Beach Shadow – Birthday #2 Celebrating Rewatching: Cobra, Being Evel, Heavy Metal

On our birthday it’s one day we should get to do whatever we want (within reason, of course) every year. Me? I like rewatching movies.

Before getting to what I’m rewatching for this birthday (which isn’t my second ever birthday, of course, but it does have a “2” in it, anyway lol), I learned on Sunday that another Libra, Gwyneth Paltrow shared a pic in her birthday suit on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

In nothing but my birthday suit today… thank you all so much for the birthday wishes and thank you to @goop ‘s insanely amazing brand new body butter for making me think I can still get my kit off. 💙 #goopgenes

A post shared by Gwyneth Paltrow (@gwynethpaltrow) on Sep 27, 2020 at 12:00pm PDT

Sorry, my shadowy beach pic is going to have to do so as not to scare off readers. My pic wasn’t taken on my birthday either, but rather from our most recent Lincoln City, Oregon beach trip. Took some other pictures of the ocean tide hitting rocks.

Lincoln City, Oregon – near the Chinook Winds Casino

I’ve had this killer anthology story series idea in my head for years involving the ocean — something I haven’t seen done before — maybe before I exit this plane of existence, I’ll write it down. Unless some other creative type thinks of it first 😉

Survivor has a song called “Oceans’ that I took a few minutes and re-listened to. It’s on Spotify, Youtube, etc. Look it up and give it a listen. How that song never became a hit like “High on You” is a shame, but Survivor had pretty much come and gone with the Rocky movies being their high point. Fantastic lyrics, epic singing from Jimi Jamion (R.I.P).

Oceans surround us
stand and watch as they disappear
to challenge the rising tide
or drown in a sea of tears

lyrics from “Oceans” by Survivor album When Seconds Count

Anyway, movies. That’s what we’re here for, right? What am I rewatching on my birthday?

Some movies I enjoy rewatching are not amazing cinematic achievements, some aren’t even reviewed highly by me, but all chosen to rewatch have a special place in my heart. They bring back fond memories and, in the end, what else matters?

Did this last year, in case you want to catch the inaugural episode here: 3 Movies Reviews For My Birthday: Ready Player One, JFK, Westworld

Cobra ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (1986) – owned digitally

There’s something catchy about this 80s movie that was universally panned on release. Maybe it’s Stallone starring opposite a jean clad Bridget Nielson, or driving around in the 1950 Mercury running down scumbags, or maybe it’s that toothpick in the side of his mouth. Some great lines like, “You’re the disease, I’m the cure.”

Psycho grocery thug: “I’ve got a bomb! I’m going to blow this place up!”
Cobra, “Go ahead, I don’t shop here.”

Am not saying this is some great cinematic achievement, but it’s pure 80s cheese and I love it. Will there ever be a Cobra sequel? Time has been kind, and there have been calls for a sequel from fans, so never know.

Let’s not forget Stallone’s love for Robert Tepper music and the title song, “Angel of the City”

Tepper’s music most famously was used in Rocky IV with “No Easy Way Out”
see: Rocky 4 Director’s Cut Will Not Have Paulie’s Funky Robot

In the 80s Stallone favored the music of Survivor and Robert Tepper in several films.

Being Evel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – available on Peacock and Roku channel as of this writing

As far as badass daredevils go, Evel Knievel is the one who started it all. He survived some epic crashes like when he failed to clear the Caesar’s Palace fountains. Just rewatching that footage is epic.

Johnny Knoxville, “It’s a crazy ass story. It’s just fast, faster and disaster.”

The story is tragic and will make you actually dislike Evel Knievel and yet you’ll be fascinated by his epic rise and fall, as well as how he defied death with some truly crazy stunts.

Heavy Metal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ – owned digitally

This was the first adult animated movie I remember seeing. 1981, the start of the 80s, too, based on a magazine that still exists today. The bizarre opening scene of a car that comes out of the bottom of a spaceship and descends to earth, with an astronaut delivering a glowing green orb of horror, the loc-nar to earth.

Gaze upon the loc-nar and … be sorry forever

A series of stories, some are very good, but the loc-nar runs through all of them. I hadn’t seen this movie in 35+ years until last year when Harley Quinn reminded me of the world of adult animated films. I had to track this down and rewatch and it’s a perfect rewatch for this special day.

An awesome collection of hard rocking tunes … check this out for the music, too!

As for the music. 80s hard rock fans will be challenged to find any other animated film with a soundtrack as good. My favorite track is probably Blue Oyster Cult’s “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” That is featured in the very first story. Took me down an entire BOC trek musically.