Our fabulous Wall O’ Cool has some awesome stuff on it right now:
A whole Hitchcock shelf with classics like; The Birds, Psycho, Frenzy and Family Plot.
Two shelves of classics with titles like; The Great Escape, Patton, All About Eve, The Conversation and Touch of Evil.
A music shelf featuring Jimi Hendrix, The Clash, The Melvins and John Lennon.
A comedy shelf with Office Space, The Big Lebowski and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
A whole shelf of family friendly films- Tron, Ice Age, Finding Nemo, E.T. and The Sound of Music.
Also a whole shelf dedicated to Stephen King movies!
Plus some new staff picks like American Psycho, Brick and Almost Famous.
Action packed animation, super sci-fi, chick flicks, dark comedies…..tons to choose from!
I decided to make a shelf on our Wall O’ Cool of some of my favorite musical comedies. These are movies that feature lots of laughs and tons of tunes to lift your spirits.
First up is The Blues Brothers , a classic starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues. After Jake is released from prison, he and brother, Elwood pay a visit to the orphanage where they were raised by nuns. They learn that the place is gonna close unless they come up with $5000. The brothers decide to get their band together to play a concert and save the place. Hi-jinks ensue!
The movie that created all the best quotes of the 90’s for me, Wayne’s World. Full of musical references, babelicious Tia Carrere as Wayne’s rock goddess, Rob Lowe as a douchy bad guy, and two basement dwellers with their own public access cable show. Excellent!
A major guilty pleasure for me, but I adore it anyway, Camp. The story of a bunch of kids at a musical theater summer camp. There is a strange love quadrangle, drunk teachers, treachery, poison, cross dressing and Broadway hits in between. If you like watching Glee, you’ll love this movie.
Airheads was a movie I had forgotten about until I caught some on TV one day. I had to rent it and watch the whole thing again. It stars Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi and Adam Sandler as three wannabe rock stars who decide to hold a radio station hostage with fake guns in order to get their demo tape some air play. Good jokes and fun for the head bangers of the early 90’s.
Another good one is Detroit Rock City. In 1978 a high school band who adores Kiss tries to scam their way into a concert while battling their way through numerous obstacles. Hilarious coming of age movie with a killer Kiss soundtrack.
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a great “night in the life” flick that has Michael Cera doing his schtick as the sweet, but shy, guy alongside gorgeous Kat Dennings. The two meet clandestinely and spend the night trying to find out where their favorite indie band, “Where’s Fluffy”, is playing their mystery show. There are sweet moments, funny moments and some really gross ones too. Great date movie.
One of Jeremy’s favorites, Empire Records, a film that takes place during a 24 hour period in an independent record store. The staff is crazy (Liv Tyler, Rory Cochrane, Anthony LaPaglia, and Renee Zellweger) and the clientele is not much better. Before the day is over they will have to find a way to keep Empire from being taken over by the chain store, Music Town. Good music all the way through and an adorable Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2) as Rex Manning, the fading pop star who is signing autographs for his aging fans that day.
Lastly we have The Commitments. This cool film is about a guy who wants to put together a soul band in Dublin, Ireland. The climb to the top is humorous and heartfelt. Real musicians throughout the film and awesome covers of songs like “Mustang Sally”, “Try a Little Tenderness”, and “In the Midnight Hour.”
Come on down, grab a laugh, sing a song, buy some movies!!!!
So last night after getting home from work, I plop down on the couch, pop open a tall boy of PBR, and dig into some leftover Thai food. Whilst flipping through the channels, I come across a bit of satire I haven’t seen since my youth. I’m talking, of course, about;
Don’t Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood.
This is an early effort from the Wayans brothers (“In Living Color”) and in a pretty broad parody of all those gritty films of the early 90’s that showed the world what life was really like as a gang member in the “hood”, Boyz In The Hood being the most obvious target.
This films has it all…drive-bys, gang fights, slow-motion death scenes, pregnant teenagers, weed-smoking grandmas, crackheads desperate for a fix, hysterical moms holding their dead sons in the middle of the street, some slammin’ hip-hop (or more accurately, Rap) music, midgets, gangsters from the “Old School” and teenagers just looking for a chance to get out of the ‘hood. Oh, and a totally tricked out wheelchair.
Finally, a film with a real “….MESSAGE!”
Better than the low brow “Scary Movie” series, and MUCH better than any of the other “MOVIE” satire films that have come out over the last couple of years, but not as good as any satire Christopher Guest has ever done, this is about as good as The Naked Gun 2 1/2, or Hollywood Shuffle. Worth A Second Look.
GRR