Mark's Movies

1996's The Long Kiss Goodnight is a Shane Black screenplay on the Renny Harlin luge. What is the deal? Is it a spiritual successor to The Last Boy Scout? What is going on? I don't know. I've been sick for months at this point. I thought I was better well after recording but I can feel the sinus infection coming on. Everything all the time.

Kicking off season 6 with a good one! Let's talk a bit about this very fun very slept on movie.

Yes, it's finally here. Over a year late, but better than never? Maybe. Maybe not. Like the guy from Matchbox 20 said, man it's a dense one. Definitely don't listen to this one in the car with the kids. I don't have links or anything here. Things have changed since most of this was recorded. I didn't necessarily go back and update things. Be nice to people.

Quick update on Season 5 which is.... a year overdue.

Yes, it's Network. Could you expect anything else after Medium Cool? Maybe. But you'd be wrong. It's Network. Let's look at this documentary... errr fictional satire from the mind of Paddy Chayefsky and executed with the deft touch of Sidney Lumet. I realize there's an entire laundry list of things that could have been touched upon which I did not. Again, an injury is limiting my computer time. Co...

If you have the opportunity to watch this prior to listening, I would want that for you. But it's probably not streaming anywhere. I mean, someone might have uploaded the entire film to YouTube but you never know. Yeah, I'm just digging through my own movie history at this point. Finding the origins of the origins. I've had some physical issues that prevent me from being on a computer for extended...

Yeah, it's back. It's an episode. Check it out. Definitely had a hot take on this one.

Hey everyone, just looking back on 2022 for a second. Just taking a breath. "Late Night Radio" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ I think I only mentioned Hearts in Atlantis for 3 movies this year? That feels like a low number but that's what my data is telling me. Dazed and Confused, Bull Durham, and High...

The squad from High Fidelity are at it again? in what is the kinda prequel, in a meta production sense, and a really great movie in my eyes. It makes me feel good. The cast really brings it, the movie is fun, and I think it set up some conventions or archetypes that carried forward into movies we see today (I think, at any rate). This is the first time I actually make something that sounds like it...

Top 5 hackiest tropes in media analysis and presentation: * Cribbing aspects of the media itself * Talking about how you can do a thing but haven't and then, in the edit, do the thing. * Not actually organizing thoughts into coherent and structured form * Being late and making it rushed * Starting a Top 5 list and then running out of things so you have filler Yeah, I'm Mark and this is 2000's High...

What could go wrong when you convince a mathematician at a prestigious university that you're a genius, with the help of geniuses, just to go on a date with her? Not much, right? Right. This is I.Q. and, when I write it out this way, it seems wild . It is wild. Leave your practical brain at home and enjoy the performances, Matthau especially, and conceits of this movie as they come. Do your thing....

This is it. This is the pinnacle of baseball movies. As it is the pinnacle of baseball movies, it is the pinnacle of sports movies. Not in a sports way but in a movies way. This, like THE SANDLOT (which you listened to that episode, right? It's back in season 2 or whatever), has no big game. It's about more than baseball but baseball is both the frame and the delivery mechanism. Baseball teaches u...

Yeah, this one didn't stand the test of time. It's unfortunate but it happens. You can tell just from the poster. See what this Cleveland baseball team is up to, again! Wow. My lack of enthusiasm is apparent. But it's 1994's Major League 2 and hopefully some folks made money off of it. This is the second at-bat for the baseball trilogy, and it is... not good. Ground ball to short and a throw out a...

Let's dig into one of the most influential sports movies of... the history of movies, I guess. Major League was a stone whose ripples in the pond of American culture are still seen to this day. The late 80's, but especially the early 90's, were rife with baseball movies and the continued success of Major League definitely pushed studios to green light them. Links Brockmire https://www.youtube.com/...

What do you do with 24 young actors? You make a movie, of course. This is Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused and it's capping off the American Graffiti Sequel Trilogy (that is two episodes) that kicked off Season 4 of Mark's Movies. I said I was going to make a diagram. I didn't. I thought I was going to have something super deep to say here. I don't. Enjoy the episode.

Revisiting things a few years later can be perilous and More American Graffiti is maybe a very good example of this. Even lacking most of the creative team from the first movie American Graffiti still manages to spawn a weird alternate reality sequel to American Graffiti (1973) that comes out a year later called The Hollywood Knights. Knight Time is the Right Time Of the two, The Hollywood Knights...

The final entry into Noirvember 2021. Private Investigator? I barely even know her! The 1973 entry into the annals of detective movies by Robert Altman starring Elliott Gould. There's a lot to talk about and I won't mention any of it. I'll try not to. This one is coming out hot so keep your eyes peeled for any updates here. This movie definitely has some content warnings that the 70's just didn't...

The Maltese Falcon That's all I wanted on the first line. If you don't know, now you know. Definitely watch this one before listening. Housekeeping stuff: Yes, I didn't mention Arthur Edeson at all. I mentioned the cinematography but the cinematographer went unacknowledged. The fact of the matter is that, at the time of this writing, which is actually the time before the recording because I'm sick...

Yeah, the way this movie was advertised is a bit different from how I took it. That happens. This is a detective x magic crossover event that might get you your fill of both (or not!) and it's called "Cast A Deadly Spell". My DVD copy is "Hechizo Letal" as it's in Spanish. I realize now that I didn't do a great job at relating this to Halloween (as it's actually release on the 31st of October as o...

1993 was a transitional period. We were slowly, ass a country, shedding the action movie template of the 70's and 80's while experimenting with some headier notions on how we relate to media. Last Action Hero was, is, seeming, a product of this time. Woefully misunderstood or, at the very least, disliked and, probably, mostly unexamined, this episode is really going to try to dig in a little more....

1989 saw Stallone and Russell team up as Tango & Cash . Let's talk about this movie as there is a lot of hidden depth here. Sounds intriguing, yes? That's how I get you. Description bait. If you want the link for the Kevin Smith video I mention it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2KB1dEDdk @coolmarkd on Twitter (best way to reach me) MarkD20 on Letterboxd

Sometimes you're looking for the heat but you get the breaking ball. This was one of those times. Marnie was not what I expected and this episode travels down some roads that may be upsetting to some people. Sometimes The Greats aren't all that great. Sometimes they just don't show up. It can be attributed to a variety of things, both personal and/or professional. Creative or practical. You name i...

Speak "friend" and build an atomic bomb with a precocious genius in this 1986 movie that, from the poster, looks like a paranoia thriller--and it almost is! Or it is, partly. But yeah this is another Saturday TV matinee movie from my youth and it's kinda good. There is a lot more to unpack in this movie than the average matinee. There's definitely some interesting attitudes towards things in the m...

Hey, sometimes we say the wrong words. This time I said a few wrong words. No, I did not go back in and pick those up. Let me know if I need corrections. House and House 2 are, apparently, comedy horror "cult" movies from the mid-80's that live rent-free in my mind (I hadn't heard about "rent-free" until maybe two years ago so I'm trying to use it more to seem relatable. My life isn't unique but i...

Hey, everybody. Mark D. IT Guy. Generally bad spy here. Just talking for a few minutes about what's to come on the podcast. We will be jumping into the prolific James Bond franchise but not all at once and not right away.