Context is everything. Everything is contextual.
And from me, that actually is saying something.
“Bush Misspeak Cites U.S. Readiness to Harm U.S.” (Reuters via the delectable Wonkette)
Oh, more detail? Here: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
Yes, I feel safer.
I suppose after the success of The Who’s Tommy:The Musical on Broadway however long ago, this was inevitable: Fulfilling Roger Waters desire to put another brick in “The Wall,” Miramax Films’ Harvey and Bob Weinstein are teaming with music mogul Tommy Mottola to develop, produce and back a Broadway musical based on the Pink Floyd opus. I’m so damn ambivalent about this. I used to listen to the album all the time in my heavy classic-rock days. In my teen years, probably like everyone else who was a teen in the mid-80s, I spent many a night reclining in one of those high-back chairs watching The Wall Laserium — in varying states of mental well-being. The Alan Parker-directed movie is still a classic. Can a stage version live up to it? Will it simply be a musical spectacle? Parker used such a variety of imagery, can a stage version realize the story of the album in the same way? Or will it have to become too linear? Ken Russell’s film of Tommy was similar, but the album’s story always seemed to tell a more linear narrative to me. And I never even saw the stage version, so I can’t judge whether it was any good. I’m also not sure whether Roger Waters being in charge of the adaptation is such a good thing or not. The man has basically been surviving on the success of the wall for over a 1/4 century. Does he have it in him to make the potential necessary changes to his story and music to make it a successful stage show? Or will his ego to keep proving that he was the only necessary member of Pink Floyd (or rather, his belief that he actually is Pink) just mess up the whole thing? I’ll try toi withhold judgment. More importantly though, I’m troubled by this continued dearth of utter unoriginality afflicting the Broadway stage. Not that shows like The Producers and The Full Monty are bad or shouldn’t be made: quite the contrary as I loved them both. But Broadway needs more of Avenue Q, Urinetown and Caroline, Or Change, and even the first two of those can easily be described not completely original since they are satires of other forms themselves.
Meanwhile, a much worse idea suffering from the disease of unoriginality which once again helping overflow my file drawer of “completely unnecessary ideas,” there’s this: “New ‘Toy’ in Col’s chest”. Toy as in The Toy. To be a little fair, the new version is apparently a combination of the Richard Pryor–Jackie Gleason comedy (which itself was a remake of a 1976 French film Le Jouet) and some new script called “Jack and Jay.” And, “The new film will take out the racial element of the Pryor pic — comic played a hired plaything for Jackie Gleason son — which drew criticism.” Well that’s smart. I think the idea of a rich white guy hiring a poor black guy to be his snotty pre-teen son’s “toy” wouldn’t be such a hit today, regardless of what life-lessons the spoiled little brat learned. On the other hand, this film could be another chance for some young kid to learn how to become some young buck — just as original child star Scott Schwartz did in adult-films like The Wrong Snatch, New Wave Hookers and Dirty Bob’s Xcellent Adventures Parts 35 and 36 (uhm … a bit NSFW, obvs!).
Does anyone besides me remember when Matt Dillon was kind of cool? I mean, I’ve always liked him as an actor, and hell, he even bummed a cigarette off me many years ago at an airport. There were The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, both very underrated films (especially the latter) that you should revisit if you haven’t recently. He was the perfect school bully in My Bodyguard, and then he punched everything up a notch with Drugstore Cowboy. The quality of his films been very up and down through the years — for every Singles and To Die For, there has been a Golden Gate or Wild Things — but he showed a great affinity for comedy in There’s Something About Mary, and it was nice to see him lighten up. That doesn’t mean he needs to be jumping on the bandwagon of another “completely unnecessary” entry, the remake of The Love Bug. I know I may be a bit harsh here: the cast isn’t awful — Michael Keaton, Lindsay Lohan, Justin Long and Breckin Meyer — and it’s got a hot-in-Hollywood young female director named Angela Robinson, fresh off film festival hit D.E.B.S., and it’s written by two former members of The State currently also responsible for Reno 911 – Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon …. Why?!? Dillon will play, as he did in Mary the comic villain in the film currently titled Herbie: Fully Loaded. I don’t know. It all seems like a waste of a bunch of good talent to me. But hell, they’re working and I’m not, so maybe it’s not so crazy. Except for the part where … it is.
Nowhere near as crazy though as the news that American Idol reject William Hung’s fifteen minutes of fame just won’t fucking end. “Filming has begun on action comedy Where Is Mama’s Boy?, co-starring Hong Kong vet Nancy Sit, who persuaded producers My Way Film Co. to cast Hung after learning of him on a trip to the U.S.” That’s right — not only has someone actually let him record and release an album and a DVD, but now somebody is putting him in a movie. Even more disturbing: “My Way is lining up a second pic for Hung, an as-yet-unnamed project in the vein of Spy Kids.” Now come on! I don’t care if it is the Hong Kong film industry rather than our own. Hung is going to have a longer film career than the Spice Girls. It’s just so very, very, VERY wrong.
Yesterday I snuck a plug for Da Ali G Show into a post that was otherwise about Comedy Central. This past Sunday’s episode was hysterical from beginning to end, and thanks to all those clever (and more technically proficient than I) bloggers out there, the capper of the episode (Borat singing in a country-western bar in Tucson) can be viewed online, assuming that all the links to it doen’t crash Apple’s Homepage servers. (I have seen this all over today, so thanks One Good Move via Sarah and Scott and Thighs. That’s more than enough blogfucking.)
Check-it-out, and read One Good Move’s post too. I should say that as funny as this video is, it’s damn scary as well. I mean Tucson is still part of this country right. Should I, as a Jew, be nervous about country-western bars in Arizona being a new hotbed for white supremacists sentiments? Or should I just revel in Sacha Baron Cohen’s amazing ability to keep a straight face while he manipulates the hell out of a bunch of stupid people.
And in other good news regarding remembrances of bloggers past, D-Nasty seems to have returned from his two month hiatus. It’s about time.
Just as I thought there was no interesting news this morning, I get a lovely little IM that makes me want to shout, “All hail the Peabs! His blog lay dormant for what seemed like an eternity, but now he’s back with a vegeance to bovs all over your respective tees. If you aren’t familiar with Peabs and his campaign to run the world with his loyal Coz by his side, I warn you to proceed with caution. He’s not for the faint of heart — but he is just that good. Maybe he’ll start a whole trend: “Return of the Blogger Burnouts.” We can only hope. Who knows how long he’ll stick around this time. I know that he was always one of my daily reads if for no reason other than I was guaranteed either a huge laugh or a huge jaw-dropping moment at his fearlessness and audacity. So sayeth me … check out So Sayeth the Peabs.
Color me shocked, but I didn’t even know there was an audition special for Ultimate Film Fanatic. Lo and behold, this past weekend while I was looking through my little DiVo guide trying to find a showing of the SouthEast regionals, I happed upon it. The 20 minute (they couldn’t fill a full half-hour?) infomercial was really interesting, especially seeing it after having watched been disappointed by three episodes of the actually show. It reinforced several things I’ve thought about IFC’s attempt at a game show.
I’m not sure how it’s possible, but The Daily Show keeps getting better! Every night I watch it and I want to write something about it immediately, but that would turn this blog into not just not-a-TCM fansite but also not-a-Daily Show fansite. Last night, Stewart’s interview was a Republican representative who was on the “quick response team” to the DNC in Boston. I’m sure anti-Democrat voters out there will disagree, but Stewart basically shredded him and showed that no politician or pundit can get beyond the talking points and simply be honest. The great thing about Stewart is that he didn’t do so by specifically defending the Kerry campaign, and I’m sure come September when he has some member of the Dems inevitable “quick response team” on the show, he’ll lay into him in the exact same way. Much as the show last night ridiculed Bush for repeatedly saying 23 times over five speeches we’ve “turned the corner,” and then flipped immediately to chastise Kerry for being incredibly ineloquent in his response to that ridiculous phrase.
But this isn’t a Daily Show fansite. Nor is it a Comedy Central fansite. Still, YAY Comedy Central (and Paramount, and Paramount and Comedy Central parent Viacom) for shelling out the bucks to keep Dave Chappelle churning out episodes of Chappelle’s Show for two more seasons. They’re paying him a shitload of money, but as I’ve said before, the guy is the funniest man on television.
I almost started to rethink that last night, though, when I watched this week’s episode of HBO’s Da Ali G Show. (See, I told you this wasn’t a Comedy Central fansite!) This week’s episode was the best from start-to-finish I think I’ve ever seen of the 9 that have aired so far between it’s first and current seasons. I don’t even want to ruin any of it: if you get HBO, check it out tonight on HBO2 at 9 PM or tomorrow on HBO at 11 PM. If you get HBO On Demand, just go watch it now.
But one more sort-of indirectly Comedy Central-related note that may have been overshadowed by today’s Chappelle news: The incredibly funny Steve Carell — who is always a highlight of any film and recently stole many a scene in Anchorman — has been cast as Maxwell Smart in a modern film version of the 60s spy spoof TV series Get Smart. Carell, who first got widespread attention as a Daily Show “correspondent” — is on fire right now, seemingly one of the most-wanted comic actors in film. Normally, I would say that a big screen version of Get Smart is an awful idea. The original show was very funny, a classic creation of two brilliant satirical minds: Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. And Don Adams so perfectly portrayed the role of the bumbling secret agent that it’s unimaginable for anyone else to try. Until you mention Carell. Oh sure, this movie could still absolutely be a total clunker if the script and direction or atrocious, which is more than a passing possibility. But at the very least, they cast it correctly. Carell is as close to perfect as I can imagine to take on the daunting task of replacing Adams.
I do have to wonder though if Comedy Central is sometimes a bit delusional. At the video store the other day, I saw a box set for Season 1 of The Man Show. That would be the season that at least featured Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corrolla rather than Joe Rogan and … some other guy. But it still was never a show that really required repeated DVD viewing. I have a feeling that anyone actually buying it simply ets the track of the closing credits — women bouncing on trampolines — on repeated play and go at it.
Still, with South Park still somehow going strong and Reno 911 nailing most of what it tries, I heart me some Comedy Central these days, even if Crossballs isn’t quite as funny as it should be. Now all I’m waiting for is Crank Yankers, The Movie.
Ultragrrrl keeps stating that hers is not a fansite for The Killers, and as a regular reader, I know that it isn’t. But she sure as hell mentions them a lot. Similarly, I am not on the TCM payroll, nor do I sit around and watch TCM all day, every day. In fact, I probably only watch a couple things a week, if that, sometimes recording something for later viewing, but there obviously just isn’t time in the day to catch everything this brilliant channel programs.
Still, I consider it my sacred obligation to spread the word of TCM and to encourage all you film lovers who simply forget the channel exists or, heaven forbid, those of you without cable (shudder, you know who you are), that TCM alone is worth paying for television, especially since it usually isn’t even a premium channel. For the month of August, TCM is changing its schedule a bit. Instead of simply having one star of the month, a theme of a month, and then their regular weekly noir, western and “import” selections, August is all about movie stars. Every day for 24 hours (from 6 AM-6 AM Eastern daily), TCM will feature a different star. For you John Wayne lovers … oops! His day was yesterday, and I just didn’t get around to this post in advance. But there’s still plenty of time to catch the great Barbara Stanwyck (tonight) and 29 other actors and actresses, many of whom put many of today’s movie stars to shame.
The full schedule is on TCM’s web site. But I’ve highlighted films that should not be missed, if you have the chance … so get those DiVos/TiVos/Recordable DVDs/VCRs rolling. (Note, all times are Eastern; TCM has one feed, so adjust start time for your own time zone. Also, this is the whole month, but I’ll try to repost the appropriate sections on a weekly basis because this puppy is looooong.):
Continue reading “THIS IS NOT A TCM FAN SITE, BUT WATCH AS THE STARS COME OUT IN AUGUST”
I like Eric Bana. I really do. Even if he was miscast as Hector, and even if Ang Lee didn’t give him much to do other than bug out his eyes and shake, I do remember walking away from Black Hawk Down noticing him in particular, much in the same way I left The Quick and the Dead years ago (while I was still working at a small talent agency) and rushed to check if Russell Crowe already had representation. (He did.)
But I have to say that Bana as the new James Bond, while not a foreseeable horrendous mistake like Hugh Grant would be, is an above-average choice at best, especially when compared to the other possibilities out there. I know I’ve already stated my Clive Owen preference, and really, I would prefer they end the series rather than miscast the role. I’m guessing they’re leaning towards a slightly younger Bond (Bana is 35, Owen turns 40 this year) in the hopes of keeping one face on the franchise for longer, and I don’t think Bana is necessarily too young for the role. And I would definitely leave open the possibility of a pleasant surprise resulting from his casting. Still, if this comes to pass, it’s a less exciting and interesting choice than someone with the dark complexities of Owen.
(Thanks to DeckerSyn for the link to The Guardian piece.)
UPDATED: It seems that DeckerSyn has become my own personal Bond scout. Later in the day, he sent me a link to this story on comingsoon.net which forcefully uses it’s headline to claim “Eric Bana is not the next 007.” It’s good to know it’s not a done deal; but stories like the first one don’t pop up in a vacuum, and I’m sure Bana is probably under heavy consideration.
I had a movielicious weekend: I was sick on Friday and Saturday, so between DVDs, my DiVo, cable and then finally hitting a theater on Sunday, I think I watched 10-11 films. More on that in another post; but one of the movies I didn’t even see in full. On Friday, I suggested everyone watch Network. In fairness, it was on really late at night (2:30 AM here on the east coast) and since I’ve seen it at least 20 times, I wasn’t planning on actually watching myself. Besides, I own it on DVD and watch it usually twice a year anyway.
However, I went to bed very late Saturday night and turned it on while I was going to sleep. Bad idea because, of course, I became transfixed. MRKinLA’s comment in my previous post (referring to a show called “Celebrity Mah-Jong” on the UBS schedule) is just another example of the foresight Paddy Chayefsky had in this script, perhaps one of the best-written screenplays of all time. Network is a case of all the elements of a film coming together to make the other elements better. Lumet’s direction is perfect: the pacing and tone are smooth and consistent, and he never gets in the way of either the script or the actors. And those actors: William Holden is often overlooked in this film because he has to share the screen with the more outrageous (and utterly brilliant) Peter Finch, but that relationship is actually very similar to that of any classic comedy team — Holden is the straight man, often unnoticed but if he’s not pitch-perfect, the more showy role doesn’t work as well. And then Faye Dunaway, always remembered primarily for Chinatown and Bonnie and Clyde (rightfully so), and although she received Oscar nominations for both, it was Network which brought her sole statuette and her most complex role. Throw in a dynamic Robert Duvall, and a powerful, albeit brief, appearance by Ned Beatty, not to mention dozens of smaller supporting roles, and Chayefsky’s brilliant script is heightened that much more by them.
A perfect example is one of Howard Beale’s (Finch) “mad prophet” rants. It was especially fascinating to watch/listen to it just after one of this year’s political conventions, when the broadcast networks aired a total of three hours of the four nights; when the cable networks allowed their talking heads to interview each other more than let the home audience watch the speeches; when commentary and opinion has replaced news, and “your most trusted news source” is really only a motto because unlike 30-50 years ago when there were Howard Beales around (Murrow, Cronkite, Chancellor, Brinkley, etc.), there is no singular type of anchor people look to and trust anymore. As someone who lives by the tube, this speech is incredibly striking. Remember it was written in the mid-70s, not 2000. The text is dramatic; hearing Finch yell it is awe-inspiring:
Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems — and woe is us if it ever falls in the hands of the wrong people. And that’s why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this network is now in the hands of CC and A the Communications Corporation of America. We’ve got a new Chairman of the Board, a man named Frank Hackett now sitting in Mr. Ruddy’s office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this tube? So, listen to me! Television is not the truth! Tele- vision is a goddamned amusement park, that’s what television is! Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats and story-tellers, singers and dancers, jugglers, side-show freaks, lion- tamers and football players. We’re in the boredom-killing business! If you want truth, go to God, go to your guru, go to yourself because that’s the only place you’ll ever find any real truth! But, man, you’re never going to get any truth from us. We’ll tell you anything you want to hear. We lie like hell! We’ll tell you Kojak always gets the killer, and nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker’s house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don’t worry: just look at your watch — at the end of the hour, he’s going to win. We’ll tell you any shit you want to hear! We deal in illusion, man! None of it’s true! But you people sit there — all of you — day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds — we’re all you know. You’re beginning to believe this illusion we’re spinning here. You’re be- ginning to think the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God’s name, you people are the real thing! We’re the illusions! So turn off this goddamn set! Turn it off right now! Turn it off and leave it off. Turn it off right now, right in the middle of this very sentence I’m speaking now —
At that point, Beale’s eyes roll up in his head, he faints to the floor, and the TV crew starts encouraging the audience to stand and applaud, as the show goes to commercial — and Beale lies on the floor.
The Daily Show on Friday night — their wrap-up of the DNC — was one of the best episodes of the program I’ve ever seen. At the end, Jon Stewart gave a message to the large number of devoted and young viewers who watch and listen to him religiously. He encouraged us to watch the conventions — both of them. He also encouraged us to turn off the set after and think about what we’ve seen. He encouraged us to come to our own conclusions and most importantly to not be swayed by the commentators and pundits who proliferate the airwaves. As always, he did so in comic manner, by having little pictures of Paul Begala, James Carville, Bob Novak, Tucker Carlson, Pat Buchanan, Chris Matthews, etc. pop up on the screen, until the entire picture was littered with political pundits and the home audience could just barely see Stewart’s eye. He even ridiculed (as he often does) The Daily Show itself, with one of the pictures being himself and his cast of reporters, his accompanying comment to that shot being, “They don’t even matter.” It was a perfect example of why The Daily Show is such a great satirical look at news and the world; because even with such a hysterical message, Stewart was being deadly serious. I hope people were paying attention. I also hope, if you haven’t seen it before, you’ll take some time to experience Network. It really is filmmaking at its best and most important.
Before all you Rocky lovers get on my case, yes, it’s a great movie. But does anyone remember the films Rocky beat out for the Oscar in 1977? Bound for Glory. All the President’s Men. Taxi Driver. And most ridiculously, Network.
Rocky is one of the best feel-good underdog movies ever, but it’s hard to believe that even without the time for hindsight that it doesn’t stand up to All the President’s Men or the brilliant Taxi Driver. But even the Scorsese freak that I am puts his film slightly lower on my list of all-time favorites than Sidney Lumet‘s brilliant Network from a script by Paddy Chayefsky that could not have been more prescient.
You’ve never seen Network? Now’s your chance. My favorite channel will be showing Network late this Saturday night (2:30 AM Eastern/11:30 PM Pacific), and I encourage you to watch or record it. Even if you have seen it before, watch it again. I’ve probably watched Network at least 10-15 times, and every time I watch it, I continue to not only see new things in the film, but I’m repeatedly amazed at how Chayefsky predicted the modern state of television a good 15 years before it happened.
Writing about a television world still limited to major broadcast networks, before cable became widespread and a world in which network news still had a major voice because even CNN was not quite a gleam yet in Ted Turner’s eye, Chayefsky still managed to create a story that foretold the blurring of news and entertainment. He created reality television at a time when most of the first Real World cast were barely out of diapers. He invented a nightly news program that included commentary and other non strictly-news elements, away from the single anchor behind a desk format utilized for so many years. CEO Arthur Jensen’s (Ned Beatty) speech to tortured, terrified and possibly schizophrenic anchorman Howard Beale (posthumous Oscar winner Peter Finch) is more relevant now than it was nearly 30 years ago when it was written. In fact, it’s so brilliant, I have to give you most of it here:
It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. THAT is the natural order of things today. THAT is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And YOU WILL ATONE. Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America, and democracy. There is no America; there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it. Is that clear? You think you’ve merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations; there are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems; one vast, interwoven, interacting, multivaried, multinational dominion of dollars.
Take my word for it, Network is one of the best movies you’ll ever see, and while it has a great reputation, I’d still claim that it’s vastly underrated. But then again, don’t take my word for it, because TCM is providing that vital service it fulfills so well this Saturday night, and giving you an easy way to see it for yourself.
Out of Focus