Friday, May 5, 2023

Wrong Franchise Watch: The Fast and the Furious (1954)




Well, I finally watched a Fast and the Furious movie, but I watched the one from before F&F was cool, and absolutely not about fambily.

This movie is a Corman-produced thing about the working-est actor in Hollywood who you recognize but don't know his name (John Ireland) as a crook on the run who hijacks a very cool car that is owned and operated by the-always-a-good-idea Dorothy Malone.  He's trying to get across the border to Mexico, and a race that takes people across the border is his ticket out.

For a 1950's Corman movie, it holds together really well and when it is talky, it's all right, because Malone and Ireland are legit actors.  And Ireland was one of the directors, which is interesting (to me).  Only one of two directorial efforts.

Anyway, I watched this three months ago and forgot to mention it, so here we are.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

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




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 


YouTube


Music:
Main Title - James Horner, Jade OST
End Title - James Horner, Jade OST 


PLAYLIST Of DOOM


Monday, May 1, 2023

Norse Watch: The Northman (2022)




Watched:  04/30/2023
Format:  Amazon Prime
Viewing:  First
Director:  Robert Eggers

Well.

So, I just finished listening to the audiobook of the translated Völsunga Saga, and then some pals asked if I'd yet seen The Northman (2022), and while those events were unrelated, they did dovetail.  I hadn't quite gotten to the movie despite liking the prior Eggers film I had seen and a general interest in the content.  I was aware of middling opinions of folks on the street (it's got a 64% audience reaction on RT) - with some folks also camping out in the deep like and dislike camps.  But it was a bit of a critical darling.  So, it seemed it was probably doing *something* of interest, even if it wasn't for me.

The movie does it's best to recreate a world that seems almost impossible in its brutality and viciousness, that believes in fates, and the best fate is to die (valiantly) in battle and be swept off to Valhalla by a Valkyrie.  It's a culture that sees sacking and pillaging as a vocation, and vengeance as a noble right.  And everyone is kind of aware that being a king also means being a target.  Kind of hard to believe these same people a few hundred years later would be living in countries now deemed to be some of the chillest places you can go.

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Watch Party Watch: Reform School Girls (1986)

I'm sure this movie had a poster, but mostly existed as a worn out VHS



Watched:  04/28/2023
Format:  Amazon Watch Party
Viewing:  Unknown
Director:  Tom DeSimone

So, first:  Apologies.  It's probably best that I actually remember the movies we're going to watch more than a few key scenes.  This movie turned out to be a bit much more than I recalled it being, and I find it insane I was watching this on cable when I was like, 13.  

Ah, the 1980's.

I was a bit surprised that no one had seen this, and many never heard of it.  It's a cult-classic of the 1980's, and a lot of what made it so has faded in the ensuing 37 years.

This is a movie that, as Jenifer put it, covers all the tropes of the "women in prison movie" and then cranks up the exploitation (this is New World Pictures, one of the Roger Corman brands).  So, it's assuming an audience that has grown up on slew of "women in prison" pictures that started showing up post WWII as earnest socially conscious filmmaking paired with, you know, ladies kicking each other, which was a novelty.  Plus a host of other sketchy activities, some explicit, many implied.  

1983's Chained Heat - which stars Sybil Danning but as a prisoner -  is a pretty good indicator of what was going on at this point. It has legit actors (Henry Silva, John Vernon) but is clearly an exploitation picture.  Mostly I remember 1980's-me wandering the aisles of the video store and being acutely aware there was more than one movie about women in jail, and some vague promise of sexiness.  But since my Mom was paying, I was not asking to see these films.

Reform School Girls is loosely based on the 1957 film Reform School Girl, which I have not seen.  But also familiar if you've seen other pictures. It's mostly been forgotten, but 1980's hip young adults were very into reflecting back the absurdities of the 1950's American monoculture.  If you go back and watch other 1980's movies, usually lower budget stuff, but you can see the Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, etc...  But also much as folks like myself born in the 70's grew up with 4 or 5 channels, most of which was reruns of stuff from decades prior.  So, yeah, I imagine replays of those old movies were part of all that.*

The movie itself follows a teen girl who gets in trouble with the law, which lands her in court and on to "reform school" (but good luck pointing out when anyone is in class in this movie).  The movie hits all the notes of prison and women in prison films, starting with the "you don't know what you're in for" messaging to the lead and therefore us.  And then cue the humiliations of entering prison, paired with the exploitation of a 1980's Corman flick.  And that's when I realized "oh yeah.  This is probably full of nudity", which is an awkward moment with a chat full of people.  

The movie's stars are Sybil Danning (who many dudes of a certain age has a passing knowledge), Pat Ast (whom you should Google), and Wendy O. Williams of The Plasmatics, who is 37 and playing... 45?  and 17?  I dunno, but I've thought she was great since I was 13 or 14.  And then actually stars a supposedly 16 year old Linda Carol (I am suspicious of her listed birth year) as our POV character hero.

I *do* think the movie is funnier than was taken by the group.  Everything is at 11.  It's all absurd, including the atrocities of the film, and that's kind of the point.  But maybe that's just not where we're at these days.  We kind of are more aware of actual exploitation in a way the 1980's was not.  But the movie could have leaned into the absurdity more and had fun with it instead of saying "no, the joke is how woefully dark this is going to get, and we're going to refuse to take it seriously".  

All in all, I wish I'd revisited it solo, but here we are.  



*it's funny.  Growing up in Austin, we really didn't have much in the way of TV on local channels after 10:30 PM except SNL.  I read  lot of references to latenight movies playing on local TV, but by the late 1980's, I was watching Reform School Girls on cable, not the movies that inspired it.  I don't remember what would have been playing on our UHF channel, if, in fact, they hadn't signed off.  I suspect the larger cities of the 1970s had more of this, but we just didn't.  





Friday, April 28, 2023

Friday Watch Party: Reform School Girls




It's time.  

Day:  Friday - 04/28/2023
Time:  8:30 Central, 6:30 Pacific
Runtime:  1 hour 34 minutes
Cost:  $4

(link live ten minutes before show)


Thursday, April 27, 2023

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




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 


YouTube


Music:
Main Title - Trevor Rabin, Deep Blue Sea OST
Deepest Bluest - LL Cool J


The Angry Animals Playlist

Jerry Springer Merges With The Infinite




Not many talk-show hosts get a movie playing themselves doing their own talk show.  Not many talk-show hosts inspire operas.  Not many talk-show hosts wind up doing a talk-show after a major political scandal involving paying a hooker with a signed check and then *still* winding up as mayor of a major US city for a stint.

Jerry Springer was probably not a good man, but in 2011, I did meet him in the sportsbook at the Planet Hollywood hotel in Las Vegas where he was very nice to me and posed for drunken blurry pictures that have since been lost to bad asset management on the interwebs.  He was there hosting the Vegas nightly show of America's Got Talent.  He smoked a giant cigar and looked bored.

Like many talk-shows, Springer started off trying to do reasonable interviews that went in-depth on important issues, but when cancellation seemed imminent, he and his producers transformed his show into the chair-hurling, fist-tossing, hair-pulling bonanza it was.  Which made Springer rich, ultimately ran for roughly 25 years and spun off a few other shows, including a behind-the-scenes that made no one look good.  But when your set is designed to look like a sewer with a stripper pole, I guess no one cares?

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Harry Belafonte Has Merged With The Infinite


Actor, singer, activist and icon Harry Belafonte has passed at the age of 96.

Belafonte appeared in innumerable films, on television and was a popular recording artist.  Because I grew up in the shadow of his peak era as a performer, I knew him as a curious mix of "the guy who sang the Banana Boat song" and who would appear on television to weigh in on important topical issues - and be taken seriously.  Which is not something then or now that I or the culture give many celebrities leeway.  But as a player in the civil rights movement, Belafonte carried the torch forward for his entire life.

It was in college I came to understand his role as a Black man in film, and his broad appeal as a performer that helped him speak to everyone.  Of course, my first exposure to Belafonte was probably his appearance on The Muppet Show, which is a curiously moving episode.  

Here's to Mr. Belafonte, who fought the good fight.  









Sunday, April 23, 2023

Watch Party Watch: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)





Watched:  04/21/2023
Format:  Amazon Watch Party
Viewing:  Unknown
Director:  Sidney J Furie

I won't get into why we did this, but we did do it as a watch party, and I think folks enjoyed the experience if not the film. 

But here at The Signal Watch we also recently podcasted the film, so if you didn't listen to the episode then (and it's pretty good, if I say so myself), now is a great opportunity to hear three dudes who know a lot about Superman stuff talk about the movie.  

SoundCloud

YouTube

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Friday Watch Party: Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

cool job, but you left two behind, Clark



Earlier this week we saw the 85th anniversary of the first appearance of Superman and Lois Lane in print in the famed Action Comics #1.  It's a great comic, and Superman has had many great stories to tell over the years.

This is probably not one of them.

Starting from a promising set-up, the movie is plagued with budgetary issues that impact everything along the way.  It has its highlights, but...  yeah.

Join us as we leap a good decision in a single bound, and behold:  Superman's apartment and its curious decor!  Lenny Luthor!  Lex's goofy scheme to infinite wealth!  A literal Chippendale's dancer as our super-powered meanie/ horn-dog!  

It's the movie that killed a franchise and set Superman back 20 years at the cinema!

Day:  Friday 04/21/2023
Time:  8:30 Central/ 6:30 Pacific
Cost:  $3
Runtime:  90 minutes

(link live ten minutes before showtime)