RIP Robin Williams

it's kind of unfathomable now with dvr/netflix/etc, that if there was nothing on tv when i was a kid we'd pop in a movie like mrs. doubtfire for the eighteenth time

today it's a great honor if i bother to see something twice, but back then if you were a halfway tolerable comedy you were in the vhs player probably every three months

hell, in college too. I burned out my used Blockbuster copies of JFK and Husbands and Wives.

I've only seen the last 15-20 minutes of Mrs. Doubtfire, so I never got invested in the plight of the character. It just always looked corny enough to me that I had no urge to see the whole movie.

very few "bad dad redeems himself through insane/magical bullshit" movies from the '90s i can see playing well today

If nothing else -- IF NOTHING ELSE -- it gave us David Cross's amazing Mrs. Featherbottom on "Arrested Development."

plus with Sally Field as Mom I wonder why the court took her side

today it's a great honor if i bother to see something twice, but back then if you were a halfway tolerable comedy you were in the vhs player probably every three months

i just really don't like Pierce Brosnan

also croup otm

there's no good explanation for why I can now recite the entire script of Big Business

I have never seen a minute of Mrs Doubtfire, and that will continue to be so.

RW's awful films were awful despite his efforts because he agreed to do them

(ok, at least in some cases, huh)

Thanks to his mullet I'd call Pierce Brosnan a sociopath if Mrs Doubtfire didn't exist

back then if you were a halfway tolerable comedy you were in the vhs player probably every three months

nope

let us lower life forms have our fun

there was an early special of his where he starts to lose the audience and does this "into the mind of a comedian who's bombing" bit where he's running around inside his own head pulling switches and turning nobs and finally says "ok, we have to do it -- no! we can't do it! -- yes, we must... release, the id!" and he comes crawling out of an invisible box like a horror movie creature. can't find it on youtube.

I went looking for 'Reality, What A Concept' on YT and somebody had just posted it up, he does the comedy hell bit on this record, which I love so much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StPjkm1bbbY

Then I found a lot of the same material on this insane TV special, really wish I had seen it earlier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsIh5z7oYyY

wow, good find there

back then if you were a halfway tolerable comedy you were in the vhs player probably every three months

nope

― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, August 13, 2014 6:57 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

talking 'bout my generation

i've seen mrs. doubtfire probably a dozen times

i've never seen popeye or good morning vietnam but i plan on watching both soon!

why would anyone watch mrs. doubtfire

we were young, man

not everybody on ilx was voting age in 1993, shocking i know

i was < 15yo and it was on TV a lot!

Top two movies of that year were Jurassic Park and Mrs. Doubtfire. Never saw either of them, was busy voting.

mod edit

http://i.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/hello-mrs-doubtfire.gif

oh whoops

I do remember an unfortunate double-feature on the VCR of "Man On the Moon" with Reese Witherspoon and "Toys".

Kids don't wanna learn about dinosaurs, man, if you wanna appeal to kids you have to do impressions of people they've never heard of

Man in the Moon isn't bad.

man i was soooo psyched for toys before it came out, convinced myself it was genius at the time

It wasn't.

Toys, on the other hand....

written by Barry Levinson and his wife, costarring LL Cool J, what could go wrong

the references to the toys trailer in the springfield film festival episode of the simpsons must be one of their most obscure ref points now

spring Smoochy on yr kids, they'll grow up fast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j39lYCi2itI

https://www.screenused.com/images/toys/15415_5.jpg

the references to the toys trailer in the springfield film festival episode of the simpsons must be one of their most obscure ref points now

― da croupier, Wednesday, August 13, 2014 3:28 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is pointed out in the DVD commentary, something along the lines of, "See, ok, there was this movie called Toys, and it was kind of a flop..."

Also, the episode is "Burns' Heir."

not everybody on ilx was voting age in 1993

neither was I

ooohhhh right it was the ad for his heir, not for his movie, my bad

sorry shakey, i just assumed your inability to understand why anyone would see a massively successful family film released in 1993 was an age thing

Alex Belth of Deadspin liberally quotes Kael's reviews of RW's work. I am kinda shocked she liked The Fisher King (in that post-retirement interview). I think she's dead on re GMVietnam and Awakenings.

http://thestacks.deadspin.com/robin-williams-he-left-something-on-the-stage-for-us-1619840741

I could barely finish The Fisher King but she's right about Ruehl, Bridges, and Plummer.

"Death to Smoochy" is so overrated in certain circles. Just because something is cynical doesn't inherently make it good.

yeah, witness The Wolf of Wall Street

i tried to watch death of smoochy but i hate devito's directorial style (much the same reason i hate later mike nichols)

that pic with bellow!

it's not a real movie thread till someone points out that pauline kael didn't like some movies

he has such an odd voice -- not just the way he uses it, but the actual timbre of his voice -- that i was forever wondering what strange part of the country produced that accent. of course, he's from chicago. he just talks like no one else. talked. RIP.

when as a kid I realized who Bono was I thought Robin Williams could play him.