Moviephile

While we’re on the topic of movies you should probably see, you should probably see the film UHF if you haven’t already. This is what is generally considered a “cult” movie - a film that didn’t do terribly well when it was released but has gathered a devoted following in the ensuing years.

UHF is about a guy named George who is more or less a failure at life because of his contstant daydreaming (a-la Walter Mitty). Unexpectedly, George is given the chance to run a small UHF station by his uncle - and the hilarity ensues. This film starred and was written by music-comedy-sensation Weird Al Yankovic.

The reason this film didn’t do well is two-fold. The first problem it had was that it was released at a time when it had to compete against Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, Lethal Weapon 2, Batman, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (i.e. its competition were huge summer blockbusters).

The second part of the reason why it didn’t enjoy more success is that I think a lot of people just didn’t know what to make of it. The humor in this movie is a combination of the bizarre, the outright childish and goofy, and clever parody which are the hallmark of Weird Al’s comedy style. It’s very reminiscent of the very early issues of Mad Magazine (which Al has mentioned were a comedy influence). And I have a feeling that a lot of the people who went to see this movie didn’t get it, thought it was weird and dumb and thumbed their noses at it.

In fact, I can state categorically that this is how some people reacted. My parents rented that movie on VHS shortly after it came out; they were perplexed and disgusted with it and returned it hastily. I (still in the single-digit age group at the time) had no say in the matter - I only remember being somewhat scared of some claymation effects at the end of the movie.

So why am I recommending this movie to you? Because, like a fine wine, this film seems to have gotten better with age. I was reintroduced to it by my husband when we were dating, and I was surprised (and delighted) to discover that it was hilarious. Oddly, when my parents watched it with us, they liked it too. Perhaps it was us that got better with age… Or perhaps it was simply the fact that our sensibilities had been hardened by the 1990’s and we no longer found claymation frightening.

However, I’m getting off my point, which was that despite its unenthusiastic reception by the public at its release, UHF actually did quite well on tape; its audience, no longer distracted with Indiana Jones or Batman, finally found it. It was popular enough that when it was finally released on DVD, it was decked out with all sorts of extras including a commentary by Weird Al. A commentary, I might add, which is so hilarious that I think I have watched the film with commentary just as much as I’ve watched it without. Yes, it’s that good.

So, anyway, put this movie in your queue and prepare yourself for smart, dumb, goofy bizarreness - and a bit of Weird Al’s signature music. Oh, by the way, in case you’re wondering why I called this film”Oft-Maligned” - it’s because of what I mentioned earlier about people not understanding and thumbing their noses. It’s amazing how, if something is funny, people will simply dismiss it. Mr. Yankovic is a very intelligent man and a lot of thought goes into the works that he produces; just because something features “dumb” humor doesn’t make it dumb.

So watch UHF . And then tell me what you think of it. I’d really like to hear from somebody who doesn’t like it so that I can figure out what is the dividing line between someone who likes Weird Al’s comedy and somebody who hates it.

We have watched two more James Bond movies since I last wrote, and no, we did not go to see the new one today: Mr. Hall had to work all day, and I certainly am not going to go to the movies by myself. (That would just be weird.) So we won’t be seeing that one until Tuesday.

However, rather than write yet another blog about James Bond movies (if you don’t care about them you’re probably getting pretty tired of that at this point) I decided I would recommend a movie for you today.

If you haven’t seen it, a movie you should put in your rental queue is this: Time Bandits. This movie was penned by Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin (of Monty Python fame); it is the story of an adventurous boy stuck in a drab, boring British home, and how he gets caught up in an adventure that drags him through time and space to a final climactic battle between good and evil. It’s sci-fi, it’s fantasy, it’s adventure, it’s comedy, it’s historical, it’s mythic.

And it’s funny. And has special appearances by John Cleese, Sean Connery, Michael Palin (surprise!) - as well as David Warner as Evil. Can you ask for a better recommendation than that? No, I don’t think that you can.

I haven’t posted for a couple days… because, believe it or not, I really haven’t watched anything for a couple days. Mr. Hall has been working late again, and I’ve been reading, so the boob tube has been black. (We are definitely not going to get all those Hammer movies watched before Halloween).

There was one exception: last night, I popped in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

I feel justified in talking about this on a movie blog because - although it was a TV show - it was movies as well. If you’re not familiar with MST3K, it’s a show done in the spirit of those old afternoon shows where a B-grade horror or Sci-Fi movie would be hosted by a goofy, pseudo-scary character, like Svengoolie here in Chicago, or Vampira. However, there’s a qualitative difference: where those shows simply introduce the movie and then have comical skits at the commercial breaks, MST3K actually takes the step of commenting throughout the entire film. You can see the dark outlines of the show’s heroes in the lower part of the screen during the movie: Mike (or Joel, earlier in the series) and two robots, Crow and Tom Servo, wisecrack about the horrible movie from start to finish. It does have the comical bumpers of its spiritual predecessors, in which Mike (or Joel) talks to the evil scientists who are keeping him up in space and forcing him to watch these bad movies.

I love MST3k. It’s like watching a bad movie with a group of friends, which (with the proper movie and proper friends) is a delightful experience. Unfortunately, MST3k was cancelled in 1999 (ironically, shortly after I started watching it) - but there are plenty of episodes out on DVD.

And, for those of us who just can’t let go, Mike and Joel have both launched MST3k-like projects with a few members of MST3k casts: Joel recently launched a direct-to-video project called Cinematic Titanic (they currently have about five movies available), while Mike has both The Film Crew (also about five movies available) and a website called Rifftrax, where you can download humorous movie commentaries to sync with your own copies of films.

By the way, I can offer my endorsement of all three of those ventures. I especially recommend Cinematic Titanic’s first offering, The Oozing Skull; The Film Crew’s Wild Women of Wongo; and Rifftrax’s riff on the deliciously obscure and horrible Star Wars Christmas Special.

The main complaint I’ve heard about MST3k is when an occassional person will go, “Oh, I’ve heard of that. Yeah, I saw a couple episodes - but I don’t like it when people talk over movies.” If that’s what you think; I’m sorry, but you’ve really, really missed the point. It’s not about watching the movies. The movies are terrible! Unless your brain just works really differently from mine, there’s no way you’re going to be watching these films in rapt silence. You’ll watch them with half your attention, listen to the humorous commentary with the other half, and then hopefully add a couple quips of your own.

It’s how bad movies were meant to be enjoyed.