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4 items from 2012

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Extended Thoughts on ‘Herbie Goes Bananas’

26 May 2012 2:00 AM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

Herbie Goes Bananas

Directed by Vincent McEveety

Written by Gordon Buford and Don Tait

USA, 1980

I cannot believe that a movie as wrongheaded and idiotic as Herbie Goes Bananas exists. Herbie Goes Bananas is so bad, it makes Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo look like the combined 1940s output of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (better known as The Archers), from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp to The Small Back Room. In fact, I’m insulting The Archers’ films by even including them in the same sentence as anything pertaining to Herbie Goes Bananas. I could, frankly, spend this entire column cataloguing the many things in the world that are more enjoyable, funny, exciting, and lively than Herbie Goes Bananas. But while it’d be fun…well, I’m not sure how to finish that sentence. Let’s just assume the alternate-universe column where I tell you exactly »

- Josh Spiegel

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Jon Stewart as Mel Brooks in 'Blazing Shtik: The Mel Brooks Story' For HBO

1 April 2012 2:16 PM, PDT | Planet Fury | See recent Planet Fury news »

Comedian Jon Stewart is set to play Mel Brooks in a new biopic co-written by the man himself, Mel Brooks, for HBO entitled Blazing Shtik, airing fall 2012.

Apparently, according to Variety, Stewart was approached to play the comedian and writer/director after expressing interest in portraying him onscreen. Unlike the ill-fated The History of Mel Brooks, Part 1, which seems to be languishing in development hell over at Paramount, Shtik was made for considerably less and is TV-ready.

The film focuses mainly on Brooks' making of the classics Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein in the 1970s, just like all the Hitchcock biopics and that Marilyn Monroe film. It seems to be the new thing.

I have to say I Love Brooks and Stewart and couldn't think of a better man for the job. Honestly. Can you think of a better actor to play Brooks? Adrian Brody is Gene Wilder, which could be hit or miss, »

- Superheidi

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The ‘Blue Velvet’ Project, #96

30 March 2012 9:03 AM, PDT | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »

Second #4512, 75:12

Dean Stockwell has said that he based his character Ben on a Carol Burnett sketch: “You know that thing that I do with my eyes? Carol Burnett had a character of this super snooty woman and she was always like this. I stole it and I told her one time and she laughed her head off when I told her.” And in an alternate-universe sort of way, this entire sequence at Ben’s is like one of the extended Carol Burnett Show sketches from the mind 1970s, with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway. The awkward pauses, the physical comedy violence, the feeling of improvisation. (In Rabbits [2002] Lynch added a laugh track to a similarly high voltage scenario, and when, at the 2:40 mark, Jack the male rabbit enters the apartment, the audience laughter and applause is reminiscent of any sitcom–Carol Burnett or otherwise–where a favorite character, »

- Nicholas Rombes

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Evan Shapiro: Too Hipster For TV?

4 January 2012 5:44 AM, PST | Aol TV. | See recent Aol TV. news »

For the past two years, I've been lucky enough to be a small part of a show called Portlandia. The series -- created by the prolifically talented Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and returning on Friday for a second season -- has been described by many a stinging satire of Hipster culture. While it does parody Hipster earnestness, the show pays loving tribute to communities Like Portland everywhere -- Silver Lake, Austin, Bolder, Williamsburg, Minneapolis, Northampton, Berkeley, etc, etc, etc -- and much has been made about how the show has puts Hipster Culture in the spotlight.

I must say, however, Hipsters are not a new TV phenomenon. With thick glasses, just-so-avant-garde fashion and knowing smirks, Hipsters have had a special place on TV since the beginning of the medium -- even before the birth of the term. For more than half a century, TV Hipsters have had a profound effect on American culture. »

- Evan Shapiro

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2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2004 | 2000

4 items from 2012

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