Great Movie Moments

Brought to you by the council to re-distribute my Loki issues. Please, don't forget to enter my contest! It ends Feb 28th.

Okay, been awhile since I posted one of these, bet you thought I'd forgot! Nope, I've just been watching a lot of new films and haven't had much time to look at some of the ones in my library. So, away we go!

Three Amigos!

This spoof of The Magnificent Seven (which was a remake of Seven Samurai) is hands down my favorite comedy of all time. It never fails to make me laugh, and so it's very hard to chose a "classic" moment from the film. There's the studio exchange with Joe Montegna, Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman ("Get a wardrobe over here right away; take the Amigos' clothes"), the song and dance routine of "My Little Buttercup," their first meeting with El Guapo, and so many more. But, the funniest moment in the movie has to be The Singing Bush.

The Amigo's are searching fo El Guapo's place and must follow a map with absolutely ludacris directions, among them is meeting The Singing Bush. Some of you may not know it, but the voice of the bush is that of composer, lyricist, and co-writer Randy Newman. If you've ever heard the man sing, it makes it even funnier.

So, the three arrive at a singing bush, Ned (Martin Short) hops down off his horse and walks over to the shrub and says "Excuse me, are you the singing bush?" The bush doesn't respond, instead it keeps singing. Lucky (Steve Martin) says "Let me talk to him...Excuse us, are you the singing bush?!" Still no response, just singing.

The three yell at the bush for a few seconds more until Lucky finally says "Forget it, my guess is, this is the singing bush."

Next the trio have to summon the Invisible Swordsman by each chanting a passage and firing once into the air. Of course, Dusty (Chevy Chase) screws it up and fires towords the ground, shooting the invisible swordsman.

Lucky: "Great, you've killed the invisible swordsman!"

Ned walks over, lifts and invisible arm and says "He's dead alright."

Dusty: "How was I supposed to know where he was?"

Lucky: "You were supposed to fire up! We both fired up!"

All the while that damned Randy Newman voiced bush is singing in the background.

It's one of the most absurdly entertaining scenes ever filmed, and always gets a laugh out of me, if for no other reason that the damn singing bush. It has absolutely no place in the film, and could be cut out and never be missed (plot-wise that is) which makes it that much more vital to the film.

If you've never had the pleasure of watching this insanely funny movie, do yourself a favor and pick it up, you can find it on DVD in discount bins everywhere for around $5, and it's well worth it. The acting is brilliant, equally dramatic and comedic, John Landis does a fine jobof capturing the old western films from the early days of Hollywood as well as spoofing any number of things (the singing bush is based on the burning bush from the Bible). The score and songs are great, Randy Newman at his best and funniest. A brilliant, brilliant film.

-L