#film review Footloose

[scorpiofilm-mp4]

My Review of Footloose (1984)

Day 785946528947309482 of wishing I was a teen in the 80s. Footloose feels like summer, and tastes like a sweet sugary popsicle. The dancing is fun, the fighting too, and I was delighted and pleasantly surprised to see a young SJP. A good soundtrack goes a long way, and let me tell you, whoever was in charge of selecting the music...they did their job RIGHT and they absolutely delivered. 
One of my favourite parts, or at least, a part that really resonated was "it doesn't take long for corruption to take root." followed by the reverend's response: "oh yeah, how long is that? about as long as it takes for compassion to die?" I could write an essay but I won't, though I do feel that a lot of people resonate with this film, and if anything its very topical now, especially with the book burning scene. The reverend though apprehensive about all the rock and roll music, tries to bring the townsfolk to their senses and tells them to be compassionate and judge themselves. that they don't have the authority to judge others. It's a really good example of why we should not be shielded and sheltered from the realities of the world, especially by means of classic literature (how dare they not like Slaughterhouse V).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🩷

[rye-views]

Footloose (2011) dir. Craig Brewer. 7.4/10

I wouldn't recommend this movie to my friends. I wouldn't rewatch this movie.

Starting from the shoe montage in the beginning, it just doesn't hit the same because I don't know people who dance like this in our era. So, it doesn't even seem plausible to me. The emotions in this feels more forced. I didn't like that Ren's solo dance as more angst and not as much about the dance. I feel like this movie isn't that cohesive. We're just following the layout of the original film.

Miles Teller is the perfect Willard. Racing buses is a fun thing they brought in. It's cool. Ariel's mom is still lovely in this movie. I support Willard dancing at the dance. Let's get it.

[james-master]

Movie Review: Gremlins (1984)

Opportunity knocks a few times in our lives. This week, Cinemark Theatres knocked about several times. The theater company decided to host what they called “Big In ‘84” where they brought back some of the best that 1984 had to offer. Those films included The Karate Kid, The Terminator, Gremlins, Purple Rain, Ghostbusters, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Last Starfighter, Footloose, and Indiana…

[movieremakesandmore]

Comparison pt. 3 - Drama

The Karate Kid (1984)

To conclude my series of blog posts, I will be discussing one last movie genre (or genres, since some may fall into various categories), which is romance/drama. Whether you have actually watched it or not, we have all heard about the movie The Karate Kid. Probably the one from the 80s, right? How about Footloose or Freaky Friday? Maybe you've watched the Annie play or went to see Hairspray: The Musical. These are all movies that have either been remade or remastered for a newer audience. Younger generations might not know that Disney Channel's 2003 film Freaky Friday is actually inspired by a 70s movie of the same name. While the plot between these two films doesn't stay exactly the same, it is technically still considered a remake, or a "remastering" as I'd like to call it. Disney did the same thing with The Parent Trap from the 60s, recreating it again in the 90s which I always thought was the original until about a year ago. In this case, the "better" movie really just comes down to what you grew up with. Both the original and remakes scored nearly the same on every critic website.

Freaky Friday (2003)

Since we spent so much time talking about movie sequels and remakes, why don't we end the series of blog posts with some information on movies made into musicals? Annie was originally created as comic strip in the 1920s, made into a musical in 1977, became a movie in 1982, and was remade yet again in 2014. Hairspray was originally created as a movie in 1988, made into a musical in 2002, and was remade as a movie again in 2007. To avoid confusion, I will only be comparing the first-made movie to the more recent one. Starting with Annie (1982) here are its ratings: 49% Rotten Tomatoes, 6.6/10 IMDb, and 4.6/5 Google Reviews. Annie (2014) received a 28%, 5.3/10, and 4.5/5. Hairspray (1988) scored an impressive 98% Rotten Tomatoes, 7.0/10 IMDb, and 3.6/5 on Letterboxd. Its 2007 remake scored a 92%, 6.7/10, and 3.5/5. This evidence shows the original Annie to be a lot better than the remake, but for the Hairspray movies to be about the same.

Hairspray (1988)

[emeto-film-critic]

Footloose - 1984

SAFE/Caution - M•

•M• One mention of b*.

***Blood can be seen on and around mouth***

[moviereviewsfromabasicteen]

Footloose

Another classic 80s movie bc my wonderful mom is convinced that i need to be educated. to her credit all of the old movies we have watched together so far are good. footloose is about about a small town where dancing is prohibited, and what happens when a city boy moves there. Throughout the movie there is a lot of dancing scenes which are very entertaining. i don’t know how there were so many attractive actors and actresses in the 80s but this movie is full of them. also, i liked that not every adult character in this movie was dislikeable. even though this movie is catered towards teens, not all of the adults are bad. though (just like pretty in pink) i’m sure most of you have seen this movie, it is perfect for sleepovers and casual viewing.

overall: 8/10 popcorns

[howhaveyounotseenpodcast]

Our latest episode is out now! We watched Footloose (1984) and had quite a bit to say about it! Check it out on our website (link in bio) for more info! #Footloose #KevinBacon #JohnLithgow #Podcast #Film #Movie #Review #1984 #Spotify #itunes #ApplePodcasts #GooglePodcasts #Stitcher #Acast #YouTube #OutNow #Dancing https://www.instagram.com/p/B1owUcNlMR7/?igshid=3ak7xlx6ha78

[rye-views]

Footloose (1984) dir. Herbert Ross. 7.6/10

I wouldn't recommend this movie to my friends. I wouldn't rewatch this movie.

I like the whole show culture I'm seeing in the beginning. It would be fun if it were normalized to dance along to music like this. Especially, dancing amongst boys. I like Ren teaching Willard to dance. I'm glad they found each other. Ren is so good at dancing. His solo in the warehouse was very cool, but also dangerous. Gymnast? wife him up. Ariel's mom knows what's up. I like that we're dancers down to fight.

omg this is Kevin Bacon? omg this is the original Almost Paradise?

Ariel standing between two cars with the truck approaching, nope. Not my child. Get in the damn car.

I'm guessing Ren walked so that Zac Efron and Corbin Bleu could run in the junkyard.

This movie is p white but good.

The concept of the Yearbook is actually kinda tragic to me. Eff censorship. Chuck, you bitch.

[sunjaesol]

Review of WORK IT, starring Sabrina Carpenter, Jordan Fisher and Liza Koshy

When Quinn Ackerman's admission to the college of her dreams depends on her performance at a dance competition, she forms a ragtag group of dancers to take on the best squad in school... now she just needs to learn how to dance. (imdb)

So I was really excited for this movie. For one, I’m a dancer myself and therefore am permitted to watch every single dance movie out there. Secondly, it starred Jordan Fisher and I am a sucker for anything Jordan Fisher. 

Overall, it was a cute movie. 

What this movie is suffering of, is very tired tropes. Which is unfortunate, because the actors are quite good. 

Sabrina Carpenter plays Quinn, the quintessential Netflix coming-of-age protagonist that will do anything to get into the college of their dreams but falls flat since they don’t have that “spark” those colleges are looking for. We saw it in Sierra Burgess, The Perfect Date, and probably countless others I’m forgetting.

Her best friend is Jas (Liza Koshy) who is on the famous school dance team The Thunderbirds. Jas is loud, opinionated, unapologetically herself and would do anything for Quinn, somehow placing herself second for most of the movie despite the fact that she is outspoken and a talented dancer. Jas is just the typical friend character we’ve seen countless times before and I wished she was more, that she wanted more. It also didn’t make sense how she got into a dance program in NYC when she only showcased hiphop at the final dance competition, when literally every university-level dance program prefers contemporary and ballet. Hiphop is an elective, not the thing that gets you in. 

(I’m not degrading hiphop, it just doesn’t make sense that this was the style that got her accepted.) 

Isaiah (Keiynan Lonsdale) even said it: Juilliard didn’t accept him because of his style of dance, which is commerical. Speaking of Keiynan, he was amazing as the overdramatic, nearly caricatural depiction of an ambitious dancer/Ru Paul wannabe. I wish we saw more of him though, a little depth would’ve done him well. 

Jordan Fisher was a joy to watch. He basically played himself under the name of Jake Taylor. He was the starlet of the dance community until he tore his ACL (also a classic) and now teaches dance to children at a studio. Jordan and Sabrina have great chemistry and amazing dance sequences together. I wonder if it was a nod to Baby and Johnny from Dirty Dancing, as he taught her to dance and some of the moves he was teaching her were sometimes a bit provocative. While their chemistry is great, I did have some concerns about the ages? He should be about 21 years, whereas she is 17 or 18. If she’s 18: fine, but I did find it concerning how they never mentioned his age. He’s at least 21, could be older.

The movie kind of meandered in the middle, not really going anywhere and just developing the relationship between Quinn and Jake. While that was cute, the entire dance team they created (TBD) is underdeveloped. You have the Goth Girl, Indian Girl, a DJ hiphopper, Nerdy Kid and Jock. If I forgot someone, that means they were that insignificant. I wasn’t surprised they were stereotypes, as this is typical for a dance troupe movie, but even movies like Step Up gave them some flavour. Jas, meanwhile, was being horny for a matress shop worker. There were a few other edgy jokes sprinkled in that were... interesting (boner jokes), but the delivery of said jokes were mostly good, so it’s okay.

I was very peeved by the final dance (because of many technicalities and that they just shoud not have won) but we’re going to gloss over that and just call it “movie magic”. Sure. 

It sounds like I didn’t like the movie, but I did! The tragical third act moment where it all falls apart is well-done and logical for our characters and Jas had every right to be mad. I’m surprised she came back in the end! I love how they showcased and highlighted how amazing disabled dancers were! I love Quinn and Jas’ friendship, Jas’ quips and jabs, and all the dance montages Jake got to have. I enjoyed the cinematography and lighting (!!), the soundtrack, Michelle Buteau gracing us with her presense, and I respect how Sabrina had to pretend she didn’t know how to dance. 

Like I said: it was a cute movie. It’s a mindless watch without any deeper meaning other than to let yourself go every once in a while and to go to the beat of your own drum. I wish coming-of-age dance movies would find the balance between generic dance movie with -insert trendy actors- and the overly pretentious John Green-esque movies. I’d suggest talking to dancers and observing an actual dancer’s life. I'm also wondering if this film would’ve been better set in college or a dance club outside of high school, but I’ll have to think about that more. 

Will it go down in dance movie history like Step Up, Dirty Dancing or Footloose? To Be Determined. 

3/5 

[movieimprovie]

The gang's all here this week to tackle another epic tale of Rowdy Teens: Footloose! Emily, James, Maegan, and Phil discuss Kevin Bacon's dance wizard magicks, the life affirming beauty of constant guitar solos, the dark hidden economy of the Flintstones, and a bunch of big-time Game of Thrones spoilers.

[palmtreepalmtree]

Alright, friends and enemies.  I’m back with the most recent edition of The Worst Movie on Netflix Right Now™.

Tonight, we’re gonna talk about a little movie called Roped.

I’d love to say that you can learn everything you need to know about this movie from its one-sheet, but naw.  I mean, you look up you see a cowboy and a cowgirl kissin’ in the rain.  Nothing like a little ranching love, right?

Yeah, no.  The premise of this movie is that a rodeo rolls into a small Northern California town where it immediately faces opposition from the animal-rights progressives who don’t want that kind of cruelty-for-entertainment in their town.

The main characters are young rodeo rider Colton, played by legitimate hottie Josh Swickard, and pre-frosh at UC Santa Cruz Tracy, played by....

...Lauren Swickard?  Yeah.  Looks like the two stars of this little film got married last year.  She was originally credited on the production as ‘Lorynn York’, but she’s making a change.  And you know, what?  Good on you, Lauren.  You’re a good looking couple and I wish you both many happy returns.  

And now I’m going to insult your very fine work in this here production of Roped.

So Tracy wants to be a lawyer and is entering a 6-year program at UC Santa Cruz to get her law degree fast (Is this even a thing? Never heard of it).  But in her last summer in her small hometown (somewhere in Sonoma, I believe), the rodeo has come into town.  Only thing is her town councilman dad (played by Casper Van Dien, helllllloooo daddy), is a passionate vegetarian and thinks the rodeo should leave.  

That’s it.  That’s the conflict.  It’s a cheap-ass reverse version of Footloose, where the preacher’s councilman’s daughter just wants to go to the rodeo and eat a damn cheeseburger but her father won’t let her because of his values.  

I gotta tell you folks, the biggest problem with this movie is that it’s fucking boring.  There is no meaningful conflict here.  Yeah, her dad gets mad when he catches her doing various shocking things like sneaking in a half hour past her 12:30 curfew.  But Tracy and Colton are both adults and there is nothing stopping them from having a summer fling.  

A summer fling that involves nothing more than consensual kissing---but only once Tracy has ended things with her asshole high school boyfriend.  He’s careful to make sure not to kiss her before then.  Because that would be morally wrong.  “Love is worth the risk”?  What fucking risk?  Everything in this movie is set up to be so perfectly honorable and polite that there’s nothing interesting going on. The stakes are so low, I started to wonder if this was a movie or just a Ken Burns’ documentary about America’s heartland.

But then I remembered.  Oh yeah.  If this was a documentary, there would be a hell of a lot more Jesus in this movie.

And that’s the thing that just really sucks about Roped.  It’s bullshit.  It presents a world in which the animal-loving townspeople are so closed-minded they can’t see the beauty and value of the rodeo.  They’ve lost touch with the history of the rodeo.  And they don’t know rodeo people, because if they did, they would understand how well rodeo people value the animals and how well treated and cared for the animals are.  

Now look, I don’t know shit about animal treatment and the rodeo.  I’m not wading into that business here. But I have been to two rodeos in the last ten years, including a fairly recent one in Yuma, Arizona.  And if there is one thing this movie gets plain wrong is that no one at this fictional rodeo ever talks about Jesus.  And that matters.

Consider how a Christian movie review site describes the themes in Roped:

“ROPED has a strong moral worldview where the rodeo cowboys overcome the Romantic, politically correct, progressive, environmentalist worldview of the townspeople led by Tracy’s vegetarian father. The cowboys show the closed-minded progressives how the cowboys actually take care of and love the rodeo animals. The movie also extols family and thankfulness.”

And you know what?  That’s an accurate description of the film.  

But if the politically correct progressives are the closed-minded ones, does that mean the rodeo cowboys are open and accepting of all peoples?  Is that what we’re supposed to take away here?

If so, that’s a fucking fantasy.  And a delusional one at best.  

I mentioned having been to a rodeo recently, because the one I attended opened with the emcee announcing to the crowd that there are people in this country who want to take away religious freedom and take away their right to worship god, but there at the rodeo, they would never stop worshiping our lord and savior Jesus Christ, and god bless the rodeo and god bless the United States of America.  The crowd uproariously applauded.

Now I have no problem with opening an event with an invocation or prayer. It can be a meaningful and thoughtful moment. It can invite all people into a moment of welcoming and thoughtfulness.  But it’s quite another to begin an event with a declaration that your right to worship Jesus is under attack, and to equate loving god with being a patriot.  As an atheist and a Jewish person who does not accept Jesus into my heart, I felt so uncomfortable, I felt like I should leave.  

And that’s the problem with so many of these small town fantasy movies.  They present these smalls towns as loving and caring communities.  People who look out for each other in a way that people don’t do in the big city.  People connected by bonds to the land and this small town life.  And sometimes they mention God.  

But they don’t talk about Jesus.  Not the way real people in the United States talk about Jesus.  So often, real people in these small towns talk about Jesus in a way that excludes all others from that warm circle of welcoming that they feel so proud of.

This is not everyone.  It’s not.  I don’t want anyone to walk away from this post thinking that I dislike Christians.  I do not.  I actually think there can be something valuable in any religion and especially in the communities built around them. But those communities have to be open to all and they have to be respectful of those who are different.   

And for this movie to thematically accuse its progressives of being closed-minded without fully and accurately representing the way that rodeo culture can also be closed-minded makes this film doubly reprehensible.  Not only is it boring and bad, its moral superiority is unearned bullshit.  And for that, it is The Worst Movie on Netflix Right Now™.

But hey, at least Christian film reviewers and profane atheist film reviewers can agree on some things:

That said, ROPED is a lackluster romantic drama that doesn’t evoke any emotion in the audience other than making viewers want to watch something else. 

Giiiiiiiiiiiirl, same.

[chaotically-cas]

Omg ok I need to redo my movie list for the next few days because there’s so many movies such little time

- tropic Thunder

- vanilla sky

- cocktail

- stand by me

- dirty dancing

- the outsiders

- rosemary’s baby

- pet sematary

- World Trade Center

- the lighthouse

- reservoir dogs

- my fair lady

- to catch a thief

- Chaplin

- guys & dolls

- Scrooged

- missing 411

- footloose

- Heathers

- Virgin suicides

- something about Mary

- gladiator

- et

- escape from Alcatraz

- Oliver Twist

- the good the bad & the ugly

Umm I think that’s it. My film heart is literally so happy that I have spring break soon because I’m going to watch/rewatch every one of these & omg movie reviews & all the exciting fic ideas & possible hyper fixations to come got my brain buzzing.

This is in relative order of excitedness but gonna watch Tropic Thunder first to cheer me up woot woot I’m so pumped

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Five Fics Friday: April 3/20

We made it another week, Lovelies, and I’m finally starting to read a new story on evenings and weekends <3 Check that out, plus a few new bookmarks and just a random fic from my faves list <3 Love you all, keep strong and I’m here for y’all <3

CURRENTLY READING

Free Falling by twistedthicket1 (M, 203,574 w., 38 Ch. || Guardian Angel John, Fluff and Angst, Humour, Kidlock / Teenlock, Mystrade & Johnlock, Passage of Time, Possessive John, Drug Use / Overdose, Victor Trevor, Additional Tags to be Added) – All Guardian angels are born with a Chosen human. When this child is born, the angel comes into being to protect and care for them during their life on Earth. For John Watson, all he cares about in the world revolves around his Chosen, Sherlock Holmes. Watching him grow up though, the angel soon learns that God must have had a sense of humour the day he decided to make Sherlock, as trouble seems to follow him like a magnet wherever he goes. John can't decide what's worse, the idea of losing his Chosen one, or the fact that he may be breaking the most taboo law of heaven as he disguises himself as a human to better protect and befriend the beloved detective he's always watched from afar. He was meant to care for him. But what happens when caring evolves into something more? What happens when an emotion an angel is supposed to be incapable of possessing comes to life suddenly and viciously inside John's chest?

NEW MFL’s THIS WEEK

I've Got You, Brother by reveling_in_mayhem (T, 7,385 w., 1 Ch. || Brotherly Love, Big Brother Mycroft, Mentioned Drug Use) – The boy’s baby brother grunted softly in his arms and closed his eyes again, settling back into a gentle sleep. Mycroft smiled again, then leaned down and placed a soft kiss on his brother’s forehead. “I’ll always look after you.”

Feeling Seen by jadztone (E, 15,083+ w., 5/9 Ch. || WiP || Ballet!Sherlock / Rugby!John, Demisexuality, Virgin John, Experienced Sherlock, Toplock, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn) – Rugby player John is starting over at a new university, with the help of friends Molly and Bill. Few people know that John is demisexual, but ballet dancer Sherlock Holmes deduces right away that he has no interest in sex unless he’s fallen in love. John finds this strange genius intriguing and would like to get to know him, but Sherlock has a self-cultivated reputation for only wanting casual sex. John has reason to believe that’s not really true, but he’s not sure he wants to risk his twice-fractured heart to find out.

Sunday Matinee by hogwartswitch (E, 44,597 w., 12 Ch. || College / Uni 1980′s AU || Fluff and Angst, Movies, Slow Burn, Happy Ending, Mary is Not Nice, Mutual Pining, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Homelessness, Anal/Oral, Fingering, Rimming, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, HIV/AIDS, Mentions of Cancer, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Depression, Epistolary, Love Letters, Suicide Attempt, Blow Jobs, Time Skips) – The year is 1984 and it's a great time for movies and movie fans. John Watson is a struggling film school student with dreams of being a screenwriter. It's a dream come true when his friend, Mike, gets him a job reviewing movies for the university paper. Sherlock Holmes is also a film school student with dreams of directing, but he's also struggling to get his life back on track. The job at Baker Cinema is supposed to help him do just that, but it's SO BORING. Until, that is, a young movie reviewer buys a ticket to Footloose and Sherlock's life suddenly becomes very, very complicated.

ANYTHING GOES

The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w., 21 Ch. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

[meanstreetspodcasts]

Frank Sinatra, the voice of the twentieth century, was born December 12, 1915. From his earliest days with Tommy Dorsey’s band to his packed arena shows, Sinatra became one of the biggest stars the world has ever seen, selling over 150 million albums. Sinatra’s signature style has influenced hundreds of performers in his wake, and he remains one of the greatest and most popular performers of the twentieth century. His discography contains some of the finest albums of jazz and songbook standards - Come Fly With Me, In the Wee Small Hours, Nice n’ Easy, and more.

In addition to his albums and concerts, Sinatra was an Academy Award-winning actor, picking up a statuette for his turn in From Here to Eternity. He delivered memorable and acclaimed performances in The Manchurian Candidate, The Detective, and many more (including two turns as Miami hard-boiled private eye Tony Rome). On stage, Sinatra thrilled audiences and packed them in until the mid 1990s.

On radio, Sinatra hosted his own musical revue shows, guested on comedy and variety programs, and he even menaced Agnes Moorehead in a dramatic offering from Suspense. But his only regular dramatic show was Rocky Fortune, a short-lived radio detective series. In 1953, Sinatra was divorced and hurting publicly after leaving his wife Nancy for actress Ava Gardner.  He’d been dropped from his contract at Columbia Records, and his big screen career was floundering.  After commanding six figure salaries for films just a few years before, he had to beg for an audition for a supporting role in From Here to Eternity.  That film opened in August 1953, and just a few months later Sinatra hit NBC in the premiere episode of Rocky Fortune.

The series was created by George Lefferts (who would later create and develop NBC’s sci-fi revival X Minus One) at Sinatra’s request.  Lefferts recalled his first meeting with Sinatra at the singer’s home, where the crooner was clad in only a towel.  Lefferts was an in-house writer at NBC, and he was tapped by Sinatra to develop a mystery series in which Sinatra could star.  It wasn’t completely unheard of for major stars to head to radio.  Alan Ladd produced and starred in Box 13, and Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall lent their voices each week to Bold Venture, but both of those series were syndicated and had a schedule that was more star-friendly.  Sinatra would be appearing on network radio, perhaps a sign that his star had faded and not quite ascended again in late 1953.

Rocky was not a cop or a private eye.  Rather he was a “footloose and frequently unemployed young gentleman” who bounced from job to job lined up for him by the Grindley Employment Agency.  Later episodes revised the description to “footloose and fancy free,” which conjures up less images of Rocky as a hobo.  Each week, no matter where he ended up, Rocky would usually find trouble on his quest for a paycheck.  He could be shucking oysters, barking at a carnival, or leading a bus tour of New York, odds were he would stumble over a dead body, interrupt a robbery in progress, or get strong-armed into playing unwilling accomplice for a criminal enterprise.  Often, he’d run up against the aptly named Sgt. Hamilton J. Finger (played by several actors but most frequently by Barney Phillips), who was always ready to point one assigning blame at Rocky for whatever he’d happened into that week.  Lefferts and his fellow writer Ernest Kinoy wrote up adventures that took Rocky Fortune across town, across the country, and even on the high seas.

The show suffered from poor reviews when it premiered (though Sinatra’s performance was praised by Variety, among others), and today it is dismissed by some as a lesser effort from both Sinatra and the Golden Age of Radio.  This writer respectfully disagrees with these harsh assessments.  Rocky Fortune is a lot of fun, and it’s an opportunity to hear Sinatra in his only regular dramatic role on radio.  He was a frequent guest of Jack Benny and other radio comedians, and he made a memorable turn on Suspense, but Rocky Fortune stands as the best showcase of Sinatra’s dramatic vocal range in the radio era.  He finds the right amount of humor and dramatic tension in each show, and he could have continued in the series had his own fortunes grown less rocky in 1954.  Just days before the final episode of Rocky Fortune aired, Sinatra won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity, and he was off and running with a new recording contract at Capitol Records.  Bouncing from job to job as Rocky Fortune wasn’t in the cards anymore and the series left NBC on March 30, 1954.  Today, it’s an interesting footnote in Sinatra’s career, and another fine detective show that brought a big screen star to weekly radio.

[gilmoremovies]

Episode 3x14-  Swan Song

Bambi (1942) 1x16, 2x12, 2x22, 3x22, 5x06 and 5x19

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Easter Parade (1948) 3x13

Footloose (1984) 1x17, 3x13, 3x20, 5x20 and 6x19

Gone with the Wind (1939)1x09, 1x16, 2x11, 5x07, 5x11 and 6x05 

Guys and Dolls (1955) 

Lord Jim (1965)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 2x15, 4x03, 4x14, 5x03, 5x19, Winter and Fall

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) 2x03, 4x02 and 5x11

Show Boat (1936)/(1951)

Sunset Boulevard (1950) 2x13, 4x07 and 7x01 

Full reviews and references below or by clicking on the title! Other episodes the film is also referenced in follows the title in italics.

(links to other episodes)

[introvertguide]

Spontaneous Synchronized Dance

I want to do a little bit of light ribbing at a genre that I love. Some of my favorite movies are musicals and many of the very best of these have very odd moments in which people just break out into song. Movies like Cabaret and Chicago use the setting to make these outbursts blend in (in the club for Cabaret and in the imaginations of convicts for Chicago) while others have these complex dance numbers and songs where large groups just break out into an obviously rehearsed musical number. There are some film scenes that are especially egregious because the group or setting prevents any chance of previous rehearsal so it just seems hilariously out of place (in the greatest way). Since we are reviewing West Side Story, I wanted to mention a couple of favorites: 

West Side Story (1961): Starting off with my favorite culprit, the dance at the very beginning of this movie is so hilarious when considering the context. These are supposed to be rival gangs divided by race that are on the brink of a rumble. Two things that I had not associated together until I saw this movie were race related gang violence and choreographed ballet leaps. Maybe that it is the ruse: you become so entranced by the dancing that you don’t notice the knife. I can just imagine it; “Hold my switchblade while I intimidate this guy with my high kicks and jazz hands!”

Mary Poppins (1964): I know it is a fantasy musical. I absolutely love it and have seen this film close to a hundred times over my life. I still have a hard time with the “Step in Time” number with the chimney sweeps dancing on the roofs. Somebody would have died. These guys are running around covered in soot and breaking a sweat dancing and doing complicated choreographed numbers. Somebody would have had soot drip in their eyes and either fallen down in a blind fury themselves or knocked somebody else off the roof. Also, roofs are not made for stomping around. Also, chimneys are too thin to fit people, that is why they have the long specialized brushes. Also, how much spare time do these guys have? This seems like a terrible job that would not allow rehearsal time. I am strangely OK with jumping into a chalk drawing and dancing with penguins, but the chimney sweep dance just baffles me. 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968): I think I have something with Dick Van Dyke characters suddenly knowing how to dance. Here is another fantasy musical where I can suspend my disbelief for something like a factory of dancing workers for toot sweets but I cannot fathom the practical fair number of “The Old Bamboo.” We all know that DVD can dance like a madman. However, he is playing a bumbling professor that forgets all the time and he suddenly is coordinated and can dance along with a bunch of professionals in an attempt to hide from people looking for him. Great call. He is going to hide in a crowd by making a spectacle that everyone is looking at and attempt to join a group of dancers and lead a dance number that his character probably can’t do. Nobody will notice. Did I mention he is a genius professor?

Grease (1978): Huge fan of the movie. I have been known to sing “Summer Nights” in the car when I am in a good mood. I know what you are thinking. Tell me more, tell me more. Well, as much as I love the movie, there is an aspect about the end that always confuses me. Sandy always has poodle skirts and saddle shoes throughout the film and these are great for dancing. She shows up in the end carnival scene with high wasted leather pants and super high heeled platforms and she is dancing on grass. On grass, people. She is dancing in heels that she is just trying for the first time and she does it on grass at a carnival, a place not known for immaculate manicured lawns. She probably drives away into the clouds because she died after taking a nasty fall onto a tent stake. Still a great movie, though. 

Footloose (1984): The premise is already a little weird in that there is a city that doesn’t allow dancing. Kevin Bacon changes their minds and there is a school dance at the end with rock music (well, Kenny Loggins music). Everybody dances and has a good time...but the town has had an ordinance against dancing for 20 years. All the high school kids seem to know how to dance despite presumably being 17 or 18 years old and therefore never had the opportunity to dance. How does this work? Some of them have been taught by the lead at the country music bar out of town, but what about everybody else? These guys should all be dancing like a new born giraffe. Not so much. 

I want to mention that I love all of these movies and definitely recommend watching any and all of them more than once. It just happens that, after watching a movie dozens of times, one notices the little things. Sometimes these things really don’t make sense. Realistically, it doesn’t matter and does not take away from the awesomeness of the film, but it is fun to nitpick a little bit.