Great Band, Worst Song: Van Halen's "Jump"

Van Halen – the greatest rock band of the 80's.  The original line-up will go down in history as one of the amazing hard-rock bands ever. When their songs came on the radio, you automatically turned it up.

Their drummer, Alex Van Halen, merged traditional rock beats with mind-blowing drum fills that you couldn't help but pound along on your steering wheel to. He was the first to effectively use a double bass drum, demonstrated here in Hot For Teacher.

Add in a front man, David Lee Roth, with such bravado and presence, plus a twist of humor. His ego was so huge he needed three names. This guy didn’t really care at all but knew how to sing a hook, tell a story, and make you want to come back for more. Just watch this video of Panama to truly understand this guy’s talent.

Not to mention, the world’s most underrated bass player, Michael Anthony, who was an amazing vocalist in his own right and laid down heavy righteous low-end rhythm.  Just listen to the raw bass line in Ain’t Talking About Love and the backup vocals in Beautiful Girls.

But Van Halen wouldn’t have been Van Halen without the best rock guitarist in history, Eddie Van Halen: the virtuoso who owned rock guitar in the 80's. Everyone wanted to play just like him. He came up with distorted grooves, rip-roaring bluesy solos, and perfected the tapping technique which became his signature move. He’s probably one of the most influential rock guitarists. He tops lists that include Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Jimmy Page. Heck, even Michael Jackson asked him to guest solo on Beat It (start at 3:10). Check out the solo on Ice Cream Man.

Van Halen was an awesome band.  Even their covers were kick ass.  You Really Got Me, Dancing In The Street, Pretty Woman.

You want to hear something that rocks? Listen to any Van Halen song… any song with the original line-up and you’ll crank it up and relive what it’s like to be surrounded by 80's hard rock.

Except for one.

Jump.

This song stands out like a sore thumb on their album 1984. It had so many killer Van Halen songs… Panama… Hot For Teacher… Top Jimmy… Drop Dead Legs.

But what do you do when you have the world’s greatest guitar player?  You do a heavy synth song like "Jump"?  I’m not knocking the tune… it’s a great song.  But it belongs on Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet - not 1984.

If Poison would have recorded this song, it would be by far the best Poison song.  But it’s the worst Van Halen song.  It’s too poppy. Too synthy. Lacks a powerful bass line. Lacks any strong guitar riff. Lacks any killer drums. And lacks powerful vocals.  It’s like they took all their energy and put it into Panama and Hot For Teacher and then said, “Hey… let’s do something really cheesy. Let's do Jump.”

Unfortunately, this song opened up the era of keyboard-heavy Van Hagar… with songs as Dreams, Why Can’t This Be Love, Love Walks In, and When It’s Love.  All good tunes, but each overshadows the guitar virtuoso and hard-rockin’ band Van Halen was during the late 70's and early 80's.

The good news is, it left a void to fill from guitarists like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Nuno Bettencourt, and others: all of whom brought their own skills and talent to create some of the best hard-rock music we've heard.

Wal Ozello, a child of the 80s, is the former singer of the Columbus hairband Armada. He's the author of the science fiction time travel books Assignment 1989, Revolution 1990 and Sacrifice 2086 and a frequent customer at Colin's Coffee.

Comic Book Movies - by Ricki C.

COMIC BOOK MOVIES, AND WHY THE CREATORS OF ART ARE NEVER THE ONES WHO
MAKE ANY MONEY, or WHY STAN LEE OF MARVEL COMICS IS A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE,
WHILE YOU’VE BARELY EVER HEARD OF JACK KIRBY.
by Ricki C.

(Before there was rock & roll in the Ricki C. universe there were comic books.  I was born in 1952 and when I was four years old I taught myself to read with comic books that my brother & sister – ten & seven years older than me – left around the house.  Al & Dianne were too old to be bothered with me at that point, and my mom & dad – children of The Depression that they were – both worked two jobs to keep our little West Side family afloat, so I had a pretty solitary childhood existence.  Not a bad existence, by any stretch of the imagination, just extremely quiet.  Before The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show when I was twelve, superheroes brought The Noise to my world.)

The latest Marvel Studios movie – Captain America: Civil War – opens today and I’m definitely going to see it this afternoon, ‘cuz I’m kind of a sucker for comic book movies: but I’m not going to feel that good about  it, since Jack Kirby’s family is not gonna see a penny from it, and Stan Lee is just gonna get richer.  

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were once a team.  At Marvel Comics in the early 1960’s Stan Lee wrote comic book stories and Jack Kirby drew them.  In rock & roll terms they would have been John Lennon & Paul McCartney.  Or – more accurately – they would have been Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, since Marvel Comics were the Bad Boy counterparts to the ever-so-much more straight-laced DC Comics.  (Home of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc.)

Lee & Kirby ushered in the Age of Marvel in comic books – The Fantastic Four, Spiderman, The Hulk, The X-Men, Thor, Iron Man.  Marvel superheroes were Superheroes With Problems:  problems getting along with one another, problems with girls, problems turning into rage-filled green monsters, problems dealing with mutant powers while still teenagers, you name A Problem, a Marvel superhero had it.  DC superheroes were a pretty homogenized lot – millionaire playboys, scientists, test pilots, Amazonian princesses, etc. – none of them had any trouble paying the rent, if you get my drift.

I liked DC comics, but I LOVED Marvel comics.  And, as I look back now, I realize I loved Marvel comics more because of Jack Kirby’s artwork than because of Stan Lee’s writing.  Plus I learned much later in life the modus operandi at Marvel comics was that Stan Lee would present his artists with a general outline of a story, the artist would go away and draw the entire comic book – essentially plotting the issue – and then Lee would fill in the dialogue & captions after the fact.  I can’t imagine how that was a workable creative model, but that’s how it was done at Marvel in the 1960’s. 

(editor’s note: Ricki, any possibility you could get to the point about your title? / author’s note: I’m tryin’.)

So really, by 1963 when The X-Men debuted at Marvel when I was 11 years old, I had fallen hopelessly in love with Jack Kirby’s story style, still thinking then that it was Stan Lee I liked.  But by February 1964 – when The Beatles Hit America – my comic book days were all but over.  By my 13th birthday in 1965, when economic realities (and teenage hormones) made it necessary for me to choose between buying rock & roll records or my first love – comic books – The Dave Clark 5 and Lovin’ Spoonful won out.  

Here’s where my comic book and rock & roll analogy kicks in…….NOBODY in the comic book industry really made any kind of money back in the 1960’s.  Comic books were still a kid’s medium, there were no dedicated comic book stores, no graphic novels, certainly no superhero movies.  (There were bad, hokey Superman and Batman TV shows, but the budget for special effects in those was probably upwards of $80 or so per episode.  CGI, indeed.)

Jack Kirby left Marvel Comics in a squabble over money & creative control at the end of the 60’s (hey, just like in a rock & roll band) and went over to competitor DC.  There he engineered what I consider the highpoint of all comic book history, The Fourth World of The Forever People, New Gods & Mister Miracle (which actually should and maybe someday will be a whole separate blog).  Ultimately Kirby wasn’t treated much better at DC than at Marvel, where he eventually returned.

Kirby died February 6th, 1994, exactly two weeks before Kurt Cobain and I didn’t even hear about it until more than a year later, after all the Nirvana noise died down.  He left behind a wife & four children, owned a modest home in Southern California and was enough of a stand-up guy that I’ve never read a hateful interview about Stan Lee that issued from his mouth. But think about this: on our 21st century planet, Marvel Studios films – like today’s Captain America: Civil War – now generate BILLIONS of dollars for the parent company and – I have to believe – MILLIONS of dollars for Stan Lee (who rather egotistically makes a cameo appearance – a la Alfred Hitchcock – in EVERY Marvel movie).  

What does Jack Kiby’s estate (and grandchildren) get?  A quick mention of their gramps as a co-creator of the characters in the closing credits.  (About the same as Cleveland boys Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster get in the Superman movies, after selling their rights to Superman to DC for $135 in the late 1930’s.)

Imagine an alternate universe where The Beatles never really made it big in the 1960’s: if they’d made a few singles, an album or three, had a couple of hits and then faded away to memory.  Paul McCartney plugged away – did the Vegas circuit, kept things going – and John Lennon died of something other than a gun-wielding fan/madman in 1980.  

Then, somehow, in the 2000’s some hipster movie maker finds the old Beatles records, throws them in his movies and Beatlemania EXPLODES 40 years AFTER it actually did.  Paul McCartney – who’s still around, though creatively diminished – reaps the royalties windfall, and Cynthia & Julian Lennon (John is never famous enough in this alternate reality to meet & woo Yoko) get nothing but a mention of John in the credits.  Does that seem fair?

Think about Jack Kirby while you’re watching Captain America: Civil War.  I will be.  – Ricki C. / May 1st, 2016

ps. The best book I've ever read about all this stuff is Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison.  Check it out if you have any interest in comic books and/or superheroes. 

The NCP Grade the Browns' 2016 Draft - by BIG $

@northcoastposse was called a top 5 twitter follow by the actual Cleveland Browns 

Believe it or not folks, but Big $ is nothing if not a contrarian.  So it might reason that I'd steer away from draft analysis due to the sheer volume of hot takes floating around.  Over the last few years, though, a backlash has erupted over the presenting of post-draft grades.  Therefore, I felt it was my duty to steer directly into the backlash and whip up my own 2016 Browns draft report card.

In honor of the new Pencilstorm Hall of Fame class, I will be using a scale of 1-5 ice cold cans of Budweiser as my tool, with 1 can being "just not right" to 5 cans being "yessir, that's a mighty fine start."  So without further adieu, here is the NCP's assessment of Hue and the $ballers first Cleveland draft:

1st pick: Corey Coleman, WR Baylor

I truly thought we had hit the rock bottom of idiocy when some Browns fans professed faith in Johnny Football's future as an NFL QB.  New earth was dug up though, when the tweets that compared Coleman to Travis Benjamin started popping up.  Forget that Coleman is 2 inches taller and 20lbs heavier than TB, there is absolutely no way to compare their collegiate output.  Coleman is a playmaker in the OBJ, Brandon Cooks, and Jarvis Landry mold. Super-pick for a team void of playmakers

Grade: 5 cold cans of Bud   (Get some Corey before we continue.)

2nd pick: Emmanuel Ogbah, edge rusher Oklahoma St.

This kid absolutely looks the part and produced big #'s in the Big 12.  He seems to have a good head on his shoulders and earns points for owning some sort of pro wrestling championship belt.  My one concern is that his motor has been questioned, which is a scary word when describing high round picks. (Click here to watch him run at the combine)

Grade: 3.5 cold cans of Bud

Pick 3: Carl Nassib, DE Penn State

High Character, High Motor, Big Frame and we Buckeye fans saw him produce in person.  Hard to knock this pick up. (Click here for highlights)

Grade: 4 cold cans of Bud

Pick 4: Shon Coleman, OT Auburn

What else can be said about a kid who beat cancer and spent his draft day with other kids fighting their own battles?  Well, he's got an ideal balance of upper body strength and athletic feet which is becoming more and more rare (see Cam Erving).  He did have an mcl issue, but that is small potatoes to this kid.  Pencil him at RT week 1.

Grade: 4.5 cold cans of Bud

Pick 5: Cody Kessler, QB USC

Did I see this coming?  No.  Do I trust Hue?  Yes.  Do I dislike Connor Cook immensely?  Definitive yes.

Grade: 3.5 cold cans of Bud

Pick 6: Joe Schobert, LB Wisconsin.

Can you have too many High motor, High character, Highly decorated players?  Probably not. "The Show" will get time inside and outside and is chomping to play special teams.

Grade: 4 cold cans of Bud

Pick 7: Ricardo Louis, WR Auburn

There are no shortage of SEC games on TV, so I've caught a few of this kid's games.  What I witnessed is a wide receiver whose hands don't seem to work correctly.  This pick was a head- scratcher.

Grade: 1 cold can of Bud

Pick 8: Derrick Kindred, S TCU

Nothing flashy here, tough kid at a position of need.

Grade: 3 cold cans of Bud

Pick 9: Seth Devalve TE/WR Princeton

Another confusing pick: injury-prone guy with chronic foot issues.  The one thing I will say is that he must of done something right to get a bunch of Harvard guys to draft a Tiger.  However, he would have been available post draft

Grade: 1.5 cold cans of Bud

Pick 10: Jordan Payton, WR UCLA

Good hands (145 catches next to 6 drops over the last 2 years).  Finds the end zone and will work the middle.  Value add all around.

Grade: 4.5 cold cans of Bud

Pick 11: Spencer Drango, OT Baylor

Another highly decorated, productive player from a solid program.  I think he'll move to OG and hold down the right side with Shon Coleman

Grade: 4 cold cans of Bud

Pick 12: Rashard Higgins, WR Colorado St.

This guy's nickname is "Hollywood Higgins."  'Nuff said

Grade: 5 cold cans of Bud

Pick 13: Trey Caldwell, CB La Tech

You can't have too many cb's in today's NFL.

Grade: 3.5 cold cans of Bud

Pick 14: Scooby Wright, LB Arizona

I know this guy was all-world a few years ago, but the footage of him awaiting being picked seemed to indicate that he may have attempted to finish 275 of the 300 fireball shots Johnny Dbag purchased in c-bus last Thursday.  Beware of the Bro.

Grade: 1 piss warm 4 loko

Overall: I'm simply confused by this feeling of optimism.  Solid dudes, needs addressed, playmakers assembled

4 cold cans of Bud for the new regime.

The British Invasion is Playing the Hollywood Casino This Saturday Night and Ricki C. Is Going To See Them

I don’t go to the Hollywood Casino much.  I fully admit I’m one of those former West Siders who thought it would be great to put the Columbus casino on the West Side rather than downtown, who thought that it would revitalize the entire West Side and be really great for my former neighbors.  Of course, that’s not the way it turned out.  The casino ABSOLUTELY should have been downtown, where it might have actually attracted clientele from the Convention Center, Huntington Park, etc., and been better positioned for people from all over the city to converge at one CENTRAL LOCATION to gamble their hard-earned money, as opposed to the West Side senior citizens pissing away their Social Security checks at the penny slots, the way I see it now.

But I digress………

The British Invasion is playing the Hollywood Casino this Saturday night, May 7th, 8-11:30 pm in the H Lounge (formerly the O-H lounge) and that’s more than enough to lure me back to my old neighborhood.  (I could throw a softball from my first apartment in Lincoln Park West and hit the casino.)  The British Invasion is five guys playing all the 1964-1967 British Invasion tunes I cut my musical teeth on, but more importantly, not just the normal mishmash of Beatles ‘n’ Stones tunes bands of this genre normally play: The British Invasion goes Deep Cuts on The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Hollies, The Zombies and The Troggs – among others – and charms the hell out of this West Side rocker's heart.  (And, you’ve gotta understand, normally Ricki C. is not gonna venture out on a Saturday night ANYWHERE – let alone the Hollywood Casino – to see a cover/tribute band: has Ricki EVER seen The Menus or The Reaganomics?  Not on your sweet, short life.)

My sister’s coming up from Grove City to meet me for the show, too, and that’s cool, because she’s the one who turned me on to The British Invasion to begin with.  A coupla years ago they played some downtown street bash in Grove City and all I heard for the next two weeks was Dianne babbling, “You’ve gotta see this band I saw!  They’re called The British Invasion and THEY WERE GREAT!  We’ve gotta find out where they’re playing next and go see them!  You’d love them!”

Now let’s keep in mind, ladies & gentlemen, my sister’s tastes in music run to the likes of The Four Seasons, Lawrence Welk and Wayne Newton.  (She once actually called me up in the 1980’s and announced breathlessly, “Ric, Wayne Newton is playing at Beulah Park!  We should go!”  When I replied, “Dianne, I wouldn’t go out in my backyard to see Wayne Newton,” she was genuinely crestfallen.)

So I didn’t have particularly high hopes for whatever outdoor show Dianne dragged me to that summer to see the band, but damn, if The British Invasion DIDN’T DELIVER BIG TIME!  First off, they dress up in matching 60’s outfits (which Di loved) and anybody who knows me well realizes that I’m a TOTAL SUCKER for bands in uniforms, from Paul Revere & the Raiders in 1965 to The White Stripes in this 21st century.  (The Strokes also kinda fall in that category, come to think of it.)  (So do The League Bowlers, but that's a different blog for another time.)

Secondly – and most importantly – The British Invasion doesn’t just PLAY mid-60’s rock & roll music, they UNDERSTAND mid-60’s rock & roll music.  They understand that all the little hooks – guitar arpeggios, backing vocals, little drum-breaks coming out of solos – are all JUST AS IMPORTANT as the words & music of the songs.  It’s those little touches in the songs that put these guys heads & shoulders above the middling cover bands I have to think litter The Hollywood Casino stage week in and week out. 

Anyway, I’m WAY over my allotted 500 words, so let me just say this: If you like rock & roll that is equal parts MELODY, SMARTS & POWER; if you like rock & roll that is as far from alternative hipster bullshit as you can get; if you like rock & roll that is FUN, come and see the British Invasion at the Hollywood Casino this Saturday night.  It don’t cost nothin’ and I GUARANTEE a good time.  See ya there.  -  Ricki C. / May 3rd, 2016  

Buggy Eyes and a Big Butt, part se7en: Movies 88-103

Pencilstorm contributor Rob Braithwaite is watching 366 movies this year, so you don't have to, here is part seven of his continuing 2016 rundown......

Q&A Intro, 1-17, 18-36, 37-51, 52-66, 67-74, 75-87, 88-103, 104-120, 121-131, 132-152, 153-173, 174-187, 188-221, 222-255, 256-287, 288-314, 315-341, 342-366, Index

Ratings key:
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ = I can’t see giving anything that I’ve seen once five stars
★ ★ ★ ★ = get to the theater / move it up in your queue
★ ★ ★ = “three stars is a recommendation” - The Empire [magazine] Podcast
★ ★ = if the remote is too far away, you could do worse
★ = if the remote is too far away, get someone to move it closer then throw it at the TV

088
Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) ★ ★.5
stars: Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton, Joaquim de Almeida
director: David Gordon Green

She was out, but they pulled her back in! A retired political consultant comes down from the hills to head a presidential campaign in Bolivia against her fiercest rival.

The movie does a pretty good job of illustrating how a campaign can be more a personal battle between competitors who aren’t running for office, and in this case, don’t even live in the country in which they are campaigning.

A few moments of levity swing too broadly. And the principle of keeping the native tongue is abandoned when the American needs to overhear something.

watch The War Room instead

089
Black Mass (2015) ★ ★
stars: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch
director: Scott Cooper

An FBI agent allows his childhood friend and adulthood gangster James “ Whitey” Bulger to go unchecked under the guise of an informant.

The much more interesting story of how an FBI agent covers for a criminal is buried under the distraction of making scenes for a Goodfellas remake. It’s only at the end that we get a sense of how the agent was able to protect Bulger. Even then it's glossed over. Bulger should have been like the shark in Jaws. Rarely seen.

watch The Departed instead

090
The 33 (2015) ★ ★.5
stars: Antonio Banderas, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche
director: Patricia Riggen

Despite being a true story, it opens like a bad disaster movie. We meet some of the thirty-three miners who will be trapped in a mine. There’s the I’m Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today guy, the My Wife Is Pregnant guy, the Two Weeks Until Retirement guy, and the I’m Telling You The Mine Isn’t Safe guy.

The second half is a better, even though it continues to have characters speak in exposition.

watch Ace in the Hole instead

091
Too Late (2015) ★ ★ ★.5
stars: John Hawkes, Crystal Reed, Dichen Lachman
writer/director: Dennis Hauck

A private detective receives a call from an old acquaintance for help.

An incredibly familiar yet unique movie experience. Shot on 35MM film and only shown in theaters able to project it in 35MM. Each reel, about 10-15 minutes, is a single take, except for one, which falls into the narrative line but gives it a feeling of unreality and gives Tarantino a run for his grindhouse sensibility. It would have added up to a gimmick if the storytelling wasn’t sound. The movie unfolds in a nonlinear fashion, revealing surprises and humor all along the way.

double feature pairing: Rope

092
Kilo Two Bravo (2014) ★ ★ ★
stars: David Elliot, Mark Stanley, Scott Kyle
director: Paul Katis

A company of British soldiers find themselves trapped in a Afghanistan minefield.

Knowing this really happened brought a little reality to it. As a movie, it was fine.

double feature pairing: Fury

093
Paper Moon (1973) ★ ★ ★ ★
stars: Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal, Madeline Khan
director: Peter Bogdanovich

A cross country hustler agrees to take a recently orphaned child to her nearest relative. He quickly learns he has met his match in the grifting game.

Easily one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Tatum O’Neal, 10 years old at the time, crushes this movie. Her fire is that of a Marion Ravenwood. In the scene when Addie first goes toe-to-toe with the hustler Moses,  I heard Marion screaming at Indiana Jones: until I get my money back, “I’m your goddamn partner!”

double feature pairing: The Brothers Bloom

094
The Driver (1978) ★ ★ ★ ★
stars: Ryan O’Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani
writer/director: Walter Hill

In a movie where no one has a name, The Detective is so determined to catch The Driver that he goes beyond the limits of the law to get him.

This is some fine pulp grit. Excellent car work that employs Peter Hyams’ patented car POV shots.

double feature pairing: The Transporter

095
When Worlds Collide (1951) ★ ★ ★
stars: Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen
director: Randolph Maté

In short: we are going to die!

This isn’t an era of film making and genre that plays it subtle. It opens with a bible scripture of Noah and his ark. See, the first body, a star, will cause great earthquakes and tidal waves, the second body is a planet that possibly could support life. A rocket ship is created for a select few to make the journey.

It’s an enjoyable watch. Some dated unintentional humor. The lack of subtlety is a hoot. A sign over the animal pens reads: WEIGHT WILL BE A PROBLEM. DO NOT OVERFEED.

double feature pairing: Knowing

096
Midnight Special (2016) ★ ★ ★.5
stars: Jaeden Lieberher, Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton
writer/director: Jeff Nichols

A boy with mysterious powers is tracked by the government and a religious cult from which he’s escaping.

I’m looking forward to seeing this again. Nothing is laid out. Information comes slowly as the boy and his father try to get away. Seems, however, the light touch might be too light at times. A few questions linger of destination and backstory, and how one character pulls a critical piece of information out of the air. Maybe clues are there in a re-watch.

double feature pairing: Starman

097
Black Sunday (1977) ★ ★ ★.5
stars: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller
director: John Frankenheimer

“What is this… ‘Super Bowl’?”

An engaging and suspenseful thriller about a terrorist group’s plot to detonate a bomb over Super Bowl X via the Goodyear blimp grinds to a screeching halt for the climatic event. I probably saw more football during that movie than I did all year. We see the players of both teams walk from the buses into the stadium. We hear the introductions of the starting line ups. We hear the national anthem. We see several touchdowns, turnovers and tackles. All quickly cut and scored with great intensity because, when it’s all said and done, we’re watching a blimp slowly make it’s way to the stadium.

double feature pairing: The Last Boy Scout

098
The Killing (1956) ★ ★
stars: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards
director: Stanley Kubrick

A bunch of crooks hatch a scheme to rob a race track.

It’s a good scheme. But it’s presented like an episode of Dragnet. The omniscient narrator tells us who people are, the time things are happening and other useful information like, “Four days later, at 7:30 AM, Sherry Peatty was wide awake” as we watch Sherry Peatty get out of bed.

watch Let It Ride instead

099
Hotel Transylvania (2012) ★ ★.5
stars: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez
director: Genndy Tartakovsky

Dracula is overprotective of his daughter.

It’s cute. There’s a song and dance number at the end to get the runtime over 80 minutes. If you have a kid that plays movies over and over again, you could do worse.

watch Transylvania 6-5000 instead

100
Green Room (2015) ★ ★ ★ ★
Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat
writer/director: Jeremy Saulnier

This trailer is safe to watch. Don’t watch any others because they ruin so much of the movie. If you need to know something, a traveling punk band plays a gig and something happens. It’s suspenseful and plays out in logical ways.

double feature pairing: Cube

101
Murder By Decree (1979) ★.5 [AS, Re]
stars: Christopher Plumber, James Mason, David Hemmings
director: Bob Clark

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson take a crack at the Jack the Ripper case.

This is soooooooo booooooring.

watch Without a Clue instead

102
High-Rise (2015) ★ ★ ★
stars: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller
director: Ben Wheatley

A tough movie to summarize due to a lack of a clear plot and probably a bear to adapt from the J. G. Ballard novel, in which residents of an apartment high-rise double for a capitalist society. Screenwriter Amy Jump and Wheatley turn in another fascinating movie.

double feature pairing: The Towering Inferno

103
The Big Red One (1980) ★ ★ ★
stars: Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine
writer/director: Samuel Fuller

The missions of a military unit during World War Two are tied together by some terrible narration. Some sections are presented better than others. It’s amazing how far the portrayal of war in film has come. I’m guessing this was thought of as gritty in 1980. Now, it’s a bit small scale.

double feature pairing: Patton

Counters:
103/366 movies (19 movies off pace)
15/52 movies directed by women

THE TOP THREE

Q&A Intro, 1-17, 18-36, 37-51, 52-66, 67-74, 75-87, 88-103, 104-120, 121-131, 132-152, 153-173, 174-187, 188-221, 222-255, 256-287, 288-314, 315-341, 342-366, Index