Category Archives: Film

Heaven Is A Playground (1991, directed by Randall Fried)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In the projects of Chicago, Byron Harper (Michael Warren) runs a nonprofit basketball farming system and helps black kids, many of whom would have no other prospects other than a live of poverty or crime, to find a home in college basketball programs.  Byron is passionate about what he does but he’s also a stern taskmaster and not quick to forgive.  When one of his best players, Casey (Nigel Miguel), developed a drinking problem, Byron kicked him off his team.  Byron’s main concern is his stepson, Truth (Victor Love).  Truth is a great basketball player but also has an addiction to cocaine and an attitude problem.

For reasons that are never made clear, white lawyer Zack Telander (D.B. Sweeney) shows up on the court and says he wants to play one-on-one with Byron.  Everyone assumes that Zack is a drug dealer and they tell him to get lost.  But when one of the players is shot, Zack is the only person at the court who has a car.  Zack rushes the player to the hospital and he wins Byron’s trust.  Byron needs Zack to look over a professional contract that is being offered to Truth by sleazy sports agent David Racine (Richard Jordan).

For reasons that are again never made clear, Byron tells Zack to coach some of the more troubled players on the court, including Casey.  At first, Zack isn’t much of a coach but eventually, he gets the players to trust him and start playing like a team.  He also tries to get burned-out Matthew Lockhart (Bo Kimble) to start playing the game again.

Heaven Is A Playground is a mess of a movie that doesn’t really seem to be sure what it wants to say about basketball, the projects, or race relations.  The main problem is that a lot of the decisions made by Byron and Zack don’t make any sort of logical sense.  Moments of broad comedy are mixed with moments of high drama and it makes for an unconvincing and overly melodramatic sports movie.

Heaven Is A Playground had a long pre-production phase.  At one point, a young Michael Jordan agreed to play the role of Matthew Lockhart.  By the time the film actually went into production, Jordan was a superstar and had neither the time (nor, probably, the desire) to co-star in a low-budget sports movie.  After the movie flopped, director Randall Fried sued Jordan for breach-of-contract, claiming that he caused the film’s box office failure by refusing to appear in it and, as a result, Fried’s directorial career stalled.  In the suit, Fried claimed that he was on the verge of being “the next Steven Spielberg” until Jordan refused to do his film.  The jury found Jordan not liable and awarded him $50,000.

(Trying to sue Michael Jordan was a terrible idea in 1998 and it’s probably still a terrible idea today.  People love Jordan!)

Personally, I have to say that Mike made the right decision.

Brad’s “Obscure Film Recommendation of the Day” – DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT (1994)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I’m not sure how many of you have seen the film, DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT, starring Angela Featherstone. In the film, Angela plays Veronica Iscariot, a demoness from Hell who doesn’t want to spend her life tormenting the souls of sinners. After rebelling against her father, and in severe danger of being murdered for disobedience, Veronica ascends towards the surface of Earth. Unfortunately, she finds the world above full of evil and corruption and makes it her mission in life is to punish the wicked. She goes about this mission with a bloody vengeance. On a positive note, she does meet and fall in love with the compassionate Doctor Max Barris (Daniel Markel), who tends her wounds after an accident.

When I was a teenager and up into my twenties, every year I would buy a movie review book called “The Video Movie Guide.” This movie guide contained reviews from Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, and every year they would update their guide with the latest movie reviews. I would pour through the book and “dog-ear” the pages and highlight the movies that I thought looked interesting. That was when I first heard of DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT. It looked like it had some fun potential, and I knew Angela Featherstone from her work as Charles Bronson’s daughter in the FAMILY OF COPS series. I finally rented the film on VHS, and I really enjoyed it. Angela Featherstone dominates the film, and in my opinion, it just may be the best performance of her career!

If you haven’t seen it, and you enjoy violent B-movies, with strong female characters, and even some humor thrown in for good measure, I recommend this film to you. As of this writing, it’s available for streaming on Amazon Prime, PlutoTV, Tubi, and Fawesome. Give it a watch! I’ve included the trailer below:

Scenes That I Love: Howard Beale says “We’re In A Lot Of Trouble” in Network

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Everyone remembers the “Mad as Hell Speech” from Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satire, Network.

Personally, I think this scene below is just as good.  Replace “tube” with TikTok and AI and you’ll have a pretty good explanation for why the world today is full of so many ignorant people who think they know more than they do.

(Usually, heavy-handed scenes annoy me.  Fortunately, much like David Fincher with Aaron Sorkin’s script for The Social Network, Sidney Lumet knew the right directorial tone to take when translating Paddy Chayefsky’s script to the screen.  One shudders to think of what Network would have been like with a less skilled director behind the camera.)

 

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Sidney Lumet 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, we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of director Sidney Lumet, born 101 years ago on this date.  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Sidney Lumet Films

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Boris Kaufman)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Victor J. Kemper)

Network (1976, dir. Sidney Lumet, DP: Owen Roizman)

The Verdict (1981, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Andrzej Bartkowiak)

Brad’s “Birthday of the Day” – Actor Joe Penny!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Joe Penny turns 69 years old today! That may not mean that much to a lot of people, but I like Joe Penny so I’m making a point to show the guy some appreciation. As a teenager in the 1980’s, I remember Joe in two T.V. series that our family really enjoyed, RIPTIDE and JAKE AND THE FATMAN. I haven’t watched an episode of either show in a long time, but they were part of my growing up years, so they are seared into my brain. But the main reason that Joe has become part of my family is the fact that he played Charles Bronson’s police detective son, Ben Fein, in the second and third installments of the “Family of Cops” series of T.V. movies. Daniel Baldwin may have originated the role of Ben Fein in the first movie, and he’s good in the part, but I felt Joe Penny was a step in a positive direction when he took over in the second film. His acting style suits the series better than Baldwin’s, and I also think he’s more believable as Bronson’s son. I still revisit the “Family of Cops” series every couple of years, and I’m always happy to hear Joe refer to Bronson as “Pop.”

Happy Birthday, Joe! I hope it’s a great one! I’ve included the trailer for BREACH OF FAITH: A FAMILY OF COPS II below:

Desert Phantom (1936, directed by S. Roy Luby)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In a frontier town, rancher Jean Halloran (Sheila Bromley) has a big problem.  Someone is shooting and killing all of her ranch hands and sending her notes in which he tells her to give up her ranch and leave town.  When an ammunition salesman and trick shooter named Billy Donavon (Johnny Mack Brown), Jean hires him to serve as a bodyguard and to track down the mysterious Phantom.  Billy, however, has a secret of his own.

Desert Phantom is a remake of an old Harry Carey film.  I don’t know why Poverty Row did remakes since all of their films pretty much had the same plot regardless.  A stranger comes into town and gets involved with a female rancher and a bad guy who is trying to hide his actual identity.  In this one, Nelson McDowell gets to supply the comic relief as a befuddled veterinarian while familiar faces like Ted Adams and Karl Hackett are there to keep us guessing about how the Phantom could actually be.  If you’ve watched enough of these movies, though, you’ll always be able to guess who the bad guy is.

This isn’t the best of Johnny Mack Brown’s movies.  The Phantom’s story seems like it could have been interesting but that would have meant taking more risks than most of the Poverty Row studios were willing to do.  Johnny Mack Brown is as convincing a cowboy as always and is the film’s saving grace.  Brown was a western star precisely because he could make even something like Desert Phantom watchable.

The Hong Kong Film Corner – WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU (1980), directed by Tsui Hark! 

Posted on by Bradley Crain

WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU (1980) is the story of Agent 999 (Norman Chu), an agent of the Central Surveillance Agency, who has come to a remote island to catch a notorious criminal who goes by the name of Rolex (Melvin Wong). Once he gets there, he discovers that the island is overrun by crazed cannibals and is ruled over with an iron fist by a power mad Chief (Eddy Ko). Chief hoards the human meat of unsuspecting travelers who happen upon the island for himself and his soldiers, leaving the villagers at the point of starvation. As Agent 999 continues his investigation and tries to avoid becoming lunch, he finds out that the repentant criminal Rolex has become the Chief’s aid in order to expose the evils of the island to the authorities on the mainland without having to go back to jail himself. When Rolex’s plans don’t work out, Agent 999 must then team up with a goofy thief (Hon Kwok-Choi) to fight off the cannibals, save his newfound love (Michelle Kim), and get the hell off of the island in one piece!

The second film to be directed by Hong Kong icon Tsui Hark, WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU is a wild hybrid of a film that leans heavily into horror, comedy and martial arts. It’s a rather odd mix that contains jarring shifts in tone, a staple of Hong Kong Cinema of the 80’s. One minute we’re watching men have their arms cut off and their guts ripped out, only to immediately shift to slapstick rape humor, before shifting to badass martial arts / roller skating kung fu action choreographed by a young Corey Yuen. Completely unpolished in terms of production values, it’s nonetheless acquired somewhat of a cult classic status due to its raw energy, gory subject matter, directorial pedigree, and anti-communist political themes. I thought Norman Chu was good as Agent 999, even if his charismatic agent isn’t always as observant as we’d hope he’d be. Eddy Ko, who is in one of my favorite Hong Kong films THE MISSION (1999), can be both menacing and goofy as the Chief who will pretty much do anything to preserve his power and supply of meat. The island village puts off its own scary vibes with its creepy slaughterhouse and masked cannibals, always at the ready to hack off a body part. It all adds up to a rather unique viewing experience. 

While WE’RE GOING TO EAT YOU is certainly not for everyone due to its subject matter, those who appreciate the frenetic action of Hong Kong cinema will enjoy this film. It will also fit the bill for those who like kung fu action mashups served with sides of gory gore and silly giggles. Just don’t expect it to have the polished look of Hark’s later films such as PEKING OPERA BLUES (1986) and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA (1991). 

A Scene That I Love: Robocop Comes Home

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Today is the birthday of Peter Weller, the actor best-known for playing the original Robocop in 1987.  Robocop is best-known for being violent and satirical but it also features one of the saddest scenes that I’ve ever seen.

Trying to piece together who he was before he was rebuilt, Robocop visits his former home and has flashbacks to his past life as Officer Murphy.  The house is empty now but the flashbacks show that it was once full of life.  Even with only half of his face visible, Weller shows Murphy’s loneliness as he walks around the house that he once called home.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Visions of the Future

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

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!

Who can see the future?

4 Shots From 4 Futuristic Films

Metropolis (1927, Dir. by Fritz Lang)

The Terminator (1984, Dir. by James Cameron)

Star Trek (2009, Dir. by JJ Abrams)

Prometheus (2012, Dir by Ridley Scott)

Brad’s Musical Number of the Day – Gerard Butler sings “The Music of the Night” from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I’m a big fan of Gerard Butler, mainly because of his macho performances in action films and thrillers. I also appreciate his ability to sing. I remember being surprised and impressed with his performance in Joel Schumacher’s version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I really enjoy the song “The Music of the Night,” and since I reviewed one of his thrillers today (SHATTERED), I thought I’d balance it out with a video of him belting out a tune. Enjoy!