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DigiGods Episode 264: Summertime Blues
354 Plays8 months ago
DigiGods Episode 264: Summertime Blues
What does Famous Amos have to do with “The Graduate’? Tune in and find out! Also, The Fall Guy and Furiosa on 4k, a long overdue 4k complete set of the Rocky films, Death to Smoochy on Blu plus Terms of Endearment and Criterion delivers an Albert Brooks twofer! #4k #UHD #DVD #Bluray #4k #TV #Movies
In this episode, the Gods discuss:
- Act of Violence (Blu-ray)
- Against the Storm: Herbert Kline in a Darkened Europe (Blu-ray)
- Arcadian (Blu-ray)
- Back to Black (Blu-ray)
- Betrayed (Blu-ray)
- The Bikeriders (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Black Mass (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Bless Their Little Hearts (Blu-ray)
- Brief Encounters / The Long Farewell: Two Films by Kira Muratova (Blu-ray)
- Civil War (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Collateral 4k UHD Stelebook (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Coup de Chance (Blu-ray)
- Death to Smoochy (Blu-ray)
- Demons (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Demons 2 (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Director Spotlight: Sydney Pollack – Castle Keep / Bobby Deerfield (Blu-ray)
- Double the Romance – Evening/Once Around (Blu-ray)
- Ezra (Blu-ray)
- The Fall Guy (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Faster (Blu-ray)
- Friendly Persuasion (Blu-ray)
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Hannibal Rising (Bloody Disgusting Steelbook - Walmart Exclusive) (Blu-ray)
- Harum Scarum (Blu-ray)
- History of Evil (DVD)
- Hour of the Gun (Blu-ray)
- I Spit on Your Grave (Bloody Disgusting Steelbook - Walmart Exclusive) (Blu-ray)
- IF (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Into the Blue (Blu-ray)
- Kingdom of the Spiders (DVD)
- The Last Emperor (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Laurel & Hardy: The Silent Years (1927) (Blu-ray)
- Leatherface (Bloody Disgusting Steelbook - Walmart Exclusive) (Blu-ray)
- The Lovely Bones (DVD)
- Mademoiselle (Blu-ray)
- The Mexico Trilogy: El Mariachi, Desperado &
- Once Upon A Time In Mexico [Limited Edition] (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- The Monster Squad (DVD)
- Mother (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Mr And Mrs Smith (Hitchcock) (DVD)
- NCIS: The Twenty-First Season (DVD)
- Never Open That Door (No abras nunca esa puerta) (Blu-ray)
- Not a Pretty Picture (Blu-ray)
- A Nun's Story (Blu-ray)
- Observe and Report (Blu-ray)
- Of Mice and Men (Blu-ray)
- Oleanna (Blu-ray)
- The Peacemaker (Blu-ray)
- The Playboys (Blu-ray)
- Real Life (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Revolt At Fort Laramie (Blu-ray)
- Rocky I-VI Ultimate Knockout Collection (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- The Shining Hour (DVD)
- Sinister (Bloody Disgusting Steelbook - Walmart Exclusive) (Blu-ray)
- The Story of G.I. Joe (Blu-ray)
- Strange Invaders (Blu-ray)
- Swingers (Blu-ray)
- Ted Lasso: The Richmond Way (Blu-ray)
- Terms of Endearment (4k UHD Blu-ray)
- Terror Firma (Blu-ray)
- Texas Chainsaw (Bloody Disgusting Steelbook - Walmart Exclusive) (Blu-ray)
- Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza - Limited Edition (Blu-ray)
- Ultraman Taiga – The Complete Series + Movie (Blu-ray)
- The Way West (Blu-ray)
- Who's that Girl? (Blu-ray)
- Witness (Blu-ray)
- Wolf Creek (Bloody Disgusting Steelbook - Walmart Exclusive) (Blu-ray)
- You're Next (Bloody Disgusting Steelbook - Walmart Exclusive) (Blu-ray)
Please also visit www.Cinegods.com and Substack.HollywoodHeretic.com.
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Transcript
East Coast humidity chatter
00:00:25
Speaker
Oh, we are so back and so done with summer. This so, so done with disgusting hot East Coast weather. um Tim, you you you never told me how bad, like St. Louis has humidity. Based on what I, it looks like the West Coast is the only place that doesn't have humidity during the summer. I don't know that I ever processed that. Well, maybe you get that sos sort of Southern, Southern, Southern yeah Arizona. No, St. Louis people forget the Mississippi River is real.
00:01:00
Speaker
And in in the humidity in St. Louis, straight on down, you know, through Mississippi, Alabama, all the way down to... al yeah Yeah, but we were we weren't in the South, man. We were in New and England. We were in New York.
Broadway and New York adventures
00:01:12
Speaker
So we we went to New...we figured we'd keep it stateside, right? it's Just like enough with the...we'd keep it stateside. Saw some shows in New York. ah Once Upon a Mattress with with ah Sutton Foster was phenomenal. Absolutely hilarious. She is so gifted.
00:01:27
Speaker
I mean, here she is late forties and she's reprising a role that made a 20 something Carol Burnett a star that takes guts and she pulls it off. But in any case, so, yeah, we're in New York and met with our our choreographer for the Busby Berkeley film who is just chomping at the bit. So ah more news on that hopefully soon. But he is just he is he is phenomenal. He is just phenomenal. He's he's he's doing a couple of productions of Irving Berlin's White Christmas. the next few months. But if you're in Long Island, look for it. and It's going to be ah there's gonna be one in Long Island. lovely ah Otherwise, ah yeah, we were in New York and then we went to Boston and we did a day trip to Salem where I got my picture taken with the Elizabeth Montgomery statue, which is oh pretty much the most interesting thing in Salem. It's like the rest of the history about witches and whatnot.
00:02:19
Speaker
I don't really care about the real witches, but I did care about Samantha.
Historical tour from New York to Newport
00:02:24
Speaker
yeah That was the first thing, right out of the train, walk on over, stand next to Samantha, get my picture taken. and then ah and Then we had a day trip down to um ah we went and to New Hampshire. We went to Newport to see all the mansions, which are in the Gilded Age, right? All the vanderpills. Yeah, vanderbilt you yeah yeah what's what's that series?
00:02:46
Speaker
yield of age guilty did you guilt they just that yeah that yeah name of series yeah yeah Yeah, and you know, they shot a lot of it there. So we saw the ah the, we saw the breakers, which is the big Vanderbilt mansion. And um yeah that was amazing, except for the fact that was 95 degrees and 78% humidity.
00:03:05
Speaker
but never seen me yeah and Are they as do you big and as a palatial as they look on television? Yes, they are. ah wow now Now, mind you, it's very what you get is they import all this stuff from France and they're trying to look like French palatial. So there definitely is a we want to be like Versailles.
00:03:27
Speaker
Mind you, none of these things are as big as Versailles. They're like little, little tiny mini wannabe Versailles. But but they're they're very impressive. yeah They are very, very impressive. And that whole area is impressive. And then we got back to Boston, then we went to Philly, where it was 90 degrees and 91% humidity.
Philadelphia heat and iconic statues
00:03:50
Speaker
a It's like, what? And that was amazing. Saw, you know, Independence Hall, and of course, i i it wasn't enough that I took my picture with Samantha. I had to take my picture next to Rocky. because That's what I do. I take my picture next to statues of fictional characters.
00:04:08
Speaker
And um we toured the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. And you know what I found incredible about the Mint? You know the one thing they do not have at the U.S. Mint? but Breath mint, breath mint. No mints. no mint no There are no mints at the Mint.
00:04:27
Speaker
yeah so I thought that was funny. ah like That would be the first thing I would do, is like, ah well, you need to have a like ah mint that looks like ah like a penny. Yeah, of course you do. like Why not why would you not ni would you not? Why would you not sell mints at the mint? Come on. You're a marketing person, for crying out loud. like Things will sell better than anything else you've got there.
00:04:51
Speaker
Um, no, but that, that was, that was, uh, that was cool. And then we went back to New York and, uh, there was like some kind of hurricane residual disgustingness and you know, my clothes were sticking to
Comic Con celebrity encounters
00:05:03
Speaker
me and it was horrible. So we came home and it's nice again.
00:05:05
Speaker
so theid you made a talk Talk about Comic Con, man. Comic Con was fantastic. It was a lot of fun. Not nearly as interesting as taking pictures with those fictional characters. By the way, there can only be statues of fictional characters as far as I'm concerned. The statues of actual people always become problematic. Fictional characters, Captain Kirk, Spock. Nobody's ever going to want to take those down.
00:05:29
Speaker
Comic-Con was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fictional characters because, you know, whoever knew any Comic-Con, we were down there with the graphic novel for television series. We were working on my, me, Sherman Augustus, our homie over at Stranger Things, to Jimmy Colonel Sullivan on Stranger Things. He's shooting that now, you know.
00:05:48
Speaker
No, I can't talk about it because you're the ninjas dropped from the ceiling and yeah that kind of stuff. I hate it when that happens. And so our graphic novel series down there complete now ah that people can check out Daughters of Django. Daughters of Django is what it's called. And and that's all in development. And while we were there,
00:06:07
Speaker
ah Colin Kaepernick happened by the booth, which was kind of quick. I saw the pictures, that was wild. That dude is is six foot whatever, 11, 12, it's just nuts, how tall he is. It was astounding to me to see the pictures that you posted because it looked like he was about three and a half feet taller than you.
00:06:29
Speaker
He's a foot taller than me. He's a foot taller than Sherman in Sherman 6'2". He looked like a, like a, like one of those, you know, like a hobby. I had no idea he was that huge. It looked like he could throw right now. He showed me how to throw a smile. We had a, we had a lovely talk. So that, uh, uh, that sounded great. Yeah. That was a really neat trip to Comic Con and all of that stuff started moving forward. It was really, really cool. A lot of projects that we're both working on, working their way forward in various different parts of the entertainment sphere. Fantastic. Well, we didn't have a ton of old bits until like a few days ago.
Bob Newhart's comedic legacy
00:07:13
Speaker
I started dropping we should if we should first talk about bob newhart and bob newhart in the last one and um that is just a level of legend that few people ever rise to and man that guy was as humble and down to earth his whole career as could be. It's just such an unbelievable comedy influence.
00:07:35
Speaker
two hit series. I mean, you know, you don't you don't often get to hit TV comedy series. um He got him. Yeah, got him. So yeah, yeah, yeah. And you and and a movie star in your headlining comedian for for 25 years before into that. and And then for 20 years before any of that damn good account. yeah That's what I love about Bob. Yes.
00:08:00
Speaker
ah that that that that seminal brand of stand-up comedy that he developed in that period when he and who else, I guess Elaine May and Mike Nichols and a few other, ah we're're were doing this very interesting thing ah that they were doing in their little suits and ties. That is a really astute observation. It's it's really true. it was It was a particular kind of comedy that was There was not sketch, but it was not traditional stand up. It was almost like a like a hybrid between the two. like Bob would do those very lengthy one-sided phone conversation. but he didn't He didn't originate that that shtick, but he perfected it. He was he became its like most magnificent practitioner.
00:08:46
Speaker
and ah that That stuff was just amazing. And it's true. you know ah Nichols and May did ah did those those ah did a similar thing, except it wasn't a one-sided conversation. It was both sides of the conversation. right yeah but But it was a similar shtick. They were doing a whole elaborate thing, as opposed to, say, you know a Rodney Dangerfield or any young men who were hitting you with ah a one-liner every six seconds.
00:09:14
Speaker
Particularly those guys who were literally from his cohort. He just outlasted all of them. But you know, Rodney had lived, he'd be 90, Bob was 94. So actually Mortsall, so many great ones, Willie Tomlin. Willie Tomlin actually is from his cohort too. you know and and then and And then kind of somewhere in the middle, you have people like Bill Cosby and Woody Allen and ah you know others who who wear it. They'll tell you a story. It's a little longer story.
00:09:43
Speaker
But it's you know, it it kind of it's it's still you know They're not telling you one joke every six seconds. They're telling you a joke about every 45 or 50 seconds Yeah, and and that's how that kind of pay. It's it's a it's a great era belt. Bob Newhart re that hole in that whole film career I mean in you know, so particularly starting with elf but but you know even before but oh my god all of it then a whole movie career is just Wow and And he's so good in Elf and we forget how good he is because he's he narrates the thing, you know, it's just it's
Cory Yun's secretive passing revelation
00:10:14
Speaker
wonderful. It's just so good. And then we also, you know, lost bizarrely, Cory Yun, Cory Yun, legendary Hong Kong film director.
00:10:25
Speaker
and actor, one of the, ah you know, original yuns who was part of the, you know, went through that whole growing up with Jackie Chan and Sam Ohang. They were all part of the same, you know, Five Little Fortunes. They were part of that same group, the the brothers who came up. And Corey, of course, went on to direct ah tons of great movies, including, you know, the Feng Siyuk movies for Jet Li.
00:10:47
Speaker
Lots of movies for Jet Li and and ah No Retreat, No Surrender was his his English language debut, which introduced us to Jean-Claude Van Damme and his terrible acting. It really was. it was you know That's a weird movie. But um Corey Yun died two years ago. oh My God, this is just also bizarre. COVID and the family requested that it not be made public. and Literally, we all just found out about it last week.
00:11:14
Speaker
is the strangest thing how do you keep that secret everyone in hong kong must have known well i can tell you look i will accept yeah that that portion of the story as it relates to the family but i but i would be giving that we're talking about comm The government of communist chinese yeah of communist Chinese, I'm sorry, I did not believe for one second that something about the government ah yeah as relates to COVID, as relates to him as as a particular hero, yeah um I just believe that something about the government, even if it was just a suggestion to the family, we're not going to talk about this, right?
00:11:53
Speaker
you know, and then the family says, Oh, yeah, okay, right. You know, ah because I'm sorry, there's just no way that this man would not have been just venerated. Yeah. um For his work, two years ago, I mean, there's just no one it's significant in the history of of of a particular kind of, of some of y'all, at least back to Bruce Lee, you know, yeah, no, it's true, who whom he did not bump up against influence influence him one way one direction. another So that's just, that's just insanely outrageous. But there it is.
00:12:22
Speaker
And then now let's talk about
Wally Amos before cookies
00:12:26
Speaker
Amos. No. ah Otherwise known as famous Amos who he a did a lot who did a lot before he was famous. yeah You know, people don't realize he was a significant figure before he became famous for cookies. Tim, why don't you tell us why we're talking about a cookie maker on an entertainment show?
00:12:45
Speaker
but well what Well, Wally a miss wallace Amos, who was born in 1936, so 88 when he passed in Honolulu a couple of days ago, um was certainly well, well known for those cookies. um But well before he got into the cookie business, he did all kinds of things. I happened to know that he was in the Air Force because I was in the Air Force and he's one of these, you know, I keep track of famous people who were in the Air Force. But nevertheless, after that, um um Amos
00:13:14
Speaker
Notably went into the mail room at William Morris. Now the mail room stories and the stories of people who came out of the mail rooms of various different agencies are just legend. And he's one of them. Worked his way up from that mail room into being a major agent at William Morris. Now look, I knew about ah the temptations. I knew about Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye gave him $10,000 to start that cookie company. yeah I did not know that he signed Simon and Garfunkel.
00:13:41
Speaker
He signed Simon Garfickel. He signed Helen Reddy. He wasn't just you know he he was their first black ah um um ah talent rep at William Morris. he was the u He was the first that worked his way up to that legitimate level. But he was more or less in the rock and roll department. He wasn't just out there signing soul bands and R and&B bands, as you might have expected in the late 60s. No.
00:14:04
Speaker
Amos he he knew what he was doing and he signed some heavy, heavy, heavy hitters. It was very famous and very successful from all of that well before he started that cookie company in 1975. At some point, he just said, I just want to bake cookies. yeah What a fascinating career sideways turn. and and How many times do people make that pivot and it doesn't really pan out and they go back to what they were doing?
00:14:30
Speaker
And a situ he he as well as Bob, i again, he was he was bobby next fountain but bob was that he was a grown man with grown children when he decided to go tell jokes at comedy clubs. Amos who was a grown man, a military veteran, a successful agent when he decided to bake his aunties cookies. I do love those stories because it tells you, you can do whatever you want whenever you want. Ellis Diller was a housewife in St. Louis. thought her career was over And somebody said, you ever thought about telling jokes? You're so funny. And and it's a whole new life. you know you just I mean, those are great stories. Those are those are great
Soho's ice cream gem
00:15:12
Speaker
stories. those love the great story They're very encouraging, but personally encouraging to me. ah And anyway, it so and amos Amos pops up in a movie here and there and on a lot of TV shows. ah So you know I got a legitimate person to talk about on this channel.
00:15:26
Speaker
and And when i was at ucla you know ah there were two cookie places in westwood oh yeah when when i was working at the theaters there was a famous amis and there was mrs fields and it was like coke and pepsi and cold And, you know, it was like a, like a SmackDown WWE, w right? It was, it was, ah you know, everybody had their favorite. And, you know, look, Mrs. Fields, those, those, those big soft cookies were beautiful and rich, but Amos, those little crunchy ones, yeah I could eat them by the bucket. You need a handful of famous cookies You could just drop a handful, and it was the best thing after a fat burger. I'd head over to a fat burger, I'd do a fat burger, and it's like, i I think I could just have a handful of famous Amos right now. You know what's funny? it was because that they were They were both still there when Bridget and I you know landed in Westwood in 1990, so they were there. Fat burger's still there. Fat burger's still there.
00:16:28
Speaker
What's really funny though, is Diddy Reece, only you and I know what I'm talking about now, outlasted them both. It's still there. I went over there to still there because I was over there to look at the Bruin. I know. The Village, those are our two preeminent movie theaters there. Anyway, yeah, famous name is Those Cookies. Fantastic. Wow, Diddy Reece, man, that's unreal. But let me tell you something.
00:16:51
Speaker
putting aside the reason for a second ah if you don't know there's an ice cream shop in new york it's in soho he's called morgan sterns and it is on real it is the best ice cream i've ever had in my life it is worth the humidity my gosh that's a good ice cream shop it is fantastic and on a on a on a weekend night the line is out the door just like the reason west yeah Fantastic. Yeah, that's crazy. Well, let's ah let's let's get pounded on this stuff. I'm gonna do we forgot.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah. but Oh my gosh. Alain Delon. The Frenchman. the lastdium last are sailed His name is even real ridiculously
Alain Delon's film allure
00:17:31
Speaker
now beautiful. He was beautiful. His name is beautiful. He was a hell of an actor. What the hell, dude? Alain Delon and everybody like Peter DeBruge, our ah variety film critic, our colleague with Lavka wrote a wonderful summary of why The Samurai is just one of the greatest films ever made and why it's his greatest performance.
00:17:49
Speaker
You know, here's the thing about Elendil and our our friend Francesco has been posting pictures of him all day. um He was beautiful and you don't say that about a lot of men. yeah the He was beautiful and not in like an effeminate way, no but truly he was masculine and beautiful. There's something about his face, his eyes, his presence, the lips. There was something about the whole package.
00:18:18
Speaker
that that is just ah It's unparalleled in in screen history, the way the camera loves that face. It's like nothing I've ever seen. Yeah, as opposed to starve breathless um oh ah ah mut on vermando i suppose to belmondo who right a uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
00:18:47
Speaker
who have these kinds of these very gnarled peasant faces with character in the min so you know that's that is a certain look but dulon was not that No. it was he was It was almost like he had been sculpted by by Michelangelo or something. it it was It was astounding. And he had the talent to back it up. Oh, yeah. i left it it left It left him, a bay he was able to play that guy in Purple Noon. Yeah. That sociopath. which you didn't look I enjoyed Ripley and there's even a TV Ripley now.
00:19:17
Speaker
And I perfectly, I enjoyed all of those, but purple new. That's where it is. yeah I was watching that the other night on Criterion Channel. Oh yeah, I think I saw you. So, you know, and so yeah, yeah so that extraordinary, just absolutely extraordinary. yeah Wow. Well, there we go. We are. We're done with the Obits. I am going to blow through some catalog material okay but here really quickly because this is piled up and everybody just really should know what's out there. So first, I'm going to go through all the MGM stuff. The the MGM library is is being released rather rapidly and precipitously again. um All of these are Blu-rays except for this one. I don't know why they would choose to not release a Blu-ray of William Shatner in Kingdom of the Spiders.
00:20:00
Speaker
i don't This is on DVD. It should be on Blu-ray. I want this on a Blu-ray. William Shatner, Kingdom of the Spiders. Really one of the most wonderfully campy bad movies I have ever seen. The scene where where it's like, look, tarantulas don't really hurt anybody. but for season They're big and hairy so they freak everybody out there is that my favorite scene in this is where will it will him shatter opens the window it exactly the right moment for just a ton of spiders to drop on him and as if they are hitting him to death the second they hit him he doesn' go eel gross get off me the second they hit him he goes into star trek mode and he goes.
00:20:46
Speaker
Oh, like he does, like like in the man trap when the salt creature is putting his fingers on his face. Or any other time that he's he's he's being he's being tortured, you know, by anybody. that wonderful William Shatner scream. It's brilliant. it's so I yeah can't get enough of that movie. On Blu-ray, we also have Into the Blue, which understands that there is no both. The artwork on the front and the back of this is the only thing that tells it. Look, all you need to know, there's no story here. The only reason to see this is if you are compelled by Paul Walker's abs and Jessica Alba's bikini body. That is the movie. That is the marketing. That is the only reason to see it.
00:21:26
Speaker
um May he rest in peace Paul? yeah um Tony Richardson's Mamoiselle starring Jeanne Moreau. Really a a very underrated but terrific movie. a Wonderful post new wave um kind of angry post angry young man combination there with Tony Richardson ah working with Jeanne Moreau and a script by Jean Genet. Absolutely ah really just a very intense, ah very erotic
00:21:58
Speaker
Well worth seeing, well picking up. ah Harold Hecht, The Way West, with Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark. ah Kind of a forgotten Western, but and not a great one by any means, but it's- Andrew V, anyway. Andrew V. Yeah, Andrew V. Andrew V. McLaughlin, the Western veteran director of this one. It's not bad, not bad. It's it's it's you know probably more of a a rental ah than anything else, but has its it has its following. Strange Invaders is a is a wonderful old science fiction invasion throwback. um It feels very much like a movie from the 1950s. Made in the 1980s, weird to me is that this movie, the 50s were like, yeah we thought in the 80s, oh, the 50s were so long ago.
00:22:46
Speaker
This movie is older now than the movies it's riffing on were at the time it was made. I mean, this movie is 40 years old now. So that's that's weird to me. But, um you know, what I had not what I had not realized was, Oh, yeah. Do you want to write a wrote one of the co bill? co con Yeah. Was was a co-writer of this. I had no idea. Everybody starts somewhere, baby. Yeah. man ah But but you know what here's here's what's what's interesting. Bill Condon, of course, as we know from starting with Gods and Monsters and all over the present, very much a connoisseur of old movies, Old Hollywood. He knows the territory, right?
00:23:23
Speaker
he even He even did the intro to um ah to Stephen Farber's book on 1962. So, Bill Condon, really a film historian. And and the this is riffing on those science fiction movies of the 50s. I mean, very in very effectively. It's a wonderful script. Strange Invader is really, really a fun film. I don't know what ever happened to Michael Laughlin who directed it, but we know what happened to Bill Condon.
00:23:47
Speaker
ah Revolted Fort Laramie, kind of another you know middling Western in the MGM ah United Artists Library. It's okay, not a great cast, not a lot of names in the cast, but um Good Music by Les Baxter, a little bit a little bit anachronistic, but also produced by Howard Koch, Hawk Koch, and ah you know ah it it fills a niche.
00:24:15
Speaker
good be lot A lot of good B actors in that movie. Good. It's ah it's a solid B. Yeah, it's a solid B movie. um ah Better than B is ah the um ah rather pretty good Delmer Davies movie, ah Kings Go Fourth with Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. um Not the best movie for all of them, but a pretty great movie to have all of them in. Actually, Frank Sinatra is always you know solid in all of his performances. Natalie Wood, my favorite actress probably of all time.
00:24:43
Speaker
And ah Delmer Davis does a better than average job directing it. And there is a wonderful Elmer Bernstein score that is just to die for. Hour of the Gun, one of the underrated ah OK Corral movies with James Gardner as Wyatt Earp and Jason Robards as Doc Holliday. I know everybody loves Tombstone and some people are a little more iffy on Wyatt Earp. Which I like a lot. I like them both.
00:25:09
Speaker
But you know what, this is a really good movie too. I mean, Jason Robards is a really good Doc Holliday. He's better than Val Kilmer for my money. But my favorite OK Corral is still the Star Trek episode, hour of the gun.
00:25:24
Speaker
or a specter of the gun, specter of the gun. That Western set, yeah. Yeah, it's a very, very smart concept. That was cool. But no, this is really great. Hour of the Gun is terrific. John Sturgis directed. Jerry Goldsmith does the music. Great screenplay by Edward Onholt. It's a little too short for its own good. But I still like it. I think it's really good and it's pretty darn accurate.
00:25:54
Speaker
ah David Mamet's Olyana out on Blu-ray, quite nice. ah you know He did the screenplay based on his own play. and um it you know It's David Mamet film.
00:26:08
Speaker
so you know If you're a fan of Eliana, you'll love it. If you're not, then you won't. um The Playboys is a movie I was very fond of, Aidan Quinn, Robin Wright, Albert Finney. ah you know it's This is just a beautiful Irish love story. ah Gillies McKinnon directed it. I think Gillies McKinnon is a wonderful director. He did some great films right when we were starting with Entertainment Today, and then his career just went nowhere for suddenly. I don't know why.
00:26:36
Speaker
but um pretty great little movie. I think everybody's really solid in it. Young Robin Wright, 1992 Robin Wright, get out of here. She's just, I know, she's great. And Aidan Quinn, you know, he's perfect. Young Aidan Quinn, get out of here. just that Everyone does the the the accents beautifully. they it's it's you know Albert Finney is just to die for. Of Mice and Men,
00:26:58
Speaker
ah the re the the second film version with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise, directed by Gary Sinise. This was at the Cannes Film Festival in my first year in 1992 and it was in competition. I remember the press conference with Gary Sinise so well and ah what was so surprising and impressive to everybody was that John Malkovich is the last person you'd expect to cast for Lenny.
00:27:20
Speaker
He just is. Like he's not big and kind of lumbering and he's not, you know, like like my little bunny rabbit. he's to He's not doing the shtick, right? and He does it very differently. He Malkovich is it. And it works. Yeah, yeah his works yeah he's he's he's a little menacing. A late performance from Ray Walston. He was really, really great in that movie. oh and in in in in a really beautiful i remember I remember going to the premiere of that movie way back and and what ninety two in And saw one of the theaters we were just talking about, The ah the Village.
00:27:55
Speaker
Yeah. And that big scene at the end when the fields are on fire was just absolutely beautiful. This would have been this would have been beautiful film, um obviously in 92 and Gary Sinise really did an excellent job directing that movie. It's why I wish Gary Sinise would direct more because he really has a great eye and it's been like over 30 years now. I think he's done one film since, you know. he's He's a talented director. He should do more. And then the last in the MGM stack is Betrayed with Debra Winger and Tom Berenger, directed by Kosta Gavris, who is a wonderful man. I've done a DVD commentary with him and written by Joe Esterhaus, who is literally doing the exact same thing that he did in Music Box, that he did in Basic Instinct, that he did in Jade. This is the exact same plot all over again.
00:28:42
Speaker
ah The thing that sets this apart for me is that my dear departed friend Richard Libertini has a great cameo at the beginning where he gets executed. oh yeah um But Richard plays, it it begins with, a lot of people will remember and I should have researched the name of it, the ah the Jewish radio guy who was who was killed in ah in like a ah white supremacist attack back in the 80s, early 80s I think it was. um Anyway, that is the character that that Richard Libertini plays at the beginning of this, which is kind of like ah a riff on a real life event that dovetails into that whole KKK thing that happens now with Behringer and Debra Winger. um But that is also the same character that ah was at the center of talk radio, the Oliver Stone film.
00:29:27
Speaker
Yea, Eric Bogosian plays the same character. So when you see Betrayed and you see the Richard Libertini character at the beginning, and just remind yourself same character that that Eric Bogosian was playing in talk radio. It's an interesting little... who they in they Like I said, they represent their actual guy. Yeah, that in late night talk radio guy. yeah ah Ignite Films has released the story of G.I. Joe, which has needed to be out for so long, restored by the Film Foundation ah from 1945, a ah bunch of great bonus features on here. The thing that is most significant about this, apart from the fact that it has one of Robert Mitchum's best all-time performances, great war movie, really a great World War II movie, but it it um be ah this has one of the all-time great performances by Burgess Meredith.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah. And what's incredible is Burgess Meredith is like, what, 32, 33 in this thing? He still looks like he's 75. He looks like he's, there yeah, doesn't mean doesn't matter at all. It's amazing. You're like, ah did the guy's been, like mark mark mark Mark used to say this, he goes, Burgess Meredith, he's been 80 years old for 50 years. that's ah Great line I love that anyway story of GI Joe has needed to be out in a really nice pristine blu-ray for a long time and ah This it is and they've got a reconstruction of the original trailer and photos and and wonderful audio comments The correspondent if people yeah, yeah, yeah don't remember any pile yeah, but he was a
00:30:50
Speaker
fuel surprise wanting more correspondent. yeah Yes. And it's it's just, it's a great story. It's a really, really great story. um Let's see what else we got here. We've also got a film that I have to personally recommend enormously from the Milestone Cinematheque. Billy Woodbury's Bless Their Little Hearts. with Oh my God. yeah one of be one of the great american movies of the modern age idea or yeah l a rebellion period l a rebellion billy woodbury you know one of my own bruins right out of the u c l a. Restored by u c l a film and television archive.
00:31:24
Speaker
and And here's the thing, i've mentioned I've told this story before, but I will tell it again about Billy Woodbury. And by the way, I should apologize to listeners before I forget about the last show, which wound up going dangerously out of sync. We haven't fixed that yet. I don't know if we're going to be able to. We were trying to use a new oh yeah service going with um with ah Riverside, which I've been doing the Hollywood Heretic podcast on. And it doesn't like ah to synchronize audio without video.
00:31:52
Speaker
So I apologize to the listeners for that on the last show. We're we're back to Zencaster, keeping things in sync. yeah But billy Billy Woodbury made Blessed Little Hearts in 1984. And then flash forward a few years and 1988, 89, I'm at UCLA film school. And, um you know, I'm this guy working there. He's Billy and you know he's been he's one of the guys that I go on. He's an equipment guy. Yeah.
00:32:21
Speaker
And and and ah you know he's just well he's part of the part of the staff, right? He's part of the the film school you know administrative staff. and And at one point, my buddy Chris, who's a very successful commercial producer right now, Chris pulls me beside and he goes, you know who that is, right? I'm like, who, Billy?
00:32:38
Speaker
Billy somebody? He goes, don't you know Billy? Billy has had movies and film festivals. That guy is a world-class filmmaker. Billy? He goes, that's Billy Woodbury. And I go, Billy, like, LA Rebellion Billy Woodbury? like He goes, yeah, that's Billy Woodbury. I'm like, oh my gosh. And you and it's he's so unassuming.
00:32:56
Speaker
right but it was it was that it was that moment when you know this is part of the story the l.a. rebellion right they made they did not come out and make usc commercial movies they made movies that went to film festivals that made a statement that that that did not find their audiences immediately and you know billy gotta pay the bills working at ucla yeah but but You know what, this movie, here it is on Blu-ray, it has come around, it is it is widely respected now, it is part of the, ah it is archived at the Library of Congress as ah as an American classic, and um it is it is a profound film. It is a film dramatic metal about a family in Watts. Charles Burnett, of course, wrote that movie, and Charles Burnett, of course, on another ah figure from the LA rebellion, did what yeah you know, going to make a... Well, just leave the thing and all of that. But he also did what, the glass what shield, the glass shield, which is a fairly commercial film. And, and I always, I mean, yeah, the glass. Yes. Uh, you know, it's just, it's a great bunch of people yeah from that that whole movement. it's its It is historic. And there's a there's a great workshop on here with Billy Woodbury from the ah Indiana University Black Film Center and Archive. ah There is an interview with Ross Lipman and an interview with Ed Guerrero and behind the scenes photos that Billy ah furnished to them himself. um All of this is on here, including the 1980 film The Pocketbook, which was Billy's very first film, which is really interesting. But Bless Their Little Hearts is just a wonderful family drama
00:34:27
Speaker
ah that it just it's one of those amazing independent films where you almost forget that there's a film crew there. It feels so intimate. It feels so inside their their lives, um so inside the sense of place and time. It's a truly, truly beautiful film. It's wonderful.
00:34:43
Speaker
And i cannot i am happy to be able to recommend without reservations and i don't wanna push this off cuz i know it but but it's always been fascinating to me that those cats working on the west coast here in that period doing ah the le rebellion things also civilian charles and julie dash and and and all of these folks right now they were basically doing the equivalent.
00:35:05
Speaker
ah for About at the same time, give or take a year or two, the Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee, and and and and and and and a few other significant filmmakers were doing on the East Coast in the early 80s, middle 80s. Now, yeah just about all of those East Coast filmmakers.
00:35:22
Speaker
went on to have fairly significant careers, obviously, Jim and Spike. and you know yeah and And I've always wondered what the difference was. like how these two is Is it just a place? i it It is the place. it's you know and i and i and And having gone to UCLA, I can tell you that that is it is not uncommon for UCLA. I mean, that was always the running joke, right? USC produces the the Ron Howard's and the George Lucas's and the John Carpenters who go right into making, you know, very successful movies and they emphasize and they want you working for the studios. so And everybody at UCLA, they kind of drill it into you. It's like, you know what?
00:36:04
Speaker
you don't have to work for the studios you don't have to make a commercial movie you just make a movie from the heart if that means going down into the jungle of guatemala making a black and white sixteen millimeter movie that nobody sees but that's your heart man that's what you do and UCLA had that very that ah kind of alternative attitude, right? Like we're not going to be USC. And ah look, you get you get your Alexander Payne's and your Francis Coppola's who come out of UCLA too. right yeah So, ah I mean, it's not like UCLA doesn't produce commercial filmmakers as well. And um
00:36:43
Speaker
Uh, but that was sort of the, what they, what they taught to a lot of us. And so I think at the time the LA rebellion was there, that was a, in fact, I know for a fact, cause I know some of the professors that were teaching at that time too. And I, and I'm still friends with some of the professors who who taught them. we talked about this it was a it was a late seventies early eighties it was a much more raw time and ah the department kinda became a lot more polished and forward thinking when i was there and continue to do so for the next few years.
00:37:16
Speaker
But boy, the late 70s, early 80s at UCLA, was it was grit. It was all about grit and and personal stories, and I think that's why. And l LA is just not a friendly place for those kinds of movies. New York is. New York is. It just is. and ah Another girl in the I.R.T. and you know yeah yeah leslie side sidewalk sidewalk stories. and storie Right. you can You can go on and on and on with all the great little indie films that kind of came out from from New York, right? it's i mean And Jarmusch gave us Tom DiChillo, right? And my wife worked on a Tom DiChillo film. I was there in New York with with my wife when she was she was working on that Tom DiChillo film. ah Michael Pitt film, yeah. Yeah. What was it? 2005, I want to say. And and you know New York is a place that embraces that kind of that kind of indie filmmaking. And LA doesn't really.
00:38:07
Speaker
So i think that's the I think that's the lesson. That's why Spike stayed there. and yeah You stuck it out. That's why you stuck it out. a A few others here really quickly. Terror Firma by Jake McPherson is out on Blu-ray, kind of a cult classic. ah It's worth ah worth checking out. That's from ah MVD Visual.
00:38:25
Speaker
We also, you know, a lot of people ah focus on ah Paul Blart, Mall Cop, not realizing that a much darker version of the exact same movie came out around the same time. Observe and Report with ah Seth Rogen that is out now from Shout Select. Boy, this movie is creepy and dark and um this is This is Paul Blart Molokop, minus all of the obvious jokes, with some very, very dark tacky driver-like edges to it. um But they're a nice it's a nice contrast, right? A nice contrast between the two films. I recommend that they yeah may be shown as a double feature, just to freak you out. Which one do you watch first? You watch Paul Blart Molokop first, because people will not be able to sleep after seeing this one.
00:39:15
Speaker
it'll ah It'll get inside your ah your head and never let go. I have to say, the other one from Shout Select, i I jumped up and down when this came. I am so happy that somebody had the guts, God bless you Shout Select, for having the guts to go out there and say, you know what? Death to Smoochie is a good movie and we're going to put it out on Blu-ray. Dude, dad do you know I can do that to me.
00:39:39
Speaker
This is just such a great movie. Danny DeVito directed it. It is so freaking dark, talking about dark. um ah yeah I mean, yeah this is just Danny DeVito can go dark, but Edward Norton and um And ah Robin Williams are just... you right ed lo pastine king Dude, there was a moment when these movies... and this movie yeah we we knew We love this movie now. This movie does not make a musical. Because people... You know what? They marketed it wrong. Because people thought, oh, it's a movie about kids' television. No. No. No, it's not. it is
00:40:18
Speaker
Well, it it was like this this around the same time, what did you have? ah the the ice The Ice Harvest or something like that. it was It was like a Christmas movie. It was like a Harold Ramis Christmas movie, which was just this vicious fucking movie. And it was a Christmas movie, and people did not. over They were like, whoa. what what did we did And Death to Smoozy, yeah.
00:40:40
Speaker
i mean I mean, basically Robin Williams plays a kids television, he plays Barney the Dinosaur, except it's you know not Barney the Dinosaur. yeah but he plays He plays the equivalent of Barney the Dinosaur, kids television, but he is vicious and profane and mean and hateful. And that's the beautiful irony is that the guy inside the suit is just the worst human being imaginable. And ah Norton,
00:41:03
Speaker
Edward Norton is the exact opposite. He is just loving being a kid's character. And, you know, it's it gets into these like kids' television wars. And I mean, there is there is some stuff in this thing that is so cynical and so dark and so hilarious. It brings me to tears. ah It's really, really hilarious. It's great. Blooper's outtakes really light in the affair a lot. Behind the scenes stuff. and reing is ah Adam Resnick is a what? done what he i know Yeah, I know he was a David Letterman guy. Yeah, Adam. re Who wrote it? Yes. Who wrote that? Yeah, I know he was a Letterman guy, but a bunch of other, yeah maybe SNL. I know he was a Letterman guy. It's such a good script. um the Larry Sanders show. That's what it was. He's a Larry Sanders guy. So that's, that's the thing.
00:41:49
Speaker
yeah So, Danny DeVito and his cinematographer do do an audio commentary that is just wonderful. It's just absolutely wonderful. They they have interviews with everybody from composer David Newman to ah did to actor Danny Woodburn, to ah the costume designer Jane Room. It's it's just wonderful.
00:42:07
Speaker
It's really wonderful. Death to Smoochy. It's finally out on Blu-ray. This thing's just been dying on DVD for years. I cannot be more grateful. ah Eureka, by the way, um which is both in the United States and in the UK now. they're They're bridging the two. They have released, and it's you can get it here as an import, Laurel and Hardy, The Silent Years.
00:42:29
Speaker
Oh, 1927. Their last spate of silent shorts right before they became sound comedians, and they bridged that gap better, I think, than anyone else. Better than Chaplin, better than um Keaton, or any of the rest of them. They they got it. you know Most of us remember Laurel and Hardy as an early sound duo, but they were a silent duo first. Anyway, this is a wonderful set, ah part of the Masters of Cinema Collection, a must-have if you are a Laurel and Hardy completist.
00:42:58
Speaker
and then some warner warner activities if if i can you know why You know why they were able to to to bridge that gap so nicely? You'll notice that when Laurel and Hardy move into talkies, they still don't talk that much. That's true. They they don't just start they's there's not talking, talking, talking, talking. and talking just They don't start doing bits and routines.
00:43:19
Speaker
It's mostly still physical comedy um with Foley now. And then occasionally, they say something. And and and then they add a little more and they add a little more, but they never, never stop doing physical comedy. Not at all. It's mostly still silent films that they're doing and didn't irritate people.
00:43:37
Speaker
That's great. and I mean, it's just wonderful. It's wonderful to put the whole history together. And then we got a whole great batch from the Warner Archive collection. I'm going to go through it in in order the in my hand here. ah Elvis in Harem Scaram, which is not one of the great Elvis movies, but it was produced by Sam Katzmann, who was a great kind of schlockmeister, has ah Michael Ansara in it, you know, who who basically was at the time married to, um and bar bar but to Barbara Eden. And ah that's why when you watch the Eye Dream of Genie reruns, Michael and Sarah shows up as every ethnic character on Eye Dream of Genie. Literally every single one. It's hilarious. It's really, really funny. ah You know, ethnically Turk, but he he was, you know, he was like, so in the 1960s, you're like, like, He's kind of dark skinned. He could play Mexicans, Russians, you name it. He was every, anything even remotely ethnic in Michael Ostero played. So anyway, he is a, he's wonderful, but eld Elvis is, uh, you know, Harem Scarab. It's a terrible title, but it's is okay.
00:44:42
Speaker
I'm gary cooper and friendly persuasion william whiler's wonderful brilliant movie in comparable has a you know just unbelievable supporting cast in this thing anthony perkins the very first role he's just magnificent as well.
00:44:58
Speaker
a really really great movie. William Wyler just absolutely nails it based on a terrific novel. um Audrey hupburn Hepburn in the Nun's story, Fred Zinneman film, just another great classic. Nobody really believes Audrey Hepburn is a nun, you know? You're like, it's Audrey Hepburn wearing a habit, but it doesn't matter, it's wonderful. And Fred Zinneman directed it and it's just a great movie.
00:45:19
Speaker
um Robert Ryan and Van Heflin in Act of Violence, another Fred Zinneman movie that is ah pretty cri pretty great. Nice, good, solid no noir. Zinneman not really known for noirs necessarily, but but this was that this was ah one of his one of his best. Mary Astor was just terrific. Oh, Janet Lee. Janet Lee. Yeah. john janet lee yeah Yeah, this is just good stuff. ah Frank Borzegi, ah directed Joan Crawford and Margaret Sullivan in The Shining Hour, also starring Robert Young and Melvin Douglas. Another really good solid melodrama of the period, 1938. Really, you know, just just Joan Crawford, just incomparable, absolutely wonderful. And then the last of the Warner titles here is Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Carol Lombard and Robert Montgomery, directed by the very capable Alfred Hitchcock.
00:46:11
Speaker
ah You know, this is one of ah but Hitchcock's more kind of unusual films made for RKO in 1941. He wasn't quite the thriller guy yet. he was ah He was just coming off of Rebecca and trying to get Selznick out of his system. And so this is kind of an in-between film, but it's really, really lovely. It's wonderful. It's it's a great it's a great ah kind of i mean It's a screwball comedy. It's a romantic screwball comedy, right? and ah But it's it's it's in the Hepburn-Tracy mold, but you're doing it with Lombard and Montgomery, and it's it's and it's great. it's Lucy and vicy and Ricky would go on to bite it 20 years later for the whole Lucy and Ricky runt.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's great. And then ah some some wonderful stuff from Paramount. We got swingers on Blu-ray finally. Oh, John Favreau, you know, and and ah Vince Vaughn and and a very young Heather Graham who hasn't aged a single day in in like 30 years, it's bizarre. Is it Doug Liman or Lehman? I always get his name wrong. li but i hear I keep hearing Lehman. I did the Liman for years, and then everybody kept it correcting me, and it's Lehman. So it's Doug Lehman. Doug Lehman's first film. His career, I mean, I love Doug, his great movies. But if you had told him, this is a guy who directed Swingers, this little wicked, wonderfully wooden film that's going to go on to make all all the sum of the, you know, the're really big and some dumb, but really big movies that he
00:47:35
Speaker
i don't like why why no that's not including the other mr and mrs smith which has nothing to do with the one that we just made bread and julian julian yeah yeah it's just i don't know how you enjoy it that's weird ah harry if you told me that john fabro was gonna be the director that that whole that whole group of guys If you told me that Jon Favreau was going to be the actual biggest Hollywood mogul of them, I don't know, man, it's so weird that we came up through all of that and watched all of that happen. The stuff that we've been witness to is just- It's just really just fantastic. It's just strange.
00:48:08
Speaker
Uh, Peter Weir's Witness starring Harrison Ford in one of his very best performances. Great, great, great movie. Really a terrific film. Uh, so important. Um, Peter Weir has officially announced his retirement. Breaks my heart, but you know, um, all good things come to an end, I guess. Uh, really just, just superb with, uh, Kelly McGillis, but you know, the, the, the barn raising scene in this thing with that Marie Char music is just one of the most poetic pieces of cinema I've seen in the last 50 years.
00:48:37
Speaker
it's just And again, this is a movie now, a beautiful movie, and and you could make this movie now, but it wouldn't be a theatrical release now. you're probably even even Even with a big big big movie star like Harrison Ford not and and in in in all of those people today, it would be probably a a limited series. yeah about yeah that's what you know As opposed to this this thrilling movie, Danny Glover in that movie, man. Danny Glover in that movie is just, whoa, ah what an impact.
00:49:07
Speaker
Yeah. And then the Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman is out on Blu-ray again. This is ah Mimi Leader who had a great career on TV and she's on TV again. But, you know, she she broke out from ah from her TV career on China Beach and yeah ER and all the other great stuff she was doing to do this really terrific action movie with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman.
00:49:28
Speaker
Good spy film has a chase scene that's still one of the best chase scenes. Oh yeah. ever seen in an oh yeah yeah um And you know, it didn't do great. I think it got treated poorly. Mimi Leader, you know, being a a woman who directs action does get held to a higher standard, unfortunately, but it is still a film worth checking out, worth rediscovering. That chase scene is just not to be believed. It's really just beautifully executed.
00:49:52
Speaker
If I'm honest, I think c Clooney's work in this film yeah is what got him that Batman suit. You're probably right. You're probably right. Yeah, I can see that. I can totally see that for sure. ah Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton made a movie called Faster when nobody was paying attention, directed by George Tillman Jr., whom I've met because he's friends with our friend Tina, because Tina did rewrites on ah on, ah ah oh, the the the family food so so food. Soul Food, thank you, Soul Food. Big Mama. ah Anyway, George Tillman, wonderful director. a Pretty good movie, but nobody really paid attention to it at the time. I'm not quite sure why. ah This was made 12, 14 years ago now. Gee whiz, 2010. But yeah, it's a good solid early Dwayne Johnson actioner and you know Billy Bob Thornton is holding it down. What's he done lately?
00:50:45
Speaker
Yeah yeah really was on that lawyer show over on who for a few. seasons ah tv They're all going to tv and all disappearing into the tv shows and streaming shows that that i'm not watching cuz i'm not watching tv and on dvd before i get to the last parent title here on dvd not on blu ray we've got the monster squad ah which is.
00:51:11
Speaker
This has a cult following, I never quite understood it. um Richard Edlin did some good special effects, ah some some nice Stan Winston. makeup effects. It's kind of cute. It's a little bit for kids, not really my speed, but 1987 has a cult following. That's out on- Shane Black one of those writers. I know it's weird, right? He's just out of Shane. Okay. but Yeah. you know Kind of phoning it in. And then The Lovely Bones with Saoirse Ronan, directed by Peter Jackson right after the Lord of the Rings films didn't really
00:51:44
Speaker
Pan out and then around any got did the hobbit films immediately got cold feet lovely bones based on a novel not not a great movie but not a bad movie it's just kind of an unusual movie. And i wrote it with friend washington and put the boy and the same team that did the lord of the rings films.
00:52:01
Speaker
um but you know ah ah Mark Wahlberg shows up in this. ah Oddly enough, so is Susan Sarandon. It's not a bad Stanley Tucci. It's not a bad cast. Saoirse Ronan is truly wonderful. I just think it's a it's a it's just ah it's a tough story to sell. Yeah, yeah. it Look, that book was was was very popular. yeah I found it difficult to read and I found this in an even more difficult movie to watch.
00:52:24
Speaker
i The underlying theme of the movie is about a little girl who's been murdered. ah so So we're starting in this extremely bleak place and it and it gets darker from there. ah Boy, does it ever.
00:52:37
Speaker
And then the last of the Paramount films is pretty great. And I didn't used to think it was pretty great, but my wife convinced me on penalty of death. It is number 42 in the Paramount Presents series. It is, of course, the Academy Award-winning Terms of Endearment, which and I did not forgive at the time because it beat the right stuff. And I kind of blamed it for the fact that the right stuff didn't win anything and that Yentl didn't get all the nominations it deserved. But you know what, Terms of Endearment,
00:53:03
Speaker
for a nice victory for ah the everyone involved. it really James L. Brooks, ah did the first the last time that a first-time director, I think won, or no, Koster, Koster for Dances with Wolves. no yeah okay yeah But anyway, putting out actors, you know ah James L. Brooks, first-time director on this thing, coming out of television. Sherwin McLean, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, amazing.
00:53:30
Speaker
It's all time classic. So there you go. And then blow through a few of these last ones here. We have Flicker Alley. A couple of really terrific ones from Flicker Alley. Uh, Herbert Klein in a darkened Europe, uh, is from the, uh, Museum of Modern Art Collection. It is part of the, the MoMA library. And, um, it's, it's a couple of restorations here of Crisis, a film of the Nazi way and lights out in Europe, which, um, you know, uh, Herbert Klein.
00:54:00
Speaker
did some pretty amazing work just before and after World War II chronicling what was going on in Europe and he's kind of been forgotten a little bit. So this was underwritten and restored by the Sunrise Foundation for Education of the Arts and the National Center for Jewish Film. And it really fills in some essential blanks in chronicling this horrible, horrible, painful period in the world.
00:54:25
Speaker
rule a lot of great bonus material on it it's a it's pretty terrific so this is ah against the storm her client in a dark and europe crisis a film of the nazi way and lights out in europe thanks to moments significantly.
00:54:39
Speaker
Yeah, we're talking about 39 and 40. 38 to 40, basically. He's anticipating, he's watching, he's seeing, yeah yeah and chronicling. And filling in blanks that no one else was doing at the time. it it was you know It's really some essential kind of documentary journalism, ah that without which we would be much the poorer.
00:55:03
Speaker
And then Flicker Alley has also released ah Never Open That Door, which is this kind of fascinating Spanish-language no habras nunca esa puerta. There's my terrible Spanish for you. ah yeah i i don't speak spanish i'll i'll take the accident now and again ah no but this is an argentine noir from nineteen fifty two and ah really ah very very good compares incredibly well with hollywood noirs and it's a it's a wonderful rediscovery and it's a great
00:55:36
Speaker
all All region, you can you can get this thing and play it anywhere you want. Also loving the director spotlight release from ah from ah Mill Creek, which includes two absolutely terrific Sydney Pollock films that we always forget about. Because we always think, oh, Sydney Pollock, he's the guy in Eyes Wide Shut who directed Tootsie and ah Out of Africa.
00:55:58
Speaker
Yeah, but you know what? He also made Castle Keep with Burt Lancaster and Bobby Deerfield with ah Al Pacino. And those are pretty great movies. I love racing movies. Pretty much any movie with a guy in a racing car. I love it. I'm sorry. Rush and, you know, Lamon. And I love them all. They're all great. So ah Bobby Deerfield totally works for me. Loving Al Pacino in the racing movie and Burt Lancaster with an eye patch and in a war movie. Yeah, I'll do that. I'm there. Sidney Pollock.
00:56:27
Speaker
all time classic. It's a double feature. You cannot go wrong with those. ah Woody Allen's coup de chance, his new film in French shot in France. Mark came back from France and said you got to see it's really good. Yeah, he's right. It's really good. I have not really. good It's really good. Woody nails it. It's not a comedy. It's, ah you know, it's a it's a it's a it's it's it's itself for it's is it's is ah a ah Well, they're all self-reflective, so I guess that's a... It's more like match point. It's more in the vague match point. Yeah, it's that. It's it's Woody kind of going dark and being Artie and kind of getting his his Bergman on a little bit more, a little bit of a Hitchcock thing. No, it's really good. I mean, I love Lou Delage. I think she is just gorgeous and wonderful and charming and impossibly magnificent in French movies. And I think her casting here is just perfect.
00:57:18
Speaker
And so is the rest of the cast. So Woody nails it. He nails it. ah You know, the movie never got a proper theatrical release in the US and that's too bad, but it's really good. um Another double feature here from Mill Creek is Once Around and Evening. um Once Around is a little bit painful right now because I think we forgot one other obit, Tim. jones Oh Jenna, of course. They were dropping like flies this last week and and forgot to put Jenna in. So we're gonna do Jenna right right now. Jenna Roland's in once around. It's not a great movie but she is great in it with the with Danny Aiello and obviously you know Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter and
00:58:01
Speaker
and and a really pretty terrific cast overall directed by lossy holstrom evening you know is kind of the ringer film here evening is fine it's a big big gooey cast meryl streep and glenn close and Vanessa red grave and tasha richardson it's like i mean i just got everybody in the evening and um it's ah It's a little bit turgid and overloaded with with talent. But once around, it's a good double feature. Once around is worth watching. And Jenna Rowlands is magnificent. How much do we love Jenna Rowlands? Just exquisite, Jenna. Her association, of course, with her husband, John, in all of those movies from back in the day, they're running ah under the inflow. They're running under the inflow. Just every every five minutes now. And ah and and she's exquisite. The thing about Jenna, Jenna was around for so long, we forget that when you go way, way, way, way back to those black and white fin faces and things like that, Jenna was ridiculously beautiful. Frankly, right through um oh all those movies. things Now, when Jenna hits the early 80s and she does that movie Gloria, Yeah. ah About the little Puerto Rican kid and the hit medium, the mob and all that kind of stuff. And that is just, you know, it's like, it's like she just reignites her career. And then she gets another 40 years out of it. It's astounding. It's astounding. Yeah, yeah, great. One of the one of the one truly one of the great American actresses of all time, just astounding. And I mean, I still love, love her in in Paul Mazurski's Tempest, where she and
00:59:35
Speaker
um and and her husband played the husband and wife. I mean, it's, you know, for another director. She, and she it's it's it's it's, she's so good in that. I mean, it's, and it's not even her movie, you know. um It's weird. It's weird. Did good work with with with with with a boy over there, too. um Yeah. A notebook. Oh, Nick. Nick. you know and So, you know, yeah where your husband, they did the son, Jenna. And, you know, the the the the thing in Tempest, too, is that um
01:00:11
Speaker
ah Susan Sarandon is in that movie as well. so you you know ah John Cassavetes is with Jenna at the beginning of the film and then the marriage blows up and he winds up on the island with you know Molly Ringwald as his daughter and and ah and and playing his mistress as Susan Sarandon and yet Jenna is this powerful figure that overwhelms all of them.
01:00:34
Speaker
She really does. yeah it's It's just an extraordinary movie. And then another one from Shout Select, who's that girl Madonna and Griffin Dunn? A movie that has somehow lingered in the weirdest way ah along with desperately seeking Susan. Somehow Madonna got like a lot of traction out of a handful of movies early in the 80s. And this is 87, so this is late in the 80s.
01:00:59
Speaker
You know, I mean, what what i love and what I liked about who's that girl for Madonna ah is that she's playing this completely wacky character that is in no way, shape or form Madonna. And that's not the Madonna of that period. She's just saying it's it's it's almost it's almost it's almost as nutty as the character that she plays. And the other one that she did with ah with her husband of the time, a Shanghai surprise.
01:01:26
Speaker
oh yeah with sean pen she had she had a couple of these movies where she was just sort of like swinging it you know and and do think work no yeah they they were but I appreciated that. Later in her acting career, she would try to play these sort of serious, ah you know, you have your characters, you know.
01:01:45
Speaker
yeah Yeah. That Lena Wertmuller adaptation and then your body of evidence and all this kind of stuff. And I'm like, no, no, no. But that's, you didn't. And anyway, she never really had the acting career that she might have had if she just kept playing some ditzy blondes because they were funny. That's kind of true.
01:02:03
Speaker
And lastly classic flicks originally was gonna release meet John Doe in 4k and sadly did not find in enough support among you consumers and so they released it in blu-ray and i think that's a tragedy so listen people.
01:02:20
Speaker
stay it Stay alert and when you hear about a classic movie like Meet John Doe, announced for 4K contingent upon pre-orders and getting some support from people, get in the queue. It's not going to happen without support because a lot of these movies, they got to know that there's it's worth doing. so ah Meet John Doe, we could have had on 4K if more people had shown interest, but they didn't.
01:02:43
Speaker
ah Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, great to wonderful Frank Capra collection production. um Walter Brennan and you know Eddie Arnold in supporting performances. It's just wonderful. It's one of Gary Cooper's landmark performances, and ah it should be out there in 4K. So accept the wonderful restoration ah from classic flicks. ah you know This is a Library of Congress film, ah but it should be on 4K. So next time, let's get a little more support going there.
01:03:14
Speaker
why don't we Why don't we dive into the 4Ks? Yeah, man. I'll start since I was just in Philly and got my picture taken next to the man and ran up the steps. I did. We ran up the steps. I ran up the steps twice. Christy ran up twice. Hero ran up twice. In 90% humidity. Running up the damn rocky steps. I was the president know. I'm the president. We're just married. We're still looking 80. So he was only 50.
01:03:41
Speaker
That's right. So true. So, uh, Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Ultimate Knockout Collection, which finally includes just about everything, because the last Rocky box set on 4K didn't have everything and people complained. So now we get count them up. Rocky, Rocky two, Rocky three, Rocky four, Rocky five. Everybody forgot about Rocky five like rock and no five. And then Rocky Balboa, they just stopped numbering them. They're like, yeah, we're eventually going to move on and do, you know,
01:04:10
Speaker
Uh, the whole, the whole side, we're going to go, go sideways and keep the story going. Uh, and, uh, there it is. So, you know, uh, we watched, we showed, we showed my daughter the original Rocky so that she would understand Philly so that she'd kind of identify all the spots so we could stand there in the middle of the main drag and, and say, Look, remember when Rocky runs down this road in the early morning? This is the road. These are the steps. Run up the steps. Hold your arms up in the air like Rocky did. And we made her do all of that stuff. It was humiliating. But she'll never live it down. Anyway, you know what? Rocky holds up, man. It really does. The first film, I saw it projected not too many years ago when I thought this movie was kind of crappy. And I guess I've gotten sentimental in my old age because I think it holds up now. I like it again. It's weird.
01:04:58
Speaker
yeah I still think Rocky III is still my favorite. Oh, yeah. It's still my favorite. Clubber. Clubber played by Mr. T. I had a tiger. I had a tiger, man. Yeah, baby. Great. They reinvented. They understood that the Gonna Fly Now was very much of the 70s. We need some new music. We got to reassign. I had a tiger. Best montage in movie history. It's so good.
01:05:21
Speaker
ah yeah So good. Anyway, 4K. It was a little glitchy. ah If you got this thing, you may have had some problems ah with Fandango at home. They've ironed it out. So I've only seen it on the discs. Haven't watched the digital versions yet, but it's pretty great. How does Furiosa look?
01:05:40
Speaker
Oh my gosh, dude. yeah you know yeah they're goingnna And they're going to do another ah black chrome release in a month or so. ah So there're there's going to be another version of this coming out soon. But holy cow, did they really knock it out of the park. and This is just more state of the eye. This movie has to get a second life on 4K. For sure, for sure. it' yeah Two, it it really is, I mean, you you and you and Mark and I just really loved it. And Nadeem was there. We just, this was a great movie. Why did people not go to this? Was it just because this is not a Memorial Day movie? What's the deal? Well, look, yeah yeah yeah we we talked about this on the show, um and the radio show, back when it when it came out. And yeah, and yeah this is this really, really strong film. The unfortunate thing is,
01:06:26
Speaker
and you mentioned it on the show is this was a film conceived first and then um uh glory road uh and see you can see because you couldn't get this right sorry yeah i may and and you can feel that in this film i can feel that in this film the this this this film this film had a life in the mind and on on the page prior to the end. So what I recommend people do, these films have to eventually come out together in some sort of what, skill book? or or Yeah, there's, I mean, I i still think, and and they're saying now that all because it didn't perform that, you know, the third film that was going to be in the, you know, that that, and I guess the next one is, is an actual sequel to Fury Road, unless he tells the story of Mad Max before Fury Road, but
01:07:15
Speaker
it doesn't. I think this was what brought us up to Fury Road. So, um, which we know. Yeah. Anyway, the next one, you know, they're saying, Oh, it's in jeopardy, but I still think he's, he stands a good chance of getting it made. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of, a lot of, a lot of, but you put them on a set and the way you ought to watch them.
01:07:33
Speaker
if you happen to have been in a bub cave someplace and not been paying attention, but you still want to get your Mad Max. these two Watch this one first. It's a very, very, very good film. This is a perfectly solid film. But if you watch this first and then you watch Fury Road, they they play much better together in that order. ah this This is good. And then then you got to stop it in a certain spot. And then you watch the other movie. And that's the way these movies should be seen.
01:08:02
Speaker
So ah Deadpool and Wolverine is just burning up the box office and people are saying, Oh my gosh, Ryan Reynolds, you know, yeah, but I mean, it's not Ryan. ren I mean, we love Ryan Reynolds. I love Ryan Reynolds. But, but we forget Ryan Reynolds also made if a few months ago yeah and that's now out on 4k and I don't like this movie.
01:08:24
Speaker
Well, I mean, and i'm far I'm sorry, I don't like this movie because I like everybody. in it I mean, Lou Gossett Jr.'s last film, I'm sorry to say, Lou went out on If. That's the one. Lou Steve Carell shows up for John Trescinski, directing and writing, of course.
01:08:40
Speaker
how yeah How did or does hero feel about it? She hasn't seen it. yeah in language yeah No, just didn't didn't did nothing nothing. No, it's just I'm trying and I'm trying to figure out why, like in concept, the idea of of imaginary friends, which are nips,
01:09:00
Speaker
is a great idea for a movie. I mean, it really is. We can go all the way back to something like Harvey to sort of get inside the idea that is that is being explored here. um and i And I salute John Krasinski for a lot of the, you know, I mean, it's really going out on a limb here. He's doing something very different from what he did in in A Quiet Place. And he's really kind of going out on a limb and stretching. And Ryan Reynolds is wonderful. um and the And the visual effects are fine, but it's not I don't know. It just doesn't come together. It's not charming. It's not innately charming. It's too busy. It's it's it's too it's it's just too it just two too much.
01:09:37
Speaker
And that's my problem with it. But there's, a you know, there's a lot of extras on it. So yeah young enjoy. Gosh, I'll tell you, Furiosa looks good. It just looks so good, man. Yeah. it Looks so good. I want to give a big, big shout out to Civil War, not so much because of Civil War, which I think Alex Garland was very brave in what he tried to do here. You know, he wanted to tell a modern day Civil War America coming apart at the seams movie.
01:10:05
Speaker
without like and necessarily taking sides or even revealing what the sides are. And a lot of people kind of jumped on that and they're like, well, I don't know what the government is. you know i don't I mean, no one's saying Republican or Democrat or conservative or liberal or anything else. We just we know ah we know that one side was an undermining democracy and the other side this and the other thing. Well, that's the tragedy. This shouldn't happen. you know And you're supposed to not really care about the sides. You're supposed to care about the fact that people let it happen.
01:10:35
Speaker
I will say this, the six-part documentary here, Cornice Under, Waging Alex Garland's Civil War, is phenomenal. And I say that because it is made by our very good friend, Charles Lausarica, longtime friend of the podcast, good friend of mine, ah somebody I was communicating with while he was doing this. And I know some of the hurdles that he had the clear to do this.
01:10:59
Speaker
and It is, it's it it it's some of Charlie's best work. It really is. It is just, you know, there is no one better doing behind the scenes stuff. There just isn't. And he really gets inside this movie and the process and he puts your right on the front lines, so to speak. So ah even if you didn't care for the film, get it for Charlie's work. It's great. Absolutely great. The doc is a part of the X was on Civil War. extras on civil war um Got a steelbook here, 4K steelbook of the last unicorn, Tim. My, oh my. ah This is one from the ah from from the early 80s, right? Or is it early 90s? I'm losing track. now eighty two
01:11:46
Speaker
82, 82. Gosh, this movie it feels like so- Bass and Rankin. Yeah. ah So this was this was this was the attempt by the ah the you know the the stop motion Rankin Bass team to ah do something more than even what they did in The Hobbit. they did you know They did a version of The Hobbit. This was to really kind of go full art and they have some amazing voice talent. Oh my gosh. Young Jeff Bridges and Mia Farrow and and Alan Arkin and Angela Landry. Oh, it's amazing. Chris Lee's probably is coming, yeah, yeah. But does this movie work?
01:12:26
Speaker
mean I don't know. No, yeah not really. um and in in but but but But it is beautiful. but you can you can see You can see where ah yeah influences, that would things that would influence ah you know a decade later, My Little Pony. and and and and Oh, oh that's a good that's a
Orson Welles and 'Lady from Shanghai'
01:12:47
Speaker
that's a good call. You're right, it does. Yeah, for sure.
01:12:52
Speaker
Well anyway, Orson Welles, lady from Shanghai. It's been out a bunch of times. It's now out on 4K. It's great. ah Just go watch it. That's all I can tell you. It's ah got Movies Anywhere code on it so you can add this thing to your Movies Anywhere digital locker. This has, you know, ah so many great scenes on it, so many great famous shots. It's probably one of Orson Welles most underrated movies because it is kind of one of his more commercial movies. It's one of his less overtly arty ones, but boy, it really, really works great. ah Rita Hayworth, with who he was having an affair at the time. oh yeah You can kind of tell. You can sort of tell. ah But yeah, it's great. One of the one of the classic films from ah Columbia at the time. I'm surprised that Columbia didn't include that in any of their kind of deliberate 4K box sets.
01:13:38
Speaker
Um, speaking of movies like, yeah, sorry, go ahead. I mean, and and it's just another one of those things if where, you know, the weirdest people show up in places.
'The Fall Guy' movie flop
01:13:45
Speaker
William Castle is one of the writers on that movie. And, in in you know, it's right. That's right. You're right. These people show up in the strangest places. Like William Castle is one of the writers. Yeah. So, so bizarre.
01:13:58
Speaker
Anyway, ah the fall guy, let's talk about, we talked about Furiosa. Let's talk about the fall guy, which was the first stinker of the summer that made everybody think it was going to be a bum season and it hasn't been, but why did the fall guy not work? This is the extended cut, by the way, has two versions of the movie, neither of which will appeal to anyone because no one has seen the TV series unless you're our age. Yeah, to be 50, 60 years old, to i mean to to have been, to have seen the series at the height, you know, Lee Majors and all that back in there. And to know, therefore, what a fall guy It even is because yeah yeah as as young people, we we came to know that because Fall Guys are stuntmen in the movies and on television, unless you watch that show about the Fall Guys, and movie then you don't know that. and so The title of this movie doesn't even make any sense, but you know what?
01:14:49
Speaker
I did not dislike this movie. I thought it was a silly, It's a silly script, but it's a fun movie. Yeah. And and and somehow, if it could have disassociated itself from that television series, whole and complete, so of course start with a new title, don't call it that. You don't need to call it that. nobody Nobody knows what you're talking about anyway. huh And call it something that makes sense for the crap that's going on in the movie. Which is really to see. yeah Because Emily Blunt is just wonderful. She can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. She's great. Although because although i've I've got to say, the the career trajectory that she has in this thing, she's not ah she's not a cinematographer becoming ah a a a a super action film director. She's a camera operator. That doesn't happen. no You go from camera operator to cinematographer, and then from cinematographer to director. You don't, nobody gets promoted from camera operator to directing $150 million dollars action films. No, no, no, no. You got to be on the body. You got to operate the camera. You operate the camera, cinematographer, and then as you got a good eye, we might let you direct something once or twice. That's it. So, the bike riders.
01:16:07
Speaker
Which in like a $5 million dollar Marlon Brando exploitation film back in 1968, is now a big old Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer studio release. flop i yeah i just I didn't like this movie at all. I just didn't like it.
01:16:28
Speaker
why why i cannot you know like like I want the studios to take risks on original titles, on original
Studio risk with 'The Bike Riders'
01:16:35
Speaker
scripts. I want them to take risks. Big drama. Big drama. But but you're not this. why would they what would What do you think was the driving appeal to this over at Universal? Universal, I mean, look, Oppenheimer, given them props, they're making they're taking risks. What was this risk about? What motivated this?
01:16:55
Speaker
As soon as the cast came later in the story, because this is an adaptation of a Danny Lyon memoir from this total journalistic memoir that he did way back in the 60s of these actual bikers, these Midwest biker clubs.
01:17:10
Speaker
would you yeah lot of coming and Like you just said, you know, that's all a Marlon Brando thing. A little bit later, though. um And so, you know, this memoir of these people, this period, I suppose, it looks sort of romantic and whatnot, ah particularly when you're when you're reading it on the page. But but but what it results in, unfortunately, are a bunch of really dislikable characters. yeah yeah yeah Good performances. Jodie Comer is particularly good in this.
01:17:37
Speaker
um Often, Butler's kind of doing mean Elvis. He's an angry biker Elvis in this, and i don't know I don't know which one he actually shot first, the Elvis story or this. Elvis, it was Elvis first. It was Elvis that he shot first, though so he doesn't seem to have shaken that off for this. But there is not a single likable character, and they all represent people you know from this period. yeah in this whole movie. I don't like any of these people. They're all a bunch of jerk asshole bikers. ah and in and in And that is the underlying problem. ah is that So maybe if you do this exact same movie, but somewhere in in this, in in there are likable characters, maybe it works. Maybe it works. Maybe it's really just a movie about people that are terrible.
01:18:23
Speaker
Except we just got through with and like a decade and a half of Sons of Anarchy, followed by Mayans
'Collateral' in 4K discussion
01:18:32
Speaker
MC. c Yeah. Which didn't scratch that edge. So why would you make a feature film that rehashes that exact same territory and not as compellingly? Yeah. Yeah, I don't get. Well, yeah Midwestern Motorcycle Club called the called The Vandals. and You know, yeah, it is what it is. Yeah.
01:18:51
Speaker
All right, we also have the 20th anniversary 4K Ultra HD Steel Book edition of Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Michael Mann directing on digital and I remember at the time I hated the movie because it had that digital look as a digital cameras and I could tell it was shot with digital cameras that just didn't have the range and the neon looked like it was shot on video and it drove me crazy.
01:19:15
Speaker
And they have fixed a lot of that on four k ah we have the tools now to make this film look the way it should look. I like it. i got to be out now Now that the camera and the in the photography is not distracting me, that they've fixed it a little bit, there's a lot going on in here. and I like that everyone's cast against type. I like i like that Tom Cruise cast is against type. I like that Jamie Foxx is cast against type. and that They really kind of get a chemistry going. They really get a rapport going. and um You know, it probably one of the last films that actually had Peter Berg in it as opposed to behind the camera. Jane is in this, Mark Ruffalo. It's got a great supporting cast too. ah So yeah, I've kind of come around on this. I don't know how you feel about it, but I've kind of come around on this.
01:20:01
Speaker
You got a lot of the performances in this movie tom tom tom is playing that guy that hitman guy and he's yeah but yeah you're like you said against against type he's a little bit of the terminator. get to do A little bit of a t2 kind of a situation where which i thought yeah it's over the top a little bit but the movie is a fun movie and you're right. You michael man talked about about you know using video.
01:20:26
Speaker
and then making L.A., because you know downtown L.A., it's a big chunk of this is downtown L.A. So L.A. looks like L.A. And he's he suddenly he sort of works all those lights, that green, that that fluorescent light look, but it does look like video. So it'll be interesting to see what it looks like now that it's been tweaked.
01:20:46
Speaker
it It looks less like video that's what makes and and it's less distracting it did they fix a lot of that so not all of it not completely there's still a few spots for you if you're looking for you know what to look for it's there but you.
Robert Rodriguez's Mexico Trilogy in 4K
01:21:00
Speaker
I am vd has also ah released to us for courtesy of arrow the mexico trilogy.
01:21:07
Speaker
Robert Rodriguez's El Mariacho, El Mariachi Desperado and and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. ah the you know what What's interesting about this is significantly how they were able to sweeten El Mariachi. I know everybody talks about El Mariachi made it for $5,000. If you watch the original El Mariachi,
01:21:30
Speaker
And then you compare it to the $5,000 El Mariachi, and then you compare it to the $5,000 El Mariachi after it had $1.5 million dollars of post-production added to it. yeah um It's a significantly better movie. So anyway, all of that is now out on 4K, so you can you can see the entire progression of ah Robert Rodriguez's saga there.
Johnny Depp's role in 'Black Mass'
01:21:53
Speaker
And then ah Black Mask, Tim, with ah Johnny Depp. Yeah.
01:21:59
Speaker
is Whitey Bulger. I got a story on this, but first, you know, we all kind of lived through the Whitey Bulger thing when he was, after many years on the run, he was tracked down here in Santa Monica, like 15 minutes from me. Oh my gosh. is you can You can leave this condo from, from Mark's house. and goes from yeah no True. That was true. And I'll tell you more momentarily. So anyway, Carrie, does, I mean, knowing what we know about Whitey, does, does Johnny pull Whitey off?
01:22:28
Speaker
Well look, this is what I appreciate about appreciate about Johnny's performance here. And it it and it is. you know I mean, why he was a guy who looked a certain way and wore these glasses. And so all all of that's good and solid. But Johnny, in this movie, is playing somebody who's not that freaking pirate.
01:22:48
Speaker
So Johnny, for once in a long time, Johnny got a chance to just actually act, to perform. And I deeply, deeply, deeply appreciated that. And he kind of nailed Whitey, kind of nailed Whitey. And Whitey was an interesting guy. Why do you spend some time at Alcatraz? And so a lot of that shows up in this movie. So it's a pretty neat, solid little crime movie with Johnny Depp giving one of the few real legit performances of the last 15, 20 years since he started playing that pirate.
01:23:27
Speaker
And there are a lot of great supporting performances here, I yeah point out. People who who you know have gone on to bigger things, people who have done bigger things prior to this. I mean, everybody from Corey Stoll, who I absolutely love. My favorite Corey Stoll thing, by the way. Corey Stoll as Hemingway in ah Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. One of the best things ever. One of the best things ever. Anyway, Corey Stoll, Jesse Plemmons, Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton. They're all in this. Oh, yeah.
01:23:55
Speaker
oh yeah Yeah, here's my Whitey story. So my my dear friend, another deceased friend, Martin Zweibach. Very dear friend. I ironically, I just saw Martin's stepson the other day at Disneyland. We happened to be there at the same time. His stepson, ah Marshall Moore, runs the Ziff Film Festival in Utah.
01:24:17
Speaker
and um and ah has been you know he was once a film commissioner, state of Utah. Anyway, he and I just bumped, we we just happened to literally be at Disneyland at the same time. It was unbelievably weird. So Martin was one of the head writers on Kung Fu for years, made some great movies, wrote the the final episode of Kung Fu, I think it was, and also most famous ah for making Me Natalie. He directed Me Natalie and he also um wrote ah The Ultimate Solution of Grace Quigley with Katherine Hepburn and Nick Nolte.
01:24:47
Speaker
Amazing. i met i I met Martin coming back from the Cannes Film Festival in 1994. He and his wife, Adrienne. And anyway, Martin and Adrienne, his wife, Marshall's mother, they lived in Santa Monica, not far from where Mark used to live. And after Whitey was arrested, Martin says to me, he goes,
01:25:09
Speaker
That was our building." I I've seen Whitey get in and and get in and out of the elevator with their dog for years. but I had no idea who that was. He goes, that was Whitey. He's like this the weirdest thing. Whitey Bulger was in our building.
01:25:26
Speaker
It was surreal. He lived in the same building with Martin Zwaibach. That's so crazy. It's the greatest story. That just freaks me out to this day. It's just- And what's funny is, the entire day after he was arrested, he was on the news a lot, Dwight. Yeah. You know what you look like? He looked like Whitey Bulger. I know. He just walks around all day looking like Whitey Bulger, just like not even trying. Which tells you, you know what that tells you?
Emotional MJ musical in New York
01:25:52
Speaker
Nobody watches the news. Nobody.
01:25:56
Speaker
at all. That was just hysterical. You didn't even cut his hair different. He's wearing the same shades, for God's sake. That's just hysterical. ah So Dario Argento presents a film by Lamberto Bava called Demons and Demons 2, both from Synapse 4K. You know what, these movies, they don't need me. they they i ah yeah I was like, okay, I wonder if they still have that you know awful kind of
01:26:30
Speaker
80s post-Gialo kind of weird, like, you know what it looks like? here's what Here's what these movies remind me of. These movies feel to me like a bunch of the, like, Daria Argento and the Babas and all the, the everybody who made those Gialo movies in the 70s, that they watched, and um I have a story for this in a second, that they watched but that they watched Michael Jackson in the John Landis directed thriller video.
01:26:58
Speaker
and And they said, damn it, Michael stole our stick. Let's one up him. So they decided to make a two part zombie ah saga that it's that tries to sort of one up what they were doing in Thriller. It's disgusting. The makeup is disgusting.
01:27:18
Speaker
ah but everything It's ridiculous but it's so over the top that I look at him like all you kinda doing thriller aren't you you're like trying to one up thriller. um So that being said one of the shows I'm just gonna put that away it's there both on 4k now I like to go knock yourself out so one of the shows that we saw in ah in new york we went to mj.
01:27:38
Speaker
Oh, which which I had been hearing, like, I've been hearing kind of mixed things. And I'm not a big fan of jukebox musicals, you know, where where it's all pre-existing music. But I figured, well, it's MJ. It's like, it it's Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson. You got to use the pre-existing music. So let's go see how it is. I get it. The Jackson family is involved. You're not going to get into, you know, a lot of ugly stuff. you're go It's going to be a little bit whitewashed. But fair enough. Let's just see how it is.
01:28:04
Speaker
i I brought me to tears, but brought me to tears
'Just Mercy' and social justice themes
01:28:08
Speaker
because it is it is so, I mean, first of all, the guy who's starring in it, yeah like he nails the moves.
01:28:16
Speaker
When you nail the moves and you nail the moonwalk and you're just doing it and i'm like we're like we're like sixth row and i'm watching and when it gets to Smooth Criminal, oh yeah I was in tears because I love that song and I love that video and the it just I'm watching them do it like almost like I'm watching Michael on stage and it just brought me to absolute tears. And then when Thriller, and they don't do it chronological order necessarily.
01:28:40
Speaker
So a lot of the Jackson 5 stuff is back loaded obviously the the other stuff is front loaded but it's a flashback structure right so they they get to play like beat it is the very first thing that you watch beat it is the first number of the of the of the whole show. So when you get to thriller oh my gosh they have the production design.
01:28:58
Speaker
It is amazing. It just explodes on the stage. I just, I can't rave enough about it. It's fantastic. It's great. If you see, if you're in London or if you're in New York, go CMJ. It really is worth every single penny that you're going to pay for it. It's not good it is not the the for the national tour. It's just on the national tour and well now actually. um But in LA, it's not on the national tour?
01:29:22
Speaker
It's not. LA is not on the national tour. Isn't that weird? isn't that weird yeah That is strange. Wow. That's unusual. I wonder why. so um All right. And then the last two 4Ks here before we ah jump into criterions or television or whatever else we got. ah Just Mercy with Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. ah Tim, i i want ah you know I have my feelings about this. You tell me how you feel about this because I know you have particular issues that are with movies that are about black men in prison.
01:29:51
Speaker
because no yeah your brothers and Look, you have to earn a Brothers in Prison movie for me, that's the way I like to say it. Now, this movie is about Bryan Stevenson. and And what is bizarre is is is is Michael B. Jordan like it literally looks like Bryan Stevenson, particularly Bryan Stevenson as the civil rights defense attorney.
01:30:13
Speaker
who is at the center of this particular case and a number of very, very important sort of cases. He's he's he a significant figure in the justice movement. yeah and yeah for you Yeah, death row prisoners and all kinds of things like that. Michael B. Jordan looks, particularly when Bryan Stevenson was as young as to care as he is in in this film, and which is I think in like the middle 90s or something like that.
01:30:36
Speaker
they Literally, you can stand them next to each other. It's like, oh, wow. that is this bizarre It's a very moving movie movie that tells this very true story ah um about the character that Jamie Foxx is playing, about the man that Jamie Foxx is playing, a guy named Walter McMillan.
01:30:50
Speaker
ah and and in in their work to try to get him exonerated and lost a row. And so I deeply appreciate this movie. This one ah makes it over the bar for me. um ah and and and its It makes a story worth telling that I'm willing to endure. ah So this one gets over the bar, absolutely it does.
Impact of 'Run Lola Run'
01:31:10
Speaker
Yeah, it did for me too, kind of barely. And Destin Daniel-Kratin, a filmmaker i I like quite a bit, does a real solid job. the the The thing that got to me in this, and my wife, and this is a little bit unfair too, so as you know, you know my wife worked on murdering the first.
01:31:27
Speaker
ah years ago, which is more or less the same story and also a true story, right? go yeah um ah Kevin Bacon playing the the guy who, you know, is eventually exonerated in that one. And so and it's almost exactly the same story.
01:31:41
Speaker
and That wasn't even the first of these. And there if you look around, there are probably about eight or nine of these movies about a tough young attorney who gives it all to, you know, exonerate somebody who's wrongly convicted. And they all more or less follow the same beats. And I know it's unfair because it's not like they're formulaic screenplays.
01:32:03
Speaker
It those are the beats of the justices. This is what happened. Yeah, you know, so it's become kind of a genre. It's a little bit familiar. And I know it's unfair to hold that against these films. ah So I try to focus on the performances. Jamie Foxx is tremendous. I mean, he's always tremendous. Well, these movies, if if they're not already, they will become the sort of movies that that will have a life in streaming. These will not be films. Right. I mean, you go what was the one with pinch on pin where he was Sister Helen. frajanitman walking Dead Man Walking, another one. Yeah, you know or or Tommy tom of tom Lee Jones from years and years and years ago, the adaptation of the, ah yeah of the ah um what was it? where hes yeah ah Gosh, why are we forgetting the name of that title? Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, he's in Prison of the Bird. It's a heavy, heavy, heavy movie. ah So yeah, these sorts of movies. But I don't i don't know that they will continue to be theatrically releasable, Academy Award-nominateable sorts of films. Great point.
01:33:03
Speaker
Also on 4K, Run Lola Run, to the movie that put Tom Ticher on the map here, and unlike any other movie Tom Ticher has ever made, ah kind of a gimmick of a movie, but man, it kind of was right in its moment and it sort of holds up.
01:33:21
Speaker
You know weird eccentric way i mean you know watching it again i'll be honest i. Like part of the joy of the movie the first time and i remember i saw it like ten o'clock show with the new order came out and we didn't want to expect to wear like is that this is that it it's gonna be like the animated thing and then the whole same running bit all over again except just off by a few seconds so we can try to get it right the next time like it.
01:33:46
Speaker
I mean, it's a gimmick, but it works. And even if you know what's coming, it still has enough juice in the experimentation to still be interesting. So yeah, layers and lad Franco, of course, Franco is just it's
Mixed reviews for 'Ezra' and 'Back to Black'
01:34:00
Speaker
he's extraordinary. in That red wait for whatever the hell she's wearing and then part of it right it's a red hair yeah and then she's running and that and there's a certain energy ah and she's just going she's willing time and space to allow her it's really just this romance i mean there's this whole thing that's going on it was just this romance it's about this girl who who's gonna
01:34:22
Speaker
do anything she can to save her boyfriend. And she's got to deal with her stupid father and all kinds of stuff, but it's just this girl who's, and it's just really beautifully, beautifully done. When you look at this movie today, I don't know that I thought about this all that much back in 98 when I saw the film, but visually, it really is just striking visually. Her red hair is only very, very considered placement of color. There's red vans and greens and blues. That palette is considered all the way through the film.
01:34:52
Speaker
And it just has this energy and it's fantastic. I love this movie. And then we got some some new movies ah that are not on 4K, but they are on Blu-ray. And the first one is Ezra with Robert De Niro, Bobby Cannavale, and ah a young, excuse me, a young actor who is very good called William A. Fitzgerald, plays this autistic kid.
01:35:14
Speaker
Bobby Cannavale's his dad. ah you know It's ah directed by Tony Goldwyn, very, very ah tender and sweet and wonderfully directed. And what I love is that, number one, Robert De Niro takes a back seat to everybody else. He doesn't try to showboat and steal every scene, which is nice. And Bobby Cannavale gets to be something other than ah then ah you know a nasty wife abusing you know got a Guido.
01:35:38
Speaker
Yeah, he just plays those Guido roles and and it's really unfair to him because he's he's a much better, I mean like I, as bad as Blonde was on so many levels, he really was a perfect Joe DiMaggio. Like he really had a great that, and it's and it's sad that that kind of overshadowed it, but anyway. Oh, people forget, Bobby came, well, to our attention. Yes. And the station agent, playing that goofy guy down the, he was just so wonderful in that. this is yeah I like this too. Whoopi is in it and Vera Farmiga and all these really wonderful actors. It's just this really, really sweet film with this kid.
01:36:12
Speaker
um and and yeah yeah really well i I wish it would have done a little bit better.
Nicolas Cage's niche roles
01:36:18
Speaker
I do too. I agree. um Back to Black. The Amy Winehouse biopic, ah kind of a mixed reaction to it. I think it's a really, really solid performance from Marissa Avila playing Amy Winehouse. I think she's incredibly convincing as Amy Winehouse really nails it. And you know we were in London last year kind of visiting all Amy Winehouse's whole stomping ground. It's great. You go to all of the the shops there. It's just Amy Winehouse merchandise everywhere. The statue is gone. They don't have the statue out. I don't know where that went. But in any case, um you know i could have made it a threefer right i could lisn montgomery and rocky and amy winehouse and i
01:36:56
Speaker
But she's not fictitious. ah She's real. ah No, there's there's there's a lot of good in this. But for some reason, it kind of ah starts to feel tawdry, needlessly tawdry at a certain point. I don't know. Did you see it? Did you have the same feeling? Yeah, well, look, there were a few of these that came out to view each other, and I appreciated them. But somehow, I did not feel like they were sincere. right. I could have Elizabeth Montgomery and Rocky and Amy Winehouse.
01:37:20
Speaker
and in in In terms of review, look, Amy had issues and problems. And and amy Amy had this dad, and Amy had this mom, amy at boyfriend and And this movie does not take any of those people to task um in a way that that that all of them need to be taken to task. that There's a documentary about all of it. And to some extent, it has to do with people who approve just to approve that and and and signed on and all this kind of thing. So I'm like, look,
01:37:48
Speaker
If you're going to make one of these movies, make the movie. You can't pussyfoot around just because we like you like Amy and her music. and and But if you're not going to do it, then just don't do it. Just do the documentary. And this one pussyfoots around. Yeah, I agree. I agree. um And it gets a little sensationalistic at ah at a certain point, too. But ah yeah, no, I agree. it's ah But the performance is good. She's good. And then the last film, what a weird movie this is, Arcadian with Nicolas Cage. Did you see Arcadian?
01:38:18
Speaker
Which one is this is a post-apocalyptic it's a post-apocalyptic thing so it's like it's basically a omega man or a blast man on earth or you know, whichever which whatever but it's basically omega man with a guy and his two sons.
01:38:33
Speaker
oh babies. and and and but Yes, I remember that. yeah and they and And they grow up in this world and there then there are these things out there and the girl is over in the other camp. exactly There are all these little camps up here. I do remember that. yes This is one of the ones where Nick nick signed on to do three scenes.
01:38:52
Speaker
you know give this is one ever now you yeah give me give me give me Give me two million dollars. I'll do i i'll give you three good scenes. but Nick gives you three solid scenes. yeah and The rest of the movie, you're on your own. you you go have to fear and you know yes I remember that. That sums it up, which makes me want to segue to the fact now that David o Russell is going to do a John Madden biopic with Nick Cage playing John Madden.
01:39:19
Speaker
That is so far out there. It's either going to just crash and burn or it's going to be an Oscar triumph in one or the other. It's not going to tell you this. Nick's not going to fail. If it goes south, it won't be next fall.
01:39:35
Speaker
its good go i mean the the here's Here's what makes me think that it may just work. David O. Russell is great going overboard, right? When a story needs to go overboard, it needs to go there. He will go there if it needs it.
01:39:51
Speaker
The American Hustle, Three Kings. American Hustle. American Tighter. Yes, all of those, all of those, all of those. so But um especially American Hustle, like the abscam story, let's go there, all the way there. So John Madden, bigger than life guy, and you know a lot of standup comics have gotten a lot of mileage out of John Madden, ah you know making fun of him and all the crazy things that he that he that he would say.
01:40:16
Speaker
and And it's, and it is, and he's a funny guy. I mean, Jon Mann on Monday Night Football was really a larger-than-life figure. And I i still remember, I was second year at UCLA, hanging out at Westwood Friday night, Saturday night, whatever it was, and I was right next, right next to the Village Theater.
01:40:31
Speaker
but not oh right Right next to the Village Theater, walking over to Westworld, the arcade that used to be there. yeah And across the street was John Madden, like 6'4 and all, 350 pounds of him or whatever with some friends, you know, they couldn't couldn't miss him. And a bunch of like, you know, kind of fratty guys that were in front of the arcade, they yell across the street, Hey, Johnny!
01:40:55
Speaker
And he just puts his arms up and he's like shaking his fists and he's loving being recognized larger than life. And I thought and and when the movie was announced, I thought back to that and I thought.
Horror film marketing strategies
01:41:09
Speaker
John Madden, Nick Cage, if Nick Cage inhabits that completely overboard guy and goes there, and David O'Russell lets him go there and encourages him to go there, this movie could be a wild ride. There's so much, I mean, all the football stuff, yes. But John Madden, in the, I guess it was the 70s, those taste great, less filling spots. He was one of those guys. And John Madden shows up in a lot a lot of movies and TV shows, always playing John Madden, usually playing the broadcaster. John Madden has a broadcaster doing something.
01:41:46
Speaker
and so and so you know and and so yeah He's just he was just bigger than life. so i will I will recommend people go to go on to YouTube and look up Frank Caliendo. Kelly Endo does the mother of all John Madden impressions. It's really, you you if you know John, you have to kind of know the John Madden shtick to begin with. And if you do, Kelly Endo will just send you into in complete hysterics. You won't be able to, you'll lose bladder control, wear a diaper, because you won't be, you will wet yourself. It's so funny. In fact, I'm going to do that right after we're done with the show. I'm going to dive into that.
01:42:21
Speaker
ah let's let's Let's hit some of these steel books real quick. yeah um oh there's ah There's a horror, there's a whole horror state book collection that just came out from Lionsgate and they're calling it Bloody Disgusting Steel Books. It's a Walmart exclusive. These are only available at Walmart. So you're not going to get these anywhere but Walmart. ah But it's, it's ah if you really, really want to just get Bloody Disgusting, boy, they are they are doing it. ah It is, I spit on your grave unrated.
01:42:49
Speaker
Uh, this is, you know, the, well, and let let me just go through this, but on your grave, unrated leather face face yeah sinister yeah Wolf Creek, your next Texas chainsaw and Hannibal rising. Yeah.
01:43:09
Speaker
So um this is these are all relatively recent. like This is this is the the remake of I Spit on Your Grave. right This is not the original I Spit on Your Grave. This is the remake. So this these are all fairly recent bloody disgusting movies. They're all recent Lionsgate movies. And they clearly made a calculation that we're at least where things like Leatherface, I Spit on Your Grave, Hannibal Rising, Texas Chainsaw, that they're they're they're working with franchise material.
01:43:37
Speaker
So it's recognizable. It's not the original movies. These aren't the original ah movies. These are based on Texas Chainsaw Massacre and, you know, Signs of the Lambs and whatnot. But the by kind of using, inheriting the credibility of those franchises and creating this bloody disgusting steelbook series and going into Walmart,
01:43:58
Speaker
that they are going to be able to squeeze more out of these movies than they would otherwise have been able to generate if they were individual releases digitally or otherwise. Tim Cogshell, he's a smart business decision. Well, look um some of these, some of these ah you're going to engage just because of the titles, you know, it's just the the title is the title is the title handle rising, which is which is, you know,
01:44:26
Speaker
I like that movie because that movie speaks to Hannibal Lecter. It is Hannibal Lecter. youre time tom harris is Tom Harris wrote the script for this yeah and you and during World War II. Of course, we get teased in The Silence of the Lambs by Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter. We get teased in that movie about some of the things that happened to his little sister, for instance, during World War II.
01:44:53
Speaker
I kind of like that that. This movie actually sort of wraps you up in that stuff. The other stuff, you know, I i would have preferred it where I spend the first I spill in your grave. i'm not another way yeah yeah all like yeah But nevertheless, I think they'll probably do all right ah for people who are sort of into these films. And particularly for folks who did some of these are just really good.
01:45:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, I hear you. I hear you. I think it's an interesting business model. I think it's i think there's ah i think there's a lot of smarts in this and whoever came up with this, they they should get ah they should get ah at least a nice Christmas
Film releases by Radiance and Criterion
01:45:26
Speaker
bonus. ah so let's just Let me hit the criterions here before I wrap up with some TV. ah First from Radiance, not Criterion, but from Radiance, which is doing a lot of Criterion level great stuff, especially in in Asian films. Tokajiro Lone Yakuza from 1966, one of the great 1960s era groovy Yakuza movies.
01:45:47
Speaker
Is out this is ah i mean look it's a straight up yakuza movie but it's one of the better ones it's really really great ah it's a it's a brisk ninety minute run. um Director ty cotto is not one of the better well better known yakuza director of state side but it's um it's it's ah it's it's interesting because it is a. um it's a It's basically a period Yakuza film, right? So it goes into,
01:46:20
Speaker
it it it it kind of splits the difference between a Yakuza film and a samurai film in many respects. So you're you're kind of, you have one foot almost in each genre. And in many respects, he's a Yakuza who is a Ronin.
01:46:36
Speaker
Right so you're're you're really kind of playing across genres and i find that to be really really fascinating the performance that the lead performance by kinesuke Nakamura wow i didn't destroy it i was able to pronounce thatm proud of myself ah is ah is pretty great um it's ah's very nuanced and it's not as action.
01:46:57
Speaker
re Relentlessly action is a lot of them are so it kind of shatters all of the conventions that were associated with the yakuza genre up until that point and um you know it's it's it's a really interesting movie i i highly recommend it i have not seen it before i had heard about it.
01:47:14
Speaker
So, Tokajiro, T-O-K-I-J-I-R-O, Lone Yakuza, it's an interesting movie. And then the Criterion titles. So, first up, nine Academy Awards out of nine nominations, 4K Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece.
Martha Coolidge's debut feature
01:47:31
Speaker
I just watched this again the other day, even before this came. It's... Oh, Joan Chin, my God. Joan Chin in this movie is so beautiful, my gosh.
01:47:39
Speaker
yeah I mean it has it has the 218 minute television version on it which I don't recommend that people watch. Stick with the 163 minute version from 1987 which won 9 Academy Awards. It is perfectly, it's it's just right there. that I mean the the TV version, the 218 minute cut is um You can watch it over a couple of nights. It's not paced, right? It has some extra history in it that's that's nice and interesting, but the longer Bertolucci cuts are rarely better than the shorter Bertolucci cuts. and There's a ton of extras on here. It's, you know, Ryuchi Sakamoto, the Oscar winning composer, who wrote the score with David Byrne, recently passed away. Recently passed, yeah. recently passed and ah the music is just sublime. The movie, Stararo's cinematography is second to none, really a great movie. 1987, it's out in 4K, goes without saying you got to pick it up. ah There's also an interesting set here from
01:48:38
Speaker
It's called Brief Encounters, The Long Farewell, and these are Russian movies ah made in 1967 and 1971 by Kira Muratova.
01:48:52
Speaker
i never the ah Basically Ukrainian, but at the time Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, so they're technically Russian movies by a Ukrainian filmmaker I'm totally unfamiliar with the movies, unfamiliar with the yeah with the filmmaker and ah they are truly fascinating. um This is a woman working in a man's industry at the time and telling female stories that ah did not go over well with the Soviet authorities and um you know they they really kind of get to the heart of what it was like to be a woman living in that society at that time.
01:49:28
Speaker
Fascinating movies I hope there are more movies in her filmography to be released. And then here not a pretty picture the Martha Coolidge film made in nineteen seventy five before Martha Coolidge was officially on anybody's radar.
01:49:43
Speaker
And this is a this is her feature debut and it's it's ah not at all what you would have expected from her later movies it's not not light this is ah this is i did not know this. ah Martha Coolidge was when she was an adolescent was raped.
01:49:59
Speaker
me and this movie basically re-creates that experience. that yeah some of a date dre situation yeah it's just it part documentary part yes very yeah herorow is heroing yeah It is harrowing, it is intense, and I'd like to see her go back to this kind of filmmaking again.
Albert Brooks' celebrated films
01:50:16
Speaker
i it really it's it's ah it's a heavy It's a heavy punch. It's a heavy punch. And it also has a 1974 documentary about Coolidge and her grandmother, or by Coolidge, about her grandmother. I'm sorry. And an interview with Coolidge by Alison Anders, who was at UCLA, another one of the UCLA renegades from a few years earlier. and and
01:50:38
Speaker
Martha Coolidge, just to remind you, Valley Girl, Ramblin' Rose, introducing all these very, very important movies, particularly in the early 80s, she directed Martha Coolidge. That's who we're talking about. Yeah. And then the last two are Albert Brooks movies. We've got Real Life and Mother, both of them on 4K.
01:51:00
Speaker
ah Out and Nobody. Tim, I'm going to ask you, how close is how closely does mother characterize your relationship with your mother? but see You know, in ah in an odd sort of way, way too close. ah yeah but But in another sort of way, not at all. But in an odd sort of way, way, way too close. Look, I love i love ah both of these movies. ah ah and And what's that other Albert Brooks movie that he did with um
01:51:31
Speaker
share loging although yeah use yes and me that that one of the smokekin it was amus and lost and but that dius almost killed me it's so funny i know I was sitting next to you oh yeah yeah in the balcony at the plaza theater. that scene with jeff just when they're playing ten my god I remember you were you were you were just about ready to suffocate. You couldn't. catch breath al will had to leave the room And these movies are all really, really wonderfully funny. um in In a way defending your life is the other one to lost in America, of course, ah but I love these other than the mother is just wonderful. And it was another moment. ah Debbie Reynolds, right?
01:52:08
Speaker
Yeah, we we're you know, late ish in her career, Debbie just got to pull just gotta pull the ripcord on another fantastic one. And remind us that I'm frickin Debbie Reynolds. i'm um um um I'm fantastic. And that was just really wonderful. You know, ah the wonderful thing about Brooks in these two films is that they are both movies about aspects of american life that are universal across all ethnic groups all socioeconomic strata all geographic parts of the country there's just something universal in real life and in mother that no matter who you talk to no matter what part of the country they're from no matter what generation they're from it's just it just if there's something in them that he gets.
01:52:51
Speaker
He somehow found all those touchstones and he puts them together in these movies and we're able to laugh at stuff that is just truly universal and in real life I feel like was the dry run like real life is really funny and this is you know 1979 lot of great stuff here.
01:53:07
Speaker
um you know, they i mean a great new interview with Albert Brooks, yeah um and and he really kind of gets into a lot of that aspect of it, but mother is the one that sent me over the over the over the railing. yeah um i I watched this movie, and I remember when Mark Kaiser saw it, I asked him, did you see mother? And he and he pauses and he goes,
01:53:30
Speaker
That is my goddamn mom. i like my damn mom i'm living that life he hes He was, a he was and i mean and um and I knew Mark's mom. oh yeah go yeah I said, but let me tell you something. That's my mother too. yes and um That is my German born mother. The ice cream like well the so with the protective ice coating, the like nine pound block of cheese. Oh my gosh. All of that. I grew up with that.
01:53:56
Speaker
All of it. And I remember watching this the first time it came out on VHS.
Heartwarming 'Ted Lasso'
01:54:04
Speaker
Not I made my mother, I made, no, no, I take it back.
01:54:09
Speaker
It was i I took my mother to see it in the theater. Oh, I took my mother to see it in the theater. And she was giggling the whole time because she saw herself on screen and Debbie Reynolds. And and years later, after my mother's memory started to fade, she didn't remember seeing it. So that's when I got it on on TV. And I watched it again. I said, you don't remember seeing it, do you? She goes, not really. And her memory was poor. And I said, we're going to watch it again. it'll be It'll be deja vu all over again. And we watched it again. I threw it on. And and i and I was giving her the stink eye through the whole thing. ah Every time the moments come up, I'm i'm looking at it. I'm like, does that remind you of somebody somebody whos is doing that? And she was giggling all over again. It was this experience. Fantastic. So two wonderful memories, two wonderful memories.
01:54:55
Speaker
Beautiful. Anyway, let's talk about a little bit of TV in the time that we have left. All the all three seasons of Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso, The Richmond Way includes a a believe poster. um ah Tim, have how much of Ted Lasso did you watch?
01:55:12
Speaker
You know, I've engaged all of it at this point and but I will admit this I was a person who resisted tet Ted I did too. I did too, you know, and and I just because everybody was just you know, oh my god, you know, I'm just I'm just not and then and it was probably just one of those periods when in they and they gave me a free what is an apple plus is it it's ten over an apple or set over on yes. Yeah that No, it was Apple Plus. yeah Apple Plus. And they gave me one of those three things. So i yeah I did the whole run. And it turned out to be one of the most joyful, wonderful. I love Ted Lasso. It comes down to a very simple thing for me. Ted is a good guy who's actually a good guy, who's actually a good guy. yeah He's not an anti-hero. He's hero. He's a good guy. And he's going to be a good guy. And it's all the hell that it's doing. Now, you and I grew up with characters like Ted Lasso.
01:56:03
Speaker
But it strikes me that that younger folks, you know, who frankly didn't grow up with the tanned lassles of the world on television, I mean, you know, characters like that, we grew up with good guys, ah you know, guys who never threw the first punch, you know, yeah and all that kind of stuff. And in the, in the sort of anti hero or other kind of hero kind of came into being a little bit later in our lives, maybe when we were teenagers or whatever.
01:56:28
Speaker
But we grew up with good guys, just like Ted Lasso.
NCIS's cultural significance
01:56:32
Speaker
And I got to tell you, I fell in love with that and the notion of that through him all over again. it was it's It's weird that I resisted it as well, because it's about soccer, for crying out loud. Well, yeah, that's really weird for you. Why would I resist a soccer show? And I think part of it was, I was just being like snobby and cynical about it. I'm like, oh, yeah, i'm I know soccer, and I'll bet that says it. And I was being that guy.
01:56:56
Speaker
and and And it was my dentist who you know I grew up with is an old friend and he's like, no, you got to watch it because you're the soccer guy. You got to watch Ted Lasso. He goes, trust me, I would not normally, like you know he's one of the guys that made fun of me when we were kids. Like, you like that funny European sport. And ah and so i find I'm like, you know, this there's just so, it's so just It's so sweet. yeah And it it it really is. It is. ah It is. ah It is. It's a show that has a vibe all its own. It's not that it doesn't have drama. It has trauma. No, no. like your georges Particularly unrealistic. But yeah, I just this that movie was an antidote to whatever um ah dark or silly or otherwise objectionable crap that I had to watch, you know, for work. Yeah. Then I throw in some tad lasso and watch it all away.
01:57:51
Speaker
So 25 episodes ah plus a movie of Ultraman Taiga. I gotta be honest, I like I'm Ultraman out at this point. The the helmets ah are in the suits all look different, but I can i don't know who's Taiga and Giga and Mega and I totally lost track of them all. I don't like the guy with the sort of flaming golden red helmet with the spikes. That's not Ultraman.
01:58:18
Speaker
but yeah they It's just they've they've tried to reinvent this thing a little bit too much. So, Ultraman Taiga is really overboard. I gave it about six episodes to try to figure out what was going on. I lost. Lost me completely. But, look, there's a reason these shows are on. ah And then, ah let's see... 21 seasons of... 21 seasons of... Oh my gosh. in c i s baby Tim, you remember when everybody said gun smoke ran for 20 years? Nothing will ever beat gun smoke.
01:58:53
Speaker
and then And then suddenly Law & Order kind of crawls over that and you go like, wow, I bet nothing will ever beat Law & Order. And then The Simpsons crawls over. And then South Park crawls over. And then, I don't know, there's like five other shows that have all gone over 20, like three of the Law & Order shows have gone over 20 seasons. And and now NCIS is in its season. It's not special anymore. How did this show get to 21 years? It's NCIS. There's an audience that latches on to some of these things and they stick with it for the whole run. And if you have a big enough audience doing that, there's no reason to cancel the show. Now on network television, now you'll notice that in streaming,
01:59:39
Speaker
There has never been, there have yeah streaming has been around 21 years, but there will never be in streaming a 21 year ah ah series. you know you want all the yeah the chicago but How far along are the Chicago shows? Oh, yeah. my oh good Good Lord. Yeah, exactly. you would yeah yeah yeah yeah We got to be a good 15 or so into the earliest, earliest, earliest earliest ones for sure. um But no, they we they'll they'll never do that in streaming at all. But here's the thing, law and order, it takes place in New York. So I get it. you're good you know New York has always been New York. It'll always be New York. 20 years of crime, 25 years of crime in New York, it is what it is. It's a city of you know whatever it is, 15 million people in the greater area. But NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Is there 21 years of crime in the Navy yeah to deal with? are you i what he what did Dude, what you say? i guess i guess
02:00:35
Speaker
It is what it looks like. David McKellum, the man from Oakland, was on the show from the start until he passed, I don't know, maybe 2020. I don't know, not too terribly long ago. It was about a year and a half ago. A lot of folks have come through this show and built their careers out as Michael Weatherly came to the show and eventually he got that show, whatever that show is that he does over there.
02:01:04
Speaker
bull yeah yeah yeah And if you go, if you if you work your way through, you'll see a lot of folks who came through this show and went on to do whatever they went on to do, ah but they they they they they got it all started right here on one of these NCIS. It's like a little industry. Some of these shows, it's the same thing i I suppose for movies in some ways, become little industries of
Host updates and AI interview
02:01:30
Speaker
their own. They're like the industries of Hollywood. And and and if you're associated with one of these shows, writer, producer, actor, whatever it is, you can literally have your whole career, if not literally on that show in the ecosystem of those shows, you know, the spinoffs and whatnot. So did you can just be an NCIS employee.
02:01:52
Speaker
for 21 years and it's been your whole life working on that ecosystem of shows and retire. Working on that ecosystem like you worked at McDonald's or for GM or something for 21 years. Where did you work for 21 years? I worked at NCIS. Literally, I worked at NCIS for 21 years. Yeah, no, it's a good living. If you're an actor, that's a good living. Well, if we can get back to that, we're working on it, but we're working on it.
02:02:20
Speaker
So I got a Shutter original here I'll mention real quickly, History of Evil. It's a terrible title, kind of a weird movie. I can't really figure out what it wants to be. It's like a semi-post-apocalyptic movie or kind of a dystopian. It's not even post-apocalyptic, that's the right word, dystopian. Kind of in a... It wants to sort of be that. It's like in the near future, we've gone all sort of religious, fascistic. Anyway, you got this guy and his family, they break out and he's on the run from the authorities and they wind up in this creepy house and then everything gets all shiny.
02:03:02
Speaker
And you're like, what? Why does the whatever? So it's I mean, it's like somebody couldn't quite figure out what story they want to tell. But you know, shutter originals are they tend to be that. OK, that's it. We are done this week. That's it. We're out of here. So you're you're on film week this week. Yeah, I'm on next week. So we're going to have to I got to start cramming the movies for for radio. But meanwhile, Really cool sub-stack coming up. That interview you're doing, did you tell people about it? Yes. So come on to my sub-stack, hollywoodheratic.substack.com. I've got a really terrific podcast interview coming up with an attorney. We're going to be talking about AI. So keep an eye out for that. Come on over. Sign up at the sub-stack, hollywoodheratic.substack.com. And have a great week. Everybody's going back to school. My daughter's going back to school, starting middle school. Very exciting. So we will see. Yeah, it's oh, you have no idea what we've been going through. This is going to be an insane week. It's going to be a crazy week, but we'll get through it. All right. See you next time, everybody.