JULY 2024 TOP TEN LIST

 HERE ARE MY FAVE MOVIES I WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN JULY 2024.

1. THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY  (2023)
2. WEST SIDE STORY  (2021)
3. THE LOST DAUGHTER  (2021)
4. ANATOMY OF A FALL  (2023)
5. WICKED LITTLE LETTERS  (2023)
6. THE UNITED STATES OF INSANITY  (2021)
7. YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY  (1972)
8. HOMICIDE  (1991)
9. DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT  (1972)
10. BLOOD MOON (2001)  aka  WOLF GIRL

And now here is EVERY EVERYLOVIN' THANG I WATCHED DURING THE MONTH OF JULY 2024:

JUNE 2024 TOP TEN LIST

 ONCE AGAIN IT'S TIME FOR THE TOP 10 FILMS I WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME EVER IN JUNE 2024. 

 

1. BROOKLYN 45  (2023)
2. GODZILLA MINUS ONE  (2023)
3. OBSESSION  (1949)
4. ENNIO  (2021)
5. UNCROPPED  (2023)
6. THE LAWYER  (1970)
7. THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE  (2024)
8. THE SPIRIT OF '45  (2013)
9. 5 CARD STUD  (1968)
10. THE ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT DOCUMENTARY PROJECT  (2013)

Also . . . honourable mention goes to the BBC 'mini-series' DRACULA (2020) which is technically a TV series (like SHERLOCK) and not eligible for the above list.

Now here we have everything else I watched during the month of June 2024:

CYBORG 2087 (1966)

HAND ME THAT BEAMER!  

The thing that everybody who talks about this movie brings up is that it's basically the plot of TERMINATOR 2  -- whose first film in the series THE TERMINATOR is in itself is pretty much the plot of Harlan Ellison's 1957 short story "SOLDIER from Tomorrow" which itself was the story Ellison himself adapted for the "SOLDIER" episode of THE OUTER LIMITS.  Got all that.  So basically, if you know what happened in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY), you know what's happening in CYBORG 2087.  Dr. Garth (Michael Rennie himself, that silver-haired devil) --  a half-human/half-machine cyborg -- travels back to 1966 from a future time (2087 natch) when a tyrannical government controls the minds and thoughts of the entire population through the use of a mind-control device which is invented by a Professor Sigmund Marx (Eduard Franz) in the year 1966.  Garth is being sent back in time by his fellow freedom fighters in order to prevent Marx from discovering and revealing this new discovery which enables the evil government of the future to control the population utterly. 

The freedom fighters unfortunately pop Garth's time travel capsule into an old west ghost town; leaving Garth to make the trek to the town where Marx is located.  Sadly for Garth (and the entire future of Earth), Marx has gone away and won't be back until tomorrow.  Garth enlists the aide of Marx's assistant Dr. Sharon Mason (Karen Steele) by way of the same hypnotic device he's trying to prevent from being created. 

Garth fills her in on the skinny and reveals that, inside his chest, is a trace beamer (snicker snicker) which 'Tracers' from the future will be able to use to track him down and kill him.  He needs a surgeon to cut the device out of his chest and destroy it.  Meanwhile, two Tracer thugs (Dale Van Sickel and Troy Melton -- who must both be 60 years old if they're a day) pop into 1966 and start tracking Garth with their wrist compasses (I mean, that's not what they are but . . . well . . . that's what they are when the camera zooms in for a close-up).  These two helmeted, green-jumpsuit goons reminded me a lot of the 'firemen' outfits in FAHRENHEIT 451 but more goofy.  Sharon takes Garth to her friend Dr. Zeller (Warren Stevens) who is not an actual surgeon but still manages to cut the tracking device out of Garth's chest.  Meanwhile, Zeller's daughter and her mid-60's teenage friends (including John Beck -- Moonpie of ROLLERBALL -- show up at Zeller's house to frug the night fantastic!  Garth & Zeller head to the local power station to destroy the tracking beamer (chortle giggle) and the 'Tracer' goons show up at the house, bust down the door and smash through the window, silently menace the group and then follow the tracker beamer (hee hee hee) to the power station where they confront Garth. During all this, the local sheriff (Wendell Corey) is also tooling around town investigating the various assaults and break-ins going on.  What happens next is for me to know and you to find out.

CYBORG 2087 is not that much of a movie, granted.  It's quite silly in places but the plot was really effective in TERMINATOR 2 and since the plot here is basically the same thing, it's got THAT going for it.  Of course, there's no comparison with the execution of both films; CYBORG 2087 doesn't appear to have much of a budget.  Remember those camping compasses on the Tracers' wrists.  And, at 50 minutes in, you will here the same library music George A. Romero would use a couple years later for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  But the cast here is great.  Michael Rennie is, well, Michael Rennie; the immortal Klaatu himself and Karen Steele is excellent as well.  I know her mainly from her famous appearance in the STAR TREK episode "MUDD'S WOMEN".  I'm sure you will recognize her face immediately.  Warren Stevens (from FORBIDDEN PLANET), Harry Carey Jr. (from THE SEARCHERS and I don't know HOW many other Westerns) and Eduard Franz (Jethro from THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) are all terrific.  John Beck is unbelievably young here and kinda dopey but hey . . .he's Moonpie in ROLLERBALL so who cares!  Wendell Corey (from countless golden age of Hollywood films including REAR WINDOW) is obviously drunk as a skunk here; slurring his words and giving an odd but fun performance.  He would eventually die of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 54.  There's even a brief cameo by Jo Ann Pflug (in her first film role) as "Woman in Control Room" who is the freedom fighter who ultimately sends Garth back in time as the Tracers bust in and try to stop her.  Yeah, Jo Ann!  You rock!  The hell with dem Tracers; they can't stop you on  your mission!  The look of triumph on her face is priceless! 

I mean, this cast is just priceless!  And the colour (at least in the Kino Classics blu ray I watched) was beautiful to look at.  This is one I woulda thunk I woulda seen a hundred times on Saturday afternoon UHF channels but I somehow never did!  And that's the kinda movie it is; great for an afternoon time waster; pleasant enough but nothing great.  Director Frankin Adreon was something of a jack of all trades -- going from screenwriter (the Bela Lugosi serial S.O.S. COAST GUARD and ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION) to associate producer (THE INVISIBLE MONSTER and ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE) to director (CANADIAN MOUNTIES VS. ATOMIC INVADERS -- OMG how have I never seen THAT one???? -- and DIMENSION 5) and CYBORG 2087 is about on par with any of those outings.

Oh, and I guess it's about time I explained all those giggles everytime I mentioned the tracker beamer.  Well, in our household, a 'beamer' is what we call a tiny little bee-bee-sized turd that you find on the carpet which has fallen from the butt of a cat or dog.  So every time Michael Rennie said he word "beamer", it cracked me up.  

MAY 2024 TOP TEN LIST

 HERE IS A LIST OF MY TOP 10 FAVOURITE FILMS I WATCHED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MAY 2024. 

1. UNFROSTED  (2024)
2. JFK REVISITED:  THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2023)
3. THE MINE WARS  (2016)
4. NARC  (2002)
5. THE MOTH DIARIES  (2011)
6. FREAKED  (1993)
7. TRAPPED  (1982)
8. KNOCK AT THE CABIN  (2023)
9. THE SCARFACE MOB  (1959)
10. AS THE EARTH TURNS  (1934)

AAnd here is a peek at EVERYTHING I watched during the month of May:

APRIL 2024 TOP TEN LIST

 HERE ARE MY FAVOURITE MOVIES I WATCHED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME IN APRIL 2024.

1. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR - LIVE ARENA TOUR (2012)
2. THE HIDDEN  (1987)
3. THE SALVATION  (2014)
4. EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE! THE MOVIE  (2009)
5. THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE  (1986)
6. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST   (1991)
7. THE NIGHT FLIER  (1997)
8. SCOOP  (2024)
9. MEAN GUNS  (1997)
10. THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS  (2006)

PLUS...Here is a view of EVERYTHING I watched during the month of April 2024:

OLD SCHOOL APRIL WEEK FOUR: THE CONCLUSION

 IT'S ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPREHEND OLD SCHOOL APRIL IS OVER.  I readily admit I basically sucked this time around.  Last April, I didn't join until about the middle of the month and I got more read and watched than this whole month. I mean, I didn't even get any more GOOSEBUMPS books read in the final week and they're SHORT!!!  Well, I did manage to get a few booky-sized books read, though.

I did get a POINT HORROR book read; well, a POINT HORROR UNLEASHED book, anyway, and that certainly counts.  THE HANGING TREE by Paul Stewart was a very interesting read and I liked it.  Basically there's an evil, cursed tree out in the woods in an area which protestors are trying to prevent being levelled for a bypass.  Also, it takes place in England (as does another of the three books I read this week).  I'm not sure if POINT HORROR UNLEASHED was a U.K.-only paperback series or if it was over here in the States too.  I was a pretty good book and fulfilled 10 prompts, Jack:  Retro/Vintage, Time Warp, Teen Witch, Throwback, Ferngully, Monster Squad, Goonies, Back to the Future, Once Upon A Forest and Nirvana/Grunge.  This guy on the cover actually did appear towards the end of the book; a sort-of evil, reptilian monk ghost.  Or something.

The second book I read this week was GHOSTS AND THINGS edited by Hal Cantor.  This is a Berkley paperback from the year 1962 and contains the following classic horror short stories: 

"The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" by Henry James;

"Caterpillars" by E. F. Benson;

"Markheim" by R. L. Stevenson;

"The Ghost Ship" by Richard Middleton;

"The Novel of the White Powder" by Arthyr Machen;

"Night Doings at 'Deadman's: A Story That Is Untrue" by Ambrose Bierce;

"Running Wolf" by Algernon Blackwood;

"The Music on the Hill" by Saki;

"Phantas" by Oliver Onions;

"The House" by Andre Maurois;

"The Lovely House" by Shirley Jackson

I picked this up last year (obviously used) and it fulfills 8 prompts:  Retro/Vintage, Yearbook, Teen Witch, Free Willy, Mini-Me, Monster Squad, Britpop and Nirvana/Grunge.

The last book I read this week was WORMS by James R. Montague.  This is obviously a pseudonym meant to evoke the master ghost story writer M.R. James and is hiding the identity of the actual author:  Christopher Wood (who wrote the screenplay for THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, MOONRAKER and REMO WILLIAMS:  THE ADVENTURE BEGINS).  I really enjoyed this one and this is the OTHER British book (although, come to think of it, GHOSTS AND THINGS has a lot of British authors in it as well).  Here we have a henpecked guy who vacations with his nagging wife up on the Norfolk coast.  Now, I'm with him.  The constant rainy, overcast, wind-blown and remote town is my idea of paradise and I would want to bump off my wife and move there permanently too.  Will he do that???  Well, you'll have to read it and see and I highly recommend you do since it's a great book.  But oh yeah, there are also billions of disgusting red worms all about the place and they REALLY make their presence felt in the final third of the book.  The writing and characters held me in rapt attention throughout and I loved it!  This older book I read in the lovely Valancourt Books reprinting.

Next we have the movies and I was very light on those as well.  Only 3 got watched (and one's a short)!  First, I took a chance and joined in on the OSA tradition where Kelsi and some others rewatch TEEN WITCH every Old School April.  I had never seen it before and it was exactly what I thought it would be:  a cheezy, late-80's, silly teen rom com with witchcraft in it.  As these things go, it was kinda cute and had just enough funny stuff to keep me interested!  Robyn Lively is the teen witch and, I just have to say that Joshua John Miller is the oddest child actor I've ever seen in my entire life!  I'm mean, hell!  He appeared in a lot of stuff back then but nowadays I know him for writing the great 2015 horror comedy THE FINAL GIRLS.  Also popping up in the cast are welcome additions Marcia Wallace (from THE BOB NEWHART SHOW), comedian Shelley Berman, Zelda Rubinstein (from POLTERGEIST) and Dick Sargent (the second Darren from BEWITCHED).  

Next up was a rewatch of one of my favourite kids movies of all-time:  MATILDA directed by Danny DeVito!  I love love LOVE this movie and it's been years since I watched it so I thought OSA was the perfect opportunity.  I thought the same about a GOODFELLAS rewatch (that was even a host rec) but never got my new 4K of it watched for OSA!  Crumbs!  Anywho, MATILDA is a classic and that's all I can really say about that one.

Finally was the short I mentioned:  HARDWARE WARS from 1978 directed by Ernie Fosselius.  This is another one I hadn't seen in years but the new MVD Rewind blu ray of it arrived just in time for me to watch it for OSA!  Now, the first time I saw this 13 minute epic was actually back in 1978.  For some reason,  my Middle School decided to gather my class into the library, set up a projector and showed us HARDWARE WARS.  I assume it was just a treat due to the phenomenal popularity of STAR WARS.  It was awesome being a 12 year old STAR WARS fan and getting out of class to see a funny parody of it.  And this IS still funny after all my subsequent viewings and all these years later.

And then there's my TV viewing.  Yeah.  Fail.  All I got watched was a couple episodes of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY.  So yeah, despite my sad little showing, I still loved participating in OLD SCHOOL APRIL for the second year in a row.  I'm looking forward to next April with the hope that things will not be so chaotic and I'll be able to have a better showing next year!  As soon as Kelsi tallies up the points and let's us know which team won, I'll add it to the bottom of this post.

And it is with great pleasure that I congratulate the SILVER SNAKES for winning this year's Old School April!!!!