Ask 411 Movies for 10.19.09: Attack of the Killer Movie Columns!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 10.19.2009

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, King of Queen, pan and scan versus letterbox, the most talented person in Hollywood, football movies, best trailers, quotable films, Universal Monsters and I finally watch The Room.

This coming Saturday, Oct. 24, I will be at the Midwest premiere of "House of the Wolfman" in Ligonier, Pa., at the Ligonier Theater. Go to www.creepyclassics.com to learn more.

From YouTube this week for our month of Halloween themed commercials we have a pretty famous one for Pepsi and Doritos from the early nineties. It's remembered for Dracula having the famous curtain line "what no dip?" after Frankenstein shows up at the party with snacks.



NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: THE ROOM

Yes, I finally watched it. I didn't see where it was humorously bad or mind numbingly bad at. It was like soft core Canadian porn bad. It was just sort of there and bored me without eliciting too strong a response in any direction. The acting was atrocious with a nonsensical script filled with non-sequiturs. Characters wandered in and out without rhyme or reason. Plotlines were tossed about like that famous football of theirs. Filmmaker Wiseau seems like he's seen maybe a handful of movies in his life and said, "yeah, I can do that." I'm sure he'd want to try brain surgery after viewing that once to. There is also nothing in the movie that tips it as being a black comedy. It's just a really poorly made drama that is unintentionally funny to some by how poorly constructed it is. As I said earlier, Wiseau was just smart enough to pickup on how people were viewing the film and riding that wave to more success than he would have otherwise had.



Q: What do the terms pan and scan and letterbox mean?
-Dan

A: Back in the dark ages before high definition television, most TV sets were squares. Most film screens were rectangular. As basic geometry tells us, if we try to lay a rectangle over a square, there is going to be some hanging off the sides. So, feature films when shown on television had to be re-edited and re-cut to fit the 4:3 aspect ration of television, no matter what its original ratio was. When an editor is readying a print for TV they ‘scan' in what they want, usually focusing on the center of the shot. Sometimes the action will move to one end of the frame or the other, so the editor has to follow along or create the illusion of a pan shot. So, pan and scan is basically the editing process of transferring feature films to television.

Letterbox, named for it resembling the size and shape of a letterbox, is a way to transfer feature film to television in order to preserve the original ratio. It's wider to show the whole shot and by doing so leaves black bars at the top and bottom of the frame. Some people erroneously believe that they are not getting the whole shot because of the black bars or don't like it because it doesn't fill the whole screen. These people are idiots.



Q: Do you consider The King of Queens to be an underrated tv show? I mean Kevin James is a pretty likable dude and Jerry Stiller & Patton Oswalt have great comedic timing. Not to mention Leah Remini is SMOKING hot.
-Guest 3838

A: If I'm flipping through the channels and find "King of Queens" on I'll watch a few minutes of it, but it doesn't really hold my attention. I don't think the writing was very good, but it got by due to a good cast that got the most out of the material. It kept the revitalization of Jerry Stiller's career going after "Seinfeld" and served as a launching pad for Patton Oswalt, whose standup I love, and I do agree that Remini is hot. Remember when she was Zack's girlfriend on "Saved by the Bell" when they all worked at the summer resort? I like the theme song too, by eighties stalwarts Billy Vera and the Beaters.



Q: In my opinion, Robert Duvall is probably the most talented actor hollywood has ever seen. He is an award winning actor. He writes, directs, produces, and stars in many of his own projects, and he even wrote his own songs for the film Tender Mercies. Are there any other actors/actresses who are incredibly multi-talented?
-Dr. Mickhead

A: By using your criteria I would have to mention Keith Carradine. He's acted in more than 100 movies and produced the 1989 TV film The Forgotten. He won an Oscar for "I'm Easy" from Nashville and has written other songs and sang in other projects. He also painted his own artwork for the 1988 movie The Moderns.

I would also mention Clint Eastwood. He's an award winning and nominated director, producer, actor, composer and songwriter. He's also a pretty good jazz piano player and has dabbled in still photography. He was also once the mayor of Carmel, Calif., and was a parks commissioner. He was a swimming instructor in the military during the Korean War, is also a decent golfer and learned mountain climbing for The Eiger Sanction. It doesn't have anything to do with the question, but trolling imdb for trivia on Eastwood I see he was up for Al Pacino's part in Any Given Sunday, but turned it down when he couldn't direct the film too.

Warren Beatty is also an award winning and nominated actor, writer and director and he wrote songs featured in Ishtar and Bulworth. According to imdb, he's got a photographic memory for phone numbers. Now, that's talent.

Q: Hey Leonard,

Great column regarding baseball films. I've actually added quite a few to my Netflix. After thinking about it, it made me wonder: What are the greatest football movies? I've seen Any Given Sunday and Remember the Titans, two of my favorites, but secretly, I enjoy The Replacements with Keanu Reeves. Are there any other good or even decent Football films out there?

Speaking of Keanu, why does he get such a bad rep? I'll admit that some of his stuff isn't that great, but he still does some pretty good films. Little Buddha, A Scanner Darkly, The Lake House (I constantly defend it, it's a decent movie) and the first two Matrix films were good. Is it just because he's so monotone? David Duchovny is the same, but people appear to enjoy the things he does.
-Wasabi

A: A friend of mine took an acting class in college and the professor was the acting tutor for Keanu Reeves on Much Ado About Nothing. He said that she said she used to say that anyone could do Shakespeare, then she met Keanu Reeves. She doesn't say that anymore.

It's not so much the monotone delivery, as how that leads to the idea that he's dull and bland as an actor. I also wouldn't say that he's technically proficient as Laurence Olivier, but he's also a lot better than the tons of actors out there in low budget indy films and regional theater. As recent performances in Constantine and The Day the Earth Stood Still show, Reeves is learning how to make what he can do and what people's perceptions are of him work for him. He's also got a lot of turkeys on his filmography that does him no favors such as Johnny Mnemonic, Chain Reaction, The Watcher, Sweet November and Feeling Minnesota.

A few footballs movies got mentioned in the column comments last week, so we'll touch on them and a few more.



North Dallas Forty (1979): Loosely based on the Dallas Cowboys of the seventies, this was the first real grim and gritty look at the world of professional football. It was based on a novel written by former Cowboys receiver Peter Gent. Gent's equivalent in the movie is Nick Nolte's Phillip Elliot, an aging receiver who keeps going thanks to painkillers and the support of his quarterback, played by Mac Davis.



Semi-Tough (1977): Billy Clyde Puckett (Burt Reynolds) and Marvin "Shake" Tiller (Kris Kristofferson) play two football players who room with and vie for the affections of the team owner's daughter, Barbara Jane Bookman (Jill Clayburgh). Tiller becomes more self-confident and self-aware after completing a self-improvement seminar called B.E.A.T. ran by Friedrich Bismark (Bert Convy). This leads him to a relationship with Barbara and Puckett takes the course, but doesn't quite get it. However, he confesses his love for her just as she's about ready to marry Tiller and wins her over. More than a football movie, the film is a parody of new religions and the EST seminars ran by Werner Erhard that were popular at the time. However, both leads played college football and this helped them in scenes where they were stacked up against some real pros.

Necessary Roughness (1991): Texas State University is placed on probation by the NCAA because of corruption. They have to cobble a football team together from their actual student body and without any scholarships. Head coach Ed Gennero (Hector Elizondo) takes the job nobody else wanted and hires Wally Rig as his assistant coach (Robert Loggia). Rig recruits former high school star Paul Blake (Scott Bakula) now in his mid-thirties, but who had to halt his career to take over the family farm. He falls for one of the professors (Harley Jane Kozak) and convinces another (Sinbad) to play on the team too. Also notable among the players is Kathy Ireland as their place kicker from the women's soccer team. If you liked The Replacements, you'll like this.



Varsity Blues (1999): When star quarterback Lance Harbor (Paul Walker) is injured, high school coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight) has to place his faith in backup Jonathon Moxon (James Van Der Beek), who is slowly realizing that he doesn't want to play football despite his father's pushing. The movie is possibly best remembered for Ali Larter wearing a whip cream bikini, which was actually shaving cream because whip cream wouldn't stick right. The University of Toronto trademarked the name Varsity Blues for their sports teams in the eighties and sued Paramount Pictures for using the name and portraying sports in a negative light. The matter was settled out of court and the college set up several scholarships with the money.



Friday Night Lights (2004): Based on the popular novel about the cult that is Texas high school football and later turned into a television series, the film follows the true story of the 1988 season of the Perriman High School football team, with several of the former players and coaches appearing in the movie. Billy Bob Thorton stars as the coach.



The Program (1993): David S. Ward, the man behind Major League, takes a look at college football with this tale of players from varied backgrounds trying to put it all together to make a bowl game. The cast features James Caan, Halley Berry, Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson and Joey Lauren Adams. A scene in the movie where players lay in the middle of the road to prove their bravery was taken out early into the theatrical run after two were killed and several injured trying to copy the stunt.



Brian's Song (1971): Skip the remake and stick to the original, this and Old Yeller are the only two movies men are officially allowed to cry at. Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) and Brian Piccolo (James Caan) compete for a starting running back job with the Chicago Bears and famed coach George Halas (Jack Warden). The two are made roommates and eventually become friends. Piccolo helps Sayers to rehab from what would have been a career ending injury back then and Sayers is then by his side when Piccolo is dying. Sayers wanted to play himself in the movie, but couldn't do to training camp conflicts. Louis Gossett Jr. was originally hired to play Sayers, but tore his Achilles tendon shortly before filming started while working out. Producer David L. Wolper promised to make it up to Gossett and later cast him in "Roots."



Everybody's All-American (1988): Gavin Grey (Dennis Quaid) is a college football star destined for the pros, who marries Babs Rogers (Jessica Lange). Grey has a hard time adapting to life after football success and this leads his wife to another man (Timothy Hutton). John Goodman plays Grey's best friend. Real life NFL player John Fox broke Quaid's collarbone and shots of him really in pain appear in the movie. The film was originally set to be made in 1982 with Tommy Lee Jones as star and director Thomas Rickman. Warren Beatty, Robert Redford and Robert De Niro's names all floated around the film for years too.



All the Right Moves (1983): Stefen Djordjevic (Tom Cruise) wants to earn a college football scholarship so he get out of the dead end Pennsylvania town he lives in. At the same time, his coach (Craig T. Nelson) is bucking for a college job. Their dreams clash. Lea Thompson plays Stefen's girlfriend. Director Michael Chapman wanted Cruise and Thompson to go ‘undercover' at local high schools to get into the right mindset. Cruise was spotted after one day when a student recognized him from Taps. Thompson lasted four days, was asked out by a bunch of guys and was caught smoking, according to imdb.



Trouble Along the Way (1953): Steve Williams (John Wayne) is a disgraced and divorced football coach trying to hold onto the custody of his daughter (Sherry Jackson). It helps that their social worker (Donna Reed) falls for Steve and he's given a second chance at a tiny Catholic College (with Charles Coburn as the priest in charge). James Dean served as an extra.

Q: So it's Saturday afternoon, you are flipping through the channels and "Movie X" is on. You now have to stop and watch the rest of the movie.

So what's on your list of "Movie X's". Well - since that list may be 100 titles long - how about the first 5 that pop into your head.

* The Fifth Element
* Caddyshack
* Stripes
* Armaggedon
* Deep Impact
-Bobby C

A: As C. Drama mentioned in the comments last week, there are some movies on basic cable that are edited all to hell that makes them hard to watch when normally you would sit down and watch them. For me, Pulp Fiction and Big Lebowski fall into this category. For others it doesn't bother me too much.

On your list, the only film would be Caddyshack for me. From what C. Drama had, I'd go with Blazing Saddles. Others for me:
Back to the Future
Smokey and the Bandit
Major League
Ghostbusters
Airplane!
Just about any James Bond or Rocky film, because I know them front to back and can pick them up at any point.

Q: On an episode of Family Guy that I saw not too long ago (I can't remember the name of the episode), Peter & Lois get into an argument and quote several lines of dialogue from a movie assumably word for word. Something along the lines of Peter liking who he is and his friends liking who he is. Afterwards Chris laughs and says "movie references". Do you know the name of the movie being referenced?
-Guest 1234

A: A tip of the top hat to Stewart in the comments last week who pegged this as Planes, Trains and Automobiles.





Q: What are some of the most quoted/quotable movies of all time? Ghostbusters, Napolean Dynamite, The Big Lebowski, and pretty much any Will Ferrell movie (especially Step Brothers) are constantly quoted among my circle of friends. (Although I feel ashamed having friends who quote Napolean Dynamite.)
-Spaghett

A: What's quotable really depends on your circle of friends. A lot of the movies I listed above on the ones that I would sit down and watch anytime would appear on the list of most quotable for me too; Back to the Future, Smokey and the Bandit, Major League, Ghostbusters, Airplane!.

If you look at the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time, Casablanca has the most with six. Those lines are:
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
"We'll always have Paris."
"Round up the usual suspects."
"Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By." (which is often misquoted as "Play it Again, Sam.")
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
"Here's looking at you, kid."



Q: Great Column. Thanks for all your hard work.

Since we are nearing Halloween I have a few questions concerning Universals Monster Movies....

Were any of them box office draws?
How much did they cost to make?
Do you have a personal favorite?

Thank You,
-Shaun

A: Universal Monsters or Universal Horror is the name given to the horror, suspense and sci-fi films produced by Universal Studios between 1923 and 1960. Iconic characters that came up during this period included Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, The Mummy and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Notable actors of these films include Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, John Carradine, Dwight Frye, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney Sr. and Jr. and Claude Rains.

The golden age of the era was the one two punch of Dracula and Frankenstein, which pretty much revolutionized modern horror and influenced every horror film that came after. Just about every one of the movies were profitable and basically helped keep Universal afloat. This was at the time, that's not to mention that the studio has made a ton of swag over the years with merchandising, remakes and numerous VHS and DVD re-releases of the most popular movies.

According to imdb, Dracula was made for $335,000. Frankenstein was made for $291,000 and grossed $12 million, The Wolfman was made for $180,00, The Mummy was made for $196,000, The Creature from the Black Lagoon grossed $1.3 million and Bride of Frankenstein was made for $397,000.

Just as there are Elvis people and Beatles people, there are Bela Lugosi people and Boris Karloff people. I'm a Lugosi fan and with that my favorite would have to be the original Dracula. Great performance from Lugosi, very moody and atmospheric, some great lines and just about every vampire movie made since has some trace elements of this in it. I also love Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. It's a great mix of horror and comedy and features just so many iconic actors and characters. It's just a fun romp.



Q: Since you did posters, what are your favorite movie trailers of all time?
-JLAJRC

A: I like movie trailers that aren't traditional. Ones that sort of have a back stage feel to them or a ‘oh, we have to make the trailer' type winking touch to them. The original trailers for Citizen Kane, Psycho and The Bishop's Wife come to mind.







The current trailer for The Fourth Kind sort of has that feel.



And the trailer for the limited release Black Dynamite is just badass.



Q: My favorite movie poster ever is for "A View to a Kill" which is probably the worst James Bond film of all time. What's not to love about Roger Moore in a tux atop the Golden Gate Bridge pointing a gun at nothing specific while holding Tanya Roberts in his arms with Christopher Walken peaking his head out of a blimp in the background?



A: A View to a Kill was the first James Bond movie I ever saw, so I have a soft spot in my heart for it. I actually don't think it's as bad as some say. Roger Moore is a bit long in the tooth. In fact, he finally decided to retire from Bond when he found out that he was older than Tanya Roberts' mother. It's got a pretty decent cast, Christopher Walken makes a good villain and Grace Jones is a good henchwoman, while at the same time being the scariest looking Bond girl. It's neat to see Moore and Patrick Macnee from "The Avengers" together. Worst Bond movie for me is Moonraker.

Q: Odd that no one mentioned Attack of the Killer Tomatos or some of it's really bad sequels. Even as a send up of the genre some of those movies are downright terrible.

Alf has the worst ending of all time... Because it was "to be continued" and there was no conclusion. We never know if Alf went home, escaped the FBI or got sliced up in a petri dish somewhere.
-Jake G

A: There was actually a made for TV movie in 1996 called "Project ALF" that revealed that Alf had been held captured by the government and ran through a series of tests. The Tanner family gets mentioned, but are not seen. Alf is helped to escape the government by a scientist and a military police officer. It starred Miguel Ferrer and Martin Sheen.



The idea with the Killer Tomatoes series is that they are supposed to be really bad while at the same time being parodies of various really bad horror and low budget movies.



Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978): Tomatoes revolt across the country and start killing people. The President of the United States puts together a task force to infiltrate, confront and stop the tomatoes. It turns out that the tomatoes can be defeated by playing the song "Puberty Love" (performed by Soundgarden and Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron).



Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988): Professor Gangreen (John Astin) has created a device that will turn tomatoes into people and the type of people they become is based on whatever song is playing. One of these creations is Tara (Karen Mistal) who falls in love with Chad Finletter (Anthony Starke), nephew of a character from the original film. George Clooney stars as Chad's friends. Many of the characters and concepts from this installment were later used for an animated series.



Killer Tomatoes Strike Back (1990): Gangreen (Astin) poses as a talk show host and uses mind control to take over various members of the media and government. He will combine them with his killer tomatoes to take over the planet. He is foiled by a police detective (Rick Rockwell) and a tomatologist (Crystal Carson).Rockwell had a small part in the last film and would also appear in the next. He's best remembered from the whole "What Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" fiasco.



Killer Tomatoes Eat France (1991): Gangreen is now living in France and uses his assistant Igor's (Steve Lundquist) resemblance to Louis XVII to start a second French Revolution. He is opposed by a washed up TV star (Marc Price, Skippy of "Family Ties") and his French girlfriend (Angela Visser).

Q: Frogs horrible? What? Who am I kidding, you're right. It blows.

However, I would watch Frogs over The Blair Witch Project. I saw that movie in the theaters and was amazed by how many people felt it was scary. I would've walked out but 1) I had to see how it ended and 2) the theater served beer. What's your take on it?
-BFF



A: The fact that you had to see how the movie ended says that it at least did the basic job of keeping your butt in your seat, no matter the reason. Isn't that why we stay with most films, to see how they end?

I think there was a huge backlash against the film after its initial release because of all the parodies that came out and all the buzz for the movie that had it shoved down people's throats. I think some cynics without seeing it decried it based on the basic premise and background that they knew of. The movie grossed over $248 million worldwide and has an 85% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, it was also nominated for a Razzie Award for worst movie of 1999.

I saw it on DVD way after all the backlash happened and I pretty much knew what to expect and how it would go. Even though it seems pretty clichéd now, you have to remember this was one of the first movies to go for that reality feel with a horror film and in that authenticity and elements it is very effective and very creative. So, while I would say I'm pretty neutral to the movie, I do recognize it for it being groundbreaking and culturally polarizing.

Q: Why would an actor get or take an uncredited role? I watched Year One (sorry I didn't hate, wasn't great but not bad either)anyway I noticed Paul Rudd played Abel and yet had no mention in the credits. He is not listed under the movie on IMDB but under his name there it says uncredited so what exactly does that mean? Thanks big fan of the ask 411 columns.
-Uncle Jimbo

A: We've covered this before. There are several reasons someone would not take a film credit. Mainly, it would be due to a contract dispute or someone appearing as a favor to a director or producer and they don't take credit either to be a surprise or not to distract from the other actors in the movie or to not overshadow the project.

Plenty of people chimed in on what they thought were bad movies of the past decade, overrated shows and shows that got canceled before their time, but didn't necessarily ask a question. Since I had so much to go over, I skipped putting that stuff in the column, but know I read over all the comments from last week and appreciate the feedback and discussion.

Don't die.

"Boy, where is Sheriff Branford?"
"I am Sheriff Branford."
"Oh, you sounded taller on the radio."