The Best Years of Our Lives

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Dark City–Dig into an excellent history of film noir in latest TCM journey through the movies

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, TV — Leave a comment

September 1, 2021

Review by C.J. Bunce

Last month I reviewed TCM’s Summer Movies: 30 Sun-Drenched Classics, the eighth volume reviewed here at borg in the TCM library. TCM is busy with new releases this year, and its look at film noir takes a different approach. Written by Noir Alley host Eddie Muller, The Art of Noir author and proclaimed Czar of Noir, Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir (available now in bookstores and at Amazon here) is actually an update of his 1998 look at film noir of the same name. It’s an essential look at the genre for both novices and diehard fans, providing just enough about the key films to entice readers to add several movies to their DVR, and giving long-time noir audiences new ways to think about some classic films. Whenever I hear someone referred to as an expert in genre, I make notes. Here I made a list of what those essential and important obscure noir films should make any book on film noir. Muller includes discussions of all of them except one, from Laura and Shadow of a Doubt to DOA, from Sorry, Wrong Number, Sunset Boulevard, and Call Northside 777, to The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and Chinatown. So the book by all counts is the real deal and worthy of its accolades for both its original and new edition. Unlike some of the other TCM books I’ve reviewed here at borg, Dark City: The Lost World of Film is not only an annotated guide to a list of recommended movies. What film noir movies would you expect to find inside?

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TCM’s The Essentials–Digging into 52 Must-See movies that matter

Filed under: Backstage Pass, Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café, TV — Leave a comment

November 17, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Usually the books from Turner Classic Movies highlight lists of select genre favorites by a single author, with selections that are always on-topic, but can often provoke readers to pull out their hair, since it’s very likely nobody’s personal list will match the author’s–or anyone else’s. We’ve seen great insights and and I’ve personally found numerous selections to track down from the likes of Must-See Sci-Fi, Dynamic Dames, Forbidden Hollywood, Christmas in the Movies, and most recently Fright Favorites. But now I am going to double back to the book, and the list, that started it all. It begins with the 2001 Saturday night series, TCM’s The Essentials. The book is TCM’s The Essentials: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, by film historian Jeremy Arnold, a very different look at classic films.

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Tags: 52 Must-See Movies and Why They Matter, 52 Must-See Movies book review, 52 Must-See Movies Volume 1, 52 Must-See Movies Volume 2, 52 Must-See Movies Volume 2 book review, Casablanca, Christmas in the Movies 30 Classics to Celebrate the Season, Citizen Kane, Duck Soup, Dynamic Dames: 50 Leading Ladies Who Made History, Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond, Halloween movie recommendations, Halloween recommendations, It Happened One Night, Jaws, Jeremy Arnold, Metropolis, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Must See Sci-Fi: 50 Movies That Are Out of This World, Robert Osborne, Running Press, Seven Samurai, Some Like it Hot, Sunset Boulevard, TCM, TCM The Essentials, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Essentials, The Thin Man, To Kill a Mockingbird, Turner Classic Movies, Turner Classic Movies′ Forbidden Hollywood

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Review–The Punisher returns with one of Marvel’s best TV seasons yet

Filed under: Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment

January 20, 2019

Review by C.J. Bunce

Jon Bernthal returned to Netflix this weekend for Season 2 of Marvel’s The Punisher, continuing in the role of Frank Castle, the comic book vigilante that makes all of the Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Keanu Reeves movie action heroes look wimpy by comparison. Bernthal’s performance as a 21st century hero offers more than the beatings he dishes out (which will make viewers wince, flinch, and duck throughout 13 episodes), it has that subtlety and nuance that shows again Bernthal has the acting chops to be the next Robert De Niro. And he’s probably the most believable actor as a Marvel comic book tough guy on the big or small screen.

The Punisher fits the superhero bill in his strength, cunning, and skill, and writers Steve Lightfoot, Ken Kristensen, Angela LaManna, Dario Scardapane, Christine Boylan, Felicia D. Henderson, Bruce Marshall Romans, and Laura Jean Leal outperformed the stellar first season with more elaborate set-ups for Castle & Co. In 2017 the series’ first season made our borg.com best comic book adaptation and best villain with Ben Barnes‘ Billy Russo, and Barnes does it again, creating a worthy foil very different from last time, a character similar in many ways to the complex and somewhat sympathetic Killmonger in Black Panther. In many ways it’s more of the same, with Amber Rose Revah (Emerald City) as Dinah Madani and Jason R. Moore (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) as Curtis back supporting Castle, this time balancing two big threats. The cast plays exceptionally well off each other, and it’s a shame this is the final season for the series.

Castle steps in as good Samaritan to protect a teenager played by Giorgia Whigham (The Orville) who becomes the season’s co-lead, a key part of a strange, Manchurian Candidate-inspired political scheme. Meanwhile Madani pursues Billy Russo, now under the care of a psychiatrist played by series newcomer Floriana Lima. The beating by Castle in Season One left Russo with memory loss, forgetting Castle nearly killed him only because he killed Castle’s family in the first season of the show. The key theme again is PTSD and the results of coming home from war as a trained killer with little community support. In many ways The Punisher is a modern-day read of the post-war classic The Best Years of Our Lives. Loyalty is a key theme again, too, as is doing what is necessary to protect your own.

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Ten classic war movie recommendations for this Memorial Day weekend

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May 29, 2016

In honor of servicemen and servicewomen this Memorial Day weekend, today we’re recommending ten classic war movies as selected by retired U.S. Navy third class petty officer and electrician’s mate Milton L. Bunce, Jr. who served aboard the USS Goodrich DDR 831 in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea and the USS Hancock CVA-19 in the Pacific before and during the early days of the Vietnam War.

If you’re looking for some realism and detail, he’s picked some great classics and any one will hit the mark for you this weekend.

The Wings of Eagles is director John Ford’s 1957 biopic about his friend, U.S. Navy pilot Frank “Spig” Wead, considered one of the best biopics committed to film. It stars John Wayne, Dan Dailey, Maureen O’Hara, and Ward Bond, and provides a splice of the history of aviation’s role in combat. Keep an eye out for the great early airplanes in the aircraft carrier scenes. And the character of Captain Hazard was based on real-life U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve officer Jimmy Doolittle.

Twelve O’Clock High is a 1949 Darryl F. Zanuck production about the U.S Army’s Eighth Air Force flying daytime bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during World War II. It’s one of those dramas that will soon be on your list of best films if you haven’t seen it yet. These airmen are realistically portrayed keeping up the good fight against a seemingly never-ending battle where failure was not an option. Check out some outstanding acting by star Gregory Peck. This film is on the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Based on an Alistair MacLean’s 1957 novel that was inspired by the Battle of Leros during the Dodecanese Campaign of World War II, the 1961 J. Lee Thompson film The Guns of Navarone is an epic adventure war movie like no other. The filming location in and around Athens, Greece and top-notch acting by the powerhouse trio of Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn add to a suspenseful movie about a multi-national team attempting to destroy a mountain fortress. And it’s a great action movie. (Milton was on liberty in Athens in 1960 where he visited some of the filming locations around the time of production).

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