Here’s the trailer for Golda, a film about Israeli Prime Minster Golda Mier and her leadership during The Yom Kippur War of 1973. Much as with Michael Caine’s The Great Escaper, this film looks like it could, among other things, allow a veteran performer to enter this year’s Oscar race. Golda is scheduled to be released nationwide on August 25th.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1986. Almost entire show is currently streaming is on Youtube!
This week, Mr. Roarke gets married!
Episode 3.7 “The Wedding”
(Dir by Earl Bellamy, originally aired on November 3rd, 1979)
Helena Marsh (Samantha Eggar) and her son, Jamie (Paul John Balson), return to Fantasy Island!
The last time Helena visited the Island, she and Mr. Roarke ended up falling in love but Helena ended up leaving the Island so that she could return to the clinic that her late husband started in India. However, Helena has now come back to the Island and she has only one fantasy. She wants to marry Mr. Roarke! Mr. Roarke is going to make her fantasy come true. He’s so happy that he doesn’t even yell at Tattoo during this episode.
The entire Island is excited about the wedding. However, Tattoo grows concerned when he hears Helena’s parents (played by Laraine Day and Joseph Cotten) talking about how unfair it is that Helena is dying and probably won’t even survive the honeymoon. Tattoo goes to Mr. Roarke and discovers that Roarke knows that Helena is dying. Mr. Roarke assures Tattoo that Helena has one of those television diseases where death comes with little to no suffering. Unfortunately, Jamie does not yet know that his mother is ill.
The Hawaiian-style wedding goes off without a hitch. Mr. Roarke and Helena honeymoon on the other side of the island and, for the first time since this series began, Ricardo Montalban actually gets to wear something other than a white tuxedo. While Jaimie helps Tattoo train Chester the Chimpanzee to stop stealing things, Helena enjoys her last few days with Mr. Roarke. Unfortunately, the honeymoon is cut short as Helena grows ill. From his grandfather, Jamie learns that his mother is dying. “If life were fair,” Mr. Roarke says with tears in his eyes, “there would be no need for Fantasy Island.”
Awwwww! Seriously, what a terrifically sweet and sad episode this turned out to be. Ricardo Montalban and Samantha Eggar had fabulous chemistry together and Montalban, in particular, really seemed to be energized by the chance to do something other than act mysterious and enigmatic. In this episode, Mr. Roarke finally gets to show his emotions and when he cries, you’ll want to cry too. Helena dies peacefully on the island, in the arms of Mr. Roarke. Her final fantasy has been granted.
As for Jamie, he decides that he can’t stay on the Island. He has to go back to school so that, someday, he can become a doctor just like his mother.
Oh my God, I’m like seriously tearing up just writing this recap.
This episode was Fantasy Island at its sentimental and emotional best. This was a great episode, featuring outstanding performances from Ricardo Montalban and Samantha Eggar. Would you believe that an episode of Fantasy Island could make a reviewer cry? Well, this episode did.
Fresh from destroying the Halloween franchise, David Gordon Green is prepared to work his magic on The Exorcist.
Here’s the trailer for The Exorcist: Believer. Yes, Ellen Burstyn returns but who cares? We all saw Halloween Ends.
The upcoming film, The Great Escaper, is based on the true story of a World War II veteran who, having escaped from his assistant living facility, made his way to France to honor his fallen comrades. The great Sir Michael Caine plays the veteran while Glenda Jackson, in her final role, plays his wife. The film sounds unabashedly sentimental and director Oliver Parker is not exactly known for his subtle touch but, with stars like Caine and Jackson and a true life story that touches the heart and bring tears to one’s eyes, attention must be paid.
The trailer dropped today and here it is:
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 Hang Time, which ran on NBC from 1995 to 2000. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
This week, the fifth season comes to an end,
Episode 5.13 “Fighting For Your Dreams”
(Dir by Miguel Higuera, originally aired on January 8th, 2000)
The previous episode of Hang Time ended with Deering High’s season coming to an unexpected end. It also featured Michael and Julie as an established couple and Mary Beth seemingly over Hammer. That episode aired in December of 1999.
It would be over a month before the next episode of Hang Time aired.
That next episode, Fighting For Your Dreams, features the Tornadoes in the middle of their season, Michael still being rather shy about asking Julie if she wants to see a movie with him, and Mary Beth still hung up on Hammer. Obviously, this episode was meant to air earlier in the season but, for whatever reason, it didn’t.
It’s actually not a bad episode. The University of Kentucky is interested in recruiting Antonio for their basketball program but, after Antonio injures his knee during practice, it looks like his playing days might be over. Antonio wants to spend all of his time feeling sorry for himself in his apartment but eventually both Kristy and Coach K convince him to stop feeling sorry for himself and start physical therapy. There was one extremely dumb scene in which Kristy, Eugene and Silk hired an actor to pretend to be the recruiter and give Antonio a pep talk but otherwise, this was an effective story and Jay Hernandez, Amber Barretto, and Dick Butkus all gave heartfelt performances.
As for Mary Beth, she and Hammer eventually broke up over the phone because the long distance relationship just proved to be too difficult to maintain. Awwwwwwww! Poor Mary Beth.
Episode 5.14 “My Family”
(Dir by Miguel Higuera, originally aired on March 11th, 2000)
Two months after the Fighting For Your Dreams episode aired, Hang Time got around to finishing out season 5 with My Family.
The family in question is Coach K’s. This episode finally reveals a little about Coach K’s past. We are informed that he’s divorced, his ex-wife lives up in Canada, and he hasn’t seen his 17 year-old daughter, Kate (Amber Willenborg), in a while. Coach K is super excited when Kate shows up in Indiana. It’s a chance for the two of them to rebuild their relationship. Coach K has an entire weekend in Chicago planned for the two of them.
What Coach K doesn’t know is that Kate has a baby. Kate is scared to tell him so, instead of taking her child with her to Chicago, she instead gives him to Julie, Kristy, and Mary Beth, three people who she barely knows. Needless to say, this leads to a whole lot of scenes of, “Ewww! The baby needs to be changed” and “Oh my God, the baby has a fever! Take him to the hospital!” The baby’s cute but Kate’s decision to just abandon him with three people that she’s just met just doesn’t feel right. Anyway, Kate tells Coach K about the baby in Chicago and they immediately head back to Indiana so that he can meet his grandson. And, much as with the previous episode, Dick Butkus saves the episode by giving a surprisingly sensitive performance. Coach K loves his grandson! Awwwww!
The B-story features the boys selling pagers to raise money for ski trip. Who cares? It’s dumb.
Next week: the sixth and final season begins! The end is in sight!
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasion ally Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We snark our way through it.
Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be 1997’s Stone Cold 2! Selected and hosted by Rev. Magdalen, this movie features Brian Bosworth! So, you know it has to be good!
Following #MondayActionMovie, Brad and Sierra will be hosting the #MondayMuggers live tweet. We will be watching 2018’s The Mule, starring CLINT EASTWOOD! The film is on Prime!
It should make for a night of fun viewing and I invite all of you to join in. If you want to join the live tweets, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Stone Cold 2 on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then, at 10 pm et, switch over to Twitter and Prime, start The Mule, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag! The live tweet community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
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 birthday to one of the pioneers of American independent cinema, Gus Van Sant!
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Gus Van Sant Films
Drugstore Cowboy (1989, dir by Gus Van Sant, DP: Robert Yeoman)
To Die For (1995, dir by Gus Vant Sant, DP: Eric Alan Edwards)
Gerry (2002, dir by Gus Van Sant, DP: Harris Savides)
Elephant (2003, dir by Gus Van Sant, DP: Harris Savides)
94 years ago today, the English director Peter Yates was born in Aldershot, Hampshire. Yates would go on to direct films in almost every genre but today, he’s perhaps best-remembered for directing what is considered to be one of the best car chases of all time. Today scene that I love comes from Peter Yates’s 1968 film Bullitt and yes, that is Steve McQueen doing his own driving through the streets of San Francisco.
Eh. I don’t even want to talk about this week. Maybe I’ll be in the mood to talk about this week next week but hopefully, when next week comes around, I will have moved onto other things. It’s nothing to be too concerned about. It’s just that some weeks are crappy and, as a result, you don’t want to talk about them when they end. You just want to move on!
I will say this. If you’re a billionaire who wants to run a social network, build it up from scratch. Be there from the start and be clear about what you’re planning. Don’t buy another popular site and then ruin it just so you can then force everyone onto your site. I mean, really, I’m not difficult to please. All I ask is that people be polite and give fair warning before changing everything.
*SIGH*
Anyway, here’s what I watched and listened to this week. Yes, I decided to avoid the crowds as far as Barbie and Oppenheimer are concerned. I’ll see them this upcoming week, after I get my car inspected.
(Don’t even get me started on how I feel about car inspections.)
Films I Watched:
TV Shows I Watched:
Music To Which I Listened:
Live Tweets:
Trailers:
News From Last Week:
Links From Last Week:
Links From The Site:
More From Us:
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1991’s Murder In New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story! It can be viewed on YouTube!
When Pamela Wojas (Helen Hunt) first became engaged to Gregg Smart (Hank Stratton), she thought that they would never get older or settle down to a conventional life. She thought that Gregg would always have long hair and that they would spend the rest of their lives following Van Halen around the country. But then Gregg got a job with a New Hampshire insurance company and he cut his hair. And then Pam failed in her attempts to get hired by the local news station and instead, she ended up accepting a job as the part-time media director at a local high school.
Pam spearheaded the school’s anti-drug campaign and ended up working closely with two students in particular, Billy Flynn (Chad Allen) and Cecelia Pierce (Riff Reagan). Billy and Pam bonded over their shared love of Van Halen and soon, they were having an affair. Was Pam just trying to relive her youth or was she already setting up Billy to murder her husband?
Based on the true story that also inspired Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, Murder In New Hampshire jumps back and forth through time. The film opens with Gregg being shot and killed by Billy and one of his friends. It then cuts to a courtroom, where a prosecutor (Howard Hesseman) tells the jury that Gregg was murdered on the orders of his own wife. A very conservatively and modestly-dressed Pam sits in the courtroom and provides quite a contrast to the far more wild and hedonistic Pam who we see in the film’s frequent flashbacks. While Gregg settles comfortably into life as a suburban insurance agent, Pam continually tries to hold onto her past. While Gregg wins awards for selling the most insurance, Pam tells Billy that Gregg beats her and that he’s dangerous.
It’s difficult to watch Murder In New Hampshire without comparing it To Die For. They both tell the same story and they even use the same flashback structure. But if To Die For presented Nicole Kidman as being a soulless killer who was driven by her obsession with being a star, Murder In New Hampshire suggests that Pam’s main motivation was that she just couldn’t handle the idea of settling down and living a conventional, suburban life. As well, To Die For presented Joaquin Phoenix’s gunman as being someone who was essentially incapable of thinking for himself. In Murder In New Hampshire, Billy is far more active character. Though he is undoubtedly manipulated by Pam, Billy is still portrayed as someone who made his own decision to get involved in Pam’s schemes. If To Die For is a stylized satire of the true crime genre, Murder In New Hampshire is the epitome of what was being satirized.
That said, Murder In New Hampshire is a good example of the true crime genre, largely due to Helen Hunt’s wonderful performance as Pam Smart. Hunt plays Pam as someone who has never grown up and who is so scared of being required to that she’ll even resort to murder to pull it off. While Murder In New Hampshire never quite escapes the shadow of To Die For, it’s still an effective film when taken on its own terms.
Through the Shattered Lens 