Ask 411 Movies for 12.08.08: The Column that Flies Over the Rainbow!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 12.08.2008

The Serpent and the Rainbow, Carnival of Monsters, League of Gentleman, the Cannonball Run, Sharon Stone eats a spider and we make a rainbow connection

NETFLIX MOVIE OF THE WEEK: DR. WHO AND THE CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS



You might remember me some time ago stating I was interested in watching some of the Jon Pertwee episodes of Dr. Who and my Netflix list finally cycled around to some. In this adventure, the Doctor and Jo find themselves in a miniscope, a device that shrinks living things and keeps them contained for viewing by the public. They manage to escape the machine and grow to full size, but so do some flesh eating monsters. It started out ok, but then sort of just kept circling itself. It was a four part episode and probably could have done with just two. The ending was unsatisfying as the plot of the aliens involved was quickly squashed and then not referred back to. The owner of the machine, Vorg and his assistant Shirna, were meant for comic relief, but just came off as annoying.

To tie in this week with last week from YouTube, we have Svengoolie interviewing Jon Pertwee, who is almost decapitated by a falling ladder.



From a recent sojourn to Best Buy I picked up the two disc director's cut edition of Tropic Thunder. As funny as the movie was, I can't wait to see what they left out. The cast commentaries and interviews in character should be gold too.

Q: there is a Brittney Skye porn scene playing on one of the tv screens when the guys lock steve carrell in the home theatre room in the store in 40 Year Old Virgin.
-Fresh2death

A: That clears up that weeks long mystery. Thanks.

Q: Reaper will be returning in either January or March. Sources conflict so far. If you want any more info, including spoilers (we have up to 2x13), they're categorized here, just use the password "broken circle".
-Blue Sunflower

A: Thank you for the added information. However, those no there here so we can't go there to find out where here is.

Q: Was The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse ever released in the US?
-Dr John Smith



A: The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse from 2005 is a film from the United Kingdom based on the series from the comedy troop of Jeremy Dyson, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. In the film, characters from the show leave their world for ours to convince the writers to keep on working on their characters and storylines. Michael Sheen plays Dyson, who is not an actor. According to imdb, the movie never received a release of any kind in the United States.

Q: I like Will Ferrel as Capt Chaos for the remake of Cannonball Run.

I haven't seen the original but I find it hard to believe that the remake of Oceans 11 is not superior to it. It's one of my favorites of all time.

Looking forward to next week.
-BFF

A: I like the original Ocean's 11, but I do have to agree that the remake is technically a better movie with a sharper plot and a better cast of actors. The original still has an inherent coolness factor and can be fun for Rat Pack fans.

Q: A Cannonball Run remake could be a lot of fun, but only if it's in the spirit of the original. That means get as many current stars combined with "legends" as possible and do not do anything to the plot, which was glorious fun. I'd say have the current "Frat pack" play the major characters, with Jack Black doing Captian Chaos, and perhaps Will Farrell as JJ (although Will wouldn't quite capture Burt as well). Whatever happens, they would have to get Burt Reynolds to do a cameo. Perhaps he could play himself as the mysterious benefactor of the Cannonball Run. And of course, a closing reel of bloopers is pretty much mandatory.
-Michael L

A: I'm surprised by how man people liked my Cannonball Run remake idea from last week. A better fit for JJ from the frat pack contingent might be Paul Rudd or Ron Livingston. Will Ferrell would be hilarious as the Sheik. How about Seth Rogen as the guy in the truck with no brakes? I like Reynolds to be involved somehow and still dig the idea of making him the grizzled, crazed doctor. He could be the original J.J. and either funding the race or managing it.

By the by, it might be hard to believe that the movie is based on a true story. Director Hal Needham and a friend of his competed in a similar cross country race in an ambulance. By the by two, they made a sitcom pilot with Mel Tillis and Terry Bradshaw's characters that didn't sell, but Needham said it was the funniest thing he ever saw in his life.



Q: There was a pretty good Stooges bio pic made a few years back. It had the guy from the Shield (Ben Grimm) in it. I don't know how historically accurate it was, but it seemed about right.

Basically the Stooges made a lot of people money and made a lot of bad decisions and never got much of the pie themselves.
-Poppycock

I also saw the Stooges film (I think produced by Mel Gibson..a well-known Stooges fan) and it was really well done. The bit where fans actually punch and poke Curly in the eyes is rough to watch.

But all in all, a great film. It really makes you see Moe in a new light.
-Dirk

A: The actor you refer to is Michael Chiklis of "The Shield" and the Thing from the Fantastic Four movies However, to me, he will always be "The Commish." He played Curly in the 2000 TV movie "The Three Stooges." Paul Ben-Victor played Moe with Evan Handler as Larry and John Kassir as Shemp. I haven't seen the movie and it's not out on DVD to catch. And yes, Mel Gibson was one of the executive producers.

Moe served as the business manager for the group and actually did pretty well for the troop. After they split from Columbia in 1959, Moe formed Comedy III Productions, Inc. with Larry and Joe DeRita to handle all Stooge trademarks and licensing. The company is currently ran by DeRita's stepsons, Fine's grandson, Bela Lugosi Jr. (whom I've met) and Eric Lamond as the majority owner. If it has the Stooges names and likeness is on it, they're in on it. Since 1995, Jim Skousen, Alan Semok and Dave Knight have been making personal appearances as the Stooges with authorization from Comedy III to help promote items and events. They also provided voices for a Stooges CGI cartoon called "The Grate Debate" where Moe, Larry and Curly run for President. There is also a Three Stooges museum near Philadelphia. I feel a roadtrip coming on.

Q: my question has to do with an early to mid-eighties horror picture. I never saw the film in question, I only remember the trailers so I've never had any luck finding out the name of the film. I remember a group of people holding down a woman on an alter as a spider descended from the ceiling towards the woman's mouth and an off-screen voice said "Wider". The woman's mouth is held open and a warning about graphic content was read, this was rare at the time and helped it stick with me. I know it's not much to go on, but I'm hoping to find this movie and see it just to get the memory tucked away.
-Pete

A: Thanks to the imdb I Need to Know board members Quinn F and chargearoundgawpin, your film has been identified as 1981's Deadly Blessing from Wes Craven and starring Sharon Stone. A man dies in a tractor accident and the Amish like sect he was once a member of, the Hittites, view his wife (Stone) as the reason, because she was the succubus that lured him away from the group. They then go after her. Stone didn't want to do the spider scene in question until Craven agreed to have the spider's teeth removed to make her feel more comfortable. When Ernest Borgnine, who is in the movie, revealed this in is recent autobiography PETA released statements against Stone for the act. It was over 25 years ago, chill.



Q: After watching Santa's Slay, it makes me wonder if there are any other Christmas-style horror films out there (although Santa's Slay is actually more of a comedy/horror)

The only ones I've been able to find were: Jack Frost I&II, Gingerdead Man and Black Christmas. Are there any others out there?

I think I'll just start a new tradition of watching Christmas-themed horror films every year instead..heh.
-Dirk

A: BFF mentioned the Silent Night Deadly Night series in the comments last week. Actually, we went over several Christmas themed horror films just a few weeks ago, including that series, Christmas Evil, You Better Watch Out and the opening segment of 1972's Tales from the Crypt.



Q: What's your opinion of the serpeant and the rainbow? only movie freaked me out enough to walk out of at the movies (i was 15). It gets no love.
-BFF



A: The Serpent and the Rainbow from 1988 stars Bill Pullman as an ivy league professor specializing in going to far out of the way places and returning with tribal hoodoo to make new medicine with. He's charged with going to Haiti to find a powder that will turn people into zombies. He runs afoul of the local authorities, who are crooked, and gets much more involved than he would have liked. It's based on a novel by Wade Davis on his own real life exploits. However, Davis has disowned the movie calling it "one of the worst Hollywood movies in history." Hyperbole much there Tony Schiavone? The director is Wes Craven, who again gets to explore freaky dream elements and those are probably the best parts of the movie. It tries to play things pretty realistically, which makes the movie overall more creepy and unsettling, until the finish which just devolves into a pretty standard horror movie. You're left not sure what really happened, in a bad way. There's also a goofy subplot at the beginning that comes into play later of Pullman finding his spirit animal of a jaguar. I think the potential was there to make a really scary movie, but Craven did the usual with it and it doesn't work. Let me also mention a scene featuring a hammer, a spike and a scrotum. I'm sure I don't have to say much more than that.

With us finally getting to the above film, let's celebrate by returning to our color scheme column filler and movies with rainbow in the title.



Finian's Rainbow (1968): Finian (Fred Astaire) and his daughter Sharon (Petula Clark) leave Ireland for Kentucky. Finian has stolen the leprechauns' pot of gold and a wee one named Og (Tommy Steele) comes to get it back. However, Sharon making an errant wish while standing over where Finian buried the pot of gold turns a racist senator (Keenan Wynn) black. This was Astaire's last musical and reports from the set had him dancing rings around performers almost a quarter his age. This was also Francis Ford Coppola's first major studio movie as director. The film is based on a 1947 musical that at one time was going to be made into an animated film with Frank Sinatra as Woody, the love interest for Sharon. The project was shelved after producer Frank Hubley was blacklisted due to the House Un-American Activities Committee grilling him.



Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow! (1971): Barney (Jack Klugman) denies everyone around him by opening a pony farm in the middle of New York City. However, rising debt seeks to derail his dream. Morgan Freeman makes his first credited movie performance as Afro.



Under the Rainbow (1981): The manager of the Culver hotel takes a weekend off and leaves his nephew in charge. He renames the place hotel Rainbow and overbooks the place with foreign dignitaries in town for a conference and midgets filming The Wizard of Oz. Amidst the craziness secret agent Bruce Thorpe (Chevy Chase) and casting director Annie Clark (Carrie Fisher) fall in love. Fisher once called this the worst movie she ever made and Jerry Marin, one of the munchkins from Wizard of Oz, said that he regretted making the movie after the way it portrayed little people involved with the beloved classic.



Broken Rainbow (1985): This is a documentary narrated by Martin Sheen about the 1974 incident of Navajo Indians being forced off of Hopi land after years of living in peace. The real reason was mining rights on the land that Peabody Coal wanted and they manipulated the Hopi council to get at them, according to the film.

Rainbow War (1985): Three kingdoms float in space. They are near enough each other to see, but they can't communicate with each other or travel back and forth. Each kingdom has an obsession with a certain color; one blue, one red and one gold. However, when a way to travel back and forth is found a war breaks out, but so does romance.



Black Rainbow (1989): Martha Travis (Rosanna Arquette) is a fake medium who specializes in letting people speak to their dead loved ones. She does her act in public. This sounds like a concept ahead of its time. Anyway, Travis gives a woman a message from her husband in one séance, but the problem is that he's not dead yet. Travis then discovers when the man will die, by who and how.



The Rainbow Thief (19990): An aging petty crook finds his proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when he befriends a man expected to inherit millions. Stars Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif and Christopher Lee.



The Rainbow Warrior (1992): Based on a true story, the Rainbow Warrior (captained by Jon Voight) ship from Greenpeace is sunk in New Zealand in 1984. A police detective (Sam Neill) discovers that it was sabotaged by the French, because the boat was getting ready to protest French nuclear tests.



Rainbow (1995): Bob Hoskins directs and stars in this story of three kids who want to find the end of the rainbow. They magically do and take the pot of gold they find there. However, the gold powers the rainbow and the rainbow gives earth its colors. Without green, oxygen can't be produced from plants. So the kids have to race against time to return the gold before the planet goes black and white. This was the first 35 mm movie shot on digital high definition video. The experiment worked so well that Sony rushed out their next generation of the camera for use by George Lucas on Attack of the Clones.

Don't die.

"He said you were small. Small. S-M-All."