The Master (1984). Lee Van Cleef is a ninja master in this short-lived NBC TV show, returning to America to find his daughter. Tim Van Patten (later to direct The Sopranos) is his hot-headed apprentice. Bill Conti did the exciting theme music.
Pitched as a rival to the A-Team, the dynamic ninja duo drive around in a van helping strangers in distress, having exciting fights and generally doing all the usual master/apprentice tropes. Only 13 episodes were made and maybe that was enough.
Evening viewing recommendation? On the Criterion Channel, watch David Lynch's WILD AT HEART (1990)! ❤️🔥 https://t.co/e8vIvRa8ZY
Lynch throws pulp melodrama, THE WIZARD OF OZ, surreal-kinky violence, and Elvis into a cauldron and brews this nightmarish soap opera in which outlaw lovers Sailor and Lula go on the run through a menacing South populated by a host of sinister weirdos. Adapted from the noir novel by Barry Gifford, WILD AT HEART is Lynch at both his far-out freakiest and most deliriously romantic.
One of the most powerful endings in cinema.
The final minutes of The Last of the Mohicans (1992) are a masterclass in visual storytelling. With almost no dialogue, the film delivers love, sacrifice, heartbreak, and vengeance in one unforgettable sequence.
When Chingachgook stands alone at the end, the moment feels larger than any single character. It feels like the end of an era.
The Irishman (2019) used a markerless de aging system from Industrial Light and Magic. Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci performed without dots or sensors, letting Martin Scorsese direct them as actors rather than VFX subjects.
Michael Mann chose the diner for the iconic coffee shop scene in Thief for a reason. In 1971, he stopped there for coffee with a woman he was just getting to know. “At that exact booth over the freeway,” he said. “We wound up sitting there talking all night.” That woman was his future wife, Summer. Fifty years later, they’re still together.
The Peter Principle is the satirical theory that employees are generally promoted to their level of incompetence.
In 1974, the author of the Peter a principle, Dr. Laurence J. Peter, explained how he first got the idea and what can be done about it
The image of Reagan in THE EXORCIST as she simply sits and watches as Father Karras desperately tries to revive Father Merrin is chilling. What finally pushes Karras into a rage is Reagan’s quiet, almost playful, remorseless laugh as she realizes Merrin is dead.
"You see in this world there's two kinds of people my friend - those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig"
Happy 96th birthday Clint Eastwood ~ The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966) #botd
Leonardo DiCaprio says he watched Dog Day Afternoon multiple times before shooting One Battle After Another (2025), using Al Pacino’s energy and rhythm as the template for his character.
Martin Scorsese refused to remove the Twin Towers from the final shot of Gangs of New York (2002), even though it released just after 9/11. He said the film was about who built New York & the towers were part of that legacy, meant to be honored, not erased