Freedom City
John Ira Thomas writes books for Candle Light Press. He also puts things on the internet, as putting them in the hollow oak hasn't worked so well.
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Days remain until I hop a couple planes to sunny Orlando for the 2011 MegaCon. Carter will also be there, doing Transformer sketches if History is any judge. I’ll be reading old football novels on my Nook in an effort not to spend too much at the movie tables. We’ll see how that goes.
I’ll have a fresh but very small supply of the third part of LOST IN THE WASH with me, so whip out your dollars.
We’re trying out a credit card service, Square, that works very well. I haven’t got the swiper to work yet, but cards can be enetered manually. It’s pretty cool; the buyer signs my smartphone’s with a finger and that’s it. The customer gets a receipt with exact time and place (thanks to phone GPS) and even a picture (optional) taken at time of purchase for extra legitimacy. I did a few experiments with it and it’s very sweet. So we’ll start taking credit cards at the table; hooray!
I was sweating this weekend to keep my two episode lead with my Movie Somnambulist column at One Page Wonder when I ran into what seemd an awful barrier. I’d been circling around watching NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR for a while, but was reluctant to tackle an anthology movie. Well, I swallowed my fear and yes it is a huge problem. I did a draft review where recounting the barest plot elements took the whole space. So I divided the effort into three reviews and did them all yesterday. There was even enough room for a joke and wry observation or two. Always nice to squeeze a couple into the mix.
Anyways, now I’m way ahead. But I still put a couple future review subjects on my phone, just in case things bog down in travel. Staring at a rough-edged old movie on a phone doesn’t bother me. I’d go blind trying to watch anything with a mise-en-scene worth noting, but shouting heads and machete strikes are easily visible on it.
Now if these damn allergies would get over their 2011 coming-out party already… -
This coming Friday will be the tenth Movie Somnambulist over at One Page Wonder. I’m powering through a 50-Movie box set at the rate of a movie a week and I haven’t gone more nuts yet. I picked a box that had a very small percentage of movies I hadn’t seen yet, and am now prowling around for more such boxes.
Here are the current Movie Somnambulist entries, in case you need to catch up:
Don’t Open Till Christmas
I Wonder Who’s Killing Her Now
The Legend Of Bigfoot
Slave of The Cannibal God
Katie’s Passion
Throw Out The Anchor!
The Firing Line
Day Of The Panther
The Guy From Harlem
The new one, going up Friday (link won’t work until then), is Shock.
The box is from Mill Creek Entertainment, who serve their dvds in large delicious slabs. -
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The first of my Movie Somnambulist reviews is up at onepagewonder.com; I’m reviewing all the movies in a 50-movie box set until my head explodes, or, you know, I finish.
First up is DON’T OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS.
The box set? It’s this one. -
30 minutes in and this is shaping up to be a real gem of an adventure. Stylish, sleek, well-told tale.
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Saw this one with Will this last Sunday. Bo Svenson as a skier who suddenly became scared to ski after winning three medals at the ‘68 Winter Olympics with Yvette Mimieux as what JEKYLL’s Mr. Hyde would call “Lois Lane with half a brain” and Clint Walker as the Sheriff? Can there be a carnival? A winter carnival? And a Queen? And how ‘bout the plot to JAWS too?
Okay, and can the son of the ski resort owner (you know, the one with everything to lose by having a scare over a snowbeast) SHOUT ALL OF HIS IMPORTANT LINES?!?!? I mean shout; not project, not blurt BUT SHOUT THOSE MOTHERS LIKE HOT ROUTES!!!
This one was way better than TWISTER’S REVENGE, but I’ve left better stuff than that floating. There are awesome hot-comb man-do’s and frankly the most physically imposing trio of monster hunters I’ve seen since PREDATOR. Bo Svenson caressed Yvette Mimieux’s face and HER HEAD DISAPPEARED! When Bo Clint and the SHOUTING GUY go after the Snowbeast, I was feeling a little PETA about it. “They’ll tear the Snowbeast to Alpo!” I shrieked.
The Snowbeast suit is better than the Shaggy Dog number from SHRIEK OF THE MUTILATED, but again…floating…in the…anyway.
This movie would have been on the AFI’s Hundred Greatest Bigfoot/Yeti Movies special if only they’d let one of these he-men duke it out with the Snowbeast. As it is, Legend of Boggy Creek is gonna keep then down forever.
