February 10 - 16, 2024

 

To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.

Brain Teasers:

Which Italian actor and stunt man doubled Tony Anthony in BLINDMAN?

It was Alberto Dell'Acqua.

Which Italian director did Dino De Laurentiis blame for his estrangement with his wife Silvana Mangano?

No one has answered this question yet.

By what name is Chip Corman better known?

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it is Andrea Giordana.

Which star of Italian Westerns created "Death Cigarettes"?

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem knew that it was Charles Southwood.

Which Italian Western was filmed in Croatia?

George Grimes knew that it was MASSACRO AL GRANDE CANYON, aka MASSACRE AT GRAND CANYON, aka GRAND CANYON MASSACRE, aka MASSACRE AT CANYON GRANDE.

And now for some new brain teasers:

During the making of what film was Steve Reeves informed that he had an ulcer?

In how many films did Steve Reeves fight Nello Pazzafini?

How many films did Nello Pazzafini make with Giuliano Gemma?

Name the movies from which these images came.

George Grimes and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Luciana Paluzzi in IL PISTOLERO DELL'AVE MARIA, aka GUNMAN OF AVE MARIA, aka THE FORGOTTEN PISTOLERO.

Above is a new photo.

Can you identify from what movie it came?

No one correctly identified the above frame grab.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Bertrand van Wonterghem, Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Joe Spinell, David Hasselhoff, Marjoe Gortner and Caroline Munro in STARCRASH.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes, Angel Rivera and Bertrand van Wonterghem identified last week's frame grab of Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao in WHEELS ON MEALS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

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I am interested in knowing what movies you have watched and what you enjoyed or not. So please send me an email at scinema@earthlink.net if you'd like to share. Here's what I watched last week:

Enjoyed:

PLUS ONE (2019) - Former college buddies Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid (the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan) are both single - she's getting over a painful breakup - and find themselves being invited to a lot of weddings for relatives and friends. Rather than being obviously alone, the two decide to go to all of these nuptuals as each other's "plus one". Of course, they end up falling in love, but the script, credited to directors Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer, is fresh and funny enough that it justifies the romantic comedy tropes. Erskine and Quaid play off each other quite naturally and the chemistry is compelling. Also in the cast are Ed Begley Jr. and Rosalind Chao.

Mildly enjoyed:

THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN (1973) - Swedish news reporter Per Wahloo decided to write a series of ten novels with his wife Maj Sjowall using the character of Police Superintendent Martin Beck as a vehicle to chart the changes in their society. THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN was the fourth of the series, and the only one to be adapted into an Hollywood movie. Casting Walter Matthau as the main character, the filmmakers make it  obvious that the title is ironical as Matthau never cracks a smile in the film. However, the meaning of the title in the novel is explained by something that is completely absent from the movie. In the novel, our hero's daughter notices her father's dourness and gifts him a copy of the 1922 British song "The Laughing Policeman". He doesn't find it funny, but finally laughs after he solves the case. Produced and directed by Stuart Rosenberg, from a screenplay credited to Thomas Rickman, the American movie version uses some of the elements of the novel to help create a portrait of San Francisco in the early 1970s. The changes in American society, the empowerment of Blacks and homosexuals as well as a growing drug culture are shown, particularly when Matthau is partnered with Bruce Dern, who refers to the villain as a "fruiter". From the number of times voice over dialog is used, it would seem that this film required film editor Bob Wyman to do some creative cutting to explain what's going on. Still, Rosenberg's approach to make this film realistic puts it in the same league as BULLIT and THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Rounding out the cast is Louis Gossett Jr., Anthony Zerbe, Albert Paulsen, Cathy Lee Crosby, Joanna Cassidy, Clifton James, Gregory Sierra and Matt Clark.

Nova "Mystery of Easter Island" (2012) - This program shows that the feature film RAPA NUI got just about everything wrong.

PLUGHEAD REWIRED: CIRCUITRY MAN II (1994) - While a student at UCLA, Steven Lovy, with his brother Robert, made a film which led to IRS Media financing a low-budget feature film called CIRCUITRY MAN. That film did well enough on home video for a sequel to be made, with Steven Lovy sharing a film by credit with his brother as the Lovy Brothers.It has been over 30 years since I watched CIRCUITRY MAN, and I didn't like it all that much - except for finding Dana Wheeler-Nicholson attractive. So it took awhile for me to get around to watching the sequel. Nostalgia may be a real factor in my enjoying PLUGHEAD REWIRED. The primative computer gernerated animation now seems charming and I really enjoy seeing Dennis Christopher again. It is hard to remember but back in 1979 when Christopher was seen in CALIFORNIA DREAMING and BREAKING AWAY, he looked to be destined for stardom. But, with 1980's FADE TO BLACK, he seemed deliberately to choose projects that screamed for cult status, but ended up falling into obscurity - such as 1990's CIRCUITRY MAN. In 1996, his career seemed revived by a reoccurring role on TV's Profiler playing a serial killer for 45 episodes. Profiler also gave a reoccurring role to Traci Lords for 19 episodes playing Christopher's partner. Christopher and Lords first worked together on REWIRED, in which he calls her his "angel". I wonder if this is from where the makers of Profiler got the idea of teaming them up again. Jim Metzler, Vernon Wells and Christopher return in their same roles for REWIRED. Wells was not killed in the first film, but is revived when Scientist Lords tries to "jack into" his mind to retrive some top secrets hidden there. Wells seduces Lords to do his bidding by promising to provide the infertile scientist with a child. Meanwhile Christopher is a prisoner planting trees in the desert of Brazilamerica, plotting to escape with rock loving Nicholas Worth to find Wells' secret hideout where the villain has created brain chips that will extend a person's life by ten years. Meanwhile, F.B.I. agent Deborah Shelton gets synthetic lover Metzler out of an asylum to force him to help rescue Lords from Wells. Paul Wilson and Andy Goldberg are two cops charged with finding Wells using a Supercar provided to them by Transportation Officer Judy Tenuta (without her trademark accordion). Wilson and Goldberg's antics seem to be filler as they never interact with the main plot. Various obscure bands on the IRS record label provide music for the film, but none of them are particularly memorable. The Lovy Brothers only made one more movie before returning to obscurity. While not showing much acting ability, Miss USA 1970 Deborah Shelton, formerly of TV's Dallas for 53 episodes, is certainly attractive enough to be worth a viewer's attention.

SHAKES THE CLOWN (1991) - I was never a fan of Bobcat Goldthwait which is part of the reason why it took me 33 years to finally get around to watching this movie. Another example of IRS Media catering to the "cult" audience, SHAKES deliberately avoided any attempts to appeal to a mainstream audience. Written, directed and starring Goldthwait, the film would obviously be outrageous in dealing with an alcoholic party clown, but I wasn't expecting that the film would give the character some dignity by showing that he did his job well - if he was able to get to the gig. Goldthwait created his own universe where party clowns hung out at a bar called The Twisted Balloon, beat up on any Mimes they see and don't get along with Rodeo Clowns, who hung out at a bar called The Broken Saddle. Conflict arouse when the clown host of The Big Time Cartoon Circus was replaced by Binky the Clown, played impressively by Tom Kenny. Shakes thought he had the job, but his boss, Paul Dooley, warned him that if he didn't stop drinking alcohol, he would be fired. Later, when Dooley caught Kenny doing cocaine with a couple of Rodeo Clowns, Kenny beat Dooley to death with one of Goldthwait's juggling clubs. Putting Dooley's dead body next to a passed out Goldthwait, Kenny succeeded in framing our hero as a murderer. Luckily, Goldthwait had the support of his aspiring professional bowler girlfriend Julie Brown and his buddy clowns Adam Sandler and Blake Clark. At one point, Goldthwait hid out in a Mime class as who would look for a Clown on the lam in a room full of Mimes? The class was run by Mime Jerry, credited as being played by Marty Fromage, who was actually Robin Williams. Also in the cast was Kathy Griffin as a TV chef and Florence Henderson as a drunken one-night-stand.

Did not enjoy:

 BAGDAD (1949) How many red-haired Bedouin Princesses are there? In any case, the fact that Maureen O'Hara doesn't look like an Arab isn't the only questionable element of this Univeral Technicolor adventure film. How about Vincent Price as a Turkish Pasha and Paul Christian, aka Paul Hubschmid, as a Bedouin Prince. Never before has Bagdad looked more like the interior of an Hollywood sound stage. Never before has the area around Bagdad looked like Lone Pine, California. Anyway, O'Hara is returning from being educated in England to find that her father had been murdered. A group of murderous bandits called the Black Robes are blamed, and Christian is thought to be their leader. Recently returning from Venice - hence his European accent, Christian demands a gathering of desert sheiks so that he can prove his innocence. The real villain is Christian's cousin John Sutton, who is in league with the Pasha of Bagdad Vincent Price. This was just one of the 69 movies in which Jeff Corey appeared before the House On Unamerican Actitivies got him on the Hollywood Blacklist. While unable to work as an actor, Corey became an highly respected acting coach until he was able to work again as an actor in 1963. Toward the beginning of production, Price injured his right eye, which made his performance here rather unique with that eye nearly closed for most of the film. O'Hara was on loan from 20th Century Fox to appear in BAGDAD to replace an ailing Yvonne De Carlo. The film made Universal so much money that the studio bought out her contract with Fox and O'Hara became a Universal star. I first became aware of David Bauer in British productions like TORTURE GARDEN. I was unaware that he was another American actor Blacklisted because of the HUAC investigations. Being an American working in Great Britain led to his being cast in films like THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, DARK OF THE SUN, PATTON and DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. Tamara Hovey is blamed for the story of BAGDAD, while Robert Hardy Anderws gets the blame for the screenplay. This was a film director Charles Lamont squeezed in between Ma and Pa Kettle and Abbot and Costello assignments. Howcome this isn't considered a musical since O'Hara "performs" so many songs and there are at least three dance numbers.

BIKINI SUMMER II (1992) - I didn't know that actor Jeff Conaway of TV's Taxi had a single credit as a director. Considering the quality of the film for which he got that credit, I guess we should be grateful that he didn't do it again. Given star billing is Jessica Hahn, famous for the Jim Bakker scandal.  This is one of two feature films to her credit, but she doesn't do much in it - except order stuff from a QVC-like channel on which Jeff Conaway appears as a salesman making out with a woman. The plot of the film involves homeless singer/songwriter Robert Miano being struck by the car of a rich guy near the rich guy's driveway. Hoping that Miano won't sue, the rich guy takes the homeless guy into his home to recooperate. The rich guy's daughters, Maureen Flaherty and Melinda Armstrong, find the homeless guy cute, so they invite all of his friends over to the house. When the rich guy throws them all out, the daughters go as well. Eventually the daughters take over of their father's old abandoned properties and turn it into a nightclub at which Miano performs. Actually, the movie is about T&A, but I found few of the women attractive, so the endless nude showers and bikini shots were dull. Co-writer Charles T. Kanganis would go on to rack-up 15 directing credits.

BLOODFIST VI: GROUND ZERO (1995) - This is the first of the Roger Corman executive produced Concorde/New Horizons martial arts series I've seen and it is awful. One would think that having Kickboxing Champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson as the star would ensure that at least the fight scenes would be good, but some one decided that the fights would usually consist of one move per edit so that there is no beauty of movement and no real sense of power in the hits. As far as the gun play, most kids could create better battles with toy guns - though there would be fewer sparks and blood squibs.Brendan Broderick and Rob Kerchner receive blame for the screenplay, and I wonder if the pitch was "DIE HARD in a nuclear launch facility." Director Rick Jacobson evidences no talent with either actors or camerawork so he must have been hired for his ability to deliver product quickly on a low budget. With over 30 credits on his IMDb page, that would seem to be what is in demand. Surprisingly, former National League ball player Steve Garvey gives the most convincing acting performance in the film as an heroic Major who refuses to comply with the terrorists. This was the final film for the daughter of Vidal and Beverly Sassoon who was signed to a contract with Roger Corman in 1992 - Cat, aka Catya, Sassoon. She died of an heart attack due to illegal drug use in 2002 at the age of 33.

BULLETPROOF HEART (1995) - Hitman Anthony LaPaglia is burnt out, so he tries to refuse Peter Boyle's job to kill Mimi Rogers. Wannabe hitman Matt Craven says he'll do it, but Boyle doesn't want him around because of his latest screw-up. Boyle explains to LaPaglia that Rogers, herself, has demanded that she be killed, or she will take evidence to the D.A. involving quite a few mobsters. When LaPaglia meets Rogers, he is immediately undone. He lets her set the agenda for her last night alive, including their having sex. Eventually, LaPaglia discovers that Rogers suffers from an incurable mental desease. She has tried to kill herself, but failed and so demanded that Boyle have her murdered. Boyle tried to kill her, but found himself unable to do it. Now LaPaglia finds that being with Rogers has awaken something inside him that has long been dead, and he can't kill her either - even when she tearfully pleads with him to do it. The film starts off poorly with The Troggs' song "Love Is All Around You" under the opening credits as LaPaglia emerges from a dark closet, to which the F.B.I. gave a quick inspection, to murder a protected witness. That song also pops up during the end credits to cause this viewer to wonder what the filmmakers were trying to communicate. I wonder if writer Gordon Melbourne - who was reportedly given the credit in order for the film to quality for Canadian tax credit, but was actually written by director Mark Malone - was inspired by The Killers by Ernest Hemingway in which a victim allows himself to be murdered by arriving hitman. What if the victim wanted to be murdered? What if the murder completely devastates the hitman? In any case, director Mark Malone is unable to make this film compelling even with expert performers in his cast. And Mimi Rogers has never looked so elegant. While the story is set in New York City and New Jersey, most of the film was shot in Vancouver, Canada. If you watch this movie, don't stop during the end credits, because there is a tag ending after them - and this isn't even a Marvel movie.

DEAD WOMEN IN LINGERIE (1991) - If you've been wanting to see Maura Tierney do a topless sex scene, you will probably be disappointed watching this movie because the scene is carefully staged so that at most there's an hint of "side boob" with no complete reveal. Still she looks great in this confused movie. With an opening narrative credit reminding the viewer that the 1987 immigration bill allowed illegal aliens that could prove they have lived and worked in the U.S. for five years can apply for citizenship, the movie strikes a more serious note that contradicts the exploitation sounding title. Someone is murdering the illegal female workers at Jerry Orbach's lingerie sweat shop in the L.A. garment district. The film takes another tonal twist when it becomes apparent that the film is actually going to be a comedy about Private Eye John Romo trying to impress Orbach's lingerie designer, Tierney, by solving the crime since the authorities have little interest because the victims are all illegal aliens. Along the way, Romo meets Tierney's mother, June Lockhart, and father, Lyle Waggoner. Laura Harring plays one of the victims in this film around the same time THE FORBIDDEN DANCE came out when she was still billed as Laura Herring. Her star making role in MULHOLLAND DR. was still eight years in the future. Romo co-wrote this film with producer/director Erica Fox, which helps explain why he's got the lead role. Rather then make him a star, it seems to have ended his career. The film ended Fox's directing career as well. She went on to produce TV movies for Hallmark. The climax reveals that the killer is INS agent Dennis Christopher, who had been forcing the women to grant him sexual favors in exchange for his not arresting them. Now that they were on the way to applying for citizenship, he felt the need to silence them from informing on him. Against his own incompetence, Romo succeeds in stopping Christopher from killing Tierney who refuses to let the matter drop. The film ends with another narrative title in which the director dedicates the movie to her grandmother who was an immigrant worker in a New York sweatshop. 

NEW CRIME CITY LOS ANGELES 2020 (1994) - From ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK came the idea of walling off South L.A. to create a prison, but the locale doesn't really lend itself to such an idea. It also seems odd that a Roger Corman executive produced New Horizon/Concorde feature went to Peru to portray South L.A. Is that the reason that South L.A. in this film doesn't have any Black people in it? This is the second feature credited to Jonathan Winfrey as director, and he must have gotten along with Stacey Keach for he would direct seven episodes of Keach's Mike Hammer, Private Eye TV series a few years later. In NEW CRIME CITY, he shows no ability with actors or action, but he must have delivered the movie within the budget because Corman would hire him again for at least five more projects. Rob Kerchner gets the blame for the story, which was possibly a list of elements from other movies that were desired to be included in this one, and Charles Philip Moore gets the blame for the screenplay. It would seem that the previous film Moore directed for Corman, ANGEL OF DESTRUCTION, didn't go so well, for it became his last credit as a director. Incredibly unconvincing and uninvolving, NEW CRIME CITY didn't try to copy the tilted camerawork of NEW JACK CITY which might have given the film at least some visual excitement. This film serves to prove how much better Italian filmmakers can rip-off popular American films as director Sergio Martino did with 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK. Interestingly, actress Sherrie Rose had already made three films for Italian producers - including Sergio Martino with AMERICAN RICKSAW, before working for Corman. She had also made two films for Seasonal Film Corporation of Hong Kong including KING OF THE KICKBOXERS. Though her appearance in NEW CRIME CITY doesn't suggest that she would ever do anything of interest, (Her nude sex scene with co-star Rick Rossovich could be used as an example of "the formula requires this so let's get this over with quickly".) she went on to produce three features and ammassed over 60 credits on the IMDb. 

The Power of Film (2023) - What is more annoying than a six part documentary series on Turner Classic Movies featuring a film professor telling us the most obvious elements of what makes a popular movie?

RAPA-NUI (1994) - Tim Rose Price is credited with writing the TV movie A DANGEROUS MAN: LAWRENCE AFTER ARABIA, which dramatized the failure of T.E. Lawrence and Prince Feisal to convince the Europeans conducting the 1919 Paris Peace Conference after World War 1 to allow the Arabs to rule themselves. At some point, it seems that Price became interested in the mystery of Easter Island and heard about the legend of the Hanau epe, or Long Ears. The destruction of their clan possibly destroyed the culture which erected the Moai statues. Kevin Reynolds reportedly saw the script in 1985 and after the success of ROBIN HOOD PRINCE OF THIEVES, got Warner Bros. to bankroll the project, with Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson's Tig Productions producing. Because a Long Ear had won the annual Birdman competition, their clan ruled the island. They force the Short Ear clan to build the Moai statues in an effort to please the gods. Naturally our Long Ear hero Jason Scott Lee falls in love with the short ear Sandrine Holt - and since all of the women in this movie are topless it is easy to see why. As the King is getting old, he wants his son, Lee, to take over participating in the Birdman competition. Lee agrees on the condition that he would be able to marry the Short Ear woman he loves. Meanwhile, Lee's Short Ear best friend Esai Morales is also in love with Holt. The Short Ears are fed up with being treated like slaves, so Morales joins the Birdman competition, but is allowed only on the condition that if he loses he will also lose his life. And the Short Ears must also complete an even bigger Moai. Lee convinces Holt's father, who has been banished to a cave because he built an "unlucky" canoe, to help him train for the competition, which involves swimming to a neighboring island, getting a bird's egg, swimming back through shark infested water and climbing up a cliff without breaking the egg. Meanwhile, Holt must live alone in a "virgin's cave" for the six months until the competition. Not surprising, to complete the Moai, all of the trees on the island are cut down. Well, Lee wins the competition, but his father is distracted by the appearance of a floating iceberg off shore which he thinks is the "white canoe" sent by the gods to take him to heaven. As Lee is distracted trying to help the obviously pregnant Holt recover her health, the villainous advisor to Lee's father, seeks to sacrifice Morales. Morales won't have it, and leads the Short Ears to kill all Long Ears. Morales only spares Lee as they were once friends, and is then disgusted to find that some of the Short Ears have become cannibals on the dead Long Ears. Luckily, Holt's father has protected his daughter, who has given birth to a baby girl. Holt's father also gifts our heroes a new canoe in order to leave because debris washed to the shore suggests there is a world away from the island. An on-screen comment states that evidence shows that Pitcarin Island was settle by people from Easter Island, suggesting that Lee, Holt and baby would survive. Director Kevin Reynolds would say that RAPA-NUI was his worst film, and many critics agreed. I found it uninvolving, unconvincing and irritatingly cliched.

RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954) - Since Marilyn Monroe performs four songs in this movie, why isn't it considered a musical. That's two more than Elvis Presley performs in FLAMING STAR. Reportedly both Monroe and director Otto Preminger made this film only to fulfill contractual obligations and considering the story blamed on Louis Lantz and the script by Frank Fenton it is understandable. Didn't anyone notice that Monroe was unable to talk like a normal person in this film? Dance Hall girl Monroe tries to travel down the river to town on a raft with gambler Rory Calhoun in order to file for a gold mine Calhoun won in a poker game. Single father Robert Mitchum and his son Tommy Rettig rescue them before they capsize, for which Calhoun repays them by clobbering Mitchum over the head and stealing his horse. Even though she is left behind, Monroe sticks up for Calhoun. When Indians attack Mitchum's home stead, the three Whites jump on the raft and also head for town. Bad process shots don't mix well with impressive location footage, but our heroes make it to safety after many many "important" chats, and at least one song by Monroe. Rettig is disappointed to hear that his father killed a man by shooting him in the back - so you can guess what'll happen when Mitchum catches up with Calhoun. I'm surprised seing a blood squib in a 1954 movie. Although not credited, it sounds like Robert Mitchum sings the title song under the opening credits. The romantic finale would be repeated by Mitchum in the 1969 film YOUNG BILLY YOUNG.

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David Deal enjoyed:

SADDLE THE WIND (58) - John Cassavetes comes home to his brother Robert Taylor toting saloon girl Julie London who, he says, he's going to marry. She's sincere, but seriously misjudged trigger-happy psycho Cassavetes who proceeds to killing a gunman who wanted to kill ex-gunfighter Taylor. Filled with blood lust, Cassavetes proceeds down the dark, inevitable path. A bright and colorful western, shot in Colorado, that looks the opposite of the tragic noir that it truly is. Good cast but Cassavetes is a nearly intolerable asshole.

FROM ISTANBUL ORDERS TO KILL (65) - See The Eurospy Guide for a complete review of this odd entry.

MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE DETECTIVE (40)

THE HANGMAN (59) - US Deputy Marshal Robert Taylor must track down the last man involved in a robbery and murder, Jack Lord. He hires Tina Louise, who was Jack's friend back in the day, to point him out. They travel to North Creek and Tina wrestles with her conscience, knowing Jack's a good lad. Will she warn Jack or will she take the money and run. This is a black and white western featuring all sorts of shades of gray when it comes to character. No one is all bad or all good, except for maybe local sheriff Fess Parker. Tina Louise is excellent as the torn friend and Robert Taylor is as well, being the most cynical man in the room, any room. Michael Curtiz directs.

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (22) - Check this out.

THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG (39)

Mildly Enjoyed

FOUR FAST GUNS (59) - Ex-con James Craig (resembling Lon Chaney Jr. here) is forced to kill a marshal, and then takes his place as a town tamer in Purgatory ("When you ride into Purgatory say goodbye to God"). The citizens are fed up with saloon owner Paul Richards running the town. Richards hires three gunmen to kill Craig. One by one they meet their makers, until the last. A low budget western with a good story but not the writing to make it real nor the means to pull it off, this is still an interesting watch. The ill-fated Yvette Vickers (who died at 46) is good as the wife of Richards who is drawn to Craig, and sidekick Edgar Buchanan is the biggest name in the cast. A curio.

YELLOWSTONE KELLY (59) - Clint Walker is Yellowstone Kelly, trapper around Missouri's Snake River. When bringing in his furs, smartass Claude Aikens and fellow cavalry men taunt him and a fight erupts. Youngster Ed Byrnes joins the fight and earns a spot with Walker at his cabin. Then Sioux chief John Russell asks Walker to take a bullet out of the back of Arapaho maiden Andra Martin. Soon, she is living at the cabin too, recovering from her surgery. These plot lines all come together in an oater shot in beautiful northern Arizona. Walker is a likeable hero and there is plenty of action for him to get involved in as he tries to keep the peace. Solid entertainment.

FURY OF THE WOLF MAN (72)

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Bertrand van Wonterghem Enjoyed:

Ie ni kaeru to tsuma ga kanarazu shinda furi o shite imasu / When I get home, my wife always pretends to be dead (2018, Toshio Lee)

The lady in red (1979, Lewis Teague)

Everyone else burns (2023) – season 1 (6 epis)

Star Trek – episode “The city on the edge of forever” (1966, Joseph Pevney)

Mildly enjoyed:

The killer shrews (1959, Ray Kellogg)

Messalina, Messalina (1977, Bruno Corbucci)

Gyeongseongkeulicheo / Gyeongseong creature – season 1 – episode 4 to 7

Death and others details – season 1 (2023) – episode 4

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Angel Rivera Enjoyed:

"CORNBREAD, EARL AND ME" (1975) A precursor to "Boyz N the Hood" (1991). The pride of his neighborhood is gunned down by police who were in pursuit of a dangerous individual and the aftermath of the shooting and its effect on the community. Screen debut of a very young Laurence Fishburne. ( He's 14 here. Who knew he was a child actor!?)

"SATIN IN HIGH HEELS" (1962) Looking at YouTube on my phone I came across this video of an actress I had never heard of. So after I watched the video and googled her I was introduced to the one time had potential denied beauty, Meg Myles. She had according to Wikipedia a figure of:"42-24-36". Her natural red hair and green eyes is apparently best known for getting a swift kick in the booty for trying to pickpocket Clint Eastwood in "Coogan's Bluff" (1968) She was also an entertainer in sin-city, "The Phenix City Story" (1955) Any way one of her other credits of note is a film titled,"Satin in High Heels" (1962). a sexploitation movie with little being seen in terms of the men she uses (as they use her) as she tries to find fortune as a night club singer. The "sex" is mostly implied with little changes of wardrobe and leading scenes. Her fate is sealed when she bed hops from her benefactor's bed to his son's. There is some out of focus long shots of Ms. Myles swimming nude and one bedroom scene with her benefactor's son with only a slight glimpse of Ms. Myles breast. Myles also does a novelty song in a leather outfit along with riding crop. Also in the cast is Grayson Hall, of "Dark Shadows" fame who plays a sharp-tongued lesbian manager of an upscale night club and she steals every scene she is in.. Curiosity piece. Especially for those who like me, never saw this type of film when it played the grindhouses.

"66th ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS" (2024) Some performances were interesting. All and all, an entertaining evening.

Did not enjoy:

"BABYLON" (2022) Was very interested to see this movie, especially to see how they recreated the era from when the silents gave way to "All-Singing; All-Dancing; All-Talking"! The performances for the most part are spot on, but the director covered all the bases in terms of the period but he leaves his characters out. There is more flash than substance here.. And the ending seems tagged on.

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