Seth Harris

Movie Review – Escape From New York

Escape from New York (1981)
Written by John Carpenter and Nick Castle
Directed by John Carpenter

Our flashback to 1981 has come to a close with this film. Be on the lookout for a list of my favorite movies of 1981 tomorrow. For now, we bring things to a close with Escape from New York. Over the last year, I have expanded my viewings of John Carpenter movies quite a bit. I rewatched The Thing, a film I already love a lot. I also gave Halloween another chance and walked away, liking it a lot. Seeing it in the context as a slasher before that became such a dominant and overdone horror genre helped. I watched The Fog & They Live! for the first time and liked both of them. This was also my first viewing of Escape from New York, and…well, I think this is at the bottom of the list compared to the other movies personally.

Weekly Wonderings – June 28th, 2021

We finally have our tentative moving date: August 18th. Things have opened up enough now that we can enter our new home country. We went through the calendar and made a list of checkpoints between now and then to have a clear map of where we are going and how to get there. There’s a lot of things to do. Some can be done right away; others will take time to get done. Overall, we are both very excited because it’s clear that things in the United States are not going well. As I write this, the Pacific Northwest is being swallowed by a historical heatwave. Residential air conditioning in that region isn’t equipped for that level of heat; I don’t imagine our air conditioning in the Southeast would stand up to temps in the 110+ range either. I don’t think we can outrun the climate collapse, but my wife and I are of the mind that we want to be somewhere where we can live out our lives comfortably for however much longer we have on this planet.

My 40 Favorite Movies Part 4 (of 4)

Sunset Boulevard (1950, dir. Billy Wilder)
My full review

Funny enough, my first exposure to the narrative of Sunset Boulevard was an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures. The episode was titled “Sepulveda Boulevard” and put Montana Max in the William Holden role while Elmyra played the Norma Desmond analog. Hampton the Pig served as the stand-in for Otto Preminger’s faithful butler. So when I was an adult, I already understood the general narrative of this fantastic film. Billy Wilder delivers a tremendous variation on the noir film by reframing it as a Hollywood movie.

PopCult Podcast Episode 7

Ariana and I take on the roles of casting directors as we share our Top 5 Actors/Actressess We Would Not Cast. Then we go into our thoughts on Barry Jenkins’s brilliant new Amazon Prime series The Underground Railroad.

We’d love to know what you thought of this episode so leave your comments here or leave a voice message on our Anchor page. We might share your comment on an upcoming episode of the show.

You can listen to the podcast here or on Spotify or Google Podcasts.

TV Review – Loki Season 1, Episode 3

Loki Season 1, Episode 3 (Disney+)
Written by Bisha K. Ali
Directed by Kate Herron

This week, there was some fervor over the revelation that Loki (whether in male or female form) is pansexual. However, it doesn’t stop my continued annoyance with Disney over its seemingly incessant queerbaiting. Yes, the character said they were attracted to men and women, yet we will never see Loki engaged in a romantic relationship with a man on screen. Disney loves to add lines of dialogue or knowing glances but actually showing two people of the same sex in a relationship together where at least one of them is a main character will simply not happen. Disney is a global corporation run by people whose key drive is to amass money; they will exploit people’s desire to feel represented by giving them the tiniest crumbs while never giving them authentic representation. Meanwhile, actual independent LGBTQ creators make films, comics, etc., and are completely ignored because they aren’t big-budget mass market entertainment. You will never find self-fulfillment with a megacorporation.

Comic Book Review – Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 5 (of 9)

Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 5 (of 9)
Reviewing stories found in Crisis on Infinite Earths #6-7, Blue Devil #17-18, Infinity Inc #23-24, Legion of Super-Heroes #16,18, DC Comics Presents #87, Superman #414, The Omega Men #31
Written by Marv Wolfman, Gary Cohn, Dan Mishkin, Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Paul Levitz, Elliot S. Maggin, Todd Klein
Art by George Perez, Alan Kupperberg, Todd McFarlane, Ron Harris, Steve Lightle, Greg LaRocque, Curt Swan, Shawn McManus, Ernie Colon

The Anti-Monitor has been fully revealed and explains that the Multiverse will be his to destroy when the Monitor’s protective energy fades completely. His plan is to first draw Earth S (Shazam), Earth 4 (Charlton), and Earth X (The Freedom Fighters) to the anti-matter universe. Once consumed, they will give him enough power to wipe out Earths 1 and 2, the most powerful of all the worlds in the Multiverse. Harbinger has made the Multiverse heroes aware of what the stakes are, and now they are rushing to deal with the immediate catastrophes befalling their worlds and determine how to defeat the Anti-Monitor.

Movie Review – Excalibur

Excalibur (1981)
Written by John Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg
Directed by John Boorman

The story of King Arthur has been endlessly adapted into all forms of media, and it can be assumed that it will continue for as long as humans make art. This particular adaptation is a theatrical version of Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. If you’ve seen The Sword in the Stone or anything where Merlin takes an important role, it’s most likely derived from Mallory’s writings on Camelot. Director John Boorman was initially interested in doing a three-hour film centered on the famous wizard of British lore, but the studios thought it was too costly and without broad appeal. Boorman then turned his attention to a live-action adaptation of Lord of the Rings, which fell through, but there was interest in a film about King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable.

My 40 Favorite Movies Part 3 (of 4)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, dir. David Lynch)
My full review

Longtime readers of the blog won’t be surprised to hear what an influence David Lynch has had on me in my taste for media and artistic perspectives. I watched Twin Peaks during its original run at the age of 9-10. However, it wouldn’t be until college that I first saw the feature film prequel Fire Walk With Me, and I can’t say I enjoyed the film on my first viewing. Like many Peaks fans, I found it was very different from what I expected.

Movie Review – On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond (1981)
Written by Ernest Thompson
Directed by Mark Rydell

I can remember instances of comedians parodying On Golden Pond in my youth, especially Katherine Hepburn’s particular affectations throughout. As I got older, I learned more about the actors involved, especially the rift between Henry Fonda and his daughter Jane. The film started after Jane saw the play and purchased the rights so she could cast her dad in the lead role. Pairing Henry Fonda with Katherine Hepburn was also a way to appeal to classic movie lovers by featuring these legends. It would turn out to be Henry Fonda’s final film but certainly not one of his best. Sadly, the final product on the screen feels incredibly cheap and trite.

Movie Review – Outland

Outland (1981)
Written & Directed by Peter Hyams

In 1981, you might think the juggernaut of Star Wars had crushed any desire by Hollywood to make intelligent, more adult science fiction. Yet here comes Outland, a film set on a mining colony with a complete absence of aliens or space battles. Instead, writer-director Peter Hyams translates a plot commonly found in Westerns and places in outer space. The result is seamless, showing how timeless and transcendent certain narratives are. Hyams admitted he wanted to make a Western only, but the success and boom of the science fiction genre caused him to rethink the setting of his idea. He reasoned that the types of stories being told in the 1970s and early 80s were the same you found in Western just repurposed. Thus we get Outland which is High Noon on the moon of Io.