They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God.

No 258 - The Blues Brothers
Director - John Landis

Films based on SNL sketches are worrying beasts... after all, what works in a sketch might not work when tediously stretched over 90 minutes or more. However, when they work they seem to be gems. And usually gems linked with music and musical cameos and a very loose plot that can factor in random occurrences and more sketch like situations.

So it is with The Blues Brothers. Rather than being based on sketches per se, this was based on a supergroup of musicians which were formed to occasionally play as guest musicians on Saturday Night Live. Then they even went and made albums and the like - and we all know just how shit films based on bands can be...
The film itself follows Jake and Elwood as they try to put their band back together in order to raise $5000 and save their former orphanage - ideally without causing too much trouble. Of course, trouble is duly caused and over the course of the film they end up with almost everyone in the world chasing after them.

The film is made up of a bunch of sections which are all fairly similar. They turn up, either recruit a band member or perform, there is a killer cameo and then they have to leave because angry police/Nazis/red necks/security guards/the army are chasing them. It all builds up to an enormous final performance in which we see how much the music industry has changed in the last 30 years.
But let us begin with the cameos, as that is one of the films triumphs. We have Frank Oz popping up (who I think is a bit of John Landis regular), we have John Candy (who was definitely a John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd regular) even Twiggy appearing in a little joke cameo... and we have dozens of awesome musicians appearing. The Blues Brothers band is formed up of some high profile session musicians (or as high profile as those poor guys can be) but then we get the legends cropping up. James Brown is perfectly cast as a big brash American preacher, Cab Calloway and Aretha Franklin show that as well as being awesome singers they can hold their own acting in a big old film. Ray Charles, sadly, doesn't - he is quite a rigid and wooden actor (who looks like he's having a bloody brilliant time though)... but he is RAY FUCKING CHARLES so you more than forgive him.
These big musical set pieces are part of the film's very back bone. The other things that seems to run through the entire film's core is a bunch of ridiculous car chases. They start pretty mental as they smash through a mall and destroy pretty much EVERYTHING. However they get bigger and bigger and more and more ridiculous with pile ups of dozens of cop cars which all make up to the foot chase at the end incorporated every security department America has to offer storming the Tax offices.
If you hadn't clocked it already, this is where you realise that THIS is NOT the real world!

There is one cameo which I haven't yet mentioned, because it is definitely the weirdest. It seems, that at some time in the past Jake spurned a lady.... and it seems that this lady has a pretty hefty artillery. So we have Carrie Fisher appearing as The Mystery Woman who just seems to turn up with more and more ridiculous weapons in order to try and blow up John Belushi's Jake Blues.
It seems to go against all of my geek leanings but I find Carrie Fisher much more attractive when she isn't Princess Leia.... controversial (until you remember her cameo in Shampoo)

And on that really super shallow note I shall end my blog.... I had been doing really well recently too....

ah well....

The undead surround me. Have you ever talked to a corpse? It's boring! I'm lonely! Kill yourself, David, before you kill others.

No 107 - An American Werewolf in London
Director - John Landis

John Landis is a great comedy director. After all he gave us Animal House and Blues Brothers. Iconic, cool comedies. However, during that time he had a pet project.... this film. A beautiful meld of comedy and horror and bleakness. A celebrated cult classic.
How could I never have watched it? It is the premise of a huge joke in Spaced.... I feel I have cheated Mr Pegg.

Simon Pegg was the first person to introduce me to this film (not in person... I'm not that cool), firstly with Spaced and secondly with a deleted scene from Shaun of the Dead. In the deleted scene the taxi driver talks about how the zombie epidemic Puts you in mind of the great plague of London. Now... I love Paul Putner so was happy to see him in the film (well, deleted... but on the DVD) but was even happier to see that the influence for this scene is SO MUCH COOLER.

I much prefer the line "Puts you in mind of the days of the old demon barber of Fleet Street, don't it?" and it is delivered by a young Alan Ford. Fucking BRICK TOP. I love Brick Top.

This seems like a strange way to begin this blog, but now that I am on the subject of voices, it was not just the dulcet cockney twang of Alan Ford which excited me. For as David lies in his hospital bed, who should visit but Frank Oz.... and Frank Oz is one of the last surviving king of the muppets. Frank Oz sounds EXACTLY like the Great Gonzo. How are you expected to stay involved in the scene when the Great Gonzo is there as a US ambassador......

Now that I have gotten that bit off of my chest.... let me talk about what I thought of the film. I really liked this film. It has a beautiful mix of the funny, the scary, the bleak and the down right bonkers.
The most bonkers elements coming from David's dreams and hallucinations after he has been bit. I love that he can see his friend, Jack, who was killed by the werewolf. I love that his friend decomposes as the film continues. But mostly I love the nightmare where Nazi Werewolves machine gun down his entire family. That was a definite high in the film's inspired insanity. By now you may have clicked on that YouTube link and watched it for yourselves. Let us take a second to just look at the words that formed that sentence. Nazi. Werewolves. Machine gun (well.... Uzi). It is amazing! It is pure insanity! It is no surprise that Rob Zombie took some inspiration from it when making his equally insane Grindhouse trailer.

As we reach the topic of cinematic inspiration, I will hit the obvious topic. Rick Baker's amazing special effects. This film boasts an amazing transformation. One that still holds its own today. One that is still shocking and one that has inspired almost every werewolf transformation since (especially the excellent shot of the face lengthening into that of a wolf).
It was the first film to suppose that turning into a wolf might be quite a painful process.... One that was explored in more detail on the brilliant BBC3 show 'Being Human'. Even Harry Potter referenced it.
Hell! Even sheep have gotten in on the act.

But there is much more to this film than an amazing (and some would say cinematically pivotal) transformation. This film is clever through and through. Each track used in the film references the moon. The clever (and never jarring) mix of comedy and horror throughout - this is an accomplished piece of cinema.

With very cliched views on Great Britain.

I have to begin by saying that I love cliches. I love that in about 80% (probably less these days though....) of Movies or TV from the states Britain still comes off as being very 'pip pip, jolly good' toffs or being 'knees up muvva brahn' cockneys. It is a constant source of amusement. So every cliche in this film filled me with joy.

• The northern pub. Complete with everything stopping when the strangers enter. I also love that when we return to the pub the doctor asks for a campari and soda. WAY TO BE INCONSPICUOUS! Who drinks campari and soda anyway? What a ridiculous drink to ask for in a remote country pub. I come from the country. This was a pub where you ask for ales. Not campari.
• The Londoners are either stupid middle class toffs or cheeky cockneys.
• The Police are proper 'Ello Ello Ello' bobbys on the beat.
• There is a man, wearing a bowler hat and using an umbrella as a cane.
• Tea. Tea crops up everywhere. As well it should, because this country was built on tea.
  

But best of all.... I don't think any of it is ironic. Oh happy days.

But they also get some of it dreadfully wrong.... mainly Nurse Alex Price, played by Jenny Agutter. firstly it is nice to see Tessa from Spooks all young and sprightly. However her character is a nurse. In London. I know nurses in London and they could not afford to live in the type of massive house Alex lives in. Maybe such things were possible in 1981....... No, probably not.

As I start to close this blog up I feel I need to address something. I may have misrepresented the film. I have chosen to focus on the insane moments, the black humour, the strange cameos, the bad cliches. What I didn't talk about is the horror. There is a very good horror mixed into the comedy. Some of Dave's visions are horrific. The wolf itself is a true snarling monster. A vicious predator and not something I'd want to cross.
Whilst the ending is abrupt, dark and shocking.

This is not a film about hope.


(ps.... I'm halfway through season 4 of BSG, then I'm done.... so I'll get my arse into gear and crack up the frequency of these posts)