I've been looking for a good book about the scandals and controversies of the silent or pre-Hays Code era. Anyone know of a good one out there?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Revisited Logan's Run last night, wherein people reaching their 30th birthday are sentenced to death by synthesizer.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Finally got around to watching The Drop. It deserved all the positive hype. Execellent turns by Thomas Hardy , J Ganolfini , and Naomi Rapace. Good stuff , 9 of 10.
Last edited by bill g; 08-16-2018 at 07:56 PM.
If you watch Jaws backwards, it's a movie about a shark that keeps throwing up people until they have to open a beach.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Logan's Run is a good movie. Love the electronic music during the scene where Logan and Jessica flee from Francis by running through the Love Shop.
And yes, there's a scene with a robot in an ice cave, though said robot was really just Roscoe Lee Browne in some not very good makeup. THat was the weird thing about that movie: some of the effects are really good, like the overhead shots of the underground city. But then there's other effects that are...let's say less impressive. In particular, there's the Carousel sequence, where you can see the wires holding the performers up. Or you could, originally, but I think they must have pulled a George Lucas and "cleaned up" the footage digitally, because the last time I saw it, the wires were considerably less noticeable.
There was a Simpsons episode where they end up going to Fort Lauderdale, at the same time as spring break. There's a bit where an MTV VJ is doing a live broadcasdt, but the crystal in her hand starts flashing red (like in Logan's Run), she says something like "But I'm only 20!", and she gets hustled off camera and replaced immediately by a "newer model", apparently.
When I think of Logan's Run, I think of that 60s/70s era where science fiction movies were still slightly cheesy, took themselves too seriously, and for the most part didn't have very good screenplays. It's an ok movie, but not great. You would have thought that the incredible 2001 would have set a new bar, a much higher standard, but 2001 was an outlier way ahead of its time(because, Kubrick).
Where things changed for sci fi, imo, was Star Wars, Alien and then Bladerunner. Those movies upped the ante on special fx, had great directors and great stories and screenplays. After those movies came out, stuff like Logan's Run, Zardoz, Omega Man, Soylent Green, Futureworld etc seemed ancient.
Maybe to you they seem "ancient", but for some of us, they're still very entertaining. And in the case of Omega Man, it inspired a song by The Police, one of the better tunes on Ghost In The Machine, in fact. How many songs have you head that inspired by Alien or Blade Runner?!
Speaking of Alien, a few years back, IFC, I think it was, ran all of the first four movies (not sure if this Alien Vs. Predator nonsensed even existed yet at the time), and as such, I ended up watching the first three for the first time in ages (and the fourth for the first time ever). The first movie still holds up the horror movie classic that's remembered as. Everything about that movie is, in my opinion close to perfect. And to think, it might not have happened if Alejandro Jodorowsky hadn't brought Dan O'Bannon and H.R. Giger to work on his aborted attempt at Dune.
Aliens, I thought was a pretty good action oriented film. Dug the queen alien sequence. Reportedly, when the film went into production, Giger was working on Poltergeist 2, and when he heard there was going to be an Alien sequel, he realized he was "working on the wrong sequel!". I'm not sure I quite bought Paul Reiser as the sleazy "Corporation" guy, but then, I guess that's only because of Mad About You.
Third one, Alien Cubed or however you want to say it, was not bad. I remember my old pen pal back in the 90's, felt the ending was ripped off from Terminator 2. I liked the idea of Ripley having an Alien inside her.
Alien Resurrection was...weird. They took the plot in an interesting direction, with the Ripley clone, the new evolution of the alien species, etc. Kinda liked seeing Toto video escapee Brad Dourif (and yes, I know his career is much more significant than being in a Toto video, this is me writing this, of course I associate him with the Stranger In Town video more so than, say, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest!) in that one. Winona Ryder was pretty good in that too (after Lucas and Beetlejuice, I had the hots for Winona Ryder for awhile, back in the late 80's and early 90's).
Damn, that reminds me, it's been a long time since I watched Beetlejuice. I've got a copy on VHS around here some place I taped off Cinemax (same tape, I think as that Cheap Trick concert I taped off MTV).
Last edited by GuitarGeek; 08-16-2018 at 11:11 PM.
I never said I didn't find any of them entertaining. Some were. My point was after Star Wars, Alien and Bladerunner came out, with the leap forward in special fx and the higher plateau of storytelling, those movies almost instantly seemed "old", ie dated, despite the fact that some of them were made just a few years before. Note, that did *not* hold true for 2001. And yes, these are clearly my opinions, as stated in my previous post.
Last edited by DocProgger; 08-17-2018 at 08:19 AM.
Logan's Run is a great film. I've heard the remake has been in development hell for 20 years.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
One excellent book about one very specific silent scandal is The Day the Laughter Stopped by David Yallop (1976). It's a biography of Roscoe Arbuckle with the whole scandal and trials for the death of Virginia Rappe. Read it a few years ago. Besides the railroading of Roscoe, the book has wonderful insights into his relationships with Mack Sennett and Buster Keaton. (I had not known that Roscoe was an original Keystone Kop.) The book can be scholarly at times, particularly about the trials, but don't let that stop you.
P.S. After reading this book, you'll no longer refer to Roscoe as "Fatty."
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
Yeah, that was quite a tragedy. Even though he was exonerated, it made no difference. I'm hoping there's some book about the era in the context of the Roaring 20s and how Hollywood reflected all that was going on while pushing the proverbial envelope.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
The Captive (2014)
Crime thriller about a child abduction, pedophile ring, devastated family, and dysfunctional cops.
Great cast and cinematography , should of been much better, but too many gaping plotholes.
Almost as many as an episode of Charlie's Angels!
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
To answer GuitarGeek's question which I neglected to do, I saw on one of the many extras in the Bladerunner 5 disc set something about BR influences on pop culture, and George Micheal of all people did an entire video specifically modeled after the BR futuristic urban "look"; can't remember the name of the tune, will edit if I find it.
But who needs a song when the BR soundtrack is fantastic, and it's proggy (Vangelis of course). And I highly recommend the Bladerunner 2049 2 disc soundtrack, which is really kicks major ass and will give your woofers a workout. Synths and moody electronic music galore.
Last edited by DocProgger; 08-17-2018 at 01:53 PM.
Bookmarks