Cinema....among other things: Goldblum

Showing posts with label Goldblum. Show all posts

Friday, March 10, 2017

Earth Girls are Easy (1988)

"Okay, I'm going to show you something that's going to totally change your life, completely, forever. Okay?"
"Well, in that case, let me get a cigarette."
-Valerie Gail and Candy Pink.

Celebrities and divorce basically go together like peanut butter and jelly. I must confess, though, that there are been some celebrity couples whose divorces made me a bit sad. One such couple was Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. These two made three films together during the 1980's. The first was the so-so comedy Transylvania 6-5000 (1985), while the second, and most famous, of their teamings came the following year with The Fly. The two would actually get married during production of this, their final, movie together.
Davis plays manicurist Valerie Gail, who is currently having trouble in the romance department, thanks to her philandering boyfriend Dr. Ted Gallagher (Charles Rocket). Despite the efforts of her co-worker Candy Pink (Julie Brown), Valerie is having trouble turning her frown upside down until, one day, an alien ship crashes into her swimming pool as she's sunbathing.
This ship is manned by Zeebo (Damon Wayans), Wiploc (Jim Carrey) and their captain Mac (Jeff Goldblum), all three of whom basically look like Wookies doused in different food coloring.
After her inital, understandable fear, Valerie agrees to take the trio in until they can fix their ship. With Candy's help, our outworlders get a makeover at the salon the ladies work at, so they can blend in more easily with society in the interim.
A night on the town leads to Zeebo making the moves on the local ladies at a disco, while Wiploc and Candy engage in some fun of their own. But later, Ted returns to try to make amends but then darts off again after seeing the company Valerie is now keeping.
Valerie's sadness prompts Mac to try to make her feel better. After some hesitation, Valerie ends up having sex with him.
The next day, with repairs on their ship almost complete, Valerie and Mac learn that Zeebo and Wiploc, along with Valerie's slacker neighbor Woody (Michael McKean), have been arrested after unknowingly robbing a convenience store. Mac gets himself arrested as well so he can help them out.
After a police chase, Zeebo and Wiploc are taken to a hospital, where Ted discovers how alien they truly are. Fortunately, Mac and Valerie manage to convince Ted he's delusional in order to help Mac's shipmates escape.
Ted later stops by Valerie's again and, in order to help Mac and the others take off, she tries to stall Ted by agreeing to go to Vegas to marry him.
Mac is heartbroken, but, once everything is ready, launches their ship. Valerie then realizes that she really loves Mac and tells him she wants to return to his world, a request he happily grants.
Like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), this is a musical with science fiction elements in it. But I actually found this more enjoyable than Rocky Horror mainly because it makes no attempt to gross the viewer out like that film did with its dinner scene and the protagonists here are a bit more lively.
Both Wayans and Carrey would go on to success with the TV series In Living Color, and their subsequent film success is one reason why this movie has the cult following it does. Hey, if Rocky Horror can get such a following, this movie should be able to.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980)

"You've come to the wrong place. Sleepy Hollow is about as exciting as fried mush. If it wasn't for the ghosts, there'd be nothing to say between hello and goodbye."

-Fritz Vanderhoof.

Washington Irving's classic short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, published in 1820, may have been the first American ghost story. The best-known film versions of the story are undoubtedly the Disney cartoon from 1949 and Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999).

Ironically, it's the Disney cartoon that's the most faithful to Irving's story. Like many others, this is the version which introduced me to the story, and Disney's depiction of the Headless Horseman rightfully became famous.

While the cartoon is great Halloween viewing, it is Burton's film that provides even more shocks, which is one reason is my favorite version of the story. Although Burton adds loving nods to the Disney version in the film, the story has quite a few departures from the Irving story. For instance, Ichabod Crane, played by Johnny Depp, is a policeman who doesn't believe in ghosts, rather than the superstitious school teacher of Irving and Disney. The Burton film also leaves no doubt that the Horseman is a supernatural force, whereas the Irving story suggests the possibility that the havoc is brought about by more human means.

In between those two versions came this TV-movie which appropriately aired on Halloween 1980 and, in a way, combines elements of both the Disney and Burton versions. Like Depp's Crane, Jeff Goldblum's Ichabod is a skeptic when it comes to matters of the supernatural. This film, however, has the same basic setup as Irving's story: Crane arrives at the town of Sleepy Hollow to begin his new teaching job. His attraction to beautiful Katrina Van Tassel (Meg Foster) angers muscular but pompous Brom Bones (Dick Butkus), which prompts him to plot driving Crane from Sleepy Hollow with the legend of the Headless Horseman.

Like Burton's film, though, there are a few liberties taken here. Irving's story and Disney's cartoon kept the Horseman's origins vague, whereas Burton's film drew up an elaborate tale of witchcraft and revenge to explain the Horseman. This film doesn't go into the Horseman's backstory either, but, like Burton's film, new characters are added, none of which, happily, are irksome.

Crane is attracted to Katina, but he also catches the eye of widowed Thelma Vanderhoof (Laura Campbell), whose son is one of Crane's students. Her father Fritz (John Sylvester White) meets up with Crane upon his arrival in Sleepy Hollow and informs him of the ghosts which are part of the town's folklore. Later on, he chastises Crane for destroying the garlic in his school (which are also his living quarters) which was meant to protect him from spirits. The school (which is appropriately small given the time period) is also inhabited by an owl which Vanderhoof says is the spirit of an Indian, one Chief Running Buffalo.

Crane later informs them of his sightings of a strange man (Michael Ruud), whom they inform him is Wintrop Palmer, Crane's predecessor whom Bones supposedly killed for his attraction to Katrina.

The latter half of the film deals with Crane beginning to slightly doubt his sanity, thanks mainly to tricks by Bones. He also declares his love for Katrina and Bones's plans to rid the town of him by disguising himself as the Horseman. Like Crane, Bones doesn't believe in the Horseman, which makes his reaction when he actually sees the Horseman at the film's climax rather amusing.

The Horseman himself is visually well-done, especially considering that CGI didn't exist in 1980. The story is really turned on its head when the Horseman pursues Bones and Crane, in turn, pursues the Horseman, thinking it's really Palmer (who earlier told Crane that he faked his death to plot revenge on Bones and the Horseman). Bones escapes and Crane ends his pursuit when he sees Palmer being taken into custody after Katrina and her father (James Griffith) find him.

Again like Depp's Crane, Goldblum's ends up with Katrina and, amusingly, Bones ends up with Thelma after she and her father find him in his Horseman disguise and blackmail him into a union so his reputation isn't ruined.

The great final shot of the film is the Horseman riding through the countryside. Perhaps more than the other versions, this one views the Horseman as the progenitor (of sorts) to future fiction boogeymen like Michael Myers: a supernatural force that just won't die!

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Tall Guy (1989)

"Great! Two people...on their own...in the middle of the afternoon...and not tired."
"Ideal circumstances for Scabble."
-Kate Lemmon & Dexter King

Jeff Goldblum has played many interesting roles during his career. Probably his most famous are the scientists he played in The Fly (1986) and Jurassic Park (1993). In between those two classics, though, Goldblum portrayed the title character/narrator of this British romantic comedy.
He plays an American actor named Dexter King, who has made a living for himself in England playing second banana to acclaimed but egotistical stage actor Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson). In addition to having a boss who loves only himself (and shouts down anyone who so much as talks without his permission), Dexter has an unsuccessful track record when it comes to romance. The only person he can vent to is his nymphomaniac landlady, Carmen (Geraldine James).
One day, Dexter contracts hay fever and, upon going to the doctor, instantly falls for a nurse named Kate Lemmon (Emma Thompson). This prompts him to ignore his fear of getting shots so he can talk to her. After some initial shyness, he finally asks Kate out, & she accepts.
Their first time sleeping together is probably the funniest sex scene ever filmed as the couple roll around so much, they knock many things in Kate's room down onto them. Their fun also leads to Dexter missing out on one of his scheduled evening shows, which, in turn, gives Ron a reason to fire him. By this point, though, Dexter's new positive outlook prompts him and Kate to simply retaliate by painting a mustache on Ron's picture which hangs outside his theater.
Dexter eventually finds work again by playing the lead in a musical version of The Elephant Man, which is simply titled Elephant! During production, though, he jeopardizes his relationship with Kate when he succumbs to the advances of a married costar, who says she's been a fan of his from his work with Ron.
Kate's best moment is when she puts the pieces together of this little get-together on the musical's opening night. Her clues are simply the way Dexter and the other woman react to each other, rather than the usual comedy cliches of finding a love letter or seeing an incriminating picture. With that, Kate promptly leaves him, sending Dexter back into his depressed state even though he now has a degree of artistic respectability under his belt.
His depression turns to anger, however, when, on the eve of another performance, Dexter sees on TV that Ron is dating Kate. He implusively leaves before the curtain rises and goes to confront Ron in another funny scene. Needless to say, Dexter & Kate make up soon afterward.
This was the first filmed screenplay written by Richard Curtis, who would later gain fame as the writer of such comedy classics as Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001).
Although the ending was basically inevitable, the movie has plenty of funny moments. Goldblum is perfect in the lead and displays sweet chemistry with Thompson, who made this film shortly before becoming a star (& an Oscar winner) with Howard's End (1992). Atkinson is also appropriately unlikable in what is basically a 'straight man' role for him, far from his character Bean (coincidentally, Curtis wrote the script for the 1997 Bean movie, as well).

Cinema....among other things