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Bill Byrge, a mainstay of the Ernest movies who played the lovably quirky and virtually mute character of Bobby, has died. He was 86.

As Bobby, Bill Byrge was most memorable alongside Gailard Sartain’s Chuck, who put himself in the position of leader of the duo even though both were hilariously inept. Byrge really got his start with Sartain in ads, working for the Nashville-based company who was also producing the Ernest P. Worrell series of commercials.

With that, Bill Byrge got his first onscreen credit in Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam. But it would be Ernest Saves Christmas that he and Sartain broke out as the oddball brothers Bobby and Chuck, who have the duty of interpreting packages that contain helper elves (or is it elmes?). Outside of the short-lived series Hey Vern, It’s Ernest!, their other most notable pairing together was in Ernest Goes to Jail...

Bill Byrge, who showed up as the quiet but feisty Bobby on a kids TV show and in four of the goofy Ernest comedies that starred Jim Varney, has died. He was 86.

Byrge died Thursday in the Nashville area, according to a Facebook post from his friend John Ward, host of the web series The Appalachian Channel.

The rubber-faced Varney made his debut as Ernest P. Worrell, a dim-witted Southerner with an unseen neighbor named Vern, in local commercials for a Nashville advertising agency starting in 1980.

Byrge appeared as a gas station attendant when Varney portrayed Ernest and other characters in the horror spoof Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam (1985), and on the 1988 Saturday morning CBS kids show Hey, Vern, It’s Ernest!, he was Bobby alongside Gailard Sartain as Chuck in a brother shtick.

Byrge returned with Sartain as airport workers in Ernest Saves Christmas (1988) and as...

Bill Byrge, a comedian and actor known for his appearances alongside Jim Varney in various “Ernest” projects, has died at the age of 92. Byrge’s cousin Sharon Chapman confirmed the news on Facebook.

“He was a beautiful soul who made people laugh without even trying. He was the ‘Bobby’ character in several ‘Ernest’ movies with Jim Varney. I always teased him of being a ‘star’ in our family,” she shared on Thursday. “He deserved it as raised poor, but his momma taught him love, respect and faith, which he showed to everyone. Heaven gained a sweet soul today.”

Byrge was born in Campbell County, Tennessee, in 1932. He first appeared in “Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam,” the very first “Ernest” movie, starring Varney and directed by their longtime collaborator John Cherry. Byrge appeared as a gas station attendant.

In 1986, he starred in a series of commercials with...

Even in its most buoyant moments, Stephen Frears’s The Grifters retains a palpable, stifling air of desperation and moral rot. The trio of grifters at the center of the 1990 crime thriller are introduced via a visual triptych, in which each of them are donning designer sunglasses and a slick outfit as they ready themselves for their respective cons. But despite their suave appearances, these schemers—Lilly (Anjelica Huston), Roy (John Cuscack), and Myra (Annette Bening)—aren’t living large.

There are no obscenely rich marks, no luxurious locales, no big score that’ll allow them to sail off into the sunset. No, while Lilly skims a little off the top of her employer’s winnings at a horse racetrack, Roy heads to a dive bar for a money swap that nets him a whopping $10 and Myra seduces a jewelry shop owner. Roy later works a similar scam that earns...

Sylvester Stallone has made a name for himself as one of the greatest action movie stars of all time, but plenty of highly underrated entries in his filmography need more attention. While Stallone will always be known for characters like Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, hes far from the kind of one-dimensional performer hes sometimes made out to be. Throughout his career, Stallone surprised viewers with incredible performances in heartfelt dramas, screwball comedies, and intense neo-noir thrillers.

Many of the best Sylvester Stallone movies have become touchstones in modern popular culture, while other fantastic films have been doomed to obscurity. While some maligned movies, such as comedies like Oscar, have failed to gain the reappraisal they so rightfully deserve, other underrated entries have been recognized by cinephiles yet remain woefully unknown by mainstream audiences. Across his vast and varied catalog, there were plenty of underrated Stallone movies that viewers should give a second chance.

Every once in a while a movie makes me think, ‘this one’s too good to review, just tell them to see it and they’ll understand.’ John Cusack is a penny-ante small stakes cheat, his girlfriend Annette Bening hooks on the side while seeking a partner for ‘long cons,’ and his mother is an operative for the Mob, placing large bets at the race track to manipulate the odds on select horses. Each worships the ‘left-handed form of human endeavor’ and depends on it to the degree that human trust just can’t be maintained. Paramount’s plain wrap re-issue touts the film’s four Oscar nominations; the Stephen Frears film is the best adaptation yet of a Jim Thompson crime novel.

The Grifters

Blu-ray + Digital

Paramount

1990 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date July 27, 2021 / 13.99

Starring: John Cusack, Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening, Pat Hingle, J.T. Walsh, Noelle Harling, Charles Napier,...

Varèse Sarabande Records has released The Buddy Holly Story: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to digital streaming for the first time ever, unveiling a deluxe edition of the soundtrack to the 1978 biopic on Friday.

The deluxe soundtrack contains 11 never-before-heard tracks, expanding the album to 22 songs in total. The additional songs include many of the performances featured in the film, such as “That’ll Be the Day,” “Mockingbird Hill” and “Tennessee Waltz” performed by Gary Busey (as Buddy Holly), “Chantilly Lace” performed by Gailard Sartain (as the Big Bopper), and “You Send Me...

Movies about the blacklist aren’t common, probably because as Robert Vaughn wrote, the period produced no happy stories, ‘Only Victims.’ Robert de Niro, Annette Bening and George Wendt give a bite of immediacy to the way the blacklist upset careers and blighted lives. Few of us would like to be publicly branded an Enemy of the People, but doing so seems to be America’s number one spectator sport.

Guilty by Suspicion

DVD

The Warner Archive Collection

1991 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date May 12, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 17.99

Starring: Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig, Sam Wanamaker, Luke Edwards, Chris Cooper, Ben Piazza, Martin Scorsese, Barry Primus, Gailard Sartain, Robin Gammell, Brad Sullivan, Tom Sizemore, Stuart Margolin, Gene Kirkwood, Illeana Douglas, Adam Baldwin.

Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus

Film Editor: Priscilla Nedd

Original Music: James Newton Howard

Uncredited writer: Abraham Polonsky

Produced by Arnon Milchan

Written and...

It’s hard to know much exaggeration is used in movies about crazy Suth’un politics, when some of the serious movies resemble Julius Caesar with mint juleps. This true story is about an old-school populist Louisiana governor who falls for a nationally-known stripper, the famous Blaze Starr, and is told from the stripper’s Pov. Paul Newman is at his late-career best, and Lolita Davidovich lights up the screen. The governor can get away with most anything except what he wants to do most — pass some color-blind laws about hiring and voting.

Blaze

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1989 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date April 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Paul Newman, Lolita Davidovich, Jerry Hardin, Gailard Sartain, Richard Jenkins, Jeffrey DeMunn, Robert Wuhl, Garland Bunting, Brandon Smith.

Cinematography: Haskell Wexler

Film Editor: Robert Leighton

Original Music: Bennie Wallace

From the book Blaze Starr: My Life as Told to Huey...

Rank the week of August 23rd’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Blitz

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #9439

Win Percentage: 51%

Times Ranked: 215

Top-20 Rankings: 5

Directed By: Elliott Lester

Starring: Jason Statham • Paddy Considine • Aidan Gillen • Zawe Ashton • David Morrissey

Genres: Crime • Crime Thriller • Police Detective Film • Thriller

Rank This Movie

The Beaver

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #5199

Win Percentage: 52%

Times Ranked: 858

Top-20 Rankings: 6

Directed By: Jodie Foster

Starring: Mel Gibson • Jodie Foster • Anton Yelchin • Jennifer Lawrence • Zachary Booth

Genres: Comedy Drama • Drama • Psychological Drama

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Win Win

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2107

Win Percentage: 61%

Times Ranked: 2455

Top-20 Rankings: 6

Directed By: Thomas McCarthy

Starring: Paul Giamatti • Amy Ryan • Bobby Cannavale • Jeffrey Tambor • Burt Young

Genres: Comedy Drama • Drama • Sports Comedy • Sports Drama

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The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #5643

Win Percentage: 49%

Times Ranked: 725

Top-20 Rankings:...

An anecdotal film that settles for being gently sad, sweet and uplifting, ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' plants tantalizing hints around its periphery of subjects amd relationships that are intriguing and touchy. However, it backs off those potential controversies and relies on its talented female cast to save it from the generic routine of blighted Southern blossoms.

They do so often enough that this saga of Alabama womanhood could turn into a satisfactory performer with longlasting boxoffice wind.

The action unfolds as a series of flashbacks narrated to overweight and emotionally cowed housewife Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) by Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), an elderly stranger Evelyn accidently meets on a family visit to a nursing home. The lonely Ninny, who insists she's at the home just to look after a friend, immediately sizes up the unhappy Evelyn, and begins telling her tales of her youth in the local countryside back in the '20s and '30s.

These stories focus on the friendship between Idgie Threadgoode Mary Stuart Masterson), a devoted tomboy, and Ruth Jamison (Mary-Louise Parker), a classic good girl who is initially presented to Idgie as an example of proper femininity. However, no sooner do they meet than it is Idgie who is transforming Ruth, first bringing out her new friend's assertiveness and eventually rescuing her from an unhappy marriage and going partners with her on a trainstop restaurant, the Whistlestop Cafe (which is where the fried green tomatoes come in).

As Ninny relates these vignettes of independent womanhood, Evelyn is slowly inspired to take more control of her own life. The shy housewife wends her way through a series of trendy self-actualization fads that perturb her corpulent husband Ed (Gailard Sartain) and provide the film with broad comedy, until, by film's end, she is ready to confront life on her own terms.

The Idgie-Ruth portions are both more emotional and much darker, with accidental deaths, domestic violence, retaliatory murder and the like adorning a story of romantic friendship. Just how romantic is not clear, since the relationship between the mannishly dressed Idgie and the excessively feminine Ruth suddenly veers away from a sexual component it seems to be heading for early on.

Director Jon Avnet, who has lingered on an affectionate kiss or a clasped hand, becomes more and more perfunctory with the scenes between the two, waiting until the very end to reveal the two have separate sleeping quarters.

The film's strengths are mostly in its screenplay (by director Avnet and Fannie Flagg, who wrote the source novel) and performances, particularly from Tandy, who provides the film's moral center with soothing effervescence.

Cicely Tyson, as a family employee in the Idgie-Ruth sections, is briefly memorable but shunted to the foreground only when dramatically required, a treatment symptomatic of the film's uncertain handling of its supporting chracters; Big George (Stan Shaw), another important black character, as well as Grady Kilgore (Gary Basarba), a local lout who undergoes a major transformation into a nice-guy sheriff, are relegated to mere plot utility, despite their putative importance.

Cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson has lent the film a nice burnished quality, although someone has decided to make Masterson look like a figure in a shampoo ad every time she comes into range, her golden locks and fresh-scrubbed looks making for a peculiarly well turned-out scamp.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

Universal

Director Jon Avnet

Producers Jon Avnet, Jordan Kerner

Screenplay Fannie Flagg, Jon Avnet

Based on the novel ''Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe'' by Fannie Flagg

Director of photography Geoffrey Simpson, A.C.S.

Production designer Barbara Ling

Editor Debra Neil

Music Thomas Newman

Casting David Rubin, C.S.A.

Color/Dolby

Cast:

Evelyn Couch Kathy Bates

Idgie Threadgoode Mary Stuart Masterson

Ruth Jamison Mary-Louise Parker

Ninny Threadgoode Jessica Tandy

Sipsey Cicely Tyson

Big George Stan Shaw

Ed Couch Gailard Sartain

Running time -- 130 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13

(c) The Hollywood Reporter...