He Was on His Way In, As Bruce Lee Was on His Way Out
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Jim Kelly the martial artist (not to be confused with the Buffalo Bills quarterback, the soccer player from the 1920’s, the Federalist House of Representatives member from the early 1800’s, the Jack the Ripper suspect, the managing editor of Time magazine, the federal judge, the saloon keeper, or the pirate), has a unique spot in martial arts film history. His first film (or at least the film that he received his “Introducing” billing) Enter the Dragon, in which he played Mr. Williams, also happened to be the very last film that the iconic Bruce Lee made before he passed away. So the film has a lore of its own. Read the rest of this entry »
I wouldn’t have known who Sid Haig was if it weren’t for director Quentin Tarantino, that brought Sid Haig back into a mainstream film in 1997 with the film Jackie Brown. This was mostly in homage to the numerous Blaxploitation films he had starred in with Pam Grier under the direction of Jack Hill (ie. The Big Doll House, Coffy, and Foxy Brown). Tarantino had chosen to star Pam Grier in Jackie Brown, and Sid Haig’s presence as a judge gave a further nod to their films together in the 60’s and 70’s. Tarentino would utilize him again in Kill Bill Volume 2. 
At last…at long last, I present to you…Deb and Hilly. It was some twenty-five years in the making – as I entered the planning stages, plotted, pined and longed, and finally encountered these two teenage vixens who represented the geek’s unattainable ideals, only to be conquered and won over by geeks like me. Yes, I’m referring of course to the two classmates of Wyatt and Gary in the epic teenage 80’s film Weird Science. 
As sitcoms of the 1980’s go, I’d have to say that Growing Pains was one of the most subdued and wholesome of them all (despite Kirk Cameron’s goofy sidekick named Boner). However wholesome it was, once Kirk Cameron became an Evangelical Christian, he began to insist on the removal of anything in the series that might be construed as racy. This would also eventually lead to him alienating most of the cast, and having fellow cast member 
It was ironic that Catherine Mary Stewart was appearing at the Flashback Weekend Horror Convention in Chicago on Sunday, August 14, 2011. I hadn’t even known that I would be attending this show beforehand – when I chose to show Jamie the film Weekend at Bernie’s exactly one week earlier. Catherine Mary Stewart had portrayed Gwen, the summer intern that Richard (Jonathan Silverman) developed a debilitating crush on. In fact, the first time he approached her for a date, the only words that would come out of his mouth was the non-sequitur “my aunt is very sick.”