Are we still under the spell of Melissa McCarthy? Can we admit she’s just a mediocre comedian trotting out endlessly trite and dull movie vehicles? After her attempt to revisit “Back to School” with her own silly, weird, often meandering comedy “Life of the Party,” I’m pretty much over McCarthy. Beyond “Bridesmaids” and “Spy,” she’s never managed to impress and keeps relying on vehicles that become vanity projects with husband Ben Falcone who doesn’t seem to know how to utilize McCarthy. One moment Deanna is hiding in the bushes crying after being dumped by her husband, the next as she burns her husband’s possessions, it explodes in her face, causing her to comically plop on to the ground.
Tag Archives: Comedy
The Bootleg Files: Beane’s of Boston
BOOTLEG FILES 646: “Beane’s of Boston” (1979 CBS television pilot based on the BBC series “Are You Being Served?”).
LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A one-shot failure.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope.
Beginning in the early 1970s, American television producers began to eyeball long-running British series with the hope that they could transplant those offerings into new Americanized versions. A few of those efforts paid off brilliantly: Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin reworked “Till Death Us Do Part” as “All in the Family” and “Steptoe and Son” was Americanized as “Sanford and Son,” while ABC took “Man About the House” and turned it into “Three’s Company.”
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Tag (2018)
One of my most anticipated movies of 2018, “Tag” is based on a true story of a group of friends who managed to stay in touch for decades by engaging in a game of tag. Playing the game since they were kids, and finding ways to be in other’s lives for the sake of playing the game and one upping each other, current “it” player Hoagie begins gathering his group of friends for one more big game of Tag. It seems their friend Jerry is retiring from the game, and in all the years they’ve played he’s never once been tagged. Now with Jerry about to get married, the group takes it upon themselves to take advantage and end his streak once and for all.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978): 2 Disc Special Edition [Blu-Ray/DVD]
Movies like “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” are virtually bullet proof from criticism. You either go in the movie prepared for the silly, or you can’t quite match the film’s frequency. “Attack of the Killer tomatoes” is one of the earliest known satires of “The Birds” where it’s about the inexplicable sentience and attack of deadly fruit on a small town rather than pecking deadly birds from the sky. And that’s about where it ends there. You figure with the preamble about “The Birds” and how this movie is basically the same thing but with tomatoes, we’d have a full fledged spoof of the Hitchcock movie.
Five Funniest Moments in the Friday the 13th Movie Series
I should point out that I’m a big “Friday the 13th” fan. I’ve seen every movie in the series a thousand times and used to rewatch my “Jason Lives” VHS so much it eventually broke. One of the finer points of the movie series is that it’s filled with plot holes and inconsistencies that add to the charm rather than detract from it. The premise for the series always amounts to a lot of fun and some laugh out loud, or awkward moments. Here are but a few.
What are some of your favorite “Friday the 13th” moments? Let us know in the comments!
An Interview with Joe Bob Briggs: Indie Film, Horror, and “The Last Drive In”
Art by Justin Osbourn.
If you grew up in the nineties and had cable television, the odds are you were at one time introduced to Joe Bob Briggs and TNT’s Monstervision. With his assortment of movie trivia, gift of gab, and great jokes, “Monstervision” was a weekend treat that fans savored until its unceremonious end in 2000. Though Joe Bob has been a welcome presence in the horror and film world since then, fans have often clamored for his return to television. Wait no more. This Friday the 13th at 9pm ET, Joe Bob Briggs returns for one last hurrah, to bring his legions of fans a marathon of horror movies, exclusively to Shudder TV.
It’s twenty four hours, thirteen uncut horror movies, Joe Bob’s Drive-In Totals, and a brand new mail girl to boot. Joe Bob took time out of his hectic press storm to answer some our questions and suffice to say it was a thrill.
Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)
The Wasp is one of the oldest, most important Marvel characters of all time (she was one of the original five Avengers), and she’s also someone who has been waiting in the wings for far too long. In “Ant-Man and The Wasp,” the heroine finally gets her due in a movie that’s about her legacy as much as it is about the Avengers, and Ant-Man, overall. After the two heavy meals that were “Black Panther” and “Infinity War,” Peyton Reed’s return to “Ant Man and the Wasp” is like a nice light after dinner sorbet. It’s a palate cleanser, it’s simple, and it’s quite good.