Author: Puppy

Semper Puppy

The Terminator (1984)

Has NOT aged well.

And I don’t just mean the special effects…I mean the “dramatic”, “emotional”, and “sensitive” scenes.  And it’s not because it’s from the 80’s…so are ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ‘RoboCop’, and both of those have aged incredibly better than this.

The only good thing about this is the action, really…which is very good, and there’s a lot of it.  But at this point this movie has descended almost entirely into the “cheezy nostalgia” category.  Particularly sad- the hair, the music, the dancing.

Also, it’s difficult to generate sufficient enthusiasm for the purpose of cheering on the continued existence of the early/mid-80’s.

Inspirational Quote: “Sweat, bad breath…everything”

Grade: D+

Interesting Info – ‘Jar Of Flies’

“…According to Staley, the title for the album came
from a science experiment Cantrell conducted in third
grade: “They gave him two jars full of flies. One of
the jars they overfed, the other jar they underfed.
The one they overfed flourished for a while, then all
the flies died from overpopulation. The one they
underfed had most of the flies survive all year.
I guess there’s a message in there somewhere.
Evidently that experiment had a big impact on Jerry.”…”

Wikipedia

Cheers – Episode 38 (Cliff’s Rocky Moment)

Highs:
Diane’s vague stirring memories
Sam’s thinking cap
Diane’s football strategies
real men + Cliff
Diane V. football
Cliff’s muscle
Mountain Lily V. Black-Eyed Susan
DING!
Louis’s change of heart
karate
Carla’s belief
Sam’s non-over-acting
ending

Lows:
Cliff’s laugh
guest star’s over-acting

Grade: A-

The Naked Gun (1988)

It’s basically a really long, really good ‘Police Squad’ episode. 

The writing/supporting cast are both upped a bit…if you hate complete nonsense, you’ll hate this.  But if you appreciate it, this is a very fine example of how complete nonsense can be funny.  It’s not quite to the level of ‘Airplane’, but close.

Tedious: Baseball song sequence, attempt at a “romantic” scene near the end.

Inspirational Quote: “And where the hell was I?”

Grade: B+

Natural Born Killers (1994)

With Tarantino involved, you knew it had to be really well-made sh1t.

Lots of cool cuts and one-liners and flashbacks and flashforwards and flasharounds and aspirations beyond the wonderful nonsense that has been proven to be his limit over and over again.

And it is.

But with Oliver Stone involved, you kinda figured it would rise above that.

But it doesn’t.

He called this a “positive” film???  Because you can go on an insane killing spree and not necessarily get gunned down at the end?  So aspiring serial killers and ultra-anarchists…there’s hope?  What horsesh1t.

Supposedly there’s some good “messages” here…like, violence is bad.  And, people that condemn violence and are supposedly horrified by it, yet pay to see it, hear about it, read about it, etc…are a bunch of stupid hypocrites.  Yeah no sh1t, Oliver.  I didn’t need to see this to know that.  And guess what?  NOONE who watches this who DIDN’T know that will LEARN that.  Either they’re too fcken stupid, or they don’t CARE in the first place.  I mean, you say so yourself in the script…you know, the snake story?

Also, there’s an anti-mass-media message, which is pushed so hard along with the violence that the whole thing comes across as camp, lowering it to the level of ‘Hobo’ or ‘Troll 2’ or ‘Manos’, except Oliver Stone is a REAL director and these are REAL actors making a worthless pile of sh1t masterpiece.

And hey Oliver…you’re condemning glorification of violence and the mass media by remaking ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, except fake?  Right…

Like so many other similarly violent and/or disturbing movies, most of the people willing and/or eager to sit through this don’t care about anything Oliver’s trying to say.  They’re watching this because they’re sick fcks, inside or out, or both, and they enjoy it.  Period.

Me, I’m done.  Fck em.

Grade: C

Cheers – Episode 22 (Show Down: Part 2)

Highs:
gentle beavers
fair apathy
Bobby and Susie
two boilermakers, Wild Turkey and Bud
slow Thursday
Sam and Derek
sore buns
Coach’s monologue
Cliff’s plea
goodbye/goodbye/goodbye/goodbye…
romance discussion
mutual disgust
door crowd
nibble discussion

Lows:
Recycled Chuck
Recycled Part 1
blackboard torture
silence inability
a bit of overacting

Grade: A-