Welcome to 2017!
Congratulations on surviving 2016! What a crazy year that was, huh? We lost a
lot of artists, had race riots, The Chicago Cubs beat The Cleveland Indians in
The World Series and Donald Trump is president. Tell me that’s not a sign of a
coming apocalypse. Speaking of impending doom, how about the Nunes-Rousey
fight? So much for the comeback. It should be interesting to see what she does
now. There’s always The Expendables 4.
I’ve been working
my ass off since November so I don’t really have a lot of new stuff to talk
about outside of don’t take your holiday aggressions out on your grocery clerk,
it’s not his fault your life sucks and your kids are a flaming pain in the ass.
Luckily, things should start to ease up a little before we have to deal with
Super Bowl parties. The Roller Warriors home season will be starting in about a
week. There were thirty some-odd new rookies so this should be an interesting
season. Will The Vixens go for a third year victory? Will The Knockouts get out
of the basement? Only time will answer these questions. Tune in to The Wheel
Press at kcrollerwarriors.com to follow the action. I am now senior
correspondent, editor-in-chief AND publisher this season so things will be
updated in a timely manner. Look for The Wheel Press on facebook to get live
updates on game day. I’m still trying to figure out what kind of bonus material
I can put up there to hold your attention between games.
My reading habits
of late have been all over the place. I’m either working my way through an
omnibus of early Thor stories or catching up on a magazine subscription or
listening to 25 disks of The Pickwick Papers. I’m on disk 24 so you’ll have to
wait until next month to hear about it. I’m going to the library on Monday so
next month promises to be interesting.
Being the holiday
season, I have a list of holiday favorites that maybe you enjoyed, haven’t seen
in a while or just never knew about. There are a few thrown in just for the fun
of it because there are only so many holiday films you can sit through.
3 Godfathers- The
1948 Christmas classic directed by John Ford starring John Wayne, Pedro
Armendariz and Harry Carey, Jr. in the title roles. Three bank robbers are on
the run from a posse when they encounter a dying woman who asks them to look
after her newborn child.
Christmas Cottage-I
stumbled across this one at the library. It’s a feel good movie based on real
events and kind of plays out like a big budget Hallmark movie but, there is one
redeeming thing about this sugary sweet Christmas cookie of a movie and that is
the great Peter O’Toole. I’m painting it in a much harsher light than it
deserves so I’ll just wrap this one up by saying if you happen to run across
it, watch it and enjoy.
Die Hard- With
the passing of Alan Rickman, this seemed especially fitting this year. The
Alamo played it on the big screen so I got to see it in all of its big screen
glory this year. I was a little surprised they didn’t play it as a double bill
with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence but, who am I to look a gift horse in the
mouth. There may be some kind of problem with Mr. Lawrence because I couldn’t
even find it for home viewing.
District: B-13-
Every so often I get the urge to watch this and this was one of those times. I
still remember seeing this theatrically with seven other people. I took a
chance on it when I saw Luc Besson’s
name attached to it. When K2 and his guys kick in Leito’s door, my life
changed. Cyril Raffaelii was the stunt choreographer as well as one of the
stars and, along with David Belle, introduced the world to Parkour.
The Edge Of Seventeen-I’ll
be the first to admit that I am not the target demographic for this movie but
something in the preview made me decide to give it a chance. I’m glad I did, it
was actually enjoyable. It helped that I saw it early in the day in the middle
of the week so I was the only one in the theater! It is a story about being a
seventeen year old girl in high school but, mercifully, it is not just aimed at
seventeen year old girls. It really does a good job of capturing that universal
feeling that everybody at that age went through. That’s not always an easy
thing. I tried it about two months ago with a short story. Apparently, it
didn’t come off as well as I thought it did because the reception was less than
luke warm. Oh well, enjoy the movie, I’ll keep trying something else.
Fletch-I love
this movie. It’s one of Chevy Chase’s best roles. The filmmakers managed to
capture the spirit of Gregory McDonald’s novels without turning it into a
complete parody by letting Chevy have room to move. Chase plays an
investigative journalist who’s working on a story when a millionaire
philanthropist asks Chase to kill him. Now, there are two stories, and that’s
not the whole story. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it or if you’ve
never seen it, go now and track it down. It’s one of Gena Davis’ first movies
and Richard Libertini has a great supporting role as Fletch’s editor. I have a
quick personal anecdote to throw in, if you’ll indulge me. When Richard and I
were thinking of a dream cast for Order 86, I always envisioned Libertini as
one of our supporting protagonists. From the inception of the character and
through all of the rewrites, he was the one I always saw in the role. This was
a slight point of contention between us as he had always envisioned somebody
else and couldn’t see Libertini in it at all. It wasn’t worth going to the
mattresses over since we were only talking hypothetically at that point. Of
course, in the spirit of 2016, cancer resolved our differences about a week
later when I read that Libertini had passed away. Despite all of my
preconceived ideas, I have to admit that Josh Busick came in and nailed it.
Heat-One of Michael
Mann’s finest films and a great crime drama to boot. The characters are well
written, the cast is outstanding, what can I say about this movie that you
don’t already know?
The In-Laws-I
hadn’t seen this movie in many a year and I’m happy to see that it still stands
up. Arkin and Falk are great together. Richard Libertini plays a Mexican
dictator with several screws loose. It’s hilarious. Criterion released a new
dvd earlier this year with a commentary track with Alan Arkin, writer Andrew
Bergman, Peter Falk and director Arthur Hiller. There are also a couple of
supplementary interviews with Arkin and some of the supporting cast. Check it
out.
Iron Man 3-Christmas
time is Shane Black season although, I have to admit that this is not one of
his stronger films. I have a few problems that I won’t air here out of the
spirit of peace and goodwill, but those of you who have had this conversation
with me know what they are.
Joyeux Noel-
Inspired by true events during World War I, this movie tells the story of what
happened on one Christmas Eve when a platoon of French, German and Scottish
soldiers looked across their stretch of the 100 yards of No Man’s Land and
asked each other, will it affect the outcome of the war if we don’t shoot at
each other for one night? I won’t tell you much more about it outside of check
it out.
Kelly’s Heroes-It’s
a war movie, it’s a heist movie, it’s a comedy, it’s a…it’s one of my favorites
that I can’t recommend enough, go check it out.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang-This
is definitely one of Shane Black’s best films. Robert Downey, Jr. plays a
burglar who gets mistaken for an actor and winds up in Hollywood to star in a
murder mystery movie but finds that reality is providing enough of both to keep
him busy. The dialogue is brilliant, check it out.
Krampus-We all
know about the jolly old fat guy that comes around and brings presents to the
good boys and girls but whatever happens to the naughty children? That’s where
Krampus comes in. If you’ve seen it, then you already know how good it is, if
you haven’t, go check it out.
La La Land-This
is another movie that I’m surprised I liked. In fact, the more I think about
it, the more I enjoy it. It’s a musical comedy but it’s not like My Fair Lady
or even Everyone Says I Love You, which is kind of what I was expecting. It’s a
simple story of a not so simple subject of boy meeting girl and trying to make
their dreams come true in the city of Angels. It reminds me of another boy
meets girls story that happened at that theater several years ago. I had met
this girl while making a movie and we decided to go see movie later that week.
Common interests, right? I forget the movie, it might have had Anthony Hopkins
in it, it’s not important. As we’re leaving the theater there was this guy playing
a guitar. He was just practicing while waiting for something. The two of them
are really connecting, trading e-mail addresses, I think they even knew some of
the same people. I just bookmarked the moment because I knew exactly where this
was going. We saw each other for about another three weeks or so for lack of
anything better to do, I guess. Some circumstance came up that gave us a good
chance to say good bye. About another month later, somehow we were talking on
the phone and she’s telling me all about this new guy and then she remembers
that I know him too, it’s the guy with the guitar. I’m sitting there listening,
feeling like the old sage on the mountain as everything I saw coming is being
told to me. As memory serves, I think I met somebody else either right before
or right after the phone conversation. That lasted about three months. The girl
and the guitar guy could still be together for all I know, we haven’t spoken in
years. This isn’t musical comedy folks, go see the movie.
The Last Boyscout-If
there’s a Christmas filled with mayhem, murder and mystery it must be a Shane
Black film. He wrote this one and Tony Scott directed it. I still remember the
first time I saw this movie, I was working at a movie theater and had to go in
after hours and screen it to make sure it ran through okay. In the course of
passing time, I called this girl I was dating at the time and we ended up
getting into a(nother) fight. Why aren’t we still together? No big surprise
there. Anyway, I was able to identify with this movie right off the bat and it
really cheered me up. I’ve been a fan ever since. It’s well written and looks
great. Check it out.
Lethal Weapon-Shane
Black’s writing debut about an experienced homicide detective and a narcotics
sergeant who have to work together to solve the biggest case of their careers.
Richard Donner directed this one and if you track it down on home video, there
is a director’s cut that’s about seven minutes longer and feels more complete
than the theatrical version. Check it out.
The Nice Guys-I feel
like I’ve already told you so much about this movie before since I mentioned it
when it played theatrically and then I told you about the book and now it’s on
home video. About the only thing new I can say about it is that it does get
better with each viewing. Go and enjoy.
Rocky IV-Not your
traditional Christmas movie, I’ll grant you, but when Rocky Balboa gives up his
title, goes into a hostile land to avenge his friends death and ends up
becoming an emissary of peace on Christmas day, isn’t that really what the
holiday is all about?
Santa’s Slay-This
is a great holiday horror comedy. One thousand years ago an angel of the lord
bested the son of Satan in a game of curling. As a result, he had to change his
ways for a thousand years and be good. Time’s up and Santa’s on the rampage.
Check it out.
Scrooged-Richard
Donner’s other Christmas movie is this retelling of the classic Charles Dickens
cautionary tale of a man who lets material gain obscure his view of his fellow
man. I’ve always enjoyed this movie but I never fully came to appreciate it
until I saw A Christmas Carol live on stage a couple of months ago. I was
really taken with this production and somewhere in the back of my head I
entertained the idea of enhancing it somehow. The character of Tiny Tim is
iconic but if you stop and think about him, you really don’t get to know him.
His parents have a few lines of dialogue about him and that’s about it. He
evokes sympathy because of his age and his condition. When Scrooge and the
spirits visit and there’s mention of a lonely crutch in the corner, of course
you don’t want the little sick kid to die but, unfortunately, that’s what sick
kids did in the nineteenth century, they died. What if you could give Tim
something more to do to flush out his character? Let the audience get attached
to Tim and not just a young sick boy. Wait a minute, what am I saying?! Rewrite
Mr. Dickens?! Isn’t that punishable by a thousand paper cuts and the breaking
of all of my writing instruments? But, how else do you build his charac-wait,
of course, less is more. When his father was killed, the boy pulled a Tommy and
stopped speaking. The other characters speak for him and you get a genuine
sympathy for the character. You don’t want to see him wind up in the padded
room so when he delivers his big line at the end, it is the Christmas miracle.
Silent Night, Deadly
Night- The original Killer Santa movie that is often imitated but nobody
got it right like Michael Hickey and Charles Sellier, Jr. If you get the
chance, go check it out.
The Thin Man-Mayhem,
murder and mystery at Christmas, is this another Shane Black film? No! It’s
Dashiell Hammett. Well, okay, it’s W.S. Van Dyke to be more precise. William
Powell and Myrna Loy star as Nick and Nora Charles. He’s a former private
investigator who hung up his trench coat when he married a socialite and
started running the family businesses. You can’t keep a good detective down
when an old client goes missing and everybody is looking to Nick Charles for
answers. For all you murder mystery fans, this is one of the first movies to
use the device of
somebody-in-this-room-is-the-killer-and-I’m-going-to-show-you-who-it-is.
Definitely check this one out.
That’s about all
I have for now, hope you enjoyed the read. I’ll be back next month with a new
list of books, movies, stories about roller derby and who knows what else. Hope
you all have a happy and safe new year!
