I’ve just finished reading this book about Chris Morris. Want a quick review? OK – it’s goodish because there are no other Chris Morris books out there, but it doesn’t have the depth or detail you’d hope the definitive Chris Morris book would have. So, you know, if you’re a fan check it out but don’t expect too much.
I thought it would be good to look at the best music parodies he produced when he was on TV & radio. I hate even using the word “parody”, thanks to all the berks on YouTube who use the word to describe their dickings-about.
Chris Morris produced all of these before YouTube even existed. Ponder that.
I won’t go into the whys and wherefores and wherefore art thous, but I found myself watching a film from 1985 called Rappin’ recently. I would imagine it was one of the first films to try and incorporate hip-hop into its narrative, because it’s utterly appalling.
Mario Van Peebles plays a man called John Hood, who, to the ears of everyone around him, is a brilliant rapper. The viewer soon realises this is not the case. Or, most viewers do – here’s The New York Times around the time of the film’s release:
Rappin’ has a finale that gives everyone in the cast a chance to rap a line or two. Some of them, like Mr. Van Peebles, are quite good at this; most are not.
Anyway, whatever his verbal abilities, obviously the protagonist ends up being known as John “Rappin'” Hood.
His crew contains Eriq LaSalle, aka Dr. Peter Benton from ER, and they use this rapping stuff to try and fight off dratted property developers who are attempting to evict people so they can build a MegaMall or something. Ice-T pops up for a bit, in a significantly less scary form than in the years that followed.
If you’d like to watch it for yourself, it’s on Lovefilm’s online service. Maybe don’t make it your primary reason for taking out a subscription, though.
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Thursday January 27th, 2011 at
8:00 am
I love music biopics, me. And while I enjoy the good ones, I extract virtually an equal amount of pleasure from the bad.
One of my favourite bad ones is Hysteria, a 2001 VH1-produced TV film about Def Leppard. The Lepp have had a “colourful” history, and like many riffmongers from the last thirty years or so you can totally understand why people would want to turn their tale into a movie.
It would probably be a shame if Hysteria remained the only biopic of Def Leppard, but for British music fans it is quite giddy fun. It provides an amusing number of conspicuous location-related mistakes, and while one is willing to suspend one’s disbelief to an extent when entering movieland it’s pretty hard to do so when virtually the first shot is thoroughly goof-laden.
This has been said elsewhere plenty recently, but John Hughes’ untimely recent clog-popping reminded us that, without the killer soundtracks, his movies wouldn’t have been quite so fondly remembered. While Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson are among the first things I think of when I hear The Breakfast Club mentioned, so is “Don’t You Forget About Me”.
Watching the marvellous Adventurelandat the weekend I was struck at how worthy it is of joining the pantheon of Great, Funny, Sweet Teen Movies With Amazing Soundtracks. Is Kristen Stewart going to be thought of as the new Molly Ringwald? She’s certainly angsty enough, if, perhaps, a tad too pretty.
Anyway, the Adventureland soundtrack is helped by the fact that the film is set in the 80s and that the kids like smoking dope to forget their lousy jobs and dysfunctional families. They drive around feeling tortured and listening to Lou Reed, David Bowie, The Replacements and Husker
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Wednesday September 23rd, 2009 at
8:30 am
This trailer is not quite as funny as the cast and subject matter led me to hope for. I don’t suppose Ang Lee’s especially well known for his comedies though, is he…
Taking Woodstock is released in the UK on November 13th
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Tuesday August 25th, 2009 at
8:00 am
Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, like Jarvis Cocker, is one of those pop stars who gives as good value when he’s not performing as when he is. There aren’t many of those about these days, are there? You may recall it was his entertainingly curmudgeonly disposition that got him a regular spot on Russell Brand’s old Radio 2 show, from which Brand resigned last year. Why was that again?
This Sunday Noel and Russell are back together again in a football-based setting on talkSPORT, but one would hope the sporty nature of the show won’t preclude the pair from sharing the odd anecdote/argument/whinge unrelated to the beautiful game. The show’s a one-off, so don’t go expecting Russell Brand to chuck in his burgeoning movie career for two hours a week on little old British radio.
The show airs from 9pm – 11pm on Sunday 19th April on talkSPORT, which is available on 1089/1053AM, DAB Digital Radio, Sky Digital 0108, Freeview 723, Digital Cable and at www.talkSPORT.net
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Thursday April 16th, 2009 at
2:38 pm
The Simpsons are arguably a bit late to the party when it comes to taking the wee-wee out of the cult of Apple and its vice-like grip on the minds of young music fans, but this opening to a recent episode does a pretty good job nonetheless…
Click over to see the clip (warning – it’s on autoplay).
If you’ve been passing your cold winter eves the same way as me, by watching ITV’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, you will no doubt have been transfixified by the insight into the songwriting process provided by new best buds David Van Day (ex-Dollar) and Timmy Mallett (ex-Wacaday).
When they’re not engaged in a seemingly endless battle to be crowned THE MOST ATTENTION-SEEKING PRICK ON TELEVISION, the pair have been pooling their ageing brains as dynamite pop due Croc Idol. So far, they’ve come up with this:
I’ve just finished reading this book about Chris Morris. Want a quick review? OK – it’s goodish because there are no other Chris Morris books out there, but it doesn’t have the depth or detail you’d hope the definitive Chris Morris book would have. So, you know, if you’re a fan check it out but don’t expect too much.
Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, like Jarvis Cocker, is one of those pop stars who gives as good value when he’s not performing as when he is. There aren’t many of those about these days, are there? You may recall it was his entertainingly curmudgeonly disposition that got him a regular spot on Russell Brand’s old Radio 2 show, from which Brand resigned last year. 
