Dennis Hopper dead at 74

Actor Dennis Hopper passed away early this morning of complications from prostate cancer. He was 74.

Hopper's film career spanned 50 years, appearances in over 100 different movies of wildly differing genres, and even a turn as director on the celebrated picture "Easy Rider."

'Men in Tights' is hilarious Robin Hood spoof

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
Starring: Cary Elwes, Roger Rees, Amy Yasbeck, Richard Lewis, Mark Blankfield, Dave Chapelle, Megan Cavanagh, Eric Allan Kramer, and Tracey Ullman
Director: Mel Brooks
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

In "Robin Hood: Men in Tights", Mel Brooks pokes fun at Robin Hood movies from the classic "Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Errol Flynn through the sloppy and ludicrously politically correct "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" starring Kevin Costner, while throwing in a heaping helping of satirical modern pop culture references and fourth-wall humor of a level of hilarity that the makers of films like "Superhero Movie!" can only dream of reaching.


When "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" is at it's best, it rivals Mel Brooks films like "Young Frankenstein" in its craziness and hilarity, but when it falters, it really stalls out. Basically, everything involving Robin Hood and his men in the forest ranks among some of the funniest material to ever be featured in a Mel Brooks movie, with the songs being particularly hilarious. Unfortunately, the opposite it true of just about anything that happens in King John's castle, which tends to be unfunny, slow-paced and generally fairly stupid. (The only exception to this are the fun homages to the sword duels of the Errol Flynn films when Robin Hood takes on the entirety of King John's army in the castle's great hall and the final duel between Robin and the Sheriff at the end of the movie.)

The weakness of the sections in the castle are purely a problem with the script, as Cary Elwes is equally funny and swashbuckler-esque in the Errol Flynn mode throughout the film, and Roger Rees is likewise consistently hilarious as the twitchy and tongue-tied Sheriff of Rottingham. (These two actors serve as the comedic heart of the film, with everyone else giving performances that bounce of them or orbit around them.)

While "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" is an uneven effort from Mel Brooks, it is not as bad as some would lead you to believe. In fact, I might say that the "Sherwood Rap" and "Men in Tights" songs make this movie worth seeing by themselves. Also, anyone who rolled their eyes at Kevin Costner's sad performance in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" will especially appreciate Robin Hood's response to why the peasants will follow him in revolt against the king, "'Because unlike some other Robin Hoods, I speak with an English accent."

Gary Coleman dead at 42

Actor-turned-security officer Gary Coleman died Friday at the age of 42. The "Diff'rent Strokes" star had suffered a brain hemorrhage and died in a Utah hospital.

Tectonic Tuesdays: Alicia Rickter

Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi (the Imam of Imams) said, "Many women who do not dress modestly [...] spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes."

The question: Is Imam Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi wise beyond mortal ken, or just a madman with his turban wound too tight? Read on and find the answer.

Sixth Case Study: Alicia Rickter
The appopriately named Alicia Rickter is a now-retired model and actress who spent her entire career engandering the planet! She appeared in an earth-shattering photospread as the 500th Playmate of the Month is the October 1995 issue of Playboy, causing a devastating earthquake in China that left over 6000 people homeless. She exposed herself again in the pages of Playboy in 1997, bringing about massive earthquakes in northern Iran and central India that killed hundreds and once again left thousands of people homeless.



But Alicia Rickter posed the greatest threat to humanity when she starred in "Baywatch Hawaii," a television program devoted almost exclusively to letting immodest women show off their cataclysm-causing bodies. During 2000 and 2001, she and the other women on that program caused earthquakes in the Phillipines, Peru and India.


It's all because of the immodesty of Alicia Rickter.

The last 'Everybody Draw Mohammed' post?

The Big Event is here and gone. The bad actors (like the government of Pakistan) behaved as one could expect, but I hope the larger point got across: Islmofacists won't be able to scare the common American into silence with their threats... or, it would seem, the common Westerner in general.

This thing turned out to be a whole lot bigger than I would have thought. I really did think it would peter out rather than build and build toward May 20. I guess I'm not the only one who is pissed off at the say a handful of twisted morons can make governments and corprations snap to because they make threats.

There has been a lot of talk about the "good Muslim" and the "peaceloving Muslim" and the "moderate Muslim" who was offended by these cartoons. Well, I hope that Muslim got the message that I am equally offended by his allowing those who associte with him to bully and intimidate the people they don't agree with.

I still question the notion that the "good Muslim" and the "peaceloving Muslim" and the "moderate Muslim" have any influence whatsover where it counts in Islam, however. And my conclusion is strenghtened by this flim clip. It is the full film from the fantatics disrupting Lars Vilks lecture. (I agree that the film clip he present3ed was offensive. *I* was offended, and I have only slightly more respect for Mohammed than I have for Adolf Hitler. It wasn't pornographic--that's more of the usual Muslim exaggerations and lies--but it was a bit much.)

However, I think I did spot a couple of those "good" and "peaceloving Muslims" is the crowd of "protesters," and that's why I'm posting this clip. There's one guy in a white shirt and cap who looks very uncomfortable as his fellow "protesters" go ape-shit around him. He can even be seen shaking his head and looking disgusted at more than one occassion. Then there's the guy who talks a couple of his stupider cohorts to refrain from provoking and attacking the police.



If those two had been the majority of the "protesters," I doubt I would have felt the need to take part in "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day," because there wouldn't even have been a need for such an event.

But, until such time as the Muslims grow up and/or stop behaving like it's 1934 and they're members of the Nazi Party, then there will be more such events by those who refuse to be cowed by their threats and outbursts. Because every educated person knows exactly where we'll end up if we do.

'The Great Race' is a great time

The Great Race (1965)
Starring: Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, Peter Falk, and Keenan Wynn
Director: Blake Edwards
Rating: Ten of Ten Stars

In 1908, The Great Leslie (Curtis), a famed daredevil who all men want to be and who all women want, proposes a race from New York to Paris to celebrate the glory of the automobile and the power of the American automotive companies. The race gets strange and crazy when Leslie's nemesis--rival daredevil Professor Fate (Lemmon) and his sidekick Max (Falk)--decide the circum-global race is the perfect opportunity to show that he's the superior man--and cigarillo-smoking suffergette Maggie DuBois (Wood) decides the race is the perfect chance to prove a liberated woman is the equal of any man.


"The Great Race" is a spectacular spoof of movies like "Around the World in 80 Days" and a fantastic homage to the style of comedy seen in the silent movies and early talkies. Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk are great as the bumbling, highly sympathetic villains of the piece, Natalie Wood is hilarious (not to mention drop-dead gorgeous) as the ever-scheming pig-headed Maggie DuBois, and Tony Curtis stands as the brave and so-virtious-dirt-never-sticks-to-his-all-white-clothing-and-so-sauve-his-car-never-runs-out-of-chilled-champagne romantic hero Leslie at the center of the crazy antics of the film's antagonists. (There's a pie fight that breaks out in the movie's second half, and Leslie wanders through the mayhem and never gets so much as a fleck of whip cream on him!)

From beginning to end, this is a good-natured film, filled with likable and even lovable characters. Although Professor Fate and Max are constantly trying to sabotage Leslie's stunts, are trying to win the race through all sorts of underhanded tricks, everything seems to be in good fun. (Well, not from Professor Fate's point of view, but the audience can't resent him, because nothing ever goes right for him... and he's obviously so insecure that if he wasn't so funny we'd be feeling sorry for him.)

Another source of this movie's charm is that it contains virtually all the standards of the classic movie comedies from the 1920s and into the 1930s, as well as many of the standards of the "steampunk" movie genre that flourished briefly in the 1960s (which included such flicks as "Around the World in 80 Days", "At the Earth's Core", and "First Men on the Moon") in the form of the flying bicycle, submarine, and bizarre automobile that Professor Fate and Max travel around on.

The film also spoofs classic meldodramas, via the upstanding Leslie and the dastardly Professor Fate and by including a hilarious "Prisoner of Zenda" take-off where Professor Fate is roped into posing as the Crown Prince of Potzdorf by evil Prussians because of the uncanny likeness he shares with the dimwitted drunkard. We're treated to a swordfight as Leslie once again has to save the day, and one of the most hilarious displays of American patriotism on screen ever filmed. (Even while typing this, I find myself chuckling at recollection of Natalie Wood and Keenan Wynn breaking into "God Bless America" while imprisoned in the Potzdorf dungeon.)

Every scene in this film, and every actor performing, displays perfect comedic timing. There isn't a gag that doesn't come off perfectly, there isn't a scene that runs overlong, and there isn't a moment wasted in the film. Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk make a great team in their Laurel & Hardy-inspired roles, and Natalie Wood is funnier and more gorgeous than she ever was in any other movie she made. Tony Curtis has the thankless job of being the straight man, but he is perfect as the dashing hero.


I've seen the 160-minute running time mentioned as being too long, but to me it seemed just right--and I generally think that a movie shouldn't run more than 100 minutes. Perhaps the criticism of the film as being to long comes from the way we watch it today; when it was shown in theaters, there was an intermission just before the film launches into the Potzdorf segment. As fate would have it, my viewing of the film was interrupted almost at that same exact moment, so I got the "intermission experience", and I therefore didn't get restless. Still, at the rate the gags were coming--and as funny as Jack Lemmon was playing the dual role of Professor Fate and Prince Hapnick, I still doubt I would have felt the film was too long. Everything and everyone is perfect in this movie.

Blake Edward's REAL "Ten" isn't the movie he made by that title, but rather "The Great Race". It's a must-see for lovers of classic movies and great comedies.

The Day of a Million Mohammeds!

It's May 20th, the fictitious "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" that became a reality. Here's my contribution to a demonstration of how sick and tired we decent citizens of America (and the rest of the civilized world, actually) are of thin-skinned Muslims threatening violence and committing mayhem and murder whenever they feel offended.


I hope this day marks the point where Americans stop cowering and/or genuflecting in the face of deranged idolaters of the Prophet Mohammed and start firmly defending the freedoms of expression that are among our inalienable rights. That we have freedom of expression is one of those things that all Americans should hold to be self-evident.

I hope this day marks the end of the encroachment of Islamic fundamentalism threatening our freedom of speech, an encroachment that's been doing on since 1989 and the death threats against Salman Rushdie. (One might even say they've been doing it since 1977 and the murders that a Islamic radical group committed in Washington D.C. over the screening of "Mohammed, Messenger of God." But that lunatic fringe group wasn't backed by governments the way some of the crazies are now.)