Inspired by the inspired casting of cult acting legend Bruce Campbell (The EVIL DEAD MOVIES) as Elvis Presley in BUBBA HO TEP (2002) (to be released on DVD on May 25th) we thought it would be fun to take a look at :
ELVIS IMPERSONATION ON SCREEN
THE FILM BABBLE BLOG PICKS THE TOP TEN
PRETENDERS TO THE CROWN
1. KURT RUSSELL – Starred in the made for TV ELVIS – THE MOVIE in 1978 and also voiced Presley in FORREST GUMP. His uncanny likeness to the King was further utilised when he played an Elvis impersonator in 3000 MILES TO GRACELAND. Also amazingly his first feature film role when he was only a child was in an Elvis movie - IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD'S FAIR (1963) The best Elvis on this list for sure.
The second would have to be:
2. MICHAEL ST. GERALD – He played Elvis in the unfortunately lame as Hell Jerry Lee Lewis bio-pick GREAT BALLS OF FIRE but he had better material and a more respectful forum in the sinfully short-lived ELVIS TV series (1990).
3. NICHOLAS CAGE – Never played Elvis on film but appeared as Tiny Elvis on Saturday Night Live in 1992, disguised himself as a sky-diving Elvis impersonator in HONEYMOON IN VEGAS, was a curled lipped Elvis fanatic in David Linch’s WILD AT HEART, and he was briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley. Whew!
4. ANDY KAUFMAN – Only on stage and SNL did Kaufman do his full blown Elvis impression but he’s one of a kind on this list because he was approved by the King as his own favorite impersonator. When in MAN ON THE MOON (2000) Jim Carrey did Andy doing Elvis I heard that somewhere in the cosmos John Belushi's caller ID exploded. I have no idea what that means.
5. VAL KILMER – Not content with having nailed the Lizard King Kilmer inhabited the ghost of the real King who counsels Christian Slater in TRUE ROMANCE (1992)
6. DAVID KEITH – Awful unconvincing portrayal in the awful unconvincing HEARTBREAK HOTEL A severely misguided attempt to theorize that Elvis’s last sad years in Vegas could have been turned around by idealistic teenager who kidnaps him as a gift for his depressed mother Tuesday Weld. Weld was actually in a movie with the King – WILD IN THE COUNTRY but I digress.
7. DON JOHNSON – What the…?!!? Yep in the awful 1981 TV movie ELVIS AND THE BEAUTY QUEEN, stubbled, sockless, pink tee shirt wearing Miami Vice superstar was the worst Elvis on this list. I’m still trying to deal.
8. DALE MIDKIFF – Who?!!? I dunno, just a guy who played the King in ELVIS AND ME another bad Elvis made for TV movie based on Priscillia’s book of the same name. Shame shame shame.
9. RICK PETERS – Any Elvis impersonator would be doomed in the lowbrow made for cable ELVIS MEETS NIXON (1997) but this guy doesn’t cut it at all.
10. STEPHEN JONES – Just for a haunting moment in Jim Jarmusch’s MYSTERY TRAIN Elvis’s ghost appears to Nicoletta Braschi giving this execellent movie another layer in it’s depiction of late 80’s Memphis. Also in the same movie the late great Joe Strummer spouts:
“Don't call me Elvis! If you can't use my proper name, why don't you try "Carl Perkins, Jr." or something? I mean, I don't call them "Sam & Dave", do I?”
Well that’s all for film babble for now. Until next time:
ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING
is the Green Art Nail
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Monday, April 26, 2004
More DVD Delights & DVD Disses
Hey folks, good to see ya. We all had fun at the Hi Mom! Film Festival last weekend and have been plowing through the new DVD set of Werner Herzog flicks (AGUIRRE : THE WRATH OF GOD has never looked better!), trying to figure out exactly why lame remakes of '70's and '80's teen movies (FREAKY FRIDAY, BIG, and CAN'T BUY ME LOVE respectively) like 13 GOING ON 30 and LOVE DON'T COST A THING all rake in piles of Benjamins, and we're all weirded all by the fact that movies actually have titles like WIN A DATE WITH TAD HAMILTON and MAN ON FIRE (mainly because that one will prompt prank calls to us video store clerks - "do you have Man On Fire? Well you better put him out!")
DVD DELIGHTS
BIG FISH (2003) Dir. Tim Burton. While this movie is being touted in the trailers as "from the imagination of Tim Burton" it should be noted that it was adapted from the book by Chapel Hill native Daniel Wallace by screenwriter John August and it was originally developed as a project by Steven Spielberg. Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) amuses everyone with his elaborate tall tales except for his son Will (Billy Crudup). As his father is most certainly on his death bed Will would like some truth for once and attempts to sort out the reality from the fantasy. Apart from the storybook fantasy sequences one of the best things the movie has going for it is the casting of Ewan McGregor as the young Edward - which is particularly effecgtive because McGregor looks almost exactly like Finney did when younger - take a look at TOM JONES (1963) if you don't believe me.
What keeps this movie from truly being a classic is some of the hazy plot threads and seemingly after-thought characters. Poet Norther Winslow (Steve Buscemi) seems like he was created just for a reason for Buscemi to lend his punchy prescence, Helen Bonham Carter plays 2 underdeveloped roles which may be the same character - I'm not sure, and the choice of a unaffecting Pearl Jam song to end the proceedings with doesn't help either. That said this is still a fine film and only persnickety film geeks like me would harp on such matters. The real emotion displayed here (especially in the last half hour) wins over even the most cynical critic and I have a distinct feeling that time will be good to this elaborate tall tale. Danny Devito, Jessica Lange, and Robert Gulliaume round out the cast.
EXTRAS - A disapointing commentary in which Burton is interviewed by some British guy who wrote a book on Burton (Burton On Burton) on top of the movie instead of a prefered straight Burton talking directly about the action on screeen nevertheless provides some insights but the featurettes are pretty inessential and the trivia game is...well I didn't even check it out, I mean who puts a DVD in the player to play some damn trivia game?!!? I sure as Hell don't.
- Daniel Cook Johnson (film babble blog editor)
THE COOLER (2003) Dir. Wayne Kramer. William H. Macy puts in another sturdy performance as Bernie Lootz - the unluckiest man in Las Vegas whose actually made a career out of his losing streak. You see a Shangra La casino owner named Shelly (Alec Baldwin) employees Macy to simply approach gamblers who are on a winning roll and his prescence alone will sour their game. "A cooler?" a slick corporate Ron Livingston breathing down Shelly's neck questions his old fashioned methods. Seems to be a good solid system until Lootz falls in love with a friendly waitress played by the emotionally effective actress Maria Bello and his luck changes. This enrages Shelly and he attempts to sabotage their budding romance. Good story with nice appropraite touches of humor, drama, and a thoughtful edge, THE COOLER doesn't try too hard or go too far. The sex scenes are even well done and have an unusually (unusual for the movies that is) realistic feel to them mainly because we actually believe Macy and Bello as people. Another unique element especially within a movie made up of what are normally stock elements - Shelly's hired thugs barely speak but exchange telling looks at the sticky situations and each other. Baldwin hasn't had a role as good as Shelly in years and he does it justice. Small parts by the always reliable Paul Sorvino and Ellen Greene are also nice touches in a movie filled with nice touches. Luck be a lady tonight indeed.
EXTRAS : Not much - a pre-release memo said this disc would have deleted scenes and even an alternate ending - the only thing that accompanies this flick is a Anatomy of a Scene featurette. Too bad.
DVD DISSES :
THE BIG EMPTY (2003) Dir. Steve Anderson. - The lure of doing a simple delivery job for a gigantic payoff, a carrying bag that may or may not contain a severed human head, a series of cameos from b-list actors, and an underdog wins all mentality. Sound familliar? Only if you've seen any independent movie made from 1994 to today. Jon Favreau (who should know better) is the underdog in this aptly named pointless piece of...well let's just leave it at piece. Other victums of this stable of indy film cliches are Joey Lauren Adams, Rachel Leigh Cook, Daryl Hannah, Kelsey Grammar, and even HAROLD AND MAUDE legend Bud Cort trying to give this some flavor. Nice try.
STUCK ON YOU (2003) Dir. Bobby & Peter Farrelly. Kind of like the Coen brothers without the talent...no wait more like the Zucker brothers without the laughs, the Farrelly brothers again raise tasteless unfunniness to a new level. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play a pair of Siamese twins - "we're not Siamese, we're American" one of the wall-to-wall witless lines - who decide to pursue their dreams of...oh forget it. If the Farrelly's special brand of stupid scatalogiacal humour, pointless celebrity cameos (Cher! Frankie Munz! Even Meryl Streep for Christ's sake!), uninvolving visual style, and insincere sentiment did the trick for you in such 'classics' as THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, SAY IT AIN'T SO, and SHALLOW HAL then you're in for a treat. The rest of us though - including the entire film babble blog panel - wish the Farrellys weren't so "stuck on" such immaturity and complete absence of quality material.
- Bertie Shafer
More later...
DVD DELIGHTS
BIG FISH (2003) Dir. Tim Burton. While this movie is being touted in the trailers as "from the imagination of Tim Burton" it should be noted that it was adapted from the book by Chapel Hill native Daniel Wallace by screenwriter John August and it was originally developed as a project by Steven Spielberg. Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) amuses everyone with his elaborate tall tales except for his son Will (Billy Crudup). As his father is most certainly on his death bed Will would like some truth for once and attempts to sort out the reality from the fantasy. Apart from the storybook fantasy sequences one of the best things the movie has going for it is the casting of Ewan McGregor as the young Edward - which is particularly effecgtive because McGregor looks almost exactly like Finney did when younger - take a look at TOM JONES (1963) if you don't believe me.
What keeps this movie from truly being a classic is some of the hazy plot threads and seemingly after-thought characters. Poet Norther Winslow (Steve Buscemi) seems like he was created just for a reason for Buscemi to lend his punchy prescence, Helen Bonham Carter plays 2 underdeveloped roles which may be the same character - I'm not sure, and the choice of a unaffecting Pearl Jam song to end the proceedings with doesn't help either. That said this is still a fine film and only persnickety film geeks like me would harp on such matters. The real emotion displayed here (especially in the last half hour) wins over even the most cynical critic and I have a distinct feeling that time will be good to this elaborate tall tale. Danny Devito, Jessica Lange, and Robert Gulliaume round out the cast.
EXTRAS - A disapointing commentary in which Burton is interviewed by some British guy who wrote a book on Burton (Burton On Burton) on top of the movie instead of a prefered straight Burton talking directly about the action on screeen nevertheless provides some insights but the featurettes are pretty inessential and the trivia game is...well I didn't even check it out, I mean who puts a DVD in the player to play some damn trivia game?!!? I sure as Hell don't.
- Daniel Cook Johnson (film babble blog editor)
THE COOLER (2003) Dir. Wayne Kramer. William H. Macy puts in another sturdy performance as Bernie Lootz - the unluckiest man in Las Vegas whose actually made a career out of his losing streak. You see a Shangra La casino owner named Shelly (Alec Baldwin) employees Macy to simply approach gamblers who are on a winning roll and his prescence alone will sour their game. "A cooler?" a slick corporate Ron Livingston breathing down Shelly's neck questions his old fashioned methods. Seems to be a good solid system until Lootz falls in love with a friendly waitress played by the emotionally effective actress Maria Bello and his luck changes. This enrages Shelly and he attempts to sabotage their budding romance. Good story with nice appropraite touches of humor, drama, and a thoughtful edge, THE COOLER doesn't try too hard or go too far. The sex scenes are even well done and have an unusually (unusual for the movies that is) realistic feel to them mainly because we actually believe Macy and Bello as people. Another unique element especially within a movie made up of what are normally stock elements - Shelly's hired thugs barely speak but exchange telling looks at the sticky situations and each other. Baldwin hasn't had a role as good as Shelly in years and he does it justice. Small parts by the always reliable Paul Sorvino and Ellen Greene are also nice touches in a movie filled with nice touches. Luck be a lady tonight indeed.
EXTRAS : Not much - a pre-release memo said this disc would have deleted scenes and even an alternate ending - the only thing that accompanies this flick is a Anatomy of a Scene featurette. Too bad.
DVD DISSES :
THE BIG EMPTY (2003) Dir. Steve Anderson. - The lure of doing a simple delivery job for a gigantic payoff, a carrying bag that may or may not contain a severed human head, a series of cameos from b-list actors, and an underdog wins all mentality. Sound familliar? Only if you've seen any independent movie made from 1994 to today. Jon Favreau (who should know better) is the underdog in this aptly named pointless piece of...well let's just leave it at piece. Other victums of this stable of indy film cliches are Joey Lauren Adams, Rachel Leigh Cook, Daryl Hannah, Kelsey Grammar, and even HAROLD AND MAUDE legend Bud Cort trying to give this some flavor. Nice try.
STUCK ON YOU (2003) Dir. Bobby & Peter Farrelly. Kind of like the Coen brothers without the talent...no wait more like the Zucker brothers without the laughs, the Farrelly brothers again raise tasteless unfunniness to a new level. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play a pair of Siamese twins - "we're not Siamese, we're American" one of the wall-to-wall witless lines - who decide to pursue their dreams of...oh forget it. If the Farrelly's special brand of stupid scatalogiacal humour, pointless celebrity cameos (Cher! Frankie Munz! Even Meryl Streep for Christ's sake!), uninvolving visual style, and insincere sentiment did the trick for you in such 'classics' as THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, SAY IT AIN'T SO, and SHALLOW HAL then you're in for a treat. The rest of us though - including the entire film babble blog panel - wish the Farrellys weren't so "stuck on" such immaturity and complete absence of quality material.
- Bertie Shafer
More later...
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Happy Birthday Jack Nicholson!
Today is legend Jack Nicholson’s birthday so we at film babble are celebrating with an all Jack edition.
We take a look at his latest film SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE that just dropped on DVD, fill you in on the best and worst of Jack, and of course babble AS GOOD AS IT GETS.
Let’s kick off with –
TEN GREAT JACK NICHOLSON MOVIES
1. CHINATOWN (1974)
2. ABOUT SCHMIDT (2002)
3. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)
4. FIVE EASY PIECES (1970)
5. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (1971)
6. EASY RIDER (1969)
7. THE SHINING (1980)
8. A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)
9. THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987)
10. THE LAST DETAIL 1973
FIVE GREAT JACK LINES
1. “You can’t handle the truth!” - A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)
2. “Here’s Johnny!” - THE SHINING (1980)
3. “I am the motherfuckin’ shore patrol!” - THE LAST DETAIL (1973)
4. "When GOD makes mistakes, they call it... nature. So whaddya think? Women... a mistake... or DID HE DO IT TO US ON PURPOSE?" - THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987)
5. "You ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?" - BATMAN (1989)
FIVE FAIR JACK MOVIES
1. AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997)
2. WOLF (1994)
3. THE TWO JAKES (1990)
4. MISSOURI BREAKS (1978)
5. HEARTBURN (1986)
FIVE JACK FLOPS
1. ANGER MANAGEMENT
2. BLOOD AND WINE
3. GOIN’ SOUTH
4. MAN TROUBLE
5. HOFFA
WEIRDEST JACK ROLE
TOMMY (1975)
MOST INSPIRED JACK CASTING
BATMAN (1989): The Joker? I mean, come on!
More later...
We take a look at his latest film SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE that just dropped on DVD, fill you in on the best and worst of Jack, and of course babble AS GOOD AS IT GETS.
Let’s kick off with –
TEN GREAT JACK NICHOLSON MOVIES
1. CHINATOWN (1974)
2. ABOUT SCHMIDT (2002)
3. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)
4. FIVE EASY PIECES (1970)
5. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (1971)
6. EASY RIDER (1969)
7. THE SHINING (1980)
8. A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)
9. THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987)
10. THE LAST DETAIL 1973
FIVE GREAT JACK LINES
1. “You can’t handle the truth!” - A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)
2. “Here’s Johnny!” - THE SHINING (1980)
3. “I am the motherfuckin’ shore patrol!” - THE LAST DETAIL (1973)
4. "When GOD makes mistakes, they call it... nature. So whaddya think? Women... a mistake... or DID HE DO IT TO US ON PURPOSE?" - THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987)
5. "You ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?" - BATMAN (1989)
FIVE FAIR JACK MOVIES
1. AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997)
2. WOLF (1994)
3. THE TWO JAKES (1990)
4. MISSOURI BREAKS (1978)
5. HEARTBURN (1986)
FIVE JACK FLOPS
1. ANGER MANAGEMENT
2. BLOOD AND WINE
3. GOIN’ SOUTH
4. MAN TROUBLE
5. HOFFA
WEIRDEST JACK ROLE
TOMMY (1975)
MOST INSPIRED JACK CASTING
BATMAN (1989): The Joker? I mean, come on!
More later...
Sunday, April 18, 2004
The Top 10 Sequels To Movies That Weren't Any Good In The First Place
The current theatrical release of the sequel THE WHOLE TEN YARDS has baffled critics all over. I mean did anyone really like the original THE WHOLE NINE YARDS? A search on Rottentomatoes.com confirms that the original reviews of the Bruce Willis/Matthew Perry comedy directed by Jonathan Lynn were the definition of mixed - The consensus reported was :
"Despite a charming cast, The Whole Nine Yards could only tickle half of the critics' funny bones. The other half thought it an underwelming, depressing sitcom."
The box office wasn't spectacular either - it did modestly well but was far from what you'd call a smash hit. So why the hell do we have a sequel?!!? Beats me. The idea of a sequel to a bad movie never fails to floor us here at film babble. Edward Callistan who begin his run at film babble by listing the top 100 sequels that should never have been made said "many would argue that in some cases the original movie shouldn't have been made either but that's a whole 'nuther list!" Well here's Ed with that list :
THE TOP TEN SEQUELS TO MOVIES THAT WEREN'T ANY GOOD TO BEGIN WITH
1. SCOOBY DOO 2
2. THE MUMMY RETURNS
3. LOOKING WHO'S TALKING 2
4. TOMB RAIDER 2
5. BAD BOYS 2
6. I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
7. SCARY MOVIE 2
8. 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS
9. MEATBALLS 2
10. ANALYSE THAT - Although I hated both THIS and THAT I would like them to make a third one just so they could call it GO ANALYSE YOURSELF ALREADY!
That wasn't too hard. I just had to think back to all the times I reacted to showbiz news by saying "they're making a sequel to THAT?!!?" and I was on my way.
To end on a positive note - my favorite bad sequel title ever is :
BREAKIN' 2 - ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
- Edward Callistan
More later...
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
KILL BILL VOLUMES 1 & 2
Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL VOLUME 1 was released on DVD yesterday and KILL BILL VOLUME 2 will be released in theaters Friday. So low and behold here's a special Tarantino edition of film babble blog. Hope you enjoy. Ed Callistan reviews the video release and Bertie Shafer shares with us his thoughts written right after attending a advance screening of VOLUME 2. Of course we've also got lists, links, and lotsa fun stuff to celebrate the God of film geeks everywhere.
First up -
BASIC FILMOGRAPHY AND INITIAL GUIDE TO THIS BLOG
MBFB - MY BEST FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY (1987) - Don't worry - I've never heard of it either.
RD - RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
PF - PULP FICTION (1994)
JB - JACKIE ROBERTS (1997)
KBV1 - KILL BILL VOLUME 1 (2003)
KBV2 - KILL BILL VOLUME 2 (2004)
Those are the movies Tarentino has written and directed. He has been involved in a bunch of others doing acting or writing or producing duties or all three. They are :
PAST MIDNIGHT (1992) - Associate producer.
EDDIE PRESLEY (1993) - Actor.
TRUE ROMANCE (1993)
KILLING ZOE (1994) - Executive producer.
SLEEP WITH ME (1994) - Actor.
SOMEONE TO LOVE (1994) - Actor.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) - Story credit.
CURDLED (1996) (executive producer)
FOUR ROOMS (1995) Actor, writer - the segment "The Man From Hollywood"
DESPERADO (1995) - Actor.
DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO (1995) - Actor.
FROM DUSK TO DAWN (1996) - Actor, exectuive director.
GIRL 6 (1996) - Actor.
GOD SAID, 'HA!' (1998) - Executive producer)
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2 : TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999) - Executive producer.
LITTLE NICKY (2000) - Actor.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER (2000) - Executive produceR.
IRON MONKEY (1993) (producer) (2001 release)
But those movies won't really be what this blog is about today - The famous five movies from RD to KBV2 IS what we're talking about! So let's get to it :
THE QUENTIN TARENTINO REPORTORY ROLE CALL
Lawrence Bender - RD, PF
Steve Buscemi - RD, PF
David Carradine - KBV1, KBV2
Sonny Chiba - KBV1, KBV2
Vivica A. Fox - KBV1, KBV2
Daryl Hannah - KBV1, KBV2
Samuel L. Jackson - PF, JB
Harvey Keitel - RD, PF
Lucy Liu - KBV1, KBV2
Michael Madsen - RD, KBV1, KBV2
Tim Roth - RD, PF
Quentin Tarentino - RD, PF
Uma Thurman - PF, KBV1, KBV2
TARENTINO FUN FACT FORUM
Michael Madsen's character in RD (1992) is named Vic Vega. John Travolta in PF (1994) plays Vincent Vega. According to interviews with Tarentino they are brothers. He has spoken of making a Vega brothers movie but at this rate don't hold your breath.
The criticisms of a boy club mentality of Tarantino's early work are especially valid in RD (1992) in which there just a precious few women among the cast. Literally 2 woman appear - there is a waitress overheard and seen in the opening coffee shop scene but her face is never seen and she's not enought credited on the IMDB, the other is killed right in front of us by the supposed 'good guy' - the undercover cop trying to bust the rest of the crew. Definitely the polar opposite of a 'chick flick'.
Samuel L. Jackson said the line "this is some repugnant shit" both in PF (1994) and JB (1997).
These names are used in more than one Tarantino movie : Bonnie, Jodie, Koons, Marsellus, Scagnetti, and the before metioned Vega. We're assuming they refer to the same people in the world his movies exist in.
A more comprehensive view of the connections between Tarantino's films at this excellent site :
http://www.godamongdirectors.com/tarantino/faq/tarantinoverse.shtml
And now the film babble blog review of the brand new shiny DVD of :
KILL BILL VOLUME 1
Dir. Quentin Tarantino.
Starring : Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba, Vivica Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and David Carradine.
It's obvious from the first minute where we're going here. Old '70's feature attraction titles are used directly and the music accompanying is suitably retro as well. From that we're thrust head first into a tale of a woman whose fiance is killed at the wedding chapel by international assassins. This is pure setup to a revenge plot that seems borrowed from the classic Truffaut film "THE BRIDE WORE BLACK". It's funny that when Uma introduces herself early on her name is bleeped out. She's known simply as "the Bride". One by one she tracks down and annihilates the killers (actually half of the killers on her hand written list - the second half will be taken care of in KILL BILL VOLUME 2 presumably). I would describe the plot in more detail but truth be told that's all the plot there is. This movie is basically one big scorned-woman-kicks-major-ass sequence after another. That's not to say it's not good - it's got plenty of fire in it's belly and many of the stunts and tracking shots are beautifully done and a lot of fun to watch. The downside of it is with so many slick stylized action movies in the last several years at times this can feel like a thinking man's CHARLIE'S ANGELS but at least Uma doesn't do a backwards moon-walk like Drew Barrymore did after viciously finishing off a room full of adversaries.
Driving home the notion of cartoon violence is actual animation interspersed into the action. Sonny Chiba provides another drive home to the world of martial arts cinema as the sword maker that hooks up Uma with her weapon of choice - "I need Japanese steel" the Bride says in Japanese moments after saying she knows very little Japanese. One thing is for sure - when Taratino worked as a clerk at Video Archives in Hermosa Beach, California he watched every Hong Kong martial-arts movie that was on their shelves. Uma Thurman's perfomance is mannered and precise, a true display of stoic grace that is incredibly admirable within this choas. Dialogue is spare, blood sprays like a lawn sprinkler in sheets, and punctuating rifts by the 5,6,7, & 8's all makes this a good ole time. Take it from somebody who truly wanted to hate it for honestly film geek poseur reasons - KILL BILL VOLUME 1 delivers.
DVD EXTRAS - A decent but truly inconsequential 20 minute making of featurette is the main deal here. There are trailers for all the other Tarentino flicks too and those are actually really nice to view in order. At first I was disapointed that the disc didn't have director's commentary but then recalling how Tarantino rambled on the commentary for RD (1992)going off on anecdotes unrelated to the action playing out on the screen I've concluded that that's not that fatal an ommision.
Last thought - Unless you absolutely have to own the DVD I'd recommed waiting for KBV2 to be released next fall on DVD - I have no doubt that both films will be packaged together in a deluxe edition. I know though by the numbers of sales yesterday of KBV1's DVD that the legions of Tarantino geeks just could not wait.
- Edward Callistan
Great film babble blog writer Bertie Shafer was lucky enough to see an advance screening last weekend of KBV2 in New York. I must stress up-front that Bertie is not really a fan of Tarantino - he liked RD (1992) and PF (1994) for the most part but is extremely critical of how un-prolific he is as a filmmaker and once even called him a "overrated hack" after watching Tarantino's disastrous hosting gig on SNL in 1995. Now he'll share with us his thoughts on KBV2 :
KILL BILL VOLUME 2
First off let me start by saying that unlike fellow film babble friend Ed Callistan I wasn't big on KBV1. I thought it lacked true suspense and at best it was just superficial entertainment pretending to be a big movie event. Also it bothered me that it pretentiously introduced itself as "The 4th Film By Quentin Tarantino" in the credits. I mean who the Hell else does that? Can you imagine - "The 17th Film By Martin Scorcese" in the opening credits of GOODFELLAS? I didn't think so. But if Spike Lee can get away with calling films "joints" in his credits I guess I can let it slide. What I couldn't let slide in KBV1 was the dry humorless tone and the fact that many characters were such general pop culture stereotypes of the sort that have already appeared in Tarantino's work. Take for example the redneck hospital orderly that whores out the Bride's comatose body to redneck scum for $75 a pop. Didn't we already go there in PF? The orderly even has a tacky vehicle in the form of a souped-up pickup called "The Pussy Wagon" that would not look out of place in the same garage as the chopper (Zed's Motorbike) "Grace" in PF. Also the out of sequence chronology that characterizes Tarantino's work was once innovative but now is extremely irritating and obviously a cheap device to hide a lack of a real story arc. A seedy but wise Texas sherriff when surveying the massacre that begins the entire rampage remarks "if you was a moron you could almost admire it." That pretty much summed how I felt about the flick when I saw it last year.
That said I like KBV2 quite a bit and it made me re-evaluate KBV1 to such a degree that I have to say that it now appears to me to be a fine film. You see now that I have the whole picture the 1st volume resonates with a passion and power that I cynically ignored first time around. The 4th film credit I previously bitched about now informs us that this is one big movie that is told in 2 parts. KBV2 doesn't label itself as "The 5th film..." and it's ending credits include actors that were only in the first film. It truly is the cinematic equivalent of those 2 parter TV episodes with the "to be concluded" caption that were done to death in the '70's and '80's.
There is plenty of the stylized violence of the 1st half here but what makes this work is the backstory and genuine emotion fueling the character's motives. We learn why the Bride's fiancee and entire wedding party were slaughtered, how Daryl Hannah's eye-patch came to be, what connection the Bride and Bill (David Carradine) had, and most importantly who the Bride really is - name revealed and all. Don't worry - I won't reveal any of those spoilers here I'll just say that the dialogue while tense and filled with proverbs is smoothly recited and felt by the actors especially Carradine.
A number of critics are saying that KBV2 works alone without seeing KBV1 but I disagree. I mean none of them have actually experienced that so it seems like a silly appraisal. I would say you should not see KBV2 without seeing KBV1 first and since they are out the same week albeit in different formats there's no reason why you shouldn't. KILL BILL as one big movie is a dense collection of styles and tones that will make many treasure their own obscure pop culture interests and realize that if that former video store clerk can make epic cinema out of lowbrow pulp why can't we get off our ass and create something too? At least that's how I'm thinking. But maybe I'm just a moron that admires this flick.
- Bertie Shafer
A great site that lists all the movies KBV1 & KBV2 refered to or stolen from is here :
http://www.tarantino.info/movie/killbill/articles/references-guide.htm
And of course Sarah Warner with help from us all film babble bloggers presents some Tarantino lists :
FIVE GREAT TARANTINO LINES
1. "Well, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet." - The Wolf (Harvey Keitel) PF (1994)
2. "I might break you in, Nice Guy, but I'd make you my dog's bitch." - Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) RD (1992)
3. "I can tell you with no ego that this is my finest blade. If, on your journey, you should encounter God... God will be cut." - Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) KBV1 (2003)
4. "AK-47. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes" - Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) JB (1997)
5. "What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What?" - Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) PF (1994)
FIVE MOVIES THAT RIP-OFF PULP FICTION :
(some more call them "homages" or use phrases like "in the tradition of" but let's call a spade a spade)
1. TIE - LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELLS/SNATCH (1998, 2000) - Guy Ritchie's 2 smoking Tarantino borrows more like!
2. TWO DAYS IN THE VALLEY (1996)
3. GO (1999) - When it first was released I think I remember some critic saying "this week's PULP FICTION". Snap!
4. SUICIDE KINGS (1997)
5. THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOUR DEAD (1995)
More later...
First up -
BASIC FILMOGRAPHY AND INITIAL GUIDE TO THIS BLOG
MBFB - MY BEST FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY (1987) - Don't worry - I've never heard of it either.
RD - RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
PF - PULP FICTION (1994)
JB - JACKIE ROBERTS (1997)
KBV1 - KILL BILL VOLUME 1 (2003)
KBV2 - KILL BILL VOLUME 2 (2004)
Those are the movies Tarentino has written and directed. He has been involved in a bunch of others doing acting or writing or producing duties or all three. They are :
PAST MIDNIGHT (1992) - Associate producer.
EDDIE PRESLEY (1993) - Actor.
TRUE ROMANCE (1993)
KILLING ZOE (1994) - Executive producer.
SLEEP WITH ME (1994) - Actor.
SOMEONE TO LOVE (1994) - Actor.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) - Story credit.
CURDLED (1996) (executive producer)
FOUR ROOMS (1995) Actor, writer - the segment "The Man From Hollywood"
DESPERADO (1995) - Actor.
DESTINY TURNS ON THE RADIO (1995) - Actor.
FROM DUSK TO DAWN (1996) - Actor, exectuive director.
GIRL 6 (1996) - Actor.
GOD SAID, 'HA!' (1998) - Executive producer)
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2 : TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999) - Executive producer.
LITTLE NICKY (2000) - Actor.
FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER (2000) - Executive produceR.
IRON MONKEY (1993) (producer) (2001 release)
But those movies won't really be what this blog is about today - The famous five movies from RD to KBV2 IS what we're talking about! So let's get to it :
THE QUENTIN TARENTINO REPORTORY ROLE CALL
Lawrence Bender - RD, PF
Steve Buscemi - RD, PF
David Carradine - KBV1, KBV2
Sonny Chiba - KBV1, KBV2
Vivica A. Fox - KBV1, KBV2
Daryl Hannah - KBV1, KBV2
Samuel L. Jackson - PF, JB
Harvey Keitel - RD, PF
Lucy Liu - KBV1, KBV2
Michael Madsen - RD, KBV1, KBV2
Tim Roth - RD, PF
Quentin Tarentino - RD, PF
Uma Thurman - PF, KBV1, KBV2
TARENTINO FUN FACT FORUM
Michael Madsen's character in RD (1992) is named Vic Vega. John Travolta in PF (1994) plays Vincent Vega. According to interviews with Tarentino they are brothers. He has spoken of making a Vega brothers movie but at this rate don't hold your breath.
The criticisms of a boy club mentality of Tarantino's early work are especially valid in RD (1992) in which there just a precious few women among the cast. Literally 2 woman appear - there is a waitress overheard and seen in the opening coffee shop scene but her face is never seen and she's not enought credited on the IMDB, the other is killed right in front of us by the supposed 'good guy' - the undercover cop trying to bust the rest of the crew. Definitely the polar opposite of a 'chick flick'.
Samuel L. Jackson said the line "this is some repugnant shit" both in PF (1994) and JB (1997).
These names are used in more than one Tarantino movie : Bonnie, Jodie, Koons, Marsellus, Scagnetti, and the before metioned Vega. We're assuming they refer to the same people in the world his movies exist in.
A more comprehensive view of the connections between Tarantino's films at this excellent site :
http://www.godamongdirectors.com/tarantino/faq/tarantinoverse.shtml
And now the film babble blog review of the brand new shiny DVD of :
KILL BILL VOLUME 1
Dir. Quentin Tarantino.
Starring : Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba, Vivica Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and David Carradine.
It's obvious from the first minute where we're going here. Old '70's feature attraction titles are used directly and the music accompanying is suitably retro as well. From that we're thrust head first into a tale of a woman whose fiance is killed at the wedding chapel by international assassins. This is pure setup to a revenge plot that seems borrowed from the classic Truffaut film "THE BRIDE WORE BLACK". It's funny that when Uma introduces herself early on her name is bleeped out. She's known simply as "the Bride". One by one she tracks down and annihilates the killers (actually half of the killers on her hand written list - the second half will be taken care of in KILL BILL VOLUME 2 presumably). I would describe the plot in more detail but truth be told that's all the plot there is. This movie is basically one big scorned-woman-kicks-major-ass sequence after another. That's not to say it's not good - it's got plenty of fire in it's belly and many of the stunts and tracking shots are beautifully done and a lot of fun to watch. The downside of it is with so many slick stylized action movies in the last several years at times this can feel like a thinking man's CHARLIE'S ANGELS but at least Uma doesn't do a backwards moon-walk like Drew Barrymore did after viciously finishing off a room full of adversaries.
Driving home the notion of cartoon violence is actual animation interspersed into the action. Sonny Chiba provides another drive home to the world of martial arts cinema as the sword maker that hooks up Uma with her weapon of choice - "I need Japanese steel" the Bride says in Japanese moments after saying she knows very little Japanese. One thing is for sure - when Taratino worked as a clerk at Video Archives in Hermosa Beach, California he watched every Hong Kong martial-arts movie that was on their shelves. Uma Thurman's perfomance is mannered and precise, a true display of stoic grace that is incredibly admirable within this choas. Dialogue is spare, blood sprays like a lawn sprinkler in sheets, and punctuating rifts by the 5,6,7, & 8's all makes this a good ole time. Take it from somebody who truly wanted to hate it for honestly film geek poseur reasons - KILL BILL VOLUME 1 delivers.
DVD EXTRAS - A decent but truly inconsequential 20 minute making of featurette is the main deal here. There are trailers for all the other Tarentino flicks too and those are actually really nice to view in order. At first I was disapointed that the disc didn't have director's commentary but then recalling how Tarantino rambled on the commentary for RD (1992)going off on anecdotes unrelated to the action playing out on the screen I've concluded that that's not that fatal an ommision.
Last thought - Unless you absolutely have to own the DVD I'd recommed waiting for KBV2 to be released next fall on DVD - I have no doubt that both films will be packaged together in a deluxe edition. I know though by the numbers of sales yesterday of KBV1's DVD that the legions of Tarantino geeks just could not wait.
- Edward Callistan
Great film babble blog writer Bertie Shafer was lucky enough to see an advance screening last weekend of KBV2 in New York. I must stress up-front that Bertie is not really a fan of Tarantino - he liked RD (1992) and PF (1994) for the most part but is extremely critical of how un-prolific he is as a filmmaker and once even called him a "overrated hack" after watching Tarantino's disastrous hosting gig on SNL in 1995. Now he'll share with us his thoughts on KBV2 :
KILL BILL VOLUME 2
First off let me start by saying that unlike fellow film babble friend Ed Callistan I wasn't big on KBV1. I thought it lacked true suspense and at best it was just superficial entertainment pretending to be a big movie event. Also it bothered me that it pretentiously introduced itself as "The 4th Film By Quentin Tarantino" in the credits. I mean who the Hell else does that? Can you imagine - "The 17th Film By Martin Scorcese" in the opening credits of GOODFELLAS? I didn't think so. But if Spike Lee can get away with calling films "joints" in his credits I guess I can let it slide. What I couldn't let slide in KBV1 was the dry humorless tone and the fact that many characters were such general pop culture stereotypes of the sort that have already appeared in Tarantino's work. Take for example the redneck hospital orderly that whores out the Bride's comatose body to redneck scum for $75 a pop. Didn't we already go there in PF? The orderly even has a tacky vehicle in the form of a souped-up pickup called "The Pussy Wagon" that would not look out of place in the same garage as the chopper (Zed's Motorbike) "Grace" in PF. Also the out of sequence chronology that characterizes Tarantino's work was once innovative but now is extremely irritating and obviously a cheap device to hide a lack of a real story arc. A seedy but wise Texas sherriff when surveying the massacre that begins the entire rampage remarks "if you was a moron you could almost admire it." That pretty much summed how I felt about the flick when I saw it last year.
That said I like KBV2 quite a bit and it made me re-evaluate KBV1 to such a degree that I have to say that it now appears to me to be a fine film. You see now that I have the whole picture the 1st volume resonates with a passion and power that I cynically ignored first time around. The 4th film credit I previously bitched about now informs us that this is one big movie that is told in 2 parts. KBV2 doesn't label itself as "The 5th film..." and it's ending credits include actors that were only in the first film. It truly is the cinematic equivalent of those 2 parter TV episodes with the "to be concluded" caption that were done to death in the '70's and '80's.
There is plenty of the stylized violence of the 1st half here but what makes this work is the backstory and genuine emotion fueling the character's motives. We learn why the Bride's fiancee and entire wedding party were slaughtered, how Daryl Hannah's eye-patch came to be, what connection the Bride and Bill (David Carradine) had, and most importantly who the Bride really is - name revealed and all. Don't worry - I won't reveal any of those spoilers here I'll just say that the dialogue while tense and filled with proverbs is smoothly recited and felt by the actors especially Carradine.
A number of critics are saying that KBV2 works alone without seeing KBV1 but I disagree. I mean none of them have actually experienced that so it seems like a silly appraisal. I would say you should not see KBV2 without seeing KBV1 first and since they are out the same week albeit in different formats there's no reason why you shouldn't. KILL BILL as one big movie is a dense collection of styles and tones that will make many treasure their own obscure pop culture interests and realize that if that former video store clerk can make epic cinema out of lowbrow pulp why can't we get off our ass and create something too? At least that's how I'm thinking. But maybe I'm just a moron that admires this flick.
- Bertie Shafer
A great site that lists all the movies KBV1 & KBV2 refered to or stolen from is here :
http://www.tarantino.info/movie/killbill/articles/references-guide.htm
And of course Sarah Warner with help from us all film babble bloggers presents some Tarantino lists :
FIVE GREAT TARANTINO LINES
1. "Well, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet." - The Wolf (Harvey Keitel) PF (1994)
2. "I might break you in, Nice Guy, but I'd make you my dog's bitch." - Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) RD (1992)
3. "I can tell you with no ego that this is my finest blade. If, on your journey, you should encounter God... God will be cut." - Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) KBV1 (2003)
4. "AK-47. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes" - Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson) JB (1997)
5. "What ain't no country I ever heard of. They speak English in What?" - Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) PF (1994)
FIVE MOVIES THAT RIP-OFF PULP FICTION :
(some more call them "homages" or use phrases like "in the tradition of" but let's call a spade a spade)
1. TIE - LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELLS/SNATCH (1998, 2000) - Guy Ritchie's 2 smoking Tarantino borrows more like!
2. TWO DAYS IN THE VALLEY (1996)
3. GO (1999) - When it first was released I think I remember some critic saying "this week's PULP FICTION". Snap!
4. SUICIDE KINGS (1997)
5. THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOUR DEAD (1995)
More later...
Monday, April 12, 2004
Links And DVD Delights
Links are the film babble blog's bread and butter! Here's some good ones :
First off we always encourage you to first check out the
IMDb
- it's the best movie site bar none on this here internet and it answers many many questions. Like "was that the same guy who was in that movie or old TV show?" and "how many Chucky sequels were there?" When looking up a particular movie on the IMDB clicking on the external reviews link will give you a listing of different critical columns from all over cyberspace. One of the best to check is :
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
This site compiles reviews and provides good synopsises and consensus ratings. Good stuff.
DVD DELIGHTS :
"It does one good to make a clean breast of it sometimes...to a total stranger" - SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (1960)
MELVIN GOES TO DINNER (2003) Dir. Bob Odenkirk. I wish there were more movies like this these days! Thoughtful character-driven comedies are getting harder and harder to come by. It's like an updated MY DINNER WITH ANDRE X 2! 4 people (Michael Blieden, Stephanie Courtney, Annabelle Gurwitch, and Matt Price) with loose and not-so-loose connections to one another by chance meet for dinner at a posh LA eatery and discuss everything from the supernatural to relationship etiquette with funny insights aplenty. Based on the stage play by Blieden (who plays Melvin) and gracefully directed by Bob Odenkirk (of Mr. Show fame) the core cast is enhanced by amusing cameos from David Cross, Fred Armisen, Jack Black, Melora Walters, and even Odenkirk. Highly recommended.
The DVD has a few great extras - a hilarious short film about an ill-fated film festival appearance by the filmmakers and some of the cast and 2 different commentaries that are as funny and interesting as the film itself.
- Daniel Cook Johnson (film babble blog editor)
DVD DISSES :
MONA LISA SMILE - Dir. Mike Newell. A chick flick even a chick-flick lover would hate. It would be too convenient to label it as a female DEAD POET'S SOCIETY - it's more like a trumped-up "Facts Of Life" episode. Watch only if you want to see such new hopefuls as Maggie Gyllenhall, Kristen Dunst, Ginnifer Goodwin, and especially Marcia Gay Harden being wasted in one dimension period piece. Julia Roberts fans should be used to this type of thing though.
- Sarah Warner
SECONDHAND LIONS - Dir. Tim McCanlies. In less than 3 minutes the premise is set - Haley Joel Osment is dropped off by his scamming Southern-Belle Mama (Krya Sedgewick) to spend the summer with his eccentric uncles Michael Caine and Robert Duvall who mysteriously have a treasure of millions of dollars hidden somewhere on their farm property. Incredibly hokey yarn that even tries to work in a PRINCESS BRIDE style backstory in the form of Caine's tensly told tales to Osment while Duvall overacts a sleep walking lovesick winner of the SNL game show sketch "Who's More Grizzled?" * You could do worse than to sit through this pleasant pap but then you could do a lot better. A whole lot better.
- Bertie Shafer
More to come...
First off we always encourage you to first check out the
IMDb
- it's the best movie site bar none on this here internet and it answers many many questions. Like "was that the same guy who was in that movie or old TV show?" and "how many Chucky sequels were there?" When looking up a particular movie on the IMDB clicking on the external reviews link will give you a listing of different critical columns from all over cyberspace. One of the best to check is :
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
This site compiles reviews and provides good synopsises and consensus ratings. Good stuff.
DVD DELIGHTS :
"It does one good to make a clean breast of it sometimes...to a total stranger" - SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (1960)
MELVIN GOES TO DINNER (2003) Dir. Bob Odenkirk. I wish there were more movies like this these days! Thoughtful character-driven comedies are getting harder and harder to come by. It's like an updated MY DINNER WITH ANDRE X 2! 4 people (Michael Blieden, Stephanie Courtney, Annabelle Gurwitch, and Matt Price) with loose and not-so-loose connections to one another by chance meet for dinner at a posh LA eatery and discuss everything from the supernatural to relationship etiquette with funny insights aplenty. Based on the stage play by Blieden (who plays Melvin) and gracefully directed by Bob Odenkirk (of Mr. Show fame) the core cast is enhanced by amusing cameos from David Cross, Fred Armisen, Jack Black, Melora Walters, and even Odenkirk. Highly recommended.
The DVD has a few great extras - a hilarious short film about an ill-fated film festival appearance by the filmmakers and some of the cast and 2 different commentaries that are as funny and interesting as the film itself.
- Daniel Cook Johnson (film babble blog editor)
DVD DISSES :
MONA LISA SMILE - Dir. Mike Newell. A chick flick even a chick-flick lover would hate. It would be too convenient to label it as a female DEAD POET'S SOCIETY - it's more like a trumped-up "Facts Of Life" episode. Watch only if you want to see such new hopefuls as Maggie Gyllenhall, Kristen Dunst, Ginnifer Goodwin, and especially Marcia Gay Harden being wasted in one dimension period piece. Julia Roberts fans should be used to this type of thing though.
- Sarah Warner
SECONDHAND LIONS - Dir. Tim McCanlies. In less than 3 minutes the premise is set - Haley Joel Osment is dropped off by his scamming Southern-Belle Mama (Krya Sedgewick) to spend the summer with his eccentric uncles Michael Caine and Robert Duvall who mysteriously have a treasure of millions of dollars hidden somewhere on their farm property. Incredibly hokey yarn that even tries to work in a PRINCESS BRIDE style backstory in the form of Caine's tensly told tales to Osment while Duvall overacts a sleep walking lovesick winner of the SNL game show sketch "Who's More Grizzled?" * You could do worse than to sit through this pleasant pap but then you could do a lot better. A whole lot better.
- Bertie Shafer
More to come...
Thursday, April 8, 2004
Comedy Isn't Pretty: Steve Martin's Fall From Funny
Whew! Lotsa good film buff stuff to share. First off the great movie magazine Premiere has a current issue celebrating "the 100 greatest movie characters of all time". It's a great feature you ought to check out.
HELLBOY reigns at the box office followed by WALKING TALL and SCOOBY DOO 2. Breathe, film babble peeps - breathe in and out - all will be all right.
The DVD release of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN this week was a huge seller - my guess is that it was an impulse buy for the kids while picking up Daddy's awaited MATRIX REVOLUTIONS disc set. Whatever the case it's a horrible unfunny family film that will surely soon collect dust as it's target audience moves quickly on. Kind of like Martin's last film BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE that wasn't the low denomitor crap that CHEAPER is but still came off like an exercise in commercial blandness despite some funny moments courtesey of Eugene Levy.
There is possible redemption ahead with the prospect of Martin's excellent book Shopgirl's film adaptation but unfortunately that's overshadowed by the news that he is set to start filming a new Pink Panther movie next month. That news is met with concern and doubt. Very few, myself included think it is a good idea to try to revive a series that is over 20 years dead with 3 failed awful attempts to revive it since long buried. Maybe Martin can pull off playing the famous part of Inspector Clouseau defined by the late great Peter Sellers (#67 on Premiere's Greatest Movie Characters list, Martin's Navin Johnson, a.k.a. the Jerk is #66 interestingly) but judging by his strained slapstick work and the forced physical comedy that dominates CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN - I wouldn't put money on it.
In my estimation the last truly good Steve Martin comedy was BOWFINGER (1999) It had a good premise - aspiring filmmaker scams a cheapie sc-fi movie out of a actor (Eddie Murphy) who doesn't know he's being filmed, good writing - starlet Heather Graham flirtaciously offers - "I love Smashing Pumpkins and Martin's Bowfinger excitedely responds - "I love to do that!" !, and it a good nature to it even with the swipe at self promoting lesbians which made everyone think Martin was getting back at former love Anne Heche. To get to that gem though we had to suffer SGT.BILKO, THE OUT OF TOWNERS, and MIXED NUTS. Hiding behind those flops was a little seen David Mamet movie THE SPANISH PRISONER (1997) which featured a rare mannered dramatic performance by Martin. Another failed foray into this direction was NOVOCAINE (2001) which was silly but I have to admit I enjoyed quite a bit after the fact.
We here at film babble all voted on our favorite and least favorite Steve Martin movies. It's an unsurprising but essential list :
10 GREAT STEVE MARTIN MOVIES :
1. THE JERK (1979)
2. THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (1983)
3. ALL OF ME (1984)
4. DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID (1982)
5. ROXANNE (1987)
6. PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)
7. L.A. STORY (1990)
8. BOWFINGER (1999)
9. THE SPANISH PRISONER (1997)
10. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986)- Just a cameo but his scene and song "Dentist" steal the whole show.
SPILLOVER :
11. PARENTHOOD (1989)
12. THE LONELY GUY (1984)
13. MY BLUE HEAVEN (1991)
14. LEAP OF FAITH (1992)
15. PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1980) - C'mon! Give it another chance.
And now our least favorite. It was scary how quickly these all tumbled out.
10 BAD STEVE MARTIN MOVIES
1. DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (1988)
2. THREE AMIGOS (1986)
3. TIE - FATHER OF THE BRIDE I & II (1991 & 1995)
4. HOUSESITTER (1992)
5. SGT. BILKO (1996)
6. MIXED NUTS (1994)
7. SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1978) - Just a cameo but still!
8. THE OUT OF TOWNERS (1999)
9. A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE (1994)
10. LOONEY TUNES - BACK IN ACTION (2003)
We haven't given up on you Steve - we're all hoping you can do some good with SHOPGIRL (now in post production) and that you will prove us wrong on the Pink Panther deal. We all loved when in your only bearded role as a schlock movie producer in Lawrence Kasdan's GRAND CANYON (1991) you said to Kevin Kline:
"That's part of your problem: you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies."
And if you don't agree with that or any of this, well EXCUSE ME!!!!
- Edward Callistan
Editor's note : Ed has all of Steve Martin's albums on vinyl (even that weird half bluegrass "The Steve Martin Bros.") and all of Steve's books even books on tape, and he can recite just about any routine at the drop of a pair of fuzzy bunny ears. He wrote this piece after being so depressed after watching CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN that he contemplated suicide by means of an arrow through the head. I encouraged him to put his Martinized feelings on paper. He decided to do both. May God have mercy on his soul.
Cult Movie Catch-up
Since this blog is relatively new we like to catch up with older films and appraise their recent special edition DVDs. Anderson Moran gets re-acquianted with a couple of old friends :
REPO MAN (1984) Dir. Alex Cox. A young punk (Emilio Estevez) becomes a automobile reposession man and stumbles upon a car with dead space aliens in it and an entire low-life network bent on stealing it. Harry Dean Stanton puts in a great gruff performance as Estevez's partner and has many pivotal lines that build his character as a master of poor man philosophy. Songs by the Circle Jerks, Iggy Pop (who wrote the theme song), the Plugz, and the Juicy Bananas among many other punk staples all line the frames of this flick perfectly. I saw this movie on cable many times in the '80's and love almost everything about it - especially the way every product - whether beer can or soup can is generically labelled i.e. with a white label and the word - "food" or "drink" printed alone. The new DVD has a print of the film that looks better than I ever remember it looking and the overcrowded commentary with director Cox, executive producer Michael Nesmith (the Monkees!), three of the actors, and the casting director is fun too.
- Anderson Moran
SUBURBIA (1984) Dir. Penelope Spheeris. I can't remember if I actually saw this movie back in the day. I remember the commercials for it with one punk saying "wake up and smell the coffee man" and that being the first time I had ever heard that expression but I don't remember it or other Roger Corman produced movies for that matter being in circulation on '80's HBO or Showtime. Not like PORKY'S or POLICE ACADEMY or even BUCKAROO BANZAI. This movie about kids who squat on the outskirts of the suburbs in abandoned tract housing sure feels familliar but maybe I'm thinking of OVER THE EDGE with Matt Dillon. I loved that flick. This one has more roaches, rats, and rawk music in it so it go was further over that supposed edge. It's funny that from this cast the most well known player here is Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Chris Pederson who recited the "smell the coffee" line was later in PLATOON and POINT BREAK but I doubt he'd really register with today's movie watching crowd. This disc released as part of a Roger Corman Director's series (despite the fact he didn't direct it) on New Horizon video has great commentary by Spheeris on the DVD "the kids today look exactly the same" she says more than once talking about the resurgence of punk movement. With blueprints like this and SID AND NANCY getting the special treatment in rereleases and spiffy new digital transfers the punk kids of 20 years from now will look the same too.
- Anderson Moran
"I will not be ignored, Dan!" - Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) FATAL ATTRACTION (1987) * Alex Forrest is # 36 on Premiere's Greatest Movie characters list by the way.
* One of my favorite movie lines ever and not just because it has my name in it.
One late night jaunt to Biscuit-Time Theater somewhere out Route 54 a few film babble bloggers got into a heated debate about what was the definitive "erotic thriller". The golden age of the genre was undoubtedly the '80's with the glossy ironic twists of such classics as FATAL ATTRACTION, NO WAY OUT, and the immortal BODY HEAT but beame a joke in the '90's with such embarrassments as BASIC INSTINCT, BODY OF EVIDENCE, and well just about everything that has Joe Eszterhaus's name on it. My personal favorite movie of this ilk is :
SEA OF LOVE (1988) Dir. Harold Becker. This was originally embraced as a return to form for Al Pacino after such forgetful fare as AUTHOR, AUTHOR and REVOLUTION in the first half of the '80's. It was indeed great to see him in a gritty sometimes even pathetic part as a hard drinking police detective dealing with divorce and obsessed with tracking a serial killer. He compares notes with partner John Goodman and they decide to set up a sting operation through meetings with possible suspects made from personal ad connections. Ellen Barkin's character is the outgoing as hell is-she-a-vixen?-is-she-not? parable that the plot hinges on. A lot of this is predictable and at times can be awfully generic but the amount of well placed and well paced humor, good acting, and sharp dialogue makes this still in 2004 a good watch. Also just about everyone in it is somebody you will surely know from something else - Samuel L. Jackson has a small part at the beginning, West Wing actors John Spencer and Michael O'Neill, Six Feet Under's Richard Jenkins, and the always intensely creepy Michael Rooker from JFK and HENRY - PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER all add to the must-see value of this mostly overlooked time-killer. Available on a Universal special edition DVD with director's commentary and scratchy deleted scenes.
- Daniel Cook Johnson
More later...
HELLBOY reigns at the box office followed by WALKING TALL and SCOOBY DOO 2. Breathe, film babble peeps - breathe in and out - all will be all right.
The DVD release of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN this week was a huge seller - my guess is that it was an impulse buy for the kids while picking up Daddy's awaited MATRIX REVOLUTIONS disc set. Whatever the case it's a horrible unfunny family film that will surely soon collect dust as it's target audience moves quickly on. Kind of like Martin's last film BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE that wasn't the low denomitor crap that CHEAPER is but still came off like an exercise in commercial blandness despite some funny moments courtesey of Eugene Levy.
There is possible redemption ahead with the prospect of Martin's excellent book Shopgirl's film adaptation but unfortunately that's overshadowed by the news that he is set to start filming a new Pink Panther movie next month. That news is met with concern and doubt. Very few, myself included think it is a good idea to try to revive a series that is over 20 years dead with 3 failed awful attempts to revive it since long buried. Maybe Martin can pull off playing the famous part of Inspector Clouseau defined by the late great Peter Sellers (#67 on Premiere's Greatest Movie Characters list, Martin's Navin Johnson, a.k.a. the Jerk is #66 interestingly) but judging by his strained slapstick work and the forced physical comedy that dominates CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN - I wouldn't put money on it.
In my estimation the last truly good Steve Martin comedy was BOWFINGER (1999) It had a good premise - aspiring filmmaker scams a cheapie sc-fi movie out of a actor (Eddie Murphy) who doesn't know he's being filmed, good writing - starlet Heather Graham flirtaciously offers - "I love Smashing Pumpkins and Martin's Bowfinger excitedely responds - "I love to do that!" !, and it a good nature to it even with the swipe at self promoting lesbians which made everyone think Martin was getting back at former love Anne Heche. To get to that gem though we had to suffer SGT.BILKO, THE OUT OF TOWNERS, and MIXED NUTS. Hiding behind those flops was a little seen David Mamet movie THE SPANISH PRISONER (1997) which featured a rare mannered dramatic performance by Martin. Another failed foray into this direction was NOVOCAINE (2001) which was silly but I have to admit I enjoyed quite a bit after the fact.
We here at film babble all voted on our favorite and least favorite Steve Martin movies. It's an unsurprising but essential list :
10 GREAT STEVE MARTIN MOVIES :
1. THE JERK (1979)
2. THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (1983)
3. ALL OF ME (1984)
4. DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID (1982)
5. ROXANNE (1987)
6. PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES (1987)
7. L.A. STORY (1990)
8. BOWFINGER (1999)
9. THE SPANISH PRISONER (1997)
10. LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986)- Just a cameo but his scene and song "Dentist" steal the whole show.
SPILLOVER :
11. PARENTHOOD (1989)
12. THE LONELY GUY (1984)
13. MY BLUE HEAVEN (1991)
14. LEAP OF FAITH (1992)
15. PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1980) - C'mon! Give it another chance.
And now our least favorite. It was scary how quickly these all tumbled out.
10 BAD STEVE MARTIN MOVIES
1. DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (1988)
2. THREE AMIGOS (1986)
3. TIE - FATHER OF THE BRIDE I & II (1991 & 1995)
4. HOUSESITTER (1992)
5. SGT. BILKO (1996)
6. MIXED NUTS (1994)
7. SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1978) - Just a cameo but still!
8. THE OUT OF TOWNERS (1999)
9. A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE (1994)
10. LOONEY TUNES - BACK IN ACTION (2003)
We haven't given up on you Steve - we're all hoping you can do some good with SHOPGIRL (now in post production) and that you will prove us wrong on the Pink Panther deal. We all loved when in your only bearded role as a schlock movie producer in Lawrence Kasdan's GRAND CANYON (1991) you said to Kevin Kline:
"That's part of your problem: you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies."
And if you don't agree with that or any of this, well EXCUSE ME!!!!
- Edward Callistan
Editor's note : Ed has all of Steve Martin's albums on vinyl (even that weird half bluegrass "The Steve Martin Bros.") and all of Steve's books even books on tape, and he can recite just about any routine at the drop of a pair of fuzzy bunny ears. He wrote this piece after being so depressed after watching CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN that he contemplated suicide by means of an arrow through the head. I encouraged him to put his Martinized feelings on paper. He decided to do both. May God have mercy on his soul.
Cult Movie Catch-up
Since this blog is relatively new we like to catch up with older films and appraise their recent special edition DVDs. Anderson Moran gets re-acquianted with a couple of old friends :
REPO MAN (1984) Dir. Alex Cox. A young punk (Emilio Estevez) becomes a automobile reposession man and stumbles upon a car with dead space aliens in it and an entire low-life network bent on stealing it. Harry Dean Stanton puts in a great gruff performance as Estevez's partner and has many pivotal lines that build his character as a master of poor man philosophy. Songs by the Circle Jerks, Iggy Pop (who wrote the theme song), the Plugz, and the Juicy Bananas among many other punk staples all line the frames of this flick perfectly. I saw this movie on cable many times in the '80's and love almost everything about it - especially the way every product - whether beer can or soup can is generically labelled i.e. with a white label and the word - "food" or "drink" printed alone. The new DVD has a print of the film that looks better than I ever remember it looking and the overcrowded commentary with director Cox, executive producer Michael Nesmith (the Monkees!), three of the actors, and the casting director is fun too.
- Anderson Moran
SUBURBIA (1984) Dir. Penelope Spheeris. I can't remember if I actually saw this movie back in the day. I remember the commercials for it with one punk saying "wake up and smell the coffee man" and that being the first time I had ever heard that expression but I don't remember it or other Roger Corman produced movies for that matter being in circulation on '80's HBO or Showtime. Not like PORKY'S or POLICE ACADEMY or even BUCKAROO BANZAI. This movie about kids who squat on the outskirts of the suburbs in abandoned tract housing sure feels familliar but maybe I'm thinking of OVER THE EDGE with Matt Dillon. I loved that flick. This one has more roaches, rats, and rawk music in it so it go was further over that supposed edge. It's funny that from this cast the most well known player here is Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Chris Pederson who recited the "smell the coffee" line was later in PLATOON and POINT BREAK but I doubt he'd really register with today's movie watching crowd. This disc released as part of a Roger Corman Director's series (despite the fact he didn't direct it) on New Horizon video has great commentary by Spheeris on the DVD "the kids today look exactly the same" she says more than once talking about the resurgence of punk movement. With blueprints like this and SID AND NANCY getting the special treatment in rereleases and spiffy new digital transfers the punk kids of 20 years from now will look the same too.
- Anderson Moran
"I will not be ignored, Dan!" - Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) FATAL ATTRACTION (1987) * Alex Forrest is # 36 on Premiere's Greatest Movie characters list by the way.
* One of my favorite movie lines ever and not just because it has my name in it.
One late night jaunt to Biscuit-Time Theater somewhere out Route 54 a few film babble bloggers got into a heated debate about what was the definitive "erotic thriller". The golden age of the genre was undoubtedly the '80's with the glossy ironic twists of such classics as FATAL ATTRACTION, NO WAY OUT, and the immortal BODY HEAT but beame a joke in the '90's with such embarrassments as BASIC INSTINCT, BODY OF EVIDENCE, and well just about everything that has Joe Eszterhaus's name on it. My personal favorite movie of this ilk is :
SEA OF LOVE (1988) Dir. Harold Becker. This was originally embraced as a return to form for Al Pacino after such forgetful fare as AUTHOR, AUTHOR and REVOLUTION in the first half of the '80's. It was indeed great to see him in a gritty sometimes even pathetic part as a hard drinking police detective dealing with divorce and obsessed with tracking a serial killer. He compares notes with partner John Goodman and they decide to set up a sting operation through meetings with possible suspects made from personal ad connections. Ellen Barkin's character is the outgoing as hell is-she-a-vixen?-is-she-not? parable that the plot hinges on. A lot of this is predictable and at times can be awfully generic but the amount of well placed and well paced humor, good acting, and sharp dialogue makes this still in 2004 a good watch. Also just about everyone in it is somebody you will surely know from something else - Samuel L. Jackson has a small part at the beginning, West Wing actors John Spencer and Michael O'Neill, Six Feet Under's Richard Jenkins, and the always intensely creepy Michael Rooker from JFK and HENRY - PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER all add to the must-see value of this mostly overlooked time-killer. Available on a Universal special edition DVD with director's commentary and scratchy deleted scenes.
- Daniel Cook Johnson
More later...
Sunday, April 4, 2004
A Night With Michael Moore
We here at Film Babble Blog are all recovering from the Full Frame Documentary Film Fest that was held in Durham over the last several days. Many reports are to come from our contributors but first we'll start with my piece on the mighty Michael Moore's appearance :
A Night With Michael Moore
The Full Frame Film Festival April 3rd, 2004
“I’d like to share with you the rest of my Oscar speech” Michael Moore offered to his rapt audience shortly after his introduction by noted documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. The Full Frame Film Fest crowd responded in applause and laughter. It seems that nobody was unaware of Moore’s controversial comments upon winning the Best Documentary Academy Award for “Bowling For Columbine”. He elaborated on his now famous statement that “we live in fictitious times, with a fictitious president who was elected with fictitious election results and we’re fighting a war for fictitious reasons.” Since this happened a year ago Moore has told this story uncountable times. No doubt that many in the audience had already heard his tale of his being publicly criticized and even threatened for what was being labeled a vicious anti-Bush rant but it didn’t matter to this crowd. My family who attended with me beforehand all voiced concern about detractors protesting the event and disrupting the evening. I assured them that that was extremely doubtful - Moore would be preaching to the choir. And he definitely was - even mild remarks and slight comical gestures got rousing response.
It also didn’t matter that the event was a pretty ramshackle affair. Lights would dim unexpectedly cutting off Moore to start a film clip and despite the presence of microphones placed in the aisles questions were randomly shouted out with no sense of a structured Q & A forum. A moderator might have been a good idea. But again none of this really mattered - the audience ate it all up anyway. Clips from Moore’s TV shows and movies were applauded with such enthusiasm you would have thought they were classic rock songs. That was the spectacle though, the real heart of the evening came from the communal feeling among us all that through all the jokes and deflating of political egos and policies there was a genuine belief that we can really change things. Moore made a big point out of encouraging everyone not only to vote but to travel to “swing-states” and help to transport others to the polls.
Moore wanted to make explicit the difference between “us and them”. Us was not to be confused with what he called “liberal poseurs” but what he mostly just referred to as “our side” vs. the conservatives. The word liberal has become a dirty word because they are wimps with no real drive he explained. “What I admire about the other side is that they have the courage of their convictions. They are unyielding. They are up at the crack of dawn trying to figure who to screw next.” Moore raised his voice, “our side, we never see the crack of dawn! The only time we see the crack of dawn is when we’ve been up all night!” The laughter of familiarity filled the room. He continued with this diatribe even imitating weak liberals whining “‘where do you want to go eat tonight?’, ‘I don’t know, where do you want to go?’ – ‘let’s get some pizza’ ‘no we had pizza last night.’ You know the conservative they’re like ‘get in the car we’re going to Sizzler! Red meat!’”
All in all it was a very entertaining evening. It was great to see clips from Moore’s little seen Bravo show The Awful Truth (available on DVD) being shown on a big screen and a couple of people in the audience did actually make their way to the microphones but not to engage in political discourse but to simply thank Moore for the job he’s doing. One young woman was on the verge of tears as she told of Columbine-style shootings happening where she went to school and expressed her intense appreciation for Moore asking the question “why?” Throughout the night Moore gave some of his personal rules of filmmaking and made us all excited about his upcoming film project “Fahrenheit 911” to be released on the July 4th weekend with the DVD video release slated for just weeks before the Presidential election in November. Obviously he’s got a plan in the works and it was indeed inspiring to have somebody encourage others to take a stand and try to make a difference. Now if we could only get up and get to it at the crack of dawn – that would be a start.
- Daniel Cook Johnson
More later...
A Night With Michael Moore
The Full Frame Film Festival April 3rd, 2004
“I’d like to share with you the rest of my Oscar speech” Michael Moore offered to his rapt audience shortly after his introduction by noted documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker. The Full Frame Film Fest crowd responded in applause and laughter. It seems that nobody was unaware of Moore’s controversial comments upon winning the Best Documentary Academy Award for “Bowling For Columbine”. He elaborated on his now famous statement that “we live in fictitious times, with a fictitious president who was elected with fictitious election results and we’re fighting a war for fictitious reasons.” Since this happened a year ago Moore has told this story uncountable times. No doubt that many in the audience had already heard his tale of his being publicly criticized and even threatened for what was being labeled a vicious anti-Bush rant but it didn’t matter to this crowd. My family who attended with me beforehand all voiced concern about detractors protesting the event and disrupting the evening. I assured them that that was extremely doubtful - Moore would be preaching to the choir. And he definitely was - even mild remarks and slight comical gestures got rousing response.
It also didn’t matter that the event was a pretty ramshackle affair. Lights would dim unexpectedly cutting off Moore to start a film clip and despite the presence of microphones placed in the aisles questions were randomly shouted out with no sense of a structured Q & A forum. A moderator might have been a good idea. But again none of this really mattered - the audience ate it all up anyway. Clips from Moore’s TV shows and movies were applauded with such enthusiasm you would have thought they were classic rock songs. That was the spectacle though, the real heart of the evening came from the communal feeling among us all that through all the jokes and deflating of political egos and policies there was a genuine belief that we can really change things. Moore made a big point out of encouraging everyone not only to vote but to travel to “swing-states” and help to transport others to the polls.
Moore wanted to make explicit the difference between “us and them”. Us was not to be confused with what he called “liberal poseurs” but what he mostly just referred to as “our side” vs. the conservatives. The word liberal has become a dirty word because they are wimps with no real drive he explained. “What I admire about the other side is that they have the courage of their convictions. They are unyielding. They are up at the crack of dawn trying to figure who to screw next.” Moore raised his voice, “our side, we never see the crack of dawn! The only time we see the crack of dawn is when we’ve been up all night!” The laughter of familiarity filled the room. He continued with this diatribe even imitating weak liberals whining “‘where do you want to go eat tonight?’, ‘I don’t know, where do you want to go?’ – ‘let’s get some pizza’ ‘no we had pizza last night.’ You know the conservative they’re like ‘get in the car we’re going to Sizzler! Red meat!’”
All in all it was a very entertaining evening. It was great to see clips from Moore’s little seen Bravo show The Awful Truth (available on DVD) being shown on a big screen and a couple of people in the audience did actually make their way to the microphones but not to engage in political discourse but to simply thank Moore for the job he’s doing. One young woman was on the verge of tears as she told of Columbine-style shootings happening where she went to school and expressed her intense appreciation for Moore asking the question “why?” Throughout the night Moore gave some of his personal rules of filmmaking and made us all excited about his upcoming film project “Fahrenheit 911” to be released on the July 4th weekend with the DVD video release slated for just weeks before the Presidential election in November. Obviously he’s got a plan in the works and it was indeed inspiring to have somebody encourage others to take a stand and try to make a difference. Now if we could only get up and get to it at the crack of dawn – that would be a start.
- Daniel Cook Johnson
More later...
Thursday, April 1, 2004
Documentaries And Curent DVDs
While we here at Film Babble Blog are getting ready for the Full Frame Documentary Film Fest in Durham starting today we'd thought we'd tell you about some of our favorite documentaries.
DOCUMENTARIES IN CURRENT DVD RELEASE RECOMMENDED BY FILM BABBLE BLOG :
The cream of the crop is :
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS - Dir. Andrew Jarecki (2003) At first this comes across like a modern reality-TV influenced update of Kurasawa's RASHOMON but then it unfolds into something completely different to quote a beloved British comedy troop who themselves are quoted in this fasinating film. A Long Island family is torn apart when accusations of child molestation are directed at the patriarch - formally respected teacer Arnold Friedman. Using tons of home movie footage and videotapes mostly shot by son David Friedman the endlessly involving myriad of allegations and defenses lingers long after the film is over. The DVD's second bonus disc is full of extra material - most interestingly "Altercation at New York Premiere" and "Just A Clown" which was Jarecki's orginal film about clown's hired for children's parties. While making that film Jarecki came across David Freidman - one of New York's popular clowns for children's parties - and his family's intriquing but confusing story. CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS is like an alternate AN AMERICAN FAMILY (the pioneering 1973 PBS reality series about the Loud Family) with a darker truth within.
Some other recent recommended reality cinema :
SPELLBOUND (2003)
TREMBLING BEFORE GOD (2002)
STONE READER (2003) -
AND NOW THE FILM BLOG PANEL PICKS THE 20 BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURES EVER:
Not really in any order:
1. HEARTS OF DARKNESS - A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE (1991)
2. CRUMB (1994)
3. HEARTS AND MINDS (1974)
4. ROGER AND ME (1988)
5. CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (2003)
6. BROTHER'S KEEPER (1993)
7. BATTLE OVER CITIZEN KANE (1995)
8. KOYAANISQUATSI (1983)
9. TIMES OF HARVEY MILK (1984)
10. ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER (2000)
11. WHEN WE WERE KINGS (1996)
12. WACO - RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (1997)
13. HARLAN COUNTY USA (1976)
14. WINGED MIGRATION (2003)
15. DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE (2003)
16. CANE TOADS (1988)
17. WAR ROOM, THE (1993)
18. THIN BLUE LINE, THE (1988)
19. PARADISE LOST I & II (1996, 2000)
20. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT (1974)
TEN GREAT MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES :
1. LAST WALTZ, THE (1977)
2. KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, THE (1979)
3. DON'T LOOK BACK (1967)
4. GIMME SHELTER (1970)
5. I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART (2002)
6. WOODSTOCK (1970)
7. ELVIS - THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (1970)
8. LET IT BE (1970)
9. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN (2002)
10. THEOLONIUS MONK - STRAIGHT NO CHASER (198)
FIVE GREAT MOCK-UMENTARIES
1. THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) - You could basically fill this list up with the work of Christopher Guest * so I'll just give honorable mentions to WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996), BEST IN SHOW (2000), AND A MIGHTY WIND (2003)
2. BOB ROBERTS (1992)
3. FEAR OF A BLACK HAT (1994)
4. REAL LIFE (1979)
5. TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969)
* THIS IS SPINAL TAP was directed by Rob Reiner but still counts as part of the work of Guest because of his creation, writing and acting in the project.
Ah, good times. And now here's some current non-documentary DVD releases tackled by the Film Babble Blog staff.
DVD REVIEW CORNER :
GOTHIKA (2003) For Christ's sake when is the trend of "I see dead people" glossy thrillers in which a supernatural force guides somebody to solving a murder going to freakin' end? Halle Berry heads a great cast (Charles Dutton, Robert Downey Jr, John Carroll Lynch) through a literal movie nitemare of pyscho jibberish. To get the plot, if you could actually call it that, straight - Berry is a prison pyschiatrist who wakes up after an automobile accident to find she's accused of murdering her husband and that she's jailed in the same prison she worked at. She can only remember flashes of imagery surrounding her accident and has no idea what really happened at the scene of the crime. Flashes of imagery and screeched dialogue are the only things I remember after viewing this badly named maze of contrivances. Berry is a good actress and a gorgeous woman so it's easy to care and get somewhat caught up in this silliness for a bit but in the end you'll hardly feel this is time spent well. The darkness of the prison does little to shadow obvious plot points coming, the murky jarring music (sounding a bit like the staccato whale sounds in STAR TREK IV) tells us when we are supposed to be scared or at least pay more attention and when it's stated in the first 10 minutes that the security center's electrical system is faulty and the lights occasionally go out I don't know anyone anywhere that would not consider that a contrived convenience. If you would not consider that to be such then this is the movie for you. As bad as you'd think Limp Bizcuit covering the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" would be and that's on the soundtrack. 'Nuff said.
- Edward Callistan
SHATTERED GLASS (2003) The fascinating true story of New Republic writer Stephen Glass who had fabricated much information and sometimes entire articles back in the '90's. Hayden Christiansen proves that he actually can act - he's more convincing as a sniveling whiny child-man caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar than a Jedi in 2 (soon to be 3) misguided prequels. Steven Sarsgaard as Glass's harried editor is the voice of reason in this tale despite the fact that he barely says anything until the storm really starts a-brewing. When the facts don't ring true - people who were quoted don't exist, commitees holding conferences that never happened, and a website created after the fact for again, a non-existent software company all come to light true human nature comes out of hiding. The story is the star here but what a star it is. Funny how a movie about lies is actually one of the most accurate "true stories" to get an run (albeit limited) on the silver screen. Go figure.
- Bertie Shafer
I'm sure that many who watch this movie will be curious about the 30 something articles Stephen Glass wrote and would get a kick out of reading them. This site has a number of them available :
http://www.rickmcginnis.com/articles/Glassindex.htm
Some of those links are broken and because this was understandably a huge embarrassment to the New Republic and other publications some articles are hard to find. The pivitol "Hack Heaven" piece on which the movie SHATTERED GLASS hinges is extremely elusive on many Google searches. If you'd like to read the article we'll send you a copy - email us here at film babble :
cookieco@sprynet.com
CAT IN THE HAT, THE (2003) : You've heard this was awful I'm sure but it's far worse than you could possibly imagine. Mike Myers brings nothing new to the character of the famous Dr. Suess just his well worn bag of over used tricks. Obviously this is a cash-in after the success of the Jim Carrey GRINCH movie which was bad as well but looks much better compared to this catastrophe. No pun intended. I'm not going to go into the plot or tell you about production values or how painful it is to see talented actors like Alec Baldwin and Sean Hayes humilated in this brightly colored crap. I'm just going to give you this example of the humor in this movie :
Conrad: (jumping up and down on the couch) It's like being in a circus!
Cat in the Hat: Yeah, but without those tortured animals or drunken clowns that have hepatitis!
And that's one of the better one liners. The only good news I have to report here is 1. It's only 78 minutes long 2. Because it was a massive flop (budget : $109 million. US box office gross : $38 million) it is unlikely we will have to suffer further live action film forays into the work of Dr. Suess 3. Uh, I guess there's only 2 good things to report. As pointless as the Paris Hilton cameo (I mean who in the target audience would that mean anything to?) this is definitely a contender for a list of worse children's movies ever. Do yourself a favor take the kids to a circus. The tortured animals and drunk clowns with hepatitis will surely provide more wit and entertainment than anything under this hat.
- Anderson Moran
More later...
DOCUMENTARIES IN CURRENT DVD RELEASE RECOMMENDED BY FILM BABBLE BLOG :
The cream of the crop is :
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS - Dir. Andrew Jarecki (2003) At first this comes across like a modern reality-TV influenced update of Kurasawa's RASHOMON but then it unfolds into something completely different to quote a beloved British comedy troop who themselves are quoted in this fasinating film. A Long Island family is torn apart when accusations of child molestation are directed at the patriarch - formally respected teacer Arnold Friedman. Using tons of home movie footage and videotapes mostly shot by son David Friedman the endlessly involving myriad of allegations and defenses lingers long after the film is over. The DVD's second bonus disc is full of extra material - most interestingly "Altercation at New York Premiere" and "Just A Clown" which was Jarecki's orginal film about clown's hired for children's parties. While making that film Jarecki came across David Freidman - one of New York's popular clowns for children's parties - and his family's intriquing but confusing story. CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS is like an alternate AN AMERICAN FAMILY (the pioneering 1973 PBS reality series about the Loud Family) with a darker truth within.
Some other recent recommended reality cinema :
SPELLBOUND (2003)
TREMBLING BEFORE GOD (2002)
STONE READER (2003) -
AND NOW THE FILM BLOG PANEL PICKS THE 20 BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURES EVER:
Not really in any order:
1. HEARTS OF DARKNESS - A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE (1991)
2. CRUMB (1994)
3. HEARTS AND MINDS (1974)
4. ROGER AND ME (1988)
5. CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (2003)
6. BROTHER'S KEEPER (1993)
7. BATTLE OVER CITIZEN KANE (1995)
8. KOYAANISQUATSI (1983)
9. TIMES OF HARVEY MILK (1984)
10. ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER (2000)
11. WHEN WE WERE KINGS (1996)
12. WACO - RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (1997)
13. HARLAN COUNTY USA (1976)
14. WINGED MIGRATION (2003)
15. DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE (2003)
16. CANE TOADS (1988)
17. WAR ROOM, THE (1993)
18. THIN BLUE LINE, THE (1988)
19. PARADISE LOST I & II (1996, 2000)
20. THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT (1974)
TEN GREAT MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES :
1. LAST WALTZ, THE (1977)
2. KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, THE (1979)
3. DON'T LOOK BACK (1967)
4. GIMME SHELTER (1970)
5. I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART (2002)
6. WOODSTOCK (1970)
7. ELVIS - THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (1970)
8. LET IT BE (1970)
9. STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN (2002)
10. THEOLONIUS MONK - STRAIGHT NO CHASER (198)
FIVE GREAT MOCK-UMENTARIES
1. THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) - You could basically fill this list up with the work of Christopher Guest * so I'll just give honorable mentions to WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996), BEST IN SHOW (2000), AND A MIGHTY WIND (2003)
2. BOB ROBERTS (1992)
3. FEAR OF A BLACK HAT (1994)
4. REAL LIFE (1979)
5. TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969)
* THIS IS SPINAL TAP was directed by Rob Reiner but still counts as part of the work of Guest because of his creation, writing and acting in the project.
Ah, good times. And now here's some current non-documentary DVD releases tackled by the Film Babble Blog staff.
DVD REVIEW CORNER :
GOTHIKA (2003) For Christ's sake when is the trend of "I see dead people" glossy thrillers in which a supernatural force guides somebody to solving a murder going to freakin' end? Halle Berry heads a great cast (Charles Dutton, Robert Downey Jr, John Carroll Lynch) through a literal movie nitemare of pyscho jibberish. To get the plot, if you could actually call it that, straight - Berry is a prison pyschiatrist who wakes up after an automobile accident to find she's accused of murdering her husband and that she's jailed in the same prison she worked at. She can only remember flashes of imagery surrounding her accident and has no idea what really happened at the scene of the crime. Flashes of imagery and screeched dialogue are the only things I remember after viewing this badly named maze of contrivances. Berry is a good actress and a gorgeous woman so it's easy to care and get somewhat caught up in this silliness for a bit but in the end you'll hardly feel this is time spent well. The darkness of the prison does little to shadow obvious plot points coming, the murky jarring music (sounding a bit like the staccato whale sounds in STAR TREK IV) tells us when we are supposed to be scared or at least pay more attention and when it's stated in the first 10 minutes that the security center's electrical system is faulty and the lights occasionally go out I don't know anyone anywhere that would not consider that a contrived convenience. If you would not consider that to be such then this is the movie for you. As bad as you'd think Limp Bizcuit covering the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" would be and that's on the soundtrack. 'Nuff said.
- Edward Callistan
SHATTERED GLASS (2003) The fascinating true story of New Republic writer Stephen Glass who had fabricated much information and sometimes entire articles back in the '90's. Hayden Christiansen proves that he actually can act - he's more convincing as a sniveling whiny child-man caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar than a Jedi in 2 (soon to be 3) misguided prequels. Steven Sarsgaard as Glass's harried editor is the voice of reason in this tale despite the fact that he barely says anything until the storm really starts a-brewing. When the facts don't ring true - people who were quoted don't exist, commitees holding conferences that never happened, and a website created after the fact for again, a non-existent software company all come to light true human nature comes out of hiding. The story is the star here but what a star it is. Funny how a movie about lies is actually one of the most accurate "true stories" to get an run (albeit limited) on the silver screen. Go figure.
- Bertie Shafer
I'm sure that many who watch this movie will be curious about the 30 something articles Stephen Glass wrote and would get a kick out of reading them. This site has a number of them available :
http://www.rickmcginnis.com/articles/Glassindex.htm
Some of those links are broken and because this was understandably a huge embarrassment to the New Republic and other publications some articles are hard to find. The pivitol "Hack Heaven" piece on which the movie SHATTERED GLASS hinges is extremely elusive on many Google searches. If you'd like to read the article we'll send you a copy - email us here at film babble :
cookieco@sprynet.com
CAT IN THE HAT, THE (2003) : You've heard this was awful I'm sure but it's far worse than you could possibly imagine. Mike Myers brings nothing new to the character of the famous Dr. Suess just his well worn bag of over used tricks. Obviously this is a cash-in after the success of the Jim Carrey GRINCH movie which was bad as well but looks much better compared to this catastrophe. No pun intended. I'm not going to go into the plot or tell you about production values or how painful it is to see talented actors like Alec Baldwin and Sean Hayes humilated in this brightly colored crap. I'm just going to give you this example of the humor in this movie :
Conrad: (jumping up and down on the couch) It's like being in a circus!
Cat in the Hat: Yeah, but without those tortured animals or drunken clowns that have hepatitis!
And that's one of the better one liners. The only good news I have to report here is 1. It's only 78 minutes long 2. Because it was a massive flop (budget : $109 million. US box office gross : $38 million) it is unlikely we will have to suffer further live action film forays into the work of Dr. Suess 3. Uh, I guess there's only 2 good things to report. As pointless as the Paris Hilton cameo (I mean who in the target audience would that mean anything to?) this is definitely a contender for a list of worse children's movies ever. Do yourself a favor take the kids to a circus. The tortured animals and drunk clowns with hepatitis will surely provide more wit and entertainment than anything under this hat.
- Anderson Moran
More later...
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