Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 4.14 “Baseballs of Death”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime!

I saw the title of this week’s episode and I immediately called my sister….

Episode 4.14 “Baseballs of Death”

(Dir by Bill Duke, originally aired on February 19th, 1988)

“Watch this with me,” I told Erin, “it’s a baseball episode!”

“It is?” Erin asked.

“Look at the title!”

I was excited.  I always like to find things that I can watch with my sister and, as we all know, she loves baseball.  She certainly loves baseball more than she loves tv shows about bombs that blow up when you step on them.

Unfortunately, it turned out that this episode was not about baseball.  Instead, it featured a bunch of bombs that blow up when you step on them.  According to this episode, those bombs are known as baseballs.  Sorry, Erin!  Honest mistake….

Misleading title aside, this is a really good episode.  It features Tony Plana as a Chilean diplomat who is trying to buy a shipment of weapons, including the explosive baseballs.  Plana is a chilling villain.  In fact, he’s the first villain of season 4 to actually feel dangerous.  When we first meet him, he’s coldly executing the girlfriend of a tabloid reporter.  Plana’s lack of emotion as he kills and plots to kill feels like a throwback to the soulless sociopaths who made the first season’s rogue gallery.  A very young Oliver Platt shows up as an arms dealer and his nerdy confidence adds to some comedy to what is an otherwise fairly grim episode.  Just as with Plana’s cold villainy, Platt’s cheerful amorality felt like a throwback to the first season.

Indeed, this entire episode felt like a return to what the show used to be.  After a season that’s involved televangelists, bull semen, UFOs, and Crockett getting married to Sheena Easton, it was nice to see an episode that actually felt like an episode of Miami Vice.  Director Bill Dule gave this episode a stylish and, at times, almost surrealistic feel.  Crockett was back to be a cynic.  Castillo stared at the floor and spoke through clenched teeth while Switek actually got to put his phone-tapping skills to good use.  In the end, Tony Plana may have been the villain but, in old school Miami Vice style, the majority of the blame was still put on the U.S. government.  The episode even ended with an exciting boat chase.  All this episode needed was Phil Collins on the soundtrack and it could have passed for something from the first two seasons.

Season 4 has been uneven but this episode felt like classic Vice.  Erin thought the episode would have been better with actual baseballs and I agree with her that the title was misleading.  That said, this was still an enjoyable throwback to what the show used to be.

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” – Billy Bob Thornton is saved in THE APOSTLE (1997)

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Happy 70th birthday to the incredible “hillbilly Olivier,” also known as Billy Bob Thornton. I’ve always been partial to this incredible scene where Thornton and Robert Duvall create a truly powerful moment in Duvall’s film, THE APOSTLE. Enjoy two great actors doing what they do the best!

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us for Freejack!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We snark our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1992’s Freejack!

It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in.  If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Freejack on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!

Enjoy!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special 1987 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 1987!  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 1987 Films

Full Metal Jacket (1987, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Douglas Milsome)

Stage Fright (1987, dir by Michele Soavi, DP: Renato Tafuri)

Wings of Desire (1987, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)

Near Dark (1987, dir by Kathryn Bigelow, DP: Adam Greenberg)

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi High 2.13 “One Last Dance”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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

Degrassi High comes to a close.  Here’s the final time we’ll be hearing this theme song.

Episode 2.13 “One Last Dance”

(Dir by Kit Hood, originally aired on February 11th, 1991)

With the end of term approaching, the students of Degrassi High are shocked to hear that their school will be closing.  The next year, everyone will be split up and going to different schools.  Lucy may have just been elected president of the student council but she’s never going to take office.

It’s sad news but at least the students get one last dance.

Joey and Caitlin finally get back together as the series come to a close, dancing in Degrassi’s gym.  Upon hearing some students discussing the rumor that one of their classmates is HIV+, an angry Dwayne finally admits that it’s him.  His “friend” Nick (George Chaker) refuses to speak to him.  His other friend, Tabby (Michele Johnson-Murray), finally gets over her fear and shares a dance with him.  Snake dances with Michelle.  Wheels shows up to the dance and I’m going to assume that he’s no longer homeless.  Arthur — remember when this show was all about Arthur? — is spotted dancing with someone.  The camera pans over all of the students in the school’s gym, sharing some final moments as they prepare to end one chapter of their life and start another.  It’s a low-key but effective ending for the show.  It helps that the we’ve gotten to know the characters so well.  Degrassi High didn’t need to burn down the school to have an effective ending.  It just needed to get everyone together in the gym.

However, it was not the end of the franchise, not hardly.  A year after Degrassi High ended, School’s Out would air and our characters would be given temporary (and, in some cases, rather tragic) closure.  I’ll take a second look at School’s Out next Sunday. And then, a decade or so later, a new generation would become students at Toronto’s most famous learning center.  Degrassi: The Next Generation is coming soon!

Brad reviews AMERICAN OUTLAWS (2023)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

AMERICAN OUTLAWS is a 2023 crime drama inspired by the true story of the Dougherty siblings, Dylan (Emory Cohen), Lee-Grace (India Eisley), and Ryan (Sam Strike). Starting in Florida, the film follows the three siblings, who, facing potential prison time, embark on a desperate cross-country crime spree in 2011. Dylan, the older brother, leads the trio, with Lee-Grace, a former stripper battling drug addiction, and Ryan, a soon-to-be father at risk of returning to prison for a parole violation. Their plan is to flee to Costa Rica for a fresh start, but their journey spirals into chaos after Dylan escalates a routine traffic stop by shooting at police, leading to a series of bank robberies and an eight-day manhunt. The film explores their loyalty and reckless pursuit of freedom, set against a backdrop of poverty, ultimately culminating with their capture, and collective jail sentences of 179 years in prison.

AMERICAN OUTLAWS, written and directed by Sean McEwen, is a mixed bag, but I definitely enjoyed watching it. It’s a low-budget, ambitious B-movie, but it’s also somewhat a victim of its budget. On the positive side, McEwen creates a gritty feel, particularly during the car chases, shootouts and various criminal acts. He also incorporates real news footage that adds authenticity and grounds the story in a specific date and time. The cast, led by India Eisley’s uninhibited portrayal of Lee-Grace, delivers committed performances, with Emory Cohen and Sam Strike capturing the siblings’ desperate bond. On the negative side, the low budget is also quite evident at times. You can’t help but wonder what McEwen could have done with more money to throw at the production. He’s clearly a talented filmmaker, and I’m looking forward to watching his future projects.

I did want to note that AMERICAN OUTLAWS is the final role of actor Treat Williams, who would pass away in a tragic accident on June 12th, 2023. The actor, who would have roles in classic films like Sidney Lumet’s PRINCE OF THE CITY (1981) and Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984), adds gravitas as Agent Jameison R. Donovan, though his screen time is limited. His five decade career doesn’t end on an extremely high note, but it’s still a joy to see him in a solid, authoritative role. 

Ultimately, AMERICAN OUTLAWS is a solid thriller that gets by on a committed cast and a true-crime story, but it isn’t able to fully capitalize on its premise due to budget limitations. It’s worth a watch for fans of gritty crime dramas. Just be sure to keep your expectations in check.