You know what movie really stands the test of time? Grease 2. Even though I backed out of the front door and double-checked the house number upon coming home last night and finding my husband watching it , I still sat down to watch it and had a blast. Mind you, what technically sucked about it 20+ years ago still sucks, if not more. And, yeah, that means most of the movie. In its defense, though, its incoherence and sex ed advocacy (those of who of a certain age will remember the song "Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeproduction") were cutting edge. And I like seeing the parade of B-listers (Adrian Zmed, anybody? Those eerie twins from "Double Trouble?") strut around Michelle Pfeiffer like she, the no-name, had no business stealing their thunder. You can almost see the sneering thought bubble over Adrian Zmed's head : "'T.J. Hooker.' Ever heard of it, BITCH?!"
Again, I fall into the lame and obscure trap: Adrian Zmed references aren't going to win me any blog fans. Unless Ma Zmed happens to be reading. And she might. It's not like her son's doing anything ELSE these days that she can watch. Ooooooooooooooo! BURN, Zmed. Burn.
Anyway, Grease 2 is one of only six movies HBO ran when I was growing up. Just seeing it last night made me want to spray myself in the eye trying to open my Capri Sun while waiting with baited breath for the fifth showing of Bustin' Loose or Six Pack or some movie about an unlikely father figure with a bunch of kids on a bus/in an RV/and so on. If SuperFuzz was on? Forget about it. I was glued. (BLOGGER'S NOTE: you don't know you remember SuperFuzz, but you do...he was a superhero whose only weakness was the color red.)
There are only two movies that were in serious '80's HBO rotation that still make my blood run cold: Dot the Kangaroo (there was a cartoon monster named the Bunyip...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! don't even get me started...just by typing 'Bunyip,' I've denied myself sleep for a month) and Bless the Beasts and Children. My memory is seriously fuzzy on the latter, but according to IMDB it's a 1971 drama in which "a group of adolescent boys, placed in a summer camp by their otherwise too busy parents, find themselves unable to fit in...after their counselor exposes them to what they perceive as a cruel slaughter of corralled bison, these misfits are soon drawn to a common purpose to break free of their camp and free the bison." (Thank you, Patrick, for summing it up just so...just so I'll never be free of this freakin' movie.)
Now, this movie--let's pretend we're incredibly busy and important and call it Bless for short-- came out six years before I was even born. I remember about three minutes in all. But, I promise you, I see it when I close my eyes. Seventies hair, a little ringleader who--in my brain--looks like Tattoo from "Fantasy Island," and dead kids. Oh, and buffalo. Oh, and a maudlin little ditty that I'm fairly certain would be listed on the singer's resume as "Love Theme from that Creepy Buffalo Movie."
*sigh* Okay, now I'm all freaked out. I'm going to go watch Grease 2 to get the taste out of my brain. I suggest you do the same.
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3 comments:
Molly, now the theme song to Bless is going to be in my mind all night. It was all slow and melancholy. We played it in 5th grade band, I think.
You are - as always - spot on about the rotation of HBO movies growing up. Don't forget The Pirate Movie and Savannah Smiles. And I thought I was the only person who remembered Dot the Kangaroo.
Finally, big ups to Grease 2 love. I personally have always loved Who's that Guy and the opening theme "Back to School." I always wished (still wish?) that my first days of school or work could be like that. You know, all song and dance.
*stands up and raises hand* I own Grease 2 on dvd.
Ok so when I was in high school, there was an annual charity drive. At the kickoff ceremony, there was an assembly in the auditorium and the swing choir would always perform something uplifting and related to the charity for the year. One year, it was something about children, so we were slated to sit in charming tableaus and sing "Bless the Beasts" Well to this day, I can't tell you exactly what happened, but we didn't realize until we all opened our mouths to sing that we had NO idea how the song went. I mean, we didn't know the notes, the words, nothing.
It was an awkward performance for all involved.
love-dirk
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