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Showing posts from February, 2017

Bang! Mustang! - Surfin' NSA

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These guys just became one of my new favorite bands. 

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

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I'll admit something to you right off the bat: I wanted to like this movie more than I actually did. Don't get me wrong; it's a very good movie and I'm glad to have seen it, but I think I had built up my expectations to a level that could never be met, regardless of how good the movie is. See, for years, 1940's The Mark of Zorro  has been known to me as the movie that a young Bruce Wayne and his parents had just seen when they were gunned down in an area of Gotham City known as Crime Alley. Legend has it, according to at least two comic book writers, that Thomas, Martha, and Bruce Wayne had just left the theater and were walking home when they were approached by Joe Chill, and the events that followed changed the course of Bruce's life forever. I've always liked this particular origin because it meant that Batman was motivated not just by the death of his parents, but by the heroism of Zorro that he had witnessed on screen that night and that Zorro's

Has Batman Become Too Dark?

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Review: Justice League Dark (2017)

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Why does the title of this movie make me crave chocolate?

Comic Book Character Spotlight: Aquaman

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Arthur Curry has been the punchline of too many jokes. Let the truth be known: Aquaman is awesome.

Review: Ride the Wild Surf (1964)

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The sixties were filled with a glut of surf and beach movies, a trend that started during the late 1950's and eventually fizzled by the end of 1967. The formula was simple: throw some buff young guys and perky young girls in swimwear and film them to some exotic location that would hold appeal for a hungry and rebellious teenage audience, thus ensuring box office profits. The key was always to be a little provocative, but never so much that there was actually any controversy. There would be no nudity, very little innuendo, and absolutely no sex. It seemed to work, as there are a few dozen movies from this era that exist, and almost all of them share a sense of goofy fun and a Vaudevillian sense of slapstick. Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello became wholesome icons, attractive but safe. 1964's  Ride the Wild Surf somehow manages to stand apart from the Frankie/Annette cookie-cutter pattern. It's still a breezy, fun movie, but the stakes feel much higher and the charac

The Fruitcake Capital of the World?!

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In this video, Cereal at Midnight travels to the town of Claxton, GA, the self-proclaimed "Fruitcake Capital of the World," to see what's really going on,. Plus, we have an on-camera taste test of what we find.

Review: The Man From Colorado (1948)

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Glenn Ford and William Holden go toe to toe in this notable western from 1948. 1948's The Man From Colorado marks, to my knowledge, the second and final team-up of Glenn Ford and William Holden on the silver screen. They'd both appeared in another western 7 years earlier, 1941's Texas , a breezy little film that doesn't quite walk the line between drama and comedy as easily as it wishes it did. In Texas , they'd had a remarkable chemistry that stemmed from a real-life friendship developed despite the intentions of Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures; Cohn had hired them at the same time with the belief that they'd see each other as competition, thus working harder for the studio in fear of losing roles to each other. 1941's Texas found the two young actors starring as scruffy outcasts, upstarts looking for a break. 1948's The Man from Colorado finds the two actors boys no more, but grown men. One need not look very far to discover why: in

Unboxing and review: Elvis Presley - The RCA Albums Collection

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to open a box set containing almost all of Elvis Presley's output over 60 CDs? It's exactly like this video that I made to capture the moment.

53 Years Ago Today, The Beatles Arrived in America

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On February 7th, 1964, The Beatles landed in New York City marking the first time they'd set foot on American soil. Two nights later, they made their debut on The Ed Sullivan show and the world was changed forever.

The Fleetwoods - "Mr. Blue"

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Here's a shout out to The Fleetwoods, a vocal trio of teenagers who, in spite of being clean-cut all-Americans not long out of high school, managed to birth a musical masterpiece with "Mr. Blue," a song favored by everyone from Bob Dylan to Garth Brooks.

The Explorers Club - Freedom Wind (2008)

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This album makes me so happy.