Still More 60s Movies 5

This will be the last "Still More 60s Movies" entry.  For this entry I'd like to delve into some of the Oscar winners from the decade.

By way of introduction I'm approaching this topic thusly: first, I'll be visiting the Wikipedia entry for every year listed below, and second, I'll be working my way down through the lists of Oscar winners until I find a) two movies I haven't seen before, and b) two movies also available on YouTube.  Yes, I could get movies through a variety of other legal and illegal methods, but these entries are intended for a more general audience, and some of the streaming services and torrents don't work as well in certain countries.

Besides, I'm lazy sometimes.  Using VPNs, torrent clients and sites which force me to click off a thousand pop-ups is exhausting.

...oh, and one more thing -- since I'm basing this on the Academy Awards, be aware that all of the movies below came out the year before they won the award.

1960

1. Best Supporting Actress: Shelley Winters: The Diary of Anne Frank

This one hits differently in 2025.  Fascism and its close cousin ethnic nationalism are forces guiding American politics now, and immigrants, those "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," now find themselves the objects of renewed suspicion.

Besides Best Supporting Actress, The Diary of Anne Frank also won two other Oscars, one for Best Art Direction - Black and White, and one for Best Cinematography - Black and White.  In 1959 movies were facing stiffer competition from TV, and a shift away from black and white was well under way.  By the time the 40th Academy Awards were held in 1968, the Academy had stopped making a distinction between color and black and white films altogether.

Shelley Winters?  I don't think she adds much to this movie.  True, she perfected "high strung verging on hysteria," but her role in this The Diary of Anne Frank is rather marginal.  In 1959 the studio system still prevailed, and it could be that someone higher up simply decided that Winters was due for an award.  I'm not saying this to diminish her as an actress, but I don't think she deserved an Oscar for this particular film.

With respect to the movie overall I'd say that it's definitely good, though you'll want to watch it in two sittings.  The inevitable scene of their discovery near the end is very gripping, and one gets a strong sense of what the family patriarch truly lost after the war ended.

2. Best Foreign Language Film: Black Orpheus

Greek myth plays itself out in the midst of Rio's Carnaval.  It's an indisputably good movie, if a little obscure/arty at times.  I can't help but wonder if the positive reception this one received isn't more due to its unabashed sexuality than whatever depth or interest the story might have possessed for Western audiences back then.  In 1959 America was a very sexually repressed place, and outside of Grindhouse films audiences weren't likely to see so many attractive people of color enmeshed in such a ribald narrative.

Those unfamiliar with it might want to read about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice before watching Black Orpheus.

This film won several awards besides the Best Foreign Language Film bestowed by the Academy.  It met with, however, a less than enthusiastic reception in Brazil.  I can understand their discomfort with this movie.  It does in many instances resort to stereotypes.

Fun, if Exploitative Fact: The French director of Black Orpheus, Marcel Camus, married first Marpessa Dawn, the female lead in Black Orpheus, and then Lourdes de Oliveira, a member of the supporting cast.  He was married to de Oliveira up until his death in 1982.

1961

1. Best Foreign Language Film: The Virgin Spring

Some of those reading this might be familiar with Wes Craven's early, surprise hit The Last House on the Left.  That later, more specifically horror-oriented movie was an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring.

Bergman's version is objectively better in all respects.  It's concise, it was beautifully filmed, and the performances are very convincing.  Unlike Craven's film The Virgin Spring is set in the Middle Ages, and setting the story in this time period gives Bergman's movie a fairy tale quality that, in my opinion, works much better.

2. Best Documentary: The Horse with the Flying Tail

Not sure how this Disney-produced film won Best Documentary, but maybe there was less competition in 1961.  It's completely contrived and totally devoid of nuance, but if you're looking for a completely predictable movie with a completely predictable final act (right down to the national anthem), this is the movie for you.

It's one of the more whitebread films I've seen in a while.  Oh, and if you look real hard you'll notice the actor who gets flayed a quarter of the way through The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

1962

1. Best Documentary: The Sky Above, The Mud Below (a.k.a. "Sky Above and Mud Beneath")

Strange to think of half of New Guinea as being "Dutch," but yes, in 1961 the Dutch still controlled that part of the world.  At that point in time Eddie and Alex Van Halen were kids living on the island of Java, long before they'd become internationally known rock stars.

The Sky Above, The Mud Below details a French expedition to New Guinea, referred to in the film as "a blank space on the map."  If you've seen other examples of this type of documentary nothing will be that surprising here: intrepid explorers, mostly naked native peoples, extremely staged "scenes of discovery," and battles with the elements - it's all familiar territory.

I don't think we saw much that was new in the documentary genre until Werner Herzog.  Up to that point the genre very formulaic, though there may be inventive documentaries from the time period I haven't yet seen.

2. Best Documentary (Short Subject): Project Hope

Speaking of Indonesia, Project Hope documents a medical exchange between the United States and that (relatively) new nation.  The onboard milk machine seems like a strange idea, but I suppose there was some science behind it.  Hopefully in the age of Trump we can keep this kind of thing going.

1963

1. Best Foreign Language Film: Sundays and Cybele

The acting is good, it's well written and well directed, but I'm a bit reluctant to recommend this one.  It's too much like a pedophile's wet dream.

A Frenchman recently returned from the Indochina Conflict strikes up a friendship with a young girl.  There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but yeah, anyone acting like the Frenchman in this movie - a man admittedly damaged from his experiences in the war - would end up on the wrong kind of list given enough time.

2. Best Documentary: Black Fox

The life and times of Adolph Hitler.  Like most documentaries on the subject it's certainly food for thought, even if the juxtaposition of World War II footage and Goethe's Reynaud the Fox doesn't always work.

1964

1. Best Short Subject (Cartoon): The Critic

Yes, Mel Brooks has three Oscars to his name.  The Critic, linked above, won him his first.  Give it a click?  It'll only take up 3 minutes and 24 seconds of your time.

1965

1. Best Writing: Screenplay: Becket

"One can always come to a sensible little arrangement with God."

Entirely too clean for my liking.  There's no way that people of that time period, rolling around in their own filth as they were, would have been able to enjoy such spotless floors.

The plot of Becket revolves around the friendship (and rivalry) between Henry II, Norman King of England and Thomas Becket, his Saxon friend and a rising star within both royal court and Catholic church.  Peter O'Toole, playing Henry II chews a lot of scenery in the course of this movie, while Richard Burton, playing Thomas Becket, delivers an uncharacteristically restrained performance.

Fun Fact 1: In case "Gwendolin" looks familiar, 20 years later actress Sian Phillips would go on to play the "Reverend Mother" in 1984's Dune.  While filming Becket she was still married to Peter O'Toole.

Fun Fact 2: This movie, to some extent at least, inspired a young Julia Roberts to become and actress.

1. Best Documentary: World Without Sun

Where James Cameron ventures Jacques Cousteau may have already been.

In this mildly homoerotic take on ocean exploration, the intrepid Cousteau navigates the ocean depths from his shiny new sea base.  Of all the movies I've seen lately this one is probably the best to get stoned to, featuring as it does an array of colorful and bizarre fish, weird scenes of transparent containers in the water, and plenty of descents into underwater caves.

1966

1. Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Martin Balsam: A Thousand Clowns

Too much like the play it was adapted from, but the witty dialogue and an effervescent performance by James Robards keeps it interesting.  Martin Balsam plays Robards' brother.

It's not a perfect movie, but this story of whimsical, individualistic people living in a serious, conformity-ridden society is worth seeing.  For me the standout feature was the editing, which is very inventive given the time period.

2. Best Documentary: The Eleanor Roosevelt Story

Guaranteed to drive any and all avowed Republicans from your living room.  

As for the documentary, it's mostly a series of photographs introduced by various narrators.  I'm not sure why it won the Oscar, but then again 1965 was both a long time ago and a lot closer to Eleanor Roosevelt's death three years before.  I suppose that to some extent a rising tide of feminism and concern for women's rights in the late 60s made this documentary ring true for many.

Food for Thought: Eleanor Roosevelt was most likely a lesbian, but historians debate whether or not she ever acted on her feelings for other women.  What is known is that Eleanor disliked having sexual relations with her husband, and that FDR had a series of extramarital affairs.

1967

1. Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress: Elizabeth Taylor and Sandy Dennis: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Academia (or is it "academe?"), thwarted ambition, and bitter libations which catch in one's throat.

In my opinion there's Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton chewing scenery in a GOOD way, as in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, there's Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton chewing scenery in a NEUTRAL way, as in Cleopatra, and then there's Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton chewing scenery in a BAD way, as in Boom!

But in another way the real star of this movie is director Mike Nichols, who managed to wrest the respective performances out of both Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Burton.  He enjoyed one of the longer careers in Hollywood, helming everything from this movie to Charlie Wilson's War in 2007.  He elevated a lot of the material he worked with, the script of this movie included.

And yes, Elizabeth Taylor is great in this movie.  She was always great, in one way or another, even when she was drunk or stoned out of her mind.

2. Best Music: John Barry: Born Free

A couple living in Kenya attempt to reintroduce their pet lion into the wild.  In terms of content it's fairly standard Disney fare (though this isn't a Disney movie), but the relationship between the two married people and their indecision with regard to the cub makes Born Free more interesting than would have otherwise been the case.

For a postscript I highly recommend The Tragic Story of the Lord of Lions: Adamson of Africa.  It puts a lot of Born Free into perspective.

1968

1. Best Documentary: The Anderson Platoon

A French journalist follows an American platoon through scenic Vietnam.  I think this won an Oscar more for its timeliness, given that up to that point the American military wasn't as forthcoming as to how the war was really going, and the toll it was taking on both sides.  It's a decent time capsule as these things go, but as a documentary there's not much in The Anderson Platoon to sink one's teeth into.

2. Best Documentary (Short Subject): The Redwoods

Only twenty minutes long and full of creepy music.  This was the Sierra Club's attempt to educate the public on the imminent threat to California's remaining redwoods, and as a piece of propaganda it worked extremely well.  

To be fair to the U.S. timber industry, they don't clearcut like that anymore.

1969

1. Best Actor: Cliff Robertson: Charly

A retooling of Flowers for Algernon, this film features Cliff Robertson as a mentally disabled man granted superior intelligence through a new medical procedure.  If you're only familiar with Robertson as Superman's dad in 1978's Superman you'll want to check this one out.  There was a lot more to him than that one role.

2. Best Documentary: Journey into Self

Condensed version of a 16-hour therapy session.  As the 60s gave way to the 70s psychotherapy would become increasingly ubiquitous in the United States, and this documentary stands as evidence of that trend.  People in the late 60s and early 70s were searching for truth, and they thought that with the right method they could find this truth.  For some this meant joining a cult, for others it meant delving into astrology, and for still others it meant therapy sessions that sometimes did more harm than good.

Purely my opinion, but I think we sometimes put things "in the basement" for good reasons.  It's not always beneficial to venture down there and start digging things up.

Related Entries:

Still More 80s Movies 4

Still More 70s Movies 4

Still More 60s Movies 4

Movies and Memories

"The Redbreast" by Jo Nesbo (2000)

"Harry cast his eyes around.  At the tidy, well-organized shelves of ring-binders neatly displayed in chronological order.  At the walls where diplomas and distinctions from a career in smooth ascent hung.  A black and white photograph of a younger, uniformed Kurt Meirik, with the rank of major, greeting King Olav hung behind the desk and caught the eye of everyone who came in.  This was the picture Harry sat studying when the door opened behind him."

This is the third of Jo Nesbo's books to be reviewed here.  I've also read The Snowman, his most famous work, and The Jealousy Man, a more recent collection of his short stories.

The Redbreast represents a much earlier effort from the same author.  It was the third of his novels to see publication, and also the third of his novels to feature protagonist Harry Hole.  It's a far less mature work than the universally acclaimed The Snowman, revealing an author less ready to cut down a story to its essential details.

The novel opens with Harry Hole's failed assignment in support of the U.S. Secret Service, and from there moves into a murky plot involving Norwegian neo-Nazis, actual Norwegian Nazis fighting on the front lines during World War II, and a series of inexplicable murders centered around an illegally imported rifle.

To be honest, I had trouble getting through The Redbreast.  It's very obtuse at times, and I had a lot of difficulty telling one Norwegian ex-Nazi from another.  The parts of the novel set in the modern day are alright, but they're never successfully tied to the parts of the book taking place near the end of WWII.  The "twist" at the end really comes out of left field, and seems more an attempt to bring a narrative that's going nowhere fast to a desperate close.

In my opinion it's a mediocre book by a writer who'd go on to do much better things.  It's not terrible, but it does suffer in comparison to his most famous work.

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Hey Kids!! Comics!!

1. Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino and Dave Stewart

Of the three comic books discussed here Gideon Falls is my favorite by far.  Jeff Lemire has a great ear for dialogue, and he adds enough exposition without crowding the story.  Andrea Sorrentino's art is by turns beautiful and eerie, and the way she (he?) uses panels in this book is a wonder to behold.

A Catholic priest assigned to the Gideon Falls parish stumbles into some mysterious happenings around town, while a psychiatrist treating a "schizophrenic" discovers that there's more to his "delusions" than meets the eye.  From that point on the weirdness only escalates, and I'm looking forward to reading the other five volumes in this series if and when I come across them.

There's been a TV adaptation of this comic book series in the works for a while, but no news on its progress since 2019.  It would seem that COVID derailed it.

2. Tokyo Ghost: The Atomic Garden by Rick Remender, Sean Murphy and Matt Hollingsworth

My second favorite of these three comic books.  It's got that early 80s Frank Miller/Neuromancer/Martial Law vibe, and although it's somewhat derivative I'm thinking the second installment is probably much better.  Yes, first impressions are important, but sometimes you have to give writers time to set up a story.

In the distant future two lovers, one of them hopelessly addicted to technology, journey to Japan to fulfill a contract.  Rick Remender's dialogue is well done, and Sean Murphy's art has a kinetic quality that jumps off the page.

A movie adaptation was in development, but no news since 2021.

3. Night of the Ghoul by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla

My least favorite of these three comics.  The art is suitably spooky, but Scott Snyder needed to slow things down and explain the plot better.  What's going on with that basement beneath the retirement home?  And why does the son character randomly leave the car and start exploring a sewer during a rainstorm?  And what does the mom character having early onset Parkinson's have to do with anything?

A film adaptation could work, but whoever wrote the screenplay would need to flesh out the the story elements better.  As it is this is more of an outline than an actual horror comic in itself.

When I think about it, Scott Snyder does this kind of thing a lot.  He'll start out with an interesting premise and then laze his way through the rest of the story he's set up.  Dark Knights: Metal is probably the worst example of this tendency.  Cool idea, but it went nowhere fast.

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"Material World" by Ed Conway (2023)

"In those periods when supply chains work and materials can flow freely from one part of the world to another, it hardly seems to matter where things come from, where they are made or how they are made.  They simply turn up and feed into an industrial machine we have stopped attempting to map or understand.  But on those rare occasions when these supply chains break down, most obviously in the face of war and trade battles, all bets are suddenly off.  The Material World rapidly becomes all-important.  Those cheap, ubiquitous materials we could once source very easily from the other side of the world take on a new, urgent dimension.  And given the degree of complexity in product manufacture is greater today than in any previous generation, the potential impact of countries around the world choosing autarky -- trying to survive without imports -- could be severe."

Ed Conway, to quote the author's introduction at the back of this book, "is an author and broadcaster.  He is the Economics and Data Editor of Sky News and a regular columnist for The Times and The Sunday Times.  He has written two critically acclaimed and bestselling books."

The Material World is divided into six sections, these being: Sand, Salt, Iron, Copper, Oil and Lithium.  In each of these sections the author discusses how these materials are mined and their various industrial uses, both high tech and low.  He also delves into the history of how these materials first came to be used, and how the acquisition or present use of these materials either contributes to or potentially alleviates climate change.  

And not to bring politics into it too much, but yeah, The Material World is a very Biden-era book.  Some of the author's optimism with regard to alleviating climate change and reaching certain goals hits differently during the Trump administration.  Yes, the author's heart was in the right place, but some of the "solutions" posited near the end of this book seem very impractical now.

That, however, isn't my biggest problem with The Material World.  My biggest problem is that it's rather boring, and often comes across as a list of semi-interesting factoids that one have just as easily found on Wikipedia.  This book needed some kind of argument to bring its various strands together, and lacking that argument it's best considered as a sometimes amusing, sometimes boring detour through the industrial side of modern society.

I enjoyed the last chapter of this book, but otherwise I can't recommend it.  Those already interested in modern materials science would be better served elsewhere, and those new to the topic will find easier approaches in the popular science section of any local bookstore.

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"Leviathan Wakes" by James S.A. Corey (2011)

"Holden paused a moment.  Miller had killed someone who had been trying to kill them, and that certainly helped make the case that he was a friend, but Holden wasn't about to sell out Fred and his group on a hunch.  He hesitated, then went halfway."

James S.A. Corey is the pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.  Both authors have science fiction and fantasy books to their credit, though nothing they've written individually approaches the Expanse series in terms of popularity.

Leviathan Wakes is the first book in The Expanse series.  I also bought the second book, Caliban's War, which will be reviewed here eventually.  The Expanse was adapted into a TV series by the Syfy Network and later Amazon.  I haven't seen the show, so I can't comment on how it compares to Leviathan Wakes.

The novel's plot is straightforward space opera, with just enough "science" thrown in to make the thing seem plausible.  In the relatively near future mankind has colonized a zone which extends from roughly Earth's moon to the asteroid belt on "the other side" of Jupiter, with different geographical factions developing alongside successive waves of colonization.  There's the home planet, Earth, a Martian federation and a newer, less regulated area known as The Belt.  Near the beginning of Leviathan Wakes a brisk trade relationship exists between Earth, Mars and The Belt, though political tensions cause this relationship to deteriorate over the course of the story.

Against this backdrop we meet a crew of ice haulers and sometime scavengers operating in The Belt.  This crew is led by Holden, a man of rigid principals who happens to be hopelessly in love with a member of his crew.  Holden's ship comes into contact with an abandoned spacecraft, and the circumstances surrounding this abandoned spacecraft reveal a web of conspiracy threatening to engulf the entire solar system.

Within this novel there's also a dialogue concerning people's right to be informed.  On one side of this argument is Holden, who believes that everyone should know everything, and that withholding information is wrong.  On the other side of this argument is Miller, a seasoned detective who's more worried about the harm unrestricted access to certain facts can cause.  This disagreement between Miller and Holden is the book's real strength, and it adds a lot of weight to what would have otherwise been an enjoyable if forgettable side quest into space travel, space politics and shape-shifting space monsters.

Leviathan Wakes reminded me a bit of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shards of Earth, which was also reviewed here recently, but where Tchaikovsky's book revels in zoological details, Corey's book is more  a character study, populated by more memorable personalities and situations.  I appreciated the horror aspects of Tchaikovsky's novel, but I think Leviathan Wakes is the kind of book guaranteed to have a wider appeal.

I'll be reading Caliban's War in a few weeks and I'm really looking forward to it.  James S.A. Corey (both of them) are good writers, and I'm curious as to how they develop the ideas set forth in Leviathan's Wake.

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Still More 80s Movies 4

Liked It

1. Flashpoint (1984)

Two U.S. Border Patrol officers discover a lot of money in the desert.  The script was well written, and anchored by standout performances by Kris Kristofferson and Treat Williams.  If you can overlook a couple plot holes it's very good.

Bonus points for the Tangerine Dream soundtrack.

2. Shaolin Drunkard (1983)

Hong Kong kung fu cinema at its weirdest.  Sometimes the comedy in this type of movie is too "Chinese" to be accessible to Western audiences, but this one is right on the money.  Fight choreographer Yuan Woo-ping would go on to choreograph Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Matrix films and Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2.

For me the highlight of this movie was the practical effects, which are extremely inventive.  It's silly, sure, but doing things like the magic battles on a smaller budget isn't easy.

3. Angel (1984)

Prep school student by day, streetwalker by night.  Angel treads a thin line between exploitation and a heartfelt story of a girl's lost innocence, and even though it doesn't always walk this line successfully it's definitely entertaining.  In my opinion the scenes that venture into John Waters territory make up for the parts of the movie that don't quite work.

4. Tough Enough (1983)

Dennis Quaid stars as an aspiring musician who enters the Toughman competition.  It's a solid sports drama, though I get why it wasn't a big hit at the time.  In many ways it's very backward-looking, with the soundtrack and working class cowboy theme recalling several hits of the late 70s.

5. Wildcats (1986)

Goldie Hawn coaches varsity football in an inner city school.  With the NFL preseason underway I was happy to stumble upon this one.  Good performances, a solid story, and its heart in the right place.

Critics hated this film.  It's far from perfect, but I think that those revisiting it will find a lot to like.  Sure, Hawn had kind of done this role in Private Benjamin years before, but she did it well in both movies.

Fun Fact: This was Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes' first film.

6. Tuff Turf (1985)

James Spader contends with school bullies.  I like to imagine this movie happening somewhere in the background of the Double Dragon video game, with the Lee Brothers advancing through the various levels as James Spader and Kim Richards' characters attempt to realize their star-crossed love in a nearby alley.

Fun Fact 1: Robert Downey (Jr.) is also in Tuff Turf.  At one point Spader leaves "The Warehouse" and you can see "The New Avengers" spray painted on the wall next to the exit.

Fun Fact 2: Kim Richards and her sister Kylie are now better known for their roles on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

7. Hawk the Slayer (1980)

Hell YES Hawk the Slayer!  It's got:

• A brooding hero with Members Only hair.
• Bad guys who look like they're surfing a New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
• A synth-driven disco soundtrack.
• A sweet, sweet sword.
• A villain played by none other than Jack Palance, who'd already played this same character in countless Westerns.

Is it Conan the Barbarian?  Perish the thought!  Is it Excalibur?  Not even close!  But just the same Hawk the Slayer has a lot to recommend it, and I think if you're in the right mood it'll put a smile on your face.

8. Force: Five (1981)

An elite team of martial arts badasses take on a cult.  It's basically Enter the Dragon remade for the 80s, and the karate/kung fu mayhem it represents made me nostalgic for the days of throwing stars, nunchucks and Inside Kung Fu.  The most famous guy in Force: Five is probably Benny ("The Jet") Urquidez, who appeared in two of Jackie Chan's films.

Fun Fact: The character "Ken" in the Street Fighter video game series was modeled on Joe Lewis, the star of Force: Five.

9. Silent Rage (1982)

Small town sheriff Chuck Norris squares off against an unkillable maniac.  Silent Rage isn't nearly as good as The Delta Force, that height of 80s action cheese, but as Chuck Norris movies go it ranks near the top.  Ramping up the sex and violence was the right move, and the story works without needing Norris to emote.

10. Demons (1985)

Just what you'd expect from anything stamped "Argento," though he only wrote the screenplay.  In Demons several people attend a film screening wherein all hell -- literally -- breaks loose.  Those who enjoy giallo's trademark gore, stunningly beautiful women and dreamlike chase sequences will find plenty to like in Demons.

Fun Fact: This was directed by Lamberto Bava, Mario Bava's son.

11. Demons 2 (1986)

Demons or Demons 2?  It's a close race between them.  Demons takes place in a movie theater, while Demons 2 takes place in a high-rise.  Demons 2 is more inventive in some ways, while Demons has a more cohesive plot.

Actress Asia Argento, Dario Argento's daughter, was only 10 when they filmed this movie.  From #MeToo, to allegations of sexual assault, to signing a petition on Roman Polanski's behalf, to a doomed relationship with Anthony Bourdain -- she's had quite a history.

12. Gregory's Girl (1981)

Young and extremely Scottish people search for love.  It feels a lot like something that would have aired on the BBC at some point, but the characters' pointed awkwardness will probably remind you of yourself at that age -- assuming you're not that old right now.

Warning to North Americans: You'll need the subtitles on for this one.  Those are some thick accents.

It Was... OK

13. Irreconcilable Differences (1984)

Sure, Shelley Long, just invite Sharon Stone to live with you and your movie husband, Ryan O'Neal.  I'm sure he won't bang her.

The biggest problem with this movie is that after the first ten minutes the remainder is a foregone conclusion.  Ambitious young white people fall in love, have a kid, pursue careers, become estranged, etc., etc., etc.  There's no room left to be surprised by this movie, tongue in cheek as it is, and thus no dramatic tension.

Add to this the fact that there's almost zero chemistry between the two leads, and what's worse their relationship (or lack thereof) with their child, played by Drew Barrymore, is never really demonstrated in the movie. 

No, Irreconcilable Differences isn't terrible, but it is deeply unsatisfying.  If they'd leaned into the comedy more it could have been good, but instead they chose "dramedy," and that path didn't work at all.  Weirdly enough, Ryan O'Neal makes this point in the very film that demonstrates it.

14. Deep Space (1988)

Equal parts The Blob and Alien, this horror confection is formulaic enough to be fun, and nonsensical enough to be interesting.  Gotta love how various individuals just remove biological material (i.e. "space monster eggs") from a crash site without really thinking about the implications.

Deep Space is similar in some respects to 1979's The Dark, which was also reviewed here recently.  Was psychics warning detectives about future events some kind of thing in the late 70s/early 80s?  Maybe so.

15. Mortuary (1982?  1983?)

Bonus points for Bill Paxton, but this slasher film is fairly derivative.  It would have been better if they hadn't shied away from the sex and violence so much, and instead doubled down on the more disturbing elements in the story.

What would have happened to "Christy" if she'd been injected with that embalming fluid?  Could have been a memorable scene...

Didn't Like It

16. Intruder (1989)

Slasher movie set in a supermarket.  Given the number of people working in the store, you wouldn't think that the killer would be such a problem, but hey, slasher movie logic.

Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell all make brief appearances in Intruder.  Don't think that's some kind of seal of quality, however.  In 1989 Sam Raimi wasn't the hot commodity he would later become.

17. Black Eagle (1988)

America's favorite ninja master Sho Kosugi struggles mightily with the English language while Jean-Claude Van Damme panders to the female gaze.  The real issue with this movie is that the first 3/4 of it are crushingly boring, and the showdown between Kosugi and Van Damme near the end is a huge letdown.

This film was released the same year as Van Damme's breakthrough movie Bloodsport, but just the same it's JCVD before his career really got going.  In this respect Black Eagle's a lot like the following year's Cyborg, in that JCVD's particular formula hadn't been discovered quite yet.  Post-Kickboxer?  Yeah, that's when he was more of a presence in the industry.

Fun Fact: Sho Kosugi's first screen appearance was as an extra in The Godfather Part II.

18. Dreams Don't Die (1982)

Higher production values in this TV movie, but it's really boring.  A graffiti artist tries to win his girlfriend back from the local drug dealer, and you can probably guess the rest.  None of the actors/actresses are especially convincing in their roles, though Paul Winfield does a good job as a beat cop who tries to teach the kids the error of their ways.

I... Have... Regrets...

19. Zone Troopers (1985)

Somehow this movie makes even less sense than Intruder (above).  Some World War II types (the least soldierly soldiers to ever soldier) run into aliens behind enemy lines in Italy.  You might recognize Tim Thomerson or Art LaFleur from other movies they've done since, but this one is very, very boring.

Why go all the way to Italy to film this nonsense?  Was someone laundering money?

20. Terminus (1987)

Some dude with a robot hand drives a supertruck around the more rural parts of France.  Oh, and Karen Allen's in this one for a bit, until she's not.

The most annoying part has to be the supertruck's onboard computer, which chatters on without adding much to the plot.

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Movies and Memories

A Big Month for Superhero Movies

"Humankind" by Rutger Bregman (2020)

"Though harmless in this instance, research shows that the effects of pluralistic ignorance can be disastrous -- even fatal.  Consider binge drinking.  Survey college students on their own, and most will say drinking themselves into oblivion isn't their favorite pastime.  But because they assume other students are big fans of drinking, they try to keep up and everyone winds up puking in the gutter."

Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and author.  He's written several books on the subject of making the world a better place.  He's often hailed for his "new ideas," though I'm not sure if the ideas expressed in Humankind are all that new.

Not to put words into the author's mouth, but I think the crux of his argument would go something like this: in the deepest, darkest heart of Western culture lives a disagreement between Hobbes and Rousseau over human nature, and in our favoring of one side of this disagreement over the other lie the beginnings of many modern problems.

What was this disagreement?  It was, primarily, a difference of opinion regarding human nature, and whether it's essentially good or essentially evil.  Hobbes, as is well known, believed that people are inherently selfish, and otherwise apt to do one another a bad turn, while Rousseau believed that people are inherently good, and best left to their own devices.  Hobbes regarded human institutions (i.e. his "leviathans") as a means of correcting for our sinful natures, while Rousseau viewed such institutions as largely unnecessary, and what's more stultifying with respect to what is good within us.

On the one hand you've got the "realist" point of view, while on the other the "idealist," though as Bregman emphasizes "realism" and "idealism" can mean very different things in the context of a more measured understanding of human nature.

So are humans essentially bad or good?  The author of this book asserts that they are good, and that a calculated response to this inherent goodness implies a rethinking of our institutions and how these institutions tackle societal ills.

I tend to agree with him.  I think that most people are good, at least from their own point of view, and very, very few people intentionally commit malice without extraordinary reasons for doing so.  In our click-driven society it's easy to form a pessimistic or "pragmatic" opinion of other human beings, but such a line of thinking is often more owing to the way in which information is presented to us, and to faults in our own psychology.

Did I need to read all 400 pages of Humankind to arrive at this conclusion?  No, but it was, to some extent, my conclusion already.  If YOU haven't arrived at this conclusion, maybe you could give it a look?

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"The Eternals" by Jack Kirby (1976-1978)

First of all, not every comic book reader needs to like Jack Kirby.  I can totally understand other comic book readers not liking his work.  Yes, it's foundational in terms of the Marvel Method, but it's also intentionally weird, sometimes less "socially progressive," and at other times downright obscure.

If, however, you like weird ideas and weirder art, Kirby's your man.  At this point in time I've read through a lot of his early Marvel stuff, most of the Fourth World comics he did at DC, and the entirety of his Eternals run.  I feel that I can attest to his originality as a comic book creator, and I don't think he earned the title "King Kirby" for nothing.

He was involved in comics from 1936 all the way to 1993, the year before his death.  During these years he created countless characters, concepts and storylines, many of which are still referenced today.  The Eternals comes a bit later in his career, after his work on the early Marvel titles and his (temporary) move to DC, but in the mid- to late- 70s he was still firing on all cylinders, still ready to challenge whatever younger upstarts the industry had placed in his path.

One of the things I like about this series is that it pretty much ignores the rest of the Marvel Universe.  Other writers and editors would have been in a hurry to introduce Spider-man into the narrative, but Kirby couldn't have cared less.  Yes, he does introduce a "Cosmic Hulk" about halfway through the series, but this version of the Hulk is a robot imbued with "cosmic energy," not another monster out to fight either Bruce Banner or his alter ego.

There's also The Eternals' batshit craziness.  Kirby was never afraid to paint pictures with a big brush, and The Eternals is just further proof of this tendency.  In his Marvel work (especially with regard to the Inhumans and Asgard), in his Fourth World mythos and in The Eternals we see repeated attempts to create a pantheon upon which future comic book stories and comic book series might be built.  Kirby was all about the idea of godhood, perhaps in part because he felt that sense of godhood when he was immersed in the creation of comic books.

The pantheon introduced through The Eternals begins with the Celestials, an inscrutable race of cosmic beings whose origins and purposes are never quite explained.  From the hands of the Celestials come the Deviants, the Eternals and humankind itself, the third of these races previously unaware of the existence of the other two.  In the Deviants and the Eternals humanity is confronted by both the gods and monsters of its own mythology, and what we do with this knowledge remains something of an unanswered question at the end of the series.

Sounds impressive, right?  Just be warned that The Eternals is also a series of false starts.  Kirby plays so fast and loose with his ideas that he often fails to follow many of them to their logical conclusions.  A kind of star-crossed romance is introduced between Thena and the Deviant Kro and then quickly abandoned.  The Eternals do... something with their collective consciousness (Uni-Mind), but this something is never adequately explained.  The Celestials stomp around and look threatening, but never do much.

Lots of WTF moments to be sure, but with Kirby you have to enjoy those moments.  They're not unlike the miniature vampire planet seen and then dismissed in his Fourth World mythos, or countless other comic book series that he created and then abandoned.  Kirby was ever ready to move on from a failed or less productive idea, and his eagerness to do so could be seen as both his one weakness and his greatest strength.

All of the above stated, I found the quote from Kirby appended to the end of Fantastic Four: First Steps very gratifying:

"If you look at my characters, you will find me.  No matter what kind of character you create or assume, a little of yourself must remain there."

...and it's worth noting that the Celestials could have said the same about the Deviants, Eternals and humans they created, just as Kirby himself could say the same about the Celestials, Deviants, Eternals and humans he created.  It's somewhat comforting to imagine gods thinking thus.  It goes a long way to making them seem more human.

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