Moviephile

All right, this is totally cheap of me to pass this off as a blog, but I’m going to take this chance to share with you a bit of claymation that my brother made - because I love it. Enjoy.

You might have heard of the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.  These are a pair of excellently funny British films that I might have talked about on other occasions. (If not, expect more on them in the future.)

Although I have a lot of respect for the writer/performers of these films (Nick Frost and Simon Pegg) I haven’t followed British comedy news since 1999… It’s a long story. Anyway, the point of this rambling commentary is that because I haven’t followed British comedy since 1999, I had no idea that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost got their start on a BBC sitcom called Spaced. (In 1999.)

I got introduced to this over Christmas break. My parents, actually, had the entire series (14 episodes or so) on DVD. They told us it was funny, and invited us to watch one episode. We watched one. Then another. Then another.

We watched the first season in one night. When we got back from Christmas break we promptly placed the second disc (the last seven episodes) on Netflix, got it right away, and watched the rest.

The formula is this: Tim (Simon Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Hynes) are a pair of strangers who meet in a restaurant and are both looking for a place to live. They spot an ad for a likely apartment -the problem is, the owner requires that the tennants be a “Professional Couple”. So Tim and Daisy pretend to be a couple and move in, and must maintain the fiction of couplehood to maintain their lease.

At least, that’s the plot of the first two or three episodes - but saying that’s what the show is about would be a gross understatement. Sometimes the series is about Tim and Daisy struggling with their separate relationships (Tim recently got dumped, Daisy gets dumped not long after the beginning of the series); sometimes it is about them struggling with their careers (Daisy wants to be a writer, Tim a comic book artist); sometimes it is about their dog; sometimes it is about their neighbors; sometimes it is about being a young person and shirking responsibility; sometimes it is about pop culture.  Pop culture is almost a star of this series in itself. There are a million and one references to pop culture - from Scooby Doo to Murder She Wrote.

The funny thing is that almost every character on this show is reprehensible in some way, yet you find yourself sympathizing with them each step of the way. The creators described it as “a cross between The Simpsons, The X-Files and Northern Exposure .” (All three of those shows - Northern Exposure especially - were favorites of mine as a young person; perhaps that explains why I loved this show so much… But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the first episode for you.)

I hate reviews where the person just repeat unquantifiable things like, “It’s really good” or “It’s hilarious”. Yes, it is both those things, but I can’t explain why at the moment, so let me cogitate on this for a while. I watched this entire series in two evenings, it’s a bit of a blurr… I think I need to contemplate it for a while before I discuss it anymore.

I think I’ll talk about Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz next, and then maybe I’ll try discussing Spaced again and see if anything changed.

I believe I already mentioned the fact that my in-laws bought me a trip to see Cinematic Titanic Live for my birthday earlier this month. It was delightful. For my full review of that show (typos and all) visit the official MST3k fan site.

The movie featured at that performance was Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - a movie that was previously performed by MST3k; a “somewhat controversial” choice on their part.  I still don’t know why Cinematic Titanic decided to choose a movie that the exact same people (minus J. Elvis) had already made fun of once… Can it possibly have been some kind of complex, well-thought out move to simultaneously connect to their old fans while distancing themselves from their old work? Or was it just that they were able to get this movie really, really cheap? (Hmmm….)

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a poorly made Sci-Fi/Christmas film. The plot is this: the children of Mars have forgotten how to have fun, so a handful of Martians go down to Earth and kidnap Santa with the idea that Santa’s Christmas magic and toys will bring joy back to Martian kids. The best thing I can say about this movie is that it has a kicky little theme song (”Hooray for Santy Claus!”)

Anyway, as I said, I received a trip to the live show for my birthday, and it was lovely. However, fortuitously, I also received the DVD of their riff on said movie. I took it home and watched it with my parents on St. Stephen’s Day. Hense, two viewings of the Cinematic Titanic version of the film.

However, I also have a DVD of the original MST3k riff, and it seemed a shame to pass it over for the sake of its Cinematic Titanic progeny… so when Mr. Hall and I visited his parents, we watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. That makes three viewings.

Then when we got home from our vacation yesterday we discovered we had a Christmas present from a friend, Miss Landis. We opened it up - and found that she (knowing how we enjoy watching bad movies) has given us the un-MST3k’d, un-Cinmatic Titanic’d, RAW version of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

I’ve never actually seen this movie without a humorous commentary running over it - so I daresay this spells one more (a FOURTH!) viewing of the film before the end of the holiday season.

Did I mention lately that in addition to having the best husband ever, I also have the best in-laws ever?

My birthday is coming up on the 7th (the day that lives in infamy, don’t you know). Well, when I got home from work yesterday I discovered a birthday card from my in-laws. I opened it and found a folded piece of paper. “Hm,” I remarked to myself. “Looks not unlike a ticket confirmation of some kind.”

It was. It was a confirmation of two tickets, for myself and my husband, for an upcoming local, live performance of CINEMATIC TITANIC!!!

… No, it’s not a band. If you aren’t up on my previous posts, this bears a little explanation: my favorite TV show was Mystery Science Theater 3000. MST3k was a “theater” show (in the tradition of shows like Svengoolie and Elvira) where a B or C-grade movie is shown and then mocked; however, MST3k took the step of actually having the hosts present throughout the entire movie and mocking the entire thing. MST3k was on for ten years, then got cancelled. The cast has gone on to other projects… including, but not only, Cinematic Titanic.

Cinematic Titanic is not a TV show, but direct-to-DVD (or download) releases - although it has essentially the same format as MST3k. The hosts (all of the writers of the show - all five of them - are hosts on this show) are outlines on the bottom of the screen, present throughout the entire crappy movie, mocking it constantly.  What fun.

However, in an unusual move, the cast is touring. They are doing live versions of the show on DVD. I found out a couple months ago that they are coming to Chicago for several performances this month. I sadly decided I would not be able to attend due to tight finances, and there it sat.

UNTIL I OPENED MY BIRTHDAY CARD LAST NIGHT!! I am so excited. I’ve already met half of the cast of MST3k (the Sci-Fi channel years) - but I haven’t met the Comedy Central years cast, i.e. Joel, Frank, Trace, Josh, etc (the Cinematic Titanic cast) so I’m very excited.

And yes, I have superb in-laws, in case I didn’t mention that already.

I don’t know how it originally came up in conversation, or what train of thought led to me remembering the conversation… but I recently recalled an episode where I was relating to my husband how I had watched the Uncle Buck sitcom (spin-off of the film Uncle Buck) when I was a child. Mr. Hall, in his inimitable fashion, claimed that I was making it up and that no such sitcom existed (especially after I related that the concept of the show was that the parents of the children in the film were killed in a car accident, hence Uncle Buck moving in as their full-time caretaker).

I seem to have a habit of having watched shows that no one else in the world remembers. However, I know this show existed, so (inspired by whatever train of thought had recalled the conversation to me in the first place) the other evening I did a search on YouTube for the opening credits of the show.

I found them.

(Please note, after the opening of Uncle Buck are the opening credits for several other shows as well: apparently the gentleman who posted this posted the opening credits for all the “1990 TV Show openings” that he could find… enough to fill up ten parts. Thank you, sir, whoever you are! You have provided me with hours of nostalgic entertainment - and also reminded me of “back in the day” when there was actually an entire night of television every week that I looked forward to watching.)

Anyway, the Uncle Buck TV show existed, and I am vindicated and glad.  Well, kind of glad. I recalled the show rather fondly, yet this opening looks incredibly, horribly, cheesy.

Not to mention that the premise of the show (that the children’s parents have died in a car accident) is rather horrible, and even the opening of the show presumes that none of the main characters learned any lessons from the incidents of the film.

The film? Well, in case you haven’t seen that, Uncle Buck is a classic John Hughes film, and a tour-de-force for John Candy. In it, the parents of a dysfunctional (but stuck-up) family are called away for an emergency, and their low-class brother (Uncle Buck) comes to watch the kids. The teenage daughter is going through a “difficult” phase and they give each other hell; it’s a painful and yet hilarious movie, and very heartfelt. Mr. Hall and I re-watched it last night and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The TV show, however, looks as though it was a rather poor imitation of the latter. I was rather surprised to read the Wikipedia entry and discover that, no, it was not canceled because it was awful; it was canceled because it lost viewers after being moved from Monday nights to Friday. Oh well! I can’t really slam it because I watched (and, as I recall, enjoyed it) at the time. However, I was about eleven then, and can’t speak for my then sense of taste. (If it ever comes out on DVD I’ll have to pick it up and tell you how it fares nowadays…)

Time to haul out your long red robes and glowing orbs: it’s Life Day, kiddies, better known as the anniversary of the first (and only) broadcast of the little known Star Wars Holiday Special. Today has special significance, though, because not only is this the anniversary - today is the 30th anniversary.

In case you don’t know what this is: the Star Wars Holiday Special was released during the holiday season following the release of the first (the REAL first) Star Wars movie. It was apparently written by a handful of people who had never seen Star Wars and simply heard that it was “some kids’ movie about robots and crap”… and they went on from there, styling a semi-sci-fi themed variety special, featuring popular comedians and singers of the day - including Art Carney, Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, and so on.  It has something of a plot: Han Solo is trying to get Chewbacca back to Chewie’s home planet for “Life Day” (Wookie Chirstmas, apparently). Surprisingly, the original cast of Star Wars also appears in this during the “plotted” segments - including an overly eye-makeup’d Mark Hammil, an obviously stoned Carrie Fisher, and a very angry looking Harrison Ford.

(Yes, this really exists. When I first heard about it six years ago, I didn’t believe the person who was telling me about it. I thought it was made up. I thought, “How could they possibly have made something like that? That’s ridiculous!” What a poor, sad, innocent fool I was.)

You know, I’ve seen some bad movies in my time. I’ve seen some real bad movies. But this is possibly the worst thing I’ve ever seen. The first time I watched it I immediately made up my mind that it was going on my list of films NEVER TO EVER WATCH AGAIN. Ever. (Along with The Man With Two Brains, Modern Problems and Nothing But Trouble.)

However, I have watched it again - probably six or seven times, maybe more - partly because of its truly extraordinary badness, but also because it makes you feel like part of a select club when you watch it. There is no such thing as an “official copy” of this film. It is so bad that George Lucas had the master copy destroyed; it only exists in bootleg form from copies taped off TV when it was broadcast. Mr. Lucas has been quoted as saying, “If I had the time, and a hammer, I would track down every bootleg copy and smash it.”

And if you’ve seen Episode One, you know it takes a lot to embarrass George Lucas.

Sadly for Mr. Lucas, it would be nigh-on impossible to track down every copy now. Happily for us true-believers, you can usually find one on Ebay, and can watch most of the special in 10-minute chunks on YouTube. (And, for you fans of MST3k, you can download a commentary for this film by Rifftrax. It is absolutely hilarious, although due to the fact that all the bootlegs are somewhat different, it’s somewhat difficult to keep it sync’d up to the film. Totally worth it, though. We watched it last Christmas and laughed ourselves silly.)

So, in honor of Life Day, track yourself down a copy of The Star Wars Holiday Special. Become a part of this exclusive club. However, I’m warning you… at times your mouth is going to be hanging open in pure horror - and I am so not kidding about that.

As a holiday, I love Thanksgiving: what’s better than a day entirely focused on counting your blessings and food? However, the day has its problems: one of which is that there just aren’t enough Thanksgiving movies.

How many can you think of off-hand? Okay. Let me count. 1… maybe 2, wait, no…. uh….

I can think of ONE Thanksgiving movie.

There are movies that feature Thanksgiving that I am not counting. Holiday Inn features Thanksgiving prominently at one point - but it also features lots of holidays prominently. It’s Holiday Inn, for pete’s sake. Miracle on 34th Street begins on Thanksgiving - but the focus of the film is Christmas.

There’s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, but I’m not counting that as a movie because it was made for TV and it’s only 25 minutes long. Mr. Hall likes to watch Nightmare Before Christmas at Thanksgiving, because it (for him) marks the transition from Halloween Time to Christmas Time - but it must be said, it is not about Thanksgiving.

Which brings us back to the ONE Thanksgiving movie: Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

I’ll discuss this movie later at some point when I can do it justice - possibly around Thanksgiving (it would make sense). But seriously! This is the only movie I can think of that is focused on Thanksgiving! You’d think that as a national “we don’t have to go to work” holiday it would at least out-strip Groundhog Day for movies (I mean, if you get right down to it, Groundhog Day is about as important as “Talk Like A Pirate Day” to your average citizen), but as far as I can see… it doesn’t.

If you know of another Thanksgiving movie - let me know. Because this is just ridiculous.

Okay - one FINAL post on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 set that Mr. Hall bought me. (Yes, yes, I know I’ve gone rather over-board discussing this thing… but I really like it, okay? Also - since I have only discussed the first two movies - I felt rather beholden to mention the last two).

The last two films in the set were, as I mentioned,  First Spaceship on Venus and Laserblast; neither of which I had seen before (as MST3K episodes).

First Spaceship on Venus wasn’t the best MST3k episode I’ve ever seen. It was a bit slow in spots, and as a result the movie was hard to watch. (It’s a bizarrely constructed East German 1950’s Sci-Fi piece; admittedly, it would have been hard to watch regardless). It was from Joel’s second season, and I don’t think he’d quite hit his stride yet - which is, of course, to say that the writers hadn’t hit their stride yet. The jokes still had too much space in between them. That said, there were several really good laughs, so it wasn’t a total loss.

I had already seen Laserblast in its un-MSTied form (ouch).  It’s a movie about a neglected teen (I assume he’s a teen) who finds an alien weapon in the desert and then kind of turns into an alien and goes around shooting things. It’s a perfect film for mocking with a group of friends. Which is, indeed, what I did with it when I watched the un-MSTied version… and which is also what makes it perfect MST3k fodder. Mike, Tom and Crow tore it up - and it was hilarious. Interestingly, this was the last episode of MST3k for Comedy Central, which at the time was ostensibly the end of the series… So the host segment ends with Mike, Tom and Crow becoming beings of pure energy and going off to live at the edge of the universe, while Dr. Forrester becomes a space baby and gets raised again by his horrible mother, Pearl. I thought it might be kind of a sad ending, but it worked out pretty amusingly. The real last episode of MST3k was a lot more traumatic for me; there’s a moment where it seems as if they have all died. (I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I won’t say what really happened.) Having all the characters die on the last episode of a beloved television show is kind of rough; yes, I’m looking at you, Dinosaurs!

So, to sum up: after having reviewed all the films and special features, I would still say that this is an excellent MST3k set. It’s one weak spot is the film First Spaceship on Venus, which wasn’t even that bad; and regardless was far outweighed by the excellent riffs on the other three films.

And that’s all I have to say about that!

If you read my other blog, Booktastic, this is going to be a bit of a repetitive day for you - sorry.  It can’t be helped, as it seems only appropriate to comment on the passing of Michael Crichton in both a book blog and a movie blog, what with his involvement in both areas.

I can’t imagine that you never heard of him… Unless you are something like five years old. If you were born in or before the 90’s, however, you must have heard of at least one of the movies based on his books - like, for instance, a little old Sci-Fi flick called Jurassic Park. You may also have heard of some TV show he created, called E.R.  Both pretty obscure now, of course. (I kid.)

Of course, there have also been some clunkers. I was never a fan of The Thirtheenth Warrior, or that film about the talking monkeys and the diamond mine (was that Congo, or am I confusing that with some other movie about talking monkeys and diamonds?)

However, this seems like an innappropriate time to criticise his efforts. If there’s one thing that needs to be said right now, it’s that Michael Crichton succeeded in strongly influencing sci-fi films. I believe that can be agreed even by his critics.

I had been thinking the other day that it seems like a long time since I’ve heard about a new Michael Crichton book… and then, this morning, was met by the headline that he had just passed away. He was 66 years old. 

This will be a very bad post. It will be short and derivative of other posts that I’ve written recently.

The reason this will be a bad post is that the only thing I can talk about right now is Mystery Science Theater 3000, thanks to Mr. Hall having purchased me the 20th Anniversary set as a surprise. I watched another one of the movies today - Future War. A terrifically terrible, low-budget, 90’s mish-mash of Jurassic Park, Terminator and Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. The disc had good special features, too: including the recent reunion of the cast (all the casts, including both Joel and Mike eras) at ComicCon 2008, and a compilation of all the different versions of the theme song. The only one I hadn’t seen was the opening from the late Comedy Central era, when Dr. Forrester was alone in the opening sequence (sans Frank). Man, this is such an awesome set. I am so delighted with it.

And for those of you who don’t know what MST3k is and couldn’t care less… I mercifully end this bad post.

P.S. Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!