Ask 411 Movies for 08.16.10: On a Warm Summer’s Evening Read a Column Headed Nowhere!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 08.16.2010

The Gambler, Six Pack, Thunder in Paradise, consistent movie stars, True Blood, Mullholland Drive, Patricia Neal, Chunk from Goonies and women I find oddly attractive

From YouTube this week, "The Kill" by 30 Seconds to Mars which takes off of the The Shining. Front man is actor Jared Leto. His latest film is the sci-fi film Mr. Nobody, which oddly takes place on a future Mars that has become a vacation spot.



Actress Patricia Neal, 84, died Aug. 8 of lung cancer. She won an Oscar for Hud and her other movies include The Fountain Head, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Operation Pacific, A Face in the Crowd, Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Harm's Way, The Subject was Roses and Ghost Story. She was married to children's author Roald Dahl and they had five kids.



Q: Speaking of Kenny Rogers, I heard somewhere that they might remake Six Pack with Kevin James. Is this true?
-Kevin James

A: Six Pack is a 1982 movie starring Kenny Rogers as washed up racecar driver Brewster Baker. While in a small Texas town he finds his car stripped and tracks down the culprits as six runaway orphans (including Diane Lane and Anthony Michael Hall) who strip the cars of out of towners and share the profits with the corrupt local sheriff (Barry Corbin) in exchange for not turning them in. The kids stowaway with Baker and become his pit crew. While initially laughed at, Baker gets on a winning streak and eventually adopts the kids after marrying his girlfriend (Erin Gray). An unsold TV series pilot followed with Don Johnson and Markie Post as the adoptive parents. Rogers scored a top hit with the movie's theme song "Love Will Turn You Around."

Pajiba reported on June 30 that Kevin James had been offered the lead in a Six Pack remake, but no word yet on if he has accepted. It was announced earlier this year that David Gordon Green of The Pineapple Express wrote an original racing comedy called Burnin' Rubber, which Fox optioned and asked him to retool as a Six Pack remake. He was taken off the script, but remains a producer. The script is now being worked on by John Coveny and Hunt Baldwin of "The Closer" and "Fastlane" with Tom Dey of Marmaduke slated to direct.



Q: The Gambler Part III: The Legend Continues was one of my favorite movies when I was a little kid. I have no clue why, but I loved it, and I've never been a huge fan of westerns since then or anything. I assume these things had to get pretty ratings, since Kenny Rogers made five or six of them, and they had fairly well-known casts, too.
-Mike R

There were five Gambler TV movies and they all did pretty well in the ratings.

Kenny Rogers as The Gambler (1980): Rogers stars as Brady Hawkes, a wounded Civil War veteran and ace poker player of the old west. He's traveling to save the son (Ronnie Scribner) he never knew he had from his evil stepfather (Clu Gulager). Along the way, Hawkes meets up with a hooker with a heart of gold (Christine Belford), the hot headed would-be poker champion Billy Montana (Bruce Boxleitner) and a corrupt railroad tycoon (Harold Gould).

Kenny Rogers as the Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983): This was a two-part miniseries. Brady, Billy and Jeremiah (Charles Fields) are on their way to a big poker tournament when the train they are on is hijacked and an outlaw gang kidnaps Jeremiah. Billy and Brady join forces with a female bounty hunter (Linda Evans) to get him back.

Kenny Rogers as the Gambler Part III: The Legend Continues (1987): Brady and Billy help a stagecoach to a cavalry outpost and uncover corrupt government agents withholding promised supplies from Sioux Indians. Brady and Billy help the Indians with a little assist from Buffalo Bill (Jeffrey Jones).

The Gambler Returns: Luck of the Draw (1991): Brady needs a stake to get into the last legal poker game in the United States and gets it from Madame Burgundy Jones (Reba McEntire) after winning a preliminary tournament against Cantrell (Christopher Rich), who pursues Hawkes, Jones and Ethan Cassidy (Rick Rossovich replacing the Billy Montana character) along with an outlaw gang to steal the money. Along the way, they run into a bunch of former western TV stars (including David Carradine of "King Fu," Gene Barry of "Bat Masterson," Jack Kelly of "Maverick," Brian Keith from "The Westerner," Hugh O'Brian of "Wyatt Earp," Clint Walker of "Cheynne"and Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford from "The Rifleman"), President Teddy Roosevelt (Claude Akins), other historical figures and Linda Evans' character from part two.

Gambler V: Playing for Keeps (1994): Only film of the series not directed by Dick Lowery as Jack Bender took over. Brady's son Jeremiah (Kris Kramm) gets mixed up with Butch Cassidy (Scott Paulin) and the Sundance Kid (Brett Cullen). Boxleitner returns as Montana with Loni Anderson, Dixie Carter and Mariska Hargitay as Etta Place rounding out the cast.



Q: I have seen Kenny Rogers a few times. He kind of did melodies which was ok but the same story is told each show. Sad thing is he has changed the lyrics of Coward of the County.
-PJ

A: I think you mean he did medleys, pieces of a few songs strung together. He only did one when I saw him; I forget what songs were all in it. In recent renditions of "Coward of the County" Rogers leaves out the verse implying the Gatlin boys raped Becky. Rogers has said when he first cut the song he didn't realize the Gatlin boys were a reference to country group the Gatlin Brothers. Songwriter Roger Bowling had a mad on for Larry Gatlin after he beat him out for a songwriting award a few years before, but Larry bore him no ill will and rather likes the song, from what I remember of a radio interview I heard with Larry.

The song was adapted into a 1981 TV movie set during World War II with Rogers playing a reverend and narrator of the song with Frederick Lehne as Tommy and Largo Woodruff as Becky.



Q: What about Blue Thunder, was that a Hogan Movie, or a TV series can't remember.
-Kevin

A: Blue Thunder is a 1983 movie starring Warren Oates and Roy Scheider about an experimental police helicopter. A short-live series followed.



What you're probably thinking of is the TV films and series "Thunder in Paradise" starring Hulk Hogan as RJ "Hurricane" Spencer an ex-Navy SEAL turned soldier of fortune with a state of the art super boat. His partner was played by Chris Lemmon, son of Jack Lemmon, with Carol Alt as Hogan's love interest. It ran on TNT from 1993-1995 and was part of Hogan's deal with WCW.



Q: Speaking of child stars, I heard that "Chunk" from Goonies lost a bunch of weight and is now a lawyer for the ACLU or something of that nature. Any truth to that?
-The Great Capt. Smooth

A: Richard Stamos asked about him too. Jeff Cohen, 36, graduated from UC Berkley and currently works as an entertainment lawyer. While at Berkley he used to do the Truffle Shuffle on the sideline of football games.



Q: Has ther been any actor to NEVER die in a movie?I was thinking Clint Eastwood or John Wayne but besides that Im stuck.
-Conor

A: Off the top of my head, John Wayne died in The Shootist and The Cowboys and Clint Eastwood died in Gran Torino.

I think you need to go to comedy actors to find someone who has never died in a movie. Doing quick filmography perusals, I don't think Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Bob Hope, the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, Abott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy have ever died in a movie. Of classic actors I'm thinking Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant.

I almost listed James Carrey, but he died in The Dead Pool. Will Ferrell is dead in The Goods and we see a flashback of his death, but I don't think we actually see him die on screen. Steve Martin is eaten by Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors

Q: I was wondering about the movie equivalent of what Cher had done in music, which was have a top 10 hit in like 4 or 5 decades. Who would've held the record for starring in a number one box office movie in the most decades? I would guess John Wayne(30's through 70's) Though I guess that perhaps Henry Fonda or Katherine Hepburn could be considered since they did On Golden Pond in the 80's, but not sure how successful their movies were in the 1970's.
-Krunchy

A: Even 30 years after his death John Wayne is still one of the most popular movie stars going. His career began in the silent era, but he didn't break really big until Stagecoach in 1939 and continued to be a big box office draw until his death in 1979. Henry Fonda had some moderate hits in the seventies, Midway was maybe his biggest movie of that period. Katherine Hepburn had Rooster Cogburn with John Wayne in the seventies and the TV movie Love Among the Ruins did really well.

David in the comments last week suggested Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson who have had hit films from the 1960's up to the past decade.

I'll give you Kirk Douglas who starred, meaning first name in the credits, in at least one movie a year from 1949 to 1980. If you count his supporting part in Darby O'Gill and the Little People and want to call either Finding Forrester or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a hit, then Sean Connery has had hits from the 1950's to the past decade. Paul Newman had hit films from the 1950's to the past decade. James Garner too.

Q: Dark City is so much better than the Matrix movies. Don't bag on Jennifer Connelly. She's (before she got real skinny) a guilty pleasure of mine no matter how fuzzy her upper lip might be.

This might be another topic for a few columns. Actresses you have a thing for who aren't really that cute but exude sexiness on the screen.

A few of my guilty pleasures are Ellen Barkin, Rosanna Arquette, and Ms. Connelly. Yep, I'm a little older than most of you guys.

Another one is giggle tits herself Jennifer Love Hewitt. In her case I think her cleavage from "I know what you did last summer" put me in a daze that I can't get out of no matter how many unattractive photos are taken of her.
-gkctex

A: Women I find oddly attractive. I will put you to shame.

Flo the Progressive Insurance Lady as played by Stephanie Courtney: I think it's the bright red lipstick and too much eye shadow that get me. She looks like your next-door neighbor tarting up for a night on the town. She's a little too perky for me, but I like the commercials where she gets flirty, like the one for motorcycle insurance.



Iron Chef Cat Cora: The old saying is that most women can cook, but the best chefs are men. As the only female Iron Chef Cora exudes a confidence and steely reserve that is damn sexy. Just look at her eyes in that below picture. She'd rock your world and make you pancakes afterwards.



Bluegrass singer Alison Krauss: It has to be the voice here. She has one of the most beautiful, pure, clear voices I've ever heard. She was a bit frumpy when she debuted, but when success hit so did the stylists.



Suzanne Pleshette: I'll give you an old school one. For her I think the sexy factor is a combination of the husky voice and bedroom eyes.



Q: Best mind-freak movie: Mulholland Drive.
-Jed

A: It's another freaky-freak fest from David Lynch. From 2001, a woman (Laura Elena Harring) is in a car accident and loses her memory. She takes the name Rita, after seeing a Rita Hayworth poster, and winds up in the apartment of Betty (Naomi Watts) who helps her try to figure out who she is. Of course, in a Lynch movie everything is not as it appears and a bunch of weird characters weave in and out.

The movie was originally shot in 1999 as a TV pilot, but Lynch got some more money a year later and filmed an ending to release it theatrically. When Lynch went back to the film, he found all sets had been destroyed and props and costumes were released. Usually these items would be saved for a possibly ongoing series. Lynch said this was really a blessing in disguise, because it made him think of the movie in a different way and come up with the finale. Lynch came up with the idea for Mulholland Drive as a series while working on "Twin Peaks" and the original idea was to spin it off from "Peaks" through the character of Audrey Home, who was replaced by Naomi Watts' character. Additionally, Lynch sent a letter to projectionists with the film telling them to "allow more overhead" because the movie was shot with television ratios in mind. Allowing more overhead means to adjust the image down so there is more at the top than the bottom of the screen. He also asked that the volume be turned up two decibels.



Q: What is your opinion of True Blood?
-Spaghett

A: I have to abstain. I don't have HBO and haven't seen any of the series.

"True Blood" has run from 2008 to the present and is based on the series of novels "The Southern Vampire Mysteries" about a small Louisiana town where humans and vampires co-exist. Anna Paquin stars in the series as a psychic waitress in love with a vampire played by Stephen Moyer.



Don't die.

"I got the pool, she got the pool-man."