Reviews

Eddie Izzard is one of the only comedians that is worth seeing in person today. His humor works on many levels, and at times I out of the blue remember a line from Glorious or one of his other performances and it makes me laugh. As an actor he is pretty good but his strength is definitely as a stand-up comedian. It's almost as if a male college professor with a brilliant sense of humor and womens clothing is standing in front of a classroom of people and just lecturing about history, religion, whatever seems to cross Eddie's mind. If you haven't seen his stand-up performances, don't cheat yourself out of the pleasure.

Watched this series in Jr. High the season it was on, and while the series was short lived, it included some very funny sketches. My favorite, and the one I wish I could dig up the videotape on, is the Steve Martin parody of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' video. Dressed as the KOP, Martin walked down the street, and had to stomp on some 'tiles' to make them light up, then gave a typical Steve Martin shrug and glance to the sky for divine intervention. The Den of Revulsion was another memorable clip ('Eeeeewwwww!'), and for some reason their spoof of phone sex sticks in my mind - the backwoods brothers that actually go to the trouble of establishing credit to speak with 'The Naked Lady' (Catherine O'Hara I think), who talks to them while taking care of her kids and ironing for her husband. It was a series that with a little better writing and a better time slot (prine time on Fridays, I think, matched up against 1st season Miami Vice), this show could have gone places.

To call Strange Brew a cult classic is to do it a great disservice. The movie, spawned from SCTV characters Bob and Doug McKenzie, on the surface looks like just a lowbrow comedy sketch that ran 90 minutes. But when looking at it further (and listening to the soundtrack album), it becomes obvious that much more thought went into the writing of this movie. It is essentially a modern, beer-filled version of Hamlet. (Get the soundtrack and listen to the track titled 'Shakespeare horked our script', it sheds light on the parallels.) This gives the movie a one-two punch of silly, physical comedy ('Beauty, take it up to thirty this time, eh?') and an interpretation of a classical literary work that critics probably never even see, then kick themselves later for missing it. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas are great in the roles of Bob and Doug McKenzie; their chemistry and timing are excellent, their dialogue and delivery are great, and they are just hilarious. A supporting cast of also-rans fills in the roster, although Paul Dooley (as Claude Elsinore) has done good work, and getting Max von Sydow (as Brewmeister Smith) was a coup. If you're looking for a movie you can laugh at immediately and analyze later, pick this one.

This series took a staple element of the detective genre - mismatched partners, and added the twist that they were brothers. Instead of setting it in a classic location for a detective series (NY, LA, Chicago), they took the 90 minute drive down the coast to the beautiful city of San Diego. What they found was a gold mine. Instead of the tired cliche locations, they banked on the little seen but widely known attractions of San Diego (the Zoo, Sea World, the Beaches, and the close proximity to Baja California). The pilot was set in Florida, but the series was wisely moved to the West Coast; Rick Simon, the older of the brothers, was a former marine that was the braun, while buttoned down preppy AJ (the embodiment of preppies in the 80's) was the cultured, refined brother. With Tim Reid as a supporting character (Downtown Brown) and Mary Carver as their mother Cecilia, this series produced many memorable episodes that not only entertained, but taught about the viewer history (WW2, John Dillinger, etc.). Catch it in syndication if you can.