The Gauntlet has been running behind with his new job, vacations, and running his own temporary bachelor pad for a couple of weeks. So there has been plenty of movie watching so here is the last couple of week's worthy releases.
The Blues Brothers- You could not not keep these guys contained on SNL or albums so they needed to be released to the movie going public. It is so over the top and in a good way and is done perfectly by director John Landis. The music, the cameos, and oh the car chases are outstanding. We lost a great performer in John Belushi and he is missed but a he left a great mark in just a short time. Watch out! Muppets!!!
Animal House- Born from a few ideas from some writers and it grew out of control. Universal was cool on this idea and it did not gain much steam because no director wanted any part of it. So they got John Landis to come on board because he had just wrapped the cult classic The Kentucky Fried movie. He along with the writers crafted out what they wanted and then brought John Belushi on board and then any scene involving him went down the tube because he improvised anything he was involved with. This movie features many newcomers that went on to good careers and lead many college frats to continue all the traditions you see here. It's been said that nobody ever heard of a toga party before this. The studio was very nervous of the scene at the black bar and were considering dropping it. Director Landis got a hold of Richard Pryor and played him the scene and he conveyed to the studio it needs to stay. The studio nervously left it in and I am sure glad they did; it's gold.
Conan the Barbarian- The movie that made Arnold. Conan was an imposing figure from the comics and what a better person to pick up the sword than Arnold. He actually had to lose some weight to decrease his arm size to be able to use a sword. A perfect movie for director John Milius because he was a straight action movie guy and and a good writer to build the material. Arnold was pretty raw here as an actor and it shows since his dialogue is kept to a minimum but that is okay because he lets his muscles and sword do the work. James earl Jones plays the baddie and is great in his few scenes. This has perhaps the greatest film score ever. It is sad Milius was not allowed to finish the trilogy off with King Conan. Arnold was all for it but needed all involved to wait until his term as governor was over but the rights reverted to another studio and they went the reboot route. Will see how that goes in 2 weeks. "What is good in life?"
Soldier- Not the greatest film but a guilty pleasure of mine. This is about the closest we may ever get see Russell playing anything resembling Snake Plissken again. Good action set in space and we got about 40 whole sentences spoken by Russell's Todd character. Gary Busey is a hoot in this.
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