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.
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2024: Things To Keep In (The Very Back Of) Mind

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Not to start the New Year off on a bad note but I recently read an interesting article that outlines some of the difficulties we currently face in our global society and possibly safe places to go in case of catastrophe. (I guess it may not matter if you get there and don’t already have a compound set up and self-sufficient means of survival set up!) But Definitely food for thought in our currently turbulent times. When aren’t times on this planet turbulent? But read on and enjoy!

The link is here:

7 Best Places to Go in the U.S. in Case of a Societal Collapse (msn.com)

Let’s look at an end of the world movie scenario that you can cozy up to. I am adding the link to a Top 10 Post Apocalyptic Movies video clip for your amusement.

Happy New Year!

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“Chernobyl Diaries” (2012) – People Shouldn’t Play with Radioactive Things

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I am divided on this movie. It has a cool premise: a group of kids decides to charter a guide to take them to the restricted site of Chernobyl, Ukraine, where a nuclear reactor plant experienced a meltdown and rendered the surrounding countryside exposed to high levels of radiation. Definitely a place that the local government has made unavailable to public access because of health concerns. Well, our group gets through the blockaded area and explores the abandoned ruins of the town left behind. The guide notices that there is evidence of activity in the supposedly dead place and urges the group to return to their Jeep and exit the premises before night falls. Surprise, surprise! The Jeep conks out with darkness descending. Before long, strange sounds are heard and the apprehensive tour guide goes to investigate. You should all know that nothing good can come of all this and sure enough, the guide doesn’t return to the vehicle and it is decided to go find out where he ended up. Suffice it to say that radiation has played a very nasty trick on the animals and humans who have been exposed to it. It appears that a league of zombies inhabit the surrounding area.

The movie soon devolves into a story we have seen many times before. The group numbers dwindle as they are systematically picked off by the radiation mutants and die in various horrible ways. This may sound like your cup of tea but I can say I have seen it done much more effectively elsewhere.

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“Jason X” (2002) – Earthbound Horror Goes Cosmic!

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Very enjoyable, further adventure of hockey mask wearing, unstoppable serial butcher, Jason Vorhees. Jason is being studied at a government facility in the 21st century. After some murderous mayhem, he is cryogenically frozen along with one of the doctors studying him. Flash forward to the 25th century where another research team find the two iced over specimens and take them aboard their vehicle and rocket off back to their space habitat. Eventually the doctor is revived and warns that it is best to leave Jason on ice as once he is active, all proverbial Hell will break loose. Accidents happen and Jason comes back to life and starts systematically murdering whoever he comes into contact with. You know the story.

Interesting reconfiguring of the death defying Beast in a new environment, namely, The Future, and the application of science fiction concepts of nanobots, virtual reality and high tech havoc raising.

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“The Cosmic Monsters” (1957) – The Earth Dies Mumbling?

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I was intrigued with finally seeing this film as it starred Forrest Tucker, who made a few of my favorite 1950’s science fiction films namely “Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas” and “The Crawling Eye”. “Monsters” is my least favorite entry.

I found it very difficult to follow the action for a couple of reasons:

  1. There isn’t any!
  2. The actors all seem to mumble through their dialogue so you don’t know what the heck is going on!

What I can glean from this snoozer is that scientists are conducting experiments concerning magnetism and cosmic rays and seem to have F’ed up and ripped a hole between our dimension and an unseen parallel dimension thus allowing an unwelcome invisible intruder to enter our space and enact nefarious deeds on unsuspecting inhabitants of Earth. This includes the wildlife in the countryside outside the lab which grow to tremendous size and want to quench their thirst with Earthlings who stumble upon them.

There is also an angle where a benevolent alien who appears in human form and speaks perfect English arrives in a spacecraft, allegedly aware of the scientists’ cataclysmic gaffe, and assists on sewing up the torn dimensional fabrics and providing sage advice to the scientists on how best to clean up their mess. Shades of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951)!

For a more satisfying dimensional fabric tatter-fest, go check out “The Mist” (2007).

If you do find yourself in a position to watch “The Cosmic Monsters”, be sure to crank up your television volume and see if you can decipher what is going on. Hearing aids are NOT optional.

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“The Hunting Party” (1971) – Love Beyond Bounds

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This is a very watchable Western that exhibits a high level of grotesque violence. I attribute the violence to the fact that this movie follows on the heels of “The Wild Bunch” which was a Western and which saw director Sam Peckinpah push the boundaries of on-screen gun play and graphically portrayed violence. “The Hunting Party” follows in the mold and shows a lot of bullet holes being made in some of the characters and there is generally sadistic bent to the character portrayed by Gene Hackman. Hackman is a cattle baron who treats his young wife like so much property. Oh, yes. And Hackman does not treat women well, in general, in this movie. Oliver Reed plays an outlaw who just wants to learn how to read. He mistakes Hackman’s wife, Candice Bergen, as being a schoolteacher who can assist him in his time of need. Bergen resists the kidnapping, at first, but grows fond of Reed and eventually sides with him as Hackman wages a bloody quest to recover his wife and put the outlaws to shame who abducted her. Therein, the violence ensues.

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Willian Friedkin, Dead at 87

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Director William Friedkin cemented his legacy with two filmic masterpieces, The French Connection and The Exorcist. The French Connection excites with the kinetic pacing of this violent crime drama. It doesn’t hurt that this movie also features an iconic car chase scene that was repeatedly imitated. Also, features an Academy Award winning performance by Gene Hackman as hardboiled detective Popeye Doyle.

The Exorcist stills ranks, in my book, as one of the scariest movies ever made. The hackles will rise on the back of your neck as you witness a young girl being taken over by an evil presence and the ensuing chaos that commences in the process. Not a movie to be watched alone at night. It will give you the creeps.

Friedkin was a trailblazing filmmaker. His influence has been felt over the years. Watch these two cinematic gems and celebrate this great moviemaker.

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“Uncut Gems” (2019) – Put The Money Down

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Enthralling portrait of slimy, degenerate gambler Howard Rattner as he attempts to pay off his prior gambling debts by engaging in one slippery scam after another. This is not your most likable character. A loud, annoying, manic schemer, Rattner, as played by normally comedic actor Adam Sandler, will fence your most valuable possessions when entrusted to his care. He is a married man with three kids yet also maintains an apartment where his girlfriend lives. Rattner owes $100K to his loan shark relative who has his Mafia pals putting pressure on Howie to pay up. Things get a little crazy as Rattner tries to outmaneuver his creditors. Makes for a lot of humorous if harrowing incidents.

Very enjoyable viewing.

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Gordon Lightfoot, R.I.P.

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Take a break from the calamitous state of the World at present and rejoice in the mellow yet haunting vibe of “Sundown” from the recently departed Gordon Lightfoot. He was a singer-songwriter who had many cool tunes. I saw him perform once in California during simpler times. Well, I was younger back then and the times certainly seemed better. Great song. Enjoy it!

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Rest In Peace, Ricou Browning, 92

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We mention the sad departing of the guy who wore “The Creature From The Black Lagoon” costume UNDERWATER for that great Universal monster series. The underwater sequence where the Creature mirrors the movie heroine’s movements is basically a well-choreographed ballet. Pretty amazing.

We thank you, Ricou, for your great contributions to the moving image!

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“No Blade Of Grass” (1970) – The End of Love

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They ain’t kidding with the bit about “the end of Love”. This is a very violent, depressing environmental horror tale from the early 1970’s which sets the downbeat vibe with the title sequence showing a parched desert floor with the anguished silhouettes of contorted human figures laboring across it. We then see a montage of car exhaust pipes and factory chimneys spewing out ugly exhaust, polluted waterways and landscapes, and scenes of overcrowded, congested cities. (The title sequence from “Soylent Green”, another grim portrait of a futuristic nightmare society, nicked this montage.) It doesn’t help matters that folkie Roger Whittaker chortles the movie theme song and chronicles the ills of a polluted, dying Earth. Hence, “The End of Love”.

“No Blade of Grass” looks at the extreme measures taken by world governments to combat a deadly virus and its aftermath. Wheat, grass and grain are destroyed which leads to global famine conditions. Millions die. When society starts to collapse, martial law and the extermination of dissenters ensues. A family leaves a stricken London and ventures toward a rural Eden but a hellscape awaits instead.

It is shocking to consider that this movie was made over 50 years ago and conditions of pollution and overpopulation were considered a serious worldwide threat even then. Fast forward to 2023 and we are clearly past the point of no return. The environmental maladies have now surged to unscalable levels. Maybe if we had put more serious effort into dealing with the situation back then we wouldn’t be in quite the mess we are now. Nah! There is always time enough for everything. Famous last words.

(See also “Panic in the Year Zero”)

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“Rose Red” (2002) – “The Shining’s” Little Sister

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I want to like “Rose Red” but it is just not a very scary or suspenseful movie. I don’t really like any of the characters so that impacts my interest toward this two-night Stephen King television movie. It used to be a regular event for network television to buy one of King’s properties and then create a TV movie. Some were good, others not so good. I think this is one lesser quality King works.

A team of ghost hunters head off to a notorious haunted property to see if they can find any evidence of activity. Their search will of course take a disastrous turn for the worse before they are done.

I certainly can’t fault King’s enthusiasm for the haunted house story. Certainly, “The Shining” stands as a monument to that category. It’s just that “Rose Red” seems to lean too heavily on past haunted house themes as can be found in Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House”, and Richard Matheson’s “Hell House”. There are also references to “Ghost Busters” and “The House of Haunted Hill”. Go seek out those works for more engaging and frightening examples of the haunted house tale.

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David Warner, R.I.P.

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This very recognizable and enjoyable actor died in 2022. I have been very negligent in posting about some of the entertainers I have admired who passed away during the run of this blog (not just this year). I need to make amends in my own mind and list those who have passed that I have very badly neglected.

David Warner appeared in a number of memorable roles over the years. I was fond of his performance as the mentally challenged instigator of the societal clash in Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs”. He played the inquisitive photographer who stumbles on the supernatural forces at work on Gregory Peck’s family in “The Omen”. Warner played Jack The Ripper in the time travel adventure “Time After Time”. And he can be found in some of the theatrical and television series productions of the Star Trek franchise. Wow.

Cool career. Definitely an actor with a particular style. Equally at home playing good or evil characters.

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“UFO’s – It Has Begun” (1974) – The question is: Will there ever be an answer?

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An engaging 1970’s era documentary that examines reports of strange flying objects from ancient times up until the present which was 1974 when this documentary was made. Cool recreations of eyewitness accounts are interspersed with actual pictures and films taken by pilots, military personnel, NASA astronauts and civilians alike.

The whole shebang is hosted by the great Rod Serling, the creator of “The Twilight Zone” and MC of “The Night Gallery”. It appears as though his recorded segments were filmed among the remains of his “Night Gallery” set: spotlight on Rod, and various illustrative props given a bit of highlight but everything else draped in black. Cool, economic staging technique! Throw in some guest narration by Burgess Meredith, Jose Ferrer and Jacques Vallee, and you’ve got a very interesting tapestry of UFO reports.

Yet, all these years later, the lingering questions remain: What are these unusual objects which behave so abstractly and randomly and do the Powers That Be have a grasp of what they can be or how we are going to deal with them? Of course not. Expect to be in the dark and helpless for another 1000 years.

I loved this show. Give it a shot!

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“A Bit of Business First…” – Revolting Food Goes Hand in Hand with a Bad Situation

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This entry is stretching a point, I’ll tell you right up front.

Have you noticed the reactions of characters being revolted by their food or drink and tossing it aside or pouring the drink out?

I was watching “The French Connection” and there is a scene where the cop, Doyle, pursuing the drug smuggler lord has to stand out in frigid temperatures across the street from the lavish, Four-Star French restaurant where the kingpin is consuming a seven course, exquisite meal. The cop is reduced to eating a warmed-over slice of pizza and some disgusting coffee. After taking a sip, Doyle exhibits a grimaced face reacting to the swill he is drinking and dumps it out.

Jump to “Lord of Illusions” where Scott Bakula is a private investigator involved in a perplexing case involving some brutal murders and The Supernatural. Backula is having a really bad day in the movie and is starving and gets a hamburger from a fast-food joint. He takes one bite, and makes faces and chucks the offending sandwich in the garbage.

What does it all mean? Maybe, an already difficult situation is being made worse by no comfort (or quality) received from the food: “Things are just not going my way. My food is also rotten”.

It could also be actors performing “a bit of business” in the course of the story. The character has the opportunity to react and act disgusted to display some acting chops.

The use of this device in “The French Connection” made sense because Doyle was drinking a 50-cent cup of bad coffee and we have the juxtaposition of the villain dining in the cozy French restaurant.

In “Lord of Illusions”, the burger is a more costly item to throw away and there is no irony in the bit being placed where it is other than it shows what bad luck the P.I. is having.

You can try and make sense of this one and try to figure it out if you care to.

I couldn’t find the exact clips I was referring to above at You Tube but have linked a video of Gordon Ramsey eating revolting food at dining establishments. Compliments to The Chef!