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Monday
Contact junior by writing junior@scoopy.com. Contact Scoopy by writing unclescoopy@msn.com. Contact Tuna by writing tuna@scoopy.com Send submissions to scoopy@scoopy.net
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Use this search device to seek additional information from amazon.com about any of the books or movies you read about here.
To see and use all the Funhouse features, you need Netscape 6.+ or MSIE 5.+.
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Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)
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Hiya kids, hiya, hiya.
Scoopy Jr is off
and I am your compere for tonight. He returns tomorrow.
Updates
There is a new Encyclopedia volume for Melora Walters
Other crap
Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.
- The yellow asterisks indicate that I wrote the review, and am deluded
into thinking it includes humor.
- If there is a white asterisk, it means that there isn't any significant
humor, but I inexplicably determined
there might be something else of interest.
- A blue asterisk indicates the review is written by Tuna (or Lawdog or
Junior or C2000 or Realist or ICMS or Mick Locke, or somebody else besides me)
- If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.
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| Tuna
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"High Season"
High Season (1987) is a quirky comedy full of offbeat characters, and has a
rather silly plot. The story takes place on a Greek island. The cast of
characters includes Jacqueline Bisset, her teenage daughter, her estranges
husband, a close friend who is an art authority, a young man who has turned his
father's feta shop into a tourist store, the man's mother who claims her husband
should be immortalized as a famous resistance fighter, a British secret agent
and his wife, and a whole bunch of tourists. Bisset is a photographer, and her
new book, Lights of Greece, is not doing well. She is in serious financial
trouble, and has decided to sell an urn given her by the art critic. She has a
possible buyer at $300,000.00. Of course, it is not legal to export Greek
antiquities, so her agent asks her friend the critic to declare it a fake.
The friend doesn't mind, because it is actually a 19th century fake -- not
worthless, but not worth nearly $300K. HE is more concerned that he will soon be
arrested, because he collaborated with the Russians during WW II, before the
Brits joined the war, and his friends have been found out. In fact, that is what
the British agent and his wife are doing on the island. Bisset's husband is an
irreverent sculptor, who specializes in cigarettes and ashtrays, but has been
commissioned to make a monument to the "unknown tourist" by the young man who
opened the tourist shop. Not everyone in town agrees with this project,
especially his mother (Irene Papas).
Bisset goes skinny dipping at night, and we get several dark views of her
breasts. Shelly Laurenti shows a breasts when discovered in bed with Bisset's
husband. A group of tourists is seen wearing one breast bikini's, and several
unknowns are shown topless on the beach. IMDB scores this 5.3 of 10. Ebert
awards 3 stars, calling it one of those rare intelligent silly comedies. The
score was delightful traditional Greek music, and the photography was a treat
for the eyes. I am with Ebert. I enjoyed this one very much, but it will not be
to everyone's taste. C.
Thumbnails
Unknown (1,
2,
3,
4,
5)Shelley Laurenti (1,
2,
3 )Jacqueline Bisset
(1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
"Tales of Ordinary Madness"
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) is based on Charles Bukowski's book titled
"Erections, Ejaculation, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness." It
could be best described as a slice of life film about Bukowski. This is the same
Bukowski that wrote the autobiographical screenplay for Barfly. He was one of
the most important of the "Beat" generation poets, who chose to live as a drunk
in skid row Hollywood, and claimed that the odd assortment of crooks, whores,
pimps, drunks, homeless, and other lowlifes were the only "real" people, and
the only ones he felt at home with.
This story deals with his encounters
with several women, including a teenaged runaway, a blonde bombshell (Susan
Tyrell), that he met at Venice Beach and followed home , a hooker he picked up
in a bar and fell in love with (Ornella Muti), his ex wife and landlady (Tanya
Lopert) and a young woman he meets on the beach at the end of the film (Katya
Berger). Tyrell induces him to whip and rape her, has him arrested, then drops
charges. The ex-wife is constantly locking him out of his apartment, and
harassing him. Muti is self-destructive, and is prone to self-mutilation. He
falls in love with her, but she finally succeeds in one of her suicide
attempts.
Muti shows buns in two different scenes. Lopert shows breasts
and buns, when she is entertaining a man and Bukowski barges in. Tyrell shows
all three Bs during the pseudo-rape scene. Berger, as the "girl on the beach,"
asks him where poetry comes from. He tells her to show him her titties, and he
will compose a poem for her. She strips, and shows lovely full frontal. This
recitation of the poem is not the first in the film, but is the only one that is
somewhat effective. Ben Gazzara does a good job at portraying Bukowski. The film
succeeds in that it gives a real feel for this world. It was so effective, in
fact, that I needed a shower after watching it. Although it tells who these
people are, it gives no clues as to why they are that way, and hence is a very
depressing film about a side of life that most people find
depressing.
Since this is the second film about Bukowski in less than a
month, I thought I would include one of his poems so those who are not familiar
with him could get a feel for his
work.
melancholia
the history of melancholia
includes all of
us.
me, I writhe in dirty sheets
while
staring at blue walls
and nothing.
I have gotten so used to
melancholia
that
I greet it like an old
friend.
I will now do
15 minutes of grieving
for the lost redhead,
I tell the gods.
I do
it and feel quite bad
quite sad,
then I rise
CLEANSED
even though
nothing
is solved.
that's what I get for kicking
religion in the
ass.
I should have kicked the redhead
in the ass
where her brains
and her bread and
butter are
at ...
but, no, I've felt sad
about
everything:
the lost redhead was just another
smash in a lifelong
loss
...
I listen to drums on the radio now
and grin.
there is something
wrong with me
besides
melancholia.
IMDB
readers have this at 5.7 of 10. Surprising to me, women score it 7.9, possibly
relating to the women in crises who inhabit the film. I was not overly
impressed. While it is not without merit, it puts me somewhere I just don't like
being, and then has no lessons to teach. Bukowski would probably say that was
perfect. C-.
- Thumbnails
- Thumbnails
- Susan Tyrrel
(1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11)
- Tanya Lopert
(1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
- Ornella Muti
(1,
2,
3,
4,
5, 6)
- Katya Berger
(1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8)
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| Graphic Response
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Be sure to pay Graphic Response a visit at his website. www.graphic-barry.com.
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Blackshine
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Blackshine, the king of the fashion mags, has his usual high quality and this
time, plenty of nudity
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Scorpion
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Catching us up on cable TV babes and femme fatales of all types
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Celeblover
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Catching us up on the German celebs
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| Variety
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| Zou Zou
(1,
2)
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"Chloe in the Afternoon"
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| Anna Kournikova |
bikini
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| Victoria Abril
(1,
2)
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The Euro-nudity pioneer in one of her earliest scenes, 1977's "Cambio
del sexo".
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| Big Brother
(1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
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This time it is the Belgian version
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