Music Watch: 24 Hour Party People (2002)

Watched:  08/03/2026

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Michael Winterbottom

Somehow in the past two weeks, I was in a group chat (in theory about Texas football) where the folks were discussing 24 Hour Party People (2002), which I'd never seen.  Then, an artist I follow on socials was discussing it this last week. When I saw it was recently added to Criterion, I decided now was the time.

A while ago I took to watching some documentaries on YouTube (of varying professional quality) about bands I like, or liked once upon a time.  And it became clear that while I am aware of bands and some of their music, I sure don't know much about what it's like to come up in the British music scene.  You get a real feel for how small England really is sometimes with how the music scene there is treated like a popularity contest with winners and losers and how much bleed over there is between fan bases.  

24 Hour Party People covers the rise of the Manchester music scene, from the mid-70's to the early 90's.  I vaguely remember it coming out but in 2002, I was a busy bee.  And, frankly, a small film about a music scene I wasn't that into wasn't the biggest draw.

Spidey Watch: Spider-Man Brand New Day (2026)

Watched:  08/02/2026

Format:  Regal Cinema

Viewing:  First

Director:  Destin Daniel Cretton

Look, I'm respecting that the movie-advertising is asking that we not discuss this movie publicly on social media, so I'm doing what I can here.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

Canon Watch: Addams Family Values (1993)

Watched:  07/31/2026

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Barry Sonnenfeld

Absolutely one of my favorite comedies.  And, why, 30 years later people still talk about Wednesday Addams.  

Still, a movie where everyone is bringing something special.  

No real reason to say much about the movie today, so I won't.  But just give it a whirl and spot a pre-fame Tony Shaloub as a sailor in a bar, a Broadway famous Christine Baranski - just before she appeared in Cybill and was launched to media fame, as well as Nathan Lane as the desk sergeant, before Lion King made him a thing.  

It's unbelievable Raul Julia passed a year later.

Jamie reminds me we did a podcast on Addams Family.  

Monster Watch: The Black Scorpion (1957)

Watched:  07/31/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Edward Ludwig

Yall...  You're gonna be something less than shocked when I tell you that maybe a 1957 movie about kaiju-sized scorpions rampaging through Mexico is maybe not Oscar material.  But I will say it is entertaining as hell.  

The story is basically lifting Them!, which had just been a big success.   But in this case, the volcanos that erupt throughout Mexico this time crack open the earth.*  A pair of geologists, one handsome Mexican guy (Carlos Rivas) and one lantern jawed American (Richard Denning) race to the location to scout it out.  En route they come across a police car that's been wrecked - like inexplicably shredded - food still cooking and an abandoned baby.  They also find the police officer who is dead, his eyes wide open, and leaning against a wall.

With no idea what's going on, they head to the town with the baby, and everyone is in a panic.  Cowboys are coming in from the local ranches reporting the cattle are turning up dead.  Shit is bad, yo.

Spoilers:  there are giant scorpions running around who escaped their underground layer and seem to want mammal flesh.  

TV Watch: Ride or Die

Ride or Die was advertised as a light romp with the wacky idea that a housewife discovers her best friend is actually an assassin.  Twenty years ago, this has Sandra Bullock in it, and is a 100 minute movie with non-stop jokes that makes its money back with re-runs on TBS.  And, I'd argue, in the ads Amazon put out that was more or less what was sold.  And, fair.  The premise seems a bit of dark comedy.  Enjoy.

But the show pretty swiftly makes it clear - forget the ads.  This show has more in common with action-dramas of the past fifteen years than it does with late 00's-era comedies.  Sure, it has great comedic bits, but imagine my surprise as the comedy was pushed further and further to the edges, the inescapable result of 9 hour-long episodes based in a world of assassins, mob money and betrayals.  

It's not exactly The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, but it isn't trying to be.  Nor is it trying to be The Bourne Identity, John Wick or "a ballet of violence" for violence's sake.  When violence does break out, it's not just goofy fun.  People get very hurt and/or killed.

Neo-Noir Watch: Tequila Sunrise (1988)

Watched:  07/27/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Towne

Tequila Sunrise (1988) was, to me, the sort of movie parents would go see whilst leaving the kids at home in those heady days of "they have fishsticks and can work the oven."  The film was advertised to adults, rated-R, and didn't look like a cop movie where our hero shot the place up and made jokes.  So my interest was muted.  Also, I don't remember having HBO when this likely aired and so I missed that window as well.

As a neo-noir, Tequila Sunrise feels positively old-school, like it should star Victor Mature and Richard Conte as opposite sides of the law who were boyhood pals and now find themselves at odds.  

Wait, that's Cry of the City.  Terrific film.

Happy Birthday, Hannah Waddingham

Today, July 28, marks the birthday of star of stage and screen, Hannah Waddingham.  

This year has been pretty good for Ms. Waddingham.  

She has starred in what appears to be a successful series for Amazon Prime, Ride or Die (our post on it will arrive after we've finished the series).  Threads tells me many people did not know of her before, and... welcome to where I've been living since, like, 2021.  

She's got a new season of Ted Lasso set to drop in August and a fanbase primed and ready.  Her Fox show, Krapopolis continues on (I catch it once in a blue moon).  And she's been announced as starring in one movie with Guy Pearce and a separate movie, promisingly titled Jason Statham Stole My Bike, with the eponymous action star.  

And, she's lent her voice to an animated project by Sir Paul McCartney - coming soon.  

Not bad.

Social media tells me she keeps popping up places like Wimbledon and at F1, and that seems like a pretty good way to live one's downtime.  I believe she's also found a suitor who she can stand next to in heels, and that's got to be a bonus.

Happy Birthday, Hannah Waddingham!

Island Watch: Eden (2025) / The Galapagos Affair - Satan Came to Eden (2013)

Eden (2025)

Watched:  07/25/2026

Format:  Library Disc

Viewing:  First

Director:   Ron Howard

This is a movie about living in a place that's pretty good, but the place suddenly gets overrun by people who read an article saying the place was cool.  Because the people who moved there, wrongly believing themselves cool (and therefore heirs to the cool place), bring their suckiness to the place - the transitive powers of their suckiness, large numbers and insistence on changing the nature of what made the place cool to begin with, make that place which was once cool now suck.  

Eventually the place sucks so much, helped along with the participation of government stooges hoping for money and glamour, things in the place become straight up bleak.  

In short, this is the story of Austin, Texas.

When Eden (2025) was released, reviews were kind of all over the place, but I was curious.  I don't tend to think of Howard as a director who does grittier movies about sordid topics like sex and violence.  The movie had a fascinating cast - Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Daniel Bruhl, Sydney Sweeney...  A movie requiring minimal FX, and where shit gets very real as people scrape for survival in what is now an infamously inhospitable living.  And turn on each other.

Neo-Noir Watch: Sea of Love (1989)

Watched:  07/24/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Harold Becker

Sea of Love (1989) is very much what I think of when it comes to the notion of Neo-Noir.  Well, this and grittier stuff like To Live and Die in L.A.  

This movie is just before we moved into the 90's and neo-noir = erotic thriller for a lot of movies.  And I'd argue this movie probably put the notion of the erotic thriller into the skulls of some creators.  

This is a cop-finding-a-killer movie, and that initially had me not terribly excited.  But I'd always heard good things, and this movie has tons of talent in it that I dig, not least of which is Ellen Barkin.   And I'll be honest - as big as Barkin is, I'm shocked she wasn't everywhere after this movie.  

But, yeah, the movie stars Al Pacino as the cop hunting down our killer, John Goodman playing probably a full 15 years older than he was at the time (his adult daughter is getting married, and I think Goodman is 37 if he's a day in this movie).  Michael Rooker is in a bit part.  William Hickey shows up for a scene.  Richard Jenkins plays a detective who is now married to Pacino's ex-wife.  Christine Estabrook, one of those "that lady!" actors, appears.  And a pre-fame Samuel L. Jackson appears in an opening sequence.

Happy Birthday, Lynda Carter

Today is the 75th birthday of Signal Watch patron saint Lynda Carter.  Big milestone!

I'm not sure what Carter has been up to this year.  Hopefully she's off having a grand time somewhere.

Ms. Carter isn't just an actor, advocate and sometimes-superhero.  She's also a singer and performer.

Here she is a few decades back with our friends, The Muppets:

He-Watch: Masters of the Universe (2026)

Watched:  07/23/2026

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Travis Knight

Well.  

That was sure a He-Man movie.  

I'm not particularly a fan of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the cartoon nor the toy line.  In fact, when this movie was pitched, I wrote a whole long post about how weird I thought it was that a movie studio went all in on what I thought was probably a far niche-ier market for this movie than they were probably aware, and I wasn't particularly looking to spend my paycheck on watching the movie in theaters.

But as the movie approached, I thought "well, maybe I'll take the niece and nephew", but neither of them showed the slightest interest - and they'd seen the trailer.  Something came up around the release date, and I thought "well, I'll go in like two weeks".  But the reviews hit and were unkind, the audience stayed away in droves, and the movie was gone.  And I was back to Plan A, which was to watch it streaming.

Meanwhile, my social media was ablaze with the "it's actually really good" assurances, and "all of you will say 'why didn't anyone tell me to see it in the theater?'"  

Modern Western Watch: The Lusty Men (1952)

Watched:  07/21/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nicholas Ray

The term "lusty" has not always meant "horned up".  The dictionary definition just means "healthy" and "vigorous".  Or, "Hearty", or, even "enthusiastic, rousing".  

So, while Susan Hayward paired with Robert Mitchum may lead one to believe we're heading for "lust-ful" men, and we are, I think they just meant "these cowboys are hale and hearty".

After all, this is a movie about a young, married man (Arthur Kennedy) deciding to join the rodeo circuit in order to make money enough to buy a ranch and settle down.  As it turns out, he wants to buy the boyhood home of veteran rodeo rider Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum).  The new rodeo-man's wife, Susan Hayward, is reasonably concerned about this decision.  After all, rodeo riders tend to get mauled by bulls, thrown from horses to grave injury, and more...  It's not what she signed up for.  

Kaylee Hottle Merges With the Infinite

Hottle at the Godzilla x Kong premiere in 2024

This is a tough one.

Actor Kaylee Hottle, who I knew from two of the Legendary Godzilla/ Kong movies, has passed.  She was only 18.  Because she was so young, I know readers will be curious - she sustained injuries in a car accident.

Hottle played Jia, who was a main character in both Godzilla/ Kong movies,  and Kong's connection to the human world.  As a young actor, she was terrific.  I have no doubt she would have gone on to do great things.

This is deeply sad and unfair to her family.  Our deepest sympathies.

Late Edit:  I didn't know Hottle was from a town just south of Austin and a student at Austin's Texas School for the Deaf.  This just keeps getting sadder.

Arthouse Watch: The World to Come (2020)

Watched:  07/19/2026

Format:  Library disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Mona Fastvold

I really liked Vanessa Kirby in last summer's Fantastic Four, and was aware she had a career a bit like Rebecca Hall.  Be foxy in things  After getting noticed in smaller stuff, do a mix of some big, silly crowd pleasers (Hall is in two King Kong movies and an Iron Man) while still doing smaller art films and some prestige pictures.  Do all the things.    

I happened to find two Kirby movies right off the bat via Austin Public Library, and so I've borrowed this movie, The World to Come (2020) and the Ron Howard flick, Eden.  

The World to Come was not exactly a critical darling, but pretty close!  It clocked in at a 73 on Metacritic.  And I'm not surprised that, especially in the political climate of 2020 - the year of the movie's release - it did well.  It got a lot of international attention.  It's a period piece about forbidden same-sex love, and it is very sad, and that is absolute critic bait.

Sci-Fi Horror Watch: The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

Watched:  07/18/2026

Format:  TCM with John Carpenter and Alicia Malone

Viewing:  First

Director:  Val Guest

SimonUK kept suggesting The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) to me during the podcast era, and I can see why.  I think mostly in England, but also among sci-fi and horror-heads in the US, the Quatermass media - of which there's more than you'd think - is considered foundational or classic.  Thus, it may have inspired things like Doctor Who (which I confess I never got into) and there's no small amount of John Carpenter's early work in this movie.  

And, in fact, I watched it because Carpenter is hosting two days of movies on TCM with Alicia Malone. 

I'd also argue - Stan and Jack may have lifted the origin of the Fantastic Four from this movie in a small way.  And if you know Jack, he was constantly reworking what he saw on the street, in movies and in culture right into his comics, so it wouldn't shock me.

Noir Watch: Angel Face (1952)

Watched:  07/16/2026

Format:  TCM Noir Alley

Viewing:  Third?  Fourth?

Director:  Otto Preminger

I was a bit surprised I'd already written this movie up twice before, but here's the first (fifteen years ago almost exactly!) and here's the second (about eight years ago).    

Y'all, I have been doing this *a while*.  And, yet, no one has intervened.  None of you are to be trusted with my welfare.

Still love this movie.  It's all arcs and curves heading for the very particular, noir-perfect, ending. 

I'm still a huge fan of Mitchum in everything, and this is no exception - here playing the cat who thinks he can thread the needle, having his rich girl and his marriage-material, too (and it's likely this wasn't the first "other girl" she's put up with).  He's just cool enough to make you think he's got the angles sorted, but he never really does.  

Noir Musical Watch: Blues In The Night (1941)

Watched:  07/15/2026

Format:  TCM Noir Alley

Viewing:  First

Director:  Anatole Litvak

So, this movie is super strange, and maybe in a good way, because it really swings for the fences.  I am not sure it goes yard (it doesn't) but it's at least an interesting sac fly.  

It's a mix of the "let's put on a show!" spirit of the movie musical and takes a turn down an alley into what would come to be known as noir.  As the two collide, Blues in the Night (1941) can make for some strange viewing.  

A group of guys tossed in jail for the moment decide to form a band - they want to play "the blues".  They are not Black.  But in the next cell are Black guys, who are singing the Blues.  By 2026 standards, this will be the best performance you will see all movie.

Out of jail they head to New Orleans to pick up a trumpet player and his spunky wife, Priscilla Lane.  Travelling by box car (and seemingly unbothered by what seems to be this "band" thing going terribly) they meet Norman Lloyd on the lam - he directs them to his club outside of New York City.

Dave Kendall Merges With The Infinite

As a kid stuck in the suburban sprawl of Austin and then Houston/ Spring, Texas, where music tastes skewed in such a fashion that AC/DC was literally playing on a radio station somewhere 24 hours-a-day, Whitney Houston was playing endlessly in mall sound systems and my classmates positively wet themselves for Garth Brooks - finding the music I liked was a part-time job.*

MTV had not yet pivoted to dumb game shows and reality TV, but during normal waking hours, you were more likely to see them play Warrant's "Cherry Pie" on a loop more often than anything I cared about.  And then one Sunday night, I caught 120 Minutes, hosted by a guy who seemed like a true believer when it came to the kinds of music I was already kind of liking by 1989.  

Dave Kendall's run on 120 Minutes - a show he conceived and produced - and which he would go on to host, lasted from 1989 - 1992.  If you ask a lot of people, they won't recall 120 Minutes prior to Kendall, and will barely remember the show continued after he handed hosting duties off to Matt Pinfield.  Once I was headed for college in 1993, I really didn't pay much attention, and then had no cable for a few years to even notice he was gone.

Sam Neill Merges With The Infinite

Actor Sam Neill has passed at 78.

Neill was most famous for his role in Jurassic Park as Dr. Alan Grant, who made his way across the island with two kids in tow.  I honestly think that role changed my opinion of what you needed for an "action hero".  

I was also a fan of his work in Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World and Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness and plenty of others.  Just this year I watched Possession.

He was also active on social media showing his farm, Two Paddocks, and maintained a clever, funny presence for years.

As big a movie as Jurassic Park is - and the subsequent sequels in which I think he appeared in two - Neil will be remembered for a good, long time.  And rightfully so.

Happy Birthday, Mikaela Hoover

Hey!  It's a second Super Birthday today!  

Happy Birthday to Mikaela Hoover!  She played Cat Grant in our most recent Superman film.  You will remember her in that movie with blonde hair and glasses.  She absolutely nailed the character in a few scenes, so... hats off!

Hoover also played Floor the Rabbit in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.  

May Ms. Hoover have a terrific b-day and a fabulous trip around the sun.