Movie-A-Day #110: Reefer Madness (1936).
Hey duuuuudes…. Today’s April 20. Good ol’ 4/20, know what I’m sayin’? It’s a good day to pop in a little “Reefer Madness”… maybe right around 4:20 p.m…. the grab some snacks and paaar-taay! Do it, dude. It’ll be awesome!
Movie-A-Day #109: The Simpsons Movie (2007).
Matt Groening’s “The Simpsons” debuted on this day in 1987 as a series of short interstitial cartoons on “The Tracey Ullman Show.” Not a bad step up for the guy whose main career was drawing the wonderful “Life in Hell” comic strip. But it turns out there would be more to come, much more. Two-and-a-half years later “The Simpsons” was spun off and expanded to a half-hour sitcom, and since then it as become the longest running animated series and the longest-running prime time show in American television history. And it even spawned “The Simpsons Movie.” And it’s not over yet. “The Simpsons” may well be the definitive American television series.
Movie(s)-A-Day #108: The Ten Commandments (1923, 1956).
Pesach (Passover) begins tonight for our Jewish brothers and sisters. As I kid, I remember one of our local TV stations always making a point of running “The Ten Commandments” every year on Easter. While Charleton Heston makes a memorable Moses, I never really understood what made it an Easter movie when it was clearly about the Passover story. 
Maybe because Cecil B. DeMille had such a wide Christian streak running through his work. Anyway, both of his versions of “The Ten Commandments,” from 1923 and 1956, are worth revisiting and comparing.
Movie-A-Day #107: The Bat People (1974).
Today is Bat Appreciation Day. But what about people who get bitten by rabid bats and then turn into bats themselves, like in the thoroughly depressing ’70s schlockfest “The Bat People”? Don’t they deserve love too? I actually saw this movie on TV as a kid and I still vividly recall being creeped out by the final scene in which all the bats splat themselves onto the car windshield. I didn’t know the name of the movie or anything else about it until I watched it again as an adult and was surprised to find that the scene I remembered so well was there.
Movie-A-Day #106: High Fidelity (2000).
The new world of digital music has given us a lot of gifts – especially the ease of buying and sharing, more portability and the ability of aspiring performers to get their work out to a wider audience than ever before. But those improvements have come at a great cost – the decline of the traditional record store. Nothing has arisen to replace the rush of thumbing through the stacks music, exploring new sounds and holding the physical products in your hands. But that world is not gone completely. Although chain record stores bit the dust years ago, there are still plenty of local, independent shops out there that are keeping the scene alive. Today is Record Store Day, when stores across the country offer special deals, live performances and other celebrations of the joy of music. There’s even a site to help you find your local record shop, guaranteed to be filled with folks just like the guys in “High Fidelity” who are smart, passionate and excited to help you find just the right sounds to make your life even more awesome.
Desuko Movie Spot. 