This page is dedicated to bringing you the latest in movie news hosted by the best character on SCTV, who was played by the excellent Joe Flaherty.
AAAaaawwooo! I bid you....welcome to issue #7 of Count Floyd's Movie News. I hope you all had a scary scary Halloween. Speaking of Halloween, I hope you all got a chance to see Joe Flaherty don the Count Floyd gear once again to host Nickelodeon's Monster Horror Chiller Fest. It brought tears to this loyal fan's eyes.
As you know The Odeious, Mellonville's premiere cineplex, is only a few miles from the castle, as the bat flies. It was here that I got a chance to see "Bean" and "Starship Troopers".
What can I say about "Bean"? The film deals with a London art museum's assignment to send the famous painting Whistler's Mother to a museum in Los Angeles. Mr. Bean works as an usher-type who gets picked to go along with the painting because his co-workers can't stand him and the assignment will keep him away for several months. Somehow the Los Angeles museum assumes Mr. Bean is an art expert and expects him to stay on for awhile giving presentations about the painting. Of course mishap after mishap occurs until Mr. Bean saves the day at the end of the picture.
I'm sure diehard Mr. Bean fans will enjoy this film no matter what. Which is pretty much how I felt about John Candy, no matter how bad the film I still enjoyed it anyway. For myself I found Mr. Bean to be annoying without being sympathetic for the first hour of this hour and a half film. He seems to be quite brain dead which is the whole point I guess. At least a bumbling idiot like Inspector Clouseau always had my sympathy. However, in the last half hour I saw a Mr. Bean that I could warm up to and even like. The bright spot in the film was actor Peter MacNicol, who played the museum curator in Ghostbusters 2. His character worked for the Los Angeles museum and he had to take Mr. Bean into his home causing much consternation for him and his family. Peter MacNicol has a marvelously responsive face as he puts up with Mr. Bean's antics. There are some genuinely funny moments in this film but I felt the last half hour was the best. Perhaps Mr. Bean is meant for the small screen and I can recommend you rent it when it becomes available at your neighborhood video store.
"Starship Troopers" was just the opposite from "Bean" in that the first 30 minutes or so was kind of lame but then once it got going it got my interest. The story opens very much like "Robocop" where we see a news broadcast obviously set in the future asking the viewers to sign up for military duty. In fact the only way to gain citizenship and voting rights is to join the service. Subsequent news broadcasts interrupt the movie to tell us of this planet overrun with bugs that are attacking spaceships from Earth that fly to nearby planets. The story opens in a university where the students are indoctrinated in the politics of Earth and are shown the benefits of serving the government. It has your typical love story complete with rivals for each other's affections. The boy joins the service because his girlfriend did, then they find they are separated into different branches of the military, where they're trained to kill the bugs to save our planet.
The dialogue is very sappy and the newscasts are very dumb but the special effects are top-notch. The scenes in outer space with ships exploding are some of the best I've seen. Also the battle scenes with the bugs is some of the best computer generated graphics to come down the pike thus far. There is of course some violence as to be expected and it can get pretty gory at times. I thought I saw some similarity to "Robocop" regarding the newscasts and then I found out why. Both films were directed by Paul Verhoeven. I felt these newscast were lame and brought down the overall quality of the picture. If you are a Sci/Fi-action fan who doesn't care about the dialogue I'd say go see this film on the big screen to get the most from the special effects. If you are more particular about your dialogue I'd say wait until it comes out on tape. And if you can't stand seeing people being torn limb from limb then don't see it at all.
Talking about bugs, where did I put that can of Raid? While I take care of some housework please enjoy some movie news, won't you?
In this issue I'd like to recommend a video from the past and one from the present.
First off I'd like to recommend "Forbidden Planet" starring Leslie Nielsen. This film was released in 1956 and was directed by Fred M. Wilcox who directed several of the Lassie pictures in the 1940's. The film details the story of a crew in outer space manning a flying saucer-type craft. Set in the year 2200 AD the crew flies to the planet Altair-4 to uncover the fate of a previous mission to colonize the planet. There they find Walter Pidgeon, the luscious Anne Francis and Robby the Robot who are being terrorized by a horrifying monster. Star Trek fans will recognize elements in this film which I'm sure must have inspired Gene Roddenberry when he created Star Trek in the 1960's.
Next I'd like to recommend "Face/Off" directed by John Woo and starring John Travolta and Nicholas Cage. Travolta plays a government agent whose son is accidentally killed in an assassination attempt by Cage. After years of fruitless searching Travolta finally gets a strong lead in his search for Cage who had just set up a high tech time bomb in downtown San Francisco. The action scenes are outstanding. In my opinion John Woo is a master of the action sequence. I may be wrong but I believe John Woo was the director who first utilized the scene where the hero (and now the villain) comes out shooting with .45 automatics in each hand shooting up the place while jumping through the air at the same time. Now all the action movies are doing it but I still think it looks cool. Other films by John Woo are: "Hard Boiled", "Hard Target" and "Broken Arrow". See a movie with a friend.
Congratulations go to Hank S. who is now the new Triviameister of Mellonville for answering the following trivia question correctly: "Who is the only character to speak in Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie"? The correct answer is Marcelle Marceau who, according to the readers, spoke the word "non" which is French for no. An honorary bite on the neck goes to the following people for also answering the question correctly: J.S., Rabbi Mark K., Larry V., Sharon C., Charles D., Lauri I., Metrone, Irene P., Guest, Jeff S., Joe E., Marie, Paula L., Brian S., Eric B., Scott L., Ladd, Ian "Birdie Num Num" W., Nucmed D., Corey, Matthew J., Burt M., Cindy, Ralphathoner, Kate, Jim & Valerie R. and kids, Paul T., Ed S. and Robert M.
The new Triviameister of Mellonville asks the following question: "Which was the only X-rated movie to win an Oscar?" The first person to answer the trivia question correctly will become the new Triviameister of Mellonvile. To submit your answer please click here. Good luck to one and all.
The survey question was: "What horror host do you remember the most and include the city they broadcasted from?". The survey SAYS:
This next survey question was inspired by an e-mail by Irene P. who asked "What movie did I remember seeing in a theater for the first time?". My original response was "The House on Haunted Hill" which was released in 1958 but on further reflection I do recall seeing "Around the World in 80 Days" which was released in 1956. Since I would have been too young to remember these films on their original run I must have seen them around 1961 or 1962. I'd have to go with "Around the World in 80 Days" as the first movie I ever saw in a theater.
The survey question is: "What is the first movie you ever saw in a theater? (and video tape doesn't count). To answer the survey question please click here.
Count Floyd will return in issue #8 titled "On Her Majesty's Secret Cervix" due out on 12-20-97 or so.
