ROGER CORMAN and CHEESE, part IV: "Carnosaur" and Rao's Brick Oven Pepperoni Pizza

Even after being involved in hundreds of movies, Roger's name really became synonymous with only a handful of prominent standouts. We can't say if that was intentional (with him it probably was) but for better or worse they were always the flicks that flaunted his vibe in the loudest way. And on paper, Carnosaur is one of those flicks.

It was a race against time: could they finish the movie in time to create a release date with Jurassic Park? Actually Carnosaur came out a whole month before it, but it doesn't matter - it lived its best life on home video (though I'm not sure why). 75% of this movie is dark postmodern laboratories with no furniture or science stuff - just Diane Ladd in a rolling desk chair, watching the movie unfold on security cameras with her mouth hanging open. The other, slightly better 25% is dedicated to the more colorful yokels of the town that's being terrorized by the escaped Carnosaur(s?), but most of their scenes are at night so it's even darker, which creates a sort of ongoing spatial disorientation that may or may not have been on purpose to hide the inadequacies of the monster. Otherwise-talented makeup effects and creature design wizard John Carl Buechler made a pretty good looking dinosaur, but the puppetry is consistency laughable and the forced perspective is always changing depth so you can never tell how big it is. Clint Howard has about three minutes of screen time but it's cumulatively the best three minutes in the show. 

Gene Siskel infamously gave it a Thumbs Up: "Terrific! I liked this movie" was the quote they put on the cover. So, for this supposedly prestigious New Horizon Pictures epic, we got a supposedly prestigious pizza; jars of Rao's Sauce cost literally twice as much as the other name brands so expectations were high. The sauce wasn't especially noticeable as being great or different in any way but the "brick oven" crust was Not of This Earth (whomp whomp). Frozen pizza crust usually has to be largely ignored to enjoy the experience, but the Rao's is like a big airy cracker that just about gives "thin crust" a good name. When all is said and done, the sloppy (though admittedly gory) movie didn't match the fancy 'za. 

The Movie: C-

The Pizza: B+

BENNETT INVENTORY : That Moment

Get Back -- John and Paul's private conversation

Every November I get a bit of a Beatle craving; it's the month I wholly discovered and embraced the band back in 1995 when The Beatles Anthology aired on ABC, and so every year for the past three decades my biological clock never fails to alert me in my hour of darkness. Though in the months and seasons that followed that initial discovery I explored and championed each of their individual songs and albums and movies and phases so it very much is a year round celebration for me - as it maybe should be with the things that bring us joy. But for most of my life now I've revisited the Anthology around this time of year, and certainly enough times to recite the entire 12 hour documentary by heart. So I, like any Beatlemaniac, am always ready to cautiously accept some "new material" - and what Disney and Peter Jackson unveiled is the most exciting and inspiring Beatle-related thing since the band broke up.

Paul Thomas Anderson's immediate reaction to Get Back was that he wished it were longer, and that was my leading thought too; for the duration of its 470 runtime I had trouble believing that what I was seeing was even real. I'd seen the Let it Be documentary many years ago on a muddy VHS rental, and as fascinating and telling as that was, it somehow felt compromised - and until 2021 I had no idea just compromised it was. Candid film of artists practicing their craft is like drugs to me, but watching these four particular artists being creative in nearly real time is like a dream - and one of the more bizarre satisfactions of this miniseries is how the events and behaviors and personalities play out exactly like you'd want them to - as though it were a densely scripted biopic. And no segment feels that way more than the "secret" conversation between John and Paul.

Supposedly recorded without their knowledge, the founding fathers of The Fab Four engage in a stern but polite argument regarding: George's recent departure from the group, Paul's tendency to be controlling, and the ultimate future of The Beatles. This is the kinda stuff we've only ever read about, and anything we've ever read was from biographers or witnesses or from these two respective musicians (who could only ever have a subjective point of view), and what they say here on tape and how they say it is such a straightforward string of exposition that it really does feel like the cliché TV movie. But it's not - it's John Lennon and Paul McCartney doing the whole He Said, He Said bit that's become as fabled as the music they made together, and it's superbly preserved along with every other momentous moment in this movie. Now I want them to give us the rest of it...

- Paul

STATIC SHOTS

Showgirls (1995)

Bizarre Bazaar

NAME THAT MOVIE!

Thank God that's over. We had a tough October -- September was no peach either but we chose to compound the chaos with 31 days of cinematic piss & shit. Hope you enjoyed it. Now all we have is this. The last set went largely unnoticed or was just too difficult, so kudos to Daniel who always shoots his shot in the face of bemusement. We'd like to say let's make this a November to Remember but right now some textbook perseverance takes precedent. Long live the New Flesh.

EASY

FAIR

DIFFICULT

GROOVE APPROVED