Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)
5/1: Billy Wilder Comedies
8 PM - A Foreign Affair (1948)
10:15 PM - Some Like It Hot (1959)
12:30 AM - The Fortune Cookie (1966)
2:45 AM - The Major and the Minor (1942)
One of the reasons I love Billy wilder is his knack for making me laugh. Though his material can sometimes be a bit too broad for me, when he gets it right, it's perfection. To see this perfection for yourself watch Some Like It Hot followed by The Fortune Cookie.
BONUS: 4:30 AM - Billy Wilder Speaks (2006)
This documentary is highly enjoyable, especially if you are a Wilder fan, because you get a real glimpse of the director's personality. I would also recommend Cameron Crowe's book Conversations With Wilder which was compiled from numerous interviews Crowe conducted with Wilder around the same time as this film was made.
4/3: Robert Osborne's Musical Picks
8 PM - Can't Help Singing (1944)
9:45 PM - Moon Over Miami (1941)
11:30 PM - Cover Girl (1944)
1:30 AM - The Harvey Girls (1946)
Tonight, Robert Osborne takes his turn as programmer with four musicals starring some of his favorite actresses (that is my guess anyway). This evening of lovely leading ladies starts off with the delightful songbird Deanna Durbin followed by Moon Over Miami starring Betty Grable at her best. (This one is a favorite of mine, so I was surprised to see that it is a TCM premiere! I must have seen it on AMC when they used to show older films.) Then, the graceful Rita Hayworth dances with Gene Kelly in Cover Girl. And finally, plucky Judy Garland tames the Wild West in The Harvey Girls; Angela Lansbury (another personal favorite of mine) also stars as a woman of somewhat ill-repute.
5/16: Respect Your Elders Night
2:00 AM - Tokyo Story (1953)
This is probably Japanese director Yasugiro Ozu's best-known film and tonight you will see why. Speaking from my own experience, this story about an elderly couple whose family considers them an inconvenience is so heart-breaking it will stay with you forever. Many people may find the pacing slow, but hang in there, it's worth it.
4:30 AM - The Sunshine Boys (1975)
Keeping up the theme of elderly main characters this film stars Walter Matthau - hilarious as usual - and George Burns - in his Oscar-winning role - as a cantankerous pair of vaudeville comedians. These now-feuding former partners prove to be just as vexing to their younger caretakers as they are to each other. Even though he was only 55 at the time, Walter Matthau is totally convincing here as an ornery old coot alongside the 79 year old Burns.
5/28 - 5/31: Memorial Day Weekend Military Marathon
This weekend is heaven for military buffs with several days programming devoted to war films. I've picked out several that fall into my favorite category of war picture which seems to have peaked in popularity during the 60s. I'm talking about films in which a group of men (preferably misfits of some type) are brought together to complete one daring mission. Whether it be an escape or an invasion, they all end up heroes, even the dirty ones.
5/28, 10:15 PM - The Great Escape (1963)
5/29, 4:45 AM - The Secret Invasion (1964)
5/30, 12:00 PM - The Dirty Dozen (1967)
2:45 PM - The Guns of Navarone (1961)
5/31, 5 PM - Where Eagles Dare (1969)
8 PM - Kelly's Heroes (1970)
BONUS, 10 PM - The Eastwood Factor
May 31 is technically devoted to the films of Clint Eastwood in celebration of his 80th birthday. So, after catching Clint in two war films, stick around for this TCM original documentary. It is another in the fine series of documentaries made for TCM by film historian Richard Schickel. If the other docs were any indication, after watching this one, I'm sure to be inspired to seek out Eastwood films I've never seen and revisit those that I have.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
On other websites: So Bad It's Good Edition
Battlefield Earth, a film Roger Ebert deemed "not merely bad, [but] unpleasant in a hostile way," recently won the Razzie award for Worst Movie of the Decade. On last week's episode of The Business (from Santa Monica NPR station KCRW), host Kim Masters interviewed the two screenwriters who were credited on that film, J.D. Shapiro and Corey Mandell, to find out what went wrong. I'll just say it involves a steam room and Smokey Robinson...
On perennial favorite Slate, Jonah Weiner examines some more of the worst films ever made, albeit those produced on a considerably smaller budget than Battlefield Earth, and tries to pinpoint what makes a horrible film great. For me it's usually the sound of Crow and Tom Servo riffing, but to each her own.
And in the so-bad-I'm-crying-at-the-state-of-cinema category, the A.V. Club has reported on several upcoming remakes, prequels, and board game adaptations. I've made my views on such matters known, so I hardly need to say that these movies sound absolutely horrid, and not in a good way.
So as not to end on a sour note, here's my favorite scene from notorious film fiasco The Room. "Keep the change hi doggie you're my favorite customer," also known as the flower shop scene.
On perennial favorite Slate, Jonah Weiner examines some more of the worst films ever made, albeit those produced on a considerably smaller budget than Battlefield Earth, and tries to pinpoint what makes a horrible film great. For me it's usually the sound of Crow and Tom Servo riffing, but to each her own.
And in the so-bad-I'm-crying-at-the-state-of-cinema category, the A.V. Club has reported on several upcoming remakes, prequels, and board game adaptations. I've made my views on such matters known, so I hardly need to say that these movies sound absolutely horrid, and not in a good way.
So as not to end on a sour note, here's my favorite scene from notorious film fiasco The Room. "Keep the change hi doggie you're my favorite customer," also known as the flower shop scene.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Remakes, Reboots, Retreads
I just listened to an episode of the Hollywood Saloon podcast from last May. In this episode, Andy Siems and John Jansen discuss "Fertile Cinema" or rather how the once-fertile ground of Hollywood no longer seems to produce fresh, new ideas like it used to. Now, that podcast may be a year old, but a glance at a list of this year's current and upcoming releases reveals a distinct lack of original material. Clash of the Titans, the #1 film last week, is a remake (and oh-my-god has it actually been thirty years since that came out?). Death at a Funeral, which opened last weekend, is a remake of a film from only three years ago, this time with a mostly African-American cast. As is the trend in comedy these days, the new version is also filled with pop culture references which will be completely stale by the time someone remakes the film again three years from now starring America Ferrera, Diego Luna, George Lopez (as the corpse), and, as always, Peter Dinklage. And the upcoming "re-imagining" of A Nightmare on Elm Street ...seriously? After 7 Nightmare movies and Freddy vs. Jason haven't we been over this enough?
Of course, it all comes down to making money. Studios do not want to lose money; therefore, they are afraid to take a chance on something without a proven audience. And if they do take that chance, then the movie has to have big stars as box office insurance. But the actors are also afraid of taking a chance and trying something too different; after all, they don't want a flop either. A recent example is Date Night starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, both big stars on TV with some success in films. Even though it isn't based on another movie, the ideas in Date Night are not terribly original. It immediately brings to mind other "into the night" films, from The Out-of-Towners to After Hours to Adventures in Babysitting, in which mild-mannered protagonists get in over their heads in the big city.
In their podcast, The Hollywood Saloon guys lump films based on books into the stale pile, but personally I feel less critical toward literary adaptations, especially ones that have never been filmed before. Screenwriters need inspiration and I'd rather watch a film based on actual literature than a live-action version of the Marmaduke comic strip (coming June 4th!). If the stories and characters are original, transferring them to a different medium doesn't feel derivative. And sometimes the film offers a fresh approach to the source material. For example, in Adaptation, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman chose to dramatize the process of adapting The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean for the screen. Kaufman, Orlean, and the titular orchid thief all became fictional characters in the film.
If you look back at some of the most popular films in history (not just box office hits, but well-liked movies which also made a lot of money), you will find many original stories. Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Home Alone, Titanic, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Ghostbusters, The Matrix, even Avatar - and these are just within the past 35 years. Many of the films I just listed also went on to spawn popular sequels, for better or worse. But what happens when Hollywood stops producing the franchise seeds of the future? Will we be stuck recycling the same comic book heroes over and over? The Incredible Hulk character got an almost instant re-boot after Ang Lee's The Hulk flopped in 2003. The Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier came out in 2008. Perhaps the studio assumed that since few people actually saw Lee's film, audiences were still dying for a Hulk movie. Leterrier's wasn't a hit either, so I can only imagine that at this moment several writers are crafting a new Hulk story; but this one will be even more "dark" and navel-gazing than before because people loved that stuff in The Dark Knight, so why not jump on that bandwagon.
OK, I'll wrap up my rant before it begins to more closely resemble a crappy dissertation. The point is this: plots and ideas can be recycled yet still remain fresh and entertaining. However, that's not the current state of affairs in Hollywood. In fact, it is becoming excessively derivative. The "golden age" of cinema was filled with exciting, funny, and surprising films - these are the classics which we still watch today. What will the classic films from this decade be if all we have are retreads of what came before?
Of course, it all comes down to making money. Studios do not want to lose money; therefore, they are afraid to take a chance on something without a proven audience. And if they do take that chance, then the movie has to have big stars as box office insurance. But the actors are also afraid of taking a chance and trying something too different; after all, they don't want a flop either. A recent example is Date Night starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, both big stars on TV with some success in films. Even though it isn't based on another movie, the ideas in Date Night are not terribly original. It immediately brings to mind other "into the night" films, from The Out-of-Towners to After Hours to Adventures in Babysitting, in which mild-mannered protagonists get in over their heads in the big city.
In their podcast, The Hollywood Saloon guys lump films based on books into the stale pile, but personally I feel less critical toward literary adaptations, especially ones that have never been filmed before. Screenwriters need inspiration and I'd rather watch a film based on actual literature than a live-action version of the Marmaduke comic strip (coming June 4th!). If the stories and characters are original, transferring them to a different medium doesn't feel derivative. And sometimes the film offers a fresh approach to the source material. For example, in Adaptation, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman chose to dramatize the process of adapting The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean for the screen. Kaufman, Orlean, and the titular orchid thief all became fictional characters in the film.
If you look back at some of the most popular films in history (not just box office hits, but well-liked movies which also made a lot of money), you will find many original stories. Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Home Alone, Titanic, ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Ghostbusters, The Matrix, even Avatar - and these are just within the past 35 years. Many of the films I just listed also went on to spawn popular sequels, for better or worse. But what happens when Hollywood stops producing the franchise seeds of the future? Will we be stuck recycling the same comic book heroes over and over? The Incredible Hulk character got an almost instant re-boot after Ang Lee's The Hulk flopped in 2003. The Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier came out in 2008. Perhaps the studio assumed that since few people actually saw Lee's film, audiences were still dying for a Hulk movie. Leterrier's wasn't a hit either, so I can only imagine that at this moment several writers are crafting a new Hulk story; but this one will be even more "dark" and navel-gazing than before because people loved that stuff in The Dark Knight, so why not jump on that bandwagon.
OK, I'll wrap up my rant before it begins to more closely resemble a crappy dissertation. The point is this: plots and ideas can be recycled yet still remain fresh and entertaining. However, that's not the current state of affairs in Hollywood. In fact, it is becoming excessively derivative. The "golden age" of cinema was filled with exciting, funny, and surprising films - these are the classics which we still watch today. What will the classic films from this decade be if all we have are retreads of what came before?
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Not-So-Fresh New Releases
This week I looked over the offerings at the local movie theater and, to my disappointment, most of the new releases seemed, well, not so fresh. (And any titles that did look interesting were films I had already seen.) But what did the critics have to say? Perhaps a good review could inspire some enthusiasm. However, a peek at the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes confirmed my suspicions. So, in the interest of saving the $10 you might spend on one of these stinkers, why not seek out a good movie at the video store or queue one up on Netflix? Below is a list of some high-profile current releases, their "freshness rating" as calculated by the Tomatometer, and the films I'd recommend watching instead.
Clash of the Titans - 29% freshness rating
The Bounty Hunter - 8% freshness rating
Clash of the Titans - 29% freshness rating
- This one is a remake, so why not just watch the original Clash of the Titans (1981). While it is perhaps not a great movie, it is remembered fondly by many, particularly for the special effects by legendary stop-motion artist Ray Harryhausen.
- For an upgrade in all-around quality, check out Jason and the Argonauts (1963), another tale of Greek mythology featuring effects by Harryhausen, including the famous battle between the Argonauts and a skeleton army.
The Last Song - 15% freshness rating
- Nicholas Sparks has been ripping off Love Story (1970) for years. So if you're in the mood for a romantic weepie, skip this fugazi based on a Sparks novel, and go for the real thing. You deserve it.
- Young lovers, parental conflicts, sandy beaches - it's all here in A Summer Place (1959), starring teen dreams Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. And whatever the "last song" is, it surely can't hold a candle to the haunting "Theme from A Summer Place" by Max Steiner which topped the pop charts in its day.
Alice in Wonderland - 52% freshness rating
- Disney's original animated version of Alice in Wonderland (1951) has been delighting audiences for over 50 years, and in only two dimensions! So, why not celebrate a very merry un-birthday by revisiting this classic.
- For a decidedly trippier take on Lewis Carroll's tale, there's Alice (1988) by Czech filmmaker/artist Jan Svankmajer.
- Or, for a completely unrelated film about someone named Alice, I recommend Woody Allen's modern fantasy Alice (1990), starring Mia Farrow.
The Bounty Hunter - 8% freshness rating
- I've seen the trailer for this ostensible romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler: manly man, woman on the run, the chase ensues, and sparks fly. Obviously this film wants to be It Happened One Night (1934). (In fact, it wishes it were even half as good!) However, The Bounty Hunter lacks the crucial components of Frank Capra's direction, Clark Gable's chest, and Claudette Colbert's leg.
- If you prefer less romance and more bounty hunting, may I suggest Midnight Run (1988)? I feel confident calling it the ultimate bounty hunter-embezzler buddy / road comedy.
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