The zany Butler Brothers from the Great White North of SubProd Productions are at it
again! The creative minds who brought us the Larry & Burt Gut Rot webisodes
and the full length feature The Notorious Newman Brothers are attempting to invade the
intrawebs again with The Undrawn. This proposed webseries follows six depraved and perverted
(not-so)super heroes working at SuperCorp for their idiot Boss who is trying to get them their own comic book deal.
Told in confessional style, think X-Men meets The Office, these superweirdos contain extraordinary powers that are really not that beneficial to society. Making their dreams of making the pages of comics even harder is the fact that they cannot seem to get on the same page...and probably never will with the hormone levels they maintain.
SubProd has begun a Kickstarter campaign (click here) and are ever so close to making their vision a reality. If their past record is any indication, this will be a laugh riot that will not only entertain the heck out of us, but the guys are sure to add some more well-deserved awards to their mantle.
Take a look at the teasers below and see for yourself. Caution: Don't expect Superman or Wolverine to lend their support to these characters and don't look for DC and Marvel to sign this pack to a deal anytime soon.
Meet In & Out. She is like one of those crazy, yet hot chicks but can teleport.
And finally "The Boss"...worse than Michael Scott The BOSS from SubProd on Vimeo.
Of course we never see these superheroes' (mis)adventures with your support. So please head on over to Kickstarter and support SubProd if you can. Be a real hero...
The Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal, are arguably the
greatest tag team ever to grace their presence in all of professional
wrestling. Led by their manager “Precious” Paul Ellering, their look, swagger
and physical style rejuvenated the tag team wrestling scene for two decades and
set the bar for all the teams that followed them into the sport. Their rise to
top of sports entertainment spans several continents and just as many wrestling
promotions, and now the inside story is dished about by one of the team’s
co-founders, Joe “Animal” Laurinaitis, in The Road Warriors: Danger, Deat and the Rush of Wrestling.
The one thing that sets this wrestling autobiography apart
from the rest of the flock is that it gets to the wrestling action right off the bat.
Laurinaitis tells us that he knows we want the meat and potatoes of the Road
Warriors' wrestling exploits, so he keeps the pages of his youth and upbringing to a minimum. Joe
was an accomplished athlete and weightlifter who stumbled into wrestling during
his bouncer days with other soon-to-be stars such as Rick Rude and Scott
Norton. With a child to support on his own, he decided to give wrestling a
shot and make enough money to provide for his kid.
After his failure in a solo act as The Road Warrior, he
quit the sport only to come back a year later to Georgia Championship Wrestling
where booker Ole Anderson re-packaged him and good friend Mike Hegstrand into
the Road Warriors. As Hawk and Animal, they were instantly given the promotion’s
tag team championships to see how they could run with their new gimmick, and
run with it they did. Mike and Joe were always being innovative, using heavy
metal (Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man”) as their entrance music, painting their
faces to exonerate their characters, developing punishing tag team finishing
maneuvers, and creating their look of leather and spikes to (kayfabe) strike
fear into their opponents.
Joe continues to explain their success in the States as well
as Japan, and how their popularity always led them to be booked as the cream of
the crop, holding several major championships. They finally became a force in
the industry once they hooked up who Joe and Mike called the official third member
of the team, “Precious” Paul Ellering. A brilliant mind, Paul helped shape them
on camera in their promos as their quintessential mouthpiece, but also helped
guide the team in business matters and politics off screen as well. Together,
they dominated the American Wrestling Association until it was time to move on to the more publicized NWA, run by Jim Crockett.
One of the most interesting facts in the book is just how
intelligent the seemingly meathead-ed Joe and Mike actually were in real life.
The fact that they were able to revolutionize and monetize their wrestling persona without the help of
a marketing powerhouse like Vince McMahon aside, they were actually the
inventors of Zubaz. Remember those pants from the 80’s and 90’s? Not only were
they popular with the common weightlifters, but even NFL stars loved them! The
Road Warriors were both mainstream in wrestling and fashion!
Mike and Joe had such a strong relationship that they
considered each other brothers, but they were separated by their individual
extracurricular activities. Joe had re-married and his life was solely
dedicated to his wife and children, while Mike got caught up in all of the cliché
downfalls that pro wrestling had to offer, especially when it came to substance
abuse. Sure, both liked to drink some booze with the boys and party on the road,
but Mike took it to the next level by abusing cocaine and painkillers. For a
long time, Joe turned a blind eye to Mike's indulgence until his self-destructive habits derailed
their career when they finally made it to the WWF. It led to their suspension and
ultimately their dismissal, even though Joe was a model employee and did not engage in
Mike’s abusive lifestyle. Eventually it led to Hegstrand’s premature death and
a burden that Joe still feels to this very day. He addresses his grief but does
not bury his brother in the process and also does not spend a lot of time in
his book pulling at our heartstrings.
Instead, Joe talks a great deal about their interesting time
on the road and throughout many organizations. Subjects include their miserable
time in WCW once Ted Turner took over, how their colleagues feared their rough
and stiff style, his tenure wrestling with a hockey mask due to a legitimate
injury, his dislike and fear of scaffold matches, their enthusiasm working
in Japan, and their relationship with Ellering, such as when he was able to
negotiate himself out of a contract with WCW due to being the true cerebral assassin
he is in reality. He also interjects some funny stories, such as the time they delivered their
finishing move, “The Doomsday Device”, to then boss Vince McMahon at a bar!
Joe also answers the burning question many wrestling
fans have wondered about for years - how did they feel about the many wrestlers who stole their
gimmick? Demolition, the team McMahon created when he could not sign Mike and Joe away from Crockett, and the Powers of Pain, who the Warriors feuded with in the NWA. Funny
thing is that they were all good friends before Joe got into the business. Barry
Darsow and Bill Eadie were bouncers with him during that time in his life. He admits
that the Warriors were totally ripped off with Demolition, but was happy that it was two of his
pals benefiting from the situation. John Nord, Warlord of Powers of Pain, was also
someone who Joe discovered in his region of Minnesota before he made it big. So
there was never any animosity between them about heavily borrowing from his
mindset. The only one who Joe and Mike had mild beef with in replicating their gimmick
was with Jim Hellwig/Warrior AKA The Ultimate Warrior. He mentions that Jim
started his gimmick as The Dingo Warrior in Dallas’ World Class Championship Wrestling,
facepaint and all, once The Road Warrior gimmick was at its peak. Of course,
that was then carried over for Jim to become the Ultimate Warrior in the WWF. When
they eventually signed with the WWF, Mike and Joe were forced to change their moniker to “The
Legion of Doom” instead of “The Road Warriors” because McMahon stated that he “did
not want to confuse the audience with too many Warriors running around”. Since
Mike and Joe invented the gimmick, they felt they were taking a backseat to
someone who essentially stole their gimmick and was someone who did not have
good wrestling talent or a mind for the business. But for the most part, Joe
does not go the route of discussing too much about backstage politics or bad
talking other wrestlers.
This is only touching the surface with the great tales you
can read in The Road Warriors: Danger, Death and the Rush of
Wrestling. It is a great read for wrestling fans that is not annoying lengthy
and celebrates the legendary tag team. Joe talks himself up a great deal, but
it comes across as someone who was having fun in a crazy business and is very
confident that he made a success out of himself doing so, especially when
things went horrible for him the first time around. Give it a look when you get
a chance.
From the creator of the fantastic documentary Pro Wrestler,
comes another documentary about life in the independent wrestling circuit. This
time around, filmmaker Kenneth Johnson focuses on one particular indie wrestler,
Sami Callihan, as he prepares for the biggest match of his career in New York
City. A seasoned vet on the indie circuit, he finally gets his brush with fame
and will stop at no cost.
Callihan portrays the gimmick of a crazed wrestler, who has
no regard for his own physical well being, putting his body on the line for the
sake of winning his matches. He also has a reputation for working “stiff”, a
pro wrestling term for a performer not going easy with his moves. So when you hear loud
thumps from his kicks and punches, he is legitimately delivering them with
about as close to full force as you get. Why does he work so stiff? Callihan
tells Johnson, “They came for stiff!”
Recently released WWE star Dave “Fit” Finlay, has taken a
booking for the minor league company Evolve and is matched up against Callihan
in the main event. This is his dream match, since he has shaped his style
against fellow stiff worker Finlay, so he must prepare his mentality and physicality for a real brawl.
Much like the style he demonstrated with Pro Wrestler, Johnson
narrates very little dialogue or asks too many questions in film and lets his subject tell the story
for us instead. Beginning with him preparing himself in his apartment, then in
a car ride to the city and finally to the backstage area and ring for the
match, Johnson allows Callihan full reign to be himself for the camera. Callihan
talks about his passion for the business, lessons he learned about the business over the years as well as his wish to make it into a top company, such
as the WWE. He realizes that he is getting older and his body is starting to
pay the price for his physical style in the indies, so he wants to make it to
the next level as soon as possible now that he has paid his dues. The match against
Finlay is a huge opportunity for him to battle with a top name and get some
needed press. You just never know when a scout might be in the audience, so he
wants to make this match as memorable as possible.
Meanwhile, Finlay is in the twilight of career and is more
of a level-headed individual than he has portrayed in the past with companies like WCW and
WWE over the years. Wrestling runs in his family all the way back to the
Titanic, when one of his ancestors wrestled for money in the belly of the ship
for cash…on their lunch breaks! He sees a fire in Callihan and cannot wait to
work with him. Paydays in organizations like Evolve are peanuts compared to
the scratch he is used to making in the big leagues, but he seems like he is taking it
all in stride and literally living to fight another day.
At close to 27 minutes, this short film will leave you
wanting to see more. Callihan’s in-ring persona is a great extension of his
real life personality, always the trademark of a successful gimmick, so he is a
little crazy…but he is extremely likable nonetheless. Listening to him speak is
an eye opener because inside the psychotic exterior, Callihan actually is extremely
hilarious, but also sensible and level-headed, much like Finlay. And his drive
and charisma to make it in the business should be an inspiration to anyone
looking to climb up the ladder in their career, no matter what the job. Never
take anything for granted, keep grinding and always do your best because you
never know when it is your time to be noticed.
You can check out Johnson’s They Came For Stiff by
purchasing it on his website (click here) for a nominal price. And keep an eye
on Callihan because he has the look, drive and charisma to make his dream come
true. Indie wrestling fans will also be happy to see appearances from Kevin Steen,
Johnny Gargano and Alex Colon.
The original Mother’s Day is a cult classic from the 1980’s
that is generally only remembered by fans of the horror genre. In an age where
remakes are as prevalent as YouTube remixes, they usually wind up being terrible more
often than not. They are produced with the production company’s intent to
cash in on the success of past films and lure fans of the original into a world
of unknowing disappointment. Luckily, writer Scott Milam scribed a rather
intriguing story all too loosely based on the source material and offers
moviegoers a film worth their time and money.
After a botched transaction, the Koffin brothers return to
their mother’s house in order to reunite with the rest of their family and get
the heck out of Dodge. To their surprise, mom lost her house to foreclosure, which is now
inhabited by the (un)lucky new owners and their friends hanging out for a get
together. One of the brothers, Johnny (Matt O’Leary), was seriously injured in
their botched job, leaving Ike (Patrick Flueger) and Addley (Warren Kole) to call
on their Mother Kofflin (Rebecca De Mornay) for a rendezvous at her old
home while keeping the guests hostage. Once Mother along with daughter Lydia
(Deborah Ann Woll) arrive on the scene, she is very genuine in the fact that if
the guests cooperate, the clan will leave in piece. However, there are two
conditions. One is that George (Shawn Ashmore), the doctor among the friends,
does his best to keep Johnny alive, and two, that she can learn where the money her
boys have been sending her is located. Even though the owners, Beth (Jamie
King) and Daniel (Frank Grillo), claim to have never received anything
addressed to her, Mother is not buying it and tensions start erupting when her funds are not being handed over.
As you can tell, this is not your daddy’s Mother’s Day. This
is a whole new ballgame. The family members have increased with a female
sibling to boot and gone is the notion that they are a bat-sheet crazy
backwoods family. Addley is a bit of a loose cannon, but the Ike and Mother are
extremely level headed, both containing some instances of compassion and portraying a more
believable style of villain for this era. References are made to the original,
such as Queenie and some of the deaths, but those miniscule tidbits are the
only minor comparisons that can be made. Mix in some twists and turns as well
as meaningful secondary stories and you will start to wonder why this film is
even considered a remake at all. It is like a film that just had the Mother's Day brand tag thrown on it for marketing purposes.
The acting is top notch from every participant,
notwithstanding veteran De Mornay, who was the major reason that The Hand That
Rocks the Cradle was such a huge success in the 90’s. King is extremely
surprising in her performance as well...who know she had this type of talent inside of her. Overall, there is no bone to pick with
any of the acting and director Darren Lynn Bousman is definitely not a remake
hack…even his two Saw sequels (parts 2 and 3 only) were just as good as the original. Don’t let the
two-hour running time scare you off either because the Bousman and Milam duo
never let the film drag and make every second relevant.
Since Mother’s Day is a bit of an obscure flick outside of
horror fandom, the thought of a remake instead of a long awaited sequel can
easily be written off as another bad film in the remake bucket and easy way for
Hollywood to rob moviegoers of their hard earned cash. That is until you watch
this film and realize just how entertaining it really is. One has to wonder why this
has never (and will probably never) receive its deserved U.S. theatrical
release while countless, dime-a-dozen romantic comedies pop up in theaters
every week...like This Means Bore, I mean War.
Forget your memories of the 1980 original, don’t fear the remake jinx and
make sure to find this one On Demand if you can. And most of all, here is wishing you all a very happy
Mother’s Day.
Over the years, many past Hollywood blockbusters' success have
been attributed to excellent casting choices. Now imagine if some of your
favorite all-time classics contained different actors in the lead roles. Would
those films have been as successful, popular and memorable as they are today? Follow
me through a portal to an alternate dimension where original casting choices
were selected and your favorite actors were left sitting on the bench…
WHHHHOOOOAAAAAA....
Nick Nolte and Christopher Walken are the well-known original
choices for the roles of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, respectively. But imagine
if two young acting prospects who made it to the screen testing phase, Kurt Russell and William
Katt, were given the nod over Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill. Russell went on to
have a very good career and got the chances to play some cool characters, so that is a wash. Except
Ford would have remained working as a carpenter on homes instead of being a multimillionaire and hooking up with Clarissa Flockhart. On the other hand,
Katt’s most notable role is in The Greatest American Hero, a show that went the
way of Heroes, with a superb first season followed by a nosedive straight towards
cancellation. Hamill’s claim to fame was as Skywalker, for which he was also
held back due to typecasting, so would his career
have flourished if a jedi he did not, mmm – per Yoda?
Solo with an eyepatch!
Let’s go back to Harrison Ford for a second. Even as
illustrious as his resume reads, if you ask someone what are their favorite roles
of he played, Solo would be first quickly followed by Indiana Jones. The first choice
to be the adventurous archeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark was none other than Tom Selleck! Mind you,
Selleck could have very well succeeded in the role, but instead the
Lucas-Spielberg connection made Ford their man. Imagine if Selleck was Indiana.
Would this have skyrocketed his career? Imagine the flipside of this alteration in the cinematic universe…Harrsison Ford as Magnum P.I. Harrison Ford in Three
Men and a Baby and then a Little Lady. Harrison Ford in a guest cameo arch on Friends
as Courtney Cox’s elder boyfriend. And finally, Ford signing autographs for $50 a pop
next to Hamill at countless Sci-Fi conventions shortly thereafter. Just the
thought of that should send shivers down your spine.
Pretty dreamy, huh?
Corey Hart or Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly??!! Back to the Future
is an almost perfect film, along with its subsequent sequels, but Michael J. Fox’s quirky portrayal
of McFly made the film the classic as it stands today and hoisted his career
into the stratosphere. We have all seen clips of Stoltz as Marty, and Stoltz is
a fine actor with an excellent resume- don't get me wrong, but that would have been an absolute
fail. Imagine if you will…"Mr. Sunglasses at Night" in the lead, as he was the
original choice, shocking as that may seem. Never seen Hart act, so it is hard to gauge how he would have
done, but if I were a betting man I would say that would have ruined the film
and earned it a Golden Raspberry. Unless, he was the next coming of James Dean.
Hart replacing Fox might have led him to star in Secret of My Success, then Light of Day (that one might have worked out), and then
as Doc Hollywood. Maybe Hart could’ve saved the wreck that was Bright Lights,
Big City. Nah…scratch that last thought.
"Don't time travel with a guy in shades, ya know."
Al Pacino turned down the role of John Rambo in First Blood
after he learned that the Rambo character was not going to be more of a veteran psychopath
(of course you would have loved that, Pacino). Pacino’s legacy is laced in
gold, so this bizarre change in film history is not about future endeavors for
the star actor, but rather for us as the moviegoers. The film would have still been
a hit, no doubt. Close your eyes for a second and visualize Pacino, with
headband tightly around his head, spouting this famous dialogue:
“Nothing is
over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I
didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us
win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport,
protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who
are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and
know what the hell they're yelling about!”
Or how about:
“Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I
was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can't even hold a job
*parking cars*! “
Boy what I would pay to see that.
However, Pacino does not
maintain the brawn to fit the Rambo mold. Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone already
hit pay dirt with Rocky and the following sequels, but he probably might not
have been the big action star he is remembered as if Rambo slipped his grasp.
Then, Pacino might have went down another road and starred in Cobra, which like
it or not is a way better flick than Godfather III. Truth!
"You're the Disease and I'm the Cure, Fredo!"
Speaking of action stars, Jean-Claude Van Damme was the first
choice for Predator. No, not Arnold’s part, but the actual intergalactic
hunter. His martial arts skills seemed to be a perfect way to make Predator
quick, agile and fearsome in hand-to-hand combat sequences. But let’s face it,
Schwarzenegger would have towered over him like King Kong over an ant and realistically quashed him like a
grape without those cool gadgets and weapons. Plus, we would have never experienced
the joy of seeing him in No Retreat, No Surrender. Thankfully, the massively
tall Kevin Peter Hall was chosen instead. The Predator’s intimidation factor lies in
the fact that he is a hulking figure who matched the muscles of Arnold and made
for a suspenseful final battle in that film. Still, imagine if JCVD was our
Predator and during the big reveal when Predator takes off his mask, Arnold
gasped: “You are one short m***** f*****!” instead. Hilarity would have ensued.
We also would have been treated to everyone’s fantasy dream match: The
Jean-Claude Predator vs. Danny Gover in Predator 2!!
"Get off dose stiltz, Van Damme!"
And what about Arnie? Sure he was a famous bodybuilder and
was pretty successful in Conan, but what if he was never in The Terminator…easily
his breakthrough role to super stardom. Believe it or not, James Cameron’s pal Lance
Henriksen was the original selection to play the relentless killing cyborg from
the future. If that happened, we would have been spared The Last Action Hero,
but Arnie would also not have become the Guhva-nator yet Henriksen would still
have probably followed the same career path. Definitely no T2 though. Arnie as the head vamp in Near Dark would have made for some surreal film moments.
The Terminator sure got creepy looking.
Leonardo DiCaprio was going to be Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights. This really almost happened, but lucky for him (and very unlucky for
us), Leo turned it down for mega blockbuster Titanic, a film constantly rammed down our throats The rest is history as
Leo has starred in many high profile films and even had some Oscar nominations, plus pleased young girls everywhere who finally indulged Shakespeare with Romeo + Juliet.
He probably would have gone onto a great career, following the heels of The Basketball
Diaries, since fellow Basketball Diaries star Mark Wahlberg was considered a
legitimate actor after his portrayal of Diggler, No role, and Markie Mark would
still be jamming with the Funky Bunch…and John Cena would not have been able to
rip off his look. Imagine if you will, Leo singing "The Touch" with John C. McGinley in Boogie Nights' touching scene.
One word…awesome! Had to put this pic in here again.
That’s it for this time, kiddos. Welcome back to the real
world where Leo dates supermodels, Jean Claude Van Damme is still out of work,
Harrison Ford turned over the whip to Shia LeBeouf, and Al Pacino belted “Woo-Hah!”
And yes, my Photoshop skills are mad, yo.
Take the cinematic
elements of social satire, sexual awakening, conspiracy theories, science fiction, the pending apocalypse, and the
supernatural, then combine them together. The result is an explosion...or a Kaboom. Director Gregg Araki takes his viewers on a crazy acid trip
that is one of the most bizarrely entertaining
experiences on celluloid which completely throws standard conventions of Hollywood film making out the
window.
During his first week in the college dorms, Smith (Thomas
Dekker) keeps having a recurring dream, with both familiar people and new faces of those he has never even met before,
that culminates with him opening a door marked with the number "19" on it. Unfortunately for him, he never sees what is on the other side of this mysterious door and is unable to decipher the meaning behind it. Meanwhile, he is sexually undeclared with a crush on his beefcake
roommate Thor (Chris Zylka) and his best friend Stella (Haley Bennett)
is starting a relationship with a witch named Lorelei (Roxane Mesquida).
Not like one of those emo goth chicks either, but one with actual
supernatural powers.
Stella drags Smith along to be her wingman at a
college party and ditches him when she hits it off with Lorelei, one of the
strangers he recognizes from his dream when he first meets her. Some fellow partygoer offers
him a drug-laced cookie, which he gladly ingests before running into a
mysterious redhead who he also recognizes from his dream...who then proceeds to vomit on
his shoe.
During a trip to the coed restroom, he crosses paths with the beautiful London(Juno
Temple), who takes him back to her place. After having sexual intercourse with her, he heads back home and sees
the same redhead from the party being chased down by dudes in animal masks
who obviously have bad intentions in store for her. She gives him a thumb drive, thus setting the rest of the film's zany events into motion. Detailing anymore would spoil the rest of this whacky picture, which is a challenging movie to review because of it so wild. You keep having a feeling of "what the heck am I watching", yet you can't help but see it through the end?
What begins
as an exploration of one bisexual young man's sexual coming of age morphs into a completely
different sci-fi film once Smith downs the happy cookie at the party. Secret societies, psycho
stalkers with magic powers, missing persons, tons of sex, and government agents
begin to dominate the narrative. As Araki implements what should be serious material, he keeps the tone light the entire time. The real purpose of his film is to make a satire stuffed with many Hollywood productions' cliches which he mashes together to conceive his own love child.
Setting the unique
atmosphere aside for a moment, the outstanding and believable performances from the leads
are the cogs that make this film's wheels turn properly. Not only are Dekker, Temple and Bennett
amazing, but smaller roles from veteran thespians such as Kelly Lynch as Smith's mom and longtime
Araki favorite James Duval as stoner R.A. Messiah are welcomed relief
as well.
Even though the story's main setting is at a normal everyday university, Kaboom resides in an alternate dimension based on our reality. Everything that
should be considered strange for us in the real world is simply the norm in Araki's
universe, whether it be the strangely empty college campuses,
witches with superpowers, the end of the world, folks with telekinesis abilities, or international plans for nuclear destruction. It's all no big deal and just another day in the office. These elements are all deformed for comedy, both dark and mindless all at the same time.
Araki displays some sleek colorful cinematography beaming with technicolor within his many great set designs. As for the ending, you will either hate it or laugh at it until you cry. Never one afraid to take chances, the director returns to the mold of his many great bizarro 90's flicks such as The Doom Generation and Nowhere filled with uber amounts of sex and death.
From the mind of Gregg Araki comes the most unique sci-fi film you will ever see. If you are not turned off by something completely off the wall and unconventional to the point that makes you like you ate the "happy" cookie instead of our lead or if you are a fan of Araki's resume, make sure to leave your film snob at the door and watch a real Kaboom!
In honor of Davy Jones’ passing last week, I wanted
to honor his memory in a review of one of my favorite film guilty pleasures, Head.
It is a challenging film to review that I have put off attempting for some time,
but decided to try to tackle it for you all to enjoy in a belated tribute to Jones...
During the 60’s Beatles craze and their popular hit movie A
Hard Day's Night, The Monkees were a U.S band created by the Hollywood machine for
the sole purpose of having their own TV show. Consisting of actors Mickey
Dolenz and Davy Jones and musicians Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith, The Monkees’
1966 TV show was a bona fide hit, mixing the concept of a sitcom with one
of the first versions of what would become music videos. Their hit pop songs
were the brainchild of songwriters such as Neil Diamond, yet the boys never
played a lick of their own instruments, only lending to the vocals. After the
show’s first season, the boys demanded that they go on tour and learned to play
instruments for the live events and were completely over the show by the time that the
second season went into production.
Lacking the punch of the first season, the sophomore follow up was not up to par and thus its last.
Meanwhile, the group wanted to be
considered serious musicians, but remained synonymous with their TV show characters’ persona. This led them into making a film gauged towards the more adult, hipper
crowd and leaving their bubble gum style far behind them. As widely documented
- while smoking marijuana, the boys tape recorded several ideas during a binge
in California that writer Jack Nicholson (yup, same Jack you are thinking of) used
to write a screenplay under the influence of LSD. The result is director Bob
Rafelson’s 1968 feature, Head.
In the vein of avant garde, Head is a non-linear film that
showcases the boys' attempt to shed their manufactured image through several bizarre
events. But no matter what the troupe does or suffers through in order to
escape the clutches of The Big Victor (Victor Mature), who keeps them in locked
away in a giant black box, they are unable to do so. The symbolism here is that
Mature references the NBC TV studio and their recording company Rhino who kept
them in a box, which is a metaphor for their TV image (a TV is a box in shape) and
left them unable to truly express themselves artistically. The best example of
the Monkees shattering their image was the Rafelson-Nicholson penned “Ditty Diego”, a song heard early on in
the film that went along to the tune of their TV show’s theme song:
Hey, hey, we are The Monkees, You know we love to please, A manufactured image With no philosophies.
We hope you'll like our story, Although, there isn't one, That is to say, there's many, That way, there is more fun.
You've told us you like action, And games of many kinds, You like to dance, we like to sing, So, let's all lose our minds.
We know it doesn't matter, 'Cause what you came to see, Is what we'd love to give you, And give it 1-2-3. But, it may come 3-2-1-2, Or jump from 9 to 5, And when you see the end in sight, The beginning may arrive.
For those who look for meanings, In form, as they do fact, We might tell you one thing, But we'd only take it back. Not back like in a box back, Not back like in a race, Not back so we can keep it, But back in time and space.
You say we're manufactured, To that we all agree, So make your choice and we'll rejoice In never being free.
Hey, hey, we are the Monkees, We've said it all before, The money's in, we're made of tin, We're here to give you more, The money's in, we're made of tin, We're here to give you...
Gone are the goofy usual antics that boys undertook in a
supposedly haunted manor, like in the TV show. In its place is serious content,
such as the group’s feelings on the ongoing Vietnam War and shots at U.S.
commercialism. Head jumps around with skits pertaining to things like the Monkees
at their TV show beach pad, to a boxing match and to the trenches of a war
battle, until they finally play themselves in a giant manufacturing plant
constantly trying to escape the Big Victor and the box he stores them in. Essentially,
they are trapped in this film with their every movement and spoken word choreographed
by the creators, as evident in scenes where Rafelson, Nicholson and even Dennis
Hopper come in from off camera and break the fourth wall to show they are
indeed in the middle of shooting a flick.
The film in and of itself is a reflection on their real
lives as a faux band made for the commercial masses and nothing more. They show how they
have “sold out” as apparent in their scene where they star in a demeaning commercial where they play dandruff
in a giant hairpiece…which is shown to be The Big Victor, driving the point
home even further. The "box" is also a reference to an area that was made for them to hang out in during the series’ filming, so they would not wander off set during
down time. At one point, the Monkees enter a canteen, only to have the other
actors immediately get up to leave and give them looks of disgust. This stemmed
from a real life event on the studio back lot while shooting the series, since no one
took them seriously and did not want to be around them. During the same scene a cross-dressing waitress make
comments that exemplifies their constant comparison to the legendary Beatles,
with line such as, “(to Monkees’ drummer Dolenz) Are you still paying tribute
to Ringo Starr?” and “Well if it isn’t God’s gift to the eight-year olds”.
There is even a scene where Tork is whistling "Strawberry Fields Forever". The
film is filled with so many of these subtleties that seem like
they have no real importance, but in reality contain a deeper meaning. All of
which you cannot possibly detect during a single viewing or having some back story going in to it.
In the final sequence, which is actually shown in the
beginning scene to cite that the film is circular, the boys are so desperate to
escape the constraints of the box and deconstruct their manufactured image,
that they do something outrageous and uncharacteristic. They
jump off a bridge and commit suicide. But alas, that was all part of The Big
Victor’s plan as well, who sticks them back in the box to house them somewhere until
he needs them again.
Head was supposed to be the death of The Monkees’ pop image,
but instead was the death of The Monkees overall. The film was panned by all
who saw it. Their young fans were turned off by it not being an extended version
of their beloved Monkees TV program and the older crowd it was geared towards
either didn’t get it or would not buy into this new state of mind these boys
were selling. Soon, Tork would leave as well as Nesmith, and the band would
drop off the radar until MTV aired a marathon of the series to a new generation
in lieu of their 20th Anniversary.
The truth of the matter is that as widely panned as Head was
from a film perspective, it contained some of the group’s greatest songs. Even
though nary a single busted into the Top 40, songs like “Porpoise Song”, “Circle
Sky” and “Can You Dig It” are fantastic tunes that are open in discussing their dark
subject matter that was hidden with tunes such as “Last Train to Clarksville” – a song
about a man meeting with his girlfriend for one last fling before he is hauled
off to war after being drafted because he might not be coming back. “Do I Have
to Do This All Over Again” and “Daddy’s Song” are also pretty catchy and very non Monkeee-sque. But in
1968, the soundtrack, edited with clips from the film by Nicholson, was undeservedly
trashed due to its connection to the film.
We all know that Rafelson and Nicholson’s careers skyrocketed,
especially the latter, and we know that the Monkees kept coming back into the
scene, sans Nesmith, from time to time for a trip down nostalgia lane. There are also a ton of cameos, including Frank Zappa, Sonny Liston, Teri Garr, and Annette Funicello. Meanwhile, Head
gained a cult following that carries on to this very day as a film
ahead of its time and one terribly misunderstood. A film originating well
before VCRs were created has now has carried over to Blu-ray. This is a weird
little flick that you should check out whether you are fans of The Monkees or
not. An easy joke here is...Go Get Some Head!
Allow me to interject with a personal anecdote: I was a very little
tyke when MTV brought back The Monkees in ’86. My sister and I loved watching
the show and seeking out their records, which we found at local garage sales for
a dime a piece. Don’t judge me – Amazon and eBay weren’t even a thought
back then. When Head was released on VHS, we jumped at the chance to see this little heard of Monkees piece, but it was one giant “WTF?!” to me, and
even to my older sister. But I LOVED “Porpoise Song”. My young mind didn’t
understand 60’s “psychedelic” or anything like that back then, but the song was just simply cool to me. The internet didn’t
exist, so we didn’t know the film’s back story and didn't know what was going on while watching it. Much like their young fans at
the time of the film’s release, we expected a full length feature version of a
Monkees episode and instead received one confusing bore fest. It killed any
Monkees craze we were experiencing at the time, so I can see how the film failed
back then with the kiddies who got a chance to see it on the big screen. In fact, I totally forgot all about it until I went to film school several years later, when one of my professors used it as an example
of experimental filmmaking and avant garde. The rapid editing in the “Daddy’s Song” sequence and the use of reverse polarization in certain scenes was
really trippy, man. I did some research on the film for a class paper and learned about the
history of the film and with it, a whole new appreciation for it as an adult.
If I may, I highly recommend anyone remotely interested in the film to do some Google searches on the film's legacy and the politics that went on behind the scenes at the time of its filming. Coincidentally, Nick at Nite started airing re-runs of their TV show during that same time, and I
could not bear to watch it. What was I thinking when I was a kid? They WERE a
manufactured pop boy band and not the same group that were in Head. It is too
bad that the world never received more doses of this evolution of Monkee
(he-he!) because if the Head soundtrack was any indication, they might have
gone the route of successfully re-inventing themselves ala Madonna. The Monkees
being a boy band, their pop sound and their TV show…I could care less about and am
not really into. However, I will defend Head to the very end as a great film. I
mean, look at the brains behind it…they went on to make little known flicks
you might have heard of called Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider.
In 2011, Showtime premiered their new cable series
Shameless, an export of the UK hit from 2004. As usual, once a UK
series hits it big, Hollywood cannot resist the urge to remake it for U.S.
audiences and pass it off as an original form of entertainment. For every successful translation like The Office and Being Human,
there are miserable failures such as Coupling, Free Agents and Teachers. Basically, the
translations are usually more fail than pass or even never-will-be's like in the case of remaking Red
Dwarf, Spaced and Absolutely Fabulous. However, Showtime invested into a
concept that goes against every grain found in the usual family situational
comedies found in the States, and the result is a smashing success.
Shameless revolves around the everyday lives of the Gallagher
clan, an extremely dysfunctional family residing in the poor South Side of
Chicago. The family’s patriarch Frank (William H. Macy) is an absolute mess of
a human being, who scrapes by in life using the most despicable methods. He is
an alcoholic who does "shameless" things such as claiming cash social security from his deceased
sister, borrowing money from gangster he has no intention of repaying and living
off government checks for a bogus disability just to drink his life away.
Making matters worse is that his eldest daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) is left to
play mother and father to her siblings ever since Mom left town and Frank is a
deadbeat…even though he still has a room at their home.
Her sibling responsibilities include Lip (Jeremy Allen
White), a genius who could be a very successful individual if he only applied
himself; Ian (Cameron Monaghan), a closet homosexual who desperately yearns for a
career in the military; Debs (Emma Kenney), the little girl with an old soul;
Carl (Ethan Cutkosky), who is bound for juvy and jail when he reaches those
respective ages to qualify; and little mixed baby Liam, who was not fathered by
Frank. Then there are Kevin (Steve Howey) and Veronica (Shanola Hampton),
neighbors and close friends who treat the Gallagher as part of their family.
While each of them has their own plights in life, Fiona is
the most tragic because she is playing the role of a single parent and holding several crappy jobs
when most girls her age are out enjoying their youth. Things change when she
meets Steve (Justin Chatwin), a handsome car thief who is accepting of Fiona’s
situation in life, but genuinely cares for her nonetheless. However, the
good-natured Steve is hiding the fact that he hails from a wealthy family and
wants no part of the lifestyle of his white-collared, well-to-do family tradition.
Essentially, he is from the anti-Gallaghers in life and is insistent to hide
his true identity from Fiona.
Meanwhile, Frank downs copious amounts of booze and scams people in
order to crash at their pad and dodge his angry family who want as
little interaction with him as possible, although he constantly crashes the
house for some type of hand-me-out. His latest victim is Sheila, an agoraphobe on
the outs with her hubby with a promiscuous daughter Karen (Laura Wiggins).
Since she never leaves the house, she is unaware of how much of a scumbag Frank
truly is and believes him to be a righteous man who really cares for her.
As you can see, there are a lot of characters in show, each
that are unique and likable to watch…yes, even Frank in a weird way. Each week,
the family deals with a situation, most of the time involving them in some sort
of scam to make ends meet, as they try to survive without the comfort of having
caring parents to support them. Then there are series-wide story arcs, such as
the inclusion of Karen and Steve for example, that continue through every
episode. The show did well enough that a second season was ordered for this
year, but it really deserves more press than it is currently getting at this
time. As of this writing, not one bad episode has aired. Even the transitional season opener linking the first
season finale and the second premiere was even thoroughly enjoyable. Thus far,
each episode feels very fresh and hopefully the creators can keep it up for several season to come.
With all of his drunken proclamations he spouts to justify
his lack of a morally upscale existence, Macy should have received an Emmy for
last season and should definitely be in the running for one based on his performance thus far
in season two. You really will forget that it is Macy you are watching and
actually seeing the dreadful Frank Gallagher on your screen. That withstanding,
there is not one weak acting job in the whole bunch, even from the little ones with excellent casting choices.
Combine some dark humor with interesting story lines and an outstanding cast,
and you have a full on hit for your viewing pleasure.
It is rare that a show concerning odd characters who
contrast how the All-American family is usually portrayed on television are made completely affable and people you cheer for to succeed. Whether you
subscribe to cable or have Netflix, Shameless is a show that you should
definitely be watching, even if you feel a bit shameless for doing so.
Now accepting sponsors!! Do you have a film screener, music or product you would like me to review on The Man-Cave? Or would you like to place an ad on this site? Please contact me at gcap2719@yahoo.com
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