Screen Junkies » the silence of the lambs

R.I.P. Charles Napier

Wookie Johnson — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:42:07 +0000

Steve Jobs isn’t the only dead guy in town. Sadly, square-jawed character actor Charles Napier has passed away at the age of 75. The Bakersfield, California resident enjoyed a 43 year screen career, having recently voiced Dr. Spelts on Archer. Napier is most famous for his authorative look which earned him memorable roles in Rambo: First Blood Part II, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, The Blues Brothers, and The Silence of the Lambs.

This is always a difficult time of year to pass away. I’m predicting we’ll see more than a few Charles Napier costumes this Halloween.

7 Wildly Unnecessary Porn Parodies

Penn Collins — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:18:19 +0000

I suppose, once upon a time, porn parody movies made sense. I mean, I don’t really know who looks for slapstick and comedy in their porn, but when people were actually buying these movies, I guess it made sense to at attach your adult film to the brand of an established commercial one, even if it was in a pretty dumb fashion.

Well, that synergy will only get you so far. I understand the big parodies like Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, but some porn producers pursued parodies that were just awful and pretty damn unsexy. So we figured we would list a few of these wildly unnecessary parodies.

(I had to watch so much porn for this piece.)

7. Taxi Driver – Taxi Driver

Hmm. Travis Bickle, the protypical anti-hero, goes around banging chicks. Okay. I guess that’s a thing that could be made. Of course, I’m guessing the female lead won’t be Jodie Foster‘s character, the 14 year-old whore, but nothing would surprise me any more.

Nope. There’s her character. Right on the cover. Great.

6. The Cosby Show – Not The Cosby Show XXX

First of all – this intro is perhaps the funniest thing I have seen in six months. Please enjoy it. It’s safe for work, provided you don’t work at a Klan headquarters or something.

Beyond that, I have a number of issues with this production. But the only one worth addressing in this space is who wanders around a porn store and says to the clerk, “I love watching people have sex, but I don’t like it when one of them isn’t Bill Cosby“?

Has the well run dry? Couldn’t someone just do another Star Wars porn parody? Must we reach into the annals (hehe) of unsexy sitcoms and have people busting nuts to America’s first family? Is nothing sacred?

5. American Beauty – American Booty

OK. I get that “beauty” sounds like “booty.” But if that’s your only tenuous connection between your film and anything mildly erotic, you might want to change course. The non-porn version was a scathing social commentary on the hollowness of suburban life (which is so cliché that THAT should be parodied) as played out through the lives of a half-dozen miserable people.

You hard yet?

Yeah, me neither.

CBS Medical Drama Orders 50CC’s Of Jonathan Demme. STAT!

Penn Collins — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:33:46 +0000

Jonathan Demme, having completely conquered the medium of film, has decided to try his hand at television by signing on to helm the pilot episode of an untitled medical drama for CBS. In addition to a title, the project is also lacking a cast, though it does have a premise and a script, courtesy of Erin Brokovich scribe Susannah Grant.

Demme hasn’t done any sort of TV work in decades, but his pedigree in film is strong, to say the least. He scored a historic Oscar sweep (including Best Director) for The Silence of the Lambs and proved his relevance recently with the acclaimed Rachel Getting Married. While television is a different format, I don’t think expecting greatness from his involvement here is presumptuous.

The CBS pilot focuses on a type-A surgeon whose world is turned upside down after his ex-wife dies and starts haunting him from the grave. But not “scary-haunting.” More like “Casper-haunting” in that she teaches him life lessons and crap. Assuming it gets picked up, your grandparents’ new favorite television show will be on CBS this fall. (Vulture)