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Reviews
The Impostors (1998)
Classic farce in a classic comic setting...
After his successful co-directing debut with the "delicious" 1997 dramedy BIG NIGHT, actor Stanley Tucci moved ahead with a grand plan to update one of early cinema's most-imitated genres....the wacky, shipboard farce. Chaplin and Keaton both did it; and the Marx Brothers had done it better than anyone in in 1931's MONKEY BUSINESS.
Utilizing much of the cast he and friend Campbell Scott had recruited for BIG NIGHT, Tucci cast his favorite acting chums, which makes up a "who's who" of the stage and screen's most theatrical talents, in this endlessly funny and wild trip in which a pair of out-of-work New York thespians end up running scared on a steamliner bound for France!
The Impostors is what I call one of the great thespianic comedies.
The rest of them are MY FAVORITE YEAR, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, THE PRODUCERS, and THE TALL GUY.
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
THE definitive thespianic comedy
In March of 1997, I entered the Angelika Theater in New York City and was greeted with an oversized poster for "the new comedy from the lead guitarist of Spinal Tap". I was instantly sold! I had already read about the film in Newsweek and the New York Times, and knew somewhat what to expect from the film. The film's director/star/co-writer Christopher Guest had made an impression on me as Spinal Tap's "Nigel Tufnel"; on Saturday Night Live (during the 1984-85 season); and in the film "The Princess Bride", in which he plays Count Rugen, the sadistic villain with six fingers on one hand. Co-star/co-writer Eugene Levy was a favorite of mine from SCTV (as Bobby Bittman, Sid Dithers and Stan Schmenge, among others) and he played memorable roles in "Splash", "Club Paradise" and "Multiplicity". And the rest of the cast possess equally amusing and impressive resumes.
"WAITING FOR GUFFMAN" is a "mockumentary" in the tradition of Spinal Tap, mostly improvised by the talented ensemble of performers, shot in a faux-documentary style, and telling the story of an untalented group of thespians who fumble through an unmemorable musical play based on the history of their hometown, the fictional Blaine, Missouri, which is celebrating its sesqacentennial (150th aniversary).
For fans of comedy, the film is a simplistic, silly gem of a story, with some viciously memorable lines ("We're bi-coastal....that is if you consider the Mississippi River one of the coasts.") which soon incorporate themselves into your everyday vernacular, much like the dialogue from films like "Caddyshack", "Stripes" and "Star Wars". For actors and theatrical-types, the characters are scathing portrayals of the personality types that make up the "little theater" communities of America. (You may in fact know some of these characters in real life.)
My Favorite Year (1982)
One of the great thespianic comedies...
Actor Richard Benjamin made his directorial debut with this movie farce, based on actual events when a somewhat drunkenly Errol Flynn guest starred on TV's "Your Show of Shows" in the 1950's. Farce as a comedic form is unbelievably difficult to pull off on stage, yet alone in a film. Timing is everything, and if you are a student of comedy, MY FAVORITE YEAR is a must-see.
Among the great lines of dialogue in the script (penned by Dennis Palumbo and Norman Steinberg) are the memorable line by Swann: "I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!" As well as his memorable encounter in the ladies room with the show's costume designer who tells Swann the room "is for ladies only!" To which Swann unzips his fly, and answers "So's this mum, but every now and then I have to run a little water through it."
The production design is theatrically pleasant, creating a mystical world within the television studios, while making use of real New York locations, transforming the then 1981 (the year the film was made) streets into the 1950's.
The other great "thespianic" comedies? The Tall Guy (with Jeff Goldblum) Waiting For Guffman (by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy) The Producers (Mel Brooks) and The Impostors (Stanley Tucci)
Megaforce (1982)
My first awful film experience
I remember this film, because its the first film I ever walked out of. And for this-then action film-obsessed 14-year old, for a film to be so utterly bad that he felt his lack of intelligence being insulted, well that was like a 2 year old telling his mother that the Teletubbies were stupid. I remember when I was first getting into movies, and I would keep a log of what films I saw, when I saw em, and what I rated em (I think I used a scale of 1-to-10), I recall this one getting my first ZERO. More recently I am pleased to find that when I ask others about the film that most people have never heard of it. A few months ago I saw it late night on cable and finally saw the film's ending, and I must say that is as that two year old would say, "stupid". Utterly, embarrassingly, mind-boggingly stupid.
The Producers (1967)
Mel Brooks' Oscar-winning masterpiece
Some say the first 15 minutes of THE PRODUCERS is the best comedic scene ever captured on film.
Film, stage and television legend Zero Mostel is teamed with a very young Gene Wilder (in only his second film role) in this story of a Broadway show that can't possibly fail. Zero plays Max Bialystock, a once great Broadway producer who now prostitutes himself to "little old ladies" to earn money for shows that he will never really produce. When an accountant named Leo Bloom shows up to do Max's books, the nervous Leo (Wilder) realizes that a Broadway producer could make more money with a flop than with a hit show. Max's ears perks up, and he soon cons Leo into co-producing the worst show ever to hit the Great White Way. The play, a musical, written by an German ex-patriot named Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars, the wooden-handed policeman in Brooks' "Young Frankenstein") is called "Springtime For Hitler". To make sure the show is a "sure-fire flop", they hire Broadway's worst director (actor Christopher Hewett as the flambouyant "Roger DeBris") and worst leading man (actor Dick Shawn as "Lorenzo Saint DuBois).
What could go right?
If you are a fan of Brooks' "History of the World Part One", you will recognize director DeBris' personal secretary "Carmen Giya" played by Andréas Voutsinas. Look for actor Barney Martin (he played Jerry Seinfeld's dad "Morty" on the hit tv show "Seinfeld") as one of the stage Hitler's generals, and listen for Mel Brooks' voice dubbed into the show's big opening number. Believe it or not, but THE PRODUCERS has more quotable lines of dialogue than the rest of Brooks' films combined! (a slight exaggeration...perhaps)
Check this film out alongside 4 other wonderful "thespianic comedies": The Tall Guy, My Favorite Year, The Impostors, and Waiting For Guffman.