Movie Reviews: I, Madman

I, Madman
directed by Tibor Takacs

This horror movie is visually and thematically a homage to old noir films and pulp detective/adventure stories that usually had an endangered pretty woman, a protective two-fisted hero, and some creepy psycho villain. 

Although this 1989 movie was made when standards on horror film depictions of sex and violence were relaxing, this film remained faithful to its influences in that more is implied than is shown. 

I didn't think anything shown or implied was gratuitous. I like horror movies; it takes a lot for me to think that something is gratuitous. Anyhow I never thought that the director was trying to hide a bad story with cleavage shots or buckets of blood.

Movie Reviews: A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story

directed by Bob Clark

It's nearing the time of year when this movie will be playing all day every day somewhere on a cable or streaming service. If you are under 40 or so you may wonder what the big deal is. Older people such as myself may remember watching the movie and experience a wave of nostalgia. 

I still think the movie is funny. My good feelings about the film are not because the film is always laugh out loud hilarious but because I remember watching this movie with departed family members. So I associate this movie with better times.

Yes, many of the film's activities and attitudes are now dated. Most mothers work outside the home. Most kids would rather have the latest video game than a BB gun. A lamp of a female leg clad in fishnet stockings would be tame today. And there would be some sort of adult intervention if a child bully and his evil henchman chased other children home from school every day.

But some things are timeless. Adults and children live in different worlds with different rules. People often have outdated perceptions of younger relatives. Most parents love their children unconditionally.

Labrador and Bearded Dragon Share Salad

Labrador and Bearded Dragon share salad. Or rather the Labrador eats all the good stuff while the lizard eats the lettuce. But sometimes that's what friends do isn't it, take all the good parts and leave you with wilted lettuce.

Movie Reviews: Fuzz

Fuzz
directed by Richard Colla

This 1972 movie was based on the novel of the same name written by Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Lombino, who is best known by his pen name of Ed McBain. Hunter also wrote the film's screenplay. Many of "McBain's" novels were set in NYC's 87th precinct but this movie was set in Boston. Fuzz had two big stars in Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch but they didn't click together for at least two reasons.

(1) The film was conceived and executed as an ensemble "dramedy". 

(2) According to Reynolds, Welch was not happy, to put it mildly, that Reynolds had higher billing and the associated higher pay. Welch refused to work with Reynolds. 

Their two characters were rarely in the same scene together and again according to Reynolds when they were Welch insisted on using body doubles for dialogue so that she wouldn't be there. Welch was also annoyed with what she thought was excessive attention to her beauty/body; she made the director tone down a scene she thought was needlessly revealing. 

Rhino Wakes Up Dog

Don't you hate when people wake you up from a deep sleep? Maybe you react just like this dog did when a friendly and curious rhino interrupted the canine's beauty rest.

If you wanted any proof that the Rhinos are really gentle 😊😊 pic.twitter.com/6WhK5VMyqr

— Susanta Nanda (@susantananda3) November 15, 2022

Movie Reviews: Odds Against Tomorrow

Odds Against Tomorrow
directed by Robert Wise

Too many modern movies seek to ensure that their political or social message is sent and received regardless of whether the story is any good. Screenwriters, directors, and actors  may even deliberately damage the story to put the message front and center. In some films this has become ridiculous, rendering the end product almost unwatchable. 

It's one thing to say that a film's heroine is competent or a bada$$. It's something else to make the character perfect from the beginning in everything and thus eliminate challenges, growth and development. It's something else to make every male character incompetent, weak, malicious, or sexist. 

It's one thing to say that racism is bad. It's something else to make a racist character so ridiculous that he becomes a live action cartoon who is easily dismissed by real life racists.

Artists who want to entertain and educate the audience could do worse than to watch films created by Robert Wise, who was best known for The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Sound of Music, and West Side Story. 

2022 Midterms

I don't know who was the first person to say "Don't get high on your own supply". Younger people may recall a version of this maxim from rapper Biggie Smalls 1997 song "Ten Crack Commandments". I'm not young so my reference point for the line is from the 1983 movie Scarface. 

There are older sayings with similar meanings. H.P. Lovecraft in his 1927 horror novel The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward wrote the warning "Do not call up that which you cannot put down". Shakespeare's "Hamlet, written between 1599 and 1601, has the line "hoist by one's own petard" which warns of destruction by forces that the person has invoked. 

Republicans should have remembered these warnings before the recent midterms. At this time there are a few races yet to be called. But there was no red wave. Democrats will keep control of the Senate. Republicans will likely take control of the House by a small margin. 

With a few exceptions high profile Trump supported election denier Republicans lost. In Michigan, Republicans were shut out entirely. Michigan Democrats retained the offices of Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, while taking the State House and State Senate.