Cinema Cycle - Mad Men, Season 2, Disc 1

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 01/30/2015

TITLE: Mad Men, Season 2, Disc1

FORMAT: DVD

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 24 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 33.3 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 1008.1 miles

SYNOPSIS: (From International Movie Database [IMDB])

For Those Who Think Young

On Valentine's Day, the staff of the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency is hustling and checking out the newest office equipment. Don and Duck clash over an account, and Betty hears from an old friend.

Flight 1

A plane crash causes the firm to go after the account for the airline involved and drop the smaller airline they have an account with. Peggy pays a visit to her mother and sister, who are now guardians of a child.

The Benefactor

Harry tries to gather support around a controversial sponsorship in order to bolster his career. When Don ditches work for a day, trouble brews on the set of a commercial. Later, Betty joins her husband when he attempts to placate his clients with an amicable dinner.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Guilt and fidelity go hand in hand.  Temptation and hedonism are not good bedfellows

PROS AND CONS: On my second go round with this series you pick up things and subtle plot twists that you did not notice the first time through.  

Whenever possible, I always listen to the audio commentary on the DVD releases such as this.  They tend to give insight into what is going on behind the scenes and the motivations of the creators and actors.  This was not the case in the two audio commentaries for “For Those Who Think Young” and “Flight 1”.  

Some of the realizations that came to light on this second viewing is that Betty Draper is really no better than Don when it comes to having a wandering eye in relationships.  While Betty is much less likely to commit to an affair, she is just as likely to use her feminine abilities to wrap men around her finger.  

It was also evident that there were some very subtle indications of Don’s guilt over cheating on his wife as well has his core belief in making art and being more creative set against ‘Duck’ Phillips drive for increased accounts and revenue.  

There is an underlying tone of guilt and regret in these three episodes, from Pete Campbell losing his father in a plane crash and not knowing how to deal with it, to Peggy Olsen’s coming to terms with the baby that she had in secret during the first season, which is now being raised by her mother.  

The final scene in which Betty cries on Don’s shoulder as she confesses that they make such a good team together is especially poignant considering all that came before.  

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

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.

Cinema Cycle - Meet Me In St. Louis

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 01/202/2015

TITLE: Meet Me In St. Louis

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 58 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 26.7 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 974.8 miles

SYNOPSIS:  Life during one year (1908-9) for a large well-to-do family in St. Louis, MS is chronicled, leading up to the World's Fair held in that city 1909.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER:  The mating habits of the affluent, young, white female at the turn of the century, or at least what the major studios wanted young women to think was the right way to do it.

PROS AND CONS:  I have seen this film before.  It is a showcase for Judy Garland and was done at the height of her career.  The fact that it is directed by Vincent Minnelli, who later married Ms. Garland makes it a bit of Hollywood folklore.  

On my second viewing of the film for Cinema Cycle, a couple of odd things popped out of the film.  It is evidently meant to be a homage to the American Dream at the turn of the century.  There are servants galore, money problems are non-existent, the entire world consists of well behaved and friendly caucasians, and the only real problems are of the social nature.  Hence, this is a chick flick.

Indeed, most of the male roles are marginalized and only present to give the women a sort of foil to play off of, but rarely do they make decisions or show any backbone.  In essence, this is a film that is supposed to take the viewer (mostly women) into the turn of the century parlor to talk about boys, hairdos and who is taking who to the next dance.  Quaint, but hardly a true representation of the period.  The film is a fantasy.  A fantasy that has some basis in reality (I can actually remember some of the dream like scenes from youth), but not very many and certainly not with all the syrupy overtones.  Although I will give kudos to the production designer here.  They nailed the look of turn of the century America quite well.

There was one rather odd theme in the film that I never noticed before.  The youngest daughter played by Maraget O’Brien has a fascination with death.  In almost every scene she is in, she references dying or death in some form or fashion, to the point where it became a little creepy.  In today’s day and age, this little girl would be in therapy.  Here the parents just smile at her and nod when she references cutting off doll heads and burying them in the back yard.  WTF?

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.

Cinema Cycle - Maleficent

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 01/16/2015

TITLE: Maleficent

FORMAT: Streaming (Google Play)

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 37 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 24 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 948.1 miles

SYNOPSIS: A fairy kingdom and a kingdom of men battle with each other for supremacy.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Screwing your ex spouse over custody of your child is the best revenge.  

PROS AND CONS: I had a bit of a love / hate relationship with this film.  It was great regarding the special effects and the visual aspects of the movie as well as watching Angelina Jolie play the the evil fairy dominatrix (seriously), but it was all eye candy and not much else.

I found the plot and lack of backstory a bit on the disturbing side.  This is a story about love, love lost, revenge, redemption, yada, yada, yada.  At it’s core is the storyline of Maleficent losing her heart and her wings to a bastard who only thinks of himself and advancing his career.  The young princess (Aurora played by Ella Fanning) is basically their love child (although not related through sex).  Maleficent curses the child to get back at her father for screwing her (figuratively).  

So basically, this is an updated Disney film for all the young girls that went to see the original animated “Sleeping Beauty”, but who have since grown up, had children and then gotten divorced and are now spitting nails at their ex’s over who gets more visiting time with the kid(s).

Some points were missing in the overall background that left a lot of gaps.  What were the origins of the fairy kingdom and why did the men hate it so much?  What were the origins of Maleficent and her background?  There was no mention of, nor hardly any visual of the Queen that was Aurora’s mother.  There was also no indication of whether or not the King and Queen had any emotional bond with the princess, which is all the more reason to assume that Aurora is Maleficent’s love child.  

To be fair this was an Angelina Jolie showcase, and I could watch her in black leather all day long.  But for a meaningful story with an arch that was original and unpredictable, this certainly did not hit the mark.  

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

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.

Cinema Cycle - The Chase

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE: 01/08/2015

TITLE: The Chase

FORMAT: LaserDisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 18 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 33.6

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 924.1 miles

SYNOPSIS: A delinquent inmate escapes from prison and returns to the small southern town where he grew up, igniting long simmering issues and exposing new ones among the towns folk.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: When a whole town lives a lie and covers it up with bravado, bigotry and alcohol, the end result is not pretty.

PROS AND CONS: Based on the credits alone, this should be a good film.  Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Angie Dickinson, Lillian Hellman (screenwriter), Sam Spiegel (producer), E.G. Marshall, Janice Rule, the list goes on and on.  While the film is not great, it is interesting to watch for the acting and dialogue alone.

Back in the day when Hollywood was trying to confront racism and bigotry of all kinds, films like this were the norm.  It shows the southern United States of the 1960s as a segregated, and bigoted society that was run by strong men that had money who bought and sold favors and political office.  

The escape of a favorite nar-do-well son from prison forces all of these issues out into the open with tragic results.  Brando shows his acting ability as do Fonda and Dickinson.  Redford, as the escapee only has a minor role in the overall scope of the film.  The climatic ending scene had me scratching my head regarding motive but it did not really matter.  The towns secrets had all been exposed by this point in time.  

This is a hidden treasure of the a film that surprisingly isn’t mentioned or seen much anymore.

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.

Why I Got Out

Over the past decade or so I have often times rant and raved about the incompetency and inefficiency of Arizona State Government.  I always had to stop and question my own observations and beliefs and wondered if things were really as bad as I was experiencing or if I was just seeing the whole process through some sort of skewed vision.

Time and tide answer all questions.  After 20+ years working in State and County government in Arizona, it became abundantly clear that it wasn't just my view of the issues and problems.  The management (or lack thereof) of this this state is truly criminal.

Once in a while I search the internet to see how things are going in my old neck of the woods, which was Child Welfare in Arizona.  My most recent search led me to this article.  Sobering indeed.   I don't dare even look up to see what my previous department (the Arizona Department of Insurance) is up to.  The last I heard, the agency had basically collapsed and was no longer functional except in a figurehead role.

If you want to get an idea of exactly how bad things are in this state, take a look at the graphic from the above mentioned article.

That red line on the far right is the percent change of children entering into foster care in Arizona in the last 5 years.  We are three times worse than Oregon, who is the next in line.

I always question the numbers when I see something like this and the statistics are collected by the Arizona Friends of Foster Care.  A non-profit agency that was created because Child Protective Services was doing such an horrendous job at caring for Arizona's children.  I know from experience that these numbers are correct.

After 15 years in this line of work, and seeing the state make no proactive or progressive efforts to address the root causes of the problems that affected these children, I basically threw up my hands and told my employer that I had had it.  They promptly showed me the door.  That was the best day of my life, but sadly not the best day for children in Arizona foster care.  No day ever is.

Lost Erotica - Volume 4

Another gem from the eBay vault.  A 5 minute short featuring Rita Landre (aka Pamela Green) staring in an erotic fantasy about a witch that turns herself into a comely vixen.  

The Project Overview:

I am firing up a long dormant project as I continue my trek toward retirement and moving on to other things. 

Over the years I have amassed a rather significant collection of 8mm home movies.  Some of these I have taken myself and some I have found in thrift stores and at garage sales.  This all dates back to my early days in media when I was interested in film editing and cinematography.  Since those days are long gone and it is doubtful that anyone will ever want to, or know how to view these films, I thought it best to digitize them and then send the film off to the dump.  

My goal here is to post about 5 of these films a week.  I have enough raw footage to make this project last about 6 months at that rate.  

The clips speak for themselves.  I do not know most of the people or locations in these movies and what I can glean from watching them is documented in the keywords for each segment that I have posted on YouTube.  Since YouTube limits free content to under 10 minutes, most of these films will be less than 5 minutes long.  The file name for each segment is the date that I transferred the film to digital format.

Most segments hearken back to a much simpler time.  A time before AIDS, Ebola, terrorism, the internet, social media, etc.  For that reason alone, they are worth watching.  All of the films along with my other YouTube content can be found on my YouTube Channel.  

Enjoy.