Friday, January 26, 2007

Camera Obscura - Futurama's Back; Westerns vs Monsters; FOX's Idiocy

There's some good, nay even great news ahead for today.

First, some trash talk. Someone needs to call the forensics investigators to explain the butchering and mangling and ultimate roadside dumping of the comedy "Idiocracy" which landed with a barely-heard thud on DVD a few weeks back. The comedy by Mike Judge has some pure golden nuggets, no doubt.

Doubtless too is the mangled mess of a movie which producers made - blocking the movie's release for years, they then re-edited the movie, slapped on some narration and told theater owners to only offer limited showings for a week.

Too bad - there is much to laugh at in this sci-fi satire set 500 years hence when the population is dumber than a sack of hammers. Funny remains in tattered remnants in the movie - I liked the State of the Union speech held in the House of Representin', the rote repetition of advertising slogans in place of actual knowledge, and all the performances. Even the DVD is a hacked-to-pieces mess: the only extras are "deleted scenes," usually barely three or four words long, and the DVD Menu page is so awful it's impossible to tell what is actually on the menu.

Guess Fox didn't like the way Judge expertly captured the idiocy of television, and the reality that the Stupid of Tomorrow is actually the Stupid of the Now.

Much better news for fans of comedy and science fiction arrives with the promos announcing the Return of Futurama (hat-tip to Wes for the link to the following promo):



Maybe "Idiocracy" director Mike Judge needs to get all Bender and tell Fox to bite his shiny metal ass. (Fox cancelled "Futurama" too.)

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Much fun has been had here at this Cup of Joe via a contest I noticed at Les Jones' place. It's simple: make up your own three-word movie titles for straight-to-video king Steven Seagal. Some of the ones I've thought of:

"My Three Chins"
"Buffet Under Seige"
"Above The Slaw"

And I loved these from the official entries page: "From Russia With Love Handles" and "The Good, The Bad And The .... Hey, You Gonna Eat That?"

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QUOTE of THE WEEK: From the A.V. Club interview with David Lynch: "
Cinema is a medium that can translate ideas. But wood can translate ideas, too. You have wood and then you get a chair. Some ideas are for different things."

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What Frank Zappa used to call "Cheepnis" gets a double-dose of life, or rather, Life after Death, with the airing in the wee hours of this Friday/Saturday on Turner Classic Movies with the broadcast of two awful and hilarious movies. The titles for these masterpieces of schlock say it all: "Billy the Kid versus Dracula" and "Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter."

Western cliches, jokes about the Undead, graveyards and guns, and weird fun with electricity and stock footage are wrapped into two of the most nonsensical movies ever made.

More info here.

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Speaking of trying to re-animate the dead, CMT (and their partners at VHI and MTV) are attempting to blend the reality-tv show craze and the dead-as-a-doornail Miss America competition. Yeah, that's gonna fit in great with MTV's usual broadcast fare of shows like "I'm Gonna Convince Your Mom You Should Have Sex With Me On A Bus For A TV Show."

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