Reviews of the Marlon Wayan’s vehicle.. A HAUNTED HOUSE, Max takes a look at The Governator’s THE LAST STAND… apparently Max was the only person in America who bothered to show up. A look at Kenneth Castillo’s COUNTERPUNCH making it’s premiere on DVD, Netflix and Redbox. The latest productions news and the FUSTIANS will offer their selections for the BEST FILMS BASED ON A TELEVISION SHOW.
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Film Fustians, 1/22/1310 comments to Film Fustians, 1/22/13Leave a ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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May I toss in a few thoughts about DJANGO UNCHAINED? The more I reflect, the more its stock drops in my eyes.
The comparison to INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is obvious enough, except with slavedrivers instead of Nazis. But I’d say BASTERDS works and DJANGO doesn’t. I’m thinking — I’m curious if Fustians will think I have a point — that DJANGO went wrong because Tarantino decided to add an agenda to his usual trashy escapism. Until now, Tarantino’s work has never taken itself too seriously, and I’ve appreciated that. But here he deviated.
Tarantino doesn’t make films; he makes movies. We think of Tarantino as the ultimate creature from Hollywood; his talent is in recycling and reworking fragments of Hollywood’s clichés and classics for modern audiences. For example, that multilingual Nazi in BASTERDS; he wasn’t a real Nazi, he was a film Nazi. I mean that as a compliment, not a put-down, in that it worked. That was one darned fascinating Nazi. Tarantino didn’t have to run around explaining that Nazis were bad in real life; this was implicit. But DJANGO shoehorned an element of relevancy (in the Fustian vernacular, “asparagus”) into the mix, apparently to remind us that slavery wasn’t as much fun as we must have thought. The slave master nastiness seemed gratuitous, as opposed to the necessary Nazi cruelty of BASTERDS. As a result, DJANGO becomes less escapist and more bombastic. The characters aren’t very interesting because they act to illustrate a point; their conflicts feel contrived rather than organic. The exception is Samuel Jackson; his character seemed to have something going on below the surface. Jackson was the only player of the show who really held my eye.
What made Jackson’s character work? Here’s my thought. Years ago a cat moved into my yard and I took her in. I called her my cat, but she clearly understood she owned the house and everyone in it, and I indulged her in this. Every now and then, I’d happen to observe a moment when she was looking out the window and another cat stepped into the yard — into her yard. And whenever this happened, the expression that would appear on her face was exactly what I saw on the face of Samuel Jackson when he sees Django riding up on a horse.
What I saw in my cat’s mind was a perception of threat and a reaction of gritty determination. She’d been a stray, and then she found her turf and she claimed her turf and she held her turf; it’s a nasty world out there, and everybody else had better steer clear of her hard-won turf! Doesn’t matter that they were just passing through; doesn’t matter that they were arguably no threat to her homestead. There was potential for her to lose it all to a usurper, and this situation had to be nipped in the bud.
In that sense, I see Jackson portraying more than a race traitor or something equally simplistic. It wasn’t exactly about race, Jackson made it about the individual character; a guy with a gig that senses something isn’t right, and reacts instinctively and defensively. That’s why Jackson’s character stole the show. He alone made us want to look more closely. The rest were Tarantino’s robots. That’s my take, anyway.
Buzzed Barry From Omaha was hilarious last week.
Also Max’s declaration that “all the women in Breaking Dawn Part 2 are sexless bores” may not be a bad thing. Aren’t those characters all teenagers? Wouldn’t it be creepy if Max DID find them attractive?
My picks for tonight’s list are The Naked Gun, The Fugitive, South Park, Star Trek, and even though they’re not great movies Masters of the Universe and Beavis and Butthead are guilty pleasures for me.
Regarding last week’s show, I think Justin’s repeated inference of “P.T. Anderson’s The Master” is the new “Frau Blucher”. Funny. My pics for BEST FILMS BASED ON A TELEVISION SHOW are:
1.THE FUGITIVE
2.Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
3.Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
4.Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
5.Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
6.The Brady Bunch Movie
honorable mentions: South Park, The Naked Gun, and Maverick.
To explain my “Frau Blucher” reference (pronounced BLOO-kuhr, Max) she was the character Cloris Leachman played in Young Frankenstein as Justin recalled. And the co-relation between that and Justin’s repeating of P.T. Anderson’s The Master is that Blucher was such a creepy woman, the mere mentioning of her name would upset the horses outside the castle, which was a running gag throughout the film. It is as if to say, Justin’s repeated mentioning of the movie he deemed so horrible would have the same effect. I thought two brilliant film encyclopedias such as the Film Fustians would’ve pick up on that vibe right away, but apparently not. Also, before Justin kicks me out of the fanbase for heresy, let me try to defend “Fire Walk with Me” as my #4 pic of BEST MOVIES BASED ON A TELEVISION SHOW. First, I’m suprised someone who enjoyed such obtuse creations as “Liquid Sky” and “The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai” would come down so hard on “Fire Walk with Me.” I admit the movie came right on the heels of the TV show and fans of the show, even castmembers of the film, were disappointed with the storytelling shift it took away from the show. But enough time has passed to put it in perspective with Lynch’s other works. The very reason we anticipate his movies is because of his signature abstract approach. David Lynch is a film-directing genius and we expect him to take liberties, giving us strange characters, fascinating music and off-beat storytelling. So, compared to the TV show, which I never really watched, yes, I can understand why people would think the movie sucked, but compared to masterpieces like Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire, Fire Walk with Me delivers. Max, you shouldn’t have been so quick to be cowed by Mr. Levine’s dismissal on this one, in my opinion.
If it makes you feel any better, I got the Frau Blucher reference, Rockauthor.
And I also think “Fire Walk With Me” is an excellent choice for your list (it also made my list of underrated films from well known directors that I discussed on the show a few weeks ago).
Is Michael Kirchhoff another of Barry’s “screen names”?
Nope, I am not Barry and that is my real name. Nobody would voluntarily choose “Kirchhoff” as their name, fake or otherwise (thanks for spelling it right, Kurt!)
And I will confirm that I did not just post that remark
I’m sorry but I’ve been meaning to ask a question for a while but feel it needs a much larger debate. It’s something that has plagued by mind for a while and to this date I still don’t know the answer. I’ve asked friends and work colleagues alike and they continue to be stumped. Infact, it’s almost an impossible question to answer…however…feel you guys are my last hope. So, the question…drum roll please!
Who is the better actor…arnold schwarzenegger or sylvester stallone?!
And why has niether ever won an Oscar?!
I look forward to your debate film fustians…it could be a long one!
To bring the Schwarzenegger/Stallone question into proper focus, one must begin with the video store scene in THE LAST ACTION HERO (a fun movie IMHO).