I remember going with a big group of older girls to see Rocky IV in the theater for my sister's birthday. James Brown opens the drama with an over the top showgirl extravaganza to stick it to the Russians (aka Dolph Lundgren and Brigitte Nielsen). But then Dolph ends up killing Apollo Creed in the match and Rocky has to train in the snow and get revenge in Moscow (sans showgirls). He beats Dolph bloody, but decides not to kill him, rather to give a rousing speech instead that ends the cold war.

I posted some rousing stills over at RC.

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Posted on June 29, 2009

Why do I mention it now?

Because it's confirmed that the franchise that shaped by childhood, that started Johnny Depp's career, and introduced this fabulous song to the world (in a scene featuring invisible kung fu fighting no less) is finally getting the inevitable Offspring video director turned crappy movie director remake treatment, and essentially destroying a small part of me. At least we have the music and can reminisce.

Here's what I said back on 10/16/06:

I have been in love with this song since I bought the single in Jr. High and even then I was royally disappointed by the look of the band. Clearly, these dudes are not cool, even the band in Lost Boys was more respectable, and yet this song is cool–way cool.

It also became a mystery, I knew it was from a movie at some point, but which one? I thought Valley Girl, perhaps. Wrong – it is from the movie I was obsessed with for a long time – Nightmare on Elm St. 4 – The Dream Master . You know, the one with Alice, who starts meek but ends up doing nun-chucks; the one with her totally fine brother who has to fight an invisible Freddy in a Steven Seagal worthy set and ends up a meatball on Freddy's pizza; the one with the brainiac girl with asthma; the one with the girl who works out to Sinead O'Connor's “Put Your Hands On Me” only the be turned in a roach at Freddy's Roach Motel; the one that starts with Kincaid's death in the car junkyard…. Yes, that one! See I can remember nearly every frame, but couldn't remember that this, one of my very favorites, was in it. Oh, for shame, Brittany.

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Posted on June 15, 2009

I really can't recall how I heard of Ellen Gilchrist and why her book of collected short stories In the Land of Dreamy Dreams landed on my Amazon wish list, but I'm glad it did. I enjoyed these stories more than I expected and have been telling everyone I know to read this book which, given the book's history, is no big surprise: published with no fanfare or typical publicity by a small university press, it still managed to sell over 10,000 copies in its first release.

Based mostly in the South, where Gilchrist herself has and continues to live, the stories read kind of like a very feminine Raymond Carver. With very little she paints vivid image of often colorful women: a sprightly young girl who wants nothing more than to play her brother's games, a rich lady who spends most of her time in a fur covered bed because she's so bored with the world, the suffering daughter of a renowned eccentric woman that plans her own funeral, or a bitch at a country club who struggles against changes that challenge her steadfast views on race and class.

We are offered glimpses into seemingly mundane situations peppered with moments that might seem insignificant but change the characters forever. The stories are often as dark as they are memorable.

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Posted on June 1, 2009

With a recognizable cast (horror movie king and Halloween alumni Donald Pleasance and a pre-Labyrinthine long legged Jennifer Connelly), and a big name soundtrack (both Iron Maiden and Motorhead contribute songs, though it's Argento stand-by and personal source of undying love, Goblin, that create the most eerie music), Phenomena is one of Dario Argento's most accessible films, though strangely (and unfairly), it's also one of his most under-viewed.

But don't let my description fool you, the director certainly hasn't gone too Hollywood; there's still plenty of uneven pacing, in-cohesiveness, maggots, and borderline ludicrous over-dubbing: “Do you take… do you understand?.. DRUGS?” asks the super hot Swiss Headmistress.

Argento has claimed that this tale of a poor little rich girl who has a supernatural control of and mutual love for insects (at one point a bug is put an excited mating frenzy just by her touch) is his personal favorite (even though I favor, as most fans do, Suspiria). The plot concerns Connelly's unusual power which, with the aid of a local entomologist and his chimp (for all you Lance Link fans), leads the frequently night gown only clad heroine on a quest to find the identity of a local killer on the loose.

The film almost feels like three movies in one, lots of bang for your giallo buck, and features images that stay in your subconscious. I often think of the swiss chalet where a Dutch tourist “looses her head” and the crazy creepiness that's revealed behind a child's tears. Plus, Connelly is dressed in perfect rich girl mid eighties attire throughout.

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Posted on May 11, 2009

Jim and I espouse the virtues of the incredible George Smiley TV adaptations (based on the John Le Carre novels) every chance we get. And, even though very few people have taken our advice and actually watched these complex spy dramas, they're just so good that we can't help but keep pushing them. Spy aficionado and good friend Matthew over at Double O Section has been just as persistently forceful with us about The Sandbaggers, a late 70's British television series that I feared would be a dated and possibly even corny show for spy lovers only but, I'm thrilled to report, that it is in fact the closest thing to the Smiley shows I've ever seen.

It's a serious and seemingly realistic look at the world of the British secret service in the late golden years of the Cold War. Neil Burnside, played by Roy Marsden, is the dashing and acutely intelligent director of an elite unit of “Sandbaggers”, special agents that get things done. Burnside's a man who means business and the show, which is surprisingly mature and intricate, means business too.

Fighting the secret war, Burnside sends Sandbaggers Willie Caine, Jake Landy and Alan Denson behind enemy lines; out to haul in potential defectors to be tried; parachuting out of planes; and plans political assassinations. But this is absolutely not James Bond, something the characters actually declare early on. Like the work of Le Carre, the traditional fictionalized spy universe of high-ttech gadgets, world travel, and easy strangers who are incredibly hot is totally debunked. These spies are real people forced into high stakes situations by petty political pressure and commands from higher ups who haven't got the slightest idea what they're doing. The war's fought behind desks through extensive planning and re-planning – not in the driver's seat of an amphibious Lotus with a rocket launcher.

The show was created by Ian Mackintosh, who had been a Scottish naval officer before devoting his talents to writing for the small screen. The tone of the show was so authentic that it sparked speculation over possible espionage-oriented experiences Mackintosh may have taken part in during his naval career. Speculation that only grew when Mackintosh and his girlfriend mysteriously vanished while flying near the Alaskan/Russian border in 1979.

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Posted on April 6, 2009