Countdown to Hallows' Eve #5: Parcel of Posthumous
Hi, Ticketholders! I'm the Ticketmaster formerly known as SWAT (and then formerly known as SW@), and you're not watching Jackass. Because it's not on anymore. So if I'm trying to clean out all of the Halloween-related posts from my old blogs and post them here, why would I be making a Jackass reference FROM November 22, 2004 (SWAT Ticket #24: Parcel of Posthumous), and then bring you an old movie review that has absolutely nothing to do with the horror genre? Because the movie has a dead body in it, and I felt like doing it. So here it is, slightly re-worded for my maturity and professionalism (ha-ha):
After getting shot with a beanbag gun, destroying rental cars, putting a muscle stimulator on his testicles, having a toy shoved up his ass, and being beaten up countless times, Johnny Knoxville finally has a leading roll that isn't (so) bad for his health. In Grand Theft Parsons, Knoxville plays Phil Kaufman, an ex-roadie who abducts (sort of) famous country singer Gram Parsons' body to fulfill his best friend's last wish. Christina Applegate is Barbara, the dead musician's ex-wife (loosely based on Parsons' real-life ex, Gretchen Burrell) who makes up a fake will and follows Kaufman to Joshua Tree National Park in order to claim the body and inherit the Parsons fortune. To transport the body, our hero enlists the help of a stoned hippie (played hilariously by a then-unknown Michael Shannon) with a yellow, flower-covered hearse that you have to start with a screwdriver.
Grand Theft Parsons is a low-budget movie with a small cast and slightly predictable script (even to those who, like me, have never heard of the Flying Burrito Brothers), but what was saved by using a small cast--and a script that was based on true events--went toward good, quality cinematography that allows you to actually see who people are and what they're doing.
The plot basically boils down to an odd-couple comedy with Knoxville in the straight-man role and Shannon's hippie doing most of the physical comedy for a change. But it also manages to stay true to its based-on-a-true-story roots by being dramatic for appropriate lengths of time and adding humor in all the right places. Small, predictable, and insignificant, but it flows well, is enjoyable, and was made with a goal in mind (a great rarity) that was actually achieved without the unnecessary flash and flare (damn near impossible). Don't ask me what that goal was; I'm just writing profound compliments at this point, so I haven't thought that far ahead. Hopefully you'll see Grand Theft Parsons and get the point (alliteration, cool). Must shut up now.
B+
If the Lyric Fits:
"It's a dead man's party.
Who could ask for more?
Everybody's comin'.
Leave your body at the door;
Leave your body and soul
at the door."
-Oingo Boingo, "Dead Man's Party"
Don't run away, Ticketholders! It's only me. Stay Hallowed as next time, I remind you to not be afraid of what the found footage genre can't seem to focus on.
I'm still preoccupied
with 19-19-1985,
and I'm out.
Grand Theft Parsons is a low-budget movie with a small cast and slightly predictable script (even to those who, like me, have never heard of the Flying Burrito Brothers), but what was saved by using a small cast--and a script that was based on true events--went toward good, quality cinematography that allows you to actually see who people are and what they're doing.
The plot basically boils down to an odd-couple comedy with Knoxville in the straight-man role and Shannon's hippie doing most of the physical comedy for a change. But it also manages to stay true to its based-on-a-true-story roots by being dramatic for appropriate lengths of time and adding humor in all the right places. Small, predictable, and insignificant, but it flows well, is enjoyable, and was made with a goal in mind (a great rarity) that was actually achieved without the unnecessary flash and flare (damn near impossible). Don't ask me what that goal was; I'm just writing profound compliments at this point, so I haven't thought that far ahead. Hopefully you'll see Grand Theft Parsons and get the point (alliteration, cool). Must shut up now.
B+
If the Lyric Fits:
"It's a dead man's party.
Who could ask for more?
Everybody's comin'.
Leave your body at the door;
Leave your body and soul
at the door."
-Oingo Boingo, "Dead Man's Party"
Don't run away, Ticketholders! It's only me. Stay Hallowed as next time, I remind you to not be afraid of what the found footage genre can't seem to focus on.
I'm still preoccupied
with 19-19-1985,
and I'm out.
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