Yearly Archives: 2017

Music Video of the Day: Heaven by Bryan Adams (1985, dir. Steve Barron)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

No, this is not the more well-known version that I think was made because someone thought the music video for Run To You needed a direct sequel. This is the one where Bryan Adams falls asleep in front of a television and dreams about playing with a band on televisions to an audience of people on televisions which was then put on television so that people could watch Bryan Adams performing to other people watching him through televisions. That’s weird.

It was shot in London. It was produced by Simon Fields. It was directed by Steve Barron, which I guess explains the meta-nature of the video since he also directed Money For Nothing by Dire Straits.

Enjoy!

30 Days Of Surrealism:

  1. Street Of Dreams by Rainbow (1983, dir. Storm Thorgerson)
  2. Rock ‘n’ Roll Children by Dio (1985, dir. Daniel Kleinman)
  3. The Thin Wall by Ultravox (1981, dir. Russell Mulcahy)
  4. Take Me Away by Blue Öyster Cult (1983, dir. Richard Casey)
  5. Here She Comes by Bonnie Tyler (1984, dir. ???)
  6. Do It Again by Wall Of Voodoo (1987, dir. ???)

A Movie A Day #151: Easy Money (1983, directed by James Signorelli)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Rodney Dangerfield.  He didn’t get no respect but he did smoke a lot of weed.

It’s true.  Rodney first lit up in 1942 when he was a 21 year-old struggling nightclub comic.  According to his widow, the moment meant so much to Rodney that, decades later, he could still remember the room number — 1411, at the Belvedere Hotel in New York City — where he and fellow comedians Bobby Byron and Joe E. Ross smoked that first joint.  That was back when Rodney was performing under the name Jack Roy.  (His was born Jacob Cohen.)  Rodney’s first comedy career went so badly that he quit and spent the next twenty-two years as an aluminum siding salesman until he found the courage to return to the stage.  However, whether he was selling or performing, Rodney never stopped smoking marijuana.  When he was working on his autobiography, he wanted to call it My Lifelong Romance With Marijuana.  His wife convinced him to go with a different title:  It’s Not Easy Bein’ Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs.

There’s plenty of drugs in Easy Money, which is a problem for baby photographer Monty Capuletti (Rodney, of course).  Monty likes to gamble, drink, and smoke pot, much to the disapproval of his wealthy mother-in-law (Geraldine Fitzgerald).  When she dies, she stipulates in her will that if Monty goes for a year without indulging in any of his vices, he and his family will receive 10 million dollars.  Sounds easy, right?  The only problem is that Monty really likes to eat, drink, gamble, and get high.  His best friend (Joe Pesci) doesn’t think he can do it.  His mother-in-law’s former assistant, Quincy Barlow (Jeffrey Jones), is determined to catch Monty slipping back into his old ways so that he can inherit the money.  Monty’s determined, though, to win the money for his family, especially now that his daughter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has married the bizarre Julio (Taylor Negron).

The episodic plot is really just an excuse for Rodney to be Rodney, spouting off one liners and making snobs like Quincy look foolish.  Rodney and Joe Pesci were a surprisingly effective comedy team.  The scene where they get stoned and try to drive home without damaging the huge wedding cake in the back of the van is a hundred times funnier than it has any right being.  Even though it is hard to imagine her being, in any way, related to Rodney Dangerfield, Jennifer Jason Leigh is always a welcome presence.  Like many comedies of that era, Easy Money is uneven, with as many jokes failing as succeeding but, for Rodney Dangerfield fans, it is a must see.

Monty Python’s Election Night Special!

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

As we wait for the polls to close in the UK election and for the results to start coming in, this seems like a good time to share my favorite Monty Python sketch.

Of note: Though the sketch predates the real-life party’s founding by two decades, the Silly Party appears to have the same colors at the UKIP.

As for today’s election, I’m predicting a Plaid Cymru upset.

Music Video of the Day: Dim All The Lights by Laura Branigan (1995, dir. Lynn Spinnato)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I swear that thumbnail used to be Branigan sitting with the three drag queens. I would say that sex sells, but it’s Laura Branigan. For her, this doesn’t look out of place at all.

Watching this music video now is bittersweet because to the best of my knowledge, it was her last. After doing this video for her cover of Donna Summer’s Dim All The Lights, she retired to take care of her husband who had been diagnosed with cancer. He passed away in 1996.

The more and more I read from the book I Want My MTV, the more and more director Marty Callner seems to be quite the character. It makes me want to hear the story of how he ended up directing Branigan’s early videos. Was he cutting his teeth like David Fincher did with Rick Springfield and Loverboy? Were they friends? I can’t find any mention of it in the book. Callner comes up mainly in the discussion of hair metal bands since, if nothing else, he is credited, along with Tawny Kitaen, for really kicking off Whitesnake’s career.

This time Lynn Spinnato directed a video for Branigan. I can only find three music video credits. She does have a bio on her website that says she worked with numerous other artists than the three I can find documented.

The video contains at least three drag queens: Miss Understood, Hedda Lettuce, and Vivacious. You might have seen them at some point over the years since they have made appearances in both film and television. The oddest thing I came across is that if Wikipedia is to be believed, then Miss Understood performed at “Blaine Trump’s Valentine’s Day dinner.” Blaine used to be married to Donald’s brother Robert. There’s a connection I can’t say I expected to come across when I picked out this music video to spotlight.

There’s also a remix version of the video.

Enjoy!

A Movie A Day #150: Back to School (1986, directed by Alan Metter)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) started with nothing but through a combination of hard work and chutzpah, he started a chain of “Tall and Fat” clothing stores and made a fortune.  Everyone has seen his commercials, the one where he asks his potential customers, “Do you look at the menu and say, ‘Okay?'”  He has a new trophy wife named Vanessa (Adrienne Barbeau) and a chauffeur named Lou (Burt Young).  Thornton never even graduated from high school but he gets respect.

However, his son, Jason (Keith Gordon), doesn’t get no respect.  No respect at all.  Jason is a student at a pricey university, where he is bullied by Chas Osborne (William Zabka) and can’t get a date to save his life.  Jason’s only friend is campus weirdo Derek Lutz (Robert Downey, Jr.).  When Thornton sees that his son isn’t having any fun, he decides to go back to school!

Back to School is a predictable but good-natured comedy.  It is like almost every other 80s college comedy except, this time, it’s a 65 year-old man throwing raging parties and making the frat boys look stupid instead of Robert Carradine or Curtis Armstrong.  On the stand-up stage, Dangerfield always played the (sometimes) lovable loser but in the movies, Dangerfield was always a winner.  In both Caddyshack and Back to School, Dangerfield played a self-made man who forced his way into high society and showed up all of the snobs.  While Back to School is no Caddyshack, it does feature Rodney at his best.

Rodney may be the funniest thing about Back to School but a close second is Sam Kinison, who owed much of his early success to Rodney Dangerfield’s support.  Kinison plays a history professor, who has some very strongly held views about the Vietnam War and who punctuates his points with a primal screen.

Also, keep an eye out Kurt Vonnegut, playing himself.  Rodney hires him to write a paper about Kurt Vonnegut for one of his classes.  The paper gets an F because Rodney’s literature professor (Sally Kellerman) can tell that not only did Rodney not write it but whoever did knows absolutely nothing about the work of Kurt Vonnegut.

So it goes.

B-Girls and B-Movies: CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL (United Artists 1957)

Posted on by gary loggins

gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL is just a routine ‘B’ crime drama, one of many churned out in the 50’s. Yet the performances of stars Brian Keith , Beverly Garland , and an above-average supporting cast helped elevate the by-the-numbers material into something watchable. It’s those Familiar Faces we all know and love from countless movies that made CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL work for me.

The story revolves around racketeers muscling in on the Worker’s National Union so they can bring their “numbers rackets and ‘B’ girls” to the city. Politically ambitious State’s Attorney Jim Fremont is dead set on busting them up, and when the union’s treasurer is murdered, the finger of suspicion is pointed at honest Union President Artie Blane. Blane’s been framed by his rival, VP Ken Harrison, who takes his orders from “disbarred attorney” Alan Dixon, “one of the masterminds of the old Capone gang”. Blane is brought to trial and, thanks to some chicanery by an “old derelict” with the…

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Music Video of the Day: Some Like It Hot by The Power Station (1985, dir. Peter Heath)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I brought it up when I talked about Get It On (Bang A Gong). This is the actual video that features model Caroline Cossey. Cossey is both intersex and transgender. One doesn’t equate to the other–or lesbian, gay, or bisexual. She just happens to be both intersex and transgender. The intersex part is a bit complicated, but for that, I refer you to the Wikipedia article on her. She was in For Your Eyes Only (1981) as an extra. After For Your Eyes Only, the tabloid News Of The World published an article about her being transgender.

The video is probably more remembered for the song, animation, bright colors, and use in both National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985) and the Family Guy episode called It’s A Trap. However, once you know about Cossey, it does change the way you view this music video. In particular, the shaving cream on the face, which is followed by a reveal of Cossey’s breasts.

Enjoy!

A Movie A Day #149: The All-American Boy (1973, directed by Charles Eastman)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Vic “The Bomber” Bealer is an amateur boxer who appears to be poised to escape from life in his dreary hometown.  He is such a good fighter that he is on the verge of making the U.S. Olympic Team and he is so good-looking that everyone, from his teenage girlfriend (Anne Archer) to his gay manager (Ned Glass) to a woman he meets at a gas station, automatically falls in love with him.  However, after his girlfriend tells him that she is pregnant, Vic abandons both her and boxing.  When she leaves town to have an abortion, Vic starts boxing again but then he learns that she may not have actually had an abortion and Vic leaves for Los Angeles, to see both her and his son.

Sadly, there is something about boxing that has always brought out the pretentious side of some filmmakers and that is the case with The All-American Boy.  This episodic film (which claims to portray “The Manly Art In Six Rounds”) tries to present Vic as being an anti-hero but mostly, he just seems to be vacant loser.  Vic sulks through the entire film, despite not really having much to sulk about.  When one of his conquests asks him what he is thinking, Vic replies, “I ain’t thinkin'” and the movie provides no reason to doubt him on this point.  I was not surprised to learn that The All-American Boy was filmed in 1969 and was deemed unreleasable until the combined success of Midnight Cowboy and Deliverance made Voight into a star.  On the plus side, when he made the film, Jon Voight looked like he could actually step inside the ring and throw a few punches.  On the negative side, the boxing scenes go heavy on the slow motion which, when overused, just looks stupid.  Raging Bull, this film is not.

When it comes to The All-American Boy, Duke has the right idea: