Behind the Scenes With the Beatles on the Set of “Help!”

Beatles Help Blu ray

Although Help! (1965) never gets the same attention as A Hard Day’s Night (1964), the 1965 film from the Beatles is getting a special restored Blu-ray release. To celebrate, the company is giving viewers some outtakes and behind-the-scenes video on the making of the Beatles’ second film. Here is the first video.

Help! was directed by Richard Lester, and of course it starred John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The plot involves a cult seeking a ring stuck on Ringo’s finger, and, well, there is a lot of Beatles music. Here is the second new video.

What is your favorite Beatles movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Gee Wasn’t Gilda Radner Great (Really Great)

    Gilda Rander Touch Me With My Clothes On The actress and comedienne Gilda Radner was born on June 28, 1946 in Detroit, Michigan, meaning on this birthday she would be in her late 60s if she were still around. It is hard to picture the ever-youthful Radner in her old age. But it is not difficult to imagine what Radner, who passed away from ovarian cancer in May 1989, would be doing now. She would be making us smile.

    I was a kid when Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975, and I remember staying up late to watch it with my older sister and her boyfriend (both who wished I would go to bed). Live television was something new for my generation, and there was something strange and wonderful about the new show. Although I had no idea how the Not Ready for Prime Time Players would ultimately be a constant presence in my life, I did sense that those folks would be around awhile. It was just too bad that some of them like Radner and John Belushi did not stick around longer.

    In 1979, during one of her final seasons on Saturday Night Live, Radner appeared on Broadway in Gilda Radner – Live From New York, and one of the performances was later taped for television. In this segment she captures some of that childhood innocence in the song “Honey (Touch Me With My Clothes On).” If you watch closely, you’ll catch Paul Shaffer on piano, and the saxophone player is Howard Shore, who went on to win three Academy Awards for writing the themes to the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies. [2016 Update: Unfortunately, the video of the performance is no longer available, but you may hear it below.]

    More recently, Radner’s performance of “Honey (Touch Me With My Clothes On)” was sampled in Kid Koala’s “Vacation Island.”

    We miss you Gilda.

    What is your favorite Gilda Radner performance? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Whose “Hallelujah” Closed “America’s Got Talent”?

    Il Divo Hallelujah

    A lot of readers have been curious about the version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” played over the ending of America’s Got Talent this week. Because we always want to give our readers information about pop culture, it was Il Divo from their 2008 album The Promise. Il Divo is an operatic “pop” group that was created by Simon Cowell and features the international voices of Sébastien Izambard, Carlos Marín, David Miller, and Urs Bühler. [For more recent uses of the song on America’s Got Talent, see below.]

    We initially thought the version may be by Mark Vincent, the winner of 2009’s Australia’s Got Talent, which would make sense. He was 15 when he appeared on the show and has recorded several albums like My Dream – Mio Visione(2009), which includes his version of “Hallelujah.” But if you listen closely to the end of America’s Got Talent, you will notice there is more than one singer in that version. And if you listen to Il Divo, you should recognize it.

    September 11, 2013 Update: Of course, it would not be a competition with singers unless at some point one of the competitors sings the overplayed and misunderstood “Hallelujah.” So, last night on America’s Got Talent Branden James did a nice job performing the Leonard Cohen classic (see video in comments).

    June 10, 2014 Update: Once again, the song “Hallelujah” made a prominent appearance on America’s Got Talent when this week the 20-year-old Anna Clendening, who explained to the judges her struggles with anxiety and depression disorder, gave an emotional performance of “Hallelujah.” Check it out:

    What is your favorite version of “Hallelujah”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Is That a Munchkin? — Top 10 Most Paused Movie Moments

    There are various legends about things going on in movies that go by too fast at normal speed to verify, like the legend that there is a hanging munchkin in the background of a scene of The Wizard of Oz (1939). And what about that Stormtrooper banging his head in Star Wars (1977)? The advent of VCRs and DVDs helped add to the myths, as people paused the scenes to see them in more detail. Sometimes the pausing confirms the legends, sometimes it rebuts the legends, and sometimes the pausing just gives us more to argue about. WatchMojo recently compiled some of the most famous paused movie moments and put them together in this interesting video. Check it out.

    What is your favorite paused movie moment? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “World War Z” Is Expected Fun (short review)

    World War Z poster World War Z (2013), starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster, is about what you expect from the preview. And that may be a good or a bad thing, depending on what you expect. I found it to be a fun ride with some high-tension scary scenes (without long shots of gore). Just make sure you are not holding your soda during one of the many times something jumps out at you, especially if you see the movie in 3-D like I did.

    The movie follows the beginning of an outbreak of zombies attacking people around the world, as Brad Pitt tries to get his family in Philadelphia to safety. Then, Pitt is called upon by his former employer at the U.N to go on a global journey to try to track down how the zombie outbreak started and to find a way to stop it from spreading.

    If you are a fan of the book by Max Brooks, World War Z, which I have not read, my understanding from others is that the movie only has one thing in common with the book. While the movie has made me interested in delving into the book’s deeper subtext, the superficiality of the movie is not necessarily a bad thing if your expectations are adjusted.

    Conclusion? I will not go into greater detail to ruin what happens in the movie, but if you are looking for a summer popcorn movie with some excitement that does not require too much thinking, check out World War Z. Maybe I even will watch the sequel.

    Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me? According to Rotten Tomatoes, critics do not especially love World War Z (with a 67% rating), but audiences like it better (with an 86% rating). Peter Travers at Rolling Stone finds the movie is a “pleasant, suspenseful surprise.” Mark Kermode at The Observer, though, finds that the movie lacks a sustainable pulse.

    What did you think of World War Z? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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