Welcome to the 285th Edition of my long-running series. This week I pay
tribute to Michael Serrazin and Tim Hetherington who both recently left
us. I saw that this season's AMERICA'S GOT TALENT is to premier on the
31st of May so I don't know one way or the other if I will be used.
Either way, I'll write a blog reflecting on my times with that show.
Disclosure
(1994): This is the 24th link on The Chain and continues with Dylan
Baker. This is based on the novel from Michael Crichton and directed by
Barry Levinson. I remember I was in middle school when this came out
and saw the previews where even then I was quite intrigued by this
corporate drama. Michael Douglas plays Tom Sanders who is happily
married and a computer expert with a company for a long time. He is
expecting to be rewarded for his tenure and hard work by being promoted
to CEO but has no such luck. The promotion goes to a very sexy woman
who he once had an affair with named Meredith Johnson, played very well
by Demi Moore. Things get even worse when he agrees to meet with her
thinking it is just business and maybe to reflect but turns out to be
much worse as she comes onto him. She first accuses him of harassment
but he turns the tables and sues her which jeopardizes everything he has
including his job and family. This is a pretty good and suspenseful
film even if Michael Douglas plays these types of parts a lot. There is
a lot more to this than the sexual harassment lawsuit. Donald
Sutherland, Dennis Miller, and NIP/TUCK alum Roma Maffia co-star. I
remember after seeing this I actually decided to read the book, I know a
very rare thing for me, but I also really liked the book. I'll never
forget having this at school with me and my friend Jess getting all over
me about this "sick, disgusting book", yes I have quite a memory to
remember a middle school moment like that, and for some it may be but if
you can get past the intense sex scene it is very intriguing. This is
available on Instant Netflix. The Chain will continue next week with
one of the actors, actresses, or director of this film.
No
Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005): This is my rock documentary for the
week which was directed by Martin Scorsese. As you might have guessed,
this is based on singer Bob Dylan. It focuses on the 1961 to 1966
period of his career where his career rises and the evolution from
becoming a folk singer to then becoming a protest singer. This
documentary contains a lot of rare performance footage and interviews
from the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and many
others. This is likely going to be enjoyed by people who are Dylan fans
or at least the casual fans. People who do not like Bob Dylan as a
person or his music may not like this movie. For me, there is some
music of his I like and some I do not like but I really enjoyed the
performance footage and his reflections. Scorsese put this together
very well and is worth the three hours.
De Nachtmerrie (1946):
This is my puppet animation short for the week and is translated to the
nightmare in English. I found this on my Pub-D-Hub app on my Roku
player. This was a very intriguing short film from an animation studio
called 'factory' Dollywood and is some kind of advertising clip. It is a
situation where a man is captured by pirates and is quite disturbing.
The animation though was amazing and this can probably be found on
youtube.
Tarzan and His Mate (1934): I found this one on TCM
On-Demand. This is the second film of the MGM series of the title
character which stars Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan and Maureen
O'Sullivan as Jane which is probably the best Tarzan/Jane duo of all
time. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote this character and the first novels.
Harry Holt, an old friend of Jane, comes to the jungle leading an
expedition with his friend Marlin to find and take back ivory. Harry
also has ideas about bringing back Jane which becomes very hard to
convince her. Harry's friend Marlin also shows how crooked and greedy
he can be when Tarzan does not want them to take back the ivory. There
is a lot of action for a movie of this era with Tarzan protecting Jane
from every animal and fights with violent native tribes. There is a
very interesting scene where Tarzan and Jane are under water and Jane is
actually naked and even shows full frontal shots. This was a scene cut
originally from the film for obvious censorship reasons. The nude
scenes were discovered in the 90s by Turner Entertainment and Ted Turner
ordered the scenes to be restored.
On Dangerous Ground (1952):
This is my film noir for the week which I also found on TCM On-Demand.
Nicholas Ray is credited as the director of this movie though it is said
that Ida Lupino, who also co-stars in the film, did some of the
directing. Robert Ryan stars as withdrawn cop Jim Wilson whose job has
had a lot of clear effect on him through the years. He is then sent to a
smaller town to investigate the murder of a young girl while also kind
of being on probation with his job. When there, he meets the victims
vengeful father Walter, played well by Ward Bond, and meets a woman that
he really likes but is blind and the sister of the main suspect. This
is a very watchable film and becomes a tale of redemption for Jim as he
finds love possibly for the first time in his life but also knows he
must do his job. Ida Lupino is also very good as Mary, the blind woman
who tries to help Jim find peace within himself.
Killer Klowns
From Outer Space (1988): This is my cult film for the week which was
directed, writted, and produced by the Chiodo Brothers. We have a small
town where aliens, who look like clowns, come and terrorize the town.
Grant Cramer and Suzanne Snyder star in this film as a couple who
witness the terror but have a very hard time getting anyone to believe
them but like in many horror films, there is that cop that is
open-minded and knows these people would not lie. There is not much
more to explain than that since the title explains a lot. No matter
what, we cannot really knock these people for originality in terms of
the aliens being clowns. My Grandmother used to dress up as a clown and
would give candy to children which was very admirable. My cousin Gary
actually did it with her at times while at first he did not understand
her reasoning since she did not get paid but when doing it with her
really understood that it was to help people and make kids happy. In
turn, my grandma would not have liked this film and it is not for
everyone. However, it is a good guilty pleasure and even moves beyond
guilty pleasure at times with a pretty good story and killing scenes.
This is quite possibly the inspiration for the Insane Clown Posse.
The
Gumball Rally (1976): This is my tribute to Michael Serrazin who stars
in this film. He was more known for THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY but I
have used that not too long ago plus I can only watch that so many
times. This is one of many illegal road race movies from the 70s. This
is a race of the title and when a very diverse group of people hear
"gumball" they go straight to the cross-country road race. I'm not huge
on road movies but this provided some entertainment like a young Gary
Busey and Raul Julia. If this is a type of film you like, this is for
you.
Mafioso (1962): This is my Italian film for the week which I
found on TCM On-Demand. This is a mafia movie and is also a comedy
directed by Alberto Lattuada. Alberto Sordi stars as Antonio. He is a
factory worker who decides to take his family to Sicily and meet his
family. He is determined to dispel any mafia connections but his wife
has a hard time believing it and is soon called upon by the family boss
to do a "favor". This movie has some great cinematography in it and
good performances. It was a good movie of a man discovering there is a
lot more to his family than he remembers.
Restrepo (2010): This
is my tribute to Tim Hetherington who was one of the directors of this
documentary. He was recently killed when in Libya trying to film the
conflict there. This is something he seemed very passionate about as it
shows in this documentary. This is my second documentary this week
which takes a look at a U.S. Platoon in Afghanistan. It really gives a
no-nonsense look at what the group must go through and the various ways
each one must deal with deaths which they do experience. There was some
pretty intense war footage which I know I could never go out there to
film. What I really liked about this was that there was no political
message or even some statement being made in this film. There will be
no bashing or compliments toward any president or other politician.
There is no big music score but just compelling interviews and war
footage that should keep everyone engaged. Hetherington appears to have
died doing what he loves but my thoughts go out to his friends and
family. This is available on Instant Netflix.
Bad Lieutenant:
Port of Call- New Orleans (2009): This is part one of a two-part
Nicolas Cage series. Werner Herzog directed this film which stars
Nicolas Cage as detective Terence McDonagh who has a drug and gambling
addiction. He is then assigned to investigate the murder of a family
over drugs. Through this investigation he must deal with his demons as
well as other things in his life which make his life more difficult.
Eva Mendez co-stars as Terence's prostitute girlfriend and Val Kilmer
plays his partner. Nicolas Cage has not always made the best decisions
but please forget about everything else you may hate him in and try
this. Many may remember the 1992 film BAD LIEUTENANT with Harvey Keitel
and this is promoted as a remake but Herzog has made it clear that it
is not really a remake and I agree. The title was used in many ways for
marketing. One significant thing on the film is that this takes place
kind of after hurricane Katrina with an event that leads to Terence's
drug addiction. This movie is available on Instant Netflix. This movie
is not for everyone but it has a good audience and I do not believe
you'll be disappointed.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me
what you like and dislike. Also, I welcome suggestions but please
comment on what I have written first and if you have not seen any of
these titles, just say that in the comments. Stay tuned for next week
which so far includes more Nicolas Cage, Helen Mirren, Ellen Page,
Lucille Ball, Clark Gable, and many others.
HONORABLE TV MENTION
Beavis
and Butt-Head (1993): I recently got reacquainted with my friends from
middle school of the title. Mike Judge created this MTV cartoon series
of these two heavy metal underachievers. These people never really
have any friends and they are very rude to everyone they meet, even to
each other. They spend lots of time sitting on the couch and watching
music videos where some they absolutely love and some they just make fun
of a lot. They are also in high school where no teachers seem to know
how to deal with them and many other times they just skip school. They
are also obsessed with "scoring" where they try in every way possible to
hook up with women. Other times they work at the restaurant Burger
World but always seem to cause a lot of chaos but their manager must be
compassionate. They also get a lot of odd jobs like from Tom Anderson
who always seems to forget they are not the smartest people in the world
to do yard-work. Mike Judge also shows his voice talent as he provides
the voices for the title characters, Tom Anderson, Mr. Van Driessen,
Coach Buzzcut, Principal McVicker, among others. Mr. Van Driessen was
their hippie teacher who never wanted to give up on Beavis and Butthead
no matter what even if they did something wrong to him. He also wrote
some good songs. Buzzcut was a more military minded teacher and did not
like working with the characters. McVicker's toughest job was dealing
with Beavis and Butthead. Beavis had some moments where when having a
lot of caffeine and turns into Cornholio. Butt-Head in some some ways
was the smarter of the two but that is not saying a lot. I watched this
on Instant Netflix recently which was kind of a best-of collection from
Mike Judge which does not include all episodes. Another problem here
is that in the Instant collection, they do not have them watching the
music videos which was always the best part of the show. That is likely
because of royalty issues so I hope they can work something out in the
future. However, watching these episodes without the videos, I also saw
how innovative Judge was in his writing and there was always a pretty
new situation each week. This show would come to an end so that Judge
could start his next animated series KING OF THE HILL where Judge adopts
Anderson's voice for Hank Hill. This show sparked a lot of controversy
from parents, politicians, and everyone else. There was even a lawsuit
where this show was blamed for a 5 year old boy burning down a house
and in it the tragic death of the boy's two year old sister. From
there, they could not make any fire references bout found "loopholes"
around it. This show is very intelligently stupid and amazing. There
would later be a movie and even a cd where Butt-Head and Beavis sings I
GOT YOU BABE with Cher.
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