Invasion of the Neptune Men

(during an incredibly long, drawn-out air raid scene, Tom cracks and pretends he’s watching The Magnificent Ambersons)
Tom:…Little children in a sleigh, ding ding ding, hot and cold running water? Upstairs and down…oh it’s no use! It’s not The Magnificent Ambersons! I don’t even like The Magnificent Ambersons!

I didn't like The Magnificent Ambersons either, Tom. Anyway...The Magnificent Ambersons is a classic film by Orson Welles. There are missing reels of The Magnificent Ambersons (it was one of a handful of films that were victims of Welles' bad relationship with the studios). I don’t know exactly why Servo decided on The Magnificent Ambersons out of any film, especially if he doesn’t like it, but, after all, he has cracked. Poor guy.


(a group of kids are running down an alleyway)
Mike and the ‘Bots (singing): It’s been a hard day’s night…

This is from the Beatles’ first feature film, A Hard Day’s Night. In the opening sequence, we see all four Beatles running through a train station while swarms of teenage girls run after them, screaming. Although these Japanese children do not have swarms of teenage girls running after them, they do apparently have top-level clearance into Japan’s military buildings. And they run a lot in this movie. And make fun of their mothers/sisters (who is that woman and how is she in relation with the other characters? I love Servo’s line about her at the end: “Who am I?” Indeed).


(the opening credits, with a picture of some strange mass encased in a sphere)
Tom: It’s Oliver Reed’s liver encased in lucid.

Okay. Oliver Reed was a British actor who starred in lots and lots of movies, including musicals like Oliver! and Tommy, although I don’t remember him singing in either of them. He was, in my opinion, a rather scary-looking guy, kind of a talented version of Joe Don Baker. He was known for knocking back a few (dozen) and I do recall him getting into trouble because of it a few times. I actually like Oliver Reed—he’s rather underrated as an actor because of his “off screen antics”. He made cinema history (I guess, in a way) when, in Women in Love, he fought a nude wrestling match against (mah boy) Alan Bates. I myself have never seen it, although sheesh does it sound inviting (sarcasm, perhaps?) He was also in I'll Never Forget What's'isname, the first movie to have the word “fuck” in it (it was actually uttered by sixties icon Marianne Faithfull), as well as Sitting Target, the first movie to be given an X rating based on violence alone.


(an alien message is slowed down and played to an office of military personnel [and the kids])
Tom: It’s James Earl Jones.

James Earl Jones quite possibly has the deepest and most famous voice in Hollywood, which would explain the reference Tom makes. It’s, like, really deep, man. Jones did the voice-overs of Mufasa in The Lion King and Darth Vader in Star Wars. He is also a good actor, having been movies like Dr. Strangelove, Field of Dreams, Cry the Beloved Country, and I am not a Rappaport. And he does the “This is CNN” line for CNN, and is equally famous for that as well.


(a shot of a Japanese guy looking disturbed over a telegram)
Mike: Mr. Gower’s son died!

Mr. Gower was the druggist from It’s a Wonderful Life. Little George Bailey worked for him, and he found a telegram saying that his son, Robert (it’s sad that I know all the names, I know) died of influenza. Mr. Gower gets depressed and starts drinking and inadvertently puts poison in a Diphtheria patient’s pills. But George doesn’t give the patient the drugs and Mr. Gower beats the crap out of him before George tells him that there was poison in it. Personally, I cry as soon as I get to this scene and don’t stop until the end of the movie. But then again, I’m a wuss.


(pudgy, bespectacled kid runs toward alien doohickey, with the other children in tow)
Crow: Kill the pig, drink his blood—oh, wait, that’s another story.

Lord of the Flies. The pudgy kid looks like he’d be a suitable Piggy (chubby + bespectacled = inevitable bully fodder). There are two movie versions of William Golding’s novel: the 1964 black and white version, and the ‘90’s American version. The former is a bit of a cult hit; I prefer it to the newer version, which strays from the novel in the most important parts (“There are no adults on the island with the children, you sods, that’s the whole point of the story!!”) and becomes a sort of tribute to curse words. So there.


(as Mike and the ‘bots are leaving the theater)
Tom: I gotta go do an 80 offa Donnie Brasco.

Donnie Brasco was a true story about a detective (Johnny Depp, being Johnny Depp-ish) who infiltrates the mob, headed by Al Pacino (naturally—if not him, it’d probably been Robert De Niro). This is the movie that started the whole “Fuggedaboutit” thing, which was prolonged by movies like Analyze This and Mickey Blue Eyes, and then by television shows like “The Sopranos”. I actually like the whole “fuggedaboutit” thing. I’ve got a soft spot for mob movies, namely The Godfather trilogy and Analyze This, although I don’t get HBO and thus have never seen “The Sopranos”. If you see Mickey Blue Eyes or Analyze This, watch out for Joe Viterelli, who usually plays right-hand men. He’s one of the best parts of Analyze This, and a really great character actor (they make the world go round, folks, but unfortunately they don’t get 20 mil a picture).


(A row of scientists are looking at something off-camera)
Mike: People looking, very Spielberg-ian.

IMDb.com lists “people looking at something off-camera” as one of Steven Spielberg’s director trademark, although that seems a tad too vague for my liking. What movie doesn’t have people looking off camera? Why, I don’t think I’d trust a film that didn’t have people look off camera. In any case, Steven Spielberg has several other trademarks: firstly, he often uses original music by John Williams (who’s done the soundtrack for Schindler’s List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy); he also uses shots of stars, and of the sun (look to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for the former, and Empire of the Sun and Saving Private Ryan for the latter). And the most interesting (and ever-present) theme in his movies is the prominent impact of father characters. Elliott’s dad left his family in E.T. while Indiana Jones and his dad had been estranged in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Richard Dreyfus ultimately became estranged from his family in Close Encounters, while Tom Cruise lost his son in Minority Report. Also, Spielberg’s movie continuously feature children in danger of some kind—look at Schindler’s List, E.T., Empire of the Sun, Close Encounters, Minority Report, and a small feature of Saving Private Ryan. Cool, huh? Personally, I think Steven Spielberg’s best film is Schindler’s List (and I’m not alone, obviously), followed closely by Raiders of the Lost Ark—or perhaps tied with it, because it’s really like comparing apples and oranges. Although…they both had Nazis.


(Japanese people are doing Japanese things)
Servo: Kurosawa, eat your heart out.

Firstly, it’s been such a long time since I’ve heard the phrase “Eat your heart out”. Nobody uses it anymore. What does it mean? Why must I eat my heart? Isn’t that impossible? Isn’t that disgusting? Anywho, Akira Kurosawa is largely considered the greatest Japanese director, and is often in the short list of best directors in history. Kurosawa directed such classics as The Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, and Yojimbo. The great thing I like about Kurosawa’s films is how memorable all of his characters are. When you have a film that has a multitude of secondary characters (like Yojimbo and The Seven Samurai), you risk making them very bland—subjects that are there just to say lines. But Kurosawa’s characters were always multi-layered. My favorite Kurosawa character is probably Sanjuro, from Yojimbo and Sanjuro. Toshiro Mifune is one of the greatest actors out there. Second favorite character—Kyuzo from The Seven Samurai. A real cool cat.