"Big Trouble In Little China" at 40

Just listen to the ol' "Porkchop Express" and take his advice on a dark and stormy night, alright? When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, looks you crooked in the eye, and asks you if you paid your dues; you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have you paid your dues, Jack?" "Yes, sir, the check is in the mail."

Apparently this week marks 40 years since the release of one of the greatest films ever made, Big Trouble In Little China.

From the previews, I'd been mildly interested in what I saw, and then saw the flick featured in a movie-FX magazine I leafed through in B. Dalton at the mall (did I buy the magazine?  I did not).  Probably they were discussing the big red ape monster and the eyeball guy, and maybe some lightning FX, and that was enough of a sale for me.

Franken-Watch: The Bride! (2026)

Watched:  07/01/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing;  First

Director:  Maggie Gyllenhaal

Before release, I was really looking forward to the release of The Bride! (2026).  

As many know, one of my favorite movies is The Bride of Frankenstein.  This ranking is followed immediately by Frankenstein, and I tend to think of them as a two-part movie as much as a pair of individual movies.  I still re-read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from time-to-time. In 2018, I celebrated the 200th anniversary of the book's publication by visiting a sort of display at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. 

The Bride! was released with what I'd consider a serious marketing push - a rarity these days.  And then the reviews hit and word was not good.  And then people I know saw it and were unenthused, and so I decided to wait for streaming.

I am sad to report that this was the right call.  

Here's what I think.  

Ann Blyth Merges With The Infinite

Somehow I missed this last week, but - Ann Blyth, who had one of the top 5 smiles to ever hit the silver screen, has passed at the age of 98.

I became aware of Blyth at the same time I became aware of the sheer magnificence that is Joan Crawford as an actor rather than a punchline when I watched Mildred Pierce back in college.  In what is her most enduring role, the lovely Blyth played the absolute worst person as Crawford's b of a daughter.  She is *stellar* in this movie.  

The only other movies she starred in I think I've seen are Brute Force (great prison movie.  Check it out.) and Kismet, which is worth seeing some time just for the visuals.* 

But, once you've seen Blyth's Colgate smile, you do not forget it.  

Blyth was very generous with TCM and was interviewed by Robert Osbourne.  Here's a tribute TCM released.

*and by visuals I mean Blyth and Dolores Gray

Happy Birthday Terri Nunn

Hey!  Today is singer Terri Nunn's birthday!  That's fun.  

Saw her sing with Berlin in like 2018 or 19, and she was *amazing*.*

*amazingly hot

TLDR Super Watch: Supergirl (2026)

Watched:  06/25/2026

Format:  Regal

Viewing:  First

Director:  Craig Gillespie

It is probably worth noting that while a great IP to slap on thermoses and t-shirts, Supergirl is maybe the least consistently written mainstream character in comics.  So there is no "right way" to write Kara Zor-El.

I've read my fair share of comic books starring Supergirl over the past few decades.  I've read Silver-Age, Bronze and Copper-Era stories.  I read 90's-00's Not-Kara Supergirl by Peter David.  And was one of people who was flipping out when they brought Kara back in the mid-00's.  Aside from giving New 52 Supergirl a pass, I have pretty complete runs of pretty much everything since the 2005 reboot.  I heartily recommend the current series by Sophie Campbell as one of the best comics I've read in a while.  I own a copy of Action Comics 252.  

I've seen the 1980's Supergirl movie at least three times - including on VHS as a kid.  I watched the entire run of the CW TV show.  Am familiar with various incarnations in live action and animation.  (I have an affection for almost all of those takes.)

I am not a Supergirl PhD, but I feel pretty well oriented.  So, there's my bona fides.

Car Watch: F1 - The Movie (2025)

Watched:  06/21/2026

Format:  AppleTV

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

So, I watched F1: The Movie (2025) a year ago in the theater.  It was an enjoyable movie that was about car racing and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer - so I figured I knew what I was getting, and I was right.  And that is not a complaint.  When I go to Chili's for dinner, I do not complain when the Old Timer with Cheese is the Old Timer with Cheese.

F1: The Movie stars a hot dude who is the best at what he does, but our hero is *also* a troubled rogue.  In this way, he is Maverick from Top Gun.  And, really, this movie is a scramble of beats from Top Gun and basic movie formulas of a certain era for which middle-aged men apparently yearn.  F1: the Movie also features the bonus of being about an old gun fighter showing the new kid on the block what it's all about in order to really satisfy us aging movie-dudes.  

Marilyn at 100: Clash By Night (1952)

Watched:  06/21/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  Second or Third

Director:  Fritz Lang

I'm never going to get over having seen Barton Fink too many times in my younger years.  

Plainly put, the character of Barton Fink is based loosely on the real-life play-write Clifford Odets, who went out to Hollywood to turn his plays about *the common man* into movies.  So every time I see Odets' name on a movie, I kind of know loosely that this will be about the gritty lives of the everyman, and have very particular dialog tics.  Also, I kind of wonder how full of shit this movie really is at its core - not something I generally care about.

Odets strove to capture a sense of at least emotional realism in his plays and movies, setting them not in penthouses and mansions for the New York elite attending shows, but writing plays that took place on the streets below among the working class, seeing their daily struggle as the real poetry.  And I think there's something to that.  

That this film came out of RKO in 1952 is a bit of an eyebrow raiser.  But RKO had this script and they had Fritz Lang as a director and Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan on contract.  And that's a great start.

TV Watch: Widow's Bay - Season 1

Right after it debuted, JAL texted me and said to check out Widow's Bay over on Apple TV.  But it was a few weeks before I got around to it.  

As you may have heard - Widow's Bay is a sort-of comedy about the residents of a cursed island off the coast of New England, founded during the colonial era.  In the modern era, it's a fishing backwater where people kind of accept the horrific and unexplainable things that happen as a matter-of-course.  And, in fact, those born on the island know they can never leave without a deadly misfortune befalling them. 

The season follows the events as the island once again "awakens" - ie: the weird stuff escalates again.  And all during a few days just as our non-native mayor, Tom, has finally managed to get people to visit the island as tourists in an effort to bolster the dying economy of the place.

I'll do my best not to spoil - but y'all know if I'm talking about TV it's because I'm either dragging something or I'm recommending it.  Widow's Bay comes in as a solid:  recommended

Marilyn at 100 Watch/ Noir Watch: Niagara (1953)

Watched:  06/16/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Henry Hathaway

I had only seen Niagara (1953) once before, back in 2012.  I recalled specific images, but was aware that I couldn't recall the actual ending.  

On a rewatch, I can see why.  The movie really cruises along to the last act, and then loses much of the appeal the film has carried up to that point.

Marilyn Monroe, in her first starring, top-billed role, stars alongside Signal Watch fave Joseph Cotten and the lovely Jean Peters.  Monroe plays the wife of Cotten, who knows she's too young for him, too vivacious and who has started running around with a younger man behind Cotten's back.  Cotten thinks something is going on but can't prove it.

They're staying in some cabins overlooking Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, and have fallen into a malaise.  Jean Peters shows up with her husband, (sigh) Max Showalter, on a delayed honeymoon.  They meet Monroe, who is made up and dressed to make Jean Peters look positively plain-jane by comparison - a tremendous feat.

G Comics: Godzilla vs. Texas

Finally got around to actually reading IDW's Godzilla vs. America: Godzilla vs. Texas one-shot.  

Was I pleased?  You know I was.  

If I recently complained about a lack of local specificity in media where the story unfolds in Texas, I will not be repeating that here.  In fact, the bigger problem for this comic is that Texas is gigantic, and the stories themselves are pretty location-specific.  Even chronologically specific.  And Texas is too big for one slim comic.