Cinema Cycle - Fist Fighter

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 7/30/2014

TITLE: Fist Fighter

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 37 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 23.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 373.5 miles

SYNOPSIS: A tough loner construction worker heads to Mexico to find and fight the man that killed his best friend.  

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Macho is Macho.  Being tough and enduring extreme hardship gets results in the end.  Every man is an island.

PROS AND CONS: My random spreadsheet database came up with this title to watch.  A film I would otherwise never watch if I had the option. While this is not a ‘bad’ film it definitely falls into the ‘macho guy’ film that I have never much cared for.  The film is all about testosterone and fighting and being tougher than the other guy.  This work strings from the time in the 1980s when Clint Eastwood was making his “Any Which Way But Loose” genre films and when ‘Street Fighter’ was the favorite video game of a legion of pre-pubescent teen boys.  

While the production value of the film is not that bad, with good camera work and interesting soundtrack, the acting and portrayals of the characters is very stiff and stereotypical.  The fight scenes are not that memorable, and the final fight where the protagonist (T.J. Thunderbird) finally meets up and defeats his antagonist (Rhino) is a bit too long in coming.  

The ending scene where Mr. Thunderbird walks away from the girl and into the night to find another lonely job and another parking lot fight is sort of the icing on the cake.  The woman are just eye-candy in this film, that distract the real men from being ‘muy macho’.  

If you ever want to know what happened to Mike Connors (of Mannix fame), he ended up as being the heavy in films such as this.  

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

The summary of the project and a glimpse of what is coming up next can be found on my public LaserDisc spreadsheet.

I'll Catch Up With You On The Other Side....

One of the axioms of life is that all good things come to an end.  Nothing lasts forever.  Such was the case this morning.  My wife and I came to the decision to put our Great Dane named Chella to sleep. Chella was 11 years old, which is pretty old for a Great Dane.  While she was still an alert and attentive dog, but she was having a lot of physical problems that were only going to get worse in the coming months and the issue of the quality of her life necessitated that we make the very painful decision.  Being a good owner sometimes means doing things that you don’t like.

For those of you that have never owned a big dog (Chella was 130lbs) they are a breed apart from smaller dogs (and compared to Chella, all dogs were smaller).  The best thing that I can say about Chella is that after having adopted her at the age of 6 and having lived with her for the past 5 years, given the right circumstances, we would definitely bring another Great Dane into our family.  

For a creature that could have easily killed anything she wanted to (her breed was bred to hunt wild boar) she was the gentlest, most loving and most regal animal that we have ever known.  From gently playing with our other rambunctious dogs, to laying on the sofa with her head in our laps, she demonstrated time and time again that she was more than just a dog.  She identified with her family (pack) and would let you know in no uncertain terms that she was happy, sad, hungry, wanted to go outside, etc.  Not by barking or pawing, but by coming up and looking you in the eye (easy for her to do) and simply giving you ‘the look’ with her large brown eyes.  

Some people have special little routines that we develop with our pets.  Chella was no exception. Chella knew the color of her leash and when it was time for her to go on her walk through the neighborhood.  During her walks her primary concern was to smell as many of the flowers along the way as she could.  Go figure?  She adored children and would cuddle and gently lick them for hours.  

When we lived in Phoenix, Arizona our house faced a park and had a large front porch that looked out onto a sea of greenery.  During the more stressful times when my job was not going very well, I would come home and fix a martini and sit on the front porch contemplating things.  Chella knew this routine and whenever she heard the martini shaker knew that I would be sitting out front and wanted to join me.  Hence forth, she became my ‘drinkin buddy’ each evening.  As I sipped my ice cold gin on that front porch, Chella would lay like a royal statue on the lawn watching the people walking by and playing in the park.  Looking every bit the regal canine that she was and amazing people that walked or rode by that she was real and not some sort of lawn ornament.  On her last evening with us, she was out in front of our Bisbee house, laying on the sidewalk while I sipped my gin.  This evening I will be out there again, but without my drinkin buddy.  It won’t quite be the same.

So it was very hard for my wife and I to let her go.  She was closer to a family member than any other pet we have every had to let go.  When asked by the veterinarian whether or not we wanted to be present for the procedure we were somewhat surprised.  How could we not be there?  How could we let her go without rubbing her neck or stroking her main.  We owed her that and much much more.  

I could go on and on, but suffice to say she is missed and will continue to be missed for as long as we can remember her.  

As she took her last breath, I hugged her and whispered in her ear, “Good Girl, I’ll catch up with you on the other side.”.  I hope I get the chance when my time finally comes.  

Cinema Cycle - Cadillac Man

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 07/21/2014

TITLE: Cadillac Man

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 38 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 22.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 349.6

SYNOPSIS: A philandering used car salesman and his co-workers are held hostage by the jealous husband of one of the woman that works at the car dealership.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: I am not quite sure what the concept was in this film.  Fast talking salesman saves the day?

PROS AND CONS: I have a system that picks these Laserdiscs for me at random off of a large Excel spreadsheet database.  So I never know if it will be viewing a good film or a bad one.  This was a bad one.  I would not recommend it.

I will start with the good parts of this film.  Robin Williams demonstrates that he is a competent actor in this film in the lead of role of Joey O’Brien, reining in his manic comic talent to be a believable serious character.  Also, there are some nice scenes of New York in the movie.  That is about it.  

Now for the bad.  This film really has no direction.  The viewer cannot empathize with any of the characters and many of the scenes are just not believable.  They just don’t work.  The writing and direction are terrible in this film.  The casting is not very good either.  Joey’s love interests are not women that any sane man would want to be around.  A young Tim Robbins plays Larry, who is not at all believable as the irrationally jealous husband.  Fran Drescher’s character (Joy Manchunck) is, well Fran Drescsher (she is a one dimensional actress).

In the end, you don’t know if this is supposed to be a comedy or a drama and the tacked on happy ending where Joey and his ex-wife get back together with their teenage daughter in tow just puts the icing on a very bad movie.  

Oh, and the title has no reference to the film, with the exception that it is the license plate on Joey’s car.  

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

The summary of the project and a glimpse of what is coming up next can be found on my public Google LaserDisc spreadsheet.

Cinema Cycle - The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 07/11/2014

TITLE: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 56 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 27.9 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 367 miles

SYNOPSIS: Three teenagers are involved in a murder and go their separate ways.  One returns 17 years later as an adult and re-awakens the truth and old passions with devastating results.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: You can try and forget the past, but eventually it catches up with you if there are unresolved issues.  Bad parents raise bad children.  

PROS AND CONS: This is one of the reasons I started collecting LaserDiscs. When I started collecting them, movies such as this were almost impossible to find on television.  With the advent of Netflix and Hulu this may no longer be the case, but at least I have no buffering or connectivity problems when I want to watch them.  

This is a very good film.  I found it engrossing and could not wait to get to the end to see what happened.  The film stars four old Hollywood heavyweights in Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, a young Kirk Douglas, and an alluring Judith Anderson in all their Film Noir goodness.  

This is an intimate work set in the fictional small Pennsylvania town of Iverstown.  Pretty much the entire film takes place at night or during thunderstorms which sets the mood with long shadows and dark hallways.  All of these characters have a past that they are trying to run away from.  Figuring out the motives and desires of each player is what keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end of the film….and I did not see the ending coming.  It was not what I expected.

I lament that films such as this are not made anymore.  With the advent of big budget special effects and simplistic plot lines, writing and direction like this are becoming a thing of the past. Watching this film is akin to reading Tolstoy or Hemingway.  It shows a different world, a different time and a different way of living.

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.

Cinema Cycle - Far From the Madding Crowd

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 07/07/2014

TITLE: Far From The Madding Crowd

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 46 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 38.1 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 339 miles

SYNOPSIS: A young woman in early 1800s England inherits a farm and is pursued by three men; a poor farmer, a wealthy land owner and a rapscallion army officer.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: A slower pace and following the right course of your life is the best way to go, not the path that is more exciting or tempting.  A young Julie Christie at the top of her game in 1967.

PROS AND CONS: This is a long film, covering almost 3 hours.  It is a lavish roadshow release with an overture and an entr’acte (intermission).  What comes between is a well done period piece that is very accurate and beautifully filmed by Nicolas Roeg.  

Besides Ms. Christie, the one thing on screen that tends to captivate the viewer is the scenery. It is an agrarian world with a slower pace of life and sweeping vistas.  The story revolves around three men that all pursue the main character, Bathsheba, played by Christie.  The men each assume one of the classic roles, hard working poor farmer, a wealthy land owner and brash army sergeant.  While it is evident that Bathsheba should go with the poor hard working farmer from the beginning, she first gives into temptation and goes for the bad boy, with terrible results.  

This is a subtle period piece without a lot of action or surprises.  The film is carried along by the talent of the actors and the wonderful scenery.

To read an overview of this project, check out the initial post for this series.

This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film. 

This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle.  A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.