Cereal At Midnight

49 years ago to the day as I post this review, Saturday Night Live made its debut on NBC and the Not Ready For Primetime Players started a revolution. Before a live audience of millions and with no safety net, they took no prisoners and had few alliances. It was as if the inmates were running the asylum, comedic anarchists who were about to forever change the landscape of television and comedy at the same time. And now, nearly half a century later, SNL is still on the airwaves.  Saturday Night , co-written and directed by Jason Reitman, seeks to take us backstage on the night of that very first show on October 11, 1975. The story is told in real time, spanning roughly the 90 minutes before the show went out live to the nation. With executives that were ready to pull the plug at a moment’s notice and a debut show that was still being conceived right up until the red light went on, it’s a miracle any of it made it to air.   The problem—not just with this film but with all biopics—is th

Equal parts inspirational and absolutely devastating, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is an intimate look at the life of the Superman actor--both before and after his injury, as told by his friends, his family, and Reeve himself.  The structure of the film works well; we start with the horseback riding accident that forever altered the trajectory of Christopher Reeve's life, then we go back to the beginning--his childhood, his troubled relationship with his father, how acting was an escape for him. The film proceeds like this, telling the story of his early years, his development as a physical performer and athlete, what his fellow theater actors at the time-such as Jeff Daniels and William Hurt--thought about his casting as Superman (William Hurt was not enthused, telling Reeve he was selling out his artistic integrity). Then we flash forward to the immediate aftermath of the accident and his long struggle just to survive, then to breathe, then to speak. Back and forth, sl

Let's catch up on some of the latest physical media releases from Umbrella, Eureka, Grindhouse, and more. Plus, Beatles, crime, coffee, and Captain Planet! Save 15% on your first Umbrella order at https://shop.umbrellaent.com.au/discount/CAM15 . **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Movie Review Archive: CerealAtMidnight.com/p/reviews.html Cereal At Midnight Swag: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/cerealatmidnight Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight Facebook.com/CerealMidnight Twitter: CerealMidnight I

In this Unscripted video, I talk about being a "cinephile" and why that's not a bad word.  More Unscripted videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLms82QIo-B9mUuikz8UvJP4FvghHmQbeL **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Movie Review Archive: CerealAtMidnight.com/p/reviews.html Cereal At Midnight Swag: CerealAtMidnight.Threadless.com Ebay.com/usr/cerealatmidnight Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight Facebook.com/CerealMidnight Twitter: CerealMidnight Instagram: CerealMidnight TikTok: OfficialCerealA

Todd Phillips must think he’s either died and gone to heaven or is perpetually living in hell. The better part of a decade ago, the filmmaker behind The Hangover films had an axe to grind. He wanted to make comedies, but was becoming all too aware that comedies were no longer profitable at the box office; to his frustration, one of the only kinds of entertainment that people would still actually leave their house to see was the comic book movie, a genre that he hated. He began crafting Joker , a resentful satire of the comic book film, pulling DC’s most-known villain out of the pages of comics and dropping him whole cloth into the world of Martin Scorsese. In fact, he even approached Scorsese to help make the film, noting that it would be a meta-commentary on the ouvre of the man who invented the 1970s urban psychotic and thus a whole sub-genre. Scorsese ultimately declined..and don’t think that didn’t add fuel to the fire. Fast forward to 2019. Joker , conceived as the anti-comic-boo

C. Courtney Joyner returns to Cereal At Midnight to talk about his new 70s-style horror movie QUADRANT (directed by Charles Band), a new VHS horror art anthology, the Lone Pine film festival, westerns, genre entertainment, and more! Quadrant at Full Moon   Quadrant Streaming on Full Moon Quadrant on Amazon Prime  Quadrant on Amazon (Blu-ray and DVD)  Quadrant on Tubi  Videotapes From Hell More with C. Courtney Joyner & Cereal At Midnight **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Movie Review Archive: CerealAtM

Kris Kristofferson has left this plane of existence and I find the world without him to be a little bit dimmer, the sky a bit darker without his star shining as a guide for those lost at sea.   I don't remember when I first became aware of Kris Kristofferson. I've been fairly open about my sheltered, hyper-religious youth in which the majority of movies and music were kept away from me--I was told they were distractions from the straight and narrow of a holy, spiritual life. As such, it's quite likely that he wasn't on my radar at all until I started to get out from under their thumbs around the age of 16. What I do know with certainty is that Kristofferson's appearance in the first Blade  film made quite an impression on me when it hit theaters; this grizzled, worn man with a craggy face, each line telling a story that I didn't yet know. He seemed out of place somehow in this polished comic book confection, too real for such escapist fantasy. Blade was The Dayw

September is a HUGE month for Kino Lorber--FIVE 4Ks, two Kino Cults, and classics, deep cuts, westerns, horror, noir, and studio classics--including TWO that feature a commentary by me! My review of Naughty Girl https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/2024/08/review-naughty-girl-cette-sacree-gamine.html Further Viewing Film Restoration with Charlotte Barker, Paramount's Director of Preservation and Restoration https://youtu.be/emtWrSFJoSs Top 5 Film Noir with Max Allan Collins https://youtu.be/GB94fXJR9Ps 50 Westerns From the 50s with Toby Roan https://youtu.be/vQTO92ndqRg **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtub

At times heartfelt, yet worldly enough to never feel pretentious or preachy, My Old Ass is thoroughly modern and deeply affecting. Freshly out of high school and college bound, 18-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella of the series Nashville ) takes mushrooms with her friends in the woods one night and has a hallucination that she meets her 39-year-old self (international treasure Aubrey Plaza). The premise is silly and fun, but writer/director Megan Park soon steers us into troubled waters immediately following this strange one night stand.  In the able hands of Park, we care that Elliott is leaving her home on a cozy cranberry farm for the big city. We care that she hasn't taken the time to appreciate her mother and father or her brothers. When her future self warns young Elliott not to hang out with a boy named Chad (Percy Hynes White, of Wednesday fame), we care that she finds herself drawn to him anyway. What starts as a light-hearted mushroom trip becomes a poignant tale about gro

When George Lucas sold his empire to Disney in 2012, the press asked him what retirement would look like for him. The filmmaker and visionary said he was going to make personal, experimental films that nobody would see. Over a decade later, whether Mr. Lucas has made any of those movies or not remains a mystery.  But Francis Ford Coppola has, and it's called Megalopolis .  Both Coppola and Lucas were once faces of Young Hollywood, a group of upstart filmmakers in the 1960s who were steeped in classic studio pictures of the 1930s-1950s, but who also identified with the rebellious creators of the revolutionary French and Italian art scene, adopting the more experimental, gritty, and verite style of filmmaking that would go on to embody the American New Wave. For the last 25 years, Coppola has been so far under the radar that he's barely been on it at all. But with Megalopolis , his first feature film in many years--and very likely the last one he'll ever make--the filmmaker h

Charlotte Barker, Director of Film Preservation and Restoration at Paramount Pictures, takes us behind the scenes of how film restoration really works. From 4K to film grain, this is an eye-opening discussion about how movies are given new life! https://perfdamage.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/perf-damage/id1637019132 Perf Damage on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9DsSRjIuXREfESd_sxsa7Q **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Movie Review Archive: CerealAtMidnight.com/p/reviews.html Cereal

September's new arrivals from Imprint include one of the best box sets of the entire year, and I'm not just saying that because I'm on it! For the serial lover and beyond, this is an incredible batch of releases. Let's unbox them together! https://viavision.com.au/shop/category/imprint-films/ More Imprint coverage: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLms82QIo-B9mzrKoPo-5dzf-gv4KbkWH3 **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Movie Review Archive: CerealAtMidnight.com/p/reviews.html Cereal At Mid

Bang a gong, it's time for the NEW RELEASE SUPER SHOW! Get the sweet lowdown on nearly 2 dozen new #physicalmedia titles from Arrow, Radiance, Eureka, 88 Films, Cult Epics, and more!  Thanks to HAMILTON BOOK for sponsoring this episode! Find many of these tiles and so much more at Hamiltonbook.com Check out Max Steiner: Maestro of Movie Music at DianaFriedberg.com **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membership **************************************************************** Movie Review Archive: CerealAtMidnight.com/p/reviews.html Cereal At Midnight Swag: CerealAtMidnight.Thread

Punk Rock Media Maestro: Terror Vision's Head of Acquisitions, Brad Henderson (formerly of Vinegar Syndrome), riffs on collector mentality, curation, being a challenger brand, and living in the moment. Terror-vision.com https://x.com/BradFHenderson https://x.com/terror_vision https://www.facebook.com/brad.henderson.16 https://www.facebook.com/terrorvisionvideo More with Josh Jabcuga Batman (1989) Commentary https://youtu.be/Eltf5tX47kA The Rocketeer Commentary https://youtu.be/MWfrmDZsN10 They Live Commentary https://youtu.be/dPiGV5Y6jWs **************************************************************** When shopping on Amazon, please consider using Cereal At Midnight's affiliate link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/3LAgnlt **************************************************************** Become a Member and unlock exclusive videos, early access, and much more at Patreon.com/CerealAtMidnight or through YouTube Memberships at https://www.youtube.com/@CerealAtMidnight/membe

From director Fred F. Sears , frequent collaborator of Sam Katzman and a B-movie maverick who literally worked himself to death at the age of 44, Wyoming Renegades tries hard to rise above the traditional low budget fare. After all, this film was made in 1955: Poverty Row was becoming a thing of the past, soon to be replaced by television. Gunsmoke had been a radio staple, but in September of 1955 it would be beamed into the homes of every TV owner in America. It wasn't just Gunsmoke , either; mid-fifties families could stay home and watch The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Jr., Death Valley Days, Gene Autry , Roy Rogers, Judge Roy Bean, The Lone Ranger. ..well, you get the picture, and that's not even all of the westerns playing on television in 1955. The theatrical product had to innovate and offer something that audiences couldn't see at home.  For lower-budgeted pictures, that was easier said than done. Columbia's Wyoming Renegades r