Evel Knievel
1938-2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
"People are frightened by what they don't understand."
David Lynch's reputation as pretty much lied on the fact is films usually don't make sense but still be ultimately engrossing - I don't know maybe some people do know what goes on in his films, just not me - and a good viewing. The Elephant Man (1980) however, actually does make sense, it efforts to tell the true story of John Merrick (real name is actually Joseph Merrick - played wonderfully by John Hurt), born hideously deformed and nicknamed The Elephant Man
Go to IMDB to check out the full plot of this film. The Elephant Man is one of those movies that sticks in your mind long after you see it, full of wonderful performances including Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud, Freddie Jones, Wendy Hillier and Anne Bancroft in a relatively small role. The film packs a wonderful emotional punch, for the last hour of this movie, I practically had tears down my eyes, Hurt brings a wonderful realism to Merrick turning in an amazing performance despite been under pounds and pounds of makeup
It's hard to believe this film is from 1980, I mean that becauser the film feels completely timeless, looking easily at place in the 50s as it does now, with terrific performances and brilliant direction, this is David Lynch at his best, I wish in someways that all of his films where this style (there is some dreamy stuff going on here though. If you haven't seen this movie SEE IT NOW!!!, you won't be sorry
Scenes That Rock (Video Special)
From now on if I can find video evidence of the scene in question that I love, I'm going to post a video of it. This film is from the ending of the 1973 film The Wicker Man and it spoils the ending for you if you haven't seen it. I think the song the islanders all sing is amazing.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
"Consider That a divorce!!!!"
WARNING, THERE'S A CHANCE SPOILERS ARE ALL OVER THIS
Before I start talking about Total Recall (1990) in this relatively short review, I just want to say I consider Arnold Schwarzenegger the worst actor to ever make the A-list, even if he didn't have trouble grasping the english langauge, he's performances where constantly extremely wooden, I'm not bad mouthing the guy afterall, I own every film he did in the 80s and most of the early 90s: Schwarzenegger 9 times out of 10, always had my favourite catchphrases.
So on Total Recall then, directed by Paul Verhoeven, whose something of a favourite of mine thanks to films like RoboCop, Showgirls, Flesh + Blood and Turkish Delight, his films often feature an healthy dose of sex and/or violence and is based on the Phillip K. Dick story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale". Arnie stars as Douglas Quaid, a man who may or may not have gone to Mars or who may or may not really be the bad guy. The film would almost be a clever mind fuck of a film if it was clear that the Studio Ed's wanted this to be an Arnie film - so there is much mindless violence, poor innocent bystanders getting shot in killed in bloody ways-. Arnie of course it terrible in this movie, but hey it's Arnie. The villains are so much better: Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox, also Sharon Stone who may or may not be Arnie's wife (probably not his wife) is probably at her most sexiest ever in this movie.
In conclusion, it would probably upset Phillip K. Dick purists that the book was turned into an Arnie actioner, others can appericate it as an exciting way to spend a couple of hours. I do however feel the film only just earns 4 Fonzie Thumbs Up. All in all recommended though
"Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho."
Another Christmas movie. Die Hard (1988) holds a special place in my heart. Not only is it one of my favourite Christmas movies, it's also one of, if not my favourite action movie(s). The movie is actually based on a novel by Roderick Thorpe called Nothing Lasts Forever, which was a sequel to The Detective (which in turn was a film starring Frank Sinatra, and on another note Willis made his debut in an uncredited role in The First Deadly Sin which starred Frank Sinatra, it's always six degrees in Hollywood). Bruce Willis stars as John McClane, a New York cop visiting his wife and kids in L.A. on Christmas Eve, they seem to have hit a bit of rocky patch his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) as even reverted back to her maiden name Gennero, however Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), the leader of a group of German terrorists take over the Nakatomi Plaza (Holly's place of work)
The film is action packed from start to finish, with a number of great action sequences, excellent quips and wonderful characters, take Ellis (Hart Bochner) for example, a complete weasel, but utterly memorable because of it, Reginald VelJohnson as Al Powell is also great as are Paul Gleason, Robert Davi, Grand L. Bush and William Atherton. Some of my favourite moments include sending the dead terrorist down in the elevator in tinsel, a Santa hat and the words "Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho" written on his top. I didn't mention Alan Rickman in the group of other great characters earlier because I feel he deserves special mention, certainly one of my favourite villains of all time.
Probably the most kick-ass action packed Christmas movie. This movie is probably among my top movies of all time. Bruce Willis' movie career was born from this movie and you can see why. Recommended.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Saturday, November 24, 2007
This is Tom Hanks saying if you see me in person, please, leave me be.
Managed to see The Simpsons Movie (2007) today. Before moving onto the actual movie, people have talked about a Simpsons Movie for the longest time, many animated series and come (and many finished) since The Simpsons first came onto the air as a series in 1989 and have ventured onto the big screen: Beavis and Butthead, South Park, The Powerpuff Girls, Rugrats, Doug, Hey Arnold, The Wild Thornberry's, Spongebob Squarepants and probably more I can't remember at the minute.
So a show like The Simpsons, which was probably an influence on many of these actually getting onto television was when it came to making a movie, actually lagging behind the pack...anyway, onto the movie, the first thing I want to say: It is funny, Homer in love with a pig is great, a lot of other little moments, however, it doesn't feel like a film, it just feels like a part four episode cut together ***SPOILER ALERT*** Bart exposing himself feels like the only thing we'd have never have seen on the series ***END OF SPOILER***
I'm just going to write a short review of The Simpsons Movie, time is against me. Overall, I recommend watching it, don't expect anything too different from the animated series, but there is a lot of high quality laughs.
Since Christmas is coming up I like to get in the Christmas spirit by watching Christmas themed films. (I used the word Christmas 3 times in one sentance), so in the upcoming weeks I'll probably watch many of the following (if not all of them): Gremlins, White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Scrooged, Bad Santa, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Santa Claus The Movie, A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I watched the first of many Christmassy movies today... Elf (2003)
Now I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell (forgetting he made poo like Kicking and Screaming and Bewitched) and he is great here as the man child Buddy. Originally Buddy is a baby in an orphange that is visited by Santa Clause (Edward Asner) who sneaks into Santa's sack and is brought back to the North Pole, he is adopted by Bob Newhart and raised as an elf despite towering them by many feet, one day he find's out he is not actually an elf and sets off for New York city to find his real dad (James Caan).
That's where a bit of culture clash comedy comes in, New Yorkers (as least how they are portrayed in films and television) keep themselves to themselves, Buddy is over excited, his first visit to his dad doesn't go to well and ends up by mistake getting brought into a Gimble's Christmas display and he excited when he hears the news Santa is coming, in this time he notices a girl (played by the lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely Zooey Deschanel). One as to assume/hope Buddy is a virgin at this point, cause the thought of him bumping uglies with a elf is pretty scary. Anyway, after hearing Zooey Deschanel singing in the shower and duetting with her (and scaring her), the Santa comes and Buddy uncovers him as not the real Santa and the two fight with Buddy ending up in prison, he uses the phone call to ring his dad, who comes up and takes Buddy for a DNA test, it is proved they are father and son. He comes to stay with the family, dad hoping he gets over the elf fixation and it's revealed he's pretty distant to his family
The film is certainly a family comedy (even though bits of are a bit rude, Will Ferrell is great in the lead and Zooey Deschanel shines (yes I was making an excuse to post a picture of her), I laughed out loud a few times and I'm sure it's going to be seen for many Christmas Days to come by everybody. The film will give you your Christmas spirit, whether you like it or not.
Friday, November 23, 2007
30 Things I Love About... NewsRadio
Welcome to the 2nd of the 30 Things I Love series this time is a sit-com I love very much: NewsRadio. The show as been seen very little in Britan it recieved it longest run on the Paramount Comedy Channel in 2000 at one in the morning, the show in my eyes is a lot better then most of the laugh track sit-coms of it's time period (ran from 96 to 99) and those since.
- PHIL HARTMAN: COMEDY GOD
- Super Karate Monkey Death Car
- Jimmy James neverending quest for a wife
- Bill and Dave give up smoking
- Jon Lovitz 1st appearance as the mental patient
- The attempt to cut down the baseball advert
- The Rat Funeral
- Bill McNeal's jingles (Hey...Great Question!)
- Dave talking to Jimmy James whilst in a coma
- Dave reading from the complaint box
- John Ritter and Phil Hartman get to share scenes together
- Matthew's obsession with Dilbert
- Joe tries to impress Catherine
- Dave's girlfriend played by Janeane Garofalo
- The Cane
- Joey Buttafuoco
- Bill pretends to be British
- James Caan's obsession with Matthew
- The Shaft
- Catherine tries to find out Bill's birthday
- The daydreams
- Matthew's moustache
- Jimmy loses Bill in a poker game
- Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor
- Matthew's "twin brother"
- Dave gets obsessed with an arcade game.
- Jimmy teaches Beth negotiation tactics.
- Bill's autobiography
- Joe teaches Matthew how to gamble.
- Dave is a CANADIAN!!!!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Great Years in Film: 1994
1994 is a special cinema year for me, it was the around the time I came of age in Cinema years, first going to cinema on a regular basis (seeing some good and some stinkers like Richie Rich), 1994 was also the year I first entered senoir school, so here's some of my personal favourites (note: some of these films I didn't see until much later)
The Shawshank Redemption
is probably my favourite film of the year. The film was a flop on original movie, maybe because of the title, what the hell is a Shawshank? and why does it need redemption?. Robbins Andy is sent down for a murder he didn't do (of his wife and her lover), here he mights Red (Morgan Freeman) and without giving away the twist of the film it's about hope and never giving up (Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying). Even though Stephen King is known for his horror stories, some of his better stories are away from the genre (this originally appeared in the Different Seasons short story collection alongside The Body - which later become the excellent movie Stand by Me).Another favourite of mine this year is Ed Wood, which was the second colloboration of many between director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp and tells the story of infamous b-movie director Edward D. Wood Jr. aka the worst director who ever lived, Wood who also had a thing for angora sweaters is lovingly presented here and surroned by a wonderful array of characters including Bill Murray as Bunny and Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. A really enjoyable biopic.
Another film based on a true story, Heavenly Creatures, was a shock to me when I first saw it, the reasoning been, up until that point the Peter Jackson movies I'd seen where Bad Taste, Brain Dead and Meet the Feebles, the change of pace was very drastic, but the story still hooked me in.
Leon
(also known as Leon: The Professional and The Professional) is a great movie which features a kind of love story at the centre between Leon (Jean Reno) and Mathilda (Natalie Portman, in her first role, who is absolutely brilliant) -I say a kind of love story because Mathilda wants to be his lover, whilst Leon seems to become more the father figure to her she didn't have), great action sequences, great performances (Portman of course and a wonderful OTT turn from Gary Oldman)Pulp Fiction
was Quentin Tarantino's second movie that brought John Travolta back into the fold (though with films like Battlefield Earth and Wild Hogs he seems to want out of the fold ASAP), there really is no-one better then the supercool, burger eating, bible quoting Samuel L. Jackson. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The three story structure works to excellent effect here aswell as the timeframe mixed up, because as Travolta's Vincent Vega gets killed in the second story and third story is centred around him, him walking into the sunset as a poignant sadness to it.Natural Born Killers
, saw Oliver Stone direct Quentin Tarantino's script and feels like you are on one big trip, thanks to different film stocks being used and insane colours, it doesn't help the fact that Tommy Lee Jones seems to be in a completely different movie aswell as Robert Downey Jr. accent. Woody Harrelson and Jullette Lewis make excellent psycho-lovers and the soundtrack is fantastic.The Last Seduction
as Linda Fiorentina, one of the most dangerous femme fatale's to ever grace the screen, I think this went straight to cable in the US which is a massive shame. Fiortenia is the absolute perfect bitch who uses her femine charms to get what she wants (getting the men to risk their lives, pretending to be vunerable when the police are about). Great movie, a bit overlooked if you ask me.Speed
, was at the time one of the best action movies to come along since Die Hard (which in my opinion restructured the entire action genre), the plot is obvious, but the thrill "ride" (sorry for the bad pun) is one worth taking, these are the sort of films I prefer Keanu Reeves in (that and being a dude).Forrest Gump
, was the Oscar winner of this year and many complained it was very undeserving, I like this film a lot -it hits the right emotional buttons, the music is great and Tom Hanks performance is very strong- To me the saddest moment is when Forrest learns he's got a son (played by Haley Joel Osment), he tries to asks Jenny (Robin Wright) if he his dumb but he can't get his words out. Great movie.The Lion King
, in my eyes is the last great Disney movie (not including Pixar movies). The Lion King as some great dramatic scenes, decent songs and non annoying sidekicks in the form of Tumon and Pumba. Scar is one scary villain. Disney hasn't been this good in a long while.
Dumb and Dumber
is a film I loved back in 1994 even going to cinema twice to see it and it's probably one of the Jim Carrey comedies that as dated best, I think Jeff Daniels proved here how great of a comedy actor he can be here and Mike Starr gets a fairly big role (I always feel his roles in movies are too small), it all makes up for damp squid Lauren Holly (I'm not a fan of her). My favourite moment is when Lloyd (Jim Carrey) sells the bird to the blind kid. Still funny.Clerks
was Kevin Smith's first film made for an incredibly miniscule budget ($47,000 If I recall) is not shot great, not acted entirely great (it was everybody's first film- Jeff Anderson I feel for example got more comfortable in the animated series and the film sequel), but as a brilliantly funny script. It was also the film that gave us the iconic Jay and Silent Bob (who just won't go away, I'm not saying that's a bad thing). Probably still my favourite Smith film.Another great comedy, this time out of Australia is The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which was something I came to like a few years after (it wasn't okay for a 12-13 year old boy to watch films involving cross dressers. It's the film that I think of when I think of Terence Stamp and Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving as good as started their terrific careers here. Outrageously great.
That's it for now, join me next time, as I go 10 back from 1994 to 1984, a year of some great childhooD favourites of mine.
Coming Up!
Things coming up in the next few weeks:
- More reviews, including classic reviews and episode by episode reviews
- What's on my Itunes. I confess what the top 50 most played songs on my Itunes player are. Be prepared to be ashamed for me.
- The best films of 1994.
- 30 Things I Love About...NewsRadio
- More Bask in the Loveliness.
- More insane, dirty and funny comic book covers.
- No promises but the new thing titled MY IDEAL... could be making it's debut pretty soon, in this I pick out things like My Ideal TV night in, My Ideal Music Festival, My Ideal Wrestling DVD.
- Again no promises, but the return of Great Television characters and Scenes That Rock.
All these promises to make November the most updated month of mine ever!
Twas the night before a party, when all through the town, no pigs were stirring, no cops were around.
Anybody who knows me knows I have an affection for bad films, from Ed Wood (particulary Glen or Glenda) to Herschell Gordon Lewis, and of course Bruceploitation to the classic Showgirls to the more recent D.O.A.: Dead or Alive, so it does saddened me when I come across a bad movie with not a single ounce of charm and with nothing to recommend.
That film is The Smokers (2000), written and directed by Kat Slater and tells the story of three teenage girls (played by Dominique Swain, Busy Philipps and Keri Lynn Pratt) who decide with the help of a trusty pistol decide to turn the table on men who treat them as sex objects to make the men feel weak.
The direction is amateurish (and I don't like to bad mouth people's direction), a terrible plot and some really terrible performances (Nicholas M. Loeb, the producer was cast as one the main leads and is probably the worst performance in the entire movie) and I hate this movie because it makes me find a film features Dominique Swain, Busy Philipps and Thora Birch (probably the best thing here) unwatchable. The film is utter crap with one of the worst rape scenes ever committed to celluloid (a better director could have give that scene a better impact.)
Do not watch this film. It's probably one of the worst films ever, there is no charm here that can be present in some "bad" films. Whilst on IMDB I looked up what else Kat Slater as directed, here's some of the choice titles:
- Cum Swappers 3
- Campus Confessions 10
- Young Sluts, Inc. 11
- Girl Play
So this is probably her finest work.
*Ralph Malph is the lowest rating any film can get (lower then 1 Fonz) reserved for films of this suckatude, I think Ralph Malph's great BTW, he's just not as cool as the Fonz.
I was nearly beat by a transvestite!
I didn't think they'd be another Bruceploitation Corner until Christmas/New Year time because I didn't expect I'd be getting a new Bruceploitation film before then. Last week, I listed all the different types of Bruceploitation films there could be out there, today's title falls firmly into the starring a Bruceploitation actor. Now the last two weeks have both been Bruce Li films, this week somebody else gets the chance...Dragon Lee and the movie in question is Secret Ninja, Roaring Tiger from 1982 (the film as also apparently gone under the names Secret Ninja and also Justice of the Ninja)
Forgetting it's Bruceploitation ties for a minute: Secret Ninja, Roaring Tiger is actually a fairly decent kung fu movie. Dragon Lee plays the imagitavely named Dragon who wins a martial arts contest and the hand of Susan (prounced Susan most of the movie but Suzanne once for some reason), Tiger So (Hwang Jang Lee) and his ninja crew kidnap Susan soon after in order to get the fortune from her adpoted father (because he's the king of something I guess, I'm not it's explained why he's rich and offering his daughter in marriage). Dragon teams up with two other fights and they travel to the Ninja's castle
Dragon Lee is pretty charismatic in this movie and possibly a little bi-curious, in one scene he's tries to grope the breasts of a man in who is clearly in drag (and he even feels his hairy legs) and checks out the backside of somebody believing to be a man and that's when he discovers she's really a woman, that bit confused me because I didn't know up until that point that they where supposed to think she was a man but I guess she was. The fight scenes are pretty good and they are frequent- they basically stop for a little bit of "story", nudity (female breasts and Dragon Lee's arse!) and a bit of comedy.
The budget was clearly limited one scene (pictured above) as one of the Ninja's coming out of the ground (to show that they can use the element of surprise from anywhere). Would have been cool if cardboard didn't fly everywhere though. ***SPOILER ALERT*** The ending is a bit weird too. Tiger So hands their arses to them, but they finally get the upper hand when the "lovely" Susan flashes her breasts at him disorentining him in the process, forgotten they already had a awkward love scene and seeing her naked when she whipped. I can't argue though, it would probably be the quickest way to beat me in a fight.
Like I said, a fairly entertaining kung fu movie and a Bruceploitation by the loosest sense, with decent fighting scenes and other good moments including the awesome line "I was nearly beat by a transvestite!" (which doesn't appear in every kung fu movie). I'm going to have to say I recommend this movie.
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