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Reviews
Billy Boy (1954)
An absolute favorite
This is one of my favorite's as a child, and seeking it out became imperative in the past few years. I always remembered the tune, but never knew the words or the name. Just recently I've discovered what others have been searching for: The song that the farmer is whistling is "Kingdom's Coming (Year of Jubilo)" by Henry Clay Work in 1862.
I always thought that the character had a "yankee soldier" appearance in the other cartoons he appeared in, and that's the initial hint of the civil war era, but I suspect the censors of the time were much too young/ignorant of the history of the song to detect the true "emancipation" of the character. A wealth of stereotypes were used to design this character and elicit responses at the original release date. Only those viewers at an average of 40 yrs or older would have easily grasped the significance of the character, viewers under 20 would not have had the history to view the character other than flat, peculiar, and funny.
The gags are hilarious, the comic sarcasm thick, and the off-stage/on-stage comments are trademark Heck Allen. But the character and mannerisms of the farmer and his song give show much more depth of understanding the audience of the time, and shows that the writers were definitely trying to relate to a specific age group in that audience.
Gigli (2003)
What a waste!!!
My 13-year-old son's first question after leaving this movie was "Was this what you thought the movie was going to be about?"
I like uselessly placed profanity as much as the next Louis Black fan, but at least with Louis it's within a context, and doesn't seem forced. The rambling profanity of the characters makes them as lovable and understandable as the stereotypical homeless bag lady with the shopping cart, cursing at someone who doesn't exist as she walks down some back alley.
Perhaps a plot--or less than 9 simultaneous plots--might have helped. None of these stylish, overplayed, completely flat characters were convincing, and more often insulting to the characters they stole from. I truly believe, from the Baywatch references in the movie, that this was a Cliff's Notes primer on Money Train, Chasing Amy, and Rain-Man, for those that never saw the films, and don't waste time concerning themselves with content or depth.
I had the same feeling watching this movie as "The Browning Version", but not for the same reasons. The Browning Version is a wonderfully depressing movie--it starts out with the characters in a bad situation, then slowly draws you farther and farther down into devastation. You do this by participating with the characters. Gigli--well, you do this from the third party perspective. Either way--near the end, you're ready to end it all.
Just before the climactic ending of Gigli, my son asked me "do you keep looking for the bots on the front row?" I must admit, I had already thought of Manos twice. We went directly home and watched it--and within two minutes were already laughing at "imaginary elves" in the Chevy training film. It was the first time I'd heard him laugh, and realized it was the first time I'd laughed as well.
Doesn't that fact prove that Gigli is worse than Manos? Try it, Manos MST3k is an uplifting experience after Gigli.... Yikes!!! This means that Brest is now the master!!! Would HE approve? jeez... Affleck playing Michael, Rain-Man playing Torgo, Lopez playing both Margaret and Debbie at the same time! She can handle that--there's not a full character between them, and she's more than qualified to play less than a full character (Money Train)
That's it, use the same cast!! Remake Manos!!! Lousy stories, plenty of style, awkward sexual situations...eh...wait...that's Gigli.
I guess I'm just angry I didn't get my Chevy Salesman training short in front of Gigli.