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Post by brutalis on Mar 26, 2020 13:43:01 GMT -5
I still crack up over the horse dying from a heart attack in the office from the sounds of the gunshot. And I cannot count how many times the guys did Bluto's mashed potato zit bit in the school cafeteria during high school.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 30, 2020 7:57:42 GMT -5
More weekend, more funny! So much funny needed these days, was my timing apropos or what this month with suggesting comedy movie watching?
1st up Friday night is Tim Burton spotlighting Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!!! Yes, I hoped to summon him, as what the hell, right?!? 1988 saw the ghost with the most begin his leap to fame in a splendid effects laden comedy that is charming and heartfelt in providing laughs and scares aplenty.
2nd up Saturday afternoon once finished with mowing the lawn was 1987's Princess Bride comedy fantasy filled to the brim with lines and scenes of quotability. A spectacular cast provides this movie as Wesley the Dread Pirate Roberts searches for his one true love, Princess Buttercup (sound more like a horse to bet on at the race track) and finding allies and friends with the one and only swordsman Inigo Montoya (c'mon, you all know his line, and if you don't...shame on you!) alongside the villain turned good Fezzik the giant or better known to us all as Andre the Giant. A fantastic search, daring swordfights, a farting swamp and humor guaranteed to make you smil.
3rd movie for a lazy Sunday morning is a favorite from my senior year in high school which a gang of us would go see all summer long at the drive in, 1980's Caddyshack! don't get me wrong, none of us teens at the time could give a hoot about Golf, but dang it all this is one funny movie with a dancing gopher who can outwit the groundskeeper three ways to a hole in one. Who of you after this movie hasn't wanted to drop a Baby Ruth candy bar into a public swimming pool? And Ted Knight plays a perfect foil (fool?) for the young caddie's.
What did you all watch for laffs? Besides the Covid 19 news all weekend?!?
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 30, 2020 9:29:29 GMT -5
Letter to Three Wives (1949) was on TCM on Saturday night as part of their celebration of Joe and Herman Mankiewicz.
This was written and directed by Joe and he took home an Oscar for each.
The premise: three upwardly mobile post-war suburban wives receive a note from a longtime rival of theirs who says she's leaving town today with one of their husbands. They're stuck on a Hudson River day trip with kids, and SPOILER ALERT, they don't have cellphones, so they're incommunicado.
The stories of their marriages unspool in separate flashbacks as each one analyzes her marriage to see if it's her husband who's running off with the sophisticated, apparently perfect Addie Ross.
The comedy, brittle and sophisticated, plays like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf lite, with satirical jabs at radio ads and shows, class in America, the abuse of correct English, and the fragile male ego. Mankiewicz's script reads like a run-through for All About Eve, which won him the same two Oscars a year later. (Kirk Douglas's character, a sometimes sanctimonious teacher, is given to the same kind of pompous intellectual rants as Gary Merrill's Bill in Eve.)
A comedy of manners that skates close to tragedy but avoids it deftly. Excellent performances by the great Thelma Ritter as a sagacious and sarcastic maid, Paul Douglas as a gruff, rapacious businessman whose measures success in dollars and acquisitions, and Florence Bates (one of the great character actresses) as a lowbrow radio producer. The laurels, though, go to Linda Darnell as the sensuous, razor-sharp girl from the other side of the tracks (literally... her family's house shakes like a cement mixer every time a train rumbles by). Her career and her life were plagued by various problems, and she died tragically, far too young, in a fire, the kind of death she had always feared most.
Clever, astute, and ahead of its time. Mankiewicz even got away with a sexual double entendre that sounded like the kind of bawdy humor we take for granted on any stupid sitcom today that made me shout out "What the?" when I heard it. ("It invovles the word "penetration." Take it from there and wonder how it got past the censors. (Remember, this was before The Moon is Blue controversy.)
Well worth a look for anyone who likes crisp comedy and commentary. Also has a perplexing ending we don't associate with movies of that era.
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Post by brutalis on Apr 1, 2020 7:37:05 GMT -5
Final day of the month yesterday and after 2 chaotic days at the hospital (thank you Covid 19  ) I wanted to put on a movie which I could enjoy and have some laffs with. Since I began with a western I chose to close with a western: The Three Amigos, 1986 fun from Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Steve Martin portraying silent film stars who when fired from their studio receive a letter from a poor Mexican village that have seen their movies and think they are really gunfighters who protect the innocent. The trio think it is an invite to perform for the village when it is actually a call for help. The evil El Guapo and his minions are confused by the silly theatrics and shenanigans of the trio at 1st and eventually get down to evil business. Ed Grimley gets shot in the arm and suddenly the Amigos Tres' are pleading for their lives. Humiliated and with nothing to return to in America the boy's three sneak around and try to become true heroes. Dressing the villagers in cowboy outfits just the same as the Amigo's wear, they stage a revolt where the entire town confuses the villains by having it look like they are being attacked by the Three Caballero's from everywhere. Just the right kind of dumb, silly and goofy fun I needed. Some actual thought and creativity went into some of the movie while other parts remain rather mindlessly bland, but overall a pleasurable watch. It has gained some cult standing over the years as Chase and Short and Martin play together quite well. |
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Post by The Captain on Apr 1, 2020 8:47:17 GMT -5
brutalis, such a great bunch of movies you've watched in the past week! Most of those have been played in my household as well within the past few months. I will say, I don't think Animal House has aged well. It's still funny in spots, but overall, I didn't laugh as much as I did when I would watch it a decade or two ago. Caddyshack, on the other hand, is just as hilarious as the first time I saw it back in the 80s. This is one of those films I can watch over and over and it still has me roaring. Watched both Beetlejuice and The Princess Bride with my daughters last fall. My older daughter wanted to see the former because she is obsessed with the Broadway musical, and she enjoyed it a lot. As for the latter, it is just about a perfect movie, hitting all the right notes throughout its run time. As for me, the only comedy movies I watched in March were the first 2/3 of The Cornetto Trilogy, those being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, both with my wife. We watched SotD right after the self-isolation order was given in PA and Hot Fuzz last Friday night. After this rewatching of both films, I have come to the opinion that Hot Fuzz is actually the better movie overall, while I think SotD has the more memorable high spots.
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Post by brutalis on Apr 1, 2020 9:02:31 GMT -5
Thanks The Captain for the compliment. So many more I could have added to the watch list if there was more hours in the day. Recommended viewing Brutalis list for giggles and gufffaws (in no particular order) History of the World Blues Brothers Porky's Revenge of the Nerds Fast Times at Ridgemont High Risky Business MASH Airplane 1/2 Ferris Buellers Day Off Back to the Future Beverly Hills Cop 48 Hrs The Jerk Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Roxanne Ghostbusters 1/2 Weird Science Balls of Fury And then there are the below classics which laffs depends on which movie(s) you may like best. 3 Stooges Marx Bro's Abbott and Costello Hope/Crosby or Hope single movies Mel Brooks |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Apr 1, 2020 13:39:16 GMT -5
Looks like berkley is the winner this month, can't wait to see what April will have in store for us! |
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Post by berkley on Apr 1, 2020 16:39:05 GMT -5
Keeping to the very broad sort of categories we've done so far, how about ... European Cinema (including the British Isles and Iceland, for the purposes of this thread). Here's one I've been thinking of watching the last few months, so this could be an incentive for me to get down to it:  |
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 1, 2020 19:39:04 GMT -5
Keeping to the very broad sort of categories we've done so far, how about ... European Cinema (including the British Isles, for the purposes of this thread). Here's one I've been thinking of watching the last few months, so this could be an incentive for me to get down to it: One of my favorite movies. I’ve seen it a bunch of times because it’s on TCM a lot. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 1, 2020 19:43:38 GMT -5
I probably won’t be playing but I saw a lot of German movies the last week or so.
Destiny (1921) by Fritz Lang
Storm Over Mont Blanc (1930) with a performance from Leni Riefenstahl before she was Hitler’s favorite director
The Kaiser’s Lackey (1951) an East German film that is amazing
A few weeks ago I saw My Best Fiend, a film by Werner Herzog about his long term association with Klaus Kinski.
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Post by berkley on Apr 2, 2020 0:29:32 GMT -5
I probably won’t be playing but I saw a lot of German movies the last week or so. Destiny (1921) by Fritz Lang Storm Over Mont Blanc (1930) with a performance from Leni Riefenstahl before she was Hitler’s favorite director The Kaiser’s Lackey (1951) an East German film that is amazing A few weeks ago I saw My Best Fiend, a film by Werner Herzog about his long term association with Klaus Kinski. Don't think I heard of any of those, so I'm glad you listed them here. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Apr 2, 2020 7:14:01 GMT -5
Destiny (1921) by Fritz Lang A few weeks ago I saw My Best Fiend, a film by Werner Herzog about his long term association with Klaus Kinski. We have VERY similar movie tastes, even outside of Lugosi! |
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Post by Calidore on Apr 2, 2020 11:24:34 GMT -5
I'm about to resume my box set of Fritz Lang silent films with Destiny. It's hard to binge silent movies for very long, so I needed a break after the first few. Just need to finish my current Mad Max marathon first.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 2, 2020 12:41:55 GMT -5
I saw Siegfried last fall and I have Kreimhild’s Revenge on my watch list on Kanopy.
And if you ever use Tubi, they have a very interesting late silent German film called Asphalt. For free!
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Post by berkley on Apr 2, 2020 12:52:58 GMT -5
Edited my post to include Iceland under the category of European film, just to be clear. Any other countries that would be considered ambiguous in this regard? Russia? Turkey? I'll go along with whatever the consensus seems to be amngst our participants.
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) I wanted to put on a movie which I could enjoy and have some laffs with. Since I began with a western I chose to close with a western: The Three Amigos, 1986 fun from Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Steve Martin portraying silent film stars who when fired from their studio receive a letter from a poor Mexican village that have seen their movies and think they are really gunfighters who protect the innocent. The trio think it is an invite to perform for the village when it is actually a call for help. 
