Category Archives: Film

Banjo Hackett: Roamin’ Free (1976, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The great Don Meredith will always be remembered for a few things.

He’s remembered for being the first Dallas Cowboys quarterback, leading the team to multiple championship games but sadly never making it to the Super Bowl.  If you’ve seen North Dallas Forty, the quarterback played by Mac Davis was based on Meredith.  North Dallas Forty was based on a book by Phil Gent, a former Cowboys wide receiver.  When asked about the book and Gent’s portrayal of himself as being the best player on the team, Meredith reportedly said, “Hell, if I had known Phil was that good, I would have thrown him the ball more often.”

Don Mereidth was also one of the first players to make the jump from playing on the field to calling plays in the broadcast booth.  He was the good old boy who served as a foil to Howard Cosell and who sang “Turn out the lights, the party’s over” whenever it became obvious that one team was going to win the game.

He will also always be remembered for an incident in 1979 when, while covering a game in Denver, he supposedly said, “Welcome to Mile High Stadium — and I am!”  This is actually an urban legend.  Meredith never actually said he was high on national television but if a member of the original Monday Night Football Team was going to say that, it probably would have been Dandy Don.

Don Meredith is less remembered for his acting career but, like a lot of retired football players in the 70s, he tried his hand at performing.  As an actor, Don Meredith was a very good quarterback.  His performances were superior to Joe Namath’s but his range was undeniably limited.  Smart producers essentially had Don Meredith play himself, a laid back good old boy who liked his beer and enjoyed hanging out with his buddies.

Banjo Hackett was typical of Don Meredith’s films.  In this made-for-TV movie, Meredith plays the title character.  He’s the nicest horse trader in the old west but not even someone as laid back as Banjo Hackett is going to stand for someone stealing from him.  When he learns that his nephew, Jubal (Ike Eisenmann), has been put into an orphanage and that evil bounty hunter Sam Ivory (Chuck Conners) has stolen Jubal’s favorite horse, Banjo steps up to the huddle.  First, he engineers Jubal’s escape from the orphanage. Then he and his nephew track Sam across the frontier, determined to catch up with him before he sells Jubal’s horse.

Banjo Hackett was obviously meant to serve as a pilot for a television series.  The series never happened but Banjo Hackett itself is a likable film that will be best appreciated by western fans who are looking for something harmless to watch.  Don Meredith may not have been a versatile actor but he had a sincere screen presence and Chuck Conners was always an effective bad guy.  The cast is full of familiar western actors, including Slim Pickens, L.Q. Jones, and Jeff Corey.  As a movie, Banjo Hackett is as amiable as its lead character.

Film Review: Men With Brooms (dir by Paul Gross)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, having watched a bit of the Winter Games, I decided that I wanted to watch a movie about curling.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that there aren’t really a lot of curling films out there.  There’s several films about ice skaters, of course.  They all feature haughty skaters being forced to partner up with blue collar amateurs and almost all of them end with everyone falling in love.  (Yay!)  And there’s plenty of hockey movies.  They all feature brawny Canadians getting into fights and almost all of them end with someone losing their front two teeth.  (Yay!)  But there aren’t a whole lot of curling movies.  I guess some people don’t believe that a broom on ice can be cinematic.  Well, the joke’s on them!  Brooms are very cinematic!  However, I did finally come across the 2002 Canadian film, Men With Brooms, on Tubi.

Now, you should understand that when I say that Men With Brooms is a Canadian film, I mean that it is very, very Canadian.  This isn’t just a film that was shot in Canada by an American company looking for tax credits and a city that looked like New York without being as expensive.  Instead, this is a film about very polite people who say “eh?” frequently and who are usually wearing several layers of clothing in order to protect from the chill in the air and the snow on the ground.  This not a film that was shot in Canada for an American audience.  This is a film that was made by Canadians for Canadians and that’s actually kind of nice.  There’s even a scene where the characters bemoan the arrival of another “American” fast food restaurant.  Speaking as an American, I think we are far too often guilty of taking our neighbors to the north for granted.  It’s good to be reminded that they are a separate nation with a separate culture and their own individual way of looking at the world.

The film begins with the death of an old man named Donald Foley (James B. Douglas).  Ten years before he died, Donald was the head coach of the greatest curling rink to ever play in Ontario.  (For those — like me! — who are not familiar with all of the details and lingo of curling, a rink is just another word for team.)  However, the rink broke up under mysterious circumstances.  The former rink skip (team captain), Chris Cutter (Paul Gross), left Foley’s daughter at the altar and skipped town.  He also tossed the rink’s curling stones into a lake!  In fact, it was while he was retrieving the stones that Donald had the heart attack that killed him.  Way to go, Chris, ya hoser!

The entire team reunites for Foley’s cremation and they discover that the coach has had his ashes put into a curling stone.  And he wants the team to come back together and to win a championship using that very stone!  And he also wants Chris to reconnect with his father, Gordon (Leslie Nielsen).  Of course, it turns out that Chris is not the only member of the team to have issues.  One team member has a low sperm count.  Another one is a drug dealer and another is having a mid-life crisis.  But they’ll all set aside their differences and try to win one for the coach!  And if they even think about quitting, there will always be a helpful townsperson around to say, “You’re going to win the Golden Broom, eh?”

Tonally, Men With Brooms is all over the place.  Odd comedic moments are mixed in with scenes of sentimental drama and the end result is a film that never seem to be quite sure what it’s trying to be.  Not all of the big emotional moments pay off.  Leslie Nielsen, though, is pretty good playing a relatively straight role.  (He still gets his share of funny lines but this performance is definitely a different comedic beast from the deadpan style of self-parody that he’s best known for.)  Ultimately, flaws aside, it’s a likable and fairly well-acted film, one that has a gentle spirit in even its raunchier moments.  It’s just so damn Canadian that it’s hard not to appreciate it.

Add to that, it’s a good film to watch if you’re trying to teach yourself about curling.  It may have been a slight film but, thanks to Men With Brooms, I now officially know that a curling team is called a rink.  You learn something new every day.

Here Are The Oscar Nominations!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Oscar nominations have been announced!  The Power of the Dog leads with 12.

Initial thoughts: Don’t Look Up is one of the worst films to ever be nominated for Best Picture.  The acting nominations for Being The Ricardos shows that actors love movies about actors.  I’m very excited to see that Nightmare Alley was nominated for best picture.

I’m really happy that Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst, and Jessie Buckley picked up their first nominations.  Plemons and Dunst now join Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontane and Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as a married couple nominated for playing a married couple in a film.

More later.  For now, here are the nominees:

Best Picture
“Belfast” – Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas, Producers
“CODA” – Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger, Producers
“Don’t Look Up” – Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, Producers
“Drive My Car” – Teruhisa Yamamoto, Producer
“Dune” – Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve and Cale Boyter, Producers
“King Richard” – Tim White, Trevor White and Will Smith, Producers
“Licorice Pizza” – Sara Murphy, Adam Somner and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers
“Nightmare Alley” – Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Bradley Cooper, Producers
“The Power of the Dog” – Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Roger Frappier, Producers
“West Side Story” Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers

Best Director
Kenneth Branagh – “Belfast”
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi – “Drive My Car”
Paul Thomas Anderson – “Licorice Pizza”
Jane Campion – “The Power of the Dog”
Steven Spielberg – “West Side Story”

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain – “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
Olivia Colman – “The Lost Daughter”
Penelope Cruz – “Parallel Mothers”
Nicole Kidman – “Being The Ricardos”
Kristen Stewart – “Spencer”

Best Actor
Javier Bardem – “Being The Ricardos”
Benedict Cumberbatch – “The Power of the Dog”
Andrew Garfield – “Tick, Tick…Boom!”
Will Smith – “King Richard”
Denzel Washington – “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

​Best Supporting Actress
​​​​Jessie Buckley – “The Lost Daughter”
Ariana DeBose – “West Side Story”
Judi Dench – “Belfast”
Kirsten Dunst – “The Power of the Dog”
Aunjanue Ellis – “King Richard”

Best Supporting Actor
​Ciarán Hinds – “Belfast”
Troy Kotsur – “CODA”
Jesse Plemons – “The Power of the Dog”
J.K. Simmons – ​​”Being The Ricardos”
Kodi Smit-McPhee – “The Power of the Dog”

Best Original Screenplay
“Belfast” – Written by Kenneth Branagh
“​Don’t Look Up” – Screenplay by Adam McKay; Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota
“King Richard” – Written by Zach Baylin
“Licorice Pizza” – Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
“The Worst Person in the World” – Written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Best Adapted Screenplay
“CODA” Screenplay by Siân Heder
“Drive My Car Screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
“Dune” Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth
“The Lost Daughter” Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal
“The Power of the Dog” Written by Jane Campion

Best Animated Feature
​”​Encanto” – Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer
“Flee” – Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie
“Luca” – Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren
“The Mitchells vs. the Machines” – Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht
“Raya and the Last Dragon” – Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho

Best Documentary Feature
​​​”Ascension” – Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell
“Attica” – Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry
“Flee” Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie
“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein
“Writing with Fire” – Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh

Best International Feature
“​Drive My Car” – Japan
“Flee” – Denmark
“The Hand of God” – Italy
“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” – Bhutan
“The Worst Person in the World” – Norway

Best Cinematography
​”Dune” – Greig Fraser
“Nightmare Alley” – Dan Laustsen
“The Power of the Dog” – Ari Wegner
“The Tragedy Of Macbeth” Bruno Delbonnel
“West Side Story” – Janusz Kaminski

Best Costume Design
“Cruella” – Jenny Beavan
“Cyrano” – Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran
“Dune” – Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan
“Nightmare Alley” – Luis Sequeira
“West Side Story” – Paul Tazewell

Best Film Editing
​”Don’t Look Up” – Hank Corwin
“Dune” – Joe Walker
“King Richard” – Pamela Martin
“The Power of the Dog” – Peter Sciberras
“Tick, Tick…Boom!” – Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
​​​​​”Coming 2 America” – Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer
“Cruella” – Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon
“Dune” – Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye” – Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh
“House of Gucci” – Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras

Best Production Design
​”Dune” – Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos
“Nightmare Alley” – Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
“The Power of the Dog” – Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards
“The Tragedy of Macbeth” – Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
“West Side Story” – Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo

Best Sound
​​​​”Belfast” – Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri
“Dune” – Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett
“No Time to Die” – Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor
“The Power of the Dog” – Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb
“West Side Story” – Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy

Best Visual Effects
“Dune” – Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer
“Free Guy” – Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick
“No Time to Die” – Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould
“Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings” – Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker and Dan Oliver
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” – Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick

Best Original Score
​​”Don’t Look Up” – Nicholas Britell
“Dune” – Hans Zimmer
“Encanto” – Germaine Franco
“Parallel Mothers” – Alberto Iglesias
“The Power Of The Dog” – Jonny Greenwood

Best Original Song

“Be Alive” from “King Richard” – Music and Lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
“Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto” – Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Down To Joy” from “Belfast” – Music and Lyric by Van Morrison
“No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die” – Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
“Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days” – Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

Best Animated Short
“Affairs of the Art” – Joanna Quinn and Les Mills
“Bestia” – Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz
“Boxballet” – Anton Dyakov
“Robin Robin” – Dan Ojari and Mikey Please
“The Windshield Wiper” – Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez

Best Documentary Short
“Audible” – Matt Ogens and Geoff McLean
“Lead Me Home” – Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk
“The Queen of Basketball” – Ben Proudfoot
“Three Songs for Benazir” – Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei
“When We Were Bullies” – Jay Rosenblatt

Best Live-Action Short
“Ala Kachuu – Take and Run” – Maria Brendle and Nadine Lüchinger
“The Dress” – Tadeusz Łysiak and Maciej Ślesicki
“The Long Goodbye” – Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed
“On My Mind” – Martin Strange-Hansen and Kim Magnusson
“Please Hold” – K.D. Dávila and Levin Menekse

True Grit: A Further Adventure (1978, directed by Richard T. Heffron)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Warren Oates as the legendary, one-eyed old west lawman Rooster Cogburn?

That was the idea behind True Grit: A Further Adventure, a made-for-TV movie that was meant to serve as a pilot for a potential television series.  The film is a direct sequel to 1969’s True Grit and it features Warren Oates stepping into the role of Rooster Cogburn, the character that John Wayne famously played in the original film and who Jeff Bridges later played in the 2010 remake.  In A Further Adventure, Cogburn is once again hired to escort teenager Mattie Ross (Lisa Pelikan) across the country.  Along the way, Rooster gambles away all their money, meets an attractive widow (Lee Meriwether), and gets a job in a mining town.  With the help of Mattie, he also gets a job as a bounty hunter and the two of them go after a group of wanted outlaws.  Mattie tries to reform Rooster and make him act like more of a traditional western hero while Rooster drinks and gambles and complains.

I am a huge Warren Oates fan but even I have to admit that he’s miscast of Rooster Cogburn.  In both Charles Portis’s original novel and the two films that were adapted from it, Rooster was overweight and physically imposing,  He wasn’t book-smart but he was wise in the ways of the frontier.  Physically, Warren Oates is too slightly built and his trademark nervous energy feels out of place in the role of Rooster.  Wayne and Bridges were both believable as men who would draw first and ask questions later but Oates was a natural-born talker.  That’s one of the things that made him one of the best actors of the 70s but it doesn’t serve him well in the role of Rooster Cogburn.

On the plus side, Lisa Pelikan is a considerable improvement on Kim Darby in the role of Mattie, though she’s nowhere near as good as Hailee Steinfeld would later be in the 2010 film.  Lee Meriwether and Warren Oates shares some good scenes together but the film’s made-for-TV origins makes Meriwether’s overall performance feel like a special guest star diversion.  True Grit: A Further Adventure is a throw-back to the type of formulaic western television programs that were popular in the late 60s.  It’s easy to see why the pilot didn’t get picked up.  It was miscast and it was too late.  If it had aired a few years earlier, it’s possible to imagine Oates and Pelikan traveling to a different town and getting involved in a different story on a weekly basis and perhaps the role would have been changed to better suit Oates’s style of acting.  But, by 1978, television was heading in the direction of Hill Street Blues and the days of the western were over.

Unfortunately. Warren Oates would die just four years after this film aired, a tragically early passing that robbed the world of a unique actor who was in his prime.  Though Oates may not have been right for Rooster Cogburn, he will always be remembered for films like Badlands, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, Stripes, Dillinger, and Two-Lane Blacktop.  He was truly a one of a kind talent.

What If Lisa Marie Picked The Oscar Nominees: 2021 Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

With the Oscar nominations due to be announced tomorrow, now is the time that the Shattered Lens indulges in a little something called, “What if Lisa Marie had all the power.” Listed below are my personal Oscar nominations. Please note that these are not the films that I necessarily think will be nominated. The fact of the matter is that the many of them will not be. Instead, these are the films that would be nominated if I was solely responsible for deciding the nominees this year. Winners are listed in bold.

I should also point out that, unlike the Academy (which is using a March to December, 2021 eligibility window), I am using a January to December 2021 eligibility window.  So, you may see a few nominees below that were technically nominated for the 2020 Oscars, despite the fact that the films themselves were not really given a theatrical release until the the first few months of 2021.  The Father is probably the most obvious example of this.

It should also go without saying that I’ve only nominated films that I’ve actually seen.  So, if you’re wondering why a certain film wasn’t nominated, it’s always possible that may have not gotten the opportunity to see it yet.  I have a feeling that The Souvenir Part II and Cyrano would have potentially shown up in the list of nominee below if either one of those films was currently available in my part of the world.  Of course, it’s also possible that I didn’t feel that a certain film was worthy of a nomination, despite what the critics may see.  In the end, my best advice is not to worry too much about it.  I’m not an Academy voter so ultimately, this is all for fun and that’s the spirit in which it should be taken.

You’ll also note that I’ve added four categories, all of which I believe the Academy should adopt — Best Voice-Over Performance, Best Casting, Best Stunt Work, and Best Overall Use Of Music In A Film.

Click on the links to see my nominations for 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010!)

And now, without further ado:

Best Picure
Belfast
CODA
The French Dispatch
The Last Duel
Licorice Pizza
Mass
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Shiva Baby


Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza
Kenneth Branagh for Belfast
Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog
Joel Coen for The Tragedy of Macbeth
Fran Kanz for Mass
Emma Seligman for Shiva Baby


Best Actor
Nicolas Cage in Pig
Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley
Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog
Anthony Hopins in The Father
Udo Kier in Swan Song
Denzel Washington in Tragedy of Macbeth


Best Actress
Jodie Comer in The Last Duel
Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza
Emilia Jones in CODA
Frances McDormand in The Tragedy of Macbeth
Rachel Sennott in Shiva Baby
Tessa Thompson in Passing


Best Supporting Actor
Reed Birney in Mass
Bradley Cooper in Licorice Pizza
Jamie Dornan in Belfast
Jason Isaacs in Mass
Troy Kostur in CODA
Chaske Spencer in Wild Indian


Best Supporting Actress
Caririona Balfe in Belfast
Ann Dowd in Mass
Kirsten Dunst in The Power of the Dog
Kathryn Hunter in The Tragedy of Macbeth
Ruth Negga in Passing
Martha Plimpton in Mass


Best Voice Over Performance
Olivia Colman in Ron Gone Wrong
Jack Dylan Grazer in Ron Gone Wrong
Micahel Imperioli in The Many Saints of Newark
Abbi Jacobson In The Mitchells vs The Machines
Danny McBride in The Mitchells vs The Machines
Sylvester Stallone in The Suicide Squad


Best Original Screenplay
Belfast
CODA
Licorice Pizza
Mass
Pig
Shiva Baby


Best Adapted Screenplay
The Father
The French Dispatch
The Last Duel
Nightmare Alley
Passing
The Power of the Dog


Best Animated Feature Film
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs The Machines
Ron Gone Wrong
Summit of the Gods


Best Documentary Feature Film
Final Account
Flee
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster
Summer of Soul
Val
The Velvet Underground


Best International Feature Film
Another Round
Dear Comrades!
Flee
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Prayers For The Stolen
Summit of the Gods

Best Original Score
Assault on VA-33
Belfast
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
Reminiscence
Shiva Baby


Best Original Song

“So May We Start” from Annette
“Beyond the Shore” from CODA
“Surface Pressure” from Encanto
“On My Way” From The Mitchells vs The Machines
“Remain” from Old
“Fire In The Sky” from Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Gold Rings


Best Overall Use Of Music
Annette
CODA
Encanto
Licorice Pizza
Summer of Soul
Tick …. Tick …. Boom!


Best Sound Editing
Black Widow
Dune
Godzilla vs. Kong
A Quiet Place Part II
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home


Best Sound Mixing
Belfast
CODA
Dune
In The Heights
Tick …. Tick …. Boom!
Spider-Man: No Way Home


Best Production Design
Dune
The French Dispatch
The Last Duel
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
Tragedy of Macbeth


Best Casting
Belfast
CODA
East of the Mountains
Licorice Pizza
The Power of the Dog
Shiva Baby


Best Cinematography
Belfast
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley
Passing
The Power of the Dog
Tragedy of Macbeth


Best Costume Design
Dune
The Green Knight
The Last Duel
Nightmare Alley
Passing
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings


Best Film Editing
Belfat
The Father
The Last Duel
Licorice Pizza
Tragedy of Macbeth
Shiva Baby


Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
The French Dispatch
The Green Knight
Nightmare Alley
The Suicide Squad


Best Stuntwork
Assault on VA-33
Black Widow
Dune
The Harder They Fall
No Time To Die
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings


Best Visual Effects
A Quiet Place Part II
Annette
Dune
Godzilla vs. Kong
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home

List of Nominees By Number of Nominations

10 Nominations — Belfast

9 Nominations — Licorice Pizza

8 Nominations — CODA, The Tragedy of Macbeth

7 Nominations — Dune, Mass, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, Shiva Baby

6 Nominations — The French Dispatch, The Last Duel

5 Nominations — Passing, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

4 Nominations — The Mitchells vs The Machines

3 Nominations — Annette, Encanto, The Father, Flee, The Green Knight, Ron’s Gone Wrong, Spider-Man: No Direction Home, The Suicide Squad

2 Nominations — A Quiet Place Part II, Assault on VA-33, Black Widow, Godzilla vs Kong, Pig, Summer of Soul, Summit of the Gods, tick….tick….BOOM!

1 Nomination — Another Round, Dear Comrades!, East of the Mountains, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Final Account, Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster, The Harder They Fall, In The Heights, Luca, The Many Saints of Newark, No Time To Die, Old, Prayers For The Stolen, Quo Vadis Aida?, Reminiscence, Swan Song, Val, The Velvet Underground, Wild Indian

List of Films By Number of Oscars Won:

3 Oscars — Licorice Pizza

2 Oscars — CODA, Dune, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog

1 Oscar — Belfast, Dear Comrades!, Encanto, The Father, The French Dispatch, The Green Knight, The Many Saints of Newark, Mass, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Shiva Baby, Summit of the Gods, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Val, Wild Indian

A Blast From The Past: I Like Bikes But…. (dir by Bob Deaton, Loren Dolezal, Dennis Hess, Ernest Johnson, Oscar Rojas, Robert Rose, and Trudy Travis)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

How many directors does it take to put together a 13-minute film about bicycles?

Apparently, it takes seven!  At least that’s the amount that received credit for 1978’s I Like Bikes But….  I guess some of them did the live action shots and some of them did the animation and maybe one of them was in the recording booth with the narrator but still, seven seems like a lot.  But I guess it takes a lot of manpower to make people like cyclists.

Anyway, this film was meant to encourage people to not only ride bicycles but to also observe all of the safety rules that surround riding bikes in public.  A bicycle named Ike is convinced that he can make you love overlook the slow-moving nuisance of the public cyclist if he just keep repeating, “I like bikes over and over again….”  That may have worked for Eisenhower but he won a war so everyone already liked him.  Whereas bicyclists are usually the people you dread getting stuck behind in traffic.

I have to admit that, after watching this short film, I found myself hating bikes even more than I did before.  But I do appreciate Ike’s enthusiasm.  He tried.

Rescue From Gilligan’s Island (1978, directed by Leslie H. Martinson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I know that this is going to shock some people but Rescue From Gilligan’s Island is dumb.  In fact, it is not just dumb.  Instead, it is very, very, very dumb.  It’s just about the dumbest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.

The first TV movie sequel to the 60s television show about a group of castaways on an uncharted isle, Rescue From Gilligan’s Island picks up ten years after the final episode of Gilligan’s Island.  The castaways are still living on the island and trying to figure out how to get back home.  There’s the Skipper (Alan Hale, Jr.) and Gilligan (Bob Denver).  There’s Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), the Howells (Jim Backus and Natalie Schaefer), and the Professor (Russell Johnson).  Ginger is also there but there’s something different about her.  Tina Louise refused to return to the role because she always said appearing on Gilligan’s Island ruined her career.  Ginger is now played by Judith Baldwin, who looks glamorous but who also plays her role distressingly straight, as if she was the only person unaware that nothing about Gilligan’s Island should have been taken seriously.

After ten years of being stranded, the professor finally figures out how to get the castaways off the island!  You’ll never believe the plan he comes up with.  He decides that the castaways should build, get this … a raft!  Ten years on the island and it never occurred to them to just make a raft?  The castways do get some help from a tsunami, which pushes them out to the ocean.  And then when Gilligan sets the raft on fire, they’re saved by the Coast Guard.

(How did they spend ten years on the island without killing Gilligan?)

Despite having been away from ten years, everyone settles back into their old routines but it’s not just the same.  The Professor tries to teach but the students just want to hear about what it was like to be marooned on an island.  Ginger returns to acting but is expected to now appear in PG-rated films!  Mary Ann agrees to marry her old boyfriend, Herbert, despite not loving him.  The Howells go right back to their old lives because the Howells are just as weird as on the mainland as they were on the island.

As for Gilligan and Skipper, they try to convince their insurance company to pay to fix the Minnow so that they can go back to giving three-hour tours but to do that, they have to convince all of the castaways to sign a form swearing that the Skipper was not liable for what happened during that last tour.  (But, even if they could fix up the Minnow, why would anyone want to take a tour with the Skipper and Gilligan when the entire world probably knows that doing so mean risking having to spend ten years on a deserted island?  There’s a reason why no one wanted to fly with George Kennedy after the fourth Airport movie.)  So, Gilligan and the Skipper travel the country and visit old friends while being pursued by two Russian agents (Vincent Shiavelli and Art LeFleur) who want to steal a metal disc that Gilligan found on the island.

I told you it was dumb.

Dumb it may have been but it was also the highest rated show for the week that it aired.  While this didn’t lead to a new series, it did lead to two more made-for-TV movies.  In the first one, the castaways opened a resort.  In the second one, they teamed up with a group of sports superstars and kept Martin Landau from exploiting the island’s natural resources.  Dumb as this movie may be, it was necessary steps towards teaming the Skipper up with the Harlem Globetrotters.

I Watched Boys’ Ranch (1946, dir. by Roy Rowland)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

I watched Boys’ Ranch because it was described as being a baseball movie. And it is for the first few minutes.

Dan Walker (James Craig) is a baseball player who learns that he’s going to be benched for the rest of the season. He used to be great but his time has passed and there are younger players who deserve a shot so, with no hard feelings, Dan announces his retirement. His two biggest fans — teenage delinquents Knuckles (Skip Homeier) and Hank (Darryl Hickman) — give him a knife so that he will always remember them when he returns to his ranch in Texas. Just before Dan is going to leave, he learns that the knife was stolen! Knuckles and Hank have been arrested and they’re going to end up in juvenile hall! Dan wins their freedom by offering to take them to Texas with him.

That’s where the baseball stuff ends. The rest of the movie is about Dan and his wife, Susan (Dorothy Patrick), running a ranch where they reform juvenile delinquents by teaching them how to take care of horses and how to be responsible. At first, the locals aren’t happy about having a bunch of bad city kid in town but Dan wins them over. His toughest challenge though is trying to reform Butch (Jackie “Butch” Jenkins), who is tough and a bad influence on the other boys.

Obviously, I was disappointed when Boys’ Ranch turned out to have very little baseball action. That’s the whole reason I was watching the movie! It could have used some more baseball action because the ranch action wasn’t that interesting. When the movie was made, I bet the idea of sending out of control teens to a ranch was a new one but today, it’s not that unique and everyone’s heard all the horror stories about what really goes on at those ranches. Of course, the bad boys in Boys’ Ranch didn’t really seem that bad either. They all just needed someone to tell them to drop the attitude and clean the stalls. Those boys may have had problems but at least they never tried to throw the World Series!

I miss baseball.

The TSL’s Grindhouse: Blind Fury (dir by Philip Noyce)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Nick Parker (Rutger Hauer) may have lost his sight in Vietnam but he gained something else.  With the help of surprisingly friendly villagers, Nick learned how to master his other senses.  He also became a proficient and deadly swordsmen.  Why would the villagers go out of their way to help an American soldier who, in all probability, they viewed as an intruder?

Does it matter?

Of course not!  All that matters is that 1990’s Blind Fury features Rutger Hauer as a blind swordsman who, 20 years after returning home from Vietnam, decides to to go to Florida to pay a visit on his old service buddy, Frank (Terry O’Quinn).  Frank, however, has developed a gambling problem and is currently in Reno, Nevada.  While Nick is getting to know Frank’s ex-wife, Lynne (Meg Foster), and Frank’s bratty son, Billy (Brandon Call), Slag (Randall “Tex” Cobb) shows up with two corrupt cops.  As you can probably guess from his name, Slag is a bad guy.  He’s looking for Frank.  Nick manages to kill the cops and run off Slag but, in the process, Lynne is killed.  With her dying breath, Lynne asks Nick to take Billy to his father.  Nick, of course, agrees.

The rest of this fast-paced film follows Nick and Billy as they head across the country.  Following them along the way is Slag and his men.  Frank has obviously made some pretty big mistakes and gotten on the bad side of some pretty dangerous people and it’s now up to Nick to save Frank, if just so Billy doesn’t end up an orphan.  At first, Billy is resentful and does things like demanding a window seat on the bus that they’re taking to Nevada.  (As Billy rather rudely puts it, it’s not like Nick has any use for the window.)  Billy also laughs when Nick trips in a puddle and then tries to trick Nick into eating a rock.  However, Nick soon proves himself to be more than capable of defending both himself and Billy.  Soon, Billy is calling him “Uncle Nick” and Nick …. well, Nick still seems to be wondering what he ever did that was so wrong that a part of his punishment was to get stuck with such a little brat.  But, that is a part of Nick’s charm.

And, indeed, Nick has a lot of charm.  That’s not particularly surprising, given that he’s played by the charismatic Rutger Hauer.  Hauer is convincing as both a blind man and a fighter and he bring a lot of sly humor to the role.  Nick may be a warrior but he’s definitely a warrior with a certain joie de vivre.  Beyond his own talents as an actor, Hauer was just one of those performers who had enough natural athleticism to look totally credible while swinging a sword at his enemies. One of the things that makes Blind Fury so enjoyable is that you never doubt that Hauer could actually do all of the things that we see him do.

Blind Fury is a fast-paced and entertaining film.  Director Philip Noyce keeps the action moving quickly and he’s smart enough to avoid getting bogged down with trying to convince the audience that film’s plot makes any more sense than it does.  Blind Fury is a B-action movie that’s proud to be a B-action movie and, as a result, it’s a lot of fun.  The film ends with a battle between Hauer and Sho Kosugi that is genuinely exciting to watch.  It also ends with the promise of a sequel, one that was sadly never made.

As I watched the film tonight (and, with the temperature currently being below freezing and a good deal of ice still being on the ground outside, I definitely enjoyed the escape that the film provided), it occurred to me that I’ve recently viewed many Rutger Hauer films.  I’ve seen a few bad films starring Rutger Hauer but I have never seen a bad Rutger Hauer performance.  Hauer always gave 100%, regardless of what else might be going on with the movie.  That’s why he was a great actor and one who is definitely missed today.

Blind Fury is definitely a very good Rutger Hauer film.  Watch it the next time you need to see that, with a little determination, anything is possible.

The Big Stampede (1932, directed by Tenny Wright)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

On the New Mexico frontier, war is breaking out behind rancher Sam Chew (Noah Beery) and rustler Sonora Joe (Luis Alberni).  Both want to control the land and the cattle that graze upon it and innocent settlers are getting trapped in the middle!  The governor decides to send a young sheriff named John Steele to maintain order.  No sooner has Steele arrived then he meets a young woman (Mae Madison) and her father, who have both been attacked by and had their cattle stolen by Sam Chew.  After Sonora Joe and his gang save his life from Sam’s men, Steele realizes that Sam is more malicious and dangerous than Sonora Joe so he decides that the best way to handle the situation is to deputize Joe and team up with him to stop Sam and his men.  It’s a tall order but John Steele is just the man to handle it because John Steele is John Wayne!

This was one of the many B-westerns that the former Marion Morrison made in the decade before John Ford made him a star by casting him in Stagecoach.  Wayne was always a good hero, even in a 54-minute programmer like this one.  Though there is, as the title promises, an impressive stampede, Wayne is the main attraction here, with Noah Beery serving as a good heavy as always.  Perhaps the most interesting thing about this movie, if you’re a western or a John Wayne fan, is that Wayne’s horse is named Duke.  This was one of six films that Wayne made with Duke. Back in the 30s, the horses were often as a big a star as the men who rode them and, from the posters I’ve seen, it does appear that The Big Stampede was advertised as starring, “John Wayne and DUKE!”  At least Wayne was still able to get top billing.

The Big Stampede had previously been made as a silent film and the remake reuses a lot of old footage from the original.  John Wayne, needless to say, did not star in the original film, though he did wear the same costume that Ken Maynard wore in an attempt to keep people from noticing that the footage didn’t always match.  It’s not a totally successful ploy, though undemanding audiences in 1932 probably accepted it.  The Big Stampede would be remade one more time, in 1936, with Dick Foran taking the starring role.