School Daze

Title: School Daze

Director: Spike Lee

Released: 1988

Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell, Kyme, Joe Seneca, Art Evans, Ellen Holly, Ossie Davis, Samuel L. Jackson

Plot: Morehouse College a leading and historically black college serves as the battleground for several cliques as their individual causes leads them frequently in to conflict with each other.

Review: Drawing from his own college days here Spike Lee follows up the success of his debut “She’s Gotta Have It” by again working with an all black cast, something which was certainly more of a key aspect to the film back when it was released while giving us a film which juggles multiple interconnecting storylines to craft a picture of campus life.

Opening to Vaughn (Fishburne) leading one of his anti-apartheid demonstrations as he continually makes himself a pain to the school administrators with his demands that they along with his fellow students divest from South Africa. At the same time he also has an ongoing rivalry with Julian (Esposito) who heads up the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity.

The Gamma Phi Gamma are certainly a random bunch with Julian insisting on being referred to as Dean Big Brother Almighty while enforcing a dog theme on his pledges referred to as “Wannabees” as they are lead around on dog leads while on any given moment being asked to drop to all fours or engage in one of their stomp chant sessions. Amongst the Wannabees is Vaughn’s cousin Darrell aka “Half-Pint” here played by Spike Lee who continues to show off his acting skills after memorably playing Mars in “She’s Gotta Have It” and its again the oddball that we see him playing here as the most downtrodden of the wannabees.

As to be expected anytime we have someone pledging for a frat humiliation is not to be far behind and its once again the case for Half-Pint and the other pledges as they find themselves being put through ever more random tasks to earn their place in the fraternity and it strange that with this group of characters he chooses to have them played so comically over the top when everyone else is played so straight. Still they make for a fun distraction to break away from the constant fighting and drama of the other groups, even if towards the end it seems more cruel for the pledge than you have to think it would be worth going through.

While it might have been enough for Lee to focus on the clashes between these two groups, we also have the clash between the Gamma Ray’s who match the dog theme of the frat with their own cat meows which they work into their chants especially when antagonising the non-Greek co-eds mainly over their skin colour and hair which Lee here memorably works into a homage to his love of MGM Musicals by having the two groups randomly burst into the big musical number “Straight and Nappy” whose music and lyrics were composed by Lee’s father Bill Lee. True perhaps this number is not as polished as those he is trying to homage, but its sudden appearance in the film really is one of the high points here.

Lee’s general refusal to stick within the usual framework for this kind of movie really brings something new to the film as he’s clearly shooting with his own rules, hence if he wants to have a random musical moment he’ll have one, while the big football game is not shot from the stands but rather based around the reactions of the crowd as they become more frenzied the worst the team loses.

An intresting mainstream debut for Lee who certainly doesn't hold back on his experimental side as he crafts a unique tale of college life if one infused with his own personal politics this is still an enjoyable and inventive watch. 

Random Film Moments #3 - Jaws The Revenge

Often regarded as the weakest entry of the franchise, especially seeing how by this point they'd given up on trying to disguse how fake the shark was, with one notable scene clearly showing the pole, which is moving the shark!
Still for some reason it has not only one but three intresting choices for ending, two of which I knew about for ages and the third I only recently discovered, but they probely do rank as some of the most original and yet extremily random ways of dispatching of a giant beastie ever. So first up is the ending I originally remembered, the first time I saw it.



What is funnier about this ending is that this was actually how you killed "Jaws" in the original NES game, which like any game associated with the film is pretty much awful though not as bad as this film.
Ok on to ending two which you can watch by clicking on the link, but seriously the shark explodes, like a balloon after being rammed with the front of the boat, which from what I can gather was the original US Theatrical ending. Still I suppose this is better than a version that I caught on TV last year, which just used the ending from the first film, so that Mike presses the button on the box and the shark explodes, only using the explosion from Jaws. Sadly I havn't been able to find this, to share with you all, so here instead is the trailer for "Up from the depths" (1979) which is yet another giant sea creature movie, but you know I'm just a sucker for these movies. Now if I could just find a version without so jackass Trader boosting the price of thier copy!

Random Film Moments #2 - Gamera Vs.Guiron

The Giant monster genre or Kaiju ( the Japanese word for "Strange Beast" ) as its more affectionately known to its fans, has over the years has given us numerous random moments, ever since Godzilla first went on a rampage through Tokyo back in 1954. However these classic films have often had some extremely random moments, so much so that they often truely defy belief with this weeks random moment being a prime example.

Taken from the 1969 Gamera movie "Gamera Vs. Guiron" which is part of the Shōwa Gamera series , I have to admit when I first saw this random moment, I had to actually rewind the tape, as I wasn't sure I'd seen what I thought I did, as you can see for yourself the reasons why will soon be clear.

Yes you did just watch a giant space turtle working the parallel bars, but strangely enough this kind of insanity is pretty common in alot of the early Kaiju movies, though most not as random as this particular scene it has to be said.

Personally I liked the landing the best, as he goes all out to finish with proper gymnastic style, which leaves you half expecting to see, a group of giant judges holding up scorecards. Gamera might be seen as many as a cash in on the popularity of Godzilla, but as I will go into no doubt in future reviews, the Gamera series has enough originality to hold it's own against the King of Monsters, but surely it's better to have twice the amount of Kaiju action than, just having one dominant series, still for the moment both series are currently in Mothballs, with Godzilla bowing out in 2004's "Godzilla - Final Wars" and Gamera's last appearance being the 2006 "Gamera the Brave", but with current popularity for both characters still high, there is nothing to say that either monster won't be stomping through Tokyo in the near future.

Random Film Moments #1 - Aluda Mazaaka

Sometimes when your watching a movie, more often than not when it's one the kind of films that I write about here, that your suddenly see something that, make you do a double take, as you can't actually believe what you just watched, often leaving you with the feeling that the director of said film

A) Didn't really care about the film he was making
B) Under the influence of certain substances
C) Thought that no one would notice and just jammed it in anyway.

So this is the first of what will hopefully become a regular feature here on the blog, were we look at the most random of random film moments.
The first random film moment I found thanks to the latest "Epic Fail" video over at "thatguywiththeglasses.com". As part of the latest edition of Epic fail, today's video was featured which really made me have to do a double take, aswell as causing a sudden urge to share it with you all, so for those of you who are yet to bare witness, please enjoy this chase scene from the bollywood movie "Aluda Mazaaka".



Seriously I can't believe that the director thought that the audience would buy, not only the fact that he slide a horse under a truck! But that the said horse looks.... well kinda stuffed. I think I'll let you make up your own opinions on this and leave the more in depth critic on this scene to the team at Epic Fail.
Hope you enjoyed this first random film moment and if you know of any others that you want to share, please let me know.