the groundhog day project

I imagine that Louis (Alex Desert), because I'm pretty sure no one says his character's name [Barry does], is actually Charles from Swingers -- (Because, why not?) --and then things get weird. Because does that mean that Penny's (Joelle Carter) negative experiences with Rob are why she changed her name to Ava, moved to Kentucky, and got involved with more a few men prone to violence? Did Barry leave Kathleen Turner Overdrive for (or change its name to) No Vacancy, change his name, leave Chicago for New York and pretend to be a substitute teacher because music wasn't working out for him? Did Epiphany Proudfoot survive Johnny Favorite, change her name, head north, and take up music in Chicago? Is Charlie Nicholson so odd because she's just a cover identity for Virginia Baker in between heists? For that matter, is part of Sarah Kendrew's ongoing problems stem from Joe lying to her so much when she was Corey Flood? And, how did Rob Gordon also have time to be L...

You know what movies made more recently that are set in the 80s do wrong? They only use the famous and obvious music. "Bit by Bit"--the opening song for Fletch (not to mention Harold Faltermeyer's music) has a definitive 80s sound. Seriously, that song starts and I'm there in the 80s. Just like a lot of the music in Better Off Dead... or Say Anything . There's not a lot of music you'd still hear about on these soundtracks, but if you were there, watching these movies at the time, you've got sense memory of all of them. Me--I'm back in the 80s again when I watch movies like this one. End of May, beginning of June, really. Last weekend, we saw Rambo: First Blood Part II and A View to a Kill . Rambo was #1 last week and will be again this weekend. Fletch will be #2 this weekend. #4 is Brewster's Millions ; we won't see that until it's at a drive-in with A Nightmare on Elm Street a month into that film's run. Whenever that would be...

I think the point to Better Off Dead... is obvious. That thing we call love drives us crazy, for better or for worse. We do stupid, crazy stuff like ski dangerous mountains or fix cars. We step outside our comfort zones to do some weird shit we would never do. Savage Steve Holland, who wrote and directed this movie supposedly really tried to hang himself from a pipe in his garage, but the pipe broke and his mother was mad at him for breaking the pipe. And, when it's gone, life is like Mr. Kerber's math class--it just doesn't make any sense at all. Everyone else is perfectly happy; they all get it. But, you've got a mangled paper in your pocket with gum stuck in it, and all it says is DO HOMEWORK instead of, you know, having any actual answers on it... metaphorically. And, everybody else has books full of answers, printouts, file folders, and an eagerness to participate that seems impossible... again, metaphorically (on those books and printouts, anyway). Better Off...

Let us follows John Cusack back a few years to a movie that Siskel and Ebert apparently rather disliked--two thumbs down, though the few links to the review video that I clicked didn't work so I can't offer specifics. Lane Myer (Cusack), with all the pictures of Beth (Amanda Wyss) on his walls, is like an even more obsessed--and more suicidal--version of Corey Flood (Lili Taylor) in Say Anything . (Seriously, I neglected to mention it while watching that movie the last few days , but Corey has a rather large cutout of herself back to back with Joe on her wall, plus a couple photos and a handwritten JOE ♡ ME.) Lane's suicidal-ness is played for laughs, of course. That's kind of the point to Better Off Dead... . His urge to kill himself is so insane he can't succeed at it. Honestly, it's hard to get into a serious discussion about this movie. I'm just enjoying watching it... Perhaps I'll note the awesome along the way, worry about something more serio...

Today’s entry will contain very few words. I just wanted to compile the various YouTube videos I’ve put together for this project because, though I make them and have shared a few on Facebook , they rarely are useful here in the blog. In fact, I cannot remember having included any of them here. Note: These are not just clips from the film that I put on YouTube ; those I probably have used here when I made them. Like this one: The ones I mean to share are this one, which worked out quite well: And this one (which I’ve had to reedit twice now because for some reason the original version I put on YouTube repeated the first bit for no reason, and then when I reedited, apparently I uploaded the same version again and deleted the new one): And these two silly ones: And, I used this Doctor Who one . But, here is the latest: Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to systematically edit bits of Groundhog Day into every other movie I can find. P.S. The Groundhog Day...