LawrenceA

Or The Breaking Point.

<--- Why, thank you! (This response will only be relevant for the next 12 hours or so.)

Cinemas Barred From Fox Retro Screenings? There’s been suggestion of this for a few months, but now Vulture has done a piece on one of the most unfortunate side effects of the Disney-Fox merger. Repertory theaters and regional chains all across the U.S. are reportedly finding out that Disney’s famous idea of ‘vaulting’ films (taking them out of circulation in order to drive up interest) is going to extend, in part, to Fox’s vast library of films. Without warning or announcement, Disney has reportedly begun eliminating older Fox titles such as “Alien,” “Fight Club,” “The Princess Bride,” “Moulin Rouge” and “Die Hard” from being screened around the country. There is reportedly only one notable exception – “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” No real reasons are given but the new rule suggests only non-profit theaters (eg. Film Forum in New York City) will be given access to the library of Fox titles to be shown on the big screen. Disney hasn’t officially commented on the policy or how it will enforce it. http://www.darkhorizons.com/cinemas-barred-from-fox-retro-screenings/

John Qualen, giving you the bedroom eyes that weaken all women's knees. Just try and resist, ladies.

Alan Baxter?

"So you ladies think I look better than Quasimodo, eh? Just wait until you see me bang this drum!"

I may have been wrong. I think the character of Julie is an original. However, the person playing her isn't the original actress, although the current woman (Susan Seaforth Hayes) has been playing her since 1968. Her onscreen husband, Doug Williams, is played by her real-life husband Bill Hayes, and he's still on the show as well. He's 94 and she's 76. From Wiki: Doug Williams and Julie Olson were the first super couple in the history of the daytime industry. The January 12, 1976 cover of Time magazine featured Days of our Lives' Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes, the first and only daytime actors to ever appear on its cover. The Hayeses themselves were a couple whose onscreen and real-life romance (they met on the series in 1970 and married in 1974) was widely covered by both the soap opera magazines and the mainstream press.

Yeah, as far as I know, none of the original characters are left, only their children, grandchildren, etc. and family groups that came in after the start of the show. I don't know if the video above mentioned it, but I was told that they were going to do a time jump in the show, skipping ahead a year or some such so that it will be like a soft reboot of the show.

The first Friday the 13th was a big hit, but it isn't a good movie. The cliches you're referring to in it weren't quite as prevalent at the time, but they've become so well known and so often parodied now. The Friday series was always the weakest of the Big Four slasher series, with Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and Elm Street all being better, if of wildly variable quality from movie to movie. The Friday the 13th movies got better when Jason became the central villain, and the stories got more outlandish. They were never what one would generally call good movies, but they became more entertaining. Parts 3, 4 and 6 are the best.

Reprisal (2018) - 4/10 Low-rent, uninspired crime drama with Frank Grillo as a family man and assistant bank manager. When his bank is robbed by a violent, methodical pro (Johnathon Schaech), Grillo is left emotionally traumatized. He eventually teams up with his neighbor (Bruce Willis), a retired police detective, to track down the robber and bring him to justice. Grillo is better than this kind of cheap junk, although it's the sort of thing that Willis appears in too often anymore. It straddles the line between a crime thriller and a dim-bulb action flick. Either way, it's bad.

Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019) - 4/10 Terrible action flick starring Sylvester Stallone as Ray Breslin, veteran escapologist and penitentiary and security expert. The deranged son (Devon Sawa) of Breslin's deceased ex-partner kidnaps a Hong Kong executive's daughter in order to lure Breslin into a revenge scheme to destroy him once and for all. With Dave Bautista, 50 Cent, Jaime King, Russell Wong, Daniel Bernhardt, and Jin Zhang. This is the third part in the series. The first film wasn't terrible, but the second film was a complete trainwreck, marred by budget issues and production delays. This third installment was rushed into production at the behest of the Chinese backers who salvaged the second film from bankruptcy, and it features several Chinese characters who seem to be operating in their own separate film. The end result is only slightly better than part 2, but it's still atrocious, and worth avoiding.

We Die Young (2019) - 6/10 Surprisingly competent crime drama about a Washington, D.C. teen (Elijah Rodriguez) mixed up with the local MS-13 gang. The kid sells drugs for gang boss Rincon (David Castaneda), including opioids to Afghan-war vet and auto mechanic Daniel (Jean-Claude Van Damme), who suffers from PTSD and painful injuries that have left him mute and with a permanent tracheostomy. When the kid gets into trouble trying to protect his little brother from the gang, Daniel steps in to help. Van Damme hasn't starred in a good movie in decades, but this wasn't bad, as far as low budget crime dramas go, and the performances by everyone are good. Castaneda's gang boss is a complex character, and Van Damme's aged visage adds to a wordless performance. Not great, or even very good, this is still the best thing Van Damme's made in a long time.

I tend not to refer to Korean music at all. Except, I guess, right now.

We're still a few months away from the end of the year, and there's usually one or two surprises left in that time frame. Maybe we'll see somebody new emerge, however unlikely. And I'm sure one or two more of the "shoo-ins" will fizzle out, like The Goldfinch. Yeah, everything I've heard about Ford v Ferrari says that Bale is supporting, but whether due to a contract stipulation or studio hype, they've decided to submit him as a lead. A couple of yours above were under my radar. Clemency and Just Mercy. I'm always glad for more recommendations.

I saw an article yesterday that said that Bale will be submitted in the lead category by the studio. I'm not sure if that therefore means he has to be considered, or if the Academy can ignore it and nominate him in whatever category they see fit.

Dead Trigger (2017) - 3/10 In the year 2025, a virus has decimated civilization, reducing the healthy population to a few scattered cities. Those afflicted with the virus become zombie-like killers. When a general's daughter goes missing in the infected zone, a team of fighters is assembled for a rescue operation. Featuring Dolph Lundgren, Isaiah Washington, Autumn Reeser, Romeo Miller, Brandon Beemer, Tamara Braun, Oleg Taktarov, James Chalke, and Joel Gretsch. This is cheap and dumb, and comes across like a bunch of bored actors found a box of military props and decided to make a zombie movie over the weekend. The oddball cast almost makes this worth sitting through. Almost. This was based on a videogame, and there's a go-nowhere subplot early in the film where the military recruits players of a zombie-survival game to become real fighters.

Hey, I mentioned that I noticed your absence. You had stated something about setting a goal this year of posting about one movie a day in the "I Just Watched" thread, and then you disappeared a few days later. I noticed! But I didn't start a thread about it...

Nightmare Weekend (1986) - 2/10 Incomprehensible sci-fi horror about a mad scientist (Debbie Laster) manipulating the minds of 3 women (Debra Hunter, Lori Lewis, Andrea Thompson), causing them to become drooling psychopaths. With Dale Midkiff and Robert John Burke. This is very stupid, incoherently edited, with an unfathomable script and terrible acting. There's also a lot of nudity and a puppet, so it's not all bad. Just 98.5% of it. There's a copy up on Amazon Prime. The end credits are unreadable.

I saw that John Clarke has died. He played Mickey Horton on Days of Our Lives for 39 years, from 1965 to 2004. He had bit roles in a few films as well. He was 88. His daughter Melinda Clarke is also an actress. I first noticed her in Return of the Living Dead 3, and kept a poster from that up in my store for a few years. She was also recurring on CSI as Lady Heather, the dominatrix that occasionally romanced lead William L. Petersen's Gil Grissom.

That one is so familiar, too... And #14 looks like it's from one of the Corman/Poe movies, but I don't know which one.

Rey will be the Force-conceived offspring of the Emperor. She's supposed to mate with Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and create the ultimate Force-powered ubermensch. But things won't go as planned. Or there will be Ewoks. Lots and lots of Ewoks.

Discarnate (2018) - 4/10 A group of researchers travel to a secluded house that's supposedly haunted. They take an experimental drug that will hopefully allow them to perceive things in the spirit world. It works, but it also brings them to the attention of something more malevolent. Featuring Thomas Kretschmann, Nadine Velazquez, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Chris Coy, Matt Munroe, and Josh Stewart. The decent cast and promising set-up are completely squandered by poor direction and an even weaker script.

#9 - Dracula #20 - Village of the Damned These two are uncertain guesses: #21 - Night/Curse of the Demon #22 - 13 Ghosts

It may have seemed that way, but they were promoting something. If not a soon-to-be released project (movie, book, TV show, live appearance, album, etc.), then they were promoting themselves, getting their names and faces back into the public consciousness, and hopefully getting more and better offers. Sometimes they were doing a favor for the host or producer by filling in for someone else who was expected to appear but didn't. You still see that today, with celebs who live close to the filming locales showing up to fill a spot that someone else dropped out of for whatever reason. The only difference is now they'll often tell the audience that was the case, whereas in the old days they'd play it like everything was going as planned.