Pufnstuf, The Movie

Mr Pinky is not one of those who grew up on the H. R Pufnstuf series, so comes to the movie with adult eyes. A recent late night TV screening allowed me to tape it and have a look-see at what I'd guess you'd now call a cult classic. For Mamas and the Papas fans there's a bonus with Cass Eliot playing Witch Hazel.

I must admit, the whole film is a real treat. It's nice to see a film where you can see that the costumes and sets are handmade. That means there's lots of real art work, not homogenous computer generated stuff. The whole effect is one of a kind of trippy fantastia.

Billy Hayes, who plays the comic-grotesque Witchiepoo is a real hoot too, and the Witch's summit that nears the end of the film is full of laughs.

What a shame that this film is not yet on DVD, as it deserves a deluxe release. Surely it must be coming soon, seeing the original series is now available on DVD. Until then, fans will no doubt have to scour the pages of TV schedules for a midnight screening.

Square Pegs

Mr Pinky has been quite busy of late catching up on the DVD release of a favourite TV sitcom from the early eighties, which is the reason why his trotters have not been tapping out reviews of late.

Square Pegs was created by Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts, and follows the trials and tribulations of two geeky girls (Patty Greene, played by Sarah Jessica Parker and Lauren Hutchinson, played by Amy Linker).

Their aim in life is to make it with the popular kids, but they are thwarted at every turn. This is where the comedy of the series comes from - the dashed aspirations of the unpopular.

In an interview on the DVD, Anne Beatts says she based the series on her life at school as an unpopular, geeky kid. I guess this show for her was almost a revenge from the success of her writing for Saturday Night Live.

Unfortunately, the show wasn't to make it past 19 episodes. I guess we should be thankful for the good times while they lasted (the DVD includes the pilot episode, featuring the one hit wonders group The Waitresses).

Watching the series some 25 years after I first viewed it, I'm happy to report that the show was as good as I remembered. It's a cute series, with lots of clever writing and snappy dialogue.

My favourite character, the born organiser Muffy B. Tepperman, is an absolute hoot. She chairs the Pep Committee, the Morals Club, the Science Fair Committee and is a member of the Future Nurses of America.

Plus there's the new wave Johnny Slash and would-be comedian Marshall Blechtman. And not forgetting valley girl Jennifer DiNuccio and sassy LaDonna Fredericks.

You may have to make friends with some cool people to set your peepers on a few episodes, or fork out the cash and get yourself a copy.

This series is probably for those who grew up in the eighties. There's even references to Ronald Reagan wearing make up. Nevertheless, I think it all holds up well.

The episodes are generally tightly written, the characters well drawn, and the gags intelligent. Not the usual throw away fodder that is churned out today. In short, this means Square Pegs is a totally original show that is worth checking out.

:)p

Graffiti Bridge (1990)

Three words that do not mix: film director, screenplay writer, and Prince. Why after making the dire and kitschy Under The Cherry Moon didn't Prince learn his lesson and steer clear of film making. Obviously he was still under the delusion that he had some talent in the area.

Interestingly, Madonna had enough smarts to beg off playing the enigmatic ‘Aura’. (Apparently she stated that the writing was awful. Got that one right.) Poor Ingrid Chavez must have been desperate to sign up for a film with Prince as director.

The plot I could not even follow. I’m surmising that Prince plays some kind of underdog character (the film is actually a sequel to Purple Rain, so he reprises his ‘Kid’ character.) Morris Day plays a rich club owner that has ‘The Kid’ under his thumb. (Morris Day is the only lively thing about the film.)

To be fair to Prince, it seems obvious that he wanted to create some kind of musical fantasia, a kind of Wizard of Oz. Most of the film was shot indoors, on sound stages. You can see the artificial, technicolour style that Prince wanted, but couldn’t pull off.

He needed a really strong story, not some personal whim that he thought would translate into a engaging film for audiences.

Perhaps if he had employed a writer who understood his vision and came up with a good, strong simple fairy-tale style plot.

Maybe even this wouldn’t have worked, because I don’t think Prince likes strong women in his films. The women in Graffiti Bridge are either dumb whores or angelic divines.

Ingrid Chavez is nothing more than a cipher in this film.

To my utter amazement, Wikipedia tells me that Prince wrote and directed another movie in 1994, 3 Chains o’Gold. (Straight to video.) Well, I never.

There perhaps is something to be gotten from this cinematic disaster: the soundtrack is fantastic! I’ve been listening to it for years, and it shows Prince at his most eclectic best.

When it comes to music, his instincts are always spot on. (Mr Pinky however here states that he thinks Prince’s musical career has been dead and buried since 2004’s Musicology.)

:)P

House of Bamboo (1955)

After viewing Pickup On South Street, Mr Pinky has been on high alert for other Sam Fuller films. One such flick House Of Bamboo was always high on his must see list mainly due to one evocative still he spied in a film noir book featuring the movie's main characters shooting it out atop a Japanese rooftop funpark.

Set in Tokyo during the mid 1950’s, this colorful Cinescope noir tells a tale of corrupt Americans running rackets and bank heists. Into this scenario arrives Eddie Spanier (Robert Stack) an undercover army cop whose mission is to infiltrate and dismantle a gang led by the cool yet murderous Sandy Dawson (Robert Ryan).

I love Sam Fuller's no holds barred approach to filmmaking. He had a terrific ability to fill the frame with beautifully constructed shots that constantly hold one's attention. Most directors when confronted with the 50’s fad of cinemascope balked at the ultra widescreen challenge. I read that Fritz Lang once said that cinemascope's extreme width was "only good for filming snakes". Well, Fuller proved that wrong. Every scene is shot with style and at times an amazing dexterity.

Filming on location in Japan, Fuller was able to depict a realism seldom seen in Hollywood studio bound films. I think that is what appealed to me most about House of Bamboo. It looks totally amazing! As is the attention to detail. The Tokyo docks and gaming houses are full of vibrant colorful imagery. The streets echo with the percussive sounds of Japanese ladies wooden footwear. Groups of children abound everywhere being entertained by curbside entertainers while traditionally garbed citizens shop in the busy downtown marketplaces.

In complete contrast to this are the cocky and arrogant gunslinging Americans creating havoc and shedding blood wherever they go. One scene involving the death of an informer in a bathhouse is quite amazing in its brevity and violence. I don’t think many people know of this flick but it’s well worth discovering. Just as 1950’s American audiences must have been amazed by this peek into Japanese culture, House of Bamboo leaves this viewer from 2008 just as impressed.

Hairspray (2007)

Mr Pinky viewed this film with great trepidation. After all, the original John Waters production is one of his all time fave films. Well, what can he say except that he was both pleasantly surprised yet mostly disappointed.

The films opening sequence bodes well with the terrific musical number Good Morning Baltimore where Tracy Turnblad is introduced skipping and singing thru the streets of that notorious city, hitching a ride on a garbage truck and feeding rats. Even a cameo by the Pope of Trash himself, John Waters pointed to things being true to the original spirit of the film.

In fact, there is no denying the work that has gone into this film. Cinematography, art direction and choreography are all spot on. But this is where the problem lies. Once you take away the songs, which sound like generic karaoke pastiches of 60’s music you are just left with a glossier yet less charming version of the original film.

Adam Shankman who directed and choreographed this musical version obviously knows where and how to move the performers. But everything else feels so weird. Queen Latifah seems way too modern compared to the original Motormouth Maybelle and some scenes just don’t make sense. A sequence involving Michelle Pfeiffer (who looks amazing!) and Christopher Walken is so badly scripted and directed I had no idea what was supposed to be happening. My mind was wandering back to Batman Returns where these two actors were previously cast together.

John Travolta plays the part of Tracy’s mom behind a constricting mask of rubber which makes him look less like Divine and more like Cher on steroids. He talks with a strange accent which makes his lines hard to decipher and wears a truly bad fatty suit. At least the late and great Divine’s fat was for real!

Don’t get me wrong. This film is not a total disaster. There are some clever set pieces and the casting of Jerry Stiller (Hairspray’s original Wilbur Turnblad) as Mr Pinky (no relation to this porcine reviewer) was a nice touch. Maybe I am getting to be an old fuddy duddy but at the end of the day I can only see fans of Disney’s High School Musical being the type of cineastes who could possibly extract long lasting pleasure from this piece of 21st century celluloid cloning.

Sicko (2007)

Perhaps Michael Moore’s greatest gift is taking what you would mostly consider to be a mundane subject and turning it into an attention keeping movie. Mr Pinky put this DVD on wondering if he would get to the end of it. Who wants to hear about people’s health care problems?

Sicko soon had me hooked, and shaking my head in disbelief. How can such a rich country like America not have universal health care? Answer: they think it's some communist plot.

Moore pulls up some interesting footage. To whit, a record made by Ronald Reagan (that’s right, a 33rpm vinyl platter) warning against the dangers of ‘socialised medicine’.

After relating numerous horror stories, with people plunged into bankruptcy, or worse, death, by unscrupulous health care insurers, Moore takes his crew to such socialist havens as France, Canada and England. All naturally have excellent public health care systems that are not pushing their economies over into the abyss.

Michael Moore rightly has his critics. He’s more a cartoonist / polemicist than a journalist. He doesn’t exactly strive for balance.

In one section of the film he talks about Hilary Clinton and her being appointed to develop a health care plan. Moore then describes how the health insurance companies piled all this money into knocking her down. Moore makes no mention of Clinton’s poor performance on this job herself.

This omission left Mr Pinky a little miffed, until Moore highlighted that her second biggest donors to her current presidential candidacy are from the same health insurance lobbyists!

Balance restored, perhaps.

I think Michael Moore really just wants to wake people up from their torpor. He wants to reach people who usually don’t think at all about politics, and then motivate them to do something.

The most fascinating insight in this film came when a group of Americans living in France were talking about the differences between the two countries.

One woman said that in France the people were not afraid of government. The French took to the streets to protest when they were not happy. In America, however, the people were afraid of government. They were cowed and did whatever they were told.

This gave Mr Pinky pause. Maybe, I considered, this is why Americans fly their flag at every opportunity. Oh, I don’t know. Just a theory. But for a people who claim to love their country so much, it’s a mystery why they’re not so crazy about their countrymen.

Mr Pinky commends Sicko for your viewing pleasure. If you live in a country with a good public health system, please make sure you protect it.

The 40 Year-Old Virgin

The title of this film may put you off.

Is it possible to pull of a film with its main subject being a forty year-old virgin? Surely in this day and age, no film goer is going to buy into such a conceit.

Happily, Mr Pinky’s usually faultless first instincts were wrong.

I found this to be a charming, sweet comedy that plays its gags with a light touch.

Some of the sequences had me holding my sides. There’s one particularly hilarious part in the film where the main character, Andy Stitzer (player by actor and co-screen writer Steve Carrell), is dragged along by his work buddies from the SmartTech electronics store to a bar.

The whole idea, according to these more experienced work buddies, is to go for a drunk woman and then ‘nail her’, to use the contemporary argot.

Andy picks up a girl. Due to the fact that Andy only rides a bicycle, the girl, who’s totally drunk, gives him a ride home. Of course it all ends up in a completely hair raising trip home for poor Andy.

Leading actor Steve Carrel is best know for his work in the US version of The Office and The Daily Show with John Steward. This is the first time I’ve seen him perform.

The nice thing about this actor is he comes across so well as a decent, basic average Joe. Carrell doesn’t over play his Andy, or go in for anything weird. The result is you have enormous sympathy for this forty-year old virgin.

The screenplay is sensibly structured too, avoiding the lame, lazy gags so popular with other types of film that are made in this genre.

Perhaps the biggest irony that the film points to is the fact that Andy is the most mature, while his over experienced workmates are emotional babies who can’t hold down relationships or relate in an adult manner to the opposite sex.

And did I mention the fabulous Jane Lynch (Best In Show) who plays the nutty, dominatrix-style boss?

The line where she asks Andy, ‘Have you ever heard of a F$#@ Buddy’ will have you choking on your cup of tea. Priceless stuff!

Another great scene has the Lynch character asking one of her employees if he has any marijuana. She says she wants to get ‘baked’ for two weeks.

I learn form Lynch’s Wikipedia entry that she is one of POWER UP’s ‘10 Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz.’ Mr Pinky is in total agreement.

(Mr Pinky will have to revisit Best In Show now that he comes to think of it. Another Pinky Post could be in the pipeline on this film soon.)

This film must have struck a chord with audiences as it took in around 170 million world wide. I can’t imagine that it cost that much to make.

Mr Pinky highly recommends The 40 Year-Old Virgin. This is a sweet, feel good movie that will put a spring in your step after having seen it.

It’s a testament to the producers' film making skills that they could take such an impossible theme and make it work so beautifully.

The Catherine Tate Show, Series Three

After Mr Pinky's last post, I'm happy to be able to write about a DVD that I really liked.

In previous Pinky Posts, I've written about the fabulous Catherine Tate. Series Three has now come into my possession, a birthday treat for yours truly, and I can report that it is as good as series One and Two.

Interestingly, they tried to lure Tate to BBC One for her third series, but the comedienne decided she preferred to stay with BBC Two so as not to be pressured into delivering high ratings. She's a wise woman who is obviously more interested in her craft and having a good time than in being rich and famous.

Tate's decision paid off and she became the queen of BBC Two ratings, securing around 5 million viewers per week.

Many of the old favourites appear in this series. Joannie 'Nan' Taylor, with a surprise appearance by Sheila Hancock, playing her sister. Derek Faye manages to continute to be 'mistaken' for a gay man. And in this series we learn how smart a girl Lauren 'Am I Bovvered?' Cooper is. (She excells in her chemistry class, naming with ease the abbreviations of certain chemicals).

There are a few new characters as well.

An office worker who volunteers for jobs she's clearly not skilled at. A tough Irish mum whose son confesses to being gay. And my favourite, Geordie Georgie, an annoying office worker who rides to work, enters singing, then petitions her co-workers to cough up money for any number of charities she's volunteered for. She's what you'd describe as a tyrannical compassionate person.

Now I only need to lay my hands on the recent Christmas feature that aired. George Michael made a guest appearance and had a pash with Irish nurse Bernie. And Lauren Cooper is killed in a kayaking accident.

Interestingly, Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall is a 'big fan' and has expressed an interest in being on the show.

Tate herself is not planning a fourth series and wants to keep a low profile, preferring to concentrate on one off specials.

Says Tate, '"It's hard to keep coming up with ideas. And I'd like to stay in people's good graces, rather than, 'Oh no, she's not doing another series of that, is she?'"

Mr Pinky and his staff here at Mr Pinky's Picks wishes her well in her future endeavours.

The Simpsons Movie

D'oh!

Mr Pinky often likes to cast his mind back to the halcyon days of the early Simpsons series, where cynicism and satire were often mixed with genuinely human stories that had real pathos.

I also loved the naive, hand drawn style of the early series, which is entirely gone now. Large parts of The Simpsons Movie looked like it was made by a computer on autopilot. And not even a funny computer at that.

At a mere 87 minutes, the plot is thin gruel indeed, a rehash of old Simpsons themes and ideas. This kind of environmental story, mixed with political scuduggery, has been done a squillion times before on The Simpsons. And better.

Mr Pinky thought things didn't bode well when he read that it took eleven writers and one hundred drafts to come up with what would have barely passed as a made for TV one hour special. Shame on you, makers of The Simpsons. Shame!

Another annoying thing about the film is that characters are picked up and then suddenly go missing later on.

For example, Homer's pig, Plopper. (In Mr Pinky's opinion, one of the more appealing characters in the film, not that I am biased by the way). Plopper was introduced early on as one of the key characters in the plot, yet is simply dumped by the screen writers in the second part of the film.

The characters of Mr Burns and Mr Smithers are added into the plot in a tokenistic way, with no real integration into the plot. And what happened to Patty and Selma, Marge's sisters?

The Simpsons Movie cost $75 million dollars to make, and netted Mr Rupert Murdoch $526 million. I presume that figure is increasing as more DVD sales are made. Success today is sadly measured in such a manner.

Mr Pinky doesn't like to write negative reviews of films, as he is generally a happy fellow. But I felt ripped off by this film. It's an insult to the intelligence.

Despite having said that, there were a few laughs that I experienced during the film. My favourite scenes involed the honourable hog, Plopper, when Homer was experimenting with his hair and cooes, 'So many styles!'.

And to think the plot of this forgettable flick was one of Hollywood's most hotly guarded secrets. Not for fear of it being appropriated by Family Guy but more likely for not wanting potential audiences to realise what a lame experience the whole project would be. Like that classic Itchy and Scratchy The Movie episode, maybe Mr Pinky, like Bart himself, should have been forbidden to see this one.

Coming Soon: The Simpsons Movie

Dear Pinkettes,

Mr Pinky has come into possession of a copy of The Simpsons Movie.

We feel here at Mr Pinky's office that the quality of The Simpsons has dropped dramatically in recent years. Somewhat controversially, we feel that production of the series should have stopped years ago.

The best of The Simpsons was to be found, we argue, in the first seven or eight series.

Now it is just a tired copy of itself. We wonder if the movie version will be an improvement on recent episodes, or indeed a return to form.

Grosse Point

What a great shame that this absolutely brilliant sitcom didn’t make it past its first 17 episodes.

Grosse Point was created by Darren Star, who gave us such hit shows as Sex and the City and Beverley Hills, 90210.

In Grosse Point, Darren Star seems to have taken it upon himself to satirise all of his previous work. This is not to say the show is some malicious hatchet job. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact it’s a really well observed comedy that vivisects the key obsessions of the popular culture – fame, beauty, money etc.

On the DVD’s commentary track Darren Star explains how when he was working on Beverley Hills, 90210, that the shennanigans going on behind-the-scenes were often more interesting than what was happening on the show.

This is clearly reflected in the characters on Grosse Point. The insecure Marcy Sternfeld is obviously based on Tori Spelling. Quentin King is a spoof on Luke Perry. And uber-bitch Hunter Fallow is clearly a send up of Shannen Doherty.

Darren Star says that this series had been percolating in his head for years, and you can tell.

It's clear he had loads of ideas for stories and plots. You get the impression with the 17 episodes that he did get to air that he was really just starting. A lot of the characters were only beginning to get more fleshed out. One wonders in what direction the series could have gone had it survived.

Mr Pinky’s favourite episode is the one where Hunter auditions for the role of Monica Lewinsky in Oliver Stone’s upcoming production titled, Lewinsky. There’s a catch though. Hunter is told she has to put on weight for the part. Amazingly, once Hunter starts eating and putting on weight she turns nice.

One of the producers, played by Joely Fischer, has this great line where she says, ‘All along we thought Hunter was a bitch. It turns out she was just hungry.’

Again, I can’t say enough good stuff about this series.

What a tragedy that the rating dropped off on this fine satire and it had to be dumped.

The writing is sharp, the situations brilliantly realised, the cast get the humour and know where all the laughs are to be made. Each 22 minute episode is tightly edited so there’s never a dull moment. The viewer is delighted, too, by the series’ constant invention. Surprises in the plot just keep coming up, delighting you with unexpected gags and unforseen character revelations.

This DVD is worth every penny you’ll pay for it.

The Disorderly Orderly

Mr Pinky enjoyed The Disorderly Orderly so much he frequently found himself breaking out into hearty guffaws of laughter as comic genius Jerry Lewis flung himself into one ridiculous situation after another.

Lewis plays his usual half man-half adolescent character in this film (he’s about 38 years of age in this film, but could pass for someone in his early twenties).

You enjoy the original character he’s created more than the dialogue he’s been given. Obviously he’s mastered a range of highly contorted and animated facial expressions over the years as a performer.

One of the great delights of this film is the direction from Frank Tashin (he also co-wrote the script). Every frame is utterly pristine.

The scenes at the hospital, with patients recuperating on reclining lounges outside, are shot to make it look like some kind of arcadia.

This meticulous design and art direction are then well used as a backdrop for all of the chaotic goings on by Jerry Lewis’s character, Jerome Littlefield.

In one scene a patient wrapped up completely, like an Egyptian dummy, falls over and then rolls down various hills, knocking all and sundry over until the whole plaster cast dummy knocks against a tree and splits into pieces. Strangely enough, the patient has now gone missing.
The supporting cast is a hoot too. Glenda Farrell as Dr. Jean Howard is funny without even trying. And Kathleen Freeman as the long suffering Nurse Higgins is hilarious.

Mr Pinky’s favourite scene is when a series of shopping trolleys come loose and start torpedoing huge neatly stacked pyramids of canned food. Its like a war scene, with consumer durables exploding everywhere.

Oh, and not forgetting the hospital head, Mr Tuffington’s rather memorable end.
For comedy fans, Mr Pinky says this is a must see.