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Post by thwhtguardian on Mar 7, 2020 8:09:33 GMT -5
Craziest thing I have seen about Blazing Saddles is many years ago ION television (which was then called PAX, primarily a conservative family/religious station) ran an "extremely edited" version with blurred scenes, total silence/deleting/covering spoken words and jokes and "objective content" in the movie. It was totally butchered and unwatchable. You could have watched the movie with the sound turned off and enjoyed the movie more. Saddles is NOT a prime time family friendly movie to gather around and watch together with dinner. My family was definitely not typical, both my parents and my grandparents on my mothers side loved Mel Brooks and we watched all his films together as a family a lot while I was growing up. I actually went to see Men in Tights with my dad in theaters as a kid. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 7, 2020 13:13:31 GMT -5
My girlfriend fell asleep during Blazing Saddles when I tried to show it to her last year. I'm still working on forgiving her. You're a patient man. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 7, 2020 13:22:31 GMT -5
Caught Private Eyes (1953), a Bowery Boys movie on TCM today. Shockingly different from many another BB movie: a much larger cast than usual (more than any two other BB movies, it seems), the director was Three Stooges auteur Edward Bernds, it features a bit by Stooge favorite Emil Sitka as a guy in a wheelchair, and Huntz Hall plays an old lady who looks lie Ray Bolger in Charley's Aunt.It doesn't exactly conjure comparisons with The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep, though there is a femme fatale, and the plot is nearly incomprehensible. It's better than most of the films in the series, which may be like it's the best of the Dell horror comics, but still, it has a veneer of semi-respectability and a few of the gags are pretty good. And of course, the malaprop level is in the red zone.  |
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Post by brutalis on Mar 9, 2020 8:05:58 GMT -5
Next up for laughs Friday night was Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke from 1978. Growing up listening to C&C on 8-tracks (yes, that is and was a thing we did growing up ya dangblasted young whippersnappers) smack dab in the middle of the stoner revolution of course I was there at the Drive-in's (yes, another antiquated thing we old farts did once upon a time) munching down on pizza and smuggled in beer after a shared Doobie brother or two. Stacy Keach was born to playing Sgt. Stedanko I must say. A visually perfect realization of the duo's comedic albums, I wonder if anybody other than us teens ever actually saw the movie(s) of Cheech and Chong? Full of rude and crude drug and alcohol related humor takes us on a journey with Pedro and the Man that you will either like or dislike depending on your sense of humor.
Saturday afternoon watched 1974's The Groove Tube which was filled with television and movie sketches meant to make you laugh or choke or spit up your food, depending again on what you define as being humor. A kind of preview of what Saturday Night Live would bring to television. Some stand outs: Koko the Clown a kids show where the clown host reads erotica, Kramp TV Kitchen spoofing the cooking shows, The Geritan Girl parody, Butz Beer, Channel One Evening News, International Sex Games and then of course the infamous Safety Sam public service announcement warning against venereal disease.
Sunday afternoon was 1977's Kentucky Fried Movie another cornucopia of comedy segments. It exploits Kung Fu movies Blaxpoitation movies, Women in Prison movies, Teen Sexploitation movies, news shows, spoofs Sensurround with Fell-A-Round. A precursor to the Airplane comedies (coming soon to a review near you) where any and every joke is thrown at you in the hopes that some if not most will make you laugh.
The above movies were constant weekend drive-in theater journey's for a bunch of us during High School. Friday and Saturday nights we would all meet (several cars/vans) full and take pizza and beer (plug your ears under ager's) along with lawn chairs and sit up all night watching in between just hanging out and chatting. Among all of these movies also were many lesser made coming of age teen comedies disguised with window dressings of topless women and young men dropping their tighty whities in pursuit of love and lust.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 9, 2020 9:15:51 GMT -5
...I *love* Kentucky Fried Movie...
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Post by berkley on Mar 9, 2020 21:20:20 GMT -5
I heard of the Kentucky Fried Movie but haven't seen it and never knew until now that it was done by the Airplane guys. That alone is enough to induce me to make a point of watching it some time. Last week I saw a 2019 French comedy called La Belle Époque: As a straight comedy I'd say it was good enough, but it's more interesting for the questions it raises - about relationships, independence, possessiveness, jealousy, aging, nostalgia, fantasy vs reality, even socio-economic status - than for the laughs, I would say, though the audience I saw it with responded well to it as a straightforward comedy, laughing at all the right places throughout.
For me, it didn't work so well as a straight comedy because I think a lot of the situations were highly problematic in terms of the issues listed above and I'm not at all sure what the writer/director was trying to get across in any given case, but to the film's credit, it does raise these questions in an open-ended way, without trying to force an answer down the viewer's throat. For all I know, that might be because the film-maker himself, Nicolas Bedos, wasn't aware of the problematic nature of his film - the audience certainly didn't seem to feel any discomfort and as I say, enjoyed it on the surface level as a simple comedy, going by their reaction. But I think most likely he knew what he was doing. Excellent cast, Daniel Autheuil, Doria Tillier, and Fanny Ardant stood out especially, but everyone was good, down to the smallest parts. |
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Post by brutalis on Mar 10, 2020 8:00:42 GMT -5
Enjoyed Steven Spielberg's attempt at comedy with 1979's period war movie 1941. A stellar ensemble cast about the panic in Los Angeles during WW II after the attack on Pearl Harbor when everyone was in panic over the possibility of Japan attacking the California coast. Suggestion to Steve: don't give up your day job for being a comedian. While it is an interesting and at times fun movie it is not a funny comedy movie. A mixed bag of a movie that has more serious than laughs it is still a movie I enjoy as a historical and movie buff that I watch occasionally.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 11, 2020 7:36:18 GMT -5
Tuesday night movie watching since it was raining and it felt like a movie night. Went for Monty Python and the Holy Grail from 1975 which I 1st saw on the local PBS Station back in the day during a fund raiser when Python was a treasured import. Like Blazing Saddles there is so much to laugh at and enjoy while literally speaking the lines/jokes from memory. A flesh wounded Black Knight, your squire clicking coconuts as you ride your make believe horse, Brave Sir Robin soiling his armor, the Knights who say NEE seeking a shrubbery, the holy hand grenade, Tim the Sorcerer and his questions and on and on. A true low budget comedy classic which stands the test of repeated viewings and only gets better every time it is watched. We should all dance and sing around the round table whenever able!!!
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 11, 2020 8:36:56 GMT -5
Tuesday night movie watching since it was raining and it felt like a movie night. Went for Monty Python and the Holy Grail from 1975 which I 1st saw on the local PBS Station back in the day during a fund raiser when Python was a treasured import. Like Blazing Saddles there is so much to laugh at and enjoy while literally speaking the lines/jokes from memory. A flesh wounded Black Knight, your squire clicking coconuts as you ride your make believe horse, Brave Sir Robin soiling his armor, the Knights who say NEE seeking a shrubbery, the holy hand grenade, Tim the Sorcerer and his questions and on and on. A true low budget comedy classic which stands the test of repeated viewings and only gets better every time it is watched. We should all dance and sing around the round table whenever able!!! I fart in your general direction! |
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Post by brutalis on Mar 11, 2020 9:00:06 GMT -5
Tuesday night movie watching since it was raining and it felt like a movie night. Went for Monty Python and the Holy Grail from 1975 which I 1st saw on the local PBS Station back in the day during a fund raiser when Python was a treasured import. Like Blazing Saddles there is so much to laugh at and enjoy while literally speaking the lines/jokes from memory. A flesh wounded Black Knight, your squire clicking coconuts as you ride your make believe horse, Brave Sir Robin soiling his armor, the Knights who say NEE seeking a shrubbery, the holy hand grenade, Tim the Sorcerer and his questions and on and on. A true low budget comedy classic which stands the test of repeated viewings and only gets better every time it is watched. We should all dance and sing around the round table whenever able!!! I fart in your general direction! Your mother smells of elderberry's you silly English Kuhnigget! |
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Post by brutalis on Mar 13, 2020 7:44:58 GMT -5
Another rainy night so another movie night! A little something in black and white to fit the stormy evening was called for so I popped in my DVD of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder's Young Frankenstein from 1974. Spectacular cast including Peter Boyle, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachmena, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard Hayden and a Gene Hackman cameo doing a wonderful parody of the Universal Horror movies. Many props are used from the 1931 Frankenstein and perfectly capturing those old movie mood and feelings there are plenty of laughs to be found.
The only film Brooks does NOT appear in, only doing voices and a rather hidden villager we have Wilder's Dr Frederick Frank-en-steen with assistant Feldman as Eye-gor the hunchback who soon re-animate a corpse creating a new monster who is more frightened than frightening. You have to laugh at the ongoing Frau Blucher (neiiiiiiiigh) joke and dressing up the creature in tux and tails and top hat with cane dancing away to Putting on the Ritz. Kahn in full Bride hairstyle is hilarious in the ending. Do yourselves a favor and watch this for Halloween alongside the other Universal Monster classics and enjoy some laughs alongside your thrills and scares...
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Post by brutalis on Mar 16, 2020 8:05:11 GMT -5
Spent the weekend in self isolation at home for the weekend enjoying DVD's and reading. Enough chance of catching CV since I work at a hospital Mon-Fri so why risk myself on the weekend?
Friday night: Dan Akroyd's 1983 comedy Doctor Detroit. Dan stars alongside his soon to be wife Donna Dixon, Fran Drescher, Lydia Lei, Lynn Whitfield, T. K. Carter, George Furth and Howard Hesseman when a group of call girls are taken over by the mob boss Mom and introverted Akroyd becomes the flamboyant chiropractor mobster Doctor Detroit to save the day and the ladies of the night! Rather silly and dumb kind of funny but it entertains and makes a laugh or 2 or 3.
Saturday double feature: Night Shift from 1982 starring Henry Winkler as anther introvert caught up with ladies of the evening when his ineffective co-worker Michael Keaton turns the nice quiet night shift at the local county morgue into a prostitution service. Winkler is enraged until he is persuaded by all the money coming in and the plight of the women, in particular one Shelly Long who he falls in love with. 2nd Feature is another 1982 comedy going by the name of Jeckyll and Hyde...Together Again starring Mark Blankenfield, Bess Armstrong, Krista Errickson, Tim Thomerson and a small non-Elvira part for Cassandra Peterson. Blankenfield is brain surgeon Dr. Daniel Jekyll who retires to research medication which will eliminate mankind need for operations. Of course instead he creates a drug which when snorted like cocaine brings out all of his inner testosterone, grow wild chest/facial hair and gold jewelry sprouts upon his ears/fingers/neck and teeth and endows him great abilities below the belt so to say. Need I explain more of the pictures premise and intent and humor???
Sunday Burt Reynolds double feature: The Longest Yard from 1974 with one of the funniest football games ever held in prison when Reynolds quarterback is sent up the river and Eddie Albert the prison warden football fanatic dreams up the great idea of having the guards versus the inmates. Pain and payback and hilarity ensues. Filled with professional football players there is plenty of laughs and real drama along with the gameplay. 2nd feature is Smokey and the Bandit from 1977 with Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, Sally Field , Jerry Reed and a Firebird Trans-Am in the classic cops chasing illegal booze runners. The #2 movie of 1977 (Star Wars #1 of course) producing 2 feature sequels, 4 made for television spin off movies and tons of wannabe's.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 16, 2020 8:47:18 GMT -5
(...) Saturday double feature: Night Shift from 1982 starring Henry Winkler as anther introvert caught up with ladies of the evening when his ineffective co-worker Michael Keaton turns the nice quiet night shift at the local county morgue into a prostitution service. Winkler is enraged until he is persuaded by all the money coming in and the plight of the women, in particular one Shelly Long who he falls in love with. (...) Man, I haven't seen Night Shift since high school - loved it back then, don't know what I'd think now. One thing I still recall as really funny is Michael Keaton carrying around a hand-held tape recorder to record all of his 'great' money-making ideas for future reference. My favorite one is his idea to streamline the process for making tuna sandwiches: "Feed mayonnaise to live tuna fish." |
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Post by berkley on Mar 17, 2020 18:56:13 GMT -5
I liked Night Shift, from what I remember. I saw it on video sometime in the 80s, probably a couple years after it came out, at a guess. Doctor Detroit I saw at the theatre and enjoyed it well enough for the throw-away sort of comedy it was.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 19, 2020 8:02:28 GMT -5
Another rainy night so curled up with a pepperoni pizza and pulled out my DVD of My Favorite Year, 1982's Mel Brooks backed movie from Richard Benjamin starring Peter O'Toole, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna and Mark Linn-Baker interpretative invoking of the night Errol Flynn appeared on 1954 television with Sid Caesar. Bologna plays a splendid "King" Kaiser version of Caesar and O'Toole charms and delights as a drunken irascible Swann, I adore this movie and it has a charm and style capturing the 50's and characters most perfectly.
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