| Pawn Shop Finds for Today |
[May. 24th, 2013|11:30 am]
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| [ | mood |
| |  complacent | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Eric Rogers, "Carry On Spying" | ] |
Satanico Pandemonium (1973) on DVD (Netflix doesn't have it), and on VHS, a little effort from someone in Connecticut in 1962 called I Was A Teenage Mummy (with an introduction by Forry Ackerman!)...the box says it's the first home video release, in 1995, and Amazon doesn't show any DVD available (not to be confused with the later movie of the same name). |
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| Let Joy Be Unconfined |
[May. 22nd, 2013|10:43 pm]
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| [ | mood |
| | complacent | ] |
| [ | music |
| | William Alwyn, "Bedevilled" | ] |
That Guy Who Was In That Thing is a documentary that interviews 18 character actors about the hardships of the business. My favorite (sorry, Bruce Davison), would have to be Robert Joy, who registered so strongly in plum roles in two major films within the span of a year (Ragtime and Atlantic City) that I kept waiting for his inevitable stardom...or at least, I dunno, Tracey Walter-level stardom. Instead there would be long dry spells before I'd see him pop up in anything as interesting as Land of the Dead. At least his story ends happily; an audition landed him a spot on CSI:NY...or his glasses did, depending on who tells the story. |
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| Ah, Netflix, What Can't You Bring Me? |
[May. 19th, 2013|07:50 pm]
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| [ | mood |
| | complacent | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Luis Bacalov, "Django Theme" | ] |
David A. Prior somehow managed to get both David Carradine and Robert Tessier for Future Force (1989), which borrows the privatized-cops background of Robocop for kind of a bargain-basement retelling of The Gauntlet. (An alternate title could be: "John Tucker Must Die.") The opening scene has a voice-over telling us we're in 2150, which is visually represented by an SUV parked outside a power plant. Apparently, the future will look a lot like the L.A. warehouse district, populated by bad 80's hairstyles.
Some may find its tale of authorities wanting a journalist executed on sight for treason on their mere say-so to be alarmingly prescient, but screw those guys.
Luckily for my Netflix queue...there's a sequel! I see they were able to get Charles Napier for that one, although I'm not surprised to see Prior can't get too far in a series without casting his brother Ted in a lead role. |
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| In A Nutshell |
[May. 19th, 2013|01:27 am]
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| [ | mood |
| | complacent | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Jeff Rona | ] |
I watched Robert Lieberman's The Tortured (2010) and concluded that the title refers to the audience. |
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| Recent Viewing |
[May. 17th, 2013|01:57 pm]
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| [ | mood |
| | complacent | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Van Halen, "Dance the Night Away" | ] |
I might have passed on Pharaoh's Army with Patricia Clarkson, Chris Cooper and Kris Kristofferson, but once I saw Robert Joy was on board, so was I.
Sharon Stone was executive producer of If A Man Falls starring Dylan Baker, Timothy Hutton, and Pruitt Taylor-Vince, because that's the kind of star power someone with Sharon Stone's clout can muster. |
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| At Long Last...Huh |
[May. 16th, 2013|07:17 pm]
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| [ | mood |
| | complacent | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Stray Cats, "Rock This Town" | ] |
Somehow I managed to overlook a couple of rarities that were showing on TCM this week when I was perusing the listings. Last night I discovered they were about to show Harry Hurwitz's 1970 The Projectionist, a movie I've long wanted to see, a classic piece of fin de Sixties surrealism with Chuck McCann as a dispassionate film-threader whose rich fantasy life is peppered with film clips, and Rodney Dangerfield as his despised boss/dream-arch-villain. Naturally, our cable system decided to crash just minutes into the film. Thank goodness Netflix has the DVD.
Again, tonight, I stumbled on Turner about to screen the never-shown and impossible-to-own The Big Fisherman from 1956. Unfortunately it's what looks like a pretty poor 16mm non-widescreen TV print, which is a shame as Lee Garmes' cinematography was nominated for an Oscar. |
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| Truth in Advertising, I Guess |
[May. 15th, 2013|12:51 pm]
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| [ | mood |
| | complacent | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Igor O'Gigagusky, "Office Love-In" | ] |
According to my handy Film Encyclopedia, among Ray Danton's directorial efforts is 1973's Crypt of the Dead. You know...as opposed to the other kind of crypt. |
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