Posted by Daniel Frank at 12:57 PM

Two phrases in the same review are guaranteed to make me avoid a movie. Those phrases are "Directed by Spike Lee" and "Running time: 138 minutes".
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 10:44 PM

On Tuesday August 3rd Turner Classic Movies, as part of its "Summer of the Stars" month, will be running a Bob Hope marathon. This marathon will be more in line with what should have been run last year when Hope died (which I complained about here). You might recollect the probable explanation for last year's poor showing of Hope films was that Universal had placed a moratorium on its film library until they got sold (as I noted here). Well, NBC owns Universal and Universal apparently sold TV rights to TCM (judging by the network's recent broadcast of Frankenstein movies and a few Abbott and Costello movies).

Speaking of Abbott and Costello, reader Monkeyboy aka Nathan McGinty aka Scott Calonico posted a link in comments to this review of Abbott and Costello's Jack and the Beanstalk as part of Film Threat's Bootleg Files column (more of which can be found in their archives.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 7:35 AM

Suppresion of Dissent Department: Tim Blair reports that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was thrown out of the Convention. (Be sure to read reason.com's convention coverage, particularly "[i]f fun, excitement, and adventure are the first things you think when you hear the words 'John Forbes Kerry'")
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:08 AM

The Spider-Man cartoon show is on DVD; yet no one has collected my first introduction to Spidey: his appearances on the Electric Company. This page has cast info and episode guides.

Unlike your modern Tobey Maguire Spider-Man who seems to always remove his mask willy-nilly, in the Electric Company version of Spider-Man, nobody knows who he is.

UPDATE: There's an extended disco version of the Electric Company Spider-Man theme, available here.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 2:08 PM

A 15-year-old Palestinian is murdered by terrorists for trying to stop a rocket launcher from being installed in his neighborhood (Jerusalem Post story here). Link from Best of the Web which wonders if it will receive Rachel Corrie-level of outrage.

Realize the next time someone quotes the "X number of Israelis dead and Y number of Palestinians dead (Y > X)" statistic that this lad's death is included in the Palestinian count.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 11:56 AM

TvShowsonDVD says that Shout! Factory has announced October 19th as the release date for the second volume of SCTV.

UPDATE: TvShowsonDVD now has a list of episodes and extras in the set plus an announcement of Volume 3 in February 2005.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:29 AM

Mmmmm...donut-flavored beverage.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 4:22 PM

"Billionaire Bill" Sherman and I had a little discussion on his blog as to didn't Slimfast know Whoopi Goldberg would potentially be controversial. I was at a distinct disadvantage as I haven't figured out for twenty years or so why anyone would hire Whoopi Goldberg for anything.

Whoopi Goldberg is so unfunny that actual humor is destroyed in her presence. She made the Muppets unfunny. She made Bullwinkle unfunny. Why was the original Sunshine Boys a great comedy and the remake unwatchable? Remake had Whoopi.

She received the Mark Twain Prize in November 2001 and for two years Mark Twain wasn't funny! It took teams of Literature professors working around the clock to restore the humor and wit in Twain's work. And Pudd'nhead Wilson still isn't as good as it used to be.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 3:23 PM

Pop Culture Detritus I noticed over the past week:

• Why the Sixties were the Marvel Age of Comics:In Fantastic Four #18, Reed Richards has just finished describing his longshot plan to beat a seemingly unbeatable foe. The Thing asks "What if your plan doesn't work?" The Human Torch replies "Then he'll apologize, loud mouth."


• In the first Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes is not the star of the movie. Rather, the gentleman who played Baskerville was.


• The Voice of Terror was the first Sherlock Holmes movie made by Universal who had the strategy of placing Holmes in the modern era. As Holmes is about to leave 21B Baker Street, he grabs for his famous deerstalker. Watson tut-tuts Holmes, saying "Now Holmes, you promised." Holmes gives an exasperated sigh and grabs for the latest in early-1940's hattery.


• The Voice of Terror, which is about Holmes stopping a Nazi saboteur who broadcasts over the radio, was based on the Arthur Conan Doyle story "His Last Bow". They're both in English.(Use liberally for I, Robot.)


• Watching the UFO episode of that Penn and Teller show whose name I can't use in this family website, I spotted Harmon Leon, a professional hoaxter as one of the UFO kooks. It's arguable whether P&T were fooled (They noted the smirk of his partner in an interview). Here's the article of his adventures at the UFO expo and here are some articles he's written.

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Posted by Daniel Frank at 3:20 PM

From the "Oh, Joy! Rapture!" Department: Digital Bits reports announcements from Universal including a set of the Paramount Marx Brothers films, a WC Fields set, and three more Monster Legacy sets: Invisible Man, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:59 AM

Miscellaneous stuff: In comments to a couple of posts (here and here), Peter Sean Bradley expresses amusement that Harlan Ellison wrote The Oscar. In search of what Ellison says of the movie now, I found this Usenet post on the matter and this amusing description of the film for those who want to catch the jokes they missed in "The Noble". I also confirmed my memory that the movie came up in the Sinatra vs Ellison exchange in the Gay Talese article about Sinatra.

Also my brother, in comments, posts the explanation for the (possible) in-joke of Stan Lee's cameo that I alluded to here:

As I recall (but can't find evidence to back up my recollection other than my brother's identical recollection of reading the same piece in either the New Yorker or Esquire), in the first movie, Stan Lee was to have a cameo in the Times Square sequence where, inter alia, he shouts "Look out!" and saves a small child from falling debris. The speaking part was cut out, and Lee only got a half-second or so of screentime. However, the line and action sequence is resuscitated for Lee in Spider-Man 2.

I was going to search for the article in question before posting the explanation but haven't had time. All I've found on the web is that a) several comic news sites quoting each other that Lee's cameo in the first movie involved his trying to sell official X-Men sunglasses to Peter Parker and b) that he was supposed to be the "Hey, Spidey stole that guy's pizzas" guy.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 8:54 AM

The World Court has ruled against the Israeli fence. Knowing the Palestinian skill in public relations, I predict that terrorists will murder five Israeli school children in the next couple of days.
UPDATE:Or something like this. Note that it happened in Tel Aviv which is occupied terriotory only in the sense that "from the river to the sea" is occupied territory.
UPDATE 2:One of the bomb victims was an Israeli Arab who protested the fence. He's changed his mind. Story here.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 12:28 PM

I saw Spider-man 2 last night. And I think without exaggeration that it is the greatest work of film in the history of cinema. Did Citizen Kane have webslinging? No! Was there wall-crawling in Casablanca? There was not! Did you see Dr. Octopus in The Godfather? 'Cause I sure as hell didn't.

If you care you probably already know but the image of Parker throwing out his costume was a direct swipe/homage to this picture.

The science of Octavius's work and origin is laughable (I expected the element he was working with to be called Octavium or Shazamium) but at least they didn't linger on it like The Hulk spending an hour on the science of the Hulk.

I can't find the article to prove it but there's a hidden in-joke with Stan Lee's cameo (unless my brother and I are reading too much into it). There's also a nice little nod to Raimi's earlier work.
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Posted by Daniel Frank at 7:59 AM

A documentarian tries to get an interview with Michael Moore:

we talked to some folks on the street, and then headed over to Dog Eat Dog[Moore's company]'s listed address. Turned out to be a Mailboxes Etc. But I went inside and asked the chick at the desk if Mike ever came in to check his mail. She said that he sends interns. But, luckily, I had noticed that next door to the Mailboxes, etc, was a florist. So I bought a very special bouquet that just rang out, “Congratulations on making $21million in two days,” while also saying, “Can we get that interview we've been requesting for a year and a half?” I also called Dog Eat Dog and tried to set up an appointment, but the receptionist wouldn't transfer me. You'd think I was trying to get in to see a multimillionaire CEO… oh, wait…

Update: And speaking of Michael Moore ducking interviews, a Box Office Mojo article contains this footnote:

NOTE: Box Office Mojo asked Michael Moore and company to comment for this story, but they wanted to screen the questions in advance. As policy, Box Office Mojo does not conduct interviews under such circumstances, so there will be no comment from them.

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