Will McKinley @willmckinley-blog - Tumblr Blog

I saw A MOST VIOLENT YEAR (2014) last night and I really enjoyed it.

J.C. Chandor's follow-up to ALL IS LOST (2013) is a tense character study of an immigrant businessman (Oscar Isaac) trying to break through the calcified corruption of New York City in the early 1980s.

Isaac is a clear Oscar candidate, and Jessica Chastain is nearly unrecognizable as his wife, the tough-talking daughter of a Brooklyn mobster. Albert Brooks and Jerry Adler (the lawyer from "The Sopranos") are also memorable in supporting roles.

For me the real star of A MOST VIOLENT YEAR is Bradford Young's beautifully ambient cinematography, an homage to the underexposed brilliance of Gordon Willis in films like THE GODFATHER: PART II (1974).

Not a lot happens in A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, but what does is so true to outer-borough life of a generation ago that I took it to be a memoir. Highly recommended.

#a most violent year

Marcia Strassman (1948-2014) holds her own w/ Travolta and Gabe Kaplan on Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-79, ABC)

#Marcia Strassman #John Travolta #Gabe Kaplan #Kotter

Hal Roach comedy shorts on TCM tonight 12AM including CHARLEY MY BOY! (1926) w/ Charley Chase

#Hal Roach #Charley Chase

Norma Shearer + Clark Gable in A FREE SOUL (1931) re-cut to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" (h/t @PreCodeDotCom)

#A FREE SOUL #Lady Gaga #bad romance

The Munsters (1964-66, CBS) debuted 50 years ago tonight. Here's the *color* pilot with a different Lily and (annoying) Eddie.

#the munsters

"The Equalizer" (1985-89, CBS) extended opening sequence. Music by Stewart Copeland.

#the equalizer #edward woodward

Here's a rare episode of The Bugs Bunny Show (1960-62, ABC) sponsored by General Mills, complete w/ opening animation, bridging sequences, and sponsor messages (featuring the Looney Tunes characters in newly created animation). Special Bonus: a live action Tang commercial!

I had no idea they used the "This is It" theme song that I loved in the late '70s on CBS's Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show as early as 1960 on ABC. They also appear to have used the theater setting for all the bridging sequences.

This episode features Chuck Jones' RABBIT OF SEVILLE (1950), THE SCARLET PUMPERNICKLE (1950), and STOP! LOOK! AND HASTEN! (1954)

Source: Daily Motion/GoldenAgeCartoons.com

#The Bugs Bunny Show #RABBIT OF SEVILLE #SCARLET PUMPERNICKLE #STOP! LOOK! AND HASTEN!#Bugs Bunny #Looney Tunes

Franklin J. Schaffner's PLANET OF THE APES (1968) w/ Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, and Kim Hunter airs on TCM tonight (Sun 9/7/14) at 8 p.m. (ET).

While it can't compete with the CGI realism of the recent APES films, PLANET OF THE APES is one of the most memorably fun sci-fi films ever made. Heston's alpha male scenery chewing never found a better home on movie screens than it does here (BEN-HUR included, in my opinion), and Kim Hunter gives an Oscar-worthy performance, even though she's rendered barely recognizable by John Chambers' Academy Award-winning make-up.

Ted Post's BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (1970) follows at 10 p.m. The second installment in what would become a five-film series stars James Franciscus and Kim Hunter, with David Watson replacing McDowall as Cornelius. Charlton Heston briefly reprises his role of Taylor, though I suspect he regretted that decision when he saw the final film.

The concluding voiceover narration by Paul Frees is worth the price of admission, particularly if you didn't pay anything to get in. This is a depressingly terrible film, which makes the course correction the series did with the brilliant ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971) even more amazing. Sadly TCM is not airing ESCAPE tonight, but you can watch it on Amazon (not Netflix, unfortunately).

#planet of the apes #beneath the planet of the apes

The Star Trek/Lost in Space crossover that never happened - but should have.

Source: Alpha Centauri Society on Facebook

#Lost in Space #Star Trek

The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show (1977-85, CBS) opening sequence from a 1979 off-air recording.

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts aired in one form or another on Saturday morning television from 1962 until 2000, both on ABC and CBS.

Bugs and crew actually made their TV debut in primetime in 1960 as an ABC half-hour program called The Bugs Bunny Show, with new connecting sequences between cartoons done by Warner Bros. Animation.

As a late '70s kid, I discovered Looney Tunes from both these weekly shows and the daily, after-school airings on WNEW-Channel 5 in New York. The syndicated package was just cartoons - no animated opening or bridging sequences - and included deeper cuts that I never saw on the network broadcasts.

#The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show #Looney Tunes

Warning to hysterical women! WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935) airs tonight 10pm on MeTV w/ host Svengoolie

#WEREWOLF OF LONDON

David Hasselhoff and KITT from Knight Rider (1982-86, NBC) reunite for a Samsung commercial, produced by ad agency R/GA.

It's (kind of) funny, but is that William Daniels as the voice of KITT? Of all the sites that posted this ad today, only one confirms that it's Daniels. And who's the dude in the car at the end? Is it, as CinemaBlend suggests, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY star Chris Pratt, the actor rumored to be the new Michael in a feature film reboot?

#Knight Rider #David Hasselhoff

Ted Stryker (Robert Hays), Roger Murdock (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Otto the Autopilot from AIRPLANE (1980) reunite for a Wisconsin Tourism Board commercial, directed by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams.

Source: CinemaBlend

#Airplane #zucker brothers #Robert Hays #Classic film