It's a Long Way Down the Holiday Road

I have to say I'm glad the Vacation reboot movie is getting some of the worst reviews of the year. Judging from the trailers, there really isn't nothing in the movie that wasn't done better in more funnier gross-out humor movies like There's Something About Mary or Knocked Up.
It's also very bad to see that Rusty Griswold, who always seemed to be smarter than his father, Clark, basically a Melvin like Ed Helms. Even the nerdy geek Johnny Galecki (Christmas Vacation Rusty) plays on The Big Bang Theory would kick new Rusty's ass.
Looking back at the original National Lampoon's Vacation released on July 29, 1983, it was a perfect mixture of slapstick and dark humor. I'm an animal lover but even I laughed at the scene between Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and a Colorado motorcycle cop (James Keach) over the death of Dinkus, the mean mutt dog belonging to Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca). Part of what's funny is the idea that a simple mistake resulting in an animal's death and watching Clark try to cry and talk his way out of a ticket. Ironically, the filmmakers say they got a lot of flak over this scene but other people say that they themselves have made the same mistakes.

The original Vacation was envisioned by writer John Hughes as a coming of age story focuses on Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) as he observes his parents on a trip from Chicago to Florida. The Christine Brinkley character was supposed to be a teenage girl Rusty keeps bumping into along the trip.
Chase and director Harold Ramis decided the Clark Griswold character should be the main focus and they should switch the trip from Chicago to Los Angeles to take advantage of the scenery through the western part of the state, such as Monument Valley.
Getting Chase to play Clark wasn't initially liked since Chase was known at the time to play suave sophisticated characters. Clark isn't. Clark is a food additive designer, something that would require a lot of book smarts. Clark probably has a Master's or even a Ph.D. But he is too smart, he's dumb. Clark lacks all common sense logic and street smarts. When Clark's old car is flattened into a pancake and the shady car salesman (Eugene Levy) tries to sell him the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, a car he didn't order, rather than call a lawyer or at least as to speak to an owner to get a loaner until the new car comes in, Clark takes the car. Why? Because he avoids confrontations at any turn.

He is tricked into taking Aunt Edna with him to Phoenix, even that wasn't the original plan. Why? Because it's family and Clark and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) wouldn't say no without being made to feel bad. When he is forced to pay hundreds of dollars to sleazy mechanics, he does so even though all he really has to do is just run and get in the car and drive off. Also, the mechanic pulls out a sheriff's badge, but really, he's probably just a part-time or reserve deputy and this is probably a scam they pull.
Or take the scene in which the Griswolds get lost in the bad part of St. Louis, where there are tricked into pay $10 for no directions out of town and lose their hubcaps, again, Clark is too dumb for his own good. Clark is too busy being too nice that when he sees Cousin Vicki (Jane Krakowski) sticking her hand and arm in a pitcher to stir Kool-Aid, he just asks her if he can help because the thought of someone using their hand to stir something is just gross.

Krakowski said she thought up the idea while filming the scene as it was supposed to happen in the background as Clark and Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) talk. Chase noticed what she was doing and so did Ramis, who did a close-up scene,
At the end of the movie when Clark, finally having enough of being taken advantage of, takes a Walley World security guard (John Candy) hostage with a BB pistol. The way Clark acts and just the idea of Clark buying a BB gun rather than a real handgun shows that Clark isn't willing to go all out.

What makes Vacation so funny is that Clark is wanting his family to have a perfect road-trip vacation but oblivious to the fact that his kids don't want to go and his wife would just rather everyone go with the flow. Look at how the Griswalds can't even back out of their garage without a problem happening. In this case, they packed the luggage too high on the rack that it doesn't clear the raised garage door.
Clark doesn't even bother to look over the new car to see where the gas tank is.
And things like this happen to all of us. That's part of Vacation's appeal over the years. People can watch it and say, "Oh, yeah, something like that happened." We've all gotten lost while traveling or stayed at motels or hotels that weren't that great.
Clark wants to stick to a schedule but doesn't realize that the best part of a vacation is not adhering to schedules. Sleeping late on a weekday or drinking a few more beers or glasses of wine on a weeknight.
Things fall apart for the Griswolds because Clark doesn't realize no one is having fun even though he wants them to have fun. He is like a telemarketer or customer service rep still reading a script even though the caller has asked to speak to a manager or told them they're not interested.
This leads him to break down and at a crucial scene where everyone is showing their displeasure of the trip, Clark bluntly says to his family, "I think you're all fucked in the head."

Part of Vacation's joy is that it doesn't hold back. There are jokes about implied incest between Cousin Eddie and his daughter, Vicki, the discussion about the death of Dinkus and of course, the scene where Aunt Edna dies and she is placed on top of the luggage rack in what is obvious the shape of a person. Reportedly, before filming began, Chase or Ramis quickly put Edna's purse with her just to add a little hilarity to the craziness.

Originally intended as a PG family comedy, Ramis decided to shoot scenes for both a PG and R-rating to see what was better. The "fucked in the head" rant where Clark goes on a profanity-laced tirade talking about being a "pilgrimage to see a moose."
Vacation, unlike other movies at the time, was actually filmed on location, something that didn't sit well with Coca, who had a fear of long travels by car. Coca had been told by her agents that most of the scenes in the car would be filmed on a soundstage. That wasn't the case as they were filmed on the road as the car was being towed. Coca's health reportedly caused problems as it is believed she suffered a minor stroke or at least a "senior moment" as she had no recollection of the earlier day's filming.
Hall reportedly had a crush on Dana Barron, who plays Audrey, Rusty's sister, and that led to a good rapport between the two while filming. Hall also tried to sneak on the set when D'Angelo filmed the shower scene, but Ramis, who had a closed set during a scene on Caddyshack with Cindy Morgan, did the same thing, not knowing D'Angelo was more open about her body and on-screen nudity.
And like the movie, there were problems that arose. During filming of the parking lot race scene, both Chase and Hall suffered heat exhaustion. There was a scene of the Griswolds packing luggage that was filmed on a hot day and caused Chase to lose it when the luggage fell down and throw a prop suitcase at Ramis.
And the original ending was so bad, it has been scraped and never released. The original ending has Clark purchasing a BB gun and tracking down Roy Walley at his home where he holds Walley and some business men there hostage making them dance. Then, the Christine Brinkley character shows back up and it's revealed she is Roy Walley's daughter. After some discussion between Walley and his daughter, he decides not to call the police and then sends the Griswolds home on a plane.
This scene was so poorly reviewed that one of the filmmakers described the test screening as 80 minutes of laughter followed by 15 minutes of silence.
Chase said he was one of the few people who still have a copy of the original scene.
The producers went back to Warner Bros., the studio making the movie and begged for more money. Hughes was paid to write a new ending because the general consensus of the test screening was the family never got to ride any rides and they felt let down and cheated. Candy was hired, reportedly at a $1 million paycheck, to play stuffy guard Russ Lansky. Hall had reportedly grown six inches in the interim of filming and was taller than D'Angelo, leading Barron to be upset because it was implied Rusty was older than Audrey. This caused Hall and D'Angelo to be filmed so you couldn't see the height differences.
When it was released, the movie was a critical and box office success despite some complaints about the deaths of Dinkus and Aunt Edna being shown for laughs. Reportedly, civic leaders in Compton, Calif., didn't really care for the St. Louis scenes and tried to have theaters boycott the movie, Christopher Jackson, who plays the pimp, who tells Clark "Fuck yo momma!" when he asks for directions had friends who picketed the movie over this scene.


The legacy of Vacation led to a sequel National Lampoon's European Vacation, which led to both the roles of Audrey and Rusty to be recast when Hall was unavailable for filming. This would go on to be a running joke in all Vacation sequels and used in an Old Navy commercial.


And while the debate remains which is better, the original Vacation or Christmas Vacation, it's apparent, there would be anything if not for the original Vacation.
Maybe if the filmmakers decide to do a sequel to the Vacation, they'll recast Audrey and Rusty again. Anyone except a Melvin like Helms.

That 'Girl' is Poison

David Fincher is probably one of the best directors working today. Considering that his film career was almost over before it begun, he has an impressive resume.
First, he was tapped to direct Alien 3, one of the biggest flops of the 1990s. But rebounded with Se7en, a movie that made Morgan Freeman a major star and Brad Pitt a respectable actor. Se7en was notable for its bleak, grim look and an ending that challenged the deus ex machina of thrillers. Then, he made The Game in 1997, a movie that like its title is a game not only on the main character played by Michael Douglas, but the audience as well. Watching it a second time after knowing the twist, you see things just as a character trying to say his lines without laughing.
Finally, to close out the decade, he made Fight Club, which was supposed to be another late summer release that the studio, 20th Century Fox, reportedly didn't have much faith in, but became popular despite almost universal negative criticism. Now, it is seen as a masterpiece that made some critics eat crow.
After that, he made a few highs with Zodiac, a creepy psychological thriller about the Zodiac Killer and its effect on the detectives and journalists tracking the case, and The Social Network, which made Mark Zuckerberg into a nerdy Michael Corleone following by a few lows, such as Panic Room, which Jared Leto's atrociously bad acting and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a movie that goes at a snail's pace that you actually feel years older after finishing it, if you can.
Gone Girl is a wonderful misstep. It has a lot of ambition and a great set-up but fails miserably. If you haven't seen it, STOP READING BECAUSE THE REST CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Gone Girl is obviously inspired by the 24/7 media and court of public opinion assuming people are killers just because they seem suspicious. The movie draws inspiration from the Scott Peterson case as well as the rush to judgment in the JonBenet Ramsey and Chondra Levy cases as well as the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta and how the media made Richard Jewell out to be a suspect.
Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, who seems to be channeling Peterson, as a failed New York City writer having to move back to his hometown in middle-America Missouri, where he looks after his sickly mother who eventually dies of cancer and he begins to teach at a college and operate a bar with his twin sister, Margo, or Go for short, played by Carrie Coon. His wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), a New York socialite resents him for moving to BFE, Missouri. But what she really resents him for is the fact that he is having an affair with one of his students, so she decides basically to frame him for her murder.
Bitch Be Crazy would be a more appropriate title. Her whole plan doesn't make a lot of sense and is based on what the late Roger Ebert would call the Idiot Plot Device, whereas for everything to happen in a movie, everyone must be an idiot.
While Nick is at the bar, Amy decides to fake the assault by bleeding out at least one pint of blood on the floor and staging the house like there has been a scuffle. She also befriends a neighbor, who is pregnant and an idiot, and steals her pee to make it look like she is pregnant. She also fills the neighbor's head full of false stories of her husband so she will be the one constantly bothering police with information they need to know.
This is one of many things wrong with the movie. The next I will list off individually.
1. To lead the police to clues, Amy actually leaves clues leading to a house where they will find a partially burned diary with false reports of Nick's abuse.
2. While one detective questions why the diary would have been partially burned or left at all, everyone else seems to shake it off.
3. Speaking of the diary, since the police obtain it without a search warrant, it is inadmissible. The police actually go into a house, which belong's to Nick's father, suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, without permission or a warrant and obtain it.  Tyler Perry as Nick's lawyer never asks this when presented with the diary during a questioning.
4. Rather than contacting a lawyer knowing that the police went into the house illegally, he does nothing.
5. Amy's parents, who seem to be so sickened by the fact they are anywhere but Manhattan or the Hamptons, never once demand that a state or federal agency handle the case, but they wouldn't have to because a task force would more than likely have been formed.
6. Amy uses Craiglist to buy a car, for money, from someone thinking it will not leave a trace, but every car has to be registered. After Amy's disappearance, you think the seller would say, "Oh, yeah, I remember her. Sold her a car." Then, they would be a BOLO for the vehicle.
7. Amy changes her hair and uses the Clark Kent ruse by wearing glasses thinking that no one will notice her, but she quickly befriends some people while trying to stay low.
8. The friends quickly screw her over when they realize she has a money belt. Rather than go after them because she is willing to frame her husband for murder, she lets them go even though they apparently have no weapons.
9. Amy draws more attention to herself by sleeping in her car in a motel parking lot, and being approached by a security guard. Then, she foolishly goes into a casino where where is recognized by someone.
10. She contacts an ex-boyfriend, played by Neil Patrick Harris, who is filthy rich and even though she grew up in the New York City area, he is able to drive across half the country to the Ozarks.
11. NPH takes her to his lake home, which has security cameras that late Amy tries to use to her advantage when she tries to pretend that NPH violently assaults her. However, the video is never brought into question since it apparently covers everything meaning it would show when Amy actually arrived even though she tries to have them believe she was there for a month, tied up.
12. After killing NPH and covered in his blood from head to toe, Amy drives back to her Missouri home to show off for the TV cameras.
13. Now the cops along with the FBI proved to be truly incompetent. Rather than question why Amy didn't stop at the first hospital or police station or drive back from a place, she probably would've had no idea she was at, they forget about it. She is also able to drive a long distance on a single tank over night without having to stop anywhere to refuel.
14. No one questions why NPH would choose the day Affleck is at the bar to attack and kidnap Amy.
15. The nosy neighbor who apparently calls Nick about his front door being open never notices NPH outside the house.
16. Also, NPH wouldn't know anything about the diary and nothing about the home of Nick's father.
17. If you're going to burn a diary, it's paper, it burns quite quickly. This isn't like the metal in Wolverine, you don't have to set it at a temperature. It would take a few minutes to burn the diary.
18. Going back to the guy at the casino, who sees NPH and Amy together, he would come out and say, "Yeah, I saw them at the casino on such and such."
19. Amy tries to frame Nick for making several high purchases on credit card through mail orders, yet, there is no way of tracking these? Every time, she would have signed for the package, there would be a record in which Amy signed for them.
20. Amy stockpiles these items at the woodshed outside Margo's house where Nick had affairs with the college student and Margo not once decides to go into the woodshed.
21. When receiving an anonymous tip about the woodshed, the police go to a judge to get a search warrant to search the woodshed.
22. When the police execute the search warrant, they know Nick has Madea as a lawyer, so rather than telling him to get the lawyer to look over the warrant or even have Nick read it, they just flash it and begin breaking into the woodshed.
23. While the CSI believe that Nick would leave a murder weapon, made out of wood, which also burns like paper, in a fireplace in July partially burned, they don't both to dust any of the items in the woodshed for fingerprints, where they would find NO PRINTS belonging to Nick or Margo.
24. Nick is jailed for murder but spends days in jail still wearing his street clothes rather than an inmate uniform.
25. When Nick is released from jail, even though he would be in county jail, the police allow him to be taken out in an area where the media see him.
26. When Amy is being questioned by authorities after claiming rape, a dozen agents, mostly men, are in the room with her. In 2012, the year the movie is set, it is proper protocol to have a female officer to initially interview a rape victim.
27. No one at the hospital thinks to keep Amy overnight for observation.
28, No one at the hospital thinks to clean all the blood off of Amy, which is still wet, even by then, it should have dried and caked on her.
29. No one bothers to investigate Amy's claims even though they seem more fishy than framing Nick.
30. Even though the return of Amy makes Nick and Amy popular, Tyler Perry's lawyer decides NOT to pursue a slander or libel lawsuit against the Nancy Grace-like news pundit played well by Missi Pyle. Richard Jewell was able to sue the media outlets who damaged his reputation following the bombing.
There's more problems with Gone Girl, but there's actually a few good things about it. Rosamund Pike has fun as Amy and Perry is good in his role as the big city lawyer who hits Nick with gummy bears while coaching him on how to speak during a TV interview.
Gone Girl would've worked better as a satire, but since Fincher and writer Gillian Flynn want to make a serious statement, they get more concerned with the statement than how to present it.

They Call Him Jabber, Jabber, Jabber, Jabber Jaw

When Sharknado premiered in July of 2013, it seemed like just another SyFy mega-monster crapfest that had been made for about a few hundred thousand dollars with CGI technology that seemed outdated when Jurassic Park went to video. The poster of the movie is hilarious with Ian Ziering getting top billing.
Ziering who plays the protagonist, Fin (get it?!) in the movie, was to Beverly Hills 90210 was what Brian Jones was to The Rolling Stones. Yes, he was a major player but he didn't seem to have much of an appeal on the show.
Tara Reid, as Fin's estranged ex-wife, April, has been living in obscurity since the second American Pie and the "And John Heard" part is hilarious. Heard rose through the 1970s and 1980s, appearing in movies like Big, Awakenings and the cult classic C.H.U.D.S., before his career ended in the 1990s that he was reduced to recurring roles CSI:Miami and The Sopranos.
The movie seems like just another SyFy movie, but it slowly turns into a parody of the movies very subtle like how A Deadly Adoption was a mockery of Lifetime Movies without giving it the tongue-in-cheek wink.
It's a satire of SyFy movies with the D-list celebrities, who became famous on 1980s and 1990s TV shows, and are now passed their prime and over the top violence that makes the Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino movies look tame.
Sharknado begins with a totally non-sequiter subplot involving the illegal sale of shark fin soup, that ends almost as quickly as it begins. Then, it turns into this silly duck hunt like story where Fin and and the people at his Santa Monica area bar, George, played by Heard (as the what's his name character actor) and Nova, played by Cassie Scerbo (as the sexy young eye-candy) and Baz played by Jaason Simmons (as the stereotypical bloke from down under). travel around the Los Angeles area as they dodge sharks, which are aggressive but would probably never survive as the area gets flooded and sharks fly through the air.

The movie was a success and spawned a sequel, which wasn't that good. It was basically the same as the first movie but with cameos by people such as Judd Hirsch, Matt Lauer and Al Roker, Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa. It was more of the same with Ziering walking around with his chest pushed out. Ziering understands that the only reason he's in the movies is because he is supposed to be over the top.
Sharknado 2 was terrible, but it seemed to lack the fun of the first one with too much winking at the camera.

Sharknado 3 seems to have return to the joy of the first, but it's obviously running on fumes at this point. You can only seem so many people scream as they are whacked with flying sharks before it gets old. With the third Sharknado which as the subtitle Oh, Hell No! brings back Scerbo, absent from the second one, as she gets to show off her bikini body and is now an avid shark hunter with her lackey played by Frankie Muniz, who is really starting to show more of his age and he's not even 30 yet.
The plot has the sharknadoes becoming a perfect storm all up and down the eastern seaboard. There is a nice beginning where Mark Cuban is the President of the United States and Ann Coulter is the Vice-President. There's also a cameo by Michele Bachmann, but politics aside, the beginning has a funny side to it as it suggests that America would actually approve a Cuban/Coulter ticket and they would run around The White House shooting left and right at sharks, which should be dead before they bullets even hit them, because they're out of water. This is referenced later in the movie when the sharks appear in space. Yes, the franchise has jumped the shark to the point that they've used the "In Space" trope that many horror movie franchises fall into (Leprechaun, Friday the 13th, Critters). The space sequence looks bad and that Anthony Weiner pops up as a mission control leader seems to move the franchise to the Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg territory. Several of the cameos seem to be more topical than clever.
That being said, the movie does have a few good jokes that they could've exploited better.  Bo Derek appears as the nagging mother of Reid's April, which shows how April may have gotten her attitude in the first movie. Unfortunately, it wastes Derek, who made her film debut in Orca, one of the many Jaws rip-offs that arose in the late 1970s.
The movie ends with a cliffhanger asking the public to decide on through Twitter, which is where Sharknado found a lot of its appeal.
If there is a Sharknado 4, I'm just wondering what will they do. Ziering is now 51, but looks like he's in his mid-30s, so maybe they should focus on an Expendables like sequel.
Either way, the Sharknado movies will probably be milked for another sequel and Mad Max:Fury Road and Mission:Impossible Ghost Protocol prove that the fourth in a franchise can be better than the original.

The Times Are A Changin'

As Bob Dylan sang, the times are a-changin'. And it's hard for people to accept that sometimes. 

That's why Tea Partiers are screaming, "We want our country back." But they really want President Obama out of the office. I don't think many people would like to turn back the times 100 years. 

It's strange how we grow accustom to certain things while other things become ancient. No one really wants to sport a 'stauche and if you do, people assume things about you. 

And like they say, you should never assume anything because you make an ass out of u and me. 

That being said, it's going on every day now. I look at the whole uproar over Caitlyn Jenner. Yes, for some, it's hard to believe that young Olympiad who won people's hearts and minds is a woman. Even worse is that people are accepting it. Some people would be glad if everyone just laughed Jenner off the stage and made derogatory comments about her. 

But transsexuals have been around for years, decades from Christin0e Jorgensen to Chaz Bono to Caitlyn Jenner. 

If you don't know, Jorgensen pictured below was one of the first transsexuals to go public during the 1950s when married couples weren't even shown on television in bed together. 

There are people who will never like Jorgensen, Jenner or Bono for their sex change operations but there's people who haven't accepted that Marisa Tomei won an Oscar. 

Speaking of the Presidency, we've never had a female President, while other nations have had females in high positions. England had Margaret Thatcher and now Germany has Angela Merkel as their Chancellor. 

Hillary Clinton is still called a bitch for being a woman in power. It's been years since Linda Hamilton kicked butt in Terminator 2, but she is still referenced whenever women fight back in movies. 

That's why some people don't agree with Candice Cameron Brue on her submissive marriage. Some women might want their husband to take lead, but it doesn't mean Brue is wrong and others are right or vice versa. But we should accept it's different strokes for different folks. 

But yet, no one does that. It's a "My way or the highway" situation. 

Take Beyonce. It seems to some people I know, Beyonce could screw up a cup of coffee. They don't like her and I know why they don't. It's because she's black. 

Take when she sang the National Anthem during the 2013 Presidential inauguration. Did she lip sync? Who cares? No one would if it was a white singer. 

There are just people who can't handle black people or women doing anything that normally white people and or men do. 

And if it's black people, they have to be "safe black people," like what people thought Bill Cosby was. I mean, one of the reason Will Smith has been accepted by middle America is because his rap is very family-friendly. Ice Cube may have used profanity in his music. But now, he's appearing in family movies like Eddie Murphy, who hasn't appeared in an R-rated movie. 

I mean, look at this picture of Ice Cube:

Nothing about this picture makes people think he is a thug. No, he's a very nice guy here. But Ice Cube would be labeled as "one of the good ones," still. 

And even though he isn't doing gangsta rap but appearing in comedies with Jonah Hill and Kevin Hart, he is still having to do more than other musicians turned actors in the court of public opinion. But some people just don't care. 

Growing up, it was almost unheard of seeing black people in a commercial pictured as the all-American family. Now, you see it all the time. Well, not all the time, but more than average. There are on AT&T commercials or on travel commercials for the perfect getaway. 

But still the Cheerio's commercial with an interracial couple raised eyebrows, which is odd because interracial couples are very common now. Still, you won't find many movies or TV shows picturing an interracial couple without making it very essential to the plot. 

And the argument I hear from people is there tired of seeing gay people, like Ellen DeGeneres, on TV, even though Ellen doesn't push her agenda every show. She's a talk show host and she acts like all the other talk show hosts. 

Imagine for one minute how gay people have always felt seeing only straight couples portrayed in movies and on TV or how black people or Hispanics and Latinos have felt just seeing white people and families portrayed positively on TV and movies for decades. 

In 1995 when The Indian and the Cupboard was released, it was considered progressive that Rishi Bhat played the protagonist's best friend. Bhat is an American of India decent. It would have been progressive is Bhat had played the protagonist.

But one day, we may have people who challenge the status quo more and more to the point that's not an issue anymore. Seeing Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts in a movie where they are romantically involved won't be as big of an issue as it was in 1993. I mean, it's Denzel and Julia. They could've been playing Ozzie and Harriet and no one would've care. 

Well, one person probably, but people like that live to make a problem about things. And I wouldn't want them to accept something they don't agree with. But they shouldn't be cutting the nose to spite the face. 

No one says you have to watch a movie, listen to a performer and DVR has given us the ability to skip ahead through commercials. 

We shouldn't care about these things. It's 2015. But we still do. 

We have more important things to care about and if we want to leave the world a better place for our children and grandchildren, the first step is by showing them that we don't worry about things that are trivial like who is gay and who is straight.

Movie Flashback: Airplane! Changed Comedy

The comedic team of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker) weren't the first to parody pop culture and they definitely won't be the last, but what they brought with Airplane! 35 years ago this month is something totally different.
Mel Brooks would hire comedians like Harvey Korman or Madeline Kahn. The Monty Pythons and the Saturday Night Live gangs would do it themselves, but Airplane! had a novel approach. Have serious actors make fun of themselves. And rather than them winking and smiling at the camera, just have them read the lines serious.
And it worked.
While filming a scene, Lloyd Bridges, who plays the McCosky, a Chicago airport top official, is speaking with Robert Stack, who plays Kramer, another top airline official, and asked him if he thought the dialogue was funny, because he didn't think it was. Stack replied that they were the jokes.
The joke of Airplane! is seeing Barbara Billingsley, aka June Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver, acting as an interpreter with two jive-speaking guys and then getting into a verbal argument with them. Or Peter Graves in his deep stoic voice, casually asking a boy, "Ever seen a grown man naked?"
Airplane! came by accident. ZAZ had been recording late night TV to find commercials to parody during their routines and discovered the movie Zero Hour. They liked it. They like it so much they decided it need a parody.
Mel Brooks said you make fun of the movies you love and that's what ZAZ did. They poked fun of all the melodrama from movies like Zero Hour and the Airport movies as well as the disaster movies that were common during the 1970s with big-name stars.
One of those stars was Leslie Nielsen, who had appeared in movies such as The Poseidon Adventure and City on Fire. He was one of the first of the actors to jump at the opportunity to appear in Airplane! because he was reportedly at the stage in his career where his age meant he was only getting grandfather roles. The same year Airplane! was released, Nielsen also appeared as the father of Jamie Lee Curtis in the slasher hit Prom Night.
Nielsen was known as a practical joker off the set. He had just purchased a hand-held fart machine that he would keep in his pocket and would push the button when he leaned in to shake someone's hand just to get their response.
And watching Airplane!, you see him as someone finally being able to do what they want. And Nielsen understand the material as he plainly says, "And don't call me Shirley" to someone.
ZAZ had a way of throwing it all on the screen and seeing what sticks. And Airplane! pushes those boundaries. When the protagonist Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) says, "The shit's going to hit the fan," the next scene is of what we presume feces hitting a desk fan. In another scene where a character says the plane is on instruments, there's a cut to characters playing musical instruments. The cutaways were probably an influence on Seth MacFarlane and Family Guy.
Airplane! changed comedy and ZAZ would go on making movies like Top Secret! and Ruthless People before splitting up and directing movies individually with some success. Abrahams directed the Hot Shots! movies. David Zucker directed The first two Naked Gun movies and BASEketball and Jerry Zucker found success going serious with Ghost.
Now, parody movies seem to focus too much on slapstick and gross-out humor rather than cleverness. Even some of ZAZ's latter movies did this.
You also see some actors getting their feet wet. Julie Hagerty who plays Elaine, Ted's girlfriend, reportedly got the role because she appeared too nervous during the audition and her soft-spoken voice was just what the filmmakers were wanting.
David Leisure as one of the bald Hari Krishnas reportedly said the only reason he got the role was because he was willing to shave his head.
There's also a small role for Jonathan Banks, of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame, as an air-traffic controller.
And most notably, there is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as Roger Murdock, who is really Kareem Abdul-Jabbar pretending to be a airline pilot. This is a parody of other disaster movies in which sports stars had roles. Originally, Peter Rose was considered but the filmmakers were unable to get them.
If you want a good laugh for 90 minutes or just to learn some jive, buy a ticket for Airplane!

From My Dead Cold Hand?

Question: Why is it every time some psycho goes on a shooting rampage in this country and kills more than two people, the answer from many people is "more guns."
If you have a string of burglaries, no one wants more burglaries. No one wants to see more prostitutes hooking out on the streets. Nor do we want to see people dealing drugs more in parking lots and on the streets.
But, by the rationale of arming more people with guns to combat gun violence, the solution to the problem would be to allow more burglaries, rape, drug trafficking, domestic violence, etc.
Ironically, whenever someone (teens and the elderly) causes a major traffic accident resulting in fatalities, injuries and property damage, the answer is always to do something to get driver's license out of the hands of teenagers and elderly.
Some people are arguing that 16 is too young to have a driver's license and being 18 is just about the right age. It won't solve the problem. Neither will outlawing texting while driving or talking on a cellular phone. I've seen people apply make-up while driving and brushing their teeth. I was behind someone on a street of two-lane highway who was woofing down a pizza and throwing the crust out the window. It's call inattentive driving and littering, but no one is telling people you can't eat and derive.
How many accidents do you think happen because someone spilled their coffee or drink on them? But yet, you can only be charge with drinking while intoxicated.
But no, we need more guns. More guns!
And I'm not an anti-gun person. I only two shotguns, a rifle and three handguns. And I want more. More guns! MORE GUNS!! I want a rifle with a nice scope on it. I want a double-barrel shotgun, both over and under and side by side. I want a pump action. I wouldn't even mine having an AR-15 or AK-47.
Other people have these and while many respect them, others don't. My grandfather was an avid hunter and gun enthusiasts. My father got his first rifle when he was 16. But they respected the firearms. They never showed them off to people. As far as I know, they didn't name their firearms.
We live in a society that is so in love with guns, but some people don't want the responsibility attached with operating and owning them.
A few law enforcement officers I've spoken with about the matter of concealed carry or open carry say their concern is people will go out and buy a firearm and never handle it again after firing it a few times and obtaining their permit. They'll never clean it and they'll forget the impact of the gun blast.
Many people who carry clean and fire their weapons on a regular basis. But the problem you have is you never know. Someone with a gun on their hip may have an open carry permit or they may be trying to pass it off. This also means it's very easy for a person to fool someone into thinking they are a law abiding citizen just seconds before they rob them.
This is why some states with open carry have laws, just like here in Oklahoma, that prohibit guns from being allowed on school premises or at sporting events and definitely away from businesses where money is exchanged frequently. Business owners also reserve the right to tell people that no guns are allowed. This also applies to property owners.
You're renting property for a nail salon at a mini-mall and the property owner doesn't want any guns on the premises, you have to do what they say. And that's probably the case with the Chattanooga shootings. A recruitment office in a shopping center or strip mall is still renting space and even though Uncle Sam is paying, it's still a private property.
And let's face it, it's 2015! Recruitment offices next to a Best Buy or J. Crew are not needed anymore. There's all that information that can easily be placed on a website. If someone wants to speak with someone face to face, they leave their name and number on a website and someone calls them.
Anyone wanting to join the Army or the Marines pretty much has made their decision before they go into the recruitment office anyway. This isn't like going into a shoe store just on a whim and seeing they have a BOGO special.
I had recruiters calling me my 11th and 12th grade years in high school. What happened? Do they still do that? Or do they only target the kids in the alternative education classes now? When Baby Boomers got old enough to serve their country, recruiters came to their schools and talked to all the young teenage males who were of military age.
Now, some people argue that military officials should be armed on bases. I thought that was why we had military police. Maybe it's the fact that some of the people on bases are from those alt-ed classes or have psychological problems is why everyone on a military bases doesn't walk around with a .45 on their hip and a M-16 strapped across their shoulder.
Domestic abuse on military bases is a terrible problem. Prior to 9/11/ there were some concerns of spousal abuse reportedly caused by military personnel at Fort Bragg. But nothing else is said of that now.
Remember, not everyone who serves is a real American hero G.I. Joe. The military, just like every other business and organizations, has a few screw-ups and a few workers who may have looked good on paper but not so good on the job. Ever heard of a big chicken dinner? That's one of the things I've heard when someone gets a BCD (bad conduct discharge). And I've known a few people who have received BCD and let me tell you, thank God they weren't fully armed while on a military base.
And as I write this, news comes in that the Chattanooga shootings has claimed another fatal victim, Petty Officer Randall Smith of the U.S. Navy, who was first reported wounded on Thursday.
I'm sad to hear about this loss and the loss of the four Marines, one of them Skip Weeks, went to my alma matter, Georgia Southern University, which had five students killed in a traffic accident earlier this year.
I have no sympathy for the shooter, Mohammod Youssof Abdulazeez. He didn't care about people's lives. Was he a terrorist? Yes. Anyone who goes on a shooting spree is a terrorist in my opinion. Is this a cause for war? No.
And to all those people who argue more guns is the only way to go, would you allow a law-abiding citizen who prays to Allah or doesn't have any religious preference at all to carry a gun while they are in military uniform?

Semper Fi

The same day some crazy young man named Mohammd Youssuf Abdulazeez reportedly killed 4 Marines in the Chattanooga, Tenn. area, the State of Colorado convicts James Holmes, another young man of the shooting deaths of 12 people at the Aurora, Colo. movie theater.
Two young men with a violent nature decided that human life, especially the lives of people they had never before met, were not as valuable as their owns and killed them. Two people destroyed 12 people's lives directly and probably dozens if not hundreds indirectly.
I've not hear to argue gun control or gun violence, which I have issues with. I've hear to say there is no difference between what has happened. Holmes targeted moviegoers. Abdulazeez targeted Marines. Why? Because they wanted to kill someone.
These weren't crimes of passions. There were no prior arguments that got out of hand.
But I feel that public opinion is going to view the Marine murders as terrorist attacks, while we will still contemplate why Holmes did what he did.
He did what he did because he didn't care about the lives of strangers, same as Abdulazeez.
And neither did Dylann Roof, another young man charged with the deaths of nine people at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church. So, now, we have 25 people, who have died because someone didn't care about what their family would think having to identify the bodies.
It's outrageous that some people don't want to discuss that Roof's alleged accidents were racially motivated even though he reportedly said they word. No, they say. It's an attack on Christianity. Well, what about the Christians at the movie theater. Seventy other people were injured at the theater. Surely, at least one of them went to church.
Channel this anger and hate that we have today and especially tomorrow and the day after that for the murders and do something for the family and friends. Donate blood. Donate money to the families. I'm sure there's something already set up.
But don't be a Pamela Gellar. Don't want to start a holy war. It's ironic that Gellar and Fox News would actually use a fake Twitter post linking the shootings with ISIS when being in the news business, they have chased many wild goose chases I'm sure. But it doesn't matter. They have an anti-Islamic agenda.
But there are Marines who are Muslims, as well as atheists, agnostics, as well as Christians.
Peace, love and prayers be with the families and friends of those Marines.

The Day the Music Exploded

Disco is an odd genre of music. It seems like alternative rock to be stuck in its own decade.
Rock n' roll, country-western, rap have all grown through the decade. Even folk music still continues to be produced.
But disco only seems to last in the 1970s. The pinnacle of disco music was Saturday Night Fever, which most people remember from this

It seemed everything had to more or less focus on disco. We had movies like Thank God, It's Friday and Roller Boogie, trying to capture the disco golden ball.
Even Bill Cosby used it and Cosby always seems to be out of reach with what's hip. But there's this:

In light of the allegations of rape and sexual assault against the Cos, this photo looks a hell of a lot creepier now than it probably did in the late 1970s.
But some people had enough of it. So, on July 12, 1979, the Disco Demolition Night happened.
A PR stunt by Bill Veeck, owner of the Chicago White Sox, along with a Chicago DJ Steve Dahl, was an attempt to get more fans to attend a White Sox game. If attendees brought a disco album with them, they would be able to purchase a ticket for only 98 cents and the disco album would be placed in a pile that would be detonated during the doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers.
Unfortunately, Veeck, Dahl and others had underestimated how the Chicago area would enjoy to see a huge explosion.
Originally, only 20,000 were anticipated, which was about 5,000 more than the usual people in attendance. But an estimated 50,000 people were in attendance, some there who had jumped the fences after the exit to Comiskey Park had been blocked to keep people from arriving.
The staff hadn't collected all albums and fans through the records on to the field.
So, after the first game ended, Dahl and others led the crowd in a chant of "Disco Sucks!" and then the outfield exploded.
Unfortunately, there had been another underestimation of people remaining in their seats cheering as thousands rushed the field.
One of those was a young man who would later become a famous actor by the name Michael Clark Duncan.

Yes, that guy was also there.
Police had to show up in full riot gear because people were dancing around the destruction and setting a bonfire on the field.
The White Sox and Tigers didn't get a chance to play the second game as officials forfeited it to the Tigers.
MLB officials didn't allow the White Sox to change the schedule up, either as they were allowed to spend the rest of the season playing on the destroyed field.
The event helped steer the end of disco which went into decline following this incident and record companies labeled disco as "dance music."
Veeck was forced to resign following the incident.
The event would be debated over for the next several decades as some people compared the demolition to book burning in other countries and some have said it was a example of the end of the care-free era of sex and drugs that had had started in the 1960s and continued through the 1970s as the working class of Chicago said, "No more."
Regardless, the event just shows that sometimes you can't expect people to remain calm when they are in mass populations.

Southern Hospitality is a Myth

Living almost 24 years in the deep south, I've come to the conclusion that southern hospitality is a myth. It's a rumor, a hoax placed on people.
I've traveled to the Midwest, the Southwest and the Great Plains, where I currently live, there's only nice people and not-so-nice people.
I worked at a call center for over a year. I had to deal with people from all over the world who could be the nicest people you'd ever meet or the type of person Mother Teresa would've slapped upside the head. And the French Canadians sure did like making fun of the ways we couldn't pronounce the French street names.
Living in the south, I used to hear people make the comment that if someone doesn't like the way something is done, they should move back to where they are from. Not too hospitable to me. Also, there were many elected officials who made Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard look like John F. Kennedy.
And yes, they're everywhere.
When I first saw the movie Funny Farm in the late 1980s, I was convinced it was set it in the south. No, it's set in New England in the Vermont countryside. The only difference between the people in that movie and the people I knew was geography.
There can also be racists anywhere, just not in the south. Ask people who live in Baltimore, Boston and New York City, how things are with race relations. The LAPD doesn't mean the Louisiana Police Department. It's the Los Angeles Police Department and that's the City of Angels where Hollywood exists and movie magic. They're no racists there, right? Wrong.
People in Portland, Maine go to church just like those in Portland, Oregon. And everyone who lives in any of the Springfields have the ability to be the type of person who would give you all the money in their wallet if you needed it and the type of people who wouldn't spit on you if you were burning alive.
One of the reason I still don't live in the south is because well, I didn't get any of this southern hospitality growing up. I was bullied at school, had lies and rumors spread about me around the town, was nearly kicked out of a football game because a school official basically said my parents weren't important enough for me to sit in the reserved seating section even though I had tickets. Southern hospitality only exists for people in cliques. Everyone else is treated as people feel their culture and society dictates.
Bottom line, it doesn't matter how things have been done by your brother, your mother, your uncle or your grandparents, etc. What does matter is how you do things. And if you want to be one of these people who crosses their arms and says that you're not doing things the right way and the way they're supposed to be done, that's fine. But remember, you're not being hospitable to other people.
It's more like, "My way or the highway."

The Mad Men of TV Programming

When Mad Men first aired, it proved to be more than a nostalgia show. They had been attempts to go back and reclaim that moment in Americana that never really existed on the boob tube. Remember Hi Honey, I'm Home! a terrible pre-cursor to Pleasantville, about a guy who loves a Leave It To Beaver show and finds out the family from the show has been relocated to 1991 suburbia. The idea was bad because it was a one-joke show.
Same with Oliver Beene, this time set in the 1950s with all the jokes you would expect, such as people talking about how Baghdad is a popular tourist attraction.
It seemed it best to leave the past in the past. But Mad Men was different. It seemed to get past the gimmick of being set in the 1960s and having people chain smoking and focus on real stories about real people.
It did the same thing That 70's Show did. Use the nostalgia in passing. That was the real problem with Freaks and Geeks. Unlike The Wonder Years, there was really no reason for it to be set in the past. Also, maybe because That 70's Show and Wonder Years were set in farther distance time frames. By the late 1990s, everyone was trying to forget the 1980s. There was no nostalgia for the era.
But it didn't take long for the Gen Xers raised during the Reaganeighties to realize what could work. The folks that brought you The State, by far one of the best comedy variety shows ever, made Wet Hot American Summer and it bombed. It bombed big time. Even for a movie that cost less than $2 million, the movie only made 10 percent of its budget at the box office. Reviews were equally brutal as they should be. Summer was a drag. Along with State alum Michael Showalter, Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Ian Black and in small roles David Wain and Kerri Kenney, the movie also had Amy Poehler, famous at the time for her roles on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Upright Citizens Brigade and Janeane Garofalo, from The Ben Stiller Show, and David Hyde Pierce, from Frasier. It should have been hilarious, but all these actors are underused. The true laughs went to Paul Rudd, who was only known as Alicia Silverstone's stepbrother in Clueless, Christopher Meloni, from Oz, and some unknown actors at the time named Elizabeth Banks and Bradley Cooper. Even Zak Orth pulls some funny scenes. Orth does a hilarious facefirst fall into water during a scene that is one of the movie's highlights of physical comedy.
Years passed and Summer found an audience on video and DVD and cable viewings. Now, they're doing a TV show, well miniseries, for NetFlix. I hope it's better and maybe in the years since, there is better comedy. Part of what makes the movie worked was seeing Banks and Cooper, then unknown, taking small roles and making them huge. Cooper is hilarious as a preppy perfectionist wanting to put on the best talent show ever. Also, don't think many actors starting out would've dare to a sex scene with Michael Ian Black. Thankfully, the movie didn't use the same-sex relationship as a joke.
Banks was also funny as a woman who wasn't afraid to appear in scenes where her beauty was used as a joke, such as a scene in which Rudd's character gets grossed out at Banks devouring barbecue as the sauce is all over her face.
And Rudd was willing to play the antagonist of the movie and it worked well.
There's another show called The Astronaut Wives Club airing on CBS that has all the makings of a summer replacement show. It's supposed to focus on the wives of the Mercury and Apollo astronauts but judging from the commercials, you can tell it's just about nostalgia. There's too much winking at the camera as people use items that people used 50-60 years ago.
Don't expect a second season. Be surprised if this first season isn't canceled. And if you haven't heard of the show, I'm not surprised.
To be entertaining you have to have substance as well as style.