Don't be an April fool: rent classics

By Brian Reinhart     3/27/08 7:00pm

Drillbit Taylor. College Road Trip. Never Back Down. Do any of those titles make you want to run to the movie theater? Me neither. With the Oscars over and all the good movies of the year scheduled to come out during either summer or fall, Hollywood is beginning to feed us a steady stream of crap. What is a movie lover to do?My solution is to start renting older movies. There are hundreds of forgotten films from decades past just waiting for us to rediscover them. Here are some recommendations to start things off: three obscure, but great, movies from the '70s, ‘80s and '90s.

Silent Movie (1976)

Comedy fans already know and love director Mel Brooks for his classic spoofs Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein, but very few people have seen one of his greatest efforts. Silent Movie was the first true silent film to be made in decades, and it bursts with slapstick humor and silly situations.

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The movie shows Brooks and his friends driving around Hollywood trying unsuccessfully to convince stars like James Caan and Anne Bancroft to appear in their movie. Along the way they have weird adventures and indulge in quirky, over-the-top humor. For example, when they ask the French mime Marcel Marceau if he will star in the movie, Marceau yells "Non!" and thus is the only person to speak in Silent Movie.

My Favorite Year (1982)

In this comedy, legendary actor Peter O'Toole stars as Alan Swann, an alcoholic movie star trying to quit his habit and make a comeback. He has some serious trouble keeping away from the booze, though, and matters build to a hilarious climax when Swann has to appear on a live TV show hopelessly wasted.

My Favorite Year ranks among Premiere magazine's 50 funniest movies ever made, and for good reason. Alan Swann's drunken antics and his colleagues' attempts at damage control make for some of the greatest moments in the history of film comedy.

Awakenings (1990)

One of my all-time favorite movies is Awakenings, and I am seriously depressed that nobody at Rice seems to have seen it before. Robert De Niro plays Leonard, a mental hospital patient in a catatonic state, able to think but unable to move until a new doctor (Robin Williams, in a serious role) begins to try different medications. Unfortunately, as all of the patients in the ward begin to "awaken" from their frozen states, they learn that the relief from their disability is only temporary.

Awakenings is a real tearjerker. Not only is it brilliantly acted, intensely emotional and vivid, but it is also based on a true story: one of the original "frozen" patients plays herself in the film.

Of course, plenty of other great movies from years past deserve another chance, too. Now that the theaters are serving up uninspired fare like The Hottie and the Nottie, we have an excuse to discover the classics we have missed. This list is just a start. It is time to go exploring!

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