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lottiestreeter2
Reviews
Comic Relief: Uptown Downstairs Abbey (2011)
Actors Great -- Writing Could Use Improvement
Great acting and a brilliant idea but the writing hangs limply on just a couple of jokes, while inexplicably ignoring the huge opportunities for great parody the series provides. Here's hoping for improvement in Part 3.....
Having "His Majesty Sir Julian Fellowes OBE" provide pompous running commentary is the funniest bit, spot-on and spectacularly well-cast with Simon Callow. Calling attention to all the grimaces the actors display is quite amusing, and having "Fellowes" take credit for writing these into the script was great..."saves learning all that dialogue!"
The kitchens being in Ealing is good for one good laugh, no need to bleed it further.
And what's with the idea of "Mrs. Danvers" wanting to be in the upstairs cast? Good parody exploits the foibles and mannerisms the characters in the real series have....it doesn't invent new ones!
The bit about all the maids (including the mermaid) was not funny, either, or the puppet. No need to assemble this marvellous cast just for slapstick.
Probably the funniest part of the actual series is Maggie Smith's sarcastic remarks. This is where you writers need to spend some time... write some spot-on digs for her to deliver! Like when Mrs. Crawley said "what should we call one another?" And she replied, "How about Dame Maggie Smith"? More of this, please!
Also ripe for satire is Thomas and O'Brien continually smoking and plotting, and Mrs. Padmore screaming at Daisy. A good running gag could be Thomas hiding and then recovering ever larger and more conspicuous objects to win Lord Grantham's favour...
Lady Mary and Lady Edith spitting venom at one another has comic possibilities too...they remind me of Alexis and Krystle on Dynasty when they get going. Give these two some scenes together in the next parody, please!
Final niggle : You haven't left Kim Cattrall blonde...can't "Carson" and "Mr. Bates" wear wigs so they can better resemble their series counterparts? The shiny silver hair is very distracting!
American Masters: Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records (2001)
Amazing Piece of Americana
The archive footage was wonderful.
The anecdotes by the folks who were part of Sun Records' heyday added a lot of perspective.
The idea of pulling together members of rock 'n roll royalty to cover Sun hits from the 1950s that inspired them was brilliant. I only wish all the great tribute recordings made it onto both the CD and the DVD. When you get the CD you realize there are 9 more excellent recordings you didn't get to see being made on the DVD, and a couple you expected to get are missing (Ben Folds and Mark Knopfler). I am ignoring Third Eye Blind's rendition of "Cry Cry Cry" for what I think are obvious reasons.
Sun artist Billy Lee Riley's misplaced resentment that his song "Red Hot" was supposedly sidelined by Sam Phillips in favor of the far more talented Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shaking' Going On" detracted quite a bit from the narrative, in my opinion. Especially considering the lyrics of Riley's song ("My gal is red hot, your gal ain't doodly squat") are trite and crude and would never have had universal appeal, no matter how catchy the beat. Ironically Riley's other prospective hit, "Flying Saucer Rock 'n Roll" shared the exact same tune and similarly trite subject matter.
I guess the filmmakers felt it showed candor to showcase negative comments about Phillips in particular and rock 'n roll in general but I disagree. It would have been better to include footage of artists such as Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Elton John, and Eric Clapton performing their Sun Records tributes.