Hello readers of the bizarre, goofy and serious nature and welcome. This week we take time to honor a Hollywood legend that has worked with the likes of Spencer Tracy, Anthony Quinn, James Cagney, Eva Gardner, Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn and many others. A man that bright us tears of laughter, dazzled us with song and dance numbers and could even emote drama to the likes I would not have thought him capable of. This cinema giant was all of 5 foot 2 inches and yet he towered over his co-stars. I speak of the late Mickey Rooney.
Gosh, Mr. Fields let me have one of his Ceegars!
From musicals to shorts to voice acting in cartoons; this man has done it all and was still working up to the day he passed on. With his substantial baby-face affliction, he portrayed a wily teenager up to his late twenties. With over 338 acting credits to his name, 7 productions and 4 directorates our Mr. Rooney did his level best to bring entertainment to the world, so it is only fitting and fair we give him a worthy send off with a few choice titles for the week. Join me now for Mickey Rooney Week, because there will never be another of his like.
Welcome back fans of horror to Day 4 of Stephen King Week. This time around the writer, director and main producer all saw eye to eye on the project but there are some that say our next flick wasn't all it could have been. Some blame the story, others blame the director but at the end of the day the writer and director are one and the same. Yes, Stephen King himself helmed our next installment for better or worse. This is Maximum Overdrive.
I'll get you, Spider-Man!
Man at Cashpoint: Honey! C'mon over here, Sugar-buns. This machine just called me a spoiler!
Based on the short story Trucks our story unfurls with a strange bombardment of radiation via a stray comet passing over the planet causing our very machines to go completely crackers and start attacking people left and right. There is no limit to this up-rise; from remote control cars to a vicious soda machine firing cans at the speed of a baseball pitching machine, technology has gone berserk.
In the town of Wilmington North Carolina is the base of our story around the Dixie Boy Truck Stop, when the first sign of insurrection is a gas pump spraying full octane diesel RIGHT IN HIS EYES!!!! Yeah gonna need more than Visine for that. Parolee Bill Robinson (Emilo Estevez of The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo's Fire, Young Guns, Men at Work, Freejack and Mission: Impossible) discovers at his first day as a fry cook his boss Hendershot (Pat Hingle of Invitation to a Gunfighter, Hang 'Em High, Sudden Impact, All the Way Home, Batman and The Quick and the Dead) will have Bill clock in for 7 hours but work 9. No overtime and he keeps a nice percentage. If Bill doesn't like it he can always go back to prison. One of the waitresses is tending to orders when the carving knife attacks her and they find that odd but go on with their day.
Damn Pinto breaks!!!
Meanwhile a little league game is under way and the coach is springing for sodas for the whole team when it hurls sodas at a fast clip, pummeling him to death. A runaway steamroller crashes onto the field squashing a one of the boys and keeps moving on. Young Deke Keller (Holter Graham of Hairspray, Fly Away Home, Six Ways to Sunday, Veronika Decides to Die and Offspring) hightails it on his BMX. No sooner this insanity is underway that a hitchhiker Brett (Laura Harrington of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Linda, Dead Air and The Devil's Advocate) is catching a ride with a crude Bible salesman which ended in her fleeing for her life as the car got smashed and the sleaze getting smacked down by said vehicle.
Our savvy truck stop workers realize something is amiss and should look to defending themselves. Hendershot is apparently a believer in stockpiling his Second Amendment to the level of L.A.W. rockets, assault weapons, SMGs and a helping of sidearms. Will our trapped cast be able to fend off the relentless machines in order to escape or has the tables turned and the machines are now our masters?
Now some neat trivia about the movie itself. The main truck Goblin fabrication is based oddly enough on Marvel Comics' Green Goblin. AC/DC doing the soundtrack was King's idea and frankly they set the tone very well. Throughout the shoot, the remote control trucks would break down and no sooner repaired when another truck would go belly up as well.
One scene called for a child dummy rigged with fake blood to be mauled by the steamroller but the censors of the MPAA and Christian Moralition threw conniptions and the scene had to be edited out. When asked if King will ever direct again, he simply points out his first directorial and leaves it at that.
Welcome back fans of the macabre to Day 3 of Stephen King Week. Well we have experienced werewolves and a possessed car from Hell, one could almost conclude it can't get any worse, right? What about the family dog suddenly going through mental changes? Man's best friend attacking everything and everyone in sight? It's up to 80's big screen mom Dee Wallace to see us through this. This is Cujo.
You stop listening to Judas Priest, young man!
Vic Trenton: There are no real spoilers. Tad Trenton: Except for the one in my closet.
Welcome to Castlerock Maine and as we already know Maine is the state of pure unadulterated evil. We follow the bleak life of housewife Donna Trenton (Dee Wallace of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Critters, The Howling, The Skateboard Kid II, High Sierra Search and Rescue, Sons & Daughters and Robocroc) whose life goes topsy turvy when her husband Vic (Daniel Hugh Kelly of Hardcastle and McCormick, All My Children, Second Noah and Star Trek: Insurrection) found out his missus is seeing an former boyfriend and he leaves for a business trip (cue gambling, drinking and prostitute bender) so Donna and her son Tad (Danny Pintauro of The Beniker Gang, Timestalkers and Who's the Boss) go to visit the Cambers to relax and take her mind off of things.
I AM NOT GETTING NEUTERED!!!!
Tad looks forward to playing with Cujo, a large St. Bernard of a lovable nature. Unaware that hours ago Cujo was bitten by a rabid bat and is going through violent mood swings including killing Joe Cambers and his neighbor. Cujo proceeds to lunge at Donna and Tad while they are still in the car terrifying them both and as luck would have it, her Pinto breaks down (Thanks Ford for such a reliable vehicle there) and the two are helpless and afraid to leave the car. The hot summer day bakes the car to the point that heatstroke or dehydration could take effect and Donna is strapped for ideas, let alone any weapons to fend the beast off. What to do about this monstrous and relentless dog?
I had a few points of interest on the film. Five St. Bernards had to be used to attack the car or simply interact with the human actors and some of the more extreme shots had to be done with a guy in a dog costume and a fairly decent mechanical head. Several Pintos were cut down and disassembled to get specific camera shots and Dee Wallace went on the record as saying she never wanted to be in another Pinto ever again.
Director Peter Medak (Hart to Hart, The Twillight Zone, The Krays and Romeo is Bleeding) quit the project and King recommended director Lewis Teague (Alligator, Fighting Back, The Jewel of the Nile, Cat's Eye, Navy Seals and Nash Bridges) after seeing Alligator and felt this was our creature feature man.
Welcome back King fans to Day 2 of Stephen King Week. As there have been more than a few TV movie adaptations, we easily forget the directors involved. How does the collaboration of director John Carpenter (Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Village of the Damned and Prince of Darkness) and horror novelist Stephen King grab ya? Join with me as we view the disturbing haunting of a 1958 Plymouth Fury and its murderous mayhem it ensues. This is Christine.
Yeah, I need a car for girls. Why are you snickering?
Will Darnell: Look... uhh... I know you don't exactly have money falling out of your spoiler. If you did, you wouldn't be here.
In 1978, nerd stereotype Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon of Jaws 2, All That Jazz, Dressed to Kill, The Legend of Billie Jean, Back to School and I Love Trouble) is as about as cool as Eddie Deizen but his jock buddy Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell of Eddie and the Cruisers, City Limits, My Science Project, Top Gun and Born to Ride) sticks by his childhood buddy to the thick and thin.
Arine becomes to the age of needing wheels to get him to and fro, spies this rusty red 1958 Plymouth Fury. It needs some love to repair it proper and crotchety George LeBay (Roberts Blossom of Another World, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Escape from Alcatraz and Home Alone) off loads this heap for 250 clams. Forced to park his car in a local garage ran by surly Will Darnell (Robert Prosky of Thief, World War III, Hill Street Blues, Loose Cannons, Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Last Action Hero) tries to tell Arnie the car is a lost cause and he is better getting something newer but Arnie cannot hear him. Enamored with the Fury dubbed "Christine" Cunningham proceeds to put time, money and effort in every inch of this car bringing it back to life.
Ah, chicks DO dig the car. Not an urban legend after all.
For some reason the stock radio only seems to play 1950 rock and roll era music but this doesn't bother Arnie at all and starts spending more and more time with his fully restored creation. His shy demeanor seems to ebb out of him and he takes on more of a dark and cocky attitude. So he was Goth before it was popular. This new persona concerns his buddy Dennis and he asks LeBay the former owner if he knows anything. He tells Dennis that his brother took on the same level of obsession to the point he committed suicide in it.
Arnie's nemesis, high school football jocko Buddy (William Ostrander of Fire and Ice, Red Heat, North and South, Knots Landing and Angel) cannot believe the most popular girl in school is talking to Arnie let alone seems into him and he and his buddies follow Arnie to thrash Christine. The car seems to repair itself in front of Arnie and you get the vibe she and he are becoming inseparable. Mysterious vehicular homicides seem to be be happening and local police is trying to blame Arnie for it who seems to have an airtight alibi for each one. So who is doing this?
I had just a few tidbits on the film now. According to the screenwriter Bill Phillips, the level of violence was not substantial enough to warrant a R rating. To combat this problem, Phillips dropped the "F" bomb into it to put more butts into seats to see it.
Rock and Roll Blues artist George Throughgood was buddies with Phillips and ended up making a cameo in the film as a junkyard worker. Phillips suggested that Bad to the Bone be added to the soundtrack of the film and RIGHTFULLY SO.
Being a fan of both George Romero's work and enjoying King's novels, a conversation with Romero convinced Carpenter to do Christine with King.
King's popularity was beaming so that the film was going into production before his manuscript was completed. That my friends, is pull in the industry.
Howdy King fans and welcome to Day 1 of Stephen King Week. I thought I would ease us into the terror with an adaptation of a novella involving a small town in Maine (THE TERROR STATE OF AMERICA!!!!). Yes, according to the disturbing corridors of Stephen King's mind, all of Maine has these pockets of immense evil. The real estate market must be hell to move any newcomers in. Getting back to Tarker's Mills, Maine a quaint little town of close knit community has suddenly be barraged with a series of murders and only two kids and their zany uncle know the score. This is Silver Bullet.
Heads up!!!
Uncle Red: I mean uh, what the heck you gonna shoot with a .44 bullet at anyway...made out of spoiler? Mac: How about a werewolf?
This is the story of not of love but a series of unsolved murders and two sibling children coming to terms with one another. Jane Coslaw (Megan Follows of Boys and Girls, Domestic Life, Anne of Green Gables, Longmire and Reign) narrates our film as she tells us of a summer of excitement, disappointment, bonding and terror. She views her parents coddle her handicapped brother Marty (Corey Haim of Murphy's Romance, Lucas, The Lost Boys, Watchers, Fast Getaway and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star) and is deemed the favorite so she and Marty are typical in squabbling and snark at one another. Living in Tarker's Mills is pretty average town but then people start having accidents and then the sheriff (Terry O' Quinn of Stepfather, The Rocketeer, Wild Card, The Good Fight, Earth 2, Millennium and Lost) concludes some of these deaths could be murder of a most grisly manner.
Little pig, little pig, sizzle in my pan.
Marty's bestest bud stays out past curfew...to fly a kite? I kinda figured it would be drinking some swiped hooch off of Dad's liquor cabinet or toking some weed but okay...a kite. Flying said kite he is stalked from 360 degrees and handheld zoomed to death, mauled with a paw. Our local gun toting, liquor drinking chugs feel the cops aren't doing enough and they will take the law in their own hands...assuming they have evolved enough to have thumbs. The town reverend, Lester Lowe (Everett McGill of Quest for Fire,Twin Peaks, Heartbreak Ridge, The Peope Under the Stairs, Under Seige 2: Dark Territory and My Fellow Americans) tries his level best to get the mob to cease, desist and go home to reflect on how wrong this is. They ignore their pastor and head out into the woods where several of these good old boys meet a gruesome end.
Curfew in town the annual fireworks show is cancelled so the kids are bummed. Fortunately their kooky former Vietnam Vet uncle, Red (Gary Busey of A Star is Born, The Buddy Holly Story, Lethal Weapon, Predator 2, Point Break and Piranha 3DD) give the kids some explosives and built Marty motorcycle/wheelchair they dubbed "Silver Bullet"
Our brother and sister team start to put the clues together that these murders could not be the work of a madman but a monstrous creature of legend, a werewolf. The two work together to smoke out the creature before any more murders happen.
I had a few observations on some goofs I noticed. this story is supposed to take place in 1976 and yet I saw Diet Coke cans, vehicles clearly from the 80s and the bloody newspaper was dated 1980 so I had a few snickers on this one but the biggest goof was Reggie Jackson's Angels poster in Marty's bedroom. Reggie didn't join the Angels until 1982. So with period pieces you need to cover that a bit better with your background. Not the nastiest werewolf film but a decent story, memorable characters and a good gore tone is established.
Stay back Grandma and NO I DO NOT WANT TO RUB YOUR CORNS!!!
Howdy all and welcome back to the menagerie of merriment that is Rotten Reelz Reviews. This week I thought we would tackle some horror films and I felt a decent source of material would be Horror writer novelist Stephen King (The Running Man, Cujo, Misery, Christine and Cycle of the Werewolf) and his various adapted novels to film. Some of these flicks have chilled your soul, made you break out into cold sweats and some have been It. Well you cannot expect gold every time and you will have to sift through the prairie apples to find the buried treasure.
The beautiful boy tempted me I tell you!!!
We will look into the various directors that worked with King and tried to stay in the same mindset as well as the budget. With certain film makers, bonding with King was easy as pie. For others, it was a veritable nightmares as egos clashed. Here's hoping for a fun time and I know some of you King fans have been asking me this for a while so here it is. Enjoy!
Hey there folks and welcome to Day 4 of the Dirty Harry Week. We are finishing up here because my copy of The Dead Pool VHS died horribly in a move 9 years previously. I would much rather catch up with Callahan and his ability to attract danger and craziness all the while solving what appears to be random homicides. This time around Eastwood is beyond and in front of the camera which sounds like a complicated adult film maneuver but he is directing as well as acting. This is Sudden Impact.
This is my "You've really stepped in it" face.
Chief Lester Jannings: So you're the famous Harry Callahan. So I'm going to tell you two things. We don't have any spoilers in this town and we don't need any from you. Got it? Harry Callahan: Aye-aye, sir.
Callahan is getting razed by a judge due to yet another unreasonable search and seizure and the little pukes get to walk. They snark on Callahan in the elevator and Harry sets them straight by terrifying them with size and snarl. No sooner is he back on the streets he interrupts a robbery at his favorite diner by smoking three of the four scumbags and tells the surviving punk to make his day. The smart lad drops his pistol and gives up. Disrupting a stakeout of an alleged crime boss Threlkis at his granddaughter's wedding, the slime finds out he actually has a heart as it fails on him and he vapor locks. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy in this writer's opinion and Harry agrees.
Difference of opinions.
Callahan's superiors are teed off at the actions of the inspector leading to this heart attack and grumble at his methods demanding Harry takes a vacation rather than they suspend him.
No sooner is Harry on vacation that four of Threlkis's men try to ambush him leading to three of them having holes inside them the size of cantaloupe and one managed to escape. Lt. Donnelly (Michael Currie of Dark Shadows, Soap, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The Dead Pool and Dying Time) gives Harry an assignment to San Paulo where a previous homicide used to live so Harry is to do some background checking and then report back. Meanwhile in San Paulo a similiar homicide that occured in San Francisco happens. Harry digs deeper in spite of Chief Jennings (Pat Hingle of Invitation to a Gunfighter, Hang 'Em High, Nightmare Honeymoon, Batman and Batman Returns) grumblings.
Harry starts to fall for an artist with a dark past, Jennifer (Sondra Locke of The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way But Loose, Bronco Billy and Any Which Way You Can) but the clock is ticking as the homicides keep piling up in this small town. I think Death and Harry have an agreement or understanding.
I had just some fun trivia on the movie. This would be the eleventh movie Eastwood directed and the only Dirty Harry Movie Eastwood directed. Furthermore, this is the first Dirty Harry film that Harry does not have a partner backing him up and still remains the highest-grossing of the Dirty Harry franchise.
I use this one for bears and kids blaring their hip hop.
