ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Fran]

From IMDb:  The opening scene, a dream sequence prior to the vaudeville routines which follow, is what makes this film famous. In it Keaton plays everyone in a theatre simultaneously (through multiple exposures). He is the band leader, all its members, the dancers on the stage and everyone in the audience.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7AnUU3qkJw[/youtube]

Time 6:01

[memento]

IMDB: A story of love, revenge and cappuccino.
Eddie Luca is the youngest son in a family of Italian immigrants who has moved to London. Beginning from nowhere, they open a cafe in an Italian neighbourhood. One day their father loses the cafe, the home and his wedding ring by gambling.

[southendmd]

Plot:  Lionel's life turns around after a one-night stand on top of a pinball table... he becomes the world's first pregnant man!

Billy Crystal's first film.  Directed by Joan Rivers (!)

IMDb user comments (they're all like this or worse):

It's been nearly 30 years, and I STILL hate everyone involved in this movie. It remains the worst movie I've ever seen.

Before seeing this, I never much minded Rivers, one way or the other. After seeing this movie, I have an allergic reaction when I accidentally see her on television.

I got dragged to this - against my better judgment - by peer pressure. However, coming out of the theater, those friends swore an oath to never again overrule my choice of movie. Nearly thirty years later, we still carry around mental scars from this movie.

On my deathbed, one of my regrets will be the time I wasted hoping that this movie might get better. It never did.

If you are ever given a choice, you would prefer putting your own eyes out to sitting though this movie.

I registered for IMDb comments just in the hope that perhaps I can warn others against viewing this movie. If I can save just one person from watching this, then my existence on this earth will have been justified.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  The first sequel to "The Pink Panther" and still arguably the finest film of the entire series, "A Shot in the Dark" is a funny and very intelligent piece of entertainment. Peter Sellers returns once again as a bumbling French detective who this time unwittingly stumbles upon a group of murders that keep piling up right under his nose. Could love interest Elke Sommers be the culprit? Well it appears so, but Sellers is not buying it just because he has the hots for her. George Sanders is among the cast of several other possible suspects and of course we also have the first appearance of Sellers' superior (Herbert Lom). Co-written by William Peter Blatty (of "The Exorcist" fame!) and Blake Edwards (who also directed), "A Shot in the Dark" remains one of the better comedies from any cinematic era.

[memento]

IMDB: Jake Singer is at loose ends in NYC, and neck deep in psychoanalysis with the outrageous Dr. Morales when he meets the enigmatic and beautiful widow Allegra Marshall.

[southendmd]

Plot:  What would Jesus do if he returned to Earth and discovered he could no longer relate to the youth of today?

IMDb:  Whoa, this movie looks cheap. It looks like it was shot on the streets of New York City with nothing but $14 and a silver superhero suit. The good news is, it's pretty funny. A few sidesplitters, and solid chuckles up until the end, which is utterly hilarious.

The premise is that Jesus comes back to Earth in the modern day and finds he's a bit of a freak. He meets a seamstress and has her make him a superhero costume so he'll be able to relate. Then the Antichrist (who's the NYC Parks Commissioner, for some reason), resurrects the greatest sinners in history to fight Ultrachrist, and then ... then things get kind of weird.

While the movie may dwell a little long on some subplots (a romance between a pretty reporter and Jesus's angel sidekick may be a tad too much gravy), it manages to sustain momentum throughout, and by the final twenty minutes, when Jesus and Satan go head-to-head at what seems to be a benefit Honkytonk concert, it's reached deliriously crazy highs of hilarity.

Minor masterpiece? Maybe not ... but I did appreciate that the movie didn't stoop to lowbrow scatological humor at all (obscure political references are more its thing), and the performances (except a few where it's clearly someones friend or sister) are quite good -- particularly Jonathan C. Green as Jesus/Ultrachrist.

If you can tolerate low production values, bad sound and Klezmer music, Ultrachrist! is a movie worth checking out.

[Fran]

From IMDb:

Unlike the feel good, "everything turns out for the best," "innate human goodness" fluff comedies that we see in the US, this film is based on the proposition that, under pressure, everyone falls to the level of the lowest common denominator.

Years in the past a scorned nurse/lover switched newborns to spite the doctor who was the subject of her ire. When it was revealed, in the present, that these families from opposite sides of the track had each raised the other's son to his early teens, they set about to make it right. After all, there was enough success to go around. Right?

Rather than bringing everyone up to the level of the wealthy politician's family, however, the children (siblings included) become a lot of foul-mouthed, cigarette-smoking truants who enjoy their delinquent lives to the fullest. Naturally, the parents follow suit.

No one is immune. The film is a keeper, though the humor is decidedly French and some subtleties are likely lost in the translation.

[memento]

IMDB: Gene Wilder and Carol Kane make a wonderful couple in this very funny movie about a guy's romantic hubris and his journey to prove himself in silent movie Hollywood. It's silly and romantic and lots of run - wonderful music by John Morris (I'm lucky - I have the record!)... If you can find it, you should see it. I wish it would come out on DVD!

[Meryl]

Woody Allen as Fielding Mellish

[southendmd]

Plot:  Scrappy's dog, Yippy, isn't feeling well. Scrappy sees a sign for Dr. Woof's Dog Tonic and thinks that's just the thing. But in order to get there, he has to pass through Rough House Alley. To protect his only coin, he puts it in his mouth, accidentally swallowing it; it's jarred loose, only to roll under a lady's skirt, pointedly avoid rolling down a grate, and land in a blind beggar's cup. To remove it, Scrappy whistles, and the eagle on the coin flies out, bringing the coin home. He buys the tonic, then runs into bullies, a cop, and bullies dressed as a cop; the tonic falls into a pond, gets eaten by a duck, and comes out inside an egg (with a separate tiny egg for the cork). Finally, Scrappy gets home, only to break the bottle just outside the dog house. But Yippy is feeling fine now and so are her new puppies.