And continuing in our special election year series of farces, I offer for your consideration Clue.
Based on the venerable board game, Clue features an ensemble cast that includes Martin Mull (Col. Mustard), Christopher Lloyd (Professor Plum), Madeline Kahn (Ms. White), Eileen Brennan (Mrs. Peacock), Michael McKean (Mr. Green), Lesley Ann Warren (Miss Scarlet), Tim Curry as Wadsworth the Butler and Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy.
I don’t know about you, but I never miss a Lee Ving picture.
With a cast like that, you almost don’t need a plot. Which is good, because Clue almost doesn’t have one. The movie basically plays out like a particularly good session of the game. The board is set up, the characters are introduced, the murder happens, and everyone wanders from room to room trying to figure out whodunit. A little more meat is hung on the skeletal premise to keep the viewer interested, but only just enough to set up the action. The butler (Tim Curry) has summoned everyone to his master’s (Mr. Boddy’s) mansion where it is revealed that Mr. Boddy has been blackmailing everyone with various secrets.
This results in Mr. Boddy’s death. Following the murder, the characters all try to figure out who did it. They all had means, motive and opportunity, and there were no witnesses. So they search the house looking for clues that might point to someone, whether that be one of them or some mysterious third party that nobody has seen yet.
Through the course of the movie, the characters will discover another six murders, bringing the total mortality rate to six. And no, that’s not a typo, nor did I forget how to do math. To tell you more, however, would spoil the endings.
Again, that’s not a typo. Long before Peter Jackson became synonymous with denouement infinitum, Clue shipped to theatres with several endings. Reportedly, moviegoers were asked before the denouement who they think did it, and the most popular answer was shown. The VHS edition of the movie showed each ending in sequence prefaced with a title card saying something like “That’s how it might have happened. But how about this?” The VHS version selected one version as the canonical ending, and it is entertaining in spite of the fact that there’s no way the canonical ending could have played out that way given what was shown in the previous reels.
And yes, I do complain about plot inconsistencies and continuity errors in the farcical telling of a story inspired by a board game. It’s what I do. I would likewise grumble at the pivotal role of zoning violations in a movie based on Carcassonne.
The DVD of the movie offers the viewer multiple options, ranging from seeing the VHS release to being treated to a random ending with each viewing.
For a movie based on a board game, there is a remarkable amount of fan service. All of the murder weapons from the game make an appearance, and all of them are used at some point. The floor plan of the mansion’s ground floor matches the board game exactly, right down to the secret passages connecting rooms on the corners. The canonical ending even closes the movie with the classic “X did it. In the Y. With the Z,” phrasing that just about everybody uses when they play the game.
Where the movie really shines, however, is in the acting. You don’t put together a cast like this one and fail to get something decent, and the quality of the writing only adds to it. Tim Curry is his usual flavor of awesome, and Christopher Lloyd plays what is quite possibly the most “normal” character he’s ever played. Of course, Madeline Kahn is superb, as she always was. It was a tremendous loss to Hollywood when she died.
There really isn’t much more to say about Clue that wouldn’t spoil the experience of seeing it for the first time. While it was originally released in 1985, it’s aged well; largely due to the fact that it’s a period piece. The humor has a good blend of puns, sight gags and slap stick, and it’s largely appropriate for all audiences, murder aside.
Showing posts with label Movies You've Never Heard Of. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies You've Never Heard Of. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Movies You’ve Never Heard Of 3: The Man Who Knew Too Little
Welcome to the third installment of an ongoing series that involves me trying to expose you, my reader (Hi Dad!) to movies that have heretofore been only of interest to me. Today we take a look at one of Bill Murray’s lesser known comedies: The Man Who Knew Too Little.
In keeping with the theme of the year, The Man Who Knew Too Little (hereafter TMWKTL because I’m too lazy to copy and paste the title every time it comes up) is on the farcical side of the comedy field. The plot involves a buffoonish, out of work actor (Bill Murray) who has traveled to Great Britain to surprise is expatriate brother on the anniversary of his birth. The problem is that his brother has an important business meeting with some German clients, and can’t celebrate right away.
The brother, feeling bad about the whole thing, buys Bill Murray tickets to a special show called “The Theatre of Life” which takes place in the streets of London, and makes the theatre-goer the main character of the play. He promises to meet up with Bill Murray after the show so they can smoke some celebratory cigars before midnight.
The show is supposed to start when Bill Murray answers a public phone, from which he will get his instructions as to where to go and what the scene will be. All in character. Of course, this particular phone just happens to be located at a dead-drop, and when Bill Murray answers the phone he inadvertently gets instructions intended for an international assassin.
And thus begins a string of miscommunications and misunderstandings that will bring the world to the brink of a new Cold War.
Overall, the theme is similar to those old Popeye shorts in which Popeye chases after Sweet Pea as he crawls through a construction site completely oblivious to the danger he’s in. The ignorance of his situation is what gives Bill Murray’s character the edge that lets him cheat death and remain a step ahead of the ever growing roster of spies, spooks, and assassins that keep coming after him.
The brilliance is in the execution. Bill Murray is one of the best comic actors in Hollywood on his worst day; even the unwatchable Broken Flowers featured an excellent performance by Murray; and this movie represents one of his better days. His timing is flawless, and his deliveries typically spot on. And in case you thought he could only do his wry, snarky schtick, he pulls off some physical comedy as well. Particularly impressive is the Russian folk-dance number at the movie’s climax.
And it’s not just Murray. Alfred Molina, man of a thousand accents, delivers a hilarious performance as a retired KGB assassin know only as The Butcher. The Butcher is called out of retirement to put an end to this rogue operative (is he MI5? CIA? NSA?) who is gumming up the works so thoroughly.
I won’t spoil the plot any further than I already have. Chances are good that you’ll be able to catch this movie on TNT some afternoon, but I recommend renting or buying it. If you like silly, you won’t be disappointed.
Heck, it’s worth it just for the car-chase scene.
In keeping with the theme of the year, The Man Who Knew Too Little (hereafter TMWKTL because I’m too lazy to copy and paste the title every time it comes up) is on the farcical side of the comedy field. The plot involves a buffoonish, out of work actor (Bill Murray) who has traveled to Great Britain to surprise is expatriate brother on the anniversary of his birth. The problem is that his brother has an important business meeting with some German clients, and can’t celebrate right away.
The brother, feeling bad about the whole thing, buys Bill Murray tickets to a special show called “The Theatre of Life” which takes place in the streets of London, and makes the theatre-goer the main character of the play. He promises to meet up with Bill Murray after the show so they can smoke some celebratory cigars before midnight.
The show is supposed to start when Bill Murray answers a public phone, from which he will get his instructions as to where to go and what the scene will be. All in character. Of course, this particular phone just happens to be located at a dead-drop, and when Bill Murray answers the phone he inadvertently gets instructions intended for an international assassin.
And thus begins a string of miscommunications and misunderstandings that will bring the world to the brink of a new Cold War.
Overall, the theme is similar to those old Popeye shorts in which Popeye chases after Sweet Pea as he crawls through a construction site completely oblivious to the danger he’s in. The ignorance of his situation is what gives Bill Murray’s character the edge that lets him cheat death and remain a step ahead of the ever growing roster of spies, spooks, and assassins that keep coming after him.
The brilliance is in the execution. Bill Murray is one of the best comic actors in Hollywood on his worst day; even the unwatchable Broken Flowers featured an excellent performance by Murray; and this movie represents one of his better days. His timing is flawless, and his deliveries typically spot on. And in case you thought he could only do his wry, snarky schtick, he pulls off some physical comedy as well. Particularly impressive is the Russian folk-dance number at the movie’s climax.
And it’s not just Murray. Alfred Molina, man of a thousand accents, delivers a hilarious performance as a retired KGB assassin know only as The Butcher. The Butcher is called out of retirement to put an end to this rogue operative (is he MI5? CIA? NSA?) who is gumming up the works so thoroughly.
I won’t spoil the plot any further than I already have. Chances are good that you’ll be able to catch this movie on TNT some afternoon, but I recommend renting or buying it. If you like silly, you won’t be disappointed.
Heck, it’s worth it just for the car-chase scene.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Movies You Never Heard Of 2: Oscar
So this is number two in an ongoing series of movies you’ve probably never heard of, but are worth your time. At least, if you like the kind of movies I like, and if you didn’t you probably wouldn’t be reading this (Hi Dad!).
Oscar is a farcical comedy (remember: 2010’s theme is the Farce) that is similar to Waiting For Godot, in the sense that the titular character features prominently only by reference. Oscar is the chauffer for a notorious crime family during the prohibition era. Sylvester Stallone plays the head of that family, Angelo “Snaps” Provolone.
Yes, they named an Italian mobster after a cheese. It’s that kind of movie.
Provolone’s father is played by Kirk Douglas, who exhorts his son to give up his disgraceful gangster life and restore the family name. Being as how Grandpa Provolone is on his deathbed at the time, Snaps can hardly refuse. So, bootlegging is out, and banking is in. Snaps uses his considerable fortune to secure a seat on the board at a prominent bank.
The movie chronicles his first day as a legitimate businessman. And nothing is easy.
Snaps is married to the woman who played Emporer Ming’s daughter in Flash Gordon. The couple have a daughter played by Marisa Tomei, who is bound and determined to get out of her father’s stifling shadow and see the world. On this, the first day of Snaps’ legitimate career, she hatches a plot to escape: claim to have been impregnated by Oscar, the chauffer, who is conveniently away fighting the Huns in the Great War. (I’m allowed to say “Hun” because my great-grandparents; maternal and paternal; all came over from Germany in the early 1900s, just in time to be put right back on another boat back to Germany to fight the Kaiser.)
Meanwhile, the Provolone family accountant presents himself to Snaps with evidence that he had embezzled a sizeable sum of money during his tenure, and wishes to ransom it for the hand of Snaps’ daughter in marriage.
And, across town, a rival family gets suspicious of how quiet it’s been on Provolone’s side of town, and decides that now is the time to make a power play for control of the Provolone territory.
And thus begins a whirlwind of miscommunications, misunderstandings and misreadings that grow more frenetic and more confusing right to the very end of the picture, when everything gets tied up in a nice pink frilly bow.
The writing is excellent and snappy, and it’s probably one of the better farces to come out of Hollywood in the past twenty years, but what’s really notable are the cameo performances. Don Ameche plays a priest. Tim Curry plays an elocution coach brought in by Snaps to help him sound respectable. Harry Shearer (of Spinal Tap fame, as well as every Christopher Guest movie ever made) does a hilarious turn as one half of a pair of bickering tailors who beam with pride when their work is featured in a grisly newspaper photograph of a gangster’s demise. Finally, Red from That Seventies Show gives his all as a gruff Eliot Ness wannabe that is bent on exposing Snaps for the gangster he was.
And unlike most cameo-rich films, every single character is important to the plot. Like a butterfly in the Amazon that makes it rain in New York, the simplest actions of a humble servant can unleash a thunderstorm of antics. Especially Oscar, who appears at the last possible second and has exactly one line of dialogue in the entire movie.
Sylvester Stallone is wildly underappreciated as a writer, and as an actor. His performance in Oscar should have been Oscar worthy, but the academy doesn’t seem to realize how hard comedy is and too often mistakes aggressive mugging for talent. Seeing him, as Snaps, dealing with the ever mounting pile of things that threaten his death-bed promise to his father is a legitimate treat, and it’s definitely in my top ten funniest movies that I’ve ever seen list.
I won’t write anymore on the subject, because anything else I add will only ruin the fun. While Oscar does stand up to multiple viewings, nothing quite compares to seeing it for the first time and finding out what’s going to go wrong next.
So go borrow, rent or buy a copy of Oscar on DVD. You will not regret the expense.
Oscar is a farcical comedy (remember: 2010’s theme is the Farce) that is similar to Waiting For Godot, in the sense that the titular character features prominently only by reference. Oscar is the chauffer for a notorious crime family during the prohibition era. Sylvester Stallone plays the head of that family, Angelo “Snaps” Provolone.
Yes, they named an Italian mobster after a cheese. It’s that kind of movie.
Provolone’s father is played by Kirk Douglas, who exhorts his son to give up his disgraceful gangster life and restore the family name. Being as how Grandpa Provolone is on his deathbed at the time, Snaps can hardly refuse. So, bootlegging is out, and banking is in. Snaps uses his considerable fortune to secure a seat on the board at a prominent bank.
The movie chronicles his first day as a legitimate businessman. And nothing is easy.
Snaps is married to the woman who played Emporer Ming’s daughter in Flash Gordon. The couple have a daughter played by Marisa Tomei, who is bound and determined to get out of her father’s stifling shadow and see the world. On this, the first day of Snaps’ legitimate career, she hatches a plot to escape: claim to have been impregnated by Oscar, the chauffer, who is conveniently away fighting the Huns in the Great War. (I’m allowed to say “Hun” because my great-grandparents; maternal and paternal; all came over from Germany in the early 1900s, just in time to be put right back on another boat back to Germany to fight the Kaiser.)
Meanwhile, the Provolone family accountant presents himself to Snaps with evidence that he had embezzled a sizeable sum of money during his tenure, and wishes to ransom it for the hand of Snaps’ daughter in marriage.
And, across town, a rival family gets suspicious of how quiet it’s been on Provolone’s side of town, and decides that now is the time to make a power play for control of the Provolone territory.
And thus begins a whirlwind of miscommunications, misunderstandings and misreadings that grow more frenetic and more confusing right to the very end of the picture, when everything gets tied up in a nice pink frilly bow.
The writing is excellent and snappy, and it’s probably one of the better farces to come out of Hollywood in the past twenty years, but what’s really notable are the cameo performances. Don Ameche plays a priest. Tim Curry plays an elocution coach brought in by Snaps to help him sound respectable. Harry Shearer (of Spinal Tap fame, as well as every Christopher Guest movie ever made) does a hilarious turn as one half of a pair of bickering tailors who beam with pride when their work is featured in a grisly newspaper photograph of a gangster’s demise. Finally, Red from That Seventies Show gives his all as a gruff Eliot Ness wannabe that is bent on exposing Snaps for the gangster he was.
And unlike most cameo-rich films, every single character is important to the plot. Like a butterfly in the Amazon that makes it rain in New York, the simplest actions of a humble servant can unleash a thunderstorm of antics. Especially Oscar, who appears at the last possible second and has exactly one line of dialogue in the entire movie.
Sylvester Stallone is wildly underappreciated as a writer, and as an actor. His performance in Oscar should have been Oscar worthy, but the academy doesn’t seem to realize how hard comedy is and too often mistakes aggressive mugging for talent. Seeing him, as Snaps, dealing with the ever mounting pile of things that threaten his death-bed promise to his father is a legitimate treat, and it’s definitely in my top ten funniest movies that I’ve ever seen list.
I won’t write anymore on the subject, because anything else I add will only ruin the fun. While Oscar does stand up to multiple viewings, nothing quite compares to seeing it for the first time and finding out what’s going to go wrong next.
So go borrow, rent or buy a copy of Oscar on DVD. You will not regret the expense.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Movies you’ve never heard of 1: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Welcome to the inaugural (my third inaugural post on this blog! Let’s hear it for defining terms down!) edition of what I hope to become a series about obscure movies that I have in my DVD library.
Today’s movie has roots on Broadway and ancient Rome, and a title that will take you more than a breath to say. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, starring Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Michael Crawford.
The main character, played by Zero Mostel, is Sudelous (Latin for “false face”), a slave in a less fashionable suburb of Rome. He spends all of his time dodging his slavely duties and conniving to scam enough money together to buy his freedom.
His owner is Hero, played by Michael Crawford’s stunning teeth. Hero is the son of Sennex (Latin for Old Man), a good natured if clueless man who is hopelessly whipped by his domineering wife. Hero also happens to be the character around which the plot revolves.
Neighbor to Sennex and his family is Marcus Likus, a “simple tradesman” who trades in female slaves and is played by Phil Silvers.
There are other characters, who I’ll introduce as we come to them, but these are the main players.
As I mentioned, the story revolves around Hero. Cooped up in his home with his tutor, Hero has fallen desperately in love with a woman he’s seen through his bedroom window in the house of Marcus Likus. To now, Hero has been kept panting on a short leash by his mother. However, today his mother and father are traveling to see his maternal grandmother on the occasion of her 106th birthday. His mother leaves him in the charge of Hysterium, the chief slave of the house of Sennex. Hero is to be kept far from the house of Likus, on pain of death for poor Hysterium.
Naturally, Hero immediately disregards his parents’ wishes and enlists the help of Sudelous to help him secure the woman of his dreams. Sudelous crafts a cunning plan: He will pose as a recently freed man, purchase the courtesan that has captured his owner’s heart, and deliver her to his arms. In return, Hero promises to free Sudelous for real.
And if you think it’s going to be that easy, you’ve never seen a farce before.
Rather than spoil the rest of the plot for you, I’ll just note that in the course of the movie there will be fights with gladiators, a high speed chariot chase, waterskiing, a fake funeral and Buster Keaton. That’s right; Buster Keaton brings his trademarked death-defying deadpan to the table as an old, legally blind man returned after years of searching for his children who were stolen in infancy by pirates. Is he important to the plot? Perhaps. My lips are sealed on that particular spoiler.
Why should you care? Well, if you weren’t already intrigued by the gladiators and chariot chases, it’s got Zero Mostel. Pretty much anything featuring him is worth watching. The songs are catchy, if a bit un-PC for modern ears, but when the main thrust of the plot is a love story between a slaveowner and a courtesan, a song like “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” rates pretty low on the well-I-never-meter.
There’s a lot of good humor in the movie, but you have to be able to appreciate a good farce. I’m a person who eats a good farce up, and you can be sure that other farces will be forthcoming in the Movies You’ve Never Heard Of section. (It is an election year, after all.)
In the end, I think the best explanation of why you should rent, buy or borrow this movie is summed up in the opening song:
Every word of that is completely true. Do check it out.
Today’s movie has roots on Broadway and ancient Rome, and a title that will take you more than a breath to say. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, starring Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Michael Crawford.
The main character, played by Zero Mostel, is Sudelous (Latin for “false face”), a slave in a less fashionable suburb of Rome. He spends all of his time dodging his slavely duties and conniving to scam enough money together to buy his freedom.
His owner is Hero, played by Michael Crawford’s stunning teeth. Hero is the son of Sennex (Latin for Old Man), a good natured if clueless man who is hopelessly whipped by his domineering wife. Hero also happens to be the character around which the plot revolves.
Neighbor to Sennex and his family is Marcus Likus, a “simple tradesman” who trades in female slaves and is played by Phil Silvers.
There are other characters, who I’ll introduce as we come to them, but these are the main players.
As I mentioned, the story revolves around Hero. Cooped up in his home with his tutor, Hero has fallen desperately in love with a woman he’s seen through his bedroom window in the house of Marcus Likus. To now, Hero has been kept panting on a short leash by his mother. However, today his mother and father are traveling to see his maternal grandmother on the occasion of her 106th birthday. His mother leaves him in the charge of Hysterium, the chief slave of the house of Sennex. Hero is to be kept far from the house of Likus, on pain of death for poor Hysterium.
Naturally, Hero immediately disregards his parents’ wishes and enlists the help of Sudelous to help him secure the woman of his dreams. Sudelous crafts a cunning plan: He will pose as a recently freed man, purchase the courtesan that has captured his owner’s heart, and deliver her to his arms. In return, Hero promises to free Sudelous for real.
And if you think it’s going to be that easy, you’ve never seen a farce before.
Rather than spoil the rest of the plot for you, I’ll just note that in the course of the movie there will be fights with gladiators, a high speed chariot chase, waterskiing, a fake funeral and Buster Keaton. That’s right; Buster Keaton brings his trademarked death-defying deadpan to the table as an old, legally blind man returned after years of searching for his children who were stolen in infancy by pirates. Is he important to the plot? Perhaps. My lips are sealed on that particular spoiler.
Why should you care? Well, if you weren’t already intrigued by the gladiators and chariot chases, it’s got Zero Mostel. Pretty much anything featuring him is worth watching. The songs are catchy, if a bit un-PC for modern ears, but when the main thrust of the plot is a love story between a slaveowner and a courtesan, a song like “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” rates pretty low on the well-I-never-meter.
There’s a lot of good humor in the movie, but you have to be able to appreciate a good farce. I’m a person who eats a good farce up, and you can be sure that other farces will be forthcoming in the Movies You’ve Never Heard Of section. (It is an election year, after all.)
In the end, I think the best explanation of why you should rent, buy or borrow this movie is summed up in the opening song:
Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone! A comedy tonight!
Something appealing, something appalling, something for everyone! A comedy tonight!
Nothing with kings, nothing with crowns!
Bring on the lovers, liars and clowns!
Old situations, new complications.
Nothing portentous or polite.
Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight!
Every word of that is completely true. Do check it out.
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