TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV series) 2014

Last night Arrow

"Clambake" (1967)



In one of Elvis' lesser film vehicles, he plays a millionaire oilman's son who goes to a Florida resort and switches places with a lowly water-skiing instructor to see if he can find a girl who loves him for "him" and not for his money. Lame songs, lots of hot '60s beach bunnies and wacky hijinks involving a boat race and a villainous Bill Bixby (with blonde hair!) follow.  Legend has it that Elvis hated this movie and only did it for the paycheck because he was in a financial crunch at the time.

My wife and I watch this movie every time it's on TV, even though it's terrible, because we have special memories attached to the first time we saw it. Plus, we love that groovy-as-hell theme song. "Claaaaaam-bake, gonna have a clambake! Claaaaaam-bake, gonna have a clambake!"

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Clambake" (1967)



In one of Elvis' lesser film vehicles, he plays a millionaire oilman's son who goes to a Florida resort and switches places with a lowly water-skiing instructor to see if he can find a girl who loves him for "him" and not for his money. Lame songs, lots of hot '60s beach bunnies and wacky hijinks involving a boat race and a villainous Bill Bixby (with blonde hair!) follow.  Legend has it that Elvis hated this movie and only did it for the paycheck because he was in a financial crunch at the time.

My wife and I watch this movie every time it's on TV, even though it's terrible, because we have special memories attached to the first time we saw it. Plus, we love that groovy-as-hell theme song. "Claaaaaam-bake, gonna have a clambake! Claaaaaam-bake, gonna have a clambake!"

Clambake was my first experience with Elvis when I was a little kid. The local independent TV station played it a few times a year, I think they only had prints to like 10 movies so they'd play them over and over again. I watched it whenever I could.

Haven't seen it in over 30 years.

The second of the series, and overall, I rank it third in terms of best to worst. Although, like most series of films, the first one (Raiders of the Lost Ark) is the most popular choice for the best in the series, I personally rank the third entry, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as my favorite of the four. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the second best. Like the overwhelming majority of people, I consider the fourth entry, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, to be the weakest by a landslide.

The movie is known for inspiring the creation of the PG-13 rating; it was given PG, but it is widely known that if the PG-13 rating had existed, it would have been given that.

On an odd note, it is strange that the entry with a young boy as a sidekick is also the darkest of the series. You'd think it would be the other way around.

S.D. wrote:

Clambake was my first experience with Elvis when I was a little kid.  The local independent TV station played it a few times a year, I think they only had prints to like 10 movies so they'd play them over and over again.  I watched it whenever I could.  

Haven't seen it in over 30 years.  

My Dad LOVED Elvis' movies, so I saw most, if not all, of them growing up. This one in particular, though, has become a "private joke" between my wife and I...I won't go into the story as to why because it's one of those "you had to be there" things, but whenever we come across it on TV we simply have to stop and watch. I'm gonna have that damn theme song stuck in my head for days now.

The only person in my family that listened to Elvis was my Grandmother and she really only liked his ballads. When I was a little kid my Mother was still in her 20s and she was a "rocker", as was my Uncle who was in his late teens.

My Dad was a teen in the late 50s/early 60s so like virtually everyone else who came of age in that era, he was a huge Elvis fan. I still remember how bummed he was when the King died in '77 (I was 7 years old).
My Mom was a few years younger than my Dad so her "era" was the early Beatlemania period. Dad didn't like them, she didn't like Elvis but somehow they made it work. ')

Required Fields wrote:

The second of the series, and overall, I rank it third in terms of best to worst. Although, like most series of films, the first one (Raiders of the Lost Ark) is the most popular choice for the best in the series, I personally rank the third entry, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as my favorite of the four. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the second best. Like the overwhelming majority of people, I consider the fourth entry, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, to be the weakest by a landslide.

The movie is known for inspiring the creation of the PG-13 rating; it was given PG, but it is widely known that if the PG-13 rating had existed, it would have been given that.

On an odd note, it is strange that the entry with a young boy as a sidekick is also the darkest of the series. You'd think it would be the other way around.

Agree with everything here. God, what a mess of a movie, although not nearly the catastrophe Crystal Skull was. This just had to many cheap jokes and annoying characters, and no Marion. It was one of the very few times that Spielberg really f*cked up.

More Schlock-Tober!

"Lizzie Borden Took an Ax" (2014)


Christina Ricci plays the title role in this made for TV drama about the trial of the infamous 19th century axe murderess. This well acted period piece suffers from a few dry patches, but at least Ricci is still kinda hot in that bug-eyed weird sort of way.

Keep Calm and Schlock-Tober On...

"The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" (1964)

The usually-reliable Hammer Studios produced this rather dull Mummy flick, in which an undead Egyptian prince shambles around turn of the century London, killing off the archaeologists who disturbed his tomb. This flick takes forever to get going - it takes almost an hour before the Mummy finally starts doin' his thing! - and by then I was beyond caring. Pass on this one, there are far better Hammer Horror offerings.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Keep Calm and Schlock-Tober On...

"The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb" (1964)

The usually-reliable Hammer Studios produced this rather dull Mummy flick, in which an undead Egyptian prince shambles around turn of the century London, killing off the archaeologists who disturbed his tomb. This flick takes forever to get going - it takes almost an hour before the Mummy finally starts doin' his thing! - and by then I was beyond caring. Pass on this one, there are far better Hammer Horror offerings.

Widely considered as one of the worst Hammer films, directed by producer Michael Carrerras who had no prior experience writing or directing films, he fired the initial director and decided he could do it all himself...he was wrong.

Watch the far superior "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" instead, based on Bram Stoker's The Jewel of The Seven Stars and later remade in 1980 as "The Awakening".

Required Fields wrote:

Completely underrated. While not quite the caliber of Raiders, and the slapstick was a bit too thick at times, this was just as fun. Connery was perfectly cast. Still not tired of this one.

Really annoying that the wonderfully drawn Marion from Raiders never returned until Crystal Skull (this was another WTF decision of Lucas). She was one of the most memorable love interests in genre cinema.

Woke up way too early this morning so I got caught up on the past few episodes of "Gotham" via Fox On Demand. Very cool show thus far.

The Mummy's Shroud on TCM.

"Baby's Day Out" (1994)

In this slapstick "Home Alone" variant from John Hughes, a trio of dim witted crooks kidnap a wealthy couple's baby for ransom. However, their plan hits a snag when the kid crawls out of their hideout and heads off on an adventure through the streets of Chicago. Cartoonish mayhem ensues as they try to get him back, and get put thru the wringer in the process.
My 7 year old LOVES this movie, he made me play the scene where Joe Mantegna's crotch catches fire - and his partners put it out by stomping on it repeatedly - three times.

My film of the year. It's not even close!

Didn't think that Luc Besson still had this in him.

"Satan's Little Helper" (2004)

In this absolutely craptacular no budget horror comedy (tho I think the comedy is mostly unintentional) from Jeff "Squirm" Lieberman (that should've been my first red flag), an apparently retarded kid becomes a serial killer's unwitting assistant on Halloween night... because he thinks the masked psycho is a character from his favorite video game. Yeah, that boy ain't right.

As if the concept wasn't stupid enough, this kid was so annoying that fifteen minutes in I was already hoping that the psycho would twist his head off, but no such luck.

Seriously folks, y'all know I love me some bad movies but this wasn't even close to the "good" kind of bad. I think watching this film gave me a traumatic brain injury. For the love of God, avoid this movie!!!

Notre Dame v Florida State - best game of the day! Total barn-burner. I hate ND with a passion, but Jameis Winston is a complete scumbag - so I was rooting for both teams to lose.

Witchfinder wrote:

Notre Dame v Florida State - best game of the day!  Total barn-burner.  I hate ND with a passion, but Jameis Winston is a complete scumbag - so I was rooting for both teams to lose.  

Yeah, that's why I didn't watch it. I was rooting for mutual destruction. Plus it was in Florida and I can't stand that stupid indian chant.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Satan's Little Helper" (2004)

In this absolutely craptacular no budget horror comedy (tho I think the comedy is mostly unintentional) from Jeff "Squirm" Lieberman (that should've been my first red flag), an apparently retarded kid becomes a serial killer's unwitting assistant on Halloween night... because he thinks the masked psycho is a character from his favorite video game. Yeah, that boy ain't right.

As if the concept wasn't stupid enough, this kid was so annoying that fifteen minutes in I was already hoping that the psycho would twist his head off, but no such luck.

Seriously folks, y'all know I love me some bad movies but this wasn't even close to the "good" kind of bad. I think watching this film gave me a traumatic brain injury. For the love of God, avoid this movie!!!

I've been contemplating on watching this on Netflix but was really on the fence about it. I chose a few other flicks instead including :

Black Sabbath (1963) a nice little anthology film starring Boris Karloff. Very enjoyable.

Zombie Massacre (2013) run of the mill zombie flick starring a bunch of people I never heard of. I swear the makers of this film got all their ideas from the Resident Evil games, right down to a Tyrant-type monster taken out by the convenient rocket launcher.

Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012) pretty good flick marred only by some bad cgi and some anachronistic weaponry (a gatling gun and a flamethrower in the 18th century?)

and then today, the original Fly (1958) a bit slower moving than I remember but still enjoyed watching it

Today I watch the Rams upset Seattle. MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

tohostudios wrote:

Today I watch the Rams upset Seattle.  MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

I saw that and loved it but hated that there had to be that little fumble controversy at the end. Seattle loves to whine and we won't hear the end of it for a loooong time to come. Still, hey Seattle :

I think the Rams are closer to contending than their record indicates. Other than the blowout to Minnesota, they've been in most of their games and before today actually had double digit leads over Dallas and then over San Fran before blowing it in the second half of both games.