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September 8th, 2003
 | 09:36 am - Warren finally sleeps
First of all, not that any of you are even still reading my LiveJournal, but here's one of those links I promised I'd post: Sam and Max: Freelance Police. I'm pretty excited to see this game. The first one was... well, the first one was just so incredibly entertaining. I used to play through the entire game for the benefit of my friends, and I'd save games that the best parts ("This is virtual reality? I think I may be sick."). Used to do that with Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, too. Full Throttle also has a sequel coming out soon. Good thing, too. I was beginning to think that the present sorry state of computer games (ahem, GTA3) was going to last forever. Somewhere on here I oughta put a link to Crimsonland, but I think the commercial version is still in development, and they've been trying to eradicate the free version, and besides, I'm not quite half-awake, so I expect that anybody actually reading this (including myself, once the coffee kicks in) will have no idea what this paragraph is about.
Oh, did I mention that I'm even pissed-offer than I was in my last entry? Well I am.
See, again, this all goes back to the United Way Day of Caring. More cancellations, after I thought I'd pretty much made it clear that we were committed to these projects. I need to call the United Way office, explain the situation, etc., and whomever I speak to is going to be calm and reasonable, and somewhere under that warm, understanding exterior, she's going to be kicking and screaming and pulling her hair out. And I can't blame her, since it's-- Damn and blast. I had just paused to take a quick look at Fark.com, and now I'm all depressed.
Warren Zevon's dead at 56. Coincidentally, I have a greatest hits album of his here at work, so I guess I'm going to listen to that a lot today. I remember last year when he made the public announcement that he had cancer, he had been given three months to live and said that he'd be okay if he could only make it to the next Bond film. Lucky for him, he lasted quite a bit longer than expected, and he did live to see the next Bond film.
I thought it was pretty lousy.
And when I saw it, I immediately felt kind of bad for Warren, until it occurred to me that I think all the Bond films are pretty lousy (except for Casino Royale), which puts me in a minority. Oh, well. Anyway, yeah. This morning sucks.
Current Mood: Even more pissed off
Current Music: Fantomas -- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
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You know, there are some good Bond films. And more potentially good bond films ruined by the actors. Like "The Man With The Golden Gun" would have been about 10 times better if the actor who played Bond wasn't Roger Moore (yes, this means it would have been 10 times better if Gilbert Godfriend played Bond). Speaking of which, every movie Roger Moore was in would have been better if he weren't in it. But I digest. "The Living Daylights" was interesting, but the plot sucked. Dalton is probably the most talented actor to play Bond. He just got stuck with bad plots. Sean Connery had 2 masterpieces under his belt for Bond - Goldfinger (Where he nearly dies. Nearly.) And also Thunderball, which has a cameo - brief though it is - of Columbus teacher Mr. Byfield. Anyway. So, if you ever want to see a "Good" Bond film, watch Goldfinger or Thunderball.
But Casino Royale is good too. I won't call it a Bond film, however. I have this thing of avoiding mixing Woody Allen in with movie series that I like. Granted, Sleeper was funny, as well as Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Deconstructing, (Mighty Aphrodite gets a mention due to the fact that it parodies Greek tragedy, despite the fact that it isn't funny, tragic or, well, interesting to me in any way.), and of course, Annie Hall. I think Allen was one of 7 writers on Casino Royale. Granted it didn't turn out to make much sense, but neither do any real Bond films. The premise, however, is unique from all Bond films. And hilarity ensues.
Call me uncultured, but who was Warren Zevon?
I really need to see Sleeper again. Okay, all right, you're right. Casino Royale is not really a Bond film, but I like it, and frankly, I find it easier to sit through than the real ones. It may be prudent at this juncture to point out that you'll have to take my taste in movies with a grain of salt since I think that the Austin Powers and American Pie franchises are 2/3 of the anti-Christ. The other third might be Tomb Raider, but I'm not sure.
Oh, and I thought Mighty Aphrodite was pretty funny, but 1) that's just me (see above), and it's been a good three years since my last and only viewing, so I can't argue that point.
As for who Warren Zevon is, you're kidding, right? You're not kidding? Well, let's see... He was a folk/rock songwriter whose career spanned from 1969 until, well, August 26th. His big song which you'd probably know is called Werewolves of London, but it's not necessarily representative of his work. You might also know Excitable Boy, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, Mr. Bad Example, Play It All Night Long or the exquisite Lawyers, Guns, and Money. Check him out. Well, I haven't seen Mighty Aphrodite in 4-5 years. I saw it in HS at the peak of my interest in ancient Greece/Rome. That was just my opinion of it in that period.
But you're probably right about the Austin Powers/American Pie/Tomb Raider anti-christ thing. I can't really argue against that one. Despite the fact that the first 2 can entertain me for certain periods of time - like 90 minutes or so. Tomb Raider is quite evil. It just seems that no new comedies can ever match the sheer... uh... stuff of UHF. If you know what I mean.
But Warren Zevon is important enough for MSN to give a lengthy bio on him. Well, lengthy for MSN. I do believe that the sheer "stuff" of UHF is what's commonly referred to as "pure, unredeeming, rot-your-brains-out comedy gold." So yes, I do know what you mean.
When UHF was first released, MGM thought that they had a big summer blockbuster on their hands, but unfortunately it bombed. Big time. Financially, it did so poorly that by the mid-90's, it was no longer available on VHS, which is pretty bad for a mainstream movie within ten years of its release. Of course, it didn't help that UHF was released during the same week as... um, I don't recall what, but it was big. All this time I thought it was the first Batman movie, but I just looked it up and they were about a month apart. Anyway, it amuses me greatly that after thirteen years of losing money on and ultimately ignoring UHF, MGM more than broke even shortly after the DVD release. |
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