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Reviews
Joyride (1977)
The music took the joy out of this ride!
Hey, it's Joyride, starring the son of Desi Arnaz, a son of John Carradine, and the wife of Antonio Banderas!
Well, these wacky kids could sure pull crimes and escape local bar patrons, business owners and the police with ease, alright
But there was always ONE horrible thing they could NEVER escape from:
All that lousy ELO music!!!
Yes, regardless of what state they drove to, what restaurant, bar or car radio that played music, mainly only ONE thing kept blaring out of those poor little speakers:
ELO! ELO! ELO!
Now THAT was some scary stuff!
Loose Shoes (1978)
Over A Dozen Films Ripped Off Loose Shoes!
I saw Loose Shoes featuring Bill Murray when it first came out (1980) and enjoyed it, but filed it under the same satiric label as Kentucky Fried Movie and Groove Tube also from that era, and forgot about it.
But I saw it recently, and suddenly realized that over a dozen modern movies (as well as TV shows) totally did RIP-OFFS of the many parody plots from this flick! The writers of this thing turned out to be total psychic geniuses when it came to future entertainment! For instance:
Does a talking pig from the farm going to the big city, like Babe sound familiar? And a bio on Howard Hughes, like Aviator? And Skateboarders From Hell, ala the recent skateboard flick Doggtown And Z Boy? Or how about a western slant to the Wizard Of Oz, like that recent Richard Dreyfus thing? And a Space Odyssey spoof, like the later Space Idiocy starring Leslie Neilsen, plus a Star Wars take-off like the later Spaceballs by Mel Brooks. Add to that a raunchy sequel to the Bad News Bears, like the recent... raunchy sequel to the Bad News Bears, starring Billy Bob Thornton. And the list goes on and on!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001: The First Chink In Kubrick's Armor
Stanley Kubrick's life as a director can easily be charted in an up and down graph that looks like one large (if not evenly measured) pyramid.The up side begins from his start with a few documentaries, then rises quickly with The Killing (1956), and Paths of Glory (1957).It then soars to his peak with masterpieces like Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), and Dr. Strangelove (1964).The Kubrick career chart shows its first slowdown, however, with the dull, plodding 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which irked many film goers by its refusal to explain what the heck those dumb "monoliths" where supposed to mean.From then on things went even more downhill for him.A Clockwork Orange (1971) was a muddled mess of sexism and violence, Barry Lyndon (1975) was a snore-inducing swashbuckler that buckled under Kubrick's bad decision to use "available light" in most shots, The Shining (1980) was a weak attempt at horror (certainly not Kubrick's style at all), even prompting Shining author Stephen King to later do his own version of the script (1997).Then came Full Metal Jacket (1987), a piece of belated back- biting about Vietnam (produced about 15 years too late), and his finale flop, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), starring the sickeningly sweet married couple Cruise and Kidman.Had he lived, another even worse bomb was next up, called A.I. (2001). It was such an overdone can of stale spam that even the great Steven Spielberg (a sci-fi movie veteran) couldn't save it, when he later finished it for Kubrick.In short, Kubrick should have stopped right after Dr. Strangelove.
The Critic (1994)
Matt didn't do The Critic
Poster Mr. Doright on this board got it wrong. The Critic was NOT made by
Simpsons creator Matt. The two shows just happened to share the same
producer - James L. Brooks - that's all. Matt has never drawn, plotted nor
otherwise created The Critic in any way, shape or form. As to Matt's all-time masterpiece, many (including Matt himself) argue that it was his excellent pre- Simpson's comic strip, Life In Hell. Regretably, Matt has gone from making
almost no money in a much freer creative environment to making lots of money
in an increasingly more restrictive environment, which usually leads to friction, in this case between him and Brooks, who has had it made in the shade since a very young age, due to the fact that his daddy was already a behind the scenes Hollywood bigshot.
Leave It to Beaver (1957)
Of course they pulled your leg sometimes
Much of the confusion about the "realism" on this show stems from certain plots and dialogue that sometimes does or does not reflect true life, albeit it life in the 1950s. The answer is simple: always follow the paper trail - in this case the paper the scripts were written on. Remember the comedy writing team of Bill
Connelly and Bob Mosher? One or both of them has recently passed away, but
throughout the '50s and '60s they churned out some very wild and satiric stuff, including The Munsters! So now you know why many episodes almost
completely emerged as an example of parody theater - the writers weren't
getting paid what movie screen writers got, so they had a little fun at the
expense of the network, which didn't care since the ratings were healthy enough to carry them through 6 solid seasons of Beaver. You don't think Bill and Bob howled with insane laughter whenever June said something like "Ward, you
were pretty HARD ON the BEAVER last night" ? Better think again!
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Not a big Robin Williams fan, but...
It's fine to see Mork from Ork fans gushing about how perfect everything is that Robin Williams has even touched or ever will touch. In reality, however, he's just a decent TV actor who can also do cartoon voice dubs. That's why I feel that when someone like me praises a movie of his, it should mean a lot more. Watching Mrs. Doubtfire, I was forced to admire his sheer guts in tackling this Tootsie role (sans roll) despite the huge success Dustin Hoffman already had with it.
Most of Robin's film parts amount to a large junkpile of bad remakes, half-written plots and other "at least it's a fat paycheck" duds. It is also mind boggling how he got an Oscar for his minor foul-mouthed cameo in Good Will Hunting. However, every once in a long while he incredibly rises far above his journeyman talents and rightfully dons the mantle of a true master of the art.
He's done five other actually proper acting jobs, which round out an even half dozen when added to Doubtfire. And these few other fine movies are, not surprisingly, parts where he really doesn't play himself: Good Morning Vietnam, Hook, Jumangi, Dead Poets Society and Cadillac Man.
Well,most actors when their careers are over should consider themselves lucky to even end up with a trilogy of film classics in the can, after doing the usual 25 to 50 major works. Right now Robin's got those six gems, and he still has time to complete a crown of an even dozen.
Of course he'd already have that now, if he had just said no when his agent called to ask him if he wanted to do flop-bound flicks like Shlubber, Jerk or Bicentennial Bum.
Fitzwilly (1967)
A Modern Robin Hood Romp
Videotapes first became popular in 1980, and Fitzwilly, one of my favorite films, had been made 13 years before. So naturally the arbitrary powers that be kept the video version off the shelves for over 20 years!
But finally this lost Dick Van Dyke treasure is available, and we can only hope that its DVD version will not be another pan-and-scan nightmare like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was. Remember that both Chitty and Willy were shot in Panavison, meaning that only a widescreen format can do them justice on DVD.
Yes, Van Dyke's Mary Poppins and Bye Bye Birdie are available in beautiful widescreen, but they really dropped the ball with Chitty. I was astounded when the DVD of it was finally released, and noticed that they had taken a film about a flying car yet - and reduced half the picture down to dismal pan-and-scan, which also reduced by 50% the feeling the viewer gets of flying. Please, Disney, re-release Chitty on widescreen DVD!
(After all, the makers of Willy Wonka finally released a far superior version of their film in widescreen - after goofing up by first putting out a dismal "standard screen" dud.)
Tech specs aside, as to the plot of Fitzwilly itself, the Robin Hood bunch does keep some money to maintain their households but funnels the rest of it through the old lady's hands into the hands of the poor. In the end, some rich businesses got stung a bit (but they were insured) and the lives of hundreds of poor folks were enriched. The only one who would gripe about something like that happening would be some other selfish rich businessman.
Dick Van Dyke has for decades been one of the Top 5 comedians of all time, and Fitzwilly is one of his Top 5 movies. Need one say more? Only this - oh great creators of Fitzwilly, please release this movie soon on DVD and make it in WIDESCREEN !!!
Skokie (1981)
Skokie: Lest We Forget
He could have his pick of them but this is the only film role Danny Kaye took after a 12 year retirement of sorts.
He managed to sandwich in Skokie amid a slew of TV specials, tributes, and various other glorified career retrospectives. It would be his last significant work before the cameras, and it proved to be some of his finest.
The subject matter may seem corny or outdated to a young person, but not to anyone who knows the dark side of history the Nazis created.
And now here in a land where liberal communist sympathizers had been attacked at every turn for decades by the authorities, the conservative neo-Nazi party was enjoying a blind eye being turned to them. They were allowed to run rampant, particularly in America's East, and specifically in Illinois.
The cast, including the late Mr. Kaye, Kim Hunter, Ed Flanders and Lee Strasberg, is excellent and all turn in the fine performances that one would expect of actors of their sterling talent.
Naturally the old racist line turns up that goes "the only trouble with Hitler is that he didn't finish the job." But yes, that fact actually did mean not only "trouble" for his party, it meant the downfall of his entire regime - as well as the echoes of it here in America. Do not ignore the past, Skokie is saying, lest our apathy be mistaken for weakness.
These days, though, two decades after Skokie was filmed, we're keeping a much closer eye on Oregon than Illinois, but the message is the same - maintain constant vigilance upon those who would hide behind the Constitution in order to further the sickness of bigotry.
Shock Treatment (1981)
A Minor Musical Masterpiece
Anyone claiming ST to be a true sequel to RHPS is being almost as silly as saying Fierce Creatures was a sequel to A Fish Called Wanda.
(Actually, if anything, ST could have been considered a prequel, had the Brad and Janet characters not already been married.) Also comparing boring Barry to boring Cliff is pointless, since the Brad character was supposed to be boring anyway and both did a fine job at it. (Although as a bonus, Cliff in his alter ego station boss role looks like a dead ringer for Timothy "Dick Deitrich" Stack.)
The only major difference in this movie was the replacement of the original beloved "dammit Janet," the always cranky-looking Sarandon, with the more wide-ranging Harper. She puts an interesting spin on the role, infusing it with the increasingly debauched (and often sarcastic) attitude it requires, with the sultry and sexy attitude of a Janeane Garofalo (if Janeane could sing, that is).
But one has to ask, why use Brad and Janet at all, then? Good question. This flick would have also been as effective, if not more, without any such RHPS distractions.
Many media shortcomings are lampooned, including the phony star-making (and breaking) system, the always tacky fashion biz, soap operas, rude talk shows, MTV and TV in general. The whole thing was way ahead of it's time (in fact the movie release date, 1981, was the same year MTV had barely begun.)
People seem to be very afraid of accepting this movie because it predicted a dismal conservative media future of rife censorship married to greed-crazy commerce... which actually came true.
The music (with a half dozen solid catchy tunes) and script were both clever, and did indeed seem a natural style which both Richard O'Brian and John Waters might work with together in the future. (To interest Waters, however, the subject would no doubt have to involve serial killers in some way.)
Let nitpicking viewers also bear in mind that while RHPS was produced by Mike White, ST was not (John Goldstone handled those chores this time out).
Okay, now that we've got all of the above straight, let me conclude by pleading with ST's studio, Fox, to please finally release the DVD version! Thank you.