I can't remember if this was discussed or noted on the forum last year, but I watched the final 30 minutes of a repeat of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" several days ago (one I'd never seen before) and was struck by a powerful dynamic within it. Specifically, a former NCO Marine Sniper has adopted a young man (teenager) and raised him to be a sniper who assists him in committing executions of various district court judges (or something like that).

While this is hardly a point-for-point copy of the backstory of the characters "Jake Nacht" and "Sarge" in NIGHTKILL, it sure seems unusually close to me...

And that is all the news that is fit to print.

Mike out

GRIZZLY MAN - on The Discovery Channel

Wow. How can I sum up this movie in just a few paragraphs...Werner Herzog's award-winning documentary about the life of self-proclaimed eco-warrior, bear-protector, and arguably not-quite-sane risk-taker Timothy Treadwell is a tour-de-force of thrilling, head-shaking, beautiful, and often unnerving filmmaking that is a must-see for all.

Over half of the footage used in the documentary was taken by bear-lover Treadwell himself over the last five summers of his life, as he lived among feral bear populations in Alaska, photographing and videotaping the large predators' day to day lives, in alarmingly close-proximity to the "seemingly" gentle giants. Unlike the telephoto lens footage (of Mutual of Omaha and National Geographic fame) taken distances of hundreds of yards away, Treadwell would position himself within mere feet of his subjects, talking to them, singing to them, and even reaching out and touching them when the urge arose, the result being a plethora (and a reported 100 hours of raw footage) of scenes of fantastic beauty and raw untamed nature.

Narrator, Interviewer, and Filmmaker Herzog uses a deft yet gentle hand unearthing the truths and contradictions that composed and surrounded the life of Treadwell, in a series of revealing and often humorous interviews with friends and confidantes of the troubled self-proclaimed bear-protector.

Half self-taught naturalist, half actor and wannabe television personality, Treadwell is the ultimate star of this film, whose eventual (unseen) demise at the teeth and claws of a feral bear would seem almost poetic if not for its brutal simple horrifying reality.

And that is all I've got to say about that.

Mike Out

I found a copy of Strange Galaxy which contains the unauthorised version of The Cleaning Machine (re-named The Machine in this magazine).

Paul - what's the story behind this being unauthorised? Did SG just simply lift the text from Startling Mystery Stories without contacting you?

S

I found out one of hilarious Saturday Night Live skits! Dan Aykloyd, Chevy Chase, and John Belushi! Remember this? It's classical!

The Last Voyage of Enterprise

Pretty much seen everything on the big screen I've wanted to see, so I took in this movie called "End of the Spear" that I'd never heard of. Turned out to be a "true story."

Summary: Some missionaries search the Equador rainforest for little known tribe that is on the verge of extinction because of their centuries old war with a neighboring tribe. The movie begins with an ambush, where many children are killed (more on this later). Of course the missionaries want to teach them the "turn the other cheek" philosophy of Christ so that they don't wipe each other out. Too bad the missionaries get "speared" to death when communications go awry. (No "big bucks" mocha, but well dramatized). The wives of the slaughtered missionaries go live with the tribe who killed their husbands and carry out the work of getting the lord's word out to the tribe. Sum-up, they see the light, noble savages that they turn out to be.

Okay, good movie. So what's my gripe? Well, this is obviously a "born-again Christian" movie. No problem. I don't watch mocha everyday of the week. I like the "Left Behind" series, the Omega Code movies were charming, and don't let me forget "The Rapture." Trouble with "...Spear" was that during the end credits the main character from the tribe is shown in footage shot, I believe, in New York City. I'm talking about the real character that the movie is based on and his first trip to the city. The film-makers make this poor tribesman look like a dork in the big city, a naive backwoodsman who thinks a market houses free food; after we just finished watching him as noble warrior for the past hour and a half, the film-makers thought it would be cute to show the goofy side of this man. Plus, in the movie, he is like 6 foot ten inches tall, and in real life, he is about 5 foot 4. I think the film-makers could have skipped this end footage.

Best thing about the movie: thanks to the missionaries, for the first time in their history, many tribesmen became grandfathers. The tribes had been killing each other for so many years that no parent ever lived to see their children have children. Wow!

I recommend this movie...after you've seen all the movies you've been wanting to see, of course. But see it on the big screen--there's some nice Amazon River footage.

AC

P.S. This movie plays out like a Disney flick but is very graphic at times. Jungle life can be a drag. Older kids only.

Japanese film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, based on the manga by Tsutomu Takahashi.

The main character, Tenshu, is sentenced to the electric chair for the vengeance killings of his girlfriend's rapists. He survives the inital dosage and is given the choice of frying again or taking part in an experiment. He awakens to find himself in a room woth another prisoner who also survived the chair. It's soon obvious they will not get along and the tricks played on them by the scientists seem to have one purpose - to make them kill each other. Then a new player is added to the game, but this one contains an alien life force.

Pretty good movie. Slow at times and the story seems a bit rushed at times as well. Some of the characters are really good. The action scenes are decent. It's worth renting for lack of something better to watch.

"Phil" finds himself stranded on Earth after his ship crashes in the woods. In his wanderings he encounters hunters, prostitutes, a local bar band, the "medicinal" properties of booze, & religion, while being chased by oddball CIA assassins and living with a talking beaver (voiced by Joe Flaherty).

This movie tries to be a sleeper comedy like Napolean Dynamite but doesn't quite have what it takes. A Canadian-style comedy, I think?? Reminds me of Brain Candy. It has it's moments that make you laugh out loud but most of the humor is just good for a chuckle. Still, I found myself liking it. I think it's the type of movie that grows on you the more you watch it. Give it a try.

I am currently rereading Conspiracies. Sal makes referance to his little monkey friend that they had taken care of The lady problem. Who is he talking about? :confused:

Anyone else a fan of this TV show?

The local UPN affiliate here finally put it back on the air every weeknight. This show was one of my favorites. It did go decidedly down hill after Phil Hartman was killed, but the shows with the original cast still crack me up. It just plays to my type of humor very well I guess.

I just saw this last weekend. Well, the last 2/3rds of it anyway. I have to say, this was one of the better karate movies I've seen. The fight coordination wasn't up to par with others I've watched or at least to what I remember, but it had a lot of imagination. When I turned it on I saw this old man jump on top of a building holding a funny-looking red hat with a chain attached. Then he threw it on this one-armed man's head, a curtain fell from it and the old man ripped the one-armed man's head off! After that, I had to watch. I found out where Dhalsim from the Street Fighter II video game comes from when the one-armed boxer (different guy) fought an Indian who dislocated his arms as he fought to extend his punches. And my favorite scene was the boxer fighting the shoe-less flunky of the blind man in a metal-floored hut superheated by fire. I just had to share this little gem.