Airheads

Totally badass. Or something.

"The music. The legend. The hostage situation."

When I did my top 5 Adam Sandler movies (that's here) I mentioned this movie in an off-hand fashion, but now I want to talk about it a little more in depth. In Airheads, Chazz (Brendan Fraser, making it onto my blog for a movie that isn't causing me to throw up) Is the front man for a band (a band called the Lone Rangers oof that hurts), trying to get their music on the air. The problem is, everywhere they go they find doors slamming in their face (because really who would listen to a band called the Lone Rangers, fronted by metalhair Brendan Fraser?) After being thrown out by his girlfriend for being a loser (Which in her defense he is) Chazz decides with his bandmates Rex (Steve Buscemi) and Pip (Adam Sandler) that the best way to get their music out there is to sneak into local rock radio station KPPX and persuade the DJ to play their demo. After sneaking in behind a station employee, the three get into the studio with DJ Ian "The Shark". When station manager Milo barges in to tell them that they're all trash (Rex specifically) He finds himself on the wrong end of an Uzi. Oh did I say Uzi? I meant water gun filled with pepper sauce that looks like an Uzi. Oops.

Judd Nelson portrays himself. A douche.

The gang wants to get away, but they find that someone in the station called the cops, and it is now surrounded. Unwittingly, and without real weapons, The Lone Rangers are now in the midst of a hostage situation. What do they do as a result? Well they do a whole bunch of stupid stuff. They make grandiose demands that include a football helmet full of cottage cheese. They also attempt to finally get their music on radio. In the meantime, they inspire an insurrection at the radio station, when it is discovered that the station will be changing formats, from metal to sissy easy listening stuff.

Chazz tries to persuade his girlfriend to be less of a bitch.

This film was released in 1994, placing it almost smack dab in the center of the 90s, and it really shows. The film sets its sights squarely on picking fun both at the establishment, and also the "generation X" movement. It also is about some really stupid guys who play cruddy music, holding up a music station with water guns. This movie was noteworthy to me not for any particular part, but more the way the individual parts of the movie come together to form a whole. The plot is simple, the characters are also simple, the execution is average, but it is in the end still an entertaining film. I wouldn't go so far as to call this movie "good" but it is certainly entertaining, and worth the watch particularly considering its very short run time (this movie is barely an hour and a half long).

GO WATCH THE MUMMY 3 RIGHT NOW!!!

Unfortunately I appear to be alone in the 'yay' camp. Airheads did atrociously in the box office, grossing 5.7 million against its 11 million dollar budget, making it a bonafide flop. It opened into an admittedly crowded box office. Clear and Present Danger was opening that weekend, The Mask was only in its second weekend, Forrest Gump and True Lies were in their 4th and 5th weekends but still grossing strongly. Airheads would have probably done poorly anyway, but the rough company it was keeping didn't do it any favors. Critics didn't react warmly to the film either, citing the same reasons I alluded to. While I found it entertaining, you could probably come up with something funnier to make fun of in alternative culture. Alternative culture is frankly a big joke waiting to happen. Still I don't hold it against this movie. It's funny, in a stupid kind of a way.

This is a room full of winners if I ever saw one.

Funny fact about the movie I discovered while reading around about it. The Galactic Cowboys appear in the movie under the name The Sons of Thunder. The song they recorded for the movie was apparently cut from the movie, and now no record or copy of it exists. Not even the band has a copy of it. Kind of makes you wonder how bad it must have been (I mean really, who remembers those guys anyway?) Notable cameos in the film include Mike Judge crank calling the studio as Beevis and Butthead, White Zombie performing in a bar, and Lenny Kilmister appearing in the crowd outside of the radio station towards the end of the movie (for those of you who don't know or care he's the singer and bassist for Motorhead. Chris Farley also appears as a intensely inept police officer in this movie, Ernie Hudson as the police sergeant (He was also a cop in The Crow), David Arquette plays a moron (so himself basically) and Michael Richards plays a moron at the radio station who is trying to stop the hostage situation (Michael Richards is best known for portraying Kramer on Seinfeld, and also for being a racist (look it up, it makes for fun reading).

That's it for today, I will see you all on Saturday, where I think I will pick out a subject for a top 5 list! Don't watch The Mummy 3!