jmiertschin

Alan Thicke hosted this show and it only shows Fred Savage on the credits? What's up with that? I was thinking about this show because because I just saw Alan's son Robin Thicke play and I was thinking, "What was that show Alan Thicke did on Saturday mornings on ABC about the animals." It was this show but you'd never know from IMDb. This is one of the few times I've found IMDb to have incomplete info on a mainstream network show. The thing that I always remembered about this show was the theme song. It went something like, "Animals are the funniest people, we love animals." I also remember this really good bit they had they're panel (who were playing for their favorite animal charity) guess what monkeys and squirls would do to get food and it was hilarious. The snow monkeys in particular stand out in my mind. I think they had so much about snow monkeys because the show had some deal with Tokyo television to get footage from them. They were always showing snow monkeys (not that I'm complaining).

I just saw the Tennesse William's film Suddenly Last Summer the other night and I found there to be a distinct similarity between Katherine Hepburn's character Violet and Julianna Moore's Maude from The Big Lebowski. Now I don't think that Maude is a copy of Violet but if you listen to the way she talks and the way she leads a conversation you can hear a distinct similarity between them. The best part of the movie to make this comparison is when Hepburn is showing Montgomery Clift around her son's garden and the way she talks about flowers and her niece Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) and then compare that to when Maude first meets The Dude and she is talking about art, the female form, sex, and her step mother Bunny. I don't know, maybe it's just me. For other Cohen Brother inspiration check out The Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake film "The Glass Key," as inspiration for "Miller's Crossing," and check out Akim Tamiroff as Uncle Joe Grande in "Touch of Evil" as a model for several characters that Jon Polito plays in a bunch of Cohen Brother's movies.

I just saw Suddenly Last Summer the other night and I found there to be a distinct similarity between Katherine Hepburn's character Violet and Julianna Moore's Maude from The Big Lebowski. Now I don't think that Maude is a copy of Violet but if you listen to the way she talks and the way she leads a conversation you can hear a distinct similarity between them. The best part of the movie to make this comparison is when Hepburn is showing Montgomery Clift around her son's garden and the way she talks about flowers and her niece Catherine (Elizabeth Taylor) and then compare that to when Maude first meets The Dude and she is talking about art, the female form, sex, and her step mother Bunny. I don't know, maybe it's just me. For other Cohen Brother inspiration check out The Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake film "The Glass Key," as inspiration for "Miller's Crossing," and check out Akim Tamiroff as Uncle Joe Grande in "Touch of Evil" as a model for several characters that Jon Polito plays in a bunch of Cohen Brother's movies.

My roommate got the No, No, Nanette soundtrack as a dub on a tape and she proceeded to listen to it non-stop. After it finally totally brainwashed me into submission, I found the songs to be irresistible, especially the famous, I want to be happy, but I can't be happy... But of coarse from the soundtrack I had no idea what the film was about. So the other day I saw a copy of it at the video store and I rented what was supposed to be a long lost version of the film. I was thinking that it was going to be amazing, because the soundtrack is so cute. Unfortunately most of the songs that I loved were nowhere to be found in the video I saw. Now I've never seen the 1930 version of the musical but this version was sadly disappointing because there was very little singing and practically no dancing and beside that the sound was really bad through out and you couldn't really understand what people were saying a lot of the time. Really the only highlights of this film were the outrageous 1940's fashion. Nanette wears this crazy hat with two feathers that stick out like rabbit ears and Kansas Kitty has this bizarre feather muff that she keeps on her fore arm and then has herself wrapped in this net scarf. The one dance sequence is a little weird too with Nanette doing this weird ballet stuff with pin-up girl imagery superimposed on top of her. Actually one more bright spot of the film was the artist Guillespe who dreams of being a fine artist but it currently condemned to drawing pin-up girls for money. I like how Guillespe keeps it old school, and disses Nanette when his masterpiece, the piece that was to make his career, is sold by Nanette for a paltry $5250. Doesn't she realize that that piece was his immortality? Silly rabbit/girl with your feather rabbit ears on your hat. When will you learn? Why doesn't he just pencil in a cigarette before the ad men take the Work away?

This is a great film with an absolutely amazing script. While Margaret Sulivan has a tremendous break out performance, in my opinion it is John Boles as the philandering Jim and Billie Burke as the suffragist aunt that really make the film. John Boles in particular has some really great lines. My favorite line of the film was when the married Jim is trying to seduce Margaret on New Year's Eve and he takes her to his secret bachelor pad and tells Margaret that this is where he lives. Margaret says something like, `Strange it doesn't have a woman's touch.' And Jim replies that while he doesn't eat, sleep, or hang out with his family here, this is where he LIVES. Jim is just a pimp. While this film is difficult to see since they don't have it on video or show it on cable, it is really a must see movie for anyone interested in pre-code film. It is an absolutely wonderful movie.

While I don't think this Gold Diggers is as good as the 1935 version or as good as Footlight Parade or Dames, it is still classic Busby Berkley and therefore absolutely amazing. While the plot is what it is, the musical sequences at the end are not to be believed. My favorite part of this film is when the girls get all wet in the rainstorm and then have to go back and change and you see them all naked in silloutte behind this curtain and then this freaky little boy/dwarf guy pulls up the shade but the girls are all now dressed in metal corsets and at first Dick Powell can't figure out what to do but then the freaky little boy/dwarf gives him a can opener and Powell proceeds to liberate Ruby Keeler from her mettalic shell. The freaky little boy/dwarf reappears in Footlight Parade as Ruby Keeler's little brother in the Honeymoon Hotel sequence and there is this really great part in that movie where Dick Powell crawls in to bed thinking that Ruby's in there and then freaks out when he finds the little freak instead. Powell is so startled that he then jumps out of bed and throws an ashtray at the little freak like he was trying to kill a rat or something. It's great.

This movie is impeccably directed and superbly acted. The two boys who star have an amazing chemistry and their real life off screen friendship is obvious. The chick in this film is incredibly hot and also delivers a great performance. But the real star of the film is the lush Mexican landscape and culture which is explored with sincerity and respect although not uncritically. A great film. Lots of good nudity too.

This movie has some of the most amazing art deco sets of all time. The art director, Natacha Rambova was absolutely incredible. It is a shame that she gave art direction to run Valentino's career. From what I understand Nazimova hooked up Valentino and Rambova during this film, but I also think that Nazimova and Rambova were like lovers or something. Anyway, when you watch this film it seems like you are watching footage from the future that was somehow smuggled back in time to the twenties so that you get to watch it aged and somewhat decrepit and distant. The sets are otherworldly and Nazimova's style, her hair, her clothes, her whole disposition seems alien. She must be a major inspiration for Mariko Mori and her video art. Basically this movie is awesome and you should check it out.

I hated this movie. The plot made no sense. There was this whole thing about time travel and worm holes and it was just ridiculous. They had no real insight to the sci part of this sci-fi piece, which makes it pretty hard to enjoy much less swallow. As far as acting goes, Jake Gyllenhaal was unbelievably bad. The fact that he was cast in this part goes to show how amateur this director is. He showed no ability in any part of the film, especially when he was supposed to be either hypnotized or under the spell of Frank. And speaking of Frank, the satanic bunny, it seemed like a bad rip off of Paul McCarthy at best or just bad make up design at worse. Every once in a while during the film a title card would appear saying, THREE MORE DAYS, and that was reassuring to know that the film at most could only go on for 72 more hours. This film sucks.

This is an amazing film, it has amazing special effects, it shows who made the transition from silent to talkie and who didn't, it has scenes in color (two-strip technicolor from what I understand), and it has some of the cutest costumes of any musical.

Some of the highlights of the movie are Joan Crawford song and dance number, which is too cute for words, and not terrible as another IMDB commenter would have you believe.

The Buster Keaton snake charmer dance is absoluetly hilarious. The Betty Johnson hiding in Jack Benny's pocket is pretty cute.

And the Singing in the Rain number is great, with it's simple yet beautiful art deco set and it's great reflective floor textured with the pitter patter of rain.

If you ever get a chance to see this film, take advantage of it. It is so strange to see every MGM start (except Garbo and Lon Chaney) in the same film, especially since many of them didn't continue making a lot of talking pictures.

Outstanding!!!!!