Category Archives: comedy

Terry Gilliam is 75 today! Watch documentaries on Gilliam directed classics, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Time Bandits, Brazil,The Adventures of Baron Muchausen and 12 Monkeys…

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

and unused Monty Python animated sketches!

“I just like the fact I can make a film which might give comfort to some people who think they are the only crazy person in the world and suddenly they see there are two crazy people in the world.”

 

 

 

 

 

“Fantasy isn’t just a jolly escape: It’s an escape, but into something far more extreme than reality, or normality. It’s where things are more beautiful and more wondrous and more terrifying. You move into a world of conflicting extremes”

 

Every Frame A Painting discusses the genius and influence of Buster Keaton

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Eight minutes that will make you a fan for life.

Ash vs Evil Dead is everything an Evil Dead fan could want

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

There are so many nods to the original movie series (though I’ll leave this post spoiler free) in this first episode, that you know Raimi and crew were doing it with the fans in mind. The soundtrack’s use of Space Truckin’ and Journey To The Center of The Mind, aside from being awesome in general, is totally apropos for Ash being a 70’s Michigander, undoubtedly raised on WLLZ and WRIF. I have absolutely zero complaints to level with the premier and only hope that the rest of it keeps up the pace. Also, it’s great to have Bruce back in a starring role (his last legitimate lead being the 2000 series, Jack of All Trades), and reuniting with Lucy Lawless, to boot!

Happy birthday to Peter Jackson

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

You can catch his first three full length films, streaming on youtube, and if you haven’t seen Meet The Feebles, prepare yourself for some truly twisted awesomeness. I actually got to catch that one in a theater, and more than a few people, all of whom had been forewarned, walked out on it.


The final season of Peep Show starts November 11!!!

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Which gives you a little more than ten days to re-watch the first eight seasons. Here, I’ll help get you started…
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/sep/23/peep-show-what-we-have-learned-about-the-final-series-from-instagram

Everyone’s favorite mall of the 80’s, even though they may never have gone there.

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Step back in time to the glory days of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, the setting for a plethora of eighties movie classics. Remember the arcade where Charles Jefferson tried to score Earth, Wind and Fire tickets from Mike Damone? Or the pizza joint where Stacy and Linda worked? What about the Vals hanging out in the food court, and Tommy getting dissed by Julie on the escalator? Or maybe Matrix chasing Tully and swinging onto an elevator, while Rae Dawn Chong was freaking out? Maybe you got trapped there after hours and were chased by robotic security guards gone haywire and homicidal? Perhaps Moon Unit Zappa name checking it in her hit single, Valley Girl, rings a bell?

Yep, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Valley Girl (the movie, and unrelated song), Commando and Terminator 2 (Arnold was a virtual regular there apparently), Night of The Comet and Chopping Mall are but a few of the era defining classics (well, some more defining than others) that benefited from the Sherman Oaks setting. Fast Times and Valley Girl are two of my favorite teen oriented movies from that period, and that mall undoubtedly played a huge part in the High School youth culture of the San Fernando Valley area that those movies expose. That’s where you met your friends, got your first job, talked music at the Record Bar, played video games and bought your Sergio Valente stretch jeans. It was probably the moment in time in which the mall played the biggest part in the teen lifestyle, and the Sherman Oaks Galleria epitomized that scene, no matter where you grew up.

So in what movie is the mall most significant? Well, Fast Times wins on an aesthetic/storyline angle, but as far as THE WHOLE FREAKING MOVIE TAKES PLACE IN THE MALL, Chopping Mall takes top honors. Also, known as Killbots, Chopping Mall, disappeared from theaters quickly, but has since developed a reputation as a campy horror classic, with the Sherman Oaks epochal look giving it that period specific edge that eighties fans can’t seem to get enough of. The location becomes a central character.

The Sherman Oaks Galleria has gone through a number of changes since it’s heyday. The mid-nineties saw stores disappearing, and by the end of the century, the mall closed for several years worth of renovations, at which point it became an open air mall, clearly changing the entire experience, with the movie theater at which Fast Times’ Mark Ratner worked, remaining the only link to it’s storied history.