Conference bookie::movies

    
    	I promised my SO (who's been playing the Brady Bunch CD all week in
    	anticipation of it) that we'd see the movie together tonight. I'm
    	hoping against hope that it'll at least be mildly entertaining and
    	not a complete annoyance like sitting through the BB Christmas
    	reunion TV movie was for me. The things we endure... :-)

    	-Erik

    
    	The Boston Herald liked it also.
    

    I love the add - where they're all running down the stairs, in order, 
    by age, and and in the order that they're being called by "Shelly Long
    Mom". They all bump into each other when Greg stops and Jan says 
    "Why do we always have to walk so close together".
    
    To me this looks like it's going to be a Parody on the TV show more 
    then anything as bad as the Brady Bunch Christmas Reunion show.
    
    I'll stil wait for the Video though.
    
    Steve
    

> The Boston Herald liked it also.

	Siskel & Ebert both gave it a thumbs down, along with Mike Medvid
	(from PBS's "Sneak Previews").  All said the same thing, it's
	visually pleasing (ie. they did a good job with set's, costume,
	casting look-a-likes, etc) but the writing left alot to be
	desired.  They also indicated due to some mature themes that they
	do not recommend it to the one crowed that would have enjoyed
	it otherwise, ie. children .....

    
    	Excellent!!
    
    	Yes, it was basically a parody, since they exaggerated alot of
    	the old routines ["Oh my nose", the hair-flips and bouncy
    	walks, etc.], and I loved it!!
    
    	The premise is that the Bradys, that 60's family, is living
    	the 60's life in current-day California.  And, of course, they
    	are thought to be pretty strange by everyone else.
    
    	They recycled a bunch of the old plot lines ... one of the best
    	was "dreamy" Davey Jones showing up at a school dance to sing,
    	after he had answered a letter from Marcia, the president of his
    	fan club.
    
    	I'd definitely recommend seeing it, but to tell you the truth
    	you wouldn't miss much if you waited for the video.  Not a whole
    	lot here that really needs the big-screen look.
    
    	And there are a couple lines in here that you NEVER would have
    	heard in the TV show, like "When you boys are done out here,
    	maybe you can comeinside and help me make a sandwich".  No
    	obscenities, but there were a few snide comments.
    

    
    	But this really wasn't a kid's movie ... alot of this stuff
    	probably went right over the kids' heads.
    
    	I saw this as more of a "nostalgia movie" for the people who
    	had watched the TV show and seen most of the episodes.  Most
    	of these kids probably missed most of the shows and most of
    	the references to them.
    

    
    Wow.  I almost never disagree with Siskel and Ebert, but this time
    I'm *way* on the other side.
    
    This movie was a riot.  And I actually think that this movie would
    be boring for children - most of the best laughs are referential to the
    old show (I suspect S&E must never have watched it and therefore
    missed all the best bits) which kids probably haven't seen (unless they
    are cable junkies).
    
    If you spent your friday nights as a kid watching this show, you are
    gonna bust up laughing.  If not, the whole thing might seem silly.
    
    The guy who plays Greg was in a sitcom ("Day by Day?"  I don't
    remember the name, it had Julia Louise-Dreyfuss) where he dreamed he
    was living in a Brady Bunch sitcom after watching too much tv.
    
    I liked the quick flash of the foreground vehicle :^) when they showed
    the Brady's driving into the talent contest parking lot.
    
    - Sean

    
    	RE: Sean
    
    	Yup, it was "Day By Day", also starring Courtney-Thorne Smith
    	[yowza!!].  His name is Christopher Barnes, and he was also
    	the son in the TV version of "Starman".  I only saw "Day By
    	Day" a couple times, so I missed that episode!!
    
    	Spoiler comment:
    
    
    	I just realized this morning that they called themselves "The
    	Brady Bunch" for the talent competition.  The writers really
    	missed a good one by not calling them "The Silver Platters",
    	since they sang the same song they did 25 years ago!!
    

> The premise is that the Bradys, that 60's family, is living
> the 60's life in current-day California.

	Even though I think the show first went on the air in 1969 (?),
	they are often refered to as TV's "70's" family ......

    
    .....makes me want to GAG.......
    
    HORNET
    

  Well, I can't believe the Boston Herald and Worcester Telegram both liked
  this movie.  I went with extremely low expectations.  I would have been
  satisfied if I was only even mildly entertained and was thrown a laugh or two
  each scene to keep the premise of the movie being a parody.  The movie didn't
  really even fit this reduced-merit standard. It wasn't a "Sunshine Day"...

  There really is nothing to spoil here - the movie didn't show anything you
  didn't already see done in the TV show.  But stop reading here to avoid the
  spoilers for the only two unexpected scenes that happened in the film....

    
  The movie didn't know what it wanted to be.  For once I completely agree with
  Siskel and Ebert.  The movie was visually pleasing - they got the 70's look,
  style, and decorations down perfectly.  But the writing should have been much
  better than it was.  They missed so many chances in scenes to be funny.  I
  didn't find the movie a riot at all.  Let's face it, the material is ripe for
  tons of comedy.  I mean, between poking fun at the 70's styles, fashions, and
  people's attitudes, and between how horrible and lame Brady Bunch show
  actually was when you look at it in today's light, there should have been a
  laugh a minute.  But much of it would have been at the expense of "The Brady
  Bunch Show as created in the 70's", and it was obvious that the same
  institution that created the BB Show was also controlling this movie.  So it
  felt like they clamped down on the writers to avoid on any fun that might
  harm "America's respect for the BB Show." [Or not giving the writers that
  out, they spent the day at the beach and didn't do any writing at all, taking
  an old script out of the vault to hand in instead].  So the only fun to be
  had was with several of the characters, but even that was extremely mild, in
  that it didn't go any deeper than "Cindy acting like Cindy did in the TV
  show." Cindy was Cindy from the "tattle-tale" episode for the entire movie.
  She had no other lines than the tattle-tale lines.  The other characters were
  handled the same, they simply repeated lines they previously said in the
  episodes exactly.  There were no any exaggerations or extra holes filled in
  for other facets of their personalities or lives to build up the film a
  little more.  The movie was shot exactly as a BB Show episode re-acted to
  precisely the same script but with modern performers.

  I think not poking fun at the BB Show was a mistake.  I think the audience
  would respect the BB Show many times more if they could have poked fun at
  themselves.  I thought the Davey Jones scenes were fantastic, the fact that
  he could poke fun at his 70's self gave me increased respect for the guy, not
  less.  And knowing that he agreed to appear with the other Monkees despite
  years of refusing to (after he was the one to break up the group), made me
  feel good too.  That scene btw, was the best and deepest laugh of the
  movie...  The horrible Brady Bunch singing act wins the $20,000 first prize
  in the 1990's contest, and as you think how could that be, the camera pans to
  the judges and they turn out to be the grinning three other Monkees!! That
  was completely unexpected and very funny.  I wished they had more of that
  thrown in.  For example, they missed some great opportunities not doing more
  with the Partridge Family _bus-only_ cameo.  There were only three or four
  laughs the whole film.  It was neither insightful enough or funny enough to
  sustain a billing of parody.

  We're under thirty and we were the oldest people in the theatre. We were
  surrounded by teenagers and younger, most of whom missed what little there
  was to enjoy in the movie. 

  Other comments...  the girls and mother were all cast perfectly, they looked
  and acted exactly like the real actresses.  The boys and father on the other
  hand looked and acted nothing like the real actors at all, they were
  terrible.  Of them all, Jan and Marsha were captured the best.  And Jan had
  all the best lines.  The several cameos of the old stars were fun in a way.
  The thrown-in lesbian and seducing-female-neighbor themes seemed silly.  Was
  this "bringing it into the 90's" to them?

  All in all, I was disappointed.  I expected something a little more than just
  a re-enactment of a TV episode with failingly little commentary or additions.
  I expected a parody and didn't get one.  However, if you go to see a BB TV
  episode on the big screen or to see Shelley Long et al act like the Brady's,
  then it was OK.  My SO (the die-hard-since-childhood BB fan) was a little
  disappointed that the movie was so weak but thought the movie overall "was
  OK." I'd wait for video on this one.  And in fact the experience might
  actually improve seeing it on the TV screen, since that's where it should
  have opened in the first place...

  -Erik

    
    	Sherwood Schwartz [and a relative of his] were involved in
    	the production/etc.
    
    
    	RE: Erik
    
    
 > The thrown-in lesbian and seducing-female-neighbor themes seemed silly.  Was
 > this "bringing it into the 90's" to them?
    
    	Well, I think you missed the point to these scenes.
    
    	The lesbian scene wasn't to "bring it into the 90's", but to
    	show that Marcia didn't even notice that there was anything
    	"different" about the other girl.  [And before anyone starts
    	in on me about gay rights, I am NOT saying that gays are bad,
    	just that they are "different" from those who are not.  I
    	have nothing against gays, although I choose to not live the
    	same lifestyle.]  The Bradys are still a 70's family, where
    	gays were pretty much non-existant as far as a sheltered fam-
    	ily like them were concerned.  I mean, as far as I know, 17-
    	year old girls don't ask other girls to sleep over and share
    	a bed ["Oh, sorry ... I thought that was MY leg."  8^)]
    
    	And the "seducing female neighbor" scene was basically the
    	same idea, but a different topic.  The boys took that as a
    	very neighborly offer of a snack, because they hadn't been
    	exposed to anything like that before.
    

    
    	I understood the point of those scenes. However I didn't apply them
    	to people of the seventies (who from the stories of that hypersexual
    	decade wouldn't have any trouble noticing if someone was hitting on
    	them), but to the Brady family in particular to demonstrate how 
    	straight-laced and out-of-it they were.

    	Still, those scenes seemed tacked-on and somewhat silly to me. They
    	already made the point in other ways (Cindy with the wire, Bobby as
    	safety marshal, etc) that it felt to me like the producer threw
    	those two in to enact Brady's meet the 90's, where the 90's are 
    	symbolized by a young budding lesbian girl and an over-sexed 
    	adulterous wife. If anything those two items make me think of
    	the sexual freedom revolution of the 70's, not the 90's. At least
    	not in the same light as showing Peter's ignorance of grunge music,
    	which truly is of this decade. It was either this thought working
    	in my subconscious or the way the scene was acted, but those two 
    	felt gratuitous and well, just 'silly' to me. Can't explain it, it
    	just didn't work or fit to me, seemed tacked on...

    	-Erik

    
    Well, Erik, different strokes for different folks I guess :^)
    
    What you attribute to overprotective creators is a facet of the movie
    I'm glad they adhered to.  I didn't want a Brady Bash festival.  I
    was afraid that that's what the movie would be, and was glad that it
    kept the parody away from vilifying the original show.
    
    I felt the same about "Spinal Tap" - on the surface it looked like a
    total slam, but if you really watched, you realized that Reiner directed
    it with a deft empathy for the fake band.
    
    Anyway, sure the "real" 70's were sexual revolution and awareness and
    all that.  But not if you were a little kid.  For a lot of us, the 70's
    *were* a little silly, and the Brady Bunch plots mimiced the innnocence
    of that time.  
    
    An all-out parody would have really bothered a lot of us who a little
    bit miss some of the goofiness of that old, sheltered world.
    
    - Sean

    
    	OK... I see that perhaps the writers had a point and more
    	importantly an audience for simply rehashing a Brady episode
    	without poking any fun at the silliness of the show. 

    	I'm just not sure how big that audience is. It didn't fit the
    	audience the night we saw it, it felt like everyone there expected
    	a parody also, some even an outright bashing. But these were
    	teenagers so perhaps that's understandable. 

    	I expected a parody (done thoughtfully and fun but without bashing
    	I'd hoped) so I was a little disappointed. I thought that enough
    	time had past since then that it was now safe to do a parody. So
    	now I'll just have to wait until when, 2020?? :-) The material is
    	so rich I can't believe writers can resist it for so long. :-)

    	-Erik

    	PS- Spinal Tap had a lot more thought and effort put into the humor
    	and spoofing. It didn't bash but it did poke a lot of fun at
    	itself. It showed a large degree of wit and was a true parody in
    	my mind. Brady fell short (but as we said, it's not a parody).

	Well this film was the highest grosser for the holiday weekend
	(an extra day of ticket sales) with about $15M.

	FWIW, Entertainment Weekly (Owen Gleiberman) gives the film
	an A-.  They also had an insert with a small interview with
	Susan Olsen (original "Cindy").  Her on-screen lisp was real,
	and she didn't lose it til she was 19.  She also said she
	went to public schools and the kids would say to her "The
	Partridge Family's cool.  The Bradys are nerds."  She also
	indicates she is producing a Brady documentary for CBS that
	will mix clips with home movies shot by Robert "Mike Brady" Reed.

	Florance Henderson was on Tom Snyder's show last night.  She
	said originally the movie makers didn't want to give her anything
	to appear in the movie.  However test screenings showed they
	needed her so she got to name a price for a cameo in the film.
	Ann B. Davis (Alice) also has a cameo??  I thought she died
	within the last couple of years?

	One more tidbit.  A Partridge Family look-a-like bus has a cameo
	in the film also.  The negotiations for that were supposedly
	tough.  They had to agree to no Partridge family look-a-likes
	or dress-a-likes in the film, and no Partridge family cast members
	could make caemeo's in the film at all.

    
    	Yup, original cast members who had cameos:
    
    
    
    	Anne B. Davis - Alice [trucker]
    	Florence Henderson - Carol [Gramma]
    	Barry Williams - Greg [producer]
    	Christopher Knight - Peter [Peter's guardian]
    

I really liked this movie -- it seemed like a great mixture of
nostalgia and parody. I confess, though, that I never watched the
TV series, so in an ironic way that may have contributed to my
enjoyment: i.e., I wasn't constantly comparing movie characters
and episodes against the originals to see if or how they "measured
up." 

For any "Beakman's World" fans, Alana Ubach (the original Josie)
plays Noreen (the lesbian teenager) in this movie. (And does a
great job, IMHO.)

    
    	AH! That's where I've seen her before... I knew she looked
   	familiar.

    	I read a shocking fact in the review of a local paper... it took a
    	total of SEVENTEEN writers to create this script! I just can't
    	fathom this. I would have said one person part-time tops, there 
    	was no writing or plot to this film. The review liked it but called
    	BB a "one-joke movie."

    	-Erik

    A little negative don't you think? I don't believe the writers of this
    film were expecting people to analyse it to death. Just take it for
    what it is....A movie about the Brady's in the 90's. I grew up watching
    the show and found the film to bring back alot of memories and was very
    entertaining. It was the little comments towards the old shows and the
    similarities that made it funny. Don't tell me the scene with Sam
    coming out of Alice's room smoking a cigar wasn't funny. I do agree
    that this movie was not for the younger generation, the one liners
    thrown in would go right over their heads. I must disagree Erik this
    movie was pretty funny. See it again and watch it, don't analyse it.

    
    The biggest box-office film in the UK at the moment!!!
    
    Incredible. 
    
    I must admit I NEVER watched the Brady bunch (which considering I'm in my 
    early 30s probably means they were never really on TV much here - The 
    Partridge Family has memories...), but the 70s are ripe for a mickey take 
    and the trailer looks fairly promising.
    
    Mark
    
    PS What next? A Starsky and Hutch movie?

    A Buck Rogers re-make!
    
    [This Brady Bunch film just looks plain crud to me, but then I never
    was one for 're-makes']
    
    Cheers,
    Dan

    
    	Any idea when it'll be out on video in the US?
    
    	Thanks for any info.
    

 Jul 24th, I believe.




 Jim

    
    	Yup, saw the "release dates" note today.
    
    	Thanks!!
    

    
    Saw this movie a few months back and thought it was okay. I watched the 
    Brady Bunch when I was a kid and chuckled at the one-liners/parody
    scenes. Overall, I took the movie for what it was, a bit corny like the
    original series so I never really "analyzed" the whole movie. I
    especially liked the actor who played the father, he must of really 
    studied his role as every line he said, sounded the way Robert Reed
    would say it.
    
    I disagree with S&E as I thought the movie stayed in line with the
    show. 
    
    
    my two bits

    
    	Christine Taylor [or whoever played Marcia] is going to be in
    	a sitcom this fall.
    
    	Wow, she looks wonderful.
    

    She's already been on Ellen occasionally. She plays Karen ("CAR in"),
    part of the book group Ellen runs, and she had a small affair with
    Ellen's loser cousin.

    Lisa

    
    	"A Very Brady Sequel" starts next Friday, August 23rd.
    

    
    	Oh boy, can't wait to see this classic. :)
    

    
    	Tim Matheson will be in this 1 as Carol's ex-husband, I believe.
    

Last week, the Nickelodeon cable channel showed a half-hour "documentary"
called "Brady: An American Chronicle."  It was done in the style of those
Ken Burns PBS documentaries (e.g., "The Civil War" and "Baseball"), and it
was a riot!

I caught "The Brady Bunch" movie on cable not too long ago and thought it
was pretty cute.  I wasn't a regular viewer of the TV series, though, so
I didn't realize - until I saw the "documentary" on Nick at Nite - that some
of the specific events in the movie were taken from some of the TV episodes 
(e.g., Jan's wig, Greg's "Johnny Bravo" bit, Bobby being safety monitor, etc.).
The Nick at Nite show doesn't specifically tie in to the movie (although there
were ads for "A Very Brady Sequel" :-) ), but it happened to have some "commentary" 
about some of the incidents that made their way into the movie. 

The TV program was shown a couple of times on Nick at Nite last week, both at
11:00 pm; it's possible it might be repeated this week, though I haven't checked
the schedule...

-- Nina

    
    	RE: TV show plot stuff
    
    	And tattletale Cindy.
    	And Davey Jones.
    

    and Jan's nose...
    

    
    	Ahem ... Marcia's nose.  8^)
    

    I got to see this in a preview last night. I think this one is
    better then the 1st!  I was laughing all over the place. The one
    thing is that you really had to have watched the Brady Bunch
    on TV to enjoy it.  The plot is pretty simple, but that's what
    makes it nice..  Just sit back and enjoy.
    
    Sandy

Gene Siskel liked "A Very Brady Sequel" quite a bit, and gave it an
enthusiastic thumbs up.  Roger Ebert liked it better than the first movie,
but not quite enough to give it a thumbs up - a marginal thumbs down from him.

FWIW.

- Nina

    
    	Well, I saw it on day 2, and I'm still trying to decide whether
    	I liked it as much as [or more than] the 1st movie.
    
    	I thought it was quite good, regardless.
    

     IMHO The sequel was poor , I rented it for 3.50 $ and turned it off at
    the half way mark. It lacked the humor of the original .
    
     Jon