R.I.P. Gene Wilder 1933-2016

   Comedy legend Gene Wilder passed away yesterday at age 83 due to complications from Alzheimer's, a condition he kept from his legions of fans(including many small children) that he did not wish to upset. Gene stayed curiously out of the spotlight in his senior years. If you're under the age of 30, you probably only know him for the pristine image pictured here. His Willy Wonka is immortalized as the centerpiece of one of the great live-action family films(and there was nothing Tim Burton and Johnny Depp could do about it), but there's more to the man than that kooky candy-maker. He was Mel Brooks' muse, and was one half of Hollywood's
first interracial tag team with Richard Pryor. The mismatched pair paved the way for so many other dissimilar duos that it became easy to forget where it all began. It's about time you found out.

   Wilder was born Jerome Silberman to working-class parents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A 13 year old Gene, enthralled by his sister's stage acting, made the fateful decision to follow in her footsteps when he sought the guidance of her drama teacher. As a teenager he became increasingly involved in his local theater community, performing for the first time in a production of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", before graduating from high school in 1951. After college and a three-year stint in the Army, he moved to New York and resumed his showbiz aspirations. A name change and acceptance into Lee Strasburg's legendary Actors Studio(where Charles Grodin was a classmate) made him a fixture on the off-Broadway scene. A 30 year old Wilder met Mel Brooks in 1963. The popular playwright had multiple projects in mind, and promised to enlist Gene for a future collaboration. His big break into movies occurred as a hapless hostage in 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde", Arthur Penn's game-changing crime drama that launched the careers of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Brooks finally came calling for "The Producers", a cult comedy that scored Wilder a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination in 1968.

   "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" needs no introduction in 2016, but this Roald Dahl delight didn't make as much dough as you think in 1971. It took the cable/VHS era to get every kid in the country into that factory filled with Oompa Loompas a full decade later. Success would be much more immediate in the case of "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein". The reputation of Mel Brooks rests almost entirely with his two 1974 triumphs, and Gene is a big reason for that. Wilder suggested that edgy stand-up sensation Richard Pryor should be his costar in 1976's "Silver Streak". The bathroom scene alone ensured that this wouldn't be a one-time meeting of cinema's most contrasting comedians. Four years later, "Stir Crazy"(directed by Sidney Poitier) put the odd couple in the clink and was an even bigger hit.

   Wilder's popularity had him working steadily in studio comedies with considerable creative control throughout the 1980s- "Hanky Panky", "The Woman in Red", "Haunted Honeymoon", "See No Evil, Hear No Evil". But Leonard Nimoy's "Funny About Love" and "Another You"(his fourth and final outing with Pryor) both bombed in the early '90s. An NBC sitcom titled "Something Wilder" lasted only one season in 1994-95. Perhaps realizing that age was an issue and that his style of comedy had passed it's expiration date, Gene was rarely seen onscreen for the last twenty-plus years. He came out of semi-retirement in 2003 for two episodes of TV's "Will & Grace"(for which he won an Emmy), but was otherwise content with the legacy of laughs he left behind. Thanks for the Golden Ticket, Gene.





Complete filmography(22 films in total, the highly successful ones are darkened)

"Bonnie and Clyde"(1967)
"The Producers"(1968)
"Start the Revolution Without Me"(1970)
"Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx"(1970)
"Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"(1971)
"Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex*(But Were Afraid To Ask"(1972)
"Rhinoceros"(1974)
"Blazing Saddles"(1974)
"The Little Prince"(1975)
"Young Frankenstein"(1974)
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother"(1975)
"Silver Streak"(1976)
"The World's Greatest Lover"(1977)
"The Frisco Kid"(1979)
"Sunday Lovers"(1980)
"Stir Crazy"(1980)
"Hanky Panky"(1982)
"The Woman in Red"(1984)
"Haunted Honeymoon"(1986)
"See No Evil, Hear No Evil"(1989)
"Funny About Love"(1990)
"Another You"(1991)

August 1996- The Worst Movie Month Ever?

   It's recently come to my attention that August 1996 was an exceptionally mediocre movie month. If you're under age 30, you probably have no memory of the summer of "Independence Day". Roland Emmerich's FX-laden extravaganza was a phenomenon and the sixth highest-grossing film of the 1990s(behind "Titanic", "The Phantom Menace", "Jurassic Park", "Forrest Gump", and "The Lion King") out of approximately 3,022 releases. Competition was soft, however. None of the films featured here posed a threat to the rollicking rise of Will Smith. A jubilant Jeff Goldblum got a good laugh whenever he looked at the weekly box office results. Needless to say, President Bill Pullman had the best summer of his life.

   Now there have been plenty of bad movie months throughout history, but Aug '96 was particularly putrid as you're about to learn. Danny DeVito's "Matilda" is the only winner in this sorry slate. I can give Kevin Costner's "Tin Cup" and "A Very Brady Sequel" a pass if I'm having a good day. My generosity won't be extended to any of the terrible titles listed below. Now let's go back in time to when Clinton(Bill) was fighting to remain in the White House and I didn't really mind going back to school.

"Chain Reaction"(1996)
Keanu Reeves didn't make his ten-year transition from Ted Logan to Neo as smoothly as you all think. I know, "Point Break" was an awesome apprenticeship and "Speed" seemed to seal the deal in '94. But we're lucky 'Bullet time' happened at all, in the wake of "Johnny Mnemonic" and this Andrew Davis dud. A shaggy-haired Reeves almost rejected action star status after being uncomfortably cast as a student machinist framed for murder. I never really believed that Keanu could crack the code on clean energy. He'd be lost in a laboratory, while Morgan Freeman gives an early indication that he's not opposed to a paycheck(Red is a sellout, face the facts). Davis delivers dull, formulaic chase scenes as we slowly come to the realization that "The Fugitive" was a fluke. "Chain Reaction" barely broke even, and a disenchanted Reeves subsequently passed on "Speed 2: Cruise Control"(a LITERAL chain reaction).

"Jack"(1996)
Even die-hard fans of deceased funnyman Robin Williams don't have anything nice to say about this bewildering "Big" rip-off that was shockingly directed by the same guy that gave us "The Godfather"(Frances Ford Coppola, for any laymen out there). Robin's hyperactivity had it's drawbacks, as he poured his restless energy into far too many projects unworthy of his presence("Toys", anyone?). His man-child Jack has a rare condition causing him to age four times faster than average, an odd set-up unsuitable for light-hearted laughs. That's a 26 year old Jennifer Lopez in her second major role as his improbably attractive teacher. If this film contributed to her rapid rise, that's just one more reason to hate it(Bill Cosby doesn't do any favors going forward either). "Jack" turned a tiny profit, but a castrated Coppola was done with high-profile studio films. Sadly, it was about fifteen years after most audiences were done with him.

"Escape from L.A."(1996)
Speaking of fifteen years, that's how long it took for Kurt Russell and John Carpenter to produce a sequel to their 1981 cult hit "Escape from New York". This duo greatly overestimated the public's affection for Snake Plissken, and learned the hard way that this shit needs to be done in a timely fashion(Indy and Rambo BOTH got trilogies in the '80s). The action and FX in "L.A." just didn't cut it in 1996. Heck, this wouldn't have cut it IN 1986. Kurt was cool, but he never quite reached the A-list level of Cruise, Costner, and Gibson, and 1998's "Soldier" would remove him from the equation entirely. "Escape" embarrassingly recouped only half of it's $50 million budget, sliding Carpenter further into irrelevance. The "Halloween" director seems to have a loyal fan-base, too bad they don't buy movie tickets.

"The Fan"(1996)
Tony Scott was a visual poet and an unapologetic populist that cared little about awards. Most moviegoers don't care either, and "Top Gun" and "True Romance" was enough to put this bombastic Brit in the hall of fame. However, Ridley's younger brother did strike out on occasion. This ludicrous thriller finds Robert De Niro's unhinged knife salesman/baseball fanatic developing an unhealthy fixation on his favorite slugger Wesley Snipes. Bobby D can play an obsessive psychopath in his sleep, and perhaps this was the precise point that we all got a little tired of it. "The Fan" failed to fill up the stands, but Scott's trademark polish has made it is a guilty pleasure for the late night channel surfer.

"The Island of Dr. Moreau"(1996)
Marlon Brando is often called the greatest actor of all time. Agree or disagree, the man was a genius. But sometime after "Apocalypse Now", he stopped caring about acting. Completely. This John Frankenheimer fiasco presented an aging, bloated Brando in THE most unflattering light. Val Kilmer(hot off "Heat" and "Batman Forever") may have killed his leading man aspirations in a well-documented battle of on-set egos with his legendary costar. A scheduled six week shoot stretched to six months, with bad weather, constant script rewrites and an unhappy cast/crew turning the production into an unmitigated disaster. "Dr. Moreau" is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, a conclusion I don't come to lightly.

"House Arrest"(1996)
Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollak are a divorcing couple locked in the basement by their kids until they can reach a reconciliation. Eventually, ALL the kids in the neighborhood start locking their parents in the basement(I presume the exec that dusted off this screenplay was promptly fired). It never ceases to amaze me how some movies get made. The late, great Gene Siskel loathed this alleged comedy, giving it zero stars(I miss that man). A $7 million budget shouldn't have been that hard to recover. "Arrest" couldn't even manage that. Director Harry Winer(?) was banished to television as a result. This film is totally forgotten and deservedly so, but if the CIA is in need of more enhanced interrogation methods, I have a few suggestions.

"First Kid"(1996)
Any Sinbad fans out there? Didn't think so. The clean-cut comic is a wisecracking Secret Service agent assigned to the President's temperamental preteen son. This script was probably used to wipe the ass of one of the Wayans brothers. "Kid" is lame sitcom stuff, and the public treated it accordingly. The next time you're feeling nostalgic about the '90s, remember Sinbad's name was above the title a couple times.

"The Stupids"(1996)
Tom Arnold stars as Stanley Stupid(need I say more?). This shite was shoveled into theaters by the director of "Coming to America", "Trading Places", and "National Lampoon's Animal House". John Landis looked like he was laying down a legacy with that trifecta. He then trashed it in a self-destructive seven-year stretch that included "Oscar", "Beverly Hills Cop III", and "Blues Brothers 2000". Those three films and his ill-advised alliance with Arnold arguably did more damage to his rep than the "Twilight Zone" incident. James Cameron's "True Lies" briefly had us convinced that Roseanne's ex-husband was a viable comic talent. Two years later, he would hold the dubious distinction of appearing in three of the worst comedies ever released in a calendar year("Big Bully" was atrocious, while it would be redundant to discuss "Carpool" which also crashed and burned in Aug). Now I won't take up any more of your time(or mine) discussing this fat fuck's foul filmography. That would be stupid.