Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Waiting for Guffman ::
by William the Bloody
From the weirdoes who brought you This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, comes another faux documentary of silly proportions. The small town of Blaine Missouri is celebrating their 150th anniversary, and in honor of this momentous occasion, the whole town is pulling out all the stops. Not the least of which is the community theater guru, Corky St. Clair with his musical tribute to the history of Blaine. With stars in his eyes, Corky submits letters to many Broadway producers, and one company agrees to send one Mr. Guffman to represent them and gauge their talent.
The Good: It's the usual cast of goofballs you'd expect from the mockumentaries of Christopher Guest: Deborah Theaker, Michael Hitchcock, Scott Williamson, Larry Miller, Don Lake, Fred Willard, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Eugene Levy, and Chris Guest himself as Corky St. Clair. They all do their usual straight-faced, scarcely scripted deliveries of absolutely ludicrous lines. The songs in the musical were fifty-fifty written by Guest and Harry Shearer, who unfortunately does not act in this one, and were pretty fun too boot, even if they ARE ridiculous. The tiny orchestra playing for the show gave me some of the best laughs, as they play this grand overture for this tacky show and wait a minute is that guy playing BOTH trumpet AND tympani? The "where are they now" epilogue was one of the best parts, especially regarding Corky there. I laughed so much.
The Bad: I was really disappointed at Shearer's no show in this one, seeing as how he had what I consider to be some of the best bits in Spinal Tap and Mighty Wind. The direction is of course pretty boring, trying to replicate the "real" feel, so it's nothing to write home about. Eugene Levy's deliberately bad Carson impressions made me squirm.
Overall, this is probably my LEAST favorite of the Christopher Guest mockumentaries. This doesn't mean it's BAD, as I really loved the aforementioned three, it just had some great acts to follow, and didn't really compare. It was still good fun and silliness.
B
