chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (03/28/85)
Time to reach down into the box of tapes and see what's worth talking
about...
The Good
========
Phantom of the Paradise
Thanks to a dear person on the network, I have finally gotten a copy of
'Phantom of the Paradise' on tape. For those that don't know the movie,
it is a 1976 Brian De Palma Rock Musical starring Paul Williams (also
scored by Paul) and Jessica Harper. The basic story is a conglomeration
of Faust, Phantom of the Opera, the Picture of Dorian Gray, and Love
Story (more or less) all set around 'Swan' [Williams], a music magnate
and owner of Death Records (the symbol is an upside down crow.. *grin*)
who is looking for the music to open his rock palace, the Paradise.
Being a man of high morals, he steals the music of Winslow Leach
(played by william finley) to use, then has him beaten up, framed, and
put in jail (sing sing prison, of course). Winslow breaks out, and
while trying to destroy the record presses slips and gets pressed
himself. He then drags himself to the Paradise, and haunts it.
This is a good movie, and I'm suprised that it has fallen by the
wayside while much worse movies (such as Rocky Horror Picture Show)
pick up a following. If you can find this movie, see it. quickly.
Splash
Expecting the worse, I carefully closed the curtains so that nobody
would catch me watching Splash-- from the track record of ANYTHING
coming out of disney studios (no matter how hard they try to hide who
they are with tombstone, uh, touchstone films) I expected yet another
piece of worthless fluff. I found myself laughing until my sides ached.
the plot is absolutely unbelievable, and it doesn't matter. The thought
of a mermaid in New york, shopping at bloomingdale's and learning
english from game shows and soap opera's is marvelous. The jokes don't
always work, but they work often enough to make you forget the
stumbles. It moves quickly, and this was one of those rare movies that
makes you wish it went on a little further... an unexpected delight.
The Bad
=======
Buckaroo Bonzai across the eight dimension
I am very sorry to say that I finally found a copy of 'Buckaroo Bonzai
Across the Eight Dimension' on tape. I came into it with high hopes
from the discussions on the network, and I came away VERY disappointed.
The first half an hour is quite well done, filmed in the best
traditions of epic pulp adventure, and then it falls flat. It is a
bland, tasteless ripoff of Doc Savage, and the bland, tasteless Doc
Savage movie (starring superstar Ron Ely) is a much better movie.
Character development is nil-- all of the major characters pop in and
just stand around as though you knew them all your lives.
Unfortunately, they all come across as slightly uncomfortable pieces of
cardboard. John Lithgow (world according to garp, et all) has finally
done a film for which I am embarassed for him-- I've never seen a film
of his where he has done wrong before now, but his attempt at
satirizing camp melodrama was so forced (and so was his accent) that he
became a self-parody instead of a parody. The plot was never really
explained, the people were never really introduced, and nothing ever
really happened. There are a number of funny and memorable moments, but
funny and memorable moments don't make a movie-- they just remind you
what the movie could have been if they'd done it right. Disappointment
of the month, possibly dissapointment of the year.
The Ugly
========
The hunger
I finally got around to seeing the Hunger. David Bowie has impressed me
with some of his other works (The Man Who Fell to Earth) for example. I
found the hunger a movie without direction, very dark, confused, and
not quite sure where it really wanted to go or what it wanted to say.
Not a bad movie, I guess, but not really a good movie. Tends towards
gore a bit, and lots of dark, muddy cinematography.
The Silly
=========
Kentucky Fried Movie
Now out on tape, kentucky fried movies is a collection of bits by the
people who used to bring you kentucky fried theater (and later, if I
remember rightly, went on to do Airplane). Non-stop mirth, they
satirize and stomp on just about everything, from local talk shows,
news (they flash in a person every so often from a newsdesk to say
things like ~I'm not wearing any pants-- film at 11~), Bruce Lee, Irwin
Allen films (That's Armageddon!), and just about anything you can think
of. The best bit, also the longest, is the Bruce Lee parody, is called
'fistful of yen', and is one of the best karate films you will ever
see-- at the same time being one of the funniest: Warning: if you see
this you will NEVER be able to see Enter the Dragon again with a
straight face; if you ever could. Get it, watch it, giggle at it.
Final quick note: They have released a tape of the more or less famous
shorts that seem to show up at every SF con. Among others, it has 'Bambi
meets godzilla' and 'hardware wars'. If you've ever seen them, you'll
probably want to track this down and see them again. If not, they're worth
looking at when in a silly mood.
~you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll kiss three bucks goodbye! Hardware wars~
chuq
--
Chuq Von Rospach, National Semiconductor
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Be seeing you!boyajian@akov68.DEC (04/03/85)
> From: nsc!chuq (Chuq von Rospach) > Phantom of the Paradise > This is a good movie, and I'm suprised that it has fallen by the > wayside while much worse movies (such as Rocky Horror Picture Show) > pick up a following. If you can find this movie, see it. quickly. If you hadn't added this paragraph, I would have agreed wholeheartedly. No, this isn't a rabid, knee-jerk defense of RHPS. As it so happens, I saw both of these movies for the first time as a double-bill (and I've seen each separately since). As much as I liked POTP, I thought it paled in comparison to RHPS. Of course, I will always remember POTP for its great line (by Beef): "I know the difference between drug real and real real!" > Buckaroo Bonzai across the eight dimension Again, I have to disagree. Sure, I was disappointed with it too --- somewhat. But that was only because I'd read the book beforehand (which is top-notch). BANZAI isn't a *great* movie, but I found it highly entertaining, and worth the price of buying the tape. I've seen it four times now (two in theater, two on tape), and I've seen something new in it every time. This is the kind of film that I could see any number of times. > The hunger > found the hunger a movie without direction, very dark, confused, and > not quite sure where it really wanted to go or what it wanted to say. A good deal of the problem with THE HUNGER is that a good deal of background information in the book was left out of the movie, so that to someone who hasn't read the book, the characters seem to have no history, and motives are vague, if at all discernable. on the other hand, I thought that Tony Scott brought a nice dark, decadent elegance to the production. And the scene in which Catherine Deneuve infects Susan Sarandon with vampirism is probably matched in its eroticism only by the "Air-rotica" sequence in ALL THAT JAZZ. > Kentucky Fried Movie On the other hand, I found myself gravely disappointed with this film. It had its moments, but as you said about BUCKAROO BANZAI, good moments alone do not a good film make. I found most of the humor in FRIED to be too puerile, more like a collection of adolescent dirty jokes. "A Fistful of Yen" was probably the best part, especially if one has seen ENTER THE DRAGON, and I was impressed by how they managed to compress DRAGON down into a 20-minute parody and get all the important parts in. On the other hand, before it was half-way through, I felt it dragged on overlong. It's very difficult to stage a virtual scene for scene parody and get away with it for that long (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN managed to do it, but then it had other things going for it than the parody of FRANKENSTEIN). --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA