DAILY CALL SHEET: AUGUST 13, 2025

 

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) Poor Sinbad. The princess he intends to marry calls off the wedding until the legendary sailor can find a cure for her brother the prince, who has been turned into a baboon by their wicked step-monster. Since the princess is Jane Seymour, Sinbad quickly agrees to the mission, but his efforts are hindered by ghouls, a giant walrus, a mechanical minotaur, and a saber-toothed tiger. Fortunately , Sinbad gets a little help from a one-horned troglodyte helpfully named Trog (no relation to Joan Crawford's pal). Arguably the least of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad movies, but it's still Harryhausen so that's like saying it's the least donut out of a dozen Krispy Kremes.

TIL: Though nobody knows exactly where the original stories of Sinbad came from, once they were added to the One Thousand and One Nights near the end of the Islamic Golden Age, the Sinbad stories spread worldwide. One of the odd places they showed up was in a 17th century manuscript written by a monk of the Syriac Orthodox Church at Saint George in Aleppo. Along with various prayers, homilies, and a noncanonical version of the Apocalypse of Peter is the complete Seven Voyages of Sinbad. Weird, but as Dr. David Calabro notes, "Rather than propounding a specific religious doctrine, most Arabian Nights tales either teach general moral values or aim simply to entertain. Thus, they flow easily between religious traditions."

In the Mouth of Madness (1994) Insurance investigator John Trent is hired to track down Sutter Cane, an uber-popular writer whose books are beginning to outsell the Bible. As the search for the missing Cane intensifies, the super-skeptical Trent is horrified to discover that reality is starting to merge with Cane's Lovecraftian fiction, a result of the sheer number of people who choose to believe in the author's work. As society crumbles and insanity rules, Trent begins to worry that even he might be just another one of Cane's creations. Almost anything John Carpenter is fun (yes, even some parts of Memoirs of an Invisible Man), but most fans rightfully consider In the Mouth of Madness to be the last of his truly great theatrical releases, due in no small part to Sam Neill's completely committed performance.

TIL: It's a well-worn trope in fiction that God (or anything else for that matter) only has any real power because people believe in Him, and should enough folks cease to believe, then God (or whatever) would be powerless. Some even try to claim this is biblical, pointing to Mark 6 where it says Jesus couldn't perform many 'deeds of power' in his hometown of Nazareth because there was little belief to be found there. Alas, that interpretation, which basically make humans the real God, is wishful thinking. In the Bible, Jesus has the power to heal anyone regardless of their belief, but he never coerces anyone into being healed. Instead, those who seek such from the Lord submit to healing willingly, while those who reject Him are allowed to go their own way. It's the same way as when God offers his love, but allows people the choice to reject it and be separated from it for eternity.