Cinema Cycle - The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 09/25/2017

TITLE:. Magical Mystery Tour

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 54 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 12 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7555.2 miles

SYNOPSIS: The Beatles take a holiday bus tour across rural England

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Beatles home movies and the birth of the modern music video genre.

PROS AND CONS:  It had been years since I had seen this.  As a young Beatles fan in late 1960s, this was the holy grail of Beatlemania, because it wasn’t easily obtainable in the United States.  

It isn’t as good as I recall it being in my youth.  This really is just a bunch of talented lads with no budget, roaming around taking movies of themselves and performing songs.  There really is no premise, storyline or ‘arch’ to the film.  Mostly just psychedelic imagery mixed with odd British humor.

Which was the most enlightening part of this viewing.  This clearly is targeted toward a British audience in the mid-1960s.  Much of the pretext (bus tours of the countryside, vaudeville humor) would not have been understood or gone over well with American audiences at the time.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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 - Swing, Swing, Swing

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 09/23/2017

TITLE:. Swing, Swing, Swing!

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 8 hours 19 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 119.4 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7543.2 miles

SYNOPSIS: A Box Set of musical shorts (one reel films) that were produced by the Vitaphone Corporation (Warner Bros) from the 1920 through the 1940s.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Entertainment and fantasy when the outlets were controlled by a few large studios.  A picture of society that we are told to forget.  

PROS AND CONS:  The pros are astounding here.  This set contains musical talent that is not to be believed.  The cons are also astounding, racism and apartheid were alive and well in mid-century America.

The polished sophistication of the caucasian / white bands compared with the tribal depiction of African American musicians is disturbing.  What was even stranger was the marketing ‘to’ blacks of an accepted way of behavior that included rampant gambling, tap dancing and eating watermelon, to name but a few.  

Don’t be fooled though.  This is a rare gem that has performances that are not be believed, such as a seven year old Sammy Davis Jr.  playing the first black boy president to Betty Hutton doing an hilarious and energetic version of “Old Man Moses”.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 09/05/2017

TITLE:. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 44 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 24 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7423.8 miles

SYNOPSIS: A cartoon rabbit is framed for murder after his cartoon wife is caught playing Patty-Cake with the head of Acme Industries (seriously)

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Adult cartoons for adults that grew up watching anvils getting dropped on coyote’s heads.  

PROS AND CONS:  The only con to this film is that it can get a bit to ‘manic’ is places.  Sometimes the actions is just a bit to hard to follow.  

Other than that, this is a great film with an interesting plot, astounding visuals and a subtle message about progress and whether it is a good thing or not.  

It is a good film, if nothing else for the fact that by the time you are halfway through it, you no longer sees the animation as cartoons but as an integral part of the plot.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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 - Trees Lounge

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 09/01/2017

TITLE:. Trees Lounge

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 36 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 22.3 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7399.8 miles

SYNOPSIS: The life of a loser is chronicled over a two week period of time.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Not everyone lives a super hero existence.  Some don’t even aspire to Walter Mitty level.

PROS AND CONS:  I liked this film.  It is an independent film done by Steve Buscemi to show his writing/directing/acting abilities. He pulls off all three here in a wonderful ensemble cast film about the down and out losers in society.  

This isn’t a happy film, but it is also not that sad either.  More of a slice of life and lessons learned sort of documentary, that shows how making the wrong decisions can have lasting and domino repercussions.  

You don’t really like Buscemi’s character that much, but you can’t turn away from the inevitable train-wreck that you suspect is coming as a result of his actions.  

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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 - Romeo and Juliet

CINEMA CYCLE

(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)

DATE REVIEWED: 08/30/2017

TITLE:. Romeo & Juliet (Ballet)

FORMAT: Laserdisc

TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 2 hours 9 minutes

DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 28.8 miles

TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 7377.5 miles

SYNOPSIS: The play by Shakespeare, that has been retold a thousand times in a thousand different ways.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: There is more to understanding human emotion and behavior than by using words.

PROS AND CONS:  I didn’t realize going into this film that this was the serious stuff.  There are a lot of classical laserdisc titles that were filmed ‘avant garde’ to make them more salable to a younger generation.  Not this one.  

This is strict ballet, with no dialogue or narration.  If you don’t know the plot of Romeo and Juliet, then you better pay real close attention to what is going on or you won’t have a clue.  

And this is serious ballet.  There is a lot of technical dancing and large crowd / group dances.  And the leads are not shabby either.  The scene where Romeo dances with Juliet as a corpse was mesmerizing.

To read an overview of this project, check out this status posting.  

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.