This is the central gathering spot for all things Larry Ratliff and Movie Memories. The latest blog could be about your favorite celebrity, something funny or important on Larry’s mind or all of the above.
Be grumpy and/or glum about politics, the tragedies on the local newscasts almost every night and things going wrong at work or around the house if you want.
I, on the other hand, am in the mood to celebrate.
Recently back from my Movie Memories with Larry Ratliff swing through the Chicago area, I'm savoring the fact that I was lucky enough to meet scores of very nice people, make some new friends and enjoy the best chicken salad sandwich of my life.
It was 50 years ago today Professor Mercer taught the band to play-by-play
Two days have passed, and I still can't get over the fact that legendary sportscaster Bill Mercer sent an invite to join him for lunch to me and about 20 others from his 35-plus-year University of North Texas (UNT) broadcasting and sportscasting teaching span.
Mercer is famous in the sports world for wrapping his feet with plastic wrap in an attempt to stay warm enough to call the famous “Ice Bowl” NFL championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers in 1967, not to mention the Cowboys first two Super Bowl appearances. He was in the booth when the Texas Rangers set up shop in Arlington and those slightly long of tooth will recall Mercer at the mic when "Studio Wrestling," taken seriously by many back in the 1960s or so, was taped before a small audience in the KRLD-TV (now KDFW) studios.
His credits are too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say that the Texas Pro Baseball Hall of Fame, Texas Radio Hall of Fame and Dallas Press Club “Living Legend of North Texas Journalism” member who shared the broadcast booth with Don Drysdale when the Texas Rangers first hit the field was/is larger than life.
Making Movie Memories with (from left) Bridgette, Lisa and Glenda from HarborChase of the Park Cities.
I was humbled to be asked by Bridgette Walshe, executive director of HarborChase of the Park Cities, to present my "Life Lessons I've Learned at the Movies" Movie Memories presentation Tuesday afternoon at the historic Highland Park Village Theater in the trendy Park Cities area of Dallas near the George W. Bush Presidential Center and Southern Methodist University.
It's always a little special when I speak about the magic of the movies and my adventures interviewing internationally famous movie stars like Tom Hanks and Shirley MacLaine (just to namedrop a couple) and see the presentation spring to life on a huge movie theater screen.
I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. -- Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)
Looking for treasures? You might try the garage.
You know, lurking in those musty boxes weakened by time and multiple relocations over two or three decades
Digging through way too many of those boxes to admit we even had over the weekend in preparation for an upcoming garage sale, we came across my birth announcement from way back in 19-something or other.
Jennifer Lawrence as the title character in "Mother!" (Courtesy: geektyrant.com)
Generally speaking, horror-thrillers come and go these days without much interest from this aisle seat.
Until now.
Mother!, written and directed by Oscar-nominated Darren Aronofsky, is the exception. Simply put, Aronofsky, whose Academy Award nomination came for calling the shots and putting Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis on their toes as driven ballet dancers in Black Swan (2010), knows how to creep us out.
As far as I know, longtime San Antonio film critic Bob Polunskywas never a "Robert."
Bob, who died at 85 this week in San Antonio, Texas, was just Bob, a kindred spirit in the love and appreciation of any film really worth watching. He was also never shy about condemning a flawed movie for its shortcomings in a Bob Polunsky style dubbed "Flicker Footnotes." Bob's reviews were direct and sometimes ruthless but always honest.
Bob was well established as The Guy when it came to film criticism in San Antonio when I arrived in 1983. Bob wrote for the Express-News daily newspaper. After a year of general entertainment reporting at the other daily newspaper in town, the now-dark San Antonio Light, I became "that other film critic in town."
Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman and friend. (Courtesy: jewishcurrents.org)
Dustin Hoffman, one of my favorite actors and, I might add, interview subjects, turns 80 today.
'Scuse me, Mr. Father Time, but how can that be?
There's no denying it, though. There it is in black-and-white (not to mention blue for linked words): Dustin Lee Hoffman, born in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 1937.
Bottled-up sorrow: Rick (Humphrey Bogart) drowning in despair. (Courtesy: www.google.com)
I don't remember the first time I saw Casablanca, the mesmerizing romantic World War II drama classic starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, but I remember the best.
It was in the mid-1970s. If you wanted to see a movie back then you pretty much had to go to a movie house. There was no Internet. No cellphones. No movies on demand on your Wi-Fi-connected TV. Social media in a time that now seems locked in a galaxy far, far away meant chatting about a movie on the way home.
I have very little interest in scampering out and back on every branch of the family tree to discover if I might be a direct descendant of royalty, a great writer from centuries past or, gasp!, rodents (the name Ratliff, you see). I'm much more interested in getting to the root of my love and appreciation for movies.
It's deep-seated, but where did it come from?
I only have to look back one generation to find out all I need to know. My mom and dad both loved movies. I can remember my dad telling the story (over and over, actually) about falling asleep in the Hico (Texas) Theater and waking up in the dark to two startling discoveries: The movie had ended some time ago and everyone was long gone and that he was locked in.
Angelina Jolie doing some tomb raiding as Lara Croft. (Courtesy: imdb.com)
It was early June, 2001, a full three months before terrorists attacked the U.S. and put a somber face on this country and much of the free world that has yet to relax even a little.
It was a happier time, a time when a film critic could say silly things about silly movies and even to its star. No harm would be done and everyone could have a laugh or two.
Such was the case when Angelina Jolie took on the title role as muscle flexing, tough-as-nails video game sensation Lara Croft in the feature film version of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
Belle (Emma Watson) and the Beast (Dan Stevens) trip the candlelight fantastic. (Courtesy: www.digitalspy.com)
We probably shouldn't scold the Disney Studio or its bean counters too severely for rolling out a live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, the Mouse House's animated golden oldie that swept up a boffo $425 million worldwide in 1991.
Disney has been raiding its own vault of animated treasures for years; Alice in Wonderland (2010), Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016) with Dumbo and Mulan on the way next year. That, folks, is why they call it show business with the emphasis clearly on the second word.
Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty fumble through the not-so-grand Oscar finale. (Courtesy: www.google.com)
See, this is what happens when you trust Bonnie and Clyde to hand out the Best Picture award at the Academy Awards.
The only thing I can think of that would have been more bizarre would be if Warren Beatty, looking totally confused and lost (for good reason, it turns out) had said, "We're Bonnie and Clyde. We rob ballots!"
In case you missed it, the 89th Academy Awards telecast was putt-putting along fairly smoothly Sunday night until, of all things, the all-important finale.
Robert De Niro as "The Comedian" (Courtesy: imdb.com)
Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman or Julie Kavner haven't called lately.
But if they did, or do (Come on, what would it hurt?), I would ask them all the same question: "What the heck were you thinking when you signed on the dotted line to play a stand-up comedian in a movie?
Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc in "The Founder" (Courtesy: IMDB.com)
Do you want lies with that?
You'll get plenty -- supersized, in fact -- in the compelling Ray Kroc biopic The Founder.
Michael Keaton shines as brightly as McDonald's iconic golden arches in this blistering tale of deceit, egomania and franchised burgers.
Let's put it this way. When it comes to how McDonald's erupted into a worldwide empire from humble beginnings in California, the secrets weren't just in the sauce.
Meryl Streep at the Golden Globe Awards (Courtesy: businessinsider.com)
“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” – Oscar Wilde
I had a wild dream last night; one of those where you wake up fretting and sweating a little and the tangled covers serve as evidence of much tossing and turning.
The late iconic film critic Roger Ebert was standing at the podium at some grand hall. Roger was introducing me as recipient of the Golden Globes Lifetime Achievement Award for my long list of film criticism awards and accomplishments.
OK, let's take a break. Rule No. 1: Please remember, this was a dream. No. 2: No giggling.
Lady Gaga and Bill Murray with Dave on April 2, 2014. (Courtesy: CBS.com)
I can't help it, I still miss David Letterman.
Don't get me wrong. If the Forever King of Late-night TV, in my not-so-humble opinion, wants to keep it semi-private and spend his days growing and explaining why he's grown that weird beard, I'm happy for him.
I just still miss the late-night guy, the clean-shaven one who, first on NBC, then on CBS, was a long-distance friend and as much a part of our evening routine as brushing my teeth. Actually, full disclosure, I probably missed brushing my teeth more than we skipped "Letterman," as we called his shows.
