Welcome to the 253rd Edition of my long-running series. I am right now 1-0 in Fantasy Football so I look to do it again this week. I continue with my 5-part Robin Williams series as well as 3-part series with Quentin Tarantino and Steve Martin. Last night I had the pleasure of seeing David Letterman and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone at Ball State and discussing the rise of Twitter and the benefits it can have. It was very interesting though I still have not grasped the Twitter concept.
World's Greatest Dad (2009): This is part four of my five-part Robin Williams series and the facebook friend I chose was Brandon who I got to know through Hoosier Pro Wrestling and is working very hard to become the best wrestler he can be. He listed Robin Williams in his movie section so after our mutual friend Bobby made this suggestion, I settled on this one. This is his best movie in years as far as I'm concerned. Robin Williams stars as teacher Lance Clayton who has a troubled relationship with his teenage son and is dating the art teacher but even she won't go public with the relationship and seems pretty close to another male teacher. Suddenly his son dies a very strange death so to protect his reputation, Lance makes it look like a suicide and writes a suicide note that becomes very popular helping him to approach his dream of being a famous writer as long as he can live with his lie. I really enjoyed watching this and reminded me of how much of a Bruce Hornsby fan I am. Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait actually went behind the camera to direct this film and makes a great achievement as a director.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003): This is part two of my three-part Quentin Tarantino series. This is Tarantino's dream film along with the second part which will be on a future installment and it could be part three of this series. Uma Thurman stars as The Bride who is part of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad but is left for dead after she decides to marry and killing what would have been her husband. They did not get the job done on the Bride and she gets put in a coma. When waking from her four year coma she sets out for revenge on the people who left her for dead. David Carradine plays the title character who is the leader of the group which also includes Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Lucy Liu. In this volume, there is a great fight scene in a home to start and then she sets off to go after O-Ren, played by Lucy Liu, who has since become the leader of the Yakuza which is the Japanese version of the mafia. The Bride then goes after the whole syndicate which is his tribute to the samarai and martial arts films. Japanese martial arts legend Sonny Chiba also has a part as Hattori Hanzo who supplies the Bride with her sword. This volume focuses a lot on classic martial arts and samarai. It also has a great animation sequence charting the back story of O-Ren. The yellow suit that the Bride wears is a replica of what Bruce Lee wore in his last film GAME OF DEATH and many of the bad guys were what she calls Kato masks which is another Bruce Lee reference for the mask he wore as Kato in the 70s tv series GREEN HORNET. There is a lot of exaggerated gore which was purposely done and in some ways the action scene in the end was like a live-action anime film. The next volume is a little more dramatic and it pays more of a tribute to westerns. Next week's Tarantino film could be someting he directed, produced, written, or acted.
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975): I found this Australian film on Instant Netflix. This movie takes place in 1900 on Valentine's Day but please do not jump to any conclusions that this is some Valentine's Day love story. This is a film taking place at a girls school where the girls are taken on a trip to hanging rock. It then results in three girls and a teacher disappearing at Hanging Rock. One of them returns to the school but does not seem to have much memory leaving very little answer. Peter Weir directed this atmospheric film. It also has a very haunting soundrack and requires a lot of attention and guessing. Many believe this is a true story but it is not nor does anyone involve claim otherwise.
See Your Doctor (1939): This is a Robert Benchley short I found on TCM On-Demand where a man gets stung by a bee and his brother insists he sees the doctor believing it could be a bit from a Black Widow spider. When he gets there the doctor is very busy on the phone and the nurse takes a while to fill out his papers leaving the patient in quite a worry. This is interesting propaganda talking about going to see your doctor like the title says.
Friday (1995): The Facebook friend I chose for this one is Dylan Bostic who is on the rise as a young professional wrestler who was recently signed by the Ohio Valley Wrestling and who knows what is in the future for bigger things. F. Gary Gray directed this stoner comedy which stars Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. After smoking a dope dealer's weed, they then must come up with money very fast to pay him off. Ice Cube plays Craig who has just lost his job and Chris Tucker plays Smokey his friend that gets him into a lot of trouble. There were some pretty funny moments in the film. I have not seen the two sequels. I put this off for many years but finally broke down to watch it and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Look for Bernie Mac a little earlier in his career.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986): This is part two of my three-part Steve Martin series. This is the musical remake of the classic 1960 b-movie from Roger Corman. Rick Moranis stars as Seymour who lives in the very poor town of Skid Row working for a very unsuccessful flower shop ran by Mr. Mushnik, played by Vincent Gardenia. Things get more successful when Seymour finds a strange looking plant which he names Audrey 2 which turns out to be a very violent plant where Seymour must decide between his success and destroying the plant. Ellen Greene is very good as Audrey, who Seymour names the plant after, who is another employee at the flower shop. Seymour likes her a lot be she is in a very abusive relationship with the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello, played very well by Steve Martin. This is one of my favorite musicals and this one has some differences from the stage musical. Frank Oz directed this version and did a pretty good job getting it to film. We also have some cameos from people like John Candy, James Belushi. This was actually my mom's very first theatrical show where she played the bag lady and a reporter which then made me want to be in theater. I will tag my facebook friends who have been involved in stage productions I have seen like the one my mom was in when I was a kid and a couple productions last year in Muncie and Portland.
Van Wilder (2002): This is a selection from the Random Myspace Profile selection process and for this one I chose Fred who has been a very loyal reader to me. This is the comedy that many people who have been in college can relate to. Ryan Reynolds plays the title character who has been going to college for seven years and his father, played by Tim Matheson, decides to revoke his funding. Van Wilder then must come up with ways to pay his way through college so he does have to do the dreaded graduation and can stay in college to throw parties and "fundraisers". Kal Penn co-stars as Taj, Van's assistant that he hires and who helps him raise this money. Reynolds and Kal Penn were both very fun but could have done without Tara Reid who was the reporter out to find out why Van Wilder is still going to college.
Catch-22 (1970): Mike Nichols directed this war comedy which is adapted from the controversial novel by Joseph Heller. Alan Arkin stars as Captain John Yossarian who wants no more to be declared insane in order to not fly planes but no matter what he tries he cannot get anyone to do it for him. While there are some pretty funny moments, we also must watch as Yossarian watches the people around him die. Many other actors co-star in this film like Art Garfunkel, Martin Sheen, Anthony Perkins, Bob Newhart, Jon Voight, Orson Welles, and many others co-star. In the same year is when Robert Altman directed his war comedy MASH which gained a bigger following maybe because it is not quite as dark as this one. This featured film is rather anti-war and MASH is not really pro or anti-war, just making the most of the crazy time with their hijinks. I found this on Instant Netflix.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953): This is my musical for the week which stars 50s icons Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as two singers and best friends. Monroe plays Lorelei who has an obsession with diamonds and money. Russell is Dorothy who is just obsessed with love and is a bit irritated with her Lorelei's money philosophy. They are working in Paris where Lorelei's fiance hires a private detective to keep tabs on them and leads into a misunderstanding with diamonds. The most known thing from this Howard Hawks film is the musical number DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND. This was a fun one to watch where Monroe was pretty amusing and Russell was good in her part. I found this on Movieplex On-Demand but I'm not sure if it is still there.
The Alligator People (1959): This is my sci-fi b-movie for the week that I found on Instant Netflix. We start with a Newlywed couple and the husband has telegram. When he is off to make a call, the train leaves without him. The wife then never sees him. She then finds him on a family estate and find a medical experiment went a bit wrong as you might imply from the title. Lon Chaney Jr. co-stars as Manon who lives at the estate and is not fond of the alligators. It is a great, unintentially funny monster movie that can be found on Instant Netflix.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and what you hate. Stay tuned next week where I return with Cary Grant, more Robin Williams, more Quentin Tarantino, more Steve Martin, Eartha Kitt, and many others. I do have an honorable mention for this week so keep reading.
HONORABLE MENTION
Big River (2010): Now only did I go see David Letterman and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone but I also went to see KING CORN producer Ian Cheney who I saw yesterday speaking downtown with my mom in a local health food place in downtown Muncie. Today I actually met him because he was at the Minnetrista Cultural Center during the Lighter Living fair where he was promoting his 25 minute short documentary of this title. This is his follow-up to the 2007 documentary KING CORN where he and his friend Curt Ellis return to Iowa where in the 2007 film, they grew an acre of corn to see where it goes. They return to see what happened that made their acre go downstream and the ecological consequences of what happened. They showed the premier of this at Minnetrista where afterwards they allowed a question and comment session where many people really liked what he did. One person who runs some water company wanted to talk to Ian about getting the rights to show it to her employees. Mr. Cheney was also a very good speaker. Info about the film and the screenings are on http://bigriverfilm.com. In these two films, these guys raise a lot of awareness and do it by presenting the facts, not using a bunch of tricks.
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