Briarbruin Reviews

Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas (2022 TV Special)

AWFUL!

[3/10 · 31 December 2023]

This was a great disappointment. On paper this sounded brilliant. Watching it all the way through was excruciating. I wanted to bail on several occasions but persisted through to the finale.

I know this is a spoof of a cheesy1970's Christmas special, so was it purposely badly written to amp up the cheesy factor? Or just badly written?

The majority of the jokes fall flat and just aren't funny to begin with. Most of the performers are over the top and just embarrassing to watch.

I gave three stars because of the actors portraying Paul Lynde and Liberace. The Paul Lynde managed to be snarky but not mean, just like the real Paul Lynde, plus he had the voice and mannerisms down pat. The Liberace was amazing - he looked and sounded like Liberace plus appeared to be an extremely talented pianist.

I would recommend this only for the Paul Lynde and Liberace impersonations but otherwise it was an excruciatingly long hour.

Eight on the Lam (1967)

Stinko but fun to watch

[3/10 · 7 November 2023]

This movie is a thinly disguised rejiggering of "Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number", which also featured Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller. An aged-appearing Bob Hope, the father of a brood of young children, is a bank teller accused of embezzlement. As in "Wrong Number", both Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller coast through the film popping off one-liners which must have been boffo in 1967. Bob Hope goes on the lam with his kids, setting up a series of unconvincing and improbable situations. While "Wrong Number" had Elke Sommer as a femme fatale (speaking in an accent somewhere between Zsa Zsa Gabor and a sassy French maid), this film has Jill St. John as a scheming golddigger who seems to be basing her performance on Betty Boop. The film, like "Wrong Number", ends with a tedious and overextended chase sequence featuring a hilariously unconvincing stunt double in a scary Phyllis Diller wig. This is one of those bad movies that for some reason is fun to watch. If anything, the film (like "Wrong Number", is a time capsule of hideous 1960's design and fashion.

La Pitchoune: Cooking in France (2022– )

I Really Wanted to Like This Show

[5/10 · 18 January 2023]

I have really mixed feelings about this show.

The idea of attending a cooking school in Julia Child's Provence home sounds amazing, and the scenery and surroundings are beautiful. That is where the connection to Julia Child (and it's "Child", people, not "Childs".) starts - and stops.

The cooking school advertises itself as a no-recipe cooking school- other than being shown some very basic kitchen techniques and knife skills, the students are encouraged to be creative and combine ingredients in a free-form way.

I like to make up new recipes and dishes and I am here to tell you NOT EVERYTHING goes well together, including various combinations of herbs and spices. I have learned by trial and error in my home kitchen, as opposed to the privilege of coughing up $8000 (yes, that's correct, $8000) to do the same thing in Provence. (Although the location is gorgeous and more visually appealing than my generic Midwestern suburb!)

Julia Child is referenced and mentioned multiple times, but it seems almost disrespectful to her memory that a cooking school located in her Provence home (and getting a lot of publicity from that connection) makes a point of rejecting and refusing to teach even one her most basic, approachable recipes. If her legacy is to be ignored, why bother mentioning Julia Child at all, other than to give the cooking school and location some cachet?

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade - the participants look like they are having a wonderful time, but if I had already forked over $8000 for the experience I would make darn sure I was having a wonderful time as well.

Uncle Frank (2020)

BEAUTIFUL

[8/10 · 30 November 2020]

I must admit, when I first heard about this movie I thought, OK, another gay homecoming movie (I am a gay man, by the way), but this movie really touched me deeply. The acting was exquisitely nuanced and very honest, with none of the usual "gay person confronts disapproving family" cliches that often pop up in movies of this genre. If you enjoy movies that make you realize how very messy but wonderful life can be (as I do), you will be moved as I was.

Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)

SO BAD, IT's GOOD!!!

[5/10 · 28 August 2020]

I saw this film when I was a kid and loved it. Watching it as an adult, I still got a kick out of it in a campy, shlocky way. The film is worth seeing as a time travel back to the WORST examples of 60's design, clothing, and decor. The garish colors and styles just have to be seen to be believed. Poor Marjorie Lord is outfitted with a towering red wig any ambitious drag queen would kill for. Bob Hope just looks too old at this stage of his career to play a suburban husband and father, despite all the expected one liners. Phyllis Diller, playing Phyllis Diller before all the glam plastic surgery, is a hoot, with bird's nest hairdo and crazy outfits. The problem is, both Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller act like they are in two separate movies, just knocking out one liners and double entendres that must have been boffo in 1966. The plot is convoluted, kind of a riff on a French bedroom farce. Elke Sommer plays a European actress who tries to escape her Hollywood life. The problem is, it is hard to tell exactly what part of Europe she is supposed to be from; sometimes, she sounds like an Ooh-Lah-Lah French maid, other times, she talks like the Fourth Gabor Sister. The chase scene at the end is a hoot, with a stunt person not even slightly resembling Phyllis Diller, riding a motorcycle and squirting mustard in people's faces (don't ask), while the loud Phyllis Diller witch's cackle laughter is dubbed into the scene. The movie is fun, in kinda a train wreck way.Just don't expect Citizen Kane.