He Made Me Do It: Top Hat and Brutal Massacre: A Comedy

This is He Made Me Do It.

This is a movie challenge featuring Brad and Richard choosing movies for each other to watch.

This could get ugly.

Round 3



Richard: Like you, I was not a fan of musicals. The whole concept of song and dance numbers in movies used to piss me off. Luckily, my wife showed me that there are good musicals out there. Top Hat was the first Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers film that I saw and I have yet to find one of their collaborations that I love more. (Don't listen to the fans who claim that Swing Time is the best because it's only okay AND it has a cringe inducing black-face number that ruins everything.) Just one thing I hope you'll find in the Astaire/Rogers movies is the surreality of it all: the clunky parts of the plot and the bizarre setpieces that are there literally just so there can be another excuse to dance and sing. And damn it, Top Hat just makes me happy! That's entertainment.

Brad: If you are trying to trick me into liking musicals, it is working. I love the balance between the songs and dances and the screwball comedy. Fred Astaire is a much better actor than I thought he was, very charming. Ginger is quite the looker too! The supporting players are top notch as well, the valet in particular was hilarious. Taken in as small booster shots, I can see rethinking some of the musical genre. Thanks!



Brad: You need to see Brutal Massacre: A Comedy because it is the Christopher Guest style mockumentary for horror films. It has quite a few horror film icons, Ken Foree steals the show and David Naughton proves he was no one trick werewolf. I dare you to not laugh.

Richard: Talk about an easy sell. A dark comedy about an independent horror movie production spinning out of control? Count me in. I vaguely remember hearing about this movie a few years ago and being excited about it. Of course, it slipped into my vaguest of half-remembered movie queues and I was glad you encouraged me to check it out. This movie is often very funny and I found it charming even when it wasn't. The pacing is a little off and I was ready for Brutal Massacre to be over before the running time was up. Other than that though, I really dug this movie.