Category Archives: PC Thugs

Why Young Animal Lovers Should Watch the “Dolphin Tale” Movies

Posted on by

You would think a movie with such a goofy name like “Dolphin Tale,” centered on a dolphin with literally no tail would be just an unbearable cutesy movie. Truthfully, “Dolphin Tale” is very much a film about nature, wildlife, and the very fragile balance that can be ruined when man is reckless.

Much of the first moments of “Dolphin Tale” are depicted with large splashes of dolphin and underwater life suddenly disrupted by fishermen in the waters. The introduction of Winter, the dolphin ends when we see a fisherman drop a crab cage in to the water. This is unfortunately not the last time we’d see her. When we do get to meet her once again, she’s been beached, is dying from dehydration, and her tail is horribly caught in the very crab trap we saw moments before.

Continue reading →

Remembering “Surface”: Sea Monsters, Dragons, and Lake Bell

Posted on by

Surface1

“Surface” is the definition of a series with a one note concept that would have worked much better as a mini-series when all is said and done. Around the mid-aughts, NBC television began working their way in to science fiction and began airing the quite ambitious “Surface.” During 2005, ABC’s “Lost” was taking America by storm and dominating pop culture with its mysterious storylines and baffling plot twists, so every network attempted to build their own franchise in the same vein. “Surface” is a valiant attempt with misguided writing.

And yes, I sat through the whole thing.

Continue reading →

Why are Archers So Popular?

Posted on by

katniss

While watching “Hunger Games: The Mockingjay, Part One,” my mind wandered. When Katniss Everdeen gets her new set of arrows (this is not a spoiler, is it?), some are explosive – “trick” arrows, similar to the ones used by Oliver Queen on Arrow or Hawkeye in The Avengers.

When these characters came to mind, I started to sense a pattern. In the 21st Century, people love archers: Legolas in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films; Green Arrow on both Arrow and Smallville; Hawkeye over at Marvel is experiencing great popularity both on the silver screen and in the pages of his own comic; Neytiri from James Cameron’s Avatar; Sterling Archer; Merida from Pixar’s Brave and Katniss offer girls positive role models, while Hanna maybe not so much. I think there’s also a girl who shoots arrows in the Narnia movies, but I’ve never seen those. I started to think about why these archers are so popular.

Continue reading →

“Shocktober” Memories

Posted on by

shocktoe1

Before it became the WB, then the CW, now CW PIX 11, once upon a time, channel 11 in New York was called WPIX Channel 11. And it was referred to as New York’s Movie Station. In other words, if you didn’t have cable television to watch uncut movies, then channel 11 was your next best option for watching movies of all kinds. Most of the catalogue from WPIX featured movies from the late seventies and the eighties, and on rare occasions the nineties. My apartment building wasn’t wired for cable television well into October of 1994, so until I was eleven, “New York’s Movie Station” is where I went to, to watch movies that weren’t in my mom or dad’s VHS collection.

Continue reading →

Seymour, Audrey, and the Price of Obscurity

Posted on by

Little_Shop_of_Horrors_1986

Real depth can come from the most surprising sources, things which at first glance are commercial grabs, but which, when mined, show greater depth. On the one basic hand, Star Wars is ships in space shooting at each other and guys beating on each other with laser swords. On the other hand, the critical hand that studied at a college, it’s an examination of our yearning for a call to adventure lost in the grit of seventies cinema.

Consider Little Shop of Horrors, one of the movies that came out of the well of nostalgia that is the eighties. Many remember it as a musical. Many remember it as a comedy. Many remember it as a horror flick. Few, if any, read much into it.

Continue reading →

Remembering the “Ghosts of Fear Street” Pilot

Posted on by

gofs1

When it comes to children’s television, networks and studios tend to get weird and air specials out of desperation. Often times it’s to test for a potential audience, which is why we got “Legend of the Hawaiian Slammers,” and other times it’s apparently to fill dead air; which is why we got “Ghosts of Fear Street” in 1997. I remember a lot about 1997, and my Friday nights typically was devoted to the scattered remnants of what was once ABC’s TGIF line up. For those final years we didn’t have much save for the last death gasp of “Boy Meets World.” Say what you want about the series, but those last seasons are terrible. There seems to be no record of “Ghosts of Fear Street” ever having existed. Save for some TV listings, and occasional screen caps, this isn’t even included in the resumes of its cast that include the lovely Azura Skye, and Alex Breckinridge, and the always odd Red Buttons.

Continue reading →

The PC Thug: The End of Saturday Morning Cartoons

Posted on by

Back in 1988, I fondly remember waking up very early on a Saturday to watch cartoons, and would officially pack up and prepare for the day the minute twelve in the afternoon reared it head ushering local sports.

2014 marked the end of many traditions that pop culture fans hold near and dear to their heart. One of the most surprising announcements was the official heralding of death of the tradition we all knew and love: Saturday Morning cartoons. In September 2014, the CW Network’s parent company Warner Bros. officially ended their run of morning long schedules of animated series, and reverted to cheaper educational programming in a time slot that barely filled three hours.  These days if you turn on the CW on a Saturday morning, you’ll likely find a ton of infomercials sandwiched between some vaguely family based animal shows.

Continue reading →