YouTube Art: The Magic of Running Scared

Quick, name the first two actors that come to mind when I say the phrase "badass buddy cops."

Who'd you think of?

Gregory Hines and Billy Crystal? Hey, me too!



Thank you, the 1980s, for being completely insane. Thank you also for the sequence where they go to Florida, fish topless, and then apply (AND GET APPROVED!) for a bank loan while wearing cutoffs and roller skates while Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom" plays in the background:



I can't even use the ATM in my bank with roller skates on. These guys take out a mortgage! Honestly, even after renting and watching this movie, I'm not entirely convinced it's real. It's just too good (or maybe just too endearingly homoerotic) to be true.

YouTubeHulu Art: Flags! Of! The World!

Finally, flags have their own "We Didn't Start the Fire." Sweeney and I watched it twice on Saturday night. Top-notch stuff.

YouTube Art: Scarface: The TV Edit

Oh man, do I loves me some bad dubbing. You know what I'm talking about; when a basic cable channel shows an R rated movie on their station but has to edit all of the profanity out to make the film TV-appropriate. For a fine example, see this excellent YouTube clip, which compares original snippets from Brian De Palma's Scarface with the hilarious, borderline avant-garde TV versions of the same scenes:


Funny, right? If you don't like it, lame brain, you can go eat a pineapple. Also, apparently I've never posted this on Termite Art, an oversight that demands immediate correction:

YouTube Art: Dirty Dozen Making Of Film

"This is Lee Marvin. An action guy, at work or at play. Today, it's work."



I love The Dirty Dozen but this funky, stylish, silly press film is almost more entertaining than the actual movie it's promoting. This is exactly how I like to pretend moviemaking used to work.

YouTube Art: Sylvester Stallone: DRINKENSTEIN

This clip is also posted on YouTube under the alternate title "The Moment Sylvester Stallone Decided to Fire His Agent."

YouTube Art: A Fan's Reaction to the New Moon Trailer

From Salon as found by someone on Twitter.



Question: have you ever been this excited about ANYTHING in your entire life? Follow-up question: has ANYONE ever been this excited about ANYTHING IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD?

YouTubeArt: Nicholas Cage Pachinko Ads

All I will say about this is that the American advertising industry needs to get their act together quick. There's a severe Cage gap growing between Japan and the U.S., and we cannot afford to be on the wrong side of that equation:







Drugs, ladies and gentlemen. They WORK.

YouTube Art: I Loved This Trailer When I Was 14

I still remember seeing this trailer in theaters in 1995. Something -- don't ask me what, I have no idea -- made me think of it now as I'm working on something else, and I thought I'd post it and be like "What a great trailer for a terrible movie!" Now I'm looking at it and going "Why in the world did I like it in the first place?"



I think what got my attention at age 14 was the direct address to camera by Ralph "I'm Just A Wee Bit Too Oily" Fiennes. That's still a technique that's underutilized in trailers and it's still effective here even though a)you have know idea what this guy is talking about b)there's all these words floating around his head and c)there's all this Max Headroom editing, which looks stupid now but in 1995 was the epitome of awesomness. Even though this guy isn't making any sense, even though he looks like he hasn't showered in two and a half weeks, the fact that he's talking directly to you in this almost seductive way makes it interesting.

YouTubeArt: JCVD vs a Hockey Team Mascot

When JCVD fights a terrorist dressed as the Pittsburgh Penguins' mascot, only the audience wins:

See there is awesome and then there is a woman dressed as a penguin kicking Jean-Claude Van Damme in the nards awesome.

YouTubeArt: The First Black President

Via Ta-Nehisi Coates

YouTubeArt: Videodrome's Awesome Trailer

Can you believe THAT was the real trailer?!?

YouTubeArt: Hulk Hogan vs. Arsenio Hall

Greatest talk show interview ever? Greatest outfits by a talk show host AND talk show guest ever?



Finally a talk show host brave enough to wear bike shorts on the air. How this show failed is beyond my comprehension...

YouTubeArt: After Rewatching Blades of Glory...

...I couldn't resist posting this terrifying companion piece. And you thought the Iron Lotus was a joke.



That's the reality! Just another layer to the legend.

(By the way, after rewatching BoG, I simply won't hear a bad word against it. I just won't.)

YouTubeArt: McDLT Commercial

I need this song on my iPod.

YouTubeArt: Step Brothers of Earth-2

Last night we had a Termite Art field trip to the Regal Union Square to see the latest Adam McKay-Will Ferrell triumph, Step Brothers. I'm not going to write about it now -- given that Sweeney called it "the best American movie of the year" I suspect I should leave that honor to him. But I will share this, one of the better scenes in the movie that is, fascinatingly, in a completely different form than the one in the movie. This clip is very funny, and other than its bare bones structure (Ferrell asks to run the exclusive "Catalina Wine Mixer," Rob Riggle is nervous about it, Adam Scott enters and decides to let him do it) it's an entirely different sequence.



Often on the Apatow and Ferrell DVDs you get a really enjoyable special feature called "Line-O-Rama" where they cut together all the different improvised lines into one humorous package. I'm awaiting the day when they release an entire movie in a totally different form with totally different jokes than the theatrical ones. Given the way Step Brothers is built and the way it practically spits on its own narrative on its way to maximum comedy, this could be the ideal time.

YouTubeArt: Spider-Man Misshap at Comic-Con 08

Clearly, the man needs to rest.

YouTubeArt: Listen all y'all...

YouTubeArt: Mae West: Rappin' Granny

From Myra Breckinridge, of course. The reason I had to watch this movie (again!!) will be made apparently very soon, at IFC.com.

YouTubeArt: Tom Waits Press Conference

YouTubeArt: Roy Andersson Commercials!

So You, The Living was my favorite film at Rotterdam, and now I've just been blown away by Songs From the Second Floor. The director, Roy Andersson, is clearly a master, which you can see further in this series of commercials he directed for Swedish television. This is just a sample of the 400 or so he made, as opposed to the 4 features on his resume (the other two are from the 70s). I'm partial to the Lotto one (look at the dancers in the background!), but they're all brilliant (his teacher Ingmar Bergman called them the best commercials in the world):