It’s the job every little boy fantasizes about – designing cool cars and other vehicles for TV and movies. Marc and Shannon Parker do it daily and each week you can watch the process on SyFy‘s DREAM MACHINES. We talk to the brothers on what inspires them and what they haven’t tried…yet. Plus meet Jessica St Clair and Lennon Parham, talented comics who have taken their tight friendship to be the basis of NBC‘;s new comedy, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.
It’s a different kind of cop show with a bawdy, rough redhead who not only doesn’t want the job but is blessed (or cursed) with the ability to remember everything she every sees. Poppy Montgomery stars in the CBS series UNFORGETTABLE winding up it’s first season on a ratings high. She dishes on what we can expect in the next few episodes. Plus more with Lisa Rinna on her return to DAYS OF OUR LIVES and HUNGER GAMES wipes the Box Office Record Sheet almost clean.
J. Edgar Hoover has been demonized for his many excesses and lapses during his distinguished career as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He seemingly turned a blind eye to organized crime after Prohibition ended, focusing instead on gaining information to use as leverage against political rivals and rooting out Communism long after it stopped being a domestic threat. What few appreciate is that he was the figure to move law enforcement from a collection of theories to a disciplined, trained force that embraced forensics and dogged detective work to build cases against their suspects.
Clint Eastwood took on an examination of this complex figure in J. Edgar, a deeply flawed film that was released in the fall and is out now on disc from Warner Home Video. The movie is constantly shifting from Hoover’s early days as a fed to the 1960s and the time frame jumps proved jarring as you needed a snippet of dialogue or visual clue to figure out if it was 1932, 1963 or 1968. The screenplay, from Dustin Lance Black, bookends the man’s career but we the audience are left wondering what happened between the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Surely, Hoover and the FBI did something of note during this era but there’s not a single clue. (more…)
Every now and then, we here at ComicMix like to look at books and movies beyond our normal pop culture purview to examine people who helped build the foundations of modern storytelling. We were reminded of this when 20th Century Home Entertainment sent us a Blu-ray edition of The Apartment for review. This 1960 release, out now, won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, and is a brilliant assemblage of director, performers, and story.
The movie comes from Billy Wilder who directed, produced and co-wrote the screenplay (with I.A.L. Diamond) and is a bit of settling old business. Back in the 1940s, he wanted to deal with adultery but the Hays Production Code forbade that so he finally got his chance in this story, partly inspired by Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter.
The story features Consolidated Life Insurance’s C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon), who has been lending his conveniently located apartment to his superiors — Dobsich (Ray Walston), Eichelberger (David White), and Vanderhoff (Willard Waterman) — for clandestine affairs. His generosity has resulted in a variety of undeserved promotions that brought him to the attention of company president J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) who now wants to use the place to bed elevator operator, and object of Baxter’s affection, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). The film then explores how Lemmon can win the girl without losing his job while regaining his sense of dignity. (more…)
Warner Archive has been doing an excellent job dipping into the vaults and finding films and television shows for all ages, producing them on-demand for the seriously interested fan. What seems baffling, though, is the time between some of their releases. Take The Jetsons, no, not the 1962 gem but the 1980s revival. Warner released season one from this Saturday morning show a while back and then offered up the first 21 episodes from season two in June 2009. Finally, The Jetsons Season 2, Volume 2 has been released, in time for the holiday season.
Originally, this futuristic situation comedy was modeled at the popular Jackie Gleason series The Honeymooners but found its own voice as the space age family of the future lived a life most families dreamed of: push button cooking, self-folding cars, machines to dress you and help with makeup. It was all far from perfect as we used to see during the end credits as the treadmill George Jetson used to walk Astro went haywire.
Despite a single season of prime time, the original show went on to syndication nirvana, appearing weekdays during the afternoons or weekends as part of the Saturday morning lineup throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The revival was purely kid stuff as you can tell from the more juvenile plotting and more outrageous situations the family found itself in. In addition, young Elroy befriended Orbitty, a fuzzy alien as a sidekick – a seemingly mandatory Hanna-Barbera touch and since they already had a dog, an alien was the next best addition. Also joining the extended supporting cast was Mr. Spacely’s brother Orwell whose inventions propelled more than a few plots.
The stories found in these two discs all have their moments of slapstick and warm humor along with moral lessons they all learn, although George seems to be the one most in need of help. We also get heavy doses of stories lifted from other works such as “Elroy in Wonderland” and “The Swiss Family Jetson” which kick off the set and “A Jetson Christmas Carol” which closes out the season. They also parody the popular ABC series Fantasy Island with “Fantasy Planet” although it just made me miss Ricardo Montalban. In “Jetson’s Millions”, George wins a lottery and suddenly is part of the same class as the Spacely’s and an unflattering rivalry ensues.
The characters are true to form with George lazy as ever, Jane occasionally giving in to her wild side with disastrous results, boycrazy Judy, and prototypical good boy Elroy. We see their fortunes rise and fall, success coupled with failure and an enduring optimism that keeps you coming back for more. The family housekeeping robot Rosie is nowhere near seen often enough.
The synthesizer sounds added to the score somewhat date the episodes along with the topical references which viewers today may find puzzling. The computer animation also makes things look a bit different than the original cel animated style. As you would expect, transfers from 1980s material are pretty clean but not perfect. The sound is fine and overall, it’s nice to have these for your home, even if they are inferior to the original series.
There are days when it’s a job – and it is my job. It’s how I make my living. It’s how I pay my bills. Most days.
Sometimes it’s a grind. It’s not working for some reason. I stare at the blank screen or the empty page and wonder why I ever thought I could do this. Creative constipation. It’s affected every writer I have ever heard of.
Some days, however, it’s a joy. A lot of days.
I most enjoy it when I’m working in my journal. I have a bound book of lined pages and that’s where I go, black ballpoint in hand, to figure out the story or the characters. My thoughts seem to flow into the pen and the ink flows onto the paper carrying my thoughts and they take a form. It’s a physical, sensual thing.
That’s something I teach in my classes. Everyone has ideas but it doesn’t mean anything until they write them down. You incarnate the thoughts and feelings. Putting them into words gives the ideas and feelings a form and then you can do something with them.
If you want to do something with it, you have to write the idea down. You can’t just tell it to someone; that releases the energy. It lets the steam out of the engine. You’ve already told the story so you don’t need to write it down. You have nothing.
It doesn’t matter that what you’ve written is imperfect. It’s always going to be imperfect. I know people who can’t write because it’s never as perfect when they write it down as it was in their head. For them it has to be perfect. For me, that gets in the way. Incarnation is messy. I like that. I like that it takes on a life of its own.
The work in my journal especially is going to be imperfect but that’s all right because I’m the only one who is going to see it. Given my handwriting, even if you did see it, odds are you wouldn’t be able to read it. I myself rarely go back and look at what’s written. It’s the act of writing that’s important. It clarifies what’s in my head and then I can proceed.
I was working in the journal a little earlier on a plot for a series I’m doing. As I wrote, the ending of the arc revealed itself to me. Having a resolution is so important when you’re developing the story; it allows you to focus it and the characters towards that end.
It felt right. That’s how I know it’s going to work. I still have to do all the structural stuff and then I have to hope that the editor likes it as well as I do. Right now, the story has a heartbeat. It’s not fully realized yet but there’s something there.
That’s when it’s a joy. Today, tonight, I love being a writer.
No doubt this has happened to you. Despite being voted “Most Nicest Guy” in high school, you’re in your 30s, stuck at dead end job, with no prospects in sight. Suddenly you get life’s wakeup call when you accidentally get involved in a failed bank heist thanks to Fisher Stevens. Then, when you refuse to name the real criminals, despite your pleading wife (Judy Greer) you wind up in jail for your transgression. You lose your wife and want her only to be happy. Then you meet some really offbeat folk that awaken you.
No? Well, that’s what happens to Keanu Reeves in Henry’s Crime, an offbeat and underrated little film that is now out on DVD from 20th Century Home Entertainment. There Keanu sits in prison, still wondering how he got there, when he is befriended by Max (James Caan), a long-term convict who teaches Henry that every man needs a dream and then to make his life about obtaining that dream. Of course, it’s hard to pursue a dream from behind bars. It takes Henry a year, but he gets out and takes those precious first steps towards something, perhaps for the first time in his life, real.
Henry’s dream? To rob the bank again but this time get it right. He recruits Max and his fellow cellmate to use an abandoned bootlegger’s tunnel to reach the bank. To get to the tunnel, though, Henry winds the lead in a theatrical company staging Chekhov’s, The Cherry Orchard. As the scheme develops, life tosses Henry a curveball when he falls in love with his leading lady (Vera Farmiga).
Keanu hasn’t been this charming and funny since the Bill & Ted movies, displaying a fresh side to his persona and a welcome one at that. This movie is more screwball comedy from an earlier era than a real crime drama. Director Malcolm Venville takes things slowly, probably too slowly, a vastly different tempo than you expect from the genre but he coaxes fun performances from his cast.
In other hands, this could have been a stronger film, with sharper performances and a tighter structure but it is still entertaining enough and worth a look. The DVD transfer is clean and the disc comes with no extras.
It was inevitable that after numerous guy-centric raunchfests, the women needed their turn to be gross, disgusting, and funny. With Judd Apatow, the current master of the form, aboard, one of the summer’s brightest hits turned out to be the fresh Bridesmaids. Out now on DVD from Universal Home Entertainment, the film comes in two forms: the theatrical release and an unrated version that packs in six more minutes of stuff.
Often, the film felt like it took the guys’ template and followed it so if there was barfing and pooping, then the women had to do it, too. Interestingly, though, despite the numerous sex scenes, there was scarcely any nudity, male or female, which tends to be a must for this genre. Clearly written by women, Wiig and Annie Mumolo, it shows women at their very best and very worst. Unlike the boy-centric offerings, this film lets its scenes play out, giving Wiig and the others a chance to really work each moment.
What this film has over the boys’ fare, is a story with true emotional core even though it is often stretched beyond credulity. Annie (Kristen Wiig) has been having it tough. Her cake business failed and she’s stuck in a dead-end job, with no boyfriend, and is deeply depressed. Despite having a circle of friends, none seem aware of how badly off Annie is. When her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged, Annie is asked to be the Maid of Honor and the rest of the film follows her pathetic attempts to plan the festivities while trying to bond with her fellow bridesmaids. All the while, the cattiness that marks female relationships is amplified, notably the rivalry between Annie and the pretty but cold Helen (Rose Byrne).
Annie’s life spirals down and then out of control so she is totally blind to the one good thing to enter her life, a friendly, romantically interested state trooper (Chris O’Dowd). The set pieces such as the failed airplane trip to Las Vegas or the over-the-top bridal shower let the ensemble have free reign and most make the most of it, notably Melissa McCarthy as the rude, crude, overweight and undersexed pal.
Obviously, true love and true friendship will win out in the end and getting there is certainly entertaining but the film is not without its faults. Several of the women are little more than two-dimensional types to round things out without adding much in the way of depth. Everyone’s blindness to Annie’s precarious financial situation is annoying (even if it results in the gross-out moments early on). Still, the bonds between real-life friends Wiig and Rudolph shine through and happily ground the film in a satisfying way.
The leads are well supported by the cast and it’s great to have one more opportunity to see the late, great Jill Clayburgh play Annie’s mother.
The film’s transfer is sharp and having both versions is a nice treat. The rest of the extras consist of the usually hodgepodge of Featurettes. The gag reel is nowhere near as funny as you would expect and the deleted, extended and alternate scenes show the value of having an editor. Noteworthy is a disastrous date between Annie and a guy (Paul Rudd) who gives men a bad name. The commentary from the filmmakers and cast isn’t bad with some interesting insights tossed in. (The Blu-ray, not reviewed, comes with additional features.)
One can hope that this doesn’t inspire bad knockoffs with women doing even grosser things to one another but does allow filmmakers to take more chances with all-female ensembles and comedies.
As the end credits rolled, the first thought that occurred to me was that Win Win felt real. These were basically good people trying to do what is right but imperfections spoil any hope for total bliss. Heroes prove to have feet of clay and monsters don’t seem so monstrous once you get to know them.
The film, out on DVD from 20th Century Home Entertainment, is another terrific showcase of the wonderful Paul Giamatti. He’s become the everyman of his generation, infusing his characters with traits and flaws’ that make them feel real enough you’d expect to find them living down the block. Here, he’s private lawyer Mike Flaherty, suffering from a decline in business thanks to the economy and he is presented with a short-cut so grabs it. He has a court appoint him as guardian to Leo (Burt Young) so he could collect the $1500 monthly fee but then dumps Leo in a nursing home to make the job easier. All Leo, suffering from dementia, wants to do is watch TV and live in his house.
Mike thinks he’s got thinks under control and won’t need to burden his stay at home wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) with their financial woes. Then, suddenly, Leo’s grandson Kyle (Alex Shaffer) shows up from Ohio and things get complicated. Mike and Jackie suddenly become unofficial parents to a high school student who turns out to be an all-star wrestler.
Mike and his pal Stephen Vigman (Jeffrey Tambor) have been coaching the high school wrestling team and see Kyle as a chance to turn the losers into winners. But Kyle is damaged, having been neglected by his drug abusing mom Cindy (Melanie Lynskey) and abused by her latest boyfriend hence his sudden arrival in New Jersey. The way Kyle interacts with the Flaherty’s is the heart of the film as Mike is seen as the one good thing to happen to Kyle, until Cindy turns up and in short order, the ugly truth is revealed. (more…)
On the one hand, you have to wonder what took so long for Hanna-Barbera to get around to having their two most famous franchises meet. On the other, maybe they should have waited for inspiration. Today, Warner Archive is releasing The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones and the 96 minutes went by at a glacial pace.
This 1987 television production features just about every significant character from both shows with the possible exception of the Great Gazoo. The simple premise has Elroy building a time machine for a class project and the hilarity begins when the entire Jetson family is accidentally transported to the past.
By the time the story ends, both families have had a chance to experience how the other half lives with parallel issues of both bread-winners having their jobs on the line. In the future, Spacely Sprockets has been on a losing streak with Mr., Spacely believing George Jetson was responsible for industrial espionage. Meantime, Mr. Slate is fighting to keep from losing his company to arch rival Turk Tarpit.
Writers Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg should have spent some time watching reruns of It’s About Time, the 1960s sitcom about astronauts accidentally catapulted back to the days of the caveman. The “fish out of water” motif would have been more interesting to watch than the ease with which the two families adjusted to their alien surroundings. Instead, they pad out the script with an odd subplot showing George earning fabulous wealth thanks to a flying demonstration. He and Jane then essentially buy up Bedrock and the plot goes nowhere and ends with a thud.
Everyone has a moment to shine or be the butt of the joke, with Mr. Spacely particularly stupid as he sees Fred in the Jetson apartment and somehow concludes its his employee in disguise. Jane, Wilma, and Betty prove to be the sensible ones while the men folk remain idealistic fools. The one character to experience some real drama is Judy, who falls for rock star Iggy Sandstone (whose band plays an original song clearly patterned after “Monster Mash”), and is conflicted about whether to stay with him or return home. Even Dino and Astro get their moments as the two animals see one another more as rivals than friends.
I’m not sure what message is being sent by having Rosie, the beloved robot servant, repeatedly wind up saving the day.
I do miss Alan Reed as Fred’s voice but Henry Corden does a fine job and it’s nice to have George O’Hearn, Jean Vader Pyl, Mel Blanc, Daws, Butler, and Don Messick back in their familiar places. The only voice that sounds off is Julie McWhirter’s Betty.
The video transfer is more than acceptable and this is for H-B afficianados.
On the one hand, you have to wonder what took so long for Hanna-Barbera to get around to having their two most famous franchises meet. On the other, maybe they should have waited for inspiration. Today, Warner Archive is releasing The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones andthe 96 minutes went by at a glacial pace.
This 1987 television production features just about every significant character from both shows with the possible exception of the Great Gazoo. The simple premise has Elroy building a time machine for a class project and the hilarity begins when the entire Jetson family is accidentally transported to the past.
By the time the story ends, both families have had a chance to experience how the other half lives with parallel issues of both bread-winners having their jobs on the line. In the future, Spacely Sprockets has been on a losing streak with Mr., Spacely believing George Jetson was responsible for industrial espionage. Meantime, Mr. Slate is fighting to keep from losing his company to arch rival Turk Tarpit.
Writers Don Nelson and Arthur Alsberg should have spent some time watching reruns of It’s About Time, the 1960s sitcom about astronauts accidentally catapulted back to the days of the caveman. The “fish out of water” motif would have been more interesting to watch than the ease with which the two families adjusted to their alien surroundings. Instead, they pad out the script with an odd subplot showing George earning fabulous wealth thanks to a flying demonstration. He and Jane then essentially buy up Bedrock and the plot goes nowhere and ends with a thud.
Everyone has a moment to shine or be the butt of the joke, with Mr. Spacely particularly stupid as he sees Fred in the Jetson apartment and somehow concludes its his employee in disguise. Jane, Wilma, and Betty prove to be the sensible ones while the men folk remain idealistic fools. The one character to experience some real drama is Judy, who falls for rock star Iggy Sandstone (whose band plays an original song clearly patterned after “Monster Mash”), and is conflicted about whether to stay with him or return home. Even Dino and Astro get their moments as the two animals see one another more as rivals than friends.
I’m not sure what message is being sent by having Rosie, the beloved robot servant, repeatedly wind up saving the day.
I do miss Alan Reed as Fred’s voice but Henry Corden does a fine job and it’s nice to have George O’Hearn, Jean Vader Pyl, Mel Blanc, Daws, Butler, and Don Messick back in their familiar places. The only voice that sounds off is Julie McWhirter’s Betty.
The video transfer is more than acceptable and this is for H-B afficianados.
It’s the job every little boy fantasizes about – designing cool cars and other vehicles for TV and movies. Marc and Shannon Parker do it daily and each week you can watch the process on SyFy‘s DREAM MACHINES. We talk to the brothers on what inspires them and what they haven’t tried…yet. Plus meet Jessica St Clair and Lennon Parham, talented comics who have taken their tight friendship to be the basis of NBC‘;s new comedy, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.
