While I certainly enjoy spotlighting music videos that I really know, or enjoyed as a kid, part of doing these posts is personal discovery for me. I have owned a copy of Badmotorfinger since people actually bought CDs. It was the dark ages. I’m not one of those people to act high and mighty about something stupid like that. Although, it is neat to be holding the liner notes in my hands right now. This is the first time I’ve looked at them. That tells you how much I cared about that stuff. It actually has the lyrics for each of the songs written on it divided by a triangle like the one on the cover.
The music video is entirely new to me. I would never have thought to take a group like Soundgarden, and have them playing their song called Rusty Cage in a pristine white room. Although, it does contrast well with the outside where the action takes place. Frankly the outside of the room looks like an Alice in Chains video. In fact, you could say that inside that shack is an era of music about to be nuked out of existence by bands like Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, so it’s appropriate that at the end, the shack is destroyed by a car.
Also, am I the only one who looks at the shack they are in and thinks of Doctor Who? Probably because of that running joke that Internet movie reviewer Phelous used to do with a shack in his yard as his Tardis.
The song itself is one of my favorite Soundgarden songs purely for the guitar. I am a sucker for a great solo, riff, etc. on the guitar. I love the speed at which the music video cuts to go along with the speed of the guitar. That’s another thing I am a sucker for: speed in music. That speed can be the lyrics too. I don’t think I have mentioned it elsewhere, but for 2nd grade show and tell, I sang the opening song to The Music Man (1962) from memory. Again, the dark ages because me and my dad had to transcribe the lyrics from the movie for me to memorize them. I loved the speed at which the lyrics were sang. Here it is hopefully.
That’s not to say that the rest of it isn’t quality. I mean it is Chris Cornell singing back before the musical apocalypse of the late 90s destroyed children’s ability to recognize a great voice. American Idol hasn’t helped over the years either.
Finally, Johnny Cash covered this song too. This was news to me. Here’s that song for comparisons sake.
Yesterday, Arleigh spotlighted Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears. I grew up listening to the song all the time because it was featured in one of my all-time favorite movies: Real Genius (1985). At the heart of the movie is a slimy embezzling college professor who is taking advantage of smart kids to build a special laser for the government to assassinate people from space. However, this wasn’t the first, or last time that Atherton was cast as a scumbag in the 1980s. I thought it would be fun to spotlight four of them, including his turn as Professor Hathaway in Real Genius.
I must admit I don’t know a whole lot about Ministry other than a few things I have read about them and their music. I first found them the way most people probably did. That being through songs like Jesus Built My Hotrod and Just One Fix. These are industrial rock/metal songs although I have heard them referred to more like hardcore punk. You could argue that if you want. I think less Dead Kennedys, and more if Depeche Mode didn’t sing Just Can’t Get Enough and instead played their style of music with more politics in a metal fashion the way Ministry has done for the majority of their career.
I remember some MTV/VH1 thing bringing up that Ministry actually started as a Snythpop band. I remember them playing this up like it was some sort of magical metamorphosis the group had gone through. I remember at the time eating that up. Not anymore. I don’t care what the situation was with lead singer Alain Jourgensen at the time, the reason for the ultimately minor change that only looks huge, and stupid comments on their videos saying:
“Hopefully those synth pop loving post punk wannabes have been flushed out with this ministry, dragged on the street under cars and murdered with hate crimes.”
I didn’t make that up. That’s an actual comment left on one of their videos.
I listen to this, then The Land of Rape and Honey and hear the same kind of song. Synthpop and Industrial Rock/Metal are related genres. The fact that he chose to go with something more hardcore didn’t fundamentally change their sound like a metamorphosis would suggest. I like their Synthpop sound too before they expanded on it and made it harder. I welcome an edgier Depeche Mode. Just like I welcome them saying that’s not for them and evolving their sound. It’s just ridiculous when you hear talk about this like it’s a metamorphosis. If Neil Sedaka decided to start playing heavy metal, then sure, but not this. This is the creation/mass discovery of a new style of music built on previous ones. Ministry just happened to not just be at the forefront, but actually started on the edges of the main original genre and tweaked it till they found their true voice.
As for the music video itself, it makes me think of the shot on video Japanese 80s horror film Death Powder (1986).
Death Powder (1986, dir. Shigeru Izumiya)
I haven’t even watched that movie either other than to get a screenshot earlier this year, and it is still the first thing that comes to mind when I look at this video.
I mentioned before how related the two styles are to each other, but you can really tell when you watch the video. It’s like you can literally see something such as Jesus Built My Hotrod lying just under every surface in the video ready to burst out. Especially burst right out Jourgensen’s face and body.
I like connections, so it made sense to use this as the first Ministry music video to feature.
According to my calendar, it’s Ocean Day today in Japan. This was the first time I had ever heard of it. From what I can gather, it’s basically a thanks to the wealth of the ocean that makes their existence as an island nation possible. The first song that seemed to fit was Kind and Generous by Natalie Merchant. The music video is kind of weird. I don’t really have any good explanation beyond their being a song called Carnival on her solo debut album Tigerlily. Perhaps it’s meant to be a follow-up in the same way that Volcano Girls is to Seether for Veruca Salt. Otherwise, I don’t know what it has to do with the song other than that it too is as harmless as the song is itself. At least you’d think that. Would you believe there’s some controversy around this song?
If you go to her actual YouTube channel, then you’ll find the comments disabled on it, and most of her other videos that I clicked on whether they were solo, or with 10,000 Maniacs. I poked around a bit, and the best I could find was that people are upset by the use of nonsense words throughout the song. Sadly, I have seen similar stuff when people talk about Hotel Yorba by The White Stripes. I could go on here, but it’s not my style to get involved with this kind of thing. Instead, I’ll just include a classic song filled with nonsense words as well because I don’t care.
I knew I would get to it eventually, but I honestly didn’t think I would do it this early. Regardless, here’s probably the best known anti-MTV music video at least to come out of their first ten years. First, it’s in all black and white. Second, the group isn’t in the video at all. Finally, almost nothing happens. Sure they would repeat this similar formula for a couple other songs they did, but this is the one people think of. Especially because the song itself defines Generation X very concisely with the line: “you got no war to name us.” A line that would resonant with the MTV audience of the time.
What I like about this video that makes it more than just an anti-MTV music video is that they actually did something interesting with it. They could have just had it start on the speaker and end on the speaker. Nothing else had to happen. They didn’t do that. Instead, they opted for the Michael Snow option. If you look at Michael Snow’s film Wavelength (1967), then you’ll see a lot of similarities. Wavelength is a slow 45 minute zoom across a room to a picture on the opposite wall. Some things do happen in the room during this zoom. However, the film asks you to begin to see the room itself as the character and to treat the other things going on the way you would treat a set. They are just passing around the character of the room. The music video asks you to do the same thing with a slow zoom out and the occasional action of a person in the room. The video asks you to meditate on the song itself along with the room in which someone would sit to listen to the song. The song and a typical environment that someone would listen to it are the characters in this music video. This is in contrast to other music videos that ask you to focus on the artist(s) themselves and a visualization and/or narration of their song.
I love that The Replacements decided to put some thought into this when they really could have just had it stay on that speaker the whole time. I would say it was an under appreciated MTV music video, but I distinctly remember MTV even using a section of the video as a bumper in between videos or commercial breaks.
Enjoy! Even if it’s just for one of the best songs of the 1980s in my opinion.
This another one that speaks for itself. When I was a kid and MTV would do lists of the greatest music videos ever made, this always made the list. Of course it did. It’s a great video even if I’m not sure it has anything to do with the song. It’s very creative. Along with Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and a handful of other music videos from the 80s, you can pretty much count on everyone having seen this one all these years later. If not, then press play. It’s also the song that makes everyone try to hit a high note that very few people can hit.
Speaking of creative. It also happens to be the first music video used for the literal music video meme.
I would have posted the music video for the Ghostbusters song today, but the amazing literal version is missing from YouTube at the moment. It just isn’t worth posting without it right now.
I reviewed Stalked at 17 with Joey Lawrence’s Melissa & Joey co-star Taylor Spreitler yesterday. So, I thought I would remind people that Joey Lawrence having a music career was once a thing. If I Think We’re Alone Now by Tiffany is so 80s that it hurts, then this is so early-90s that it hurts. Wasn’t alive during this period, or are too young to remember? Well, they certainly put every aspect of the time period in this music video.
I don’t have anything else to say considering what happened. I just hope this early-90s cheese fest at least takes your mind off of it for a couple of minutes.
Between 2009 and 2012, Lifetime must have really decided to get behind this “at 17” series of movies. You’ll notice it’s not just Stalked at 17, but Stalked at 17 TM. This time the opening credits tell us that this movie is “Inspired by True Events.” I guess you can say that when your plot is so vague that it must have happened to somebody somewhere.
The movie begins, and we are introduced to our main character played by Taylor Spreitler. I know her character has a name in the movie, but if the script isn’t going to stop making endless references to the show she was on at the time called Melissa & Joey, then I can call her Lennox.
That’s a baby monitor that Lennox is listening to. That’s also most likely a future Lifetime movie when they realize that some Internet of Things baby monitors can be used to look inside other people’s homes. That is if they haven’t already. After Lennox goes to use the microwave, she is grabbed by the last 20 minutes or so of the movie before the film cuts to the title card, and it’s one year earlier.
Lennox and her friend are touring a college when we meet our bad guy for the movie on the left.
It’s also when I realized that the subtitles on the DVD didn’t work and turned on the captions instead. I love that they cast Charles Hittinger as Psycho Dad so he would look really intimidating. It’s probably because if you’ve watched Melissa & Joey, then you know that Taylor Spreitler and vulnerable go together about as much as Bella Thorne and drama.
Psycho Dad invites them to a party, and they of course decide to go. Now, for no good reason whatsoever, a guy wearing a sombrero with a bullseye on his chest.
We learn some very important information at the frat house. No, not that they decided to make him the one who was adopted by a councilwoman instead of Lennox. It’s that they run a very tight ship after Psycho Dad finds puke on the stairs.
Now we meet Lennox’s dad played by none other than whitelighter himself Brian Krause.
I agree, Leo. However, I think Doug Campbell was right to take the title of this movie and start calling the movies “Stalked by”. He’s just jealous because his wife played by Amy Pietz was in Stalked by My Neighbor (2015). This scene exists to tell us that they are having financial difficulties which will play no material role in the film.
Lennox and friend go to the party. As soon as the dialog tells us that Lennox is 16 at present, her and Psycho Dad immediately go upstairs together. After he tells her a sob story, they kiss and it fades to black before going to an establishing shot of her school.
I hope you like establishing shots of her school because you’ll see them 4-5 times in this movie. Heck, later in the movie you’ll get the exact same shot, but only a minute or so before or after the other shot.
Thanks to Lennox texting Psycho Dad, we learn that they did it on February 21st exactly because it is their two month anniversary.
Oh yeah, and his name is Chad. Just like Mister 45 minutes from Accused at 17. Real original there screenwriter Christine Conradt. It looks like Conradt is really passionate about these “at 17” movies seeing as she’s produced five of them. According to her bio on IMDb, she has an “MCJ from Boston University where she focused on cybercrime and juvenile delinquency.” It’s weird that with a focus in cybercrime, she seems to have had nothing to do with Fugitive at 17 (2012) where the girl in question is a hacker.
Now Lennox forgets that this movie is called Stalked at 17 and not Pregnant at 17, but it’s too late. I love how this scene plays out. Lennox is talking to a male friend when she grabs her stomach, and is obviously sick. She makes a mad dash for the bathroom. He quickly follows, but stops at the door, and asks a girl standing nearby to go in to check on her.
The line actually goes like this: “You really need to find a new friend cause that one out there couldn’t even be bothered to make sure you were okay, and sent me inside instead.”
Meanwhile, the film knows it needs to pad itself out.
Lennox is at home and finds out she is indeed pregnant. While that is going on, Psycho Chad is buying jewelry online. Back in Lennox’s bedroom, the movie gives us lines that might as well amount to this: “I don’t know if he was wearing a condom. You know what they say? If you look at it, then you go blind. I just had to take his word for it.” Of course Psycho Chad is happy about the news because it means he’ll have a family of his own now with a child who will love him unconditionally.
Then the two of them go to a restaurant where Psycho Chad blows up at a waiter. That’s basically the rest of the film. Chad gets nuttier, he gets in a fight with Leo, his biological mom he lied about being dead gets out of prison, and they finally get around to where the film started. At least it was fun to see Leo fighting with Psycho Chad along the way.
Lennox, baby, Psycho Chad, and Psycho Mom all end up at a convenience store where things go wrong and Psycho Chad is shot. Then it shows Lennox with the kid, and fades to black. I think this movie has earned the Godfrey Ho red screen end card for how abrupt the ending occurs.
Thus ends the classic tale of girl meets boy, girl gets herself knocked up, boy turns out to want a family, boy turns out to be crazy, everyone does their best to pad out the film, boy is shot, and the credits role. I have to admit that aside from this and Accused at 17, I have never seen credits that start by referring to the cast as “the players.”
At least this one had some kind of a story. That’s way more than I can say for Accused at 17. I have Fugitive at 17 coming soon, then that will be my last “at 17” movie for now.
I did a Tiffany music video yesterday, so of course today had to be Debbie.
I don’t think anyone needs the importance of Debbie Gibson explained to them at this point. At least I hope they don’t. I do love what the host said at MTV’s 20th Anniversary in 2001 after they played a message from Gibson. He said that in about 10 years or so it will be a message from Britney Spears.
Debbie Gibson must have really liked black and white cause this is at least the third one of her videos that used it. It is just one of several ways they capture the isolation the person in the song is going through. We have the disconnection of random stock footage shots of the city. A guy standing on a peer. Her performing at a small nightclub type place. The separation of Gibson in the present from her happy times via partial use of color. The mirror that only reflects your own face and what is behind your eyes. A blood tinted dinner break-up. It all ties the song together visually.
It is one of my favorite Gibson music videos and songs. It isn’t likely a solo female singer could get away with wearing that many clothes today in their music videos. That, and the turquoise hair bow. I’m a sucker for Debbie Gibson, so you’ll likely see every video she ever did on here eventually.
I am also aware that today is Bastille Day. That’s why I have included a bonus performance below of Bastille Day by Rush.
I know Lisa would normally be the one to tackle these movies, but she just finished writing 40 reviews in about the span of a month. I think it goes without saying that she probably looks like this right now.
I also think it goes without saying that shot doesn’t exist in this movie.
Before the title card appears, we are treated to credits over shots that make us think we are about to watch a crime TV Show. I wish. Something might actually happen if that were the case.
Now we cut to five days earlier where we can tell things are going well because the captions tell us so.
We see some kids at school before we are introduced briefly to Cynthia Gibb at her job. Not sure what she does, and like most things in this movie, I don’t care. We then go back to the school to be introduced to obviously bad girl (Janet Montgomery) and low-rent Miriam McDonald (Stella Maeve) before cutting back to Gibb.
Some guy shows up to remind us he exists in the movie, but not to me. The school returns so we can meet Chad (Reiley McClendon) and obviously good girl who will be “accused”, even though that barely has anything to do with the movie.
Chad is here to tell her that she needs to cancel her plans and come to the best party of the year. I know this not only because the movie says so, but because when have you ever watched a movie where it isn’t supposed to be the greatest party of the year?
The guy who decided to exist for a bit brought along a pair of earrings so we can learn that the good girl is named Bianca (Nicole Gale Anderson). Already this movie is full of lies. Nicole Gale Anderson was 18 when she did this movie. She had long passed the age of 17 when you could be accused, stalked, betrayed, missing, pregnant, and become a fugitive all in the same year. It’s a long tradition going back at least as far as 1931 when Marian Marsh was in Under 18. She actually made that one when she was 17-18 years-old. When you turn 18, life just becomes one long snooze fest.
Bad girl shows up to make sure we know she’s very comfortable lying about people or animals dying before we can go to the party. That, and that her mother will totally back her lies up later in the movie. Fortunately, Bianca doesn’t make it to the party so Chad and another girl can have sex in a bathroom.
The one whose hands those belong to is Dory (Lindsay Taylor). She’s named that because the movie isn’t very well written. Also, her last name in the movie is Holland which goes right along with Cynthia Gibb’s character’s first name Jacqui to create the name of porn/B-Movie star Jacqui Holland. I’ve reviewed several of her films on this site.
All you need to know now is that things don’t go well for Bianca in several ways. Bianca and her friends sit next to a pool in bikinis to talk about boys because they aren’t guys. Otherwise, they would be doing this same scene while playing basketball. We get to see Bianca leave a nice little voicemail for Chad.
However, that’s not really what sets her off. This is what gets her riled up.
45 minutes? Chad’s a 10 minute man, 15 at the most. That’s why the girls decide to pick up Dory to take her to where “the hottest frat guys ever” are located.
Of course by that, they mean the set of Mojave (2015).
Sadly, Oscar Isaac is not there to greet them dressed as Antonio das Mortes. This makes Dory think something is up. She’s right. Dory punches Bianca to make sure she has a bruise on her forehead before she leaves the scene. Then obviously bad girl bashes Dory’s head in with a rock. That’s one Dead Dory.
I did forget one thing. On the way over, Dory made sure to leave a hair clip in the car to be used later in the movie.
In between Bianca leaving and Dory’s head getting hit by a rock, Bianca made sure to stop by a gas station so that someone will have seen her. It matters greatly to the plot, and by that I mean next to nothing. A plot I guarantee won’t matter to you if you watch Accused at 17. Things, stuff, and then we are introduced to our buddy cops.
They are clearly the best because they pay attention to every detail. In 2009, nobody was saying “Mackin'” anymore. That’s why they have a discussion as to whether they say “cuttin'”, “tappin’ it”, “hittin’ it”, or “hookin’ up”. They question Chad and we find out they actually aren’t the best cops around.
Officers, come on? Chad doesn’t seem like the type of guy who goes out to a Saturday Night Fish Fry.
However, I do believe that Chad is the kind of guy who takes Louis Jordan’s advice and when Bianca calls to ask if he’s alone, he tells her “no, I got three girls with me.”
Now they turn their attention to Bianca because the stuff in between the interrogations is really boring, so we need to keep moving along. There is a lot of padding in this movie. However, I have to give Janet Montgomery credit. She does a pretty good job of playing the evil girl. I also have to give the movie credit for how funny it was to see Bianca drive back to the scene of the head bashing the next day and call out Dory’s name as if she is just hiding somewhere. Just when the cop may actually be getting to something with his line of questioning, Cynthia Gibb interrupts to remind him that they still have about half a movie left to go so he better leave.
Now a couple of extras they gave hiking equipment find the body. Blah, blah, blah, and confrontation with evil girl’s mom.
The gist of it is that Barbara Niven can play a lesbian in one movie, a nice mom in a Hallmark murder mystery series, and do roles like this. She’s very versatile. Nothing really of consequence happens here except evil girl and evil mom lie because otherwise how are they going to get away with calling this movie “Accused at 17.”
Well, finally the trip to the gas station earlier and the hair clip left in the car pay off when the cops notice there are only about 30 minutes left in the movie.
They arrest her, so they can finally say with confidence that the title isn’t false advertising. More things happen, but it all amounts to Gibb and Bianca trying to prove her innocence till it’s time for bad girl to confront that other girl who only exists to be killed off.
She apparently needs an inhaler, so evil girl takes it away and sprays all the puffs out of it. No big loss. Again, more stuff happens that is of no real consequence until bad girl pulls a gun on her father.
Dad stops her, and everything is good again. That is except for Dory having had her head smashed in and that other girl having suffocated to death. None of that matters because Bianca puts on the earrings I mentioned earlier. The point of that is the guy who barely existed at the beginning of the film is Gibb’s new boyfriend/dad for Bianca so putting them on means she has accepted him.
This movie was terrible. I’m pretty sure more happened in Superdragon vs. Superman. The movies Stalked at 17 and and Betrayed at 17 arrived today. I’m so grateful that Lisa already reviewed Betrayed at 17 back in 2011. That means I only have to watch it, and not attempt to write about it.
Through the Shattered Lens 