Hell Comes to Frog Town

 

This is an odd film to say the least. Anthropomorhised frogs fighting a WWE wrestler

I did wonder knowing Frog or rather Toad being a racial slur is this a deeply racist film

I have spent 40 years thinking about this film I remember seeing the posters outside video shops

Rowdy Roddy Piper, (the wrestler) is one of the last fertile men in an America wrecked by nuclear war.

I last saw Roddy in always sunny There is a nice homage to The Planet of the Apes- I think the crotch bomb is lifted from Escape from New York. Piper is recruited by Med techs to rescue some fertile women..who are being held prisoner by the Frogs, mutants who emerged after the nuclear war

So the wasteland is explored in a bright pink car,  with an m240 mounted on top

I wonder if Cincilla was the inspiration for Vasquez in Alien

I see after the apocalypse people still drink Cours

There is a role reversal here, with 68 percent of the American population dead. The Medtechs, a female dominated medical technocracy is the power behind the throne in the surving united states. The villian will comment on this, indeed it is his motivation to over throw the med tech mommas and go back to a simpler time when men where real men.Sam Hell being fertile, he is therefore more valuble. So you have a reversal of the disposable male trope.  Sam has to be placated,  and inuldged indeed  he has to kept arroused. Even being a stud is difficult when the women you meet haven't see a toothbrush in months.

Oh that's Valeria from Conan

As I say it is odd. 

I mean there is a fez wearing frog at the bar. Ala Casablanca

Summer School

 This I rewatched. I remembered it fondly from seeing this late one night

It is still a decent flick, a smarter take on teens and tits. The ending is interesting- a lot of the students don't pass their finals. They do show a marked improvement. 

It is almost like a british sitcom. Everyone is trapped in school over summer. They have to get along

Highlights are Kirstie Alley, and a fresh faced Courtney Thorne Smith

The film I think works because it is true to life.

Hermon's teacher is a P.E teacher coasting through life this, is not uncommon

A pregant school student is now something of a period piece. The baby is adopted off screen 

Courtney has a crush on Hermon- She's not so much younger than his current gf. 21 to 16 the film plays this plot out well. I note for the 80s- Hermon doesn't give into temptation 

There is a nice call back gag with someone going to the lavatory disapearing off screen and coming back to ace the test. This is also made at that moment in the 1980s where male strippers went mainstream

Oh and tenure for a high school teacher is a plot point 

There is a wealth of America moment where- we see the bedroom's of one of the boy's who is obsessed with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre it is full of horror movie props

Jim Gallen

 https://x.com/QPR/status/2056683784653996142

Rest in peace, a family friend and a QPR fan. 

Rugby

 

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

 

I watched bits and pieces of this years ago, possibly on moviedrome? It was a sunday night 

 I have always meant to revisit this film. Indeed it was one of the classic films I had in mind

I wanted to like this, I love films from this era. The Towering Inferno, The Taking of Pelham 123

I have been a Robert Mitcham film for years

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is beautifully shot. It is a love story to Boston, I suppose it is a distant cousin to the Departed- or even the Boondock Saints

Mitchum, puts in a fine performance, as an aging criminal trying to stay out of jail. He was a bank robber who is now dealing in guns. I noticed that none of the weapons are due to be sent across

Mitchum's wife is played by an Irish actress with a decent accent. She sounds Donegal. She also looks like a middle aged Irish woman of the time

I liked the final scenes in the Garden. The Bruins playing ice hockey without helmets, the cars- you see Green and yellow cars in the parking lot. Oh and the foilage on  the trees. 

As I have said it  looks great. This just didn't grab me today

Dodgeball

 

Probably one of the best films about sport ever made. Dodgeball has to explain the rules of a sport, and does so. So the audience can follow There is no fat on this film either. Comes in 1 hour and a half

It's Bill Daughtree!!!!!!!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Root

One of the things that dates this film is Alan Tudyk playing a pirate- a nod to the Pirates of the Carribean films, which are less fondly remembered now

There are a lot of Xer references, Hasselhoff being big in Germany, Chuck Norris and even Captain Kirk himself

Like Kingpin, this film shows how rich America is, a whole stadium for an obscure sport

Kingpin

 

Oh this was, and is still lot of fun. As it's partially a period piece and one of the characters is Amish and the other a man who time has passed by, perhaps it doesn't age as much

Reno, has a difference cadence now

Just noting that if Harrleson is 20 when he takes that trip to the bowling alley, then he is 37 when this movie is made

It is set in Scranton Pensylvania

Bill Murray is great- you need to pay close attention to his dialogue. 

It looks beautiful. King Pin is a road trip movie, and you see a lot of the US countryside. Also the track had some forgotten 90s songs which I enjoyed

Vanessa Angel's character has an interesting arc, she is flees an abusive boyfriend-sugar daddy, she is coerced back -she complies to protect Quaid's Ishmael. 

I did wonder if one of the boys you see in the short clip,  is based on Bud Bundy

I really liked, I still do