All Time Favorite Comedy: Blazing Saddles

I love Mel Brooks. He's one of those filmmakers who creates a world you can't escape. And then tears that world to pieces with devastating wit and ridiculous slapstick comedy.

My favorite of Brooks's comedies is Blazing Saddles. I love it. It's silly and smart at the same time, the kind of comedy that rarely shows up anymore.

It's a triple satire, of classic westerns, Hollywood sleeze and modern racial attitudes. And yet it has an entire scene dedicated to a bunch of fat guys farting. In the hands of a lesser filmmaker Blazing Saddles would have been completely unfocused and probably totally unfunny. But Brooks plays perfectly. Making super hip Sheriff Bart laid back and likable, an unlikely racial hero, and his sidekick, the Waco Kid remains my favorite Gene Wilder role (sorry Dr. Frankenstein, that's FRAHNKenSTEEN, and Willy Wonka).

I'm not sure it's a movie that could be made today, it's excessive use of the N-word, even in it's satirical setting was controversial then and would probably drown it now.

The rumor is that Blazing Saddles is the next one that Brooks is giving the Broadway treatment. I can only pray.

All Time Favorite Drama: Good Will Hunting

Once upon there were two friends, they grew up in Boston together. They went to Boston Latin together, one of them went to Yale Drama, while the other went to LA to find his fortune. They both had some small film roles, even a few together. One was clearly making a bigger splash than the other, mostly in the Indie cult film world, due to this comedy where he played a guy who turned a lesbian. They had decided a while ago to write their own movie. They did, and they showed it to the guy who made the lesbian comedy. He showed it to the guys who gave him the money for the lesbian comedy and then they made the movie. It won a few Oscars...and the rest is history.

You know who I'm talking about right?

Good Will Hunting is the kind of movie that you love when you see it the first time. See the problems with the second and then if you ever watch it again (watch it again!) you realize why you loved it the first time. It's pure.

Also you can totally tell which parts Ben wrote. Mostly any time they bust on Casey. Also "How do you like them apples?"

And yeah, what I said at the beginning is true, there was a time when Ben was the star, not Matt. Crazy right? In the end we learned that Matt was in fact the one with more acting talent, although Ben's funnier, and Matt was the one with the staying power, and that's why he got asked to sit at the cool kids table with Clooney and Pitt. (Shut up, don't tell me Hollywood isn't just like Middle School. You know that Matt totally ignores Scott Mosier in the halls now.) But back to the point. I love this movie. I think it's funny, I think it's touching, and I think that the two guys, and Robin Williams give amazing performances.

So how do you like them apples?

All Time Favorite Action Movie: Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

I got behind on these so I'm going to blitz them today an tomorrow. Since tomorrow is Happy Birthday Popgirl!

But today, I get into favorite genre movies, and for my favorite action flick, I went with the obvious choice.

When I wrote about Sabrina, I said that I'd always had a thing for Harrison Ford. Indy is the reason why. Also Han Solo, but mostly Indy. And Last Crusade is easily my favorite movie of the series. It wins for several reasons:

1. Amazing flashback sequence to when Indy was a kid in Colorado, with a terrific performance from the late great River Phoenix as teenage Indy. The twenty minute long segment is one of the better origin stories on film (I've mentioned I love origin stories right?). It shows us how Indy got his whip, the reason for his fear of snakes, and the driving force behind his passion for archeology.
2. Sean Connery's performance as Henry Jones Sr. It's really good. In fact the dynamic between Connery and Ford is so good that you even get past the ick factor of them sharing a love interest.
3. While John Rhys Davies was great as Sallah in the first film, he steals the show here. Sallah is helpful in Raiders of The Lost Ark, he's key here. As is Marcus Brody. Nothing like two sidekicks to up a movie's cool factor.
4. It has a villain worthy of Indy. In the other two movies, and then the fourth, which we shall not speak of now, the villains just aren't a match for Indiana Jones, in this one we have Walter Donavan, a rich antiquities collector. He's as smart and as studied as Indy, without any of the badassarey, but he's got ruthlessness on his side. He's the kind of villain you really like until you find out you hate him.
5. Indy chooses life over immortality. Way deep.
6. The closing lines are "Indy, you were named after the dog?" "I had a lot of good memories of that dog!"

It has it's shortcoming, Ilsa Schneider kinda sucks compared to Marion Ravenwood, and the false grail turning the bad guy to dust is no where as cool as Nazi face melting laser beams shooting out of The Ark of the Covenant. But it's still my favorite.

All Time Favorite Film Soundtrack (Compilation): Almost Famous

Just like the All Time Favorite Film Soundtrack (Score), I had a tough time coming to this one. There are two definite runners up (Juno, Definitely Maybe and Ten Things I Hate About You) but when it came down to it, it went to Almost Famous. Let me give you a track listing:

1. America - Simon and Garfunkle
2. Sparks - The Who
3. It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference - Todd Rundgren
4. I've seen all good people: Your Move - Yes
5. Feel Flows - The Beach Boys
6. Fever Dog - Stillwater (the fake band from the movie)
7. Every Picture Tells a Story - Rod Stewart
8. Mr. Farmer - The Seeds
9. One Way Out - The Allman Brothers Band
10. Simple Man - Lynyrd Skynyrd
11. That's The Way - Led Zeppelin
12. Tiny Dancer - Elton John
13. Lucky Tumble - Nancy Wilson
14. I'm Waiting For The Man - David Bowie
15. The Wind - Cat Stevens
16. Slip Away - Clarence Carter
17. Something in The Air - Thunderclap Newman

Cameron Crowe is one of those directors that really knows how to use music in his movies. Think about Say Anything, and John Cusack holding the boom box over his head blasting "In Your Eyes", or Tom Cruise driving down the road in Jerry Maguire singing Tom Petty's "Free Falling." Or consider this.

Right, yeah, that's why Almost Famous won. Oh right, and songs that aren't included on the track listing? Include "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters," another Stillwater song, some Guess Who? and a few other real gems. It's one of the best soundtracks ever, and absolutely my favorite.

All Time Favorite TV Couple: Jackie and Hyde, That 70s Show

This was a tough category. There are so many that I love so much. But I kept coming back to these two.

Jackie Berkhart is one of the best characters to grace a television screen. This is due in no small part to Mila Kunis, who is a phenomenally good comic actress. And true, in the end, the writers screwed it up and had her end up with Fez (a decision even my older brother, who will rationalize any TV writers decision into oblivion couldn't get on board with. Seriously, this is a man who said taking away Peter Petrelli's powers on Heroes was a necessary story movement.)

But for three magical seasons we got Jackie and Hyde. Their love began as a kind of obsessive crush on Jackie's part. Then they kissed. And for some reason that didn't work. She got back with Kelso, until he bailed on her after proposing, Jackie and Hyde went for it for real. It ended tragically, when Hyde cheated on her. I wrote an entire short film that never got shot based on how that episode made me cry. Then, he wanted her back and they almost got there, except she went to visit Kelso, and he misinterpreted that, and ran away to Vegas and married a stripper.

I think my favorite thing about Jackie and Hyde though, was the banter. They could banter with the best of them. They were like Carey Grant and Katherine Hepburn in bell bottoms. Plus, you know, that time they did "You're The One That I Want" together. That was awesome.

And well, it was a grave injustice to have Jackie end up with Fez. Grave.

All Time Favorite Romantic Comedy: Sabrina

I was seven years old when I first watched Sabrina. The remake, starring Harrison Ford, Greg Kinnear and Julia Ormond had just come out and my mother decided to have me watch the original before the new one. (I'd always had a thing for Ford, as long as I can remember) But about two hours later, I was enchanted, as everyone is, by Audrey Hepburn. I didn't mind William Holden either.

Sabrina tells the story of the titular girl, a "plain" young chauffeur's daughter of a wealthy Long Island family. She's plain in the sense that she's Audrey Hepburn in a ponytail. (This has been embraced now as a universal way to make beautiful girls seem merely pretty, see also She's All That, and America's Sweethearts) Sabrina is in love with the family's youngest son, playboy David (Holden) so her father sends her away to Paris, to grow up and go to culinary school. She lives, loves, and comes home as Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy couture. David is instantly smitten, despite that fact that he's engaged, to the daughter of an industrialist that his older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) is brokering a deal with. To save the deal Linus schemes to separate David and Sabrina, claiming to David that he'll just keep Sabrina busy while Davis find a way to end his engagement with minimal fallout. During this time Linus and Sabrina fall in love.

Hepburn is my favorite movie star, and this is my favorite of her films, and it's definitely not Bogey or Holden's best performances (Casablanca and Sunset Boulevard get those distinctions), the story line is riddled with cliches and at times the dialogue crosses the over from quaint to hokey, but all put together it's a beautiful and magical film. Plus, Hubert Givenchy personally did Audrey Hepburn's costumes and began a lifelong artist/muse relationship. Not too bad, especially because it gave this dress to the world:

Absolutely stunning. Plus the screen play makes excellent use of both "Isn't it Romantic" and "La Vie En Rose" two of the most beautiful love songs ever written

All Time Favorite TV Drama: The West Wing

"What's next?"

Two words that set up one of the most amazing 7 year run in TV history. Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme's The West Wing. The show was kicked off at the end of the Clinton presidency, while real world politics was bogged down in a sex scandal. In the fantasy world of The West Wing we had President Bartlett, an upstanding, honorably, terribly intelligent dream Commander in Chief.

But the show wasn't just about Bartlett, it was about the senior staff. Chief of Staff, tortured political operative Leo McGarry, Deputy Chief of Staff, smarmy, sarcastic Josh Lyman, Commications Director, self righteous and pessimistic Toby Zeigler, Deputy Communications director, idealistic academic Sam Seaborn, and press secretary, smart mouthed and charismatic CJ Craig. Not to mention Josh's put upon assistant Donna, President Bartlett's personal aide, Charlie and his doctor wife Abigail.

The show's story lines ranged from tiny and personal, like CJ's flirtation with reporter Danny Kincannon, (who didn't cheer when they finally got together at the end?) to soap operaish and absurd, like first daughter Zoe's kidnapping, but the show was almost always captivating. I watched the show from pilot to finale, stuck with it thorugh cast changes (Rob Lowe for Joshua Molina, downgrade!), character deaths (Mrs. Laningham, sob!), shift in focus (from the Bartlett White House to the Santos and Vinnick campaigns, which 3 years ahead of time was eerily similar to the 2008 presidential race), time slot changes (Wednesday to Sunday, actually way better, I never had rehearsals on Sunday nights), and I loved 95% of it. There's never been anything before or since like The West Wing.

Oh right, and did you know that in the foyer of the White House Andrew Jackson had a two ton block of cheese?

All Time Favorite Film Soundtrack (Score): Jurassic Park

This was a hard one to pick, I mean really hard. There are some great ones, music that I love. And did I go Zimmer or Williams? Did I go totally off the beaten path and choose Mark Knoffler (Princess Bride, definitely in my top 10). There were classics, and contemporary films to consider. But finally I had to admit it came down to John William's iconic music for Jurassic Park.

The theme is unmistakeable, and the music that echoes throughout the film is awe inspiring and terrifying at the right times. It captures the magic and majesty of this movie, and the concept behind it. It's simple enough that many amateur bands and orchestras take on arrangements, but complex enough that audiences are always impressed.

Williams has given us countless memorable score (Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) and most of them are much more iconic, but I'll always love Jurassic Park best.

All Time Favorite Sit-Com: Friends

There's just something about it. The show itself is far from reinventive. It's basically a mix of Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore and any "The Gang" type movie. But it was the remarkable cast that changed the way television looked at ensemble comedy.

Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow not only had unbelievable group chemistry but no two of them were better together than any other two. (Although I prefer Joey and Chandler team up episodes.) Not to mention each one was told over and over again that they were the break out star and should take that. But the big 6 stuck together. They negotiated together, and ended up being the highest paid cast in TV history. And it was always about all six of them, never did the show become "The Rachel Show" (as it easily could have, because no matter what anyone says, Jen was the breakout star)

But that's not the only reason I love Friends. Friends represents a moment to me. It was the first "grown up" show I really followed. It was the first time I started describing people as a "character from show." Like, "I'm a Rachel, and my friend Helen is sooo the Phoebe of our group!" (To take a totally arbitrary example that has no relevance to my real life whatsoever!) And oh yeah, that show is really really funny. Like hilariously funny. Watch the early episodes again some time. Brilliant.

And it made me start hanging out in coffee places, which sort of defined my life in high school. Just saying.