Originally Released: 2/20/2006
Ah, love. It makes for such lovely creations all around the world. And it makes stupid crooks–even stupider.
Some movies your remember because of where and when you first saw it. That has been my experience with “The Nude Bomb.” When I saw it, I had never even seen the TV series “Get Smart” which this was based upon. I grew up in a period where it just wasn’t being shown in my area.
See, kids, back in the day, you couldn’t see everything at anytime. That’s just how it was.
So my introduction to Maxwell Smart was Don Knotts sitting in an airplane among a number of tough guys with a ringing sound going out. An awkward Agent Smart takes off his shoe and starts speaking into it.
See, kids, back then, mobile phones were science fiction. Only available to super spys and Dick Tracy.
I saw the film in a budget theater locally and actually became interested in the film while waiting for a film playing in the theater next door. See, it had started already and I heard just this ringing very quietly and some snickers from the audience.
I was fascinated. I loved James Bond already by that time. I loved “The Spy Who Loved Me,” which remains my favorite Bond film, so this seemed perfect to me. I loved the Cone of Silence. I loved the corny jokes.
Because I hadn’t seen the original series, I didn’t miss Felton and Platt in their costarring roles. I didn’t realize that a “Nude Bomb” was well outside the usual story telling of the show. (In fact, the writers of the movie that came from the TV show, hated the idea. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, who co-created the program, were never so much as consulted on the film.)
But here’s the thing: the movie doesn’t live up to my memories of the film. Certainly better than the remake with Steve Carrell and better than the made-for-TV reunion movies, and frankly, better than most of the series, it just isn’t the greatest secret agent comedy of all time.
Austin Powers kind of has that one lined up.
One big plus is a 10 minute sequence showing off the 1980 Universal Studio tour. This was just about time they decided to pivot this into a theme park operation, so it is a great time capsule to see what the tour at that time. And you get to see Jaws…not the one James Bond fights, though.
Not worthy of all the hate and terrible box office upon initial release, it is worth a glance and have a little fun. Just don’t expect the film to be life changing. After all, it was nominated for a Razzie the first year of its existence.
LAMB OF GODÂ has collaborated with Nightflyer Roastworks to create their first small batch single origin coffee, ‘Memento Mori’, grown in El Salvador and roasted in Charlotte, NC.Â
We know no one uses mail anymore, but here in the mailbag we put a selection of Instagram posts, Facebook posts and Twitter posts that we’ve been tagged in.
Here’s this week’s selection:
CLICK IN FOR MORE!
Originally Released: 8/14/12
Get involved with the Honor Flight. Suzette tells us about WWII vets flying to Washington, DC to see the WWII memorial. Video taken June 2 at Bayshore Town Center in Glendale, WI.
I have a column about Universal and I actually debated if I should cover this. Well, I think I have to. NBC/Universal’s streaming service, Peacock, is now open for business.
Did you know? I think they made it pretty evident on YouTube with ads displacing the political ads for a week, but otherwise, I think this has been kind of quiet. The service has been open to some cable company customers for a while now, but upon launch, Peacock is not yet available on Roku or Amazon Fire streaming platforms.
But, on the positive side, it is free. Mostly.
Universal decided to go the ad route. They have paid options, to be sure, but for the most part, it is a free service best I can see with ads. The ads aren’t too bad yet, but YouTube wasn’t bad at first, either. So hold on with that judgment.
Actually, hold on is the best advice in general. We don’t know what they are going to do with the Olympics yet. I’m sure that will be at least partially behind the paywall options. Will they show the Olympics live as well as the tape delayed packages we are used to?
How about movies? Will something like Trolls World Tour premiere on here from time to time? Or am I right at looking this over and seeing it primarily as a TV service?
I mean, their big event promotion hasn’t even happened yet, when they get The Office to return to their shores. They paid a pretty penny to wrestle it back from Netflix, so the impact of that one show could turn a big tide.
They are pushing Brave, New World as their big Sci Fi offering, which hits me as an odd choice. I mean, this is the home of Universal monsters. I am surprised a Horror Hosted Universal Monsters “channel” or choice is available to match their impressive deep dive on the classic horror movies.
We will need to wait and see, but if you are interested NOW, check it out at Peacock. Heck, it can’t be worse than that HBO thingy they flopped around in the boat the last couple of weeks.
Originally Released: 3/6/2006
JD Dhein wraps up his discussion of Auto Accident scams in this informative program.
We know no one uses mail anymore, but here in the mailbag we put a selection of Instagram posts, Facebook posts and Twitter posts that we’ve been tagged in.
Here’s this week’s selection:
CLICK IN FOR MORE!
Originally Released: 2/27/2006
Police officer JD Dhein tells us about the Swoop & Squat staged auto accident. It’s important to be able to tell the signature of this type of fraud so you are not a victim of this scam.
So, Kevin Costner made a movie back in the 90s. It was a surefire hit. The story line was a direct rip off of The Road Warrior, but instead of a desert it happened in the water. What could go wrong with Waterworld?
The movie became one of the bigger box office disasters of the century. It became a punchline like Ishtar or Howard the Duck. The facts are it isn’t a terrible movie and frankly, it made money if compared to the budget (however, marketing costs are another story)…in fact, it made more money than Ishtar and Howard the Duck combined.
Part of the marketing efforts for Waterworld was a tie-in to the developing Universal Studios property in Los Angeles. Universal had given tours for a long time, but by the 90’s they started eyeing Walt Disney’s successful (and relatively recession proof) theme park assets. It was time to get in the theme park business.
Since Waterworld seemed like an intellectual property that was as can’t miss as possible. Costner was hot from The Untouchables and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and as stated before it was a carbon copy of one of the most successful films of the 80s. It even had Dennis Hopper as a sarcastic bad guy.
So the cross promotion they chose was a stunt show, often a standard in upper level theme parks, based on the property. Previously, they had a Miami Vice stunt show but no one knew that property anymore by the middle of the 90’s.
So they retooled it to the theme of Waterworld where Kevin Costner’s Mariner character is pitted against the Deacon and his legion of “Smokers.” Basically, it is an excuse to blow stuff up real good and whip around on jet skis.
To tell you how good this show is, keep in mind, it replaced the Miami Vice show which had an old forgotten IP from the 80s. Waterworld was released in 1995 and mostly forgotten by 1996…and yet it is still running. It wouldn’t be still going if the show wasn’t just rock solid.
There are great stunts with fire, explosions, choreographed fights, and one gigantic stunt that stuns the audience on its scale EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
I think what really helps is that while most of the soundtrack is recorded and timed to the nanosecond, the main actors…especially Deacon…are miked and allowed to go with the flow of the audience and even improv. In this way, if they have a sleepy little audience, he can hype them up. If he has a wild audience, he can go with that flow. Prior to the festivities, a few of the Smokers also have fun heckling passers-by and on hot days, may even give them a squirt to remind them it is a water show afterall.
Once you see the show, you’ll never forget it. Check it out soon….Waterworld is worth taking in. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
To see a fairly decent filming of the show, check this YouTube video: