The Monday Movie Quiz #182

Know the film our sparkling-eyed stud was in? Then send me an email by late Sunday with the title. If you're right, you'll see your name in next week's not-shaken winner's circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 30, 2008 2:28 AM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Last week's quiz movie was George Romero's 2005 film Land of the Dead, the fourth in his "Living Dead" series and the first he'd done since Day of the Dead twenty years earlier. (He did another last year, Diary of the Dead.) While it certainly has its moments, even the fans who liked it admitted that it was, at the least, "a slight disappointment."

Give Romero credit for expanding the franchise: by now, the world of the living dead has resulted in a gigantic makeshift gated community, with the non-infected still-living confined to a post-apocalyptic city surrounded by fences. The zombies, on the other hand, roam the outside "old" abandoned world, where they seem to be thriving-- in fact, they're starting to learn how to use things like weapons. Some of the best scenes involve a "smart" one called Big Daddy, who's evolved enough to actually organize his undead peers.

Land of the Dead is also the only film in the series with name actors (I was going to say "real," but that's not fair-- or nice), like John Leguizamo, Simon Baker, and Dennis Hopper, plus horror director Dario Argento's daughter Asia. (One quiz winner even admitted, "Having her in the movie at least kept me watching to see if she got naked.") While I kind of missed the not-ready-for-prime-time performances of the other films, the professionalism of the entire cast (including the hundreds of decomposing extras) easily makes the film look the best of the bunch.

Still, it doesn't quite satisfy like the best in the series (the first two, in my opinion, although I like it more than the third, Day of the Dead). One quiz winner also pointed out, "Romero seemed to throw in bits and pieces from so many other movies when he made this one. The truck they use to hunt down the zombies, Dead Reckoning, looked like it drove straight out of Damnation Alley, and the whole setting had quite an Escape from New York feel." (He also added, "I was sad to see that for his next entry, Diary of the Dead, he went with the Blair Witch/Cloverfield handheld video style. And it looks like he's following it up with a sequel!")

Keeping with the above sentiments, there are youtube videos from some of the good moments from Land of the Dead, but for all their shocks and FX, not one can compare to the loopy charm of this classic moment from the first in the series. For forty years, midnight movie audiences have been laughing at the sheriff's opinion of the zombie's speed.

The quiz must have been tougher than I thought-- it was the smallest turnout of answers in months. So special congratulations and a full tank of gas from Big Daddy to the following: Wayne Palmer, Bob Redwing, Bill Hearne, Song-Un Lee, Thomas Miller, Fred Lorence, John Middleton, Michael Mattson, Nancy Louise Rutherford, Denny Lynch, Bill Kelly, and Dave Mallow.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 30, 2008 1:19 AM

 

"We'll do it live, my friends!"

We've all heard stories about John McCain's private outbursts of vulgar rage (and some not so private, like calling his wife the c-word in front of others), but there's never been any video to back up those claims-- until now.

A youtube video has just surfaced (from a user going by the name samuelk6) of McCain waiting to go on the air, and not very patiently. As you might imagine, no way is it safe for work.

(Of course, this is an entry in the latest Colbert Report Green Screen Challenge: "Make John McCain Interesting." The audience rose to the challenge, and youtube is an embarassment-- for McCain-- of comedic riches. You can start looking here. I especially recommend "Blue Suede Shoes.")

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 29, 2008 5:38 PM

 

George Carlin's first closeup

The above is from the opening credits of the 1968 Doris Day movie, With Six You Get Eggroll, which was George Carlin's film debut. He played a drive-in carhop named Herbie Fleck, whose main role was to make the most of his lame dialogue and provide the only half-assed laughs in the entire movie. Here he is in his first closeup, putting the moves on Doris (who, in real life, would have been 15 years older than George).

It's the only movie appearance of Carlin from his "Hippy-Dippy Weatherman" days, and he didn't make another film until Car Wash eight years later.

But a young, clean-cut George Carlin isn't the only surprise this late '60s clunker has to offer us today-- how about a closeup of Creed Bratton of The Grass Roots!

(Yes, it's that Creed Bratton.)

And if that's not enough, how about Klinger and Father Mulcahy as hippies?

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 28, 2008 4:23 PM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #181

Think he's ugly? You should see what he's usually shooting at.

Okay, a couple more clues.

Know it? Then you must know what to do-- send me an email by late Sunday with the country, er, title. If you're correct, expect to see your name in next week's still Tim Russert-related winner's circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 23, 2008 3:04 AM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Only a couple of people speculated (correctly) on my motive for making Network this week's quiz movie: "Did it have anything to do with the Tim Russert Grieve-athon?" Yes, it did. Watching TV news turn itself into the only story of the week, for 24 hours a day, made me wonder what the movie's author, Paddy Chayefsky, would make of it all. Would he be amused that so much of what he predicted came true? Or would he be annoyed that reality ultimately went even further with the joke than he did?

(Until they broadcast the funeral, too, I was afraid they might not even bury Russert, but instead put him on a post-mortem tour like James Brown and call it "Meet the Press Corpse." And I thought it interesting that a day or two after he died, so did Stan Winston, special effects great and the creator of Pumpkinhead-- it was like Pinocchio dying and then Geppetto. Okay, enough mean-spirited jokes and back to Network.)

Besides the movie's eerie predictions of today's entertainment news and reality TV, Network's network-- Union Broadcasting System or UBS-- might just as well be called Fox. Always last in the ratings, UBS crawls to the top with a combination of a reality series about terrorists (who film themselves committing crimes) and a newsman, Howard Beale, who goes crazy on-air. Beale, billed as "The Mad Prophet," fits the new UBS programming strategy, expressed by Faye Dunaway's character, Diana Christensen: "I want angry shows!" And, of course, angry newsmen.

As a film, Network is as good as '70s cinema gets, and Chayefsky said it was the best cast to ever do one of his scripts. Everybody's great in it-- Dunaway and William Holden (above) as unlikely lovers, Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty (pic clue #2) as Fox, er, UBS execs, and especially Peter Finch, in his Oscar-winning (and last) performance as the newsman who's mad as hell and not going to take it any more.

But for all the talk of Chayefsky and Network predicting television future, in one way, the man and the movie were dead wrong. While the "Mad as hell" speech is known even by people who haven't seen the film, it's some of the other monologues Finch delivers that are the most remarkable. Listen to this, a eulogy for his network's boss, Edward George Ruddy, and then compare it with the stuff we hear from TV news "personalities" today.

We didn't come close to getting Howard Beale-- if only we'd been that lucky.

(NSFW: Remember, Howard says things like "bullshit" when he's on the air.)

Congratulations and a "Get Out of Atonement Free" card to the following quiz winners: E. Yarber, Wayne Palmer, Nancy Louise Rutherford, Dave Mallow, Bill Kelly, Bob Redwing, Corey Anderson, Michael Mattson, Mick, Thomas Miller, Dean Carlson, Christina O'Sullivan, Bill Hearne, Fred Lorence, Kevin Musolino, Denny Lynch, Song-Un Lee, Paul Rignell, and Vince Tuss.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 22, 2008 6:27 PM

 

Great moments in movie history

Quick as a flash with a bullwhip lash, it's . . . Walter Matthau? Even Oprah would seem more likely to do an action-packed fight scene than that Shar Pei-faced old grouch-- right?

Not really.

In his earliest years, Matthau played all kinds of parts, from best friend to arch-nemesis. In the latter role, he was the whip-happy bad guy in The Kentuckian, a 1955 Western starring Burt Lancaster. (If Lancaster is remembered today, it's more for his later work like Local Hero and Atlantic City, but in the fifties he was possibly the country's biggest action star.)

In this, the movie's showdown, ultra-goodguy Burt faces the brutal bullwhip of Oscar Madison. This was graphic stuff for the mid-fifties (one way to compete with TV!), and Matthau really seems to enjoy the role, except for his beating at the end.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 21, 2008 1:22 AM

 

Can we all get along . . . in Celebrity Rehab?

One of last season's success stories

I'm surprised there hasn't been more oversaturation re: the new cast of addicts Drew Pinsky has locked up for the next season of VH1's only good show, Celebrity Rehab. (I pronounce it as their only good show because it's the only one I watch.) Like last time, the word "celebrity" is stretched far out of shape, this time on people like former Guns 'N Roses drummers, early American Idol finalists, and Gary Busey. Jeff Conaway, last season's most wretched junkie, is back for another dose of reality cold turkey.

But there is one genuinely famous person in the cast: Rodney King, the only living American to have his name associated with a riot.

Surprisingly, the official press release downplays Mr. King as just another patient, but the San Bernadino Sun has a little more:

"[43-year-old Rialto resident] Rodney King has apparently made the transition from a victim of police brutality to a celebrity on a television show.

"The show is scheduled for broadcast in October.

"King's most recent publicized problem took place in November when he was shot with birdshot from a shotgun and taken to a hospital."

(And from Reuters UK: "King has racked up a string of arrests over the years, and he has admitted to a dependency on the drug PCP.")

Can't wait to see how he gets along with Busey!

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 17, 2008 3:17 AM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #180

How could one movie predict so much?

Know it? Then send me an email with the title by late Sunday-- if you're right, you'll see your name in next week's vast wasteland of a winner's circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 16, 2008 2:07 AM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Last week's quiz movie in question was Being John Malkovich (1999), a film that at the very least raised the bar for high concept. Some plot elements to prove the point: a puppeteer who does adaptations of "Letters of Heloise and Abelard," an office building with a "half" floor (it's between the 7th and 8th) where everyone stoops, and a hidden door that leads directly into the mind of an actor, the titular Mr M. Throw in a boss who says he's 105, a chimpanzee with total recall, and the notion that John Malkovich could be friends in real life with Charlie Sheen, and you're stretching credulity to the snapping point.

Of course, the movie was written by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), who couldn't do low concept if his life depended on it. He's also one-of-a-kind, which is the kind of creator Hollywood loves to imitate the most. A few quiz winners are major fans: "I swear Charlie Kaufman is the second coming. Four of the best movies of all time popped out of that curly-haired head, and they're the only four (original) movies he's had produced so far."

Although Francis Ford Coppola was interested in the script, ultimately he gave it to his son-in-law, music video director (and Jackass producer) Spike Jonze. It was an inspired choice, with Jonze doing visual justice to Kaufman's weird universe. It's hard to imagine any director doing a more dazzling job with the film's centerpiece, where John Malkovich enters the portal to his own mind, and gets more of himself than he bargained on.

It's also hard to believe that the film was originally going to be made with another actor playing the title role, but it was at Malkovich's insistence: he liked the script, but didn't think he was right for the part! The rest of the cast-- John Cusack and Catherine Keener (that was them in last week's picture clue), Orson Bean, and an almost-unrecognizable Cameron Diaz-- are all excellent, but as soon as Malkovich appears, he takes over. Plus, apparently he's a trooper-- one of the best moments, in the scene where he tells Cusack to get out of his head and stay out, was actually unplanned. Watch it again while Spike Jonze explains what happened:

The most winners in awhile this week, so congratulations and a serenade from Orrin Hatch the bird to the following folk: Wayne Palmer, John Seffl, Shannon Quinlan, Jack Sparks, John Middleton, Nancy Louise Rutherford, ron frigstad, Dean Carlson, Song-Un Lee, Dave Mallow, Mary Mezzenga, Mick, Christina O'Sullivan, Denny Lynch, Fred Lorence, Shannon Luckert, Thomas Miller, Doug Smith, Michael Mattson, Vince Tuss, Bill Hearne, Jennifer Willey, Kevin Musolino, E. Yarber, and Paul Rignell.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 15, 2008 11:29 PM

 

Happy father's day!

Since I'm a dad, I enjoy seeing vintage Hollywood pics of famous fathers doting on their daughters. Like these:

Stan Laurel with his daughter Lois

Orson Welles and baby daughter Rebecca (with her mother and his then-wife, Rita Hayworth)

Boris Karloff with his daughter Sara

Maybe I should have stopped with three . . .

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 15, 2008 1:27 AM

 

My movie year (so far)

Girls Rebel Force Of Competitive Swimmers (2007 - Japan). A gut-munching zombie movie (as you can tell from the title) that owes way too much to Troma. As the subtitles put it, "Today, the clinic will inject vaccine into everyone, due to a popular new virus." Whether that was supposed to be funny or just a great example of Engrish (my guess: the latter), a girls' school becomes filled with the young and nubile living dead.

But not the five girls on the swim team, who were protected from zombiefication by the chlorine in the pool, allowing them to stay healthy enough to kick rotted ass. The acting by the "stars" is atrocious, but these leading ladies were chosen for their looks, especially for the swimsuit and shower scenes.

Horrorwise, the intestinal FX suck (sux?), but they're done with such idiotic gusto, gore fans might be amused.

Granddad (1913), directed by Thomas Ince. Here's an example of how cheery the old-timey silent movies could be, one that was directed by a true movie pioneer. Gramps, who's been babysitting his granddaughter, gets a telegram from his newly-married son telling Pops to hide his bottle, because the new missus doesn't like alcohol. The lovable old lush gets caught anyway, and the new lady of the house kicks the old man out in the street. A few months later, he dies in the poor house, to everyone's regret.

Almost 100 years later, it wasn't the tear-jerking melodrama that bothered me, it was the creepy scenes of grandfatherly love, like the one above. Be glad there isn't a youtube video!

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 13, 2008 1:59 AM

 

The Monday Movie Quiz #179

And the title is . . . ?

Send me an email if you know it. If you're right, you'll stoop to conquer in next week's bald-headed winner's circle.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 9, 2008 3:11 AM

 

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Yes, that first picture clue really was Gloria Stivic and Howard Sprague together in the same movie, the 1973 Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw caper film, The Getaway. (One quiz winner reminisced, "I had forgotten that once upon a time Sally Struthers was really quite hot.") As I explained to one disgruntled old-timer, the picture of Steve and Ali was the hard clue.

Today, McQueen and McGraw may sound like a CW act, but in the early '70s when they made The Getaway, they were as big as Brangelina. They played a bank-robbing couple who are always fighting (as in slaps and punches), trying to make their last and biggest score. (Making the movie must be a turn-on for its lead actors, since the 1994 remake was where the hellish marriage between Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger got started.) Even if Ali couldn't act, they were a great-looking couple, on screen and off.

The Getaway was also the second film that McQueen did with director Sam Peckinpah, who was still on the creative roll of his career. (It kicked into high gear with The Wild Bunch in 1967.) While he's mostly remembered for exploding blood squibs and raising the grue level in American movies, Peckinpah could be great with the small human moments found in his films. Romance wasn't Sam's thing, though, and the scenes between Steve and Ali slow down the action, which is often inspired.

Sly, twisted humor was his kind of thing, and The Getaway has plenty. Most of it's in the subplot involving Steve and Ali's pursuer, a mobster played by Godfather supporting actor Al Lettieri, and his sadistic treatment of Gloria and Howard, er, Sally Struthers and Jack Dodson. The gangster uses Sally's character as his (willing) sex slave, while making her husband Dodson watch. Not only does this movie show Steve McQueen punching Sally Struthers in the mouth, it offers the only post-suicide look at Mayberry's favorite county clerk.

Here's some of the final "getaway," where you can see Sally take that punch, if you're so inclined, as well as mega-firepower, early '70s style. Lots of Peckinpah on display, including some fine slo-mo.

Congratulations and a double-cross from Steve and Ali to the following winners: Wayne Palmer, E. Yarber, Joe Rosenberg, Song-Un Lee, Bob Redwing, The Mississippifarian, Michael Mattson, Nancy Louise Rutherford, Thomas Miller, John Middleton, ron frigstad, Dave Mallow, John Seffl, Jack Sparks, Shannon M. Quinlan, Bill Kelly, Denny Lynch, Bill Hearne, Fred Lorence, Christina O'Sullivan, Vince Tuss, Kevin Musolino, and Paul Rignell.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 9, 2008 12:50 AM

 

Couch Pundit's Sunday comix

Anybody know who did this? It came my way anonymously, with no credits. Fill me in if you can-- I'll update with due credit. Whoever put this together is pretty funny, and I'd like to know who it is. (Bonus points if you know the original artist-- I don't, but I'm thinking it's from Mark Trail.)

(UPDATE: Thomas Miller identified the writer, if not the artist-- see below.)

UPDATE: Thanks go to Thomas Miller, who informed me that it was written by Jim Treacher and posted originally to the Jay Pinkerton forum. As for the art, even Jim doesn't know who did it.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 8, 2008 2:21 AM