Insomnia Files #71 and #72: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (dir by Bruce Bilson) and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders II (dir by Michael O’Herlihy)

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable or streaming? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If you were having trouble getting to sleep last night, you could have gone over to YouTube and watched 1979’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders! And then, if you were still having trouble getting to sleep, you could have followed it up with 1980’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders II! And then if you were somehow still not able to get any rest …. well, sorry. There’s only two of them. I guess you could watch that Making the Team show. I don’t know.

Anyway, back to the movies!

The first Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders stars Jane Seymour as a serious journalist who at first scoffs at the idea of going undercover as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. But her ex-boyfriend and editor (Bert Convy) insists that she take the assignment. Jane goes undercover and even makes the squad! (It’s never mentioned whether she has any sort of dance or cheerleading experience so I find it a bit odd that she actually made it onto a professional cheerleading squad but whatever….) Seymour gets to know the other members of the Squad, including the Love Boat’s Lauren Tewes. She comes to realize that she doesn’t want to write up a tabloid story about the cheerleaders. These are “good, down home girls,” she tells Convy. Convy doesn’t care. He wants scandal!

He’s not going to get it, though. The main message of this film is that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are basically saints with pom poms. Sure, one of them has a loser ex-boyfriend. And another one of them struggles a bit with the routines. It’s not an easy job but, in the end, everyone does their bit to support the team!

It’s all pretty silly but I’m from Dallas and I’m surrounded by Cowboy fans who have been complaining nonstop about the team for as long as I can remember so I enjoyed watching a movie that portrayed the Cowboys organization as being the greatest group of people on the planet. (No drug or gun problems here!) It’s very much a film of the 70s, made for television and straddling the line between being exploitive and being wholesome. Yes, the costumes are skimpy but no one smokes, drinks, or curses. The film features soapy drama, actual Dallas locations, 70s fashion, a great disco soundtrack, and dorky Bert Convy as a womanizer. Plus, like me, Jane Seymour has mismatched eyes. How can you not love this film!?

As for the sequel, it ditches almost everyone from the first film. Only Laraine Stephens, as the squad’s no-nonsense coach, returns. She’s got a whole new squad to deal with and only a limited amount of time to perfect the cheer that will win the Cowboys the Super….sorry, I mean to say the playoff game. Whenever anyone in the film says, “playoff game,” their lips read “Super Bowl,” so I guess there was some last-minute tinkering after shooting was completed. The squad also has to get ready to tour with the USO and to perform at a children’s hospital. (Ray Wise appears as a doctor at the children’s hospital.) The Cheerleaders are not only going to bring peace to the world but they’re also going to give those children the inspiration they need to get better. Yay!

This one isn’t as much fun, largely because Laraine Stephens’s character isn’t that much fun. The first film featured the very British Jane Seymour in Texas, somehow becoming a member of an all-American football team’s cheerleading squad and it was impossible not to enjoy the implausibility of it all. The second film is just Laraine Stephens getting mad at people for not having the routine down to perfection. No thanks, movie, I’m done with dealing with demanding choreographers. There’s a reason why I turned down all of those offers to join the cheer squad in high school. (For the record, my sister was the greatest cheerleader our high school ever had or ever will have! Erin watched the first movie with me a few weeks ago. She said it was okay but she didn’t think Jane Seymour was a convincing cheerleader.)

According to what I’ve read online, the first Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders film was a huge rating success. The second film was less so, which I guess is why there was never a third.

Previous Insomnia Files:

Story of Mankind
Stag
Love Is A Gun
Nina Takes A Lover
Black Ice
Frogs For Snakes
Fair Game
From The Hip
Born Killers
Eye For An Eye
Summer Catch
Beyond the Law
Spring Broke
Promise
George Wallace
Kill The Messenger
The Suburbans
Only The Strong
Great Expectations
Casual Sex?
Truth
Insomina
Death Do Us Part
A Star is Born
The Winning Season
Rabbit Run
Remember My Name
The Arrangement
Day of the Animals
Still of The Night
Arsenal
Smooth Talk
The Comedian
The Minus Man
Donnie Brasco
Punchline
Evita
Six: The Mark Unleashed
Disclosure
The Spanish Prisoner
Elektra
Revenge
Legend
Cat Run
The Pyramid
Enter the Ninja
Downhill
Malice
Mystery Date
Zola
Ira & Abby
The Next Karate Kid
A Nightmare on Drug Street
Jud
FTA
Exterminators of the Year 3000
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster
The Haunting of Helen Walker
True Spirit
Project Kill
Replica
Rollergator
Hillbillys In A Haunted House
Once Upon A Midnight Scary
Girl Lost
Ghosts Can’t Do It
Heist
Mind, Body & Soul
Candy
Shortcut to Happiness

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” – Jill Clayburgh as Jill Ireland and Lance Henriksen as Charles Bronson

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Bradley Crain

Jill Clayburgh would have been 81 years old today. She was quite an actress, receiving 2 Academy Award nominations during her career for her performances in the films AN UNMARRIED WOMAN (1978) and STARTING OVER (1979). She will always be special to me based on her performance as Jill Ireland in the 1991 Made-for-TV film REASON FOR LIVING: THE JILL IRELAND story. Clayburgh passed away in 2010 after a long struggle with leukemia.

Scenes I Love: Burt Young Takes Out A Pinball Machine in Rocky III

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the 85th birthday of the great character actor Burt Young.

Burt Young appeared in a lot of classic films. He had a streetwise authenticity about him and he was one of those guys who looked a bit older than his years. (He was only 36 when he appeared in Rocky.) Young played cops and gangsters and New York characters of all stripes. That said, to most people, he’ll always be Paulie, the brother-in-law of Rocky Balboa. Young did such a good job playing Paulie that this character became beloved, despite being a racist misogynist who managed to screw up Rocky’s life in nearly every Rocky film in which he appeared.

(In real life, Burt Young was a painter and a poet, showing that one should never judge a book by its cover. Unless it’s one of those really badass covers that my sisters likes to share.)

Today’s scene that I love is a classic Paulie scene. Rocky may be the world’s most popular boxer but Paulie’s getting a little tired of him. A pinball machine is about to pay the price. From Rocky III, here is a scene that I love.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Lars Von Trier Edition

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 69nth birthday to cinematic provocateur, Lars Von Trier!

It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Lars Von Trier Films

Europa (1991, directed by Lars Von Trier, DP: Henning Bendtsen,
Edward Kłosiński, Jean-Paul Meurisse. Released as Zentropa in North America)

Breaking the Waves (1996, dir by Lars Von Trier, DP: Robby Muller)

Dogville (2002, dir by Lars Von Trier, DP: Anthony Dod Mantle)

Melancholia (2011, dir by Lars Von Trier, DP: Manuel Alberto Claro)

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Rideshare Killer (dir by Ashley Scott Meyers)

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

W-Ride! W-Ride! W-Ride!

2022’s The Rideshare Killer ends with the creation of W-Ride, a rideshare app for women only. All of the drivers are women. All of other passengers are women. Men are not allowed to get in the car. The sounds like a good idea to me, though I imagine it would probably lead to a lawsuit in real life. Actually, forget probably. It would definitely lead to a lawsuit. That said, I would still download the app.

Unfortunately, Julia (Tuesday Knight) only comes up with the idea after almost all of her friends and co-workers are murdered by a serial killer. Julia is the CEO of Rock N Ride, the rideshare app that is singlehandedly making taxis obsolete. She and two friends run it from her living room. They all have laptops so we know they’re coders. Who is the killer? I won’t spoil it, beyond saying that it won’t take you by surprise. That said, I did laugh out loud when I heard the killer’s motive because it seems like something that could have been accomplished without necessarily becoming a serial killer. Someone obviously did not think things through before deciding to become a criminal.

The main reason I watched this movie was because Eric Roberts was in it. He plays the detective who is investigating the murders. It’s a typical Eric Roberts cameo. He delivers his lines with his signature half-smile, as if he can’t believe the kids today with their laptops and the rideshares. As for the rest of the movie, it’s pretty dire. The budget was obviously low and the cast stiffly delivers their lines with the type of overly precise diction that one would expect to hear in a high school theatrical production. Tuesday Knight is not a bad actress but she’s tripped up by a poorly written script.

That said, I’ll never get W-Ride W-ride W-ride out of my head.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Scenes That I Love: The Ending of High Noon

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In honor of Fred Zinnemann’s birthday, today’s scene of the day comes from his best film, 1952’s High Noon. High Noon tells the story of the honest and forthright Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper), who finds himself abandoned by the town that he’s faithfully served when it is rumored that a fearsome gunman will be arriving at noon to seek revenge on the man who previously sent him to prison.

Below, we have the final scene of High Noon, in which the cowardly townspeople finally come to support Marshal Kane. Kane, disgusted by their actions, can only throw away his star and leave town. Even without dialogue, Cooper lets you know exactly what is going through Kane’s mind. It’s a great scene from a great film featuring a great actor and directed by a great filmmaker.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Fred Zinnemann Edition

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

118 years ago, on this date, Fred Zinnemann was born in what is now Poland. Though he originally considered studying to become a lawyer, a teenage Zinnemann instead became fascinated with the relatively new medium of film. He immigrated to the United States in 1928, hoping to find more opportunities as an aspiring director. After working as an actor and crew member on several films, Zinnemann made his directorial debut in 1936.

His film career was span 50 years, during which time Zinnemann became known for making films about strong individuals who refused to back down in the face of societal pressure. In total, his films received 65 Oscar nominations and won 24. Zinnemann was nominated ten times and won three Oscars. Two of his films, From Here To Eternity and A Man For All Seasons, won best picture. While many of his contemporaries were retiring or fading into irrelevance, Zinnemann remained an important director throughout the 70s and early 80s.

Today, we honor the legacy of Fred Zinnemann with….

4 Shots From 4 Fred Zinnemann Films

High Noon (1952, dir by Fred Zinnemann, DP: Floyd Crosby)

From Here To Eternity (1953, dir by Fred Zinnemann, DP: Floyd Crosby and Burnett Guffey)

A Man For All Seasons (1966, dir by Fred Zinnemann, DP: Ted Moore)

The Day of the Jackal (1973, dir by Fred Zinnemann, DP: Jean Tournier)

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Chaos Experiment (dir by Philippe Martinez)

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2009’s The Chaos Experiment, Val Kilmer stars as James Pettis, a twitchy man who shows up at the offices of a Michigan newspaper and says that he wants them to publish an editorial he has written. The editorial is about global warming (yawn) and the danger of humanity going extinct (double yawn). Pettis goes on to explain that he has trapped six people in a steam room and that he has turned the temperature up to 130 degrees, the better to demonstrate what destroying the environment is doing to humanity.

Cynical detective Manicni (Armanda Assante) is called and he listens to Pettis’s story. Mancini has some doubts as to whether or not Pettis is who he says he is. As Pettis describes what is happening in the steam room, Mancini comes to suspect that Pettis is either lying or else the murders happened a while ago. Pettis, for his part, seems to grow more and more delusional as he speaks to Manicni.

When we’re not listening to Mancini and Pettis, we’re watching six unfortunate people trapped in steam room. They are played by Eric Roberts, Patrick Muldoon, Megan Brown, Eve Mauro, Quinn Duffy, and Cordelia Reynolds. They start out as a friendly group but, once it becomes apparent that they’re trapped in the room, they lose it. They start turning on and attacking each other. The first to die is killed while strangling another hostage. The second is taken out by a unseen person with a nail gun. Cast as a former football player who claims to be from “Dallas-Fort Worth,” Eric Roberts goes from being the voice of reason to being a paranoid wreck. Meanwhile, the viewer is left to figure out whether or not any of this is happening or if it’s all just in Pettis’s mind.

I kind of cringed when Pettis said he had written an editorial about global warming but the environmental stuff is just a red herring. The film is actually about the cat-and-mouse game between Pettis and Detective Mancini and the investigation into whether or not Pettis has actually trapped six people in a steam room. It’s an intriguing premise and Val Kilmer gives a surprisingly committed performance as the unstable Pettis. Unfortunately, whenever the film cuts to the people in the steam room, it gets bogged down in all the usual Saw-style dramatics. I appreciate that the film found room for Eric Roberts to give a real performance (and Roberts does a good job, going from being affable to murderous over the course of the movie) but, even at the time when this film first came out, the people-trapped-in-a-room thing had been done to death and the scenes in steam room were ultimately a bit too repetitive to be as effective as they needed to be. That said, the film does end with a nice twist and it did hold my attention.

If nothing else, this is your only chance to see Val Kilmer, Armand Assante, Patrick Muldoon, and Eric Roberts, all in the same movie. That counts for something.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Scenes That I Love: Ann-Margaret In Tommy

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to the legendary Ann-Margaret!

Today’s scene that I love comes from 1975’s Tommy and it features Ann-Margaret helping Tommy to smash the mirror.

6 Shots From 6 Films: Special 1996 Edition

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

6 Shots From 6 Films is just what it says it is, 6 shots from 6 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 6 Shots From 6 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, we take a look at a classic cinematic year. It’s time for….

6 Shots From 6 1996 Films