He’s a tad bit eccentric.
Category Archives: humor
Hicks Vid of the Day
“Worst Gig Ever”
Mini Classic Film Reviews: Detroit Rock City…
Full Title: Detroit Rock City
Director: Adam Rifkin
Year: 1999
Comments: This is straight up fun, fun, fun film about the nightmare of losing your KISS tickets the day of the concert and winding up in every possible adventure to make it to the show and see the HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD!!! Sure, this is over the top, absurd, and lacks many aspects of what typically makes a film decent, but this is just a wacky, fun filled flick to be taken lightly. I will say, I never lose my interest the entire movie; I can’t wait to see what obstacle will arise next in the boys’ journey to seeing KISS.
Grade: N/A, this is just a cool, popcorn movie, so I really don’t think slapping a grade on it is useful. It’s KLYAM Recommended that’s all you need to know.
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Full Title: High Fidelity
Director: Stephen Frears
Year: 2000
Comments: Our second film regarding life and music, High Fidelity, however is more substance than style and eshews basic Hollywood cliches, creating a masterful love story in the process. HF is quite humorous and should be appreciated by (OBSESSIVE) music fans, such as myself, often hitting too close to home haha. In my opinion, John Cusack’s greatest performance. The acting is great, the script is well-written, and the story nicely unfolds without the aforementioned, cliched Hollywood ending. If you’re a fan of good love stories and pop music, give this some eyetime.
Grade: A
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Full Title: The Doors
Director: Oliver Stone
Year: 1991
Comments: For Doors fans, you should know up front this is a rather loose interpretation of their history, a “vision” of what actually happened, if you will. But, you probably will dig the plethora of excellent Doors music, the astonishingly scary depiction of Mr. Mojo Risin from Val Kilmer, and lastly the visual look of the film, which is simply stunning. For accuracy, look elsewhere. For a sad, but genuinely entertaining and thoughtful look at the decadence and tragedy of the Rockstar lifestyle, The Doors is your movie. Without a doubt one of Stone’s essentials.
Grade: A/A-
Great Che Doc
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5762714709014580290# This documentary does a good job of portraying Che as both a hero and a villian to different people. Check it out.
The Cramps – “Way I Walk”
Introduction: “The following video tape was a free concert given for the patients at the California State Mental Hospital in Napa, CA on June 13, 1978 by The Cramps who where (sic) on tour from New York and the Mutants from San Francisco.
Lux Interior: “We drove 3000 miles to play for you. And somebody told me you people are crazy, but I’m not so sure about that.”
Link: http://www.kinodv.net/movies/archive/Cramps-Way_I_Walk.swf
Hicks Vid of the Day
“Making Marijuana against the law is like saying God made a mistake.”
Mini Classic Film Reviews: Thank You for Smoking…
Full Title: Thank You For Smoking
Director: Jason Reitman
Year: 2005
Comments: This is a great piece of satire from Reitman and crew that neither endorses nor condemns Tobacco, but rather pokes fun at all the propaganda and hullabaloo that surrounds the topic. I really appreaciate this story for not selling its audience short and instead showing anti-tobacco politicians as villians (within this context) for basically exploiting the issue of smoking to enhance their own political careers. And by that same token, the character of Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is one of my favorites in all of cinema, as he is a great, three dimensional figure with both negative and redeeming qualities. Overall, a very funny and sharp look at an ongoing debate in America.
Grade: A
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Full Title: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
Director: Tim Burton
Year: 1985
Comments: Write a mini movie review of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. (In a classic Pee Wee Herman voice) MAYBE I WILL! Perhaps one of the zaniest and definitely funniest kids movies I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. Burton’s knack for odd, but enticing imagery is perfectly mixed with Paul Reuben’s eccentric performance as the bizarre man-child, Pee Wee, dedicated to only one thing in life: retrieving his beloved bike. And yes, Large Marge scared the shit outta me too as a child!
Grade: A
Full Title: American Psycho
Director: Mary Harron
Year: 2000
Comments: Shocking. Depraved. Gruesome. Sickening. Those are some adjectives you could use to describe this film. Or…. you could say….Hilarious. Comical. Witty. AP works on various levels and without a doubt is a film that sticks with you for its over the top, slam to your sensory approach. It’s twisted, gory, and for some downright offensive (as with Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, which it is based on). But, that’s the point. This is a story about high class, Wall Street scumfucks and in particular one snobbish, narcissistic man that is so devoid of human emotion he must lash out against society in the form of mass murder. AP takes that story and slices and dices it with black humor, radio friendly pop songs, and exaggerated performances- almost to the point of questioning the seriousness of what you are viewing. This is the kind of movie some folks hate for having an ambiguous message/purpose, but that’s precisely what I adore about it. Well, I’d love to stay and finish this review, but I have to return some video tapes.
Grade: A
Film Review: Machete
Full Title: Machete
Directors: Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez
Year: 2010
Comments: When I grow up, I want to be MACHETE! (pronounced muh shet tay not muh shetty). As a big fan of the fake Machete trailer in Grindhouse (2007) as well as director Robert Rodriguez’s work in general, this film was near the top of my list of highly anticipated, Must Sees of Twenty-Ten, and fortunately my expectations were satisfied. The plot involves a badass Mexican named Machete (Danny Trejo), who is instructed to off a racist, anti-immigration propaganda spewing Senator (Robert De Niro) for $150,000. Machete, an illegal immigrant himself, needs the money and accepts. As he is about to fire, he is shot at and he soon realizes the whole assassination was a set up to boost sympathy votes for the Senator and his anti-immigration policies. Now, Machete is on the run and the target of everyone from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents (Jessica Alba) to covert businessmen (Jeff Fahey). Machete also features Steven Seagal (he actually does a decent job!) as an evil druglord/nemesis of Machete, Michelle Rodriguez (looking fabulous as usual) as Shé, the leader of an underground network to support illegal immigrants, Cheech Marin as a renegade reverend/brother of Machete, and Lindsey Lohan also makes a few appearances, some without her clothes! Which, brings me to my next point, Machete is filled to the brim with buckets of blood- decapitations, intestines ripped out and used as ropes, you know all that good old family fun. Plus plenty of nudity, sex and other lurid imagery. This Mexploitation flick delivers a dish best served cold; in other words it’s a straight up gruesome, guy-action movie of that wonderfully, black/absurdist humor tinged Rodriguez/Tarantino, trashy, Grindhouse revival variety. Pheww that was a mouthful… Machete never fails to excite and entertain its audience because like most Rodriguez flicks it contains over the top, stylized violence mixed with a solid story, memorable characters, and witty, distinctive dialogue, separating it from your run of the mill action pieces of shit. On a final note, I dig the germane content of the film- illegal immigration, in light of the recent Arizona fiasco, though I don’t think this is a movie with a deep political message haha. In any case, I hope to see a Machete II in the future!
Grade: B+/A-
Film Review: Going the Distance
Full Title: Going the Distance
Director: Nanette Burstein
Year: 2010
Comments: Typically, I am not a fan of “Romantic Comedies,” with very few exceptions and this is one of them. Though, I did not love this film, I think it is respectable and worthy of some accolades. It certainly has its own little charm in a mixture of affectionate, gentle raunchiness with a practical love story. In brief, the plot concerns Garett (Justin Long), a young idealist/worker for a record label, who has just ended a long relationship, finding himself falling into another relationship with Erin (Drew Barrymore), the (Summer) girl of his dreams. Just one problem Summer ends… and this means Erin must leave New York and return to San Francisco for work. The remainder of the film centers around the two struggling to maintain this long distance relationship while also feeling conflicted between choosing love or following their careers. Overall, this movie is quite funny, but it drags on and does not really bring anything new to the table; it is quite typical and even a bit cliched: young, off-beat, idealist couple cannot decide between what’s best for each other or what’s best for themselves. And having the guy work at a label and complain about how young, cool, bands are not getting noticed is pretty standard and/or expected. The dialouge is overly cheesy at times to boot. But, there is plenty of quality aspects to this flick to save it from being an average Romantic Comedy. As I stated before, the humor is fairly strong here, not the funniest by any means, but definitely offered me plenty of laugh out loud moments, particularly from Dan (Charlie Day), the wacky best friend of the main character, Garrett, who unto himself is a cliched character, but I’ll forgive it because the performance of Charlie Day is so hilarious that it works. Essentially, he plays a toned down version of his character Charlie on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Being a huge fan of that show and that character specifically, this gave me a little personal reason for liking this film more than perhaps I normally would. So, will this be a movie we remember years down the line? Highly doubt it, it is far from the brilliance of (500) Days of Summer (2009), but it is in a league higher than most “chick flicks” and certainly worthy of a KLYAM recommendation. If this is your kind of a bag, then why not?
Grade: B-, I kind of feel like I am being too easy here, but I think I will stay with this grade for now.
Coming Next a review of Machete
Hicks Vid of the Day
I love how he just rips through Leno here haha.
“Boy, it was always my comedic dream to be forty-four years old and interviewing a little Tony Danza wannabe every three months.”
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 