I've been curious about The Final Programme (1973) since I read about it in Cinefastique, and tracked down the Anchor Bay reissue at my local Le Video.

I can see why Michael Moorcock hated it as the director changed the ending to something stupid and jokey, but overall it's pretty cool.

It was directed by Robert Fuest who is best known for the two Dr. Phibes movies and directing some Avengers episodes, which you'd think would make him a perfect director for Jerry Cornelius.

And he gets a lot right. The casting for one, Jon Finch (Hitchcock's Frenzy, Polanski's MacBeth) plays Jerry and he's suitably handsome, dandyish and dark. He's got black painted fingernails and ruffled shirts and Edwardian cut coats! And a needle gun. And Jenny Runacre (who also worked with Pasolini, Cassavetes, Antonioni) is great as Miss Brunner the bisexual, duplicitous vampire (she doesn't suck blood, but absorbs them whole).

There's some really cool pop art sets and scenes and the two leads are fab. It plays a lot like a polymorphously perverse supergroovy Dr. Who. (This association driven in part by the soundtrack which is very Who-ish and the sometimes cheap effects.)

Here's a link to a review (a bit more laudatory than I think it deserves) but with some great screencaps that give you a feel for it.

John Carpenter's The Thing holds up really well. Of course, part of that may be that I haven't seen it since it was originally released, when I was 12. But *damn*, those are good effects.

But *damn*, those are good effects.

I can remember the sound of the wire going into the petri dish of blood as if I had seen the movie today, much less, a decade ago. Seriously good effects.

Never liked the Jerry Cornelius novels. Wonder if I'd "get" them more in movie form, even if flawed.

John Carpenter's The Thing holds up really well. Of course, part of that may be that I haven't seen it since it was originally released, when I was 12. But *damn*, those are good effects.

Jilli, I saw it for the first time a few months ago, and I felt the same way.

Oh, that cicada-ey sound the creature makes when changing and its screams when burning are the most horrifying sound effects I've ever heard in a movie.

Though Melanie Griffith singing in the Viva Laughlin pilot may outdo them...

Though Melanie Griffith singing in the Viva Laughlin pilot may outdo them...

Another reason for me to be thankful that I didn't watch.

ION, I looked up the casting for that new Katherine Heigl movie and discovered that she was cast as Stephanie Plum in the movie adaptation of One for the Money.

Really?

Although, Daniel Sunjata as Ranger is an excellent idea and as much as I like Jason O'Mara he is not at all what I thought of when I imagined Morelli.

Re John Carpenter's The Thing, it was evidently the tradition at the Antartica pole station that after the last plane of the winter took off (leaving them isolated for the next 4+ months), the staff would gather in the mess hall and watch The Thing together.

In an emergency, a netflix envelope makes a great coaster.

Jilli, I saw it for the first time a few months ago, and I felt the same way.

I realized that I really *hadn't* seen it since the first time, so while I knew the broad outline of the story, I had forgotten a lot of the details. When the hot-wire-in-the-dish scene happened, I jumped back and shrieked.

Oh, that cicada-ey sound the creature makes when changing and its screams when burning are the most horrifying sound effects I've ever heard in a movie.

I've got to agree. Man, the sound design for that film was just amazing.

Speaking of movies I haven't watched since I was a pre-teen, there is a part of me that wants to rewatch Poltergeist. Then I remember the not sleeping for three days after I saw it, and I think maybe this is not such a clever plan.