Daily Archives: March 9, 2025

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 4.13 “Testing, One, Two Three”

Posted on 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 Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991!  The series can be streamed on YouTube!

This week, everyone faces a test.

Episode 4.13 “Testing, One, Two, Three”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on January 30th, 1990)

After being absent for the past few episodes, Joey and Caitlin are finally the center of this week’s story.  Both of them are struggling.  Joey, despite all of his efforts to study and pay attention in class, is still getting bad grades.  The school counselor thinks that Joey has dysgraphia, a learning disability that makes it difficult for him to express his thoughts in an organized fashion.  Caitlin, meanwhile, is going to have to appear in court as a result of getting arrested while vandalizing that nuclear plant.

A few thoughts:

  • Claude — or “Clode” as he wants to be called — once again shows himself to be the worst ever when he says he’s not sure if he can go to court with Caitlin.  Claude is the one who convincing Caitlin to vandalize the plant in the first place and, when the cops showed up, he abandoned her.  Big-time rebel Claude actually asks his parents for permission to skip school to go to Caitlin’s court date.  They say no, just as Claude knew they would.  What a putz!
  • “My parents aren’t liberal like yours!” Claude whines to Caitlin.
  • Maya actually puts off a doctor’s appointment so she can go to Caitlin’s medical appointment!  Good for you, Maya …. except, doctor’s appointments can kind of be important, too.
  • Actually, now that I think about it, why should anyone be going to court with Caitlin?  Caitlin made the decision to spray paint her stupid slogans on her own.  Claude shouldn’t have abandoned her but Caitlin shouldn’t have been there in the first place.  Caitlin acts as if Claude should take her punishment for her but actually, Claude being a coward doesn’t mean that Caitlin is somehow absolved.  She knew she could get in trouble when she climbed over that fence.
  • This episode is a good example of why Caitlin drives a lot of people crazy.  Caitlin has a problem and everyone else is expected to drop everything and spend all of their time worrying about it.
  • Joey, meanwhile, has a real problem to deal with.  He feels stupid.  He’s not dumb, not at all.  But his grades remain stubbornly bad and he’s just been told that he has a scary-sounding “condition” and that he’s going to have to take a special class to learn how to function.  And yes, there’s no shame in having a learning disability.  I have ADHD so when Joey talked about struggling to organize his thoughts, I knew exactly what he was saying.  But, when you’re the one hearing the words “learning disability,” it’s scary!  My heart went out to Joey in this episode.
  • Evil bully Dwayne made an appearance, harassing Joey after he overhears Joey describing him as being a gorilla.  Joey and Dwayne get into yet another fight.  Joey gets detention.  Dwayne gets suspended.
  • Caitlin is also in detention, as a result of slapping Claude.  Caitlin and Joey are still not getting along but we know that’s going to change.
  • Finally, there was one other subplot.  The students in a difficult biology class were excited to learn that Alex (John Ioannou) had an advanced copy of the big test.  Alex’s older brother saved all of his old tests.  Alex gives Tessa a copy of the test but makes her promise not to let anyone know.  Tessa lets everyone know.  Everyone in the class passes!  They don’t get caught.  But the teacher says its obvious that the test was too easy so he decides to toss out the results and give everyone a new test …. WHAT!?  CAN HE DO THAT!?  What the heck, Canada!?
  • Incidentally, I never would have passed Algebra II if my sister hadn’t saved all of her tests.  Thank you, Erin Nicole!

And that’s it for the week.  Remember — in yourself, you must believe!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 3/3/25 — 3/9/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Easy Rider (1969, dir by Dennis Hopper, DP: Laszlo Kovacs)

I’ve been feeling better this week.  For whatever reason, the spring forward time change always agrees with me.  For the record, I gave up cursing for Lent (again).  “Since when do you curse?” my sisters said to me, again.  Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday are two of my favorite traditions.

Here’s what I watched this week:

Films I Watched:

  1. A Time To Revenge (1997)
  2. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
  3. Carbon Copy (1981)
  4. Confessions of a Romance Narrator (2025)
  5. Dark Blue (2002)
  6. Goddess of Love (1988)
  7. The Golden Voice (2025)
  8. Pitch Black (2000)
  9. Presence (2025)
  10. Tough and Deadly (1995)
  11. Woman On The Run (1950)
  12. Your Mother Wears Combat Boots (1989)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. Check It Out
  2. CHiPs
  3. Dark
  4. Degrassi High
  5. Fantasy Island
  6. Friday the 13th: The Series
  7. Highway to Heaven
  8. Homicide: Life On The Street
  9. King of the Hill
  10. The Love Boat
  11. Malibu CA
  12. Miami Vice
  13. Monsters
  14. Pacific Blue
  15. St. Elsewhere
  16. Welcome Back Kotter

Live Tweets:

  1. Tough and Deadly
  2. Carbon Copy
  3. Assault on Precinct 13
  4. Pitch Black

Links From The Site:

  1. Arleigh shared a song and a scene!
  2. Brad reviewed Shane and Escape From Sobibor!  He shared scenes from The Killer and Karate Kid!
  3. Jeff reviewed The Bad Man, Your Mother Wears Combat Boots, The Super, Dead Man’s Gold, Goddess of Love, The Lone Rider Rides On, Silent Assassins, and Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All!
  4. Erin shared Detective Fiction Weekly, Mardi Gras 1936, Ash Wednesday In New Orleans, Dawn at The Alamo, As Bad As They Come, Triangle of Sin, and The Time And The Place!
  5. I reviewed Mad Max, Presence, and Confessions of a Romance Narrator!

News From Last Week:

  1. Gene Hackman died of heart disease and his wife died of hantavirus, investigators say –What a heartbreaking story!  To be honest, this is more or less what I suspected happened after it was revealed that there were no signs of a gas leak.  Unfortunately, the online conspiracy theories are still going strong.  “Something doesn’t add up,” some people are saying on Twitter.  If you’ve ever had to care for someone with Alzheimer’s, the story totally adds up and is heart-breaking.
  2. Oscars Audience Up To 19.69 Million After Disney Adds Mobile & PC Viewing — That’s still nothing to brag about.  The Oscars days as a annual television event are clearly numbered.
  3. Peter Engel Dies At 88 — Rest in peace to the man who gave us Saved By The Bell and California Dreams.
  4. Actress Pamela Bach Dies At 61 — She was David Hasselhoff’s ex-wife.

Links From Last Week:

  1. Why Did 007’s Guardian Get Whacked? How Amazon’s James Bond Took Out Barbara Broccoli! — John Rieber takes a look at the recent big news about the future of the Bond franchise.  Unfortunately, that future does not look good.
  2. From House M, here’s a profile of the amazing Anne Bonny!

Want to check out last week?  Click here!

 

Scenes That I Love: Alain Delon in Purple Noon

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Alain Delon was left out of last week’s Oscar memorial montage but that doesn’t mean we can’t honor him here.  In today’s scene that I love, Alain Delon walks with style.  This is from the end of 1960’s Purple Noon, a French adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.

#SundayShorts presents ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR (1987) – Rutger Hauer helps lead another great escape during World War II!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Since Sunday is a day of rest for a lot of people, I present #SundayShorts, a mini review of a movie I’ve recently watched.

The 1987 movie ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR is the historical re-creation of the escape from the Nazi Death Camp Sobibor, where approximately two hundred fifty thousand Jews were executed. Of the approximately six hundred prisoners who attempted to escape, around three hundred succeeded with somewhere between 50 and 60 surviving to see the end of the war.

The plot of ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR revolves around Leon Feldhendler (Alan Arkin), the leader of the Jewish prisoners at Sobibor, who eventually comes to realize that they are being held in nothing more than a death camp. He figures out that the only people being allowed to live are the goldsmiths, seamstresses, shoemakers, and tailors; these are the people who are able to repair the shoes, recycle the clothing, and melt down any silver or gold for the Nazis. He also knows that once the trains stop coming in, all the remaining Jews will be murdered. As such, he and a group of men devise a plan for every prisoner to escape by luring the Nazi officers into the prisoners’ barracks and killing them as quietly as possible. With the help of a group of highly skilled Jewish, Russian soldiers, led by Sacha Pechersky (Rutger Hauer), their plan was put into action on October 14th, 1943, leading to the largest escape from a prison camp of any kind in Europe during World War II. 

ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR is an excellent film, and it’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime and TUBI as I type this. If you enjoy THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), I promise you will enjoy this film. It’s very hard to watch at times, as most Nazi concentration camp movies are, but you can’t help but be completely invested when the prisoners attempt their escape at the end. It’s always important to remind ourselves of the levels of evil and heroism that our fellow humans are capable of. ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR does an excellent job of that. 

Here are five interesting facts about the film:

  1. Y’all know how much I love Rutger Hauer. He won a 1988 Golden Globe for his performance as Sasha Pechersky.
  2. Not only did Hauer win a Golden Globe for his performance, the movie itself won as the “Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.”
  3. Over 30 million Americans saw this movie when it premiered on CBS on April 12th, 1987.
  4. Shortly after the revolt depicted in the film, Camp Sobibor was closed down and any trace of its existence was removed. Pine trees were later planted on the site.
  5. The movie ends with famed newscaster Howard K. Smith narrating the fates of the survivors on whose accounts the film was based. It’s an amazing, uplifting, and sometimes heartbreaking way for the outstanding movie to end. 

I highly recommend ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR. It’s an important film and one of the greatest films that Rutger Hauer ever worked on. Enjoy the trailer below!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special 1976 Edition

Posted on 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 lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, let us take a look back at a classic cinematic year.  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 1976 Films

Taxi Driver (1976, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Michael Chapman)

Logan’s Run (1976, dir by Michael Anderson, DP: Ernest Laszlo)

Carrie (1976, dir by Brian De Palma, DP: Mario Tosi)

The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976, dir by Nicholas Roeg, DP: Anthony Richmond)

Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All (1989, directed by John Nicollela)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Entertainer Johnny Roman (Ed Winter, best-known as the crazed Colonel Flagg on M*A*S*H) sends an invitation to New York P.I. Mike Hammer (Stacy Keach), asking him to come to Vegas for a job.  Hammer refuses.  Vegas is not for him.  He’s pure New York.  So, someone has Hammer abducted and thrown out of an airplane over Vegas.  Luckily, they gave Hammer a parachute.  Unluckily, for them, Hammer is now in Las Vegas and he’s pissed off.

Johnny, who says he had nothing to do with the kidnapping and just wants Hammer to help him deal with a singer who has been stealing from him, is killed by an explosive device while hosting a telethon.  Everyone suspects Hammer.  When the singer that Hammer was supposed to investigate also turns up dead, Hammer is again suspected.  Hammer has to clear his name while dealing with guest stars ranging from Lynda Carter to Michelle Phillips to Jim Carrey.

Stacy Keach was Mike Hammer for most of the 80s, playing Mickey Spillane’s notorious detective in a television series and in several made-for-TV movies, like this one.  Television was an awkward fit for Mike Hammer, or at least Hammer the way he was imagined in the books.  Mike Hammer was written to be a killer with his own brand of justice.  He was not written to be a nice person.  Instead, he was the brutal but intelligent warrior that you hoped would be on your side.  The television version of Mike Hammer was considered to be violent for the era but the show still toned down Hammer’s signature brutality.  Keach’s Hammer still killed people but he no longer gloated about it.  Stacy Keach, with his trademark intensity, was a good pick for Mike Hammer, even if the show’s scripts often let him down.

This movie is hamstrung by the fact that it was made-for-TV.  Hammer is not happy about being in Las Vegas but he can’t go off on the city in the same way that he would have in one of Mickey Spillane’s novels.  Keach still gives a good and tough performance as Hammer, getting as close to the character as anyone could under the restrictions of 80s network television.  The mystery is interesting, though Hammer doesn’t really solve it as much as he just waits until all the other suspects have been killed.  The main attraction of this one is the amount of guest stars who show up.  Lynda Carter is a great femme fatale and it’s always good to see Michelle Phillips, even in a small role.  Jim Carrey, in his pre-In Living Color days, plays an accountant and does okay with a serious role.

Who could play Mike Hammer today?  It’s hard to say.  There aren’t many believably tough actors around anymore and even those who do seem like they could hold their own in a fight don’t have the gritty world-weariness that the character requires.  (Just try to imagine Dwayne Johnson reenacting the end of I, the Jury.)  A few years ago, I would have said Frank Grillo.  In the 90s, Bruce Willis would have been the perfect Hammer.  Today, though, Mike Hammer’s time may finally have passed.

Retro Television Review: Homicide: Life On The Street 3.5 “The Last Of The Watermen”

Posted on 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 Sundays, I will be reviewing Homicide: Life On The Street, which aired from 1993 to 1999, on NBC!  It  can be viewed on Peacock.

If you’re checking with the imdb and saying, “You’re reviewing these out of order!,” I’m reviewing them in the order that they were meant to air as opposed to the order by which NBC showed them.

Episode 3.5 “The Last of the Watermen”

(Dir by Richard Pearce, originally aired on December 9th, 1994)

We learn a bit more about the personal lives of Baltimore’s Homicide detectives with this episode.

For instance, we discover that Munch and Gee living in the same neighborhood.  When Gee, whose washing machine has broken down, visits the local laundromat, he’s not necessarily overjoyed to see Munch sitting there.  Munch talks and talks.  Gee lights a cigar and tries to read his newspaper in peace.  Munch keeps talking.  Gee points out that it’s the weekend and he doesn’t like to talk to anyone on the weekend.  Sunday is his day.  Munch nods and then keeps talking.  Gee stands up and moves to another part of the laundromat.

We also get to meet Kay Howard’s family.  Disgusted by the latest murder scene that she and Beau have come across and the fact that an elderly woman was murdered and her tongue was subsequently cut out and then stuffed down her throat (yikes!), Kay decides that she’s due some vacation time.  She leaves Baltimore and drives out to the local fishing village where she grew up.  She spends time with her father and her brother and a guy who she once had a romantic relationship with.  She visits her mother’s grave.  It’s interesting to see Kay outside of Baltimore and to see how she interacts with family.  It was so interesting that I was kind of annoyed that she still ended up working a murder.  A local environmental activist is murdered.  Kay worries that the murderer might have been her brother but it turns out to have been another fisherman.  I mean, I get it.  The show is called Homicide and Kay is a detective but still, I would have been just as happy if the show had just focused on her family and their rituals.  This episode is 30 years old but the scenes of the blue collar fishermen talking about how they were being “regulated” out of their life’s work still rang true.

While Kay was visiting family, Felton got a temporary new partner and you’ve probably already guessed that it was Pembleton.  This is not the first time that Pembleton has been assigned to work with Felton.  The pilot featured that classic scene of Pembleton checking car-after-car while Felton complained about Pembleton always having to be right.  Felton and Pembleton do make for an interesting team, if just because they do seem to sincerely dislike each other.  (I also enjoyed Gee’s half-smile as Pembleton reacted to the news that he would be working with Felton.)  In this case, Pembleton and Felton working together didn’t lead to any great fireworks, other than Felton reacting with shock at the idea of Pembleton preferring hockey to basketball.  The killer of the elderly woman turned out to be her grandson who said he did it because she wouldn’t stop talking.  That was sad, to be honest.  Grandmothers are supposed to talk.  Felton and Pembleton dragged the kid off to jail.

This was an okay episode.  After the emotional powerhouse of Crosetti, it was good to get something that was a bit more lowkey.  It was nice to be reminded that everyone has a family.