Today’s song of the day comes from the soundtrack of one director J. Lee Thompson‘s best films, 10 to Midnight.
Tag Archives: review
Scenes That I Love: The Underground Chaos From Skyfall
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to director Sam Mendes!
Now, it’s true that Sam Mendes won an Oscar for directing American Beauty and he probably came close to winning a second one for his work on 1917. However, my favorite Mendes film remains Skyfall. Skyfall is one of the best of the Bond films and I say this as someone who was never really a fan of Daniel Craig’s mopey interpretation of the character. Based on his previous films, Sam Mendes may not have been the first name that come to mind when people talked about someone who could make a great Bond film but, with Skyfall, he did just that.
Here, in a scene that I love, James Bond pursues Silva (Javier Bardem) through the London Underground. It’s very suspenseful, very droll, and, most importantly, very British.
Music Video of the Day: Hard To Be Happy by Rob Thomas (2025, dir by Neta Ben Ezra)
Today’s music video of the day is all about how hard it is for some people to be happy and that’s okay.
Enjoy!
Late Night Retro Television Review: Highway to Heaven 4.7 “Amazing Man”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Highway to Heaven, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!
This week’s episode of Highway to Heaven deals with death and is the best of season 4 so far.
Episode 4.7 “Amazing Man”
(Dir by Michael Landon, originally aired on November 11th, 1987)
When a cop who was trained by Mark is killed in the line of duty, his family becomes Jonathan and Mark’s next assignment. While Lorraine Douglas (Jane Daly) comes to terms with being a widow and a single mother, her young son (Garrette Ratliff Henson) plays with an Amazing Man action figure and seems to be in denial about his father’s death.
This was a surprisingly low-key episode, up until the final few minutes. That’s when Amazing Man came to life, in the form of Michael Landon wearing a super hero costume. It says something about the sincerity and the likable earnestness of this show that this episode still worked despite having Michael Landon turn into a version of Superman. I mean, really, it should have been a ludicrous scene. It should have made my cynicism go into overdrive. Instead, I couldn’t help but smile. Landon’s big heart came through in this episode.
This was a well-done episode and certainly the best of season four so far. That said, the one-year anniversary of my dad’s death is approaching and this episode was about a father dying and, as a result, it left me feeling rather depressed. I don’t particularly want to spend too much more time thinking about this episode because, right now, that’s just going to make me more depressed. That said, the important thing is that show’s the good intentions came through. This was a sweet episode. I hope everyone involved with it was proud of the final result because they had every right to be.
Retro Television Review: Malibu CA 2.24 “Scott A Go Go”
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Malibu CA, which aired in Syndication in 1998 and 1999. Almost the entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!
Yes, this is from the first season. I don’t care. I refuse to waste my time looking for a second season advertisement.
This episode …. well, I don’t have much to say about it. Find out why below.
Episode 2.24 “Scott A Go Go”
(Dir by Gary Shimokawa, originally aired on May 6th, 2000)
This is one of the Malibu CA episodes that has not been uploaded to YouTube so I can’t review it. However, I can give you the plot summary from imdb:
Lisa tries to find out what Scott has bought for her birthday but he won’t tell. Traycee and Alex ask about the present and Scott tells them it’s rollerblades. The girls tell him Lisa has her heart set on an expensive Tiffany watch. Later Lisa asks Scott for some hints as to what his gift is and she mistakenly concludes he bought her the watch. She’s so overjoyed that Scott doesn’t have the heart to correct her. Scott wonders how he will pay for the $800 gift. Murray suggests that he come with him to the “Guys a Go-Go” club and audition as a male dancer.
Wow, that sounds awful! Malibu CA is a show that is so predictably bad that just reading the plot description, I can already imagine Scott looking confused, Lisa overacting, and the audience going, “Wooo!” at Scott dancing.
By the way — Lisa has her heart set on a $800 Tiffany watch? Really? Lisa (the character, not me) might want to consider that Scott is a waiter!
Anyway, if this episode is ever uploaded to YouTube, I’ll do a proper review. Until then, I’m just happy to have an excuse to not have to watch this show this week.
Song of the Day: Theme From Danger: Diabolik by Ennio Morricone
Today’s song of the day comes from Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack for Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik.
Music Video of the Day: place of my own by Purity Ringer (2025, dir by ????)
For today’s music video of the day, we have the latest from Purity Ring.
Enjoy!
Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 1.3 “All Roads Lead To Dayton”
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.
This week, the Bulls are on the road!
Episode 1.3 “All Roads Lead to Dayton”
(Dir by Bruce Seth Green, originally aired on December 9th, 1984)
The Bulls are playing their second game in Dayton! It’s a road game and Coach Denardo tells all of the players that they are expected to conduct themselves like gentlemen on the road.
“Booooo!” the team replies.
Denardo replies, “I know but the owner’s a broad now….”
Speaking of Dana Barrow, she has a lot to deal with. The Arcola Brothers are still trying to muscle their way into the team’s business. Meanwhile, her ex-husband, Paul (now played by Ben Cooper), is determined to get his team back. At the hotel in Dayton, he and his sleazy lawyer arrange for Dana’s drink to be drugged so that the hotel’s assistant manager can rape Dana while being filmed by a camera hidden behind a two-way mirror. They plan to leak the tape to the press and claim that Dana is a nymphomaniac who shouldn’t be allowed to own an NFL team. Fortunately, quarterback Bob Dorsey stops by Dana’s hotel room to discuss an offer he’s gotten to become a sports commentator and he proceeds to beat the hell out of the assistant manager, shatter the mirror, and give the camera the finger. And he wins the game!
Take that, Dayton!
He even scores an extra touchdown, just so the Mafia won’t make any money on their bets.
Take that, Arcola Brothers!
The episodes of 1st & Ten that are on Tubi are apparently a combination of episodes that were edited for syndication and the original HBO episodes. The version that I saw of All Roads to Dayton was clearly the HBO original, as there was significant amount of cursing and quite a bit of nudity. I get the feeling that those were the two main reasons that 1st and Ten found success when it first aired. It certainly wasn’t for the acting or the storylines, neither of which were especially noteworthy. That said, I’m from Dallas and I’ve heard all the stories about the Cowboys and Jerry Jones so I imagine that this episode’s depiction of a football team on a road trip was probably fairly tame when compared to the real thing.
As for this episode, Dana was a bit too naive to be believed. Delta Burke actually gives a good performance as Dana but the scripts continually let her down. We’re only three episodes in and Roger, the team’s general manager, has planted drugs in her house, caused Bob to get seriously injured during practice, and drugged her so that she could be raped in her hotel room. I would seriously be looking for a new general manager at this point. On the plus side, I do like Geoffrey Scott’s performance as Bob Dorsey. He’s charming without being smarmy about it.
Next week …. more football stuff, I guess.
Guilty Pleasure No. 84: Last Action Hero (dir by John McTiernan)
Oh, Last Action Hero.
Ever since this film was first released in 1993, it’s usually held up as an example of a Hollywood fiasco. The script was originally written to be a modest satire of action films. The screenwriters wrote the character of Jack Slater, an movie action hero who comes into the real world, for Dolph Lundgren. Instead, the film became an Arnold Schwarzenegger extravaganza and the studio ended up tossing a ton of money at it. When the film was originally released, the reviews were mixed and the box office was considered to be disappointing. (That it went up against the first Jurassic Park was definitely an underrated issue when it came to the box office.) Ever since then, The Last Action Hero has had a reputation for being a bad film.
Well, I don’t care. I like The Last Action Hero. Yes, it’s a bit overproduced for a comedy. (It breaks my own rule about how no comedy should run longer than two hours.) Yes, it gets a bit sentimental with ten year-old Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) using a magic, golden ticket to enter the film world of his hero, Jack Slater. If you want to argue that the film should have devoted more time to and gone a bit deeper into contrasting the film world with the real world, I won’t disagree with you. But I will also say that Sylvester Stallone starring as The Terminator in Jack’s world was actually a pretty funny sight gag. Danny knowing better than to trust a character played by F. Murray Abraham made me laugh. Danny’s fantasy in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played Hamlet was made all the better by the fact that his teacher was played by Laurence Olivier’s wife, Joan Plowright. Danny DeVito as Whiskers the Cartoon Cat makes me laugh as well, even if it is perhaps a bit too bizarre of a joke for this particular film. (There’s nothing else about the Jack Slater films that would explain the presence of a cartoon cat.)
When you set aside the idea of the Last Action Hero being a symbol of Hollywood bloat and just watch it as a film, it emerges as an enjoyably goofy action movie, one that captures the joy of watching movies (because who hasn’t wanted to enter a movie’s world at some point in their life), and also one that features a rather charming performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Schwarzenegger, I should add, plays both himself and Jack Slater. One of my favorite jokes is when the real Schwarzenegger is at a premiere and he mistakes the evil Ripper for Tom Noonan, the actor who played him in the previous Jack Slater film.) Yeah, the golden ticket is a little bit hokey but who cares? Underneath all of the special effects and action and money spent on star salaries, Last Action Hero is an action movie and comedy with a heart. Danny meets his hero but also gets to become a hero himself. And Jack Slater turns out to be everything you would hope your movie hero would be. In the end, it’s obvious that a lot of the criticism of this film has more to do with the appeal of riding the bandwagon as opposed to what actually happens on screen.
Last Action Hero is a movie that I’ll happily defend.
Previous Guilty Pleasures
- Half-Baked
- Save The Last Dance
- Every Rose Has Its Thorns
- The Jeremy Kyle Show
- Invasion USA
- The Golden Child
- Final Destination 2
- Paparazzi
- The Principal
- The Substitute
- Terror In The Family
- Pandorum
- Lambada
- Fear
- Cocktail
- Keep Off The Grass
- Girls, Girls, Girls
- Class
- Tart
- King Kong vs. Godzilla
- Hawk the Slayer
- Battle Beyond the Stars
- Meridian
- Walk of Shame
- From Justin To Kelly
- Project Greenlight
- Sex Decoy: Love Stings
- Swimfan
- On the Line
- Wolfen
- Hail Caesar!
- It’s So Cold In The D
- In the Mix
- Healed By Grace
- Valley of the Dolls
- The Legend of Billie Jean
- Death Wish
- Shipping Wars
- Ghost Whisperer
- Parking Wars
- The Dead Are After Me
- Harper’s Island
- The Resurrection of Gavin Stone
- Paranormal State
- Utopia
- Bar Rescue
- The Powers of Matthew Star
- Spiker
- Heavenly Bodies
- Maid in Manhattan
- Rage and Honor
- Saved By The Bell 3. 21 “No Hope With Dope”
- Happy Gilmore
- Solarbabies
- The Dawn of Correction
- Once You Understand
- The Voyeurs
- Robot Jox
- Teen Wolf
- The Running Man
- Double Dragon
- Backtrack
- Julie and Jack
- Karate Warrior
- Invaders From Mars
- Cloverfield
- Aerobicide
- Blood Harvest
- Shocking Dark
- Face The Truth
- Submerged
- The Canyons
- Days of Thunder
- Van Helsing
- The Night Comes for Us
- Code of Silence
- Captain Ron
- Armageddon
- Kate’s Secret
- Point Break
- The Replacements
- The Shadow
- Meteor
Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 6.10 “The Man In The Iron Shorts/The Victims/Heavens to Betsy”
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986! The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!
This week, a woman struggles to forgive the son of a man who killed her husband. Two women and a reverend try to balance attraction with the questions of faith. And Gopher gets stuck in a suit of armor….
LOVE! Exciting and new!
Episode 6.10 “The Man In The Iron Shorts/The Victims/Heavens to Betsy”
(Dir by Jerome Courtland, originally aired on November 27th, 1982)
Gopher’s latest girlfriend, Gail (Taylor Miller), is on this week’s cruise. She’s a history teacher and Gopher decides that the best way to impress her would be …. okay, I can’t believe I’m about to type this …. buy a suit of armor and surprise her by wearing it on the boat. With Isaac’s help, he puts on the armor but — oh no! — he gets stuck in the armor. He has wear his purser’s uniform over the armor. The captain notes that Gopher has gained some weight and puts him on an exercise program….
There have been a lot of silly plotlines on The Love Boat but none as silly as this. The problem is that it never makes sense that Gopher would have a suit of armor in the first place. There a lot of presents that you can give someone who loves to study and talk about history. I know this because I’m a history nerd myself. A suit of armor, though, requires a bit too much of a suspension of disbelief, It goes from being silly to being just stupid.
It also doesn’t fit in with the episode’s other big storyline, in which Webb Jones Jr. (Laurence Lau) fell in love with Vanessa Heinsely (Denise Miller). The only problem is that Webb’s father was the drunk driver who killed Vanessa’s father. Vanessa’s mother (played by Ruth Warrick) struggles to forgive Webb for the sins of his his father. Luckily, Captain Stubing — a recovering alcoholic himself — is there to help. This was a serious story about a serious subject and all of the actors handled it well. But it seemed out-of-place when mixed with scenes of Gopher trying to hide the fact that he was wearing a suit of armor.
Finally, Janine Turner and Sharon Gabet played two women who had a crush on a reverend (Robert Pine, the sergeant from CHiPs.) Robert Pine was charming but it was hard not to feel as if Julie needed the reverend more than the two women. At the very least, he could have gotten her off the cocaine and maybe he could have even convinced her to do something about her hair.
(Seriously, Julie’s hair has looked terrible this season!)
The good news is that Gopher eventually got out of that suit of honor and Vanessa and Webb managed to find love. Even an uneven episode of The Love Boat usually has a happy ending and really, that’s all I want.
Through the Shattered Lens 