TV And Films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

Showgirls commentary track

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While I’ve never had a chance to catch it, for a while now local Seattle writer David Schmader has been hosing screenings of the infamous Showgirls, providing a running commentary skewering the film in what I’ve heard makes for an absolutely hilarious showing.

MGM, rather than taking umbrage at this, has decided to play along, and has asked David to record a commentary track for an upcoming special edition DVD release.

After numerous successful screenings, Schmader was moving on when “Showgirls'” producer MGM called. Rather than suing him for commercially skewering its product, MGM asked him to provide a commentary for the “special edition” DVD to be released at the end of July.

That’s just cool. Good for you, MGM.

iTunes: “(I Left My Heart In) San Francisco” by Bennett, Tony from the album Pop Music: The Golden Era 1951-1975 (1962, 2:51).

Shrek 2

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We also saw Shrek 2, which was a far more enjoyable experience than Troy.

Not quite as strong as the first overall, but still very enjoyable, and quite funny. Eddie Murphy was actually funny (which only ever seems to happen in animated films anymore), and Antonio Banderas absolutely stole the show as Puss in Boots. The animation continues to get better and better, of course (some of the facial expressions are stunning to watch, especially Fiona’s as she faces the trial of introducing Shrek to her parents).

The real fun, though, was everything in the background. There is so much going on behind the actual action that it will easily take multiple viewings to catch it all, from references to other movies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mission Impossible, and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, among others) to the stores in Far Far Away (Abercrombie and Witch, Tower of London Records, Old Knavery, and — of course — multiple Farbucks coffee stores [one of my favorite gags, in fact, was panicked people running out of a Farbucks under attack from a giant Gingerbread Man — directly into another Farbucks just across the street]).

The humor felt to me like it was pushed a little further to the adult side of the spectrum than the first Shrek was, too. Not so far that parents should question taking their children to the film (though do keep in mind that it is rated PG, not G), but definitely a lot for the adults to laugh at.

This one’s definitely worth checking out.

iTunes: “A Question of Time (New Town/Live)” by Depeche Mode from the album A Question of Time (1986, 11:08).

Troy

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Prairie and I saw Troy this weekend.

That wasn’t supposed to be a comedy, was it?

So, so disappointing.

For the longest time, I didn’t think much of Brad Pitt. His acting didn’t impress me much in many of his earlier films, and he always struck me as little more than a pretty boy with long blonde hair for the ladies to drool over. Then came Fight Club, and suddenly it became clear that the man could act, and could do a damn good job of it, too. Unfortunately, with Troy, he seems to have gone back to the “pretty boy” routine. Strike a pose onscreen, look good, pout a lot, and try to let that carry the movie instead of actually acting.

I was, however, amused by the constant camera angles that highlighted a nearly naked Brad Pitt putting the very bottom of the shot just barely above where it would otherwise have been indecent. I’m not entirely sure what amused me more: that this shot was a recurring theme, or hearing Prairie beside me muttering, “Just a little bit lower….”

Also, during the big fight sequences, Achillies had one particular move that was featured in every major fight: a leap into the air, twist to the left, and stab downwards with his sword. My thought each time was that that’s got to be his hidden “power move” — left-right-left-down-A-A-B-A, and WHAM, Achilles wins again!

I think I’ve figured out why Helen was considered such a prize. Apparently — at least according to this film — she was the only blonde woman in Greece.

Other than that…bad dialogue, bad music, and overall, some pretty bad acting. A few pretty pictures, and only one halfway interesting fight (Achilles vs. Hector), but that was about the most it had going for it.

Honestly, I can’t even recommend it as a rental.

iTunes: “Ave., The” by Run-D.M.C. from the album Together Forever: Greatest Hits 1983-1991 (1990, 4:07).

Troy in 15 Minutes

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Too, too funny: Troy in Fifteen Minutes.

Some Battlefield

AGAMEMNON: Look, there’s no reason for me to slaughter thousands of your men. You pick out your best soldier, and I pick out mine.

KING OF THESSALY: Deal. [turns to his army] SOME GUYYYYY!

THESSALIAN ARMY: SOME! GUY! SOME! GUY! SOME! GUY!

Some Guy breaks through the crowd. His neck resembles an Easter ham and his spear is the size of a telephone pole.

SOME GUY: RAAAAAAAAA!

AGAMEMNON [turning to his army]: ACHILLEEEEEES!

GREEK ARMY: . . .

AGAMEMNON: . . .

Hut of Wanton Nudity, Some Village

BOY: OMG Achilles you’re late you gotta get up Achilles OMG!

ACHILLES: Dude, I just nailed twins. Call me in the morning.

(via Boing Boing)

iTunes: “Dreamers” by Music Makers, The from the album Junior Vasquez, Vol. 2 (1998, 8:29).

Spitting Image returning?

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One of the best discoveries I made when visiting England during the mid-80’s (sometime around 1985 or ’86, I think) was Spitting Image, a BBC political satire show using latex puppet caricatures of political figures. Hilarious stuff, and something that never really caught on in the states — for most people in the US, their only exposure to the Spitting Image puppets was in the video for Genesis’ “Land of Confusion“.

The BBC Comedy Guide has a good summary of the show:

In Spitting Image, famous characters in British and international life were re-created in the form of latex puppets, which – in the manner of newspaper political cartoons – grossly exaggerated that person’s most obvious facial or personality characteristic. Given voices by top-line impressionists and vocal caricaturists, the puppets were manipulated by a team of skilled handlers to act out the quantity of wickedly witty sketches that comprised each edition of the show. Essentially, then, viewing Spitting Image was not only like watching your favourite or most despised public figures taking part in topical comedy skits but also seeing and hearing them in a dialogue free of the omnipresent facade of PR gloss and occasional deceit – revealing, perhaps, the true personality underneath, or at the very least, a wicked, exaggerated guess at same. In this fashion, many hundreds – perhaps even a thousand – of people in the news, or faces just plain familiar to TV viewers, spanning the years 1984-96, were lampooned by Spitting Image. (To have been a Spitting Image target was deemed an honour by many.)

Now it looks like Spitting Image may be coming back!

Spitting Image producer John Lloyd is in talks with ITV in a bid to bring the satirical series back to the channel.

Mr Lloyd was an original producer of the show, which lampooned politicians and celebrities using latex puppets.

ITV confirmed having “early stage talks” with Mr Lloyd over the show, which originally ran from 1984 to 1996.

The article doesn’t mention whether the original puppetmakers Fluck and Law will be overseeing the puppet construction process or not, though as many of the original puppets were auctioned off in 2000 when Roger Law moved to Australia, that may be doubtful.

Another interesting tidbit I learned while reading about this: one of the voice actors for Spitting Image was Chris Barrie, known primarily to me as Rimmer in Red Dwarf.

iTunes: “Maestro, The” by Beastie Boys, The from the album Check Your Head (1992, 2:52).

Shades of Gattaca

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More and more, I think that in the coming years, the movie Gattaca may be seen as far more prescient than it was recognized as at the time it came out. Today’s example, for instance:

A Nobel Prize winning scientist has called on the British government to introduce legislation to [prevent discrimination on the basis of people’s genetic make-up][bq1], the Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.

[…]

Medical advances and the sequencing of the human genome have led to concerns that genetic testing could be used by insurance companies and employers to discriminate against people with an increased risk of developing certain diseases.

It’s only a matter of time before the “haves” and the “have-nots” are determined by what’s in their genes, I fear.

The Incredibles

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Is it just me, or does this guy (I’m assuming it’s the villain)…

Pixar's The Incredibles

…look a lot like John Lithgow’s character in the Sylvester Stallone movie Cliffhanger?

iTunes: “Difficult Listening Hour – 02v2” by Various Artists from the album Difficult Listening Hour (2000, 1:04:41).

Kilts, not skirts!

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Brad, Brad, Brad — so close, and yet so far away.

Actor Brad Pitt said Sunday that fashion-conscious men may be wearing Greek-style skirts soon after his big-budget film about the Trojan War opens this week.

“Men will be wearing skirts by next summer. That’s my prediction and proclamation,” he said with a laugh. “The film answers to both genders. We were going for realism and Greeks wore skirts all the time then.”

Some of us don’t need to see Brad Pitt running around in a Greek-style skirt to be comfortable enough with our masculinity to wear something other than pants…and look damn good while doing it! ;)

iTunes: “Sweet Jane” by Cowboy Junkies from the album Natural Born Killers (1988, 3:23).

Kill Bill

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Prairie and I watched Kill Bill this weekend — the whole thing, renting Volume One Saturday night and going out to see Volume Two on Sunday. I’d seen the first half already when it was in the theaters, but Prairie hadn’t, and it was quite fun to watch them both back-to-back. I’ve got to say that I think that Kill Bill is easily the best work I’ve seen from Quentin Tarantino.

Violent? Well, of course — it’s Tarrantino. After watching Kill Bill, I don’t think Tarantino could film someone getting a paper cut without attaching a spurting jet of blood to it (which, to me at least, is a fairly amusing mental image). It was all extremely over-the-top, though, to the point where it’s extremely difficult to take seriously (I joked at one point that the Kill Bill movies could be subtitled “Quentin Tarantino goes balls-out nuts”).

Watching Vol. 1 the second time, I was struck by how perfect of a decision it was to flesh out O-Ren Ishi-i’s backstory with anime, as it allowed Tarantino to present what is really one of the most disturbing storylines in a manner that’s in some ways actually more intense than he would have been able to do it had he tried to make it a live-action sequence.

Elle Driver is easily one of my favorite characters in the film, I think. Of the five members of the DiVAS, much of the time she struck me as the most snake-like: cold, unfeeling, and vicious — which made the few moments when she broke that mold (her moment of pouting after Bill tells her to leave the bride alive in the hospital towards the beginning of Vol. 1) that much more amusing.

The fight with Elle in Budd’s camper was wonderfully done, too, with Elle constantly unable to draw her sword out of its sheath due to the cramped quarters. I’m quite curious if that’s an intentional movie reference by Tarantino that’s been missed on the Kill Bill References Guide, specifically to the trailer fight in the Coen Brothers’ Raising Arizona. Not to mention that the bride’s final blow to Elle really caught me off guard — a perfect way to end the fight, but entirely unexpected (and cringe-inducing).

What really surprised me about Vol. 2 was the end, which was far more touching and tender than I ever would have expected from Tarantino. After around three and a half hours of violent, bloody revenge, to wrap it all up with sequences that manage to tug at the heartstrings without being schmaltzy was a surprising and perfect way to end the film.

iTunes: “Steamroller” by Pigface from the album Preaching to the Perverted (1994, 2:10).

Nightline on Friday

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As I don’t do the TV thing I won’t be watching this, but for those of you who do, this Friday’s Nightline is looking to be a doozy.

From their daily e-mail update for today, April 27th 2004:

Now I want to tell you about this Friday’s broadcast. We’re going to do something different, something that we think is important. Friday night, we will show you the pictures, and Ted will read the names, of the men and women from the armed forces who have been killed in combat in Iraq. That’s it. That will be the whole broadcast.

…Whether you agree with the war or not, these men and women are serving, are putting their lives on the line, in our names. We think it is important to remember that those who have paid the ultimate price all have faces, and names, and loved ones. We thought about doing this on Memorial Day, but that’s a time when most media outlets do stories about the military, and they are generally lost in the holiday crush of picnics and all. We didn’t want this broadcast to get lost. Honestly, I don’t know if people will watch this for thirty seconds, or ten minutes, or at all. That’s not the point. We think this is important. These men and women have earned nothing less.

Wow. Powerful stuff.

(via Atrios)

iTunes: “Legion” by VNV Nation from the album Empires (2000, 5:11).