That'll Be The Day stars David Essex as Jim MacLaine, a young man in search of his own identity. The film is based on Nilsson's song "1941" and also has some parallels to the life of John Lennon. The movie begins in the late 1950's with MacLaine's father abandoning his family after WWII (a theme which I have seen in several British films set in this era) and ends in the early 1960's with MacLaine abandoning his own family for the world of rock and roll.
After dropping out of high school, MacLaine works a number of dead end
jobs, and while working as a barman at a holiday camp he meets Mike (Ringo Starr) who
becomes his mentor. Ringo is superb in his part, as good as any other actor in the film. I imagine his familiarity with the era helped a lot in making his character so believable. Billy Fury plays Stormy Tempest (based on Rory Storm) in the house band at the camp's bar. The drummer for the band is Keith Moon of The Who, who also has a small acting part. Moon has one of my favorite lines in the film, when asked if he has ever thought about writing his own songs, he replies "you got to be American to write Rock and Roll songs".
Most of the music in That'll Be The Day is on the soundtrack (comparable to the American Graffiti soundtrack), but besides the Stormy Tempest band, there are only two other bands in the movie: a Trad Band and an early rock and roll band (featuring Eugene Wallace as the lead singer). After seeing the rock and roll band, MacLaine/Essex buys a guitar and the film abruptly ends, and MacLaine's story is continued in the film's sequel, Stardust.
Nowhere Boy takes a look a John Lennon's life from 1946-1960 and his relationship with his mother and his Aunt Mimi, who raised him. We also briefly see John's Uncle George, who had a huge influence on molding Lennon's sense of humor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson looked somewhat like John (or at least like he could be Julian's brother), and that resemblance and being able to copy Lennon's speech cadence helped make his role believable.
Nowhere Boy doesn't travel into Beatles territory, although there are subtle references in the film to events/places that appear later in Beatles' songs. As far as the music part of the film, it shows Lennon forming The Quarrymen, how he met Paul McCartney and Paul's friend, George Harrison, and having them join his band. At the end of the movie, John leaves for Hamburg and this is as close to The Beatles as the film gets.
As with any biopic, I'm sure there are probably inaccuracies in Nowhere Boy, but I'll leave those to the Beatles' experts to point out. I will say, I thought Thomas Brodie-Sangster was miscast as Paul, he appeared too young and too short of stature to play Paul. I came away from the movie with a better understanding of what made John Lennon the person he became as an adult. Even if you're not interested in John Lennon, you might still like Nowhere Boy, since it is an excellent family drama, one that just happens to be about a famous person.
Dynamite Chicken is a potpourri of skits, old film footage, comedy sketches, spoken word segments, on the street interviews, music and comedy sketches, and lots and lots of naked dancing women. All of these diverse elements are held together with interspersed bits of comedy from Richard Pryor.
Even though the the announced cast listed
at the first of the film leads you to believe the movie will have appearances by Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters
and Howling Wolf, they are only seen briefly in archival footage. The only real performance is by Joan Baez who sings a short song. John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear in a clip from The Bed-In and Sha Na Na has a very very short bit in the movie.
Dynamite Chicken is a movie that belongs to its time period (late 60s, early 70s). Viewed in 2013, it now seems terribly dated. If you can view it with the mindset of that period, you might get some enjoyment out of this film. For myself, even being a child of the 60s, I found only Richard Pryor's comedy to be entertaining, the rest of the movie was a pain to get through.
While Aidan Quinn was no where near pretty enough to portray Paul McCartney and Jared Harris' red tinged beard was disconcerting at times, they both did a great job of portraying their respective subjects in Two Of Us. This disclaimer is placed at the start of the movie: "This fictional film is not endorsed by any person depicted herein and neither such persons nor their families, heirs or related parties have participated in the making of this film. Legend has it that in 1976 - six years after the bitter breakup of The Beatles - Paul McCartney paid a surprise visit to John Lennon at his apartment in New York City. This film makes no attempt to document what may have occurred at such a meeting. Rather, it is a work of fiction in appreciation of two blokes from Liverpool, and the gifts they gave us." If this disclaimer had been placed at the end of the movie, it would have allowed the viewer to fantasize what was being shown was the truth, instead of immediately letting you know what you were about to see had very little basis in fact.
As soon as I read the disclaimer, I thought this just sounds like a piece of fan fiction and upon further investigation I found the following notation "the screenplay was written by longtime Beatles fan and Beatlefest attendee, Mark Stanfield." I give props to the writer, the director, and the actors, because what is basically two guys talking at each other for ninety minutes with fabricated dialogue was still able to hold my attention. This is due to the facts that both the characterizations and dialogue rang true. The only minus point to Two Of Us is that it doesn't contain any Beatles songs since the producers couldn't get clearance rights. Instead we hear Peter Frampton on the radio, John and Paul singing Tumbling Tumbleweeds together at a piano, Blue Suede Shoes playing in the background in one scene, and a reggae band in Central Park doing a version of Sh-Boom.
There are a couple of clips from the movie on youtube, but I couldn't find a trailer. Instead I'm including The Beatles song that is the namesake of Two Of Us.
I often wonder, does it seem strange to today's younger generation that there was such controversy over a pre-fabricated group that didn't play their own instruments. As the years have rolled on, there's been several hit bands put together under the same premise without any controversy. However, the late 60s were a different time in music: Wanting to be hip and cool and artistic instead of rich and famous were the norms not the exceptions; and of course, casting four young men, two of whom were actual musicians, into a scenario that caused them to appear fake to their peers was just asking for trouble.
Speaking of peers, unlike a lot of my own peers, I never had any trouble with The Monkees. They had a lot of great singles and their TV show was nice light entertainment. Of Course, having Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and Neil Diamond writing songs for you gives you a big step toward having a great rock/pop song. Add in the promotional value of being on a weekly television show and showcasing some of these songs and you have a fast track to a hit song. Anyway, I never saw The Monkees as any more of a manufactured money making machine than KISS. Both groups have entertained me in their own ways and that's good enough for me.
I actually did see The Monkees once in concert in 1969, well I saw THREE Monkees, since Peter Tork wasn't touring with the band at the time. It has always surprised me that Peter was the first to initially quit the band, knowing how much Mike Nesmith disliked being a Monkee. While I don't remember anything memorable about the show, I don't recall being disappointed in the concert. I do remember that there were a few teenyboppers in the audience, but they were so few that they really stood out. The Monkees were almost upstaged by their opening act Sam and The Goodtimers (previously the backing band for The Ike and Tina Turner Revue....and with that pedigree there's no wonder they were so good). Sam and The Goodtimers also were the back up band for The Monkees during this concert, although Mike played guitar for the whole show and Mickey did a drum solo. Otherwise, Davy and Mickey just sang and banged on some tambourines from time to time.
Daydream Believers - the Monkees Story (DB) covers the group from their conception until the end of their TV show. As with any biopic, you can't look at this as a documentary. The movie is made to be entertaining with facts taking only a secondary role. The first part of DB is about the show's conception and casting for the parts, while the rest of the movie mainly concerns itself with The Monkees desire to be seen as real musicians and their struggle to gain control from the studio over their own music. What I came away with is that Davy and Mickey would have been happy just being actors playing musicians, even though they did join forces with Peter and Mike. Peter was your typical California airhead, always into TM or any other "groovy" fad and Mike was sort of a hard to get along with ass. I'm not saying any of these are correct, just that's what DB showed me about each of the characters.
All the actors did a good job with their lip synch, which sometimes is where these music biopics have a real problem. Another plus, while none of the actors were exact doubles, all four of the actors had enough of a resemblance to their real life counter parts to give an air of believability to the movie. Besides The Monkees, the only other musicians featured in DB were Jimi Hendrix (who unsuccessfully was an opener for The Monkees on one of their tours) and a brief segment where The Monkees meet The Beatles, although I only noticed John Lennon in this scene, mainly since he has a speaking part, but the credits also show Paul and George as characters.
The DVD is a real bargain since it's loaded with extras: Besides the movie and the trailer, there are three separate twenty plus minute interviews with Mickey, Peter, and Davy. I watched all three of these and found that I like the TV Mickey, Peter, and Davy MUCH better than I like the real life actors. There are also three separate commentaries by Mickey, Peter, and Davy, but by the time I had watched the interviews, I really didn't want to hear anything else these three might have to say. IF I decide I need anymore Monkees in my life, I'll stick to the TV show or the music.
One of my current favorite TV shows is Fringe and the main arc in that series concerns an alternate universe that exists parallel to ours. That other universe is sort of like ours, but has some slight variations. The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash is like watching a documentary from an alternate universe. The characters seem familiar, the songs sound almost like what I'm used to hearing and the history of the group sounds mighty familiar. The only thing that keeps me from being completely convinced that this isn't from another universe is a few spots of broad humor that play out through the movie. These spots sort of give off a Monty Pythonesque: wink, wink, nudge, nudge, which is understandable considering Eric Idle conceived, wrote, co-directed, and stars as Dirk McQuickly (Paul McCartney) The Rutles.
The other three Rutles are Stig O'Hara (George Harrison) played by Rikki Fataar (The Beach Boys drummer), Barry Wom, shortened from Barrington Womble (Ringo Star nee Richard Starkey) played by John Halsey, and best of all Ron Nasty (John Lennon) played by Neil Innes of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Neil not only made a great John Lennon, but also composed the songs for the movie, which are as enjoyable as the original Beatles' songs.
In The Rutles, we have songs such as: "Get Up And Go," "OUCH!", "Hold My Hand", "Piggy in the Middle", "Doubleback Alley" and more. The amazing thing that Neil Innes did is that he didn't just copy the original songs and exchange the lyrics for something silly, but instead he wrote new songs with lyrics that simply remind you of the original songs when you hear them. The songs in The Rutles are so good that listening to the soundtrack is like listening to a "lost" Beatles album.
Anyone that is a fan of The Beatles should enjoy The Rutles. John Lennon and Yoko Ono let it be known that they got a kick out of The Rutles even though the movie really skewers them with Nasty and Chasity's meeting at The Pretentious Gallery, plus their Shower-In For Peace. George Harrison even makes an appearance in The Rutles as an interviewer. With his short gray hair and mustache, I'm sure he could walk the streets without being noticed. An interesting fact from the commentary track is that during the filming of The Rutles, George "the interviewer" was pushed aside, so some fans could ask The Rutles if they were Beatles! I have read that Sir Paul didn't find the movie all that amusing, but that could just be hearsay.
Mick Jagger and Paul Simon are featured in The Rutles, lending even more credence to the fact that you're watching a real documentary. Mick talks about The Rolling Stones rivalry with The Rutles among other things and Paul Simon talks about being on the record charts with The Rutles.
The Rutles have their own web site: The Rutles Tragical History Tour and it includes lots of photos, history of the band, lyrics to all of their songs, album covers, and even a trivia game. So if you want to visit some more into that alternate universe that includes The Rutles, click on the link provided above.
There are lots of Rutles clips to enjoy on youtube, below is a video from The Rutles animated movie "Yellow Submarine Sandwich". It should be noted that The Rutles employed the same artists who did The Beatles "Yellow Submarine"
I decided I would re-watch Help because it had been so many years since I had seen it. What I found out was that I had NEVER seen Help in its entirety. I've seen different clips from the movie, but for some odd reason I had notseen Help from start to finish, no matter what I had previously thought.
At least I'm pretty sure I've seen "A Hard Day's Night" :-) You know what they say about the 60s, IF you can remember them, you weren't there!
I don't imagine I need to go over the plot, but just in case, here's a brief synopsis: Ringo has received a ring in the mail from some fans, who are part of a cult that needs the ring for a sacrificial ceremony. The cult cannot complete their sacrifice without the ring and they set out to steal it. When their attempts fail and they find that the ring is stuck on Ringo's finger, the cult decides Ringo will have to be the sacrificial victim. Along with the cult chasing after Ringo, there is also a mad scientist played by Victor Spinetti who wants the ring for its perceived power. The remainder of the movie revolves around Ringo and The Beatles being chased by this crazy assortment of characters.
The Beatles said they took their inspiration for Help from The Marx Brothers and you can definitely see that influence. There are also a lot of James Bond influences to be seen, which is understandable considering how big the Bond Movies were at the time.
I can't imagine anyone who doesn't like The Beatles or British humor not enjoying Help. The movie includes eight songs and lots of great quips, what more could you want. As for myself, I'm now going to go ponder what other movies I think I've seen, but really haven't :-)
Back when me and my friends were "hip", we didn't think a lot about The Turtles. Their songs were pleasant enough, but when it came time to buy an album (because you know, 45's were for like teenyboppers) we went with Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doors, The Mothers of Invention, Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, etc. Years have passed and I realize that I only liked some of those groups/artists because it was the "hip" thing to do. After watching My Dinner With Jimi, I now have more appreciation for The Turtles, although I still think that they are a better "singles band" rather than an "album band".
I knew nothing about this movie, but ran across the title one day while scrolling through Netflix. The description "Howard Kaylan found fame as the lead singer of the 1960s band The Turtles, as depicted in this autobiographical screenplay. We meet Kaylan (Justin Henry) and his bandmates just as they triumph with their single "Happy Together." The band then heads off to England, where their friend Graham Nash (Steven Soldevilla) introduces them to The Beatles and Kaylan later dines with Jimi Hendrix (Royale Watkins) -- an event that changes his life." intrigued the hell out of me. I not only put it on my rental list, but moved it straight to the top. My Dinner With Jimi did not disappoint, it was everything and more that I thought it would be.
My Dinner With Jimi begins with The Turtles at a magazine promo shoot. John Corbett is the photographer in an almost non-recognizable role. We get introduced to each of The Turtles as they get their photos taken. The magazine writer who is at the shoot to do the accompanying story tells them: "Hope your looks don't hold you back." This goes with some of the commentary on the dvd when Howard Kaylan says he could always buy nice clothes, but it he good never buy "thin".
The Turtles are experiencing their biggest hit single "Happy Together" (which knocked The Beatles "Penny Lane" out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100). They're playing the Whiskey A-Go-Go and The Doors are their opening act. There's a great scene after the concert when The Turtles go to Canter's Deli. At the deli we find Frank Zappa and Mama Cass Elliot sitting at a table together, plus Jim Morrison is drunk and walking on tables and being a general goofball. I was also delighted to see the late Wendie Jo Sperber, my favorite actress from from I Wanna Hold Your Hand, in the role of Louella the waitress.
One section of My Dinner With Jimi concerns how Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman are about to get drafted and they get advice on how to flunk their physicals. The advice mainly has them taking massive amounts of drugs plus not sleeping or bathing before they go and being as uncooperative as possible at the draft board. The draft board sequence in My Dinner With Jimi ranks right up there with Arlo Guthrie's in Alice's Restaurant.
When The Turtles get to England they hook up with their friend Graham Nash, who also has Donovan hanging out at his house. Everyone gets stoned and they listen to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which won't be released until the next day. After listening to the album Graham takes them to The Speakeasy Club so they can meet The Beatles, who they idolize. Look for the real Howard Kaylan in a cameo as the greeter/doorman at the club.
Inside the club The Turtles find Paul McCartney under the table taking photos, Ringo Starr being his usual laid back self, and George Harrison seeming to be a little embarrassed by the antics of Paul and the sharp tongue of John Lennon. Lennon is drunk and full of insults for The Turtles. Jim "Tucko" Tucker is really crushed by The Beatles and flees the club followed by the other Turtles. There is some conflicting information about Tucker in the movie and what is on the commentary. What truth I can glean is that he definitely did leave the Turtles and didn't play music again. Whether it was due to his disappointment in meeting his heroes or the fact that he couldn't take touring is unclear.
Howard remains behind and before he can reenter the club, he's approached by someone wanting his autograph. He's shocked to find out that it's Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. In tow with Brian is Jimi Hendrix and the three go back into the club for a meal, but Brian gets sidetracked by some girls and Howard winds up alone with Jimi. I'll let you watch the movie yourself to see how this dinner goes, but will tell you that it starts great, but ends badly.
Since the title is My Dinner With Jimi, it's appropriate that one of the strongest performances in the movie comes from Royale Watkins portrayal of Jimi Hendrix. He really captures that cool laid back vibe that Hendrix always seemed to emit. Although Royale has made a handful of movies and TV shows, he's best known as a stand up comic.
The commentary made a big deal out of how they tried to make everything look as close to possible to how it looked in real life, including the club The Speakeasy. They even used Howard's old house in one scene. While I will agree that everything had the right look of the late 60s, I'm puzzled about the bad wigs and especially about the sideburns used on Justin Henry who plays Howard. In the recreation of The Turtles appearance on The Smothers Brothers Show, the sideburns can actually be seen coming loose. This is the only minor quibble I have with My Dinner With Jimi. Overall, I found the movie very enjoyable and would highly recommend it to anyone.
