Friday, April 18, 2008

Shall we play?


You know the drill, kids … in the comments, if you please.

1) Name one movie that you think is hilarious but everyone else thinks is teh suck (be honest).

2) Favourite Paul Newman film and why.

3) And just to change things up ... name the worst job you ever had.

Me first.

1) The Golden Child with Eddie Murphy. A movie that is just beyond bad but never fails to amuse the fuck outta me. Behold the hilarity.



2) No question — Cool Hand Luke. Where to begin? Newman’s breathtaking portrayal of Luke’s absolutely unfaltering spirit even as life continually shits on him, the incredible supporting cast, the egg scene, his endless escape attempts .. and that smile. Not to mention those blue, blue eyes. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid runs a pretty close second.

3) My first waitressing gig which was an absolute disaster. I only got it because I'd lied about my age (I said I was 18 when I was only 17) and it was at this horrendous little greasy spoon owned by a husband and wife who looked like they could’ve been members of the Manson Family. The place was infested with cockroaches, the cook had a nodding acquaintance with soap and the husband played grabass every time I walked past him. I quit my second day right after accidentally, most definitely not on purpose, dumping a cup of coffee in Mr. Grabby’s lap.

Your turn.

21 comments:

KEvron said...

1)death to smoochie. i like dark, ugly humor, and the design was regular eye candy.

2) fave performance was in the verdict; a surpring departure from his leading-man image. faves (can't name just one) include hombre, the life and times of judge roy bean, cool hand luke, butch and sundance.... christ! i could name just about all of them!

3) i currently doing: cable monkey. the work sucks and so do most of the people (men in construction don't tend to be the most enlightened folk).

KEvron

KEvron said...

er, "i'm currently doing it...."

KEvron

Red Tory said...

1) Drawing a blank here, other than stuff that is outright camp (e.g., old Flash Gordon movies totally crack me up, but let’s face it… they’re god-awful tripe of the worst/best sort).

2) The Young Philadelphians, because it’s redolent with “scandal” in that delicious, weirdly trumped-up American sort of way, and Newman is absolutely gorgeous (as always).

3) Scrubbing pots at a seafood restaurant. It scarred me for life — I can never eat Manhattan clam chowder as a result. Some details: A mental defective was my “superior” and he frequently would go off the rails and start madly shrieking for no apparent reason. My shift would end at 1:00-2:00 AM and I then had to walk six miles to get home, then go school the next day (and lived in a paper bag, etc.) I’m still haunted by memories of mopping up grease off the kitchen floor (which we would just throw salt on to provide traction during the busy times) and helping scrape down the grills which was enough to put you off eating altogether for quite a while. Oh, and I made less than $2/hr. Not an altogether pleasant experience.

Renee said...

1. Paint Your Wagon. It's my secret shame.

2. Oh, man. Jeeze. Um... Harper. (Other faves: The Sting. Fat Man and Little Boy. The Hustler. Butch & Sundance, yeah, of course! Cool Hand Luke...)

3. Telemarketing. Good god yes. I lasted a whole two weeks (although the last two days I started doing the worst thing possible: telling the truth. It was all downhill from there).

Lindsay Stewart said...

1) hmmm... zardoz! i adore that flick. i saw it as in high school and it had everything an adolescent could want, stupid violence, boobies and an incomprehensible story that had flashes of psychedelia and a cameo by eric idle. i found it hilarious.

2) cool hand luke. why? it is a nearly perfect film in every regard. and the egg scene. damn.

3) i worked one shift at a fine dining establishment that was operated by a brilliant psychotic woman in the kitchen and her sinister man friend who ran the floor. it was a standing joke in the local service industry that the second biggest expense they had after rent was the help wanted ad that was a permanent fixture in the paper for years. i'd come from another very well established fine dining place run by another loonie chef. at the new job i picked up the first plate and was subjected to a profanity laden tirade that only grew in pitch and volume until i was sure her head would explode.

my crime, apparently i had "bruised" her sauce by lifting the plate too quickly. for the remaining 4 hours of my tenure i was subjected to a barrage of cursing that would have made cc blush. the other servers just hung their heads and scampered out of the firing line as quickly as possible. this was all standard operating procedure in her establishment. i left, went home and never returned.

for years other restaurant workers would compare notes. we were always in awe of those that lasted, they had iron constitutions. most people never saw a second day in her employ. plenty didn't last an hour. she was routinely referred to in the industry as that evil fucking bitch. good times.

Renee said...

Oh! I forgot to say why Harper. I'm a huge Goldman fan, and also the character was just so... human and delightful. And Newman, of course, totally worked it.

Frank Frink said...

1) The Thing With Two Heads ('It seemed like a good idea at the time').

Speaking of Head, the Monkees movie of the same name. Really!

Or anything directed by Alan Smithee.

2) Cool Hand Luke hands down.

3) A 'dish pig' (i.e. a dish cleaner) in the cafeteria at Carleton University when I was a student there. Even cockroaches get more respect in a cafeteria.

Heathen Mike said...

1. Hudson Hawk. Universally panned and was voted the worst movie of 1991, but damn do I laugh. Early David Caruso doesn't hurt either.

2. Yeah, yeah, it's gotta be Cool Hand Luke. No one plays Plastic Jesus better.

3. Door to door salesman for organizational portfolios. I lasted literally one day, and by the end, the dude who was "training" me also quit.

Frank Frink said...

Hmmm... Once again, 'It seemed like a good idea at the time'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWHNA_j7h5A

Red Tory said...

That was hilarious! Poor Ray Milland. Didn't he also "star" in Frogs? What a way to end your career.

Boris said...

1) The Dalton Bond films. People even pick Roger Moore over these.

2) Butch and Sundance or Cool Hand Luke...hard to pick.

3)Oh this one's tough. It's a tie between several.
i. Janitor, Canadian Tire. I was 15 and they thought I was 18. Between being forced to clean 20 years of nicotene stains off a tiled ceiling and mouse shit infested tool chest, which I then believe they sold, I pretty much can't stand the smell of the place.

ii. Mobile phone sales. I can proudly say I never sold a phone in the three days I worked for them. Wasn't a big fan of the whole 'lie to get a signature' gig. Sat in some nice parks.

iii. Tomato farm. Australia. Paid out of 3 seperate biz accts to avoid overtime. 14 hour days. 1 hour commute. No break. 35-50 C Queensland heat. And a boss who'd fire workers for yawning. 7 weeks I lasted.

Dave said...

1941 - It just cracks me up.

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof:

If it was remade today Tennessee Williams would have loved it.

Parts man in a computer outfit:

How many ways can I actually say BORING!

Somena Woman said...

1) Name one movie that you think is hilarious but everyone else thinks is teh suck (be honest).

Ishtar --The songs cracked me up.

2) Favourite Paul Newman film and why.

The Hustler

3) And just to change things up ... name the worst job you ever had.

Working as an expediter for a legal services company. Our job was to find process servers across the country to serve legal papers. We only discovered after 2 weeks why it was that when we called process servers they would yell profanities at us, or just hang up. The company had been stiffing payments to process servers all over the country and had burned bridges everywhere by not paying people for service done. At first we thought the guy was sincere about wanting to pay everybody back, but upon a really close look at the acconting practices, we realized that this was just a ruse. I began to refuse to hire servers unless they were being paid in advance because I didn't want to be party to defrauding people of service. The last 2 weeks of the 6 weeks on the job, we did not get paid. We had moved from British Columbia to Florida to set up a branch office of this outfit. We realized after a few weeks that the owner was an absolute con-man.

One of the more shocking moments was when my husband sat down at a meeting of company directors and the vice-president, best friend of the owner, claimed that he was connected to Meyer Lansky the famous mobster.

I am conviced now that the owner had a massive cocaine problem or a gambling problem because with all the money coming in, he should have been able to make ends meet AND pay the servers being hired. Oh yeah -- (remember this is the US - not Canada) one of the employees found a lump in her breast. She had cancer. The owner forgot to pay the insurance bill, and so this woman ended up losing her insurance 3 weeks into cancer treatment. By then it was a "pre-existing condition" and as such it was nigh impossible for her to get new coverage. The owner was scum. Absolute Scum.

Jennifer Smith said...

1) Eric the Viking. Ok, not everybody hated it, but most.

2) Cool Hand Luke, of course.

3) My second job: telemarketing for a chimney cleaning company. My first job was telemarketing for the Toronto Star, but that didn't last long enough for me to truly despise it.

The worst part about the chimney sweep company? Having to tell customers that they really needed the vents from their natural gas furnaces cleaned, even after being told by one of the guys that 'cleaning' a natural gas flue consisted of climbing up on the roof and giving it a couple of kicks.

greeneggsandtam said...

#1 - Spaceballs sadly. I know damnit. I just love Brooks.
#2 - Damnit - The Colour of Money
#3 - Worst Job? Cashier at the local Kresge's. Terrifying.

Red Tory said...

I'm just reading through the "worst jobs" and thinking... what a bunch of elitists! LOL.

Bravo Lulu for changing things up and throwing that into the mix. Brilliant.

LuLu said...

Why thank you, Red - I aim to please ;-)

Robert said...

1) Americathon. I was a 10 when I convinced my Mom to take me to see this (I have no clue why myself). Meatloaf fighting a car, Harvey Korman, and John Ritter as the president of the United States... what's not to love? Ok, it's an awful movie... but I have feelings of nostalgia for it.

2) Slap Shot. Why? Newman, hockey.

3) Working for the "Downtown Brampton Business Improvement Area." One task was picking up garbage in downtown Brampton. As a teen, this was an experience in absolute humility.

Beijing York said...

1) Legally Blonde

2) Butch and Sundance

3) Burger King

I lasted 3 months of smelling like grease and working so late, that I missed the majority of my first period Urban Geography classes. I worked in the kitchen and one of the few times I got to work up front, I slipped on the greasy floor while carrying hot coffee. Coffee splashed on my thigh and melted the horrid orange synthetic fibers into my burn. I successfully avoided all crew parties and softball games, knowing full well that team spirit did NOT compensate for minimum STUDENT wages.

liberal supporter said...

1) I lived in TV range of Detroit, nuff said. I don't remember any of the movies, only the hosts!
Like Sir Graves Ghastly, Creature Features, and of course The Ghoul. But it fits here, nobody at the time admitted to liking them, but everybody watched.

2) The Sting, mainly for Newman setting up Redford for the line: "You're right, it's not enough. But . . . it's close."

3) The unpaid favours were always the worst for me. Crawling on the ground under a friend's place, on my back with no clearance to roll over, stuffing insulation batts into the floor joists. Actually it was my brother's friend, I was the kid small enough to do the crawling on a hot summer's day.

Cliff said...

1: The Tall Guy Weird little Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson Rom-Com. I think it's hilarious, people who's opinion I actually respect think its a gigantic turd and are baffled over my liking it.

2:Gotta go with Butch and Sundance, I know it's obvious but there's a reason why it's such a lasting hit.

3:Without a doubt, Telus a sleazy company that treats its customers only marginally better than its employees. It's the job that radicalized me and I can't regret it too much because it got me more involved in organized labour which gave me some great experiences. But I've never encountered a management culture more corrupt, contemptuous of its staff and the truth and of its customers.

Most people have seen the 'fuck this company, peace out' emails that get sent out to everyone in the company as an embittered former employee heads for the door. At Telus, such emails were a weekly event.