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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 20, 2012 11:53:46 GMT -5
A different kind of all star cast. We had the Chicago police Department, the Chicago Fire Department, the Illinois National Guard, Carrie Fischer, Frank Oz, John Candy, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker (whom I had a conversation with once about cheeseburgers and my ex-roommate, awesome and perverse Evie the nudist, really, I have his autographed pic to prove it), Chaka Khan, James Brown, Ray Charles, John Landis, Murphy Dunne, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Willie Hall, Tom Malone, Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens, Henry Gibson from Laugh-In, Pinetop Perkins, Steven Spielberg, and "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, THE BLUES BROTHERS. And it has one of film history's best car chases or possibly three of them. And Illinois Nazis.
Too much fun, every scene made me smile, laugh, or dance sitting on my couch. This movie will add a day to your life when you watch it.
Drank a Hop In the Dark from The Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon and a Dogfather Imperial Stout from Laughing Dog Brewery in Ponderay. Idaho. Good beers.... from America.
LOB-40
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 22, 2012 6:03:25 GMT -5
Phantasm (1978) is a really fun and good horror film. I dig Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man, and Don Coscarelli is a master of horror. His style and humor remind me more and more of Sam Raimi. And that is a good thing.
I like this song from the movie, random, but a good little jam.
Drank Kona Brewing Co.'s Longboard Island Lager, aka "Liquid Aloha" from Kona, Hawaii. A good American session beer. This Cheers! is for Mr. Scrimm and Mr. Coscarelli.
LOB-42
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 22, 2012 15:01:20 GMT -5
"Beauty killed the Beast". King Kong from 1933. This great film would be on occasionally in the eighties especially on weekends for the kiddos like me. Two different Wikipedia entries. For the second one I say, again, fuck censorship. After leaving Paramount, Wray signed to various film companies. It was under these deals that Wray was cast in various horror films, including Doctor X. However, her greatest known films were produced under her deal with RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.. Her first film under RKO was The Most Dangerous Game (1932), co-starring Joel McCrea and shot at night on the same jungle sets that were being used for King Kong during the day, with the leads from both films, Wray and Robert Armstrong, appearing in both movies.
The Most Dangerous Game was followed by Wray's most memorable film, King Kong. According to Wray, Jean Harlow had been RKO's original choice, but because MGM put Harlow under exclusive contract during the pre-production phase of the film, she became unavailable[7] and Wray was approached by director Merian C. Cooper to play the role of Ann Darrow, the blonde captive of King Kong. Wray was paid $10,000 dollars to play the role. The film was a commercial success. Wray was reportedly proud that the film saved RKO from bankruptcy. Wray's role would become the one with which she would be most associated. For her appearances in various horror films, many have considered Wray the first "scream queen".Re-releases, censorship and restorations
King Kong was re-released in 1938, 1942, 1946, 1952 and 1956 to great box office success. Stricter decency rules had been put into effect in Hollywood since its 1933 premiere and each time it was censored further, with several scenes being either trimmed or excised altogether.
These scenes were: A Brontosaurus eating crewmen in the water, chasing one up a tree and eating him. Kong undressing Ann Darrow and sniffing his fingers. Kong biting and stepping on natives when he attacks the village Kong biting a reporter in New York. Kong mistaking a sleeping woman for Ann and dropping her to her death after realizing his mistake.
After the 1956 re-release, the film was sold to television and played successfully to huge audiences.
In 1969, a 16mm print, including the censored footage, was found in Philadelphia. The cut scenes were added to the film, restoring it to its original theatrical running time of 100 minutes. This version was re-released to art houses by Janus Films in 1970.
Over the next two decades, King Kong received further photochemical restoration. This was based on a 1942 release print, with missing censor cuts taken from a 1937 print, which "contained heavy vertical scratches from projection."
After a 6-year worldwide search for the best surviving materials, a further, fully digital, restoration utilizing 4K resolution scanning was completed in 2005. This restoration also had a 4 minute overture added, bringing the overall running time to 104 minutes.
King Kong was also, somewhat controversially, colorized in the late 1980s for television.] Stupid Ted Turner and his scheme to colorize classics (Y'know George Lucas fought against this move by Turner as an assault on the original integrity and art of the films affected). Finishing a very one-dimensional and certainly not extra-dimensional beer in flavor, Moriarty, New Mexico's Sierra Blanca Brewing Co.'s Roswell Alien Amber Ale. The greys must have abducted the hops in this brew. Cheers to the greys, enjoy my missing hops you bastiches, I mean future masters.... Actually EDIT I have a better more relevant Cheers! to those of us that try to escape the daily rigors or horrors of life through cinema and to the families of those slain in Aurora this week. So Cheers.
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 22, 2012 15:13:51 GMT -5
Oopsies. LOB-44
Yep I said "Oopsies". Dig it.
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 22, 2012 19:15:42 GMT -5
Just finished watching Single Room Furnished, the final film starring Jayne Mansfield. Pretty good flick but it didn't catch my attention. I did like the last quarter of the film and ending. Here's the mighty Wikipedia. Single Room Furnished is a 1968 drama film featuring Jayne Mansfield in her final "filmed" starring role. In it she plays three different and complex characters and over time many have considered this film to contain one of Mansfield's finest performances as she demonstrates her dramatic acting abilities, something she had longed to do throughout her career.The feature was shot in 1966, while Mansfield was married to her third (and final) husband, Matt Cimber. The movie was briefly released in the mid months of 1966, but was quickly pulled from theaters. The feature was released "legally" and "officially" in 1968; which was nearly a year after Mansfield's tragic death in a car crash at the age of 34.I'm considering this a 1966 film, not 1968. LOB +0.
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 22, 2012 23:00:40 GMT -5
The Warriors from 1979. One of my favorite movies ever. I love the great acting from the young cast, the unique and intelligent story, the different groups of adversaries, the bad-ass motherfucking soundtrack, the qoutable dialogue, the iconic moments, and well I dig it.
Do you dig it?
Drinking a Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Ginger Wheat which has ginger (copious amounts), honey, lemon juice, and of course wheat malt as adjuncts. From Boston, Massachusetts. I wish I liked this beer. I really do. Tastes like soap. This soapy tasting Cheers! is for the Young Turks of film, past, present, and to come.
LOB-45
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Jul 23, 2012 13:10:41 GMT -5
I don't really know how I feel about colorizing old films, part of it bugs me ,but part of it doesn't.
What does bug me is trying to take out things of classic films that aren't considered politically correct. I remember watching some movie that satarized the cigarrette industry and how some anit smoking guy was trying to change older films with smoking into different things for example a cigarette into a candy cane. While it was funny I remember that there was somebody actually trying to do it.
Generally I'm in favor of directors cuts ,but there's an occasion where I wasn't. I remember one edition besides the theatrical of Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garret and Billy the Kid has the original material together ,but Peckinpah's preferred version took out this great scene involving Slim Pickens and Knocking on Heaven's door.
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 23, 2012 20:44:52 GMT -5
Jake, I pretty much agree with you.
I've counted two movies this month that were altered in the last ten years. The Blues Brothers had about twenty minutes of music and fun times that had been trimmed prior to the film's initial release added on.
The Warriors had an introduction by the director added, where he immediately contradicted his views but I still agreed with his new logic. He also added comic book panels between scenes to further get the effect he originally envisioned that the audience would get from his film but he felt that the audience hadn't, his fault he felt.
I think Spielberg replaced guns with radios when he re-released ET. Not cool.
Greedo shooting first. Not cool.
Colorizing I'm cool with as a campy alternative, not a replacement for the original film.
Finished watching a movie this morning. The Devil's Rain (1975) originally was hated by movie-goers, critics, and pretty much everybody and the milkman. Now it is a lesser known cult film. I don't get it. I think it has a stellar cast (I'll get back to that), great special effects (especially the melting Church of Satan congregants), a great plot, and freaky cries of torments from damned souls throughout the film. It is great horror!
Okay, the cast. Tom "My God!!!'" Skerritt, William Shatner, John Travolta in a bit role, Anton LaVey (who starred in the flick and served as an advisor to the director to keep the film's depiction of the real Church of Satan authentic), Diane LaVey (The Church of Satan's High Priestess or what have you), and Ernest Borgnine who plays the Devil's disciple (who passed away about two weeks ago, rest in peace).
SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER When Shatner has become a minion of Lucifer, his latexed face actually looked like a colorized Halloween Michael Myers mask. I finally could make the jump from Shatner's handsome face, and The Shape. Good stuff.
Michael Myers at 8:20, believe me, you have to see this SPOILER!!! A cool clip! Dig It!
Drank a Ranger Creek Small Batch #1 from San Antonio, a delicious oatmeal pale ale with a bit of funk from a wild yeast and aged in oak. Great beer from The Lone Star State. I dedicated it to Mr. Borgnine, thanks for the memories.
lob-47
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 24, 2012 14:43:17 GMT -5
First, an apology for a long copy and paste job.
Second this is a sequel, if you wiiiiill, to the first post in this thread. A Wikipedia historical retelling of censorship in horror films in the first few years of the 1930s and where it all began, the would-be censor's concerns, and censoring of the nascent "speakie" Horror genre. First film then comics. Censorship is un-American.
Take it away Wikipedia, from the "Pre-Code Hollywood" article.
Horror and science fiction
Doctor Frankenstein's creation; actor Boris Karloff in full movie monster makeup. By the time the film's sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, arrived in 1935, enforcement of the Code was in full effect, and the doctor's overt God complex was forbidden. In the first picture, however, when the creature was born his mad scientist creator was free to proclaim "Now I know what it feels like to be God!"
Unlike silent era sex and crime pictures, silent horror movies, despite being produced in the hundreds, were never a major concern for censors or civic leaders. When sound horror films were released however, they quickly caused controversy. Sound provided "atmospheric music and sound effects, creepy-voiced macabre dialogue and a liberal dose of blood-curdling screams" which intensified its effects on audiences, and consequently on moral crusaders. The Hays Code did not mention gruesomeness, and Pre-Code filmmakers took advantage of this oversight. However, state boards usually had no set guidelines, and could object to any material they found indecent. Although films such as Frankenstein and Freaks caused controversy when they were released, they had already been re-cut to comply with censors.
Comprising the nascent motion picture genres of horror and science fiction (sci-fi), the nightmare picture provoked individual psychological terror in its horror incarnations, while embodying group sociological terror in its science fiction manifestations.The two main types of Pre-Code horror pictures were the single monster movie, and films where masses of hideous beasts rose up and attacked their betters. Frankenstein and Freaks exemplified both genres.
The Pre-Code horror cycle was similar to many Pre-Code cycles in that its boom was motivated by financial necessity. Universal in particular buoyed itself with the production of horror hits such as Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein, then followed those successes up with Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), The Mummy (1932), and The Old Dark House (1932). Other major studios responded with their own productions. Much like the crime film cycle however, the intense boom of the horror cycle was ephemeral, and had fallen off at the box office by the end of the Pre-Code era.
At the beginning of Frankenstein, Dr. Henry Frankenstein, and his faithful, moronic assistant Fritz are excavating graves for human body parts. Frankenstein sends Fritz to the local college to acquire a fresh brain. After dropping the only normal brain on the ground, Fritz leaves the college with an abnormal one. Meanwhile, Frankenstein's "insane ambition to create life" worries his fiancée, Elizabeth (Mae Clarke), and his close friends. To allay their fears, and prove to them he is not insane, Frankenstein shows them his science project — a sewn together corpse lying on a medical slab, covered by a cloth—and asks them to watch him "endow it with life". Raising the monster upwards, the extending slab reaches the sky through a hole in the roof, and the monster is struck by lightning. Endowed with life by the magical electricity, it twitches its arm, at which point Dr. Frankenstein deliriously screams, "It's alive! It's alive!" The creature begins walking out of its cell in the next scene, and Fritz, upset that his position as the doctor's freak companion may be usurped, torments the monster by waving a torch at it. After the monster kills Fritz, Frankenstein has second thoughts about his creation and instructs a medical colleague to euthanize it. His conscience clear, Frankenstein prepares to marry his fiancée in a lavish ceremony. The monster lives however, and after escaping captivity, it meets a little girl. The girl is throwing flowers into a lake and watching them float. Convinced that pretty things float, he throws her into the lake where she drowns. The creature then arrives at the doctor's house, and in an act of revenge abducts and kills the doctor's fiancée. The entire town, pitchforks and torches in hand, search for the monster that has absconded with the doctor. Finding them at a windmill, the doctor escapes, and the villagers burn the creature to death. While Joy declared Dracula "quite satisfactory from the standpoint of the Code" before it was released, and the film had little trouble reaching theaters, Frankenstein was a different story. New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts removed the drowning scene and lines that referenced Dr. Frankenstein's God complex. Kansas in particular objected to the film. The state's censor board requested the cutting of 32 scenes, which if removed, would have halved the length of the film.
In Freaks director Tod Browning of Dracula fame helms a picture that depicts a traveling circus populated by a group of deformed carnival freaks. Browning populated the movie with actual carnival sideshow performers including "midgets, dwarfs, hermaphrodites, Siamese twins, and, most awful, the armless and legless man billed as the "living torso"." There is also a group of Pinheads, who are fortunate in that they are not mentally capable enough to understand that they disgust people. The freaks are the victim of the story with a circus strongman Hercules and a beautiful high-wire artist Cleopatra, the villains. Cleopatra intends to marry and then poison Hans, a midget who has inherited a fortune and is enamored with her. At a dinner celebrating their union, one of the freaks dances on the table and they chant "gooble-gobble, gobble, gobble, one of us, one of us, now she is like one of us." Disgusted, Cleopatra insults Hans and makes out with Hercules in front of him. When the freaks discover her plot, they exact revenge by mutilating Cleopatra into a freak. Although circus freaks were common in the early 1930s, the film was their first depiction on screen. Browning took care to linger over shots of the deformed, disabled performers with long takes of them including one of the "living torso" lighting a match and then a cigarette with his mouth. The film was accompanied by a sensational marketing campaign that asked sexual questions such as "Do the Siamese Twins make love?", "What sex is the half-man half-woman?", and "Can a full grown woman truly love a midget?" Surprisingly, given its reaction to Frankenstein, the state of Kansas objected to nothing in Freaks. Other states such as Georgia however, were repulsed by the film and it was not shown in many locales. The film later became a cult classic spurred by midnight movie showings, however, on its original release, it was a box-office bomb.
Long cut and paste but I think the details lead to an understanding of how censorship successfully reared it's ugly head.
I never will see The Human Centipede 2 or A Serbian Story. I have seen In a Glass Cage, Pink Flamingos, Cannibal Holocaust, and 100 Days of Sodom. All are fucked up movies. So what? All deserve to be available for certain viewers wishing to watch them for whatever reasons. Fuck censorship.
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 24, 2012 14:57:44 GMT -5
That said, the two things that legally have been shown in movies that I personally find wrong or distasteful is showing Superman's little penis or other kids' privates or shooting snakes (SSSSSSS for example) or the crap pulled with animals in Cannibal Holocaust and other animal torture.
I'd rather see a totally fake rubber frog eaten by Jabba or a stuffed animal pitbull being shot in No Country for Old Men. Just my views.
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Post by jakeawesomesnake on Jul 24, 2012 15:37:31 GMT -5
The animal thing bugs me when done for no reason just to put it in a movie ,because the people were too lazy or not good enough to do it convincingly fakely.
Apocalypse Now where they killed the Yak didn't bug me because they were already going to kill it anyway and figured it might as well have been on screen. What bugs me is when they kill something for no damn reason.
I'll probably get around to watching those movies because when I hear how messed up a movie is it just draws me closer.
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 24, 2012 18:50:52 GMT -5
Watched Coogan's Bluff (1968) for the first time and I liked it much. Clint Eastwood stars as an Arizona deputy sheriff who is unruly to say the least. He is sent to New York City (New York City! !!!?!) to escort a fugitive back to Arizona. Coogan can do it the easy way by the rules or not. He fucks up like an amateur, loses the prisoner and HIS GUN in the first half of the movie. So Coogan chooses to redeem himself in his own eyes and FUCKS UP again. By the end of the movie he "fixes" things and when given the same choice to do it easy, by the books, he chooses easy. He evolves in this movie and becomes more humble. He symbolizes this in his refusal to share a cigarette early in the film and his sharing by the film's end. Good Stuff with early seventies psychedelia underground scenes, trippin' lsd go-go girl/hooker types, free LOVE, and Clint enjoying multiple partners from Arizona to NYC and presumably back. Drinking a Victory Summer Love Ale, a very hoppy and good beer from the fine folks at Victory Brewing Co. in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. This Cheers! is to the hippies/hipsters that lived The Summer of Love. "Agitate, agitate, agitate". Even through good old fashioned screwing with your boots still on. LOB-48
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 24, 2012 22:03:40 GMT -5
So my favorite American speech is Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. I'll get back to that.
My favorite Clint Eastwood movie.... That's tough but if I had to choose, it would be High Plain's Drifter (1973). If you are reluctant to watch Westerns but love Horror, give this a try. Many Horror elements in my opinion.
Clint is once again, a man with no name. So I will speculate. He is an ordinary man who is gifted with a revolver and human psychology and he is as in-between good and bad or white and black as his grey duster, grey cowboy hat, and grey pony. Or he is a vengeful spirit/ghost. Or he is a demon straight from Hell bent on retribution, in a slow plotting kind of way. Or he is God's vengeful fist and punishment both to a trio of murderers and the town that hired them.
I choose the latter and that is why I think of that timeless speech by Old Abe.
In Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address he claimed that maybe The American Civil War was the punishment from a vengeful God on both The North and The South. All of America for the sin of slavery and the inhumanities committed in it's name.
"Submitted for your approval" another long copy and paste job, but one important moment in our history. Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.
Fellow Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it -- all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war -- seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope -- fervently do we pray -- that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
I would apologize for a long post, but I won't. I'll take a pull of beer for American democracy.
Drinking a second Oskar Blues' tall-boy of Deviant Dale's India Pale Ale from one of the pioneer's of the third/fourth generation of The American Micro-brew Revolution. I dedicate this Cheers! from this delicious, floral, and perfect American India Pale Ale to Mr. Clint Eastwood and my favorite president, Abraham Lincoln. A double Deviant Cheers!
Lob-49
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 25, 2012 6:35:10 GMT -5
1931, Universal Pictures, my favorite classic monster. Frankenstein. This movie was shown on teevee so much when I was a kid. I love this movie but I love it's sequel the most from the Universal Monster era. Good old, old school.
Never had a Genesee Cream Ale before this eight pack. Pretty good inexpensive session beer. The bottle type is called a "stubby" and looks like a hand grenade and hailing from Rochester, New York. This stubby hand grenade Cheers! is to James Whale and other directors who rocked the boat. But not Mel Gibson.
LOB-51
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Post by loverofbeers on Jul 26, 2012 5:12:49 GMT -5
Dracula (1931) from Universal Pictures and Todd Browning. The first "talkie" horror film. I love the sets for Dracula's two abodes. I like Renfield in this movie, a solid and entertaining performance.
Now to the sacriligous. I like Bela Lugosi, I just think he was an awful, boring, wooden actor. The lighting in this movie frankly sucked (no pun intended) example one being the two spotlights that would shine on Bela's eyes to make him look more terrifying would sometimes be shining slightly off of one of his eyes. Minor detail but these shots were a major part of the horror in this film. A major part and that is a problem, this movie just doesn't get the job done well. Cameras out of focus periodically, bad acting, NO FANGS AT ALL, no brown Latina nipples showing through a white dress, nada. And no suspenseful music during the feature that I noticed.
The Spanish version is far superior. I actually was comparing scenes from memory, and I got to say, the Spanish version is a very good movie. Browning's is kinda boring. A film score would have gone a long way, the opening credits were scored and were the most gripping minutes of the film, excepting scenes with Renfield. What a fun performance.
Drank two beers during this movie, apparently the first legal bottle of He'Brew Messiah Nut Brown Ale consumed in the state of Texas. A gift from a beer rep that will be sold to stores starting later today. I don't like brown ales overall but this one has depth, six malts and three hop varieties. Good stuff from the Schmaltz Brewing Co. in Saratoga Springs, New York. Then I had a Magic Hat Brewing Co.'s Elder Betty a weissbier with elderberries added to it. Nice and refreshing and from Burlington, Vermont. A delicious Deviant Dales (alliteration) Cheers! to Renfield and Knock.
LOB-53
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