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John Landis Tribute in Austin, Tx this weekend!!!
John Landis is one of the men most responsible for my sick sense of humor, for hours of laughter and he's going to be in Austin this weekend. Are you?
Beginning Tonight (Thursday April 29) on the University of Texas campus, in the Texas Union theater at 7PM will feature a double-bill of COMING TO AMERICA and AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.
Then on Friday, April 30th at 7PM at the TEXAS UNION theater a showing of THE BLUES BROTHERS will be exhibited!
Both of the above screenings will be without Landis in attendance I believe. However, the next two screenings... Well... He'll be there, amongst us and answering questions about... Well... Whatever you ask I guess. I do want to say that when I saw Landis during THE AUSTIN HEART OF FILM and WRITER'S FEST, I found him to be amazingly forthcoming and candid with his answers. He went into details about Belushi's behavior on set... (Something that must be heard in person) Troubles in making certain films, etc.
Saturday, May 1st starting at 8PM... Located at the TEXAS UNION theater will be a presentation of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE with John Landis in attendence for an Award Presentation and a Q&A.
Then on Sunday, May 2nd beginning at 12PM at the DOBIE THEATER in Austin will be a special showing of the as of yet, unreleased SUSAN'S PLAN with Landis in attendance for Q&A...
To find out prices and further information about this event (which is being thrown by the University of Texas College Entertainment Organization and the San Antonio Film Festival... well call (512)892-8308 or (512) 440-9301
I will be attending every screening as I am a huge fan (as opposed to a thin one) of John Landis' career, which has been both hit and miss. But them's the cards, eh?
Well, hope to see you there!
Then on Friday, April 30th at 7PM at the TEXAS UNION theater a showing of THE BLUES BROTHERS will be exhibited!
Both of the above screenings will be without Landis in attendance I believe. However, the next two screenings... Well... He'll be there, amongst us and answering questions about... Well... Whatever you ask I guess. I do want to say that when I saw Landis during THE AUSTIN HEART OF FILM and WRITER'S FEST, I found him to be amazingly forthcoming and candid with his answers. He went into details about Belushi's behavior on set... (Something that must be heard in person) Troubles in making certain films, etc.
Saturday, May 1st starting at 8PM... Located at the TEXAS UNION theater will be a presentation of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE with John Landis in attendence for an Award Presentation and a Q&A.
Then on Sunday, May 2nd beginning at 12PM at the DOBIE THEATER in Austin will be a special showing of the as of yet, unreleased SUSAN'S PLAN with Landis in attendance for Q&A...
To find out prices and further information about this event (which is being thrown by the University of Texas College Entertainment Organization and the San Antonio Film Festival... well call (512)892-8308 or (512) 440-9301
I will be attending every screening as I am a huge fan (as opposed to a thin one) of John Landis' career, which has been both hit and miss. But them's the cards, eh?
Well, hope to see you there!
Saturday, May 1st starting at 8PM... Located at the TEXAS UNION theater will be a presentation of NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE with John Landis in attendence for an Award Presentation and a Q&A.
Then on Sunday, May 2nd beginning at 12PM at the DOBIE THEATER in Austin will be a special showing of the as of yet, unreleased SUSAN'S PLAN with Landis in attendance for Q&A...
To find out prices and further information about this event (which is being thrown by the University of Texas College Entertainment Organization and the San Antonio Film Festival... well call (512)892-8308 or (512) 440-9301
I will be attending every screening as I am a huge fan (as opposed to a thin one) of John Landis' career, which has been both hit and miss. But them's the cards, eh?
Well, hope to see you there!
To find out prices and further information about this event (which is being thrown by the University of Texas College Entertainment Organization and the San Antonio Film Festival... well call (512)892-8308 or (512) 440-9301
I will be attending every screening as I am a huge fan (as opposed to a thin one) of John Landis' career, which has been both hit and miss. But them's the cards, eh?
Well, hope to see you there!
Well, hope to see you there!
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im first!....wow that is great i remember the first time i saw an american werewolf in london i was about 5 years old and it scared the shit out of me and it really wasent supposed to be scary! but you gotta admit that werewolf was a lil bit scary huh .......shit im gonna go rent that right now!!!...oh nevermind it's 3:30 in the morning and the video stores are closed!......DAMNIT!
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Gee, will Vic Morrow and a couple of Vietnamese kids be there too? No? Then I think I'll pass, thanks anyway.
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Just another reason to move to Austin, but you guys still have to kick out Sandra Bullock. Yes, that would be a good subject for the E! hollywood story. Will there be a showing of Michael Jackson's Thriller? Hell. I know you all had that album once just admit it. MJ still rocks! HEEE! HEEE!
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I have been waiting info on this film for ages now. I saw it mentioned on IMDB a while back, and it stated that it was shown at a film festival last year. Why the long wait? Oh, and there may well be some vietnamese kids there. There could be people of many nationalities. Jenifer Jason Leigh or Rob Morrow could even turn up, and they are the next best thing to Vic, if not better.
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Fuck John Landis! Remember that this is the asshole in charge who just HAD to have the footage of the helicopter at night and was responsible for taking the life of THREE people. OJ got off for killing two, now Landis gets off for killing THREE.
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Does anyone remember when this guy used to make GREAT movies? I think the last decent film John Landis made was SPIES LIKE US, and even that wasn't a classic. I don't suppose this tribute will show screenings of OSCAR, INNOCENT BLOOD, or (holy shit) BLUES BROTHERS 2000, eh? Oh, and those Vic Morrow comments? That's some cold shit, Shaft.
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Well, I think just about ANYONE would rather watch a Hal Needham film festival. It'd be more entertaining and CERTAINLY less painful.
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I saw John Landis at a screening of "Blues Brothers" at Indiana University back in '96, and it was one of the most entertaining and interesting nights I've ever had. He talked about all of his movies (successes and tragedies alike), and really gave great insights into the movie business. The talk lasted about three hours after a late night showing, so he seemed pretty generous as well. The evening was capped by Landis screaming lines from "The Exorcist" ("YOUR MOTHER SUCKS COCK IN HELL!" comes to mind) at the top of his lungs; not something to be missed.
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A hit or miss career?
I guess Vic Morrow and those two children would count as his HITS, then.
Landis should be attending this tribute in leg-irons. -
TWILIGHT ZONE tragedy aside, is there anyone besides me who thinks in almost every Landis movie his camerawork and editing seems pedestrian and uninspired, even when he's working with SFX and VFX. His sense of style seems to be as little style as possible.
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Well, SOMEBODY had to say it !
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Elan Vitale is right on the money. Landis made ANIMAL HOUSE, for which I'm eternally grateful, but since then he's been dull, dull, dull. Commercial movies with uninspired plots and tepid filmmaking. BLUES BROTHERS (yes, the first one) manages to be a wild mess and incredibly boring at the same time. I can't fathom how it's achieved cult status. AMERICAN WEREWOLF had its moments. And sure, he's had some moments of reasonable professionalism (INTO THE NIGHT was a decent flick), but mostly his career has been a major yawn. Any insider's tales of Hollywood can be entertaining, but to honor his actual output over the last 20 years seems a stretch.
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Those late 70's early 80's car destruction by Hal Needham and Burt Reynolds are guilty pleasures of mine. Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run kick asphalt. Get ready for the car crash galore genre because Hollywood is going to remake Gone in 60 Seconds and are doing a remake of Smokey with Burt Reynolds training young drivers. Don't forget Hal Needham directed Rad (the BMX movie) I still cant get that image of Lari Laughtin doing that BMX slow dance at the prom. What a scene! 10-4 good buddy!
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I'm a big fan of John Landis's early work, circa 1971-1983. I think it would be cool if this festival showed his first feature, SCHLOCK, released in 1971. This is a parody of KING KONG, and other assorted "ape amuck" movies. Landis himself plays the missing link, known scientifically as "Shlockthropus," a half-man, half-ape creature discovered in California. Naturally the monster goes on a rampage (one of the best scenes has Schlock seated in a movie theater next to Forrest J. Ackerman), and falls in love with a blind girl. The ending to this one has to be seen to be believed. Rick Baker created the makeup for Schlock, and Landis plays the character mostly for laughs. Unfortunately, the proposed sequel, SON OF SCHLOCK never saw the light of day. Landis would do one more low-budget feature, THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE (1977), before "going Hollywood" with NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE, released the following year. But SCHLOCK is very underrated, and very rare to find. Older video stores seem to carry it, but I can't find it in catalogues.
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SERGEANT SAUNDERS LIVES AGAIN IN "COMBAT-THE MOTION PICTURE" with Vic Morrow's head on top of a M-1 tank barking out orders! Hey, Landis, you forgot your abortion, "Blues Brothers 2000"! Wipe your nose Landis, you baby killer! There's still some white powder underneath it!
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Whoa there everyone. If you're gonna give Landis shit stick to his movies. The shit movies. I have to admit there have been plenty (What a wasted chance Innocent Blood was). But please, the deaths that occured on his movies were accidental. I'm quite sure that if you thought about it for just a minute, you'd figure out that, hey, Landis didn't PLAN them to happen, so just knock it off. On a lighter note, did anyone read Landis' indepth storyline for his American Werewolf sequel a few years back in Fangoria??? Now THAT needs to be made. Instead we were presented with Julie Delpy and her nausea inducing pits.
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I am sad I will be nowhere near Austin for this great event. I love Landis to this day--while recent stuff is lame, BLUES BROTHERS 2000 had enough great musical stagings to show he still has style, and maybe should try more musicals instead of comedies. Variety reported that SUSAN'S PLAN will be premiereing on Cinemax later this summer, and maybe afterward will get theatre or video play. Hate this kind of arrangement, but hell, set the VCR.
And to these people who seem to want to comapare Landis to O.J., FUCK YOU!! Yes, he made a terrible mistake. But he was not alone. There was a pilot on that helicopter, remember, and he was every bit as responsible for that tragedy. Only he got IMMUNITY from the court, because they wanted to nail a celebrity. It could have happened to any director, and anyone in the business who says no is a liar. Has it occurred to anyone maybe this is why his movies have suffered, because he is always going to have this on his mind? As gleeful as he appears, he has a conscience, I'm sure. And I pray for him as well as the bereaved. (Plus, from what I hear, Jennifer Jason Leigh didn't give a damn about her dad, or vice versa.) -
The "Landis is a coldblooded murderer" comments are a bit extreme. True, as a director, Landis is responsible for what happens on his set, but it's not like he planned on a triple homicide when he got up that morning. Truth is, movie making is sometimes dangerous and horrible accidents happen even though they shouldn't. People died on "Firestorm", "Going Fishing", "Vampire in Brooklyn", "The Road Warrior". Christ, some people even bought the farm on "The Dukes of Hazzard." What happened on "Twilight Zone" should never be forgoten, but I don't think Landis deserves all the blame.
Landis has made some travesties("Blues Brothers 2000" was like going to a friend's funeral)but his past work is full of comic gems ("Trading Places" "Kentucky Fried Movie"), some overlooked ("Into the Night", "Three Amigos"). When Landis is on, his dead-on sense of comic timing ranks with the best in the biz. Some complain about his editing and stiff staging, but the truth is Landis is influnced by old-school comedy and his static, yet effective camera set-ups reflect the visual palettes of yesteryear. Unlike today's style-happy frenetic directors, Landis gives his performers room to build the joke without letting his filmmaking get in the way.
Maybe Landis isn't flashy, but he has a solid, functional visual style that serves him well. Hell, "Thriller" is still one of the best music videos ever made... and I hate Michael Jackson. His combination of scares and laughs in "American Werewolf" is flawless. "Blues Brothers" is a true original - name me one other musical that offers vehicular mayhem, nuns, nazis, social commentary, Belushi and Cab Calloway.
Landis ain't no Preston Sturges or Orson Wells, and he never will be, but he's given us some of the most definitive comdies of his time. I just hope he has another good movie in him.
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Everyone in the business knows what a blow monkey Landis was(is?). I was on the set of "Into the Night" when he JUST HAD TO take that fall in the LAX terminal, instead of a stuntman. He broke his glasses and cut himself pretty good, all for his ego. Also, he violated child labor laws having those two Vietnamese kids work late on "Zone". Jennifer Jason Leigh was ready to fry his ass for what he did to her dad(Vic Morrow) then, like SHAZAM, she was offered all these CHOICE movie roles all of a sudden! Gee, whiz, Buckwheat, can you say STUDIO PAYOFF?! I love it when you so called film intellectuals praise Landis! Sure, I agree, the early stuff was good when he was still in control of himself, but the guy lost it after hit and miss Chevy Chase/Dan Ackroyd flick. Drugs, ego and money do strange things to people in Hollywood. Just remember what happened to Belushi. At least Ackroyd wised up and Chevy is washed up. Take your rose colored glasses off and see the reality! You're not in Kansas anymore!
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And stop whining about being mean to Landis, he himself loves his black humour.
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I was the large man in black in the back. At the screening of "Susan's Plan", I told Mr. Landis that "I enjoyed this film BUT...". I reacted phyiscally to a cheap bit of shock effect where he had this Power Bitch in the Office force a character played by Billy Zane to lick her twat and then cut immediated to a second grade class .
The Director said that that, well, you realize that I didn't actually show the act and went off on several tangents (HEY, THAT'S MY JOB!) about the MPAA and the insanity of ratings and did you know that Chronenburg never has shown any of his film uncut in his home country, Canada. I asked him why - was it supposed to be funny? And he, no is was suppose to shock and I said - it worked.
I stopped there. I like this man. "Blues Brothers" is one of the funniest, coolest, and most charming movies ever made. "American Werewolf in London" is a masterpiece. "Into the Night" is also cool, funny, and original.
"Susan's Plan" was fun. Landis mention several times how he loved Laura Flynn Boyle bimbo with a hard of stone character. I hated her at first. I love this actor and she deserves better. But, true to her talent, she won me over about half way. She was wearing this ridicilous Barbie chop top.
The nice about this film (and I didn't realize this until Landis mentioned it) none of the violence actually happens on screen except in fanstasy sequences. And then it is violent. He used the dream-within-a-dream gag that he used in American Werewolf again but it works. It is trippy and We Like Trippy.
My nickel,
Tangent Z
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