Tag Archives: Movies

Young Frankenstein or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

17 Saturday Jun 2017

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Salutations™!!

a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, Young Frankenstein (1974), starring Gene Wilder, Terri Garr, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman and Marty Feldman.

Young_Frankenstein_movie_poster

©20th Century Fox

 

Per IMDb: “An American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that he is not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body.”

Dr. Frederick Frahnk-in-steen (Wilder), trying to shake his grandfather’s ill-fated legacy, is a professor of medicine at an American university. He denounces the ability to revive dead cells and says his grandfather was a demented and sick man. A man shows up with the will of his great-grandfather that grants Freddy his entire Transylvanian estate, castle and all. He has to leave his annoying socialite fiance named Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) who can’t kiss him, shake his hand or anything else goodbye, as she’s going to some uppity yuppy party after he gets on the train. Then oddly enough, he gets on a train to New York and when he changes trains he’s on a train to Transylvania.

He’s met by Marty Feldman’s Igor – pronounced Eye-gore – at the station who has a remarkable hump on his back that he seems to not notice. He takes him to a hay cart to drive Freddy to the castle. He meets Inga (Garr), his hired lab assistant. Arriving at the castle they meet the very scary Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman) who, at the mere mention of her name sends the horses into a frenzy. Freddy wants to know where the secret library is and Frau Blücher says she knows nothing about that. He and Inga stumble into it a little later and that sets Freddy into a mode to improve his great-grandfather’s work.

They find a large man who was freshly hung. And Freddy sends Igor to get the brain of a genius. Well, something happens and Igor has to, instead, get an abnormal brain. That makes the creation a bit erratic and mostly uncontrollable. Do they get the monster under control? Does he wreak havoc on the town? You’ll have to watch to find out.

To me, this is the second funniest of the Mel Brooks films (after Blazing Saddles). It was co-written by both Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder has a strange and “wilder” look the entire film like he’s about to lose it at any time. The fact that the film is shot in black and white creates a darker, drearier feel and adds to the ambiance. It’s a wild parody of classic horror films with Brooks’ good friends chipping in. Cloris Leachman is a hilarious witchy woman with a chip on her shoulder the entire time. Peter Boyle who plays the monster breaks the fourth wall a few times and it’s always very funny. Gene Hackman plays the old blind man who the monster encounters in the night. Mel Brooks, oddly enough only appears in makeup and as off-screen voices. He’s usually in the films more prominently.

Peter Boyle who plays the monster breaks the fourth wall a few times and it’s always very funny. Gene Hackman plays the old blind man who the monster encounters in the night. Mel Brooks, oddly enough only appears in makeup and as off-screen voices. He’s usually in the films more prominently. Turns out that most of the jokes were improvised, including Leachman’s “varm milk” and Ovaltine bit, as well as Feldman’s “hump.”

Rotten Tomatoes has it rated 93% Fresh with an Audience Score of 92%. Well deserved. IMDb has it at 8 stars out of 10. We watched it as part of the Mel Brooks collection that I have and 3B laughed throughout most of it. It is available on Netflix, however, so if you’ve not seen it, see it there. I rate it 4.5 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? What did you think? What would you like to read/hear me review?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…”
Scorp out!

—
“For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius.” – Dr. Frederick Frankenstein

Say Anything… or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

10 Saturday Jun 2017

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a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, Say Anything… (1989), starring John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney.

Say_Anything

©20th Century Fox

 

Per IMDb: “A noble underachiever and a beautiful valedictorian fall in love the summer before she goes off to college.”

Lloyd Dobler (Cusack) starts obsessing over Diane Court (Skye) at their high school graduation. She’s the valedictorian, and most assume she’s “out of his league.” She has won a fellowship to attend school in England and her father, Jim (Mahoney), couldn’t be happier. Jim is the owner of a retirement home and is his daughter’s best friend, after the divorce from her mother. They have a good bit of money and that adds to the ways that Diane and Lloyd are different, although neither of them cares.

Jim is worried that Lloyd may be a detriment to Diane’s upcoming matriculation in England; afraid that she’ll want to stay home instead of going. The more the two teens get involved, the more Jim becomes less tolerant of Diane’s “freedoms.” It doesn’t help that the IRS is investigating Jim on fraud charges through the retirement home.  Do the crazy kids stay together? Do they break up? What happens with the IRS? You’ll have to watch to find out.

As usual, Joan Cusack plays in the film with her brother, John. She doesn’t give any Oscar-winning performances but that wasn’t what she set out to do, in this film. It was so strange seeing John Mahoney with dark hair and playing a role outside of Martin Crane, Frasier’s father in the television series. There are times when you don’t like him and I’m not used to that with him, either. There are times when you certainly do like him, though.

The BCPF thinks Ione Skye got the part because she’s pretty while I think she is an awful actress and looks like a horse. As the film went on it was like she learned to act. The acting was less atrocious from her the deeper the film went. Beyond that, I think that she and Cusack (who can act) actually had good screen chemistry.

Another Frasier cast member, Bebe Neuwirth (she played Frasier’s ex-wife, Lillith), made an appearance here, as well. Other cameos include Jeremy Piven, Chynna Phillips, Eric Stoltz and Lili Taylor.

Probably the most notable thing about this film is its soundtrack. One of the most famous scenes of teen-driven dramedies happens in this film: the iconic holding of the boombox playing “In Your Eyes” from Peter Gabriel (off my favorite album of all-time). Cusack reenacted that onstage at a Peter Gabriel show a few years ago. In addition to PG, the soundtrack included Nancy Wilson of Heart (her husband, Cameron Crowe wrote the film), Depeche Mode, The Replacements, Cheap Trick, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Living Colour and Joe Satriani. It’s a great soundtrack and the songs fit well in the film.

Overall, I think it was a decent film. Not my favorite of teen films but it was pretty good. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 98% Fresh with an Audience Score of 85%. IMDb has it at 7.4 stars out of 10. We rented it from Amazon Prime and I will rate it 4 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? What would you like to hear/read me review?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“One question: are you here ’cause you need someone, or ’cause you need me?… Forget it, I don’t care.” – Lloyd Dobler

This is Spinal Tap or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

03 Saturday Jun 2017

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a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, This is Spinal Tap (1984), starring Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner.

Thisisspinaltapposter

©Embassy Pictures

Per IMDb: “Spinal Tap, one of England’s loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DeBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.”

The loud, aging, denying and washed up quintet, Spinal Tap, is releasing a new album called Smell the Glove and are wanting to put together a tour to support it. The band has been around since the 60s and their age is really starting to show; such is the evidence of how painfully out-of-touch they are.

The three main members, David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls are good song writers that show flash and glory, but their dwindling fan base, in conjunction with a terminal case of bad luck, bodes an impending demise for the classic rockers. Rockumentary director, Marty DeBergi captures the life and times, the good, the bad and the horrible on film, which follows the band from album pre-release to the ensuing tour.

Marty DeBergi is, of course, Rob Reiner, the director of the movie and the movie within the movie. Michael McKean (of Lavern & Shirley fame), Christopher Guest (the husband of Jamie Lee Curtis and the six-fingered Count Rugen from The Princess Bride), and Harry Shearer (about half the voices for The Simpsons) all wrote the songs, performed the songs and made the songs what they are: rocking, comedic genius.

I have known of bands that have gone through some craziness and even the ones I don’t know, I hear stories and we call them all Spinal Tap moments. The things that happen with this band are unreal and ridiculous. Getting lost in the bowels of an arena trying to get to the stage, stage props going awry being completely wrong, being second billing to a puppet show, or drummers spontaneously combusting. It’s too much. But… it’s all too fun, too.

There are great one-liners, iconic quotes and a plethora of pop culture right there in that 82 minutes. Most of the script was improved and the entire cast, including the cameos, did a great job delivering them. The cameos, themselves, are remarkable. Bruno Kirby, Howard Hesseman, Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Patrick Macnee, Fran Drescher and Paul Shaffer, just to name a few, is an amazing cast. Very good stuff. This is comedic, somewhat silly, but very clever film making. Hats off to the cast. It is awesome.

I knew nothing of the film when it came out and just saw something on HBO about it around 1985 or so. I didn’t know it was a parody and I didn’t know there were real actors playing characters here. When I got into playing music, someone said I had to watch it, so I did and I fell in love. I also have the soundtrack (“Smell the Glove”) on CD.

Rotten Tomatoes has it at 95% Fresh with an Audience score of 92%. Dang! IMDb has it at a solid 8 out of 10 stars. It is on Netflix, although we watched it on Blu-Ray with 3B, who I believe a lot of the humor went over his head. I love this film and give it 4.75 out of 5. Have you seen it? What did you think? What would you like to hear/read me review?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“It’s like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.“ – Nigel Tufnel

Good Morning Vietnam or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

20 Saturday May 2017

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a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor for The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, Good Morning Vietnam (1987), starring Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker.

Good_Morning,_Vietnam

©Touchstone Pictures

Per IMDb: “In 1965, an unorthodox and irreverent DJ named Adrian Cronauer begins to shake up things when he is assigned to the U.S. Armed Services radio station in Vietnam.”

The late, great Robin Williams stars as a wacky,  on-the-fly and humorous DJ, who’s also an airman, sent from Crete to Saigon to host two shows daily on the USAF radio station on an army base. Immediately, he meets resistance as his immediate supervisor, Lt. Hauk (Bruno Kirby) has control issues and lacks any kind of real humor or musical tastes, but thinks he’s abundant in each and his supervisor’s superior is Sgt. Major Dickerson (late J.T. Walsh) who just has a stick up his rear end wants to make life heck for Adrian.

Adrian’s liaison around town is Eddie Garlic (Whitaker) who is truly a lovable but awkward fellow. Eddie shows him where the G.I. bar is, some sights around town and is even his driver on assignments. While Eddie is driving, Adrian notices a pretty Vietnamese girl and wants to talk to her. She tells him to buzz off but Adrian is persistent. He follows her to a school that teaches English and bribes the instructor to let him teach the class. That allows him to get closer to the girl (Chintara Sukapatana). Her brother, Tuan (Tung Thanh Tran) tells him to keep his distance, but becomes Adrian’s friend after a while. 

Every piece of news that comes across the news wire must be censored by a pair of twins in order to be read on the air and that rubs Adrian the wrong way. It is also a point of contention between him and his superiors. I can tell you more, but I’d be giving away all the highlights. Does he get the girl? Does he make it out of Vietnam alive? You need to see it for yourself.

Robin Williams was phenomenal in this film. Almost all of his radio broadcasts were improvised and minimally scripted. The rest of the acting in the film was great, too. The locals who got the English right enough to speak, really had it down like it was real and not a movie. The scenery was vivid and beautiful, even the destruction and blowing up of stuff in the film was perfectly shot.

I had the soundtrack on cassette. In fact, I wore out the first copy and got a second. I now have it on CD and the film on DVD. It’s currently only available through Netflix‘s DVD.com or you can rent it from Amazon Prime for $3.99. If you subscribe to Cinemax though Amazon Channels, you can watch this for free. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 89% Fresh with an Audience Score of 82%. IMDb has it at 7.3 stars out of 10. We watched this with 3B, on DVD and I will rate it 4.25 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? What did you think? What would you like to read or hear me review?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“The Mississippi River broke through a protective dike today. What is a protective dike? Is it a large woman that says ‘Don’t go near there! But Betty- Don’t go near there! Don’t go down by the river!’… No, we can’t say ‘dyke’ on the air, we can’t even say ‘lesbian’ anymore, it’s ‘women in comfortable shoes. Thank You.'” – Adrian Cronauer

The Secret Life of Pets or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

13 Saturday May 2017

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a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, The Secret Life of Pets (2016), starring Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet and Kevin Hart.

The_Secret_Life_of_Pets_poster

©Universal Pictures

Per IMDb: “The quiet life of a terrier named Max is upended when his owner takes in Duke, a stray whom Max instantly dislikes.”

Max (C.K.) lives in a Manhattan apartment with his owner, Katie (Ellie Kemper). They do everything together: they run, they play, they cuddle, they do everything together. Max is high cotton. He doesn’t like it, though when she has to go to work. He thinks she’s gone forever. Of course, she always comes back.

One day Katie comes home and has a HUGE surprise for Max. A very large stray named Duke (Stonestreet). Duke takes over and tries to establish dominance over Max, even though it’s “his house.” Max is told by one of his neighborhood friends, Chloe, an obese and apathetic house cat played by Lake Bell, that he needs to become tough and establish himself as the alpha of the house. That kind of works, at least for a few hours.

Max and Duke are walked by a service along with several other dogs, including a pug named Mel (Bobby Moynihan) and a dachshund named Buddy (Hannibal Buress). Max tries to assert himself and Duke tricks him into going into an old alley. There he’s assaulted by a whole clowder of cats led by the evil Sphynx cat named Ozone (Steve Coogan). They take his tags and collar. Duke comes running around the corner and Max is relieved that he came back. But Duke wasn’t coming to save him, he was running from the dogcatchers. With both dogs sans tags the catchers thought they were strays. They are captured and put into the dogwagon along with a muzzled bulldog.

They are rescued by a white rabbit named Snowball (Hart) who is the leader of the gang called “The Flushed Pets,” a group of animals discarded by their owners over time. When Ozone alerts Snowball that the two are domesticated they try to kill them, but they escape. Or do they? What happens with them? Do their friends help them? You’ll have to watch to find out.

We watched this with 3B, his choice, and thought it was a very cute film. I have always thought about what goes through the minds of animals when their owners go away during the day. I liked how they showed the habits of the animals. Chloe ate a lot of leftovers. Leonard, a large poodle, listens to classical music while his master is home and thrash metal when Master is out. Gidget, a white Pomeranian who has a major crush on Max (Jenny Slate) is a bouncy little git. The stereotypical behaviors of the animals are represented nicely here. The voice acting which also includes Albert Brooks and Dana Carvey is superb. Well, acted, well directed, well written.

Was it a great film? Nope. It was a funny and entertaining film, though. It think it was pretty cool. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 74% Fresh with an Audience score of 63%. IMDb has it at 6.6 stars out of 10. I saw it on Netflix and I’m going to rate it 3.75 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? What did you think? What would you like to hear/read me review? Let me know.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“I feel heroic! And handsome! I’m a little wet, but I still look good. I look good.” – Snowball

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

25 Saturday Mar 2017

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a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), starring Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and George Clooney.

Confessions_of_a_dangerous_mind

©Miramax/Walt Disney Pictures

Per IMDb: “An adaptation of the cult memoir of game show impresario Chuck Barris, in which he purports to have been a CIA hitman.”

Chuck Barris (Rockwell) grew up in a weirdly broken home. He became very interested in television, even getting a job as a tour guide at NBC in New York. He wrote “Palisades Park” which went on to become a top 10 hit. He started to think up wacky game shows that were unlike anything else on television at the time. But, there was a dark side. That is, if Barris is to be believed in his book and/or in this film.

He was approached by Jim Byrd (Clooney), an FBI secret agent. Byrd wants to recruit Barris to be an assassin for the government. The money that Barris supposedly makes doing this line of work enables him to develop more of his loony programs. Shows like The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, The $1.98 Beauty Show and, of course, The Gong Show among others. He got his assignments by giving The Dating Game winning contestants trips to other countries where he is their “chaperone” during the day. At night, he kills a few people for the government and meets an operative named Patricia (Julia Roberts). They get close, which causes friction with Barris’ on-again/off-again girlfriend, Penny (Barrymore). What else happened? Does he ever get caught? Does he get the girl, either girl, neither girl? You’ll have to watch to find out.

I was very young when The Gong Show was on television, but I do remember it. I remember Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, the Unknown Comic, Arte Johnson, Jamie Farr and Jaye P. Morgan all being on there. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I remember it. I do remember The Newlywed Game vividly. I loved that show. I also knew about The Dating Game pretty well, too.

I do remember Chuck Barris from The Gong Show, too. I believe that Sam Rockwell did a fantastic job playing Barris. He had his mannerisms down and sounded a lot like him, as well. George Clooney, who not only starred in the film but directed it, was properly creepy and brilliantly stoic in his role as Agent Byrd. I’m not a huge fan of Julia Roberts but she did a great job of playing Agent Patricia Watson. Drew Barrymore is gorgeous and is always fantastic in whatever role she plays. I do find it funny that it seems she is almost always driving a Volkswagen vehicle in a lot of her films. Go watch a few of them to see what I’m talking about.

Do I believe half of this stuff? I don’t know. I don’t think so. It’s plausible and quite possible but mostly improbable. Does the improbability take anything away from the film? Nope. It’s a good film, actually. Interesting, intriguing and entertaining. It’s worth a watch. There were several cameos in the film of note: Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Michael Cera, to name a few.

It was on Netflix a while back but it’s currently only available on Amazon as a two-day rental. I own it on DVD and watched it that way.

I had chosen to do this film about two months ago, putting it on my schedule for this day. Oddly enough, Chuck Barris passed away on Tuesday, but I didn’t find out about it until I had put it in to watch on Wednesday. That’s just weird, to me.

Rotten Tomatoes has it rated at 79% Fresh with an Audience Score of 75%. IMDb has it rated at 7.1 stars out of 10. Like I said, a pretty good film.  I rate it 3.75 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? What did you think? What would you like to read/hear me review? Send me some recommendations!

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“We’re goin’ about this all wrong! We’re killing ourselves trying to find good acts. We just book bad ones and kill them! We kill ’em before they’re through, as soon as it gets unbearable, we kill them. Dead.” – Chuck Barris

Jurassic Park or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

19 Saturday Nov 2016

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a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, Jurassic Park (1993), starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough and Jeff Goldblum.

Per IMDb: “During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.”

jurassic_park_poster

©Universal Pictures

Mr. Hammond (Attenborough) wants Drs. Grant and Sattler (Neill and Dern respectively), two prominent dino-era experts to endorse and deem his new dinosaur themed park, Jurassic Park, safe after a Velociraptor kills a staff member. It seems that Hammond’s scientists have found a way to extract DNA from amber-encased mosquito fossils and clone that DNA into various dinosaurs. Each taking on the characteristics of the depicted version; essentially becoming a real dinosaur.

Unbeknownst to Hammond, one of his employees, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight, Newman from Seinfeld), is stealing this dino embryos and selling it on the black market. While Drs. Grant and Sattler along with mathematician and chaos theorist Dr. Malcolm (Goldblum) along with the investors’ attorney, Gennaro (Martin Ferraro), and Hammond’s two grandchildren were on a test tour of the park, Nedry is in danger of losing money on his stolen embryo so he goes to steal more. Doing so, he has to turn off the security around the embryos and in doing so also turns off the electric fences that keep the dinosaurs from the tour guests. It leaves Hammond and one of his engineers played by Samuel L. Jackson, to try and reboot the systems. Yep, you guessed it, the dinos get loose and calamity ensues. To what extent and how many people die? Well, you have to watch for that info.

I had absolutely never seen this film before this. I really didn’t even know what the premise of the film was, outside of cloned dinosaurs and them going nuts. From 1993 until 1999 or so, everything was dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs, just like a few years back everything was all about zombies. It was cliche, in your face and overdone. That being the case, I didn’t care to see it. So, I put it off. I am quite sorry for that decision.

The first thing that I had to gravitate to the CGI. I had to imagine myself back in 1993 when I watched this just a few weeks ago. This was probably the first hoorah for CGI and director Stephen Spielberg made sure to use it to its fullest extent, even though he was simultaneously filming Schindler’s List. There was stuff before, but not a lot in this scope. This was the CGI breakthrough. I can see, watching closely, the CGI layers and there was green screen stuff, and compared to today’s computer graphics, it’s somewhat primitive but it is really great stuff. The dinosaurs look so real.

But, there was so much more than the dinosaurs. The lush landscapes of Costa Rica (where which only a few outdoor shots were actually taken), Hawaii and Dominican Republic along with the Mojave desert were vibrant and large. The actors were all top notch. Some of the best acting I’ve ever seen in a film overall, this was amazing. Michael Crichton’s story (both novel and screenplay) was vivid and full. There were a few times I found myself finding ‘goofs,’ but for the most part, I let myself get lost in the story. It was intense and even though I knew that most of these characters were in the next (tw0?) made it to further sequels, I was truly scared for the characters. I will say, that I found my hair standing up on the back of my neck more than once. Edge of seat situations. And, any film with a John Williams score is automatically enhanced by 300%. The sound was nothing shy of the intensity of the scenes they represented.

This was one of the 400 nominations for AFI‘s 100 Years… 100 Movies list in 2007. In fact, it was the absolute last film on the list for me to complete it. By now, there’s already another post that covers me completing that list. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing, Mixing and Visual Effects; winning all three. Rotten Tomatoes has it rated at 93% Fresh with an Audience Score of 91%. IMDb has it rated at 8.1 stars out of 10. It is currently only available streaming by rental from Amazon Prime. It was a handful of months ago that it showed up on Netflix and then disappeared just about two months ago. I’d venture to say that it will be back before too long. I own the whole Jurassic Trilogy (before Jurassic World came out) on Blu-Ray and that’s how I watched it. I highly recommend this if you’ve never seen it and I rate it 4.75 stars out of 5. Have you seen it? What did you think? What would you like to read/hear me review?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“Big Tim, the human piece of toast.” – Dr. Alan Grant

Porgy & Bess or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

12 Saturday Nov 2016

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Salutations™!!

a/perture cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables, presents The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, Porgy & Bess (1959), starring Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Per Rotten Tomatoes: “This film version of George Gershwin’s classic American operetta tells the story of Porgy, a crippled young man who falls in love with the beautiful, free-spirited and heroin-addicted Bess who is not only loved by her drug dealer, but also by Crown, a ruthless longshoreman.”

porgy_and_bess_1959_poster

©Samuel Goldwyn/Columbia Pictures

I hadn’t seen the film version of this, only the touring Broadway version. I didn’t care for that version and I don’t care for this one. Now, let me clarify. The actual story and the libretto are fine. I’d even say very good. I’m a fan of George and Ira Gerswin. I love musicals. But, I really do not like this as a musical. If it weren’t a musical, perhaps I’d have been all about it. As I said, the subject, the story, the acting, the idea, all good (albeit controversial). The musical aspect itself, primarily the singing, is just atrocious to me. Particularly the lead character’s portrayal.

As I said, I saw the live theatrical version of this and I didn’t like the overly-vibratoed soprano and I didn’t like it here. It’s not Dandridge doing the singing, it’s someone named Adele Addison. It’s just over the top and sounds like noise at times. Now, that may be an artform because my knowledge of music allows me to understand she actually can sing, but this just sounds like wailing. Other characters’ singing parts are just as bad.

The acting parts, not the singing, are on point. I mean, Sidney Poitier? Sammy Davis Jr.? Pearl Bailey? Diahann Carroll? Even Scatman Crothers, Claude Akins and Brock Peters (who played Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird)? All fantastic actors and all did a great job of acting in this film.

With the exception of Sammy Davis, Jr. I can’t find any evidence that any of the lead actors actually wanted to be in the film and did so basically because they were asked by the right people or convinced that not doing it would cause reputable harm to their chances in other films. That, goes to show, though that they’re good actors. None of them wanted to be there but their performances were top notch.

I’ve not gone into my normal explanation of the plot here as I feel I can’t do it without going down a rabbit hole and following the plot to the end. The description from Rotten Tomatoes above describes the plot well enough. Speaking of Rotten Tomatoes, they have it rated 83% Fresh and an Audience Score of 79%. IMDb has it at 7.4 stars out of 10.

I watched it, even knowing I probably wasn’t going to like it, because it was one of the 400 nominees for the AFI‘s 100 Years… 100 Movies list for the 2007 version of the list. As of this writing, I have ONE more film to go to finish the entire 400 nominations list. I will have finished it by the time you read this and I talk about it on TLD.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Sound; Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture. It won the latter. The soundtrack won a Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album, Original Cast – Motion Picture or Television. I can’t find anywhere that has this film available for streaming. Not Netflix, DVD.com, Hulu or Amazon Prime. You can purchase it from Amazon, which I did, around 8 years ago, but be warned it’s a DVD copy of a very bad VHS or other type of tape because there are lines and there’s tape drag. If I were going on acting alone this film would be rated around 3.5 stars, but because I didn’t care for the musical aspect, I’m rating it 2.5 stars out of 5.  Have you seen it? Do you agree or disagree? What would you like to hear/read me review?

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“Summertime and the livin’ is easy.” – “Summertime” (Gershwin, Heyward, Gershwin)

There Will Be Blood or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

06 Saturday Jun 2015

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Salutations™!!

The Less Desirables Movie of the Week is There Will Be Blood and is brought to you by a/perture Cinema, the Official Movie Sponsor of The Less Desirables. This was a long, long film at 158 minutes. Just about the length of some recent The Less Desirables webisodes (just kidding).

IMDb lists the synopsis as: “A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.” The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano.

The story is basically a showdown between perceived good and evil.  Perhaps, also, how the love of money is the root of all evil; maybe even more so. A New Mexican silver miner, named Daniel Plainview, discovers oil in California and starts a small mining company. He adopts the son of a fallen mine worker and makes him MV5BMjA0NjE1ODEyNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDIzMzE5NQ@@._V1_SX640_SY720_his “business partner.” This gives the impression of him being a “family man.” One day, many years later, Plainview is approached by a man named Paul Sunday who tells him of his family’s farm and that there is oil beneath it. Plainview goes to check it out. He offers money to the father but Paul’s twin brother Eli demands $5000 and says it will go to the church he’s the pastor of. He’s an over-the-top preacher man who feeds on sheep who check their brains at the door.

An accident robs one miner of his life and the adopted son, named H.W., of his hearing. Eli comes demanding to know where the money is and Daniel beats the snot out of him; sends him on his way. Soon, a stranger claiming to be Daniel’s long-lost brother shows up and wants a job. Daniel takes him in, hires him and have good times together. H.W. doesn’t like his new “uncle” and tries to set him on fire by lighting the entire cabin ablaze. Daniel gets ticked and sends him off to a school for the deaf in San Francisco.  Daniel gets suspicious of the brother and once he has him drunk he confronts him about lying. The brother admits to only being a friend of the real brother who died of tuberculosis. Daniel kills him and buries him.

The lone hold out in the community land sale, Mr. Bandy, where Daniel was collecting to make his fortune shows up and says that he’ll allow use of his land if Daniel goes to his church (which happens to be Eli’s) and be baptized. Daniel reluctantly does it and is humiliated in front of the congregation, being made to say that he was a bad man and a bad father having abandoning him. He does so but feels it’s worth it to get hold of the land rights that have been causing a problem in his agreement with Union Oil. Full speed ahead, now. H.W. shows back up and Eli runs off to do missionary work.

Fast forward and H.W., now an adult marries Mary Sunday, his childhood sweetheart and Paul and Eli’s sister. He comes and with a translator asks for a release from the biz so that he can start his own oil company in Mexico. That ticks Daniel off, and he reveals his history with the boy and calls him names and mocks him for being deaf. H.W. replies, “at least I’m not part of you.” Eli returns with news that Bandy has died and he wants to negotiate the sale of the land to Daniel. He wants to do so getting a lot of money from Daniel. Daniel has a surprise for Eli. I’m really just skimming the story, but it is deep, it is long and I think it is good. The story is quite worth the watch. I just wanted to demonstrate that a lot is going on; much more than I’m mentioning.

I did, however, think it was going to be more violent or bloody. It wasn’t even as violent as the television show Hell on Wheels, which was set around 20 years prior to the beginning of this film.  Not that I need a bloodbath but with a tile like There Will Be Blood, you did expect to see more of it. The end was kind of graphic, I’ll give you that one.

The role earned Day-Lewis an Oscar for the performance. He was quite good in the film. It does take it a while to get cranked which is probably why Eugene E20ed it. Cinematography was great, the story was good. Sets, costumes and acting was great. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 91% on the Tomatometer with a user rating of 86%. It was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and is touted as his best work. I watched the film on Netflix and I rate it 3 stars. I do recommend it, if you have two and a half hours to set aside.

What do you think of the film? If you’ve not seen it, do you want to? Drop me a line via the normal channels, Twitter, Facebook, here, etc. Chances are you’re reading this from one of those channels, just reply and tell me what you think. Also, give me some ideas about what to watch and review. I want you to be interested in my reviews, so make it something you like or don’t like and let me know.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“I told you I would to eat you!” – Daniel Plainview

The Addams Family or: The Less Desirables Movie of the Week

30 Saturday May 2015

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Salutations™!!

The Less Desirables Movie of the Week, brought to you by a/perture Cinema, is The Addams Family starring the awesome Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd and Anjelica Huston. It came out in 1991 and was based on the television series of the same name from the 1960s.

The IMDb description is: “Con artists plan to fleece the eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long lost Uncle Fester.” So, this shyster known as the-addams-family-movie-poster-3659Abigail Craven, under the guise of Dr. Greta Pinder-Schloss claims to have found Fester (who was really her son Gordon) who’s been missing for 25 years, after he washed up on shore having gotten lost in the Bermuda Triangle. The attorney for Gomez set the whole thing up, basically betraying Gomez because he hated working for the Family.

They are bent on obtaining the treasure hidden in the Addams Family vault. So with Gomez enthralled with the fact that his brother has returned, the rest of the family starts growing suspicious because Fester doesn’t seem to remember major incidents that have taken place in the brothers’ lives as young boys. Dr. Pinder-Schloss convinces Gomez that this is because of the memory loss, trauma and displacement. Attempts to get to the vault continuously ends up with someone being put out of the house by one perilous avenue or another.  The end is what you’d expect, with some extra “Ha!” thrown in as an homage to the original show.

Was the film campy? Of course it was. Was the original show campy? Of course it was. Camp can be fun. In fact this was fun. It was cheesy and wonderfully so. There’s also the line that I use often when approached by Girl Scouts as to whether I want to buy their cookies or not: “Are they made from real girl scouts?” Ah, Christina Ricci, you grew into a fine woman. The recently departed Elizabeth Wilson (who died at age 94) played Dr. Pinder-Schloss/Abigail Craven and she was great in the role.

Overall, I thought the film was fun and worth a watch. Raul Julia was a fantastic actor and a tremendous loss to film watchers everywhere when he died in 1994 just 3 years after this film and a year after its sequel, Addams Family Values.

The film stands at 60% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a user score of 66%. The critics score had the critique of: “The movie is peppered with amusing sight gags and one-liners, but the disjointed script doesn’t cohere into a successful whole.” I see that but also I feel that the fun of the film overshadows its shortcomings.  Is it great? No. It’s fun. I watched it on Netflix and rated it 3.5 stars.

Have you seen the film? Do you agree with me? Disagree? Want to throw tomatoes at me? Well send me a message, here, on Twitter, on The Less Desirables Facebook or Twitter and let me know. Also, what do you think would be a good film for me to review? Hit me up and let me know.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

—
“Last night you were unhinged. You were like some desperate, howling demon. You frightened me. Do it again!”– Morticia (Anjelica Huston)