It Was About D&D the Whole Time!
The Summer of Hanks continues! Following Bosom Buddies Hanks guest-starred in an episode of Happy Days, and an episode of Taxi before the made for TV movie Mazes and Monsters.
Happy Days- "A Little Case of Revenge"- In this episode, Hanks plays a former classmate of The Fonz who has been holding a grudge against him since being bullied in elementary school. This episode is pretty indicative of Hanks' early style of humor. Calm, calm, calm. OUTBURST! Hanks is also at his funniest with physical comedy. In the climactic confrontation, Hanks runs around kicking, hitting, jumping, and making absolutely ridiculous "karate" sounds all of which induces smiling and laughter.
Taxi- "The Road Not Taken Part 1". I was unable to find this entire episode so I had to watch just the scenes with Hanks on Youtube. The episode seems to be focusing on a flashback to Christopher Lloyd's character in college. Hanks plays a college friend tripping on Mary J, but he acts like he's on acid/shrooms. The humor again comes from Hanks' physical comedy. His hallucinogenic delivery and physical stunts are amusing, beyond that the character doesn't really do much of anything.
Mazes and Monsters- I didn't even know this existed, so I wouldn't be surprised if you don't either. According to the Wikipedia entry, this movie is adapted from a novel hastily written after media reports about a college kid who disappeared possibly because of his obsession with Dungeons and Dragons. I wonder what the author/director would make of Critical Role of Acq Inc.
The film centers around a group of college friends Hanks as Robbie Wheeling, Wendy Crewson as Kate Finch, David Wysocki as Daniel and Chris Makepeace as Jay Jay. They play a combination of D&D and LARPing called "Mazes and Monsters". Unbeknownst to Kate, Daniel and Jay Jay Robbie has already flunked out of one college due to his obsession with the game. Robbie and Kate develop a romantic relationship and this drives Jay Jay to want to kill himself. He visits a forbidden cave system located within biking distance of the college and then decides instead of killing himself he'll use the cave to make the best setting for a game of "Mazes". His game is too real and it sets Robbie (back?) on a path to psychosis. Robbie eventually believes himself to actually be his Mazes character, Pardieu, and runs off to complete a quest of finding the Two Towers. His friends ultimately track him down and save him from killing himself, but Robbie is too far gone and never comes back to himself.
This movie is super awkward. It opens out of sequence with the disappearance of Robbie, then goes back to tell the tale of how the group has come to play the game, then we get a literal repeat of the same opening scene before the movie continues on Robbie's psychosis story. There are odd montages with a ballad, Hagood Hardy and Judith Lander's "Friends in This World" playing over the top of them for no apparent reason. Jay Jay is pretty close to romanticizing suicide territory. I didn't realize he had abandoned that idea after visiting the cave, I thought he was trying to lure his friends into killing him. The movie seems to amble about with no coherent plot. It suddenly shifts about halfway through to being about Robbie's break with reality and the other three trying to track him down.
Hanks' performance is definitely more muted. This role is very different than anything else we've seen him play thus far. He's quiet, a bit shy, and vulnerable as the character Robbie is suffering his psychotic break.
Random notes I took as I watched.
Who is Bridget Bardot?
This DM is pretty sure of himself.
Nobody plays D&D in dark rooms by candlelight. You can't read your books and argue about rules effectively like that.
So as I was watching this on Youtube I was hit with an ad for an Omaze campaign to win a chance to play D&D with Joe Maggianello. Well played Youtube, well played.
Oh, it's not just LARPing, its True Dungeon.
DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY!
The "two towers" in the prophecy are gonna be the World Trade Center, aren't they? (Spoiler: they were)
What is the point of this movie?
Happy Days- "A Little Case of Revenge"- In this episode, Hanks plays a former classmate of The Fonz who has been holding a grudge against him since being bullied in elementary school. This episode is pretty indicative of Hanks' early style of humor. Calm, calm, calm. OUTBURST! Hanks is also at his funniest with physical comedy. In the climactic confrontation, Hanks runs around kicking, hitting, jumping, and making absolutely ridiculous "karate" sounds all of which induces smiling and laughter.Taxi- "The Road Not Taken Part 1". I was unable to find this entire episode so I had to watch just the scenes with Hanks on Youtube. The episode seems to be focusing on a flashback to Christopher Lloyd's character in college. Hanks plays a college friend tripping on Mary J, but he acts like he's on acid/shrooms. The humor again comes from Hanks' physical comedy. His hallucinogenic delivery and physical stunts are amusing, beyond that the character doesn't really do much of anything.
Mazes and Monsters- I didn't even know this existed, so I wouldn't be surprised if you don't either. According to the Wikipedia entry, this movie is adapted from a novel hastily written after media reports about a college kid who disappeared possibly because of his obsession with Dungeons and Dragons. I wonder what the author/director would make of Critical Role of Acq Inc.
The film centers around a group of college friends Hanks as Robbie Wheeling, Wendy Crewson as Kate Finch, David Wysocki as Daniel and Chris Makepeace as Jay Jay. They play a combination of D&D and LARPing called "Mazes and Monsters". Unbeknownst to Kate, Daniel and Jay Jay Robbie has already flunked out of one college due to his obsession with the game. Robbie and Kate develop a romantic relationship and this drives Jay Jay to want to kill himself. He visits a forbidden cave system located within biking distance of the college and then decides instead of killing himself he'll use the cave to make the best setting for a game of "Mazes". His game is too real and it sets Robbie (back?) on a path to psychosis. Robbie eventually believes himself to actually be his Mazes character, Pardieu, and runs off to complete a quest of finding the Two Towers. His friends ultimately track him down and save him from killing himself, but Robbie is too far gone and never comes back to himself.
This movie is super awkward. It opens out of sequence with the disappearance of Robbie, then goes back to tell the tale of how the group has come to play the game, then we get a literal repeat of the same opening scene before the movie continues on Robbie's psychosis story. There are odd montages with a ballad, Hagood Hardy and Judith Lander's "Friends in This World" playing over the top of them for no apparent reason. Jay Jay is pretty close to romanticizing suicide territory. I didn't realize he had abandoned that idea after visiting the cave, I thought he was trying to lure his friends into killing him. The movie seems to amble about with no coherent plot. It suddenly shifts about halfway through to being about Robbie's break with reality and the other three trying to track him down.
Hanks' performance is definitely more muted. This role is very different than anything else we've seen him play thus far. He's quiet, a bit shy, and vulnerable as the character Robbie is suffering his psychotic break.
Random notes I took as I watched.
Who is Bridget Bardot?
This DM is pretty sure of himself.
Nobody plays D&D in dark rooms by candlelight. You can't read your books and argue about rules effectively like that.
So as I was watching this on Youtube I was hit with an ad for an Omaze campaign to win a chance to play D&D with Joe Maggianello. Well played Youtube, well played.
Oh, it's not just LARPing, its True Dungeon.
DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY!
The "two towers" in the prophecy are gonna be the World Trade Center, aren't they? (Spoiler: they were)
What is the point of this movie?
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