RIP Lesley Gore

Probably the best way to remember Lesley Gore, who died yesterday at the age of 68.


Here's another way You Don't Own Me had massive impact, in the 1996 hit The First Wives Club, starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton:




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Incredible Interstellar

An absolute testament to the power of the human spirit to dream, and to achieve. Shame on the Academy for not acknowledging Interstellar with a Best Picture nomination. But then again, in 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey wasn't exactly understood in all quarters either. Matthew McConaughey leaves behind the "all right, all right, all right, all right" persona to deliver a captivating and at times heartwrenching performance as an engineer who must use his engineering skills in space to save mankind, even as he leaves his family behind.

A strong dose of quietly heroic, stoic piece of filmmaking from the Nolan brothers, Christopher and Jonathan, they of Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy. Did they write it? Or did they improv it? If they are brainiacally talented enough to do the latter, all the more power to them. I don't really care. What I do care about is the fact that ordinary humans are doing extraordinary things. Without benefit of capes.

Of course the ideal place to have seen Interstellar is in a theater. But economy and home technology being what they are, you can have just as fascinating and captivating a time at home when Warner Brothers releases the Blu-Ray and DVD on March 31.

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RIP Richard Kiel

A great interview on the UK's This Morning program, with late actor Richard Kiel, best known for playing the villainous Jaws in the two James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), a blatant Star Wars cash-in which nonetheless deserves mention for ultimately turning Jaws into a nice guy (according to Kiel, at the insistence of director Lewis Gilbert's young son). Mr. Kiel, you brought a unique seven-foot presence to the screen, and you shall be missed.

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Tommy Lee Jones, circa 1978

Yes folks, in 1978 Tommy Lee Jones was too sexy for his shirt, in The Betsy. Here he is trysting with Lesley Anne Down:



One of the last pulpy potboilers made from a Harold Robbins novel, the plot concerns a wealthy family headed by Sir Laurence Olivier, and their desire to make the world's fastest and most efficient car ever.
Soapy 70's cheese to be sure.

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