Poem Of The Day: Tom Cruise Is The Last Barman Poet in Cocktail

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh my God, the TSL staff says, are we going to have to start doing a poem a day on top of everything else!?

Only if you want to! I’m just sharing this poem because it’s Tom Cruise’s birthday and I happen to love Cocktail. Here he is, reciting The Last Barman Poet. What I like about this scene is how no one at the bar is upset that drink service has been suspended for like three minutes so that the bartender can recite a poem. Seriously, this is classic 80s cinema and I can’t help but love it!

I am the last barman poet / I see America drinking the fabulous cocktails I make / Americans getting stinky on something I stir or shake / The sex on the beach / The schnapps made from peach / The velvet hammer / The Alabama slammer. / I make things with juice and froth / The pink squirrel / The three-toed sloth. / I make drinks so sweet and snazzy / The iced tea / The kamakazi / The orgasm / The death spasm / The Singapore sling / The dingaling. / America you’ve just been devoted to every flavor I got / But if you want to got loaded / Why don’t you just order a shot? / Bar is open.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Tom Cruise Edition

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 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.

It’s Tom Cruise’s birthday and that means that it’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Tom Cruise Films

Risky Business (1983, dir by Paul Brickman, DP: Bruce Surtees)

Cocktail (1988, dir by Roger Donaldson, DP: Dean Semler)

Mission Impossible (1996, dir by Brian De Palma, DP: Stephen H. Burum)

Eyes Wide Shut (1999. dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Larry Smith)

Scene I Love: Tom Cruise In Tropic Thunder

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 63rd birthday to one of the last remaining movie stars, Tom Cruise!

While it’s tempting to celebrate this day by sharing a scene from a film like Top Gun: Maverick or one of the Mission Impossible sequels or maybe even something like Magnolia, Jerry Maguire, Edge of Tomorrow, or Risky Business, I am going to go with a clip from 2008’s Tropic Thunder. There’s a lot talent in this particular scene, with Bill Hader and Matthew McConaughey both giving good performances. But, of course, the whole thing is dominated by Tom Cruise’s wonderfully demented performance as Les Grossman.

“We do not negotiate with terrorists!”

4 Shots from 4 Films – Walton Goggins Edition!

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Bradley Crain

I’ve been watching THE WHITE LOTUS series on Max, and today I started Season 3 co-starring a favorite actor in my household, Walton Goggins. Here are some movies I like him in (and one TV show)!

Everyman’s Law (1936, directed by Albert Ray)

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Corrupt Sheriff Chris Bradley (Homer Murphy) sends letters to three outlaws, asking them to come to his town and to work for him. Sheriff Bradley wants to use them to kick some homesteaders off their land. What Sheriff Bradly didn’t count on was one of the outlaws being an undercover Texas Ranger! Johnny Mack Brown plays Johnny, a.k.a. The Dog Town Kid.

The Kid takes a liking to homesteader Marian Henley (Beth Marion) and her infant son. When the Kid and the other two outlaws don’t move out the homesteaders to the sheriff’s liking, Bradley hires fearsome outlaw Lobo Joe (Roger Gray).

This is a pretty typical Poverty Row western. After you see enough of these, you realize that every plot is going to be about a corrupt sheriff and a businessman teaming up to try to steal the land away from the settlers. What makes these film work (or not) is the quality of the stars and Johnny Mack Brown was one of the best, someone who seemed authentic when he was riding a horse or shooting a gun but who was also a good enough actor to bring some life to the familiar plots. As usual, with this film, Johnny Mack Brown is better than his material.

Everyman’s Law is best-known for the scenes of Brown and the other two outlaws having to babysit Marian’s baby. The “comedic” scene where the baby puts the barrel of Johnny’s six-shooter in his mouth probably had the audience rolling in 1936 but today, it would undoubtedly get the film banned.

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” – Yancy Butler and Jean-Claude Van Damme in HARD TARGET (1993)!

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Bradley Crain

Any person who’s read much of my work knows that I love the Hong Kong director, John Woo. Way back in 1993, Woo made his American film debut with the action flick, HARD TARGET. It seemed every great Hong Kong director of the 80’s and 90’s would work with Jean-Claude Van Damme in their career, beginning with Woo here, and then moving on to Ringo Lam in MAXIMUM RISK (1996), REPLICANT (2001), and IN HELL (2003), as well as Tsui Hark in DOUBLE TEAM (1997) and KNOCK OFF (1998). It was almost a rite of passage!

With today being the 55th birthday of the beautiful actress, Yancy Butler, who co-starred in HARD TARGET, I get the chance to share a fun, bone-cracking scene from early in Woo’s American debut! Enjoy my friends, and happy birthday, Yancy!

Brad’s Scene of the Day – Andre Braugher in FREQUENCY (2000)!

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Bradley Crain

Andre Braugher is one of those actors that just makes everything better. Taken from us way too soon, Braugher passed away back in 2023 at just 61 years of age. You get the feeling that he still had some great work left in him…

Happy Birthday in cinema heaven, Andre! Thanks for all the amazing work! Enjoy this scene between Andre Braugher and Dennis Quaid in one of my all-time favorite movies, FREQUENCY.

Nam Angels (1989, directed by Cirio H. Santiago)

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

During the Vietnam War, an American patrol is captured by a German (Vernon Welles) who plans to sell them to the VC. Only their commanding officer, Lt. Vance Calhoun (Brad Johnson), manages to get away. When he’s told the the Army can’t spare any men for a POW rescue mission, he instead recruits a group of Hell’s Angels who just happen to be hanging out in Vietnam. When the Hell’s Angels learn that there’s gold hidden in the caves near the POW camp, they hop on their motorcycles and heard on out.

You might wonder why the Hell’s Angels were in South Vietnam to begin with. The easy answer is that they were there to raise Hell and spread the legend of their motorcycle club. The truth is that they were there to win the war for America. Like many Vietnam films released in the 80s, the main message of Nam Angels is that America could have won if not for the cowardly officers who weren’t willing to rescue our POWs. America should have listened to Vance Calhoun and the Hell’s Angels. Meanwhile, the real-life Hell’s Angels sued the filmmakers for trademark infringement. It doesn’t get more American that!

As for Nam Angels, it has all of the explosions and motorcycles that are promised by the title and, as always, Vernon Wells is a good villain. Considering the premise, it’s disappointing that Nam Angels proves itself to be a typical straight-to-video war movie but it still features all of the action, torture, and tough talk the fans usually want from these movies. It ends with a quote from John Milton that doesn’t really have anything to do with the film that we just watched.

This was one of the 104 films that Cirio Santiago directed over his career. Reportedly, Steven Spielberg was a fan of this one, casting Brad Johnson in Always on the basis of his performance in Nam Angels. Make good movies because you never know who might be watching.

Scenes That I Love: Karen Black Performs in Nashville

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The great actress Karen Black would have been 86 years old today.

Karen Black does not receive a lot of screentime in Nashville but she definitely makes an impression as the driven, self-centered, and oddly likeable Connie White. (“She can’t even comb her hair” — Connie White on Julie Chrisite.) Here she is, performing one of the songs that she wrote herself for the film. The audience was largely made up of actual Nashville residents, who reportedly very much appreciated Black’s performance.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Sydney Pollack Edition

Posted on July 1, 2025 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!

90 years ago today, Sydney Pollack was born in Indiana. Though Pollack got his start as an actor, he soon moved into directing and was one of the key television directors of the 1960s. He eventually branched out into film, making a name for himself as a director of intelligent and sensitive comedies and dramas. Though he only directed 21 films over the course of his career, his films received a total of 48 Oscar nominations and 11 wins. 1982’s Tootsie and 1985’s Out of Africa were both nominated for Best Picture. Out of Africa won. Pollack also returned to acting in the 90s, making a name for himself as a skilled character actor. I’ll always remember him from Eyes Wide Shut, intimidating Tom Cruise while playing pool.

In memory of Sydney Pollack, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Sydney Pollack Films