As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. 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 9 pm et, Tim Buntley will be hosting #ScarySocial! The movie? 2023’s Evil Dead Rise!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! I’ll be there tweeting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Apparently, there’s a longer version of this video in which it is made clear that Britney’s character is actually an assassin who is hired to kill her former lover but who, when she sees that he still has the ring that she gave him long ago, cannot bring herself to do it. Her character is subsequently murdered for failing to complete her assignment. Agck! I prefer the version of the video that was actually released.
Welcome to Late Night 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 Friday the 13th, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!
This week, Lloyd returns!
Episode 1.9 “Root of all Evil”
(Dir by Allan King, originally aired on November 28th, 1987)
Remember Lloyd (Barclay Hope)?
Lloyd is Micki’s fiancé, an attorney who obviously has a lot of money. Way back when this series began, Micki promised Lloyd that it would only take her a week or two to deal with her late uncle’s estate. That was all we heard about Lloyd for the next few episodes and I have to admit that I had assumed that the show had forgotten about him.
Well, it turns out that I was wrong. In this episode, Lloyd calls up Micki at the antique shop and basically accuses her of trying to get out of marrying him. Micki, who obviously cannot begin to explain what she’s been doing at the antique shop, tells Lloyd that her uncle’s estate is really complex. Lloyd wants Micki to come back home. Micki, herself, says that she wants to go back home. Ryan, however, tells Micki that they have an obligation to get all of the cursed antiques.
(One of the best things about the first season so far has been the contrast between Ryan’s enthusiasm for dealing with the supernatural and Micki’s more cautious approach towards their mission. Wisely, the show doesn’t take sides. Ryan often acts without thinking while Micki often spends a lot of time trying to rationalize each of the curses. Both approaches have their strengths and their flaws.)
Lloyd eventually shows up at the antique shop and Micki finally tells him what’s going on. She even shows him the vault, which includes the psycho doll from the show’s pilot. (The doll gives Micki and Lloyd a rather nasty look.) Lloyd is still not convinced and, at first, Micki takes some comfort in the fact that he’s not a Ryan-style believer. She considers marrying Lloyd and returning to a life of pretending that the supernatural doesn’t exist.
While Micki is dealing with all of that, Ryan and Jack are dealing with a homicidal gardener named Adrian (played by future Veronica Mars co-star, Enrico Colantoni) who has a cursed mulcher. When he stuffs a person into a mulcher, the body is transformed into however much money the person was worth, both financially and morally. Jack and Ryan go undercover as gardeners and, as you can probably guess, Adrian is eventually fed into the mulcher. The mulcher doesn’t feel that Adrian is worth even a dollar, which means that it just grinds his body up and blood goes flying everywhere. This is definitely one of the more gory episode of the show so far.
As for Lloyd, even after he sees proof that magic is real and that the antiques actually are cursed, he still says that Micki should abandon the store and marry him. Micki realizes that Lloyd doesn’t care about anyone but himself and she dumps him. (If she had fed him to the mulcher, she could have at least gotten some money out of the deal.) The episode ends with Ryan welcoming Micki back to the antique shop and Micki realizing that she’s home. Awwwwww!
I liked this episode, mostly because it tied up a loose end from the pilot, suggesting that the show’s writers actually were paying attention to what they were doing and also showing that Friday the 13th was more than just a show about the supernatural. It was also a show about the bonds of family and friendship. Robey finally got to do something more than look scared and ask Jack what to do. And, it must be said, the mulcher was an enjoyably grisly creation. Still, I do have to wonder …. who buys a mulcher from an antique store?
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, Mr. T whacks the attack!
Episode 2.7 “Fast Friends”
(Dir by Alan Simmonds, originally aired on November 14th, 1988)
On a rainy night in Toronto, Jonah (Leslie Toth) asks his friend Adam (Peter Spence) for permission to borrow Adam’s car. Jonah explains that he’ll only need the car for an hour and he just has to do some “business.” He promises Adam that this business has nothing to do with drugs. Adam hands over the keys.
So, from the start, this episode establishes that Adam is idiot.
I mean, seriously, once can just look at the sweaty and fidgety Jonah and tell that he needs the car to pick up some drugs. When someone who hasn’t taken a shower in a week tells you that he has to go out and do some “business,” it’s guaranteed that the business is going to involve drugs. And even if Jonah was being honest about not being involved in the Canadian drug trade, who lets anyone borrow their car? Even if it was a life-and-death situation, I would not give any of my friends the keys to my car. That’s right — I would rather that someone die than let them drive my car.
But Adam feels differently. He hands over his keys and, of course, Jonah drives to a warehouse and picks up several vials of crack cocaine. Jonah is in debt to some drug dealers so he needs to pick some crack to sell on the streets. But since Jonah is a no-good junkie, he smokes a little before he gets back in his friend’s car. While trying to return the car, Jonah attracts the attention of the police. Jonah abandons the car in an alley and runs for it.
When Adam finds out about what happened, he yells at Jonan and then, stupidly, heads down to the alley to get the car. Adam is shocked to find crack cocaine all over the front seat because, again, Adam is an idiot. Suddenly, the cops show up and arrest Adam!
Despite the best efforts of Detective Luntz (Alar Adema), Adam refuses to betray Jonah. He claims that he was at home all night and that someone stole his car and left it in the alley with the drugs. Detective Luntz continually points out that Adam’s story makes no sense because, if Adam’s car was stolen, how did Adam know where to find it?
It looks like Adam is doomed but, fortunately, his mother hires Amy Taler and T.S. Turner! While Amy talks to Luntz in the hallway, Turner talks to Adam and shows off his new, far less menacing mohawk.
Adam tells T.S. about Jonah. T.S. tracks down Jonah at a local drug den. When Jonah tries to run, T.S. grabs him and says, “I know who you are, I know what you’re doing, and I don’t like it …. Talk to me, brother!” That’s all it takes for Jonah to realize the error of his ways. After T.S. beats up the drug dealers, Adam is released from custody. However, Jonah still confesses to possessing the drugs because it’s the right thing to do.
And that’s the episode! This was another instance in which the show’s 30-minute running time led to the story feeling a bit rushed. T.S. tracked down Jonah with remarkable ease and he really didn’t seem to have any trouble convincing Jonah to turn on his dealers. That said, the scene in which T.S. walked through the crack house was well-directed and full of a lot of creepy visuals. Say what you will about Mr. T’s range of an actor, this episode featured him at his most sincere. One gets the feeling that beating up drug dealers was something that Mr. T did whenever he had a break from filming.
Next week on T and T …. oh, who knows? Toronto’s a wild city.
Tis the season when I struggle to keep up with all of the groups of regional film critics! Today, a new group — Michigan Movie Critics Guild — announced their nominees for the best of 2023! The winners will be announced on December 4th!
Interestingly enough, neither Killers of the Flower Moon nor Oppenheimer, the two acknowledged front runners, received Best Picture nominations from the MMCG. (The two films did, however, pick up nominations in other categories.) It appears that this is going to be a bit of a quirky group, which is fine by me. We need more quirky film critics!
Also, they nominated Bruce Campbell for an award! I’m going to like this group!
Best Picture
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Past Lives
Poor Things
Best Director
Greta Gerwig – Barbie
Cord Jefferson – American Fiction
Yorgos Lanthimos – Poor Things
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
Martin Scorsese – Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Actress
Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall
Greta Lee – Past Lives
Carey Mulligan – Maestro
Emma Stone – Poor Things
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper – Maestro
Zac Efron – The Iron Claw
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction
Best Supporting Actress
America Ferrera – Barbie
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
Rachel McAdams – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Julianne Moore – May December
Rosamund Pike – Saltburn
Best Supporting Actor
Sterling K. Brown – American Fiction
Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling – Barbie
Mark Ruffalo – Poor Things
Best Animated Film
The Boy and The Heron
Nimona
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Best Documentary
Beyond Utopia
Sly
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Best Ensemble
Air
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Best Screenplay (Adapted or Original)
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Past Lives
Breakthrough Award
Sandra Hüller – Actress, Anatomy of a Fall
Cord Jefferson – Director, American Fiction
Greta Lee – Actress, Past Lives
Dominic Sessa – Actor, The Holdovers
Celine Song – Director/Writer Past Lives
Stunts
John Wick: Chapter 4
The Killer
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Polite Society
Silent Night
The MMCG Award for Film Excellence (presented to a filmmaker, writer, actor, crew member etc. who has Michigan ties or to a film made or set in Michigan)
Keegan-Michael Key – Actor Wonka/The Super Mario Bros. Movie/Migration
Ashley Park – Actress, Joy Ride
Paul Schrader – Director, Master Gardener
Lily Tomlin – Actress, 80 For Brady
J.K. Simmons – Actor, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Bruce Campbell – Producer, Evil Dead Rise
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 2015’s Yakuza Apocalypse!
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.
Yakuza Apocalypse is available on Prime and Tubi! See you there!
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 falls in love and Jonathan directs a movie.
Episode 1.10 “Help Wanted: Angel”
(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on November 21st, 1984)
This is a strange episode.
The first half of the episode plays out like almost a parody of Highway to Heaven. In fact, I would assume that it was a parody except for the fact that this was only the show’s tenth episode and that’s a bit early for any show to start intentionally parodying itself.
Still in Hollywood, Jonathan and Mark come across a sign that has been posted by someone named Joey. “Angels Needed,” the sign says. The sign has an address that turns out to be a community center, one that is populated by a mix of cranky retired people and young criminals. The center’s maintenance worker is a developmentally challenged young man named Joey Smalls (Dennis Fimple). Joey put up his sign because he wants an angel to help an elderly screenwriter named Martin Lamm (John Lormer). Martin has written a script about a magician and he wants to not only make the film but also fill the cast with people from the neighborhood.
No sooner have Mark and Jonathan stepped into the community center and met Joey and Martin then they are suddenly joined by a man named Petros (Al Ruscio). Petros speaks in a thick Greek accent and he says that he has also seen Joey’s sign, he has read Martin’s script, and he wants to produce the movie. And he wants Jonathan to direct it and Mark to play the role of a sea captain who falls in love with a woman who has “a past,” as Petros puts it. As the woman, they cast Stella (Stella Stevens), who actually does have a past.
We then jump forward several weeks. Jonathan is directing the film, even though he doesn’t seem to have a crew and we don’t actually see any cameras filming anything. Joey has impressed everyone with the sincerity of his acting and he is now friends with former gang member, Chewy (Randy Vasquez). Mark, meanwhile, is falling in love with Stella.
So, that’s the first half of the episode. It’s all very broadly acted and the dialogue frequently crosses the line from sentimental to mawkish. I have to admit that I rolled my eyes more than a few times because it all felt so overdone.
But then, the second half of the episode opens with Petros approaching Jonathan. Jonathan asks Petros about his past. Petros says that he was born in Galilee and that, before starting his current line of work, he was a fisherman. Jonathan realizes that Petros is actually St. Peter and he’s been sent down to help Jonathan out with his mission. It turns out that Jonathan’s mission is not really about Joey or Martin. Instead, it’s about Stella, who is going to die and it’s about Mark, who is about to lose the woman that he’s fallen in love with. Realizing that Stella’s character is also going to die in the movie that he’s supposedly directing, Jonathan asks if they can just rewrite the script but Peter tells him that they can’t. What is going to happen is going to happen.
And it does happen, though not before Mark asks Stella to marry him and Stella says yes. When she finds out that she’s ill, Stella leaves Mark a note saying that she’s dumping him for an ex-boyfriend. At first, Mark is angry but, with Jonathan’s help, he realizes the truth. Mark finds Stella waiting for him on the beach where they filmed their scenes for the movie and they get married as the ocean crashes behind them. And then, off-screen, Stella dies.
And I went from rolling my eyes to actually wiping away tears because, as broad and kind of annoying as the first half of the episode was, the second half was sensitively directed by Michael Landon and sincerely acted by both Victor French and Stella Stevens. If the first half felt like a parody, the second half was a reminder of why this show still remains popular on so many streaming platforms. At its best, there was an unapologetic earnestness to Highway to Heaven. This was a show that said that it was okay to cry and to have emotions and to care about people. This was a strange episode but, ultimately, a surprisingly effective one.
With the announcements of both the Gotham and the NYFCC winners, awards season is finally here! Over the next 30 days, the Oscar race will become very, very clear. As of right now, it truly does appear to be a Oppenheimer vs. Killers of the Flower Moon contest with perhaps Poor Things and Barbie overperforming when the nominations are finally announced.
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, Joey has the house to himself …. kind of.
Episode 1.9 “Risky Weekend”
(Dir by John Bowab, originally aired on April 14th, 1984)
It’s the weekend and George and Susan Elliot are going out of town. They’re taking their daughter with them but they’re leaving teenage son Joey alone in the house. George leaves the family’s sailboat sitting on the back patio so that “It will look like we’re still here!” How could this go wrong?
Jennifer is certainly excited about the house being nearly empty but Joey tells her that he has a big test coming up and he just needs some peace and quiet so that he can concentrate on studying. Jennifer agrees to leave him alone for the weekend but what she doesn’t know is that Joey is a damn liar. He and his friend, Marc, are planning on throwing a party. Woo hoo! Unfortunately, while Marc is helping to get the house ready for the party, he accidentally gives the sailboat a shove and it crashes into the living room.
Fortunately, Jennifer has come back home and she tells Joey that he should call his parents and just tell them what happened. Joey, however, decides to take care of the situation himself. He calls in a local landscaper, Eddie (Hamilton Camp). Even though Joey doesn’t have enough money to cover the repairs, Eddie says that he’ll fix the damage if Joey allows Eddie’s church to have bingo night in his house. Again, despite Jennifer’s reservations, Joey agrees.
It turns out that bingo night is actually an illegal casino. Joey tells Jennifer not to worry about it but, when his mom calls him and says that they’re coming home early, Joey is soon begging Jennifer to help him out. Jennifer helps Joey put the casino out of business by helping him cheat at all the games. Myself, I’m just amazed at how quickly the house was transformed into a casino, complete with slot machines, a craps table, and a roulette wheel. Did Eddie just have all of that stuff sitting in his living room or something?
Anyway, Joey breaks the bank. All of the gamblers leave but Eddie and his gangsters say that they’re not going anywhere. Fortunately, Jennifer calls the ghost cops to come and arrest Eddie because …. EDDIE AND HIS ASSOCIATES ARE ALL GHOSTS!
Even though Eddie left behind all of the casino stuff, it has mysteriously disappeared from the house by the time Susan and George return to the house. George is really impressed by how nice the house looks. Joey tells his parents about the casino and the ghost cops and they assume that he’s delirious from doing homework all weekend. Then George goes outside and accidentally crashes the sailboat into the living room again. What? How stupid is George?
This was a weird episode. The plot makes no sense but it’s also so random that it becomes likable in its own strange way. This is one of those episodes that feels as if it was made up on the spot but Ann Jillian and John P. Navin Jr. both give energetic enough performances that the whole thing somehow holds together. Then again, maybe I just like movies and TV shows that take place in casinos. I always appreciate the fact that people dress up to gamble. Were the gamblers also ghosts or was it just the gangsters? Weird episode.
