Saturday, July 10, 2021

Briefs for July 10-11, 2021

Unfortunately, I've been busy again with work which has been rather stressful recently, so I haven't had as much time to watch movies as I'd like, trying to squeeze them in between dinner and going to bed early. That's probably why the reviews aren't as good as I'd like them to be. But there's any number of things worth mentioning.

First up is the passing of director Richard Donner, who died on Monday at the age of 91. His career actually started in the late 1950s, directing TV shows. I've probably seen his name in the closing credits of The Rifleman since Dad and I watch that every Saturday at dinner. As for his films, his breakthrough was The Omen in 1976, and he went on to direct the first Superman movie along with such 80s stuff as The Goonies and Scrooged. I think Scrooged was on earlier this week, but won't be on again until Wednesday, July 14.

As for what is coming up, TCM starts off tomorrow morning with Sadie McKee at 6:15 AM, an entertaining enough "which man should I marry" movie from Joan Crawford. To be honest, though, one can see why Crawford began to grow tired of the roles MGM was giving her, and this was a full nine years before she left.

Also on TCM on Sunday is the excellent Running on Empty, at 5:45 PM. Hard to believe that it's been almost five years since I blogged about this one. River Phoenix plays a teenaged music prodigy whose parents have had him on the run his entire life since they were radicals who seriously injured a man when they bombed a napalm research facility. Judd Hirsch is also quite good as Phoenix's dad.

Over on FXM, The Man from Snowy River joined the rotation recently. Kirk Douglas gets a double role in this Down Under western and looks like he's having a lot of fun doing it. It'll be on FXM again tomorrow at 1:10 PM and kicks off the Monday FXM Retro block.

I'm hoping to have another fresh movie review later this evening.

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