Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner

Meteor Disaster Avoided! Father’s Day Music

Wait? John Williams was supposed to write the music for “Meteor?” Well, I suppose it makes sense, following on his association with “The Poseidon Adventure,” “Earthquake,” and “The Towering Inferno.” Thankfully, this was one disaster he was able to avoid.

Share that sense of relief, as we enter the weekend with another Classic Ross Amico double-feature.

First, it’s all about Father’s Day – with music from “The Godfather” (Nino Rota), “Field of Dreams” (James Horner), “Life with Father” (Max Steiner), and “To Kill a Mockingbird (Elmer Bernstein) – on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, at 6 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Then Roy Bjellquist and I will take on The Mother of All Asteroids, as we dissect “Meteor,” on the Facebook live-stream “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” at 7.

https://www.facebook.com/roytiediescificorner/

Getting ready to rock your world (literally). Mom and Dad would be so proud.

June 19, 2020
“Meteor” Movie Review A Disasterpiece!

Lord, do I hate “Meteor.” Despite having seen it under optimal conditions – at the late, lamented Loewe’s Astor Plaza in New York City, back in 1979 – it has persisted in my memory as one of the most excruciating couple of hours I have ever passed in a theater.

Now, 41 years later, thanks to Roy Bjellquist, I bite down hard on a strip of leather and re-subject myself to the torment, having been invited for the third week in a row to guest co-host on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” I hope you’ll join me, as I join Roy, in offering exhaustive background and sardonic insights into this stunning misfire – a disaster movie so disastrous that it cured even the most undiscriminating audiences of their mania for imperiled airplanes, capsized ocean liners, earthquake-ravaged cities, and blazing skyscrapers, until the advent of CGI. Falling close on the heels of “Hurricane” and “The Concorde… Airport ’79,” “Meteor” ensured that the genre went out in a blaze of ignominy.

An all-star cast (led by Sean Connery), a comet, a five-mile asteroid, and a five-dollar budget add up to a recipe for disaster! This had to be the blackest mark on the resume of even the lowliest intern. Even as a viewer, I still bear the scars.

If that’s not incentive enough for you to punch us up, I don’t know what is. I hope you’ll join Roy and me for the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” The show will be live-streamed on Facebook this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT. It may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it still promises to be meatier than “Meteor.”

https://www.facebook.com/events/2765874766978123/

To quote a wide-eyed Karl Malden, “That meteor is five miles wide, and it’s definitely gonna hit us!!!”

June 18, 2020
Black Hole Movie Chat on Roy’s Sci-Fi Corner

In case you missed it (and I know you did), here’s my second appearance on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci Fi Corner,” in which we banter about “The Black Hole” (1979) – and in the process touch upon John Barry’s music.

New episodes of “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” stream on Fridays and Sundays at 7 p.m. EDT.

Roy’s guest tomorrow will be Nick Tate of “Space: 1999.” That show will take place at a special time, Sunday at 4 p.m. EDT.

Thanks for having me back, Roy!

June 13, 2020
The Black Hole Disney’s Mad Sci-Fi?

What is this I’m watching?

Is it speculative fiction?

A Gothic melodrama?

An all-star disaster flick?

A zombie horror movie?

A retro, 1950s throwback?

A metaphysical mind-trip?

Or just another shameless, post-“Star Wars” cash-grab?

Toss these seemingly disparate elements into Maximilian’s mixer, and you’ll be drinking deep from the craziest smoothie ever!

Join Roy Bjellquist and me tomorrow evening, as once again I will be the guest co-host for “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” Roy and I will take the plunge into Walt Disney’s WTF intergalactic whirlpool, “The Black Hole” (1979).

“The Black Hole” is a product of Disney’s maddest fever dream ever, a barely sustainable period during which the studio repeatedly girded itself for an icy plunge into relevance, only to get cold feet and yank its creative team back from the brink. This is the same psychotic pattern that yielded such potentially bold gambits as “The Watcher in the Woods,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “Tron,” “The Black Cauldron,” and “The Return to Oz.”

Too violent and scary for kids (to whom the films were marketed), and too compromised for adults, the result is a cabinet of curiosities full of freakish specimens that are neither fish nor fowl. Hard to believe, now that Disney owns the world, but there was actually a precarious decade or more when the studio was more off-the-charts than Hans Reinhardt’s “Cygnus.”

I hope you’ll join us for another lively discussion, in many ways launching off of last week’s autopsy of “Starcrash” (1978). John Barry wrote the music for both.

“Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” will be live-streamed this Friday at 7 p.m. EDT. For more information, follow the link.

https://www.facebook.com/events/649274212291005/

PLEASE NOTE: On Sunday, Roy’s guest will be Nick Tate, who will return to share more behind-the-scenes stories about his time on the classic TV series “Space: 1999.” Sunday’s show will air at a special time, 4 p.m. EDT.

June 11, 2020
Starcrash John Barry & Bond’s B-Movie Secret

How did John Barry, longtime composer for James Bond and already the recipient of three Academy Awards (two for “Born Free” and one for “The Lion in Winter”), come to write the music for “Starcrash?”

That’s among the topics that Roy Bjellquist and I will address this evening, as we dissect every aspect of this opportunistic B-movie, hastily assembled in Italy to surf the coattails of “Star Wars.”

I’ll be guest co-host on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” We’ll offer insights into how a movie that features the talents of Barry, Joe Spinell (Willie Cicci from “The Godfather”), and Christopher Plummer could be so blooming bad – and yet so guiltily entertaining.

Even if you don’t know the movie, or think you don’t care, if you’ve got any nostalgia for the pop culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s, you won’t want to miss our commentary, which will be sure to touch on Dario Argento, James Bond, Ray Harryhausen, Lou Ferrigno, Lite-Brite, and “Baby, Baby, Fallin’ in Love.”

It would be a sin to miss our reflections on Sinbad, or Caroline Munro’s space bikini, or David Hasselhoff’s eyeliner. I hope you’ll join us for “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner,” tonight (Sunday) at 7 p.m. EDT, live-streamed on his Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/roytiediescificorner/?tn-str=k*F

June 7, 2020

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