Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

Plan 9 From Outer Space
with Rifftrax Commentary
M'House
DVD
1/25/08

As has no doubt been driving Jamee crazy, I've been obsessing a bit over Heath Ledger's death this week. (DC killed off the Earth 2 Joker last week and this week the actor who plays the Joker in the new Batman movie dies! Coincidence? Of course it is.) So after we watched Plan 9 (and struggled to stay awake through the last twenty minutes) I realized that we were watching a movie that was famous partly because the star died during filming and was replaced with another actor.

Which is apparently what Terry Gilliam might be doing with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Possibly. So the question is, was I drawn to watch Plan 9 subconsciously because of the extremely tenuous Ledger connection?

(And which actor is rumored to be his replacement in the Gilliam movie? [there's no way I'm typing out The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus again. Wait. Aw crap.] Johnny Depp, who played Ed Wood in, um, Ed Wood, that's who?)

Of course not. The Rifftrax commentary was released this week. Does it help the movie? Not so much. Plan 9 is pretty much crap any way you look at it. I don't think I've actually watched it all the way through since college and I know I haven't seen it since meeting Conrad Brooks, who I think, with Vampira's recent death, may be the last living cast member. I was surprised that Conrad's really only in one scene. Ed Wood (and Conrad himself) will lead you to believe he's in it a whole lot more.

There are a few good jokes in the riff, though some of the Lugosi heroin references may be needlessly cruel and a few stretches were screwed up by my mistiming the ipod with the DVD.

But what's an Ed Wood movie without a little incompetence?

Tonight: A Steve Reeves movie. Oh goody. Can't wait to see how I link that with Ledger.