Robert Duvall, star of “The Godfather” saga (1972-1990), “Apocalypse Now” (1979), “Colors” (1988) and “Falling Down” (1993), passed away yesterday at the age of 95.
Photo credit: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Tag Archives: 1988
Cover to “The Question” #14, Denys Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz, 1988
DC Comics.
Cover to “The Flash” #19, Ed Hannigan & Karl Kesel, 1988
DC Comics.
Cover to “Amazing Spider-Man” #300, Todd McFarlane, 1988
Marvel Comics.
Photo of Charles Bukowski at home with writers Mary Ann Swissler and Mat Gleason, 1988
San Pedro, California.
Photo credit: Artgal73, CC BY 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons
Cover to “Batman: The Killing Joke” #1, Brian Bolland & Richard Bruning, 1988
DC Comics.
An earthquake and an eclipse within four days of each other?
I hope Demi Moore’s unborn child is okay.
(IYKYK.)
Throwback Thursday: “Dark City” (1998)!
“Dark City” (1998) maybe wasn’t quite as perfect as its most ardent fans make it out to be, but it was still a damned good film — creative, original and caliginously artistic. (It occasionally suffers somewhat in comparison with its spiritual cousin, “The Matrix,” which changed the very medium of movies only a year later.) And what a cast — William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland and Rufus Sewell!
I saw this movie on VHS around … 2001, I think. I remember being eager at the time to see the inimitable Hurt — I’d grown up with films like “Gorky Park” (1983) and “The Accidental Tourist” (1988). It was only later in life that I really became a fan of Sewell — after his tour-de-force performance as the Nazi villain in “The Man in the High Castle” (2015-2019).
And how can you beat Connelly as a nightclub crooner? My girlfriend sent me a gem that she found on Youtube — Connelly singing an alternate version of her musical number in the movie, Giovanni Polimeni’s “Sway.” (It’s the second video below.)
By the way, I am linking tonight to Media Graveyard and Polimeni’s Youtube channel.
Cover to “Batman” #423, Todd McFarlane, 1988
DC Comics.
Throwback Thursday: “Gymkata” (1985)!!!
“Gymkata!!!” This 1985 movie is widely regarded as one of the worst of all time, Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas received a Razzie Award for it as “Worst New Star,” and the movie’s name was a running joke on “Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988-1999). (I am linking here, by the way, to the Super Fan Trailers Youtube channel.)
The funny thing is, I remember being pretty impressed with this movie when I saw it on VHS back in the day at my buddy Peter Hughes’ house. (I’m not sure what that says about me as a young high school student.)
Oh, well. Peter and I got a fun summer afternoon out of this.
I might have to hunt down a copy. Although MST3K never actually devoted an episode to “Gymkata,” its successor “Rifftrax” (2007) did. Hmm. I’m not sure if I want to see the movie without any commentary at first — so I can get an undiluted hit of 80’s nostalgia. I’ll share here either way.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 