Late Night Double Feature: Happy New Year!

With tomorrow being New Year's Eve, I give you the gift of a perfect double bill to ring in the New Year.

Get Crazy (1983) is director Allan Arkush's follow up to Rock N' Roll High School. It's New Years Eve, and the Saturn Theater is preparing for it's annual New Year's Eve concert. The ringleader, Allen Goorwitz, suffers a heart attack and leaves his stage manager, Daniel Stern, in charge. An evil Ed Begley, Jr., who has designs on the theater, see's this as his opportunity to try and grab the property. It's up to Stern and his ragtag crew to foil Begley's plans and put on one hell of a show.

This movie is a lot of fun. Arkush, who himself worked the New Years Eve concerts at the legendary Fillmore, uses his past experiences to craft a wild little film. And what a terrific cast. Malcolm McDowell plays a Mick Jagger type. John Densmore, from The Doors, plays a Keith Richards type. Lou Reed is basically playing Bob Dylan. And Lee Ving, from the band Fear, is playing, well he's pretty much playing Lee Ving. Plus every act does their own take of the classic Hoochie Coochie Man.

This one is a blast. Sadly it's unavailable on dvd and blu ray.

200 Cigarettes (1999), set in 1991, is about a group of multiple characters trying to make their way to what is supposed to be the ultimate New Years Eve party.

The cast, which includes Paul Rudd, Courtney Love, Christina Ricci, Gaby Hoffman, Dave Chapelle, Martha Plimpton, Jay Mohr, Janeane Garafalo, Kate Hudson, and, the man, Elvis Costello, is a lot of fun. Some stories, like the Rudd/Love storyline, fair better than other's. But the whole thing is a blast.

It's available on dvd.