Film: The Fantastic Four: First Steps

 

GENRE: Superhero Adventure
RATING: PG-13 for action violence and some language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 55 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Pedro Pascal (Last of Us; The Mandalorian, Materialists)
Vanessa Kirby (The Crown, M:I 6); Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things)
DIRECTOR: Matt Shakman (WandaVision, It’s Always Sunny…)
WRITERS: Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds, Foundation),
Eric Pearson (Thunderbolts, Thor: Ragnarok, Agent Carter),
Jeff Kaplan & Ian Springer (Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship)
PLOT: The Fantastic Four need to keep Galactus from eating Earth.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I haven’t watched any Fantastic Four movies.

STORY STUFF: My expectations were low but this wasn’t as bad I thought it would be. I liked the family stuff and the general plot was decent. The middle is filled with scientific exposition that was sleep-inducing but the final battle kept me interested. I get Invisible Woman turning invisible but I still don’t get her other pushing powers. Like Superman, we are spared a lot of origin story except for some television footage that is used well.  I wish there was more humour in this film. The best part is the final car scene before the end credits. While things were decent, I wasn’t wowed by this film at all. Hoping the distant Avengers films can amp it up.

ACTING STUFF: I like Pascal as the reluctant father-figure in previous television shows but he seems a little miscast here. For a scientist, his chemistry with Sue Storm is severely lacking. Quinn looks bland to me as Human Torch, I miss his long hair from Stranger Things. Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) is fine as The Thing but nothing to write home about. Kirby is the standout, it’s like she’s in a different movie.

ARTISTIC STUFF: Great production design. I enjoyed the sixties vibe. There were some Canada Dry ads that caught my eye. The CG stuff is hit and miss in this film. The mid-end credit scene is good. The final end credit scene is not worth the wait. I know everyone needs to get paid and acknowledged on a film, and payroll accountants are important but seeing “Petty Cash” and “Petty Cash Assistant” seems a little much.   

VERDICT: Two and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You have to see every Marvel film.
UPCOMING REVIEW: The Naked Gun

SNL50 - Behind the Scenes

 

There are only a couple more SNL lists. A friend of mine was curious how I put these lists together. He is nerdy like me and enjoys learning about the process. I thought you might be in this same boat. So, here’s how these lists came to pass.

Step One: The Idea
As I mentioned earlier, I am a huge fan of SNL and have been watching it since I was a teenager. It is appointment TV for me, I have to watch it on the Saturday night no matter when I get home. I have tried to get tickets for the show for the past 12 years but the lottery never works in my favour. I once stood in the standby line and was two people away from getting to see the show live in New York. Anyway, I wanted to share my love with SNL with others but I also like keeping track of what I watch. During Co-vid I released my favourite 20 episodes from multiple televisions series. It is what I do. Knowing that SNL would celebrate 50 years (and maybe end there – which it didn’t), I thought it would best to make these lists as a celebration of all thing Saturday Night Live.

Step Two: Get All the Episodes
SNL is coming up on one thousand episodes; that takes time to find them all. The weaker seasons were very difficult to locate. Luckily, some people had compiled full seasons for me to download as a group. I did lots of downloading. Don’t ask me what I used. Let’s just say I found every episode and my external hard drive was packed with SNL.

Step Three: Editing Down
Downloading was nothing compared to the time it took to edit down episodes. First off, not all of them were compatible with Adobe Premiere so I would need to first convert them to the right format. Then, I would put each episode into Premiere and pull out all the things that made me laugh. While doing so, I would categorize them like “Cold Open”, “Monologue”, “DS” for Digital Shorts or “Comm” for commercials and keep track of the season and episode number. Weekend Updates were separated so I could go through them later. Some SNL episodes, I only took out the Weekend Update because nothing made me laugh – those were brutal to watch. I also used an online SNL archive but I’ll talk about that later.

Step Four: Master List
Because I am a geek when it comes to this, I also kept an Excel spreadsheet with each season and episode broken down. I also made one that tallied the numbers so I would know which season had the best musical guests or commercial parodies.

Step Five: Narrowing Down Categories
I’ll use Cold Opens as an example for now. Next, I took all the Cold Opens from every season and put them into a separate folder. Since I don’t remember things from five years ago, I re-watched every Cold Open I edited out of the episodes and divided them into three folders. One folder was for definite favourites, one was really funny and third was not as funny. I also sometimes had a fourth folder for what was I thinking. Looking at the numbers in the first two folders, I would determine how long a list I would make. There were 83 monologues that were narrowed down to 20. There were 17 more that were in contention. I started this whole process a year ago. I also realized that I would have to do multiple categories when it came to the sketches.

Step Six: Weekend Updates
This past March, I started going through the Weekend Updates. I pulled out segments, characters and compiled my favourite jokes from each season. Unfortunately, I can’t share the best jokes from the various anchors because I would have to house them somewhere and then someone would get litigious and I’m just not in the mood for that. Anyway, this Weekend Update process was time consuming and I only finished it in early July a couple weeks ago.

Step Seven: Finding Links
Now with the lists completed, the next step was to find online links. It’s not enough to describe a sketch, you want to see them. Again, while I have all the videos on my computer, I can’t share them due to copyright issues and other legal stuff. It would also be a very full cloud. It was shocking to see that famous sketches like More Cowbell was not available on YouTube. I do have a VPN so I was able to find some American links. As I also mentioned just recently, I realized that YouTube was not the only game in town. There are full sketches on Reddit and Facebook and Vimeo and TikTok. I was relieved that I could now share some of my favourites with those who read the blog.

Step Eight: Capturing Images
While blogging about the sketches, I would watch the video online or on my VLC player. Then I would pause, PrintScreen and then edit it to the right size in Photoshop. This is a way to break up all the writing.

Step Nine: Blogging
I thought it would helpful to add things like airdates, hosts, musical guests and other information that geeky people like me would like to see. It was awesome to have the site snlarchives.net at my disposal. They have loads of information including sketch titles, airdates and how many times a character has appeared on Weekend Update. Not sure if I could have done all these blogs without this website. Thanks SNL Archives.

Step Ten: Posting
The order of the posts is kind of in tune with the average SNL episode. It starts with Cold Open, then Monologue, then Commercial Parody and so forth. Hence, things like Please Don’t Destroy being near the end as they sometimes get cut for time. After looking at my blog on my phone recently, I realized that the spacing is all weird. I narrowed the margins so that it would look better on a phone as I assume most people look at my stuff this way as opposed to a desktop computer. I may be wrong, but that’s just the way I did it. Sorry, if the spacing looks dumb.

I think that’s about it. If you have any questions about the process, feel free to comment or message me. There are two more lists to go: Best Hosts and Best Episodes. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Film: Happy Gilmore 2

GENRE: Comedy
RATING: PG-13 for language, crude material and partial nudity
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 54 minutes
PLATFORM: Netflix
STARRING: Adam Sandler (Big Daddy, Uncut Gems, Grown Ups, SNL)
Christopher McDonald (Quiz Show, Hacks); Bad Bunny (newcomer)
DIRECTOR: Kyle Newacheck (Murder Mystery; Workaholics)
WRITERS: Tim Herlihy & Sandler (Waterboy, Big Daddy, Hubie Halloween)
PLOT: Happy needs money in order to help his daughter live her dream.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Happy Gilmore is one my favourite Sandler films.

STORY STUFF: I was impressed with most of the storyline. They found a good way to tear Happy down so he could rise to the occasion again. The family angle is always a great way to go. The humour is still there as I laughed out loud plenty of times. His four boys are hysterical and stole the film. I enjoyed the references to the original and all the people who came back for another round while also recognizing those we’ve lost.  I thought the Maxi Golf stuff went a bit too far though and made it cartoonish when it didn’t need to be. I also felt that they didn’t quite know what to do with Shooter McGavin this time around, same goes for Ben Stiller. But overall, it was a fun time and made the wait worth it.

ACTING STUFF: Sandler plays Happy with all the gusto you expect but also gets emotional moments with his family. Love all the cameos of returning characters, musicians, sports people and famous golfers (I even knew a couple of them). I love Please Don’t Destroy, so it was fun to see Martin Herlihy playing with his dad’s friend. I thought it was sweet that Sandler’s daughters were involved and even one of them played his daughter. But as I said before, the four sons are fantastic as they fly off the handle so easily but support their dad so lovingly. I’m glad that I didn’t recognize them from anything and I could just enjoy their antics with zero previous baggage.

ARTISTIC STUFF: You could tell that some big money was spent on some epic needle drops. For a comedy, there is usually not that much to say. I liked the running gag of liquor being hidden in a large variety of items – must have been fun to make all those things.   

VERDICT: Four stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You enjoyed Happy Gilmore as this is a fitting sequel.   
UPCOMING REVIEW: The Fantastic Four   

SNL50 - Top 50 Recurring Characters - Part Two

 

Here is the cream of the crop when it comes to recurring characters and bits. Trying to narrow things down to 50 was incredibly difficult. I just didn’t have room for things like The Wild and Crazy Guys, Hans and Franz, Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer and the Merryville Trolley Ride. If your favourites are missing, you can certainly make your own list, but also feel free to let me know my glaring omissions. Here is my top 25.

25. THE FALCONER
EPISODE: S28E05 (11.09.2002)
APPEARANCES: 9
Lots of puppetry work with Donald the Falcon.
LINK: Click here

24. TOMMY FLANAGAN
EPISODE: S11E02 (11.16.1985)
APPEARANCES: 19
Jon Lovitz became an SNL star because of his pathological liar. “Yeah, that’s the ticket.”
LINK: Click here (45 seconds in)

23. SUEL FORRESTER
EPISODE: S21E15 (03.16.1996)
APPEARANCES: 8
I know I sometimes mumble but nothing like Kattan’s hard to understand character. I like the writing on the chalkboard and the students’ confused faces.
LINK: Click here

22. SPACE, THE INFINITE FRONTIER
EPISODE: S22E20 (05.17.1997)
APPEARANCES: 3
Ferrell is truly bizarre as Harry Caray with questions that are just as strange. Jeff Goldblum does not know how to answer.
LINK: Click here

21. SHALLON
EPISODE: S39E04 (10.26.2013)
APPEARANCES: 3
I love the confidence of Nasim Pedrad’s Shallon character and how she gets her fellow students on her side. “Get in that van!”
LINK: Click here

20. PORN STARS
EPISODE: S38E16 (03.09.2013)
APPEARANCES: 9
Vanessa Bayer and Strong are hilarious as former porn stars trying to sell expensive things. They mispronounce constantly and often revert back to their old ways. Such amazing characterizations.
LINK: Click here

19. BABY BOSS
EPISODE: S39E07 (11.23.2013)
APPEARANCES: 4
Beck Bennet goes all out as a genius in a baby’s body. Seems similar to Ferrell as a cat. Love the physicality; he obviously studied babies.
LINK: Click here

18. BOSTON TEENS
EPISODE: S25E13 (02.19.2000)
APPEARANCES: 14
Fallon’s Sully and Rachel Dratch’s Zazu are always a fun hang with the Boston accents. Throw in some Ben Affleck for good measure.
LINK: Click here

17. KAITLIN & RICK
EPISODE: S29E18 (05.01.2004)
APPEARANCES: 7
Poehler is a bundle of energy as Kaitlin, it is funny yet exhausting to watch.
LINK: Click here

16. PENELOPE
EPISODE: S36E07 (11.20.2010)
APPEARANCES: 7
Nothing like the one-upmanship of Wiig’s Penelope.
LINK: Click here

15. DAVID S PUMPKINS
EPISODE: S42E04 (10.22.2016)
APPEARANCES: 2
Who would have thought this Hanks character would be such a hit? The beat-boy skeletons and David S Pumpkins are their own thing. Any questions?
LINK: Click here

14. CHAD
EPISODE: S46E18 (05.08.2021)
APPEARANCES: 11
I love the line delivery of Pete Davidson’s Chad. He’s so calm, quick, honest and juvenile.
LINK: Click here

13. CONSUMER PROBE
EPISODE: S03E04 (10.29.1977)
APPEARANCES: 3
Dan Aykroyd is so slimy as Irwin Mainway but he has an explanation for everything like the dangerous Invisible Pedestrian costume.
LINK: Click here

12. THE CHRIS FARLEY SHOW
EPISODE: S18E13 (02.13.1993)
APPEARANCES: 3
You can’t help but root for Farley who is so nervous interviewing his famous guests. Endearing.
LINK: Click here

11. DEBBIE DOWNER
EPISODE: S29E18 (05.01.2004)
APPEARANCES: 8
The breaking in this sketch is legendary. It is impressive that they even got to the end of it. Awesome use off sound effects. Watching Horatio Sanz dab his tear-filled eyes with waffles is a treat.
LINK: Click here

10. HERB WELCH
EPISODE: S37E06 (11.12.2011)
APPEARANCES: 6
Another great Hader creation as a disgruntled reporter who keeps hitting interviewees with his microphone. Love the stuff he says under his breath.
LINK: Click here

9. BUH-WEET  
EPISODE: S07E02 (10.10.1981)
APPEARANCES: 12
Eddie Murphy rocks the speech impediment as Buckwheat from Little Rascals. A classic. The character got so popular, he had Buh-Weet assassinated in a later season.
LINK: Click here

8. WAYNE’S WORLD
EPISODE: S16E19 (05.11.1991)
APPEARANCES: 20
Aerosmith’s appearance is probably the most popular Wayne’s World, but I like the old school top tens they would do. Oh, and there's Madonna. Schwing!
LINK: Click here

7. SCIENCE ROOM
EPISODE: S45E11 (01.25.2020)
APPEARANCES: 4
Mikey Day’s Josh and Strong’s Lonnie steal the show with their utter cluelessness around science. I have had some students who gave answers like this. This sketch bring tears to my eyes from laughing.
LINK: Click here

6. HYPER HYPO
EPISODE: S19E07 (11.20.1993)
APPEARANCES: 2
Myers plays a great hyperactive child named Philip. He needs a harness for good reason. Very fun interactions with Nicole Kidman.
LINK: Click here

5. DANCING MASCOT
EPISODE: S36E22 (05.21.2011)
APPEARANCES: 6
All of Timberlake’s dancing mascots are a riot. This one has more fun songs and Lady Gaga to boot. Kudos to the costume department.
LINK: Click here

4. MACGRUBER
EPISODE: S35E11 (01.09.2010)
APPEARANCES: 10
Always a run of three mini-sketches that get more outrageous, Forte is awesome as this MacGyver knockoff. He is so racist with his terms and mace.
LINK: Click here

3. THE CONEHEADS
EPISODE: S03E04 (10.29.1977)
APPEARANCES: 12
For old school characters, the Coneheads are still funny with their Halloween treats.
LINK: Click here

2. MR. ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
EPISODE: S10E09 (12.15.1984)
APPEARANCES: 10
Murphy is simply fantastic as Mr. Robinson. I love every one of these sketches. They are so well written and Eddie’s charisma is on full display. Awesome!
LINK: Click here

1. MATT FOLEY
EPISODE: S18E19 (05.08.1993)
APPEARANCES: 8
This is Farley at his best. He’s loud, physical and extremely funny. Every line out of his mouth is golden. The rest of the family does a great job playing along with Matt’s antics. Love the adjusting of his belt.This is sketch perfection.
LINK: Click here

SNL50 - Top 50 Recurring Characters - Part One

 

So instead of doing a longer list of recurring characters and sketches, I thought it would be best to divide this into two parts. While some characters are consistently funny in every one of their sketches, some move higher up the list thanks to a solid performance in a single sketch – this would be true for The Delicious Dish and Debbie Downer (just a coincidence with all the D’s). Here is part one from 50 to 26. Enjoy.

50. SAMURAI
EPISODE: S01E10 (01.17.1976)
APPEARANCES: 14
So it was Buck Henry who first suggested bringing a character back because he really enjoyed the first John Belushi Samurai sketch. The rest is history. Some impressive katana work.
LINK: Click here

49. THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
EPISODE: S32E12 (02.03.2007)
APPEARANCES: 3
Amy Poehler plays Dakota Fanning as a child star who is way too old for her age and condescending to others, especially her bandleader Reggie. Fun.
LINK: Click here

48. LISA FROM TEMECULA
EPISODE: S48E12 (02.04.2023)
APPEARANCES: 3
There are not too many recurring characters lately on SNL. This is one of the few. It’s really the shaking table that makes this one so funny.
LINK: Click here

47. MR. NO-DEPTH PERCEPTION
EPISODE: S16E20 (05.18.1991)
APPEARANCES: 1
Kevin Nealon gets some physical comedy in as a guy who can’t tell if things are close or far away. Lots of sight gags. I thought there were more sketches of this character considering the opening theme song.
LINK: Click here

46. NICK BURNS
EPISODE: S25E06 (11.20.1999)
APPEARANCES: 5
I’m glad my school’s computer guy is not like this. Jimmy Fallon rarely plays an unlikable character.
LINK: Click here

45. MAKING COPIES
EPISODE: S18E05 (10.31.1992)
APPEARANCES: 9
Rob Schneider’s claim to fame as the Richmeister playing around with everyone’s name. Can get annoying so it is fun to have death take him. Kevin Nealon’s Madonna outfit is well done.
LINK: Not Available

44. DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS
EPISODE: S17E14 (02.22.1992)
APPEARANCES: 3
David Spade’s first big break as an annoying receptionist who has way too much power. He won’t help Roseanne or even Jesus.
LINK: Not Available

43. THE NEEDLERS
EPISODE: S31E06 (11.19.2005)
APPEARANCES: 4
Also known as “the couple that should be divorced”, Seth Meyers and Poehler, who are great friends in real life, are perfect as a constantly fighting couple. The back and forth insults are really well crafted.
LINK: Click here

42. MR. SHORT-TERM MEMORY
EPISODE: S14E01 (10.08.1988)
APPEARANCES: 3
Tom Hanks is humorously infuriating as a person with no short-term memory. 
LINK: Click here

41. THE BARRY GIBB TALK SHOW
EPISODE: S30E16 (04.09.2005)
APPEARANCES: 7
The concept alone is pretty funny. Fallon’s voice as Barry Gibb is awesome as is Justin Timberlake adding some vocal harmony to the proceedings.
LINK: Click here

40. BRIAN FELLOWS SAFARI PLANET
EPISODE: S28E19 (05.10.2003)
APPEARANCES: 12
Tracy Morgan is an interesting host with lots of thoughts to share about animals.
LINK: Click here

39. LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE
EPISODE: S33E11 (05.10.2008)
APPEARANCES: 8
Bill Hader makes up some Italian as Vinny Vedecci. This one has fun confusion between Transformer and transgender. Love the ashtray full of cigarettes.
LINK: Click here

38. COFFEE TALK
EPISODE: S17E14 (02.22.1992)
APPEARANCES: 15
Mike Myers does his usual shtick as the overly Jewish host, Linda Richmond. Not only does this one have Madonna and Roseanne but a cameo from Barbara. You can tell that they are actually surprised. Talk amongst yourselves.
LINK: Click here

37. SPARTAN CHEERLEADERS
EPISODE: S21E11 (01.20.1996)
APPEARANCES: 17
Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri are so full of energy as the cheerleaders for fringe ‘sports’. The cheers are full of great lyrics and bizarre movements.
LINK: Click here

36. THE MR. BILL SHOW
EPISODE: S04E13 (02.24.1979)
APPEARANCES: 22
So much fun with playdough. Lots of injuries to Mr. Bill as he is forced to exercise.
LINK: Not Available

35. CHURCH CHAT
EPISODE: S13E06 (12.05.1987)
APPEARANCES: 20
Dana Carvey’s biggest character besides Garth. She has some thoughts about Santa, Jessica Hahn and the new film Throw Mama from the Train.
LINK: Click here

34. BRONX BEAT
EPISODE: S37E15 (02.18.2012)
APPEARANCES: 10
Poehler and Maya Rudolph are in their element as Betty and Jodi, talk show hosts with thick accents. This comes naturally to them. I think at the end they just want to make their guest laugh.
LINK: Click here

33. GIRLFRIENDS TALK SHOW
EPISODE: S39E07 (11.23.2013)
APPEARANCES: 8
I love Cecily Strong’s utter obliviousness to her best friend Morgan played by Aidy Bryant. I enjoy watching Morgan’s awkwardness around boys.
LINK: Click here

32. THE ROXBURY GUYS
EPISODE: S21E20 (05.18.1996)
APPEARANCES: 9
Jim Carrey’s rubbery face and physicality is a perfect fit for Ferrell and Chris Kattan’s Roxbury Guys. I love the blowing on the CD.
LINK: Click here

31. THE VOGELCHECKS
EPISODE: S35E10 (12.19.2009)
APPEARANCES: 6
A very affectionate family but over the top. This cast has absolutely no personal space. It’s disturbing.
LINK: Click here

30. THE DELICIOUS DISH
EPISODE: S24E09 (12.12.1998)
APPEARANCES: 15
While I was not a big fan of their regular sketches, this one kicks it up a lot with Alec Baldwin as Pete Schweddy and his Christmas balls.
LINK: Click here

29. WILLIE & FRANKIE
EPISODE: S10E05 (11.10.1984)
APPEARANCES: 6
“Man, I hate when that happens.” Christopher Guest makes Billy Crystal break with his “strip down to the nude” line but it’s a slow burn.
LINK: Click here

28. TWO A-HOLES
EPISODE: S34E06 (10.25.2008)
APPEARANCES: 8
Jason Sudeikis & Kristen Wiig play fun but annoying a-holes in this Mad Men parody. The gum chewing is so obnoxious.
LINK: Click here

27. SIX YEAR OLD
EPISODE: S39E12 (01.25.2014)
APPEARANCES: 4
Jonah Hill is Adam Grossman as a six-year old who has no problem talking to people.
LINK: Click here

26. ASTRONAUT JONES
EPISODE: S27E12 (02.02.2002)
APPEARANCES: 6
It’s funny how most of the sketch is just the opening title sequence and closing credits. Morgan is not very PC with his guest, Britney Spears.
LINK: Click here