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john-2024
Reviews
Bare Knuckles (1977)
Sherry Jackson!
I was reading Sherry Jackson's bio on Wikipedia and thought I'd look for some of the films she's in. For the most part, I've only seen her Trouble Along the Way (1952), The Miracle of our Lady of Fatima (1952), and an amazing appearance in a Star Trek Episode entitled What Are Little Girls Made Of. I happened to find this movie online and decided to give it a try mainly because it was on of the films that inspired Quentin Tarantino. Sleezy/Blaxploitation 70s movie reportedly made for $25,000, it takes you for a ride along with bounty hunter Zachary Kane through the underbelly of Los Angeles looking for a serial killer. It's not nearly as good or well-produced as others in this genre, but it's still worth watching if for no other reason than seeing Sherry wearing only a boyfriend shirt.
Leave It to Beaver: Wally's Practical Joke (1963)
Eddie the Instigator (Again)
When the first character onscreen is Eddie Haskell, you know something is going to go terribly wrong. This episode revolves around Wally, Eddie, and Lumpy and a series of practical jokes on one another. It all begins with Lumpy sabotaging Eddie's car while it's parked in the Cleaver's driveway. Eddie gets Wally to help him get revenge on Lumpy, and the two of them plan a practical joke to pull on Lumpy. The "joke" involves sabotaging Lumpy's car, but when they pull it off, it causes serious damage to the car. In this episode Eddie is in fine form. Ken Osmond does a great job portraying Eddie, and Tony Dow keeps pace with him throughout the episode. This is another rare instance where the boys get into fairly serious trouble rather than just a complication of something trivial. Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Billingsley, and Richard Deacon put in their usual fine performances as Ward, June, and Fred. Jerry Mathers is kind of goofy, as always.
Leave It to Beaver: Eddie, the Businessman (1962)
Eddie Gets Duped
I've seen this episode a number of times before starting from the original broadcast in 1962, and I'm watching it again right now on FETV. Eddie Haskell figures prominently in this episode, so you know right from the start something is going to go wrong and someone is going to get sucked into something that's actually Eddie's fault. In this episode Ward's helps Wally and Eddie get a job at his friend's dairy loading milk trucks that made home deliveries. What I like about this episode is that is involves a very serious predicament for Wally and Eddie rather than a petty problem at school or in the neighborhood. If nothing else, it's worth watching just to see Eddie doing what he does best.
The Doors: Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1987)
No Punch in the Bowl
I saw the Doors in May of 1968 at Cobo Arena in Detroit, and their performance was slightly livelier than this one. It seems the Hollywood Bowl was just too large of a venue for a quartet and I suspect there would have been a higher level of energy in their performance if it had been at the Whiskey. Cobo was also too large. It's probably that I simply dislike open-air concerts of any type. The music just goes up, up, and away. I like to feel the walls shake. I would much rather see Iggy Pop do his schtick than Morrison and his "tortured artist" routine. I did see the Doors a second time, also at Cobo in Detroit, and that night left before the music was over.
Every Girl's Dream (1966)
Mid-60s Fluff
This is a promo short for The Glass Bottom Boat starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor. It follows Nancy Bernard, the 1966 Maid of Cotton, on a tour or the MGM Studios and back lot in Culver City, CA. The innocently cute narration describes the various outfits Ms. Bernard is wearing (100% cotton, of course) as she visits sound stages and well-known outdoor sets. The film has some historical value since the MGM studios are now owned by Sony and the back lot has long been demolished and replaced by condos.
It is well-worth watching if only to see Doris Day modeling costumes she'd be wearing in the Glass Bottom Boat. The best, by far, is the revealing mermaid costume that show off Doris' bare midriff. Probably one of the most revealing costumes she ever wore on film.
Every Girl's Dream is a fairly interesting mid-century artifact. Not a work of art, but a little peek into the culture of a time gone by.
The Island (2005)
Great, if you like a lot of action.
I found "The Island" to be a reworking of "Logan's Run" with a lot more action, special effects and a few twists added. The basic premises and setting are very much alike: people living in a sheltered environment, raised to conform, and promised "re-birth" as an end reward. As in "Logan", the main characters escape to explore the outside world and there they discover they've been duped. Even the final sequence is lifted directly from "Logan".
Although I prefer "Logan's Run", this film was fairly well-done and kept my interest throughout. Since I'm not a fan of action films, I found those sequences a bit overly long but resisted the urge to fast-forward through them. Where "Logan" has that cheesy 70's feel, "The Island", in my opinion was a bit too gimmicky. However, the characters were well-developed, and the script well-written.