It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Wild.

There is no way in hell a movie like It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World could be made in today's day and age, it's such a spectacle of it's time bringing in every famous comedian actor to make a ridiculously fun movie, with great stunts, and yet still be grounded a fair deal in reality. The story follows four groups of people who witness a bad car crash and before the man quite figuritavely and literally kicks the bucket tells them of a briefcase filled with $350,000 buried in a park in California, and very quickly they all make a mad dash to claim the money for themselves with a police chief hot on their tails. I very much enjoyed this movie and in no small part due to the quite star studded cast of the time, just about every famous comedian film actor of the time appeared in some form or another which was sort of a big occasion at the time. You just never saw this multitude of talent come together to work on one picture hardly ever, and it's kinda hard to talk about everyone in turn cause we have about 12 main characters that we see throughou. Nowadays the thought of a multitude of famous actors working on one film is commonplace as water, but each performance is a lot of fun and you can tell each actor brought something of themselves in the part. My absolute favorite being Jonathan Winters, and if I haven't said it already he's a terrific guy and I've yet to see him give a bad performance. The stunt work is great at times and regarding the fact they had to work with 1960s special effects, they really had to do almost everything in camera. They really did make cars just wipeout crash, they did fly an airplane through a roadside billboard, they really did crash an airplane into a restaurant, and what I noticed is like 90% of the stunts is stuff that actually would happen. Until the tail end, every stunt is feasible and could actually be accomplished, there's nothing too absurd or out there but even at the end it's so entertaining you don't mind. Easily the best is the gas station fight scene, I mean not only is it hilarious but the fact that an entire gas station is levelled to the ground during the course of a 2 on 1 fight is amazing to behold. The film has had several edits since it's premiere in 1963, with the original cut clocking in at over 3 hours but the most common one is about 2 hours and 40 minutes so it is a bit of a sit through especially for a comedy film but well worth it. Hell the movie even has an intermission, it just really goes to show how much cinema audiences have changed cause nowadays an almost 3 hour movie could be knocked out in one sitting for the majority of people. It's an epic comedy for sure, but the characters are so normal and down to earth that you really could see yourself in their position and the setpieces don't go to extreme lengths of impossibility. It really is a timecapsule of an older generation of cinema and yet doesn't feel that much dated beyond one or two small scenes and a pretty indecent term that there's no way you could say in a movie now, it's a highly entertaining and genuinely funny movie worth your time. It's a wild ride across California, and the true humor of the film is found in how everyday people can do the most absurd and crazy things over something as basic as money. The world is truly a mad place to live when you get right down to it, and all it takes is one crazy or bad day to bring the lunatic out in you. 4 stars, 8/10! A true spectacle of movie making that should be watched by more people.

The Year Without A Santa Claus

The more I analyze it, Christmas movie titles are such liars! It's A Wonderful Life is not wonderful, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is not an instructional video on how to steal Christmas, and The Year Without A Santa Claus has Santa Claus delivering presents! What even in the coldest depths of hell??

As our final nod to the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials I decided to do this movie, and it's not half bad so we ran the full gambit of, not that good to excellent to okay. And so the story goes that Santa woke up one day before Christmas and through quite honestly the rudest and most likely to be terminated elf decides that his days of nightly adventure to bring gifts to kind and good children must come to an end, but the missus won't be having none of that talk and sets out with two elfs to find the Christmas spirit that Santa doesn't believe exists anymore. Now I for one would think that would be an incredible Christmas movie, to have Santa Claus himself doubt his abilities and intentions in a world that doesn't believe in him and the Christmas spirit has disappeared leading to a very reflective, dark, and downright depressing movie where Santa has to come to terms with the world and come out on top. And you get hints of that here, I mean obviously they have to keep it upbeat and not childhood scarring but come on! How great would that be to see a character study of quite possibly the most beloved man in history? But it's more subtext than actual text I grant you that, with Mickey Rooney returning as Santa giving a very good performance juggling doubt and sadness with hope and kindness, and the cool thing is it ties with Santa Claus Is Coming To Town! Santa is still voiced by Mickey, Mrs. Claus has red highlights so clearly she's Jessica, and even some artwork survived to this movie. It's a shame we couldn't have Winter back but we kinda make up for it with the addition of Snow Miser and Heat Miser which are very brief characters in an already brief special, but my lord did they leave an impression. Everyone knows or has at least heard I'm Mr. White Christmas, I'm Mr. Snow once in their life, and it is a very catchy and fun tune. The music quality is sort of in the middle this time around, not as great as Santa Claus but not as forgettable as Rudolph, I Believe In Santa Claus and Blue Christmas are highlights for me and they are very nice and sweet. So if you're in the mood for more after the first two Rankin/Bass specials check this one out, it's an alright movie with some highlights though Santa Claus will always be the best in my eyes. I always heard very mixed opinions about the Rankin/Bass stuff ranging from absolute Christmas classics to just being weird and kind of nonsensical so I wanted to bring up a few examples and judge for myself and let you do the same. Personally, they are a mixed bag but I don't hate them, I'm a fan of stopmotion and true it's no Harryhausen but they did good work. I guess it depends on what you like, which I can understand. And next week, we look at some well known, something new, and something I'm....less than looking forward to. Until next time.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Bet you didn't know Santa was a total ginger!

You'd think after the near merciless beating I delivered to Rudolph, I'd be ready to take out old Saint Nick as well but I think you'll be surprised how much I enjoy this special. This was the one along with Rudolph that I watched many a time when I was very young regardless of the time of year, and it's aged very well in my memory. Though I doubt it's the first, I do say this is the best Christmas special that tells the story of how Santa Claus came to be. The story takes every pre-known fact about Santa and interweaves it into a lovely little story, starting when he was just a wee baby and adopted by a family of elfs who parent him and teach them their ways of toymaking. As he grows up he decides to take the toys he and his family made to the children of a small and rather quite depressing looking town, which brands him as an outlaw and forces him to be more elusive in his delivering of toys to the good kids. There he meets a schoolteacher named Jessica and a very sweet relationship starts between them, and they continue on with their lives while still delivering gifts. Unlike the Rudolph special that took barely a darn thing from the actual song it was based on, this special covers just about everything with hardly anything added on besides a penguin in a scarf and a warlock turned babyface but even then it works very well. Mickey Rooney is our Santa and honestly I never realized how absolutely southern he sounds in this special, and it is glorious. It's just a cherry on top of an already very good performance where most of the story focuses on when Kris Kringle was still a young man and he brings such a legitimate joy and niceness to a world known and beloved person. Robie Lester is such a sweetie in this movie as Jessica and quite possibly has the best song in the whole special, in fact the songs are quite sparse compared to the last special but are done way better. They're more memorable, fun to listen to, and are even songs I wouldn't mind hearing on the radio this time of year. One Foot In Front Of The Other is an incredibly upbeat and catchy tune, and serves basically as an inspirational song while My World Is Beginning Today is a slow little ballad that's quite lovely to listen to and Robie Lester slays the singing. The more I think about it, just the entire quality of the production is improved since Rudolph, the animation while still stopmotion is more fluid and looks nicer, the songs are definitely a gigantic improvement, the story and characters feel natural, and it can have it's sweet moments that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. And again my favorite character is the warlock who Kris meets and convinces him to be a friend to his journey, I don't know if it's Keenan Wynn's voice or what but he's a joy to watch and it's funny to think he legitimately scared me when I was younger before he became a good guy but honestly I was one step above being afraid of my own shadow at that point so I'll give myself some credit. And we even have Fred Astaire as the narrator and it's always nice to see him in a movie. So yeah, kinda surprising that I love this special so much but it's hard to argue with decent material and fine actors that make it all work so well. Now this is a definite recommendation for the holidays with your youngins' or just if you're curious from how much praise I showered it with. No wonder I used to watch it a lot as a kid.