Thursday, December 16, 2010
Little Green Men and a Jolly Old Elf!
December's Home Fry-ed Movie is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, one of the strangest (if not the strangest) Christmas movies of all time. There are, of course, hundreds of Christmas movies out there. Favorites of mine would be It's a Wonderful Life (I loved this movie long before it became a holiday staple), the original Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and Christmas in Connecticut (1945) with Barbara Stanwyck and a whole host of Hollywood character actors. Some modern favorites include A Christmas Story (1983) and Elf (2003). Any others I'm missing?
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Welcome to a Haunted House Party!
October brings Halloween, so we had to do something special on Home Fry-ed Movies. This month, we're presenting a "Home Fry-ed Halloween Haunted House Party" with the classic Vincent Price film, House on Haunted Hill. It's a fun (and silly) film with one of weirdest haunted houses in history -- the Ennis House in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Movies about ghosts have grown very popular in the past ten years, probably following the success of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense (1999). Several decent ghost stories followed: Stir of Echoes (1999), What Lies Beneath (2000), The Others (2001). A whole slate of remakes of classic ghost movies also came along during this same time period including a remake of House on Haunted Hill (1999).
Another ghost story remade in 1999 was The Haunting. Okay, but the original from 1963 is much better and one of my favorite ghost stories of all time. It's subtle, atmospheric and creepy -- everything I think makes for a good haunted house movie.
Of recent ghost stories, I'd rank 1408 (2007) among the best. Do you have a favorite movie with a ghostly theme?
Movies about ghosts have grown very popular in the past ten years, probably following the success of M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense (1999). Several decent ghost stories followed: Stir of Echoes (1999), What Lies Beneath (2000), The Others (2001). A whole slate of remakes of classic ghost movies also came along during this same time period including a remake of House on Haunted Hill (1999).
Another ghost story remade in 1999 was The Haunting. Okay, but the original from 1963 is much better and one of my favorite ghost stories of all time. It's subtle, atmospheric and creepy -- everything I think makes for a good haunted house movie.
Of recent ghost stories, I'd rank 1408 (2007) among the best. Do you have a favorite movie with a ghostly theme?
Thursday, August 26, 2010
A Star is Born!
Our movie for August-September is A Star is Born (1937) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. The setting for this movie is Hollywood. Not just the city itself, but the whole idea of making movies. Despite the fact that Hollywood is kind of shy about making movies about itself, there have been many good (and a few bad) ones.
My favorites include the following:
Sunset Blvd. (1950) - Billy Wilder's somewhat satirical film noir about a down-on-his-luck screenwriter (are there any other kind?) and a past-her-prime silent film star is one of the best American movies ever. Along with William Holden as the writer and Gloria Swanson as film legend Norma Desmond, it features Erich von Stroheim playing a former movie director that has become the chauffeur/butler of Desmond. Stroheim had actually directed Swanson during the silent era, but she fired him a third of the way through the movie they were working on. It was one of Stroheim's last directorial efforts, and afterwards he turned strictly to acting.
The Player (1992) - Even though Robert Altman said this was one of his least favorite works, it's the Altman film I like the best. Tim Robbins plays a producer who thinks he's getting death threats from a disguntled (read, "down-on-his-luck") screenwriter. The movie is famous for all the cameos of Hollywood celebrities (more than 60). It's also famous for its opening tracking shot, where the camera follows different characters around a movie studio lot, while many of them talk about famous tracking shots!
Singin' in the Rain (1952) - Not only is this a great musical, but it also gives you a funny and slightly accurate view of what Hollywood was like in that transition period from silent pictures to sound. My favorite sequence has always been the re-shooting of The Dueling Cavalier as a talkie. Placing the microphones is impossible, the lead actress's Brooklyn accent is annoying, and when they finally screen the picture, the sound gets out of synch. "Yes yes yes!" "No no no!"
I should also mention some great documentaries about moviemaking:
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) chronicles the difficult task of shooting Apocalypse Now. The lead actor has a heart attack, a typhoon wrecks the set, and Marlon Brando shows up late, having never read the script. The film was shot by director Francis Ford Coppola's wife Eleanor.
Lost in La Mancha (2002) is about another difficult production, only this one never made it past the first few days of shooting. It's about Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which encountered its own problems with weather and sick actors. The film was eventually closed down, but we hear that Gilliam is back at it and plans to release a completely re-shot version in 2011.
American Movie (1999) is about the difficulties of an eccentric ne'er-do-well trying to make a super-low-budget independent film. Even though he's working on a shoestring, it's no easy task.
I guess when it comes to documentaries, I like watching other people have problems.
My favorites include the following:
Sunset Blvd. (1950) - Billy Wilder's somewhat satirical film noir about a down-on-his-luck screenwriter (are there any other kind?) and a past-her-prime silent film star is one of the best American movies ever. Along with William Holden as the writer and Gloria Swanson as film legend Norma Desmond, it features Erich von Stroheim playing a former movie director that has become the chauffeur/butler of Desmond. Stroheim had actually directed Swanson during the silent era, but she fired him a third of the way through the movie they were working on. It was one of Stroheim's last directorial efforts, and afterwards he turned strictly to acting.
The Player (1992) - Even though Robert Altman said this was one of his least favorite works, it's the Altman film I like the best. Tim Robbins plays a producer who thinks he's getting death threats from a disguntled (read, "down-on-his-luck") screenwriter. The movie is famous for all the cameos of Hollywood celebrities (more than 60). It's also famous for its opening tracking shot, where the camera follows different characters around a movie studio lot, while many of them talk about famous tracking shots!
Singin' in the Rain (1952) - Not only is this a great musical, but it also gives you a funny and slightly accurate view of what Hollywood was like in that transition period from silent pictures to sound. My favorite sequence has always been the re-shooting of The Dueling Cavalier as a talkie. Placing the microphones is impossible, the lead actress's Brooklyn accent is annoying, and when they finally screen the picture, the sound gets out of synch. "Yes yes yes!" "No no no!"
I should also mention some great documentaries about moviemaking:
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) chronicles the difficult task of shooting Apocalypse Now. The lead actor has a heart attack, a typhoon wrecks the set, and Marlon Brando shows up late, having never read the script. The film was shot by director Francis Ford Coppola's wife Eleanor.
Lost in La Mancha (2002) is about another difficult production, only this one never made it past the first few days of shooting. It's about Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which encountered its own problems with weather and sick actors. The film was eventually closed down, but we hear that Gilliam is back at it and plans to release a completely re-shot version in 2011.
American Movie (1999) is about the difficulties of an eccentric ne'er-do-well trying to make a super-low-budget independent film. Even though he's working on a shoestring, it's no easy task.
I guess when it comes to documentaries, I like watching other people have problems.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Who's your favorite comedy team?
Our featured film on Home Fry-ed Movies for April/May is The Flying Deuces starring Laurel and Hardy, one of cinema's greatest comedy teams. I love Laurel and Hardy, but personally, I'd probably rank the Marx Brothers as my favorite comedy team with Abbott and Costello following close behind. Of course, there are many others that I also love. The Monty Python guys, of course, Martin and Lewis, and what about Walter Matthau and Jack Lemon?
Do you have a favorite comedy team from the movies? Let us know.
Do you have a favorite comedy team from the movies? Let us know.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Is Sherlock Holmes relevant?
February's featured "Home Fry-ed Movie" is The Woman in Green (1945), a Sherlock Holmes mystery starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. In the 1930s and 40s, Rathbone and Bruce created the iconic figures of the world's greatest detective and his bumbling assistant for film and radio. In 2009, we saw a revival of interest in Holmes with the Hollywood blockbuster Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, portraying the characters as modernistic action heroes.
One of the interesting things about Rathbone and Bruce's portrayals is that for most of the films, the characters were set in contemporary times. The stories, which were originally set in Victorian England, were flash forwarded to the 1940s, so Holmes and Watson could fight the Nazis. So, in a way, Rathbone and Bruce were more modernistic than Downey and Law.
One thing I've noticed is that the Holmesian-type detective has become more popular on television. For many years, TV detectives were tough guys, using their fists and their guns rather than their wits to solve crimes. We can see the roots of these tough guy cops in movies from the 1970s, like Dirty Harry and The French Connection. More recently, TV detectives use their keen sense of observation and deduction to solve crimes. And like Holmes, these modern detectives are quirky and difficult to get along with.
Think Monk, the obsessive-compulsive detective, who like Holmes walks into a room and can figure out everything that happened. Or Det. Goren from Law & Order: Criminal Intent, who uses his vast knowledge of a variety of subjects to solve crimes, while at the same time freaking people out with his odd personality. There's also the investigators from Psych and The Mentalist, who are keen observers. And the most obvious comparison is not a detective at all, but a doctor: House, M. D. There's no denying the pun between the names "Holmes" and "House." The series creator admits he is a Sherlock Holmes fan, and the character of Dr. House is very similar to Holmes. House even has his own Dr. Watson, his friend Dr. Wilson, whose relationship with House is very similar to Watson's relationship with Holmes, especially since they moved in together.
So I think Holmes is very relevant, and was so even before this new movie came out.
Watch The Woman in Green on Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. or Sunday, Feb. 28 at 10 a.m. on UALR University Telelvision (Channel 62 on Little Rock Comcast Cable)!
One of the interesting things about Rathbone and Bruce's portrayals is that for most of the films, the characters were set in contemporary times. The stories, which were originally set in Victorian England, were flash forwarded to the 1940s, so Holmes and Watson could fight the Nazis. So, in a way, Rathbone and Bruce were more modernistic than Downey and Law.
One thing I've noticed is that the Holmesian-type detective has become more popular on television. For many years, TV detectives were tough guys, using their fists and their guns rather than their wits to solve crimes. We can see the roots of these tough guy cops in movies from the 1970s, like Dirty Harry and The French Connection. More recently, TV detectives use their keen sense of observation and deduction to solve crimes. And like Holmes, these modern detectives are quirky and difficult to get along with.
Think Monk, the obsessive-compulsive detective, who like Holmes walks into a room and can figure out everything that happened. Or Det. Goren from Law & Order: Criminal Intent, who uses his vast knowledge of a variety of subjects to solve crimes, while at the same time freaking people out with his odd personality. There's also the investigators from Psych and The Mentalist, who are keen observers. And the most obvious comparison is not a detective at all, but a doctor: House, M. D. There's no denying the pun between the names "Holmes" and "House." The series creator admits he is a Sherlock Holmes fan, and the character of Dr. House is very similar to Holmes. House even has his own Dr. Watson, his friend Dr. Wilson, whose relationship with House is very similar to Watson's relationship with Holmes, especially since they moved in together.
So I think Holmes is very relevant, and was so even before this new movie came out.
Watch The Woman in Green on Friday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. or Sunday, Feb. 28 at 10 a.m. on UALR University Telelvision (Channel 62 on Little Rock Comcast Cable)!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Are disease movies spreading?
January's featured "Home Fry-ed Movie" is The Last Man on Earth (1964), based on the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, about a world-wide vampirism plague. The two best known remakes, The Omega Man (1971) with Charlton Heston and I Am Legend (2007) with Will Smith, both drop the vampirism angle but keep the idea of a worldwide plague. Movies about plagues and disease have been popular in the science fiction and horror genres since that time, especially zombie movies.
It seems, however, that disease movies are spreading lately. In addition to remakes of George Romero's Living Dead movies, there are 28 Days Later (2003) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), Cabin Fever (2003), the parodies Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Slither (2006), the "Planet Terror" segment from Grindhouse (2007), Quarantine (2008), Zombieland (2009) and most recently, Daybreakers (2010), which harkens back to Last Man on Earth, with a plague of vampirism.
So is fear of H1N1, SARS and all the other nasty ailments running rampant out there making these "diseased" movies more popular than ever? Is it just a reflection of our fears? Or do we just love zombies, despite their lack of personality and bad table manners?
It seems, however, that disease movies are spreading lately. In addition to remakes of George Romero's Living Dead movies, there are 28 Days Later (2003) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), Cabin Fever (2003), the parodies Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Slither (2006), the "Planet Terror" segment from Grindhouse (2007), Quarantine (2008), Zombieland (2009) and most recently, Daybreakers (2010), which harkens back to Last Man on Earth, with a plague of vampirism.
So is fear of H1N1, SARS and all the other nasty ailments running rampant out there making these "diseased" movies more popular than ever? Is it just a reflection of our fears? Or do we just love zombies, despite their lack of personality and bad table manners?
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