Sunday, July 30, 2017

A Bridge Too Far, or Scaramucci, Scaramucci, Will You Do the Fandango?


I kinda figured that Dunkirk would be #1 for a second week.  A third?  Probably not.  I mean, The Dark Tower is out next week!  Can't go wrong with Stephen King... Atomic Blonde did better than I expected.  I thought it would only take in, like, 10 million dollars or something.  But stopping by "The Daily Show" to flog your wares is still a good thing.  Who's got time to read so many books?  I mean, besides Terry Gross.  Hmm!  Wonder if Bill O'Reilly is still obsessed with her.  Or is it just because she's on NPR, which receives a sliver of government funding.  You know... A BAD THING.  He wants value for his hard-earned tax dollar!
But the latest sign of technological narcissism debuted at #2 this week, and it's called The Emoji Movie.  Oh sure, it's a personal and professional triumph for Disney-DreamWorks veteran Tony Leondis and all that, don't get me wrong... but maybe there's some hope for society after all.  And did you have to turn your phone off while the movie was playing, incidentally?  See, if they were real good, they'd try to do a William Castle-type deal and have buzzers under the seats... I mean, make the movie some kind of interactive experience.  When, say, the eggplant emoji comes on and has his or her big Oscar(TM) speech, POP!  You get one on your SmartPhone screen!  Shi... Stuff like that.  And I gotta say... they really cleaned up the Poop Emoji, so to speak... okay, bad choice of words.  It looks more like a dollop of Costco(TM) frozen yogurt than what it's supposed to be.

Monday, July 24, 2017

The Gas Cooker Movie

You know... when stuff blows up in a Monty Python sketch or movie, it's usually a funny thing, a comedic affair.  Quite the opposite in Terry Gilliam's masterpiece 1984 1/2... I mean, Brazil.  It's not currently in his IMDb Top 4, but Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is pretty good too.  In Brazil, as you probably know, after a brief introductory jaunt in the clouds, we end up upon a group of TVs in a shop window.  After the Central Services' spokesman's message is complete, KABOOM.  Up the shop goes in flames.  After the neon title, and the arguably obnoxious musical introduction courtesy of Michael Kamen (more genius, BTW), we go back to the TV: burning, but still able to show a picture.  The TV is on its side, so the camera swivels the picture so that the TV appears to be right-side up.
This is but one of the many small bits of genius of what's in store.  I recently re-watched my new Blu-Ray copy of the film.  Now, it's just the middle cut of the film, mind you.  It's not the butchered "Love Conquers All" edition, and it's not the version with all the extra scenes.  (Saw that once at a college screening!  It may have been the one featured briefly in Cameron Crowe's Singles, in fact...)  I hate to say it, but what little bit of extra narrative is lost without the extra scenes probably wasn't necessary.  This is the go-go Internet Era, after all.  On to the next cute cat video!
Really, my opinion's probably not the most interesting one.  I hear what Berardinelli's saying when it comes to Time Bandits vs. BrazilTime Bandits is a childhood favourite of mine, and feels like the more accomplished of the two films... and of course, both feature the floating cages and probably other similarities.  But Brazil is clearly for the adults among us who've often fantasized about blowing up the Ministry of Information building that looms over our town.  And as my trusted viewing companion said, after we saw the film in theatres a mere 32 odd years ago, "Man!  You feel like killing yourself after seeing that!"  Today, he wasn't as interested... okay, it's my dad... now it's on to the chores in between the highlights, but he did quip "Oh... so this is his (Terry Gilliam's) big movie to show he just doesn't work with cut outs?"  DAMN RIGHT IT IS!  Of course, you don't actually say that to your dad.
But Gilliam is a visual artist, and most of the joys of the film are like an early episode of "The Simpsons" when they were young and hungry and were about to change the comedy landscape for good, packing the screen with little asides and some big ones as well.  One of my favorite posters is one that says "Suspicion Breeds Confidence" and "Don't Trust a Friend... REPORT HIM!"  (...I'm going to, in a completely dignified way, of course... skip over the tape over the dog's butt, thank you very much)  While Brazil is probably not as packed with symbolism and irony as, say, Kubrick's The Shining... yes, I saw Room 237 recently.  See, I've been too busy watching sh... stuff to find any time to write!... I think Brazil is nevertheless, like The Shining, one of those films that gets in your brain and breaks out every once in a while like mental herpes and you think to yourself "...damn!  I need to get me some Valtrex!... I mean, that Brazil film's got something!  I gotta watch it again."  In my case, that means getting it on Blu-Ray.  Even though I'm a "film critic," I don't get studio freebees.  Poor me : (  For a pretty close, new friend of mine, it's Repo Man.
...oh, right!  The plot.  Well, just as the film kind of has the look of a noir from the '40s, so too does the plot have a bit of a Chandler-James M. Cain-Hammett feel to it.  It's a little bit bigger than a love triangle, however.  There seems to be more of a dodecahedron connecting the main character to the various other characters that move in and out of his life: there's the meddling yet aloof upper class mother of the main character, there's a "terrorist" that comes into his life, there's the embodiment of his dream girl, there's the powerful yet blissfully ignorant boss of the agency he may or may not join... okay, just those four characters, but still.  It's a little unfair to compare Brazil to Time Bandits because the central character of Time Bandits is the kid, who's basically along for the ride (in his own dream?), whereas the central character of Brazil is in charge of his own destiny... at least, until love makes a mockery of that.  You know, some movie titles say that love laughs at locksmiths... and also at the occasional pencil pusher. I tend not to look at a lot of other reviews, but I'd be very surprised indeed if someone tried comparing Brazil to Baron Munchausen, which is kind of a bloated mess to me.  It's just one of those Sisyphean movies that feels like a chore to watch.  But maybe a free Blu-Ray of it will change my mind?... nothing?  Fine.
Which brings me to some brain farts about Jonathan Pryce, another one of those guys that Hollywood knows is talented and all that, but Hollywood just doesn't know what to do with.  For me, it was Something Wicked This Way Comes that was his big American introduction... even though I wasn't aware of it at the time.  I guess it was the tarantulas, mostly.  Or maybe Jason Robards, one of the two.  You know, the tarantulas were riding high after Raiders of the Lost Ark and all that, but just kept getting typecast to appear in one scene, and in a big group.  How's a tarantula supposed to break out and become an individual star?  Hah!  Phat chance.  Anyway, Pryce in such a plum role?  The cojones on this Gilliam character!  But on reflection, all these years later, a theatre guy like Pryce is what the doctor ordered, as the character is a complex one: steadfast for the cause of defending his dream girl, and downright complicit most other times.
Arguably,... and I came to this conclusion after reading a Gilliam interview... the character of Sam Lowry's not a terribly relatable and/or likable character.  He's a low-level government pencil pusher, living in a tiny, crappy city apartment just to be far away from his mother, who presumably comes from old money.  We never see the exterior of his mother's house or apartment, just the winding, oval staircase that leads to it... probably a fancy apartment then.  Mother is trying to pull some strings to get her son a more prestigious job at Information Retrieval, which apparently is a combination of the FBI, the CIA and Homeland Security.  Sam, however, prefers being Kurtzmann's go-to guy in the lowly Department of Records under the wide Ministry of Information umbrella.  At one point, when he's having a conversation about terrorism with his dream girl, he says "It's my first day!"  Sure, as an Information Retrieval agent, but what about all the time spent in the Dept. of Records?  And when he actually meets the "terrorist" that MOI's been hunting for... well, he's torn, because the guy, Archibald ("Harry") Tuttle, has come to fix Sam's heating problem.
Then, of course, there's the whole matter of Sam's botched courtship of his dream girl Jill.  I'll leave the Kim Greist vs. Ellen Barkin discussions to better blogs than mine.  Because Kim's the underdog in this story, even and especially getting thrown under the bus by Gilliam in poison, I'll take her side, because apparently Hollywood didn't know what to do with her, either.  The much put-upon mom in Houseguest was hardly one for the ages; but hey!  On the bright side, she wasn't hit by a train!  Anyway, thinking his dream girl's in league with the terrorist, if not the mastermind proper herself, Sam gets a little reckless himself.  For example, she's got a small house on the back of her truck.  Sam's in the cab with her.  They slow down at a checkpoint.  Thinking they won't get past it, Sam puts his foot down on the gas.  A thrilling chase ensues, but it's a little hard to enjoy, knowing he's the cause of it all.  But that's how love goes, most times.  The girl has to put up with the doofish nature of the boy who's doing all the wrong things to try and impress her.  She's not impressed with Sam at first, but she softens a little bit after she thinks she's run him over with the truck.  My trusted viewing companion, incidentally, likes to play a game with me whenever we watch a movie.  I guess you could call it, "What Does That Scene Remind You Of?"  In the case I just outlined, not one or two sentences ago, it was the big truck sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark... which we also just saw on Blu-Ray, all incidental like!  But as Maxim Magazine might quip, and to a lesser extent, FHM and Bizarre... Indiana Jones owned his truck sequence, whereas Sam barely wussed his way through it.  On a side note, I also thought of the truck sequence in Lethal Weapon 2 where Riggs appears to roll off the front of the tow truck that the bad South African is driving... a little too over the top, even I have to admit.
But I should probably talk about some of the other actors.  I haven't seen all of The Long Good Friday, but it's probably Bob Hoskins' best starring role.  Who knows what his favourite was... probably Darky in The Raggedy Rawney, of course.  But it's almost worth it just for his recurring role here in Brazil.  Gilliam always tries to give a shout out to his homies in unionized labor: recall, if you can, the scene with Oliver Reed in Baron Munchausen where he's negotiating percentages with an angry mob.  "You had that scab Tuttle here?" barks Hoskins (Spoor) at Sam at one point.  But I should probably mention Michael Palin as a fella named Jack Lint.  He's apparently close friends with Sam; at least, that's what they say up top.  But Sam doesn't even know that Jack has triplets, and there's a terrifically awkward scene where Sam says to Jack about his wife... who's STANDING RIGHT THERE, by the way... "I always wondered if they were real!"  Sam beats himself up about it afterward.  Maybe that's the highlight of the movie.  We the audience find out incidentally that Jack isn't quite the character he seems.  Sam goes to the 50th floor to see Jack, and Jack emerges from his workroom floor into his nice office, wearing a blood-stained white coat.  Jack is furiously massaging his temples with his hands, and his hands have vibrating metal devices on them to make the skull massage go a little faster.  All the Pythons are terribly silly, of course, but I think Palin is probably the best actor of the lot.  Idle and Cleese fancy themselves to be the matinee idols of the bunch, while Terry Jones is the compulsive nudist... but sometimes I wonder if he just does that for either the cameras or the attention.  And even though Palin seemed to have a predilection for the smarmy game show host on many a Python TV sketch, well... consider his turn as the stuttering bank robber in A Fish Called Wanda.  The way Kevin Kline tortures him throughout the movie is probably the only reason for going back.  I probably shouldn't go so far as to say his performance in Brazil was chilling, but damn close!
...damn.  I don't take notes while watching a movie, to my detriment.  I forget what other brilliant insights I had.  But I think I started to appreciate Brazil anew when I finally realized the ridiculousness of Sam Lowry's phone.  Its ring is rude, and apparently not the kind you want to use if you get woken up by it.  It's like a little miniature switchboard, and you have several jacks, and you have to make sure to plug in the right one to get the phone to work.  It's these kinds of things that make a film like Brazil one that you may never stop going back to.  I'll probably have to get it on Ultra Blu-Ray at some point.  Gilliam's made interesting films after Brazil, of course, but I don't think he's been able to do better.

****
Okay, just thought of the last brilliant thought.  SPOILER ALERT: in Sam's dream as the flying metal warrior, he finally defeats his nemesis: the giant masked warrior with the big metal and electric suit.  He goes to take off the dude's mask and... yup.  You guessed it.  Same thing happened to Billy Crystal in Throw Momma from the Train (also with Kim Greist... it was a good couple years for her!) and in one of the later Death Wishes... the fourth one, I think.  Well, it was a couple years after the other two films, and even Bronson occasionally dreams of electric Oscars(TM).

-so sayeth the Movie Hooligan

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Auteur Watch - Geno Brooks

...I dunno.  Maybe I'm just feeling too negative right now, maybe it's all the antibiotics and trips to the hospital that are wearing me out, maybe I'm just a racist like most other bloggers... but when you think about directors, you think of the old classic pictures of them sitting near a camera, or maybe even looking through a medium-sized hand-held lens.  You know, director stuff.  THEY DON'T HOCK WATCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
But I will give Geno Brooks some credit.  He's a prolific writer like Tyler Perry, only less God-y stuff, he's clearly got some sweet funding... I mean, 24 producer credits?  He's still just in HIGH SCHOOL, for Gawd'z zake!  And... oops, never mind.  I thought "Logan" was tangentially related to Stan Lee's X-Men.  Lotta balls of clay on that résumé!  One of 'em's bound to stick sometime!  Take this one for example... "Back Door Santa"?  Oh, whatev'z...... (clutching head in hands)

The Trials and Tribulations of Luc Besson S.A.

Fooey.  Phigures.  And here I was, all set to give my two cents about Luc Besson on the eve of his greatest American triumph.  In case you missed it, he's got a new film out this weekend.  It's called Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.  On the other hand, Christopher Nolan's got a new film out this weekend, and it's called Dunkirk!  And now, everyone's scrambling for their history books, whether on shelves or just on line.  Why, I'll bet dollars to donuts that Wikipedia's page for Dunkirk is blowing up as we speak.  There's also Girls Trip which marks a triumphant return of form for Queen Latifah, if only for me.  For others, it's probably just the latest in a series of triumphs from the Queen.  Where Girls Trip succeeded where that other one just failed, well... Rough Night, I think it's called.  I ain't afraid to say it: Spike Lee's cousin's got the populist touch!
But let's get back to the Spielberg of France, Luc Besson, because he still is in the Top 10 this week, and he's got that new Valerian movie out.  Hard to say if it'll become a new series of his like Arthur and the Invisibles, but only time will tell.  I guess web-centric people got scared off by the title, because just as everyone's an amateur psychiatrist / psychologist now, thanks to these damn computers all over the place... so too is everyone an amateur nutritionist.  And they looked up the word "valerian" and said "Yawn" to themselves... see, valerian root is used to help people get to sleep at night.  It's harder now, on account of these damn internet-connected computers.  One hyperlink leads to another, I'm telling you.  And yet, somehow I keep consistently avoiding stuff like the Drudge Report or that Info Wars web site.  Incidentally, that's still a confusing name to me.  So, Alex Jones has info that's fighting other info?  Wonder where he keeps his tin foil hat.  I guess someone with a tin foil hat who gets into broadcasting is trying to make strides towards recovery; either that, or they're just a hypocrite.
But back once again to Ph.D. recipient and writer of The Karate Kid Robert Mark Kamen's favourite writing partner, Luc Besson.  Kamen's Ph.D. is apparently about "American studies."  Not every Ph.D. bearer who wrote about American studies can turn it into a successful Hollywood career, mind you.  Now, earlier, I referred to Luc Besson as the Spielberg of France.  I can already sense some of you taking issue with that.  I mean, how many Victoria's Secret models has Spielberg worked with?  One?  Two?  Besson's probably got way more under his belt!  Take Angel-A's Rie Rasmussen, fer instance.  Or how about Gisele Bundchen in 2004's Taxi?  Incidentally, ALSO WITH Queen Latifah!!!  It's all come full circle so quickly.  See, not only is Luc Besson a prolific writer and director, saving all the A-list projects for himself of course... but he's also got his fingers squarely on the pulse of the douchebag class.  Coked-up models, people who just like to dress up in pork pie hats and cowboy boots... and no uggos.  Absolutely no uggos.  I mean, dayamn!  Even the UGGO aliens in Valerian aren't Uggo's.  Only the best and most photogenic for Luc.
But he hasn't got time for all the stuff he writes.  He's kinda like Stephen King that way.  And while Luc doesn't seem to have gone so far as to use a pseudonym like Richard Bachman or Chris Gaines, he does farm out the B-projects and lower to individuals he feels are qualified to do the heavy lifting.  Individuals like Olivier Megaton, Olivier Dahan, Olivier Van Hoofstadt... almost anyone with the first name Olivier.  Reminds him of his youth when he saw Olivier in... something.  Maybe Spartacus.  Because if you want to be a global phenomenon like Luc Besson, you've got to try and conquer the American market, which means working with handsome bastards like McG, or Tim Matheson, an older version of McG.  And others like Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, and Tim Story and Alek Kardashian... I mean, Keshishian.
But it's also important to stay in your own backyard, so to speak.  In Luc Besson's case, the European Union.  Which means managing such people talent as Lexi Alexander and Patrick Alessandrin and Jean-Hugues Anglade and Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Bibo Bergeron and Richard Berry and Frédéric Berthe and Jeanne Biras and Bertrand Blier and Bernie Bonvoisin and Patrick Bouchitey and Laurent Bouhnik and Christophe Campos and Erik Canuel and Ludovic Colbeau-Justin and Brian W. Cook and Louis-Pascal Couvelaire and Leanna Creel and Holly Dale and Camille Delamarre and Roger Delattre and James DeMonaco and Julien Despaux and Rachid Dhibou and Isabelle Doval and Jean-Jacques Dumonceau and Bruno François-Boucher and Frédéric Garson and Xavier Gens and Rebecca Gibson and Thomas Gilou and Patrick Grandperret and Alex Graves and Barthélémy Grossmann and Didier Grousset and Matthias Hoene and Akim Isker and Bill Johnson and Clark Johnson and Elodie Keene and Gérard Krawczyk and Gilles Lellouche and Gregory Lemaire and Didier Le Pêcheur and Louis Leterrier and Stéphane Levallois and...
...WHEW!  I'm pooped.  And it's not just the diarrhea talking.  I mean, that is a lot of people.  And I went to a medium-sized high school!  I can't remember that many people my own damn self, as David Letterman might say!  But, I guess that's what separates people like me from the Luc Bessons of the world.  But a few lucky ones are able to break through the proverbial fog and go on to greatness, or at least near greatness.  Near Besson's unique, Tarantino-esque brand of greatness.  People like James Mather, Bruce McDonald, Lisa Meeches, Niko Meulemans, George Mihalka, Andy Mikita, Pierre Morel, David Morlet, Chris Nahon, Michael Offer, Mark Palansky, Xavier Palud, Vincent Perez, P.J. Pesce, Prachya Pinkaew, Gérard Pirès, Stefan Pleszczynski, Steven Quale, Jean-François Richet, Joachim Rønning, Jan Rouiller, Espen Sandberg, T. J. Scott, Sophie Schmit, Stephen St. Leger, Romeo Tirone, Aristomenis Tsirbas, Brad Turner, Eric Valette, César Vayssié, Philippe Vidal, Aruna Villiers, Thomas Vinterberg, Stephen Williams, and Cor(e)y Yuen.  Then you got your big shots like David Thewlis, Guy Ritchie, Gary Oldman obviously... you know, The Professional, The Fifth Element and what not and... Tommy Lee Jones?  Really?

Monday, July 17, 2017

Auteur Watch - Dyana Gaye

It's hard sometimes to make a feature-length movie.  Hence you get things like Aria or Four Rooms or the Je t'aime series that everyone just... just loves to see.  In Dyana's case, she's got two of them.  The first was 2005's Paris la métisse.  I guess this is a trailer for it on YouTube.  The second is called Africa First: Volume One from 2011, and her Saint Louis Blues from 2009 is a part of it.  And yes, it's the Saint Louis of Senegal, not Missouri fame.  Now, you're probably asking yourself, but The Movie Hooligan!  IF that's your real name... what about Volume Two?  Well, don't worry!  I'll put the link to it here!  ...or over yonder, I don't know.  Of course, it's got that dreaded (Video) after it, but on the bright side it's got five short films instead of four.
But just as Dylan went electric... ask your grandparents... so too did Dyana Gaye eventually leave the world of short films far behind her.  With 2013's Under the Starry Sky, she graduated to feature length features.  Now, according to the IMDb, Des étoiles is 1 hour 27 minutes in duration.  But according to this YouTube link, which may be taken down soon now that I've pointed it out... the film is only one hour, eight minutes and twenty seconds.  Now, you're probably asking yourself, but The Movie Hooligan!  IF that's your real name... what about those missing 18 minutes and 40 seconds?  Oh, it's Nixon all over again, I tells ya.  Well, we may never know the answer, and I certainly haven't heard anything about it from the creepy Russ... I mean, damn "furners" that follow me around everywhere.  Maybe they cut out some norti bits to get it down to a PG-13 rating, who knows.  And while Dyana doesn't seem to have her own YouTube channel yet, she's all over that thing in her own right!  Why, look at this one!  And that one!  And that one!  You go, grrl.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Monkey Business

...oh, right.  Almost forgot to do this.  Welp, it's time once again for my weekly brain fart about this weekend's box office.  And I'm thinking the Boulle estate must be feeling a little happy about it, even though the new WGA rules seem to be trying to push him out of the picture.  That's Pierre Boulle, who worked on the screenplay for The Bridge on the River Kwai, but his real meat and potatoes comes from a little idea called Planet of the Apes.  You may have heard of it.  That happens with writers sometimes.  You founder around, looking for a subject that interests you.  And when you find it... boom.  Lifetime obsession and or a whole new cash cow.  Kinda like with Blatty and the Exorcist series, you know?  I mean, let's face it.  John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! was cute and all, but it don't pay the bills, knowhutI'msayin?
So it's #1, of course, that new Apes movie, but I'm assuming Valerian will knock it out of place next week.  This week's a slow one.  Also, kinda professionally depressing to me because I gotta go back to work on Tuesday.  Gotta set aside all my dreams for another five months.  The only other debut this week is the latest PG-13 horror pic and it's called Wish Upon.  They say it's from the director of Annabelle, but I'm not going to see that either.  No disrespect to the director; I'm a fan of your brother's work.

Sunday, July 09, 2017

Auteur Watch - Reggie Gaskins

...okay!  I'm back!  Well, the next time you're out with your film geek friends, here's how you impress them.  When they ask you who your favorite all-time screenwriter is, you say Reggie Gaskins.  And why?  They'll always ask that follow-up question, of course.  Film geeks are tenacious that way.  One question after another until you gain their trust.  But you can tell them, with 95% confidence and a large n, that only a truly gifted screenwriter can take the name Reggie Gaskins and turn it into Russ Jenkins.  Take 2006's Restraining Order, for example... okay, sure, it's the only example.  But what an example indeed!  Wonder how much Robin Givens makes off of these movies.  Sad to think that she's still grinding away in the sulfur mines like this.  Wasn't she one of the Waiting to Exhale ladies?  ..no?  Owwch.  I like the opening credits sequence of that movie because it reminds me a bit of the opening credits sequence of Joel Schumacher's Batman movies.
But back to the instant case.  Tired of being typecast as a cop in such classics as Friday After Next and Showtime... the 2002 comedy, not the channel... Reggie branched out from film acting into the lucrative fields of film writing, film directing, Editorial Department, Second Unit Director or Assistant Director, Thanks, Self... oh, now I'm just turning into one of those auto-blog bots I used to so decry, one or two soirée ago.  But his instincts are right, for just as Robin Givens' soul was washed clean before appearing on Tyler Perry's "House of Payne," so too did Mr. Gaskins find the instinct to put his name as a stamp on his productions.  Productions such as "Reggie's Family & Friends" and Reggie Gaskins' Urban Love Story... damn.  George Carlin had some musings about the word "urban" but they're not readily available on YouTube.  The point being, I thought the word "urban" was a bad thing.  On the other hand, might as well own it.  And mind you, Reggie Gaskins isn't a complete egomaniac!  Sure, he wrote, directed, and starred in Reggie Gaskins' Urban Love Story, but he plays a guy named Trent Jordan.  Sure, it's a thinly veiled autobiographical version of himself, but named Trent instead of Reggie, or Reginald... he just likes that name, okay?
So, the real question is... how does this urban love story stack up to the greats?  You know, Heloise and Abelard, Romeo and Juliet... From Justin to Kelly.  I know, I know, sorry.  Always gotta go for the punchline.  Me myself, I'm taking a more negative view of love these days.  I was one of those guys growing up in school that thought, yeah!  A girlfriend is the thing for me.  That's the goal in life, right?  You marry your high school sweetheart and stay married to her for 50 years.  Like the Aldas.  But then, when I actually got one... I'll admit, I was a bit out of my depth.  I mean, hey, life's hard enough when you've got to do homework for six different classes, am I right?  But that's one benefit of being a senior in high school, I suppose.  Freshman and sophomore girls always want to try and ... grab one.  I'll use the word grab instead of snag or something more salacious.  For some reason I wanted to date one of my fellow seniors.  As for love, well... lately it seems to be killing the planet.  I mean, there's, what... 7 billion people on this planet?  Well, how did that happen?  LOVE, that's how!  Sure, the number will eventually level out at 11 billion, as resources start to run out, drinkable water starts disappearing, other species disappear off this planet at an even faster rate.  We need more indifference in order to save this planet.  Or, at least our little comfortable place on it.  Spending my time studying films instead of in-depth study of a human female is the way to go.  That's the choice I've made, anywho.

Reggie Gaskins's YouTube Channel

Remake / Reboot Madness

...oops!  I thought that Luc Besson film was out this weekend.  No, the saturation internet ad campaign is for two weeks from now, which is probably what it will take to get it to #1 by that point.  And of course, getting all the stars to go on the various talk shows: both Jimmys, Colbert, Carson Daly... Marc Maron's podcast, whatever's still hot these days, I have no idea.  I'm not in high school anymore so I don't know what the cool people are into anymore.  Just the usual, I guess: illegal drugs, driving fast... all the usual stuff to piss off their parents.  Truth is, the parents are even worse than the kids!  Hate to break it to ya.
I'll tell you what, though.  As you probably heard from the CBS News Blip on Sundays, gas is at about three dollars a gallon, the CIA and NSA are still hemorrhaging secrets thanks to the new Dumb-Ass-Der in Chief, and Spider-Man: Homecoming was #1 with north of a hundred million dollars this weekend.  And if you do indeed go to the film's IMDb page, you'll get all those fancy Flash graphics that still plague the internet, despite what the HTML 5 nerds would have you believe.  Yeah, and the Blender 3-D plugin was supposed to change the internet, too, know whut I mean, Vern?  How'd that work out for ya?
These brain farts, incidentally, are brought to you by Mighty Whitey Toothpaste.  They'll keep your teeth... Amazing(TM) (R)!  Anyway, back to the Top 10.  The Spider-Man movie was the only debut this week, crushing all competition in its path, as the superhero movies are wont to do these days.  Well, this was before there was all this Marvel(TM) synergy happening.  This was before... and I'm talking about Sam Raimi's third installment of the Spider-Man franchise.  He didn't have the benefit of a Tony Stark cameo at the end of his or any of that stuff.  He stood by Tobey Maguire as Spidey through all three, and that was that.  Now, we've got no Andrew Garfield, and... NEED MORE BE SAID?  Is a little cast consistency too much for a brutha to ask for?  Well, IS IT????  So let's instead take a brief look at the director of this latest box office smash.  And his name is... Marc Webb?  Shawn Levy?  Adam Shankman?  Brian Levant?  John Badham?  Andy Tennant?  It's hard to keep up sometimes.  For me, more often than not.  More gutters than strikes, if you will... ooh!  How about Raja Gosnell?  There's another artist who wasn't afraid to make a little money over the big weekends!  If it means semi-prominent placement of a Dr. Pepper or two in the big emotional scene, who wouldn't?  Am I right?  No, the director, practically fresh out of film school, is named Jon Watts.  And furthermore, if you go to this picture of him... Bazinga?  I'm drifting off now, thinking of that last, and probably final, season of "Project Greenlight" where a couple of the runners-up were preparing for their big presentation day by doing push-ups.  You know, director stuff.  Placement of the cameras, dealing with angry stewards of about ten different unions, talking crying movie stars out of their dressing rooms and or trailers... and push-ups.  I'd say the push-up part of it is probably the most important one, wouldn't you?  Of course, when you're an n-tuple threat like Jon Watts, and you've worked for "The Onion," of all places, well... no rest for the weary!  Well, even Bruce Vilanch was once on the fringes of showbiz; now apparently he's the go-to guy in Hollywood when you need jokes now.  And jokes about now.  Not the usual mother-in-law jokes, or the eternally true jokes about necks that are red, but now now jokes.  Jokes that seem to be emanating straight from the White House.  That perfect combination of inside the beltway, yet of the people... what was I getting at?  Oh, right!  "The Onion."  You know, once upon a time, The Onion was a newspaper equivalent of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment, except that the headlines weren't based on actual events.  Now they seem to have shut down the film review portion of the A.V. Club (avclub.com) and moved it to television somewhere.  And now, they've got the ear of Marvel(TM)(R) Studios!  Which is a division of Disney(TM)(R)!  Is this not the summit?  The pinnacle of showbiz?  Incidentally, this brain fart is brought to you by Pinnacle(TM) Movie Editing Software.  Yes, what Borland once was to your college bookstore, Pinnacle is now to Best Buy and Costco.  The best movie editing suite for your PC that money can buy... without looking too far and wide for a better editing suite.  How's Studio Pro for the Apple?  Or whatever it's called... good?  Is it pretty good?

Sunday, July 02, 2017

Auteur Watch - Leonard R. Garner Jr.

When you have a résumé like the résumé of Leonard R. Garner Jr., well... I mean, look at this list!  LOOK AT IT!!!!!  All this classic TV that I never actually watched.  Well, I hung out with all the wrong people over the course of my life.  I saw a little bit of this sketch show that Jenny McCarthy had on MTV!  I saw that!  ...okay, here's another one.  Al Franken's "LateLine."  We saw most of those... they got three seasons out of that?  Wow!  Didn't know that.  And yet, Al never talks about that.  Of course, he mostly talks about senator stuff now.  : ( .  Dennis Miller was supposed to be the senator, damn it!
Anyway, back to the main topic.  So, you've got this long list of TV shows.  So, the question is: where's the theatrical venture?  Most TV directors have one or two, usually at the bottom of the list.  It's at that point that they either a) quit the business for good, or b) swallow their pride and move into a tenement on TV Director Street.  Generally, escape is impossible, unless you're Ken Kwapis.  So where on Garner Jr.'s long long list is it?  That theatrical release that went poorly and made him want to swear off the biz for good?  And... nope, doesn't have one.  No, in this instance, you have to go to the "Assistant Director" tab, and we find... The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington?  Okay, we'll just skip that one... interesting side note: this is one of those trilogies where a different actress plays the same character in each film.  The only other example I can think of is those two Atlas Shrugged movies... oh, it is a trilogy!  Wow.  Didn't even know that.  And there are three different Dagny Taggarts, and I'm just assuming that there's no consistency with any of the other parts in between the three movies.  Well, that's an Ayn Rand vehicle for you.  Every part's up to the highest bidder.  The free market makes the ultimate decision in all things.
Okay, back to the list... the Assistant Director list, mind you.  Well, there's a couple TV movies and... The BLUES BROTHERS????!!!!!!!!!!!!  Well, that does it.  Friends for life now.  And he ACTED in it too!  Lobby Guard #1.  Damn... okay, here we go.  I think he was the dude who tells Elwood "Down the hall, turn right, take the elevator 1102."  The Quotes page just has his second line, and... well, you all know what it is.  May you live to be a thousand years old, Sir.

...NOW What's Everyone Looking At?

Ah, Hollywood.  As Jack Warner said, it's a tile factory, and you just gotta keep cranking out those tiles.  But as I learned a couple years ago, Mother Nature operates under a similar principle: animals have litters slightly larger than sensible in order to better propagate their various species.  If it's spiders or shrews, they'll eventually cannibalize each other if readily available food sources run out.
Thankfully, Hollywood's a slightly more civilized place, at least the Hollywood we see on "Access Hollywood" and "Entertainment Tonight," the show that was too plastic for John Tesh.  But you gotta hand it to Entertainment Tonight... what talent has Access Hollywood produced?  But I think the point I was trying to get to, on this tangential journey of mine, is that these days, when you become a star, what you want to do is make nice with the nerds.  And the nerds to make nice with?  You guessed it: DreamWorks Animation, Pixar... and to a lesser extent, Blue Sky and Illumination.  But soon enough, Illumination might join the Pixar list.  Big Idea's still trying to break into the mainstream after 25 years or so.  With Tom Hanks and the Toy Story franchise, well... back when it all started, I'd say that Hanks didn't really need it.  These days, they'll do installments four and five back to back if they're smart.  And once upon a time, Mike Myers didn't need Shrek... but by the time 2010 rolled around, and it was the final chapter, and Myers was on the outs after the disastrous The Love Guru, I'm thinking he was hoping that there were a couple more installments to do.  Then there's Angelina Jolie and the Kung Fu Panda series... oh, right, and Jack Black too.  I guess that Shark Tale wasn't meant for the long haul; kids will just have to learn about gangsters through other means.
Which brings us to this week's #1 debut, Despicable Me 3 and its star, Steve Carell.  Lucky bastid.  It raked in an impressive 75 million dollars domestically, which might cover the advertising budget, but we'll have to wait til next weekend's take to cover the film's actual budget.  Meanwhile, at #2, once upon a pair of wheels, it's Baby Driver.  It's another baby of auteur-in-the-making Edgar Wright, but he seems to be without his net of Pegg and Frost!  Sad face.  Well, let's hope they're not like De Niro and Scorsese after Casino... you know, just not that into each other anymore.  Incidentally, can we find a suitable replacement for that phrase?  I know it's a good one, and it's all we have left anymore...
And finally, our last debut for the week.  Seems that Harry Shearer's idea was a start!  I think it was a book he wrote or something; some white people down on their luck get together to form their own non-Krippendorf tribe so they can set up a casino.  You know, it used to be that Will Ferrell could make a movie, like Semi-Pro for example, and it would be a guaranteed #1 that weekend.  But time marches on, and the young people just aren't that into you anymore... DAMN IT!  I gotta go.
...okay, I'm back.  Man, what did I eat today?  Rather pungent.  Speaking of which... my Trump thought for the week.  Well, you know, Trump's a filmmaker, too!  He put a CNN logo over Vince McMahon's face.  You know, in that WWE clip with Trump and McMahon.  I guess they'll make a director's cut out of anything these days.  You know who I kinda feel sorry for?  Eric and Donny.  Not the current Eric and Donny, the old one.  I... this actually occurred to me a while ago, but every time I sat down to blog about it, I totally forgot!  Yeah, I know.  Probably happens a lot to you, too.  I do like that one photo of Donny Jr. posing outdoors, where he instinctively keeps his hand over his crotch, as so many people try to kick him there... oh, shame on me.  You know, every two-bit hack with a copy of Adobe Photoshop these days, I tell you.  No, HERE is the unedited photo, I'm assuming.  And here's a photo of Donald Jr. picking on someone his own size.  Bill Maher once quipped that hunting is not a sport because only one side knows it's a sport.  I'll go him one step further: see, all these rich a-holes these days go out to nature with their powerful guns to claim their trophies, then they stand there, posing for pictures with the murdered animals, often with a thumbs up and a douche-y smile on their faces, as if it's some kind of unique, heroic accomplishment.  It's not.  Teddy Roosevelt already did that 100 years ago.  You know, when it was a hot new trend, and humans still felt like Mother Nature was yet to be conquered.  Well, now we've all but conquered Mother Nature, and we're looking to freakin' MARS to save us!  You know, living in a tiny tent and growing poop potatoes.  On Mars.  So, to all you hunters who take selfies, YOU'RE NOT UNIQUE.  THE PLANET IS DYING.  YOU'RE JUST A JERK.  (I try to run a family blog here)  YOU'RE JUST ANOTHER JERK WITH A GUN AND A CAMERA.  PLEASE STOP KILLING OFF THE LAST OF OUR LIVING CREATURES THAT WE HAVE LEFT.

Saturday, July 01, 2017

Short Reviews - July 2017

Aladdin from Broadway - With Antonio Moreno as Jack Stanton

Arms and the Girl - With William David as Jack Martin

Big Timber - With Wallace Reid as Jack Fife

Blue Jeans - With Augustus Phillips as Jack Bascom

Bombs and Blunders - With Eddie Dunn as Jack... Helen's Sweetheart

The Boonton Affair - With King Baggot as Jack Walton

The Boy Girl - With Violet Mersereau as 'Jack' Channing

Boy Scouts to the Rescue - With Derek Boddey as Jack Blake

Broken Threads - With Henry Edwards as Jack Desmond


Captain Kiddo - With Philo McCullough as Jack Laird

The Clean Gun - With Stanley J. Preston as Jack Algers

The Clock - With Franklyn Farnum as Jack Tempest

The Cold Deck - With Edwin Wallock as 'Black Jack'

Cupid's Touchdown - With Scott R. Beal as Captain Jack

A Daughter of the Poor - With Roy Stewart as Jack Stevens

Den Mystiske Tjener - Mitt Gunnar Tolnaes als Jack Milton... Detective

Diamonds and Pearls - With Curtis Cooksey as Jack Harrington

An Eight Cylinder Romance - With J. Morris Foster as Jack Gleason

The Fair Barbarian - With Douglas MacLean as Jack Belasys

The Fettered Woman - With Donald MacBride as Jack Wolver

The Folly of Fanchette - With Clyde Benson as Jack Rhodes

Freckles - With William Elmer as Black Jack

The Further Adventures of Stingaree - With Hal Clements as Jack Connors

The Girl Who Won Out - With Sherman Bainbridge as Jack Beal

God's Law and Man's - With Augustus Phillips as Jack Alston

Hate - With Morgan Jones as Jack Bradley

The Haunted Pajamas - With Edward Sedgwick as the Tuskaloosa Jack Billings

The Heart of Ezra Greer - With George Forth as Jack Denbeigh

The Heart of Texas Ryan - With Tom Mix as Jack Parker

The Hidden Hand - With Mahlon Hamilton as Jack Ramsey

The Honor System - With George Walsh as Jack Taylor

The Iron Ring - With Arthur Ashley as Jack Delamore

Jack and the Beanstalk - With Francis Carpenter as Francis / Jack

Jerry's Master Stroke - With George George as Flash Jack

The Kidnapped Bride - With Lee Hill as Jack Morgan

The Losing Winner - With Carter DeHaven as Jack Bryson

Mary's Merry Mix-Up - With Jay Belasco as Jack... Mary's Husband

Melting Millions - With George Walsh as Jack Ballantine

Miss Nobody - With William Parke Jr. as Jack Thurston

The Money Mill - With Evart Overton as Jack Burton

Mothers of Men - With Hal Reid as Jack Scranton

The Mystery of the Double Cross - With Theodore Friebus as Jack Dunn

The Mystery Ship - With Kingsley Benedict as Jack Fay

The Natural Law - With George Larkin as Jack Bowling

North of Fifty-Three - With Edward Alexander as Jack Barrow

Number 10, Westbound - With W. E. Lawrence as Jack Shannon

Paradise Garden - With Lester Cuneo as Jack Ballard

The Plow Woman - With Lee ('L. C.') Shumway as Lieutenant Jack Fraser... and with George Hupp as Jack... as a Child

The Princess of Patches - With Burke Wilbur as Jack Merry

Princess of the Dark - With Alfred Vosburgh / Gayne Whitman as Jack Rockwell

Queen of My Heart - With Alfred Lugg as Jack Lethridge

Roping Her Romeo - With Ben Turpin as Honest Eyed Jack... a Poor Butterfly.  See, because... LOL... they refer to his eyes because...

The Secret of Black Mountain - With T. H. Gibson Gowland as Jack Rance

The Seeds of Redemption - With Stanley Walpole as Jack Warren

The Serpent's Tooth - With Edward Peil (Sr.) as Jack Stilling

The Seven Pearls - With Henry G. Sell as Handsome Jack

The Silent Man - With Robert McKim as Handsome Jack Pressley

The Soul Herder - With Vester Pegg as Topeka Jack

The Square Deal Man - With William S. Hart as Jack O'Diamonds

Steel Hearts - With Lee Hill as Jack Belmont

Sunlight's Last Raid - With Alfred Whitman as Jack Conway

Taming Target Center - With Ben Turpin as Yellow Jack... the Old Sheriff

The Tornado - With John Ford as Jack Dayton

The Trail of Hate - With John Ford as Lt. Jack Brewer

The Trap - With Robert Ellis as Jack Mulhall... Gambler

Under False Colors - With Robert Vaughn as Jack Colton

Vengeance - And the Woman - With George Holt as Black Jack

Why They Left Home - With Milburn Moranti as Jack Dawson

A Wife's Suspicion - With Val Paul as Jack Bradford

Wooden Shoes - With Howard C. Hickman as Jack Smith

The World Apart - With Henry A. Barrows as Jack King

The Wrong Man - With Harry Carey as Jack Wilson

Ace High - With Lawrence Peyton as Jack Keefe

Ave Maria - With H. Manning Haynes as Jack Haviland

The Border Legion - With Hobart Bosworth as Jack Kells

Broadway Bill - With Cornish Beck as Jack Latham

Broadway Love - With Harry von Meter as Jack Chalvey

The Danger Mark - With Crauford Kent as Jack Dysart

The Dawn of Understanding - With George Kunkel as Sheriff Jack Scott

Dodging a Million - With Tom Moore as Jack Forsythe

A Duck Out of Water - With Eddie Lyons as Jack Tarr

The Enchanted Profile - With Evart Overton as Jack Lathrop

The Enemy Within - With Rex 'Snowy' Baker as Jack Arlie

The Eyes of Mystery - With Bradley Barker as Jack Carrington

The Ghost of Slumber Mountain - With Herbert M. Dawley as Uncle Jack Holmes

The Girl o' Dreams - With William A. Carroll as Jack Leonard

The Girl of Today - With Webster Campbell as Jack Wynn

Gowns and Girls - With Dave Morris as Jazzband Jack

Her Screen Idol - With Ford Sterling as Handsome Jack Darling

Hungry Eyes - With Henry (H. A.) Barrows as Jack Nelda

Jack Spurlock, Prodigal - With George Walsh as Jack Spurlock

Jules of the Strong Heart - With Ernest Joy as Jack Liggitt

Keith of the Border - With Roy Stewart as Jack Keith

Laughing Bill Hyde - With John Sainpolis as Black Jack Burg

Marriage - With David Powell as Jack Spencer

The Midnight Trail - With William Russell as Jack Woodford

The Million Dollar Dollies - With Bradley Barker as Jack Hobson

More Trouble - With Al(bert) Ray as Jack Wells

My Unmarried Wife - With Pat(rick) Calhoun as Jack Herrick

Naked Fists - With Joe Rickson as Jack Haynes

On Leave - With Aubrey Fitzmaurice as Lt. Jack Fordyce

On the Jump - With George Walsh as Jack Bartlett

Shot in the Dumbwaiter - With Lee Moran as Mr. Jack Downs

Sleuths - With Ben Turpin as Eagle Eye Jack... Detective

The Splendid Coward - With Teddy Arundell as Jack Lorimer

The Still Alarm - With Tom Santschi as Jack Manley

A Turf Conspiracy - With Arthur Walcott as Jack Rook

Under the Greenwood Tree - With Eugene O'Brien as Jack Hutton

The Vamp Cure - With Lee Moran as Jack Wise

The Waybacks - With Lance Vane as Jack Hinds

We Should Worry - With William Pike as Jack Fenton

Wife or Country - With Charles West as Jack Holiday

The Woman Between Friends - With Robert Walker as Jack Graylock

The Woman in the Web - With J. Frank Glendon as Jack Lawford

Young America - With Howard (I.) Smith as Jack Doray

As the Sun Went Down - With F. E. Spooner as Gin Mill Jack

The Autocrat - With Reginald Fox as Jack Blake

The Belle of New York - With Raymond Bloomer as Jack Bronson

Better Times - With Hugh Fay as Jack Ransom

The Bondage of Barbara - With Arthur Housman as Jack Newton

Der Dolch des Malayen - Mitt Lewis Brody als Jack Johnson... ein Neger

Die Sonne Bringt es an Den Tag - Mitt Hans Felix als Detektiv Jack Murphi

Die Teufelskirche - Mitt Leo Sloma als Jack Bully

Fair and Warmer - With Pell Trenton as Jack Wheeler

Fighting for Gold - With Tom Mix as Jack Kilmeny... (sniff) Farewell, Sir Mix a Lot.  This is his last one!

The Great Radium Mystery - With Robert Reeves as Jack Turner

Heart of Gold - With Robert Fischer as Jack Levinsky

The Heart of Wetona - With Charles Edler as Comanche Jack

The Homesteader - With Charles R. Moore as Jack Stewart

The Illustrious Prince - Hmmm.... oh, what the heck.  I'll go for it.  Somehow, I don't think anyone's going to object.  With Edward Peil (Sr.) as Inspector Jacks.

The Intrusion of Isabel - With Allan Forrest as Jack Craig

The Isle of Conquest - With Gareth Hughes as Jack Frazier

A Lass o' the Looms - With Henry Victor as Jack Brown

The Lottery Man - With Wallace Reid as Jack Wright

The Love Auction - With Edwin Stanley as Jack Harley

Love Insurance - With A. Edward Sutherland as Jack Paddock

The Man Who Forgot - With H. Agar Lyons as Tarpaulin Jack

Mary Regan - With Carl Miller as Jack Morton

The Masked Rider - With George Chapman as Capt. Jack Hathaway... Texas Rangers

Only a Mill Girl - With Arthur Condy as Jack Ainsleigh

Paid in Advance - With Harry De More as Flap Jack

The Praise Agent - With Arthur Ashley as Jack Bartling

The Prince and Betty - With Anita Kay as Mrs. Jack Wheldon

Putting One Over - With George Walsh as Horace Barney / Jack Trevor

The Rocks of Valpre - With William Saville as Jack Forrest

Sealed Hearts - With Eugene O'Brien as Jack Prentiss

The Secret of the Moor - With Henry Thompson as Jack Myddleton

Shadows - With Tom Santschi as Jack McGoff

The Silver Lining - With Richard Buttery as Jack Hillsbury

Something to Do - With Bryant Washburn as Jack Merrill

Spotlight Sadie - With Walter Hiers as Jack Mills

Tempest Cody Gets Her Man - With Carl Miller as Jack Rutledge

Tempest Cody Plays Detective - With Carl Miller as Jack Rutledge

Tempest Cody Rides Wild - With Carl Miller as Jack Rutledge

Tempest Cody Turns the Tables - With Carl Miller as Jack Rutledge

The Tiger's Trail - With George Larkin as Jack Randall

Told in the Hills - With Robert Warwick as Jack Stuart

The Undercurrent - With (Arthur) Guy Empey as Jack Duncan... and with Vera Boehm as Jack Duncan, Jr.

Unknown Love - With Robert Elliott as Captain Jack Tims

Wanted: A Husband - With James Crane as Jack Remsen

Widow by Proxy - With John Gilbert as Jack Pennington

Winning a Bride - With Herbert Heyes as Jack Crowley

The Winning Girl - With Harold Goodwin as Jack Milligan

You Never Saw Such a Girl - With J. Morris Foster as Gentleman Jack

All of a Sudden Peggy - With A. Edward Sutherland as Jack Menzies

The Amazing Quest of Mr. Ernie Bliss - With Reginald Bach as Jack Brent

Desert Love - With Charles K. French as Jack Remington

Dinty - With Pat O'Malley as Jack North

Feuerteufel - Mitt Carl Becker als Texas Jack

The Forbidden Valley - With Bruce Gordon as Jack Winslow

The Golden Trail - With Allan Hersholt as Little Jack

The Great Accident - With Philo McCullough as Jack Routt

Greater than Fame - With Walter McGrail as Jack Martin

The Hundredth Chance - With Sydney Seaward as Jack Bolton

In Search of a Sinner - With Rockliffe Fellowes as Jack Garrison

Jack Straw - With Robert Warwick as Jack Straw

The Kentucky Colonel - With Mary Talbot as Jack Gap

The Law Divine - With H. V. Esmond as Jack le B(r)as

Love Madness - With Noah Beery as Jack Frost

The Man from Kangaroo - With Wilfred Lucas as Red Jack Braggan

The Misleading Lady - With Bert Lytell as Jack Craigen

Molly and I - With Harry Dunkinson as Jack Herrick

Mountain Madness - With Harold Miller as Jack Radnor

Mrs. Temple's Telegram - With Bryant Washburn as Jack Temple

The Night Riders - With Andre Beaulieu as Jack Marbolt

The Paliser Case - With A. Edward ("Eddie") Sutherland as Jack Menzies

The Penalty of Fame - Med Aage Bendixen som Jack Pudding

Prairie Trails - With Sid Jordan as Jack Purdy

The Pride of the North - With Richard Buttery as Jack Hargreaves

The Prince Chap - With Casson Ferguson as Jack... Earl of Huntington

Remodeling Her Husband - With Leslie Marsh as Littlest Girl in Wedding Scene... I mean, with James Rennie as Jack Valentine

Rose of Nome - With Herbert Prior as Jack Hilton

The Round-Up - With Tom Forman as Jack Payson

The Servant Question - With Buster Collier as Jack Merrick

The Silent Avenger - With Ernest Shields as Jack Durham

Sklaven fremden Willens - Mitt Rudolf Klein-Rhoden als Jack Weller

Smoldering Embers - With Jay Belasco as Jack Manners

The Stolen Kiss - With Edward A. ("Eddie") Fetherston as Jack Hall

The Sword of Damocles - With Bobby Andrews as Jack Moray

A Temporary Gentleman - With Tom Reynolds as Mr. Jack

The Texan - With Sid Jordan as Jack Purdy

The Turning Point - With Kenneth Harlan as Jack Rivett

Twice Two - With Ivan Samson as Jack Romer

What Women Love - With Carl Ullman as Jack Mortimer

The Winning Goal - With Harold Walden as Jack Metherill

The Woman God Sent - With Warren Cook as Jack West Sr. ... and with Joe King as Jack West Jr.

Yes or No - With Rockliffe Fellowes as Jack Berry

A Battle of Wits - With Edmund Cobb as Jack Randall

Black Beauty - With George Webb as Jack Beckett

Bob Hampton of Placer - With Buddy Post as Jack Moffet

Corinthian Jack - With Victor McLaglen as Jack Halstead

The Cowpuncher's Comeback - With Art Acord as Jack O'Lane

The Dangerous Moment - With W. T. Fellows as Jack Reeve

Dangerous Toys - With William Desmond as Jack Gray

Der Gang durch die Hölle - Mitt Karl Falkenberg als Der rote Jack

Do or Die - With Eddie Polo as Jack Merton

The Fighter - With George Stewart as Jack Standish

The Four Feathers - With Cyril Percival as Jack Durrance

God's Crucible - With Robert T. Haines as Jack French... and with Jules Cowles as Jack French's Servant

God's Gold - With Neal Hart as Jack Cameron

The Headmaster - With Lionelle Howard as Jack Strahan

Her Face Value - With Eugene Burr as Jack Darian

Hush - With J. Frank Glendon as Jack Stanford

A Knight of the West - With Olin Francis as Jack 'Zip' Garvin

Love's Penalty - With Douglas Redmond as 'Little Jack'

Lykkens galoscher - Med Victor Montell som Jack Henderson

A Man's Home - With Roland Bottomley as Jack Wilson

Marry the Poor Girl - With Carter DeHaven as Jack Tanner

The Millionaire - With Herbert Rawlinson as Jack Norman

The Mountain Woman - With Richard C. Travers as Jack Halloway

The Mysterious Rider - With Jim Mason as Jack Bellounds

Peck's Bad Boy - With Wheeler Oakman as Dr. Jack Martin... the Man in the Case

Playing with Fire - With Harold Miller as Jack Taylor

A Prince There Was - With Nigel Barrie as Jack Carruthers

A Ridin' Romeo - With Sid Jordan as Jack Walters

Riding with Death - With William Gillis as Jack Hughes... CAPTAIN Jack Hughes

Rudd's New Selection - With Billy Williams as Jack Regan

A Shocking Night - With Clark Comstock as Jack Lane

Souls on the Road - With Chôjû Sugisawa as Lumberjack 1, and with Jun Yuri as Lumberjack 2

Tangled Trails - With Neal Hart as Jack Borden... CORPORAL Jack Borden

The Witching Hour - With Elliott Dexter as Jack Brookfield

The Bootleggers - With Walter Miller as Jack Seville

The Call of the East - With Walter Tennyson as Jack Verity

The Crimson Circle - With Rex Davis as Jack Beardmore

Dr. Jack - With Harold Lloyd as Dr. 'Jack' Jackson

Face to Face - With Coit Albertson as Jack Weston

The First Woman - With Lloyd Hammond as Jack Gordon

Fox Farm - With Cameron Carr as Jack Rickerby

A Front Page Story - With Tom McGuire as Jack Peeler

The Girl Who Ran Wild - With Lloyd Whitlock as Jack Velvet

The Great Night - With Wade Boteler as Jack Denton

The Gypsy Trail - With Art Acord as Jack Martin... RCMP

Herren der Meere - Mitt Harry De Loon als Jack Elmore

In the Days of Buffalo Bill - With William Knight as Jack Casement

Is Matrimony a Failure? - With Walter Hiers as Jack Hoyt

L'écuyère - Avec Henry Houry son Jack Corbin

Little Miss Smiles - With Gaston Glass as Dr. Jack Washton

Lure of Gold - With Neal Hart as Jack Austin

Nancy from Nowhere - With (A.) Edward Sutherland as Jack Halliday

The Old Homestead - With T. Roy Barnes as Happy Jack

Open Country - With Bertram Burleigh as Jack Senhouse

Paid Back - With Stuart Holmes as Jack Gregory

Pardon My Nerve! - With Joe Harris as Jack Harpe

Perils of the Yukon - With William Desmond as BOTH Jack Merrill Sr. AND Jack Merrill Jr.!  Multi-tasker extreme!!

South of Northern Lights - With Neal Hart as Jack Hampton

Tillie - With Allan Forrest as Jack Fairchild

Too Much Wife - With T. Roy Barnes as Jack Morgan

The Trail of Hate - With J. Gordon Russell as Jack Beecker

Two Men - With Tom Santschi as Jack Mason

The Unfoldment - With Raymond Cannon as Jack Nevin

West of the Pecos - With Neal Hart as Jack Laramie

What's Wrong with the Women? - With Rod La Rocque as Jack Lee

Beasts of Paradise - With Joe Bonomo as Big Jack

The Belle of Kenosha - With Gordon Swarthout as Jack Hampton

The Bishop of the Ozarks - With Rose Melville as Mrs. Jack Armstead

Blow Your Own Horn - With Warner Baxter as Jack Dunbar

Broadway Broke - With Pierre Gendron as Jack Graham

The Call of the Canyon - With Mervyn LeRoy as Jack Rawlins

The Cheat - With Robert Schable as Jack Hodge

Cyclone Jones - With Fred Burns as Jack Thompson

Defying Destiny - With Monte Blue as Jack Fenton... and with Laura Ames as Jack Fenton's Aunt

Diadalmas élet - Avec Lajos Bonis son Jack... Inas

Does It Pay? - With Walter Petri as Jack Weston

The Eagle's Talons - With Fred Thomson as Jack Alden

The Eternal Struggle - With Anders Randolf as Capt. Jack Scott

The Fighting Strain - With Neal Hart as Jack Barlow

For You My Boy - With Matty Roubert as Jack Melford... but also with Schuyler White as Jack Austin!!!  THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE............................

The Forbidden Range - With Neal Hart as Jack Wilson

The Girl of the Golden West - With Russell Simpson as Jack Rance

The Go-Getter - With Fred Huntley as Jack Morgan

Hoodman Blind - With David Butler as Jack Yeulette

Jack Sheppard - With Will West as Jack Sheppard

Le Sang D'Allah - Avec Henri Rollan son Jack Heverly... mais aussi avec Marthe Vinot comme La Soeur de Jack.  Ce qui compte?

The Mailman - With Dave Kirby as Jack Morgan

Mine to Keep - With Francis Ford as Jack Deering

Pioneer Trails - With Cullen Landis as Jack Dale... AND as Jack Plains!

Regeneration - With M. C. Maxwell as Jack Roper

Rustlin' - With Jay Morley as Deputy Sheriff Jack Alden

Sansone - Con Angelo Ferrari come Jack Brachart

The Seventh Sheriff - With Richard Hatton as Jack Rockwell

The Silent Command - With Rogers Keene as Jack Decatur

Skid Proof - With Buck Jones as Jack Darwin

The Spoilers - With Ford Sterling as 'Slapjack' Simms

Temptation - With Bryant Washburn as Jack Baldwin

Thundering Dawn - With J. Warren Kerrigan as Jack Standish

The Velvet Woman - With Lionelle Howard as Jack Merton

The West~Bound Limited  - With David Kirby as Jack Smith

When Odds are Even - With William Russell as Jack Arnold

Wild Bill Hickok - With James Farley as Jack McQueen

The Wild Party - With Freeman Wood as Jack Cummings