May 23, 2006

Behold The Glory Of The Twitch-O-Meter!

(Posted In Twitch-O-Meter )

americanastronaut.jpgWhilst discussing behind the scenes how to better amuse ourselves here at Twitch the suggestion came up for some possible regular columns. The easiest of these to implement, and thus the first to actually happen, is what you see before you, the Twitch-O-Meter. Here's how it works:

Following a fortnightly schedule - because it sounds better than every two weeks - one of the Twitch writers will post a run down of something dear to their hearts. Authorship will rotate, content will vary. The unifying factor is that it will be a countdown of some sort. Could be our favorite bad films, blockbusters we're ashamed of loving, forgotten gems, a regional spotlight, anything really. The current list will always be accessible via the 'Featured Content' area of the right column, while those who wish to dig through the back issues - once we actually have back issues - will find a new option in the category pull downs.

I'm handling this inaugural edition myself, and so I present to you my Top 5 Genre Mash Ups.

A couple notes before the list proper. First, this is obviously just one man's opinion and is not meant to be taken Biblically. It's a conversation starter, so feel free to chime in, suggest other options, or tell me you think I'm a moron. Second, when trying to decide what constitutes a genre blender I opted to first disqualify mash ups that have gone on to become recognized genres in themselves (so no zombie splatter comedies), films that are weird but hold to a distinct and singular internal logic (so no Tears of The Black Tiger or Bubba Ho Tep), and films that combine two or less distinct genres. Got it? Good. Onwards!

5. Bangkok Loco. Thai commercial director Pink - it's what he calls himself and much easier to spell than his real name - made his feature film debut with this, a luridly colored rock and roll musical sex comedy martial arts send up. Every inch of the screen is jammed with bizarre images, but what else could you expect from a film that posits Ringo Starr as an evil martial arts drummer? Pink's been silent for a while but I've seen a synopsis and pre-vis sketches of the project he's trying to finance now - waiting for permission to share, fret not - and trust me when I say that if some brave soul gives him the money all previous genre-mashers will bow their heads in shame for just how bland and conservative their efforts have been.

4. Big Trouble In Little China. John Carpenter's old style serial / chop socky / fantasy / horror mash up is one of my favorite youthful memories and literally one of the films that first hooked me on all this bizarre stuff. Kurt Russell is his normal sardonic self, Victor Wong's got his six demon bag, and the whole thing is just looped. In retrospect the whole thing hinges far more on the warped mind of screenwriter W. D. Richter - who we'll hear more about later - than on Carpenter, but Johnny seems to get all the credit ...

3. Save the Green Planet. It's got a cop shooting bees out of mid air with his six gun, what more do you need? Oh, okay ... I sincerely doubt that there has ever been a film that changes gears as rapidly, as often and as well as this one. The comedy is laugh out loud funny, the horror truly horrifies, the human drama tugs the heartstrings and it has more inspired WTF moments than any other film in recent memory. A modern classic? You bet.

2. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension. That this film ever got made amazes me. That it got made with such an incredibly strong cast amazes me more. To this day I refer to people who anger me as 'monkey boys'. Peter Weller stars as a rock star / neurosurgeon / race car driver / theoretical physicist / super hero who is mankind's only chance of averting an invasion by a race of aliens all named John. John Lithgow's finest moment? I certainly think so. If you haven't seen this, run don't walk. The recent DVD release is excellent. That W.D. Richter went from directing this and penning Big Trouble on to writing crap like Stealth makes me despair for the future of humanity. Someone with big pockets and a love of his fellow man needs to give Richter a big check and free rein to do whatever he wants.

1. The American Astronaut. A film with a small but rabid fanbase that would be much, much larger has it not planned the 2001 Toronto Film Festival as it's coming out party, that being the fest that coincided with 9-11. Nobody gave a damn about film in those days - and quite rightly so - and so Cory McAbee and company's sci-fi / western / musical has never found the audience it deserves. Beautifully shot, perplexingly strange and stocked up with a killer soundtrack courtesy of McAbee's art rock cohorts The Billy Nayer Show this is, without a doubt, a modern cult classic.

» Posted by Todd at May 23, 2006 09:16 PM
Digg This / Add To del.icio.us

Reader Comments

Picked The American Astronaut up after reading the write-ups on it here a while back. Great film, totally agree. The music is, indeed, excellent with stand-outs like "The Girl With the Vagina Made of Glass." Also, in the print that I got, they offered a free copy of their new CD just for mailing in an enclosed card. Couldn't have been a better deal for such an awesome movie.

» Posted by evergreen at May 23, 2006 09:54 PM

Hey Todd, I think you meant to say Victor Wong rather than Pat Morita for Big Trouble.

» Posted by Don Brown at May 23, 2006 10:31 PM

Funnily enough, I never saw Tha American Astronaut as a genre mash-up movie, so far out of, well, ANY league it is (love it to death, it's a personal favorite). I'd personally go with Save The Green Planet as the ultimate genre mash-up movie - which I think characterizes the korean film production of nowadays. Todd, no Takashi Miike?

» Posted by krivochein at May 23, 2006 10:34 PM


Thanks, that reminds me I've got to get the dvd of BONZAI

I've lost count of how many quotable lines there are in BIG TROUBLE,one of my favorite films. It took 20 years for another film ( KUNG FU HUSTLE ) to match the vibe I get from that one.

Another genre mash up I love that is part rock musical/road trip comedy/1950s futuristic western urban fantasy/ kick-ass action film is STREETS OF FIRE. Just the first 15 minutes alone is awesome.

» Posted by arch stanton at May 24, 2006 12:33 AM

The DVD for The American Astronaut is seemingly getting hard to find. I had an order placed for a few weeks and it was revoked recently. A lot of places don't seem to be getting any more shipments. Phenomenal film though. I really, really need to finally get my own copy of it. I do have the soundtrack though.

» Posted by Daniel J. Winclechter at May 24, 2006 01:38 AM

Not the list I would've made. Some good films in there (Bangkok Loco, The American Astronaut), but I couldn't stand Save The Green Planet. It only pulled the annoyance string for me I'm afraid.

Anyway, I miss one Miike in the list. If there's one director that mixes, toasts and genetically rebuilds genres, it's him, right ? It'd put in my fav Miike, Visitor Q. Though you could argue it is 'just' a comedy, but yeah :). Versus and Pistol Opera would be nice additions too.

» Posted by Onderhond at May 24, 2006 04:12 AM

Versus, okay. Pistol Opera, what the hell was that?

» Posted by evergreen at May 24, 2006 04:28 AM

I see Visitor Q more as a 'family' film. Bizarro World 가족주의 (family-ism) like no other has ever done it before...

» Posted by x at May 24, 2006 04:34 AM

Don: Holy crap, you're right. How's that for a revisionist memory? Man ...

Onderhond: I considered Miike but he's a guy who I see more as recreating and subverting genre than mashing them up. And Versus I put in the zombie splatter category, though there's certainly a bit more going on than that ...

Arch: I don't think I've ever even heard of Streets of Fire before, is that available anywhere?

» Posted by Todd Brown at May 24, 2006 05:32 AM

Todd,judging by your love for BIG TROUBLE and BONZAI you are in for a massive treat if you can find a copy of STREETS. The widescreen DVD put out by Universal in 1999 that I've got I found two years ago at sunrise records. Unless it's out of print it should be available on Amazon or any good DVD site.

Willem Dafoe in a great villian role, Michael Pare in long coat and winchester beating the crap out of people, Diane Lane looking hot as hell, Rick Moranis,Bill Paxton,Amy Madigan,50s biker gang instead of indians on horses steal the hot babe and Pare ( John Wanye) returns home to go rescue her, sledge hammer fight climax, great Ry Cooder score and directed by Walter Hill on amphetamines in WARRIORS mode while channeling John Ford.

» Posted by arch stanton at May 24, 2006 08:22 AM

Todd, just checked Amazon and there are two editions of STREETS available.Since it was made in 84 you can put it next to BIG TROUBLE and BONZAI as another great 80's genre mash.

» Posted by arch stanton at May 24, 2006 09:10 AM

Some of these films sound really interesting.

I am surprised Happiness of the Katakuris wasn't on the list. It's Miike's horror/comedy/musical, and it features some claymation. It's easily the strangest movie I've seen, although I have not seen Bangkok Loco or American Astronaut yet.

» Posted by Robert Devereux at May 24, 2006 09:28 AM

STREETS OF FIRE is what Walter Hill got to make after the financial success of 48 HRS. In my memory, it didn't completely work, but I loved the experiment and the vibe and am happy I got to see it on the big screen. (IIRC, hardly anyone else went to see it. Died a quick b.o. death.)

BUCKAROO BANZAI -- isn't this the movie with "No matter where you go, there you are"? Bless my little sister for convincing me to watch a tape of this.

SAVE THE GREEN PLANET charged me up, made me laugh, broke my heart, made me cry. Yup, it's all about me, baby.

» Posted by Peter Martin at May 24, 2006 10:27 AM

Great List! I would add Wild Zero and Six String Samurai as honorable mentions.

» Posted by fiskofury at May 24, 2006 10:29 AM

Not sure if these completely fit the bill, but may I suggest:

Atomik Circus
(Hillbilly romance, big city impresario fish-out-of-water tale, small town rockabilly dreamer, alien splatter horror, sci-fi headtrip finale)

Repo Man
(Antisocial misfits fighting The Man, office shenanigans, conspiracy thriller, bizarre sci-fi underpinnings)

Vampire's Kiss
(Keeping up in the corporate game, office politics/class terrorism, delusional horror, psychotic breakdowns, murder and revenge)

Virtually anything by Guy Maddin
(Freudian issues and Oedipus complex, Weimer Republic tributes, German mountain epics, romantic triangles, surreal fantasy)

» Posted by Mike at May 24, 2006 10:37 AM

» Posted by Dan Geiser at May 24, 2006 10:52 AM

Someone beat me to the punch with Six String Samurai, I was a bit dissapointed with it, but a noble mash-up effort.

My suggestions:
Kafka by Steven Soderbergh - thriller / horror / political / artsy / sci-fi / fantasy biography and a really underrated movie in my book. (and part of the unofficial writers-block trilogy of 1991 along with Naked Lunch and Barton Fink)

Time Bandits by Terry Gilliam - action / comedy / fantasy with nods to scifi, westerns, sword and sandal, swashbucklers, and everything inbetween (might be disqualified by the singular internal logic clause)

» Posted by Greg at May 24, 2006 01:39 PM

Todd, love your list, especially Save the Green Planet.

But you are missing some other very fun mash-up gems of recent years. Here's some of my faves...
- Shaun of the Dead (Zombie/rom/com)
- Series 7: The Contenders (Reality TV/gun culture satire/love story)
- Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (part Jesus movie/part lesbian vampire film/part Santos the Masked Mexican wrestler flick. Oh and did I mention the lesbian vampires?)
- Donnie Darko (Post-apocalyptic/high school drama)
- Bowling for Columbine (serious documentary / comedy)
- Bubba Ho-Tep (A Wannabe Elvis vs the Mummy - now that's a twisted mash up)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (sci-fi, drama, romantic comedy)
And that old Coen Brothers chestnut:
- O Brother Where Art Thou (Crime/Comedy/ Musical)

» Posted by Adam Lopez at May 25, 2006 11:22 PM

OH, Adam ... always skipping to the end and missing the important bits at the beginning like where I explain why Shaun and Bubba didn't qualify for the list, even using Bubba as a specific example. Heh. I've seen all of those but Series 7 and Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (which I've wanted to see ever since I first heard of it) and I like them all but none of them fit the entirely artificial criteria I set for this.

» Posted by Todd at May 25, 2006 11:30 PM

OK there's me getting all excited (what me excited?), but as it is my birthday, hopefully I will be forgiven!

» Posted by Adam Lopez at May 25, 2006 11:39 PM

After reading this article I rented THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT, which was the only film on your lift I hadn't seen, and I just wanted to post this quick thank you.

What a hilariously awkward film. I really enjoyed it. I tried to re-enact the stand up routine for a friend of mine but it just didn't work.

"Here's mud in your ass!"

» Posted by JohnnyBender at May 26, 2006 02:36 PM

Todd, Series 7 was a lot of fun - you should definitely check it out.

» Posted by tracy at May 30, 2006 12:12 PM

Post Your Comments

Remember Me?   

(You may use HTML tags for style.)

  

Buy DVDs At The Twitch Store

Our Latest Reviews

Archives

Our Latest Interviews

Archives

Our Latest Entries

Stuff We Like

Shop at our affiliated sites and support Twitch while feeding your pop-culture addiction.

Find your favorites


eThaiCD