Tag: based on a movie

Trisha’s Take: “Not the Messiah” review

Trisha Lynn

Not the Messiah: He’s a Very Naughty Boy

Directed by Aubrey Powell
Written by Eric Idle, John Du Prez
Starring William Ferguson, Rosalind Plowright, Shannon Mercer, Christopher Purves, Eric Idle and featuring the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Special Guests (in order of first appearance): Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Neil Innes

When I first heard that they were going to be turning Monty Python and the Holy Grail into a Broadway musical, my immediate reaction was to scoff and wonder which idiot it was who thought it up. Imagine my chagrin when I learned that the “idiot” was original Monty Python cast member Eric Idle, he who was responsible for writing and performing many of their more popular songs, including “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” and (my favorite)“Penis Song (Not the Noel Coward Song).”

I never got to see Spamalot in its original run, but considering that it was nominated for 14 Tony Awards, won the Best Musical Award in 2005, and got some very good reviews, you can imagine why I didn’t hesitate to press play when I learned that the performance of an oratorio written by Idle and John Du Prez, his Spamalot collaborator, was streaming on Netflix.

Based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian and called “Not the Messiah: He’s a Very Naughty Boy,” this particular production was filmed at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the creation of the TV series. For those of you who aren’t British or Anglophiles but are Doctor Who fans, you’ll know this place as the one where they held a two different concerts featuring music from the series and featured an original video in 2008 starring 10th Doctor David Tennant and hosted by Matt Smith (the 11th Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), and Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams) in 2010. Continue reading “Trisha’s Take: “Not the Messiah” review” →

Trisha’s Take: Footloose review

Trisha Lynn

Footloose

Directed by Craig Brewer
 Starring Kenny Womald, Julianne Hough, Dennis Quaid, Miles Teller
 Rating: Not Available at time of Review

When I first heard almost two years ago that Paramount Pictures was going to produce a remake of the cult Kevin Bacon dance movie Footloose, that it wouldn’t have elaborate dance sequences, and that it would be an “edgier drama” than the original or the musical based off of it, I said that they were off their rocker:

Remember a little movie musical called West Side Story? You know, that one that’s based off of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and won 10 Academy Awards, including the one for Best Picture?

Well, that movie had racial discrimination, gang violence, death by knife, and a near-rape scene and yet also features some of the most elaborate and most demanding choreography ever seen on film, thanks to director Jerome Robbins and his cast of mostly Broadway veterans.

At the same time, however, I like to keep in mind that while yes, there really are very few original plots out there—and way too many tropes—as Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin recently put it, a good movie is all in how it’s executed.

By the by, there will be plenty of spoilers for the plot of the original Footloose movie in this review; it’s been 27 years since it came out, for crying out loud. However, I will try like hell not to spoil exactly how the remake does things because I want you to be as pleasantly surprised as I was when I saw it. Continue reading “Trisha’s Take: Footloose review” →

New edition of Munchkin to hear the lamentations of your women

Trisha Lynn2 Comments

On Saturday, Steve Jackson himself went onto the stage at Comicpalooza, a comics convention in Houston, Texas, to announce that their wildly popular card game was getting a new booster set that’s themed to Conan the Barbarian. Drawn by original Munchkin artist John Kovalic, there will be 15 cards in the set from Steve Jackson Games including items such as the Mask of Acheron and characters such as Khalar Zym and Marique.

Munchkin Conan joins a group of booster card sets that already includes such wildly diverse themes such as Fairy Dust, Santa’s Revenge, and Marked for Death; however, this will be the first time that a game booster set has been themed to a specific property that isn’t in the public domain.

Priced at $5.95 per set and currently still in production, this seems like a no-brainer when it comes to adding to your collection. Pulling out an artifact that brings things back to life? Sounds like a perfectly Munchkinly thing to do. And if you end up being able to play Munchkin Conan while in line for the movie on August 19? Even better.