Jeff Lurie

Movies to the Max

The Backlot – Rochester, New York

Published July 23, 2008

A group of friends get together; they are down and out and try to figure out a way to make money. They decide to fix up an old house and throw a big party, cue the music video montage, everyone hammering, stripping wood, getting paint on one another, new carpets put in, new lighting, and a lot of eye rolling and laughing all set to a Casio keyboard inspired soundtrack. If you are feeling like you have seen this all before then you must be a fan of movies from the 1980’s.

Will there ever be an animal like 80’s films again? With their sex crazed males always asking the eternal question of will I ever get laid? and the females done up like they are going to some debutante ball always rejecting these losers’, wanting nothing to do with them. The generation I grew up in was raised on movies such as these. It was not until later that we found out that when you want to chase a girl, fix a house, train to fight, etc. there are no music video montages, you actually have to do each painstaking step.

I recently watched the classic 80’s movie GOTCHA! with Anthony Edwards and Linda Fiorentino. The movie’s opening sequence alone would never pass for reality in this day and age, although back in those innocent totally tubular days it did. The opening (music video montage of course) is of Anthony Edwards with blonde feathered hair (was there any other kind?) chasing his “foe’ around campus with a paint gun that looks exactly like a real gun discharging ammunition through a sea of coed’s. Instead of these coed’s screaming for their lives they simply look at Edwards or go about their business and the guy who gets shot with the paint splatter has an oh you! facial expression. This goes on for about seven full minutes. Each time Edwards hits his targeted enemy he says gotcha! Each time! It is laugh out loud fun, but back then I found it to be not only believable but very, very cool.

The story, although original, is pretty typical 80’s fare: Edwards talks his parents into letting him go on a class trip to Europe which they reluctantly say yes to. Next thing you know Edwards and his buddy are getting off a plane in Paris. We never quite see the other classmates. Also the hotel they are staying in is far beyond what you would think a youth hostile or a struggling college student would be staying in.

Their first order of European endeavors? You guessed it: girls. Edward’s macho friend strikes out but Edwards finds a sexy European cougar that devours him to the delight of every 13 year old boy who happens to be watching the movie on HBO in his parent’s basement at midnight — but I digress. Then the 80’s formula has its twist, in this movie he finds out she is a spy. In others she is the quarterback’s girlfriend (REVENGE OF THE NERDS), a hooker with an angry pimp (RISKY BUSINESS) or as Marty McFly found out, his future Mom (BACK TO THE FUTURE.)

80’s movies were about the underdog, the vulnerable guy who just wanted to be loved (and laid) but wanted to make sure to do it the right way and with honor. The bad guy always was punished, and the girl was always the prize. In the 00’s thanks to writers such as Judd Apatow instead of the underdog we have the every guy like in the movies KNOCKED UP and SUPERBAD. The every guy and the underdog are like distant cousins of one another. The every guy is the hopeless shiftless lay about that sort of falls into a situation who never thought they would be in that situation but just shrugs it off and deals with it. Oh yes, and they to would like to be laid – this seems to be part of the hereditary hierarchy of this breed. I feel that the success of this new strain of movies is only due to the previous successes of their 1980’s predecessors. Without Louis Skolnick in REVENGE OF THE NERDS you do not have Andy Stitzer in THE FORTY YEAR OLD VIRGIN, without Mikey Walsh in GOONIES you do not have Sam Witwicky in TRANSFORMERS and of course without Mr. Thornton Melon in BACK TO SCHOOL you do not have Frank the Tank in OLD SCHOOL.

Simply put 80’s movies were fun, took themselves really seriously (see: ST. ELMO’S FIRE) and always had some sort of lesson, even if that lesson was to go to Europe and find hot older women. Each generation is affected by the time that it lives through; each individual takes away at least a bit of what is being presented as popular culture to the masses. Therefore if you see a guy walking down the street wearing Ray Ban sunglasses, a t-shirt and a sports coat, or an orange vest, blue jeans and chasing a DeLorean, you might as well just leave these old-timers alone, they are just trying to look rad and possibly searching for a girl, that or 1.21 gigawatts.

Villainy Vitality

Matchflick – San Francisco, CA

Published July 26, 2008

I recently saw the long awaited release of THE DARK KNIGHT. Needless to say it was a great film and a full out spectacle of what moviemaking could and should be at all times. After I left the theatre and started driving home something bothered me about the movie. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but something just didn’t sit right. Then it hit me. It was obvious and there was no denying it. The only problem I had with the movie, the only issue that was gnawing at me was the obvious stand out issue that this Batman movie had: Batman was in it.

I don’t think I am alone here when saying that there was too much Batman in this Batman movie and not enough of what we really all came to see in the menacing, out-of-this-world performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker. One could easily argue you cannot have the enjoyment of the villain without the heroic escapades of the protagonist. However, I beg to differ. Nothing against Christian Bale (aside form the allegations of him beating up his mother and sister to defend the honor of his wife), he is a great actor and is by far the best actor to play Batman since Adam West, but short of vomiting from under the bat cowl, I don’t think anyone cared too much about his performance in the least bit. I think he was just a screen filler until the story got back to following The Joker and his menacing antics.

The more I delved into this theory, the more I realized this stretched far beyond The Dark Knight and the Batman villains. This seems to ring true with a lot of movies in the annals of movie history. Let me pose a question: why do movies like THE GODFATHER, SCARFACE and GOODFELLAS have such stay power finding them deeply enriched in today’s pop and youth cultures? Is it because the characters in the film do right by their fellow man? Is it because they follow the yellow brick road because all they have is a wish to make it back home? I don’t think so. It is quite the opposite. They are sociopathic killers with minds that work counterclockwise to mainstream society. These stories are all about watching the villains, the bad guys, the outlaws. Let’s face it watching the bad guys are a lot more fun then watching the good guys. Does this make us blood thirsty psycho nutcases? No.

Simply put, movies are a form of escapism. Its fun to watch things that don’t happen in our daily activity (um, that’s a good thing) and watch the spectacle of it all take place safely on the screen while we sit in a darkened theatre and stuff ourselves with popcorn and jujubes. No one wants to watch this really take place (hopefully), but we can do this through the magic of the motion picture.

Now this is not to say that there are not stories and themes in movies that cater to the good guys (chick flicks). These stories are puffy and light and you can almost read it as an algebraic formula: A (girl meets boy) + B (boy likes girls) C (boy screws up) x D (girl forgives boy) = girl and boy are happy and float on a cloud of pink marshmallows forever and ever alongside purple ponies and unicorns. I am being a bit facetious, however you get my point. It is pretty predictable and easy to swallow (ahem).

On the flip side of the coin, the fun part about watching the bad guys is there really is no predictability whatsoever. No one knows how the mind of a psychotic works, therefore nothing is set in stone. The story can go anywhere through these characters and usually does. A screenplay writer can have a field day creating through these muses. When this is done poorly it is usually because the writer didn’t take full advantage of the tools that were laid out in front of him/her. However, when this is done right it is like a fine wine, aged to perfection and put to the screen with just the right crisp taste we as audience members crave.

I don’t know about you but I could have watched a movie called The Joker. I could watch a movie just about the bad guy without the good guy. There are many people that can and will argue that you cannot have one without the other, that without the inclusion of the performance of the good, you would not be able to appreciate that performance of the bad. Okay. That is fine. By all means that could be true. However, the next time you choose a movie, or are sitting in one ask yourself what you are waiting to see next in the story, what scene you will get the most enjoyment out of: the good? The bad? Or the ugly?

The Celluloid Footprint

The Backlot – Rochester, New York

Published August 21, 2008

The technological advances in movies through the years have been astounding. We have come from saucers on strings in Ed Wood’s PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959) to the recent CGI extravaganza of Pixar’s WALL-E (2008). Even more intriguing is not only the technology that makes movies, but the technology in movies.

Movie Dating

Say you feel nostalgic and you pop in a movie like ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944), besides the great writing, directing and acting what you will see are people picking up the telephone and telling the operator to connect the call to a number like “Radcliffe 732″, or the discussing of a delivery date for the ice man to make his ice delivery. These types of things were just matter of facts, they were not purposely put into the script, the filmmakers just put it in as part of the story, because that was actual life as it was happening in that era.

Let’s say then you skip ahead and throw in a movie like SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES (1980), in this movie you may see things like people playing 8 track tapes in their car stereo, or stopping off on the side of the road to use the payphone. Again just everyday occurrences.

And who could forget that infamous scene in the movie SAY ANYTHING (1989) where John Cusack is standing in from of Ione Skye’s house with a boom box over his head blasting a dedicated song to her via cassette tape.

These technologies are not anything that lent itself to the story at the time of their respective movie’s release; however, with the passage of time, they come close to taking away from it.

When I sit down and watch these movies, it is amazing to see the time period that they took place in. These were not period pieces; these were contemporary films taking place in their own time. So now watching John Cusack has the same message, but with that message being played through a boom box it seems a little more dated now. A little more aged. A reminder that time has moved on.

The Sign of the Apple

Hollywood certainly plays favorites with all sorts of things. Whether that be what types of films they produce, what stories they grab onto and product placements of all shapes and sizes. Audiences have gotten smarter with being able to pick out product placement. Audiences have also become more complacent to this phenomenon and just accepted it as part of the movie culture.

One product that may or may not be product placement is the Apple/Macintosh computer. I watch a lot of films, one might say too many (however that is a whole different column entry). What I have noticed time and time again over the last few years is when the characters in the movie need to jump on a computer of any kind it usually has the warm fluorescent glow of a Macintosh apple. Be it laptops or desktops (mostly laptops now), it is the Apple computer people are on. I thought it might just be me (which is possible); however very rarely in modern films do you see a character rush to their Hewlett Packard or Dell computer.

This might be due to the fact that it is commonly known that creative types have long been associated with the design and multimedia tools of the Mac and that is just simply what is “around” in the Hollywood culture. Who knows if Apple gets a piece of this? If this is a planned placement or it is simply what is an everyday occurrence.

Again, this may just be me, but check it out next time the characters in your film sit down to their computer, check out what brand they are using. In modern days films they will most likely be the Apple.

Into the Future

It has certainly been a long time since Matthew Broderick sat down to his gigantic modem in WAR GAMES (1983) to dial into the government’s computers. It has even been longer since a giant computer (which was slower than today’s slowest computer) was housed in its’ own room in the movie DR. STRANGELOVE (1964). However, these are what makes classic films, not only is it the story that makes it a classic, but the costumes, lingo and technology in it.

Sometimes, it is sort of sad to think how much time has passed since those simpler times, although it is much nicer to watch a scene with a spaceship cross the screen without having to squint to block out the string connected to it.

It is just a matter of time until the aforementioned WALL-E, this website, this column, us, will all be aged, dated and just part of what was happening as an everyday occurrence “back then”.

Idol Idiocracy

Matchflick – San Francisco, CA

Published August 24, 2008

Too often some movies are in and out of the theatre in the blink of an eye. They do not get a lot of attention, they do not get a lot of play and they are all too soon forgotten.

IDIOCRACY is one those movies. I am not necessarily calling this the CITIZEN KANE of modern day cinema. I am not even saying it is that well put together. The fact is the premise of the movie is far better than the actual execution done by the filmmakers of that premise.

The creation of the movie is from the brain of Mike Judge of Beavis and Butt-Head fame. His idea is a “what if” scenario. What if you took a modern day man and put them in a time capsule and had them wake up 1,000 years in the future? What would life be like? The movie starts out by showing how intelligent human beings are not reproducing as much and as fast as far less intelligent human beings. Through the years the far less intelligent human beings begin to catch up and eventually far outnumber humans of any intelligence at all. When Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) wakes up in the future, he finds that everything is geared to and run by morons. Literally. People sit in front of their multiple screen televisions watching wrestling and violent shows, the chair they are sitting on is a plush toilet so they do not have to get up to use the bathroom and their vocabulary and grammar has almost diminished entirely.

When Bauers ventures out into the world he finds mountains of garbage, broken buildings and people trying to make sense of simple tasks. He finds that almost everything is sponsored by the fast food chain Carl’s Jr. In one scenario he comes across a patron trying to purchase a food item from a Carl’s Jr. ATM. The machine welcomes the patron by asking “would you like to try an order of BIG ASS FRIES!?” Where upon the patron replies “yes.” The ATM does not give the patron his food and says “your account is now depleted, please come back when you can afford to make a purchase.” Then the ATM asks “would you like to try another order of BIG ASS FRIES?” Bauers tries to make sense of it all and finally realizes he is in the future and that this is what the world has become. The President is a pro-wrestler and the culture’s biggest problem is that they cannot figure out how to grow crops. When Bauers tells them that they need to pour water on the crops to get them to grow, they do not believe him and laugh at him, but they try it anyway. Of course things start to look up for the crops, which in turn, brings promise to the culture.
IDIOCRACY is done in a very comical way and is portrayed as pure humor. I propose looking at this movie in a totally different light. What if this movie, with everything the same minus the comical soundtrack and one-liners, was done as a dramatic presentation? What if this was a futuristic movie showing what the future could become? I really don’t think it is that far fetched. Already as a society there are changes that give

one pause. It seems as if any new improvements now are to make life easier and by easier I do not mean when the dishwasher was invented or refrigeration. I mean, for lack of a better term, ‘improvements’ that encourage one to lay around on their ass as much as possible. These are not improvements, however, they allow people to become just that much more lazy. We do not need this. We especially do not need this at a time when obesity, education and violence are at frighteningly record levels. We need improvements and inventions to get us off our asses and out into the world to try and make it a better place.

In one scene they show an audience watching a movie called “Ass” and that’s just what it is. It is a bare naked ass on the movie screen that farts every once in a while. The audience is in stitches over it and we are told that the movie won the Academy Award that year. This rang a little too close to home for me. I cannot tell you how many times in recent years I have been at the movies and have seen some truly horrible films, where I and maybe a few others just sat there while a lot of people were cracking up. I mean literally busting a gut. This scares the hell out of me to tell you the truth. I am not saying each film released needs to be the next PULP FICTION, but does almost every other movie being released these days need to be geared towards the lowest side of human intelligence? It just doesn’t make any sense.

As I have said IDIOCRACY is by no means the crème de le crème of motion pictures. It is not actually that good of movie to tell the truth. What it does have is a premise that really makes one think. It is too bad the filmmakers didn’t do the film justice, because there was a lot more that could have been done.

Recently, the film WALL*E had the same sort of story as IDIOCRACY, it is a future in which humans have truly wrecked their home and have gotten fat and lazy while letting contraptions and mechanisms do everything for them. Good movie. However, I am hoping someone takes the ideas from IDIOCRACY and employs them into a serious film. There is a lot to learn from a film like this, in fact I don’t even think a lot of people that watched this movie truly understood what it was all about. It was just another flick, and maybe, ultimately, that is what Judge was trying to do: make the idiot watching the idiots act like idiots. If that was the goal: achieved.

Hopefully we can learn from films such as these and heed the warning signs from it. I am not running around being a naysayer or anything like that. I am merely pointing out that in 2008 you can truly start to see where the seeds are being planted for a future that is shown in this movie and if we can be careful of what seeds we are planting we will be smart enough now to pour water on the crops we want and keep it from the ones we don’t.

Celebrity Skin

Written by Jeff Lurie

Matchflick – San Francisco, CA

Published June 30, 2008

What a strange time it is to be a celebrity. Never before in celebrityland has there been so many ways to be scrutinized, stalked and squashed (sometimes literally) by reporters and the like. Now everyone at anytime can find everything from your favorite movie star picking their nose to their favorite pop star’s bare dairy air and then some.

Can you imagine all of this goings on back in the golden age of Hollywood? It just wouldn’t be tolerated. We are talking about a time when onscreen intimacy would be nothing more than a kiss, with the camera panning over to the open window to watch the curtains flutter to just hint at the fact that sexual contact is going on. Of course this is far different then say Halle Barry and Billy Bob Thornton going at it naked on the floor in MONSTER’S BALL (which she won an Oscar for, hmmm, go figure).

This is not to say there was not scandal and rumors in La-La-Land back then, of course there was. There were also movie magazines and hush-hush reports about celebrities, but they paled in comparison to what is reported on now. Big news back then might have been that Cary Grant showed up stag to a premiere or even as far as who’s that with Judy Garland? Now, within an hour of Lindsay Lohan getting off a boat in Venice without underwear we just need to jump on the internet to get a glimpse of her little Lohan, with nothing more than a snicker and then we await the next event.

I often wonder which is better: the classic entertainment buzz reporting of yesteryear or the media and viral video blanket of today? Surely not every celebrity today is like Lindsay Lohan. There are some celebrities that are taking advantage of the far reaching intrusive reports of today. Take someone like George Clooney who, yes, I have read this and that, snippets if you will of “scandalous” stories about him, which is really nothing more than a headline. The truth is Clooney uses the media as much as they use him; he tries to bring attention to social travesties and worthwhile causes. The media, of course, covers it and the word gets out. Not to say that Jimmy Stewart or Ronald Reagan (pre-Pres) did not publicize the purchasing of war bonds and the like, but you most likely had to be at the movie theatre watching a newsreel to see these messages. Now if a celebrity so much wears a t-shirt with the words “peace now” on it, as they come out of their house to get the paper, it is on your laptop in minutes.

Along with progress comes the good, the bad and the ugly. For all the Clooney’s and say Sean Penn’s in Iraq there are ten more Brittany Spears and Paris Hiltons. Which sells more? Angelina Jolie in Africa or Paris Hilton in her “movie?” (Yes that one). We all know the horrid story of the paparazzi and Princess Diana, which, yes, is an extreme case, but it shows just how far today’s media, both professional and amateur will go to get a picture, a statement, a story out to the world, which becomes nothing more then a click of the mouse and a quick read by us, the readers. To be able to get that “money shot” is worth millions now and there are always buyers.