My Other Web Sites:
my
group- Subscribe to my email list and send me a note. Remember, dissent is *not* disloyalty!...
- Comments:
headlines :: music :: movies :: files :: about me :: linkscontact me :: galleries 1, 2, 3, 4, ***5***
Exxxtasy Show, July 16-18, Chicago
The King of Custom Imprinting!
www.corporategiftsand
promotionalitems.com
CINEMA SEEN - "Water, Water...EVERYWHERE! " By William Margold It was the best of Memorial Day weekends. It was the worst of Memorial Day weekends. And it was most certainly a Memorial Day weekend that played havoc (or maybe even "the dickens") with my sensibilities. During the recent three-day period, I over- indulged in movie-watching, eating (although most of what I consumed was "sort of" healthy, and "remembering"---with the end result being the necessity for a three-part Cinema Seen mini-series to make sure that all the Angels…and all of the Devils get their due. Of course this bold presentation relies strongly on the hopeful, and perhaps even pompous presumption that YOU anxiously look forward to my weekly renderings of adventures on as well as off-screen…and also that the distribution of each new issue in YOUR neighborhood is fairly regular. In what must seem VERY strange, even for faithful readers of my stuff, I managed to spend the Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend in the ocean…without ever getting wet. My life-and-very near death experience relationship with the ocean has been the launching pad for many sea-based film review/Cinema Seen columns, so I won’t recount them here, as space, and the imposing number of motion pictures in need of being discussed on this page must be acknowledged first…and triple-most. By a quirk of scheduling, both on the BIG and SMALL screen, plus the availability its "Special Edition" DVD, I was able to pull off a POSEIDON tri-fecta. Which in retrospect seems all the more fitting, since the Greek God Poseidon (in Roman mythology, he’s known as Neptune) carries a formidable three-pronged spear weapon known as a trident. Noticing that last November’s NBC three-hour remake was going to be shown on USA later that evening, I mapped out my descent into a storyline whose famous ad line was "Hell Upside Down!" Briskly walking into Hollywood (making sure to pass the office of this publication just to make sure that everything was locked up tight for the l-o-n-g weekend) so that I could take advantage of the "bargain-matinee" of the new POSEIDON in one of the Mann’s Chinese lesser, and sparsely occupied auditoriums, I spent most of the film wondering "why in the HELL?" the Wolfgang Petersen-directed thing was even made. Did anyone involved really and truly believe that Josh Lucas and Kurt Russell were going to wash away the memories of Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine? I also realized that on my walk home that I would have to pick-up a copy of the 1972 disaster epic POSEIDON ADVENTURE, so that I could guilty-pleasurably revel in the tremendous scenery chewing by the latter two mentioned actors, not mention re-ogling Stella Stevens, and holding my breath with Shelley Winters. But the real surprise came much later on Saturday, when I found the Rutger Hauer, Adam Baldwin terrorist-twisted TV tale POSEIDON ADVENTURE to also be better than the current version. With NO artwork available from the TV version, and a rather unattractive selection provided with the new effort (besides the poster, one well-drenched shot MIGHT be on this page), I was delighted to find that the DVD came with some mini-lobby cards, many of which SHOULD be appearing here in alluring disarray. 1972’s "Poseidon Adventure" was among the very first films that I reviewed during my early adult underground newspaper "sin"-dication daze--- when my articles con-currently appeared in Swing, Mate, and The Singles Critique as well as The Hollywood Press (which convolutedly morphed into The LA XPRESS)---and I located the piece in one of my massive scrapbooks, so that I could bask in my wit from that time, when I labeled the extremely entertaining production: "20,000 Emotions Beneath The Sea!" And with that sentiment richly bubbling to the surface, I’ll end this installment of Cinema Seen with the advisement that there will more-Memorial Day weekend recounting appearing on the horizon next week…and the week after…! To be continued… end NOTE: Originally published in LA Xpress, June 8, 2006, issue. |