HK Noir Watch: Hard Boiled (1992)

Watched:  11/08/2025

Format:  Criterion Channel

Viewing:  Unknown.  Probably fourth or fifth.

Director:  John Woo

Back in the early 1990's, JAL and others and I would head over to Hogg Auditorium on the campus of the University of Texas on the weekend.   One of the campus clubs would bring in prints of Hong Kong cinema action movies and, sometimes sober, sometimes not, we'd sit in the then 60-year-old auditorium with whomever else had the few bucks needed to get in.  

And, bats.  Austin is full of bats, and the Mexican Free-tailed Bats would flit about above us in the dark, occasionally throwing shadows in the screen.  

Anyway, that was my intro to all kinds of movies, and where I developed a huge crush on Michelle Yeoh during Police Story 3:  Super Cop, and then had it reinforced with Heroic Trio (and of course no one ever saw Michelle Yeoh again).

I considered myself a fan of action films, but, holy shit, I had never seen anything like Hard Boiled (1992) before that first screening.  It had elements of what I was used to from American-produced action films with a dash of what I was used to from what I'd learn to call Neo-Noir.  Chow-Yun Fat was so clearly a leading man, and Tony Leung an ideal up-and-comer.  But it would be decades before I'd get around to watching him in In the Mood For Love, probably his greatest success in the west until Shang-Chi.  

As a story, Hard Boiled has enough twists to keep you going, and not all of them add up.  It's also largely a backdrop for the kick-ass action that John Woo would deliver that would fundamentally change action cinema world wide.  As JAL pointed out, you don't get to John Wick without Hard Boiled.  And, it has the mix of action and bits of oddball comedy that would come to punctuate American action film (and confuse a generation that is very cross that moods can sometimes mix in a movie).  

In general, I feel like this is a movie that film fans should see at least once.  You may not even like it, but if you understand the flow of time and how influence works in cinema, this is one of *those* films.  Just be ready for more cartoonish violence than you ever thought could fit into a single minute of film occurring for at least 1/3rd of the movie's runtime.

80's Watch: Romancing the Stone (1984)

Watched:  11/07/2025

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Robert Zemeckis

I have no idea how this movie would read to The Youths.  Fine, I expect, minus some of the jokes that would fly over their heads (ie: "The Doobie Brothers broke up?").  

Mostly it makes me miss Kathleen Turner in movies (yes, I know she's still very active... we just don't cross paths anymore).  And, man, she showed up fully formed as a movie star.  Her Joan Wilder (this is her third film and fourth screen credit) is a really pretty fun character even if they have to work overtime to make you think she's "blossoming" during the course of the film.

Maybe the action-packed climax goes on too long (I've felt this since I saw the movie as a kid) but it's otherwise a lean, tight movie with lots of solid stuff.  

But also, rewatching is a reminder of how 1980's the 1980's truly were.  Romancing the Stone is an astounding cultural artifact in that respect.  From turning Danny DeVito into a movie star (he was a huge hit from this, which is kind of odd when you see how little he's actually in this movie) to the Alan Silvestri soundtrack.  Michael Douglas exudes weird 1980's male energy that lacks any self-awareness.    And our odd relationship with South American countries in the 1980's as the drug trade was in high gear and the CIA was mucking about installing governments.  

Unfortunately, they rushed the follow up and made one of the single worst sequels I remember from the era, killing the golden goose.

Marvel Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  11/07/2025

Format:  Disney+ 

Viewing:  Third

Director:  Matt Shakman

So it was the day after my surgery and I was taking pills that make it so I can't remember proper nouns, which is weird.  Sure, I can remember the dog's name, but if you're like "name the people on Mythbusters" I'm hitting like 3 and 1/2 of them accurately.

But my dad came over to keep an eye on me/ keep me entertained, and I made him watch Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025).  Which, he concluded with "14 year old me liked it a lot", which is I think a great take from a guy pushing 80.     

Anyway, I think we were in agreement that this movie is pretty wild and fun.  

Neo-Noir Waddingham Watch: The Woman in Cabin 10 (2025)

Watched:  11/07/2025

Format:  Netflix

Viewing:  First

Director:  Simon Stone

It's Noirvember, so I need to keep fitting in noir, neo or otherwise.  I also had foot surgery yesterday, so I am couch-bound and taking drugs.  So maybe all of my choices are not great in the moment.  I vaguely remember putting on like 4 Hallmark movies yesterday as I rode out a hydrocodone adventure.

Anyhoo...  I was pretty excited back when I heard Hannah Waddingham was going to be in an ensemble locked-room-murder-mystery.  She seems kind of perfect for being a little extra in a Murder on the Orient Express sort of movie.  And I like Keira Knightley well enough.  And I've been pulling for Guy Pearce since Memento.  

I was even planning to make time for this movie the weekend it dropped on Netflix.  And then the reviews hit.  Not great.   

And having had watched this movie, I am not surprised by this.

First:  all the acting is fine to good.  You cannot blame Ms. Knightley, Mr. Pearce or Hannah Waddingham (especially not Ms. Waddingham).  

The directing is... fine?  The script is awful.  The cinematography is beyond dreadful.  Who even knows about the editing...

But the movie feels like it has no idea why people find these movies interesting.  

Hallmark Watch: A Big Fat Family Christmas (2022)

Watched:  11/05/2025

Format:  Hallmark

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jennifer Liao

So, we were busy and we had stuff going on as I was having some foot surgery on the 6th, so we kind of randomly put this movie on.

There are two very exciting things about this movie, and one is that it co-stars Tia Carrerre as the "mom" if you want to feel your age, Gen-X'ers.  And she is desperately trying to underdress so she is not obviously Tia Carrerre.

The second is that I was 4/5ths of the way through the movie and the dad character made a particular face and I ran to IMDB.  And, yes, the guy playing the dad is Yee Jee Tso, who I suddenly recognized as someone from the 1990's Nickelodeon show Fifteen.  Not even a main character.  Just a guy.  Which means this guy is exactly my age and somehow wound up 30 years later playing the husband to Tia Carrerre.  Well done, my dude.

Wonder Woman First Aired 50 Years Ago Today

Back in the day, network TV would air pilots for TV shows if they felt they might be a costly gamble, and then the show would or wouldn't get picked up based on the success of that pilot, often released as a TV movie.  

On November 7th, 1975, ABC aired The New Original Wonder Woman aired and got solid ratings.  

If you've never seen the show or it's been a while, this version of Wonder Woman was set during World War II, using the original origins from the comics, which was adapted to World War I for the film.  Steve Trevor crashes his plane onto the mysterious island, populated entirely by ageless, brilliant, warrior women.  Diana, Queen Hippolyta's daughter and the only child of Paradise Island, wins a contest to return Steve to Man's World, which the Amazons abandoned millenia ago.

The pilot includes the entire bullets and bracelets bit, which assumes that somehow Amazons have guns and bullets in the comic.  I don't recall if they use Steve's gun in the pilot.  But the basic idea sets up that Diana can use her fancy metal cuffs to deflect bullets.

Hippolyta is Cloris Leachman here, and the tone is camp.  Folks like Ken Mars appear.  We're less than a decade since Adam West's Batman, and superheroes have become synonymous with comedy in the public's mind, and will remain there until Michael Keaton swoops in.  For many-a-kid, opening a comic book in the 1980's felt like entering a secret land where these stories were actually taken seriously, and superheroes were, of all things, cool.

I have vague memories of Lynda Carter and Wonder Woman from when I was a kid.  Part of that was that the kid I played with when the show was still in first-run episodes always wanted to play superheroes, and always wanted to be Wonder Woman.  And, yeah, he was a little boy in 1970's suburban Michigan.  But can you blame him?  

Boots?  Check.  Flashy suit?  Check.  Wisdom of Athena?  Check.  Invisible plane?  Check.  Tossing bad guys around like a minor inconvenience?  Double check.  Plus: twirling and a magic lasso.

Later, I caught episodes in syndication, but not often.  Then, in college, The SciFi Channel (eventually SyFy) ran the show during the day, and if I was home, I'd watch. 

I got into Wonder Woman comics around 2000, and still read and collect them.  A huge part of that was that Phil Jimenez, who wrote and drew the run that got me on board, understood what was appealing about the character beyond cheesecake and warrior-woman stuff.  And I know that came via the show.  Wonder Woman was not just to be ogled, she was smart, she was determined, she was literally fighting for truth and justice. And those were things that Lynda Carter brought to the screen.

Which I know, because eventually I picked up the three seasons of the show on DVD, and watched episodes, but all out of order.  But it wasn't until maybe 2010 that I finally sat down and just blitzed through the whole series.  And I had a blast doing it.  

Yes, the show starts on ABC and for a season takes place during WWII.  But then the show moved to CBS for its next two seasons and was set in contemporary times - and this is probably the version you remember.  

Full stop, I think that Wonder Woman is a straight up good show.  It made me really miss when you could watch one-off episodes of something, and while there's a bit of mythology/ lore/ what-have-you, you're resetting every week and it's just about that week's adventure.  

Lynda Carter is so solid in this show, it's unreal.  I've not seen her in too many other movies or shows, but she's effortlessly charismatic, beautiful and buyable as the lead.  And she's like in her mid-20's carrying this show.  Clearly born to play the role, so much so that despite Gal Gadot appearing several times as Wonder Woman, I still default to Carter in red boots for my mental image of Diana.

The only other real supporting cast is Lyle Waggoner who plays Steve Trevor, and had the show gone on to a fourth season it seems he was being written off.  Behind the scenes it seems he and Lynda Carter weren't getting along, and by the end of the third season he would appear in whole episodes where he spoke to her on the phone.

In general, I do prefer the 1970's-set episodes when they took the show more seriously, but YMMV.  It's still pretty silly and self-aware, but isn't leaning into wisecracks and forcing the comedy and works better for an hour-long program.  And they had a wider variety of things to take on in the 1970s.

Anyhoo... here's to Wonder Woman, in her satin tight fighting for our rights and the old red, white and blue.

Noirvember Watch: Deadline at Dawn (1946)

Watched:  11/04/2025

Format:  Criterion Channel

Viewing:  First

Director:  Harold Clurman

I know a tiny smidge about the Group Theatre in New York in the pre-WWII era, and have made a few connections over the years.  And so it was that I saw Clifford Odets' name come up during the opening credits as the screenwriter, and I got a rough idea of the film that was about to unspool.  Odets was an actor who participated in the Group Theatre movement before finding his footing as a writer - in fact, the writer upon whom the Coen Bros. based the titular character in Barton Fink.

So while Criterion included this movie in with "Blackout Noir", as in "people who lost time and are trying to recover what happened", my attention shifted to the usual social issues and naturalism that I expected to populate the film.  Curiously, the film is also directed by Harold Clurman, one of the Group Theatre directors - in his sole film directing credit.  Methinks it did not go well.

The major spoiler I'll drop here at the beginning is that this movie seems like a wandering mess until the finale slam dunks everything you've seen before, tying together themes, plot elements and character motivation that has seemed... wandering at best.  Honestly, tip of the hat to that end, which is how I'll remember the film.  

Actor Diane Ladd Merges With The Infinite

I first came across Diane Ladd - at least saying "I know that actress is named Diane Ladd" - when I rented Wild at Heart in high school.  And that is one hell of an introduction to any actor.

Over the years, of course she's shown up in all sorts of things I've seen.  World's Fastest Indian, figuring out she's in Christmas Vacation, Something Wicked This Way Comes, etc...  She also is the mother of Laura Dern, with whom she appeared in several movies in addition to Wild at Heart.  

Here's to remembering Ms. Ladd and sharing condolences with her family.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney Merges With The Infinite

Huh.  Dick Cheney died.

Noirvember Watch: Winchester '73 (1950)

Watched:  11/03/2025

Format:  Criterion Disc

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Anthony Mann

I don't think I've seen Winchester '73 (1950) since Jamie and I rented it circa 1998 when a Hollywood Video opened near us, and unlike Blockbuster, Hollywood prided itself on having a section for older films.  And the nice thing about that was that they had limited shelf-space, so if they had it in, the movie was pretty solid.  

The movie often gets mentioned in the discussion around "Western Noir", and seeing it now, I can absolutely see why.  It doesn't hurt that director Anthony Mann rewrote the film to better suit his interests, and his prior films included noir classics like Side Street, Border Incident, T-Men and plenty of others.  At any rate, Mann was familiar with putting a lead through the ringer and understanding that they can have an irrational obsession and still be a compelling protagonist.  

In this case, all we know is that Jimmy Stewart is playing Lin McAdam, who comes to Dodge City looking for Dutch Henry Brown, and it's a vendetta.  In Dodge City, he and his partner (Millar Mitchell) have to hand in their guns just as they come across Brown, also without a gun.  A lengthy shooting competition for a prized Winchester '73 rifle takes place with McAdam winning, but Brown steals the gun and makes off.

Soon, the gun is changing hands from Brown to an Indian Trader to a chief on a warpath, to a cowardly would-be criminal.  It's great stuff.  And along the way, we see early appearances of Rock Hudon as a war chief and Tony Curtis as a young cavalry soldier.  

Stewart's obsession will be reflected in 6 years in Johns Wayne and Ford's The Searchers, but here it feels like pure noir.  Millar Mitchell's sidekick is there to comment upon said obsession as well as keep our hero on the straight and narrow.  And even the ending, where our hero has accomplished his task (spoiler) sure feels like noir with Stewart looking haunted and having to realize even as he holds the female lead (Shelley Winters), he has no idea what to do now, or if the murder of his brother did anything at all to soothe the rage.

Yes, the movie co-stars Shelley Winters, and this may be the movie where she's totally fine.  At no time did I want to shoot her out of a cannon.  Dan Duryea shows up to add to the noir flavor and play Dan Duryea, even letting his hair flop in a scene.  God, he's an amazing asshole on screen.  It's amazing.*  Charles Drake plays "Steve", the world's greatest coward.  Character actors John McIntire and Jay C. Flippen are used exceedingly well.  

It's also shot (in monochrome) in the Tucson area, and makes excellent use of the western landscape.  Gorgeous stuff.  

I guess this movie was a sort of career-saver for Stewart, and allowed him to start playing more complicated roles.  I need to check out his re-teaming with Anthony Mann on The Naked Spur.  But I certainly think of Stewart as a guy who can and did do everything in his work, from Vertigo to Harvey.  I mean, come on.  

Anyway - I kind of loved it.  On the disc there's actualy a commentary track with James Stewart and I want to give it a listen ASAP.  

*I would pay $400 to watch a movie that was just 1950 Duryea and 1950 Richard Widmark insulting each other