Category: Movies

Feelin’ The Noize

Friday Feature, Movies, Music

I was never a huge fan of loud Brit rockers Slade — I didn’t mind the loud, but it was really simple music, while I was getting into Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Genesis (to name but some).

Still, in those pre-metal days, there were times when you just needed to kick out and jump around, and few were better at kicking-out-and-jumping-around music than the Boys From The Black Country.

“What’s that, honky?  How could they be White boys in Black Country?”

Shuddup and watch this (very) sympathetic treatment of Slade in their heyday, back when they were huge.

And yes, in retrospect, their songs were excellent.

Sadly, it seems as though Noddy has throat cancer, and hasn’t that long to go.  Raw suckage, that is.

Master

Movies, Sports

If you’ve got nothing special to do for a couple of hours this evening, take a look at Ronnie O’Sullivan, yet again wearing his opponent down by sheer persistence and peerless skill, even though down by three frames at the beginning of the video.

What’s amazing is that Ronnie was not at his best and it showed in a couple of careless misses, but even against an opponent who was the class of the field all week (scored more centuries than anyone ever has), the Rocket just held on and battered away, becoming the oldest Masters winner ever.  And that with an elbow injury so severe he couldn’t raise the trophy afterwards, needing his kids to do it for him.

Pure magic.

If you want to do the marathon, here’s the whole match.  Watch it over three days, like I did.  (Of course, it’s been colder than the Witch of Endor’s tits this week, so I had little else to do.  YMMV.)

Two Old Guys Chewing The Fat

Friday Feature, Movies, The Gun Thing

…about revolvers, and what they love to shoot.

What’s so different about this one?  It’s Ken Hackathorn and Bill Wilson.

“Shooting should be fun.”

That episode was Ken’s favorite guns to shoot.  Here’s what Bill likes to shoot.

“Every gun guy should own a Model 19 Combat Magnum.”

And then if you want still more Hackathorn and Wilson, here’s an earlier episode, about 1911s.

“Rarely does the capacity of the gun have anything to do with the outcome… unless you’re a really bad shot.”  (Although it should be said that Bill Wilson himself carries a Wilson SFX-9 with a 10-round mag — and a 15-round backup mag.  And nobody could call Bill Wilson a bad shot.)

I could listen to these two gun guys talk all day.  And in putting this post together, I did.

No Choice At All

Movies, Two-Minute Hate

Loyal Reader Sean F. explodes in my email:

I gave up going to the theaters for movies years ago, because it was a teenage wasteland of people talking or on their cellphones. I just wanted to watch the expensive movie with no distractions; is that too much to ask?
Well, here we are in the internet age where streaming is king. I signed up to Paramount because they had my American football games for my local channel I don’t receive on my antenna. Aha, movies were included!
So I watched some old Bond movies and classics, but they ran out. I decided to go by ratings (thought I was clever) on Rotten Tomatoes.
Guess what I discovered after abstaining for years? I didn’t miss a fuckin’ thing! Modern movies – 98% SUCK. I guess the plot 1/8 of the way through, and then by 1/4, I have already discovered the ending. UGH – who wants to even try to watch this shit??
I am so disgusted, I watched “Casablanca” for the umpteenth time the other night. What the fuck has happened? Liberal influencce, WOKE, gay, bad directors??? I like Eastwood,Tarantino, and Stone, but they are almost gone. Ford, Kubrick, and Hitchcock are my favorites, among others, but the list shrinks every year. what’s a poor boy to do?

You forgot the bad lighting, bad sound and mumbling dialogue.

My only suggestion — because I am in precisely the same boat, as I suspect are many of my Readers — is to lay in a supply of your favorite classic movies on DVD/Blu-Ray and a backup all-format DVD player.

I know what people are going to say:  “I get bored watching the same old movies all the time.”

Frankly, that’s just because you don’t own enough of them.  There are literally hundreds of old movies out there, and while not all are Casablanca-classics, I would suggest that even a mediocre Bogart movie (e.g. All Through The Night ) is going to be a hundred times better cinematic experience than Fast ‘N Furious 27  or Captain America:  Queer Hero. 

My own Christmas- and birthday lists for friends and family are going to be almost exclusively old movies from now on, and I would humbly suggest that you could do a lot worse than that.

If you’re short of ideas, then start with Bogart and Mitchum, and go from there.  Or pick a director like John Ford, Ernst Lubitsch or William Wyler, and pick from among their offerings.

Just those five will afford you hours and hours of pleasure.  At some point soon — probably on a Saturday — I’ll put together a list of some length, to include not only movies I know well or have in my own collection, but ones I plan on getting in the future.