Late Night Retro Television Review: CHiPs 3.4 “High Octane”

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, CHiPs deals with the oil crisis!

Episode 3.4 “High Octane”

(Dir by John Florea, originally aired on October 6th, 1979)

Tonight’s episode of CHiPs is a real history lesson.

The episode was aired at a time when the U.S. was suffering from a shortage of gasoline. Conflict in Iran had led to both the Shah fleeing the country and Americans being taken hostage. Oil production fell, OPEC raised its prices, and people panicked and started to hoard gasoline. Many states instituted odd-even gas rationing, which meant that only people with an odd-numbered license plate could purchase gas on an odd-numbered day and only people with an even-numbered license plate could purchase gas on an even-numbered day. As so often happens when the government attempts to micromanage a crisis, this only made things worse as there were soon long lines at the pump and reports of fights breaking out between people at gas stations. Even with the rationing, many gas stations ran out of gasoline before they could serve every customer. If you didn’t arrive early enough, chances were that you would not be able to put gas in your car,

California was one of the many states to institute odd-even rationing and this episode of CHiPs is all about the battle over gasoline. Two crooks are siphoning gas from independent gas stations and then reselling it to other stations. (Their biggest customer is played by veteran screen tough guy, Aldo Ray.) Getraer is injured when he crashes his bike while chasing the two crooks, which makes this case personal for Ponch and Baker. Meanwhile, Ponch and Baker have to break up fights at the gas station, chase yet another guy who was caught siphoning gas from a car, and save yet another motorist who passes out from the fumes of all the gas cans that he had in the backset of his car. Ponch even starts to date Beth (Ellen Bry), because she works at a gas station and can tell him the best time to show up to make sure that he and Baker are able to fill up their bikes. Meanwhile, at headquarters, Harlan is giving lessons on the best way to keep unused fuel from evaporating.

Of course, it wouldn’t be CHiPs if there wasn’t also a light-hearted sports angle. This week, everyone’s into roller hockey. Ponch serves as the referee for the CHP-sponsored kids’ roller hockey game and everyone agrees that he’s the best referee that they’ve ever seen. And why not? He’s Ponch and, by the time the third season rolled around, CHiPs was definitely The Ponch Show. Later, the adult officer play roller hockey as well. It’s the show’s way of saying, “California’s still fun, even with the gas rationing!”

I enjoyed this episode because I’m a history nerd and it was interesting to see how the show dealt with the 1979 oil crisis while it was occurring. It’s interesting that this episode was a bit cynical about rationing, as CHiPs was usually a show that portrayed the government and its policies as positively as possible. In 1979, even the audiences of CHiPs was fed up with having to pay — let me check my notes to make sure I have this right — nearly a dollar a gallon for gas.

Really? Just 90 cents for a gallon gas? Get me a time machine. I’m going to 1979!

Lisa Reviews An Oscar Nominee: Gravity (dir by Alfonso Cuaron)

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Remember Gravity?

Released in 2013, Gravity is largely a two-person film. There are a few other characters who appear at the start of the film and we hear different voices throughout the movie (including the voice of Ed Harris, cast once again as the voice of NASA) but, for the most part, this film centers on George Clooney and Sandra Bullock floating through space. Clooney is Kowalski. Bullock is Stone. They’re two astronauts who are in space trying to fix the Hubble Telescope when their shuttle is struck by a wave of space debris. When the shuttle inoperable and the rest of the crew dead, Kowalski and Stone try to figure out how to get back down to Earth.

Space, it turns out, is not as empty as we tend to assume. Along with the space debris that caused them to get stranded in space in the first place, there’s also a lot of abandoned equipment and outposts that they can use to get back to Earth. Unfortunately, they’ve got limited oxygen and limited time with which to reach any of that equipment and, even if they do reach it, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to get any of it to work. After Kowalski sacrifices himself to help Stone reach the International Space Station, Stone alone must find a way to return to Earth before the space debris complete their orbit and again threaten to send her hurtling into space.

Gravity is one of those films that demands to not only be seen on the big screen but also to be seen in 3D. (I say this as someone who was not exactly a fan of the post-Avatar 3D boom. Too often, 3D felt like a distraction. In Gravity, it feels like a key part of the story.) The film not captures the terror of being alone in the emptiness of space but, at the same time, it also captures the beauty of having the entire universe in front of you. It’s a visually stunning and beautiful film. Kowalski says, at one point, that he has a hell of a view and it’s hard not to agree with him. Space may be deadly but it’s beautiful as well. Stone finds herself tempted to simply allow herself to spend the rest of eternity floating lifelessly in space but ultimately, she embraces life. She refuses to give up and the film refuses to give up on her or, by extension, the rest of humanity. Gravity celebrates the beauty of space and creation while also showing that life on Earth has its own beauty as well. By the film’s end, one can argue that Stone has literally been reborn.

It’s a powerful film, one that is well-acted by both Bullock and George Clooney, both of whom have the star power necessary to hold our interest even when the overwhelming grandeur of space threatens to steal our attention. (I would argue that Bullock’s performance here is far superior to her Oscar-winning turn in The Blind Side.) Gravity received ten Oscar nominations and it won seven of them, including the Best Director award for Alfonso Cuaron. However, it lost Best Picture to another powerful film, 12 Years A Slave.

48 Hrs (1982, directed by Walter Hill)

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

48 Hrs. begins with a violent and bloody jailbreak. The fearsome Billy Bear (Sonny Landham) helps his criminal associate, Albert Ganz (James Remar), escape from a chain gang and kills several guards in the process. Billy and Ganz then head to San Francisco, where they start killing their former associates while searching for Luther (David Patrick Kelly). Another bloody shootout leaves several detectives dead and SFPD Detective Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) looking for revenge.

That’s not the way you might expect one of the most famous comedies of the 80s to begin. It’s not until Jack arranges for another associate of of Ganz’s to be released from prison for 48 hours that anything humorous happens in the film. However, because Reggie Hammond is played by Eddie Murphy, 48 Hrs. quickly becomes very funny.

Murphy was appearing on Saturday Night Live when he was cast in 48 Hrs, in a role that was written with Richard Pryor in mind. One of the first things that Murphy requested was that the character’s name be changed from Willie Biggs to Reggie Hammond. Murphy made the role his own and watching him, it’s hard to believe that he was only 21 and also that 48 Hrs was his first film. Murphy performs with the confidence of a natural movie star. He’s good in the film’s most famous scene, where he pretends to be a cop and talks down an entire bar full of rednecks. (I can’t repeat his most famous line but everyone knows it.) But Murphy is even better in the scenes where he’s just reacting to Nolte’s slovenly cop.

The comedy in 48 Hrs comes from the mismatched partnership and initially hostile chemistry of Jack Cates and Reggie Hammond. Cates has a job to do while Reggie, understandably, wants to enjoy as much freedom as he can before he gets sent back to prison. The humor is so effective because it’s almost entirely character-based. There are no gags but there are two well-written characters with differing ways of looking at the world who have to learn how to work with each other. The two of them start out disliking and distrusting each other but ultimately become best friends, even if Jack does punch Reggie and Reggie does keep trying to steal Jack’s lighter. Because this is a Walter Hill movie, there’s still a lot of action. Nolte and Murphy may make you laugh but there’s nothing funny about full-on psycho performances of James Remar and Sonny Landham. 48 Hrs. not only allows Murphy and Nolte to show off their comedic ability but it also allows them to be true action heroes.

Popular with critics and audiences, 48 Hrs. was the most commercially successful film of 1982. It set the standard for most buddy-cop movies to this day and it introduced the world to Eddie Murphy.

Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 3.13 “Down For The Count: Part Two”

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show can be purchased on Prime!

This week is all about justice for Zito!

Episode 3.13 “Down For The Count: Part Two”

(Dir by Richard Compton, originally aired on January 16th, 1987)

Picking up where last week’s episode ended, Down For The Count: Part Two finds almost the entire Vice Squad mourning the death of Larry Zito. I say “almost” because, as usual, Castillo refuses to show any emotion or even look anyone in the eye. When he first appeared, Castillo’s stoicism made him an interesting character but I have to admit that I’m starting to get a bored with the character and his refusal to speak in anything more than terse growls. ZITO’S DEAD! WAKE UP, CASTILLO!

Switek, needless to say, is heart-broken. Trudy tells Gina that she had a totally meaningless one night stand with some guy she met at a club because she was depressed. (“Did it make you feel better?” Gina asks. “No!” Trudy wails.) Crockett is determined to take down crooked boxing promoter Oswaldo Guzman (Pepe Serna) and prove that Zito was not a junkie but that he was instead murdered by Guzman’s goons. As for Tubbs, he makes a few jokes. WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU, TUBBS!? ZITO’S DEAD!

Crockett and Tubbs go undercover as Burnett and Cooper and, once again, I find myself wondering how they can keep successfully doing that when their cover has gotten blown over a dozen times over the course of the series. Do criminals in Miami not talk to each other? This time, Crockett pretends to be involved with a cable sports network that wants to make a deal to air the fights that Guzman sponsors. When a Las Vegas gangster named Guilinni (former Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro) shows up looking to kill Guzman, Crockett and Tubbs effortlessly manipulate both sides. It turns out that criminals aren’t that smart.

Meanwhile, Trudy and Gina meet one of Crockett’s associates from the Vietnam War. His name is Danny Allred (Chris Elliott) and he’s a former CIA agent who now lives in an abandoned airplane. Danny is a codebreaker and he helps them to figure out the code that Guzman was using to keep track of all of his crooked fights. Danny is a fun character and I hope he shows up in more episodes. He added some moments of levity to what was otherwise a pretty grim episode.

This episode had plenty of good moments. The scene where Crockett and Tubbs visited Zito’s apartment was both poignant and nicely-acted by both Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. The final shoot-out was violent even by the standards of Miami Vice. That said, I’m a bit surprised that the episode didn’t revolve around Switek. Switek gets to express his anger and argue with Internal Affairs at the start of the episode and gets to repeatedly shoot Guzman at the end of the episode but he’s largely absent for the middle part of the story. As Switek was both Zito’s partner and his best friend, it really does seem like he should have been at the center of the entire episode.

Still, I was glad that Zito’s name was cleared and that Guzman ended up getting shot multiple times until he fell out a window. The show’s final credits featured still shots of John Diehl as Zito. I’m going to miss Larry.

Song Of The Day: The Golden Path by The Chemical Brothers, feat. Wayne Coyne

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. Our song of the day is The Golden Path, a collaboration between Wayne and The Chemical Brothers.

As I walked along
The supposed golden path
I was confronted
By mysterious spectre
He pointed to the graveyard
Over on yonder hill
I paused in cosmic reflection
Confused on wondering
Of how I came to die

Hm!
I was confused
Coz if I was dead
How and why did I die
And I composed myself
And decided I should face it

Then I stood paralyzed
On the supposed golden path
And I was confronted
By powerful demon force
And there was the devil
And we spoke his words
Flowed like glowing lava from the mouth of a volcano
And I said:
Help me, Lord!!
I found myself in some kinda hell
But I did not believe in heaven and hell
World in opposites kind of reality

But I gained control of myself
And decided to press on

As I walked along
The supposed golden path
I was trembling with fear
All the lions and the wizards yet to come
I seen in the distance
Silver mountains rising high in the clouds
And a voice from above did whisper
Some shining answer from the moon

Please forgive me
I never meant to hurt you

Songwriters: Edmund John Simons / Steven Gregory Drozd / Thomas Owen Mostyn Rowlands / Wayne Michael Coyne

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us For Nemesis and Wanted: Dead or Alive!

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie ! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1992’s Nemesis, from director Albert Pyun!

Then, on twitter, #MondayMuggers will be showing 1986’s Wanted: Dead or Alive, starring Rutger Hauer! The film is on Prime and it starts at 10 pm et!

It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Nemesis on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then switch over to twitter, pull Wanted: Dead or Alive up on Prime, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag!

Enjoy!

Scenes That We Love: Robert Stack in Airplane!

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

106 years ago today, actor Robert Stack was born in Los Angeles, California.

Though Stack found his greatest success on television and as the original host of Unsolved Mysteries, he also had an active film career. Here he is in 1980’s Airplane!, demonstrating how to provide encouragement and build up confidence.

4 Shots From 4 Film: Special John McNaughton Edition

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Today is the birthday of director John McNaughton! It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 John McNaughton Films

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Charles Lieberman)

The Borrower (1991, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Julio Mucat and Robert C. New)

Normal Life (1996, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Jean de Segonzac)

Wild Things (1998, dir by John McNaughton, DP: Jeffrey L. Kimball)

The Films of 2025: When It Rains In LA (dir by David M. Parks)

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

When it Rains In LA features Eric Roberts as Nate.

Nate is a happy man who lives in a big house and who obviously has a lot of money. He’s even got a much younger trophy wife, a Russian named Sasha (Monroe Cline). One day, Nate receives an odd package, a box that contains a rather hideous mask. Nate looks at the mask and then takes a sip of tea. He promptly drops dead.

After Nate’s funeral, the suddenly widowed Sasha flies to Los Angeles to see her friends from college. (Or, at least, that’s how I assume she met these people. At times, it’s difficult to really keep track of how anyone in this film actually knows anyone else.) Though she’s just buried her husband, she still flirts with the pilot of her airplane, the likably dorky Harry (Tom Gipson). She also meets a mysterious woman named Anna (Leslie Stratton) and doesn’t seem to notice that she’s being watched by a mysterious, bearded man (Mike Ferguson) who continually hides his face inside of his hoodie.

From the minute that Sasha lands in Los Angeles, it starts to rain. Everyone that Sasha meets mentions how strange it is that it’s raining in Los Angeles. Some people say the rain is probably no big deal. Other people act as if the rain has some sort of secret meaning. Sasha keeps her opinions to herself.

Her friends seem to be curiously unconcerned with Sasha suddenly being a widow. One of them won’t stop talking about the death of his former lover. They go to a club, where the bartender gives out free drinks and the owner seems to be strangely hostile. Sasha meets Harry. Characters appear and then disappear without anyone seeming to notice. Everyone comments on the strangeness of rain in Los Angeles. People start to die in brutal ways but again no one seems to really care. It’s a slasher film where societal detachment is the biggest threat.

It’s an odd film. The budget was obviously low and the majority of the performances are a bit amateurish but, whether it was intentional on the part of the filmmakers or not, the film often plays out like a surreal dream. Sometimes, the film moved at an almost rushed pace and then other times, a heavy sense of ennui seems to descend over the action and the characters. Characters repeatedly do things that don’t make any sense but they do it with such determination that it becomes rather fascinating to watch. The film’s final moments are surprisingly effective, certainly more effective than you might expect from all the moments that came before them. Visually, this low-budget film has moments of almost ghostly beauty. The scenes of the rain falling in Los Angeles are effectively atmospheric and ominous. In the end, the film qualifies almost as a work of outsider art.

And, let’s not forget, Eric Roberts is in it! This was the first Eric Roberts film to be released in 2025. Nate dies before the opening credits and Eric still gets top billing. I imagine it will be the first of many.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Jennifer Lopez has had ENOUGH (2002)!

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Bradley Crain

This morning I got up to make coffee for me and my wife. When I came back to our room, she had started the movie ENOUGH (2002) with Jennifer Lopez on the new projector that she bought me for Christmas. I’m not that big of a fan of Lopez, but I decided I’d go ahead and sit down to sip on my coffee prior to starting my day. I ended up watching the whole movie!

Jennifer Lopez plays Slim, a waitress in a diner in L.A., who meets a rich guy named Mitch Hiller (Billy Campbell) who impresses her when he gets rid of this rude jerk (Noah Wyle) trying to hit on her. Mitch and Slim get along famously, eventually getting married and having a cute little girl named Gracie. Everything seems perfect in their little world. Unfortunately, things aren’t what they seem, and one night Slim checks her husband’s pager. She calls the number and discovers Mitch has been cheating on her. When she confronts him about the affair, his entire countenance changes, and he begins beating the crap out of her. After the altercation, and before heading out to continue his affair, Mitch warns Slim not to leave because he refuses to live without her. With the help of her friend Ginny (Juliette Lewis) and a couple of others, Slim takes Gracie and they escape from Mitch. With all his money and connections, Mitch is able to track her down no matter where she goes. Feeling like she has no other options, Slim turns to her wealthy, estranged father, Jupiter (Fred Ward). He provides her the funds she needs to set up a new life and identity. Unfortunately, that damn Mitch tracks her down again. Narrowly escaping, Slim decides that she’s done running. She sends Gracie away with Ginny and begins training rigorously in self defense techniques. This time she’s taking the fight to Mitch with plans to end this shit once and for all.

If you’re looking for a realistic drama about the effects of spousal abuse on the family unit and then across the larger society, ENOUGH is not the movie for you. This movie is more for the Charles Bronson crowd, where the bad guys are truly evil and the audience is in complete agreement with their need to perish. This is a formula that continues to work even if you have to completely suspend your disbelief. For example:

-Is it realistic that Mitch would be able to conceal what a complete and total asshole he is for many years from Slim, but then one night turn out to practically be the sidekick of Satan?

-Is it realistic that Mitch would be able track Slim and Gracie down time and time again, no matter where she goes across the country, even after she uses her Dad’s resources to change her identity?

-Is it realistic that Slim would be able to get enough self defense training in a short period of time to be able to confront the extremely fit Mitch at the end and kick his ass?

While the setup is probably not the most realistic, we have to see images of Mitch beating up Slim on multiple occasions, even trying to kill her at one point. We also see him knock little Gracie to the ground and hurt her. We see him terrorizing her and anyone who tries to help her. This audience member just wanted to see Mitch pay.

I don’t really have any close connections to the main actors in ENOUGH, but they all do their jobs well enough to keep me involved. I have always been a fan of its director, Michael Apted. He’s made a few movies that I really like in CLASS ACTION (1991) with Gene Hackman, THUNDERHEART (1992) with Val Kilmer, and BLINK (1993) with Madeleine Stowe. He’s a more than competent director who knows how to get a reaction from his audience. This certainly may not reflect his best work, but he still handles the material in a professional manner.

My final word on ENOUGH… I enjoyed the film in the same way I like the 3 piece combo at KFC, which I really do enjoy. I know it’s probably not the best stuff out there, but the classic formula still works, and I’m satisfied when it’s all gone!

See the trailer for ENOUGH below: