Ask 411 Movies for 12.11.06: Robert Goulet’s Old Fashioned Cajun Christmas
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 12.11.2006
Dave Chapelle’s Block Party, the Bird That Can’t Fly, playing your own twin, bad ass villains and we get various degrees of Scrooged.
NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: DAVE CHAPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY
As a huge fan of "Chapelle's Show" I was interested in seeing this. The basic concept of having Dave wonder around the Dayton Ohio area giving out ‘golden tickets' to a major block party rap concert in New York is in inherently brilliant and ripe with potential. If anything they didn't explore this enough as this should have been the bulk of the film with the concert as the payoff. However, there is a smattering of interviews with attendees and performers and Dave exploring the block he has chosen for the concert along with other random asides. It's all mashed together with oddly little rhythm. While Chapelle is a great MC and guide on this odyssey, he doesn't cut up as much I would have liked. His interactions with people are good and I loved the James Brown ‘hit me' music sting and the blue humor lounge jazz bits. While not a huge fan of rap and hip hop, the performances here are all great with some real masters of the genre not just who is popular and commercial. With what has happened to Dave since this was made and its release this feels in some ways his last gasp of creative brilliance and social conscious exploration. There is this oddly haunting feeling that Chapelle is dead and this is epithet and it very well could be for intents and purposes. And it wouldn't be a bad one.
Q: Hey Leonard,
Just wanted to bring something to your attention as someone did for me about ten years ago. Remember at the end of the original Rudolph, when the elf is giving umbrellas to Misfit Toys and dropping them out of the sleigh? And they parachuted down to their new homes? At one point, the elf pulls out the Bird That Can't Fly, then pulls out an umbrella, looks at the bird, then looks back at the umbrella, and finally tosses the bird out without the umbrella! The damn elf killed the Bird That Can't Fly! He's a twisted elf!!!
Anyway, thought I'd bring that up. Great point about North Dallas Forty & Any Given Sunday...
-George H. Sirois
Scene Anatomy 101
A: I never noticed that before, George. I have respect for that elf. I dig dark little in jokes like that. Maybe the bird who can't fly hit a snow bank or an updraft. Be hopeful.
Q: This might be an odd question, but how many actors have played their own twin in a movie.
-Mark
A: Since you said their own twin we will look past movies where actors play the same version of their character, like in a time travel movie such as Back to the Future or when Captain Kirk fought a shape shifter that looked like him in Star Trek VI or even Eddie Murphy on screen with himself as several different characters in something like The Nutty Professor. This isn't a definitive list, it's just a list.
Wonder Man (1945): Buzzy Bellew (Danny Kaye) is a nightclub entertainer who witnesses mobster Ten Grand Jackson (Steve Cochran) murder a man. His goons kill him and throw him in the river. His ghost contacts his "super identical" twin brother bookworm Edwin Dingle (Kaye). Edwin poses as Buzzy to bring Jackson to justice and make things right with Buzzy's fiancée Midge (Vera-Ellen), while Edwin romances a hot librarian (Virginia Mayo).
The Dark Mirror (1946): Terry and Ruth Collins (Olivia de Havilland) are identical twins. Both have alibis on the night a doctor they were both dating was killed. Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) brings in a psychiatrist (Lew Ayers) to examine the sisters. He falls for one and discovers the other is a whack job. This was remade for TV in 1985 starring Jane Seymour and Stephen Collins.
The Parent Trap (1961): Sharon and Susan (Haley Mills) are twins separated at birth when their parents Mitch (Brian Keith) and Maggie (Maureen O'Hara) are divorced. They meet at summer camp and switch places in order to get to know their other parent. When Mitch announces plans to get married to a rich society snob (Una Merkel) the girls announce their deception and try to put their parents back together. Three made for TV sequels followed in the eighties where Susan had triplets. Prepubescent Lindsay Lohan starred in a 1998 remake with Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson.
Start the Revolution Without Me (1970): Two sets of mismatched twins who believe themselves to be brothers (Donald Sutherland and Gene Wilder) meet up on the eve of the French Revolution and switch places. One set is rich and aristocratic while the other is poor and rather stupid. It's a weird mash of The Corsican Brothers and A Tale of Two Cities that doesn't make a lick of sense.
Dead Ringers (1988): Beverly and Elliot Mantle (Jeremy Irons) are twin gynecologists. Elliot is more confident and more the ladies man, but also more manipulative and dark. He picks up women all the time and when he's done with one he hands her off to mousier brother Beverly without her knowing. This arrangement is tested when Beverly is the first to pick up and fall in love with actress Claire (Genevieve Bujold), who has a unique uterus. The film is based on a supposedly true story turned into a novel called Twins. This was to be the name of the film until Ivan Reitman negotiated the rights to the name for a film he was producing with Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. William Hurt turned down the lead and has since said he regretted it. Twin sisters Jill and Jacqueline Hennessy make their screen debut as twin hookers. Jill is currently the star of "Crossing Jordan" while Jacqueline became a journalist.
Double Impact (1991): Alex and Chad (Jean Claude Van Damme) were separated as children when their parents died. Chad is raised by a family friend (Geoffrey Lewis) in Paris while Alex was left to the mean streets of Hong Kong. Alex learns of Chad and seeks him out while discovering that a gang leader Chad has had run-ins with is the man who killed their parents. Van Damme played twins again in Maximum Risk with the one dying at the beginning of the movie. And just to mention he played different versions of himself in the time travel thriller Time Cop.
Twin Dragons (1992): While on vacation in Hong Kong a Mrs. Ma gives birth to twins John and Boomer (Jackie Chan). Boomer is taken hostage by a crook in the hospital and lost. Years later the brothers reunite with John as a concert pianist and conductor with Boomer as a thief on the streets of Hong Kong. The brothers double each other to cover for themselves when John accidentally gets involved with a street gang who thinks he's Boomer.
Adaptation (2002): Nicholas Cage plays real life Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald. In the film Charlie is hired to adapt the thought to be inadaptable novel The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) about a dealer in rare orchids (Chris Cooper). After hitting a brick wall he learns conventional screenwriting techniques from writing teacher Robert McKee (Brian Cox) and seeks help from his brother Donald who had just sold a typical mindless action script in the clichéd Hollywood mold.
Q: Hey, I would have to say Training Day is my favorite movie of all-time. I'm also very fond of Scarface. In relation to the Tournament of the Movie Bad Asses column, who do you think would win a fight between these two "bad guys"; Detective Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington - Training Day) vs. Tony Montana (Al Pacino - Scarface). My friends and I talked about this the other day, and it is a really intriguing idea to me. Please consider environment, weapons, no weapons, etc.
Also, if you wish, we were even more lame and came up with a whole tournament for bad ass movie villain types. How do you think this would go? Everyone keep in mind, this is sort of selective to my particular interests and I wanted to stray as much as possible from characters like Darth Vader that have super powers.
Scream Killer (killers from Scream 1) vs. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman - Die Hard) : Mind games and phone/radio tag galore
The Joker (Jack Nicholson - Batman) vs. The Shredder (TMNT) : Hilarious, but would be good
Clubber Lang (Mr. T - Rocky III) vs. Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren - Rocky IV) : Clubber did beat Rocky in their first match, but Drago KILLED Apollo
Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington - Training Day) vs. Tony Montana (Al Pacino - Scarface) : Consider where, what weapons, or if there's no weapons, etc
I would say the Scream Killer kills Hans, The Joker squeaks past Shredder, Drago defeats Clubber Lang, and Alonzo barely wins against Tony Montana.
Scream Killer slices and dices The Joker and Alonzo proves too much for Drago outside of the boxing ring. Then, it's down to the Scream Killer vs. Detective Alonzo Harris. It makes sense too, a serial killer vs. a cop (albeit a dirty cop). I'd go with Alonzo Harris on this one, as he is too wise, street smart, and quick thinking to fall victim to a sneaky murderous attack from the Scream Killer.
-Bobby
A: If we do the badass character tournament again we would probably do villains. I also thought of doing a super powered tournament too. I will indulge your lameness with my own.
Scream Killer vs. Hans Gruber: The Scream Killer's main power is that he disorients and confuses people and he can't do that with Gruber. He won't be able to throw him off his game enough to get a drop on him. Soon as he pops up Gruber is going to roll his eyes and shoot him dead.
The Joker vs. The Shredder: Shredder is an eight foot tall martial arts bad ass with spiked gauntlets against a guy with a joy buzzer. Shredder shreds him easy.
Clubber Lang vs. Ivan Drago: That would be a hell of a fight. They have a similar style to each other as pure punchers, although I would say Lang has more actual boxing skill. However, Drago hits too hard and has more stamina. Remember Rocky's second fight with Lang. Drago KO's him in the sixth.
Alonzo Harris vs. Tony Montana: Montana has to have his ‘little friend.' Harris can have his standard police issue firearm. Setting doesn't matter too much, let's make it the clichéd dark alley. Montana wins only if he blasts Harris away at first sight. Montana was a bad ass, but he was also a cokehead. Harris despite any drug connections is smart and observant because he has to be as a crooked cop. Harris fast talks Montana long enough to kill him and then steals his stash to sell himself.
Gruber versus Shredder is similar to him against the Scream Killer. No cartoon gimmick is going to faze him. He's not going to let Shredder get close to him and will either pick him off from a distant or place a bomb to blow his brains out.
Harris will be cocky against Drago and might try to fistfight him to start. As soon as he realizes this guy hits like a jackhammer, he'll pull out his gun and shoot him. He's cocky, but not stupid.
Gruber and Harris is another good match up. They'd probably be smart enough to team up first and then turn on the other guy when the right opportunity comes up. Harris is grittier and more street, so coupled with his shrewdness and smarts that would give him the win. He's tougher and isn't going to toy with his adversary the way Gruber would by having his roots in the standard cardboard cutout action villain. See, the worst thing about movie villains is that when you get down to brass tacks they're too overconfident and that makes them stupid. Harris is too smart for that. He'd check his bravado and ego just enough.
For more holiday column filler we look at various, inventive adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962): Several animated versions of A Christmas Carol have been done over the years, including ones starring the Looney Tunes and Disney characters. This one is unique with nearsighted Mr. Magoo playing the lead of Scrooge in a stage musical as we get a sort of play within a play. Bob Merrill and Jule Styne wrote the song "People" for this special, but submitted it too late for consideration. So they put it in their musical Funny Girl where it became a big hit for Barbara Streisand.
Scrooged (1988): Frank Cross (Bill Murray) is a television executive visited by the rotting corpse of his dead boss (John Forsythe). He's urged to change his ways and is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past as a cabdriver (David Johansen, aka Buster Poindexter) and the Ghost of Christmas Present as a sadistic fairy (Carol Kane). Frank hooks up with his old girlfriend (Karen Allen) and turns the overly lavish adaptation of a Christmas Carol his network was doing into a real yuletide love fest. Bobcat Goldthwait has a great bit part as fired peon Elliot Loudermilk who goes off the deep end.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992): Michael Caine stars as Scrooge in this fairly typical adaptation, it just has Muppets in it. Kermit plays Bob Cratchet with Miss Piggy as his wife. Statler and Waldorf play Bob Marley in a dual part. Most Muppets pop up as themselves or other characters with Gonzo and Rizzo doing the narration. George Carlin among others was considered for the lead.
Ebbie (1995): Soap opera diva Susan Lucci stars as a female Scrooge in this modern update television film. All of the traditional male roles of a Christmas Carol are played by women with Wendy Crewson as Roberta Cratchet, Lorena Gale as the Ghost of Christmas Present and Jennifer Clement and Nicole Parker as two different ghosts of Christmas Past.
Ebenezer (1997): The recently departed Jack Palance stars as Scrooge with the story moved to the wild west. Scrooge here is a land baron, card cheat and aged gunfighter in the Klondike. Rick Schroeder plays a cowpoke screwed over by Scrooge seeking revenge in a subplot that really doesn't go anywhere.
A Christmas Carol-The Musical (2004): This was a television special of the mid-nineties stage musical. The story is pretty close to typical versions with songs thrown in. The good all star cast features Kelsey Grammar as Scrooge, Jason Alexander as Bob Marley, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Emily, Jane Krakowski as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Jesse Martin as the Ghost of Christmas Present and Geraldine Chaplin as the Ghost of Christmas Future.
Of course, we all know there is only one true Scrooge.
Don't die.
"I warn you gentlemen, I am not to be trifled with. To pull the tail of a lion is to open the mouth of trouble and reveal the teeth of revenge biting the tongue of deceit."
