Dogs, DREAM GIRLS On DVD, And A Doc Full Of Diatribes

"Take myself and subtract movies and the remainder is zero."
- Akira Kurosawa 





My sentiments exactly Mr. Kurosawa. More movies to cover so let's get to 'em. The first one I saw at my local home town theater a few days back and there was only one other person in attendance. Pretty fitting as my review makes plain: 




YEAR OF THE DOG (Dir. Mike White, 2007)




Likable Mike White's (screenwriter of CHUCK & BUCK, THE GOOD GIRL, SCHOOL OF ROCK) directorial debut features the very likable Molly Shannon in her first starring role since the SNL derived, and much derided, SUPERSTAR as a lonely woman who just got lonelier because of the death of her beloved beagle named Pencil. 



Encouraged by friends (mostly Regina King) she tries to use the incident to jump-start her love life but with such unlikely mates as gruff nextdoor neighbour John C. Reilly or touchy feely animal caretaker Peter Sarsgaard that doesn't look very likely.



The first half of this "situation tragedy" (as White calls it) is pretty breezy, quirky and mildly amusing. The second half in which Shannon sabotages her job and family ties while trying to rescue every dog at the pound takes a nose dive into tedious cringe-inducing and worse - predictable pathos. YOTD is lamentable - it's a movie with a very likable cast but not one likable character. Hell, even the dogs aren't very likable in this movie. 



More 2006 flicks that I didn't make it to in the theaters but now can catch up with on DVD. I'll start with with the big-ass mock Motown musical: 



DREAMGIRLS (Dir. Bill Condon, 2006)


"Maybe I should go see it with my lawyer." - Diana Ross on Letterman 1/07
 

So, the rise and rise of the Supremes-styled girl group The Dreams was the central premise of the popular early 80's award-winning Broadway show that also tied together other R&B also-rans into a tight show-piece spectacular. For the movie version the Motown connection is enhanced - first by changing the locale directly from Chicago to Detroit, second by making slick but slimey Jamie Foxx's Berry Gordy-esque payola scandal into a pivitol plotpoint, and third by having the wardrobe mesmerizingly mirror every album-cover fashion trend in the African American community from '62-'79. 



Beyonce Knowles plays Deena - the Diana Ross of this piece with fellow Dreamettes Anika Noni Rose as wide-eyed innocent Lorrell (who doens't have much of a part) and most gloriously former American Idol loser Jennifer Hudson as Effie who steals the show and the movie from everybody and righteously got an Oscar for it.

Eddie Murphy who didn't take home the gold still puts in his best acting in years as James "Early" Thunder who comes on like James Brown by way of Jackie Wilson in his 60's incarnation, then an almost complete transformation into message-music era Marvin Gaye right down to his Denign jacket and rainbow-knit hat. 



Director Condon's movies (KINSEY, GODS AND MONSTERS) are glitzy and glossy yet fairly conventional but that approach appears to work here. The songs as overwrought as the are at times are pretty convincing as pastiche homages and a few are catchy too. Not a miscasted role in sight - Danny Glover, Keith Robinson, John Lithgow, and Jaheel White (Urkel!) among others all play the right notes. Far from perfect DREAMGIRLS is pretty Effing good nonetheless. 

AL FRANKEN:GOD SPOKE

(Dirs. Nick
Doob/Chris Hegedus, 2006) 

Very Loosely
structured around the launching of liberal radio Air America, the ongoing spats
with Right-wing rabble rousers Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter, the 2004 election
and on the cuff of a possible senate campaign, this ramshackle documentary
about comedy writer/performer turned politcal pundit Al Franken misses the
mark.

Footage and
commentary that should serve the tension is chopped into forgetful sound-bites
while the perspective that a more thorough career evaluation could provide is
severely lacking.

There's some
tasty tidbits - Franken doing his Henry Kissinger impression right to
Kissinger's face at a Newsweek party, angry tongue lashings of Michael Medved
and Sean Hannity, and Franken's Republican party convention coverage all amuse
but the random clips of SNL sketches and brief visit to the house of his
childhood upbringing imply a bigger better story that just isn't being told.

There is no
mention of Franken's long-time writing and performing partner Tom Davis or
references to the shaky nature of Franken's years at SNL which included a
notorious Weekend Update baiting of then NBC president Fred Silverman.

Former fellow
writer Michael O'Donoghue (1940-1994) would joke that Franken's sole ambition
when getting the SNL gig was the be the first person to say "fart" on
TV. Katherine Lanpher, Franken's co-host on his Air America program jokes in
this film that he just wants to say "pecker" on national radio.

Looks like the
only thing I can gather as insight from GOD
SPOKE is that Al Franken
cares more about getting a cheap laugh than anything else - I know that's not
the full picture but it's the only one on display here.

Finally, another end-of-post tribute to another recently deceased Film Babble Blog favorite - TOM POSTON (1921-2007) - Despite appearances in a number of films, it's his TV work that'll be his legacy. From The Steve Allen Show to What's My Line then onto Get Smart, Alice, CHiPS, Mork & Mindy, The Love Boat, Murphy Brown, The Simpsons, That 70's Show and just about every other show that ever existed, Poston was a solid steady presence in television from the beginning of that cathode-ray tube forum. 

His role as handyman George Utley in one of my all-time favorite shows Newhart gets to me the most. Check out this scene from one of the classic episodes - "A Midseason's Night Dream." It's how I want to remember the man.





More later...

R.I.P. Marlon Brando (1924-2004)

“The horror. The horror.” - The last words of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando, APOCALYPSE NOW, 1979) 

I’ve just learned the sad news that the great Marlon Brando has just passed away at age 80. Causes are unknown at this moment, but rumors of heart trouble are all over the internets. 

The legendary actor, well regarded as one of the finest of the 20th Century, last acted in Frank Oz’s crime thriller THE SCORE in 2001.

Brando, a master of method acting, became a star for ruling the screen in Elia Kazan’s ‘50s classics STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, and ON THE WATERFRONT, for which he won his first Academy Award. His comeback in the ‘70s with Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER (2nd Oscar , boom!), and Bernardo Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS presented the public with an older fatter Brando much parodied by the likes of Saturday Night Live and Mad Magazine.

It goes to show how much of an influential icon Brando was by the mid '70s that a now classic episode of SNL had host Peter Boyle and cast member John Belushi trading off their best Brando impressions in the sketch “Dueling Brandos” to the accompaniment of the plucking banjo from DELIVERENCE.

Brando's extremely expensive glorified cameos in Richard Donner’s SUPERMAN and Coppola’s APOCALYPSE NOW made headlines about the man making millions for just minutes of work. The comic consensus was that he was walking through these roles with no prior research or care. It seemed like he wanted to just go live on an island somewhere. So that's just what he did.

The cartoonish image of a morbidly obese Brando going crazy living on a tropical island somewhere is one that sadly stuck. Even after he started doing movies again (THE FRESHMAN, A DRY WHITE SEASON, DON JUAN DEMARKO) he seemed to be phoning it in.

Acting did appear to be a serious craft to the man anymore. His half-assed screen presence broadcasted to even the cheap seats that his appearance was just for an occasional payday. 

Brando’s role in John Frankenheimer’s THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1996) at least seemed more sincere because of course it was about going crazy living on an island somewhere! Still, the role won Brando a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor so it was yet another indicator of how far the mighty one had fallen.

This glib blog is no place to go into the darker areas of Mr. Brando's life - this is a scribbling about the silver screen site not a tabloid trash forum - so for Marlon's sake we'll stick to babbling about just his movies. Coming soon: 10 Kick-Ass Brando Movie Moments.

R.I.P. Marlon Brando (1924-2004)

More later…

Elvis Impersonation On Film: 10 Pretenders To The Crown

Inspired by the inspired casting of cult legend Bruce Campbell (The EVIL DEAD movies) as Elvis Presley in BUBBA HO TEP (2002) (to be released on DVD on May 25th) we thought it would be fun to take a look at:

ELVIS IMPERSONATION ON SCREEN: 10 PRETENDERS TO THE CROWN

1. KURT RUSSELL

Russell took on the roll of the King in the 1979 made-for-TV ELVIS : THE MOVIE (his first of five films for director John Carpenter), and also voiced Presley in FORREST GUMP. His uncanny likeness to the King was further exploited when he played an Elvis impersonator in Demian Lichtenstein’s 3000 MILES TO GRACELAND (2001). Amazingly Russell's first feature film role when he was only a child was in an Elvis movie, Michael Taurog's IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD'S FAIR (1963). The best Elvis on this list for sure.

2. MICHAEL ST. GERALD: Also a convincing look-a-like, Gerald did a brief cameo as Elvis in Jim McBride's unfortunately lame-as-Hell Jerry Lee Lewis bio-pick GREAT BALLS OF FIRE (1989, but he had better material and a more respectful forum in the sinfully short-lived Elvis TV series (1990). Like with Russell's turn as the King, Gerald's vocals were provided by Ronnie McDowell.

3. NICHOLAS CAGE: Never played Elvis on film but appeared as Tiny Elvis on Saturday Night Live in 1992, disguised himself as a sky-diving Elvis impersonator in HONEYMOON IN VEGAS, was a curled lipped Elvis fanatic in David Linch’s WILD AT HEART, and he was briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley. Whew!

4. ANDY KAUFMAN

Only on stage and SNL did Kaufman do his full blown Elvis impression but he’s one of a kind on this list because he was approved by the King as his own favorite impersonator. In Milos Forman's 2000 biopic MAN ON THE MOON when Jim Carrey did Andy doing Elvis I heard that somewhere in the cosmos John Belushi's caller ID exploded. I have no idea what that means.

5. VAL KILMER: Not content with having nailed the Lizard King, Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS (1991), Kilmer inhabited the character of Elvis' ghost who counsels Christian Slater in Tony Scott's Quentin Tarantino-scripted TRUE ROMANCE (1992).

6. DAVID KEITH: An awful unconvincing portrayal in Chris Columbus' awful unconvincing 1988 comedy HEARTBREAK HOTEL, a severely misguided attempt to theorize that Elvis’s last sad years in Vegas could have been turned around by idealistic teenager who kidnaps him as a gift for his depressed mother Tuesday Weld. Weld was actually in a movie with the King, Philip Dunne's WILD IN THE COUNTRY (1961), but I digress.

7. DON JOHNSON: What the…?!!? Yep, that's right. In Gus Trikonis' long forgotten 1981 TV movie ELVIS AND THE BEAUTY QUEEN, the later stubbled, sockless, pink T-shirt wearing Miami Vice superstar was actually cast as the King. 

8. DALE MIDKIFF: Who?!!? I dunno, just a guy who played the King in ELVIS AND ME, another bad Elvis made-for-TV movie based on Priscilla Presley’s book of the same name. Shame shame shame.

9. RICK PETERS

Any Elvis impersonator would be doomed in Allan Arkush's extremely lowbrow 1997 cable movie ELVIS MEETS NIXON, but this guy doesn’t cut it at all.

10. STEPHEN JONES: Just for a haunting moment in Jim Jarmusch’s MYSTERY TRAIN (1989) Elvis’s ghost appears to Nicoletta Braschi giving this execellent movie another layer in it’s depiction of late 80’s Memphis. Also in the same movie the late great Joe Strummer spouts: “Don't call me Elvis! If you can't use my proper name, why don't you try "Carl Perkins, Jr." or something? I mean, I don't call them "Sam & Dave", do I?”

Until next time: Elvis has left the building.

More later...

A DVD Delight & A Few Disses for April 2004

And now for some new release DVD reviews. One which I found delightful, the other two I am dissing:

MELVIN GOES TO DINNER (Dir. Bob Odenkirk, 2003) 

I wish there were more movies like this these days! Thoughtful character-driven comedies are getting harder and harder to come by. It's like an updated MY DINNER WITH ANDRE times 2! Four people (Michael Blieden, Stephanie Courtney, Annabelle Gurwitch, and Matt Price) with loose and not-so-loose connections to one another by chance meet for dinner at a posh LA eatery, and discuss everything from the supernatural to relationship etiquette with funny insights aplenty.

Based on the stage play by Blieden (who plays Melvin) and gracefully directed by Bob Odenkirk (of Mr. Show fame) the core cast is enhanced by amusing cameos from David Cross, Fred Armisen, Jack Black, Melora Walters, and Odenkirk himself. Highly recommended.

The DVD has a few great extras: a hilarious short film about an ill-fated film festival appearance by the filmmakers and some of the cast and two different commentaries that are as funny and interesting as the film itself.

DVD DISSES:

MONA LISA SMILE (Dir. Mike Newell, 2003) 

A chick flick even a chick-flick lover would hate. It would be too convenient to label it as a female DEAD POET'S SOCIETY; it's more like a trumped-up Facts Of Life episode. Watch only if you want to see such new hopefuls as Maggie Gyllenhall, Kristen Dunst, Ginnifer Goodwin, and especially Marcia Gay Harden being wasted in a dreary one dimensional period piece. Julia Roberts fans should be used to this type of thing though.

SECONDHAND LIONS (Dir. Tim McCanlies, 2003)

In less than 3 minutes the premise is set: Haley Joel Osment is dropped off by his scamming Southern-Belle Mama (Krya Sedgewick) to spend the summer with his eccentric uncles Michael Caine and Robert Duvall who mysteriously have a treasure of millions of dollars hidden somewhere on their farm property. 

Incredibly hokey yarn that even tries to work in a PRINCESS BRIDE style back-story in the form of Caine's tensely told tales to Osment while Duvall overacts like a sleep-walking lovesick winner of the SNL game show sketch “Who's More Grizzled?” You could do worse than to sit through this pleasant pap but then you could do a lot better. A whole lot better.

More to come...

10 Sequels That Don't Suck

After the response, both good and bad, to The Top 50 Sequels That Should Have Never Been Made (March 12, 2003), it seemed like it was time to take a stand the sequels that don’t suck. It’s a much shorter list, but a damn good one:

10 Sequels That Don't Suck

1. THE GODFATHER: PART II (Dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

Undoubtedly the greatest sequel because it was better than the original, won a best picture Oscar, and because unlike all the sequels on the top 50 worst list it actually has more story to tell. The casting of Robert De Niro as a young Vito Corleone didn't hurt either. Like Part I this was written by Mario Puzo who also wrote:

2. SUPERMAN II (Dir. Richard Lester, 1981)

This supreme sequel works as a follow-up because it's actually an extension of the first film. It was filmed at the same time for the most part (there was a bit of a rough transition from director Richard Donner to Lester, resulting in some controversail re-shooting) and it satisfyingly concludes the Krypton villains’ subplot set-up from the original.

3. STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN

(Dir. Nicholas Meyer, 1982) 

It wasn't hard for this one to be better than the first because the first one (1979’s Robert Wise-directed STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE) was an overblown bore. Meyer’s follow-up jettisoned the celebral egghead exposition of the original, and brought on the shoot 'em up back to sc-fi basics with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and the rest of the iconic crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise facing off against the genetically engineered super-villain Khan Noonien Singh, portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán in a career best performance. Still considered the best of the series.

4. STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (Dir. Irvin Kershner, 1980) Despite the numbering of this as “Episode V,” I still think of this as the second STAR WARS movie. Whatever the case, this is a dark and layered entry luckily not directed by Lucas.

5. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (Dir. Peter Jackson, 2003) After GODFATHER: PART II, this was the second sequel in Academy Awards history to win Best Picture. 

6. THE EVIL DEAD II (Dir. Sam Raimi, 1987) The third one, 1992's ARMY OF DARKNESS is pretty kick-ass too. Let's hope Raimi pulls off another great sequel this summer with SPIDERMAN 2.

7. IN LIKE FLINT (Dir. Gordon Douglas, 1967) Many forget Flint James Coburn's suave American equivalent to 007. They really shouldn't because this is some sharp slick '60s stuff.

8. INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE 

(Dir. Steven Spielberg, 1989) 



Dennis Miller once joked on SNL that Star Trek VI ought to be subtitled “The Apology” (you know because of the Shatner helmed fiasco of Star Trek V), but this is the sequel that really should have that subtitle. This was a pure return to form after the way-too-dark TEMPLE OF DOOM. And 007 himself, Sean Connery as Indy’s father really seals the deal. The word that there may be a 4th Indiana Jones movie is troubling though.

9. MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR (Dir. George Miller, 1982)

10. ALIENS (Dir. James Cameron, 1986)



Honorable mentions: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, TOY STORY 2, and A SHOT IN THE DARK.


More later...