Michael Myers hasn't been in a real laugh-fest for years. I wish it weren't so, I like the guy and some of the goofball characters he's created. But, if you want to watch a really funny Myers flick, you've got to go back to the 1990s. The first Austin Powers
film, Wayne's World
obviously, and then, there's this little gem.
film, Wayne's World obviously, and then, there's this little gem.
Myers plays Charlie, a beat poet with a fear of commitment. No matter how great the girl, Charlie always finds some paranoid reason to kick her out the door. So when he meets Harriet, a butcher with a pretty face, artistic tendencies, and a sweet apartment, he's determined not to let himself ruin the relationship. Unfortunately, his paranoia coupled with his mom's latest issue of Weekly World News has him thinking that Harriet is Mrs. X, a legendary serial killer who marries men just so she can chop them up real fine on the honeymoon. We've all been there, haven't we fellas?
It might be cheating to call So I Married An Axe Murderer
a horror movie. No one dies or even gets seriously hurt, and everything is played for laughs. Even so, it's got a great title, a legitimately thrilling ending, and besides, it's just funny! Fresh off of Wayne's World, Myers took this project so he could take a break from playing over-the-top characters for a bit like he did on SNL. Although he didn't have a hand in the screenplay, his wit is evident in the numerous one-liners and extensive ad-libbed sequences. This is also one of the first times Myers played two separate characters onscreen, acting both as Charlie and Charlie's loud, drunk Scottish father, who supplies the film with some of its funniest moments. The rest of the cast, particularly Anthony LaPaglia and Alan Arkin, also shine in their own scenes, and you've got to love the short cameo by the late great Phil Hartman as an Alcatraz tour guide.
a horror movie. No one dies or even gets seriously hurt, and everything is played for laughs. Even so, it's got a great title, a legitimately thrilling ending, and besides, it's just funny! Fresh off of Wayne's World, Myers took this project so he could take a break from playing over-the-top characters for a bit like he did on SNL. Although he didn't have a hand in the screenplay, his wit is evident in the numerous one-liners and extensive ad-libbed sequences. This is also one of the first times Myers played two separate characters onscreen, acting both as Charlie and Charlie's loud, drunk Scottish father, who supplies the film with some of its funniest moments. The rest of the cast, particularly Anthony LaPaglia and Alan Arkin, also shine in their own scenes, and you've got to love the short cameo by the late great Phil Hartman as an Alcatraz tour guide.
This could hardly be called a great movie, even amongst its most ardent fans. In the end though, it does exactly what every comedy is supposed to do: entertain. So I Married An Axe Murderer is a very quotable and funny film, and with the funny/romantic stuff going on, plus the total lack of blood n' guts, this is one serial killer whodunit that your squeamish significant other just might watch!
I love this movie! Something of a beatnik myself, anything that combines the beat condition with any aspect of horror (even when played for laughs) really draws me in. I even have the soundtrack, which I purchased almost exclusively for M.M.'s poetry:
ReplyDelete"Harriet...Harr-i-et...hard hearted harbinger of haggis..."
Classic stuff.
Oh, and a bit of trivia: I once recited that poem to a Chinese foreign exchange college student in a coffee shop, and came THIS close to taking her home.
--J/Metro