De-Evolution of the Leading Man

Defending Tequila Sunrise. Yes, Tequila Sunrise.

(By special Mugn Hour guest contributer, Double-S)

Today', we're going to defend the little seen noir film from the 80s, Tequila Sunrise? Why should we defend this piece of fluff? Go to any saturday night party, and you'll see a few loudmouths, sloshing their vodka cranberry in the kitchen, bashing films of a certain era. The young folks all live in the present, so they'll criticize anything that wasn't aimed at them. The old folks hate anything that was made in color. The film school snobs hate anything made after 1979, etc. Lately, the target of a lot of criticism seems to be the 1980s.

This is why film buffs between roughly 38 and 45 have such a unique perspective on the art of the movie. We were there for the changing of the guard. We were in the middle of our movie going youth when 'B' movies evolved into tentpoles, when Bond went from escapism to studio foundation. We were there when John Wayne made way for Clint Eastwood. We were there when Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell, Arnold Schwarzenneger, and Sylvester Stallone became huge commercial stars while Havey Keitel, Robert DeNiro, James Caan, and Al Pacino pretty much didn't.

People already at or near adulthood in the mid-70's don't get it. People born after about 1973 don't get it. Upon its December release in 1988, Tequila Sunrise was an oddity. Not a drama, not an action film, not a romance. Though people would balk today, none of its stars were at the time proven box office winners. Though famous, Gibson had enjoyed only one legitimate domestic hit. Pfeiffer had been part of one real hit and one critical darling. Russell was, and still is, the one kiddie star who moved into adult roles. The film was written by Chinatown's Robert Towne, and it wasn't good enough to win at Oscar time.

Mel and Bob may jump out of cyberspace to blow my theory, but Gibson's character was doomed to pay for his past transgressions from the start and the tacked on happy ending existed to make a failed attempt at Oscar bait commercial. Like Payback eleven years later, it worked. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Gibson didn't draw from his Sunrise experience when he took Payback over from booted director, BrianHelgelund. So, to shit on the movie is just lame. The 1980's were an incredibly transformative decade for the medium. More so than even now when the 'movie' experience is being challenged from so many different directions.

It's easy to crap all over stupid audiences today, but I'd be very surprised if something like Twins would enjoy three times the box office receipts of Tequila Sunrise this Christmas. Look at the eighties. DeNiro was a non-factor until his first 'commercial' effort in 1988 and he pretty much hasn't looked back in the two decades since. Pacino effectively did not work from Scarface to 1989's Sea of Love. Keitel was relegated to supporting work in Judge Reinhold and Joe Piscopo vehicles. Caan took the decade off. Why? Because they made movies no one saw.

Again, give DeNiro credit for cashing in. He figured it out a good decade ahead of Pacino and hasn't been forced into DTV because of it. What does all this have to do with Tequila Sunrise? Damned little, save for the fact very few 'insiders' in 1979 would've predicted that Sly, Arnie, and Mel would be the big dogs in the eighties while folks like Bobby, Al, and Jimmy were poised to relative obscurity in that time frame.

We'll discuss the 80s further at a later time. Sure, there is plenty of room for criticism, but to write the decade off is just not cricket man, particularly Tequila Sunrise. Not a great movie, but definitely worth another look.

Anthony Hopkins's New Gig: Harassing Customers

Residuals for Howard's End and The Edge are apparently trickling down to a few dollars a week, judging by Anthony Hopkins latest acting assignment. With no more Thomas Harris novels in the pipe, Hopkins has taken his signature and alimony-worthy role to its next logical step, showcasing himself outside of seasonal retail stores.

"It's been great having Tony-- I mean, Mr. Hopkins here," exclaimed Burbank Spirit Halloween Store manager Bobby Schaffer. "I'm not sure if I'd necessarily call myself a fan, but I really liked his mo-cap work in Beowulf."

After feeding a Diet Coke and a straw into the Oscar-winning actor's mouth, Schaffer went on to say, "It's been great for business. People come here - well, mainly soccer moms looking for cute peapod outfits for their newborns and young f-towels seeking slutty Dorothy costumes, and then they see Hannibal eff'ing Lector. I mean, that's a shopping experience you'll remember."

When asked to comment about his latest work, Hopkins would only repeat, "I'm having an old friend for dinner."

Quint Goes Down With the ORCA

Douchebag Song

This song is dedicated to Dane Cook, Kid Rock and Jeremy Piven. With love ...

Yoda HATES Clones!

You know, I recall Yoda babbling something to Luke about using the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack - blah-blah-blah.

This does not look like a defensive pose. And a clone trooper going up against a Jedi Master is like a Devry drop-out going up against the editor of the Harvard Review. Not cool, Master Yoda. Not ... cool.

It's Not the 4th, But a Brief Essay on Fourths Anyway

(Special Contributing Mung Hour Writer - Double-S)
Four of anything is probably too many. My thoughts on some we've seen and some we will/might see...

• Dirty Harry 4 - Paced quicker than the first three, this one had less dramatic 'impact', but was a crowd pleaser. I loved it to death, but was sixteen, so I get a pass.
• Die Hard 4 - It barely worked. Huge assist from Justin Long.
• Lethal Weapon 4 - Excrement. A series of bad SNL skits with guns.
• Indy 4 - Fun in the theatre on first viewing, but really wasn't very good.
• Terminator 4 - Doesn't really count. 4th installment in name only.
• Rocky IV - Excrement of the highest order. Not even really a film. It's the last five minutes of the third film, a James Brown video, several montages, and two protracted boxing matches. If memory serves, there were only two scenes where people actually spoke with each other.
• Rambo IV - Two words: Li'l Smokies. Talkin' about your hands, Sly. Lay off the rBGH.
  
• Superman IV - I'm not going to pick on a dead quad, but it was bad even by 1989 standards.
• Batman & Robin - Makes Rocky IV look like Richard III.
• Spidey IV - To me, they'd be better off waiting another couple of years, then re-casting Parker with an older actor and doing a trilogy with him. Tobey will look like a moppet when he's fifty. Squeezing out a 4th one five years after the third seems like a bad play, especially if they've still got him sputtering around NY on that fucking mo-ped.
• Pirates IV - This is a unique franchise in that it requires only two things: The movie business mind of Jerrry Bruckheimer and the acting talents of Johnny Depp. Absolutely no one else needs to return for this to be successful. I would, in fact, suggest that the best thing they could do is punt every one save for a few of the supporting players. Geoffrey Rush would be a nice add, but they could do it without him. In fact, for me, this one is only interesting if they wait awhile and come back with a whole new creative team. Depp could revisit this one well into his sixties.

I know this isn't a 4th, but I keep hearing about it...

Rambo V - Please, God, no.

Movie Art 101: What Were They Thinking?

This little gem from 1975 illustrates the best fashion accessory for a man in a wool, plaid sport jacket: a spear and flop sweat. This poster wants to communicate a lot of things and in red hues. First, it wants us to know who Joe Don Baker "IS", so if you happen to run into Mr. Baker while standing in line at the Home Depot, you will know to address him as "Mitchell". What is not known is whether he is "Mr. Mitchell" or just "Mitchell." Since he will probably be very hot and bothered in that wool plaid sport jacket and is carrying a spear, I wouldn't recommend aggravating him with anything other than "Mitchell" or "sir."

Linda Evans is his co-star in this movie, but it's hard to tell if that's her up above sunbathing next to a miniature Mitchell and toy cars and helicopters. Ah, sorry for the mistake. Forced perspective. Got it. Also visible is some sort of assassin carrying what looks to be a machine gun and apparently having either a heart attack, seizure or about to sneeze. Maybe he's getting shot in the back as well. Regardless, the bottom line here is that Mitchell is "brute force with a badge". Well, they're wrong. He's brute force with a spear. I'm guessing if Mitchell is indeed a law enforcement officer, going about his daily activities with a spear might prove cumbersome. Where do you put the spear when you're standing at the urinal in the office men's room? I'm sure there is a lot of potential for hilarity and embarrassment for Mitchell as he's juggling his food tray and that spear in the commissary.

Perhaps Mitchell's rather anguished expression depicted here is the final moment between he and his awkward implement where he's basically saying, "I hate this thing! I'm chucking it for good!"

It's Been A Year Since George, Steve and Harrison Took Your Money

It's been a year and we've crawled out from under our Indiana Jones hangover. Yes, it's taken that long for me to look back and realize that we had waited 19 years for a fourth film and what George Luca$ gave us was a trip down his bank account. I still can't recall what the film was about other than some alien's punch bowl head, which to be fair, is given away in the damn title. What did I learn from Indy IV? It's been a year now, so the memory of that film is as fuzzy as Calista Flockhart's age. Oh yeah, I learned that the Russians make adequate Nazis provided you show a large jarhead Russian beating an elderly adventurer senseless, that a person can only survive a one-mile drop kick inside of a refrigerator if the source of the concussion is a hydrogen bomb, that dropping 300 feet down three waterfalls gives you a bump on the head and the giggles. Oh yeah, and Shia LeBeouf got popped for being stoned outside a CVS somewhere in the U.S. Wait, was that in the movie? I can't remember.
Speaking of Shia, aka The Luckiest Fucking Kid On the Planet Earth, he survived last summer's green screen embarrassment, getting his balls handed to him by Kate Blanchett's sword just fine. He's back later this month, dry-humping Megan Fox up against his pet robot car again. Something tells me the hangover from Michael Bay's latest Transforming trip down the Hasbro aisle at Target will be longer than a year. Check back in June 2010. Too bad Megan Fox wasn't in Indy IV last year. She could have cameo'd as one of Professor Jones' love-struck students who has the words, "Suck You Off" tattoo'd to her eyelids.

Countdown to Star Trek

As we await the outcome of the latest Star Trek revamp, we're left to wonder if the new film will include Captain Kirk and his giant rock dildo.

This Just In! Dr. Jack Gets the Lester Burnham Treatment

In last night's Lost episode, "Namaste", Dr. Jack Shepherd is finally relieved of his stressful burdens as both surgeon and savior. Following his return alongside Kate, Hurly and Sayid to the island, circa 1977, Jack's former rival, James "La Fleur" Sawyer, has now arranged for him to spend his years free of hospital scrubs and iodine cleansing. Instead, he'll savor his new found freedom in a janitor's jumpsuit doing a different kind of scrubbing. Toilets. How's that for a responsibility free existence?

"You don't ever get to tell me what to do. Ever again."

In Defense of Dr. Jack Shepherd

Okay, let's just get it out there. Sawyer is the man. He's the shit. He's the stud. He's the tough, funny guy men hope to be and the hunk the girls want to end up with. Better, he's the bad boy who actually has the good guy ready to go on the fly. Best of all worlds. Last week's Lost episode, "La Fleur" showed us the laconic con man was a hippie at heart. Hippie by way of Han Solo.

It's easy for the audience to love the wise-cracking mercenary who can be morally ambivalent when it suits the moment. Much tougher to appreciate the guy who is always trying to do the right thing even at his own personal loss, like our poor, down-trodden and down-to-his-right-hand, Dr. Jack Shepherd.

Apologies to all for the brazen parallel between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

Whereas Jack pees all over his idyllic game of house with Kate and Aaron in a booze-soaked fit of jealousy, Sawyer romances Juliet, sticks to her side and becomes the perfect house hubby. But TV shows never follow logic. Throwing a bone at the Star Trek geeks by quoting Spock, "logic would dictate" that three years in a stable environment would forge a much more realistic and lasting bond between any two people. Much more than a few weeks in a cage-lockup where they hump on closed circuit TV. So of course, Sawyer's bond with Juliet is much more solid than it ever could have been with Kate. And in the future where Jack and Kate paired up following her acquittal, poor Jack was carrying the burden of the secret he had the balls to put forth to protect the others back on the island. Oh, and he did have his DEAD father showing up from time to time when he wasn't saving people's brains in surgery. What did Sawyer have to deal with while picking flowers for Juliet? Seventies jive talk from horny Dharma potheads and ketchup instead of salsa?

Will the writers ever circle back with Jack and Juliet? Juliet had romantic feelings for Jack even though it mainly stemmed from survival mode, the same mode that one could argue forged the Sawyer/Kate bond. However, Juliet did back off completely when she realized his heart was with Kate.

It would seem the writers have ruled out any Kate and Jack possibility since they had their shot after the Oceanic rescue, and Jack blew it. Coupled with the trauma of giving up Aaron, Jack will forever be tied to some pretty raw memories for Freckles. Too bad. It's not like she turned out to be his sister, so it really is too bad. And now it seems that he won't get Juliet either.

We must be the only folks in the room who not only feel for Jack Shepherd but also likes the character and want to stick with him. It's easy to root for the stubbly, wispy haired rogue who gets the best one-liners. Maybe the writers just need to give Jack a few more zingers. Then again, he's a brain doctor, Jim, not a comedian! Going into his apparent integration with the rest into the Dharma commune in the episodes to come, it looks like he's growing his hair out. Good start. It's easy for people to overlook him in favor of Sawyer, because he seems bland by comparison. And he lacks the asskicking, Boba Fett talents of Sayid. Nor the wise paternal, Obi Wan qualities of John Locke. And he's not the friendly Chewbacca like Hurly or the annoying but lovable C-3PO that Charlie was. Someone stop us before we call out poor Desmond as Admiral Ackbar. "It's a trap!"

Jack Shepherd is not the louse who makes good. He's the guy who makes good but louses it up. That's tragic and compelling. He seem like a whiner, but give the guy a break. He got people off the island the best way he could, and he manned up and took the heat for concocting the lie that they all agreed to, by the way. We at the Mung Hour completely empathize with his ire against Locke, because until you actually pull that time machine lever on me, we'd be just as skeptical. OF ALL OF IT.

Sure, he's not as funny and suave and interesting as Sawyer, but similar to Desmond, he's the guy who wants to please those he loves but gets smacked down by a father figure for his efforts. Jack's the guy who wants to help the people that end up turning on him on some level. He's the guy who demands proof not just faith. He's the guy who wants to get the girl but isn't roguish enough nor confident enough to enjoy it when its right there. He's the island's Bill Pullman. He's the guy that people count on when their needs come first, then shit on him the minute he makes a mistake.

Maybe he has a shot at redemption ... and getting laid. Maybe there's some hottie we haven't seen yet that he can make amends with, if it's not Kate. Or maybe not. Perhaps he'll just have to settle for watching Sawyer and Kate huddle around the fire celebrating with the Ewoks while he stares off at the ghostly specters of Christian Shepherd, John Locke and Ben Linus.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy: India Declares War on the Oscars

As Hollywood celebutantes and celebutards innocently busied their afternoons with Rystalene and Botox injections, those Mumbai 'bombay-diers' plotted their attack. With a total of eight Oscars in its war chest, Slumdog Millionaire led the chai-fuelled charge to decimate Hollywood at a very vulnerable time. What with SAG strike anxiety rendering even the most vicious CAA agent sexually impotent, coupled with dwindling ratings for the Academy Awards, it was an insidious night of curry flavored ass-kickings. Despite a bevy of bronzed boobed bimbos, ratings were probably the lowest ever, proving that TV viewers prefer to watch Mike Rowe scrub outhouses on Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" than submit to the bloated exercise of red carpet butt-sniffing and reach-arounds. Still, the show had its highlights:

Hugh Jackman - He shaved one beard and brought the other to the party. Now, now. No gay man would dare dry hump Frank Langella's leg with Brad Pitt a two feet away. The triple-threat Jackman may have seemed over-bronzed, but I think we'd all look like the Great Pumpkin next to the ghost of Anne Hathaway. Climbing atop Mt. Oscar and shouting "I'M WOLVERINE!" at the end of your song will keep you in the good graces of Comic Con booger-eaters at least until May. Nice work, Logan. Long live the Sexiest Man Alive!!




MUNG HOUR OSCAR OBSERVATIONS:
- Goldie Hawn – Sweet Jesus! There is a reason they keep the temperature under 50 degrees at Madame Tussaud’s.
- For those of you who never knew that Mrs. Partridge of the Partridge Family won an Oscar. Well, join the club.
- Proposition 8 is the new Iraq War. Rainbow colored ribbons on your lapels, duh, people.
- Daniel Craig looked a lot like James Bond in that tuxedo. Bizarre.
- Sarah Jessica Parker: you can take the horse out of the trailer but you - damn, screwed up another horse-face joke.
- The Duchess, a period film with powdered wigs and corsets won for Best Costume. Always nice when the Academy votes out of the box.
- Missed Joke Opportunity Winners - It's a toss-up between "Warren Beatty Button: The Story About a Man Aging Backwards" and "Any Mention of the Christian Bale Rant".
- Oscar-nominated songs are so much cooler when they have dread-locked musicians beating copper drums.
- Eddie Murphy - "I'd like to thank all of the members of the Razzies."
- Oscar Wall of Death was a visual clusterf*ck. Oh, and Paul Newman's shoes are gonna be tough to fill, Clooney. He's got salad dressing and spaghetti sauce. You've got what, Darfur? Get cracking.
- Ohhhhhh, Danny Booooooyle ... your Oscar's shiniiiiiiing ....
- Ms. Winslet, congratulations on your Oscar. You now have an obligation to honor those Best Actress winners before you by doing a retarded action movie that gets 13% RottenRating, then an over-budgeted period film based on children’s novels before sliding into an Oprah Winfrey produced tele-movie.
- The camera did NOT show us Mickey Rourke’s reaction to Sean Penn’s win, so we cannot fully verify if he has indeed won the Nick Nolte "You-Stole-My-F*cking-Oscar” Award. We think he won, but because Penn sucker-punched him with a speech-closing compliment, we cannot verify the win.

OSCAR 2009 GALLERY

Now We Can State the Obvious Pun - Nice Golden Globes!

The Golden Globes received their lowest ratings ever, even lower than last year which was pretty much limited to Ryan Seacrest wearing headphones on the red carpet rattling off the list of winners. Not surprising since the average broke American is probably not in the mood to watch spoiled celebrities sashay down the red carpet in jewelry costlier than their houses. The only real rags-to-tiches moment was when Sally Hawkins won for Happy Go Lucky. The gauntlet she had to pass (from her table waaaaayyy in the back of the house) included tables with Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise, Robert Downey, Jr, Brad Pitt, and Clint Eastwood. If she didn't pee herself when she heard her name called, she probably soiled her thong when the two Tom's stood up to shake her hand.

No offense to Mickey Rourke, but the GG's always emphasize the foreigners and the outcasts. Brokeback Mountain's 2006 snub could come back to haunt this year's Oscars, so Milk and Sean Penn might squeak in there. The Hollywood Foreign Press probably doesn't realize that Rourke pissed off a lot of Hollywood folks in his day, and his plastic surgery might frighten too many of his peers who wonder if they could end up looking like that with the wrong surgeon. But people do like comebacks, so we shouldn't count him out yet. It would be great if he got in a fight with someone on the red carpet. Maybe if we all pray together, Seacrest will insult Rourke's chihuahua on Oscar night!

• Actress whose cleavage we need to see more of: Salma Hayek
• Actresses whose cleavage normally don't raise the flag but were decently taped up: Elizabeth Banks & Beyonce
• Actresses who we had no idea who they were but would nail in a New York minute: Olivia Wilde & Jennifer Morrison from House
• Actress who satisfies our Michelle Pfeiffer fetish: Amanda Seyfried
• Actor who needs to keep the sunglasses and goatee to hide the damage: Mickey Rourke
• Actress who should wear sunglasses and a fake goatee to hide the damage: Lisa Rinni
• Actor who ditched the fright wig and finally got a decent set of hair grafts: Tom Hanks
• Gayest straight man on the red carpet: Mario Lopez
• Gay man on the red carpet who looked most like an older lesbian: fashion guru Steven Cojacaru
• Skinniest broad in the joint: Wow, too many to pick from, but if we have to, it's a toss-up between Cameron Diaz and Happy Go Lucky's Sally Hawkins. We need some group along the lines of PETA to step in. Maybe a group called "EATS" which stands for "Educating Appetites To Starlets". They ambush anorexic stars with hamburgers and fries.

And now, the Mung Hour Awards:

• The Renee Zellwegger "I'm-Privately-A-Total-Whackjob" Award goes to Anne Hathaway
• "Still Can't Tell 'Em Apart" Award goes to Amy Adams and Isla Fisher
• Angie Dickinson "I-Was-F**ing-Sinatra-20-Minutes-Before-The-Show" Award goes to Drew Barrymore
• "Huckleberry Hound" Award goes to Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Chris Klein "Your-Career-Minutes-Are-Almost-Up" Award, for the person least likely to ever win an award goes to Ashton Kutcher
• "Head! Beer! Now!" Huge Cranium Award is an ironic toss-up between future Kirk, Chris Pine and future Spock, Zachary Quinto
• "It's-Not-1990-Time-For-Normal-Bangs-Haircut" Award goes to Johnny Depp
• We need a new award, something that echoes 1998's "Nick Nolte - Why did the Prancing WOP Take My Oscar" Award. Maybe something like "Baldwin-Shaloub-Laurie AGAIN?" Award. Definite winner of that last night would be Entourage's Kevin Connolly.