| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.95.4 |
We watched this last night for the first time in over a decade - it's really the Who ep that should have been. I was completely bowled over by how deep and adult it is, how funny and thoughtful. It had all these weird Freddy Krueger echoes (same name), only with the subspace mind zone a healing place and not a weapon against us. Fred had Freddy's powers but was actually us. And that image of the little girl tied to the bed will stay with me forever. This has become a classic film since the time it was made, and perhaps now an all-time favourite (it wasn't before). And yes, Rik Mayall should at one time have played the Doctor - though at least everyone since has had the courtesy to emulate him. (Damn - I knew it. They're remaking it - with Russel fucking Brand.  ) | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.95.4 |
This nails it. http://www.astralresearch.org/mysticalmovieguide/mmlist.pl?exact=Drop%20Dead%20F red&year=1991&index=1 | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.202.102 |
Haven't seen this in years, though I do think Rik Mayall is a class act. Last seen doing some soft 'Cold Feet' type thing. But his anarchic youth had an impact on pop Brit culture. But me, I'm a Bottom fan: his and Ade's finest moments. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.132.95.4 |
Gary - it's become this Jungian thing and has really affected me seeing it again. We put it on for some rels and they were just flabbergasted by it, really moved. I used to think it was this coarse iffy kiddy comedy but it's not at all. It's quite a liberating watch. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.202.102 |
I will endeavour to acquire a copy, Tone. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.182.24.98 |
What on earth is going on here? Have I stepped through into some sort of parallel universe? DROP DEAD FRED good? You'll be saying that Take That are worth a listen next.  | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 86.142.147.0 |
I found it a strangely "healing" film too. I saw it in the 80s it as a highly strung, highly neurotic, cripplingly shy and fearful teenager, so I identified completely with the Phoebe Cates character. It definitely worked its therapeutic magic on me back then! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.202.102 |
Yeah, so sod off, Mickey boy! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Let's pass an international law, that the only way his name is to be publicly listed, reported or otherwise in any way displayed, is as and only as: Russell fucking Brand. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.182.24.98 |
I saw it in the 'eighties and really didn't like it - I'm a big (not to say tall) fan of Mayall, and especially of Mayall and Edmondson together, but the film did nothing for me. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.202.102 |
Fair enuf, guv. Btw, have you scrubbed your root vegetables? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.182.24.98 |
No, too busy being banged up the slammer. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
I've always been pretty sure that Drop Dead Fred (1991) was ripped off Jonathan Carroll's short story "Half Past You" (I think that's the title - the story features in his 1989 novel A Child Across the Sky). Even the "invisible-friend" character is described as looking the same as Mayall's character in the film... | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.78 |
I thought that too, Zed. 'Mister Fiddlehead', wasn't it? First story in The Panic Hand. Bottom's the best British comedy in Decades, funnier even than Changing Rooms with Carol Smilie and Handy Andy*. * All that MDF Andy sawed up without wearing a face mask, surely it's done his lungs in by now? I know I sawed loads of the bloody stuff in the late 80s without a face mask. Typical it's only now believed to be as potentially hazardous as asbestos... Bugger. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.78 |
Russell 'Effing' Brand is to appear in the Rent-A-Ghost movie, I see. He's to play Fred Mumford. Doubt it'll be as big a critical hit as The A-Team or McGyver. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Mister Fiddlehead...that's the one! | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Great story. Now, can someone please just drop something very large and heavy on Russell fucking Brand from a great height..? It will a) vastly improve the calibre of British comedy, b) vastly improve the calibre of British film, c) do the gene pool a hell of a lot of good and d) give the rest of us a run at Katy Perry. Ahem.  Hope everyone had a good Christmas btw. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 89.194.5.194 |
'Mister Fiddlehead' is a great story and the only short by JC I've read. I loved the way he inserted it into the novel as almost an aside - brilliant writing. |