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 1984’s Invitation to Hell!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, 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.
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, we pay tribute to the year 1991! It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 1991 Films
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991, dir by Jonathan Demme, DP: Tak Fujimoto)
JFK (1991, dir by Oliver Stone, DP: Robert Richardson)
Until the End of the World (1991, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)
The Sect (1991, dir by Michele Soavi, DP: Franco Fraticelli)
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing The American Short Story, which ran semi-regularly on PBS in 1974 to 1981. The entire show can be purchased on Prime and found on YouTube and Tubi.
This week, we have an adaptation of a Stephen Crane short story.
Episode 1.8 “The Blue Hotel”
(Dir by Jan Kadar, originally aired in 1977)
In the dying days of the Old West, a train pulls into a station in a small frontier town. Getting off the train, a Cowboy (John Bottoms), an Easterner (Geddeth Smith), and a Swede (David Warner) head to the town’s only hotel. A blizzard is coming and the three men are seeking shelter for the night. The owner of the hotel, Scully (Rex Everhart), is happy to provide it. As the men wait for dinner to be served, they play a card game with Scully’s son, Johnnie (James Keach).
At first, the game plays out without incident. The men are all friendly, with the exception of the Swede. The Swede remains quiet and seems distrustful. After a few hands of the game, the Swede accuses Johnnie of cheating. Over the next few hours, as the wind howls outside, the Swede rants and raves. Convinced that the wild west is truly full of outlaws and that it’s all exactly like the dime-store novels that he read before boarding the train, he cannot bring himself to accept that the men mean him no harm. It all leads to violence and tragedy.
This episode made excellent use of the shadowy Blue Hotel and the desolate wind blowing outside. Over the course of an hour, the hotel went from being a friendly shelter to an ominous location that seemed to pulse with paranoia. David Warner gave a strong performance as the unstable Swede and the final act of violence (which was changed slightly from the short story’s original conclusion) comes as a genuine shock as does the final twist in the tale. TheBlueHotel becomes a look at how people unknowingly shape their own destiny, for better or worse.
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? 2013’s You’reNext!
If you want to join us this Friday, 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.
Stanley Kubrick would have been 97 years old today!
In honor of this visionary and his career, here is a wonderful scene from his final film, 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut. Like so many of Kubrick’s films, it took a while for people to really appreciate Eyes Wide Shut. It’s an odd and, at times, frustrating film but still a film touched by Kubrick’s unique genius. It’s also a Christmas film and one that I plan to revisit for the site in December.
In this scene, Tom Cruise discovers that it’s not quite as easy to crash a super secret party as he thought it would be.
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!
On this date, 97 years ago, Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City. The rest, as they say, is history.
In honor of one of the world’s greatest directors, here are….
6 Shots From 6 Stanley Kubrick Films
The Killing (1956, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Lucien Ballard)
Paths of Glory (1957, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Georg Kraus)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, dir. Stanley Kubrick, DP: Gilbert Taylor)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Geoffrey Unsworth)
Barry Lyndon (1975, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)
The Shining (1980, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)
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? 1978’s Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
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 happily tweeting. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is available on Prime and Tubi!
With the end of July approaching, I decided to take a look at what would soon be leaving Tubi. I should mention that just because these films are leaving Tubi, that doesn’t mean they’re not going to start streaming somewhere else. In fact, I imagine the reason that they’re leaving is because they’re going to start streaming somewhere else. Here’s a few worthwhile films that are currently listed as “leaving soon” on Tubi.
Sweet Smell of Success (1957) stars Burt Lancaster as a viscous columnist and Tony Curtis as his henchmen. When Lancaster discovers that his sister is dating a jazz musician, Lancaster decides to destroy the man’s life. One can view this film as a satire on the tabloids, a metaphor for McCarthyism, or a commentary on cancel culture. All those interpretations are legitimate. Then again, it can also be viewed as just being a tremendously enjoyable and endlessly quotable pulp masterpiece, a noir where the damage isn’t done by bullets but instead by words. Here’s the link on Tubi.
Terence Malick’s Song to Song (2017) is an intriguing Texas-set film. It’s a Malick film and, in many ways, it’s Malick at his most self-indulgent. There are times when the film, with its languorous shots and its multiple narrators, almost becomes a self-parody. But there are also images that are so strikingly beautiful that they stick with you. A talented cast — Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Natalie Portman, Val Kilmer, and others — wanders through the film and offers up tantalizing hints of what’s going on underneath the surface of their ennui-drenched lives. It’s left to the viewer to decide what it all means. It’s a Malick film and, because of that, worth taking a chance on. Here’s the link on Tubi.
Based on a novel by Don DeLillo and directed by David Cronenberg, Cosmopolis (2012) is a surreal film that follows a businessman (Robert Pattinson) as he is driven around New York. This is one of those films that people seem to either love or hate. I loved it and I thought this was the first film that showed Pattinson was capable of doing more than just Twilight. In a key supporting role, Paul Giamatti gives a notably disturbing performance. Here’s the link on Tubi.
What would you do if you had the chance to live the last day of your life over and over again? That’s the question asked by one of my favorite films of the past ten years, Before I Fall (2017). This is a film that brough back memories of me and my friends in high school and left me wondering if I needed to apologize to anyone. Here’s the link on Tubi.
I’m still annoyed (if not necessarily surprised) that Nightcrawler (2014) was thoroughly ignored by the Academy. Jake Gyllenhaal definitely deserved, at the very least, a nomination for his performance as a sociopath who finds a successful career in crime journalism. Bill Paxton and Rene Russo give excellent supporting performances. This may be a mainstream film but its heart belongs to the grindhouse. Here’s the link on Tubi.
Finally, what can I say about Chinatown (1974) that hasn’t already been said by a hundred other critics? It’s one of the best noirs ever made and it’s debatable whether or not Jack Nicholson has ever been better than he was here. Along with an intriguing mystery, the film features one of the most loathsome villains of all time, John Huston’s Noah Cross. Faye Dunaway is excellent as the femme fatale with a devastating secret. Here’s the link on Tubi.
Odds and Ends
After watching Chinatown, why not check out Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974)? I have to admit that I envy those who were alive in 1974 and who got to see the second Godfather, Chinatown, and The Conversation when they were all first released. What’s it like to live during a cinematic golden age? The Conversation is a brilliant thriller, featuring Gene Hackman at his best. This is a true masterpiece of paranoia and it can be viewed on Prime.
If you’re in the mood for something completely different, the dramedy Class (1983) features Andrew McCarthy as a nerdy student who has an affair with the mother (Jacqueline Bisset) of his roommate (Rob Lowe). It’s a very 80s film and definitely a guilty pleasure. It can be viewed on Prime.
Speaking of Rob Lowe, he plays a bad guy in the enjoyably melodramatic Bad Influence (1990). James Spader plays the good guy for once, an adorably nerdy guy who discovers that his new best friend doesn’t exactly have his best interests at heart. Directed by Curtis Hanson, BadInfluence is sordid fun. It can be viewed on Prime.
Finally, I should mention that I bought a copy of Gianni Russo’s autobiography this week. Russo is the entertainer who played Carlo Rizzi in TheGodfather and who appeared in a handful of other films, usually playing a gangster. I’m disappointed to say that Russo did not write about the experience of co-starring in the gloriously absurd, totally 70s sci-fi flick, Laserblast (1978). Fortunately, you can watch the film for yourself. Russo’s role is actually pretty small but the Claymation aliens are just adorable! This is also probably the only film ever made to feature Eddie Deezen as a bully. Laserblast is on Prime.
This book features 284 reviews of the 80s action films that tend to be ignored by those who now sing the praises of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. We’re talking about the films of Michael Dudikoff here. We’re talking about the directorial efforts of Cirio Santiago, Nico Mastorakis, Sam Firstenberg, and so many others. We’re talking Italian action cinema. In short, we’re talking about some of the most entertaining and unfairly overshadowed films of all time.
Yes, the AmericanNinja films are reviewed (or, at least, the ones that came out in the 80s are). Yes, there’s a review of The Last Hunter and Space Mutiny and the Deathstalker films. Much like me, Daniel Budnik appreciates Red Brown even if Reb’s habit of shouting during his action scenes does seem to be a bit weird. But what I truly love about this book is that it also features reviews of films that even I previously didn’t know about. I mean, honestly, there are hundreds of film guides out there. What sets the great film guides apart from the good ones is how many previous unknown titles you can discover by just randomly flipping through it. And when it comes to film reviews, the most important question is whether or not the review inspires you to try track down a film that you may not have seen or even heard about before. The best film reviews inspire you to watch so that you can judge for yourself. I’ve discovered a lot just by randomly opening this book. And I now have a long list of cheap 80s actions films that I want to watch and which I will be watching and hopefully reviewing myself.
With 80s Action Movies On The Cheap as my guide, I look forward to all sorts of new discoveries.
I love 1996’s HappyGilmore and, over the past few months, I have very much been looking forward to the release of the long-delayed sequel, Happy Gilmore 2. Still, I was a bit concerned when I opened the film on Netflix and discovered that the sequel had a nearly two-hour running time. (The original clocked in at an efficient and fast-paced 90 minutes.) Comedy is all about timing and, in general, shorter is funnier. I know that Judd Apatow and Adam McKay might disagree with me on that but let’s be honest. For all of the acclaim that it was met with, when was the last time you actually felt any desire to rewatch The King of Staten Island? For that matter, if you have to pick between Anchorman or Anchorman 2, which are you going to pick? The 90 minute original or the sequel that takes more than two hours to tell essentially the same story?
Having now watched the film, I can say that HappyGilmore2 does run a bit too long. There are a few sequences that could have been trimmed without hurting the film. I can also say that I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I laughed more often than not. It’s a funny film but it’s also a surprisingly touching one.
Taking place 29 years after the first film, HappyGilmore2 features an older and slightly more mature Happy. It also features an older and slightly more mature Adam Sandler and, to its credit, the film acknowledges that. It doesn’t try to convince us that Sandler and Gilmore are still the young hell-raisers that they once were. (Happy’s Happy Place has changed considerably.) I’ve often written that there are two Adam Sandlers. There’s the youngish Sandler who made silly and often stupid films where he basically just hung out with his friends and didn’t seem to put much effort into anything. That’s the Sandler who has won multiple Razzie awards. And then there’s the older and wiser Adam Sandler, the sad-eyed character actor who gives sensitive performances as world-weary characters. This is the Adam Sandler who seems to be overdue for an Oscar nomination. If an alien came to Earth and only watched Adam Sandler’s serious films, they would probably think he was one our most-honored actors. While HappyGilmore2 is definitely a comedy, it still features quite a bit more of the serious Sandler than I was expecting.
At the start of the movie, Happy is not in a happy place. His grandmother has passed away. His wife, Virginia, was killed by an errant tee shot. He has four rambunctious sons and a daughter, Vienna (played by Sunny Sandler, who was so good in You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah). After Virginia’s death, Happy gave up golf. He lost his money. He lost his grandmother’s house. Now, he’s working in a grocery store and he’s an almost forgotten figure. He’s also an alcoholic, keeping bottles of liquor hidden around the house. (A tiny liquor bottle is hidden in the cuckoo clock.) And while this film is certainly not UncutGems or even The Meyerowitz Stories, Sandler still does a good job of capturing the reality of Happy’s depression. There’s a true sense of melancholy running through the film’s first hour, as Happy returns to golf to try to make enough money to pay for Vienna to attend a prestigious dance academy. The second hour, in which Happy leads a team of pro golfers against a team of “extreme” athletes is far more goofier but Happy’s love for his family is a theme that runs through the entire film.
Aging is the other theme that runs through the film. Forced to play with three younger players (including Eric Andre and Margaret Qualley) at a local golf course, the rusty Happy grimaces when he hears one of them say, “Is he trying to do the Happy Gilmore swing?” When Happy rejoins the PGA, he discovers that all of the younger players now hit the ball as hard as he used to. An obnoxious tech bro (Benny Safdie) wants to start a new, extreme golf league, one that will “continue the revolution” that Happy started. Happy finds himself defending traditional golf and it’s an acknowledgement that both Gilmore and Adam Sandler have grown up and have come to appreciate that not everything needs to change. Sometimes, you just want to play a nice round of golf on a pretty course without having to deal with the sensory overload of the 2020s.
It’s a funny movie. Even when he’s playing it straight, Sandler still knows how to deliver a funny line. Ben Stiller returns as Hal L., who is now an addiction recovery specialist. (His techniques include ordering people to wash his car.) Christopher McDonald also returns as Shooter McGavin, having escaped from a mental asylum and now fighting, alongside Happy, to save the game that they both love. As someone who always felt that Shooter kind of had every right to be upset during the first film, I was happy to see him get a bit of redemption. Several professional golfers appear as themselves. A running joke about Scottie Scheffler getting arrested and then forcing all of his cellmates to watch golf made me laugh a lot more than I was expecting it too.
The sequel is full of shout-outs to the first film. A fight in a cemetery reveals that everyone who died during and after the first film just happens to have a gravestone and it was actually kind of a nice tribute. (Even the “Get Me Out Of Here” Lady gets a headstone.) It’s a sequel that truly appreciates and values the legacy and the fans of the first film. It’s also a sequel that seems to truly love the game of golf, which is not necessarily something that could be said about the first film.
HappyGilmore2 is a worthy sequel, even if it is a bit long. It made me laugh but, at the same time, it was hard not to be touched by the obvious love that Happy had for his family and that they had for him. (It didn’t hurt that Happy’s daughter was played by Sandler’s daughter.) In the first film, Happy played golf for his grandmother. In the second film, he returns to the game for his daughter. It’s all about family, as Adam Sandler’s unexpectedly heartfelt performance makes clear.
Through the Shattered Lens 