Tag Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Scenes That I Love: Richard Linklater’s Monologue from Slacker

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to the greatest director come out of Texas, Richard Linklater!

Today’s scene that I love comes from Linklater’s 1991 film, Slacker.  Filmed in Austin, this film not only established Linklater as one of the best indie film directors but it also inspired a countless number of other aspiring filmmakers.  How many other director have attempted to make a Slacker?  None have done it as well as Linklater.  Indeed, the film not only helped to define the modern independent film aesthetic but it also continues to shape the way that people view Texas’s idiosyncratic capital city.

In this opening scene, Linklater himself gets the film started, delivering a monologue as he’s driven around Austin.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Richard Linklater Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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!

Today, we wish a happy 66th birthday to Texas’s greatest filmmaker, Richard Linklater!

That means that it’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Films

Slacker (1991, dir by Richard Linklater)

Dazed and Confused (1993, dir by Richard Linklater)

Before Sunset (2004, dir by Richard Linklater)

Boyhood (2014, dir by Richard Linklater)

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.10 “Out of the Past”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

After last week’s trip to “the future,” this episode returns to 1988.

Episode 4.10 “Out of the Past”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on December 7th, 1988)

As a show, 1st & Ten has a weird habit of introducing new characters and pretending as if they’ve always been around even if they’ve never been seen or even mentioned before.  In this episode, we meet Coleman King (Richard Lawson), the team’s veteran running back who fears that he’s on the verge of being dropped from the Bulls.  Coleman is also an old friend of TD Parker’s (O.J. Simpson).

TD is conflicted.  He knows that Coleman is past his prime.  The Bulls are on the verge of signing a new running back and, when they do, TD knows that he’s probably going to have to cut Colman from the team.  As a former player, TD knows how painful it is when your professional career is murdered and no one is held responsible for it.  Complicating matters is the clear attraction between TD and Coleman’s wife, Della (Vanessa Bell Callaway).

While TD tries to figure out how to protect both the team and Coleman, Ernie Denardo runs into his ex-girlfriend, Brenda (Shannon Wilcox), at a bar.  Brenda has some scary people after her because of her unpaid gambling debts.  She tells Denardo that she has money on the next Bulls game.  If the Bulls win by more than ten, her debt will be paid off and then she and Denardo can be together.

The next day, the Bulls are on the verge of winning by 9.  With only a few seconds left in the game, Denardo has the team kick a field goal so that they can win by 12.  Denardo returns to Brenda’s apartment and discovers that she’s gone.  It was all a scam, hatched by Brenda and her real boyfriend.

In tears, Denardo tells TD that he has to quit as coach of the Bulls.

TD argues that Denardo didn’t do anything wrong because he didn’t have money on the game.  TD points out that the field goal unit needed the practice and that the Bulls need as many points as possible to clinch home field advantage in the playoffs.  The episode ends with TD embracing the sobbing Denardo.  Awwww!  Is there nothing an OJ Simpson pep talk can’t fix?

After last week’s bizarre episode, this was a traditional 1st & Ten episode.  This episode served as a reminder of just how bland OJ Simpson was as an actor.  That said, Reid Shelton did a good job as the grief-stricken Denardo and the gambling subplot at least did have a few interesting twists.  By the standards of 1st & Ten, that makes this episode a success.

Shark Week Review: Avalanche Sharks (dir by Scott D. Wheeler)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

2012’s Avalanche Sharks takes place during Spring Break.

Woo hoo!  SPRIIIIIIIIING BREAAAAAAAK!  If there’s anything that I truly miss about college, it’s Spring Break!  What do you think about when you think about Spring Break?  You think about the sun,  You think about the days and the nights spent lazily lounging in a bikini.  You think about the binge-drinking and the drug-taking and one night stands that you regret the next morning and the realization that you’re only young once.

Avalanche Sharks has all of that.  It also has a lot of snow and also sharks.

SHARK BREAK!  Woo hoo!

These aren’t any old sharks.  These are ghost sharks that swim around in the snow and which pop out to eat the employees and guests of a ski resort.  You may be asking yourself how a shark can swim in the snow and I’m not totally sure myself.  It probably helps that they’re ghost sharks and not living sharks.  Still, it seems like even a ghost shark would prefer the ocean.  The film suggests that the sharks are the result of an ancient curse.  It also suggests that the sharks are the result of global warming.  I’m going to guess that it’s a combination.  The ancient curse was reactivated by global warming.  Either that or the ghost sharks escaped from a lab and there’s been a massive cover-up to try to keep people from discovering the truth.  But, seriously, when has that ever happened?

The movie features the usual collection of characters whose names you will struggle to remember after the movie ends.  (I struggled to remember them even before the movie ended.)  It’s Spring Break, after all!  Why go to the beach when you can just go to a ski resort and apparently spend several days sitting in a jacuzzi?  The jacuzzi is a major location in this film and it’s also the film’s excuse to feature bikinis.  Myself, I couldn’t help but notice that the characters who got in the jacuzzi apparently never got out, even to sleep.  72 hours in a jacuzzi is something you might do to win a car but it’s not necessarily a good idea when there are ghost sharks around.

“You are the sexiest Marine biologist I know,” one guy says at one point and that’s pretty much sets the standard for the film’s dialogue.  The movie is quickly divided between those who know about the avalanche sharks and those who don’t but, to the film’s credit, knowledge does not equal safety.  Just about anyone can and will get eaten by the sharks.  Some of the gore is a bit icky.  The start of the film features a skier suffering a rather serious injury and I briefly had to hide my eyes.  That said, it also appears that the gore budget was used up early because the later effects aren’t quite as impressive.  What is impressive is the performance of James Ouimet as crazy old Duffy.  Duffy is the one who tells everyone that they’re doomed.  He seeks revenge after losing his dog to the sharks.  “LUNA!” he yells and you totally buy it.

As my friend Jim put it, this is a film the defies a traditional rating.  Yes, it would be easy to dismiss it as being another shark movie but, at the same time, it’s so stupidly entertaining that you can’t help but watch.  Someone somewhere once said, “Give them snow sharks!” and this film delivered.  And for that, I say thank you.

 

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 8.4 “Ace Meets the Champ/Why Justin Can’t Read/Call Me a Doctor”

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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

Come aboard, we’re expecting you!

Episode 8.4 “Ace Meets the Champ/Why Justin Can’t Read/Call Me a Doctor”

(Dir by Robert Scheerer, originally aired on October 6th, 1994)

Malcolm Bosworth (James Noble) boards the ship with his son (Dick Billingsley) and his son’s tutor (Jeannie Wilson).  When both the tutor and Doc Bricker suggest that his son might be struggling academically because he’s dyslexic, Malcolm replies, “My son’s not retarded!”  Booooo, Malcolm, booooo!  In Malcolm’s defense, he comes to see the error of his ways but still, booooo!

Walter Milner (Louis Giambalvo) is a furniture salesman who tells Margo Bush (Tovah Feldshuh) that he’s a doctor.  Margo’s mother (Doris Roberts) really wants her daughter to marry a doctor.  Wow, I bet that will lead to some wacky complications!

Those two stories are both well-handled and feature some likable performances.  James Noble makes Malcolm into a sympathetic figure, even if he is totally incorrect about dyslexia.  But neither one of those stories is the main event.

The main event is Ace and Isaac boxing Ernie Jordan (Dick Butkus).  Ernie is a professional boxer.  Ace and Isaac are not.  Ernie was originally scheduled to take part in an exhibition match for charity but, when his opponent gets sick, it looks like the children’s hospital will just have to close.  Ernie’s publicist, Gaylan (Jennifer Holmes), is a former girlfriend of Ace’s.  She left Ace because she felt he was irresponsible.  Isaac and Gopher decide that the best way for Ace to prove that he isn’t irresponsible would be for him to volunteer to fight a professional boxer.  Ace agrees.  After Isaac writes a poem ridiculing the champ, Ernie declares that he’ll fight both Isaac and Ace at the same time.

Wow, sounds like Ace and Isaac are in a lot of trouble!  Fortunately, for them, Ernie is a nice guy and he throws the fight and pretends to get knocked out.  The children’s hospital is saved, Ernie’s reputation is probably ruined, and Ace proves …. well, I don’t know what Ace proves.  Ace’s goal is to show that he’s not just a rich kid with an easy job but that’s a little bit difficult because he is a rich kid with an easy job.  Ace is the Jack Schlossberg of The Love Boat, just with better hair.  Still, Ace gets a girlfriend for the final five minutes or so of the episode so that’s a good thing.

This episode was pleasant, though it’s hard not to feel that Gopher would have been a more amusing opponent for Ernie Jordan.  Pat Klous still seems to be struggling to fit in with the rest of the cast as Judy.  Still, Isaac’s brief Mohammad Ali impersonation made me smile and Ted McGinley’s hair was perfect.  With this episode, The Love Boat shows its age a little but luckily, our crew is still capable of delivering an enjoyable if not exactly memorable cruse.

 

Scenes I Love: The Sopranos Stage An Intervention

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the birthday of the late Tony Sirico.  Sirico was a former mob associate who, after serving a term in prison, reinvented himself as an actor.  Because of his background, he was often typecast as gangsters but he also proved himself to be an intelligent performer with perfect comedic timing.  For a lot of us, he will always be remembered for playing Paulie on The Sopranos.

Today scene that I love comes from The Sopranos and it features excellent work from the entire cast, especially Tony Sirico.  In this scene from the 2002 episode “The Strong, Silent Type,” the Sopranos and their associates stage an intervention for Christopher Moltisanti and it goes about as well as you might expect.  In just five minutes, this scenes manages to capture everything that The Sopranos was about, as well as giving each member of the cast a chance to shine.  Since this is Sirico’s birthday, I’ll just recommend that viewers especially watch Paulie’s facial expressions while Adriana reads her letter to Christopher.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Clara Bow Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Happy birthday to my pre-code role model, the amazing Clara Bow!

4 Shots From 4 Clara Bow Films

It (1927, dir by Clarence G. Badger)

Wings (1928, dir by William Wellman)

Dangerous Curves (1929, dir by Lothar Mendes)

Call Her Savage (1932, dir by John Francis Dillon)

 

Glen Hansard, RIP

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I woke up to the tragic news that Glen Hansard, lead singer of the Frames and the star of The Commitments and Once, was killed earlier in a motorcycle accident.  He was 56 years old.  In America, he’ll probably always be remembered for his enthusiastic and heartfelt speech after he was on Oscar for Best Original Song.  I’ll always remember him for Once, one of the most wonderful romantic films ever made.  Nearly 20 years after seeing the film, I still listen to the soundtrack.

Glen Hansard, RIP.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 4.12 “Cruz Control”

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 Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, almost everyone’s got a secret.

Episode 4.12 “Cruz Control”

(Dir by Michael Levine, originally aired on December 13th, 1988)

I guess someone in the Pacific Blue writers’ room finally remembered that Amy Hunter joined the cast at the start of season 4 because her character, Jamie Stickland, actually gets to do something in this episode.  In fact, we ever see the odd loft that she is apparently still sharing with Russ Granger.

This episode opens with Jamie gunning down a Korean smuggler.  Even though it’s a “good” shooting, it’s still Jamie’s second killing in just a handful of months.  Lt. Susan Jessup (Holly Gagnier, who previously played Parker Stevenson’s little-seen wife on the first season of Baywatch) uses the shooting as leverage to try to force Jamie to become a mole for Internal Affairs.  When Jamie refuses, Susan threatens to reveal that Jamie lied on her police application when she said she had never been convicted of a felony.  It turns out that, when Jamie was 15, she was convicted of manslaughter after she shot her abusive foster father.  When Jamie continues to resist the pressure to spy on her fellow cops, Susan suddenly talks about “Internal Affairs is very erotic.”  By the end of the episode, it appears that Jamie is ready to become an IA informant so I guess the erotic line worked.

Meanwhile, Bobby Cruz goes AWOL for two days so that he can track down Lee Kwan (Karen Kim), a model who, years earlier, accidentally ran over Bobby’s parents while driving too fast.  Lee was acquitted in court and Bobby has been dreaming of revenge ever since.  When it becomes apparent that Lee has become involved with a smuggling operation, Bobby goes rogue to try to get her sent to prison.

Meanwhile, Monica goes undercover as a model because, on this show, all bicycle cops can go undercover at a moment’s notice.  The undercover storyline doesn’t really go anywhere but it does give Monica an excuse to show TC her portfolio.  Cory sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes, which is pretty much her standard response to Monica doing anything that would indicate that she’s still alive.

This was a busy episode.  All of the regular characters, with the exception of Darlene Vogel’s Chris Kelly, made an appearance.  That said, busy does not necessarily equal good or even interesting.  Bobby’s decision to go AWOL never made much sense but then again, Pacific Blue itself has never made much sense.  A bunch of people barking out orders while wearing bicycle shorts will never make sense.  At the very least, though, we did get to see Mario Lopez doing the “big” acting.  There was never an episode of Saved By The Bell in which Slater got hooked on rage-inducing drugs but Pacific Blue gives us an idea of what that would have been like.

By the end of the episode, Lee Kwan is dead, Bobby is back on his bike, and Jamie’s a rat.  Hopefully, this will somehow lead to TC getting sent to prison for embezzlement or something.  That’s my hope!