Saturday, April 28, 2007

Oldies but Goodies!

Barbarella: Completely idiotic, and yet should have won an Oscar for Best Use of Shag Carpet in a Spaceship. Which makes total sense if you think about it; you don't want to bump your head when you lose gravity do you? Jane Fonda goes through a myriad of costume changes, each outfit more psychedelic than the last, faces cannibal dolls, hungry birds, inept plot devices, Marcel Marceau and yet somehow remains a star. Oh, and there's Anita Pallenberg, too, the former Mrs. Keith Richards. The silliest SF movie ever made, yes, even sillier than The Ice Pirates. But 60s to the core, so worth the spot on the Netflix cue. (And where do you think Duran Duran got their name from, eh?)

Smokey and the Bandit: The 70s movie. Ah, black Trans Ams. Ah, high waisted jeans. Ah, Burt Reynolds. They just don't make 'em like that anymore. Name me the male movie star today who can get away with wearing turquoise jewelry and yet still come across macho? And be that macho, and yet good natured? And let's not forget the CB radio. Yeah, yeah, we all have cell phones now, but you just talk on a cell phone. To communicate on a CB you gotta master the art of trucker lingo, and what an art that was. How quaint. Also quaint--smuggling beer. Coors beer, too! Even quainter--doing real stuntwork! No computer effects here, just a real Trans Am hurtling across a real river or through a real hedge onto a real football field.

I gotta an ankle bitter on my tail and a cottonmouth. I'll catch you on the flipside, good buddy, ten four over and out.

6 comments:

Gwenda said...

We were just talking about Smoky and the Bandit the other night (since the already-deceased Drive had a couple in a Trans Am cast to look like pale now clones of Reynolds and Fields) -- I adore that movie. I just can't help myself.

Brian Lindenmuth said...

I'm not too sure that ANYTHING tops The Ice Pirates.

As iconic as Smokey and the Bandit is I have to say that even to this day one of my favorite movies of all time is Hooper.

Ysabeau Wilce said...

The Ice Pirates is a classic, true. And Robert Urich the poor man's Burt Reynolds...

Cake said...

I'm not sure Urich has the red state appeal of Burt Reynolds. I like to think of him more like the homeless man's George Clooney. Or possibly the dot-com billionaire's Ted McGinley.

No offense to Urich, I thought he was perfect in Lonesome Dove.

Unknown said...

All these guilty cinematic pleasures revealed! I will add mine: Lord Love a Duck with Roddy McDowell, Tuesday Weld and Ruth Gordon. No CBs, no space herpes and no shag carpets, but lots of cashmere sweaters.

Ysabeau Wilce said...

I forgot Robert Urich was in Lonesome Dove--he was perfect as Jake Spoons. He was also good in Resurrection Man, a short-lived TV western series!