Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Yesterday, I said that I usually don’t buy tv series dvds for my collection. Then I talked up one. Any guess what I’m about to do today?
Yep, today I’m recommending the first season dvd of Superman.
If you’re anywhere near my age [46], then George Reeves WAS Superman. And sure, the effects were low budget [ok, no budget], but man, did we love the show.
I can’t wait to get the chance to love it again!
I usually don’t purchase tv series for my dvd collection.I may make an exception though when Lost comes to dvd on September 6th.
Lost was on my “Must See TV” list from its premiere and it continued to gain momentum with each new episode. What was not to like? Great characters. A great mystery. And just enough info to REALLY wonder what the heck is going on.
The dvd extras and price [$38.99] also add to the appeal for making Lost a dvd addition to my collection.
On November 27th of this year, Bruce Lee would have been 65 years old. Amazing isn’t it?
It’s hard to imagine Bruce as ever being older than 32, since that’s how old he was when he died on July 20, 1973. Think about that for a second. Bruce Lee died 32 years ago. Bruce has been dead now for a longer period of time than he lived. And yet, you can say his name to almost anyone of any age and they know who Bruce Lee was.
My guess is that he’s more popular now than he was while alive. I say that because each year a new generation discovers Bruce Lee and his movies [and he only made a handful of kung fu movies before he died].
I’m old enough that my first memory of Bruce was as Kato on The Green Hornet. Man, Kato was cool! Of course, that was because of Bruce‘s charisma.
After The Green Hornet, Bruce‘s next onscreen performance was with James Garner in Marlowe. Bruce had a small role as a martial artist thug.
I also fondly remember my anticipation to see Bruce in the tv movie “Longstreet.” Lee played the part of a martial artist who trains a blind insurance investigator the art of self defense. When the movie spun off into a short lived tv series, Lee was brought back for four of the 23 episodes.
It wasn’t long after that Bruce Lee‘s Fist of Fury aka The Big Boss hit the US. It was quickly followed by The Chinese Connection and Return of the Dragon [with Chuck Norris fighting Bruce to the death]. Bruce Lee fever was growing, but it wasn’t until the release of Enter the Dragon that Bruce Lee mania really soared. Sadly, Bruce Lee died three weeks prior to it’s premiere in the USA.
As you probably know, Enter the Dragon is the classic Bruce Lee movie… it’s still the best kung fu movie ever made… and arguments can be made the best action movie as well.
After Bruce‘s death, producers sought every way possible to continue to make money from Bruce Lee. Green Hornet episodes were combined and released as features with Kato getting top billing! The Game of Death, the movie that Bruce was working on when he died was completed with a look-alike and bad effects and it was released. Several movies were released “based” on the life of Bruce Lee [but made to look like new Bruce Lee movies], equally as bad were the movies starring guys like Bruce Li or Bruce Le trying to pass as the original. The one excellent documentary that should be in every Bruce Lee fan’s collection is
Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey.
Earlier this year Bruce Lee was named “Chinese Film’s Bright Star of the Century.” This November, in honor of Bruce‘s 65th birthday and bigger than life bronze statue of Bruce will be errected in Hong Kong’s Avenue of Stars. You can read the details HERE.
Yeah it’s true that Bruce Lee died 32 years ago… but it’s equally true that Bruce Lee will live forever!
“Marlowe” rates a C+
“Fists of Fury” rates a C
“Chinese Connection” rates a C
“Return of the Dragon” rates a B
“Enter the Dragon” rates an A+
“Game of Death” rates a C
“Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey” rates an A+
Long time ZONE readers know that one of my biggest pleasures as a kid was staying up late and watching scary movies and tv shows.
I still get a kick out ’em.
You can imagine how much I enjoy it when the Scifi channel runs it’s Twilight Zone marathon.
Starting at 11PM tomorrow night and running until 4AM on the 5th, you can tune in and watch the classic Twilight Zone episodes from the 60’s. While I doubt that many of us will last for all 29 hours, there are many episodes worth checking out, including two of my favorites.
The first, “Terror at 20,000 Feet” involves a man [played by William Shatner] who has just been released from a mental institution.
On a plane ride home he sees a creature on the wing of the plane trying to destroy the engine… but no one else sees it. He knows it’s out there, but everyone believes that he’s having another breakdown…
The second is called “To Serve Man.”
Aliens arrive on Earth and all indications are they came in peace… but do they really?
Even if you can’t watch them all [and who can?], maybe you can plan to tune in to see an old favorite or one you’ve never seen before.
I know that I will…
And for just a little while I’ll be a kid again, up on the couch hoping that someone else besides me and Bill Shatner sees the creature on the wing!
When I was a little kid, I used to love movies and tv shows about aliens coming to Earth.
If we were lucky, they were friendly and intelligent like Michael Rennie in The Day that the Earth Stood Still. He even looked human.
Then again, so did the aliens in the 60’s tv show The Invaders. [I haven’t seen an episode in years, and wonder how it would hold up.]
Sometimes the aliens were simply monsters out to wipe us out, like in the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers or War of the Worlds. [And, yes, I’m really looking forward to the update by Spielberg and Cruise.]
Occasionally, there would be just one alien. And boy, were we lucky that there was only one if the alien ended up being like The Blob or The Thing.
Growing up, I not only liked movies and tv shows about aliens, but I also read and watched programs about UFOs.
I still do.
Think how cool it would be if we could find definitive proof of intelligent life in outer space. Uh… as long as they weren’t out to wipe us out.
As I get older, I stil retain that sense of wonder about life in outer space. Most likely it’s out there. It’s just that the universe is such a huge place.
Don’t believe me? Click HERE and see.
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Did you see the final episode of LOST? If you did, especially if you’re a regular LOST viewer, you saw one of the all-time best cliffhanger endings ever! And now with months to go until the new season, word is starting to leak out about what we can expect. The great news is that Michelle Rodriguez is going to join the cast as a regular. Rodriguez appeared in the last episode [in a flashback]. I’m a big fan so adding her to one of my “Must See TV” shows is simply a bonus. |
I hope that everyone made it to this side of 2005 with a minimum of damage. 2004 was a good year and I’m hoping for even better things in 2005. But before we leave ’04 completely, I thought I’d give a brief rundown of some of the highlights entertainment-wise [at least for me]…
Movies: I loved the Dawn of the Dead re-make and The Passion of the Christ. [Kinda strange that they were both about people who rose from the dead.]
Collateral was very good and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and The Chronicles of Riddick were fun rides.
Several of the best movies that I saw in 2004 were older movies that I discovered on DVD or cable. The original Metropolis was stunning even 77 years after it was made. And you know I love the whole tough guy – noir genre, so seeing movies like On Dangerous Ground, Brute Force and The Big Heat made my day.
TV: The Shield, 24, Survivor and West Wing continue to make my “Must See TV” list. And although Alias still hung in there, ER fell from the ranks. Lost soared to the top of the list and I enjoyed Boston Legal when I caught it.
Novels: The best were Portrait of a Murderer: The Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwall, Double Play by Robert Parker, Sensei by John Donohue, and Rain Storm by Barry Eischer.
Comics: My favorite comic of the year was Grave Digger: The Scavengers by Christopher Mills and Rick Burchett. The writing and art meshed perfectly to create a comic that’s impossible not to enjoy. If we don’t get more Grave Digger stories from Mills and Burchett, then there’s no justice.
My favorite graphic novel of the year was The Wicked West by Todd Livingston, Robert Tinnell and artist, Neil Vokes. Anyone who is a fan of westerns, horror or simply great graphic novels would love The Wicked West.
My favorite on-going series were The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charles Adlard [which just keeps getting better and better] and 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.
Blogs: Mark Evanier’s News from ME is required reading daily. He’s funny, informative and blogs don’t get any better. Jeff Parker’s Mystifying Oracle and Mike Wieringo’s blog don’t appear daily but when they do, they’re worth a read.
Breakfast: Was a three hour marathon session [and NO, we weren’t eating the whole time] with my ole pal Jim Ivey last week. Jim will soon be 80 and we hadn’t been able to get together in quite a while. Christmas Break seemed like the right time to clear my schedule and make a trip over to see “Jimbo” and I couldn’t have asked for a better time. Jim seemed to enjoy it too. ; )
Now… on to 2005!
One sure way to tell that Christmas is upon us is that the networks start airing holiday specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. As kids, we always looked forward to the Christmas specials. They were sort of an appetizer to the coming holiday. And doesn’t it seem like everyone has seen A Charlie Brown Christmas at one time or another.
Don’t believe me? Ask your friends. It may be their favorite holiday special, but I’ll bet they’ve seen it.
I remember seeing A Charlie Brown Christmas when it premiered in 1965 and the next day in school, it was THE topic of discussion. [Now you have to remember that I was in first grade at the time.] Seems everyone saw it and everyone loved it. Surprisingly though, it almost didn’t get made! “Television executives hated it from the start… It was criticized as being too religious…for featuring contemporary jazz… for not having a laugh track…” and for even using the voices of real children instead of actors. Despite all of these concerns, A Charlie Brown Christmas was an instant hit.
You can read more interesting facts about A Charlie Brown Christmas by clicking HERE. Then I’d love to hear which special is your favorite.
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This season will be full of change as Jack Bauer is no longer with CTU and 24 is no longer on Tuesday nights. Still from the looks of |
Man, if you’re not watching LOST at 8PM on Wednesday nights, you should be.It is without a doubt my
favorite new show. My entire family is loving it. And the cool thing is none of us is really sure what it’s all about.
If you don’t watch it, then you’re probably wondering how the heck we can enjoy the show so much and NOT KNOW WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT. Well… that’s part of the beauty of the show.
If you want to know more, check out THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE… if you want to know even more, check out THIS DARK HORIZONS INTERVIEW with one of the writers… and if you really want to know what I’m talking about then tune in for an episode!
Close, who won an Emmy for “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story,” will appear in all 13 episodes. Production is set to start in January with new epsiodes airing by May.
Close will play the new captain [What about Aceveda?] who will probably butt heads with Detective Vic Mackey (Emmy-winner Michael Chiklis).
Today is the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks which took down the twin towers, destroyed part of the Pentagon and took the lives of thousands of citizens from around the world. It was the most shocking day of my life.
The History Channel is running a very interesting documentary called “The Twin Towers: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon.” It’s extremely well done and worth a look.
The picture above is of family members of victims who have returned to the site to pay their respects. And because the day had such an impact me, I felt it appropriate to pay my respects as well.
My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who lost someone on that terrible day.
ABC has announced that The Happy Day 30th Anniversary Reunion, will air later this season. All major cast members [Ron Howard (Richie), Henry Winkler (“Fonzie”), Tom Bosley (Howard Cunningham), Marion Ross (Marion Cunningham), Erin Moran (Joanie), Scott Baio (Chachi) Anson Williams (Potsie), Don Most (Ralph Malph)] and even the two cast members who played Riche‘s older brother in the first season [but then quietly disappeared in the second season] are set to appear.
Happy Days was on my MUST-SEE TV list for a few seasons. It was funny, Fonzie was cool, and the series was fun. A lot of people say the show went down-hill when Fonzie [literally] jumped the shark, but I think it was when Chachi came on board.
Still, I’ll probably tune in to the special if only to see if a short, skinny guy who says, “Ayyyy!” was as cool as I remember.
Sammy Terry returns!If you grew up anywhere in the midwest from the early 60’s to the mid 80’s you probably made a habit of tuning in on Friday [and later Saturday] nights to watch Sammy Terry’s Nightmare Theater. Sammy would introduce horror movies and return with commentary after each commercial break. Sammy was one of the first “horror hosts” and definitely had one of the longest running shows.
If you grew up watching Sammy and would love to see him again, or if you never had the chance and want to see what he was all about…
Sammy will have his first official Sammy Terry Live Webcast will be on Friday, July 30th from 9:00 pm to 9:15 pm. The Sammy Terry chat will start at 9:15 pm and run to 10:00 pm. I plan to tune in, and if you love horror movie, hope that you can make it as well.
Until then… I wish you all… “Pleasant Nightmares.”
The Sci Fi channel has, for weeks, been advertising an “unauthorized documentary” [some even called it a “disturbing expose” ] about M. Knight Shyamalan. The story was that M. Knight first cooperated, but then tried to shut it down when producers delved too deeply into his personal life. The documentary advertised that it would present a “buried secret.” I’ll be the first to admit that the documentary sounded interesting, but something about it just didn’t seem right. My wife speculated, a couple of weeks ago, that M. Knight was probably behind the whole thing… and it turns out she was right.
Today the Sci Fi cable network and parent company NBC Universal acknowledged that the documentary was really part of a “guerrilla marketing” hoax that went too far. It seems that “a number of entertainment journalists…” were left “…grumbling after they were duped…”
I watched the special and it was so obvious that the doc was set -up, that anyone who is upset because they were duped should be upset with himself for being so gullible.
