Ask 411 Movies for 11.20.06: This Colunn is Triptofan-tastic!
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 11.20.2006
Brick, underrated hotties, My Blue Heaven, Star Wars Holiday Special and enough nudity and swearing to make you read
NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: BRICK
This was mentioned to me to watch a few weeks ago after commenting on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as a modern, quirky noir. Brick takes that notion to ludicrous extremes as by the end it feels like a parody of a parody of a parody. The film noir mood and stylistic touches just become overkill and this would have been better off as a 60 minute or so short film. All the principals are very good, really getting into their characters and getting what newbie director and writer Rian Johnson was going for. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a magnificent performance in the lead as a would be teen gumshoe trying to find out who set up and killed his ex-girlfriend while also getting in the middle of a drug war, with Lukas Haas as drug boss the Pin. It feels like he's doing Kurt Russell doing Humphrey Bogart and I don't mean that in a bad way. Richard Roundtree also has a bit part as a vice principal. It's a bit of a kick, but the novelty wears off and I can see a lot of people being bored or put off by it.
And now for no apparent reason here is a picture of 1998 Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal in a schoolgirl outfit.
Q: When you were taking about political movies you should have slipped in "God, guts, and guns keep us safe from the hippies" Also have you talked about the Star wars Christmas special or the Claymation Christmas special. I love that one. it's still funny.
-Veronica
A: This is my friend Veronica and she is referring to a favorite scene of ours in The Cannonball Run. Burt Reynolds' and crew are pulled over in a small hick town. To demonstrate how much they care about law and order the cop points to a banner that reads "Reelect Sean ‘Kill a Commie' O'Scanlon. God, guts and guns keep us safe from the hippie."
The "Star Wars Holiday Special" I think has been touched upon. Basically it was a long commercial for the soon to debut Star Wars toy line that aired on CBS in November of 1978. The basic plot has Chewbacca trying to get to his home world to celebrate Wookie Life Day with his family.
George Lucas has stated that if he had the time he would track down every last copy of it and smash it with a hammer. I would call it the worse thing I've watched the most times, because people all the time find out I have it and want to watch it. I warn them how bad it is, but they don't believe me. The high point of the special is probably an animated short that introduced Bobba Fett to the Star Wars universe. The low point would be Chewbacca's dad Itchy getting off on a Wookie soft core porno starring Diahann Carroll given to him by Art Carney. My personal favorite moment is Carney pulling out the "mind eradicator," which features a performance from Jefferson Starship. Marty Balin led Jefferson Starship at that. Yeah, and there is a romance angle in one sketch involving Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman. Some of the regular Star Wars guys show up including Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher who sings a ditty put to the Star Wars theme music and Mark Hamill with so much pancake makeup he looks like a drag queen. This was due to him still recovering from a scarring car accident. Rumors abound that the special will be released on an official DVD, but that most likely won't be happening anytime soon. Bootlegs exist due to a few people with ancient VCR's having the foresight to tape it.
"Claymation Christmas Special" from 1987 was a starring vehicle for the beloved California Raisins.
It was done as an actual Christmas special hosted by a dinosaur tandem that was playing off of Siskel and Ebert. It won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. It was put out on DVD in 2003 along with Claymation Halloween and Easter specials.
Q: Mr. Hayhurst,
Love your ASK 411 MOVIES column and I've been reading it for years. I was excited to see that you're a Dr. Who fan like I am so it finally motivated me to ask a few questions, although they have nothing to do with Dr. Who.
1. Now that Christmas is around the corner, I am trying to remember a movie that I saw as a little kid back in the early 1980's (this may have been a made-for-t.v. movie). From the vague memories that I have, the main character is a guy who is on the run from the police or just escaped from prison and his goal is to get to his sick son's hospital room to deliver a Christmas present to him. I just remember that near the end of the movie, the guy was in a Santa suit limping down the hospital hallway with blood dripping down because he'd been shot in the leg but was able to meet his son. Any help would be appreciated.
2. What was the first mainstream major studio picture that had nudity in it? I am assuming that this would have been after the Production Code was abandoned?
3. Similarly, what was the first mainstream major studio picture that had swearing in it? (I don't mean something like the word "damn" from Gone With the Wind but any of those seven dirty words that would still get bleeped on t.v. today.)
Thanks and keep up the great work!
- Eddie
A: I'm betting the general reader is tired of hearing about Dr. Who, so good job in staying off of it there.
Mathew Sforcina provided me this big list of Christmas films and going over them I couldn't find anything that seemed right. You can look yourself, but I'm thinking Christmas being the key thing we're looking at might be a red herring.
Before the Production Code skinny dipping scenes were very popular. The first nudity in a mainstream film by a major star was Australian swimming champion Annette Kellermann in 1916's Daughter of the Gods. If you want something more revealing, such as pubic hair, you have to move to the dying days of the code with the British film Blowup that did well in the United States. David Hemmings plays a photographer who argues with a topless Vanessa Redgrave over a role of film and has a romp with two nude wannabe teen models. The first male nudity also comes from Britain with Alan Bates and Oliver Reed having a wrestling match near a fire in 1969's Women in Love. The film that broke the Production Code's back was 1967's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966 that featured such phrases as "goddamn," "for Christ's sake," "screw," "son of a bitch," "bastard" and "hump the hostess." Two films claim to be the first to drop the f-bomb; I'll Never Forget What's'isname and Ulyssses from 1967. What's'isname also featured a scene of implied oral sex, which also happened in Charlie Bubbles from the same year. Thanks to filmsite.org for the info. I offer you no pictures, deal with it.
Q: I've read recently that the movie My Blue Heaven is kind of a sequel to GoodFellas, in that it's VERY loosely based on Henry Hill's life after he went into witness protection. What I want to know is, what parts of the story are based in reality?
-NovemberRainz
A:
My Blue Heaven is indeed based on the life of gangster Henry Hill. While not directly connected to Goodfellas, it does pickup where that leaves off. Goodfellas was based on the book Wiseguys by Nicholas Pileggi while the screenplay for Heaven was written by his wife Nora Ephron. Research for both were done at the same in mutual interview sessions with Hill. Hill has said in interviews after that that many incidents shown in My Blue Heaven did happen to him, but has not gone into details.
Q: Hi Leonard,
With the release of Casino Royale and my finally seeing MI:3 with PSH as a terrorist, I was thinking about Bond villains and sidekicks. Largely, the idea that I'd like to see Denzel Washington as the head of some evil organizaton. Denzel, although having previously played darker characters, is someone who would be great as the controlling, not getting his hands dirty leader of a terrorist group that naturally survives his latest plot to lead another. Who would you like to see in as the major villain or sidekick in a future Bond or actioner? Why?
Thanks,
Mike
A: Outside of Training Day Washington hasn't played many villainous roles. However, I think he has the chops to do a slickly evil corporate monster, sort of as a contrast to his more grandstanding and ghetto character of Day. If you're going to reboot the Bond series, I say bring back Blofeld. My favorite Blofeld was Charles Gray in Diamonds are Forever. Anthony Hopkins could nail that look and characterization easy. If you want to go with chrome dome Blofeld, how about Bruce Willis? Nah, wait, I saw The Jackel, never mind. However, they would probably want to go with a younger version and probably someone who could be considered Bond's opposite number. Perhaps someone who was up for the Bond role and didn't get it, like Clive Owen. Russell Crowe would be good. Or how about evil American Bond personified by George Clooney? For a sidekick you need an evil, dark hot chick like Rose McGowan who I talk about her more below and a brutish, grunting bodyguard like Triple H who I think has Blade III as a good audition tape. I'd also put Triple H and McGowan up as Non and Ursa for the next Superman film. I've heard that Bryan Singer wants Jude Law for General Zod. Hey, it wasn't my idea.
To embrace our new use of pictures and to fill column space we will look at some Hollywood beauties who I feel are underrated as actresses and under the hottie radar. Even straight chicks like to look at pictures of hot girls. Thanks to Wikipedia as always for some info.
Rose McGowan was born in Florence Italy on September 5th, 1975 to her artist father and writer mother. Her father was the head of the Italian Chapter of Church of God and they moved around Europe much. She modeled as a child and moved to the United States when her parents divorced. She emancipated herself from her parents at 15 and pursued an acting career. Her film debut came with a bit part in Encino Man and she first gained some good reviews in the indie film The Doom Generation. That was followed by her playing one of Neve Campbell's friends in Scream. McGowan starred in several low budget features throughout the nineties including Ready to Rumble, Jawbreaker, Lewis & Clark & George, Going All the Way, Southie and Phantoms, in which Ben Affleck was the bomb. In 2001 McGowan replaced Shannon Doughetry on WB's "Charmed" joining Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano as sister witches. The series ended in 2006 along with the WB network. McGowan was recently in The Black Dahlia and is next slated to appear in both parts of Grindhouse by directing buddies Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez next year. McGowan famously dated Marilyn Manson and has also been linked to Kip Pardue, Ahmet Zappa and "Men's Health" editor David Zinczerko. McGowan is an activist for Boston Terriers and a collector of Marlene Dietrich memorabilia.
Alison Lohman is 28 years old, but still has a fresh faced innocence that allows her to play much younger characters in films such as Matchstick Men and the recent Flicka. However, she did get a very adult role last year opposite Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth in Where the Truth Lies. Lohman was born in Palm Springs where she joined the Palm Desert's McCallum Theater and got to perform on stage with the likes of Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. She was offered a spot at the Tisch School of the Arts, but declined to go headlong into professional acting. She struggled through B-films for years until landing a plum role in 2002 in White Oleander. It didn't do well at the box office, but reviews for her were good. She has also been in Big Fish and The Great White. Next she will play a recovering heroin addict in Things We Lost in the Fire.
Australian beauty Melissa George was born on August 6th, 1976. She studied dance as a child and this led to her becoming a national roller skating champion. She joined the cast of the popular soap opera in Australia Home and Away in 1993. She left the show in 1997 and tried to shed her good girl image by posing nude in Australian Playboy. She moved to Los Angeles and landed small parts in Mullholland Drive, The Limey, Down With Love and Dark City. George filmed several television pilots and starred opposite John Stamos on the short lived "Thieves." Success started to come her way after a recurring guest role on "Friends" as a nanny to Rachel's baby. She later went on to star with Jennifer Aniston again in Derailed. She landed a starring part in The Amityville Horror, but it flopped. She is currently filming 30 Days of Night with Josh Hartnett. She is married to Chilean businessman Claudio Dabed.
Alicia Minshew was born in Florida of Italian descent on May 28th, 1974. She currently plays Kendall Hart, the daughter of Susan Lucci's Erica Kane, on the long running soap opera "All My Children." The part was originally played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. Minshew has also done some modeling and served as a VJ for The Music Zone.
Mariska Hargitay is a milf having recently had her first child at 42. She is married to actor Peter Hermann. They met while he was playing a defense attorney on her hit show "Law & Order: SVU." She is the daughter of body builder Mickey Hargitay, who recently passed away, and actress Jayne Mansfield. There is some conjecture that her natural father was cabaret performer Nelson Sardelli. Mariska was in the car when her mother crashed and died by running into a tractor-trailer in 1967. She says she has no recollection of the accident. Hargitay won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series this past year and was named by People Magazine as one of the most beautiful people in the world.
Stay sexy and don't die.
"Throw one at me if you want, hash head. I've got all five senses and I slept last night, that puts me six up on the lot of you."
