So the short stories are kind of a mix, both autobiographical and fiction? I'll get the titles and check for them on my next bookstore trip, which hopefully will be soon. I bet I'd like the movie, as well.

What a great baseball story! haha I'm checking now on YouTube, and I think they actually have some clips of his radio stuff! I'm imagining Ralphie as I'm listening to it, too.

This is interesting, from Wikipedia:
I always love her reaction, and that it was natural makes it even funnier, I think!

Some of the stories blend together. As you remember, the reason that the family went to the restaurant on Christmas was because the dogs from next door ate their turkey. Those dogs belonged to Delbert Bumpus, a hillbilly who moved in next door to Shepherd with his entire extended family. They play a big part in the other movie.

The four books of his that I have and recommend are:

"In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash"
"Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters"
"The Ferrari in the Bedroom "
"A Fistful of Fig Newtons"

I'd concentrate on getting the first two, but all of them are wonderful.

I'm gonna check out YouTube now... thanks for the idea.

I just watched the whole movie by myself and I just realized I'm 45 minutes into it again. I didn't even notice it ended and restarted, I love it so much!

It's one of those movies that I've seen dozens of times and I still always notice something I never noticed before. Whether it's a funny line by one of the characters or just simple things like subtle facial expressions by the actors. Tonight the Dad is cracking me up more than normal. In the scene when he receives his "Major Award!", I had never focused on just his face the entire time. I had to rewind it a few times when he hands the lamp to his wife, climbs out of the crate and then looks at the lamp and says "Ohhhh WOW!". The look on his face is priceless! He plays the part of a Dad perfectly!

A Christmas Story is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's one of the few Christmas movies I wouldn't mind watching in the middle of summer, I enjoy it that much!

"There has never been a kid who didn't believe vaguely but insistently that he would be stricken blind before he reached 21, and then they'd be sorry."

"Soap poisoning!"

I wrote the titles down, thanks SC!

BL, I feel like you and I should have (virtual) movie nights together - you have such good taste!

Do your family members enjoy the movie, too? I am apparently the only one who really loves it. My dad enjoys it, and my mom appreciates it, but I drive my mom crazy when this marathon comes on. She keeps complaining about how I watch the same movies over and over, but she can't seem to understand it's because they're GOOD!

I know what you mean about all the details, like the expressions they have. Ralphie is probably my favorite for that - some of the looks he gives are just priceless. And his brother's adorable...I always love that laugh he does when Ralph's in the bunny outfit.

Has anyone seen TDTESS remake? If so, what did you think about it?

From the How thiings have changed file:

I'm watching an episode from 1964 of The Andy Griffith Show titled Andy's and Opie's Pal. It's about Opie making a new friend who comes over to spend the night at the Taylors. When the two boys are supposed to be in bed but making alot of noise, Andy breaks them up and tells Opie's friend to come into his room and sleep with him.

Can you imagine that today? The appearance of innocence if not the reality of it sure has changed.

I agree, Blibble. This is an all-time classic. My cousin is uncredited in the scene where a high school band is playing during the Santa parade while the Parker's are watching just before going to see Santa. That entire scene was filmed in downtown Cleveland at the Terminal Tower. It's also in the opening scene when the kids are all looking in the storefront windows. I never understood why they made the setting of the movie to be in Indiana.

About the scene with soap poisoning: my three year old boy looks very much like Ralphie when we put some sunglasses on him. Next year, our holiday cards are going to be a picture of my son dressed like Ralphie (hat, shades) with the phrase: "It...it was...soap poisoning!"

The scene that always gets me is when the Old Man is cursing about the car: "that son of a bitch would freeze up in the middle of summer on the equator!"

Other favorites:

"It's a klinker!"
"You can put your arms down when you get to school"
"He looks like a pink nightmare. He looks like a deranged Easter bunny."

Goombah,

Did You take a tour of Ralphie's house in Cleveland? I did a few years ago.

I'm also a big fan of A Christmas Story. I watch it after midnight on Christmas Eve, and it's usually on throughout the day when we're having dinner or opening presents.

Every year I find occasions to let loose with my best Darren McGavin, "Sons of Bitches! Bumpuses!"

I always get a kick out of the weird kid in front of Ralphie and Randy in the Santa line ("I like the tinman.").

Of course, Ralphie beating the tar out of Scott Fargas is as much a Christmas tradition as putting the star on top of the tree. That scene took place in my youth as the neighborhood bully got beaten up by the least likely kid on the block. All I remember was watching the barrage of punches coming from the meek kid while he was barking like a dog. Like Fargas, the bully went home with nothing more than a nosebleed, but it ended his days as a bully.

Not yet, but it is on my "to-do" list next year. I have heard it is very cool.

They have a Museum across the street which is nice. You buy the tickets for the house there.

I forget the city name they use but it's representing Hammond, Indiana. Which is close to where I live.

Yup, with McG as director.

Yes, that same McG who shot those CHARLIE'S ANGELS pictures.

I did, and review is coming up.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (2008) - **1/2

"...need not have taken its title so seriously that the plot stands still along with it." - Roger Ebert

Director Robert Wise's original THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL from 1951 was a rare gem for that time in that it actually had the audacity to tell a serious science fiction story, and likewise maturely accept the genre instead of mocking it. Wise's EARTH also had everything else you might ask for in a film, with terrific acting chemistry, smart scriptwriting with memorable scenes, a good solid story, and thought-provoking, then-topical political preaching against the pre-Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty world with the uncontrolled and wreckless proliferation of atomic bombs.

Either way, the 2008 remake keeps the basic premise but uses a whole new political angle which would compel a prophet of doom from the stars named Klaatu to come visit us. The advanced aliens are now prepping for an armed intervention to save the planet with its dying ecology, and if necessary, exterminate the humans that are trashing the place. Yet I think that whole framing is the fatal flaw of this entire endeavor. Now look, I care about the rain forest and polar bears and all that shit, I really do. But the problem is the same that afflicts every other Hollywood picture that tries to preach a pro-environmental sermon, which is that I have a hard time taking that crisis to heart like I would with a nuclear holocaust. I think environmentalists mean well, but they usuallyfight their noble cause by personalizing plants and animals, but guess what?

They aren't people. I truely think that they should try instead to highlight Earth's biology will evolve and adapt to whatever we do to our world, for in fact about 99% of all lifeforms that have ever existed on Earth are now extinct. The point is they will survive, but we won't. That's more effective ideological argumentation, and notice that the movement has in recent years used this sharp point regarding Global Warming or whatever. Good for them.

Not though for this EARTH "revisioning," a Hollywood term I despise for the original is arguably still more relevant and universal, what with war-front nations like North Korea, Pakistan, Israel, and India having gained nuclear weapons in recent decades either by ignoring or outright violate the nature of the 1968 NNPT Treaty. The West got Libya some years ago to disarm itself, so there's hope for our future on that front. Plus let's be honest: Why logically would aliens, even if they are highly advanced in technology and civilization, launch an armed intervention for an ecology? Shit the West at least wouldn't for sure.

To use a metaphor, this EARTH alreadys has its legs broken, and then ordered to run a marathon. Then it gets blindfolded with barbwire, and stumbles about for it's produced like a Roland Emmerich-esque big budget disaster movie. You know what I'm talking about: so-called scientists acting like morons, a thin story merely an excuse for tons and tons of CGI to detone the threat of the danger, the military (led by Kathy Bates doing her best Hillary Clinton impersonation) being evil warmongers who want to blow up everything (that would be Michael Bay) and all the usual stock footage used to show global panic and civil unrest over this new global peril. Yet amazingly enough, Emmerich wasn't the director.

The imposter is Scott Derrickson, who's previous movie was THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE which I didn't see because of my allergies to contemporary American horror cinema. But with the amount of intelligence and artistic grace (or lack thereof) displayed here, maybe I'm not missing out on much. Take that sequence borrowed from Wise's EARTH where the visitor is peacefully greeting and he gets shot out of a simple misunderstanding. Thing is, in the original you can understand that knee-jerk mistake, for Michael Rennie looks like he's reaching into his belt for a weapon (like unfortunately way too many civilians gunned down by cops because they only were getting cellphones from their jackets.) In the remake, it occurs when the visitor is only reaching out to Jennifer Connelly for a handshake.

Yes, a fucking handshake.

He did have a few nice clever ideas, like how the alien spaceship isn't the traditional mechanical vessel, but a primordial glob of goo. The alien astronaut travels by being mixed within this giant orb, and with a collected strain of human DNA, he mutates and is "reborn" as one of us. But fuck man, couldn't they belong in a good film? What's strange is how ole Gort retains his iconic industrial design, but it just contrasts strongly with the spaceship. Why couldn't those aliens simply have a giant blob as the ultimate weapon? I'm sure it could be just as effective, but yeah then it wouldn't be a remake, now would it?

Now I know Keanu Reeves is a punchline with many, but here and there I've defended. Yes he's famous for his limited emotional acting range, yet somehow he's gotten involved in quality productions worked to his advantage. From a dimwit in the BILL & TED series to being a surfer-cop (POINT BREAK) and a solid credible foil to insane baddie Dennis Hopper in SPEED. Don't forget THE MATRIX where ironically or intentionally that human savior acted more Vulcan and distant than his angry and pissy digital-enemy Hugo Weaving. Anyway his legendary blank stare is actually perfect for Derrickson's EARTH, an alien basically wearing a humanoid suit, and initially awkward in operating basic functions like drinking water.

But what I don't like is how his character is scripted. Rennie's Klaatu may come from an alien civilization more advanced technologically and culturally, but he's still fascinated by these primitive and barbaric humans. Take that scene when he's amazed by the humble-but-majestic words of Abraham Lincoln, and he beat Barack Obama by what, more than 50 years? Plus, Rennie had some good touching moments with that orphaned boy, like in Arlington. Seriously, they'll always deny it, but I'm dead certain that BBC was inspired by this smart friendly-but-forceful alien explorer for their DOCTOR WHO.

Anyway, Keanu's Klaatu though hears the classical music of Bach, and flatly says that it's beautiful. Dude, try be a fan of The Clash before I'm impressed. Otherwise, he doesn't seem curious about his hostile foreign environment and is convinced that Earth must be wiped clean as a plate. But guess what? He supposedly he changes his mind because Connelly and adopted son Jayden Smith finally bond together, that humanity can change for the better or whatever the fuck.

Supposedly. Obviously we the audience are supposed to take to heart this transformation for both them and Keanu, but the vibe I got from the crowd at the screening was that they never cared, and why should they? That whole storyline's climax just feels so underwhelming, and since Derrickson pinned on this drama for his EARTH, it's a crippled project with a messy message that does the best that it can to crawl its way to the finish line. Plus Will Smith's boy, his fault or the screenplay, just comes off as whiney and annoying.

I know it sounds like I hate EARTH, and I do but not because it's a bad movie. It's just so uninspired, empty, and even warrants the accusation of being pointless. It's your roommate who has a job across the street from your joint, but he's too lazy to go to work and gets fired. That feeling of fustration is what I got with this EARTH. I did like John Cleese playing the intellectual uses good logic to demolish Keanu's entire argument, which we don't get much of at the movies. Too bad he's only a glorified cameo. I even dug the James Hong appearance, though I guess it finally makes sense that David Lo Pan from BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA was an alien all along.

But memo to Hollywood, please never hire Connelly to play a scientist again. She seems like a nice woman and all, even a good actress at times, but the last two times that she's worn a thinking cap were in both EARTH and Ang Lee's HULK. I guess three times is the charm, but it's not worth finding out if that's true, even if it was for the PUNISHER franchise.

Angels&Demons to be released in May. The trailer doesn't show much, but looks intriguing.

does anybody know if Brian De Palma still going to do an prequel to the untouchables?

I have not heard anything.

Is anyone watchin the Grammy's. It's not on here yet and I don't really care to see it, BUT I did want to see Cold Play perform. If anyone has watched it can you give me an idea how far into the show before they perform?

Thanks

TIS

About a year or so ago I asked for and received your help trying to identify a movie from the 50s(?). Ya'll advised that it was The Sign of the Pagan with Jack Palance. Well, I watched it and it wasn't the one I was thinking of.

The one I am thinking of has a scene in it where the Roman soldiers are gathered on a hill with their white surfaced shields in front of them with their bottom edge on the ground. When the enemy attacks, they angle the shields to reflect the sun into the eyes of the attackers. If it's the same movie (about Attila the Hun), there's a scene where the Pope comes out to meet Attila and Attila rides in a circle around him.

Do these descriptions ring a bell with anyone?

would it be this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila_(1954_film)

It might be. A friend is going to buy the dvd for me. So, we'll see. Thanks.

When's Public Enemy coming out? Depp and Bale, shot some parts nearby at the Crown Point jail Dillenger busted out of...

There was a MFTV movie from the 80s about some guys who are having sex with a girl and she dies and they dump the body. One of them becomes a televangelist and ends up on trial for something. The supposedly dead girl though jumps up in the courtroom. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Olivant, I definitely know the movie. I think I even had the novel at one point, but can't remember the name of it. I just went to check my bookshelves to see if I still had it, but no.

SB, do you think that the new movie Last House on the Left(?) might be a remake?

The plot details on IMDB sound exactly like the original. I am not a big fan of the original - my main problem was unnecessary comic relief.

I am not familiar with the original OR the remake of Last House on the Left.

Olivant, I think I found the movie you were talking about before, though. It was a miniseries called "Celebrity" from a book by Tommy Thompson. Here's the IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086679/

Watching Rooster Cogburn on tv now. Great movie.

That's it. Thanks. I wish it came on again.