Stayed up until 5:00am last night watching two of the worst B-list movies I’ve ever seen. Never caught the name of the first one. Some kind of “end of the world” theme. Looked like it was from the 80s. I recognized the stars, but couldn’t remember their names. The plot was so absurd, by the end I was glad they died. They deserved it for being so stupid.
The second one was The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Set in the late 40s to early 50s. Allegedly true story about a serial killer in Texarkana. Costuming and period sets saved that film. But the most awesome Texas Ranger in all of history and hundreds of LEOs never caught the killer. Most unsatisfying ending but not surprising because their police work sucked as bad as the dialogue. So why did I keep watching? Damned if I know.
On a related note, guess I’m so uncool, that I’m the only person on earth who is happy Peter Jackson is stretching The Hobbit into a trilogy. I understand he’s expanding the story into prequel flashbacks or some such thing. I hope he figures out how to work in Bombadil. Really missed him in LOTR. And if Peter is adding from the appendices, then there should be lots more elves. I love elven history.
I don’t care how long it takes. Not like I don’t know the end of the story. I’ve read the books so many times, I know the whole series practically by heart. Okay with me if it takes a couple of years to finish the movies. Happy to wait to see what Mr. Jackson does with his vision of the tale. Hell, gives me a reason to hope the Mayans are wrong.
Xecky Gilchrist
Never caught the name of the first one. Some kind of “end of the world” theme. Looked like it was from the 80s.
Could it have been this movie? It’s been on my mind because I just read the book the written excerpt is from (love that scene, and the whole book is a decent read.)
ETA: Oops, the vid link is broken on that page. It’s this movie.
SiubhanDuinne
I only love history up to eight or nine.
Narcissus
Night of the Comet, gotta be.
Hill Dweller
I watch late night movies when I can’t sleep quite often. Last night I watched an Aussie film, In Her Skin, starring Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto(Eowyn in LOTR), but it sucked.
Richard
Charming….
scav
OT Not Safe for Work Traditional Warning for the Easily Shocked but you’ve got to hand it to the Spanish for how they protest spending cuts.
Poopyman
Eleven history? I thought that was from Spinal Tap,a movie you surely didn’t watch overnight.
I’m in the certain minority of people who’ve read the books a million times and have no desire to see the movies.I know what the characters look and sound like and I have no need to see somebody else’s idea of what book characters are like. The movies came out decades after I’d first read them, so my imagination was firmly fixed. It was easier to accommodate the Harry Potter crew because the movies came out right after the books.
And speaking of late night B movies, I found a movie on Youtube at midnight Saturday called “Destroyer”, made in 1943 and starring Edward G. Robinson, who saves the ship in the third reel. Classic mid-war rah-rah film.
JenJen
What was the name of the first movie? I’m a bit of a connoisseur of the 80’s post-apocalyptic cheesy films era.
jl
@Richard:
I did not know that publicly funded research into gun violence and public health had been defunded. Thanks for the link.
Another industry gone full metal ‘tobacco’?
Libby Spencer
@Xecky Gilchrist: That’s the movie. Came in way late. He was busting in and carrying her out in a Valium induced stupor when I got there. Didn’t see the setup on the relationship between the two. Hard to believe there’s a good book behind that irritating ending.
Mnemosyne
@Xecky Gilchrist:
“Miracle Mile” would be my first guess, too, though apparently I liked it more than Libby did.
Poopyman
@SiubhanDuinne: I see you caught the “eleven” while I was looking up the “Destroyer” details.
And I found “Destroyer” only after I watched “Spitfire”, which had entirely too little scenes with flying aircraft. Too bad.
Libby Spencer
@SiubhanDuinne: Oops. Thanks. /+4.
PurpleGirl
According to the trailers I saw yesterday, The Hobbit opens on December 14th. But it didn’t indicate that it was part 1 or whatever PJ is calling it.
Steeplejack
@Xecky Gilchrist:
I thought maybe she was talking about Night of the Comet, although I don’t think the protagonists die at the end. Plus I think it’s a pretty good movie. Maybe because it was one of the first two I recorded with my brand-new VCR. (The other being A Christmas Story, a bona fide classic.)
gbear
@Poopyman: I saw the movie A Clockwork Orange many times before I ever read the book. Now that I’ve read it, the movie seems like glossy cliff notes. It’s still an amazing movie, but the book actually hits much harder.
Mnemosyne
@Libby Spencer:
It’s not a bad little movie if you’re in the mood for it. One of the more low-key “oh shit we’re all about to be nuked” movies from the 80s.
Anyone who likes end-of-the-world movies should track down a copy of Kim Newman’s survey, Apocalypse Movies. It’s written in that breezy Newman style and gives a lot of good examples. He’s especially good at highlighting the differences between British and American versions of the apocalypse.
Interrobang
I don’t know the movie, but there really was a serial killer operating in Texarkana in 1949 (eight victims total, three survivors), and the “Phantom Killer,” as he was called, was never caught. Wikipedia has an article.
Serial killers are pretty interesting.
N M
If you have not read “The Last Ring Bearer” – you must. To avoid ruining it for you, I will only say that it examines the late period of the War of the Ring, and its aftermath, from the point of view of Mordor.
Do not follow any of the links save to download the second edition epub/mobi here:
ymarkov.livejournal.com/280578.html?nojs=1
Trust me, it is just better not knowing going in. The recaptured sense of wonder is just exhilarating.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, if you want your bizarro long-term serial killer true story with a happy ending (ie they find the guy), find Citizen X, starring Stephen Rea. Rea plays a Russian cop in the old Soviet Union who’s desperately trying to convince the authorities that there’s a serial killer on the loose, but everything keeps getting suppressed because serial killers only happen in the decadent West. The poor guy was even sent to an insane asylum at one point because he wouldn’t STFU.
But at least he did manage to catch the guy and see him convicted.
Libby Spencer
It was definitely the miracle mile. Maybe the story line is better if I had seen it from the beginning, but the last half hour was gratuitous idiocy. I totally bought the mother and long lost father figure deciding to stay behind. Would have liked the ending if they let the young heroes get away on the damn helicopter and cut to the old couple in the diner, arm in arm on the same side of the booth when the end came.
arguingwithsignposts
In other news, the douchenozzles at NBC managed to get an Independent (UK) journalist’s Twitter account suspended because he was being negative about their shitty coverage of the Olympics.
Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier, but they are almost as bad at their entitled bullshit excuse making as Romney is at running for president. They claimed the excised the 7/7 memorial tribute during the opening ceremonies because the program was “edited for an American audience.”
And I have nothing to say about three episodes of the hobbit.
arguingwithsignposts
why am i in moderation?
Kevin
Slightly off topic, but I watched “The Men Who Stare at Goats” last night on Netflix. For some reason it has me thinking about the rare Republican wingnuts who infest some of my favorite sites.
dedc79
I just couldn’t believe Jackson cut the entire end of the Sauruman story from the last LOTR movie and replaced it with 20 minutes of slow motion hobbit hugging.
I hope he shows better judgment this time around.
Libby Spencer
@Interrobang: I’m a fan of forensic science so find how they catch serial killers interesting. Like it better when they’re caught.
Mr Stagger Lee
Saw the movie The Divide starring Michael Biehn(of The Terminator, Aliens and Navy Seals)about a group of New Yorkers
trapped in basement after a nuclear attack. Very disturbing movie.
Libby Spencer
@dedc79: scouring of the Shire was sorely missing from LOTR. Jackson could have cut down some of the battle scenes to keep it in. But can’t blame him. Battle scenes sell movies.
Narcissus
Night of the Comet has a young Chakotay.
He looks just like an old Chakotay.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Mnemosyne: apparently I liked it more than Libby did.
Me too, but I haven’t seen it since it was new and sometimes my tastes wander after a few decades. :)
GG
@Libby Spencer: Tons of people are thrilled we’re getting 3 Hobbit movies.
I’m totally with you about wishing there’d been waaay shorter battle scenes, fewer squashed horses, etc. in the LotR movies. The charge of the Rohirrim was pretty damn great, though. I loathed the throwaway ridiculous death of Saruman at Orthanc, but I’m half-persuaded anyway that the Scouring of the Shire would just have been too anti-climactic as a movie ending. I kinda still wish they’d tried.
NotMax
Only so that in the second film, Sauron can proclaim “Gandalf, I am your father.”
(NotMax ducks to avoid being struck by a volley of copies of The Silmarillion)
jefft452
@Poopyman: “…which had entirely too little scenes with flying aircraft. Too bad.”
try “Battle of Britain” 1969
lots and lots of original aircraft, the German ones mostly coming from the Spanish Air Force
About a dozen original Spitfire V and 3 or 4 original Hurricane II
At least one original Sea Hurricane playing a Hurricane II
Geoduck
One of the reoccurring mainstream complaints about Return of the King was that it already had three endings. I can totally see why Jackson and Co. decided not to tack on another one.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Libby Spencer: Maybe the story line is better if I had seen it from the beginning, but the last half hour was gratuitous idiocy.
I dunno, I don’t have any argument here. I did appreciate how the movie seemed to start out as a simple romance story and turned into apocalyptic horror, but I agree the ending was kind of dumb.
Origuy
I posted this on the earlier thread about The Hobbit, but it was comment 200 or so:
Someone’s already made The Hunt for Gollum as an independent fan movie. It’s really well done, considering. They also did Born of Hope, the story of Aragorn’s parents.
YellowJournalism
@Narcissus: Oh good lord. I love Night of the Comet! But they didn’t die. Don’t you remember the friend saying the teens and kids looked like the “friggin’ Brady Bunch” at the end?
maven
Texarkana. 1949.
It must include Robert Mitchum with his shirt sweaty and open; preferably off.
(B&W)
Martini’s shaken and served up. Ice cold.
replicnt6
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Yeah, Miracle Mile was my first thought, too. Not _that_ many 80’s end-of-the-world movies where they die in the end.
If so, I have to respectfully disagree. I think it’s a really great movie. The plot is a bit silly but I really felt the impending doom. What a great feeling.
catperson
I love Peter Jackson. But 2 movies seemed like a stretch and 3 is ridiculous.
DaddyJ
I guess the “glad they died in the end” must be the tip off — I guessed Miracle Mile too. Not having seen it since the 80s, I can’t remember if I thought it was any good or not, but I do remember being impressed at the hopeless romantic fatalism of [SPOILER] having your leads crash into the LaBrea Tar Pits in a helicopter just as LA is being nuked. I don’t remember if there was a scene of them being excavated wrapped in each other’s arms a million years in the future — maybe that’s the ending of ZARDOZ leaking into my memory.
Perfect Tommy
I streamed Audition this evening on the recommendation of a coworker. It started off as sort of a suspense/mystery film but soon devolved into a graphic horror film. I avoid the Netflix synopses because of the frequent spoilers, so it caught me by surprise. Horror movies were fun when I was a kid, but I no longer enjoy them. Maybe I am just getting old …
Mnemosyne
@DaddyJ:
Zardoz! Now that’s a movie! It’s rare to find a movie that makes you wonder if they’ve slipped hallucinogens into your DVD with the frickin’ opening credits.
The Shitcase Cinema YouTube channel has a hilarious review of it.
DaddyJ
@Mnemosyne:
Oh, my. Oh. My. Some things were just as bad as I remember them. Thanks for the link!
I remember Logan’s Run as being even worse, but maybe I am mistaken.
YellowJournalism
@DaddyJ: The point was that they would escape suffering and be instantly killed in a way that would preserve their carbon as diamonds to be found in the future, as referenced earlier in the film.
Damn, I’m a nerd.
Mnemosyne
@DaddyJ:
Logan’s Run mostly makes sense within the world they set up — G and I got caught up watching it on cable one lazy afternoon and it wasn’t terrible. It’s silly, but still watchable.
It’s definitely not nearly as hallucinatory as Zardoz.
Gian
@Richard:
just last week a police officer, who may well be required to have a firearm in the house lost a child to it.
but my quick news search only turned up dozens of stuff like this in the last couple weeks:
Updated: 7/25 10:06 pm
Published: 7/25 5:29 am
A 3-year-old Tulsa girl is in the hospital after accidentally shooting herself in the leg.
It happened at the girl’s home in the 8900 block of east Marshall Street on Tuesday night. Police say she wandered into her parents’ room, and found the gun.
She picked it up and somehow managed to shoot herself in the thigh. She was taken to the hospital but police say she should be okay. Child crisis detectives are in contact with the parents.
It’s the third case in the Tulsa region in just two months in which kids accidentally got shot by their parents’ guns.
…
TOM MOOR with the South Bend Tribune
6:31 p.m. EDT, July 30, 2012
SOUTH BEND — A 3-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself after taking a handgun from an unlocked gun safe while his mother was asleep was listed in good condition Monday at an Indianapolis hospital.
Police said the boy, Eric Caprio, was shot in the wrist about 7 a.m. Sunday at his family’s home in the 700 block of South 27th Street.
He was taken to Memorial Hospital and then transferred to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.
Posted: Jul 29, 2012 1:56 PM PDT Updated: Jul 29, 2012 2:18 PM PDT
By Eric Zott – email
© CBS 5
PHOENIX (CBS5) –
Authorities in Phoenix say a 12-year-old girl was accidentally shot in the leg by her father during a party early Sunday morning.
Sgt. Trent Crump said the incident happened at the family’s home near Seventh Avenue and Southern at about 2 a.m.
Crump said the father of the child was trying to clear his gun when he accidentally shot the little girl.
—
we have a very smart 7 and 3 year old. we have no guns. our odds are way better this way. I can see with older – say 12 and up kids you could train them, and go to a range etc. (but some kid got killed at a gun show when he lost control of a fully auto gun in springfield MA if I recall correctly)
and some people really do need them for protection. really really. like armored car guards carrying bags of cash. Or lawyers investigating Sandusky and Penn State.
Alex
When I saw “when I can’t sleep” I was expecting an auto-erotic pictorial.
Jus’ sayin.
Mnemosyne
@Gian:
My dad always had guns in the house.
BUT they were securely locked up in a separate room in the basement to which he had the only key, and they only came out of that room when he was getting ready to go hunting or target shooting. He did all of the cleaning and maintenance in that room, with the door shut.
He apparently also had a gun in the safe in the bedroom, but none of us kids knew it was there until we were moving out of that house. Maybe because he was smart enough to keep the liquor on top of the safe as a distraction.
IOW, my dad always regarded guns as very dangerous tools that we shouldn’t have access to unless we were personally supervised by him.
David Koch
+
Mutt
jeebus, Bombadil set my teeth on edge. Only part of the book I skip thru is whenever he’s bleating on…..
Herbal Infusion Bagger
In a 99%/1% world, Zardoz’s satire seems more cutting than when it was made.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Definitely Miracle Mile. I flipped by it- with extreme prejudice- on THiS a few nights ago.
Night of the Comet is great. Only way it could have been better is if Joe Dante directed it.