Mitchell

(Mitchell and the Bad Guy are having a showdown on the Bad Guy’s boat)
Joel: Why don’t we rip off the scene from Key Largo, Mitchell?

They really are ripping off the scene from Key Largo, so much so that IMDB mentions it as a “reference” on Mitchell’s site. Key Largo is a classic John Huston movie starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Edward G. Robinson. Robinson and Bogie have a showdown on the boat, Bogie having killed all of Robinson’s henchmen and ready to shoot Robinson down. Robinson pleads for his life, suggesting they work together, and the scene is ultimately much better than the one in Mitchell. Bogie shot him, by the way.


(Mitchell stumbles down a hallway, or a sidewalk, or something)
Joel (singing): It’s Bugsy Malone…
One wonders (well, I wonder) who exactly he’s imitating when he sings that, but Joel was more or less referencing the 1976 musical Bugsy Malone, which starred Scott Baio and Jodie Foster. Bugsy Malone has a very intriguing premise: a gangster flick made entirely up of children. Imagine the headache the director must have had. It’s actually a very good movie, with songs by Paul Simon. I remember watching this movie as a kid—I still know all the words of every song. It’s very fun; I recommend it. My favorite part of the movie is the cars, which look like real cars, but are pedaled instead of driven. I like how the cars idle nevertheless.


(the slowest car chase in history)
Servo: This makes Driving Miss Daisy look like Bullitt!

Um, okay. Firstly, Driving Miss Daisy is a drama about a li’l ol’ Southern lady (played by Jessica Tandy) whose son (Dan Akroyd) hires a black chauffer (Morgan Freeman) for her after she is unable to drive herself any longer. Of course, her being an old Southern lady and all, it takes her a while to warm up to Freeman, but ultimately they become the best of friends. Jessica Tandy won an Oscar for this film, making her the oldest Oscar winner ever (I think she was eighty-two, though I may be wrong). Incidentally, she was married to Hume Cronyn. Bullitt, on the other hand, stars Steve McQueen as a rebellious detective (“There are bad cops, there are good cops…and then there’s Bullitt.”) who works to solve the murder of a witness of a high-profile drug trial. The film contains one of the most celebrated car chases ever, as McQueen (doing most of his own driving) and a baddie race up and down the streets of San Francisco. If you’ve ever been to San Francisco—hell, if you’ve ever even seen San Francisco—you’ll know this is not an easy task. God knows I’ve tried it. Gosh I miss the use of the lower half of my body…