Words Seem Out Of Place

I recently had the distinct pleasure of being nominated for a Sunshine Blogger Award by blogging pal Gill at Realweegiemidget Reviews . This made my month! So, the way it works is I answer the following eleven questions asked of me, then nominate somewhere between five and eleven bloggers for the award while providing them with a new set of eleven questions to answer. Here goes nothing! Your perfect romantic movie stars you opposite which actor/actress as your love interest? Do I really need to spell this one out for you? If you've been paying attention, you know the answer: Michelle Pfreaking Pfeiffer. Image courtesy of GorgeousPfeiffer.com What movie always makes you cry? Frankie and Johnny . Are you sensing a theme? What film do you think didn’t need a sequel? I think a sequel should have worked, but I'll choose The Matrix because in my opinion the sequels really only diluted the impact of the excellent first film. Whats your favourit...

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. One of the most famous and oft-quoted Seinfeld scenes involves Bobka and Jerry's discovery of the existence of Cinnamon Bobka. After Elaine scoffs at the notion of such a thing, even calling it a "lesser Bobka," Jerry unleashes one of the great defenses of a freshly ground spice ever delivered: People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, "Oh This is so good. What's in it?" The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again.  Joanne Whalley is like Cinnamon. Yes, I just compulsively double-checked my DVD copy and it's the unrated version, thank you very much. Let me explain. You see, during the formative years of my misspent youth, if I stumbled on a movie featuring the doe-eyed, petite, beautiful English actress, invariably I'd feel like Jerry does about Cin...

One of the best movies of 1985 came and went without a lot of fanfare from critics or audiences. Then it did what all great cult films do: it endured. Today, that film, Into the Night , remains a favorite among cult movie lovers, especially those of us with a serious affection for the underappreciated "one crazy night" sub-genre. Think Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985), or Adventures in Babysitting (1987). "One crazy night" films typically involve a character, or characters, journeying "into the night" and experiencing the kind of wild adventures that can only be found in large urban centers after dark. This style of film was especially prevalent in the 1980s. With Into the Night , writer Ron Koslow and director John Landis turned in one of the sub-genre's best efforts, and a personal favorite of yours truly. The film revels in that after hours "anything goes" style necessary for any "one crazy night" film to succe...

A sporadic series celebrating old music that's new to me. Very few things in life can compare to that powerful jolt of electricity that shoots through your body and straight to your heart and soul when discovering an old band whose sound is exactly everything you've ever wanted out of music. I had that experience with Transvision Vamp recently. I'm still on a high, several days after first hearing them via their 1989 UK hit, "Baby I Don't Care." The British alternative rock band was active from 1986–1991, but during that short career they left behind some truly extraordinary music. Their sound is at once of their era and also utterly transcendent of it. Transvision Vamp's sound and style may fit squarely into the post-punk/power-pop/shoe-gaze style so prevalent in the 1980s, but it's music was built to last. Ringing guitars, a pounding rhythm section, and an absolute spitfire lead singer who sings every song as if it's her last night ...

This week marks a sad anniversary for fans of popular culture: the death of Marilyn Monroe,  né  Norma Jeane Baker. Marilyn left us far too soon, on August 4, 1962. Countless books and movies and articles and first-hand accounts have tried to capture the essence of a woman who will forever be known as  the blonde bombshell, the sexiest sex symbol to ever walk the earth, and the greatest pop culture icon of the American twentieth century. Much of Marilyn's sex goddess appeal first bloomed during her early modeling days, like when she squeezed herself into a too-small sweater and barely-there skirt for a 1940s photoshoot. As noted in a 2012 Daily Mail article , Norma Jeane eliminated  the blouse as well as the bra and camisole worn under it. She then took a red cardigan, turned it around, and buttoned it up the back. The sweater clung to her breasts; she called it her ‘magic sweater’.  She wore the sweater backwards! Ingenious. The rest, as they s...

Selections from Nicole Kidman's  filmography that demonstrate her extraordinary talent and risk-taking commitment. Watching Karyn Kusama's devastating 2018 Los Angeles crime drama  Destroyer , I kept coming back to an overused but in this case entirely appropriate expression: You've never seen Nicole Kidman quite like this before. Just when you think she's shown all sides and facets of her onscreen self, she digs even deeper, revealing further dimensions to her brilliance as an actor. The film is brutal, unforgiving, and heartbreaking. Kidman plays LAPD detective Erin Bell, who is forced to revisit the undercover assignment that went horribly awry years before while trying to track down the gang leader responsible. Kidman is at the center of it all, appearing in nearly every scene. Not only that, but she's playing Bell as a much younger, healthier women in flashbacks and showing us how that traumatic undercover case impacted every aspect of her presen...