Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 8/22/22 — 8/28/22


This week?  This week has been all about getting ready for October.  I know that I said the same thing last week.  Well, it takes a lot of work to get ready for a horrorthon!

Here’s what I watched, read, and listened to this week!

Film I Watched:

  1. The Astrologer (1975)
  2. The Astrologer (1976)
  3. Banzai Runner (1987)
  4. Buying Time (2019)
  5. The Cutting Edge (1992)
  6. The Day Time Ended (1980)
  7. Embrace of the Vampire (1995)
  8. Jack Reacher (2012)
  9. Power of the Air (2018)
  10. Test of Faith (1987)
  11. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986)
  12. Vendetta (2022)
  13. Year 1999 A.D. (1967)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. Allo Allo
  2. The Bachelorette
  3. Big Brother
  4. The Challenge
  5. City Guys
  6. Full House
  7. Inspector Lewis
  8. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
  9. Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head
  10. Night Flight
  11. The Office
  12. Open All Hours

Books I Read:

  1. Capital Crimes (1990) by Lawrence Sanders

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Avril Lavigne
  2. Britney Spears
  3. Christina Aguilera
  4. Coldplay
  5. Hilary Duff
  6. Lord
  7. Lorna
  8. Moby
  9. Muse
  10. Radiohead
  11. Taylor Swift
  12. Yvonne Elliman

Trailers:

  1. A Jazzman’s Blues
  2. White Noise
  3. Empire of Light

Live Tweets:

  1. Banzai Runner
  2. The Cutting Edge
  3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2

News From Last Week:

  1. Actor and artistic director Robert LuPone dies at 76
  2. Controversial Art Critic Charlie Finch Jumps From Window At The Age of 68
  3. Actor Joe E. Tata Dies At 85
  4. NBC Could Give Third Hour Of Nightly Primetime Back To Local Affiliates
  5. Arcade Fire singer Win Butler accused of sexual misconduct

Links From Last Week:

  1. “Material Dimensions” : Work Sucks All Over The Universe
  2. The World’s Common Tater’s Week in Books, Movies, and TV 8/26/22
  3. “Surviving Paradise!” Living A Year On A South Pacific Island! Blue Lagoons! Swaying Coconut Trees – And Millions Of Flies!

Links From The Site:

  1. I shared music videos from Lorde and Muse!
  2. I reviewed Banzai Runner and Year 1999 A.D!
  3. I shared my week in television and an amv!  I shared a scene that I love from the Brady Bunch Variety Show!
  4. Jeff shared music videos from Accept, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Beastie Boys, and Guns N’ Roses!
  5. Erin shared Cosmic Science Fiction, The Gang Girls, The Wickedest Man, Amazing Stories, Pluto and Charon, Wake For A Lady, and Bedtime Stories!

More From Us:

  1. I wrote about Big Brother for the Big Brother Blog!
  2. At my music site, I shared songs from Radiohead, Lorna, Christina Aguilera, Hilary Duff, Britney Spears, Coldplay, and Avril Lavigne!
  3. At her photography site, Erin shared One Flower, A Squirrel and His Bread, White Rock Lake, Clouds, Clouds 2, Clouds 3, and Clouds 4!
  4. At Days Without Incident, Leonard shared Only Solutions!

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

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/21/22 — 8/27/22


Again, this week was mostly about getting ready for October.  Here’s a few thoughts on what I did watch:

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

Once again, Rene was mistaken for dead.  He even attended his own funeral, while disguised as Officer Crabtree.  Crabtree, of course, retired to Madame Fanny’s old bedroom, which led to all sorts of chaos when Fanny showed up.  It was, needless to say, a crazy time in Nouvion.

The Bachelorette (Monday Night, ABC)

Hometown dates!  Who cares?  Meatball’s not on the show anymore.  Gabby appears to be heading for another heartbreak while Rachel just can’t catch a break.  First, hardly any of the men wanted to date her.  Then, Tino’s family decided that they all hated her.  This is a messy season and it’s hard not to feel that it’s not going to end well for either one of the Bachelorettes.  Next week’s Men Tell All should be interesting and hopefully, Meatball will make a case for why he should be be the next Bachelor.

Big Brother (Everyday, CBS and Paramount+)

I’ve been writing about this season over at the Big Brother Blog! This season was going well until production came up with one of the worst twists in the history of the show.  Jasmine and Joseph are both gone.  Jasmine lost her fake limp and her fake accent when she was evicted.  For all the excitement over the Leftovers building a strong and positive alliance, it now appears that the show could very well be won by yet another unlikable showmance.  Do these words make sense to anyone who doesn’t watch Big Brother?

The Challenge (Wednesday Night, CBS)

Bye, Leo.  I’m still predicting a Tyson victory.

Full House (Sunday Evening, MeTV)

The first of Sunday’s episodes found DJ requesting that she finally be given a room of her own, which was a totally justifiable request considering how much older she was than her sisters and that Michelle, for some reason, had an entire room to herself while DJ was expected to share with Stephanie.  While DJ prepared to move and Stephanie dealt with feeling rejected, Becky and Jesse went to childbirth class, which was being held in the living room for some reason.  Becky got mad at Jesse because Jesse was being insensitive and talking about Elvis.  I assume they resolved the issue.  The second episode featured Danny freaking out because DJ was growing up and getting interested in boys and asking him to respect her privacy.  They worked it out.

Inspector Lewis (YouTube)

On the episode that I watched on Tuesday, David Soul played the murder victim.  Hathaway solved the mystery while Lewis dealt with a toothache.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Hulu)

On Wednesday, I watched “Conscience,” an episode from season 6 of NBC’s long-running legal show.  Kyle MacLachlan gave an intense performance as a man on trial for shooting and killing the 13 year-old who had previously murdered his son.  It was a good episode, thought-provoking and well-written.  It was an example of what the Law & Order franchise used to be like.

On Saturday, I watched a second episode from season 6.  In “Doubt,” Benson and Stabler found themselves dealing with a case in which a woman accused her teacher of raping her.  The teacher insisted it was consensual rough sex.  The episode ended before the verdict was read, leaving it to the audience to try to decide who was telling the truth.

Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head (Paramount+)

This week’s episode started with Butt-Head getting prescribed a new, grape-flavored medication that caused him to become so nice that Beavis freaked out.  Perhaps the funniest part of this segment was Butt-Head asking Mr. Van Driessen to lunch and then listening attentively while Van Driessen talk about the teacher’s union.  The second part of the episode featured the return of Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head, who provided us with a look at a universe where Beavis and Butt-Head were middle-aged.  Butt-Head was obese and could barely walk.  Beavis was an alcoholic with broken teeth.  It was realistic and kind of depressing.  However, it’s always nice to Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head.  “Very droll, yes.”

Night Flight (NightFlight+)

This was apparently an old 80s TV show that used to run on the USA network and which took a look at entertainment news.  I watched two episodes on Friday, largely as historical research.  The first episode dealt with the 1986 Academy Awards and featured a lot clips from the nominees.  The second episode was from 1984 and it dealt with music videos that had been deemed too violent to be aired on MTV.  The second episode was fun because it claimed to be a serious look at music video violence but instead, that was just an excuse to show the videos.  Cecil B. DeMille would be proud.

The Office (Weekday Nights, FaveTV)

I discovered two things this week.  Number one, I discovered that there’s a station called FaveTV.  Number two, I discovered that they air The Office late at night and early in the morning.  I watched two episodes on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  The first featured Michael and Dwight hanging out with Ryan in New York City.  Ryan attempted to talk to them about his drug use.  Michael started talking about how he couldn’t understand The Wire.  Dwight sang an Amish lullaby.  The second was the classic episode in which Stanley demanded to know, “Did I stutter!?”  This is one of my favorite episodes, both because of the final conversation between Stanley and Michael and for the B-plot of Pam forgetting her contacts.  I could relate.  Even though I can watch these episodes anytime I want on Peacock and I own the entire series on DVD, it was still kind of fun to watch it on an ordinary channel.  It made me feel nostalgic for the day before instant gratification.

Open All Hours (Sunday Night, PBS)

Arkwright continued to cheat his customers while Granville wondered if there was anything more to life beyond being an indentured servant.

AMV Of The Day: Keep Hope Alive (Initial D)


As the end of the August approaches, let’s never forget to keep hope alive.  Here’s an AMV of the Day to remind you.

Anime: Initial D

Song: Keep Hope Alive (by Crystal Method)

Creator: Toshi GG (please subscribe to this creator’s channel)

Past AMVs of the Day

Live Tweet Alert: Watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 with #ScarySocial


As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and 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, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1986’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2!

That’s right!  It’s Tobe Hooper’s classic sequel to his classic horror film!  It’s Dennis Hopper vs. Leatherface!  It’s Caroline Williams vs Chop Top!  It’ll make you laugh.  It’ll make you scream.  And the ending …. well, the ending always make me cry.

If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  The film is available on Prime and a few other streaming sites.  I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

A Blast From The Past: Year 1999 A.D. (dir by Lee Madden)


Produced by the Philco-Ford Corporation in 1967, Year 1999 A.D. is an example of one of my favorite genres, a film that attempts to predict what was then the future but which today is the past!  When this film was released, 1999 was 32 years away.  Now, of course, it’s 23 years in the past.

That said, this film does a better version than most when it comes to predicting the future.  It may have been off by a few years, as much of what it shows was only in its beginning stages in 1999 and only came to be commonplace in the 21st Century, but it gets a lot of things right.  We do shop online.  Remote learning has been a reality for a while now.  There are apps that can do everything that’s shown in the film.  Towards the end of this film, even YouTube makes an appearance.  What the film gets wrong is its assumption that everything in the future would still be as bulky and space-consuming as it was in the film’s present.  The movie got a lot right but it came nowhere close to predicting iPhones and laptops.  It predicted email but it didn’t predict Twitter, which is perhaps why everyone in the movie seems to be so happy.

The film has kind of a strange tone at the beginning.  The scenes on the beach feel oddly melancholy and the music that plays as the mother and son leave the beach made me wonder if they were about to stumble over the remains of the Statue of Liberty.  The movie is supposed to be a celebration of the wonderful future that humanity has waiting for itself but that opening music makes it seem as if maybe technology has gone too far.  Have we sacrificed our souls for comfort?

My friend Mark introduced me to this film.  He’s also pretty confident that Soon-Tek Oh appears in the party scene and I think he may be right.  If nothing else, it certainly sounds like he’s one of the guests speaking to the owner of the house.  The singer at the end was apparently Bobby Capo, a Puerto Rican singer who died of a heart attack in 1989.

As far as vision of the future are concerned, Year 1999 A.D. wasn’t that far off.  Director Lee Madden did a lot of industrial films but he’s best-remembered for directing biker films like Hells Angels ’69 and Angels Unchained.  It’s hard not to notice that there aren’t any bikers in his vision of the future.