Of all of the cop or detective shows I’ve seen over the years, I can relate to this one better than any of them. You see, years ago, I was a detective. I wasn’t a cop and mostly did internal investigations for a large Florida retail chain. While I was a fair detective in most areas, I did eventually develop a specialty of sorts. When other detectives ran into a brick wall interviewing their subjects, they’d often call on me to get whatever information they were trying to extract. No, I didn’t beat it out of them. I was never a physically intimidating guy. I was just good at getting them to talk. I guess I was a little bit of a con artist who was working for the good guys instead of preying on hapless marks. I never lied to a subject and never threatened violence. It was a battle of wits, and I always won. That’s exactly how you would describe Brenda Johnson (Sedgwick) in The Closer.
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“By 2017, the world economy has collapsed. Food, natural resources, and oil are in short supply. A police state, divided into Paramilitary Zones, rules with an iron hand. Television is controlled by the state, and a sadistic game show called “The Running Man” has become the most popular program in history. All art, music, and communications are censored. No dissent is tolerated, and yet a small resistance movement has managed to survive underground. When high-tech gladiators are not enough to suppress the people’s yearning for freedom … more direct methods become necessary.”

This is quite a unique experience for me. Having recently reviewed the 2025 remake, I now have the opportunity to review the 1987 version. So, I essentially get to this in reverse. Naturally, I’ve seen the 1987 version years ago, but it being years ago, there a details that were no longer fresh in my mind, which essentially gave me the unique position of it being a new experience again.
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“I need the waves, man. I need the movement. The open ocean. I used to … as a kid I used to wander down to the Sonoran Desert, outside of Gilbert. It was terrifying, man. Just nothin’. But nothin’ everywhere I looked. And I just felt it out there, all of it. You know, whatever it is. Just felt it. And I get the same exact shit whenever I’m out on the water. I just know it when I feel it. It’s there. It feels like I’m at peace, you know? It feels like home.”

I know exactly what the guy is talking about here. I inherited a love of the sea from my father, who lived and breathed salt air. So I approached the film feeling a certain connection. The film is also based on events that happened here in the Tampa area. While this was filmed in Malta, the events happened in February of 2009 off the coast of Clearwater, Florida. It’s the spring training home of the Phillies and also home to Upcomingdiscs.
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“When my father smells oil, nature repents! And there’ll be oil; when it flows – and flow it will – my father will be right here with a bonus for everybody! It’ll be Saturday night in a few hours, and I’ve only one more duty – to see our Mexican workers and wish them a safe journey ‘home’. You all have a happy weekend and wish me one; we’ve labored hard, and we deserve the happiness that all Americans know to be their birthright!”

It was Sam Spiegel who first saw the potential of the Horton Foote novel and play The Chase back in the 1950’s. It was suggested as a vehicle for Montgomery Clift, but the rights languished for almost 10 years. Spiegel finally got the film off the ground and lured a pretty solid cast into the fold. Marlon Brando was a huge star, but the futures of actors like Robert Redford and even Robert Duvall hadn’t quite risen yet.
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I’ve never really thought of Josh Duhamel as an action star. I know that he’s done a few action movies, with the most notable being the Transformers franchise, and one could consider his 2003 NBC television series as an action drama. However, for whatever reason, the idea of John Duhamel and action star has just never been synonymous with me. That has officially changed, and interestingly enough, it’s because of a film that I suspected was going to be cheesy and full of tropes. And yet, it surprisingly turned out to be a movie that managed to be a balance of fast-paced action and emotional depth. Color me shocked. London Calling represents a first-time foray into the comedic side of filmmaking for director Allan Ungar, who typically creates biographical and psychological thrillers.
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“If you live long enough, you can see your dreams die a slow death. Young people don’t know how good they have it. Not ’cause they can, uh, touch their toes and screw all night. They haven’t learned that most things just don’t work out. Most times, you just mess it up, so it’s easier not to try. We’re all just looking for some hope. But at my age, hope is hard. Hope’s not enough.”

Song Sung Blue is a remake, of sorts. The film was first made as a documentary on a couple who called themselves Lightning & Thunder, and they made a pretty big splash in the music business as a Neil Diamond tribute band. It was written and directed by Greg Kohs. What’s ironic here is that he didn’t want to do a documentary. He wanted to do a feature film, but no studio would take it because they thought the idea was a bit too crazy for fiction. He even had trouble getting Neil Diamond to allow him to use the music. He ended up going through Eddie Vedder, because Lightning & Thunder  once opened for Pearl Jam.
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“This is a true story. Whenever possible the dialog has been based on official documents.”

The very idea of a serial killer is very much an American one. Around the globe it’s considered somewhat of an American affectation. While that may be the reputation, of course that’s not true at all. One of the earliest and most documented cases of the serial killer is Jack the Ripper from London’s 19th century. John Christie was also a British serial killer. He never received the kind of notoriety and lasting fame as Jack, but that’s likely because Christie was caught and Jack never was. With Jack we can speculate and contrive all kinds of “truths” because there’s no way to prove or more importantly disprove any of it. In 1971 director Richard Fleischer took on Christie’s story in the thriller 10 Rillington Place.
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I was kind of excited about this one. Starring Gene Wilder and directed by Sydney Poitier, plus it had a funny title. I thought this was going to be just the thing to kick off my weekend. However, after viewing, I have to say that I don’t think this film aged well. It didn’t hold my attention, and I found several of the character interactions to be subpar. The story took a while to fully form, as several events played out before Wilder’s character is even introduced. And it’s even longer before Gilda Radner’s character comes into play. I give the story credit for trying to establish an intricate plot, but in my opinion too much time in the beginning was dedicated to characters that aren’t are primary protagonists. To it’s credit, the plot did get slightly more interesting when  Wilder’s and Radner’s characters eventually meet, and we start to get some answers about the fine mess they find themselves in. It would have been nice to get that point quicker, as it seems we wasted valuable time investing in characters that were not crucial to the story.
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“Take your voltage, coming in the main power station in Canoga Park. Now, the electric company will tell you that it’s running smooth and steady. That’s a lie. I mean, you put that thing under a magnifying scope, that smooth, steady line starts to look like King Kong’s EKG. Ninety-volt drop-offs, 130 volt spikes. Pulses, they’re called.”

I’m old enough to have known relatives who were born before Thomas Edison started to wire America with his great new electric generators. In less than three generations we are completely dependent on that sweet 120-volt juice coming through our lines. When it’s not there, we panic and complain about having to deal with things like darkness and uncomfortable temperatures, not to mention how the heck are we going to cook dinner? We need it. We want more of it, because we keep buying more things that require it. We not only let it into our homes, but we demand it stays on.
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“From the studio that watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey.”

Having never watched Downton Abbey, I can’t speak to any parallels between this film and the television series turned movie. However, the good thing about a parody is that you don’t have to be familiar with the source material to enjoy it. Which is exactly what I did with Fackham Hall. This aristocratic parody which showcased the comedic talents of Damian Lewis (Billions), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts), and Ben Radcliffe (The Witcher) gave shades of iconic parodies such as Airplane and the Naked Gun. Even the title, which also serves as the setting of the film, is in on the joke (say it aloud and you’ll understand).
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Going into 2026, Heated Rivalry (2026-) is probably the most talked-about series circulating on social media right now, with many fans already ascribing it as their favorite comfort show. It has proven to be a sensationalized hit among queers and wine moms alike. After all, it was renewed for a second season almost immediately following the finale. The HBO series is a gay hockey romance built on the enemies-to-lovers trope, loosely based on Rachel Reid’s novel Heated Rivalry (2019), and created, written, and directed by Jacob Tierney. At its center are the two dreamboats, Illya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), who play on opposing teams and are naturally positioned as rivals, hence the namesake.
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“You never know who your friends are until the ice breaks”

Apparently that’s an indigenous peoples’ proverb. I wonder if it applies to Siberian huskies? Mine is here in Florida where there is no ice or snow to be found, so I will not have the occasion to test the theory. The closest she gets to snow is the crushed ice setting on my freezer door. Of course she does belong to a snow dogs sled pulling club with other huskies, but they cheat and have wheels on the sled. So sitting here in sunny Tampa, Florida, we’re about to have the longest stretch of 30 degree nights than I’ve encountered in a long time. So I thought this was the perfect time to invite Aurora (the husky) into my theater and settle down to watch Icefall, a film directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and out on Blu-ray by Decal Releasing.
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“You should be so proud of her.”

Shelby Oaks is something special when you look at it objectively; it’s a film that was crowd funded by the YouTuber Chris Stuckmann, who wanted to take a shot at making a movie of his very own. The original goal was to raise $600,000, but by the time his Kickstarter was closed, he was able to raise over 1.4 million to make his film. Before he’d even begun filming, this is already an impressive achievement considering how many established filmmakers struggle to get funds together to make their own films. For Shelby Oaks, over 14,000 people contributed to funding the dream for this directorial debut, so again, in my book Chris Stuckmann already won for being able to pull this off. Now the film has a producing credit from Mike Flanagam attached as an executive producer and Neon in charge of the films distribution … so needless to say, there is a great deal of hype around this film.
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