#that one monty python biopic

[theniftycat]

The blessing and the curse of being into British TV.

Your fave will be in some projects that are heaven sent, tailor made to suit your tastes.

It will be one season of six episodes 20 minutes each.

[yonderghostshistories]

3, 7, 12 & 17 for the end of the year ask game? 😊

Thank you so much for the lovely ask @thesuetyouforgot !! I deffo appreciate it fr!! I’ve highlighted the questions btw as I have ADHD and therefore have a bad memory lol 😂

3. “A new hobby or interest you picked up?”

Idk if it is kinda a hobby or not, buuuutttt in a way…..

ig my new(ish) kinda hobby is collecting/buying DVDs, particularly DVDs of my special interest/featuring and/or involving my special interests!! (for example; most of the DVDs that I’ve had my parents buy for me are mostly Monty Python and/or HFC-oriented, either (a) they star and/or feature some of the actual Pythons (whether in a big role, in a small role/a cameo, etc), (b) they star and/or feature the actors who starred as the Pythons in the BBC 4 MP tv biopic “Holy Flying Circus” (2011) (again, whether in a big role, a small role/a cameo, etc), and/or (c) in a rarest of ALL rare moment(s) where the stars align, *possibly* both an actual Python(s) AND a HFC Python(s) are in this show/movie together (whether they share a scene together or separately, etc))

Idk why, whether subconsciously or not, but I have and have had a special and new appreciation for DVDs when collecting/buying them. Idk whether it’s maybe a childhood thing or something (I used to have a few DVDs as a kid), but just the thought of just physically OWNING a piece of media in your hands and having it on my shelves makes me very happy fr 🥰. Whilst I do equally love appreciate streaming and its convenience, I do also love DVDs and I personally think both can co-exist together for everyone’s enjoyment!

Whilst I do literally sweat at the fearful thought of possibly accidentally breaking my DVD disk or possibly my DVD disk just annoyingly pausing at a random point in the film/episode of a tv show, I think my utter love of DVDs kinda far outweighs the bad imo. Again, this is just me personally!

7. “An obsession that disappeared as suddenly as it came?”

Suffice to say……no, not really.

My obsessions have mostly been intact and are never going to leave me nor disappear from me methinks.

That’s actually one of my personal fears tbh. That my obsession(s) WILL leave me and disappear if I suddenly don’t feel as interested in it/them anymore, that I’ll become an empty husk with no personality whatsoever. I know that sounds kind of silly, but it’s one of my genuine fears if it were to happen to me in the future. I do wish to make peace with that fact sooner, otherwise I might possibly feel broken and emotionally shattered from it all if it DOES happen to me.

BUT, also weirdly simultaneously, I am aware of the inevitability of it all, and that I’ll try to get through this fear of mine.

12. “Do you end this year with the same celebrity crushes & comfort characters that you started it with?”

Again, technically yes!!

Albeit if I’m very obsessed with a new movie/tv show (particularly a celebrity crush(es) and/or comfort character(s)), then I will ADD said new celebrity crush(es) and/or comfort character(s) to my ever growing list of existing celebrity crush(es) and comfort character(s)!

Examples of a new celebrity crush and comfort character, among others ofc but these 2 particularly, that I’ve gained this past year are these:

Celebrity Crush : Tom Fisher (his real surname is Browne, but his stage/professional surname is Fisher). I’ve first gained a crush on him from when he was in “Holy Flying Circus” (2011), when he was ALSO playing my OTHER existing celebrity crush, Graham Chapman! Everything from his FINE ASF beauty, his mannerisms and wiseness and quotes and gayness of Graham was just *mwah* PERFECT-O 😘👌!! and his voice in general is just….VERY VERY VERY sexy indeed!

After watching HFC, I just went down a bit of a rabbit hole (and still am in a bit of a continuing rabbit hole lol) of seeing all the other films and TV shows that he’s been involved in! There’s 2 films of his where he plays the main character, those being “Treacle Jr” (2010) and “The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz” (2000), where’s he absolutely great fr acting wise!! I’m still on the pilgrimage to watch EVERY single movie and tv show that he’s ever starred in (whether in a main role or a supporting role) and/or directed cuz HES THAT AWESOME AND SEXY AHHH!!! (also I literally have a sideblog dedicated to this beautiful asf man fr, that’s how much I’m in love with Tom Fisher frfr)

Comfort Character : Roddy (played by Graham Chapman) from “Doctor in Trouble” (1970)

I honestly only watched this otherwise…..ehh ok film for and only for Graham, and this did NOT disappoint fr!! Roddy is a CAMPY AS GAY FUCK 🏳️‍🌈💅✨ICON✨💅🏳️‍🌈 FR!! His (Roddy’s) camera is so cute and I love how he’s unapologetically and authentically his queer asf self on this cruise ship 🛳️ 🚢 full of (presumably) mostly straight people lol! Honestly SLAY QUEEN 💅💅 Fave comfort character of 2024 imo goes to…..Roddy the Campy Gay Photographer 🏳️‍🌈📸!!

17. “Wild card - Something else that you really want to mention/talk about?

Actually there IS smth I really wanna talk about!

Ok so, I mentioned my fave actor (that being British actor Rufus Jones, who also played Terry Jones in HFC) on a post/tweet I made on Bluesky (which from what I heard is basically a less toxic version of Twitter), and to my utter surprise, HE RESPONDED BY RETWEETING IT EARLIER TODAY AHHH!!!!

It honestly surprised me when I saw the retweet, like I couldn’t in a MILLION YEARS thought he’d retweet it!! It honestly made me very happy and I think it’ll serve as a very happy moment in the last day of 2024!! That one of my other fave actors (Rufus Jones) who played my other fave Python (Terry Jones) from my fave biopic responded to me!! Honestly an absolutely amazing surprise frfr!!!

Amyway, thank you so much for the ask @thesuetyouforgot , and I hope you have/have had a very good and wonderful New Year’s Eve/Day!!

See you in a few hours in 2025!!

[fuuuckyeahtomfisher]

Who tf am I? (An introduction post)

Just as the name suggests, this lil sideblog is dedicated to the one & only, the (imo) really underrated British actor and really awesome Graham Chapman impersonator (and also VERY beautiful and fine ASF), Tom Fisher! (also known as Tom Browne with an "e" at the end (which is his actual surname) but his stage/professional surname is “Fisher”. This is to avoid any confusion whenever I mention it btw (as in his real surname)).

TLDR; the real reason of this side blog existing is that Tom Fisher (imo) deserves MUCH MUCH more appreciation on this site fr (and also irl tbh).

My main blog is @yonderghostshistories (where many of you may know me as Yonder, and if so, I also welcome you all here too as well as any newcomers!!). This is the sideblog btw. The sideblog about British actor, Tom Fisher (who also played Graham Chapman in the Monty Python biopic "Holy Flying Circus" (2011)!)

Sooooo….that’s the introduction post outta the way! I hope anyone (both my mutuals and any newcomers who stumbled onto this post and by extension blog) enjoy(s) my upcoming posts that I’ll post in the future, mostly Tom Fisher related ofc!

Stay tuned folks, and have a lovely day!

(also under the cut is a personally selected bunch of photos of Tom Fisher, both himself irl and the characters that he has played in many different films and tv shows! Hope you enjoy them too!!)

[minstrel-in-the-gallery]

For the 'hang with me' ask game:

1. Who would you cast in a hypothetical Jethro Tull biopic?

2. Do you have any unpopular opinions?

3. What is your dream meal?

4. Which member(s) of Monty Python do you think you are most like?

1. This is such a good question and my honest answer is I DONT KNOW 😭😭😭 because i have my head deep in the 70s all the time, I know barely any modern celebrities, much less ones that resemble Tull. I think I once talked with someone about who Ian would be, but goodness if I remember. I actually wish I had an answer for this one though erghhh I would die to see a Tull biopic

Though funnily enough, I did once have a dream where they had a biopic (they were dumb as rocks in it.) The pic was set in 1969 era Tull, where they lived in one room and had $0, and they tried cooking an egg by cracking it into Glenn’s hands and pouring boiling water on it

2. Not like, wildly unpopular off the top of my head. I’m sure if you asked me enough questions, you’d find an answer that makes you go “wtf???”. Otherwise, ermm hmm. I don’t like the feel of marshmallows, is that unpopular? OH, and I eat pizza with pineapple. It’s delicious. There you go

3. My dream meal would probably have to be a table full of either Chinese or Thai food. And a huge bowl of Laksa, which is my number 1 all time favourite food. Delicious. I have a lot of these kinds of meals when I’m out with my whole extended family at the beach camping, if we go to a restaurant.

4. Good question! In my opinion, I think I’m most like Terry G irl. Excitable art kid <3 (the person I relate to most, is not from python but if you want to know exactly how I am irl, im Peter from the monkees lol) Maybe also a bit of Graham too? I have a tendency to shout random things

Thanks so so much for the questions! Good fun to answer!! 🫶

[commonguttersnipe]

What would your personal fancast for each of the Pythons & Co be in a hypothetical Monty Python parody "biopic" and why?

Henry Shields as John Cleese (this means everything to me)

Christian Borle as Terry Gilliam (this just makes me laugh)

Daniel Radcliffe as Michael Palin (this just feels right)

Taron Egerton as Graham Chapman (he would smash it)

Dan Stevens as Eric Idle (I'm right. I just am)

Tom Sturridge as Terry Jones (I don't know about this one but…)



Tamsin Olivia Egerton as Carol Cleveland

Ellie Morris as Connie Booth

Nicholas Hoult as Neil Innes

Sir Michael Palin as the Narrator

[montypythonswine]

Have you watched/seen the 2 Monty Python Biopics, "Holy Flying Circus" (2011) & "A Liar's Autobiography" (2012), yet? If so, what did you think of them? (that is if you have seen either one of the biopics)

Hi,

I haven’t watched Holy Flying Circus but I have watched A liar’s autobiography several years ago and I need to watch it again. I liked it in places it was quite hard to watch especially when Graham was struggling with quitting alcohol.

[salemorbit]

Fem! Botw Matchup please? I’m a Disabled Lesbian, she/her pronouns. I’m quite the Tomboy and most of my friends are boys, but whenever I get around a pretty girl I can barely speak I get so flustered and nervous. I’m a pretty good writer, and I can sorta draw too. I love Animation and Older Stuff like Elton John Music and Older Comedies (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Monty Python, Looney Tunes, etc). I also really like Biopics and Historical Films and such. I love video games, especially Zelda of course, and I’m pretty funny, witty and very soft when with someone I like. I can be pretty mature and polite for my age, and I rarely ever get angry, but I’m also a little silly at times and like to make bad jokes. I’m also very protective and hate seeing people upset. I really like swimming and taking walks in the rain. I'm also pretty muscular from working out, but I’m also very short (5’ at most). Thanks so much, I love your blog!!!

hey!! thank you so much for the request :))) also thank you!! i'm glad you like my blog hehe

i also feel that abt pretty girls LMAO

i hope you like it!

~~~~~~~

BOTW Matchup!

Based on your characteristics, I think you'd do best with.......

Mipha!

~~~~~~~

Girl....she adores you HAHA

Mipha was one of the last ones you met out of the Champion group, having already gotten along with everyone else

She was busy with the soldiers in the Zora Domain and was late to joining the group one evening while you were also there

When you saw her, you were at a loss for words and she found that very endearing HAHA

No one had ever really been flustered around her before, so she thought it was an amusing situation

She didn't make fun of it, though! She would never make fun of you like that

Needless to say, y'all hit it off pretty darn well

You loved learning about the history of the Zora from her and learning about all the lore that they had over the centuries

You also had a patience when dealing with the antics of the others that she loved; appreciating that you were slow to anger and willing to work with people rather than lose your temper

She also loves your humor that never fails to make her laugh, and the two of you have a few inside jokes that will always a crack a smile

It always makes her feel all tingly all over whenever she notices that you reserve specific behaviours just for her

Like the way your voice softens or how you explain things to her if things need explaining, she just feels all bubbly!

Mipha is typically very independent, but she is very thankful for the protectiveness that you have over her

If there's ever a battle that she's been in or will be in, you always make it a priority to make sure she's safe and well-stocked in recovery items so she has the least probability of getting injured

On the Fluff Side, you two love to spend days by the water together or walking through the Zora Domain in the rain

Being with you and then also the calming effect of the sounds of rain all around her just brings Mipha a peace that she cherishes

Mipha also makes it a point to accommodate to your disability whenever at all possible, but knows that you also know what's best for you so she tries not to fret too much

She listens and listens and listens and will never overstep anything because she cares about you so much!!

You also give the best hugs and squeeze her just right whenever you hug and she just finds such safety in your arms!! aw omg

~~~~~~~

thank you again for the request!! i hope you liked this :)

[voirverite-a]

EIGHT  PEOPLE  I’D  LIKE  TO  KNOW  BETTER .

one   /   (  alias / name  ) :     tori.

two   /   (  birthday  ) :     january 25th.

three   /   (  zodiac sign  ) :   aquarius.

four   /   (  height  ) :    5′10″.

five   /   (  hobbies  ) :   reading, writing poetry. museum and gallery haunting, antiquing / thrifting. nitpicking watching every artistic biopic (real or fictional) that i can get my hands on.

six   /   (  favourite colour  ) :    all shades of blue, gold.

seven   /   (  favourite books  ) :    cosmos by carl sagan. david wojnarowicz’s memoirs: close to the knives. (my favorite artist.) the spirit of abstract expressionism by elaine de kooning. anything by vladimir nabokov but especially pnin. kettle bottom by diane gilliam fisher. close range by annie proulx (my favorites in that collection are easily brokeback mountain & the mud below).

eight   /   (  last song listened to  ) :    i love the night life (disco ‘round) by alicia bridges. ‘tis on perry’s playlist.

nine   /   (  last film or show watched  ) :    akfjsd; monty python’s flying circus. absurdist/surrealist + academic humor? you got me.

ten   /   (  inspiration for muse  ) :     my studies as an art historian focused on lgbt+ art + i was writing a deeply repressed canon character last spring - summer, which, while an important narrative, started to weigh me down, then i saw rocketman (then i went back and saw it 4 more times <3). so : the sexual revolution, visibility and the courage inherent in that, creative liberation / healing through art, art that catalyzes social change, harper’s bazaar’s avant-garde years, helmut newton except make it gay, gay coding throughout art history / jasper johns and robert rauschenberg, the aesthetics of bryan ferry & roxy music, disco / studio 54, the 60′s - 70′s music scene & fashion, triumphant love in an oppressive society. that initial pinch of elton john.

eleven   /   (  story behind url  ) :    riley (@croweswings / @ecritverite) was over irl and we pored over ways to make perry & woods’ urls match.

tagged by: stolen from the talented @wraithly / @hghwys tagging:  you! i love seeing everyone’s writing inspirations & reading more about your charas.

[gigsoupmusic]

INTERVIEW - MICKO WESTMORELAND ON 'VELVET GOLDMINE' AND LIFE WITH THE MELLOTRONICS

Micko Westmoreland first came to the public's attention as the enigmatic Jack Fairey in the star-studded glam rock fake biopic 'Velvet Goldmine', and since then has done everything from making electronica as The Bowling Green to the sharp edged new wave of his current project Micko & The Mellotronics. With that band on the verge of releasing their second single, a double A-side with the timely 'Noisy Neighbours 'and 'You Killed My Father' (featuring the late Neil Innes), he spoke to Gigsoup to tell all... Starting at the beginning, you got your first break appearing in the film ‘Velvet Goldmine’…  Quite a baptism of fire! Yep, I was fresh out of film school with little acting experience. So I did a ton of research, suspended all activities other than glam rock ones; late mornings, blurry eyeliner, became a kind of ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’, to quote Jean Genet. I did appear on set however with well prepared sleeve notes. Ziggy/Hunky and early Roxy had been teenage territory. Toni Colette really helped me during filming, showing me where and how to move and stand in frame etc. which I really wasn’t aware of and she was such a wonderful person to hang out with. Ewan McGregor was enormous in the 90s but treated you like a complete equal. I’ve acted the fiction of being a sensational rock star, my embalmed alter ego is now moth balled and hermetically sealed for posterity. What do you make of the film’s recent re-appraisal – it was panned at the time but now it’s considered a cult classic A lot of the film heavyweights liked it at the time and have consistently sung its praises over the last 20 years, which has contributed to its legacy, plus Todd Haynes is now seen as a 24-carat auteur. 1998 wasn’t ready for a kaleidoscopic pansexual odyssey. Velvet Goldmine truly tapped into a teenage hormonal feeling, so the audience is responsible for its longevity I think, people have grown old with it and new fans have discovered it. You had quite a lot of success making electronic music as The Bowling Green but then switched tack to making more song-based stuff.  What’s the story there? The music I was making was becoming increasingly filmic, so I moved into movie sound tracks for a while and did two film scores and a few documentaries with my brother; acclaimed director Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice, Colette). One of them, Echo Park L.A., won best drama at Sundance in 2006! I was becoming more attuned to a literary narrative and was listening to Dylan’s Time out of Mind and Beck’s Sea Change at the time – couple that with improvements in technology that weren’t so reliant on sampler and keyboard. I started playing much more guitar again, my first love and now my primary instrument for writing. You made a couple of albums under your own name but then formed Micko & The Mellotronics – your first ‘band’ project.  What was the thinking behind that move? I was very much used to working on my own. I made a couple of solo albums, one which Terry Edwards (P.J. Harvey/Holy Holy) released on his Sartorial label called ‘Wax & Wayne’, and ‘Yours Etc Abc’, on my own Landline records imprint, which I believe was the main unconscious projection into putting a live act together. The person doing PR for it asked, ‘Who’s in the band?’ When I realized I didn’t have one, it made sense to look for folk to start pushing sounds around. How would you sum up the band to someone you hadn’t heard you before?  Can you name us a few bands that have influenced its sound? We get compared to the Buzzcocks quite a lot, I’ll take that. I’ve loved Magazine since teenage, Television too. I also dig Serge Gainsbourg majorly and bands like The Silver Apples. I’m really into Iso Tomita, the 70’s electronic musician and of course Mr. Eno too. People have commented that the double A side, soon to be released, is like early Genesis but I think it’s much closer to The Rutles. Patrick from R.O.C. said there was violence to the sound. I do pride the writing on an intricacy and eccentricity but without getting prog about it. Talk us through the Mellotronics members and their individual flavours... Nick Mackay a friend referred me to. He was playing in a two-piece called ‘Barricades’, and was clearly a very good drummer, real flare as a player/performer and had the magic ingredient for any band – he was a thoroughly decent chap you could spend a ton of time with. Jon Klein is our very own rock star hiding in plain sight. He has a CV better than the rest of us put together: Banshees, Sinead O’Connor to name a few and of course his own band Specimen. I lent Jon my amp when we were on the same bill. I gave him a copy of my previous album and he contacted me the next day, which I considered a big thumbs up. He’s very quick, obscenely talented and has revolutionized day-to-day working practice. In short a turbo charged V12 engine has been carefully placed inside a Hillman imp, with fresh brake pads added. Vicky Carroll the bassist also came through personal referral, Haydn Hades who does stand up. At the time she was playing in a band the ‘Owls of Now’, a very bright lady indeed. She really got what the band was about and had great style. The dynamic of now the band get on and its chemistry is essential to longevity. Having a woman on board was important to us, so we really lucked out by finding such a smart cookie in Vicky. So far, you’ve shared ‘The Finger’, your first single, and now two new tracks, which will (eventually) be released as a 7” single.  Talk us through ‘Noisy Neighbors’ and ’You Killed My Father’. Noisy Neighbours came about from my experience with dealing with serial complainers whilst living in a housing co-op. We shot the video with filmmaker Ashley Jones (www.thechaoesengineers.com) in the next door location the inhabitants of the song were occupying, so we had to be quiet. Of course some complaints are genuine but most were more telling of the complainant than complainee. There are control issues, which come about as a result of trying to micromanage your environment beyond your own four walls. I wanted to make a witty statement about that without being over critical or condemning. Raising a single eyebrow over that type of behavior. ‘You Killed My Father’, the double A side was inspired by Neil Innes R.I.P. (Monty Python, Bonzo Dog, The Rutles). So of course I was thrilled when he agreed to play on it. I was introduced to him through an artist friend Harry Pye. We inadvertly created a supergroup together called the Spammed and meet up once a year to record for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Last session Tony Visconti produced a cover of Bolan’s ‘Get it on’, for us. It comprises, Rat Scabies (The Damned), Horace Panter (The Specials), Neil when he was with us and actor/comedian Kevin Eldon on vocs, I play guitar. The song relates to my childhood, growing up in Leeds and has a Shakespearean quality. I checked the prose with an expert to make sure I hadn’t over egged the pudding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5iswf8GG6o You seem to be able to attract some interesting names to collaborate with - Horace Panter of The Specials and the late Neil Innes recently, but also members of The Blockheads, Madness, Stranglers and Goldfrapp in the past.  Who would be top of your collaborative wish list? I’d love to do something with Eno again. We became friendly during the mid nineties. I was tutored by him, whilst working on an art show called ‘Self Storage’ with Laurie Anderson but never made it into the studio. A wild card like Wendy Carlos, famed for the soundtrack of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ would be great too. Likewise, your videos have featured some interesting names from British comedy…  What do they bring to the party?  Anyone else you’d like to get on board if you had free reign? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDr7nkOQN9Q All the comedy connections came from Kevin Eldon initially, a super bright and truly wonderful guy. He introduced me to Paul Putner at a Specials gig. Paul’s a brilliant bloke and really likes the band. He found the remarkable Suzy Kane for us. All three have taken excellent roles. Suzy had a lot of input in Noisy Neighbours, suggesting wardrobe and even shots to Ashley as we were making it; we really have had tremendous fun with our contributors. Obviously, Chris Morris would be fantastic but I’m a little afraid to knock. We hear the debut M&TM album is close to completion – what have you got in store for us? A psychedelic mish mash of fable, sound collage and idea. With the new single, 3 of the songs are now out there. On a musical front Horace Panter out of The Specials has guested on a couple of tracks for us and of course we have one of Neil Innes’ last performances too. I’ve written a song about Imelda Marcos, she seemed like a person who was way ahead of her time, a modern template for a highly manipulative battle-axe. I have an author friend in his 60s who’s an eminent  psychologist, (Georg Eifert - Anxiety Happens) so I wrote a song called ‘The Fear’, with a lot of his theories in mind. There’s also one too called ‘Sick and Tired’, it’s not about what I’m eed up about, but like Noisy Neighbours it’s a comment about complaint. When writing I try to look at what gets talked about by everyday people and base some of the songs around those themes. Earwig on phone conversations on buses, pick up discarded bits of paper, when you get into the habit you’ll be amazed what you find. So I get on the 38 and set my brain to record. There’s also a fair amount about growing up on the record too, which I hope all can relate to. I think you have to start with a good idea, that’s on any level otherwise you’re unlikely to get far. From my art college days I got into the habit of noting things down, if you don’t it often escapes you. It’s difficult to marry a multitude of ingredients and let’s face it the world is full of plenty, pair it down and make it resonate. Anyone who tells you otherwise is telling porkies. To make something that stands the test of time is more difficult still. But I’m not afraid of the work and I enjoy ‘the doing’, for me that’s what it’s all about. I believe that as individuals we have a natural tendency to evolve, if we choose to see it that way and trust, it’ll ‘self fulfill’. If you’ll allow yourself to tap into that expansion creatively, you’ll always find inspiration. Micko & The Mellotronics release 'Noisy Neighbours / You Killed My Father' on Landline Records on April 17 with the 7" single schedule to hit the shops on June 27. Read the full article

[yonderghostshistories]

HAPPY 13TH ANNIVERSARY TO “HOLY FLYING CIRCUS” (2011) 🥳🎉🎊🎂🎈

(Aka the best Monty Python biopic imho)

It’s been 13 BLOODY years since HFC aired on this day (19th October) at 9:00pm on BBC 4 in the year of our lord 2011, but it’s only been a few months since I (and many other of my mutuals) watched and rewatched it this year, and I will always treasure the times that I have seen this wonderful movie!

I remember when I was a newly fresh faced MP fan in 2023 and was slowly and gradually getting into them, and that I was wondering if there was ever a biopic made about Monty Python? I mean, it would be kinda weird that there wasn’t a biopic made about Monty Python, ya’know considering that they were very much influential in the world of comedy and beyond, that it would obviously be a missed opportunity to NOT make a biopic about them.

I then went and logged on into one of the school computers at my secondary school to look up if there was a Monty Python Biopic, in which I googled smth along the lines of “Monty Python Biopic”, and LO and behold, HFC was (iirc) the first result that came up!

I was IMMEDIATELY intrigued to see what HFC was all about, and so I looked at and read the plot synopsis for HFC on IMDb. At the time, it was honestly really cool and interesting fr! Then I looked at the cast and…well. I wasn’t immediately put off by the fact that the cast for the HFC Pythons weren’t exactly 100% identical to the irl Pythons, like they were similar to them but JUST different enough to have a sorta distinct, uncanny feeling to them. But ngl, at the time when I saw photos of the cast, I did have a feeling that was like “ughh….this is soooo obviously cheap, why couldn’t they have gotten a bigger budget for this?”, and now looking back, I do recognise that HFC was, well, made on a BBC 4 budget (aka a low budget, at least for BBC 4) and that the cast and crew had to work with what they had (both in terms costumes and hair) and tbh I was kinda a bit mean on them at that time and that do I regret it. I mean, I still don’t forgive some of the HFC Pythons’ hair cuz OMG Steve Punt/Eric and Phil Nichol/Terry G’s hair is still kinda not good lol 😂 but I do understand why it is what it is.

Anyway, I digress!

It was because of this (plus looking at some rather quite negative reviews of HFC) that I STILL wanted to check out HFC and see what it’s about, but I had INCREDIBLY low expectations for it. At best thinking that HFC would be at least kinda decent, but at worst thinking that it would be kinda mediocre and not the worst but definitely not the best. So, for Christmas 2023, I asked my Dad (iirc) to buy me the DVD for HFC (as well as some other DVDs, those being “A Liar’s Autobiography” the book, the animated film adaptation “A Liar’s Autobiography” (2012), “Remember Me” (2014) starring Michael Palin, “A Field in England” (2013) and “In the Earth” (2021), the latter 2 cuz I was really into the League of Gentlemen/Inside No. 9/Reece Shearsmith at the time and also cuz I love me a bit of horror!). Then came January/February 2024, and I got my DVDs by that time!

(Here’s a crappy looking (affectionate) picture I took of them back in February when I still used my Android phone to take pictures of stuff)

Then I…..didn’t watch them (and in this case HFC) for a couple months after I got them (mostly due to school and exams and shit which made me kinda exhausted and so I didn’t watch much stuff during that time cuz of it), BUT! BUT BUT BUT!!

It was on a somewhat regular day on the 20th of May 2024, when I finally, FINALLY AFTER ALL THIS TIME OF LAYING IT OFF AGAIN AND AGAIN (again due to the exams and studying for said exams and shit) that I decided to finally get the courage to watch HFC in its entirety!! Also cuz I needed to give myself a bit of stress relief and also a lil reward for studying too much lol.

I got the HFC DVD from my living room shelf, I took the HFC DVD out from the plastic cover, I then got my DVD player and carefully inserted the HFC DVD into the DVD player so as to NOT potentially break it, and then…..I finally watched it.

It was…..quite the experience (and I mean this in the most positive way ever!)

Watching the film for the first time genuinely, like GENUINELY, floored my previously low expectations of it. Like, fr IT WAS CRAZY. AND AMAZING. AND WONDERFUL. AND SURREAL. AND FUNNY. Like, it was honestly the best thing I ever watched at that time!!

The HFC Python cast, who I thought was not gonna be the best, was actually fr incredible! Not only did they all get their respective irl Pythons’ mannerisms and expressions on point, but their unique take on each Python was genuinely charming and interesting fr! Especially Charles Edwards/Michael and Darren Boyd/John and their relationship between each other in the film was indeed very captivating to watch (and a lil gay and fan service-y, to which I also love it for that <33).

Speaking of which, Charles Edwards as Michael Palin was unironically the best thing about this film, not only for his voice and mannerisms but his character as well!! Like fr CHARLIE EDWARDS FR LOOKS LIKE ACTUAL MICHAEL PALIN LIKE WHAT?!!?!!

Darren Boyd as John Cleese was also quite great too, like, even if he portrayed him as the “Basil Fawlty Persona” version of John, I felt like it was still pretty much like John’s character, and Darren Boyd/John does show little moments of genuine vulnerability, which make it really more profound imo!

Rufus Jones as Terry Jones, Phil Nichol as Terry Gilliam, Steve Punt as Eric Idle and Tom Fisher as Graham Chapman were also pretty great in this as well! But ESPECIALLY Tom Fisher/Gray as HE ABSOLUTELY STOLE THE SHOW IN THIS MOVIE FR, AND THAT HE ABSOLUTELY SLAYED AS GRAY AND I LOVE HIS JACKETS, HIS SEXINESS, HIS QUOTES, HIS GAYNESS, HIS WISENESS, HIS EVERYTHING AGHHHHH (also he’s really beautiful imo). Like with Charles Edwards/Michael and Darren Boyd/John, their performances as their each respective Python was really amazing, such as Phil Nichol exhibiting Terry G’s childlike craziness and goblin-like energy, to Rufus Jones/Jonesy also acting/double role-ing as Michael’s Wife (in a loving homage to Jonesy playing most of the female characters in MPFC and the films with absolute PERFECTION) to Steve Punt/Eric being very much onto the business side of Python (in which he’s referred to as a “money grabbing bastard”, which I almost quote all the time haha).

Also shoutout to the supporting cast of HFC, they also carried the movie too! My personal favourites being Jason Thorpe as the rude and annoying and obnoxious boss (and very funny) Alan Dick and the LoB obsessed but with good intentions Christian with a stutter Desmond Lovely, Simon Greenall as the Pythons’ Manager/Film Distributor Barry, Paul Chahidi as the meek and trying to make things go well Harry Balls, and Stephen Fry as God (cuz Stephen Fry is an absolute ⚡️✨ ICON ✨⚡️fr)!

Oh yeah, also, I LOVE THE ANIMATIONS AHHHH THEYRE SO AMAZEBALLS FRRR!!!! AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE THE MUSIC TOOO!!!! SHOUTOUT TO THE ANIMATION TEAM AND MUSIC COMPOSER FOR HFC, THEY DESERVE IT FR AND DESERVE ALOT OF APPRECIATION!!!

Also, this movie is fr so funny frfr, have I mentioned that it’s really funny? Cuz it’s really funny! It’s also (like Holy Grail) very quotable indeed, and there’s a lot like ALOT of quotes from HFC that live in my head rent free! My personal favourites among them are:

-“It’s Half Logical, Half Silly!”

-“Eric is a Money Grabbing Bastard!”

-“Glass of Cordial? S P O T O F S O U P ?”

-“Are you Willy waving at Jesus?”

-“Well, I am Gay, I like Neeews, it’s very good for film reviieeewwws 😌😏”

The ways this movie have changed my life for the better (and for the sillier) is that I’ve gone through the rabbit hole and have discovered many, MANY amazing shows and films starring each of the HFC Python actors, for example; “Treacle Jr” (2010) and “The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz” (2000) (both films starring Tom Fisher) are genuinely pretty great and I do recommend you watch them if you can! Plus I bought them and other projects starring each HFC Python on DVD cuz it shows how much I’m THAT dedicated to this movie (HFC) fr, and that I’m fr grateful for discovering this little BBC 4 Pythonesque comedy drama from 2011, cuz if i hadn’t, I’d have missed out on some real great stuff!

I will always love “Holy Flying Circus” (2011) for the rest of my life, and I will always appreciate and treasure it with my entire heart 🫶❤️, and I will continue watching and rewatching it and continue fanning about it into the future! I’m very lucky that HFC came into my life and that I watched it, and that I don’t think I’d be quite the same if I hadn’t the courage to watch the film on the 20th May 2024.

It’ll soon be almost 1 hour to the time (that being 9:00pm) when HFC aired on the 19th of October in 2011 by the time I’m writing this, so I’d like to quickly wrap up by saying:

Thank you “Holy Flying Circus” (2011). Just, thank you ☺️🫶❤️…..

And remember:

“Eric is a Money Grabbing Bastard”.

[dcfontaines]

hey there! for the film ask 6, 13, 17 and 18. :)

hello! :)

6. A film you wished you hadn’t watched?

100% The Fox and the Child - not that it’s a bad movie it just scarred me in ways i didn’t know i could be scarred at like 8 years old

13. Your favourite comedy film?

Monty Python’s Life of Brian? or Cannonball Run

17. Which cinematic universe would you like to live in?

If the Indiana Jones cinematic universe counts then that one

18. What’s your favourite biopic?

i’ve only watched a few, but i saw Beautiful Boy with my pals and have still not stopped thinking about it

film asks

[commonguttersnipe]

Fanfic request:

Monty Python time travel AU where the Pythons accidentally time travel to the future from the 1960s/1970s BUT, instead hearing about the young Six Idiots fans talking about how the Six Idiots are "this generation's Monty Python", they INSTEAD hear about some young Monty Python fans (who are called Georgie and Shreyan respectively, and who are totally not based on us hehehe.......yeah) talking about the new (in universe of the fanfic ofc) biopic that's currently filming that day (in the present day), which is coincidentally also the day that the OG/Young Pythons end up on (in the present day). Btw uhh, the cast for fictional 2nd biopic is based on your fancast from a few months ago, which is this:

Also also, the fictional 2nd biopic is being directed by a somewhat annoyingly ambitious but with somewhat good intentions (if a little extreme in portraying said intentions) director who has Ollie Plimsolls-like vibes + who's a massive Python fanboy, or as he calls himself a "Pythonist" (who's funnily enough also played by Reece Shearsmith, idk it kinda fits imo) called uhh "Smithee J. Allense" but who was technically nearly nominated for a BAFTA for his avante garde surreal comedy drama short film about fish people. Nearly.

The Pythons (except John who's a bit salty about hearing the new biopic) are at first surprised about hearing that there's a new biopic about them but then quickly get interested in the concept (though the OG Young Pythons aren't aware of/don't know about the previous biopic "Holy Flying Circus" (2011), which becomes a sorta running gag in the fanfic for comedic effect as other people try telling them that but they get cut off from explaining further or one of the Pythons ignores them just as they were explaining HFC to them).

The catch is that, in order to not bring too much attention to themselves and causing massive hysteria or something, the fans Georgie and Shreyan help the Pythons get into disguise as "regular people"-looking Agents with "regular people"-sounding names/alias of the modern day Old Pythons in the present day, so that the film crew of the biopic knows that they're kinda important but not too much, and that (the Pythons in disguise that is) they're there to check on how filming is going and all that jazz.

So the Pythons in disguise are:

Graham - becomes "Tommy"

John - becomes "Julian"

Eric - becomes "Derek"

Jonesy - becomes "Russell"

Terry - becomes "Jerry"

Michael - becomes "Mickey"

So the gang (in disguise) go to where the biopic is currently filming rn, which is being filmed at the BBC unsurprisingly. In fact, the scene they're currently filming is a studio set reconstruction of when the Pythons met up at and started throwing ideas at each other for their future sketch show MPFC at the Indian restaurant (which was called the "Light of Kashmir Tandoori" restaurant) in 1969.

The Pythons (in disguise) are at first nervous in case they might get caught in the act, but they thankfully easily evade getting exposed by using the fake ID cards that Georgie and Shreyan made for them back at their house (just incase).

After Smithee excitedly greets them (not knowing that they're actually fr the real Pythons, albeit the Young versions), the Pythons as the Agents of the Old Pythons get to see/watch what the scene where the Pythons (played by the biopic actors, or as John-as-Julian sarcastically calls them "the Sexified Pythons", since well...they're played by sexy actors, although Eric-as-Derek does really appreciate that he's played by Dan Stevens) meet for the first-but-not-really-first-more-like-a-proper-second-introduction-of-the-whole-troupe-but-it's-called-the-first-for-the-sake-of-plot-of-the-biopic time, the Pythons politely step in/interrupt to add their thoughts on it so far.

Whilst some of the Pythons-in-disguise, like Eric, Terry & Michael, appreciate what the actors are bringing to the table (not literally ofc) in terms of the actors acting as the Pythons, the others, like Jonesy and Graham (though Graham does like some aspects of Taron's energy to the role) (and deffo not John, though John tries to deny it but the others doubt that) feel that the performance is sorta lacking in a way, and that they need to really get into the spirit of each respective Python. So to help, each of the Pythons go with each biopic actor and help them REALLY REALLY get into the spirit of themselves, (like for example, Graham helping Taron get Gray's character, Jonesy helping Tom, John begrudgingly helping Henry though overtime John does take a liking to Henry, etc) to which we do get to see these side plots unfold as they are. Also the other Pythons jokingly tease John that Henry Shields looks so much like him that he might as well be his long lost son lol 😆.

After that happens, they'll all ready to go and get the scene done proper. And everyone had a clap, even the Pythons. Then, as everyone's having a bit of a celebration, Michael goes to where the lunch/breakroom is, in which Young Michael bumps into Old Michael, who's just so happen to be there as he supposed to record his lines for the biopic as "The Narrator". Young Michael is a bit shocked when he sees Old Michael but tries to act normal as "Mickey" but doesn't mention that's he's Old Michael's agent so that he'll try not to blow his cover (btw young Mike is wearing a fake mustache w/glasses). He and Old Michael have a lovely chat together.

Then, suddenly, Young Michael accidentally rubs off his fake mustache due to there being biscuit crumbs on there. Old Michael is shocked from this, and so faints and falls to the ground. Young Michael is shocked and nervous. He calls the others and tells them hurriedly that old Michael has fainted. An ambulance is called. Young Michael feels really guilty about this. To be continued.....

Any thoughts?? I wanna know what your favourite part is!!!

Thanks!!!

This needs to be a film, holy flying circus!!

It’s like a mix of all our ideas!!

We need to write this!!

[onehundredhomes-blog]

78. My Top 100 Movies, In No Particular Order pt. 1

This has taken a lot of time to finally finish accumulating, but I wanted to motivate myself to watch more iconic films over the past year. Here are (half of) my favorites.

1. The Way, Way Back (my all-time favorite coming-of-age story)

2. Elf (it’s more than just a favorite holiday film for me, really, it’s good all year ‘round)

3. Spirited Away (the final scene with the parents as pigs has stuck with me since my childhood)

4. Citizen Kane (acclaimed by many as one of the “best films ever made”, I was hesitant by the beginning... but Rosebud!)

5. Rushmore (my favorite Wes Anderson movie)

6. Shutter Island (the suspense... the ending!)

7. Get Out (it’s only gotten better the more I’ve watched it, and with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBvcngHRTFg)

8. Battle Royale (I’m not typically one for gore, but the storyline/acting/cinematography is worth it)

9. The Room/The Disaster Artist (I wasn’t sure if it was okay to put a pairing of movies together, but then I remembered it’s my list and I can do whatever I want)

10. Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard are great in this biopic)

11. Crash (my first memorable introduction into an intersecting vignette movie style, and a memorable storyline)

12. Wall-E (no explanation needed)

13. The Truman Show (also no explanation needed, right?)

14. Dreamgirls (rewatched this movie recently and sang along to every song off the soundtrack)

15. The Dark Knight (I don’t usually get entrhalled with hero/villain movies, but this is an exception)

16. Selma

17. Arrival (I was not anticipating this ending... I’ve heard the book it’s based on, “Story Of Your Life” by Ted Chiang is worth reading, too)

18. Bridesmaids (has never failed to make me laugh)

19. Gone Girl (the suspense is real)

20. Zootopia

21. Reservoir Dogs (my first, and one of only two, liked Tarantino movies... and I still closed my eyes a lot watching it)

22. Grand Budapest Hotel (W. Anderson does it again)

23. Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 (http://animationanomaly.com/2011/04/07/5-fundamental-differences-between-fantasia-and-fantasia-2000/)

24. Shanghai Noon (Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, that is all)

25. Best In Show

26. To Have and Have Not (Bogie, Hoagy, and Bacall... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUn4DOGiY_A)

27. Star Wars (IV is my favorite solely for when Luke meets Yoda, but I’ll lump the entire saga inside this one number so it doesn’t become nearly one tenth of my whole list)

28. Zoolander

29. The Incredibles (picking my favorite movie amongst all the animated choices would be difficult, too difficult to actually do, but I know this would be a tough contender)

30. Good Will Hunting (Robin Williams + first watched this in my high-school freshman year geometry class, never forget)

31. The World According to Garp (also one of my favorite books, plus Robin Williams in another great role)

32. American Gangster (I don’t think of myself as a huge gangster movie genre fan, but this has been one of the more captivating ones for me)

33. 50 First Dates (I do however think of myself as a romantic comedy sap)

34. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

35. A Bug’s Life

36. Home Alone 1 (and 2 and 3 are honorable mentions, but 1 will always the classic)

37. Juno (glad to have grown up getting to see this one in theaters)

38. Mulan (I didn’t fully appreciate her strong-independent-woman-power as a kid, but rewatching Disney princess movies now this is definitely the winner plotline)

39. Princess Diaries (strong ladies all around)

40. 13 Going On 30 (great for so many reasons, including my introduction to Pat Benatar)

41. Dallas Buyers’ Club

42. Shrek (actually pretty certain this is my favorite animated movie...)

43. The Soloist

44. Birdman

45. A Christmas Story (the leg lamp!)

46. Sleepless In Seattle

47. Wallace and Gromit (the old ones that I had on VHS as a kid were gems... “everybody knows the moon’s made of cheese!”)

48. Grave of the Fireflies

49. Boys Don’t Cry (I remember watching this for my film society class in high school and bawling my eyes out in the middle of a classroom)

50. Napoleon Dynamite (instant classic)

[net4news]

25 Fascinating Secrets About Forrest Gump

7. Zemeckis wasn't Paramount's first choice to direct the film. The project was offered to Monty Python troupe member Terry Gilliam, who passed, and Barry Sonnenfeld, who signed on only to depart to direct Addams Family Values instead. 8. While the film has great fun placing Forrest right at the center of some rather monumental moments in history, like having him be the one to unwittingly expose the Watergate scandal, one planned moment turned out to be a bit too much for Zemeckis. Originally, it was intended for Forrest to come across Martin Luther King, Jr. and his supporters as riot police were releasing German shepherds on them. Forrest was to jump in and distract the dogs with a game of fetch. Considering the scene to be in poor taste, as it trivialized the violence King and his supporters did face, the director left it out. 9. Though he was uncredited, the voice of the young Elvis Presley who rents a room from Forrest's mom was provided by Kurt Russell, who'd previously played the rocker in the 1979 TV-movie biopic Elvis. Source link Read the full article

[ramajmedia]

Robert De Niro's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Although his recent slew of crass comedies would convince you otherwise, Robert De Niro is one of the most revered and talented and dedicated actors working today. His acting credentials will be put to the test this year in Martin Scorsese’s latest crime epic, The Irishman, as digital de-aging techniques will be used to allow him to play mob hitman Frank Sheeran all throughout his life. But even if that one doesn’t work out, he’s still got an impressive body of work spanning the past few decades. So, here are Robert De Niro’s 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes.

RELATED: 5 Reasons We're Excited About The Irishman (& 5 Things We're Worried About)

10 TIE: Silver Linings Playbook (92%)

The true stars of Silver Linings Playbook are Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, whose love story is the focal point of the movie, but Robert De Niro provides strong support as Cooper’s dad who is superstitious about sports. We all know the kind of guy who thinks that his traditions have some kind of tangible impact on the outcome of a football game, and De Niro plays that role perfectly. When De Niro’s character opens up to his son, played by Cooper, and he breaks into tears, you’d have to be made of stone not to break into tears with him.

9 TIE: Bang the Drum Slowly (92%)

This was the second film adaptation of the baseball novel of the same name, but the first to take the source material’s title (the previous version, starring Paul Newman, was released under the title U.S. Steel Hour). Bang the Drum Slowly tells the story of the relationship shared by a baseball star with a terminal illness and his younger, smarter teammate. It was released in 1973 when no one other than serious film buffs and Hollywood insiders had heard of Robert De Niro. This, paired with Mean Streets, made De Niro’s career. This is reportedly Al Pacino’s favorite movie of all time.

8 The Deer Hunter (94%)

Michael Cinimo’s The Deer Hunter is about the Vietnam War, but it’s more about three soldiers than it is about the war as a whole. The movie is a three-hour epic, yet it only ever spends about 20 minutes in battle. We get to know these guys as steel workers in a middle American town before they get drafted, and then we see how the war has affected them in startling ways. One of them stays behind to play Russian roulette; one is stuck in a wheelchair in a veteran’s hospital. And those 20 minutes are so gruesome and visceral that we won’t be forgetting them any time soon.

7 TIE: Raging Bull (96%)

When Martin Scorsese makes a biopic, he finds the fatal flaw in his subject and builds the movie from there, using it as their downfall in a poignant character study. This is on prime display in Raging Bull, Scorsese’s cinematic retelling of the life of boxing legend Jake LaMotta. The black-and-white masterpiece focuses on LaMotta’s jealousy.

RELATED: Martin Scorsese's 8 Best Biopics, Ranked

If someone so much as looks at his wife, he flies off the handle, and ironically, that’s what drives her away. The boxing isn’t just used for the aesthetic here – although it is beautifully shot by cinematographer Michael Chapman – it’s used thematically to show LaMotta taking out his rage; why he goes into the ring in the first place.

6 TIE: Mean Streets (96%)

Mean Streets was Robert De Niro’s first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. It wasn’t Scorsese’s directorial debut, as he’d already helmed a couple of forgettable films for producer Roger Corman, but it does feel like the first true Scorsese movie. With its story about organized crime, rhythmic tracking shots, and artists like the Rolling Stones on the soundtrack, Mean Streets has got Scorsese’s signature style all over it. At its core, it’s an interesting two-hander starring Harvey Keitel as a gangster conflicted over his religious beliefs and Robert De Niro as the unpredictable friend that he feels responsible for.

5 TIE: Midnight Run (96%)

A rare action comedy that has plenty of both exciting action and hysterical comedy, Midnight Run stars Robert De Niro as a bounty hunter and Charles Grodin as the mob accountant he’s assigned to bring in. The plot thickens as Grodin pleads his innocence and the mob, the feds, and fellow bounty hunters are all on their tail. Midnight Run is like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles with machine guns and explosions. Underneath all the spectacle of the action set pieces, the focus of Midnight Run is on the characters’ relationship. De Niro and Grodin’s on-screen chemistry goes a long way.

4 TIE: Goodfellas (96%)

Martin Scorsese set out to make the quintessential mafia movie when he directed Goodfellas. It was the true story of Henry Hill, a New York kid who grew up with aspirations of the gangster lifestyle and ended up ratting out all his friends to the feds.

RELATED: 10 Most Memorable Quotes From Goodfellas

Scorsese dives right into the story with a corpse in the trunk and then bounces around the timeline in a riveting, fast-paced cinematic ride. This wasn’t a romantic portrait of mob life like The Godfather; this was a more realistic portrayal, focusing on the ground-level guys who do all the dirty work and only see a fraction of the rewards.

3 The Godfather Part II (97%)

Although Robert De Niro and Al Pacino wouldn’t share the screen until Michael Mann’s Heat, they did star in the sequel to The Godfather together. In one of the rare cases where the sequel is actually better than the original – and bear in mind that, in this instance, the original is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made, so that’s some feat – The Godfather Part II follows the parallel storylines of Michael Corleone taking over the family business following his father’s death and his father’s days as a starving immigrant, starting the business in the first place. It earns “Part II” in its title by being the natural progression of the story set up in the first one.

2 TIE: Brazil (98%)

While it may have bombed at the box office on its original release, Terry Gilliam’s satirical sci-fi comedy Brazil has since gone on to be praised as the underrated masterpiece that it is. It’s far too weird and confusing for mainstream audiences, but it’s a masterclass in surreal imagery, with every single frame bursting with imagination. Robert De Niro only has a small role as Harry Tuttle, but he accepted it because he was desperate to be in the movie. He wanted to play Jack Lint, but Gilliam had already promised the role to fellow Monty Python alum Michael Palin. De Niro loved the script so much that he accepted a minor part just to be in it.

1 TIE: Taxi Driver (98%)

Martin Scorsese never made a movie about the Vietnam War when all of his contemporaries were in the ‘70s. Instead, he made a movie about the effects of the Vietnam War. Taxi Driver is a dark, disturbing character study about a veteran who returns from the conflict with PTSD and insomnia, and fills his time driving a cab around New York. Along the way, he plots a political assassination and befriends a child prostitute, culminating in one of the most controversially violent climaxes in film history. Taxi Driver acts as a showcase for Robert De Niro’s talents. If Dirty Grandpa made you lose faith in him, go back and rewatch his performance as Travis Bickle to have that faith restored.

NEXT: Will Smith's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

source https://screenrant.com/rotten-tomatoes-best-de-niro-movies/

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND February 15, 2019  - HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U, ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, ISN’T IT ROMANTIC

Well, it looks like I’ve already gotten myself into a bind trying to write two movie columns a week, and unfortunately, this one can only be written as my time allows. It’s President’s Day weekend, incorporating Valentine’s Day on Thursday, with three new wide releases hitting theatres either on Weds or Thursday hoping to grab some early biz before the long weekend.

Also, a reminder that if you want to read my box office analysis and predictions, you can find those over at The Beat later today. (My box office preview column will post around 9:30AM on Weds.)

HAPPY DEATH DAY 2 U (Universal)

Written and directed by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day,Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones) Cast: Jessica Rothe, Rudy Modine, Israel Broussard, Rachel Matthews, Suraj Sharma, Phi Vu, Charles Aitken MPAA Rating: PG-13

The movie with the best bet of succeeding this weekend is the sequel to Universal and Blumhouse Pictures’ 2017 hit Happy Death Day with director Christopher Landon, Jessica Rothe and the rest of the cast returning… and returning… and returning. The horror version of Bill Murray’s Groundhog’s Day featured a mostly-unknown cast of young actors, including Jessica Rothe, who is destined to be a superstar, and all of them return for this sequel, which ups the ante on the original’s high-concept premise. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to see the movie before opening – I plan on going Wednesday afternoon – but I really enjoyed the first movie, and I expect the sequel to be more of the same i.e. obvious but funny and not necessarily as gory as a slasher movie like this might normally be.

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (20thCentury Fox)

Directed by Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Sin City, Predators, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Desperado and many more) Written by James Cameron, Laeta Kalogridis, Robert Rodriguez Cast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keann Johnson, Lana Condor, Eiza Gonzalez MPAA Rating:  PG-13

Next up is an adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s popular Manga series which premiered way back in 1990 and has been a passion project for Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron to make for almost as long.  It’s definitely interesting to see Cameron work with a young upstart (by comparison) like Rodriguez, who has built quite a solid industry out of his Austin-based Troublemaker Studios, but I’m not sure if American moviegoers are nearly as gung-ho about the collaboration. The cast is generally solid with The Maze Runner star Rosa Salazar getting the title role, joined by Oscar-caliber actors like Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly and Mahershala Ali, as well as newcomer Keann Johnson. Blink and you might miss the heavily CG-ed Ed Skrein, Lana Condor, Eiza Gonzalez and Jackie Earle Haley – I think he plays the Dogmaster. Reviews have generally been mixed but I really didn’t like it much at all (see my review below) and I’m not sure if moviegoers will feel too differently, as this is going to be a divisive movie. I’m not even sure if and how fans of the Manga will enjoy seeing it brought to life, but that’s really going to be seen for sure after its extended opening weekend that runs from Thursday through Monday.

My Review of Alita

Another Piece I Wrote About Alita

ISN’T IT ROMANTIC (New Line/WB)

Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson (The Final Girls, A VeryHarold and Kumar 3D Christmas) Written by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, Katie Silberman Cast: Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine, Jennifer Saunders, Priyanka Chopra, Betty Gilpin, Jennifer Saunders MPAA Rating: PG-13

Last but not least, especially with this week’s Valentine’s Hallmark Holiday on Thursday, is this unconventional romantic comedy that acts almost as a satire of the medium without going into Date Movie territory. It’s another chance for the very funny Rebel Wilson and Adam Devine, both from the Pitch Perfect movies, to break out on their own after mainly playing supporting roles in other comedies. Devine at least has a fanbase from his Comedy Central show Workaholics, and he’s had more featured roles in movies like Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, but this movie has more of an opportunity to reach young lovers and the date night crowd than the other two movies. I probably won’t review this, but I generally liked it quite a bit. I thought it was quite clever and funny in a snarky way that the kids seem to like and really its only straight competition is last week’s What Men Want.

LIMITED RELEASES

Not a ton of limited releases this weekend thankfully, but one of the big ones is the New York and L.A. release of Stephen Merchant’s FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (MGM), a comedic biopic about WWE Superstar Paige, as played by Florence Pugh (Lady MacBeth) and also starring Jack Lowden, Nick Frost, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn and Dwayne Johnson, who also produced the film along with WWE Films.  It follows the story of how Paige and her brother Zak (Lowden) have dreams of becoming WWE superstars, coming from a family of wrestlers, and Paige’s struggles to fit in at the NXT training camp with Vaughn playing her tough coach. Johnson produced the film along with WWE Films, and he makes a couple brief apperances as himself. It’s a fun movie that I really enjoyed. You can read my full review below, and then look for my interview with Paige over at VitalThrills.com.

https://weekendwarriorblog.tumblr.com/post/182726024603/fighting-with-my-family-eds-very-important

Another pleasant surprise for the weekend is RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR (Sony Pictures Classics), Slovenian filmmaker Milorad Krstic’s amazing animated feature centered around the title character, Ruben Brandt, a psychotherapist who has been having nightmares involving 13 famous paintings, so he puts together a band of art thieves (actual pieces of art who are also criminals) to steal some of the greatest artworks in the world. He quickly earns a reputation as “The Collector,” and a group of insurance companies hire private detective Mike Kowalski to get the art back.  I didn’t really know what to expect when I saw this movie a few weeks back, and the premise and characters are so bizarre, that it took me some time to adjust to the pace, but there’s some really cool stuff on display here including a number of action setpieces right out of Mission: Impossible or The Fast and the Furious, but all animated with a unique style that reminded me about what I loved about Terry Gilliam’s animation on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. If you’re a fan of animation and/or looking for something different this weekend, this is what I recommend.

Opening in New York Friday at the Quad Cinema and on VOD is Tim Sutton’s DONNYBROOK  (IFC Films), based on the novel by Frank Bill, in which Jamie Bell plays Jarhead Earl, who wants to keep his family together, so he robs a gun shop and goes on the road with his son to enter a legendary bare-knuckle brawl called Donnybrook, in which the winner gets $100,000. On his trail is drugdealer Chainsaw Angus, played by Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), and Angus’ sister (Margaret Qualley).  (FYI, Sutton will be at select screenings at the Quad.)

Opening on Weds at New York’s Film Forum and at several L.A. theaters on Friday is BIRDS OF PASSAGE  (The Orchard), Colombia’s Oscar entry directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra (Embrace of the Serpent). It’s an amazing story set in the rural Colombian drug trade over the course of several decades. The winner of three Colombian Fenix Film Awards, Birds of Passageopened the Directors’ Fortnight at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and has played a number of major festivals since then. It’s a really strong film that showcases the indigenous Wayuu tribe based in the rural area of Colombia who get involved with the drug trade as a way to survive financially. It focuses primarily on the growing feud between two families and the plight of a young man named Rapayet to get out of the drug trade once he’s pulled into it in order to afford the dowry for his beautiful bride.  It’s another great-looking film but one that feels a little more contemporary than Guerra’s previous film even though it takes place between the ‘60s and ‘80s and could actually be viewed as a companion film to Tom Cruise’s American Madein the sense that it shows the very beginnings of the drug journey to the States.

Opening Friday at Lincoln Center is Hong Sang-soo’s Hotel by the River  (Cinema Guild), which played at the New York Film Festival last year. It involves two intersecting tales, one about an old poet who calls his estranged sons to be by his side as he reaches the end, and the other about a young woman with a broken heart.

Ryan Reynolds narrates the IMAX documentary Great Bear Rainforest: Land of the Spirit Bear, which opens solely in IMAX screens on Friday. It’s a movie about the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada where resides the rare all-white spirit bear, and the indigenous First Nations tribe.

Dog lovers who didn’t get enough canine cuteness with A Dog’s Way Home can also catch the dog movie Patrick (Screen Media), written and directed by Mandy Fletcher (Absolutely Fabulous), which will open in select cities and VOD Friday. It revolves around a young woman named Sarah Francis (Beattie Edmonson) whose life is a mess even before her grandmother (played by her real-life mother Jennifer Saunders, who is also in Isn’t It Romantic) bequeathes her spoiled pug Patrick to her. It also stars Ed Skrein (also in Alita), Gemma Jones and Emily Atack.

STREAMING

The only new movie streaming on Netflix this Friday is the New Zealand comedy The Breaker Upperers, written and directed by Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek, who also star as BFFs Jen and Mel who get paid for ending romances, although their own relationship is put to the test when one of gets a conscience about what they’re doing.

As far as series, Netflix is debuting the new series The Umbrella Academy, based on the comic series by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba, this Friday. Meanwhile, on DC Universe’s streaming platform, the new Doom Patrol will premiere, and that’s a pretty crazy bit of counter-programming.

Not exactly “streaming” but Tina Brown and Dyana Winkler’s doc United Skates will premiere on HBO on Monday the 18th. I saw this at the Tribeca Film Festival last year where it won the Audience Award for documentary, and it’s won many other festival audience awards. It looks at the vanishing world of roller rinks and the “adult nights” that brought many of the African-American communities together in cities in North Carolina and California, but one that’s quickly fading away.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Valentine’s Day at the Metrograph is always a fun time, and this year is no exception with screenings of Casablanca (1942), Ernst Lubisch’s Heaven Can Wait  (1943), Werner Fassbinder’s Querelle (1982), David Cronenberg’s Crash  (1996), Claire Denis’ Trouble All Day  (2001) and even Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning Moonlight. (These are all playing on Valentine’s Day and a couple screenings before/after.) Produced by David O. Selznick ends this weekend with screenings of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca and George Cukor’sWhat Price Hollywood?  (1932). This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph is the Chinese crime film Black Coal Thin Ice  (2014) on Thursday night and Trouble All Day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. This weekend’s  Playtime: Family Matineesis the beloved 2017 family film Paddington 2, directed by Paul King.

THE NEW BEVERLY  (L.A.):

Not to be outdone by that young upstart Metrograph, Tarantino’s rep theater will screen the late great Burt Reynolds’ Deliverance (1972) and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997), also starring Reynolds, on Weds. and Thursday, then continuing their Reynolds tribute with double features of White Lightning (1973) and 1974’s The Longest Yard (one of my personal favorites). Saturday night’s midnight screening is D.A. Pannebaker’s classic concert film Monterey Pop  from 1968, featuring performances by The Who, Jimi Hendrix and more, while the weekend’s Kiddee Matinee on Saturday and Sunday is Ralph Nelson’s 1971 film Flight of the Doves. Sunday and Monday night are double features of Laurel and Hardy’s Flying Deuces (1939) and Mel Brooks’ The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), starring the wonderful Marty Feldman. There’s also a screening on Sunday afternoon of Carl Franklin’s 1995 film Devil with a Blue Dress, starring Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Opening on Friday is the exclusive premiere of Milestone Films’ 4k rerelease of Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1964 documentary I Am Cuba, presented by Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, which features amazing footage of Havana in the late ‘50s.  This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. offering is a new 4k restoration of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel  (1956)

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Other than Valentine’s Day screenings of Hal Ashby’s 1971 dark comedy Harold and Maude (another personal favorite of mine) and Ivan Nagy’s Skinner  (1993) starring Ted Raimi, the Egyptian is mainly focusing on making sure Oscar voters have a chance to see some of this year’s Best Picture nominees like Roma and Bohemian Rhapsody.

AERO  (LA):

The Aero is also showing the 1942 classic Casablanca on Valentine’s Day, but mostly, the entire weekend is dedicated to screening Jean Luc Godard’s most recent effort, The Image Book.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Goldblum Variations, celebrating the great Jeff Goldblum, continues this weekend with screenings of Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Fly, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Thank God It’s Friday, Into the Night and more.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: The Feds  presents a 35mm print of Sandra Bullock’s Miss Congeniality  from 2000, this weekend’s Weekend Classics: Early Godard  is Vivre Sa Vie from 1962, which is playing Friday through Monday at 11AM.  Late Night Favorites has two movies running over the weekend, David Lynch’s Blue Velvetand Dario Argento’s Suspiria.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Friday night’s midnight movie is Blood Diner from 1987!

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

On Friday, the Film Society will show Sergey Bondarchuk’s four-part War and Peace  (1969), presented by Mosfilm Cinema Concern, an epic that runs for seven ours over the four parts, each which will run two or three times over the weekend.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Starting Thursday, the Brooklyn Arts Museum will begin Programmer’s Note: On Love, a series that will include romantic films such as Love & Basketball on Thursday, Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education on Friday, and much more all running over the course of the next week.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Sir Sidney PoitierscreensTo Sir with Love  (1967) on Weds, Lillies of the Field (1963) on Thursday, and Stanley Kramer’s Guessing Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967) on Friday.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

The Derek Jarman-Humphrey Jennings retrospective continues with Sebastiane (1976) on Friday, preceded by the short The Silent Village, plus two more films on Saturday and Sunday nights. MOMI is also screening Roman Holiday (1953) on Saturday as part of the Edith Head series.

That’s it for this week, but next week is a bit lighter with DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and Fighting with My Family expands natiowide. Don’t forget to check out my weekly box office column at The Beat, which you can read right here.