The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Great (Or Godawful) Casting Choices

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While passing time listening to a random podcast a casual comment jumped out at me, to wit “J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is the greatest piece of casting in the history of cinema” (J.J.J. is the editor of The Daily Bugle newspaper in the Spider-man comics for those who don’t know). Leaving aside the “..in the history of cinema” hyperbole*, this choice is not unfounded, as the same actor was chosen to play the same character even when a competing studio was making its own Spider-man film. The interlocutor shot back with his own suggestion, saying Shelley Duvall was surely born to play the character of Olive Oyl in the live action Popeye movie. To celebrate the fact that this year’s Academy Awards will, for the first time, be handing out an Oscar for “Best Casting”, I thought it might be a liddle bidda fun for us to bash our heads together and come up with some BEST EVAH suggestions of our own. And it would probably be even more fun to pick some of the worst. As an aside, one of the things that always amuses me is hearing all the actors who were considered or who turned » Continue Reading.

Can music rescue a weak movie?

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The God I Love Prog thread made me think of the film I Love You Man. It’s a pretty feeble bromance comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. It’s a bearable watch for someone with low expectations and nothing else to do but I’ve watched it 3 times. Why? Because the heart of the bromance is a shared love of Rush. There is Rush music all over the film and there’s a scene in an actual Rush performance. As a result, I find it really enjoyable when without the music I might well not have watched to the end on the first viewing and would certainly not have bothered to see it again.

There must be plenty of films out there that no-one would bother with but for the music.

I’m hoping that no-one is going to respond by suggesting The Last Waltz or A Complete Unknown but let’s see…

Needs to be used in a movie…

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I have quite a few songs that I think would work great in a film and right now, for the first time in ages, I am listening to The Go Betweens. “Streets Of Your Town” is leaping out at me; it’s crying out to be used in an early scene of “burgeoning love” in a superior romantic comedy.

Any other songs that folks play and find themselves imagining a film?

Quiz time: Sound Effects

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The following are TV or movie sound effects as described in trademarks or scripts. See if you can recognise them:

1. “Annoyed grunt”.

2. “A series of approximately ten sounds, alternating between the chest and falsetto registers of the voice, as follows – 1) a semi-long sound in the chest register, 2) a short sound up an interval of one octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound, 3) a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 4) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 5) a long sound down one octave plus a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 6) a short sound up one octave from the preceding sound, 7) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 8) a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 9) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound, 10) a long sound down an octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound.”

3. The “sound of rhythmic mechanical human breathing created by breathing through a scuba tank regulator”

4. “An oscillating humming buzz created by combining feedback from a microphone with a projector motor » Continue Reading.

Alien or Aliens?

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Alien – a slow and quiet (until it´s not) low-budget horror movie.

Aliens – a big action-filled thingy with lots of everything.

They´re both great at what they´re doing, both masterpieces in their respective genres, but completely different in all but franchise (and Sigourney Weaver).

So which one do you prefer and why?

(Yes, I´ve been listening to Smershpod again. The recent episode on Aliens is highly recommended)

What will you drop everything to watch?

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A Matter of Life and Death was on BBC2 this afternoon, so of course I watched it. That makes perfect sense because it is the best film ever made, but less sense considering I already own 3 (maybe more) copies, I must have seen it at least 10 times, and last time I looked it was on YouTube and I could have watched it any time I wanted to even if I didn’t have a hard copy.

Is there anything that you will watch when it was broadcast even when you don’t need to wait? A film that will stop you in your tracks as you channel hop despite having a copy on a shelf a few feet away?

Secure The Perimeter

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Mel Brooks likes to watch movies that have the “Secure The Perimeter” dialogue in them and it occurred to me that there are more than a few such cliches.

Frinstance.

1. “Suit Up” 2. “Protect the asset” 3. “It’s above our Pay Grade.”

Today, if you choose to accept this mission, I would like your suggestions.

This message will , etc, blah.

Best and worst Bond movies

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Having recently decided to watch – for some reason – the Bond Movies starring Roger Moore for the first time in something like twenty years, I can´t help but marvel at how poor they are. It suddenly went, comedy wise and elsewhere, very Benny Hill. At least Connery era was silly in an entertaining way.

Live And Let Die (2 out of 5) is a direct result of Shaft. “Hey, let´s use some black actors! It´s seems to be the thing!”) And JW Pepper is just a terrible character.

The Man With The Golden Gun (3 out of 5) has Christopher Lee, which is good. And the scenery is marvelous. JW Pepper appears again. In one scene he points out he´s a Democrat, which is a redeeming quality.

Today I´ve watched The Spy Who Loved Me (2 out of 5), which holds together even worse than the previous two. Jaws is silly in the wrong way, Stromberg has the charisma of a garden fence and well, it just goes on for a while and then it ends. Parts of the movie is like a more expensive Thunderball.

Moonraker is next. I seem to recall For Your Eyes Only and » Continue Reading.

Best Fictional Tracks

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Sorry if we’ve done this before, but how about collecting our favourite tracks by fictional (non-existant) artists? I’d imagine the richest seam will be songs from movies & TV series, but I think we can stretch things to include artists actively performing under assumed identities (e.g. Dukes Of Stratosphere, even Chris Gaines or Silicon Teens), though if there’s a “rule”, it would be that this doesn’t apply to simple pseudonyms (so no “Layla”).

I’ll kick things off with the track that put the idea in my head – “All Over The World” by Strange Fruit, from the movie Still Crazy, and featuring the collective songwriting talent of Mick Jones and Chris Difford (with Marti Fredriksen) – surely this would have been a hit in “real life”…?

Great British Road Movies anyone

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Inspired by @anton – great British road movies anyone?

Radio On, to start with, although a fascinating unintended documentary of 70s Britain, is a bit of a non-event as an actual movie.

Anyone seen the Peter Capaldi one Soft Top, Hard Shoulder (the title does not give me confidence). Hardly Vanishing Point is it? Hmmm that had a Dodge Challenger. This has a 1971 Triumph Herald. And a score by Chris Rea.