9 days left to get 'Lost in America' with us
Let's just come to a friendly arrangement: You agree to come to the Las Vegas get-together for Stuck in the 80s, and I'll agree to stop this daily countdown feature right now.
You're gonna be stubborn, I see. OK. And so we march on.
Though the '80s don't give us nearly enough opportunities to discuss the genius work of Albert Brooks (I'm in love with 1991's "Defending Your Life"), there's at least one movie of his with a Vegas theme -- "Lost in America" from 1985. And wouldn't you know it, Brooks also turns 61 years old today.
You know he wants to be doing the "Jungle Love" slide with Jerome, Jellybean and us in V-town. (Only he's rich, so he'd score the Pharaoh's Suite at the Luxor.) Drum-roll please...
TODAY'S MAGIC NUMBER .... NINE days 'til the Vegas trip and ...
TOP 9 LINES FROM "LOST IN AMERICA":
9. "Shut up Brad! Your song stunk, I hate your suit and I could hurt you!"
8. "Twenty-two, twenty-two, come on back to me, come on back to me!"
7. "He'll buy that boat from that stupid boat catalog he's been making me look at for the last two months, and he will crash that boat off Catalina Island, and he will drown and die and seals will eat him."
6. "Nice dam, huh? Do you want to go first, or should I?"
5. "I lost a woman! A whole woman!"
4. "Why didn't you tell me when we got married that you were this horrible gambling addict? It's like when you have a venereal disease - you tell somebody!"
3. "If you pick up that Keno card, I'll kill you. I'll kill you."
2. "I've seen the future! And it's a bald-headed man from New York!"
1. "Say it! Say it! Say 'I lost the nest-egg.' Go on, say it!"
Relive the music, movies and culture of the greatest decade ever with Times online editor Steve Spears. A teen during the decade, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to Reaganomics.
E-mail Steve Spears:
I am a huge Albert Brooks fan, and love the idea of a "Broadcast News" podcast. "Lost In America" is great, as is "Defending Your Life", but "Broadcast News" is way more quotable.
Posted by: J Dub | July 24, 2008 at 04:45 AM
I loved The Muse. I also like his latest "Looking For Comedy" I'm just a big fan and where some people look for faults I'm always so happy to see one of his films that I just enjoy it. At their worst they are miles above the crap that passes for movie comedy these days. I also own Mother, and think Debbie Reynolds should have won the Academy Award.
Posted by: bob noland | July 23, 2008 at 02:37 AM
I love the scene where he tries to talk the casino into refunding his money from all his losses. The casino boss was played by Gary Marshall. Also pretty funny when the wife gets a job at a fastfood place.
Posted by: Neil | July 22, 2008 at 03:14 PM
It`s true,Steve.Specially the Scorsese one.The best moment of that movie.
Posted by: Miguel | July 22, 2008 at 01:39 PM
"Defending Your Life" is good on so many levels.
"The Muse," however, is barely tolerable. Sharon Stone does it no favors. But the guest cameos are fantastic.
Posted by: Spears | July 22, 2008 at 01:04 PM
Wow.
Looks like I'm in the minority: a search of IMDb shows that DEFENDING YOUR LIFE has received higher ratings than any
other Brooks-scripted/directed film.
Go figure.
Posted by: Rick | July 22, 2008 at 12:26 PM
I'm with you on LOST IN AMERICA, Steve. Brilliantly funny.
Pitch-perfect Brooks.
But DEFENDING YOUR LIFE? Not so much.
Posted by: Rick | July 22, 2008 at 12:19 PM
I like Albert Brooks a lot,both as an actor,and as a writer/director(The Muse was disappointing but that`s 90s).
Broadcast News is his best film as an actor,one of the very best movies of the 80s(John Cusack has a cameo there,i had to watch the movie 3 or 4 times to discover him).
Lost in America is a good movie and i would also like to mention another film directed by him in the 80s,Modern Romance(1981).Underrated movie.
Posted by: Miguel | July 22, 2008 at 11:39 AM
I liked Broadcast News, but other than that, I am not a fan of Mr. Brooks. Sorry.
Posted by: Bassnote | July 22, 2008 at 10:55 AM
Excellent quotes, Steve. How often have you used that last one?
Posted by: Marissa | July 22, 2008 at 09:43 AM
"Broadcast News" to me is one of the definitive "adult" movies of the 80s. I can literally quote it start to finish.
Eventually, we'll do a whole podcast on it, but having to choose a top 10 list of quotes will be almost impossible. Too many to choose from.
However, I'm partial to:
"Except for socially, you're my role model."
"I think we have the kind of friendship where if I were the devil, you'd be the only one I would tell."
"A lot of alliteration from anxious anchors placed in powerful posts!"
"Let's never forget, we're the real story, not them."
"You really blew the lid off of nookie."
"If anything happens to me, you tell every woman I've ever gone out with I was talking about her at the end. That way they'll have to reevaluate me."
Posted by: Spears | July 22, 2008 at 09:23 AM
I heartily agree that Albert Brooks is a cinematic genius, both in the films that he writes and the ones he "only" acts in. I first saw "Defending Your Life" in a sneak preview screening where it was paired with "Goodfellas" (who chose that mismatch?), then went back to see it twice more during it's theatrical run. Classic. My favorite Brooks character (by a mile) is Aaron Altman in Broadcast News. There are some great, great quotes in that one. Some Albert Brooks trivia- his real name is Albert Einstein and his brother is "Super Dave" Osbourne. Anyway, can we somehow arrange for Albert Brooks to pick me up in that "Lost in America" motor home and drive me to Vegas? That would make the trip much more do-able.
Posted by: Sherrie | July 22, 2008 at 09:12 AM
Oh! I'm so glad you love "Defending Your Life"
I love it, too. And it co-stars Meryl Streep. She makes me uneasy when she does all the accents. I guess it's the unsophisticated side of me.
Anyway, Happy Birthday, Albert!
Posted by: Marissa | July 22, 2008 at 08:00 AM