Here’s just a nifty newspaper advertisement for WOR-TV Channel 9’s annual Thanksgiving monster movie marathon — about which I’ve posted once or twice before.
I actually remember nearly all of this lineup from watching in the 1980’s! The three big-gorilla flicks came first, in glorious black and white, with the Godzilla entries after. (The only movie below that doesn’t ring a bell for me is “Godzilla vs. The Bionic Monster.” I must have missed that one.
Here’s a weird bit of pop culture — a 1983 ad for General Mills Monster Cereals. I might never have actually had Boo Berry — and I remember eating Franken Berry only once or twice? But Count Chocula was a sugary morning delicacy in my household growing up.
It frequently had the best toy surprises waiting at the bottom of the box too. (Do cereals still have those?) I was utterly thrilled that one summer when I got my hands on the the Monster Cereals ink stamps — though, if memory serves, I actually had to save some proofs-of-purchase or something and send away for them in the mail.
Anyway, thanks to the SaturdayMorningFever Youtube channel for this upload.
And if weird Monster Cereals trivia is your thing, then you ought to read up on Quentin Tarantino’s reverence for Fruit Brute.
“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.
Classic early 90’s tune.
Enjoy.
(And be sure to check out the Youtube channel for Chuck D’s All-New Classic TV Clubhouse, from which this came.)
No, I was not alive when “The Adventures of Superman” first aired in the 1950’s. But I could swear that I remember seeing reruns on local New York broadcast TV when I was a tot in the 1970’s.
I could be wrong! It’s possible I’m remembering some other iteration of the character in film or television. My instincts are telling me that this is the show, though.
Comic book fans will recognize George Reeves in the iconic title role.
I am linking here, by the way, to Steven Brandt’s Youtube channel. Thanks, Mr. Brandt.
Pop Rocks!!! These fizzy little candies had a genuine mystique to little kids in the late 1970’s — and they were pretty damned good too! (I am linking here to the Bionic Disco Youtube channel for the video.)
Of course, no reminiscence about Pop Rocks could leave out the morbid, wide-eyed awe we kids felt at the fate of poor Mikey, the beloved little brother in the classic Life Cereal commercials. The finicky tike had perished horribly after a concoction of Pop Rocks and soda had literally exploded his stomach.
It was all bullshit, of course — and maybe the first example of pervasive “fake news” affecting me in my lifetime. But the bizarre and grisly myth got the harmless candy yanked right off the market after sales plummeted.
I think that we can all agree that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008) is the least of the film series. (Some people really despise it.) And I suppose it’s telling that I’ve only seen it twice.
It isn’t a terrible movie, it just couldn’t match the magic of the original trilogy. (I was surprised a moment ago when Wikipedia informed me that it was indeed still directed by Steven Spielberg.) The Russian villains were a little too cartoonish, the chemistry among the leads was a little off, and the whole thing maybe felt a little … rushed. For some reason, it makes me think of a pretty good made-for-television movie instead of a feature film — sort of an “Indiana Jones Reunion Special.”
Hey, I didn’t hate it. The artifact they’re chasing is unique and cool, the denouement is inventive, and Shia LaBeouf’s “Mutt” actually didn’t bother me much. This movie was fun.
I remember seeing “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” in the theater with my 11th grade girlfriend. When it was released, we thought this third entry in the film series would be the last. (Blockbusters tended to run in trilogies back then.) And what a great ostensible send-off it was! Indy was back, in fine form, doing what he did best — punching Nazis. Casting Sean Connery as his father was a stroke of genius, and the chemistry between him and Harrison Ford was priceless.
A couple of astute film fans on Facebook pointed out that 1989 was a great year for movies. This was the summer when Tim Burton’s “Batman” came out, along with “The Abyss,” “Lethal Weapon 2,” “Pet Sematary” and “Dead Poets Society.” Seriously, look at this list. It’s insane.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 