Happy Birthday to Tim Matheson!

Just have to take a quick moment to wish a Happy Birthday to Tim Matheson, one of my favorite actors. Folks, if you haven't checked out Tim's body of work yet, do it. Here's a guy who can play the most sincere of characters, yet can be the biggest, meanest badass bad guy as well!

Tim Matheson IMDB.

Six degrees of what the crap is that...?

I was intending to do a post on one of the bands that lives in my Mp3 player. Somehow that morphed to "What was that Syfy film with the big, evil snake?"
Which, in turn, lead to a long, winding road of fangirl connections. So I give you the first installment of...
"Six Degrees of What The Crap is That???"

One of the bands that has a permanent home in my Mp3 player is a group called Underground Moon. I doubt you've heard of them. I found them by somewhat of a lucky coincidence while looking up a band that I like from my pre-teen years. Here's some Underground Moon samples, courtesy of amazon.com: Scroll down for samples.

Underground Moon has a song on a Syfy network film. It was a trip to be watching this film and recognize a song. The song is called "Shed The Skin." You can check it out at the previous link. The film is Mega Snake.
Mega Snake IMDB. 

Mega Snake features Michael Shanks of Stargate SG-1 fame. Michael Shanks also played Victor in Burn Notice.

Michael Shanks...

From the Burn Notice connection, you can go with Bruce Campbell (Sam Axe)...

Or you can go with Tim Matheson (Dead Larry)...

From there, the possibilities are endless. I think I only went five degrees with this, but hey, it was an interesting trip down fangirl lane. I could write for 20 hours easy connecting every band I've ever liked with one another, but that'll have to wait for another day.

Sometimes They Come Back...

I watched Sometimes They Come Back earlier this week and have been meaning to give a short review... however, it seems that I got stuck posting about... *gasp* ... meaningful things like duck emergencies. So back to some happy fangirl fluff for a while.

Sometimes They Come Back is based on a Stephen King story, which makes it safe viewing because I know what to expect out of King. In viewing the film, it seemed to ring a bell with me which means either I've read the story (probably) or that King's stories tend to have common themes (also likely). For a while, I kept mixing up the storyline of this with the storyline of a few other of King's works, which made it interesting because I was expecting something totally different to happen.

I watched this while being the only one awake in the house. I don't normally get alone-time when watching movies, so that was a bonus. Was I scared? Not necessarily... but I was on the edge of my seat for this. Not much gets my attention that well, so I'm going to give this film a 4.5 out of 5 on the obscurefilm-o-meter.

Now for the screencaps and Tim Matheson fangirling...

A teacher and his family return to his old hometown...

In which a terrible tragedy happened...

Struggling with nightmares and bad memories, Matheson's character has to deal with obnoxious high school students...

While he probably wants to kill whoever chose his clothing for the film...

And then... the requisite weird shit starts to happen...

Are his students methodically being murdered and replaced... or has Matheson's character gone off the deep end? And who are these new students?

Can this mild-mannered schoolteacher save his family when nobody will believe him?

Sometimes They Come Back IMDB.

Weekend viewing...

I promised a couple folks that I would share my obscure movie choices from the weekend, so here they are. I've been working my way through a short list of Tim Matheson's movies... I don't think I'm going to try and see everything the man has been in, because IMDB says he's been in everything (and I think it may hurt my hipster persona to actually see A Very Brady Sequel). Either way, I usually start working through an actor's catalog by viewing: 1) Films of theirs I have seen before but may have forgotten, then: 2) Horror or suspense films by said actor, then: 3) Comedies or other types of films that seem to fit my interests.

Up first: Deadly Game, which is listed as Catch Me If You Can (not to be confused by that mainstream film by that kid from the sinking ship movie which I shall not name as to not cause at least one online friend to go into severe fits) on IMDB.

Deadly Game IMDB here.

I had hoped this would be more action/suspense than comedy, but I was wrong. Forgiveable being that I think I paid $2 for the DVD online. My first reaction was that this film reminded me entirely too much of Home Alone, only with a slightly different storyline. It was fairly predictable, which I can react either way to, but it was funny. And heartwarming, though I hate to admit I like anything cutesy or heartwarming, I'd give this a 3 out of 5 star rating on the obscurefilm-o-meter.

Tim Matheson wakes up with pizza stuck to his face:

Considers the implications...

And eats it anyway:

The basic jist of the film is this: Down and out cop has to protect the world's most obnoxious kid from the mob and himself.
The kid in question is addressed simply as "kid" for most of the movie. Sometimes I wonder if "kid" is actually pure evil incarnate as he...

Handcuffs Tim Matheson to a table...

Locks him in a dumpster...

And basically runs amok.

Meanwhile "kid" is being searched for by the mob, intent on eliminating a murder witness.

I'll leave it at that. It's worth a watch if you like films like Home Alone or anything in the action comedy genre.

Next up: Bay Cove, released on television in 1987 as Bay Coven. I vaguely remembered this film from when it was shown originally. Being fairly poor, we didn't have a lot of money for video rentals, so I would tape stuff off the television. In fact, I would scour the TV Guide for listings of late-night horror movies to tape. I had an old Betamax VCR that had been handed down to me (at that time, a 13-year old kid), to keep in my room. So I taped obscure horror movies. This was one of them.

Basic premise, a young married couple move onto a small island and then all hell breaks loose. Woody Harrelson and Barbara Billingsley also have parts in this film, which I give a 4 out of 5 on the obscurefilm-o-meter.

Tim Matheson and his wife live in a city loft...

Woody Harrelson is their friend, who apparently lets himself in whenever he feels like...

They decide to move to an island...

They move in and weird shit happens...

Barbara Billingsley gets props for being perfectly creepy...

Gratuitous screencap of Tim Matheson in just a towel...

My only complaint about this film is that it is very hard to watch due to conversion issues. It's grainy and jumpy and somewhat headache-inducing. Made for tv movies from the 80's apparently don't transfer well to DVD and even on an upconverting 1080p DVD player, it kinda sucks. I wouldn't buy it for that reason... just Netflix it. The storyline is somewhat predictable as well, but I can't be a good judge of that being that I had seen this movie before, even though it didn't look familiar until about halfway through.
You can IMDB it here.

Next up: Sometimes They Come Back. Films made from Stephen King's works are not usually blockbusters, but they are usually tolerable.

Burn Notice Villains Love/Hate

I'm in full-fledged Anson-hating mode after last night's Burn Notice. I guess it's time for little Burn Notice Villain Love/Hate (besides this is a chance for me to give some fangirl love...). In no particular order:

Carla = Hate. It wasn't so much that she was scary. Or playing head games. She was simply an annoying, manipulative bitch. Glad Fi got rid of her.

Larry = Love. Personal favorite villain. Love Tim Matheson, sad to see him go. Perfect level of creepy villain factor.

Brennen = Hate. Glad Larry ended him... lesser of two evils situation. Brennen annoyed me.

Gilroy = Love. Didn't want to like him, but just when he really started to grow on me... kaboom! Chris Vance is awesome.

Simon = Hate. Simon is just plain mad. A worthy villain by all acounts, but also a real dickhead.

Management = Hate. If for no other reason than because of his connection with Anson and the underground network. Can't comment too much more, as Management wasn't seen much.

Anson = Super Hate. This character just makes my skin crawl. Wish he had been blown up instead of Larry. I keep waiting for that "turning point" moment where I grudgingly begin to like a villain, but I doubt it will happen with Anson.

Have I left out a ton of bad guys? Of course. But I think I covered most of the biggies.

Last post for the evening!

Blogging has been just the ticket. Now I don't have to despair about only having 140 characters to mash my ever-so-deep thoughts into. Like debating whether or not Undead Larry on Burn Notice is really dead this time.

In memory of Undead Larry, I'm going to work my way through part of actor/director Tim Matheson's extremely long catalog of work. As a horror fan, I'm going for the sterotypical choice. Next up: Sometimes They Come Back. I know, an odd choice for a trip down fangirl lane... but then again, maybe it isn't. Tim Matheson does kick ass...

On a side note, watching Dead Calm with Billy Zane and Sam Neill right now. Love Billy Zane. Love Sam Neill. /geekout