Drive, He Said

Drive, He Said (Criterion #547).
1971 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: William Tepper, Karen Black, Michael Margotta, Bruce Dern, Robert Towne, Henry Jaglom, Michael Warren, Charles Robinson, David Ogden Stiers, Cindy Williams
Produced by Steve Blauner and Jack Nicholson
Screenplay: Jeremy Larner, Jack Nicholson, Terrence Malick (uncredited)
Director: Jack Nicholson
Drive, He Said is only available as part of Criterion's box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. Amazon listings: Standard DVD. Blu-ray.

Jack Nicholson's directoral debut not surprisingly features basketball as one of the central plotlines. It's also an interesting, but disorganized film. I still found it compelling enough.

Hector Bloom (Tepper) is a star college basketball player from California who has found himself at a small university somewhere in Ohio (modeled after Kent State). His roommate Gabriel (Margotta) is from a well off family, but he's still harboring radical feelings and getting involved with campus protests. Both Hector and Gabriel are both facing the draft: Hector to the NBA, while Gabriel will do just about everything to not go to Vietnam. And Hector, as the film goes on, seems more and more unhappy at the thought of turning professional.

Hector is also having an affair with the wife of his favorite professor, Olive (Black), which comes to an end once he realizes that he's in love with her. And then, Olive reveals she's pregnant. Coach Bullion (Dern) does his best to run the team and keep Hector motivated while slowly realizing that his star player may not have the heart for the game and the rest of the team anymore.

Drive, He Said has one notable standout performance, from Margotta as the increasingly crazed radical Gabriel, and the film itself is good, but not great. Interesting, I felt nonetheless, even if the finished project came across more as a series of unrelated, episodic sketches that are only tied together by the main characters. Recommended movie.

Almost Famous

Almost Famous.
2000 DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Fairuza Balk, Anna Paquin, Noah Taylor, Zooey Deschanel, Jimmy Fallon
Director: Cameron Crowe
Available from Amazon as a single DVD, or the "Untitled" directors' cut.

Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film features a 15-year-old aspiring writer named William Miller (Fugit) who idolizes Lester Bangs (Hoffman) who lives with his overprotective mother Elaine (McDormand). William is unpopular with his peers, so he writes for underground papers about his love for rock music, and the record collection given to him by his older sister Anita (Deschanel), who left home because she could no longer cope with Elaine's beliefs. Bangs gives William a $35 assignment to review a Black Sabbath concert, and Lester advices him to "honest and unmerciful"...without mentioning how he can get into the show or meet the band. Unable to get into the arena, William meets a group of "Band-Aids", who are not "groupies". William strikes up a conversation with their leader, Penny Lane (Hudson), and he eventually does get backstage with the opening act, Stillwater. Their guitarist, Russell Hammond (Crudup), takes a liking to William.

Most of the story that follows sees William, who eventually gets a prime assignment for Rolling Stone trying to interview Russell, which usually never happens for whatever reason, even if Russell continually promises to talk to him "soon". William also develops a friendship with Penny Lane, who also has genuine feelings for Russell. William ends up spending more time on the road chasing this story than what he had promised his overprotective mother, who wanted him home "four days later".

Highly recommended movie.

Tron: Legacy

Tron: Legacy. 2010 Walt Disney Pictures.
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Bruce Boxleitner, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, James Frain, Beau Garrett
Music: Daft Punk
Produced by Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver and Steven Lisberger
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Available from Amazon on Disney DVD.

In 1989, ENCOM CEO and wizard software engineer Kevin Flynn (Bridges) disappears. Twenty years later, his son Sam (Hedlund) is ENCOM's controlling shareholder, and he has almost little interest in the firm except for pulling an annual prank on the board of directors. After the most recent stunt, Sam gets a visit from Kevin's old friend and ENCOM executive Alan Bradley (Boxleitner), who reports a mysterious page emitting from Kevin's old, disconnected office deep in his long abandoned arcade. Activating a computer in the dusty office, Sam accidentally projects himself into the Grid, a cold and dangerous virtual world within the computer. Captured immediately, Sam is taken to the game arena, where he faces off with a warrior called Rinzler. After discovering that Sam is a "user" and not a "program", Rinzler takes Sam before Clu, the now corrupted digital copy of Kevin Flynn. Clu attempts to kill Sam in a light cycle duel, but he is rescued by Quorra (Wilde), who takes Sam to a distant hideout off the grid, where he is finally reunited with his father.

Kevin informs Sam that he, Clu and Bradley's security program called Tron, were creating a new "perfect" system, and that Kevin discovered something called sentinent "isomorphic algorithms" (ISOs), which spontaneously evolved in the world, and they had the keys to unlock the mysteries in science, religion, and medicine. Clu rebelled against Kevin and Tron, destroyed the ISOs (Tron sacrificed itself to allow Flynn the opportunity to get away), and took control of the entire Grid, making a long term plan to raise an army big enough so that it could invade and "perfect" the "outside world", i.e. Earth. Quorra, though, is the last surviving ISO, who was rescued by Kevin.

It's up to Sam, Kevin and Quorra to find a way out of the Grid before Clu and its army does, where Sam can delete Clu. Also, is Rinzler simply a reprogrammed version of Tron? Wait and see...

Recommended movie, although I prefered the first film more.

MST3K #303: Pod People

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #303: Pod People.
Original Comedy Central airdate: June 15, 1991.
Part of the second MST3K DVD set, which looks to be out of stock at Amazon...

Chief? McCloud!!

This episode showcases a trainwreck of a film where an unsuspecting rural family, an unlikeable trio of poachers who constantly argue with one another, and a really bad pop band on vacation are all on a collision course with wackiness in a foggy region. A meteor crashes in the area, and a stash of glowing eggs are found by one of the poachers and a youth named Tommy from the unsuspecting and somewhat unlikeable rural family. An alien mother goes on the hunt looking for her eggs and offspring, killing off several characters. Tommy's egg hatches into something he dubs Trumpy, who unlike his mother, is not at all homicidal. Trumpy's mother eventually comes to the house, and Tommy escapes with Trumpy in tow, not willing to let all of the mean adults shoot his goofy looking pet. After all, Trumpy can do magical things. The ending is kind of depressing, not to mention foggy.

We open on the Satellite of Love where Joel, Servo and Crow are hosting an "arts chautauqua" where Crow debuts a monologue from his one-robot show Robot on the Run, and Tom Servo breaks down in hysterics during his own spoken word piece. The invention exchange is a musical one: Joel demonstrates his explosive new guitar chord, and the Mads debut their concept of public domain karaoke. Inspired by the crappy band in the recording studio, Joel and the 'Bots sing "Idiot Control Now", and Joel declares that it stinks. A wall of keyboards is set up and Joel explains to Tom and Crow about how they can create New Age music simply by holding down two keys for hours on end. Somehow, Windham Hill doesn't come through with a recording contract for "Music from Some Guys in Space". After a wild demonstration of the magic Trumpy can perform, Joel and the 'Bots sing a sad ballad, "Clown in the Sky", and the Mads cheerfully help out by saying that it also stinks.

Another fan favorite, and a great episode to me personally. Highly recommended.

MST3K #208: Lost Continent

Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #208: Lost Continent.
Original Comedy Channel airdate: November 24, 1990.
Available on the eighteenth MST3K DVD collection from Shout! Factory.

Rock climbing.

Cesar Romero, Hugh Beaumont, Sid Melton and Acquanetta star in this 1951 film about an expedition to find a missing atomic rocket. The expedition's flight crashes on a remote island with a big old mountain where a lone native girl indicates that something unusual landed there. After twenty straight minutes of ROCK CLIMBING, the top of the mountain is reached, where a lush jungle inhabited by dinosaurs is found. Two out of the six explorers die, but the survivors salvage crucial rocket parts and escape (thankfully the trip down the mountain isn't depicted in such excruciating detail) before a volcanic eruption destroys the island, dinosaurs and all. The highlight? Hugh Beaumont cracking up in the background while Cesar Romero hauls Sid Melton onto a plateau by the seat of his pants.

The show opens with Joel in a cyan jumpsuit as a tough football coach giving his robots a lively pep talk. Beat 'em, beat 'em, beat 'em! In Deep 13, Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank introduce their exercise treadmill on wheels (which Frank immediately runs into the nearest wall), but sadly, we don't have time for Joel's invention this week. Joel's gadget, a translator that converts language into sign language, would appear again in the next episode (The Hellcats). Hugh Beaumont, having become a Horseman of the Apocalypse, stops by the satellite with his scary, but friendly message of death. Joel and the 'Bots perform their version of Quinn Martin's The Explorers which turns from adventure program to police drama just in time for the epilogue. Later, the gang witnesses "The Cool Thing"* out in space, and they encourage their viewers to send in their ideas of what exactly it is for a contest, and why it's cool. After the film, Joel and his robots recite little known facts about the film, including the knowledge that Cesar Romero may have had ties to the Nazis.

A great episode from season 2, although Shout! Factory's DVD transfer is less than stellar due to the condition of the master tapes they were given. Just make like you're watching someone's second or third generation VHS dubbed tape and enjoy. Highly recommended episode.

...rock climbing.

* The "Cool Thing" was later revealed to be Mexican stoplight candy in a third season episode, although the show did show some viewer submitted pictures at the end of season two. Okay? Fifteen minute break, everyone!

Slacker

Slacker (Criterion #247).
1991 Detour Filmproduction and Orion Classics.
Starring: Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan, Marc James, Stella Weir, John Slate, Louis Mackey, Teresa Taylor, and many others
Written, produced and directed by Richard Linklater
Buy Slacker at Amazon today!

Along with sex, lies and videotape, this film is considered the genesis of the independent film movement of the 1990s, and it was a major influence on Kevin Smith, who has often stated Slacker was the inspiration for Clerks. Also, this movie supposedly popularized the term "slacker" to describe any person "characterized by apathy, aimlessness, and lack of ambition".

Over a 24 hour period in Austin, Texas, Linklater showcases dozens of mostly twenty-somethings all doing their part in keeping Austin weird. We see one or two characters converse about just about everything for a few minutes before we start to follow someone completely different and unrelated to the previous characters. The only common thing all of the movie's players have is that they might pass by one another on the streets during their daily routine, or perhaps, their lack of routine.

Highlights include Linklater as a chatty taxi passenger who just completed a long bus trip, the UFO "expert" in the Batman T-shirt trying to convince a complete stranger that the United States has really been traveling to the moon since the 1950s, yet another JFK conspiracy buff, someone who is really into collecting television sets (he even walks around with one strapped to his back!), an elderly anarchist who talks a younger man out of robbing his home with stories about where he was during Charles Whitman's rampage in 1966, and most bizarrely, the odd woman (Taylor) who walks up to a random couple offering to sell them a genuine "Madonna pap smear".

Highly recommended.

Fear Strikes Out

Fear Strikes Out. 1957 Paramount Pictures
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Karl Malden, Norma Moore, Adam Williams, Perry Wilson
Director: Robert Mulligan
Buy the DVD from Amazon.

Robert Mulligan's first feature length film is a loose adaptation of the autobiography by baseball player Jimmy Piersall, who is known for his problems with bipolar disorder. Piersall (Perkins in the film), in real life, played a seventeen year career filled with many notable and bizarre incidents with a lifetime batting average of .272 and 104 home runs before embarking on a career in broadcasting.

Piersall would later disown the film adaptation of his book, since he felt that the screenplay distorted facts, and it also made it appear that his father (played by Malden) pushed his son too hard, helping contribute to Jimmy's on-screen breakdown, following his first home run as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

Still, Fear Strikes Out as a film is a decent popcorn movie, and an easy recommendation from me. Just be sure to keep in mind that it's another baseball movie, not a true biopic of an interesting ball player.

This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life (Criterion #417).
1963 Janus Films and The Rank Organisation
Starring: Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Vanda Godsell
Produced by Karel Reisz
Director: Lindsay Anderson
Buy This Sporting Life from Amazon.

Lindsay Anderson's feature length debut is an outstanding example of the kitchen sink realism (the "British New Wave") that British cinema was producing between the late 1950s and early '60s. Richard Harris made his film debut here, and he won the Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film festival for his portrayal as the angry Yorkshire miner Frank Machin, who is recruited into a local rugby club after the team's manager witnesses a drunken fight between Machin and several of his players. Frank takes time to mature into a decent player, but he is signed to the premier team when the owner, Gerald Weaver (Badel) is impressed by Machin's aggressive play. In due time, Frank Machin has wealth and fame, but he finds that it's not enough to win the affections of his landlady, Mrs. Margaret Hammond (Roberts).

Margaret is the struggling mother of two young children, and her husband is recently deceased after an accident at Weaver's engineering firm which was ruled a suicide. At first, she rejects Frank's advances, but does begin a relationship with him that seems doomed from the start. Machin uses Margaret for sex, and she is still grief-stricken enough that she cannot return affection. Margaret, meanwhile, is upset at Frank's lack of social graces during a dinner date at a fancy restaurant. The affair ends, but a reconciliation is not in the cards. Margaret dies following a brain hemorrhage, and Frank finally realizes that his rugby career is probably no better than working all of his life operating machinery in a mine: both choices ultimately feels like an inescapable prison.

This Sporting Life also features William Hartnell as "Dad" Johnson, a rugby scout who is devoted to Frank to an uncomfortable degree even after Machin abandons him after his first taste of success. Hartnell's appearance here gained the attention of the first Doctor Who producer, Verity Lambert, and he would become the first Doctor that same year.

Get this DVD! Highly, highly recommended film.

Don't Look Now

Don't Look Now. 1973 Paramount Pictures
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland, Sharon Williams, Massimo Serato, Hilary Mason, Renato Scarpa, Clelia Matania
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Buy Don't Look Now at Amazon.

An occult thriller where director Roeg employs several recurring themes: notably water, the color red, glass being used as an omen of bad things to come, and plenty of flashbacks and flash-forwards. Don't Look Now is also well remembered for its graphic sex scene with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, which included a rare depiction of cunnilingus. The scene obviously caused controversy with censors on both sides of the Atlantic, and it led to rumors that Christie and Sutherland engaged in unsimulated sex, with outtakes allegedly being passed between screening rooms. The film, after some minor editing, ended up getting an R rating in the United States; the uncut version was declared to be "tasteful and integral to the plot" by the British Board of Film Classification. Also, producer Michael Deeley claimed on the BBC that Warren Beatty, who was seeing Christie at the time, flew to England to demand the sex scene cut from the film. Unlike the unsimulated sex rumor, this one was confirmed many years later.

After the accidental drowning of their young daughter Christine (Williams) at their country home in England, John Baxter (Sutherland) and his wife Laurie (Christie) are staying in Venice where John is help restoring an old church at the request of a bishop (Serato). At lunch one afternoon, Laura meets two eldery sisters, one of whom (Mason) is blind, claims to be psychic, and she--Heather--informs Laura that she is in contact with Christine, describing the attire she wore on the day of her death, and asserting she is happy. Laura is shaken enough that she faints at her table, and she tells John what the sisters told her at the restaurant. John is skeptical, but seems to be happy at his wife's new positive demeanor. Later that evening, they go out to dinner, become separated, and John sees what looks like a small child wearing a similar red coat that Christine was wearing when she drowned. The following day, Laura meets with the sisters, and Heather supposedly makes contact with Christine, who says that John is in great danger and must leave Venice.

Laura ends up leaving after a telephone call comes from England saying that their son has been injured in an accident. John, though, is shocked when he sees Laura later that day on a barge along with the two sisters that's part of a funeral procession. John reports his wife's disappearance to the police, worried about her obsession with Christine, and influenced by reports of a serial killer stalking Venice, but finds himself followed by a police inspector (Scarpa) who is suspicious of him. The misunderstanding with Laura is soon cleared up, but John has another vision of the child in the red coat again. Heather and her sister are taken in for questioning, so John brings them back to the hotel...where Heather enters a trance, and John again sees the figure in red, and this time decides to pursue him/her...

What could it mean?

Interesting movie where Nicolas Roeg pays homage to the work of Alfred Hitchcock while perfecting his unique editing style seen before in Performance and Walkabout. Recommended film.

M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H. 1970 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Murphy, Gary Burghoff, Fred Williamson, Bud Cort, Kim Atwood, Marvin Miller
Screenplay: Ring Lardner, Jr.
Director: Robert Altman
Availavle from Amazon as a single DVD, or as part of the Robert Altman Collection.

Based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, and set during the Korean War in 1951, Robert Altman's M*A*S*H was a huge hit in 1970, when many Americans were confused, weary, and angry about the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. M*A*S*H was also Altman's first project employing his filmmaking trademarks of widescreen photography, zoom lenses, overlapping sounds and dialogue, and a large ensemble cast largely improvising when the cameras were on. It also inspired the sitcom on CBS that ran for eleven years, even if Altman hated the show, and would only refer to it as "that series".

The film itself has several different ongoing storylines surrounding the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital; namely the arrival of the rebellious and mischievous new surgeons Captain Hawkeye Pierce (Sutherland) and Captain Duke Forrest (Skerritt) to the 4077th, who arrive in a "borrowed" Jeep, flirt with the nursing staff, and begin feuding with their tent mate Major Frank Burns (Duvall).

* A new thoracic surgeron named "Trapper" John McIntyre (Gould) comes to the unit, and Hawkeye is absolutely convinced he knows him from somewhere, even if Trapper John isn't talking about who he is, or where he came from. Trapper John also witnesses Major Burns blame another private for a patient's death, which leads to Burns getting punched out in front of another newcomer: Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Kellerman). Burns and Hot Lips find that they have repressed sexual tension for one another, which leads to a publicly broadcast tryst over the camp's PA system. Hawkeye taunts him the next day, and Burns attacks him, which gets him sent back to the United States.

* Meanwhile, Father Mulcahy (Auberjonois) discloses to Hawkeye later on that the unit's dentist Painless Pole (John Schuck) believes he is homosexual and decides he's going to kill himself. Hawkeye and company stage an impromptu Last Supper where Painless takes a "black capsule", which is actually a sleeping pill. Hawkeye then arranges a sexual encounter between Painless and another nurse who is returning to America soon, thus curing Painless of his "problem".

* Duke and Hawkeye make a bet that Hot Lips isn't a natural blonde, so they come up with a plan to see if the curtains match the drapes, so to speak, publicly humiliating Hot Lips after she's caught by the boys in the shower. She goes to Colonel Blake ranting and raving, and ultimately threatens to resigns her goddamn commission. There's also an ongoing plot featuring Ho-Jon (Atwood), who is drafted into South Korea's army, but after Hawkeye drives him to an induction center, he is found to have high blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat, but he is not disqualified from service. Instead, it's insinuated that Hawkeye gave Ho-Jon medicine to induce those symptoms to keep him from being conscripted.

* Trapper and Hawkeye are sent to Japan to operate on the son of a U.S. congressman...and to play golf on decent courses. They arrive and order the man into surgery immediately, so they can get on the links that much faster, not to mention enjoying a decent lunch. Hawkeye and Trapper also encounter problems with the hospital's commander, who can't stop the "Pros from Dover" from returning with a Japanese-American baby with serious medical issues. The commander is sedated, and then blackmailed when he is photographed in bed with a prostitute.

* The 4077th plays a friendly football game with General Hammond's (G. Wood) unit, where some money is thrown into the pot to make it interesting. Hawkeye enlists a neurosurgeon, Dr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones (Williamson), a former pro player, to play for their side while wheeling and dealing with the money bet on the game. Jones is kept out of the game until the second half. Even with Jones on their side, the 4077th does win the game on the last play of the game in a "semilegal" play, leading to a big ol' brawl after the game.

M*A*S*H is also well known for the song "Suicide is Painless", with lyrics written by Altman's son Mike, who ultimately made more money than his father got for directing the film in royalties. The making of the movie was reportedly difficult, thanks to tension between Altman and his cast. Donald Sutherland claimed he was the only principal cast member not using drugs during filming, and he along with Elliot Gould spent a third of their time on the set trying to get 20th Century Fox to fire Altman, who at the time had not earned the credentials to justify his unique filmmaking process. The film also earned one Academy Award, for Ring Lardner, Jr., who had spent twelve years blacklisted by the Hollywood studios (1954-66) by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which went along with another Oscar that he wrote under a pseudonym during his twelve year ban (he never revealed for what movie).

Highly, highly, highly recommended film.

Tron

Tron. 1982 Walt Disney Pictures.
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, Barnard Hughes, Dan Shor
Director: Steven Lisberger
Tron is available on Disney DVD from Amazon. Tell 'em Clu sent you...

The origin of Tron dates back to 1976 when director Steven Lisberger became fascinated with the video game Pong, and he envisioned a movie based on video games. Originally intended to be a completely animated movie, Lisberger and producer Donald Kushner decided to incorporate live action sequences. Disney eventually green-lit the project after being rejected by several other Hollywood studios (Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia). At the time, Disney seldom employed outsiders to produce movies for them, so Lisberger and company were given less than a warm welcome by Disney employees. The finished product may look primitive and cheesy now, but in 1982, it was something else to behold.

Jeff Bridges is Kevin Flynn, a software engineer who is trying to hack into the mainframe of his former employers at ENCOM, seeking evidence that a senior executive named Ed Dillinger (Warner) stole his coding and passed it off as his own, leading to Dillinger's rapid rise in the company, and to Flynn being fired, taking a job running a video arcade filled with the games he wrote and designed. Flynn is blocked by the Master Control Program that controls ENCOM's mainframe. The same program is blackmailing Dillinger, threatening to reveal to the world that he truly stole Flynn's codes after the executive tried to halt the program from hacking into the Pentagon and Kremlin.

ENCOM employees Alan Bradley (Boxleitner) and Lora Baines (Morgan) drop by Flynn's arcade one night to tell him about Dillinger's new tighter security clearances after Flynn's attempts to break in. Flynn convinces them both to let him into ENCOM so he can get around the security clearances for Bradley's security program called "Tron" to monitor communications between the Master Control Program and the outside world. At the labratory, Flynn attempts to break into the system, but the MCP takes control of a nearby laser for "quantum teleportation", and digitizes Flynn into the ENCOM mainframe. Inside of the mainframe, Programs appear in the likeness of the real world Users who created them, but the MCP and its commander Sark (Warner) have run roughshod over the Programs, who have given up their belief in the Users, and the MCP has assumed near complete control over input and output within the mainframe.

While being forced to engage in gladitorial games where the loser is destroyed, Flynn meets Tron (Boxleitner), and the two escape deeper into the system during a Light Cycle match. The two are split up, but Flynn discovers that as a User, he can manipulate the physical laws of the digital world. With help from another program called Yori (Morgan), our digital heroes make their way to the core of the MCP and battle Sark. Sark is briefly destroyed, but he is restored by the MCP, which gives him all of its functions. After Flynn jumps directly into the MCP, it lets its guard down long enough for Tron to throw his disc into its core, destroying it and Sark, freeing the digital world. Flynn is then sent back to the real world, along with printed evidence that Dillinger has "annexed" his code. Dillinger arrives at work the next morning, finding the MCP non-functional and evidence of his crime displayed on his computer screen. Some time after this, Flynn becomes the CEO of ENCOM...

...until his disappearance in 1989, but that's a different movie, which will be reviewed here later this week.

Another great sci-fi classic movie that may look dated, but it's still great. Highly recommended.

Logan's Run

Logan's Run. 1976 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Michael York, Richard Jordan, Jenny Agutter, Roscoe Lee Brown, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Michael Anderson Jr., Peter Ustinov
Director: Michael Anderson
Available from Amazon for cheap right now...

Logan 5 (York) is a Sandman, operating within a large domed city in the 23rd century. This domed city contains survivors of "war, overpopulation and pollution". Infants are implanted with a "Lifeclock" in their hands, a device that changes color as they grow older. When a citizen reaches their "last day" at age 30, the Lifeclock blinks red, then blacks, and they must report to "Carrousel", where they are told that there is hope of Renewal, a form of reincarnation. Those who refuse to submit to Carrousel are labeled "Runners", and the Sandmen are responsible for hunting down and terminating them. Logan and his friend Francis 7 (Jordan) attend a Carrousel ceremony, leaving briefly to hunt down and kill a Runner. This particular Runner was carrying a silver ankh.

After hours, Logan meets Jessica 6 (Agutter) who is also wearing a similar ankh. She declines his sexual advances, but they still discuss why it's wrong to run. The next day, Logan turns in the ankh at Sandman headquarters, and the supercomputer within the complex reveals that the ankh is a symbol for a group of outsiders assisting Runners trying to reach "Sanctuary". Logan is assigned to find Sanctuary and destroy it, and the computer advances his Lifeclock so he can pass as a runner. The computer ignores Logan's questions about whether or not he'll need assistance from another Sandman, or if his Lifeclock will be reset after the fact. Logan goes to recruit Jessica, seeking her help in reaching Sanctuary; she is reluctant to join Logan until she sees him assisting a Runner instead of killing her. Unfortunately, Francis also witnesses this, and he's unaware of Logan's undercover assignment, so he kills the Runner, then starts chasing Logan and Jessica.

From there, Logan and Jessica make their way through the bowels of city with Francis on their heels, encountering a bizarre robot named Box (Browne) whose job is preserving any food that comes his way, Runners included, and eventually, they escape the domed city entirely. Upon discovering the ruins of Washington, D.C. outside after a long journey in the outdoors, Logan and Jessica realize there is no Sanctuary. There is, though, an old man (Ustinov) living in the old Senate building with a roomful of cats, to their surprise. While there is no Sanctuary, there is now the knowledge that life does not have to end at age thirty...as the rest of the domed city's inhabitants will soon discover.

A great sci-fi popcorn movie. Highly recommended film.

The King of Marvin Gardens

The King of Marvin Gardens (Criterion #550).
1972 BBS Productions and Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, Julia Anne Robinson, Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers, Charles LaVine, Josh Mostel
Director: Bob Rafelson
Available as a single DVD, or part of Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set (standard DVD) (Blu-ray).

This 1972 film directed by Bob Rafelson was reissued last year in one of the most (IMHO) exciting home video releases of 2010, Criterion's America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. Originally, the project was supposed to be released by Sony with the generic "New Hollywood" title in fall of 2009, but at some point, Sony licensed the set to Criterion, who worked their unique brand of magic on the seven films included, and the plethora of extras found on each disc. BBS Productions was formed in 1968 by Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner, financed by the success of the Monkees' TV series. Over the next four years, BBS would create and release some undisputed classic films which were distributed by Columbia Pictures, notably Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, and The Last Picture Show. BBS was also responsible for the Academy Award winning 1974 Vietnam documentary Hearts of Minds, which is not included on the BBS set, but it has its own Criterion release.

The King of Marvin Gardens stars Jack Nicholson, playing against type as a depressing and almost passive radio host named David Staebler, also known as "The Philosopher", who spends his evenings depressing and boring the hell out of anyone who's listening in or around Philadelphia. One of his favorite topics to discuss on the air is his older brother Jason (Dern), who at the time, is in jail, allegedly for stealing a car. After one memorably bad show, David is called upon to bail Jason out of the hoosegow, with the help of a shady businessman named Lewis (Crothers). Arriving in Atlantic City, the bold and outgoing Jason ropes his brother into an outrageous scheme: buying a small island near Hawaii, and turning it into a resort. Jason is also living with two girlfriends in a once-grand Atlantic City hotel; the aging beauty queen Sally (Burstyn) and her stepdaughter Jessie (Robinson). Sally starts to grow paranoid that Jason will abandon her once his "upcoming success" in Hawaii becomes a reality.

The tension between Sally and Jessie gradually increases over the course of the movie, and David seems to realize that Jason's plans simply aren't going to happen, especially after a debacle of a lobster dinner with two potential investors from Japan, who do not come through. Also, Jason seems to be confident that he can get financial support from Lewis, who isn't buying in, as David will find out one evening. Tragically, Jason's grand scheme never gets out of Atlantic City, as Sally shoots him to death following a loud argument between the two of them and David.

A great movie, even if it was a bleak and depressing one at time. Its violent ending seemed almost appropriate in this character study of four people with no real future to their lives or any chance to escape Atlantic City, New Jersey. Recommended movie.

Talk Radio

Talk Radio.
1988 Cineplex Odeon Films and Universal Pictures.
Starring: Eric Bogosian, Alec Baldwin, Ellen Greene, Leslie Hope, John C. McGinley, John Pankow, Michael Wincott
Music: Stewart Copeland
Director: Oliver Stone
Available for purchase at Amazon.

Talk Radio is based on Eric Bogosian's stage play, and portions of the screenplay was based on the 1984 assassination of Denver radio personality Alan Berg at the hands of neo-Nazis.

Bogosian is Dallas radio personality Barry Champlain, a host of a nightly Dallas program called Night Talk. Champlain's trademark is arguing with and insulting his callers, an audience of freaks, losers, racists, homophobes, and more than a few people who wouldn't think twice of ending Champlain's life because his nightly tirades infuriate them so much. Champlain usually hangs up on many of his callers, and they usually call back for another round of verbal fisticuffs with the host. Barry Champlain, despite his brash public persona, is actually a very insecure, self-loathing man. He was a clothes salesman who somehow lucked into a radio gig one fateful afternoon, and as his fame and audience grew, Barry started to live his outrageous radio persona off the air as well.

One Friday night, Champlain learns that his show will be picked up for national syndication, and the first nationwide show is scheduled for the following Monday. While being syndicated nationally will potentially mean more money, more fame, and a country filled with would-be listeners for him, Barry is less than thrilled at the news. He's dealing with the end of his relationship with a younger female producer named Laura (Hope), and the possibility that his new syndication bosses will neuter his show and his on-air persona. Barry's supportive ex-wife Ellen (Greene) flies into town to be on hand for what is supposed to be his first national program, but what she witnesses instead is completely the opposite of what should be a celebration: her former husband crashing and burning spectacularly on the air.

Great, great, GREAT movie. Eric Bogosian's performance was incredible. Highly, highly recommended film.

International House

International House.
1933 Paramount Pictures; owned and distributed to DVD by Universal.
Starring: Peggy Hopkins Joyce, W.C. Fields, Stuart Erwin, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Sari Maritza, Lumsden Hare, Bela Lugosi, Franklin Pangborn, Edmund Breese, Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd
Also featuring: Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, Baby Rose Marie, Sterling Holloway
Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Available as part of the first W.C. Fields Comedy Collection, on sale at Amazon.

A star studded sketch film built around Dr. Wong (Breese) inventing a dandy contraption called a "radioscope", which features elements of television, and it also can pick up and zoom in on anything or anybody around the world. Not only that, the radioscope also provides snapshots of popular stage and radio performers. Wong plans to reveal his invention to the rest of the guests at the International House Hotel in Wuhu, China, and many of those guests make no secret that they hope to buy, or steal, the radioscope for themselves.

After the unexpected arrival of Professor Henry R, Quail (Fields), who had intended to travel to Kansas City, another guest named Tommy Nash (Erwin) becomes ill, leading to the hotel being quarantined. Nash is having a streak of bad luck, since he gets sick every time he attempts to marry his fiancee Carol (Maritza). Quail stays the night after disrupting the entire hotel and radioscope demonstration as only W.C. Fields can, and he leaves the next morning with Peggy Hopkins Joyce, escaping her ex-husband Nicholas Petronovich (Lugosi), who is at the hotel hoping to profit by stealing the radioscope for himself.

Great performances from everyone involved, particularly Fields, Lugosi, Burns and Allen. Highly recommended comedy from the era before the Motion Picture Production Code was implemented, hence the inclusion of a performance of Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing a wonderful ditty entitled "Reefer Man". Rock!