Headsup: Black Friday!!

1 min ago
Thespia
Headsup

“[In Season Two of The Good Fight] with the world going insane and the Chicago murder rate on the rise, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo), Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie) and the rest of the law firm find themselves under psychological assault when a client at another firm kills his lawyer for overcharging. After a copycat murder, the firm begins to look at its own clients suspiciously. Meanwhile, Diane battles with a new partner at the firm, Liz Reddick-Lawrence (Audra McDonald), and Maia becomes harder and tougher after her parents’ scandal puts her on trial. Finally, Lucca is brought back into Colin Morrello’s (Justin Bartha) orbit.” — from CBS

The Good Fight: Season Two is available now on DVD and includes all thirteen episodes from the second season, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.  The set is currently available on Amazon for $27.08; you can also get the season in digital form on Amazon for $24.99 or iTunes for $31.99 (both without the bonus features).  Considering the hard copy is a $2 difference from the Amazon digital option (with minimal bonus features), it’s up to you to decide if having it tangibly on the shelf is important to you or if you’d like to stream instead.

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Things: I Bet Helen Mirren is Secretly a Massive Gamer

4 days ago
Widge
Stimuli
Helen Mirren Master Class

“Face it. I rock this look.”

OBSESSION UPDATE: My attempt at plowing through MasterClass continues apace. As stated last time, I have taken the Helen Mirren and Steve Martin classes.

The Helen Mirren class is excellent and she is an absolute hoot. Her approach to choosing scripts and then how she takes the scripts apart (literally) is fascinating, as well as how she advises you to deal with the writer and director. And when she steps back to actually show you what it looks like to act on film (and the spot on the camera you’re basically acting to), you get a sense that she knows who people on the crew are–and that she’s a class act. Not that you doubted that, I’m sure, but you know what I mean. Granted, in the section where she’s going through set decoration and rummaging through a buffet of props, I hoped she had a good relationship with them because I could see (if you weren’t expecting her to do these things) the people on the crew wincing and wondering what the hell she was on about. Really good insight. Also–and this is a small thing, but I never realized it before–she has a tattoo on one of her hands which, as you can imagine, has an interesting backstory.

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32 Days of Halloween XI, Day 30: The Tomb of Ligeia!

4 weeks ago
Widge
32 Days of Halloween

Tomb of Ligeia

Well, unbelievably enough, we’re coming up on time to put 32 Days of Halloween back into the coffin for another year. The Halloween Season, of course, extends through New Year’s, so don’t worry yourself about that. But before we go, we need to go to an old-time radio version of a classic, “The Hitch-Hiker.” Starring Orson Welles, who performed it a few times on radio, it was later turned into a Twilight Zone episode. If you’re starved for time, at least listen to Welles’ intro.

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32 Days of Halloween XI, Day 28: Macabre!

4 weeks ago
Widge
32 Days of Halloween

Macabre (1958)

First, it’s time for some more old-time radio with Boris Karloff in the 1941 episode of Inner Sanctum called “Fog.” If you’re on a time budget, at least listen to the announcer and his intro. Sanctum had one of the best openings. Mmmmm?

Next, here’s an insane cast for you. It’s from the 80s classic series Faerie Tale Theatre, hosted by Shelley Duvall. “The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers” has Peter MacNicol as the titular boy, plus Christopher Lee, Dana Hill, David Warner, Frank Zappa, and Vincent Price as the Narrator. Just damn.

Now we come to our feature film: Macabre from 1958, another William Castle classic. This was his entry into sensationalist promotional gimmicks: attending the film would get you an official certificate from Lloyds of London, insuring you for $1000 if the film caused you to die of fright. Fantastic.

32 Days of Halloween XI, Day 27: The Monsters of Terror!

4 weeks ago
Widge
32 Days of Halloween

The Monsters of Terror (Assignment Terror)

First, let’s get a classic trailer going. Dom sent me this earlier with the comment that they just don’t make trailers like this anymore. Damn right they don’t. Which is a shame. It’s the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Next, we go to David McCallum and an excellent reading of “The Dunwich Horror.” Because it’s high time we had some Lovecraft in here.

For tonight’s feature, let’s not focus on the fact that it’s got an English language title card smacked onto it as elegantly as a swan, long since taxidermied and falling off a high shelf. Let’s not even dwell on the fact that it’s Michael Rennie’s final film. Instead, ponder this first sentence from the Wikipedia (which is always right) synopsis: Aliens, running a traveling circus as a cover, revive a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy and Frankenstein’s monster with a plan to use them to take over the world.

Who the hell isn’t on board after that? Enjoy.