Robert Redford Merges WIth The Infinite

Robert Redford, actor, producer, director, activist and all-around okay guy, has passed.

I'll say it:  I've never seen Redford deliver anything but a great performance, and I'm not sure I've ever genuinely disliked anything he's been in.  Of course, I've only seen a fraction of his filmography, but I'll stand by the idea.

In an industry full of people trying to dumb things down, Redford exploded during the 1960's and 70's where he took on challenging roles in complicated films, whether we're talking something like a clockwork political thriller like Three Days of the Condor or the exploration of the myth of the west in Jeremiah Johnson.  But his list of classic roles is as long as your arm.  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  The Sting.  The Great Gatsby.  The Natural.  Etc... et al.  Heck, he played one of the best villains in a Marvel film.  Who knew?

He'd go on to direct critically acclaimed films, including Quiz Show (which is still stunningly good).  

Far from just a handsome actor to slot into parts, Redford carved out his own world within Hollywood, using his box office draw to get attention for numerous causes.  He helped found Sundance as a film festival and market for independent film (when that meant something) and he supported efforts to save Barton Springs here in Austin, Texas - where he swam as a kid.

Flat out, this site thinks Redford is cool AF, and salutes the man.  He'll be missed.

Nunsploitation Watch: To The Devil A Daughter (1976)

Watched:  09/15/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Peter Sykes

It's hard not to see To The Devil a Daughter (1976) as existing due to Rosemary's Baby's wild success, a dash of 1970's-style Satanic Panic, and a dollop of Hammer's latter-era horror output like The Devil Rides Out (this is a Hammer co-production).  It's based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley from the 1950's, so good on the printed word leading the way here.

For reasons that kinda make sense if what I understand about Hammer's financial state in the 70's, a German company was involved in financing and production.  

The movie stars an American, Richard Widmark, who made his name in noir - especially with Kiss of Death, with which he's still widely associated - and then went on to participate in a wide-range of movies and roles.  Widmark plays a writer who has written a sensationalistic best-seller about Satanism, who is represented by former Bond-girl Honor Blackman, his pal in London,* and her boyfriend, David.

Nunsploitation Watch: Behind Convent Walls (1978)

Watched:  09/13/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing;  First

Director:  Walerian Borowczyk

Uhm.

So.

Yeah.

And.

Right.

So.

Behind Convent Walls (1978) is a lot more what I had in mind when the word "Nunsploitation" entered my vocabulary a few weeks ago.  For good or ill.

80's Art-Sploitation Film Watch: Ms.45 (1981)

Watched:  09/06/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Abel Ferrara

Criterion Channel currently has a collection of "Nunsploitation" movies, and of their 7 offerings or so, I'd already seen three in my life (Haxan, Benedetta, The Devils) and I'd been meaning to catch Ms. 45 (1981) since seeing something about it a few years ago.  So here we are.  

And, yes, if I can watch 70+ Lacey Chabert movies, I can watch the remaining Nunsploitation movies.

Director Abel Ferrara was kind of a big deal when I was in film school, coming off of The Bad Lieutenant (worth seeing once, at least) and following up with The Addiction, with the Body Snatchers remake in between.  Unfortunately, I kinda stopped tracking indie film a while ago and lost sight of him, but he's been out there making movies all along.  He was not afraid of what was too much for an audience, and seemed not just to push margins but lived there.  

So this early film is a pretty good indicator of what he was capable of.  

TL;DR - Pop Culture Fade-Out: What Happens When No One Remembers Lassie?

Liz is also easily distracted by squirrels

A while back I read the book Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend by Susan Orlean (recommended).  The book is a biography/ history of how one American soldier on the front lines of World War I found a stray dog, and how that dog became, literally, the biggest movie star in the world.  

There's a possibly apocryphal story that at the first Academy Awards they had to re-do nominations and/ or voting because Rin Tin Tin, a skinny German Shepherd, came up as "Best Actor" (everyone kinda thought the awards were a bit absurd at the time).  But what is true is that dog was also one of the biggest box office draws in Hollywood for a few years there before the movies learned how to talk.

While the original Rin Tin Tin passed and was buried in France, various other dogs took on the name and role, and through the 1950's, Rin Tin Tin was still a major pop culture fixture - a sort of family-friendly action star, now re-imagined for television as living on the frontier and starring in his own cavalry-themed Western.

Now...  I'm not sure even my peers could tell you what breed Rin Tin Tin was with any certainty.

35th Anniversary Watch: Pump Up the Volume (1990)

Watched:  09/01/2025

Format:  Criterion Channel

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Allan Moyle

Well.  It turns out I'm old.  

Pump Up the Volume (1990) was released August 22nd, 1990.  I'd intended to watch it for the anniversary a week and a half ago, and forgot.  So here we are.

It's funny - I watched 1955's Rebel Without a Cause in 1989, which was *less time* between release and viewing than when I saw Pump Up the Volume opening day in the theater in August of 1990 and today.  

Time is a slippery mistress.

I will never get over the fact this movie is named "Pump Up the Volume" which was the name of the wildly popular dance tune from 1987.  And, of course, 1989 brought us Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam".  In this era, anything could be pumped up.  

A quick recap so you don't need to re-read my post from 2008 or listen to podcasts on the topic:

In 1990, my folks moved from North Austin to North Houston/ Spring/ Klein.  Within days of moving, I watched a movie about a similarly grumpy teen moved from, in his case, "the East Coast" to a Phoenix suburban analog.  The teen starts a pirate radio station where he performs crude and shocking bits - largely around masturbation - while also waxing philosophic about the state of the world, how the parents of Gen-X'ers (this is a movie about the last wave of Gen-X'ers) failed their own youth movement by "selling out", the world ain't what it should be/ used to be, and that conformity is bad.

If Gen-X sought anything, it was "authenticity", and when you live in the suburbs and can't drive, this means "I reject the notion that Bobby Brown is the best musician or our era, and girls should be allowed to have brown hair".  And this movie is about that.

But, also... if there is a movie that has caused a generation collective Space Jam Fallacy, it's Pump Up The Volume. 

Fish Watch: Jaws (1975)

Watched:  08/29/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Steve something

So, I already watched this movie once this summer, but The Drafthouse was showing Jaws (1975) in 4K with an intro by Spielberg in honor of the movie's 50th Anniversary, so Si and I went.  

I won't belabor discussing the movie itself, but the 4K presentation was fantastic on the big screen.  It's a true preservation job, not AI slop, somehow really sharpening the picture.  And, despite the fact I was well, well aware that the head of Ben Gardner was about to make an appearance, the music sting in the theater was so well placed, I *still* jumped.  

It's also still fun to watch a movie like that in a room with people who are seeing it for the first time.

Catch it in the theater!

JLC Watch: Freakier Friday (2025)

Watched:  08/27/2025

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nisha Ganatra

We all know I went to see this because it stars JLC, and that's fine.  I'd also finally recently watched the 2003 version of Freaky Friday for the first time, liked it much more than expected, and - now that I have the Alamo Pass, popping off to go watch a movie is not such an ordeal.  In fact, I feel pretty incentivized to use the heck out of the pass.

I am not sure if I hadn't seen the 2003 movie, though, if I wouldn't have missed a lot or even been lost.  So, watch that first.  

Here in 2025, I think we finally kind of figured out how to do these late-entry sequels no one was asking for and make it worth it.  As evidence, I'll enter in Freakier Friday (2025) which manages to expand on the set-up of the general Freaky Friday concept, do new things with it, be very funny, and feel like it has some emotional resonance at the end that I'm not sure any of the prior entries, or most body swap movies in general, tend to earn.  

Happy Birthday, Lois Lane

According to Superman lore, today is the birthday of Lois Lane, star reporter of The Daily Planet, former girlfriend, and now wife of Superman/ Clark Kent/ Kal-El.  And all-around troublemaker/ kick-ass character.  

It's no secret we're big fans of Lois here at The Signal Watch.  She burst into comics on the sixth page of Action Comics #1, then going on a date with Clark where she was immediately kidnapped by a mobster - leading to her first meeting with The Man of Steel.

She's been a part of Superman's adventures since that moment, and continues to appear alongside him in his adventures in comics, radio, books, television, movies, video games and more. 

This year has been dense with great takes on Lois, in the movies, TV and comics.

Terence Stamp Merges With The Infinite

Actor Terence Stamp has passed at the age of 87.

This site obviously was aware of Stamp first and foremost from the first two 1970's Superman films wherein he played General Zod, Superman's foe and the would-be conqueror of first Krypton and then Earth.

He was, of course, accomplished and popular In England well before those films.  With smoldering good looks and a natural talent, he was in with a wave of British talent that crossed over the pond and back again over the decades.  

If you want to see a phenomenal movie, check out The Limey.  But he was in everything, from comedies like Bowfinger and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to to actioners like Young Guns.  

Raise a glass, and, for today, it's okay to kneel for Zod.

I'm very sorry to see him go, but he left a rich legacy.  

G Watch: Shin Godzilla (2016)

Watched:  08/16/2025

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Third, I think

Director:  Shinji Higuchi, Hideaki Anno

Shin Godzilla (2016) is currently enjoying a theatrical re-release because, I guess, why not?  Godzilla Minus One was supposed to be in theaters for a week, and wound up playing for months and making crazy bank compared to original estimates, and then landed a much deserved Academy Award.  

Yes, Shin Godzilla is also in the process of being released on 4K disc, and, look, kids....  there's something your favorite blogger would sure like to open on Christmas morning.  

I will never not tell this story, so here goes:  PaulT, Jamie and myself went to a mid-day screening of Shin Godzilla at the old Alamo Ritz, I think in January of 2017.  We were excited, the place was almost sold out in the middle of the day...  it was a whole scene.  Then the movie started and a piercing tone hit the theater.

This tone.   1kHz test tone.  

They paused the movie and the manager came out and said "has anyone seen this before?"  A few hands went up.  "Is this supposed to be happening?"  No.  "Ok!"  So she disappeared.  We hung out for a while.

Apparently the distributor had sent out their digital copies with 1k tone and there was nothing the Drafthouse could do. So I think we got out money back and went to Shakespeare's nextdoor for a beer.

Anyway - I've seen the movie since.  But not since seeing Godzilla Minus One.  Or spending COVID lockdown watching every single live-action Godzilla movie.  

First - this one isn't for the kids.  It's a movie that happens to have a Godzilla in it as a stand-in for any disaster, but in this case, it was pretty specifically the Fukushima nuclear accident that hit Japan in 2011.  I think Shin Godzilla is a genuinely really, really good movie when it comes to the challenge of bureaucracy and systems built to ensure safety by way of democratic processes, something I'm pretty familiar with after spending a lifetime in state-funded higher education,  State government and, recently, local government.  That a single decision must pass through up to five levels and reach a "final decider" to do the obvious, and that person is hopelessly compromised by politics, optics and party machinery has real world consequences.  

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (2025)

Watched:  08/13/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Akiva Schaffer

If you're wondering if The Naked Gun (2025) lives up to the original film, it's really, really close.  It's, of course, trying to recapture that same vibe, and mostly hits the mark while also absolutely having moments that will have you saying "well, that's clearly Akiva Schaffer".  And I mean that in the best way.

I won't actually do a dive on this because it's a joke every 30 second comedy, exists to be that, and does so.  There are great gags that I'll be laughing about tomorrow, and sequences that made me fold over in my chair laughing.  You'll know what they are.

And everyone is funny.  Neeson I've seen be hysterical before, so this was not a shock, but he nails the Police Squad brand of humor..  Pam Anderson has great comedy chops and I hope this pair gets a sequel to do more.  Paul Walter Houser shows up as Ed, and I'm becoming a fan.  CCH Pounder even gets to send-up very specific police chief tropes and it's just hysterical having it come from her.

If I have a recommendation, find the person in the theater who is going to laugh like a maniac and sit near them.  I was fortunate to have "deep belly laugh" guy behind me, and it helped to be in a theater and join that guy in knowing it's okay to laugh like that in a theater.

The Space Jam Fallacy: Is The Movie You Like From Your Childhood Actually... Bad?

For a few years, we ran a podcast based on this here internet web log.  During that time, I made an observation and had to find a phrase to describe it.  We called it:  The Space Jam Fallacy.

The Space Jam Fallacy is the misguided belief that an artifact, such as a movie, is of quality because it was a favored piece of media first consumed during one's formative years.  However, the movie is technically, narratively, and critically, actually, bad.    

As a person who is now fifty, I've now seen the power of The Space Jam Fallacy in full bloom with Gen-X, then Millennials, and, these days, with Gen-Z.  

Why am I picking on Space Jam, the mid-90's mix of animation and live-action movie about Bugs Bunny and actual basketball superstar Michael Jordan taking on a crew of space aliens seen over by an alien voiced by Dan DeVito in a for-all-the-marbles game of basketball?  Because it is the first movie I was well aware of/ saw at the time of release only to see a younger generation declare it must-see-viewing, when I knew the thing to be, in fact, terrible.

For context:

Coppola Watch: The Godfather, Coda - The Death of Michael Corleone/ AKA: The Godfather Part III (1990)

Watched:  08/10/2025

Format:  4K

Viewing:  third or fourth

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Released on Christmas Day in 1990, I saw The Godfather Part III (1990) with the men of the Steans Family.  I was 15 and had already seen the other Godfather movies a few times by this point.  Going in, I was aware the new film was not supposed to be up to the levels of the two prior movies, but was still interested. 

It was... fine?  Good, even.  But I didn't love it.  I do recall thinking "this Mary Corleone is super cute" and being aware she was Coppola's own daughter.  

Before the movie was released, the two things discussed most were that Robert Duvall would not be in the movies, and that Sofia Coppola as Mary.  All this, despite a cast starring Pacino, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach and Talia Shire, a winding script that seemed to be trying to say things about power and those who wield it and where, and some of the best photography of the decade.

The day after seeing the movie, I drove to Austin to visit some friends, who - knowing I was a fan of the first films - proudly held up the tickets they'd bought for a matinee of The Godfather Part III, and so it was, I saw the movie twice in about 24 hours.  

I don't know that I've seen the movie again since.  

Weird Al Watch: UHF (1989)

Watched:  08/08/2025

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Jay Levey

I was walking through Walmart and passed the $5 DVD bin and saw UHF (1989) sitting in the pile, and realized I didn't have a copy of the movie.  

I've already written this movie up twice before, so no need to do it again.  But it is a delight.  I may be suffering from some Space Jam Fallacy here, and I am pretty sure most of the jokes would make no sense to anyone under 40, but what the hell... there are things in this movie that I genuinely love, and I wish Al and Co. had made ten more movies.  

Also, how funny is it that Fran Drescher is in this in a supporting bit like 4 years before she launched one of the biggest shows of the 90's? 

Disney Watch: The Shaggy Dog (1959)

Watched:  08/09/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Charles Barton

First, this movie's opening sequence slaps.  

The rest of The Shaggy Dog (1959) was never going to live up to whatever that was, but I basically enjoyed it.

I tell you what - for what this movie is, which is a near 70-year-old movie for kids probably up to age 12 or so, and adults looking for utter nonsense, this fit the bill for some silly viewing.

The basic plot is not basic - it is, in fact, a "shaggy dog story".  I don't know why we call intentionally long stories with side-plots and a sad trombone of an ending a "shaggy dog story", but we do, and Wikipedia has a theory as to why.  But, yeah, it's an entire movie leading up to a punchline about Annette Funicello finding a better guy than the two guys initially interested in her.

Marvel Second Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  08/06/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Matt Shakman

Note:  Blogger added a 'add hyperlinks automatically to your post' feature, and I've tried that out with this post.  I don't think it's too annoying.

Jamie was out of town, and nonetheless saw Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) with Dug, K and Rob.  This is how I saw the movie by myself at 9:00 AM a couple of weeks back.  But we two decided to catch it again together before it disappears into an eternal twilight of streaming on Disney+.

I was pleased to find that, even knowing what was coming - from story points, to the design, to gags and the incredible score, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit again on a second viewing.  I still want to spend more time with these characters and their problems and their world.  It is, of course, impossible to know how much of my pre-disposition to like the FF in general and want a not-terrible FF movie plays into all of this, versus how someone coming to the FF fresh might feel.  

But, my chief complaint about the movie the first time was that I wanted more of it.

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (1988)

Watched:  08/03/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Zucker/Abrahams/ Zucker

With the Liam Neeson-starring reboot out, I wanted to limber up those particular muscles again before seeing the new era of Naked Gun films.  

It's hard to know anymore if I'm laughing with The Naked Gun (1988) or with 13-year-old me who saw this in the theater and laughed so hard during just the opening bit with the police car driving through a variety of scenes that I literally slipped out of my seat at the Arbor IV theater.  

That kid, in 1988, was not prepared for what was coming for the next 80 minutes or so.  Or that he'd be quoting this movie in 2025.  Or still find it funny to just say "It's Enrico Palazzo!" for absolutely no reason, but find it makes him feel better.

I'm fairly certain if I had bracketed out all the comedies I like, this one *might* make it to the end as my favorite.  At least today that's true.  Leslie Nielsen is at his absolute apex of Nielsen-ness, the jokes land with a wry smile to a full laugh even now - and I've seen this movie maybe 25 times.  

I have no doubt this movie both plays to my sense of funny and helped shape it, just as Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker did for my entire generation with these movies, Top Secret! and the Airplane! flicks.  I mean, how many times as things are going south, do you hear someone say "looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue..."?

I miss Hollywood trying to be funny.  Look, my favorite show as the moment is probably The Bear, but it is insane that anyone is letting it get nominated for Emmy's as a comedy.  I can't remember the last time I paid to see a comedy in a movie theater that wasn't actually a genre film with a comedic bent - Google is claiming Knives Out is a comedy, and... maybe?  It literally may have been Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 - which was good.  Is there a sequel coming?  I feel like there is.

Anyway - Naked Gun would play well now, I think, even if I'm not sure what The Kids would make of timely and topical jokes (is Queen Elizabeth automatically funny in 2025?).  I'm far less worried about the un-PC jokes as they zip by - and we mostly knew they were in bad taste then, by the way, and that was the point.  And of course OJ's legacy did not turn out to be that of a wacky physical comedian.   But there's something timeless about accidentally setting off a player piano while the curtains are on fire or *gestures broadly at every baseball joke in the movie*.

I still love this movie, and I very much look forward to the new one, which I've heard from some corners is very, very good.

Super Third Watch: Superman (2025) - the Score, Design, Plot Holes and Discourse

Watched:  07/30/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Third!

Director:  James Gunn

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!
• Super Third Watch:  Superman (2025)

This will be the last time I watch this in the theater unless it's out for a long, long time.  Or if it gets re-released, I suppose.  But I'm glad I saw it a third time.  Seeing the same movie three times between the 8th and the 30th is a lot, friends, especially when you've spent considerable time writing too many posts on the film.

Good Golly

I didn't previously mention it, but I really liked how the movie handled Superman's language.  Taking a page from Superman: The Movie having Clark say "swell", Superman is mid-kaiju-fight and still saying "golly" and "good gosh" and delivering it absolutely earnest?*  

All this as our guy is getting walloped by a 10 story monster.  Major points for Corenswet there.

It's a movie and a world in which people do swear (Mr. Terrific has a bit of a potty mouth - a sign of higher intelligence if the memes are to be believed) - so it's a delight to see the same Superman who just saved all those people muttering polite swears under his breath.

Coen Watch: Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Watched:  07/25/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Ethan Coen

Is anything more telling about what the Coen Bros. each brought to their team than that when the brothers decided to do independent projects, Joel Coen made a mannered and styled Macbeth and Ethan Coen made Drive-Away Dolls (2024)?  

The mix of high-brow and low-brow - even Raising Arizona has thematic and nigh-poetic aspirations - was their hallmark, with ultra-specific characters, absurdist humor, and deeply human stories - culminating in the excellence of their track record over years and movies that had a stamp audiences recognized and sought out.  

I was vaguely aware Drive-Away Dolls received very mixed reviews, and audiences were kind of irritated with it.  

Which, no kidding.  The movie isn't overly concerned with good taste or your politics or the horseshoe turn lefties online took into agreeing with the Catholic League about how movies are for perverts if they acknowledge sex and show blood with violence.  Instead, this flick is an old-fashioned pulp crime comedy with a heavy layering of what turns out to be the sense of oddball humor that the Coens always brought, that apparently was Ethan Coen's contribution.