Movie Memories

Supermoon 'Melancholia'

Courtesy: ChicagoTribune.com

I got my love for the movies from my Mom and my fascination at gazing at the moon from my Dad.

Here's hoping those two wondrous worlds don't collide, literally, when the biggest, brightest supermoon since 1948 passes closer to Earth than it has in 69 years tonight (Monday, Nov. 14).

I was a toddler in my Mom's arms, no doubt, when the last supermoon this exciting came calling.  I will be 87 if I'm around (and still pounding this computer keyboard) when it happens again on Nov. 25, 2034.

Will we even have computers then?  Will Mother Earth still be inhabitable then?  Will we all have our student loans paid off by then?  Who knows?

Coming attraction: The Movie Memories Film Fest

"Young @ Heart" (Courtesy: imdb.com)

Remember movies?

You know, the good ones.

The ones that moved you so much that you didn't just suggest to friends and family that they go see them, but the ones so good you actually gathered up a carload and took them to the movie house yourself just to see the look on their faces when something that can only be described as magical unfolded on screen.

The presidential debate: About 'Face'

Andy Griffith as "Lonesome" Rhodes in "A Face in the Crowd." (Courtesy: www.washtimes.com)

So what does a film critic, humorist, public speaker and author who likes to kid around a bit know about presidential politics?

Not much, really, and what I do know I prefer to keep to myself.  It's not that I'm that private. I'm also not the dumbest dangling chad in the pile of discarded ballots.  I'm in business here and just don't choose to alienate half of my potential speaking audience by hopping up on a personal political soapbox.

So why am I even writing this?

Blood, guts and, uh, bluegrass?

Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in "Bonnie and Clyde." (Courtesy: google.com)

I was honored to speak to a group in Dallas last week about movies shot in and around Dallas.

I always come away from The Movie Memories presentation "Lights, Camera, Dallas!" with the music from Bonnie and Clyde bouncing around in my head.  Arthur Penn's 1967 action-crime thriller showcased Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the notorious outlaw duo that terrorized North Texas and surrounding states in the early 1930s.

Really scary scare movies are scarce

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman bunker down in "10 Cloverfield Lane." (https://media3.popstar-assets.com)

I've always admired the work of excellent character actor and sometimes leading man John Goodman. 

Although I've gone out of my way for about 35 years to never act like a movie fan boy, especially while in the presence of film stars I was interviewing, I've always felt a fondness for Goodman, and the reason goes back decades.

Missing me some truly funny guys

Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in "Young Frankenstein." (Courtesy: www4.pictures.zimbio.com)

Think about it for a second.

Someone points a finger at you and requests/hopes/demands that you be funny right now.

Not just a little funny, but world-class funny.

Gene Wilder, who we lost in the past few days, and Peter Boyle, gone 10 years in December, were two of the funniest humans of their generation.  If you think that's easy, try it.

Cinematically presential: Take 1 -- Vote for Dave?

(Courtesy: media7.com)

Sometimes, and quite frequently this presidential election cycle, I wish politics we see in the movies were real and real-life politics were fictional. 

Or more fictional.

No, make that less fictional, but still something to view simply as entertainment.  There I go again, writing myself into a corner I can't write out of.  But I think you know what I mean.  Not something entertaining, yet serious and, for lack of a better phrase, something we can just get up and walk away from.

Like the incredibly entertaining movie Dave of 1993, for instance.  Kevin Kline, a gifted and all-too-often underrated actor, plays Dave Kovic, a fun-loving temp agency owner who just happens to bear a striking resemblance to U.S. President Bill Mitchell (also portrayed by Kline).

Mother of mercy, is this the end of Milk Duds?

(Courtesy: google.com)

The temperature was pushing triple digits as I drove across town around noon, weaving in and out of traffic, heading for the local movie art house.

It was hot enough to fry an egg on a shrinking block of melting ice, but I didn't care.  I had one thing on my mind:

Milk Duds.

We go back a long way, those unfortunately colored morsels of caramel covered in light-brown chocolate.  I grabbed a box of Duds on my way into the darkened abyss of a Harlingen, Texas movie theater to review my first film as a professional critic in 1980.

Jones: A career reborn in 'Bourne'

Tommy Lee Jones in "Jason Bourne." (Courtesy: www.google.com)

It's good to see Tommy Lee Jones back on the big screen in a big way in Jason Bourne.

San Antonio's resident Academy Award winner (The Fugitive, 1993) stars opposite Matt Damon's title character as CIA Director Robert Dewey in the fifth installment of the Bourne action-spy-thrillers.

Hail to and from the cinematic chiefs

(Courtesy: google.com)

As the 2016 presidential season heats up, or boils over as some have already suggested, I like to summon up my source of presidential history and, in many cases, harrumphing.

That would be the movies, my friends, our little semi-reality and/or escape from same known as fiction.

Or in the case of movies "based on true events," fiction.

Flags of our great grandfathers and grandmothers

I make no apologies for star-spangled banter when it comes to Independence Day.

So, proudly fly the U.S. flag, thump an ice-cold watermelon, crank some homemade ice cream and get the family together, it's the Fourth of July weekend, time to celebrate this great country of ours.

Is the Casa Blanca a movie theater or bowling alley?

Actually, it's both.

(Courtesy: Santikos Entertainment)

The Casa Blanca, opening today (June 9), is the latest sparkling jewel in the impressive San Antonio-based Santikos Entertainment group.

On those days or evenings when you just can't decide if you want to catch a movie on a state-of-the-art laser projected digital screen or go bowling, now you can do both.  Or either, or both and have dinner at the Café, or have dinner while enjoying a movie in one of four Bistro theaters, or ... well, you get the idea.

Guess what turns 83 today? Happy Birthday drive-in movies!

(Courtesy: www.movies.com)

And I bet the popcorn was rubbery and cold that first night in Camden, N.J. back on June 6, 1933.

That's when Richard Hollingshead Jr., an auto parts salesman, invented the drive-in movie by putting a projector on the hood of a car and parking it in front of two bedsheets tied together and strung up in the yard.

Cannes 2016: Woody, could he, did he?

Kristen Stewart, left, Woody Allen and Blake Lively draw quite a crowd at the Cannes Film Festival. (Courtesy: www.wsfa.com)

After more than 35 years sitting down with world-famous movie actors, you know, cinematic royalty, if you will, people often ask me if I am nervous or awed in their presence.

Absolutely not!  Except twice.

'Ghostbusters' 2016: Are you gonna call?

New "Ghostbusters" Melissa McCarthy, left, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones answer the call. (Courtesy: Columbia Pictures)

This might not be great news for Columbia Pictures, the gender-switched cast of the re-thunked Ghostbusters brand or, for that matter, movie lovers et al:

According to an article posted on the Hollywood Reporter website, "Ghostbusters is the most disliked movie trailer in YouTube history."

Ferrell the presumptive nominee to swear in as Reagan on the big screen

Mr. Ferrell, pull off that role as Ronald Reagan. (Courtesy: gettyimages.com)

Well, according to a post on the Hollywood Reporter website, Will Ferrell will soon portray former President Ronald Reagan on the big screen.

Many of us remember Ferrell knocking down a pretty mean George W. Bush in numerous Saturday Night Live skits.

But for a sustained length of time in a feature-length movie titled Reagan?

Screen Gems: All sweaty on the Western front

Gary Cooper goes it alone in "High Noon." (Courtesy: loopedblog.com)

Have you ever put out the call for a little help and nobody showed up; maybe for a move or some heavy lifting?

Imagine how Gary Cooper's stone-faced Marshal Will Kane felt in the classic 1952 Western High Noon?

Call it the other Kane mutiny in the history of classic movies.

Screen Gems: I picked the wrong day to give up 'Airplane!'

(Courtesy: Paramount)

It's true, you never forget your first.

For me, that magic, memorable moment finally arrived July 2, 1980.

Pee-wee Herman's rolling in to SXSW

Has it really been 31 years? (Courtesy: Netflix)

Rejoice, Pee-wee Herman fans, the effervescent adult pixie in a gray suit and red bow tie is back and Austin's South-by-Southwest joyous collision of film, music, tech and congealed frenzied humanity better known as SXSW has him.

SXSW kicks off today (March 11) and runs through March 20.  Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee, debuts Pee-wee's Big Holiday, his big-screen comeback as his signature giggly character on March 17.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new us!

Click right on in, everyone.  No need to push or shove, there's plenty of room for everyone.

We are very proud of the newly redesigned, greatly improved LarryRatliff.com website, home of Movie Memories with Larry Ratliff and all that involves.