The Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule has a new movie quiz up:
PROFESSOR PEABODY'S HYSTERICAL HISTORICAL WAYBACK SPRING BREAK FILM QUIZ.
Since it's been up for a week, there are already ~40 entries. Mine is about number 35. And I copied off of my wife's paper.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Crazy Bald Heads
Bad Manners: Don't Knock the Bald Heads:English 80's ska revival band Bad Manners play a concert in 2004 in a small venue in Essex. That's it in a nutshell.
If you don't know ska, it's a Jamaican precursor to reggae, generally a lot faster and more horn driven. The English did it in a special way in the 80's - loopy fun with a Jamaican cockney accent. Bad Manners was one of the goofier bands, fronted by a fat bastard called Buster Bloodvessel.
In their current incarnation, they have drums, bass, guitar, congas and organ, with a horn section of baritone sax, trumpet, trombone and bass trombone. Someone plays harmonica too. That's a lot of music. Buster is enormously fat, with a shaved head and a tongue like a slab of beef's liver. When the crowd chants "You fat bastard!", he tells them they are too kind.
They do all their old hits (that I know about), starting with "My Girl Lollipop" and ending with their hit "Lip Up Fatty". Along with ska anthems like "King Ska-Fa" and "This is Ska" and originals like "Skinhead Girl" and "I Love You Fatty", they mangle standards like "Pipeline", "You're Just Too Good to Be True" and the Can Can.
Disclaimer: I saw these guys sandwiched between Skanking Pickle (representing 90's neo-ska) and The Skatalites (original Jamaican ska) at the Edge in Palo Alto ca. 1992. Great show. If you haven't seen them, this is the next best thing.
In conclusion, there are a bunch of interviews and extras that I didn't view.
If you don't know ska, it's a Jamaican precursor to reggae, generally a lot faster and more horn driven. The English did it in a special way in the 80's - loopy fun with a Jamaican cockney accent. Bad Manners was one of the goofier bands, fronted by a fat bastard called Buster Bloodvessel.
In their current incarnation, they have drums, bass, guitar, congas and organ, with a horn section of baritone sax, trumpet, trombone and bass trombone. Someone plays harmonica too. That's a lot of music. Buster is enormously fat, with a shaved head and a tongue like a slab of beef's liver. When the crowd chants "You fat bastard!", he tells them they are too kind.
They do all their old hits (that I know about), starting with "My Girl Lollipop" and ending with their hit "Lip Up Fatty". Along with ska anthems like "King Ska-Fa" and "This is Ska" and originals like "Skinhead Girl" and "I Love You Fatty", they mangle standards like "Pipeline", "You're Just Too Good to Be True" and the Can Can.
Disclaimer: I saw these guys sandwiched between Skanking Pickle (representing 90's neo-ska) and The Skatalites (original Jamaican ska) at the Edge in Palo Alto ca. 1992. Great show. If you haven't seen them, this is the next best thing.
In conclusion, there are a bunch of interviews and extras that I didn't view.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Totally Dark, Man
After Sam Raimi made the second Evil Dead movie, he got a little more budget, and made Darkman. The bigger dreams bought bigger stars (Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand) and better effects. But the dream is as big as always.
Neeson plays a slightly dorky scientist, trying to stabilize his artificial skin. It always turns to glop after 99 minutes, unless it is kept in the dark. His girlfriend, McDormand, is a high-powered corporate lawyer, who gets wind of a touch of corruption in high places. When the thugs turn up, they find Neeson and treat him to an acid bath, then blow up his lab. He is assumed dead.
But no! He is brought to the hospital as a John Doe, too burnt to be identified. They sever his nerves so that he can't feel the pain of the burns, noting that he will now be subject to wild mood swings and insensitive to pain. Quite a combo.
So, of course, he breaks free and moves his lab into an abandoned factory. He makes artificial faces to cover up his hideous deformities and to get revenge.
Neeson gets to chew a swath of scenery as "Darkman". Even when covered with artificial flesh, laughing happily with his gal, he is pretty creepy - Phantom of the Opera territory. I'm not familiar with Neeson's oeuvre, but he seems to do camp pretty sincerely. He has a bit of the Larry Blamire touch, I think. McDormand doesn't have much of a part, but she's adorable in it (as always).
SPOILER! Wearing an artificial skin face, Darkman can look like anyone. Raimi has a name for a character whose face isn't shown on camera (or is masked, etc.): a shemp. A shemp can be played by any actor, stuntman or stand-in. Guess who plays the Final Shemp?
Neeson plays a slightly dorky scientist, trying to stabilize his artificial skin. It always turns to glop after 99 minutes, unless it is kept in the dark. His girlfriend, McDormand, is a high-powered corporate lawyer, who gets wind of a touch of corruption in high places. When the thugs turn up, they find Neeson and treat him to an acid bath, then blow up his lab. He is assumed dead.
But no! He is brought to the hospital as a John Doe, too burnt to be identified. They sever his nerves so that he can't feel the pain of the burns, noting that he will now be subject to wild mood swings and insensitive to pain. Quite a combo.
So, of course, he breaks free and moves his lab into an abandoned factory. He makes artificial faces to cover up his hideous deformities and to get revenge.
Neeson gets to chew a swath of scenery as "Darkman". Even when covered with artificial flesh, laughing happily with his gal, he is pretty creepy - Phantom of the Opera territory. I'm not familiar with Neeson's oeuvre, but he seems to do camp pretty sincerely. He has a bit of the Larry Blamire touch, I think. McDormand doesn't have much of a part, but she's adorable in it (as always).
SPOILER! Wearing an artificial skin face, Darkman can look like anyone. Raimi has a name for a character whose face isn't shown on camera (or is masked, etc.): a shemp. A shemp can be played by any actor, stuntman or stand-in. Guess who plays the Final Shemp?
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Grim Pix
Sorry, "Grim Pix" is the title of the MAD magazine version of Grand Prix, and I couldn't resist.
We watched Frankenheimer's Grand Prix on the recommendation of Larry Ardlette of the defunct blog Welcome to L.A. Sorry, Larry, we liked Le Mans better.
Grand Prix follows four Formula One racers in one championship season: brash American James Garner, who causes a wreck and disables (soon to be ex-) teammate, British Brian Bedford. Bedford winds up semi-crippled, but determined to race and win, due partly to an obsession with his dead brother, Racer X - no, wrong movie. Next we have world-weary Frenchman Yves Montand - his character's name, Jean-Paul Sarti indicates his existential ennui. Finally, conceited young Italian Antonio Sabato. We also get Toshiro Mifune as a Japanese builder, and Adolpho Celli as the Ferrari builder.
Each of these racers is given a romantic interest: Bedford's wife leaves him when he gets racked up; can't take the suspense of him getting creamed so often. She shacks up with Garner, who is just as likely to buy it on the track, but she doesn't care as much. Eva Marie Saint, looking business-like, innocent and brittle, falls for married Montand. And lucky Sabato, his girl is French popstar Francoise Hardy, who doesn't drink, smoke, or dance, but...
But we didn't come to this movie for the soap opera, we came for the racing. And considering this is a 3-hour movie, we get a lot less racing than you might expect. What we do get is good, especially the starting scenes of the Monaco Grand Prix. There is a nice combination of aerial shots and shots from the car's point of view. There's some split screen stuff that looks dated but well-done.
Some of the other races are less compelling - Momza (I think) was done in slow-mo, with a sweet sound track and drifting pollen/butterflies/etc to signify the blossoming Saint/Montard love affair was interesting, but not a choice I would have made. But some great racing scenes, no doubt.
But Le Mans had an immediacy that set my heart racing in a way the Grand Prix just didn't. Le Mans covered a single 24-hour race, drawing you into the detailed strategy. In Grand Prix, you didn't always know who was ahead in a race.
Then there was the story - Obviously Grand Prix spent more running time on the 4 love affairs, but Le Mans acheived almost as much saying much less. Although he had almost no dialog, we fell closer to McQueen than to Garner, a very similar character. Both were involved in (or possibly caused) a crash. Both felt guilt, but wouldn't let it get in the way of winning. But in the end, we feel more for McQueen just watching him race then we do watching Garner with his victims' wife.
Watch them both. Watch Grand Prix first (it was made first, after all). Then let me know what you think.
We watched Frankenheimer's Grand Prix on the recommendation of Larry Ardlette of the defunct blog Welcome to L.A. Sorry, Larry, we liked Le Mans better.
Grand Prix follows four Formula One racers in one championship season: brash American James Garner, who causes a wreck and disables (soon to be ex-) teammate, British Brian Bedford. Bedford winds up semi-crippled, but determined to race and win, due partly to an obsession with his dead brother, Racer X - no, wrong movie. Next we have world-weary Frenchman Yves Montand - his character's name, Jean-Paul Sarti indicates his existential ennui. Finally, conceited young Italian Antonio Sabato. We also get Toshiro Mifune as a Japanese builder, and Adolpho Celli as the Ferrari builder.
Each of these racers is given a romantic interest: Bedford's wife leaves him when he gets racked up; can't take the suspense of him getting creamed so often. She shacks up with Garner, who is just as likely to buy it on the track, but she doesn't care as much. Eva Marie Saint, looking business-like, innocent and brittle, falls for married Montand. And lucky Sabato, his girl is French popstar Francoise Hardy, who doesn't drink, smoke, or dance, but...
But we didn't come to this movie for the soap opera, we came for the racing. And considering this is a 3-hour movie, we get a lot less racing than you might expect. What we do get is good, especially the starting scenes of the Monaco Grand Prix. There is a nice combination of aerial shots and shots from the car's point of view. There's some split screen stuff that looks dated but well-done.
Some of the other races are less compelling - Momza (I think) was done in slow-mo, with a sweet sound track and drifting pollen/butterflies/etc to signify the blossoming Saint/Montard love affair was interesting, but not a choice I would have made. But some great racing scenes, no doubt.
But Le Mans had an immediacy that set my heart racing in a way the Grand Prix just didn't. Le Mans covered a single 24-hour race, drawing you into the detailed strategy. In Grand Prix, you didn't always know who was ahead in a race.
Then there was the story - Obviously Grand Prix spent more running time on the 4 love affairs, but Le Mans acheived almost as much saying much less. Although he had almost no dialog, we fell closer to McQueen than to Garner, a very similar character. Both were involved in (or possibly caused) a crash. Both felt guilt, but wouldn't let it get in the way of winning. But in the end, we feel more for McQueen just watching him race then we do watching Garner with his victims' wife.
Watch them both. Watch Grand Prix first (it was made first, after all). Then let me know what you think.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Don't Bother
Speaking of Watch Instantly, that's what we did with Don't Ask, Don't Tell.To cut to the chase, it wasn't worth it.
DADT is the Peter Graves SF B-movie Killers from Space with a new sound track ala What's Up, Tiger Lily, plus a few interpolated scenes. The original had underground space aliens with half ping-pong balls for eyes take over the mind of rocket scientist Peter Graves. The revised version is more or less the same, but the aliens' objective is to turn the Earth gay.
A promising premise, and not altogether wasted. But let me give you an example of the humor: Graves' character's name is "Fartin".
Do not waste a DVD selection on this. Download it if you want. Watch the Film Crew's version instead, by all means,
DADT is the Peter Graves SF B-movie Killers from Space with a new sound track ala What's Up, Tiger Lily, plus a few interpolated scenes. The original had underground space aliens with half ping-pong balls for eyes take over the mind of rocket scientist Peter Graves. The revised version is more or less the same, but the aliens' objective is to turn the Earth gay.
A promising premise, and not altogether wasted. But let me give you an example of the humor: Graves' character's name is "Fartin".
Do not waste a DVD selection on this. Download it if you want. Watch the Film Crew's version instead, by all means,
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Like Father, Like Son
Femi Anikulapo-Kuti is son and heir to the Afro-Beat hero, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. If you don't know who that is, Femi Kuti: Live at the Shrine should give you some idea. Fela is a legend in Nigeria. He had the funk of James Brown with the charisma and political style of Bob Marley, but angrier. His son carries on the family business. He lives in a compound/auditorium called the Shrine and performs blazingly funky political music with a huge band and several dancers. This documentary is about half interviews and half music. The interviews are interesting, but I would have liked more music.
We watched it on Watch Instantly, because one of our DVDs was scratched (which seems to happen a lot). The sound was good, picture fair. Which was fine, because we cared mostly about the music.
We watched it on Watch Instantly, because one of our DVDs was scratched (which seems to happen a lot). The sound was good, picture fair. Which was fine, because we cared mostly about the music.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Le Mans, Le Womans
I think I got the idea from Larry Ardlette, of the recently departed blog, Welcome to L.A. Mr A is famous for starting and abandoning film blogs, like Bing Crosby does with nightclubs in Blue Skies. I hope he opens another blog soon. He was doing a John Frankenheimer tribute and was praising Grand Prix. So I put that in my queue, but also queued up Le Mans. L.A. said he hasn't seen it, but it couldn't have better racing than Grand Prix.
Now, I haven't seen Grand Prix, but it couldn't have better racing than Le Mans.
The background (as I understand it): In 1969, Steve McQueen comes in second in Sebring, narrowly beaten by Mario Andretti. He is inspired to race the 24 hours of Le Mans, and film it. His insurance co. does not allow this, but he does get a Porsche fixed up with cameras on the front, back, side and dashboard, and enter it into the race. (Even with extra pitstops to change film, it came in ninth). Once he has the footage, he has to wrap a film around it.
The movie has a spare, documentary feel, partly due to all the documentary footage, of course. But the philosophy seems Altmanesque - show everything, and let the viewers figure it out. There is little dialog, and it is mostly obscured by engine noise. Most of the exposition comes from the race announcer over the loudspeaker. The camera treats the stars almost as it treats the extras, more interesting scenery. And cameras are a recurrent motif, with tourists and journalists snapping everything in site, adding a layer of meta to the verite.
I'll skip over the "plot", which involves Elga Andersen, beautiful Le Mans widow. The real plot is the race, a grudge match between Team Ferrari and Team Porsche, with Our Hero driving for Porsche. The race is intense, a 24-hour test of the endurance of drivers and vehicles. The footage from the real race and the interpolated staged action is gripping. My heart was literally pounding for most of the movie.
I was going to "spoil" the ending, but I don't think I'll bother. It is dramatic and satisfying. I can't imagine a better race movie. When we watch Grand Prix, I'll let you know.
Now, I haven't seen Grand Prix, but it couldn't have better racing than Le Mans.
The background (as I understand it): In 1969, Steve McQueen comes in second in Sebring, narrowly beaten by Mario Andretti. He is inspired to race the 24 hours of Le Mans, and film it. His insurance co. does not allow this, but he does get a Porsche fixed up with cameras on the front, back, side and dashboard, and enter it into the race. (Even with extra pitstops to change film, it came in ninth). Once he has the footage, he has to wrap a film around it.
The movie has a spare, documentary feel, partly due to all the documentary footage, of course. But the philosophy seems Altmanesque - show everything, and let the viewers figure it out. There is little dialog, and it is mostly obscured by engine noise. Most of the exposition comes from the race announcer over the loudspeaker. The camera treats the stars almost as it treats the extras, more interesting scenery. And cameras are a recurrent motif, with tourists and journalists snapping everything in site, adding a layer of meta to the verite.
I'll skip over the "plot", which involves Elga Andersen, beautiful Le Mans widow. The real plot is the race, a grudge match between Team Ferrari and Team Porsche, with Our Hero driving for Porsche. The race is intense, a 24-hour test of the endurance of drivers and vehicles. The footage from the real race and the interpolated staged action is gripping. My heart was literally pounding for most of the movie.
I was going to "spoil" the ending, but I don't think I'll bother. It is dramatic and satisfying. I can't imagine a better race movie. When we watch Grand Prix, I'll let you know.
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