Young Frankenstein's Recent Activity - Spout

Film:Young Frankenstein

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:56:03 GMT

Title: Young Frankenstein
Year: 1974
Director: Mel Brooks
Plot: Lending his burlesque touch to 1970s genre revision, Mel Brooks followed his hit "western" Blazing Saddles with this parody of 1930s Universal horror movies. Determined to live down his family's reputation, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (co-screenwriter Gene Wilder) insists on pronouncing his name "Fronckensteen" and denies interest in replicating his grandfather's experiments. But when he is lured by Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman) to discover the tantalizingly titled journal "How I Did It" in his grandfather's castle, he cannot resist. With the help of voluptuous Inga (Teri Garr), wall-eyed assistant Igor (Marty Feldman), and a purloined brain, Frankenstein creates his monster (Peter Boyle). Igor, however, stole the wrong brain, and the monster tears off into the countryside, encountering a little girl and a blind hermit (Gene Hackman). Frankenstein finds the monster and trains him to do a little "Puttin' On the Ritz" soft-shoe, but the monster escapes again, this time seducing Frankenstein's uptight fiancée Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn) with his, ahem, sweet mystery. His love life and experiment in shambles, Frankenstein finally finds a way to create the being he had planned. Shooting in gleaming black-and-white, with sets and props from the 1930s and appropriate fright music by John Morris, Brooks' cheeky attitude towards the Hollywood past attracted a large audience, turning it into one of the most popular 1974 releases after (what else?) Blazing Saddles. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 29
Number of Lists: 68
Number of blog posts: 9
Number of discussion threads: 5
SpoutRating: 4

Spout Post: The Dark Knight IMAX ticket winners!

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:00:40 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 1/23/2009 4:00:40 PM
Body: I don’t want to publish the Twitter identities of those who have won tickets to see The Dark Knight on IMAX, a contest we announced yesterday, but I will tell you what movies they told us, via Twitter, what movies they’d like to see released on the IMAX screen: Caligula Blade Runner Mulholland Drive Once Upon a Time in America / Once Upon a Time in the West Titanic Lawrence of Arabia Young Frankenstein / Close Encounters of the Third Kind Brazil Drunken Master E.T. / The Green Mile As you’d expect there are a lot of epics on the list as well as a couple of offbeat choices - I love the people who suggested Brazil and Young Frankenstein. Thanks to everyone who sent in their suggestions and look for more contests like this in the future. Make sure to keep following @spout for updates, news and more. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Halloween Movie Marathon: Six Degrees of Frankenstein

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:00:56 GMT

Post By: Karina
Post To: Karina on SpoutBlog
Post Date: 10/28/2008 11:00:56 AM
Body: Watch Frankenstein (Edison, 1910) in Entertainment Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com For city-dwelling adults without kids, Halloween can be truly frightening. With the pressure on to outdo ones friends, frenemies and total strangers with a costume that strikes the perfect balance between creative, alluring and topical, the average October 31st night out can be a lot like sixth grade, except with the added toxic influence of alcohol and biological clocks. Plus, this year the streets are expected to be full of Sexy and/or Ironic and/or Demonic Sarah Palins. Scary! So why not stay home and watch movies instead? If you’re gonna convince anyone to abandon their plans and spend the night on your couch instead, you’ve got to have a theme and a plan, so we’ve put together an outline for a full night of films, all of which are available on DVD and/or online, based around one of the ultimate icons of classic horror: Frankenstein. We lay it all out after the jump. 7pm: Frankenstein (1910) Directed by J. Searle Dawley My long-dormant interest in silent horror was revived recently by Picasso and Braque Go To The Movies, a great documentary that played at the Toronto and Hamptons Film Festivals which examines the influence of early cinema on early 20th century fine art. Inspired by excerpts seen in that doc, I went on the hunt for this silent short (it’s just under thirteen minutes in length), is the first known cinematic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel. Though the film was shot at Edison Studios and is often billed as a Thomas Edison production, Edison actually had nothing to do with it. Though this Frankenstein is hardly graphically violent, it was initially censored in Britain for essentially being too creepy; this is no doubt thanks to director Dawley’s incredible, pioneering special effects, which especially pop out in the making-of-the-monster sequence. Thought lost for decades, a print was discovered in the 70s. Still, prepare to begin your evening huddled around a computer screen: Frankenstein is not yet available on DVD, but you can watch it on the Internet Archive, on YouTube, or via Veoh above. 7:15: Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Directed by James Whale The virtually undisputed masterpiece of the first golden age of filmed horror, James Whale’s sequel to his own 1931 Universal blockbuster opens with a prologue that could almost be characterized as meta. Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) expresses mock disbelief that Mary Shelley’s “bland and lovely brow conceived of Frankenstein, a monster created out of cadavers out of rifled graves.” Elsa Lanchester, who will show up later as the Monster’s lightning-struck bride, here appears as Shelley, and she looks up from her embroidery and defends “her moral lesson [about] the punishment that befell a moral man that dared to emulate God.” The film then jumps to the wreckage of windmill fire where the first movie left off, from which point it picks up a subplot from the novel and twists it into unforgettably melancholy ends. Maybe I’ve just seen it too many times to be scared or to even really laugh at some of the more over-the-top performances; at this point, I find Bride to be unbearably sad. Especially in its second half, beginning with the fugitive monster’s encounter with the blind man who will teach him to speak and feel. And there’s one line that just breaks my heart, over and over again: the mad doctor Praetorius asks the Monster if he understands how he came to be. Boris Karloff’s face falls (as much as it can under all that make-up) as he nods and says, “Made from dead. I loved dead. Hate living.” Once he’s able to articulate his thoughts, it soon becomes apparent that the Monster was the smartest guy in the room all along. 8:30: Gods and Monsters A bit of a palette cleanser between the two out-and-out horror films on our list. Bill Condon won an Oscar for his exploration of the later years of director Whale, which contains footage from and flashbacks to the making of Bride of Frankenstein. The film is definitely fictionalized — Condon based his script on a novel, and Brendan Fraser’s character Clay the gardener was a fabrication — but a basic biopic was not on the agenda. As a work that draws connections between Whale’s homosexuality and his masterwork about a misunderstood other, Gods and Monsters could be filed alongside the work of Todd Haynes, as a kind of activist academia wrapped up in narrative film. 10:15: Flesh for Frankenstein The Paul Morrissey-directed, Andy Warhol-produced takeoff on the classic tale of reanimation could be called Frankenstein, Italian Style. Initially planned as a 3D release (!) Flesh brings the Frankenstein story back to the playfully grotesque, surreal beauty evident in the silent version, but super-gory and explicitly sexual to the point of camp, it was also very much of the zeitgeist. Co-written by Tonino Guerra, who scripted Amarcord as well as many of Antonioni’s films of the 60s, and clearly influenced by the Giallo horrors blossoming under the direction of Dario Argento and Mario Bava. 11:50: Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks’ satire spoofs all three Frankenstein films of the 1930s, and it, along with the brief clip of Colin Clive at the beginning of Oingo Boingo’s video for Weird Science, landed in my consciousness at a much earlier age than any of the original films it pulls from. I don’t find myself laughing as hard as I did at age 13, but I would be remiss not to list it here. Plus, much, much later in my cinematic development, I learned that the Puttin’ on The Ritz bit, the famous dance number with Peter Boyle which the NY Observer recently cited as the backdrop for the “funniest joke in the history of film,” was a loose take-off on the recital played by Boris Karloff’s piano virtuoso zombie in my favorite horror film of the 30s, The Walking Dead (which is unfortunately not on DVD; otherwise, it would surely have made this list.) 1:35: Targets To put it in the crassest terms possible, by the time Peter Bogdanovich’s Roger Corman-produced directorial debut came around, thirty years away from his career peak, Karloff was so far removed from young Frankenstein that he might have been walking dead. 80 years old and rocking half a lung, with about a year left to his life, Karloff contractually owed Corman some screen time. In an effort to scrapt two barnacles simultaneously, the producer told whiz kid Bogdanovich that he could make any film he liked, so long as he used 20 minutes of new footage of Karloff, and 20 minute of recycled footage from the 1963 Corman pic The Terror, starring Karloff and Jack Nicholson. So Bogdanovich, with screenplay help from Sam Fuller, crafted a story that would have Karloff essentially playing a version of himself, an aging horror star who makes one final public appearance at a drive-in for a special screening of one of his films. Karloff wasn’t up to a starring role (he allegedly sat in a wheelchair breathing through an oxygen mask between takes), so this became the b-plot to the suburban killing spree of an enrared Vietnam veteran, who comes face-to-face with Karloff in the film’s climax. For all of the extenuating circumstances, Karloff’s performance in Targets is masterful, embodying the last vestige of horror as myth in conflict with horror as reality. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth

Spout Post: Halloween Movie Marathon: Six Degrees of Frankenstein

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:00:45 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 10/28/2008 11:00:45 AM
Body: Watch Frankenstein (Edison, 1910) in Entertainment Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com For city-dwelling adults without kids, Halloween can be truly frightening. With the pressure on to outdo ones friends, frenemies and total strangers with a costume that strikes the perfect balance between creative, alluring and topical, the average October 31st night out can be a lot like sixth grade, except with the added toxic influence of alcohol and biological clocks. Plus, this year the streets are expected to be full of Sexy and/or Ironic and/or Demonic Sarah Palins. Scary! So why not stay home and watch movies instead? If you’re gonna convince anyone to abandon their plans and spend the night on your couch instead, you’ve got to have a theme and a plan, so we’ve put together an outline for a full night of films, all of which are available on DVD and/or online, based around one of the ultimate icons of classic horror: Frankenstein. We lay it all out after the jump. 7pm: Frankenstein (1910) Directed by J. Searle Dawley My long-dormant interest in silent horror was revived recently by Picasso and Braque Go To The Movies, a great documentary that played at the Toronto and Hamptons Film Festivals which examines the influence of early cinema on early 20th century fine art. Inspired by excerpts seen in that doc, I went on the hunt for this silent short (it’s just under thirteen minutes in length), is the first known cinematic adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel. Though the film was shot at Edison Studios and is often billed as a Thomas Edison production, Edison actually had nothing to do with it. Though this Frankenstein is hardly graphically violent, it was initially censored in Britain for essentially being too creepy; this is no doubt thanks to director Dawley’s incredible, pioneering special effects, which especially pop out in the making-of-the-monster sequence. Thought lost for decades, a print was discovered in the 70s. Still, prepare to begin your evening huddled around a computer screen: Frankenstein is not yet available on DVD, but you can watch it on the Internet Archive, on YouTube, or via Veoh above. 7:15: Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Directed by James Whale The virtually undisputed masterpiece of the first golden age of filmed horror, James Whale’s sequel to his own 1931 Universal blockbuster opens with a prologue that could almost be characterized as meta. Lord Byron (Gavin Gordon) expresses mock disbelief that Mary Shelley’s “bland and lovely brow conceived of Frankenstein, a monster created out of cadavers out of rifled graves.” Elsa Lanchester, who will show up later as the Monster’s lightning-struck bride, here appears as Shelley, and she looks up from her embroidery and defends “her moral lesson [about] the punishment that befell a moral man that dared to emulate God.” The film then jumps to the wreckage of windmill fire where the first movie left off, from which point it picks up a subplot from the novel and twists it into unforgettably melancholy ends. Maybe I’ve just seen it too many times to be scared or to even really laugh at some of the more over-the-top performances; at this point, I find Bride to be unbearably sad. Especially in its second half, beginning with the fugitive monster’s encounter with the blind man who will teach him to speak and feel. And there’s one line that just breaks my heart, over and over again: the mad doctor Praetorius asks the Monster if he understands how he came to be. Boris Karloff’s face falls (as much as it can under all that make-up) as he nods and says, “Made from dead. I loved dead. Hate living.” Once he’s able to articulate his thoughts, it soon becomes apparent that the Monster was the smartest guy in the room all along. 8:30: Gods and Monsters A bit of a palette cleanser between the two out-and-out horror films on our list. Bill Condon won an Oscar for his exploration of the later years of director Whale, which contains footage from and flashbacks to the making of Bride of Frankenstein. The film is definitely fictionalized — Condon based his script on a novel, and Brendan Fraser’s character Clay the gardener was a fabrication — but a basic biopic was not on the agenda. As a work that draws connections between Whale’s homosexuality and his masterwork about a misunderstood other, Gods and Monsters could be filed alongside the work of Todd Haynes, as a kind of activist academia wrapped up in narrative film. 10:15: Flesh for Frankenstein The Paul Morrissey-directed, Andy Warhol-produced takeoff on the classic tale of reanimation could be called Frankenstein, Italian Style. Initially planned as a 3D release (!) Flesh brings the Frankenstein story back to the playfully grotesque, surreal beauty evident in the silent version, but super-gory and explicitly sexual to the point of camp, it was also very much of the zeitgeist. Co-written by Tonino Guerra, who scripted Amarcord as well as many of Antonioni’s films of the 60s, and clearly influenced by the Giallo horrors blossoming under the direction of Dario Argento and Mario Bava. 11:50: Young Frankenstein Mel Brooks’ satire spoofs all three Frankenstein films of the 1930s, and it, along with the brief clip of Colin Clive at the beginning of Oingo Boingo’s video for Weird Science, landed in my consciousness at a much earlier age than any of the original films it pulls from. I don’t find myself laughing as hard as I did at age 13, but I would be remiss not to list it here. Plus, much, much later in my cinematic development, I learned that the Puttin’ on The Ritz bit, the famous dance number with Peter Boyle which the NY Observer recently cited as the backdrop for the “funniest joke in the history of film,” was a loose take-off on the recital played by Boris Karloff’s piano virtuoso zombie in my favorite horror film of the 30s, The Walking Dead (which is unfortunately not on DVD; otherwise, it would surely have made this list.) 1:35: Targets To put it in the crassest terms possible, by the time Peter Bogdanovich’s Roger Corman-produced directorial debut came around, thirty years away from his career peak, Karloff was so far removed from young Frankenstein that he might have been walking dead. 80 years old and rocking half a lung, with about a year left to his life, Karloff contractually owed Corman some screen time. In an effort to scrapt two barnacles simultaneously, the producer told whiz kid Bogdanovich that he could make any film he liked, so long as he used 20 minutes of new footage of Karloff, and 20 minute of recycled footage from the 1963 Corman pic The Terror, starring Karloff and Jack Nicholson. So Bogdanovich, with screenplay help from Sam Fuller, crafted a story that would have Karloff essentially playing a version of himself, an aging horror star who makes one final public appearance at a drive-in for a special screening of one of his films. Karloff wasn’t up to a starring role (he allegedly sat in a wheelchair breathing through an oxygen mask between takes), so this became the b-plot to the suburban killing spree of an enrared Vietnam veteran, who comes face-to-face with Karloff in the film’s climax. For all of the extenuating circumstances, Karloff’s performance in Targets is masterful, embodying the last vestige of horror as myth in conflict with horror as reality. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re:Classic Horror

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:55:53 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: HORROR MOVIES 101
Post Date: 8/30/2008 5:55:53 PM
Body: On this subject, I cannot say enough about the classic Universal 'monster movies' of the 30's and 40's... Beginning with Dracula and Frankenstein (the best of the best) and continuing with The Mummy and Bride of Frankenstein (which many people consider to be BETTER than the original) and The Wolf Man , these movies are the most fun I have ever had with my pants on! I know that everyone has heard of these movies but few people have ever actually watched them! And ALL of the sequels were nothing short of fantastic! Leading up to the GREAT 'monster-mash' movies of the early 40's! These things were nothing short of phenomenal and nobody can call themselves a true Horror Movie fan until they have seen Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman and House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula . Besides Karloff and Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. was perhaps the greatest star of this era... Not only was he was the only one to play Lawrence Talbot (The Wolfman) in several movies but he also played "Dracula" (Son Of Dracula) and "The Frankenstein Monster" (The Ghost of Frankenstein) and "The Mummy" (The Mummy's Tomb) ... Son of Frankenstein was the inspiration for Mel Brooks' classic Young Frankenstein ! Be brave and watch some of these oldies but goodies! You won't be dissapointed! < GOR >

Spout Post: 10 Small Roles for Big Stars

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:00:31 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 8/7/2008 2:00:31 PM
Body: We’re less than a week away from the release of Tropic Thunder, and as the reviews and puff pieces make their way onto the web, there’s one thing clearly uniting the media’s coverage: talk of Tom Cruise’s appearance in a small role as a Hollywood studio boss. Everyone seems to agree that he steals the show and that his performance — or the joke surrounding it — is one of the comedy’s major highlights, if not the actual best part. Of course, we can expect a good cameo from Cruise every now and then. He showed up for a bit part in Young Guns and played himself as playing “Austin Powers” in Austin Powers in Goldmember. But from what it sounds like, his role in Tropic Thunder is featured for longer than might qualify as a cameo. Some are regardless referring to the performance as an “extended cameo”, and in theory it certainly fits in with the huge crop of so-called “ironic cameos” that have become popular in movies and TV in the last ten years. Still, despite my not having yet seen the movie, I’m thinking that Tom Cruise’s involvement in Tropic Thunder is more like the following list, which consists of merely small roles filled by big stars. You might consider some of them to be technically cameos, especially the ones that aren’t integral to the plot and/or call attention to themselves. But with each of the roles I’ve included, I consider them to be either the best part of their respective movies or at least a major highlight, which is how Cruise’s appearance is being touted. Anyway, forgive me for trying to come up with something different than simply a best cameo list, even if the focus here seems less than clear. 10. Marlon Brando as “Jor-El” in Superman - He was probably paid too much for the part, especially if all the trivia surrounding his involvement (reading his lines off baby Superman’s diaper; desiring that only his voice be used; demanding to be paid double if any footage was to be used in the sequel) is true, but it’s pretty cool having Brando appear at the beginning of what I still consider to be the best superhero comic book adaptation of all time (sorry Dark Knight fans). He’s not the best thing about the movie, but he’s an immediate highlight. As for his payment (reportedly $3.7 million), Warner Bros. has leveled out his worth a little by featuring him in the Donner cut of Superman II and in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns — a movie that also creatively employs Brando’s On the Waterfront costar Eva Marie Saint appropriately as Superman’s adopted mother. 9. Drew Barrymore as “Casey Becker” in Scream - Having your biggest star killed in the opening scene is kinda like having your best action sequence at the head of the movie (a la Bad Boys II), but fortunately the rest of the first Scream is pretty good, and Barrymore’s (don’t call it a cameo) part doesn’t overshadow the movie too much. In a way, since this wasn’t a sequel yet the movie was a bit of a parody of all slasher movies, the familiarity of Becker’s face could be taken to be akin to how, often, horror sequels begin by killing off the heroine of the previous installment in the first few minutes. 8. Arnold Schwarzenegger as “Prince Hapi” in Around the World in 80 Days - There isn’t much to enjoy about Frank Coraci’s 2004 version of the Jules Verne tale, especially since there appears to be a lot of missed opportunities in terms of guest appearances (Wikipedia counts 45 “cameos” in the 1956 version; I count maybe 10 that could be considered “cameos” in the newer movie). Therefore, Schwarzenegger’s hilarious appearance as a lecherous Turkish prince — one of his last roles filmed before becoming Governor of California — is one of the few highlights, if not the sole highlight (personally, I enjoy Jackie Chan in anything, and I liked more of this movie than most people did). The role is especially funny and creepy if you’ve ever seen that old footage of Schwarzenegger being sleazy at Carnival in Rio. 7. Orson Welles as “Unicron” in Transformers: The Movie - Welles’ voice had been overpowering in films before — he had a good side career going throughout his life as a narrator — but considering this was ridiculously his final performance and considering he easily overshadowed his fellow celebrity voice lenders (including otherwise commanding vocal talents Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack and Casey Kasem), his part completely dominates the movie, both diegetically and extradiegetically. 6. Bruce Willis as “Harry Rydell” in Fast Food Nation - Far and away the only good part of Richard Linklater’s botched attempt to dramatize Eric Schlosser’s non-fiction classic (I consider the book a kind of bible since it inspired me to give up fast food and subsequently lose 60lbs., so it pains me even more to think about Schlosser being a co-writer and producer of the movie), and not just because of his oft-quoted line about how we all have to eat a little shit from time to time. His whole characterization of the cynical meat supplier is brilliant, enough that he unfortunately makes the rest of the movie play even less interesting that it already is. 5. Charlie Sheen as “Charlie” in Being John Malkovich - I wanted to stay away from roles in which actors play themselves, mainly because that’s a big percentage of the ironic cameo stuff that’s so overused these days. However, Sheen’s part here is a little more than a mere cameo. And it’s kind of an ironic parody of the ironic cameo, even as it predates a lot of these cameos in Entourage and Extras and the like (by crediting the role as “Charlie” rather than “as himself”, it’s also a precursor to the more exaggerated than exaggerated “Neil Patrick Harris” character of the Harold and Kumar films). Perhaps intended to redirect the audience’s perspective on John Malkovich’s titular character, which is up until Sheen’s entrance possibly accepted as an authentic self-portrayal, the overstatement of the role raises the already ingeniously funny film up another notch to put it at the level of best comedies ever made. 4. Matt Damon as “Donny” in Eurotrip - I’ve actually never seen Eurotrip, but I hear there’s no reason to watch it other than to see Damon’s bit role as the singer of a pop punk band (the otherwise real Lustra). And I’ve seen that on YouTube, so I’m good. Even more than Cruise and some of the others, Damon seems to love doing guest stints in movies and on TV (he’s also given us the only reasons to ever watch Jimmy Kimmel). Some of his other small roles and cameos can be found in Youth Without Youth, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Finding Forrester, Jersey Girl and The Majestic (the last in voice only). 3. Sean Connery as “King Richard” in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - After making us suffer through Kevin Costner’s terrible performance in the lead role, the producers of this disappointing version of the classic legend actually rub it in how bad their casting choice was by sneaking Connery in at the last minute. Of course, despite the way his appearance increases our dissatisfaction with the rest of the movie, he’s still the highlight. Especially since he’s immediately followed by that awful Bryan Adams song playing over the credits. 2. Alec Baldwin as “Blake” in Glengarry Glen Ross - Sure, the rest of the film is really good, mostly because of the stellar cast filling out the rest of the ensemble, but the first thing you remember about this David Mamet adaptation is Baldwin’s monologue. It’s good enough that I almost also included on this list the Blake-inspired character from Boiler Room as played by Ben Affleck. But it’s also too good to actually accept Affleck’s ripoff as being in the same league. 1. Gene Hackman as “Blindman” in Young Frankenstein - I’m in the minority as far as my appreciation of Mel Brooks’ parody of James Whale’s Frankenstein films. I think it’s really funny, but I don’t think it’s one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. Yet the few minutes that Hackman is on screen always leave me in tears, enough that I wholeheartedly accept the movie’s status as one of the greatest comedies ever made. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re:Weekly Theme for July 14: The Angry Mob

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:20:13 GMT

Post By: unclefestering
Post To: Weekly Theme
Post Date: 7/13/2008 11:20:13 PM
Body: If you're talking angry mobs we've got to add the mob that traps Frankenstein's monster in the castle and burns it down with him inside. They had actual torches and pitchforks. And the best take off of that is, of course, Young Frankenstein when the mob uses Kenneth Mars as their battering ram. "A riot is an ungly thing... undt, I tink, that it is chust about time ve had vun."

Spout Post: Mel Brooks Closes Film Production Co.

Fri, 30 May 2008 22:01:00 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 5/30/2008 6:01:00 PM
Body: It’s a sad day for Mel Brooks fans. With us still mourning yesterday’s passing of Harvey Korman, who appears in a number of Brooks’ films, today Page Six reports that the Spaceballs director is “quietly shuttering” his film production company, Brooksfilms. In addition to Brooks’ directorial works from A History of the World: Part 1 through Dracula: Dead and Loving It, the company also made such films as The Elephant Man, 84 Charing Cross Road, My Favorite Year and one of my childhood favorites, the underrated guilty pleasure Solarbabies. I first caught wind of the news from Stu over at Defamer, and seeing as how his post features a montage of Brooksfilm clips that excludes Solarbabies (for which he apologizes), I present you with a clip from the film here. Isn’t it great to know that breakdance and beatboxing is still cool in the waterless post-apocalyptic future? Another thing that would be cool in the future: a Broadway adaptation of Solarbabies. Hopefully Brooks will forget about that Blazing Saddles musical that’s rumored to be in the works and concentrate on bringing one of his non-classics to the stage. It’d be kinda like Starlight Express meets Urinetown. If Xanadu can be a hit and Young Frankenstein can’t, I say this idea should at least be explored. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Is parody on life support?

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:30:32 GMT

Post By: usesoap
Post To: usesoap Blog
Post Date: 3/27/2008 2:30:32 PM
Body: Cinematic parody as it once was is dead. And after much searching and researching, I have found the murderer of this under-appreciated sub-genre of filmmaking. It’s Waldo. Oh sure, the bespectacled, striped-ski-cap-sporting little geek likes to appear anonymous, but I am positive he is to blame for the current slate of “Movie” movies: “Epic Movie,” ”Date Movie” and, most recently, “Superhero Movie.” If he’s not guilty, ask yourself this, why is he always hiding? You see, it is my assertion that the latest generation of filmgoers was weaned on Waldo in their youths. At an early age, they were trained to snoop and search page after page for the skinny little dweeb, and they approach these films much the same way. “Hey, there’s Borat!” “Oh, that’s a reference to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’” They do not concern themselves with narrative, character development, plot, rationality, common sense or any other law, be it cinematic or logic. Just throw in a quick bodily function gag or a hip-hop reference and they are pacified.This sad state rests solely on the scrawny shoulders of that elusive little nerd who populates the books of their youth. “Oh, there’s Waldo in Paris!” “Hey, isn’t that Waldo in Tiananmen Square?” The page is simply turned and the search begins anew. The declineIt’s easy to vilify Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer (the comedically bankrupt parents of such lowest-common-denominator fare as “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie” and “Meet the Spartans”) , or one of the 8,000 writers of the original “Scary Movie” (7, 629 of which were Wayans siblings).. But they are merely feeding the audience what it apparently wants. How else can you explain the fact that an intelligent (if flawed) stab at actual parody, “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” which actually harkened back to the days of “Airplane!” and “Naked Gun,” blinked in and out of theaters while the bottom-feeding “Spartans” landed atop the box office, making in its opening weekend almost what “Cox” earned in its entire theatrical run? “Cox” took the route traveled by the founding fathers of parody (that would be both Mel Brooks and the creative team of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abraham and David Zucker – collectively known as ZAZ), which meant building an original character based on a cinematic archetype and structuring a cohesive plot that had purpose. Conversely, “Spartans” merely planted actors who not only resembled their previous on-screen doppelgangers, but sometimes merely kept their original names in case it was too difficult for the audience to get it. Then plopped them in nearly identical settings and allowed someone to break wind, vomit, belch or breakdance (or any combination thereof). Now, apparently, mere imitation is the new parody. Storylines are cobbled with the only motive of tying the countless references crammed inside (“Spartans” mocks not only films like “300,” “Rambo,” and “Transformers,” but also makes room for television shows such as “American Idol,” “Heroes” and “Ugly Betty,” video games, commercials and even the MTV Music Video Awards). It’s the cinematic equivalent to sitting on the couch with someone who cannot stop flipping channels with the remote. The legacyDone properly, the parody film can enrich a generation with its writing. “Surely you can’t be serious?” you say. And any movie-lover worth his or her salt should be able to adequately answer that question.Take a look at some of these iconic statements made in parody films throughout the ages:· “Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!” (Blazing Saddles, 1974)· “Wait, Master. It may be dangerous. You go first!” (Young Frankenstein. 1974)· “Go away or I shall taunt you a second time. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!” (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975)· “ “ (Silent Movie, 1976)· “Joey, have you ever been to a Turkish prison?” (Airplane! 1980)· “I know a little German… He's sitting over there.” (Top Secret!, 1984)· “Jane, since I've met you I've noticed things that I never knew were there before: birds singing, dew glistening on a newly formed leaf, stoplights” (Naked Gun, 1988)· “My eyes are ceramic. Caught a bazooka round at Little Big Horn. Or was it Okinawa? The one without the Indians.” (Hot Shots, 1991) The future?Has the eulogy been written for the parody, an archaic artifact left best to the memory, or is there a phoenix-like future for the genre? “Superhero Movie” does not inspire much hope. While it does boast a production credit from “Airplane’s” David Zucker, it was written and directed by Craig Mazin, who, aside from penning the latest two “Scary Movie” installments, has a handful of other minor credits to his name. Really, it does not matter who is behind the lens or the script of such films, as realized by “Dewey Cox,” which was backed by current comic “it-boy” Judd Apatow. No, I think any future hope for the parody film to make a comeback will rest in the homes of those raised on the exploits of Lt. Frank Drebin, Ted Striker, Hedly Lamarr, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (“that’s Franken-steen!”) and others who not only made us laugh, but made indelible marks in our cinematic psyche. For they now have children of their own who may one day demand a bit more sophistication with their humor and need to no longer help their children find that globe-trotting geek so innocently named Waldo and stop him in his tracks before he kills again.The future of comedy as you once knew may just depend on it.

Spout Post: Halloween: The Obligatory Post

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:01:07 GMT

Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 10/31/2007 5:01:07 PM
Body: Let’s talk about my insatiable appetite for pre-postmodern horror. I don’t care about sorority girls getting slaughtered because they ran the wrong way up the stairs; I basically don’t care about anything that’s not in black and white. I like stuff that takes place in creepy laboratories, where some desperate soul is trying to violate the natural boundaries between life and death. The Universal monster movies of the 30s, the Val Lewton stuff of the 40s, the nuclear panic stuff of the late 50s/early 60s. So it’s a given that my favorite part about the weeks leading up to Halloween is that Turner Classic Movies floods their schedule with ancient, half-forgotten horror films. Halloween itself is kind of a letdown, because it means the well of stuff I love is about to dry up. But as usual, YouTube makes it all better. As a child of the 80s, I think I always had some awareness of of the Boris Karloff films, particularly Bride of Frankenstein, but it was filtered through Young Frankenstein, Elvira and “Weird Science” (the Oingo Boingo song, which I definitely heard years before I saw the movie). Above, you’ll find a clip of the creation of the bride from the 1935 sequel to Frankenstein; below the jump, the various cultural detritus that led me to it. Happy Halloween! (more…) Originally posted on:SpoutBlog

Spout Post: Re: How About your Favorite FUNNY-Scary Movies

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:04:12 GMT

Post By: Dr_Gor
Post To: HORROR MOVIES 101
Post Date: 4/23/2007 8:04:12 PM
Body: Good list, Rizzo. I have yet to see "American Psycho" and "Crimewave" but I thoroughly enjoyed all of the others you mentioned. "Ravenous" was great! (didn't that star the guy from "The Full Monty" ?) That reminded me of a similarly themed movie called "Cannibal: The Musical" (appearantly not listed on SPOUT) although, this is not really a "horror/comedy" but more of a straight comedy.... much like my other favorite (and I cannot believe no one has mentioned this yet) "Young Frankenstein" ! Along these lines, I also enjoyed "Love At First Bite" (!) starring George Hamilton as the most TAN Dracula in screen history! ... favorite line : "I dont drink... wine. And I don't smoke... shit." I also enjoyed the "Return Of The Living Dead" movies (1,2 &3)...

Spout Tag:funny

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:10:58 GMT

funny
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Spout Tag:Loved-It

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Loved-It
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Spout Tag:romance

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:16:35 GMT

romance
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satire
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monster
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spoof
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Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:37:28 GMT

frankenstein
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Wed, 06 May 2009 05:23:26 GMT

black-and-white
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Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:55:15 GMT

castle
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Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:21:08 GMT

MelBrooks
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Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:03:11 GMT

madscientist
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Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:39:03 GMT

secret-passage
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Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:01:21 GMT

doctornurse
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Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:41:08 GMT

hunchback
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Spout Tag:selkies

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:18:03 GMT

selkies
Number of films tagged: 13

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Number of times used: 16