Sound Bites

URGH! A TiVo Alert

Thanks to Heather over at Ugly Floral Blouse for pointing out that VH1 Classics is showing seminal post-punk/new wave concert film Urgh! A Music War tonight (10/30) at 9PM. If you've never seen it, Urgh! features performances by Echo & the Bunnymen, Gang of Four, XTC, Wall of Voodoo, Devo, Joan Jett, the Cramps, Gary Newman, Klaus Nomi and many, many more when what they were doing was actually fresh. Other than Penelope Spheeris' Decline of Western Civilization, this is the most important punk/new wave film that has yet to be released on DVD. (Except for those who don't worry about legalities.)

There are several different versions of Urgh! floating around, so who knows which one VH1 Classics will actually show. The last time I know it was televised, on IFC in 1999, the footage of Gary Newman's "Down in the Park" (perhaps the film's most classic moment, along with Nomi's "Total Eclipse") was not included. When the Onion screened it at Anthology Film Archives last year, other footage (Pere Ubu, 999) was missing. But whatever version is being shown is worth catching.

Some of the footage is just incredible. Gang of Four's "He'd Send in the Army," Klaus Nomi vamping it up in "Total Eclipse," The Cramps' Lux Interior doing awful things to a microphone (I feel bad for whoever had to use it afterwards), and Gary Newman driving a weird little go-kart onstage... classic stuff. Plus bands you've never heard from since: Skafish, Invisible Sex, and the unforgettable (if hard-to-pronounce) Splodgenessabounds. Plus, for you sting fans, two songs by the Police.

Of course, a lot of it has found it's way onto YouTube, but if you consider yourself a music fan at all, you owe it to yourself to see this essential document of a vital era in music.

From the soundtrack:

MP3: Gary Numan - "Down in the Park" and Wall of Voodoo - "Back in Flesh"

Idiocracy Indeed

Most people in America had no idea that Mike Judge's new comedy, Idiocracy, opened this weekend in five cities around the US (three of which being in Judge's home state of Texas): Austin, Dallas, Houston, Chicago and LA.

Note it's not playing in NYC. Usually everything plays NYC first. But not Idiocracy. FOX, who "released" it, didn't bother making a trailer for it... or even a poster! This is Mike Judge... who created Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill and cult hit Office Space (which was similary marketed by FOX but became huge on home video). It stars Luke Wilson! Could it really be so bad as to deserve such a dumping as this? I asked Dallas resident and friend of SoundBites Erich Scholz to take a look. Here's his report:

Dealing with Mike Judge's latest film, Idiocracy, I believe requires a two-tiered approach. On one hand, there is the film itself -- a vicious and frequently funny satire on modern consumerism -- and on the other there is its baffling critical reception in the mainstream press.

Judging from the way FOX has decided to bury the movie in very limited release at the end of the summer, one could easily be lead to believe that it stinks to high heaven. Well, the good news is, no, it doesn't stink. While belly laughs may not be in abundance, the movie offers more genuine chuckles than any other recent Hollywood comedy. Star Luke Wilson is satisfying as the straight man in a nightmarish dystopia where the most frequently used words are "fuck," "ass" and "fag." Co-star Mya Rudolph is adequate as his co-star and the supporting cast -- including cameos from Stephen Root, Thomas Haden Church and Office Space's David Herman -- are perfect as the dumbed-down denizens of the future who survive on tubs of goo and electrolyte-fueled sports drinks.

While the frequently funny narration that strings the film together may not be to everyone's taste, it certainly isn't enough to derail the entire enterprise. If Rudolph's character had been replaced by a more outlandish persona -- say, a Mo'Nique type -- I believe they could've gotten a few more comedy miles out of the pic. But as it is, Idiocracy is both subtle and leaden in its send-up of things to come -- a society that has more in common with our own than most would like to admit.

But  if you believe the reviews in Entertainment Weekly and The Dallas Morning News -- which gave the movie an "F" -- you'd wonder if they even saw the same film. Upon review, it's quite obivious why Idiocracy is getting the cold shoulder. Judge is explicitly implicating major corporations, including Starbucks, Gatorade and even the Fox News Channel -- by name -- with the degradation of our civilization and that can't sit too well with the higher ups. Rumors of lawsuits have been whispered in Internet chatrooms and despite the fact that Idiocracy is an original piece of filmmaking from one of the brightest comedic talents working in the medium today, the studio is content to quietly release the film into theaters before dumping it on video where it will undoubtedly find its audience. Now if only we could find out how much these film "reviewers" are getting paid to trash a movie that they probably didn't even see. I give it a solid "B."

I'm not sure about conspiracy theories but EW's review seems nothing if not lazy. Did Joshua Rich even see it? They declared Office Space one of the biggest cult movies ever -- complete with a big feature article -- in an issue from the last two years (can't remember when, exactly) and they can only devote 94 words to it's follow-up?

ALSO: Read more about Mike Judge's battles with the idiocracy that is FOX in this article on Esquire.com.

From Idle to Wild

It was like the end of Blazing Saddles, when the melee on screen spilled out into the cinema audience watching the movie. The press screening (or "all media," as it's called in the industry) for Idlewild, the new movie starring Outkast's Andre 3000 and Big Boi, was held at the AMC/Loews 84th St. Theatre featuring an audience of critics from weekly mags and daily rags, online writers, and anyone else who is connected enough to get on the list. (There are usually a fair number of radio station contest winners at these things too.) Usually, the most exciting thing that happens at these screenings is Joel Siegel walks out in a huff. But during Idlewild's climactic scene -- a wild dance number that becomes punctuated with violence -- a fight broke out in the front of the theater that sent the first six or seven rows scrambling for the aisles.

Then the fight went up the aisle too, right past us. Not knowing whether the gunshots were coming from the screen or the theater, my girlfriend ducked under the seat and kept whispering -- loudly -- for me to do the same. I wanted to see what was going on. It took only about five minutes to finally clear the idiots out of the theater (no idea what the fight was about, but one of the main offenders left shirtless) and the remaining 15 minutes of the movie had little consequence to anyone in there. You could tell everyone was anxiously awaiting for the end credits to talk about what the hell just happened.*

Even the best of movies couldn't have recovered from something like that, but Idlewild -- a cookie-cutter gangster film set at a speakeasy club in prohibition-era Georgia -- had already lost on most people by that point I think. What a mess. On-screen, I mean. At nearly two hours, Idlewild is a kitchen sink affair, with so many ideas -- musical, visual, otherwise -- that it can't possibly hold them all. It's also predictable and loaded with cliches that lead to the sort of pat ending we've seen again and again and again.

But it is at least a classy, interesting, entertaining mess. The opening credits sequence -- featuring a lot of Ken Burns style photo manipulation and scene-stealing performances from two kids playing pint-sized versions of Big Boi and Andre -- is an awesome start. And there are a lot of good ideas going on throughout, but most of them are half-baked. Animation features prominently in the movie. Some of it works (musical notes on sheet music), some of it doesn't (a flask Big Boi's character carries that has a talking rooster on it). A fanciful musical number featuring a wall of cuckoo clocks is one of Idlewild's best sequences -- until it ends abruptly. It's as if Andre didn't finish the song but writer/director Bryan Barber decided to film make something out of it anyway. The music may have been the most disappointing aspect of the film. That a movie featuring one of the most creative hip hop groups of the last ten years can't muster one memorable song in a two-hour movie is a major problem.

But again, there are many nice touches. The choreography pops (the dance numbers are just great), the cinematography lush, and you can feel that Southern humidity throughout. And Big Boi and Andre are both good, though they barely share 10 minutes of screen time together. They work together in Idlewild the same way they do on Speakerbox/The Love Below -- you can't buy one without the other. Separate but equal time. A package deal.

The supporting cast is pretty great but underused. How do you have Ben Vereen in a musical and not have him sing or dance? Ving Rhames and Terrence Howard aren't given much to do. Macy Gray, however, is given way too much to do. People who listened to alt-rock in the '80s should look out for Fishbone's Angelo Moore as the bandleader at the speakeasy where much of the action happens.

What really bugs is that Idlewild could've been great. But I have a feeling the only thing I'll remember about it next year was that fight.

_______________

More Idlewild reviews at Metacritic.

*Turns out the cause of the fight was one guy was kicking the back another guys seat. At least it was a just cause.

 

The Future's On Hold

Bad news for Mike Judge fans. Idiocracy, his first movie since Office Space -- which was scheduled to be released September 1 -- has been "indefinitely postponed" according to MTV.

Actually, this is not that surprising as its release has been delayed numerous times (it's been in the can for two years) until finally appearing on Fox's September release schedule. But there was no mention of it on Fox's website, no official site, no trailer, no billboards, no nothing.

Maybe you didn't even know this was a movie.

Idiocracy stars Luke Wilson as an average man who is cryogenically frozen in 2005. When he's thawed in 3001, he finds that he's the smartest person on the planet.

Sounds like a funny idea to me, but obviously something went wrong. One wonders, "how bad can it be?" We may never know... or at least have to wait for DVD.

Hello, Mr. Chips

If you watched Napoleon Dynamite and thought to yourself, “This is pretty funny but I wish there had been more Pedro,” then you’re probably going to like Nacho Libre. It’s a whole movie of Pedros. (Except that Ephren Ramirez, who played Pedro, isn’t in this movie.)  It’s all funny Mexicans with funny mustaches... apart from Jack Black, of course, who stars as Ignacio, a Mexican monk who secretly enters wrestling matches to earn money for the orphanage his monestary runs.

Actually, any comparisons of Napoleon Dynamite to this, Jared Hess’ new film, aren’t really fair. Nacho Libre is more than anything a kids movie (which explains all the fart jokes), albeit one with a strange sense of humor and a whole lot of style. But it is more cute than funny. With Black, Hess and Mike White (who wrote School of Rock, not to mention the polarizing Chuck and Buck in which he also starred) there shoulda been more laughs. The two six-year-olds sitting next to me at last night’s press screening seemed to really like it. I liked it ok, but maybe not enough to recommend it.

Your enjoyment of Nacho Libre probably depends on how much you like Jack Black – who’s doing what he always does but now with a funny accent – and wrestling. Even though the story is clearly about a monk who is also a wrestler, you may be surprised by the sheer amount of wrestling in the movie. Those two kids sitting next to me – they liked wrestling a lot.

If nothing else, the movie should further the cause of delicious Mexican corn – grilled on the cob, slathered with mayo and then sprinkled with cotija cheese, chili powder and lime. Black’s sidekick in the film has one in his hand in nearly every scene. Good renditions of this in NYC can be found at Bonita and Café Habana.

Addendum: The soundtrack -- lots of weird, early-'70s Spanish language soft rock --  is pretty good too and the cinematography by Xavier Pérez Grobet (who has worked on HBO's Deadwood, among other things) is actually quite lovely. Both of which give it a Wes Anderson sort of feel (I kept thinking of Bottle Rocket). I dunno maybe this is one of those movies that gets funnier the more times you see it. Despite the aformentioned gorgeous cinematography, I bet this may play better on home video. But maybe not.

It Rhymes with "Long"

I saw King Kong last night at the Ziegfeld. A very, very enjoyable movie all around but it won't make my Top Ten. Some bullet points:

• If Naomi Watts isn't considered a superstar yet, she will be after this. She knocked this role out of the park, easily the best thing in the movie.

• Adrien Brody, not so much.

• Kudos to all the effort that went into Kong, the character. It's maybe not on a Gollum level of empathy, but it's pretty darn close.

• Jack Black keeps his Jack Black-isms in check and only does a minimum of eyebrow raising and going wild.

• The action scenes are insane. The hour-plus spent on Skull Island is relentless. For once, the trailers haven't given the best bits away. I'm not going to spoil anything, but lets just say those with extreme bug phobias may want to think twice about going.

• Relentless isn't necessarily a good thing. The action just keeps going and going and going. Just when you think it's the climax... there's more!

• That said, the "more" is where it gets really good. When you think it should be over, the action goes over a cliff and gets stuck in some vines... this is something we've never seen before. It is very cool.

• And then, past that relentless CGI thrill ride comes the scariest bit set against a eerie, quiet score that makes it much creepier and scarier than if it had been set to a typical suspense or action soundtrack. The whole audience was audibly freaking out.

• At three hours, the whole damn thing is too long, for that matter. This coulda been an awesome two-hour movie. And you know there's going to be an even longer version on DVD.

• A movie like King Kong is all about suspension of disbelief, but some questions: How long can a woman run for her life in the jungle while barefoot and not get her feet torn to shreds? If you're being held by a giant gorilla while he's fighting three Tyrannosaurus Rexes, wouldn't you at least get a mild case of whiplash? If it's Christmastime and you're on the Top of the Empire State Building wearing only a spaghetti-strap dress, wouldn't you at least shiver a little? (It is cold on top of the Empire State Building in July.)

• Best place to eat post-Ziegfeld is Burger Joint in the Le Parker Meridian Hotel.  We dashed out of the theater in case other theater-goers might've had the same idea. A smart move on our part, as it got jam-packed about ten minutes after we arrived. Even when that place is slammed, the staff is always friendly and the burgers are always cooked to order. Maybe it's the wood paneling, maybe it's the '80s rock music, maybe it's the consistently great burgers, but I never see anyone in there having a bad time.

• Who cares what I think? You know you're going to go see King Kong. Just take it easy on the fluids beforehand and go to a theater with the most legroom possible, 'cause your knees are going to feel it.