No 1: Nothing But Trouble (Aykroyd, 1991): Prince Charles Cinema, 8.30pm
This film will be introduced by Telegraph film critic Tim Robey, who has written about the movie here, and is the author of the new book about Hollywood flops Box Office Poison.
Empire review:
Chevy Chase, John Candy and Dan Aykroyd are all comic actors with a
string of hit comedy movies, including Ghostbusters and Uncle Buck,
between them. It’s worth pointing this out, since in this “comedy” their comic
talents are strangely absent, and there is barely one laugh to be had
throughout the whole film. Chase is rich financial publisher Chris Thorne, who encounters the
beautiful Diane (Demi Moore) in a lift, and invites her on a daytrip to
Atlantic City. Setting off with her and a Brazilian couple along for the
ride, they take a detour off the freeway for a picnic and end up in the
derelict village of Valkenvania, where they get arrested for running a
stop sign. Now, Valkenvania is no ordinary place, so instead of being let off
with a traffic ticket, the foursome are hauled up in front of
100-year-old Judge Reeve (Dan Aykroyd) looking like a latex leftover from
Dick Tracy), whose methods of justice are extreme to say the least. Finding
them guilty, the judge, his policeman grandson (Candy) and his
man-hungry granddaughter (Candy in drag) imprison the four in their
booby-trapped home where they encounter Bobo and Little Devil (two
adult-sized babies that look like Jabba The Hut) and various moving
floors, walls and gizmos that would get better laughs at a funfair’s
haunted house. Unfortunately this
isn’t even half as fun as the shortest bumper-car ride, with the cast —
lost in a sea of unfunny situations and badly executed antique jokes on
loan from The Munsters— all obviously puzzled about why they are
actually there.
Jo Berry
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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No 2: E.T. the Extraterrestrial (Spielberg, 1982): Cinema Museum, 7pm
Cinema Museum introduction to the event:
Wonder Reels return to the Cinema Museum with their unique events featuring live performances from outstanding London musicians followed by a 35mm screening of a full feature film chosen with the artist in mind. The event will start with a live performance by British multi instrumentalist producer Forest Law who crafts a slice of Balearic funk and urban Tropicalia. Centred around his adept, Bossa Nova-influenced guitar playing, old school sampling, and UK-styled beats, played alongside his mellow, yet sombre vocal work.
Time Out review:
Returning to the rich pastures of American suburbia, Steven Spielberg takes the utterly commonplace story of a lonely kid befriending an alien from outer space, and invests it with exactly the same kind of fierce and naive magic that pushed Disney's major masterpieces like Pinocchio into a central place in 20th century popular culture. Moreover, with its Nativity-like opening and its final revelation, the plot of E.T. has parallels in religious mythology that help to explain its electric effect on audiences. But although conclusively demonstrating Spielberg's preeminence as the popular artist of his time, E.T. finally seems a less impressive film than Close Encounters. This is partly because its first half contains a couple of comedy sequences as vulgar as a Brooke Bond TV chimps commercial, but more because in reducing the unknowable to the easily loveable, the film sacrifices a little too much truth in favour of its huge emotional punch.
David Pirie
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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