Film School Rejects » Cameron Archer

DVD Review: Saturday Night Live – The Complete Second Season

Cameron Archer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:00:36 +0000

When Saturday Night Live’s first season finally came to DVD in 2006, it set a standard for how the shows should be released. The show has long kept itself going in the home video realm with performer best-ofs and themed releases, which is fine for the layman but not for the SNL completist. The release of that first season meant that the individual shows were going to be shown pretty much as is, and that trend has continued with the release of Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season.

The first season of Saturday Night Live was a work in progress, with the show not knowing which direction to take. By next season, SNL was firmly in control of its destiny. The Muppets decamped to Britain while Gary Weis filled the short-film spot vacated by Albert Brooks. The “Home Movies” segment saw an eventual spinoff in Mr. Bill. Chevy Chase left as Jane Curtin became “Weekend Update” anchor. Even the show’s name became established on March 26, 1977, dispensing with that NBC’s Saturday Night shit (although the change wouldn’t be fully reflected until the third season.)

SNL was strong enough during the show’s second season that Chevy Chase leaving didn’t hurt the show at all. Jane Curtin made for a decent replacement in the “Weekend Update” chair. Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner and John Belushi emerged as main draws. Newcomer Bill Murray would start off slow but would blend in with the rest of the cast by the end of the season. By eliminating the most obvious one-dimensional castmember, SNL displayed talent depth that would cement its place as destination programming for the next three seasons. The familiar guest hosts were starting to emerge – Buck Henry, Steve Martin, Elliott Gould, Candice Bergen – and the low-key familiarity would serve SNL well until everything changed in 1980.

The second season of Saturday Night Live reveals a show improving on its initial success. The average SNL episode from this season is uneven but not to the point where it becomes unwatchable. The writing is generally good, with more hosts able to carry the material than not. SNL even managed a few funny bits out of awkward hosts like Ralph Nader and Jodie Foster. Some of the recurring bits are boring – the Gary Weis films seem to improve only when Buck Henry’s in them – but “Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales” is still fun to watch thirty years later.

The musical guests are enjoyable overall, despite the too-heavy emphasis on folk rock and singer/songwriters at this point in SNL’s history. There is the odd misfire, like Brian Wilson turning in a blah rendition of “Good Vibrations” and performing two other songs of little consequence. Performances by Frank Zappa, The Band, The Kinks and Chuck Berry stand out. Other memorable moments include a clip of the Rutles performing “I Must Be in Love” on Rutland Weekend Television and Joe Cocker and John Belushi appearing on stage together, on the same show yet.

The audiovisual quality of SNL’s second season episodes is about the same as when they first aired. The shows are for the most part intact, give or take the usual “is this the live show or a rerun version” fiddling-around common to Saturday Night Live. The bumpers are still mostly absent, but they add almost nothing to the show aside from nice photography. The only things I object to in this set are the Broadway Video/SNL Studios/NBC Enterprises credit logos at the end of each episode, since they’re not necessary to begin with and cut into the original credits often.

Extras have never been a strong point with SNL releases. There are two average audio-only dress-rehearsal sketches, “Susie & Shari” and a Farbers sketch entitled “New Kid.” The Andy Kaufman screen test is a little better, with Kaufman deadpanning “MacArthur Park” as a poem and doing basic Kaufman schtick.

The inclusion of the Mardi Gras special makes up for the lameness of the other extras. Aired February 20, 1977 as part of the bran tub of specials that NBC termed The Big Event, “Live from Mardi Gras” was a misfire. Saturday Night Live couldn’t contain the general rowdiness of Mardi Gras into a ninety-minute show. Buck Henry and Jane Curtin covered empty space where the Bacchus parade should have been – it allegedly got held up when a partygoer was run over by a float, forcing Lorne and company to fill like crazy.

As a stand-alone show, the Mardi Gras special isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be – the sketches themselves are average with more than a few technical flubs, but the show ends up being a superior train-wreck. A sleep-deprived and rushed-on-air Penny Marshall mouths something and then claps at nothing at particular before she realizes she’s on air, while Jane Curtin and Buck Henry have doubloons and Mardi Gras beads thrown at them throughout the broadcast. I can understand why the Mardi Gras special was shunted to the scrap heap of SNL history, but SNL has done far worse shows. Considering everything went pear-shaped behind the scenes, the show is still recognizable as an SNL episode.

Overall, Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season is quite the package for both old-school SNL fans and for fans of sketch comedy. I can’t see all thirty-three seasons given a box set – can you imagine? – but hopefully sales will be strong enough that the third to fifth seasons of SNL will be given their just due. Hopefully the third season box set will include more ephemeral SNL-related material, since Lorne Michaels and NBC seem to like sitting on piles of it.

The Upside: Twenty-two full episodes. Music clearances must have been a bitch.

The Downside: The extras would have been paltry if not for the Mardi Gras special. Also, “subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing” seems to be Universal’s euphemism for “closed captioned.”

On the Side: Considering how slick SNL has become, it’s a bit disorienting to watch five minutes of Candice Bergen and the SNL cast skating around the rink near Rockefeller Center in one episode. Nowadays, the valuable time between 12:50 and 1:00 AM is spent on sketches like “The Out-of-Breath Jogger from 19X2.”

WWE Films, Renny Harlin Still Making Movies

Cameron Archer — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:39:08 +0000

Pro wrestling has always tended toward exaggeration and/or spectacle, and World Wrestling Entertainment makes its money being as lowbrow and over-the-top as possible. A midget in a green suit is considered to be the bastard son of company schlockmeister Vince McMahon, a big man in a black hat has vague supernatural powers and another big man with no hair or eyebrows can make fire come out of ringposts. WWE makes no apologies for its knowing stupidity.

Trying to base films around its wrestlers, though, is another matter. WWE Films brought the world the litany of explosions that was The Marine, and star John Cena is making a second attempt to cross over from wrestling into the world of film stardom. Pro Wrestling Torch, among other wrestling sites, has announced that 12 Rounds is in pre-production. Filming is to begin in New Orleans, Louisiana later this month, although this site lists February 25 as the start date.

The surprising thing about this news is that Renny Harlin, director of Die Hard 2: Die Harder and Cliffhanger, is listed on 12 Rounds‘ IMDb page as director/producer. Granted, Harlin’s career hasn’t fully recovered from Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight, but he’s still a recognizable name. The film has a projected release date of September 5, 2008 and will be distributed through Fox Atomic.

I foresee the standard reaction to this film judging by trends set since WWE Films’ first independently-produced film, 2006’s See No Evil – “why is WWE still doing this?,” little box office, a modest profit made via DVD sales/rentals and critical drubbing. For 12 Rounds, I also foresee tons of explosions.

Uwe Boll: Go See My Movie! Also, Hollywood Sucks!

Cameron Archer — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 06:10:32 +0000

People should be familiar with Uwe Boll by now. He’s carved a niche directing films based on video games. He’s gained a reputation amongst critics and filmgoers for said films being perceived as horrible, and his heart-on-sleeve attitude (he once beat up five of his critics in a publicity stunt) only convinces more people that he is filmdom’s greatest asshole.

An e-mail sent to BollBashers.com is as good a start as any to understand the enigma that is Boll. To defend In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale he focuses his attacks on First Sunday and media conglomerates:

If you dont get out with a MAJOR company the exhibitors and the tv and radio stations are not supporting you. This is the reason that independent movies are like self fullfilling prophecies and they almost bomb all. Our competitor in USA FIRST SUNDAY with Ice Cube is a piece of shit and for NOBODY nearly so interesting as IN THE NAME OF THE KING. We have a better movie and a bigger movie with a better script, better cast and we proved in europe that our movie has the power to stay 3 weeks in the TOP TEN and that we can get at least 50% good reviews. FIRST SUNDAY is a direct to DVD title in europe but in USA Sony puts 40 mill. $ in advertising to win that weekend. And this is completly absurd. Sony will not even recoup the advertising costs with that movie. The MAJORS own the TV Stations and the Radio Stations and they use that for free advertising and so the wide audience believes at one point that FIRST SUNDAY is the movie of that weekend – and they go and buy a ticket. The biggest problems in todays market is that nobody believes anymore in word of mouth or gives a film a chance without seeing upfront all 5 seconds in TV a spot.

Now, I have no personal hatred for Uwe Boll. I’ve never seen one of his films and am only familiar with the man through certain film blogs I read. All the same, I can’t swallow his arguments for several reasons. Why go after just First Sunday? Why not go after every other film competing against In the Name of the King, like The Bucket List and Juno? He was also recently interviewed in the New York Post. That at least proves that a major newspaper has promoted him in some way.

Boll himself is a double-edged sword. Things like this give him a lot of free publicity, but the pariah act makes no sense given the multimillion-dollar budget for In the Name of the King and Boll’s managing to land names like Jason Statham and Ron Perlman. I am aware of major film companies having a competitive edge in terms of cross-promotion and advertising budgets. How is that news?

In the end, this is just Uwe Boll being Uwe Boll. I don’t know if sustained negative publicity is a good long-term strategy to build a career on, but I honestly don’t think Boll cares.

If you are curious about In the Name of the King, check out Kevin Carr’s review here. Note: He was less than impressed.

Pete Hammond’s Firing a Must-See Extravaganza! It’s Simply Stunning in Its Brilliance!

Cameron Archer — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:14:06 +0000

Notoriety is a funny thing. Some people become known for redefining the boundaries of a certain profession, like with Andy Kaufman’s personal definition of “comedy.” Some gain infamy through schadenfreude, the main reason why people talk about Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. Peter Hammond’s claim to fame is that he liked, or pretended to like, a lot of bad films.

According to Radar Online, Hammond was just recently fired from his job at Maxim as part of a housecleaning exercise by its new editor-in-chief Jim Kaminsky. During his tenure at Maxim, Hammond made a name for himself by attaching words like “must-see” and “explosive” to critically-hated films like The Number 23, The Condemned and Evan Almighty.

Hammond has become low-hanging fruit in recent years. While Peter Travers and Jeffrey Lyons have gained names for themselves with superlative quotes that look good in ads, Pete Hammond has almost become ubiquitous with the art of polishing a turd. It’s hard to like the guy. He’s allowed one blurb to be rewritten for a television commercial because a CBS executive thought the wording of the review was too strong for the Super Bowl. eFilmCritic’s Erik Childress gave Hammond “The 2007 Michael Medved Bag of Douche Memorial Award.” A cursory glance at a newspaper will uncover at least one ad with a Hammond blurb attached to it.

That being said, quote-whores will always exist in some form. The primary function of a film review is to convince someone to buy a ticket or two to said film, just as the primary function of a site like Film School Rejects is to present an “edgy” take on film news. It’s all about putting asses in seats. The problem with Hammond, though, was twofold – no one reads a boobs-and-neat-gadgets magazine like Maxim for entertaining film criticism, and even reviews in which he rated a film mediocre were still enough for a blurb or two in some cases. A cursory glance at Hammond’s Rotten Tomatoes page shows that the comments sometimes don’t match the marks. For example, his on-the-fence review for P.S. I Love You still tells me that it’s a great date movie for getting laid over the holidays. Nudge-nudge, say no more, does your wife like photographs, that’s the vibe I get from the blurb.

Do I feel sorry for Peter Hammond? No – he still has a gig at Variety and he’ll find a job somewhere where his gift for shilling will be appreciated. Will I miss seeing his name attached to bad films? No, and if I ever do please hit me upside the head with Janet Stokes’ Film Advisory Board.

WGA Strike: Saturday Night Emaciated

Cameron Archer — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:11:02 +0000

I attempted last year to do a recap of Saturday Night Live for Blogcritics. I stayed with the show for half a season until I lost interest in SNL again, an interest I had only regained due to the show’s fat-cutting in 2006-07. Any longtime viewer of the show knows that the late-night staple has been struggling for some time in terms of quality, although it’s managed a mainstream success or two in the Emmy-winning “Dick in a Box” and other SNL Digital Shorts.

Due to its timely nature, SNL was one of the first casualties of the WGA writers’ strike. NBC has fired 90% of SNL’s production staff due to said strike, although that news comes from the New York Post’s “Page Six” and as such should be taken with a grain of salt.

As a longtime Saturday Night Live fan, I’m not sure how to feel about this news. On one hand, the episodes I’ve seen recently haven’t been that great. Last year had a few moments but this year the show seems to have become even more reliant on recurring characters than usual, even for SNL. It seems like every week the show has attempted to launch any sketch that worked well with the audience – “Bronx Beat,” “MacGruber,” “The Dakota Fanning Show,” that Italian guy Bill Hader plays – as recurring.

The writing seems uneven and has been for years, and SNL deserves more of an overhaul than it’s received in recent years. Last year the show had its budget cut. Its longtime competitor, MADtv, had its thirteenth season premiere delayed until earlier this month (four lame-duck “best-ofs” were produced while the show was being retooled.) Times are not good for either show, and the skeleton crew that remains suggests that NBC might have a reason for cancelling Saturday Night Live after thirty-three seasons.

Does this look like the end for Saturday Night Live, though? I doubt it. SNL had just fallen into the hands of Dick Ebersol before a 1981 writers’ strike, after a much-hated run under Jean Doumanian. If not for the strike, Ebersol might not have retooled SNL to be the launching pad for Eddie Murphy, an intermittently-used rising star in 1980-81 and the main draw of the show’s 1980-85 period. The 1988 writers’ strike famously killed a Gilda Radner hosting stint, but the show was as strong as it had ever been in 1987-88 and the strike didn’t adversely affect SNL’s 1988-89 season. Saturday Night Live’s survived a few strikes and I can’t see NBC killing off one of its cash cows after staying with it so long.

I can, however, see a complete overhaul and/or hiatus for the rest of the 2007-08 season (or 2008-09 if the WGA strike manages to go on long enough.) Now is the time to figure out how to make SNL competitive in the age of Human Giants and Robot Chickens. SNL is attempting to live on in the form of improv comedy at New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, although the November 17 performance might not be more than a one-shot deal.

As much as I support the writers in their ongoing battle against the studios, the WGA strike could be a blessing in disguise for Saturday Night Live. Maybe the show’s really dying this time. It’s hard to say.

It’s the End of Music World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)

Cameron Archer — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:40:50 +0000

Normally I stay away from puns and/or cultural references in headlines, but here the Great Big Sea reference (I know R.E.M. originally recorded the song, shut up) makes perfect sense. Music World has called it a day after new owners placed the company under bankruptcy protection. Music World was almost immediately put up on blocks after many years of losses ($9.2 million on sales of $80.6 million last year, according to the Globe and Mail.) Music World was the last Canadian-owned national music retailer.

“What does this have to do with Film School Rejects,” no one’s asking? Like many North American music retailers, Music World was hemorrhaging money and had diversified into areas like videos/DVDs in recent years in an effort to stop the bleeding. Reasons for Music World’s demise could have been predicted by anyone – the Internet, megalomarts, mail-order, generalist music stores like Tower Records going bankrupt, iTunes. Music World did a half-hearted job at trying to compete against lower prices, digital downloading and smaller overhead, and the market kicked its ass for that.

The moment I realized Music World – most music chains in general, really – were not long for this world was in the late 1990s. If I wanted to buy a DVD, anything was a better option than Music World. I frequent Giant Tiger, Liquidation World and other discount chains (even Zellers) to wade through the Monster Garage and Trading Spaces best-ofs in search of interesting finds. There’s no pretense in buying Three…Extremes or Punishment Park for $4.99 – the titles aren’t selling, fit into a niche market and/or are the end result of a company liquidating its inventory for some reason. Going through the crap to find something good is half the fun.

As for music, that’s where Music World priced itself right out of the market. Even considering Music World gets its titles through distributors, the prices remained the same for years – it isn’t rare to go into a store like that and be put off by prices of $15-$30 for non-sale items. HMV at least saw the writing on the wall, diversifying into the video game sector and lowering its prices to stay competitive. Pawn shops and used CD stores are better options as far as price goes since they don’t pretend to be more than they are. Local independent music stores have an ambience and personality chains like Music World can’t ever match, and there’s the appeal of mail-order and the Internet. Even Future Shop has better deals.

I’m amazed Music World held out for thirty-seven years. Some news outlets are inferring that Music World’s closure (at the very least, downsizing) signals the end of the generalist music retailer in Canada. I do feel sorry for the employees affected by the closure of Music World, but music chains in general died for me the day I became a bargain hunter.

Defining Robert Goulet

Cameron Archer — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 04:26:21 +0000

I suppose I should just repeat the talking points about Robert Goulet dying this Tuesday from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, that he was Lancelot in the Broadway version of Camelot and other highlights of his life. His death has been covered by countless other news sources and it’d be redundant for me to bring up the most obvious Goulet factoids.

To be honest, I’m not a fan of Goulet and probably a generation or two away from his fanbase. While he was a fairly accomplished singer and I appreciate his talents, I can’t claim that what he did was my thing. It’s hard to take away from what he did, so I thought I’d define Robert Goulet in terms of my experiences with him. It might be adding to the pile of eulogies about Goulet, but that’s newsworthiness for you.

Robert Goulet was the Devil in the 2000 film G-Men From Hell. Yeah, Goulet’s makeup is pitiful in G-Men From Hell and adaptations of Mike Allred comics are an acquired taste to begin with. Goulet is essentially playing himself as the Devil, yet the characterization works. It worked for me, at least.

Robert Goulet wasn’t born in Canada and achieved his height of fame Stateside, yet is a celebrated Canadian figure due to Canada being his boyhood home. Like William Shatner, Goulet was in the Canadian version of Howdy Doody and appeared on CBC Television in its early days. Unlike Shatner, he became famous for singing well.

Robert Goulet was one of Will Ferrell’s better Saturday Night Live characters. Granted, Ferrell’s Goulet is basically Ferrell going on bizarre tangents, like “Goulet” singing a medley of rap songs and displaying a bit of nepotism while staging “Red Ships of Spain.” While not on the level of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” or “TV Funhouse,” those Goulet sketches were fairly reliable in terms of being funny.

Robert Goulet is an integral part of the World of the Future via mass cloning, as demonstrated in Late Night with David Letterman: The Book.

Robert Goulet has been washed-up, a guest star on many television shows, a Grammy and Tony Award winner, Trapper Pierre, an alcoholic and a Las Vegas staple. He botched the American national anthem before a Sonny Liston/Muhammad Ali championship fight and performed the Canadian national anthem at WrestleMania VI. Goulet’s life wasn’t perfect – no life is – but he will be remembered both fondly and as a running joke. Not many people have fifteen minutes of fame making fun of their first fifteen minutes of fame, after all. In retrospect, that’s not a bad legacy to have.

Film School Rejects » Cameron Archer

DVD Review: Saturday Night Live – The Complete Second Season

Related Reading:

WWE Films, Renny Harlin Still Making Movies

Related Reading:

Uwe Boll: Go See My Movie! Also, Hollywood Sucks!

Related Reading:

Pete Hammond’s Firing a Must-See Extravaganza! It’s Simply Stunning in Its Brilliance!

Related Reading:

WGA Strike: Saturday Night Emaciated

Related Reading:

It’s the End of Music World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)

Related Reading:

Defining Robert Goulet

Related Reading: