discourse– and if it were to emerge, the…

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Here’s The Trailer For Midway


Earlier today, the first trailer for Midway was released.  Based on the famous World War II battle, Midway will be in theaters on November 8th.  Judging from the trailer, it would appear that this adaptation has more in common with Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor than Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.

Of course, we shouldn’t be too surprised by that.  Midway is the latest film from Roland Emmerich and that’ll probably mean a lot of action, not a lot of character development, and maybe a half-assed debate about whether or not Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.  (I have to admit that I have never forgiven Emmerich for Anonymous, a film that not only promoted a silly conspiracy theory but which also accused Shakespeare of murdering Christopher Marlowe.)  Of course, Midway could still be a good film, even if it is a typical Emmerich production.  Sometimes, you just want to spend a few hours watching stuff blow up.

Midway does have a big cast: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Darren Criss and Woody Harrelson.  I don’t know if I’d say that was an intriguing cast, if just because Woody Harrelson and Dennis Quaid appear to be legally required to appear in ensemble war films like this.  Still, it’ll be interesting to see if Midway can do for Nick Jonas what Dunkirk did for Harry Styles.

Here’s the trailer:

Music Video Of The Day: Accident by Jenny Hval (2019, dir by Zia Anger)


The woman in the video is actually the mother of director Zia Anger, which adds a whole new layer to this video.  This is a video that’s about …. well, everything.  What does it mean to be a woman?  What does it mean to be a mother?  What does it mean to be an accident or a quirk of fate?

Plus, it’s trippy!  That’s always a good thing.

Enjoy!