The Eric Roberts Collection: The Perfect Summer (dir by Gary Wheeler)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s the perfect summer …. or is it?

In this 2013 film, teenage Jake (Adam Horner) moves to California with his mother, Alyssa (Sydney Penny).  They move in with Jake’s grandfather, surf shop owner Lou Reynolds (Eric Roberts).  At first, Jake is miserable.  He misses his friends.  He doesn’t know what to make of the California lifestyle.  He has a crush on Kayla (Katie Garfield) but he feels insecure because he can’t surf and, when he does buy a surfboard, it’s promptly broken in half by the local surf bullies.

(Is there really such a thing as surf bullies?  I’ve never lived on the beach so I really haven’t had much experience with surfers.  The ones that I met in Hawaii and Galveston all seemed pretty cool, though.  But, in the movies, they’re all like, “Can’t surf our beach, brah.”  A part of me suspects that movies should not be used as a guide for real life.)

It’s a good thing that Lou just happens to be a legendary surfer!  While Alyssa pursues a romance with Marcos (Louis Mandylor), Lou tries to teach his grandson how to surf.  It’s not always easy.  Jake gets frustrated easily and he doesn’t quite understand the zen philosophy behind surfing.  But, with Lou’s help, Jake gets the hang of it and soon, Jake is ready to enter the big surging competition!

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because you’ve already seen a hundred films like this.  Think of The Karate Kid, but with surfing and Eric Roberts as the mentor.  It’s all very predictable but the beach is pretty.  The ocean is majestic.  My favorite American Idol also-ran, Jason Castro, shows up for a few minutes.  And Eric Roberts actually gets a fairly substantial role and a chance to show what a good actor he can actually be!  There’s absolutely nothing surprising about the film  but, for what it is, The Perfect Summer works.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

  1. Star 80 (1983)
  2. Runaway Train (1985)
  3. Blood Red (1989)
  4. The Ambulance (1990)
  5. The Lost Capone (1990)
  6. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
  7. Voyage (1993)
  8. Love Is A Gun (1994)
  9. Sensation (1994)
  10. Dark Angel (1996)
  11. Doctor Who (1996)
  12. Most Wanted (1997)
  13. Mercy Streets (2000)
  14. Raptor (2001)
  15. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
  16. Mr. Brightside (2004)
  17. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
  18. Hey You (2006)
  19. Amazing Racer (2009)
  20. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
  21. Bed & Breakfast (2010)
  22. Enemies Among Us (2010)
  23. The Expendables (2010) 
  24. Sharktopus (2010)
  25. Beyond The Trophy (2012)
  26. The Dead Want Women (2012)
  27. Deadline (2012)
  28. The Mark (2012)
  29. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
  30. Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (2013)
  31. Lovelace (2013)
  32. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
  33. Self-Storage (2013)
  34. A Talking Cat!?! (2013)
  35. This Is Our Time (2013)
  36. Inherent Vice (2014)
  37. Road to the Open (2014)
  38. Rumors of War (2014)
  39. Amityville Death House (2015)
  40. Deadly Sanctuary (2015)
  41. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
  42. Las Vegas Story (2015)
  43. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
  44. Enemy Within (2016)
  45. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
  46. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
  47. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
  48. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
  49. Dark Image (2017)
  50. Black Wake (2018)
  51. Frank and Ava (2018)
  52. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
  53. Clinton Island (2019)
  54. Monster Island (2019)
  55. The Reliant (2019)
  56. The Savant (2019)
  57. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
  58. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
  59. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
  60. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
  61. Free Lunch Express (2020)
  62. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
  63. Top Gunner (2020)
  64. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
  65. The Elevator (2021)
  66. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
  67. Killer Advice (2021)
  68. Night Night (2021)
  69. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
  70. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
  71. A Town Called Parable (2021)
  72. Bleach (2022)
  73. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
  74. D.C. Down (2023)
  75. Aftermath (2024)
  76. Devil’s Knight (2024)
  77. The Wrong Life Coach (2024)
  78. When It Rains In L.A. (2025

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for Nomads!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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

Tonight, at 9 pm et, Deanna Dawn will be hosting #ScarySocial!  The movie?  1986‘s Nomads!  

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag!  I’ll be there tweeting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well.  It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

Nomads is available on Prime!

See you there!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.9 “Femme Fatale”

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 Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!

This week, Micki finds herself trapped in a movie!

Episode 3.9 “Femme Fatale”

(Dir by Francis Delia, originally aired on November 20th, 1989)

In an isolated mansion, former film director Desmond Williams (Gordon Pinsent) lives with retired actress Lili Lita (Kate Reid).  Lili is sick and bed-ridden now but, when she was younger, she starred in all of Desmond’s noir melodramas.  Desmond still enjoys watching their old films, particularly one in which Lili played a doomed femme fatale named Glenda.

Unfortunately, Desmond’s copy of the film is cursed.  Whenever he watches it, he has to watch with a young woman who will suddenly find herself switching places with Glenda.  Glenda is allowed to live in the real world until her unfortunate replacement is killed in the film.  Desmond is overjoyed to have Glenda come into his world.  Glenda, however, is more than little frustrated by the fact that she always has to return to the movie.

When Micki shows up to try to retrieve the cursed film, she ends up trapped in the movie.  Micki, however, is a bit more creative than Desmond’s other victims and continually tries to change the script, just to discover that the black-and-white characters around her are always going to do the same thing no matter what.

Meanwhile, Jack and Johnny show up and try to rescue Micki.  While Glena explores the real world and even drops in on a showing of one of her old movies, Lili ends up shooting Desmond and then willfully taking Micki’s place in the movie.  Micki returns to the real world.  Lili dies in the film.  Gloria burns up into nothingness.  With Desmond dead, Gloria is now forever trapped in the film.

This was a good episode.  When it started, I thought Desmond was going to turn out to be one of the quasi-sympathetic villains who was using a cursed object in an effort to help someone else.  But, as the episode progressed, it becomes obvious that Desmond didn’t really love Lili.  Instead, he loved the character that he created for her to be.  He loved the imaginary femme fatale but not the real-life woman who played her.  As well, the scenes inside the film were handled with a lot of wit and style.  I enjoyed watching Micki trying to disrupt the film’s story.  As much as I miss John D. LeMay’s Ryan, his absence really allowed Robey to come into her own during the third season.

Friday the 13th could be an uneven show but this episode was definitely a triumph.

Scenes That I Love: Sheriff Teasle Arrests John Rambo in First Blood

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Director Ted Kotcheff has passed away.

Kotcheff directed a lot of classic films but perhaps the most influential was 1982’s First Blood.  In today’s scene that I love, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is arrested by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy).  Teasle may think that he’s keeping his community safe and teaching Rambo a lesson about respecting authority but, needless to say, he’s making a huge mistake.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special John Milius 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 is John Milius’s birthday and you know what?  It should be a national holiday!

It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 John Milius Films

Dillinger (1973, dir by John Milius, DP: Jules Brenner)

Big Wednesday (1978, dir by John Milius, DP: Bruce Surtees)

Conan The Barbarian (1982, dir by John Milius, DP: Duke Callaghan)

Red Dawn (1984, dir by John Milius, DP: Ric Waite)

Buckaroo From Powder River (1947, directed by Ray Nazarro)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Pop Ryland (Forrest Taylor) is a frontier outlaw who makes law-breaking a family business.  With his two sons, Pop is planning on flooding the territory with counterfeit bonds.  His stepson, Tommy (Paul Campbell), doesn’t want anything to do with any criminal activity so Pop sends for McCall (Frank McCarroll), an assassin.  In a letter, Pop explains that he wants his stepson murdered.  When federal agent Steve Lacey (Charles Starrett) captures McCall, he finds the letter.  Steve heads into town and goes undercover, pretending to be McCall.  He also uses his other identity, the Durango Kid, to thwart Pop’s plans.

More than usual, this Durango Kid film leans more into the undercover aspect of Steve’s work.  What’s interesting is that, after Tommy fakes his own death, Tommy also disguises himself as the Durano Kid and keeps his stepfather from suspecting that Steve is actually a member of law enforcement.  It’s actually pretty clever, as far as these movies go, and it answers the question of why no one ever wonders why Steve and Durango are never in the same place at the same time.

Smiley Burnette shows up as Steve’s sidekick and he sings a few songs with the The Cass County Boys.  Along with Smiley’s antics, this film has all of the horse chases and gunfights that we expect from a Durango Kid movie.  Most of the usual stock company is present, including Ted Adams and Kermit Maynard.  As always, Charles Starrett looks authentic riding horse and handling a gun.  If you’re not into westerns, this film won’t convert you.  But, for fans of the genre, this is another entertaining outing for the Durango Kid,

Retro Television Review: St. Elsehwere 1.18 “Dog Day Hospital”

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 Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988.  The show can be found on Hulu and, for purchase, on Prime!

This week, Judith Light has got a gun!

Episode 1.18 “Dog Day Hospital”

(Dir by Victor Lobl, originally aired on March 22nd, 1983)

Finally, Dr. Ehrlich is performing his first solo operation.  Dr. Craig is assisting but Ehrlich is in charge.  He gets to play his music in the OR.  He gets to decide what type of retractor to use.  It’s a simple hernia operation.  The patient (Sam Anderson) is awake and babbling through the whole operation.

Unfortunately, there’s also an angry woman in the OR and she has a gun.  Barbara Lonnicker (Judith Light) is eight months pregnant, despite her husband claiming that he got a vasectomy at St. Eligius.  As she already has several children to deal with, she wants to see the doctor who screwed up the vasectomy but she’s just as willing to shoot any other doctor to get her revenge.  The operation continues while Dr. Craig and Dr. Westphall negotiate with her.

I have to admit that I did find a lot of this episode to be amusing.  Ehrlich’s excitement over getting to do his first operation, Dr. Craig’s stuffy annoyance with being interrupted by a woman with a gun, and the patient’s nonstop rambling all made me smile more than once.  And Judith Light, not surprisingly, was great as the woman with the gun.  I loved the her husband was played by Tom Atkins.  You never know who you might see at St. Eligius!  That said, after the episode ended, I couldn’t help but think about how dumb the whole thing actually was.  How are people always managing to get guns into St. Eligius?  How did Barbara manage to get into an operating room without being stopped beforehand?  (Luther does tell her that she can’t be back there but he’s the only one who seems to notice her before she bursts into the OR.)  How come no one in the hospital seems to be more upset about the fact that there’s a woman waving a gun around an operating room?  At one point, Barbara shoots Ehrlich’s radio and hardly anyone seems to react.  The plot is played for laughs and that’s fine.  But, in this case, the story was a bit too implausible for its own good.

Meanwhile, Nurse Rosenthal returned to work after her mastectomy and struggled to get back into her routine.  Carolyn Pickles did a great job portraying Rosenthal in this episode.  And Fiscus and Shirley Daniels visited an old woman in a nursing home.  The subplots were handled well but, for the most part, this episode still felt as if it was trying a bit too hard.