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, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting Jim Wynorski’s 976-Evil II!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime! I’ll be there co-hosting 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!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to one of the better actresses of her generation, Jennifer Lawrence. This scene that I love comes from 2009’s Winter’s Bone. I still think this is Lawrence’s best performance.
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 would have been the 98th birthday of the great and enigmatic director, Nicolas Roeg. As both a cinematographer and a director, Roeg was responsible for some of the most visually striking films ever made. Today, we honor his legacy with….
4 Shots From 4 Nicolas Roeg Films
Walkabout (1971, dir by Nicolas Roeg, DP: Nicolas Roeg)
Don’t Look Now (1973, dir by Nicolas Roeg, DP: Anthony Richmond)
The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976, dir by Nicholas Roeg, DP: Anthony Richmond)
Insignificance (1985, dir by Nicolas Roeg, DP: Peter Hannan)
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 SLEDGE HAMMER!, a cop comedy which ran on ABC from 1986 to 1988. The entire series can be found on Prime!
My friend Pat McCurry introduced me to Sledge Hammer earlier this year. Starring David Rasche as Detective Sledge Hammer, this show was a parody of Dirty Harry and Hunter. Since I’m currently reviewing Hunter on Thursday night, it seems only appropriate to review Sledge Hammer on Friday night!
Episode 1.1 “Under the Gun
(Dir by Martha Coolidge, originally aired on September 23rd, 1986)
“HAMMER!” shouts police Captain Trunk (Harrison Page), “YOU COULDN’T RESIST BLOWING UP A BUILDING ON YOUR WAY TO WORK THIS MORNING, COULD YOU!?”
Captain Trunk yells a lot but that’s just because he’s been put in charge of managing Detective Sledge Hammer (David Rasche), a San Francisco cop who talks to his gun and who is currently on suspension for shooting a robber at a grocery store before then buying some eggs and “those little cocktail weenies.” When asked by a reporter if his response was too violent, Hammer replied that he really needed his groceries.
For the record, Trunk is correct. Hammer did blow up a building on his way to work. There was a sniper on the roof so Hammer pulled a rocket launcher out of the back of his car and took care of the problem.
Despite all of that, the mayor (John Vernon, who previously played San Francisco’s mayor in Dirty Harry) orders that Sledge Hammer be taken off suspension. The Mayor’s daughter, Francie (Judie Aronson), has disappeared. (“She was either kidnapped or she is just very good at hiding.”) The police think that she was taken by the Allied Violent Offence Network (AVON), a terrorist group led by Weird Willy Luxley (D.W. Brown). Weird Willy is so evil that his own parents gave him up for adoption three years before he was born. The Mayor thinks that Sledge Hammer’s unapologetic embrace of violence is the way to go.
Hammer is assigned a partner, Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), an expert in negotiation and criminal psychology. At first, Hammer is uneasy about working with a woman. But, when he sees her beat up a man with a shotgun, he’s impressed. “That was excessively violent and totally unnecessary. I loved it.” Doreau mentions she was at the top of her class in hand-to-hand combat. “I’d like to fight you sometimes, Doreau,” Hammer replies.
Hammer promises to bring back “the mayor’s daughter, dead or alive.” Reasoning that it’s usually a member of the family who is to blame in cases like this, Hammer arrests and interrogates the Mayor’s wife. That gets Hammer suspended again but it turns out that Hammer was half-right. It wasn’t the Mayor’s wife. Instead, in true Patty Hearst manner, it turns out that Francie Flambo is a member of AVON and she arranged her own kidnapping!
It all leads to a shootout in a warehouse, as these things often do. When AVON makes their ransom demand, Doreau is sent to deliver the money. (She’s actually given a suitcase full of shredded paper.) Sledge Hammer crashes through a skylight and lands on a box, grinning.
“Why are you smiling!?” Weird Willie Luxley demands.
“I’m trigger happy, that’s why!” Hammer replies.
Soon, all of the members of AVON have been subdued and Francie has been arrested. The Mayor offers Doreau a promotion but Doreau refuses to accept it because she feels that Hammer is not being given the recognition that he deserves.
This seems like the start of a beautiful friendship.
The first episode of Sledge Hammer may be 40 years old but it’s still feels relevant and the laughs still feel earned. As played by David Rasche, Sledge Hammer is the perfect parody of every unapologetically violent action hero. Though there are hints of attraction between him and Doreau, the episode makes it pretty clear that Hammer’s true love is for his gun. At the same time, there’s something rather refreshing about Hammer’s total and complete lack of angst. As I watched this episode, it occurred to me that Hammer would probably get as annoyed with Daniel Craig’s self-pitying version of James Bond as I do.
This pilot was enjoyable and funny 26 minutes of pure entertainment. I look forward to reviewing the rest of the series!
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 Daily Motion.
This week, it’s not just the patients who need to be stitched up.
Episode 4.6 “Lost and Found In Space”
(Dir by Robert Becker, originally aired on November 13th, 1985)
Bobby Caldwell lives!
Things were looking pretty bad for Bobby last week. As you may remember, he picked up a waitress, took her to his Cape Cod home, and then ended up getting slashed across the face when she pulled a razor blade out from under her tongue. This week, Bobby is wandering around the hospital with a huge bandage on his face and telling everyone that he had an “accident.” It’s only to Dr. Turner that he confesses that he was attacked by the waitress. Bobby claims that he responded by punching her and that he then called the police.
Bobby spends this episode in a truly foul mood. Not only does he have a bandage on his face but he’s also been told that the Hospital Review Board doesn’t feel that he’s performing enough surgeries for the residents to really get the training that they need. (“We’re a teaching hospital,” Dr. Craig explains.) Bobby pressures an old man into getting a face lift that he really doesn’t need. Even Victor thinks that the surgery is unethical. I mean, when you’ve lost Victor Ehrlich….
Meanwhile, Dr. Westphall is finally released from the hospital after fainting due to the Malaria that he brought back from working abroad. Westphall is depressed about the whole thing. Westphall is always depressed. Even when his daughter comes home to help out, Westphall is depressed to see her. Cheer up, Westphall!
After weeks of trying to lose weight, Elliot discovers that he’s actually gained three pounds. What’s worse is that his girlfriend, Marcy (Jeannie Elias), lost weight at the same time that Elliot was gaining weight and, when she sees that he’s just as heavy as ever, she dumps him.
Amongst the patients, Pru Dowler (Amanda Wyss) and Buddy Askew (Mark Baker) are two developmentally challenged teenagers who end up “procreating” (as Luther puts it) in Pru’s hospital room. Dr. Craig takes it upon himself to discuss what happened when Pru and it’s just as awkward as you might expect.
Col. Chuck Cochrane (David Ackroyd) is an astronaut who collapses while giving a speech. In the hospital, he has nightmares about being trapped in space. The whole storyline brought to mind The Ninth Configuration, a film that perhaps not coincidentally starred the future Donald Westphall himself, Ed Flanders.
The highlight of this episode was undoubtedly William Daniels’s performance as Dr. Craig. With Dr. Westphall recovering his illness, the day-to-day tasks of running the hospital fell on Dr. Craig and he was not at all happy about it. On this show, William Daniels is always at his best when Dr. Craig is in a bad mood. Before going on rounds, Dr. Craig predicted that Dr. Morrison would show up late and have some overly complicated excuse. Morrison did just that and it was hard not to smile at Craig’s exasperation. At the same time, it is made clear that the main reason that Craig is upset is because his granddaughter has been taken away from him. It was hard not to feel bad for him, even when he was biting everyone’s heads off.
This was not a happy episode. No one in the hospital seems to be doing well. Bobby is bitter. Dr. Craig is angry. Elliott is feeling defeated. And Westphall …. well, he’s just Westphall. Fortunately, the strong cast and the smart writing made up for the fact that St. Eligius isn’t a happy place right now.
Seriously, I could watch William Daniels yell at people all day.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties. On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday. On Mastodon, 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 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? In memory of Reggie Bannister, we have 1979’s Phantasm!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find Phantasm on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there happily tweeting. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes actor and comedian Steve Martin a happy 81st birthday. Originally from Texas, Martin has been a cultural mainstay for longer than I’ve been alive. He’s a master of both comedy and drama, as anyone who has watched the two seasons of Only Murders In The Building can tell you.
And he can sing too!
Here he is, performing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in 1978’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Though this was not Martin’s film debut, it was his first “big” role. Steve Martin was 33 years old here. Remarkably, he only seems to have aged a few years in the decades since appearing in this film.
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 79th birthday to the great German director, Wim Wenders! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Wim Wenders Films
The American Friend (1976, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)
Paris, Texas (1984, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)
Wings of Desire (1987, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)
Until the End of the World (1991, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)
Through the Shattered Lens 