LIE #105: Back in the Saddle, Toot Sweet! (And the Films of January 2014) (& RIP PSH)

No way am I gonna let myself get behind schedule like I did last time; nuh-uh! No way, José.

That said, it sucks that Philip Seymour Hoffman had to go and OD. The tentacles of the Mind Parasites can confound and depress even the most successful of us…

I enjoyed PSH in everything I’ve seen him in, especially when the rest of the movie stunk.

And he was someone who could’ve had a LONG career: Not being a “pretty boy,” PSH had a wider range of character choices and possibilities. Growing older, he could’ve been a contemporary Charles Laughton or Edmund O’Brien.

The thing to do is appreciate what PSH did give us, hope that his explorations of a new dimension are successful, and pray that no one decides “Since PSH did dope, so should I.”

Like MacArthur, Odyseuss* and the Local Fish Graffiti, I Have Returned!

See that fish up there? He’s a piece of graffiti in my neighborhood, and whenever he’s painted over, he appears again in a few days. That fish rules, and is an inspiration.

Go, Fish! GO!

Wow! The time I have been taking between posts is inexcusable!

I do apologize, but lack of writing for LERNER INTERNATIONAL certainly doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy.

Oh lordy, have I been busy!

[* = Odyseuss? He’s the guy who wrote Green Eggs and Circe’s Curse and The Scylla & Charyrbdis in the Hat, remember?]

Cute Dogs & Cosplay in the Noonday Sun: The Films of October 2013 - FINALLY!

Oh my god, aren’t these dogs SO cute?!?!?

Yer a good doggie, yes, you are!

Doggie-doggie-doggie!

Scratch your belly, you like that, right, puppy?

Yes, you’re a goooooood dog!

Jeez, I want one!

French bulldogs or the pug-Chihuahua mix, the chug—all of them are so delightful—

and noble!

And wise! Like canine Yodas!

So what does this have to do with the Films of October 2013? Read on, read on….

The Best Science Fiction Film You’ve Never Heard Of: 1968’s THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS

Come for the salacious title and stay to get your mind blown!

1968’s The Year of the Sex Olympics is the best science fiction film you’ve never heard of, predicting a world of human-debasing reality-TV shows and constant government-sanctioned/encouraged pornography. Written and created by sci-fi grandmaster Nigel Kneale, this film is intense and thought-provoking and still utterly relevant.

Do yourself a favor and catch this nightmare of the future as soon as you can!

New MUST SEE: 1973’s “Bonnie’s Kids”—Sleazy Drive-In Neo-Noir That You Cannot Miss!

Bonnie’s Kids like the kind of kicks that could kill you!

Hang out with “Bonnie’s Kids”—you’ll have a blast!

Bonnie’s Kids—they’ll blow you…away.

Lurid sleaze abounds when Bonnie’s Kids strut their stuff! Sisters Ellie and Myra are nothing but trouble—in and out of bed! But ripping off gangsters is never smart, no matter how sexy you are. Will these bad girls make it? To find out, see Bonnie’s Kids!

Forgotten and largely unseen since its initial release

in 1973, Bonnie’s Kids is a lost neo-noir sleaze classic that deserves rediscovering. It’s so much more than drive-in/grindhouse filler: It’s a great twist on the “femme fatale on the run” theme, one that really toys with the audience, like an especially malicious cat with a hapless mouse.

L.I.E. ONE-HUNDRED!!!! Where No LIE Has Gone Before!

ONE HUNDRED POSTS!!!

Thanks to loyal readers and friends!

Your feedback and comments keep me going, and I really regret not being able to post as much as I would like.

That said, since I’ve subtitled this post “Where No LIE Has Gone Before!” it will be illustrated with some of the Star Trek images that I’ve had clogging my computer for too long.

I wasn’t going to use a picture or a cake, or the actual number “100.”

I love the original Trek—it was the show that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea should have been.

The Original Trek was really about a U.S. battleship cruising the Pacific, keeping the peace—promoting the benevolent Pax Americana. Voyage was just dopey kids’ stuff—but set on the U.S. Navy’s most super-science submarine! Voyage should have been about subverting Castro and destroying the crops of Laos, not lobstermen, phony lizards and atom bomb swallowing whales! (Although that was a cool episode…) 

For the reviews of August and September (and more Trek pix, both from the show and our nation’s cosplayers), please read on:

The Bluesmobile Still Needs Gasoline: Elwood, His Car and the Movies of July 2013

For me, one of the most potent bits of evidence pointing to the veracity that the Blues Brothers were in fact “on a mission from God,” was the almost-heroic death of the Bluesmobile.