Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday June 16th, we are showing THE MECHANIC (1972) starring Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Keenan Wynn, Jill Ireland, and Frank DeKova.
In THE MECHANIC, Charles Bronson plays a hitman who takes on a young apprentice (Jan-Michael Vincent) and trains him to be a professional assassin. But in their world, you never know when you’ll go from being the killer… to becoming the next target!
I reviewed THE MECHANIC for The Shattered Lens back on New Year’s Day!
In this modern day western, Billy Zane plays a U.S. Marshal who recruits a down on his luck sheriff (Zach Roerig) to help him capture a banker robber (Scott Adkins). Zane goes out to Adkins’s ranch and holds Adkins’s wife (Cara Jade Myers) hostage. Roerig is not okay with this, especially since he thinks that Zane and his men have ulterior motives for wanting to track Adkins. Eventually, some other yahoos show up, all wanting to join Zane’s posse, setting up a final violent showdown and Roerig having to decide which side he’s on.
Day of Reckoning had the right, dusty look and the acting was decent but it took forever for the action to actually start. Instead, there were way too many scenes of Roerig bonding with Myers, who spent nearly the entire running time handcuffed in a bathtub. Scott Adkins is a martial artist who has a huge online following but he didn’t get to show off any of his skills in the movie so I’m not sure what the point of casting him was. Trace Adkins (no relation to Scott) and Mike Wolfe (from AmericanPickers) are also in the movie and I’m always happy to see them. Rapper Yelawolf, who was supposed to be the next big thing 15 years ago, is also in DayofReckoning. He plays the imaginatively named Wolf. I liked Billy Zane’s performance but it was mostly just because he was Billy Zane. (I even liked him in Titanic because it’s impossible not to like Billy Zane.) There’s nothing that interesting or surprising about his character. It’s obvious that he’s going to turn out to be bad from the first moment he shows up.
Once the action does start up, it’s decent. I just wish there had been more of it and less scenes of everyone standing around giving each other the evil eye.
I was searching for something on YouTube when I came across this song. From 1975 to 1980, this song was played before every Rangers home game and also after every Rangers victory! I listened to it and I loved it. I wish they still played it.
As for my Rangers this season, they’ve currently got a 36-36 record and they’re in third place in the AL West. Luckily, there’s still a lot of baseball to be played and the Astros are only leading by five games. That’s one thing I love about baseball. You’re never really out of contention, unless you’re the White Sox.
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!
Today, we pay tribute to the legendary cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond. Born 90 years ago today in Hungary, Zsigmond got his start in the 60s with low-budget films like The Sadist but he went on to become one of the most in-demand cinematographers around. In fact, of all the people who started their career working on a film that starred Arch Hall, Jr., it’s hard to think of any who went on to have the type of success that Zsigmond did.
Zsigmond won one Oscar, for his work on Close Encounters of Third Kind. He was nominated for three more. He also received a BAFTA award for his work on The Deer Hunter and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Stalin. He’s considered to be one of the most influential cinematographers of all time.
In honor of the legacy of Vilmos Zsigmond, here are….
4 Shots From 4 Films
Deliverance (1972, directed by John Boorman, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
The Long Goodbye (1973, dir by Robert Altman, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, dir by Steven Spielberg, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
Heaven’s Gate (1980, directed by Michael Cimino, DP: Vilmos Zsigmond)
Don’t let the bastards get you down. That’s something I tell myself every day. Sometimes, it’s easier to remember than others but it’s something I believe in.
As for this video, it makes me want to grab my camera, hop in my car, drive out to the country, and take a lot of pictures. The video is pure Americana, from Elvis to the bars to the song to the tattoos.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi High, which aired on CBC and PBS from 1989 to 1991! The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi
In yourself, you must believe …. let’s return to DegrassiHigh.
Episode 2.6 “Crossed Wires”
(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on December 10th, 1990)
Alex is dating Tessa but he has yet to kiss her and Tessa’s getting tired of waiting for him. Arthur and Yick (remember them?) both tell Alex that he’s a total wimp. Myself, I’m just wondering how Alex somehow went from being a background character to suddenly getting storylines. For the record, Alex does eventually kiss Tessa and he leaves her breathless, which seems like a bit of an overreaction. I mean, it’s just Alex….
Of course, any Tessa storyline that doesn’t involve Joey is going to feel somewhat odd because true Degrassi fans know that Tessa is eventually going to end up pregnant after sleeping with Joey, leading to a jealous Snake dropping the first F-bomb ever heard on Canadian television. But, that was all far in the future. When this episode aired, Tessa was still just the girl who apparently only owned that one blue dress.
Alex and Tessa’s rather silly storyline is matched with one where Liz, after going on a date with Tim (Keith White, finally getting a storyline after spending so much time as a background character), freaks out after Tim attempts to kiss her goodnight after taking her to a Pogues concert. Liz eventually tells Spike that she was sexually abused by her mom’s ex-boyfriend and that’s why Liz doesn’t allow anyone to get close to her. (In many ways, this episode feels like a dry run for the Jane Says episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation.) This episode handles the subject with sensitivity, as Degrassi (to its credit) always did. Tonally, it can be a bit of shock to go from the silliness of Tessa’s story to the seriousness of Liz’s but that’s kind of the way it is when you’re a teenager. One minute, you’re in a sitcom. The next minute, you’re in the most depressing drama ever. That’s certainly the way it was for me when I was in high school. I preferred the sitcom moments but the fact that I can cry on cue came in useful whenever things started to get serious.
Finally, Dwayne’s moronic friends are upset because Dwayne will no longer let them beat up on Joey. Dwayne doesn’t care. Joey’s the only person that knows that Dwayne is HIV positive. Joey has kept his word and not revealed Dwayne’s secret. Dwayne helps Joey fix his car and Joey, in return, gives Dwayne a life home. Dwayne going from being a bully to a sensitive guy is another character arc that would become a Degrassi tradition.
One of the great privileges of my life has been the opportunity to be a dad. This year, we also welcomed our first grandchild! It’s been wonderful. I’m one of those lucky, blessed guys who has been able to spend time with my kids and my dad. It’s been a good day.
Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there! I hope you’ve had a great day!
I hated Grindso much that I decided to watch another movie to get it out of my head. I’m glad I did because, for my second movie, I picked a good one.
Catch Me If You Can takes place in Minnesota. The school board is planning on closing down Cathedral High School unless the school can raise $200,000. Class president Melissa (Loryn Locklin) takes charge of the fundraising drive but, even though she pours her heart into all of the car washes and bake sales, she’s only been able to raise $19,000. Dylan Malone (Matt Lattanzi, who was married to Olivia Newton-John) is the school bad boy, who is always late to class because he’s busy racing other cars on the country roads near the school. The principal (Geoffrey Lewis) gives Dylan an option. He can either help Melissa or he can go to detention. Dylan’s idea of helping is to take the money that Melissa has raised and bet on the illegal races that he’s entering. At first, it works. But when the Fat Man (M. Emmet Walsh) challenges Dylan to race his best man and then tells his racer to cheat, Dylan and Melissa lose all the money. The Fat Man has a proposition. The Fat Man dares Dylan to enter an impossible, timed race. If Dylan wins, he’ll make the double the money that he lost and he and Melissa will be able to save the school. Dylan agrees. Luckily, it turns out that the school’s principal is also the legendary Fast Freddie, the only person to ever win the Fat Man’s race.
It may not be anyone’s idea of great art but CatchMeIfYouCan is still a delightful and fun 80s teen movie, complete with a nerdy sidekick who turns out to be secretly cool, a bad boy with a heart of gold and a mullet, and a big football game at the end. The plot doesn’t even make sense but the cast gave it their all and, as someone who took part in way too many car wash fund raisers in high school, I knew exactly what Melissa was going through! I’ll admit that, towards the end of the film when everyone was counting down how many seconds Dylan had to make it to the finish line, I got a little caught up in the moment and I may have even cheered a little. CatchMeIfYouCan is a wonderful slice of 80s goodness.
Through the Shattered Lens 