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.

50 - The Frighteners

Connection To TOMCATS - Jake Busey.

Whether you prefer Peter Jackson, the early New Zealand made film years or the Hollywood years, I think depends how much you love his Middle Earth stuff because that single handedly takes about two thirds of it, it was hard to distinguish then because everything Jackson does gets filmed in NZ. From his early stuff I love Bad Taste, Brain Dead and Heavenly Creatures and I like Meet The Feebles, but his Hollywood career as shown what a magnificent filmmaker he is, even if the results where spotty (notably for me The Lovely Bones which was a huge disappointment) but the Hollywood path started all here with The Frighteners, a film that was box-office disappointment, if the figures I've read to be true it made $600,000 short of it's $30 million budget, but that's not taking into account advertising or in the plus column - home video.

So I saw this for the first time in 1997, I by that point was 14/15 and was already familiar certainly with Bad Taste (I saw Brain Dead for the first time a year later) so I knew it was an American film from that Bad Taste guy and I do for something reason, want to revisit every few years or so.

Michael J. Fox (which is last live action lead role to date I think) plays Frank Bannister, who was an architect who develops psychic abilities allowing him to see and communicate with ghosts after a car crash and his wife's murder. He then uses these abilities to work with various ghosts to cheat money out of customers for his ghost exorcism business. However a spirit is killing people and leaving numbers on the forehead as the Grim Reaper.

The film tonerly feels all over the place, it can't quite decide whether it's a horror-comedy or a horror with elements of comedy, this doesn't affect the enjoyment of the movie which I did enjoy very much it's just it's change in shift it sometimes a bit jarring. I think the films main killer was scary, I think that element would have still made a great film on it's own - the shooting of the hospital in the 50's, the Bonnie & Clyde element, the killer obsessed with numbering his victims. Michael J. Fox, I've always enjoyed him as a lead even in some of his less successful work (Greedy) and he carries the film well, he's got a cool backstory as well.

The supporting cast is pretty darn cool, Jeffrey Combs creepy insane performance as an FBI agent and the ghosts include John Astin as The Judge (who's falling apart) and R. Lee Ermey as a ghost drill sergeant (not a shocker really) among others.

Overall a good start for Jackson in the US, though some elements i.e the tone are sort of marks against it, but it really is a cool film at the end of the day.

43 - Freaky Friday (1976)

Connection To BODY SLAM - John Astin

I can't believe I've never got around to watching the original Freaky Friday before, I really enjoy the body swap movies I've seen an whole bunch of them from Like Father Like Son, Vice Versa or 18 Again, to the 2 Freaky Friday remakes - the TV one from 1995 with Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffmann and the 2003 one with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan (who contrary to popular belief is a talented actress, it's just her life is messed up at the moment), so yeah seeing the original Freaky Friday as been a long-time coming.

Freaky Friday if you don't know the plot as the tomboyish daughter (Foster) swapping bodies with her housewife mother (Barbara Harris) on a Friday (duh), where they both learn each other's lives are not quite so easy.

Freaky Friday is likable 70's family Disney fare, like all the better body swap movies (including in some ways something like Face/Off) both the performers excel in either role, where they are being themselves or pretending to be each other trapped in each others bodies. Like Bugsy Malone, Foster even around other child performers showed she was in a class of her own even in family films but none of the young performers are bad in the movie to be fair, there's also some fun adult support from John Astin as the dad.

I think the 2003 version got the dynamic better between the two leads, something about their relationship in that one just rang... truer, but I think the relationship with the brother is a bit better done here and also in this one you can't help thinking there should have been an early scene where they interacted with each other in each others bodies but hey it's a kids film at the end of the day.

Overall, a fun movie, I did enjoy it all the way through thanks to a storyline I liked and two great performances by the leads.

42 - Body Slam

Connection To THE CANNONBALL RUN - Director Hal Needham.

Up until the 2008's The Wrestler, films about wrestling where consider bad - Ready To Rumble and No Holds Barred are two productions funded by wrestling companies themselves which in the case of Ready To Rumble made their fans out to be idiots. The (then) WWF produced No Holds Barred, wCw produced Ready To Rumble in 2000 and an insane attempt at cross-promotion put the companies world title on the star David Arquette, in an unrelated matter wCw which made 60 million in 1996 went out of business the year after after Ready To Rumble (the WWE brought them out if you didn't know), whilst No Holds Barred had the attempt of cross-promoting the match on PPV with Zeus (Tommy Lister) wanting to get revenge in a WWF ring - the audiences for both the film and these promotion tactics didn't really go for it.

I should mention now - for over 20 years I've been a wrestling fan - not as a guilty pleasure I'll happily admit it, I've been to live events multiple times, owned videos, DVDs, figures (even as an adult), autographs, so yeah I've had all the years of it's fake etc - which is probably a dumb thing to say to a fan because you know we know there not really out there trying to hurt each other, it's a show, you know just like what these people watch (it's always most ironic coming from a fan of reality TV for obvious reasons). So yeah I wanted to have this disclaimer because a film involving a wrestler whether there amazing (The Princess Bride) or piss poor (so, so many) I'm likely going to get that enjoyment of seeing a wrestler in it.

So, Body Slam - it's took me a bit to actually get to about the movie I am mean't to be talking about, is a film I know I've seen from television showings back in the day but really my memory of it is all so fuzzy so in many ways it is a brand new watch for me.

And you know what I recognized it was a bad movie but it was very, very enjoyable - yes it's one of those films where professional wrestling is all real and is about M. Harry Smilac (Dirk Benedict), a struggling music producer, with one sole client (the rock band Kicks), he agrees to do a fundraiser for a politician and struggling to find acts he mistakes pro wrestler Rick Roberts (Roddy Piper) for a musican and hires him, he ends up finding out he's a pro wrestler and decides to stick with him and becomes a pro wrestling manager booking matches for Roberts and Tonga Tom (The Tonga Kid), the team are successful but clash with Rick's ex-manager Captain Lou Murano (played by Captain Lou Albano, proving they didn't strain too many brain cells with thinking of the names here). After Captain Lou's Cannibals team injure Harry and the wrestlers in a match where there where cheap shot, Harry wants to give it up but its on the idea of the "Rock N Wrestling" format for his tag-team and the band which end up becoming a huge success.

To add another word to bad - it's silly but it's got such charm, it's fun seeing a bunch of wrestlers in roles sometimes as characters (The Wild Samoans, The Barbarbian) or as themselves (Classy Freddie Blassie, Ric Flair and Bruno Sammartino and in the crowd in the finale). I think Piper showed he was a better actor then he does here but he's still decent enough, his niece his played by Kellie Martin, who went onto have an actual career - it's actually not clear why she is with her uncle like if something happened to her parents), Benedict is actually a likable lead and it's a shame he had no real leading roles once A-Team finished.

Some of the other none-wrestlers in roles including Tanya Roberts in a wasted role as the love interest, Charles Nelson Reilly, John Astin and Billy Barty as midget manager Tim McClusky who is entertaining despite what I will get to next.

I think I already covered this already or something similar, whilst appearing on Reilly's characters show (one of the most popular in America according to Piper's character not sure if he was taking the piss), the Barty character likes to use the term "faggot" as a slur, it's just something I personally disagree with, one person's sign in that crowd even has simply that.

Overall dumb, cheesy 80's fun, maybe it's my love of wrestling helps me enjoy that but I think people who don't like wrestling but like 80's cheese will enjoy this.