by Larry Richman
July 6, 2008 8:00 PM

Rants are not my style, especially outside of a small circle of friends. There are several topics, however, which dominated some recent conversations which I thought might be worth mentioning in passing -- trailers, the threat of an actors' strike, the IMDb message boards, Get Smart, and Teeth. While any or all might be worthy of its own 1000-word post, some random thoughts should suffice.

Trailers are immensely popular. Articles and posts with links to clips are among the most viewed on the internet. But, personally, I don't like them and try to avoid watching them. Why? Because they are all about spoilers and deception. For example, a comedy trailer usually:

A) Makes the film appear funnier than it is
AND
B) Places all the funniest jokes within the trailer
OR
C) Makes the film appear not to be a comedy at all (a slasher film or coming-of-age drama, for example) or vice-versa

To wit, as lacking in wit as Love Guru was, there were a few genuinely funny gags -- none of which was a surprise since I'd seen them all in the trailer. The idea, of course, is to get butts in the seats. To the extent that they do, trailers are successful and will continue to do what they do as they do it. I just prefer not to watch.

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Having just returned from a week at the LA Film Festival, where I stayed at the house of some friends in the business, I spent quite a bit of time having meals with actors, writers, and producers (when not seeing movies). Needless to say, the threat of a strike was the number one topic of conversation.

The prevailing feeling is that there is no way SAG will strike given all that would be lost. The town never recovered from the writers' strike and even the threat of an actors' strike has already curtailed or shut down production on projects which were scheduled to begin this summer. It would be devastating.

Having spent close to half my life in a performers' union (AFTRA) I certainly sympathize and side with unions almost without question. In this case, however, one has to wonder whether or not a strike would do so much long-term damage to the membership itself that any gains won would already have been lost. I pray for a quick settlement and no work stoppage.

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The IMDb message boards are like the Wild Wild West. Anything goes and posting there is not for the faint of heart. Others avoid them at all costs. But I don't. I have something of an obligation to post there because it's usually the first (and sometimes only) source for information about independent films prior to release. Fans of the film or the actors in it will look there for links to reviews, photos, articles, etc. so it's essential for me to post links to my articles and news there. Unfortunately, it's both a resource for valuable information as well as a soapbox for anyone with an axe to grind. I just try to stay out of the arguments. Maybe it actually helps, in a reverse psychology kind of way. Haters tend to bring out the rabid fans in equal or greater numbers.

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Get Smart received mixed reviews although it has done quite well at the box office. I'm one of those (ahem) Baby Boomers for whom the television show was a big part of their childhoods. We watched it religiously and, obviously, the appeal here for us is in the remaking of the characters and dialogue we know so well. "Would you believe..." and "missed it by that much" were parts of our vocabulary just as "is that your final answer" was for another generation.

To the extent that the film pays homage to the original series it's fun. Not only did they reprise all the famous lines, they brought back as many of the original actors as they could for cameos. There was also the theme and both the beginning and ending sequences which mimicked the TV series.

Interestingly, the audience I saw the film with were way too young to have known the original (most didn't even know it was based on a TV series) but they laughed anyway and enjoyed what, for me, had two meanings where, for them, it had one. I enjoyed it and found it to be a nonstop action comedy that kept me engaged from start to finish. It's worth it if you need a couple of hours to kill. But the DVD? Not on my list.

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Teeth came out on DVD two months ago following a dismal domestic theatrical run which took in less than $345,000. It was a low budget film but nowhere near that figure. It opened at #7 in its UK release two weeks ago.

I attended the World Premiere of Teeth at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It was originally scheduled as a midnight movie (reserved for horror films) but was moved into prime time because of its subject matter (sex, which always fills the seats). It was one of the few films (Hounddog was another, also about girls and sex) for which it was almost impossible to get a ticket. Of course, that also made it one of the few films to get picked up for distribution almost immediately.

It was one of my Top Picks from that festival but didn't make my Top 25 of the year. I took some pics at the Q&A and the actors were very nice but I could not for the life of me figure out why it was picked up so quickly, other than the fact that it had sex and nudity in it. It's salacious but there's not much else there. But if one approaches it as a B movie horror/comedy it can be a lot of fun. Think Deep Throat meets American Pie. Plus blood.