Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Online Honors Killers of the Flower Moon

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Online have announced their picks for the best of 2023.

And here they are:

Best Picture: “Killers Of The Flower Moon“
Best Director: Christopher Nolan – “Oppenheimer“
Best Actor: Cillian Murphy – “Oppenheimer“
Best Actress: Sandra Hüller – “Anatomy Of A Fall“
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo – “Poor Things“
Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph – “The Holdovers“
Best Screenplay: Justine Triet & Arthur Harari – “Anatomy Of A Fall“
Best Animated Feature: “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse“
Best Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema – “Oppenheimer“
Best Use of Music: “Barbie“
Best Documentary Feature: “The Eternal Memory“
Best Foreign Language: “Anatomy Of A Fall“
Best Debut Director: Celine Song – “Past Lives”
Breakthrough Performer: Charles Melton – “May December“
Best Ensemble Cast: “Oppenheimer“

Top 10 Films (in alphabetical order)
American Fiction (Amazon MGM)
Anatomy Of A Fall (Neon)
The Holdovers (Focus Features)
Killers Of The Flower Moon (Apple Original Films, Paramount Pictures)
Maestro (Netflix)
May December (Netflix)
Oppenheimer (Universal)
Poor Things (Searchlight)
Past Lives (A24)
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Retro Television Review: T and T 2.9 “Hostage”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing T. and T., a Canadian show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990.  The show can be found on Tubi!

This week, Amy, T.S. and Joe get involved in a — ugh — hostage situation!

Episode 2.9 “Hostage”

(Dir by Don McCutcheon, originally aired on November 28th, 1988)

Fleeing from the police after a botched robbery, two sweaty crooks, Rook (Lawrence King) and Larry (Angelo Rizacos), duck into Don’s Sporting Goods and end up holding 8 people hostage, including Amy and Joe!  What a scary situation!  These eight Canadians probably just wanted to buy new hockey jerseys and now, they’re being held hostage!

The police, of course, are ineffectual.  T.S. tracks down the ex-wife of one of the men but she can’t convince him to come out of the store.  The two crooks don’t want to go back to prison so they’ve demanded a lot of money and a plane and they’ve given the Toronto police only two hours to meet their demands.  Inside the store, Amy tries to reason with them.  Rook knows that things have gone too far and that they need to surrender to the police.  But Larry is sweaty and violent and determined to escape with the money.

I groaned a bit when I saw what this episode was going to be about.  I absolutely dread sitting through anything that involves hostage negotiation.  There’s really not much that can happen in a story like this, other than the hostage takers doing a lot of yelling and the negotiators saying, “You’re going to have to give us more time!”  It’s really not much fun to watch people getting guns pointed at their heads while some loser rants and raves about how he’s going to pull the trigger unless he gets what he wants.  With the exception of Dog Day Afternoon, hostage taking is usually pretty boring to watch.

Probably the biggest mistake that this episode makes is that it sidelines T.S. Turner for much of the action.  The main appeal of T and T is the chance to watch and hear Mr. T take down the bad guys.  T.S. spends the majority of this episode just standing around and only he gets to call one person “brother.”  Finally, during the final few minutes, T.S. ends up crawling around in the building’s loft so that he can break through the ceiling and take out the hostage takers but, by the time he does, the two criminals have already turned on each other.  For once, it falls not to T.S. to capture the main bad guy but for the bad guy’s accomplice to shoot him in the back.

All in all, this was a disappointing episode.  Amy failed to talk the criminals into giving themselves up and T.S. failed to capture the criminals by himself.  What is Canada even paying these two for?

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix For Miracle on 34th Street!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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

Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix has got one of my favorite Christmas movies, 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag!  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Miracle on 34th Street is available on Prime!  See you there!

Late Night Retro Television Reviews: Highway to Heaven 1.12 “Hotel of Dreams”

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 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, Mark and Jonathan work at a hotel …. a hotel of dreams!

Episode 1.12 “Hotel of Dreams”

(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on December 12th, 1984)

Barry Rudd (Brian Kerwin) may be the son of a wealthy hotel owner but he’s far more comfortable living out in the country, wearing denim and flannel, and helping to raise goats.  However, one day, Barry is summoned to his father’s hotel.  His father even sends a helicopter out to get him.  Barry gets on the helicopter but he insists on bringing his goat with him.

At the hotel, Barry’s father (Jacques Aubuchon) explains that he’s gotten married to a woman who is much younger than him and he needs Barry to run the hotel while he’s on his honeymoon.  Barry is stuck running the snootiest hotel in California, despite the fact that he doesn’t even own a suit and all he really wants to do is look after his goat.  Unfortunately, the hotel has a lot of problems.  The manager (played by Dean Dittman) is a mean-spirited snob who takes bribes from the guests.  A child (Douglas Emerson) is running wild through the halls of the hotel, all because his father is too busy working to keep an eye on him.  Saintly maid Elena (Julie Carmen) does the best job that she can but she’s looked down upon by the guests and the hotel’s manager.

Can Barry solve all of the hotel’s problems and also find time to attend his high school reunion?  Will he stay true to himself or will he sell out in an effort to impress people like his former classmate, Allison Rutledge (Judith-Marie Bergan)?  It’s not going to be easy and Barry doesn’t even know where to begin.  Fortunately, he has some help.  The hotel’s two new bellhops are Jonathan Smith and Mark Gordon!

Especially when compared to the previous two episodes, Hotel of Dreams is a rather light-hearted episode.  There’s nothing particularly surprising to be found in this episode.  Of course, Allison is going to turn out to be a total snob.  Of course, Elena is going to help Barry take care of his goat.  Of course, Barry and Elena are going to fall in love and end up together, all with the help of Jonathan.  And, of course, Mark is going to become a surrogate father figure for the bratty kid.  This is a thoroughly pleasant if not particularly memorable episode, one that plays out more like a pilot for a show about the hotel than an episode about an angel trying to make the world a better place.  Brian Kerwin and Julie Carmen make for an attractive couple and, as the episode ends, you can’t help but hope that Barry and Elena are going spend the rest of their lives raising goats together.

There is an unfortunate moment in this episode when Jonathan gives Mark a hard time for smoking.  When Jonathan tells Mark that he could die if he doesn’t stop smoking, Mark replies that everyone has to die of something.  Mark then asks Jonathan what cause his death.

“Lung cancer,” Jonathan replies.

Victor French, who played Mark, would die of lung cancer just five years later.  Shortly afterwards, Michael Landon would also die of cancer.

Retro Television Reviews: Jennifer Slept Here 1.11 “Life With Grandfather”

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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Jennifer Slept Here, which aired on NBC in 1983 and 1984.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week’s episode made me cry.

Episode 1.11 “Life With Grandfather”

(Dir by John Bowab, originally aired on April 28th, 1984)

George Elliott’s father, Barney (Milo O’Shea), is coming to visit.  He’ll be staying up in the attic, which upsets Jennifer until Barney actually arrives and she discovers that Barney is a lovable eccentric who loves her movies and spends his time trying to invent new toys.

Unfortunately, the rest of the family is not as thrilled to have Barney around as Jennifer is.  Barney and George have a strained relationship and Joey keeps making excuses not to spend time with his grandfather.  Jennifer is the only one who understands how lonely Barney is but she can’t help him because Barney can’t see her.

Sadly, that changes when one of Barney’s toys explodes in the attic.  Suddenly, Barney can see Jennifer and Jennifer can talk to him.  That’s because Barney is dead.  Jennifer helps Barney come to terms with being dead and she also tells him that he’s not alone because there’s ghosts all over the place.  Barney says that he had so much he still wanted to tell his family and Jennifer assures Barney that his family had a lot that they wanted to tell him.  It’s a surprisingly poignant scene, one that is wonderfully acted by both Ann Jillian and Milo O’Shea.

The episodes jumps forward a few days.  George and Joey are still struggling to come to terms with Barney’s death.  George admits that he was never as close to his father as he wishes he had been and that he has a lot regrets about not getting to tell Barney how much he loved him before he died.  Joey, for his part, goes up to his bedroom and tells Jennifer that he wants to talk to his grandfather.  Joey feels that, since he can talk to Jennifer’s ghost, he should also be able to talk to his grandfather’s ghost.  Jennifer gently explains that Barney has moved on and Joey can’t talk to him anymore but he can continue to love him.

I mean …. MY GOD!  Though this series is admittedly uneven, I’ve enjoyed the majority of the episodes of Jennifer Slept Here that I’ve watched.  But I never thought that this show would bring me to tears.  This was such a sweet and poignant episode and I think it’s one to which everyone watching could relate.  We all have loved ones who we miss and we wish we could speak to.  And sadly, we rarely say everything that we want to say to people while they’re still here.  Joey’s desire to speak to his grandfather is an emotion that we’ve all felt.  But Barney has moved on and the show deserves a lot of credit for not going for the easy solution and having Barney suddenly return to say goodbye to Joey.  Instead, this episode (and Jennifer) emphasized the importance of enjoying the time together that we have and always carrying our love for others in our hearts.

This was a sweet episode and well-acted by the entire cast.  As I’ve said, this is an uneven series but this was a truly good episode.

Here’s The Trailer for IF

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

John Krasinski has gone from being the cute smirky guy on  The Office to an action hero to a legitimately good horror director.  Next year, the Krasinski saga will continue with IF, a comedy that he has written and directed about a father, his daughter, and a host of “imaginary friends.”

The trailer dropped today and it’s cute enough to be interesting.  A bearded Ryan Reynolds plays the father and it appears that a host of familiar names will be voicing the IFs.

Music Video of the Day: All I Want For Christmas Is You by Vince Vance & The Valiants (1990, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

There are a lot of version of this song out there.  Right now, I’m forcing everyone in the office to listen to the Mariah Carey version but, since our readers might be tired of that version, here’s the Vince Vance and the Valiants version!

I really hope we get some snow either this Christmas or in January.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Monsters 1.11 “Rouse Him Not”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire show is streaming on Tubi.

This week, there’s a monster in the cellar!

Episode 1.11 “Rouse Him Not”

(Dir by Mark Shostrom, originally aired on December 31st, 1988)

Linda McGuire (Laraine Newman) is a painter who, for financial reasons, has moved from New York to a cottage in New England.  (As she explains it, she wouldn’t even be able to afford the tiniest hovel in New York for the amount she’s paying for the cottage.)  Along with hoping to paint some landscapes, Linda also plans to transform the cellar into her own personal art gallery.

Unfortunately, things are not going quite as well as one might hope.  First off, the scenery is not as inspiring as Linda thought it would be.  Instead of painting beautiful landscapes, she’s been painting portraits of the cottage, often with a dark figure standing in the doorway.

Secondly, her neighbor, Mr. Ritzen (Terrence Evans), keeps peeking through her windows.  Linda thinks that he’s just a perv but Mr. Ritzen actually has another reason for continually checking on her and the cottage.

One day, after Linda chases off Mr. Ritzen, she is visited by a mysterious man named John Thunston (Alex Cord).  The eccentric Thunston informs her that her cottage was once the home of a warlock named Crett Marrouby.  The warlock was hung by the other townspeople, an event that was witnessed by Mr. Ritzen.  Before Crett was executed, he warned everyone to avoid using black magic because they might accidentally summon something evil.

While Thunston is talking to Linda, a guttural roar comes from the cellar.  When Thunston and Linda go down to check on what is making all the noise, Thunston discovers that, as a result of Linda’s renovations, a mystic seal has been broken.  Thunston speculates that Crett summoned a demon and then used the seal to keep it trapped in the cellar.  Now that the seal has been broken, the demon is free to attack and kill.  Fortunately, Thunston just happens to have a special sword that he claims can be used to behead and kill the demon.  Now, it’s just a matter of waiting for the demon to appear and removing demon’s head before the demon removes Thunston’s.

The odd thing about this episode was how straight-forward it was.  I kept waiting for some sort of diabolical twist that would reveal that Linda was actually a witch or that Thunston was actually the warlock but it never came.  Instead, everyone in this episode was exactly who they said they were and the monster was pretty much exactly what Thunston thought it would be.  Things would have been improved by a sudden twist or two because, despite an effective monster and a enjoyably campy performance from Alex Cord, this episode is pretty boring.  The premise promises some Lovecraft-style horror but the anti-climatic conclusion will leave most viewers saying, “Really?  That’s it?”

Next week, let’s hope that things will be a bit more interesting when three friends battle a fire-breathing troll!

The Las Vegas Film Critics Society Honors Oppenheimer!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Las Vegas Film Critics Society announced their picks for the best of 2023!  The winners are listed in bold.

Best Picture
Barbie
The Killer
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer

Best Actor
Nicolas Cage – Dream Scenario
Bradley Cooper – Maestro
Colman Domingo – Rustin
Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

Best Actress
Annette Bening – Nyad
Emma Stone – Poor Things
Greta Lee – Past Lives
Carey Mulligan – Maestro
Natalie Portman – May December

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling – Barbie
Glenn Howerton – BlackBerry
Charles Melton – May December
Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things

Best Supporting Actress
Jodie Foster – Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
Rachel McAdams – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Julianne Moore – May December
Rosamund Pike – Saltburn

Best Director
Bradley Cooper – Maestro
Greta Gerwig – Barbie
Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
Celine Song – Past Lives

Best Original Screenplay
Air
Barbie
Maestro
May December
Past Lives

Best Adapted Screenplay
American Fiction
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Cinematography
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Saltburn

Best Film Editing
Air
Barbie
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Score
The Killer
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Society of the Snow
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

Best Song
I’m Just Ken – Barbie
What Was I Made For? – Barbie
Road to Freedom – Rustin
Peaches – The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Better Place – Trolls Band Together

Best Documentary
American Symphony
Beyond Utopia
Kokomo City
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Best Animated Film
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Best International Movie
Anatomy of a Fall
Godzilla Minus One
Society of the Snow
When Evil Lurks
The Zone of Interest

Best Costumes
Barbie
The Color Purple
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Art Direction
Asteroid City
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Visual Effects
The Creator
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Godzilla Minus One
Oppenheimer
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

Best Action Movie
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
John Wick: Chapter 4
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Best Comedy
American Fiction
Barbie
Dumb Money
Joy Ride
No Hard Feelings

Best Horror/Sci-FI Movie
The Creator
Godzilla Minus One
Talk To Me
Thanksgiving
When Evil Lurks

Best Family Film
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Barbie
Elemental
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Best Ensemble
Barbie
The Color Purple
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Saltburn

Breakout Filmmaker
Cord Jefferson – American Fiction
Adele Lim – Joy Ride
Celine Song – Past Lives
Nida Manzoor – Polite Society
Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman – Theater Camp

Best Stunts
John Wick: Chapter 4
The Killer
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Polite Society
Silent Night

Youth In Film (Male)
Milo Machado Graner – Anatomy of a Fall
Jake Ryan – Asteroid City
Christian Convery – Cocaine Bear
Jude Hill – A Haunting in Venice
Chase Dillion – Haunted Mansion

Youth in Film (Female)
Abby Ryder Fortson – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Elle Graham – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Ariana Greenblatt – Barbie
Iman Vellani – The Marvels
Violet McGraw – M3GAN

The William Holden Lifetime Achievement Award
Nicolas Cage
Paul Giamatti
Hayao Miyazaki
Julianne Moore
Rodrigo Prieto