What is my favorite Robin Williams film? The World According to Garp.

Robin Williams starred in some really good films over the years, offering up some wonderful performances.   But he also starred in many middle of the road films, and had his share of clunkers as well.

But even watching a movie like RV, I always felt that Williams gave it a 100 per cent effort regardless of the material he was working with.  Sometimes he was able to rise above it, sometimes not.

I’ve been asked several times over the past few days what my favorite Robin Williams film is and after considering all of his films that I have enjoyed, I always came back to the one I still find the most fascinating.  That would be The World According to Garp. 

I don't know why but this film often seems to be overlooked when talking about Robin William’s resume.  The rating for it at the IMDB is 7.2, and that's certainly nothing to sneeze at.  But what perplexes me is the attitude that Warner, who owns the rights seems to have towards it. 

Yes, you’ll repeatedly hear about Dead Poet’s Society, Mrs. Doubtfire or his academy award winning turn in Goodwill Hunting but seldom do people mention Garp these days.  It seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle, and there’s no reason for a film this well acted and this well made to be left for dead.

 

I had the film in my Netflix queue for well over a year in the number one spot.  It was on very long wait in the "expected availability" during that time and never budged or nudged upward to even just “long wait”.  Netflix should start a new category and call it "You'll Get it When Hell Freezes Over."  And checking now, I see it is no longer available and if you know anything at all about Netflix, that’s the end of that.

Warner, has relegated the film to it’s Burn On Demand DVD-R program which is sort of like the shit end of the DVD Stick.  When they do that, seeing a movie get a decent blu-ray release is practically nil. But, it’s better than nothing.

But Garp should have a blu-ray release with all the trimmings. If you've never seen it or read the book, there's a lot going on here.  So much so I wouldn't even begin to run through the plot with you but if you want to know just look up the synopsis on the internet where I'm sure you'll find it.  The film was released in 1982, and it came after the disastrous Robert Altman version of Popeye (which currently has no DVD release).  And the failure of Popeye has more to do with Altman’s insistence on doing his artsy fartsy shtick than anything Williams did.  The film was an incoherent clumsy bore.  (Caveat: Ebert gave Popeye *** 1/2 stars, but I don’t see it). But I’ll leave that criticism for another day.


Ebert gave Garp three stars and you can read his review here.  But those that have read Irving’s book and seen the film are just as likely to come away with a completely different interpretation.  The movie is a discovery of the unexpected, at times uplifting, but tragedy is always lurking around the corner. As  Ebert puts it, “Garp is bleak, but it has something to say.”

In some ways, the events of Garp do mirror the image we have of Robin Williams.  He has a strong will to overcome, but he cannot ignore the bleakness of humanity that surrounds and engulfs him.  Garp believes that life has much to offer, but when one tragic event leads to another, it’s as if he’s beating his head against the wall.  But he never succumbs to the cruel jokes played by destiny.

 

Could you imagine if this movie had been given a commentary track with Williams, Lithgow, and Glenn Close?  Lithgow was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Award as transsexual ex-football player Roberta Muldoon.  And Glenn Close was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Award as Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields. 

But Warner please take note:  As I write, every single one of Williams films on blu-ray is now on back order from Amazon.  This film deserves to be yanked out of the forgotten pile and placed front and center. Many people believe that Good Morning, Vietnam was his first good film. A few Altman devotees believe it was Popeye.   It’s too bad that Garp came immediately after Popeye, and five years and a few other forgettably bad films before his shining moment as Adrian Cronauer.  This terrific film has just been lost in the shuffle.
You can purchase the DVD-R either through the Warner Archives Store where I got mine just a few weeks ago when they were having a sale or through Amazon.  But it's the same DVD-R disc.

Or, you can buy it digitally through Amazon for $7.88 so if you have a way to view it that way, that might be your best bet since it's HD.

There comes a moment just as the funeral of Garp’s grandfather (Hume Cronyn whom along with Jessica Tandy as the Grandmother are terrific in small roles) is ending, and immediately before we transition from the years of Young Garp (wonderfully played by James McCall) to the adult Garp played by Williams.  And in a way, besides summing up Irving’s Garp, it may have foretold Williams own life.

Young Garp (to his mother Jenny Fields):  Now you don’t have a father either.
Jenny: I know.  Everybody dies.  My parents died.  Your Father died.  Everybody dies.  I’m going to die too.  So will you.  The thing is to have a life before we die.  It can be a real adventure, having a life.

On the outside, Williams always seemed to be living the adventure, bringing joy and touching the lives of so many.  But it was never enough to placate those demons that haunted him throughout his life.  And because of that, the world will forever be a sadder place.  Because as Jenny said, everybody dies.  Sometimes, way too soon.

Here’s the Fifty Shades of Grey Trailer which premiered today.

Because gee, it’s not like anybody else will be posting it.

Amazon Introduces Kindle Unlimited

If you have Amazon Prime and own a Kindle, you probably already know that you can “borrow” one book a month from the Amazon Library at no extra charge.  Now, Amazon introduces it’s more liberal Netflix type reading program known as Kindle Unlimited.

For $9.99 per month plus applicable tax, you can sit and read to your heart’s content forever, and never run out of the printed word.  Yes, there is no limit on number of books you can borrow. 

You’ll be your very own Henry Bemis and you won’t even need a nuclear war to send you on your way.  And if you should happen to break you glass as Bemis did, you can always get you another pair.

Unlike borrowing under the Amazon Prime plan, you don’t need to own a Kindle.  You just have to have the Kindle App on whatever device you own whether it’s your P.C., Laptop, Cellphone, or Touch Pad. 

There is supposedly about 600,000 titles available so you should be able to find something worth your while.  I guess it also depends on your reading habits as to whether or not you’ll get your money’s worth. 

If you read a lot and have the time to, this could be right up your alley.  But it won’t benefit me so I’ll opt out of this new program.  There just isn’t that much time for me to read and I’m lucky if I get through two books a month these days.  Maybe when I retire in about four years, it’ll be a different story. 

Watch the video, use the links to sign up.

Marsha Blackburn–R, Tennessee. Telecommunications Industry Whore

Here’s a blatant example as to why some congress people like Marsha Blackburn think you're a clueless dolt who will never get the fact that her ass has been bought and paid for by the cable/satellite/telecommunications industry.

Like a good GOP servant of their corporate masters, she thinks competition is a good thing....up until the point she is paid to think otherwise.  And when GOP whores like Marsha Blackburn are drowning and Comcast and Telecommunications lobbyist’s cash, that’s all the time.

Marsha Blackburn-R, from Tennessee knows that the mindless drones in her district will vote for her regardless as long as she carries the GOP symbol of mediocrity next to her name.  In essence, she gets to screw them over and they’ll beg for more.  Blackburn can get away with what anyone else with a modicum of common sense knows is a blatant sellout in an effort to make sure that the telecommunications industry can continue to rule over us with no real competition and she can continue to fill her coffers with the endless funds shower her in.  Nothing like a lot of Comcast Cash to bathe yourself with.

A little bit of brief history of what has happened over the past few years.

Cable and internet service providers in most cities and towns face no competition whatsoever. Therefore, since you have no alternative, they charge exorbitant prices for everything, have the world's shittiest service, and feel absolutely no need to upgrade their system.

Some communities and towns finally got fed up with the bullshit and started their own municipal ISP's so that the citizens (that's us in case you forgot) would have an alternative. And since they don't need to make a huge obscene profit, these systems would be genuine alternatives and competition for the cable companies that have most of us by the balls.
And if there's one thing these companies hate, it's competition. Because competing means they have to do such mundane boring things as charge what is fair, give better service, and upgrade their rundown crappy utilities that are supposed to hold the thing together.  And the money you pay to these Municipal systems?  It goes right back into the maintenance and infrastucture instead of the endlessly deep pockets of companies like Comcast, Time Warner, etc.

So they have tried to do an end around in order to get cities, counties, towns, and states to pass laws making it illegal for cities to have their own telecommunications service. They achieve this object by buying off the GOP and representatives like Blackburn who understand that if she places a pile of shit in front of her voters in Tennessee and calls it a Rose, they’ll swear up and down it’s a rose.

From Ars Technica:

Blackburn received $10,000 from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association this year and last year, according to OpenSecrets.org. She received $12,500 in contributions from Verizon, $10,000 from AT&T, $7,500 from Comcast, and $7,000 from representatives of Time Warner Cable. (These donations come from the companies' political action committees, employees, or owners.)

The bill—H.R. 5016, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act of 2015—was left as unfinished business yesterday. A roll call vote on Blackburn's amendment "was postponed, but it initially appeared to have enough votes for passage," according to the news site Broadcasting & Cable.

The National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, and National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors yesterday sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to defeat Blackburn's amendment.
"[S]tate laws that prohibit or restrict public and public/private broadband projects... harm both the public and private sectors, stifle economic growth, prevent the creation or retention of thousands of jobs, and hamper work force development," the letter said. "The private sector alone cannot enable the United States to take full advantage of the opportunities that advanced communications networks can create in virtually every area of life.

As a result, federal, state, and local efforts are taking place across the Nation to deploy both private and public broadband infrastructure to stimulate and support economic development and job creation, especially in economically distressed areas. But such efforts are being thwarted in some areas by State laws that prohibit or restrict municipalities from working with private broadband providers, or developing themselves, if necessary, the advanced broadband infrastructure that will stimulate local businesses development, foster work force retraining, and boost employment in economically underachieving areas."

But at least Birdbrain Blackburn is consistent. She's always been against anything and everything that is for the working class and anybody who can't ejaculate cash into her campaign coffers. Blackburn is against equal pay for women, against raising the minimum wage, against the ACA, against relief for Sandy victims, against sensible gun control, against Planned Parenthood, against public education, against feeding hungry children, against veteran benefits.

One thing Blackburn does stand for (or is it lie down for?) and always will is the Corporate Sugar Daddies whom she sold her ass to a long long long time ago.  I guess that’s why she’s from The Volunteer State.  She’ll volunteer to let anyone be her pimp for the right amount of $$$$$$$$.

Classic Playboy Comics/Jokes 6/3/2014: The Classic Christmas Office Party

Yes, I know it’s been a while since I uploaded one of these.  I can feel my blog dripping in the tears of your disappointment.  But as I said before, I’m not much into multitasking, and my in depth Natty Gann article involved a lot more work.

I’m not going to say Classic Playboy Comic/Joke of the day anymore since it’s almost impossible for me to keep a consistent schedule unless you turn off your ad blocker and buy enough crap from Amazon so I can quit and work on this thing full time.  But you’d have to buy one helluva lot of stuff and I could get a bigger profit margin if I just went out and panhandled.  Maybe I will.

So here we go, have fun.  I think these are from the January 1954 issue.

   

Playboy Classic Comic of the Day 5/21/2014

Here’s your Playboy comic of the day, pretty much on time, signed sealed and delivered.  Well, at least sealed and delivered.

I would like to be writing a new article but real life keeps interfering. 

I’ve about decided on my next Clyde’s Movie Palace in depth analysis when I can get to it.  Before that happens, I may transfer a few of my reviews over from my old blog.  They’ll need spruced up of course, so that takes a bit of time.  Hell, a few times I’ve rewritten the whole dang things.

Anyway, I’m still going to try to get something else up tonight.  Don’t forget to check out the related merchandise at the bottom (turn off adblock to see them) and comments are always open.  I think for the first week or two the articles are up.  Then I have to approve them.  It cuts down on Spam.

 

     

Playboy Classic Comics/Jokes of the Day for 5/17/2014–5/20/2014

If you were wondering whether I had quit doing this, you can stop now cease doing so.  For the past three or four days I was hard at work on this Clyde’s Movie Palace Article which I’m sure you’ll enjoy once you take a minute to indulge yourself in a little Classic Playboy Humor.

Four comics for today.  Three for the three days I missed when I was hard at work watching Susan Dey and William Katt get it on, and one for today.  This is going to happen from time to time.  I’m not a good multi-tasker especially when I work a regular job besides trying to keep this blog up.  Of course, if you want to pay for me to have an early retirement, I’d be happy to work on this thing full time and beyond.  So if you don’t see the comics for a couple of days, don’t fret.  I’ll make up for missed days.  And as usual, you can support my endeavors simply by turning off your ad blocker while you’re here.  I appreciate that as well.  There should be no pop-ups or unwanted videos.  Just some ads to help me buy a Blu-ray or DVD on very rare occasions.