40 Responses to “Programming note”

1. 

   Mr. Majestyk

   September 5th, 2024 at 12:38 pm

   DON’T TELL VERN THE BABYSITTER’S DEAD

2. 

   Glaive Robber

   September 5th, 2024 at 12:47 pm

   I’m on a diet.
   Let’s use ALL that money on video rentals.

3. 

   deepfriednoir

   September 5th, 2024 at 1:06 pm

   I’m taking Vern’s Porsche 928 out for a spin, anybody got a number for Rebecca De Mornay?

4. 

   CJ Holden

   September 5th, 2024 at 1:08 pm

   Have fun and travel safe, Vern!

   Y’know, if we rob those drug dealers from the other side of the tracks and sell them their drugs back, we can rent even more movies! It’s a surefire plan. Really simple. Nobody will get hurt, Vinnie Jones won’t get involved and Vern will never know.

5. 

   Mattman Begins

   September 5th, 2024 at 2:05 pm

   Hope it’s a relaxing and recharging time away from the keyboard, Vern! Or, that your secret, government-disavowed mission goes perfectly. Whichever is more appropriate.

   (For others on the chat, just to clarify: if one was to run Vern’s Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder in reverse, the odometer would go backwards for any miles you accumulated while driving, right?)

6. 

   Paddy

   September 5th, 2024 at 2:22 pm

   Weekend at Vernies

7. 

   Uncle_Imshi

   September 5th, 2024 at 2:27 pm

   Appreciate you Vern

8. 

   pegsman

   September 5th, 2024 at 10:05 pm

   Have fun, Vern! I’m just gonna sit on your porch with my beer and make sure that the kids at least stay off the lawn! Maybe they’ll rent me a Randolph Scott movie if I’m not to hard on them.

9. 

   JTF

   September 6th, 2024 at 8:13 am

   Plenty of sausages and pepperonis! Everything but the little fishies.

10. 

    Borg9

    September 6th, 2024 at 9:45 am

    Thanks, Vern. Have a great break; it feels like you really earned it after the Summer of ’94. Travel safe, and maybe don’t get too close to the Dutch couple with the quiet kid.

11. 

    Glaive Robber

    September 6th, 2024 at 10:40 am

    Hopefully someone will chime in on Rebel Ridge, that’s the event of the weekend for me.

12. 

    emteem

    September 6th, 2024 at 11:53 am

    I’m not saying Vern doesn’t deserve a couple weeks off, but what about me? WHAT ABOUT MEEEEEEE?

    To the archives I suppose. Le sigh.

13. 

    emteem

    September 6th, 2024 at 11:54 am

    oops, hadn’t meant to submit.

    Also, obviously have a good and safe trip. I hope the “family stuff” is good family stuff and not bad family stuff. We’ll keep the lights on.

14. 

    Dreadguacamole

    September 6th, 2024 at 6:11 pm

    Have a great time off Vern!

    And Re: Rebel Ridge: holy shit. Without going into any particulars, and without wanting to overhype it…. I’d be extremely (and very pleasantly) surprised if anything tops it this year.

15. 

    Glaive Robber

    September 7th, 2024 at 8:11 am

    As a suspense thriller, “Rebel Ridge” is ACES. I think y’all will groove to it.

    BUT… as a citizen, I think it is a MUST.
    I wrote a little about it here — https://fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com/p/weekend-special-rebel-ridge

16. 

    Inspector Hammer Boudreaux

    September 8th, 2024 at 9:43 pm

    I hope everybody is sitting down before I get controversial, but BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE blows chunks. Vern says he’ll review it later but you heard it here first. Like Vern, I strive to be positive (less successfully) so I’ll just say it was great to see Winona Ryder again and I love that Lydia’s daughter is named Astrid.

17. 

    dreadguacamole

    September 9th, 2024 at 2:46 am

    @Inspector – I don’t think that’s a controversial take? The script is a complete mess. I liked the movie – found it funny and was infected by the fun everyone clearly had making it… but there’s no way I’m defending that screenplay. The film reminded me a lot of Mars Attacks in that way.

    It’s just nice to have Burton engaged and being funny after… what, two decades and a half?

18. 

    Charles

    September 9th, 2024 at 9:10 am

    Have a great break Vern! We look forward to your return.

19. 

    grimgrinningchris

    September 9th, 2024 at 2:19 pm

    DREAD… POTENTIAL BEETLEJUICE SPOILERS SO BE CAREFUL
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    I thought that Dark Shadows was far funnier than Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. It is just as uneven and messy in its story, but it looks better… and is legit funny. That is this movie’s biggest weakness… it is just not very funny. This was also my issue with Ghostbusters Afterlife (among many issues with it…). Its second sin is 4 antagonists, none of whose motivations have anything to do with each other’s. And all four’s plotlines are ended so abruptly and anticlimatically. This movie was clearly rewritten to death (joke intended). They also leaned waaaaay to hard into the “Bobs” and I would really have preferred to keep Charles as claymation and a headless body and do away with the constant photos of Jeffrey Jones throughout.

20. 

    KayKay

    September 9th, 2024 at 4:48 pm

    93 years of age is a pretty decent number to check out on, but it still stings when an Iconic Voice of a generation and terrific Screen Presence is no more.

    RIP Voice Of Vader and Thulsa Doom

21. 

    Kyle

    September 9th, 2024 at 7:15 pm

    Maybe spoilers…………

    I second the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opinions. The multiple antagonists was a surprise head scratcher. Like you got Monica Bellucci as your big bad. Use her. And I would add trying to recreate the magic of the dinner lip syncing Day’O scene of the original was a fail. Did anyone else find the Justin Theroux character super annoying after the first 10 minutes?

    But was fun watching with my fourteen year old and (Beetlejuice and Misery are her two favorite movies) because she loved it and at face value it’s enjoyable for the most part.
    The best thing it has going for it outside of Catherine O’Hare was that it was set around/on Halloween which is the one thing I would have added to Beetlejuice classic (one of my favorites as well) to make it even more perfect.

22. 

    Crudnasty

    September 9th, 2024 at 8:12 pm

    For once I’m actually caught up to the ol zeitgeist in having seen a handful of the recent movies, and it’s right when Vern goes on a (well deserved and hopefully very safe and satisfying) vacation. My timing remains impeccable.

    I did see Bee2lejuice/Beetle2ce, but gonna save my $0.02 for the review thread. I also saw Rebel Ridge, which I only discovered was a thing when I read about it here that the Blue Ruin/Green Room guy has a new movie out. And then I thought, well this sounds good but I don’t know when I’m gonna go back to a theater, I’ll probably just catch it on the streaming. Only to then learn- oh it debuted on the streaming! So I got to watch it immediately after learning it was even a thing. Sometimes the future is kinda cool.

    But being the future, you get less and less of the status quo and you lose incredibly cool pieces of that present to the past, and it does seem like losing James Earl Jones is a huge chunk of my own recognizable cinematic mountain range falling down. I like to call attention to what is probably my favorite villain role of his that he did from a movie I loved as a kid, Flight of Dragons, which I think was a TV movie from 1982 that included John Ritter and Harry Morgan in the cast. Jones played the evil wizard Obadon and it’s probably the most mega he’s ever gone in voice acting, at least his maniacal laughing in parts.

    I don’t know how to do links so forgive me if I trigger some kind of self defense mechanism:

    https://youtu.be/RKOErq1-okU?si=pZ1oClwQc2QeYT9J

23. 

    CJ Holden

    September 10th, 2024 at 10:00 pm

    Okay guys, who played with the dusty Ouija board from the attic? Vern is away for a few days and the comments are overrun by spell casters. Spell casters! I better go and buy some Zuni Fetish Doll spray, just in case.

24. 

    pegsman

    September 10th, 2024 at 10:21 pm

    CJ, you don’t think Dr. Jakuta has cast some love spell over Vern too?

25. 

    CJ Holden

    September 11th, 2024 at 12:42 am

    Dammit, Dr Jakutaaaaaaaaaa!

26. 

    KayKay

    September 11th, 2024 at 5:31 pm

    And it spewed that spell caster shit in the Woo Zone! Fucking spam bots gots no respect!

27. 

    CJ Holden

    September 11th, 2024 at 9:32 pm

    “I put a spell on Woo.”

28. 

    deepfriednoir

    September 12th, 2024 at 6:47 am

    Oh shit guys I rolled Vern’s car into the lake OH FUCK

29. 

    Mr. Majestyk

    September 12th, 2024 at 7:36 am

    Don’t worry about it. All we have to do is throw a huge party at Vern’s house and sell tickets. Then we’ll be able to pay to get it fixed before he gets home. I just hope those jock bullies from Cracked don’t show up!

    Who’s got a fake ID for the kegs? And do you think it’s too short notice to get Oingo Boingo to play?

30. 

    CJ Holden

    September 12th, 2024 at 11:36 am

    Sorry, I used the beer money to get some strippers. Hear me out: We will sell more tickets if hot chicks are around! I got two! Belle and Chlamydia. I think Chlamydia is a greek name. Guys love European girls!

31. 

    pegsman

    September 12th, 2024 at 10:14 pm

    I think we can straighten all this out by having a contest with the jocks: Which team can name all Steven Seagal’s theatrical releases? That will get us all the fame and fortune we need to get on Vern’s good side again.

32. 

    Adam C aka TaumpyTearrs

    September 13th, 2024 at 1:04 am

    The last time my dad left me pizza money and said I could order a movie on pay-per-view, I chose Ghosts of Mars. So, I’m gonna let someone else pick the movie this time.

    BTW, thanks to Vern and the community here for providing years’ worth of horror recommendations in the archives, my potential viewing list for October is now well over 100 movies. And to try and encourage myself to expand my range AND prevent endlessly scrolling to pick a movie, I have come up with a checklist and a game-ified way to pick a movie to watch: using a spinner or dice I will get a main category, so far I am thinking: Classic, Cult Classic, UK/Australian, Foreign (non-English), Slasher, and my special category for this year Hospital Horror (I have Visiting Hours waiting on my hard drive!). Then my second spinner/die will pick Subgenre, Decade, Or Director/Star, for me to narrow down my choices and allow me to try and fill out my checklist goals, which include: watching a movie from every decade (1930s on with 1920s as a bonus), a movie from every subgenre I can think off, and then a bunch of director/actor related goals.

33. 

    emteem

    September 13th, 2024 at 11:16 am

    Meanwhile, over on Twitter Vern has just visited the street in Pittsburgh where Tom Cruise punched a dude in the balls in Jack Reacher so he’s doing okay without us.

34. 

    Mr. Majestyk

    September 14th, 2024 at 7:26 am

    Hopefully “punching a guy in the balls on a specific street” becomes a Pittsburgh tourist staple, like running up the Rocky steps in Philly.

35. 

    Mike V.

    September 14th, 2024 at 8:59 am

    WHAT?! Vern is visiting my old stomping grounds, and I’m not there to translate Pittsburghese for him? Yinz goin’ dahntahn to ride ah incline n’at? Watch aht for dem nebby jagoffs dahn ‘ere.

36. 

    Glaive Robber

    September 15th, 2024 at 11:26 am

    Can’t wait for Vern’s review of THE KILLER’S GAME.
    It’s making zero dollars at the box office because they’re marketing this like a Seagal movie that time traveled from 1995. Which might be a recommendation to some, but honestly, it’s better than that.
    A straightforward meat and potatoes action comedy with fun, goofy choreography, and an overall sense of sweetness and kindness you don’t normally see in a movie where a dozen heads explode (and it comfortably earns the R). If your partner loves action, this is an ideal date movie.
    Small but solid mainstream showcases for the likes of Terry Crews, Scott Adkins (doing a cartoonish Scottish accent), Daniel Bernhardt and Marko Zaror. And Ben Kingsley bringing class and a lot of warmth to a supporting role. This won’t be one you remember at year’s end, but I think an action fan would feel this is a satisfying fastball down the middle.

37. 

    Mr. Majestyk

    September 16th, 2024 at 1:32 pm

    I second the KILLER’S GAME recommendation. It’s constructed entirely of tropes that were old 15 years before the first JOHN WICK, and it runs out of story a half-hour before a climax that feels more like the end of the second act than a proper finale, but it gets by on personality. The action is fun, bloody, and varied, the cast is a hoot, and, most importantly, the love story works. Batista and Boutella have great chemistry together, so it’s a shame the story sidelines her for the second half. But that second half is full of beloved action stars getting their heads exploded, so it’s hard to complain that much. It’s a movie whose charms are modest but sincere.

38. 

    The Undefeated Gaul

    September 16th, 2024 at 3:36 pm

    How is Scott Adkins in KILLER’S GAME? Something to get excited over or more of a blink and you’ll miss him cameo? I read some reviews that mentioned some of the assassins get killed off mere moments after they’re introduced so was hoping he wasn’t one of those!

39. 

    Mr. Majestyk

    September 16th, 2024 at 4:15 pm

    None of the Special Guest Assassins get a ton of screentime. They all get an intro and a fight scene and maybe one or two other bits of business. Adkins gets to add another outrageous accent to his repertoire, so that’s his main selling point. I wouldn’t see it just for him but he adds value. It’s less than a major role, more than a cameo.

40. 

    Adam C aka TaumpyTearrs

    September 17th, 2024 at 9:36 pm

    That sounds similar to how JJ Perry deployed Adkins in his previous movie Day Shift. He was only in one scene, but it was the movie’s highlight and he got to make an impression and kick ass in a few minutes. Other than John Wick 4, I think it was the best use of Adkins outside of his starring roles (although I will always smile when I remember him kicking the shit out of Dr. Benedict Cumberbatch).