Weekly Wrap-Up (11/27)

I saw five films this week, the first two of which are on Roger Ebert's Great Movies List.

Groundhog Day (1993)
I had seen part of this film before on TV awhile ago but finally got around to seeing the entire movie.
Bill Murray is great as always as the egotistic weatherman Phil, who is inexplicably forced to relieve the same day over and over again. Andie MacDowell puts in a nice performance as the news show's producer, Rita. MacDowell used her actual Southern accent which was a great creative choice as it adds to her character as a down to earth and genuine person.
Although there is no explanation for why Phil has to live each day over again, I think the mystery works and wouldn't change it. Apparently early versions of the script included an answer (an ex-lover cursed him to teach him a lesson) but its unnecessary and would have been a time waster. The setting of Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania is just an unique as the premise and I really have to hand it to the creative team for doing something different that at the same time isn't completely unconventional.
Director Harold Ramis has worked with Bill Murray before as an actor in Stripes and Ghostbusters and also directed him in Caddyshack. Ramis would later direct the fantasy-comedy Multiplicity which featured MacDowell as the female lead opposite Michael Keaton.
Groundhog Day felt sort of like a twisted version of It's a Wonderful Life, as it is certainly Capraesque while at the same time has modern day sensibilities. The film is truly cinematic with its cuts of the repeating day, which could not have been done as a book or play. The film's tone is perfect as it is funny but never silly, and has drama but is never too dark or serious. Groundhog Day has more substance than most comedies and at the same time is incredibly entertaining which is quite an accomplishment.
9/10

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Anthony Hopkins' role as Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter has been so firmly entrenched and parodied in popular culture that most people who haven't seen the film are familiar with the character. While I was worried that this would cause me to enjoy the film less, I was mistaken as his character and the movie itself still packed a hell of a punch. Hopkins was fantastic and certainly deserved his Oscar. Besides Hopkins the acting was strong by all the actors, including Jodie Foster who won an Oscar for her performance as the young FBI officer in training, Clarice Starling. The Silence of the Lambs also won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Jonathan Demme), and Best adapted Screenplay.
The movie is based on Thomas Harris' book series. I haven't read the books so I don't know how it works as an adaptation. I know there are other films in the series which I might see eventually but what makes Lector's character work is the mystery around him and too much screen time (Hopkins is only in the film for just over 16 minutes!) would certainly hurt that.
Although Ted Levine doesn't have too much screen time, his creepy performance as Buffalo Bill is the cherry on top of an incredible film. The Silence of the Lambs is unsettling and disturbing which makes for an unforgettable movie that certainly deserves the praise it has received over the years.
9/10

The Blues Brothers (1980)
This was the first, and arguably best, movie based on a Saturday Night Live sketch. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi play Elwood and Jake Blues, two brothers who try to raise $5,000 to save the orphanage they were raised in from being closed by getting their band back together.
Chase scenes have been a staple of comedy films since the silent era. The Blues Brothers keeps this tradition alive with some great car chases: one inside(!) a mall and one all over the city of Chicago with Aykroyd and Belushi being pursued by both the police and Neo-Nazis!
It was nice to see Carrie Fisher in a movie that wasn't a Star Wars film, and she has a great role as a mysterious woman trying to kill the Blues Brothers. John Candy (who steals every scene he is in) and Paul Reubens have early roles. There are also appearances by many musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles. Also, director Steven Spielberg makes an unexpected cameo!
It is usually a bad sign when a comedy is over two hours long, but it makes sense in this case since The Blues Brothers is also a musical.
I had a lot of fun with this movie and it was better than I has expected. I prefer it to Belushi's earlier film Animal House (also directed by John Landis), although I like both comedies.
"We're on a mission from God"
8/10

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
I am a big John Carpenter fan and finally got around to seeing this movie in my quest to watch all of his films. Like several other of Carpenter's movies, this one didn't do well critically or commercially upon its original release but has since gained a cult following.
In the Mouth of Madness is about an insurance investigator (Sam Neill) who looks into the disappearance of a horror novelist whose works are supposedly driving his readers insane. This meta concept is given a  Lovecraftian spin to make for an interesting and unique tale. The acting is a weak at times as Sam Neill goes in and out of his accent and Julie Carmen's performance leaves much to be desired. Charlton Heston and Jurgen Prochnow are good, but could have had more screen time.
While I haven't seen all of Carpenter's films yet, In the Mouth of Madness is his best post-1980s movie. It is not one of Carpenter's best films, and not as fun as other cult classics like Big Trouble in Little China or They Live (which makes sense because it is a horror flick after all), but its still a good film that Carpenter and horror fans should enjoy. I think the reason it didn't do well was because it came out a few months after Wes Craven's New Nightmare, also released by New Line Cinema. Although I haven't seen that film yet, it seems to have a similar concept except with the popular Freddy Krueger character.
7/10

Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989)
As a fan of Penn & Teller I had been meaning to see this movie for a while. However, the film is pretty obscure and did not get a DVD release until recently. Luckily it can be seen on YouTube in nine parts, which is where I watched it. Although I like Penn & Teller's work (see my last post which talked about the duo) I think they work better live or on TV than in movie form. That said, this is still a good dark comedy. Although the movie is episodic at times, there is a main narrative with plenty of twists and turns. I think all Penn & Teller fans would enjoy this movie as not only do we have a  younger and thinner Penn Jillette, but the usually silent Teller actually speaks! I had seen an interview with Teller talking on YouTube before but it was still strange to see and hear him speak even though his voice is quite normal.
David Patrick Kelly, Sully in Commando, plays the fan who is obsessed with Penn and Teller. Penn & Teller Get Killed was the final feature film directed by Arthur Penn, who also made The Miracle Worker and Bonnie & Clyde.
7/10

Fall TV Round-Up

I am taking a break from my Tales from the Archives series this week to do a post on new Fall TV shows I have been watching. The weekly wrap-up will be Sunday as usual and Thursday (12/1) will be the next Tales from the Archives post.

South Park
As much as I love South Park I missed a good chunk of the first half of the season. However, I made up for this by watching the all seven episodes of the second half. While the last couple seasons haven't been quite up to par, the show is still very good. I liked every episode I saw but my favorite two from this season were "You're Getting Old" and "The Poor Kid."
South Park has been picked up through season 20, so it will stick around thru 2016!

Penn & Teller Tell a Lie
As a fan of Penn & Teller I was disappointed when their Showtime series got canceled last year. However, I got excited when I heard they were getting a new show on the Discovery Channel. Penn & Teller Tell a Lie is only a six episode series, and I'm not sure if they plan on making anymore. The show has actually already finished its run, in which it aired following new episodes of Mythbusters. The premise of this show is that Penn & Teller host seven outlandish stories, of which one is a fabrication and the rest are true. The viewers must try to guess which segment is a lie before it is revealed at the end. The show is basically a cross between Mythbusters, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. It is also similar to the show Urban Legends which I discuss later in this post. Penn & Teller Tell a Lie is fun, but it feels drawn out for an hour length show and the basic idea of the show has been done before. If you like Penn & Teller (or those other shows I mentioned) check this out, but if you are new to the magic duo start somewhere else.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold
I started watching Batman: The Brave and the Bold this fall. Unfortunately it was a little late to get into the show as this was its final season. The show was only intended to last three seasons and got canceled to make room for the more serious upcoming show, Beware the Batman.
I really like this Cartoon Network show as it can be hilarious, but at the same time have some great serious episodes like "Chill of the Night." Some people might not like a Batman show with a lighter, tongue-in-cheek tone, but it works as a great nod to the Silver Age comics and the Adam West Batman of the 60s. Each episode features Batman teaming up with other characters from the DC Universe so its more than just Batman. You never know who will make an appearance as some pretty obscure characters have been featured in this series. Any show that makes Aquaman cool is... Outrageous!
The series finale was fantastic. It demolished the fourth wall, made fun of jumping the shark, and even featured Ted McGinley as a guest star! The show had a nice run and this was the perfect way for it to go out in a blaze of glory.

Last Man Standing
I loved Tim Allen on Home Improvement (and in the movie Galaxy Quest) so when I heard he was making a return to TV I had to check it out. So far ABC's Last Man Standing is okay, but has the potential to be better. While Tim Allen is great on this show, his boss and wife are not as interesting or funny as Al or Tim's wife on Home Improvement. We also don't have a breakout character like Wilson. Allen's character is pretty similar to the one he played on his previous show. The formula is also pretty similar, just instead of having three sons, he has three daughters. So far the Halloween episode was my favorite, which incidentally were always great on Home Improvement. I hope the show gets picked up for another season as I think it can improve, but the other characters are going to have to get better if this show wants to last.

Urban Legends
This series is similar to shows like Beyond Belief: Fact of Fiction, Mostly True Stories, and the aforementioned Penn & Teller Tell a Lie. Although Urban Legends is not a great show, its still a fun way to kill half an hour. The format is that three unbelievable stories are shown, and we have to guess which segments are true and which ones are false. This is the third season and new episodes are still airing on the Syfy Channel.

Beavis and Butt-Head
I had seen re-runs of this show and always liked it, especially the segments with the two making fun of music videos. Personally I think that the spin-off show Daria and creator Mike Judge's other show King of the Hill are both better than Beavis and Butt-Head. However, when I heard that MTV was bringing back Judge to make new Beavis and Butt-Head episodes I had to check it out. So far I have been impressed. The animation is cleaner than before (although they use of the old couch footage when Beavis and Butt-Head watch TV for some reason). Beavis and Butt-Head still watch music videos, but also now watch and mock MTV shows like Jersey Shore. The show hasn't missed a beat and it feels like the show never stopped airing. My only complaint is that MTV follows Beavis and Butt-Head with a show called Good Vibes. I only watched the first episode out of morbid curiosity and it is probably the worst TV show I have ever seen. Beavis and Butt-Head deserves to be partnered with a better show. Bring back Daria!

Batman: The Animated Series
Technically Batman: The Animated Series doesn't count since unlike the other shows I have been watching this is not a new series. However, I have been watching the series in order on the Hub TV Channel on a regular basis so I feel it is only fair to include it here. At the moment I have seen all of season 1 and 2, so I only have the third season (15 episodes) left. I remember seeing this show as a kid, but re-watching it I have been blown away with how amazing this series is. It holds up incredibly well and while I haven't quite seen all the episodes yet it is one of the best animated series ever and perhaps the greatest TV or movie version of Batman. I need to buy the DVDs!

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/20)

This week I saw four films. Two of them were fantastic and two were bad. I'm a firm believer that one cannot truly appreciate great cinema without watching terrible movies as well!

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction is the second Quentin Tarantino movie I've seen. I had watched Reservoir Dogs before and really liked it, so I was looking forward to this film and luckily it did not disappoint. Although Pulp Fiction has been heavily ingrained in popular culture to the extent that I was already familiar with some lines and and scenes, I was completely engrossed and found this to be an amazing film.
The weakest part of the film are the scenes featuring Bruce Willis' character talking to his wife as the movie's pace slows down to a near halt. I understand that the scenes in the hotel room were necessary and the pay-off was certainly worth the slow set-up. Although Tarantino managed to pull off a dialogue heavy movie where even conversations about a five dollar milkshake were fascinating, the chemistry between Butch and Fabienne just wasn't there.
It is hard for me to pick a favorite moment as I loved the entire movie but Christopher Walken's cameo and the scenes with Harvey Kitel were pure gold. Now I need to see more Tarantino movies!
9/10

Adaptation. (2002)
I usually don't give a movie a perfect score upon my first viewing but had to make an exception here. Adaptation is proof that films can be incredibly entertaining as well as great works of art with something to say at the same time.
Nicolas Cage was amazing in a dual role as the Kaufman twins, Charlie and Donald. I have only seen a few of his movies but Cage seems to be an actor who is only as good as his director and script. To be fair this is the case for most actors (with guys like Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price being exceptions) but Cage played down to the material in The Wicker Man (2006) so much that I could barely believe this is the same actor. Although I had never heard of Chris Cooper before, he won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Laroche.
I though it was pretty clever how Being John Malkovich, made by the same director (Spike Jonze) and writer (Charlie Kaufman), was incorporated into this movie. The reason for this was because Charlie Kaufman not only wrote the script, but is also main character in Adaptation. Spike Jonze has only directed three feature films thus far so once I see Where the Wild Things Are I'll have seen all his movies. Hopefully he will make some more! While Kaufman has written more movies than Jonze, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation the only films he has done that I have seen so far.
While all aspects of this movie were great I was most impressed by the writing. The title itself, "adaptation," has a double meaning as it refers to adapting material to another medium as well as how people adapt to life. In the film, Kaufman is trying to write a screenplay adaption of the book The Orchid Thief and then writes himself into the script. The book is a real book and Kaufman wrote Adaptation under similar circumstances! The movie is incredibly meta and even deconstructs how screenplays are written. Kaufman use of himself as a character in his own movie reminded me of how Philip K. Dick did the same in his VALIS novels, which isn't surprising since Kaufman is a PKD fan.
It is worth noting that although Adaptation is credited as being written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman, in real life Charlie does not have a twin and Donald does not exist. That didn't stop Donald from also being nominated with Charlie for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay!
10/10

Cyborg (1989)
Cyborg was directed by Albert Pyun, who has made tons of low-budget B-movies and direct-to-video films. Pyun is the guy who directed the 1990 Captain America movie as well as Alien from L.A., which was featured on MST3K.
Cyborg stars Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his earliest film roles. Van Damme's character, Gibson Rickenbacker, must help a cyborg get to a group of scientists in Atlanta as she is carrying the cure for a deadly virus which has ravaged mankind. However, an evil gang leader kidnaps the cyborg to use the cure for themselves. As you could probably guess, this movie rips off Escape from New York and The Road Warrior on its way to being a generic post-apocalyptic film. The only real difference is that Rickenbacker is a martial artist. But if I wanted to see that I would just watch Bloodsport again. Although this is a bad movie it is still watchable. The fights and special effects (such as explosions and the robotics on the cyborg) were actually pretty good. I was able to see this in High Definition and was amazed with how good it looked, especially considering it was a low-budget movie made over 20 years ago. The outside scenes looked like they could have been filmed today!
What really made this movie bad was the acting and writing. While there isn't too much dialogue the acting is over the top, even for a movie like this. The basic story makes sense but I still don't understand how Rickenbacker and the girl caught up to (and actually got ahead of) the gang. The gang traveled to Atlanta on a boat while Rickenbacker followed them by foot! Rickenbacker's back-story was interesting although derivative, but had jerky editing that made the flashbacks confusing at first.
If you like bad cinema, post-apocalyptic movies, or are a hardcore Jean-Claude Van Damme fan, you will enjoy this. Otherwise just watch Escape from New York and the Mad Max movies instead.
3/10

Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990)
Jesse "The Body" Ventura is an interesting person. The man was a Navy SEAL, pro wrestler, actor (I enjoyed his role as Blain in Predator), governor of Minnesota, television host, and author. During Ventura's film career he made the mistake of "starring" in this truly terrible film.
Pretty much everything that can go wrong in a movie went wrong in Abraxas. The acting is awful and the dialogue is repetitive and silly. The film's story is incomprehensible, but I'll try to explain it.
An alien cop named Secundus (who has Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent) comes to Earth and rapes a woman with his hand who then gives birth to the child five minutes later. Another alien cop (these cops are called "Finders" although I don't know why) named Abraxas (Jesse Ventura) sends Secundus to space jail. These space cops can live for thousands of years but it is never explained how this is possible (are they androids?) and has no relevance to the plot. Five years later, Secundus somehow escapes to Earth so that the child (called a "comater" though again, never explained why) can give him the "anti-life Equation," a concept stolen from Jack Kirby's comics. Abraxas must stop Secundus with help from his "VD box," a rip-off of Ziggy from Quantum Leap, that is attached to his arm. Confused? Join the club.
The "VD box" is just unfortunately named. You would think that somebody would have realized that when most people hear "VD" they think "venereal disease." In this movie VD is supposed to stand for "vibrational detection," which is almost as bad now that I think about it! At least lines such as "My box has VD, trust me" and "Members of our force were taught to avoid VD" are unintentionally hilarious.
Abraxas features random music that never fits the scene and always feels out of place. The head-scratching camera work, editing, and directing make you wonder if the crew rushed the production or simply showed up on set drunk everyday. This movie is incredibly dark, and I mean that literally. Lighting is almost non-existent except for some outdoor scenes. Usually it is so dark that it is hard to see anything! James Belushi has a cameo as a school principal which he did as a favor for his wife at the time who was in Abraxas as Sonia. Despite Belushi being in this movie there is no intentional humor in this movie at all and the tone is always serious. Many B-movies realize how ridiculous they are and try to have some fun with it but Abraxas takes itself way too seriously. Oh, and while I'm at it, Abraxas liberally rips off The Terminator and shamelessly uses the word "terminate" many times. This movie failed in every way possible.
Luckily I watched the RiffTrax version which features a hilarious commentary by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Tom Servo of MST3K fame. RiffTrax usually makes fun of recent good movies so its nice to see the RiffTrax crew go back to some classic MST3K material. Although this movie is terrible, I do recommend the RiffTrax for some great laughs. Check out the RiffTrax sample for Abraxas here.
Abraxas is not a well-known bad movie like Plan Nine from Outer Space, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Troll 2, or The Room but it should be up there (or more appropriately "down there") as a craptastic classic of truly awful cinema.
1/10

Tales from the Archives: The Movie Church Oct. 1928

This week's parish monthly calendar is from September 1928 and shows us the films scheduled to be shown in October of that year.

The first film of the double feature on October 7th was a comedy called The Missing Link (1927). There is a typo in this listing as the film starred Syd Chaplin (not "Chapman"), a half-brother of the much more famous actor Charlie Chaplin. I wrote about Syd Chaplin in an earlier entry as the Church saw another film starring Syd Chaplin called The Better 'Ole (1926). According to IMDB this film had music and sound effects through Vitaphone discs and was the fourth ever feature length Vitaphone production. The Church had shown a couple other Vitaphone films so I am guessing that they did have the capability to make use of the added music and sound effects that went along with these otherwise silent films. It appears that The Missing Link is a lost film.
I could not find any information about the second film, Football Sense. The listing does not explicitly say that this is a double feature so perhaps Football Sense was a short. That said, I have had pretty good luck finding information on shorts so far and still couldn't turn up anything so it looks like this will remain a mystery.

The short A Battling Duet (1928) was a silent cartoon from the Aesop's Fables series. The Church had shown several shorts from this animated series before and they were quite popular in the 1920s. The listing calls it "The Battling Duet" but the correct title is A Battling Duet. This typo is not as big as "Syd Chapman" but whoever wrote this schedule was getting sloppy!

The Yankee Clipper (1927), a high seas adventure about the naval rivalry between America and England in the mid-1800s, was the first film shown on October 14. The Yankee Clipper still exists and has even been released on DVD. The film stars William Boyd who was in several films shown by this Church. Boyd would later become famous for playing the title role in the Hopalong Cassidy film series. The Yankee Clipper was directed by Rupert Julian, who also directed the 1925 Lon Chaney classic, The Phantom of the Opera. The Yankee Clipper was produced by Cecil B. DeMille and featured his mistress, Julia Faye (who I mentioned last week when discussing The Main Event). The female lead in The Yankee Clipper was played by actress Elinor Fair, the real life wife of William Boyd. Boyd proposed to Fair while filming The Volga Boatman in 1926. His character was supposed to propose to Fair's character so Boyd decided to use the moment to actually propose to Elinor! Luckily Fair accepted both in character and for real. Since this was a silent film the scene of Boyd really proposing was kept in the movie! Fair and Boyd are pictured together in the above screenshot from The Yankee Clipper.

Like Football Sense, I was unable to find any information on the second film, "An Oriental Album." I'm guessing it was a short and a travel feature like I assumed with "Holland" from last week.
The Flying Age (1928) was another Aesop's Fables short cartoon.

The weekly wrap-up will be Sunday as usual. On Tuesday 11/22 I will make a special post on Fall TV shows I have been watching. There will not be a Tales from the Archives post next Thursday due to Thanksgiving but it will be back on schedule for Thursday 11/29.

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/13)

Anybody who has read this blog can figure out that I have a pretty eclectic taste in movies. To be fair this is partially due to the fact that many I watch many popular movies I normally wouldn't seek out just to say that I've seen them and keep up with references to them. This week I watched five films and they are all pretty different so I'll just post my thoughts in the order I saw each movie!

The Invisible Man (1933)
After watching The Mummy (1932) this summer I wanted to see more Universal horror movies and finally got around to seeing another. The Invisible Man features groundbreaking special effects that hold up shockingly well for a film that is almost 80 years old. Claude Rains plays Griffin, our invisible man. I was impressed with his performance since we get to know this character quite well even though we never really see him. I had seen Rains before in Casablanca as Captain Renault. Griffin's lover Flora is played by Gloria Stuart, who is best known to modern audiences as old Rose in Titanic (1997). Having already seen that movie it was quite fascinating to see her at such a young age! The Invisible Man was directed by James Whale who also directed Frankenstein (1931) and its sequel Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
While the film's pace is a bit slow by today's standards, there is still more going on than in The Mummy (the only other movie of its time and genre I have seen to compare it to). In 2008 The Invisible Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
8/10

Footloose (1984)
While I was expecting this movie to be cheesy fluff, the tone is actually quite serious. However, the plot of a new guy in town who doesn't fit in and then gets in trouble because of it is pretty derivative. The movie tries to put a new spin on things with the strict local regulations on music and dance but it doesn't really work and still feels like I have seen it a million times before. Footloose is competently made and John Lithgow puts in a solid performance as the town minister, but at the end of the day the movie isn't anything special.
I knew that Lithgow and Kevin Bacon were in this movie but I was surprised to see Chris Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker in early roles. Ariel, the love interest of Kevin Bacon's character, was played by Lori Singer who is also a dancer in real life. I enjoyed the 80s soundtrack but think that this movie could have been better if it was a straight up musical instead of just featuring several montage scenes. Maybe the remake which came out earlier this year went in that direction? I don't know and frankly have no desire to see it.
5/10

I Eat Your Skin aka Voodoo Blood Bath aka Zombies (1964)
Despite the outrageous title there is no actually flesh eating in this movie. What a rip-off! This movie did not get released until six years after it was produced and was re-titled so it could be shown as a double feature with the unrelated film I Drink Your Blood. I had extremely low expectations coming into this movie and was actually pleasantly surprised. Now don't get me wrong, this is certainly an awful film, but its watchable and entertaining enough for a shlocky low budget flick. While watching this with some friends I remarked that it feels like a movie the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have featured. It turns out that I was pretty close since MST3K did riff the movie The Horror of Party Beach which was also directed by Del Tenney! This movie would have made great material for Joel/Mike and the bots to make fun. However, even if the MST3K crew were aware of this movie I bet they passed on it due to the unfortunate stereotypical portrayal of the island natives. If you like bad, campy old movies check this one out. Just be aware that it is a product of its time and doesn't feature zombies chomping on people.
2/10

Black Dynamite (2009)
While there are some great spoof movies out there (any Mel Brooks movie, Airplane) recently most of them have been historically bad (Date Movie, Epic Movie). The trailer for Black Dynamite is hilarious so I had to give it a shot. I am proud to say that Black Dynamite is up there as one of the best spoof movies of all time! This film parodies 1970s Blaxploitation films, and does it so well that it is arguably still part of the genre. While I haven't seen many Blaxploitation movies, that is not a requirement as long as one has a general familiarity of the genre and low budget flicks. Many of the jokes are intentional goofs. Some of these are humorously obvious while others are subtle but just as funny. The film stars Michael Jai White as the title character and he was also one of the screenwriters. Clearly White and those involved with making this movie love Blaxploitation (and B-movies in general) as Black Dynamite is as much a spoof as it is a loving homage. Although this movie is a silly comedy, it was painstakingly made to look, feel, and sound like it came straight of the 1970s and would probably fool people not in on the joke. If you have a sense of humor please do yourself a favor and watch this movie now! There is an animated Black Dynamite TV series featuring most of the film's cast in the works set to air in the summer of 2012 on Adult Swim. DYNOMITE! DYNOMITE!
9/10

Police Academy (1984)
Comedy is the most subjective genre of any medium, and film is certainly not an exception. I found this movie to be quite funny and wonder if its reputation has been tarnished a bit by the fact that there are seven movies in the series, with most of them said to be terrible. The plot is a mix of Stripes and Revenge of the Nerds but the reason the movie works is because the characters are fun to watch and we want them to succeed. Police Academy was Steve Guttenberg's breakthrough role and while I haven't seen him in too many movies, its ashame his career took a nosedive in the 90s. Shia LaBeouf reminds me of Guttenberg, but he is far more annoying and much less likeable than the Gutt! Former NFL player (a lot of football players became actors in the 1970s and 80s for some reason) Bubba Smith shines as Moses Hightower, while veteran actor George Gaynes plays the Commandant. The talented Michael Winslow essentially plays himself since his character Larvelle Jones can use only his mouth to create amazing sound effects with hilarious results. As much as I liked this movie I think I'll pass on the sequels.
7/10

Tales from the Archives: The Movie Church Sept. 1928 Part 2

This parish monthly calendar dates from September 1928. The listing also includes movies to be shown in October which I will get to in next week's installment of Tales from the Archives: The Movie Church.

The listing for September 23rd was also in the parish monthly calendar for August and I covered it in my last Tales from the Archives post. This time the title of the comedy is shown in the schedule, but I couldn't find any information on a short called Holland, which I'm guessing was a travel feature.

The first movie of the September 30th double feature was called The Sailor's Sweetheart, but I failed to turn up anything about this film either. The second film this week was The Main Event (1927) which was a DeMille Pictures Corporation production. This movie starred Vera Reynolds who was in a couple of other movies shown by this Church: Steel Preferred (1925) and Silence (1926). Reynolds frequently worked with famous director Cecil B. DeMille. In 1927 Reynolds was involved in a controversial incident when police discovered her unconscious on the floor of her home. At first it was believed she was poisoned but the doctor was unable to find any trace of poison in her body. Reynolds survived and denied she had tried to kill herself and it is assumed she became ill from acute indigestion or food poisoning. Her career continued into the early 1930s and she died in 1962. Vera Reynolds is pictured below on the right.

Actress Julia Faye was also in the film and is on the left in the above picture. Faye was in more films directed by Cecil B. DeMille than any other actress, including all of his films from 1939 on. Faye was DeMille's mistress and he kept her employed with roles in his films even after their relationship was over. Faye has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Main Event also features famous stage and film actor Rudolph Schildkraut (1862 - 1930). Schildkraut acted in the theater and motion pictures in Germany until moving to America in 1920. Schildkraut's best known film appearance was as the high priest Caiaphas in Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927). His son, Joseph Schildkraut, also became an actor and appeared with his father in The King of Kings as Judas Iscariot.

The short for this week was Fundamental Football, a documentary produced by the Sports Pictorials company.
Next Thursday we'll look at the films shown by this Church in October of 1928.

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/6)

Zone Troopers (1985)
Empire Pictures was a low budget film company in the 1980s that specialized in the genres of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Although Empire made some really bad B-movies (Robot Holocaust), they also created some really good ones (Re-Animator) and plenty in the middle. I have now seen seven movies made by the company and all of them were entertaining on some level, even the bad ones.
I wanted to see this movie because it was an Empire Pictures film. It also features two of my favorite character actors: Tim Thomerson and Art LaFluer (who I mentioned in my review of the 1988 The Blob remake).
Zone Troopers was written and directed by Danny Bilson, the guy who later wrote the script for The Rocketeer. I've never seen that movie but like this flick its a throwback to the serials of the 1940s and 1950s. Bilson also worked on some other Empire Pictures films like Trancers which also starred Tim Thomerson and launched a cult classic movie series. He also wrote the script for Eliminators which is a pretty silly movie, but one of my favorite over the top fun B-movies.
Forget Cowboys and Aliens, this movie came out years before and is basically G.I.s and Aliens! Zone Troopers is about a platoon of four remaining WWII U.S. soldiers who discover the wreckage of an alien spaceship while behind enemy lines. Zone Troopers feels like a 1950s sci-fi film. The movie nailed the retro style and is a parody of both monster movies and war flicks.
The Nazis and aliens are not subtitled which is an interesting choice as it puts us in the shoes of the American soldiers. All four of the lead soldiers ham it up and have witty lines. They have great chemistry together and you get to know them pretty well and actually care about these characters, which is pretty unusual for a sci-fi/action B-movie. I liked the use of an orchestral score and period music. A lot of 80s B-movies went with a cheap and cheesy synthesizer soundtrack so its nice to see Zone Troopers buck that trend as well. The special effects are decent considering this is a 26 year old low budget movie. The dialogue and characters were so good that it didn't matter!
As fun as this movie was, maybe a bit more could have been at stake. For example, more could have been made of Nazi plans to use the alien technology against the Allies.
The movie has a great tongue in cheek tone which is a ton of fun. For example, one of the soliders actually punches Hitler! Thomerson shines as the Sarge who simply can't die no matter what. Zone Troopers never takes itself too seriously in tone, but doesn't use its subject material as an excuse to make a bad movie which is why I was surprised how good this was. Sure this isn't anywhere near a great film, even within the action/sci-fi genre, but the world would be a better place if all B-movies were this entertaining and competently made!
"Buy War Bonds. Available in the Lobby." is seen at the end of the closing credits!
6/10

Cool as Ice (1991)
You know a movie is going to suck before you watch it when the tagline doesn't make any sense: "When a girl has a heart of stone, there's only one way to melt it. Just add Ice." How does ice melt stone? Shouldn't they be adding lava instead?!
If Vanilla Ice was not in this movie it would probably be more unknown but just as bad. However, this movie was only made to capitalize on Vanilla Ice's fifteen minutes of fame. My point is that while Vanilla Ice certainly an awful actor and won a Razzie Award for "Worst New Star" for his role in this movie, the writing, directing, and acting by the other cast members are just as bad. Speaking of the writing, here are some of my favorite quotes from this turd:
"Drop that zero and get with the hero!" - Johnny
"I'm gonna go across the street and, uh, schling a schlong." - Johnny
"Looky, looky in Kat's black booky." - Johnny
"As soon as you're done making sex?" - Tommy
I think you get the idea! The dialogue is so bad that the frequent musical and montage scenes are welcome even though they are filler and just as terrible. Yes, I would rather see Vanilla Ice "dance" around a construction site than try to talk!

I am a big fan of Michael Gross for his roles as Michael J. Fox's father on the TV show Family Ties and as gun-toting Burt Gummer in the Tremors series. Gross plays the father of Kathy (Vanilla Ice's love interest) and not even he can save this garbage. The wacky mechanic is played by prolific character actor Sydney Lassick (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Carrie, etc.) who somehow got into this piece of crap. Oscar nominated actress Candy Clark (American Graffiti) is also in this film. But what I never would have guessed is that Oscar winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) was the director of photography for this shit fest. To be fair it was one of his first films. I guess you gotta start somewhere!
I didn't even get to the plot yet but there isn't much of one anyway! Vanilla Ice plays Johnny, a biker/rapper who falls for Kathy and tries to win her heart. Kathy's parents don't like Johnny and neither does the audience. There is a too little, too late subplot about Kathy's parents being ex-cops placed under witness protection. The criminals that Kathy's parents put behind bars end up kidnapping Kathy's brother as revenge. Johnny and his biker gang save the day and he gets the girl. The basic story (mysterious "bad boy" comes to town and falls in love with a nice girl whose family doesn't approve of him) has been done so many times before that this movie doesn't even try to be original. Being derivative is one thing, but there are plenty of bizarre scenes that don't make any sense like the "fun house" Vanilla Ice and his crew are staying at for some reason. Cool as Ice is for bad movie lovers who want to see a true stinker. Everyone else should stay far away or just watch the Nostalgia Critic's review.
1/10

Tales from the Archives: The Movie Church Sept. 1928

After last week's article about an advertisement for the film The Crown of Thorns, we are back to the listings of films shown by the Church of the Holy Infancy in Bethlehem, PA.

This week's parish monthly calendar is from August 1928 and shows us the films scheduled to be shown in September of that year. The article mentions that these films were shown in a high school auditorium to benefit the school's athletic program. A "comedy" was shown after after each of these double features. While this Church had shown shorts in earlier weeks, they didn't publish the titles for them this time.

The first film shown on September 16th was Jaws of Steel (1927) starring the canine actor Rin Tin Tin. This is the second film featuring "Rinty" shown by the Church as they viewed While London Sleeps (1926) in March of 1928. Jaws of Steel also starred Jason Robards, Sr. who like Rin Tin Tin had other movies shown by this Church. According to IMDB a nitrate print of the film survives in the Nederlands Filmmuseum. It is interesting to note that Jaws of Steel was a Vitaphone production. The film had recorded musical accompaniment and sound effects, but was otherwise silent as it had no dialogue. This Church has listings of films they shown into 1929 so I have a feeling we will see more of these Vitaphone movies.

The second film of this double feature was The Last Frontier (1926), a Western starring William Boyd. It appears that the film no longer survives. Like Rin Tin Tin, this Church had already played some William Boyd films before. It is interesting to note that Boyd was in several Westerns during this time as he would later become famous for playing cowboy Hopalong Cassidy in the 1930s and 1940s.

Flame of the Yukon (1926) was the first film shown on September 23rd. This Western starred Seena Owen (pictured above in the 1919 movie Victory). Flame of the Yukon was a remake of a 1917 film that went by the same title, further proof that remakes always existed! According to Wikipedia the 1917 version survives at the Library of Congress but the 1926 film appears to be lost. Seena Owen's most well known films are D.W. Griffth's Intolerance (1916) and Erich Von Stroheim's Queen Kelly which starred Gloria Swanson. Owen starred in The Lamb (1915) alongside Douglas Fairbanks in his first film role. Owen is also known for being on William Randolph Hearst's yacht when film producer Thomas Ince died.

The second film of this double feature was Across the Atlantic (1928) which starred Monte Blue. According to IMDB the film is presumed lost. Like Jaws of Steel shown the week before, this movie was another Vitaphone production made by Warner Bros. Monte Blue was quite popular in the 1920s as he played the romantic lead to famous actresses such as Clara Bow, Gloria Swanson, Norma Shearer, and Marie Prevost. Although Blue lost his investments in the 1929 stock market crash, his career survived well into the talkie period as he became a prolific character actor over the next three decades (even making the jump to television) until his death in 1963. Blue has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Weekly Wrap-up is Sunday as usual, see you then!