Wednesday, July 06, 2011

My Week In Movies - Hot Summer Flicks

Wet Hot American Summer (2001) Just a helpful tip for any young filmmakers out there: if you want to guarantee at least one person sees your movie, include a scene where a grown man talks to a can of vegetables. Have the can's lid serve as it's mouth for speaking purposes. If you do this, I will be certain to watch your film and enjoy at least the scene with the talking prepackaged produce. In addition to a talking can of vegetables, this great summer camp spoof sports an incredible cast including Paul Rudd, Amy Pohler, Elizabeth Banks, Janeane Garofalo and Molly Shannon...just to name a few. The film plays as both a summer camp flick and a slightly off-center parody of such flicks. I saw it ten years ago when it came out and really enjoyed it, I finally got around to watching it again and enjoyed it just as much. Approaching it's tenth anniversary, Wet Hot has achieved somewhat of a cult status. Available on Netflix streaming.


North Shore (1987) Gotta admit, I'm kinda psyched to see Blue Crush 2 which is out on DVD now (I'll wait for my Netflix DVD to show up) but in the meantime I queued up this 80's surfer flick which tosses up a handful of surfing movie cliches and offers nothing much new in the process. Nia Peeples costars as the attractive local Hawaiian who catches the eye of the visiting surf wannabe. You might remember Peeples from her stint hosting Nia Peeple's Dance Machine which was on right after Arsenio Hall. No? You don't remember Nia Peeple's Dance Machine. Well, then you have absolutely no reason to see this movie.


The Jungle Book (1967) This has got to be one of my all-time favorite Disney films. I knew we were due for a screening when I was helping my kids pick up the playroom the other day. "Put the Mowgli figure back on the shelf," I said to one of my kids. "What's a Moogy?," he responded. I knew then that I had failed my children as a parent. The Jungle Book is near the top of my list for it's great songs, awesome voice work and it's swinging 60's score and lingo. Even though this might be one of Disney's most dated animated films, it still plays like a timeless world of it's own.

4 comments:

mpm said...

Ahhhh! Nia Peeples Dance Machine!

Todd Mason said...

NORTH SHORE was actually a tv series for about a week or three...is this the pilot, or several epis smashed together?

Ed South said...

Hey Todd,
North Shore the TV show ran for 21 episodes in 1994, seven years after the movie. The show was about a hotel, where the movie is about surfing. No relation, but good eye! Thanks for reading.

Todd Mason said...

More like bad memory than good eye. I mixed them up in the fringes of the memory hole.

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