Welcome to the 253rd Edition of my long-running series. I am right now
1-0 in Fantasy Football so I look to do it again this week. I continue
with my 5-part Robin Williams series as well as 3-part series with
Quentin Tarantino and Steve Martin. Last night I had the pleasure of
seeing David Letterman and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone at Ball State
and discussing the rise of Twitter and the benefits it can have. It was
very interesting though I still have not grasped the Twitter concept.
World's
Greatest Dad (2009): This is part four of my five-part Robin Williams
series and the facebook friend I chose was Brandon who I got to know
through Hoosier Pro Wrestling and is working very hard to become the
best wrestler he can be. He listed Robin Williams in his movie section
so after our mutual friend Bobby made this suggestion, I settled on
this one. This is his best movie in years as far as I'm concerned.
Robin Williams stars as teacher Lance Clayton who has a troubled
relationship with his teenage son and is dating the art teacher but
even she won't go public with the relationship and seems pretty close
to another male teacher. Suddenly his son dies a very strange death so
to protect his reputation, Lance makes it look like a suicide and
writes a suicide note that becomes very popular helping him to approach
his dream of being a famous writer as long as he can live with his lie.
I really enjoyed watching this and reminded me of how much of a Bruce
Hornsby fan I am. Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait actually went behind the
camera to direct this film and makes a great achievement as a director.
Kill
Bill: Vol. 1 (2003): This is part two of my three-part Quentin
Tarantino series. This is Tarantino's dream film along with the second
part which will be on a future installment and it could be part three
of this series. Uma Thurman stars as The Bride who is part of the
Deadly Viper Assassination Squad but is left for dead after she decides
to marry and killing what would have been her husband. They did not get
the job done on the Bride and she gets put in a coma. When waking from
her four year coma she sets out for revenge on the people who left her
for dead. David Carradine plays the title character who is the leader
of the group which also includes Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl
Hannah, and Lucy Liu. In this volume, there is a great fight scene in a
home to start and then she sets off to go after O-Ren, played by Lucy
Liu, who has since become the leader of the Yakuza which is the
Japanese version of the mafia. The Bride then goes after the whole
syndicate which is his tribute to the samarai and martial arts films.
Japanese martial arts legend Sonny Chiba also has a part as Hattori
Hanzo who supplies the Bride with her sword. This volume focuses a lot
on classic martial arts and samarai. It also has a great animation
sequence charting the back story of O-Ren. The yellow suit that the
Bride wears is a replica of what Bruce Lee wore in his last film GAME
OF DEATH and many of the bad guys were what she calls Kato masks which
is another Bruce Lee reference for the mask he wore as Kato in the 70s
tv series GREEN HORNET. There is a lot of exaggerated gore which was
purposely done and in some ways the action scene in the end was like a
live-action anime film. The next volume is a little more dramatic and
it pays more of a tribute to westerns. Next week's Tarantino film could
be someting he directed, produced, written, or acted.
Picnic at
Hanging Rock (1975): I found this Australian film on Instant Netflix.
This movie takes place in 1900 on Valentine's Day but please do not
jump to any conclusions that this is some Valentine's Day love story.
This is a film taking place at a girls school where the girls are taken
on a trip to hanging rock. It then results in three girls and a teacher
disappearing at Hanging Rock. One of them returns to the school but
does not seem to have much memory leaving very little answer. Peter
Weir directed this atmospheric film. It also has a very haunting
soundrack and requires a lot of attention and guessing. Many believe
this is a true story but it is not nor does anyone involve claim
otherwise.
See Your Doctor (1939): This is a Robert Benchley
short I found on TCM On-Demand where a man gets stung by a bee and his
brother insists he sees the doctor believing it could be a bit from a
Black Widow spider. When he gets there the doctor is very busy on the
phone and the nurse takes a while to fill out his papers leaving the
patient in quite a worry. This is interesting propaganda talking about
going to see your doctor like the title says.
Friday (1995): The
Facebook friend I chose for this one is Dylan Bostic who is on the rise
as a young professional wrestler who was recently signed by the Ohio
Valley Wrestling and who knows what is in the future for bigger things.
F. Gary Gray directed this stoner comedy which stars Ice Cube and Chris
Tucker. After smoking a dope dealer's weed, they then must come up with
money very fast to pay him off. Ice Cube plays Craig who has just lost
his job and Chris Tucker plays Smokey his friend that gets him into a
lot of trouble. There were some pretty funny moments in the film. I
have not seen the two sequels. I put this off for many years but
finally broke down to watch it and it was not as bad as I thought it
would be. Look for Bernie Mac a little earlier in his career.
Little
Shop of Horrors (1986): This is part two of my three-part Steve Martin
series. This is the musical remake of the classic 1960 b-movie from
Roger Corman. Rick Moranis stars as Seymour who lives in the very poor
town of Skid Row working for a very unsuccessful flower shop ran by Mr.
Mushnik, played by Vincent Gardenia. Things get more successful when
Seymour finds a strange looking plant which he names Audrey 2 which
turns out to be a very violent plant where Seymour must decide between
his success and destroying the plant. Ellen Greene is very good as
Audrey, who Seymour names the plant after, who is another employee at
the flower shop. Seymour likes her a lot be she is in a very abusive
relationship with the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello, played very well
by Steve Martin. This is one of my favorite musicals and this one has
some differences from the stage musical. Frank Oz directed this version
and did a pretty good job getting it to film. We also have some cameos
from people like John Candy, James Belushi. This was actually my mom's
very first theatrical show where she played the bag lady and a reporter
which then made me want to be in theater. I will tag my facebook
friends who have been involved in stage productions I have seen like
the one my mom was in when I was a kid and a couple productions last
year in Muncie and Portland.
Van Wilder (2002): This is a
selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for
this one I chose Fred who has been a very loyal reader to me. This is
the comedy that many people who have been in college can relate to.
Ryan Reynolds plays the title character who has been going to college
for seven years and his father, played by Tim Matheson, decides to
revoke his funding. Van Wilder then must come up with ways to pay his
way through college so he does have to do the dreaded graduation and
can stay in college to throw parties and "fundraisers". Kal Penn
co-stars as Taj, Van's assistant that he hires and who helps him raise
this money. Reynolds and Kal Penn were both very fun but could have
done without Tara Reid who was the reporter out to find out why Van
Wilder is still going to college.
Catch-22 (1970): Mike Nichols
directed this war comedy which is adapted from the controversial novel
by Joseph Heller. Alan Arkin stars as Captain John Yossarian who wants
no more to be declared insane in order to not fly planes but no matter
what he tries he cannot get anyone to do it for him. While there are
some pretty funny moments, we also must watch as Yossarian watches the
people around him die. Many other actors co-star in this film like Art
Garfunkel, Martin Sheen, Anthony Perkins, Bob Newhart, Jon Voight,
Orson Welles, and many others co-star. In the same year is when Robert
Altman directed his war comedy MASH which gained a bigger following
maybe because it is not quite as dark as this one. This featured film
is rather anti-war and MASH is not really pro or anti-war, just making
the most of the crazy time with their hijinks. I found this on Instant
Netflix.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953): This is my musical for
the week which stars 50s icons Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as two
singers and best friends. Monroe plays Lorelei who has an obsession
with diamonds and money. Russell is Dorothy who is just obsessed with
love and is a bit irritated with her Lorelei's money philosophy. They
are working in Paris where Lorelei's fiance hires a private detective
to keep tabs on them and leads into a misunderstanding with diamonds.
The most known thing from this Howard Hawks film is the musical number
DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND. This was a fun one to watch where
Monroe was pretty amusing and Russell was good in her part. I found
this on Movieplex On-Demand but I'm not sure if it is still there.
The
Alligator People (1959): This is my sci-fi b-movie for the week that I
found on Instant Netflix. We start with a Newlywed couple and the
husband has telegram. When he is off to make a call, the train leaves
without him. The wife then never sees him. She then finds him on a
family estate and find a medical experiment went a bit wrong as you
might imply from the title. Lon Chaney Jr. co-stars as Manon who lives
at the estate and is not fond of the alligators. It is a great,
unintentially funny monster movie that can be found on Instant Netflix.
Well,
that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you hate. Stay
tuned next week where I return with Cary Grant, more Robin Williams,
more Quentin Tarantino, more Steve Martin, Eartha Kitt, and many
others. I do have an honorable mention for this week so keep reading.
HONORABLE MENTION
Big
River (2010): Now only did I go see David Letterman and Twitter
co-founder Biz Stone but I also went to see KING CORN producer Ian
Cheney who I saw yesterday speaking downtown with my mom in a local
health food place in downtown Muncie. Today I actually met him because
he was at the Minnetrista Cultural Center during the Lighter Living
fair where he was promoting his 25 minute short documentary of this
title. This is his follow-up to the 2007 documentary KING CORN where he
and his friend Curt Ellis return to Iowa where in the 2007 film, they
grew an acre of corn to see where it goes. They return to see what
happened that made their acre go downstream and the ecological
consequences of what happened. They showed the premier of this at
Minnetrista where afterwards they allowed a question and comment
session where many people really liked what he did. One person who runs
some water company wanted to talk to Ian about getting the rights to
show it to her employees. Mr. Cheney was also a very good speaker. Info
about the film and the screenings are on http://bigriverfilm.com. In
these two films, these guys raise a lot of awareness and do it by
presenting the facts, not using a bunch of tricks.
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