Today would have been George Romero’s 85th birthday.
Today’s scene of the day comes from Romero’s best film, Night of the Living Dead. In this scene, an attempt to escape from a farmhouse ends in disaster. As was typical of all of Romero’s films, the disaster has less to do with the zombies and more to do with humans that simply can’t work together.
The upload isn’t great but this scene still represents Romero’s vision of a society working to destroy itself.
My earliest memories of listening to music, other than at church, were listening to the group ALABAMA with my family when we were driving down the road in my dad’s Chevy Luv pickup truck. There were five of us in total, my mom, dad, brother, and sister, and we’d all pile into the cab of that little truck. We had to arrange ourselves just right to even fit. This would have been in the very early ’80’s, and seatbelts weren’t required for nothing! I remember listening to songs like “Mountain Music” and “Tennessee River” and “Take Me Down.” We’d all sing our hearts out to our favorites.
Fast forward around 10 years and one of my favorite family vacations took place when I was a junior in high school. We just got in our car and drove, with Pigeon Forge, TN, as our final destination. However, my dad liked to always take the scenic routes, so we took a very crooked path and went through a lot of beautiful, out of the way places as part of the trip. I remember we ended up stopping off one night in Fort Payne, AL, which is where the members of the group were born and raised. We even ran into band member Jeff Cook’s mom in a store there. It was so wonderful.
The picture I share above is from 2020, when my wife and I took a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. I just had to visit the Bowery while we there because this is the bar where ALABAMA performed for tips for seven years (1973 – 1980) prior to hitting it big. It was quite the nostalgic and special experience!
Without further ado, I’ll share one of my very favorite ALABAMA songs, “Dixieland Delight.” I hope you enjoy!
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!
I thought I’d try one of these “4 shots” posts. It’s really hard for me not to say anything, because each of these movies mean a lot to me, and the western remains my favorite genre even if I am a little stuck in the past. I’ll probably take a stab at a review of each of these films at some point. I hope you enjoy!
THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955)
RIDE LONESOME (1959)
RED SUN (1971)
UNFORGIVEN (1992)
There was a cute live event leading up to the launch of The Fantastic Four: First Steps teaser trailer. The main cast were on hand – Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (a.k.a. The Thing) and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. It looks like they’re off to an interesting start.
Enjoy!
Unknown Artists
Is that a title or a plot description?
Hell yeah! If this music video doesn’t put you in a mood, I don’t know what to tell you.
Enjoy!
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!
This week, a guest star breaks Sonny’s heart.
Episode 3.16 “Theresa”
(Dir by Virgil W. Vogel, originally aired on February 13th, 1987)
Sonny is planning on asking his girlfriend, Dr. Theresa Lyons (Helena Bonham-Carter), to marry him. What Sonny doesn’t know is that Theresa is a junkie. Back surgery caused her to develop a dependence on painkillers and, after she got in trouble for writing her own prescriptions, Theresa started dealing with drug dealers. Theresa’s addiction has left her vulnerable to a long-haired drug lord named Wyatt (Brad Dourif). Sonny recently arrested Wyatt but Wyatt has one of his dealers tell Theresa that he’ll only give her a fix if she steals the four evidence tapes from Sonny’s houseboat. Theresa steals one tape. The other tapes are destroyed when Wyatt bombs a police evidence warehouse! Seriously, Wyatt doesn’t mess around and, when that warehouse goes up in flames, we’re reminded that Miami is not a place for the weak. The police are in a war and they have no possible path to victory. The bad guys are always willing to do what the police can not.
Most of this episode centers around Theresa and Sonny attempting to deal with her addiction and Sonny coming to realize that Theresa will have to return to the UK if she’s ever going to recover. Even after Sonny gets suspended from the force while Internal Affairs investigates the theft of the tape, Theresa remains Sonny’s main concern. It was actually kind of nice to see Sonny caring about someone again. Don Johnson has been a bit inconsistent this season. (There are several episodes were its obvious he was getting a bit bored with the part.) But he does a good job in this episode.
As for the guest stars, Brad Dourif is charismatically evil as the smug and New Age-y Wyatt. Helena Bonham Cater was only 20 when she appeared in this episode and she looked even younger. That doesn’t exactly make her the most believable trauma doctor in the world. Because of her youth, she’s miscast and there are a few times when she looks more like Crockett’s daughter than his girlfriend. That said, Bonham Carter really sells the scene where she reveals her addiction to Crockett and she definitely captures the desperation of someone in need of another fix.
“Life’s not easy when you’re a lover,” Tubbs says at one point, “….or a primary investigator.” With Sonny sidelined with his suspension and his personal drama, Tubbs got to play the role of concerned best friend and it’s one that Philip Michael Thomas always played well on the show. If nothing else, you believe that Tubbs would take a bullet for his partner. The show may end with Theresa returning to the UK and Sonny sadly looking down at the engagement ring that he’ll never give her but, fortunately, he’ll always have Tubbs.
After the violent death of his son Sonny Calzone, the Oddfather (Dom DeLuise) announces that his other son, Guppy Calzone (Kevin McDonald, of the Kids In The Hall), will be taking over the family business. Guppy is sent to Mafia University, where he learns how to garrote a traitor and dismember a body. Guppy falls in love with Don Na (Fabiana Udenio), the daughter of the Rodfather (Rodney Dangerfield), the leader of a rival family.
The Godson tries to do to gangster movies what Airplane! did to disaster movies. Dom DeLuise does a good Brando impersonation and there’s a funny moment where Guppy stops the action and tries to convince people in the audience to buy a Guppy action figure. Otherwise, this is a poorly-done parody film. Good comedy is all about timing and The Godson flunks that test. Jokes are either too long or too short but hardly any of them stick. The idea of Mafia University is funnier than the, if you’ll excuse the phrase, execution. Even worse, the movie doesn’t make much use of Rodney Dangerfield. When one of the funniest men who ever lived appears in your movie, it’s cinematic malpractice not to give him a chance to shine.
If the film has a highlight, it’s Lou Ferrigno as a member of the Oddfather’s crew. Otherwise, this is a missed opportunity.
My personal favorite Charles Bronson movie is HARD TIMES, and this is one of my favorite scenes.
As an appreciation gift for helping him all summer with his many projects, my dad took me to Wal-Mart sometime back in the 80’s and told me I could pick out a movie. Wal-Mart just happened to have a big stack of HARD TIMES videocassettes. I was about 13 years old at the time, and I was already obsessed with Bronson, but I had never seen this movie before. So, dad bought the movie for me and did something he didn’t often do, he sat down and watched it with me when we got back home. This one-punch knockout scene takes place at the very beginning of the movie, and I vividly remember my dad having a nice laugh when the scene occurred. That made me happy, as I was always wanting my family members to watch and enjoy my movies with me. It’s a special memory for me of a great time with my dad and of the very first time I saw HARD TIMES!
Enjoy!
Looks like Death is up to its shenanigans once again with Final Destination Bloodlines. Just when we thought it was safe to go about our lives without having to worry about Death’s penchant for complex Rube Goldbergesque plans to kill some people it looks like we spoke too soon.
On May 16, 2025, Death runs in the family and wearing a nose ring may not be the best thing when Death’s around. Here we have the first teaser trailer for Final Destination Bloodlines.
Through the Shattered Lens 