Bruce Lee by Marshall Rogers!
Bruce Lee in a rarely seen pinup by Marshall Rogers!
We Need More DUSTY STAR Stories by Andrew Robinson!
We need more Dusty Star stories by Andrew Robinson.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (2024) directed by Tim Burton, starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe & Monica Bellucci / Z-View
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar; story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame-Smith based on characters by Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson
Stars: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera, Burn Gorman and Danny DeVito.
Tagline: The ghost with the most is back.
The Plot…
Thirtysix years ago Betelgeuse, a vulgar, prankster ghost attempted to marry a teenager named Lydia Deetz. Although unsuccessful, Betelgeuse hasn’t given up. Confined to the underworld, he still has hopes to escape.
Lydia and her mother struggle to have a healthy relationship. Lydia and her daughter, Astrid, don’t get along much better. Astrid doesn’t believe her mom can see ghosts.
When Lydia, her mother and Astrid return to Winter River for a funeral things take a turn. Astrid accidentally frees Betelgeuse. Now he can finally force marriage to Lydia. Meanwhile Betelgeuse’s first wife has “pulled herself together” and has plans for Betelgeuse (and anyone who gets in her way). And don’t get me started on Astrid’s problems.
The juice is loose indeed.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
While not as fun as the original, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is still a fun ride. The film is best when Keaton is on screen cutting up. Jenna Ortega is an excellent choice to play Winona Ryder’s daughter.
My favorite scene was the MacArthur Park wedding scene.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) rates 3 of 5 stars.
“The Pitt” starring Noah Wyle – The Poster and Trailer are Here!
The poster and trailer for The Pitt, starring Noah Wyle is here!
I like the idea of a 15 hour limited series about 15 hours in a big city emergency room.
Deal me in.
In The Pitt, every hour counts.
#ThePitt, a new Max Original Series from John Wells, Executive Producer of ER and The West Wing, and starring Noah Wyle, premieres January 9 on Max.
Red Sonja Under Attack by Eduardo Risso!
Red Sonja under attack by Eduardo Risso. Look closer, Sonja’s attackers may not be what you first think.
“Carriers” (2009) starring Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Lou Taylor Pucci and Emily VanCamp / Z-View
Carriers (2009)
Director: Àlex Pastor, David Pastor
Screenplay: Àlex Pastor, David Pastor
Stars: Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Lou Taylor Pucci, Emily VanCamp, Kiernan Shipka, Mark Moses, Josh Berry, Tim D. Janis, Dylan Kenin and Christopher Meloni.
Tagline: The rules are simple. You break them, you die…
The Plot…
A highly contagious virus has wiped out most of the human race. Brian, his girlfriend Bobby, along with his brother Danny and Danny’s friend Kate have joined for a trip. They hope to make their way to a remote beach house that they know will be empty. Once there the four plan to enjoy the beach and wait until the virus dies out. Or a cure is found.
Getting there will be dangerous. Breathing the air or contact with an infected person means sure death. Uninfected people are just as dangerous. Food, water and gasoline is scare.
Not everyone will survive.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
I liked that Carriers had a virus that didn’t turn people into zombies. THAT was a different angle from most movies.
Carriers was filmed in 2006, but the studio held it from release. Then when Chris Pine hit big with Star Trek, it was released. Pine ended up getting top billing, even though Lou Taylor Pucci’s character was the first lead.
Christopher Meloni (who plays the father of an infected child) and Mark Moses (who plays a doctor who has lost all hope) have characters/scenes that will stay with you.
I saw Carriers when it was first released and again yesterday. I liked it better the second time. I wanted more action on my first viewing. The second time, I realized that Carriers should be seen as more of a psychological thriller.
Carriers (2009) rates 3 of 5 stars.
“Alarum” starring Scott Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Willa Fitzgerald and Mike Colter – The Poster & Trailer are Here!
Alarum starring Scott Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Willa Fitzgerald and Mike Colter. The poster and trailer are here.
Deal me in.
Alarum – Watch the trailer now! In Theaters, On Digital and On Demand January 17. Starring Scott Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Willa Fitzgerald and Mike Colter
Academy Award® nominee* Sylvester Stallone, Scott Eastwood, Mike Colter, and Willa Fitzgerald star in this explosive action-thriller about two married spies caught in the crosshairs of an international intelligence network that will stop at nothing to obtain a critical asset. Joe (Eastwood) and Lara (Fitzgerald) are agents living off the grid whose quiet retreat at a winter resort is blown to shreds when members of the old guard suspect the two may have joined an elite team of rogue spies, known as ALARUM.
“Caddo Lake” (2024) written and directed by Celine Held & Logan George / Z-View
Caddo Lake (2024)
Director: Celine Held, Logan George
Screenplay: Celine Held, Logan George
Stars: Dylan O’Brien, Eliza Scanlen, Lauren Ambrose, Eric Lange, David Maldonado and Gina Limbrick.
Tagline: Find your way back.
The Plot…
Strange things happen at Caddo Lake.
When a woman has a seizure, she drives off the Caddo Lake bridge. Her son Paris is able to free himself, but not his mother. She dies. Paris lives with guilt.
Ellie’s family lives on Caddo Lake. Ellie never forgave her mother for remarrying after her dad disappeared. Although Ellie loves her stepsister, Anna, Ellie’s relationship with her mother and stepfather is strained at best.
When Anna disappears somewhere on Lake Caddo, the police form search parties. Paris joins in. Ellie as well.
In a remote area of Lake Caddo, mysteries unravel. Paris and Ellie will learn answers to questions that have haunted them for years.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Lake Caddo is a real lake in Texas.
I appreciate that Lake Cadado respects the audience’s intelligence. It takes time building the story and this adds to the payoff.
Caddo Lake (2024) rates 3 of 5 stars.
CRIMINAL by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips!
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip‘s Criminal will have new editions of each story coming out in 2025. If you don’t have them, you should consider getting them.
“28 Years Later” – The Second Poster and First Full Trailer is Here!
The second poster and first trailer for 28 Years Later is here!
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland reunite for #28YearsLater – only in theatres 6.20.25.
Academy Award®-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award®-nominated writer Alex Garland reunite for 28 Years Later, a terrifying new story set in the world created by 28 Days Later. It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Written by: Alex Garland
Produced by: Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice, Bernard Bellew, Danny Boyle, Alex Garland
Executive Producer: Cillian MurphyCast: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes
The Bride from “Kill Bill” by Jason Pearson!
Kill Bill’s Bride by Jason Pearson.
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (2020)starring Viola Davis & Chadwick Boseman / Z-View
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)
Director: George C. Wolfe
Screenplay: Ruben Santiago-Hudson; based on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson
Stars: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Colman Domingo, Jeremy Shamos, Jonny Coyne, Taylour Paige, Joshua Harto and Quinn VanAntwerp.
Tagline: Everything Comes Out in the Blues.
The Plot…
In 1927, Ma Rainey is a radio sensation. Her blues renditions are in demand. Ma Rainey is in demand and is going to make the best of it. Ma suffers no fools. Although black in an age of Jim Crow, Ma Rainey defers to no one.
Ma Rainey has contracted to make a record for white producers. Her regular band members show up early and begin getting ready. As they warm up, Levee Green, the band’s trumpeter arrives. Mel Sturdyvant, the white record producer is getting nervous since Ma isn’t there. Levee sees an opportunity and talks to Mr. Sturdyvant about recording Leeve’s songs. The rest of the band sees that as in insult to Ma. Ma will not be happy if she learns Leeve is trying to undercut her. She’ll be even more upset if she learns Leeve is putting the moves on Ma’s girl, Dussie Mae.
Finally Ma arrives. When Ma sees that some of her requests for performing weren’t honored, she becomes irritated. Mr. Sturdyvant and Ma begin to butt heads. Ma says she won’t perform until she is satisfied. Tensions rise.
Who would have thought that a simple recording session would lead to murder.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was nominated for five Academy Awards and won two…
- Nominee Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Chadwick Boseman
- Nominee Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Viola Davis
- Nominee Best Achievement in Production Design: Mark Ricker (production design), Karen O’Hara (set decoration), Diana Stoughton (set decoration)
- Winner Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson
- Winner Best Achievement in Costume Design: Ann Roth
Denzel Washington was one of the film’s producers and had mentored Chadwick Boseman since Boseman’s college days.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is Chadwick Boseman’s final film.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a rare film where it all comes together. A great screenplay, adapted from a superb play, with an excellent director leading a wonderful cast. I’m surprised Viola Davis didn’t win the Oscar for Best Actress.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) rates 5 of 5 stars.
“The Last Ronin” – One Poster and Two Trailers are Here!
One poster and two trailers for The Last Ronin are here. This one reminds me of a drive-in movie I’d want to see as a kid.
Deal me in.
(Not) distant future. As a result of climate change, which led to a global nuclear war, civilization is practically destroyed: lands are scorched, cities are destroyed. The equipment does not work; gasoline has long lost its properties. The main currency in this world is two cartridges: 9mm and 7.62 from the AK-47.
Haunted by the ghosts of the past, lone traveler Ronin wanders the postapocalyptic wastelands in search of his father’s killer. Over the years, he has been creating a map of the lawless world inhabited by tough survivors. Everywhere he goes, he encounters blood-thirsty head hunters and rogue gangs. One day Ronin meets a wayward teenage girl Maria who offers him a precious bounty for escorting her to her birthplace.
BLOOD GROVE: AN EASY RAWLINS MYSTERY by Walter Mosley / Z-View
BLOOD GROVE by Walter Mosley
First sentence…
I looked down from the third-floor office window onto the hastily built greenhouse in our back-fence neighbor’s yard.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Easy Rawlins is at his desk when a man enters the small office. Easy has seen the look of a shell-shocked soldier before. He’s seeing it again. The man’s name is Craig Kilian. Kilian’s a white man who wants to hire Easy. Even in 1969, that’s not an everyday occurrence.
Kilian wants Easy to find out if Kilian murdered a man. He thinks he did. Kilian and a beautiful woman were alone in a citrus grove when a stranger attacked. Kilian thinks in the struggle he stabbed the man. Killed him dead. Yet when Kilian came to the woman was gone. So was the man he stabbed.
Easy feels sorry for the battle fatigued vet so he takes the case.
As Easy follows the clues, it becomes a tangled mess involving missing money, a sociopathic killer, cops and grifters.
+++++
I’m a Walter Mosley fan. His Easy Rawlins tales are the best. BLOOD GROVE is no exception. If you’ve followed Mr. Mosley’s career, you’ll enjoy appearances in this one by Mouse Alexander, Fearless Jones, Jackson Blue and Christmas Black.
Rating:
Marv by Nick Dragotta!
Marv from Frank Miller’s Sin City is one of my all-time favorite characters. I love seeing artists do their “take” on the big lug. Today we have Marv by Nick Dragotta.
