TiVoPlex
By John Seal
November 2, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 11/03/09
4:40 AM Sundance
The Youngest Candidate (2008 USA): Never trust a politician over 20! That's the subtext of this fascinating documentary about five youngsters running for office before they're even old enough to drink legally. Whether running for mayor, city council, or dog catcher, these kids are hot for public service — and with a little luck, one of them will become a member of our esteemed ruling class before too much longer! Watch The Youngest Candidate, and get a head start on the presidential election of 2032!
Wednesday 11/04/09
9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Hunt the Man Down (1950 USA): This brisk 68-minute RKO crime drama makes a rare television appearance on TCM this morning. Gig Young stars as Paul Bennett, a public defender assigned the near impossible case of "Bill Jackson" (James Anderson). Jackson's been swabbing dirty dishes in Happy's Café, but his intervention in the prevention of a strong-arm robbery draws unwanted attention to his secret past: he's actually Richard Kinkaid, on the lam and wanted for murder. Bennett now has the unenviable task of tracking down the witnesses who can help prove his client's innocence, but as 12 years have passed, it's not going to be easy. Co-starring Gerald Mohr, Cleo Moore, and (in a small role) voice actor extraordinaire Paul Frees, Hunt the Man Down is a brisk and enjoyable programmer featuring excellent Nicholas Musaraca cinematography.
7:30 PM Sundance
Everlasting Moments (2008 DEN-SWE-FIN-GER-NOR): Adherents and graduates of Lars Von Trier's Dogme school of thought may dominate the tiny Danish film industry, but there's still room for something a little more traditional every now and then. Case in point: director Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments, a Scandinavian co-production with primary funding coming from Copenhagen's Final Cut Productions. Troell is best known for his ‘70s features The Emigrants and The New Land, two pastoral tales of Swedish immigrant farmers setting up shop in late nineteenth century Minnesota. Everlasting Moments is set a few decades later in Malmo, Sweden, and examines the effect a new camera has on the life of everywoman Maria Larsson (Maria Heiskanen, the nice girl in Aki Kaurismaki's Lights in the Dusk). Won in a lottery, the camera allows Maria escape from her busy life as mother of seven and spouse of dipsomaniac dockworker Siggy (Mikael Persbrandt). Bathed in autumnal hues of red and brown, this is a simple, old-fashioned character study, beautifully made and entirely free of artifice. In other words, there's neither shaky-cam nor characters with Downs' Syndrome.
Friday 11/06/09
7:00 AM HBO Signature
Mejor es que Gabriela no se muera (2007 MEX): Known in English as It's Better if Gabriela Doesn't Die, this periodically amusing Mexican farce stars Dagoberto Gama as Bracho, a policeman with an unhealthy obsession. Bracho is a devotee of Destiny of Love, one of Mexico's most beloved telenovelas (soap operas), and meets cute with program scripter Miguel (Mauricio Isaac) during a routine traffic stop. Bracho lets Miguel off with a warning in exchange for some hot tips about forthcoming program highlights — but then decides to offer his own input into future plot developments. The movie descends into hysteria during the final reel, but overall it's an entertaining Network-style indictment of the increasingly blurry lines between fantasy and reality.
5:15 PM Showtime Extreme
Sukiyaki Western Django (2008 JAP): The prolific Takashi Miike takes a stab at the spaghetti western genre in this energetic and colorful tribute to the oeuvre of Corbucci and Leone. Hideaki Ito plays an anonymous Old West gunman caught between the Heike and Genji clans, who've been engaged in a feud for centuries in their Japanese homeland and are now butting heads over some hidden Nevada gold. Our hero must protect a cute as a button half-breed kid whilst negotiating a treacherous path between the rival gangs and preparing for a violent climax of epic proportions. Dubbed by the Japanese cast in pidgin English, Sukiyaki Western Django isn't as good as 2000's Thai spaghetti oater Tears of the Black Tiger, but is still thoroughly enjoyable — even after factoring in the presence of TiVoPlex nemesis Quentin Tarantino during the film's prologue. Caveat: if Showtime airs a pan and scan print, don't bother watching — just rent the DVD or hope the film shows up on Sundance Channel's Asia Extreme series.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Putney Swope (1969 USA): I'm not a huge fan of this Robert Downey Sr.-helmed counterculture comedy, but it's been a very long time since I last saw it, so maybe it's improved with age (or maybe I'm just an idiot, and it's always been a great film). Arnold Johnson plays the title character, an African-American businessman hired by a Madison Avenue ad agency to diffuse complaints about the firm's lack of diversity. When the chairman of the board unexpectedly dies, the surviving members elect Putney in his stead, fully expecting him to be an easily manipulated figurehead. He soon proves them wrong when he renames the company Truth and Soul, Incorporated and hires a group of radical black activists to produce a series of outrageous, way-outside-the-box television commercials. Shot in glorious black and white, Putney Swope co-stars Allen Garfield, Antonio Fargas, and a guy named Spunky-Funk Johnson. Really! It's followed at 12:30 AM by Downey's 1972 effort Greaser's Palace, a very odd revisionist western/Christian parable featuring Herve Villechaize, Toni Basil, and Luana Anders.
Saturday 11/07/09
7:50 AM Encore Action
Legend of Drunken Master (1994 HK): One of many Hong Kong films badly mis-marketed by Miramax and the Weinstein Brothers, this Jackie Chan winner returns to the small screen this morning. If you're a Chan fan, it's a must see, with Jackie playing a young man who must square his love for his pacifist father with his desire to fight the evil foreigners who plan to smuggle some valuable cultural artefacts out of the country. Though chock full o' chop socky goodness, this will probably turn out to be the same old yucky pan and scan dubbed version we've seen in the past, but it's a lot of fun regardless.
9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Gumshoe (1971 GB): A favorite from childhood days spent vegetating in front of the ol' black and white (yes, my family had a black and white set well into the late ‘70s), Gumshoe is a low-key comedy delight starring Albert Finney as Eddie Ginley, a bingo caller who exchanges bouncing pneumatic balls for a trench-coat and a new career as a private eye. Eddie soon finds himself up to his eyeballs in a drugs and weapons smuggling case — and begins to regret changing jobs when he discovers his own brother (Frank Finlay) is implicated in the crimes! Also featuring Billie Whitelaw and Wendy Richard, Gumshoe is a loving if scruffy tribute to the American detective movie, and marked the feature directorial debut of Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things, The Queen).
Sunday 11/08/09
9:30 PM Sundance
Mad Detective (2007 HK): A wild blend of crime and supernatural elements, Mad Detective stars Lau Ching Wan as Bun, an unorthodox Hong Kong copper who has a sixth sense when it comes to crime-fighting. Fired for relying on his mental superpowers in the cause of law enforcement, Bun is re-hired five years later to pursue villainous fellow cop Ho Ka On (Andy On), a schizophrenic whose multiple personalities are committing a series of crimes. It's all as wacky as it sounds and quite a departure for director Johnny To, whose reputation stems from his gritty, realistic gangster pics. A huge box office hit in Hong Kong, Mad Detective makes its American television debut this evening and is not to be missed.
Monday 11/09/09
1:15 AM MGM HD
Gorp (1980 USA): I've never seen it — and I don't get any HD channels, so I'm not going to be watching it this morning — but Gorp sure sounds like fun. Directed by Joseph Ruben (The Stepfather), it's apparently a summer camp comedy in the Meatballs tradition, but with a Jewish twist. The cast — Fran Drescher, Dennis Quaid, Julius Harris, Rosanna Arquette — are also an enticement. At some point I'm going to have to succumb to temptation and go HD...
5:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Chasing Rainbows (1930 USA): Not to be confused with the bootleg Beatles album of the same name, Chasing Rainbows is a delightfully creaky early musical from MGM. Bessie Love, Charles King and an unbelievably young Jack Benny headline as members of a traveling troupe of all singing, all dancing performers hoofing their way from stage to stage across the US of A, whilst Marie Dressler leaves her mark as a past her prime funny-woman. The film that introduced the now classic Happy Days Are Here Again to Depression-era audiences hungering for uplift, Chasing Rainbows may be quaint, but remains hugely entertaining even 70 years on.
5:00 PM IFC
Bananas (1971 USA): Pinpointing the moment when Woody Allen morphed from funny man into insufferable bore is not an easy task, but the turning point certainly arrived well after Bananas, one of his wackiest efforts. In this outing, Woody plays Fielding Mellish, a typically nebbish Allen character in love with political activist Nancy (Louise Lasser). When Nancy heads off to support the nascent revolutionary movement in the fictional Latin American republic of San Marcos, Fielding tags along — and finds himself deeply involved in the struggle for national liberation. So deeply, in fact, that he becomes leader of the revolutionary junta and declares Swedish the republic's official language! For those unsatisfied by Allen's later serio-comic direction, there'll always be Bananas, which airs again at 11:00 PM.
6:00 PM Sundance
Donkey in Lahore (2008 AUS): I haven't seen this Australian documentary yet, but this quote from an IMDb plot synopsis by Axel Grigor should tell you everything you need to know: Donkey in Lahore tells the real life tale of Brian, an Australian Goth whose skills as a puppeteer takes him on a journey that transcends borders, religion and love. While visiting Lahore in Pakistan to perform at a puppet festival, Brian meets Amber, 17. Ten years Brian's junior, Amber doesn't seem a likely match for this tear-away Goth. She's a devout Muslim and still lives at home with her tight-knit family. Yet in a whirlwind two-week romance during which the pair are never alone together, they fall in love. Now, does that sound like the perfect TiVoPlex, film, or what?