By Steve Rhodes
St. Elmo’s Fire was on last night and I hate that movie on about 50 different levels. First, the movie was an obvious attempt to craft an 80s-based version of The Big Chill. You know what? The Big Chill people were a lot cooler. Second, there’s not a single likable character – and I like plenty of unlikable characters, but you like them because they are unlikable. These characters are just loathsome.
I mean, the rebel is a guy who can’t break away from his frat house! God, I hated the 80s.
The Brat Pack casting is just demoralizing.
Judd Nelson is the ruthless yuppie with political ambitions who wears suits and suspenders; Andrew McCarthy is the writerly type who smokes a lot of cigarettes and eventually publishes a column about the meaning of life, I mean, gawwwwd! He wears shades and bangs bongos for some, um, writer cred. Demi Moore is the materialistic coke fiend. Emilio Estevez is a waiter at the gang’s hangout. Ally Sheedy is Judd Nelson’s yuppie girlfriend who strays one night with McCarthy. McCarthy thinks he’s in love but Sheedy has to break it to him that, hey, it was just sex. Mare Winningham is the shy, repressed rich girl. She works in social services. And Rob Lowe is Billy Hicks, the free spirit who plays sax and won’t grow up.
Question: Why in the world are these people hanging out together? What makes movies like The Big Chill and Diner successful in part is that the bonds between the characters are believable. That and dynamite writing, which is also missing from St. Elmo’s Fire.
Yes, it’s not a movie worth getting worked up about, except that it stands as a cultural document of the time, and a horror of one at that. Plus, it had that awful John Parr song.
Bad times.
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On Sunday night I saw the episode of The Andy Griffith Show where Andy meets Helen Crump and decides to court her. (Hey, whatever happened to Andy and Ellie, the lady druggist? Didn’t they have a thing going?) I kept trying to picture Andy trying to get into Helen’s pants, er, well, women didn’t wear pants in Mayberry, but you know what I mean. The show has a complete lack of sexuality even when it comes to dating, although I seem to remember one scene in one episode where Andy was trying to basically make-out with Helen, or at least get a little kiss, in his car. (And isn’t it funny how he used his squad car for personal matters?)
I love The Andy Griffith Show, though. The performances are wonderful, and the writing is sharp. You just kinda wish it was real, Andy picking the git with the boys and being all wise running the town and keeping the other folks sane. Don Knotts obviously gave a knockout performance as Barney Fife, one that is still underrated in many quarters, I suspect. It’s just a sweet show and Griffith is so believable as Andy Taylor it’s hard and disturbing to picture him as a real person in real life.
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I spun through a bunch of other shows on Sunday night. I’ve long been a diehard Simpsons fan, but I don’t have the patience for it anymore. It’s time.
On the other hand, Family Guy is still the best thing around. One of the show’s devices is to go beyond the initial punch line and drive a joke further and further, uncomfortably so, like a pregnant pause that is filled up with a joke repeating itself endlessly. On Sunday night we were treated to that once again in the Best Chicken Fight Ever Shown On Television And Possibly Anywhere.
I’ve come to appreciate American Dad, which follows in the Fox Sunday night lineup, as an underappreciated gem. Oh sure, it can be hit-and-miss, but still. Roger the Alien is the show’s Stewie – and guess what? Both are voiced by Seth MacFarlane.
Obviously animated series’ have been on the rise on television, and what’s fascinating to me about it is how they can be so much more deft than traditional sitcoms, without being overly cartoony. I mean, we suspend disbelief these days equally with the two forms. It also strikes me that there is some sort of parallel between the way The Daily Show and The Onion deliver more truth than the real news and the way animated series’ deliver better storytelling and humor (and truth) than sitcoms and most dramas. Just sayin’.
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I also checked in with Celebrity Fit Club (hey, I was moping on the couch; I’m allowed) and I can report that Dustin Diamond is still a giant friggin’ ass. And I don’t completely understand The Tube Music Network, but I like it, though their catalog seems a bit thin. Heavy on live performances (good) and 80s videos (mixed).
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Check out the What I Watched Last Night collection.
Posted on May 8, 2007