Christmas Week: "Little Britain"

I know that the Little Britain series had a special two-parts episode made for Christmas, called Little Britain Abroad, with characters traveling to exotic places, such as the Belgian Ardennes (a couple spending their honeymoon in a caravan) or Spain or Disneyworld (Lou and Andy were to go there, but their plane crashed on a desert island…). Unfortunately, the censors of YouTube apparently didn't like the fact that people shared funny stuff, and the episode is now only available through several fragments. The good news is that my account hasn't been suspended (yet!) and I have a scene that has something to do with Christmas. Enjoy!



I look a pillock!

Christmas Week: Mr Bean

This is probably one of my favourite scenes from the whole Mr Bean series with Rowan Atkinson. In this episode Mr Beans goes to Harrods to buy some Christmas stuff. And look what happens when he spots a nativity scene…



Exterminate! Exterminate!

I especially liked the shepherd knocking on the truck as a sign that the driver can go.

Christmas Week: "Home Alone"

Here's another Christmas film I really love: Home Alone, starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. (They curiously kind of disappeared from the screens after that…)

Here's the trailer of the director's cut version:

"He's a disturbed child who's searching for a home…"

KEVIN: I made my family disappear… I'm a criminal.

"He takes over their home and plans his vengeance…"

"Now Harry and Marv struggle to regain their house at any cost"

"Christmas kills once a year, when you're… HOME ALONE"

Ok, it was just a spoof. But this is frankly one of the best parodies to be seen on YouTube, along with that freaky, scary Mary Poppins re-cut trailer and Brokeback to the Future.

Admit it'd have been great to have Kevin as an evil creature coming from hell to annoy those poor Harry and Marvin in their idyllic existence, just after moving in a new cosy neighbourhood…

Here's another re-cut trailer:



So silly!

Christmas Week: "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"

The National Lampoon's Christmas Vacations ranks high in my favourite movies. I watch it every 25 December evening. It stars Chevy "Combover" Chase and other actors belonging to the Saturday Night Live show, such as Randy Quaid.

Let's start with the cartoon opening titles:



In this film, Clark Griswold is the head of a small family. He wants to celebrate Christmas with his whole family. First they have to go and cut a tree in the forest… That was quite an adventure, but it's nothing next to what happens after that…



Clark also attached 250 strands of lights to his roof…

… but it didn't work… But wait!



The attic scene:



The saucer sledge scene:



The dinner scene:



Towards the end of the film, Clark is really pissed off (due to the various disasters that happened in his house [including the burning of his Christmas tree and the electrocution of a cat]), but he was mostly frustrated because he hadn't received his bonus money, until…



I hope you enjoyed these fragments and that you might want to watch the whole film.

Christmas Week: "Muppet Christmas Carol"

Welcome to my second theme week, namely the Christmas Week!

I'll devote this week's articles to my favourite videos that have something to do with Christmas. Previously on this blog, I already showed you a tremendous parody of the Jingle Bells lyrics, song by the Joker (aka Mark Hamill) in Batman: the Animated Series…

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse-open sleigh, hey!

Jingle bells, Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
The Batmobile lost a wheel
And the Joker got awayyyyyyyyy!
Crashing through the roof
On a one horse-open tree
Busting out I go
Laughing all the wayyyyyyyyyy! Haahahahahah!

Now it's time for me to talk about one of my top-three Christmas movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol. The film stars Michael Caine to perfectly perform the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. (By the way, in the French version, he's voiced-over by the talented Bernard Dhéran.) It features the Muppets (of course) playing different characters in Dickens's story, e.g. Kermit as Bob Cratchit, and Gonzo the Great to act as Dickens/the narrator — definitely an overt one in this case, as in the book. At the beginning of the movie, he introduces Ebenezer Scrooge…



I LOVE THAT SONG!

I also love this one, "It feels like Christmas".



As a bonus, you can also read a blog entry that I wrote on germ@namur featuring another song that refers to my new nickname… (Martin, you're gonna like it too!)

Freddy vs. Jason: the Ultimate Matchup

A couple of years ago, I watched that slasher film named Freddy vs. Jason, consisting of 85 boring minutes before you can finally watch the two evil characters (Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street and Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th series) fight with each other in a kind of final epic struggle to death. Here it is:



This is so funny, don't you think?

A Lawn Mower Can Save Your Life!!!

Remember what I wrote in my blog entry of 7 October? Well, for the first time I have to quote myself:

[Talking about Peter Jackson's Braindead]
I keep the best scene for the article I'll post on 31 October: it'll suit perfectly to the theme of the day… See you then!

Here we are. 31 October. I'm writing this at 6.42 pm. It's already dark. I'm alone in the corridor where my student room lies. It's the perfect time to watch the best scene of Braindead: the Lawnmower Scene. If you don't like horror movies and loathe the sight of blood (even fake), then you'd beter not watch this. Nevertheless, if you do want to have a good laugh, please watch it. It's definitely not the kind of movies that "make you shit bricks" (just to quote again thenostalgiacritic – cf. yesterday's post), but instead it's a tremendous movie.



And I can't resist to the temptation of showing you the fight opposing Father McGruder to several zombies:



And this is the origin of the zombie problem: rat monkeys of Sumatra (!):



Haha!!!!

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the film!

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead definitely kicks ass! It's a British zombie movie that's meant to be silly. As I didn't remember the plot quite well, here's the story in a nutshell (taken from the Wikipedia entry):

The plot focuses on Shaun, an unmotivated young man who is attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he reconciles with his ex-girlfriend and settles his various issues with his mother and stepfather. At the same time he has to cope with an apocalyptic uprising of zombies that is causing society to collapse.

Here's a video containing some very good scenes of the film.



And a video featuring an appropriate song to fit the footage (and vice-versa):



The humour featured in this movie is typically British, and it is one of the reasons why I warmly recommend it, even if you don't like horror films. There are lots of references to George A. Romero's movie, too.

If you're interested in seeing more of that, check the many videos on YouTube.

The Top 11 Scariest Movies of All Time

Welcome to the Halloween Theme Week! It means that this week, I plan to post videos relating to Halloween.

Today's video was made by thatguywiththeglasses (my favourite YouTuber) for his channel thenostalgiacritic (which had also been deleted by YouTube). He analyses the "top eleven scariest nostalic moments of all time. Why top 11? Because I like to go one step behind".



# 11: The Wizard of Oz

I definitely have to see this movie: it's a reference for many parodies. It's a little bit too kitschy for me, though.


# 10: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (old version: 1971)

Never seen this one too, but just a couple extracts. Too kitschy as well.

"So, what's the deal, Wonka*?" [*pronounced as "wanker", I think…]

# 9: Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland

In French, I think it had the ridiculous name of "Bizounours"…


# 8: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (animated version)


# 7: The snake from Beetlejuice (by Tim Burton)


# 6: Ghostbusters

I was scared the shit out of myself by that ghost librarian when I was young!!

"… a spiritual nanny played by Peter MacNicol. Peter MacNicol is already really scary… Now imagine him in drag trying to play a Mary Poppinsish pedophile from hell and you got yourself a pretty nasty image."

# 5: The child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Never seen, but I heard of it, especially as a musical.


# 4: Large Marge from Pee Wee's Big Adventure (again by Burton)

I saw this movie a couple of years ago, and I regret it… It's one of the dumbest (in the bad sense of the term) films ever. On the other hand, I rather like Big Top Pee Wee (shame on me).


# 3: Judge Doom from Who framed Roger Rabbit

This film stands in the my Top 10 Best Movies ever. I love Christopher Lloyd playing this part. He never blinks in the whole film… And the French version is great, too.

"The vilain is tall, is dark, is Christopher Lloyd…"

"… and you can count the bricks we shit after seeing this scene."

I just love this kind of expressions.

By the way, do you know why the title is written without a question mark? It's due to a superstition in Hollywood saying that you can never put such a sign in a title. Basically.


# 2: the clown from Poltergeist

I still have to see it. Another source of parodies.


# 1: the banshee from Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Don't know that one… But it looks scary… I mean back then it probably was.



Anyway, this is a great list, even though there are other monsters and creepy creaters that'd deserved to be on that list. I'm thinking about the wrath of God at the end of Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark, for instance.