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Oscar bait month

 The Academy Awards. That time of the year when everyone debates what movies are truly the best and there is never a consensus and no one is ever happy. A movie can be incredibly popular and then it wins a bunch of Oscars and suddenly it's overrated and not very good or downright bad. It happens every year. But for the month of April let's take a look at those films that had Oscars on their mind and instead fell flat on their faces. Now Oscar Bait is a term that can also be applied to winners or films that did score a bunch of nominations. For example Bradley Cooper's film Maestro is very much an Oscar Bait movie even though it had a decent awards season. I want to talk about the films that did nothing. That were early contenders then either faded away eventually or just plain crashed and burned. Oscar Bait's biggest failures. What wrong here with these? Was the movie poor? Did something else just have a dominant run? Or were politics involved? Maybe all of the above. S...
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

A retrospective by Brooks Rich Let's kick off the spooky season with a bona fide classic. I love the horror genre, but not much really scares or creeps me out. Most horror films I just watch and enjoy. However, 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is one of those that really gets under my skin, and not just because the Sawyer family are eating people. The way Tobe Hooper shoots the film gives it an almost documentary feel. If you have never seen 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' you should probably fix that immediately. Do I need to explain what it's about? A group of '70s kids is driving across Texas in a van and runs afoul of the Sawyer family, including the man himself, Leatherface. It's a classic of the horror genre and one of the pioneers of the '70s and '80s horror boom. The film has a reputation for being sickeningly bloody and violent, but that is not true. It's essentially a bloodless film, which makes it even more horrifying. Most of the violence...

John Candy month: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich I decided to extend John Candy month for a bit as I had some personal issues come up. So just wrapping up some film I wanted to cover. Works for me. Just an excuse to keep talking about a master like Candy.  Steve Martin is Neil Page, a marketing executive who is flying from New York to Chicago for Thanksgiving. While trying to hail a cab he trips over a large trunk and has his taxi stolen by Del Griffith, the immortal John Candy, who ends up being one of Neil's seat mates on the plane. Bad weather in Chicago strands them in Wichita. Determined to make up for ruining Neil's travel plans, Del swears to get Neil home to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving. Hilarity ensues.  I mean come on. Who doesn't love Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? This is Candy's best film and I don't think that's a hot take. Sure some people might vote for Uncle Buck but not me. My vote is for this masterpiece of '80s comedy. It is also John Hughes best fi...

John Candy month: Nothing But Trouble

A retrospective by Azzam Abdur-Rahman When Brooks asked me if I had any movie in mind for John Candy month I honestly only had one in mind, Only The Lonely. This film I related too so much but due to my life I just didn't feel comfortable discussing it. It became a weird albatross I was carrying, I hadn't written anything for the blog in a while and I wanted to contribute something but what I honestly couldn't tell you. I worried I would end up on a Lance Bangs-ish review that became less and less a review of the movie and more a musing on the struggles of losing a talented actor/comedian too soon to their own vices. I worried I like many other months wouldn't have a damn thing to say. Then last night after seeing the latest Mission Impossible I returned home to a sea of dog vomit and disappointment. It was literal dog vomit. 2 hours well into 3am I cleaned as my dog and I lay in misery at our lot in life. After commuting a task that was truncated by more vomit and...

John Candy month: Summer Rental

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Air traffic controller Jack Chester (John Candy) is given paid time off when he nearly causes two airline disasters. He takes his family down to Florida for a vacation. Hijinks ensue because its '80s comedy and Candy ends up challenging a pompous Richard Crenna to a yacht race to close out the summer.  This is a movie that has been forgotten to time in the grand scheme of Candy's career. Even with Carl Reiner directing it does have the same name recognition as some of Candy's other works. But I think it's a solid entry in his filmography. He plays a great everyman who we have no problem rooting for. The slobs versus snobs relationship he has with Crenna works like a charm and he genuinely seems like a good father and husband. Candy was always great at playing both the everyman and the aloof goofball. Sometimes he'll even play both. His character of Jack Chester in this is a good example of that. At times Jack is the goofy comic relief...

John Candy month

 What can you say about John Candy? He was a comic genius who was taken from us too soon. There were a lot of comedic heavyweights of the eighties and nineties but Candy stood above most of them. If there is a Mount Rushmore of comedy I imagine John Candy would be on it. For the month of July we are honoring this comic genius. 

Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...