Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 517 of the Internet’s favourite provider on non-dragon related content, Sneaky Dragon!
This week: late start; gym warts; small feet; neighbourhood creep; less-than-optimum Prime; too good for the Joes; unfortunate voice; hot dog bait; bad workmate; one of the Jones boys; performance art; self-incrimination; soap opera dummies; the Squad 51-cast; too much Dick Wolf; a case of the Munchies; ceramic frogs; indignant about Malignant; Chilliwackiness; Wes Anderson bingo card; boring gray movies; giving a fuck; I to the max; Dune lore; Midnight Massive; werewolves anonymous; zombie fatigue; crying over Cry Macho; a bag of bones rides a horse; scalp removal; Top 5 Halloween songs; goofy greatness; chipmunks trivia; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; international Halloween; self-improvement; the awful truth; whole lotta school; self-spoilers; fictional monsters; the sound of melon; locked into your comedy past; the wounded ego of Mort Sahl; and, finally, it’s okay to hurt our feelings.
Top 5 Halloween Songs!
- Teddy Durant – “The Beast of Sunset Strip” – Impression Records single b/w “The Night Stalker”, 1965 – 2:15:20
- The Ghouls – “The Little Old Lady from Transylvania”, Dracula’s Deuce,1964 – 2:21:06
- Dave Edmunds – “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” – Repeat When Necessary, 1979 – 2:26:28
- Lambert, Hendricks and Ross – “Halloween Spooks” – The Way Out Voices of…, 1960 – 2:33:25
- Round Robin – “I’m the Wolfman” – Domain Records single b/w “Sit and Dance”, 1965 – 2:37:23
Question of the Week: Do you celebrate Halloween where you live? Is it a big whoop?
Sub-question of the Week: What’s the best Halloween costume you saw this year?
Sub-question of the Week: What, in your opinion, has been the most pointless remake of a beloved piece of fiction?
Thanks for listening.
Here is the bingo card Mary and Dave created with guesses of what they might see in Wes Anderson’s very good new film, The French Dispatch:
If you want to see a once respected comedian humiliate himself, watch this:
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Great episode.
Yes, Great episode.
We had around 150 kids visit our candy slide this year. That’s twice as many trick-or-treaters compared to last year’s pre-vaccine Halloween. Our pumpkin carving theme this year was our hardworking healthcare heroes. We had a bumper crop of leaves fall on our boulevard and lawn this year so I used them in a hapless headless leaf raker display. There were a lot fewer fireworks set off as they were banned in Vancouver this year. But they’re still legal in other municipalities so they were easily obtained by our neighbourhood re-FUSE-niks. The authorities were not enforcing the bylaw so there were enough bangs and pops to scare away the evil spirits.
The best costumes I saw were worn by a family of two princesses and their three adult companions who were queens and a king. They were in full Elizabethan garb with ruffs, wigs, make-up and heavy crowns. It was great to see the grown-ups going full out, showing their offspring that you are never too old to have fun dressing up.
Two unnecessary movie remakes that spring to mind are Psycho (1998) and Carrie (2013). It’s one thing to remake a movie that was a hot mess or disappointed fans of the source material. (Lynch’s Dune, for example). It’s another thing to redo a film that’s a classic of its genre. Another remake that failed to top a previous adaptation was Murder on the Orient Express (2017) with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot. The 1974 version with its star-studded cast of award-winning American and British actors was far better.
I absolutely agree with you about the Carrie remake. It wasn’t as good as the original.
Personally we didn’t celebrate with a party or trick or treaters this year but it was great to see everyone else out and about over the weekend as if they were making up for last year. We had wonderful weather too so that was good for plenty of outdoor parties that I saw and heard as I walked my neighborhood. I know I sound like an old poop by not getting into the spirit of Halloween by dressing up or handing out candy. I have no idea what to dress as and nowhere to go. My dogs loose their minds whenever someone is at the door, so the kiddos just passed our house up. I get enough enjoyment watching others celebrate around our area and that was enough for me.
Later in the evening of Halloween, I made a trip to Walmart. I saw three older teens dressed as The Joker, Harley Quinn and a Fairy with big wings. This guy’s Joker costume was perfect! He had the purple tailcoat, green hair and makeup, pinstriped pants and orange vest, he looked awesome. Harley was perfect too with the black and red outfit, pigtails with the blue and pink dyed ends, all she needed was a huge mallet. As the three left Walmart, one of the girls, maybe even the Fairy, started singing as they walked to their car. She sounded so wonderful, almost professional. My son’s girlfriend sings opera, so I know how these kids can belt it out like this on cue and at any time. It was nice to see these kids looking and sounding so good, having fun.
In my opinion, so many of the sci-fi, monster and horror remakes fail to interest me. So many Godzilla remakes, “The Mummy” (2017), “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (2008), The Omen (2006), “The Hitcher” (2007) and that painful version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, simply called “The Invasion” (2007) with Nicole Kidman. Just give me the great Donald Sutherland pointing with that open-mouthed glare from end of the 1978 version. I mentioned “The Hitcher” too, the original scared me so bad, I was scared to get in my car for fear Rutger Hauer would be in the back seat…I check the damned car inside and out maybe three times.
If you turn it around, there have been a few remakes that improve or hit the mark in ways the original didn’t. “DOA” from 1988 was a film I liked better than the 1949 version, that was a surprise for me. John Carpenter’s “The Thing” was another…scared the shit out of me so I guess that succeeded where the previous one didn’t. I still haven’t watched the “True Grit” remake with Jeff Bridges, so the jury’s still out until I check it out.
So enjoyed the Halloween music! Maestro Dedrick never disappoints…
Salutations to every and all Sneakers, I’ll be write here next week…
I liked the True Grit remake, but only because I had neither read the original novel nor saw the John Wayne movie so didn’t have a point of reference to compare it with or judge against it.
I couldn’t stand the new version of the Craft. Remake, reboot, retelling, whatever… I sat down to watch it with the expectation of the producers trying to top the pivotal fight scene in the original. Faruiza Balk was creepy, agressive, and crazy as heck dragging on her tippy toes. I was completely underwhelmed with the battle scene at the end of the new movie. It wasn’t a battle at all… the girl witches just kinda held hands and defeated the guy witch with kindness? I mean I “get” what the producers were trying to do by making this a movie about girl empowerment and acceptance–those certainly aren’t bad messages, but instead of a big epic battle of good versus evil, there wasn’t much of a battle (if you could call it that) at all. Didn’t they realize that the majority of viewers were probably going to be people in their 40s, people who were in high school when the first movie came out, people for whom the original holds such an important place in their adolescence, people who would go see it out of curiosity and nostalgic love for the original? People who wanted to see a witch battle more epic than the original.
Hey gents,
Growing up in Australia in the 80’s, Halloween was not a thing at all. It just wasn’t part of the culture. My friends and I were always so envious watching American movies that showed trick or treating. The halloween sequence in ET was the stuff of fantasies.
Little by little – against a lot of pushback and criticism from older generations about the ‘Americanisation of our culture’ – it has finally become more mainstream. And it is AWESOME. I love that it is not tied to any religion, and that it doesn’t have the baggage of other seasonal celebrations. (Long dinners with relatives that you only see once a year and would happily never see again; trying to buy last minutes presents for people you otherwise never interact with etc etc.) Halloween is a concentrated afternoon/evening of dress ups, cosplay and confectionary which is all about the kids.
This year I took my ten year old son trick or treating. He wore an ‘IT’ style clown mask under his hoodie and it was excellent to watch people walking past whispering ‘Oh my god… that is so freaky.’
Pointless adaptations… Though the movies were fine, you could probably put Sony’s contractual-obligation-remakes of the Spiderman films in that box. And while not exactly a remake, I would also point to the cynical money-grab of splitting the last Hunger Games book (which was far and away the weakest) into two films. Also I totally agree with David’s rant from a few episodes back about the forthcoming adaptations of the Lord of the Rings books. Honestly, we have 10 hours worth of movies already – or 500 hours if you include the Hobbit films – we don’t need more!
That is all.
Loved the Halloween songs this week. “The Little Old Lady from Transylvania” and “I’m the Wolfman” will probably make their way into a library playlist for next year.
I live out in the country where you don’t get trick or treaters nor do you go trick or treating. That said, in town Halloween became a huge weekend celebration. Friday through Sunday there were a number of Trick or Trunks, parties, and fall festivals being held by various churches and civic groups. That didn’t stop a few Negative Nellies from nay-saying and frowning upon the whole thing. Halloween is supposed to be about the children dressing up and getting free candy, and it is always sad when some people spoil that innocent joy by trying to make everything evil.
The two best costumes I saw this year (besides my little boy’s) was a father who dressed up as Fezzik from the Princess Bride and a teenage girl who dressed as a faerie fawn.
There have been many pointless and plain old terrible remakes of beloved fiction over the years, but I would especially like to point out just how horrible the films Chitty Chitty Bang Bang starring Dick Van Dyke and the Cat in the Hat starring Mike Myers were!
I’ll start with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The original novel by Ian Fleming is cute story of slightly anthropomorphic race car that can do magical things and takes a family on magical adventures, think Herbie on steroids. It was a great story to start with, but the producers brought in beloved children’s author Roald Dahl to help write the screen play… okay, what could be wrong with that? Oh wait, let’s also make it a musical. Somehow in the process of concept to execution something went horribly, horribly wrong. Not even the most beloved National Treasure that is Dick Van Dyke could save this movie from being stupid and boring. I have not so fond memories of watching this disaster as child and cringing at the Toot Sweet song and dance routine. My husband bought be a copy of it a few years back and insisted we watch it. It was just as god awful as I remember. On a side note, there is a marvelous audiobook series narrated by David Tennant. From the original classic to the posthumous sequels, I enjoyed listening to this series.
Another cinematic “it’s gold, what could go possibly wrong” adaptation is the Cat in the Hat live action movie. What could go wrong? Everything. I’m literally cringing as I think about the movie while typing this. There was not an ounce of subtlety in the film. It was an over the top, scenery-chewing, extravaganza of torture. Someone should lock up Mike Myers and not let him out unless he’s reprising his role as Doctor Evil.
Sneakchief managed! Have a great week.
I’d kill for that flying car though and I’d park it in my garage right next to Professor fate’s Hannibal Twin-8.
Lest we forget a few more soulless abomination remakes:
Clash of the Titans (2010)
Doolittle (2020)
The Shaggy D.A. (2006)
RoboCop (2014)
I haven’t seen “The French Dispatch” yet. I thought I’d comment on Anderson’s style of filmmaking which kind of mesmerizes me as if I’m watching a painting or art. At the same time his films make me feel stupid. I sometimes get the feeling I’m not getting all his humor even though I don’t mind feeling stupid. Consider this though, if you were able to bring the 1933 Marx Brothers to present day, would you consider Wes Anderson as their director? Of course Bill Murray would have to be involved.