4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Stanley Donen Edition

Posted on April 13, 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 would have been the 101st birthday of the great Stanley Donen. It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Stanley Donen Films

Singin’ In The Rain (1952, dir by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, DP: Harold Rosson)

Funny Face (1957, dir by Stanley Donen, DP; Ray June)

Charade (1963, dir by Stanley Donen, DP; Charles Lang)

Two For The Road (1967, dir by Stanley Donen, DP: Christopher Challis)

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special 1993 Edition

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we pay tribute to the year 1993 with….

4 Shots From 4 1993 Films

Dazed and Confused (1993, dir by Richard Linklater, DP: Lee Daniel)

Schindler’s List (1993, dir by Steven Spielberg, DP: Janusz Kamiński)

Trauma (1993, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Raffaele Mertes)

Indecent Proposal (1993, dir by Adrian Lyne, DP: Howard Atherton)

Scenes That I Love: Nicky Katt Meets Adam Goldberg in Dazed and Confused

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Rest in peace, the great character actor Nicky Katt. The details are still sketchy but it’s being reported that he passed away at the age of 54.

Katt was a child actor who transitioned into adult roles. He appeared in a lot of movies but I’ll always remember him as Clint, the absolutely terrifying bully in 1993’s Dazed and Confused. Here he is, scaring the heck out of poor Adam Goldberg.

(For a while, there were plans for a Dazed and Confused sequel in which Clint reformed and became a respected businessman while Adam Goldberg’s Mike went insane as he continued to obsess on that fight back in 1976.)

The Eric Roberts Collection: The Perfect Summer (dir by Gary Wheeler)

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s the perfect summer …. or is it?

In this 2013 film, teenage Jake (Adam Horner) moves to California with his mother, Alyssa (Sydney Penny). They move in with Jake’s grandfather, surf shop owner Lou Reynolds (Eric Roberts). At first, Jake is miserable. He misses his friends. He doesn’t know what to make of the California lifestyle. He has a crush on Kayla (Katie Garfield) but he feels insecure because he can’t surf and, when he does buy a surfboard, it’s promptly broken in half by the local surf bullies.

(Is there really such a thing as surf bullies? I’ve never lived on the beach so I really haven’t had much experience with surfers. The ones that I met in Hawaii and Galveston all seemed pretty cool, though. But, in the movies, they’re all like, “Can’t surf our beach, brah.” A part of me suspects that movies should not be used as a guide for real life.)

It’s a good thing that Lou just happens to be a legendary surfer! While Alyssa pursues a romance with Marcos (Louis Mandylor), Lou tries to teach his grandson how to surf. It’s not always easy. Jake gets frustrated easily and he doesn’t quite understand the zen philosophy behind surfing. But, with Lou’s help, Jake gets the hang of it and soon, Jake is ready to enter the big surging competition!

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because you’ve already seen a hundred films like this. Think of The Karate Kid, but with surfing and Eric Roberts as the mentor. It’s all very predictable but the beach is pretty. The ocean is majestic. My favorite American Idol also-ran, Jason Castro, shows up for a few minutes. And Eric Roberts actually gets a fairly substantial role and a chance to show what a good actor he can actually be! There’s absolutely nothing surprising about the film but, for what it is, The Perfect Summer works.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for Nomads!

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 9 pm et, Deanna Dawn will be hosting #ScarySocial! The movie? 1986‘s Nomads!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial 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.

Nomads is available on Prime!

See you there!

Scenes That I Love: Sheriff Teasle Arrests John Rambo in First Blood

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Director Ted Kotcheff has passed away.

Kotcheff directed a lot of classic films but perhaps the most influential was 1982’s First Blood. In today’s scene that I love, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is arrested by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy). Teasle may think that he’s keeping his community safe and teaching Rambo a lesson about respecting authority but, needless to say, he’s making a huge mistake.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special John Milius Edition

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today is John Milius’s birthday and you know what? It should be a national holiday!

It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 John Milius Films

Dillinger (1973, dir by John Milius, DP: Jules Brenner)

Big Wednesday (1978, dir by John Milius, DP: Bruce Surtees)

Conan The Barbarian (1982, dir by John Milius, DP: Duke Callaghan)

Red Dawn (1984, dir by John Milius, DP: Ric Waite)

The Eric Roberts Collection: Deadly Sanctuary (dir by Nancy Criss)

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2015’s Deadly Sanctuary, Philadelphia reporter Kendall O’Dell (Rebekah Kochan) relocates to a small town in Arizona and proceeds to spend the majority of the movie complaining about it.

Seriously, I could relate to Kendall to an extent. We both have red hair. We both have asthma. We both hate snakes. We both wear high heels in the desert. We’ve both run outside in our underwear after coming across a tarantula in our house. But, even with all that in mind, even I quickly got annoyed with listening to her complain about every little thing. Her father got her a job at the Arizona newspaper so, of course, Kendall calls him up to complain about the desert. An old man stops and helps to shoo a snake away from Kendall’s car so, of course, Kendall gives him the glare of death when he casually calls her “sweetie.” (The guy’s 70 and was clearly not hitting on Kendall so maybe he can be forgiven for not speaking like a 30-something grad student.) Kendall shows up late for her job interview so, of course, she complains about the newspaper to her editor (Eric Roberts). Kendall gets a place to live, rent-free. She complains about the house being located near a mental hospital. Kendall’s co-worker, Ginger (Teri Lee), sets Kendall up with both a handsome cowboy (Marco Dapper) and the richest man in town (Peter Greene) and, of course, Kendall finds an excuse to complain about it.

Eventually, a plot of sorts kicks in. Kendall investigates the death of her predecessor and discovers that the sheriff (Dean Cain) doesn’t seem to be all the interested in solving any of the murders that seem to occur around town. She also tries to set up an interview with Dr. Price (Daniel Baldwin), the owner of the mental hospital, but it turns out that he doesn’t want to talk to her. He doesn’t care that she once wrote a series of articles about mental health in Philadelphia. (Yikes! I’ve seen Parking Wars so I can only guess how scary that must have been.)

Kendall hears strange voices in her house and spiders keep showing up at inopportune moments. Who can she trust? Who is the bad guy here? The rich guy or the salt-of-the-Earth cowboy dude? Well, I won’t spoil the film. I will say that the plot had potential but the poor pacing and the unlikable lead character eventually combine to do this movie in.

Eric Roberts is his usual avuncular self in this film. He spends most of his scenes sitting behind a desk. The rest of the film’s celebrity cameo budget was apparently spent on Dean Cain and Daniel Baldwin, both of whom seem rather bored with the whole thing.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Live Tweet Alert: Join #FridayNightFlix for Destroy All Monsters!

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties. On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday. On Mastodon, 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 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? 1968’s Destroy All Monsters, with Godzilla and friends!

If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix 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.

Destroy All Monsters is available on Prime!

See you there!

Scenes That I Love: A Conversation From Heat

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love is a little scene from 1995’s Heat.

This isn’t a scene that regularly gets mentioned when it comes to discussing the many iconic scenes in this film but I picked it because it features good work from two actors who are no longer with us, Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore. Add to that, Danny Trejo’s pithy comment at the end — after all the discussion that’s happened before it — is simply perfect.