The Twilight Zone Helicopter Crash is one of the most infamous accidents in Hollywood history. It claimed the lives of three people – veteran actor Vic Morrow and two child actors – Myca Dinh Le (age 7) and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (age 6). It led to a nine-month involuntary manslaughter trial, and numerous lawsuits and was considered the moment Hollywood finally started to take child labour laws seriously. It’s become a permanent stain on the legacy of director John Landis, and ghoulish footage of the incident is on permanent record, proving how complicated sequences can have deadly outcomes in only a split second. Indeed, in this episode of JoBlo Scandals, we’re digging into the Twilight Zone accident and the man at its heart, director John Landis.

Before the accident, Landis was one of the top directors in Hollywood. Two movements were going on in seventies films that forever changed the medium. One was the “New Hollywood” movement, where directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese challenged the old way of doing things, generating a whole slew of masterpieces. Yet, as the decade went on and the grim New Hollywood movies started to fail at the box office, the other movement, “the movie brats” began to take hold. This generation of talent included directors who grew up obsessed with Hollywood classics and yearned to make pure entertainment. There were some directors, such as George Lucas, who straddled the two lines, but of the Brats, the two biggest were Steven Spielberg and John Landis. 

After the accident, Landis’s career initially rebounded quite nicely, with him directing two of his biggest hits ever: the music video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Trading Places. But, the fallout from the accident eventually hit Landis hard, especially once he went on trial for involuntary manslaughter. In the video embedded above, we dig into what happened on set, and what happened after the accident to all involved.

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This is the time of year that really puts us in the spooky spirit. Like all of you, we love watching horror movies and content year-round, but October is something special and Halloween is the most special in that month. The last couple of years I’ve tried to pick something big to discuss either for horror in general or perhaps from one of horror’s biggest authors. Lately though I’ve been on a kick of looking up the opposite of what we do on this show. A reverse Uno card of a situation where instead of looking at the movie which is based on a book and their differences, I wanted to look at books that were written as tie-ins to their movie counterparts. There are a metric ton of these but as the trees change colors and all the Spirit stores inhabit long dead brick and mortar businesses, I wanted to look at the novelizations of the first 3 Halloween movies. Look out for voiceless shapes as we find out what happened to these adaptations.

As I said in the opening, this was, and kind of still is, a common practice. One of my favorite authors, and one that is fairly prolific, is Alan Dean Foster. Not only has he had a long list of stand-alone novels, but Foster also is one of the undisputed kings of the media tie-in. He wrote books based on Star Trek from the animated TV series to the original movie and the newer Abrams set of movies. He dabbled in the other major space fan base with books based on Star Wars and stayed in space while dipping his toes into horror with his novelizations of Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Covenant. He is relevant to today’s topic because he also wrote 3 books based on John Carpenter properties. While he didn’t do Halloween, he did do Starman, Dark Star, and The Thing. What’s great about these books and makes them so different is that they are based on the screenplay and not the final product. This can create wonderful instances of built-in change like when his write up of The Thing was based on a much earlier script. I highly recommend you seek that one and Escape from New York out, which was written by Mike McQuay.

Today’s novelizations were written by Curtis Richards, a nom de plume for Richard Curtis, for the first movie and Jack Martin which was a pseudonym for author Dennis Etchison for the other two. Man, these guys really didn’t want to be associated with these books, did they? These books, by the way, are now highly collectable and even though the original did get a reprint recently, the other two did not and if you want to seek all of them out, that’s wonderful. If not, they are available online for you to check out as the original authors or even companies aren’t exactly seeing any of money that these books go for and it’s kind of a lot. Richard Curtis, no, not the director of films such as Love Actually, is a literary agent and author, largely of non-fiction books about writing. His book is the only one that received a re-release recently and honestly, it’s the most different of the 3. Dennis Etchison passed in 2019 but also wrote the novelization of The Fog and was asked by Carpenter to write a script for Halloween 4 but Moustapha Akkad rejected it. Would have been interesting, as it focused on Lindsay and Tommy, but it was never to be. His final novelization would be for Videodrome, and I recommend you check out that and The Fog.

On to the movies and their books. Halloween is the gold standard and will never be topped both for slashers and inside its own series. It follows the night HE came home and broadly, is the story of Michael Myers, years after killing his sister on Halloween night, escaping the mental hospital that he was in and coming back home. He ends up stalking Laurie Strode and her friends and kills all of them, with the survivors being Laurie, Tommy and Lindsay, and Michael’s doctor Loomis, who wants him locked up forever. Lynda, Annie, and Bob are all killed and although Michael is shot out of a window by Loomis, he is nowhere to be found, and the Boogeyman is still out on the prowl.

The book is short compared to standard novels at 166 pages but not so short compared to these movie tie-ins of the time that were akin to the Giallo or yellow paperbacks in Italy that the genre of horror takes its name from, or even the dime store Western paperbacks available for purchase at every gas station in America at one time. Those 166 pages, though, do their best to be different and of the 3, Halloween has the most to offer in terms of differences. I’m looking forward to going over it and have no intention of having restraints on spoilers, so if you want to experience it for yourself first, pause and read, then come on back. First the minor differences. Names are changed here and there with Laurie’s dad being named Chester instead of Mason, Judith’s boyfriend actually has a name in Danny, and some other last names and street names are changed. Finally, in a cool touch, when Tommy sees Michael carrying Annie’s body. it is Creature from the Black Lagoon that is playing on the TV instead of The Thing from Another World. Carpenter would go on to remake The Thing but was supposed to remake Creature at some point too.

The same characters die in the book version, but it happens in a more graphic manner. Lynda is strangled in the movie and Annie has her throat slashed but both are gutted in the book, and the mangled bodies are far more messed up on the page. While those changes do add some spice to the book if you’ve seen the movie a couple dozen times, the big changes really reshape the story. If its better or worse comes down to how you feel about Myers being explained more. The book is 15 chapters and while the last 11 chapters chronicle the main story of the movie, those first 4 chapters go off the rails and makes me wonder if Rob Zombie was a fan of the book growing up. Loomis is revealed to have a wife and child in the novel. This doesn’t change Loomis as much and he is just as voracious in his belief about Michael on page as he is in screen but wait, there’s more. Those first 4 chapters give us insight into the why as well.

The book starts all the way back at the origins of the Druid festival of Samhain and how it created a killer. This killer is somehow related to Michael and the impulses are passed down. We get to interact with a 6-year-old Michael, who speaks with his grandmother about voices in his head telling him to do things and hear these voices again when he is about to kill his sister. We do get him talking a few times which is a very polarizing thing. After the murder, the judge puts him in the psychiatric hospital under the care of Loomis just like in the movie, but we get a lot more of that experience too. Myers becomes the boss of the hospital almost and hurts people at will but is smug and emotional about it. Neither patients nor workers want to mess with him and Loomis even sets up a trap by having a Halloween party that doesn’t work. Later on, we even get more inner thoughts from The Shape where he is somewhat titillated by hunting his victims. That is quite the different killer than we are used to. Personally, I dislike how Michael is treated here even more than putting in the sister angle but it’s still a fun and different take.

Halloween II takes place immediately after the first film with it even showing the ending of that movie. Michael escapes after being shot and heads towards the hospital where Laurie is taken. The town now knows what is going on and all the killed teens are discovered. Loomis has become more unhinged and vows to kill Myers rather than take him back in and he gets poor Ben Tramer killed in the process. Michael kills his way through the hospital before having a showdown with both Laurie and Loomis where he and his doctor end up getting blown up via gas and a lighter. Although the cover for this book is lights out compared to the other two we talk about today, the changes aren’t nearly as drastic or in some cases infuriating as the first one.

Small changes include a different opening, with more from Mrs. Elrod and her husband, including her assuming it’s the Myers boy coming back. Mr. Sandman is heard, or I guess read, extensively through the book rather than just at the end and several of the kills differ in either how graphic they are or description. For example, Budd is seen being killed through glass that isn’t clear but, in the book, it goes into detail about how he is strangled with a stethoscope. These are neat little touches, especially with this movie having a much higher body count than the first one. The other major changes are more frequent flashbacks from Laurie that include her parents and almost everything that was cut from the final movie that ended up as deleted scenes or in the vaunted TV cut also appear in the book. The biggest addition, and this book is even fewer pages than the 166 of the first one, is that the TV reporter has a much more substantial part. We follow her for a bit as she pursues her story and she inadvertently drives Michael towards the hospital in her trunk before he kills her. Overall, a quick and fun read, though not as different as its predecessor.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is now rightfully seen as one of the best films in the series and of the ’80s in general. It follows Doctor Dan Challis and a young woman named Ellie, who are on the hunt to Santa Mira to figure out why her father was killed. It turns out an old warlock named Cochran is using Stonehenge and magic to play a dastardly trick on most of the population and activate masks that kids will wear on the holiday that will kill them and anyone around them. Challis is able to shut down the factory and kill Cochran but loses Ellie and may lose the ultimate battle. This has the fewest differences of the 3 but is nonetheless a fun experience. The speech that Cochran makes to Dan when he thinks he has won in the movie is an all timer that I watch every year, even if I don’t watch the movie, and it’s different and less compelling in the book. Ellie is turned into a robot in both book and film but she is also toned down to almost a toddler in the book and almost kills herself in the process. Some other minor things like the robots’ blood being white like the Alien androids in the book and yellow in the movie as well as the old woman playing Solitaire rather than knitting.

The final two bits that are actually better in the book are the death of Buddy and his family, where it goes into much more horrifying detail and has more horrible creatures emerge. Little Buddy’s eyes go big and fully red, and an enormous spider comes out and kills the mom. The entire room is filled with carnage and other dimensional creatures. Finally, while we don’t know the extent of the event on Halloween night, it is still far worse than the movie’s ambiguity. The movie may end with the final channel going dark, but it cuts out before we see and the movie has the sad act of Dan calling his house to try to save his family but also hearing the screams begin to arise from all over the country. That last channel definitely didn’t get turned off. All 3 of these are fun and I would recommend really any movie tie in if you like the movie enough. Heck, the one for Halloween Ends actually makes the story good! Other avenues to seek out are the YouTube channel Audiobooks for the Damned which found many of these tie-ins and makes them audiobooks. Also seek out the PDFs online if the physical copies are too rich for your blood. Oh, and Happy Halloween!

A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

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THE STORY: After causing a deadly accident while driving drunk, a family man (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is sent to a maximum security penitentiary. There, he’s recruited by the Aryan Brotherhood, and coerced into acts of violence that threaten to erase any trace of the man he once was.

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Omari Hardwick, Lake Bell, Jon Bernthal, Emory Cohen & Jeffrey Donovan. Written and directed by Ric Roman Waugh.

THE HISTORY: Shot Caller was released with very little fanfare last summer. A low-key VOD release from Saban, which nonetheless received some pretty good reviews when it played the festival circuit, it forms a loose trilogy for director Ric Roman Waugh, following his earlier FELON and SNITCH. Originally a Relativity production, that company’s bankruptcy sent the finished film into a tailspin, hence the limited release. Given how VOD numbers are rarely revealed, it’s impossible to know how the film did financially, but it seems to have been a heavily pirated title, cutting into the bottom line – although that aspect also gave the film a certain cult notoriety which seems to be growing.

I didn’t know much of Saban Films when we were looking for a new home — I just thought of Haim Saban and the “Power Rangers” franchise. I ended up meeting with the team at this new independent distributor and had suddenly found partners that were super passionate about the film and understood what the movie was and the marketing enhances it in that way. I feel like we traded up. I knew it wasn’t going to be a massive box office hit but I hope it makes enough to make everyone happy. – Ric Roman Waugh Variety interview

WHY IT’S GREAT: As I wrote when I initially reviewed this title, Shot Caller is the reason I review so many VOD films. Usually, they’re crap, but occasionally, a great little sleeper, such as this one, hits the platform, and makes the digging worthwhile. A tough-as-nails prison thriller, Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives the performance of his life as the comfy, white-collar family man turned hard as nails killer.

I knew I had to get a guy that could straddle both lines — believable as a white collar guy, yet surprise you when they become violent. When I talked with Nik, it really was one of the greatest conversations I’ve had with an actor. All he talked about for three hours was the subtext of the character, what the movie meant and nothing about any of the cool stuff the character would do. It had nothing to do with that. It was all about what the movie was trying to present, and I knew right there I had my partner. – Ric Roman Waugh Variety interview 

Shot Caller never begs you to sympathize with Coster-Waldau’s Jacob (or – as he’s called in the slammer – “Money”). It’s made clear that it’s his own fault that he wound up in prison, having driven drunk and then refused a plea which would have saved him from his fate. It reminded me a bit of the old Tom Selleck vehicle, An Innocent Man, although Jacob’s not, in fact, innocent. Yet, you still naturally empathize with him, even when he makes horrible choices, such as affiliating with the Aryan Brotherhood. Even then, there’s an escape, with their chapter head (an unnerving Jeffrey Donovan) advising him to keep his head down and do what they tell him, but his own machismo gets the better of him. Soon, his thirty-month sentence becomes a decade, and the film crosses back and forth between his eventual release, where he’s now a high-ranking gang member, to his prison career. He’s our hero, yet you never really root for him to get back to his family, as they really are better without him – giving the film a palpable sense of tragedy.

At the same time, Shot Caller works as a thriller, with brutal action scenes, and an amazing supporting cast, including Lake Bell as Jacob’s wife, Donovan, and Jon Bernthal as another gang member – plus Omari Hardwick of Power as the probation officer on Jacob’s trail. Waugh gives it a gritty, stripped-down feel, and earns the two-hour plus running time. In a better marketplace, this would have been an A-level studio release.vi

SEE IT: Shot Caller is available on most streaming sites, and on Blu-ray.

PARTING SHOT: Given the low-key release, this is likely one of the few movies in this column I wager a lot of people genuinely have never seen, but it’s an under-the-radar gem and a must see. Check it out!

The post Shot Caller is the Best Prison Movie You Never Saw! appeared first on JoBlo.

Recently, I wrote an article about movies that were surprisingly hard to find on streaming or Blu-ray, and one of the movies I mentioned was a little-remembered 1988 thriller called Shoot to Kill (aka Deadly Pursuit in the UK). The film was a decent box office hit in its day, but outside of a DVD release many years ago, it has sunk into obscurity. 

This is a shame, as Shoot to Kill is a nifty little movie. After a few comments praised the film, I decided to revisit it for myself, as I honestly hadn’t seen it since the nineties and had no idea if it would hold up. To my surprise, not only did it hold up, but Shoot to Kill is a bit of a lost 80s action classic.

The film stars Sidney Poitier as a veteran FBI agent investigating a strange robbery where the owner of a diamond broker robbed his own store. It turns out the desperate man stole his own diamonds to pay off a man holding his beloved wife hostage. Poitier’s G-man underestimates the criminal, and in the end, he murders the man’s wife, his maid and even his dog. Shaken up by the fact that this jewel thief would kill so many innocent people, he becomes obsessed with finding him, only to discover that the man has hightailed it into the Pacific Northwest wilderness and has infiltrated a group of fishermen who are being led through the mountains by a female guide named Sarah Renell, played by a young Kirstie Alley, who was on Cheers at the time and would star in Look Who’s Talking the following year. Luckily, Sarah’s boyfriend, Jonathan Knox, is an expert tracker and mountain man, and the two team up to track down the fishing party before the killer, whose identity we don’t know at this point, can be revealed.

Now, this is an excellent premise for an action flick. It has all the elements. It has perfect motivation for the two heroes, with Poitier’s Warren Stantin feeling guilt over the people he couldn’t protect, while Berenger’s Knox wants to rescue his girlfriend. The two are also a classic mismatched pair, with Poitier a sophisticated, older urbanite with no wilderness experience. At the same time, Berenger plays a total loner who has never had to kill or been pitted against a monster despite his skills in the mountains. This makes the film work on many levels, being a straight-ahead thriller with tons of action while also having elements of a mismatched buddy comedy worked in.

It’s expertly directed by Roger Spotiswoode, who made a slew of exciting thrillers in the 80s, including Terror Train, Under Fire and Air America, before taking an ill-advised stab at comedy with Stop or My Mom Will Shoot. He bounced back when he directed Tomorrow Never Dies. 

But what makes Shoot to Kill work is how exceptionally well-cast it is. Younger viewers may not appreciate how big of a star Sidney Poitier was when Shoot to Kill was made but suffice it to say he was a legend. Poitier was the first black movie star, winning an Oscar for Lillies in the Field and having starred in a slew of classics, including In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Shoot to Kill was his first time in front of a camera in 12 years, as he had prematurely retired from acting to try his luck as a director. He was the first black director to make a movie that grossed over $100 million when he made the Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor comedy classic Stir Crazy. 

When he made Shoot to Kill, Poitier was sixty, and this was a pretty bold role for him to take, as by the nature of the film, it’s highly physical. He spends most of the movie in the mountains, hiking, climbing rocks, and doing a lot of pretty physically taxing stuff that, impressively, he wasn’t doubled for. More than anything, his gravitas gives the film an extra oomph, as he has the aura of a man who’s been through a lot, as by his age, his character would have been one of the first black FBI agents and, as he tells Berenger at one point, he’s faced off with the Mafia, the KKK and the KGB. Indeed, Poitier has – onscreen, that is. You also buy him as a man who’s haunted by his failure, and near the end of the film, his pursuit of the villain becomes almost suicidal, as he doesn’t want another innocent life to be taken. But Poitier is also hilarious, reacting with disbelief at the various things he encounters in the mountains, such as a moose and a grizzly bear that he manages to scare away. Berenger is just as good in a rare action role, playing a rugged mountain man with a soft side. Kirstie Alley could have been saddled with a generic woman-in-p peril role. Still, her character is tough and resourceful, and even once the bad guy has been revealed and she gets taken hostage, she constantly tries to get free and never allows herself to become a victim. In some ways, she’s the star of her action movie happening simultaneously. 

No, as for the villain, this is where it gets tricky. The film goes through great pains to hide his identity so that you don’t know who the bad guy is when he infiltrates the fishing party. Three other fishermen are played by well-known character actors who have played villains before, including Dirty Harry’s Andrew Robinson, Richard Masur, Frederick Coffin and the Kurgan himself, Clancy Brown. Ok, so to someone in 2024, it may not be that much of a mystery who the killer is, as one of these guys has become a legendary big-screen villain, and I’m not talking about Richard Masur. Even still, this mystery aspect works well.

Overall, Shoot to Kill is a pretty stunning piece of old-school action filmmaking, with good performances, hair-raising stunts, and excellent location shooting in BC and San Francisco. My only complaint is that the musical score by John Scott is a tad cheesy, with too much saxophone – but alas, that’s the era. Part of me thinks it would be a classic if Michael Kamen, Alan Silvestri, or Jerry Goldsmith had scored this. This winter of 1988 was a good-sized hit at the box office, making more than twice its budget back, and it was a popular VHS rental. So why is it out on Blu-ray? It seems to have fallen into a gray zone of unavailable movies released by Disney’s adult label, Touchstone Pictures, in the 80s. Many of these movies are available on Disney Star internationally, and Shoot to Kill was streaming at one point, as there’s a good HD copy floating around out there – it’s just not available at the moment. That’s too bad because this movie is a little gem worth rediscovering, especially given that Poitier passed away not too long ago. If you can find it, you should give it a shot. 

The post Shoot to Kill: The Best 80s Action Movie You Never Saw appeared first on JoBlo.

Some cliche somewhere said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This has proven to be the case for me and especially when it comes to fan art. I have always sought out great fan art and have wanted to share it with as many people as possible. “Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net” is the outlet for that passion. In this column, I will showcase the kick-ass artwork of some great artists, with the hopes that these artists get the attention they deserve. That’s the aim. If you have any questions or comments, or even suggestions of art or other great artists, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.

Black Myth: Wukong by Geeky Ninja

He-Man by Carlos Valenzuela

Kingpin by Bryan Johnson

Logan’s Run by John Dunn

Pan’s Labyrinth by Christopher Higginson

Poor Things by Sarah Atwa

The Shining by Victor Barreto

The Substance by Luis López

Terrifier by Forksaken Folklore

Transformers One by Alan Dav

The post Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net: He-Man, Poor Things, The Shining, The Substance, Terrifier, Transformers One appeared first on JoBlo.

The OFFICIAL JoBlo Originals’ Live Stream, Friday Night Flicks with Kier Gomes, is back, and this time he’s unpacking the movie that destroyed Joker 2 at the box office, Terrifier 3! Yes folks, this scrappy little indie isgoing to go down as one of the most profitable movies of the year, and our host Kier Gomes has seen it, and is ready to dig into all the ultra-gory details.

If you saw Damien Leone’s flick and you have thoughts, now is your opportunity to chime in. But, BEWARE, this is going to be a SPOILER-FILLED episode. However, Kier will also be covering all the latest movie news as well and will give viewers a warning before the SPOILERS start!

So, make sure to come check out the episode! You can see the show on our JoBlo Originals channel (or via the embed above) – TONIGHT at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT.

So make sure to WATCH LIVE and participate in the chat!

What else would you like to hear Kier weigh in on the Live Stream tonight? Make sure to tune in TONIGHT at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT right HERE! Let us know in the comments!

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Ask nearly anyone to describe Mr. T. and you’ve got the same description: the mohawk, the gold jewelry, the tank top, the muscles…It’s so distinct that it must be planned. And it is. But we bet you couldn’t tell us the significance of any of it: what the mohawk and chains symbolize, what the “T” really means deep down. And we bet you couldn’t tell us Mr. T.’s real name if your mama’s life depended on it. Is it for Tender? Or Tough? Maybe a little of both, depending on if he’s spitting motivational phrases or ready to whoop some butt at the club. But rest assured, every move of Mr. T.’s – ever since being discovered by Sylvester Stallone – has been calculated, whose presence and aura – despite being tied to one specific moment in time – remains unforgettable. And yet, we know so little about the man. Let’s find out: What Happened to MR. T?

But to truly understand what happened to Mr. T, we go back to the beginning. He was born on May 21st, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest of a dozen in the projects. And no, his real name isn’t Mr. T: it’s Laurence Tureaud. The Mr. T. moniker was done to demand respect as a Black man in America. With that, you had no choice but to respect him.

A nature athlete, Mr. T – that’s right, he earned our respect already! – took to wrestling and football early on, even later trying out (unsuccessfully) for the NFL. With that a bust, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1975, proving to be a top trainee in the USAMPA. In an almost mythical, Paul Bunyan-esque story – only not so because Mr. T confirmed it – the recruit found himself in trouble and so, as punishment, was forced to cut down trees…and he did, chopping down 70 in just over three hours. B.A. indeed!

Mr. T. used his background to land a job as a club bouncer, first donning his trademark gold chains, almost daring people to try to snag them. He likened them to shackles worn by his slave ancestors. Similarly, his Mandinka-inspired mohawk was inspired by the tribe of the same name. And while we always associate the gold with the man, you might not have noticed that he dropped them in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a sign of respect. Even still, in 2010, he did partake in a company that specialized in buying gold. Look, the dude hawked everything from car wax to title loans, socks, candy, credit cards, and laundry detergent – the gold gig was no surprise.

Rocky III

To explain just how big and bad Mr. T. was, check out his client list: Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Steve McQueen. Not tough enough for you? He was also the dude in charge of protecting Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali (from whom he snagged many of his mannerisms and poetic speech patterns)! No wonder he was named “World’s Toughest Bouncer”…And that’s what got him recognized by Sylvester Stallone, who was at work on what would become Rocky III…

By 1982, Mr. T. already had a small selection of credits, as in his unnamed part in The Blues Brothers (1980) and 1982’s Penitentiary II, playing himself, something he would do in countless shows: Games People Play (1981), Twilight Theater (1982), Silver Spoons (1982), Diff’rent Strokes (1983), Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983), Out of This World (1991), Blossom (1994), House of Mouse (2003), Johnny Bravo (2004), The Simpsons (2004), 1999’s Inspector Gadget, and on and on and on.

But 1982 was his true coming out party. As Clubber Lang – Balboa’s main opponent, standing in for Apollo Creed – Mr. T. brought a level of charisma, attitude and power that had so rarely been seen in such form. It says something that heavyweight champ Joe Frazier – a former client of Mr. T. – was considered for the part. But Sly saw something in Mr. T. that helped propel him into the stratosphere of the ‘80s mainstream, using his mannerisms, quirks and mic skills to flesh out Clubber Lang and make him one of the defining characters of the Rocky series. This, too, was the origin of the “I pity the fool!” quote, the line most associated with him that became one of the most recognizable catchphrases in pop culture. And here you thought it came from The A-Team…

The A-Team

Mr. T.’s momentum kept building, being cast as mercenary B.A. (Bad Attitude) Baracus in NBC action series The A-Team, joining the cast and immediately becoming the standout character when it debuted in 1983. (Of note, born-again Christian Mr. T. turned down a cameo in the 2010 movie adaptation of The A-Team, citing the script’s violence and sex.) Sure, maybe you had a Hannibal figure but Baracus was the one to get. And if you had a B.A. Baracus action figure, that probably wasn’t the only collectible you had, as nobody had just one Mr. T. piece in the ‘80s: lunch boxes, toy guns, cake toppers, playing cards, Halloween costumes, View-Masters, Chia Pets – you name it, the dude had his face on it. And who can forget the cereal, the favorite breakfast of one Pee-Wee Herman?

Like so few of his contemporaries, Mr. T. landed his very own animated show, in 1983. Although it ran for just 30 episodes, it had its place in the living rooms of ‘80s kids. In it, he played a gym teacher who spent time-solving mysteries with students…Weird, sure, but it also worked in moral lessons for the kiddos at home. By now, Mr. T. was nothing short of a role model. In 1984, he released the album MR. T.’S COMMANDMENTS, which had songs with titles like “Don’t Talk to Strangers” and “No Dope No Drugs”. This hit a peak in 1984 with the video release of BE SOMEBODY (OR BE SOMEBODY’S FOOL), which featured lessons on good deeds and a song called “Treat Your Mother Right”, which Mr. T said was almost as good as “Amazing Grace.” Mr. T.’s other key small screen role was T. And T. (1988-1990), which ran for three seasons after The A-Team went off the air.

While starring vehicles like D.C. Cab (1983) and the TV movie The Toughest Man in the World may not have worked out as he wanted, and the made-for-TV special A Christmas Dream with Emmanuel Lewis aka Webster is a straight-up bizarre time capsule in the cringiest way, Mr. T. had conquered pop culture up to that point. There was only one place left for him: the squared circle.

Wrestlemania

At the inaugural WrestleMania in 1985, Mr. T. teamed up with Thunderlips himself, Hulk Hogan, to take on Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. With T. and Hogan coming out victorious in the main event – something that bothered the actual wrestlers, who didn’t think he earned the spot – WrestleMania was a hit, helping mark a start to the WWE’s (then-WWF’s) biggest annual event and the celeb ties that come with it. The next year, he had another match, besting Piper in a boxing match (hey, celebs tend to win but we totally bought this one anyway). Believe it or not, Mr. T. is often credited with popularizing pro wrestling for the mainstream, and as such, he would make sporadic appearances in the WWF/WWE and WCW, later being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

D.C. CAB may have a bit of a cult following (hey, it’s actually kind of fun!) but nothing else he did after has. Indeed, the cult following is behind the man, not the product. 1987 saw him playing Jabberwock in the TV movie version of Alice Through the Looking Glass, while he got genuine laughs as the Bearded Lady in oddball cult comedy Freaked. This was just the first of a series of weird roles for him: a helicopter pilot in Spy Hard (1996), The Wise Janitor trope in Not Another Teen Movie (2001), etc. He would also make good use of his distinct vocals, lending his talents to TV’s EEK! The Cat (1994), Sabrina: The Animated Series (1999) and a cop in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009). He, too, would get frequent in-person spots in of-the-era shows like Martin (1996), Suddenly Susan (1996-1997) and Malcolm & Eddie (1999), as well as landing a role in 2001’s apocalyptic Judgment. But as you can imagine, basically anything after the ‘80s was either a joke or a waste of his personality. Look, there’s a reason there was once a Facebook petition page called “1,000,000 Strong for Mr. T in The Expendables 4”.

Even though he has dropped the gold and rarely makes public appearances, Mr. T continues to have a following – despite being locked into one specific decade, a point in time impossible to capture again. This is a guy who made millions off of a distinct look and sound, piggybacking off of his signature catchphrase to host a reality series called I Pity The Fool (2006). He’s such a product of his time – yet instantly recognizable – that you’d think he’d be perfect for something like Dancing with the Stars! Oh, wait, he was, being eliminated third in season 24 after Chris Kattan and Charo.

In 1995, Mr. T was diagnosed with cancer – t-cell lymphoma, to be exact. But he wasn’t negative about it, instead quipping, “Can you imagine that? Cancer with my name on it – personalized cancer.” That’s a tough dude right there, not only continuing to beat survival rate odds but making himself – not the cancer – the thing to beat.

The post What Happened to Mr. T? appeared first on JoBlo.

A new episode of the What Happened to This Horror Movie? video series has just arrived online, and in this one we’re looking back at the 1990 film Predator 2 (watch it HERE), which blends the genres of horror, sci-fi, and action. This one isn’t as popular as its predecessor, but does have a solid fan following of its own. To hear all about it, check out the video embedded above!

Directed by Stephen Hopkins (Judgment Night) from a screenplay written by Predator writers Jim Thomas and John Thomas, Predator 2 has the following synopsis: Los Angeles is enduring a heat wave and a crime wave, so the pressure on police officer Mike Harrigan to solve a strange string of murders is mounting. Harrigan thinks the culprit can be found among the warring gangs and drug cartels, but FBI Special Agent Peter Keyes knows the horrible truth: Their killer is a fearsome extraterrestrial with keen hunting abilities that include superior night vision and the power to make itself invisible.

The film stars Danny Glover, Kevin Peter Hall, Gary Busey, Ruben Blades, Maria Conchita Alonso, Bill Paxton, Lilyan Chauvin, Robert Davi, Adam Baldwin, Kent McCord, Calvin Lockhart, and Morton Downey Jr.

This is what the What Happened to This Horror Movie series is all about: Hollywood has had its fair share of historically troubled productions. Whether it was casting changes, actor deaths, fired directors, in-production rewrites, constant delays, budget cuts or studio edits, these films had every intention to be a blockbuster, but were beset with unforeseen disasters. Sometimes huge hits, sometimes box office bombs. Either way, we have to ask: What Happened To This Horror Movie?

The Predator 2 episode of What Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written by Eric Walkuski, Edited and Narrated by Tyler Nichols, Produced by John Fallon and Andrew Hatfield, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

A couple of the previous episodes of the show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

What do you think of Predator 2? Let us know by leaving a comment!

The post Predator 2 (1990) – What Happened to This Horror Movie? appeared first on JoBlo.

In the early nineties, Tom Cruise was at a crossroads in his career. As he approached thirty, the time was fast approaching when he could no longer play the kind of “cool young guy” role that had made his eighties movies such huge successes. Indeed, the formula was starting to wear thin, with Days of Thunder underperforming at the U.S. box office. His follow-up, Far and Away, performed even worse, landing with a thud at the North American box office, despite it re-teaming Cruise with his now wife Nicole Kidman, whose career was starting to take off. It was time for Cruise to tweak the kind of movies he was making, and sure enough, his next film, A Few Good Men, would kick off a streak of 5 back-to-back $100 million hits, which would make him the most bankable actor in the world.

A Few Good Men was based on a play by Aaron Sorkin, who, at the time, was an unknown. Sorkin’s sister was a lawyer for the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, better known now – largely thanks to this movie – as the JAG Corps. His sister told him about a case that involved a group of marines on trial after a hazing (aka a Code Red) ordered by a superior officer almost resulted in the death of a fellow marine. Of the ten Marines accused of the crime, seven would accept a plea deal that called for their immediate dishonourable discharge. Three would elect to go to trial, ending in all three being cleared.

Sorkin would dramatize the events significantly, with the violent hazing resulting in a death and only two Marines being involved, with both of them electing to go to trial. The play immediately sold to producer David Brown, one of the original producers on Jaws, who partnered with Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock to make the film. Reiner was much in demand as a director at the time, having made This is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me and When Harry Met Sally, and he opted to direct the film. Sorkin was allowed to adapt his own play. However, despite receiving sole screenplay credit, famed writer William Goldman made some changes which Sorkin liked so much he included them in all future stagings of his original play.

As the lead, Daniel Kaffee, a silver-tongued JAG attorney who specializes in plea deals for his clients without ever having to go to trial, Tom Cruise was the first and only choice. While Days of Thunder and Far and Away may not have worked, Cruise was also coming off Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July, meaning his acting bonafides were rock solid. The script, paired with Reiner’s reputation as a director, made the movie a hot property, meaning that they were able to assemble a star-packed dream cast that would include stars who were leading their own movies at the time in supporting roles. 

Both Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon were big enough in the nineties that they could have arguably been up for the Kaffee role. Still, they agreed to play smaller parts, with Sutherland the sadistic 2nd Lt Kendrick, who participates in the cover-up, while Bacon would play opposing counsel, Captain Jack Ross. Demi Moore, who had done Ghost not long before, would play Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway, co-counsel for Kaffee and his superior officer. This led to the studio Tri-Star, demanding that Sorkin write a sex scene for Cruise and Moore, claiming that there was no point in casting Moore if she wasn’t going to sleep with Cruise in the movie. Sorkin bristled at the studio note and was backed up by Reiner, who thought the idea was asinine. Kevin Pollack, then known mainly as a comedian, would play Kaffee’s best friend and the movie’s conscience, LT Sam Weinberg, while the rest of the cast would include up-and-comers like Cuba Gooding Jr and Noah Wyle. As the two accused marines, Reiner cast James Marshall, who was then best known for Twin Peaks, as PFC Louden Downey, while his own assistant, a non-actor named Wolfgang Bodison, would deliver an electrifying performance as Lance Corporal Dawson. Noted character actor JT Walsh would play the conscience-plagued Lieutenant Colonel Markinson, leading to him becoming much in demand over the years to come before his tragic death in 1998.

Of everyone, though, the biggest casting coup was Jack Nicholson, who would play the movie’s antagonist, Colonel Nathan R. Jessep. Nicholson was not the first choice for the role, with Gene Hackman passing on the role to do his Oscar-winning turn in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. James Woods was another possibility, but in the end, Nicholson was paid a whopping $5 million for only ten days of work.

Watching A Few Good Men now, it’s easy to see why the film was such a sensation when it came out. It works as both an electrifying piece of entertainment and a prestige drama. Cruise is perfect as the cocky Kaffee, who wants to serve enough time as a JAG to set up a career in private practice, and would rather stay out of the courtroom entirely. He’s challenged by Moore’s Galloway, as well as the fact that both of his clients would rather fight in order to prevent being discharged from the military. He finds himself up against the military establishment, with Nicholson’s venal Jessep, a career officer on his way to a high-profile slot in the cabinet but with a sadistic streak a mile long. However, the movie was celebrated in 1992 for the fireworks between Nicholson and Cruise that happen on camera, and Nicholson is great – to a point. He does struggle with Sorkin’s dialogue a bit at the very end, but like most others in the cast, it comes off as stagey in the way Sorkin’s often does. That’s why I think Cruise all but walks away with the movie, as he’s so damn cocky that you buy him speaking in that classic Sorkin way, and he almost makes the pages and pages of dialogue seem naturalistic. Ditto JT Walsh, who delivers a quiet performance that’s the opposite of Nicholson’s but has maybe even a greater impact.

All in all, A Few Good Men was a blockbuster for all involved, earning a mighty $141 million in the US and another cool $100 million overseas. It walked away with five Oscar nominations but no wins and has gone on to be seen as a classic in the filmographies of all involved. One of its most lasting legacies has been how it led to the creation of the long-running CBS legal drama JAG, with the moniker being popularized in the movie’s wake, while Sorkin went onto The West Wing and a career as one of the most in-demand writers in Hollywood. Sorkin and Reiner would reunite for The American President a few years later. For Cruise, it would be the movie he needed to take him out of the babyface “Maverick-style” roles that defined his early career and kick off the next, and perhaps greatest, phase of his stardom

The post A Few Good Men: This Tom Cruise classic stands the test of time appeared first on JoBlo.

When we talk about movies being hard to categorize or even succinctly summarize, this movie is the poster child for that statement. Almost 50 years on and that still holds true but how about is it good? Does a movie need to be put in a specific area or even be able to be explained to still be good? The Rocky Horror Picture Show is in a category all by itself and yet has had spinoffs of sorts and on-stage revivals since its inception and shows no signs of slowing down. I’m not even sure how the introduction to such a movie should be fleshed out so take a jump to the left, a step to the right, put your hands on your hips and bring your knees in tight. We are about to take a time warp and see if The Rocky Horror Picture Show still stands the Test of Time.

Plot

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the movie version of the stage play musical The Rocky Horror Show. That musical was written by Richard O’Brien with songs cowritten by Richard Hartley and directed by Jim Sharman. The original cast included Tim Curry, Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, and Jonathan Adams, with Meatloaf coming on pretty early as some cast would change. It first appeared in the West End of London and was a massive smash success. Record company owner Lou Adler saw one of the first showings and immediately wanted a filmed U.S. release version of it. O’Brien would again be the writer along with original director Jim Sharman who would also direct. The cast for the movie would be a mix of original cast like O’Brien, Tim Curry, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Meatloaf, and Jonathan Adams. The movie would get distribution rights from 20th Century Fox and be released first in the U.K. in August of 1975 with a U.S. release the next month.

Some newcomers to the cast would be Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon, Charles Grey, and Peter Hinwood. Now, admittedly when you look up the cast list, many of the actors have their pictures from this movie as their main photo and honestly why wouldn’t you? In some cases, like Hinwood, it is really the only thing they ever did but with others like Campbell, Adams, Quinn, and O’Brien, they have done more than a few other roles, but they are forever linked to these beloved characters. Adams would also show up in a lot of British TV productions and also a minor role in the Argento/Romero collaboration Two Evil Eyes. Gray has 140 credits to his name but crossing paths with James Bond a couple of times, once as Blofeld, are probably his most famous roles aside from this. Patricia Quinn had done a lot of TV before this and would do more after but would stay out of the public zeitgeist until Rob Zombie was able to get her to appear in his Lords of Salem in 2012. Nell Campbell didn’t do much else apart from appearing here and there from time to time but it must be said that she, along with multiple other cast members, would appear in the sequel which most people have never even heard of called Shock Treatment. Meatloaf would appear in a ton of different movies but may be best known for Fight Club apart from this movie and O’Brien has shown up in a bunch of random places with my favorite being showing up in 89 episodes and a couple movie versions of Phineas and Ferb. His appearances in Dark City, Flash Gordon, and the second Elvira movie should also be seen. Barry Bostwick has almost 200 credits to his name, but Spin City and the low budget Project Metalbeast are my favorites. Susan Sarandon won an Oscar and was nominated 4 other times and for the sake of brevity, I’ll just say that Bull Durham is my other favorite role for the star. Finally, there is Tim Curry, and you can tell a lot about a person by what their favorite Tim Curry role is but for the record, none of them are incorrect. Mine happens to be Clue. The only other major movie that Sharman would direct is the sequel Shock Treatment, but his legacy is secure for this and this alone.

The movie follows Brad and Janet who want to get married after going to their friend’s wedding and go to see their friend and mentor Dr. Everett Scott. They are sidetracked by a storm and their car breaking down which takes them to a secluded mansion where they meet a cast of colorful characters including Dr. Frank-N-Furter, his creation Rocky, his staff Magenta and Riff Raff, and his collection of oddball friends. They see a murder, are seduced by multiple parties, and are finally forced to perform in Frank’s strange burlesque show before his workers turn on him and take the house (which is actually a spaceship) back to the home planet of Transsexual Transylvania. Dr. Scott, Brad, and Janet are left in the dust with everyone else dead and the whole movie is sort of told as a criminal case by Charles Grey’s Criminologist. The movie is the longest running theatrical movie with it still popping up in midnight showings 49 years later and has made nearly 200 million on its 1.7 million dollar budget.

Signs of the Time

The 1970s was really the last strong decade for consistent musicals. While there weren’t nearly as many as, say, the Busby Berkeley era, there were far more in the mostly nihilistic 70s than there were after. Rocky Horror fit snuggly in the middle when it was released in 1975. Not only did you have other musicals that same year like Nashville and Tommy but the earlier part of the decade had Jesus Christ Superstar and Fiddler on the Roof while the later half of the decade gave us stuff like Grease and All That Jazz. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of what you were feeling when you chose what musical to go for. Another thing it has in common with some other 70s contemporaries is that it was ahead of its time. Hell, I’m not convinced that we are ready for it NOW in 2024, but it was certainly different from what audiences of the time were expecting. The 70s as a decade were seemingly ready to be done with where they were made, and Rocky Horror is no exception.

Its ideas on sexuality, both the repression of it and the open nature of things like Frank-N-Furter being Bi or Brad and Janet being into multiple people are also indicative of the decade. The 60s free love movement may have been over but the 70s decided to put a lot more on screen than ever before. While Texas Chainsaw may have made you think you saw more than was actually on screen, Rocky Horror showed and told you everything it wanted you to see and hear. Finally, that nihilism we discussed earlier is also here. Almost no characters make it out unscathed either with their morals intact or their lives in some cases. The ones that are alive at the end of the movie are reborn in a world of suffering and confusion. That’s about as cinematically 70s as we can get.

What holds up?

Trying to look at this movie through an unbiased lens was very difficult but I think my findings are correct that nearly every damn thing holds up here. First and foremost is the music. The music and songs put together by Richard O’Brien are amazing and mini love letters to old sci fi and horror films. This was easy for O’Brien as he genuinely loved the genre and all it had to offer. There are references all throughout in both the songs and what you see on screen from the characters’ names and outfits to the very purpose they serve. This also extends to the set decoration being top tier especially for how little money they actually spent on the thing. All of what was just mentioned is present in the opening credits. You have the bright red lipstick mouth singing the opening song and all of that could be straight out of an old B movie, especially when you watch the special version where the movie is black and white until the Time Warp opens the doors to the part guests.

The whole movie is truly lightning in a bottle and not only couldn’t be made today to the same effect but also just wouldn’t be as good. That’s not just a theory either as they did try a few times to remake this movie, and it fell flat each time. The cast is perfect and each time that I watch it I notice something different from this group. Watching this late at night on Comedy Central was a way of life for me and even though they had to censor some things, it was still perfect watching these actors and actresses do their thing. The one that stands out, on huge heels no less, is Tim Curry who is the thing everyone knows from this movie. He is truly amazing in either the singing scenes or just the normal speaking parts and there is nobody alive or dead that could replace him as the nefarious doctor. The movie is also to be commended for its leanings towards sexuality and really just loving who you want to love and loving yourself. That last song with the 4 innocent bystanders singing, dancing, and feeling comfortably uncomfortable is one for the ages.

What doesn’t hold up?

It pains me to even broach the topic of something here not holding up but so few movies are perfect and there are things that I don’t look forward to on every viewing. The first of these is completely subjective and that’s your preference on songs. You may not love every song, hell, since I grew up listening to the album first, the couple songs that show up in the movie but aren’t on the official soundtrack don’t do much for me. Those are Rocky’s Song and Wise Up Janet for the record. We all have our favorites, but the music just may not be for you. To go along with the music aspect, as great as they are, there are some slow points between musical numbers that can drag on a bit. Some of the effects for the movie’s small sub 2-million-dollar budget have shown their age too as charming as they may be and the final slight I would levy against the film is that once you’ve seen it with a live audience its extremely difficult to go back to just the movie version.

Verdict

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a blast. It’s a love letter to all things us horror hounds love in its audio and visual feasts. They have tried to capture it in other ways to be sure with different versions of the on-stage musical and even a few attempts and a new TV movie but they all pale in comparison to the original. There is a weird point and click game that is more companion to the movie, but it doesn’t really add or take away your enjoyment as its own thing. We even got a sequel that follows Brad and Janet again though this time they are played by Cliff DeYoung and the wonderful Jessica Harper. Shock Treatment does bring back some of the other actors and creators but like I said, the original movie was the definition of lightning in a bottle. Rocky Horror is worth taking a time warp for and absolutely still stands the test of time.

A couple of the previous episodes of The Test of Time can be seen below. To see more, click over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

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