Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 6/2/25 — 6/8/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I sit here typing this, there’s a wonderful storm brewing outside, with rain and lightning and thunder.  My plan now is to turn out the lights, climb into bed, and watch the storm for a few hours.  But, before I do that, here’s what I watched and read this week!

Films I Watched:

  1. Bulletproof (1988)
  2. Farewell, My Lovely (1975)
  3. The Horror of Party Beach (1964)
  4. Zardoz (1974)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. CHiPs
  2. Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders
  3. Good American Family
  4. Malibu CA
  5. Miami Vice
  6. Pacific Blue

Books I Read:

  1. The Season (1969) by William Goldman

Live Tweets:

  1. Bulletproof
  2. Farewell, My Lovely
  3. Zardoz
  4. The Horror of Party Beach

News From Last Week:

  1. Actor Jonathan Joss dies at 59

Links From Last Week:

  1. Eiffel Tower Light Show! Wine And Water Wheels! My “Travel A – Z” Series Heads To France!
  2. My First Cooking Video

Links From The Site:

  1. Leonard reviewed Ballerina and The Longest Day!
  2. Brad reviewed The Frighteners, The Grey, Combat, and Diggstown!
  3. Brad shared scenes from Stone Cold, Notting Hill, and You Can’t Win ‘Em All!
  4. Brad shared a song from John Denver and a music video from Little Big Town!
  5. Brad paid tribute to Liam Neeson, Bruce Dern, and Charles Bronson!
  6. Erin shared Summer Sidewalk, Argosy, Marine Heading Ashore On D-Day, Love Hungry Woman, Western Story Magazine, Film Fun,
  7. Erin paid tribute to the men who sacrificed their lives during D-Day!
  8. Erin shared scenes from Interstellar and Trouble With The Curve!
  9. Erin celebrated Double Exposure and Landscapes!
  10. Erin shared music from Hans Zimmer!
  11. Jeff shared music videos from Anthrax, Power Station, and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch!
  12. Jeff reviewed Boss of Hangtown Mesa, Zardoz, Branded A Coward, Oath of Vengeance, Billy the Kid Trapped, Billy the Kid’s Smoking Guns, and The Killer Inside Me!
  13. I shared songs from the Del-Aires, Jim Radford, Mark Wahlberg, Downtown Sasquatch, and Alex North!
  14. I shared scenes from Christiane F., Hustle, and Boogie Nights!
  15. I paid tribute to 1981, 1944, and 1997!
  16. I shared music videos from Addison Rae, Halestorm, and Miley Cyrus!
  17. I shared 4 Films From The Weekend and A Book For The Weekend!
  18. I reviewed Gia and Nebraska!

Want to see what watched last week?  Click here!

#SundayShorts with THE FRIGHTENERS (1996)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

In the 1980’s I was a huge fan of Michael J. Fox. Alex P. Keaton was my hero, and BACK TO THE FUTURE and TEEN WOLF are two of my favorite 80’s movies. In the early 2000’s I became a huge fan of Director Peter Jackson due to his LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Made in 1996, THE FRIGHTENERS is the only Peter Jackson film I had seen prior to the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. I saw THE FRIGHTENERS at the movie theater in 1996, and I loved it. It was different than I was expecting going in, but it has one hell of cast. I had not seen any of Jeffrey Combs’ work prior to this movie, and he totally cracked me up. Throw in a ghostly Chi McBride whose character even references Charles Bronson* at one point, and I’m hooked. Peter Jackson directing Michael J. Fox. Now that’s a match made in heaven!

*BONUS – Chi McBride as Cyrus
:

“All right, man, this is it. We gotta be hard. No mercy. We’re going in like professionals, like Charles Bronson. We don’t stop till the screaming starts, you dig?”

Boss of Hangtown Mesa (1942, directed by Joseph H. Lewis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The telegraph company has come to the frontier town of Hangtown Mesa and soon, the citizens will be connected to the rest of the world.  The wealthy men who run the town don’t want that to happen because then people might discover how corrupt they are.  They hire a gunman known as the Utah Kid (Hugh Prosser, not looking much like a kid) to come to town and kill the owner of the telegraph line, John Wilkins (Henry Hall).  The Utah Kid steals the clothes of engineer Steve Collins (Johnny Mack Brown) and frames him for Wilkins’s murder.  With the help Betty Wilkins (Helen Deverell) and traveling medicine man Dr. J. Willington Dingle (Fuzzy Knight), Steve sets out to clear his name.

This is a pretty good Johnny Mack Brown western.  The plot isn’t half-bad as far as Poverty Row westerns are concerned and director Joseph H. Lewis keeps things lively.  Lewis not only gets good performances from his cast but he also makes Hangtown Mesa seem like an actual, growing frontier town.  Lewis even manages to create some suspense as The Utah Kid and Steve Collins switch identities.  Comparing Lewis’s westerns to the ones directed by Sam Newfield shows how much difference a good director can make, even within the confines of a poverty row production.  Even Fuzzy Knight is used well!

Boss of Hangtown Mesa is one of the better Johnny Mack Brown westerns, featuring a good story and an interesting idea behind it as it shows how far the bad guys will go to keep their own private fiefdom from connecting with the rest of the world.  Brown is convincing, whether he’s riding a horse or holding a gun.  He’s playing an educated man here, an engineer, but Brown is still a cowboy through-and-through.

Scene That I Love: David Bowie Performs From Christiane F.

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love is from the 1981 German film, Christiane F.  Directed by Uli Edel and based on a true story, Christiane F. is the story of a 13 year-old drug addict.  It’s a powerful film, though perhaps not one to watch if you’re dealing with any sort of severe depression.  David Bowie both composed the film’s soundtrack and appeared in the film himself.

Here, he performs Station to Station while Christiane F. watches.  The scene perfectly captures not only Christiane F.’s fascination with Bowie but also Bowie’s charisma as a performer.  The scene was shot an actual concert that David Bowie performed in Berlin, though the shots of Christiane F. and her friends watching were filmed separately.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special 1981 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 pay tribute to the year 1981 with….

4 Shots From 4 1981 Films

Christiane F. (1981, dir b Uli Edel, DP: Justus Pankau and Jürgen Jürges)

The Beyond (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP; Sergio Salvati)

Escape From New York (1981, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)

Evil Dead (1981, dir by Sam Raimi, DP: Tim Philo)

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 6/1/25 — 6/7/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, television.  It’s been a while since I’ve really had time to watch you!

Here’s what I watched this week:

Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders (Netflix)

This is the latest in the true crime docuseries that Joe Berlinger has been doing for Netflix.  Over three episodes, this series told the story of a series of Tylenol poisonings that occurred in the early 80s.  The show featured the last record interview with James Lewis, the number one suspect.  Personally, I thought Lewis came across like he was guilty as Hell.  If you’re like me and you suffer from frequent headaches, exercise some caution before watching this one.

Good American Family (Hulu)

I finally watched this true crime miniseries this week.  Good American Family centers around the story of Natalia Grace, a seven year-old with dwarfism who was abandoned by her adoptive parents.  Her adoptive mother (played by Ellen Pompeo) claimed that Natalia (played by Imogen Faith Reid) was actually a 22 year-old con artist.

It’s an interesting story and the miniseries featured good performances from Pompeo and Mark Duplass, cast as her husband.  But, at 8 episodes, the whole thing felt a bit overextended and the show itself was pretty inconsistent.  As so often happens with these Hulu true crime docuseries, the attempts to use the story to critique and satirize middle America fell flat.