[Captain Audio]

So, once again its raining, we are locked down and its Saturday. So what do you do?

For me it was get up at 4 AM to get the dog untangled from her cable, then chase her around the block for an hour . She normally goes right to the back door to be let in while I untangle her cable but this time she apparently had a date with a young lothario a couple of streets over.
She looked disappointed when she found he, though a fairly large dog, was about half her size.

Her size, around 130 lb, about the average for a female Timber Wolf, and built like a Game of Thrones Dire wolf, intimidates most large dogs, only small dogs don't show fear when she is around.

[The Australian Panther]

  only small dogs don't show fear when she is around.

Interesting that. I have a Jack Russel. About half as big as my arm. Her mother used to bail up Rottweilers. 


Cheers!

[profh0011]

GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (1973)

This is the 3rd time in only a year I've watchewd this. I got it on a DVD-R from a seller in England who specializes in rare, out-of-print films.  This one's a nice, sharp fullscreen copy recorded off some UK cable movie channel. I just had someone over the weekend tell me, with the new film "THE GREEN KNIGHT" coming out this year, he doesn't understand how it is this older version is so hard to find.

The strangest thing is, director Stephen Weeks made the same film TWICE, 10 years apart.  This one features Nigel Green as the mysterious, supernatural figure.  A decade later, Sean Connery played the part.  Both films totally distort the original classic folk story in the same ways, but this one is played more straight and serious, and, frankly, nearly every part of it MAKES MORE SENSE than the 1983 film.  GO FIGURE.

An amusing element of this film is... it's apparently the film MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL was done as a parody of.  NO, REALLY.  If you've seen HOLY GRAIL, it's probably impossible to watch this without getting a massive case of deja vu.

In my case, I just watched the 1983 and 1973 films back-to-back.  Some scenes are so similar it's spooky.  Many play quite differently, and as I said, this one just makes more sense.  Also, this one has a BETTER ending.  And, dare I say it, BETTER music.  The casts both include a nice range of terrific English character actors.  Among them is Ronald Lacey... who, insanely, plays the SAME part in BOTH movies.  He dies much earlier in the earlier film (heh).  Right after getting his hand BURNED by a magic talisman.  (Sound familiar??)

Overall, both films (especially the later one) play out like extended DREAM SEQUENCES.  Logic is not the driving force here.  I recently joked the '83 films might make a good double-bill with The Monkees' movie HEAD, for that very reason.  Both have the logic one finds in vivid dreams. They don't make much sense... but you can't take your eyes off them.


I understand there's an early-90s TV version which hews CLOSER to the classic story than any of the others.  Which makes me want to get my hands on it. The way things are right now, I'm more likely to get the new version on disc than to actually GO SEE IT in a theater.

[The Australian Panther]

Gawain and the Green Knight 1999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBEv8xjBJf8

Will watch this one tonight.

Gawain and the Green Knight (1973)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34j5b-2YblA

Animation
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight B A F T A Award winner 2002 Welsh animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E63eDj8DMK0

Doco

In Our Time: S21/14 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Dec 13 2018)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LUVdXzXuWg

Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
But of course.
'Terry Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period" 

And thank you Prof!

[The Australian Panther]

Independent quality Science Fiction?  Yes!
While looking for material on the Green Knight the YouTube AI brought up, on the sidebar, the 'DUST" channel. Go figure!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7sDT8jZ76VLV1u__krUutA
Has apparently been in existence 5 years.
Home to independently made Science Fiction shorts.
I watched the series
ATROPHA - of which there are 7 episodes, each averaging 12 or so minutes, So the equivalent of an hour and  a half movie.
ATROPA Episode 1 | DUST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuZDtz-Aes
I was blown away! Excellent story, cast and sets and Photography. And the episodes are professionally paced.
I had thought I would never again see Science Fiction of this quality in this 'Woke' age. Glad I was wrong.
There seems to be a move away from the traditional Hollywood industry for minor filmmakers - in this case, and for others like them, perhaps because of the inability to get into the industry, and to avoid heavy-handed 'Producer' interference with your work. To name a few.
Bring it on!   
Spoiler - [for some of you] This show took my mind back to the first Science Fiction show I was ever exposed to, the first arc of BBC Radio series, 'Journey into Space' .
I will be back on DUST to look at the rest of their work.
Cheers!

[paw broon]

Yes, I found Atropha just before we went away for a few days.  Watched the first 2 episodes. Excellent.  It's all Panther says. If anyone hasn't heard Journey into Space - and I hope you all have!!!!! - go find it.  If you enjoy the first arc, Operation Luna, you'll love the start of the 2nd story, The Red Planet.  The scenes in the fleet ships on the way out are exceptional.  Whittaker?  Who He?

[profh0011]

And thank you Prof!


A number of reviews at the IMDB made this point, but, seriously... it's there!

Early in the film, we see Arthur & his knights holding a feast in Camelot.

Then Gawain and Humphrey go riding out.  At one point, Gawain runs across an old wise man who literally vanishes before his eyes.  There's a scene where a line of monks are marching along, chanting.  There's the completely senseless battle with THE BLACK KNIGHT.

The '83 remake actually does have a battle near the end (which HOLY GRAIL doesn't... hee heehee).  Both films end with a gigantic "WTF?" moment.  Having read about the original folk story, and so far, watched the cartoon, I can say, they make way more sense than either Stephen Weeks films.  But at least the '73 film has a nice epilogue ending.  The '83 film, FOR NO DAMN REASON... doesn't.

I thought I was imagining things at first, but, apparently, no-- BOTH films use the EXACT SAME castles for their locations!  This is especially obvious when Gawain reaches the castle of Sir Bertilac in the final act. The camera angles are very different between films, so it might not be noticable much of the time.

I'm looking forward to seeing the TV version, and, at this point, if it's available on DVD, getting a copy.

I feel like this is almost an outgrowth of my POE-related "Classic Illustrated" obsession-- watching multiple adaptations of the same story, and comparing their similarities and differences.

I bought my new Blu-Ray player specifically to watch films like this, that are only available on Blu-Ray discs.  But as it turns out, the '73 film can play on it as well, which now makes it very convenient.  The '73 disc came in a simple white sleeve. I was thinking of setting up a CD jewel case, but then I realized the sleeve neatly fits inside the other film's box, so, how's that for convenient?  Both of them together.


Oh yeah.  Obvciously, I need to add MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL to my "upgrade" list.  I think I taped my current copy off PBS decades ago.  I mean, if I upgraded SWORD OF THE VALIANT, for God's sake, a film that's GENUINELY a favorite surely deserves as much!   

[profh0011]

Today's MAJOR upgrade!!!  My favorite Italian horror film...



Not counting "DRACULA DEAD AND LOVING IT", this is my very 1ST horror movie on not just DVD, but Blu-Ray.

[profh0011]

From the Deviant Art site, a guy calling himself "ImacManiac" did this perfect tribute BlueRay cover, where he included BORIS VALLEJO's art.  I originally went after this film back in the 90s for 2 reasons:

1 - I read it was partly inspired by BORIS'a paintings
2 - Keith Emerson's music, which I already had the CD of.

[The Australian Panther]

Found this on YOUTube.
the avengers [TV]  - epic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVySPFWhmVE

The STUDIO CANAL logo at the beginning means that it is a DVD rip, so excellent quality.

Thanks to Prof for recommending this episode to me.
He said of it,

  And who was among the guest cast?  Peter Wyngarde, playing the over-the-hill retired has-been actor, somehow coerced by the over-the-hill has-been movie director to come out of retirement to make a SNUFF FILM. 

I'm guessing this was shot on the back lot of Pinewood studios.
Lots of in-jokes about filming.  Peter Wyngarde has an absolute ball. An actors dream really.
And the end scene is a classic 'breaking the forth wall' bit.

Enjoy!   

[profh0011]

My #1 favorite sitcom has long been WKRP IN CINCINNATI.  It was a slow boil for me originally, and sure enough, right when it became my favorite show, CBS cancellled it.

To my surprise, in syndcation, it was run in PRODUCTION order, which made much more sense of the character development and such.

Sadly, a few years after I taped the ones I was missing, the music licenses ran out, and most of the rock songs were replaced with "generic" tracks.  When I heard someone out out a DVD box set of those, I figured, "WHY BOTHER?"

In 2014, SHOUT FACTORY-- a company created by the former owners of RHINO RECORDS-- a company with decades of a well-earned reputation for quality-- managed to RE-license MOST (not quite all) of the rock songs.  The other week, I got my hands on a copy of the box set.  (And when I say "copy"... I mean it.)

Sadly, the box set is in NETWORK BROADCAST order.  But since I have my own index of the production order, I can, by having the list handy, watch it in the "correct" order.  And, THEY'RE UNCUT.  A LOT of scenes or bits of dialogue I have NEVER seen before!! A shame about the still-missing original music (like the DETECTIVE song performed by "Scum Of The Earth"-- Michael Des Barres was actually the singer in that band, so it's ironic his own song has been replaced). But, it's the best we'll probably ever get, barring custom home-made re-edits.

Now here's the REAL problem.

I wondered why the pilot was so DARK I could barely see anything.  Then, the 2nd episode FROZE at one point.  Then, the 3rd episode ("Radio Preacher") FROZE in 6 PLACES near the end.  And this was on my BLU-RAY player, which usually manages to over-ride minor defects (like in the BBC Video box set of the Douglas Wilmer SHERLOCK HOLMES series). The picture and sound quality VARIES greatly between episodes, sometimes, between scenes in a single episode.  W--T-- F ??  This is NOT like Shout Factory (which has gained a rep similar to Rhino since its inception).

Turns out... on BOTH the Ebay AND Shout Factory websites, there are COMPLAINTS about the discs.  One customer who bought from Amazon, contacted Shout Factory.  The manufacturer provided him "proof" that what he had bought was a BOOTLEG SET.  Single-layer instead of double, Region 0 instead of Region 1, NO "copy-protection", etc.  My jaw dropped.

Apparently, this set, presumably VERY popular and in demand-- has been the target of BOOTLEG manufacturers-- and from the looks of it, my guess is that EVERY set being sold on both Ebay and Amazon are INFERIOR, DEFECTIVE FAKES.

I contacted Ebay, and am sending mine back for a refund, and plan to put the money toward a FULL-PRICE set direct from Shout Factory.  For a show I love this much, it'll be worth it.



A totally-unrelated seller said to me in an e-mail... "Beware of items that are too cheap".  No kidding.

[profh0011]

"Breaker Break to the Bandit."
"This here's the Bandit.  Come on."
"I got a Smokey report for you.  You got trouble coming."
"Well, what's you handle, son, and, what's your twenty?"
"My name is Smokey Bear and I'm TAIL-GRABBIN' YOUR ASS right now!"

"Holy Shit! What a Texas County Mounty doing in Arkansas?"
"I don't know."
"Well, let's see what's got under the hood!"

[profh0011]

DANGEROUS DAVIES  (1981)

A wonderful, down-to-Earth English police drama murder mystery, packed with a pile of character actors I've seen in many other things (some of whom are obscure even by my standards), capped off by one of my favorites, BERNARD CRIBBINS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIhr5lfvgss&feature=emb_imp_woyt

[profh0011]

"Here-- take this."  (hands over a gun)

"What about you?"

"Always carry spare-- in case of blowout."

from CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS (1935)

[The Australian Panther]

Re Dangerous Davies,

The Soundtrack to the Bernard Cribbins movie is excellent.

The series starring ex Dr Who Peter Davison is also excellent. Somewhat different from the book and earlier movie, but still excellent.
The Last Detective 1x01 The Last Detective Pilot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek0dXPEi4iA&list=PLjxlFT1oKG_FEhgBU99jvoP7FXH2aJK0l

Enjoy!

[profh0011]

Thanks for that. Bookmarked!

The Cribbins film was actually all the way at the BOTTOM of my long list of bookmarks.  I just decided to jump ahead and watch it immediately, so I wouldn't chance it being taken down before I got the chance.

I noted his boss was played by Bernard Lee.  He wasn't looking too good, and this was the same year they did FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, where it became known he was too ill to do his usual 5-minute cameo as "M". He passed away shortly after.

HIS boss was Joss Acklund, who I will no doubt always remember as the totally SICK BASTARD villain from "LETHAL WEAPON 2" who declared "DIPLOMATIC-- IMMUNITY!" -- just before one of the heroes shot him dead. It's shocking to look back a couple decades when he actually played some sympathetic characters, like in THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD or the 1965 SHERLOCK HOLMES, before he clealry got typecast as no-good thoroughly-rotten types.  Early on in the film, I found myself thinking, somebody should tell this bastard that some people you can get better results from with a kind word of encouragement, instead of treating everyone like CRAP whether they're doing good or bad.

There were other terrific character actors in there, like the 72-year-old guy playing a 101-year-old, who I'll always remember from THE NEW AVENGERS episode "The Eagle's Nest", where he told Purdey the story about "the big bird" that came down from the sky, and how it contained "treasure", and said, "They took the treasure away!", all leaving her wondering WHAT exactly was he talking about.

And the of course, about 2/3rds of the way in, Colin Baker turns up briefly.

Wonderfully-told mystery, a real slow boil, where each time Davies manages to turn over ANOTHER important part of it, I was just overwhelmed with joy and excitement, following along with him.

I've been a fan of Cribbins since INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D., and have also seen him in TWO-WAY STRETCH, THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW, 2 episodes of THE AVENGERS, and lately, YOU MUST BE JOKING! (1965), which I actually sat here and watched on Youtube 3 times.  I think of that as a British Army variation on "MAD MAD WORLD", both for its plot and for the endless array of character actor cameos.

[The Australian Panther]

Didn't think I could provide a link for this movie, since the copy I watched last night wasn't from YouTube.
But here is 'Shakedown'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zSFbX9V_3k
Unfortunately a TV rip.
Somebody thought - lets do a buddy cop movie, only lets team up a lawyer with a cop. 
Peter Weller is hot, since he has just done Robocop, so who can we team him up with?
How about Sam Elliott?! As an undercover cop in Modern Day New York - with that Western accent? Yeah, that makes sense.
Weller and Elliott are consumate actors and I would watch them in anything,but still?!
Even though Weller's character is a courtroom lawyer, he still gets to jump into a sportscar or motorbike with Sam, armed with a gun and get into the action scenes. 
What makes this stand-out are the 3  big special effects action scenes.
You get a strange mixture of sensible courtroom drama scenes and bat%#$)& crazy action scenes.
It's like the second unit crew though they were making a different film altogether.
This film is crazy but fun.
Spoiler! One of the action scenes is a homage to the penultimate scene in Clint Eastwood's 'The Gauntlet' and an attempt to one-up that scene.
The final action scene is up there with some of the craziness in the last few 'Fast and Furious' movies.
This is fun and nonsense. Your jaw will hit the floor! 

Cheers!   

[profh0011]

I SAW that in a theatre when it came out!  For the most part, I enjoyed it, but I believe (if memory serves) I ranked it in the category of "EXCESSIVELY-VIOLENT" action films of the era.

It was like, ever since THE TERMINATOR was the highest-grossing film of 1984, Hollywood spent the next decade trying to top it.  I've often thought... if BUCKAROO BANZAI had been the #1 film that year, film history would have gone a lot different.

[The Australian Panther]

Kevin Smith has said 'you really figure out who you want to hang out with by watching Buckaroo Banzai!'   

New York Film Festival: Buckaroo Banzai Intro + Q&A
Kevin Smith interviews Peter Weller and John Lithgow. Great Stuff.   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi_ixer1-5M
I forgot about Smith's bad language. Just fast forward to the interview.  [3:27]   

I have watched this interview multiple times as I have the movie. Still enjoy it and the interview just as much. Priceless!   

Also, current information
Kevin Smith Walks Away from Buckaroo Banzai TV Series After MGM Sues Creators

In the theatre it is customary for the cast to come out and take a bow, something like this.
Buckaroo Banzai end titles (credits) (good quality)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MqJ3iGBdOo

Enjoy!

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - End Credits
https://comicbook.com/news/kevin-smith-walks-away-from-buckaroo-banzai-tv-series-after-mgm/

Cheers!

[profh0011]

"DOGMA" is the only Kevin Smith film I've only seen on commercial TV.  In other words, with ALL the endless profanity MISSING.  I don't know if I'd care to ever see it uncut. I don't mind a certain amount of profanity for "punctuation", but with him, it just seems immensely childish.

[profh0011]

"Where are we?"
"I hate to tell you, pal."
"Where are we going?"

"CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK"

"This way."

[crashryan]

THE RADIO FUN BUMPER SONG BOOK TUBE-A-THON--Part 1 of 2
Produced in the hopes that I'm not the only member who likes this sort of music.

I went through the Radio Fun Bumper Song Book entry by entry scouring YouTube for examples of the songs. I already knew a little bit about most of the performers listed here. However I'd never heard any of the songs. I was pleased to find videos of quite a few of them, though not always by the artist named in the Song Book.

EVER SO QUIET (Algy More): Tommy Handley
Tommy Handley was a popular English comedian who started in music hall, then became a pioneer radio performer in the early 1920s. He and fellow BBC comedian Ronald Frankau often did sketches as "Mr Murgatroyd and Mr Winterbottom."

There's plenty of Handley on YouTube but not this number. However I did find a 1939 recording by Ozzie Nelson. What a weird song! Algy More specialized in comic songs like "Tinkle Tinkle Dash Dash" and "Go Oo-Ha-Ha Together."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8VWAi4-p9Y

PROUD OF YOU (Peter David): Sandy Macpherson

Macpherson was the second official BBC Theatre Organist, having succeeded Reginald Foort in 1938. In the days just before WWII he played on the radio so often (sometimes up to twelve hours a day!) that listeners got fed up and demanded the BBC play more different kinds of music. I presume he didn't sing "Proud of You," as he wasn't a singer. I found no recordings of the song.


LONDON IS SAYING GOOD NIGHT (Hunter-Parr Davies-Nicholls): Gracie Fields

Gracie Fields was a legendary actress, singer, and comedian. She started in the music halls and later found great success in films. Here's her 1938 recording of "London is Saying Good Night:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC_MWqfvvqw

I'M KNITTING A SINGLET FOR CECIL (R.M. McLeish): Elsie Carlisle

Elsie Carlisle started performing in the 1920s and sang with some of the top British bands, including Ambrose and Jack Hylton. Cole Porter chose her to be the one to introduce his famous "What Is This Thing Called Love?" She was best known for romantic songs but she also recorded novelty numbers like "Cecil." I couldn't find her recording of the song but here's a modern cover with a final verse missing from the Bumper Song Book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiavM67pUg

To get a sense of Elsie Carlisle's comic personality, check out her recording of the (hardly) legendary "Please Leave My Butter Alone:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tayzEAGBPl4

WHISTLING GYPSY (Stanley Damerell): Arthur Tracy

Arthur Tracy (born Abba Avrom Tracovutsky) was an American singer and actor. He started in vaudeville in the late 1910s and later became a popular radio personality. He originally used the alias "The Street Singer" in his first broadcasts because vaudeville artists who appeared on radio could be blackballed from future theatrical bookings. Here's a movie clip of Tracy singing "The Whistling Gypsy:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1PwfeNEDmU

WHEN GRANNY WORE HER CRINOLINE (King-Grant-Paree): Jack Jackson & His Band

Jack Jackson was a trumpet player who began playing in bands at the age of 11. He worked with Jack Hylton, Ray Noble, and Jack Payne before forming his own orchestra. After WWII he was a BBC disk jockey for nearly 30 years. Most of Jackson's YouTube videos date from a few years before the Bumper Book. I couldn't find his version of "Granny" but here's a 1938 recording by Felix Mendelssohn with Al Bowlly on the vocals (he doesn't sing until halfway through the side):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elYErWjloss

WHOOPS WE GO AGAIN (Al & Bob Harvey): Al and Bob Harvey

Al and Bob Harvey, who also worked as The A&B Battery Boys, were a popular Canadian stage and recording duo who hit it big in England in the 1920s and 1930s. They returned to Canada in 1940 and worked for another decade. Here's a 1938 film of them performing their ice-skating number, "Whoops We Go Again:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4gNrIp_gO8

PLEASE REMEMBER (Denby-Watson): Big Bill Campbell

Clarence "Big Bill" Campbell was a Canadian singer who popularized Western music on the BBC during the 1930s. Also known as "Zeke Winters," he toured widely and was quite popular. YouTube has a few of his 1940s discs. I couldn't find any versions of "Please Remember," but here's Big Bill's 1948 rendition of "I'm Rockin' to the Rockies" to give a taste of his style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqcZpSeXyYQ

THE BARRERS IN THE WALWORTH ROAD (Leslie Sarony): Norman Long

Norman Long is another music hall performer who became an early radio star. He first broadcast for the brand-new BBC in 1922. He played piano and did comic patter routines and remained popular into the 1940s. Here's a British Pathe film of Long performing "The Barrers (Barrows) in the Walworth Road." The song is about a famous market district where merchants hawked their wares from wheelbarrows. You have to sit through a monologue before the good stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx2u36S-wQI

I also recommend this very nice duet version (uncredited, but sounds like Long with a female partner) accompanying archival footage of 1920s London:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE18dSdv4Zg

HOMETOWN (Kennedy-Carr): Flanagan and Allen

Bud Flanagan (born Chaim Weintrop) and Chesney Allen were a pair of easygoing singer-comedians who were widely popular in 1930s and 1940s England. Their career extended from music hall to radio to movies and even to television. "Hometown" was a big hit originating in the musical "London Rhapsody." Here's their 1938 recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFmRX7q8c4M

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (Carr-Wallace): Billy Cotton

Billy Cotton began leading orchestras in the 1920s and his dance band was one of the few to survive into the 1950s. His BBC radio show carried over to television in the late 50s. Cotton also drove racing cars; he finished 8th in the 1949 British Grand Prix. I gave up looking for his "Merrily We Roll Along." If it's there it's buried beneath Stephen Sondheim and the old nursery tune. Instead I offer this Pathe film which opens with Cotton and his band doing his signature tune "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and continues with comic acts, dancers, and an ear-splitting soprano. The sound is poor but this records an actual public performance and we get fascinating glimpses of how things were really done back then: not a glittering Hollywood deco palace populated with tables, but rather a wide, empty dance floor with the band seated on one side and the guests standing on the other side watching the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9rwMqcxzU

As if this wasn't enough I'll be covering the rest of the book in the next installment...

[profh0011]

I'm just about halfway thru the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE revival.  "The Golden Triangle", the only 2-parter they managed between seasons 8-9, could be the high point of the entire run.

When they started up again, they were doing relatively small con-games.  But this one had a huge scope and a world-affecting scenario, as the IMF took out a large drug cartel based in Australia.  They mostly did this by pitting the supplier against the distributor, to the point where one had the other asassinated, then got the survivor to reveal their network when they conned the guy into thinking his entire fortune had been embezzled.

This one also got "personal".  In the revival pilot, Jim's protoge was killed, inspiring him to come out of retirement, an older, meaner Jim Phelps.  This Phelps didn't seem to mind occasions when he'd allow the bad guys to find out at the end HE was responsible for their downfall.

In the 12th episode, one of the new members of the team, Casey, was killed, and replaced by Shannon Reed, who became my all-time favorite lady in the show.

Earlier, Grant's father Barney turned up in an episode, having to be cleared of a murder charge.  In this one, Barney had gone undercover months in advance, but had his cover blown.  The cliffhanger had it looking like Barney had been killed.  This NEVER would have been convincing if Casey hadn't ACTUALLY been killed half a year earlier.  But for an entire week, it actually looked like an ORIGINAL IMF team member had bought the big one.  Many don't realize this, but Barney is the ONLY agent who appeared in at least one episode in ALL 9 seasons, since Jim didn't join the show until the start of season 2!

When this was first-run, I remember being shocked when it looked like Barney might be dead... and thinking, I'd never have thought this except for what happened to Casey.  All the same, when it was revealed halfway thru part 2 that he was still alive, it put a BIG smile on my face.

Barney and his son Grant, of course, were played by REAL-LIFE father & son Greg Morris & Phil Morris.

Like several other episodes, this one was directed by Don Chaffey, who did a ton of English TV shows, including many episodes of DANGERMAN and THE PROTECTORS, as well as feature films like JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.

Watching the end of this 2-parter, the TV equivalent of a feature film, reminded me of how ANNOYING it was when the revival was CANCELLED abruptly, not because of ratings, but because someone at Paramount got the idea they wanted to do a M:I feature film.  I wouldn't have minded... if they'd just picked up immediately where the revival left off and WITH THE SAME CAST.  Had they done that, they could have beat the NEXT GENERATION films to theatres by several years.

Instead, the films were set up almost entirely as a deal for Tom Cruise.  Even that could have been acceptable... if they hadn't done the first one as an outright INSULT and SLAP-IN-THE-FACE to the original show and its characters. As far as I'm concerned, they DON'T take place in the same continuity... at all.  That first film, in my eyes, POISONED the well.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpflVvtbzp8

[profh0011]

IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR!

Mostly due to endless discussions with my best friend in Georgia, I've managed to see every HALLOWEEN film in a theatre since #6.

But sometimes I wonder why.

#6 started out looking promising, but went nowhere fast. The PREVIOUS cut of the film, which I've also seen, while TEN TIMES BETTER, was still a vile exercise.

#7... I liked, mainly the last 10 seconds (which, you never see on commercial TV).

#8 started out INSULTING the audience. After that, all the crap that followed wasn't even half as bad.

#9 should never have existed. (It made me shake my head in dismay when Nick Cuti told me he LIKED it. The longer I knew that guy, the less I respected his opinions.)

#10 made #9 look good. I figured out that, based on the finale, the entire film NEVER HAPPENED. Really.

#11 may be the only film I ever saw in a theatre where, halfway thru, I got totally disgusted and realized, it WASN'T GONNA GET ANY BETTER. So I sat there for the entire 2nd half of the film, not believing how bad it was. Did not walk out until it was over. But almost wishing I had.

And they're planning to push #12 on the public?

I don't get to the movies much these days. But this is really a case where I think, I may go OUT OF MY WAY... NOT to see this one. EVER. F*** the producers.

I can write better stuff than this. AND HAVE.

[The Australian Panther]

When they started up again, they were doing relatively small con-games.  But this one had a huge scope and a world-affecting scenario, as the IMF took out a large drug cartel based in Australia. 

That's  because the entire series was shot in Australia. In Brisbane and the Gold Coast in SouthEast Queensland .
If you look close you can see details like cars being driven 'on the wrong side of the road' and recognizable Brisbane landscapes.

the revival was CANCELLED abruptly, not because of ratings, but because someone at Paramount got the idea they wanted to do a M:I feature film. 

   
Oh, likely they wanted to do a film with Tom Cruise and he made it a condition that they use Mission Impossible and turn it into a vehicle for him.
Ever notice that you go see a Cruise film [If you do] for the action and the special effects, but not actually to see Cruise? 

  if they hadn't done the first one as an outright INSULT and SLAP-IN-THE-FACE to the original show and its characters. As far as I'm concerned, they DON'T take place in the same continuity... at all.  That first film, in my eyes, POISONED the well.

Agreed.

His latest film 'Top Gun Maverick' is a disgrace because both he and Disney have bent over backward to appease China and have accordingly censored elements of it not acceptable to China.