Dr. Smith’s Lost in the Space at the End of Summer Movie Quiz

Just in time for Labor Day, and once again courtesy of Dennis Cozzalio at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. Feel free to take the quiz and post your responses over at his site, where (once again) a number of great people have already thrown their answers up for debate and discussion.

My answers to the last quiz can be found here.  My answers to the quiz can be found below:

1) Your favorite musical moment in a movie

I dedicated an entire post to this back in February of 2007; at that time it didn't include my favorite in recent memory simply because the film hadn't been released yet.  In ONCE, as Glen Hansard's Guy teaches, tentatively at first, his song "Falling Slowly" to Markéta Irglová's Girl, their growing passion for the song echoes their entire arc of the film.  And it made this 35-year old man, sitting in an airplane 34,000 feet above the ground halfway across the country, cry as he thought of his wife back home waiting for him. 

2) Ray Milland or Dana Andrews

Really a toss-up, but I give the edge to Milland for THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES and the rumor about the alternate ending: "I can still see!"

3) Favorite Sidney Lumet movie

My head tells me DOG DAY AFTERNOON but my heart tells me 12 ANGRY MEN.  Either way you win.

4) Biggest surprise of the just-passed summer movie season

I think the biggest surprise was just how surprisingly good the season was, for a change.  Good comedies (PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, TROPIC THUNDER, good action (IRON MAN, DARK KNIGHT), good drama (THE VISITOR), and finally, a good  Woody Allen movie (VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA).  Argue all you want about SPEED RACER and THE DARK KNIGHT (oh, I believe we already did), but there's was a lot to talk about this season as opposed to the typical bloat that comes before the Autumn award season.

5) Gene Tierney or Rita Hayworth

Just the thought of Rita Hayworth causes shortness of breath anndd  unsteddie hands viw dd   /. glug  ir hot....glove...f kwodfdj vda (collapses on floor in a swoon)

6) What's the last movie you saw on DVD? In theaters?

On DVD I watched THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES and was shocked that such a wonderfully written, smartly executed family film was essentially swept under the rug this year (well, maybe no so surprised).  In theaters I saw PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and thought the montage scene between Seth Rogan and James Franco was worth the price of admission.  One word, folks: leapfrog.

7) Irwin Allen's finest hour?

The only thing I remember from THE TOWERING INFERNO: when Paul Newman and Steve McQueen meet at the end.

8) What were the films where you would rather see the movie promised by the poster than the one that was actually made?

YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES.  Such as great poster...such a disappointing movie.

9) Chow Yun-Fat or Tony Leung

Tony Leung just blows my mind.  Chow-Yun Fat's got the charisma of a Hollywood movie star, but Leung (Chiu Wai, I'm assuming) is fascinating, and there's the Jackie Chan connection, so....

10) Most pretentious movie ever

Gus Van Sant's re-shot of PSYCHO.  Understand the motivations behind remaking that film shot for shot, and we might just get that "world hunger" thing under control.

11) Favorite Russ Meyer movie

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.  I still can't believe that film came out of the mind of Roger Ebert.  That's a compliment, by the way.

12) Name the movie that you feel best reflects yourself, a movie you would recommend to an acquaintance that most accurately says, "This is me."

It's the movie that plays in my head, a B&W film about a old man made of the bits of paper and refuse found in the streets who slowly peeling away layer by layer due to the negligence of the world and his inability to make a difference or even an impact in someone else's life until he comes upon a Depression-era circus and a young child sitting against a fence plastered with fading posters advertising the failing circus and she's holding a rose which is the only thing with any color in this world and the old man realizes there's still magic in the world and...

Oh crap, I think I just created the answer to "Most pretentious movie ever." 

In that case it would be a 3-way tie between CASABLANCA, AMELIE, and MANHATTAN.

13) Martlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo

Dietrich, for an incredible life that stretched outside her film work.   14) Best movie snack?  Most vile movie snack?

The only snack I ever buy at the movies is a pack of Strawberry Twizzlers, with the rule that I must eat them all before the movie actually starts.  Most vile?  What's the name of those fruity snacks that stick to your teeth and require nothing short of pliers to remove them?  Those things.

15) Current movie star who would be the most comfortable in the classic Hollywood studio system

Oliver Platt.  Which gives me an opportunity to say how wonderful THE IMPOSTERS is.  Actually, you could put the whole cast of THE IMPOSTERS in the studio system and I think they'd work beautifully.  Did I mention how much I love THE IMPOSTERS?

16) Fitzcarradlo - yes or no?

Lord, yes.  Werner Herzog is an insane giant and God Bless him for it.

17) Your assignment is to book the ultimate triple bill to inaugurate your own revival theater.  What three movies will we see on opening night?

STARDUST MEMORIES, SHADOWS AND FOG, and MANHATTAN.  We'd probably close after that, but what the Hell.

18) What's the name of your theater?

(Welcome to) The Monkeyhouse.  You get monkeys and a Vonnegut reference all in one.

19) Favorite Leo McCarey movie

Who?  Let's see...after looking him up it's hard not to say DUCK SOUP, but I'll go with THE AWFUL TRUTH.

20) Most impressive debut performance by an actor/actress

Even though it really was his second feature (I don't think he was much more than an extra in his debut), you gotta give it to Peter Lorre for M. So if we're strictly going on "debut" performance?  Jaye Davidson in THE CRYING GAME...frickin' sensational.

21) Biggest disappointment of the just-passed summer movie season

All the petulant whining by 'Net hacks who not insist the entire world think THE DARK KNIGHT is the greatest movie of all time, but actively spew hate to those that dare have an alternative opinion.  For shame, people...for shame.

22) Michelle Yeoh or Maggie Cheung

For years the running joke with my family and friends is my utter love for Michelle Yoeh, which manifests itself by my repeatedly referring to her as "Michelle YEEEOOOOWWW! (ha-cha)"

23) 2008 inductee into the Academy of the Overrated

I think just going on the sheer number of projects he's been involved with over the last couple of years, how about Judd Apatow?  Yeah, dude's funny, but personally I hated KNOCKED UP, and quite a few films he's had his hand in - DRILLBIT TAYLOR, WALK HARD,  KICKING AND SCREAMING (he wrote FUN WITH DICK AND JANE?  Really?)...even THE TV SET left me less than satisfied. 

Now, before the enormous flames commence, I loved ANCHORMAN and really really liked FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL.

24) 2008 inductee into the Academy of the Underrated

Brad Anderson, who I think is making really great little films that should get more exposure.  Same with Shane Meadows and literally dozens of other directors doing their thing with an imprint all their own.  Now get out and go see TRANSSIBERIAN!

25) Fritz the Cat - yes or no?

FRITZ THE CAT is one of those movies you die to see when you're a kid, only (I think) to be left with feeling "that was it?" at the end.  That said, sure, although I'd greatly prefer Felix the Cat.

26) Trevor Howard or Richard Todd

Trevor Howard.  It is my shame that I don't think I've seen a film with Richard Todd.

27) Antonioni once said, "I began taking liberties a long time ago; now it is standard practice for most directors to ignore the rules."  What filmmaker working today most fruitfully ignores the rules?  What does ignoring the rules of cinema mean today in 2008?

(leans back in his rocking chair with a tall glass of lemonade) The problem nowadays is, once someone ignores the rules and the movie works, everyone and their uncle does the same thing, making the "break" the new rule.  Recently I'd love to say Werner Herzog, Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman, Guy Madden, Lars Von Trier, Michael Leigh as examples of people giving a huge finger the the rules of conventional film wisdom and still finding an audience.  Well, maybe Leigh so much anymore. Oh, and Takashi Miike.  Holy crap that guy...

28) Favorite William Castle film

For Vincent Price and the scene with the tiny caskets on the table I'll go with HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL.

29) Favorite ethnographically oriented movie

TRAINSPOTTING and its depiction of the disaffected drug-addled youth in late 80's Edinburgh.

30) What's the movie coming up in 2008 you're most looking forward to and why?

Probably THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON.  I love David Fincher's direction, and used correctly I think Brad Pitt can be brilliant.  Plus you get that whole "magical realism" thing going on that always hits me fore-square in the heart.

31) What deceased director would you want to resurrect in order that he/she might make one more film?

Stanley Kubrick.  And while we're in fantasy-land, give him a great budget, final cut, and the time to make the thing.

32) What director would you like to see, if not literally entombed, then at least go silent creatively?

Maybe it's a cop-out, but if these guys (and I have them in mind, believe me) are making money, that tells me that somehow, someway, they're fulfilling a need.  It may be lowest common denominator, but it is what it is.  Instead of silencing them, let's give the true artists more visibility, more screens, and more voice in print, on TV, and elsewhere.  I think given the true choice people will choose the quality if they can only be exposed to it.

Or not.  It would explain Desperate Housewives.

33) Your first movie star crush

And still my greatest.  Jamie Lee Curtis.  "Nuff said.

Book #35: It's Superman

There aren't many rules I tend to hold as sacred, but one of them is definitely "STAY AWAY FROM NOVELIZATIONS OF MOVIES" with a sub-rule of "DO NOT READ ANY BOOKS THAT ARE BASED ON AN EXISTING FRANCHISE OUTSIDE OF THE BOOK REALM".  This keeps me safe from dreck like STAR WARS and STAR TREK novels, books based on Dungeons & Dragons and the current boom of books based on popular TV shows like Lost and Monk.

So if it wasn't for the praises heaped upon Tom de Haven's  It's Superman by my friend Ken as well as a nice mini episode on the book (which you can watch here) from the gang over at iFanboy, it's unlikely I would have read this. And that probably would have been a shame, because although it doesn't make me want to drop everything and rush out to buy Battlestar Galactica or Halo books, It's Superman proves to be a fun and surprising take on the Man of Steel.

A few words on my relationship with Superman (it's platonic - I swear).  About six months ago after hearing about the new "golden age" of comics I decided to swim the waters again after a hiatus of approximately 15 years.  The last thing I collected with any regularity was The Sandman, and that was about all I collected.  Superheroes were about as far from my mind as boy bands and fondue sets (I still don't get the whole fondue craze).  I eased myself in, collecting one or two comics and catching up via trades on some of the bigger stories that had come out.  And somehow, after always fashioning myself (to the extent that I could based on my earlier reading) as a Marvel Zombie, I was becoming more and more drawn to the convoluted world of DC.  Green Lantern first, then Batman, the Justice League and Justice Society, and finally to Superman.  My hesitancy to embrace the Man of Steel stemmed from what I thought was his inherent goodness, which to my mind translated to "boring".  A similar thought process applied to Marvel's Captain America - in this day and age, where the lines of morality have blurred and our heroes have become anti-heroes, who wants a white-washed, apple pie silver age hero?

Apparently I do, because Captain America is now my favorite ongoing Marvel book, and between excellent trades like Superman: For All Seasons and Kingdom Come, and his presence in Action Comics, Superman is on the fast track to be DC's equivalent.

I say all this because it's important to note that my recommendation for this book carries the caveat of "for Superman fans only".  If you like comics, and you particularly like Supes, you'll most likely enjoy this book.  If you're not a fan of comics, or if Superman annoys you, this book certainly isn't going to change your mind.

So what's It's Superman about, and what makes it different from all the other comics, films, and novelizations out there?  de Haven tells the story of Clark Kent's early years and gradual transformation into the Man of Steel using the actual world as a backdrop and injecting a more human perspective to Clark's development.  In other words, Clark has sex, drinks and smokes, harbors feelings of inadequacy and guilt over leaving his parents...basically transforming him into a Holden Caufield that can jump over building and deflect bullets.  The plot revolves around the rise of Lex Luthor as an alderman in New York City, and after he frames a young photographer named Willie Burg (sorry - no Jimmy Olsen to be found), Willie travels the country in hiding with Clark, which leads to adventures as a stuntman in Hollywood, an affair with an ex-actress, a jail breakout, and finally a home in New York City (Metropolis is referenced as the title of an art exhibit of the city), where Clark must stop Luthor's scheme involving killer laser beam robots.

Okay, so the "reality" things takes a bit of a left turn there.

By the end de Haven gradually forsakes the grounded reality of the novel for the more fantastic tenets of the comic, and things as a whole play out rather well.  He takes a few shortcuts that feel forced (Kent falls for Lois within one sentence, basically "And with that he is utterly in love.") and Lois Lane is general is so unlikeable that you're left to wonder why the hell anyone would be taken with her.  Lex Luthor is okay, but de Haven makes the mistakes of giving his henchmen (and women) more character and depth, so they ultimately become more interesting.

However, all of that is secondary to the main character, and It's Superman's real strength is in it's depiction of Clark Kent, a troubled, awkward boy who is every day reminded of his differences from the rest of the world, and must come to grips with his feelings of alienation and supposed inadequacies.  One of my favorite points is his constant fear that's he's not intelligent, especially in relation to his massive strength. In that regard, maybe It's Superman succeeds more as a coming of age story than it does as a superhero story, and that's perfectly okay, too.

Enjoying the High "Wire" Act

It's taken forever, but after numerous recommendations from friends (directly) and famous personages (somewhat more indirectly), I am finally settling in and watching HBO's The Wire.

Holy Moly!  How has this show been around for so long and I never heard about it?

Just kidding.  Everyone and their brother has been talking about how great The Wire is.  My friend Jason and his wife alternated every video in their Netflix queue with a Wire disc and constantly email me about its greatness.  My freshman college roommate harangues me at every lunch about why I've never seen it.  Articles, and critical assessments permeate The House Next Door.  Video essays on the opening credits were commissioned by the Museum of the Moving Image.  And then the kicker: in an interview with Entertainment Weekly (of all places) comics legend Alan Moore stated that The Wire is "possibly the most stunning piece of television, full-stop."

So over the weekend I plopped down and watched the first five episodes of the first season.  By the end of episode four I was, well, hooked (c'mon...I had to do it).  I love the lack of any gateway "in" - unlike every cop show on broadcast television, The Wire expects that if you don't know the ropes then by God you'll deal with it until you figure it out. Our heroes can be utter pricks, our villains can be virtuous.  And Bubbles...damn I love Bubbles.

But rather than go off at length about why, after only four episodes, I've come to be a Wire convert, I'd like to address just three scenes that sum up everything wonderful about the show:

1.  Dee Teaches the Gang to Play Chess (ep 3)


I fear that Dee isn't going to make it out of this season (don't spoil it for me), and that's a shame because he more than any other character has an arc that encompasses both sides of the coin (at least five episodes in).  His explanation of the rules of chess to his gang, equating each piece to someone in the organization, is both brilliant and tragic as they get to pawns, and each person, Dee included, realizes that for all they do, that's what they are.

2.  McNulty and Bunk: "F--k" (ep 4)


One word, used over and over again in various incarnations as McNulty and Bunk investigate an apartment where a woman was murdered is more than just a great gag.  In one scene it shows their relationship as partners, their skill as policemen, and a lack of any modern equipment that continues throughout the season.  But yeah, it's also laugh-out-loud funny.

3.  Games On Both Sides of the Tracks (ep 4)

Not much to say about this: just a great transition that speaks volumes about the world of Baltimore, where The Wire takes place.  In the first scene, McNulty watches his son play soccer.

The scene then cuts to a bunch of street kids running around at night.  These are the games on the other side of town:


All this in only the first four episodes of what I'm told is an outstanding five seasons.  Can't wait to see the rest.

Random Ear Tickle

Earlier today I was chastised by Indie Maven Sean for not having posted a mix - any kind of mix - to my blog since before Jack was born.  A quick perusal of the posts, however, showed that I did indeed post a mix exactly three months after he was born.  Which, Sean pointed out, was still a long time between postings.

So I put the iPod on random, and here are the first 20 or so songs that trickled out.  At the moment I'm not as savvy as Sean is about uploading the files for your listening enjoyment, but I'll figure something out and include it later.  For now, and for what it's worth, here's what playing:

1. Murphy's Law - "Attack of the Killer Beers"
2. Lauren Hill - "Every Ghetto, Every City"
3. Ysaÿe Quartet - "Ravel String Quartet in F major, 2nd Movement"
4. Radiohead - "Treefingers"
5. Voivod - "Astronomy Domine"
6. Led Zeppelin - "Boogie With Stu"
7. Queens of the Stone Age - "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret"
8. Lou Reed - "Berlin"
9. Death - "Open Casket"
10. Interpol - "Wrecking Ball"
11. Eric Johnson - "Forty MileTown"
12. Neil Young - "A Man Needs a Maid"
13. Nachtmystium - "Seasick (Part 2: Oceanborne)"
    
14. Pink Floyd - "Another Brick in the Wall (part 1)"
15. Iron & Wine - "Carousel"
16. Boris - "Death Valley"
17. Devin Townsend Band - "Triumph"
18. Ignite - "Live for Better Days"
19. Witchcraft - "Queen of Bees"
20. Blue Cheer - "Parchment Farm"
21. Dax Riggs - "Night is the Notion"

I gleefully admit that every time I hear Neil Young's "A Man Needs a Maid" in the presence of my wife I sing the chorus as loud as I can.  I can't help it.

Book #34: Blaze

Blaze, the long unpublished final novel from Richard Bachman (otherwise known as Stephen King) plays exactly like you would expect based on the circumstances of its publication.  Languishing for years in an old box because he didn't think it was very good (the manuscript dates back to 1973), King thought about picking it back up to serve as a second offering for the Hard Case Crime book series (The Colorado Kid was published in 2005).  Upon reviewing it, however, something must have sparked his eye because he smoothed out the rough spots and sent it out on its own merits under the Bachman name.

If you're expecting typical King you'll be disappointed.  Even if you're expecting the pulp feel of his other Bachman books you'll be disappointed.  Blaze is set firmly in the soft-boiled genre, and plays on John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men almost to a fault.  Clayton "Blaze" Blaisdell, jr. is a towering hulk of a man who, after being thrown repeated down a flight of stairs as a child, is left mentally challenged.  But that's okay because his enormous size protects him and he has George, a small-time con man to look after him okay.  George's dream is to get out of the game for good by pulling off one big score: kidnapping a baby that's heir to a family fortune.

So where's the kicker?  Well, the problem is that George, the brains of the outfit, happens to be dead on page one.  That doesn't stop him, however, from continuing to talk to Blaze and get him to pull the caper anyway.  The story alternates between Blaze's present circumstances and his life story, and both tales weave together beautifully with that old King magic of characterization.  Just like Of Mice and Men's Lenny, you feel nothing but compassion for Blaze as his kidnapping turns into something quite different when he begins to love little Joe, the baby.  And if everything played out as a straight crime novel, this would have been a perfect little gem of a story - an early, youthful, and exuberant example of a future master.

There's just one small hitch that downgraded Blaze from really good to okay.  For most of the novel you're led to believe that the voice of George is merely inside Blaze's head.  Never for a moment do you think that George is actually communicating with Blaze from the dead.  Which is perfectly fine by me.  Then, near the novel's end there's a very brief passage that may lead to another reason why Blaze can hear George.  This element, whether present in the original manuscript or later added by King, feels more than a bit disingenuous, something ladled on to appease fans who only accept King's horror novels.

It doesn't knock Blaze down, it just staggers the book a bit, which is a shame because I personally think right now Stephen King is enjoying a new-found sense of freedom since the conclusion of his Dark Tower series.  Blaze is ultimately a fun, quick read, but don't go looking for greatness in a novel the author himself admist wasn't good enough to see the light of day for over 30 years.