Check out the new updated video of the 1978 classic advert. . .

planet 51 john cleese professor kipple 2009 the idea girl says

I’ve always loved John Cleese in any movie that he does.

His genre is usually comedy and he does it very well.

As Professor Kipple, he has a small part but he is also the most dangerous character on Planet 51.

He wants to remove Charles Chuck Baker’s brain to study it.

He also decides if Lem is a traitor then he can sentence him to death…

john_cleese planet 51 2009 professor kipple the idea girl says

I’ll gladly tell you Tuesday, if you pass health care today.

Robert Gibbs told the press corps today that Obama will detail his decision on Afghanistan on Tuesday.  According to the White House Press Secretary, it is about the money.

“We are in year nine. We’re not going to be there another eight or nine years,” Gibbs said.

Obama will meet with members of Congress at the White House on Tuesday afternoon before the speech.

The president will address cost issues, Gibbs said.

“It’s $1 million a troop for a year; 10,000 troops is $10 billion,” he said. “That’s in addition to what we already spend in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That also does not include training, and it doesn’t include the maintaining of a security force. It’s very, very, very expensive.”

But, Gibbs said, “I think the president, throughout this process, has talked about the cost in terms of American lives and in terms of the cost to our treasury, and I think he’ll continue to talk about it.”

Suddenly, Obama is a fiscal conservative.

He has spent more in less than one year on a single piece of legislation than the Afghan war has cost in eight years but he wants you to believe that the cost is what is driving his tough decision.

Right.

“Anybody who believes that,” said Orin Hatch, “I know a bridge up in Massachusetts that I’ll be happy to sell to them.”

Watch John Cleese in “Decisions – Decisions“.

video from SonyPictures on youtube

Planet 51 – In theaters 11/20. For more information and free games visit http://Planet51.com/. Planet 51 is a galactic sized animated alien adventure comedy revolving around American astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker, who lands on Planet 51 thinking he’s the first person to step foot on it. To his surprise, he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world reminiscent of a cheerfully innocent 1950s America, and whose only fear is that it will be overrun by alien invaders…like Chuck! With the help of his robot companion “Rover” and his new friend Lem, Chuck must navigate his way through the dazzling, but bewildering, landscape of Planet 51 in order to escape becoming a permanent part of the Planet 51 Alien Invaders Space Museum.

Comedy, Kids/Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Animation
Director: Jorge Blanco, Marcos Martinez
Writers: Joe Stillman, Etan Cohen
Studio: Sony Pictures

Video provided by youtube RomeoScarle

Ellen DeGeneres Show – November 17, 2009

You won’t believe the voice of 12-year-old RHAP SALAZAR. I saw a YouTube video of his singing and it blew me away. I’m flying him in all the way from the Philippines. Then, I’ve helped DWAYNE JOHNSON get over his fear of tarantulas, and last time we worked on his fear of roller coasters. When he’s here to talk about his new movie “Planet 51,” I’ll see if there’s anything else we can work on. Just call me Dr. Ellen. Also, with the amount that BRIAN WILLIAMS travels the world while hosting “NBC Nightly News,” I’m so happy that he’s taking the time to be on my show today. He is a funny guy and it’s always great to have him here. I hear he’s a fan of pranks, too. Will he still be a fan if the prank is on him? There’s only one way to find out! Also, you never know who else may drop by the show today, so don’t miss it! And I’m getting excited — it’s just three more days until Robert Pattinson is here!

I really enjoyed this movie and it’s not just for kids, adults will love it too.

It’s like Shrek, where there’s a wicked sense of humor mixed with romance, adventure and awesome 50’s hits music.

I’m definitely going to buy the soundtrack when it comes out.

I loved 50’s rock n roll and that’s what this movie is about.

The good old 50’s where the village of aliens, is invaded by a human astronaut.

They argue about who is the alien then the little green guy LEM has to rescue his friend before it’s too late and his brain gets removed for scientific experiments.

planet51 the idea girl says

planet-51-wallpaper

planet-51

arturogalonso from youtube wrote:

Dirigida por Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad y Marcos Martínez. En el Planeta 51 la vida es agradable, sencilla y tranquila, pero un día, la gente vive atemorizada por la llegada de un alienígena.

Película distribuida por Videocine.

Con Música de Blink 182 canción: Aliens Exsists

Bueno, todos lo sabíamos que “Luna Nueva”, la nueva entrega de la franquicia “Crepúsculo” iba a ser como una apisonadora. Ha sido la número uno del Box Office aquí en EEUU, con una recaudación de $142,839,137. La carrera por el Oscar se ha abierto este fin de semana con el estreno de “The blind side” con la que la actriz Sandra Bullock intentará aspirar a obtener este año una estatuilla dorada, quedando la segunda del ranking con una recaudación de $34,119,372, al igual que lo intenta Oprah Winfrey con “Precious” que se sitúa en el sexto lugar, y por cierto ahora anda de vacas flacas porque la cadena CBS le ha rescindido el contrato de su show para el año que viene. Se deshincha alarmantemente el globo de “2012”, perdiendo un 60% de la cuota de pantalla en su segunda semana de exhibición, quedando la tercera del ranking. Y en el cuarto lugar está “PLANET 51”, por encima incluso de “Un cuento de navidad” de Robert Zemeckis que no hace más que perder espectadores semana a semana esta en concreto un 40%. La película dirigida por el triunvirato formado por Blanco, Abad y Martínez ha hecho una más que digna apertura de $12,286,129. Cosa a la que ha contribuido un servidor ya que fui a verla el viernes del estreno, y desde ese momento no he dejado de recomendarla, y además que las cosas bien hechas bien están, y que desde luego que la animación española puede competir con la norteamericana.

Lo único es que hay que tener de partida una buena idea, en este caso el gran guión de Joe Stillman, que nos narra la odisea espacial del astronauta americano Charles “Chuck” Baker, que aterriza en Planet 51 pensando que es la primera persona en pisar el planeta. Para su sorpresa, descubre que el planeta está habitado por pequeñas criaturas verdes que viven felizmente en un mundo plagado de cercas blancas, reminiscencia de la alegre inocencia de la América de los años 50, y cuyo único temor es el de ser invadidos por alienígenas… ¡como Chuck!.

Esta inteligente comedia hibrida géneros al reformular la serie B de ciencia ficción con la típica fórmula de buddy movie, en donde dos tipos muy diferentes son amigos. Así Charles encontrará en Lem a un fiel compañero de aventuras y le defenderá de un enemigo muy reconocible “los militares”. Pero es más, Stillman juega con las mismas cartas que los productos de animación de Dreamworks y llena de referencias el film, todas ellas muy divertidas, desde las más recientes cinematográficamente hablando como “Wall-E” con ese personaje entrañable que es el robot “Rover” hasta las más clásicas como “La guerra de los mundos” de Bashki, “ET, el estraterrestre” de Spielberg, pasando por “Alien” de Scott, pero en tono amable. 

Así estamos ante un largometraje de animación que es totalmente deslumbrante, con una factura impecable tecnológicamente hablando, y de la que ya os hemos hablado. Es más, no me importa que esté dirigido por tres personas mientras tengan clara la idea de lo que quieren, le otorguen una duración adecuada y sepan hacer lo mejor de los actores. Lo bueno es que han creado un producto con el que los fans del género podrán disfrutar en el cine de la mano de sus retoños y sobrinos. Es un film que funciona a muchos niveles, no sólo de homenaje, sino también de crítica social. Así han hecho un producto muy inteligente.

Desconozco como será la impresión de verla con los diálogos en castellano, en este caso os recomendaría verla en inglés, porque la acción posee aromas norteamericanos y las voces de Dwayne Johnson, John Cleese, Gary Oldman Seann William Scott, Justin Long y Jessica Biel son maravillosas. Están estupendos y te ríes como un niño chico. A la hora de criticarla he intentado huir del cinismo y del chovinismo. Estamos ante una gran película por méritos propios. Que las cinco estrellas que le pongo es porque me parece un producto redondo, sin fisuras, que sabe a dónde va y qué busca del espectador. Que será recordado con el tiempo.

Alguno podrá decir posee una trama infantil. Y no le sobrará razón, pero lo que no debe perder de vista ninguno a la hora de comprar la entrada es que se trata de un largometraje familiar, para todos los públicos, teniendo a los más pequeños de la casa como espectador preferente. Se trata de una cinta para niños en la que los adultos no se aburriran como ostras. Ahí radica la amplitud de miras de sus creadores y productores, obviamente inspirados en el nuevo modelo de film de animación que imponen desde las grandes productoras norteamericanas. Luego, da lo que ofrece y no engaña. Vale, podéis decir que está rodeada de una gran campaña de marketing, correcto. Pero decidme si Disney o Dreamworks no lo usan, y vamos todos reverencialmente a verlas.

Esta cinta le da quince vueltas a “Monstruos y alienígenas”, que ya os dijimos que era aburrido hasta decir basta. Que hay mucho talento enlatado en estos noventa minutos de metraje. Por eso no quiero acabar esta reseña de la película sin hablar de una persona, a la que no conozco en persona pero que me parece todo un personaje. Hablo de Ignacio Pérez Dolset, el productor de todo esto. Un hombre que sabe reconocer el talento, y que lo apoya sin fisuras.

Entregando su capital en una empresa en la que cree y confía, y que además conoce y sabe jugar con las mismas reglas que los grandes. No ha estado pensando en el coste marginal del producto, en el valor añadido o en el porcentaje del merchandishing. Se nota que esto está hecho con cabeza, mucho corazón y sumo respeto por los espectadores, independientemente de que sean aficionados o no al género de la ciencia ficción y la serie B norteamericana.  A lo mejor porque es rico y altruista, porque quiere y puede o porque es un as de las finanzas y los negocios, en todos esos casos le envío mis más sinceras felicitaciones y un enorme ¡Olé! transoceánico. Sólo le deseo que sea un taquillazo como aquí y que sea la más vista y se haga con el primer puesto del ranking español. Sobre todo porque tengo la certeza que lo reinvertiría en otra nueva película.

Con personajes como él, la idea de generar una industria en el campo de la animación en España es posible, y así nuestros grandes animadores no tendrán que exiliarse o ir a buscar trabajo al extranjero. Porque los tenemos y muy buenos, alguno de ellos que lucha por abrirse camino hasta es posible que esté leyendo estas letras en Barcelona y cuyo nombre no voy a dar, pero tengo por certeza que estaría encantado de trabajar para el señor Pérez Dolset. Así que hemos de agradecer que esta película tras años de gestación haya conseguido ver la luz y que encima haya tenido tan buen resultado a este lado del océano.

PLANET 51 – Trailer español

The tables are turned in this animated sci-fi adventure featuring the voices of Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Gary Oldman, and John Cleese. In PLANET 51, an astronaut arrives on a distant planet, but he’s not alone; he’s surrounded by aliens who desperately fear invasion by…aliens.

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Gary Oldman, John Cleese
Director: Jorge Blanco
Screenwriter: Joe Stillman
Producer: Ignacio Perez Dolset, Guy Collins
Studio: New Line Cinema

MOVIE TRAILER :

When I see Dick Cheney on television, receiving awards for what he did with Rumsfeld, or Sarah Palin trying to pretend that she has any rational political ideas at all, (laughs) I think it’s one of the funniest things you can see in the free world.

John Cleese quoted in Vanity Fair

Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress. Although she was initially known as a “scream queen” because of her starring roles in many horror films early in her career such as Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that covers many genres. Her 1998 book, Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day, made the best-seller list in The New York Times. She is married to actor Christopher Guest (Lord Haden-Guest) and, as the wife of a lord, is titled Lady Haden-Guest, but she chooses not to use the title when in the United States. She is currently the spokeswoman for Activia. She is also a blogger for The Huffington Post online newspaper.

Trivia:

During the 1980s she was engaged to Hollywood production designer J. Michael Riva, the grandson of screen legend Marlene Dietrich. Her godfather was MCA-Universal CEO Lew Wasserman.

Saw her future husband Christopher Guest in the issue of Rolling Stone magazine with Cyndi Lauper on the cover. Guest appeared in a promotional photo for the film This Is Spinal Tap (1984) in full costume and makeup as a rock star. She fell in love at first sight of the photo and gave her telephone number to his agent.

Adopted two children with Christopher Guest: Annie Guest (b. December 1986) and Thomas (b. March 1996).

Daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

Became formally known as Baroness Haden-Guest of Saling in the County of Essex (or, less formally, Lady Haden-Guest), when her husband, Christopher, inherited the barony in 1996 on the death of his father.

Graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall private school in 1976.

It was on her suggestion that Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) was made.

Her deleted scene from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) is included on the MGM Special Edition DVD, 2001, as the “Alternate Opening”.

Was asked to cameo in Scream 3 (2000), but declined.

Won a 2003 Grammy nomination in the Best Spoken Album for Children category for her recording of the children’s books she has written.

Measurements: 34C-22-32 (wardrobe on Forever Young (1992)) (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Attended University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

When making reservations in exclusive London restaurants at short notice, she gives her name as Lady Haden-Guest, which apparently works better than Jamie Lee Curtis.

She told a German magazine that she will retire from making movies and that Christmas with the Kranks (2004) will be her last work as an actress. (November 2004)

Said in an interview on Good Entertainment, with Michael Medved (2001) (TV) that, ironically, horror films terrify her and she prefers not to watch them.

Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992

Was one of the guests at Sandra Bullock’s and Jesse James’ wedding.

Godmother of Jake Gyllenhaal.

Two of her earliest roles make reference to roles played by her father. She appeared in the television series “Operation Petticoat” (1977), based on the movie that had starred her father, Tony Curtis. While on hiatus from that show, she was cast in Halloween (1978), in which the detective “Sam Loomis” was named after a character from Psycho (1960), which had starred her mother, Janet Leigh. Also, her father imitated Cary Grant’s voice for his role in Some Like It Hot (1959), and worked with Grant himself in Operation Petticoat (1959). Grant’s birth name, Archie Leach, was used as the name for John Cleese’s character in A Fish Called Wanda (1988).

Once said that Dan Aykroyd was the best on-screen kisser she ever worked with.

John Cleese found it amusing that her father, Tony Curtis’s real name was Bernard Schwartz. To tease her about this, during the production of A Fish Called Wanda (1988), he had the call sheets refer to her as “Jamie Lee Schwartz.”.

Around the time True Lies (1994) was released, Jamie appeared in a series of commercials for L’Eggs Pantyhose. The company also took out an insurance policy for her legs.

Amazon Specials!

I don’t care how mature you are–everyone loves a good cartoon once in a while. Sometimes you just need to leave the adult world behind and relax with some youthful hilarity. The problem with Planet 51 is it’s not youthful, it’s infantile. Planet 51 is so inane that not only is adult enjoyment unattainable, even younger audiences will be on to its lack of intelligence and novelty.

Click here to read more.

One of the greatest cinematic love affairs of the past half-century has been between British film fans and an angular, accident-prone beanpole of a Frenchman named Monsieur Hulot. The iconic comedy character created by the mime-turned-star and writer-director Jacques Tati has been tickling the funny bones of filmgoers since the release of the movie which introduced him – M. Hulot’s Holiday – in 1953. And it’s a love affair which is being celebrated at this year’s French Film Festival, with a retrospective of all of Jacques Tati’s screen work.

Tati may only have made a handful of films, but they have made a lasting impression on generations of viewers – and it’s not just the popular vote which they’ve earned. His admirers have included Orson Welles, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg and Belleville Rendez-Vous creator Sylvain Chomet who is currently transforming a previously unfilmed Tati script into an animated film.

Tati’s brilliance as a comedy actor has influenced at least two generations of comedians: John Cleese, Paul Merton and Rowan Atkinson, who described seeing M Hulot’s Holiday as “a defining moment in my life” (and paid homage to it in his 2007 film Mr Bean’s Holiday), are just some of the British comics who owe a clear debt to Tati and his very physical comedy style.

But what is it about Tati that makes him so well-loved – even by viewers who wouldn’t ordinarily go to see a foreign film? The main reason has to be his “everyman” appeal. Tati created easily identifiable types who everyone can recognise from their own experience – the postman who takes himself and his work too seriously in his 1949 film Jour de Fete (could he have been the inspiration for Cliff Clavin, the super-officious mailman in the sitcom Cheers?) and the eager-to-please social misfit M Hulot, who creates chaos out of order and is baffled by the technological trappings of modern life.

M Hulot’s fellow holidaymakers are also brilliantly drawn and would fit in to Fawlty Towers as comfortably as they do the Hotel de la Plage. There’s the veteran soldier who drones on about his wartime experiences, the meek, middle-aged sweety-wifey of a husband who is always several steps behind his banality-spouting spouse (“Oh, there’s another boat … and another … oh!”) during their saunters around the beach, and the workaholic businessman whose holiday is punctuated by frequent trips to the telephone (rather like the Tony Roberts character in Woody Allen’s Play It Again Sam).

The humour in Tati’s films is very physical – and therefore universal. Tati said that the way a comic actor used his legs was paramount, and he used his to maximum comedy effect, mixing loping strides with hesitant little shuffles as he tries to ingratiate himself into new people’s company. Physically, M Hulot is every bit as recognisable – even in silhouette – as Charlie Chaplin’s iconic Little Tramp.

The characteristic Hulot pose is of him tilting forward, with his head at a quizzical angle, his hat tipped over his eyes, his ubiquitous pipe at a right angle to his long nose, his arms bent behind him with his hands resting on his hips. Like Chaplin’s alter ego, he always wears the same kit – trousers that aren’t quite long enough, his Tyrolean-esque hat and stripy socks. He nearly always has his umbrella handy. He walks with a lolling gait, on well-sprung tiptoes and is undoubtedly a French cousin d’un certain Basil Fawlty.

Tati’s background as a mime meant that he was most at home devising visual gags, rather than writing and delivering one-liners or trading witter banter with another actor. Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python team member who became a director, has said: “One of Tati’s great qualities is that his films contain almost no dialogue. I find this particularly brilliant – these divinely French films that create no problem when it comes to subtitling. In terms of dialogue, Monty Python learnt everything from Tati. We owe everything to him.”

Tati’s films feature soundtracks of exaggerated, cartoon-like noises which heighten the effect of the visual comedy – the putt, putt, putt of M Hulot’s old jalopy as it chugs along the road, the be-doing of the restaurant door as the motley crew of hotel guests assembles for lunch, the crashing noise made by our hero’s racquet as he serves in the funniest tennis match in movie history.

The gags which Tati created for his films worked on a number of levels. Many of today’s Tati fans have grown up with M Hulot’s Holiday and have found that their appreciation of it has only increased with time, as they find more and more humour in it.

There’s the obvious, laugh-out-loud slapstick sequences, which appeal enormously to children, but most of the humour lies in the beautifully observed, often whimsical, details which are not flagged up, but are quietly unfolding in a corner of the screen. It pays to see Tati’s films in the cinema as so much happens in the background – and he actively avoided filming close-ups. Orson Welles once said: “There are performers who are only good in full figure. Move in on Tati and he literally disappears.”

Of course, the films also appeal to anyone with a fondness for France and the French way of life. They celebrate the quaint, the eccentric and a lifestyle which Tati saw being replaced by a faster, more consumer and technology-driven one. Jour de Fete and M Hulot’s Holiday are lovely to look at, since they are set in unspoilt rural France, and they move at such a leisurely pace that you can soak up the detail of both the comedy and the setting.

Terry Jones, another Monty Python graduate, has said of Tati: “He was a visual genius. His films, without being silent, all have the qualities, the beauty and the richness of silent film.”

Even by the time he made his third film, Mon Oncle (1958), Tati was beginning to show signs of self-indulgence in his work. His subsequent films – PlayTime (1967),  Trafic (1971) and Parade (1973) – are reviled and revered in equal measure. But Jour de Fete and M Hulot’s Holiday are perfect comedies that showcase Tati’s comedy at its most pure – and most appealing.

* The Totally Tati retrospective is on at the Glasgow Film Theatre and the Edinburgh Filmhouse now. The BFI’s new box set of five Tati films is out now.

http://moreivyou.wordpress.com

As voiced by Dwayne “the artist formerly known as The Rock” Johnson, astronaut Chuck Baker is the paragon of all-American achievement — that is, until he conquers a far off world with an unexpected population, one inexplicably steeped in our ’50s-era culture and terrified by the prospect of an alien invader in human form. More unfortunately for us, Chuck has landed smack-dab in the middle of Planet 51, a short-sighted assembly of sci-fi references and scatalogical humor that should nonetheless placate undemanding tots and, by extension, their undiscerning parents for ninety minutes or so.

The basic premise is lifted from The Day The Earth Stood Still, as green-skinned astronomer Lem (voiced by Justin Long) has to hide the new visitor from the military that stand between him and his ship. Chuck harps on relentlessly about “the right stuff,” as if today’s kids know their Gus Grissom from their Buzz Lightyear. We get an alien pet with a tongue within a tongue (instead of a mouth within a mouth) that urinates acid (instead of bleeding it). There’s your token E.T. ”over the moon” visual cue, and forgive me if I imagined a 2001 reference that actually wasn’t in there (although I’m fairly certain a Singin’ in the Rain bit was). It all just sort of blurs together after a while.

Oh, and just in case you feared all of that might go whizzing right over the little ones’ heads, there’s a Macarena joke and a Facebook reference. Welcome to 2009, y’all.

Writer Joe Stillman was one of four writers to receive an Academy Award nomination for their snappy Shrek screenplay, but by the time we get to corks being offered as butt plugs to prevent probing and an exposed (off-screen) penis being mistaken for an antenna, I can’t help but wonder if he isn’t that group’s answer to Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer being touted as two of the six writers of Scary Movie (you know, the worst ones).

Beyond all that, the script fails to justify why some planet unknown to ours would speak English and be seemingly stuck in a culture identical to our own in the 1950s — it’s simply reason enough to have the role reversal scenario play out amidst a relentless soundtrack of sugar-coated pop covers and a wardrobe of era-appropriate shirts (although not a single creature in sight bothers with wearing pants). Did we send some sort of Americana capsule to this planet that caused the white picket fences and the round convertibles and the duck-and-cover drills? Is there any sort of implication about our country’s knack for colonization, before the era and since? Nope. Nothing. It’s retro just because it can be.

Johnson could voice cocky swagger in his sleep, and might as well have; same with Long and whiny panic. Gary Oldman earns a paycheck as a generally threatening general, while John Cleese does likewise as his lackey scientist. Jessica Biel happens to be the love interest, though she’s more often than not keeping company with an aggravating hippie equivalent (Alan Marriott). Seann William Scott plays Long’s initially paranoid pal who falls hard for Johnson’s own sidekick, a rock-collecting space rover named… Rover. (Was it legal to have creature-machine relations in these fake-fifties? Oh, never mind…)

To some extent, Planet 51 does demonstrate how the bar for mediocre computer-generated animation has been raised, if only in terms of visuals. Clothing textures or fire dynamics simply couldn’t have looked this good a decade back, and it doesn’t take Pixar to make a cartoon pretty. It does, though, take them to make a cartoon matter, and knowing full well that Up is now on DVD or that the new old-fashioned likes of Fantastic Mr. Fox will soon by playing on a neighboring screen (if not already) means that I can’t really recommend something this lackluster with a good conscience.

Sure, it’s bright and shiny and will keep your kids stationary for an hour and a half, but parents? Try and hold out for the intelligent ‘toons. I promise that they’re out there, waiting to be discovered by you and yours.

by William Goss

In other non-kid, non-Todd news (what? I do have a life?), I had the pleasure of seeing two really cool shows within the last couple of weeks. In fact, so cool that I would classify both as once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunities to see my personal icons!

First up: Steve Martin. He is on tour promoting his banjo album, and I was beside myself to see him with the Steep Canyon Rangers at the OC Performing Arts Center. I don’t think I stopped elbowing Todd the entire time. (“Hey, that’s Steve Martin! That’s really Steve Martin! I’M seeing Steve Martin!”)

This week was John Cleese. Despite being a vegetarian (and thus, inherently untrustworthy ), I felt much the same as I did at Steve Martin’s show. John Cleese, however, did the show that I wish Steve Martin had. It was a hodgepodge of funny anecdotes, film clips, and interaction with the audience. Apparently, he’s quite fond of blonde American girls, and I nearly asked him to dinner in spite of the husband and children sitting at home. (Well, the children were home. Husband was at work. Thanks for watching the girls, Uncle Mackey!)

Aside from admiring the man for his work, I also found this video really informative. A lot of it makes perfect sense and perhaps is not new thinking on the subject of being ‘creative’ but what it does do is remind me of the simple basic and natural parameters you have to enforce in order to even give yourself a chance.

Opening 4th of December at S.G.C. DUNGARVAN.

Synopsis: The tables are turned in this animated sci-fi adventure. In PLANET 51, an astronaut arrives on a distant planet, but he’s not alone; he’s surrounded by aliens who desperately fear invasion by…aliens.

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Justin Long, Seann William Scott, Gary Oldman, John Cleese

Director: Jorge Blanco

- John David

Apropos my posting on middle class shoplifting and the  raw nerves which were touched, an old TV sketch kept coming to mind:

I was amused recently when John Prescott (see TBLFP passim) did his series about class. He was in a high rise (in London I think) with some single mothers and asked them what class they regarded themselves belonging to. Prescott answered the question for them and said” I’d say you were working class” to which one of them replied quite seriously “I’d say middle class because I don’t work!”

Edit:

In fact here is the very clip!

A few months ago, I bought tickets for a show for a date night for my husband and myself.  Our date nights are few and far between, and we were both looking forward to this show last night.  But with my aunt’s death early yesterday morning, we weren’t sure if it was appropriate to go or not.  Does one go to a humorous show on the day a loved one has died?  But, we knew my aunt was in heaven, we knew she loved to laugh, and we knew that if we could ask her what to do, she would say, “Go to the show!”

So, we went.  And we had a marvelous time.

What was the show?  We watched John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, perform a one-man show consisting of him telling stories about his life in comedy television.  The show was held in the Fox Theater in downtown Redwood City, an old historical landmark theater.  JJ and I went early and had supper at a fabulous little Italian restaurant about two blocks from the theater.  It was a good thing we did, because when we came out and walked to the theater, the line to get into the show stretched for two blocks in the other direction!  If we had been trying to park right before the show, we would have had to park quite a distance away.  We were both pleased about that.  And the food was wonderful at the restaurant!

The show itself was — hilarious!!  We laughed and laughed.  Apparently, John Cleese and his wife recently divorced VERY unamicably.  He has to pay her $20 million, leaving her richer than him!  He talked about this at the beginning of the show, explaining to the audience that he’s doing these shows simply because he “needs the money.”  After spending a little time hilariously ripping on his ex-wife (and her lawyer), he began to talk also hilariously about his childhood, his early years in TV, his time with Monty Python, his award-winning show Fawlty Towers, and a bit about the movie he wrote “A Fish Called Wanda.”  He wore a simple pair of jeans with a collared yellow shirt and a jacket, and the props on the stage consisted merely of a small table and chair with a glass and water pitcher on the table, a podium on the side of the stage, and a projection screen hanging in the middle, onto which various pictures were shown that connected to what he was talking about.

Here are a few interesting/funny highlights that I can remember from the show:

1. When he was ranting about how much he has to pay his wife in his divorce settlement, he mentioned various female celebrities and how often he could have married and divorced them and paid them settlements that would have equaled the $20 million.  He said something to the effect of this: “I could have married Pamela Anderson 2 and 1/3 times.  I could have married _____ 3.4 times.  I could have married this woman from Fremont (and he showed a picture of some minimally attractive woman) 200 times.” – except that he couldn’t get out the end of the joke because he was laughing so hard at the picture of the woman from “Fremont” [a city right across the Bay].  It was hysterically funny, especially because Cleese was buckled over laughing himself.  It was SO funny!
2. He was the only child of his parents, born after they had been married 13 years.  They hadn’t been planning to have children, so John’s arrival was a bit of a surprise.
3. He made the joke that he was born to parents who were “poor, but honest – the worst kind of childhood of all.”  The way he said it was so funny!
4. He made a lot of jokes about his childhood hometown of Weston-Super-Mare, in England.  He said it was a town where absolutely nothing ever happened.  However, it did get bombed in WWII; Cleese said the Germans bombed it simply to prove that they had a sense of humor.
5. When Cleese graduated from high school, he applied and was accepted to Cambridge.  However, for some reason there was a glut of graduates (I forget why), so he had to wait two years until it was his turn to enter Cambridge.  During those two years, he was offered a position teaching 10 year old boys at his old elementary school, and he took the job.
6. He met Graham Chapman at Cambridge, and they were doing comedy together almost from the start.  Cleese studied to become a lawyer.
7. He somehow (I forget how) ended up in a musical on Broadway right after his college graduation, even though he couldn’t sing a note.  Under order from the music director, he mimed the words along with the rest of the men in the chorus.  One night when he did try to sing along a bit, the music director noticed and sternly reminded him after the show, “No singing!”
8. Recently he asked his fellow Pythons what their favorite “silly” scene from the “Flying Circus” shows was, the the unanimous choice was the fish slapping scene.
9. The “Black Knight” scene in the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (the one where Arthur lops off the arms and then the legs of the Black Knight, even as the Knight refuses to acknowledge defeat) was one that every producer of the movie wanted to take out.  However, when the movie was shown to preview audiences, that invariably was one of the people’s favorite scenes, so it stayed in.
10. Michael Palin can make Cleese laugh more than anyone.  Cleese shared a story of the time the Pythons were performing live in the Hollywood Bowl, and Palin changed a line in the “Dead Parrot” sketch, which completely cracked Cleese up.  He was laughing so hard he couldn’t remember his lines, and when it was his turn for a line, he turned to the Hollywood Bowl audience, who filled in the lines for him.
11. Cleese is apparently very anti-marketing and anti-political correctness.  Every time he mentioned marketers, he loudly spat onto the floor.  He also said that political correctness has ruined a lot of good comedy.

In the lobby, there were T-shirts for sale that said “I Saw John Cleese Perform” on the front, and on the back of the shirt it said “Just Before He Died.”  JJ and I thought those were pretty funny.  Other T-shirts for sale had silhouette images of Cleese in various poses of his “silly walks,” and on the back it said “Alimony Tour – Year One.”  There were also autographed hats that said, “What Would JC do?”  It was all very funny.

At the end of the show, when his “time was up,” he took a few questions from the audience.  There was a microphone ready on one side of the floor, and people lined up in the aisle to ask him a question.  He took about 5-6 questions, and they were all good questions from people who were much bigger Python fans than I am.  But one of the questions I remember: Someone asked about the PC-ness of the song “Never Be Rude to an Arab.”  It made me go home and dig out my Monty Python Instant Record Collection CD and listen to that song; it is most definitely NOT a politically correct song!

All in all, it was a really fun evening, and it has made me want to dig out my video of “The Life of Brian” and watch it again.  I’ve also never watched “The Meaning of Life” after an aborted attempt with a friend in high school; maybe I’ll give it a try again.  I know it’s full of black humor, but perhaps it will strike me a little differently now.  Our local PBS station also often plays old episodes of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” — I’ll probably watch those a little more closely, too.

It was fun to get out, fun to go to something that made us laugh, and it was just fun to see a famous person — in person!  At the very end of the show, Cleese mentioned that he recently moved to an apartment in San Francisco, so who knows?  Maybe he’ll be around in this area a little more.  Then again, I know a number of other celebrities live in SF, too, and I never see them either.  I’m not one who moves in celebrity-ridden circles, you know. 

Am Wochenende hat der VfB in Gladbach gespielt. Bisher habe ich keine einzige Spielszene gesehen. Gelesen habe ich den einen oder anderen Text, sodass ich von Jens Lehmanns starker Leistung weiß, und dass es ein glücklicher Punktgewinn war, auch wenn Kuzmanovic den Pfosten traf. Ich weiß von Marco Reus’ Dribblings und seiner Spontanheilung, und habe mir sagen lassen, dass sich der VfB nunmehr in seine Situation (sprich: das traurige Tabellenbild) zu fügen scheine. Weiterhin las ich, dass Sebastian Rudy in der Mannschaft blieb, wohl aber nicht an seine Leistung aus dem Sevilla-Spiel anknüpfen konnte, und dass Markus Babbel erneut bereits nach 45 Minuten wechselte. Yildiray Bastürks Comeback sowie sein Pech im Abschluss nahm ich zur Kenntnis. Erfreut war ich über Patrick Funks Kaderberufung.

Kurz: ich habe nichts Gehaltvolles zu bieten. Dass ich eben das hier aufschreibe, ist lediglich dem Umstand geschuldet, dass allem Anschein nach der eine oder die andere VfB-Interessierte heute gelegentlich hier vorbeigeschaut hat, was mich sehr freut. Statt also einfach stillschweigend unterschwellige Erwartungen nicht zu erfüllen, danke ich für das Interesse und verweise ausnahmsweise nicht auf den Brustring, wo das Spiel auch noch nicht verarbeitet wurde, sondern nach Gladbach, wo es auf’m Platz wie so oft sehr lesenswert zugeht.

Für diejenigen, die doch noch ein wenig verweilen wollen:
I know nothing. (but: I learn!)

The story goes that in 1970, the Monty Python team booked a stay in the Gleneagles Hotel, in the seaside English town of Torquay. During this stay, the owner of the Gleneagles — well-documented as ex-Royal Navy man Donald Sinclaire — reportedly lambasted American Terry Gilliam for his poor table manners, suspected Eric Idle’s suitcase of being a bomb and left it in the garden, abused the foreign help and threw a timetable at a guest who asked about the bus routes.

As the rest of the troupe moved on, John Cleese and wife Connie Booth decided to stay, for research, and turned Sinclaire into the basis for Basil Fawlty, one of the most amazingly rude and unlovable leading men in sitcom history and the pivot point at the center the BBC’s 1975 12-episode run of Fawlty Towers. The comedy, which only ran in the US intermittently on PBS, detailed the goings-on at a luxury hotel run by Basil, his haughty and domineering wife Sybil (Prunella Scales), waitress Polly (Connie Booth) and non-English speaking spanish laborer Manuel (Andrew Sachs), who provided a great deal of the program’s physical comedy.

Though derided by critics at the time (a writer for Television Today called it “devoid of everything that makes good modern comedy”), Fawlty Towers was named number one  in the British Film Institute’s 100 Greatest British Television Programmes in 2000 and Basil Fawlty was named “Britain’s Funniest Comedy Character” by the UK’s Channel Five in 2006.

As 2009 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the program’s close, the BBC celebrates by releasing the three-disc deluxe, special edition Fawlty Towers Remastered on October 20. This special edition features each episode of the series in digital restoration, commentary by John Cleese, interviews with the cast, outtakes, a visit to Torquay and more. The Facebook Fan Page for Fawlty Towers is even running a Basil Fawlty Lookalike Contest with judging by Cleese himself.

And while you can buy Fawlty Towers Remastered now directly from the BBC, The Brown Tweed Society is pleased to announce its newest Essay Contest — in correlation with the BBC and American Pop Digital — for you to win a copy of the DVDs for free!

And it couldn’t be easier.

Here’s what we’re asking:

TO ENTER: In at least 150 words, detail what — in your opinion — has been the greatest post-Monty Python project (in any realm of popular culture) from a member of the troupe since the team disbanded. And, of course, support your decision.

C’mon now…that’s an easy one, we think. Lots to choose from. 

SEND IT TO: thebrowntweedsociety@gmail.com– with the subject headline “Fawlty Towers DVD Contest”

That’s not so hard now, is it? The winning entry will receive a copy of Fawlty Towers Remastered delivered right to their doorstep and will be printed at TBTS.

The deadline, you ask? How about Saturday, November 28 (midnight)?*

So visit the Fawlty Towers Facebook page to enter the Lookalike Contest for more great prizes and enter the TBTS Essay Contest today. There are few DVDs that look great for a comedy fan to have in his or her collection. Let us give you this one for free.

*This contest is open to entrants from any country, but bear in mind that the DVD is a Region 1 coded DVD. Those associated with The Brown Tweed Society are ineligible for tangible, physical prizes but remain–as always — more than qualified to receive long, lingering hugs.

Thanks to the good folks at American Pop who have sent me a copy of Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered for me to review! I’ll have the review up probably tomorrow or the next day. Amusingly, btw, you’ll notice the price of that newer, better version of the show is cheaper on Amazon than the regular version. Life’s gentle ironies.

In the meantime, they’re running a rather spiffy contest! It’s a look-a-like contest, to find people (or possibly things), that remind folks of things (or possibly people), from Fawlty Towers. The grand prize winner, chosen by the interesting John Cleese himself, will win a whole bag of loot, including a Fawlty Towers bathrobe. You better believe I want that!

Anyhow, as I said, I’ll have my review of it up in the next day or two. Meantime, go enter the contest!

Ok! Thoughts for today!

I saw this on Webcomics.com today. John Cleese talks about creativity and developing a focus area with a distinct space and time that can help you be creative. What’s funny to me is that this is totally how you learn to be a musician – the development of very intense creative focus. Usually, it comes through hours of solo practice in a practice room – there’s a very specific place (ugly white-walled practice room with nothing in it but a piano) and a specific time (whenever you go to practice, usually some kind of scheduled system either set up by you or the school or both). You also see this kind of thing in sports – in order to do really well, you have to have really deep focus and this focus might be tied to a specific place (where you practice) and a specific time (when you practice). It’s interesting that he mentions that this focus “doesn’t come from laptops” – I totally agree with the idea that multiple focus technology (like having more than one window open at a time to do things) actually takes you longer and is disruptive and destructive of focus, even though you might feel that it’s faster. On the other hand though, technology can be a great tool to get information or inspiration that provokes this focus (or a creative need for this focus).

Going back to the thing that I want to invent (some kind of new learning technology/game?/thing) – I’m not quite sure how to reconcile bringing in people’s attention through short videos vs. sustaining and developing good focus in kids. This kind of focus is really, ridiculously important, it turns out, because it allows you to be a better learner (and score better on placement tests). This is part of the reason why kids who take music lessons or play instruments actually test better than kids who don’t – because the music kids have developed the ability to deeply focus on stuff for longer periods of time. So…somehow I have to figure out not only how to teach things that use diagrams/videos/songs/other kinesthetic media?/what-have-you in teaching, but also how the testing of this material and maybe the learning of it also needs to be developing this kind of deep focus.

I also should check more into this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_attention_effect It seems that viewing diagrams and text at the same time actually is proven to be helpful and more efficient than just reading text. Fascinating and helpful, I think, for my argument that if learning is more integrated into the multiple intelligences, then learning will be faster and better. Essentially, the more ways you encode the information into your brain, the more places that info is going to be stored and your retrieval of it will be better. (At least, this is my theory- though, I think this is actually scientifically proven in psych studies as well, I’ll have to check my textbook).

Also for today: Links! Click away at the magic that are these awesome people from Seattle:

http://www.commoncraft.com/ - They make short videos to explain things! Look at how cute those little hand done drawings are! It’s like slow-tech or something – I love the fusion of print + web.

http://www.lilipip.com/ - I guess these guys do similar things, but with different animation styles. Check out the crazy talented people they’ve got on their creative team! Dude!!

I so want to intern/work for these people! Again, just putting that out there, while I keep plugging away at my own crazy-go-nuts idea of revitalizing the education system…

Well, off I go – I’ve got to study a ton and half of names for a greek mythology test today -

Mishy

Monty Pythons “The Parrot Sketch” is a classic.

If you’re even a casual Python fan it’s pretty much an unwritten rule that you at least have to quote this sketch by heart.

BUT the first time I saw “The Parrot Sketch” was when I caught it on SNL, nearly a decade ago. It wasn’t till years later that I finally got to see the original version.

I haven’t seen the SNL take on the sketch since I saw it first aired but bless the internet, not only is the original sketch up and about, so is the SNL one!

Lets watch shall we….

And below is the link to the SNL one….

http://www.hulu.com/watch/102861/saturday-night-live-the-parrot-sketch#s-p2-sr-i1

The funniest story concerning the SNL version was that on the week of the show, Lorne Michaels asked John Cleese and Michael Palin if they could perform the sketch on SNL that week.

Cleese and Palin agreed, but both realized they completely forgot how the sketch went.(And mind you, this was before internet video was as big as is it today so they couldn’t have just looked it up.) One of them came up with pretty brilliant idea to figure out the sketch…go to a local college and find a fan.

Thats exactly what they did. They went to NYU, found a fan, the fan wrote the whole sketch FROM MEMORY(see, what did I tell you) and thats the version that went up on SNL later that week.

So knowing this, it’s pretty clear why the newer one isn’t that good. The number one problem is that the pacing is very slow in the newer one. Cleese and Palin’s performance just doesn’t have the same energy (which is fine, it was just a couple of decades since they last did it). My theory is that since it has been so long, they forgot how to play for the laughs in the sketch.

In the end, the big problem is that it was trying to recapture the magic of the first time, and with that long between doing it the first time (and most likely not having enough time to rehearse) and doing it for SNL, we have a very flawed version of the sketch.

That being said, it was very cool to see Palin and Cleese act together in a sketch again, especially being it being that sketch.

This is the third week of the course Introduction to Philosophy at the Objectivist Academic Center.  During the week we will be discussing four major positions regarding this subject

1. Rational Theology
2. Atheism
3. Agnosticism
4. Non-Rational Theology

As a rational atheist I have my mind pretty clear on this subject.  I am continuously reading books on this subject, and love to remind my friends and colleagues about the infinite list of death and suffering caused by religions during thousands of years.  That being said, I hope you’ll enjoy the video “Life of Brian” made by the guys from Monty Python in 1979.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian (part 1 of 11)