Not my practice blog, by Scott Knaster

Star Trek coming back?

It's been hard times for Star Trek lately -- there's no series on the air, and the last movie was not very successful. But now there's a report that Star Trek is coming back, with a new movie to be directed by J.J. Abrams, the producer of Lost and Alias. Live again and prosper!

Big movie weekend

In honor of the Oscars (I guess), I saw not one but two major motion pictures this week. On Sunday morning the whole family went to see Curious George, and it was fun. It's great to see a super-innocent kids story treated respectfully and not "updated" into a crass "modern" version (ahem, The Cat in the Hat).

Monday night Barbara and I saw Neil Young's Heart of Gold. I rarely have the patience for concert movies. We're huge Neil Young fans, and I haven't seen any of his previous concert films. But this one was terrific. The camera starts by giving you the best seat in the house, then takes many other points of view, most of them up very close. The sound was great, even in the tiny theatre, and at times it felt so real that I almost started clapping at the end of a song.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Hey, South (San Francisco) Bay kids! The Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing at midnight tonight at the friendly neighborhood Campbell Plaza Theatres. Back in the late '70s when I was a teenager, seeing RHPS was a rite of passage. You did it because everybody else was doing it, and you went again because you had a great time. I have no idea how it became fashionable for slightly weird whitebread suburban Denver kids like me to see a movie with the rather provocative themes of RHPS, but it did. We went, we brought newspapers, we lit lighters, we threw toast, and we watched Frank seduce Janet and Brad. I didn't quite understand all of it, and I don't know if it made anybody more tolerant than they would have been otherwise -- although my parents would have plotzed if they knew what was going on in that movie -- but it was great fun.

Fellow '70s children: any Rocky Horror memories? Younger folks: what's the scene like nowadays? Have you ever seen the movie?

Oscars and the Personal Film Festival

My wife and I love movies, but with work, raising kids, living life, avoiding housework, and other responsibilities, we don't get to see too many movies in theatres. So every year when the Oscar nominations are announced, I get the urge to spend some time during the 6 weeks or so before the winners are announced actually seeing the leading candidates. And sometimes, we really do get out to a couple of them. So, cowboys in love, wacky novelist, interconnected LA people, legendary reporter, and Olympic terrorists, here we come!

Fantastic Four

Once upon a time, kiddies, the only successful comic book movie franchises belonged to DC Comics: Superman and Batman. The other major comic book company, Marvel, couldn't make a good movie to save its life.

That's all changed now. Marvel movies include Spider-Man, X-Men, Daredevil, Electra, and of course, the new Fantastic Four. But did you know that back in Marvel's bad old movie days, there was another Fantastic Four, produced by schlock king Roger Corman? It's true, and the movie was so bad, it was never released.

Of course, no Fantastic Four movie could approach the heights reached by the group's creators, the amazing Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Top Quotes from U.S. Films

The list-loving American Film Institute has put out its ranking of the Top 100 Quotes from U.S. Films. The top 10:

1. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," Gone With the Wind, 1939.

2. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse," The Godfather, 1972.

3. "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am," On the Waterfront, 1954.

4. "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

5. "Here's looking at you, kid," Casablanca, 1942.

6. "Go ahead, make my day," Sudden Impact, 1983.

7. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," Sunset Blvd., 1950.

8. "May the Force be with you," Star Wars, 1977.

9. "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," All About Eve, 1950.

10. "You talking to me?", Taxi Driver, 1976.

Note also:

36. "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!", The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948.

79. Striker: "Surely you can't be serious." Rumack: "I am serious ... and don't call me Shirley," Airplane!, 1980.

82. "Toga! Toga!", National Lampoon's Animal House, 1978.

Every time there's a list like this, you notice the ones they neglected to include. Some of my personal favorites:

"No matter where you go...there you are," The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, 1984

"We come for your daughter, Chuck," Beetlejuice, 1988

"Do the chickens have large talons?", Napoleon Dynamite, 2004

"Face it, Kent. You threw up on Dean Wormer," Animal House, 1978

What's on your list?

Star Wars Episode III makes money

Yes, Revenge of the Sith is making a lot of money. According to this site, after just 9 days, Episode III took in more money than Ep. V: The Empire Strikes Back did in its entire release. And on day 11, Ep. III passed the all-time gross of Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi. Of course, ticket prices are much higher now. But still.

(And by the way: I saw the movie last week and it was great fun. Yes, the dialog and acting are disappointing at times. But for folks like me who were teenage geeks when the original Star Wars appeared, the last hour of Revenge of the Sith is satisfying payoff after payoff, as all the stuff you already knew was going to happen actually plays out before your eyes: the betrayal of the Jedi, the emergence of the empire, Obi-Wan fighting Anakin, the creation of Darth Vader, the birth of the famous twins, and so on.)

More fun: Episode III Easter eggs.

Hitchhiker's cognitive dissonance

Recently I saw and enjoyed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Although it wasn't the incredible revelation that the original radio play, BBC TV series, and books were -- and how could it be? -- it was fun. I liked that the filmmakers seemed to be respectful of Douglas Adams and the original works. For example, the lovely banjo-tinged theme from the BBC series turns up a few minutes into the movie.

A few days later, I read on my friend CJ's blog that the TV theme was actually a song called Journey of the Sorcerer by none other than The Eagles. I figured she meant the theme was based on an Eagles song, or was similar to an Eagles song, but a quick trip to sample the song at the iTunes Music Store revealed that the HHG theme was exactly the original Eagles song.

Immediately, I suffered major cognitive dissonance, for two reasons:

1. I like the Eagles just fine. And I like Hitchhiker's Guide a lot. But I like them in entirely different regions of my brain. I just never thought of them together. The Hitchhiker's Guide is cosmic and self-deprecating. The Eagles are pretentious and definitely non-cosmic.


2. This is such an awesome, juicy triviality that it seemed impossible that I, a member of the Trivia Bowl Hall of Fame, was unaware of it.

"Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."
-- Sir Arthur Eddington

Actor stuff

On Monday night my kids watched The Spongebob Squarepants Movie on DVD. I got to see the last half hour, and I watched a "making of" feature with them after the movie. One of the voice actors, the guy who played Mr. Krabs, looked very familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. Apparently this wondering started a background process going in my brain, because last night (this morning) at 12:30 AM as I was going to bed, I suddenly realized that it was the guy who played Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, my second-favorite all-time movie. Checking IMDB this morning, I see this fine and prolific actor's name is Clancy Brown. He was also in Starship Troopers, The Shawshank Redemption, and a zillion others. Hello, Clancy!

And speaking of IMDB, here's an excellent trivia question: what actor has appeared in all 7 Pixar feature films to date?

UPDATE: Matt got it right in the first comment, but cleverly disguised the answer as a link. If you want to play along, don't click on the link in his comment, and add your answer as a comment below.

Found: Zaphod Beeblebrox's second head

Some of my geek friends and I were a little concerned about Zaphod Beeblebrox's missing second head in the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trailers. I'm happy to report that Zaphod's second head turns up in the latest trailer, and it's under his first head, sort of hidden in his shirt until he pops it out:

This, of course, is in contrast to the traditional lateral configuration as displayed in the classic BBC TV series: