Jane Curtin – STREAMING MOVIE NIGHT

2024 Sony Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 49min

Comedy ~ Drama ~ True Story

Starring: Gabriel LaBelle, Lorne Michaels. Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J. K. Simmons.

“The writers are stoned, the set is on fire, the sound system is fried, the actors are physically assaulting each other, the crew is in open revolt and they have 90 minutes to figure it all out or the network is pulling the plug.”

Saturday Night is based on the true story of the 90 minutes behind the scenes leading up to the first episode of the show now called Saturday Night Live (SNL) which aired October 11,1975 at 11:30 PM. The cast was an unknown group of comedians referred to as The Not Ready For Prime Time Players. They included Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, John Belushi, George Coe, Michael O’Donoghue and Laraine Newman. The name was a direct reference to their main competition, Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. ABC’s program, which ran for only 18 episodes, was sports announcer Cosell’s stab at the comedy format.

Howard Cosell’s own rotating group of performers were called The Prime Time Players. That cast included Bill Murray, who’d go on to join NBC’s Saturday Night Live cast in 1977, and This Is Spinal Tap actor-director Christopher Guest, who eventually became an SNL season 10 cast member. The NBC show was renamed Saturday Night Live two years later after Howard Cosell’s show was canceled. SNL has had just under 1000 episodes and is currently in it’s 50th season. It has also featured over 170 cast members, a large number of whom went on to careers in film and tv.

I have been a life long SNL fan for as long as I can remember. I don’t always watch a season, sometimes it’s just not as good as I remember the show being so I pass. There are certain periods/seasons/cast in the show’s history that are just classic and very memorable. I love Weekend Update, that’s probably my favorite sketch. Well, that and the opening sketch is always the best. So when I saw this on Netflix I had to watch it. Wow, what chaos, it must have been quite the experience to have been involved in that first night.

The Cast of the First SNL Show posing at the foot of the stairs in a brick building. www.streamingmovienight.com — The First SNL Cast, The Not Ready For Prime Time Players: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd.

The Cast of Saturday Night recreating the photo of the original SNL cast at the foot of the stairs in a brick building. www.streamingmovienight.com — The Cast of the Movie Saturday Night recreating the photo of the Not Ready For Primetime Players: Cory Michael Smith, Matt Wood, Ella Hunt, Emily Fairn, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula and Dylan O’Brien.

I don’t remember if I did watch that first show but I’m guessing that I probably did. I would have been a young teenager and loved staying up late. And I loved comedians, I was a huge fan of Flip Wilson, George Carlin and Bill Cosby to name a few. So I probably did see it but I have to say if you are going to watch the movie, I would check out the first show first. It is available on Peacock for free although you have to jump through a couple of hoops first. I enjoyed it, I thought it was a very interesting look at the drama, politics and resolve it took to make the show happen that first night.

I think they did a great job casting because the resemblances to the original cast are pretty good. And the actors did a great job mimicking the original comedians. The scenes in the original show look just like the scenes in the movie, so they did their homework.

If you are an SNL fan I highly recommend it. If you are not a fan but have an interest in the show and have seen some of the classics, it is worth watching. If you are not a fan of SNL or any of the comedians that have been on the cast or the show, I would say skip it. It’s just not going to make sense to you without the background of the show. So there you go, that’s Saturday Night!

NBC will be broadcasting the original episode Saturday February 15 at 10 PM. The next night Sunday February 16 NBC will air a three hour Prime Time Special commemorating SNL’s 50th Anniversary starting at 8 PM.

2023 Bleecker Street

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 27min

Comedy ~ Drama ~ Sci-Fi

Directed by: Marc Turtletaub

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, Zoë Winters, Jade Quon, and Jane Curtin.

“A UFO has crashed in my backyard, and has taken out my Azaleas and has destroyed my birdbath.”

Ben Kingsley stars as Milton, a 78 year old widower living alone on the outskirts of Boonton, a small town in Southwest Pennsylvania. He has two adult children, a son and a daughter. His daughter Denise (Zoë Winters), a veterinarian, lives in town and drops by often to help her Dad with things. His son Tim lives out west in California. Milton and his son have been estranged for years and don’t speak to each other. Denise is worried about her father’s declining mental state and wants him to see a Dr. but he won’t hear of it. “I’m fine, Denise! I don’t need a Dr.!” Meanwhile he is putting canned vegetables upstairs in the medicine cabinet and newspapers in the freezer.

He spends his days tending to his flower garden and attending City hall meetings, where he complains to the city council about the town slogan, “I think we ought to change our town slogan. A Great Place To Call Home is confusing because when somebody hears it, it can mean it’s a great place to call your home on the telephone. I suggest a clearer motto like A Great Place To refer To As Home, although it doesn’t have to be that.” And the need for a crosswalk, “We need a crosswalk on Trent Ave. between Frost and Allegheny. It’s a very long distance to walk when you’re in the middle and you need to cross, and you either need to get to Frost or Allegheny. It encourages jaywalking, and jaywalking’s an expensive ticket. I know I’ve gotten three, not to mention, it’s a great way to get you killed. Thank you.”

One night Milton is awakened by a very loud noise in his backyard. he goes to investigate and discovers an alien spaceship has crash landed, taken out his Azaleas and wrecked his birdbath. He calls 911 but they tell him that making prank calls is a felony and he should probably just go back to sleep. The next day he tells the city council at the town meeting and they don’t believe him either. That evening he discovers that an Alien has crawled out of the spaceship and up to the back door. Milton gets him a glass of water and a blanket, and eventually invites the Alien into the house. He cooks it breakfast and discovers all it eats are apples. Milton stocks up on apples and nurses the alien back to health.

Milton’s two friends from The City hall meetings, Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin), get nosy and discover that Milton was telling the truth about the UFO and the alien. They decide to call the alien Jules, and secretly protect him from everyone else while he repairs his spaceship. They discover, from drawings the alien gives them, that he needs seven cats to repair his spaceship. Jules found one, a roadkill with tire marks on his back, and they decide to help him find 6 more dead cats. They scour town and come up with 5 more, but still need one more. Knowing that time is running out before the Government agents come looking for Jules, they decide to expedite the process and Joyce offers up her old dying cat.

Jules is a sweet, sad, quirky, goofy, funny look at old people dealing with decline and normal lives interrupted by an Alien presence. Definitely a distraction from the daily routine of dealing with old age. Ben Kingsley is loveable as Milton, the old guy with the sweet heart. Jane Curtin is hilarious as the slightly grumpy Joyce and Harriet Sansom Harris is sweet as the old woman just trying to find her place.

I’ve seen it three times and it is a loveable sweet little film about aging, with an alien thrown into the mix to distract you from the fact that you are getting older.

That’s a yes for me. Three times and I’d watch it again.

Two Thumbs Up!