Alright, so after writing quite a lot about Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place, I thought I should get back down to business and really kick out the jams. Because if I keep going at this pace I will never get done. And Jean is out of town for work this week, so I really need to keep some space available on the DVR for it to record her stuff.
I'm going to run with a theme here of "Things That Are So..." since all of these movies really exemplified the era in which they were made. You'll see what I mean. So let's see what I've seen...
The Mouse That Roared
Things That Are So 1960's (technically 1959). I had high hopes for this since it stars Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, and William Hartnell. Basically you can play Six Degrees of Kubrick, French New Wave, or Doctor Who and this film is your ace in the hole.
Sadly, most comedies do not age well. I happened upon Wayne's World the other day on TV and it made me want to kill myself for ever thinking it was funny. So nevermind that 10-star review in the imdb link I included. The Mouse That Roared was a chore.
Peter Sellers stars as the queen, prime minister, and head of the army of the tiny European nation of Grand Fenwick that finds itself going bankrupt. They realize that if they declare war on the USA and lose, they'll be wealthy because the US always gives tons of foreign aid to countries they defeat. Jolly good.
Peter Sellers' bumbling character Tully leads the small army with the help of Will Buckley (William Hartnell, the first and best Doctor Who) and they'll need it since the Grand Fenwick army still dresses in chain mail and their primary weapon is the bow & arrow.
They set off for the shores of the US and land on the day that New York City is under lock down over testing of the new earth shattering weapon, The Q Bomb, invented by Dr. Kokintz, who is assisted by his lovely daughter Helen (Jean Seberg). Oh yes, and these two are the only people guarding it on the day of its supposed testing. Which is happening in a nondescript office building in Manhattan. Or something. Scrutinizing the details will just drive you mad.
Hilarity ensues and the underdog Grand Fenwick army gets its hands on the Q Bomb and brings it back home to become a nuclear power that stands up for all the small nations of the world. I get the satire of it but the execution leaves something to be desired.
Jean Seberg is given the thankless cliche role of love-interest and she does her best with it. William Hartnell gets to be gruff and stern. Peter Sellers does his Peter Sellers thing of playing multiple roles. The queen is out of touch with common people. The Prime Minister is actually the funniest role but he's somewhat under used. I can see where Stephen Fry got his inspiration for playing Melchit in Black Adder from. And Tully is a sad sack but not very funny and of course is in 90% of the film.
Interesting enough concept but good lord the pacing is terrible. Basically an hour and a half long episode of The Beverly Hillbillies "Robin Hood" story. Which makes sense as the director, Jack Arnold, was a regular TV hack and it shows.
Mother, Jugs, and Speed
File under: Things that are so 70's.
We can accurately carbon date Mother, Jugs, and Speed to 1977 by the soundtrack alone. We get some Frampton, Brothers Johnson, Cat Stevens, a sappy Michelle Phillips ballad and a full on coked out disco theme song. One glance at the locations and we know we're in the thick of 1977 Los Angeles.
The film follows the misadventures of a crew of EMTs who work for an independent ambulance company trying to make ends meet. This movie must have made a big impression on Quentin Tarantino. You've got Harvey Keitel, you've got razor sharp dialogue, sporadic violence, great character details, and the cinematography has that same golden sunny California look of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction.
All directed by Peter Yates! The director of films like Bullitt and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. So this is a great comedy turn from Yates who balances it all with his skills for drama and action. The script is great if not a little heavy handed in dealing with some of the big issues of the time, mainly the differences and similarities between racism and sexism. There's a great cross section of 70's L.A. seediness on display as we follow the EMT's from call to call. Did Martin Scorsese not see this film? Mother, Jugs, and Speed is much better than Bringing Out the Dead and features no Natalie Merchant songs.
Bill Cosby of the 70's was so much cooler than Bill Cosby of today. As Mother, he's the smartest guy in the room and not afraid to speak his mind. He's got a take no shit attitude and perfect one liner for any situation. Raquel Welch plays Jugs, the long-time dispatch operator who wants to be an EMT and deals with the requisite sexism thrown her way. Harvey Keitel plays it cool as Speed, an ex-cop EMT who was thrown off the force for allegedly (more like definitely) selling coke who hooks up with Jugs. All to the chagrin of the smarmy and lecherous Murdoch played by Larry Hagman in fine form.
A great surprise. Sadly the same can't be said for...
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother
I really wanted to like this. I grew up on The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstien. So when I saw the cast listing of Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn I had high hopes. Sadly this film doesn't deliver. Gene Wilder is in Freak-Out Screaming Mode but he's never overreacting to anything significant. He's just screaming a lot. The point of Frederick Frankenstein's blow outs were that he was screaming out of frustration at the other characters and for his reputation as a Frankenstein. Being a Holmes just doesn't have that kind of stigma.
Really this film seems to have been made so Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn could do some song & dance numbers together. There are some clever gags but it pales in comparison to Young Frankenstein. If anything this film shows that Young Frankenstein was the perfect synthesis of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder talents. Without each other they never made as subtle or intelligent of a film.
A Night In Heaven
Things That Are So 1983.
1. Christopher Atkins post-The Blue Lagoon is in it. He's a male stripper. We get a glimpse of his wang during the Hard R sex scene with Lesley Ann Warren.
2. Deney Terrio
3. Music by Jan Hammer, Bryan Adams, and Human League.
4. Short shorts as far as the eye can see.
5. The Dawn of the Recumbent Bicycle
6. John G. Avildsen directs!
They don't make high concept Hard R melodramas like this anymore. Lesley Ann Warren stars as Faye Hanlon, a community college instructor who begins to have an affair with one of her students, a hot young male stripper played by Christopher Atkins. Her marriage is on the rocks after her husband, a rocket scientist, is fired for refusing to design missiles. He now spends his time inventing the recumbent bike. And staring off into the middle distance while sitting around their wood paneled kitchen. Instead of making time for his incredibly hot wife (bare with me as I am biased here. Warren played Miss Scarlet in the film Clue, and a key figure on my journey through puberty in the 80's).
So Faye joins her sister Patsy (played by Deborah Rush, Mrs. Blank from Strangers With Candy!) one night for a trip to the local male strip club. Because every town has one evidently. Then again this film does take place in Florida.
Oh man, this strip club is off the chain. Not only is packed with ladies and all the strippers are hot, but they have an emcee who narrates EVERY SINGLE THING of what's going on on the dance floor in vivid detail. Basically this is where Patton Oswalt got the emcee character he did in Starsky & Hutch. Spin that with the incredibly gay stage banter of Paul Stanley and you have have it. Your time is worth it to watch this movie just for the strip club scene.
After watching a few hunks do their thing Faye and Patsy and the girls are treated to an elaborate strip routine done by Ricky the Rocket who is dressed up in a Star Wars-esque space pilot outfit. And when he takes his space helmet off, it's none other than Ricky, Faye's student who she's flunking! Obvioulsy this means that he needs to come up and dance for her until they share a kiss to the strains of The Human League's "Obsession".
Soon Faye is joining her sister and crew on frequent trips to the strip clubs and begins an affair with Ricky. Finally Faye's husband stops obsessing over his recumbent bicycle and finds out that she's having an affair which all of a sudden makes him want his wife. The husband kidnaps Ricky and brings him out to the middle of a lake and makes him strip naked while he holds a gun on him. After a lot of yelling and screaming he leaves Ricky alone, stranded on the boat.
And that's about it. On the way we have several sex scenes that go on way too long, a trip to a video game manufacturing plant, an incredibly long tracking shot outside a space shuttle plant, and Deney Terrio as Ricky the Rockets buddy.
Wow.
Finally we have...
Harley Davidson and The Marlboro Man
Things That Are So 1991.
1. Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson star.
2. Tom Sizemore plays the bad guy.
3. Daniel Baldwin and some guys play relentless killers who wear kevlar trenchcoats and walk in unison.
4. Tia Carrere is Sizemore's henchwoman and has zero lines of dialogue.
5. As does Vanessa Williams although she gets to play a singer who has a romantic history with Mickey Rourke. Yeah. That's what I said. Oh yes, but now she's married to Big John Studd of WWF fame.
6. Lots of scenes set in an old airplane junkyard.
7. Mickey Rourke's leather biker jacket has a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn sewn into it. Now that's Talking 'Bout Africa!
If you ever wondered what a movie made by Howard Chaykin would be like, this is it. Nearly every line of dialogue is a macho cliche. There must have been tons of coke on-set.
I know The Adventures of Hudson Hawk or The Last Action Hero get called out for being the apex of stupidity in Big Action Movies but we have some competition here. So bad it's great!
I'm going to run with a theme here of "Things That Are So..." since all of these movies really exemplified the era in which they were made. You'll see what I mean. So let's see what I've seen...
The Mouse That Roared
Things That Are So 1960's (technically 1959). I had high hopes for this since it stars Peter Sellers, Jean Seberg, and William Hartnell. Basically you can play Six Degrees of Kubrick, French New Wave, or Doctor Who and this film is your ace in the hole.
Sadly, most comedies do not age well. I happened upon Wayne's World the other day on TV and it made me want to kill myself for ever thinking it was funny. So nevermind that 10-star review in the imdb link I included. The Mouse That Roared was a chore.
Peter Sellers stars as the queen, prime minister, and head of the army of the tiny European nation of Grand Fenwick that finds itself going bankrupt. They realize that if they declare war on the USA and lose, they'll be wealthy because the US always gives tons of foreign aid to countries they defeat. Jolly good.
Peter Sellers' bumbling character Tully leads the small army with the help of Will Buckley (William Hartnell, the first and best Doctor Who) and they'll need it since the Grand Fenwick army still dresses in chain mail and their primary weapon is the bow & arrow.
They set off for the shores of the US and land on the day that New York City is under lock down over testing of the new earth shattering weapon, The Q Bomb, invented by Dr. Kokintz, who is assisted by his lovely daughter Helen (Jean Seberg). Oh yes, and these two are the only people guarding it on the day of its supposed testing. Which is happening in a nondescript office building in Manhattan. Or something. Scrutinizing the details will just drive you mad.
Hilarity ensues and the underdog Grand Fenwick army gets its hands on the Q Bomb and brings it back home to become a nuclear power that stands up for all the small nations of the world. I get the satire of it but the execution leaves something to be desired.
Jean Seberg is given the thankless cliche role of love-interest and she does her best with it. William Hartnell gets to be gruff and stern. Peter Sellers does his Peter Sellers thing of playing multiple roles. The queen is out of touch with common people. The Prime Minister is actually the funniest role but he's somewhat under used. I can see where Stephen Fry got his inspiration for playing Melchit in Black Adder from. And Tully is a sad sack but not very funny and of course is in 90% of the film.
Interesting enough concept but good lord the pacing is terrible. Basically an hour and a half long episode of The Beverly Hillbillies "Robin Hood" story. Which makes sense as the director, Jack Arnold, was a regular TV hack and it shows.
Mother, Jugs, and Speed
File under: Things that are so 70's.
We can accurately carbon date Mother, Jugs, and Speed to 1977 by the soundtrack alone. We get some Frampton, Brothers Johnson, Cat Stevens, a sappy Michelle Phillips ballad and a full on coked out disco theme song. One glance at the locations and we know we're in the thick of 1977 Los Angeles.
The film follows the misadventures of a crew of EMTs who work for an independent ambulance company trying to make ends meet. This movie must have made a big impression on Quentin Tarantino. You've got Harvey Keitel, you've got razor sharp dialogue, sporadic violence, great character details, and the cinematography has that same golden sunny California look of Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction.
All directed by Peter Yates! The director of films like Bullitt and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. So this is a great comedy turn from Yates who balances it all with his skills for drama and action. The script is great if not a little heavy handed in dealing with some of the big issues of the time, mainly the differences and similarities between racism and sexism. There's a great cross section of 70's L.A. seediness on display as we follow the EMT's from call to call. Did Martin Scorsese not see this film? Mother, Jugs, and Speed is much better than Bringing Out the Dead and features no Natalie Merchant songs.
Bill Cosby of the 70's was so much cooler than Bill Cosby of today. As Mother, he's the smartest guy in the room and not afraid to speak his mind. He's got a take no shit attitude and perfect one liner for any situation. Raquel Welch plays Jugs, the long-time dispatch operator who wants to be an EMT and deals with the requisite sexism thrown her way. Harvey Keitel plays it cool as Speed, an ex-cop EMT who was thrown off the force for allegedly (more like definitely) selling coke who hooks up with Jugs. All to the chagrin of the smarmy and lecherous Murdoch played by Larry Hagman in fine form.
A great surprise. Sadly the same can't be said for...
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother
I really wanted to like this. I grew up on The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstien. So when I saw the cast listing of Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn I had high hopes. Sadly this film doesn't deliver. Gene Wilder is in Freak-Out Screaming Mode but he's never overreacting to anything significant. He's just screaming a lot. The point of Frederick Frankenstein's blow outs were that he was screaming out of frustration at the other characters and for his reputation as a Frankenstein. Being a Holmes just doesn't have that kind of stigma.
Really this film seems to have been made so Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn could do some song & dance numbers together. There are some clever gags but it pales in comparison to Young Frankenstein. If anything this film shows that Young Frankenstein was the perfect synthesis of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder talents. Without each other they never made as subtle or intelligent of a film.
A Night In Heaven
Things That Are So 1983.
1. Christopher Atkins post-The Blue Lagoon is in it. He's a male stripper. We get a glimpse of his wang during the Hard R sex scene with Lesley Ann Warren.
2. Deney Terrio
3. Music by Jan Hammer, Bryan Adams, and Human League.
4. Short shorts as far as the eye can see.
5. The Dawn of the Recumbent Bicycle
6. John G. Avildsen directs!
They don't make high concept Hard R melodramas like this anymore. Lesley Ann Warren stars as Faye Hanlon, a community college instructor who begins to have an affair with one of her students, a hot young male stripper played by Christopher Atkins. Her marriage is on the rocks after her husband, a rocket scientist, is fired for refusing to design missiles. He now spends his time inventing the recumbent bike. And staring off into the middle distance while sitting around their wood paneled kitchen. Instead of making time for his incredibly hot wife (bare with me as I am biased here. Warren played Miss Scarlet in the film Clue, and a key figure on my journey through puberty in the 80's).
So Faye joins her sister Patsy (played by Deborah Rush, Mrs. Blank from Strangers With Candy!) one night for a trip to the local male strip club. Because every town has one evidently. Then again this film does take place in Florida.
Oh man, this strip club is off the chain. Not only is packed with ladies and all the strippers are hot, but they have an emcee who narrates EVERY SINGLE THING of what's going on on the dance floor in vivid detail. Basically this is where Patton Oswalt got the emcee character he did in Starsky & Hutch. Spin that with the incredibly gay stage banter of Paul Stanley and you have have it. Your time is worth it to watch this movie just for the strip club scene.
After watching a few hunks do their thing Faye and Patsy and the girls are treated to an elaborate strip routine done by Ricky the Rocket who is dressed up in a Star Wars-esque space pilot outfit. And when he takes his space helmet off, it's none other than Ricky, Faye's student who she's flunking! Obvioulsy this means that he needs to come up and dance for her until they share a kiss to the strains of The Human League's "Obsession".
Soon Faye is joining her sister and crew on frequent trips to the strip clubs and begins an affair with Ricky. Finally Faye's husband stops obsessing over his recumbent bicycle and finds out that she's having an affair which all of a sudden makes him want his wife. The husband kidnaps Ricky and brings him out to the middle of a lake and makes him strip naked while he holds a gun on him. After a lot of yelling and screaming he leaves Ricky alone, stranded on the boat.
And that's about it. On the way we have several sex scenes that go on way too long, a trip to a video game manufacturing plant, an incredibly long tracking shot outside a space shuttle plant, and Deney Terrio as Ricky the Rockets buddy.
Wow.
Finally we have...
Harley Davidson and The Marlboro Man
Things That Are So 1991.
1. Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson star.
2. Tom Sizemore plays the bad guy.
3. Daniel Baldwin and some guys play relentless killers who wear kevlar trenchcoats and walk in unison.
4. Tia Carrere is Sizemore's henchwoman and has zero lines of dialogue.
5. As does Vanessa Williams although she gets to play a singer who has a romantic history with Mickey Rourke. Yeah. That's what I said. Oh yes, but now she's married to Big John Studd of WWF fame.
6. Lots of scenes set in an old airplane junkyard.
7. Mickey Rourke's leather biker jacket has a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn sewn into it. Now that's Talking 'Bout Africa!
If you ever wondered what a movie made by Howard Chaykin would be like, this is it. Nearly every line of dialogue is a macho cliche. There must have been tons of coke on-set.
I know The Adventures of Hudson Hawk or The Last Action Hero get called out for being the apex of stupidity in Big Action Movies but we have some competition here. So bad it's great!
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