Movies - Take Two. Action!

[Progatron]

My favorite comedy of all time for sheer consistency from beginning to end is Monty Pythons Life Of Brian.

Now we're talkin'. Watched it many times and will continue to do so, because it continues to make me laugh - but I'm a Python fanatic, so that's easily explained. A Fish Called Wanda is another that I often cite as a good example of strong comedy writing from beginning to end.

I also am a huge sucker for the Zucker/Abrahams movies, and similar style comedies.

When I was a kid, I thought the farting scene in Blazing Saddles was hilarious, or Moses dropping one of the commandment tablets, etc. - but now, the Mel Brooks stuff just doesn't work for me. YMMV!

[Staun]

I believe it is a reboot.

This is very disappointing, Joe F. Was hoping they would move the story along. In this case, a reboot is useless.

[Rogue Mail]

Can You Ever Forgive Me -*extraordinary and compelling movie about writer Lee Israel, who forged letters from famous people and sold them for profit.

It contains a career best performance from Melissa McCarthy, something of a revelation here (though i also thought she showed great promise for straight roles in the Bill Murray movie Vincent).

Kudos to Richard E Grant too, as her partner in crime.

Highly recommended

The Mule.*Clint Eastwood stars and directs, playing a real life pensioner who gets drawn into the unlikely world of drug smuggling.

Eastwoods character, an old man who has never had a single driving conviction, is seen as the perfect drug mule.

He is also estranged from his wife and daughter, having spent most of his life devoted to growing and exhibiting plants. When his fortunes change he is forced to seek other ways of making money.

Something of a departure for Eastwood...no heroics, no standoffs, hardly any violence or action. But that is ok, because the point is this is just an ordinary guy, a doddery pensioner caught up in extraordinary situation .

In fact it would make a good double bill with Robert Redfords The Old Man And The Gun.

[Rogue Mail]

Now we're talkin'. Watched it many times and will continue to do so, because it continues to make me laugh - but I'm a Python fanatic, so that's easily explained. A Fish Called Wanda is another that I often cite as a good example of strong comedy writing from beginning to end.

I also am a huge sucker for the Zucker/Abrahams movies, and similar style comedies.

When I was a kid, I thought the farting scene in Blazing Saddles was hilarious, or Moses dropping one of the commandment tablets, etc. - but now, the Mel Brooks stuff just doesn't work for me. YMMV!

Your comment about the farting scene makes sense. Brooks movies were very much of their time, it was very scatalogical humour and you could get away with gray and racist jokes back then.

The problem with Brooks is he never moved out of that vein. Times changed, attitudes changed, people changed...but Brooks kept churning out the same old stuff.

Robin Hood was a low point for me, as was Dracula Dead And loving It. Never saw Life Stinks and but heard bad things about it.

But I still love the earlier movies, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety. After that his output is very patchy.

Just as well he concentrated on producing in later years.

[Hal...]

Do you have further info on Dune? Do you know at what point in the time line it will be?

I only know Villeneuve is directing it. Sorry.

My favorite comedy of all time for sheer consistency from beginning to end is Monty Pythons Life Of Brian.

I do not think there is a wasted line in the whole movie. They are all memorable. I worked in a cinema when it opened and the audience reaction was incredible.

I saw it at the drive-in when it was released. It was my least favorite until I saw it again about 20 years later. It's not my fave comedy but it is my favorite Python movie; you're right: very consistent. I've since seen it more than any of their others.

One of the two scenes that had me laughing so hard I was crying - when I first saw them - was when Pilate was asking for someone to be freed. Actually, all those scenes with Palin as Pilate had me rolling. The other scene was Mr Creosote in The Meaning of Life. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard from something I've seen in a movie or TV show.

Times changed, attitudes changed, people changed...but Brooks kept churning out the same old stuff.

Yep. His only movie I'll still watch is Young Frankenstein. Even then, I don't think there's anything in it that makes me lol anymore.

--------------------

Another comedy I really enjoyed when it was first released was Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. It gets kinda stupid toward the end when Carl Reiner makes his appearance but up until then I think it's a good movie. My fave scene is when Steve Martin makes coffee.

[hippypants]

Maudie--bitter sweet biopic about a disabled female artist in Canada. Sort of sad, but good performances.

[Gruno]

I started viewing Apollo 11 and was 12 minutes in when I decided to stop. It looks fascinating and is shot well. I stopped because it is a film I want to watch with my father. He was a draftsman and worked on a couple of Apollo missions. I remember growing up and looking through technical manuals and diagrams of cargo modules and the like. I think he will love watching this.

[GuitarGeek]

The other scene was Mr Creosote in The Meaning of Life. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard from something I've seen in a movie or TV show.

In The Meaning Of Life, the scene that had me laughing hardest was the dinner party.

Host: So how do you explain us all dying at the same time?!
(Long pause)
Death: (pointing) The salmon mousse!

Another comedy I really enjoyed when it was first released was Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. It gets kinda stupid toward the end when Carl Reiner makes his appearance but up until then I think it's a good movie. My fave scene is when Steve Martin makes coffee.

Oh yes, Steve Martin pouring coffee for, what is it? Two minutes? No dialog, no movement (except for the sigh, him looking upward briefly, before returning to the exact same pose he had before the sigh), just him slowly pouring a bag of coffee into the pot. I was trying to explain that scene to someone at work once, when I had to make coffee. It's not really something you can explain.

I'd like to see that movie again. When I first saw I was like 10 and though I had the explanation about how they pieced the movie together with scenes from old noir pictures, I was too experienced to know who any of the old actors were, apart from, I think, Bogart. I'd like to see it again, now that I know more about those old movies, I think I'd probabl appreciate it in a different fashion than I did the first time I saw it.

[NogbadTheBad]

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid - great movie, top 10 for sure. Airplane would make my top 10.

[Hal...]

In The Meaning Of Life, the scene that had me laughing hardest was the dinner party.

Host: So how do you explain us all dying at the same time?!
(Long pause)
Death: (pointing) The salmon mousse!

But you forgot the funniest line: Michael Palin, as the blond woman, says, "hey, I didn't eat the mousse."

Oh yes, Steve Martin pouring coffee for, what is it? Two minutes? No dialog, no movement

Yep, that's the scene. I love how he uses a whole bag of coffee and then adds eggs, too:



BTW, the film noir scene used is from The Killers, which I finally saw for the first time in the past year. It's a really good movie! You should look for it at your library or on TCM. Also, the fat guy with the mustache you see coming up the stairs is William Conrad, who I first knew from the TV show Cannon. He was also in Jake and the Fatman in the late '80s.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

I love Dracula Dead and Loving It, but de gustibus. Brooks's low point was Spaceballs, which, weirdly, contains my favorite single scene in any of his movies (the diner scene).

[Progatron]

Airplane would make my top 10.

Absolutely. The thing about it, too, is that it has many classic lines that people quote all the time, but many other hilarious ones that kind of get forgotten or overshadowed. My personal favourite moment in the whole movie is when the stewardess is trying to calm down the panicking woman, and there's a lineup of people waiting their turn. It gets to Leslie Nielsen, who slaps her and yells "Get a hold of yourself!", but then he is told he has a phone call, so he gets one more angry slap in before he leaves... I'm laughing as I type this!

[GuitarGeek]

Also, the fat guy with the mustache you see coming up the stairs is William Conrad, who I first knew from the TV show Cannon. He was also in Jake and the Fatman in the late '80s.

I remember both of those shows. It seemed like every time I watched a rerun of Cannon (it was shown on a couple different channels here back in the 80's), my dad would point out that he couldn't believe that William Conrad was the voice of Marshall Matt Dillon on the radio version of Gunsmoke. I guess he didn't think Conrad actually looked like how he imagined he would, back when he was listening to the radio show back in the 50's.

And somehow that reminds me of the time my brother and I were talking about the actor Matt Dillon (we were watching Over The Edge at the time), and my dad thought we were talking about Gunsmoke!

[GuitarGeek]

Absolutely. The thing about it, too, is that it has many classic lines that people quote all the time, but many other hilarious ones that kind of get forgotten or overshadowed. My personal favourite moment in the whole movie is when the stewardess is trying to calm down the panicking woman, and there's a lineup of people waiting their turn. It gets to Leslie Nielsen, who slaps her and yells "Get a hold of yourself!", but then he is told he has a phone call, so he gets one more angry slap in before he leaves... I'm laughing as I type this!

I like the version of that scene in Airplane II: The Sequel, where they're in the courtroom and the same lady is on the witness stand, and starts flaking out again. Everyone lines up to smack her. Eventually, the judge (played by Raymond Burr!) says, "Please! Let the court handle this" and then smacks her. Then the next person behind him is the court stenographer (played by the same actor with all the snarky one liners at ground control in both movies..."Did I leave the iron on?").

But the really funny part of the courtroom scene is the jive talkin' witness, who naturally gives his entire testimony in jive (complete with subtitles). "Brother Stryker jammed in there and took care of business...I mean, shit!". And I love that "I mean, shit!" is translated as "Golly!"

Another good bit was John Vernon as the psychiatrist:

Lawyer: What is your impression of Mr. Stryker?
Psychiatrist: I'm sorry, I don't do impressions. My training is in psychiatry.

Of course, William Shatner practically steals the entire movie:

Shatner: To the tower!
Subordinate: We have no tower, Sir.
Shatner: No tower?
Subordinate: Just a bridge, Sir.
Shatner: WHY THE HELL AREN'T I NOTIFIED ABOUT THESE THINGS?!

I used to use that last line whenever I'd find there was a movie or a TV show marathon on that I would have liked to have watched from the beginning.

[Lou]

My favorite comedy of all time for sheer consistency from beginning to end is Monty Pythons Life Of Brian.

It is my all time favorite movie of any genre!

[nycsteve]

But you forgot the funniest line: Michael Palin, as the blond woman, says, "hey, I didn't eat the mousse."


Yep, that's the scene. I love how he uses a whole bag of coffee and then adds eggs, too:



BTW, the film noir scene used is from The Killers, which I finally saw for the first time in the past year. It's a really good movie! You should look for it at your library or on TCM. Also, the fat guy with the mustache you see coming up the stairs is William Conrad, who I first knew from the TV show Cannon. He was also in Jake and the Fatman in the late '80s.

There was a remake of THe Killers in the 60s with Lee Marvin IIRC. Not bad. The original is very good. Lancasters debut I think.

[Joe F.]

This is very disappointing, Joe F. Was hoping they would move the story along. In this case, a reboot is useless.

Here's some more info...

http://www.duneinfo.com/new-dune-movie

[aith01]

This is very disappointing, Joe F. Was hoping they would move the story along. In this case, a reboot is useless.

Well no, a reboot is not useless. If it sticks closer to the source material than Lynch’s movie did, it could set the stage for more movies in the Dune universe to follow.

[Rogue Mail]

I remember both of those shows. It seemed like every time I watched a rerun of Cannon (it was shown on a couple different channels here back in the 80's), my dad would point out that he couldn't believe that William Conrad was the voice of Marshall Matt Dillon on the radio version of Gunsmoke. I guess he didn't think Conrad actually looked like how he imagined he would, back when he was listening to the radio show back in the 50's.

And somehow that reminds me of the time my brother and I were talking about the actor Matt Dillon (we were watching Over The Edge at the time), and my dad thought we were talking about Gunsmoke!

At the time Cannon came on TV there seemed to be a new series every week involving a detective who had sone kind of quirk or something different about them. Columbo was the fastidious one with a curious nature, Barnaby Jones was basically a pensioner, Cannon was overweight, Ironside was in a wheelchair etc.

I also find it odd that characters like Cannon and Barnaby Jones would effortlessly woo the leading lady every week and have a romance, and yet no one batted an eyelid back then.

There was also another strange one called Faraday and Co, about a guy who had been lost in the jungle for 20 years or so, came back to the US and became a private eye...despite being unfamiliar with modern technology, cars etc. That was a bit of a stretch to say the least. Unsurprisingly I do not think it got further than the pilot episode.

[proggy_jazzer]

Well no, a reboot is not useless. If it is successful at the box office, it could set the stage for more movies in the Dune universe to follow.

Fixed that for you ;-)

Seriously, though, the story of the original four novels is deep enough to support a wealth of cinematic adaptations. There is no way a single motion picture can do justice to the whole. As I think I said before, with the rise of independent tv, I think the time is ripe for a multi-episode, multi-season tackling of the Dune universe. And with the advances in CGI, even God Emperor of Dune should be possible. I'm currently re-reading GEoD, and for some reason I keep flashing on what it would be like if James Spader played Leto II (face and voice, with CG worm-body, obviously). Only partly joking...

[aith01]

Fixed that for you ;-)

You're right, it really comes down to how profitable it is.

Seriously, though, the story of the original four novels is deep enough to support a wealth of cinematic adaptations. There is no way a single motion picture can do justice to the whole. As I think I said before, with the rise of independent tv, I think the time is ripe for a multi-episode, multi-season tackling of the Dune universe. And with the advances in CGI, even God Emperor of Dune should be possible. I'm currently re-reading GEoD, and for some reason I keep flashing on what it would be like if James Spader played Leto II (face and voice, with CG worm-body, obviously). Only partly joking...

I would be totally onboard for something like that, even the CGI worm James Spader.

SyFy did a Dune miniseries back in the early 2000s that was actually pretty good, but it was before television budgets really allowed for good CGI work (or before it became more affordable). It would be cool to see how they'd tackle that with the technology now.

But that cast for the new Dune movie though...

[GuitarGeek]

At the time Cannon came on TV there seemed to be a new series every week involving a detective who had sone kind of quirk or something different about them. Columbo was the fastidious one with a curious nature, Barnaby Jones was basically a pensioner, Cannon was overweight, Ironside was in a wheelchair etc.

I also find it odd that characters like Cannon and Barnaby Jones would effortlessly woo the leading lady every week and have a romance, and yet no one batted an eyelid back then.

Hmmm, I don't remember either of them doing much wooing, but I really haven't seen either show in something like 30 years or more. I remember the Mad magazine parody of Barnaby Jones, where he gets someone to talk by tossing out a couple of his "southern" philosophy lines, and the guy is like "I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell ya anything, just stop the cornpone philosophy" or whatever it was. Also, the climax featured the Jones character huffing and puffing as he chased after (and catching) the killer, on foot, the unlikeliness of which is commented on.

There was also another strange one called Faraday and Co, about a guy who had been lost in the jungle for 20 years or so, came back to the US and became a private eye...despite being unfamiliar with modern technology, cars etc. That was a bit of a stretch to say the least. Unsurprisingly I do not think it got further than the pilot episode.

Wikipedia says it ran for four episodes, but it was part of the NBC Mystery Movie rotation that particular season, so it alternated with Banacek and a couple other shows nobody remembers. Apparently, a pre-Cagney And Lacey (and even more pre-The L Word/Burn Notice) Sharon Gless was one of the regulars.

[GuitarGeek]

re: Dune

I keep saying this, but I still wish Jodorowsky could have done the film he wanted to do back in the 70's.

[Rogue Mail]

Hmmm, I don't remember either of them doing much wooing, but I really haven't seen either show in something like 30 years or more. I remember the Mad magazine parody of Barnaby Jones, where he gets someone to talk by tossing out a couple of his "southern" philosophy lines, and the guy is like "I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell ya anything, just stop the cornpone philosophy" or whatever it was. Also, the climax featured the Jones character huffing and puffing as he chased after (and catching) the killer, on foot, the unlikeliness of which is commented on.


Wikipedia says it ran for four episodes, but it was part of the NBC Mystery Movie rotation that particular season, so it alternated with Banacek and a couple other shows nobody remembers. Apparently, a pre-Cagney And Lacey (and even more pre-The L Word/Burn Notice) Sharon Gless was one of the regulars.

I cant remember any specific examples of the romance situation, but most of the actors in these shows were often near the end of their career, had stopped doing movies and so TV was where they made their living. But i do remember being curious at the notion that the writers completely ignored the fact that they were often in their sixties, overweight and hardly sex symbols and still portrayed them as somehow desirable to the opposite sex.

Regarding Faraday and Co, struggled for years trying to remember the name of the show and the lead actor (Dan Dailey).

One scene always stuck in my head of a car chase, with him trying to figure out the gears in the car...

I would be fascinated to see the show now, but it's so obscure I doubt it would get a release.

[GuitarGeek]

I cant remember any specific examples of the romance situation, but most of the actors in these shows were often near the end of their career, had stopped doing movies and so TV was where they made their living. But i do remember being curious at the notion that the writers completely ignored the fact that they were often in their sixties, overweight and hardly sex symbols and still portrayed them as somehow desirable to the opposite sex.

Regarding Faraday and Co, struggled for years trying to remember the name of the show and the lead actor (Dan Dailey).

One scene always stuck in my head of a car chase, with him trying to figure out the gears in the car...

I would be fascinated to see the show now, but it's so obscure I doubt it would get a release.

Well, there's always the internet. I've found a lot of obscure stuff I never thought I'd get to see again on the internet. There was one early 80's show called 240 Robert. It produced by the same people who did CHiPs, and it was essentially the same premise, but followed a LA County sheriff's rescue team (codename 240 Robert, hence the show's title). The cast included a then still mostly unknown Mark Harmon and Joanna Cassidy (the latter you might remember from Blade Runner, she was the Replicant who was working as an exotic dancer, ends up getting shot in the back by Harrison Ford). The show actually ran for two seasons, but whichever network it was (NBC, I think) put it up against Monday Night Football, and naturally, the show got squashed like a bug.

I only remember there the show because there was one episode where Cassidy's character is getting scuba certified, and through a long set of circumstance too involved to get into here, she basically ends up rescuing her diving instructor during her check out dive.

Now, the thing was, I didn't remember the name of the show, or even who was in it. But I remember almost every frelling detail of the plot of that episode. THen something like 15 years later, I'm chatting with someone on AOL, and we were talking about our favorite scuba things from TV shows and movies, and this guy starts talking about that one. And I said, "Wait a minute, is that the one where the instructor pissed off some punk who worked at the dive shop, so the punk fills the instructor's scuba tank with exhaust fumes from his motorcycle, and the other diver has to rescue the instructor?" (Well, whadaya know, it wasn't too involved to explain after all). And the guy was like "YES!". So I spent about 10 years trying to find a copy, and eventually did, I've got the entire 240 Robert series on one of my external hard drives. The funny thing was, watching some of the other episodes, I spotted other things I remembered as well. Weird. The whole thing looks like it was transferred from a circa 1980 VHS or Betamax, but it's better than nothing.

I've also come across things like The Secrets Of Isis, The Man From Atlantis (starring a pre-Dallas Patrick Duffy), and a bunch of other short lived TV shows most people probably don't remember, as well as things like one off pilots and dumb TV movies (The Return Of The Man From UNCLE, anyone?).

One that was a real kick for me something called Seagull Island. This was actually a miniseries that was made by a British TV company (the same peopel who brought us Space: 1999 and The Muppet Show, I think) in Italy, circa 1980 with a mostly Italian cast, but with a few English actors in some of the lead roles. One of the English actors was Jeremy Brett, who I gather is a lot of people's pick as the definitive Sherlock Holmes. Prunella Ransome is also in it, who I gather was well known in the UK in the 70's (I only recently found out she had a very brief walk on in a Pertwee era Doctor Who).

Anyway, so apparently this mini-series was shown on British and Italian TV at the time, something like 4 episodes, running 45 minutes a piece, I think. It was then edited down to a 90 minute "made for TV movie", which got distributed on Stateside television. I saw it several times in the late 80's and early 90's. It was onlya bout 10 or 15 years ago, I found out that it was originally a mini-series.

Finally, a couple years ago, a version of the mini-series popped up on one of the video sites, either Youtube or Daily Motion I think, and I managed to download it from there. The only thing is, it's from the Italian broadcast, and yep, you guessed it, everything is in Italian. Now, I know the general plotline from the movie version, but there's a lot of extra scenes, and since I don't really speak Italian, I've got no clue as to how they fit into the story, if they add anything to the story. Still, it's a cool thing to have on the hard drive.