60 Years Ago Today, The Twilight Zone’s Nightmare At 20,000 Feet Made Pop Culture History

Sixty years ago today, the third episode of the fifth season of CBS’s wildly popular anthology show, The Twilight Zone, aired featuring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner, and a premise that has become a historic part of pop culture.

The episode was entitled “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” with Shatner playing Robert Wilson, an airline passenger who was just released from a sanatorium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown as Rod Serling’s opening narration tells us. This makes the difference from many other TZ installments as usually the protagonists have no mental health baggage so when Wilson yells about there being something on the wing of the plane, people have plenty reason not to believe him.

 

That something that Shatner’s Wilson determines is a gremlin, jumps away whenever he tries to get anyone to see him, so he goes crazier and crazier until he actually steals a gun from a sleeping policeman to kill the creature to keep it from tearing apart the engines.

It’s an effectively scary story with some of Shatner’s best acting, sharp direction by Richard Donner, who would go on to helm SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, THE GOONIES, and the LETHAL WEAPON series; and a superb script by Richard Matheson, who wrote many TZs, and notable works such as THE OMEGA MAN (remade later as I AM LEGEND), SOMEWHERE IN TIME, and WHAT DREAMS MAY COME.

In a 2016 interview with The Aquarian, Shatner talked about the episode with Brian Reesman:

“So this guy on the airplane was actually a Czechoslovakian acrobat * in a furry suit like you would buy for your child to go to a Halloween party, but nobody talks about that. Nobody talks about how stupid it is that at 500 miles an hour the guy is not aerodynamic. They just accept what this little suit means, which is, I guess, fear of flying.”

* Actor/stunt performer Nick Kravat

20 years after Shatner’s ill-fated flight, the episode was remade for TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (released June 24, 1983) by George Miller (MAD MAX) with John Lithgow in Shatner’s shoes, although his character is renamed John Valentine, and there’s no mention of a mental hospital stay – he’s simply crazy scared of flying.

The segment, which is the fourth in the film following TZ efforts by John Landis, Steven Spielberg, and Joe Dante; is much edgier, and more amped up than the original, but it doesn’t top it – it co-exists as another worthy adaptation of Matheson’s original short story that appeared in the anthology, Alone by Night (1961).

 

The parodies of “Nightmare of 20,000 Feet” are too numerous to mention (the Wikipedia page for the episode lists about a dozen) as every comedy show from The Simpsons to It’s Garry Shandling’s Show to, of course, Saturday Night Live has taken it on. Here’s SNL’s from 2010 with Jude Law in the Shatner role, and a hilarious Bobby Moynihan as the gremlin (somehow they even work musical guest Pearl Jam in there too):

Jordan Peele’s 2019 TZ reboot had an episode that might be best considered a re-imagining entitled “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.” In the new-fangled take, written by Marco Ramirez (from a story by Peele, Simon Kinberg, and Ramirez), Adam Scott plays passenger Justin Sanderson who this time is spooked by a podcast about a missing plane that makes him think the flight is doomed unless he saves it. It’s good stuff like the rest of Peele’s TZ run, which sadly ran only two seasons.

But the best capper to celebrate the anniversary of this legendary TZ episode is from the sitcom, Third Rock from the Sun, which starred Lithgow as alien masquerading as a college professor. In the 1999 episode, “Dick’s Big Giant Headache Part 1,” Lithgow’s Dick Solomon meets his superior, The Big Giant Head (portrayed by a drunk-acting Shatner), at an airport. When asked how his flight was, Shatner’s character replies, “Horrifying at first, I looked out the window, and there was something on the wing of the plane!” Lithgow’s Dick responds, “The same thing happened to me!”

And that, my friends, is one of the best meta moments in TV history. So here’s to sixty years of there being something on the wing of the plane that nobody but you can see.

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Didja know? John Belushi Was The Original Peter Venkman In GHOSTBUSTERS

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Dan Aykroyd revealed that when he heard the news that his best friend, John Belushi had died of an overdose, he was “writing a line for John, and (talent manager and GHOSTBUSTERS executive producer) Bernie Brillstein called and said they just found him. It was a Kennedy moment... We loved each other as brothers.” 

 

This was March 5, 1982, when Belushi died at the age of 33. He left behind 4 seasons of the classic comedy/rock late night show, Saturday Night Live, and seven movies (two were cameos). His movie output was headed by the hits NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE, and THE BLUES BROTHERS, but he had some flops in such works as 1941, CONTINENTAL DIVIDE, and NEIGHBORS.

 

But Aykroyd appeared to have a plan to put he and his blustery cohort back on top with proposed high concept comedies GHOSTBUSTERS, THREE CALLABEROS (obviously the original title of Steve Martin’s dream project), and SPIES LIKE US. That’s right – Belushi was going to star in all of these films. They were intended to further Aykroyd and Belushi’s status as a modern comic duo, but now they are fascinating to watch and wonder what could have been.

As definitive as Murray’s portrayal of scruffy, sarcastic Peter Venkman Ph.D is, it would fun to see Belushi take on the role. Now, it would be extremely different as Murray famously improvised a lot of his lines. Belushi was also skilled at improv so he probably would’ve woven comedy gold from the big set pieces, and interaction with his co-stars, but, of course we’ll never know who would be the better Venkman.

 

As for the other movies, I’m going to speculate that Belushi would’ve made THREE AMIGOS better, and that he would’ve trounced Chevy Chase in SPIES LIKE US, especially since Chase walked through the film displaying supreme detachment. I bet Belushi would’ve done a lot more with the role, even if the movie would probably be as lackluster in either version.

 

It’s sad to acknowledge that Belushi’s career was cut short right before he could’ve re-established his stardom in a run of movies with his long-time pal, Dan Aykroyd. It’s been nearly 40 years since Belushi returned to his home planet, but at least a few of his films are classics, and there’s a lot of SNL to wade through as well as the records he made with the Blues Brothers.

Since I was a kid, I watched every minute of Belushi’s output that I could find. Maybe that’s why I can’t help trying to picture what it would be like if the man somehow didn’t accept the injection of cocaine and morphine that took his life, and went on to make a series of successful comedies. Sure, it’s a futile premise, but I can think of worse ways to spend one’s time.

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Between Star Trek & His Real Life Space Trip, William Shatner Once Went To The Stars For Comedy

“Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic Sometimes”

Earlier today, iconic actor William Shatner boarded a rocket named New Shepherd with three fellow passengers to launch into space for an 11 minute journey.

Shatner, whose Wikipedia entry now adds the title “space tourist,” described the experience as “profound,” and that “I hope I never recover from this.”

But while Shatner is best known for the role of Captain James T. Kirk in 79 episodes of the ‘60s sci-fi classic television program Star Trek, and seven movies which run from the late ‘70s to the mid ‘90s, he took a less heralded voyage to the stars in a sequel that was released the same year as STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, one of the most acclaimed entries in the franchise.

That would be AIRPLANE II: THE SEQUEL, the 1982 follow-up to the hit satire, AIRPLANE! (1980). While AIRPLANE II recycled the disaster movie parody premise, it added some sci-fi film spoofery including a running gag involving a computer much like HAL-9000 from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

The most obvious take-off comes in the form of Shatner as Buck Murdock, a tough as nails space station Commander, who aids in the rescue of the shuttle Mayflower One. Now, Shatner is standing in for Robert Stack, who played an incredibly stern airline pilot from the original. Both Shatner and Stack even say “that’s just what they’ll be expecting us to do.”

Apart from that, Shatner is obviously, and obnoxiously, satirizing his classic character, Captain Kirk. Extreme over-acting, mad mugging for the camera, and over dramatized speechifying make his part here the Shatner role from Heaven, or, for some, the Shatner role from Hell. There's even a shot of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original series that Shatner's caricature sees through a periscope.

What’s most notable to me is that AIRPLANE II can be seen as the beginning of Shatner’s comedy career. The man had touched on comedy in previous years (BIG BAD MAMA for instance), but it wasn’t until that silly sequel that he was cast in all out comic productions  like LOADED WEAPON 1,  MISS CONGENIALITY, and DODGEBALL. Shatner also made many TV appearances most notably Boston Legal, for which he won an Emmy for his portrayal of lawyer Denny Crane.

Now, it could be said that Shatner’s work as a dramatic actor was largely comical, even if it wasn’t meant to be. According to the Urban Dictionary, “Shatnerize” is described as “To deliberately produce something so bad it’s good.” At one point I theorized that Shatner was aware that he’s a joke to many of his fans and non fans, but he’s not sure what the joke is.

Now that he’s actually gone to space – at 90, the oldest human to do so – maybe it’s time to take the man more seriously. His film and TV career is nothing to sneeze at, his extensive list of books (dozens and dozens) as an author are largely best-sellers, and his personable appearances on talk shows are hilarious must sees.

Even if he didn’t reach the final frontier, it was fun to see Shatner boldly go where a number of others have gone before. Unless he shows up in some new movie or TV show, this epic yet brief voyage certainly serves as a final feather in his cap. Oh, and I bet he’ll get another book out of it. 

So I’ll leave you on this note, Shatner’s classic appearance on SNL in 1986, in which he told a convention full of Star Trek fans to “Get a life!”

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That Time That Norm MacDonald Played Michael Richards In An Andy Kaufman Biopic

Five years into the run of the vastly successful NBC comedy/music show, Saturday Night Live, a competitor came along. It was called Fridays and it featured a cast of comic actors, hip rock artists, and just like SNL it was live, and late night.

As you may have quessed, Fridays, was a blatant effort to completely copy SNL with sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll being the shared themes. However, later Seinfeld stars Michael Richards (Kramer!), and Larry David got their start there, and the show had tons of great musical guests including The Clash, Devo, Rockpile, Stevie Wonder, Rockpile, and the Pretenders.

One of the most notorious sketches in Fridays’ three season history, has to be what has been labeled “The Marijuana Sketch/Onstage Fight-cum-Prank.” It involved two couples at a restaurant, and unbeknownst to each of them is that they have individually smoked a joint in the restroom. This premise is actually explained to the audience by a cast member at the start of it, something SNL never did.

The dinner party consists of Michael Richards, Brandis Kemp, Maryedith Burrell, and Kaufman, the only one who doesn’t want to go along with the comic conceit. When it’s his turn to go to the restroom then come back stoned, something feels off. Kaufman sits down and spaces on his next line. After a long awkward pause, he offers up that he “can’t play stoned,” and that “he feels stupid.”

Kaufman’s fellow actors are visibly annoyed by his behavior, or lack of behavior, with Chartoff saying, “you feel stupid?” amid nervous giggling. Then, a remarkable thing happens. A frustrated Richards gets up from the table and walks off camera. “Where are you going?” Kaufman asks even though he doesn’t act like he cares for the answer.

Seconds later, Richards reappears holding a stack of cue cards that he abruptly drops down in front of Kaufman. Our abstract genius retaliates by throwing his glass of white (probably water) at Richards. A skirmish that looks like it’s going to come to blows is quickly abandoned as the players announce “Hey, it’s all in fun.” After some playful shenanigans, the show fades to commercial. Watch it below:

So that’s how it went down on February 20, 1981, but how does it compare to the movie version? I’m talking about Milos Forman’s 1999 biopic MAN ON THE MOON, which told the story of the surreal comic artist Kaufman as portrayed by the then hot Jim Carrey. The film was full of recreations of Kaufman’s bits, with Carrey being aided by a huge roster of actors playing themselves including most of the cast of the hit sitcom Taxi, David Letterman, and Andy’s wrestling nemesis, Jerry Lawler.

 

But when it came to the “The Marijuana Sketch/Onstage Fight-cum-Prank” sketch, nobody was acted by the original actors. Now, Chartoff and Burrell at the time were appearing in many TV shows and films (Chartoff voiced a character in a string of RUGRATS movies), so I hope that they were at least asked. Richards was on top of the world in the late ‘90s because of his run as Kramer on the ratings blockbuster Seinfeld, but that had ended by the time MAN ON THE MOON went into production. I wonder if he was ever considered for the role of, uh, himself.

So who did get the part? That would be legendary comedian Norm MacDonald, who sadly passed away last week. MacDonald had previously appeared in Forman’s THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT so apparently the director appreciated MacDonald and cast him in another small role in another biopic. MacDonald’s character name in the uncredited role was unsurprisingly named “Michael.”

The other dinner guests were filled by Caroline Rhea (as Melanie) and Mary Lynn Rajskub (credited as “Mary”) who acted as they were offended by Carrey’s Kaufman (which they may have been). Rhea had the added tag to “You feel stupid?” – “What about us?” Shots of uncomfortable, shocked people in the audience are sprinkled throughout this scene, as well as cuts to Vincent Schiavelli as an ABC Executive, who laughs conspiratorially at the players’ every utterance.

The big finale of the sketch takes some big liberties. MacDonald yells “Cut it out!” at Carrey, which Richards didn’t say, and after the kerfuffle, comedian/writer Jack Burns (played by Kaufman collaborator Bob Zmuda) comes out to tell Kaufman to “Get off my stage.” This also didn’t happen, but Burns and Kaufman (but Andy’s and Jim’s) do scuffle for a matter of moments. Then Schiavelli’s ABC Exec announces to everyone that this was a “happening,” and we see the audience delighted that they’ve been pranked. As this took place during a commercial, it could’ve happened but I doubt it.

 

Schiavelli has Carrey’s Kaufman address the camera when they start back to tell them it was all staged, but as expected Andy wants to again subvert the script. In a tight close-up, Kaufman starts off calmly explaining the situation, but ends up ranting about it being a “lie,” and a “cover-up” to the Exec’s chagrin. Now, this didn’t happen that night, but the moment is somewhat based on Andy’s appearance on the next episode of Fridays, though he made no such paranoid claims there.

 

This is a minor incident in this business we call show, but it’s a fascinating one (at least to me) that captures a weird, experimental era in sketch comedy in which audiences were taxed to figure out what was real or not. Like “The Marijuana Sketch/Onstage Fight-cum-Prank,” many examples of this aren’t very successful. And the movie recreation failed, as it’s too strained and self conscious in tone to really tap into the odd vibe of the Fridays exercise. The original was more interesting than entertaining, but it still had an edge that is impossible to convincingly imitate.

It was still fun to see Forman and the cast try in MAN ON THE MOON. Even if they couldn’t quite pull it off, I’ll give them a high mark for plopping Norm MacDonald down into the middle of this attempt to conjure up some magical Kaufman chaos. 

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When Bill Murray’s Brother Played The Bill Murray Part In A Forgotten ‘80s Comedy

John Murray in the 1985 comedy MOVING VIOLATIONS

International superstar, and the most beloved SNL veteran ever, Bill Murray has five brothers, some of whom you may know of. Firstly, there’s Brian Doyle Murray, who also had a stint on SNL, and appeared with his brother in several movies including CADDYSHACK, SCROOGED, and GROUNDHOG DAY. Then there’s Joel Murray, who has appeared on many TV shows including Mad Men, Shameless, and Dharma & Greg, and in many films including ONE CRAZY SUMMER, GOD BLESS AMERICA, and THE ARTIST.

Thirdly, there’s the late Ed Murray, who while not an actor is cited as the inspiration for CADDYSHACK, and appeared in a 2009 documentary about the classic film. Fourth, there’s Andy Murray, a chef who co-founded and runs Murray Brothers Caddyshack sports bar and grill, which has locations in St. Augustine and Rosemount.

But while his siblings have ridden on Bill’s coattails to varying degrees, only one brother has imitated the comic actor’s presence so blatantly. That would be his fifth brother, John Murray, who in 1985 starred in a long forgotten comedy entitled MOVING VIOLATIONS, in which he aped nearly all of his older brothers’ moves.

The film was directed by Neal Israel, who has the given the world such crappy comedies as AMERICATHON, BACHELOR PARTY, and COMBAT ACADEMY. Israel co-wrote it with Pat Proft, also a beacon of quality, who co-wrote POLICE ACADEMY, HIGH SCHOOL HIGH, MR. MAGOO, and WRONGFULLY ACCUSED (his lone directorial effort), but at least did contribute to some decent comic work such as the NAKED GUN series.

The premise of MOVING VIOLATIONS is pretty typical for an ‘80s us-versus-them scenario in which a group of misfits go up against the evil establishment, or more accurately one particular individual, in this case a cold, corrupt cop played by James Keach (acting legend Stacy’s brother – hmm, a theme?). 

Keach presides over a Los Angeles traffic school classroom of goofballs, who’ve all had their licenses revoked, led by John Murray’s (will just call him John from now on) wisecracking character, whose every single utterance, facial expression, and display of physical energy summons the spirit of his brother, Bill.

I can imagine Director Israel saying “That last take was great, John, but can you really Bill it up on the next one?”

Many scenes feel like slight re-writes of scenes from MEATBALLS, STRIPES, and GHOSTBUSTERS, which came out the previous year, most likely when MOVING VIOLATIONS was in production. John’s co-opting of his brothers’ showbiz speak, his smarmy charm, and penchant for mock inspirational speeches is shameless, but what’s funny (even if the film largely isn’t) is that often his shtick works. John does look and sound a lot like Bill, and when he says such lines like “You guys are nutty!” one can almost buy the conceit. Almost.

MOVING VIOLATIONS, which also featured Jennifer Tilly, Sally Kellerman, Fred Willard, Wendi Jo Sperber, and a cameo by Clara Peller (at the height of “Where’s the Beef” mania!), unsurprisingly flopped, and after a brief run on cable (that’s where I first saw it) disappeared and was never mentioned again until this blog post. Okay, that’s not true - I’m sure Bill brings it up to needle his brother at family gatherings.

John never headlined a movie again. He has a fair amount of credits on his IMDb page, but they are mostly small parts with no character names – for example, he appears in ELF as “Man in Elevator” (he doesn't even have his own Wikipedia page!) 

His first role after MOVING VIOLATIONS was in SCROOGED, which, in a primo case of typecasting, he played his brother Bill’s brother (John also had a miniscule part in CADDYSHACK, so it wasn’t the first time his brother threw him a bone).

Putting aside all this brotherly love, the icing on the cake that is MOVING VIOLATIONS is that it features the big screen debut of Don Cheadle, credited as “Juicy Burgers Worker.”

Or maybe that was his brother.

BTW: MOVING VIOLATIONS isn’t available streaming (that I could find anyway), but the whole movie is on YouTube for free. You’re welcome.

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Friday Fun With Franchises: The BILL & TED Saga (1989-2020)

Last summer, the long-awaited third episode of the BILL & TED series, BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC was released at select movie theaters and on Premium Video on Demand because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, I bitched about how pricey a streaming rental was on this blog, especially as many were jobless at the time, and decided to wait until the cost went down. It recently dropped (it’s at $5.99 on Amazon Prime), but before I watched it, I went back and re-visited the previous two entries, which I felt was needed as I hadn’t seen them in decades. 

As a teenager in the ‘80s, I was the perfect age to appreciate the inaugural effort, Stephen Herek’s BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1989), and I indeed loved it when I caught it on video (I haven’t seen any of the BILL & TED movies on the big screen). As folks who’d be reading a film blog like this would most likely know, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves portray Bill S. Preston Esquire, and Ted “Theodore” Logan, a dumb slacker duo in San Dimas, California, who travel through time in a telephone booth to gather historical figures in order to pass their History report. 

This adventure is given to them by iconic comedian George Carlin as Rufus, who comes from the future – 2688 to be exact – where the fate of civilization hinges on whether Bill & Ted can pass their class and are able to keep their band, Wyld Stallyns, together. Yes, this is stupid, cartoonish stuff but despite some clunky moments the film’s good natured spirit, and the wide-eyed performances of Reeves and Winter really pull it off. 

The basic joke of these characters is while they’re both blissfully stupid, Winter’s Bill is the smart one who gets things quicker than Reeves’ Ted, with Bill often having to help Ted get up to speed. When he gets it, they perform an air guitar salute to each other accompanied by a brief guitar shredding sound effect. 

Loads of funny, quotable lines are littered throughout (“Strange things are afoot at the Circle K”) this loony lark, but the most memorable dialogue is such oft repeated phrases as “excellent,” “bogus,” “party on,” and “yes, way.” All of these were also heavily used by Wayne (Mike Myers), and Garth (Dana Carvey) in the WAYNE’S WORLD movies and SNL sketches (Carvey even said “I remember I always thought ‘Aren’t we just doing Bill and Ted?’”).

EXCELLENT ADVENTURE had decent box office, but it largely gained a cult via cable showings and video rentals. This led to the 1991 sequel, Peter Hewitt’s BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY, which I considered a letdown almost three decades ago. However, over the years I’ve encountered more than a few folks that preferred it to the original (one who even said it was their favorite film ever). This made me want to re-evaluate the movie, and see if I’ll still consider it a fairly forgotten follow-up. 

BOGUS JOURNEY is definitely better than I recalled, but still nowhere as fun or funny as the first time around. This time, the utopian world of the future is threatened by a terrorist (Joss Ackland) who sends evil robot versions of Bill & Ted to go back to the past in order to stop the real Bill & Ted from winning the San Dimas Battle of the Bands. The evil robots kill Bill & Ted by hurtling them off of Vasquez Rocks, a formation featured in many movies and TV shows (the film even excerpts the Star Trek episode that uses the location at one point). 

William Sadler as The grim reaper, or simply “Death,” appears and tells Bill & Ted that if they challenge him to a contest and win, they can return to their lives; if they lose they have to stay in the afterlife. The joke here is that Death didn’t expect them to chose games like Clue, Battleship, and Twister, but it works and makes for one of the film’s funniest scenes. 

So instead of bouncing around through history, they run around mostly in Hell, which doesn’t look like they thought it would (“We got totally lied to by our album covers!”), where they face their childhood fears, and encounter Satan himself. The last third involves Bill & Ted’s showdown at the Battle of the Bands showdown with their robot counterparts, who have kidnapped our heroes’ girlfriends. 

I didn’t care for the evil robot Bill & Ted plotline. The material concerning them seemed lazy, and crude like in a bit where their heads are removed while clowning around. The Sadler’s Grim Reaper fares a lot better -the longer the Igmar Bergman’s inspired character is on screen, the more likably wacky he gets - but a couple of Muppet-like alien geniuses called The Station seem really out of place here. Still, I’m glad I rewatched it because it’s a better sequel than I remembered, and it got me in the mood to catch up with the third chapter in the two dudes’ saga. 

A Bit Of Babble 'Bout BRIGSBY BEAR

I missed Dave McClary’s BRIGSBY BEAR in its limited theatrical run last year (I’m not even sure if it came to my area), but just caught up with it on Blu ray and I’m glad I did because it’s a real delight. If you haven’t watched Saturday Night Live lately you might not know the film’s star, Kyle Mooney, but he’s a current cast member since 2013 who has made a bunch of weird, awkward but highly amusing digital shorts (inheriting the brand from Andy Samberg) like this one, and this one.

Here Mooney and director McClary, who both made over 70 of those shorts, have, with the help of co-writer Kevin Costello, successfully translated their silly small screen shenanigans to the big screen with this tale of a scruffy 30-year old named James who discovers that the people he thought were his parents (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams) are actually a couple who abducted him when he was a baby, and that there’s a real world outside the underground bunker he’s been living in for all his life.

What’s even crazier is that he grew up watching and obsessing over a children’s television show called “Brigsby Bear Adventures,” but it’s a program that only he has ever seen as his faux father fabricated it - writing, starring, and directing decades of episodes - at an outside studio with props, costumes, brightly colored sets, and even a young woman (Kate Lyn Sheil) he hired to play two roles who Hamill’s Ted told the show was for Canadian cable access.

So when the bunker is raided by the FBI, and his parents are taken away, James is re-united with his real parents (Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins), but has trouble adjusting with his family, and sets out to make a movie that concludes the Brigsby Bear series.

You have to suspend some disbelief as it’s unlikely that the cops would really let James to use all the props including the original bear costume that were confiscated, but the film earns its ending, which has touching similarities to the climax of James Franco’s THE DISASTER ARTIST

The endearingly meek Mooney sweetly carries the movie with help from a well chosen cast including Greg Kinnear as a sympathetic police detective, Claire Danes as a family therapist, Ryan Simpkins as James’ sister, Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as a friend who helps with shooting the Brigsby Bear movie, and SNL alums Andy Samberg and Beck Bennett in brief but effective cameos.

I didn’t expect that I’d like it as much as I did, but I found BRIGSBY BEAR to be a goofy yet sometimes sad charmer with a big heart. I love how it celebrates the idea that one’s obsession with something imaginary can be channeled into creating something real that’s personal yet can be shared with many others.

You may be able to get a glimpse of its immense likability in the film’s trailer:

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INFERNO: David S. Pumpkins Was More Profoundly Puzzling

Now playing at a multiplex near you:

INFERNO (Dir. Ron Howard, 2016)

It’s a damn shame that Tom Hanks only has one live action franchise and it’s this one. At least he’s has still got a primo animated franchise going with Pixar’s TOY STORY series (the fourth one due in 2019).

Here, Hanks teams with Ron Howard again for the third chapter in the Robert Langdon film series, based on Dan Brown’s bestselling novels, which began ten years ago with THE DA VINCI CODE, followed by 2009’s ANGELS & DEMONS.

This time, Hanks’ Harvard Professor of Symbology Langdon awakens in a hospital in Florence, Italy with a head wound and no memory of how he got there. He’s also haunted by apocalyptic visions involving fire, serpents, people with faces on the backs of their head, rivers of blood, and all sorts of chaotic hellish imagery.

Langdon is being tended to by Felicity Jones as Dr. Sienna Brooks, an admirer of his work, of course, and they discover that in his jacket pocket he has the film’s first McGuffin, a mysterious cylinder, with a biohazard sign on it.

Then a black clad assassin (Ana Ularu) starts shooting at them, killing another doctor in the hallway, and Langdon and Brooks are on the run. Back at Brooks’ apartment, the duo find in his belongings a Faraday pointer, which projects Sandro Boticelli’s the famous “Map of Hell,” based on Dante’s Inferno. In the painting they find the name of billionaire Bertrand Zobrist, whose evil plan they find is wipe out 95% of the world’s population via a world wide virus.

The police, associates from the World Health Organization headed by Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudsen), a sketchy security firm, and the aforementioned assassin narrow in on Langdon and Brooks and we’re off on another chase then museum stop for more clues then another chase. One of these chases, involving a drone chasing our heroes through a Renaissance garden, is actually fairly fun!

Despite that the stakes have to do with Langdon saving most of the population of earth, they don’t feel like they’re that high, mainly because he’s able to too easily get out of close scrapes and the many shadowy folks that are chasing him and his new much younger partner (don’t worry there’s no forced romance here) sure take a long time to catch up.

There’s also not much to the villain Zobrist played by Ben Foster, who’s been way more effectively sinister in such films as 3:10 To YUMA, 30 DAYS TO NIGHT, and ALPHA DOG, and there’s a twist involving him that has very little impact.

This is just Hanks and Howard going through the motions of another Dan Brown formula, adapted in a workman like manner by screenwriter David Koepp (JURRASIC PARK, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE LOST SKULL, SPIDER-MAN). Hanks has charm a plenty, and Howard keeps the pace moving, but it can’t help but feel like a tired exercise. By the time we get to the climax set at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul I was so beyond caring.

That sequence and the rest of the film, including a visit to Venice, all look quite exquisite thanks to the eye of cinematographer Salvatore Totino, so maybe the movie makes for a mildly intriguing travelogue rather than the intense mystery adventure it was aiming to be.

It’s funny that a week before the opening of INFERNO, Hanks made more notable news when he hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time in ten years. I predict that his absurd appearance as the immediately iconic David S. Pumpkins will go down as a more profoundly puzzling piece of pop culture than this. That’s a good thing, especially because INFERNO lost out to being #1 at the box office to BOO! A MADEA HALLOWEEN. So Hanks had at least one definite win this season, even if it wasn’t on the big screen. Any questions?

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DON’T THINK TWICE: An Improv Comedy Troupe May Not Be Alright

Now playing at an indie art house near me:

DON’T THINK TWICE (Dir. Mike Birbiglia, 2016)

Being a big Bob Dylan fan, the title of this film originally made me think of the legendary folk rock troubadour’s 1962 classic “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” but writer/director Mike Birbiglia wants us to relate the phrase to the rules of improv comedy.

Birbiglia, in the film’s brief yet informative intro, teaches that the three basic rules of improv are: “Say yes,” “it’s all about the group,” and “don’t think.” Birbiglia quotes improv guru Del Close to explain that there are no mistakes, that a player should “fall, and then figure out what to do on the way down.”

In his second directorial effort (his first was 2012’s charming yet a bit alarmingly autobiographical SLEEPWALK WITH ME), which he also wrote and produced, Birbiglia plays Miles, the 36-year old founder and longtime member of a Brooklyn-based improv troupe named The Commune.

The six member team is made up of the mostly recognizable faces of Kate Micucci (Garfunkel & Oates) as Allison, Tami Sagher as Lindsay, Chris Gethard as Bill, Gillian Jacobs (Community, Love) as Samantha, and Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele, KEANU) as Jack.

When Jack and Samantha, who are dating, get an audition for “Weekend Live,” the Saturday Night Live surrogate in the film’s world, it causes a riff between the players, particularly galling Miles, who claims that he had been “within inches” of getting a gig on the show back in 2003.

Jack gets cast, but his girlfriend Samantha freaks out and skips her audition, telling Jack that she was late and they didn’t let her in. The other Commune members hope that Jack can help get them hired as writers, but his new writing partner played by Adam Pally (Happy Endings, The Mindy Project) tells him to never, ever talk to the producer about his funny friends, advising that for his first year on the show “just don’t get fired.”

To add to the troupe’s troubles, their venue, The Improv for America Theater, is due to be closed in five weeks. Funnily enough, The Commune is told that another Trump building is going to go up in its place which leads to a bunch of Trump impressions (mostly variations on his catchphrase “you’re fired”) - notably, Birbiglia stressed on a recent guest appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah that the film was written years before Trump’s hellish campaign that we’re inexplicably still dealing with was mounted.

So as Jack settles somewhat uneasily into his new job, his former Commune cohorts try to deal with change. Miles gets reacquainted with an old high school crush (Maggie Kemper), Bill stresses over his father being hospitalized for a motorcycle accident, Lindsay self-medicates with pot when she’s not in therapy paid for by her rich parents, Allison frets over finishing her long gestating graphic novel, and Samantha gets sadder and sadder over the fact that things are changing as she wanted her days with the troupe to go on forever.

Then things get really dicey when they see Jack reproducing one of their collaborative sketches on “Weekend Live” with that week’s celebrity host (Ben Stiller as himself).

Birbiglia’s film is a well observed look at what it feels like when a member of an established group leaves for greener pastures. It could serve as a theatrical version of the 1992 Morrissey song “We Hate It when Our Friends Become Successful.” It gives us an idea of what it may have been like when Will Ferrell was plucked from the Groundlings (the LA-based sketch comedy troupe and school) for SNL, or any number of examples of comedy stars that left their fellow players behind for bigger things.

When Gethard’s Bill says “I feel like your 20’s are all about hope, and your 30’s are about realizing how dumb it was to hope,” it’s an extremely relatable realization that’s not alone as the movie is packed with such relatable realizations.

It may be a small indie film, but it’s about dreaming big even if it feels like the world is telling you to move on. Birbiglia’s Miles and the rest of the ensemble know they are aging past the point where their dreams can be fulfilled, but they also know that letting go is the hardest part. And it effectively questions whether friendships can survive such transitions.

DON’T THINK TWICE is a comedy drama gem that doesn’t have a wasted moment or miscalculated line in its perfectly tight 92 minute running time. It makes good on the promise of Birbiglia’s debut, SLEEPWALK WITH ME, as it also plays upon the pathos of the difficult world of damaged people trying to make an anonymous audience laugh.

It wraps up nicely on a note of hope too, with Roger Neill, who provided the score, performing a touching instrumental piano version of the famous tune that shares the film’s name to accompany the end credits. So it appears that Birbiglia’s sweetly bitter love letter to improv has something to do with the Dylan song after all.

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The Lonely Island's POPSTAR: A Hilariously Breezy Piece Of Comedy Gold

Opening today at a multiplex near us all:

POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING
(Dirs. Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone, 2016)

The first original feature film from the comedy trio The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer) who cut their teeth making over 100 Digital Shorts for Saturday Night Live, is the funniest musical mockumentary since THIS IS SPINAL TAP.

Mind you, the genre of musical mockumentaries isn’t very large, but the sheer volume of big laughs in POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING indeed makes it worthy enough to be compared to that highly acclaimed comedy classic.

Samberg stars as Conner4Real, a pop/rap superstar who was previously the front man for the hit group the Style Boyz, which included his childhood buddies Lawrence (Schaffer), and Owen (Taccone).

The band broke up after infighting led to a stage meltdown which resulted in Lawrence leaving to become a farmer, while Owen stayed on as Conner’s DJ/producer (which basically means he just has to press play on an iPod).

The film follows Conner on tour in support of his second solo album, Connquest, which is off to a shaky start because of bad reviews - Pitchfork gives it a negative 4.5, while Rolling Stone abandons their star rating system to give it a shit emoji, which Conner thinks is a misprint. The only good review our not-too-bright protagonist finds is from The Onion, which, of course, he doesn’t know is a satirical site.

Joining Conner and Owen on the road is Sarah Silverman as Conner’s publicist Paula, who has one of the film’s funniest lines: “I don’t listen to Conner’s music in my personal time, but he makes so many people so much money,” SNL veteran Tim Meadows, no stranger to pop parodies as he appeared as a band member in WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY, is on hand as Conner’s manager Harry, and Imogen Poots plays Conner’s girlfriend Ashley.

In true Spinal Tap style, the tour is beset with problems. Firstly, Conner’s promotional deal with Aquaspin, an appliance company that programs their products to play Conner’s new singles whenever the owner accesses them – i.e. music blares whenever people open their refrigerator, microwave, laundry machine, etc. – gets a lot of negative backlash – i.e. people smashing their appliances (this plays as a delicious send up of the debacle over U2's deal with Apple which had their last album uploaded on every iTunes user's playlists, but Taccone has said in interviews that they had written this storyline before that happened).

Then Conner gets hugely upstaged by his opening act, Chris Redd as the up-and-coming rapper Hunter the Hungry, who may be behind an ultra embarrassing wardrobe malfunction that makes Conner look like he has no genitalia – the movie’s Stonehenge perhaps.

In an attempt to put a positive story out into the nonstop negative news cycle, Conner stages a romantic proposal to Ashley involving a performance by Seal, and a pack of wolves, but somehow things don’t go as planned.

After this series of public humiliations, Conner has hit rock bottom and it looks like the only way to get back on top is to reunite with his former band mates for an awards show performance.

POPSTAR is stuffed with hysterical cameos by the likes of Samberg’s SNL pals like Bill Hader, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Jimmy Fallon, as well as many big names from the music world such as Questlove, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dog, Adam Levine, 50 Cent, Nas, Usher, Pink, and even ex-Beatle Ringo Starr.

There’s also a scene stealing appearance by Justin Timberlake as Conner’s chef, and an uproarious satire of the tabloid TV show TMZ, called CMZ, which has Will Arnett, satirizing sleazy celebrity gossip monger host Harvey Levin, laughing, with a room full of snarky bloggers, including Eric André, Chelsea Peretti, and Mike Birbiglia, like maniacs at Conner’s every misstep.

There are very few gags that don’t land big in Sandberg and Co.’s terrific takedown of celebrity culture in the internet age. It feels like they might have taken the Monty Python route and cut everything that didn’t get a laugh in test screenings judging from the high ratio of screamingly successful jokes-per-minute on display. Even when I expected to cringe at the juvenile, crude humor bits like the aforementioned wardrobe malfunction and an extended flaccid penis rubbing up against a limo window gag, I ended up giggling my ass off.

A hilariously breezy piece of comedy gold that shines as bright as Conner’s bling-bling, POPSTAR is The Lonely Island’s greatest achievement. If you’re not a fan of their SNL Digital Shorts, or of Samberg’s shtick in general (including his Fox sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which I love), you may want to skip it, but if you are then you’re in for a very filling, and funny as f*** treat.

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THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE: Not Bad For A Movie Based On An App

Now playing at a multiplex near you:

THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE
(Dir. Clay Kaytis & Fergal Reilly, 2016)

Now, I’ve never played Angry Birds, the biggest selling mobile app ever, so I can't offer any comparisons, but I can say that Sony Pictures Imageworks’ new 3D animated comedy based on the game actually isn’t bad – for a movie based on an app that is.

That’s probably because I was expecting it to be crap. It looked like yet another dumb, brightly colored kids cartoon crammed with celebrity voices primed to sell a lot of toys and kick off another useless franchise.

Well, yeah, that’s what it is, but the voice cast’s energy is appealing and a surprising number of the jokes hit their mark. This is largely due to Jason Sudeikis as the protagonist Red, a puffy cardinal with Eugene Levy-esque eyebrows. Sudeikis’ sharp ultra sarcastic delivery keeps the laughs, or at least the mild chuckles, coming.

Set on an island paradise populated entirely by happy, flightless birds, Red is an orphaned outcast whose temper lands him in an anger management class where he begrudgingly bonds with a fast yellow bird named Chuck (voiced by Josh Gad), and a beefy black bird named Bomb (Danny McBride), who literally explodes if he gets too upset. Also in the class is a large red fowl named Terence, who’s voiced by the biggest name here, Sean Penn, but don’t get too excited about the Oscar winner’s presence here as his dialogue is all low grunts and growls.

Suddenly a ship with a few green pigs shows up in the bay, with their bearded leader named Leonard (Sudeikis' SNL buddy Bill Hader) announcing to the bird community that they come in peace from Piggy Island (I guess every animal has their own island in this world). Red doesn’t trust the pigs, mainly because the anchor of their ship crushed his beachfront house, but he’s overruled and the pigs and birds have a big celebration featuring a cowboy show that’s a transparent excuse to showcase a Blake Shelton pop country single recorded exclusively for the soundtrack. Cha-ching!

Unable to convince the others that the pigs are dangerous, Red, Chuck, and Bomb decide to seek out Mighty Eagle, said to be the protector of the island, who lives on the treacherous peak of Bird Mountain. Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage voices Mighty Eagle and gets to sing his own theme song, but the joke that the character is a washed-up has been of a hero is a predictably lame cliché – add that to the film’s clunkers.

When the pigs steal the birds’ eggs and head back home, the feathered islanders realize that Red was right and that the only way for them to get even is to get mad. So they build a boat and sail to Piggy Island to wage war and get back their babies. This involves a ginormous slingshot that flings the birds one by one at the pigs’ city which I am guessing is like the game.

The directorial debut of a couple of longtime animators, Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE is far from great, and I cringed at many gags (especially some of the surprising instances of gross-out humor), but Jon Vitti’s screenplay has a fair amount of fine comic invention so I believe I laughed more than I winced. Vitti is a veteran of some high quality comic efforts, having written for The Simpsons, The Larry Sanders Show, and SNL, but he’s also one of the scribes behind the ALVIN AND THE CHIPMONK fiascos so that icky sensibility must be factored in as well.

So there you have it, an animated 3D feature based on a mobile phone game that makes for a throwaway matinee.

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THE BOSS: Melissa McCarthy's Latest Vapid Vehicle

Opening today at a multiplex near you:

THE BOSS (Dir. Ben Falcone, 2016)

‘Please be better than TAMMY – please be better than TAMMY,’ I kept repeating in my head going in to see this new Melissa McCarthy vehicle.

The 2014 summer release TAMMY, about an obnoxious, foul-mouthed poor white trash woman taking a road trip with her grandmother (Susan Sarandon), was McCarthy’s first starring role, and also her first film helmed by husband, Ben Falcone, who is probably best remembered as the Air Marshal in the Kristen Wiig smash BRIDESMAIDS – the film that featured McCarthy’s career breakthrough.

TAMMY may have been a disappointment, but it was fairly successful at the box office, so after McCarthy had another hit with Paul Feig’s not bad SPY last year (which Falcone had a cameo in), the husband and wife duo return with THE BOSS, about another obnoxious, foul-mouthed lady, but this time she’s rich white trash.

McCarthy plays the well-coiffed, turtleneck-wearing Michelle Darnell, a Donald Trump-styled mogul, who is extremely proud of being the “47th wealthiest woman in America.” That is, until she is arrested for inside trading (“everybody does it!” Michelle protests), and sent to a country club-like Federal prison for five months.

When she is released, she finds that all of her assets have been seized and she’s forced to live with her former assistant, Claire, portrayed by Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars fame.

Before long, inspired by Claire’s daughter’s (Elle Anderson) Girl Scouts-like troop, the Dandelions, Michelle figures a way to get back on top by starting an organization called “Darnell's Darlings,” who will sell brownies to compete with the Dandelions cookies.

The brownie recipe is Claire’s so she and Michelle become 50-50 partners in the budding business.

Peter Dinklage is the film’s villain as Renault, Michelle’s ex-lover turned competitor; BRIDESMAIDS co-writer Annie Mumolo plays another adversary, a snooty Dandelions mother; Tyler Labine plays a co-worker of Claire’s who has a crush on her, Kathy Bates has an all too short part as Michelle’s mentor, and SNL’s Cicely Strong has a very wasted part as Claire’s boss, who’s a big fan of Michelle’s.

Actually they’re all wasted parts as there’s not one inspired, memorable character to be found here.

The film is so filled with jokes that don’t land, awkward unfunny moments, and clunky plotting that extreme restlessness took me around the halfway mark, and I was mostly just sitting there waiting for it to end.

Now and again, I mildly chuckled. There’s no way McCarthy can make a movie that doesn’t have at least a few halfway decent attempts at laughs - a street fight scene between the Dandelions and Darnell's Darnings accounts for a few funny moments – but for long stretches I watched in silence at obvious gag setups that resulted in eye-roll inducing payoffs over and over.

THE BOSS isn’t even a good title as nobody calls McCarthy that, and the movie isn’t really about her being a boss. It isn’t really about anything except having McCarthy make cheap shot quips at her co-stars.

McCarthy is one of the funniest people working in the cinematic comedy genre, but she’s beginning to build a filmography full of vapid vehicles that aren’t worthy of her talents (i.e. IDENTITY THIEF, THE HEAT, and the aforementioned TAMMY).

Here’s hoping that this summer’s GHOSTBUSTERS reboot/remake/re-whatever, in which she stars with a trio of SNL gals (Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones), fairs better, because it’s getting sad to see yet another overly broad, lame effort like this. 

I mean, not even the bloopers that accompany the end credits (something I just knew a film like this would have) are that funny!

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