"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" Theatrical Trailer

OHMSS is one of my favorite movies. I haven't seen this film in a while. I really like George Lazenby as Agent 007 James Bond. It was a very action packed movie although the love scenes are incredibly mushy.

I'm going to get back to reviewing movies soon. Gonna get back into the swing of things now that I'm home for the summer.

Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin made it to the big screen in the form of a movie serial. A movie serial that type that was normally seen before the feature films in the era before TV. Believe it or not though this was not the first Batman serial. There was one in 1943 during the height of the second World War. Here's Chapter 1 in two parts...

This honestly gave me goose bumps...

I was watching this Doctor Who special called Dimensions in Time. It was released in 1993 and we saw the 5 living doctors up to that point in this episode. This was the 30th anniversary of the premier of the series and we see not only Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker (no relation to Tom Baker), and Sylvester McCoy but also their time and space traveling companions (they can be considered sidekicks of sorts) in the same episode. Unlike other episodes where we see more than one Doctor, we would never see them at the same time, but constantly switching.

It was hard to keep up because they went from Doctor to Doctor and companion to companion. The episode was fun, but if I must say so some elements were corny and it was a good idea that this wouldn't be considered a regular episode in Doctor Who continuity. The props I give to it is the production values we see these Doctors in ways most fans couldn't even imagine. Almost as if the Sylvester McCoy era continued.

Oh yeah the other characters were from this BBC soap called EastEnders. This was something of a special presentation for a charity Children in Need. The YouTube user presenting this video doesn't care for it, but it's still worth watching especially since the Doctor Who series had been cancelled 4 years earlier.

Also I say the five living Doctors because the first two Doctors, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, had both passed away before this was filmed (Hartnell in 1975 and Troughton in 1987). Jon Pertwee played his Doctor for the last time on TV here and passed away in 1996 (the year of the Doctor Who TV movie that premiered on FOX). Tom Baker didn't play a big role except at the beginning to warn the other Doctors of the plot of the Rani.

Here are the two parts of this story...

You know I've been doing a lot of Doctor Who lately. I want to vary it up again. Still enjoy these clips these are worth it.

Casino Royale and a Link

I found this website and I just saw the movie I didn't get to see last year, Casino Royale. TV Links has movies, tv programs, music videos, cartoons, amine, and more. So if there's a movie out there that you wanted to see or a TV episode you didn't get to see, this is the place for you.

BTW, Casino Royale was pretty good. I can't wait to buy a DVD version. I can pay attention better if I wasn't on a computer. A lot more down to earth than the last Bond movie Die Another Day. It wasn't very big on special effects as most of the recent Bond films but it was definitely back down to how the series started anyway.

Daniel Craig did a great job and I can certainly believe that we are seeing James Bond in his first go around as a member of the British Secret Service and a Double 0 agent. Looking up info on the book, it wasn't that far removed. THe only diffence is that the movie was set in an era without a Soviet Union. And a much more high tech era than the one Ian Fleming knew.

If you get a chance buy Casino Royal on DVD and check out TV Links. And I must say this blog was more dedicated to Doctor Who in my more recent posts. It's great to back to earth somewhat with James Bond.

It's been years since I've seen an episode of Benny Hill

Yeah I was started on this real young too and was shocked when I found out back in the early 90s that Benny Hill had passed away. I was at Border's one day and found a CD with his theme on there and I immediately broke out laughing because it conjured up images of people running around very fast. That's what I and many people remember. Then I found some clips on YouTube one day.

This video entitled Benny Hill had nothing to do with Benny Hill. It just had three guys running around to the Benny Hill theme. It might be funny to you because of the theme, but there were other things going on too. Case in point...

This is from the Man Show. Yeah there is some running around but this is actually funny because that's not all there was to it. Running around, strange tricks, even a little sexual innuendo. Well it is called the Man Show. Still it made me laugh hopefully it will make you laugh. Finally...

This is Benny Hill himself running from people but he couldn't run away from this little girl. He even jumps off a cliff to get away from a mob and apparently not killed. Classic.

The Unearthly Child

The very first episode of Doctor Who. Great to hear the original theme in its entirely without interruption. The first episode will wisk two school teachers from London into their first adventures in time and space. Has to be a shock yes? Watch!

Chappelle's Show:The Lost Episodes Uncensored

I got this DVD just after the holidays. I finally had a chance to check it out. A very enjoyable DVD. Look at the deleted scenes and the sketches that didn't make it onto the actual episodes.

It's almost unfortunate that Dave Chappelle decided not to return to his show. Charlie Murphy, who hosted the show with Donnell Rawlings in the absence of Chappelle said how it was great to be a part of a great moment in comedy. He even said that if it was for Chappelle, people would still come up to him and say he's Eddie Murphy's brother.

Still it would have been nice if Chappelle had of been able to return. I'm sure there were a few great shows ahead, but looking at the story of why Dave Chappelle hadn't returned to do the show I still have my questions. Oh well though, we at least have the DVDs of the various episodes.

Indeed, it could be possible that if the DVD sets are profitable enough Chappelle might come back and do more shows. Perhaps instead of Comedy Central they'll put him on HBO. We shall see.

Doctor Who

Thanks to YouTube I've become a Doctor Who fan. I have seen many of the old episodes and a few of the newer episodes. The 21st century Doctors are Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. They have taken on the mantle of William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker (a popular Doctor Who), Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, and Paul McGann (he did a Doctor Who TV movie that aired in 1996 on FOX).

The show without a doubt is an acquired taste. It's probably a pit farfetched for many people. It's amazing that I've gotten into it but then I really didn't watch the series in its old form when it would air on WTTW Chicago. But I just have to say that I have a hard time imagining any of the original Doctor Whos in the same situation that the the 21st Century Doctors are in.

It's almost like the current Doctor Who series were re-imagined for a new era. The pace seems faster and the action is ever present. It just doesn't seem slow as it once was. I can't imagine a Tom Baker running around or Peter Davison crash landing his TARDIS or Colin Baker saying six magic words to bring down a regime. And I must add thank goodness for CGI special effects. The effects of the old series may have been cutting edge in respectively the 1960s, 70s, & 80s. Today these effects are lame perhaps I've just seen better. The effects we see in the 1960s Star Trek have been reimagined recently perhaps for about the same reason.

Either way I'm liking the new Doctor Who. The re-imagined theme and listen to the end theme too. Almost James Bond like. And for new eps of The Doctor's adventures instead of waiting for PBS to air them you can watch them on Sci-Fi Channel or even BBC America. And then there's always YouTube.

For the old episodes there is YouTube but there is also going to your local video store and purchasing a copy of Doctor Who eps.

Perhaps every now and again I'll post Doctor Who videos I run across. I did post one over at My Mind's Eye.

Here is the first scene from the very first Doctor Who since 1996 and the last scene from School Reunion from 2006...

Reno 911 Miami

It's been a while since I saw this show on Comedy Central and now there's going to be a film version. Man I wonder how this is going to work out. And watching this trailer, this will certainly be a laugh riot.

How about a couple of clips from Kill Bill Vol. 1

I haven't seen this movie in three years. I only have Vol. 2 on DVD at home. I plan to fix this problem in time for Christmas. I long for this movie. After I saw this movie I had that kind of attitude though I didn't go into a murderous rage at least. Anyway enjoy and I warn you these clips are violent.

Kill Bill Anime


The Bride vs. Vernita Green


This is to make up for the month I failed to post here. And I even failed to see the James Bond movie.

The next Bond Movie

Premiering next month is the next James Bond movie Casino Royale. Casino Royale is based on the only book never adapted into a movie by Eon Pictures (they're the studio that are responsible for making the James Bond films, Dr. No all the way to Die Another Day. And please exclude Never Say Never Again and the 1967 film Casino Royale, which was more of a comedy than anything else). I'm struggling with the idea of trying to see this movie since I'm away at school. Damn it!!!

So here's the deal. This film is something of a prequel, but Dame Judy Dench is still playing M (I saw her in the trailers). The film also isn't retro but it is set in the present day. I'd rather they cast a male M someone not much different from the original M, the late Bernard Lee, but I guess that wasn't meant to be. I hear Q, the man who made all the gadgets, isn't going to be in it (Q was originaly played by Desmond Llewelyn who died in a car crash not too long after the release of his last Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies and was replaced in time for Die Another Day by former Monty Python, John Cleese).

The sixth actor to play James Bond is Daniel Craig and they're making a big deal out of the fact that he's blond. Quite frankly I don't care and it was said that he doesn't like guns, but then another James Bond, Roger Moore was said not to like guns or violence too much either. Since this movie is based on an original Ian Fleming (the original Bond creator) novel, that's what excited me about this movie.

Die Another Day was the last Bond movie released in 2002 starring Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan as Bond. The film was so in the clouds it was difficult for me to come back to Earth. I mean think about it a Korean man using gene therapy to become a white man, a dream machine to keep a man who can't sleep sane, OK I could buy the outer space laser beam, but other than that the series needed to be brought back down to Earth.

Hopefully Casino Royale is what the doctor ordered.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

This is without a doubt my favorite show. I regret coming to this show late. Late as in this summer having watched almost all the reruns. This season premiere was pretty good.

In a departure from what I generally expect from Law & Order this opening seemed more like a one hour motion picture than a regular TV episode. It was well done. Though I must admit I miss the original Major Case Squad chief Capt. Deakins. I knew I was going to miss him when I saw the season finale just last week.

Either was we see what happened with a new Major Case chief Capt. Ross (played by Eric Bogosian). He doesn't trust Det. Goren like Deakins did, but I do have a feeling that this will be an interesting season yet. We see that in this premiere episode.

Det. Eames, Goren's partner, get kidnapped by a suspect in a series of muders. This makes the episode very interesting and we see Goren really get unhinged. I've never seen these detectives in this situation before.

It seemed the changes started last year. Capt. Deakins left the NYPD beccause it turns out his former police colleague hatched a plan to hurt Deakins professionally. Deakins decided to resign rather than hurt the NYPD. In other words we saw Capt. Deakins play more of a role in the series than he had at any time before this.

What will be interesting is how will Mike Logan relate to this new captain since it appears the old captain was somewhat responsible for bringing him back to Manhattan from Staten Island? Will Capt. Ross have an issue with Logan because of Logan's reputation?

We'll see next week.

Who knows what the next post will be...

I didn't think to bring any DVDs with me back to school. I may just be reduced to talking about what's on TV. Since I don't have cable I don't have very many choices. All I can say is that we'll see.

But you can check out this Dragnet video that I posted on My Mind's Eye. It's from the 2003 version though.

I'll come up with something.

Mike Logan: Law & Order

I've been wanting to do a post like this for a while. Perhaps this is just what I read or maybe I'm coming to this conclusion myself but I really think Mike Logan is a great character on Law & Order. He brings something to the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent that Det. Robert Goren and Det. Eames didn't have, a history.

Det. Logan was on the original Law & Order from 1990 to 1995 but was ousted. On the show he was sent to Staten Island (a boring assignment) because he punched the lights out of a powerful politician who just so happened to have been a murder suspect. In 1998 a TV movie Exiled had Mike Logan returned to his old precinct to solve a murder and figure out who was the corrupt cop in his old squad.

That would be the last time we see the Detective until he showed up in the offices of the Major Case Squad in their 4th season when his girlfried was queried by Goren and Eames. He helps break the case which involved overzealous prison guards and ultimately he would find himself under the command of Capt. Deakins a member of the Major Case Squad in the next season.

I saw this episode that I have only read about. Det. Logan and his partner Det. Barek was investigating this foster mother and he shot one of her foster sons who not only just so happened to be a cop but also failed to identify himself as such. And the look on Logan's face (Chris Noth) when he finds out who he shot and his reaction was just classic. Perhaps Logan was afraid that he was going to lose the only job he ever wanted, again.

In any event it's interesting to see more of his character's history unfold on Criminal Intent. Perhaps we'll see a further contrast between him and Goren. You see Goren is a different animal the Logan. Logan seems to be the typical police detective in ways that Goren isn't.

I can't wait for this new season to start.

UHF

It has been a long time since I've seen this movie. I'm quite sure many have seen this as a very bad comedy movie. For some reason when I was much younger it kept me entertained, then I quickly forgot all about this movie.

Weird Al Yankovic looks a lot weirder than he actually does today. In fact you'll see that on the DVD. He hosts the deleted scenes on this two sided DVD and you'll see the modern him fooling around in the menus before you start playing the movie.

Just think for a second. In the movie he had a curly afro and a mustache. Today he has a Howard Stern look with long hair but no mustache. He doesn't even wear glasses like he did back in the late 80s. In fact as you watch the deleted scenes on the DVD he will note that he looks different because UHF was released 13 years ago.

Long story short this film is about an unlikely TV station managed by a man (Weird Al) with a vivid imagination who is unable to keep a job. Somehow he is able to bring his station to number 1 in the ratings. He saves his station by paying off his uncle's debt while fighting a much more powerful corporate competitor station. All the while the man gets his girlfriend and declares that she will be apart of all of his dreams.

The movie doesn't have to be all that good in some respects. Suspend some belief and have fun is the order of the day in this movie. So by all means have fun because this movie isn't that bad.

Seabiscuit

This film brought me back to the racetrack. Even if this movie takes place 60 or so years in the past. It chronicles the rise of a horse that was trained to lose to become a winner.

It seemed almost like a film version of the American Experience series on PBS with some brief narration by a narrator not otherwise a character in the movie. I really like the story of the jockeys, the owner, and even the trainer. I was really impressed with they tell the story of the owner of Seabiscuit, a man by the name of Charles Howard played by Beau Bridges.

It seems he was in the streets of San Francisco but somehow he finds himself working on an automobile engine. Then he tells the owner how well it might run and suddenly the scene is morphed into him selling Buicks with the idea that you should trade in your horse and get an automobile.

Of course the rest of this story takes place during the Great Depression and it seems Seabiscuit was going to be the horse of the decade. Seabiscuit wasn't thought to be much anyway when he was born to some prized horses, but whoever didn't think him impressive is probably hurting after seeing the success of this horse.

Anyway I actually enjoyed this movie. I shall see it again when I get the time.

The American President

After touring the White House last Saturday I just had to watch this movie. I also hadn't seen this one in years but not because of a broken VCR (as I had this film on VHS) but due to the real life consequences of September 11th. Before then I liked to pop this movie in every chance I got, a distinction only held by my Star Trek movies.

Anyway I popped this movie in as soon as I returned from Washington, DC. This was a good movie. It was written by West Wing creator and scribe Aaron Sorkin. It was basically a political movie with a romantic comedy plot.

Now consider this. The year was 1995 and I can't say that the President we had at that time exactly made me proud, but Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) was a President I can look up to. Yeah he was a Democrat but he wasn't a bad leader (and that's only because he was written that way). All the same I loved the discussion of policy in this film.

Then he meets Sidney Ellen Wade (Annette Benning) who visits the White House as part of her job. Then she catches the eye of the leader of the free world and the most of the film has him juggling his duties as President as well as maintaining a romantic relationship with a woman whose job it was to get tough with him in the first place.

In the course of this movie the President is pounded by a Republican Senator (Richard Dreyfuss) who wants to take his job. By the end of this movie the President rips the Senator a new one and just as he starts to lose momentum, he regains it by the time the movie ends at the state of the union.

This is a great movie and it without a doubt gives you that great patriotic feeling. Even if you may not like the fact that the President has a girlfriend or that she might spend a night at the White House.

Miami Vice

Last night I watched the three hour Miami Vice Undercover special. It was a treat because almost 20 years later Miami Vice airs on the same network it ran on. This was an excuse to offer a sneak peak to the Miami Vice movie premiering on Friday.

The sneak peak looks great. I've yet to see a Michael Mann production since heat but I really have never seen Michael Mann movie at the show. Michael Mann by the way was an executive producer for Miami Vice and is a movie director of such films as Heat, Collateral, The Insider, and Ali. I really like the look of video in this movie in the sneak peak. I've been convinced that video is the wave of the future. Though I do hope that film won't go totally obsolete.

Let me just add that the stars of Miami Vice The Movie Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell hosted this three hour special. The episode seen was the very first episode of the series and it still looks great. And if this episode was only the start then if there was any indication it was only going to get better.

Boyz N the Hood

Another movie I haven't seen in a while. This is one of those message movies we hear about. This movie is about a group of friends two are fairly decent and the other had spent time in the pen. We start with them very young and then we see them later as a group of teenagers.

There are a number of issues present in this film. Teenage sex, gentrification, gang violence, father & son relationships, to name those that I can easily identify. But there is one issue that I'd like to talk about.

Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Ricky (Morris Chestnutt) are brothers. However, their mother had them by two different fathers. Because Doughboy's father wasn't liked much by his mother she doesn't like Doughboy much. She tells how he won't amount to nothing and he isn't going to be "shit". He talks him down good. When Ricky gets killed near the end she blames Doughboy. It may be as much about his criminal lifestyle but it may just be a symptom of how differently she treats her boys.

The best part of this movie was the relationship between Furious (Laurence Fishburne) and his son Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). At the beginning he was living with his mother but as per a "contractual agreement" he acts up in class and gets sent to live with his father. The idea here is that only a man (preferably his father) can teach a young boy to be a man. The difference between Tre and say Doughboy was that he had a father to teach him some responsibility. And what this kid got from his father showed. Apparently he's the only man raising a child on his block in South Central Los Angeles.

I was astonished to find out on Wikipedia that Boyz N The Hood was deemed culturally significant by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in National Film Registery back in 2002. The director John Singleton did an excellent job in this film.

Mississippi Burning

It has been ages since I've seen that movie. The only copy I have is on VHS (I know some of you are thinking...What's that?). Well I've yet to upgrade to DVD for this film which is basically about those three civil rights workers killed near Philadelphia, Mississippi in the 1960s.

Gene Hackman plays an FBI agent who grew up in Mississippi. Willem DaFoe plays an FBI agent who probably never saw a southern state before in his life before he was assigned to the setting of this movie, Jessup County (which doesn't exist, the name of the town was probably changed to protect the innocent). This was something of a thriller but a great period piece.

A lot of what you see is going to upset, hopefully, a great number of you. This is one documentation of the struggle for freedom in a free nation. A people who were free in theory still having to fight for their freedom. The thing is these people were afraid to fight for their freedom. It seems the authorities have a vested interest in supressing the freedom of a certain group of people.

Either way it's great to see the FBI get their men. Some of those guy who were smiling when they got arrested weren't smiling when it was done. When the FBI arrived some of them knew what time it was. Indeed one tried to run. Either way it was one victory in a very interesting era.

BTW, they recently reopened the case and someone did indeed get convicted after almost 40 years. Also I had seen this movie in the theaters. However this cineplex is no longer open, it used to be close to where a movie theater is now on Illinois street in about the Streetorville neighborhood.