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coryjwilson
Reviews
The Baseball Bunch (1982)
Johnny Bench and the San Diego Chicken!
The Baseball Bunch was a great show from the early 80's. I don't remember when it was on but I watched it all the time. I would have been 5 when it first went on the air. Johnny Bench's retirement was my first brush with mortality. One episode dealt with that.
Johnny would lead the bunch, all kids, through baseball drills that would be constantly ruined by the San Diego Chicken....THE mascot of ALL mascots! Every episode would have a special guest star. Tommy Lasorda and Ted Williams made appearances, and I believe that Gary Carter made one in his red white and blue Montreal Expos uniform.
I haven't seen this show in 20 years, but I have great memories of it.
I don't know if it is available on VHS/DVD. It would make a great nostalgia gift for those 20-30 year old baseball nuts out there. Also it would make a great gift for those who want their children to see this. Johnny Bench was a class act, and the Chicken is always funny.
Halloween (1978)
Masterpiece of Mood
Given 25 years of hindsight, Halloween doesn't look like all that good of a movie. Similar to Citizen Kane, it has lost its impact due to the simple fact that many of the movie making techniques it used have now become cliches. We're all familiar with the psycho killer who stalks his young virginal, yet hormonally rampaging, victims.
The one thing this movie does extremely well is set a mood. Whether through camera technique or use of music, this movie continues to scare the bejesus out of my wife. I can't recall much blood and guts in this movie, which is fine, because I don't find that kind of thing scary. It would be much easier to toss in a few witty mutilations, than to develop the typical horror plot.
One of Horror's best. Right up there with Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Simple and Eerie
I cannot see this film being shot in anything but black and white. It is the moodiest, eeriest, most claustrophobic film I have ever seen. I have read complaints that the premise is absurd. Aren't ALL horror premises absurd? One must suspend one's disbelief. I just assume when a person watches a film titled "Night of the Living Dead" that they will shove their presumptions in a drawer. "Night of the Living Dead" is not the title for a Rolling Stones Concert