RLM - Ranking the Films of Joe Dante (Part 2)

Ranking the films of Joe Dante continued. Another great movie discussion.

I don't have the same relationship with the "Gremlins" movies that other people seem to have. It's probably that I didn't see them when I was a kid, I watched them later, so that may be it. I love "The 'Burbs" though and I'm glad to see it high on the list.

RLM - Ranking the Films of Joe Dante

Even if you aren't a Joe Dante fan, this is just a fun movie discussion.

Mr. Plinkett's What Happened To Star Wars?

 

I largely agree with Mr. Plinkett, aside from the fact that I have no opinions on "Andor" and "The Acolyte" because I haven't seen them. I am an old Star Wars fan who is not passionate enough to continue through the crap and also not passionate enough to complain about the crap. I've made my peace with reality, although this review brings the mourning back to the surface, ironically enough.

I miss the humorous Mr. Plinkett videos. This is solid anal-sis but it's a bit depressing, to be honest.

Clue is Coming Back to Theaters

 

Clue is being re-released to theaters to mark its 40th anniversary. Check showtimes here.

The movie will reportedly be shown for 3 nights (August 24-26), with a different ending each night. Though when I search my area for show times it has more than 3 dates, so... repeats, I guess.

Popcorn in Bed - Bringing Up Baby

Absolutely delightful.

And now I'm looking forward to "The Philadelphia Story" which DOES star Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.

The Restored Original Cut of Dirty Work

As you may know,  "Dirty Work" was supposed to be an R movie but the executives intervened and made it PG-13. Now Vinegar Syndrome has re-created the original cut and released it.

I'm not much of a fan of "Dirty Work." As much as I love Norm, and I love Chris Farley, it's an "Ok" movie that doesn't live up to the talents of either. So my first instinct toward buying this is to pass. But then again, maybe that's exactly why I should buy it. Maybe I don't like it because I've only ever seen the wrong version.

Re:View - Back to the Future

 

Mike and Jay look back at "Back to the Future."

RLM - The Future of AI Cinema

Mike and Jay discuss the state of AI in cinema and what it means for the future.

Rad References in Hot Rod

 

In a previous post I mentioned that "Rad" is available on AltaVod and that one of the special features is an interview between Jorma Taccone (of The Lonely Island) and the cast. Jorma makes it clear that he is a huge fan and says he put "a ton" of "Rad" references into his own works. I thought it would be fun to go through some of them.

First, the phrase "set to jet" used in the "Rad" dance scene is in "MacGruber."

"Hot Rod" and "Rad" are both bike movies, culminating in a big event at the end with crowded bleachers. 

Rod's uniform often has a big star on it, reminiscent of Cru's outfit for the big race.

Both Rod and Cru get special outfits before the big race replete with stars.

Rod's friends' "Team Rod" t-shirts, are clearly referencing "Rad Racing." In both movies, the friends wear them to show support in the big climactic event.

Wesley's "Charming-Check, Witty-Check, etc" shirt is recreated for Richardson in "Hot Rod."

And in both movies, the villains drive a red corvette.

There may be more references that I didn't catch and there are other cases where it's hard to tell the difference between a reference and a coincidence.

Finally, there's a similarity that's a bit of a riddle. In "Hot Rod," Rod gets gifted a new bike in honor of the big event at the end. When Cru is gifted a new bike for Hell Track only in the deleted scene that I grew up with and remembered. Did Jorma watch the same version that I did or is this just a complete coincidence?

Rad on AltaVod

Unbeknownst to me, a special "Superfan" edition of "Rad" was released on AltaVod in 2020. It includes "original bonus footage and an exclusive Q&A with the Rad cast, moderated by The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone." I bought it, mostly to define exactly what the bonus footage is.

Before the bonus footage, obviously there is a remastered version of the movie. It looks good.

Bonus footage. First, there is the aforementioned interview with the cast. It includes Bart Conner, Bill Allen, the co-writer of the script Sam Bernard and the producer/actor Talia Shire. It's a fairly standard interview with many of the stories and factoids that we've heard already. There's one notable thing within it and I'll be making a post about that later.

Secondly, there is a promotional "making of" film from the time of the movie's release. Aside from the novelty of a 1980s documentary (it reminds me of "Plymouth International Ice Spectacular"), it's mostly just filler: how the movie was made, who's in it, constructing Hell Track, footage from the set. There is one gem. It contains an alternate angle of "Hollywood" Mike Moranda's second dramatic exit of the day. That is the gold nugget in the tons and tons of dirt. Will we ever again uncover more footage of his iconic wipeout? I doubt it. I would share a screenshot but the image is interlaced and so the still looks so bad it's not worth sharing.

Finally, there are interviews with Bart Conner, Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin and Hal Needham. The interviews were conducted at the time that the movie was being made. Aside from the fact that interviews with Hal Needham seem fairly rare, and you learn a little bit more about the actors, it's standard stuff.

And that's it. The movie and special features are all combined into a single video file, which is annoying, but in keeping with the experience of a VHS.

Best of the Worst: Terror Squad, Back from Hell, and Traxx

A really solid "Best of the Worst" where they discover "Traxx" - perhaps an all-timer.

From Darkness to Light (2024)

 

"From Darkness to Light" is a documentary which examines another movie, "The Day the Clown Cried," the lost Jerry Lewis movie that has now become legend because of the subject matter and because no one has seen it.

"The Day the Clown Cried" is a comedy that takes place in the holocaust - Jerry Lewis plays a clown who entertains children in a concentration camp, and at the end he leads them to a gas chamber.

I've been curious to see "The Day the Clown Cried" ever since I heard about it. This documentary is the closest I'm ever going to get to that (according to the documentary). It rightfully shows large portions of the actual movie in between interviews and narration. The documentary, astonishingly, also was able to get Jerry Lewis himself to open up and talk about it shortly before he died in 2017. It is a surprising development; when Lewis was in a press conference about when the movie would be viewable he replied "None of your goddamn business!"

And so "From Darkness to Light" is worth watching if you're interested in the subject. There are two aspects about it which I find perplexing. The movie goes through the motions of explaining that a comedy about the holocaust is a crazy concept and should never be done. They've apparently forgotten about "Jacob the Liar" (1974), "Jakob the Liar" (1999) and "Life is Beautiful" (1997). That is, until the end of the documentary when these things are revealed as a "twist" that is not a twist at all. "Life is Beautiful" won an Oscar, we remember. 

The other problem is that they imply that some people, including Harry Shearer, through access to a film vault, have seen a rough cut of the movie. So then the implication that the movie will never be seen is confusing - a copy exists out there, did something happen to it? We're just assuming a leak is impossible? Why?

Bob Dylan in We Are the World - Revisited

 Last year I jokingly posted this video.

A friend recommended "The Greatest Night in Pop," a documentary about the making of "We Are the World" and I have a theory about what's going on.

Quincy Jones was the producer for the song and when all the stars are assembled in their choir formation, he instructs them, if the song goes outside your range, don't make an attempt, don't sing a harmony, just stop singing. The idea is, there are so many voices, no one will miss any particular one so don't force it.

I don't think I can get inside Bob Dylan's head and predict what he thinks but it's possible that he thought, "There isn't a single note in this song in my range so I'm just gonna sit out."

A Rad Documentary Trailer

A trailer for "A Rad Documentary" has been released on youtube.

Thanks to Vic for the news tip.

Own A Bill and Ted Phone Booth

You can now buy an authentic "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" phone booth replica. Only $9K.

The limited-edition phone booth features a design inspired by the original film, including an authentic payphone retrofitted for VOIP/landline service, blinking time travel buttons, and an umbrella antenna.

Perhaps surprisingly, among movie prop replicas, this is near the top for me. If only the price was right.

Popcorn in Bed - Gladiator

 

"Gladiator" is one of those classics that I should be re-watching consistently but, in reality, I can't tell you the last time I watched it. The first time I saw it in the theater, it was such an intense, transcendent,  experience but then every time I watched it thereafter I found I liked it a little less each time. So I stopped the bleeding.

If you've followed along, Carly is not a fan of violence in movies so watching "Gladiator" is at least a precarious proposition, if not a very bad idea.

I never put it together that Oliver Reed is in this as Proximo (the gladiator owner). All I know of him comes from the disastrous "Late Night" interview. His excellent performance is possibly due to the fact that he promised Ridley Scott he would not drink during production. According to Wikipedia, he went to an Irish bar, was challenged to a drinking match, accepted, and died of a heart attack. The rest of his scenes had to be completed with a body double and CGI.

Football on Film

 

Lately I've been watching old football highlights on youtube. There's this whole genre where they'll take a particular game from the 80s or 90s or what-have-you and condense it into 15-20 minutes of the deciding moments. It's great nostalgia as well as an interesting barometer to see how much has changed. A word to regular football viewers: football in the 1980s doesn't even appear to be the same sport as football now - and that's not a complement to the current iteration.

So anyways, posting football highlights here would be futile but here is an extremely well made "Football on Film" edit. That clips with no context can still affect the viewer emotionally is a very strange phenomenon.

Popcorn in Bed - National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Another classic.

Growing up, we never had advent calendars. I remember my friend had one in 1st or 2nd grade but that was it. Whenever I would watch this movie, the thing that would fill me with Christmas awe and wonder was the advent calendar. As the date of the calendar increases, childlike joy and excitement build inexorably.

It's good... it's good... it's good.

Understanding a Joke 25 Years Later

I first saw "So I Married an Axe Murderer" probably in 1997 and have been thinking about it ever since. But there's a joke in there that I didn't understand until this very day.

In the famous "Wo-man, whoah man" beat poem, Myers jokes that he's so unlucky with women that he's become obsessed with cartoon women. He references a series of cartoons and then ends with "Hey Jane, get me off this crazy thing... called love."

Who's Jane? I seriously didn't know and kind of assumed it was someone in the coffee house, perhaps the manager. How embarrassing. 

It was today that I realized he's referring Jane Jetson which I should have known because I used to watch "The Jetsons" regularly.

To be fair, he got the quote wrong, it's actually, "Jane, stop this crazy thing!" but that's no excuse for me. Shame. Shame.

Popcorn in Bed - Uncle Buck

"Uncle Bucke?" Aw, heck yeah!

A John Hughes/John Candy classic.