Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Wally Pfister Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to cinematographer Wally Pfister!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Wally Pfister Films

Memento (2000, dir by Christopher Nolan, DP: Walyl Pfister)

Insomnia (2002, dir by Christopher Nolan, DP: Wally Pfister)

The Prestige (2006, dir by Christopher Nolan, DP: Wally Pfister)

Inception (2010, dir by Christopher Nolan, DP: Wally Pfister)

Late Night Retro Television Review: ChiPs 4.2 “Sick Leave”

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 Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983.  The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, death comes to California.

Episode 4.2 “Sick Leave”

(Dir by John Florea, originally aired on September 28th, 1980)

Andy (Robert Viharo) is a veteran member of the highway patrol who, when he’s not chasing down bad guys, is a student at the the local college.  He wants to become an archeologist and go to Peru.  Unfortunately, Andy has a brain lesion and may not get the chance.  His behavior is erratic.  His vision is failing.  He refuses to admit that there’s anything wrong.  Can Ponch and Jon get him off the street before he gets someone killed?  Andy says that if he wants to die, he wants to go out saving someone’s life and not sitting behind a desk.  An escalating fraternity prank war makes Andy’s dream come true.  The theft of a fraternity’s prized bird sculpture leads to a high-speed chase and several overturned cars.  Andy manages to save a young woman from a crashed car but, when the car explodes, he ends up with a hunk of shrapnel sticking out of his back.  Ouch!  He dies in Baker’s arms.  If Ponch had been the one holding him, one can only assume that Andy would have been magically healed by the power of Estrada.

This is the rare episode of CHiPs in which someone dies.  In fact, I think this is only the third episode in which a traffic accident has led to a fatality.  It happened once during the pilot.  During the second season, several people were killed in a multi-car pileup.  For the most part, though, CHiPs features people who somehow manage to survive the most horrendous of crashes.  Andy is killed by a sharp hunk of metal but, the show suggests, he would have died anyway from the brain lesions.

Along with a rare death, this episode featured a lot of slo mo of doom.  At the start of the episode, Andy’s reckless driving causes Ponch to crash his motorcycle and we get to watch Erik Estrada’s stunt double fly through the air in slow motion.  Later, when Andy runs away from the exploding car, the entire scene is in slow motion.  It works.  There’s a reason why slow motion is so overused.  It’s incredibly effective.

Overall, this episode had good intentions but a somewhat shaky execution.  Robert Viharo went so overboard with his performance that you couldn’t help but wonder why Ponch and Baker were the only ones who noticed that Andy obviously wasn’t doing well.  Not even Sgt. Getraer seems to notice!  The main problem is that silly scenes of the fraternity prank war (one fraternity even rents a helicopter!) were mixed with scenes of Andy’s mind literally shutting down as we watched.  Tonally, this episode was a mishmash.  CHiPs, with its bass-heavy theme and Erik Estrada’s blinding smile, might not have been the right place to try to pull off a heart-rending drama.

Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 4.10 “Love At First Sight”

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 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, as the drug epidemic rages out of control, Sonny searches for a serial killer.

Episode 4.10 “Love At First Sight”

(Dir by Don Johnson, originally aired on January 15th, 1988)

What the Hell, Miami Vice?

Seriously, remember when this show was about Crockett and Tubbs going after drug dealers while Phil Collins played in the background?  Season 4 feels like a completely different show.

This week’s episode finds Sonny going undercover (*massive eye roll as Sonny does his, “My name is Sonny Burnett” routine for the thousandth time*) and joining a video dating service.  The plan is for Sonny to bust prostitutes but instead, he finds himself as the latest client to be targeted by a serial killer.

Sonny goes on dates, never knowing if the woman he’s with is a killer.  One woman approaches him with something behind her back.  Is it a knife?  No, it’s a vibrator!  “I can see the headlines now — Undercover cop slugs woman after assault with a sex toy!” Sonny says while wearing a yellow sweater and having a nice grapefruit breakfast at his mansion.

Meanwhile, cocaine is flooding Miami, the crack epidemic is spiraling out of control, there are communist taking over Central America, Fidel Castro is still alive, there’s a lot of going on out there and apparently it’s being ignored so Sonny can be used as serial killer bait — hey Vice Squad, why don’t you let the homicide detective deal with the murders while you get back to what you’re supposed to be doing?

Caitlin, Sonny’s wife, worries.  Oh, how she worries.  Her best friend tells her that she’s knew what she was getting into when she married a cop.  If Sonny is trying to maintain his undercover identity, should Caitlin be telling people that she married a cop?  Shouldn’t she be like, “I’m married to drug dealer!  His name’s Burnett and he just looks like that guy who used to play college football?”  That Sheena Easton was not a professional actress is pretty obvious in this episode.  When she previously appeared, she was a singer playing a singer and that brought some authenticity to her performance.  Now, she’s having to pretend to be the worried wife of a cop and her acting limitations are much more easier to see.

The killer is eventually revealed to be a woman (played by David Bowie’s future wife, Iman) with multiple personalities.  When she feels threatened, she turns into her brother and uses a knife to castrate the men from the dating service.  Will Sonny survive?  Yes, he does.

Don Johnson directed this episode and usually, when a cast member directs an episode of their show, their character tends to take a background role so they can concentrate on directing.  Not our Don!  This episode is so much about Sonny that the rest of the Vice Squad is barely in it.

This episode really made me miss the subtlety of Brian Dennehy playing a televangelist or James Brown kidnapping people for aliens.  Get it together, Miami!

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us for Lethal Tender!

Posted on 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 1996’s Lethal Tender!

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 Lethal Tender on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!

Enjoy!

Scene That I Love: Janet Leigh and Pat Hitchcock in Psycho

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday was Janet Leigh’s birthday and today is Pat Hitchcock’s birthday so it seems appropriate that today’s scene that I love should feature both of them.  From 1960’s Psycho, this scene features Leigh and Hitchcock as office co-workers who meet the very wealthy Mr. Lowry (played by Frank Albertson).

“He was flirting with you.  He must have seen my wedding ring,” remains one of the greatest lines ever written.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Robert Eggers Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Robert Eggers!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Robert Eggers Films

The Witch (2015, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)

The Lighthouse (2019, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)

The Northman (2022, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)

Nosferatu (2024, dir by Robert Eggers, DP: Jarin Blaschke)

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.9 “Extracurricular Activities”

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 and Tubi

This week, everyone’s either self-centered or foolish.

Episode 2.9 “Extracurricular Activities”

(Dir by John Bertram, originally aired on January 14th, 1991)

Caitlin or Lucy, it’s hard to say who is worse in this episode.

Caitlin is excited when her mother invites her to come home for a meeting with her father.  Caitlin, who has been imposing on friends ever since she discovered her father was cheating on her mother, is all excited because she thinks her parents are going to get divorced.  Instead, her parents announce that they’re staying together.  Caitlin gets angry, telling her friend Maya that she’ll just get an apartment and a job and she’ll never see her parents again.  Maya, who is in a wheelchair and actually knows a little more about hardship than Caitlin, reminds Caitlin that “they’re your parents,” which I think is Canadian for, “Good Lord, stop whining!”  Seriously, Maya — who actually has a lot that she could justifiably be upset about — never complains about anything while Caitlin — who is from a middle-class family and has a nice house and somehow only got a slap on the wrist after being arrested for trespassing and vandalizing — never shuts up about her difficult her life is.  We get it, Caitlin.  It sucks that everyone in the world isn’t as perfect and principled as you are.

(Does Caitlin ever ask anyone how they’re doing or does she just enter a room and automatically start talking about her life?  Based on the second season, the latter would appear to be true.)

Meanwhile, Lucy is dating Bronco, the student body president.  When Bronco tells Lucy that everyone’s favorite Degrassi band, the Savages, are going to be shooting a video at Degrassi, he swears Lucy to secrecy.  (Actually, Gourmet Scum was everyone’s favorite band on Degrassi High but I guess the Savages were cool too.)  So, of course, Lucy tells the creepy Farrell twins and then they make plans to break into the school on the weekend to watch the video shoot.  Joey and Snake also decide to break into the school for the video shoot.  Of course, they all get caught by Mr. Raditch and Bronco gets in a ton of trouble because Raditch assumes that Bronco let all of his friends into the school.

“Sorry,” Lucy says.

Gee, Lucy, that’ll really help!

You may have noticed this episode annoyed me.  Some of that is purely personal on my part.  With my mind slipping into summer and holiday mode, I’m missing both my mom and my dad so I wasn’t necessarily sympathetic to Caitlin’s demand that her parents split up or else never speak to her again.  As for Lucy and Bronco, Bronco should have known better than to tell Lucy.  And Lucy sure as Hell should have known better than to tell the Farrell twins.  Everyone was just too dumb this episode.

Next week, though, we have the first part of one of Degrassi High’s best-remembered episodes.  Fear not, we can put this episode behind us.

10 Films For The Week (7/6/25)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

America, Hell Yeah!

As I always do, I celebrated Independence Day by watching one of the greatest films ever made, the original Red Dawn (1984).  The communists land in America and try to take over and, sadly, they succeed to a large extent.  However, a group of high school students led by Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen refuse to go down without a fight.  Say it with me, “Wolverines!”  This film really doesn’t get the respect that it deserves.  Not only is it well-acted but, despite it’s reputation, it doesn’t glamorize war.  Most of the Wolverines do not survive.  C. Thomas Howell, the most committed of the Wolverines, loses a bit of his soul and goes from being a fresh-faced high school student to someone who can execute a former friend without a moment’s hesitation.  While evil Russian William Smith plots to destroy the rebels, Ron O’Neal comes to respect their dedication.  Still, in the end, the best thing about this film is that it’s shamelessly patriotic and unapologetically anti-communist.  “Avenge me!” Harry Dean Stanton yells and you better do it.  The film can be found on Max.

Warren Oates, Hell Yeah!

Yesterday was the birthday of the great character actor Warren Oates.  Brad reviewed two of his films and Jeff shared a scene from Strips.  I would like to recommend the enigmatic 1966 western The Shooting (1966).  Deliberately paced and philosophically-minded, this film features Oates in a leading role.  Millie Perkins and Jack Nicholson (who wrote the screenplay) make for a wonderfully menacing duo of villains.  The Shooting can be found on Tubi.

Sylvester Stallone, Hell Yeah!

Today is Sylvester Stallone’s birthday.  As far as I’m concerned, Stallone’s best performance was in First Blood (1982).  The sequels, which were a bit more simplistic and jingoistic than the first film, have tended to overshadow just how good Stallone was as a troubled veteran who just wanted to get a cup of coffee and who found himself being thrown in jail for refusing to “go across the border.”  Of course, it’s not just Stallone who is great in First Blood.  Brian Dennehy and Richard Crenna were, arguably, never better than when they played Sheriff Teasle and Col. Troutman.  First Blood was one of the first films to really be sympathetic to the plight of the Vietnam veteran.  Rambo may snap and destroy an entire town but, after what he’s put through, you won’t blame him.  First Blood is on Tubi!

Of course, if you really want a fun and wonderfully absurd Stallone film, check out the arm wrestling epic, Over The Top (1987).  Stallone is Hawk, a truck driver who makes his living as an arm wrestler.  Robert Loggia tries to Stallone’s son away so Stallone has to prove himself to be the world’s greatest arm wrestler.  I distrust anyone who doesn’t love Over The Top.  It can be viewed on Tubi.

Tom Cruise, Hell Yeah!

If you’re still in the mood to celebrate Tom Cruise’s birthday, Losin’ It (1982) features Cruise as a teenager in the 60s who goes down to Mexico with his friends so that he can …. well, lose it.  While the comedy is often predictable, Losin’ It is still an amiable enough film and Cruise gives a likable performance and his character has a really sweet romance with Shelley Long.  The great John Stockwell is also in the film.  Director Curtis Hanson went on to do L.A. Confidental.  Losin’ It is on Tubi!

It’s become fashionable to criticize Risky Business (1983), released a year after Losin’ It, for being a materialistic film but …. eh, screw that.  Between the soundtrack, the surreal direction, Guido the Killer Pimp, and Tom Cruise bringing out the sunglasses at night, Risky Business is one of the best films of the 80s and it can be viewed on AMC+’s Prime Channel.

In Cocktail (1988), Tom Cruise  is the last barman poet!  A guilty pleasure for sure but a pleasure, nonetheless.  Cocktail can be viewed on AMC+.

The Running Man, Hell Yeah!

There’s a remake of The Running Man coming out this year.  I’ll live it to you to decide whether or not that’s a necessary thing.  I will say that the original Running Man (1987) holds up very well, as both an action film and a media satire.  You can smell the cigarettes and gin whenever Richard Dawson is on screen.  The Running Man can be viewed on Tubi.

Beach Fun, Hell Yeah!

Saturday was National Bikini Day.  If you missed your chance to celebrate, you can make up for it be watching Malibu High (1979), a film from the legendary production company, Crown International.  It’s all fun and games the beach until a young woman is dumped by her boyfriend and decides to become a professional assassin.  Malibu High can be viewed on Tubi.

The End of the World, Hell Yeah!

If you’re in the mood for some end of the world action, the low-budget, independently made A Thief In The Night (1972) is currently on Tubi, along with its sequels, A Distant Thunder, Image of the Beast, and The Prodigal Planet.  A Thief In The Night is not necessarily a great film but it does have a few moments of dream-like intensity.  And it’s short!  It can be viewed on Tubi.

Click here for last week’s entry!