CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

Critical pans be damned. The Dukes of Hazzard was exactly the brainless, fun-loving, dorky, indulgent, hilarious, don’t-have-to-think-too-hard piece of cornball southern-fried guilty pleasure I was hoping it would be. After I couldn’t quit cracking up at the trailer, I knew I had to convince Engineerboy to take me opening weekend (he gamely obliged, sweetheart that he is). We’ve actually already seen it twice!

The movie is perfectly cast, the plot has good bones (but with some lazy writing in areas), and they went the absolute right direction with it in just makin’ it about what it is: hot rods and hillbilly silliness, and letting the cast shine at what they do best.

• Leave a comment... (0)

The March of the Penguins is an astonishing documentary that follows one reproductive cycle in the lives of the Emperor Penguins. As the long Antarctic night falls, the penguins jump out of the ocean and onto the ice, and proceed to walk, waddle, and belly slide to their ancient breeding ground, sometimes covering over 70 miles. Once there, the penguins then find a suitable mate and and proceed to remain monogamous, at least for the current season.
After several weeks their relationship produces, at most, one egg. During the entire gestation period the mother and father both remain in the breeding ground, which means they have nothing to eat the entire time, and the only liquid they get is the snow they eat. Once the egg is produced it is handed from mother to the father (they keep it on their feet with an insulating flap of fat to protect it from the cold). The mother then proceeds to walk/waddle/belly slide the ~70 miles back to open ocean to have her first meal in weeks. Meanwhile the fathers all huddle together cheeck by jowl, belly by belly, heads tucked, eggs protected, against the unrelentingly harsh winter storms, with winds of 100 MPH and temperatures of 30 below. All while having had nothing to eat since leaving the ocean.

The mothers eventually return, the couple spend a little time snuggling, and the fathers immediately had off the ~70 miles to get their first meal in months.

The couples continue this tag team for several rotations until the chicks are born. As the season progresses the weather warms, so the open ocean gets closer and the roundtrips get shorter. Once the chicks are born, the mothers return, the fathers spend a little time exchanging chirps with their offspring (imprinting both with each others distinctive voice), and head off to the ocean one last time. Before they return the mothers will also leave, leaving the maturing chicks behind on their own and dependent on the return of their fathers for sustenance and survival.

The documentary follows the entire cycle, and clearly shows the beauty and the harshness of life in Antarctica for the penguins. Be warned, however, that contrary to the trailers and the marketing of the film, and also contrary to what one might presume about the nature of this nature film (heartwarming chicks! crazy antics on the ice!, etc), this film is an unblinking recorder of both the successes and the failures of the cycle of life. And the failures are heartbreaking, harsh, cruel, and explicit.
If you are an animal lover you may find yourself unable to watch some of the more disturbing scenes. However, unlike the gratuitous violence of a Hollywood film, the psychotic violence of “sport hunters”, or the staged violence of a sporting event, this violence is totally natural and unsullied by outside interference. That makes it slightly less disturbing to watch, but not much.

I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying that in the end, the great circle of life continues as expected. And virtually every aspect of the penguin’s reproductive cycle was new information for me, and it was fascinating, humbling, and awe-inspiring. If you can handle the mercilessness of reality and have an interest in seeing one of nature’s most challenging alternative lifestyles, go and see The March of the Penguins.

• Leave a comment... (0)

So the CleverDonkey family got to meet the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Bruce Campbell. Yes, Ash, the legendary ghoul ass-kicker of Evil Dead fame himself. Mr. Boomstick. Mr. Workshed. The Man.

It was our good fortune to attend his book signing here in Houston for his new tome Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way (which I have not yet read, so no spoilers here), which was also his film tour for his new movie The Man With the Screaming Brain, directed and co-written by BC himself. Mr. Campbell was nice enough to sign one item of your choice with the purchase of the book, so in the photos below you will see us getting two copies of the book signed, plus our now-even-more-treasured Bubba Ho-Tep poster.

Mr. Campbell was very personable when he signed our things, but we were in the first 60 signees. We came back several hours later for the film and talk and happened to pass by the signing area where he was still just as jovial and accommodating as he had been hours before. They even had staff standing by to use your own camera to take pictures. It was a very low-stress, exciting, and fun event.

After the signing Mr. Campbell spent 20-30 minutes talking to the crowd in the theater before the screening, and he was relaxed, engaging, witty, and apparently unrehearsed. He tolerated the fan-boy questions with aplomb and was quite entertaining.

The movie was better than I was expecting. The film was financed by the SciFi Channel and some German investment company and is playing in selected theaters as part of the book tour. The film will then air on the SciFi Channel and then shortly after be released on DVD. Not the most auspicious characteristics for a film, and usually those stats indicate that the film is complete crap that someone is trying to milk a few dollars more from.

Well, The Man With the Screaming Brain is certainly no Evil Dead II, but neither is it Alien Apocalypse (to pick two films at opposite ends of BC’s bell oeuvre). Screaming is an entertaining trifle, just funny enough and of just high-enough quality to allow you to relax and enjoy it. The acting is surprisingly good (for the most part), as is the casting.

The film was shot on location in Bulgaria, and they worked it into the plot and set the story in Bulgaria. I think this was because there was no way to make Bulgaria look like anywhere else but Bulgaria, so why not roll with it.

The story is…not really important here. What is important is that if you are a fan of Bruce Campbell you should see this film, preferably as part of his tour. Check his site to find out when it’s coming to a town near you. And buy his book and get it signed and get the chance to meet a certified B-movie star and all-around nice guy. Groovy.

• Leave a comment... (0)

So, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson may be turning into the new Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. They play off each other with effortless ease and comedic harmony, and the way they treat each other’s absurdities as normal makes them seem both more normal and therefore more absurd at the same time. Vaughn and Wilson play two mediation attorneys whose main hobby is crashing weddings and receptions and taking advantage of the heightened levels of romanticism and drunkeness of the bridesmaids.

They follow an elaborate set of rules that all support the four primary objectives:

• Bed as many bridesmaids as possible
• Keep your identity secret
• No romantic entanglements
• Make a clean getaway

However, they’re not really young any more and they’re approaching the inevitable end of their youthful hijinks phase, but are in a bit of denial. That is until Wilson’s character falls for the eldest daugher of the Secretary of Commerce, played with menacing fatherliness by Christopher Walken. Vaughn also beds Walken’s nubile and virginal younger daughter, who immediatly gloms onto him as her first and one true love, much to his chagrin.

Hilarity ensues (really). The movie is definitely an “R” rated comedy for adults, and it was refreshing to watch a movie that could be a bit ribald and suggestive without having to bow the the hegemony of the PG-13 ticket buying hordes. Watching this film made me realize just how much spice has been removed from modern Hollywood films in order to make the salable to the multiplex masses. It’s like the viewing public has all been put on a bland diet in order to avoid the flare-up of the bleeding ulcer of “family values”. Not that family fare doesn’t have its place, but sometimes it’s nice to indulge in something a little spicier.

And Wedding Crashers is definitely that. There’s a bit of brief nudity, which I realized I had come to expect only from art films and films with Harvey Keitel. Also, Vaughn and Wilson are quite mercenary in their pursuits and so seem quite unredeeming, at least initially. The plot takes some turns that are unexpected for a com/rom, but things turn out about as you would expect. However, on the way to the expected ending are a lot of laugh-out-loud funny moments, courtesy of Wilson and especially Vaughn.
If you’re looking for a summer movie to make you laugh, tweak your sensibilities, and not demand much mental energy, this could be a must-see film for you.

• Leave a comment... (0)

Crash is set in current-day Los Angeles and uses a series of entertwined vignettes to illustrate how all of us are driven by our prejudices, preconceptions, misconceptions, and bigotry. The film is not preachy but instead lets us see all sides of each conflict, all viewpoints in each argument, and to understand that each perspective is not only based on emotion and dogma, but is also based, on some degree, on truth. Harsh truths, but truths nonetheless. Car thieves are more likely to be black, modern-day slaves are more likely to be Asian, overt bigots are more likely to be white, and virtually nobody in the US could tell the difference (or even care that there is a difference) between “Arabs” and Iranians.

The film is based on a very strong script, excellent direction, and bravura performances by the ensemble cast. Matt Dillon is first among equals as cop who…well…just see the movie. Also look for strong performances from Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Brendan Fraser, Ludacris, Terrence Howard, Michael Pena, Ryan Phillippe and Thandie Newton. Each of them also gives a strong performance and contributes to the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. There’s even a shockingly good cameo by Tony Danza (yes, *that* Tony Danza).

The character’s lives impact each other in ways that are a bit too closely knit to represent reality, but the quality of the script and story are such that it is easy to suspend one’s disbelief and simply accept that there are some implausible things happening on the screen, but for a good cause.

The story itself is gripping and entertaining, nothwithstanding the message, and the message is also clear and strong. We can’t all really know each other, so we have to judge each other on appearances, and even though those judgements may be rooted in fact, they are not always right nor fair, but neither are they always wrong or unfair. Some message, huh? It actually is a strong message, because in modern day America we’re not longer allowed to discuss racial issues in an open forum, because any acknowledgement that there are any differences between the races is tantamount to pulling a white hood over your head. But the truth is that there are differences, and some of those differences manifest themselves as conflict, while other manifest themselves as savory spices in the American melting pot.

In Crash, writer/director Paul Haggis has dragged raciality and racism out into the light for all of us to see, and seeing things clearly can only help make them understandable. And that’s what we need…more understanding. Understanding enough to acknowledge and tolerate our differences, while also acknowledging that we’re all Americans and we’re all in it together, so we might as well all get along.

• Leave a comment... (0)

When I saw Christian Bale (or almost saw, as he was virtually too thin to actually reflect light) in The Machinist I would never have imagined that he could assume the mantle of Batman. But he does so with stunning authority, and I felt as if I were watching the first major motion picture based on the character. What I was doing, however, was watching the first really good big-budget Batman film. The first one (with Michael Keaton) was passably entertaining, but I have never sought it out to watch it again. The rest of the flock (or would that more appropriately be “colony”?) were not even that good, at least as far as I can remember, and I don’t really remember anything about them, other than Nicholson’s creepy grin and Schwarzenegger’s crazy ice cream man.

But in Batman Begins we finally have what is to me the first worthy representation of the Dark Knight on the big screen. There is no Burton-esque surreality or Schumacher-ian crassness tainting the story, which tells the tale of young Bruce Wayne and his journey to becoming Batman. Christian Bale plays the young billionaire orphan playboy with the right amounts of panache and pathos, and the supporting cast is excellent, including Michael Caine as the best-ever Alfred, Liam Neeson as Obi-Wan, Katie Holmes as Lois Lane, Gary Oldman as not-yet-Commissioner Gordon, Morgan Freeman as Q, and Cillian Murphy as Johnny Depp. Those comparisons to other movies/characters are not meant to be derogatory, but they sum up each performance better than several paragraphs of drivel.

My one big complaint with the film is that way too many of the action and fight scenes are filmed in extreme close-up, meaning that the actual action can only be inferred, not observed. In some cases this makes sense in that the director is trying to show the perspective of Batman’s foes as he attacks them without being seen clearly, but the technique is used to the point of becoming a crutch, perhaps so that the director would not have to deal with the hairy continuity issues that come with ornate digital effects.

One would think, however, that the director would be a master of continuity, as this film is directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed the time-warping (and iron-man continuity marathon) Memento. However, other than a bit too much jump-cutting and close-up-ing, Nolan sets a very good tone and pace for the film. One wonders if the kaleidescopic nature of the action sequences was a preference of the director or a command from a lunkhead studio moneyman.

Overall, however, the film works, but loses a half-star to the cheap pyrotechnics. Cheap as in unworthy, not cheap as in poor, as all the special effects are first rate, even if what they are depicting is blurred nothingness in a black cape at night in a rainstorm fighting black-suited bad guys. So, if the words “A Jerry Bruckheimer Production” get you excited, then add that half-star back onto this review. Otherwise go see the film anyway — we actually ended up seeing it twice this weekend, once on the IMAX (nice, but the slight cropping made the inscrutable action sequences even more indecipherable), then again with a friend of ours on the regular big screen.

• Leave a comment... (0)

Oh, what might have been. Great source material, big budget…pretty good casting…fair acting…somewhat lazy directing…un-involving characterizations…completely unfunny script…no sign of the wit and humor of the source…all this equals a complete waste of time and money.

Where to begin? Poor Sam Rockwell, perfectly coiffed and costumed as Zaphod Beeblebrox, chewing up the scenery as befits the character. But with no script he’s like a toothless abominable snowman, all sound and fury signifying nothing. Martin Freeman, very everyman-y as Arthur Dent, but his blandness should be contrasted against a backdrop of adventure and excitement, but it isn’t, so he’s just boring. Zooey Deschanel as Trillian is…transparent. Mos Def as Ford Prefect is…struggling with and without his accent. Alan Rickman as Marvin the depressed robot is just whiney. John Malkovich (Humma Kavula) and Helen Mirren (voice of the computer Deep Thought) are just wasted in their semi-cameos.

The effects are clean and crisp, but unimaginative and unoriginal. It looks like they took Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Fifth Element, put them in a blender and then poured the whole thing over Galaxy Quest. It may be that we’ve reached the saturation point where original and creative space films are no longer possible, but I doubt it. It just feels like a lazy, slapdash amalgamation where everyone assumed that since it was based on great underlying books that it would somehow all work. It doesn’t. The producer has no clothes.

The story just lays there. It’s unexciting and un-involving. I think a mistake was made in that the creators of the film looked at the books and thought that their success was based on the actions of the characters, when in fact the books are so wonderful because of the subtle absurdity and wit of the characters and situations. The books are about the adventures of Arthur Dent in space in the same way that Monty Python and the Holy Grail is about the adventures of King Arthur and his quest for the grail. The quest is a backdrop for all the silliness. In the movie version of Hitchhiker’s Guide, the adventure *is* the story, rather than being the backdrop.

So, yawwwn, another big-budget, soul-less, overblown, saturation-marketed, franchise-ruining movie has been made by Hollywood. I really don’t know why I expected anything different.

• Leave a comment... (0)

So we knew a little bit about this film from the trailers. They showed the Jet Li character being led around, docile and downcast, wearing a neck collar that, once removed, unleashed him as an ass-whupping juggernaut. Jet Li is lead around by Bob Hoskins, an upper-mid-level loan shark whose method of collection is “pay or the collar comes off”. Danny the Dog (Jet Li) lives in a cage beneath the floor of Hoskins’ office, eats cold canned spaghetti, and cherishes his few childhood talismans that remind him of…something…his childhood, maybe, but he can’t really remember. But something good, that much he knows.

Then one day his boss crosses the wrong people and the car carrying Danny and his boss is riddled with bullets by the enemy. Danny survives and ends up at the doorstep of Morgan Freeman’s character. Freeman is a blind piano tuner with a teenage daugher studying in London. Together the father and daughter show Danny the first real kindness in his memory, and Danny starts to regain his human-ness.

But Danny’s old boss didn’t die in the hail of gunfire, and wants his “pet” back. That’s the general premise of this film, which is equal parts testosterone and estrogen. The fighting and action are top-notch, with most/all of the acrobatic moves at least being possible under the laws of physics, if sometimes improbable (meaning no Matrix/Crouching Tiger fantasy fighting…yay!). But the non-action story is also done very well, bordering on being a tear-jerker.

I think that this amalgamation of styles is one reason for the mixed reviews of this film. The action fans don’t want to get all bogged down in plot, pathos, and character development, and the chick-flick fans don’t want all the violence, killing, and cruelty. But the truth is that the film mixes the right amounts of both into a very interesting final product.

Morgan Freeman is at his most Morgan Freeman-y, which is a good thing, and Jet Li actually seems to belong on screen in the same frames as Freeman, which means his acting has improved considerably in this film. My understanding is that the directly sent Li to acting school for a couple of months prior to filming and let me tell you, it helps.

But the real scene-stealer in this film is Bob Hoskins as the bad guy. He portrays a character who is tough, smart, slick, and even sometimes deep, but ultimately evil. His performance alone would be enough to see the film, but when added to the rest of the story Hoskins makes this a must-see film.

• Leave a comment... (0)

I don’t know what movie the critics have been seeing that is causing them to give positive reviews, but it’s not playing in Houston. George Lucas has finally completed his hexilogy, and it’s going out with a whimper. Actually, that’s not true, as a whimper would have more emotional depth than exhibited by Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in total in all of their scenes in all of these films. I cannot believe the horrible woodenness of both performances. I cannot believe the horrible flatness of the script. Actually horrible. The scenes with Christensen and Portman are painful to watch…physically painful.

In fact, the only actors who acquit themselves well in this one are Ewan McGregor, Yoda, and the lizard that McGregor rides on one planet. Chewbacca isn’t bad, but he only has a couple of groans. Samuel L. Jackson has never looked comfortable for one second in his role as Mace Windu. The guy playing the Emperor isn’t bad, but his character is just too over the top to be actually scary.

The special effects are practically flawless, but in this film that’s like saying your accountant has figured your taxes precisely correct to the penny. Yes, his figure is very accurate, but it still doesn’t take the sting out of your tax bill. And this film is very taxing. There are a couple of good scenes, and they all are action-based. The scene where Yoda casually shrugs a couple of Imperial Guards (tall dudes in red outfits) away generated belly laughs, and his duel with the Emperor is suitably dramatic.

Also, the final showdown between Obi-Wan and Vader (he takes the name before he takes the mask) is not bad, but Obi-Wan suffers from the same fatal flaw of all good guys in all action movies in that when he has his arch-enemy down and defenseless he doesn’t kill him. He could have used his little toe to push Vader into a lava flow and end all the melodrama, but he doesn’t. Oh well, I guess they’re planning a sequel or something.

Speaking of the entire series, here is my ranking of the Star Wars movies, in order from best to worst:

1. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (the first one made)
2. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (the third one made)
3. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
4. Spaceballs
5. Troops
6. Hardware Wars
7. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (the subject of this review)
8. Any random kid waving an empty cardboard wrapping paper tube or laser pointer while making noises like a light-saber and/or Vader breathing
9. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
10. A RoboSapien sitting in its box on the shelf at Toys R Us
11. C-Span
12. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

So, Episode III is better than I and II, but that’s like saying Kate Jackson was the best actress on the original Charlie’s Angels…it may be true, but so what?

All that being said, one must still see this movie. Lucas does have a grand vision in spite of the fact that he took his eye off the ball for these last three films. But the story itself is still grand and operatic, and we do get to see the birth of Darth Vader, black suit, mask, and tortured breathing. The fact that Lucas makes this birth unexciting should tell you everything you need to know. Yes, you need to see the birth of Vader, but it should have been done better. Much better.

• Leave a comment... (0)

1. Full Metal Jacket — This movie embodies all things I normally can’t stand — war movies, people shouting at each other, and yet it’s hypnotic and I can’t not watch it. It’s a shining example (so to speak) of Kubrick’s directorial skill. To this day when I see Vietnam-era movies with infantrymen moving through wastelands I keep waiting for that jangling rusty-swingset sound to come in and fray my nerves and am disappointed when it doesn’t. Plus, where else can you learn so many creative and voluminous insults?
2. The Princess Bride — How this movie ever even got made is beyond me. How do you pitch this to a studio? “It’s a humorous mythical period piece with periodic interruptions by a grumpy sick kid and his forgetful grandpa.” And it’s so pitch-perfect, every frame, every nuance, each expression and turn of phrase. It’s endlessly quotable, so full of warmth and humanity. We got the privilege of seeing it once at the midnight movie here at the Landmark River Oaks and there is nothing like a theatre full of one hundred people saying in unison, “Drop…your…sword!”
3. Romeo + Juliet — Baz Luhrmann’s lush visual feast is more than a modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet transposed onto a pseudo-modern-day world infused with low-riders, pistolas, and Catholic iconography… it’s actually still an entrancing and heartbreaking tale, even more captivating and otherworldly for its use of the original Shakespearean language. Clare Danes and Leonardo di Caprio are unbelievable (along with Paul Sorvino, Brian Dennehy, and M. Emmet Walsh, and a very babyfaced Paul Rudd), and this movie makes me bawl every single time.
4. Dangerous Liaisons — Because one lush visual feast wasn’t enough… I have to include this movie. It’s so easy to dismiss or make fun of this as a corset-intensive bore-fest, but it has a lot of layers. First of all, it’s the defining Malkovich role (as far as I’m concerned, he’s played this role since), and Glenn Close’s closing scene is worth the Oscar nomination the role garnered her. Yes, you have to pay attention to what’s going on in the story, but in my opinion, it’s well made and actually very gripping. Besides, you get to see Keanu Reeves in knickers. That’s pretty funny.
5. A Christmas Story — The best use of voice-over narration, hands-down. The movie is wonderful because it is heartwarming and precious but not saccharine (when the kids are not around adults they call each other the sort of rude names that unsupervised kids would). The movie hits all the right notes, and the absolute icing on the cake is the the fact that the narration is indeed by the guy whose childhood the movie depicts and who wrote the screenplay. Perhaps that’s why it rings so wonderfully true.
6. Beverly Hills Cop — This is a classic Hollywood action comedy / action movie, and it’s a bonus that every line is perfectly written and the main character beautifully realized for Eddie Murphy in his comedic prime. I know every single word in this movie (pretty damn close, anyway), but it’s still funny to me every time I watch it! Even after seeing it (roughly) 30 or 40 times, the plot is great, very tight, and the dialogue is so hilarious, made even more so by Murphy’s delivery! “I remember you used to drive this crappy blue Chevy Nova. What are you driving now?” “Same crappy, blue, Chevy Nova.” It doesn’t sound like genius written down but it sure is on screen. And props to Martin Brest for realizing how funny the character of Serge would be on screen — apparently it was a tiny part that was allowed to blossom after Bronson Pinchot ad-libbed it a bit and cracked everyone up.
7. Orgazmo — Trey Parker and Matt Stone are geniuses. (Okay, let’s be honest, I think it’s probably Parker, but you never know, Stone could be the grounding force that keeps him from getting too high and mighty or something). I love all their movies (maybe not Cannibal: The Musical), but Orgazmo, their second film, holds a special place in my heart. First of all, Parker’s actually a really good actor. Anyone who can convincingly play a genuine good-hearted Mormon who accidentally falls into the porn industry because he happens to be really good at karate has to be a pretty skilled thespian (so to speak). But what’s so great about this movie, aside from its absurdity and total bizarreness with regard to its setting, is how actually straight it’s played. Parker never actually pokes fun at the Mormon church, and his character is completely true to his beliefs. He’s completely adorable and whoever he cast as his girlfriend in the film looks to have been exported from Salt Lake City the day before. The movie is weird, strange, ridiculous, and hysterical. (Oh, and if you’re wondering why the MPAA got skewered in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, it’s because they slapped Orgazmo with an NC-17 despite the fact that it has virtually zero nudity in it).
8. 28 Days Later — Engineerboy may take issue with me putting a movie of such recent vintage on the list, but this movie is excellent. We saw it first in a sneak preview about a week before it was out in the U.S. and in the completely packed theatre we were so engrossed in the movie from the first frame that I never even took off my stuffy rain coat and Scott never even left the theatre to go get popcorn and cokes. Now that’s saying something. I’ve since seen it six or seven times, and the movie is tense and hypnotic and utterly engrossing every single time. It completely transcends the genre of zombie movie (to me) because it’s completely believable to me as a scenario, and every character acts in a completely believable way. But mostly it’s just a really good, tense movie.
9. Army of Darkness — I know, I know, sacrilege… Evil Dead and Evil Dead II are supposedly the much better Sam Raimi / Bruce Campbell films. But I love Army of Darkness! It’s so silly and funny and stupid, I will watch it whenever it comes on cable. I love “This is my Boomstick!”. I love how he tells off his new 14th-century girlfriend when she tries to be friends with him. I love the tiny little Ashes that tie up Ash in the windmill and torture him. I love how he doesn’t really remember the words he’s supposed to say before getting the Necronomicon. The whole thing is just such fun and silly camp, it’s classic. And remember… Shop Smart, Shop S-Mart.
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail — Ah, how can we forget Holy Grail? It’s hard to properly express adoration for this opus in only a paragraph (especially considering there are entire web sites and even now a Broadway play dedicated in its honor), but let me try. It’s the distillation of the absurd, the perfection of the silly, the apex of that bizarre Brit wit that was pioneered by Python. “Fetchez la vache!”
11. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas — Yes, we’re way beyond 10 now, but my list has to include BLWiT. This movie, for all its dancing titillations, is a perfectly captured diorama of small-town Texas in its see-no-evil attitude toward sin. The twangs are spot-on, the town square is picturesque, and the local cafe is just like the one in the town where I went to grade school. Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton have some real chemistry, Dom DeLuise is hilarious, and Jim Nabors and Charles Durning put in excellent turns as well. But above all it’s a love story, one with some fairly serious and tear-jerking scenes (I will honestly put it up there with Boogie Nights in terms of fabulous honest-to-god acting by Burt Reynolds). And if you’ve only ever hear Whitney Houston sing “I Will Always Love You”, do yourself a favor and watch this and hear Dolly Parton sing it in its original setting and version. Heartbreaking for sure.
12. A Fish Called Wanda — I can’t leave out Fish Called Wanda, either. The perfect comedic crime caper (where Jamie Lee Curtis gets to kiss every single leading man in the film) with two former Pythons, this movie is HILARIOUS. Kevin Kline deserved that Oscar. Michael Palin is stutteringly brilliant. John Cleese is unreal in his repressed barrister role (Priceless moment: when he spins around on a heel and oh-so-Britishly tells the prison guards, “Fuck off, pigs. I said: Fuck. Off.”). The movie is perfectly plotted, hilariously acted, with blisteringly great dialogue (“Let me set you straight on a few things, Otto. Plato was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is NOT ‘Every man for himself’. And the London Underground was not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked ’em up.”).

• Leave a comment... (0)