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, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1980’s Graduation Day! Someone’s killing high school athletes! Is it Christopher George, Vanna White, Linnea Quigley, or the band Felony? Join us to find out!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime and Tubi. I’ll be there co-hosting 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.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter and I hope to continue to be until the site finally becomes unusable. (It’s going to happen eventually so enjoy it while you can!) 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 1984’s Sheena, starring Tanya Roberts and Blossom’s dad!
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.
Here’s the first teaser trailer for the upcoming musical biopic, Bob Marley: One Love. This film will star Kingsley Ben-Adir at Bob Marley. You may remember Ben-Adir from his strangely bland turn as Malcolm X in One Night In Miami. The film was also directed by the same director who did King Richard.
The film is opening wide on January 12th, 2024. Here’s the trailer:
The second trailer for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon dropped today.
The first trailer was criticized by some (but certainly not by me) as being a bit too moody and obscure. The second trailer is a bit more action-packed. It leaves little doubt that Robert De Niro is the film’s villain while it’s a bit more ambiguous in what it shows us of Leonardo DiCaprio. (Though who have read the book already know the truth about the character that DiCaprio is playing.) The second trailer definitely plays up the thriller aspect of the story.
Regardless of which trailer does what, I can’t wait to see the film!
Today would have been Warren Oates’s 95th birthday. When Oates died in 1982, he was only 53 years old but he left behind a rich and varied filmography and worked with everyone from Sam Peckinpah to Monte Hellman to Terrence Malick to Steven Spielberg.
One of Oates’s final and most popular performance was as Sgt. Hulka in Ivan Reitman’s Stripes. Hulka was the ultimate drill sergeant, determined to get his men into shape and proving that he could even make soldiers out of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and John Candy. Originally, Sgt. Hulka was supposed to die halfway through the film was Reitman was so impressed with Oates’s performance that the script was changed to allow Hulka to make it all the way through.
In the scene below, Oates shows what a great dramatic actor he was, even when he was appearing in an otherwise light comedy. He brings out the best not only in himself but also from his co-star, Bill Murray.
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, the Shattered Lens celebrates the 134th anniversary of the birth of the great French surrealist Jean Cocteau! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Jean Cocteau Films
The Blood of a Poet (1932, dir by Jean Cocteau, DP: Georges Perinal)
Beauty and the Beast (1946, dir by Jean Cocteau, DP: Henri Alekan)
Orpheus (1950, dir by Jean Cocteau, DP: Nicolas Hayer)
I couldn’t find any Peanuts specials that were set during Independence Day but I did come across this fantastic version of The Star-Spangled Banner from A Boy Named Charlie Brown. A Boy Named Charlie Brown was the first Peanuts movie. It was released in 1969 and, in this scene, Snoopy gets the Little League season off to the right start with the national anthem.
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!
Because it’s the fourth, this edition of 4 Shots From 4 Films features some classic cinematic moments involving fireworks!
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, dir by Peter Jackson, DP: Andrew Lesnie)
Gangs of New York (2002, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Michal Ballhaus)
V for Vendetta (2005, dir by James McTeigue, DP: Adrian Biddle)
The Great Gatsby (2013, dir by Baz Luhrmann, DP: Simon Duggan)
Last night, my sister and I wanted to watch a movie. Since she knows that I love baseball, she pulled up every movie on Tubi that had the word “baseball” in the title. We nearly went with a sweet movie about a first baseman who promises his son that he will hit a home run every time he steps up to the plate. I thought that sounded unrealistic so Lisa suggested we instead try High & Outside: A Baseball Noir.
High & Outside is not a terrible movie. It is just relentlessly depressing and unpleasant. Phil Harding (Phil Donlon) is a 35 year-old minor league player who still thinks he has a chance to make it to the major leagues. His team manager (Ernie Hudson) fires him at the start of the movie. Phil goes home and spends a day trying desperately to save his career and make some money, whether by selling drug or by becoming a coach. Meanwhile, his poor father, Len (Geoffrey Lewis), is a former baseball great who has suffered from two strokes and who is making money signing baseball cards. Facing the threat of being sent to a nursing home, he gives his championship rings to his nurse (David Proval) and sends him to the pawnshop to see what he can get for them.
That’s what the entire movie is like, just one scene after another of two helpless men watching as their lives fall apart. Len was one of the greats but he spent so much time playing baseball that he neglected his wife and marriage. Phil did the same thing but he was never great so no one will ever ask him to sign a baseball card. I have no doubt that it’s an accurate portrayal of what happens to many athletes after their playing days are over but it is not pleasant to watch and it’s so dark and depressing that it gets boring and it feels pointless. Phil was such a jerk that I didn’t care what happened to him. The only really likable character was the nurse.
The Detective Knight trilogy comes to a close with Detective Knight: Independence.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the wonderfully pulpy adventures of Detective James Knight, here’s a quick refresher of what happened last year. First off, in Detective Knight: Rogue, Detective Knight (Bruce Willis) sought vengeance after his partner, Fitz (Lochlyn Munro), was seriously wounded during a robbery. Fitz recovered but not before Knight has dispensed some vigilante justice of his own. The surviving bad guys went to prison but sadly, so did Detective Knight.
Fortunately, Detective Knight was released from prison in Detective Knight: Redemption. He was released because a cult of people who dressed up like Santa Claus and who chanted, “Ho! Ho! Ho!” while committing their crimes were terrifying the city. With the help of Detective Knight, the police were able to stop the Santa Cult.
In Detective Knight: Independence, Knight is once again on the police force. He and Fitz are still quick to shoot first and ask questions later. That said, Knight is trying to make amends with his estranged wife and spend more time with his daughter. That’s not going to be easy, though, because there’s a new threat in town …. just in time for the 4th of July!
Dezi (Jack Kilmer) is an EMT who has always dreamt of being a cop. Unfortunately, he’s never been able to qualify for the force. Even when he shows up at a cop bar and just tries to have a beer in peace, the bartender approaches him with a baseball bat and two detective toss him out of the place. When Dezi is subsequently fired for refusing to give aid to a wounded man (the man in question was a bank robber and Detective Fitz actually told Dezi to go help a bleeding civilian in the bank and leave the robber to die), Dezi snaps. First, Dezi steals a uniform, a badge, and a gun. After dispensing some vigilante justice on some muggers, Dezi decides that he would like to rob a bank. Yes, you read that correctly. In just a matter of hours, Dezi goes from pretending to be a cop to pretending to be a criminal. As the film progresses, it starts to become pretty clear why the police force didn’t want to hire this guy in the first place.
Unfortunately, for Dezi, his fellow EMT and occasional lover, Ally (Willow Shields), had a connection to Detective Knight and soon, Knight is on Dezi’s trail. It all leads to a 4th of July confrontation on a baseball field.
Even though Bruce Willis is playing the title character, he’s not present for much of Detective Knight: Independence. As with the other two Detective Knight films, it’s obvious that Willis was only on set for a day or two. While Willis is still a physically imposing actor, there’s none of the wise guy swagger that made Willis a star. Instead, Detective Knight is a fairly grim character. As always, it’s a bit difficult to watch Willis in films like this, especially with the knowledge of his recent health struggles. That said, the Detective Knight films are definitely the best of Willis’s final films and, despite the limitations imposed by his health, Willis comes across well in them. Considering that this is Willi’s final film, certain lines hit in a way that they otherwise might not.
As with the previous Detective Knight films, the majority of the screen time is given over to the man that the Detective is pursuing. Jack Kilmer gives a strong performance as the unbalanced Dezi. When he first appears, he’s almost a sympathetic character. The cops were being bullies when they kicked him out of their bar. His boss was being unreasonable when she announced that, rather than suspend him, she was just going to fire him because she didn’t like his attitude. When Dezi first puts on his stolen badge and uniform, it’s hard not to sympathize with his happiness because he finally has what he wants. But almost immediately, the power goes to his head and he loses control. He becomes a frightening character but still, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him as he yells, “I’m not the bad guy!” Of course, Dezi is the bad guy and the tragedy of his character is that he’ll never be able to understand why that is.
He’s right, you know.
For those of us who remember him in films like Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, and The Sixth Sense, late-era Bruce Willis films can be difficult to watch and I understand and respect why some people simply can’t bring themselves do it. And, obviously, several of Willis’s later films do leave one feeling as if the actor has been exploited by filmmakers who cared less about his legacy and more about making money off of his name. That said, the Detective Knight films do not feel exploitive, certainly not in the way that many of his 2022 films did. Instead, the trilogy serves as a tribute to Willis and his status as one of the world’s most popular movie stars. As pulpy as it may be, Detective Knight:Independence allows Bruce to go out on a good note.
