(BP)

My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing for 3+ hours straight. Also had a near-miss with the trash can during Demus/Connelly, so I guess I was somewhere near @The Comedian. It was the beer and blood section for the remainder of the show. My brother and I were happy to get to see Colby wrestle 25 years after we watched his dad tear down an armory with Devon Storm at one of our first indie shows. The experience of the dog collar match followed by everyone then somehow being more horrified by the gnarly stuff in Thatcher/Makabe was a thing of beauty. Krule is an absolute unit, and I was about as freaked out by him making eye contact with me tonight as I would’ve been if I’d had a face-to-face with Kane as a child (Mag Dog Connelly is still somehow more terrifying.) I’m intrigued by what the Gresham match will look like. I kind of regret not picking up a signed White Mike glossy 8x10. It was a lovely event with a hot crowd full of great energy. To the extent that I knew his tastes, to me the entire card screamed Dean.

I was trying to figure out which Leonard books shared the Karen Sisco character, and because Justified is a huge blind spot for me I didn’t know they had Carla Cugino reprise her role from the single-season ABC Sisco show. Apparently they didn’t even have the rights to the character, so they just alluded that her character had a different last name because she’d been married.

This is how I learned fire safety.

Gossett is absolutely fantastic in the HBO Watchmen series. I was happy to see him get a showcase at that stage of his career.

Harold Perrineau has had a good career, but based on how much he pops off the screen on Oz and his Mercutio being the standout part of Romeo + Juliet, I’d still say it’s been underwhelming.

Sellers did have to fake an injury to get Kubrick off his back about playing yet another role in Strangelove. I just read that Ernie Hudson was nearly 40 at the time of the first Ghostbusters, which means he’s almost 80 now. That’s insane because in Frozen Empire he’s clearly the most spry by a wide margin.

I watched all of those over a couple of days last week and I totally agree. The sequels are too bogged down in building lore. Origins is a return to form but still not as strong as the first one. All of them have at least a couple of effective scenes though.

I’d say middle period Pacino starts with Sea of Love and ends with Insomnia. His next picture after that is Simone, and that’s about a wrap on Al. I wonder what kind of relationship he had with Nolan because they never worked together again.

I just got my front row seats and I’m so hyped.

They’re basically part of a shared universe since Keaton is playing his ATF character Ray from Jackie Brown.

Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead is one of the more entertaining 90s Tarantino knockoffs. The plot is silly, but there’s a murderer’s row of character actors giving unhinged performances. Think goofier Usual Suspects. I don’t know how well Summer of Sam holds up, but from my recollection it’s populated by some of the dumbest characters ever assembled in a studio movie. The Berkowitz scenes are quite disturbing though. It’s been a while since I’ve seen The Long Riders too, but I remember liking it a great deal. It’s Walter Hill in his prime, and the idea to cast real sets of brothers to play the James-Younger Gang was brilliant. After you watch Being There, I’d suggest the HBO biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Geoffrey Rush is extraordinary as Sellers.

As far as later Wilder, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes has always been one of my favorite Holmes adaptations.

I really wish that Sputnik Monroe movie had gotten made.

Before Fred Phelps was disbarred for being a psycho, his work in civil rights law helped dismantle Jim Crow and integrate schools in Kansas. He was apparently a virulent bigot even then and just did it for the money, but depending on what you think of Vince’s philanthropy there’s an argument that Phelps has done more tangible good than Vince ever has, even though both are tremendous pieces of shit.

They definitely needed to redistribute one of the multiple Phoebe subplots to Trevor. Phoebe: Trevor

When Tony signed him, he knew This Fire Burns.

I would at least read a Wikipedia plot summary just because Afterlife introduces a lot of new characters that carry over into Frozen Empire.

I liked Frozen Empire. My biggest issue was it felt a bit unfocused since it’s practically an Altmanesque large ensemble piece. On the other hand, I wasn’t crazy about spending the entire film with the sitcom family dynamic set up early on, so I’m glad they opened the world up. It felt like the script needed another pass, but the last act is a hoot. Cool creature design, fun support from Nanjiami, Oswalt, and the legacy actors, plus it’s a tent pole movie clocking in at a merciful two hours.

I’m picturing this

Tenebrae and Opera are my favorites. The theme song to Tenebrae goes so hard.

He played John Goodman’s father in a few episodes of Righteous Gemstones, and when he first popped up I felt like I’d seen a ghost.

I always think of Out of the Blue as the American analog to Christiane F. They’re both very heavy adolescent dramas, but they also explore youth culture from the era in groundbreaking ways. With Out of the Blue, it feels like one of the last moments where Hopper felt truly dangerous as a performer before he started embracing his counterculture cred for nostalgia or playing straightforward creeps and villains.

It’s annoying when celebrities peddle bullshit to excuse doing paycheck movies, but Murray’s, “I thought it was written by one of the Coen brothers” for Garfield is way better than the typical, “I did it for my kids.”

I’m higher on Valley Girl than almost any of the movies mentioned so far. Years and years ago I got to go to a screening of it at Lincoln Center that had a Q&A with director Martha Coolidge and the Valley Girl herself, Deborah Foreman, hosted by Kevin Smith. It’s fascinating how fully formed Nic Cage already was as a performer; he brings his whole dog and pony show to a teen romantic comedy and elevates it with new wave bizarreness. It’s also really fun to see a young Michael Bowen as a preppy douche and a scorching hot E.G. Daily. Plus, Frederic Forrest and Colleen Camp are one of the first examples of hippie burnout parents in 80s media, almost a prototype for the parents on Family Ties.

You betzler!