Valley Girl-Paramount Summer Classic Films Series

 

This entry will sometimes be less review and more nostalgia piece. I never shy away from sharing personal experiences about movies, that is why I started writing in the first place. If you don't know or care about me, it will be easy to ignore a lot of what I am going to talk about here. If you have a little patience and a forgiving heart, you may find some stories worth reading. 

Seeing this film on the big screen was always going to be a challenge for me, this is one of my late wife's two favorite films. She loved this movie from the first time we saw it in theaters, where we sat through it twice, separated by a bad Cheech and Chong film. After that, it was complete surrender. We saw it a few more times while it was in first run, and then it became a perennial favorite around the house. When the company with the rights was slow to put it out on DVD, I won an out of print Laserdisc copy on an ebay listing, by paying $70, more than twice what the original price would have been. 

It's easy to see why this movie can remain popular forty years after bursting into our consciousness, it's a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending. The mismatched cultural divide is pretty significant in the teen years. Young people are struggling to find a place where they fit in and that's why Julie, our heroine, is having a tough time. Even though her peer group acknowledges that Randy, our hero, is hot, they see him as an outsider. Different clothes, different music, different lifestyles mean that the divide is substantial enough to drive a wedge between two lovebirds that have been growing together for a time. 

The audience today, swooned at Randy at the beach, but laughed at his appearance when he and his buddy crash the party. The punk aesthetic embraced by Randy is a rejection of all that she and her friends use to create their identities. Nicolas Cage plays Randy like a smitten puppy dog who has a bone he won't give up, even to be with his dream girl. At one point he even verbalizes his distain for her culture when they venture to the club that is his second home. However, it begins to dawn on him that he needs to live in her world as well as hers. Cue the montage that has them at the mall, the club, the movies and all after he concedes that her parents seem to be ok. All of this takes place while the world embraces Modern English's one big hit "I Melt with You". The new wave band may have had the apocalypse on their minds when they wrote it, but after it's use in this film, it will always be a romantic song. 

There is so much humor in the film, it is easy to forget some dark moments. Tommy, Julie's old boyfriend, is a manipulative bully, who is likely to make her life miserable if she stays with him. It's true that the film introduced us to Nicolas Cage, but some other fine actors are in the movie as well. Michael Bowen who plays Tommy here, goes on the play the loathsome neo-Nazi Uncle Jack in the last season of Breaking Bad and a go to for Quentin Tarantino when an ass is needed. I can't say that Cameron Dye as Fred went on to stardom, but he has worked steadily. Fred was the perfect comic foil for Randy and the kind if  who pushes the right buttons in the wrong way. Dye's performance here delights me. If there is an underappreciated contributor to the film, it is the late Fredrick Forrest, who plays Julie's hippie Dad. He offers an adult view of what the kids are going through and he is supportive without getting maudlin. Forrest is also quite funny and matches up well with Collen Camp as Julie's Mother.

There are some side stories that were never going to go anyplace major in the film, but which offer some good background on the teen culture. Suzie likes Skip, who has a Mrs. Robinson interest in her step mother. Loryn gets used by Tommy and glares at him for the rest of the movie. Stacey never quite warms up to Fred, but does get to feel the sting of disappointment in her efforts to thwart Randy and Julie as a couple.

The soundtrack for this movie is filled with nostalgia from my years working in the Valley and commuting around L.A. while listening to KROQ. Sparks, Gary Myrick, The Plimsouls and Josie Cotten are all heard  in the film, and the Plimsouls and Cotten get substantial screen time, cementing my image of the music scene of 1983. 

I teared up a couple of times at the memory of how much my wife and I loved hearing "Monster of Love" as the soundtrack of a surprise seduction. That montage scene also provoked some water works, just because young love is precious and the sequence reminded me of my own life, enough that I could feel the moments even though I was older when the film came out. 

The audience at the State Theater was packed, I ended up sitting in the third row, a little close but fine. Everyone laughed and cheered and cried at the right moments. Maybe like me, they were remembering an earlier time, or maybe it's just that romance never dies. 

Blade-Paramount's Summer Classic Films Series

Once again, there is nothing like seeing a film with an appreciative audience. Last nights group gathered for a screening of Blade, was not massive like the Rocky Horror and Road Warrior Screenings have been, but they were loud and enthusiastic. From the moment that Wesley Snipes enters the picture, his every move was marveled at, cheered and certainly appreciated. "Blade" may be the coolest superhero to ever don tactical gear, sunglasses, and a katana. 

The back story does not matter much, let's just say that Blade is a vampire and a vampire hunter. This movie was a Marvel film a decade before the start of the Cinematic Universe they created. It has the trappings of most of the comic book movies of that era, techno music, early CGI and some story shorthand that is needed to get things rolling right to the action. The villain is a young handsome upcoming actor, Stephen Dorff, the plot gives Blade a female counterpart and a sidekick, and there is a conspiracy with the real authorities. Oh, and the climax of the film involves some mumbo jumbo about a Vampire God. 

Sometimes last night's audience was hooting at some of the outdated moments. The villain for instance uses a computer with some primitive graphics that might have been cutting edge in their day but now look quaint. Kris Kristofferson  plays the withering sidekick to Blade, and his indifference to the gasoline he is pumping while lighting a cigarette provoked howls because it was supposed to. By the way, Kristofferson is the spitting image in this film of my buddy Don Hayes.

Snipes gets to kick ass several times in the film. His opening salvo involves silver infused bullets that cause the vampires to explode. There is a nice scene with some stakes, a knife and the sharp edged boomerang that is supposed to have been designed by his partner. The main battle at the end however is a sword fight that would be impossible for him to win because of the supercharged nature of the villain. That might be a problem but the cool part is that Blade gets to perform what would have been the coup de grace several times in the scene. 

There are two sequels to this film, I don't think I have seen either of them. This is only the second time I saw this film, and it felt a lot like a first time since I remembered very little about it. I think the reboot should be pretty good, but let's face it, no one is going to replace Wesley Snipes. Mahershala Ali will be cool, but he won't be cool in the same 90's way. 

Meg 2: The Trench

Ah, now eventually you do plan to have megalodons, in your megalodon movie, right?

For a movie featuring giant sharks, there is an awful lot of tangential story development and action that features big sharks only in the background. At least Spielberg had a reason the shark was not seen much in the opening act of Jaws. Director Ben Wheatley seems to think this is an espionage, action thriller and that the sharks are not really why we are coming to see this movie. The movie starts with a James Bond of the Oceans sequence, then spends a big amount of time playing Armageddon games. Then the movie transitions to Die Hard on the high seas, before turning into Jurassic Park of Thailand. Finally we get to the good stuff, and what do we have? Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus. 

Look, this was always going to be a popcorn picture that we laughed at a little, but still felt like it should be taken seriously. That does not happen. There is nothing you can take seriously in this movie. When we start meeting the new characters, the first one is basically working on his Iron Man suit. The villains you can pick out in a few seconds of screen time and the set up for the climax moment is presented as if the character who will use it did it as an afterthought. 

I like Jason Statham films a lot, but there are getting to be too many "Fast and Furious" imitators out there and if he is going to be in all of them, he will be overstaying his welcome. He is great in the action scene opening, and he does a great impression of Ed Harris without the liquified oxygen. When we get to the actual shark battles that come at the end, he looks good enough on a jet ski, but the cars and motorcycles of the other series probably make this feel like a repeat. So many of the shots have a deliberately cartoon feel to them that there is no suspense at all. I understand the presence of  sub-titles since the film is partially produced by Chinese interests and will be marketed there, but some of the Chinese style shorthand in storytelling, makes the film even more like a Syfy weekend programmer, in spite of it's budget.

Shortcuts are taken everywhere. How did the most technologically advanced company in the world not know that part of it's resources were being given steroids, so that an even more advanced technology can make the impossible, possible? The cash and resources can't be covered up like a bookkeeping mistake. The usurping of the chain of command is also something that just does not get explained. Maybe Chinese audiences expect that from capitalists, I don't know or understand. The secondary heavy, a bad French sailor, is smart enough to know that a boat engine will draw a meg to a boat when he is warning his troops, but twenty minutes later, he is clueless and we know bad stuff is going to happen to him. 

After we have escaped Blofeld's drilling platform, oops, I mean Jing Wu's scientific sea station, we relocate to an area that will give the audience the surrogate thrills they are seeking, but it pays off a lot less interesting than the first fill. Even with Megmouth Cam. To punch it up, other characters have to become action heroes, and against all odds they do.  Of course it requires the bad guys to ignore the common threat to everyone on "Fun Island". Yes, it is actually called "Fun Island". It's been five years since the last film, and that interval resulted in the laziest writing you are going to get in this summer's film lineup.

"The Meg" was so much fun, you just assumed that a sequel would have it's moments. No, it doesn't. it's like a beached shark instead of a beached whale. The crowds will stand around it for a little while, but after a few days, the smell will drive them away. 

KAMAD Throwback Thursdays 1975: W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings

Throwback Thursday #TBT

Throwback Thursday on the KAMAD site will be a regular occurrence in the next year. As a motivational project, to make sure I am working on something, even in a week where I don't see a new film in a theater, I am going to post on movies from 1975. Along with 1984, this is one of my favorite years for movies and it is full of bittersweet memories as well. 1975 was my Senior Year in High School and my Freshman Year in College. The greatest film of the last 60 years came out in 1975, as well as dozens of great and not so great cinematic endeavors. Most of the films in this weekly series will have been seen in a theater in 1975, but there are several that I only caught up with later. I hope you all enjoy.

W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings

This is a piece of Southern Cornpone that was exactly the kind of thing that would fill a summer night perfectly. Burt Reynolds plays W.W., which doesn't stand for anything, a slick gas station hold up man with a charming approach to his victims and all the confidence in the world. The film is set in 1957 at the crux of country and rock and roll music. W.W. gets tied up with a local band wanting to make it big and he tries his best to help them because he is smitten with Dixie, the singer/guitarist and he wants to prove himself to the doubting members of the band. He drives a fancy gold and black Oldsmobile and continues to steal as he is also becoming the manager for the band.

An additional advantage of the film is that it is filled with musical numbers that are pretty entertaining, as long as you can enjoy some country music. Ned Beatty even gets to sing a number. We get a tour of old Nashville, including the Ryman Auditorium which used to host the Grand Old Opry. So the historical surroundings make the film worth a trip as well. The film is full of a lot of colorful characters, some of whom are not particularly attractive. There are several country music stars in the film including Jerry Reed who worked with Burt Reynolds several times in movies in the 1970s.

This film should be better known because it was made by director John G. Avildsen, who would win the Academy Award the next year for "Rocky". You can see some clever little touches in the transition swipes in the film, they are almost certainly attributable to Avildsen's decisions on making the film feel so corny and hip at the same time. Reynold's was apparently irritated by Avildsen however, because the director was not very understanding of the stutter that singer Mel Tillis suffered from, and Tillis appears as one of the gas station attendants that W.W. holds up.

Of course the whole thing would fall apart if Burt Reynolds had not turned on his charm to eleven. The story is dependent on Southern mannerisms and it has some fun with everyone being so polite even when they are robbing, swindling, or chasing the crooks.  W.W. is not such a bad guy but he is way over confident when the stakes get higher and his inability to solve the problem he is faced with in the one chance to get some drama into the comedy and chase scenes. 

The film is full of verisimilitude with cars, clothes, and songs that are all from the era. The car W.W. drives for most of the movie is an interesting automobile with a real history, and the country and religious stations that are featured on the radio also sound like the real deal. The backroads that W.W. and the band travel are probably unchanged even today, because those off the beaten path Farm to Market roads, still look the same. 

There is a story arc for W.W., it is subtle but emotionally rendered. In the end, it is a minor film but a lot of fun.  

Haunted Mansion (2023)

 

I don't have a lot to say about this film, it was fine and I liked the main characters, but it is in a rush to get somewhere after the first act, and that was not necessary. The opening section of the film nicely introduced us to the characters we are going to follow and it sets up the premise pretty well. I liked the photography angle and the story about grief is the hook that provides an emotional reason for watching the film. The problem is that once everyone is in the house the movie gets cluttered.

The number of times I have enjoyed the attraction that the film is based on would be hard to count. Most people will be happy to see the consistency of the references. It just seemed to me however that the film was mostly interested in getting in all those Easter eggs and not particularly interested in keeping the emotional thread at the center of events. There are several shots where it seems like there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of ghosts on screen at the same time. The effects in the mansion are rushed and you get no sense of thrill, fear or adventure from them as a result. 

There is a lot of frantic running through the mansion and away from ghosts, but at one point it had been suggested that the ghosts were running and that would have been a more interesting way for the story to develop. LaKeith Stanfield and Rosario Dawson sometimes feel like they are in a different movie than the other stars. Their story is potentially frightening and suspenseful. Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish and Danny DeVito are all in a movie that is comedy based. Their antics feel the most like the corny elements of the Haunted Mansion Ride. Jared Leto is a fully CGI character, but his voice and mannerisms (I assume motion captured) are correct for the movie, although the lighting and photography usually emphasizes the light hearted spirit of the film, even though his character is supposed to be quite dark.

At heart, this remains a kids movie. It has a PG-13 rating, and I am trying to remember what it was that would have pushed it over the PG edge. Maybe the subject of spooks is just enough to have the MPAA and the film makers squeamish about showing it to kids, but I think if your kids have seen Ninja Turtles, then they are probably fine to see this without too many reservations. I do think the fact that all the effects are CG does tend to render the film a little more safe, that's an artistic and financial choice that Disney has made. 

The 2003 version with Eddie Murphy is a vague memory. I think a couple of characters share the same names, but the story premise was not anything like this, at least as far as I recall. It looks like if you want to see this in a theater, you should get cracking. Last week's boxoffice was weak, we were the only two in the theater today, and other films are sucking up all the oxygen, so this will probably be streaming by September. 

The Big Chill-Paramount's Summer Classic Films Series

 

This year makes the 40th Anniversary of some of our favorite films. The Summer Classic series is featuring several of them and that makes me pretty happy, as does this film. "The Big Chill" is not the kind of film you see much anymore. It is a character piece, dependent on a good script and a talented cast. There are several incidents in the story, but the major event that brings all of the characters together, happens at the start of the film and mostly off screen.

When you look at the cast of the film, it is pretty impressive. Kevin Kline, future Oscar winner, William Hurt, future Oscar winner, Glenn Close, multiple Oscar nominations, Tom Berenger, future Oscar Nominee, Jeff Goldblum, film icon with no nominations, Mary Kay Place, Emmy winner, Meg Tilly future Oscar Nominee and JoBeth Williams, fresh off her triumph of "Poltergeist". This was a talented cast for sure. (Oh Yeah, Kevin Costner was famously cut from the film) They were gifted with the chance to work with screenwriter/director Lawrence Kasdan, who would be nominated for the screenplay of this film. The film would also be nominated for Best Picture.

What most people of my generation and a little earlier, will most vividly remember about the film is the soundtrack. The film is filled with needle drops that will evoke a smile, a winsome memory or outright want to make you start dancing yourself. The story centers on a group of college friends, from the radical 1960s, who, fifteen years later, come together and question the choices that they have made. It is sometimes sorrowful and not everyone is convivial about connecting again. The suicide of one of their friends is the catalyst for everything that happens, but it is the sincerity of the characters and especially the actors that make it work. When they dance in the kitchen, you can believe for a moment that they have recovered some common ground. The Motown classics on the stereo probably echo even more for them since they are all graduates from the University of Michigan.

Everyone who had a close group of friends in their teens or college years, knows that even though your lives may have diverged, that common experience was something that shaped you and keeps you connected in spite of long periods of absence. Sitting together on the couch after a funeral, commiserating about the decedent and your past, is exactly the way most of us would give a group hug to get through the moment. The fact that it sometimes becomes tense does not diminish the importance of the relationships.

In addition to the music, the thing that most makes this film memorable is the humor. Tom Berenger's Hollywood TV star trying to make the leap into a convertible like he does in the opening of his show is sure to get a laugh. Mary Kay Place offering sardonic commentary on the clients she represented as a criminal attorney was priceless. And throughout the film, Jeff Goldblum steals every scene he is in, even the ones where his character is passed out. There is a lot to relish about "The Big Chill" which is why it is so great to see it again with an audience on the big screen.  

House of Wax and Theater of Blood Double Feature-Paramount's Summer Classic Films Series

 

We had started the day with "Disney's Sleeping Beauty", but we finished it with two Vincent Price Horror Classics. A pretty good juxtaposition for a Saturday spent in a movie theater. 

HOUSE OF WAX 

Vincent Price started his career as a horror icon with this 1953 production. Up to this point he had been a reliable secondary character who sometimes got a chance to steal a scene, but this is the film where his melodious voice starts being used for terrifying purposes. If you watch the trailer above, Price gets a small mention. but the thing that was being used to sell this movie was the 3-D presentation. I know that I saw this in 3-D at one point, because I remembered a couple of the obvious gimmicks they included to make the 3-D pop. I had this on my itinerary for the TCM Festival this year, but when we had to cancel our attendance at the last moment because our dog had to have life saving surgery, it went by the wayside, along with all of my other plans and money. 

Fortunately, The Paramount Classic Summer Film Series programmed it for this year. Maybe as a result of Steve, the main programmer having seen it himself at the TCMFF, which he referenced in his introduction of the films. Unfortunately this was not a 3-D screening, but the film doesn't really need that gimmick to work, it is very solid on it's own. Price is Professor Henry Jarrord, a sculptor who works in wax back in NYC around the turn of the 20th Century. He has great artistic pretentions and is a little too enamored by his Marie Antionette. When his business partner tries to murder him in an act of arson, he appears to have survived, but his hands are so injured that he cannot sculpt anymore. How does he compensate? Ah, that is where the mystery comes in.

The plotting is a little old fashioned but it moves along at a solid pace and the actors are interesting enough for us to follow along. Especially delightful is Carolyn Jones who most people will recognize from the 1960s version of the Addams Family. She plays the roommate of the main female lead, a girl who is a little free for the times and ends up like a lot of sexually liberated teens do in modern slashers. Her friend and the main character Sue is played by Phillis Kirk (pretty close to my Mom's Name, they both had SAG cards in the early fifties). The movie plays out as Sue is stalked by a mysterious lurker, and a boy she is romantically involved with, takes a role as sculptor for Jarrod's revived House of Wax. 

There are several grim scenes that might bug sensitive souls, but there is no gore in the film. The Wax figures are interesting but the set up is primitive compared to the way later exhibits would take on the sensational and macabre scenes that draw people in addition to celebrity's figures. Price is just great as a talented but demented figure, driven mad by the loss of his life's work and his talents. You will get a kick over his enthusiastic line readings when he talks about the sculptures as if they are real. He romanticizes his work to the nth degree. 

THEATER OF BLOOD

To the best of my recollection, I saw this while I was in High School. My friend Don Hayes seems to remember going with me, and that is quite possible. I know we saw "The House That Dripped Blood" together and so it's very likely we saw this one as well.  Vincent Price himself thought of this as one of his favorite films, and it is easy to see why. In addition to playing a mad actor wreaking revenge on critics who had maligned him, he gets a chance to quote liberally from the works of Shakespeare and it is a bit like a compilation reel for a stage actor to have when called for. His range is very good.

Like most horror films, it is the kills that the audience is waiting for and the trick here is that Edward Lionheart, the actor Price is playing, uses scenes from the Shakespeare plays he performed in his last repertory season. The film is as much a comedy as it is a horror film, so the gruesome deaths are often accompanied by a quip or two that might have come from either the Bard himself, or a stage critic. Either way, the justice that Lionheart feels he is doling out is poetic as a result. 

The film might very well encourage you to seek out some of the plays featured, because they are not all the best known of Shakespeare's works. One of the critic's continues to be dismissive of Lionheart, even after several murders when he points out that "The Merchant of Venice" has no murder in it, he declares " It's him, all right. Only Lionheart would have the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare!". Of course others have been doing so for years before and after this film, but it is still a funny line. 

As we encounter the critics, we can begin to see the coarseness of their opinions and the way those words might have a deeper impact than merely being playful metaphors in a review. Although it is one of the more creative murders in the story, the death of Robert Morely's character feels a little sadder because it is not just he who suffers the wrath of Lionheart. I heard several intakes of breath at the screening when audience members suddenly realized what was about to be revealed. It was a cruel moment with a horrifying visual exclamation point, but it is also completely memorable and in keeping with the thrust of the film. 

The band of addicts that make up Lionheart's new troupe of actors are the strangest part of the story, but I am willing to go along with their crazy behavior as long as it makes the film interesting. Diana Rigg plays Edward's loyal daughter and biggest fan. She bounces between scenes as a member of the crazed troupe and as a tech working on films, who provides some exposition for the chief critic that will be the last target of Lionheart. There are several very recognizable actors who play the guest victims if the film, and they also seem to be having some fun. 

Another patron with Amanda's Shirt

Our Usual Pose with the Marquee in the Background