I have fond memories of watching ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ countless times at the TLA Theater on South Street, Philadelphia during my youth. It was a blast! While it may not be the greatest film, it’s undoubtedly iconic and addictive.
I’d love to see a reboot of TRHPS, but only if it’s directed by someone truly capable (perhaps Tim Burton at his best) and they could find an actor as campy and mesmerizing as Tim Curry to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Land of Bad starring Russell Crow and a couple of Hemsworths.
A good first half but it eventually devolves into a formulaic 1980s style commando flick.
Eventually? Like 4 minutes in?
They did a “remake” in the last few years and fucked it up completely. To be trendy, they used a post op transexual Laverne Cox (the actress from Orange is the new black) for Frank-N-Furter, despite the character being “entire”, but that isn’t really the problem, a number of cast could barely sing, and the actual horror came from having a post-stroke Tim Curry clearly struggling through his lines as the narrator. Went from funny in the original to utterly humourless and badly performed.
Zulu Dawn (Peacock, 1975) My son and I have been on a British Colonial Victorian Era kick lately and this was the next on the list. A prequel of sorts to the acclaimed Zulu, my son and I felt it wasn’t as good even if it was the greater spectacle of the two. I know about the historical grumblings, but it has to educate and entertain and even for this history buff much of the details are dry as sawdust while also being incredibly obscure so I’m cool with artistic license. I was however left wondering if there was no other story arc here available but hubris and folly.
Sounds like in the second half…
For Isandlwana?
Nope.
The line “Let us hope, General, that this will be the… final solution… to the Zulu problem” was a bit too much.
Generally neglected film noir boasts a complex plot, fine cinematography, LA locations (incl., Westwood Village, Hwd. Blvd. and Venice, which is mostly oil derricks), an excellent supporting cast, many snappy wisecracks and an inordinate number of babes. Franchot Tone plays P.I. Stuart Bailey, a name reused by screenwriter Roy Huggins when he created 77 Sunset Strip. Though somewhat derivative, this was quite enjoyable.
Okay, just back from seeing Deadpool x Wolverine. It’s basically all the same beats from the first two movies dialed up to 11 and then stuffed into a blender with season 1 of Loki and chunks of vast numbers of other superhero films.
You get all the ultraviolence, foul language, fourth-wall breaking, comic quips, and in-jokes of the franchise as well as an insane number of cameos, all designed to tie together all the bits of the Marvel cinematic multiverse into one big soggy dripping ball and drag the X-Men and Fantastic 4 into the MCU kicking and screaming.
And yes, there’s a fun bit at the end of the credits.
Reasonable correction, though when I was coming up ( 1981 ), the lingo was that Academy was 1.85:1, Title Safe TV was 1.33:1, 'Scope was 2.66:1 and so on.
I’ve heard 1.85 referred to as flat- but it wasn’t something I’d heard on set. Ever.
When the horribleness of the cross-over from TV 1.33:1 to HD/ Letterboxing was happening, I’d show up on set with my Steadicam™ and be told, " We’re shooting Title Safe but protecting Academy with a common Headroom top. "
Made me fucking crazy. Yes, yes, headroom will be fine. But instead of focusing on elegant framing, my entire brain was abuzz with eliminating shit in the outer areas that would be seen IF the show were ever to be shown Letterboxed.
Those years sucked on set. Much use was made of 1/16"-wide black paper tape rolls, marking stuff out on the Video Village monitors.
Pick a frame, people. Just…pick a frame.
The difference in our experience/terminology is that you’re coming from the production side and (most of) my background is on the exhibition side. Flat/scope refers to the projector lenses.
I’m still surprised that people would refer to 1.85 as Academy. Not saying you’re wrong, just that I’ve always known Academy to be “not-quite 1.33.”
Deadpool & Wolverine
Highly recommended.
Uh, I kind of loved this movie. I laughed a lot and so did my wife. I can’t go much into this movie in detail because there are massive spoiler type things in it, but the whole thing worked perfectly well and it was a terrific action-comedy.
I know it is getting mixed reviews to a certain extent, but it doesn’t deserve them. It’s fun. A l ot of fun.
If you have been watching comic-book Marvel movies since X-men 1 in 2000(!), this was a fun movie all the way through. It’s fun even if you haven’t, but there was a lot here for long-time fans.
Coogan’s Bluff 1968 Clint Eastwood
A early collaboration with Don Siegel
It’s not one of Clint’s better known films like the spaghetti Westerns, Dirty Harry, and Play Misty.
There are some good action scenes. Don Stroud over acts in several scenes. It’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it recently. Clint is a bad ass but not nearly as hardened as Dirty Harry.
They really hammered the 60’s counterculture. Treating the characters almost like freaks. Reminded me of Dragnet when Sgt. Jo Friday mets a weed smoker in a bad wig.
The tv show McCloud is obviously inspired by the movie. But, geez they really sanitized the character. They shaved off all the characters rough edges.
The concept of a modern deputy driving a jeep instead of riding a horse is interesting. Cade’s County with Glen Ford had a similiar modern day, Western sheriff. I’d like to see a new series like that.
This was Eastwood’s first non-Western, though it straddles genres in an interesting way. I was a teenager working as an usher in a movie theater when this film was released. I saw it dozens of times and the few times I’ve come across it on TV I could quote the dialog before it happens.
I also notice how much the film has been edited for TV. I’ve never seen the theatrical version shown on TV, even on TCM, and for good reason. There’s some in-your-face nudity that takes place in a “psychedelic” nightclub. And there’s an utterly tasteless incident in the police station where a very old very ugly woman talks to a police officer about being raped. It’s all in her imagination, but it’s actually played as a joke! Yes, in 1968, an elderly woman being raped was supposed to be funny! In the TV version, the word “rape” is edited out, so the scene makes no sense anyway.
It’s very non-PC from start to finish and definitely a curio of its time.
The motorcycle chase is done really well. I found a quote online from Don Seigel’s book. Clint was an accomplished rider and did many of the stunts himself. They used a double for Stroud because he was inexperienced on motorcycles.
The most dated part of the film is the extreme counterculture/psychedelic scenes. Partially because Coogan was a Western character and NY was a very alien place for him to operate.
I want to read Seigel’s book. Learn more about his movies.
Link Motorcycles in Coogan's Bluff
Regarding “Coogan’s Bluff”: Yes, that was an exciting chase, capped off by Coogan collaring Ringerman and saying to Lee J. Cobb “I want to make a citizen’s arrest” or words to that effect.
Although Coogan was the walking talking embodiment of police brutality, I have to admit I’ve always liked that movie. It’s so dated and un-PC that it’s almost like watching a live-action cartoon.
And whatever happened to Tisha “Linny Raven” Sterling? To my then 16-year-old mind, she was a real hottie.
I thought Deadpool and Wolverine was very funny* and entertaining with lots of fun cameos but, I am so done with the “TVA” and the “multiverse” being the premise of every damn thing the MCU churns out these days.
*The after-credits scene is well worth the wait.
Film historians are going to look back on the 2020’s as “The Multiverse Era”, like Film Noir or Silents.
Watched Anyone But You because I was interested in seeing the lead Glen Powell (from Hit Man, cf. above) in something light. The female lead is Sydney Sweeney who I only know by name. A RomCom.
“Something light” did I say? This is so light you could fill zepplins with it.
An amazingly crappy film even by current RomCom standards. I knew going in that it’s reviews were so-so. But this movie didn’t come anywhere close to so-so.
It was full of “twists” and poorly based setups for bits. And for some reason it is set in Sydney Australia. I mentioned to Mrs. FtG that the lead actress was Sydney Sweeney and she misheard and thought I said it was set in Sydney. It was clearly taking place in Boston (Fenway Park and all that). But that didn’t last.
Of course there’s unrelatable rich people who don’t give two figs about wasting and showing off money. Then there’s the repeated excuses to show the opera house. And on and on.
Oh, and Dermot Mulroney and Rachel Griffiths have small roles. They need better agents.
Give it one nonsensical Aussie slang word for star.