BEFORE: Well, the goal was to get my Thanksgiving movies all watched BEFORE the big day, but then I got sidetracked by the weather, and my sleeping schedule got even worse than normal, which is saying something. Having a second job on weeknight evenings and weekends has screwed things up a bit over the last two years, but when I get a week off from that job, like this holiday week, things seem to just go ka-blooey. (I had little sense of purpose when the theater was closed for two months this summer, but that's another story...). I stayed up late on Monday, intending to sleep late on Tuesday, which I did - but then when I finally woke up at lunchtime, my wife told me we were expecting bad rain later that day, so I had to get out in the backyard and sweep up all the leaves so they wouldn't clog the backyard drain, which would lead to us having a basement full of water.
OK, I'd been meaning to get out there anyway and cut down the weeds one more time before winter, so I did that and swept up as many leaves as I could, but then I was exhausted, so two hours after waking up, doing yard work and eating lunch, I was having a nap. This was followed by staying up late on Tuesday night to check that back drain during the rainstorm, however the worst rain wasn't due until about 4 am on Wednesday morning, so I got to bed at 5 am today, after the rain finally slowed up, and then had to go to work on just a few hours sleep. Came home tired again, of course, and had another nap this evening from about 5 to 7 pm. Geez, when is a guy supposed to get his movie reviews written?
Watching the film wasn't a problem, I got that in before the rain really started to come down. Anyway, thanks to the ripple effect I've got one more Thanksgiving movie to watch - this one's really just a connector of Thanksgiving movies, so tune in tomorrow for Turkey Day movie #3 - but now I've got to watch that movie ON Thanksgiving, and late in the day at that. We're going out for a buffet lunch, so I'll have to watch my movie in the evening tomorrow, and then probably post on Friday.
Tim Meadows carries over from "Jack and Jill".
THE PLOT: Late-night radio advice host Leon Phelps is fired from his Chicago gig, but then gets a letter from a wealthy former lover who offers to take care of him.
AFTER: Well, I hope that when I'm finally done with my time here on Earth that I am the holder of several world records, either official or unofficial. I'd love to be the oldest man who ever lived, but I realize the chances of that are slim. I'm certainly going to hold the record for working for my boss the longest, because it's 30 years and counting and nobody's even trying to come in second. Maybe I can hold the record for the world's largest Star Wars autograph collection, that would be nice, but I've only got 120 or so, and I can't say for sure, but somebody out there might have more than I do.
Here's another one that's easily attainable - I think now I've watched every single movie ever made that was based on a Saturday Night Live sketch or character. Can anybody else out there claim this, or even come in a close second? No way, because again, who else would want to do that, or even if they did, who would be willing to admit that? OK, let's count them down, I've now seen "The Blues Brothers", "Coneheads", "Wayne's World", "MacGruber", "Superstar", "A Night at the Roxbury", and even "Stuart Saves His Family". Huh, I kind of thought there would be more - "Wayne's World 2", of course, and by extension "Blues Brothers 2000", but come on, is that it? The only one I seem to be missing is "It's Pat", and that one's not available, probably for good reason.
There's a new one, from the writing team known as "Please Don't Destroy", but I guess that's not based on a specific sketch, it just has the three guys from the show playing versions of themselves as they look for a lost treasure or something. "Hot Rod" doesn't count? Then why the hell did I watch it? This sketch comedy show has been on for like 48 years, had a couple hundred notable comedians in the cast, and they've only made 11 feature films? What a bunch of slackers - come on, they only make like 30 shows a year, which means they're in repeats almost half the year. Well, anyway, tonight's film puts me within ONE movie of having seen all of the movie spin-offs, I guess that's almost something?
But this film didn't really age well - it's about Leon Phelps, a late-night radio talk-show host who has no filter, and often just ends up talking about sex and what a great lover he is. And for once the character might just be who he says he is, because we also learn that there's a support group of men who have all had their wives cheat on them by sleeping with the same mysterious stranger with a smiley-face tattoo on his butt, and they're getting closer to figuring out his identity. But then Leon has the bad fortune of getting fired, along with his female producer, so by the time the support group of husbands learns his identity and shows up at the radio station, he's no longer employed there.
So in essence the film becomes something of a chase scene, as Phelps bounces from station to station, either not landing the job due to blowing the interview, or then getting the job and being unable to control his sex-related talk, getting fired and then moving on, with the mob always one or two stations behind. What ends up bringing the group in contact with their prey is Leon getting an anonymous letter from one of his old flames, and she offers to take care of him financially if he'll be her constant companion. But she fails to mention that she's still married to the head of the support group that's trying to kill him.
Really, the only redeeming thing here is that Leon goes and re-visits so many of his old girlfriends and is therefore forced to confront his "love 'em and leave 'em" habits and learns that they were non-productive. Also, getting back together with them turns out to be a bad idea, especially the one who wants to make love while dressed as a circus clown - yeah, run away as fast as you can. And he learns that maybe true love was not meant to be found in one-night stands, but he'd have a better chance with his longtime producer, since they started off as friends.
It's a throwback character, since he dressed in 1970's fashions and seems to have outdated attitudes about relationships and feminism, but at least this got addressed and Phelps was forced to change his thinking in order to have a real lasting relationship. But notice there was never a sequel, and Tim Meadows never headlined another movie after that, so I'm guessing this one just didn't really catch on with most audiences. Also note there wasn't another movie made based on an SNL character for 10 years after this one came out.
OK, at least I'm all set up for Thanksgiving, after our lunch tomorrow I'll watch the last film for November, and then I'll have just SEVEN movies to watch in December, leading up to Christmas. This Movie Year is going to be over before you know it.
Also starring Karyn Parsons, Billy Dee Williams (last seen in "Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker"), Tiffani Thiessen (last seen in "Hollywood Ending"), Lee Evans (last seen in "The Fifth Element"), Will Ferrell (last seen in "Val"), Sofia Milos, Jill Talley (last seen in "World's Greatest Dad"), John Witherspoon (last seen in "Vampire in Brooklyn"), Ken Hudson Campbell (last seen in "Breakfast of Champions"), Rocky Carroll (last seen in "Prelude to a Kiss"), Tamala Jones (last seen in "Can't Hardly Wait"), Kevin McDonald (last seen in "Sky High"), Julianne Moore (last seen in "Dear Evan Hansen"), Eugene Levy (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), David Huband (last seen in "The Lookout"), Brett Heard, Arnold Pinnock (last seen in "Carrie" (2013)), Shaun Majumder (last seen in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"), Diego Fuentes, Sean Thibodeau, Mark McKinney (last seen in "Superstar"), Chris Parnell (last seen in "Slice"), Susan Aceron, Robin Ward, Joan Massiah (last seen in "The Calling"), Hadley Sandiford (last seen in "Bulletproof Monk"), Barbara Barnes-Hopkins (last seen in "Lucky Number Slevin"), Boyd Banks (also last seen in "Superstar"), Jim Codrington, Aaron Berg (last seen in "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day"), Reginald Hudlin.
RATING: 4 out of 10 radio station program directors
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