Favorite Underrated Comedies - Stephen Drangula

Stephen Drangula, whenever he bothers to pull himself away from a black-and-white movie, makes jokes on Twitter as @Drangula.

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Gussle's Day of Rest (1915) Few remember that Charlie Chaplin's brother, Syd Chaplin, also made Keystone comedies and even fewer hold them in any regard; but Syd's character, the obnoxious Reggie Gussle, makes me laugh, especially in this tale of infidelity in the park with its hilariously cynical ending.

Twice Two (1933) Even Laurel and Hardy fans dismiss this short, in which the pair play their usual characters as well as the wives of each other, through trick photography. I find everything from the idea itself to the voices of the actresses dubbing over their female characters, to be hilarious.

Stand-In (1937) Not much mystery why this screwball romantic comedy, starring Leslie Howard as a prissy financial analyst and Joan Blondell as a former child star reduced to bit parts in movies, is largely forgotten: the last third descends into an unfunny sub-Capra tribute to the working class. But the first two-thirds is rich in great gags and hilarious characters.

Oscar (1991) John Landis directed Sylvester Stallone in a rare comedy role as a mobster trying to go straight in this adaptation of a French farce now set in Depression-era New York City. The Golden Raspberry Awards thought it was awful enough to dishonor with nominations, but I laughed all the way through.

Noises Off (1992) Michael Frayn's oft-revived 1982 stage farce became this screamingly funny—but under-appreciated—movie directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring a slew of familiar faces, including Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Denholm Elliott, John Ritter, Christopher Reeve, Marilu Henner and Mark-Linn Baker.

Favorite Underrated Comedies - Bernardo Villela

Bernardo Villela is about to enter his fourth year of obsessive film blogging. His baby in that regard is The Movie Rat, which features movie reviews, analysis & insights on a wide range of topics. There are new or updated posts daily. His other experience includes writing prose and plays, feature and short film editing, writing and directing short films and well as television commercial copy-writing and directing. To read a more detailed biography on his other works visit his production company's site. For information on his novella or other upcoming works visit his Amazon store. For random thoughts follow him on the Twitter.  

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When I heard about Rupert Pupkin's Underrated Comedies series, yet again I was struck by what a great idea for a list it is, as his list ideas tend to be. Now, as he and many have mentioned, and as I have come to realize recently in my personal film awards; the term underrated is perhaps ill-fitting, but the most relatable word to most. Essentially my criteria is that the film must be one I greatly enjoy, obviously find humorous and seems to be greatly overlooked. This is regardless of what the box office or critics said about the film at the time. When trying to pick just five films I first came up with selections from each of the past three decades. I thought about picking just one for each decade going all the way back to the '60s, in the interest of temporal equality. However, being born in the '80s I always considered myself a child of that decade rather than the '90s it'd be hard to deny mentioning films in either decade more than once. I have included some honorable mentions with brief commentary, but the official selections are those that: a) have "been with me the longest" and b) That I feel my fondness for is perhaps the most unique. Therefore, the honorable mentions are also worth noting as I have seen some appreciation for said titles around. Therefore, I believe I may briefly touch upon the honorable mentions now to not give them short shrift. Time Bandits, those who enjoy Terry Gilliam and his band of merry men, of course, enjoy this one too, but until a remake was announced I never really saw evidence of much love for this title. The Cable Guy is a title that sticks out because it was a film I instantly loved though it seemed to fall on deaf ears an eyes in its initial theatrical run. Over the years it seems to have developed a cult following to a lesser extent than the more popular Stiller film, Zoolander. The next honorable mentions are a such simply because they share cast members with official selections. It's hard to imagine a more politically incorrect premise, at least for this day an age, than See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Then again that's part of what made the pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor work so well. Comedy teams are more of a rarity then ever, and they were one of my favorites growing up, and this is perhaps my favorite of their vehicles. One of these two has a solo projects on the list. Of all actors to have overlap, Scott Schwartz may be the most unlikely. Best known as Flick in A Christmas Story, he has a starring role in a small, not very well known comedy called Kidco.  Now per my criteria it should be listed down below. However, since I do discuss it in a recent post of mine, another appearance of his I never wrote about takes precedent. What that is you'll discover below.  

Kids in The Hall Brain Candy - There are people who love The Kids in the Hall that hate this film and I just don't get it. I think the Kids successfully balanced their brand of humor, some of their unique tropes and found a plot that did well to unleash their brand of madness. However, they and the MST3K gang, as well as the film are too well known to make the cut.


Without further ado, enjoy. 

5. Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972, Dir. Woody Allen) OK, clearly if we're taking this countdown very seriously a Woody Allen film can never be number one. However, I do find this film amongst his works to be vastly overlooked. I think it is likely his funniest, though not his best. When he jokes, or when others assert in all seriousness, about longing for his "early, funny" films this is the one that comes to mind for me. Yes, it's built in anthology style, but it takes some very basic questions and outlandishly, hilariously illustrates and dramatizes them.  

4. Max Keeble's Big Move (2001, Dir. Tim Hill) If you search my site you can find a few instances of this film appearing on it, but its never been written about as such. It was one of the Best Picture nominees for my BAM Awards in 2001 and as such just got a mention in a recent rundown through Disney's history at my awards, but never got written about properly. Shortly after 9/11 I took in, with my younger brother, what was likely my only ever triple-feature to get my mind off things (all tickets were legitimately acquired). The films, like many at the time, slipped under the radar. All stuck with me though (Zoolander and Hearts in Atlantis were the other two). This, however, was the surprise of the bunch. Yes, the premise is silly (that's part of why it works), but the film is full of irreverent hilarity and very committed performances. Larry Miller's principal is a character I still quote, as is Noel Fisher's comedically two-sided bully. Alex Linz didn't have a long tenure as a young actor in the spotlight, but this was definitely his peak. Many of these films also have replay value, and I've seen this film quite a bit. 

3. Held Up (1999, Dir. Steve Rash)
I had originally let this one slip my mind, which is sinful. I really want to update it, but once my brother and I, who have nearly identical tastes in comedy, made a list of our combined 50 favorite comedies. This made the list. If you're to be very literal it's the definition of underrated: it's IMDb score is 4.7, it's Metacritic is 21, Rotten Tomatoes is 17 and it grossed a paltry four million and change at the box office. Even my brother and I didn't see it theatrically. We probably saw it on HBO or something and then bought it. We crack up pretty much non-stop watching it. It's got an actor in it before you knew who they were (Sarah Paulson) and it stars Jamie Foxx well before Django (link: http://themovierat.com/2013/05/08/django-unchained-apparent-defeat-and-tarantinos-cameo/) and Ray when he was more well known as a comedic actor, and a damn good one too. It's a movie we still quote and occasionally scenes will come back to me. It's silly, outlandish, at times in appropriate but always funny and has great replay value.

2. Crazy People (1990, Dirs. Tony Bill, Larry L. Young) Part of the difficulty of assembling this list was trying to follow my criteria to a tee. Many of the comedic films that I've loved for a long time are ones that I've gone a long time without seeing. When your memory is fuzzy, you wonder if your judgment has been tainted by nostalgia. It has been a while since I've seen this film, but I have seen it since I first watched it theatrically, and my seeing it theatrically is significant because it was my first R-rated film. In fact, it was part of my education about the rating system. My mother and I both saw ads for it and were both looking forward to it. We both liked Dudley Moore and thought it looked like a funny concept. When we arrived at the movies we saw it was rated R. I thought we'd be barred. We went to the box office and talked to the ticket vendor and she explained that if I was accompanied by a parent it was fine. So we went and it was my first sanctioned R-rated movie. I have a cool mom. And contrary to the movie ad the Crazy People concoct it did not "fuck me up for life."  

1. The Toy (1982, Dir, Richard Donner) I discovered The Toy in film school I think. I forget how, but it wasn't when I was younger, which is surprising considering my fandom of both Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. Part of why '80s movies could have dominated this list because there was no such thing as political correctness. Although The Toy, while clearly attempting to be humorous, was also seeking to make commentaries not only on race but on class too. This concept would be far too scary today, for anyone, much less for a major studio with star talent attached. Clearly some people, mainly Pryor, got it and made it work. The scenario is that cash-strapped Pryor is hired as "a toy" for a tycoon's spoiled son. The film isn't stupid and addresses the inherent asininity of the concept almost immediately; Pryor says his salary demand is "ridiculous" because the job is. Pryor turns the screws on Bates (Jackie Gleason) stating his philosophy on his asking price: "You asked me what I need, Mr. Bates, not what I'd be willing to settle for." While the characters warm to one another and improve throughout, as can be expected, it stays true to itself and is never really appropriate, which is what makes it so funny. I probably could've picked more but these are the ones who immediately came to mind.

Scream Factorized: THE HOWLING Blu-ray

It's been said before by me (many times, many ways), but Joe Dante is one of my favorite directors. Folks these days think of Scorsese and Tarantino as perhaps two of the greatest walking film encyclopedias ever. Dante is also such a tome. If you've seen any of his commentaries over at Trailers From Hell you get an immediate sense of what I'm talking about. To speak with him about movies, no matter how much you think you know about them, is to be intimidated by a man who has cinema virtually engrained in his DNA. Such a breadth of knowledge of film, in the hands of a director like Dante, helps makes him one of the best in my opinion. 

So I've watched a lot of Joe Dante movies a number of times each, but THE HOWLING is one I might have seen the least. I think this was my 3rd viewing of the film, but the last time I watched it was probably close to 10 years ago. This go round I was really quite struck by just how frightening and disturbing the werewolves in this film are. They are these 9-foot tall nightmarish dog monsters. Even today, more than 30 years after the movie came out, the creatures here still give me the willies. That really says something. It says something about Rob Bottin's masterful effects. It says something about the remarkable ambience that Dante creates. It also says something about the performances here(especially Robert Picardo's psychopathic portrayal which is one of the best in his career). I'm not typically all that scared of werewolves. The idea of them is obviously terrifying, but for the most part they aren't executed all that well on the silver screen. There's really a pretty short list of werewolf films that really get it right in my opinion.
Joe Dante is one of a handful of filmmakers who can deftly and successfully meld comedy and horror in a truly outstanding way. He says that horror cinema is much more effective when it takes place in some sort of a dream-world and that movies are just sort of dreams on film when you think about it. THE HOWLING is a perfect example of such a dream-world. Pretty much all of Dante's films have some element of fantasy to them. I think that's certainly a big part of what makes them so good. Dante really pulls you into the worlds he's created. Whether it be a creepy cul-de-sac in the suburbs or a Norma Rockwell-ish small town, he really designs a very specific macabre alternate dimension all its own. When you step into the reality of a Joe Dante movie, you know, almost immediately, that you're not dealing with the real world.This makes them all the more immersive. And Dante knows that you, as a viewer, know 'this is just a movie'. He embraces that awareness that regular moviegoers have and he plays with it. As I said, he's not only a great filmmaker, but also a passionate cinephile. He's aware of the conventions and tropes of a given genre and he perpetuates them and expands upon them. 
I love PIRANHA(which, like THE HOWLING, was also scribed by the great John Sayles), but I really feel like you can see Dante hitting his stride as a director with THE HOWLING. The film is dripping with atmosphere, subtle comedy, suspense and eeriness. One of the hallmarks of a great movie is that they have a certain timeless quality about them. Many of Dante's films have that timelessness. Even in the age of CGI we live in, it is really quite a remarkable thing that I find myself more affected by the werewolves in this film than in any other horror film in recent memory. It really is something quite special. I apologize that I've not really covered the plot of THE HOWLING so far, but as with most of my reviews, I'd rather you just watch(or rewatch) the movie for yourself. It's a werewolf movie and it's one of the best ones, that's all you really need to know.
As far as Scream Factory's Blu-ray goes, right off the bat, I noticed that the Avco Embassy logo has never looked better. The transfer is quite delightful throughout and the extras are plentiful. Many of them are ported over from the MGM special edition DVD release from 2003, but it's all good stuff. Hats off to Scream Factory for putting this out on Blu-ray. It's truly a classic of the genre and needs to be sitting on your horror shelf alongside AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and the original Lon Chaney WOLFMAN film. Spectacular stuff. 

THE HOWLING Blu-ray is available via Shout! Factory:
http://www.shoutfactory.com/?q=node/217136 

P.S. - Joe Dante's most recent film THE HOLE is currently streaming on Netflix Instant and well worth checking out:
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Hole/70119982?trkid=2361637

(photo taken and provided by Alan Toomayan)

Favorite Underrated Comedies - William Bibbiani

William Bibbiani is the Film Channel Editor at CraveOnline, the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast, the co-star of The Trailer Hitch, and sometimes a film commentator for Al Jazeera English. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani. And send cash.

BASEketball (1998)
BASEketball tends to get shoved into the broad parody genre alongside forgettable crap like Scary Movie and all the other Scary Movies, but it’s actually one of the last great, original broad comedies. “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone star as a pair of losers who invent a hybrid of baseball and basketball, complete with crazy “psych outs,” to save face when they accidentally challenge some muscular jocks to a game of two-on-two. It swiftly turns into a national sensation, and comedy ensues. The “Malaka-Laka Balance Board of Trust” is probably funny enough for two whole movies, but it’s just one of dozens – if not hundreds – of classic gags in this loving satire of commercialized sports.

Booty Call (1997)
Booty Call may be the only time when condoms actually made sex more enjoyable. Well, sex comedies at any rate. “In Living Color” alumnae Tommy Davidson and Jamie Foxx are having the world’s greatest double date, but when their ladies insist on having safe sex, they wind up going out into one madcap adventure after another in search of rubbers, better rubbers and dental dam. It’s a good message, damn it, but more importantly one of the funniest sex comedies around, relying on smart set-ups and engaging character interactions instead of the usual, easy gross out gags.

Brain Donors (1992)
Brain Donors is a weirdly specific attempt to recapture the comedy dynamic of The Marx Bros. John Turturro plays the unscrupulous zinger-flinger Roland T. Flakfizer (Groucho), and along with Bob Nelson (Harpo) and Mel Smith (Chico) they take over a hoity-toity ballet for purely selfish reasons. They’d be villains if their competitors weren’t snooty assholes, but fortunately they are, so all of the trio’s crazy, dangerous and utterly sexist machinations come across as endearing instead of monstrous. And somehow, against all reasonable odds, the Marx Bros. magic actually surfaces thanks to great dialogue and unique slapstick. Well, mostly unique: the finale is an extended riff on A Night at the Opera, but it’s arguably as funny as the original. No, really.

Dirty Work (1998)
Borderline inept but funny as hell anyway (and also ending with a Night at the Opera rip-off, isn’t that weird?), Dirty Work was directed by Bob Saget, and it’s easily the funniest thing with his name on it. Norm MacDonald and Artie Lange have to raise money to pay for their father’s heart transplant, but the only thing they’re good at is sadistic revenge, so they start a “Revenge for Hire” business. The dialogue is bad, but delivered perfectly. The cinematography is bad, but never gets in the way of the perfectly off-kilter timing. And if you thought prison rape was funny before… well, you’re a monster, but Dirty Work has the world’s funniest prison rape sequence anyway.

The Freshman (1990)
Not so much “hilarious” as “delightfully droll,” this comedy from future Striptease director Andrew Bergman is a little hard to describe in a sentence. It’s about an NYU film student (Matthew Broderick) who loses everything he owns to a shyster played by Bruno Kirby, and winds up working for Carmine “Jimmy the Toucan” Sabatini, played by Marlon Brando as, essentially, the Godfather. (Francis Ford Coppola based the character on Jimmy the Toucan; at least, that’s what The Freshman claims.) That would be enough for most comedies but The Freshman adds AWOL komodo dragons just for the hell of it. A unique blend of cinematic in-jokes, genuine character drama and outright wonderful storylines, The Freshman is an old favorite at the Bibbiani household.

Johnny Stecchino (1991)
My favorite Roberto Benigni movie barely made it to the United States, but I still maintain it’s the Italian comic’s best film. Benigni just happens to look exactly like the mafia snitch Johnny Stecchino (“Johnny Toothpick”), so Stecchino convinces his girlfriend (Nicoletta Braschi) to seduce the hero and give him a makeover so the mob will murder him instead. Naturally, she falls in love with the hopeless banana-stealing sap, who’s so damned innocent that he believes every ridiculous lie she tells him to cover up Stecchino’s plans. Wonderfully comic misunderstandings and a hilarious dual performance from Benigni make Johnny Stecchino well worth seeking out.

Kill! (1968)
Kihachi Okamoto’s samurai comedy Kill! is actually based on the same story Akira Kurosawa adapted for his classic Yojimbo sequel, Sanjuro. The drama still packs a wallop, but Okamoto ramps the pacing up to a mad sprint and replaces Toshiro Mifune’s stoic hero with a wonderful odd couple: Tatsuya Nakadai (who played one of the villains in Sanjuro) is the jaded ex-samurai with a sense of humor, and Etsushi Takahashi is the enthusiastic samurai wannabe who takes himself way too seriously. Nakadai is particularly wonderful in Kill!, tossing out wisdom he knows everyone’s too willful to understand until it’s too late, and his body language alone is some of the funniest this side of a Looney Tune. It’s a great story no matter what the tone; in this case, it just happens to be a funny one.

Let It Ride (1989)
My favorite Richard Dreyfuss movie (Jaws and Close Encounters are better, I just like watching this one the more) stars Dreyfuss as gambler who, for one single day, can’t lose. Never mind why, he just can’t lose. That shouldn’t be funny – in fact, it should be the exact opposite of funny – but success comes with its own share of problems, and the crazy twists of fate necessary to keep Dreyfuss from screwing up his winning streak are impeccably conceived and timed. Whenever I have a very good day, I say it just like Richard Dreyfuss does in Let It Ride.

Man of the Century (1999)
Briefly lauded, and then instantly forgotten, this independent comedy stars Gibson Frazier as “Johnny Twennies,” a newspaper reporter who – against the landscape of a cynical, modern day New York City – lives his life exactly like it’s the 1920s. Man of the Century never suggests that Frazier is mad. In fact, he’s not even the only character who acts like they’re in a Phil Ogden Stewart play. The anachronistic contrast is Man of the Century’s “go to” joke, and it’s a damned funny one, but this black & white indie gem has something wonderful to say about the power of optimism. It’s kind of like a “Dr. Who” episode without any of the sci-fi.

My Blue Heaven (1990)
My favorite Steve Martin comedy – and incidentally one of my favorite films period – is this wonderfully witty adaptation of the real-life Henry Hill story. You know, that guy from Goodfellas? This is the de facto sequel, even though it came out a month before Scorsese’s classic crime saga. Martin plays Vincent Antonelli, a middle management Mafioso who enters witness protection and brings the organized crime lifestyle to milquetoast suburbia. Rick Moranis plays the FBI agent responsible for keeping Vinnie in line (good luck), and Joan Cusack plays the hardboiled D.A. who keeps arresting Vinnie for robbing the city blind. His excuses alone would make My Blue Heaven a comedy classic. Why does Vinnie have twenty copies of a single book in the trunk of his car, right after a robbery at B. Dalton’s? “In case… I wanna read it… more than once?” Oh, and you’ll be doing the meringue for years.

Sgt. Bilko (1996)
I may be going to Film Critic Hell for this, but damn it, the 1996 movie version of Sgt. Bilko is funny. It’s a formulaic story, no one cares about that, all that matters is that Steve Martin is note-perfect as a lovable con artist making a mockery of the army and repeatedly jilting Glenne Headly at the altar. The supporting cast gets a good gag now and then, but Sgt. Bilko coasts almost entirely on Steve Martin’s charm, and he’s rarely been this charming. Pity the rest of the movie wasn’t as good as Martin’s performance, or Sgt. Bilko could have been a bona fide comedy classic. Instead, he just elevates this clichéd material into something enjoyable and goofy.

The Spirit of ’76 (1990)
The entire history of the world has been erased in a magnetic storm, so future scientists David Cassidy, Olivia D’Abo and Geof Hoyle go back in time to 1776 to rescue a copy of the U.S. Constitution. (It was actually adopted in 1787, but they didn’t know that; history has been erased, remember?) The thing is, they accidentally wind up in 1976 instead, leading to more 1970s nostalgia jokes than you could possibly catalogue in a single review. The Hustle is done, Pintos explode, and Sofia Coppola did the perfectly awful (emphasis on “perfect”) costumes. Roman Coppola co-wrote the screenplay too. Great cameos by Rob Reiner, Carl Reiner, Devo and Redd Kross punctuate this one-joke comedy that actually gets by on just one joke, because it’s a very funny one.

The Talk of the Town (1942)
I couldn’t think of too many classic comedies to include, since by my estimation they’re all “classics” (and thus hardly underrated), but nobody ever seems to talk about The Talk of the Town. Cary Grant stars as an escaped prisoner who hides out with his old flame, Jean Arthur, screwing up her romance with a fusty college professor played by Ronald Colman. Misunderstandings and webs of wacky lies ensue, and Grant and Arthur have a truly fantastic on-screen chemistry. Of course, Grant is always great, and in The Talk of the Town makes the most of his narcissistic bravado. He happily stands in front of his own wanted poster, declaring, “Nobody would recognize me from that. It doesn’t capture the spirit!”

Incidentally, The Talk of the Town is basically the same movie as the (also funny) Neil Simon comedy Seems Like Old Times, which stars Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn and Charles Grodin in the Grant, Arthur and Colman roles. There’s no credit given to the original George Stevens comedy classic in Seems Like Old Times. I always wondered what the deal was with that. I’m not making any accusations. It’s just really, really weird.

Young Einstein (1988)
The best film from Australian comedian Yahoo Serious (read: the only good one) is a wonderfully inventive piece of historical revisionism, and probably years ahead of its time. Nobody batted an eye when Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter came out (not that anyone paid to see it), so maybe Young Einstein would be better appreciated today. Serious plays Albert Einstein, an Australian (!) entrepreneur whose formula E=MC2 – pronounced “Emc!” – puts bubbles into beer for the very first time. Serious translates Einstein’s theories into practical, anachronistic inventions (the first electric guitar, for example), but the actor’s charm and the story’s freewheeling spirit and impressive production design keeps Young Einstein feeling plucky and fun long after that joke gets old. Brimming with imagination, and good-natured to the final frame, Young Einstein definitely deserves a second look.

Favorite Underrated Comedies - Eric Branscum

Eric Branscum runs the film screening series, Coming Back Cinema, in Los Angeles at The Los Feliz 3. You can get info on the invites here - https://www.facebook.com/comingbackcinema
- or here - https://twitter.com/comebackcinema.
They even have a new event happening this very evening here in Los Angeles! They are screening the amazing BRAZIL(a favorite of mine) at the Los Feliz 3 theater tonight(5/22) at 9:30 PM. Tickets here:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/385492

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The Wrong Guy (1997)

When a film is considered underrated it can sometimes come with a stigma that the movie is just better than you expected. Not necessarily great, but maybe deserves to not be ignored. Or at least that's how I hear it sometimes, who knows. My point is, The Wrong Guy is genuinely one of the greatest comedies of all time. Up there with This Is Spinal Tap or Raising Arizona, this movie takes a one-joke premise (admittedly, it is a very funny one-joke) and is consistently funny from beginning to end. Dave Foley plays an executive who stumbles upon his boss' murder, making it look like he committed the crime. Convinced the police will be after him, Foley goes on the run hoping to clear his name... despite the fact that his name is clear, the police know it wasn't him and he's on the run for no reason. The film is remarkably silly and while it's not rare for a film to be packed with jokes, it is rare for them to be so consistently great. If any film on my list were a "must see," it'd be this one.

Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King (1993)

The ex-record store employee in me is putting this on the list just to bring attention to the incredible band Half Japanese. Their album Sing No Evil is a classic. But the responsible guest blog contributor in me thinks this documentary about the band is hilarious and should be included appropriately. The film follows brothers Jad and David Fair as their band reaches moderate success. Typical band doc stuff, I guess. But these guys are such characters and so bizarrely funny (I say this as a big fan who thinks these guys are geniuses) that at times it seems like they're doing a comedy bit. There's a moment in the film where they explain how to play a guitar, something neither of them know how to do, that is almost too perfect in it's simplicity. "The little skinny ones make high sounds, the big fat ones make low sounds." There's also a story Penn Jillette tells about trying to secure the rights to their back catalog that seems like something someone would make up. I'm not saying he made it up, I'm saying his story is that good.

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)

If you've not seen the BBC comedy show The League of Gentlemen, you should seek it out. It was a sketch show that ran from 1999-2002 that had more in common with The Shining or The Wicker Man than it did Monty Python. I've found that even the best horror/comedies tend to succeed more with the funny rather than the scary. But not so with The League of Gentlemen. That show is SCARY! While the film isn't as good as the show, it is underrated and is worth some attention (I just completely negated what I said at the beginning of this post). The show takes place in Royston Vasey, a town full of horrendous characters that you would never want to meet anywhere and at the start of the film it appears as though their world is about to end. Turns out that the creators of the TV show The League of Gentlemen have stopped writing the show, bringing about the apocalypse. The residents decide to come to our world to make their creators keep their world alive and it just gets more meta from there. It's as if The Goodies decided to remake Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

Project Grizzly (1996)

The lesser known of the two bear documentaries with the word grizzly in the title. Project Grizzly is about a man who, after an encounter with a bear, decides to make a suit capable of surviving a bear attack just so he can encounter one again. The suit looks like something on the cover of a sci-fi novel and the sequence where he tests it is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. They drive a truck into him, push him down a cliff and swing giant tree trucks into him. It's like watching a respectable version of Jackass. The crazy thing about it though, he's ok! The suit actually works. So maybe the jokes on me, I don't know, not that I wanted him to get hurt in the first place. Anyway the man in the suit, Troy Hurtubise, is a fascinating guy all on his own. The scene where he tells the story of his bear encounter is incredible.

The Other Guys (2010)

When this movie came out in theaters not too long ago, I, like most people, politely said "no thank you." Trailers did nothing for me and I already saw Hot Fuzz. But that was a mistake. For the first hour of this movie, just about every joke lands. And this is definitely a joke movie. It will digress at times, putting the plot on hold, just to tell some silly joke or finish a bit and I'm fine with that. But like I said, that's for only the first hour. After that it kinda falls apart. Actually, not kinda falls apart but completely and embarrassingly falls apart. But it is still worth watching up to that point! It also features an amazing comedic performance from Michael Keaton. It's no surprise he can do comedy, we all know that, but it sure is a shame when he goes unnoticed.

Honorable Mention - The script for Sprockets

Mike Myers backed out of this movie based on his SNL character Dieter because he was unhappy with the script he co-wrote. Which is a shame because it's great. I read it almost solely because one of the other co-writers was Jack Handey, an amazing comedy writer. But the script is good, much better than other scripts Myers would end up producing. It's also full of great lines like this one, after Dieter is asked what he's thinking about, "If they can put a man on the moon, why can't they put an insane man on the moon?"

Scream Factorized: NINJA III - THE DOMINATION Blu-ray

NINJA III is one of the films for which the descriptor "What the Fuck Movie" was created. It stands as a supreme cornerstone to the "Holy Fucking Shit" Genre. It is a movie for which I have a great deal of affection, but I had all but given up hope it would ever see any kind of proper dvd(let alone Blu-ray) release. The fact that this movie is out there now is quite thrilling to me. It certainly has its cult of fervent followers, but that cult needs to be bigger. More people need to have their minds melted into quesadillas by this glorious piece of other dimensional madness.
Just to sort of set the stage here, be aware that 'ninja fever' was truly a big thing for me in high school. Every boy my age that still loved G.I. Joe thought Stormshadow was a badass and I recall many a sketchy catalog of deadly weaponry(throwing stars being the most popular) being confiscated by school officials from my unsuspecting classmates. Ninja stuff was everywhere, and there were lots of ninja movies to appease us. Our good friends at Cannon Films have brought us tons of great stuff. Their contributions of awesomeness to cinema are innumerable. They had already brought us ENTER THE NINJA in 1981(one of their first productions) and the far superior REVENGE OF THE NINJA in 1983. They had found a way to make ninjas into unstoppable(and often gruesome) killing machines. To me, it was a way to take the dying slasher genre and spin it off into a different, more action-y direction. Martial arts, exotic bladed weapons and blood were the currency of this filmic universe and myself and guys my age totally went for it.
 In the world of NINJA III, folks can't even enjoy a day on the golf course without having a ninja come in and mess it up. This particular ninja wipes out a preeminent scientist, his bodyguards and a whole gaggle of cops.The lovely Lucinda Dickey(of Cannon's BREAKIN' series fame) is doing her best Glen Campbell here and working as a lineman for the county. We first glimpse her hiking up a telephone pole to do a little phone company business. Said business is quickly interrupted when the dying ninja from the golf course approaches her. But of course as most sensible people know, it is unwise to try to assist an expiring ninja as there's always a decent chance that he may expel his spirit into you with his dying breath and you'll end up possessed. And that's what happens of course. Sound like the setup for a 'switch' movie? Well it kinda is. A wacky ninja possession switch movie set in truly wacky 80s universe. Lucinda Dickey does some aerobics instructing on the side, plays arcade games in her apartment, does some kinky stuff with V-8 and also finds herself suddenly able to do some crazy-ass karate shit. She also has lots of weird flashbacks to the ninja's moment of near-death when she encounters certain people. She has lots of hallucinations in general. There's plenty of trippy stuff here, which is where the film gets a lot of its WTF reputation. Lucinda finds herself out of control and on a mission to avenge the death of the ninja by going after all those who tried to kill him. That's the movie in a nutshell. Lots of kicking, slicing, dicing and crushing. But there's just a lot of stuff here that makes you go "huh?" and it's all very entertaining in my mind.

This movie has certainly never looked better. The days of crappy bootlegged VHS transfers are gone and swept away by the rather vibrant widescreen(1.85) look of this release.
The commentary track(featuring director Sam Firstenberg & stun coordinator Steve Lambert) sheds some light on a few things I wasn't aware of. First, I guess POLTERGEIST was a big influence on the movie as it was obviously a sizeable hit right around the time they were making NINJA III. Second, apparently Lucinda Dickey was more or less "discovered" via the casting process of this film and even though BREAKIN' came out before NINJA III, she acted in NINJA III first and the Cannon folks immediately rushed her off to do the breakdance classic(which they finished filming and editing before N3 was released).
As I hope I've made quite clear here, I couldn't be more pleased by this release and I tip my hat to Shout Factory for digging deep and putting out interesting cult items like this via their already amazing Scream Factory arm.

NINJA III is available from Shout Factory: HERE

WAC'd Out Sets: Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 7

I really can't get enough of this series and I'm glad to hear there more in the works. Each of the now seven volumes are packed with goodness and have really inspired me to become a pretty big pre-code film fan. This set is not exception to the quality of the previous installments in that it includes two long awaited Warren William dvd debuts and a couple others I was unaware of.

THE HATCHET MAN(1932; William A. Wellman)
This is one of those films that was not on my radar until its inclusion in this set. It has at least two things going for it. First, director Willam A. Wellman at the helm. Wellman is a regular part of these Forbidden Hollywood sets and a very welcome one at that. I like his films quite a bit. It's weird, I've been aware of him for a really long time, but only in the past few years become a stalwart supporter. I think I first heard his name mentioned years ago in the John Sayles film LIANNA. If I recall, Sayles himself plays a film professor in the film and at one point he get's very excited about a TV airing of Wellman's BATTLEGROUND(which I still need to see). Sayle's character specifically says, "That's a William Wellman we're doing next week. I better give it a look." So John Sayles was certainly aware of Wellman back in the 80s and I wish I had been too. Anyway, on to the second thing this film has going for it: Edward G. Robinson. Edward G. is among my favorite actors of all-time and is someone with whom I've rarely been disappointed. He's plays the titular character here.
As with nearly any film of this period, one encounters the issue of white actors playing Asians. I always find this  bit tricky, but with Edward G. on board and bearing in mind that this is just what was commonly done at the time, I'll give it a pass I suppose. Seeing Loretta Young made up this way is a touch off-putting though.
This film gave me some historical context for John Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA(a personal favorite of mine). The opening crawl sets a definition for the political factions in San Francisco's Chinatown known as "tongs", which were apparently almost constantly at war(which we later see exemplified in BTiLC). The Hatchet Man's role in all this is to carry out the will of his particular tong. This often means taking out those that have wronged other members of one's tong. Beware the tong war flag!

SKYSCRAPER SOULS(1932; Edgar Selwyn)
I was first turned onto this film by Cliff Aliperti, who runs Warrenwilliam.com. He mentioned both this film and EMPLOYEES ENTRANCE in his "VHS Gems" guest post for me last year. 
http://rupertpupkinspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/11/vhs-gems-guest-post-cliff-aliperti.html
I had seen and liked EMPLOYEES, but this one was new to me. It's a great showcase for Warren William for sure. Here he plays David Dwight, the bank owner and primary investor in the Seacoast National Bank Building. He's taken out a loan of 30 million dollars of the bank's money to help finish the building and finds himself in the rather precarious position of needing further financial support to keep it going. He's a bit of a womanizing cad, but a charismatic one. The film itself follows Dwight's exploits as well as those of some of the other men and women who work in the building.  It's like GRAND HOTEL, but a bit more ruthless and office-y. One of the film's other 'souls' is Lynn Harding, played by the dazzling Ms. Maureen O'Sullivan. As sexy as O'Sullivan is in the TARZAN films, she's just as alluring here. Warren William thinks so too. And he does his best to woo her whilst juggling a mistress, a wife and trying to avoid having his finances crash down around his ears.

EMPLOYEE'S ENTRANCE(1933; Roy Del Ruth)
This was the first Warren William film I ever saw and it's a powerhouse. This is where I realized just how dynamic a screen presence he had. Very reminiscent of a John Barrymore or something. Here, William  is Kurt Anderson, a cutthroat business wunderkind  who works his way up to running Franklin Monroe & Co., a big department store. Anderson is a cold-hearted, unbending watcher of the bottom line who will stop at nothing to keep the store in profits. His cold heart melts ever so slightly when he happens upon Madeline Walters(Loretta Young), upon a routine inspection of the 5th and 6th floors. Madeline is a free-spirited, unemployed gal looking for a job and Anderson sees clear to hiring her on as a model after an evening's "entertainment". Another person Anderson favors is one of his salespeople, Martin West(played by Wallace Ford). West has progressive ideas for making the store more profitable and he gains Anderson's trust. Eventually Anderson makes West his right hand man. Soon, West begins to take a liking to Madeline and things get complicated. he must choose between becoming Kurt Anderson Jr. and the love of his life. I'm not normally a huge fan of Loretta Young, but she is as gorgeous as ever here and pretty charming.  Allen Jenkins has a small role as store detective.

EX-LADY(1933; Robert Florey)
A platinum blonde Bette Davis plays Helen Bauer, an empowered, high-class illustrator and Gene Raymond(who I really came to like a lot via LOVE ON  A BET) is her secret suitor. They don't believe in marriage, but Bauer's folks feel differently about the situation. Gene Raymond wants to make an honest woman of her, but she's not interested. As far as she's concerned, "marriage is dull". But Raymond persists and finally talks her into it. She joins his ad agency as art director, but things don't go as swimmingly as they'd hoped. Things start to go south. Can they get back on track? Also featuring a windy Frank McHugh and the lovely Claire Dodd(raawrr).

Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 7 is available from Warner Archive: Here