All posts by Andrew Swartz

I am a life long fan of popular culture. This web site is filled with links to clips of musical, movie, and media video clips of things I have found of interest over the years. I hope you find some of this stuff to your liking. Drop me a line and let me know.
documentaries, science fiction, suspense

AI – Your Guess Is As Good As Mine

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An interesting article surfaced recently.  Artificial Intelligence robots being tested by Facebook seemingly began communicating in a language that was indecipherable to the “experts”.  Shocking!!!

First off – are there any true experts on any subject, particularly concerning the medical profession, science, technology?  The minute any absolutes or concrete data is laid out to demonstrate our understanding of how the body, nature or the Universe works, it can be retracted with a new theory or explanation to replace the old one.  Oh, really?  Why don’t the experts just admit that they are guessing and don’t actually really know shit?

Wow.  My digression is over.  Felt good though.  Take a look at the article and wonder about the meaning of it all along with our learned authorities.  Where is AI going, what will it produce, will we benefit from it or ultimately become a slave to it?  Your guess is as good as mine.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/facebook-shuts-down-robots-after-they-invent-their-own-language/ar-AApftiD?li=AA4Zoy&ocid=spartanntp

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STRAW DOGS – 1971 – HOME, SIEGE, HOME

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Legendary boundary pushing movie.  What did it bend out of shape?  This movie is bursting with plenty of acts of extreme cinematic violence and nastiness.  Back in the early 1970’s, this Sam Peckinpah directed movie made censors’ heads swim.

Dustin Hoffman portrays a brainiac who marries a local British girl and elects to live with her in the English countryside to quietly do his work and make her happy.  The old house they live in requires a bit of upkeep so the couple decide to employ some local handymen to fix the place up.   Seems that Hoffman’s wife, Susan George, was  once involved with one of the “workers” and their continued flirtation leads to some very high levels of friction developing.  To say the least.

Hoffman, the cerebral, retiring American outsider is contrasted with the crude, “earthy” thugs who take his money, do almost no work repairing his house, and mock and humiliate him in front of his wife who, increasingly, comes to resent her husband for not standing up to these bullies.

The boiling point is reached when Hoffman takes in another outsider after he is accused of murdering one of the locals’ kids.  A liquor fueled gang gathers to take back, by force if need be (or not needed), the mentally defective man who they think killed the girl in town.  The siege at the timid Hoffman’s farm begins.  But Hoffman has a change of attitude after being forced into such a combustible situation.  He will fight back.

Beautiful country scenery is on ample display here and Peckinpah’s stylized ballet of cinematic violence plays out in a more logical fashion then in later films such as “The Killer Elite”.

Any way you look at it, you will feel drained by movie’s end.

haunted places, horror movie

WIll The Real Director Please Call “CUT!”

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I came across an interesting article today.  You may have heard this story before.  There has been conjecture circulating through the years that “Poltergeist” (1982), a tale of a suburban household plagued by ghosts was NOT directed by Tobe Hooper but was in fact helmed by an on-set Steven Spielberg who otherwise was listed as the film’s producer.  It was noted that certainly the end result’s film style reflected a Spielbergian touch.  Well, here are some long after the fact confessions from some of the crew that Spielberg WAS the man in charge of direction.  I don’t really know what the arrangement was that was worked out between the two men but apparently it suited both at the time.

This bit of trivia aside, let us always remember the huge debt we owe Tobe Hooper for his horror masterpiece, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974).  I regard it as one of the seminal works of the horror film genre.  A truly harrowing, frightening and nightmarish piece of work that will haunt you.  I think unrelenting is a very appropriate term for the film.   That somebody had the balls to develop and produce a film with such a vile premise is an achievement all its own.

The link for the story is below.  There is also a fun slideshow attached at the end of the article celebrating some of the great movie (franchise) villains/monsters.

READ SOME OF THE STORY HERE!

horror movie

GEORGE A. ROMERO – R.I.P.

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Another Horror great has left us.  Director George A. Romero has died at age 77.  Romero and screenwriter John Russo made zombies fashionable again and truly terrifying with the release of their independent feature “Night of the Living Dead” (1968).   This movie was gutsy, gripping and gruesome and it has frightened viewers for nearly 50 years.  The living dead in this picture have shambled through the nightmares of millions of viewers and, to this very day, “Night of the Living Dead” will more than likely cap off the horror movies played on Halloween night.  The vivid memories of watching this shocker in my youth include the hideous ghouls feasting on the medium rare flesh of the victims of a truck explosion.  A nightmarish montage of living dead creeps satiating themselves on human body parts in extreme close up made me cover my eyes.  Pretty much has the same effect 40 years later.

Romero would go on to devise three more episodes in this “Living Dead” saga.  There would be the hideously sarcastic “Dawn of the Dead”, the apocalyptic (Alright.  They were all about the breakdown in society when the zombies started munching on people) “Day of the Dead”, and “Land of the Dead”.  All these movies benefited from Romero and crew’s inventive and intensely gory special effects and witty observations on the way we live(d).

An original director whose style will be greatly missed.  Check out some of his other efforts, too:  “The Crazies”, “Martin”, and “Knightriders”.  Good stuff.

 

action, FAntasy films, horror movie, outer space, science fiction

PREDATOR – “BRINGING OUT THE BIG GUNS!”

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It is the week of the Fourth of July.  Why not round out the week by enjoying some glorious, cinematic firepower brought to you by “Predator” (1987).  This is a favorite scene of mine from this alien on the loose science fiction classic.  Nice gun play and explosions at the expense of the jungle.  The rainforest was never the same after this.

action, FAntasy films, science fiction, science fiction films

COUNTDOWN (1967) – THEY DON’T GO TO THE MOON LIKE THIS ANYMORE (OR AT ALL!)

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Nice, likable fable about a race to land the first person on the Moon.  The Russians and the Americans are locked in battle again to be the first nation to get a person on the Moon.  The Americans opt for a barely space worthy civilian to represent the US in an effort to match a similarly progandistic move dreamed up by the Russians.  A last second flurry of preparation sends James Caan rocketing to the Moon with Robert Duval acting as his more experienced coach.  The whole thing is drenched in melodrama but don’t let that deter you.  You will likely become engrossed.  This is an early effort from eventually important director Robert Altman.  He apparently acted as a director for hire during this production and had to follow studio orders which did not sit well with him.  A few years later, he would take an overall more controlling grip in the creation of his films.  “Countdown” moves along briskly well and there are a few suspenseful moments on the trip.  The 1960’s era technology on display is eye opening and somewhat dated at the same time.  Watch this film at least once.

action, entertainment, FAntasy films, horror movie

“GO, GO, GO!!!!” – NO SCRIPT CAN LIVE WITHOUT THIS CLICHE.

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These days, I don’t think you will find an action movie that does not include the phrase, “GO, GO, GO!!!” screamed out by a character in full flight motion.  And you’ll probably hear this shouted several times more throughout the stock chase, pursuit, frantic action sequences that clog up these crazed action vehicles.  Is it an entitlement to the action film scripter to include this chestnut multiple times amidst all the sweat, smoke, fire and explosions?  I guess it must be.  Everyone else includes it.  Why don’t I?  It is most certainly a cliché lazily included because what else would someone say who is running away from or toward a calamitous situation?  How about:  How do I get out of this alive?  I am sure it occurs in a movie the likes of The Mummy Returns.  A lot people running around, shooting guns and cracking jokes at the same time.  Ugh.  BTW – DOOM (2005) is a main offender of this fine tradition.  LOL!

entertainment, fantastic television, Super Heroes

Wonder Woman – 1967 TV Test Pilot

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A 1960’s attempt to bring Wonder Woman to the small screen.  After the huge success of the campy Batman series starring Adam West, a small effort was made to test out if the same serio-comic approach could be applied to the comic book character Wonder Woman.  Here is the result of that effort.  Best that it was passed over.  Maybe more promising would be to screen the Batgirl pilot which never made it to network TV created during the TV Batman series’ period of popularity and bedlam.

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Recycled Dialogue Part 1 – “What Is This Place?”

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“What is this place?”  It is not as if we haven’t been here before or heard this particular line repeated over and over again in a multitude of movies.  I would have to categorize this sample of dialogue as one of the quite often imitated exclamations of myriad characters who become the mouthpieces of unimaginative script writers.  Call it dependence on cliché, simple laziness or a belated regurgitation of all of the media crap they have ingested over the years but this particular example of puzzled profundity pops up a lot.  Here’s just one example from one of The X-Men movies.  I remember that The Omen (1976) used the term but way back then the line of dialogue was a bit more fresh.

horror movie, monster movie

Deathmaster – 1972

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Here’s a novel idea!  A charismatic drifter spouting off about an idealized lifestyle appeals to a certain youthful segment of the population who become his “family” of followers and unwittingly carry out his hidden, nefarious plans.  Could this be an early Manson biopic?  Are we looking in on any particular politician?  Oh.  One little item that needs to be added to this story description is that the “Deathmaster” is actually a modern day vampire who actually preys upon his flock in order to extend his diabolical undead existence.

Robert Quarry, who stars, came up with this story idea and it was eventually “fleshed” out into this picture.  Quarry had earlier in his career gained notoriety as the title character in “Count Yorga, Vampire”.  Quarry is effective in his role as he adds sophistication and charm when recruiting people to his commune and an evil savagery when the vampire’s hunger for blood gets to be too much to contain!

This film kind of follows in the same vein (pardon the pun) as “Yorga”.  There is plenty of footage shot at night, ample amounts of low budget filmmaking on display and a 1970’s sensibility that just doesn’t exist anymore.

Open this time capsule and relive the delights of the past!

horror movie, horror tv, monster movie, scary tv

Moon Of The Wolf – 1972

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A made for TV fright film that touts a modern day werewolf on the loose in Louisiana.  Although this movie gets a little talky in spots, I like the atmosphere present from the Louisiana setting and the modest amount of frights served up:  Some nice POV shots of the monster descending on his soon to be victims.  Also, some creepy moments as a country estate is stalked at night by the howling, marauding  wolf man and a hospital is plagued by the unwelcome presence of the destructive monster.  Certainly not the best monster make up you will see but thankfully we are not shown the beast too often until the conclusion of the film. The cast has two dependable talents in the form of David Jansen (The Fugitive) and Bradford Dillman (Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Bug, The Enforcer, The Mephisto Waltz). This is a good choice to play on Halloween night or on scary movie night.  When the dialogue heavy scenes are wearing on, that is a good time to grab a cold one or a slice of pizza.

documentaries

Hellraisers – The Lost Wildmen Or They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore For Good Reason

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This is a very enjoyable view.  Witness these debauched tales of popular entertainers who liked to party.  A lot!  These were men who made it a habit to indulge and overdue it with the booze, women, lunacy and mayhem.   We get segments chronicling the mad exploits of actors Richard Harris and Oliver Reed.  Then, we move on to Keith Moon, Alex Higgins and Liam Gallagher.  All consummate performers, these lit up characters really enjoyed the element of entertaining and “performing” crazy stunts and otherwise abusing their bodies and reputations all for the benefit of us, their adoring public.

Long may their stories of excess be passed on to future generations.

music video

The Monkees – Listen to the Band (1969)

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One of the swan song performances of the Monkees.  This is from a TV special called “33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee” that no one really watched when it first came on.   This is a great Mike Nesmith penned tune.  The four Monkees converge on to the set after Peter Tork’s noodling electric piano play and kick in to the tune.  There then commences a musical “freak out” of the assembled TV special guests.  Peter Tork left the band shortly after this show.

action, entertainment, horror movie, science fiction, science fiction films

Bill Paxton Passes Away At 61

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We just lost another great performer.  Actor Bill Paxton just recently passed away.  I have fond memories of Paxton as the cowardly but ultimately heroic Private Hudson in “Aliens”.  There were also noteworthy acting turns in the science fiction and horror genre films  “Predator 2” and “Near Dark”.  He had another great role as a treasure hunter in “Trespass”.

I have heard many good stories of Paxton, the man.  He was described as being a very friendly, warm human being.  Our sympathies go out to his loved ones.