Ask 411 Movies for 4.9.07: This Column is Death Proof!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 04.09.2007

The Prestige, Krull, A Sound of Thunder, Black Knight, a Mick Foley biopic, Bob Ross, big time miniseries and karate kicking Elmo

NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: THE PRESTIGE



I liked it better than The Illusionist because it was a more compelling film in the story, acting and presentation. As is said of Hugh Jackman's character, it knows how to sell itself better. The structure was convoluted and at times confusing as we jump around from three different time periods. I figured out the ending before the finale, but I don't know if it sits well with me as a satisfactory payoff. I think the real illusion of the film, and hopefully not giving anything away, is that it's a science fiction movie that doesn't come off as such through out.

Director Bob Clark and his son Ariel died last Wednesday in a car wreck when they were hit by a drunk driver. Clark helmed two cult classics in Porky's and A Christmas Story. His other films include Turk 182! Baby Geniuses, Rhinestone, Loose Cannons, Tribute and the original Black Christmas.



From Best Buy this week I picked up a two disc set of Re-Animator with a limited edition exclusive highlighter that looks like re-animator juice and Filmation's "Ghostbusters" cartoon from the eighties. It was an adaptation of their live action series from the seventies in order to cash in on the Ghostbusters phenomenon of the feature film. There is a bonus episode of that on the set. Bob Burns plays the gorilla. He's been a guest at the Monster Bash several times and I've met him.

Our bit of YouTube goodness this week is a collection of interview clips from the old "Tomorrow Show" starring Tom Snyder that appeared on a retrospective of NBC late night a few years ago. I'm a big fan of Snyder and have picked up the two DVD sets out now with clips from the show. Check the hair on Bono.



Q: Hey I wanted to let you know that the director of "A Christmas Story" died this week. Very Sad. Great movie. Let all of the 411 fans know that they can visit the house in Cleveland, and the Chinese Restaurant that was in the movie for "Chinese Turkey".

Also I would love to know what the name of the theme song is to Bob Ross. I can't find it. Also was the show televised nationally?
Thanks,
-Veronica

A: You can see above I mentioned the passing of Bob Clark and thanks for the additional information on the sites in Cleveland.
"Joy of Painting" with Bob Ross was syndicated across the country by PBS stations. Original episodes were filmed from 1983-1995 and reruns still air today. The theme song is simply the "Joy of Painting Theme," but is sometimes referred to by fans as "Bob Ross' Fifth Symphony." You might be interested to know that a Bob Ross painting video game for the Nintendo Wii and other consoles is in development.

Q: Good day to you sir. I'm a longtime reader and first time emailer to your column. I have some comments in regards to your column on 4/2 concerning the Sword and the Sorcerer.

The Prince Mikah character is actually a good guy. Prince Talon is actually after Titus Cromwell played by Richard Lynch. He is responsible for the death of Talon's parents when he was a young boy. Talon kills Cromwell and Mikah takes over the throne. I remember this movie from when I was a young boy due to the three bladed sword and the very nice shot of Kathleen Beller's naked ass in a scene when she was getting a massage.
-J. Carter

A: Thank you for the corrections. I don't believe I've seen the film, so I was piecing a description together from reviews and synopsizes off the internet. I found a picture of Kathleen Beller, but it's not of her rear.



Q: Hey, thanks for answering the Turtles question that I asked. But I asked if Splinter was a puppet or a man in a suit.
-Bobby

A: I'm sorry. I must have read your email wrong. Splinter was a puppet done by the Jim Henson people. He was voiced in the first two films by Kevin Clash. Clash is best known as the voice and puppeteer of Elmo. That's right, the ninja turtles get sage advice and warrior wisdom from Elmo. In the third film his voice and puppet work was done by James Murray who was the primary puppeteer on Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team America: World Police.

Q: Great column as usual. No questions, just comments.

I used to love Voyagers. Every Saturday evening my brother and I would park our butts in front of the TV. Great show...a real shame about the accidental shooting of Jon-Erik Hexum. But reading about time travel movies, I thought I'd recommend a few more.

Primer - This one is right up your alley, Leonard. This movie was shot on the ultra-cheap, $7,000 and you can't tell at all. In fact, watching the movie, it's hard to believe it was shot for such a small amount of money. It's a great time travel movie, more on the character side than anything else. Still, it's a great movie that you should check out. It comes on Showtime and Cinemax a lot.

Seven Days - Not a movie, but a pretty decent television series. Sometimes the acting was a little on the corny side, but overall, a good way to spend 40 minutes if you're wanting something to watch. It's your basic "save the day in an hour" show, but it works hard to keep things entertaining.

A Sound of Thunder - Okay...just kidding here. I was given this movie by a friend, and it was the worst pile of garbage I've ever seen. No lie, there are spots in the movie where you can literally tell they're walking in front of a green screen. Horrible movie...so naturally...I've gotta tell you to watch it sometime. Everyone must watch this movie at least once. When you do, please review it, I've gotta know what you think of it.

Black Knight - Oh...nevermind. This one is just as bad as A Sound of Thunder. Poor Martin Lawrence, he needs to fire his agent and get himself some better scripts.

Now as far as books that I'd love to see made into a movie, mini-series or television series, I have a few I'd like to toss in the hat.

The Wheel of Time - A great fantasy series (if a bit long-winded sometimes) about a young man who discovers that he's the Dragon Reborn. He's doomed to "break the world" as well as become completely insane in the process. The great writing from Robert Jordan has already brought so many things to light, including Rand Althor's descent into madness early on in the series. (Now at book 12, with the final 13th book coming soon.) This series definitely won't have a happy ending.

Have a Nice Day - Call me a mark, I don't care. I was given this book by the same friend who recommended the movie A Sound of Thunder, so naturally I figured it would be horrible. I sure was wrong. This book was superb, with most of the best laughs coming from his younger days (the potato penis ranks as my favorite). I think this would make a great movie, showing Mick's love for the wrestling sport from a young age, to him struggling just to make it, to his eventual World Championship. I think it'd not only make an entertaining action/comedy movie, but also a pretty good drama as well. My wife is definitely NOT a wrestling fan, but she's read the book at least 10 times.

What do you think of the book and the idea of making that into a movie?

Is there any actor out there that you'd like to see a biopic made of? I'd personally like to see one for John Wayne or Will Smith. Yes, Will Smith.

Take care and if you die, can I have your DVD collection?

-Joe

A: I've had several claims on my DVD collection already. I think I might donate them to poor underprivileged children.

For those who don't know, Jon-Erik Hexum of "Voyagers!" killed himself accidentally while filming the CBS series "Cover Up" where he played a male model who was an undercover secret agent. In between takes he put a prop gun to his head and fired a blank as a joke. What Hexum didn't realize that while the rounds were not live a blank fired at point blank range would still have enough force behind it to cause damage and the blast sent a chunk of his skull into his brain.

I've put A Sound of Thunder on my Netflix list. I've got The Descent coming for another email I received this week and a friend of mine wants me to check out Conversations with God. I've also got several Netflix flicks I still have to get too. I thought upgrading to the three at a time plan was a good idea, but it just makes me feel more backed up.

Black Knight is another updating of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. If you want another similar bad version, check out A Knight in Camelot with Whoopi Goldberg and Michael York.

A Mick Foley biopic would probably come off similar to Howard Stern's Private Parts, which was a surprisingly good movie. Foley could probably play himself as Stern did. We've talked about wrestler biopics before and it's a limited market, but I certainly think Foley could be a marketable option. I read that the rights to Larry Zybysko's book was optioned for a movie. Jim Belushi should play him after a massive weight loss plan.

You know I would be down for a John Wayne biopic. Orson Welles has popped up in a few films, like RKO 281, but never a straight up biopic. Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas would make good subjects. I read rumors that Scarlett Johansson is looking at a Jenna Jameson biopic. That would rule on several levels and it allows me to put up another gratuitous photo of Scarlett.



Q: Don't know if this falls into your domain, but I figured I'd throw this out there. For a while, NBC was doing a lot of big budget made-for-TV movies. The ones I remember best were Gulliver's Travels and Merlin. How many of these were there and what made them stop? Thanks.
Happy Trails,
-Andrew B

A: Big time prestige miniseries were popular in the late seventies. NBC tried to revive the trend in the late nineties as sweeps event programming. However, the production costs on most of the projects were more than some feature films and the return on ratings was not fantastic. This was due mostly to the television and entertainment climate changing a lot since the seventies. The straw that broke their back on the concept was 2000's "The 10th Kingdom" that explored the world of fairytales through the eyes of two mortals from our world who are transported there (John Larroquette and Kimberly Williams). Filled with cameos and huge sets, the $44 million nine-episode epic did poorly in the ratings. Other NBC miniseries from the period include "10.5" and "10.5: Apocalypse" about a massive earthquake, "Atomic Train" about a nuclear explosive on a locomotive destroying Denver, "Noah's Ark" with Jon Voight and Mary Steenburgen, "The Temptations," "Revelations" about the end of the world, "Kingpin," "The Odyssey" and "Alice in Wonderland." There might be a few more. You can see some similar themes there. Many of those aired on other networks owned by NBC-Universal including the USA Network, Vh-1 and Hallmark. I believe they have currently suspended productions of this nature. There was talk last year that NBC would do a new "V" miniseries for it's 25th anniversary, but nothing has come of that.

Q: This is the first time I've written with questions. I'm kind of embarrassed, you'll see why in a minute, but since you asked so nicely for more material , and since I have been reading your column for a while I'd thought I'd take the plunge.

Three movies I remember from my youth and it's been driving me crazy for a long time. I've tried googling and IMDB with no luck.

1. This first one I remember seeing when I was very young so we're talking late 70s. It's about a man who is a teacher and turns into a kid at random times. He tries to keep it a secret. The episode I remember is when it's vaccination day at the school and the teacher turns into a kid and he gets vaccinated. Then at the end of the episode he becomes a man and the other teachers take him to get vaccinated again much to his chagrin.

2. Going with the Sword and the Sorcerer question (I remember liking that movie and the crazy three bladed firing sword) I also remember a movie from this same time period but instead of a sword, the hero carried a what looked like a large ninja throwing star. It would return back to him and he could catch it as the blades were retractable. I remember this movie as we would build our own throwing stars with flattened nails and lots of duct tape. Luckily we never hit anyone.

3. I remember a horror movie from the mid to late eighties. The killer was a shadowy figure who used a stick with razor blades somehow imbedded in the stick to do away with his victims. I remember one scene where he's hacking away at some guy and we see the chopping of fingers. It's pretty gross. And the other scene is of a girl showering, she looks kind of like a very, and I mean very young Janeane Garofalo, except for being very well endowed. And then the killer comes in and, well, kills her.

I knew this would be embarrassing. But that's the price to pay for so much great reading you provide. Keep up the good work.
-Eddie Cruz

A: According to the Amazing Rando over on the Smartmarks boards your television show is "Big John, Little John." It ran one season in 1976 on Saturday morning television. The adult John Martin (Herb Edelman) drank from the fountain of youth while on vacation in Florida and turned into a twelve-year-old version of himself (Robbie Rist, Cousin Oliver on "The Brady Bunch"). The effects wore off, but he still turns into his younger self at random intervals. His wife (Joyce Bulifant) and son (Mike Darnell) are in on the secret and seek to cover matters up from the school's principal (Olive Dunbar). What if he changes while having sex with his wife? Ew. What if she likes it? Double ew.

Your first film is Krull from 1983. Krull is a planet that is attacked by The Beast and his army of Slayers. To defend the planet the two rival factions on it join forces and do so by having Prince Colwyn (Kan Marshall) marry Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony). The Slayers attack the wedding and kidnap Lyssa. Colwyn forms a ragtag team of adventurers to rescue her from the Black Fortress. Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane have bit parts. The five pronged throwing disc you remember is called a Glaive.
I couldn't track down the other film, but perhaps a reader out there can help.

Don't die. And thanks for all the great questions and feedback the past couple weeks.

"Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the presence of fear, yet the will to move on."