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The Bootleg Files: Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No

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BOOTLEG FILES 709: “Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No” (1966 spoken-word album).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

FORMAT RELEASE: As a long-playing vinyl album.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: Out of print for many years.

CHANCES OF SEEING A CD RELEASE: Not likely.

This week’s column is different from the others because the focus is not on a film or a television production. Instead, we are revisiting a record album that combines the personalities of pop culture icons into a jolly spoof of mad scientist movies. Indeed, it is a major shame that this offering was only captured on vinyl and not on film.
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Let it Snow (2019)

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I’m no misanthrope, but it’s tough to find great new Christmas movies, even though Hollywood does keep trying no matter what. I went in with low expectations with “Let It Snow” but took the chance thanks to the great cast, and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s hard to remember a Christmas movie that feels so down to Earth and unassuming than “Let It Snow.” It has every chance to be so saccharine and cloying, but it instead insists on a very sweet and engaging tone with some genuinely engaging characters.

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JoJo Rabbit (2019)

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Taika Waititi has always been a filmmaker that’s managed to challenge conventions and deliver tales that are always completely out of the ordinary. With “Jojo Rabbit,” it’s another in a long line of tales about the male ego and the weird world that they belong to. In Waititi’s case, it’s the briefly controversial “Jojo Rabbit,” a movie that received a lot of buzz for its depiction of Adolf Hitler. Once you got down to the meat and potatoes of the narrative though, you learn that it’s the destruction of Hitler and how he’s so uncomplicated that he’s reduced to an imaginary friend of a young child.

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The Swan Princess (1994): 25th Anniversary [Blu-ray]

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In the nineties, many American movie studios were trying to beat Disney at their game by basically—mimicking everything that made their movies a hit. They didn’t try to rewrite the rules until the early aughts; before then we had a bunch of movies that were basically D grade copies of Disney hits. Richard Rich is a once Disney animator who tries his best to riff on Disney, taking a classic fairy tale and adding about every trope from the Disney list you can imagine, right down to funny talking animals. What he forgets is entertainment and a sense of life.

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Montgomery Clift: A Tribute

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Montgomery Clift created a remarkable output of film performances, blending Method Acting with an uncommon subtlety that has never been duplicated. Actor/writer Kevin Dolan is our guest on this episodes, which considers the on-screen triumphs and personal tragedies of this extraordinary actor.

The episode can be heard here.

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Mr. Omar (2018-19)

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If you are on the lookout for something very different and highly invigorating, then check out this five-part horror web series created by the Upstate New York-based actor-writer-filmmaker-singer-composer Frank Palangi. This gem has been flying under the radar on YouTube and it needs to be front and center in everyone’s view.
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Black and Blue (2019)

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If anything, Deon Taylor’s crime thriller is a perfectly fine if somewhat overlong and derivative thriller that skates by mainly because of its charismatic cast including Mike Colter, Tyrese Gibson and Frank Grillo, respectively. It’s a shame because in a world where we’re discussing body cams, police corruption, and inner city crime, “Black and Blue” has the golden opportunity to tackle the issue head on. Instead it hits it briefly and doesn’t do much with the topic, instead building a thriller that feels oddly derivative of Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day.”

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