Tag Archives: Tribute

R.I.P. George A. Romero 

I was very sad to hear of George A. Romero’s passing. He’s a true master of horror and his Dead films have never been topped, although many have tried to copy them.

I’ve always wanted to review Night, Dawn & Day Of The Dead but never have as I always struggle to write about my all-time favorite films. Dawn Of The Dead is one of a very small handful of horrors that I consider to be all around favorite films despite being within the horror genre. I’m sad now that the only Romero film I’ve reviewed is Monkey Shines (which was a lot of fun to review!). It’s certainly no Dawn Of The Dead, though, which has topped many top ten lists that I’ve posted (such as My Top Ten Horror Movies & My Top Ten Horror Movie Quotes). Heck, I even managed to review the Dawn Of The Dead remake for Mike over at Screenkicker. Yet no review of the original. The best. I’ve never reviewed Romero’s TRUE ZOMBIE CLASSICS Night Of The Living Dead & Dawn Of The Dead. Or Day Of The Dead! Also love Day. And now we’re stuck watching the inferior The Walking Dead while humanity turns into a Romero mall zombie. The horror legends are dying. It sucks.

Rest in peace George Andrew Romero
February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017

Oh, here’s an odd recommendation but Stephen King’s son, Joe Hill, has a great short story in his collection 20th Century Ghosts called Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead. It’s a love story, of sorts, between two extras on the set of Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead. Loved it! I highly recommend the entire book – it’s a fantastic short story collection.

**Seriously? I just finish this post then read that Martin Landau has died as well. I must admit that I didn’t know him from much but did love him as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. His Oscar for that was well deserved!

Rest in peace Martin Landau
June 20, 1928 – July 15, 2017

My Top Ten Bill Paxton Movies

I was sad to hear of the death of Bill Paxton over the weekend. He has such an impressive movie resume! It’s funny how, even though he was only in very small roles at first, he still managed to be in so many beloved, kick-ass classics. Especially numbers one & two on my list… AWESOME films! It’s great that he ended up in bigger roles in things such as Twister & Apollo 13 but I’ll always first think of him as the lovably annoying Hudson in Aliens and as the hilarious asshole brother Chet in Weird Science.

I honestly thought I’d already done a Bill Paxton Top Ten list in the past as he’s been in several of my favorite movies but it looks like I never did. As always, I’ve ranked these in order from my least favorite to favorite movie as opposed to character role. So, in his memory, here are My Top Ten Bill Paxton Movies (counting down from 16 to include everything I’ve seen):

16. True Lies
15. Mighty Joe Young
14. Nightcrawler
13. Frailty
12. The Last Supper (but need to re-watch & refresh my memory, really)
11. Near Dark (also need to re-watch)

TOP TEN:

10. Commando

9. Twister

8. Streets Of Fire

7. Apollo 13

6. Predator 2

5. Titanic

4. Edge Of Tomorrow

3. Weird Science

2. The Terminator

1. Aliens

Seen But Don’t Remember:
Stripes
Indian Summer
U-571

Never Saw:
Navy Seals (Can you believe that, with my Michael Biehn crush??)
Brain Dead (I like the sound of this one…)
Tombstone
Boxing Helena
The Evening Star
A Simple Plan
Haywire
2 Guns

Finally, I think most people my age know that Bill Paxton directed & starred in the bizarre Barnes And Barnes “short film” video for the song Fish Heads.

In looking up his film credits, I noticed he was also in two other music videos. Love the Pat Benatar video for Shadows Of The Night! I’d forgotten about that video. I miss the “story” videos of the Eighties. Anyway – watch out for Paxton in a small role as a WWII baddie in that video. Also, he starred in New Order’s Touched By The Hand Of God, which I must admit I’d never seen. What a great, eclectic career. Bill Paxton will be missed.

R.I.P. William “Bill” Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017)

Carrie Fisher

I can’t believe I’m having to do yet another tribute post in 2016 to one of my biggest idols. We all know that this year has been extremely cruel & unfair when it comes to the amount of hugely talented artists it has taken from us. And like many people, I’m not only sad – I’m angry.

I struggle with these tribute posts, especially when it comes to those artists who mean so much to me. I always feel a bit weird doing them as, obviously, it’s not the same as losing a family member or people you know in real life. It’s a terrible, hate-filled world full of so much tragic death on a daily basis that it feels almost wrong to mourn a “celebrity”. But it’s also understandable as, to their fans, these talented celebrities help provide a form of escapism from our real-life troubles and the evils of this world. They entertain us, they make us laugh, and they make us cry.

I don’t need to go into what a legend Carrie Fisher is and how she inspired so many of us by bringing Princess Leia to life (especially us girls, as we so rarely got such strong, sassy heroines in that male-dominated era & genre). A witty writer, a very funny lady, and forever one of the most-loved and iconic characters in the history of cinema. I’m so glad I was able to see Carrie in person at Star Wars Celebration Europe this year and to have shared that experience with my husband and 7-year-old daughter, who is part of a new generation of Star Wars fans through which Carrie Fisher’s Leia will forever live on. 

R.I.P. Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016)

R.I.P. Anton Yelchin 

I don’t really tend to do tribute posts but felt I should say a little something about Anton Yelchin as I really enjoyed his work as an actor. There are still quite a few films of his that I have yet to see but I first noticed him in Charlie Bartlett, a great film that deserved more recognition & his crazy character was to thank for making that film so enjoyable. I of course thought he was great as Chekov in Star Trek & Star Trek Into Darkness and it was cool seeing him in the adaptation of Odd Thomas, one of my favorite Dean Koontz books. But, of what I’ve seen, Charlie Bartlett is the one that really shows his unique talent. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it. What a sad loss.

R.I.P. Anton Viktorovich Yelchin (March 11, 1989 – June 19, 2016)

Music Video Friday: Chaka Khan – I Feel For You

Today’s video is Prince’s song I Feel For You as performed by Chaka Khan. It won him the 1985 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song.

I think we were all shocked by the death of Prince yesterday. I’m not going to turn this into a big tribute post as I don’t really do those (I did a very short post for David Bowie but it was a struggle as I’m such a big fan). I’ll just say that I don’t have loads of knowledge when it comes to all of Prince’s work but there’s no denying that the man had a massive amount of talent that we rarely see in new artists these days. This really is a sad year for celebrity deaths as we’ve lost some absolute legends. And what are we left with? There are so few true originals anymore. Look at David Bowie. And Freddie Mercury. And Prince. True superstars. What’s the equivalent these days?! I feel kind of sad for the current generation of kids who have to grow up with those who pass as “music stars” nowadays.

As for Prince’s music, I’m of course most fond of his early & mid-80’s stuff because of the age that I am. Soon after that, I turned into more of a rock & metal fan so I left things like Prince behind. I’m not going to pretend that he was ever a favorite artist of mine musically but I really liked several of his songs from that time period. I’m not sure what my favorite would be… If I’m honest, it’s probably either Delirious or Raspberry Beret but those might seem like odd choices to most people. Well, I think they’re great. 🙂 My next favorites would be Little Red Corvette, 1999, When Doves Cry, Purple Rain & Let’s Go Crazy. Yes, it looks like those are all between 1982 & 1985 so it’s obvious what era I liked but he’s one of those artists where everyone will have their own favorite time period of his work.

Prince of course also wrote a lot of great songs which became huge hits performed by other artists. One of the biggest was Sinéad O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U and I really like Manic Monday by The Bangles (and get super annoyed anytime I hear it played on the radio on a day other than Monday. That should be against the law!). My favorite, though, is his song I Feel For You as performed by Chaka Khan. That’s more my type of thing! Chaka Khan is awesome & the video was great.

Here’s a bit about the song & video from Wikipedia:

“Khan’s version featured an all-star supporting cast, with rapping from Melle Mel, keyboard and guitar by The System’s David Frank, and chromatic harmonica playing by Stevie Wonder. The video featured Khan with a disc jockey and break dancers Shabba Doo, Boogaloo Shrimp, Bruno Falcon and Ana Sánchez—all of whom appeared in the movie Breakin’.”

Yes! Breakin’ rules. This era of music was the best. I miss this kind of thing…

Finally, I’ll end with a clip of Prince performing a version of his classic Purple Rain. His videos aren’t available on YouTube, which is why I haven’t shared any, but I think this clip is the perfect way to end this post.

R.I.P. Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016)