Accidental Watch: The Chopping Mall (2025)

Watched:  01/26/2025

Format:  Shout! on YouTube

Viewing:  Not sure

Director:  Jim Wynorski

I saw this was streaming on YouTube - in real time - and turned it on, by chance, right at the beginning, and decided to stick with it just to watch the opening sequence.  And next thing I knew, credits were rolling on this cinema classic.

On it's face, The Chopping Mall (1986) is a simple story about why it's a bad idea to deploy robots armed with futuristic and lethal weaponry as mall security.  I mean, the room for lawsuits is breathtaking.

On another level, The Chopping Mall would make a fantastic pairing with Dawn of the Dead for a killer double-bill as it also uses horror to satirize the consumer experience.  This one also leans into horror films, Corman films (while being a Corman film), techno-shock media, and more.  And it has the best possible signal as to what we're in for at the beginning by starting the film with the characters, The Blands, from Eating Raoul watching a demo for the Killbots.

Here in 2025 - almost forty years later - it's an amazing time capsule of the 1980's in cinema and pop culture.  The film revels in B-movie violence, nudity and young people being dumb-as-@#$%.  It's also a reminder that Barbara Crampton does not age on the same timeline as the rest of us.  It's weird to say a movie in which heads explode on screen and 20-somethings are dispatched by rejected EPCOT trashcans is "joyful", but fun was had in the making of the movie.  After all, this is a movie that features a mall petshop called "Roger's Little Shop of Pets" (referring, of course, to executive producer Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors).    And, of course, gets a day or two out of Dick Miller to play his character from A Bucket of Blood.  

It's a movie where the sporting goods store in the mall carries M-16's, and elevators are controlled by computers.  And, is essentially about an orgy in a mall furniture store going sideways when lightning causes a power surge that sets off the Killbots.

Sadly - I can't find evidence that the robots from the movie survived after production.  It would be nice to know they're out there or could wind up in a movie museum.

Sure, 1986 put out intentionally meaningful films and crowd pleasers.  And this cost less than a million to produce (and takes place in the same mall used for 1985's Commando!), but in it's own way - I think is key to unlocking so much of what was happening in pop culture and media at the time.

Superman 2025: Supergirl 2026

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

One of the oddities of the new DC Studios Universe is that they aren't running through the heroes I expected.  We're starting with Superman, sure (as we should!), and we may be slow walking Batman into the DCSU, but we also have Creature Commandos.  And, now, already... my friend Kara Zor-El is getting a movie.  

Seen above, actor Milly Alcock is on set and shooting has begun for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.

Am I thrilled?  Yes.  

As a character, Supergirl's last big screen outing was in The Flash, and... it ended badly for her in a movie I didn't care for.  Before that, it was the mid-80's Supergirl with eternal Signal Watch crush Helen Slater. And that movie is, maybe, not the best movie ever made.  I also watched the full run of Supergirl on CBS/ The CW.  As a comics-reader, I became a fan first of the alt-Supergirl Linda Danvers during the epic Peter David run, but loved Kara Zor-El on Superman: The Animated Series.  

Because you demanded it - the year of Chabert: Groundswell (2022)

Watched:  01/20/2025

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Lee Friedlander

Firstly - absolutely no one demanded this.  Maybe Chabert's manager would like it, but Randy pitched turning this into a Chabert fan-site and never one to turn down a challenge that is totally pointless, here we are.

We do our little experiments here at The Signal Watch, and we like a theme.

Now that I'm not watching Christmas movies, I've realized Lacey Chabert is not just getting paid to appear in movies in Canada, she's all over the planet.  There's a Safari movie that takes place in South Africa, we watched the Iceland and Ireland movies at Christmas, and last year a Scotland movie.  I don't know what Chabert pulls down per movie, but tacking on some fun travel seems like a great perk.

This one takes place in Hawaii.  So, big props to everyone involved who managed to be in a movie about Hawaii that is mostly about surfing and eating.  If this is a thing, sign me up.

Chabert plays a chef - keeping in line with Hallmark's insistence that heroines have careers that seem kind of arty - who gets mad at her boyfriend/ boss (a terrible combo) after he takes credit for her dishes.  Wisely, she dashes off to her Aunt's amazing place in Hawaii.  

There, we meet Chabert's soon-to-be love interest, played by 1% BMI fellow Ektor Rivera as "Ben".  Ben is a broody fellow who gave up surfing and now runs a surf shop and refuses to button his shirts.  Good for him.  

Not-Aimed-At-Me Watch: Brooklyn (2015)

Watched:  01/22/205

Format:  Max

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Crowley

About ten minutes into Brooklyn (2015) I knew I wasn't the intended audience, or even an intended tertiary audience, for the movie.  I believe this was aimed at Not-Me, whomever that would be - perhaps Bizarro League, and/ or people whose flights of fancy involved less in the way of aliens with capes and/ or atomic-powered giant monsters.  Maybe this is more for folks looking for (melo)drama in the way of Jane Austen novels.  And for them, I say - enjoy!  Stop reading now.

Saoirse Ronan is everything you've heard, and the photography was excellent.  The movie is beautifully made, exquisitely acted, and has immaculate period detail and design.  

And I wasn't into it.

SPOILERS

Vamp Watch: Nosferatu (2024) - second viewing

Watched:  01/19/2025

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Robert Eggers

Originally, I'd planned to see Nosferatu (2024) upon its Christmas-time release with MRSHL, a man who knows and loves vampire fiction.  And, he's an Eggers fan.  However, the stars failed to align and we didn't make it work.  But!  We finally got around to it here in mid-January.

I already spent a lot of time writing up this movie in recent history, so I'm not about to do that again right now.  

I do think I was better able to blow through some of my preconceptions and better get at the Ellen/ Orlok relationship, and it better confirmed some of what I thought was going on regarding Ellen's nature and Orlok's drive.  

Anyway, I dug it.  Glad I saw it again.

Chabert Lifetime Noir Watch: Imaginary Friend (2012)

Watched:  01/19/2025

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Richard Gabai

After running through something like 10 Lacey Chabert movies during the holiday season, Amazon is now offering up additional Chabert content - which has not helped when I pondered "what if I drove everyone nuts by making 2025 the year I watch and discuss *every* Lacey Chabert movie?"  Because, friends, she has 183 credits already, and is, like, 42.  That's not 183 movies - she's voiced several cartoons (including Supergirl on Harley Quinn), and been on a few TV series.  A glance at her IMDB suggests she's doing like 10-12 projects every year - and a heap of those are 90 minute TV movies.

Anyway - I'm not going to cover all of that.  But I'm also not going to not do it.  Who else will be the chronicler of Lacey Chabert's career arc?

Imaginary Fried (2012) is about eight years after Mean Girls.  It's a Lifetime movie, and part of the "someone close to me is trying to kill me" fantasy that characterized a lot of Lifetime's programming at one point.  Lifetime is a weird bastion of noirish programming that gets overlooked, but if these movies were black and white and the characters spoke with Mid-Atlantic accents, we'd just shrug and include them in the category as maybe B's.

David Lynch Merges With The Infinite

Writer and Director David Lynch has passed.

A lot of ink will be spilled over Lynch, and, in my opinion, rightfully so.  Whether you liked or disliked Lynch's work, he carved a path through cinema and television that was so singular, discussions of movies that went deep would often bring up his work as if by force.  Maybe that's because from Eraserhead to the weather reports he did from his home, Lynch's work was so clearly of David Lynch, it was impossible to ignore.

I have seen some of Lynch's work, but not all.  Like a lot of people my age, I learned who he was through Twin Peaks, and in high school saw Fire Walk With Me, Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart.   I've caught up with much of his work since, finally seeing The Elephant Man, Dune and more.  In recent years I finally watched The Straight Story, which I highly recommend.  

The dreams that Lynch put to screen have been and will be much imitated, but I hope they really just inspire the next wave - and I think they already have.  

Like a lot of folks, I am deeply grateful for Twin Peaks hitting my life at just the right time, in both the early 90's and again a few years ago.  I needed the wonder, mystery, tragedy and uncanny state that the show provided.  I'm grateful for the world of nightmares, the story of true love of Wild at Heart, and the acknowledgement of the dark we keep at bay out here in the world that permeates all of his work.  For the dreams within a dream that are Mulholland Drive.

His fearlessness as a filmmaker, and someone who told us that to love people and love the little things is what staves off the darkness seems so simple - but he knew it's not, and he showed us both.

I'll miss knowing that Lynch, as Gordon Cole, is out there telling people to change their hearts.  We'll see you under the sycamore trees.

Disney Watch: The Cat From Outer Space (1978)

Watched:  01/15/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Unknown, but probably 3rd

Director:  Norman Tokar

As a kid, I found live-action Disney comedies to mostly be a grating disappointment.  Sometimes in elementary school, teachers would roll in the 16mm projector and thread up one of these movies and that was the middle of the day for us so they could grade papers or have a smoke or whatever.

If you want to know why Gen-X has trust issues, its because we never knew what we were getting from a 16mm film projected movie in the common area at school, while required to sit silently.  And, sometimes it was something good!  But much more often it was a safety film*, or - if the teachers were feeling daffy, something like The Cat From Outer Space (1978).  Which is where I think I saw this first.

It's mind-boggling that a year after Star Wars, Disney's response was to put out a 108 minute sitcom about a cross-eyed cat who lands on Earth and kind of sits there hopped up on tranquilizers while name talent runs around being "funny".  

Pope Watch: Conclave (2024)

Watched:  01/14/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Edward Berger

All Christmas season long, Jamie's sister-in-law, K, kept lightly suggesting we go see Conclave (2024), and I was pretty direct in my opinion of "no, I do not want to see that".  But curiosity, gentle nudging and my Peacock subscription got the best of me, and I went ahead and watched it over two nights.

Conclave centers around the events that take place in the wake of the passing of a Pope, and the politicking among the clergy (cardinals) who are called together to determine who will be the next Pope.  

Sadly, it turns out there is no Catholic sorting hat to handle this task.

I will start by saying, there are many things I liked about this film.  As promised, the performances by Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, and many others are impeccable.  This movie is an opportunity for these actors to do amazing work - enough so that my immediate thought was "really, this would be a tremendous play" after the film ended.  A sort of 108 Angry Cardinals.  

Viking Watch: The Northman (2022)

Watched:  01/14/2024

Format:  Disc

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Robert Eggers

A long while back now, I picked up the 4K of Eggers' The Northman (2022) after liking it quite a lot on a first viewing, and knowing that it deserved a second viewing.  And since Jamie had actually liked Noferatu, a movie I wasn't even going to take her to, she voted for The Northman.*

I re-read my post from May of 2023, and I think I agree with myself here.

SPOILERS

I can say confidently that I am very glad I rewatched the film, especially when you aren't walking in blind as you start to realize "oh, wait... is this some imagined proto-Hamlet?"  And, indeed, go Google "Amleth" because, boy, while I knew Shakespeare didn't really come up with original stories, was I surprised to find out about the many versions of Hamlet existed story prior to Billy Shakes putting it down.