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DButcher
Reviews
I Love Lucy: First Stop (1955)
An Historic Episode Of Television
Contrary to the popular misconception that Mike and Carol Brady of the Brady Bunch were the first married couple to share a bed, this episode is the first episode in the history of series television in which a married couple shares a bed. The "motel" setting freed the convention of the censors, allowing the first realistic depiction of a married couple. On another note, while this is a one-episode occurrence, the first married couple on television to share a bed is still not the Brady family, but is in fact Herman and Lilly Munster.
Nonetheless, this episode provides a fascinating insight into the conventions of television in the 1950s. Ironically, a motel setting is in many ways more suggestive than a home setting. It is also interesting to note that, while the Ricardos may be the first married couple to share a bed together, Fred and Ethel Mertz also share a bed together after the Ricardos.
Head of the Class (1986)
Typical Virtues, Typical Vices Of Solid Second-Rate Sit-Com
The show is currently running on Nick-At-Nite, back-to-back with Perfect Strangers.
It is amazing how good the casts of both shows are. It is also equally appalling how bad the scripts are for both shows. These shows have not aged well. Also, has anybody noticed that the filter on the videotape looks very odd? Most of the second-rate (and I use that term not as an insult, but to say that they're not Cheers) sitcoms from the 80's have this peculiar look.
Remember the "video white" look on a lot of early 80's MTV. Compare Toni Basil's Mickey with the video for Men Without Hats' Safety Dance. Both are weird, but the filmed one still looks like it has production values.
This speaks volumes to the superiority of film over videotape. How many television shows lose a quality over time because modern video points out the glaring inadequacies of the medium's past?
The cast of Head Of The Class were a perfect combination in chemistry. It is too bad that the show had to let that cast down in so many other areas.
Friend or Foe (2002)
A Game Show Revelation: Famine, Blood, Pestilence & Death
Very rarely does a game show offer you one epiphanous experience equivalent to the Divine Revelation of St. John, but the game show "Friend Or Foe" has the benefit of not one, but four dramatic insights into human nature. They are as follows:
1. When mankind works together in a spirit of harmony, the mutual reward produces not only material gain, but the feeling of trusting your fellow man.
2. That the world is made for the cunning, and in the wake of those who would deceive, the innocent are caught in their snares and left to languish with the dull-eyed feeling of their own stupidity to warm them. Soon, they return hardened with the lessons of life to make them wiser.
3. Ultimately mutual destruction will beset those who seek to destroy each other, leaving a void of broken dreams to punish those who would do harm to their brother for mutual betrayal leads only to a burden for the wicked.
But the fourth and most important revelation. No matter how much time Viacom (owner of Game Show Network) has to burn off on a back-dated contract from MTV that they acquired in the merger, the only people who will suffer a torment as of being subjugated to horrors of hell are those who have to watch Kennedy in what is the single worst game show of the last 10 years. That includes STUDS.
So the only question you have to ask, probably about twenty minutes into this train wreck, is the following: Would the seas running red with blood really be that bad right about now?
704 Hauser (1994)
Acting Is Good, Premise Is Forced
The cast is a very good cast with some decent performances by the always dependable John Amos (Good Times) and a then-unknown Maura Tierney who has been good in shows like "News Radio". The problem is that the show is somewhat superficial in the creation of its characters. The exploration of a multi-ethnic, multi-racial family may seem revolutionary, but each character is a cliche. Archie and Meathead were cliches of the pinko lefty and the bigot Nixon supporter (the "silent majority?"), but they were cliches with depth. That depth within the cliche expanded the character. In this return to the same house, Norman Lear seemed content to revisit the setting by creating characters that were supposed to spark the same fireworks, but lack the depth to make you care. The only true positive thing to come of the show is its failure. Lear seems content that a black man sitting in Archie's chair should be shocking, but the great thing about how far this country has come since 1971 is that a black man sitting in Archie's chair is not shocking. Whatever success Lear had in breaking down societal walls are primarily the reasons for the show's failure. God bless America.
The Final Sacrifice (1990)
Can't Really Add Anything Else
This movie is as bad as everybody says it is and I never miss MST3K when this is on. However, I believe that the name is not peculiar at all. I think it has a great deal of gravitas. If I make a political thriller, I will use the name. "Congressman Rowdower's office is on Line 2." Say it, it's fun. "Today, Congressman Rowsdower announced his support for the appropriations bill." "Congressman Rowsdower while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity." The name just keeps on giving. I love Zap Rowsdower.
Dude, Where's My Car? (2000)
Gen-X Existentialism Make Dude A Transcendental Classic
Not since the seminal late-70's work of Bruce Springsteen has the car served as a metaphor for post-modern disillusion and the exploration of a cultural wasteland driven by hopelessness and nihilism as the searing new drama "Dude, Where's My Car?" Drawing on the work of Bergman and Fassbinder, we are introduced to the mythic quest of two protoheroes whose Quixotic attempts to find nobility of action elevate them to the level of mythic self-fulfillment.
Caught up in a Bacchanalian revelry, the two young men (Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott) awake to find that their car is missing. Thus begins their search for the elusive vehicle, which becomes as much a search for their own souls as it becomes a material search. Retracing their steps they encounter a vibrant assortment of odd characters invigorated with the deftly surreal touch that draws on the work of the great Italian director Frederico Fellini. While their efforts may be viewed by some as comical, this superficial analysis ignores the very serious and almost humorless examination that director Danny Leiner brings to the film's execution. He is too busy grappling with Kierkegaardian existentialism and basic spiritual elements in play. His is a sober and austere exploration of the fundamental human question, aren't we all just dudes and aren't we all just searching for our cars.
Perhaps the most refreshing element is to see such a religious message explored with such sincerity. The car that they are searching for is not really a car, but their desire to obtain a higher consciousness and a spiritual awakening goes beyond such crass considerations. In today's movie market, the typical approach by studios would be to market a string of teen sexual comedies which promote the worst kind of cinematic values, empty comedy of superficial and dubious merit aimed at a teen audience not concerned with quality or integrity. Instead, "Dude" rises above the meandering and displaced nightmares of depravity. It is truly a wonder to behold.
Battlefield Earth (2000)
I Pray For Extinction, Take Me Now
I believe in tolerance for other people's beliefs and I hate religious bigotry, so I couldn't help but think of Travolta's connection to Scientology while watching this film. This film had a definite spiritual effect on me and made me contemplate my own Christian faith. It made me think back to the stories of my Sunday school. Particularly the story of Stephen. I thought that Travolta was very much like a modern-day Stephen. The first Christian martyr who was only a generation removed from the life of Christ who, inspired by what he considered divine teachings, went out to spread the word and suffered his tribulations at the hands of an ignorant few. Some might assume that I felt empathy for Travolta as I drew such parallels. Actually, I was just thinking "I've wasted $6.50 on this piece of crap" and CAN WE BRING BACK STONING.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Psychological Time-bomb
I went into The Blair Witch Project expecting the "SCARIEST MOVIE EVER MADE!!!!!!!!" And as I sat there, I found the movie enjoyable, somewhat suspenseful, interesting, but far from being the "SCARIEST MOVIE EVER MADE!!!!!!!!!!" That was, until the final scene. If you are paying attention to the movie, the final scene's resonnance is absolutely powerful. I made the mistake of going to the film, based on seeing ONE, I repeat ONE movie trailer, so I am not some cynnic jaded by the hype. My reaction was visceral. My body temperature dropped by a good 20 degrees and I was paranoid for a week. I believe that if people who dismiss the the film had watched it with an open mind, they would have found it as disturbing as those who enjoy the movie did. It is more a psychological time bomb than a film. I will be the first to admit that the film was not a constant terror-filled joy-ride through the darkness of our minds. But I could not imagine any other film that has finished with such a disturbing and thought provoking ending that treats the film-goer with the respect of not force-feeding everything to you. Oh by the way, saw the Sixth Sense a week later, and realized there is an upside to production values.
One Froggy Evening (1955)
Von Stroheim Can Kiss My Singing Green ***
"Greed" is one of the great American classics, but so often we limit ourselves to thinking of a film as a multi-hour feature film with live actors. In "One Froggy Evening" Chuck Jones tells the story of a construction worker demolishing a building and discovers a frog in the cornerstone. A SINGING FROG. Naturally, the first impulse is to make money on the frog. The only problem, the frog will only sing for this one guy. Not paying crowds, not talent agents, ONLY HIM. Slowly he is driven mad, not so much by the frog but by his own failed plans with the frog. Failing to recognize the special gift he has, he sees the building going up and sticks the frog back into the cornerstone. Years pass, and when the laser demolition-man is vaporizing the building with his 21st century technology, what does he find? A SINGING FROG. "You know," he thinks, "I could make some money." And so the cycle continues. People of any time are the same, they never learn. There's your moral. Chuck Jones does in 7 minutes what Von Stroheim took 7 hours to do. A genuine masterpiece of animation.
Schindler's List (1993)
Transcendental Film-making
Back in December 1993, I drove into Kansas City to view Schindler's List at a midnight showing. The film, which dealt with something as simple as human compassion in a time when compassion was far from simple was truly one of the most magnificent pieces of film-making I had ever seen. But as truly moving as the film was, my distinct memories come after the film, at 4 AM on a Wednesday, driving home through the Plaza Area of KC. Anyone who has ever been to Kansas City knows the beauty of the Plaza Lights. With nobody else on the road, with the frost glazing the streets, the stillness of the moment still haunts me. I know that if it were any other Wednesday morning, I perhaps would not have appreciated that beauty quite so much as that particular Wednesday. The real power of Schindler's List and its simple story of a man who did the right thing at a time when there was madness all around him is not just one of the most important films historically, not just one of the great films artistically, not just one of the most powerful films emotionally, but it stands as an achievement that transforms the very way you see the world. I know that watching this film on video, picked-up at the video store on some rather ordinary Wednesday cannot really convey as much power as it did to me on that winter night 5 years ago. Watching it on video is still more moving than many other films that could never even imagine itself to aim so high. But the real magic for me is that this one of the films that made me realize the power that comes through in the dark of a theater, or through the dark of night.
The Crying Game (1992)
The Most Misunderstood Masterpiece Of Our Times
Neil Jordan's "The Crying Game" is the ultimate achievement in his career of variations on a theme. A film which has been embraced (unfortunately) by the gay community as a film about the acceptance of homosexuality, the very praise of the film for this reason has missed the point entirely.
Jordan, through the story of an IRA terrorist who promises a soon to be dead British soldier that he will take care of his "girlfriend" explores Jordan's fascination with idea of the individual pitted against the demands of ideology. It does this in spellbinding and dramatic fashion. By the way, she's a guy. Thus the much talked about plot twist which is seminal to the story. But this plot point does not become an end, only a beginning. The IRA terrorist, Fergis (played by Steven Rea) had fallen for this "woman". Now, freed from the sexual feelings, Fergis still cares about her/him. When his IRA associates come back to town to plot their next terrorist act, they hold her life as a bargaining chip, forcing him to choose between the person (humanistic) or his beliefs (ideological). The unfolding of the story is riveting. If you have seen any other Jordan films, you know that this theme plays out eloquently in all his films. Whether it is Brad Pitt in "Interview With A Vampire" struggling with his conflicted nature or The relationship between Liam Neeson and Alan Rickman in "Michael Collins," Jordan uses this theme as a powerful storyteller. While the theme of conflicted nature and being true to people over ideals may have resonance in the gay community that have misread the film, it is really a transcendent question we all face. Eloquently summed up in the age-old story of the frog and the scorpion, "The Crying Game" evokes with power and emotion questions which affect us all.