Leaderboard

I think Madonna was so excited to see the birthday cake during the dinner scene because it had burning candles on it, and she new hot candles were in her and Willem Dafoe’s futures.

I'm sorry I'm late to party on this. I have actually a long a involved history with this movie and show. I originally wrote a long paragraph about my history of with the show but I'll just boil it down. First time was sixteen seeing a shadowcast performance then watching it on TV a week later. Did a one night guerrilla live production of it as the criminologist for a my friend who took me to the shadowcast the previous year. Never seen a proper production of it live. Own the soundtrack and revisit the movie now every other year or so. I've introduced friends and family to it, but I prefer to watch it alone. So with all that do I like the movie? Yes and no. If you truly want to enjoy the movie do not go see the shadowcast first. There is nothing inherently wrong with it and it can be fun however I found that there was some gatekeeping and inside jokes that are just confusing when you don't know what's coming. I think if you go to one you are there to enjoy that aspect of it and not the movie itself. It is something I think that is more fun if you just like the music or want to have fun with friends. As for the movie itself again I think it is a real mixed bag. I do think the movie is fun but I think the last act kinda falls a bit flat. I think it takes the biggest leap in logic and storytelling and thus looses some momentum. While the songs are good they aren't as fun or catchy as the earlier songs. Then there is the whole issue of themeing. The movie is a send up of old B-movies and that's where the horror and sci-fi themes and campy acting come from. However on top of that they add extra layers of camp and flair that I think that original idea kinda loses some punch. However, I think that's also the secret ingredient that makes the movie work. I have seen Shock Treatment and it's nowhere near as good and I think that's because you loose a lot of that camp and flair and it is a bit too straight. I think also Rocky Horror being written for the stage and rehearsed and fine tuned helped it while Shock Treatment just went right to film. It is also odd to me that Rocky Horror has a lot of more 60 free love ideals despite it being a bit removed form it. Then comes the issue of how literal you want to take the events and actions of the movie. I do think there is a lot of metaphor or meaning may or may not have been fully intended. I mean look at Brad. You have him go from prim and preppy to embarrassed to be in his conservative undergarments to in drag and not caring. You can read that as the path of acceptance of others and their sexuality or you can maybe even read that as Brad himself being liberated of some possible repressed desires or feelings. In that sense some of Frank's actions are in service of serving the larger picture and maybe more palatable? I think it comes down to what was previously discussed about him being a charismatic villain verses an anti-hero. I think he is a villain but his actions move the characters to figure things about about themselves and we are never really asked to forgive him for his actions but rather because Tim Curry's performance and charm you end up kinda liking him and doing it anyway. In the end I find the songs catchy and the whole production fun that I always sit through it all despite issues I might have it.

haha an "awooga" old timey horn would be perfect

I just rewatched Clue last night!!! He's so fucking good in it! And like kinda really hot??? I think Frank is my favorite performance of his, but he's so good in everything I've seen him in, and he's the reason why I'm fucking terrified of so many things and have to shower with music playing or else I'm convinced he's standing just outside the shower curtain waiting to kill me......

FTFY - I kind of brought it up earlier, but I really hate seeing Frank get killed off even though he is the villain because of that Question for the group - what are your favorite Tim Curry performances/characters? I think mine is Wadsworth from Clue.

Not only is the Portland police department incompetent, I would also throw in the DA’s office and the defense team. DA Yes, the arrest of Madonna was far too soon, because at that time they had no concrete evidence. But what was even more egregious, is when Joe Mantegna decides to have Anne Archer disclose, in a meeting with the defense, that she witnessed Madonna snort cocaine. Why would the DA reveal this major bomb and not hold the reveal for when she’s in front of the jury! The DA only has to show the defense who they are calling to the stand, not what they are going to reveal. Defense If cocaine use on Madonna’s part was such a big “what if,” why didn’t Willem Dafoe make her do a drug test? A hair test can find cocaine with up to 90 days of use. Yes, Madonna may have in fact used cocaine… but she was so adamant she did not and this would be a win for the defense if that test came back negative. And one off topic comment… did anyone else think that Anne Archer was going to be the person who shot Madonna at the end??? That would have been far more interesting since she did in fact love her boss and received a far less payout in the will. I mean this would have been a big “Who did that?!" moment since the doctor was knocked out from the fall. To me that was a huge missed opportunity.

I did want to add, I just realized this year (before Tay-loe made this pick) that I didn’t already own this album. After I bought it, I must have listened to it straight through every night for a full week. The soundtrack is really strong on this movie.

Classic lines from Ebert's .5 star review.

So not to be creepy with the visual reference below, but hey... we all watched this film.... but did anyone else wonder if the driver in the background ever noticed what was going on at parking level P4. I was surprised there wasn't the lone "honk" from the car. If anything, this just proves how much Dafoe is ready to be so cavalier and not give a shit on being possibly disbarred.

Recorded live from Washington, D.C., Paul, June and Jason discuss the 1993 erotic thriller Body of Evidence starring Madonna and Willem Dafoe. They talk about the sassiest judge of all time, the houseboat, the parking garage sex scene, and much more.

Oh I thought that part was obvious lol. It was Pennywise.

I think the joke is, Joe always eats the donuts even when he brings them. This was set up just prior to walking into the meeting. so I’m assuming the joke is, Joe is in on this and figures with the bombshell he just dropped... well Dafoe has nothing left. So hey... here’s the last donut cause you’re fucked now.

I think every performance he gives is great, whether the movie is good or not. I’ve never seen him phone it in. He even did a voice as the main character in a computer game series—Gabriel Knight—where he played a New Orleans supernatural detective and he was awesome doing THAT. Even his Pennywise in the TV version of IT (which has a decent first half and a shitty second half) is iconic. So I can’t choose, although Clue is also a lot of fun. which performance terrified you, Tay-loe? Or did all of them?

Mantzoukas is totally right about Body Heat... which is a remake of Double Indemnity but since DI was made under the strict Hayes Code it could barely even hint at sex between Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. The only thing that could even be a possible clue was that Barbara Stanwyk visits Fred MacMurray at his apartment, closes the door behind her and then there is a fade as if some time had passed and she exits the door. Soooo steamy! Body Heat takes that great plot and adds all the sex that should be happening between the two characters. The first sex scene between Dafoe and Madonna is pretty much a crappy remake of the first sex scene between John Hurt and Kathleen Turner in that movie. Unfortunately I can't find the complete scene on Youtube but it's HOT AF. Body Heat lead up to sex scene. It's real good y'all.

I'd like to think that Amazon synopsis of the movie was written by someone who read the novelization of Body of Evidence rather than actually watching it. So was Madonna's relationship with Dafoe real on her part or was it manipulative? The movie seems to suggest that every relationship she has involves an ulterior motive, but in his case I don't know what she had to gain unless she thought he'd take his lawyering up a notch if they were sleeping together. And who is getting that 8 million dollars now Madonna's next of kin or the dead millionaire's?

I enjoy almost every single song sooo much! Like Cam Bert said above I do think that the later songs aren't as good, and honestly the dinner table song that Dr. Scott sings can be skipped over, but I keep many many of them on my rotation still to this day. Oddly enough I think the very first song - Science Fiction Double Feature - might be my favorite??? But every time someone says "Oh there's a light!" I have to start singing, "There's a liiiiiiiight over at the Frankenstein place!" No matter how good the actual movie is, or how good you think the shadowcast performances are, these songs are fuckin straight up bops!

Hearing Paul pivot to why it was okay for the movie to stay on the list was a reminder of, "ubiquous, cultural familiarity and being liked by a lot of people" really shouldn't be confused with being good - but there are enough duds on this list for me that it doesn't seem out of place on the list. /cynical

You're right, and I definitely didn't choose my words properly here. What I was really thinking about was all of these so-called counter-culture things in relation specifically to Jenny's arc. The surface level reading of the film's depiction is that Jenny's life kept getting worse and worse the more she delved into these parts of society, and she only found happiness when she took the more conservative woman's role of mother and wife. Now, I completely understand that this is just surface level and it's ignoring the context, which is that Jenny's life keeps getting worse because of her own self-destructive behavior stemming from her past as a victim of abuse, and doesn't actually have much to do with the individual aspects of counter-culture (besides maybe the drug use). But on the surface, it seems to suggest that the things Jenny did were a gateway to sadness. As far as the conservative aspects of the movie, right or wrong, I'm not the only one talking about it. Eric Kohn at IndieWire lambasted the film for its conservatism on its 25th anniversary: https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/forrest-gump-bad-movie-25-anniversary-1202154214/ while the National Review celebrated the film as the 4th best conservative movie of all-time: https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2009/02/23/best-conservative-movies/ My personal feeling is that the film plays it pretty straight down the middle, which then comes off as slightly conservative to me. In the particular case of the DC protest, I do disagree with the idea that the film is speaking out more against conservatives than liberals. The military guy seems to be the only one with a plan, while the protesters are totally bumbling. So while I see the military guy's action as childish and petty, I could easily imagine someone watching that scene and gleefully enjoying how the military guy was able to so easily troll the libs.

I haven’t listened to the episode yet, but I don’t know that this is entirely fair. I don’t think any of those groups are actually shown to be “bad.” How exactly are the protestors or the Black Panthers bad? And the only hippie to be shown in a negative light is her abusive boyfriend which I saw as just pointing out the hypocrisy of *some* hippies and not an indictment of the counterculture as a whole. In the DC protest scene, with the military guy ripping out the microphone jacks, the movie shows is speaking out more against conservatives than liberals. The movie also heavily frowns heavily, and repeatedly, upon segregation. And when it comes to Vietnam, the movie only ever celebrates the soldiers, not the war or the military. I also think it’s telling that the movie touches on six assassinations or assassination attempts, (Wallace, JFK, RFK, Lennon, Ford, and Reagan), but the only ones Gump discusses with any personal emotion are JFK, RFK, and Lennon. Of the others, the only one he even comments on at all is Wallace’s. I mean, I guess with the conservative figures, those were all just “attempts” and not successful assassinations, and maybe that makes a difference, but the movie definitely feels more sympathetic toward those with a liberal philosophy. However, it’s not above pointing out hypocrisy wherever it sees it.

I’ve been calling them sea spiders for years! As for Forrest Gump...I’m so neutral on it that I’m going to abstain from voting. On the one hand, I personally prefer FG to a lot of the other movies on the list, but I don’t necessarily agree that it’s such a well-made movie that it deserves inclusion. Also, as I’ve gotten older and have had children (one of whom is on the spectrum), everything Sally Field is doing tears my heart out. It’s tough to watch Forrest being excluded because he’s different, which is a fear I have for my own kids that literally keeps me awake at night, but it’s heartening to see Forrest not only survive but thrive. How the things that set him apart are the same qualities that allow him to succeed.

Well excuse me, but last time I checked there’s no law that says a grown man can’t go alone to Minions on ice.

Where are my boots with the fur? What’s the point of wearing my apple bottom jeans if I can’t wear my boots with the fur?

Madonna, apparently? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this one, but I remember it as being a hilarious attempt to cash in on and top the outrageousness of Basic instinct. It pretty much plays as a parody of that movie because of it’s willingness to play up the “kinky” sex scenes. What’s weird is how many genuinely great actors (except for Madonna) are in this piece of shit. Everyone’s gotta eat, I guess.

Body of Evidence is an awful 90s sex thriller...who has sex on broken light bulbs!

I'm a bit worried about the director of Country Bears. There was sadness in his voice even though he was trying to mask it. It's okay, man. We all do jobs we don't love.