I ran across a trailer for Jackie Chan’s latest movie today. It has a few things (other than Jackie) that really intrigue me…
This seems to be more hardcore than some of Chan’s more recent outings. Enjoy my friends!
The world misses you, Billy Jack!
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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, we pay tribute to the man who gave us Billy Jack. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Tom Laughlin Films
Born Losers (1967, dir by Tom Laughlin)
Billy Jack (1971, dir by Tom Laughlin)
The Trial of Bully Jack (1974, dir by Tom Laughlin)
Billy Jack Goes To Washington (1977, dir by Tom Laughlin)
Today would have been the 94th birthday of Tom Laughlin, the independent film pioneer who gave the world Billy Jack.
In honor of the day of his birth, here’s a scene that I love from Billy Jack. The townspeople think that they can get away with humiliating the students from the Freedom School. Well, Billy Jack’s got something to say about that and, as always, it starts with him taking off his shoes.
This cover, featuring what appears to featuer an alien visiting the New York Public Library, is from 1954. I wonder what he’s going to check out.
I like this video because the opening images and the first few notes of the song remind me of some lost Eurospy classic from the late 60s. It has a nicely decadent, Jess Franco sort of feel to it. And that’s always a good thing!
Enjoy!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week, Miss Bliss knows everything.
Episode 1.4 “Leaping To Conclusions”
(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on December 21st, 1988)
It’s time to dissect a frog for Biology class! Nikki (Heather Hopper) doesn’t believe in animal dissection and is especially upset that the frogs are currently still alive and living in a box with “LIVE ANIMALS” written on it.
Mr. Morton (Deryl Carroll), the crazed science teacher, doesn’t care about Nikki’s objections. However, Miss Bliss, the school busybody, definitely does. Miss Bliss tells Nikki to follow her conscience. Nikki steals the “LIVE ANIMALS” box and sets all of the frogs free in a nearby creek and probably ruins Indiana’s ecosystem.
Morton’s angry but Mr. Belding lets Nikki go with a warning because Mr. Belding is convinced that a private academy is trying to recruit Miss Bliss. Belding spends the entire episode giving Miss Bliss anything she asks for — a new globe, money for a field trip, a new projector — while the rest of the teachers receive nothing. When Miss Bliss discovers that Belding went through her mail and saw she had received a letter from a private academy, Miss Bliss does her usual, “Mr. Belding, you stupid little American,” routine. Belding laughs and then redistributes all of the gifts that he previously gave Miss Bliss. Miss Bliss is not amused because, seriously, why should any other teacher have a new projector? Everyone knows the world revolves around Miss Bliss.
As for Nikki, she steals the replacement frogs but then returns them, saying that it’s not fair for her to take away everyone else’s right to dissect a frog. So, Nikki really didn’t have any problem with the frogs being killed. She just didn’t want to be the one to do it. Mr. Morton says he will have to fail Nikki. Miss Bliss says that Nikki can just use a computer program to simulate dissecting a frog and you have to wonder why Miss Bliss is the one making that decision because it’s not even her class!
Seriously, Miss Bliss is the worst. That said, I wouldn’t want to dissect a frog either. That’s one reason why I lost respect for Nikki when she brought the frogs back. When you believe that strongly in something, you don’t turn back.
Big Brother 27 (CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV, 24/7)
I’ve been watching reviewing the latest season of the show that I love to hate over at the Big Brother Blog. In all honesty, I pretty much lost interest in this season as soon as Rachel Riley made her entrance.
King of the Hill (Hulu)
Over the course of a rough week, the revival of King of the Hill brought me some much needed joy. I was skeptical when I first heard that King of the Hill was coming back. I was scared that the revival would be too updated and that it wouldn’t stay true to everything that made the updated show so memorable. I should have known better and had faith in Mike Judge. The revival was everything that I love about King of the Hill — honest, sentimental, and very, very funny. After all these years, King of the Hill remains the best show about Texas ever produced.
Robert Aldrich is a very important director in the career of my favorite actor, Charles Bronson. Bronson appeared in 4 films directed by Aldrich, including APACHE (1954), VERA CRUZ (1954) and 4 FOR TEXAS (1963). In 1967, just before Bronson would become the biggest star in the world, Aldrich would give him a significant role in the box office smash THE DIRTY DOZEN. In celebration of Aldrich’s 107th birthday in cinema heaven, I thought I’d share this fun scene from the World War II classic!
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, Lisa will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981. The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.
Episode #10: The Golden Honeymoon (1980, directed by Noel Black)
Hey, guest reviewer here! Don’t worry, Lisa will return next week. Next week’s episode has got Eric Roberts in it and she told me there’s no way she’s going to miss that!
This episode is an adaptation of a short story by the author Ring Lardner, who was a member of the Algonquin Round Table and whose son won an Oscar for writing the script for the movie version of M*A*S*H. The Golden Honeymoon about an old couple (James Whitmore and Teresa Wright) who celebrate their 50th anniversary by going on a “golden honeymoon” to Florida. While there, they meet the wife’s old flame (Larry Loonin) and Whitmore feels like he has to win his Wright all over again. Whitmore and Loonin play a lot of different games, like shuffleboard and checkers. You know you don’t want to get between a group of elderly people playing checkers! Wright gets frustrated with Whitmore but they make up by the end of the episode. They bicker but they love each other.
I have not read the original short story on which this episode is based. Ring Lardner was famous for his wit and he probably could have found a lot of comedic moments in two old romantic rivals having an intense checkers game. The episode itself reminded me of those films that my high school English teachers would always show in class. “You are going to love this,” the teacher always says and then the members of the class sit there in stony silence as they watched the slowest, most visually static program imaginable. This episode was not just boring. It was PBS boring.
I don’t want to be to negative, though. I like both James Whitmore and Teresa Wright. Whitmore was the elderly prisoner in The Shawshank Redemption. Teresea Wright was in several classic Golden Age films. In The Golden Honeymoon, they were believable as an old married couple, who constantly argue but still clearly love each other.
Through the Shattered Lens 