4 Shots From 4 Films: Special French Cinema Edition

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today, on Jean-Paul Belmondo’s birthday, we pay tribute to French cinema! It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 French Films

The Rules of the Games (1939, dir by Jean Renoir, DP: Jean-Paul Alphen, Jean Bachelet, Jacques Lemare, Alain Renoir)

Alphaville (1965, dir by Jean-Luc Godard, DP: Raoul Coutard)

Day For Night (1973, dir by François Truffaut, DP: Pierre-William Glenn)

Night of the Hunted (1980, dir by Jean Rollin)

Scenes That I Love: The Ending of Breathless

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the 92nd birthday of international screen icon, Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Belmondo spent the majority of his career in France, where he was one of the early faces of the New Wave and also a prominent action star, famed for doing his own very dangerous stunts. In America, he was best-known for his starring turn in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. In Breathless, Belmondo was the perfect existential outlaw, living life day-by-day and obviously doomed but still so incredibly magnetic and stylish.

In tribute to Belmondo, today’s scene that I love is the final moments of Breathless, with Belmondo and Jean Seberg.

Brad’s “Stand-up of the Day” – Tim Thomerson with Freddie Prinze & Friends!

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Bradley Crain

As a big-time lover of B-movies in the 80’s and 90’s, I’ve mostly known Tim Thomerson as Dollman and Jack Deth in all those Trancers movies. I know there’s a bunch of those because Lisa hosted every one of them on #FridayNightFlix. But I found out a few years ago that he was also a well known stand up comedian who did a Charles Bronson impression. On his 79th birthday, I thought I would celebrate his stand up comedy. Be on the lookout for the Bronson impression that starts at about the 4 and a half minute mark. And this is definitely NSFW! Enjoy, my friends!

The Eric Roberts Collection: Las Vegas Story (dir by Byron Q)

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2015’s Las Vegas Story tells the story of Maria (Christina Bocanegra), a 30ish single mother with four kids, a house that she has to pay the bills on, and an adorable dog that gives her quizzical looks whenever she leaves for work in the middle of the night.

Maria works as an escort, meeting with men in hotel rooms and collecting enough money to keep her family fed and to prevent the house from falling apart. When her friend and former mentor, a stripper named Izzie (Francesca Fanti), comes to Vegas, Maria allows Izzie to say with her. When another old friend named Doug (Wade-Allain Marcus) shows up, Maria allows him to crash on her couch despite the fact that Doug is a drug dealer and he’s gotten in trouble with some very bad people.

Las Vegas Story has the usual collection of gangsters and corrupt cops that you would expect to find in a film like this but, ultimately, it’s more of a character study than a typical narrative. The film follows Maria over the course of her nights. Maria isn’t ashamed of how she makes her money but she doesn’t have any illusions about the business either. Las Vegas Story is about a woman doing what she has to do to support her family and Christina Bocanegra gives a strong and sympathetic performance in the lead role.

Maria’s most faithful client is played Eric Roberts and it must be said that Roberts give an excellent and rather poignant performance as a businessman who is terminally ill and who seems to sincerely care about Maria. Roberts doesn’t have a huge role but he definitely makes an impression and shows that he’s still more than capable of giving a memorable performance.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Command 5 (1985, directed by E.W. Swackhamer)

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Morgan (Stephen Parr) is a mysterious government operative who puts together a special paramilitary force to take on extreme threats. He says that only misfits are allowed to join his group because they have the edge he needs. Smith (William Russ) is a wild Texan who drives like a maniac. Psychiatrist Winslow (Sonja Smits) can fire an Uzi better than any man. Kowalski (John Matuszak) is a demolitions expert who listens to Beethoven. Jack Coburn (Wings Hauser) is a rebellious detective who is good with a throwing knife.

After a montage of their extensive training and a scene where our heroes take a look at the bullet-proof RV that they’ll be traveling the country in, the movie finally gets down to business. A motorcycle-riding terror cult led by Delgado (Gregory Sierra) has taken an entire town hostage and is threatening to kill everyone unless they’re given a flight out of the country. Our heroes drive their bulletproof van into town and try to defeat the bad guys. There’s one good scene where the RV is driving down the town’s main street and getting hit nonstop with bullets. The scene was obviously ripped off from the end of Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet but it’s still exciting to watch. Otherwise, the action in this one is pretty rudimentary.

I guess Command 5 was supposed to be a pilot for television show that never went into production. It is very much a television production. There’s a lot of shooting but no blood. Wings Hauser is less dangerous than usual. The whole thing ends with Command 5 looking forward to adventures that were never to come. Watching the pilot, you can see why it never became a show. The characters were all thinly-written and never seemed to have much of a connection with each other and Hauser and Russ both seemed to be competing to be the loose cannon of the group. This one is for Wings Hauser completists only.

I Watched Major League: Back To The Minors (1998, Dir. by John Warren)

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Dazzling Erin

Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), the former third baseman for the Cleveland Indians, is the new owner of the Minnesota Twins. There’s a hotshot hitter playing for the Buzz, the Twins’s Minor League affiliate. Downtown Anderson (Walton Goggin) can hit the ball over the fences but he still needs to learn about teamwork before he’ll be ready to move up to the majors. Roger recruits an old friend, an aging pitcher named Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula), to manage the Buzz and mentor Downtown. Under Gus’s leadership, the Buzz starts winning games. Even some former Indians, like Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) and Taka Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi), are recruited to play for the Buzz. When the manager of the Twins, Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley), insults Gus and the Buzz over dinner, Gus challenges the Twins to an exhibition game, the minors against the majors. Huff accepts the challenge.

I had always heard that Major League: Back To The Minors was the worst of three Major League films but I liked it. It wasn’t as good as the first one but it wasn’t as boring as the second one. A lot of it has to do with the cast, who give it their all. Walton Goggins is great as the cocky Downtown Anderson but really, all of the actors playing entire team did a good job. They’re all misfits, of course. I especially liked Doc (Peter Mackenzie), a medical student-turned-pitcher who has the slowest fastball in the game. This movie had a little of the warmth and insider humor that made the first Major League film so special. It’s an underdog story, with the minor league players proving that they’re just as good as the spoiled players in the big leagues.

I didn’t find the idea of an exhibition game between the Twins and the Buzz to be believable. In the movie, they actually play two games against each other and they both take place during the regular season. When did they find the time to play each other? I guess they gave up one of their travel days but it still doesn’t seem like something that would happen.

I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. It helped that I love baseball. And I love the minor leagues, even if they don’t get the same respect as the majors. Some of the best baseball I’ve ever seen has been in minor league games. They may not have the huge contracts but they’ve got the talent, they’ve got something to prove, and they’ve got the love of the game.

6 Shots From 6 Films: Special 1968 Edition

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

6 Shots From 6 Films is just what it says it is, 6 shots from 6 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 6 Shots From 6 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, we pay tribute to the year 1968! It’s time for….

6 Shots From 6 1968 Films

Night of the Living Dead (1968, dir by George Romero, DP: George Romero)

Petulia (1968, dir by Richard Lester, DP: Nicolas Roeg)

Once Upon A Time In The West (1968, dir by Sergio Leone, DP: Tonino Delli Colli)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Geoffrey Unsworth)

Psych-Out (1968, dir by Richard Rush, DP; Laszlo Kovacs)

Dracula Has Risen The Grave (1968, dir by Freddie Francis, DP: Arthur Grant)

Scene That I Love: Douglas Trumbull’s Stargate Sequence From 2001: A Space Odyssey

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the 83rd birthday of special effects maestro, Douglas Trumbull.

Today’s scene that I love come from 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The famous stargate sequence was designed by Trumbull and it remains one of the most influential science fiction moments of all time. In one of their greatest oversights, the Academy neglected to include Trumbull when they nominated the film for its special effects. As a result, the Oscar only went to Stanley Kubrick. Trumbull was not happy about that and, sadly, Kubrick and Trumbull did not speak to each other for years afterwards.

Despite not being included in the nomination, Douglas Trumbull’s work has stood the test of time.

Brad’s Scene of the Day features Jackie Chan in PROJECT A (1983)!

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Bradley Crain

Jackie Chan is a truly unique talent. He’s one of my all time favorites, and rates his own section in my massive physical media collection. On Jackie’s 71st birthday, and my granddaughter’s day of birth, I share this incredible bicycle chase featuring some fun Jackie stunts and ending with Sammo Hung. Enjoy my friends!

The Lawless Nineties (1936, directed by Joseph Kane)

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

The year is 1890 and Wyoming is on the verge of voting for statehood. Newspaperman Major Carter (George “Gabby” Hayes) believes that it’s time for Wyoming to become a state and most of the locals agree with him. Businessman Charles Plummer (Harry Woods) does not want Wyoming to become a state and he’s willing to send out his main henchman, Steele (Al Bridge), to intimidate the voters and to silence Carter. Plummer has a profitable racket going and the last thing he wants is for the U.S. government to get involved in his activities. It falls to two federal agents, John Tipton (John Wayne) and Bridger (Lane Chandler), to supervise the voting and protect the citizen. When Major Carter is shot by a drunk anti-statehood activist, the mission to make Wyoming a part of the Union becomes personal.

The Lawless Nineties is typical of the B-movies that John Wayne made for Republic Pictures before John Ford resurrected his struggling career by casting him as The Ringo Kid in Stagecoach. There are plenty of gunfights and horse chases and explosions as the bad guys try to keep the townspeople from voting and the federal agents set up their own sting operation to expose Plummer’s gang. Wayne seems more relaxed here than he did in some of his other B-movies. He was obviously getting more comfortable with being on camera and playing the hero. Probably the most interesting thing about this film is that Gabby Hayes (credited as George Hayes, without his famous nickname) plays the renowned and intelligent Major Carter. Hayes was just a year away from establishing himself as a perennial B-movie sidekick and supplier comedy relief. He would soon be best-known for playing characters who had little in common with the intelligent and well-spoken Major Carter. In The Lawless Nineties, Hayes gets a chance to play something other than the comedic relief and turns out to be petty good at it.

This is another one of those westerns that will be enjoyed by fans of the genre. It’s nothing special but it does allow Wayne to show hints of his future stardom and it also gives Gabby Hayes a chance to show what he was actually capable of.