the hebrew hammer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Do you like a little dark twist with your holiday movies? Maybe you're tired of always seeing Santa as the good guy, or watching some grouchy old holiday hater redeemed at the end of the movie. Perhaps you're a fan of cult movies with early appearances by unusual acting talent, bizarre and inappropriate music, or acting so amateurish you either have to laugh or run screaming from the room. In other words, you need cult films to get you through the holidays, not that contemporary Hollywood blockbuster stuff.

Originally this post was entitled "Cult Christmas Movies," but I got lucky and remembered a certain Hanukkah-related cult favorite from a few years ago. Once I started, there were so many movies to choose from. I had to decide whether Kiss Kiss Bang Bang counted as a holiday cult film (not yet), whether it was worth including Santa Claus: The Movie just because the title character is played by the actor who played the elder Jeffrey Lebowski in The Big Lebowski (David Huddleston), and whether I should include The Poseidon Adventure (or its remake) simply because I didn't have a New Year's Eve movie on the list.

Feel free to share any favorite holiday-themed cult movies that aren't on this list. 'Tis the season for some of us to enjoy some really good bad movies.

Do you like a little dark twist with your holiday movies? Maybe you're tired of always seeing Santa as the good guy, or watching some grouchy old holiday hater redeemed at the end of the movie. Perhaps you're a fan of cult movies with early appearances by unusual acting talent, bizarre and inappropriate music, or acting so amateurish you either have to laugh or run screaming from the room. In other words, you need cult films to get you through the holidays, not that contemporary Hollywood blockbuster stuff.

Originally this post was entitled "Cult Christmas Movies," but I got lucky and remembered a certain Hanukkah-related cult favorite from a few years ago. Once I started, there were so many movies to choose from. I had to decide whether Kiss Kiss Bang Bang counted as a holiday cult film (not yet), whether it was worth including Santa Claus: The Movie just because the title character is played by the actor who played the elder Jeffrey Lebowski in The Big Lebowski (David Huddleston), and whether I should include The Poseidon Adventure (or its remake) simply because I didn't have a New Year's Eve movie on the list.

Feel free to share any favorite holiday-themed cult movies that aren't on this list. 'Tis the season for some of us to enjoy some really good bad movies.

There's nothing quite as annoying as wanting to see a movie with friends and having no idea what to pick. Trying to traverse the challenges of people's interests, what they've already seen, and what they like would like to see can make a once-fun idea become aggravating -- until you end up picking a film out of desperation, pleasing no one but the store that gets your coin. Hopefully this will help alleviate that turmoil. Welcome to the first installment of Friday Night Double Feature -- Cinematical's latest weekly series. Every week, you can stop by and check out two picks that would work well as a double feature -- teamed together because of theme, actors, directors, dance sequences, or any other common aspect.

This week, you're going to get a few features that have been around for a while. If you're like me, you're already getting sick of hearing the same exact Christmas songs in every store, all sap and no satire. For the most part, that's what this holiday season is -- a collection of feel-good, heart-warming media morsels. However, in the sheen of sugary sweetness, there are a few tart goodies that make the holidays just a little more interesting. First up is The Hebrew Hammer, the best Hanukkah movie to ever hit the screen, and after that, the 1980's Christmas classic, A Christmas Story. So read on, have fun, and be sure to comment about what you'd like to see, and what you think of the movies. Happy viewing!


The Hebrew Hammer



We're currently in the throes of Hannukah, so there's nothing better to slip into the DVD player than The Hebrew Hammer. Which is also partially due to the fact that there's barely any Hannukah media out there. After Adam Sandler took care of the music side of things, Adam Goldberg jumped on screen as Mordechai Jefferson Carver -- otherwise known as the Hebrew Hammer. The orthodox Jewish hero finds himself up against Santa Claus' evil son Damian, who has decided to get rid of Hannukah. With the help of Esther Bloomenbergensteinenthal, daughter of the leader of the Jewish Justice League, and Mohammed Ali Paula Abdul Rahim, head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, the Hebrew Hammer sets out to save the holiday and bring down Damian.

What else could you possibly want but some great laughs and B-movie, sploitation fun to balance the love and jollyness? For more reasons, check out the clips below:

Mazel tov!

All young Mordechai wants to do is spin his dreidel.

The Hebrew Hammer faces skinheads.

If you haven't already, also check out Patrick Walsh's interview with Hammer scribe Andrew Kesselman.

A Christmas Story



It's been 24 years since this film has come out, but it's just as fun today as it was back then. Bob Clark's classic follows Ralphie Parker, a young kid who wants a carbine action, two-hundred shot range Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, even though everyone else thinks that he'd shoot his eye out with it. Instead of just whining about his desire, Ralphie gets creative with bear fibs, essays, and a request to one scary Santa. Meanwhile, his dad is pretty psyched over a large package that contained a sexy, fishnet-legged lamp, and mom is preoccupied with her turkey. The movie has all the Christmas themes, but enough real-life and satirical snark to keep it all balanced.

If you'd like a wild party night, don't forget the drinking game.

And in the meantime, check out these links to get you in the mood:

The cast reunited to save the Parker house.

Siskel and Ebert review the movie.

Jonathan Kesselman wrote and directed The Hebrew Hammer, a comedy about an Orthodox Jewish Blaxploitation hero (Adam Goldberg) who saves Hanukkah from the evil offspring of Santa Claus (Andy Dick). The film has become a cult favorite, and you should add it to your holiday viewing list this year. In addition to being a successful screenwriter, Jonathan teaches Writing Comedy for Film and Television at Yale University. He has some great tips for aspiring comedy writers.

Cinematical: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Jonathan Kesselman: I always loved writing. When I was in the 5th grade, I was pulled out of my class and put onto the 12th grade yearbook staff writing copy. For a while, I thought I wanted to be a journalist. In college, I majored in Psychology -- neuroscience was my field. I realized that I didn't like slicing rat brains. I remember really searching for what it was that I wanted to do with my life. And I had always been obsessed with movies. I remember having this existential crisis pre-graduation, and then seeing a documentary on Your Show of Shows, and it hit me that I was put on this earth to make fun of people.

Cinematical: So you threw the rat in the air triumphantly...

JK: I ate the rat -- tasty! Yeah, I graduated, and decided I wanted to go to film school. I eventually went to graduate school at USC for film production.

Odds and ends from the Friday before a looong weekend:

• After originally setting a release date of May 2, 2008, Columbia Pictures has decided to push Bond 22 (ya know, the one that comes after Casino Royale) back a few months and, instead, debut it on November 7, 2008. The next installment in the James Bond franchise has run into a bit of trouble as of late, what with director Roger Michell quitting the project. No new director has come onboard yet, though Richard Curtis (Love Actually) has been rumored to be penning the script.
• You know it's a wacky Friday when Michael Jackson makes it into Quickhits. The pop star (who was recently acquitted of child molestation charges) is in talks with John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers) to direct his comeback video. While this may seem a bit strange to some of you (for many different reasons), Landis has a history with Jackson, having helmed the videos for Thriller and Black and White. Says Landis, "Michael is a genius. He's obviously an eccentric but he really has a great talent." And that talent is?
• In my wildest dreams, I never imagined a film could be described as a 'Jewish blaxploitation movie.' However, The Hebrew Hammer is just that ... and I loved every minute of it. Thus, I was thrilled to hear writer-director Jonathan Kesselman is planning a sequel and calling it Hebrew Hammer 2: Hammer vs. Hitler. (Ed: Will this come before or after his screen version of Beemer?) After Hammer battled Santa in the original, I think it was pretty obvious who the bad guy in the follow-up would be. Anyway, according to reports, Kesselman has written the recent Mel Gibson "incident" into the script. And, apparently, Gibson dies at the end of said scene. Says Kesselman, "I think if Mel wants to truly extend an olive branch to the Jewish Community as a whole, his on-screen death would go a long way in accomplishing that goal." Hmm, I guess that's one way to look at it.

Here's an interesting pair: Music video director/graphic designer Adam Levite (AKA Associates in Science, or AiS) is teaming up with The Hebrew Hammer (tagline: "Part man. Part street. 100% kosher.") writer-director Jonathan Kesselman to pen the screen version of Glenn Gaslin's Beemer. Levite himself owns the movie rights to the book, which sounds more than a little bit insane. Somewhat dismissively described by Publisher's Weekly as providing "empty calories [and] a modest rush but little else," the book tells the story of Beemer Minutia, a child of the 80s whose dreams of "his name mass-marketed on everything from 'motion pictures to action figures'" are interrupted by his girlfriend's demand that he get an actual job. Beemer eventually goes to work at an advertising agency, which sounds deceptively normal. Not to worry, though: The book also features "domestic terrorists, a boy band comprised of eunuchs, a crafty teen nemesis and a crazed suburban mom running a homeowners association militia." Among other things.

Man alive. Has anyone read the book? Is it even possible to adapt it for the screen? it's unclear from the Hollywood Reporter article if Levite (who's both designed the posters for Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Happiness and directed videos for Beck, Interpol and Queens of the Stone Age) or Kesselman will even be involved in directing the film, so we can't draw stylistic conclusions based on their names or previous work. If this ever happens, though, it'll doubtless be something to keep an eye on.