Thursday, April 15, 2021
Doc Watch: Pumping Iron (1977)
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Watch Party Watch: Lady Frankenstein (1971)
Sunday, April 4, 2021
Amazon Watch Party Watch: Piranha (1978)
Monday, March 22, 2021
PODCAST: "The Long Good Friday" (1979) - a SimonUK Canon episode w/ Ryan
We're still talking our personal canon, and SimonUK brings a favorite from the UK - and one hell of a film. We talk amazing performances, tight stories, and the real world of late-70's England that informed one of the hallmark films of the gangster genre. Join us for a long chat on a good movie.
Saturday, March 6, 2021
Watch Party Watch: Deathsport (1978)
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Finally Watched It Watch: The Last Picture Show (1971)
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Lynda Carter Watch: Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976)
they misspelled Lynda Carter's name. Well done, person in 1976. |
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Angry Animal Watch: Day of the Animals (1977)
Sunday, November 22, 2020
PODCAST: "Robin and Marian" (1976) - a Connery Tribute PodCast w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Watched: 11/01/2020
Format: Amazon Streaming
The Signal Watch is sad we've lost a film icon in Sean Connery, so SimonUK and yours truly check out one of Connery's less discussed but curiously interesting films - where he plays a middle-aged Robin Hood returning to Sherwood Forest after 20 years away. A meditation on legends, aging, love, what drives us and what we hang onto.
Music
Monday, November 16, 2020
Watch Party Watch: The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974)
Thursday, November 5, 2020
Election Week Watch: The Muppet Movie (1979)
Watched: 11/04/2020
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Hammer Watch: Dracula A.D. 1972
Format: BluRay
Monday, October 26, 2020
Watch Party Watch: The House That Dripped Blood (1971)
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Hammer Watch: Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Friday, October 23, 2020
Hammer Watch: The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Monday, October 12, 2020
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Watch Party Watch: Vampire Circus (1972)
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Watch Party Watch: Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974)
I kinda like this goofy movie.
Hammer had the not-all-that-bad idea in a post-James Bond era to frame a new character as one of the disaffected antiheroes that had made their way into film. I am certain this was intended to be the first of several films starring Captain Kronos, but Hammer studios was on the verge of collapse and wsn't able to continue the adventures of the good Captain.
The movie is also - I learned - part of the Karnstein vampire saga which began with an adaptation of the 1872 novel Carmilla starring Ingrid Pitt and retitled The Vampire Lovers. As an alternative to the Dracula films, Hammer had found new angles on the Karnsteins across 3 films in 1970 - 71 before the incredibly iffy return of Drac in 1972.
This film sees a vampire that haunts the woods outside a remote village. The local doctor calls in a friend from "the war", an expert swordsman who pairs with a Van Helsing-like expert in vampire affairs to root out and eliminate the fiends (and in Hammer, especially, the vampires are not just misunderstood weirdos or X-Men with a blood addiction). Kronos is Hammer's version of a bad-motherf@#$er - chain smoking his way through the film, rescuing a grateful Caroline Munro from her small-minded fellow villagers and bringing her along for the inevitable sex scene and to fawn over him throughout the movie.
For their part, the vampire is draining young girls of their youth and essence. Meanwhile, clues start mounting up pointing at the wealthy rich family in town.
All in all, it's pretty straight-forward stuff. Hammer was looking to get a bit more action-adventure with their movies and maybe push their aging cast of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as the leads for young film fans to enjoy. It's actually a good enough formula that a smattering of non-Dracula vampire movies of the past thirty years have borrowed the idea of cool vampire hunters, from Vampire Hunter D to Vampire$ and a bunch I'm not thinking of. But - Blade the Vampire Hunter appeared in Marvel comics a year before this movie arrived in theaters. Pretty wild. Something was in the air.
The movie does include some swordplay, but it never quite reaches Errol Flynn-ness. And maybe suggested a cantina scene to a certain Mr. Lucas.
There's no, like, deeper themes to the movie. It's pretty straightforward, sets up Kronos and his pal and what their adventures look like, and then mic drops. If you're looking for something that does some good genre bending and is clearly having a good time doing it, sure!
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Watch Party Watch: Someone I Touched (1975)
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Fosse Watch: All That Jazz (1979)
Watched: 09/15/2020
Format: TCM on DVR
Viewing: First (all the way through)