60 - The Silence Of The Hams

Connection To POSSE - Billy Zane

The common misconception is that when Friedberg and Seltzer started getting their hands on the spoof genre is when it went to shit, I've even heard the statement "spoofs aren't as good as they used to" but the truth is even before they got there grubby mitts on the sub-genre, there was plenty of spoof that was less then classic - Plump Fiction, Mafia, Repossessed - are among those, the truth is actually for every Airplane or a Naked Gun there was films just fleetingly funny or downright poor.

The Silence Of The Hams, which to me is such a groan-worthy name for the film, seems tone of the most forgotten of the mid-90s spoofs and is something I did see on TV back in the day, truth is all I remembered though was Billy Zane and his name being a play on Jodie Foster and Dom DeLuise as the Hannibal Lector character, and though it's listed as 1994 on the internet I could of swore it came out in the UK in 1996, which I just checked on, so good memory there.

There's scenes that spoof the interrogation scene in Basic Instinct and the cell scene in The Silence Of The Lambs, anybody who has seen Loaded Weapon, which predated it by a year will know these scenes have already been spoofed. The two films it really spoofs most is of course Lambs and Psycho and besides them there is spoofs of Bram Stoker's Dracula and (rather on the nose) The Addams Family.

I found myself smiling at a far few parts of this movie, mostly with my eyes rolling at the same time. The film is bad, but it was so enjoyably bad, I was right about the Billy Zane character - he is called Joe Dee Fostar, I'd totally forgot about Ezzio Greggio being one of the stars (he also directs and writes), I think he's the weakest part of the cast, struggling a bit with English, but there is an awesome cast here including Martin Balsam apeing his Psycho role (this was a very late in his career role), and small roles for Shelley Winters and Mel Brooks among others. Tony Cox who would appear in some of those Selzter Friedberg spoofs a bit later also a very small role. For me though John Astin (this is like the fourth film I have watched with him in) and particularly DeLuise have the funniest moments for me.

Overall, groan worthy very often but oddly entertaining, it made me smile and was on the verge of making me laugh out loud, so to me it was actually better then I remembered.

41 - The Cannonball Run

Connection To CITY HUNTER - Jackie Chan

"It's not what you do, it's how you do it..."

I touched on my childhood viewing habits a bit when I wrote about Police Academy 4, and despite my back then and still lack of interest about cars I loved The Cannonball Run films to bits. The first and second movie (Fever I never owned on video but saw more then one thanks to television) where watched multiple times and was a main reason for wanting me to watch All Dogs Go To Heaven in that it had the voices of Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, the film though not big with the critics where loved and are still loved by me to this very day.

So The Cannonball Run's plot is simple as in it's about an illegal cross country race but it's more about the characters then the actual race, which I guess simple is plot you can say about a lot of the cross country race films, the reason being for a stash or money or competition is just get the array of characters racing against each other.

The characters - the main pair are JJ (Reynolds) and (DeLuise) who are riding an ambulance and dressed as paramedics with a real but crazy doctor (Jack Elam), these supposed heroes actually pretty much kidnap Farrah Fawcett and drug her up at point point, ah the 80's sure where different (see also Revenge Of The Nerds).Victor also has the memorable of superhero alter-ego of Captain Chaos

We also have Roger Moore, who was still James Bond plays Seymour who believes he's Roger Moore... not James Bond mind, you know because of copyright and all, he even gets Bond sound alike music aswell as a bevvy of different women and gadgets but if the lawyers are reading I repeat he is not James Bond, it's fun though seeing Moore make fun of himself especially in a time before it became a common occurrence.

Dean Martin looks drunk for most of the movie - and the fact it's Dean Martin I will assume he was and he teams up with Rat Pack pal Sammy Davis Jr. as Priests they make fun "arch-nemesis" to the J.J/Victor pair

Among others we also have Jackie Chan and Michael Hui play a Japanese race team because you know close enough, the pair of buxom lady drivers played by Adrienne Babreau and Tara Buckman who use there erm... assets to evade authority and Jamie Farr as The Sheik (who is the only character who appears in all 3 movies) are the more standout other racers.

I think Elam as Doctor Van Helsing steals the show for me every time he's on screen he is hilarious whatever he does, another one of my favourite scenes involves The Sheik ordering fast food.

The absolute worst thing for me in the movie is Reynolds referring to Davis Jr. as a "Chocoalte Monk" feels so outdated for me now and sticks out as a negative against the movie.

The ending doesn't make sense when you think about it, the cannonballers all race towards the finish line on foot to see who gets there first however, the race is done by punching a clock with the time on and getting it punched at the other end and the scene earlier in the movie takes over 5 minutes so those that "win" probably don't especially since they are not the last to leave

Overall even after all these years I still find joy in this movie, across this movie and the second I enjoy spending time with the characters and maybe because you don't spend too long it makes the films speed by (damn me and puns lately).

P.S. this could be the answer to a trivia question - what film does Jackie Chan fight Peter Fonda?