You wouldn’t expect much from a short movie about the famous Christmas novelty song, but lo and behold Rankin Bass manage to pull off an impressive feat. “Frosty the Snowman” is a great short fantasy film that knows when to call it quits and is never a cloying over abundance of cute and obnoxious.
Yet another of the Christmas favorites that faded away from television land, “ A Garfield Christmas” is a wonderful and often times hilarious look at Garfield’s ringing in the Christmas festivities with Jon and Odie. Garfield is taken out of his beloved home and to Jon Arbuckle’s old home to celebrate Christmas with his country bumpkin family.While there, we not only garner an insight in to Jon’s odd ball personality, but we also get to see how Garfield reacts to the relationships around him.
This hour long special I fondly recall sleeping through in the nineties thanks to a country music obsessed mom, is now available in all of its uncut glory. Truth be told, time has been kind to this special, and tapping Kenny Rogers’ popularity in the decade, we get to see him have a ball with a group of kids.
One of the aspects of “Horse Feathers” that I love is that it introduced me to the sheer radiance that is Thelma Todd. Sure, I ride on a bunch of modern beauties, but out of the slew of reasons why I keep going back to “Horse Feathers,” it’s because of Todd who I’ve managed to have a crush on since I first saw this Marx Bros. comedy masterpiece. Many years ago I viewed this for the first time on VHS and understood why the Marx Brothers were immortal. Suffice it to say I was not let down by “Horse Feathers.” At their prime, the Marx Brothers were unstoppable in the realm of comedy, and delivered laughs at a rapid fire pacing.
In its own way director John Badham’s 1977 masterpiece “Saturday Night Fever” is dated in every imaginable way, but it’s because of that, that it’s a classic, and is very appreciated. And it’s also the swan song of a music fad that couldn’t have lasted. John Travolta really was a dynamo back in the days of his early career, with a trifecta of frenetic films like “Grease” which would come only a year later, and “Urban Cowboy” which made a real impact as a one of a kind film. What “Saturday Night Fever” is about, in its truest sense, is growing up. Get past the dated styles, and hair, and lingo and look deep down in to its narrative and you’ll find a truly excellent story about growing up and moving on leaving your childish things behind and starting a new life.
Director Darren Lynn Bousman’s “The Devil’s Carnival” is a movie that made me think I should probably give “Repo! The Genetic Opera” another chance. Since its release, “Repo!” has apparently become a road show in the vein of “Rocky Horror,” and “The Devil’s Carnival” seeks to carry that success further. I sought out Bousman’s hour long film anxiously on the internet, and after watching it on Netflix, I still can’t stop raving about it. It’s a dark, mature, often brilliant look at the age old tale of lost souls and the devil’s efforts to lure them in to his den of sins and eternal torment. Three souls on the verge of death enter in to hell’s carnival and are put to the test. Lucifer is the ring master of this wicked carnival, and with his trio of minions, tries to test the revolve of these lost individuals.
I remember the summer of 1993 fondly. It was the year I went to see the “Coneheads” movie and recall thinking back to the release of “Hocus Pocus” wondering why it wasn’t slated for an October release. Disney is usually smart with release dates, and “Hocus Pocus” ended up becoming one of the most revered holiday classics of all time. For Disney-philes, “Hocus Pocus” has enough menace to be considered a horror movie, but not so much where it’s impossible for the kids to watch. Twenty years later, “Hocus Pocus” is that classic horror film for kids that has yet to show its age at all, even when you consider adorable Thora Birch turned in to a gorgeous woman many years later. “Hocus Pocus” hearkens back to the most entertaining element of the Halloween season: the threat of witches.