national lampoon

Musical Musings… Danke Schoen, John Hughes (For The Memories)

Posted on by sgottahurt

Passed Away After 59 Candles

Passed Away After 59 Candles

An 80’s staple and a 90’s thumbtack (and a 2000’s bottle of correction fluid), filmmaker John Hughes was influential (Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow site him as such), omnipresent (he released at least two pictures a year for awhile there), and iconic (see below). 

For those that grew up with his films, the majority of his earlier works stand out in our memories mostly because of the songs associated with them.  With his passing at the age of 59, let’s synch up his celluloid hits and misses with their synonymous Billboard hits and misses.

MOVIES NAMED AFTER SONGS

MOVIES THAT HAD MEMORABLE THEME SONGS

I know there’s plenty of other tunes in his movies to choose from (such as Danke Schoen and Twist and Shout for example), but these are the most direct songs associated with these films.

Thank you, Mr. Hughes, for the fond memories.  Not so much so for the Flubbers.

(P.S. You were thisclose to being featured in one of my The Sh– To Just Sh–ty posts.  Bullet dodged, my friend.  Farewell, and well done…)

(My Boss) Paul’s Top Five List… Foreign Language Top 40 Hits

Posted on by sgottahurt

 

I'm sad because I can't spell, and I don't know if there was ever a sequel.

I'm sad because I can't spell, and I don't know if there was ever a sequel.

When “my boss” Paul was just “my friend” in our youth, he was a music fanatic.  He followed trends and made his own version of Billboard magazine.  That all stopped around 1996.  You can tell by the CD case he keeps in his car. 

 

Top 5 Foreign Language Top 40 Hits (Top That!)

5. Macarena – Los Del Rio 
Per Paul: “C’mon, you know you danced to it when it came out in the mid 90’s.  It’s hard to find five good songs, so here it sits.”

4. La Bamba – Los Lobos
Per Paul: “Slightly hipper version of the 50’s classic from an awesome movie.  Not my Richie, Bob.  Not Richie.”
Per me: Can you say a movie about a plane crash is awesome?  But then again, I’d say LOST is awesome, so there.

3. Rock Me Amadeus – Falco
Per Paul: “Sad that Falco dies in a car crash awhile back.  I actually like the remixed radio version better than the original, but it’s hard to find.  Probably THE best song in history about a dead music composer.”

2. 99 Luftballons – Nena
Per Paul: “Pretty good song in English, also.  I like Goldfinger’s remake better than the original.”
Per me: He really likes this song.

1. Sadeness Part 1 – Enigma
Per Paul: “Gregorian chants and a sexy female background vocal make this my number one.  [Natch – Ed.]  Also, it was featured later on in a nude scene from Boxing Helena featuring the hot store clerk from Christmas Vacation – Nicolette Scorsese.”
Per me: I was going to apologize for putting the graphic at the top which gave this entry away, but I instead I’ll say this: I need to see Boxing Helena.

JusWondering… Wait-And-See Sequels Worth The Wait To See?

Posted on by sgottahurt

A bit ago, IMDb ran this poll:

imdbpoll

Grant it the survey was held with tongue planted firmly at the back of the throat (I know they say ‘cheek’ normally, but it is ‘growing’ out of your throat like a plant… this was funnier and not as gross in my head).

Anyjohnhughes, as much as I would love to see Ferris Bueller’s Laid Off, it ain’t gonna happen.  As of now, not any one of those films have a chance – nay, a whisper – of development talk.

These on the other hand, these sequels have been chatted up dearly:

Why not?  We’ve already seen these guys ride a cheetah in the wrong direction, and spoke down with W.  And everybody knows National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was the best of Chevy Chase’s screen family’s exploits.  Too bad they never made that Swiss Family Griswold that Chevy promised.  Oops… they kinda did.

  • Ghostbusters 3 (maybe to start filming this Christmas) – I am afraid of part 2:

This movie is the childhood dream behind a fourth Indiana Jones movie.  Keep fucking Lucas and Spielberg away (should be easy since they had nothing to do with the first two), and let Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky’s script have room to glow.  The duo writes for The Office; The Office can be is funny.  Thank Gozer that Atari (wait… really, Atari?) got the Ecto-1 rolling on making a new video game based on the franchise.  That probably helped accelerate enthusiasm, and something something clever about waking ghosts.

Is Oliver Stone relevant?  The antithesis to the ‘Greed is good’ mantra from the first film certainly is alive and unwell.  And Michael Douglas isn’t doing anything except Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Greed certainly is good for the studios, but this long-not-so-awaited sequel is a little more The Two Jakes, than The Color of Money (neither is much of a compliment).  Wait… Shia LaBeouf is in it?  Are you sure he’s not too busy?

I remember wanting to skip a summer baseball game to see the original.  Would I want to skip a soccer game as an adult to see the sequel?  No.  But I would go see a midnight sneak preview afterwards.  Director Robert Zemeckis – reigning king of creepy CGI work in The Polar Express, Beowulf, and the upcoming A Christmas Carol (third holiday shout out on this post) – wants to include… creepy CGI.  Could be an interesting mash-up of styles, and could make for a neat-o picture.

Some rumored projects that will most likely never see the light of the darkened theater.  Never say never…

Happy Find… Hypnotic Videos

Posted on by sgottahurt

I am so mad right now (despite this being a Happy Find). 

I hope that most of you have seen it already, but I really, really, really wanted to post a video called She’s a Talker, but the guy who put it on YouTube has since taken it down.  Basically, it was 73 different (allegedly) gay men brushing their pet cats and saying – what else – “She’s a talker.”  It was hypnotic more than funny (well, actually, more than halfway through when you realize how many guys are doing and saying the exact same thing, it becomes humorous). 

But anywhiskers, here was my planned lead-in hypnotic video (and yes, that’s Lynn Redgrave, Mindy Cohn, and Ruth Buzzi… I don’t know how I kept my pants on):

(via Everything is Terrible, my new favorite blog)

BONUS NOSTALGIC ELECTRONIC HYPNOTIC SWIRL 

(via Hipster Runoff, my always favorite blog):

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