I’m not sure how many of you have seen the film, DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT, starring Angela Featherstone. In the film, Angela plays Veronica Iscariot, a demoness from Hell who doesn’t want to spend her life tormenting the souls of sinners. After rebelling against her father, and in severe danger of being murdered for disobedience, Veronica ascends towards the surface of Earth. Unfortunately, she finds the world above full of evil and corruption and makes it her mission in life is to punish the wicked. She goes about this mission with a bloody vengeance. On a positive note, she does meet and fall in love with the compassionate Doctor Max Barris (Daniel Markel), who tends her wounds after an accident.
When I was a teenager and up into my twenties, every year I would buy a movie review book called “The Video Movie Guide.” This movie guide contained reviews from Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, and every year they would update their guide with the latest movie reviews. I would pour through the book and “dog-ear” the pages and highlight the movies that I thought looked interesting. That was when I first heard of DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT. It looked like it had some fun potential, and I knew Angela Featherstone from her work as Charles Bronson’s daughter in the FAMILY OF COPS series. I finally rented the film on VHS, and I really enjoyed it. Angela Featherstone dominates the film, and in my opinion, it just may be the best performance of her career!
If you haven’t seen it, and you enjoy violent B-movies, with strong female characters, and even some humor thrown in for good measure, I recommend this film to you. As of this writing, it’s available for streaming on Amazon Prime, PlutoTV, Tubi, and Fawesome. Give it a watch! I’ve included the trailer below:
Everyone remembers the “Mad as Hell Speech” from Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satire, Network.
Personally, I think this scene below is just as good. Replace “tube” with TikTok and AI and you’ll have a pretty good explanation for why the world today is full of so many ignorant people who think they know more than they do.
(Usually, heavy-handed scenes annoy me. Fortunately, much like David Fincher with Aaron Sorkin’s script for The Social Network, Sidney Lumet knew the right directorial tone to take when translating Paddy Chayefsky’s script to the screen. One shudders to think of what Network would have been like with a less skilled director behind the camera.)
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 celebrate the anniversary of the birth of director Sidney Lumet, born 101 years ago on this date. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Sidney Lumet Films
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1962, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Boris Kaufman)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Victor J. Kemper)
Network (1976, dir. Sidney Lumet, DP: Owen Roizman)
The Verdict (1981, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Andrzej Bartkowiak)
I’m a big fan of Gerard Butler, mainly because of his macho performances in action films and thrillers. I also appreciate his ability to sing. I remember being surprised and impressed with his performance in Joel Schumacher’s version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I really enjoy the song “The Music of the Night,” and since I reviewed one of his thrillers today (SHATTERED), I thought I’d balance it out with a video of him belting out a tune. Enjoy!
My wife and I decided to watch SHATTERED (2007), also known as BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL, on a whim tonight. We were browsing through Amazon Prime when I saw Gerard Butler on the preview, and that was enough for me to watch it. Sierra likes cheesy thrillers, which this definitely gives off that vibe, so she was all in as well.
SHATTERED is set in Chicago and opens on the Randall’s, a seemingly perfect little family, made up of Neil (Gerard Butler), Abby (Maria Bello), and their beautiful daughter, Sophie. Neil’s a successful, if somewhat ethically challenged businessman on the verge of a big promotion, and life is good. That is, until a stranger (Pierce Brosnan) literally pops up in the couple’s life out of nowhere, tells them that he’s kidnapped Sophie, and forces them to do whatever he says or he’ll kill the girl. One moment they’re emptying their bank accounts only to see the stranger burn the money, and the next they’re delivering incriminating business documents to the competition that will destroy Neil’s company and his career. As the demands escalate, we learn that Neil and Abby’s lives aren’t quite as perfect as initially presented. But who is this stranger, why is he doing this, and how far will he force them to go to save their daughter?
I enjoyed SHATTERED quite a bit. It’s one of those movies that rope you in with its intriguing premise… a mysterious stranger puts a happy couple through hell, and we don’t know why he’s doing it, but we want to! This type of story, if done well, always pulls me in even though we’ve seen it done many times before. It’s helped by the game cast. Pierce Brosnan is appropriately intense and menacing as the stranger, helping us believe that he’ll hurt their daughter if they don’t follow his orders. James Bond, he is not! I’m a big fan of Gerard Butler, and he’s good here. His character is not the badass that we’ve come to expect from him these days, and he’s not that great of a guy either, but he does a good job of portraying a morally compromised guy whose life is spiraling out of control. Maria Bello is equal to the task as well, as the desperate mother who’s forced to deal with her husband’s failures at the same time as she’s dealing with any mother’s worst nightmare.
At the end of the day, these types of thrillers live and die based on their “twists” at the end. I have to admit that I was able to figure out the first twist about halfway through the movie, but SHATTERED isn’t content with just one twist, and it seems to stumble somewhat as it continues on after the first big reveal. I don’t blame the writers for trying to come up with something unique to close us out, but it doesn’t feel entirely successful in light of all that’s transpired before. It might actually be worth a rewatch just to see how well it stacks up.
I’m glad I watched SHATTERED. It’s time-tested storyline and fast pace make it worth a viewing, especially if you’re a fan of the cast like I am. Just keep your expectations in check, and you should enjoy the ride!
Today’s scene that I love comes from Bob Fosse’s 1979 masterpiece, All That Jazz.This scene features the legendary Ann Reinking at her best. Roy Scheider said that he cried after shooting this scene.
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 celebrate the birth and legacy of Bob Fosse. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Bob Fosse Films
Cabaret (1972, dir by Bob Fosse, DP: Geoffrey Unsworth)
Lenny (1974, dir by Bob Fosse, DP: Bruce Surtees)
All That Jazz (1979, dir by Bob Fosse, DP: Giuseppe Rotunno)
Star 80 (1983, dir by Bob Fosse, DP: Sven Nyvkist)
Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday June 23rd, we are showing AVENGEMENT (2019) starring Scott Adkins, Craig Fairbrass, Thomas Turgoose, and Nick Moran.
Convicted felon Cain Burgess (Scott Adkins) escapes prison and heads out to take revenge on those he holds responsible. The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is as follows:
“AVENGEMENT compensates for a lack of narrative originality with thrilling sequences of violent, bone-crunching action, elevated by Scott Adkins’ brutally intense performance.”
So, if you like “violent, bone-crunching action,” it sounds like we have the movie for you! Join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch AVENGEMENT! It’s on Amazon Prime. The trailer is included below:
I love the Hong Kong actor and comedian Stephen Chow, who just happens to be celebrating his 63rd birthday today. While he may be best known for the smash hits SHAOLIN SOCCER (2001) and KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004), I first became a fan when I saw his James Bond send up, FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE. I was so impressed with his deadpan delivery style in the film, and even though he seems kind of goofy, he turns out to be a major badass. I loved it!
In honor of Stephen Chow’s birthday, I present this scene from the Hong Kong comedy FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE. Enjoy!
In honor of Bruce Campbell’s 67th birthday, I decided to watch a movie he’s featured in that I’ve never seen before. I thought the horror-comedy SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT looked like it might be fun so I went for it!
In the desert town of Purgatory, a colony of vampires led by Count Mardulak (David Carradine) want to live in peace, abstaining from human blood, and instead, drinking a blood substitute called “Necktarine,” which is produced in a local factory. They also use high powered sunscreen that allows them to go out in the day time as long as they wear thick sunglasses, big hats or umbrellas, and gloves. Unfortunately, the blood factory begins experiencing production issues, so Mardulak asks David Harrison (Jim Metzler), the unsuspecting human who designed the production process, to come to town and fix their problems. Harrison brings his family with him, including his wife Sarah (Morgan Brittany), and their two daughters. The Harrison family soon find themselves in the middle of an other worldly war as Jefferson (John Ireland) and Shane (Maxwell Caulfied), rebellious local vampires, plot to overthrow Mardulak so they can return to their murderous ways. Meanwhile, Robert Van Helsing (Bruce Campbell), the great grandson of the famed vampire hunter, walks into town, ready to romance the local vampire beauty Sandy (Deborah Foreman) and drive stakes into the hearts of as many bloodsucking freaks as possible!
As far as I’m concerned, SUNDOWN is a blast as a completely absurd horror-comedy that puts an interesting spin on traditional vampire legend, with its endless sunscreen slathering and a growing local weariness over “Necktarine” adding to the good times. It’s campy and silly, with purposely terrible stop motion bat effects, over-the-top family drama, and lots of cheesy one-liners, but of course that’s all part of the charm.
The B-movie dream cast is what I enjoyed the most about SUNDOWN. David Carradine plays it pretty straight as the town leader Count Mardulak, which is effective when you consider all of the craziness going on around him. Bruce Campbell, and his mustache, steals all of his scenes with his goofy charm and misguided heroics. And, of course, the inimitable M. Emmet Walsh is perfect as old man Mort, a vampire who loses his temper and beheads a disrespectful city slicker. He just can’t help himself. Throw in other veteran character actors like Bert Remsen and John Ireland and it’s easy to enjoy the movie no matter how silly it all gets.
On a personal note, I did want to point out a couple of performances in SUNDOWN that have Arkansas connections. First, Jim Metzler had a solid part a couple of years after this movie in the crime thriller ONE FALSE MOVE (1991), which was co-written by Billy Bob Thornton and partially filmed in Eastern Arkansas. It’s a great movie and Metzler is good in it. Second, Elizabeth Gracen has a small part in the film. Gracen, whose actual name is Elizabeth Ward, won the title of Miss Arkansas in 1981 and then went on to win Miss America in 1982. My uncle Billy was her hair stylist as she made her run to beauty pageant immortality. Other notable Gracen life events include her affair with Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in 1983, her appearance in Steven Seagal’s MARKED FOR DEATH in 1990, and her Playboy spread in 1992. Interestingly, 18 years old at the time, I saw the layout when my girlfriend’s mom bought the issue and let me look at it!
Overall, SUNDOWN lets us know right off the bat the kind of absurd movie we’re dealing with, so you’ll either be into it or want to just move on. I was into it, mainly due to its strong cast. It’s not perfect, and it overstays its welcome by a good 15 minutes, but SUNDOWN is a fun watch for fans of silly horror-comedies and the excellent cast. I had a great time with it!
