Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us For Starcrash!

Posted on May 4, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasionally 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 Starcrash! I picked it so you know it’ll be good.

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, find the movie on YouTube, Tubi, or Prime, hit play at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag! The watch party community is a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

See you soon!

Brad reviews CRISIS NEGOTIATORS (2024), starring Lau Ching-Wan & Francis Ng!

Posted on May 3, 2026 by Bradley Crain

My wife loves Hallmark movies and a handful of other movies that she tends to want to watch over and over again. That list of movies includes DIE HARD, VOLCANO, STRIKING DISTANCE and THE NEGOTIATOR. Every time we go to the family cabin for a weekend getaway, she insists that I pack our DVD of THE NEGOTIATOR to watch at some point over the weekend. It’s fair to say I’ve watched the film at least 10 times over the last 10 years or so, and I really do enjoy it. Did you know that filmmakers in Hong Kong remade THE NEGOTIATOR back in 2024 under the title of CRISIS NEGOTIATORS? It’s produced by superstar Andy Lau, who does a cameo. It’s directed by Herman Yau, who’s directed such successful and diverse films as THE UNTOLD STORY and the SHOCK WAVE franchise. It stars two of the best Hong Kong actors of the last 3 decades in Lau Ching-Wan & Francis Ng. Of course I had to see it!

If you’ve seen the original film, there aren’t a lot of surprises in CRISIS NEGOTIATORS. Lau Ching-Wan plays Man Wai, an expert police negotiator. After celebrating his latest birthday, he gets a message to meet a friend and co-worker whose investigation into thefts from the “Police Welfare Fund” seems to implicate fellow members of the police force. When he shows up at the meeting, his friend has been murdered and the cops are soon on the scene. Arrested and determined to prove his innocence, Man Wai escapes custody and makes his way to the Internal Investigations Unit. He takes his own set of hostages, one of which may be involved in taking money from the Police Welfare Funds. He has an interesting request… I’ll only talk to Tse Ka Chun (Francis Ng). Chun, a former police negotiator who left the force to become a social worker, is soon on the scene. As Man interrogates the hostages and talks to Chun, it becomes apparent that he’s been set up. But will he live long enough to expose the real killers?!

As a huge fan of Hong Kong cinema, and after having seen THE NEGOTIATOR so many times, I thought it would be fun to compare the two films and look for things that stand out in the Hong Kong version. CRISIS NEGOTIATORS opens with a particularly interesting sequence where an unstable couple armed with knives takes the workers of a family services center hostage. It seems that their young son has been forcibly removed from their home and they want him back. Man Wai (Lau Ching-Wan) and Chun (Francis Ng) work together to try to resolve the situation. What makes this opening unique is that the actor playing the unstable man is Andy Lau, a true superstar of Hong Cinema and entertainment in general (he’s one of the 4 “Heavenly Kings of Cantopop). Lau is one of the producers of the film, so it makes sense he threw a little of his star power in front of the camera, even if the cameo is the exact opposite of many of his roles. In English language terms, it would be like Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio being in the opening scene of THE NEGOTIATOR.

Another difference in the two films that I really appreciate is the character of Tse Ka Chun, played so well by veteran Hong Kong star Francis Ng. As good as Kevin Spacey is in THE NEGOTIATOR, I really appreciate the tweaks made for the Hong Kong version to Chun. In this version, Chun reluctantly comes back to help the police in this specific situation. He has dedicated his life to helping the poor and unfortunate souls who have found themselves on the lowest rungs of Hong Kong society. In other words, he’s just a really good guy. There are a couple of sequences where he interacts with this poor beggar of an old granny that makes my heart swell as he treats her with kindness and dignity while others do not. It also provides a hilarious payoff at the film’s conclusion.

Lau Ching-Wan is great in the central role of Cheuk Man Wai. A 4-time winner (and 18 time nominee) of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor, Lau is simply one of the best actors working in Chinese language cinema. While I don’t give him an edge over Samuel Jackson’s intense performance in the original film, Lau brings his talent to bear in the role and doesn’t miss a beat. Other performances that stand out to me are provided by veterans like Michael Miu as a corrupt superior officer and Kent Cheng as the older cop in charge of everything. Cheng’s character and performance isn’t anything special, but I just enjoy seeing him on screen. One character who can’t be replaced in the original movie is the smarmy Internal Affairs officer played by the late, great J.T. Walsh. Walsh was truly a one-of-a-kind talent, and I don’t think anyone else can do what he did so well. Veteran Hong Kong actor Michael Chow gives a solid turn as the corrupt II agent here, but it’s just too much of an uphill climb. Man Wai’s hostages are pretty good as well, but can’t really compete with the memorable work by Siobhan Fallon Hogan and Paul Giamatti in the original.

CRISIS NEGOTIATORS would have no chance to work if it didn’t capture some of the intensity of the original film, and I think it was largely successful in that endeavor. Director Herman Yau does a fine job, and I did find myself really getting into the film as the pressure ratcheted up on the main characters. With that being said, outside of a couple of changes, the film sticks pretty close to the original so fans will definitely be in very familiar territory.

The primary purpose for making CRISIS NEGOTIATORS was to take the excellent story of THE NEGOTIATOR into the lucrative Chinese language market. It had a respectable box office return in the summer of 2024, bringing in around $22 million in mainland China and around $11 million HK dollars in Hong Kong. With good, but not great numbers, the film mostly fulfills its purpose. At the end of the day, CRISIS NEGOTIATORS won’t replace THE NEGOTIATOR on my watch list, but I still enjoyed it very much. I appreciate the cinema and stars of other parts of the world, and this remake was time well spent!

CRISIS NEGOTIATORS is currently streaming on Tubi.

Scenes I Love: The Final 3 Laps From F1

Posted on May 3, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

A lot of people rolled their eyes with F1 received a nomination for Best Picture.

Those people have obviously never known the need for speed.

Today’s scene that I love is from F1 and it’s all about speed, strategy, and sacrifice.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Joseph Kosinski Edition

Posted on May 3, 2026 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, TSL wishes a happy birthday to director Joseph Kosinski! It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Joseph Kosinski Films

Tron: Legacy (2010, dir by Joseph Kosinski, DP: Claudio Miranda)

Only The Brave (2017, dir by Joseph Kosinski, DP: Claudio Miranda)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022, dir by Joseph Kosinski, DP: Claudio Miranda)

F1 (2025, dir by Joseph Kosinki, DP: Claudio Miranda)

Live Tweet Alert: Join #ScarySocial for The Amityville Horror!

Posted on May 2, 2026 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? The Amityville Horror!

If you want to join us this Saturday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.

The film is available on Prime!

Scenes That I Love: Mark Gregory in 1990: The Bronx Warriors

Posted on May 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today would have been the 62nd birthday of actor Mark Gregory, who will always be remembered for playing Trash in 1990: The Bronx Warriors and Escape From The Bronx.

In this scene from 1990: The Bronx Warriors, we’re reminded that everyone loves Trash.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Lone Scherfig Edition

Posted on May 2, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, TSL wishes a happy birthday to Danish director Lone Scherfig! It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 Lone Scherfig Films

An Education (2009, dir by Lone Scherfig, DP: John de Borman)

One Day (2011, dir by Lone Scherfig, DP: Benoît Delhomme)

The Riot Club (2014, dir by Lone Scherfig, DP: Sebastian Blenkov)

Their Finest (2016, dir by Lone Scherfig, DP: Sebastian Blenkov)

Lisa Marie Reviews An Oscar Nominee: The Killing Fields (dir by Roland Joffe)

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1984’s The Killing Fields opens in 1973. While America is distracted by the growing Watergate scandal and the final battles of the Vietnam War, the nation of Cambodia descends into chaos. Civil War has broken out between the Cambodian National Army and the Khmer Rouge, a savage communist group led by Pol Pot. In its desire to return Cambodia to “year zero,” the Khmer Rouge targets anyone who is considered to be too educated or too urban.

Sent to cover the war, journalist Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) meets up with his translator, Dith Pran (played, in an Oscar-winning performance, by Haing S. Ngor). For two years, Schanberg covers the war in Cambodia, taking pictures of bombed out cities, dead Cambodians, and the bullying teenagers who seem to make up the majority of the Khmer Rouge’s membership. The Khmer Rouge’s leadership may claim to be creating an equal society but it’s hard not to notice that they act like gangsters, posing with their cigarettes and making a great show over deciding who will live and who will die. In 1975, when it becomes apparent that the Khmer Rouge have won the war, the press and the diplomats all prepare to evacuate. Sydney and his colleagues are able to return to their home countries. Dith Prain’s family escape but Dith Pran himself is left behind in Cambodia where, disguising himself as a disabled beggar, he witnesses the horrors of the Khmer Rouge’s Year Zero.

The Killing Fields is an accidental anti-communist film. Director Roland Joffe, produced David Puttnam, and screenwriter Bruce Robinson were all men in the left and, in the film, Sydney Schanberg puts the blame for the rise of the Khmer Rouge directly on the American bombing campaign of the early 70s. The film somehow has the audacity to end with John Lennon’s Imagine, a song that epitomized the worst excesses of the Khmer Rouge’s philosophy, playing over the end credits.

I’ll be the first to admit that the film probably does have a point about the bombing of Cambodia. The chaos that followed the bombing undoubtedly helped the Khmer Rouge to both organize and to bring in new recruits. In this film, the Khmer Rouge commanders love to show off their power because, as Cambodians, they had previously been made to feel that they had no control over their destinies. However, in the scenes with Dith Pran faces the horrors of the reeducation camps and discovers the fields full of skulls and other human remains, the viewer is reminded that it takes more than confusion to lead to this type of concentrated brutality. It takes a group of people brainwashed by a destructive ideology.

(How destructive was the Khmer Rouge’s Maoist philosophy? The Khmer Rouge’s plan was to return Cambodia to being an agricultural society, one where the State stood in for both family and religion. To do so, cities were razed. People who were considered to be intellectuals and free thinkers were tortured and executed. Doctors were murdered. Having bad eyesight was considered to be a sign of intelligence and, as such, people who wore glasses were specifically targeted. As Dith Pran says in the film, the Cambodians who survived were told that they no longer had families, friends, or beliefs. Now they were to only worry only about serving the organization, the Angkar.)

It’s the scenes of Dith Pran in Cambodia that drive home the powerful anti-communist message that the filmmakers were perhaps not aware that they were delivering. Haing S. Ngor was not a professional actor when he played Dith Pran. Instead, he was a gynecologist and an obstetrician who, after the Khmer Rouge came to power, pretended to be dumb to survive. Like Dith Pran, he was sent to a reeducation camp and he eventually escaped by making his way through the area that Dith Pran called “the Killing Fields.” Unlike Dith Pran, Ngor’s family did not survive. (After being sent to work on a rice farm, his wife died in childbirth.) In the film, when we see Dith Pran discovering the Killing Fields for the first time, we are witnessing Haing Ngor recreating the moment that he discovered them. The pain and the horror in his eyes is not only Dith Pran’s but also Haing Ngor’s and every other Cambodian who was forced to flee their country to escape the Khmer Rouge. The film may blame America for the rise of the Khmer Rouge but Ngor’s performance makes it clear that only the Khmer Rouge can be blamed for what happened after they came to power.

It’s a powerful film, though I do think I would be remiss not to mention that Al Rockoff, the photographer played by John Malkovich in the film, has been very critical of the way that the film depicts both Sydney Schanberg and a scene where the journalists attempt to make a phony passport for Dith Pran. Indeed, the scenes with Schanberg back in New York are considerably less compelling than the scenes of Dith Pran fighting to survive in Cambodia. When the film’s version of Rockoff accuses Schanberg of using Dith Pran’s tragedy to advance his own career, it’s hard not to agree with him.

The film was nominated for Best Picture of 1984 but lost to Amadeus. Dr. Ngor did win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the second non-professional (after Harold Russell for The Best Years of Our Lives) to do so. Ngor went on the appear in a handful of films before being murdered in 1996. Three members of a street gang were convicted of the murdering Ngor while attempted to rob him. (Ngor was shot when, after giving them his Rolex, he refused to surrender a locket that contained a picture of his late wife.) In 2009, Kang Kek lew, a Khmer Rouge official on trial for war crimes, claimed that Ngor’s murder was actually ordered by Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge.

The Killing Field was obviously meant to be primarily critical of American foreign policy but, intentionally or not, it has since proven itself to be one of the strongest anti-communist films ever made.

The Academy Has Changed The Rules

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Academy has announced their new rules for the 99th Oscars. There are a few important changes.

To me, the biggest one is that actors can now be nominated twice in the same category. In the past, a performer could only be nominated for one film per category. (Occasionally, you might have someone nominated for both the lead category and the supporting category and this led to more than few instances of category fraud, where a leading performance would suddenly be listed as a supporting performance so that someone could get two nominations.) On a practical level, this means that if Eric Roberts gives two great lead performances this year, he could end up competing against himself for Best Actor. Or, more realistically, he might take all five slots in the Best Supporting Actor category.

AI actors are not eligible to be nominated. So, Val Kilmer will not be eligible for As Deep As The Grave.

AI-written screenplays are always not eligible to be nominated and I’m sure this rule will not lead to any shadowy whisper campaigns once awards season begins. (Hopefully, the sarcasm was noted.)

Best International Feature will no longer be awarded to the winner’s country of origin. Instead, it will be awarded to the film’s director. As well, films that win awards at a select group of international film festivals will be eligible for consideration as well. I imagine this decision was made to get around the politics of the various submission committees. No longer will a Palme d’Or winner be ineligible just because it was made by someone on the outs with their country’s current government.

Here are all the rule changes:

AWARDS RULES AND CAMPAIGN PROMOTIONAL REGULATIONS
APPROVED FOR 99TH OSCARS®

Additional Submission Key Dates Announced

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy’s Board of Governors has approved awards rules, inclusion standards and campaign promotional regulations for the 99th Academy Awards®.

For Academy Awards consideration, a feature film must have a qualifying theatrical release between January 1, 2026, and December 31, 2026.

Substantive awards rules changes include:

In the Acting category, actors may be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances place in the top five votes, which aligns with achievements in other award categories.
Additionally, in the Acting category, only roles credited in the film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible.

In the Casting category, the number of statuettes awarded will increase from a maximum of two to a maximum of three statuettes.

In the Cinematography category, the preliminary voting round will produce a shortlist of 20 films rather than 10-20.

In the International Feature Film category, there are now two ways to submit a film for consideration. In addition to a film being submitted as an official selection by a country or region via the Academy-approved Selection Committees, a non-English language film can now be submitted for consideration by winning a qualifying award at an international film festival as specified in the International Feature Film Award Qualifying Festival List. Qualifying festivals for the 99th Oscars® are the Berlin International Film Festival (Golden Bear for Best Film), Busan International Film Festival (Busan Award – Best Film Award), Cannes Film Festival (Palme d’Or), Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize), Toronto International Film Festival (Platform Award) and Venice International Film Festival (Golden Lion).

Additionally, in the International Feature Film category, the film will be credited as the nominee rather than the country or region, and the award will be accepted by the director on behalf of the film’s creative team. The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the film title and, if applicable, the country or region.

In the Makeup and Hairstyling category, Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch members must attend at least one of the two final branch meetings (roundtables) to be eligible to vote in the preliminary round.
In the Original Song category, the rules clarify a song’s eligibility when based on its placement in the end credits. For songs submitted as the first new music cue once the end credits begin, the video clip must include the last 15 seconds of the film before the credits begin.

In the Visual Effects category, all Academy members must view the three-minute Before and After reels from the Visual Effects Bake-Off to be eligible to vote in the final round.
In the Writing categories, the rules codify that screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.

For Governors Awards recipients, a minimum of three disciplines must be represented in a given Awards year.

Under Eligibility (Rule Two) regarding Generative Artificial Intelligence, the Academy reserves the right to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship.
Awards submission deadlines and additional key dates are as follows:

Thursday, August 13, 2026: First submission deadline for Animated Short Film, Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film and Live Action Short Film categories

Thursday, September 17, 2026: First submission deadline for General Entry categories, Animated Feature Film, Best Picture and Representation and Inclusion Standards Entry (RAISE) form

Wednesday, September 30, 2026: Submission deadline for International Feature Film

Thursday, October 8, 2026: Final submission deadline for Animated Short Film, Documentary Short Film and Live Action Short Film categories

Wednesday, October 14, 2026: Submission deadline for Music (Original Song)

Thursday, October 15, 2026: Final submission deadline for Documentary Feature Film

Wednesday, November 4, 2026: Submission deadline for Music (Original Score)

Thursday, November 12, 2026: Final submission deadline for General Entry categories, Animated Feature Film, Best Picture and Representation and Inclusion Standards Entry (RAISE) form

January 8 – 10, 2027: Casting, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound and Visual Effects voting events (bake-offs)

Film Review: Rambo: First Blood Part II (dir by George Pan Cosmatos)

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Three years after blowing up the town of Hope, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is …. workin’ on the chain gang…. (I hope you sang it.) However, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) has a suggestion for Rambo. He can get a full pardon if he infiltrates Vietnam and investigates what might be a POW camp….

So begins 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II!

When viewers first met John Rambo in 1982’s First Blood, he was a drifter who was obviously uncomfortable with dealing with other people. Haunted by both his experiences in Vietnam and the way he was treated when he returned to his own country, Rambo was someone who largely wanted to be left alone. He was the ultimate outsider. When he asked Brian Dennehy’s Sherriff Teasle where he could get a cop of coffee, Teasle told him to go over the border and have his coffee in Canada. (Is there anything more insulting than to tell a Vietnam veteran to go to Canada like a draft dodger?) Rambo was someone who could take care of himself. He was someone who knew how to survive in the wilderness. But, in the first movie, he was not superhuman. Rambo was considerably banged up by the end of First Blood. The other thing that is sometimes overlooked is that, as far as his time in Hope was concerned, Rambo never deliberately killed anyone. The only person who died in First Blood was a sadistic police officer who was so determined to get a shot at Rambo that he accidentally tumbled out of a helicopter. When Rambo fought, it was in self-defense. Rambo had plenty of opportunities (and, by today’s cultural standards, reasons) to kill Sheriff Teasle and his deputies but he didn’t. Things are a bit different in the sequel. Rambo: First Blood Part II transforms Rambo from a relatively realistic character into the comic book action hero that everyone knows today. Rambo’s gone from being a hulking drifter to being a muscle-bound warrior.

The film doesn’t waste any time getting Rambo out of prison and over to Thailand. The obviously duplicitous Murdock (Charles Napier) tells Rambo that his mission is solely to take pictures and not to engage with the enemy. (You may be wondering why anyone would recruit Rambo for a mission that doesn’t involve engaging with the enemy and it’s a fair question.) Soon, Rambo is in the jungles of Vietnam, meeting up with a rebel named Co (Julia Nickson), and heading up river with a bunch of pirates. Needless to say, Rambo is soon engaging with the enemy.

Rambo: First Blood Part II is an undeniably crude film. Clocking in at 96 minutes, the film makes it clear that it doesn’t have any time to waste with characterization or debate. Sylvester Stallone rewrote James Cameron’s original script and he gives a performance that has little of the nuance that was present in the first film. And yet, the film has an undeniable hypnotic power to it. It’s pure action. Rambo exists to blow up his enemies, whether it’s with a gun or an explosive arrow or the missiles fired from a stolen helicopter. Because the bad guys are all arrogant sadists who exist to remind American viewers of the humiliation of its first military defeat, there’s an undeniable pleasure in watching them get defeated by one motivated warrior who refuses to be held back by the paper pushers in charge. Murdock tells Rambo not to rescue any POWs. Rambo responds by machine gunning Murdock’s office. It’s pure wish fulfillment and it is cathartic to watch. It’s perhaps even more cathartic to watch today, after the twin traumas of the COVID lockdowns and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Murdock becomes a stand-in for every incompetent bureaucrat who ever let America down. The Murdock who tells Rambo not to rescue any Americans is little different from the men who told business that they had to close and who tried to dictate whether or not people could leave their homes. The Murdock who was prepared to leave American behind is the same person who did leave Americans behind in Kabul. Rambo’s anger is the anger of everyone who values freedom above obedience.

Rambo kills a lot of people in the sequel but none of them are American. He’s a patriot, albeit an angry one who will never forgive his country for not caring about its veterans as much as they cared about it. “Do we get to win this time?” Rambo ask Trautman and it’s a moment that, like much of the movie, is both crudely simplistic but is powerful in its refusal to be complicated. Rambo: First Blood Part II is a fantasy but it’s also a plea to be allowed to succeed. Forget the rules. Forget the regulations. Just allow the people to win.