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 8 pm et, I will be hosting #MondayAction! Tonight’s movie? 1987’s Banzai Runner!
It’s Billy Drago vs. Dean Stockwell for control of the California highways! Who will win and what will be left of their car!? We’ll find out tonight and I’ve constructed an entire YouTube playlist so that we can have the theater experience in the comfort of our own homes! (I guess a link would be helpful. Here it is: Banzai Runner Playlist!)
If you want to join us, just hop onto twitter, start the playlist at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! I’ll be there tweeting 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. And a review of this film will probably end up on this site at some point this week.
Join MAM at 8 pm et on Monday for BANZAI RUNNER (1987)! Billy Drago vs Dean Stockwell for control of California's highways! Here's the playlist and I hope to see you there! https://t.co/JH2tbSs8nkpic.twitter.com/wwLQossP0z
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, @TimBuntley will be hosting 2004’s Shaun of the Dead!
That’s right! It’s Edgar Wright’s classic zombie comedy, starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and a zombiefied London! It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you scream. And the ending …. well, the ending always make me cry.
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 and a few other streaming sites. 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.
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.
Tomorrow, for #FridayNightFlix, I will be hosting Galaxy Quest!
That’s right! A film that some people have called the best Star Trek film ever made, 1999’s Galaxy Quest takes a look at what happens when the cast of a cult sci-fi show are abducted from the latest fan convention and are sent into space for real! It’s a cute concept but what really makes the film work is the cast, with Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tim Allen, Tony Shalhoub, Justin Long, Rainn Wilson, Daryl Mitchell, and Sam Rockwell all giving great comedic performances.
If you want to join us on Friday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there 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.
This Friday, join FnF for a trip into space with …. GALAXY QUEST (1999)! It's available on Prime and Paramount! We start at 10 pm et on Friday. pic.twitter.com/XRgsxq38uo
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 #MondayActionMovie, we are watching Steele Justice! Selected and hosted by @Bunnyhero, Steele Justice features the one and only Martin Kove as John Steele! According to the film’s poster, “you don’t recruit him, you unleash him!” Also according to the poster, John Steele has been unleashed to take on the Vietnamese mafia. The film co-stars Sela Ward and Ronny Cox. That means that the film features at least three actors who have appeared in films nominated for Best Picture! So, it has to be good, right?
That’s really all I know about Steele Justice. I plan to find out more tonight and I invite you to join me. If you want to join us, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! I’ll be there tweeting 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. And a review of this film will probably end up on this site at some point this week.
Enjoy!
on #MondayActionMovie tonight, we *checks poster* unleash John Steele in STEELE JUSTICE!
Dune, the film that apparently directed itself, is sweeping the technical categories. #Oscars
— Jeff, who is not Joseph Cotten (@JedadiahLeland) March 28, 2022
Next year, #Oscars will be a “take home” award show. Pick up your Oscar at the @DennysDiner at Marina Del Ray, Sunday Afternoon, after the Kiwanis meeting but before Alcoholics Anonymous. #Oscars
If Will wins tonight, is Kenneth Branaugh gonna slap him over Wild Wild West? Not saying he should, time heals most wounds, but anything can happen tonight. #Oscars
Thus could be the start of a cool trend. We get Amy Adams into a good role this year and Isla Fisher to do something serious next year and we end up with a redheaded Best Actress for 3 years straight.
The Super Bowl just ended so I guess it’s time to recap the reaction of the members of the TSL Team who watched and tweeted about it. Jeff, Erin, Case, Leonard, and I all watched and …. I don’t know. The game kind of sucked this year. I didn’t care about the game and I thought that commercials were kind of boring.. Case thought the commercials were depressing. Leonard got so bored that he left for ice cream. Jeff and Erin are mad that the Bengals lost. Even though it wasn’t as bad as last year, there was still weren’t as many movie commercials as in the past.
I think our collective reaction can be summed up as this:
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening everyone! Sunday evenings are my reading 📖 time! I started reading this book earlier today and it’s all kind of creepy! 🙈 Remember, with out a doubt, each and everyone of you are extremely valuable to me! 💕 #SafeSleeps and #LoveEachOtherpic.twitter.com/YdBr6SPo8g
Patrick, I think, had the right idea. While Doc and Epoch slept and he read, Leonard, Jeff, and I watched a live tweeted this year’s Steven Soderbergh-produced Oscar ceremony. That it was an odd ceremony should not have come as a surprise, all things considered. Still, the three of us found ourselves shocked by not only the strange placement of the categories (i.e., putting Best Director in the middle of the show) but also by just the entire style of the entire ceremony. It was very Soderberghian, in that it was occasionally interesting but overall rather uneven. We were especially surprised when Best Picture was given out before the acting prizes but then we realized that they were obviously building up to the emotional moment when Chadwick Boseman would win his posthumous Oscar. Of course, for that to happen, Boseman would have to win Best Actor and …. well, here’s a few of our tweets from the very odd ceremony:
It's Oscars Morning! It's kind of like a New Year's Eve party for film. I don't know how they're pulling off the presentations tonight, but hopefully, it'll be good.
Chloe Zhao is only the 2nd woman to win best director. It would have been a great way to end the night. Instead, it's just kinda tossed into the middle of the show for some reason. #Oscars
The lack of clips from the films is especially a mistake this year because, to be honest, a lot of people outside of us Oscar fanatics, haven't heard of the majority of the nominees. #Oscars
If I ever get an Oscar nomination, the presenter better say, "As a teenager in suburban Dallas, Lisa Marie would think about the movies while skipping school and shoplifting at Target…." #Oscars
I'm going to assume they're expecting Chadwick Boseman to win best actor so the moved around the categories so the night can end on an emotional highpoint. If Gary Oldman sneaks in instead, it's going to be a little awkward. #Oscars
I mean, I get it. It's a Steven Soderbergh production and he has to do something to put his own stamp on it. But still, moving the categories around like this just feels silly. #Oscars
— Jeff, who is not Joseph Cotten (@JedadiahLeland) April 26, 2021
It's obvious they thought Chadwick would win and that the show would end with a heartfelt moment. Instead the show ended with Joaquin saying, "Anthony Hopkins" and the credits rolling very quickly. #Oscars
David Fincher asked a screening crew for Se7en to make sure they kept the lights out so the audience could bask in the ending while the credits rolled. The crew instead flipped the lights on right after it ended. That Oscars ending was the same, it feels like. Weird.
I will say this — I saw The Father today and Anthony Hopkins is amazing in it. Any other year, I'd be like, "Of course, he should win." But this was literally their only chance to honor Chadwick Boseman. I don't know, it was a strange ceremony. #Oscars
Thank you for putting up with my tweets this evening. You're all awesome! It's a New Year for Movies starting tomorrow! Good Night! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/UnoYELJGax
It turns out that Patrick had the right idea. Jeff, Leonard, Case, and I watched the Golden Globes tonight and it was seriously the most depressing awards show that I can remember. The tables were largely empty and Amy Poehler and Tina Fey’s attempts at humor felt forced and awkward. The constant bragging about the amount of money that the show was raising for charity felt like an attempt to deflect from all of the negative publicity that the HFPA has received over the past few weeks. Nothing about the show felt right.
The winners accepted from home. I enjoyed seeing Eugene Levy’s house. It’s a very nice house. But it still felt, to use that familiar term again, forced and awkward. Even the surprise winners — and there were more than a few — could do little to alleviate the gloomy feel of the show. At a time when we could use a little glamour, the Golden Globes were subdued and painful. One can only imaging how painful the Oscars are going to be.
Here’s a few tweets from tonight:
I watched a little bit of the red carpet interviews. Hella depressing this year. #GoldenGlobes
— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) March 1, 2021
Wow, this is a bit of an adjustment with with the videoconferencing, but it moving okay. Happy to see Daniel Kaluuya and John Boyega have their wins. 🙂 #GoldenGlobes
— Jeff, who is not Joseph Cotten (@JedadiahLeland) March 1, 2021
I'm crying inside, feeling tortured by this show, but I'm also helping out the Shattered Lens' tonight with Golden Globes coverage. I can do this. Deep breaths. #GoldenGlobespic.twitter.com/GnDm2CxByC
— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) March 1, 2021
From what I've seen, the Golden Globes are reminding me of the surfing scenes from Apocalypse Now. The more they tried to make it all seem perfectly normal, the worse everyone felt. #GoldenGlobes
— Jeff, who is not Joseph Cotten (@JedadiahLeland) March 1, 2021
The only real Oscar question right now about Chadwick Boseman is whether he'll win for Da 5 Bloods or for Ma Rainey. #GoldenGlobes
— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) March 1, 2021
Palm Springs is also on Hulu and it's a damn good movie so you could have a Nomadland/Palm Spring double feature after the show if you wanted to. #GoldenGlobes
— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) March 1, 2021
What?! Borat over Hamilton!? Uhm, I'm speechless. #GoldenGlobes
And that's the Golden Globes. Best part is, if you have the streaming platforms, you can watch most of these Winners already. Good Night, and Sleep Well. #GoldenGlobes
There was a brief moment of panic when it appeared that Santa may have disappeared. I wondered if maybe he had been called away to once again conquer the Martians.
Sometimes, I get nostalgic for how excited I used to get over the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Silly it may seem now but, back in 2015, I'd hear James Spader going, "I'm going to show you something beautiful," and it was like, "This is going to be coolest movie ever!"
And, in the end, we watched a lot of movies. Myself, for instance, I watched Less Than Zero, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, and It’s A Wonderful Life today. I’ve still got the first two Die Hards and A Christmas Story to look forward to. That’ll be after midnight mass, of course.
It's a Wonderful Life is a film that I could watch a thousand times. I've got the entire film memorized, more or less. But every time I watch it, it's like the first time all over again. #ItsAWonderfulLife
And finally, as he does every year, Patrick helped bring this Christmas Eve to a perfect close by sharing the Night Before Christmas.
It's 10pm on #ChristmasEve 🎄 so gather around your hearths everyone while I read you a #Christmas story! This has become an annual tradition and I'm so grateful for the ones that joins in with me! #AVisitFromStNick By Clement Clarke Moore:
Before I came on board here at The Shattered Lens, I joined in on Live Tweeting, where you watch a movie with a group of people, while tweeting about it at the same time. Imagine being one of those audience members in Mystery Science Theatre 3000, and you’ve a rough idea of how fun it can get. Our own Lisa Marie Bowman does this every Saturday with her group, the Snarkalecs, as they cover the SyFy Movie of that week.
On Saturday Nights around 11pm Eastern(or just about every Saturday), Kevin Carr (over at Fat Guys at the Movies) hosts his Late Night Live Tweet, which I’ve participated in from time to time over the last 3 years. Tonight, they’re talking on 1981’s Dragonslayer on Netflix Instant.
Dragonslayer is one of those films that flopped at the box office, but remains iconic for its representation of dragons and for having been Industrial Light and Magic’s first Visual Effects production outside of any of the Lucasfilm movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark and the first two Star Wars films). Even though ILM was popular for what it did for those films, they were considered somewhat exclusive (or rather it’s my belief that they were). Dragonslayer became ILM’s test of whether they were a go to effects studio for the rest of Hollywood. It didn’t quite work out for the film, but at least ILM did well. At one point, the amount of lens flares in this movie would make J.J. Abrams proud.
Walt Disney Pictures, wanting to get into something a little more adult, came up with Dragonslayer just before Tron, but because of then graphic nature of the film (at least by their standards) supposedly had Paramount Pictures handle the distribution of the film and keep their hands clean. The movie contains blood, immolation and a hint of nudity, which seemed unbecoming of the Disney label. Over the years, Disney would come up with Touchstone Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures for their more adult fare. I think Disney even had Miramax at one point.
The story behind Dragonslayer is pretty straight forward. In a faraway land in the Dark Ages, a group a people seek out an old wizard named Ulrich (Sir Ralph Richardson – Watership Down and one of my favorites, Time Bandits) to have him slay the dragon known as Vermithrax Pejorative. Why would anyone want to kill a dragon? Well this particular dragon spends it’s time burning nearby villages and to keep it from doing so, the land has a lottery where the winner – a young maiden – is offered as a sacrifice. On looking at the evidence provided – some scales and a claw (to which Urlich exclaims “That’s not a claw, by the gods….that’s a tooth!”), the wizard refuses and asks the team to look for another Dragonslayer. They inform him that he is indeed the last of his kind. His apprentice, Galen Bradwarden (Ally McBeal’s Peter MacNicol) feels that maybe they could do the job, but before Ulrich can get on his way, he is challenged by the head of the King’s Guard, which leads to the wizard’s demise.
Galen, on cleaning up the wizard’s castle, stumbles upon a glowing amulet that enhances his magic ability. then takes it upon himself to get rid of the Dragon after discovering one of Ulrich’s glowing amulets and the ability to perform magic. As a kid, I thought that amulet was the coolest thing. There are of course some complications, mainly the fact that the Monarchy believes having the sacrifices and the Dragon are a good thing, but like all Disney movies, it all works out.
From an acting standpoint, Dragonslayer is okay. None of the performances are really award winning, and actor Peter MacNicol has gone on to say that he was embarrassed to have done the film, and doesn’t even mention it when referencing anything he’s done. Actor Ian MacDiarmid, who played Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars films, plays a priest in Dragonslayer, which was nice to see.
ILM’s biggest contribution to Dragonslayer was the use of a then new effect called “Go-Motion”. The idea was that most effects at the time were stop motion, similar to what you’d see in a Harryhausen film like Clash of the Titans, As a result, it was often very easy to tell when stop motion was being used due to the jerky but accepted movements of characters. Go Motion used puppets on computers to track their movements, inducing a motion blur and give the appearance that puppets were moving more naturally. I guess it was a lot like rotoscoping for the Lightsaber effects. ILM tried this out with some success in The Empire Strikes Back, and a combination of either Stop Motion or Go Motion was used in many films right up until CGI came along. The look of the Dragon itself was very aggressive and its look can be seen in similar films like Reign of Fire. Most of the effects haven’t held up very well at all under HD, and you can clearly see some of the areas where effects start and end.
It should be noted that Stop Motion is still in use today and is very popular with animated fares like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, and the Academy Award Nominated Film, Frankenweenie.
Through the Shattered Lens 