Notes:

I'm taking some "working vacation," which means I'm still at my desk, but only 6-8 hours a day instead of 16. So I should be here with breaking news

Other Crap:

Movie Reviews:

Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe). White asterisk: expanded format. Blue asterisk: not mine. No asterisk: it probably sucks.

"Night Moves"

Night Moves (1975) stars Gene Hackman as a former pro footballer turned broke Private Eye. He is married to the owner of a ritzy antique shop, and, about the time he is hired to locate a missing person, he discovers that his wife is cheating. He is to find a promiscuous 16 year old runaway, Melanie Griffith, and return her to her mother. The case doesn't prove too difficult, he locates her in Florida with he step father, and returns her home. When she turns up dead a few days later, Hackman is back on the case, this time on his own, and discovers that there was much more going on than he realized.

The first 60 minutes of the film sets the characters and provides exposition intermixed with a little humor and some clever dialogue. The last act of the film is where all of the action, suspense and mystery lies. Griffith shows everything in a moonlight film, and breasts in a daylight shot. Susan Clark, as Hackman's wife, shows breasts, and Jennifer Warren, partner to Griffith's stepfather, shows breasts in a sex scene. The ending was intentionally vague, which I found somewhat irritating.

IMDb readers have this at 6.8. Ebert loved it at 4 stars, praising Hackman's portrayal, for which he garnered at BAFTA nomination. Director Arthur Penn created a 40's style detective thriller, but obviously set in the 70s, complete with 70s mores, and believable, interesting characters. This is a C+. Whether you see it as a noir thriller, or a character driven drama, it will please.

Jennifer Warren
Melanie Griffith
Susan Clark

"Warm Summer Rain"

Warm Summer Rain (1989) is one of those unique film concepts that you are likely to love or hate. Whether you enjoy it or not, you must award a lot of points for originality. In an era where I can guess the endings of most films from studios after the first ten minutes, that is not all bad. On the other hand, this is a very talky film with nearly no action and not a lot of logic. Scoopy sort of nailed it in his first line, "My God - it's Last Tango in Barstow." It had much of the mood of Tango, and even the same theme, more or less.

Kelly Lynch slits her wrists, checks herself out of the hospital, boards a bus still in her hospital gown (her complete wardrobe for the film), asks the driver to drop her in the middle of the desert. She then walks into a bar, buys a 5 legged iguana and knocks a guy cold with it. She wakes up the next morning in bed with him, married in a barroom ceremony, in a house they have broken into. They have a lot of intercourse, verbal and sexual, and we discover what drove her to opening her veins, and something about him as well.

Lynch shows her lovely if slender body from all possible angles.

IMDb readers have this at 4.9. It is major chick flick territory, with women giving it 7.3 compared to 4.8 for men. This is a C-. It will be of interest to those who really want to understand a character and her motivations, and it is a good example of what indie films can try.

Kelly Lynch

Today I would like to present you 3 clips from a film I never heard of until two days ago. It's a 1992 film that mostly goes by its video title "Me & the Mob" but whose original title is "Who Do I Gotta Kill?". It mentioned Sandra Bullock on the cover, and cost only € 1.49, so I picked it up. As I expected, there is no nudity in this movie, although to my big surprise Sandra Bullock was down to her bra and panties in a funny love scene. And it is this scene I made clips of because I don't think many people have seen it. It sure looks like Sandy was less covered-up in her pre-fame days 12-13 years ago.

The movie itself was actually not a bad watch. It is a simple comedy with a voice-over narrative style and a 40-ish film noir look. Sure, it has its slow moments, but all things considered I found I had spent 87 non-unpleasant minutes. Sandra Bullock is the only celebrity in this independent effort and she has only two scenes. (Except for Steve Buscemi that is, but I must have blinked my eyes cause I didn't notice him.)

The film is a about a man who is related to a family of NY mobsters but tries to make an honest living as a writer. He fails miserably though, turns to his family and becomes a wise guy. We then see their shenanigans which are more or less funny. That's it plotwise. The film is rated only 3.9/10 in the IMDb, which is a bit low to my taste. I would give 6/10 or C- on the Scoopy scale: the decent performances of the unknown actors and the 40-ish narrative film noir style lift this effort just a little bit above average. As I said, just a little bit.

The DVD is a from the bargain bin, which is often one of the warning signs that the quality isn't as it should be. Unfortunately that is the case here: the full screen transfer is never really sharp, it looks like someone forgot to focus correctly somewhere down the line.

You can see what I mean in these three clips (1, 2, 3)

Still, I'm sure you'll be able to enjoy them.

YOUTH VOTE GOES FOR ALDA
Oops! - NBC's stunt of holding a live "West Wing" "presidential debate" seems to have backfired. Insiders say the show's writers assumed the younger viewers NBC desperately needs would support sexy young liberal Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) over gray-haired Republican Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda). NBC hired pollster John Zogby to gauge the results. Before the debate, viewers under 30 preferred Santos 54-37 percent. But after watching it, they switched to Vinick, 56 to 42 percent. Smits still has strong support from viewers over age 65.

*He could be elected president of CBS.
*The difference between real elections and TV is that in real elections, what older people think matters.
*Younger viewers liked seeing Alda foam at the mouth.

McCONAUGHEY "SEXIEST MAN ALIVE"?
People Or Mother Jones? - The New York Post's Page Six claim an inside source told them that Matthew McConaughey has been chosen as People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive," a title many actors shunned because of fears that it's a career curse. But a People spokeswoman refused to confirm that naked bongo player McConaughey is the pick, saying lots of guys are up for it and no final decision is made until the last moment.

*So Carrot Top still has a shot!
*Matthew made a movie with Penelope Cruz: he laughs at career curses!
*Matthew figures if it curses his movie career, he can always fall back on naked bongo-playing.
*Just drop the "Alive" part and name Cary Grant.

PANTHERS STUPIDLY FIRE HOT CHEERLEADERS
To Chastity Bono - Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders arrested for allegedly getting in a brawl while having lesbian sex in the bathroom of a Tampa bar have been fired for embarrassing the team. Their profiles were also purged from the cheerleaders' website. But they probably won't be unemployed for long: they're being contacted by everyone from radio shock jocks to Playboy.

*And Ellen DeGeneres is frantic to book them.
*Or the bar will pay them to come back every weekend...After all, it's (SING!) "where everybody knows their naaaaames..."
*They could rent a stadium and sell more tickets than the Panthers.
*It just shows there's no limit to how far you'll go if there's no limit to how far you'll go.