It’s Super Bowl Sunday and you know what that means! It’s time to watch and judge all of the Super Bowl commercials! It’s also the time that those of us at the Shattered Lens try to post all of the trailers, teasers, and film-related commercials that air during the Big Game!
Let’s get things started with this Super Bowl teaser for Kung Fu Panda 4!
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1984’s Pigs vs. Freaks! It can be viewed on YouTube.
In the late 1960s, a small town is divided between the conservative older generation and their rebellious hippie children. Former high school football star Doug Zimmer (Patrick Swayze) has just returned from fighting in Vietnam and, unlike many of his former classmates, he is firmly on the side of the establishment. He wears his hair short. He has a job as a cop. He tries to keep his younger sister, Janice (Penny Peyser), from hanging out with hippies like his former best friend, Neal (Grant Goodeve).
Neal is also the son of the local police chief, Frank Brockmeyer (Eugene Roche). Though Frank and Neal have different political beliefs and Frank is always telling Neal to get a haircut, they still have a respectful relationship. When Neal complains that cops like Doug and his partner, Sgt. Cheever (Brian Dennehy), are always harassing the hippies who want to play football in park, Frank suggests a football game between the hippies and the police. When Neal agrees, the game becomes known as “Pigs vs. Freaks.”
While Frank coaches the Pigs and signs a few former athlete as police reservists, Neal recruits his former little league coach, a bearded guru who now goes by the name of Rambaba Organimus (Tony Randall) to serve as the Freak’s coach. He also places a call to a former football star named Mickey South (Adam Baldwin) and talks him into coming down from Canada to play in the game. Of course, Mickey is wanted by the FBI for dodging the draft so it might not seem like a great idea for him to risk federal prison for an exhibition football game but no matter! Who cares that there are now two federal agents watching the Freaks practice? There’s a game to be won!
Pigs vs. Freaks is an amiable mix of comedy and drama. Some of the comedy, like Tony Randall’s bearded guru and Stephen Furst’s perpetually frantic hippie linebacker, is a bit too broad but there’s enough moments of dramatic insight that it’s easy to overlook those flaws. I appreciated the fact that both the Freaks and the Pigs are treated fairly, with both sides getting a chance to make a case for themselves. When they first appear and start harassing the hippies for playing football in the park, it’s easy to dismiss both Doug and Cheever as fascists but a later scene, which is very well-played by both Brian Dennehy and Patrick Swayze, establishes them as just being two men who are confused by the direction of the world. Swayze, in particular, gives a strong performance that reveals the vulnerability underneath Doug’s tough exterior. As for the hippies, Mickey South is no self-righteous crusader but instead someone who feels the Vietnam War is wrong but who is also someone who both misses and loves his home country. Adam Baldwin does a wonderful playing him and is well-matched with Grant Goodeve, who plays the most reasonable hippie that one could hope to meet.
It’s a likable film and well-intentioned, a portrait of two opposing groups brought together by the love of one game. Some will cheer for the Pigs. Some will cheer for the Freaks. I cheered for both.
The Directors Guild of America announced their picks for best of 2023 last night and any doubt that Oppenheimer was the clear Oscar front runner were pretty much eliminated by Christopher Nolan’s victory.
Here are the winners!
NARRATIVE FEATURE FILM
GRETA GERWIG – Barbie
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN – Oppenheimer
YORGOS LANTHIMOS – Poor Things
ALEXANDER PAYNE – The Holdovers
MARTIN SCORSESE – Killers of the Flower Moon
FIRST TIME NARRATIVE FEATURE FILM
CORD JEFFERSON – American Fiction
MANUELA MARTELLI – Chile ’76
NOORA NIASARI – Shayda
A.V. ROCKWELL – A Thousand And One
CELINE SONG – Past Lives
DOCUMENTARY
MOSES BWAYO & CHRISTOPHER SHARP – Bobi Wine: The People’s President
MSTYSLAV CHERNOV – 20 Days In Mariupol
MADELEINE GAVIN – Beyond Utopia
DAVIS GUGGENHEIM – Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
D. SMITH – Kokomo City
DRAMATIC SERIES
PETER HOAR – The Last Of Us, “Long, Long Time”
BECKY MARTIN – Succession, “Rehearsal”
MARK MYLOD – Succession, “Connor’s Wedding”
ANDRIJ PAREKH – Succession, “America Decides”
ROBERT PULCINI & SHARI SPRINGER BERMAN – Succession, “Tailgate Party”
COMEDY SERIES
ERICA DUNTON – Ted Lasso, “La Locker Room Aux Folles”
BILL HADER – Barry, “Wow”
DECLAN LOWNEY – Ted Lasso, “So Long, Farewell”
CHRISTOPHER STORER – The Bear, “Fishes”
RAMY YOUSSEF – The Bear, “Honeydew”
MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND LIMITED SERIES
SHAWN LEVY – All The Light We Cannot See
TARA MIELE – Lessons In Chemistry, “Introduction To Chemistry”
MILLICENT SHELTON – Lessons In Chemistry, “Poirot”
SARAH ADINA SMITH – Lessons In Chemistry, “Her And Him”
NZINGHA STEWART – Daisy Jones & The Six, “Track 10: Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide”
VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING
PAUL G. CASEY – Real Time With Bill Maher, “Episode 2117”
JIM HOSKINSON – The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, “Jan. 19, 2023: Rep. Adam Kinzinger; Meet Me At The Altar; Special Appearance By Harvey Guillén”
MICHAEL MANCINI & LIZ PATRICK – Saturday Night Live, “Pedro Pascal / Coldplay”
DAVID PAUL MEYER – The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, “Singer Charley Crockett Performs “Name On A Billboard” And Discusses New Album With Jordan Klepper “
PAUL PENNOLINO – Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, “Episode 1018: Dollar Stores”
VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS – SPECIALS
JOEL GALLEN – Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
STAN LATHAN – Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer
LINDA MENDOZA – Wanda Sykes: I’m An Entertainer
PAUL MILLER – Carol Burnett: 90 Years Of Laughter + Love
GLENN WEISS – The 95th Annual Academy Awards
REALITY PROGRAMS
NIHARIKA DESAI – Rainn Wilson And The Geography Of Bliss, “Happiness Is A Bottle Of Cod Liver Oil”
KEN FUCHS – The Golden Bachelor, “Premiere”
JOSEPH GUIDRY & ALEXANDRA LIPSITZ – Project Greenlight: A New Generation, “PGL Vs. Gray Matter Problem”
RICH KIM – Lego Masters, “Is It Brick?”
PATRICK McMANUS – American Ninja Warrior, “Season 15 Finale”
CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
JAMES BOBIN – Percy Jackson And The Olympians, “I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher”
DESTIN DANIEL CRETTON – American Born Chinese, “What Guy Are You”
ROB LETTERMAN – Goosebumps, “Say Cheese And Die”
AMY SCHATZ – Stand Up & Shout: Songs From A Philly High School
DINH THAI – American Born Chinese, “A Monkey On A Quest”
COMMERCIALS
MARTIN De THURAH (Epoch Films) – Fair Exchange, Levi’s 501 Jeans – Droga5, Legends Never Die, Levi’s 501 Jeans, Droga5
SEB EDWARDS (Park Pictures) – Rumble, Battle Of The Baddest – Droga5
KIM GEHRIG (Somesuch) – Run This Town, Apple Music – Apple
CRAIG GILLESPIE (MJZ) – Waiting Room, Apple Iphone – TBWA/Media Arts Lab
ANDREAS NILSSON (Biscuit Filmworks) – R.I.P. Leon, Apple Iphone – Apple, Action Mode, Apple Iphone14 – Apple, Choose Happy, Les Mills Fitness – Nice&Frank, San Francisco
Wait’ll You See This, Snapchat – Snapchat
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, Deanna Dawn will be hosting 1991’s The Boneyard!
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. I’ll probably be there 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 and Mastodon. 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 10 pm et, we’ve got a comedy classic, 2007’s Blades of Glory!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Blades of Glory is available on Prime! See you there!
2015’s Inside Out was a sincere, touching, sad, and joyful animated film. If we’re going to be totally honest, it was the last truly great film to come out of PIXAR. I absolutely loved it and …. it’s getting a sequel!
Normally, I’m weary of sequels to beloved films. There’s always such a danger of tarnishing the original film’s legacy with a misplaced joke or an ill-thought plot development. But Inside Out, which is about growing up and dealing with one’s developing emotions, is uniquely designed to be sequel-friendly. We never stop growing and we never stop having emotions. And, as we see in the just-released teaser for Inside Out 2, sometimes new emotions pop up out of nowhere.
Here’s the teaser for Inside Out 2!
Yes, this is an A24 film. It seems like, every March, A24 releases a stylized genre film that is specifically designed to appeal to a very online segment of film reviewers. It seems to be working out pretty well so I can’t blame them.
Here’s the trailer!
A Quiet Place: Day One is coming out in June. It’s another Quiet Place film, just without any of the characters that you actually care about from the previous two films.
“Find out why the world went silent.”
Uhmm, don’t we already know that? Like the aliens that hunt by sound showed up so everyone had to be quiet to avoid being killed in a grisly manner? See, this is why I’m not a fan of prequels. A lot of times, prequels are based on the idea that people are asking question that no one is actually asking.
Anyway, A Quiet Place: Day One was not directed by John Krasinski and it does not star Emily Blunt but they both appear in the trailer. It was directed by the guy who did Pig, which was a good film. Honestly, this kind of feels like Chloe Zhao doing The Eternals and then vanishing.
Here’s the trailer!
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 Fortune Dane (1986), starring the great Carl Weathers!
Then, on twitter, #MondayMuggers will be showing 2018’s Skyscraper, starring Dwayne Johnson! The film is on Prime and it starts at 10 pm et!
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 Fortune Dane on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! Then switch over to twitter, pull Skyscraper up on Prime, and use the #MondayMuggers hashtag!
Enjoy!
A thoroughly misguided film, 2010’s Loving the Bad Man tells the story of Julie Thompson (Cree Kelly) and Mike Connor (Arturo Rossi).
Julie is a young woman who is so religious that she wears a Jesus Saves button to work and she agrees to let a young shoplifter off the hook on the condition that he go to church with her. One night, Julie gets a flat tire while driving home. Looking for help, she stumbles into a sleazy bar. Mike Connor is a young mechanic from a broken home who just happens to be having a beer that night. He offers to help Julie out.
Mike fixes Julie’s car but, the entire time that he’s working on it, he’s having flashbacks to an earlier physical confrontation that he had with his boss at the local garage. Mike has issues with people looking down on him and when Julie attempts to thank Mike for his work by giving him a tip, Mike snaps. Screaming that he’s not poor, he grabs Julie and, off-screen, he rapes her.
Mike goes to prison. Julie gets pregnant but, despite the efforts of her family to convince her otherwise, Julie refuses to have an abortion. While Mike is being targeted by the head of the Aryan brotherhood, Julie is giving birth. While Mike is being tutored by the wise elder prisoner, Julie is raising her son. After reading in the Bible that one must be willing to forgive all who have sinned against them, Julie decides that she has to forgive the bad man.
Now, there’s a lot about the first part of the film that doesn’t work. Playing an upbeat Christian pop song over a rape kit montage is not a decision I would have made. The fact that Julie never appears to actually be traumatized by her rape is another big problem. The only time Julie gets angry is when her parents suggest that she not keep a child fathered by the man who raped her. (At this point, I should perhaps note that, when it comes to abortion, I’ve never felt comfortable with the extremes of either side of the issue. As far as this film goes, I could respect Julie’s parents’ point while also respecting Julie’s decision to keep the baby. That was entirely due to my own personal feelings as opposed to any type of nuance on the part of the film.) Finally, the authenticity of the film’s prison scenes are not helped by the decision to cast Stephen Baldwin (complete with obviously fake tattoos) as the head of the Aryan Brotherhood.
That said, I am a believer in forgiveness. Many crime victims have spoken and written about the importance of being able to forgive the people who victimized them, often describing it as the first step in moving on with their lives. However, forgiveness does not mean forgetting about what someone did or becoming that person’s best friend. Ideally, it means letting go of the hate that was holding you back. By forgiving those who have hurt you, you’re basically refusing to allow them to control your lives.
So, I don’t have a problem with Julie forgiving Mike. I do have a problem with Julie continually showing up at the prison with a big smile on her face and introducing Mike to his son. I have a problem with her baking cookies for him. I especially have a problem with Julie eventually declaring that she’s fallen in love with Mike and telling him that meeting him was the best thing that ever happened to her because it led to the birth of her son. I don’t care how much of a Christian she is or how into forgiveness she is, no woman is going to react like that when seeing the man who raped her. Nor should any woman be expected to react like that, regardless of how guilty Mike feels or how many times Mike declares that he loves Julie as well. That doesn’t mean that Julie can’t forgive the bad man. Nor does it mean that Mike can’t try to change his life while he’s in prison. But the actions of the characters in this film make no sense.
Worst of all, the film builds up to a climax in which it appears Mike might have to sacrifice himself to protect Julie. It is true that Jesus forgave the incarcerated. But it’s also true that Absalom threw a feast specifically so he could have his half-brother killed after the latter raped their sister.
Forgiveness is a good message but this film’s execution is offensive. Perhaps the only highlight is Stephen Baldwin acting like a tough guy and looking like he’s fighting the urge to laugh every time he opens his mouth.
Through the Shattered Lens 