100 Movies That Make Me Love Film: 88. Heavyweights

Every Thursday I list one of the movies that made me love Film

88. Heavyweights

When I was a kid Pay-Per-View used to have an option where for X amount of dollars you could rent a movie for the day. That’s when I first saw Heavyweights. I enjoyed it but  quickly forgot it until the summer after I graduated high school. I was preparing to go to Creation Fest (which would ultimately be my last trip to creation fest) and my friend Matt suggested we rent Heavyweights. 

Somehow what was a relatively forgettable movie turned into one of the most brilliant dark comedies I’ve ever seen. Judd Apatow and Steven Brill crafted the darkest kid’s movie since the Goblin King stole Jennifer Connelly’s brother. This is in part to the script but even more so do to Ben Stiller’s insane performance as Tony Perkins.

Heavyweights tells the tale of Camp Hope, a fat camp that used to be filled with fun and games, but is quickly turned into a hellhole when health nut Tony Perkins becomes the new owner. His desire to create a successful weight lose infomercial drives him to starve and torture the young overweight campers. FInally the kids have had too much get revenge.

There are so many brilliant elements at work in this movie. Tony Perkins takes a campers pez dispenser and as he empties the pez from it the sound of a bullets hitting the ground is overdubbed. In another scene one of the kids back talks Tony and the film freezes and fades to white, when it fades back there’s just an empty bed. Even quotes from Tony have a sadistic and cruel element to them likes like “Today is our evalutation day. Key word is Value, do you have any? Not yet” or “Lunch has been canceled today due to lack of hustle.”

My freshmen year of college my friends and I would quote this movie all day long. In the summer we all because Orientation Leaders and would frequently do the ‘buddy system’ sequence or just talk like Lars (the most brilliant character in the film).

I don’t think the film works as a kid’s movie. But it’s an amazing comedy for the grown up kid.

I tweet. I make Music. I podcast. I write for Geekscape. Enjoy

<------ 89. Cannibal The Musical

87. Breakfast Club ------>

100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 88. Unsung Zeros: Moments From Mourning

Every Tuesday I Write About One of the 100 Albums That Made Me Love Music

88. Unsung Zeroes: Moments From Mourning

In my Punchline write up last week I talked about how my friends misled me by saying Action was their only good album (despite their continual refusal to admit it). Let’s talk about a time I was not misled.

Circa 2005 I was running my own non-profit Chords for a Cure (now Chords for Cures). For about 2-3 years we had our own website where I’d occasionally interview different bands or local people in the music scene and I decided to interview my best friend Shrop for the site. He was the first person I ever knew who threw local shows back in the early 2000’s. One of my questions was ‘what are your top 5 favorite albums ever made?’

I can’t remember everything on his list but I definitely remember Lanemeyer: If there’s a Will There’s Still Nothing (great album, great band), Acceptance: Phantoms (embarrassed to say I Just heard this album last week) and Unsung Zeroes: Moments From Mourning. During the interview he played me the song Intermission and I thought it was just okay but he kept telling me about how it was one of his favorite songs ever written. I guess this band just isn’t for me I thought to myself, how wrong I was.

A few weeks later while we were in his car he put on the whole album. Halfway through the opening track Pictures I knew I had to own this album for myself. From the thumping bass drum during the chorus to the the unique falsetto vocals and the deep lyrics I just adored the song completely. Tracks like Turncoat, Broadcast and Postcards Home just continued the exceptionally well crafted pop rock.

Sadly this was the band’s last official release. In 2004 they posted 5 recordings for a planned future EP for free download and then quietly broke up (with guitarist Zach Gehring joining Mae). They were to remain a relatively unknown group (but with a nice loyal following). How Shrop discovered this band I actually don’t know (although they were on Eulogy so they weren’t exactly an unsigned band).

This is upsetting because songs like Pictures, Louder than Words and Intermission (I’ve learned to love this one too) all have beautiful melodies, catchy chorus’ and deep lyrics that should be heard by everyone.

I podcast. I write for Geekscape. I tweet. I Sing. Enjoy. Also read my Guilty Pleasures: Afroman Article

<-------- 89. Punchline: 37 Everywhere

87. My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade ----->

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 89. Cannibal The Musical!

Every Thursday I Write About One of the 100 Movies That Make Me Love Film

89. Cannibal The Musical

When I was a kid was afraid of horror movies. I didn’t like seeing blood or people getting torn to pieces. Despite my fear and uneasiness about horror I was fascinated by horror movies. I convinced myself that if it wasn’t rated R I’d be able to handle it, so I’d wander the horror section of Blockbuster and rent any PG-13 horror film I could find.

One of the few horror films that was PG-13 was Bugged. It was also my first experience watching a Troma film (from start to finish). The movie was okay at best, but what i remember most was seeing the trailer for Cannibal The Musical. At the time the movie meant very little to me. A year or two later, South Park exploded.

I will never remember how I found out that Cannibal the Musical was from the people behind South Park. I’m going to assume IMDb but I honestly don’t know. As soon as I found that out, I made it my goal to see the movie. It became increasingly difficult to find. Then in the summer of 2004 I was at the mall and saw a copy of it at the Suncoast video. It was $25... pretty over-priced... but I didn’t care, I finally had it in my hand. I bought immediately and called my friends to come over.

We loved Cannibal the Musical so much we rewatched it the next night with the commentary track. Rarely would I suggest listening to a commentary track with a group of people, but Cannibal is the huge exception, but we’ll get to that later.

More than any film Cannibal The Musical truly reopened my love of Troma. It lead to me purchasing Toxic Avenger and few months later when I got netflix, Netflixing any film of theirs that was made available. The first film I ever received through netflix was Tromeo and Juliet. Cannibal the Musical became a film we watched at every party freshmen year of college, it completely ruled my life for a solid two years.

Last year I had the honor of meeting cast member and DP Robert Muratore. We didn’t talk too much about Cannibal, but I did tell him how much that movie meant to me. He recently produced and shot an incredible documentary called The People Vs. George Lucas. It’s an incredible documentary that any star wars fan should see, but despite how well made that documentary is, I’ll always love him for Cannibal the Musical.

So what is Cannibal the Musical? It started out as a student film by University of Colorado student Trey Parker titled Alfred Packer the Musical. It told the story of Alfred Packer the first man ever put on trial for cannibalism.

In 1883 Alfred Packer (Trey Parker) sits on trial for cannibalism. The film is told in flashbacks as he tells his story to journalist Polly Pry. Ten years earlier he was selected t lead a group of miners into Colorado Territory for gold. The group end up horribly lost and are forced to resort to cannibalism to survive the fierce winter. I don’t want to give away much else or you might miss out on some of the best jokes, but while all this is going on... they are constantly bringing into musical numbers.

In the book Everything I Never Needed To Know About Filmmaking I learned from the Toxic Avenger Trey writes the prologue telling how they sold the script to Troma. It was a fun story of him and Matt living in an apartment and meeting Lloyd at a Del Taco.

Cannibal the Musical’s blend of absurdist comedy, anarchic filmmaking and genuinely fun musical numbers leads to a blast. It’s definitely a must-see horror/comedy that has more one-liners than a Mel Brooks film (okay that parts not entirely true... but there’s still some good shit here). However the commentary track is the biggest reason to buy the DVD.

For the commentary track they got almost all of the cast together in a room ten years later to watch the film and get drunk. The first half of the commentary track they’re just mocking how shitty the movie is, you start to see mistakes you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. They also talk about how authentic they tried to make the movie (filming in the actual locations that the events took place) which are interesting. Then suddenly mid movie you realize...these guys are FUCKED UP. They start yelling at each other and getting bored with the movie. The commentary turns into Trey Parker drunkenly belittling his college girlfriend and demanding that they shut off the movie and go to a “titty bar”.

So to quote the DVD, if you’re interested in a movie that combines the fun of Oklahama with the blood splatter of Friday the 13th Part 2 then purchase Cannibal the Musical.

When he's not singing about eating people like he's still 18 Matt is Tweeting, hosting his podcast the Saint Mort Show and Writing for Geekscape.net (Read his Guilty Pleasure on 17 Again and his list of the 5 things we want in the next Muppet Movie)

<--- 90. Killer Klowns From Outer Space

88. Heavyweights ----->

100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 89. Punchline - 37 Everywhere

Every Tuesday I Write About One of the 100 Albums That Make Me Love Music

89. Punchline: 37 Everywhere

When I became friends with the close friends in my life right now they introduced me to a bunch of bands that I love. At one point they played me Punchline: Action and said ‘it’s a shame that this band never made a good album after this one.’ Since they had never misled me previously I believed them and only bought Action. Then I met Jonathan London.

Jonathan sent me the trailer for his TV show Pilot Singledom and I hear this insanely catchy song in the background. It was a piano-driven pop punk song called “Somewhere in the Dark”. When I asked him about it, he informed me it was a new song off Punchline’s upcoming album. I picked up the album Just Say Yes the day it came out. A week later my girlfriend broke up with me. I’d be a liar if I said that Just Say Yes didn’t help me through the roughest patches of that break up.

When the album came out Jonathan’s website Geekscape.net wrote various reviews on the album. One particular review was written by Ben Dunn. He discussed how the album works as a perfect companion-piece to 37 Everywhere. Since Just Say Yes had made such a huge impact on my dealing with the break up I decided to pick up 37 Everywhere as well and it immediately became one of the top pop punk albums I’d ever heard.

My friends will always make fun of me for my preference of this album over Action but I don’t care, 37 Everywhere is the best album Punchline ever put out in my eyes. Over the years I’ve become friendly with the guys in Punchline (Specifically Chris) and enjoyed seeing their E.P. most recently top the iTunes Rock Chart for a few hours but as much as I love all their albums, none will hold the place in my heart that 37 Everywhere did.

Just Say Yes sang lyrics about surviving the break-up and that was nice and helpful. But 37 Everywhere spoke of the of anger which I was feeling and felt. Songs like Flashlight, The Getaway and The Fake, The Snake and the Birthday Cake all spoke of the anger and confusion of a break up. I’ve read rumors that say that the songs are actually about former guitarist Paul Menotiades but I’ve refused to ask the guys if this is true because I want to continue to believe they are about the heart-break I was feeling.

Everytime I hear this album I can’t help but think that this should have been the biggest pop punk album of all time. Sadly the band was release sandwiched between Fall Out Boy’s massive From Under The Cork Tree and after it was released Gym Class Heroes: As Cruel As School Children came out a couple months later.

Punchline has continued to remain the underdog in the pop punk game, but I like it that way sometimes. So thank you Steve, Thank You Chris, Thank You Greg and Thank you PJ. You helped a depressed 23 year old get through a rough break up in 2008.

When he's not blasting pop punk like he's still 18 Matt is Tweeting, Writing for Geekscape.net and hosting his podcast the Saint Mort Show

<--- 90. White Stripes: White Blood Cells

88. Unsung Zeros: Moments From Mourning ---->

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 90. Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Every Thursday I list one of the 100 Movies that Made Me Love Film

90. Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Killer Klowns from Outer Space has been one of my favorite horror movies since I was a little kid; it’s hard to decide if you can really call it a horror movie though. I do know that as a little kid, the scene in which the little klown punched a biker’s head off used to scare the crap out of me. I have two distinct memories of the film, the first time was being little and watching it in the backroom of my house. I remember being mesmerized by the clown costumes as well as the over-all weirdness of the movie.

When I was a kid my parents got an account at a mom and pops video store. The first movie I ever got from that mom and pops shop was actually Killer Klowns. At the time it was the first time that I had seen the movie in roughly 10 years, watching in late-junior high/early-high school vs. early elementary school I saw some of the homage’s and understood that unlike most “adult films” I had been exposed to by my family, this was all about having fun.

The movie opens with teenagers Mike and Debbie camping out in the back of a pick-up truck staring at the stars when they see a shooting star seeming to crash in a near-by farm. The Farmer and his dog Pooh-bear go to investigate it but instead find a circus tent in the woods. They go to find an entrance to see the show but instead are quickly killed by the Klowns. Mike and Debbie show up as well and enter the circus tent, while inside they find a room with some bundles of cotton candy, which apparently have human bodies in the core.

They go to the police where Debbie’s ex Dave works (with the always grouchy and paranoid Sgt. Mooney). Mooney is convinced they’re pulling a prank based on Mike’s friendship with the pranksters turned ice cream truck drivers the Terenzi Brothers. They return Debbie to her house but when they arrive to the farm the circus tent is gone. Dave starts to think that Mooney was right this was all a prank.

Meanwhile the Klowns are creating chaos in the streets but Mooney ignores the citizens phone calls as all part of a giant scheme to trick Mooney. Eventually a Klown comes into the police station and Mooney locks him up. As Dave is driving Michael to jail they see a Klown capture a group of townspeople and believes Mike’s story. They rush to the police station to warn Mooney only to discover that he’s dead and being used as a ventriloquist dummy by the klown he arrested. In an attempt to defend himself, Dave begins firing his gun at the klown finally finding it’s weak spot, destroying it’s big red nose will cause the klowns to explode!

The klowns kidnap Debbie in a big balloon and take her to their spaceship (now hidden on a pier). Mike, Dave & the Terenzi brothers follow the klowns to their ship and save Debbie. Suddenly the gigantic “KlownZilla” comes out and grabs Dave as Mike and Debbie make a break for it. The spaceship starts to ascend back into outer space but Dave pops Klownzilla’s nose using his badge. Klownzilla’s explosion is so great that it blows up the ship also, luckily Mike and the Terenzi brothers are saved by hiding in an ice cream truck.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space is generally well received as a good mindless fun comedy-horror, but there are some great homages and many memorable moments in there as well. Much like the movie Tremors the film is a giant homage to 1950’s films, however while Tremors focused a little more on the Radioactive “giant monsters” and universal horror movies, Killer Klowns plays off more of the sci-fi aliens attacking a town concept. The opening with the Farmer and his dog are very reminiscent of The Blob (who’s remake was released the same year as Killer Klowns).

The Choido brothers really pull out all the punches with their concept. They manage to mix in every possible clown image into this movie and use wonderful word play to create memorable and bizarre death sequences. The klowns kill people with puppet shows, shadow puppets and pizza just to name a few. The most surreal moment (and the most vivid memory of the movie for me) comes from little pieces of “popcorn” that turn into clown heads on tentacles which explode out of Debbie’s hamper and toilet.

John Vernon’s performance of Officer Mooney is one of the most iconic “asshole” characters from the 80’s horror movies. His paranoia costs many people’s lives (including his own) and while you may feel bad for some of the people who are killed off (and there are A LOT) you’re okay when Mooney gets it in the end.

You can also thank the 80’s punk band “the Dickies” for giving us one of the greatest horror movie theme songs of all time.

When he's not watching films about Klowns Matt is Tweeting, Writing for Geekscape.net and hosting his podcast the Saint Mort Show (this week's episode features Eric Violette (FreeCreditReport.com Band) and Leah Cevoli of Robot Chicken)

<--- 91. Clue

89. Cannibal the Musical ------>

100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 90. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells

Every Tuesday I Discuss one of the Albums that made me love music

90. The White Stripes: White Blood Cells

In the Spring of 2002 I came upon the strangest music video. It seemed to be stop motion lego to a fast two minute song. The video and music was unlike anything I had heard or seen. The video was for The White Stripes Fell in Love With a Girl and at the time I recalled most of my class hated the band. I however found the song (and it’s follow single Dead Leaves and Dirty Ground) to be catchy and new. Throughout the rest of the of 2002 a few more garage rock inspired ‘The’ bands came out including The Hives, The Strokes and The Vines but White Stripes was definitely the most unique of them all.

My interest in the band however remained quite minor until the Fall of 2002 at our high school coffee house. Throughout the night we had an open mic that anyone could come up and perform during. A friend of mine Rob Micun went up and covered the song Hotel Yorba and it was the highlight of the night for me. When he told me it was a song by White Stripes I went out that weekend and picked up the album and quickly fell in love with the diverse sounds of each track.

White Blood Cells takes all the elements of classic rock, garage rock and punk rock and mixes them into one crazy sound. The fact that a sound this intense comes from two people was absolutely unreal. You have the country-folk styling of Hotel Yorba followed by a punky Fell in Love with a Girl. You have a track like Little Room that’s just Jack White screaming over a pounding bass drum beat and then you have a song like Union Forever where Jack just starts reciting a song from Citizen Kane.

While my interest for bands like The Strokes and The Vines tends to rise and fall with each album and song I’ve always been impressed by the White Stripes be in their newer songs like Denial Twist or revisiting their older songs like Hello Operator.

Hotel Yorba still remains my favorite song in the bands history but there will always be a place in my heart for their cute lullaby-ish single We Are Gonna Be Friends. Listening to Jack’s simple guitar riff and cute lyrics about elementary school friendships will always touch a nostalgic part in my heart.

People always make references to albums that make you want to form a band. The White Stripes makes you realize you don’t even need a full band to form a band.

When he's not listening to Garage Rock classics he's tweeting, hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show and writing for Geekscape.net (check out this week's guilty pleasure on Leprechaun 2)

<------ 91. Punchy's Pilots: Otter Space

89. Punchline: 37 Everywhere ----->

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 91. Clue

Every Thursday I write about one of the Movies that made me love film

91. Clue

I don’t think anyone thought it could work. I certainly didn’t think it could when I found this gem of a film when I stayed home sick from school in the 90’s. A movie based on a board game? Really? But regardless I fell in love with it. I kept a close eye on my TV Guide waiting for the next time the movie would be shown on TV so I could record it. (I’m starting to realize that this is at least the 5^th movie that I owned by taping it off TV; I’m worst than those fucking Internet pirates!)

Clue opens with Wadsworth (Tim Curry), a kind English butler as he arrives at a large mansion. He awaits his guest’s arrivals. The guests are all familiar names from the board game the widower Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), former psychiatrist Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), a senator’s wife Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), a bordello owner Miss Scarlett (Lesley Ann Warren), a war profiteer Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull) and the eccentric and openly gay Mr. Green (Michael McKean) all who are being blackmailed by the seventh guest Mr. Boddy.

Mr. Boddy gives them each a gift containing various of weapons to kill Wadsworth and destroy the evidence of their wrong doings. As he turns out the lights to create chaos a gunshot is heard when the lights come back on Mr. Boddy lies on the floor dead. All the guests deny killing Mr. Boddy so they attempt to solve the mystery. As they explore the house they uncover the dead bodies of the cook and Yvette.

The body count rises when they are visited by a stranded motorist, a police officer and a singing telegram girl who are all mysteriously killed off.

Wadsworth concludes that he now knows who the murder is and frantically re-enacts the whole night.

This is where the film gets even more bizarre & interesting. Keeping in tune with the game Clue there were three different ending filmed that were sent to different theaters. On the TV, VHS and DVD releases however all three endings are placed at the end.

The first ending involves Miss Scarlett being the main culprit using Yvette (her former call girl) to kill Mr. Body and the Cook. Scarlett then killed Yvette and the other guest figuring out that were Mr. Boddy’s informants. She then tells the rest of the guests her plan to blackmail them all now. Wadsworth reveals himself to be an FBI agent and arrests her.

The second ending reveals Peacock to have murdered everyone and escapes as she holds everyone at gunpoint. Wadsworth then reveals himself to the guests as being a FBI agent and the police quickly arrest Mrs. Peacock.

The final endings reveals not one person committed the murders. Plum killed Mr. Boddy, Peacock killed the cook, Colonel Mustard killed the motorist, Scarlett killed the cop, Mrs. White killed Yvette and while everyone things Mr. Greene killed the singing telegram girl it’s revealed to have been Wadsworth (the actual Mr. Boddy), the man who Plum killed was the real butler. All the guests have killed Boddy’s accomplices and he plans to continue blackmailing them, until Mr. Greene shots and kills him revealing himself to be a FBI agent. The police arrive and arrest all the other guests.

This movie shouldn’t work. It’s not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination but it is far better than it ever had any business being. The casting for this movie is absolutely brilliant and perfect. Madeline Khan was one of the funniest female actresses in history and she shines in this movie however the star of the show is Tim Curry. People will say his best movie roles were Dr. Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror Picture Show or Pennywise the Clown in Stephen King’s It! but to me it doesn’t get any better than him running around this giant set piece yelling frantically and impersonality each actor’s mannerisms.

The Multiple endings and their long almost 20 minute reveal should be a joke that gets old of falls flat but instead it leads to some of the funniest reoccurring jokes and gags of the 80’s.

In 2008 Steven Spielberg & George Lucas released Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Most people found this movie to be awful (and those people are right), other people tried to fuel their denial of how bad the movie by going “well the movie takes place in the 1950s and Aliens were the big thing in the 50’s” Regardless if Crystal Skull attempted to have the 1950’s pulp feel… it failed to do it properly. Clue takes place in the mid-50’s and it managed to continue the feeling of screwball comedies and murder mysteries from that decade. If you enjoy that sharp tongued wit of the Marx Brothers or the fast pace energy of Arsenic and Old Lace then this movie is probably already on your DVD shelf.

When Matt Kelly's not discussing Tarantino's finest film he's hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show, tweeting and writing for geekscape.net

<---- 92. Pulp Fiction

90. Killer Klowns From Outer Space ---->

100 Albums That Make Me Love Music: 91. Punchy's Pilots - Otter Space

Every Tuesday I cover One of the albums that made me love Music

91. Punchy’s Pilots: Otter Space

This is the first of at least two (possibly 3) albums released by local bands. These will mostly be much shorter as the albums are harder to find/enjoy.

Punchy’s Pilots I discovered through another band. I had booked them for a show in West Chester, PA and they asked me if I could put their friend’s band on the line-up. I listened and instantly fell in love with the band. I immediately put them on the show.

At this point Punchy’s Pilots was a duo. It was also the only time I’d ever see them as a duo. I’d book Punchy’s PIlots over and over again throughout the years but from there on out it was always just multi-instrumentalist Thomas Barford with an acoustic guitar and an old accordian.

The best band to compare them to was They Might Be Giants. The songs were goofy and strange (in a musical sense) but lyrically there was always a deeper brilliance to them. I mean the album is called Otter Space for crying out loud. Look at how adorable that cover is!

The stand out tracks for me are the opening and closing songs To and Fro and Describing The Moon. In fact since hearing this album I’ve written countless unfilmed scripts, but my favorite is titled Describing the Moon. The whole soundtrack was (supposed) to be done by Punchy’s Pilots, specifically opening with Describing the Moon and closing with To and Fro.

Describing the Moon is quite literally a song about the moon. I asked Thomas once what it was about thinking the lyrics were symbolic and he simply said “once I was driving I thought ‘man that moon looks really big tonight’ and wrote a song about it”. Meanwhile To & Fro contains the lyrics like “I’ve got to find what I hid so many months ago/Did I leave it in a tree top, did I lose it in the snow/It’s too important to forget like I did three years or more/Would you aid me in my search or would you teach me to let go”. Without knowing what the songs about, I’ve always related to the words. Plus it has an awesome slide-whistle solo.

Check out this interview with Punchy’s Pilots on my podcast and feel free to contact him on his myspace (which he might check) and if he still reads it he’ll probably send you a free CD.

When he's not listening to classic albums about 30 years too late Matt is tweeting, hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show and writing for Geekscape.net (check out his Guilty Pleasure this week on Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever)

< ---- 92. Queen: Sheer Heart Attack

90. White Stripes: White Blood Cells ------>

100 Movies That Made Me Love Film: 92. Pulp Fiction

Every Thursday I Discuss one of the 100 movies that made me love Film

92. Pulp Fiction

I don’t think anyone was prepared for what Quentin Tarantino was about to drop on them in 1994. But it quickly became part of the our society’s vernacular. I didn’t see the movie until 2002/2003 but when I viewed I already knew half the movie from parodies on The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and Family Guy. The dance sequence, the iconic clothing and the gimp I had already seen in every possible form (except the actual film).

I finally got around to watching the movie a day before going to Creation Festival for a week. So before indulging myself into a world of non-stop praise and worship, I watched 2 hours of sex, drugs and violence. I can’t tell you much about that festival, but I definitely remember watching Pulp Fiction. I curled up on the couch killing time until my girlfriend at the time arrived for our trip but quickly what was intended as ‘background noise’ turned into my full attention.

The dialogue was quick, the camera work was impressive and it didn’t feel like 2 hours at all. I had seen Reservoir Dogs earlier that year and I loved it but this film had completely grabbed my attention. This film is without a doubt the most important and influenical film of the 90’s and possibly in the last 30 years. But the film is far from perfect.

There are classic moments in the film for sure. Vincent and Mia’s date to Jack Rabbit Slim’s, any sequence with Samuel Jackson and the extreme intense needle injection all come to mind. However (and I may be alone here) but the first 20-25 minutes of Butch’s story completely bore me. It’s the only point in the movie where I start to recognize the amount of time I’ve spent watching it.

Regardless of this the film is a great example of the importance soundtrack can have on a film as well as how casting can make or break a movie. This film could have been terrible had anyone played the parts other than who was cast.

If you haven’t seen this Tarantino classic. Rent it right now.

When Matt Kelly's not discussing Tarantino's finest film he's hosting his podcast The Saint Mort Show, tweeting and writing for geekscape.net

<----- 93. Young Frankenstein

91. Clue ------>