Its season three for one of the most bizarre but very entertaining crime thrillers TNT has ever brought to the small screen. After season two falling in with the Russian mafia, and surviving a deadly marriage, the season closed with an assassination attempt on Desna’s life. Virginia sadly suffered the bullet meant for her sister in law. “Claws” returns taking off immediately from the last scene from season two and it takes off like a rocket. It’s the same lunacy as always for “Claws” with bizarre fantasy sequences, some genuinely darkly funny comedy, and a brand new pair of villains that might just be the undoing of Desna and her crew if she isn’t careful.
How the Failure of “The Phantom Menace” fed my “Star Wars” Obsession
My “Star Wars” obsession began in 1997 when George Lucas unleashed the new editions of his trilogy in theaters. For me it was something of a passing fad that I admired through the fun commercials and the heavy connection to Doritos. I wanted those pogs even if I didn’t know who Luke Skywalker or Lando Calrissian was. A year later, I borrowed the original trilogy from a friend on VHS and consumed the whole series in one sitting over the course of a weekend. I never came back from that obsession, and to this day it’s a hard habit to break. “Star Wars” is a series that kept me hooked for a very long time and I was always looking for anything I could find to read about it, or consume in some form as entertainment.
In 1999 when Lucas aired the first ever trailer for “The Phantom Menace” on primetime television, I rushed home to watch the trailer on video tape, and I must have seen it at least ten times. It looked amazing.
Brightburn (2019)
As a hardcore Superman fan I was very intrigued and a bit excited for “Brightburn.” I think we’ve reached the point in pop culture where, what with the glut of superhero movies being released, we can finally start to deconstruct and or satirize the classic mythology. With “Brightburn” the premise amounts to a spooky, chaotic, violent, but very entertaining horror tale that re-thinks one of the most recognizable superhero origin stories in pop culture history.
The Wild, Wild World of Chris Metzler
Documentary filmmaker Chris Metzler has given audiences a look into strange and fascinating subjects through his productions “Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea” (seen in the above photo), “Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone” and his new release “Rodents of Unusual Size.” On this episode of “The Online Movie Show,” Chris discusses his distinctive approach to nonfiction filmmaking.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
The entire “John Wick” series is something of a surprise seemingly out of nowhere. What might have been a weak vehicle from Keanu Reeves turned in to a pretty groundbreaking and exciting action series where Reeves is able to re-invent himself once again for a new generation. You wouldn’t figure Reeves would be believable as one of the deadliest assassins in the world, but he handles the role of John Wick so proficiently. Wick has become something much more than the titular anti-hero of his film series. He’s become the key in to a very unique cinematic universe.
The Marcel Perez Collection: Volume 2 (DVD)
It’s estimated by Deutsche Kinemathek that 80–90% films, and 75% of all silent films are now lost. Many made even before the 1900’s are gone, with over 3500 lost films having been recorded by archivists and historians. So it’s an invaluable service that Undercrank Productions is giving its movie loving audience by delivering previously unseen and rare short films by many movie stars audiences have never even heard of. While the shorts aren’t always pristine, the fact that they get a new life on DVD is a wonderful gift to film enthusiasts that want to learn more about the film stars of yesteryear and how they helped shape the genres.
The Bootleg Files: Wings Over Everest
BOOTLEG FILES 685: “Wings Over Everest” (1934 Academy Award-winning documentary short).
LAST SEEN: One YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A forgotten work.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not as a standalone film.
Everyone knows that Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first men to reach the peak of Mount Everest with their landmark 1953 expedition up the Himalayan mountain. However, most people are unaware that they were not the first men to see the top of the world’s highest mountain. That achievement belonged to a 1933 aerial expedition led by Sir Douglas Douglas-Hamilton (also known as Lord Clydesdale) and Lieutenant David McIntyre. Sadly, that accomplishment has been mostly forgotten today – except for Academy Award completists who know about the expedition through a short documentary called “Wings Over Everest.”
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