AMV of the Day: Blinding Lights (Call of the Night)

Posted on by Arleigh

Here’s a new AMV to usher in my return (hopefully for much longer than before).

Song: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd

Anime: Call of the Night (Yofukashi no Uta)

Creator: Pyrothemusical   (As always, if you enjoyed this video, we encourage you to subscribe to the creator’s channel and give them lots of likes and nice comments)

Past AMVs of the Day

Scene That I Love: “Obey” from John Carpenter’s They Live

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

They Live (1988, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)

Today, we continue to wish John Carpenter a truly happy birthday!  Needless to say, today’s scene that I love comes from a Carpenter film, 1988’s They Live.  Though They Live was apparently not a huge box office success when it was first released, it’s a film that feels more relevant with each passing day.  Carpenter is often described as being a great horror director but, with this film and The Thing, he shows that he’s a master of capturing cinematic paranoia.

There’s definitely a reason why They Live continues to find new fans over 30 years since it was originally released.  Who hasn’t experienced that secret message of “OBEY!”

6 Shots From 6 Films: Special John Carpenter 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, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 77th birthday to one of this site’s favorite filmmakers and a patron saint of the independent spirit, the great John Carpenter!

In honor of the man and his legacy, here are….

6 Shots From 6 John Carpenter Films

Halloween (1978, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cudney)

The Fog (1980, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cudney)

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

The Thing (1982, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)

Prince of Darkness (1987, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)

They Live (1988, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)

The Films of 2025: Dead Before They Wake (dir by Andy Crane and Nathan Shepka)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s always interesting to compare American films about the UK with the films made by the people who actually live there.

American films about the UK are all about meeting quirky people, visiting clean and brightly-lit castles, maybe falling in love with a member of royalty, and perhaps discovering that your father is actually a member of Parliament played by Colin Firth.  If the action moves out of London or into Scotland or Wales, one cab be assured that it will involve an American having car trouble outside of a goat farm and then meeting an eccentric but handsome veterinarian.  If the film takes place in Scotland, the veterinarian and his randy father will wear a kilt.  The same thing will happen if the film is set in Wales because most Americans don’t know the difference between Scotland and Wales.

Films about the UK that are actually made in the UK tend to be visually moody and full of people dealing with economic uncertainty while living in depressingly tiny flats.  The cities are often portrayed as being covered in graffiti and no one, not even the film’s hero, is ever particularly happy.  British films about the UK are full of melancholy, rainy atmosphere and are often as violent as American films about the UK are quirky.

Dead Before They Wake takes place and was filmed in some of the darkest corners of Glasgow.  Nathan Shepka plays Alex, a nightclub bouncer who occasionally takes on other jobs.  He’s someone who knows how to handle himself in a fight and he often returns to his small and cramped home with split knuckles and a bruised face.  At the same time, he’s also a loving son whose deaf and very ill father is in a retirement community.  (His father encourages Alex to settle down and get married.)  Outside of his father, the only person with whom he has an regular contact is Gemma (Grace Cordell), a teacher who moonlights as a stripper to make extra money.  (That said, she still finds herself receiving an eviction notice.)  Alex pays Gemma to have sex with him but it’s obvious that there’s something more to their relationship than just a transaction.  They’re two people lost in an increasingly dark world.

Alex is approached by a shabby but well-intentioned attorney named Evan (Sylvester McCoy).  Evan hires Alex to track down a 14 year-old girl who Evan believes has been abducted by a sex trafficking ring.  The girl’s mother is a heroin addict.  The girl’s father is a government official.  Alex reluctantly takes the job and he soon manages to link the girl’s disappearance to a low-rent operation run by Amar (Manjot Sumal).  Amar is someone who is very protective of his own teenage daughter but who has no problem with the idea of abducting girls who are the same age or younger and forcing them to work in his makeshift brothel.  While Alex tries to find a way to infiltrate Amar’s operation, a mysterious man named Holden (Patrick Bergin) watches from the shadows.

Though the plot may remind some of Taken, Dead Before They Wake is far more thoughtful than any Liam Neeson’s admittedly entertaining thrillers.  Alex is not a former secret agent with a precise set of skills.  He’s just a tough guy who knows how to throw (and take) a punch and his investigation of Amar’s operation pushes him over the edge not because he’s trying to rescue a family member but because Alex is a human being who cannot believe or forgive the amount of depravity that he discovers during his investigation.  Throughout the film, there are hints that Amar’s operation is actually fairly small-scale when compared to some of the others.  A meeting with a representative of a national syndicate brings to mind the scandals of the late British DJ Jimmy Savile, who may not be well-known in the States but who, in the UK, became a symbol of depravity when it was revealed, after his death, that he was a prolific pedophile and sex abuser whose actions were largely ignored and sometimes even covered up by the British establishment.

Throughout Dead Before They Wake, there are scenes and details that establish that the film is more than just a revenge flick.  Gemma’s struggle to survive financially is handled with sensitivity and Grace Cordell gives an authentic performance in the role.  The scene where she tries to hide her growing fear upon learning that a picture of her dancing has appeared online and been seen by at least one of her students is wonderfully-acted.  The film contrasts Alex’s small flat with the large home that is owned by Amar and the film opens with a disturbing scene that shows just how exactly Amar kidnaps the girls who he then gets hooked on drugs and forces to work for him.  Dead Before They Wake is about much more than just action.

Dead Before They Wake does have its flaws.  Towards the end of the film, we’re expected to believe that one character overlooked something so obvious that it momentarily makes it difficult for us to suspend our disbelief.  But, for the most part, this is a disturbing and effective thriller, one that concludes on a proper note of Scottish melancholy.

SLING BLADE (1996) – #ArkansasMovies, my celebration of movies filmed in the Natural State!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I love watching movies that are filmed in my home state of Arkansas. We’ve had our share of big stars show up in the Natural State. Burt Reynolds, Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton, Robert De Niro, Dennis Quaid, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise and Andy Griffith have all filmed really good movies here. Martin Scorsese directed one of his very first movies in southern Arkansas. It’s going to be fun revisiting some of my favorite Arkansas movies and sharing them with you!

I live out in the country in Saline County, Arkansas. Back in 1996, Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed and starred in a little film made right here called SLING BLADE (1996). It’s one of my favorite movies. Here’s a picture of our son and daughter sitting at the same table at Garry’s Drive-In Diner where Billy Bob Thornton and John Ritter sat in the movie. 

Thornton stars as Karl Childers, a developmentally disabled man who was abused as a child by his parents and the other children in the community. At the age of 12, he murdered his mom and her teenage lover Jessie Dixon with a sling blade. After 30 years in the mental hospital, the state decides he’s no longer dangerous, so they give him his stack of books and send him on his way. Karl has no clue of how to get on with his life, but the administrator of the hospital (James Hampton) helps him get a job as a small engine mechanic in his hometown. Hanging out at the laundromat one day, Karl meets a boy named Frank (Lucas Black) and helps him carry his bags of clothes back to his house. The two become friends and start hanging out a lot together. Frank introduces Karl to his mom, Linda (Natalie Canerday), and her gay best friend and boss, Vaughan (John Ritter). Karl also meets Linda’s abusive and alcoholic boyfriend, Doyle (Dwight Yoakam). Karl grows to love Frank and Linda. When he witnesses a drunk Doyle’s abusive and threatening behavior towards Frank and Linda one night, Karl starts thinking that Doyle may really hurt his friends someday. He decides he’s going to make sure that can never happen. 

First and foremost, I love SLING BLADE because of Billy Bob Thornton’s performance as Karl Childers. He had been developing the character of Karl for many years before the movie was made. He loved pulling “Karl” out when he was just hanging out and goofing around with his friends. He based his character on bits and pieces of so many different people in his life. As a native Arkansan, many of the words he says and the way he says them reminds me of different people I’ve known over the years. His opening monologue where he describes the murders of his mother and the young Jessie Dixon is a masterpiece in and of itself. Thornton created a truly unique character, and that’s extremely rare these days. It’s a performance for the ages and continues to inspire terrible imitations to this day!

The remainder of the cast in SLING BLADE is so good and natural. Lucas Black is phenomenal as Frank. Billy Bob Thornton has been asked how he got such a great performance from the then 12-year-old boy from Alabama. He says he didn’t get that performance; that’s just the kind of actor Lucas Black is. The relationship between Karl and Frank is the key to the film working, and Black is perfect. Natalie Canerday is excellent as Frank’s mom, Linda. She’s from Russellville, Arkansas, so her accent is authentic, and she just blends perfectly into the film. John Ritter provides a very solid supporting performance as Linda’s gay friend who cares deeply for her and Frank. Thornton was part of the cast of Ritter’s early 90’s sitcom with Markie Post called HEARTS AFIRE. He actually wrote this screenplay while working on the show. The two were great friends off camera and Ritter actually worried that he wouldn’t be able to give a serious performance opposite Thornton’s portrayal of Karl. And then there’s country music superstar Dwight Yoakam as the abusive bully Doyle Hargraves. He’s simply great in the film. He doesn’t just portray Doyle as a monster either. There are many people in this world like Doyle Hargraves, and Yoakam is able to capture that. Director Jim Jarmusch has a memorable cameo in the film. He sells Karl his “french fried potaters.” And the great Robert Duvall even makes a short appearance in the film as Karl’s dad. Duvall was over in the Memphis area filming his own movie A FAMILY THING, which was written by Thornton. He just made the 2 hour drive over for the day and filmed his scene.

Every scene filmed in SLING BLADE is filmed here in Benton and Saline County. The opening and closing scenes between Thornton and actor J.T. Walsh at the “nervous hospital” were filmed at the old Benton Services Center, which is now a psychiatric nursing home just outside of Benton. I’ve driven by the location of the home where Linda and Frank lived. I drive by the laundromat where Karl meets Frank every time I go eat at Garry’s Sling Blade Drive-in. I’ve driven out to the bridge over the Saline River that is prominently featured in the film (see picture below). Heck, I even went to college at the University of Central Arkansas with one of the young ladies who interview Karl at the beginning of the film. I love this movie, and I’m so proud that it was filmed in my backyard. 

SLING BLADE is an incredible film with a truly unique character at its center. The film is at times funny, heartbreaking, violent, slow, awkward, dramatic, and thrilling. It’s a resounding success for Billy Bob Thornton as a director, actor, and writer, even winning him an Oscar for his screenplay. I give this film my highest recommendation. 

I’ve included the trailer for SLING BLADE below:

Past reviews in the #ArkansasMovies series include:

WHITE LIGHTNING – #ArkansasMovies, my celebration of movies filmed in the Natural State!

Music Video of the Day: Take My Breath Away by The Hospital (2024, dir by Marcelo de la Vega)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Right now, I have a cold so I can relate to the song’s title.  It’s a good song and a straight-forward video.  No, it’s not a cover of the song from Top Gun that played whenever Tom Cruise looked up at the sky.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Monsters 3.5 “Outpost”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing Monsters, which aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on YouTube.

I have a cold and a slight fever so tonight’s review is going to be a short one.

Episode 3.5 “Outpost”

(Dir by T.K. Hudson, originally aired on October 28th. 1990)

In the far future, a space mining company is transforming terminally ill people into cyborg mutants and sending them to work on inhospitable planets in return for keeping them alive.  Cara (Juliet Mills), a representative of the company, is sent to one of the outposts to discover why the horribly disfigured Sebastian (Tony Fields) is no longer doing his job.

Separated by a layer of glass, Sebastian and Cara have a 19-minute conversation.  Cara is rude and condescending and makes it clear that she has zero concern for the well-being of Sebastian.  This is perhaps as bitchy as the world will ever see a Mills sister act, which is really saying something when you consider some of the Saved By The Bell episodes in which Hayley Mills played Miss Bliss.  Sebastian has been hearing voices and is tempted to just wander across the alien landscape until he dies.  Why should he spent the rest of eternity miserable and alone.

Cara gets annoyed.  She says that work is important.  Why, when her husband was ill and dying, she didn’t even bother to take off from her job to visit him.  He died while she was away or, at least, that’s what the company told her….

Can you see where this is going?

This episode benefitted from the performances of Juliet Mills and Tony Fields but the story was extremely predictable.  The dialogue was definitely a bit more intelligent than we’ve seen in previous episodes of Monsters and I respected the episode’s ambition but, in the end, the story dragged a bit and the big twist was easily guessed.  This was not a terrible episode but it wasn’t particularly memorable either.

Lisa Marie Reviews An Oscar Nominee: Mississippi Burning (dir by Alan Parker)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1988’s Mississippi Burning opens on a lonely Mississippi backroad in 1964.  A car is pulled over by the police.  Inside the car are three young men, one black and two white.  Judging from their nervous expressions and the sound of the people who stopped them and the fact that they’re in Mississippi during the 60s, we can guess what is about to happen to the people in the car.

With the three men, who were civil rights activists who were involved in voter registration efforts, officially considered to be missing, the FBI sends down two agents to find out what happened.  The two agents are Alan Ward (Willem DaFoe) and Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman).  Ward is a Northerner who does things by the book and who resents having to deal with lax Southern law enforcement.  He is serious-minded and, just in case we need a reminder of how serious he is, he wears bar-rimmed glasses that make him look like the world’s most fearsome IRS agent.  Anderson is from Mississippi.  He’s a talkative good ol’ boy who was a sheriff before he joined the FBI.  “You know what has four eyes but can’t see?” Anderson asks, “Mississippi.”  It’s a tense partnership, as Ward sometimes disapproves of Anderson’s methods and Anderson thinks that Ward doesn’t understand how things work in Mississippi.

From the first minute we meet local law enforcement, we know that they’re the killers.  Just the fact that one of them are played by Brad Dourif is evidence enough.  However, no one in town is willing to say a word against the police or their cronies.  The white citizens are either too intimidated or they agree with what happened to the three civil rights workers.  (The three men are often referred to as being “outside agitators.”)  The black townspeople live in fear of the Klan and have no reason to trust the word of white FBI agents like Ward and Anderson.

Ward and Anderson investigate the case, hoping that they can find some bit of evidence that will prove the guilt of Sheriff Stuckey (Gailard Sartain), Deputy Pell (Brad Dourif), KKK leader Clayton Townley (Stephen Tobolowsky), and maybe even the town’s mayor (R. Lee Ermey).  One advantage that the FBI has is that the murderers are incredibly stupid.  Another is that Deputy Pell’s abused wife (Frances McDormand, giving the film’s best performance) might be persuaded to testify against her husband.

Mississippi Burning is an example of both powerful filmmaking and problematic history.  Like Ridley Scott, director Alan Parker got his start making commercials and he brought the same sensibility to his movies.  He knew what audiences wanted to see and he made sure to give it to them.  Mississippi Burning looks fantastic and is full of memorable performances.  (Both McDormand and Hackman received Oscar nominations).  The action moves quickly and the villains are so hateful that watching them end up getting humiliated really does bring about a sort of emotional release.

At the same time, this is a film about the Civil Rights era that presents the FBI as being the heroes.  And while it’s true that the FBI did investigate the real-life murders that inspired this film, Mississippi Burning leaves out the fact that the FBI was just a rigorous in harassing and wire tapping Martin Luther King as they were in keeping an eye on the leaders of the Klan.  It’s a film about racism in which the heroes are as white as the villains.  Gene Hackman gives a good performance as Rupert Anderson but the film never really delves all that deeply into Anderson’s feelings about racism in the South.  We’re told that he was a sheriff in Mississippi but we never learn much about what type of sheriff Anderson was.  He’s opposed to the Klan but, historically, the same can be said of many segregationists in the 60s, many of whom felt the Klan’s activities brought unwanted federal attention to what was happening in their home states.  By not delving into Anderson’s own history as a member of Mississippi law enforcement or the FBI’s own more problematic history when it comes to the civil rights movement, the film provides viewers with the escape of viewing the bad guys as being aberrations as opposed to being the norm in 1964.  In the end, Mississippi Burning is an effective thriller with strong heroes and hateful villains.  Just don’t watch it for historical accuracy.

Mississippi Burning was nominated for Best Picture but it lost to Rain Man.

Trading Places (1983, directed by John Landis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It all starts with a bet.

As Christmas approaches, Mortimer (Don Ameche) and Randolph Duke (Ralph Bellamy) make a bet to determine whether it’s nature or nurture that shapes someone’s future.  The fabulously wealthy owners of Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers, the brothers casually frame their director, Louis Winthrope III (Dan Aykroyd), for everything from dealing drugs to sealing money to cheating on his girlfriend (Kirstin Holby).  After Louis is kicked out of both his job and his mansion, the Dukes hire a street hustler named Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) to take his place.  Earlier Winthrope tried to get Valentine arrested for approaching him in the street.  Now, Valentine is living in Winthrope’s mansion, with Winthrope’s butler and Winthrope’s job.

While Winthrope tries to survive on the streets with the help of a outwardly cynical but secretly kind-hearted prostitute named Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis, in her first non-horror starring role), Billy Ray surprises everyone by using his street smarts to become a successful, suit-wearing businessman.  The Dukes, of course, have no intention of keep Billy Ray Valentine on as their director.  Not only are the Dukes snobs but they’re racists as well.  Once their one dollar bet has been settled, they start planning to put Billy Ray back out on the streets with Winthrope.

Trading Places was Eddie Murphy’s follow-up to 48 Hrs and he again showed himself to be a natural star while playing the type of role that could have been played by Dan Ayrkroyd’s partner, John Belushi, if not for Belushi’s early death.  (Jim Belushi has a cameo as a party guest.)  Murphy gets to show off a talent for physical comedy and Trading Places is one of the few films to really take advantage of Dan Aykryod’s talents as both a comedian and actor.  Winthrope goes from being a coddled executive to being as streetwise as Valentine.  This is probably Aykroyd’s best performance and he and Eddie Murphy make for a good team.

But the real stars of the film are four actors who weren’t really thought of as being comedic actors, Denholm Elliott, Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, and especially Jamie Lee Curtis.  Ophelia is a much edgier character than the “final girls” that Curtis was playing in horror films and Curtis steals almost every scene that she’s in.  Ameche and Bellamy are great villains and it’s fun to watch them get their comeuppance.  What screwball comedy would be complete without a sarcastic butler?  Denholm Elliot fills the role of Coleman perfectly.

Trading Places was a box office success when it was released and it’s now seen as being one of the new Christmas classics, a film for the adults to enjoy while the kids watch Rudolph and Frosty.  I think the movie ends up going overboard towards the end with the gorilla and Dan Aykroyd wearing blackface but, for the most part part, it’s still a very funny and clever movie.