Moviephile

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.

Okay. I’m not a huge fan of musicals, or a huge fan of Sondheim. I don’t have anything in particular AGAINST them, I just tend to prefer non-musicals or non-Sondheim.

But I like Tim Burton (well, olden days Tim Burton, anyway) so I decided I would give Sweeney Todd a try. It was released, what, last Christmas? So I figured it was seasonably appropriate to finally watch it.

I had a couple problems with this movie right off the bat. For one thing… why did he cast a bunch of non-singers as the leads in this movie? I have nothing against Johnny Depp (except perhaps that I think his best performances were when he was receiving the least amount of praise, i.e. pre-Capt. Jack) and especially not against Alan Rickman (who I’ve always felt is very attractive in a Mr. Spock kind of way)… but, honestly. Sondheim tunes are always extremely complex (if that’s the word I want…) and I’m just not entirely sure it was the most melodious possible choice to cast a bunch of guys who can only kind of hit the right notes.

For another thing, I have a problem with the fact that all Tim Burton movies now feature his semi-wife/main squeeze Helena Bonham Carter. I mean, really. Granted it’s his call who he’s going to cast (and I can’t say she’s been terribly mis-cast in any of his films, although I didn’t really buy her in Big Fish … but I disliked the majority of the casting in Big Fish and Big Fish itself, so that’s no shocker) - but, come on. Really.

I had issues with the story - which I suppose I can’t blame Tim Burton for since he didn’t come up with it. Like was that era of London’s history really so permissive that nobody questioned a woman being openly raped at a party? That you could just randomly beat up and terrorize law-abiding citizens without arousing any annoyance on anyone’s part and only making one enemy? (I also take issue that it was a very eighties-type of “No Happy Endings!!” story.)

But in the end, the thing that ruined this movie the most for me is that it has essentially twenty minutes worth of actual story and character development that are stretched out over two hours with a bunch of semi-songs. (I call them semi-songs because I’m really not a fan of whatever you would call Sondheim’s style… avant garde, maybe? You know. Where it doesn’t rhyme, has no form, and you couldn’t hum it back to yourself if you tried.) Again, this is nothing I can blame Tim Burton for - except perhaps the fact that he chose to make it into a movie rather than leave it as the somewhat pretentious piece of musical theater that it is.

In the end… although it had some nice visual moments, I found Sweeney Todd depressing, vapid and unmelodious.  And that’s my last word on the matter.

I don’t mind saying that I was very excited going into Quantum of Solace. As I’d already mentioned, Mr. Hall and I enjoyed Casino Royale quite a bit - it only made sense that we would enjoy this one just as much.

Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out that way.

From the very start, the movie didn’t grab me the way the first one did. The movie begins with a chase sequence in cars which is nowhere as interesting as the on-foot chase sequence that begins the first movie - and for another thing, the chase was shot and edited together so poorly that I spent the first ten minutes of the movie annoyed because I could not, for the life of me, figure out what was going on or who was chasing what. The title sequence was rather drab and uninteresting, and the theme song was not appealing to the ear.

There were three chase sequences in the first twenty minutes or so of the movie, and not one of them was interesting to watch. This film contained far too many “topical” references which may have been good five months ago but are already lacking in punch: remarks about the value of the dollar or the expensiveness of oil are already inconsistent with reality. The story was rather inconsistent about Bond’s character - is he hard and cynical or secretly caring? I’m not blaming Daniel Craig (even though a little bit of facial expression on his part may have assisted matters) - I blame the director and the writer. Why did he have no facial expression? Because they gave him nowhere to go! And what exactly gave him solace in the end? I have yet to quite figure that one out.

The bad guy didn’t work. Is he a cheap, smarmy little goblin who would run away from a fight - or is he a smart, intelligent con-man, willing to go hand-to-hand with master killer Bond? He was inconsistently characterized (which I also blame the writer and director for, not the actor).

The movie was muddled, inconsistent and kind of boring - not to mention visually drab and uninteresting. At absolute best, forgiving a whole lot and mostly for the sake of its predecessor, I give it a B-. But my gut reaction is to give it a C.

Probably the best thing that can be said about it was that it wasn’t very long, so at least you don’t have to spend too long in confusion and boredom.

My recommendation: don’t waste your money on this one. If you really want to see it, wait until it comes out on DVD and then put it in your Netflix list. That would probably be the best way to see it.

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.

For the past two nights, Mr. Hall and I have been watching James Bond movies. We’re getting in the mood for the upcoming film. I imagine that, tomorrow night, we’ll finally watch Casino Royale so that it will be fresh in our minds for Friday (or Tuesday, depending on when we see it).

Monday night, we watched Diamonds Are Forever. This is a somewhat peculiar James Bond movie in that it’s sandwiched between the first non-Sean Connery Bond film (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and the first Roger Moore Bond film. Mr. Bond wasn’t looking as young as he used to be, as Sean Connery had aged a lot in the years he’d been doing Bond (which was odd, since - after this aging spurt - he then stopped aging from about 1985-2005) - and the sleazy seventies had begun, in which Mr. Bond’s dinner-jacketed suavity looked out-of-place. (When I think of the 70’s, the first things that spring to mind are “wacka-chicka” music and people with seriously oily skin. The 1970’s were possibly one of the oiliest decades of all time…)

There are several bizarre elements in this film. It features Mr. Bond’s first (and only?) blatantly homosexual villains, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd (who hold hands after killing a man with a scorpion); a cross-dressing Blofeld; and a special appearance by the sausage king, Mr. Jimmy Dean himself, as a scientist millionaire. It was a kind of an odd note for Sean Connery to go out on, which may have been why he agreed to be in the only official “unofficial”James Bond movie, Never Say Never Again, in the 1980’s. IGN apparently voted Diamonds are Forever as the worst James Bond movie, which is grossly unfair. Hands down, that honor must go to the truly appalling The World is Not Enough.

Last night, Mr. Hall and I watched the first of the two Timothy Dalton Bond films, The Living Daylights. It’s not the best James Bond movie ever, but it’s enjoyable. The worst criticisms I have are that it is a little slow in spots and that — due to the eighties and all that feminist “You can’t have a woman as a sex symbol! She has to be strong, independent, intelligent…” stuff that was going on at the time — the poor Bond girl has to wear the frumpiest clothing ever. I mean, it’s not just that they didn’t dress her “sexy” - it’s that they dressed her in outright unnattractive clothing. It’s almost embarrassing how unnattractive her clothes were; they were baggy, shapeless, and unflattering. And it’s not just that it was the eighties and everything was ugly back then. This is just plain ugly clothing, regardless of era. See that revealing night gown in the poster at the left? NOTHING LIKE THAT in the film. Now, let me emphasize that I’m not advocating women being used as sex symbols: in fact, I’d much rather that the Bond girls not walk around in skimpy, revealing clothing. But that doesn’t mean they have to be dressed like grandmas. (No offense, grandmas.) An outfit can be flattering without being revealing.

But to get back to the real point - The Living Daylights was a decent movie. Of course, I think Mr. Dalton’s second (and last) Bond film, License to Kill, was better (despite some odd elements which I will discuss at a later time).

It remains to be seen if Mr. Hall and I will watch another James Bond movie tonight - although it’s distinctly possible.

After the Summer of 1000 Hits, things have wound down to the extent that there is only one more movie coming out in 2008 that Mr. Hall and I are interested in seeing. And that would be Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie.

We’ve been looking forward to this movie expectantly ever since the closing scene of Casino Royale. I had mixed feelings about that film to begin with; for one thing, Mr. Hall has made me a fan of the series, so it had some seriously big shoes to fill. For another thing, I knew that it was essentially “James Bond Begins”, retelling the tale of the character from the start (and I’m about tired of “Begins” movies - beginning with Batman Begins. There have been far too many of those “We’re going to re-tell the story of so-and-so!” movies lately. I am downright disgusted to hear about the Star Trek “Begins” movie coming out… But I’ll rant about the creative bankruptcy of Hollywood another day.)

Plus, I was one of the many people who took one look at Daniel Craig and said, “He doesn’t look like James Bond.” In my mind, James Bond is a distinguished, upper-crusty kind of gentleman… Daniel Craig (no offense) looks more like a thug. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with looking like a thug, or that looking like a thug is unnattractive (in all cases)… I’m just saying, he didn’t fit my idea of James Bond. Rough around the edges. An obvious “tough guy” type.

And in all truth, I was not convinced that he was the right choice when I was watching Casino Royale. I had my doubts throughout the entire movie… UNTIL THE FINAL SCENE. I won’t say what happened lest ye haven’t seen it, but let’s just say, he convinced me. Mr. Hall and I walked out of that movie chirruping with delight at two hours well-spent.

And now we have Quantum of Solace. As I said, we’ve been eagerly anticipating this movie. The only problem is that it’s gotten rather mixed reviews so far. And the theme song (which has been previewed) is rather unmelodious. But - until we’ve seen it - we can’t make any judgments. I suppose the big test is this Friday when the film finally comes out. I was hoping to see it that day, but mine and Mr. Halls schedules don’t appear to be matching up - so we may see it next Tuesday instead.

As soon as I’ve had a chance to see this one, you can expect a full review - and to find out whether it lived up to the expectations or not!

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!

Did I mention that I have the best husband in the world? When we got home from Mass today, Mr. Hall surprised me with my own copy of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 20th Anniversary Limited Edition set.

Besides the fact that I adore MST3k and always want the new DVD releases, this set also comes with collectable “lobby cards” (card size replicas of the DVD covers) and a 6-inch tall bust of Crow.

Did I mention that I have the best husband ever?

It’s a good selection of episodes, too. It features Werewolf, Future War, Laserblast and First Spaceship on Venus. I’ve seen Werewolf and Future War before (both hilarious episodes) - but Laserblast and First Spaceship on Venus are new to me. They are both Comedy Central episodes, and I am much more familiar with the Sci-Fi Channel era. (For those of you who don’t know, MST3K started out on Comedy Central, was cancelled, had a movie released, and then was resurrected in TV form on Sci-Fi. That, too, sadly was canceled after just three seasons, when the Sci-Fi Channel decided that it wasn’t Sci-Fi enough. I remembered this with some pique when Sci-Fi Channel recently announced that they would begin broadcasting the ECW.)

Let me make a small digression. If this bores you, feel free to skip to the end of the paragraph. There is an ongoing debate about who was a better host: Joel (the host who did the majority of the Comedy Central episodes) or Mike (who did some of the Comedy Central episodes and all of the Sci-Fi channel episodes). Personally, I think that both Joel and Mike are a bit rough as hosts when they started out, and didn’t hit their stride until a couple of seasons in. If you say Mike isn’t any good (and you’ve only seen his first few episodes), you need to go back and watch Joel’s first episodes. The laughs are few and far in between in some of those early Comedy Central episodes. But I’d like to point out that the quality of the “riffing” on the movies did not substantively change between Joel and Mike, even if the host segments were different, because Mike was the head writer throughout the Joel era. So, in short, please, let’s love both Mike and Joel, folks, and support both Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic. If you like funnies, you’ll be glad you did.

Anyways, to get back to the point - this set is fabulous. We just watched Werewolf and it was just as funny as I remembered it being, if not funnier, and my new Crow bust sits proudly on the shelf next to Mr. Hall’s Transformers.  And did I mention that my husband is the best husband ever?

Well, Halloween is over - and, rather to my surprise, rather than getting the 70 trick-or-treaters we had last year, we had five. Five??! Come on! Not that I’m complaining about having all this candy left around the house… but seriously…!

We have this backlog of Hammer movies to watch now, but I’m not sure we’re going to attempt that until next Halloween. I’m kind of want to just finish them since we’ve got them here - and plus, the last one was pretty interesting - so, hm, I don’t know. I’m rambling… I’d better get back to the point of this post.

We have our election-day viewing all mapped-out. We’re going to watch Team America: World Police, You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, and the “Vote or Die” episode of South Park. (”Vote or Die” is not the actual title of the episode; the actual title is a bit too crude for me to share with you).

Team America: World Police is the spawn of South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. This is a very, very bizarre film: namely because Matt and Trey decided that - rather than animate it, or actually have live-action actors - it would be a puppet movie. They used marionettes to make this movie. Don’t get me wrong - it’s hilarious - but also terrifying and disgusting in many different ways. (Of course, I believe that was the intention.)

It’s the story of “Team America”, a group of “world police” (perhaps you could have gathered that much from the title) who go around stopping terrorism. They recruit an actor to the team to help stop a big terrorist action, and things spin out of control from there. They not only battle North Korea, but also the Screen Actor’s Guild (which is called the Film Actor’s Guild in the film. If you look at the initials of that name - this is the level of humor you can expect.)

This is a very funny movie, very political, very strong, and has an excellent and hilarious score; the theme song, America, ***k Yeah! is a classic. However, if it isn’t obvious, this movie is NOT recommended for children - or even young teens - on account of the strong language, innappropriate humor, graphic violence, and graphic sex scenes (well, I guess they’re only graphic in intent: the puppets naked, but are not anatomically correct).

This film was something of a box-office flop, possibly because people didn’t know what to expect when going to see it - or maybe just because people were perplexed that it starred puppets. Or maybe it was the (unintentionally) conservative message that the movie promoted. Oh well! It was probably a number of different factors. I still think that anyone of any political stance could enjoy the movie if they were open-minded and enjoyed seeing marionettes fight.

You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, our other pick, is one of the lesser Charlie Brown cartoons. The title is a little bit of a stretch, since Charlie Brown doesn’t run for office: according to wikipedia, it was originally “You’re Elected, Charlie Brown” - but they changed it when they realized that title made even less sense.

Personally, I think that It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie Brown Christmas are the only ones that are really worth owning: the others are less coherent, and don’t have scores that are as enjoyable. I also found the ones that  emphasized romances between the children a little creepy. The one where Charlie Brown has to kiss the little red-headed girl - or the one where Peppermint Patty sings “Poor Sweet Baby” to Charlie Brown - were irritating and gross to me as a child. I’m kind of tempted, though, to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this year, as I only saw it once as a child, and don’t remember the details very clearly.

But I’m really digressing from the topic of You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown: if you buy a copy of this, try to buy the one that is a double-feature with Great Pumpkin, because it’s not worth buying on its own. It may be good election-day viewing, though, since either way somebody isn’t getting elected on the 4th. I’m not making a prediction this year about who will win because there are too many new factors to consider… We shall see.