4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Happy birthday to Baltimore’s own Barry Levinson!
4 Shots From 4 Barry Levison Films
One of the best songs of the 80s, Tempted was also one of the few Squeeze songs to feature the band’s then-keyboardist Paul Carrack on vocals. The song was originally recorded with Glenn Tilbrook as the lead singer but when producer Elvis Costello heard Carrack singing a slowed-down version of the song, he suggested that it should be re-recorded with Carrack. Tilbrook admitted that, though his ego was “bruised initially,” the song became a hit with Carrack’s vocals.
The video is typical of the early 80s, with the emphasis being put on the band performing as opposed to any sort of visual gimmickry.
Enjoy!
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
106 years ago today, the great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune was born in Qingdao, Shandong, China, which was under Japanese occupation at the time. After working as a photographer and as an assistant cameraman, Mifune made his acting debut in 1947, playing a bank robber in Snow Trail.
Mifune would go on to become an international superstar, appearing in hundreds of films before his death in 1997. Sixteen of those films would be directed by Akira Kurosawa and Mifune’s performances in Kurosawa’s yakuza and samurai films would go on to inspire actors the world over. When Sergio Leone adapted Yojimbo into A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood based his performance on Mifune’s performance in the original. George Lucas would later create the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi with Mifune in mind.
In honor of the man and his career, here are
4 Shots From 4 Films
Drunken Angel (1948, directed by Akira Kurosawa)
Throne of Blood (1957, directed by Akira Kurosawa)
Red Sun (1971, directed by Terence Young)
Shogun (1980, directed by Jerry London)
Actress Valerie Perrine passed away today, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. She was 82 years old.
Perrine was the type of actress who could do it all. She made her debut as Montana Wildhack in the 197s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughter-House Five. She was Oscar nominated for playing Lenny Bruce’s wife in 1975’s Lenny. She was the only cop willing to write Adrienne Barbeau a ticket in Cannonball Run. She could do drama just as easily as comedy. But for many of us, she will always be best remembered for playing Ms. Teschmacher, Lex Luthor’s assisant who saved Superman’s life in 1978’s Superman and then helped Luthor escape from prison in 1980’s Superman II.
With Perrine’s passing, only three of the principles from Superman and Superman II are still with us: Sarah Douglas, Jack O’Halloran, and Marc McClure.
RIP.
While having a dream about being a giant who can destroy a city and almost score, Butt-Head is woken up by his friend Beavis. Beavis points out that their TV has disappeared. Muddy footprints lead away from the television’s former location and out the front door. Anyone who is familiar with MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head will immediately realize that this is a crisis. Animated and voiced by Mike Judge, the moronic teenage duo of Beavis and Butt-Head really don’t have anything in their lives beyond television and heavy metal. Beavis and Butt-Head set off to find their television, a quest that will see them traveling all the way from Highland, Texas to Las Vegas and eventually Washington D.C. Along the way, they’ll be pursued by ATF Agent Fleming (Robert Stack), they’ll get hired by alcoholic Muddy Grimes (Bruce Willis) to kill his wife, Dallas (Demi Moore), and Dallas will set them up as the perfect patsies for a terrorist attack on Washington D.C. Chelsea Clinton will beat up Butt-Head. President Clinton will declares the boys to be heroes. They’ll even meet their fathers, though everyone involved will be too dumb to realize it. But will Beavis and Butt-Head ever find their TV?
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America was the first movie to star Beavis and Butt-Head and I can still remember when it first came out in 1996. No one expected much from it but it turned out to be one of the funniest movies of the year, a triumph of animation, social satire, and jokes about wood. A lot of the film’s humor comes from just how stupid Beavis and Butt-Head are but even more of the humor comes from everyone’s inability to understand just how stupid they are. Agent Fleming may think he’s saving America but he’s actually just chasing two teenagers who don’t even know how to read their own names. Muddy may think that he’s hired two experienced hitmen to “do” his wife but instead, he’s promised to pay two idiots to do his wife. (With the money, “we could buy a TV,” Butt-Head tells Beavis.) Everyone, from Fleming to Muddy Grimes, assumes that there must be some sort of grand scheme behind Beavis and Butt-Head’s journey across America. There isn’t. They just want to find a television.
Beavis and Butt-Head were and still are two wonderfully comedic creations. Watching them, I’m always surprised to remember that Mike Judge provided both of their voices. When they argue with each other about where their TV has gone or if it’s a good idea to jump out of a speeding car, Judge is arguing with himself. Butt-Head may be the leader but the heart of the duo is definitely Beavis and maybe Cornholio. The non-stop laughing, the inability to read, the obsessively crude humor, Beavis and Butt-Head were the future and they didn’t even realize it. Voicing the boys and their neighbor Mr. Anderson, Mike Judge generates most of the laughs in the movie but he still gets first-class help from Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and especially Robert Stack.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America was considered to be a surprise commercial and critical success but the only people who were really surprised were those who hadn’t previously experienced Mike Judge’s sense of humor and satirical viewpoint. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is smart comedy about some very dumb people.
Hé
Walter Davis (Bruce Willis) is a workaholic who, in typical 80s fashion, is trying to secure a deal to manage the assets of a Japanese industrialist. When he needs a date to a business dinner, his brother (Phil Hartman) sets him up with his wife’s cousin, Nadia (Kim Basinger). Walter is warned to not let Nadia take a single sip of alcohol. Of course, Walter lets Nadia drink some champagne. It turns out that Nadia loses all of her inhibitions when she drinks and she says exactly what’s on her mind. The dinner turns into a disaster as Nadia convinces the industrialist’s wife to file for divorce. Walter not only loses his job but he now has to get the intoxicated Nadia back home. Making that difficult is that Nadia’s ex, David (John Larroquette), is still obsessed with her. David is also crazy and spends almost the entire night chasing Nadia and Walter.
Blind Date is historically significant because it was both Bruce Willis’s first credited film role (he had previously appeared, uncredited, in The First Deadly Sin and The Verdict) and also Willis’s first starring role. Willis received the role after becoming a sudden star due to his role on Moonlighting and the entire movie is full of television actors. John Larroquette was best-known for Night Court. Phil Hartman had just started on Saturday Night Live. William Daniels appears as Larroquette’s father. At the time Blind Date came out, Kim Basinger was the closest thing that the cast had to a legitimate movie star.
Watching Blind Date today, it’s strange to see Willis playing a nebbish. He’s likable but miscast as a straight-laced executive who needs his sister-in-law to set him up on a date. It’s a role that would have been best-served by someone like John Ritter, who starred in director Blake Edwards’s Skin Deep just two years after Blind Date. As David, John Larroquette is cartoonish but entertaining and he gets most of the best lines. Kim Basinger is beautiful as Nadia but doesn’t always seem to be comfortable performing comedy. There are funny moments but, as with so many of Blake Edwards’s later films, it’s uneven.
Blind Date was a box office hit. (It was the last big hit of Blake Edwards’s career.) The film found its real success on HBO, where it was a mainstay for several years. Luckily, a more appropriate starring vehicle for Bruce Willis was released just a year later. In Die Hard, Bruce Willis brought John McClaine to life and made film history.
INXS plays tribute to Bob Dylan in today’s music video of the day!
Some members of the band did a better job than other when it came to keeping up with the cards but they all still did a pretty good job considering that this is a 2 and a half minute music video with no visible edits. This video was originally included on the backend of the video for Need You Tonight. Richard Lowenstein directed both videos and it was a definitely a canny move to combine the two and basically get MTV to promote two songs for the price of one.
Enjoy!
Need You Tonight was the first single released off of INXS’s sixth studio album, Kick. The video, which made use of several different types of animation, was extremely popular with MTV’s audience and, as a result, the song went on to become one of INXS’s biggest hits. The video went on to win 5 awards at the MTV Music Video Awards. This was back when those actually meant something.
Director Richard Lowenstein directed a total of 16 videos for INXS, including this one. He also directed a film called Dogs in Space, which was not about actual dogs in space but which was instead about the Australian post-punk scene. INXS’s lead singer Michael Hutchence played Sam, the leader of a band called Dogs in Space.
Enjoy!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Ever since it was first released and this video first aired on MTV, Jump Around has been one of the unofficial anthems of St. Patrick’s Day. The video was so popular that many people continue to associate both the song and House of Pain with Boston’s Irish community, despite the fact that the band was from Los Angeles and only two members were of Irish descent.
All together now: “I came to get down, I came to get down, jump around!”
Enjoy!
Don’t Change is from INXS’s third album, Shabooh Shoobah. Though INXS had been around for a while and had found success in their native Australia,, Don’t Change is often described as the song that introduced the band to the rest of the world.
This video was filmed in an airport hangar and was directed by Scott Hicks, who would later go on to direct Geoffrey Rush to his first Oscar in 1996’s Shine.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 