ROBERT BERRY'S
WEIRD MOVIE STUFF #6


Welcome to the latest issue of ROBERT BERRY'S WEIRD MOVIE STUFF! This is a daily publication that may occasionaly not come out, so don't get pissy.

(SPOILER WARNING FOR THE NATURAL WAY DOWN BELOW)

          MOVIE QUOTE OF THE DAY  (extra long 2day, sorry)

MOOKIE:  "Sounds funny to me.  As much as you say nigger this and
          nigger that, all your favorite people are "niggers."

PINO:    "It's different.  Maggic, Eddie, Prince are not niggers,
          I mean, are not black.  I mean, they're Black but not
          really Black.  They're more than Black.  It's different."

MOOKIE:  "Pino, I think secretly that you wish you were Black.  
          That's what I think.  Vito, what do you say?"

PINO:    "Y'Know, I've been listening and reading 'bout Farrakhan,
          ya didn't know that, did you?"

MOOKIE:  "I didn't know you could read."

PINO:    "Fuck you.  Anyway, Minsiter Farrakhan always talks about
          the so-called "day" when the Black man will rise.  "We
          will one day rule the earth as we did in our glorious past."
          You really believe that shit?"

MOOKIE:  "It's e-vit-able."

PINO:    "Keep dreaming."

MOOKIE:  "Fuck you, fuck pizza, and fuck Frank Sinatra, too.

PINO:    "Well, fuck you, too, and fuck Michael Jackson."             

                -Spike Lee and John Turturro, DO THE RIGHT THING

WEIRD MOVIE FACTS O' THE DAY
(Find the bogus fact and win...a nite o passion with
Gary Coleman, Dana Plato, Conrad Bain, and Todd Bridges!)

  • Stephen King appeared in his own commercials for MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE his directorial debut (and only ever?) in a film. As he stood in front of a menacing truck, he laughably proclaimed, "I'm gonna scare the HELL out of you!" Little did he know the acting job by Emilio Estevez would accomplish this task easily. King also successfully sued to have his name removed from the video release of THE LAWNMOWER MAN, as it had little or nothing to do with the lousy short story it was based on.

  • Michael Keaton was so unfamiliar with the BATMAN character, that during the first film, he suggested to Tim Burton that after beating up one of the thugs in the chemical plant, it would be real funny if he did a tap-dance over the body. Obviously, he hadn't got all of the Beetlejuice from his system yet. (By the way, I guess the long-delayed BEETLEJUICE IN LOVE project that was supposed to reunite Burton and Keaton years ago is in limbo forever. Wouldn't a sequel be fun?)

  • "The Natural" book by Bernard Malamud (yes it came out first) has a completely different ending than the film version starring Robert Redford. While in the film, Roy Hobbs predictably saves the day, and creates fire-works with his game winning homerun, saving the day, and then jumping into the future playing baseball with his son, the book version is a complete opposite, he strikes out, busts a gut, and ends up bum of the century. I would argue that both of these versions work incredibly well, independently of each other for their own reasons.

  • Conrad Bain of DIFF'RENT STROKES tv fame was the original CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. Oddly enough, Charlotte Rae, Mrs. Garrett from the same show, also played Linda Lovelace's stunt double in DEEP THROAT.

  • The Drill Sgt. in Stanley Kubrick's FULL METAL JACKET was one in real life, too.


    QUIZ TIME!

    Name the celebrities who did the voices for the following animated characters in films:

            1) Templeton the Rat in CHARLOTTE'S WEB
        2) The 2 mice in THE RESCUERS
        3) The little white fuzzy guy in BLACK CAULDRON
        4) Aladdin in ....ALADDIN
bonus   5) Characters in the long forgotten ROCK AND RULE?

    LITERATURE TO MOVIES DISCUSSION SEED

    FRANKENSTEIN and its numerous other film adaptations of the Mary Shelly classic, are often much better than the book itself. Though the book breaks some new ground for the time it came out with continuity skipping, and point of view, it's ultimately an outstanding story, that's written poorly. Anybody agree?/disagree? I'd suggest that the Karloff original and it's sequel (minus the scenes with the rival scientist and the miniature people) tell the story much better than Shelly did. Granted, the monster's speaking personality is sacrificed, but to good effect, making him one of America's greatest monster characters.

    There was also a TV movie FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY which came out in 1973, that I believe was the first version to actually take a crack at the full Mary Shelly version, and it was much more entertaining than the DeNiro/Branagh vehicle ever was.

    What other movies do you feel are better than the book they were based on? Without much explanation, unless asked for, I think the following count: 

            *THE SHINING            *THE EXORCIST   
        *PLANET of the APES     *APOCALYPSE NOW ("Heart of Darkness")

    Thanks all, send comments to:
    Robert A Berry II
    4019149@mcimail.com

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