WarGames Revisited "Protovision, I have you now!"

Right, post revisitation time again to end the month as I am going to have to finish editing this one next month but I will post it tonight to ensure it goes out with five posts for the month.

So, the post in question is my review of the Cold War Sci-Fi film, WarGames, which was originally o one of my earliest posts on this blog, so it certainly is long overdue something of an overhaul.  So, this post will change and evolve a bit over the next few days as I won't have a chance to completely finish it tonight (but I will do what I can!).

Anyway so after 35 years (has it been that long??!) how does WarGames fare??? Well, let's take another look and find out...

And yep the usual warning is coming up....

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

OK so the film begins with two missile wing controllers Captain Lawson and Lt Phelps (John Spencer and Michael Madsen) recieving orders to launch a nuclear strike.  However, as they come to the moment, Lawson refuses to turn his key as he can't face the idea of the devastating consequences of such a launch.  The result of this sees the systems engineers at NORAD, lead by Dr John McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) proposing that the men in the silos are taken out of the loop and replaced without automation.  McKittrick suggests that they use a supercomputer within the base, called the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) which constantly runs military simulations, which the president's advisors agree to.

Meanwhile, David Lightman (Broderick), who is a school student in a Seattle high school, is an underachiever in class, but is also intelligent and a talented hacker.  On receiving poor grades, David finds the school's office password to hack into their school records computer systems and changes his grades to avoid going to summer school, which he also does for his classmate, Jennifer (Ally Sheedy).

Later on, David finds out about a computer company called Protovision, who are bringing out some exciting new computer games.  The company is based in Sunnyvale California, so David uses his computer to call every number in Sunnyvale, during this he comes into contact with a computer that doesn't identify itself, and he probes it to find out further info, by asking for a list of games, it comes up with ones such as Chess, Backgammon, Poker and slightly heavier ones such as Theatrewide Biotoxic Chemical Warfare, and Global thermonuclear war.

David goes to visit some of his hacker friends with Jennifer, and they suggest he find out more about who designed the system.  David does so and tracks information on Stephen Falken (John Wood), which he got from the game on his list "Falken's maze", who was a researcher in AI, but since passed away, but he also had a son named Joshua.

David after much guessing soon twigs that the password to enter the system is Falken's son, Joshua, and enters into the computer, which then makes contact with the WOPR at NORAD, where David unwittingly asks to play Global thermonuclear war with the computer, which it obliges.  However as David plays the game, the WOPR plays the game as a simulation at NORAD, which alerts the personnel there, who at first think its a possible nuclear attack from the Russians (as David opted to play as the Russian side), but it is soon averted, and they manage to track the source of the hack, i.e. in Seattle where David is.

David himself is soon arrested by FBI agents who take him to NORAD where he is interrogated, but he insists that he just entered their system to play a game and nothing more.  However David logs into the computer and talks to "Joshua" again who is set on completing the game, by continuing the simulation, and feeding misinformation such as Soviet bombers and submarines to the people at NORAD.  David also asks it information about Falken's address, and his alias "Dr Robert Hume", but before he can go any further, he is taken by the FBI and placed in a holding room.  David however manages to use his hacking skills to escape the room, and sneak out of the NORAD facility, posing as one of the tourists of the facility, he gets on a bus.

David then asks Jennifer for help, who meets up with him as they travel to the address where Falken lives, and they soon find him, as he lives alone (now a widow) and David asks him to help diffuse the situation with "Joshua" but he refuses.  As David and Jennifer are about to leave (and make out!) Falken changes his mind and flies them in a chopper to the NORAD base where he implores with General Berringer (Barry Corbin) to ignore the WOPR's projections and to call off any US counterattacks, which he does and they soon find out the WOPR's projected attacks are indeed simulations.

However after this the WOPR decides to try and find the codes to launch the missiles and complete the game, and from hereon in its up to David and Falken to try and stop literal global thermonuclear war...

THOUGHTS 

WarGames is a very entertaining thriller, which I have fond memories of since I first saw around about the time of its release (yep I am old!).  The whole cold war situation has been told in several films prior to this one, most notably in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb" and "Fail safe" directed by Sidney Lumet.

But where WarGames succeeds really well is by taking the teenager factor into the film and let it not just be about a bunch of military and computer personnel all talking and debating in the war room, and in doing so it helps inject a bit more fun into the proceedings.  And David Lightman is a likeable character, he's clearly very intelligent and resourceful, and he uses that to his advantage throughout the film, when hacking into NORAD and even escaping from it!

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

Performance wise, the cast are all excellent here.

Starting with Matthew Broderick who is great as David, the young hacker, who unwittingly hacks into NORAD and nearly ends up causing nuclear war, and he has several highlights in the film.

Starting with the scene where David in biology class, mocks the teacher who asks the question "Who suggested the first production without sex?".  And as David mutters to his classmates "His wife" and they all laugh, the teacher looks at David wearily and asks him "Alright, Lightman. Maybe you could tell us who first suggested the idea of reproduction without sex?" and David smiles and replies "Emm, your wife??" and as the class erupts into laughter, the teacher furiously points to the door and says "Get out, Lightman! Get out!". 

Then we have the scene where David looks at a new games brochure from the company Protovision and he goes up to his room and makes a call to find what pre-fix codes are within the Sunnyvale area, California and he get's his computer to dial all the numbers within those code areas. So, in the scene after get's off the phone with the information services, he says to himself "Protovison, I have you now!" which is basically a quote from Star Wars (as Darth Vader said the line without Protovision of course!).

Then there is the scene where David having tried everything he can think of to try and find the password to play the war games, Jennifer comes round to his place and he shows her a video tape of Falken.  And Jennifer reads Falken's obituary and David suddenly asks her as she talks about her father, "What was his name?" and Jennifer asks "My father?" and David says "No, no, Falken's kid!" and she looks at the obituary and tells him "Joshua".  So, David says to himself "It can't be that simple!" and he enters Joshua onto his computer, which then causes some weird activity to occur and David, exicted says "Wow! We got something!".

Another good scene is when David at NORAD, hacks into one of the computers to talk to Joshua and on Joshua showing David some project kill ratios from the games, David types in "Is this a game or is it real?" and Joshua says "What's the difference" and David sighs and says "Oh, wow!".  However as Joshua tells David (believing him to be Falken) that he is hard man to reach at his registered address, which it tells David, however one of the secretaries outside spots him and she sends up the FBI to apprehend him and he is dragged out the room.  And David shouts at them "Its not me!  Its Joshua! He's trying to start a war!" and as they ignore him, David shouts "Please call Falken! Call him!  Call him!". 

Then there is the scene where David and Jennifer meet with Falken on his remote island home and he tries to convince him to come back to NORAD to stop Joshua. And as Falken plays the film of the dinosaurs and says "Extinction is part of the natural order" David angrily says "Bullshit!" and he turns off the projector and says "If we're extinguished there's nothing natural about that, its just stupid!".  And as David asks Falken "You won't make a simple phone call?" and Jennifer asks Falken if his real son was still alive would he make the call, Falken tells her "Look maybe you might gaina few years, have a son, see him grow and watch him die. But humanity, planning its own destruction...that a phone call won't stop".  So, David frustrated says to Falken "I knew you weren't always like this! What's the last thing you cared about?!".

And then there is the next scene where David and Jennifer try to find a way off the island where Falken is staying and Jennifer suggests that they swim but David reveals he can't swim. And in the scene David angrily asks "What kind of an asshole lives on island and doesn't have a boat?!" and Jennifer sarcastically asks David "Well what kind of asshole grew up in Seattle and didn't learn how to swim?!". David defensively replies "I just didn't get around to it, OK. I always thought there would be more time" and he laments "I wish didn't know about any of this! And tomorrow it would be just over!".  

Dabney Coleman is also excellent as the head systems analyst at NORAD, McKittrick, who is at odds with General Beringer throughout the film.

And Dabney has some great moments in the film aswell such as the one where in a meeting with Berringer and some of the President's staff discuss what to do with the missile wing controllers, who are unwilling to turn the missile keys. So, Berringer says that he will have his men psychiatrically re-screened but McKittrick objects and says to Berringer "Excuse me, sir. We can't send these men back to the President of the United States with a lot of head-shrinker horseshit!".

And then McKittrick asks the men to indulge him as shows them the WOPR and suggests that they use that to maintain the situation with the missile silos and take the controllers out of the loop.  And as Berringer mocks McKittricks suggestion and how he wouldn't trust the WOPR as "far as he could throw it!" McKittrick wearily says to him "General, no one is talking about trusting the world to a machine, for God's sake! We will keep control but we'll keep it at the top where it belongs!".  And as one of the president's men, Arthur Cabot, says he will put forward McKittrick's suggestion, McKittrick smiles and says "Thank you. You won't regret this!".    

Another good scene is when David is arrested and taken to NORAD, McKittrick speaks to him and leads him to his office. And David asks McKittrick "You worked with Stephen Falken didn't you?" and McKittrick says "I started as his assistant. How did you know that?" and David tells him "I read an article you wrote with him on poke and nuclear war".  McKittrick laughs a little and says "Bluffing! Yeah that shook a few people up" and David says "He must have been pretty amazing" and McKittrick tells David "He was a brilliant man but a little flaky. He never understood the practical uses of his work".  McKittrick then indicates the WOPR to David "This machine over here runs his game program" and David quietly says to himself "Joshua".

McKittrick then shows David the DEFCON sign "See that sign up here - up here. "Defcon." That indicates our current defense condition. It should read "Defcon 5," which means peace. It's still on 4 because of that little stunt you pulled. Actually, if we hadn't caught it in time, it might have gone to Defcon 1. You know what that means, David?". So, David nervously asks "No, what does that mean?" and McKittrick tells him "World War Three".  

Then there is of course the scene where General Beringer tells McKittrick his opinion of the WOPR, and his new defence system "sucks" and an angry McKittrick fires back the best line in the film "I don't have to take that from you, you pig eyed sack of shit!". 

Ally Sheedy is also good as Jennifer, David's classmate, and romantic interest (and I think its safe to say that Ally looked her cutest ever here!).

Ally also has some good moments in the film such as the scene where Jennifer gives David a ride on her bike back to his house and he tells her that he won't need to go to summer school to make up his failed grades.

So, as Jennifer says to David "So, you going to summer school to aswell?" and David smiles and says "No, I don't think so" and she asks him "Why not?! You have to make up Biology" and David says "I don't think so" and he tells her to come up to his house and he'll show her how they can change it.  So, as David hacks into the school's computer, he changes his grades and then he goes to change Jennifer's grade, who suddenly becomes nervous and says "Change it back!" and David says "But nobody can find out!" but Jennifer insists "I said change it back!" and David does so and Jennifer, rather annoyed, leaves.  But in a later scene as Jennifer asks David to change her grade after giving it some thought, he tells her he already changed it and he tells her he gave her an "A". So, Jennifer smiles and asks "Did you really give me an A?" and David smiles and says "Yeah" and she grins and says "Thanks!".

Then there is the scene where Jennifer visits David when he hasn't been at school for a week as he has been too busy researching Falken and trying to crack the password to play the games. So, in the scene David explains that he has been researching on Falken and that what he did was great as he taught machines how to learn from their mistakes. David however tells Jennifer that Falken is now dead and he hands her his obituary.

So, Jennifer reads it and says "This is really sad. Did you know the child and his mother were killed in a car crash?" and David says "Yeah, I know".  Jennifer reads from the obituary "In the years that followed the tragic loss of his family, Dr Falken's health deteriorated" and she remembers her own dad "My dad was 45...I remember this one he was sick...".  David however has a thought and asks her "What was his name?" and Jennifer asks "My father?" and David says "No, no, Falken's kid!" and Jennifer looks at the obituary again and tells him "Joshua".  

Of course later there is the scene where Jennifer meets a nervous David at an airport and she surprises him and says "Surprise!".  And David asks her "What are you doing here?" and Jennifer says "Well, you didn't sound too good on the phone" and David nervously tells her "You shouldn't have come here, I'm in big trouble!".  So, Jennifer asks him "Why? David, is this because of what you did with my grade?!".

John Wood is excellent as Falken, the creator of the supercomputer, the WOPR, who initially turns his back on the world, after the death of his wife and son, Joshua, he was officially declared dead, and lived his life in seclusion, only to come back into the scene when David finds him. 

Wood has some good scenes aswell such as the one where David tries to convince Falken to come back to NORAD to help them and as he shows David and Jennifer a film of dinosaurs he tells them " a story".  And as Falken tells them "Extiniction is part of the natural order" but David angrily says "Bullshit!" and he turns the projector off and tries to convince Falken that he is being stupid.  Falken however then tells David "But humanity planning its own destruction, that a phone call won't stop".

Then there is the scene where Falken along with David and Jennifer arrive at NORAD and Falken tries to convince Beringer not launch a missile attack as the WOPR is playing out a game and Soviet missiles aren't real.  So, Falken first off says hello to McKittrick and he pats him on the arms and says "John, its good to see you!" and he looks to his wife and says "I see your wife still picks your ties!". Falken then speaks to Beringer and says "General, what you see on these screens up here is a fantasy; a computer-enhanced hallucination. Those blips are not real missiles. They're phantoms!".

Falken then approaches Beringer and asks him "General, are you prepared destroy the enemy?" and Beringer says firmly "You betcha!" and Falken then asks him "Do you think they know that?" and Beringer says "I think we've made that perfectly clear!" and Falken then advises Beringer "Then don't!".  Falken then asks Beringer "General, do you really believe that the enemy would attack without provocation, using so many missiles, bombers, and subs so that we would have no choice but to totally annihilate them?!". Falken then pleads with Beringer "General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one".  

Barry Corbin is also great in the film as General Beringer, who remains opposed to the whole idea of the WOPR and automation taking over from the men in the silos.  And Barry get's some of the best lines in the film such as in the scene when Berringer meets with McKittrick at the start and some of the president's advisors and he tells them "Gentlemen, we've had men down in those silos since before you were watchin Howdy Doody!".

Another great moment from Corbin is when David is caught in McKittrick's office talking to Joshua via the computer and he is apprended by the FBI, who cart him away.  And as David is dragged out of McKittrick's office, Beringer shouts at the FBI agents "Get that little bastard out of the war room!" and then "What the hell's he doing here anyhow?!".  

Then there is the scene where at NORAD, they have a Soviet Launch Detection and Beringer gravely asks McKittrick "Tell me this is one of your simulations" and McKittick, serious says "Its not, Jack". So, Beringer looks grimly and says to his men "All right. Flush the bombers. Get the subs in launch mode. We are at DEFCON 1!". 

Also later on there is the line where Beringer says to McKittrick after the WOPR takes action to launch the missiles itself, "Mr McKittrick, after some careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that your new defence system sucks!". And as McKittrick insults Beringer by calling him a "pig-eyed sack of shit!" Berringer smiles and says "Oh, I expected more than that from a man of your education!".   

And lastly there is the priceless line where the NORAD staff are all desparately trying to figure out how to disable the WOPR, so David comes over and asks to play the WOPR at the game.  So, as the others protest, Beringer says "Goddamnit!  I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good!" and to the officer, Major Lem, on the computer, he says "Let the boy in there, Major!".

Maury Chaykin is also very good in the film as Jim, an IT worker, who is friendly with David and in his one scene he has some good moments also.

Starting with the moment where David hands a printout of the games he got that include "Global thermonuclear war" to Jim but one of Jim's fellow workers, Malvin, comes right in and snatches it from Jim.  Jim then wrestles the print back and says to Jim "You remember when you asked me to tell you when you were acting rudely and insensitively?" and Malvin nods and Jim tells him "You're doing it right now". Jim reads from the print-out "Theatre wide bio-toxic chemical warfare" and he says to David "This didn't come from Protovision" and Malvin pitches in and suggests its classified and most likely from the military.

So, as David asks how can he break into the system to play the games, Jim tells him "Well you get in through the frontline but you might look for a backdoor". Malvin then protests "I can't believe it, Jim. That girl's standing over there listening and you're telling him about our back doors?!" and Jim angrily turns to Malvin and shouts "Mr Potato Head! Mr Potato Head! Back doors are NOT secrets!".  So, Jim suggests to David "OK, if you want to get in, why don't you try to find out as much as you can about the guy who designed the system".  

And last of all is Eddie Deezen who is good fun in his role as the geeky IT worker, Malvin, who keeps butting in on his co-worker, Jim when he tries to talk.

And Deezen's only scene features some good moments such as the one where Malvin suggests to David that the print-out he got is probably military and classified. And at the start of his scene, Malvin grabs the print-out from Jim's hands and he asks "Wow! Where did you get this?!" and David says "I wanted Jim to see that!" and Jim wrestles back off Malvin and tells him he is acting rudely and insensitively.  So, Jim reads from it and says "This didn't come from Protovision" and Malvin pitches in "Looks military to me. Definitely military! Probably classified, too!" and he warns David "That system probably contains the new data encryption algorithm. You'll never get in there!".

So, Jim then tells David about the "back door" security he adds when designing a system and Malvin complains to Jim of his mentioning it and he points to Jennifer "Come on, Jim! That girl is standing over there and you talk about a back door?!". Jim then angrily yells at Malvin "Mr Potato Head! Back doors are NOT secrets!" and Malvin protests "But, Jim you're giving away our best tricks!".

And as Jim suggests that David find out about how designed the system, David asks how is he supposed to do that as he doesn't even know his name.  So, Malvin grins and says "Man, are you dumb! You guys are so dumb!  I got this figured out all by myself!" and David asks Malvin sarcastically "Oh yeah, Malvin? How would you do it?!" and Malvin tells him "The first game on the list! Go straight through Falken's maze!".  

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

John Badham who actually took over the directorial helm from Martin Brest (Beverly Hills cop director, who was fired from the picture, 12 days into filming after a dispute) does a fine job in building up the suspense, and pacing the film. Badham also keeps the tone of the film somewhat more light hearted by ensuring the characters of David and Jennifer were just two teenagers who were having a bit of fun but ended up unwittingly in danger.

The sets of the NORAD base are also very impressive and they were actually re-used for Beverly Hills Cop, directed by the aforementioned Martin Brest.  I also can't resist but enjoy looking at David's now very antiquated looking computer equipment in his room, with the old 5.4" floppy disks, and the IMSAI 8080 microcomputer he has (now resembles something closer in size to a network router!).

As for the music score, which is by Arthur B. Rubinstein it is pretty good as well and it is very well suited to the tone of the film and features a mix of orchestral and electronic tracks. And the film's main theme remains quite a memorable one and even if the score has one or two cheesy sounding moments in its use of 80's synths, its still a pretty good one overall.  

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

And as enjoyable as the film is, it does of course have a few flaws, first off I think its a ridiculous that David could hack into such an advanced supercomputer by the use of just one simple password as "Joshua".  Its not exactly an airtight security system if that is the case, as it is now common practice in workplaces that computers have to have complex passwords, so that computers account can't be easily be hacked into.  But of course the main defence computer at NORAD has the simple password "Joshua" to hack into it, and bingo you can play it at Global Thermonuclear War!  Its just a bit silly and not too well thought out in terms of computer security.

I also thought the idea of having the missile launch codes for the silo missile to be printed on the computer panels, is also really daft, (the code Joshua uses (which is clearly printed on the panel!) again leaving your security wide open for anyone to copy it down, who might have access!  So overall in terms of a computer access and security its not the most well thought out of films.

Another flaw that was later revealed was that they got the DEFCON (Defence condition) system ratings the wrong way round, as they said DECON 5 was Peace and 1 meant War.  However in reality the opposite is true, 1 is Peace and 5 is War.  Plus they keep saying tic-tac-toe isn't a winnable game, but it actually is! Ah well.

I also thought that the whole scene at the start of the film seems a bit daft in that the missile controllers have been asked to launch their missiles, yet its really not clear what their target is and what impact it might have (well apart from a fatal one!).  It basically of course sets up the premise of the film that McKittrick wants to NORAD to take control using automation rather than men in the silos.

Then there is the scene where David changes his and Jennifer's grades by hacking into the school's computer and he thinks that they couldn't possibly find out, but surely to God they would find out! I mean I'd imagine that the teachers are required to keep a paper record of the students marks, so on that basis they should find out that something's up when David and Jennifer will get fake report cards.  But hey ho, its just another moment glossed over in the film.

Another daft moment in the film is when they close up NORAD and McKittrick's wife contacts Falken by radio and tells him "We're closing up the mountain, once it closes no one is getting in or out!". Now, OK I get that they have to secure the complex in the event of a nuclear war, however given that Falken would prove so urgent in this crisis, why didn't they wait to seal the complex AFTER Falken, David and Jennifer got into NORAD???!!!  But, nope they decide to just put the place on lockdown before they even have a proper chance to get in there and as usual in these movies, they make it through just in the nick of time! 

And last of all, I think the film's climax to an extent is quite confusing as it makes you wonder, did Joshua actually launch the missiles or didn't he? (or it!).  The idea of course is that the WOPR or Joshua, plays out a series of war games to see if it can "win the game" but of course it turns out that in nuclear war there are no winners. But years past this climax always confused me, is the NORAD base among the sole survivors of Joshua's nuclear attack or did he/it not get to launch the missiles???  As I said of course, it turns out that it he/it didn't, so in the end all is OK but in a way its left a bit unclear.  

SUM UP

So, after 35 years, WarGames is still a very entertaining suspense thriller and it features a fine cast all in good form aswell as some solid direction from John Badham and a good score by Arthur B Rubenstein.  And its themes of nuclear war and hacking technology to a fair extent still remain relevant today and its definitely a film that warrants repeated viewing from time to time and overall just a very solid and enjoyable thriller.

OK, so that's it for now and I will be back next month at some point with more reviews.

Till the next one, its bye for now! 

Monty Python's Life of Brian "You're father was a Woman!"

Right, guess what?  Yep, you are getting two NEW posts in a row with NEW content!

So, what is this new post??? Well, I decided to review a film that I have seen recently on Netflix (but is by means a recent film!) and that is Monty Python's Life of Brian. So, rather surprisingly, this is a film that I have not yet reviewed on this blog and well its time I put that to rights and take a look at this comedy classic.

So, after nearly 40 years, how does Life of Brian fair???  Well, let's take a look...

And yep the usual warning is coming up....

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
  
STORY

So, the film begins with the Three Wise Men making their way into Behtlehem, on the night of the birth of Jesus Christ.  However, they happen to come along the wrong house as they give some gifts over to Mandy Cohen, who has given birth to her son, Brian. On realising their mistake, the three wise men come back in and take their gifts back from Mandy.

The film then jumps forward 33 years (to the year 33AD) where Brian (Graham Chapman) is now a young man, and while Brian and his mother observe Jesus give his sermon from the mount, Brian notices an attractive young rebel named Judith (Susan Jones-Davies) who he soon becomes infatuated with.  Brian in an effort to get to know Judith, he uses his hatred and mistrust of the Romans to join the resistance group of which she is a member, the Peoples Front of Judea (or PJF for short) lead by Reg (John Cleese).

Reg then sends Brian on a mission to paint grafitti on the grounds of Pontios Pilate's palace but he is stopped by a Roman centurion (Cleese again) who corrects Brian on the grammar of what he has written and demands that he write out the proper saying a hundred times.  By the next morning, Brian has painted the saying all over the palace and has the guards chase him but Judith soon takes him back to PFJ's hideout.

After this, Reg has his team mount an attack on Pilate's palace in order to kidnap his wife for a ransom and Brian goes along on the assault.  However, the PFJ on arriving at the palace find another rival rebel group already there, so rather than work together, they fight each other with most of them killed in the process, except Brian and one or two others.  Brian is captured and later dragged in front of Pilate (Michael Palin) who pronounces all his r's as w's! As Brian reveals he had a Roman father with the name "Naughtius Maximums" it prompts Pilate to reveal that he has a great friend with a similar name, "Biggus Dickus". When all the guards break up with laughter at the name, Brian seizes his chance to escape the palace and bizzarely also fall into a passing alien spaceship, which engages another ship in a space battle, which causes the spaceship to crash back down to Earth at the very spot where Brian was picked up!

Brian later makes his way back to the PFJ headquarters where he is forced to hide from the Romans out the back balcony, as the Centurion and his men inspects the HQ but find nothing, except a spoon.  As the balcony gives way, Brian falls below and knocks a boring prophet into a well, and Brian discovers that he is standing among a number of prophets and he is forced to pretend to be one. At first, the people standing around that listen to him are not impressed, until Brian starts to spout out something similar to what he heard of Jesus's sermon earlier, which prompts the disinterested crowd to suddenly becoming intrigued by Brian's words.

However, as Brian tries to leave, the crowd begins to follow him as they want to know what he was going to say and Brian begins to run away but the crowd then chases after him.  Brian runs toward a naked, long bearded man (Terry Jones) who has not spoken in 18 years but Brian, in order to get away from the crowd, leaps into the man's pit onto his foot, causing the man to speak for the first time in 18 years.  After the crowd arrive by the pit, Brian tries to convince them he is not the "Messiah" as they all praise him to be and that everything he says is a "miracle".  However, as the naked man attacks Brian, the crowd pick him and take him away to be killed as a "heretic" and Brian is soon left alone, but then Judith turns up....

The following morning, we see that Brian and Judith have slept together and Brian awakens, naked, he goes over to this window and opens it to see a large crowd outside, call him "the chosen one" and the "Messiah".  Mandy, soon returns home and is furious when she sees the crowd and also on seeing Judith with Brian but the crowd insist that they see Brian to which Mandy gives in to.  Brian addresses the crowd and tells them that they don't need to follow him or let anyone tell them what to do as they are all individuals.  However the crowd refuse to change their minds and Mandy pulls Brian away from the window and tells the crowd to "piss off!".

Not long after this though, Brian is captured by the Centurion and his soldiers and take to Pilate where he is to be crucified.  And its from here Brian awaits his fate by crucifixion but can Judith and the PFJ make a last ditch attempt to save him in time????

THOUGHTS

There is little doubt that Life of Brian is the Monty Python team's best film and it features so many classic, funny moments that it would impossible to try and mention them all in this review.  Not only that it would be difficult for me to try and narrow down a number of scenes for each of the Python team, as they all play multple parts!

As, for the actual film, it is of course a wonderful comical treat, aswell as a visual one as it looks quite stunning as it was shot in Tunisia and its modest budget of 4 million dollars actually looks very well spent as a film, its visuals and production on that money, punch well above their weight.  The cast are all on great form and the writing is hilarious and also typically very intelligent from the Python's aswell.

Not surprisingly the film courted much controversy for its satirical take on religion as many groups deemed the film to be blasphemous.  The outcry of the film was so strong that the Pythons themselves had to defend the film in numerous debates on television around that time and even in later years.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section might be pretty big and also contain some strong language!).

As for the performances, the Python cast are all on great form as they all do a wonderful job in performing multiple roles (as they did in The Holy Grail).

Starting with Graham Chapman, who is excellent in the lead role as Brian Cohen, a young Jewish man, who ends up getting involved with a revolutionary group, the Peoples Front of Judea, in an effort to get closer to one of the group, Judith, who he is attracted to.

And Graham has his share of good scenes in the film such as the one where Brian learns from his mother, Many, that his real father was a Roman.  So, in the scene Mandy tells Brian "Your father isn't Mr Cohen" and Brian says "I never though he was!" and Mandy shouts "None of your cheek! He was a Roman, Brian. He was a soldier in the Roman empire!".  Brian, shocked by this revelation asks "You mean you were raped?!!" and Mandy tells him "Well, at first, yeah!".  So, after Mandy tells Brian "So, the next time you go about the bloody Romans, don't forget you're one of them!" to which Brian angrily protests "I'm not a Roman, Mum and I never will be! I'm a kike, a yid, a heebie, a hook-nose, I'm kosher mum, I'm a Red Sea pedestrian, and PROUD OF IT!!!" and he goes into his room and slams the door.

Another good scene is when Brian is followed by the crowd, who believe him to be the Messiah after he pretends to be a prophet and the crowd are taken in by what he says.  So, as the crowd follow Brian out into the desert where he lands on the foot of a naked bearded man and thereby ends the man's vow of silence, they address with him more praise but Brian furiously tries to convice them he isn't the Messiah.

So, Brian shouts at the crowd "I'm not the Messiah!!" and one of the followers (John Cleese) tells him "I say you are, Lord and I should know, I've followed a few!".  Brian then shouts back "I'm not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you understand? HONESTLY!". However one of the woman followers says "Only the true Messiah denies his divinity!" and Brian looks exasperated and shouts "What?!! Well, what sort of chance does that give me?! All right! I AM the Messiah!!".  So, as the crowd praise him and say "He is the Messiah!" Brian furiously shouts back "Now, FUCK OFF!!" which prompts an awkward silence from the crowd and for the follower to ask "How shall we fuck off, oh Lord?!".

Another good scene is when Brian addresses his crowd of followers as they await him outside his home, as he has spent the night with Judith, he get's up, starkers, he goes over and opens the small window doors to see the crowd infront of him.  Brian is later then accosted by his mother, who forces him to address the crowd.

So, Brian tells the crowd "Good morning" and the crowd chant wildly "A blessing!  A blessing!!" but Brian tells to them "Please, please please listen! I've got one or two things to say!" and the the crowd chant back "Tell us! Tell us both of them!".  So, Brian says to them "Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!".  The crowd then repeat what he says and Brian then continues "You are all different!" and the crowd repeats him and Brian says "Exactly!" but the crowd then say "Tell us more!" which frustrates Brian, who says "No, that's point! Don't let anyone tell you what to do, otherwise..." and then Mandy comes back pulls Brian away from the window.

And then in Graham's other role (apart from one of the wise men) as Biggus Dickus, a prominent Roman, who has a bad speech impediment and he also has one or two funny moments, which I will combine together into this paragraph.  Starting with the one where, Pilate goes to address the crowd and Biggus with his speech impdiment says "Let me come with you, Pontiuth!  I may be of thome atthithance if there ith a certain crithith!".  And later, Biggus addresses a rowdy crowd when Pilate tells them he will release one of the prisoners but they keep mocking his own impediment, however Biggus's accent makes them laugh even more. So, Biggus turns to Pilate and asks "Is it something I said?!".

John Cleese next up is also great in the variety of the roles he plays in the film with the main two being Reg, the leader of the Peoples Front of Judea and the Roman Centurion. 

And I will of course mention a few of John's scenes here such as the one where in one of his other roles, as the High Priest at a stoning, brings forth, Matthias (John Young) who is to be stoned to death for saying "Jehovah".

So, in the scene, the High Priest says to Matthias "Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath...you have been found guilty by the elders of the town of uttering the name of our Lord, and so, as a BLASPHEMER you are to be stoned to death!".  Then as Matthias says "Look, I don't think it should be blasphemy. Just saying Jehovah". and the High priest warns him "You're only making it worse for yourself!" and Matthias shouts "Worse?! How could it be worse?! Jehova! Jehova! Jehova!".  So, the High Priest angrily warns Matthias "Right! I'm warning you...if you say "Jehova" once more..." but then one of the crowd, throws a stone at the High Priest, who turns around and shous "RIGHT! Who threw that?!".  And one of the crowd, a woman with a beard, trying pose as a man says "Well you did say Jehova!" and then the crowd throw their stones at her.

So, the High Priest, literally hopping mad shouts at them to stop "Stop! Stop, will you?! Stop that! Stop it! Now, look! No one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle! Do you understand?! Even, and I want to make this absolutely clear, even if they do say 'Jehovah'!". And with that, the crowd starting mercilessly pelt their rocks at him and two of the crowd crush the High Priest with a large stone, to the delight of the crowd who applaud and say "Good shot!".

Then there is the scene where Brian approaches the PFJ as he is selling good at the Roman colliseum and Brian asks them "Are you the Judean Peoples Front?" and Reg angrily says "Fuck off!! We're the Peoples Front of JUDEA!". And Reg tells Brian "If you want to join the People's Front of Judea, you have to really hate the Romans..." and Brian says "I do!" and Reg asks him "Oh, yeah?! How much?" and Brian says "A lot!" and after a pause, Reg says "Right, you're in!".  Reg then tells Brian "The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front!" and the other PFJ members pitch in and shout "Splitters!".  And one of the other members, Francis (Michael Palin) also joins in and says "And the Judean Popular Peoples Front!" and the PFJ again shout "Splitters!" and another member, Stan (Eric Idle) says "And the Peoples Front of Judea!" and the group again join in and say "Splitters!".  However, Reg corrects Stan angrily and says "WE'RE the Peoples Front of Judea!" and after he asks Brian his name and Brian tells him "Brian, Brian Cohen" and Reg says to Brian "We may have a little job for you, Brian...".

Then there is the scene where the Roman Centurion catches Brian painting graffiti on Pilate's palace walls and the Centurion grabs Brian and asks him "What's this then?! 'Romanes Eunt Domus'? 'People called Romanes they go the house'?!".  And the two of them then get into a Latin grammar lesson and at the end and the Centurion tells Brian "Now, write it out a hundred times! And if its not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off!".

Then we have the scene where Reg asks his fellow PFJ members "What have the Romans ever done for us??!" and he means it morely as a rhetorical question, however one by one, the members keep giving Reg suggestions such as "education" "irrugation" and also "the wine!".  So, Reg re-phrases his question and asks again "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?!".  And one of the members, Xerxes raises his hand and suggests "Brought peace?" and Reg sighs and angrily says "Oh, peace!! Shut up!!".   

Another funny scene from John is when the Roman Centurion and his men turn up at the PFJ's headquarters to search for Brian.  And as the Centurions men run into the PFJ's hideout one after the other, the Centurion asks Matthias "You know what the penalty is for harbouring a known criminal?" and Matthias says "No" and Centurion answers "Crucifixion!".  So, Matthias says "Oh.." and the Centurion trying to scare Matthias says "Nasty, eh?!" and Matthias says "Could be worse" and the Centurion asks "What do you mean? "It could be worse!".  So, Matthias says "You could be stabbed" and the Centurion says "Stabbed?! Takes a second.  Crucifixion lasts hours!  Its a slow, horrible death!" and Matthias, not phased says "At least it get's you out in the open air" and the Centurion gives him a look and says "You're weird!".

And then after the Centurion and his men leave, Brian apologises to Reg and says "I'm sorry, Reg" and Reg feigns a smile and says "Ohhh, it's all right, siblings. He's sorry. He's sorry he led the Fifth Legion straight to our official headquarters. Well, that's all right, then, Brian. Sit down. Have a scone. Make yourself at home. You klutz! You stupid, bird-brained, flat-headed...!".  However the Centurion and his men return again and the Centurion says to Matthias "There's one place we didn't look!" and and he sends his men back in, one by one.  So, the Centurion asks Matthias "Have you ever seen anyone crucified?" and Matthias says "Crucifixion's a doddle!" and the Centurion almost hurt says "Don't keep saying that!".

Then there is the scene where the Centurion captures Brian just after he has made his speech to the crowd outside his home and he is about to tell Judith how he feels about her.  So, as Judith delightfully tells Brian "We're all with you, Brian!  The revolution is in your hands!" we see a big hand clamp down on Brian's shoulder and the Centurion says to Brian "You're fucking nicked, me old beauty!" and he motions his men to take Brian away. So, as Brian is lead off, Judith desparately tries to do something and she smacks the back of the Centurion's helmet, who simply turns around and tells her "Stop it!" and moves off.

And lastly there is the scene where Reg and the members of the PFJ finally decide to move into action as they go to see Brian once he has been nailed up to the cross.  So, as they arrive, Reg tells Brian "Well, I think I should point out first, Brian, in all fairness, we are not, in fact, the rescue committee. However, I have been asked to read the following prepare statement on behalf of the movement. "We the People's Front of Judea, brackets, officials, end brackets, do hereby convey our sincere fraternal and sisterly greetings to you, Brian, on this, the occasion of your martyrdom.". Brian the looks at Reg in disbelief and asks "My what???!".

Reg then continues "Your death will stand as a landmark in the continuing struggle to liberate the parent land from the hands of the Roman imperialist aggressors, excluding those concerned with drainage, medicine, roads, housing, education, viniculture and any other Romans contributing to the welfare of Jews of both sexes and hermaphrodites. Signed, on behalf of the P. F. J. , etc. " And I'd just like to add, on a personal note, my own admiration, for what you're doing for us, Brian, on what must be, after all, for you a very difficult time!". So, Reg finishes by saying "Goodbye, Brian and thanks!" and they do their PFJ salute and then sing "For he's a jolly good fellow!" before they go.

Michael Palin next is also great here and he has his share of funny scenes in his various roles but his main ones as Pontius Pilate, who has a bad speech impediment as he pronounces all his "r's" as "w's" and also the PFJ resistance member, Francis.

So, Michael has of course his fair share of good scenes such as the one where he plays an ex-leper, who pesters Brian and his mother for some money.  And in the scene, Brian asks him "Did you say ex-leper?" and the ex-leper says "That's right, sir. Sixteen years behind the bell, and proud of it, sir!" and Brian asks him "Well, what happened?" and the ex-leper says "I was cured, sir".  Brian then asks "Well, who cured you?" and the ex-leper tells him "Jesus did, sir! I was hopping along, minding my own business. All of a sudden, up he comes. Cures me. One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by your leave. 'You're cured mate.' Bloody do-gooder!".  So, Brian then gives the ex-leper a coin for his story but the ex-leper complains "A half a denary for my bloody life story?!" and Brian says to him "There's no pleasing some people" and he walks off and the ex-leper shouts back "That's just what Jesus said, sir!".

Another good scene from Michael is when Brian has been captured by the Romans and placed into a cell next to a crazy bearded man, Ben (played by Michael) who has been hung up on the wall.  So, after Brian is thrown into the cell by the jailor (Terry Gilliam) we then hear a voice say "You lucky bastard!" and Brian asks "Who's that?!" and Ben says "You lucky, lucky bastard!  Proper little jailor's pet! You must have slipped him a few shekels, eh?!".  Brian then angrily replies "Slipped him a few shekels?!  You saw him spit in my face!" and Ben wistfully says "Ohh! What wouldn't I give to be spat at in the face! I sometimes hang awake at night dreaming of being spat at in the face!  They must think the son shines out of your arse, sonny!".

And at the end of the scene, the Centurion comes to take Brian to see Pilate and Brian asks "What does he want to see me for?" and the Centurion says "I think he wants to know what way up you want to be crucified!".  Ben then laughs out loud at this and says "Nice one, Ceturion!  Like it, like it!" and the Centurion annoyed, says to Ben "Shut up!" and after they go Ben says to himself "Terrific race, the Romans. Terrific!".

Then there is the great scene where Brian is taken to Pilate, who of course has his speech impediment and pronounces his "r's" as "w's" and when Brian says he is a Roman, Pilate says "So, your father was a woman! What was his name?" and Brian tells him "Nortius Maximus" which prompts laughter from the Centurion.  So, Pilate looks at the Centurion, puzzled and asks if they have anyone of that name in the garrison but the Centurion explains "No, but I think it's a joke name, sir.  Like Sillius Sodus and Biggus Dickus, sir".

So, this prompts laughter from the other soldiers and Pilate asks "What is so funny about Biggus Dickus?" and the Centurion says "Well, its a joke name, sir" and Pilate says "I vewy gweat fwiend in Wome named Biggus Dickus" and this prompts more laughter from the guards.  So, Pilate angrily goes up to one of them and says "Silence! What is all this insolence? You will find yourself in gladiator school vewy quickly with wotten behavior like that!".  However as Pilate carries on mentioning Biggus's name, they guard cracks up and is taken away on orders of Pilate.

Pilate then decides to test the other guards resolve in not making them laugh as he furiously says to them "I will not have my fwiends widiculed by the common soldiewy. Anybody else feel like a little... giggle..." and he approaches a guard, who is desparately trying to keep a straight face "when I mention my fwiend... Biggus...Dickus...".  As the guards continue to suppress their laughter, Pilate then says of Biggus "He has a wife, you know. You know what she's called? She's called... 'Incontinentia'... and the guards relax a little, until Pilate says her second name "Incontinentia Buttocks!" and the guards all crack up with laughter, which let's Brian escape.  So, Pilate on seeing that Brian has escaped, he shouts at his men "Seize him!  Blow your noses and seize him!".

And last of all is the hilarious scene where Pilate addresses the crowd as he says he will release one of the prisoners they hold as a gesture of friendship, however his speech impediment has the crowd crack up with laughter, as does the one of his good friend, Biggus Dickus (Graham Chapman). So, in the scene as the crowd roll around in hysterical laughter, Pilate shouts "Silence!" and he says to them of Biggus "This man commands a cwack legion!" and this prompts more laughter, which makes Pilate even more agitated and he shous "He wanks as high as any in Wome!" and this has the crowd laughing even more!

Terry Jones next is also very good in his various roles aswell although his main ones are Mandy, Brian's mother and also later on the naked bearded man, Simon.

And Terry's best scenes include his first one where the three wise men pay a visit to her home on the night of Jesus's birth but they get the wrong place of course.  So, in the scene the three wise men tell an irate Mandy "We wish to praise the infant" and "We must pay homage to him" but Mandy, disgusted says "Homage?!  You're drunk!  Its disgusting!  Get out, the lot of you!".  However the three wise men tell her "We brought presents!" and one of them says "Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh!" and Mandy suddenly changes her tune and says "Well, why did you say so? He's over there!".

Then there is the scene where Mandy tells Brian the truth about his father being a Roman, so she says to him "Well, Brian...you're father isn't Mr Cowan" and Brian, not surprised says "I never though he was" and Mandy angrily says "Now, none of your cheek! He was a Roman, Brian.  He was a Centurion in the Roman empire".  Brian, stunned by this revelation asks Mandy "You mean...you were raped?!" and Mandy casually says "Well, at first, yes".  Brian angrily then asks "Who was it?!" and Many tells him "Heh. Nortius Maximus his name was. Hmm. Promised me the known world he did. I was to be taken to Rome, House by the Forum. Slaves. Asses' milk. As much gold as I could eat. Then, he, having his way with me had... voom! Like a rat out of an aqueduct!" and Brian furiously responds "The bastard!".

So, Mandy hushedly tells Brian (as another Roman officer is in the room looking for sexual favours from Mandy!) "Yeah. So, next time you go on about the 'bloody Romans', don't forget you're one of them!".  Brian angrily tells her that he will never be a Roman and that he is a "Red sea pedestrian and PROUD OF IT!" and he runs into his room and slams the door shut.  So, Mandy sighs to herself and turns to the officer and says to him "Sex, sex, sex!  That's all they think about, huh? Well how are you then, officer?" and he pats him on the groin area and bends down to give him a you-know-what!

Another good scene from Terry is when Brian desparate to evade the following he has unintentionally gathered as a result of pretending to be a prophet, which they all believe to be the Messiah, comes by a naked man with a very long beard, Simon, who sits in a pit and has a vow of silence.  However, Brian ends the silence by leaping into the pit and accidentally onto Simon's foot, which causes him to yell "Oww my foot!".  Simon then realises in horror what he has done and says "Oh, damn, damn and blast it!" and Brian quietly says "I'm sorry! Sshhh!" but Simon annoyed says "Don't you 'shhhh' me. Eighteen years of total silence, and you 'shhhh' me! I've kept my vow for eighteen years. Not a single, recognisable, articulate sound has passed my lips!".

Simon then dementedly shouts out "Oh, it doesn't matter now. I might as well enjoy myself. The times in the last eighteen years I've wanted to shout and sing and... Hava Nagila! Hava Nagila, ha ha ha! Look out. Oh, I'm alive! I'm alive! Hello birds! Hello trees! I'm alive! Get off. I'm alive! Hava Nagila!".  However, the crowd see Simon jump up and down in his pit and they see Brian also with him, who is trying to restrain Simon, so they run toward them both.  And as the crowd praise Brian some more and he fails to convince them that isn't the Messiah, they also eat off Simon's juniper bushes, much to his annoyance as he tells Brian "They're all I've got to bloody eat!" and he jumps up and pushes some of the followers away from the bushes.

And at the end of the scene, Simon complains furiously to Brian "You told these people to eat my juniper berries. You break my bloody foot. You break my vow of silence, and then you try and clean up on my juniper bushes!".  Simon then tries to throttle Brian but then one of the followers, Arthur (John Cleese) tries to convince Simon that Brian is their saviour "This is the Messiah!  The Chosen one!" and Simon looks at him for a moment and says "No, he's not!" and continues to try and throttle Brian.  However, Arthur shouts to the others "An unbeliever!  Persecute!  Kill the heretic!" and the followers all pick up Simon and cart him away.

And last of all is the scene where Mandy arrives back home to find Brian and Judith together but also a big crowd of followers outside.  So, Mandy angrily confronts the crowd and says to them "Well, they can stop following you right now. Now, stop following my son! You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!".  The crowd then shout "The Messiah!  Show us the Messiah!" and Mandy asks "The who?!" and they shout again "The Messiah!" so Mandy angrily shuts the windows and asks Brian "Right, my lad, what have you been up to?!".  Brian, terrified tells her "They think I'm the Messiah, mum" and she slaps him roughly on the face but at this point, Judith comes out of Brian's bedroom, completely naked and she explains what is going on and Mandy, speechless for a moment, then asks Brian "WHO'S THAT?!" and Brian nervously does the introductions but Mandy slaps him again.

So, in the next moment, Mandy goes off to confront the crowd outside and she tells them "Now, you listen here! He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy! Now, go away!" and the crowd ask "Who are you?!" and Mandy says "I'm his mother, that's who!" and they begin to praise her.  So, Mandy, cannot help but be a little flattered, however she remains adamant and says "Now, don't think you can get around me like that. He's not coming out, and that's my final word. Now, shove off!".  The crowd however don't give in and Mandy finally relents and says "Ohh. Oh, all right, then. You can see him for one minute, but not one second more. Do you understand?" and the crowd reluctantly agree in unison!

And after Brian has addressed the crowd for a minute or so, Mandy comes back and she pulls him by the ear away from the window and the crowd all says "Oohhh, that wasn't a minute!" and Mandy defiantly says "Oh, yes it was!" and the crowd says "Ohhh, no it wasn't!".  Mandy then quickly becomes annoyed and says "Stop that!  Now, go away!" and then one of the followers (Eric Idle) asks her "Excuse me, are you a virgin?" and Mandy looks shocked and asks "I beg your pardon?!".  So, the follower asks "Well, if its not too personal a question, are you a virgin?" and Mandy, outraged, shouts "'If it's not a personal question'? How much more personal can you get? Now, piss off!!" and she slams the windows shut.

Eric Idle next up is also excellent in his various roles such as the PFJ resistance group member, Stan, who wants to be a woman and re-names himself "Loretta", Mr Cheeky and of course the jailor's assistant, who has a bad stammer aswell as one of the people being crucified, who breaks into the famous "Always look on the bright side of life".   

And Eric of couse has his share of good scenes also that include his first one as Mr Cheeky, who teases a samaritan, Mr Big-Nose (Michael Palin) for having a "big nose" as they all try to listen to Jesus give his sermon from the mount.  So, Mr Cheeky tells Mrs Big-Nose "Do, you mind?  I can't hear a word he's saying!" and Mrs Big Nose angrily tells him "Do you mind?! I was talking to my husband!" and Mr Cheeky says to her "Well, go talk to him somewhere, I can't hear a bloody thing!".  Mr Big-Nose then warns Mr Cheeky "Don't you swear at my wife!" and Mr Cheeky says to him "I was only asking her to shut up, so I can hear what he was saying, Big Nose!".

So, the two of them then get into a heated argument over Mr Big Nose's nose and Mr Cheeky says to him "Listen. I'm only telling the truth.  You really have a very big nose" and Mr Big Nose, riled, threatens Mr Cheeky "Hey. Your nose is going to be three foot wide across your face by the time I've finished with you!".  Mr Cheeky then retorts "Well, who hit yours then?  Goliath's big brother?!" and this ends with Mr Big Noise swinging for Mr Cheeky but instead missing and hitting Mrs Gregory (Carol Cleeveland) and a fight ensues between Mr Gregory and Mr Big Nose. 

Then there is the scene where the PFJ member, Stan, keeps going on about women during one of their meetings at the colliseum.  So, one of the other members, Francis asks Stan "Why are you always on about women, Stan?" and Stan admits "I want to be one" and Reg asks "What??" and Stan says "I want to be a woman!  From now on, I all want you to call me 'Loretta'".  Judith then asks Stan "Why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?" and Stan tells her "I want to have babies" and Reg asks in total disbelief "You want to have babies??!!!" and Stan says "Its a man's right to have babies if he wants them!".  Reg however tells Stan "But you can't have babies!" and Stan, offended says "Don't you oppress me!" and Reg continues "I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!".

Another good scene from Eric is when Mr Cheeky has been sent for crucifixion and the Roman officer, Nisus, who asks each crucifixion victim if they are there for crucifixion, asks Mr Cheeky the question "Crucifixion?" and Mr Cheeky says "Ah, no. Freedom".  And Nisus asks "What?" and Mr Cheeky tells him "Eh, freedom for me. They said I hadn't done anything, so I could go free and live on an island somewhere".  Nisus, surprised, smiles and says "Oh, well, off you go then" but Mr Cheeky then says "Naa, I'm only pulling your leg. It's crucifixion, really!".

Then we have the scene where the jailor's assistant, who has a bad stammer speaks to Nisus, who laments over the amount of crucifixions that are being carried out.  So, Nisus say to the jailer's assistant "Its such a seneseless waste of life, isn't it?" but the jailor's assistant stammeringly says "N-- n-- n-- n-- n-- n-- n-- no, sir. N-- not-- not with these b-- bastards, sir. C-- cr-- rrrr-- c-- c-- crrr-- c-- c-- c-- crrrrucifixion's too good for 'em, sir!".  Nisus then says "Well, I don't think you can say its good for them. Its very nasty" but the jailor's assistant then says "Well, it's not as n-- n-- n-- n-- n-- n-- n-- n-- no-- no-- no-- not as n-- nasty as something I just thought up, sir!".

And last of all is the scene where Brian is nailed up on a cross and Mr Cheeky is next to him on another cross and he cheerily says to Brian "See?! Its not so bad once your up! You being rescued then, are you?".  Brian, dispairfully says "Its a bit late for that now, isn't it?" and Mr Cheeky cheerily says "Oh, now, now. We've got a couple of days up here. Plenty of time. Lots of people get rescued" and Brian intrigued says "Oh?" and Mr Cheeky says "Oh, yeah. My brother usually rescues me, if he can keep off the tail for more than twenty minutes. Randy little bugger. Up and down like the Assyrian Empire. Heh heh heh heh!".

And then as the Centurion arrives with his order to release Brian and asks "Where is Brian of Nazareth?! I have a warrant for his release!" and Mr Cheeky then decides to take his chance and says "I'm Brian of Nazareth!" but Brian then turns and protests "I'm Brian of Nazareth!" and then everyone else joins in saying they are too.  And this includes Mr Gregory (Terence Bayler) who shouts the great line "I'm Brian and so's my wife!".  So, as the Centurion has Mr Cheeky taken down and carted away he says to them "No, I'm only joking. I'm not really Brian. No, I'm not Brian. I was only-- It was a joke. I'm only pulling your leg! It's a joke! I'm not him! I'm just having you on! Put me back! Bloody Romans! Can't take a joke!".

Terry Gilliam, is also pretty good in the limited roles that he plays that include the crazy jailor, a demented blood and thunder prophet and also a person attending Jesus's sermon at the start.

And I will quickly mention one or two scenes from Terry G, such as the one where at the start the man listening to Jesus's sermon turns to the others and says "Did you hear that? Blessed are the Greek".  Mr Gregory then asks "The Greek?" and the man says "Well, apparently he's going to inherit the Earth!".

Then of course there is the scene with the blood and thunder prophet who yells at the top of his voice "And the bezan shall be huge and black, and the eyes thereof red with the blood of living creatures, and the whore of Babylon shall ride forth on a three-headed serpent, and throughout the lands, there'll be a great rubbing of parts!!!!".

And lastly of course there is his role as the jailor, who Terry G plays as a somewhat demented and crazed fella but in actuality (SPOILER!) its just pretend as he can speak normally when no one else is there except his assistant.  And the jailor has one or two bizarre lines such as when he winks furtively at Nisus and says to him "I know where to get it, if you want it!" and later when the Centurion asks if they crucifixion party have left, he replies "We've got lumps of it around the back!".

As for the other cast members other than the Pythons, they also do well in their roles such as Carol Cleveland, the Pythons regular lady, who appeared in the TV series aswell and she appears here in one role as Mrs Gregory and its a pity she's underused here given that she has been excellent in her previous roles in the Pythons work.  And as Mrs Gregory, she has a funny line where her husband, Mr Gregory protests that a samaritan is being crucified in a Jewish area.  So, Mr Gregory says "It may not matter to you, Roman, but it certainly matters to us. Doesn't it, darling?!" and she says "Oh, rather!".   

Terence Bayler next up is also great in his brief role as Mr Gregory and he has two scenes, starting with the one as Mr and Mrs Gregory listen to Jesus's sermon.  And as the crowd struggle to hear Jesus, they keept misintepreting what he is saying, so one of the crowd seems to think at one point, Jesus is saying "Blessed all the cheesemakers".  So, Mrs Gregory asks her husband "Well, what so special about the cheesemakers?" and Mr Gregory tells her "Well, obviously, this is not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products".

And lastly of course there is the scene where Mr and Mrs Gregory have been hung up for crucifixion aswelll as Mr Big Nose, who argues with the sadistic Roman officer, Parvus. So, as Mr Big Nose threatens Parvus "I'm going to punch you so hard, you Roman git!" and Parvus shouts back "Shut up, you Jewish turd!" and Mr Big Nose says "I'm not Jewish!  I'm a samaritan!".  So, Mr Gregory, shocked says "A Samaritan?! This is supposed to be a Jewish section!" but Parvus says it doesn't matter as they will all die soon anyway.  Mr Gregory however remains adamant and says "It may not matter to you, Roman, but it certainly matters to us. Doesn't it, darling?!" and his wife agree and he continues "Under the terms of the Roman occupancy, we're entitled to be crucified in a purely Jewish area!".

John Young is also excellent as Matthias, who early on in the film is set to be stoned to death but he manages to evade it after the High Priest in charge, accidentally says Jehovah and get's stoned instead. 

And John has two main scenes to mention, starting with the one where Matthias is about to be stoned to death but he manages to avoid it at the last minute after the crowd stone the high priest instead, who said "Jehovah" aswell as Matthias.

And in the scene, Matthias says to the high priest "Look. I-- I'd had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was, 'That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!".  And little later, Matthias in the scene says to the high priest "Look. I don't think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying 'Jehovah'." and the high priest warns him "You're only making it worse for yourself!" to which Matthias mockingly replies "Making it worse?! How could it be worse?! Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!".


And lastly there is the scene where the Centurion and his men come after Brian, as they are lead back to the PFJ's headquarters.  So, in the scene, Matthias opens the door to the Centurion and he puts on an act as he pretends to be frail.  So, when the Centurion asks if Matthias knows of Brian's whereabouts, Matthias says "I'm just a poor old man. I have no time for law-breakers. My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent!" and the Centurion shouts "Quiet!" and says to the his men "Silly person!".

Then the Centurion a little later in the scene asks Matthias if he knows the penalty for harbouring a known criminal and he tells its crucifixion, to which Matthias says "It could be worse. You could be stabbed!". And as the Centurion objects and says "Stabbed? Takes a second!  Crucifixion is nasty horrible death!" Mattias replies "Well, at least it get's you out in the open air!".  And later after the Centurion knocks on the door again, Matthias says through the door "You haven't given us time to hide!".

And last of all is Sue Jones-Davies as Judith, the female PFJ resistance member, who Brian fancies and he basically joins the PFJ to get closer to her.

And Sue has a few notable scenes, the most notable one of course is where the morning after, Brian and Judith sleep together, Mandy comes home and angrily confronts Brian as his crowd of followers are outside their home. So, as Mandy slaps, Judith, stark naked, defends Brian and she delivers an impassioned speech "Let me explain, Mrs Cohen!  Your son is a born leader. Those people out there are following him because they believe in him, Mrs. Cohen. They believe he can give them hope-- hope of a new life, a new world, a better future!!!".  And as a speechless Mandy stares at the naked Judith, she finally asks Brian "Who's that???!!" and Brian introduces them both to her and she slaps Brian again but the Judith runs infront of Brian protectively, which stops Mandy, who goes off to deal with the crowd outside.

Then there is the scene where after Brian addresses the crowd outside his home, he later is swamped by more people thinking he is the saviour and he takes a moment to sit out back by himself.  However, Judith then runs up to him and says "Brian?!  You were fantastic!" and Brian thinking she is referring to their night together says "You weren't so bad yourself". Judith however says "No! What you were saying just now... it was quite extraordinary!" and Brian, puzzled asks "Oh? What that?" and Judith continues "We don't need any leaders. You're so right. Reg has been dominating us for too long. It needed saying, and you said it, Brian!".  Brian however is too smitten by Judith to pay attention to her and he says "I think you're very attractive..." and Judith then excitedly says "Its our revolution! We can all do it together!".  And as Brian is about to tell Judith how he feels about her, she finished with an impassioned line "We're all behind you, Brian!  The revolution is in your hands!".  Brian however annoyed says to Judith "What?!  No, that's not what I meant at all!!" just before the Centurion nicks him.

And last of all is the scene where Judith runs and tells Reg and the other PFJ members that Brian has been captured and taken off to be crucified, however Reg is not interested in taking action and in said says "Right! This calls for immediate discussion!".  However, as all Reg is prepared to do is discuss things, Judith grows more exasperated and shouts "Reg, for God's sake, it's perfectly simple. All you've got to do is to go out of that door now, and try to stop the Romans' nailing him up! It's happening, Reg! Something's actually happening, Reg! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND??!!" and as the PFJ members saying nothing, Judith sighs and shouts "OOHHHHH!!" and storms out.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

Finally moving onto the direction, Terry Jones does a great job here with the film and he earns sole directing credit after he worked with Terry Gilliam as co-directors on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  It was also agreed that Jones's directorial style was better suited to the cast and general performances of the Pythons.

However the two still did have one or two disagreements while working on the Life of Brian, particularly as Gilliam had contributed alot to the set design of the film aswell as his usual animations that feature and he felt that Jones didn't show them up well enough in the film's cinemaphotography.  Gilliam also directed the sequence where Brian falls into a passing spaceship, which is locked in an interstellar battle and he later recieved praise from George Lucas for the sequence.     

As for the music score, Geoffrey Burgon, who had previously worked on Doctor Who for a couple stories during the Tom Baker era (Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom) as well as other TV serials such as Brideshead Revisited and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, produces a very fine score here.

The score itself is largely very dramatic and entirely orchestral and it actually works very well for the film for the most part even if there aren't really any light hearted cues in it as such.  Regardless of this though, its still a very fine score and also the film's theme song is also pretty good too and it was sung by Sonia Jones, who at that time was only 16 years old.  So overall, its a very fine score from Burgon.

FLAWS

As for the flaws....well....its hard to quantify Life of Brian's flaws as such because the film is very clever in the way it pokes fun at religion and politics.

However perhaps the only things I could nitpick at are maybe there are just one or two members of the cast that are really sidelined, especially Carol Cleveland, who was so good in the Python TV show and also had a funny role in the Holy Grail as the randy nun.  Here however, she is relegated to just playing a very small bit part as the wife of Mr Gregory and its a bit of a shame that the Python team couldn't have written her a slightly bigger role. This probably does highlight the team's weakness when it comes to writing roles for women in their films and shows, as Carol Cleveland herself once said that they told her that they just weren't great at writing parts for women. 

I also thought that the false nails they used for the crucifixion scenes frankly look pretty silly (even though it is of course a comedy!) i.e. the ones they use to drive through the crucifixion victims hands as they are nailed to the cross.  Also in the film, they use rope to wrap around the victim's hands to keep them propped up, however of course in historical pictures of crucifixion, you usually only see the crucifixionee being propped up by the nails that have nailed into their palms. But yeah of course, there is no way that Pythons were going to do that to themselves (unless of course, Mel Gibson was directing at the time!).

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Monty Python's Life of Brian for me remains their best film, as it is intelligent, well written and above all, also very funny with plenty of memorable lines and gags.  The Pythons themselves are all naturally on great form here and they show their comic talents once again for playing multiple roles at once!  The film is also more than ably backed up by its supporting cast and also its solid direction by Terry Jones, great set design and animation by Terry Gilliam and a very fine score by Geoffrey Burgon. 

And for me the film still after almost 40 years still remains a modern comedy classic, which has stood and continues to stand the test of time.

Right, that's it for now and I'll be back again soon with another post of sorts.

Till then its bye for now!  

The Disaster Artist Review "Agggghhhh! Everybody betray me!!"

Right, OK finally time for a brand new post and this is one I have certainly been meaning to get around to doing for some time since the release of the film this post will be about and the film in question is The Disaster Artist.

Now, the Disaster Artist of course was an acclaimed book that centred around the production of the cult movie "The Room" which is often considered as one of the worst films ever made, yet despite its awfulness, also remains one of the most entertainingly bad films of all time!  So, this film is based on the events of the book and the friendship between Tommy Wiseau (the star, writer, director of The Room) and Greg Sestero, a young aspiring actor, who stars alongside Tommy in the film.

So, how does The Disaster Artist fair as an actual film???  Well, let's take a look!

And yep the usual warning is coming up...

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, the story begins in San Francisco where Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) is a 19 year old looking to get into acting but his lack of confidence in acting classes appears to hold him back.  However, one night at a class, Greg witnesses one of the other class attendants, Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) do an over the top reading of Marlon Brando from "A Streetcar Named Desire".  Greg, transfixed by Tommy's fearless approach, asks him if he would like to do an acting scene together to which Tommy agrees to.  As the two of them become friends, Tommy suggests that they go to Los Angeles together to persue their acting careers, as Tommy has his own apartment.

As they reach LA, Greg manages to secure himself an agent and some auditions, however Tommy is not so successful as he faces rejection left, right and centre due to his bizarre accent and overall lack of acting ability.  Feeling disheartened, Tommy ponders whether to give up his dream of acting but when Greg suggests "Maybe we should just make our own movie" Tommy instantly says "That's a great idea" and he sets about to start writing his own movie script.

Months later, Tommy having finished his screenplay, let's Greg read it and he reluctantly decides to sign on to play the other lead part of Mark (as Tommy will play the lead role of Johnny) and its not long before Tommy and Greg get their production under way.  However as filming progresses, Tommy's erratic behaviour and frequent turning up late on set, not to mention inability to remember his own lines, soon takes its toll on the production crew and indeed even on his friendship with Greg....

THOUGHTS

The Disaster Artist as a film is a very entertaining and even charming comedy that does a great job at transposing the terrific book it is based on, to the big screen and it nicely depicts the friendship between Tommy and Greg throughout, with Tommy's outlandish personality and Greg's somewhat more timid nature, both in perfect contrast. 

The film however does condense the book to quite a degree, as there are alot of details here that have been left out and also some of the more mean spirited moments from Tommy that feature in the book also don't make it into the movie.  However, the film still does its bit when it comes to showing the playful, carefree side of Tommy's personality aswell as the darker and meaner side. 

PERFORMANCES AND SOME NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: there might be some spoilers in this section!)

As for the performances, well the cast are all excellent here.

Starting with James Franco who is just great as Tommy Wiseau and he appears to be having a ball in this role as he manages to get Tommy's weird mannerisms down pat and even though he doesn't sound exactly like him, he still does a terrific job here and he does nail that infamous Wiseau laugh!  But James even succeeds in showing Tommy not just to be something of an eccentric, egomaniac but also a rather sad and sympathetic soul with a very mysterious past, which he wants to no-one to know about (and the same goes for the real Wiseau too!).   

James has plenty of his own highlights in the film here but I won't really mention them that much
here but I will name one or two, such as the scene where Tommy struggles to get his lines right in the scene on the rooftop where Johnny says "I did not hit her! Its bullshit! I did not her!  I did not!  Oh, hi Mark".  So, in the scene time after time, Tommy walks out onto the rooftop set and pauses and says "Line!" or "What is line?!" and the script supervisor, Sandy (Seth Rogen) feeds him the line, growing ever more impatient every time until after 69 takes, Tommy eventually get's it right and whole crew shout out in relief! So, after that, Tommy and Greg hug each other and Tommy grins and says "OK, moving on now!". 

Then there is the scene where Tommy, preparing to do one of his sex scenes with the actress, Juliette Danielle, playing the character Lisa and we see him stark naked walk onto set, with his penis wrapped in a paper sock!  And as Greg says to Tommy "Tommy, dude, this really isn't necessary!" but Tommy insists "No, no!  Very necessary!  I need to show my ass to sell this picture!".

Another good scene comes just after Tommy orders Juliette off set during filming their sex scene because she has a pimple of her arm, which upsets Juliette and angers the crew and Greg.  So, Greg complains to a naked Tommy that he's being too hard on Juliette and the crew and Tommy asks him "Stanley Kubrick, he nice to actors? Alfred Hitchcock? Let me tell you something, Greg. He do this movie, Birds! On this movie, he terrify actors. He locked them in room, he throw, he throw birds at them. Real birds! Nasty stuff. The actors, they crack every day. But this movie win every award. Is Mr. Hitchcock bad man? No. He great director!". Greg however angrily says back "Yeah, but he was an asshole, and I bet he didn't direct with his fucking dick out!".  

Then there is the scene where Greg and his girlfriend, Amber (Alison Brie) invite Tommy out to dinner where Greg tells Tommy he will be moving out of Tommy's apartment, which disappoints and later angers Tommy. So, after Greg tells Tommy, Tommy goes quiet and says "What about movie?" but Greg tries to reassure him "Tommy, nothing's gonna change. I'll still see you on the movie set" and Tommy quietly says "I have to go to the bathroom" and he get's up and walks off and Greg sighs and says "Yeah OK, he took it well".  However then we cut to a furious Tommy uplift a rubbish bin and throw it on the ground and he yells "AAGGGHHHH!!! EVERYBODY BETRAY ME!!!". Tommy then angrily pulls some newspapers out of a vending machine nearby and throws them away and he kicks the machine and he sits on the curb and says "Oww! I hurt my foot!".  

And lastly there is the scene (SPOILER THIS TIME!!!) where they film the scene at the end of "The Room" where Johnny trashes the place and shoots himself and as they film it, Tommy shoots himself as Johnny but then he carries on doing the dry humping of Lisa's red dress.  So, in the scene after Tommy his dry hump, Sandy shouts "Cut!" much to Tommy's annoyance, who says "No!  Don't cut! Don't cut! Why you cut, Sandy?! This is great!  This is real acting!".  Sandy however then says "If you're gonna writhe around with a dress, maybe do it before you shoot yourself in the head and blow your brains out!" but Tommy says "I disagree!".

Dave Franco (James Franco's younger brother) is excellent also in his role as Greg Sestero, who befriends Tommy at an acting class and they go on to make "The Room" together as a film, but the film's production puts a strain on their friendship as it progresses.  Dave at times even has a strong resemblance ti Greg Sestero and he plays the part very well and you get the sense of him being an amiable, mild mannered guy, who becomes friends with the crazy whirlwind that is Tommy Wiseau.  Dave also dyed his hair for the role, which admittedly is probably one of the more odd looking aspects of his appearance in the film as Greg Sestero. That aside, Dave's performance is very good.

And I will mention only one of Dave's scenes and its the one near the end (SPOILER-ISH!!) where Greg confronts Tommy over his behaviour and mysterious nature on the last day of filming.  So, as Tommy and Greg are being filmed, throwing a football at each other, Tommy asks Greg to be truthful and honest about his fears of failure and actings.

However, Greg get's angry with Tommy and confronts him and says "Yeah, good. Let's get real. Where were you born, Tommy?!" but Tommy defensively says "Greg, this is not part of scene" but Greg pushes him for an answer "Its a simple question" and Tommy answers "New Orleans. From the Bayou".  Greg however mocks him and says to the film crew "You guys hear that?! This guy with this fuckin' accent is from "the Bayou."!!".  Greg then pushes Tommy even more and angrily asks him "When were you born? What year, Tommy?!! Same year as me?! There is no fucking way you're in your 20's, all right?!! You are a fucking villain! Fucking Frankenstein-looking motherfucker!" and the two of them then fight each other and are restrained by the crew. Greg then after their struggle, get's up and shouts at Tommy "You ruined EVERYTHING!!! This movie better be fucking awesome!!" and Tommy, shaken, says quietly "It will be awesome".  

Seth Rogen also does very well in his role as Sandy Schklair, the script supervisor on "The Room" who had quite a few run-ins with Tommy during the production but also tried to be the voice of reason when it came to the tensions during filming.  The real life, Schklair actually apparently had to heavily re-word Wiseau's script to turn it into one that an audience would have had a better chance at undertstanding (probably due to Tommy's fractured English!).

Seth also doesn't overplay things here at all and keeps a fair bit of restraint in playing the role, which works very well for the part he plays.  Seth also get's one of the film's best lines where we see Tommy perform one of the sex scenes with Juliette and while Tommy is in the middle of "doing it" he appears to be aiming for her belly button rather than her vagina.  So, Seth peering at the monitor during the scene says quietly "Why is he having sex with her bellybutton? He knows where her vagina is, right???".

The rest of the cast all have smaller roles but they also do very well in their respective roles, so I will look at them briefly...

Ari Graynor is pretty good in her role as Juliette Danielle, the actress who plays, Lisa, and is Tommy's leading lady in the film.  In the book Juliette actually did suffer some humiliation at the hands of Tommy, particularly during their sex scenes where Juliette's moles on her skin offended Tommy and he insisted that she get some make-up to cover them up.  Ari doesn't actually resemble Juliette Danielle much either, although this is actually fairly consistent with the other actors in the film also and not just her.

Alison Brie also puts in a pretty good performance as Amber, Greg's girlfriend, who in the book actually had stronger feelings of animosity toward Tommy Wiseay but they are largely played down here as she actually appears more sympathetic toward and its only near the end of her scenes that she grows annoyed with Tommy.  Brie herself in real life is married to Dave Franco, so its a rather neat piece of casting and at least they didn't have to look for to cast that role!

Jacki Weaver is also quite good in her role as Carolyn Minnott, who was the actress that played the role of Claudette in "The Room" and Jacki, apart from James Franco, is the only other performer that bears a good resemblance to the person they are playing.

Paul Scheer does well in his role as the first director of photography on "The Room" who was later replaced on the production by another DP.  In fact, according to the book, I think there were three DPs with Scheer being replaced due to finding Tommy simply impossible to work with and the film depicts as being frustrated at Tommy no providing some provisions such as water on a very hot temperatured set.

Josh Hutcherson does not too badly with his role as Philip Halidman, who played the rol of Denny in "The Room". Although he bares no resemblance to the actor at all and his hair definitely looks like a pretty bad wig!

The film also features some cameo roles from other celebrities aswell such as Bryan Cranston as himself (who at the time of The Room's production, starred on "Malcolm in the Middle"). Sharon Stone also appears as Greg's agent, Iris Burton and Melanie Griffith also has a brief role as the acting class teacher that teaches the class Tommy and Greg attend.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the film's director, well its also its star as James Franco takes on double duty here and he does an excellent job here at the directorial helm and he clearly has much fondness for the source material and indeed for the film "The Room" itself.  So, James certainly succeeds here in keeping the tone quite light hearted, providing plenty of laughs aswell also even succeeding in providing a poignant undercurrent to Tommy and Greg's real life friendship.


Moving onto the music, Dave Porter provides a good score here and it fits the tone of the film pretty well overall, however I wouldn't say it was overly memorable.  Porter however also did write the music for the acclaimed TV series, Breaking Bad and most of his other work has been in TV, so this remains one of his rare film scores and overall its a pretty decent one.

FLAWS

As for the Disaster Artist's flaws...yeah it still does have some here and there although it doesn't have as many gaping flaws as the film it is based on!!!


I think for starters, the film leaves out alot of detail from the book and it certainly condenses quite alot of the events that happened during the production but I do appreciate of course they had to do that or else the film would have been too long! As the film has to deal with both the past and present narratives of Greg and Tommy becoming friends and struggling to make it in Hollywood and then going on to filming "The Room".  So, yeah I would say there are certainly quite alot of details here that have been cut down, which in a way is a little disappointing but then again they needed to for time.

The film also does make one or two decisions that also clash with the book, such as the person that Tommy hired to video the film crew all day actually appears to be alot older here than the actual person Tommy got in real life, who was just a teenager, but here it appears to be a guy in his 30's!  And it would have been good if they kept it a bit more consistent in terms of the details of the book in that regard.

There also some details in Tommy and Greg's time when they lived together in LA that would have also been good to have seen from the book, such as Tommy learning to try and "lose" his accent as he used tapes to try and do just that. Also, Tommy would stay up nearly all night, carrying out his unusual behaviour, which in turn kept Greg awake at times!

It would also have been nice to have seen Tommy and Greg film more of the film's last scenes, where Tommy and Greg did actually go out on production to capture some external shots of San Francisco and also film the "Hi, Doggie" scene.  However this again is all condensed and cut down to just Tommy and Greg playing football in the park and the two of them having a go at each other.

The supporting characters and actors, such as Juliette Danielle, Robyn Paris and Philip Haldiman are also somewhat marginalised here somewhat a bit as the film makes more time for the leads than the others concerned in the production.  However at the same time, the main focus of the film is Tommy and Greg and to be fair, the film does have alot of ground to cover.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, The Disaster Artist is a very enjoyable and even at times poignant film that perfectly captures (albeit condenses) the production of "The Room" and also the unusual friendship of Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero, as the two of them support each other, yet also have their struggles and tensions.  And its clear that James Franco had alot of love for the project and it certainly comes across in his performance as he is terrific as Tommy Wiseau and inhabits the man's character from the very start and he is ably backed up by his younger brother, James Franco in the role of Greg Sestero.

The film's only real crime however is that does tone down some of Tommy's erratic behaviour to an extent, which was even more extreme in the book and also some of the events of the production that weren't shown here that feature in the book would have been good to have included.

However all that aside, this film is definitely well worth checking out and does a great job in looking at one of the best worst films ever made.

Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post or other.

Till then its bye for now!

         

The Blues Brothers "I have seen the light!!!!!"

OK, post revisitational time....yes I need to start writing new fresh posts I know!

However...this is another post for a film I have just recently re-watched on Netflix and that film is of course the hit musical comedy, The Blues Brothers starring the late, great John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the titular Blues Brothers. So, here I will do the usual re-write although this post has a fair bit of detail to it already, so I might add masses more to it!

And after 38 years, how does The Blues Brothers fair????  Well, let's suit up, put on those shades and find out....

And yep of course, there is the usual warning coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So the film begins with "Joliet" Jakes Blues (John Belushi) being released from prison having served a three year sentence for armed robbery.  Jake is picked up outside the prison by his brother, Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) in a battered police car, which is their Blues mobile.  Shortly after they stop off and visit their former childhood home, an orphange where they meet with Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman) who tells them that the orphanage is due to close down unless they pay a property tax of $5,000.  Jake says they can get they money quickly, however the Sister refuses to accept any money they would rip off from anyone, and she chastises them when they start cursing and tells them to get out and not come back until they redeem themselves.

Jake and Elwood then meet with Curtis (Cab Calloway) who also helps out at the home and has known the brothers since their childhood, and he tells them to go to church.  And they both reluctantly go to an evangelical church where they listen to a music sermon lead by Rev Cleophus James (James Brown).  During the sermon, Jake has a revelation that they can get the money they need by getting their band back together.

Elwood afterward that night is pulled over by the police for failing to stop at a red signal, and the two police troopers check his licence and see that it is currently suspended and when they officers ask him to step out the car, he speeds off.  Elwood then in an effort to escape the police crashes through a shopping mall and eventually shakes them off and arrives at his temporary abode, which is a broken down motel, when all of a sudden a mysterious woman (Carrie Fisher) fires a rocket launcher at them both and drives off, they both survive unscathed and enter the hotel.  The next morning the woman comes back and sets off explosives which destroy the building but again the brothers are left not injured they simply leave to locate their band members.

And enroute they stop off at different places to recruit the band, which includes Trombonist, Tom "Bones" Malone, the drummer Willie "Too Big" Hall, rythyhm guitarist Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn, trumpeter Alan Rubin, "Blue Lou" Marina the saxophinist, and lastly Matt "Murph" Murphy the lead guitarist.

However as they progress they begin to make more enemies, not just the police, but also a group of Illinois Nazis.  The Brothers and the band then play in a country bar, posing as the country and western group "The Good Ole Boys" only to be later confronted by the real band when they leave, lead by Tucker McElroy (Charles Napier).  Jake and Elwood hightail it and drive off leaving the owner, Bob (Jeff Morris) without paying the beer tab, who with Tucker go after Jake and Elwood only to collide with the two police officers that pulled over Elwood earlier on.   

Next up Jake and Elwood meet up with Maurie Sline (Steve Lawrence) their old booking agent and they manage to persuade him to book a gig for them at the Palace Hotel ballroom, near Chicago.  However as the brothers go around the city advertising the gig, they run out of gas and they eventually get there late and perform their set, after a slow start they win over the audience.

However the venue is also filled with police officers waiting to arrest Jake and Elwood and during their set the two of them dance off the stage, where a record producer waits for them and offers them a recording contract deal and $10,000 upfront, which they accept as it will be more than enough to pay the debt for the orphanage, and they both leave quietly, leaving the band to play on.

And from here Jake and Elwood have a massive challenge ahead of them in trying to get to the Cook county assessor's office to hand in the money as they chased by the Illinois Nazis, the Good Ole Boys, and dozens of police cars in an effort to apprehend them.....

THOUGHTS 

The Blues Brothers still to this day is a very entertaining comedy and for me is one of the very few musical comedies that works really well and the tracks don't annoy or interfere with the pacing of the film, but its also helped by the fact the choice of blues song are excellent.  The characters themselves originally appeared in the Saturday night live show as a musical sketch.  The film itself was a moderate commerical success on its release although it was critically well received and later gained a cult following, especially when it was released on VHS video.

It was also up to that point in time one of the most expensive films ever made as well as the budget was in excess of 30 million dollars, which is certainly shown in the film's hectic car chase scenes where Elwood wrecks a shopping mall and where an army of police and military hunt down the brothers toward the end of the film.  However part of this cost was also attributed to Belushi's partying and drug abuse, which caused significant delays in filming when the actor would spend hours partying and on cocaine, resulting in many hours and days wasted in the schedule.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and strong language!)

Performance wise The Blues Brothers is very good overall with a strong cast all in fine form.

Starting with the late John Belushi providing his career defining role as "Joliet" Jake Blues, the charismatic conman, who get's his band back together to help raise the money to save the orphanage.

Belushi has plenty of good scenes in the film, such as the first scene where Elwood picks up Jake from prison and the two of them drive off in Elwood's Dodge Sedan police car. So, in the scene, Jake irritably asks Elwood "What the hell is this?!" and Elwood asks "What?" and Jake angrily says "This car!  This stupid car!".  So, Jake then asks "Where's the Cadillac?!  The Caddy?  Where's the Caddy?!" and Elwood says "I traded it" and Jake asks "You traded the Blues mobile for this?!" and Elwood says "No, for a microphone" and Jake takes a moment and sarcastically says "OK. I can see that!".  Jake then asks re: the car "What the hell is this?" and Elwood says "This was a bargain. I picked it up at the Mount Prospect city police auction last spring. It's an old Mount Prospect police car. They were practically giving 'em away!".  Jake then angrily says "Well, thank you, pal! The day I get out of prison, my own brother picks me up in a POLICE car!". 

Then there is the scene where Jake and Elwood arrive at the orphanage and Jake asks "What are we doing here??" Elwood says to him "You told the Penguin you'd visit her, the day you got out" and Jake says "Yeah, so I lied to her" and Elwood says "You can't lie to a nun.  We gotta go in there and visit the Penguin." and Jake defiantly says "No fucking way!".  However, Elwood decisively get's out of the car to go in, leaving Jake little choice but to follow him.

Another good scene is when Jake is at the gospel church and Rev Cleophus asks him "Do you see the light?!" as a holy light bathes the church and covers Jake and he remembers the band and he says to himself "The band!".  And as the Rev repeats the question "Do you see the light?!" Jake yells "YES! YES! JESUS H. TAPDANCING CHRIST I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!!!" and he proceeds to somersault his way to the front of the church and dances with the choir members and somersaults back to Elwood shouts "The band, Elwood!  The band!!!".  And Elwood looks at Jake for a moment and he too has the same revelation and he shouts "The band!" and the Rev shouts "Praise the Lord!" and Elwood shouts out "And God bless the United States of America!".  

And then we have the scene where Jake and Elwood track down the rythym section of their band, who have now formed their own band, Murph and Magic Tones, which J and E find in a club playing some cheesy Spanish music. So, afterward, they meet with Jake and Elwood and Jake tells them "You were the backbone of a great rythym and blues band.  You can make that band live, breathe and jump again!".  Jake then mockingly says "Murph and the Magic Tones?!  Look at you in those candy-ass uniforms!".  And as the drummer, Willie "Too Big" Hall says to Jake and Elwood that they will never get ahold of Matt "Guitar" Murphy and Mr Big, the trumpeter, Jake says "Oh yeah?  Well, me and the Lord, we have an understanding!". 

Then we have the scene where Jake and Elwood turn up at a fancy restaurant where Mr Big, their former band trumpeter, is now the maitre'd who they try and get back.  And Jake turns to the table next to theirs as he spies a wealthy family and he teases the snobbish father by saying "How much for the little girl? How much for your children! Sell me you're daughters!". Mr Big then comes in pushes Jake away from them and Jake tries to persuade Mr Big to join the band again but he refuses. So, Jake says to him "If you say no, Elwood and I will come here for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of the week!". Elwood then takes a large piece of doughy bread and thrusts it into his mouth and Mr Big finally gives in and says "OK!  OK!  I'll play!  You got me!" so Jake and Elwood, satisfied, then leave. 

And then we ge to the scene where Jake finally faces Carrie Fisher's character, the un-named Mystery Woman, who was a bride he jilted at the altar in the muddy tunnel after they leave the Palace Hotel ballroom gig.  So, as the woman has Jake in her sights with her M16, Jake get's down on his knees and begs "OH PLEASE DON'T KILL US!!!  PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T KILL US!! It wasn't my fault! I had a flat tyre, my car ran out of gas, there was an earthquake!  A terrible flood!  Locusts! Look it wasn't my fault I swear to GOD!!!".  And he takes off his shades for the first time in the film and woos the woman into kissing him but after they kiss, Jake casually drops her into the mud and says to Elwood "Let's go!" and they scarper! 

Dan Aykroyd is also excellent as Elwood Blues, Jake's cool headed brother who get's Jake into a heap load of trouble by getting the entire Chicago police force on their asses, after failing to stop at a red light and also for trashing a shopping mall.

Aykroyd shares the limelight with Belushi and he too has his share of highlights such as the scene where Elwood picks up Jake from prison and Jake clealy doesn't like the new car. So, Elwood asks "You don't like it?" and Jake looks at him and says "No, I don't like it".  So, Elwood then revs the car and drives it over an open drawbridge and it lands safely on the other side. Jake then changes his mind and says "Car's got a lot of pick up".  Elwood then tells Jake "It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?". Jake then lights a cigarette with his lighter and says "Fix the cigarette lighter" (which Jake had thrown away) and they both smile. 

Then there is of course that scene where Elwood goes through a red light (or rather a yellow light going red) and is spotted by two police troopers, who tail them.  And as Elwood notices the troopers in his rear view, he and Jake share a brief but classic exchange:

Elwood: Shit!
Jake: What?
Elwood: Rollers!
Jake: No!
Elwood: Yeah!
Jake: Shit!

This is then followed by the moment where the cops, pull over Elwood and he asks one of them, Trooper Daniel who comes over "What did I do?" and Daniel says "You failed to stop at a red signal" and Elwood says "The light was yellow, sir".  So, the trooper takes Elwood's licence and registration away to run a check on it, and afterward, Jake exclaims "Goddamn it!!" and Elwood tells him "Man, I haven't been pulled over for six months".  Elwood then says "I bet those cops have got SCMODS" and Jake, puzzled, asks "SCMODS?" and Elwood explains the abbrevation "State County Municipal Offender Data System".  And as the troopers sees that Elwood has a whole load of traffic tickets and parking violations on him, the trooper goes back to his car and says "Elwood, we see you licence is your currently on suspension. Step out of the car please" but Elwood instead drives away, which begins their chase with the cops.

And as Jake says to Elwood "First, you trade the Cadillac for a microphone, the you lie to me about the band...now you're gonna put me right back in the joint!". However, Elwood then says his often repeated line in the film "They're not gonna catch us!  We're on a mission from God!" but Jake looks angrily at him and says "Elwood!".   

Another good scene is when Jake and Elwood evade the cops and make it back to the motel where Elwood stays and they narrowly avoid being blown up by the mystery woman outside the front entrance! So, they go upstairs to Elwood's room and Jake sits on Elwood's bed and he asks Elwood "How are you gonna get the band back together, Mr Hotrodder?!  Those cops have got your name, your address...".  Elwood however corrects him and says "No, they haven't got my address.  I falsified my renewal!  I put 1060, West Addison" and Jake asks "1060, West Addison? That's Wrigley Field!" and Elwood smiles and nods.  Elwood then says "I gotta hit the sack..." however he sees that Jake has already fallen asleep on his bed and Elwood shouts at him "Hey, you sleaze!  That's my bed!" but he relents and covers over Jake and he sleeps in his chair instead.

Also during the sequence where they advertised the Palace Hotel ballroom gig whilst driving out in their car and he says over a megaphone, which is strapped to the hood of their car "You on the motorcycle!  You two girls!  Tell your friends!".  And of course Elwood drives the car down by the beach and they are surrounded by girls in skimpy bikinis and Elwood speaking through the megaphone announces "And of course its ladies night tonight at the Palace Hotel ballroom!".  

Then there is of course the scene where Jake and Elwood finally take to the stage at the ballroom infront of a large crowd, they leap onto the stage but the crowd look unimpressed and silent, so Jake nervously tells the band to start anyway.

So, as the band begin to play Wilson Picket's version of "Everybody needs somebody to love" Elwood addresses the crowd on the mic "We're so glad to see so many of you lovely people here tonight. And we would especially like to welcome all the representatives of Illinois's law enforcement community that have chosen to join us here in the Palace Hotel Ballroom at this time. We certainly hope you all enjoy the show. And remember, people, that no matter who you are and what you do to live, thrive and survive, there're still some things that makes us all the same. You. Me. Them. Everybody. Everybody!".  

Dan also has a funny line after so many attempts on their life by the mystery woman, where she confronts them in the muddy tunnel he finally asks Jake "Who IS that girl???".  And after Jake manages to prevent the mystery woman from killing himself and Elwood, Jake kisses her and then drops her in the mud and says to Elwood "Let's go!" and Elwood walks past and says "Take it easy!" and he runs after Jake.   

And last of all is the scene where Jake and Elwood sneak out of the gig back to their car as they preapre for their trip to Chicago with the money for the orphanage.  So, Elwood says to Jake "Its 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark and we're wearing sun glasses" and Jake says "Hit it!" and Elwood drives off out of a tunnel, which knocks off the loud megaphone that was attached to the car. 

And in addition to the various musicians in the film, which I will get to I will also mention a few of the supporting performers such as John Candy, who is as good as ever in his role as Elwood's parole officer, Burton Mercer.

And John has a couple of good scenes I will mention such as the one where Mercer takes the two cops, Officer Mount and Trooper Daniel (who chased the brothers the night befre) to the motel where Elwood is actually staying with Jake.  So, Mercer tells them "This gentleman is the elegant abode of one Elwood Blues" and Office Mount says "Thank you for your help" and Mercer says to him "You know, I kinda like the Wrigley field bit!" and Mount angrily says "Yeah, real cute!". 

Then there is the scene where Mercer, who rides along with Mount and Daniel, who pursue Jake and Elwood on the road but they end up crashing the car into a passing truck.  So, we see that Mount has his police hat torn and Daniel is lying on the car floor.  So, Mercer asks for the mic, which Daniel passes him and Mercer speaks into the mic and says "This is um...what number are we?" and a deadpan Mount says "55!".  So Mercer smiles and says into the mic "This is car 55! Um...we're in a truck!!".

Carrie Fisher also puts in an amusing performance as Jake's crazed bride to be whom he left at the altar, and her repeated attempts to kill the brothers are hilarious, which include her using a flamethrower which sets fire to and ignites a fuel tank next to the call booth Jake and Elwood are in, which sends the booth sky high!

And in her last scene with Jake she explains the situation and says to Jake "I remained celibate for you. I stood at the back of a cathedral, waiting, in celibacy, for you, with three hundred friends and relatives in attendance! My uncle hired the best Romanian caterers in the state! To obtain the seven limousines for the wedding party, my father used up his last favor with Mad Pete Trullo! So for me, for my mother, my grandmother, my father, my uncle, and for the common good, I must now kill you, and your brother!".  But then as Jake makes his impassioned plea to save his life, he takes off his glasses in a list ditch attempt to woo her and it works as the woman smiles and says "Oh, Jake!  Jake, honey!".  So, Jake then takes her in his arms and kisses her only to drop her in the mud in a moment later and she angrily get's up after them and once they drive off, the woman opens fire with her M16 but misses the car completely.  

Henry Gibson is also great in his part as the leader of the Neo-Nazi party and he has two scenes worth mentioning. Starting with the one where the Nazi leader addresses a large, angry crowd as they do their demonstration.  And the leader addresses the crowd using a megaphone "White men! White women! The swastika is calling you. The sacred and ancient symbol of your race, since the beginning of time. The Jew is using The Black as muscle against you. And you are left there helpless. Well, what are you going to do about it, Whitey? Just sit there? Of course not! You are going to join with us. The members of the American Socialist White Peoples' Party. An organization of decent, law abiding white folk. Just like you!".

However, as Jake and Elwood as a policeman what is going on, the cop tells them "Those bums won their court case today, so they're marching" and Jake asks "Who are marching?" and the cop says "The fucking Nazi party!". Elwood shakes his head and says "Illinois Nazis!" and Jake says "I hate Illinois Nazis!" and Elwood starts up the car and drives over the bridge where the Nazis are, forcing them to jump over the bridge into the water.  So, after that, the soaked leader shouts to his sub-bordinate "Gruppenfuhrer!  Get that car's licence plate number!  We're gonna kill that son of a bitch!".

And then there is the scene where the Nazis turn up outside Wrigley field (which is a baseball stadium and also the address Elwood gave on his renewal). So, the Nazi leader addresses his men "Anybody with that kind of record is gonna make a mistake. I want all party members in the tri-state district to monitor the city, county and state police on their CBs. Mr. Blues is gonna fuck up, and when he does... he better pray the police get to him before we do!".

Charles Napier is also funny in his brief role as the leader of the Good Ole Boys, Tucker McElroy and I will quickly mention two of his scenes, starting with the one where Jake pretends to be music rep to distract Tucker and the band.

So, Jake says to Tucker "My name is Jacob Stein. I'm from the American Federation of Music. I've been sent to see if you gentlemen are carrying your permits" and Tucker asks "Our what?" and Jake says "Your union cards. May I see your cards pleases?".  So, Tucker smiles in disbelief and says "Well, suppose we ain't got no union cards and go in there and start playin' anyway? Whatcha gonna do about that? You gonna stop us, Stein? Ha. You're gonna look pretty funny tryin' to eat corn on the cob with no fuckin' teeth!".

And lastly there is the scene where after Jake and Elwood flee the concert at the Palace hotel ballroom, they are pursued by the cops, the Nazis and also of course, Tucker and the country club owner, Bob.  However, Tucker ends up accidentally driving his truck into a lake and the men are all soaking wet and Bob looks at a furious Tucker, who warns him "Don't you say a fuckin' word!".

And lastly Twiggy, the model and singer who rose to fame in the 1980s also provides a brief but noteworthy role as a girl who stops off at the garage where Elwood and Jake are waiting for fuel to be delivered, and he chats her up, and even offers her to meet up at a nearby motel, when she considers and later on waits for Elwood at the motel, as he sighs impatiently.

Jeff Morris is also pretty good in his role as Bob, the country club owner, who has some good moments in the film.

And I will mention two of his scenes where after the gig, Bob impressed with the band says "Shit, I wanna tell you, that's some of the best goddam music we've had... at the Country Bunker in a long time!".  So, after Jake asks about the money for the gig "That's right. Two hundred dollars... and you boys drank $300 worth of beer". Elwood then says "Well, we just figured that beer was complimentary" but Bob shakes his head and says "No, uh-uh!".  So, Jake after a pause "Well, I'll take up a collection from the boys" and Bob says "Yeah, well I sure would appreciate it".

And then there is the scene just after where Jake and Elwood hightail it from Bob's bar and distract the real "Good ole boys" band. So, after they drive off, Tucker runs up to Bob and asks "Where they guys from?  The union?!" and Bob angrily says "What the hell, ''union''? Those boys skipped out of here owing me a lot of money for beer!".  Bob then looks at Tucker and his band in their country outfits "What the hell are you guys all dressed up for?!" and Tucker tells him "We're the Good ole boys!" and Bob looks at them in disbelief asks "YOU'RE the Good Ole Boys???!". 

Kathleen Freeman next is also good in her role as Sister Mary Stigmata, aka the Penguin, who tasks Jake and Elwood to get the money to save the orphanage where they were raised.

And Kathleen has some good moments in her main scene where she tells Jake and Elwood about her plight and she needs $5000 for the orphanage. And Jake tells her "Five grand? No problem! We'll get it for you by the morning! Let's go, Elwood!" however the Sister angrily stops him from going and shouts "No, no!! I will not take your filthy stolen money!". So, Jake says "Well then, I guess you're really up shit creek" and the Sister hits Jake with her stick and he cries out in pain.  The Sister than calmly asks Jake "I beg your pardon, what did you say?".  So, Jake says "I offered to help you..." and the Sister politely says "Mmm hmm" and Jake continues "...you refused to take our money..." and she says "Mmm hmm" again and Jake says "...and I said "I guess you're really up shit creek".

So, the Sister hits Jake again, who cries out and Elwood pitches in and says "Christ, Jake, take it easy!" but the Penguin then hits Elwood and he shouts "Oww shit!" and as she hits the two men as they keep swearing at her until Elwood suddenly shouts "Oww, you fat penguin!" and she breaks her stick on Elwood's head, who runs out.  The Sister, however keeps on hitting Jake with another stick as he tries to shuffle out the room, still in his seat, but he soon falls down the stairs and the seat breaks on impact and Jake and Elwood look up at the Sister, who looks disapprovingly at them from the top of the stairs.

And the Sister tells them both "You are such a disappointing pair. I prayed so hard for you. It saddens and hurts me that the two young men whom I raised to believe in the Ten Commandments have returned to me as two thieves, with filthy mouths and bad attitudes. Get out, and don't come back until you've redeemed yourselves!". The Sister then glides back into her office and the door magically slams shut behind her! 

And last of all on the "actor" cast front is Steve Lawrence as Maury Sline, a booking agent who arranges for Jake and Elwood to play their gig at the Palace Hotel ballroom to raise the money they need for the orphanage. 

So, in the scene, Jake and Elwood are in a sauna, chatting with Maury and Jake tells "Come on, Maury. We need 5000 bucks fast!" and Maury laughs and asks "5000?! Who do you think you are the Beatles?!".  And as Jake has a thought, he asks Maury "Say...how is Mrs Sline? I have some information she might like to know..." and Maury smiles and asks "Are you blackmailing me, Jake?" and Jake says "If you wanna put it that way..." and he says urgently "Maury, we NEED this gig!".  So, Maury says to him "Okay. I'll get you the Palace Hotel. I'll print up show bills. I'll make the place look real pretty, okay? I don't think you guys are gonna gross dollar one. But if you do, I want a taste of the gig, okay?". Jake then says "Thanks, Maury" and then he says "Let's go, boys!" and we see the whole band are in the sauna room aswell, all wearing towels around their waists!

As for the film's soundtrack and star musicians they provide a key part of the film's success and appeal starting with James Brown who provides a charismatic turn as the Rev. Cleophus James and a catchy number in the gospel church scene.  And he shouts to Jake, when he is bathed in holy light from the skies that goes through into the church "Do you see the light?!" and Jake has his revelation and says "The band!" and James shouts "Have you seen the light?!" and Jake yells "YES!  YES!  JESUS TAP DANCING, CHRIST!  I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!".

Ray Charles also provides a good cameo as himself, as well as the owner of a music exchange store and he has a funny moment where he fires a gun near a young boy trying to sneakily grab a Fender Stratocaster off the wall, and he says "Breaks my heart, a boy that young goin bad!".  And later after he plays the music number "Shake a tail feather" Jake says to Ray "OK, man. We'll take these axes" and Ray says "Naturally. And as usual, I gotta take an IOU!".

Aretha Franklin also puts in a really good performance as the wife of Matt Murphy who owns a diner, as she has Matt under her thumb and she warns Matt to "Think" about the consequences of his actions if he leaves to play with the band again.  In fact I think its safe to say that Aretha gives perhaps the best performance out of the guest artists in the film. 

So, in the scene, Mrs Murphy says to Matt after she has taken Jake and Elwood's order "We got two honkies out there dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants!" and Matt says "Say what?!" and she tells him "They look like they from the CIA or somethin!". Matt, curious, asks "What do they want to eat?" and Mrs Murphy tells him "The tall one wants white bread, toasted, dry, with nothing on it" and Matt suddenly looks excited and says to himself "Elwood".  Mrs Murphy then says "And the other one wants four whole fried chickens and a coke!" and Matt suddenly twigs who it is and he exclaims "That's Jake!  Shit!  The Blues Brothers!" and he goes out to see them.

However, Mrs Murphy is now willing to let Matt go as she tells Jake and Elwood "You ain't goin' back on the road no more, and you ain't playin' them ol' two-bit sleazy dives! You're livin' with me now, and you not gonna go slidin' around witcho ol' white hoodlum friends!".  Matt however tries to reason with her "But babies, this is Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers!" and Mrs Murphy looks at them in disbelief and exclaims "The BLUES BROTHERS??!! Shit! They still owe you money, fool!".

Mrs Murphy then berates Jake and Elwood when Elwood mentions they are on a mission from God and she shouts at them "Don't you blasphemy in here!  Don't you blasphemy in here!  This is my man, this is my restaurant, and you two are just gonna walk right out that door without your dry white toast, without your four fried chickens, and WITHOUT Matt 'Guitar' Murphy!".  Matt however says to her "Listen, I love you, but I am the woman and you are the woman and I will make the decisions regarding my life!".  Mrs Murphy then warns him "You better think about what you're doing! You better think about the consequences of your actions!" but Matt tells her "Oh, shut up, woman!" and she then breaks into the song "Think".

However at the end of the song, Matt decides to leave with Jake and Elwood and he says to them "Let's boogie!" and they walk out and Blue Lou (the saxophonist) who also works at the diner, looks to Mrs Murphy, who gives in and says to him "Well, go on, damn it!".  So, Blue Lou runs out after the others, leaving a very frustrated Mrs Murphy, who says to herself "Shit!".   

John Lee Hooker provides a catchy number as he puts in a brief cameo and plays his own track "Boom boom" however despite this he has no other lines of dialogue in the actual film.   

And last but not least is Cab Calloway who provides an excellent performance as Curtis and he has some good scenes, particularly his first scene where he tells Jake and Elwood after the Penguin tells them to get out.  So, Curtis says to Jake and Elwood "Boys, you're gonna have to learn not to talk to nuns that way!" and they both get up and shake his hand warmly. 

And in the next scene, Curtis tells him about how things are bad with the orphanage and says "Boys, things are bad. They gonna sell this place to the Board of Education... and I'll be out on the street. That money's got to be in the Cook County Assessor's Offiice within 11 days".  Jake asks Curtis "They wouldn't turn you out would they??" and Curtis says "Shit!  What's one more old nigger to the board of education!".  And then Curtis tells them "You know the sister is right. You boys sure could use a little churching" but Jake refuses and says "Curits, I don't wanna hear no jive-ass preacher talking to me about heaven and hell!" but Curtis insists "Jake, you get wise!  You go to church!".  

Then there is of course the scene where at the Palace hotel ballroom gig, the audience grow impatient as the Blues Brothers are yet to show up.  So, Curtis has an idea "Hey, you guys know "Minnie the Moocher?" and Murph says "I once knew a hooker named Minnie Mazola!" however Curits then says "No!  The SONG "Minnie the Moocher"!".  Steve Cropper, the guitarist then asks "Yeah, so what?" and Curtis shouts "Hit it!" and it cuts to the band playing the song all in fancy suits as Curits wears a white suit and he wins over the audience with his performance and scat singing. 

And lastly I will quickly mention the Blues Brothers band as they also get some good moments in the film such as Wille Hall, the band's drummer first meets with the brothers he says to Jake "So you're, you're free, you're rehabilitated?  So what's happenning?  What are you gonna do?  You got the money you owe us, motherfucker?!".

Murphy Dunne also does pretty well in his role as the band's keyboardist and his most notable scene is his first where the band are playing some cheesy Spanish lounge music. So, Murphy addresses the virtually non-existant crowd "Thank you. You're marvellous. Thank you. I'm Murph, and these are the Magic Tones. Steve ''The Colonel'' Cropper, Donald ''Duck'' Dunn... Willie ''Too Big'' Hall and Tom ''Bones'' Malone.We'll be back with the Magic Tones for the Armada Room's... two-hour disco swing party after this short break. Till then, don't you go changing!".

Alan Rubin as Mr Big also has some good moments such as when he speaks to Jake and Elwood at the restaurant and says to them "Come on guys, seriously the food is really expensive.  The soup is fucking ten dollars!" and later when they arrive at the Palace Hotel ballroom he says "its a fucking barn, we'll never fill it!".

Donald Dunn, the bass player also provides some funny and bizzare lines such as "Jake ain't lying, though. We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline!".  And later on after the band play the country bar gig, Willie says to the others "I say we give the Blues Brothers just one more chance" and Donald says "Why not?  If the shit fits, wear it!". 

Steve Cropper, the band's rythym guitar player, probably gives the smallest performance in the film out of the band members, so he has very little to say or do other than play guitar!  Well actually that award might go to Tom "Bones" Malone as the band's trombonist, as I'm not even sure if he has any lines of dialogue in the film!

And last of all is "Blue Lou" Marini as the band's saxophonist, who does actually a couple of noteworthy lines, such as the one where the band arrive at the country bar and they see a chicken wire fence up over the stage and Lou asks "Chicken wire???!".  And later as the band start their soul set, the country audience throw their beer bottles at the stage and boo at the band and Bob, turns off the lights.  So, as Matt suggests "Maybe they blew a fuse!" Lou tells him "I don't think so, man. Those lights are off on purpose!".    

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Moving onto the direction, John Landis does a fine job with the film, although it was a rather turbulent production due to the problems with John Belushi's drug abuse and heavy partying, which partly conrtibuted toward the film going way overbudget from $17.5 million up to £30 million, as the production schedule suffered as a result.  But Landis nonetheless handles the film's comedy and musical sequences very well and it remains one of the best films from his career.  

The film's soundtrack is also terrific as you would expect for a blues musical, and there many tracks from different artists such as Aretha Franklin's "Think", Sam and Dave's "Hold on, I'm coming", "Shake a tailfather" featuring Ray Charles, "Peter Gunn Theme" performed by the Blues Brother's band.  As well as tracks performed by the band and sung by the brothers themselves such as "Everbody needs somebody to love", "Jailhouse rock" and "Sweet home Chicago".

FLAWS (Warning: some plot spoilers might be in here!)

As for The Blues Brother's flaws does it have any at all???? Yep it does, although because the film is such a fantasy based musical comedy you can almost forgive them.

But yes it has to be said the film is ridiculously preposterous and one thing that struck me right away is how the police never pulled up Elwood for driving a police car in the first place!  Surely the authorities would have spotted that before he even did any speeding!  Or perhaps people can just drive police cars for their own personal use in the US (well wouldn't surprise me!).

The car chases themselves while they are skillfully shot they also last a bit too long and feel a bit drawn out and its only really where the Blues Brothers trash the shopping mall that adds any new dimension to something that is mundane as can be in a film anyway, as car chase scenes in films, tend to be pretty boring.

And let's not forget about how daft and how much Elwood's driving skills are as he can defy the laws of gravity by making his car do a backflip and fly over a bridge as well as jump a big gap in a drawbridge.  Its fun but it really is pretty daft and the physics of it all is pretty well impossible I'm sure!  But hey, it is just a comedy film.  

I also wondered what happened with the band at the end of the film as they perform the "Jailhouse rock" number, are they prisoners aswell?  Or did they just dress up in prison clothes for the number???  Perhaps the band are held as accomplices to what the brothers are doing, but that's hardly right as they were kept largely in the dark about what they were brought back together for in the first place.  But again it is a comedy so logic and common sense go out the window I guess.

Its also beyond preposterous how Jake and Elwood are able to survive the attempts on their lives by the mystery woman, as they attacked outside Elwood's motel and later the motel is destroyed by explosives, set by the woman.  This is of course the most ridiculous one of them all as Jake and Elwood somehow manage to emerge, completely unharmed from the rubble (as you do!) but the actual chances of surviving that are virtually nil!

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, The Blues Brothers after nearly 40 years (Can't believe its that long!) is still a highly entertaining comedy that features some really funny moments and spectacular car chases, not to mention some ridiculously over the top stunts. It also of course features two excellent performances from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, who are both great in their respective roles as the brothers.

And for me, it remains one of those rare musicals that actually works very well (as I really don't care for them myself) which is in part thanks to it having a really good soundtrack that doesn't feature so much soppy love songs etc.  So, its definitely ones of the best musical comedies and certainly one of John Landis's best films of his career aswell as Aykroyd's and Belushi's, which is still well worth a look.

OK, that's it for now and I will return with a new post next time with new content for a change (honest!).  In fact my next post, might potentially be my review of The Disaster Artist, the acclaimed comedy film based on the acclaimed book that detailed the production of cult film, The Room, so I'll look forward to that one. 

So, till then its bye for now!