Cockney Mackem

Rik Mayall was a good looking fella

Rik Mayall called it after they made it, when he said it was "too sentimental for over here [the UK] and too over-the-top for over there [the US]."

I would respectfully suggest that this is a bit of a stretch

I don't think the filmmakers put as much thought into it as you did. They just wanted to have a lot of this kind of thing: And put a touchy feely 90s ending on it.

Oh yeah he was HUGE over here. Not all that surprised that he's not known in the US because if the show doesn't cross the pond they don't get seen. SNL isn't really shown in the UK so I've lost count of the number of comedy actors I've seen show up in a film and think, they're new who's that and they're a household name on a par with Will Ferrell. So Rik Mayall was an absolute mainstay of British TV comedy for at least two decades: The Young Ones was huge in the UK in the early 80s, and the cast even had a number 1 hit single. The Comic Strip Presents... wasn't as widely seen but very influential and some big names got a break in their shows/films. He also had notable guest star appearances in three if the four seasons of Blackadder, as well as an iconic turn as a sleazy politician in The New Statesman (think House of Cards with dick jokes). And of course Bottom, which was especially violent and crude. Fun facts: he had a blink-and-you-miss it cameo in American Werewolf In London; and one of his Comic Strip appearances was as iconic bass player in Bad News, a spoof rockumentary which came out at the same time as Spinal Tap. They released an album, produced by Queen's Brian May, which includes a gloriously unlistenable cover of Bohemian Rhapsody.

A question for our American friends - how well known is Rik Mayall in the US? He's obviously a national treasure here in the UK, but wasn't sure how much exposure he's had across the pond

I have to admit I like it when someone commits to the bit. For example, there was an Irish comedian called Dave Allen, a genius who incidentally did some terrific sketches parodying films like the Exorcist. In his younger days he lost the tip of a finger in some sort of accident, but he would never say how he did it. His own son would ask like "Come on really, how did you do it?" and Dave would make up a different silly story every time. Eventually the great man died without ever telling his son how he did it, which his son loved because he committed to the gag to the very end

Surely this has to go on forever, where this fella keeps going but the gang never do a Transformers film...

If anyone would like to try a good version of this kind of thing, may I suggest a novel called Bedlam by Christopher Brookmyre?

According to IMDb, Fred Durst has 26 director credits

I would have enjoyed it if Val Kilmer had played the part as his character from Alexander, including costume eyepatch, exclaiming oaths to Zeus and dodgy Irish accent

Aaron Neville???

This may not be either a correction or an omission but I found a nice snippet in an interview with Michael Biehn about the film. He said he only got the part because Val Kilmer pulled out, and clearly Kilmer was wise to pull out. He summarised the film by saying "that's the Nicolas Cage you get when you don't ask him to pull it back a little bit."

Damn, only 7 years too late!

Hopefully the gang gets round to doing Jaws The Revenge as well, because that takes bad film-making to an unprecedented, operatic level of shit. The shark is after the Brodies. How does a shark know the Brody brother works for Amity Police, and that he's on duty that night and will come to clear the trap at the harbour? How does the shark know that the other Brody brother works in the Caribbean, and that the Mum is going to fly down there? The shark is *waiting for her* when she gets there - does it have access to airline passenger manifests? Can it use a computer? I have a theory that in Jaws The Revenge the shark is in some kind of aquatic FBI and the Brody family are the antagonists. The first shark was unethically hunted by the Chief and his accomplice with the fishing boat. The second was investigating that murder and was electrocuted in a murderous cover up with the help of a complicit Amity community. In Jaws 3, another shark is investigating this seagoing crime family, and stumbles on the rampant animal cruelty and exploitation at Sea World, and not only pays with her life trying to expose it but her child dies at well. Jaws The Revenge is in fact a downbeat policier following a relentless shark FBI agent who won't rest until the Brodies pay for their crimes. He's crossing all sorts of lines because THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL. His captain at the precinct says "That's it Jaws, you're too emotionally involved, I'm taking you off the case." "God dammit Cap, not when I'm this close!" "OK Jaws, you've got 24 hours, and if you're wrong it's your dorsal fin in the fire..." In the end there is no justice for the sharks because the humans are too powerful and ruthless. Forget it Jaws, it's Chinatown.

I like how Roy Scheider is reputed to have made Blue Thunder just to make sure he wasn't available for Jaws 3

I feel the poster of this film speaks for itself... Sorry if it's already been suggested, I did search and couldn't find a thread

Can't do the linkies like Cameron H but for *reasons* I'm listening exclusively to songs by people born in Scotland at the moment so: AC/DC, Hell's Bells (Angus Young, Glasgow) Twin Atlantic, Heart and Soul (All of Them, Glasgow) Garbage, Only Happy When It Rains (Shirley Manson, Edinburgh) Biffy Clyro, Wolves of Winter (Simon Neil, Kilmarnock) Big Country, Fields of Fire (the incomparable Stuart Adamson, Dunfermline) Waterboys, Fisherman's Blues (Mike Scott, Edinburgh) Chvrches, Leave A Trace (Lauren Mayberry, Glasgow) Mogwai, Remurdered (Stuart Braithwaite, South Lanarkshire) Idlewild, You Held The World In Your Arms (Roddy Woomble, Irvine) Jesus and Mary Chain, April Skies (Jim Reid, East Kilbride)

Hiaasen is not on Elmore Leonard's level for sure, but who is? But in fairness, Elmore Leonard suffered from a lot of misfiring films of his books by people who couldn't get the tone right. I think Hiaasen deserves the benefit of the doubt.

And yet, believe it or not, the novel it's based on is good

Ooof

Believe it or not, the novel on which this is based provides a much better portrayal of Demi Moore's character and it would be interesting to see if June's (100% legit) complaints about the film are the same for the book. The book isn't as leering obvs, and the characters are more 3D, and with Carl Hiaasen he manages to make you believe that yes, mad shit like this really does happen in Florida.

IMHO Glam killed Glam, by ripping a hole in its Spandex tights and disappearing up its own arsehole

For those of you wondering why Jagger didn't do any more films despite all the quality he demonstrates in Freejack, it may have been his business commitments such as the retail empire he built with fellow Rolling Stone Keith Richard https://youtu.be/VTCSzP6dmmo