I think it can safely be said that the appeal of Monty Python has extended even to millennials: What geek of any age can't quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail at length?
But there are so many other great British comedy series – ones that never got any big-screen adaptations – that elicit a blank when I mention them to anyone under 30.
Take Blackadder. It pains me that Rowan Atkinson might be known to younger generations just as Mr. Bean, Johnny English or the clueless clerk who took far too long wrapping up an illicit gift for Alan Rickman in Love Actually.
And far too many people have no idea that Hugh Laurie was a comedian before playing the world's crankiest doctor. (The fact that he's actually British somehow slipped out during his many awards speeches for his run on House.)
Here are just a few of the brilliant Britcoms you may have missed out on, in between Monty Python and Eddie Izzard, featuring some of the funniest people in England at their very best.
Most people understand forced work as something that might hit a bit too close to their daily schedules for comfort. Inspired work begs the question of what was the inspiration that brought the passion, wit, or just the soul to a project.
What Difference Does It Make attempts to explore this heady topic as it follows several young musicians to the Red Bull Academy of Music (weird, right?). Hip hop artists, R&B, electronic and pop artists convene in New York City for a seminar that also features Eryka Badu, Niles Rogers, Brian Eno, Bernie Worrell and others discussing what they love about making music and art in general. It is shot in an almost dreamlike way, interspersing performances and interviews with random street shots of New York.
The ultra-popular sport of mixed martial arts take a new twist in FISTS OF LEGEND, the story of three legendary street fighting high school friends and rivals who reunite 25 years later for the biggest fight of their lives. On a television show billed as 'the greatest fight show on Earth,' eager amateurs with lots to prove boldly step into the ring and expect to leave bloody but victorious. The gruesome fighting competition unexpectedly forces the three men to reconcile their broken friendship from the past and encounter true victory.
One of my most favorite children's books of all time was Norton Juster's The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (of course his The Phantom Tollbooth wasn't bad either). A wonderfully quirky story about a straight line who falls head-over-heels in love with a red dot (who is seriously hung up on kind of an asshole line who doesn't treat her right).
From the gorgeous artwork, to the completely unique way that Juster incorporated mathematics into a love story, everything about the book was simply magical (not to mention a wonderful introduction to philosophy as well).
But what makes this book even more interesting (besides all the incredibly awesome stuff packed into it) is that in 1965 The Dot and the Line was turned into an Oscar-winning short by the incomparable Chuck Jones, giving those kids who never knew the book existed a chance to see it come alive...and oh, how it came alive.
So check out one of the best mathematical love stories to have ever been written (and animated) after the break, and, like the last line of the book says:
Back in the early 90s you would have thought that Pop-Rap icon Vanilla Ice walked on water considering how damn popular he was, but like most of his kind, he merely faded away into obscurity when the need to listen to actual music overcame his fans. Of course Mr. Ice wasn't willing to go quietly into the night (he tried gangsta rap for a while but that was just too pathetic for anyone's taste, and then there was his more financially successful venture as a house flipper) but really what he did was wait around until there was a slot to fill on some reality TV show for has-been celebrities.
Fast forward a couple of decades.
As nostalgia reared it's seductive head, Vanilla Ice's one partnership back in the day began to see a resurgence in popularity, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and although this re-imagining wasn't as cheesy as it was back when big bangs and parachute pants were in vogue, the kiddies came a running (as did their parents who had to re-buy the toys of their youth for their hellspawn). And due to this meshing of Gen X and whatever the kids who popped out Gen X's vagina are called, Kraft Mac-n-Cheese came up with an ad campaign that unabashedly reminded all of us old people that once upon a time, we actually tried to bust some seriously radical dance moves...with Vanilla Ice...who now works as a stocker at a grocery store.
And yes, it makes me feel kind of bad. Not only for all of us who managed to survive that time but for poor Vanilla Ice as well.
Thanks Kraft for the depressing reminder of how much we all totally sucked.
Look, I'm going to be honest with you, I spend a great deal of time watching animal videos. So much so that I've actually had to lie to loved ones that I'm actually doing research for the site in order to diminish their concern. So, in order to keep up the appearance that I'm not crazy and am, in fact, a responsible "journalist" who is bringing important videos of animals to the masses, here's a parody of the movie Titanic starring cats.
A dinosaur detective living in the present day fighting raptors in a time-spanning adventure? Sign me up!
ComiXology Submit brings usBlastosaurus, from New Zealand’s talented Richard Fairgray and Terry Jones.
Writer Richard Fairgray was kind enough to take this colorful noir dino for a workout on the Cosmic Treadmill and tell us about his favorite toys and turtles!
Creator, writer, inventor and actor Joel Hodgson of MST3K fame holds a special place in my heart.
Over two and a half decades have passed and we’re still captivated by him and his bots. His character, Joel Robinson, is quirky, darling, and a touch melancholy. A mix that you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
He may have handed over the reigns to Mike Nelson in season five, but he has been and always will be the father of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
I don’t know about you, but depending on what day you ask me, my favorite episodes of MST3K will morph and change. One day, it’s all 1980’s space movies, the next 1950’s sci-fi. It would be difficult for me to say that these are the final word as to what my favorite Joel episodes are. So, instead I’ll just call them five of my favorite episodes hosted by Joel.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug continues the adventure of the title character Bilbo Baggins as he journeys with the Wizard Gandalf and thirteen Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, on an epic quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.
Having survived the beginning of their unexpected journey, the Company travels East, encountering along the way skin-changer Beorn and a swarm of giant Spiders in the treacherous forest of Mirkwood. After escaping capture by the dangerous Wood-elves, the Dwarves journey to Lake-town, and finally to the Lonely Mountain itself, where they must face the greatest danger of all–a creature more terrifying than any other; one which will test not only the depth of their courage but the limits of their friendship and the wisdom of the journey itself – The Dragon Smaug.
In Grudge Match, Billy “The Kid” McDonnen (De Niro) and Henry “Razor” Sharp (Stallone) are two local Pittsburgh fighters whose fierce rivalry put them in the national spotlight. Each had scored a victory against the other during their heyday, but in 1983, on the eve of their decisive third match, Razor suddenly announced his retirement, refusing to explain why but effectively delivering a knock-out punch to both their careers. Thirty years later, boxing promoter Dante Slate, Jr., seeing big dollar signs, makes them an offer they can’t refuse: to re-enter the ring and settle the score once and for all.
But they may not have to wait that long: on their first encounter in decades, their long-festering feud erupts into an unintentionally hilarious melee that instantly goes viral. The sudden social media frenzy transforms their local grudge match into a must-see HBO event. Now, if they can just survive the training, they may actually live to fight again.
Whenever anyone asks me what I like best about working from home I always say "Comfortable Pooping". I mean, I also love that I haven't had to wear pants for about four years now that I can take as long of a lunch break as I want but truly, when it comes to my working life there is nothing more exhilarating then knowing that when it comes to expelling filth from my anus, I can do so without shame inside my very own home.
Now I know there are people out there who aren't so happy about their own vocation/poop conundrum and will happily hold it in for hours hoping that their sphincter muscles can withstand the horrible pressure and allow them to make it home after quitting time to shoot a brown rocket at the speed of light in their very own toilet bowl.
Only sometimes that just doesn't happen and no matter how much it pains you, you will need to lay some serious pipe in a shared commode where Judgy McJudgersons will happily spread around some poop gossip to ruin you.
But don't worry Shit Avoiders for I have some advice and help when it comes to pooping (and farting) at work (via an animated video) that will surely give you the strength and courage to drop your pants/lift your skirt and hunker down over a cold porcelain bowl in order to deposit a brown paycheck without feeling like a monster.
So watch the video below and take heart, for once you know the "Pooping At Work Method" nothing will ever hold you back from spreading some anal butter in the office.
I don't know about the people in this video, but I can unequivocally say that whenever I heard my cat start to make that low-belly sloshing sound from her mouth, the last thing I would think of doing was shooting video of it (normally I would scream "OH DEAR GOD NO!" before diving in front of her with a towel hoping that she wouldn't dart away leaving a trail of vomit everywhere) and then setting it to techno music.
But then again I'm getting older and what I consider a good time is watching my collection of Kids In the Hall DVDs and then napping for about three hours in the middle of the afternoon after I eat some pudding.
So I guess this is for the young 'uns who believe this to be the peak of hilariousness...sometimes I just don't get you Millennials at all.
Dreams are weird things all on their own, but when they appear in movies they can take on a pretty "What the Fuck" hue that can leave you up all night long staring at the walls, hoping that nothing bad starts oozing out of them.
So watch this supercut with caution, you'll never know what nightmares (or longings) it will trigger.
A new restoration of Godzilla: The Japanese Original, the monster classic that has spawned six decades of sequels, imitations, and remakes, will debut April 12 at the fifth TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, followed by a national release beginning at New York’s Film Forum, April 18-24.
Godzilla was originally released here in 1956 as Godzilla: King of the Monsters, an atrociously cut, dubbed and re-edited version that inserted American actor Raymond Burr into the action; only an hour was used of the original’s 98 minute running time. Burr does not appear in the original, uncut version, which has an all-Japanese cast including Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura, who the very same year appeared as leader of the Seven Samurai.
As directed by Ishirô Honda, with special effects by the legendary Eiji Tsuburaya, Godzilla: The Japanese Original is much darker in tone than the dumbed-down U.S. release version, which entirely eliminated the original’s underlying theme: in the Japanese version, the monster is clearly a metaphor for the nuclear menace and the film itself a cry for world peace and disarmament. The American version also cut out all of the original’s astonishing Strangelove-like black humor.
The original Godzilla holds up as one of the greatest science fiction/monster films ever made, boasting still-impressive special effects, as the radiation-breathing prehistoric monster, awakened after millennia by Hydrogen Bomb testing – and impervious to repeated shelling by the Japanese army – wreaks destruction on Tokyo.
Godzilla became Toho Studio’s #1 box office hit of 1954 (its #2 that year was Seven Samurai) and was so popular worldwide that the company has since produced nearly 30 sequels and remakes; a statue near Toho headquarters in Tokyo pays tribute to their most valuable property. In 1984, the prestigious film journal Kinema Junpo rated it among the top 20 Japanese films of all time. In 1989, a published survey of 370 Japanese movie critics, Nihon Eiga Besuto 150 (Best 150 Japanese Films), ranked Godzilla the 27th greatest Japanese feature ever made.
A new American version of Godzilla from Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, directed by Gareth Edwards (2010’s Monsters), will be released nationally May 16.
The LEGO Movie sets its tone from the very first frame, with a LEGO version of the Warner Bros. shield and the Village Roadshow 'V,' and it's a clear indication that for the next hour and a half, everything will indeed be awesome.
But what gave me chills from the very first note, is the incredibly complex, yet playful score from Mark Mothersbaugh.
The score is a perfectly matched marriage of sound and vision that rarely happens on a big budget Hollywood film. Then again, The LEGO Movie defies every convention of its very being, trading-in the franchised formula feel for subversive satire.
This outrageous new comedy stars Australian Jim Jefferies as an edgy, foul-mouthed stand-up comic living in Los Angeles, struggling to make his life and career more "legit." But every time Jim tries to do the right thing, his good deeds turn into wildly inappropriate and utterly hilarious escapades. Joined by his neurotic best friend and roommate, Steve, and Steve’s wheelchair-bound brother, Billy, Jim takes comedy to a whole new level, whether it’s visiting a Las Vegas brothel, partying with the mentally-challenged or trying to pick up women at a gay bar.
