Saturday, March 19, 2005
My video store is cool
Coincidence? I think not...
I made two trips to my video store tonight. The first was to return Mr. 3000, and rent Around the Bend. Mr. 3000 was great, by the way -- much better than I expected, probably the most enjoyable baseball movie I've ever seen (with the possible exception of Eight Men Out). Most baseball movies look very hokey because they get actors who look like they've never swung a bat in their lives or who use pitching motions imitated from some old Bugs Bunny episode. Among its other virtues, Mr. 3000 was realistic down to the spitting and sunflower-seed-chewing.
Around the Bend was so bad I stopped watching after 15 minutes -- a cloying example of the "quirky family comedy-melodrama" that makes the common mistake of that genre of expecting you to care about some weird people's stupid sh*t before giving you a good reason to like any of them. It's too bad, because the movie co-starred Christopher Walken, whom I really like. Also, I'm trying to confirm a possible "urban legend" about Walken, that he -- a trained dancer -- works in at least a couple of dance steps into every movie part he does. He didn't dance in the first 15 minutes, and I didn't feel like fast forwarding.
The second trip to the video store was to return Around the Bend.
They're always playing one of their movies at my video store, and on the first trip it was Don't Look Back, the classic Bob Dylan concert-road movie that is worth seeing for many reasons, not the least of which is to see that prematurely gnarly, twangy voice emerging from that fresh-faced Jewish kid.
When I returned later that evening they were watching Wayne's World. I joked that there was no discernable theme governing the Don't Look Back-Wayne's World double bill, but then the video-barista behind the counter explained:
As if that isn't enough, one of the main supporting characters in Mr. 3000, the hero's rival, is named "T-Rex Pennebaker." Check out the name of the director of Don't Look Back: D. A. Pennebaker. How Twilight Zone is that?
******
I made two trips to my video store tonight. The first was to return Mr. 3000, and rent Around the Bend. Mr. 3000 was great, by the way -- much better than I expected, probably the most enjoyable baseball movie I've ever seen (with the possible exception of Eight Men Out). Most baseball movies look very hokey because they get actors who look like they've never swung a bat in their lives or who use pitching motions imitated from some old Bugs Bunny episode. Among its other virtues, Mr. 3000 was realistic down to the spitting and sunflower-seed-chewing.
Around the Bend was so bad I stopped watching after 15 minutes -- a cloying example of the "quirky family comedy-melodrama" that makes the common mistake of that genre of expecting you to care about some weird people's stupid sh*t before giving you a good reason to like any of them. It's too bad, because the movie co-starred Christopher Walken, whom I really like. Also, I'm trying to confirm a possible "urban legend" about Walken, that he -- a trained dancer -- works in at least a couple of dance steps into every movie part he does. He didn't dance in the first 15 minutes, and I didn't feel like fast forwarding.
The second trip to the video store was to return Around the Bend.
They're always playing one of their movies at my video store, and on the first trip it was Don't Look Back, the classic Bob Dylan concert-road movie that is worth seeing for many reasons, not the least of which is to see that prematurely gnarly, twangy voice emerging from that fresh-faced Jewish kid.
When I returned later that evening they were watching Wayne's World. I joked that there was no discernable theme governing the Don't Look Back-Wayne's World double bill, but then the video-barista behind the counter explained:
Well, that's what I thought, until I realized that that folk singer Donovan appears in Don't Look Back, and his daughter is Ione Skye, who has a bit part in Wayne's World as Rob Lowe's girlfriend.Whoa.
As if that isn't enough, one of the main supporting characters in Mr. 3000, the hero's rival, is named "T-Rex Pennebaker." Check out the name of the director of Don't Look Back: D. A. Pennebaker. How Twilight Zone is that?
******
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