12 mini-reviews for the short attention span, taken from dark corners of stevenl's video vault:

2001: a Space Odyssey / directed by Stanley Kubrick (1968, VHS). Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Leonard Rossiter, Douglas Rain (voice). I wanted to start off by using the old saw "In space no one can hear you snore," but I can't honestly use it concerning this story about the first manned flight to Jupiter. Pretentious and tedious, this film is also enigmatic and beautiful. An overture and intermission is in there in order to give the audience a chance to buy overpriced popcorn. When this was released in 1968, most of us were still trying to adjust to the fact that Americans were actually going to walk around on the Moon. Even for those of us who were teens, who were born in a world with 48 stars on the flag, where Elvis was still driving truck, Segregation ruled the South and Sputnik, the first satellite, had yet to be launched a lot had happened in a short time. Kubrick was able to tap into that. But the film is very dated now. Just get a load of all those hexagons. This is not particularly engaging as a story with the exception of the portions involving the ship's computer, HAL. In fact, "I'm half-crazy" HAL is far more interesting than any of the human actors. The shots where we see the astronauts from HAL's point of view are particularly chilling and the computer's homicidal crimes are portrayed in a quiet way-- a decision in storytelling separating Kubrick from second-rate directors. It is after HAL's departure from the plot that the movie goes quintessentially 1968, presenting us psychedelic special effects worthy of an Iron Butterfly concert. The conclusion was a cop-out. And very long and drawn out one at that. The special effects extravanganza, which is impressive throughout most of the story, includes Kubrick's trademark Big Faces and symmetrical compositions. A year after this film was released, Armstrong and Aldrin made their lunar visit. I was camping that night, and from my primitive campfire with the sparks climbing into the stars, just stood staring at the Moon and knowing that in a 1000 years hence this was probably going to be the only event in my lifetime that would be in any sort of chronology detailing the highlights of human history. Many of us felt that way. Total wonder. Kubrick captured the feeling of the day but I'm not sure he was able to transcend the "you had to be there" level to later generations.

The Wild World of Obscuro Comix (Piece of My Mind) / directed by Steve Whalen (1993, VHS). Steve Willis. Originally presented as part of SPSCC's Piece of My Mind series. When I played this the cats left the room, my companion claimed she was, er, "tired" and needed to sleep, the house itself snored and even I got drowsy. This was me 15 years ago giving a lecture about the evolution of comic art leading to "Newave" or "Obscuro" comix. I was a college faculty at the time, so it is very lectury. I'm using an overhead projector, which gives you an idea of how exciting this is. When I gave this talk at the Olympia Community Center I had no idea it would be broadcast over and over on TCTV for a year. Otherwise I would've combed my hair. Only the most esoteric of comix historians would be interested in this presentation. I say "Um" a lot, which I tend to do in front of cameras. This video might still be available at SPSCC, otherwise, you are out of luck. Heh-heh. Bil Keane, City Limits Gazette, and Morty the Dog get a special mention. The first thing I noticed when viewing this was back then I had thick hair and a thin body. Now I have thin hair and a thick body.

Juno and the Paycock / directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1930, DVD). Barry Fitzgerald, Edward Chapman, Sidney Morgan, Sara Allgood, John Laurie. A tragicomedy based on the play by Sean O'Casey, so much for the Luck of the Irish. Set against the Irish Civil War of the early 1920s, O'Casey attempted to cram all of Ireland's troubles into one dysfunctional family. Alcoholism, poverty, gunfire as background noise, unwanted pregnancy, snitching, vanity, maternal heroism-- O'Casey packs in so many issues concerning Ireland in the Jazz Age that it seems too much. And it is. This was a stage play and in Hitchcock's second talkie he did not employ any special audio or visual tricks, other than changing his focus on a stationary camera. One has the feeling he wanted to get this one out of the way in order to work on something he really cared about. As a static-staged play, which is basically what we see, we are offered several Irish and one Jewish stereotype. There is a mini oral essay on Theosophy that is weirdly out of place. The dialect is difficult to decipher, but from what I can make out the dialogue is clever. The cadence of the speech is pure music. Not a typical Hitchcock movie. Probably of most interest to O'Casey scholars or students of Irish history. Basically a downer story that must have appealed to Hitchcock's cynical view of human nature. But once he got it, he didn't know what to do with it. Worth watching once.

Betty Boop's Rise to Fame / directed by Dave Fleischer (1934, DVD). Mae Questel (voice), Cab Calloway (voice), Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer. A black and white cartoon featuring real life animators Max and Dave Fleischer interviewing cartoon creation Betty Boop. Betty performs a variety of bizarre and risqué musical numbers. Get the children out of the room when she presents her Hawaiian song and dance.

College / directed by James W. Horne (1927, DVD). Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, Harold Goodwin, Snitz Edwards, Madame Sul-Te-Wan. The bookish and clumsy Buster Keaton attempts to win the heart of the girl of his dreams by making his name as an athletic star. Keaton was a brilliant comedian, the best of the silent film era. The visual gags in this film include Buster as a soda jerk and a waiter (uncomfortably in blackface as a disguise, with some interesting social commentary back-in-the-kitchen scenes), and we also see him involved in college activities such as hazing, baseball, track and field, and rowing. Although he plays a klutz, Keaton had to be a superb athlete in real life to perform these stunts. This 1992 Film Preservation Associates release includes a soundtrack by John Muri playing the organ just as if you were watching the film in a theater. Nice touch.

Fahrenheit 9/11 / directed by Michael Moore (2004, DVD). The most maudlin of documentarians covers the most incompetent of American Presidents. To call this a documentary is sort of stretching it. This is propaganda designed to push a point of view. It just so happens I agree with Moore's politics when it comes to the subject of this film, but I'm aware he is trying to persuade, not inform. This work is much more sophisticated, less gimmicky, and has better direction than his previous Bowling for Columbine. Some of the truly inspired choices of music with news footage makes me think I'm watching a creative online mashup rather than a movie with soundtrack. Starting with the stolen Presidential election of 2000, Moore tracks the first term of George W. Bush and includes: the Bush family/bin Laden family connection, the WMD lies, Enron, Halliburton, Unocal, the totally bogus invasion of Iraq with the Democrats sitting on their hands doing nothing and the media not asking hard questions, the "Patriot" Act, the Saudi influence in Washington D.C., "Mission Accomplished." Taking a pro-soldier/anti-war stance, Moore has some pretty disturbing interviews and footage of our men and women over there in New Vietnam. Washington State's own Rep. Jim McDermott (who, by the way, is an Ungovernor [1980]) has some great comments on the Bush administration's use of fear as a political tool. Since 2004 we have been treated to Abu Ghraib, Alberto Gonzales, the fiasco of Katrina, waterboarding, economic recession and an obscene national debt. Not a record to brag about.

The Graduate / directed by Mike Nichols (1967, VHS). Dustin Hoffman, Ann Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Buck Henry, Norman Fell, Alice Ghostley, Richard Dreyfuss (uncredited). I'm sure Mike Nichols has made a bad film sometime in his career, but I have yet to see one. Before the word "cougar" entered the social vocabulary, there was Mrs. Robinson in this amazing period piece that still holds up four decades later. The Generation Gap had never been quite as severe in recent history as it was in the 1960s/early 1970s. The "adults" in this story are all "Mr." or "Mrs.," while the young folks are on a first name basis. Supposedly this film was a casting nightmare before everything settled. It is hard to imagine anyone other Hoffman and Bancroft in their roles, both of them portraying parallel lives of emptiness. One being emotionally all used up, the other too afraid to take a first step. Hoffman really captures that "out of college money spent/See no future pay no rent" feeling many of us went through. Our drifting around with no direction while having a degree in hand drove some of our parents crazy. Nichols' uses water as a symbol throughout the story as a place of solace and redemption for Hoffman's character: the fish tank, swimming pool, fountain at Berkeley, Elaine's tears, rainfall. At one point we even see Hoffman drinking a can of pre-pulltab Olympia Beer ("It's the Water!") with a clear view of Tumwater Falls on the label. A couple points of trivia: see if you can spot a young Richard Dreyfuss giving an uncredited one-liner, and, my fellow comix historians and will enjoy spotting the Print Mint in a background shot (An aside for comix guys: made me think of our old late friend Clay Geerdes and our day touring Telegraph Ave.). The Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack is about as perfect as a soundtrack can get.

Independence Day / directed by Roland Emmerich (1996, VHS). Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, James Rebhorn, Margaret Colin, Harvey Fierstein, Adam Baldwin, Brent Spiner, Harry Connick Jr., Tracey Walter (uncredited). Pulls out all the stops and delivers amazing special effects and action. Total candy. Smith, Quaid, and Spiner manage to bring a comic timing to their dramatic roles and it works. This story about an alien invasion is packed with small humorous details. I especially enjoyed the HAL reference on Goldblum's laptop and Smith's "Welcome to Earth" punchline. Punchline. Ha. Get it? Somehow in this extravanganza Emmerich managed to include the 1990s obligatory stripper pole dance scene. The panic-in-the-streets footage of downtown New York, with skyscrapers melting down would become reality within 5 years, making this tale more sobering than originally intended. That, coupled with Katrina wiping out New Orleans, made the film's premise of American cities vanishing in minutes not so fictitious. Bill Pullman plays the President. It was hard for me to accept him in that role since I had just recently seen him in Ruthless People, where he played a character who was, as I said in my review, "wonderfully stuipid." Oh. Wait. Right. Never mind.

"The Creeping Man" (The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes) / directed by Tim Sullivan (1991, VHS off-air). Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke, Charles Kay, Adrian Lukis, Sarah Woodward, Colin Jeavons, Peter Elliott. Yes, Hell hath no fury like an evil-scientist-pumped-up-on-monkey-glands scorned. In what Holmes calls an "Odd affair," a connection is made between a string of monkey thefts and a mysterious nocturnal intruder at a country estate. Nice production values of a tough London street scene and the tension between Holmes and Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade is a fun running joke. This tale has more of a credibility stretch than most of the other stories about the Great Detective. Brett is aging but still has his elegant hamminess, especially when he delivers lines like, "When one tries to rise above nature one is liable to fall below it. The highest type of man may revert to the animal when he leaves the straight road of destiny." Tim Sullivan has a distinct use of lighting (as he did with "The Last Vampyre") that seems too harsh for the series. You won't see Peter Elliott's face in this. He's in the gorilla suit. Apparently Elliott is one of the world's foremost gorilla suit actors. So if you're a Don Martin National Gorilla Suit Day fan like me, you'lll want to check this out. Oot. Greet.

Zatôichi senryô-kubi = Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold / directed by Kazuo Ikehiro (1964, DVD). Shintarô Katsu, Shogo Shimada. It seems to be a law when an excellent series becomes popular the quality starts to degrade. This sixth entry in the Zatoichi series would be a point in favor of that hypothesis. Although the film still has some of the visual poetics of earlier entries, it is Cormanesque in it's cheesiness: bad montage sequences, awful soundtrack, garish color, the violence is more graphic and brutal. The bad guys are really bad. They are dirty and they swear and sneer. The evil tax collector looks like Jack Palance and has a perfect sinister chuckle. And attempting to decipher the complicated political and social structure Zatoichi has to navigate through probably requires a crash course in Japanese history. This is not to say this isn't entertaining, far from it (I love Corman's work). Just don't expect the sophistication of the earlier Z-guy films. We learn the story is set in 1843, giving us a solid reference point. The movie begins and ends with villagers (who turn very ugly in the course of the story) celebrating with music, and one of the best scenes in the entire Zatoichi run is when he joins them by playing the drums. We also see our antihero gambling, drinking, and whoring. He has a few self-esteem issues, including making a statement that if the world worked as it should, he wouldn't be in it. Although most of the supporting characters are pretty flat, Shogo Shimada is engaging as Boss Chuji.

Bugs Bunny Rides Again / directed by Friz Freleng (1948, DVD). Mel Blanc (voice). Set in the Old West, we see Yosemite Sam in his element. Poking fun at many conventions in Western films, you've seen a lot these gags in other WB cartoons. I'm pretty convinced Sam must share my Scottish heritage: a sawed-off little red-haired guy with a short temper. I wonder if Mel Blanc's voice hurt after a recording session of providing Sam's voice?

"The Buzz Aldrin Show" (Monty Python's Flying Circus ; v. 8, episode 17) / directed by Ian MacNaughton (1970, VHS). Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin. Butterfly (nice Gilliam animation), Gumby men, Architect sketch (includes Cleese as a proto-Basil Fawlty. Also the whole sketch reminds me of the Isthmus housing proposal), How to recognize a Mason, Insurance sketch, The Bishop! (the visual gags here are pure Terry Jones), Living on the sidewalk, East Midlands Poet Board (Jones as the lonely housewife is rather frightening), Nude Man comments (Chapman, who else?), Chemist sketch (Idle and Palin, quite good here), Words not to be used on the BBC. Oddly, Carol Cleveland is absent.