Kind of Watching It DVD's: The Final Comedown

I had the great fortune to view a genre-classic, 1972's action moving picture, the Final Comedown. This movie had Billy Dee Williams playing one Jimmy Johnson, an angry young man who wants to fight the system. Indeed! Unlike a bunch of similar characters, Jimmy wasn't about speechifying and crying, he was all about firepower. Getting the most of his ire were the cops. Those pigs, as they were called back then. The Final Comedown doesn't start like a regular movie, it just drops you into the action. What was this action? Jimmy getting it on with one of his old ladies. He wasn't the romantic however, his idea of post-coital chatter was his "It's a Black Thing" speech, with insults about white folks on the side. Wow, he's a real charmer.

Most of this movie is so scatter-shot, it's difficult to understand. What is clear, is pretty simple: Jimmy and a bunch of vague revolutionaries are planning a war against the police in the neighborhood. Helping Johnson is a character played by D'Urville Martin, a fixture in '70s action films. Not surprisingly Jimmy's mom doesn't like this kind of back talk/sass mouth. His mother (well played by Maidie Norman) was a veritable hemming and hawing machine, hand-wringing, etc. And you know what else (spoiler alert) they had her in the little ol' alley where Jimmy was bleeding out. Sadz...This movie was filled with folks letting off rounds. The cops got dusted off in short order and so did Jimmy's cohorts. (Jason chokes back a sob thinking about it all.)



What's Odd About This Movie: A lot apparently. One different thing here was having white college kids help out with the struggle. The Final Comedown had a brother-sister characters that were friends with Jimmy.Johnson had philosophical conversations with the brother and was sleeping with the sister.
Aww, that's sweet.


What, What?: Believe it or not, this barker was re-edited and re-released in 1976 as Blast. I've got this version too (shocker). The plot is all but turned upside down and it is even more difficult to follow. Fail!

<---- The Final Comedown/Blast has certainly made the low-budget, reissued/dollar bin rounds for years. Here's some interesting box art. Safe to say, Billy Dee Williams didn't look like this and wasn't 45 when this movie was filmed. This box is a liar, and I'm outraged!

Grade **1/2  The half star is for that groovy Grant Green soundtrack.

The Talk

I had to tear myself away from Dr. Oz and his Rorschach/Poop Test to watch a train wreck. But first I had a plaintive question and it was simple: Where's Dr. Ben Harris, John Dixon, Jack n' Carly, Fake Lily and Fake Craig? They're nowhere. As the World Turns has been canceled for this, this, oh god whatever it is....


The problems with this show are many not few. The View is not only a reference point but a guiding principle. The Talk's set looks like upchucked old View sets from years gone by. By the same token this looks like an ABC product, not a CBS show. Nice. The "hosts" here are a problem too. You've got Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson-Peete, Sara Gilbert, Leah Remini and Marissa Jaret Winkour. Oh really? All six? Thrilling. That's a whole team of chatter and guess what? Zero chemistry. Zero. It's all fake, canned and didn't Sharon Osbourne hate Holly Robinson on the Apprentice? I thought so too.


It was hard for me to keep my lunch down after hearing snippets of Leah Remini's unfunny stories. Even worse? Julie Chen and Holly Robinson-Peete gabbing about their old men. We even got clips of family members wishing the hosts well. The worst being the always revolting Les Moonves. Disgusting. You know he canceled As the World Turns with such glee. But that's not all...


 Through my tears of agony I saw Christine Brinkley appear as the first guest. What's she promoting? Not a damned thing apparently. She was talking foolishness about her daughter ("She doesn't look like me?!) No kiddin'. I'm sure her daughter appreciated that and chatter about her suicide attempt to boot! God.. Sadly I'd like to say I watched the whole thing but I didn't. By 2:50 I was back watching Dr. Oz scare people in the nicest language ever.

 Why This Didn't Work: Take a look at the pic, there's nothing here to work. What made the original View work was the differences of life experience of the hosts. Most were known and successful in their field. Some of these the Talk ladies, (god bless them) are actually teetering on has-been dom, hard and fast.


It's a Show About Nothing: The early View had a purpose, shows like the Talk, the Other Half, Life and Style--don't. Even the soul-numbing, excruciating, The Doctors has some reason to exist. This show only exists because The View does, plain and simple.

 Grade **


















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Episode Review: Sanford and Son: The Merger

You know, I find it a privilege to watch these classic episodes in a world filled with poo-poo like Lone Star, Knight Rider II and that other show I can't think of. I was filled with trepidation watching this Sanford and Son episode from 1974. See, I like Julio and I like Lamont and Fred. How would they work together? I sobbed, did a gut check and then decided to watch the aforementioned episode.

The setup here was so-sitcomy. Both Lamont and Julio had grueling weeks in the junk business. Lamont has a brainstorm (first one) and decides to tear down the rickety old fence that separated the yards and make their two failing business into just one. Fred of course wasn't for it. The writers didn't give him much funny to say, except for this line about Rollo and a porn movie (probably unscripted, even Demond Wilson laughed) and that was it.

Not surprisingly, Julio (Gregory Sierra) had a lot of screen time in this. You know what? Julio is fine in small doses, but a whole lot of him could be tiresome. They wrote him so whiny in this. He did have the bright idea to have Sanford and Fuentes (rolls eyes) to make a tacky late night commercial, you know to play during those Ida Lupino movies. Fred, Lamont and Julio all filmed the commercial and of course chaos ensued. Hee hi hee hi hoo hoo, cough cough.

Things Learned: This episode had a lot of promise but ultimately fell into mediocrity. We did learn the big lesson that friends shouldn't be business partners. Julio and the Sanford's sure shouldn't have been.

More Stuff: Gregory Sierra, Julio, left the show during the 74-75 season to be Chano on Barney Miller. He then left Barney Miller to be on a show-lived ABC show A.E.S. Hudson Street. Julio's house was where the Sanford Arms took place.