Lost two important figures of my childhood, both for completely different reasons obviously, although watching a Wes Craven and Dean Jones team up would probably be more out of left field and awesome than the Was Craven and Meryl Streep team up.  Perhaps there's an alternate universe where Dean Jones plays Nancy's dad in A Nightmare on Elm Street.  That would have taken away from the excellent John Saxon performance, but that's why alternate universes exist: to take a peak at what it would be like if this happened.  Yep, that's exactly why they exist.

Like many many people my age and older who grew up during the golden age of slasher films, Wes Craven may have been one of our earliest introductions to horror.  I remember being about 3 or 4 years old, and over at a family friend's house and playing the arcade game Defender.  Behind me, they were channel surfing, and one of them ended up on a channel showing one of the Elm Street movies.  Honestly, I can't remember which one it was, and it may have just been a promo, but I remember thinking, uh oh, I probably shouldn't watch this, this looks a bit too intense for me.  I'm going to continue shooting the citizens I'm supposed to be saving in Defender.

It wasn't until about 4th or 5th grade that I really really started getting into binge watching horror films.  That's right, going to the video store, renting a wagon full, taking them home, and spending a couple days watching through them, then returning and renting some more.  By the time Junior High started, I already had quite the collection that I had bought.  And yes, there were a lot of Wes Craven movies in there.  "Last House on the Left" is pretty much the definition of flawed masterpiece.  There's some really intense and well acted sequences in that film.  And then chicken trucks happen.  "The Hills Have Eyes" is fun and gritty looking as hell.  I love how it looks like it was filmed with cameras that were themselves left over at a nuclear test sight.  

It's hard to believe "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Hills Have Eyes Part 2" came out the same year.  Elm Street being a scary as hell movie, with one of the most memorable villains of any genre, and Hills Have Eyes Part 2 isn't that good, but watching Michael Berryman running around like madman and terrorizing a blind woman is worth atleast a rental I suppose.  "Deadly Friend" is worth it for the basketball scene, "The Serpent and the Rainbow" has gotten repeat viewing from me since I first saw it, and "Shocker" is corny as hell, but still kinda worth it.  

"The People Under the Stairs" is a bizarro freakshow masterpiece, and one of his most underrated movies.  It's like a kids movie that somehow wandered into an exploitation film, and it's brilliant.  Everett McGill running around in a leather outfit screaming like an insane demon from an S&M club is genius.  I watched "Nightmare Cafe" with my mom when it first aired on television.  I can still remember being freaked out by the dude who turned into a stone pillar at the end of an episode.  It was a great short lived series that should have gone on much longer than it did.  "New Nightmare" will hold a special place in my heart because it was the first Freddy movie that I saw in theaters.  I went by myself since none of my friends at school were allowed to go. I really did have the best parents.  "New Nightmare" I think is a really smart film, and a great way to make Freddy spooky again.  

I remember not liking "Vampire in Brooklyn" when it first came out, but Sarah has been wanting me to give it another chance for years.  I haven't been intentionally avoiding it, I just forget things sometimes.  Honestly, it may hold up better for me as an adult, I can think of a lot of movies that are like that.  "Scream" was an insanely popular franchise for him, and while it's a series I was never a fan of, it's definitely going to be mentioned in any write up of Wes Craven.  But I'm not here to talk on and on about what I disliked about some of the guys films; I'm not an asshole, I'm here to give the man credit where credit is due, and thank him for some movies that really did help shape my tastes since my childhood.  By the way, "Red Eye" is a really fun flick too and is totally worth a watch.

As for other people who shaped my tastes a childhood, sure I can talk on and on about the horror movies I grew up on and was allowed to watch, but horror movies weren't the only thing I watched as a kid.  Of course I watched what all the other kids were watching too, and part of that included the Disney flicks of the 60s and 70s.  Someone on twitter told me "if there were G-Rated shenanigans to be had, Dean Jones was there."  And this is totally true.  Dean Jones was charming as hell.  The dude just oozed likability, charisma, charm, and had a 1000 yard friendly smirk that made him perfect for these flicks.  Sure, I watched the Herbie movies as a kid, plus I always got enjoyment out of watching he and Suzanne Pleshette in The Ugly Dachshund, but my favorite Dean Jones movie, and one of my favorite comedies ever is the 1965 film That Darn Cat.

Hell yes I still own That Darn Cat and watch it anytime I can.  I love That Darn Cat so much that I can go on and on about how the remmake with Christina Ricci and Doug E Doug is one of the worst movies remakes ever.  The physical comedy from Dean Jones in That Darn Cat is outstanding, and also his likable straightman capabilities at just getting laughs from a simple look of disbelief, especially in this movie where the plot has him as an FBI agent using a Siamese cat named DC as a tool for rescuing a kidnapped woman.  There's much added hilarity too in making him so allergic to cats, that even saying the word cat makes him sneeze.  Another thing I love about this movie is that while on the one hand we have this silly and very funny Disney comedy, the villains on the other hand are Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin, and while Frank Gorshin is playing his role for laughs, Neville Brand is playing it STRAIGHT.  I'm not sure if Neville Brand knows he's in a Disney movie.  I think he thinks he's in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing.  

Watching Neville Brand in this is like watching Seth Gecko pop up in The Parent Trap.  It's brilliant.  So much so that Brand even says to the kidnapped woman "I've got 6 little lead nozed friends, and they can all run faster than you can."  This is great stuff, and it all ends with a fist fight between Dean Jones and Brand which immediately makes your movie a mmasterpiece.  Long story short, you want to honor Dean Jones this weekend, or just watch a great comedy, watch That Darn Cat.  And I definitely can't end this without mentioning Dean Jones' against type performance as the veterinarian from hell in "Beethoven."  I remember seeing Beethoven in the theater and thinking, "um, that's not the Dean Jones I remember!"  It was a great role for him and totally showed that he could do villain just as well as hero, and honestly I would have loved to seem do a villainous role more, but if it's likable Disney hero you're looking for, it never got more likable than Dean Jones.

As many of you already know, Blip TV is closing its doors on August 20th.  I've been working with Blip for the past 6 years, and my time with them has been great, and I'm certainly going to miss posting my stuff with them.  Without Blip's help, we wouldn't have been able to do a lot of the projects that we've done over the years, and we certainly wouldn't have been able to build up our library as big as it's become.  

So what does this mean for us and our videos?  Nothing major really, it just means that there's going to be a very very long process of changing the embeds on the site, plus we'll be converting our back catelogue to our new youtube page, which you can find here.  Please subscribe to our new page, even if you don't plan on watching them on youtube.  The more subscriptions we get, the more awesome stuff we can do with that page.  For the time being, you'll still see our new episodes on Blip.  As far as what's going to happen post-Blip closing its doors, rest assured we'll be moving into another home shortly.

Our workflow is still the same, I'm still working on a new Snob episode this week, and we've still got the Midnight Screenings, plus the premiere of "Lloyd" coming up towards the weekend.  Until then, look for us in the remaining month of Blip, as well as our backlog's new home on YouTube.  

While we said goodbye to the wonderful and hilarious Colbert Report this week, which was an outstanding farewell and worth the watch, even if you're not a nightly Colbert viewer; what hit me the most emotionally, and what I knew was going to be a bittersweet goodbye to an old friend in television was watching the final episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  My nightly tradition for the past several several years is, I curl up on the couch, I smoke a little something, I watch The Late Late Show, then I watch some infomercials or whatever the hell else is on, and I go to sleep.  I was a viewer Craig's Late Late Show for long enough to remember what they're talking about when they bring up the ill-fated Audience Donut Jenga, which I believe may have been the first year the show was on.

I grew up watching late night television, namely David Letterman, and the late night talk shows that always spoke to me the most were the ones who took things in a different direction and did things not unlike any other regular late night talk show.  It's fitting that Craig's tagline was "not like any other late night show," because it truly wasn't.  Here was a show that gave us the brilliant Craig Ferguson on a nightly basis, but also the incredible talents of Josh Robert Thompson, a phenomenally gifted actor, as Geoff Peterson, Sandra the Rhino, the offscreen band Alfredo Sauce and the Shy Guys, not to mention Josh's 100s of phone call voices including Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Miriam, Jerry from Room Service, plus the Jay Leno fly, and countless others that could fill this entire page.  Craig and Josh have chemistry like none other on televison.  It's a man behind a desk, unscripted, talking to his robot skeleton sidekick and absolutely anything they want to talk about, whether it's tweets and emails, or 1-5 dings on a bell.  This show was so unlike any other before it, that people who have never seen this show probably don't know what in the fuck I'm talking about.  "1-5 dings? Room service? A rhino?  What?!?"

Here, this will make you more confused.  I'll talk about Secretariat, the best horse in television since Mr. Ed.  When he's not catching frisbies, learning Japanese, threatening to kick Craig's ass, or snorting cocaine, Secretariat the horse should always come dancing into a room whenever a doorbell is heard and someone screams "Who's that at the door???"  But even beyond Craig, Geoff, and Secretariat, Craig's interviews were also unlike any you'd see on network television, which also made the show worth tuning into every night.  Many celebrities have insane handlers, stick to a strict set of pre-interview questions, which can make many late night talk show interviews feel fake and shallow, but not with Craig's show.  Ripping up the note card at the beginning of every interview symbolizes that they're going to talk about whatever they want to talk about, and if that ends with an awkward pause, a big cash prize, meditation, a piece of fruit, or smashing a coconut, then even better!  Interviews could be a funny assortment of randomness, very serious and touching, or get very personal, such as Craig's openness to not only talk about but joke about his rather wild past; something that's even inspired myself to joke about my own embarrassing way younger days.

Last night's show had many great moments, from the opening musical number, to the incredibly personal monologue addressing the fans and makers of the show, to the Jay Leno interview, and to the ending which manages to combine The Drew Carey Show with the finales of Newhart, St. Elsewhere, and The Sopranos all into one ending sketch.  **Spoilers** So if The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson has all been in the mind of Mr. Wick this entire time, does that mean all the movies that the celebrities have been on to promote in the past 10 years are also in the mind of Mr. Wick?  The last 10 years have just been Westphall'd.  It was a great finale, but also sad in knowing that this is the last new episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that I'll ever see.  At the same time, Craig has said that this is not retirement (he currently hosts the syndicated game show Celebrity Name Game), it's simply an opportunity to move on to new shows and tours.  I can't wait to see what those will be, and I also hope we'll be seeing more of Geoff Peterson, Secretariat, and the rest of the group in the future.  So until then, enjoy these moments of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, not like any other late night show.

This was his special that I watched the most growing up.  Robin Williams was one of my childhood heroes, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.  The dude is an icon, an inspiration to a generation of comedians, and one of the best stand ups who ever lived, with a unique energy that's nothing short of awe inspiring.  At the same time, he could even turn in some of the most chilling and memorable dramatic performances put on film as well, from One Hour Photo to Insomnia to his Academy Award Winning role in Good Will Hunting, not to mention the darkly comedic, underrated bit of madness that is Death to Smoochy.  Then there's what I feel is his best, and most haunting and layered performance, which is his role as Parry in The Fisher King.  No matter what mood, this is someone who could always make me smile, and what better way to remember this comedy great than An Evening with Robin Williams.  Elmer Fudd singing "Fire" is something my family and I have quoted for well over 20 years.

"I am nursing a viper in Rome's bosom."

This is something I wished I never had to write about.  We lost one of my biggest influences today.  As a kid I grew up watching "Siskel & Ebert" every Saturday night with my dad, and I continued to watch all the way until the departing of "Ebert & Roeper."  Sorry Ben Lyons, couldn't make it past one episode with you.  The shows may be cancelled, but Siskel & Ebert are now together again, and I hope they continue on with the glorious bickering.  I also owned most of Ebert's books, particularly ones on movies he hated, and I continued to read his reviews until his unfortunate death today.  For the past 6 years, I've been doing The Cinema Snob, a character that started out as a spoof of Roger Ebert's review of "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter."  It was never done out of hate or spite, it was simply because that's just an easy thing to poke some fun at.  
Roger Ebert himself left a mark on exploitation cinema by penning "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," a masterpiece of what-the-fuck cinema that is everything but predictable.  Ebert had the kind of talent and power to make you continue reading his work, even if you disagreed with what he had to say.  Hell, he gave my favorite movie all time Zero Stars, but had such a skill with words that even when you disagreed with him, you could still understand his own reasoning for liking or disliking something.  Not only that, but his absolute loathing of a movie provided some of the funniest (intentionally so) movie reviews of all time.  Read his articles on "Caligula," "Mad Dog Time," or "North" and you'll see what I mean.  He had such passion in his writing, that for someone like me, it made me curious to seek out the movie just out of pure curiosity.  

I'm going to see a movie tonight for the site, and from here on out I'm always going to wonder what Roger would have thought of the film.  Sometimes though, it may not be too hard to figure out what his opinion might be.  The Scorsese movie may get 4 stars, same with the Tarantino film, and the Rob Schneider movie will most likely go over about as well as "Deuce Bigalow: Eurpoean Gigolo" did.  Hey, that's another movie he gave Zero Stars to, and I'm pretty sure that's the only reason I watched it.  Not because I thought "hey, Roger hated it, it must be good."  That's hardly the case.  Zero Star ratings were very rare for Ebert, and were only given to the films he found to be the lowest of the low.  That's what made me curious to see them.  I just had to see how bad something was to cause him to hate it so.  More often than not, he was very much correct in movies he had that much contempt for.  I remember calling my girlfriend at the time and saying "ok, I wasn't planning on seeing this, but we have to check out 'Freddy Got Fingered.' I have to know how bad it is."  It was bad.

I did disagreed with Roger Ebert on a lot of things though, some of which, such as his stance on many exploitation film, I felt he was just flat out wrong about.  There were also times he took things too far, such as his protests of "I Spit on Your Grave," or calling out the producers of "Silent Night, Deadly Night."  But I always respected the man, and that's what kept me reading all of those years.  I wouldn't have known enough about him to make fun of him if I didn't know a hell of a lot about his work.  And I'm not kidding when I say I was an avid reader.  My friends and I used to have contests where there would try to stump me on how many stars Ebert gave to any random movie.  I had that shit down.  Hell, I probably still do.  "The Wizard," 1 star; "Reservoir Dogs," 2 and a half stars; "Die Hard 2," 3 and a half stars; "Fever Pitch," the Ryan O'Neal one Zero Stars, the Jimmy Fallon one 3 and half stars.  

Roger may be gone, but his work and contributions to film criticism will always be there.  I'll still go back and read his work until the day I die.  Whenever I catch a movie for the first time, I'll still look through the archives to read Ebert's review, and odds are I've already read it before, but now I can read it as someone who has seen the movie.  Roger Ebert was a film critic.  I'm just some guy on the internet who likes talking about movies.  We should all strive to make as big of a dent on the field as Roger Ebert did, because there's not many like him left.  

This is awful awful news.  I'm glad I was already at the bar last night when I found this out.  We lost a really really cool dude yesterday, and one of my favorite action directors.  To say Tony Scott's visual style as a director was influential would be an understatement.  No other action director of the day shot the magic hour quite like Tony.

I was always a huge fan of "The Hunger."  Come for David Bowie as a vampire.  Then stay and come again for Sarandon Deneuve love scene.  "Beverly Hills Cop II" was an awesome sequel to the original, I love the Alphabet Crimes plot, the soundtrack, Brigitte Nielsen's tall ass villain, and Gerald Ford.  "The Last Boy Scout" is an incredibly underrated Bruce Willis flick, and Willis' Joe Hallenbeck is one of Bruce's best and funniest characters.  "I forgot to tell you, bom means fuck you in Polish!"  And "Top Gun" was a great part of my childhood and many others' childhoods.  I still love "Top Gun."

Then of course there's "True Romance," a masterpiece by any standard.  A film geek runs off with the woman he loves and gets caught up in drugs and Christopher Walken.  What's not to love?  The Walken/Hopper scene is one of the single greatest scenes in movie history.  I was also a fan of his remake of "Man on Fire" with Denzel.  In an age of watered down "teen friendly" action films, "Man on Fire" was the dose of hardcore brutal revenge that we had needed for a while.  Denzel shoeves C4 up a guy's ass, and also cuts a mans fingers off while a Spanish version of "Mickey" is playing.  I dug it a lot.  

Well, I'm going to go have myself a drink and watch some of Tony's movies.  This is all around tragic.  From all of us on the site, our hearts and sympathy go out to Tony's friends and family. 

"If it's the electrical system, it's going to take about three or four hours to fix... and I'm going boogyin'!"

Lost one of favorites this week.  Would have posted something sooner, but naturally I've been spending a lot of time watching my "Manimal" DVDs, and "Jaws 3-D."  The world is a little less wealthy, young, and handsome now that Simon MacCorkindale has passed.  I will be doing a special tribute this week, but until then, please enjoy my "Top 10 Best Manimal Moments" video from several months back.

If there is a heaven, Dr. Jonathan Chase is up there right now shark surprising people in their swimming pools.