Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a very happy birthday to the great Robert Zemeckis. Today’s scene that I love comes from Zemeckis’s 1985 film, Back to the Future.
Did you know that rock and roll was invented by a time traveler? Well, let’s not overthink things. Let’s just enjoy the scene.
One of my favorite Chow Yun-Fat action films is Ringo Lam’s FULL CONTACT. Up until FULL CONTACT, Chow Yun-Fat was mostly the suave hitman or tough cop in his action films. Here, he’s a man content with operating on the wrong side of the law to try to get ahead. Unfortunately, he is betrayed by his best friend and criminal cohorts and left for dead in a foreign country. This rock-fueled montage sequence shows him healing up and then preparing to take his revenge, while his best friend / betrayer tries to “be there” for his girlfriend who thinks he’s dead. It’s a badass, multi-fingerless, Chow Yun-Fat who wears bandanas, rides a motorcycle, hangs with a cute dog, and ultimately takes no prisoners. My guess is this scene will make you want to watch FULL CONTACT!
(Note: The video is frozen for the first 8 seconds. After that, the fun begins)
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 is Harvey Keitel’s 86th birthday! Harvey Keitel is one of the great, fearless actors of our time (BAD LIEUTENANT, anyone). He has been working hard since 1965, and he’s still going strong today, adding up to a career that spans 60 years and counting. His work for great directors like Scorsese and Tarantino has been vital to the quality and success of those films. I really came to appreciate Keitel when he had somewhat of a career resurgence in the early 90’s when I was in my late teens. He’s just a great actor who makes everything he appears in better.
Today, in honor of Harvey Keitel’s 86th birthday, here are 4 Shots from 4 Films!
MEAN STREETS (1973)
FINGERS (1978)
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996)
Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday May 12th, we are showing STRATEGIC COMMAND (1997) starring Michael Dudikoff, Paul Winfield, Richard Norton, Amanda Wyss, Bryan Cranston, and Michael Cavanaugh.
This movie focuses on Rick Harding (Michael Dudikoff), a former Marines officer, who’s now working in the FBI as a chemical weapons designer. While packing up one night, a group of armed soldiers break into the FBI research lab. Interestingly, these soldiers are led by a man named Carlos Gruber (Richard Norton).
So, join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch STRATEGIC COMMAND! It’s on Amazon Prime. The trailer is included below:
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 1991’s Eve of Destruction!
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 Eve of Destruction on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!
Enjoy!
On this date, 118 years ago, Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She would go one to become a cultural icon, a performer who survived being labeled box office to poison to eventually become one of our most acclaimed actresses. Hepburn was a total of four acting Oscars over the course of her career, a record that has yet to be topped.
Today’s scene that I love comes from 1940’s The Philadelphia Story and it features Katharine Hepburn acting opposite another one of my favorite performers, the great James Stewart.
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 is the 95th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Franco! One of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, Franco made movies that …. well, they’re not easy to describe. Jess Franco was responsible for some of the most visually striking and narratively incoherent films ever made. He made films that you either loved or you hated but there was no mistaking his work for being the work of someone else.
Today, in honor of his birthday, here are….
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Godofredo Pacheco)
A Virgin Among The Living Dead (1970, dir by Jess Franco, DP: anyone’s guess)
She Killed In Ecstasy (1970, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Manuel Merino)
Female Vampire (1973, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Jess Franco)
Chow Yun-Fat was such a big Hong Kong movie star, and he couldn’t do anything wrong in the late 80’s. While he’s most well known for his action films, he also starred in a lot of comedies. He was often goofy and over the top and the audiences loved it. In the hit film, THE DIARY OF A BIG MAN (1988), Chow plays a man married to two of the most beautiful women of Hong Kong cinema, Sally Yeh (THE KILLER) and Joey Wong (GOD OF GAMBLERS)… at the same time. Needless to say, it’s not an easy situation. Fair warning, if you’ve never seen a Chow Yun-Fat comedy, this may take some getting used to. I personally love it and can’t help but smile as big as Chow when I watch it. I present Chow Yun-Fat singing “Oh Very Nice” from THE DIARY OF A BIG MAN. Enjoy my friends!
Norman Bates, now there’s someone who probably made a big deal out of every Mother’s Day. Today’s scene that I love comes from 1960’s Psycho and features Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, and Anthony Perkins at their absolute best,
Chow Yun-Fat has been in so many interesting movies, from underrated Hong Kong Films, to multiple Oscar Winners, to big budget Hollywood fluff! As we continue to move forward to his 70th birthday on May 18th, 2025, I celebrate some of his performances that I find quite interesting!
TIGER ON BEAT (1988)
FULL CONTACT (1992)
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)
PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: AT WORLD’S END (2007)
Through the Shattered Lens 