Author: Ga2so

  • Half-Retro Streaming Movie Adventures: The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

    These were both spur-of-the moment choices. One choice was better than the other.

    The Kentucky Fried Movie

    Wally & THe Beaver in Kentucky Fried Movie
    Evan C. Kim as Loo in The Kentucky Fried Movie

    I was looking through free stuff and this popped up. I thought “Hey, I remember that being funny- I’ll watch it!” It does not hold up. Most of the jokes are only funny if you don’t already know them, and there was so much cheeseball nudity that I kept hiding my screen in case my spouse woke up and thought I was watching seventies porn.

    It’s also very much made for people who watched movies and TV in the seventies. I’m guessing most people under thirty would have no idea that a huge chunk of the movie is a direct parody of Enter the Dragon.

    This is not a great parody poster, but it’s a better parody poster than this movie deserves.

    A poster for The Kentucky Fried Movie that parodies the poster for Lost in Translation.

    Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

    Three Spider-Men pointing at each other in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
    Spider-Man and Spider-Woman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

    My students finished testing early, so we had an hour and a half to fill. I pulled up the first age-appropriate movie I thought might interest them that I could find.

    This movie is so damn good. I hope the final part eventually gets made, but it doesn’t feel very promising. It’s currently scheduled to come out on my birthday… two years from now.

    This parody poster isn’t terrible, but this movie deserves a better one.

    A poster for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse parodying the poster for Kiss of the Spider Woman
    But that costume sure looks cool in shades of blue!
    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Movie Adventures: Chan is Missing (1982)

    Marc Hayashi as Steve in Chan is Missing.
    Marc Hayashi as Steve and Wood Moy as Jo in Chan is Missing.

    Sometimes when I’m watching ultra-low budget movies like this it’s hard to see past the amateur acting and appreciate what the filmmakers managed to capture with pretty much nothing. The acting in this can be pretty rough, but it really captures the feel of San Francisco’s Chinatown.

    It took a while to come p with something for this parody poster. I ended up going with a lost and found link.

    A poster for Chan is Missing that sort-of references the poster for Finding Nemo.
    …and yes, Wayne Wang really did direct Maid in Manhattan.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Not-Quite-Retro Streaming Movie Adventures: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)

    Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
    Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He is glowing in bright colors. The background is an office in black and white.

    Two not-creepy, uplifting movies in a row? It’s a movie miracle! Now I need to find a bar that only serves beer in glass boots.

    I had a good idea for the parody poster, but I didn’t give myself enough time to get the lettering right. This might be the first poster to get a remastered edition.

    A poster for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty parodying the poster for Anatomy of a Murder.
    I can do Saul Bass Lettering if I take my time, honest. Look: Proof!
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: The Ballad of Wallis Island

    Tim Key and Tom basden in The Ballad of Wallis Island.
    Carey Mulligan and Tom Basden in The Ballad of Wallis Island.

    Charming. That’s what this film is. Gentle, but strong. Charming without being precious. It’s not afraid to follow standard movie plots, but it knows how to push them into new spaces. I was worried when I saw the trailer that Tim Key’s stream of consciousness delivery would be grating, but he knows when to pull it back and let his eyes do the acting.

    And the music holds up!

    My first thought for a poster was a Wallace & Gromit redo (Wallis? Wallace? GOLLY I AM CLEVER), but I realized making a fake poster for a sweet movie based on the poster for a different set of sweet movies was redundant. I did get as far as a rough logo, though:

    A partially complete poster for The Ballad of Wallis Island based on the Wallace & Gromit titles.
    I mean, I even found the right font.

    Then I went a different way, and picked a different movie about a very different island.

    A poster for The Ballad of Wallis Island parodying the poster for The Wicker Man.

    Fun fact: this is my 60th movie of the year.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Death of a Unicorn

    Jenna Ortega wincing at an open unicorn mouth.
    Jenna Ortega in Death of a Unicorn. She is looking out in fear. She's colored in shades of red. The background is concentric circles in rainbow colors.

    If you said to someone “A24 movie about unicorns starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega,” they’d probably guess about 90% of what happens in this movie.

    Originally I thought I’d do a riff on the Death to Smoochy poster, but then I decide to use one people might actually recognize.

    A poster for Death of a Unicorn parodying the poster for Born on the Fourth of July
    I like the way it looks like he’s screaming a rainbow.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Classic Movie Adventures: Man With A Movie Camera (1929)

    A man with a movie camera from Man With A Movie Camera.
    Man With A Movie Camera in a glass of beer.

    This is the most literal interpretation of documentary I’ve ever watched. It’s roughly grouped together by themes, but there’s no story. It’s mostly an excuse for wandering around Russia and finding cool things to film in innovative ways.

    There are many versions of this movie floating around. Fandango has a particularly janky print. Look for the restored version (I watched it on Kanopy).

    My first thoughts for the parody poster were a couple of Bond movies, The Man With the Golden Gun and From Russia With Love, but I didn’t want to jump back into Bond after the Goldfinger/The Italian Job mashup, so I went another way. It came out better than I expected.

    A poster for Man with a Movie Camera parodying the poster for Requiem for a Dream.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Movie Adventures: Princess Mononoke (1997)

    San, masked, in Princess Mononoke.
    Ashitaka & San in Princess Mononoke.

    Princess Mononoke was one of those “I hear it’s great but somehow I’ve never seen it” films. The last Studio Ghibli movie I saw was My Neighbor Totoro, which has significantly fewer flying body parts and worm-covered demons. This movie is a prime evidence that “animated” doesn’t mean “for kids.”

    The film is lovely, and the 4K transfer is stunning. I’m glad my first experience seeing it was on the main screen at the Chinese Theatre.

    Today’s parody poster is dumb, but after the first scene with San, her mouth ringed with blood, this terrible idea came into my head and I had to go with it. It doesn’t quite work unless I explain it, which means it doesn’t really work at all.

    A poster for Princess Mononoke that just barely resembles the poster for Joker.
    “Why so serious?”

    Today’s bit of working too hard on a part of the poster that no one will notice: While trying to find a font that closely matched the title on the original poster, I found a reddit post from the person who designed the original logo. They said they used wood blocks to hand print the original, but they also suggested a very similar digital typeface. I slightly re-scaled each of the letters individually, and gave each one its own texture. You can’t tell.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Streaming Movie Adventures: Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982)

    Terry Jones in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
    The singing waiters from the opening of Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

    Some of this still feels brilliant, and some of this feels like stilted, racist schlock.

    Figuring out which poster to parody took forever, but when I figured it out it seemed obvious.

    A poster for Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl in the style of the poster for Trainspotting.

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Ash

    Eiza González as Riya in Ash.
    Eiza González as Riya in Ash.

    This movie isn’t exactly Alien with extra gore and a big spoonful of David Lynch, but it isn’t far from that either. Not a movie for me, but space horror isn’t usually my jam.

    Another rushed poster, but that’s okay; I didn’t really feel much motivation to do something better.

    A poster for Ash that's a lazy ripoff of the poster for Alien. Seems appropriate.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Movie Pass Adventures: Lost Highway (1997)

    Patricia Arquette and Balthazar Getty in Lost Highway
    Robert Blake as Mystery Man in Lost Highway

    Somehow, David Lynch’s Lost Highway is both more and less realistic than Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Body doubles, body switches, a Mystery Man who appears in multiple places at once, and a linear story told in non-linear time, but it’s still not as weird as a guy dressing up a woman to look like the woman who thought she was possessed by her ancestor and killed herself but then two or three other layers of unlikely weirdness happen.

    Also: it was fun to see Robert Loggia beat up a guy on the closed road I use to ride my bike to Griffith Observatory.

    Today’s poster was such an clear choice that I almost avoided it for being too obvious. Fun fact: The original poster featured an early example of computer graphics. Vertigo was actually the first movie to use computer graphics; Saul Bass used them in the title sequence and on the original version of this poster. They probably took days to render. I made my low resolution substitute in about five minutes with an online programming language for kids called Scratch. The part that took the longest was all the hand drawn lettering. There are Saul Bass homage fonts out there, but I wanted all the letters to be unique.

    A poster for Lost Highway in the style of the poster for Vertigo.
    Fediverse reactions
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