Tag: ed wood

Weekend Shopping Guide 10/5/12: This Time Together

The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the FRED Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…

(Please support FRED by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)

Though it’s sometimes been derided by comedy purists who claim it’s a corpse-heavy lowbrow sketch show, but I’ll openly declare those unfortunate souls snobbish fools, because The Carol Burnett Show is one of the best comedy sketch shows ever to hit the small screen. It may not have been as intellectually clever as Monty Python, but the writing was sharp, the comedy was funny, and the performers – Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, & Lyle Waggoner – were a dream ensemble. Most of all, though, you got the sense that the main cast, and all of the guest stars who would pop up over the years, were genuinely enjoying the experience of performing this comedy together for the audience there in the studio and at home. And the only way to experience it is via the long overdue 22-disc box set The Carol Burnett Show: The Ultimate Collection (Time Life, Not Rated, DVD-$199.95 SRP), featuring 50 uncut episodes, episodes of the The Garry Moore Show (including Carol’s TV debut), rare comedy sketches, interviews (from the cast as well as guests & fans like Betty White, Carl Reiner, Bernadette Peters, and Amy Poehler), and 13 featurettes looking at specific sketches and more. Honestly, this is a set you should give your eye teeth for, but seeing as how you can buy it instead, do that.

First it was Star Wars, and we were all delighted. Then came Harry Potter and Indiana Jones, and we were all ecstatic. And Batman and Superman? Giddy. But I never anticipated that one day the fine folks at LEGO would give us brick versions of the Lord of the Rings films. I doubt Tolkien ever envisioned it, either, but here we are, with playsets aplenty featuring everyone’s favorite Fellowship. Right off the bat we’ve got some major highlights – Gandalf Arrives ($12.99), Attack On Weathertop ($59.99), The Mines Of Moria ($79.99), The Battle Of Helm’s Deep ($129.99) against the Uruk-hai Army ($29.99), and Shelob Attacks ($19.99). Can a LEGO Balrog be far behind? If it is, you can be sure Thinkgeek will stock it.

Tick another one of the list of classic Disney films that haven’t made it to high definition, as the Mouse House polishes up the glass slipper and drops Cinderella (Walt Disney, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) in their patented never looked or sounded better fashion. In addition to a brand new Tangled short, most of the bonus features from the previous DVD Platinum Edition carry over, including an alternate opening sequence, featurettes, and more.

Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP) would be a really wonderful movie if it knew what movie it wanted to be. Is it a comedy? Is it a farce? Is it a gothic horror? Soap opera? It’s all over the place, and it suffers, sadly, as much of Burton’s work has ever since Big Fish – his last truly wonderful film. Is it a nice looking film? Sure. Is there some fun to be had? Yes. But it could have been so much more if it had just hewn closer to adapting and streamlining the gothic soap opera of the original show. Bonus materials include featurettes and deleted scenes.

If there’s anyone that could hold the title of 5th Beatle, it would be the man who gets his own remarkable documentary in Produced By George Martin (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP). From producing the Goons in the 50’s to The Beatles in the 60’s to founding the legendary Air Studios, his story is a corker. The disc features an additional 52 minutes of interviews.

And speaking of Beatles-related documentaries, the great thing about the documentary Beatles Stories (Julukesy Films, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP) is that it captures how fandom is universal, as it features loads of interviews with celebrities who have had encounters with the Fab Four – with everyone from Brian Wilson to Henry Winkler providing their anecdotes.

I’m a sucker for the band Queen and its dynamic frontman Freddie Mercury, and Rhys Thomas has produced a pair of brilliant docs that should be on your viewing list – Queen: Days Of Our Lives (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP) and the Freddie-specific Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$19.98 SRP). Both are absolutely brilliant. Loving, unflinchingly honest, celebratory portraits.

Of all the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp teamings – and there have been some stinkers – my favorite by a mile, Ed Wood (Touchstone, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$20.00 SRP), finally makes its debut in high definition. In addition to a lovely transfer, we also get a carry over of all the bonus materials from the last DVD special edition, including an audio commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a music video.

Disney has kept the new-to-hi-def catalogue floodgates open, dropping another clutch of titles that have been on the desired list… And some that I’m sure have fans. Definitely sure. So what titles are we talking about? How about the still-unsettling comedy-horror Arachnophobia (Hollywood Pictures, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$20.00 SRP), Dennis Quaid & Sharon stone in the thriller Cold Creek Manor (Touchstone, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$20.00 SRP), the psychotically naughty nanny classic The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (Hollywood Pictures, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$20.00 SRP), the still-disappointing-but-now-trumped Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd (Hollywood Pictures, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$20.00 SRP), and the family witch-flick Hocus Pocus (Walt Disney, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$26.50 SRP), starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy. Arachnophobia sports a pair of featurettes and the Venezuela sequence. and Cold Creek has an audio commentary, featurettes, an alternate ending, and deleted scenes.

Although already released on Blu-Ray, the new 25th anniversary edition of The Princess Bride (MGM, Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$19.99 SRP) does add in a brand new 2-part retrospective documentary featuring the entire cast reminiscing on the film, in addition to the previously released audio commentaries and featurettes. Worth getting? Sure.

Go inside HBO’s hit adaptation of George RR Martin’s epic Game Of Thrones with the lushly illustrated and info-packed Inside HBO’s Game Of Thrones (Chronicle Books, $40.00 SRP), which will take you to Westeros and beyond, explaining how all of the players fit together into the larger story and how the show was produced.

Stephen Fry is brilliant as the titular country solicitor Peter Kingdom in Kingdom (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP), who travels the Norfolk countryside solving cases all while contemplating the mysterious disappearance of his brother. Just check it out. The DVD also includes a bonus behind-the-scenes documentary.

Fans were left high and dry when only the first two seasons were released, but now you can get all 3 seasons of the beautifully odd Sarah Silverman Program ( Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$49.97 SRP), which is packed full of commentaries, featurettes, music, and more. See? Sometimes dreams do come true.

It’s not the best of the Stephen King adaptations, but there’s still enough creepy quality to be had in Pet Sematary (Paramount, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$22.98 SRP), with the highlight being Fred Gwynne’s Jud Crandall. And now it’s made the transition to high definition with an audio commentary and a trio of featurettes.

Yes, it’s been 7 seasons, but we’re still no closer to finding out How I Met Your Mother (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP). And yeah, it’s getting a bit frustrating. You can keep your relationship hoo-ha, your ducky ties, and your umbrellas – just finally, finally let me know the answer to the gimmick. Then I’ll keep watching I Met Your Mother. Bonus materials include audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, and a gag reel.

If you want to risk potential cute-blindness, take your chances and partake of the first season of New Girl (Fox, Not Rated, DVD-$39.98 SRP), starring devastatingly cute Zooey Deschanel as a girl on the rebound who moves in with a trio of bachelors. Cute comedy ensues! Bonus materials include audio commentaries, featurettes, deleted/extended scenes, and a gag reel.

It’s always nice to come across a documentary that illuminates a little slice of history that is both crucial and largely overlooked, and such is the case with Whittle: The Jet Pioneer (Shelter Island, Not Rated, DVD-$24.98 SRP), the story of Sir Frank Whittle’s invention of the jet engine during World War II.

Honestly, you don’t know what you’re missing until you see a very fine martial arts film like Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate (Vivendi, Rated R, 3D Blu-Ray-$29.93 SRP) in glorious 3D right in your very own home theater, and this Jet Li actioner has enough of a story to make the whole package enjoyable. Bonus materials include featurettes and interviews.

This week’s theatrical score pick brings Music From The Batman Trilogy (Silva Screen Records, $17.42 SRP), which finds the London Music Works performing selections from across the trio of Christopher Nolan’s Bat-films, originally composed by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard.

Still as delightfully deadpan as ever, Demetri Martin returns with his second standup special Demetri Martin: Standup Comedian (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$14.95 SRP), which is more of the same, but new. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, an audio commentary on the audio commentary, rejected concepts, joke variations, and The List.

After suffering many years in the crappy public domain release wilderness, you can now get a spiffy, official 2-volume set collection the entirety of Bonanza: Season 4 (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$58.98 $RP), featuring all 34 episodes of Cartwright clannery. The sets also contain audio commentaries, original Chevy commercials, bumpers, and more.

If you’re new to the whole sex thing or just could use a few pointers, you might want to pick up a pair of 5-disc collections dedicated to just that – The Lover’s Guide: The Original Collection & The Lover’s Guide: The Essential Collection (True Mind, Not Rated, DVD-$49.98 SRP each). Focusing on everything from positions and orgasms to sex plan and masturbation, the whole lot can be found in these somewhat dated, but still practical guides.

We’re yet another step closer to completing the seemingly-infinite run of Roy Clarke’s Last Of The Summer Wine (BBC, Not Rated, DVD-$34.98 SRP) with the release of the 1993 Vintage (season). The 2-disc set contains all 9 episodes, plus the 1993 special.

Hard to believe we’re already up to the fourth season of the new 90210 (Paramount, Not Rated, DVD-$45.98 SRP), which finds everyone moving on from high school and right into a whole new set of catty dramas. Bet you didn’t expect that. Bonus materials include commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, a music video, and a gag reel.

While I do love the MEGO-style figures that they’ve been doing up to this point, I admit I had been secretly holding out hope that Biff Bang Pow would be able to make classic 3 3/4′ figures from the Venture Bros. license. And guess what? THEY HAVE! First out of the gate is the big man himself, Brock Samson (Biff Bang Pow, $9.99). The articulation is old-school Star Wars limited, but the sculpt is great, and it exists. My only real complaint is I wish the pain job was a little cleaner, which is hopefully something that can be addressed going forward. You also might want to snap up the Comic-Con Exclusive Brock ($14.99) while you can, as it features Samson in his blood-splattered white shirt. I can’t wait to see the rest of the cast.

So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…

-Ken Plume

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October 5, 2012
Soapbox: Alternative Halloween Movies

Alternative Halloween Movies

I like Halloween, but I dislike horror films. ‘Tis the season to be scared and while I get a kick out of the costumes, jack-o-lanterns and all the other traditions, at the end of the day I’m still a complete wuss.

I hate horror films. Or to be more specific, I hate gory films. I’m a bit squeamish and so seeing someones finger nails being pulled off is not my idea of fun. I do like scary films though. I just need it to be the old fashioned “nasty stuff happens off-screen” kind of horror.

If, like me, you’d like to indulge in some Halloween appropriate films, but don’t want to have nightmares check out my list of DVDs you can watch this Sunday that won’t have you hiding behind a cushion.

The ‘Burbs

Not only is this a great comedy film (and one of the last in Tom Hanks resume) but also a fun story involving creepy neighbours who might be burying victims in the backyard.

The film was directed by Joe Dante who is a genius at this sort of genre. Just look at Gremlins for an example of this kind of family friendly creepy movie. As a side note, Gremlins would have made it onto this list except that it was set at Christmas and therefore will be on a different alternative movie list.

Added to the fun script is a great cast with Carrie Fisher playing Tom Hanks’ sceptic wife, Bruce Dern as his paranoid military obsessed neighbour, the always wonderful Henry Gibson as the creepy new neighbour and even Cory Feldman as the local wise ass teenager! I think we can all agree that’s a cast not to be sniffed at.

The ‘Burbs is an under appreciated classic and deserves a place in every film buff’s collection so if you don’t have it to watch this Sunday… go get it!

Buy it from Amazon HERE.

Ed Wood

Edward D Wood Junior was an odd man and a director of less than stellar quality but he loved films and had a real passion for making them, even if he wasn’t very good at it.

Tim Burton’s ode to Ed Wood is wonderfully quirky and really shows the fun and adventure people have in making low budget films.

Johnny Depp plays the title character and lovingly camps up his portrayal but never loses Wood’s love for both movies and his friends. Martin Landau acts his socks off playing a down and out Bella Lugosi. With Bill Murray and Jessica Sarah Parker rounding out the cast of misfits.

Tim Burton owns this style of film and you can tell this was an important subject for him as every scene drips with charm. While Ed is the title protagonist you’ll find that it’s Lugosi’s tragic story that you’ll remember after the credits.

Buy it from Amazon HERE.

Labyrinth

You remind me of the babe. What babe? The babe with the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the babe.

If you’re not a fan of Jim Henson you have no soul. FACT. If you haven’t seen Labyrinth already you didn’t have a childhood. FACT. So if you don’t already own this DVD for god’s sake go out and get it.

Not only is it a children’s classic but it’s still enjoyably barmy and watchable now that you’re old enough to pay rent. Plus it wins bonus points for being a good movie starring David Bowie (not many of those around) and a nice introduction to the bushy eyebrow of Jennifer Connelly.

Perfect for Halloween with so many monsters running about but also any other time of the year

Buy it from Amazon HERE.

Rear Window

This one is here for a few reasons:

1) It has Grace Kelly, one of the most beautiful women in the world ever. For reals.
2) It has Jimmy Stewart, one of the best leading men to have graced the big screen.
3) It’s an Alfred Hitchcock murder thriller so it’s perfect for Halloween.
4) It just so happens to be Hitchcock’s best film. As stated by me and therefore true.

I could go on all day about the many other reasons why this is not only a classic but perfect viewing anytime anywhere but it’s been said before and by more-big-brain-smart people than I.

I will however say that it’s a perfect Halloween night kind of film because it appeals to two sensibilities. Fear and mystery. Much better than any gore film.

Buy it from Amazon HERE.

Donnie Darko

Despite it being very much a marmite film (people either love it or hate it, strongly) Donnie Darko is either in too many film lists or not enough depending on who you ask. But nobody can deny that it’s definitely a Halloween film.

The time traveling, mind bending adventure of Donnie, played by the eerily young Jake Gyllenhaal, is a film student’s favourite. It’s great for a post movie discussion of “what the hell was that all about?”.

But make no mistake, the story is compelling and the performances are strong so don’t let the hype fool you, it’s worth the watch. Also, if you have the DVD with commentary from the director and cast make sure to give it a listen because not only is it enlightening but pretty damn funny too.

Buy it from Amazon HERE.
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So there you have it, my list of DVDs worth a watch over Halloween to get you in the mood without making you fear the dark. If you have any picks of your own please leave a comment!

– Aaron Poole is a maverick renegade who plays by his own rules. He is also more acurately an editor for FRED and rarely leaves the house. If you like what you read here, or more likely want to leave him some hate message, check out his blog http://aaronfever.blogspot.com

October 28, 2010
Soapbox: The Allure Of So-Bad-It’s-Good

It’s Such a Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever

Friday night, I fulfilled one of my cinematic dreams: to see The Room live with its director, writer, producer and star, Tommy Wiseau. That this wish ranks somewhere with seeing a true 70mm print of Tati’s Playtime in a theater and meeting my favorite director, Martin Scorsese, strikes even me as odd. By my count, this was my eighth or ninth time seeing the film, and the second in a theater. Each time, I watched it with a different group of friends or a few converts as we spread the Gospel of Wiseau around the Southeastern United States setting up churches devoted to the vaguely Teutonic Jack-of-all-trades (or fight clubs; people react to The Room in different ways).

For those who somehow found this page on a geek-oriented web site and still don’t know what The Room is, I don’t know that words can help you. Clearly meant to be a personal, maybe even psychological, drama about a man whose life falls apart before his eyes, The Room features such bad acting, such inexplicable dialogue and such unnecessary special effects (such as using CGI backdrops of the San Francisco skyline despite being filmed in San Francisco) that even its creator began to sell it as an intended dark comedy when the first reviews hit publications. The only way to assign any meaning at all to the film is to argue facetiously for its stance as an auterial work of hidden layers, as I once did for a laugh.

Wiseau certainly figured out his role in the inevitable snowball of bad-press-as-good-press long before he showed up in Atlanta last night to present the film in-between negotiations with Cartoon Network for a new show. Not only does he sell that bullshit about the film’s “intentional” comedy; he also appears in the flesh – for lack of a better term – to bask in the dubious love of crowds of hipsters who have come not to praise Tommy but to bury him.

After a meet-and-greet, Wiseau held a half-hour Q&A, during which he insulted some questioners, hugged others, led a singing of “Happy Birthday” and even dumped plastic spoons – the faithful will understand – onto a willing fan. When Wiseau deigned to answer a question, his answers only heightened confusion and uncertainty, each response an ouroboric, self-annihilating cycle of incoherent logic and halting English. He responded to one individual’s question of the significance of cancer in the film by promising to “educate” the young lad, only to spiral into unexplored lingual territory before finally telling the kid to just Google “cancer” to get the answer. Then, a guy asked what it was like to work with Jessica Alba on some small project, to which Wiseau creepily and mysteriously replied, “Which Jessica Alba, the real one or the funny one?”

The crowd ate it up, paying more attention to him than their high school and college (if more than 10 percent of the people in the theater were old enough to be out of college), and the actual screening was an uproarious experience, the usual electricity of a live show amplified by Wiseau’s presence. Seasoned pros had dialogue and action down to the second, engaging in spot-on countdowns and shouting the lines as they were said, while neophytes basked in the mad insanity of it all.

As I sat near the front, pelted by plastic spoons thrown with wild abandon and screaming and laughing my head off, I devoted some time to wondering, as I always do when I sit down with The Room, why I do this. We’ve moved firmly into the summer block of movie releases now, a time of year only slightly improved over the cinematic wasteland that is the first financial quarter of the year. I spend my summers at the movies typically setting aside the five or six big releases that I get some measure of entertainment out of – from passive enjoyment to the one or two releases I rave about – from the wave of derivative franchise films and failed attempts to launch new franchises that stem primarily from a source material or from so many clichÅ½s and tropes that the word “original” does not automatically come to mind.

Why then, spend my time with films that go beyond the unremarkable and passively offensive detritus of the mainstream into the realm of true tastelessness? There are plenty of great films being made in this country, to say nothing of the rest of the world, on a yearly basis, and I could be devoting more time to tracking down limited distribution and belated DVD releases than returning over and over again to the casual misogyny of The Room and Manos: The Hands of Fate or the staggering inanity of Night Train to Mundo Fine. What grabs me?

Well, for one thing, I’m not typically disposed toward tearing apart independent artists*, as everyone deserves the chance to mess up and learn through error at first, particularly those working outside the studio system. With the term “indie movie” having taken on the same meaning as “indie rock” – that is to say a definable aesthetic over a true lack of mainstream distribution – the ambition it takes to go out and raise the money and the crew oneself should be acknowledged even if the finished product should be put in a safe and then dumped in the sea.

But that does not account for why I can so ardently get behind these movies. The most obvious reason, and the most perversely poetic, is that these bad movies**, hallmarks of everything cinema shouldn’t be, bring back a communal sense of the theater. The practice of shouting out lines, be they jeers or made-up dialogue, stretches back to the medium’s beginning, when patrons of silent films would make up conversations between title cards and vociferously offer their opinion of the movie as it unfolded. Now, long after cinema has established itself as the seventh art and produces masterpieces and moving baubles for cheap consumption, the embrace of pure, unmistakable garbage somehow brings the medium back to the nexus point of its divergence between entertainment and art.

As such, nearly everyone who attends something like The Room in a live setting enters with the intent to watch it “ironically,” to cheer and jeer before leaving with an ego boost, assured that even the poorest life decisions won’t turn out that bad. But those same people leave with a genuine, however twisted, appreciation of the film. As sarcastic as it may sound, the film really does bring people together, a deliriously fun experience that even the quality blockbusters cannot elicit. It’s no wonder, then, that midnight movies take up residence at arthouse theaters: they engender an earnest cinephilia, linking the intellectual, the pretentious and the mundane into one hollering carnival.

Edward D. Wood, Jr. The King of Crap

Also, to return to the independent angle, a number of these films show a passion lacking in “proper” movies. Take the most famous example of bad-good filmmaking, Ed Wood Jr. Wood’s initial work ethic and optimistic ethos, immortalized in Tim Burton’s biopic on the director (and his most human work), believed in the power of movie making. Wood wanted to make it, to be sure, but the excitement evident in his films, seen most clearly in his satisfaction with every first take no matter what mistakes occurred, gives the impression that the simple act of making a film gave him such pleasure that critical and commercial success could not have elevated it a great deal. (Only after people got wise to how bad he was and shut him out did Wood give in to a more bitter and defeated outlook.)

I would venture to say, though, that Wood’s films contain more than just passion,; many have surprisingly progressive ideas, especially in the push for acceptance of alternative lifestyles put forward by the transvestite director. The stiff acting that mars his films grates on the nerves, but it also breaks from the more melodramatic delivery of contemporary film. Bunny Breckinridge’s performance in Plan 9 from Outer Space, in which he was ironically the only professional actor (save the footage Wood took of Bela Lugosi before his death), is so brilliantly deadpan that he practically opened the doors for anti-comedy in the movies. Hell, he could have fit in the early films of Michelangelo Antonioni, whose ennui-filled art movies stand at the opposite pole from Ed Wood’s sandbox. Burton clearly understood this by casting Bill Murray, one of the great deadpans, to play Bunny in Ed Wood, allowing audiences to see just how thin the line separating Wood’s ineptitude from talent really was.

Perhaps this is all an effect of the majority of cinema falling almost by definition in the middle, the sheer mass and size of the average obscuring the extremities into one horizon. But I can recite more of The Room’s script than I can of any of my 10 favorite films, and both of my live viewings of the film (and some home screenings with friends) trump any other theatrical experience for sheer pleasure. Ultimately, in a country*** increasingly typified by mediocrity, from its entertainment to its government, there’s something appealing about trying and failing spectacularly. None of these people made a film with tax write-offs in mind; they put everything on the line to do something they loved. Regardless of how terrible (and terribly funny) the finished product is, who can’t respect that spirit?

*The second main criterion of bad films taken as comic brilliance is that the film cannot be intended as a comedy. Comedy cannot fail and be subsequently taken as comedy, at least not without a cavernous sense of schadenfreude. This also explains why The Room almost certainly could not have been originally a comedy.
** The original midnight movies – the anti-Western El Topo, David Lynch’s debut Eraserhead, John Waters’ pictures and The Rocky Horror Picture Show — all had darkly comic moments and a tastelessness that attracted audiences of dubious character, but each of these films contains working elements, and some of them could be taken as high art, separating them from the bad dramas working their way through cultist hands today.
***Cult films do tend to be a curiously, though not exclusively, American province; only recently has The Room ventured outside the country, and even the British rock opera Rocky Horror enjoys more success here (though a theater in Germany is modeled after the film).

–Jake Cole is a 20-year-old journalism student at Auburn University who hopes to become a critic. He constantly updates his blog, Not Just Movies, where he garrulously spouts about film, television and whatever else strikes his fancy. In his considerable free time, he wonders what it would be like to know how to talk to women.

May 24, 2010