I always loved the "pure imagination" song on the workroom floor, in
Willy Wonka,
and after that his flashes of creepiness didn't fool me. I mean, I thought they were a basically loving man being occasionally creepy, rather than someone about whom I shouldn't be sure. I didn't have a problem with the idea that good people can have mile-wide cruel streaks.
In other news, OMG! There is a new rerelease of
The Big Red One.
[link]
The original version is so cheerfully clunky and symbolic, it's lovable, but hard to respect. A. O. Scott seems to think that the restored version -- 40 minutes longer, but still more than an hour shorter than the original cut -- makes it a classic.
I was introduced to this movie via a documentary, in which Quentin Tarantino and Tim Robbins go rifling through Sammy Fuller's garage of old props. Tarantino holds up a helmet and describes the fact that Fuller cast Luke Skywalker to play one of the soldiers, and then had him be the one who opens up the still-hot oven at Falkenau Concentration Camp. "Here, Luke, I'll show you what
real
evil is," he says.
I always loved the "pure imagination" song on the workroom floor
Me, too, and he looks so blissfully happy when he sings it.
One of the funniest bits in the entire film is at the beginning of "Pure Imagination," when WW is leading the group into the Chocolate Room, and stopping them from progressing further with swipes of his cane. He's singing, reaches out to ruffle the hair of Mike Teevee, and then selects one strand and plucks it out of his head with complete nonchalance.
Has anyone else seen the trailer for White Noise yet? Looks intriguing to me, though I regard Michael Keaton movies as a roll of the dice in general.
He's singing, reaches out to ruffle the hair of Mike Teevee, and then selects one strand and plucks it out of his head with complete nonchalance.
Oh yes. I also love the part where he eats the teacup. It looks so tasty, and in reality, it was made of wax.
Oh, now I've got "I Want It Now" stuck in my head.
Oh, now I've got "I Want It Now" stuck in my head.
Any particular "it" in mind?
Why yes, my brain is in the gutter today. Is it ever elsewhere?
Any particular "it" in mind?
Well, if we free associate, let's go with...Veruca Salt (girl) -> Veruca Salt (band) -> Nina Gordon. Oh! Nina Gordon in my bed. That's it.
OK, show of hands. Is anyone not freaked out by the idea of the live-action Fat Albert movie?
OK, show of hands. Is anyone not freaked out by the idea of the live-action Fat Albert movie?
I'm not, because I'm still in denial that it's gonna happen.
I just hope they get a decent Weird Harold. I always liked that character.
I have a few of the old Bill Cosby albums from the 1960s, and the man was a comic genius. "Hey, Ol' Weird Harold, I bet you fifty cents my leg can burp!"
