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? House of the Devil!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
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.
Mel Brooks is 99! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Mel Brooks Films
Blazing Saddles (1974, dir by Mel Brooks, DP: Joseph Biroc)
Young Frankenstein (1974, dir by Mel Brooks, DP: Gerald Hirschfeld)
High Anxiety (1977, dir by Mel Books. DP: Paul Lohmann)
Spaceballs (1987, dir by Mel Brooks, DP: Nick McLean)
Mel Brooks. What can you say Mel Brooks? Not only did he help to redefine American comedy but he was also responsible for bringing David Lynch to Hollywood. Brooks was the one who hired Lynch to direct The Elephant Man. It can probably be argued that, if not for Brooks, Lynch’s feature film career would have begun and ended with Eraserhead. Brooks not only hired Lynch but also protected him for studio interference. When the execs tried to make Lynch remove two surrealistic sequences from The Elephant Man, Brooks stood up to them. When they requested a more conventional biopic, Brooks defended Lynch’s vision and the result was one of the best films ever made.
Of course, Brooks isn’t listed in the credits of The Elephant Man. Though he produced the film, he went uncredited because he didn’t want people to assume that the movie was a comedy. By doing so, Brooks missed out on an Oscar nomination but he also ensured that the film was taken seriously. It’s hard not to respect someone who was willing to go uncredited to help make the film a success.
Though Brooks, as a producers, was responsible for a number of serious films, there’s a reason why Brooks is associated with comedy. He’s a very funny man and he directed some very funny films. In honor of Mel Brooks, here’s a scene that I love from 1974’s Young Frankenstein.
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’s episode is a sad one.
Episode 3.17 “Jack-In-The-Box”
(Dir by David Winning, originally aired on April 23rd, 1990)
After her lifeguard father drowns, a young girl named Megan (Marsha Moreau) uses a cursed jack-in-the-box to get revenge of those who she blames for his death. Seeing the jack in the box when it opens leads to people drowning. A janitor drowns in a pool. One guy drowns in a car wash. The deaths are grisly but it brings back the spirit of Megan’s death father. Or, at least, that’s what Megan thinks. Personally, I think the spirt was a demon in disguise because some of the things he suggested were really out there.
This was a really sad episode. In an amazing coincidence, Micki knew the lifeguard’s family and she spent most of this episode on the verge of tears. Meanwhile, Megan’s mother dealt with her sadness by becoming an alcoholic and Megan killed a number of people just so she could spend some time with her “father.” This episode was well-acted and well-written and really not the right sort of thing for me to watch at a time when the one-year anniversary of my Dad’s passing is quickly approaching. This was an episode that not only left Micki in tears but it left me in tears as well.
Okay, enough sadness! This was a good episode. The third season has been uneven and I still miss Ryan’s character but this episode showed that Friday the 13th was still capable of being effective even as the show came to a close.
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. Dr. Craig finally gets to perform his first heart transplant.
Episode 2.4 “Qui Transtulit Sustinet”
(Dir by Victor Lobl, originally aired on November 16th, 1983)
It’s a busy day at St. Eligius.
While Morrison struggles to come to terms with the death of his wife, her heart is transplanted into Eve Leighton. Morrison tells Westphall that he wants to keep working at the hospital and that he doesn’t need any time off. Westphall tells Morrison that he’s too distraught to be trusted with patients and that he has to take some time off. Westphall actually has a point, even if he does come across as being a bit cold when talking to Morrison. Even Peter White, that drug-addicted sleazebag, tells Morrison that he’s needs to take some time. Seriously, I think this is the first time that Dr. White’s been correct about anything since this show began.
Dr. Craig finally gets to perform a heart transplant but afterwards, in a wonderfully-acted scene, he tells Westphall that he feels a bit let down. After all the anticipation and the preparation, Craig isn’t sure what to do now that he’s actually performed the surgery. For once, he doesn’t want to talk to the press, regardless of how much the city of Boston expects him to. It’s a nicely human moment, one that we don’t often get from Dr. Craig.
Nurse Rosenthal attempted to console another breast cancer patient and met with Mark Harmon’s Dr. Caldwell to discuss getting breast reconstruction surgery. Nurse Rosenthal’s breast cancer storyline has consistently been well-acted and well-written and it has also been consistently difficult for me, as someone who lost her mother to cancer, to watch and write about. That was certainly the case for me with this episode.
Meanwhile, Fiscus and Luther pool their money to make an investment in silver but, at the last minute, Fiscus pulls out of their investment. His nerves get the better of him. Luther makes a lot of money. Fiscus doesn’t. Hey, guys — Morrison’s wife is dead. Show some respect and save the comedy for another episode.
This was an intense episode but it ended on a beautiful note, with Dr. Morrison listening to the sound of his wife’s heart beating in someone else’s body. A beautiful note but also a very sad one. I’m worried about Jack Morrison. I’m worried about the recipient of the heart. I’m worried about Helen Rosenthal. I’m worried about the entire hospital!
Today’s scene that I love comes from 2012’s The Master, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (who celebrated his birthday yesterday).
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix were never better than they were in Anderson’s enigmatic story of two very different men who become unlikely friends. Phoenix plays Freddie Quill, a World War II veteran who has never figured out how to adjust to life during peacetime. Hoffman plays Lancaster Dodd, a writer who claims to have all the answers but who is actually a charlatan. In this scene, Freddie and Dodd meet for one last time and, though they are both characters about who most viewers will have mixed feelings, there’s something undeniably poignant about their final moments together. Both of them realize that the time they had is over. And indeed, watching this scene today is all the more difficult because it reminds us of what a talent we lost when we lost Philip Seymour Hoffman.
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.
Yesterday was the birthday of one of our greatest filmmakers, Paul Thomas Anderson! It’s never too late for….
4 Shots From 4 Paul Thomas Anderson Films
Boogie Nights (1997, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson, DP: Robert Elswit)
The Will Be Blood (2007, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson, DP: Robert Elswit)
The Master (2012, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson, DP: Mihai Mălaimare Jr.)
Phantom Thread (2017, dir by Paul Thomas Anderson)
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!
This week, the fourth season premiere concludes.
Episode 4.2 “Man’s Best Friend Part 2”
(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on September 23rd, 1987)
Picking up where last week’s episode, this episode opens with Alex (Danny Pintauro) visiting Jake the Siberian Husky at the big home that Jake shares with Jenny (Elisabeth Harnois), her grandfather (William Schallert), and her parents, Paul (Stan Ivar) and Michelle Raines (Laurie Walters).
Yay!
Alex’s attitude improves so much that it’s decided to move him into a foster home.
Uhmm….what about the Raines family?
The surrogate hired to carry Paul and Michelle’s baby loses the baby. Paul and Michelle are heartbroken.
Uhmm….hey, I think Alex needs a family….
Jenny gives Jake to Alex.
Awwww!
Alex’s foster family lives in a building that doesn’t allow pets.
Oh no!
Alex and Jake run away and, after nearly dying in the desert, they end up with the Raines family’s home.
I see where this is going….
If you guessed that Paul and Michelle announce that they’re going to adopt Alex and that Jake is going to continue to live with them on the ranch, congratulations! You could have been a HighwaytoHeaven writer!
This episode didn’t make me cry as much as last week’s, mostly because it was pretty easy to see where things were heading from the beginning. Even when Alex and Jake were lost in the desert, I knew they would be okay because this is HighwaytoHeaven. Children and their adorable dogs don’t die on this show. (Except, of course, for those twotimes that they did. Actually, three times, now that I think about it.) That said, I was still relieved when Jake was rescued because seriously, that dog was adorable!
This was a good conclusion to last week’s episode. Everything worked out for the best. At the end of the episode, Mark said that he understood why “they call them man’s best friend.” Michael nodded and then said, a little sadly, “Shouldn’t man’s best friend be …. man?”
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999. Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
Yes, this is from the first season. I don’t care. I refuse to waste my time looking for a second season advertisement.
This week, guess who is the worst?
Episode 2.16 “Movin’ On Out’
(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on February 19th, 2000)
This episode revisits a familiar theme. Lisa — this is, the show’s Lisa as opposed to your intrepid, red-headed reviewer — is the absolute worse. This week, Lisa is annoyed with Traycee because Traycee doesn’t always give Lisa her messages and Traycee sent the plumber home before he could fix the sink. (Traycee thought Lisa was trying to set her up on a date with the plumber.) Lisa says, “I can’t live like this” and proceeds to write up a long list of rules that Traycee will have to follow if she wants to continue living in the apartment.
(If I remember correctly, Traycee’s name is on the lease so how exactly Lisa is going to kick her out, I have no idea.)
It’s a really long list. Traycee decides to move in with the Collins brothers. The Collins brothers are excited because Traycee is planning on throwing a lingerie party with all of her friend. (Jason and Scott assume they’ll be invited.) Lisa tell Jason and Scott that they will regret letting Traycee move in but actually, Jason and Scott love living with her.
Meanwhile, Lisa gets a new roommate, who turns out to be a psychotic wrestling fan. And really, that’s where this episode should have ended. Lisa spent this episode acting like a spoiled snob, going so far as to tell other people — like the Collins brothers — not to let Traycee live with them. Hey, Lisa — IT WAS TRAYCEE’S APARTMENT IN THE FIRST GODDAMN PLACE! And didn’t we already do this stupid story at the start of the season? Yes, we did! This episode should have ended with Lisa realizing her new roommate was crazy. Instead, it ended with Lisa giving Traycee a not terribly convincing apology.
Anyway, Traycee does move back in with Lisa. She was tired of the Collins boys always wanting her to throw another party. Lisa kicks out her new roommate. Has Lisa ever considered that she might be impossible to live with?
Fortunately, the B-plot was kind of cute. After witnessing him saving the life of a sea lion, Alex develops a crush on Murray. Murray likes Alex but he worries she’s too beautiful to ever stick with a guy like him. Jason advices Murray to act like an obnoxious jackass because women love that. (Excuse me while I dramatically roll my eyes.) Murray takes Jason’s advice, even though Jason hasn’t had a girlfriend since Stads abandoned him for Europe.
(Seriously, Stads dumped Jason for a continent. Ha ha, sucks to be you, Jason.)
This B-plot may have been dumb but you know what? Brandon Brooks was adorable as the emotionally vulnerable Murray. Brooks is often the only reason to watch this show. He manages to play the goofy best friend without turning the character into a Screech-style caricature and that makes him unique amongst the goofy best friends who populated the sitcoms that Peter Engel produced in the 90s and early aughts. When I watched the pilot, I never would have guessed that Murray would eventually become my favorite character but that is what has happened. On a show where everyone else is either self-absorbed, bitchy, or just a jackass, Murray’s good vibes are often Malibu CA’s saving grace.
Through the Shattered Lens 