Thursday, February 21, 2008
Kansas
Sure, lots of TV shows and movies pretend to take place in Kansas. CBS’ series Jericho invented its own town here, and who could forget the faux-Topeka house party in Almost Famous with all those “real Topeka people, man.”
A refreshing exception to this let’s-say-we’re-filming-in-Kansas-but-really-film-it-somewhere-else thing is Kansas, a little-known crime drama shot in the summer of 1987 in Lawrence, Topeka and other parts of northeast Kansas. According to the 80s Movie Rewind Web site, more than 2,000 Kansans, mostly from the Douglas County area, were extras in the film.
A young, scruffy Matt Dillon (Crash, There’s Something About Mary) stars as a bank robber drifting through the Midwest. In the sunflower state, he meets up with another traveler played by 80s Brat Pack-er Andrew McCarthy. The two become partners in crime, though quickly turn into bitter enemies. The film is full of fights, romance and plenty of Kansas farmhouses.
Its slightly far-fetched plot and occasionally cheesy dialogue might bother die-hard film buffs, but Kansas is worth watching for its stunning cinematography of our stomping ground, and the fact that you’ll recognize the scenery and maybe even some of those people standing around in the parade scene.
You can rent Kansas through Netflix or Blockbuster Online.
“The Mysterious Ticking Noise” and “They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard”
While these aren’t the only fantasy movie spoofs out there, these are two of the funniest and best-executed ones. And believe us, we’ve looked. In order to enjoy either of these, however, you must have at least a small place in your heart for these movies. Otherwise, you’ll find little to no humor in them. And remember: They’re supposed to be dumb.
“The Mysterious Ticking Noise” is one installment of a series of Harry Potter hand puppet shows. This particular one centers around—you guessed it—a mysterious ticking noise. It opens with Snape, who hears the noise and starts singing “Snape, Snape, Severus Snape” in time with the music. But what starts out as a simple ode to himself quickly turns into a noisy melee as each of the main Harry Potter characters adds his or her own name to the song until it’s a round-robin including Ron, Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione, and even Voldemort. I’d let you in on the source of the ticking, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.
The music for “They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard” is based on a techno version of the theme music from the Lord of the Rings movies. It is comprised of movie and sound clips, which go surprisingly well with the chosen tempo of the music. Believe it or not, after watching this once or twice, you’ll find yourself humming the tune and singing, “They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard, gard, g-g-g-gard” to yourself (because if you sang it out loud, people would make fun of you).
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