Feb 14, 2025

A Bite And A Drink


Dracula Valentine's Day Card
Brian Remillard (2025)
Happy Valentine's Day!  If you want to pick up a last minute valentine for the horror lover in your life, check out Brian Brain StudioLGBTQ+ versions are also available to purchase.

Feb 13, 2025

All In All It's Just Another Blob Through The Wall


The Blob Commemorative Plaque
Colonial Theater - Phoenixville, PA
My recent visit to the Colonial Theater on Saturday was my second time inside to the historic venue.  The first time was three years ago when Joe Bob Briggs had his How Rednecks Saved Hollywood show at the theater.  We didn't really have too much time to explore the place the first time, but this time around, I was there with folks who have been to the theater many times and know it well.  Sandy and Jackson both told me that I had to check out the wall to the projection booth at the back of the balcony to see this awesome tribute to the horror movie monster that made the place famous.


The titular monster bursts through the windows of the projection booth at about an hour and ten minutes into the 1958 horror classic The Blob.  This begins the scene in which all of the folks in the audience run out of the front of the theater, which is recreated every year at Blobfest.  I thought it was pretty cool that the wallpaper is the same today as what you see in that scene in the movie that premiered nearly sixty years ago.


If you're ever at the Colonial Theater, be sure to head up to the balcony to see it, and don't forget to rub The Blob for luck... but be warned... the plaque doesn't say that it will be good luck. 😈

Feb 12, 2025

How Can I Ever Forget Them


Peanuts
Charles Schulz (2000)
The final Peanuts comic strip was published in Sunday papers around the world 25 years ago today.  It was printed just one day after Mr. Schulz passed away.

Feb 11, 2025

You Should Know Time's Tide Will Smother You


Meat Is Murder
The Smiths (1985)
The second studio album by The Smiths was released forty years ago today. 


Feb 10, 2025

Fly Eagles Fly


Philadelphia Eagles
Super Bowl LIX Champions
I don't claim to know very much about football, but that has to be one of the most dominant performances in a championship game in recent memory.  Photo by David J. Phillip/AP

Feb 9, 2025

A Captain Trips Outbreak In Phoenixville


The Stand
Colonial Theatre - Phoenixville, PA
Yesterday, I met up at the Colonial Theater with some friends from the Mahoning for an incredible screening that I never thought to be possible.


The Stand is a book that I have been obsessed with since I was a teenager, and the six hour mini-series that aired on ABC in 1994 was my introduction to this universe.

A common topic of conversation on the lot at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater is our dream bookings.  In other words, if we had the ability to book a double or triple feature on the big screen and there were no restrictions on what we could do, how would we book it?  What movies would we choose?  What would we call the event?  What special guests would we bring out to the lot?  What would the t-shirt and poster look like?  What special themed food or drink items would we have available for the night?  You get the idea.


One of the ideas that always came to my mind when these discussions come up is the original 1994 mini-series of The Stand.  I rarely mentioned it though because it seemed so unlikely to happen that I felt like that answer didn't count.  First of all, it's not technically a movie; it's a 366 minute long mini-series.  Secondly, because it was made for television, there aren't any film prints available.  With the exception of VHS Fest and the rare one-off screenings where a print of a movie damaged or unavailable, the Mahoning's focus is presenting films on 35mm.  Finally, it's over six hours long.  Granted, the Mahoning is no stranger to triple features and dusk-til-dawn screenings, but even if they did decide to show something that was made-for-tv, I couldn't imagine that they'd dedicate a full night to it.  It wasn't even one of the ideas that I sent to Mark and Virgil when they asked the Patreon members what they'd like to see.  It just seemed too unrealistic to suggest.

I can't think of the right words to express how happy I was when it was announced late last year that Exhumed Films was hosting an event at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville where they would not only be showing the entire miniseries on the big screen, but its director Mick Garris would be in attendance to introduce The Stand, meet fans and sign autographs, and to have a Q&A at the end of the show.


Mick Garris has a very impressive resume in films and television.  Some of his earliest work was directing and producing "The Making Of" documentary shorts for movies such as The Howling, Videodrome, and The Goonies, the latter of which he worked on with Stephen Spielberg which led to his work on Amazing Stories where he worked as a writer, director, and story editor.  His work in film includes writing the story that became the 1987 classic Batteries Not Included, as well as writing the screenplay for The Fly II, directing Psycho IV: The Beginning, and writing and directing Critters 2: The Main Course.  However, his most well known project is Disney's 1993 Halloween classic Hocus Pocus, which he wrote the story and the screenplay and served as co-executive producer.

Mr. Garris was a frequent collaborator with Stephen King in bringing his stories to the screen.  His first work with the author came in 1992 when he directed Sleepwalkers.  This was followed by The Stand mini-series, which aired in May 1994.  He also directed the 1997 mini-series adaptation of The Shining, which stays much more true to the original novel than the Stanley Kubrick film, and the 2011 mini-series adaptation of Bag Of Bones.


The thing on his resume that absolutely blew me away is when I learned that he was one of the zombies in Michael Jackson's iconic music video for Thriller.  He's the last zombie to come up out of the ground in the graveyard scene, and he's the tall zombie standing next to Michael on the left in the final zombie scene, right before Michael leans down to his date and asks "what's the problem" when everything goes back to normal.  How freaking cool is that?!

In addition to all of this, Mr. Garris is a very kind and generous guy.  He flew out from California for this event at the Colonial Theater, and at a time when people with much shorter resumes charge $20 and up for an autograph or a photo, he met fans, signed autographs, and took pictures for free.  He didn't even have 8x10s to sell.  Very cool!

Show poster designed by Jason Cortez

He signed this very cool poster that I picked up from the Exhumed Films merch table.  The artist, Jason Cortez of Sons Of Thunder Studios, has designed a few posters and t-shirts for the Mahoning over the years.  I've always liked his work, but this poster is my favorite.


It's not often that I'll ask a guest at an event that we're visiting if they wouldn't mind signing a second thing for me, but these tapes are pretty special to me.  I didn't discover The Stand until a few years after the mini-series aired on ABC when I was working for a video rental store called Blowout Video.  Employees were allowed to rent two tapes per night for free as long as they weren't on the new release wall.  I got to see a lot of movies for the first time while I was working here, and this was one of them.  I loved the mini-series so much that I bought the novel in paperback shortly after returning the tapes.  It was the first Stephen King book that I ever read, and to this day it's my favorite.  I've read quite a few of his books since then and have become a huge fan of his work.  It all started with these VHS tapes.  They opened the door to a whole new world for me.


We all settled in to seats in the front row before the start of the show.  Mick Garris came to the stage to introduce the movie.  There was a ten minute intermission between each of the four episodes which gave some time to stretch our legs, get some popcorn, and hit the restrooms without missing any of the show.  After the credits rolled, Mr. Garris came back to the stage for a Q&A with the fans.  I asked the first question, but I'll talk more about that later because it led to a pretty awesome discovery.


This was absolutely one of my favorite experiences that I've ever had at an indoor theater, and one that I never thought would happen.  Part of the reason that I write about things like this on here is so I can look back on it years from now and remember some of the fun things that I've gotten to see and do, but something tells me that I won't forget this show.

Feb 8, 2025

Pork Soup Gushers


Dim Sum Court
Bridge Street - Phoenixville, PA
There's an excellent Chinese restaurant across the street from The Colonial Theater that came highly recommended by Tom, Jen, and Jackson, and they weren't wrong.


The menu has a lot of different things that looked good, but I was most interested in trying their soup dumplings which Tom had spoken highly of over the past few days.


I've never had a soup dumpling before yesterday afternoon, and they've quickly become one of my favorite things that I've ever eaten at a Chinese restaurant.  Jen accurately described them as being similar to Gushers, but filled with piping hot soup.  They're served family style in a metal cylinder.  The idea is that you take one with a soup spoon, puncture it, drink the soup, and then eat the dumpling.  I did that for the first one, but the way that I liked them best was to puncture the top so that they could cool off a little bit, and then pop the whole dumpling in my mouth.

Feb 7, 2025

What The HEK Was That?


Heart Eyes
Spyglass Media Group (2025)
Well, I can't say that it didn't make me laugh, but this was a really stupid movie.  The best part of Heart Eyes is the opening credits which show a montage of news clips about the Heart Eyes Killer (or HEK) mysteriously popping up in a different city every year on Valentine's Day to kill couples and anyone else who got in their way.  At that point, I was thinking that this was going to be an modern old school slasher flick along the lines of Thanksgiving, but... nope.  It's a slapstick comedy that's dripping with sarcasm along the lines of the current era of Saturday Night Live.

A lot of the reviews I've read are comparing this movie to Scream for reasons that will become obvious in the final act, but this movie has about as much in common with Scream as a day old McDonald's cheeseburger has to do with a ribeye steak.  Heart Eyes was an idea that had so much potential to become a horror classic, but the finished product is about as disposable as a film can get.

Feb 6, 2025

The Day You Stop Racing Is The Day You Win The Race


Bob Marley
1945 - 1981
Today would have been the 80th birthday of one of the greatest singer and songwriters of the 20th century.

Feb 5, 2025

A Record For A Record


Thirty five years ago, British DJ Steve Briers wrote himself into the Guinness Book of World Records.  In a performance that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Mr. Briers recited the lyrics to the entire Queen album A Night At The Opera backwards in 9 minutes and 58 seconds.

Feb 4, 2025

Living At The Tower


Titan Tower
Stamford, CT
The building that has served as the corporate headquarters for World Wrestling Entertainment since 1989 has been sold to MB Financial Group for $3.75 million dollars.  The real estate firm plans to convert the building into apartments.

Feb 3, 2025

Oh No... Not The Carpenters!


In The Mouth Of Madness
New Line Cinema (1995)
The final film in John Carpenter's unofficial Apocalypse Trilogy premiered in theaters across the United States thirty years ago today.

Feb 2, 2025

It's The Destination, Not The Journey


The Brutalist
A24 (2024)
This isn't a movie that I had a lot of interest in seeing when I first heard about it, but it's sitting at a 93% critics and 80% fans score on Rotten Tomatoes and it was just nominated for Best Picture, so I had to check it out while it's still on the big screen.


Apparently, I was the only person in town who felt this way... at least at 11:00 am on a Sunday morning.  In fairness, it's a three and a half hour long movie, so I can understand why there wasn't a line of folks beating down the door to the place.  It worked out perfectly for me though.  The movie ended with plenty of time to get out and enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening, and I had a whole theater all to myself.


This movie has a 15 minute intermission at around the 100 minute mark to allow moviegoers to get up, and stretch their legs before the first and second half of the film.  I was in a position to be able to run laps around the chairs throughout the entire duration of the film without disturbing anybody if I really wanted to, but the break still came in handy because I really had to hit up the restroom.
 

If you've gotten the sense that I'm tapdancing around this screening without saying anything about the film, you would be correct.  I'm not really sure how to explain what I think of The Brutalist, but I'll try my best.

First of all, this film is a work of art.  It's beautifully filmed.  The performances are some of the best that I've seen in a long time.  The score is perfect.  The plot moves along at a good pace without any moments where it feels like it's dragging.  I can absolutely see why it was nominated for Best Picture.  Despite all of this, I'm not sure that I can say that I enjoyed it all that much.  The turning point in the film for me came when we get to 1958.  From that point on, it felt like it started going off the rails a bit and tried to go in too many directions at the same time.  I'm pretty sure that Harry and Maggie's reaction in the final scene before the epilogue is meant to imply that first hand experiences that lead them to believe what Erzsébet said at the dinner party, whether they can admit it or not, but then it just kind of... goes nowhere.  Similarly, I know that the speech that Zsófia gives in the 1980 epilogue is meant to carry a lot of emotional weight, but it just kind of fell flat for me.  I mean, I get it.  It makes sense, but... it just really didn't make me feel much of anything.  Granted, I'm not the right audience member to feel the full weight of that speech, but it just kind of make me say "oh... alright... so that's why he was so insistent about the dimensions... how about that".

I feel about this movie much the same as I felt about Oppenheimer in 2023.  I'm glad that I got to experience both of them on the big screen.  I recognize the quality of both works and that a theatrical setting brings out the best in movies like these, but I also know I'd never be able to pay attention to either of them if I watched them at home.  It also reminds me of last year's Best Picture winner in that I have no desire to ever see it again, and I'm not sure that I'd recommend it to anyone in my friend group other than the cinephiles who I'm sure have already seen it anyway (you know who you are).

I'm not sure if this makes sense to anyone but me, but... there.  That's how I feel about The Brutalist.  If it were up to me, I would still give Anora the Academy Award for Best Picture, but if I had to put money on it, I'd bet that The Brutalist is going to sweep every category that it has been nominated in.

Feb 1, 2025

An Android Girlfriend And A Werewolf Husband


Companion
New Line Cinema (2025)
This is an excellent movie that could have been so much better.  According to Deadline, the marketing team behind Companion spent $29 million dollars promoting a film that cost about $10 million to make in the weeks leading up to its release.  This included numerous trailers, posters, and other advertisements that spoil most of the story.


First came the teaser trailer.  It's not bad as far as trailers go, except for the inclusion of the scene where Iris holds her hand over a candle and lights her arm on fire.  That kind of thing really sticks in your head when you see it.  The problem is that this scene happens at the end of the movie, so the big scene in the middle of the film where Iris makes her escape through the woods is robbed of all of its tension because whatever she does, you know she's going to end up right back at the house to set her arm on fire at the dining room table.


For as bad as that is, the full trailer is even worse.  If you were to go into this movie cold, without ever seeing a single trailer or knowing anything about the plot, you wouldn't know that Iris is a robot until about a half hour into the film after a dramatic scene.  There are a few hints along the way that I'm sure some folks in the audience would pick up on, but to the average moviegoer, the reveal that Iris isn't human would be a shock that would make you sit up in your seat and wonder where this story is going.  That feeling is stolen from the audience with this trailer, and with the numerous posters and marketing materials that reveal that Iris is a robot.  What's the point of laying out breadcrumbs for a big plot twist if you just come right out and tell the audience what it is ahead of time?

Companion really is an excellent movie that I highly recommend, but god damn it, why did they have to spoil so much of it?  There's more I want to say about the story, but all I can think about is how much better it could have been.  For as much as I enjoyed this film, I hope it loses money at the box office just to stick it to the jackasses on their marketing team and stop them from patting themselves on the back for a job poorly done.

Blumhouse Productions (2025)
Whereas Companion is getting a lot of positive buzz from critics and fans alike (and rightfully so despite my complaints), the reviews for Wolf Man have been pretty underwhelming.  I wanted to go see it when it first opened, but everything I read about it made it sounds like it was a disappointment.  I can't imagine why though.  I thought it was a solid werewolf flick with good special effects and cinematography, and excellent performances from the cast.

The husband and wife in the movie aren't exactly on the brink of divorce, but it's pretty clear that their relationship is not in a great place at the start of the film.  It's all too easy for a filmmaker to fall into tired old tropes with characters like these where they have the couple bicker and get snippy with each other, but this movie falls into none of those traps.  Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner are believable.  You don't find yourself rooting for one over the other because they're not in opposition to each other.  They're just going through some stuff.  Then they go through a hell of a lot more in the Oregon woods.

This movie served as a reminder that I shouldn't let the critics or the social media buzz inspire me to stay home instead of going out to see something for myself.  If someone has something to say that makes me want to see something that I otherwise might not have shown interest in, that's fine.  I'm all for someone opening a door for me... but I need to stop letting those same people close those doors.

Jan 31, 2025

January Movie Wrap Up


The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards have been announced, and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that the only nominees for Best Picture that I got to see on the big screen are Dune 2 and The Substance.  The other nominees include a few movies that I regret not taking a road trip for since my local Regal Cinema didn't bother to book them at all (Anora, Conclave, and Emilia Perez).  They also include a few movies that I wasn't all that interested in seeing, but I'm kind of curious to see them now (The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, I'm Still Here, and Nickel Boys), and one movie that I have no interest in seeing that will probably end up sweeping the awards (Wicked).

Nosferatu is up for awards in four categories, but I was disappointed to see that Best Picture was not one of them.  Also, after all of the positive things that I've heard about Challengers, I was shocked to see that it wasn't nominated in any category.  That one falls into the category of movies that I wasn't all that interested in seeing based on its trailer, but the word of mouth it has gotten has piqued my curiosity.

With that in mind, here are the movies that I got to see for the first time in January 2025.  Unfortunately, none of them were on the big screen due to a combination of mandatory overtime and 60 hour work weeks at my job, and the fact that my local Regal Cinema has done a pretty lousy job of booking films recently.


Joy Ride looked interesting to me the first time I saw the trailer.  Unfortunately, it premiered in July 2023 which was right in the middle of the Mahoning season, and it was taken off of the screens at my local Regal Cinema before I had time to go see it on the big screen.

The trailer made this look like something that I would enjoy, but it was even better than I expected.  Sherry Cola was very funny, and both Ashley Park and Sabrina Wu gave excellent performances with a lot of heart.  I'd recommend this to just about anyone who doesn't get bent out of shape over sex and drug humor.


I was pretty ticked off that my local Regal Cinema didn't carry The Substance, but I really couldn't believe that they didn't carry Anora either.  Both movies have received almost universal praise from fans and critics, and both have been nominated for Best Picture.  I understand that it's just a ten screen theater in a small city, but if they can find room to keep the crap from Angel Studios on their screen for weeks at a time, surely they should be able to book two of the most critically acclaimed films of the year.

For as much as I loved Dune: Part Two and The Substance, if I had a vote for Best Picture out of the films that have been nominated, it would go to Anora.  It's an incredible film from start to finish with one of best performances of the year from actress Mikey Madison.  It's a dark Cinderella story about a stripper and sexworker named Ani who meets Vanya, the young son of a Russian oligarch that is played brilliantly by Mark Eydelshteyn.  It's hard not to fall in love with Ani, but Vanya is one of the most unlikable characters I've seen in a long time.  Picture the title character from Arthur if he was a heartless coward with the sexual maturity of a high school freshman.

Anora is marketed as a love story, but that's not how I felt watching it.  My takeaway is that it's a story of two people who are looking to escape.  Ani sees Vanya as a way to escape poverty and her ticket to a life of wealth and luxury, and Vanya sees Ani as a way to escape his parents and his ticket to a green card and a life in the United States.  The difference between the two is that Ani is intelligent, strong, and courageous.  She stands up for herself and for Vanya even after he runs out on her.  On the other hand, Vanya is an overgrown child who folds under pressure and makes it pretty clear that he doesn't give a damn about Ani or anybody else for that matter.

I really can't say enough good things about this movie  It's shot beautifully, it's heartfelt, it's funny as hell at times, and it has an ending that will be a conversation starter for a long time.
 

Challengers is one of those movies that I had grown sick of before ever actually seeing it.  In the weeks leading up to its release in April of last year, the trailer for this film played constantly.  I must have seen it at least twenty times, and it made me less interested in seeing it every time that it played.  It was only after I read the almost universal praise that it has gotten from both fans and critics that I had any interest in seeing it.

The plot seems to have sparked a lot of debate on social media.  For what it's worth, I don't think Tashi loves Art or Patrick.  She's sexually attracted to both of them, but that's all it is.  She loves tennis.  When it's taken away from her, the anger that she feels in that moment toward Patrick drives her to Art, and her relationship and marriage to Art doesn't seem to mean much more to her than a way to stay connected to the sport.  She tolerates him as a partner and as the father of their child, but the only thing that she is shown to love is the sport.

It's a better than average movie overall, but I didn't fall in love with it as much as many other folks seem to have.  There isn't a lot of chemistry between any of the sides of this love triangle, so the sexuality just kind of felt flat and kind of boring.  The time jumps were also a bit jarring, and tennis really isn't all that interesting of a sport to me.  I enjoyed it well enough, but it's not the kind of movie that I'd want to see a second time.


Barbarian was released in 2022 and is frequently mentioned as a must-see horror flick on a lot of YouTube channels that I subscribe to.  Fortunately, I managed to either avoid any spoilers about the plot, or I wasn't paying close enough attention to the videos at the time because I had no idea where this story was going from one scene to the next.  I'm hesitant to say anything else about it at the risk of spoiling it for anyone else, but it's a modern horror classic and it's absolutely worth your attention.  Check it out on Hulu.


Director Renny Harlin filmed The Strangers: Chapter 1 concurrently with a Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 film that have yet to be released.  Based on the reaction that this film has gotten, I think there's a better than average chance that the next two chapters may end up skipping the theaters and headed straight for a streaming platform.

I'm not really sure what the filmmakers were going for with Chapter 1Harlin claims that this wasn't intended to be a remake or a reboot of the original 2008 film, The Strangers.  Oh yeah, buddy?  Then what the hell is it?

Chapter 1 isn't a bad movie if it's the only one in the series that you ever watch, but it feels kind of pointless if you've seen the original filmChapter 1 is practically the same exact movie, but not nearly as good.  Given the choice between the two films, I can't think of any reason why anyone would choose to watch this over the original.  I can't even really think of why someone would want to watch both unless the next two chapters in this series are so amazing that fans will want to go back and watch the three in a marathon.  Based on what I've seen here, I'm not holding my breath on that being the case.
 

My wife is a big fan of Jason Statham films, so she suggested that we watch Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre a few weeks ago.  It's a Guy Ritchie film that also stars Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone, and Hugh Grant.  The film premiered in theaters in the United States in March 2023, but I don't remember hearing anything about it at the time.

This movie bombed at the box office when it was released two years ago, and I think a lot of that can be blamed on its title.  It was originally going to be called "Five Eyes", which is a reference to the intelligence alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.  It was retitled "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre" during production.  I don't know if that's the worst title for a movie that I've ever heard, but it's definitely up there.  It sounds like something you'd put on the poster for a seminar on cryptocurrency or property flipping.

The story here is that a secret agent named Orson Fortune (Statham) has to put together a team of people to recover a stolen piece of technology that is dangerous in the wrong hands, but they don't know what it is or what it can do.  One of the people that gets recruited into this mission is a Hollywood actor named Danny Francesco (Hartnett), who the arms dealer that is facilitating the sale of the device (Grant) is obsessed with.  It's an excellent action comedy flick with an especially great performance from Hugh Grant.  It's on Amazon Prime, and I really hope it finds its audience, but that god awful title isn't doing it any favors.


It's What's Inside is a movie that I've seen on a lot of "best of 2024" lists.  It went straight to Netflix without a theatrical run, which is a shame because it's a very entertaining movie with a clever plot device that deserved to be seen on the big screen.

The story here is that a bunch of friends are getting together to celebrate on the night before one of them gets married.  One of the guests who is invited to the party had a falling out with the rest of the group back in college and has been out of contact ever since.  This friend, whose name is Forbes, shows up with a device that his company has been working on which allows for the transfer of human consciousness into another body.  It's completely safe with no side effects, and Forbes mentions that he and his colleagues use it to play a game where they all swap bodies and then try to guess who is in each body.

I wasn't in love with the cinematography, and I was surprised that they didn't explore the concept of intergender body swaps all that much, but this is definitely a movie that's worth seeing.  I'd like to see it get a sequel.


Melancholia has been on my watchlist for over a decade, but I didn't get around to seeing it until last Sunday.  It has taken me a few days to collect my thoughts on how I feel about it, and here is where I landed.  There are two stories being told in this film, and the fact that each of them has to coexist with the other does a disservice to them both.

In the world in which this story takes place rogue planet called Melancholia is headed for Earth.  The people of this world have been assured that this rogue planet will come pretty close, but it won't strike Earth.  However, if it does, it would mean instant destruction,

The main character of this story is a woman named Justine (played brilliantly by Kirsten Dunst) who suffers from severe depression   When the film begins, she and her husband who she married earlier that day are in a limo on their way to a castle where their reception is being held.  Most of her family are absolutely miserable people, as is her boss, who expects her to come up with a marketing slogan for one of their clients during the reception.  She ends both her job and her marriage while at the reception, and then sinks further into a state where she is unable to eat, bathe, or get out of bed without assistance.

Without getting into any further details about what happens in the movie, I think this would have been better if these two stories were split into two entirely separate films: one about a rogue planet that may collide with the earth, and another that is centered around living with depression.  The whole movie follows Justine, so I'm left wanting to know more about the rest of the world and how they're reacting to their potential destruction.  I'm also left wanting to know more about how Justine lives her life when there's not an impending apocalypse.  Don't get me wrong, it's a very good movie.  It's depressing as hell, but it's absolutely worth seeing.  Still, I would have preferred to see the two stories of this film being told independently of each other.


Last, but not least, I watched the George Lucas film American Graffiti.  I've always wanted to see this movie, but I finally sat down to watch it because it fit the category of one of the challenges in the Everyone's A Critic book that my friend Cary gave me.  The third challenge is "Low Budget, Big Box Office", and this film definitely fits that category.  It was produced with a budget of just $777k and it made over $140 million at the box office, and it's success is largely responsible for Lucas being able to start filming Star Wars two years later.

About 15 minutes into this film, I found myself imagining that this movie and Dazed & Confused are from the same universe.  Whereas Dazed & Confused is a 1993 film with an ensemble cast about being young in 1976, American Graffiti is a 1973 film with an ensemble cast about being young in 1962.  Both movies are love letters to the music, the fashion, and the youth culture of their setting.

American Graffiti isn't a movie that I can really relate to on a personal level, but I appreciate it for what it is and I'm glad that I watched it.

And that's a wrap on the movies that I watched from the comfort of my sofa in January 2025.

Jan 30, 2025

All In All Is All We Are


Nirvana
FireAid (January 30, 2025)
A benefit concert is being held tonight the Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum in Inglewood to raise money to help the people who were affected by the wildfires in Southern California.  There are dozens of amazing performances from some of my favorite artists, including Alanis Morissette, Stevie Nicks, Green Day, Sting, No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Stevie Wonder among many others.

All of the performances were incredible, but the highlight for me was the reunion of Nirvana, with Dave Grohl on drums, Pat Smear on guitar, Krist Novoselic on bass, and four amazing women standing in for the late Kurt Cobain.  They did four songs.  The first was Breed, with St. Vincent.  The second was School with Kim Gordon.  Next was Territorial Pissings with Joan Jett.  Finally, with Krist on the accordion, Kim Gordon on bass, and Dave's daughter Violet Grohol on vocals, they closed out their set with an incredible performance of All Apologies.

Jan 28, 2025

Pop Culture


The Slatington Marketplace
Route 873 - Slatington, PA
There were vintage Pepsi, RC Cola, and Coca Cola vending machines last time I stopped at this vendor in the Slatington Marketplace.  Those seem to have sold, but these two machines were in their place.  I have absolutely no room for and really don't have any use for them even if I did, but I've always wanted an old soda machine like this.

Jan 27, 2025

Let Your Soul Guide Your Sword


Highlander 3: The Final Dimension
Lumiere Pictures (1995)
The third film in the Highlander series premiered in theaters across the United States thirty years ago today.

Jan 26, 2025

Friends, Films, and Food


Pocono Cinema and Cultural Center
South Courtland Street - East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
This incredible theater originally opened for business in 1884 as a vaudeville theater and opera house called The Academy Of Music.  It was converted into a movie theater in 1913, and it operates today as a non-profit organization which shows new and classic movies and hosts live events.

We came here for the first time last February to see The Poseidon Adventure when the Mahoning booked one of the screens for a winter get-together.  Yesterday, we visited for the second time to celebrate Kate and Cary's birthday with all of our friends.  Each of the birthday ladies pick a movie to share with us on the big screen, and both were a first-time screening for me.


Kate's movie was the 1992 comedy Noises Off.  Now that I've seen it, I can't believe that I never heard of it before yesterday.  It has a cast that includes Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, John Ritter, Christopher Reeve, Nicollette Sheridan, Julie Hagerty, Marilu Henner, and Mark Linn-Baker (Larry Appleton from Perfect Strangers).  It's also the final movie performance of Denholm Elliott.  He had a long and distinguished film career, but I'll always know him best as Marcus Brody from the Indiana Jones movies.

This movie is hysterically funny.  The way the story was told reminded me a lot of One Cut Of The Dead.  It's about a play called Nothing On, and how the actors navigate the backstage drama while in the middle of their performances on stages across the country.  The movie wasn't a hit with fans or critics when it was released in 1992, but I can't imagine why.  It's very creative with witty dialogue and excellent performances that kept me laughing from start to finish.


Cary's movie was a 1938 comedy called Bringing Up Baby, starring two icons of American cinema: Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.  I had never heard of this one before either.  My knowledge of the Golden Age of Hollywood is extremely limited.  If you don't count the Universal Studios monster films, I've watched maybe twenty movies from start to finish that pre-date the 1960's.  It might not even be that high.  You'd think I'd make it a point to watch more of them because I end up loving most of the ones that I've seen, and this was no exception.

I deliberately didn't look up any information about either of these films before we watched them so I could go into it with as clean of a slate as possible.  The only thing I knew about Bringing Up Baby was its title and the year it was released.  Based on those two pieces of information, I figured that this was probably going to be a drama about a husband and wife raising a child, which is so off base that I can't help but to laugh in retrospect.

Katharine Hepburn plays a good-hearted manic tornado of a woman named Susan who falls in love with an overwhelmed museum paleontologist named David (Cary Grant).  David is engaged to be married to another woman who he doesn't seem to have too much of a connection to.  He and Susan stumble into each other's world while David is working to impress a man into using his influence with a rich benefactor to secure a million dollar donation to his museum.  Once she's found her way into his life, Susan keeps him there by roping him into a trip to bring a leopard (Baby) from New York to Connecticut.  Like the first movie of the night, this film had me laughing and smiling throughout its entire runtime.
 

After the movies, a bunch of us headed to a Chinese restaurant in Bartonsville called the East Gourmet Buffet for dinner.  I realize this is going to come across as sappy, but I can't express how grateful I am to have met such an awesome group of folks as our friends that we've met at the Mahoning.