My Life and Code

I'm a huge fan of most things 1970s, and I recently heard of this movie via a post on Reddit. It's about a sniper who has his sights set on the crowd at a football championship game (they're careful to never refer to it as a Super Bowl). It's sort of in the vein of those 1970s disaster films, except it's not really about a disaster. But it has that same vibe. While I liked the film, here's the problem with it: editing. Or, more specifically, the lack thereof. I have no problem with character building. I have no problem with a movie taking it's time to establish a plot, or characters, or whatever. But by the time this film actually got along with the plot, I paused it to see how much time had passed, and it was halfway through the film.  In fact, at the time of this writing, if you look the film up on Wikipedia, the summary of the film written there starts at the midway point of the film . The opening credits sequence was an early red flag. A long....long.......

In 1982's Blade Runner , Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is tasked with hunting down four renegade replicants , humanoid robots which are virtually indistinguishable from real people. And fans of the film often debate whether or not Deckard himself is a replicant. The debate originates with director Ridley Scott, who has gone on the record by  saying as much , years after the film's original release. But here's the thing: one of the screenwriters, Hampton Fancher, says that Deckard is not a replicant (though he likes the ambiguity), and Harrison Ford, until recently, has been adamant that Deckard is human (a recent change of opinion on his part seems... paid for , so to speak, in my opinion, and it's well known that he and Scott disagreed vehemently on it). The filming of a scene, post-production, with a unicorn that ties into a scene at the end of the film is meant to imply Deckard is a replicant, and to be fair, there is a line which was cut from the film where the chara...

One of my hobbies for a long time now has been the building of a digital library of movies and TV shows. I originally undertook this using media stored on a combination of USB drives and a DLNA server, but just over a year ago purchased a NAS and hosted an instance of Jellyfin . Jellyfin is amazing and I plan to write a separate entry about that later. Today, out of curiosity, I decided to see if it were possible to sort my media in order of how well it was rated (community rating/general consensus), and yes, Jellyfin provides this. And once I'd sorted my movies in order of community rating, I just had to know: What's the worst rated stuff I have here? What follows is that list, in descending order -- my "Bottom 10 Movies", so to speak. #10 - Can't Stop The Music Starring Steve Guttenberg and The Village People Is It Really That Bad?  Yes Okay, okay, I need to make something clear at the outset: I love bad movies. And this one is...woof. Bad. It's bad. It...

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear  is an old made-for-TV movie that I saw in syndication when I was a kid. I seem to recall it being on more than once, either multiple times during the same holiday season, or in consecutive years. I loved this movie, but looking back on it, all I remembered was that it starred Mickey Rooney as a grandfather hanging around with his grandson during the Christmas season, and the ending of the film. It doesn't appear to have gotten a home release past the VHS format, and is long out of print. I was happy to find it on YouTube recently, and watched it for the first time in ages. Even though I had fond memories of it, I had little  memory of it -- what was it about the film that I liked way back then? It was strange watching it again, as nothing was coming back to me as I did so. I'd have expected some "Oh, now I remember this part" moments, but that never happened, and by the end, I was curious as to why I had enjoyed the film so much as a ...

Synopsis '60s/'70s television mainstay hosts a Halloween show that is filled with singing, "humorous" skits, and everything else that was a staple of those gawdawful 1970s variety shows... Review ...and that's what I love about it. Where to begin, where to begin? Well, for starters, I wasn't super familiar with Paul Lynde, though I'm sure I'd caught his appearances on Bewitched  in re-runs when I was a kid (we had a local station in the area that would show sitcoms from that era in syndication). But the first I'd heard of this special was while reading something about the band KISS . They had appeared in the special. I'm a fan, and my brother-in-law is a real die-hard, one of those people who buys pretty much anything the band releases, be it music or other merchandise. After I'd learned about this special, I was over his house one day and asked if he knew about it. He replied that not only was he aware of it, he owned a copy, and asked if...

Synopsis Panicky townsfolk unleash the very terror they fear, but it's okay, it just moves to another town to find yet another  son of Dr. Frankenstein. More chaos ensues. Review This was an unexpected gem. Over the past few years, during the Halloween season, I've been watching the Universal Monster movies, and they're really hit or miss. Sometimes, they're great, sometimes the ones you think  would be great aren't , and the ones that should stink are excellent . You never know. Personally, for example, I found Bride of Frankenstein  better than the original, and hated the original Mummy . The previous film in the Frankenstein series, Son of Frankenstein , was one of my least favorite, but this one  I really enjoyed. Mild Spoilers ahead! The basic plot is that the villagers from the previous film have learned that Ygor is still alive, so they go to burn down Frankenstein's castle, fearing that Ygor was/is doing them harm somehow. During the siege, they inadvert...

Synopsis Count Dracula and the Wolf Man appeal to altruistic Dr. Edelmann to cure what ails them. Chaos ensues. Oh, and Frankenstein's monster is there too, and doesn't do much. Review Every Halloween season I watch some of the old Universal Monster movies, seeing them for the first time. I tend to enjoy the cheesier sequels more than the classic originals, so I was hoping this one would be as enjoyable as I found House of Frankenstein  (which is so far my favorite). However, these films seem to be real  hit or miss: either I really enjoy them, or couldn't care less. This one, unfortunately, fell into the latter category. I lost interest about halfway through. One of the things I like about these films is that they're all relatively short. This one clocks in at 67 minutes, so I didn't lose much of my life watching it. But a lot of it seemed familiar, to the point of me wondering if I'd ever seen it  before. Lon Cheney Jr. is excellent (as always) as the continua...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I've been using Oculus Quest and SKYBOX VR to watch movies in a virtual movie theater, focusing on films I either never saw in the theater, or have never seen. Licence to Kill  is Timothy Dalton's second, and final, film as James Bond. It was released in the summer of 1989, which was a huge summer for genre films. Other films in theaters at that time were Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghostbusters II, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and the biggest film of 1989, Tim Burton's Batman , among others. I had never seen Licence to Kill  until now, watching it in SKYBOX VR's virtual cinema environment. Warning: Minor spoilers follow . I only knew a little bit about this one before watching it, basically just that it was considered a dark film, was originally going to be titled Licence Revoked , and that it involves Bond out for revenge for the death of his friend Felix Leiter's new wife, and Leiter's maiming by a villain-induced sha...

I love movies. And like anyone, I have my favorites. What follows is my list of favorites, along with some memories of each. Note that this is not a list of what I consider the best  movies, but rather my personal favorites , at least as of the time of this writing. So, while you may not find some well-regarded cinematic masterpieces below, you will  find the movies that I love. My 10 Favorite Movies (in Alphabetical Order) Airplane! (1980) "Joey, have you ever been in a...a Turkish prison?" A parody of airplane disaster movies, and an almost-direct copy of a 1950s movie named Zero Hour , Airplane!  has been included on many "Funniest Movies" lists, and rightly so. I've seen it countless times and it still makes me laugh. It's also very quotable ("Of course I'm serious, and don't call me Shirley" has practically entered our lexicon). I first saw this in grade school when they showed it on TV one night, and the next day at school a bunch...

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using  SKYBOX VR  on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism. Warning: Spoilers ahead.   For the past few years, I've been watching the old Universal Monster movies in the weekends leading up to Halloween. These are the first times I'm seeing these, as they were all released well before I was born, and I never happened to catch any of them before. It's become part of my yearly tradition to try to get into the spirit of Halloween. So, watching this film in SKYBOX VR was the first time I'd ever seen the film. The Universal Monster films, like any series of films, are hit-or-mi...

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using  SKYBOX VR  on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism. Warning: Spoilers ahead.   This film was a remake of the original silent film The Phantom of the Opera  from 1925, which in turn was based on the novel of the same name. I've never seen the original film nor read the book, and this was my first time watching this movie, so all of this is new to me. I chose this one because for the past few years, during fall and leading up to Halloween, I've been watching the old Universal Monster movies. As this one seemed to be on the periphery of those movies, I chose it t...

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using  SKYBOX VR  on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism. Warning: Spoilers ahead.   Released way before my time, this film is very loosely-based on the novel of the same name. In actuality, only the basic premise is the same, with the location and characters being different, and some of the more disturbing elements of the book not being present in the film. Martians invade Earth, tear the place up, then die from bacteria after all hope is lost. Gene Barry plays Dr. Clayton Forrester, a scientist who takes point on the whole invasion due to the lucky fact that he was cam...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using  SKYBOX VR  on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism. Warning: Spoilers ahead.   I’d only seen this film once before, on DVD, maybe a year or so after it was released. I remember being surprised when it came out that they were rebooting the Hulk only 5 years after the previous Hulk movie (Ang Lee’s 2003 The Hulk ), though that film had been poorly received, and now I wonder if, had the film been received better, if it would have been considered part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or if they still  would have done the reboot. Regardless, on the single previous viewin...

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using  SKYBOX VR  on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism. Warning: Spoilers ahead.   This movie was from before my time and marks the first time I watched a film using SKYBOX VR that I'd never seen before. The film is a fictionalized account of the  Judges' Trial , which was a trial which took place in Germany post-World War II in which German judges were tried for their part in the atrocities of the Nazi party. Released in 1961, it stars several big-name Hollywood stars of the era, and is part of the United States National Film Registry. I have to admit that I...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using  SKYBOX VR  on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism. Warning: Spoilers ahead.   In my last Movie Night at the Virtual Cinema , I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey , widely considered a Sci-Fi classic. This time around, I'm at the opposite end of that spectrum with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , widely considered the worst of the Star Trek films, at least among those starring the original cast. I've watched this one many times, but never had the chance to catch it in the theater, and if you've seen this movie you're probably wondering why I chose this one. I'll be hon...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using SKYBOX VR on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism. Warning: Spoilers ahead. I hadn’t been born yet when 2001: A Space Odyssey  was originally released, but I’ve seen it several times, the first time probably when I was about 10 years old on TV one night. Truth be told, I found it boring  (and I wasn’t alone: the film got mixed reviews when originally released), but I gained an appreciation for it in later years.  The film begins during prehistory, with humanity’s ancestors being influenced by a strange alien monolith, before flashing forward to 1999 where a similar object...