BEFORE: I'm going way back for this one - JK, just to 1985. But I've watched so many classic films already, from Alfred Hitchcock's whole filmography to every movie I could find that Fred Astaire danced in, I rarely go back to past the 1980's any more. So far the oldest movie I've watched in 2023 was "Coma", which came out in 1978, and the second oldest was "The Fog", released in 1980. And if they hadn't been worked into my horror chain, I might not have even watched them at all. But something happened since I started doing this in 2009, now the 1980's have become this long-ago, almost mythical time. Did they really happen? Does anybody besides me remember them?
The oldest film on my watchlist right now is 1931's "M", but now I don't know if I'll ever get around to watching it, not unless I break the chain or change my format. 'The Grand Illusion", "The Prisoner of Zenda", "Holiday Inn", and a bunch of Mummy movies are still outstanding, maybe if I go to work for TCM someday I can find the time to get to these, but right now, they're taking up valuable space on my list, so I'm going to have to work something out one of these days, or perhaps just drop them and admit I'm never going to watch them. Or else I have to find a lot of bridging material and maybe just start with the oldest film on my list and devise a chain that will clear out the oldies.
Andy Garcia carries over from "Night Falls on Manhattan".
THE PLOT: When a teenager is shot at the beach, a reporter from the Miami Journal is sent to cover the story. He's called by the murderer and told there'll be four more.
AFTER: The 1980's were a different time - we played our video games at the arcade, not at home, if you needed to make a phone call while outside your house, you needed to find a phone booth and some dimes, the only mail we had was the non-electronic kind, and even serial killers worked differently. The Son of Sam was active in NYC in the 1970's, and he pled guilty to eight shootings, and he formed a professional relationship with Jimmy Breslin, who wrote about him in the newspapers. Debate raged whether the publicity encouraged the killer to keep his streak going, but my point is that David Berkowitz killed eight people one by one. Today's murderers just buy an automatic weapon and take down 30, 40 people at a time in a shopping mall or something, it's not artful, that's just a massacre. People used to take pride in their work, really make it personal, what the heck happened to that? You can't keep a whole metropolitan area on edge and fearing for their lives unless you really work that serial killer thing, make them afraid to go outside at night, like death is waiting for them on the corner. Shooting up a crowd in a nightclub or a stadium means that the killer's going to have to shoot himself afterwards, because who wants to stand trial for 50-plus murders? This is why my message to anyone who wants to shoot up a school or a crowded parking lot is - why not just skip to the end and shoot yourself first, because you know that's how it's going to end. Spare all those other people and their families the agony and just take yourself out, you'll be doing everyone a big favor.
But that Berkowitz-Breslin connection is kind of mirrored here in the plot of "The Mean Season", just transferred from NYC to Miami during the hurricane-heavy part of the year. And the murderer says he's planning to kill five people - totally do-able, five seems like an achievable goal of sorts - I mean, why aim high when you're just not sure about it. Maybe you'll kill five people and then that will scratch that itch, and you may then just not be in the mood to kill a sixth person. It's not like eating potato chips or something, you can stop whenever you want to. Umm, unless you're mentally ill or you somehow develop a taste for it, but I say that planning to stop after five is probably a good idea. See how you feel after that and go from there.
Reporter Malcolm Anderson really wants to leave Miami, and his girlfriend wants to move back to Colorado, where her parents still live. Malcolm's taken a trip out there for a job interview as the editor of a small newspaper, and he's ready to take that job. The only thing that could keep him in Miami is a late-breaking story about a serial killer who confides in him and gets his hopes for a Pulitzer up. Now he can't leave Miami, he's too invested, he's gained the trust of the serial killer (He's called the "Numbers Killer"? What was wrong with the "Miami Madman"? The "Nephew of Bernie and Rosalynn"? Is this reporter even TRYING?) and the police are having him record all the incoming calls in case the killer lets something slip that could be the key to identifying him.
The problem is that the killer and the reporter are working a bit TOO well as a team, Malcolm's girlfriend thinks he's not just reporting on the murders but he's somewhat complicit, since he gives the serial killer a platform, and therefore a reason to kill again. And the killer is pissed because Malcolm's getting interviewed on national TV, stealing the spotlight for himself. Well, what do you expect, you can't both stay in hiding AND appear on TV and take credit for your crimes, it's one or the other. But the killer doesn't see things that way, so he kidnaps Malcolm's girlfriend, I guess to get the attention back on himself? Jeez, what a narcissist.
Oddly, it's the best thing for Malcolm's relationship, because she was getting ready to move out since he'd been so focused on the reporting of the killings, and he was basically ignoring her - they were like two people living in the same house, but not together. AND then he broke his promise about moving to Colorado, because he got so engrossed in the serial killer thing and she quit her JOB to get ready for the move. So she was about to dump Malcolm's ass, but then she got held prisoner by a serial killer, and I guess after that, living with Malcolm didn't seem so bad by comparison. There's a relationship lesson in there somewhere, but it's not really a good one. Don't try this to fix your own relationship, it's not recommended.
I recorded this movie and "Night Falls on Manhattan" on something of a whim, about two months ago. I didn't really know much about either film, I think I thought "The Mean Season" was about football or something. But sometimes I just get a feeling about movies, I record them on the DVR sometimes at random - and I had no idea I would find a linking reason to watch both of these so soon. But you just never know, they turned out to both be helpful in connecting my Halloween movies with my Thanksgiving movies - but I suppose if I didn't have these two, I would have found another way to get there. Maybe? It's tough to say - maybe it's true that for every film I've put on my list, there's a reason I put it there, even if I don't know yet what that reason is. Or maybe it's all just random at this point, there do seem to be different ways I can look at it.
Anyway, Kurt Russell will be back in time for Christmas, if the plan is solid and the chain holds up. And weirdly, that's just 17 movies away - it'll be here before you know it.
Also starring Kurt Russell (last seen in "De Palma"), Mariel Hemingway (last seen in "Sunset'), Richard Bradford (ditto), Richard Jordan (last seen in "Klute"), Richard Masur (last seen in "Val"), Joe Pantoliano (last seen in "Bad Boys for Life"), Rose Portillo (last heard in "Encanto"), William Smith (last seen in "Irresistible"), John Palmer, Lee Sandman, Dan Fitzgerald (last seen in "In Her Shoes"), Cynthia Caquelin, Fred Ornstein, Fritz Bronner, Mike DeRienzo, Michael Clay, Fred Buch (last seen in "Cocoon: The Return"), Bruce McLaughlin (ditto), Robert Small (last seen in "Recount"), Tamara Jones, Joan Murphy (last seen in "Midnight Cowboy"), Richard Liberty, Morris Zuckerman, Lillian Zuckerman.
RATING: 5 out of 10 misspelled headlines (there should be two "P's" in "kidnapped)
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