Change Your Image
staffba3
Reviews
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1988)
This show was greatly improved by the Writer's Strike
This show started as a Spring replacement show in 1988. It started off very similar to the 60s show with a mix of sketch comedy and live acts. A writer's strike started about the same time, shutting down scripted dramas, comedy and variety shows. The format quickly changed to something similar to the Ed Sullivan show. Musical guests, comedians, circus style acts, Tom doing a recurring bit as Yo-Yo Man. All using acts that required no staff writing. One recurring act was the band Celestial Navigations who were two musicians playing mostly keyboards and character actor Geoffrey Lewis who told some amazing stories set to the music. When the fall came and the scripted drama and comedy series were delayed, they brought back The Smothers Brothers for a brief second season, and they proved to be more popular to the game shows and other non-scripted options available at the time. It was a very interesting series and an interesting return to a pure variety format which was very popular in the 60s.
The Compleat Beatles (1982)
Has anyone noticed that this is a thinly disguised parody of "All You Need is Cash"
The original Rutles documentary came out in 1978. The Complete Beatles came out in 1982 and tells almost exactly the same story in a very similar way. Malcolm McDowell replaces Eric Idle as Narrator but it's the same rise to fame and disillusionment with a very similar looking (and sounding) band.
The Big Bang (2010)
Intelligent and bizarre update to Farewell, My Lovely
The basic plot is the same as the Raymond Chandler novel and two previous films (Murder, My Sweet with Dick Powell and a later version with Robert Mitchem). Bandaras plays a similar hard boiled private eye to Philip Marlowe, hired by a huge ex-boxer and ex-con to find his lost stripper girlfriend. He travels from LA to finally Mexico but along the way meets an assortment of interesting characters, gets beaten up a lot, and gets involved with a search for lost diamonds and the meaning of the universe. Beautiful surreal use of colors and a lot of green screen effects. Some classic cars. Elements of David Lynch and The Big Lubowski as well. A lot of fun and very unique.
Life on Mars (2008)
They didn't get the joke
What the American producers don't seem to realize is that Life On Mars (UK) was a parody of the hard knuckled British cop shows of the 70's like The Sweeney, lots of shouting, some rough stuff and some very over the top acting. Some serious cop stuff was involved, but it was very much a comedy, the story of two mismatched cops who surprisingly end up working well together. Gene Hunt and Sam Tyler were very likable characters in different ways. The new guys are not very likable Sam Tyler is in a constant state of repressed panic, where John Sims very early on decided to play the character as basically not believing what was going on around him and quickly began to lay back, play along and enjoy the ride (with only occasional moments of panic). Harvey Kaitel is too old and too unlikeable in character to capture the charm of Gene Hunt (who is very much a legend in his own mind--and the minds of his men). If they wanted to Americanize Life on Mars it would have been better to bring to mind some American 70's cop shows like Kojack. The producers seem to have a vague notion of what the 70's were all about, there is a record store scene in the LA pilot where you can see a Kansas album which came out in 1977 just behind Sam and Annie. Colm Meaney was definitely much closer to Gene Hunt in appearance and acting style(although he could have turned him into something larger than life like Gemsler we never get to find out).
Hear My Song (1991)
A Bit of Irish Whimsy
Hear My Song (1991) is a bit of Irish whimsy about a fast talking London theatrical promoter, (Adrian Dunbar) who books legendary Irish tenor Joseph Locke When the tenor is revealed as an impostor, and Dunbar loses both his theater and his fiancée (Tara Fitzgerald). He then sets forth on an odyssey to Ireland to find the real Joseph Locke, bring him back to London, save the theater, and win back the girl. Of course, the whole point of every epic quest from Homer on down is for the hero to finally realize why he left in the first place (this realization occurs while Dunbar is dangled off the side of a very high cliff). The cast is amazing, especially David McCallum as a police inspector obsessed with capturing Locke, and Ned Beatty gives a very credible and warmhearted performance as Joseph Locke (although the singing is dubbed). The Irish countryside is breathtaking--as is Tara Fitzgerald--and the story is great fun in the tradition of Local Hero and Eat the Peach.
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995)
They must not have multiplexes in England, or they would have never come up with a title that long.
I saw The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Down a Mountain (1995) after it had made a quick trip through Harvard Square straight to the $2.50 cinemas in Somerville. They must not have multiplexes in England, or they would have never come up with a title that long. It's a quirky character study in the Local Hero mold celebrating Welsh pride, and the English penchant for pointless endeavors. It was Hugh Grant's other summer film, in and out of the theaters before he had to go on all the talk shows and confess that he never get's invited to Charlie Sheen's parties. Hugh is one of two English surveyors sent to Wales during World War One to measure the height of the mountains, in the hope that in some bizarre way this knowledge will help the war effort. The film is set in a Welsh village that proudly claims to have the first mountain in Wales. However the Englishmen find the height to be 984 feet, just 16 feet short of a mountain (after all rules are rules). What follows is predictable, but great fun. With Colm Meaney (Deep Space Nine) as the local pub owner, Tara Fitzgerald (Hear My Song) who's a very pleasant distraction for Hugh and the audience, and an assortment of English character actors attempting Welsh accents with varied success.
Reckless Kelly (1993)
You know you're in for some inspired silliness
For surreal Australian silliness you can beat Yahoo Serious' recent film Reckless Kelly (1992). From the opening shot, a high speed helicopter shot heading over the ocean towards the land (a classic film cliché, made interesting by being shot upside down--cause this is the Australian coast, mate!), you know you're in for some inspired silliness. Yahoo plays the grandson of legendary bank robber Ned Kelly (played by Mick Jagger in an earlier film). He lives on an island paradise--a rundown pub in the middle of a national park--with his extended family, and still dabbles in the redistribution of wealth. When a villainous bank president threatens to sell his island to the Japanese, Ned must travel to America to raise the money to pay off the mortgage, and in the process become a low budget film star. With Alexi Sayle (The Young Ones) as Major Wibb and an assortment of Australian character actors and other marsupials doing their own accents.
Lifeforce (1985)
It's very pretentious, but at least has a sense of humor about it
Lifeforce (1985) is very pretentious, but at least has a sense of humor about it. It's based on Colin Wilson's novel The Space Vampires. Steve Railsbach (Helter Skelter) is the last survivor of a mission to Haley's comet, which finds a huge alien space craft. Mathida May is one of three very human looking vampire aliens he finds and brings back to Earth. And Peter Firth is a British Intelligence officer trying to make sense of it all. When the vampires awake they start sucking the life out of everyone they come in contact with (except Railsbach, cause he's part of the vampire's plan). The victims also become life sucking vampires until by the end of 90 minutes London is turned into vampire hell. Patrick Stewart and Aubrey Morris are along to provide authentic British accents and John Dykstra (Star Wars) does the special effects, so well in fact that they prove an excellent distraction from the many gaping holes in the plot and almost were a major contributor to Cannon Films bankruptcy.
Robin of Sherwood (1984)
Manages to retell an old story with fresh insight into both the characters and history of the period
There is a problem with telling a story which has been told endless times before. Robin Hood has been the subject of countless films and several television series since the age of silent film. Errol Flynn and Richard Green will be forever associated with the role, while Kevin Cosner will, hopefully, be quickly forgotten. A recent British series, Robin of Sherwood, however, manages to retell an old story with fresh insight into both the characters and history of the period.
Instead of concentrating on the traditional conflict between Saxon and Norman, which has been a central theme of many previous adaptations, this series focuses on the conflict between the old traditions (steeped in the last vestiges of the old magic) and the new, corrupting influence of the Norman invaders, or, as it is often described in the series, the conflict between the powers of light and darkness. This concept is taken quite literally, with the forest and peasant villages sunlight and idyllic, and the castles of the Normans dark, smoky, and filled with corruption.
Robin of Loxley (Michael Praed) is the chosen son of Herne the Hunter, an old man who claims to be possessed by the spirit of an ancient forest god. Robin is a man constantly at the mercy of his own destiny. He meets Marion and his other companions during the first of many escapes from the Sheriff's dungeon, and is quickly caught up in the plots of an evil wizard who captures Marion with the intent of human sacrifice. Robin at first rejects Herne, but is finally forced to accept his destiny so that he can save Marion.
FIRST SEASON SPOILER:
During final episode of the first series, Robin is caught by the sheriff's men and must sacrifice himself to allow his friends to escape. Herne then picks a new son Robert of Huntington (Jason Connery).
Robert also initially rejects Herne's appeal, unwilling to surrender the life of a nobleman to become an outlaw in the forest. But Marion needs rescuing again, this time from the clutches of a Welsh warlord. Robert reunites the Merry men but throughout the second season he struggles to prove to both the men and Marion, that he is a worthy successor to Robin.
Two 13-hour series were made during a two-year run. The soundtrack throughout the series was performed by the Irish folk group Clannad, and their haunting music adds much to the magic of the series. It is available on CD under the title Legend.
Le magnifique (1973)
This film careens wildly through moments of high camp, pathos and outright slapstick
Albanian agents are smuggling missile platforms into Mexico. An American agent is devoured by a shark in a phone booth. Superspy Bob St. Cloud is sent to Acapulco to investigate. There he meets the beautiful Tatiana, but their romance is interrupted when they are attacked by an army of Albanian scuba divers, armed with machine guns. In the middle of the carnage, a cleaning woman pushes a vacuum cleaner up the beach. She enters the door of a small beach house where...
In a shabby Parisian flat, Francois Merlin, writer of cheap fiction, is pounding out his forty-third spy novel. He sees a young sociology student through the window of a nearby flat. Though he's never met her, she becomes part of his novel.
From this beginning French director Philippe de Broca (King of Hearts) creates a bizarre comedy of frustrated desires and fantastic dreams. Like Walter Mitty, Merlin creates a fantasy life within his novels far more exciting than his own.
French film star Jean-Paul Belmondo shows great versatility in a duel role as the campy hero Bob St. Cloud and the burnt-out Francois Merlin. Jacqueline Bisset is the vampish spy, Tatiana, as well as Christine, the sociology student who studying the popular appeal of Merlin's escapist novels. Vittorio Caprioli also plays a dual role as Bob St. Cloud's arch-enemy, the evil Colonel Karpoff, and as Merlin's smarmy publisher Georges Charon.
De Broca is a master of light comedy and his film careens wildly through moments of high camp, pathos and outright slapstick, as the story switches back and forth between the fantasy of Merlin's novel to the reality of his own life. In the end Merlin must battle his own fictional alter ego, as well as his publisher, for the love of the fair Christine.
Riget (1994)
It's a wild ride for four and a half hours
The Kingdom (1994) is a four-part miniseries directed for Danish TV by Lars von Trier (Zentropa), and released theatrically in the U.S. It has a very large cast and an even larger plot concerning strange happenings at Denmark's largest state hospital (where it was filmed). There is a mysterious ambulance which pulls up nightly in front of the ER and then promptly vanishes, a villainous Swedish brain surgeon trying to cover up evidence of his own malpractice, and an elderly patient searching the halls and elevators for the ghost of a young girl. Another doctor secretly lives in the basement and runs a black market redirecting hospital supplies to where they are most needed. There are secret societies, and severed heads, and a pair of dishwashers who serve as a Greek chorus anticipating each turn in the plot, even though they have no contact with the rest of characters. I've seen several descriptions of this film as "ER meets Twin Peaks" but there is also the black comedy of M*A*S*H, the surrealism of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective, the sloppy hand-held camera work of Homicide and the absurdist nightmare of Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital. The film was shot in 16mm, transferred to video for editing, and finally transferred back to 35mm film which creates a brown tone grainy effect, which combined with the unsteady hand held camera work--which makes it seem at times like the film was shot on board a ship during a storm--give the film a dreamlike quality. It's a wild ride for four and a half hours, and many of the plots are left unresolved at the end of the fourth episode. New episodes were released in 1997 and these were compiled into the sequel Riget II.
Brain Donors (1992)
A totally shameless attempt to make a Marx Brothers film in the '90's
It's most unusual for a Zucker Brothers film to bypass the multiplexes and go straight to video and cable. Brain Donors (1992) is a totally shameless attempt to make a Marx Brothers film in the '90's. John Turturro (Barton Fink) is a fast-talking lawyer trying to get a piece of the fortune of a rich dowager (Nancy Marchand, who is the living incarnation of Margaret Dumont). Bob Nelson is a simple minded gardener who talks some of the time. And Mel Smith (Morons from Outer Space) is a fast talking cab driver. There's a couple trying to get their first break in the ballet, so they can get married, and for comic villains a pompous family lawyer and a prima donna ballet star. Sure it's blasphemy, but somewhat redeemed by the fact that they don't try to look like the Groucho, Harpo and Chico (except for Turturro who looks a lot like Groucho without a mustache). And sure the film company didn't know what to do with it, but then they didn't know what to do with the Marx Brothers in the first place (who never quite did as well as more predictable comedy teams like Wheeler & Woolsey and the Ritz Brothers).
Solar Crisis (1990)
If you don't expect it to make much sense it's great fun.
There are few things funnier than a deadly serious Japanese sci-fi film. Solar Crisis (1990) stars Tim Matheson as the leader of an expedition to the sun (no, they don't fly at night). He's trying to prevent a huge solar flare from destroying the Earth. Charlton Heston is his father, a blustering admiral in charge of a space station. Corin Nemic (Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Stargate SG-1) is his son, an AWOL cadet, who stumbles onto a plot by Peter Boyle, typecast once again as a sleezy corporate type who somehow has found a way to make a profit if the mission fails. Jack Palance is (you guessed it) a crusty old coot. And Paul Williams is an overly cheerful anti-matter bomb, bucking for a promotion when the mission's over. Along the way, much scenery is chewed, millions of dollars of Japanese venture capital is spent (the special effects are quite nice), and the director has his name removed from the credits. If you don't expect it to make much sense it's great fun.
Start the Revolution Without Me (1970)
A hilarious parody of just about every movie made about the French Revolution
Ten years before the Zuckers made Airplane, television producer Bud Yorkin (All in The Family, Sanford and Son) got in and out of the movie business very quickly with Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), a hilarious parody of just about every movie made about the French Revolution or based on the novels of Dumas. Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland play dual roles as two pairs of mismatched twins. One pair are Corsican noblemen conspiring with Marie and the Count DiSicci to depose the king. The other pair are Parisian peasants trying to escape the fighting. Wilder and Sutherland make a great comedy team (even doing a take off on the patty-cake bit, from the Hope/Crosby Road Pictures). With an introduction by Orson Wells, Hugh Griffith and an assortment of English character actors attempting French accents (I saw this once on a double bill with Tom Jones, and many of the principles are in both films) and a great deal of location footage filmed on the grounds of Versailles including a very chaotic battle scene.
Yashagaike (1979)
For sheer unbridled culture shock there is nothing like Japanese cinema
For sheer unbridled culture shock there is nothing like Japanese cinema. I have one friend who gave me a series of films about a team of crack Japanese school girls who battle crime with a variety of lethal yo-yos. Another friend dragged me kicking and screaming to the Somerville Theater (back during its brief incarnation as an Art-House) to see Demon Pond, based on a popular play by B. K. Izumi and directed by Masahiro Shinoda. It's the story of a university student who travels to a small town in search of his professor, who left the university without word some years before. The professor is found living with his wife in a small house by a pond outside the village. He had promised a dying man that he would ring a large bell twice a day to prevent the demons from escaping from the pond and destroying the nearby village. The professor doesn't really believe in the demons, or the bell, but the problem with cynicism is that you can never rely upon it in a crunch (cause a true cynic can't really believe in cynicism either), so twice a day he's been ringing the bell, just in case. The townspeople don't believe in demons either, and there is grumbling that all this bell ringing is somehow the cause of the drought which has been plaguing the town for over a year. In the middle of all this controversy appears a pair of crustaceans with their own argument which carries over into the pond, where you meet the court of the Dragon Princess, who is trying to escape the pond to be with her boyfriend who's trapped in another pond. The Dragon Princess and the Professor's wife are played by a man, Tamasaburo Bando (one of Japan's most famous Kabuki players) and many of the scenes are staged in the Kabuki tradition, especially the scene in the pond (which resembles a Kabuki version of Pee-Wee's Playhouse) and an extremely elaborate tea ceremony (which goes on so long I was left thinking that the tea couldn't possibly still be hot.) Eventually the villagers take action, convince the professor to stop ringing the bell by threatening to tie his wife to a cow and send it careening into the pond. Cynicism loses in a spectacular demonstration of the consequences of messing with pond demons. I actually ended up going to see this film a second time, dragging some of my other friends kicking and screaming to the Somerville Theater. After all, the most fun you can have with foreign film is inflicting them on others.