Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
While I doubt you’ll want to watch the entire video, it does make for interesting viewing seeing the Titanic sink in real time. So many lives lost when so many more could have been saved. It’s hard not to imagine being on the Titanic and wondering what you would do…
Anna Green and Mental_Floss present 13 Action-Packed Facts About Rumble in the Bronx. Here are three of my favorites…
2. JACKIE CHAN WANTED IT TO BE HIS BREAKOUT AMERICAN FILM.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, success came easily to Chan in Asia, where his movies were consistently box office hits. But America was a completely different story. Rumble in the Bronx marked his fourth attempt to break into Hollywood. Previously he’d starred in Robert Clouse’s Battle Creek Brawl (1980) and appeared in The Cannonball Run (1981) and The Protector (1985). But none of those films made much of an impact for Chan. For Rumble in the Bronx, he decided it was time to take things into his own hands: Instead of looking for the right role in a big-budget Hollywood film, he decided to make a Hong Kong film that could work as a cross-over hit.
8. CHAN DECIDED TO MAKE RUMBLE IN THE BRONX AFTER TURNING DOWN A ROLE IN DEMOLITION MAN.
Before he decided to make Rumble in the Bronx, Chan was hoping to find his breakout role in an American movie. He was friends with Sylvester Stallone, who repeatedly offered him roles in his upcoming films—which Chan, for one reason or another, repeatedly turned down. In I Am Jackie Chan, Chan recalled, “Another film Stallone offered me was Demolition Man, a movie with Sandra Bullock from the movie Speed. He wanted me to play a super villain running loose in the far future, chased by a super cop, played by him. I didn’t feel right about that role either. It ended up going to Wesley Snipes—so the two people I’d wanted to work with, and couldn’t, ended up working with each other.”
11. ROGER EBERT COMPARED CHAN TO FRED ASTAIRE.
“Any attempt to defend this movie on rational grounds is futile,” Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film. “Don’t tell me about the plot and the dialogue. Don’t dwell on the acting. The whole point is Jackie Chan—and, like Astaire and Rogers, he does what he does better than anybody.”
Twilight Zone: “The Parallel” [Season 4, Episode 11]
Original Air Date: March 7, 1963
Director: Alan Crosland Jr.
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Steve Forrest, Jacqueline Scott and Frank Aletter.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
When astronaut Robert Gaines [Forrest] returns from space he begins to notice little things have changed — his rank, the fence at his house, how he takes his coffee. Could something have happened when mission control lost all contact with him during his space mission. This is the Twilight Zone and you can bet on it!
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Darwyn Cooke was the cover artist for the Batman: Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 1.
Over at the Almost Darwyn Cooke Blog they show us some of the prelims Darwyn created before coming up with his finished cover.
Andy Fish created his take on Sly as Stanley from Lords of Flatbush using no reference! If you’d like to see more of Andy’s art you can here!
Worried about how to survive a zombie apocalypse?
How about an artificial intelligence uprising, or a nuclear war or an asteroid impact or the end of days or… well you get the idea. Well, worry no more.
JoytotheUniverse and Imgur have posted infographics on Surviving 10 Types of Apocalypses. I’ll bet you feel safer already.
Twilight Zone: “No Time Like the Past” [Season 4, Episode 10]
Original Air Date: March 7, 1963
Director: Justus Addiss
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Dana Andrews, Patricia Breslin and Malcolm Atterbury.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Paul Driscoll [Andrews] repeatedly travels back in time with this hope of saving lives, but each time he finds that history can’t be changed. Driscoll then decides to simply go back and live in a simpler time… but by him doing that won’t it change history?
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Jane Rose and Mental_Floss present 10 Electrifying Facts About Nikola Tesla. Here are three of my favorites…
2. HE PIONEERED MANY SIGNIFICANT MODERN INVENTIONS BEYOND ALTERNATING CURRENT.
For many, Tesla is associated with the “War of the Currents”—waged with onetime employer and later rival Thomas Edison—over the form of electricity that would become standard. Edison championed direct current, or DC, while Tesla and ally George Westinghouse fought for alternating current, or AC. AC, of course, eventually won out over DC, despite Edison’s attempts to malign Tesla’s invention by pushing the electric chair as a method of execution to show how dangerous AC was. However, Tesla also conducted pioneering work in electric light, electric motors, radio, x-ray, remote control, radar, wireless communications, and robotics, and created his famous transformer, the Tesla coil. Tesla was in many cases not properly recognized for his contributions, with other inventors receiving credit for improving on what he began. He obtained around 300 patents in his lifetime.
3. HE HAD EXTREMELY REGULAR, EVEN OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE, HABITS, AND WAS A GERMAPHOBE.
Throughout his life, Tesla displayed a formidable work ethic, keeping a regimented schedule. Some claim he slept only two hours a night. He often took his dinner at the same table at Delmonico’s in New York, and later at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. He had an all-consuming fear of germs and required a stack of 18 napkins. He was obsessed with the number three, and was prone to carrying out compulsive rituals related to three. When he was young, he would develop a fit at the sight of pearls, and couldn’t bear to touch hair.
8. HE WANTED TO ILLUMINATE THE ENTIRE EARTH, LITERALLY.
Tesla believed that his work had the potential to light the earth’s atmosphere, banishing darkness and bringing in a new era of light. He theorized that gases in Earth’s upper atmosphere were capable of carrying high-frequency electrical currents, and successful transmission of such currents there could create a “terrestrial night light” that would make shipping lanes and airports safer and illuminate whole cities. But like most of Tesla’s loftier aims, this goal was never realized, and its possibility remains unproven.
Twilight Zone: “Printer’s Devil” [Season 4, Episode 9]
Original Air Date: February 28, 1963
Director: Ralph Senensky
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Starring: Robert Sterling, Pat Crowley and Burgess Meredith
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Douglas Winter sells his soul to the devil in order to save his dying business only to find that he may have lost much more than his soul…
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Stacy Conradt and Mental_Floss present 15 Out-of-this-World Facts About Space Mountain. Here are three of my favorites…
4. THE DISNEY WORLD AND DISNEYLAND RIDES ARE SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT IN HEIGHT.
Florida’s mountain is more than 180 feet high and 300 feet in diameter. Because Disneyland is built on a much smaller scale than the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland’s Space Mountain would have towered over Main Street and ruined the illusion of scale had it been an exact replica. A precise copy also wouldn’t have fit, as Magic Kingdom is a bigger space. As a result, the California Space Mountain is significantly smaller at 118 feet tall and 200 feet in diameter.
6. THE RIDE COST MORE TO BUILD THAN THE ENTIRE DISNEYLAND PARK.
By the time Disneyland officially opened on July 17, 1955, the final price tag was $17 million. Twenty years later, the construction of the Space Mountain complex cost $18 million, including an arcade and a permanent amphitheater.
12. WANT 10 MORE FEET OF RIDE? PICK THE “ALPHA” TRACK.
There are two tracks to choose on the Magic Kingdom ride: Alpha and Omega. For a slightly longer ride, opt for the Alpha track, which is 3196 feet long versus Omega’s 3186 feet.
Twilight Zone: “Miniature” [Season 4, Episode 8]
Original Air Date: February 21, 1963
Director: Walter E. Grauman
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Starring: Robert Duvall, Pert Kelton, Barbara Barrie, William Windom and Barney Phillips..
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Charlie Parkes [Duvall] lives with his over-protective mom and finds himself having increasing difficulty fitting into the “real world.” The one place that he finds peace is at the museum staring at a miniature house from the turn of the century.
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The Jason Bourne Trailer is Here!
Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 27 Things We Learned from Roger Donaldson’s No Way Out Commentary. Here are three of my favorites…
25. The ending of the film was apparently “controversial” at the time as audiences are on the side of Costner’s character throughout only to be stung by the final revelation. He was happy that people kept the secret and wonders if that aided the word of mouth and the film’s success. Can you imagine this movie opening in today’s internet culture?
21. The shot of Susan falling to her death was filmed with her standing upright on a dolly being pushed towards a wall that had been made up like the floor complete with a glass table.
4. The film is based on Kenneth Fearing’s novel, The Big Clock, but Donaldson thought it was an original script all the way through production. “I was at a party and ran into Mel Gibson, and he said ‘Oh I heard you made the remake of The Big Clock.’”
Antoine Fuqua directs the remake of the classic story The Magnificent Seven starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D’Onofrio. While I’m not expecting it to be as good as the original Magnificent Seven, I am expecting a fun couple of hours.
Twilight Zone: “Jess-Belle” [Season 4, Episode 7]
Original Air Date: February 14, 1963
Director: Buzz Kulik
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.
Starring: Anne Francis, James Best and Laura Devon.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
When backwoods beauty Jess-Belle’s man decides to marry another, Jess-Belle goes to a woman rumored to be a witch for help.
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