#80 - My Favorite Blonde

Oh...to be pleasantly suprised when you aren't paying attention. Some of you may remember WAAAAAAAAY back in the early reviews when I watched a few movies about homosexual topics. Admittedly, I am a little bit homophobic and since I wasn't paying attention...well...you can read the reviews yourself. In the case of My Favorite Blonde, I was not paying attention...again. When it cleared my queue and was sent to me, I was assuming I was going to get stuck with a lame Hollywood musical that would leave me beating myself in the face with a rusty metal spatula in order to take away from the pain of what I was watching. In other words, what I should have been doing while watching Bus Stop. Instead, I pull the DVD out of the envelope and see the classic profile drawing of Bob Hope. A strong "WHEW" soon followed.

I love Bob Hope. You have to. Even if you don't like golf. Unfortunately, most of my exposure to him is in the later years of his life. His cameo in Spies Like Us, for example. I've seen clips from when he hosted the Oscars and other appearance on the television. I have seen bits and pieces of some of Hope and Crosby's "road" movies, but that was SO long ago, I remember little of it other than a song sung on the back of a camel. If you couldn't figure it out, I was excited to watch this movie.

Usually, when I have a long, positive buildup, it is quickly followed by a review explaining how the movie was the exact opposite of what I expected. This is because I am a hack writer, and I don't know any better. Well, I am here to tell you that in this case, the movie was just okay. Is that an amazing break in my formula or what? The movie has its moments, and it's entertaing and all, but I can't say that there are any moments that are hysterically funny. Mostly, it's amusing at best.

I guess it's mostly due to the fact that I am not the biggest fan of ramantic comedies, but can be a sucker for them, which makes me sick, but that's the way it is. But this isn't exactly the ramantic comedy that we are used to today. I wonder if I didn't like it more because of the fact that Hope doesn't have Crosby to work against. He has plenty of one liners that he delivers with his own unique style, and I think that his ability to give some of them directly to the camera is only better by the genius of Groucho Marx, but it still wasn't enough to make this movie great.

Oh, there is a cameo by Mr. Crosby himself, and it is quite amusing. Probably the best moment of the movie. I think that speaks volumes when the best part of a movie starring a solo performer from a comedy team is the short cameo with their partner.

#79 - My Neighbors the Yamadas

"Konichiwa Bitches!" Did you miss me? Haven't been able to watch many DVD's because work has been insane lately. That's right, some of us have to work. We can't all hang out in Kodiak, AK. We can't all go to renaissance fairs on the east coast. We can't all sell candles in St. Louis. We can't all get stuck in a 4/4-12bar-autopilot. I don't even know what the hell that means. But it sounds painful? The point is, I just haven't been able to keep up on this little dog and pony show I have here. I have a couple of DVD's to review, this being one of them, and I hope to watch a couple this week, but I make no guarantees. Also, it doesn't look like work is going to be slowing up any time soon, so you'll just have to deal with it. Oh yeah, football season means no movie watching on Sundays until sometime after January. If you can't deal with it, all I can do is give you the words of a co-worker: "Suck it up and walk it off".

We gots us here some more cartoons. But instead of being another crappy Don Bluth cartoon, it's a Japanese cartoon with dubbed english, much like Princess Mononoke. But that's where the similarities end. This is not anime. As you can see from the picture, it doesn't even look like the anime style. There are some moments where you see it, but for the most part this looks like Family Circus: Japan Edition. The animation style is quite interesting because you have the family members front and center and some of the background, but it doesn't fill up the whole screen. It kind of floats on the screen that in a way that is reminiscent of the way the episodic vignettes flow from one to another. Some are short little jokes, while others have longer story lines. The interesting thing is that there are moments when they break away from this style into a completely different style for that scene. It reminded me of Waking Life, but it was only for a couple of scenes and not the whole movie. Visually it was interesting, but I can't say that I could see any reason for it, but that may be a cultural thing. Think of how Kung Fu Hustle jumped in and out of styles, but not as extreme.

Overall, this movie was amusing. I can't give the best reviews to Jim Belushi and Molly Shannon for the english voices, because they were either annoying or didn't fit the character. But I found myself seeing something different from what I expect to see in this kind of movie. Usually, I expect a movie like this to be more sarcastic or darkly absurd. But there is some bitterness and some really vicious things that go on in this movie, and it's truly bizarre to watch these thing happen in a sunday morning Family Circus type of package. This is where the cultural difference really hit me. I found myself wondering if a Japanese audience and look at some of our things and think that they done in an odd way. In a way, it took me out of the movie because I was focusing on how it was different from what I was used to, and not watching it for what it was.

Usually I hate it when I think too much about a movie as it is going on, unless the movie is asking me to do so. I like to be in the moment and take what they are giving as they give it. In other words, I try my best to go on the journey that the filmmakers are trying to take me on. As you know, it doesn't always work out that way. When it is because I am analyzing the film, I don't like it. It takes away from that journey, and when it's my fault, which in this case it is, I get disgruntled with myself. To make a long story short, I don't think I gave this movie it's full due. I think it's worth another look at some point. I would recommend it if you are an animation buff, but it's not really anything you wanna get a bunch of friend over to watch for a bunch of laughs.

#78 - The Circuit

How in the hell did this get into my queue? You all can see what has come to me and it doesn't make any damn sense that this should be delivered. Whats even more crazy is that I know whats coming and it doesnt make sense that this would be there. There's random, and then there is this. Normally I wouldn't mind except for this is one of the worst movies I have seen in quite some time. To say that it is a straight to video classic would be giving it too much credit. To say that it is perfect for late nate premium cable channels would be giving it too much credit. I can't believe they even try to make movies like this anymore. Do we need any more low budget movies about underground fighting rings with cutthroat fight promoters and a natural fighter of European descent who doesn't want to fight but does in order to save a loved one? And lets not forget the other really good fighter who is the bad guy fighter and is usually flamboyant and Asian. Yes people, it's that kind of movie.

You know what I was thinking when I was watching this movie? I was thinking, "Get off my dick you fucking snake". Wait...that's not it...that was something else. What I was actually thinking was, "Betty White just Shatner pants". No...no...that wasn't it either. Let's see here...oh yeah, I was really thinking was, "We gave the mighty Thor a rusty trombone". No, that wasn't it. Let me think here. Oh yeah, I was thinking, "If my grandma looked like that, I'd wanna fuck Jack Palance". Alright, that wasn't it either. In all honesty, what was running through my mind was this movie was just like Kickboxer, except it didn't have the same "masterful" script writing...or acting...or directing.

How do you write a review of an obviously bad movie? You could say what was wrong with it, but LOOK AT IT!!! What do you expect from a movie that has the tag line "No rules. No limits. No survivors."? First of all, that shot you see of the fighting arena with the Medeival Times stripe on the wall is the ONLY shot you have for the whole movie. Sure there are close ups and some crowd shots with bad crowd noises dubbed over, but all the shots are from the same direction. And the fights suck. With movies like this you wanna at least some cool moves, or some tricky, cool camera shots that hide your bad choreography. This had neither!!! And see the ripped dude in the picture, he's the main character and he looks like some bad ass fighting dude. WRONG!! He's the former undefeated champion of the circuit and doesn't wanna get sucked back in. What a bunch of played out tripe. It really gets stupid when the old guy with the cane from within the curcuit has to train the old champion because of the intensity it takes to succeed these days. That's all fine and dandy, but looking at those fights you would see nobody fighting to the death or very intense at all. Shite on screen, my friends, shite on screen.