Musical Dreams Reviews: August 2024

Thursday, August 29, 2024

C'mon, Let's Live a Little

Paramount, 1967

Starring Bobby Vee, Jackie DeShannon, Eddie Hodges, and John Ireland

Directed by David Butler

Music and Lyrics by Don Crawford

Paramount made one last stab at beach parties in 1967, just as the surf music wave was cresting. That could be why this one has a topical angle that mostly took it off the beaches and onto a college campus. Colleges across the US were rife with protests as students rallied for civil rights, women's rights, and their own right to speak freely and against the war in Vietnam. It's also a little bit more action-packed than most of these films, with car wrecks and brawls in and out of school. How does all this look now, as more college students one again stage protests and question the rules of society? Let's begin with tough little cookie Judy Grant (DeShannon) who ends up in that car wreck and find out...

The Story: Arkansas hillbilly singer Jesse Crawford (Vee) rescues Judy from the burning car. Her father (Russ Conway) is the dean of students at a local college. He's so grateful, he lets Jesse go to school for free. Jesse befriends nerdy inventor Eddie Stewart (Eddie Hodges), who introduces him to his singing group. Eddie's hoping to beat school intellectual Rego (Ireland) for school president, but Rego has his own ideas of who should be in charge. He holds a rally against the dean, convincing Jesse and Eddie's group to sing for the show. Judy's horrified, until Jesse finally explains that he had no idea what the rally was about, and Judy reminds Rego that there's more to life and love than revolution.

The Song and Dance: I give them a little credit on this one. This is the only Beach Party imitation that got anywhere near the campus radicalism that was much-discussed at the time. It does give you the idea of how scared many adults were of the revolutions happening on colleges around the country in the late 60's and makes for a fairly original twist. At the very least, it makes a bit more sense than teens gyrating on a beach.

Favorite Number: Our first number is Vee's lovely "What Fools This Mortal Be" with Eddie's group, though most of the second half is drowned out by Rego and Judy's brother Tim (Mark Evans) deciding to add him to their big protest rally. Giggly Bee Bee Vendermeer (Suzie Kaye), Tim's girlfriend who flirts with every guy around, performs the title number with a male combo at a local club. Vee is encouraged to join Kaye and slinky dancers for the swinging "Instant Girl."

Jesse's hillbilly relatives drive to college singing "Way Back Home" as they wonder about all the differences between their farm and the campus. Jesse sings "Over and Over" while he and Judy discuss their relationship. Eddie and his band rehearse the dance song "Let's Go-Go" at their dorm rooms before the rally. Jesse and Judy really get into their catchy duet "Back-Talk" at the rally, before Rego comes out with his big speeches and annoys the dean and the students alike. We end with black duet The Pair jamming with "Tonight's the Night" at the end of the rally.

Trivia: Last movie for director David Butler, who had been doing fluffy musicals and romantic comedies like this one since 1927.

Look for future rock star Kim Carnes as one of Judy's friends on campus.

What I Don't Like: Even in the truncated version I saw on YouTube, it's still clear that this hasn't dated well at all. In 1967, most college students would have been far more likely to take those protests seriously, and they sure as heck would today. DeShannon comes off a little bit better than in Surf Party three years earlier, but Vee has no chemistry with her and can't act worth a darn and everyone else is either annoying or too goofy. Even Patsy Kelly as Dean Grant's housekeeper can't do much with the witless material she has to work with. The sets and costumes look as cheap as they likely are. We barely even get on the beach, much less have parties.

The Big Finale: Paramount seems to have wiped out with their attempts to ape AIP. Only for the most ardent fans of Vee or DeShannon, or those who remember seeing these movies at the drive-in or late-night cable.

Home Media: Currently only available in truncated copies from those late-night cable showings on YouTube and the Internet Archive that are missing two of DeShannon's numbers.

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Beach Ball

Paramount, 1965

Starring Edd Byrnes, Chris Noel, Robert Logan, and Gail Gilmore

Directed by Lennie Weinrib

Music and Lyrics by various

We're celebrating the end of the summer season this week with the two of the three Beach Party imitations Paramount released in the mid-60's. Beach Ball debuted at the height of the craze in September 1965, when the AIP Beach Party films were doing turn-away business at drive-ins and every studio had begun their own beach-set musicals. Seeing the profits, all of the major studios and many minor ones also started throwing rock acts and their young contracted stars into odd stories revolving around surf parties. How does Paramount's second shot at the teen market look today? Let's begin with shots of surfers hanging ten as the party starts and find out...

The Story: The Wrigglers (Robert Logan, Aron Kincaid, and Don Edmonds) are a rock group who would love to make good, if they didn't owe Mr. Wolf (James Wellman) at the local music store $1,000 for their instruments. Their ambitious manager Dick Martin (Byrnes) goes to Susan (Noel), the head of the college credit union, to try to get alone. He feeds her a sob story about wanting to return to college, until Susan and her friends Augusta (Mikki Jamison) and Samantha (Brenda Benet) see the boys having a party and Dick admits they have no intention of returning to college.

The girls tear up the check, but change their minds after Dick and the guys say they'll return to college when they can make the money for their instruments. The girls try to give them the money, but Dick gets offended. They do manage to get them a spot in a big car show with a $1,000 prize. The boys end up getting in touch with their feminine sides when they get into trouble with Wolf and having to out-run the local cops.

The Song and Dance: In this case, the song is the only thing that's really of any consequence. Paramount lined up an impressive array of guest-star acts for such a silly film, including the Four Seasons, the Righteous Brothers. and in their first movie, the Supremes. There's also some nice cinematography during the few scenes actually shot on the beach.

Favorite Number: Appropriately, we kick off with this film's big hit, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons with their smash "Dawn." "Surfin' Shindig" is the first of four numbers from The Wigglers...and the only thing that makes this different than their later songs is Dick insisting that the boys speed it up, leading to them ending with sped-up film. The Righteous Brothers really get rocking at the party that so offends Susan and her girls with "Baby, What You Want Me To Do." "We've Got Money" is the Wigglers' second song at the party they hold when they think they have that credit union check in the bag. We also get an instrumental version that's once again sped up after the ladies leave.

Actual surf rock group the Hondells take us back to the beach with "My Buddy Seat." "Doin' the Jerk" by the Walker Brothers provides the backdrop for the boys evading the cops and ending up in drag. The Supremes pick up next as Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard wriggle their way through the title song and "Surfer Boy" in elegant white dresses and extremely strange hairdos. I don't think the audience was expecting a drag-act Wigglers to turn up onstage, singing "I Feel So Good." The ladies certainly didn't!

What I Don't Like - This is dumb even by the standards of B teen drive-in fodder. All of the terrific music acts in the world can't make up for a ridiculous script, leads that are dull (the ladies) or annoyingly obnoxious (the men), and the cheap production by Roger Corman (one of his very few ventures into musical territory). Byrnes does well enough for a last-minute substitute for Tommy Kirk, but his character is grating and sleazy.

The Big Finale: Only of interest to the most ardent fans of classic rock or Motown. Anyone else will want to stay very far away. There's far more enjoyable beach parties out there.

Home Media: It helps that at press time, this can only be found in a washed-out copy on YouTube that seems to have been taped off VH-1 two decades ago. (That said, host Frankie Valli's comments before and after commercial breaks actually make the movie slightly easier to watch and helps put a lot of the idiocy in context.)

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Animation Celebration Saturday - Rio 2

20th Century Fox, 2014

Voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Andy Garcia, and Jermaine Clement

Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Music and Lyrics by various

Rio was a smash in 2011, one of the biggest animated films of that year. It was likely inevitable that it would get a follow-up, especially after "Real In Rio" was nominated for an Oscar. This one proved to be an even bigger hit, one of the biggest of 2014. Is it as much fun as Rio was, or should this one get cut down? Let's begin back at Rio as everyone prepares to celebrate the New Year and find out...

The Story: The birds are celebrating when Linda (Leslie Mann) and Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) are exploring the Amazon. After a close encounter with a waterfall, they discover a Spinx Macaw feather, proving there's more out in the wild. After hearing about it on TV, Jewel (Hathaway) thinks she and her family should search for their relatives in the Amazon. Blu's not crazy about the idea, but their children love it. They're joined by Rafael (George Lopez), Nico (Jamie Foxx), and Pedro (will.i.am), who are scouting performers for their big Carnival showcase.

They eventually discover the Macaws living in an uncharted part of the Amazon. Jewel's father Eduardo (Garcia) is happy to see his daughter again, but thinks Blu is too domesticated and tries to teach him the ways of the jungle. He doesn't trust humans after loggers destroyed their original home. Blu being so close to Linda makes him suspect, especially after he accidentally causes a war with their rivals the Scarlet Macaws. Blu's knowledge of human technology is more useful than Eduardo wants to admit when they're attacked by the same loggers who burned their original home. Nigel (Clement) is still out there, too, looking for revenge with poison dart tree frog Gabi (Kristen Chenoweth) and anteater Charlie.

The Animation: Just as gorgeous this time around, and probably the best thing about this. The musical numbers, with the many birds in Busby Berkeley formations, are beautifully rendered. There's gorgeous details in the Amazon and in Rio as everyone celebrates the New Year. The birds flying to the Amazon is especially lovely as they soar around familiar landmarks and shining waters.

The Song and Dance: Once again, it's the supporting cast who really shine. Bruno Mars is usually a singer, but he manages to acquit himself relatively well here as Jewel's macho childhood friend whom her father wishes she'd married. Garcia also does well as Jewel's militant father. The three kids are hilarious, especially when talking their father into going on a jungle trek. There's some nice action sequences, too. The finale with the birds helping Linda and Tulio attack the loggers is well-composed and genuinely exciting.

Favorite Number: We open with a huge New Year's celebration in Rio to "What Is Love," with the cast dancing and Blu trying to stop his kids from shooting off fireworks (and not succeeding). "Let Me Take You To Rio" gives us a creative montage of the birds flying to the jungle via Blu's GPS and creative pop-up pictures from his daughter's book. "Poisonous Love" is Chenoweth's big solo as Gabi trills to the Nigel, the object of her affection (and obsession). Mars gets to pour his voice into "Welcome Home" as Roberto, Jewel's childhood friend, does just that.

"Beautiful Creature" is the flock's song, apparently one that they've performed so often, "it's in our blood." This is where the Busby Berkeley comes in as we see the birds flying in lavish formations. Nico and Pedro's attempts at finding an act dig up everything from a mosquito orchestra to a capybara who sings "Memory," but each and every one gets eaten or killed. Gabi and Nigel have far more luck with their more dramatic "I Will Survive." "Bola Viva" is the big soccer match between the birds for their home. The movie ends with a reprise of "What Is Love," this time performed with all of Nico and Pedro's discoveries in the jungle.

Trivia: Disney supposedly has a third movie in development.

What I Don't Like: Can we say "cliched?" Basically, this is mining any fish-out-of-water tropes they didn't hit in the first movie. I don't know why Jewel had such a hard time respecting Blu's wishes and treated him so badly after they found her family. The Macaws were no prizes, either, especially Eduardo. They barely let the guy have the chance to explain anything.

The side stories with Pedro and Nico looking for talent and Nigel's revenge plot are shoved in to give those characters something to do and have nothing to do with anything. In fact, Nigel is reduced to a goofy comic relief character here with the annoying Gabi after being one of the scarier villains in the first film. They probably could have eliminated Gabi, Charlie, and Nigel all together with no one the wiser. There's also all the violence in the finale and with the gruesome deaths of the animals who sing for Pedro and Nico in the jungle being a bit scarier than the "G" rating warrants.

The Big Finale: Same deal here. If your older kids love animal stories or birds or are interested in learning about other cultures, these are worth checking out once for the songs and animation alone.

Home Media: Easily found on all formats, this time including Disney Plus.

DVD - Rio 2-Movie Collection

Disney Plus

Thursday, August 22, 2024

Musicals on TV - Annie Get Your Gun (1957)

NBC, 1957

Starring Mary Martin, John Raitt, Retta Shaw, and Donald Burr

Directed by Vincent J. Donehue

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

Three years after Satins and Spurs failed to catch on, NBC tried another musical western, this time a Broadway adaptation with a somewhat more likely performer. Native Texan Mary Martin had been a stage star since the late 30's. She was a huge success in the 1947 national tour of Annie Get Your Gun, winning a special Tony for "bringing Broadway to the masses." After her Peter Pan was a ratings smash in 1955 and 1956, they returned to another role she was associated with. Does her version come off better than the 1950 theatrical release with Betty Hutton? Let's head to Ohio, where Buffalo Bill's (William O'Neal) Wild West Show has just gotten into town, and find out...

The Story: Annie Oakley (Martin) is the best shot in all of Ohio. She's so good, she shoots the stuffed bird off the hat belonging to Frank Butler's assistant Dolly Tate (Shaw). Manager Charlie Davenport (Burr) talks her into a marksmanship competition with their shooting star Frank Butler (Raitt) for them to win rooms at the local hotel.

After Annie beats Frank hands-down, Charlie and Frank convince her to join the show as another assistant. Frank is so delighted with her work, he's smitten with the straightforward young woman, until Charlie gives her an act of her own. She's heartbroken when he takes Dolly and her daughter Winnie (Barbara Luckey) and joins Pawnee Bill's (Robert Nash) rival show. Sitting Bull (Zachary Charles), on the other hand, adopts her into his tribe.

When Buffalo Bill's European tour produces acclaim but no profit, Sitting Bull comes up with the idea of putting the two shows together. Annie and Frank are all for it...until they start arguing about who's the better shot again. The duo finally take part in one last competition to see for once and for all who really is the best sharpshooter in the world.

The Song and Dance: At the very least, we get some songs that didn't make the cut in the film version and more of a sense of what this was originally like onstage. Raitt is a sexy and very manly Frank Butler and sings better than most of them. Reta Shaw makes the most of Dolly Tate's expanded role, including her reaction when Annie shoots that bird off her hat and her trying to sabotage her gun in the finale. Mary Martin sounds wonderful. Her "I Got Lost In His Arms" is especially lovely, and she works great with the kids.

Favorite Number: We open with the crowds cheering "Colonel Buffalo Bill" as Charlie and Dolly tout the delights of the Wild West Show. Frank claims "I'm a Bad, Bad Man" to the ladies as he boasts about being thrown out of half the towns in the Midwest. Annie and her siblings say they're only "Doin' What Comes Naturally" when she brings perfectly shot poultry to the hotel owner. Frank tells her that she's not enough woman for him. "The Girl That I Marry" will be feminine through and through. Annie laments that "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun."

Charlie, Frank, and Buffalo Bill convince Annie to join them with Irving Berlin's show business anthem, "There's No Business Like Show Business." After singing her siblings and two Native children to sleep with "Moonshine Lullaby," Annie's thrilled when Frank says he'll give her billing. They discuss how "They Say It's Wonderful" to be in love. Frank for his part can't believe "My Defenses are Down" and he's fallen for this straight-shooting hillbilly. Annie reprises "Show Business" in the spotlight in front of her image on the poster. Sitting Bull and his tribe literally kidnap her to appear in their big elaborate tribal dance. Annie seems more dazed by their "I'm an Indian Too" than anything.

Annie readily admits she's fallen for Frank, even if he isn't happy about her being a star. "I Got Lost In His Arms," she realizes when they arrive in New York. She sings "I Got the Sun In the Morning" with the crowd at the reception for Pawnee Bill's show after there's talk of merging the two Bills. She and Frank are less thrilled at their competition. Annie points out that "Anything You Can Do," she can do better - including trick shooting.

Trivia: This, too, was broadcast in color for those few who had color TVs in 1957. It was filmed at NBC's new color-equipped studios in Burbank and broadcast to New York. Unlike the Brooklyn studios, the Burbank Studios continue to be used for television filming, though they're no longer owned by NBC.

This would get a TV remake in 1967 based around the 1966 Lincoln Center revival, this time with original stage star Ethel Merman. Alas, that version remains lost at the moment other than one brief clip of her singing "I Got the Sun In the Morning."

What I Don't Like: First of all, the problems inherent in most versions of Annie pertain to this one, too. It still doesn't treat women and especially Natives well. The Native Americans are still played for comic relief, the lyrics on "I'm an Indian Too" are still condescending, and it's obvious even in the black and white kinetoscope currently available that they're all played by white actors in bad red makeup. It's also very far from historically accurate. In real life, Annie was a soft-spoken and gentle woman who did needlepoint, and Frank quickly realized she was the better shot and stepped down to become her manager.

Martin is too dainty and feminine to make a great Annie. She does better after Annie cleans up than in the opening when she's supposed to be a hillbilly. Though this does retain the characters of Winnie Tate and Tommy Keller, it eliminates their songs "I'll Share It All With You" and "Who Do You Love, I Hope?" leaving Barbara Luckey and Norman Edwards with nothing to do. And yeah, this is obviously a TV production, with cardboard sets and minimal movement besides two good dance routines on "I've Got the Sun In the Morning" and "I'm an Indian Too."

The Big Finale: If you love Martin or Annie Get Your Gun, this is worth seeing as a recording of most of the original show prior to that 1966 revamp.

Home Media: It is on DVD and Blu-Ray, but VAI's discs tend to be expensive. Your best bet currently may be YouTube.

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Musicals on TV - Satins and Spurs

NBC, 1954

Starring Betty Hutton, Kevin McCarthy, Guy Raymond, and Gus Chandler

Directed by Max Liebman and Charles O'Curran

Music by Jay Livingston; Lyrics by Ray Evans

Westerns and musicals ruled the airwaves during television's first flush of popularity in the 50's and 60's. Prime-time was saturated with every variation on the oater you could imagine, from kids' shows to hard-hitting dramatic westerns to satires of them. Musicals too were at their zenith in the mid-50's. Most of the television industry still centered around New York then, making it easy to bring in stage stars and film scenes from the latest Broadway smash. Westerns and musicals came together for the first 90 minute color "spectacular," featuring movie comedienne Betty Hutton as a cowgirl who falls for a photographer. How does this look today? Let's begin on a very stage-bound Broadway and find out...

The Story: Rodeo rider Cindy Smathers (Hutton) and her cowhands Tex (Raymond) and Dick (Josh Wheeler) have come to New York to play a big rodeo at Madison Square Garden. Cindy's manager Ollie (Edwin Phillips) insists on her doing a big publicity stunt for her show. Life Magazine sends photographer Tony Barton (McCarthy) and his assistant Ursula (Mary Ellen Kay) to do an extensive photo shoot on a cowgirl loose in the big city. Loud, brash Cindy isn't like the haughty models Tony is used to dealing with, and Cindy's tired of Tony complaining about her not being a lady. Love - and Life Magazine - win out when Cindy sees her picture in the papers and realizes that maybe New York and Tony aren't so bad after all.

The Song and Dance: Hutton tries her hardest with the fluffy story in this live show. She's obviously having a ball, whether she's singing about her grandfather's exploits in the Wild West or trying to learn how to talk "fancy" from a record. Some of the mid-50's costumes are gorgeous, too, especially those evening gowns and ballet dresses at the fashion house, not to mention Hutton's spangled cowgirl costumes and her heavily beaded poncho that she calls a dressing gown. Her idea of being "slinky" is hilarious, too.

Favorite Number: We open with a jazzy ballet depicting everyday New Yorkers in Times Square, including three gamblers and their ladies. This leads straight into Cindy's entrance with her boys, "We're a Different Kind." They stick out like a sore thumb in their glittery western outfits, brandishing their pistols as a brass band joins in at Madison Square Garden. Cindy jumps up and down on the bed in her hotel room as she tells Tony and Ursula about her grandfather "Wildcat Smathers," to their general shock and annoyance.

Cindy arrives at the big fashion house in time for a showing of evening gowns that turns into an elegant ballet, with three young women introducing gowns called "Ballerina." Cindy and her boys are more interested in tell them how she may be a cowgirl but "A Girl Is Still a Girl." Genevieve, a real-life French chanteuse, appropriately sings a French number at the night club, "Donne-Moi." The high-class night club crowd is less impressed with Cindy's brayed "Little Rock Rhythm and Roll." Her flop there leads Cindy and Tony into the combative "I've Had Enough of You."

Upset after Tony tries to turn her into a lady, Cindy wanders into a rainstorm, watching happy couples and sadly lamenting "Nobody Cares." Tex reprises "Little Rock Rhythm," first with a country group, then as a jazzier instrumental number for a group of far hipper dancers at a local restaurant. Tex takes over again, his eccentric dance bringing it back to country. Dick puts out a far gentler desire to be "Back Home" for the group. Tony finally convinces Cindy that "You're So Right for Me"in a charming duet. It ends with the now-Broadway star Cindy performing the big finale "Hey Boys" with a group of tap-dancing sailors. Hutton concludes everything by stepping out of character to reprise "You're So Right for Me" in front of the camera.

Trivia: The show concludes with Steve Allen taking the audience around the then-new NBC color studios in Brooklyn. NBC would continue to film programming at those studios until 2014. The buildings are now a children's home and family services and a self-storage facility.

Yes, this was originally broadcast in color for those very few who had it in 1954.

What I Don't Like: This looks less like a TV spectacular and more like something a couple of producers threw together to fill air time between bigger shows. Some of the songs are charming and the costumes - what little can be seen of them in the degrading kinetoscope copy at YouTube - are lovely, but the sets are obviously fake with absolutely no real New York flavor. Most of the numbers go on for too long, and the big dance pieces and that random ballet at the fashion show feel tacked on and have nothing to do with anything.

McCarthy has all the charm of a dead fish, acts about as well as one, and has no chemistry with Hutton. He would work out far better back in Hollywood two years later as the scientist who discovers the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hutton, for her part, is trying too hard. Her brash personality is way too big for the small screen. The big screen could barely contain it in the 40's. Much like her character here, she was just too noisy and rowdy for the genteel TV audiences of the 1950's.

The Big Finale: TV history aside, unless you're a really huge fan of Hutton or the big, brash comic musicals of the 50's and 60's, I'd pass on this one.

Home Media: Only available in a degrading and washed-out copy on YouTube at the moment.

Saturday, August 17, 2024

Animation Celebration Saturday - Rio

20th Century Fox, 2011

Voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, will.i.am, and Jamie Foxx

Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Music and Lyrics by various

Blue Sky Studios began in 1987 as a firm that created special effects for commercials and films. They broke into feature-length animation in 2002 with the original Ice Age and continued until Disney shut them down in 2021. Though they had many musicals in the pipeline over the decade of their existence, this and its sequel are the only ones that made it into theaters. It was a hit back in 2011, but how does the story of two Spix's Macaws fleeing poachers during Carnival in Rio De Janeiro look now? Let's begin in the jungles of Brazil with birds singing about how they're "Real In Rio" and find out...

The Story: Blu (Eisenberg) was captured as a baby and taken to Minnesota, where bookshop owner Linda Gunderson (Leslie Mann) found him and took him home. She raised him as her own beloved pet, but he's so used to his cage and her shop that he can't fly. One day, bird scientist Tulio Monteiro (Rodrigo Santoro) comes to her shop and insists on her bringing Blu to Brazil to mate with Jewel (Hathaway), the last-known female of his species. Jewel (Hathaway) has no desire to mate with anyone and wants to return to the jungle. Blu, for his part, just wants to go back to Minnesota and his quiet life with Linda.

This becomes a lot harder when they're stolen by orphan Fernando (Jake T. Austin) and sulphur-crested cockatoo Nigel (Jermaine Clement), who work for bird smugglers. Nigel is deeply resentful of any bird prettier than him after he was replaced by a parakeet on a hit TV show. Jewel and Blu get help on their way through Rio from toucan Rafael (George Lopez), his drooling bulldog buddy Luiz (Tracy Morgan), and goofy bird buddy pair Pedro (will.i.am) and Nico (Foxx). As Linda and Tulio follow their blue friends through Rio, both pairs learn lessons about love, loyalty, trust, and letting your instinct guide you.

The Animation: Colorful and gorgeous, appropriate for the Rio De Janeiro setting. Carnival in particular is rendered beautifully, with its amazingly detailed costumes and floats. The animals look so good, you can see individual feathers on the Macaws. The opening "Real In Rio" number is especially amazing, with its birds blending for Busby Berkeley effects.

The Song and Dance: This is so cute, I really wish Blue Sky had gotten some of those other musicals they had planned off the ground. Though Eisenberg and Hathaway do well enough as the domesticated and wild birds with different trust issues, it's the supporting cast where this one really shines. Lopez is wise and hilarious as Rafael, who keeps trying to push Blu at Jewel, and Foxx and will.i.am play beautifully off each other as the funniest avian duo in Brazil. Jermaine Clement is a nice bitter villain bird, too. Some of the songs aren't bad, either, especially that kaleidoscopic opening number. We also get a lot of real-life Brazilian culture, thanks to Saldanha being an actual Rio native.

Favorite Number: We open with the entire cast singing "Real In Rio" as birds dance in spectacular formations, fly gracefully across ocean blue skies, and celebrate their native homeland. "Let Me Take You To Rio" covers Linda and Blu's arrival in Brazil and the colorful people they see there. We get a bit of "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie when Blu sees Jewel for the first time.

"Sapo Cal" and "Copacabana Dreams" can be heard during their escape into Rio. Nigel rants about how a "Pretty Bird" took away his dreams of stardom and why he now wants revenge. Lopez and Bebel Gilberto as his mate get a bit of "The Girl from Ipanema." The marmosets naturally get "Funky Monkey." "Telling the World" is performed by its author Taio Cruz, while will.i.am leads the samba in Rio with "Hot Wings (I Wanna Party)."

Trivia: "Real In Rio" was nominated for an Academy Award.

What I Don't Like: All of the fancy trappings and Carnivals in South America can't disguise the cliches here. This is a very familiar young love story with a happy ending that has been seen before and will likely be seen again. As good as the songs are, I wish Saldanha would actually let one finish. Most of them are cut off before we hear the whole thing. The action sequences come off as frantic and even a little silly, with people running around in skimpy bird costumes and chasing birds around.

The Big Finale: If you have kids who love animal stories, birds, or are interested in learning about different cultures, try this one on them.

Home Media: Easily found in all formats. Rio isn't currently on Disney Plus (though its sequel is), but it's currently streaming just about everywhere else.

DVD - Rio 2-Movie Collection

3-D

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Cult Flops - Hair

United Artists, 1979

Starring Treat Williams, John Savage, Beverly D'Angelo, and Annie Golden

Directed by Milos Forman

Music by Galt MacDermot; Lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado

Hair was one of the biggest things on Broadway in 1968. It broke many rules for musicals of the time, from the brief nudity to its rock score and then-trendy look at hippies and the counterculture. By 1979, those hippies were now yuppies in sharp-collared suits, the counterculture was considered dated, disco was the trendy music, and Vietnam had been over for four years. How does this very 60's story look in the late 70's...and even now? Let's in Oklahoma, as farm boy Claude Bulkowski (Savage) leaves home for Vietnam recruitment center in New York City and find out...

The Story: Shortly after his arrival in New York, Claude encounters a group of hippies in colorful clothes begging him for money. Their leader is George Berger (Williams), a charming fellow who avoids the draft and work by hanging out with his "tribe." They also try to get money from debutante Sheila Franklin (D'Angelo) and her friends who are horseback riding in Central Park. Claude is so taken with Sheila, he grabs a horse and shows off his skills for her.

Noticing Claude's interest in Sheila, Berger and the tribe crash a private dinner party in order to get them together. Sheila and a few of the guests get a kick out of them, but her parents aren't as amused and call the cops. Sheila doesn't give them money for bail, but she does join them in Central Park. Claude's not happy when it ends with Sheila losing her clothes and him arguing with George over the draft and the war in Vietnam and finally goes to basic training. The others eventually follow him to Nevada, hoping to convince him to stay. It's Berger who finally makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring them together and teach him the meaning of responsibility.

The Song and Dance: This may have looked terribly dated in 1979, but nowadays, it actually looks a lot less dated than some of the goofy disco musicals released around that time. Forman throws in some excellent touches, from the hippies cavorting in New York to the tearjerker finale. Williams does by far the best as the head of the tribe who is more interested in making out and bringing together a new friend with a pretty lady. D'Angelo does so well with "Good Morning Starshine," I wish she did more musicals. The cinematography is gorgeous, especially around New York and Central Park and in the Nevada desert.

Favorite Number: The hit "Aquarius" sets the scene as Claude arrives in New York and we meet the hippie tribe and Sheila and her society friends on horseback. "Sodomy" is the hippies' opinion on horseback-riding debutants. Berger sings about Claude's pursuit of "Donna" as he goes after Sheila on his own horse. "Colored Spade" takes us to Central Park as Claude is introduced to the hippies and their bohemian lifestyle. Claude admits that he feels like he's from "Manchester, England" as a stranger in the city. Nell Carter belts "Fourscore" and can be heard on "Ain't Got No."

"The Party" is a lot wilder with the hippies among the tables. By the time of "Party Music" and "I've Got Life," Berger is dancing on the dining room table with a delighted Charlotte Rae. Wolf (Don Dacus), one of the hippies, won't let anyone cut his "Hair" in prison, leading to a wild dance routine about why he wants to keep it. They take Claude to a "Be In" at Central Park. His acid trip there leads to him dreaming of marrying Sheila, which turns into a wild ballet of hippies and women in bridal gowns dancing to "Initials," "Electric Blues" and "Old Fashioned Melody." After he falls out with the hippies, Claude wonders "Where Do I Go?" in the big city.

He finally reports to the draft board, only for them to end up singing along with everyone in Central Park (including Nell Carter) about "Black Boys" and "White Boys." "Walking In Space" gives us Claude's military training via letters to Sheila. The fiancee (Cheryl Barnes) of one of the hippies, Hud (Dorsey Wright), wants to marry him, reminding him that it's "Easy To Be Hard," and entirely too easy to ignore your responsibilities in the pursuit of a dream. "Three Five Zero Zero" has the hippies stealing a car from Sheila's brother (Miles Chapin). Sheila is so delighted to be out from under her family's thumb, she sings "Good Morning Starshine" during the ride. The movie ends with "The Flesh Failures" and "Let the Sunshine In" as we see how Berger's ruse to replace Claude worked too well, and its tragic results.

Trivia: Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical opened to rave reviews in April 1968, running for four years. The London mounting later in September 1968 ran even longer, and probably would have continued if the roof of the theater hadn't collapsed. It saw Broadway revivals in 1977 and 2009. The latter was so successful, it won a Best Revival Tony and would be replicated in London a year later.

What I Don't Like: It may have been toned down from the stage, but this be-in is still for older teens on up. That brief nudity is still there, and there's bad language and the violence in the montage of Claude's basic training. The original musical had far less of a plot and was mainly about hippies and what they do in New York, no society heiresses or farm boys involved, and it was Claude, not Berger, who went to Vietnam. A lot of songs from the show were cut, too, though five of them, "Air, " "Abie Baby," "My Conviction," "Frank Mills," and "What a Piece of Work Is Man," can be found on the soundtrack. It's also way too long at over two hours. Some of the numbers go on forever and probably could have been trimmed.

The Big Finale: I think the world just wasn't ready for Hair in 1979. With many of the subjects it discusses back in the limelight, it's actually worn better than many of the musicals of the late 70's. Highly recommended for older teen and adult fans of Williams, D'Angelo, or the rock musicals of the late 60's and 70's.

Home Media: Easily found in all formats. Tubi currently has it for free with ads.

Tubi

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Cult Flops - Sweet Charity

Universal, 1969

Starring Shirley MacLaine, John McMartin, Chita Rivera, and Paula Kelly

Music by Cy Coleman; Lyrics by Dorothy Fields

Directed by Bob Fosse

We're staying in the late 60's and 70's this week, but trade concerts for book musicals that equally reflect those turbulent times. This was Bob Fosse's film directorial debut, based on the smash hit 1966 Broadway show that he also directed. It got lost in the shuffle of huge stage transfers in 1969, but how does it look today, as big versions of Broadway shows see a renaissance? Let's begin with Charity Hope Valentine (MacLaine) on the streets of New York and see the city through her hopeful eyes and find out...

The Story: No matter how hard she tries, Charity doesn't have the best luck with men. The boyfriend she's meeting on that opening romp through New York pushes her into a lake in Central Park and steals her purse. Movie star Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalban) uses her to make his girlfriend Ursula (Barbara Bouchet) jealous. It works too well, and he ends up taking her back while Charity hides in the closet. She finally returns to the Fandango Ballroom and commiserates with her best friends and roommates Nickie (Rivera) and Helene (Kelly).

Things finally seem to go her way when she's stuck in an elevator with Oscar Lindquist (McMartin), a genuinely nice accountant. He ends up smitten with her and asks her out on a date once they get on the street. One date turns into many, including a trip to the hippie church run by Big Daddy (Sammy Davis Jr). Charity thinks this is it when Oscar asks her to marry him, but Oscar's not so sure once he finds out what Charity's occupation is. Still, Charity now knows that someone can love her, and even at the worst times, there's always hope for the future out there somewhere.

The Song and Dance: With Fosse in charge, the movie falls heavily on the dance side of things. Some of his most famous dance sequences can be found here, including the oft-alluded-to "Big Spender" and "Rich Man's Frug." MacLaine makes a very sweet Charity and works well with Fosse's knock-kneed style. McMartin, the only actor to carry over from the stage version, is an adorable Oscar. He's so delightfully awkward, you can understand why Charity fell for him. Great supporting cast too, including dance legend Rivera as Charity's best friend Nickie and Stubby Kaye as her boss at the Fandango. Gorgeous Technicolor location shooting in New York adds to the "you are there" ambiance.

Favorite Number: We open with Charity walking around Central Park with the sleazy Charlie, singing in her mind about how he's "My Personal Property," one of two songs written for the film. Charity and the Fandango girls sing to their "Big Spender" in the hope of luring them into a dance in a dynamic number that reeks of cool. Also reeking of late 60's cool is the "Rich Man's Frug" at the club where dancers in black and white late 60's hipster garb show off Edith Head's costumes and Fosse's angular style.

Charity gleefully turns "If My Friends Could See Me Now" into a hat-and-cane routine in a spotlight at Vittoro's apartment when she thinks he's in love with her. Nickie and Helene join her in an amazing dance trio on the roof of the Fandango for "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This." Charity claims "It's a Nice Face" as Oscar shows her around New York. "The Rhythm of Life" with Big Daddy and his hippie church is dated and has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, but Sammy Davis Jr. has such a blast leading all those flower children around, it ends up being one of the film's highlights.

Oscar sings about his "Sweet Charity" after he proposed to her. Charity her her part feels like "I'm a Brass Band," which turns into a huge brass band number in her head. Herman (Stubby Kaye) and the dancers at the Fandango Ballroom claim "I Love to Cry at Weddings" at the huge colorful bridal shower they hold for Charity and Oscar. Poor Charity wonders "Where am I Going?" as she wanders around New York, wondering why her relationships always go wrong.

Trivia: Based on the 1957 Italian film Nights of Cabiria.

Sweet Charity debuted on Broadway in 1966 with Gwen Verdon as Charity and Fosse directing. It ran a year and a half, not bad for the time. The West End production managed a little over a year. It was revived in 1986 and 2005 in New York and 1998 and 2009 in London and was seen off-Broadway in 2016.

Bob Fosse's first film directorial effort. Gwen Verdon is the uncredited assistant choreographer.

Fosse did film a happier ending where Charity and Oscar ended up together, but decided it was too corny and didn't use it. It exists in full and can be found as a special feature on the DVD, Blu-Ray, and laserdisc.

What I Don't Like: First of all, I think Fosse made a good call with not going for the more traditional ending. The ending with Charity and the hippies is sweet and ambiguous, and really more in line with the rest of the movie. That said, it's also anti-climatic, especially after the touching "Where Am I Going?" This is another late-60's musical that didn't benefit from being a massive epic. The thin story of a woman jumping between bad relationships barely has enough material for an hour, let alone two and a half. It might have benefitted from a far more intimate staging. "The Rhythm of Life" may be a blast, but as mentioned, it has nothing to do with the rest of the movie and pretty much stops it cold. Between the hippies, Charity's occupation, the grimy New York around her, this is very, very much a movie of its time.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of MacLaine, Fosse's style, the big musicals of the late 60's, or the dancers involved and have time on your hands, you'll want to take a romp through New York with Charity Hope Valentine, too.

Home Media: Disc-only at the moment. The Blue-Ray is a two-disc special edition featuring the restored happy ending version.

Saturday, August 10, 2024

Family Fun Saturday - Mother Goose Rock n' Rhyme

The Disney Channel, 1990

Starring Shelley Duvall, Dan Gilroy, Jean Stapleton, and Ben Vereen

Directed by Jeff Stein

Music and Lyrics by various

We honor actress and producer Shelley Duvall, who passed away last month, with this truly unique and extremely early 90's fantasy. Disney made TV movies long before they branded them with the Disney Channel Originals moniker. Most of their earlier movies tended to be dramas and comedies oriented towards the whole family. This would be their only musical until the 2000's. How strange does this modern retelling of famous nursery rhymes look today? Let's begin with Gordon Goose (Gilroy), son of Mother Goose (Stapleton), beginning his day in a neon Rhymeland and find out...

The Story: Gordon is the only other normal human in Rhymeland besides his mother and feels very out of place among the bizarre characters who live there. Little Bo Peep (Duvall), who drives backwards, comes to him driving backwards as she looks for her lost sheep. Bo Peep's sheep are the only Rhymeland characters missing. Mother Goose herself vanishes shortly after Gordon leaves her for the day...and after she disappears, many of the characters in Rhymeland start vanishing, too. Gordon and Bo Peep question the many wacky and colorful citizens of Rhymeland to try to find Mother Goose, before they too disappear forever.

The Song and Dance: The Disney Channel used to run this a lot in the early 90's...and it may be the most early 90's TV movie in existence. Everything is bright, big, boxy, and either neon, black, or pastel. The costumes are especially evocative of the time. The ladies are all in tutus, short jackets, and leggings, and the guys wear baggy suits and sweat suits, and they're pretty darn cool to look at. The entire movie has the look of a pop up fairy tale book of the time, with its goofy cheap sets.

The stars alone make this worth seeing if you remember the era. Name a star who was even a little popular in the late 80's-early 90's, and they're probably in this. In addition to sweet, naive, goofy Duvall, we have everything from Harry Anderson as a Peter Piper who is addicted to alliteration and Debbie Harry as a decidedly not Old Woman Who Lives In a Shoe to ZZ Top as the Three Men In a Tub who aren't the best at giving directions. There's even Little Richard as Old King Cole.

Favorite Number: "Hot To It," featuring the Del Rubio Triplets of Pee Wee's Playhouse fame, introduces us to the wacky world of Rhymeland with some nifty choreography and how Gordon feels out of place in it. The Van Nuys Rap Association and the chorus in funky pastel suits are "Waiting for the King." When Old King Cole arrives, we get more dancing, including female blackbirds bursting out of a pie, for "Party With the King." "Gordon Won't You Come Out and Play" is the big metal number in the dungeon, performed by the appropriately-named The Dank.

Trivia: There's two versions of this available, the longer one that was released on video and a version that ran on TV in later years that cut a lot of the more risque content, rearranged sequences, changed the score, and encored "Party With the King" in the end credits.

What I Don't Like: Gordon keeps calling himself "normal," but he's really whiny and obnoxious. In fact, a lot of the folks they encounter are more annoying or grating than funny or whimsical. No wonder Gordon spends most of the movie complaining about them. For something that turned up on The Disney Channel, there's an awful lot of adult humor on this, from Jack and Jill fussing about "needs" to the Not-So-Old Woman in a Shoe's children having multiple fathers and the uncomfortable hard rock "torture" sequence in the dungeon. The story is also pretty thin, with Gordon and Bo Peep wandering aimlessly among Rhymeland residents for a good chunk of the movie. (And they never do find Bo Peep's sheep.)

The Big Finale: My sisters and I loved this movie when our family taped it off The Disney Channel in the early 90's, but it hasn't really dated that well. If you enjoyed it when you were a kid, think your kids might enjoy it and be young enough to overlook the more adult jokes, or are a fan of any of the stars involved, it's worth checking out at least once for the unique wacky look alone.

Home Media: Never on DVD or legitimate streaming, the only place this can currently be found is YouTube.

YouTube - Longer Cut

YouTube - TV Cut

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Musical Documentaries - Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music

Warner Bros, 1970

Starring Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Richie Havens, and many, many others

Directed by Michael Wadleigh

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's jump back a few months to August 1969 and head cross-country to upstate New York for our next iconic concert. This one began simply as a couple of wealthy guys who were trying to build a recording studio and put on a concert to finance it. They expected maybe 50,000 people to show up at the farm field in Bethel, New York after selling almost $200,000 worth of tickets. After they weren't able to set up a fence in time, they changed it to a free event...and that brought over 450,000 rock fans and counterculture flower children on board.

Warners took a chance filming what was seen by outsiders as disruptive or damaging, but the movie ended up being one of the biggest hits that year. Why was it so popular, as a festival and as a movie? Let's begin with the arrival of all those flower children over Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Long Time Gone" and Canned Heat's "Going Up the Country" and find out...

The Story: It's peace, love, and some of the best rock music ever as those 450,000 rock fans, flower children, and bemused residents and farmers in Bethel speak about what's going on with their generations. Despite the heavy rain storms, traffic jams, drug use, lack of food and sanitation, and just plain poor organization, almost everyone ends up having a groovy time.

The Song and Dance: I've had the first soundtrack album for years, and I still think the performances here are incredible. This is the inverse of Gimme Shelter, capturing a far happier and more peaceful counterculture just before it imploded. The only fights are with Mother Nature and the lack of food. People were probably too caught up in the awesome music to fight. Everyone from The Who to Jimi Hendrix to 50's rock revival group Sha-Na-Na put in some of their best live performances. Wadleigh and his crew managed to capture a moment, when flower children swam naked in clear ponds and the world was all right.

Favorite Number: The first actual performance isn't until 20 minutes in, but it's R&B legend Richie Havens with "Handsome Johnny," the totally improvised "Freedom." and the spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Canned Heat gives their first actual performance next, "A Change Is Gonna Come." A pregnant Joan Baez wows the crowd and impressed me with "Joe Hill" and "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." The Who roar into action next with two songs from their rock opera Tommy, "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "See Me, Feel Me," along with the classic "Summertime Blues." In a bit of serendipity only Mother Nature could plan, "See Me" starts just as the sun comes up, rising like the words in the song.

Sha-Na-Na was an odd choice for this, but that doesn't stop them from tearing up the stage with "At the Hop." Joe Cocker manages to slide in his full-throttle soul version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" right before the rain starts. The audience gets in on the show next with their "Crowd Rain Chant" in an attempt to end the storms.

Once the bad weather passes, the music resumes with Country Joe and the Fish's "Rock and Soul Music." Arlo Guthrie also covers the weather with "Coming Into Los Angeles." We get some literal epic rocking from Crosby, Stills, and Nash with their "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and Ten Years After's "I'm Going Home." Jefferson Airplane also really rocks with their "Saturday Afternoon," "Won't You Try," and "Uncle Sam's Blues."

John Sebastian wasn't originally supposed to play at all - he was at Woodstock for the show - but he got the kids in the audience dancing along as he sung about the "Younger Generation." He and Country Joe covered for missing artists, Country Joe with "Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag." They even gave the audience a follow the bouncing ball segment for Country Joe's song.

Janis Joplin only has one song on the Director's Cut, but her performance of "Work Me, Lord" remains raw and real. " Santana and his band do equally well with another epic rocker, "Soul Sacrifice." Sly and the Family Stone have a blast with "Dance to the Music" and "I Wanna Take You Higher." Jimi Hendrix is the last act before the movie ends....and what a send off despite the sparse crowds, with his famous version of "The Star Spangled Banner," along with the hits "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," "Purple Haze," and "Villanova Junction." Crosby, Stills, and Nash return over the end credits and the sights of what all those humans did to that field with the title song and "Find the Cost of Freedom."

Trivia: Won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1970 and was nominated for Best Sound and Best Editing.

Among the groups invited to perform who declined or couldn't show were The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Chicago, The Guess Who, Led Zeppelin, The Moody Blues, Tommy James and the Shondells, Joni Mitchell, and Iron Butterfly.

The concert got so big, and they were so short of food and sanitation, the Governor of New York almost called the National Guard in.

Credence Clearwater Revival, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, Sweetwater, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and The Grateful Dead are among those bands who played Woodstock but aren't on the original or Director's cut of the film. (Some of their performances are included in bonus features on the DVD and Blu-Ray sets.)

The organizers of the event didn't make money on the festival itself, but they did finally earn a small profit when the film and its soundtrack were among the biggest critical and financial hits of 1970.

What I Don't Like: Like Gimme Shelter, this concert is for adults only. Bad language, including F-bombs, are tossed around frequently, and drug use and naked bodies are everywhere. We also get a look at the devastation wrought on Max Yeager's farm afterwards, when everyone is cleaning up mountains of trash and refuse from those 450,000 bodies. Not to mention, the movie does run almost four hours in its director's cut.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of classic rock, concert documentaries, or any of the bands involved and have time on your hands, you owe to yourself to check out this look at a time when peace, love, and the power of rock and roll truly conquered all.

Home Media: The Director's Cut that I based this review on is easily found on all formats, often for under $10.

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Musical Documentaries - Gimme Shelter (1970)

Cinema 5, 1970

Starring The Rolling Stones, Ike and Tina Turner, Jefferson Airplane, and The Flying Burrito Brothers

Directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin

Music and Lyrics by various

This week, we're getting off the beach and heading to the arena for two of the most beloved concert documentaries of all time. The Altamont Speedway Free Concert was the last stop on the Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour that also included Madison Square Garden in New York. Woodstock went over so well that summer, the Stones, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane lobbied for a similar concert on the West Coast. The Stones thought it would be the perfect capstone of their tour and some needed positive publicity after the arrests of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the death of Brian Jones, but...well...let's start with them, and see just how badly Altamont went off the track...

The Story: Zwerin and the Maysles brothers follow the Stones as they travel across the US, starting with their electrifying concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. We also get glimpses of them in Alabama, recording their eventual hits "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses." Throughout the film, we get the fall-out from the disasters at Altamont, lawyers and Hells Angels who give their side of the story, before we actually see the concert itself. The Angels are supposed to protect the Stones, but they keep provoking violence and fighting with over 300,000 drunk and stoned music fans...until an actual death occurs, and the Stones are left holding the bag and dealing with the stunned crowd.

The Song and Dance: Whoa. I've been a Stones fan for years and I know how intense their music can get, and I still wasn't expecting anything like this. This is a glimpse of the Stones in flux as they recover from the death of Jones and the darker side of the countercultural movement of the mid-late 60's. The Mayles and their "direct cinema" of close-up faces and grainy footage gives it a "you are there" vibe that works with the tense concert that got scarier than any late 60's B horror film. There's some fabulous music amid the rougher sequences, too, including some terrific performances from the Stones, Ike and Tina Turner, and country outfit The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Favorite Number: Our first songs are three classics from the Stones, an electrifying "Jumpin' Jack Flash" at Madison Square Garden, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction," and "You Gotta Move." We see them working on "Wild Horses" and "Brown Sugar" at the Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama mid-way through, and we also get their cover of "Love In Vain." Ike and Tina Turner also get in on their Madison Square Garden concert with their "I've Been Loving You Too Long."

Jefferson Airplane manages to get "The Other Side of Life" in at Altamont before their lead singer is attacked and Grace Slick warns everyone to settle down. Grace's well-meaning admonishments don't get through the crowd. Several fights break out during the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Six Days On the Road" and continue through the Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman" and "Street Fightin' Man." By the time of "Sympathy for the Devil," there's fights between concertgoers and Hells Angels breaking out all over the place. It's not until "Under My Thumb" concludes that one of those fights ends with one young man dead from stab wounds. We do hear the title song from the Stones and Ike and Tina's iconic "Proud Mary" over the shocked crowd's exit and the credits.

What I Don't Like: As you can guess even just from the music played, this concert is not for young rock fans. Start them off on the Stones' or Ike and Tina's early albums instead. There's violence, bad language, insinuated sex at Altamont, and yes, the murder is seen and heavily discussed and not glossed over. This is rough stuff. The footage is in pretty rough shape, too. Don't go into this one expecting a Technicolor romp or even a more family-friendly modern pop show.

The Big Finale: An absolute must for fans of the Stones, Ike and Tina, or those who want to learn where the 60's counterculture movement truly died.

Home Media: Currently available on disc via The Criterion Collection and on several streaming services.

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Animation Celebration Saturday - Under the Boardwalk

Paramount, 2023

Voices of Michael Cera, Keke Palmer, Bobby Cannavale, and Russell Brand

Directed by David Soren

Music by Sean Douglas; Lyrics by Jonathan Sadoff

Let's jump cross-country to something that gets close to my own home turf. I grew up at the Jersey Shore, around boardwalks with roaring roller coasters and the scent of oil and fried food in the air, surfers and muscle men, and tourists of every stripe. Surprisingly, I never heard of this until it came out last October, but I figured it made more sense to save it for summer. How does the story of how two different hermit crabs who are more alike than they think look during the height of tourist season? Let's begin with the arrival of human and crab tourists to a fictional northern New Jersey shore town and find out...

The Story: The land hermit crabs have their own little resort community under the boardwalk. Every year, sea hermit crabs come to their land for a vacation, but the wealthy sea crabs think they're above the land crabs, and the land crabs resent the sea crabs invading their turf. Armen (Cera) is a shy land crab who spends all his time in his aging shell, the only thing he has left from his parents after a storm.

His muscular buddies and his uncle Bruno (Steven Van Zandt) drag him to Bruno's nightclub, where he encounters sea crab Ramona (Palmer). Ramona is trying to get out from under the controlling claw of her domineering mother Val (Vanessa Bell Calloway) and her obnoxious ex-boyfriend Mako (Brand). She and Armen get to know each other better when Mako and his friends steal Armen's shell, and then he and Ramona are swept away in the storm. While Ramona and Armen try to get back to their friends and family, Mako's lies and jealousy brings the crabs to the brink of all-out war.

The Animation: Colorful and almost plastic-y, as per the boardwalk milieu. Everything is so shiny, you feel like you can reach out and touch the crabs and their shells. Love the realistic details for such a cartoony show, especially on the crabs' world. You can really see the grease on the roller coaster and each individual grass blade on the dunes. The sand is well-defined too, if grainier than most sand in New Jersey generally is.

The Song and Dance: The familiar story is boosted by the unique setting. I've never seen what amounts to West Side Story done with hermit crabs on the North Jersey Shore. Heck, I don't think I've ever seen an animated film set at the Jersey Shore. Palmer in particular is having a ball as vivacious Ramona, while Bobby Cannavale and Shoshannah Stern as Armen's bulky, less violent friend Buddy and Ramona's deaf sister Shelly are surprisingly sweet.

Favorite Number: We open with "Welcome to New Jersey," which introduces the land crabs, their world, and the plethora of Jersey jokes that make up a lot of the script. Armen and Ramona wish they were "Anyone Else" who could stand out and get away from their friends and parent. Mako and Armen's buddy Jimmy (John Magaro) create a "Line In the Sand" to separate the sea and land crabs after Mako claims Armen is dead. Ramona tells Armen to "Look Around" and enjoy the sighs and sounds of the boardwalk after they escape the hermit crab store. Bobby wants to prove that he's "More Than a Meathead" as he insists Armen and Ramona aren't the only ones who want to escape stereotypes. Everyone is "Going Out" to enjoy the rest of their summer after they restore the community in the end.

What I Don't Like: Did I mention how cliched this all is? Neither the story nor the characters are anything we haven't seen before. The North Jersey jokes and references - everything from Bruce Springsteen to The Sopranos - get run into the ground before mid-way through the film and may end up annoying some folks. The songs are cute enough, but not that memorable.

The Big Finale: Not the best animated film in the universe, but there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half with your kids on a summer evening after a trip to the real boardwalk.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming.

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Out of Sight (1966)

Universal, 1966

Starring Johnathan Daly, Karen Jensen, Robert Pine, and Carolyne Berry

Directed by Lennie Weinrib

Music and Lyrics by various

Another genre that was wildly popular in the mid-60's was the spy caper. The success of the James Bond films and the TV shows Danger Man and The Avengers made secret agents and their gadget-and-girls-laden undercover missions all the rage. Universal combined the two in their second of three Beach Party-inspired comedies. How well does surfing and teen lust combine with Danger Men and spy stories? Let's join the kids at the beach in Malibu, California and find out...

The Story: Local teen Sandra Carter (Jensen) overhears "Big D" (John Lawrence), the head of the local beach, making plans with his henchmen to destroy the kids with a bomb at their big Teen Music Fair. She and her boy-crazy friend Marvin (Barry) go in search of the world's greatest secret agent, but only finds his bumbling butler Herman (Daily). Herman's boss was injured in a mission, so he thinks he can take his place.

Herman's not finding it easy to sniff out clues. Big Daddy sends his sexy but deadly agents Scuba (Wende Wagner), Wipeout (Maggie Thrett) and Tuff Bod (Deanna Lund) after him, but Herman's luckier than a cat with ten lives and manages to evade them. His henchman Mousie (Jimmy Murphy) tells the local boys, including Sandra's jealous boyfriend Greg (Pine), that he's with the police and sends them after him. Even after he and the girls convince him that he's there to help, he still has to evade Big Daddy's strongest henchman Huh (Norman Grabowski), their many strange gadgets, and the two motorcyclists after him on the road to stop the bomb and save the rock n' rollers and their music!

The Song and Dance: I have to give them credit. Even the original Beach Party movies didn't think of doing spy spoofs. This is a relatively original take on both genres, with some mildly amusing slapstick and decent songs from big names of the time. Unlike Surf Party, Universal went all-out with this. There's color, some nice costumes (especially for the villains), and attractive cinematography on the real-life Southern California beaches. Murphy and Grabowski have by far the most fun as the shortest and smartest and largest and dumbest of Big Daddy's mooks. The songs aren't bad, either, with Gary Lewis and the Playboys and Dobie Gray getting the best numbers.

Favorite Number: We put our best foot forward in the opening with what's probably the film's best song, Gary Lewis and Playboys' playful "Malibu Run." The Knickerbockers give us a not-bad version of "It's Not Unusual" at the kids' beach house. The Turtles do a quieter "She'll Be Back" as an audition for the music fair and are good enough for the kids to take not only them, but all the bands.

The Astronauts tear into the raucous "Baby Please Don't Go" when Wipeout turns up at the beach; check out her idea of dancing. Freddie and the Dreamers croon "Funny Over You" and "A Love Like You" at the Music Fair. Dobie Gray's having a great time with "(Out of Sight) On the Floor" as he swirls around the minimal set with the dancers...if only the movie wouldn't keep cutting away from him.

Trivia: Written by Larry Hovis, now known best for appearing in the war sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Look for Hovis' fellow Hogan's actor Richard Dawson and then-music promoter Bob Eubanks in cameos.

What I Don't Like: This may be the strangest Beach Party movie yet. It makes even less sense than the AIP series. No matter how much the movie treats Herman's incredible luck as high farce, Daly is neither Sean Connery nor Jerry Lewis and just comes off as dumb. The other teens range from annoying to bland to barely in the film. The entire anti-rock-and-teens plot screams "mid-60's Cold War and generation gap anxieties" and seems more goofy and dated than funny or suspenseful nowadays. The ending is nonsensical bordering on just plain bizarre.

The Big Finale: Worth checking out at least once for the pure camp factor alone if you're a fan of the Beach Party movies or any of the bands involved.

Home Media: Never legitimately released on home media, the only way you can currently find this one is streaming on YouTube.