Entertainment
10 Reasons Why The Legend of Billie Jean Is a Must-See Film
Some movies just don’t get enough love. The 1985 classic Slater sibling film The Legend of Billie Jean is one of those movies. It was on TV all the time back in the day, but for some reason, after about the mid-90s or so, the film dropped off the face of the Earth. You can’t get it on Netflix. You can’t watch it instantly or and it’s not available on DVD. It’s never on random cable television either.
All that changed when I caught The Legend of Billie Jean on the Sony Movie Channel. When I saw it was coming up on TV, I DVR’d as fast as I would an episode of Hard Knocks. I mean this is a true cult classic. It had big stars, a big soundtrack and big expectations. The film turned out to be kind of a flop, grossing only $3.5 million at the box office, but it’s still pretty friggin’ entertaining. More than 25 years later, it’s still fun to watch. If you don’t believe me, here are 10 reasons why you should watch this amazing movie.
10. That Dude From Top Gun
Barry Tubb, who plays bully tough guy Hubie in the film, was Wolfman in Top Gun. Yea, Wolfman’s in it. Nuff said.
9. Peter Coyote’s Hair
I mean look at that thing. You know how much Aqua Net it takes to make your ‘do look that fantastic? Coyote was working with a proper pompadour throughout the whole film.
8. GI Joe Walkie Talkies
When Billie Jean and her crew raided the mall and dropped IOUs, they stocked up on some pretty nifty GI Joe walkie talkies. When they needed to communicate with each other, they didn’t post Facebook status updates, tweet or send text messages. They did it the old fashion way with two-way walkies that they shoplifted from a toy store. That was high-tech gangsta back in 1985.
7. That Guy From Back to School
Keith Gordon (Rodney Dangerfield’s lovable swim team son Jason Mellon from Back to School) plays Lloyd in The Legend of Billie Jean. Lloyd just gets it. He’s an amateur filmmaker who’s into old movies and making big statements. He knows how hot Helen Slater is, so he volunteers to be a hostage in order to support her rebellion against the establishment. Gordon gave up acting in the 90s and started a career as a director. Fun fact: He’s got nine Dexter episodes on his directorial resume.
6. That Sweet, Sweet Scooter
When Hubie and his band of thugs messed up Christian Slater’s red scooter, it set off a series of events that led to Billie Jean becoming a legend. When you look at that sleek red machine, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would want to do harm to that Honda. But hey, it’s nothing that $608 worth of repairs can’t fix.
5. Live Action Southern Lisa Simpson
Yeardley Smith doesn’t have that many live acting highlights (City Slickers, As Good As It Gets, Herman’s Head, etc.), but that doesn’t mean this actress with the squeaky kid voice is hurtin’ for cash. Smith has been providing the voice of Lisa Simpson for more than two decades, and she gets paid handsomely for it. Hearing that Lisa Simpson voice with a bad southern accent and being able to put a face to the voice was kinda entertaining.
4. Fair Is Fair!
If there’s a better catchphrase to come out of an outlaw youth film in the 80s, I haven’t encountered it. Billie Jean’s rally cry with the two fists in the air resonated with young people all across Texas. It’s enough to make someone want to chop off all their hair. At one point, the catchphrase was going to be the title of the movie, but it wasn’t meant to be. $608 for the scooter your son trashed. Fair is fair!
3. Christian Slater’s Debut
The Legend of Billie Jean is the film that introduced Christian Slater to the world. Sure his sister got all the attention, but you could tell her young, blond punk of a brother Binx was gonna grow up to be somebody special. Like Kuffs and Pump Up the Volume special. In those films, Christian Slater racked up more talking-directly-to-the-camera time than Zack Morris in Saved by the Bell.
2. Invincible by Pat Benatar
Nothing gets you properly fired up like a potent Pat Benatar track. The song “Invincible” was created specifically for this movie, and it’s a powerful, powerful tune. The song fit the film so well. It hit on all the right themes: rebellious youth, standing up for what you believe in, an inflated sense of self-importance and so on. It’s the perfect musical accompaniment to the “fair is fair!” rally cry. It should be noted though that Benatar wasn’t a big fan of the film. According to IMDB trivia, before Benatar performs the song at her concerts she likes to say, “this is from the worst movie ever made.” Harsh, Pat. Harsh.
1. Helen Slater Before the Haircut
Gaddamn, Helen Slater was crazy hot in this movie. It’s the kinda hotness that defines an era: jean jackets, unnecessary hair braids, ridiculous one-sided dangly earrings and bright, high-cut bikini panties. Sure her hotness plummeted when she chopped off her hair, put on the weight lifting gloves and that ridiculous zipper vest top. But even with her martyred, Joan of Arc makeover, you could still tell that Helen Slater was the pinnacle of 80s attractiveness. Supergirl has nothing on the heroic, principled, low-income Corpus Christi values of Bille Jean. It’s Helen Slater’s finest moment.
May 18th
LA Noire Badge Pursuit Sweepstakes
The latest video game release from the fine folks at RockStar hits the shelves this week. LA Noire is throwback to the film noir flavor of 1940s and 50s murder mystery crime films. It was the first video game to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it promises to be a slick addition to the list of solid RockStar favorites.
LA Noire takes place in 1947 Los Angeles. The action follows Cole Phelps, a World War 2 hero and aspiring young officer in the LAPD. Playing as Phelps, you rise up through the ranks of the department, partnering up with different players as you go from patrol man to traffic detective to homicide, vice and eventually end up solving cases as an arson investigator.
The game combines elements of murder mystery intrigue, general crime solving, gun battles, foot chases, car chases and independent side investigations that you can pick up from dispatch. If the game looks half as good as it sounds and plays anything like Grand Theft or Red Dead, it’s gonna be sweet.
You can purchase the game on Tuesday, May 17 or you can pre-order from GameStop and get some extra goodies and a chance to win $30,000 or thousands of LA Noire prizes. Anyone who pre-orders LA Noire from GameStop gets exclusive access to “The Naked City” Vice Case and The Badge Pursuit Challenge. With the Badge Pursuit sweepstakes, customers follow a trail of badges that lead them to different sites on the web that GameStop appreciates. The goal is to locate each hidden badge on these websites, and click to move on to the next challenge. Badges can either be displayed images or embedded links, so you have to look carefully.
During the Badge Pursuit sweepstakes, you’ll come across exclusive LA Noire content. After your search is complete, you can enter to win a grand prize of $30K, a first place LA Noire prize pack or second place prizes that give you access to tons of downloadable content.
Get in on the sweepstakes before Tuesday, and be sure to check out the game!
May 16th
Trip Out Your Friends with TripMyFace.com
Last week, Hotels.com launched a new site called TripYourFace.com. The site let’s you upload photos of yourself and up to three friends and these photos are then insertedfro on the bodies of live actors in hotel scenes in Paris, Vegas and New York. It’s like a goofy Photoshop face-swap with an HD video insertion bonus.
Here’s how it works. You pick a destination, hit the hotel lobby and select how many guests are checking in. Then you upload front-facing, symmetrical photos and tag them with a name. After adjusting the photo to fit a face frame (and adjusting color and tone as well), your photos are integrated into video scenes. You can upload photos on your computer or pull photos on Facebook.
The videos feature Vanilla Ice and Dennis Rodman in different party-vibe scenarios. You can share the videos with your friends by posting them to Twitter, Facebook or just sharing a URL. Here are some of the video scenes you can splice yourself into:
May 12th
Nick Di Paolo Interview – MANjr Podcast
Nick Di Paolo is the best. You may not agree with his views and his politics, but Di Paolo calls it like he sees it. He talks about all the things that no one wants to talk about. He skewers political correctness and isn’t afraid to piss people off in the process. Good comedy needs truth and honesty. Mix in some passion, and a little bit of that pissed off vibe, and you got a solid approach to laughs. Di Paolo has all these qualities, and that’s what makes him so effective.
When we were asked to interview Nick Di Paolo to discuss his upcoming Raw Nerve special on Showtime (which airs on Friday at 9pm), we jumped at the chance. If you’ve ever seen Di Paolo perform stand up, go off on a roast or if you’ve listened to his radio appearances, you know the guy’s just hilarious. We figured it’d be a fun conversation that could go in a few different directions. We knew there’d be a lot of laughs in the mix as well.
Di Paolo didn’t disappoint. During our interview, we talked about a wide range of topics, everything from his Showtime special and Raw Nerve album to the Red Sox, Kobe and Greg Giraldo. We found out who he’d like to roast, who cracks him up and what it was like to write for Chris Rock. He gave us some tips for aspiring comics and some advice on marriage as well. And he made us crack up throughout it all.
The interview starts off a bit slow, but stick with it. It just gets better. Here’s the podcast:
Nick Di Paolo Interview – MANjr.com Podcast
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Don’t forget to check out the Raw Nerve special on Showtime this Friday at 9pm. We haven’t seen it yet, but we pretty sure it’s going to be sick.
Apr 28th
Workaholics Episode 3 Preview
The third episode of Workaholics airs tonight on Comedy Central. If you haven’t seen this show yet, check it out. It’s pretty damn funny. Here’s a clip from tonight’s episode:
Apr 20th
Scream 4 Review
The first Scream flick was a good movie. You know it was. It infused horror films with a type of style and humor that was fresh and easy to consume. The film knew that it belonged to a greater catalog of horror films, and it made clever use of this knowledge. The first Scream paid homage to horror films of old, but it did so in a way that recognized and lampooned existing horror film formulas. The sequels got old, to be sure, but that original Scream movie seemed to hit all of the right notes.
The same is true with Scream 4. Seriously. It captured that old, self-aware, self-deprecating vibe of the first film, but it still brought an updated, fresh take to the whole franchise. Reboot jokes were commonplace. Scream 4 never took itself too seriously, but it still pushed all the right horror buttons without coming across as stale. It poked fun without turning tired. That’s not easy to do.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t some breakthrough film that’ll change the way movies are made. It’s just a fun trip down a familiar path. It had old stars and new faces, a smart intro and plenty of cameos. Add in some amusing death scenes, a good bit of intrigue and some serious plastic surgery, and you got 111 minutes of quality slash and laughs.
I didn’t have massive expectations for a fourth Scream film. How good could it be? We’ve seen it all before. So when AXE Shower hooked us up with tickets to the Scream 4 premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, our expectations were minimal at best. Before the film started, Bob Weinstein said that if it were up to his brother, they would’ve made a bunch more of these films. We were skeptical. And the lively, supportive crowd likely played a factor, but after watching the thing, I wasn’t thinking about what didn’t work in this film. I was thinking about all the things that did work – the stuff that makes you happy you went to the movie theater.
The fourth Scream installment is not just watchable, it’s actually enjoyable. Were there things that could’ve been better? For damn sure. The acting with the younger crowd was lacking a bit. Did the movie force you to suspend some bit of critical judgment in favor of having a good time? Of course. You just gotta know what you’re getting into and have fun with it.
Bottom line, Scream 4 is unexpectedly entertaining, and well worth a visit to your local movie spot. I’m sure it’ll blow up this weekend.
Apr 12th
Top 10 Useless Things in America
We got a lot of useless stuff in this country. Maybe it’s because we’re so prosperous and comfortable and so satiated with the necessities of life. Some people might argue that it’s our right as Americans to love useless shit. That’s a bunch of malarkey. At MANjr, we believe there’s an overabundance of worthless stuff out there that needs to go away. Here’s our list of the top 10 useless things in America today.
10. Blockbuster Video Stores
So Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11, got bought in an auction and they’re closing down stores left and right across the country. The company tried to waive late fees, but that didn’t stick. Their inventory sucks and they never have enough copies of the latest new release. Can we put this chain out of its misery already? With torrents, Red Box, OnDemand, Netflix and other online content streaming solutions, there’s really no reason to keep Blockbusters around. They destroyed the local video shop and it’s time these blue and gold dinosaur stores get phased out for good.
9. Segways
You lazy mother, get off that stupid Zamboni stick and walk around like a real person. You wanna ride a bike, that’s fine. You wanna rollerblade, cruise in a motorized wheelchair or ride a Moped? That’s totally acceptable. But don’t stand up on a $7,000 motorized doormat and have the nerve to wear a helmet. If you’re gonna stand, walk. If you gotta sit, make use of a century’s worth of available technology to get yourself from A to B.
8. Best Buy Employees
Have you ever tried to ask a Best Buy employee for assistance on anything? It’s the most depressing shit ever. These blue-shirted zombies would rather text on their phone and power walk across the aisles than provide you with even the smallest nugget of customer support. I don’t know how they train their people, but they’re doing it wrong. I get that quality customer service is a lost art, but it’s amazing how so many employees can be so useless. Why not have one security guard and 20 self-checkout stations and call it a day?
7. Roundabouts
Is there a stop sign shortage out there? Is the circular intersection really necessary? Roundabouts suck because most drivers on the road are already incredibly retarded. Why complicate things for them? People just don’t know what to do when they see these things. It’s just easy for everyone if you remove the planter in the middle of the street and create a proper intersection that inept American drivers can understand.
6. Handerpants
What’s this? Underpants for your hands? Well it’s about damn time. People buy a lot of stupid shit on TV. Shake weights, snuggies, pajama jeans are all pretty retarded, but who the hell has ever cried out for finger underwear? Are gloves that out of touch? As seen on TV products and anything that’s in SkyMall Magazine just isn’t worth it people.
Apr 6th
Sony Movie Channel MANDAY Giveaway
Today marks the beginning of MANDAYS on the Sony Movie Channel. MANDAYS will feature action-packed movies, adventures and comedies that cater exclusively to dudes who want to enjoy some dude flicks at the top of the week. MANDAYS kicks off with the Keanu-classic Johnny Mnemonic and Sniper with Tom Berenger.
Viewers who tune in on MANDAS can expect bro-friendly films like Toy Soldiers (pots and pans!), El Mariarchi, 88 Minutes and The Executioner. Guys like to enjoy a good laugh no and then too, so films like Three Stooges: Have Rocket and the Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder classic See No Evil, Hear No Evil are also on tap.
To celebrate the official launch of MANDAYS, Sony Movie Chanel is teaming up with MANjr to give away a MANDAY prize pack that includes Blu-Ray copies of 88 Minutes, Black Dynamite and Black Hawk Down.
To win the giveaway, follow us on Twitter @MANjrcom and leave us a comment and tell us which film is your favorite, most manliest flick of all time. We’ll pick a winner at random next Monday, April 11.
Good luck!
Apr 4th
Yakuza 4 Trailer
Check out the trailer for Yakuza 4. The game came out this week and it looks pretty sick. You get to play with four different characters and explore the massive underground crime world of Tokyo. The open world let’s you hit up karaoke bars, massage parlors and pachinko palaces. You can test your skill at mini-games like ping pong, golf, bowling, card games, darts, pool, harbor fishing and batting cages. Oh, and you can also kick a bunch of ass while you navigate through Tokyo as a reformed Yakuza thug, an escaped convict, a cop and a loan shark. Take a look:
Mar 18th
Limitless Prize Pack Giveaway
The film Limitless opens tomorrow, and we think it looks good. It stars Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper, which is a pretty solid one-two punch. Cooper plays Eddie Mora, a writer who discovers a top-secret drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. With his synapses firing on all cylinders, Eddie transforms into a super human capable of learning at a ridiculous pace. Eddie sets his sights on Wall Street, and comes up big. A big-shot business mogul named Carl Van Loon (played by De Niro) takes notice and invites Eddie to participate in the largest corporate merger of all time. Eddie then has to stave off stalkers, a gangster and the cops while he tries to maximize his abilities with a dwindling stash.
This action-packed thriller opens up tomorrow, and to promote the release, we’re giving away a Limitless prize pack to one lucky visitor that includes the following:
- A collection of mind thriller movies (Momento, Vanilla Sky, A Beautiful Mind, LA Confidential)
- A Limitless mini poster
- A copy of the Limitless book
- A Limitless stainless steel water bottle
To win the giveaway, follow us on Twitter @MANjrcom and leave us a comment telling us why you’d like to see the film. We’ll pick a winner at random next Thursday, March 24.
If you’d like to learn more about the film visit the Limitless Facebook page or follow @LimitlessMovie on Twitter for all the latest updates.
Good luck!
Mar 17th
