Sy Fy has a zombie western in which the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees play cowboys fighting zombies.
Though I have to be missing something as I’m pretty sure one of them is wearing a backwards hat and I’m certain there’s a Jeep in there.
I don’t have to give up on my Zombie Western though right? Attorney Donnelly is at work as we speak on a press release about how mine is much more awesome-er.
Nah. I don’t know. There are a few self published zombie westerns floating around out there already.
It’s just a little discouraging sometimes. You think you’re original and then you realize there’s so much entertainment out there it is virtually impossible to be original.
Wait a minute…he is wearing a backwards baseball hat! WTF?!
Home on a Friday night watching a Netflix movie about a man-child.
Oh life, where did you go wrong?
BQB here with a review of Pee Wee’s Big Holiday.
Oh Pee Wee. You could have been a contender.
Come to think of it, you were. Like every Generation X kid, I too talked in your silly voice and did my take on your “Ha ha!” and “Argh!” and so on.
But then you just had to go and do…well what you did at that adult theater in 1991.
To this day, I’ve never really understood it. Sure, perverts have it a lot better today, what with a vast cornucopia of pornography available thanks to the Internet (so I’ve heard) but even in the 1990s, people had VCRs to watch risqué movies on (again, so I’ve heard.)
Pee Wee. Oh Pee Wee. You weren’t like Mr. Rogers, trying to lecture us on morality or Sesame Street, trying to teach us shit. You just invited us along to be silly and have a good time and you had to go and get yourself in trouble.
Eh. Did it matter? Two movies and a TV show, I’m not sure how much more Pee Wee the public could have tolerated.
Either way, he’s been in more movies (as Paul Reubens) and we’ve forgiven him. (But Jesus Christ, even in the 1990s they had Playboys and Penthouses and Hustlers you could check out in the privacy of your own home so what the hell was he thinking? (Again, so I’ve heard.)
Pee Wee is back (because thanks to Netflix, everyone who had a hit twenty years ago is coming back for one last hurrah).
Did you know that Pee Wee is 63 years old? I always thought he was younger for some reason. Holy Shit. He aged well.
The Plot – Pee Wee lives in Fairville and he is afraid to leave. But then he meets Joe Manganiello (the actor from True Blood and Magic Mike, though if you’ve never heard of him, it is ok because Pee Wee hadn’t heard of him either.)
Yes, Joe plays himself. Meta.
They learn they have a lot in common and become fast friends. But Joe is worried that Pee Wee has lived such a sheltered life so he challenges our favorite man boy to trek across country to his birthday party in New York City.
That’s about it. It’s a romp from there on, a series of skits as he gets in various predicaments along the way. Bank robbing babes, snakes, Farmer’s daughters, and balloon loving Amish folk slow him down.
I have to admit I didn’t laugh as much as I thought I would. I’m concerned this means maybe Pee Wee was never funny. Maybe I just thought he was when I was a kid.
But then I recall Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and classic lines like, “There’s no basement at the Alamo” and how he called that spoiled Francis guy “France-ass” and the bikers and I laugh and laugh. (“Paging Mr. Herman. Mr. Herman. You have a telephone call at the front desk.)
Eh. Maybe there’s just few people around who understand/appreciate 1980’s humor enough to make a movie that lives up to the legend.
Anyway, it was cute but not as good as the original or Big Top Pee Wee, the sequel.
MAIN COMPLAINT: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe he said “I know you are but what am I” to anyone in the entire film. That’s his patented catch phrase. Even those hacks at Fuller House knew they had to jam “Cut it out” and “How rude” and “Have mercy” into the first ten minutes.
Isn’t that the whole point of these TV shows/movies? Long in the tooth actors grabbing one last pay day by placating adults who loved those actors when they were kids before the next generation of adults comes along and doesn’t give a shit?
“Look BQB. That TV show/movie you liked as a child is still relevant…time isn’t passing you by…say the catchphrase!!!”
SIDENOTE: Pee Wee’s 63 but all his chicks in this movie are way younger. Maybe because he’s just an ageless perpetually young guy…or maybe Hollywood couldn’t let him get with a 63 year old perpetually ageless female?
I don’t know. Maybe I’m too much of a conspiracy theorist. And to be fair, he does go on a flying car ride with a Katherine Hepburn type.
Not really shelf-worthy but if you haven’t seen them, I hope this inspires you to see his first two movies.
So here’s the setup. Seth Rogen and James Franco (the comedy duo behind Pineapple Express and also that movie that almost led to a war with North Korea) have made a cartoon.
For the first thirty seconds of the trailer, you almost think it is another Pixar style cartoon. What’s every Pixar movie about? Talking toys. Talking cars. Talking bugs. Talking planes. Talking fish. Always about something that doesn’t talk only now it is talking.
This one is about food. Yes. All this time you never knew that food products can talk. They sit on the store shelves, waiting for you to pick them up with the hope that you’re going to do something great with them and….
…yup…the food products engage in all kinds of obscenity once they learn what people actually do with food.
Here’s the Sony Red Band Trailer. If you don’t want to be offended you probably shouldn’t watch:
I’ve been hearing these guys talk about this project on different talk shows for awhile now.
It sounds like a funny concept to me but I’m a male with a warped sense of humor so I’m basically their target demographic.
I give them credit for actually getting the studio to put up the money needed for Pixar quality rendering…or for getting a studio for doing something completely outside of the box for that matter.
PREDICTIONS:
People will be divided on whether it is hysterical or garbage. There will be very little in between.
There will be adults who would have thought it was funny but won’t go because they’ll think it is a kids’ movie based on a quick look at the poster.
Also based only on a quick look at the poster, there will be many clueless parents who will be like, “Hey this looks like a good movie to take the kids to!” only to be horrified.
Anyway, I will have to check this out and write a review for my 3.5 readers when it comes out.
It’s finally here, the preview for the new all-female Ghostbusters movie:
My main observation is it looks and feels like the original.
They’re not quite like the original team but:
A) You’ve got the lovable, almost childish nerd Ray (Dan Akroyd) vs. Abby (Melissa McCarthy)
B) The glasses wearing ultra smart nerd – Egon (Harold Ramis) vs. Jillian (Kate McKinnon)
C) The leader – Venkman (Bill Murray) vs. Erin (Kristen Wiig)
D) The black non-scientist who talks the scientists into keeping it real – Winston (Ernie Hudson) vs. Patty (Leslie Jones)
I’ll just throw it out there. A Ghostbusters sequel has always been a very high hurdle to jump over because the first was so great.
It was such an original and funny idea – serious so you felt a sense of danger but hilarious that you kept laughing.
In this preview, you have what looks like a ghost in a library. A giant monster in New York. Tributes to the original. But then again, the tough part about comedy movie sequels is that people ALWAYS expect a repeat of the original movie’s jokes.
I don’t know. They’re not deviating from the original formula, that’s for sure. But then if they went off the deep end into something too new people would criticize that too.
I want it to be good. I hope it is good. I can’t believe it’s been 30 years though. Holy shit.
You know, I really don’t care that it is an all woman cast. I know some people have complained about it. I just want it to be good, funny and enjoyable.
I will say this – we’ve come a long way that there are so many female nerd moviegoers that an all female Ghostbusters cast would get the studio green light. These nerd women were nowhere to be found when I was a young lad.
I’m also glad to see whatever idea they’re going with here does not wipe out the first two movies. It exists in the same world and at least according to IMDB some of the original Ghostbusters will be making cameos.
First, they left Abe Vigoda off the “In Memoriam” reel. You know, every year at the Oscars they play a clip reel of all the actors/actresses that died in the previous year.
And they forgot Abe Vigoda!
In their defense, Abe did look like he was dead for many years, but still, he actually did die recently. The guy was in the Godfather and they forgot to add him to the reel.
Can’t help but notice Abe wasn’t very pretty.
Then there was the Stallone upset.
Sometimes the Academy will nominate an old timer for a role that wasn’t very Oscar worthy on its own but the actor is old and there’s a desire to honor him for a long career.
That is what it seemed like the Academy was doing by nominating Stallone for Creed. The original Rocky won best picture but Stallone has never been honored before by the Academy.
So it made sense. It seemed like a nice thing to do. He was an action guy. A popcorn movie guy. But he gave us Rocky and Rambo. So give him one.
Then they give it to Mark Rylance. He’s a good actor and I don’t want to dump on him. He did a good job with his Bridge of Spies role.
But to nominate Stallone then not give him the award was just basically sticking it to him. They shouldn’t have nominated him if they weren’t going to give it to him.
Eh. Stallone’s not that pretty. Was he in his heyday? I don’t know. You tell me ladies. Then again Rylance isn’t that pretty either. He’s partially bald in fact so maybe I can’t pin this one on an Oscars So Pretty situation.
What say you, 3.5 readers? Was Stallone robbed? Was Abe dissed?
I mean, I’m not British and I wouldn’t set foot near a ski jump if you paid me but still…I am a nerd who knows the harsh oppression that nerds face when they seek to make their dreams come true.
SPOILERS!
BQB here with a review of Eddie the Eagle.
Michael “Eddie” Edwards had one dream growing up – to become an Olympian.
That’s a lofty goal for anyone but especially for him. He was in a leg brace for most of his early childhood and even had to stay at a hospital for a year.
As a youngster, he tries his hand at every sport only to fail miserably and end up with a box full of broken glasses.
Miraculously, he does make it onto the British downhill ski team only to be cut. Eddie is poor, unsophisticated and ultimately, the British Olympic Committee just doesn’t like him.
Speaking of poverty, he’s at odds with his Dad who wants him to quit skiing and get a job, preferably as a plasterer, as that’s what his father does for a living.
Eddie is about to pack it all in until he concocts an idea to become a ski jumper. Britain hasn’t had one since the 1920’s so all he has to do is land a good jump to qualify.
Easier said than done. After running off to a ski training facility in Germany, Eddie befriends former American ski jumper Bronson Peary. Perry is a down and out drunk, torn between a desire to find greatness again by becoming Eddie’s coach and not wanting to see Eddie die.
For, Bronson explains, even the most skilled and qualified jumpers wipe out and end up gruesomely mangled all the time.
In case you’re not convinced, you’ll see Eddie get knocked all over the slopes all throughout the film. It almost makes you wonder who thought ski jumping would be a good sport to begin with.
I don’t want to give too much more away. Like Rocky, Eddie competes. He tries. He gets in the game and his victory doesn’t come from gold (he comes nowhere close) but that he did so much better than expected, especially when no one expected anything from him.
If you’re not a ski jumper, that’s ok. This movie can be applied to any dream. On this blog, we talk about our writing aspirations, hopes, and dreams.
I can tell you I can relate to Eddie. Maybe not with the hurling myself into the air, but I know what it’s like to be told by family and friends to quit writing, to be told by experts it can’t be done, to wonder myself what other productive things I could be doing instead of gluing myself to my keyboard.
But we do what we do because we can’t stop ourselves.
Taron Egerton is a great Eddie just as Hugh Jackman is an excellent Bronson.
It is too bad this movie came out so early in the year. I see Oscar potential. I know it made me shed a tear or too.
Then again, the Oscars are So Pretty, and they probably wouldn’t want to promote a movie that gives nerds a crazy idea like they can be somebody.
Bookshelf Battle 