| MOTEL HELL --------------------------------- The 80's were a crazy time, big hairdo's, big rings, big glasses and big movies. Of course the 80's had alot of other things that were not rated quite so big, a few movies that didn't make the critic's "A" list. I however thought that Motel Hell should have made the "A" list and the "B" list too! 1980 released this movie with director Kevin Conner behind the wheel. It starred Rory Calhoun as Farmer Vincent, a rather crotchety old bastard who runs the only motel in the small town. Paul Linke plays the dopey sherriff who lusts after any woman he sees. Of course the dope has no clue what else Farmer Vincent is running. John Ratzenberger(Cheers) got his start in this movie as a vegg-head who was "planted" quite literally by the old farmer and his assistant(Nancy Parsons) in crime. You see "It takes all sorts of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters" is the old man's slogan. Everyone within 100 miles or more has become quite addicted to Farmer Vincent's meats, he smokes them just right. But not before he feeds them good and fat in his own private garden and then slaughters them for his meat product. The movie has a good cast, and although it may be dark in comedy, it is a good little fun movie that will keep you laughing. Nancy Parsons has played in several movies, her more famous being "Porky's" Wolfman Jack also makes an appearance as Reverand Billy. Nina Axlerod plays a pretty young victim whom Farmer Vincent takes too and refuses to kill for food. Everyone else must of course die. The clever thing in this movie was that the orginal title of the inn Farmer Vincent ran was called Motel Hello, but the "O" mysteriously fell off and it was left as Motel Hell. Very ingenius |
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| The Halloween Knight |
| MISERY ------------------------- It is no secret that I think Kathy Bates is a tremendous actress and deserves as many awards as her hot little hands can carry. She was remarkable in this movie, as was James Caan who plays a romance author who is injured in a car accident on his way to a resort hotel in Colorado to relax and get away from it all. Bates plays his "Number one fan" who also has to be the only living psycho on the mountain. She kidnaps Caan and takes him to her home which she quickly adapts for his needs...as well as hers. There is a particularly disturbing scene where she takes a sledgehammer and breaks his ankles. That scene still hurts me to this day. All she wants is for Caan to rewrite a scene in which his character of the book "Misery" was killed off...when he refuses or won't write it the way Bates wants..something bad happens. I would say that the movie is far better than the novel by Stephen King, and the credit goes to Kathy Bates who desrvingly won the highest award given by the Academy of Movie awards. Her character was so believable, Bates as always in this Ghostmaster's opinion played her part and gave new life to that role. There are few other actresses that could have played her role and made it so believable. Great job and many applauses to Kathy Bates |
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