Back Off, Man. I'm A Scientist
Now Playing: BOTTLE ROCKET
I have a feeling I'm going to be tired tomorrow. I had a relatively active weekend. Stayed out with some folks from work until 1:30am Friday night. Saturday night I went out with some Cohens and Kaplans, again 'til about 1:30. This afternoon, I drove up to the flea market and picked up a baker's dozen of paperbacks for about a quarter each. Most of them are old mysteries--Perry Mason, Charlie Chan, Nero Wolfe, Shell Scott--but one looks absolutely hilarious. I have no idea what RABID is about, but the cover copy makes me want to find out.

The damnedest thing happened soon after I got home. I was sitting at the computer scanning a couple of book covers, when my chair snapped right in two. I was leaning to the right a bit, and I tumbled ass over teakettle on top of the bottom sliding drawer where I keep my scanner. It continued scanning because I hit the very end of the drawer and knocked the front of it off. So there I was, lying on my carpet among a broken chair, some broken wood, a little teeny bit of blood from a skinned elbow and a scratched chest, feeling like a complete dumbass. So I had to drive out to Sam's Club and pick up a new chair. I loved my old chair--it was a Christmas present from my folks 7 or 8 years ago and was very comfortable, even though too much eating and drinking in it had left a couple of stains on it. The new one, which was a pain in the ass to assemble, is, eh, okay, I guess. It sticks out too far in my lower back, but I hope I get used to it. Like my old one, it reclines and has a high back, which is nice.

I rented GHOSTBUSTERS from Netflix, the first time I had seen it in ages and the first time I'd seen it in its OAR since its 1984 release. I was 17 and had just graduated high school then, which is the best time to see GHOSTBUSTERS, I think. The generosity of writers Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis to give Bill Murray so much terrific dialogue resulted in a timeless comedy with ILM visual effects that seem quaint yet effective today (although one shot, of William Atherton looking up at the Stay-Puft man, is pretty bad). And considering it comes from the creative team behind R-rated classics like ANIMAL HOUSE, CADDYSHACK and STRIPES, it's remarkable how family-friendly GHOSTBUSTERS is, earning its PG rating and managing to interject a few scares into the comedy. Sigourney Weaver is terrifically sexy in it, and Rick Moranis as "the Keymaster" has some very funny moments; he had just come off of STRANGE BREW and STREETS OF FIRE and was quite in demand as a supporting actor.

And you certainly can't forget all the great dialogue from the film:
"Boy, the superintendent is gonna be pissed."
"It's true. This man has no dick."
"Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."
"We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!"

I finally got around to seeing BOTTLE ROCKET, and now that I've seen all four Wes Anderson movies, I must admit he's not a director I've particularly warmed up to. I think ROCKET is his second-best film, just behind THE LIFE AQUATIC and ahead of THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and RUSHMORE. BOTTLE ROCKET has a neat premise, but pretty much coasts on the chemistry between Owen and Luke Wilson, who unfortunately look too much alike to be believable as friends. It doesn't quite sustain its momentum through the second act at the motel, but when James Caan finally enters the picture, he delivers a nice jolt of energy that keep it moving 'til the end.

Along with the books I bought at the flea market, I picked up Goodtimes' pre-record VHS of GRADUATION DAY for $1. It's a slasher film I had been looking for for several years, and it really isn't worth the effort, now that I've seen it. However, it stars one of my favorite genre actors, rugged Christopher George, the cop from PIECES, and features a topless Linnea Quigley and a clothed Vanna White in a small role. After a high-school track star dies of a blood clot just after breasting the tape in a big meet, the rest of her team gets killed off in various creative and bloody ways just before graduation. Director Herb Freed assembles a handful of red herrings, including the girl's Navy ensign sister, her track coach (George), her boyfriend and the asshole principal (Michael Pataki). What's neat are the comedic moments performed by the veteran cast members, including some well-timed banter between Pataki and his secretary (HELLO, DOLLY!'s E.J. Peaker) and a late-in-the-game turn by Carmen Argenziano ("You look Lebanese.") as a cop. I don't know what's harder to believe: that pretty Peaker would be sleeping with Michael Pataki or that I would spend more time writing about GRADUATION DAY than about BOTTLE ROCKET.