A Prairie Home Companion (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)I wish I'd said this: A Prairie Home Companion is a lovely film about death, and with some great bad jokes. Death and how we deal with it drifts through the film like a dream, but it turns out to be real. Word has gotten around that the 30-year-old radio program is giving its last show. The theater where it has been broadcast from all these years has been sold and will be turned into a parking lot. A woman in a white trench coat moves dream-like through the place, searching for a person whose time has come, and then finds him. And then she finds another. Memories of past successes are talked about, but sometimes not. Reminiscences are wept over or laughed over. The backstage emergencies happen and are dealt with and the radio show goes on. It's just a marvelous movie. People who dislike the actual A Prairie Home Companion will probably not like this movie. Those who do like the radio show I'm sure are going to run out and buy the DVD of the movie as soon as it's available.
Garrison Keillor is not center stage so much as he's the imperturbable head guy who isn't always there, even when he's there. Most of the regular members of the radio show are present, as well as some new names. Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep are incredibly authentic and incredibly funny/poignant as the two remaining members, Rhonda and Yolanda Johnson, of a country-music family singing group. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly are great as the dim cowboys, Lefty and Dusty. Their bad-jokes song is one of the highlights. Guy Noir looking like Kevin Kline tries to keep a lid on the crises. Streep and Tomlin (and Harrelson and Reilly) sing their own stuff and they are first class. Tomlin, in particular, gives a terrific performance as Rhonda, tough, funny, a little bitter and a trooper.
After 105 minutes you may find death not too frightening, may find a kind of comforting acceptance of life, and may find funny some awful jokes...like the name of the country song Lefty sang on last week's show, "I'll Give You My Moonshine If You Show Me Your Jugs." Or a great new wheezer, "Did you hear about the crate of Viagra that was stolen?" "No! Who took it?" "The cops don't know but they're looking for hardened criminals."
I also wish I'd said this, from the New York Times: A Prairie Home Companion isn't great, it's wonderful.

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A LOOK AT WHAT GOES ON BACKSTAGE DURING THE LAS BROADCAST OF AMERICA'S MOST CELEBRATED RADIO SHOW, WHERE SINGING COWBOYS DUSTY & LEFTY, A COUNTRY MUSIC SIREN & A HOST OF OTHERS HOLD COURT.

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Masters of Horror: Deer Woman (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have always loved John Landis. His contributions to the horror genre have been minimal, but just from those few films(American Werewolf specifically, though Innocent Blood was very cool and very underrated), Landis definitely earns the "Master Of Horror" title. Hell, he's pretty much a household name for horror fans based on the strength of Werewolf alone. It makes you wish he had made more horror films. Well, the Masters Of Horror series wisely chose him for one of their episodes, and we finally get another Landis horror offering. While most of the series' episodes tone down humor and go for the throat, Landis lightens things up a bit, and who could expect anything else from him? As for story, it's another human/beast theme, but this time digging into Native American mythology for it's monster. This is an odd, yet very cool concept. Basically it's a ghostlike woman from Native American folklore that's drop dead gorgeous, half deer, seductive and deadly. This mythical figure is put into the modern and logical thinking world where, realistically, her killings are investigated by police and forensic science. Landis has comedy is his veins, so the film is full of clever quips and oddball characters. It also manages some moments of suspense and has a bit of graphic gore thrown in to remind us that this is indeed a horror series. The featurettes are a real treat. Landis has always been an entertaining interviewee. Very energetic, funny, truthful and not afraid to swear. He seems like a helluva fun guy to hang out with. He's serious about what he does, yet never takes himself too seriously. His philosophy on horror and comedy and the mixing of the two is dead on. He truly knows how to make a ridiculous concept(he admits himself that the Deer Woman thing is downright silly) work by being serious when it's called for and schlocking it up when necessary. He also makes a very valid point about how supernatural themes don't always need an explanation for why they're happening-that when dealing with fantastic ideas, there isn't a need to do so much explaining(I wish Hollywood directors would take note of that). This applies in Deer Woman, coz she just is what she is, and never once do we figure out why she kills guys. And anyway, who cares why? We may never see another full length horror film from Landis, but this short film is a real treat for those of us who want a little taste again of what it was like the first time you saw American Werewolf and became a John Landis fan. Great stuff.

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Detective Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben) is a burntout cop demoted to the ‘weird calls’ desk until a series of bizarre murders suddenly grabs his attention: Several men killed by massive blunt force trauma while in a state of sexual arousal, all last seen in the company of a sexy Native American woman (Cinthia Moura). But when it’s discovered that these corpses were trampled into hamburger by what appear to be hooves, Faraday must hunt a killer who may not be totally human.Will one cynical cop be caught like a deer in the headlights or has a horrifying seductress risen from legend to slaughter the horny?Anthony Griffith co-stars in this erotic horror comedy co-written and directed by John Landis (ANIMAL HOUSE,THE BLUES BROTHERS) and featuring grisly gore effects by Gregory Nicotero & Howard Berger (KILL BILL, LAND OF THE DEAD, CHRONICLES OF NARNIA).

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