ANNOUNCING The Favorite Film and TV Homes Blogathon!!!!

Have you ever watched a movie and found yourself looking at the house instead of listening to the dialogue?

Do you find yourself taking screenshots of living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms in a movie, and trying to NOT get the actor in the shot?

Do you ever find yourself trying to draw a floor plan of a movie or television home you would like to live in?

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

If you answered yes to any of these questions then this Blogathon is for you!!!

For quite some time now, I have been wanting to host a blogathon dedicated to those film and TV homes that we know almost as well as our own. When I saw Love Letter's To Old Hollywood's post on The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with all of its screenshots of Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple's house in the film, I knew I had found the perfect co-host.

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

The fun will begin on May 5, 2017 and run through May 7, with a wrap-up day for late entries. I will be hosting Days 1 and 3 and Michaela will host Days 2 and the wrap-up day.

Here are the rules Michaela and I came up with:

1. Films must be pre-1970 and television shows pre-1975 (must have started its first season before then). Both houses and apartments are acceptable.

2. NO DUPLICATES! There are plenty of gorgeous homes and apartments to go around. We can't have everyone choosing Bringing Up Baby or Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House!

3. Please try to include screenshots of the house or apartment you have chosen (if anyone needs help figuring out how to take a screenshot, please let me know).

4. Let me know what movie you would like to do in the comments below or over at Michaela's blog Love Letter's To Old Hollywood. Make sure you include the link to your blog so I don't have to hunt for it!

5. Take one of the awesome banners Michaela made and share it on your blog. And lastly, have fun!!!



The Roster:

Phyllis Loves Classic Movies: A Few Favorite Movie Rooms, Jean Arthur's apartment in The More the Merrier (1943) & Franchot Tone's country house in Dangerous (1935)

Love Letters to Old Hollywood: Mansion from The Addams Family & Gene Tierney's apartment in Laura (1944)

Hamlette's Soliloquy: Gene Kelly's apartment in An American in Paris (1951)

An Ode to Dust: The Beatles' flat from Help! (1965)

The Flapper Dame: Norma Desmond's mansion in Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Elizabeth Grace Foley: The Browns' cottage in National Velvet (1944)

Bewitched with Classic TV: The Cleaver's house from season 1 & 2 of Leave it to Beaver

In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood: TBA

Caftan Woman: Ray Milland and Grace Kelly's flat in Dial M for Murder (1954)

Realweegiemidget Reviews: The Von Trapps home from The Sound of Music (1965)

Silver Screenings: Apartment from How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

Taking Up Room: The Banks' house in Father of the Bride (1951)

The Midnite Drive-In: The Village from the British TV/ Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner

Critica Retro: Buster Keaton's houses in The Scarecrow (1918) and The Electric House (1922)

Champagne for Lunch: The Smith family home in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1947)

Whimsically Classic: The Brady Bunch's house & Brian Keith's Monterey, CA ranch in The Parent Trap (1961)

Old Hollywood Films: Xanadu from Citizen Kane (1941)

Silver Scenes: The water-wheel house from When Ladies Meet (1941) & the cliff mansion in The Chalk Garden (1964)

Crimson Kimono: The dwellings in Vertigo (1958)

Thoughts All Sorts: The tree house in The Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

PODCAST 245: The Clones of Bruce Lee & The Dragon Lives Again [Bruceploitation Redux Edition]

This week the Horror Duo return to the kung fu genre to FINALLY do Bruceploitation justice. Forest reviews the quintessential Bruce Lee rip-off, The Clones of Bruce Lee. Cory watches a a film that leaves him speechless - The Dragon Lives Again - a film about Bruce Lee kicking ass in the after life...with Popeye the Sailor Man?

CONTINUE READING

New in Theaters for March

A lot of movies are premiering in March, but only a few of them interest me. This is why they might be worth watching... or avoiding.

WATCHING

Life (March 24, 2017)
A space ship crew finds life on Mars. I love sci-fi and the trailer looks great.  With a case of Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ryan Reynolds this should be good. Gyllenhaal has learned to pick good roles, ever since Prince of Persia.

Logan (March 3, 2017)
Standalone Wolverine movies don't have the best track record, but the hype this movie has generated has me curious. The first teaser images with the little girl seemed like a ploy, but this just might deliver. It's supposed to be Hugh Jackman's final time portrayed the admantium reinforced mutant.

Kong: Skull Island (March 10, 2017)
I was disappointed with Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) pet project and I know I should be hesitant with this one, but I think it could be good. With Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, and John C. Reilly, surely not all of them made a mistake, right?

CHIPS (March 24, 2017)
I don't know if we need a reboot of the 70s/80s television series, I'm willing to give it a chance if only in the hopes that Dax Shephard and Michael Peña can hold a candle to Super Troopers (2001).

AVOIDING

Beauty and the Beast (March 17, 2017)
While I don't think this will be bad, it appears they are going to recreate the 1994 animated version scene for scene in live action, I don't like the lack of creativity. It's a cash grab banking on nostalgia. Is Disney going to start re-creating all of their animated films in live action now?

T2 Trainspotting (March 17, 2017)
Any sequel that comes out twenty years later is going to have a hard time establishing credibility and re-capturing the magic of the first film. Trainspotting (1996) doesn't need a sequel. I don't care if Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor are both on board.

Power Rangers (March 24, 2017)
I thought the darker, edgier recreations had finally passed. I guess not. This is targeting the now grown ups that grew up with Power Rangers. I missed that boat. Is this going to sink like the Titanic? Only time will tell.

Ghost in the Shell (March 31, 2017)
Despite Scarlett Johannson I don't think this will be that good. Many people will see it for the actress, but this recreation of the mange turned 1995 film is going to be too simplified in a bid to reach mainstream audiences.That's my prediction.

White Nights Season 1 Netflix Series Pilot Review

White Nights (2017-)
Night Light (also known as)
Bulyaseong (Original Title)
Season 1 - 20 episodes (2017)

Watch White Nights Season 1 on Netflix
Created by: Ji-Hoon Han
Starring: Yo-Won Lee, Jin Goo, U-ie, Hae-in Jung
Rated: TV-14

Plot
In this Korean language drama, an heiress and an ambitious new hire war over money and power.

Verdict
This is corporate espionage with a soap opera production and tone. I have to imagine the subtitles aren't the best translation because the dialog always felt slightly off. There is a near continuous music backing track that sounds like free stock music. It's terrible. The music never fit the tone of the show, or not the tone I expected. This has a distinctly light and almost comedic tone for the content. It's more of a comedy than a drama and that is NOT the intention... at least I don't think so.
Skip it.

Review
The drama and dialog are stilted, just like a soap opera. Like that same genre, this borders on parody unintentionally. It would be easier to turn this into a comedy than it would a true drama. This looks like a soap opera with low production values and very basic shot framing. This has the classic trick your enemy into overpaying at an auction and a Russian roulette scene.  At no point does the pilot build the tension it should or even could. I don't care about the characters because they are thin. Granted, it's the pilot, this needs to at least hook me.

Yi-Kyung and Si-jen.

Se-jin meets business owner Yi-Kyung at a charity and then hires her to steal information from a rival's phone. This is played up as an intense sequence, but the music might as well be from Benny Hill.

Yi-Kyung then pays Se-jin to impersonate her. It's a bit of a ruse as Yi-Khung knows that her business rival will abduct her for discovering evidence of embezzlement but tells Se-jin it's an appointment to buy art. I would guess the season deals with the friction between these two as well as Yi-Kyung trying to conquer her business rivals. The business world can be sordid and twisted. Yi-Kyung wants to prove her rivals wrong, they accuse her of riding her father's coat tails.
While Se-jin knows she was tricked will she continue to work with Yi-Kyung or attempt revenge? She doesn't have the means to do revenge which is why she was hired in the first place.

My issues with the show could also be the cultural divide. This is a Korean show not made for me. The title screen isn't even translated. Netflix calls this White Nights, but I've also seen it called Night Light. This leads to my questioning of the translation. Was it a rush job? Is there more depth to the show than the subtitles convey? Even if there is, I'm not sure it can make up for the horrid musical backing.

Amy Schumer: The Leather Special Netflix Comedy Special Trailer

Amy Schumer: The Leather Special (2017)

 Amy Schumer: The Leather Special  premieres March 7

Amy's performance was recorded November 2016. Her last comedy special for HBO, Amy Schumer: Live at the Apollo earned three Emmy nominations.

 

Dark Season 1 Netflix Series Teaser Video

Dark (2017-)
Season 1 - 10 episodes (2017)

Dark Season 1 premieres Winter 2017

Netflix's first German series is a family mystery saga with a supernatural twist that takes the story back to 1986. Two missing children connect four families in the present day.

The question isn't who kidnapped the children, but when. The years 2019, 1986, and 1953 are somehow linked.

 

 

 

War Machine Netflix Movie Teaser Video

War Machine (2017)

War Machine premieres Friday May 26

Starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Michael Hall, Topher Grace, Will Poulter, Tilda Swinton,  and Ben Kingsley, this comedy war film is based on the non-fiction book The Operators about a journalist's journey in Afghanistan with General McChrystal.
Brad Pitt plays McChrystal who rose to command NATO forces, only to fall from grace because of a journalist's expose.