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Nolan's Pop Culture Review 2009!
   Assistant Editor / Co-Moderator:  Terence Nuzum.                          HOME     ARCHIVES
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our tenth calendar year!
Number 460  (Vol. 10, No. 3). This edition is for the week of January 12--18, 2009.

THE TAMPA FILM REVIEW FOR JANUARY
by Nolan Canova
"The Wrestler"
R. I. P. –- Ray Dennis Steckler
Nfc/afc Championships Edition .... Gettin' Crazy With The Cheese-whiz In Arizona .... “feel Sorry For Those Giants.” .... Tony’s Coming Back To Tampa! .... Clemens Got Some Splainin’ To Do .... Pacman Jones Needs A Job .... Ravens Defeat Titans .... f
Gruden Is Toast..where's The Jelly? .... Obama's Party .... Conference Championship Weekend .... r
Forget The Ides Of Month - Don't Get Sick In January .... Sports Thoughts (sorry Chris) .... Speaking Of The Hall Of Fame .... Passing On .... Movie Notes .... And One From Television .... It's Oscar Time .... .... My Favorite Films, Part 2... o
Working On It...

LATE BREAKING NEWS, 1-17-2009
Buccaneer Coach Jon Gruden has been fired from the Bucs organization as has the general manager. Please see Mike's Rant and Matt's Rail for more details and commentary on this Tampa-related sports development. Wth some irony, our main sports writer, Chris Munger, turned in his column only a day before this story broke, but pledges to have a full write-up on it in next week's PCR.

FINAL TFR
My look at the final Tampa Film Review is up. It took a little longer to mix-and-match and format the great photos by Chris Woods (thanks Chris) than I intended, but I think the end result is worth it. Do have a look.

The Message Board thread running over the weekend to get some reactions on the last TFR is still going, you're welcome to post, and somewhere on there is a tantalizing clue as to who may be the Guzzos' successor.

YOUTH NATION: VIDEO GAMES
Speaking of the Message Board, thanks to everyone who's been posting on the new section on video games -- that ensured a successful launch and I appreciate it.

R.I.P. RAY DENNIS STECKLER
I didn't get a chance to comment very much on this last week, but I wish to pass my sincere condolences to the friends and family of cult filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler who died last week at the age of 70. ED Tucker's Retrorama features a very personal retrospective on this often-overlooked filmmaker.

It's an odd and rather dark coincidence that we posted some info that same week on some other websites who'd commented on ED's exclusive interview with Ray.

Very loyal and long-time readers of PCR may remember back in 2005 when Ray Steckler was scheduled to be a featured guest at NolanCon, along with Bill Rebane and Conrad Brooks; or rather the convention-that-would've-been-NolanCon before Nolan got hosed by the sponsor.

MORE GREATS PASSING
This week we lost two more film greats, Patrick McGoohan ("The Prisoner", "Secret Agent") at age 80, and Ricardo Montalban ("Fantasy Island", "ST2: The Wrath of Khan") at 88.

I'll try and post more reactions and memories of these two influential actors later in the week. And I'm sure Mike Smith will do a great write-up in this week's Rant.


Readers' Comments

The Readers' Comments section for this issue of PCR is now closed. To continue to interact, please use the Message Board or write a Letter to the Editor! The comments below are listed starting with the most recent. Thank you.

Crazed FanComments -- We Welcome Reader Feedback on any article(s) on this page.
PATIENTLY AWAITING FOR A THEATRE PETREY [19-01-2009 17:05] 
I have an uncle named Tom Adkins. D being the diff. I wish they would release NIGHT OF THE CREEPS on DVD so that I may view it in it's big screen glory yet again! Put's a whole new spin on the classic line from the film that would apply to my website. "The Good news is your film is here" says Tom. "What's the bad news?" says the girl. "It's sourced from a format that's dead" says Tom. heh heh
Michael [19-01-2009 15:34] 
"I didn't know about Bob May (nor his house fire) until I read it here."

You could be an advertisment for your own web site! Of course you're going to read it here..........FIRST!
Michael [19-01-2009 15:33] 
I'm going to miss him............................................... NOT!
Terence [19-01-2009 09:03] 
Hallelujah!!!
matthew [19-01-2009 09:01] 
it's the last day in office for scumbag!

let us all rejoice.
ED [19-01-2009 05:38] 
Bob May was a very cool guy and a convention staple in the last few years. I believe the fire happened about a year ago when the trailer park he was living in was caught in one of those California wildfires and a number of people lost their homes. I saw where his cause of death is listed as congestive heart failure and he was only 69.
Nolan [19-01-2009 04:25] 
I didn't know about Bob May (nor his house fire) until I read it here. Very sad indeed. R.I.P., Bob.
Michael [18-01-2009 20:59] 
Some friends of mine just came back from the "Weekend of Terror" at Universal and got some great photos of Tom Atkins. Glad to see he's still working.

Sad to hear about Bob May. He just lost his home and possessions in a fire a couple of months ago. R.I.P.
Lisa S. C. [18-01-2009 20:18] 
R.I.P. Bob May, The Robot in "Lost in Space"
ED [18-01-2009 15:53] 
Ter - that would be awesome to see the original in theaters again. This one really isn't that bad though and they surprised me how much of a story they tried to have. I guess going in with very low expectations helped.
Terence [18-01-2009 15:30] 
ed- you are far braver than I. I dont think i could sit through that drivel just for the novelty of 3-D. i would rather they just released the original one. Tom Atkins!!!! he is the man.
ED [18-01-2009 15:02] 
I saw My Bloddy Valentine 3-D today and it's pretty good. Certainly an amusing use of 3-D and lot's of references to the original. It's also nice to see Tom Atkins back on the big screen in a sizable role. The scariest moment of the film for me was walking out of the theater and seeing the standee for Night at the Museum 2! I can't believe they are making another one of those unless they intend to spend 2 hours filling in the plot holes from the last one!
Lisa Scherer Ciurro [17-01-2009 21:01] 
ED -- Very nice tribute article to Ray Dennis Steckler.
Joel D. Wynkoop [17-01-2009 18:24]  
Chris,

Yeah that's what I meant, we were sitting around the table talking about that and how much we enjoyed it and what? two day's later he passes away. Who'd of thought. To me, that was his greatest role.

Joel

Hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Woods [16-01-2009 18:02] 
Hey Joel,

Yeah, it was cool doing Khan lines from Star Trek II the other night. Kind of strange we were just talking about Khan and then days later he passed away.
ED [16-01-2009 15:02] 
Petrey - I have never seen that film but have heard of it. I will check it out. Good job Mike, I must have missed that one or formed a mental block against it at the time to minimize the pop culture death trauma to my system!
Temporarily Theatreless Petrey [16-01-2009 11:40] 
Ed, you can catch a good performance by Pat Hingle in "When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?" on my Cultra Rare site. There are a ton of background actors that get little mention when they pass even though they have co-starred in films for decades. Imagine the shock and horror I received when the TampaTribune literally ran a full page article on Kurt Cobain when he aced himself and then the paper decided a couple of paragraphs were enough for Horror legend Vincent Price!
Michael [16-01-2009 11:34] 
ED, I mentioned Pat Hingle last week.

I love the word play between Khan and Kirk in "Star Trek II." When Khan is waiting for Genesis and Kirk is secretly having the Reliant lower it's shields, the way Shatner says, "Here it comes" is classic.

To continue the thread:

"I've done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me...as you left her; marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet... buried alive! Buried alive...!

KHAN!!!
PAUL GUZZO [16-01-2009 10:34] 
Sorry about a lack of update inb FIlm News ... cleaning out desk this week at La Gaceta ... will update next week.
Joel D. Wynkoop [16-01-2009 09:19]  
That was supposed to be ABOUT damnit. DAMNIT, DAMNIT, DAMNIT!!!!
Joel D. Wynkoop [16-01-2009 09:18]  
GENESIS, excuse me. Followed by "Yes Khan, you killed just baout every one else but like the poor marksman you are you keep... missing... the target, you'll have to come down here , do you here me Khan, you'll have to come down here."
Joel D. Wynkoop [16-01-2009 09:15]  
Chris,

Remember we were doing KHAN line's at the hang out the other night. I did the whole "I've got Genisus Khan but your going to have to come down here, your going to have to come down here."

Joel
ED [16-01-2009 06:33] 
Did we get Pat Hingle on the 2009 death toll yet? He was a popular character actor probably best known for playing Jim Gordon in the first two Batman movies from the 80's and the Judge in Hang 'Em High.
Chris Woods [15-01-2009 19:40] 
It's sad to hear about Steckler, McGoohan and Khan himself, Ricardo Montalban. I was watching the Ape-a-thon as well during the holidays and caught Escape and Conquest. I also caught Star Trek II the other day on TV, that's probably the best Star Trek film in the series and Montalban is great in it.
Michael [15-01-2009 17:54] 
KHAN!!!!

I just re-watched "Escape" and "Conquest" during the holiday "Ape-a-thon" and I was amazed at how good Montalban was in those. He truly was a gifted actor.
Nolan [15-01-2009 13:05] 
Steve, nothing to worry about. An extra space always precedes the first post. Not sure why.

But yes, an especially deadly couple of months for aging stars! I almost dread reading the news anymore -- I mean even more than usual.
Steve "The Floatplane Pilot" Beasley [15-01-2009 11:27] 
Man, deaths are really on the increase this year, and it's just started!

Umm, what's the date below the first posting about?
"[31-12-1969 16:00]"
ED [15-01-2009 07:46] 
Zee light boss! Come to zee light! It just keeps getting worse.
Nolan [15-01-2009 07:34] 
I was at work when I heard about Ricardo Montalban. Another very important and influential talent has left us. May he R.I.P.
William Moriaty [14-01-2009 16:19] 
Mr. Rourke (Ricardo Montalban) has returned to Fantasy Island, this time to be with Tattoo forever. He passed away today at age 88
ED [14-01-2009 14:53] 
Number 6 is finally free. This year is already off to a bad start and January isn't even half over!
Nolan [14-01-2009 14:51] 
R.I.P. --Patrick McGoohan ("The Prisoner"), who has died aged 80 in Los Angeles after a short illness.
[31-12-1969 16:00] 
End of Comments    


"Mike's Rant" is ©2009 by Michael A. Smith    "Matt's Rail" is ©2009 by Matthew Drinnenberg     "This Week's Movie Review" is ©2009 by Michael A. Smith    "FANGRRL" is ©2009 by Lisa Sherer Ciurro    "La Floridiana" is ©2009 by William Moriaty    "Retrorama" is ©2009 by ED Tucker    "Sports Talk" is ©2009 by Chris Munger      All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova    
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