A laughably wretched/wretchedly laughable horror anthology doesn’t get any better because George A. Romero puts his name on it and does some really bad intros for each segment.
But don’t blame George for creating this…that honor goes to writer Jeff Monahan.
Just blame him for thinking his name still carries any weight after ‘Survival’.
Grade: F-
Back to the story arc, referencing the long-ago disappearance of Mulder’s sister and revealing more of exactly what happened, according to his memory.
He is so hilariously out of place, yet unruffled, in a biker bar.
As for the little boy’s sketchings…fascinating. Much better than ‘The Last Crusade’.
The attraction (or at least mutual respect, admiration, and slight affection) is already obvious. And it feels natural, real, unforced.
As to the episode, it is what I believe is called a “monster-of-the-week” episode…no real impact on the main story arc, except to continue to establish Mulder/Scully’s relationship.
This one’s pretty good, though…creepy. Spooky, too.
Opening: “Throw me the whip!”
More akin to the show than ‘Demon Knight’ was. Because it’s more cheezy and silly. But, like the show, it’s also a bit of fun.
Dennis Miller’s got a lot of one-liners in this baby, cha cha. My personal fav given recent viewing: “Weird Duchov-nian riff”.
Grade: C
An extremely UFO-based episode.
Points of note: knowledgeable contact introduced, Mulder’s memory affected.
Featuring a hippie/stoner Seth Green.
For the record, I’m a little bit Mulder, a little bit Scully.
I’m not arrogant or blind enough to believe that everything MUST have a logical, scientifically verifiable fact-based explanation and that if we don’t see it well then we just haven’t looked hard enough.
Neither am I flaky or anti-intellectual enough to believe that everything that cannot be immediately explained MUST be supernatural in nature.
So it’s interesting to watch myself argue with myself via Mulder and Scully.
Inspirational Quote: “When does the human cost become too high for the building of a better machine?”
*Robert’s Father* “…All men betray. All lose heart.”
*Robert The Bruce* “I DON’T WANNA LOSE HEART! I want to believe, as he does.”
-Braveheart
Intro: Naughty little birdies. Kinda cute.
I don’t think a plot summary is really necessary: It’s a kids movie that’s just smart enough for adults. Which is rather common of Pixar, I think. Unfortunately, what’s also common of Pixar, from what I’ve seen, is that the “smart enough for adults” part isn’t nearly smart enough to watch every single variation on it. And I prefer DreamWorks, anyway.
But, as to its charm…
Guest Review, paraphrased:
“Oh Mugsy…it’s adorable.” – Rocky
Grade: B-
I’ve meant to watch this show, from beginning to end, for a LONG time.
Only seen a few random, scattered episodes…then told myself I’d wait and, one day, watch it properly, in order. Part of me wanted it to be boring, so I could move on to something else. Part of me wanted it to be extremely interesting, so I could have a new show to focus on that I found worthy of my attention and analysis.
So far, I’m leaning more towards the “interesting” part. Mulder and Scully seem to mesh together right from the start: not quite Sam and Diane, but it’s close. And, of course, more mature.
A good introduction to the characters and the theme…and the ending is reminiscent of ‘Raiders’…top men working on it. 9906753.
It’s an incredibly dull, stupid, boring zombie flick.
Only moments of interest: “First Blood” after 27 1/2 minutes of buildup, and a scene around 32:20 that I have dubbed “The Broken Promise”.
Grade: F
I’m a big Pats fan, but…I’m also not blinded by my fandom. So I must say…
Exactly why are the referees making up penalties to keep Pats drives alive? I mean…it’s not “borderline”…it’s “blatantly obvious”.
And it’s not like we need the help…I mean, we’re not the Jets or anything. Oh!
-Puppy >.< Yip!
By now we’ve all seen (or at least heard of and declined to see) ‘Saw’.
Like ‘Night of the Living Dead’, but with much less cause, it’s spawned numerous copycats.
I say “much less cause” because it’s not as good as ‘Night’. Or ‘Dawn’. Or ‘Day’. Or ‘Shaun’. Or ‘Fido’. Or even ‘Zombie Girl’. Maybe ‘Xombie’…but that’s too close to call.
So we get all these God-awful remakes: X people are trapped in X location for X period of time to see what happens when X by a psychotic X.
Luckily, since I dismissed the original framework pretty easily, there’s not terribly much reason to bother with most of these. So it does at least grant me the favor that Romero does NOT…there MIGHT be another good zombieish flick out there, and so I watch them.
Here’s an idea…how about they pull the old switcheroo? Instead of X psychotic X kidnapping X people and blah blah blah…how about a movie where X people kidnap X psychotic X and force them to live in conditions of extreme luxury and happiness until they X? Where the last X = do something nice, smile, say “awwwwww…”, “Like” a LOLcat…and so forth. You get the general idea.
Feel free to steal this idea if you want. But see ‘He Said I Could’ first.
-Puppy >.< Yip!
Worthy of Note:
Saunders the obnoxious American
Lord Byron’s famous nipple-sucking
wrong threat
Saunders the really bad seductress
flaming crumpet
sick Oxford thing
Oxford mob
bit of skirt
Brief interviews with various Trekkies.
The opening bit and the title makes it out to be a parody of Star Trek fanaticism, but that’s a completely false impression. There’s no humor at all after that, and it’s basically just an “exploration” of the “meaning” of Star Trek. If you’re not a Trekkie, you’ll probably think it’s an incredibly fawning treatment of a tv show. I like Star Trek, but even I find it FAR too sentimental and self-worshipping.
To say it’s pretentious would be…an understatement. It’s beyond pretentious, into laughable.
Yes, there are moving moments…but they’re not because of Star Trek. They’re because you see people that are feeling obvious deep emotion. Such deep emotion is common to life, not exclusive in any way to Star Trek.
As Shatner himself said later in the taken-from-SNL bit used to open this, “It’s just a tv show, it’s just a tv show!!”
Grade: D-
1/17/13: See ‘Pupdate: Documentary Grade Edits’. Grade: F
Longer but less interesting than the first. Hence more tedious than interesting. It has a few moments, but you can see why French and Saunders are rapidly outgrowing this group.
It’s a dramedy. As such, it’s a bit overwrought.
There are moments that are so over-acted/over-emotioned that they belong in a soap opera, but there are also some fairly charming and sweet moments. It’s got the requisite obstacles to be overcome, and if you like “feel-good” movies that are a bit quirky, this could do the trick.
Not really my cup of tea…but it’s watchable.
Grade: D+
5/3/14: Not my cup of tea AT ALL. But, still…watchable. Grade: D
This movie is shot from the point of view (at least to start) of a little girl carrying a videocamera. I believe this was done for three reasons:
First, it makes it “different” from other people-pursued-by-nasty-things movies.
Second, it justifies the incompetence of the camera work and masks the bad dialogue/dialogue lapses with perpetual random chatter.
Third, it garners sympathy for the overall poor quality of the film and its characters.
What’s next, cute-kitty-cat-cam? Defenseless-crawling-toddler-cam?
Exploiting-peoples-sympathies-for-a-buck-cuz-we’re-morally-and-artistically-bankrupt-cam?
Maybe this was just some sleazy film exec’s answer to the question: “How do we make people care about an otherwise generic horror flick?”
Alternate Title: ‘Little Susie’s Camera Fascination Meets BLOOD’
Alternate Title 2: ‘The Gore Glitch Project’
‘Area 407’ was filmed on location in a vacant field. *MST RIP*
The only halfway intelligent parts of the film play on government conspiracy paranoia, but there are only two of them and they last a combined 5 minutes, tops. But I’m not gonna tell you where they are. I sat through this pile of exploitative sh1t, and if you wanna find out, DIY.
Here’s maybe how this went down…*PYTHON RIP*
“Quite frankly, I think the central script system may need strengthening a bit.”
“Isn’t that going to put the cost up?”
“Ummmm…it might.”
“Well, I don’t know if I’d worry about strengthening THAT much…I mean, it’s not meant to be a luxury movie.”
“Quite agree, quite agree…I think provided the viewers are of light mind and relatively sedentary, and given a spot of good luck, I think we’re on to a winner here.”
Grade: F-
12/31/13: Two halfway-intelligent bits are two more than an F- should have. Grade: F
Worthy of Note:
seeing “French + Saunders” for the first time. Bop be do be wah!
long house tour
French patting Saunders
sudden Consuelas
pre-emptive duck sketching
emerging/submerging Consuela
affectionate butler
EXCITING French/Saunders ending struggle
accidental killings
“All your religion are belong to us!”
Most of these radical types are in the same vein as the pre-prison Derek Vinyards of the world: They’re angry (at something they don’t quite understand, or that they can’t do anything about), and so they group together en masse for a good old fashioned mob-mentality Two-Minutes Hate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate
-Puppy >.< Yip!
It’s obvious to anyone that isn’t blinded by their own convictions or the convictions they have promised to follow even if proven shaky and/or untrue simply to maintain party unity that a major reason the Republican Party seems so fractured, out-of-touch, and just plain ignorant and/or self-blinded to reality is the following:
“Freedom of Religion” means exactly that: Freedom to choose what religion, if any, you believe in and to practice your faith in the context of your life without infringing on anyone else’s same right.
It does NOT mean merging Religion with Politics and using as your only basis for support “It’s what I believe as a *Insert Faith Here*.”
The days of that argument holding any water at all began to decline quite a while ago. It wasn’t a sudden dropoff, but like the 50’s propaganda films that seemed well-intentioned but slightly out of touch then and completely absurd and laughable now, there is a similar trajectory.
The fact that Americans are progressively, by generation, less and less likely to be indoctrinated in any particular Faith will eventually lead to two things:
1) Belief will become a more personal, meaningful, and DEEPER thing, since it will be increasingly chosen by individuals through the process of self-exploration and exploration of perspectives, one’s own and those of others, and not slapped on them by their parents or community.
2) The number of people that can be accurately described by Albert Einstein as “Crusading Atheists” will dwindle to a small, angry minority just as offensive and abhorrent as in-your-face “Crusaders” for any form of belief. There being no more “cause” to be angry about, the remnants will simply be angry “about” something else…for some people aren’t angry for reasons, they simply pick a reason to affix their anger to.
P.S.: The “banning” of any religion or form of spirituality is not only WRONG by definition (banning beliefs? Read ‘1984’)…also, it can’t be done. Beliefs can NEVER be destroyed. Ideas can NEVER be “done away with”. It’s been tried…doesn’t work. So apart from being immoral, it’s also completely illogical, impractical, and a complete and utter waste of time.
Instead of protesting religion “telling people how to think” by “telling people how to think” (Does anyone else see the Republican Math here?), how about this…everyone leaves everyone else alone to decide, on their own, with their own minds and without propaganda from either side, without any form of coercion at all…”What do I believe?”.
THAT would be a monumental step forward in the “evolution” of humanity, and it would be achieved through ACTIVE ENCOURAGEMENT OF FREEDOM, rather than FORBIDDANCE OF FREEDOM. Now…what’s wrong with that? Peace.
-Puppy >.< Yip!
No angels, lots of idiots. Colossally stupid.
Bill Plympton’s amateurish and grotesque animation can actually be enjoyable over short periods of time and with the right ideas, but without any and at feature-film length, it’s just extremely painful. And why, pray tell, are we supposed to feel any sympathy at all for this incredibly nasty piece of work? The main character, that is.
BONUS: No dialogue.
Grade: F
Oh, music, songwriting, whatnots…
(songwriting?)
Yeah. You ever hear of “Snow, Snow Beautiful Snow”?
(why yes! did you write that?)
No, I shovelled it.
A touching, sad tale of true friendship.
It’s got gross moments and disturbing moments, but a lot more amusing and heartfelt ones.
It’s Claymation, there’s very little “action”…but it’s intelligent and I find it charming in a rather unique way.
Grade: B+
Worthy of Note:
origin of Ab-Fab’s “Edina Monsoon”
violent nurse
angry childrens show
tolerable suicide
Radio Free Nigeria
‘Big Jobs in My Trousers’
like……….that
very nice bastard
congenital syphilis
bags of charisma
Eddie’s fans: a dog and his uncle
E. Monsoon talking to E. Monsoon
Eddie Monsoon’s brilliant unpublished novel
A short list of chaotic free spirits more interesting than Clementine:
April
Jack Dalton
Tyler Durden (BLECH!)
the Sizzler sisters
those colorful whirling firecrackers
Edina Monsoon
Eddie Monsoon
most cats
a small child on a sugar high
a small patch of brown liquid, which could be creosote or some extract used in industrial varnishing
I don’t buy the intro. She’s a psycho…and she’s not even an INTERESTING psycho…just a weird, moody, freaky-annoying one. I mean, I guess chemistry is debatable, but it seems like the only reason she pursued him and anything happened at all is cuz it’s in the script and she’s an actress.
She’s a good movie example of a real-life type I’ve met before, and you probably have too: weird and freaky and chaotic and random and eager-to-fck because without those things you’d see what else was inside the very attractive outside shell. Namely, dull nothingness.
And since she’s treated as the heroine and example of how to live a wonderful, “free” life, she (and by default, this movie) is championed by those who, deep down inside, fear they’re just as dull and shallow as she is…and/or random scumbags that like to do whatever they want without regard for anyone else and then fall apart when the time comes for something called “responsibility”.
I guess I’d be incredibly emotionally impressed if I, for a second, believed any aspect of their relationship. But I’m either too smart, not smart enough, or not weird enough. Oh well. I do admire the ending, though. I’d even call it brave and moving, if I cared about either character.
But it IS visually impressive…VERY impressive. And the sequences become more elaborate and more intelligent and more humorous as they go on…for a while. Then they crest and fade away, like a wave you thought could NEVER reach you…and it comes close, a lot closer than you thought it would…but in the end, you were right, and it quickly dissipates and is gone.
It’s challenging…a thought-provoking, in-your-face demand of self-evaluation. In that sense, and as an exercise in artistic and visual mastery, it’s brilliant. But it’s too mechanical and unbelievable, in the sense of how it actually plays out, to be anywhere near the masterpiece its legions of admirers hail it as.
To see something that’s closer to how I feel about this movie but that’s far too clever for me to be able to concoct, see ‘Depeche Mode – A Non-Puppy Perspective’. Focus on the attitude in grudgingly awarding a decent grade, not the words. You can almost feel the dismissive venom dripping off the screen.
Inspirational Quote: “I assume you fcked someone tonight. Isn’t that how you get people to like you?”
Grade: B
5/3/14: I prefer character interaction over studio mastery, and the main characters don’t “interact”. They stand near each other at times and repeatedly fail to sell the relationship at all. Grade: B-
Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation (1998)
No more “important” than A Flock Of Seagulls: just as silly, not as hooky. The most interesting thing they’ve done in the past 20 years is take out the apostrophe.
(“Roam”)
Grade: D+
REALLY bad fx, REALLY bad acting, REALLY bad script, REALLY dumb “goth” lady who looks more comfortable in natural blood-splatter than she does in black makeup.
The great thing about quick cuts is that you don’t actually have to show the amazing action sequences.
Oh, and they forgot to write an ending.
Inspirational Scene: There’s blood in them thar hills!
Inspirationally Bad Choice For Anti-Zombie Weapon: Scythe
Grade: F-
Better than ‘The Devil’s Scissors’ but not as good as ‘The Devil’s Paper’.
But seriously, this movie deserves more than a snide little comment. It starts off as a second-rate war film, but even then it’s decent enough to warrant/encourage watching further, especially in the hope/knowledge that the real movie is yet to come. And it is.
With the setup being dispensed with, we are presented with a fairly gory supernatural-ish horror film. Not a “gore-fest” because the acting, script, and intelligence level are far too good for that. Not that they’re brilliant or anything, but they’re surprisingly decent. There are some obvious holes in the plot and it’s not as clever as it wants to be, but it held my attention throughout and I can say that I’m actually glad I watched it, beyond being able to write a review on it. I’ll never watch it AGAIN…there’s nothing I feel I may have “missed” the first time in terms of depth…but as recent unrated Netflix streaming horror movies go, this is a good one-time view.
Also, if you liked ‘Hellboy’, you’ll enjoy seeing a good rip of its opening.
Grade: C+
6/21/13: I did watch it again. Turns out there was nothing I missed the first time, but I actually enjoyed watching it a second time. I’m PRETTY sure I won’t watch it a third time though…I don’t have that “There’s-Something-About-‘Lo'” feeling. Grade: B-
Drawing from their two best albums (‘Automatic For The People’/’Monster’) and nothing but produces the single best collection of music in one place they’ve ever managed. Irrelevant by this point, perhaps, but I couldn’t resist. Not for 99 cents.
And the video for “Everybody Hurts” is so obviously and completely heartfelt that it achieves grandiosity while avoiding maudlin sentimentality. A benefit of sincerity, I suppose.
For the last five songs, I believe R. Christgau sums it up best: “Peter Buck’s sonic palette is rainbow grunge–variegated dirt and distortion as casual rhetoric–and he’s so cranked even the slow ones seem born to be loud.”
Inspirational Quote: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy”
Grade: A-
Dead unjugged rabbit fish.
Only exception: The first cartoon, which tells the (very short) tale of a true romantic.
Cat, that is.
Grade: F
The only real signs of the horrible “pandemic” and its results are a few really angry people and a lot of flashbacks. Other than that, it’s a fairly dull guy hanging out with a fairly gloomy teen: Looking at stuff, saying stuff that seems either boring or forced, doing chores, saying more stuff…and some stuff eventually happens.
It’s supposed to be extremely emotionally moving, as the music can attest to, and you might find it to be so. But I doubt it, since I’m not at all resistant to being moved and this just strikes me as a fairly dull attempt at yet another apocalypse movie.
It does get much more interesting (and pandemicy) near the end…when they stop talking.
Grade: D
Basically an inferior reworking of episode 1.
Watch only if you want to see Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders say things like “you little prick-teaser”.
In the vein of ‘Spinal Tap’…not as good, of course, but interesting.
Stupid Stupid Stupid.
Inspirational Quote: “I’m tired of these motherf@cken zombies in this motherf@cken strip club!”
Grade: F-
Worthy of Note:
lashings
brilliant observations
young French
young Saunders
twittiness worthy of Peckinpah’s ‘Salad Days’
George the dyke
queerness
Fairly amusing, especially if you like British comedy in general. And it’s got French and SAUN-ders…SAUN-ders…bop be do be wah!
So many different ways to mock this, where do I start…
Somewhat creepy and dark. As such, a bit like ‘Lo’. But I don’t anticipate watching this again once, let alone three times. Because it’s most like the parts of ‘Lo’ I really didn’t like…if you enjoyed the songs/faces/arty touches from ‘Lo’, you might like this. If you enjoyed ‘Lo’ because it was, at heart, a touching true romance, you’ll probably find this quite tedious.
It’s not a throwaway…a lot of care/planning obviously went into this. Which makes it that much more disappointing that it fails to deliver much of anything except admittedly great imagery and boring, generic weirdness.
You don’t laugh with it, but you might laugh at it, if you don’t turn it off first.
My only consolation is the glimmering hope that I may live long enough for these works of brilliant songform to pass into the public domain.
Highlights: Being reminded briefly of ‘Lo’, and fervently hoping the woman with massive cleavage would be selected as a player.
SPOILER ALERT: She isn’t.
Three “Sins” apparently punished: Greed, Suicide, and Trust. HUH?
Inspirational Quote: “PRICK…PRICK…PRICK…PRICK…PRICK…PRICK…”
Grade: D-
I spent the majority of this movie trying to think of how to describe how bad it is. I couldn’t think of anything clever. I blame it on the movie, because there’s absolutely nothing clever in the movie. Nothing. Thank God for the time lapses.
Lone bright spot for me: woman looking vaguely like Jennifer Tilly.
Greatest moment of terrified suspense: “Will they show that guy’s a$$ crack or not?”
Grade: F-
Highs:
the scavenger gourmet
chef’s quick prayer
two dead pigeons
oinky pig-e-ons
Siberian hamster
Franco’s rat policy
popular Bubonic Plague
The bleedin’ obvious
domesticated Sybil
gangs of field mice
undead Basil
sleep discount
haunting “rat departure” theme
fermenting pigeons
cheering up, for Christ’s sake
Sybil finishing Basil’s depression monologue
Major bothering
stealthy Major with gun
Basil-seek
homing rat
“He’s from Barcelona…”
wine dropping
cat celebration
random plates of veal
fiance’s legs
eal
Japo-Scandinavian substitute
dandered up
free rat
Basil-dragging
Lows:
picture-pushing
convenient meat spillage
bomb scare?
Grade: A (Great ending)
Highs:
“Ode To Joy”
simmering Sybil
Basil’s memory
the smell of burning martyr
costly oil
Agincourt?
bump-smoothing
“She’s uhh umm”
good look by the dentist
Polly’s legs
slightly serious
slightly like Sybil
Pollyjacking
very quick heart attack
Major re-route
lots of waving
Basil’s sad chat with Sybil
Polly discipline
“Oh, I know…”
coincidental/concealed Sybil
kitchen melee
Lows:
Basil brush
too much Manuel interlude
Grade: A-
Highs:
lumbered with the people
breathing attempts
Quite…
managing to struggle down
Basil’s lightly-buttered kipper rant
woman’s work never delegated
Basil’s breakfast delivery rant
hitting guests
Basil’s kipper rant
death celebration
a bit of it
BLOODY final
Basil’s hotel rant
recurrent kipper
cheerful over guest’s death
recurrent kipper
2 dead, 25 to go
noisy cupboard
fortunate key
Basil’s crush/Manuel’s dance
“Oh, I know…”
off guard
fly attraction
screaming radio
bothersome corpse
Doctor wanting sausages
explaining to Manuel
women doing it
not much
Manuel in a basket (part 2)
ending
Lows:
dog FX
unusually nasty Polly
Polly’s stalling
Basil’s stalling
guest-smothering
Grade: A
Highs:
in-depth salad examination
bothersome lambs
bloody rubbish
out of waldorfs
Waldorf Salad
walnuts, cheese…
Ritz Salad
the celery front
a$$-busting
Waldorf Salad repossession
letter from the chef, read aloud
Basil ranting at himself
a place in Eastbourne
Basil gets his comeuppance
Basil’s ending rant
the origins of Nazi Germany
mass eviction attempt
Basil in the rain
Basil’s final order
Lows:
slow intro
line mistake
Grade: B+
Highs:
Basil enjoying himself
Sybil’s charming vampirism
managing it 2 or 3 times a week
turning on the nipple
wall testing
door testing
cigarette testing
more wall testing
window testing
left to it
broom testing
hinge testing
Basil standing up to Sybil
contorted hopping
Lows:
lowering the boom mic
Basil failing his “break down doors” roll
moments of tedium
Grade: B-
Highs:
Casey
C.K. Watt (Age 40)
hovering Sybil
closed avenue of pleasure
view confirmation
Sydney Opera House/Hanging Gardens of Babylon
sea location
Cleese doing the volume gag the Pythons always wanted to
piece of brain
bat up the nightdress
Flying Tart
“I know nothing”
head usage
semi-strip
vivisectionist trip
quick mourn, faint, and recovery
Basil’s thrill of victory
Basil’s agony of defeat
Lows:
Major talking to himself
Polly’s final paper confusion
Polly knowing about the battery comment when she couldn’t
nitwit
most of the horse charades
Basil’s brief explosion
Grade: B
Highs:
mounted toenail
“precise” racism
ingrown tongue
english-speaking moosehead
Manuel safely locked in with the fire
God abuse
Fawlty’s Gumby look
nurse of unknown origin
“My God you’re ugly…”
something wrong vs. German
meat explanation
“Don’t mention the war”
something to drink before the war
all differences forgotten
no need to mention the war
Hitler, Himmler, all that lot
hors d’ouevres which must be obeyed at all times
persistent Nazi references
invading Poland
Fawlty’s Hitler
funny walk
Fawlty’s escape
naughty moose
Lows:
racism
too-long alarm routine
Grade: A- (That’s got it)
Highs:
smack on head
little piranha fish
vats of wine
strung highly
trough w/ dead dogs
nothing trivial
seeking Mrs. Hall
too small and dry
dream test
the eternal plate change
duck-throwing
car abuse
thrashing the car
duck-searching
Lows:
mother’s overacting
a bit of Cleese overacting
entertainment
Grade: B (Getting there…)
Highs:
stealth Manuel
guest-mauling
non-violent violence
ending scream
Lows:
The beginning
Basil’s overacted anger
many moments of tedium
Grade: D
Highs:
fawlty t1tties
“Oh, I know…” origin
convenient wound
Manuel in a basket (part 1)
Lows:
Basil’s couple frustration
couple banter
Basil’s frustration, part 2
disgusting bit
overlong explanation bit
overlong room bit
overlong mistake rant
Grade: D-
Highs:
a little breathing
orally men
listening
instant wall
self-spank
large garden gnome insertion
Sybil’s beautiful when she’s fermenting
Lows:
opening banter
Sybil’s overlong rant, parts 1 and 2
Grade: C+
Highs:
Basil’s driving advice
Brahms’ “Third Racket”
list-fetching
non-traditional wall
polite hurrying
kiss-aversion
ineffective forbiddance
Basil’s free kick
Lows:
Cleese’s acting seeming a bit forced at times
Basil sucking up
overdone slapstick
“dramatic” turn
Basil’s lack of common sense
Observation: If this series wasn’t the inspiration (at least in part) for ‘Black Books’, I’ll eat a Waldorf Salad.
Grade: C+
Delightfully cute/devilish short bit of animation. Watch the whole thing.
Grade: A-
