Dog Watch: Lassie (1994)

Watched:  07/13/2023

Format:  BluRay

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Daniel Petrie

Like all good Gen-X'ers, I grew up in the aftershocks of the baby boomers, and Lassie - the very clever collie - was certainly a character and concept we knew of, if not through direct experience, then by osmosis.  I guess there was a book, originally (1940).  Our canine hero starred in wildly popular movies beginning in the 1940's (it's where Roddy McDowall got his start as a lad) and television - running for a cool 20 years, from 1954-1974.  Plus several more movies and TV shows over the years people who are not huge Lassie fans probably are unaware of.

I know!  That's a lot of Lassies.  

The artificial monoculture created via mass media and limited outlets did, at least, give us a chance to have some familiar talking points, and you never knew where they'd coalesce.  Personally, I didn't watch Lassie in reruns.  Or the movies.*  For most of us, Lassie was one or two jokes about kids falling down wells and dogs alerting us to calamity.  Maybe we whistled the theme song at our dogs.  

This 1994 film is more or less an original story, but if you know anything at all about Lassie from the TV show, etc... this movie carries on quite a bit of the world's bravest, smartest, wisest dog *and* best friend to a boy who needs one.  This dog seems like it's ready to pick locks and drive cars.  Three cheers for Lassie.

Our story:  

PodCast 246: "Out Of Sight" (1998) - A Social Bobcat / Neo-Noir Episode w/ Ryan

Watched:  06/16/2023

Format:  BluRay

Viewing:  Third?  Fourth?

Director:  Soderbergh

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The Social Bobcat is back to dig deep into this 1990's classic of cool. Join us as we take a look at what forces were at play in the 1990's, what works in this movie that makes it okay to be cool, and that putting Clooney and JLo in your movie is not a bad idea.

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 246: "Out Of Sight" (1998) - A Social Bobcat / Neo-Noir Episode w/ Ryan

YouTube

Music:

Fight the Power, Pt. 1 - The Isley Bros. 

Foley, Pt. 2 - David Holmes, Out of Sight OST 

Noir and Neo-Noir Playlist

The Signal Watch PodCast · Noir Watch

Art House NSFW Watch: Singapore Sling (1990)

Watched:  06/19/2023

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Niklos Nikloidas

Sometimes JAL pitches a movie and, knowing nothing about it, I say "sure.  This will surely be different from my usual fare."  And, indeed, such is the case with 1990's Singapore Sling, a Greek-made film in English and French, that was part of a movement I'd never heard of before, that being a Greek-based Shock Cinema.  I am unsure this is a real movement, but this is maybe the second Greek film I've ever seen, and I know no one who is Greek, so, why not?

Firstly, I'm not sure I actually think you should watch this movie.  It's a real YMMV bit of cinema that is intended to deliberately provoke and upset and make you laugh.  In the US we'd call it exploitation cinema for lack of a better label, but I'd argue that label is on the wrong jar in this case.  

In general, I don't ask the question:  what is this movie for?

PodCast 244: "The Big Lebowski" (1998) - A Coen Bros Rewatch w/ Stuart and Ryan

Watched:  05/28/2023

Format:  BluRay

Viewing: Unknown

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Coen Bros.

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Stuart and Ryan try to keep their minds limber to keep up with all the moving pieces and new things that have come to light. We're rewatching a cult favorite and maybe the Coen Bros. best remembered film? Anyway, we don't roll on shabbos, but we do podcast. So, join us for a convo on a fan favorite!

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 244: "The Big Lebowski" (1998) - A Coen Bros Rewatch w/ Stuart and Ryan

YouTube

Music:

Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition 

Dead Flowers - Townes Van Zandt 

Coen Bros. Films

The Signal Watch PodCast · Coen Bros.

PodCast 243: "Gremlins 2" (1990) - a Ryan Canon Film PodCast w/ SimonUK

Watched:  05/05/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Unknown

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Joe Dante

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Simon and Ryan once again break the three rules and now it's chaos in the big city! Join us as we discuss a sequel that maybe outshines the original and is always a joy to watch. It's a movie that was ahead of its time no matter what year it came out, and a throwback to an era that probably never existed. A satire, a spoof, a comedy and a monster movie. And, of course, it gave us Marla Bloodstone.

this is a pro-Marla website

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 243: "Gremlins 2" (1990) - a Ryan Canon Film PodCast w/ SimonUK

YouTube

Music:

Gremlin Credits - Jerry Goldsmith

New York, New York - Tony Randall and the Moonlight Gremlins Orchestra

Additional Audio

Key & Peele - Gremlins 2 Brainstorm

Ryan's Random Cinema

The Signal Watch PodCast · Ryan's Random Cinema

PodCast242: "Deep Rising" (1998) - An Angry (Sea) Animals PodCast! Jamie, SimonUK and Ryan

Watched:  05/01/2023

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Stephen Sommers

For more ways to listen!

SimonUK, Jamie and Ryan head for the high seas, and think deep thoughts on things from the deep! We take a look at a forgotten late-90's gem that floats on an ocean of charm and will surprise you from all new angles. Join us as we get aboard this suspence, sci-fi horror voyage!

SoundCloud

The Signal Watch PodCast · 242: "Deep Rising" (1998) - An Angry (Sea) Animals PodCast! Jamie, SimonUK and Ryan

YouTube

Music:

Main Titles - Jerry Goldsmith

The Girl from Ipanema - Walter Wanderley

Playlist - Angy Animals

The Signal Watch PodCast · Angry Animals

Neo-Noir Watch: The Last Seduction (1994)

Watched:  05/06/2023

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Dahl

Well, at long last I got around to The Last Seduction (1994).  

I can see how well-meaning dopes would have cast Fiorentino in Jade on the heels of this movie, possibly trying to borrow some of the heat she brings to this film, but the two movies are worlds apart, and one is a 90's indie darling playing to a punchline, and the other is a shiny studio movie that feels like a hastily jotted-off airport-book thriller.  

The Last Seduction reads more like a Goodis novel or Jim Thompson book, with low-level crooks twisting and turning over each other and innocence is a commodity of dubious value.  Fiorentino plays a con who encourages her husband (Bill Pullman) to take part in a risky drug deal, earning a huge amount of cash.  After a bitter argument in which Pullman slaps Fiorentino, when he goes to shower, she takes the money and runs.  

Headed for Chicago, Fiorentino stops off in a small town in upstate New York, where her attorney advises her to lay-low while she runs a divorce through.  She picks up Peter Berg in a bar (who believes he's picking her up).  Berg has recently returned from Buffalo, where things didn't work out.  He's a bit bummed as he thought he was the guy who was going to get out of this one-horse town.  Now he's met someone from NYC who seems like his ticket out.

Fiorentino schemes.  A lot.  

PodCast 241: "Jade" (1995) a Neo-Noir-Thriller-of-Doom w/ Jamie and Ryan

Watched:  04/28/2023

Format:  Criterion Channel

Viewing: First

Decade:  1990's

Director:  William Friedkin

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Jamie and Ryan sleuth their way through a mid-90's erotic thriller and are trying to solve the mystery of what happened to both the thrills or eroticism promised. We piece together the clues and, much like the detective of this movie, just sort of aimlessly wander around trying to figure out why we're supposed to care.

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 241: "Jade" (1995) a Neo-Noir-Thriller-of-Doom w/ Jamie and Ryan

YouTube

Music:

Main Title - James Horner, Jade OST

End Title - James Horner, Jade OST 

PLAYLIST Of DOOM

The Signal Watch PodCast · Movies of Doom

PodCast 240: "Deep Blue Sea" (1999) - an Angry Animals podcast with Jamie, SimonUK y Ryan

Watched:  04/14/2027

Format:  HBO?

Viewing:  second

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Renny Harlin

For more ways to listen

SimonUK takes Jamie and Ryan to the darkest depths of late 90's sci-fi horror action so they can all take a bite out of a film that's a little fishy. Join us as we flap our jaws discussing sharks with engineering degrees, sea bases of dubious design, that old chestnut of imitating better films, and neat-o puppets.

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 240: "Deep Blue Sea" (199) - an Angry Animals podcast with Jamie, SimonUK y Ryan

YouTube

Music:

Main Title - Trevor Rabin, Deep Blue Sea OST

Deepest Bluest - LL Cool J

The Angry Animals Playlist

The Signal Watch PodCast · Angry Animals

90's Watch: Chungking Express (1994)

As Jamie and I discussed after the movie - the 90's were the wild west for cinema in the US.  Indie cinema and the *flavor* of that indie movement were a truly big deal.  It was also a rich era for a semi-mainstreaming of international cinema as the same theaters that carried those indie pics also brought in some European film and Hong Kong cinema.  I'm not saying no theaters do this anymore, but it was much more a part of your standard film scene at the time.

And if you didn't see it in theaters, you might still find the movies for rent - maybe not next to Robot Jox at Blockbuster, but in the go-go 90's Austin film rental scene, I could walk across the street from my dump of an apartment and get whatever I wanted at I Luv Video.  

But, as mentioned before, I just never picked up the films of Wong Kar-Wai.  I was too busy watching Chow Yun-Fat kick ass or whatever.  I was still a dude in my 20's.  Grant me peace.

Yeoh Watch: Heroic Trio (1993)

Watched:  03/20/2023

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Johnnie To

As far as I know, I hadn't watched Heroic Trio (1993) all the way through since some point in college.  I know I saw it in the theater with JAL during a student sponsored film series where we'd all go to the old Hogg theater in the middle of campus and ignore the bats flying around overhead and throwing little batty shadows onto the screen.  I recall watching part of it with The Admiral and Steanso on broadcast TV in about 1996.  And I'm pretty sure I saw it again on VHS at some point.  Jamie tells me we watched at least part or most of it in Phoenix, which I don't remember - but apparently happened.  

The film has been very hard to find in the US for years now.  Or I would have bought it on disc - DVD or Bluray.*  But now it's on Criterion Channel as part of the "Michelle Yeoh Kicks Ass" collection that spotlights her pre-US produced films as well as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which took her Bond-based running start and made her a full-fledged star in the West.

Heroic Trio is more or less a fantasy comic-book movie with some post-Burton vibes in set design, but nuttier and occasionally much grimmer than Marvel or even DC fare, featuring a story that would need tweaking to be remade in the states.  It's mostly vibes, and those vibes will change at the drop of a hat throughout the film as it can't decide if this is tragedy, comedy, horror film or what.  And a movie can contain all those things, but sometimes those movies also need to find a ramping up and down into the change of tone.  This movie is slapping down moods like playing cards.

Chiroptera Watch: Bats (1999)

Watched:  03/17/2023

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Louis Morneau

So, I like a good movie about people being attacked by animals.  This is that.  It will not surprise you that Bats (1999) is about bats.  Attacking people.  And the people who are quite cross that they are being attacked by bats.  

Mutant bats, but bats.

So, anyway, it's about pretty much nothing else.  There's no real sub-text.  It's just a movie about trying to stop bats from eating you and the medley of challenges that arise in the pursuit of stopping bats.  No intentional analogies, but it IS about bats with a weaponized virus that is accidentally released, and threatens to doom humanity if not contained and.... ehhhhh.....  that reads pretty weird here in 2023.  

It borrows heavily from Alien and Aliens from sound FX to character choices.  The bats are shown in close-up, they are terrific puppets, and I have no notes.  Love the bats.  Well done.  The movie never lets itself think it needs sub-plots, so expect no romance.  But I do think they must have decided to do some green-screened insert shots in a few dialog bits, because it really seems like the lighting is weird and the characters are shot in a weird single mid-shot dead center of the frame dropping jokes or whatever.  Maybe the first go-round was too grim for what it was?

This isn't a criticism, but Lou Diamond Phillips was featured less prominently than I'd figured or hoped for - he's in it, but he's featured supporting. Our star is Dina Meyer, who was having a moment in Hollywood, but they chose to straighten her magnificent curls, and I am against that decision.  

she's lovely here, but just sort of bleeds into the wall-paper of 1990's young female white-girl actors

just look at those spectacular locks

Anyway - I actually liked the movie!  It did what I hoped it would do.  It didn't weigh itself down with misguided moralizing, and it set up an internal logic and stuck to it.  Animals got the upper hand for a while and the puppets were neat.

There's probably more to say about Dina Meyer as a star, but we'll save that for another day.  And certainly LDP, who is always good.  And there's a dissertation worth of discussion about the mononymous Leon playing "Jimmy" and the role of African-American males in horror and horror-adjacent films, especially in the late 90's as audiences expected tropes to be addressed.

 

PodCast 232: "Cutthroat Island" (1995) - A Movie of Doom w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched:  02/05/2023

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Second

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Renny Harlin

For more ways to listen

Yarrr! Shiver me timbers! 'Tis the 1995 movie that made us voluntarily seek Davey Jones' locker. We walk the plank of 90's spectacle filmmaking to reconsider a movie that no one boarded, and it still sank to the ocean floor despite extravagant sets, seemingly real boats, giant cannons, a monkey and the always watchable Geena Davis. ...and yet...

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 232: "Cutthroat Island" (1995) - A Movie of Doom w/ SimonUK and Ryan

YouTube

Music:

Cutthroat Island Main Theme - John Debney 

MOVIES OF DOOM!

The Signal Watch PodCast · Movies of Doom

90's Watch: Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead (1991)

Watched:  02/09/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Stephen Herek

Sometimes a movie goes off the rails so fast and so hard, feels cynically produced on top of that, that it's hard not to just get mad, fold your arms and complain til the credits roll.  For the past 32 years, I'd successfully not seen Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991), which came out when I was 16 and was working through my Gen-X feelings of rejecting things I felt were marketed at me - but specifically at a very dumb version of me the people selling me stuff mostly took to be an idiot.

In 1991, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead was *heavily* sold at teen audiences with ads on MTV and elsewhere running seemingly non-stop.  Certainly I saw  trailers before other movies.  And you always knew:  if the movie looks like this, and they're advertising it this hard, it's because it sucks and they need to get people in before word spreads.  

There was a long tail of 1980's-style comedy into the 1990's, enough so that it probably deserves its own niche, but this movie feels like a 1987 release more than something that would hit at the same time as Home Alone. 

The pitch is this:  

PodCast 229: "The Addams Family" Comics, TV, Movies and More - Jamie and Ryan

Movies/ TV Watched:  

• Addams Family (1991) 01/16/2023
• Addams Family Values (1993)  01/17/2023
• Addams Family (animated - 2019) 01/19/2023
• Wednesday (2022)
• The Addams Family (original series, 1964-1966)

Format:

• Addams Family/ Values/ Wednesday - Netflix
• Addams Family (animated film)/ original series - YouTube

Viewing:

• Addams Family/ Values - Unknown
• Addams Family (animated) - First

Director:

• Addams Family/ Values/ Wednesday - Barry Sonenfeld
• Addams Family (animated film) - Greg Tiernan/ Conrad Vernon

For more ways to listen

Join us as we get creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, and all together ooky, as Jamie and Ryan talk Addams Family comic strips, television, movies and more! We ponder questions of family values, romance, and what makes an ever-evolving franchise work when it passes through so many hands as new generations get involved. And what IS movie perfection, and why is it only seen in the two Addams Family films?

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 229: "The Addams Family" Comics, TV, Movies and More - Jamie and Ryan

YouTube

Shakespeare!

Music:

The Addams Family Theme - Vic Mizzy

Addams Groove - Hammer

What is Love? Playlist

The Signal Watch PodCast · What Is Love? - Our Co-Contributors Talk Their Favorite Romance in Cinema!

90's Watch: Slacker (1990)

Watched:  01/15/2023

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Richard Linklater

I'm pretty sure I saw Slacker during a limited run in summer of 1990 in Houston.  Apparently wide release occurred in 1991, but I know I saw it in 1990.  So.  The film was part of the dawn of the indie film movement that would define film over the next decade.  In some minute ways, it also opened the door to Austin, TX as a cool, hep city - which is a designation which will eventually fuck up a city beyond all recognition, which is where we're at today with the Capitol City.

But in the summer of 1990, just moved from Austin to Spring, TX, somehow my brother and I talked our mom into driving us downtown Houston from our suburban enclave to see the movie.  To say "art film" is not my mom's bag is putting it mildly (it's more of a "what are you talking?" than an angry aversion), but she knew she'd see familiar sights as the movie was shot around the central core of Austin as it was then, and heard the movie was a comedy.  So.  We loaded into the GMC conversion van and made our way downtown.  I believe film-participant and former Butthole Surfers drummer Teresa Taylor (RIP) was in the audience with us, but could never be sure.

Doc Watch: Call Me Miss Cleo (2022)

except, literally everyone knew she was a fraud and the network a scam?

Watched:  12/28/2022

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:   

Celia Aniskovich, 

Jennifer Brea

I dunno.  

This doc is weirdly under-developed and under-researched for something that's getting a fairly well-promoted release on HBOmax.  If I was Perry White to this team's Lois Lane, I'd say "you have a lot of facts.  You haven't proven anything and there's no story.  Get back out there."  The doc feels like it's something handed in at a deadline, not something actually something complete, and the final bit that tries to give Miss Cleo absolution feels like the last great con a successful con-artist pulled from beyond the grave.

Maybe the spirits DO talk to us!

But you'll get more facts without any of the tediously dramatic build up out of the anemic Miss Cleo Wikipedia article.  Somehow the doc misses that she had a child?  

Muppet Watch: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Watched:  12/15/2022

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Brian Henson

First things first - to watch the full length version of the movie including the previously cut song, here's what you do:

When you find the movie on Disney+, go to the movie, and then look at the "Extras".  Select "Full Length".  

We didn't do this, we just clicked "watch movie".  When I was expecting the song to show up, it didn't. 

So, the game was afoot.  I went about figuring it out after the credits.  

The default version on Disney+ does not have the song "Love is Gone" - but it's right there!  If you click "Extras" associated with the film, and it provides the option for "full length".  Or just watch the song as a stand-alone video.  It's all there, you just have to click 2-3 more times to get to it.

Anyway - here's the podcast Stuart and I did for Christmas 2020.

PodCast 224: "Lois And Clark- S4E11" - a Superheroes Every Day Holiday Episode

Watched:  12/03/2022

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing: First

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Michael Vejar

For more ways to listen

Danny returns! To talk the 1996 Holiday installment of a Super-favorite. Join us as we get merry in both the 5th and 3rd dimension, talk all-things Superman, where this show fits in to the expansive history of The Man of Steel and how this episode works as a Superman story. So what happens when Howie Mandel arrives and wants to conquer the world? Our man picked the wrong holiday to try that one.

SoundCloud 

The Signal Watch PodCast · 224: "Lois And Clark- S4E11" - a Superheroes Every Day Holiday Episode

YouTube

Music:

Lois and Clark Main Title - Jay Gruska

Holidays 2022

The Signal Watch PodCast · Holidays 2022

PodCast 222: "Home Alone 1 & 2" (1990, 1992) - Holidays 2022 w/ SimonUK and Ryan

 

Watched:  11/05 and 11/12/2022

Format:  Disney+

Viewing: Second/ First

Decade:  1990's

Director:  Christopher Columbus

For more ways to listen

Simon and Ryan ponder two of the biggest money makers of the 1990's, a pair of movies that caught the world by surprise and took cartoon violence, family strife, abandonment, and hanging with old people and found their Christmas box office miracle. As the movies are now staples of the Holiday, we take a look to see what's under the tree. Will we get a sweet present or hit in the face with a @#$%ing bowling ball?