Man oh man, has Dan Akroyd been in some shitty movies... and I only kinda like Ghost Busters. First off, Akroyd is a terrible actor. He played his character in Driving Miss Daisy fairly well but everything else he sucks the energy out of every scene he's in.Originally Posted by GuitarGeek
On another forum there was a thread, "Classic TV shows you've never seen" (obviously not meaning ones before you were born but which were popular back in your day).
Two big ones that EVERYONE was talking about and yet I never saw a single minute of either -- MASH and Dallas.
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Two words: Caddyshack 2 (which I let myself get conned into seeing at the big expanded movie theater at Severance Towne Center, back when it came out)
(Beldar mode) NEBS! NEBS! NEBS! I find this response unacceptable! Aykroyd is a fine ac-tor, he gets the job done, delivers his lines and hits his mark. For the kind of motion pictures he does, that's all that is required! (Beldar mode off)and I only kinda like Ghost Busters. First off, Akroyd is a terrible actor. He played his character in Driving Miss Daisy fairly well but everything else he sucks the energy out of every scene he's in.
This may not come as a shock, but a lot of the people in the movies I like aren't really what you'd call great actors. But then, you really don't need to be Sir Laurence Olivier (who actually was in one of my favorite movies, can you guess which one?) or Max Von Sydow (who was in two of my favorite movies, do you know which ones?) to be in the kind of movies I like.
It's nice when you can have someone like Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfus, Ossie Davis, or Meryl Streep in your movie. But for a lot of pictures, those actors are really over qualified.
I don't think Aykroyd's presence hampered pictures like The Blues Brothers, 1941, Trading Places, Doctor Detroit, or Spies Like Us.
And I can't think of anyone I'd rather have play Beldar Conehead than Dan.
MASH we watched regularly (I remember seeing, and not really understanding, when I was in about the 2nd or 3rd grade). Dallas I think we watched a bit, but I don't really remember much about it. Most of what I remember about Dallas was more down to it's general pop culture status, e.g. "Who shot JR", 'Good morning", etc. Somewhere on VHS, I have the last episode of the original series, where JR Ewing is given a It's A Wonderful Life-esque of what life would be like for the Ewings if he had never been born. And you know what?! I've literally never watched it. I've sat down to watch it a cople times, then got distracted, but for 30 whatever years, I've had a VHS tape that's literall never been watched (I've got a few like that actually).
Flash Gordon and Strange Brew.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
"Boys From Brazil" ?
^^ Marathon Man?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I never had any interest in watching Dallas. Larry Hagman will always be Major Anthony Nelson in my mind.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
I forgot about Boys From Brazil, saw that when I was a teenager, in school, if you can believe that!
But no, I was thinking of something a little later than that, a little closer to what you know I'm into. The movie I'm thinking also had Burgess Meredith, and a whole motherfrelling truckload of British stage legends, besides Sir Laurence. But as Jeremy Clarkson would say, however, they were upstaged by the film's real stars, none of whom were humans.
Last edited by GuitarGeek; 06-15-2020 at 04:48 PM.
Yeah, he was brilliant as Major Nelson. That was one show I remember watching when I was a little, and have revisited again in recent years, and still think it's hilarious.
Larry Hagman was also in a good episode of The Rockford Files, where he essentially played JR Ewing, but a couple years before Dallas.
I had to look that up. Funny... I don't recall any other characters from I Dream of Jeannie besides Barbara Eden...
You say Mega Ultra Deluxe Special Limited Edition Extended Autographed 5-LP, 3-CD, 4-DVD, 2-BlueRay, 4-Cassette, five 8-Track, MP4 Download plus Demos, Outtakes, Booklet, T-Shirt and Guitar Pick Gold-Leafed Box Set Version like it's a bad thing...
Sir Larry - The Jazz Singer
Maxi V - The Exorcist
nothing could have saved that steaming pile
Blues Brothers was great. Trading Places was great. The rest was crappolaI don't think Aykroyd's presence hampered pictures like The Blues Brothers, 1941, Trading Places, Doctor Detroit, or Spies Like Us.
True. I would have been pissed if anyone else played Beldar... too bad the movie was forgettable.And I can't think of anyone I'd rather have play Beldar Conehead than Dan.
Doctor Detroit I haven't seen in ages, but there's a few moments I thought were great, like when he threatens Mom, "I'm going to rip off your head and piss down your neck", and the nightmare he has about selling his own mother as a whore. I also like the Devo song that played over teh opening credits.Blues Brothers was great. Trading Places was great. The rest was crappola
1941, maybe as a whole, doesn't hold together too well, but I like it. I guess it's sort of like 4 different short films that have been cut together. Too many bits in that movie I love, e.g Ned Beatty firing off the Howitzer, or Robert Stack as the general who gets dragged out of a showing of Dumbo (and also declares, a few seconds too late, that "There will be no bombs dropped here!"), or Eddie Deezen and Murray Hamilton as the two idiots on "look out duty" on the Ferris wheel, or Toshiro Mifune (making a rare appearance in a Western film) and Christopher Lee aboard the Japanese sub (with Mifune-san finally declaring, in Japanese, that "You can take your Third Reich and ram it up your ass!"). Yeah, it's pretty stupid, especially given that it was a Spielberg picture, but it was still fun.
As for Spies Like Us, again, maybe weak compared to something like The Blues Brothers (and it was clear, that was the vibe they were trying to recreate by pairing Aykroyd with another SNL alum), but it has some good bits. Chevy's stunt with the microphone at the beginning, the "training" sequence ("HEADS DOWN!"), and the Russian missile crew listening to the Bar Kays, were great. I also love how they blow up an MTV satellite. Also, BB King has a small role at the disused drive in that's being used as the cover for the secret military base. And it's got a Paul McCartney song in it, too, so in a way, it sort of has the same relationship to The Blues Brothers that Live And Let Die has to Thunderball.Yeah, in general, that wasn't that great, though I did love it when he narfulled the Garthok. And I love when he tells Chris Farley that "I FIND YOU UNACCEPTABLE! IF I DID NOT FEAR INCARCERATION BY THE AUTHORITIES, I WOULD APPLY SUFFICIENT PRESSURE TO YOUR SKULL AS TO CAUSE IT TO COLLAPSE!". Funny, I had the same recreation to Chris Farley.
True. I would have been pissed if anyone else played Beldar... too bad the movie was forgettable.Also, when Beldar tells him that his car is a "rusted out shitbox". I dunno, there's something I love about that phrase, being said by Beldar.
OK, I can understand you bringing up The Exorcist (I need to rewatch that again), but really, The Jazz Singer?! What do I look like to you? Some sort of Neal Diamond fanboy?!
All seriousness aside, the movie I was thinking of, gives Sir Larry and his hauty toity RSC colleagues something in common with two different Doctor Whos, Patrick Wayne, and James Franciscus.
Bill Daily was there, too; essentially playing the same character as on The Bob Newhart Show.I had to look that up. Funny... I don't recall any other characters from I Dream of Jeannie besides Barbara Eden...
What, no mention of Son of Blob, Larry Hagman’s directorial debut? Being an early horror spoof, it was a little ahead of its time (postmodern irony had not quite struck yet, also why people didn’t “get” Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls at the time).
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
An odd film, that. Probably inspired Simple Minds' song of the same name.
IMDB throws up 'Clash of the Titans' as a match for Olivier/Meredith in the same film, but I don't know what the Doctor Who/Wayne/Franciscus reference is about.
Does the name Ray Harryhausen mean anything to you?
And I love when he tells Chris Farley that "I FIND YOU UNACCEPTABLE! IF I DID NOT FEAR INCARCERATION BY THE AUTHORITIES, I WOULD APPLY SUFFICIENT PRESSURE TO YOUR SKULL AS TO CAUSE IT TO COLLAPSE!". Funny, I had the same recreation to Chris Farley.
I don't know, Farley was fantastic in some of his roles, particularly as Matt Foley, the (un)Inspirational Speaker.
https://youtu.be/Xv2VIEY9-A8
There was a comedic rock band called Major Healey, Bill Daily's character. As I recall, they were the house band for a lesser known late night show.I had to look that up. Funny... I don't recall any other characters from I Dream of Jeannie besides Barbara Eden...
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Prime example of what I didn't like about Chris Farley. I know they say that most comedians are desparate for people to like them and accept them, etc, and never have I seen it so obvious as with Farley. You could just hear him begging you to laugh at him. I remember TV Guide "Jeering" him, saying he came off like he was about to have a heart attack. I don't know if that was him or the cocaine or what, but it got real obnoxious, real quick.
IMO Farley was one of the all time greats.
Very different characters.
Roger Healey was a playboy who was always getting them in trouble, and Howard Borden was something of a naive, needy nitwit.
Yes, although I've only ever seen 'Jason and The Argonauts', and I didn't realise Patrick Troughton was in it.
I don't think I knew he was in it, either, though I've seen it several times. He was also in Sinbad & The Eye Of The Tiger, the picture that Patrick Wayne and Jane Seymour (and, apparently, Peter Mayhew, tying all this to the Star Wars universe) was in. Tom Baker was in The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (along with Caroline Munro, as it happens). In fact, it was seeing him in that movie that made Barry Letts offer Baker the role as the Fourth Doctor.
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