Dude...I loved you in Men at Work

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for the weekly roundup, but since I don’t have too much to add in terms of insight for the past week I’ll keep it brief and get to my contribution to the Detroit Post Series.

First, had my own version of Film Club on Saturday Night that included two films, one known and one unknown:

1—I assume everyone here was born during the mid-to-late 70’s (sorry Goose, not calling you out), so I’m assuming you have some recollection of the Saturday Afternoon Epic known simply as “Krull”. I believe I first saw this film around 1985 on the families BetaMax (w/ m’f’n Hi-Fi bitches!!!) and I have seen it each subsequent year following ’85 either via Saturday Afternoon’s on KCPQ or 2am Sci-Fi, usually not on the Beta however. Not sure the original fascination with this film, but I think figured at least an aspect of my fascination out on Saturday night with the help of some local-area medicine to relieve me of …hmmm….my Glycoma. It sort of donned on me as the film entered the third act and I struggled to understand what it was like for Liam Neeson to go from Hamlet in Dublin to this, and then I realized….this is the exact film I would’ve written when I was 7!!!. It’s a cross between every great sci-fi/fantasy/C-Film that I’ve ever seen, and it does none of those films any tribute, but if I was 7 I could’ve received a f’n Pulitzer for writing this sh**, and then gone on to work with Lucas on the 2nd trilogy, if only I didn’t live in BFE, or the state equivalent=Alaska.

Now, Stanford Sherman, the man behind the legend of this screenplay, has moderate fame for his work on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, “”Any Which Way You Can (or Can’t)” and finally “Ice Pirates”, the sister film to Krull in many aspects, none of which involve an underused Liam Neeson (review of Ice Pirates coming following my next big score). I’m positive that Mr. Sherman set out to write the next “LOTR” series with the concepts of Krull, but I’m not sure this ever occurred, in fact theoretically there’s no way that Krull would’ve ever existed had it not been for the late night chats of Tolkien and Lewis, but I suppose the continued existence of man can also be attributed to those late night conversations also, so I’m not sure I have a point, as always. I do know this that if we ask Mr. Sherman’s nieces/nephews, sons/daughters, they will all have found memories of the writing sessions for Krull, and the fig newtons that followed.

For anyone still interested in what the plot line is, let me try to give it to you in a run-on sentence...

[flying spacecraft that resembles driftwood lands on planet as castle inhabited by giant eye…giant eye takes princess who would marry prince and bring peace to kingdom, but we need conflict, so following castle raid…insert Obi-Wan figure…insert “slayn” (five-bladed device that operates like an identity disc from Tron, but not nearly as cool as Bruce Boxleitner)…insert band of outlaws: hey kids its Robbie Coltrane and Liam Neeson…insert Cyclops and creepy old man with boy-servant?...random adventures through swamp…insert conclusion of prince getting princess back and a lot of good dying monologues…the end]

And you know what?...it works…”I don’t know why…it just does”…I’m sure this time next year I’ll come back and add insight to this magical tale that inexplicable draws me every single-time. Hey, maybe some day I’ll open a drive-in and have a double feature of Krull and Devil’s Rejects, but really I’d like to hear comments about this film. I’m sure con-boy could give us a more detailed description of an experience he had with Bernard Bresslaw (the Cyclops) at a Denny’s in Arlington, but for me, that review is all I can give.

2- Second film of the night that started on Sundance Channel immediately following Krull was Darren Aronofsky’s “Pi”, which I was skeptical of after having turned off “Requiem for a Dream” half-way through because, well, I’m just not emotionally balanced enough, there, I said it. Anyway, about Pi, immediately the B&W got me, nothing gets me off more than film-making post 1980 made in B&W, and that’s a science fact. I don’t know if I mentioned or not that at this time I was on my full dose of medication from Javier from White Center and going from the 7-year old inspired dialogue of “Krull” to the mathematical code of “Pi” gave me the same expression I had after reading the first page of Burrough’s “The Naked Lunch.” Needless to say I spent the rest of the 84 minutes trying to figure out just

a) what the f’ was going on, and is the term “super-computer” really even possible? Isn’t it more like: a collection of a lot of non-super computer, and if you’re going to be an elitist about computers, shouldn’t you just go all the way and name it “uber-computer”?

&

b) Is the main character in “Pi”, “Chainsaw” from Summer School? After convincing myself this was fact and completely amazed that he had amassed enormous indie-cred since his slumming’ days with Mark Harmon and Christie Alley, I learned that actually no, Dean Cameron is a man of many things, but he is no Sean Gullette (who by the way, gave one of the top 5 indie performances of all-time, this needs to be a post)

But, since, we’re on the subject of Dean Cameron; I’d like to pass on this little nugget the boys at IMDB dug up:
-Is the inventor of the Bill of Rights: Security Edition cards, which are study, playing card size, pocket-sized sheets of metal with the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution printed on them. These cards are for those who are frequent fliers on commercial airliners, considering that they can set off the airport metal detectors. The idea is that, if federal inspectors and workers find these cards, one will have to give up his Bill of Rights when searched before boarding a plane. With the exception of the Fourth Amendment which is printed in red, all the other nine amendments are printed in black.
I find this to be absolutely f’n fascinating, I’m putting Dean Cameron on the list of guys I’d like to have write for the Lodge some day, right next to Clarence Gilyard Jr. and of course (I can’t mention his name for fear of a size 15 boot imprint on my face)

Well, to sum up Saturday Night’s film club, Krull to Pi in as many steps as it takes Dean Cameron to set off a metal detector, nothing was really learned only just a lower supply of medication for the next Saturday Night Film club, (I’ll get to the Detroit contribution later today)