80's Art-Sploitation Film Watch: Ms.45 (1981)

Watched:  09/06/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Abel Ferrara

Criterion Channel currently has a collection of "Nunsploitation" movies, and of their 7 offerings or so, I'd already seen three in my life (Haxan, Benedetta, The Devils) and I'd been meaning to catch Ms. 45 (1981) since seeing something about it a few years ago.  So here we are.  

And, yes, if I can watch 70+ Lacey Chabert movies, I can watch the remaining Nunsploitation movies.

Director Abel Ferrara was kind of a big deal when I was in film school, coming off of The Bad Lieutenant (worth seeing once, at least) and following up with The Addiction, with the Body Snatchers remake in between.  Unfortunately, I kinda stopped tracking indie film a while ago and lost sight of him, but he's been out there making movies all along.  He was not afraid of what was too much for an audience, and seemed not just to push margins but lived there.  

So this early film is a pretty good indicator of what he was capable of.  

Superman 2027 Announced - "Man of Tomorrow"

Well. 

Seems James Gunn, director of this summer's fun-fest Superman,  has not just finished the script for the sequel, he's announced the release date of the next installment in the Superman saga over at DC Studios.

Coming July 9, 2027, we can expect The Man of Tomorrow.   

TL;DR - Pop Culture Fade-Out: What Happens When No One Remembers Lassie?

Liz is also easily distracted by squirrels

A while back I read the book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend by Susan Orlean (recommended).  The book is a biography/ history of how one American soldier on the front lines of World War I found a stray dog, and how that dog became, literally, the biggest movie star in the world.  

There's a possibly apocryphal story that at the first Academy Awards they had to re-do nominations and/ or voting because Rin Tin Tin, a skinny German Shepherd, came up as "Best Actor" (everyone kinda thought the awards were a bit absurd at the time).  But what is true is that dog was also one of the biggest box office draws in Hollywood for a few years there before the movies learned how to talk.

While the original Rin Tin Tin passed and was buried in France, various other dogs took on the name and role, and through the 1950's, Rin Tin Tin was still a major pop culture fixture - a sort of family-friendly action star, now re-imagined for television as living on the frontier and starring in his own cavalry-themed Western.

Now...  I'm not sure even my peers could tell you what breed Rin Tin Tin was with any certainty.

Noir Watch: Force of Evil (1948)

Watched:  09/01/2025

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  Third

Director:  Abraham Polonsky

So, what I remembered about this movie from my prior viewings:

• it's super dark
• it's a bit confusing/ complex
• John Garfield and Thomas Gomez are in it
• Marie Windsor is in it and clearly taller than Garfield and it impacts the blocking
• Windsor, as always, looked smashing

35th Anniversary Watch: Pump Up the Volume (1990)

Watched:  09/01/2025

Format:  Criterion Channel

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Allan Moyle

Well.  It turns out I'm old.  

Pump Up the Volume (1990) was released August 22nd, 1990.  I'd intended to watch it for the anniversary a week and a half ago, and forgot.  So here we are.

It's funny - I watched 1955's Rebel Without a Cause in 1989, which was *less time* between release and viewing than when I saw Pump Up the Volume opening day in the theater in August of 1990 and today.  

Time is a slippery mistress.

I will never get over the fact this movie is named "Pump Up the Volume" which was the name of the wildly popular dance tune from 1987.  And, of course, 1989 brought us Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam".  In this era, anything could be pumped up.  

A quick recap so you don't need to re-read my post from 2008 or listen to podcasts on the topic:

In 1990, my folks moved from North Austin to North Houston/ Spring/ Klein.  Within days of moving, I watched a movie about a similarly grumpy teen moved from, in his case, "the East Coast" to a Phoenix suburban analog.  The teen starts a pirate radio station where he performs crude and shocking bits - largely around masturbation - while also waxing philosophic about the state of the world, how the parents of Gen-X'ers (this is a movie about the last wave of Gen-X'ers) failed their own youth movement by "selling out", the world ain't what it should be/ used to be, and that conformity is bad.

If Gen-X sought anything, it was "authenticity", and when you live in the suburbs and can't drive, this means "I reject the notion that Bobby Brown is the best musician or our era, and girls should be allowed to have brown hair".  And this movie is about that.

But, also... if there is a movie that has caused a generation collective Space Jam Fallacy, it's Pump Up The Volume. 

Fish Watch: Jaws (1975)

Watched:  08/29/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Steve something

So, I already watched this movie once this summer, but The Drafthouse was showing Jaws (1975) in 4K with an intro by Spielberg in honor of the movie's 50th Anniversary, so Si and I went.  

I won't belabor discussing the movie itself, but the 4K presentation was fantastic on the big screen.  It's a true preservation job, not AI slop, somehow really sharpening the picture.  And, despite the fact I was well, well aware that the head of Ben Gardner was about to make an appearance, the music sting in the theater was so well placed, I *still* jumped.  

It's also still fun to watch a movie like that in a room with people who are seeing it for the first time.

Catch it in the theater!

Happy Birthday, King Kirby

Today marks the birth date of Jack Kirby, the mind and pencil that brought us many of our modern myths and legends.  

We're big Jack Kirby fans here at The Signal Watch, and wish to salute him.

Let's take a look at some of his "I'm Jack Kirby, dammit" art that started with the pop-art movement, moved into psychedelia, and just kept on going til he hung up his pencil.

JLC Watch: Freakier Friday (2025)

Watched:  08/27/2025

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nisha Ganatra

We all know I went to see this because it stars JLC, and that's fine.  I'd also finally recently watched the 2003 version of Freaky Friday for the first time, liked it much more than expected, and - now that I have the Alamo Pass, popping off to go watch a movie is not such an ordeal.  In fact, I feel pretty incentivized to use the heck out of the pass.

I am not sure if I hadn't seen the 2003 movie, though, if I wouldn't have missed a lot or even been lost.  So, watch that first.  

Here in 2025, I think we finally kind of figured out how to do these late-entry sequels no one was asking for and make it worth it.  As evidence, I'll enter in Freakier Friday (2025) which manages to expand on the set-up of the general Freaky Friday concept, do new things with it, be very funny, and feel like it has some emotional resonance at the end that I'm not sure any of the prior entries, or most body swap movies in general, tend to earn.  

Doc Watch: The Yogurt Shop Murders (2025)

In addition to being very TL;DR, this post was difficult to write as this documentary covers horrific, very real deaths, and the aftermath, which - decades on - has no closure.  There is a lot of human pain involved, a lack of justice and no easy answers.  

In 1991, four girls were killed in the back of a yogurt shop in North Austin. Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, Jennifer Harbison and Sarah Harbison.  The store was then burned.

I don't have any particular insight into the events other than knowing North Austin in the 80's and 90's.  And my own opinions regarding several elements is probably bubbling over in the post.  

Like all cities, Austin is home to some notable crimes.  

In the 1880's, we were home to a serial killer known as The Servant Girl Annihilator.  I grew up and attended college in the shadow of the University of Texas Tower, from which Charles Whitman killed 15 people and injured 30 more.  

My sophomore year of high school I was living in North Houston/ Spring.  However, as a kid I spent six years living in Austin, from 1984 to 1990.  Formative years - 4th through 9th grade.

I retained friendships despite the move, and one evening - more than a year after I'd moved away - a friend called.  Without much prior chit-chat, she dove in and started telling me about four girls murdered in the Northcross area, a street of strip malls and a one-story shopping mall.  I had never been in that yogurt store, but I knew the area, certainly. 

Not to be too callous - but the murder rate of Austin was and is a fraction of what Houston sees any year., so at first I wasn't paying much attention.  But she began describing what occurred, and she wasn't sensationalizing anything.   The facts were enough, and required no dramatic flair.  I didn't know if she was scared or sad or both.  Or something else.  But she was affected.  And, of course, she was a teenage girl who worked in a shop, sometimes by herself.

And that's how I found out that four girls around my age had been murdered in the back of a yogurt shop in Austin.  

Maintenance Post: Work, Sports, Comics and TV

Let Emmylou be my co-pilot

Hey all.  

The pic above is just the new pooch, Emmylou.  No news there.  I just like my dog, and y'all won't click if there's no picture.

It's not a secret that this here blog is used for many things, but that I've moved more personal stuff back to League of Melbotis.  Should you wonder - nothing in particular personal is keeping me from blogging - it's just that this site is mostly movies, and I haven't watched many movies of late.  

Why?

Well - I have a fairly recent new job and this last week was a crunch week.  It wasn't miserable - I kind of liked it, honestly.  But I also was tired and not in the mood for movies, exactly, at the end of each day.  And my days were starting at 7:30 this week and ending around 9:30 PM.  With large breaks for dinner, but nonetheless, stopping for a 2-hour movie wasn't really in the cards.

Comics

I've been reading comics again at a greater pace.  This summer was DC's Summer of Superman which saw a lot of Superman material put out in celebration of the movie and to monetize casual fan interest.  But we're also completionists, so this summer has not been awesome on my wallet.  

Action Comics and Superman were already pretty good titles of late, but I feel like the titles are in a wave where now is a very good time to be reading Superman comics.  We also have a new Supergirl title that is *very* promising, the confusing Power Girl title is disappearing (I have a few issues, and... no thanks), and we're getting everything from original graphic novels to Treasury Editions (love those) to mini series and one-shots out right now.  Include a Krypto The Superdog mini.  

Sports

This summer I've also been watching a lot of Cubs baseball and WNBA, as mentioned over at the other blog.  Cubs are gonna Cub, and after a remarkable first half of the season, we're now struggling, and will never catch the Brewers for the NLC title at this point (f'ing Brewers, man).  

And the WNBA has been a trip to watch.  There aren't that many teams, so I've been keeping up with a few, which means I've watched all the teams at least twice.  Dallas has a player as good as Caitlin Clark. Paige Buckner, but it will take a while to build a team around her.  Caitlin Clark has been injured all season - and I doubt she'll play again in 2025 - but the Indiana Fever have brought in reinforcements who have made them play-off eligible.  But those players, too, have been victims of injury.  Similarly, the Golden State Valkyries have been plagued with injury, taking out stars Kayla Thornton and Monique Billings.  It's a rough season.  

Oddly, I've kind of fallen into the New York Liberty camp.  Did not see that coming, but here we are.  I kind think they're the most fun to watch, as Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones rule, Natasha Cloud makes it seem effortless while absolutely delivering, and when she's healthy, Breanna Stewart is dynamite.  But YMMV. 

I have a few beefs with the WNBA as a league, from player exhaustion, to how flopping has made playing inside almost impossible, to horrendous reffing across the board (which has led to the flopping to no small degree), but overall - it's good basketball.  And rather than pick a team, I've more or less just found favorites on several teams, and watch *a lot*.  Up to 5 or 6 games per week.

We'll see what happens in the playoffs, but it's hard not to the Lynx are just going to crush everyone.

Television

We've watched all of Derry Girls, and the latest season of The Bear.  We started King of the Hill and Poker Face,  and I'm watching The Yogurt Shop Murders doc series on HBO, and Alien: Earth on Hulu.  I'll do posts on those last two.  

This week, I think Jamie has agreed to some JLC watching and I may go see Freakier Friday.