GBGoodies 2015 Movie Logbook

Saboteur is a good lesser known Hitch Film. I gave it the same rating as you.

The Producers (1967) and The Producers (2005) - I watched the 1967 version of this movie for the upcoming 1960s movies list, and the 2005 version of this movie because it was recommended by Gideon58 as a "Guilty Pleasure Movie". I've seen the 1967 version before, so that was a re-watch, but I had never seen the 2005 version before.

These are both good movies, but in different ways. The original 1967 version is more of a comedy that has some musical numbers in the play within a movie, but the 2005 remake is really a remake of the Broadway play, not really a remake of the original movie. The remake is more of a musical comedy with more songs and more energy.



It's interesting to see the differences in the cast too. Both versions had excellent casts, but I thought that Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder had better chemistry together. However individually, I liked Gene Wilder better than Matthew Broderick, and I liked Nathan Lane better than Zero Mostel.



And there were a couple of nice surprises in the remake, like John Barrowman, who I think is a fantastic singer, and seeing Mel Brooks reprise his role as the Nazi Stormtrooper in the play. I rarely like Will Ferrell in any of his movies, but he was pretty funny in the 2005 version, and he didn't annoy me the way he usually does. Also, the tribute to Matthew Broderick's Ferris Bueller after the credits was a nice touch.

The Producers (1967) +
The Producers (2005)

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HK, get your mind out of the gutter....

I could tell that Clerks would not be your type of movie, GBG. They are dirty and raunchy and a bit of silly fun. I met Jason Mewes at the Wizard World Comic Convention in Chicago years ago. He's a cool person.

Yeah, I wasn't too surprised about Clerks either. I only watched these movies because I know Brian O'Halloran from the comic conventions, but I didn't know that he was an actor. I thought he was one of the dealers or the artists.

Pretty much everyone in the first Clerks movies is friends with Kevin Smith... so yeah since Kevin is a big Comic Book geek .. pretty much all his friends are too. I watched a movie with Kevin where he went around to several colleges to speak to the students and he talked about how this young kid about 12 or 13 years old would follow him and his buddies to comic shows. He was referring to Jason... but he and Jason have been friends for a long time.

Hubby is one of those comic book geeks, and we're dealers at comic conventions, so I know a lot of comic book geeks. Most of them are very nice people, but they're just obsessed with comic books, comic book characters, and everything comics. They're usually into Sci-Fi too, so I was hoping the movies would focus more on that stuff than the stupidity that was in them.

I've seen almost all of the superhero movies, (multiple times), and we watch Kevin Smith's TV show "Comic Book Men" every week too. Some of that stuff is a lot of fun, and the TV show sometimes shows some interesting collectibles, but the deals they make are as phony as a $3 bill.

I am one of those Geeks.. Im a huge X-Men fan.... and I have many close friends that are comic book geeks as well.. and action figure toy collectors.. I have some nice pieces but mine are few and far between. We had our comic convention/pop culture convention here last week... I met Cary Elwes... to get a "Saw" 10th Anniversary movie poster signed for my daughter's boyfriend. He told me he really liked my "Hannibal" t-shirt. (artwork of the tv series). I have met many famous people over the past 20 years or so.

I think the X-Men movies are great. We have loose action figures, dolls, and statues of characters all over the house. The superhero stuff is hubby's stuff, and the cartoon characters are my stuff. The Sci-Fi stuff is mostly mine too because hubby's not really into Sci-Fi.

I'm not a fan of horror so I haven't seen the Saw movies, but I loved Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride and Twister. He was kind of geeky in Liar Liar, but that's the way the character is supposed to be, so he did a great acting job in the movie.

I've met a lot of famous people too, but I've never met Cary Elwes. My favorite person that I met is Richard Dreyfuss. DeForest Kelley was one of the nicest people that I met at a convention. Jack Wild and Johnny Whitaker were very nice too. Hubby's favorite was Stan Lee. I'd like to meet Hugh Jackman one day, but as far as I know, he hasn't done a convention around here yet. Harrison Ford is another person that I'd love to meet.

Oh gesh... It would take me a long time to mention who I have met. I think Jason Mewes, Sarah Douglas (from "Superman 2"), Jeremy Bulloch, Glenn Shadix and Herbert Jefferson Jr were the coolest people that I can think of for now. The biggest ******* was Marc Singer. I remember once when we had our convention here, Erin Gray and Gil Gerard were going back and forth when Erin mentioned all the woman that Gil has had. A conversation that I did not need to hear. As far as comic book artists, Im good friends with Rick Stasi (who was artist and penciler for the Action Comics and did some work on Justice League) and I met Salvador LaRocca (who did the art for X-Treme X-Men) while in Chicago one year.

The biggest ******* I met was Walter Koenig. He's too full of himself, and he acted like he was the captain of the Enterprise. Malcolm McDowell was kind of nasty, but he was in a very bad mood the day I met him because apparently he hates New York, and the weather was really getting to him that day.

I've met a bunch of comic book artists, but I don't know most of their names. Our dealer's table is usually right next to Artist's Alley, so most of the artists come over to buy from us, and they stay and talk when it's slow. I'm terrible with names, but I usually recognize all of their faces when they come by the table.

The one artist who stands out in my mind is Ken Kelley. We were selling a bunch of prints of his KISS artwork at a con that he was at, and he saw them on our table when he walked past. He went back to his table to get a marker, and he came back and signed all of the prints for us at no charge.

One of the rare people I have met was the real "Al Simmons"... I dont think many people realize that yes, he is a real person. He was a friend of Todd McFarlane, who is an ******* as well. Right as the comic of "Spawn" became popular, both Todd and Al were here in Kansas City. Al talked to us for quite a long time. Not many people knew who he was, so he had no problems walking around and talking to the fans.

I don't recognize the name Al Simmons, but if he has something to do with Spawn, hubby would probably know the name. We have a ton of Spawn figures in the warehouse, but they all just look like weird action figures to me, so hubby's in charge of the Spawn stuff.

Sometimes the guests walk around the dealer's room, and sometimes we meet them at the after parties. Henry Winkler was at one of the parties, and he walked around the room and made sure that he talked to everyone. He's a very nice guy.

You're trying to evict me from my home?

__________________
5-time MoFo Award winner.

The Producers is great. I recently watched it and liked it, but kind of overly done sometimes and the fact that it's one of Mel Brooks' first films shows in a lot of places but overall it's top-grade comedy.

Which version did you watch? It sounds like you're talking about the original version.

Have you seen the remake?

Finian's Rainbow (1968) - I watched this movie for the upcoming 1960s movies list. I've always been a big fan of Gene Kelly, but for some reason, I haven't watched a lot of Fred Astaire's movies.

This was an enjoyable movie, but mostly forgettable. It's basically a fantasy story surrounding a message about racism. That's kind of a strange combination, but it's not really the reason that the movie doesn't work very well. The main problem is that the movie has some good singers and dancers, but just average songs, so it didn't hold my attention as well as most musicals.

On the lighter side, Fred Astaire was in his late sixties when he made this movie, but he proved that he could still dance. I also liked Tommy Steele as Og the leprechaun. I loved the scene when he meets Finian McLonergan (Fred Astaire) for the first time.

On a side note, I was surprised to read that it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and the production assistant (uncredited) was George Lucas. It was very early in their careers, so maybe this just wasn't the right movie for these two very talented people.

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Hello, Dolly! (1969) - I watched this movie for the upcoming 1960s movies list. I've seen it before, but not recently, so this was a re-watch for me.

This is a nice, feel-good movie, but it's not a great movie. There are some great songs in this movie, but it's nowhere near the best of the classic movie musicals. The elaborate dance scenes are fantastic, and there are some great romantic moments.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem in this movie is the cast. Walter Matthau is miscast in this movie. He is not a good singer for a musical, and he's not handsome enough to be a leading man in a romantic movie. Barbra Streisand has an amazing singing voice, and fantastic stage presence, but there's something very annoying about her as an actress. She just doesn't work for me as a leading lady. I like Michael Crawford and Danny Lockin because they're both fun characters, but Michael Crawford's voice wasn't great back then. In fact, watching him in this movie, it's hard to believe that he eventually became best known as "The Phantom of the Opera" on stage.

This movie is worth watching if you've never seen it, but even if you're a fan of musicals, it's not likely to be one that you'll watch over and over again.

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The Happiest Millionaire (1967) - This is another movie that I watched for the upcoming 1960s movies list, but it was the wrong movie. By that I mean that it wasn't the movie that I was looking for when I watched it. I remembered listening to a soundtrack when I was a kid, and I was looking for the movie that a song on that soundtrack came from, but this wasn't that movie. After doing some research, it turns out that the soundtrack was from a Broadway play of "The Most Happy Fella", but it's never been made into a movie.

This was another movie that's enjoyable, but forgettable. At almost 3 hours, it's a bit too long, and it feels kind of dragged out at times. Some of the best scenes in the movie are the scenes with the alligators because they're just fun scenes. There are some good songs, but no great songs. By that I mean that the songs are fun to listen to while watching the movie, but you won't walk around singing them for days after watching the movie.

John Davidson and Lesley Ann Warren both make their film debuts in this movie, and they are both very good. I've seen John Davidson as a TV host and heard him as a singer, but I don't think I ever saw him act before this. He was a pleasant surprise. There's something very likeable about Tommy Steele as the butler, John Lawless. The two brothers (Eddie Hodges and Paul Petersen) can't sing, and they shouldn't have been cast in a musical.

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Not here. This is what he's best known for here.