Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 3.19 “Normal People”

Posted on April 10, 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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Jonathan and Mark help out at a halfway house.

Episode 3.19 “Normal People”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on February 11th, 1987)

This week, Jonathan and Mark find themselves assigned to work as handymen at a halfway house for patients who have recently been released from a mental hospital but who are still not quite ready to reenter the society. As usual, Mark is skeptical about working with anyone outside of his comfort zone but Jonathan soon shows him the error of his ways. It seems like almost every assignment was really about teaching Mark to be more tolerant of people who were different than him.

The neighbors aren’t happy about having a halfway house in their neighborhood. They vandalize the yard. They blame the patients for every little thing. When some neighborhood kids accidentally start a fire, the blame is put on a teenager at the halfway house. Jonathan encourages the patients to try to leave the house and socialize and show everyone that they are just like normal people. Jonathan also punishes one snobbish neighbor by causing her to have mishap with a stack of melons at a grocery store. I’ve noticed that, during the third season, Jonathan and the Boss seem to take an extra delight in humiliating people.

Eventually, the stupid kids start another fire, which gives one of the patients that chance to save their lives. It also reveals that the patient was not responsible for the earlier fires. Everyone comes to realize the error of the ways. Hurray!

This was a good example of how Highway to Heaven‘s earnestness often made up for scripts that were a bit obvious and heavy-handed. There’s nothing subtle about this episode but it’s still so achingly sincere in its message of tolerance that it’s hard not appreciate it. The show’s good intentions stand the test of time.

Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys (1990, directed by Michael Switzer)

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Bruce Greenwood stars as Dennis Wilson and Greg Kean plays his brother Brian in this made-for-TV movie about the history of the Beach Boys. The movie focuses on Dennis and his struggle with his abusive father (Arlen Dean Snyder) and his ultimately fatal addictions. Bo Foxworth plays Carl Wilson, who doesn’t get a line until half an hour into the movie. Andrew Myler plays Al Jardine and Casey Sanders plays Mike Love, both of whom are portrayed as being bystanders while Brian and Dennis create the Beach Boys sound. (Jardine doesn’t get a single line in the movie.) An actor named Michael Reid MacKay shows up briefly as Charles Manson, wearing a fake beard and crashing at Dennis’s pad in the 60s. The movie portrays the Beach Boys transformation from being a clean-cut group of California teenagers to psychedelic pioneers by putting everyone in a wig once the late 60s arrive.

Summer Dreams claims to be The Story of the Beach Boys but next to no time is spent on the recording of Pet Sounds and Smile isn’t mentioned at all. (Don’t go looking for Van Dyke Parks.) Admittedly, this film was made before Brian Wilson made his touring comeback so I guess it would make sense that the story would focus on Dennis, who had died seven years previously. (Brian is portrayed as being neurotic and sensitive but not mentally ill.) Bruce Greenwood doesn’t do a bad job as Dennis and there definitely is a place for a movie that takes a real look at Dennis Wilson and his contributions to the group. Dennis was, in many ways, as serious an artist as Brian but, due to his early death, he’s often overlooked. But this film, mired as it is in biopic cliches and bland recreations of the 60s and 70s, doesn’t do justice to either Brian or Dennis or the group as a whole.

Watch Love & Mercy instead.

Retro Television Review: Malibu CA 2.8 “Guess Who’s Coming To Malibu”

Posted on April 10, 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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999. Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

Yes, this is from the first season. I don’t care. I refuse to waste my time looking for a second season advertisement.

Reviewing Malibu CA feels a bit pointless now that I’ve discovered that half of the season two episodes weren’t ever uploaded to YouTube but I made a commitment and my own OCD tendencies are holding me to it. Let’s try to take a look at the latest episode.

Episode 2.8 “Guess Who’s Coming To Malibu”

(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on November 27th, 1999)

Here’s what the imdb has to tell us about this episode:

Peter is thrilled to be named businessman of the year by the Malibu Business Association. Murray is excited that his favorite actor Josh Denmark is in Malibu shooting a film. Jason recalls that he knew Josh a few years back in music camp. Together they sneak onto the set to see Josh and disrupt the shoot. Josh remembers Jason, the two reminisce and plan to meet again. Later Josh comes by the Lighthouse with female fans following him. Jason offers to let Josh stay at the Collins house to escape the crush of fans. Jason asks his dad after the fact if Josh can stay and Peter says no way, it will be too disruptive with his awards banquet coming up and Scott’s Olympic training. Josh’s flattery helps Peter soften his position a little.

Wow, Jason just knows everyone! Didn’t they already do an episode during the first season about a movie star who needed a place to hide so she ended up staying at the Collins house? We’re only two seasons in and the show is already repeating itself. It’s also interesting to note that Scott’s Olympic training is still going on. When last we checked, he had only recently started swimming again. And yet, he’s already a potential Olympian. I learned how to play golf two years ago. Maybe I should try out for the Olympic team.

This is another second season episode that has not been uploaded to YouTube. I know, it breaks my heart, too. Consider this to be a placeholder. If the episode ever does show up on YouTube, I will review it here.

Scenes That I Love: A Conversation From Heat

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love is a little scene from 1995’s Heat.

This isn’t a scene that regularly gets mentioned when it comes to discussing the many iconic scenes in this film but I picked it because it features good work from two actors who are no longer with us, Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore. Add to that, Danny Trejo’s pithy comment at the end — after all the discussion that’s happened before it — is simply perfect.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Cannes Edition

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.

With the official Cannes lineup being announced, it only seems right to highlight a few films that have previously won the Palme d’Or. It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Films That Won At Cannes

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

Apocalypse Now (1979, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, DP: Vittorio Storaro)

Pulp Fiction (1994, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Andrzej Sekuła)

Tree of Life (2011, dir by Terrence Malick, DP: Emmanuel Lubezki)

Here’s What Will Be Playing At The 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The line-up for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival was announced earlier today. Here is what will be playing and competing at the world’s most prestigious film festival. With the Academy getting more and more international in its outlook, Cannes itself has become something of an Oscar precursor. So, at least one of these films listed below will probably be amongst the films later nominated for Best Picture of the Year.

The 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival will open on May 13th, 2025.

COMPETITION

Alpha, Julie Ducournau
Dossier 137, Dominik Moll
The Eagles of the Republic, Tarik Saleh
Eddington, Ari Aster
Fuori, Mario Martone
The History of Sound, Oliver Hermanus
La Petite Derniere, Hafsia Herzi
The Mastermind, Kelly Reichardt
Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater
The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson
Renoir, Chie Hayakawa
Romeria, Carla Simone
The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier
A Simple Accident, Jafar Panahi
Sirat, Oliver Laxe
Sound of Falling, Mascha Schilinksi
Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa
Young Mothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Aisha Can’t Fly Away, Morad Mostafa
Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson
Heads or Tails?, Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis
Homebound, Neeraj Ghaywan
Karavan, Zuzana Kirchnerová
L’inconnu de la Grande Arche, Stéphane Demoustier
The Last One for the Road, Francesco Sossai
Meteors, Hubert Charuel
My Father’s Shadow, Akinola Davies Jr
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Diego Céspedes
Once Upon A Time In Gaza, Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser
A Pale View of the Hills, Kei Ishikawa
Pillion, Harry Lighton
The Plague, Charlie Polinger
Promised Sky, Erige Sehiri
Urchin, Harris Dickinson

OUT OF COMPETITION

Colours of Time, Cedric Klapisch
Highest 2 Lowest, Spike Lee
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Christopher McQuarrie
Partir un jour, Amélie Bonnin – opening film
The Richest Woman in the World, Thierry Klifa
Vie Privée, Rebecca Zlotowski

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Bono: Stories of Surrender, Andrew Dominik
The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, Sylvain Chomet
Tell Her I Love Her, Romane Bohringer

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

Dalloway, Yann Gozlan
Exit 8, Kawamura Genki
Songs of the Neon Night, Juno Mak

CANNES PREMIERE

Amrum, Fatih Akin
Connemara, Alex Lutz
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, Kirill Serebrennikov
Orwell: 2+2 =5, Raoul Peck
Splitsville, Michael Angelo Covino
The Wave, Sebastián Lelio

The Eric Roberts Collection: DC Down (dir by Geoff Meed)

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2023’s DC Down, Washington D.C. is hit by an earthquake!

It’s a 6.3 on the Richter scale, which means the aftershocks are going to be even worse. The Washington Monument now has a big crack on it. The Potomac is threatening to flood the city. And even worse, both the President (Sean Young) and the Vice President are trapped underneath a bunch of White House rubble. (Fortunately, the main White House is still standing and actually looks remarkably sturdy. The President and the Vice President were touring a new wing of the White House that was under construction.)

General Harris (Terry Woodbury) is determined to head up efforts to dig up the chief executive and hopefully find either her or the Vice President alive. However, Speaker of the House Terry Wilder (Eric Roberts) has other ideas. First, Wilder invokes the 25th Amendment and takes over as temporary President. Then he suggests that a militia group be brought in to search through the rubble and rescue the president. General Harris thinks that’s an odd idea but, in the end, he goes with it. Needless to say, Wilder does not have the president’s best interests at heart. For him, this earthquake is the perfect opportunity to take over. He orders the head of the militia to kill the president when she is found. Can Wilder be stopped?

(For that matter, do we want to stop Wilder? Eric Roberts seems like he would be a much more entertaining president that Sean Young.)

D.C. Down is another Asylum mockbuster, the type that I used to love to watch on the SyFy network. It’s cheap and it’s ridiculous and it’s self-aware enough to be entertaining despite all of that. You have to appreciate any film that can not only work in an earthquake and a flood but also a political coup. Add to that, Eric Roberts actually gets a few more scenes than usual in this film. I have to admit that I laughed out loud when he first appeared, casually walking up to the ruins of the White House extension as if it was just another day in the nation’s capitol. But, again, that’s a part of the charm of DIY, almost-punk rock charm of the Asylum and their mockbusters. They defy the conventional definitions of good and bad and they create a unique cinematic world all their own, in this case a world where both Sean Young and Eric Roberts can be President over the course of a day. Good for the Asylum! I hope they never stop making movies.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Song of the Day: Eruption (by Van Halen)

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Arleigh

Time to get back to our “Greatest Guitar Solos” series with a short but awesome rock instrumental from the one and only Eddie Van Halen.

“Eruption” was part of the band Van Halen’s self-titled debut album in 1978 and announced the arrival of one of rock’s guitar gods in Eddie Van Halen. Just like Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, this track was short (less than two minutes) but was very influential with future musicians.

The song itself has Eddie Van Halen mixing it classical music structures and cadences (he uses a section of “Etude No. 2” by Rodolphe Kreutzer in the beginning of the track. Eddie’s use of classical musical theory and melding it with the face-melting technique of hard rock will usher in an era of rock guitarists from all genres from hard rock to black metal where classical music is not seen a stodgy music, but a strong basis and foundation to create of the great rock songs for the next half-century.