Why do we watch bad movies?
Why do some films relax us?
What makes a flick watchable, yet vacuous [or vice versa]?
Panic in D.C.
World government as bogeyman.
Rightly so.
And sovereignty reasserts as to be valued.
Though we are still trying to get to the bottom of 9/11, we ask again: is #QAnon real?
You only live thrice.
And solar terror.
Karl Malden plays the bad guy.
-PD
If you wanna know why Austin Powers was a “photographer” (strange bit of dilettantism that), then look no further than the beginning of the four-film spy-spoof series starring Dean Martin.
Matt Helm (Martin) is very much in the Derek Flint vein.
A couple of interesting possibilities exist in these films.
First, Martin’s parent agency in the spooky, alphabet soup world of espionage is ICE: Intelligence and Counter-Espionage.
Second, the SPECTRE-like organization he fights is called The Big O.
Which brings us to #QAnon.
Sleeper.
…all of a sudden.
Hussein.
Tung-Tse might drink egg foo yung out of a can–might be a Dr. No knockoff, but it brings up the question:
Is QAnon real?
Fortunately, we have Stella Stevens to reassure us.
Just as magical as she was in the Jerry Lewis masterpiece The Nutty Professor.
But even hotter here.
Heat among friends.
Furnace.
Learn our comms.
Cyd Charisse drops in…festooned with pasties.
Twirling like an Amish stripper.
Now comes the pain.
Panic in DC.
-PD
Not all classics are masterpieces.
This film mainly serves to show how truly genius The Nutty Professor was indeed.
Lewis is watchable here.
But let’s be less pithy than recent missives.
This film is better than The Geisha Boy.
[though Suzanne Pleshette looked ravishingly-mysterious in that flick]
It’s better than The Bellboy.
[which I might review if hell freezes over]
It’s better than Cinderfella.
[though just barely…because the latter has sappy “songs”]
It’s better than annoying clunker The Ladies Man.
It’s better than The Errand Boy.
It’s better than The Patsy.
[but not by much]
It’s better than godawful The Disorderly Orderly.
Jerry Lewis was a genius.
But as far as I can tell, he’s only been in two true masterpieces:
The Nutty Professor and The King of Comedy.
-PD
This is an absolute masterpiece.
I haven’t got much time.
But let me just tell you.
The French were right.
-PD
Pretty good film.
All things considered.
Alan Arkin is impressive.
Second half drags.
-PD
I fucked up.
I’m fucked up.
-PD
Edgar Wright knows how to make a film.
Emotion.
Like Samuel Fuller said in Pierrot le fou:
“Film is like a battleground. There’s love, hate, action, violence, death… in one word: emotion.”
And that from a guy who was ACTUALLY a soldier.
Fuller.
The Big Red One.
U.S. 1st Infantry Division.
Fuller.
A soldier.
And then a director.
A formative influence on Jean-Luc Godard.
But I digress.
Scott Pilgrim… is a masterpiece.
I didn’t think it would be.
It seemed too cutesy.
The signage.
Too hipster.
Faux cool.
Cookie cutter.
But it passes the test.
The moment is much like Simon Pegg’s “Oh, fuck off you big lamp” in Wright’s The World’s End.
Derrida and all golden-ratio-seeking creators would likely pinpoint a line from the redhead drummer: “We are Sex Bob-Omb and we are here to watch Scott Pilgrim kick out teeth in!!! One two three four!!!!”
You’ve lost a lot.
Now you win.
-PD
Simon Pegg is a genius.
And so is Nick Frost.
So I must start secondly by saying, “Disregard my reviews of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.”
I didn’t get it.
The style.
You must read an auteur in their language.
If the language is unintelligible, you can’t read them.
Now I get it [marginally].
And I love it.
This film is a masterpiece.
A deeply-flawed masterpiece (in the grand scheme of things).
But these two blokes come shining through.
Pegg and Frost.
I first encountered them in the film Paul.
I really liked them.
That film is much less of the gore.
Not part of the “Cornetto trilogy” (yes, the ice-cream cone).
But I would encourage all who can to grab a box of Drumsticks (if Cornettos be not available) and delve into this oeuvre.
I almost didn’t make it through The World’s End.
I had almost had my fill of this “comedy horror”.
But the dialogue did it.
Specifically, the scene where Pegg get the “lamp” to fuck off.
Brilliant dialogue.
These films are just funny as fuck.
And the characters are lovable.
Pegg and Frost have a great chemistry.
You know, there have been several times in my life where I’ve encountered a creation that I at first hated, and then subsequently went on to love.
One was the first Grinderman album.
It was so hyped.
Overhyped.
There’s no way it could live up to the critical accolades that I had been smothered with before hearing it.
I made it a few tracks in and gave up.
Overrated.
Waste of money.
But then I came back to it.
Gave it a second chance.
And it blossomed.
It spoke to me.
And so I would like to thank Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (and director Edgar Wright) for making such enduring creations (though they be in the guise of vacuous shite).
It takes a lot of courage to foist upon the world something as bold as the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.
I am glad I “got it” before I chunked the whole thing in the dustbin.
Just barely.
-PD
Meh.
-PD
It’s watchable.
Decent film.
Better than 75% of the shit out there.
-PD
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