DAFFY DUCK'S QUACKBUSTERS: What's Up, Drac?

NOTE: Just in time for Ghostbusters.

RETRO REVIEW

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of "Looney Tunes": they are hilarious, fun, and altogether wonderful. I am also a fan of the classic 1984 film, Ghostbusters: again, they are also hilarious, fun and altogether wonderful. Putting these two things together should be a slam dunk (and God knows it was not). However, a few years earlier, a cartoon anthology film teased us with such a concept. And wasted it completely. Well, sort of.

Before I detail the plot, I should quickly explain what this sort of anthology film is. In the late '70s to early '80s, the "Looney Tunes" were getting overshadowed by the likes of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "He-Man". Still, the Warner Bros. bosses were trying to find some way of bringing these characters back to life. Starting with The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, WB hired a lower-class animation team to create newly animated sequences to tie in to the already classic cartoons of the past. It was a way of getting these shorts back into the public eye at a cheap budget.  It came to an end with Daffy Duck's Quackbusters.

Daffy Duck (the first of all characters voiced by the eternally legendary Mel Blanc) is a streetwise prank salesman who learns on TV that a dying billionaire J.P. Cubish would give a cool million to anyone who can make him laugh before he dies. After hilariously dispensing with the shifty butler, Daffy accidentally accomplishes his task and Cubish begins hysterically laughing night and day. That is, of course, until he actually does die. As promised, Cubish's will provides Daffy with the wealth he has only dreamed of. Daffy, naturally, plans to be a miser about it until he is visited by the ghost of Cubish who demands that Daffy use his money to providing a public service. Daffy reluctantly agrees but to spite Cubish, he plans to open a supernatural elimination agency. He quickly recruits Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny as his employees and sets out to take on every monster the world can throw at them. However, Daffy must learn to keep his cool or Cubish will start taking his money with him.

I do not want to be too hard on this movie, because it does feature a lot of great classic cartoons. Most notably "Daffy Dilly", which is fantastic from start to finish. The bigger plot that is tying these cartoons together is okay, but not the movie one being suggested by the title. Obviously Ghostbusters is a huge pop culture icon and the "Looney Tunes" are naturally bigger than that, but if one is going to try and tie them together, it should look like it. They are fighting more monsters than ghosts (though one of the newly animated shorts "The Duxorcist" is a light-hearted parody of The Exorcist). Despite the clear audio difference between the '40s and the '80s, it is good to hear Mel Blanc; I truly smile every time I hear a great Daffy line or a funny Bugs quip. 

You might be wondering what Bugs and Porky are doing in this movie if they are not the title characters? Well, you need Bugs. You cannot have a Looney Tunes movie without Bugs. Bugs has a run-in with Count Blood Count, a vampire whom he manages to outsmart. It is all pulled from "Transylvania 6-5000", with little to no changes. Porky's segment takes him to Dry Gulch, New Mexico where he spends the night with Sylvester the Cat in a haunted hotel - all from "Claws for Alarm". I get that the point of this movie is to reintroduce these characters to the next generation, but why not try and do something bigger? A wholly new animated film? Maybe try a deal with Disney to get everybody toget-- Oh wait. That was a year away.

So once you get past the title, Quackbusters is a fun way to spend time with these classic characters and see some great cartoons. The new content is hit-or-miss, but one can tell there was at least the minimum effort put forth. 2D animation is an extinct artform but it will never be forgotten. If it took Quackbusters to get to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it was all worth it.

MONKEYBONE: Humorless George

NOTE: Sorry I've been gone for so long, several obligations have occurred and scheduling has been brutal. I'll try to keep more up-to-date postings as best I can.

RETRO REVIEW

"The woman I love is living with a little monkey that looks like me."

- Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser), Monkeybone

A long time ago... in the 1990s... there were two rising talents in Hollywood. One was a master of stop-motion animation: Henry Selick, the acclaimed director behind The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach (both produced by Tim Burton). The other was an actor who had enough charisma and likability to beat the band: Brendan Fraser, star of such dramas as With Honors and School Ties as well as family-friendly comedies like George of the Jungle and Dudley Do-Right (oh, and the now defunct Mummy movies). 

These two men had no reason to work with each other; that is, until, they both came across the underground graphic novel "Dark Town". Sensing a chance to follow in the footsteps of The Mask by turning a dark and gritty comic book into a broad mainstream comedy, 20th Century Fox and producer Chris Columbus (best known for the first two Home Alone films and Harry Potter films and despised for - among others - Rent, I Love You Beth Cooper and Pixels) hired Selick to direct, Batman (1989) writer Sam Hamm to pen the screenplay (and has apparently since retired) and Fraser to headline the film. Selick would bring his expert team of stop-motion animators to bring the renamed Downtown to life. But in the initial graphic novel, there was no sidekick for the protagonist to bounce off with; a necessary ingredient for the buddy comedy Columbus and Fox wanted. What they got was an annoying little chimp voiced by John Turturro with the name Monkeybone.

Stu Miley (Fraser) is an up-and-coming cartoonist and his beloved creation, "Monkeybone" is about to be turned into a cultural phenomenon with a cartoon series with toys and other merchandise galore. This is both a blessing and a curse. Stu wants to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Julie (Bridget Fonda, in her final major theatrical film appearance) and now has the clout to do it, but he is uncomfortable with the fame and adulation that will inevitably come with the "Monkeybone" deal. Unfortunately, Stu and Julie get into a car accident that leaves Stu in a coma. In his mind, Stu has arrived at the macabre Downtown where nightmares are the inhabitants' sole source of entertainment. He comes across Monkeybone as a living breathing incarnation, who begins to annoy him ceaselessly. Stu desperately wants to go home, but in order to do so, he requires an "exit pass" from Death herself (Whoopi Goldberg). After retrieving one, Monkeybone betrays Stu, abandons him to be captured by Death's army and commandeers his body in the real world in order to give Downtown new sets of nightmares by hijacking Monkeybone dolls with fear toxin. Now Stu has to escape Downtown and reclaim his life before Monkeybone makes monkey business for the world.

This is a fairly terrible movie. It is all over the place when it comes to things that matter: story, characters, motivations, dialogue, tonal shifts, set design, etc. Somehow Brendan Fraser seems more cartoonish here than he did actually playing two different cartoon characters. Everyone else in this film looks embarrassed to be a part of it. Especially Rose McGowan who plays a character named Miss Kitty (the most likable character in the film) who I swear was invented to cater to the fandom that would soon become known as furries. The whole look of the film is just plain ugly. There is making charming, quirky and weird stop-motion animation but trying to realize that in a live-action setting is disturbing to an unnatural level. To add to the oddities are the cameos. Selick is good friends with the geniuses at Pixar and a few of their folks appear in the film: Lou Romano (Linguini in Ratatouille) plays a trigger-happy cop near the end of the film and the late Joe Ranft (Heimlich the Caterpillar from A Bug's Life) plays the voice of a street-squashed rabbit. Even Harry Knowles, the geek king of Ain't It Cool News, appears briefly in a scene and even he hated the film upon release. They tried to offer the character of Stephen King to the actual Stephen King, who was apparently up for doing the part but could not make it to the set. Monkeybone is most likely the second worst film released in 2001; the top spot obviously going to Tom Green's Dadaist take on his hatred of Adam Sandler films,  Freddy Got Fingered.

Once a person sees a film like this, the question naturally asked is "Who's to blame?" (pitchforks and torches sold separately). While promoting the 2008 family action movie Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (his last majorly successful film appearance), Brendan Fraser seemed to be in good spirits and had this to say to the AV Club:

"You're talking to a guy who was in an $85 million arthouse movie called Monkeybone. Love it or hate it, it had a lot of highly technical elements to it. There was puppeteering, there was claymation, there was CGI, there were huge setpieces. I don't know what happened, they gave the keys to the inmates of the asylum. We went nutty and we made a movie. The studio saw it and went, 'Huh?' I was like, 'You guys don't watch the dailies or read the script? Whatever, here you go!' Me and [co-star] Dave Foley were like, 'We have the dubious honor of being in the world's most expensive arthouse film ever created!'"

As for Henry Selick, his career fortunately rebounded with the better-received Coraline (and is supposedly working on another stop-motion film with Keanu stars Keegan Michael-Key and Jordan Peele). But, in a separate interview with the AV Club, he vented his frustrations with the proverbial monkey on his back:

"It's very hard to know with Monkeybone what the variables were. There was a regime change when I was at Fox. There's a longer version of the film. When Hollywood gets afraid of something, they just say, 'Make it go faster.' Usually, faster isn't better. So there's another version of the film that's about 15 minutes longer. I know that it works better. We had a different lead originally, and that probably would have had an impact —Ben Stiller was the lead, but he wanted to bring in writers, and I chose to be loyal to the writer that was on it. It actually would have been better to go with Ben and his writers. There's a lot of variables looking back, what-ifs. But who knows. I learned my lesson that in the live-action world, you have to earn the support of people over a very, very long time. And in animation, I already have the support."

But in another interview, Selick seems to lay the blame with producer Chris Columbus:

"I would never do another predominantly live-action film again. It was kind of a slippery slope. The original idea for Monkeybone was meant to be far more animation, as much as James and the Giant Peach, and the powerful producer that I hooked up with, he had his own take on it and, you know, if you’re getting a name actor, you have to keep him in the whole movie. And he loves stop-motion, but we couldn’t actually afford to do that sort of Ray Harryhausen combo for a big chunk, so…no, the culture of live-action that’s all focused on one shot, it’s just not my realm. I’m much happier in the animated realm."

At the end of the day, as refreshing as it is to hear about the behind-the-scenes aspects of what went wrong with a project and Henry Selick certainly seems to have learned from his mistakes, Monkeybone is still such a wild misfire of a film. It is too weird be a mainstream comedy, it is too bawdy to be a kids' film and yet it is also too juvenile to be taken seriously as an adult film. If a movie that thinks it is a crowd-pleasing movie fails to have a crowd, does it really please? To paraphrase Roger Ebert's review of Freddy Got Fingered, "The day may come when Monkeybone is seen as a milestone of neo-surrealism. The day may never come when it is seen as funny." Brendan Fraser's career has seemed to be lost to time. If he ever decides to return to mainstream moviemaking, he would do well to avoid projects like Monkeybone. Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us twice, shame on you. 

DEADPOOL: Making a Marvelous Murderer

NOTE: Spoiler alert, munchkins.

"This is a different kind of superhero story."

- Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), Deadpool

2009 was an event year for both Ryan Reynolds and two screenwriters, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. A long-time comic book fan, Reynolds co-starred in the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, alongside the face of the franchise, Hugh Jackman. The film made a decent amount at the box office, but fans were up in arms over the treatment of Reynolds’ character. Months later, Zombieland, a film Reese and Wernick co-wrote hit the stratosphere. But times were about to change for all of them: Reynolds’ box-office clout hit rock bottom after the dismal release of another comic book film, Green Lantern (despite its failure, it resulted in the marriage of Reynolds and co-star Blake Lively). While waiting for their sequel to Zombieland to be made, Reese and Wernick wrote G.I. Joe: Retaliation, a film that tried to improve on its predecessor but wound up being quickly forgotten (even after being delayed for a year). None of these three men ever dreamed they would be working together. Especially on the same character that Reynolds had played seven years earlier. But that’s the thing about Deadpool: he is utterly unpredictable.

Deadpool was created by writer/artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza in 1991 for Marvel Comics as a part of their “New Mutants” series. At first, he was a straightforward villain for the mutant protagonists; he was designed with a head-to-toe red and black super-suit and dual katanas. But as Liefeld and Nicieza continued, they saw that the character slowly grew a following; almost a Boba Fett-like effect. They decided to do something that really had never been done (outside of She-Hulk): they gave the character the ability to break through the fourth wall. Suddenly, Deadpool knew he was in a comic book. That sort of thing will drive you insane, and so a new personality for the character was born. To be sure, he was not an out-and-out good guy, but he was more likable than he had been.

Getting Deadpool his own movie was not easy. As mentioned earlier, the fan reaction to the use of Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was vitriolic: Reynolds played Wade Wilson as the badass mercenary they knew from the comics but he never wore the suit and, even worse, he was transformed against his will into a mindless assassin with a sewn-up mouth. In 2012, Disney bought Marvel Comics and almost immediately, cries went up in concerns to their lesser family-friendly characters. Though Disney owned the characters, the film rights were another story and Fox was not about to let them go (except “Daredevil”). They tapped Reese and Wernick, hot off of Zombieland, to write the script. After they finished, the script was leaked online and fans were pleased with their take. Even legendary directors like James Cameron and David Fincher – neither of whom has ever (or likely will ever) direct a superhero movie – gave their thumbs up to the screenplay. Visual effects artist Tim Miller was hired to make his directorial debut with Deadpool. But Fox was still not willing to pull the trigger (pun intended) on Deadpool if the filmmakers were not willing to give the film a PG-13 rating with their R-rated character.

Things looked rather dire for the Merc with a Mouth’s movie. That is, until 2014. A video detailing test footage from two years earlier found its way online around Comic-Con time. Ryan Reynolds reprised his role in motion capture form, with the digital Deadpool suit being constructed around him. The scene detailed Deadpool’s attack on a group of henchmen in their van, complete with wise-cracks and breaking the fourth wall (most notably his greeting to the former head of 20th Century Fox, Tom Rothman). Fans were ecstatic, proclaiming this is exactly what they wanted to see. How and why the footage was released (and indeed who was responsible) remains a mystery to this day. But the response was enough; Fox finally greenlit the film with Reynolds proudly set to star. Ready or not, the world was about to be saved by Deadpool.

Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a mercenary who is good at what he does; but, because of the violence involved in his work, is doomed to a life of loneliness. That is, until he meets Vanessa Carlysle (Morena Baccarin) whose infatuation with him brings him the happiest times in his life. Sadly, they both discover Wade has been diagnosed with cancer. Wade decides to leave her to spare her the pain of watching him die. While commiserating his sorrows, Wade meets a mysterious man (Jed Rees; BTW he's the lead alien from Galaxy Quest) who tells him of an organization that can both cure his cancer and give him phenomenal abilities. Wade reluctantly agrees but quickly discovers that he has unknowingly sold his body to the sadistic Ajax (Ed Skrein) and his henchwoman Angel Dust (Gina Carano). Together they inject Wade with a serum to turn him into a mutate (someone with mutant powers who was not born a mutant) and put him through every torture one can think of. Eventually, the serum works but deforms Wade's skin to near unrecognizable levels. Furious at what they have done to him, Wade escapes and plots his revenge while adopting a vigilante persona: Deadpool. 

Let's cut to the chase: this movie is hilarious. Uproarously and relentlessly hilarious. Ryan Reynolds has done what he promised and delivered a no-holds-barred superhero film. This is the movie I thought Kick-Ass was gonna be years ago. Often the humor comes in a single line, a single reaction or even a single shot. When you can get laughs from something simple, your movie is working. Tim Miller constructs his movie very well, because he had plenty of time to do so and was not racing to catch up to a release date. You would never think he was a first-time director. It is startling to think that this was the same studio that released Fantastic Four a year ago to very public derision and rejection. What the difference is in this case is that enough effort was put into the characters and the story by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The movie does go into dramatic moments and does not shy away from how dark it is in places. The villain Ajax is a rather simply-written villain, but man is he utterly hateful. T.J. Miller as Weasel was not as well utilized as I would have hoped (I kinda only know about him from the more family-friendly video game "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance"), but he is a guy who is in Wade's corner when he has no one else. It was cool to see Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead to help tie it back into the larger X-Men movie universe ("We're taking you back to see the Professor." "McAvoy or Stewart?").

The superhero movie that could has finally arrived and the world has gone as nuts as the title character for it. Ryan Reynolds is a successful movie star again and everybody is moving to Ryanville. For years he was one of the few voices in Hollywood advocating for a R-rated Deadpool movie; he finally got it made and it was a smash hit. This is another positive step forward in the argument against "superhero movies are utter nonsense and anyone who participates in them are idiots". There's not much else to say but, do yourself a favor and see this movie. AND SIT THROUGH THE WHOLE THING. There is a very important public service message in the last 30-45 seconds of the film that had me outright cheering.

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?: Down Country Coens

NOTE: Just in time for Hail, Caesar!.

RETRO REVIEW

"Yessir, the South is gonna change. Everything's gonna be put on electricity and run on a paying basis. Out with old spiritual mumbo-jumbo, the superstition and the backward ways. We're gonna see a brave new world where they run everyone a wire and hook us all up to the grid. Yessir, a veritable age of reason - like they had in France. And not a moment too soon..."

- Everett McGill, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

There are probably no other directors that can skillfully jump from comedy to drama and back like the Coen Brothers. From Blood Simple to their newest film - Hail, Caesar! - their filmography is unique in that there are no sequels, no movies based on comic books/toys/television series and only few remakes (The Ladykillers and True Grit). Together, much of their filmography has become cult favorite films: Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy and, of course, The Big Lebowski. However, in my mind, the one movie they have made that a lot of people loved and seemed to have forgotten about is my favorite of theirs: a movie inspired by Homer's "The Odyssey" but set in 1930s Mississippi, a land full of obstacles, misadventures and weary miles - the folksy and funny O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Prolific conman Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) breaks out of a chain gang with two fellow convicts: the temperamental Pete (John Turturro) and the dim Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson). Everett has promised Pete and Delmar a share in a treasure he had hidden away just before he was incarcerated. They are always at each other's wit's end with Everett annoying Pete and Delmar with his highfalutin way of communicating. As they travel through the "Great State of Mississippi", they find themselves in the midst of very strange mishaps: accidentally joining up with bank robber George Nelson (Michael Badalucco), becoming famous folk singers, ambushed by a rather large faux Bible salesman (John Goodman) and seduced by a trio of heavenly Sirens. Eventually, Everett reveals there is no treasure and that he simply needed their help to escape and that his real goal is to win back the love of his wife (Holly Hunter), who has promised to marry another man (Ray McKinnon). Despite all the trouble they have gotten into, Pete and Delmar agree to help. But little do they realize that a ruthless lawman (Daniel von Bargen) has been chasing them and is closer than ever before.

This film is down-home feel good and charming. It is absolutely hilarious from beginning to end and its cast shines with the homespun dialogue of the Coens. George Clooney's performance of Everett is fun as he gets to play a guy who is not as smart as he thinks. It plays well off of the relatively dumb characters of Pete and Delmar who are both lovable in their own way. You cannot help but laugh at Pete's line, "Oh, George... not the livestock." The supporting cast, including Coen mainstays Holly Hunter and John Goodman, are well-tailored to each of their roles. By the way, that's Academy Award winner Ray McKinnon as Vernon T. Waldrip, the man after Penny's heart (not to mention he also appears in Craig Brewer's Footloose). I especially like Charles Durning as Pappy O'Daniel who does nothing but scream at his election team which is solely made up of his dumb son and his inept campaign managers. ("Thank God your mammy died givin' birth. If she'd have seen you, she'd have died o' shame.")

At the time the film was released, the most-talked about element of the film was its music. The homey bluegrass music launched a mini-phenomenon around the soundtrack, which led to a separate concert film, Down from the Mountain, hosted by Holly Hunter and featuring artists from the film (filmed at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN; the home of the "Grand Ole Opry"). The song that led the way was the unbelievably catchy "Man of Constant Sorrow" performed in-movie by the Soggy Bottom Boys. George Clooney has said that he did, in fact, record the song live on set but was replaced in post by Dan Tyminski. In fact, when the film swept the Grammys, Tim Blake Nelson was the only actor from the film to receive a Grammy Award for his performance of "In the Jailhouse Now". Another great tune from the film is the hynoptic "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby", performed by the Sirens. How could you not be tempted by those ladies singing that song? 

It is no secret that the film was inspired wholesale by "The Odyssey" written by Homer. The Coens have said they never really read the story outside of junior high school and were mostly influenced by its structure. Everett's first name, Ulysses, is the true name of the hero (also translated as Odysseus). John Goodman's character, Big Dan Teague, is the film's take on the infamous evil Cyclops that tortures Homer's heroes. Everett's gang is sent on their trip by way of a mysterious blind man who is Tiresias the Oracle of the film's story. Penny and her suitor Vernon T. Waldrip relate to Penelope (Odysseus' wife) and her many, many suitors during Odysseus' journey home. 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? may not have taken the world by storm for very long (aside from being the first film to have digital intermediate work done to achieve its specific period Southern look; D.I. work is now commonplace in films today), but it is a film that does not deserve to be forgotten. It is quick, hysterical and sweet, as only the Coens can create. They take these small characters and put them in this larger than life story in a place and time few alive day experienced. Pull up a chair, slap some Dapper Dan in your hair (NOT FOP), and start picking a guitar. You'll find your accompaniment quite thoroughly enjoyable.