Running short of time - we're going sans words this time!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
.
Monday, February 16, 2015
Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #203!
Running short of time - we're going sans words this time!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Saturday Night at the Movies 2/14/15!
Who cares what picture we see?
Bill Erwin would have, in his lovably crusty way - so on this most romantic of days we'll go with this one...
Regardless of being created by greeting card manufacturers - the idea of a day to celebrate romance is a nice one. Here's a wonderful fantasy film from 1980 with Christopher Reeve playing a guy so enamored of a portrait of an actress (Jane Seymour) from decades before that he wills himself back in time to be with her.
Written by Richard Matheson - based on his novel Bid Time Return - and directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Supergirl, Jaws 2) - this turned out to be a major bomb on its initial release (except in China of all places, where it went through the roof) - but it is a touching and sweet movie quite unlike any other you've seen. It's well shot and has a terrific score from the always incredible John Barry - and we could be checking it out on the Blu-Ray in the video vault anytime - even tonight. I can't promise I won't shed a tear or two, though...
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Bill Erwin would have, in his lovably crusty way - so on this most romantic of days we'll go with this one...
Regardless of being created by greeting card manufacturers - the idea of a day to celebrate romance is a nice one. Here's a wonderful fantasy film from 1980 with Christopher Reeve playing a guy so enamored of a portrait of an actress (Jane Seymour) from decades before that he wills himself back in time to be with her.
Written by Richard Matheson - based on his novel Bid Time Return - and directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Supergirl, Jaws 2) - this turned out to be a major bomb on its initial release (except in China of all places, where it went through the roof) - but it is a touching and sweet movie quite unlike any other you've seen. It's well shot and has a terrific score from the always incredible John Barry - and we could be checking it out on the Blu-Ray in the video vault anytime - even tonight. I can't promise I won't shed a tear or two, though...
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
January 2015 Watchlist!
Here's everything I watched in the month of January: (this does not include a lot that was watched with my wondrous wife Suze - just my own personal watchlist - although Suze did watch some of this with me.)
The Alchemist (VHS)
Sea Hunt: "Flooded Mine" (DVD)
'Gator Bait (DVD)
Punisher:War Zone (Blu-Ray)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (DVD)
Gotham: "Viper" (DVR - recorded from Fox)
Iron Sky (Blu-Ray)
Sons of Anarchy: "Capybara" (Streaming - Netflix)
The Strangers (DVD)
Dark Shadows Episode 49 (DVD)
Dark Shadows Episode 50 (DVD)
Crazy Mama (DVD)
Sea Hunt: "Rapture of the Deep" (DVD)
Creep (DVD)
The Director's Chair: John Carpenter (DVR - recorded from El Rey)
Crime Wave (1954) (DVD)
Decoy (DVD)
Dark Shadows Episode 51 (DVD)
Dark Shadows Episode 52 (DVD)
Dark Shadows Episode 53 (DVD)
Warrior of the Lost World (DVD)
Sea Hunt: "Mark of the Octopus" (DVD)
Jonah Hex (Blu-Ray)
The Flash: "Things You Can't Outrun"
Born to Be Sold (DVD)
Sons of Anarchy: "The Revelator"
Germ Z (DVD)
Batman Chapter One (1943 serial) (DVD)
Timecop: The Berlin Decision (DVD)
Vile (Streaming - Netflix)
Sea Hunt: "The Sea Sled"
Croczilla (Streaming - Netflix)
Batman Chapter Two (1943 serial) (DVD)
ATM (Streaming - Netflix)
Calendar Girl (1947) (DVD)
The Simpsons: "Brick Like Me" (DVR - Recorded from Fox)
Gotham: "Spirit of the Goat" (DVR - Recorded from Fox)
Terrorvision (Blu-Ray)
Burn Notice: "Company Man" (Streaming - Netflix)
Bad Dreams (Blu-Ray)
Sea Hunt: "Female of the Species" (DVD)
Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla (DVD)
The Simpsons: "Pay Pal" (DVR - Recorded from Fox)
The Flash: "Going Rogue" (DVR - Recorded from Fox)
Survival Quest (DVD)
Burn Notice: "Bloodlines" (Streaming - Netflix)
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (DVR - Recorded from TCM)
Batman Chapter Three (1943 serial) (DVD)
The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West (DVD)
Sea Hunt: "Mr. Guinea Pig" (DVD)
Warkill (VHS)
The Simpsons: "The Yellow Badge of Cowardge" (DVR - Recorded from Fox)
Gotham: "Penguin's Umbrella" (DVR - Recorded from Fox)
Alphabet City (DVR - Recorded from TCM)
Until next post - you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Monday, February 9, 2015
Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #202!
Girls of the Underworld (aka Mad Youth, 1940) plus Probation (Chesterfield Motion Picture Company, 1932)
Ah, the cautionary tales of the 30's and 40's - and boy they knew how to sell them on the poster, eh? I haven't seen either - but I would love to - and maybe I have them in some bargain box set in the video vault - who knows?
From Hell It Came (Allied Artists, 1957)
Starlog writer Ed Naha said about this one: "And to hell it can go!" It is an awesomely silly 50's creature feature - but I'm not nearly so willing to dismiss it as was Mr. Naha. An executed South Seas prince comes back as a walking tree monster with a meanie face on the trunk. You know that's cinema gold, right?
I featured the Nabonga monster in an earlier post about silly movie monsters - if you want to check it out please go HERE.
Le Body Shop (???, ???)
I couldn't find out anything about this movie online. I know it exists because I remember it airing on Showtime when I was a pre-teen - so I'm going to say it was a French import - most likely made in the early to mid 70's. I wonder why it's so hard to track down?
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Saturday, February 7, 2015
Saturday Night at the Movies 2/7/15!
Who cares what picture we see?
Paul Benedict may or may not - but regardless we'll go with this one tonight...
One of my favorite Steve Martin movies - and maybe the top spot holder. A crazy comedy with Steve as brain surgeon Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (easier to say than spell) - who falls in love with and marries Dolores (Kathleen Turner at the peak of her hotness) but finds out she's actually pretty evil. He then falls in love with a talking brain - voice of Sissy Spacek - which was the result of an experiment by mad scientist David Warner. Now he needs to find a body to house the brain in. Who could he find with a gorgeous appearance but who wouldn't particularly be missed by the world...hmm....
Martin and director Carl Reiner always worked well together - I also love their Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid - but this movie is just as good - hilarious and crazy. I don't think Warner's advertising department knew how to sell it - that trailer really isn't very good at communicating the absolute lunacy on display in nearly every frame of this movie - but then again, maybe that lunacy would be hard to encapsulate in short form in any attempt.
Regardless - after years of full frame DVD nonsense - Warner added the widescreen version to their Made on Demand Archive - and I asked them to whip me one up. Now we can be watching it anytime - even tonight - if you'll get that cat out of here and come on over!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Paul Benedict may or may not - but regardless we'll go with this one tonight...
One of my favorite Steve Martin movies - and maybe the top spot holder. A crazy comedy with Steve as brain surgeon Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr (easier to say than spell) - who falls in love with and marries Dolores (Kathleen Turner at the peak of her hotness) but finds out she's actually pretty evil. He then falls in love with a talking brain - voice of Sissy Spacek - which was the result of an experiment by mad scientist David Warner. Now he needs to find a body to house the brain in. Who could he find with a gorgeous appearance but who wouldn't particularly be missed by the world...hmm....
Martin and director Carl Reiner always worked well together - I also love their Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid - but this movie is just as good - hilarious and crazy. I don't think Warner's advertising department knew how to sell it - that trailer really isn't very good at communicating the absolute lunacy on display in nearly every frame of this movie - but then again, maybe that lunacy would be hard to encapsulate in short form in any attempt.
Regardless - after years of full frame DVD nonsense - Warner added the widescreen version to their Made on Demand Archive - and I asked them to whip me one up. Now we can be watching it anytime - even tonight - if you'll get that cat out of here and come on over!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
TenList Presents: 10 Great Unexpected Cameos!
More than usual - I want to throw in a SPOILER ALERT here - some of the cameos mentioned are surprises in their movie - so if you haven't seen the movie...
1. ) Boris Karloff
in Transylvania Twist
In Jim Wynorski's excellent 1990 horror spoof Steve Altman - searching a spooky old castle - opens a door and finds himself face to face with...Boris Karloff?!?! Yes, more than twenty years after Mr. Karloff's passing, footage from 1963's The Terror is used to allow Altman a brief conversation with one of the greatest horror stars of all time.
2.) John Carradine in Jack-O
Continuing the "cameo from the grave" theme - John Carradine turns up briefly in this 1995 horror flick from director Steve Latshaw - using some previously unused footage shot before Mr. Carradine passed away in 1988.
3.) The five guest stars in The List of Adrian Messenger
It's a cool mystery flick with a gimmick. As leads George C. Scott and Dana Wynter snoop around, they meet up with five heavily made up Big Star cameo actors - all of whom are listed on the poster along with their characters in portrait. I was debating whether or not to even name the actors since even that is a slight spoiler - but the movie's poster goes whole hog for the spoiler - so there you go. The movie is highly recommended - both as a solid mystery movie and as a gimmick flick!
4.) Franco Nero in Django Unchained
I loved Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Western pastiche - and thought the moment when his Django - Jamie Foxx - meets up with the original 1966 Django - Franco Nero - was a movie moment made in heaven. Their dialogue exchange is also just wonderful - but I'll leave that for you to check out in the movie.
5.) Gene Barry and Ann Robinson in War of the Worlds (2005)
Although it came out during Tom Cruise's "crazy" period - when he was jumping on couches and attempting to make us believe something by marrying young actresses I used to hang out with - I still watched this one on home video - and thought it was a solid version of the H.G. Wells story. My very favorite moment comes at the end of the movie - when Cruise and his kids finally make it to his in-laws' house - and when they come out it's Gene Barry and Ann Robinson - the stars of the 1953 War of the Worlds! Fifty two years later - both actors are still kicking and hale and hearty enough to cameo - another sterling movie moment.
6.) Jack Carter in Satan’s Princess
In 1990 I sit down with the new Bert I. Gordon flick - the creator of Attack of the Puppet People, Village of the Giants, and Empire of the Ants was back with a new movie years after I assumed he'd retired - (and he's still around and working on new film projects twenty-five years on!) The movie didn't involve anyone or anything growing or shrinking - this was a demon attacking people movie - and it sure got off to some kind of start with a prologue set in the 12th century - with a monk who sets the movie's events in motion with a prophesy in the form of a painting he has just finished. And who plays the monk? None other than borscht belt comedian Jack Carter - a very familiar face from talk shows and sitcoms when I was a kid. So why was he cast as an Italian speaking monk in the beginning of this movie? No idea - but I sure did love it!
7.) Larry Hagman in Superman
As a part of Lex Luthor's (Gene Hackman) plot to sink California into the sea, Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) pretends to be injured from a car crash - stopping a military convoy on the road long enough to allow Otis (Ned Beatty) to alter the trajectory of the missiles they carry. While the voluptuous lady lays on the roadway in her fetching red dress, the military convoy commander walks up and turns out to be Larry Hagman of all people! He has some funny bits and dialogue, then disappears from the movie. I'd love to know why and how he was chosen for that role.
8.) Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Philip Kaufman's remake is actually very good and well worth watching. Particularly cool is the scene where the star of the original movie comes tearing in - still screaming about the alien invasion just as he did at the end of the 1956 version....
9.) Judi Dench in Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides
I've only seen one Pirates movie, and for me that was all the Jack Sparrow I needed. But I love that they got Dame Judi to pop round for a quick cameo in one of the sequels.
10.) Bob Hope in Spies Like Us
In Jim Wynorski's excellent 1990 horror spoof Steve Altman - searching a spooky old castle - opens a door and finds himself face to face with...Boris Karloff?!?! Yes, more than twenty years after Mr. Karloff's passing, footage from 1963's The Terror is used to allow Altman a brief conversation with one of the greatest horror stars of all time.
 |
| This isn't the actual scene, but it is a shot of Boris Karloff in The Terror. |
2.) John Carradine in Jack-O
Continuing the "cameo from the grave" theme - John Carradine turns up briefly in this 1995 horror flick from director Steve Latshaw - using some previously unused footage shot before Mr. Carradine passed away in 1988.
3.) The five guest stars in The List of Adrian Messenger
It's a cool mystery flick with a gimmick. As leads George C. Scott and Dana Wynter snoop around, they meet up with five heavily made up Big Star cameo actors - all of whom are listed on the poster along with their characters in portrait. I was debating whether or not to even name the actors since even that is a slight spoiler - but the movie's poster goes whole hog for the spoiler - so there you go. The movie is highly recommended - both as a solid mystery movie and as a gimmick flick!
4.) Franco Nero in Django Unchained
I loved Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Western pastiche - and thought the moment when his Django - Jamie Foxx - meets up with the original 1966 Django - Franco Nero - was a movie moment made in heaven. Their dialogue exchange is also just wonderful - but I'll leave that for you to check out in the movie.
5.) Gene Barry and Ann Robinson in War of the Worlds (2005)
Although it came out during Tom Cruise's "crazy" period - when he was jumping on couches and attempting to make us believe something by marrying young actresses I used to hang out with - I still watched this one on home video - and thought it was a solid version of the H.G. Wells story. My very favorite moment comes at the end of the movie - when Cruise and his kids finally make it to his in-laws' house - and when they come out it's Gene Barry and Ann Robinson - the stars of the 1953 War of the Worlds! Fifty two years later - both actors are still kicking and hale and hearty enough to cameo - another sterling movie moment.
 |
| Ann and Gene in 1953... |
 |
| ...and Gene and Ann in 2005. |
6.) Jack Carter in Satan’s Princess
In 1990 I sit down with the new Bert I. Gordon flick - the creator of Attack of the Puppet People, Village of the Giants, and Empire of the Ants was back with a new movie years after I assumed he'd retired - (and he's still around and working on new film projects twenty-five years on!) The movie didn't involve anyone or anything growing or shrinking - this was a demon attacking people movie - and it sure got off to some kind of start with a prologue set in the 12th century - with a monk who sets the movie's events in motion with a prophesy in the form of a painting he has just finished. And who plays the monk? None other than borscht belt comedian Jack Carter - a very familiar face from talk shows and sitcoms when I was a kid. So why was he cast as an Italian speaking monk in the beginning of this movie? No idea - but I sure did love it!
 |
| Jack Carter, 12th century monk? |
7.) Larry Hagman in Superman
As a part of Lex Luthor's (Gene Hackman) plot to sink California into the sea, Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) pretends to be injured from a car crash - stopping a military convoy on the road long enough to allow Otis (Ned Beatty) to alter the trajectory of the missiles they carry. While the voluptuous lady lays on the roadway in her fetching red dress, the military convoy commander walks up and turns out to be Larry Hagman of all people! He has some funny bits and dialogue, then disappears from the movie. I'd love to know why and how he was chosen for that role.
8.) Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Philip Kaufman's remake is actually very good and well worth watching. Particularly cool is the scene where the star of the original movie comes tearing in - still screaming about the alien invasion just as he did at the end of the 1956 version....
 |
| "They're here!" 1956 |
 |
| "They're here!" 1978 |
9.) Judi Dench in Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides
I've only seen one Pirates movie, and for me that was all the Jack Sparrow I needed. But I love that they got Dame Judi to pop round for a quick cameo in one of the sequels.
10.) Bob Hope in Spies Like Us
Monday, February 2, 2015
Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #201!
Soul Patrol (Cinematic Releasing Corporation, 1981)
This one is a little complicated. The movie was made in 1976 in South Africa as Death of a Snowman. It was released here by Cinematic Releasing Corporation in 1978 as Black Trash (Stay classy, Cinematic!) Then it got more play three years later under this title. I've never seen it, but apparently it's a pretty good Blaxploitation cop flick with a white cop teaming up with a black reporter to investigate vigilante killings. I'd like to see it - I don't care which title - although I'd like it to be a complete version please and thank you.
The Lodger (20th Century Fox, 1944)
This remake of a silent movie casts the large and imposing Laird Cregar as the title character - who may or may not be Jack the Ripper. It was a great success, and 20 Century Fox planned to capitalize on it with a series of movies casting Cregar in similar roles. The first of these was Hangover Square, which also cast George Sanders. Sadly, Cregar died from the strain of a medically unsupervised crash diet he'd put himself on in the hopes of escaping his Big Bad Man casting - he wanted to be a romantic leading man - and his death from heart attack came just after Hangover Square was completed, and it was released after his death.
Daddy-'O' (American International Pictures, 1958)
This 50's flick combining drag racing and band drama is not one I've managed to see - but it does hold an interesting place in film history - it's the first movie scored by John Willams - you know - Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Superman? That guy? So I'd really like to check this one out!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)