Ten Statements About....THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)

To you, it's Harry Shearer stuck in a plastic pod.  To others,
it's a metaphor for life.

"There's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

1) Let's get this out of the way--this film does fit fully with Deja's Law of Satire--if you remove all the jokes, the film still holds up as a documentary about a rock band falling apart. Hell, there's a ten minute chunk toward the end of the film which is extremely true to life as the leads stare they impending obsolescence in the face.

2) That being said...this film does not hold up well, and the main reason for that is that our lead characters are utter morons. Unlike in later efforts directed by Christopher Guest, where we're brought into an insular world that's already a little insane by normal societal standards, David, Nigel and Derek wander around in a world that's recognizably real, which makes moments that are meant to be comedic come off as awkward and sometimes even cruel.

3) Even more so than our core trio, the character of Ian Faith, played expertly by Tony Hedra, comes off extremely well. Yes, he says some strange, borderline stupid things--but the way Hedra reads the lines and reacts later in the film to the idea of co-managing with June Chadwick's Jeanine seems to indicate that he's playing down to his charges in the same way a patient father deals with his perpetually stupid sons.

4) And speaking of June Chadwick--I now remember why I crushed on her in the V television series. Just saying is all.

You know, when you're on Fran Drescher's side of an argument,
you may have outgrown this film.

5) You know who, to my surprise, comes off extremely well in this picture? Fran Drescher. Once you get past her goofy 'Bobbi Fleckman!' intro, she plays her role very serious, and you can certainly understand the resistance she gives to the album cover. It makes me wonder what her career would have been like if she pursued a more serious acting career instead of becoming a lame caricature of a Noo Yawk babe.

6) And it needs to be said that the film would not have worked on younger Tom back in 1984 if Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer didn't know how to write actual songs. The only thing that makes the songs in this movie parodic are the lyrics and the presentation--taken as artifacts on their own, they're no worse than many of the songs written by actual metal acts of the era...in some cases, they're actually better.

7) I truly idolize Harry Shearer. I admire his humor, his writing ability and his willingness to stand up for his political views every Sunday on KCRW. But...it has been, and always will be, difficult to get the sight of his man-fur out of my head sometimes. I pray for his wife--a talented performer in her own right--that the pelt he seems to wear as Derek Smalls was artificial.

(On a related note...I wonder why, even though Guest and McKean frequently switch starring roles in all of Guest's movies, Shearer always ends up as a background player. Is it by choice or...?)

Airline searches were tough on soccer stars, too...
(Oh, comon--you guys are prolly quoting the lines each
still belongs to right this minute...)

8) Legendarily, this film was improvised, as are all of the film featuring Guest, McKean and Shearer. But the amazing thing about that fact--and about the later, Guest-directed films--is that it never has that anarchistic, unformed air of an improvised film. This thing feels like a complete artifact, not a sketch of one...which is why I almost regret the trio's need to keep revisiting this one thing of theirs over and over again.

9) I imagine this was Rob Reiner's idea, and not the trio's, but I love the brief cameo by Patrick MacNee as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg. Not just because I love The Avengers, but because the cameo--much like Drescher's role--is played totally straight, which adds a little bit of veracity to that crucial first act (after all, if we don't buy into the conceit in the first act, the film is lost).

10) I have to say this...while Michael McKean's David St. Hubbins matches the type of heavy metal vocalist he's satirizing perfectly, Christopher Guest may very well be the weakest link in the film with his Nigel Tufnel. The character never feels real, and he comes off as so stupid he could be marginally retarded. It's hard to see him functioning in this group at all, let alone for the seventeen years the band is supposed to be in existence at the start of the film

Overall...a film that's sort of lost its lustre due to the test of time, it's still worth watching as the blueprint for the Christopher Guest canon that will follow it.

Ten Statements About....ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971)

"Well, this is...awkward."

"At first they grunted their refusal. But then on a historic day which is commemorated by my species and documented in the sacred scrolls, there came Aldo. He did not grunt. He articulated. He spoke a word that had been spoken to him time without number by humans. He said....no."

1) The strength of this film lies in Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall. These two actors are now so comfortable in the skins of Zira and Cornelius that they're capable of carrying this film on their backs effortlessly.

2) Just as the strength of Dr. Zaius is in the fact that he is never quite the villain--and in some aspects is doing things for the right reasons, the strength of Eric Braeden's Dr. Hasslien is that in some way he's doing these things for the right reasons as well. Sadly, Braeden gives up his more subtle interpretation for something more shooty in the final act, but for the bulk of the film the good doctor works.

"That's right...I'll shoot you...then your baby...and I'll be a
hero--or a dick, I haven't worked that out yet."

3) I really liked the fact that while the first act can be seen as the broadest and most satirical the series has been to date, Paul Dehn's script doesn't date--which is pretty amazing given that the film is nailed down as taking place in 1973.

4) I wish that Sal Mineo's Milo was established either earlier in the series, or given more of a part in this film. As it is, his impact on Zira and Cornelius is an informed attribute--and he's strangled to death by a gorilla after uttering only a handful of lines.

5) You got to wonder if the whole sequence where our main characters are feted as celebrities was Dehn's own slight commentary on the Ape-mania that was sweeping young America at this time.

6) It's easy to understand why everyone pretty much remembers Ricardo Montalban's Armando over Bradford Dillman's Lewis. Montalban is so alive in his few scenes here, so vital and full of energy that he threatens to steal the show with every line.

7) The opening sequence, played out with musical accompaniment, is wonderfully played out and ends with the punchline of our heroes removing their space helmets. If I didn't know I was watching a Planet of The Apes movie, I'd be suprised.

I don't care how evolved you are...early 70's fashion
never looks good.

8) I understand why Cornelius commiting murder in self-defense was neccessary--it gives Dr. Hasslien an excuse for going so militant...but it's so at odds with these characters, who emphasize in both this film and Beneath... that they're pacifists who sat out the war.

9) I think I understood that Zira switched her baby--who will become the Ape leader Caeser, played by McDowell in the last two films--with Heloise before they left Armando's Circus...but it's never made fully clear, and makes the baby's fall into the ocean a little bitter tasting.

10) Similarly, I understand why the script brought in the idea of alternate universes as an explanation for the Ape future...but it sort of muddies the water, especially when Dr. Hasslien's argument for destroying Zira and Cornelius hinges on accepting that theirs is our only future.

Overall...this was one of my favorites of the original cycle when I was a kid, and I'm surprised at how well it still holds up. Yes, there are broad moments of comedy--but the masterful acting by McDowall and Hunter conveying the pathos and tragedy of these character's deteriorating situation make for an excellent viewing experience.

Ten Statements About....BLAZING SADDLES (1974)

Yes, I love Pryor and Wilder...but this is just as effective
a comedy team.

"Take this down. I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists."
"Could you repeat that, sir?"

1) Even watching this now, after over thirty-five years, it strikes me how it helped form one of my principle rules when it comes to spoofs and satires. Namely, when you burn away all the gags and the broad performances and the genre-shattering final ten minutes, you still have a story that not only works within the genre its spoofing, but manages to make a valid point about racial politics on top of it.

Fuck Dr. Evil...Hedley Lamarr is the True Face of Comedic Evil!

2) God, I love the sheer delicious joy with which Harvey Korman attacks the role of Hedley Lamarr. He's one of the few movie villains I forgive for thinking himself evil because, damn it, he's so good at it.

3) After watching Gene Wilder's Waco Kid, I have to wonder how effective he could've been in a straight thriller--maybe even as a villain. The sheer control he has in this role is so at odds with how we usually think of Wilder (i.e. ranting, screaming, running about) that if he harnessed that quality for a serious flick...well, it could've been truly chilling.

4) I have to wonder if teens today--and I first saw this as a teenager--would look upon the frequent use of the racial epithets in this film the way we did back in the day. Would it have the same impact given how devalued these words have become?

5) Alex Karras may not have been an actor, even when he was trying to be an actor...but I can't think of another person who could've made Mongo work.

6) You'll notice how this film frequently dances on the precipice of gross-out humor. The fact that it tempers the grossness with word play, ethnic humor and sight gags avoids the ickiness of more recent films of this ilk ....

7) You'll also notice the way Brooks consciously avoids anything but the most general modern references. This allows us to watch it thirty-five plus years later and still enjoy it, whereas more recent spoof films will literally disappear from the public consciousness five years later.

8) I have to admit--I've never quite figured out how I feel about Madeline Kahn. I do recognize that she was a beautiful woman, and I can appreciate that she had an excellent sense of comic timing and body language...but there's something about her that has always left me cold. Maybe it's the way that she, like Adam Sandler, had a tendency to let funny voices do her acting for her. So yeah, I appreciate her but...not a fan.

9) I know the film was originally written for Richard Pryor--who even retains a writing credit--but I can't think of anyone who would have worked better than Cleavon Little. While I can certainly believe that Pryor would have that unbeatable chemistry with Wilder (you just have to look at their work together to know that), I have to wonder if he could have sold a 1974 white audience on the fact that he'd be acceptable to the Johnson-infested Rock Ridge over time

This is how you should have kept it, Mel...doing the small
roles in the funny make-up and letting the real actors have
all the fun.

10) I've mentioned this to my friend and partner Derrick before--but this sort of filmmaking, where the same actors, writers and directors move from picture to picture, taking different roles (even multiple roles) and fulfilling different purposes in the plot, isn't done anymore. Only the Broken Lizard troupe comes close to emulating Brooks' early filmmaking process. And Brooks never was as great a comedic presence as when he was leading Wilder and Kahn and the like through the desert of Hollywood cliche; it's not for nothing that Brooks' star began to fade once he started taking the lead roles for himself and slowly broke up his repertory company.

Overall...a true classic spoof, part of a string of just hit-them-out-of-the-park work for Mel Brooks...and a film that still resonates thanks to a smart script and some excellent performances.

Incidentally, I watched this on the '30th Anniversary' DVD edition that contains what may very be the absolute worst DVD commentary I've ever heard. Brooks has a reputation for being one of the most awful commentators on his own work...and this commentary (which just stops about fifteen minutes before the film does) is proof.