Dragnet (1987)/Fletch Lives (1989) Double Feature

Today was a pretty busy day. I was thankfully so busy with freelance work that I still haven't had a chance to listen to the podcast I was on, nor was I able to go outside and enjoy the nearly 70-degree weather, but I was able to watch a few movies while I worked. I also got a chance to check out my brand new column on Maxim.com called We Like To Watch, which covers various TV shows you should check out. Anyway, the two movies I watched were Dragnet and Fletch Lives. I had never seen Dragnet before, but a few months ago I picked up a Tom Hanks 2-disc, 3-movie pack featuring Money Pit, The 'burbs and it. After seeing the video at the end of the review on Maxim.com I figured I'd finally give it a watch.

And man, this is a really weird movie (I should have guessed from the video), but I really enjoyed it. In addition to being a really funny movie (you've got prime Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd here), it also plays to my love of continuity. See, I'm not a fan of the original Dragnet, but I do appreciate that Aykroyd plays a relative of the original Joe Friday and that Harry Morgan reprises his role from the original series as now-Captain Gannon. By doing this they're not dumping on or forgetting the original and it fits in with the rest. Not every adaptation can work like this, but I like when it does (they did something similar with the Sam Jackson Shaft movie). This one turned out to be pretty long, so hit the jump for the whole thing.

Anyway, like I said this is a weird movie. Aykroyd and Hanks are on the trail of this group called P.A.G.A.N. (People Against Goodness And Normalcy) who...well, they're trying to do a bunch of bad stuff. I'll be honest, some of the finer details of the movie might have been lost on me while I was working, but I do know that a lot of dudes were dressed up in goat legs while the P.A.G.A.N. leader threw a woman in a big pool with a giant snake. From there, Aykroyd, who plays the super-uptight and by-the-book officer in LA, comes a bit undone as Hanks' loosened-up-ness rubs off and the case gets crazier and crazier.

One interesting thing about this movie is that it was co-written and directed by Tom Mankiewicz who mostly wrote more serious flicks like Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun along with uncredited runs on the scripts for both Superman and Superman II. Meanwhile, he directed one of my favorite comedies of all time Delirious. I think he's a big reason the movie has such a fun feel since he;s clearly comfortable in both the action and the funny. And now for the video, which hopefully won't make you want to NOT watch the movie. I give you Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd rapping:

I come by my love of the Fletch flicks and Chevy Chase honestly thanks to my dad. I distinctly remember renting both Fletches a number of times and watching with him. As I got older I bought both movies on DVD (and I think I might have had them on VHS too, but can't quite remember). The DVDs are pretty paltry and I can't believe they went with that weird cover for Fletch Lives with the snapshots instead of this hilarious and awesome poster painting here which I remember from the VHS cover.

Anyway, something about Dragnet made me think of Fletch Lives, I'm guessing it was the bigness of it and something about the P.A.G.A.N. "ritual" reminded me of R. Lee Ermey's Jimmy Lee Farnsworth shenanigans. Whatever the reason, I had a great time watching Fletch Lives as usual. I'm not sure if someone who's not a fan of Chase will like the movie, but I'm a huge fan of his characterization of Fletch, a man who uses words to get out of whatever crazy situation he finds himself in and comes out on top (eventually). Plus, he's a writer so I of course love that. He even makes grammar joke in this one!

The plot finds Fletch heading down south to take over the plantation house his recently deceased aunt left him. As you might expect, things aren't quite what they appear as Fletch runs into a Bible-themed theme park, someone who wants to buy his land, a dead girl he had sex with (before she died of course, this isn't Weekend At Bernie's) and the Ku Klux Klan. There's a lot going on with the story and I probably would have missed a lot of the details had I not seen the movie a bunch of times.

Seriously, if you haven't seen Fletch or Fletch Lives, just go do it. Right now. If I know, you can even borrow them. I like the movies so much I've gone on to read two of the Gregory McDonald books the movies were based on and have two more in my to read pile. On a completely different note, I found out that Fletch Lives director Michael Ritchie also produced and co-directed the weak slasher movie Student Bodies, which is pretty interesting.

You might notice that this post has a Saturday Night Live label on it. In addition to the fact the SNL alumns star in both of these movies, I also wanted to bring up one of the first things I ever noticed about the relationships between movies, actors and directors. That is that any movie starring a current or former SNL cast member usually has another one in at least a bit part. At first, from looking at the Dragnet credits, I thought my theory might have been busted, but it turns out that Dan's brother Peter not only had bit parts on SNL, he was also a writer. In Fletch Lives, Phil Hartman has a bit part as the man running a lab. So, as far as I'm considered, the theory still stands (but I haven't watched all of Chevy Chase's or Bill Murray's movies, which will surely kill my theory).
Oh, DO go on.

Taylor Swift Did A Pretty Great Job Hosting SNL

I didn't necessarily get the cold open because I don't follow politics, actually that sketch is how I found out who won the damned race for New Jersey of which I was inundated with stupid political ads. Anyway, from there it was pretty good including Swift's songologue and just the right amount of Kayne jokes. The highlight had to be this Twilight parody called Firelight starring Frankensteins.



We were also treated to two of my favorite recurring characters form this cast, Kristen Wiig's Penelope and Keenan Thompson's prisoner from Scared Straight.





Overall, I had a lot of fun with the episode, Weekend Update had me laughing pretty hard at this Sarah McLachlan bit that makes fun of those ridiculously sad dog commercials she does. If you've seen them, you know what I mean.



One thing I was a bit surprised by was how much Andy Samberg was in this episode. It seemed like he had taken a bit of a back seat lately, but he was in nearly every skit it seemed like, which is always good.

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Oh, DO go on.

SNL Phone Commerical

No, it's not a parody, it's an actual commercial for the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G phone. I'm sure you're all as sick of this freaking song as I am, but it's still cool to see Chevy Chase, Molly Shannon, Dana Carvey and Darrell Hammond "together."

I doubt it will ever happen, but how cool would it be to get a season of SNL All-Stars? Keep a smaller regular crew and send an open invitation to all the cast members and writers (or the ones still in good standing with Lorne Michaels) and maybe see who can show up for a week or better yet a full season. I'm sure there are all kinds of problems I'm not thinking of that this would cause, but as a gigantic SNL fan, I would love it and I bet it would be a pretty huge ratings-getter.

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Season Premiere: Saturday Night Live

I had completely forgotten that tonight was the season premiere of SNL (it's 35th year!), with Megan Fox hosting and U2 as the musical guest, but luckily the Notre Dame game ended just in time (and even more luckily, they won), so the timing just worked out. I was impressed to see a fairly healthy roster of up and comers in the opening credits. The opening monologue was pretty good (we missed most of the pre-intro skit, but I saw Conan do pretty much the same joke earlier this week on The Tonight Show, so no big loss. All in all the episode was okay, not Justin Timberlake-good by any means, but there were more skits with laughs than stinkers, I especially liked the phone sex commercial one. That was a lot of fun and damn if Fox wasn't both good and bewitching. Her eyes are like dude tractor beams, I'm convinced.

Also fun was seeing one of those newbie cast members drop the f-bomb during the Bicker Chick Chat segment (or whatever it was called). It made an otherwise dull skit at least interesting to listen to. The whole "friggin'" thing got real old, real quick. And speaking of old, I hate U2. I know I'm one of the few people in the world that doesn't get Bono's inflated self importance or why such simple music has made so many people happy for so many years, but their performances were just rough, especially at the end, when Bono was swinging around on a weird, circular light-up mic/trapeze rope. Hey, I thought Pink's performance at the VMAs was rad too, but you don't see me putting on a shiny suit and swinging around my living room (mostly because I haven't filmed it yet, I'm still nailing down the routine).

So, it wasn't a perfect episode by any means, but worth not watching a movie during that time slot (I've got Steel Dawn and Lake Placid burning holes on my TV stand). Oh, also, the first Digital Short was pretty lame, while the second was good. So, if you're watching them on Hulu tomorrow/today, you can skip that one.

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Oh, DO go on.

Season Premieres: SNL Update, Parks & Recreation, The Office & Community

Well, I have to say that NBC certainly brought it as the kids say today with their four big comedy season premiers. The Saturday Night Live Weekend Update on Thursday thing was fun even though I don't pay much attention to the news so I was a little lost on some things. I did happen to listen to Madonna's weird MTV Video Awards eulogy for Michael Jackson and am glad someone called her on it.

Moving right along, Park & Recreation was the surprise of the night for me. I was ROLLING. And anyone who's a regular reader of the blog knows that I've definitely had my problems with that show. But this episode with Leslie becoming a minor gay icon in her small Indiana town. Maybe I'm just more used to the characters or maybe the writers finally are, but everything seemed a lot funnier and on point as opposed to the stumbles and fumbles that plagued this mid-season replacement last season. If you fell off the P&R wagon last year, I recommend hitting the bottle again.

The Office, one of my favorite shows, also didn't disappoint. I like how Michael handled things with crazier and crazier lies. Who wouldn't watch a spin-off about Kevin and the man driving him from the inside? I sure would. There's not much else to say, but it feels like this show is still going strong and I think Jim and Pam might be my favorite TV couple.

And finally, my most anticipated show of the season, Community starring The Soup's Joel McHale and Chevy Chase was pretty rad too. I really appreciated that they didn't start the show on day one, but actually half a week in. That would have felt boring, which would not have served the comedy or story very well. Sure, we're not given all the details right away, but we get the important stuff and everything else will just come along. It's weird seeing Joel act because he seems so normal and actual on The Soup and Chase killed it. The entire cast really seemed to gel and I can't wait to see where the show goes.

Like I said, it was a great night for comedy. I will miss My Name Is Earl and even Kath & Kim, but this line-up will do until 30 Rock comes back to rock my face off as per usual.

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Funny Guys In Music Videos

There's a strong tradition of funnymen appearing in music vidoes and I just saw a pretty great one from Colbie Caillat (she's like a female Jack Johnson (ie chill), but super cute) and fairly new SNL cast member Bobby Moynihan as kind of a d-bag guy (he has a Louis Viton surfboard). Here's their date:

Colbie Caillat - Fallin' For You
Uploaded by UniversalMusicGroup. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

I especially like this video because I know a guy who knows Bobby, so it almost feels like a local boy done good situation even though I've never met him.

Anyway, here's a few more comedians in music videos that I dig. Next up, Jack McBrayer in Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body." It's like the diva version of Colbie's video:

Mariah Carey - Touch My Body
Uploaded by UniversalMusicGroup. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

And here's a classic I remember from when I was a kid. I had to do a search for Robin Williams music video and slapped myself in the forehead when teh restults came back with "Don't Worry Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin:

Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy
Uploaded by jpdc11. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Finally, here's Chevy Chase in Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al"

Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
Uploaded by manon42. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Oh, DO go on.

Season Finales: SNL

I'm still going to stand by my claims last week that Justin Timberlake's episode was the best of the season, but Will Ferrell's season finale was pretty rad too (plus, I love Green Day). I really like the amount of skits that involved most/all of the cast in one way or another, plus there were an amazing amount of random guest stars (like Amy Poehler coming back for update), though you don't get a good sense of that from these clips. I realize half way through the episode that there's a difference between your average host and a returning cast member hosting. Sure some of the celeb hosts who host a bunch have a character or two I like to see again, but with a returning cast member, you're never quite sure what favorite characters you'll see come back. Well, here's the Hulu clips. I do wish there were a few more, as I fell asleep before the last skit and completely missed it, but you work with what you have.

Another good monologue, but what's with the scarf?


How can you not like the Celebrity Jeopardy skits? Especially with Tom Hanks as himself and another very special guest I talked about last week.


This was a pretty weird skit about a funeral, but it got almost everyone involved.


I don't know anything about the Lawrence Welk Show, but this got some laughs.


Of all of Will Ferrell's characters, Harry Carry is the last one I expected to see again.


Oh, DO go on.

Best SNL Ever (At Least This Season)

Guys, I've missed well over half of this season of SNL, but last weekend, Justin Timberlake hosted for the third time and it was glorious. I've never been disappointed with a JT episode or cameo and this one may have been the best yet. Ben's the only person I've talked to about the episode, so I'm guessing most of you missed it to. Being the humanitarian I am, I've decided to embed as many SNL clips as I could find on Hulu (minus a few here and there, like the musical guest), so here goes.

Even the monologue was fun, with JT singing and dancing his way through the studio.


I don't usually enjoy the Target Lady skits, but JT in drag made this one a winner.


This might be the best "Come on down to BLANK-ville" mascot face off skit yet. Plus, boob jokes!


JT pokes fun at himself in an Immigrant Tale.


The hilarious sequel to JT and Andy Samberg's "Dick In A Box" digital short. "Motherlover" rocks.


If your mom is like mine and has called Aerosmith Aerostar and Meatloaf Meatball, then you'll laugh your ass off at the Mom Celebrity Translator like I did.


And finally (because I didn't find the Barry Gibb Talk Show all the entertaining, though big props for getting Jimmy Fallon to come back as a guest and not ALL of the skits have been posted) two Weekend Update exceprts. One is about Trekkies starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy and the other pokes fun at the current and former Governors of NY (and New Jersey).




Oh, DO go on.