Thriller Rod Lott
According to some fun facts that open The Tall Man,
some 1,000 children vanish each year who never are found. In the
near-dead mining town of Cold Rock, that's because they're taken by the
mysterious titular figure who's cloaked in black and darts in and out of
the woods.
Not that you’d notice, but here’s what’s been eating up my free time of late: As founder of The Movie Clubbed, I’ll be part of Saturday’s live skewering of Skatetown, U.S.A., an abomination of pop celluloid that was 1979’s both best and worst “rock and roller disco movie of the year!”
"Turns out there’s a reason 1979’s Skatetown, U.S.A. has never hit VHS or DVD: It really sucks. The alleged comedy starring Scott Baio and Patrick Swayze will get a live, Mystery Science Theater 3000-style beating from The Movie Clubbed, whose members include a few Oklahoma Gazetteers, at 8 p.m. Saturday at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch. Also to be skewered: a 1972 short by the OKC Urban Renewal Authority. Tickets are $5-$8. Call 236-3100 or visit okcmoa.com."
This marks The Movie Clubbed’s second time at bat. The first was back in March, when we (me, Richard York, Brian Winkeler, Greg Elwell and Spencer Hicks) zapped Zardoz, the 1974 science-fiction slice of nonsense starring Sean Connery. We didn’t think we find a more painful follow-up, but we were wrong.
What’s “special” about this Skatetown screening is that the Oklahoma City Museum of Art has procured a 35mm print. That’s right: They weren’t all burned in anger. With any luck, this one will spontaneously combust as soon as we’re done with it, so buy your tickets now before they skate away. There's even an unofficial after-party at The Paramount on Film Row, for which Brian bought the Skatetown soundtrack LP off eBay. You've been warned, but see you there anyway? —Rod Lott
Comedy Rod Lott
I recently had a discussion with friends about the increasing trend of
self-aggrandizing Twitter bios of locals who think so mighty highly of
themselves, they must brag to the Internet about their amazing
awesomeness! Our theory is, if you have to tell the world you're a
"creative genius" or "master of [fill in the blank]," you're more than
likely not. Real genius speaks for itself.
Western Rod Lott
Before he became Itay’s master of horror, Dario Argento knocked out a few screenplays, including one of Sergio Leone's legendary Western epics, Once Upon a Time in the West. Lesser-known is 1969's The Five Man Army.
That's too bad, because it brings an “international all-star team”
approach to the spaghetti Western, and doesn’t forget the all-aces Ennio
Morricone score!
A documentary of one man’s battle with OCD, depression and autism, is the feel-bad film of the year.
Documentary Rod Lott OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger's Movie 5:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday Oklahoma City Museum of Art 415 Couch okcmoa.com 236-3100 $5-$8
Comedy Rod Lott
That The Hangover director Todd Phillips has plans to helm an Americanization of the Danish comedy Klown (or Klovn) comes as neither a surprise nor a shock. I'd only be surprised if the remake can get within arm's length of equaling it.
Western Rod Lott
What a kick it is to see Robert Mitchum biting into a stogie and laying
waste to a room with a machine gun. Because, really, how often does a
man of the cloth do that? No wonder the 1972 quasi-Western is titled The Wrath of God.
The film takes place in a South American town so brutal and dismal
that, as one character reasons, "If God had wanted to give the world an
enema, he'd've stuck the nozzle in here."
Action Rod Lott
In 1986, writer and artist Frank Miller changed the comic-book industry
forever with the four-issue series that became the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns.
Its sour disposition and gritty attitude was arguably the darkest
depiction of Batman the world had seen, paving the way for the caped
crusader’s move to big-screen blockbuster three years later.