Ask 411 Movies for 5.18.09: All This and Rabbit Stew

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 05.18.2009

Brain Candy, Drowning Mona, Drawn Together, Troll 2, SNL movies and horror monsters that payoff well!

As a note, I will be at Cinevent in Columbus, Ohio, this weekend. I'll be in the dealers' area with Creepy Classics. Cinevent is a very old school film show with a lot of vintage posters and 16 mm collectors. It's very laid back with an older clientele than most shows.

From YouTube this week we have a trailer for Best Worst Movie about the making and history of Troll 2.



RANDOM MOVIE I JUST HAPPENED TO HAVE WATCH ON TCM OF THE WEEK: THE BEST MAN



From 1964, Cliff Robertson and Henry Fonda play bitter rivals vying for their party's presidential nomination. Both have dirt on the other that will wreck their campaigns and play cat and mouse with each other with the information. Our good friend Kevin McCarthy has a meaty role for him as Fonda's campaign manager. Rumor has it that Ronald Reagan was up for one of the other candidates, probably John Merwin, but was rejected for "not looking presidential enough." The movie is based on a play by Gore Vidal. In this day and age, I thought the movie still had a lot to say about backroom political dealings and how many times a man is judged not on his record and convictions, but on frivolous elements that amount to a personality contest. Strong acting from the principals help to as the movie is very static thanks to it be adapted from a stage play.

My top ten favorite words in the English language in no particular order:
Malarkey
Cornucopia
Kegerator
Triskaidekaphobia
Hootenanny
Poppycock
Quadraphonic
Onomatopoeia
Lackadaisical
Stewardesses

Q: Death to Smoochy is a hilarious film, made so largely by Robin Williams, who diverts a bit from his usually manic likeable characters to play a manic, really unlikeable character.

Interesting note: Henry Rollins auditioned to play the role of the boxer who is a big Smoochy fan. If you like Rollins, check out his story about the audition, in which he simply freaked the hell out of director Danny DeVito. The story is told on his 2001 DVD Up For It.

BTW, I still contend that Wrong Guy starring Dave Foley is one of the most hilariously underrated comedies of all time.
-Michael L

A: I read the Henry Rollins trivia, but just didn't include it last week. Thanks.

Q: "BTW, I still contend that Wrong Guy starring Dave Foley is one of the most hilariously underrated comedies of all time."

I second that!!! Being a fan of the Kids in the Hall series, I know that he has the best straight face in the business. Too bad he hasn't done more.

Brain Candy is another underrated comedy by the Kids....
-Mikel

A: We've covered The Wrong Guy a couple weeks ago, so lets hit Brain Candy.



From 1996, a pharmaceutical company comes out with a new anti-depressant that works by making people remember their happiest memory. However, it causes comas. The scientists and company marketers argue over revealing the information. Several "Kids in the Hall" characters appear in the film along with Mark McKinney's drug company head character being based on show producer Lorne Michaels. In a 2004 interview with the Onion AV Club, Dave Foley admitted that he had a much larger part in the film originally, but quit the troop halfway through writing of the script because he didn't like the direction it was going in and fighting among cast members. He only appeared due to contractual obligations. I find the movie kind of funny in spots, but it does feel like they were throwing too many darts at the board to see what would stick.

Q: Drowning Mona
-Lucky

A: I'm guessing you're suggesting another underrated comedy. Or maybe you're playing the random verb-noun game and got lucky, Lucky.



From 2000, Mona (Bette Midler) is a mean, bitter woman who crashes her car and dies. Sheriff Rash (Danny DeVito) investigates to find that many people had a motive to kill Mona, even his own daughter Ellen (Neve Campbell), who is soon to marry Bobby (Casey Affleck), business partner of Mona's son Jeff (Marcus Thomas). Also, Mona's husband Phil (William Fichtner) was having an affair with waitress Rona (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Q: I dont know about anyone else but I thought Drawn Together on Comedy Central was hilarious! Any particular reason it was canceled Leonard?
-Travis

A: I liked the basic premise and thought the show could be funny at times, but other times I thought it went way too far out of its way to be gross, weird or ultra-hip. Yet, it wasn't so over the top as most late night Adult Swim cartoons, which are so far out there they go past not funny to being funny again if that makes any sense.

In March 2007, creators Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein left Comedy Central for a contract with Fox to create new series or work on existing ones produced by the company. Comedy Central had the option to continue the series without them, but decided not to. However, on April 9 as guests on Adam Corolla's podcast, Jeser and Silverstein said they were working on a "Drawn Together" DVD movie to be released this December.

I give you a video interview of Tara Strong talking about Clara. I chose this one for the use of the word "hey-nanner-nanner."



Q: Well I know you seem to be a fan but i would not put the best SNL movie label on the blues brothers it was good but not even in my top 5.
-Sketchy1

Q: Blues Brothers is just on another level compared to any other SNL movie, so much that it's largely forgotten that it originated on SNL.
-G Walla

A: Two varying views on The Blues Brothers. Seriously, if you don't think its one of the best SNL based movies ever, you're crazy. We've talked about most SNL movies in the past and it turns out the only one I haven't seen is Superstart, so I'll rank the others on my personal preference.

Blues Brothers
Wayne's World
Wayne's World 2
The Ladies Man
Coneheads
A Night at the Roxbury
Blues Brothers 2000
Stuart Saves the Family
It's Pat

Now, Wikipedia has The Waterboy listed as an SNL based movie, but I don't think that's true. IMDB says it comes from a combo of Cajun Man and "The Lonesome Kicker" song. If so, I'd put it at four on the above list. They also have listed Harold from T. Sean Shannon based on a short film from him on SNL. Loosely associated, Office Space was based on some Mike Judge animated shorts, Bob Roberts had the character of the same name appear in an SNL short. The Folksmen from A Mighty Wind also first appeared on SNL and the character of Corky St. Clair in Waiting for Guffman came from the famous synchronized swimming sketch.

Q: I would have to rank Stewart Saves His Family as the worst SNL movie. It's one of the only movies I've ever walked out of.

As far as underrated comedies go, I would have to say that Search and Destroy doesn't get much love.
-Mario

A: There are a couple movies under that name, but I'm guessing you mean the one from 1995. A movie producer (Griffin Dunne) tries to get a self-help guru (Dennis Hopper) to let him film his book. The producer gets a shady businessman (Christopher Walken) and the man's secretary (Ileana Douglas) to work the guru into it



Q: Alright, I was recently watching a couple of campy horror movies. One of them was Tremors and the other was a movie called Feast. IMO both movies were good at what they were trying to get over. I feel that they both had a decent build up before we got to see the big bad.

In your opinion, what other horror movies did well at building up anticipation and the payoff before we get to see the whatever we're supposed to be afraid of?
-Dwayne

A: I think most of your really good iconic horror films do a good job of leading up to the big reveal of the monster Jaws, Alien the original Frankenstein and Bride of Frakenstein. To get us off of underrated comedies I'll leave this question open to the readership.

Don't die.

"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."