Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-The Muppet Movie

You don't think going to the movie theater is going to be a dangerous enterprise, until you realize at the end of an hour and a half that your face is strained from smiling so frequently and laughing on a regular basis. The soreness of my face is a small price to pay for the joy of "The Muppet Movie". This delightful piece of Cinema from 1979 brings the Muppet team together for their first motion picture, and keeps all of the characters in line with their personalities and comes up with a storyline to connect them all.

I first saw "The Muppet Movie" at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood in 1979. I felt about it pretty much then the way I do now, it is a brilliant and clever application of puppetry to movie making and it delivers a heartfelt message to all of the dreamers out there. The biggest dreamer of all of course was Jim Henson, the creator of The Muppets. Henson continues to inspire filmmakers and storytellers, and some of the innovations found in this movie are still around today.

It is possible that there has never been a more personable character than Kermit the Frog. As the leading man in the picture he is both thoughtful and a little fearful as he confronts the world around him in pursuit of his dreams. Kermit's sincerity is reflected by the circumstances he frequently finds himself in. One of the joys of this movie is the plethora of cameos by actors, comedians, and historical movie people, which populate the background. Bob Hope distributing ice cream, Edgar Bergen judging a small town beauty contest, and Richard Pryor selling balloons are all in this movie together. If you ever get stuck playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, remember that the Muppet Movie will let you connect a whole lot of people if you can just remember everyone who showed up in this movie.

The Paramount Theater was packed with families bringing small children to encounter The Muppets in a format that they probably haven't seen before. Based on the laughter and applause I heard,  the mayhem created by the Muppets continues to be something that the young and old can share. It's probably a little nostalgic for people of my generation, but there's still plenty of things that are funny regardless of the time line. Statler and Waldorf heckling everybody is always funny. I think the joke with Carole Kane reappearing each time somebody uses the word "myth", and she acts as if they are saying Miss, is still viable. Maybe the Hare Krishna reference will seem a little out of date, since that religious group is not nearly as prominent as it was in the 1970s. I still laughed however at that recurring joke.

I want to embrace Fozzie Bear, bring Gonzo the great home, and attend the wedding of Kermit and Miss Piggy. 5 years later we got a chance to do that, and that 1984 film, "the Muppets Take Manhattan" will hopefully play at the summer film series sometime in the future. I got a kick out of seeing the audience respond to an extremely young Steve Martin, a nearly silent Orson Welles, and Mel Brooks looking young and acting silly playing a Teutonic neurological doctor, who's going to do a brainectomy on poor Kermit. Geez there are a lot of people in this movie.

In addition to smiling I teared up occasionally, because this was one of the movies that my late wife and I attended together and loved passionately. The Muppets were one of the things that we shared both before and after we were married. When our kids came along we loved the chance to share that with them as well. As far as I'm concerned the world is a lesser place when there isn't a Muppet Movie on the horizon. Fortunately in 1979 the future would be ripe for these for these characters, and in 2024 we luck out again because they showed up here in the Paramount classic Summer Movie film series.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series Double Feature

 

We had a Double Feature at the Paramount Theater last night. Two 1980s era musicals about dancing. Not to put too fine a point on it, the line for the ladies room was extremely long, for the gentlemen, not so much.

Dirty Dancing

I saw this film when it originally came out in 1987 and I remember enjoying it but not particularly embracing it. I think I have seen it once since then, but more that twenty years ago, again, with some appreciation but not necessarily enthusiasm. After last night's screening however, I think I can say I am a fan. Maybe it was the passage of time, the fact that I was seeing it with my daughter, or simply the audience enthusiasm that became contagious that converted me. This is a very well made movie. It may be a little hokey, but all of that hoke works the way it is supposed to. 

Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey are terrific in the movie. He is a dynamic dancer with looks that can make a female audience member swoon, and she is fresh and authentic and has the dramatic chops for the part that she is playing. So what that the story is the well worn plot path of two people from different worlds falling in love. They get to do so against a great soundtrack, with a nostalgia painted background and dance while it happens. 

Jerry Orbach as Baby's (Grey) Father, manages to create the kind of father figure who remains sympathetic in spite of his opposition to the pairing. His interjection into the story because of a medical emergency seems right, after all he is a doctor, and the confusion about what is happening was understandable. The third person perspective the audience has allows us to identify with all the characters, and also applaud when the indifferent villain of the piece gets his comeuppance, both at the hands of Johnny (Swayze) and Baby's Dad. 

The audience last night filled the Paramount with cheers, catcalls and swoon filled ahhhs, as Baby and Johnny come together. The humorous courtship through a crash course in mambo dance training was just the ticket for the blossoming romance. Little expressions on the faces of the two lovers, or a gesture from one to another, elicited a tickled response from the audience. I had not remembered how long the dance sequence in the employees quarters was near the start of the story, but it was worth it.   

In spite of a serious abortion subplot, most people will remember this as a light romance with charismatic actors who had great on screen chemistry. I have read that Swayze and Grey had some personal clashes but managed to successfully work together in making the movie. From watching them in the film, it is hard to believe they frequently did not get along. Choose the fantasy. 

The second film had lost nearly a third of the audience but none of the enthusiasm.

Footloose

Although not as well constructed as "Dirty Dancing", "Footloose" manages to be just as entertaining, with it's own sense of purpose as well. No doubt there are repressive communities like the one imagined here, but the stereotypes are a little more jarring in comparison to the first movie. This was a star making turn for Kevin Bacon, who is still in demand as an actor, forty years later (He appears in "Maxxxine" which I will be seeing later today).

The dance sequences in "Dirty Dancing" grow out of the story setting, with dancers at a Catskills resort. Here, there have to be invented moments which will allow for some of the dance moves to be demonstrated. The audience approved of the moves in Bacon's warehouse solo dance scene, although those approving cheers were frequently preceded by laughter at the set up. Regardless, I think I will have to agree with Peter Quill:

Peter Quill:  on my planet, we have a legend about people like you. It's called Footloose. And in it, a great hero, named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is.

As much as the dancing is about Kevin Bacon, most of the drama is about Lori Singer. I wasn't convinced by her relationship with Bacon's Ren, but she does hit the mark with her contentious but still loving relationship with her father played by John Lithgow. Reverend Moore is trying to protect his whole congregation, in an attempt to compensate for the loss of his son, and the pain he feels is balanced by his sincerity. When he snaps and slaps his daughter Ariel, it is a shocking moment that brings uncomfortable realism to an otherwise light weight fantasy film.

The "Footloose" soundtrack is filled with original compositions that were co-written by the screenwriter, Dean Pitchford. He has eight credited songs in the film, songs that he worked on with the likes of Kenny Loggins, Jim Steinman, Sammy Hagar, and Eric Carmen. It has a very different feel than the 60s needle drops of the other film on this double bill. The scene where Ren plays "chicken" on a tractor, gets the over the top Steinman treatment and it is a perfect fit of grandly over the top song with ridiculous scenario. "Let's Hear it for the Boy" is a comic gem in the spot that it is used. Overall, the audience was thrilled. 

I'm inclined to accept this summary.

Peter Quill: The Avengers?

Thor: The Earth's mightiest heroes.

Mantis: Like Kevin Bacon?

Thor: He may be on the team. I don't know, I haven't been there in a while.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Chinatown

As I am putting this post together I just read that screenwriter Robert Towne passed away Monday night at the age of 89. "Chinatown" is his masterpiece, and it certainly seems fitting that we were seeing it on the big screen at the time he was moving on to his final resting place. This is the second time we've seen the film on the big screen this year, having enjoyed it at the TCM Film Festival back in April. This year is the 50th anniversary of Chinatown, and celebrating it with multiple screenings, as well as spending time with the book "The Big Goodbye" which is primarily about the making of the movie, all seems fitting.

The screenplay of course is one of those that manages to get everything pitch perfect. We know from the background on the film that it took long battles and big arguments between screenwriter Robert Towne and director Roman Polanski, to get to the finished product. Ultimately, Towne was unhappy with the ending of the movie, which of course features tragedy rather than redemption for the heroine. I think we're lucky that Polanski won, because the final line of the movie, which everyone knows, is the perfect coda for what we have seen in the previous 2 hours.

Again we need to credit the great Jerry Goldsmith for coming in at the last minute and replacing the score with a jazz infused time period appropriate combination of horns and piano. The film just wouldn't work without that set of themes or nerve racking minor key piano notes. It's also easy to give huge kudos to the production design, which manages to make Los Angeles of the 1970s look like Los Angeles of the 1930s. I imagine that there was some graffiti removed around the Los Angeles River, certainly some traffic controlled on Alameda, and the flood control channels look a heck of a lot more pristine than they probably do today. Let me also say that every piece of clothing worn by either Faye Dunaway or Jack Nicholson, should be available for us to purchase today. I know I could rock that jacket that he's wearing in the last part of the film. 

We were encouraged by the Paramount to dress up for the occasion, and although I didn't have an appropriately colored fedora, I did have a black one that worked pretty well. The tie I picked out belong to my uncle Howard, who was actually my father's uncle, and I have no doubt that he bought it sometime in the 1930s, the style is just too precious. I added some suspenders but most importantly I added a bandage to my nose to complete the picture. I got several compliments from people walking out of the theater, who appreciated a little bit of extra effort. I know I had fun and I know I love this movie.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

It's always a joy seeing animation on the big screen but when it's combined with live action as effectively as is done in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", it's an even greater pleasure. This was a groundbreaking film from director Robert Zemeckis who must have twisted some arms, kissed some butt, and prayed to the movie gods to be able to have access to all of the classic cartoon characters that appear at some point or other in the film. It seems almost impossible to believe that Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny would share a scene together. But they do and it's hysterical.

The story builds on a well-known fantasy that there was a deliberate effort by car companies and the oil industry to get rid of the public transportation in Los Angeles. The rate at which the city was growing and the space that it was taking up was never going to be accommodated by the old red line, but the world is full of conspiracy theorists, and this plot takes its cue from that Old Chestnut. The most fantastic conceit in the film is that the characters are film stars who are animated and live in the real world. That means that humans and hippopotamuses are going to bump into one another. It means that that old joke where Bugs Bunny paints a line on the road to move the pursuers into crashing into a wall, can actually happen. And in this film it does.

Bob Hoskins needs more credit for the work that he did in this film. As the human private detective Eddie Valiant, Hoskins has to be handcuffed to animated Rodger Rabbit, have his hair stroked by an animated Jessica Rabbit, shake hands with a variety of cartoon characters that we will recognize from our childhood, and be the butt of some of the gags that we all knew from Saturday morning. He's terrific in this movie. So many people deserve credit for making the film work but let's not forget to mention animation director Richard Williams who managed to get animated critters to interact with human beings in a believable way.

There's so many things to admire about the movie, but I want to start with the opening cartoon which is done in a text Avery Style with characters that feel familiar but are completely original. Baby Herman and Rodger Rabbit dashing through the kitchen avoiding tragedy with every movement, and the toon ending up being targeted by just about every item in the kitchen drawers is just funny. When it breaks at the end because Roger can't come up with stars to show his concussion, rather than tweeting birds, it's a Hollywood Insider's dream.

Everyone should remember that Christopher Lloyd is not just a character actor but was an important star in the 1980s. Of course "Back to the Future", but also "Star Trek 3"," The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension", and this film, where he plays Judge Doom, a cartoon masquerading as a human. His maniacal eyes, somber expression, and creepy voice almost give him away. And when the secret is out, believe me text Avery is applauding somewhere.

The film was playing at the State Theater next door to the Paramount because there was a concert being set up at the bigger venue. We had arranged to meet a couple of friends of ours from the neighborhood in front of the theater, but they were running a little late from some appointments they had on Sunday morning. Ultimately they got into their seats about 20 seconds before the film rolled. It was nice to get a chance to do something with people that we know from the neighborhood. We had a nice lunch afterwards, and Sunday afternoon is a great time for a cartoon and something to fill your belly.

Horizon an American Saga Chapter 1 (2024)

I'm a fan of westerns, a genre that doesn't get much love these days. It's rare when a Western shows up in a theater, although there seem to be a plethora of them on streaming services. Actor/director Kevin Costner seems to be a fan of westerns also, he made two terrific westerns in the past, one of which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I have yet to catch up with the various seasons of Yellowstone, and having seen only the first three episodes of the first season I'm not sure how closely it hones to traditional westerns, but from what I saw it sure felt like a contemporary version of some of those old style films.

"Horizon" attempts to do something that is very ambitious, tell a story about the settling of the West, through multiple characters in simultaneous time settings. It also attempts to do this by making the characters complete and the stories unique. As a result of this attention to detail, there is a vast amount of information and story play out. This means that even a 3-hour movie will be insufficient to provide the canvas that screen writer Kevin Costner and his co-authors have come up with. Thus, this movie is only Chapter one. Chapter 2 is complete and will be coming in August, and Chapter 3 is being filled now. It doesn't look like the films will be making back the money that was invested in them, so I have some doubt about whether the fourth film in in The Saga will be completed. That is neither here nor there though, today we are talking about the first film.

From my point of view "Horizon" is managing to do something that is terrific, giving us an engaging story with a multiplicity of plot lines that all managed to engage us but in completely different ways. Some of the stories involve a mystery, that will certainly be explained as we go along. Some of the stories are a bit of a quest, mostly with characters seeking vengeance, or defying the inevitable wave of immigrants seeking a home in the West. It also looks like we are going to get some love stories, a little bit of political intrigue, and definitely more gunfights.

This first chapter opens quietly with a few souls trying to survey property that they hope to turn into a homestead. Then later, as a larger group has assembled in this particular spot, there is a massive Indian raid and and dozens of homesteaders are killed, and the animosity between the Apache's and the new immigrants is set up. Sienna Miller plays a woman whose family is decimated in the attack, and with her preteen daughter, she seeks security and safety with a troop of Calvary men not too far from where the massacre took place. Sam Worthington is the lieutenant who back ends into managing the aftermath of the Indian Massacre, he also looks to be a potential romantic partner for the newly widowed Miller.

It takes more than an hour before Kevin Costner's character appears on screen, but the roots of the conflict that he's going to become involved in were set up early in that first hour with the character played by Jenna Malone. It actually becomes quite complicated, because it is uncertain what Malone's character has done, and why. Let's just say that a toddler, a lady of the evening, and a saddle tramp are about to be connected in a very unusual way. Meanwhile we are also introduced to a wagon train filled with immigrants headed toward Horizon, which is the name of the future town that they hope to establish. They will be facing cultural disputes, personal antagonisms, along with water shortages and hostile indigenous people.

We are not seeing this story merely from the perspective of the new immigrants however. The Native Americans are having their point of view illustrated on screen as well. There is no unanimity among the natives as to how the indigenous peoples want to confront the newcomers. The oldest chief, seems ready to cave to the inevitable tide of white men coming into his territory. Two of his sons and the band of followers however have a vastly different approach to the influx of a new population.

The film looks spectacular, it was shot in Utah which has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the West. Director Costner is taking full advantage of the diversity of physical settings that are available in these locations. His character Hayes Ellison, is traveling through these vistas, accompanied by a temporary family, and pursued by another family who are out for vengeance. You can see the tension building in all of the stories, but you will not find a complete plot in this movie. It literally is a single chapter in a much larger tome.

It looks like the general critical word on this movie has been negative, but that's the polar opposite of my view. This is going to be one of the finest films of the year, and it has more ambition, interest, and compelling characters than any of the other films that I've been seeing this year. Although the movie is 3 hours long, it flies by because some of the action scenes are so compelling that you don't realize how much time has gone by. We never stay too long with one story, before another story starts playing out its events, and then we're on to the next story before you know it. As we come back to each set of characters we have an expectation that something new is going to take place, and it is usually enough to keep us wanting more.

Admittedly director Costner has cribbed substantially from The Works of John Ford, but if you're going to steal from someone it makes sense to steal from the best. Long live the Western, I can't wait for chapter 2 in August.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Rocky Horror Picture Show

 

Once again my unconventional convention years it's time for us to visit transsexual Transylvania and the castle of our host Dr. Frankenfurter. Brad and Janet get lost on the way to visit their friend Dr. Scott and we get taken along on the journey to a forbidding Castle filled with crazy weirdos doing their native dance the time warp.

I come to this movie with a long tradition of participation in the usual Rocky Horror audience call back. I do however find that people overindulge in this particular venue with their own personally created comments and inserts, which can sometimes work well, sometimes miss the mark, and frequently can't be made out in the crowd because someone else is engaging in the same behavior. When everybody knows the call-outs and participates as a crowd it's great fun, when voices are calling out randomly and the words are running over one another and it's barely loud enough to make out any of the words but it is loud enough to drown out what's going on on the screen, that's a little bit of a problem. Although I have to admit I am usually overcome by the enthusiasm of everybody who's participating this way. So let's go ahead and indulge them a bit and hope that once in awhile there's self-created call back to the Antics on the screen will provoke a laugh.

The theater was full, lots of people dressed up, and surprisingly there were a couple of hundred people who were seeing the movie for the first time, Lucky them. We had a good time calling out the familiar chants, and singing along to the songs, but most especially cheering the arrival of characters on screen. I do think the a****** and s*** call outs are a little excessive, the first time is fine the 25th time is boring, but once again who am I to say where the line is. I can however enthusiastically cheer when Riff Raff appears in the window during the storm, when Eddie breaks out of the Deep Freeze on his motorcycle, and most especially when Frankenfurter comes down the elevator to greet his guests. This is one of the Great Moments of a character appearing on screen in all of film history. Yeah I said it and I'll defend it.

If you've never seen Rocky Horror Picture Show then you won't understand, but then what the heck are you doing reading this page anyway?

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Evil Dead II

The Evil Dead series has fascinated me since I first discovered it in the early 1990s. I was aware of the films for a number of years but never bothered to investigate them, because I didn't know anybody else who had seen them. That changed one night on a Halloween when I was at a friend's party and we watched "Evil Dead 2" after the kids had gone to sleep. I laughed and screamed at the ridiculous amounts of blood, body parts, and Three Stooges jokes that were being thrown at me. These were my people.

I've seen the Evil Dead, and Army of Darkness, on the big screen multiple times. This may have only been the second or third time I have seen "Evil Dead 2" in a theater. But as with most theatrical experiences, the presence of an audience as well as the big screen, and the requirement that you stay engaged, makes the experience something that is far superior to home viewing.

I've been to two or three presentations where the "Man God" Bruce Campbell, has appeared in person to talk about the films we are watching. 3 years ago in this same theater we came for a screening of the original "Evil Dead", and Bruce was there. We had sprung for an extra couple of bucks in order to get a picture opportunity, but it was Covid and the pictures required social distancing, which makes it look a little bit like it's photoshopped. I don't care, we were in the presence of greatness. The talent of Bruce Campbell is especially on display in "Evil Dead 2". His performance involves a physicality that most actors in an action film would have a hard time achieving. In addition he has to convey some of those emotions that are going on in the character while under a layer of makeup and appliances that would make most of us cringe to think of having on our bodies. He is really quite effective and there are so many close-ups on his face that require him to communicate those emotions in a humorous way but in a way that is also quite immediate. He Nails it.

Some of the storytelling and much of the acting is deliberately ham-fisted in order to gain as much humorous power as possible. The audience last night laughed uproariously at each situation that required Ash to come up with another solution that was ridiculously violent. Most of those moments occur after he has decapitated his girlfriend with a shovel. I understand that budget limitations produced some of the slightly clunky stop motion effects in the film. I have always been a fan of stop motion special effects, I'm not sure that Ray Harryhausen would approve of the way the technique is used in the first part of the film. It's definitely brilliant, even if it isn't as polished as a Harryhausen film would be.

Even the cheesiest jokes work well in this film, because director Sam Rami, knows what he's going after. The goal is to shock and entertain the audience with the most audacious visualized or violence, and the silliest hero's journey you can imagine. There's just one word for the whole thing... groovy!