When Bad Things Happen To Good Soundtracks Pt I

Oh Ray Parker Jr. We know there's a recession on and everything, but did you really have to reduce yourself to this?

Until now, the worst thing to happen to commercial television in recent years was the Diet Coke advert starring Duffy (whoever is responsible for that needs to take a long, hard look at themselves). But then the people at 118 118 said 'Do you know what? I think we can out-shit Duffy.'

So they pulled Ray Parker Jr, or 'Ray' as his friends call him, out of a cupboard, dusted him down, dressed him as a postman, bus conductor and waiter, and just when you think it couldn't get any worse, they told him to sing 'I ain't afraid of no goats'.

We hope Ray was:
a) paid a lot of money for this
b) able to apologise to his dignity before it disappeared into the ether

And don't even get us started on this:

'Somehow it ended up in Ray Parker Jr's hands.'
I think what he meant to say is:
'118 118's PR company told us to do this so we could get their shit advert on the news'.
Not exactly a mystery, is it.

It's a little known fact that Huey Lewis (and his News) were asked to write and record the Ghostbusters theme, but he refused. So they gave Ray a song which sounds a loooooot like Huey's. Huey concurred and took them to court (he won). Have a little listen to 'I Want A New Drug' and see if the judge in this court case was right to rule in Huey's favour:

We think you'll agree, he was.

But the question remains, would Huey have been afraid of goats?

Straight To Video is on holiday this week

Normal service will resume shortly

*muzak*

Straight To Video is THIS SATURDAY!

London's original film soundtrack night is BACK!

PHILL JUPITUS is our guest DJ and we'll bringing you the best in the music from the movies.

We're not talking any old shit, and if you're looking for Grease and Dirty Dancing, we suggest you go to a hen night, or one of the rubbish Straight To Video supermarket-own-brand immitations which have sprung up, instead.

We only bring you the the good stuff - from the obscure to the obvious. And Straight To Video is the only place you'll hear exclusive re-edits of scores and soundtracks by the mash-up maestro himself, The Freelance Hellraiser.

As if that wasn't enough, there's also 10-pin bowling, free karaoke, free badges and free popcorn.

Buy your tickets at the link below and you'll save £3 on the door price.
Saturday 28th February

The Kingpin Suite :: Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes :: London

Starring Phill Jupitus + The Freelance Hellraiser
+ The 20th Century Fox + Guests

Buy tickets for Straight To Video here:

BE THERE, OR BE SQUARE...

Straight To Video Exclusive Interview: Edgar Wright

Listen to Straight To Video's exclusive interview with director Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) live from the Toronto set of his new film, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Find out what the new film is about, who's in it, what Edgar's got coming up (including the third instalment of the ice cream trilogy with Simon Pegg) and who he's going to be rooting for at the Oscars this Sunday.

Straight To Video does... EDGAR WRIGHT

STRAIGHT TO VIDEO - The Podcast

Ps.

We weren't wholly sold on the stripped back nature of the Oscars, although it did seem a bit pacier. But Hugh Jackman did a mighty fine job of hosting and the presenters' autocue jokes were actually quite funny (thanks to a team of writers, including Ricky Gervais).

We LOVED the traditional opening montage of the Best Pic noms, which this year was live and put together by Baz Luhrmann:

And the Musical bit was good too (even though the sight of Zac Ephron makes a bit of sick come up and Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried are the spawn of the devil for their part in Mamma Mia):

It's another Straight To Video (non)Exclusive

That's right readers, we're bringing you more exclusive news (which we've seen on the telly).

Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey Jr and Ron Howard told Straight To Video (Ryan Seacrest) live on the Red Carpet (inside the television) at the Oscars (on the E! channel) that the rumours are true:

• Sex & The City's sequel is currently being written by Michael Patrick King and SJP says she has no idea what the story will be yet.

• Iron Man 2 is also in the writing stages.

• And, the most exciting news, a movie version of Arrested Development, the greatest television show on Planet Earth is looking extremely likely. But Richie Cunningham wasn't allowed to give too much away.

In other news, we were flicking between Sky and E!'s coverage until we decided to stay with Seacrest. Because people actually want to talk to him - poor old Fearne Cotton was basically a commentator on who was walking straight past her. But with questions like "Do you like playing diverse roles?' to Amy Adams, who can blame them? "No Fearne, what I really want is to be typecast and pigeon-holed for the rest of my career."

Straight To Video: Watching Telly So You Don't Have To

Being AR Rahman

School children in India celebrate Slumdog Millionaire score composer AR Rahman's double-Oscar triumph yesterday by donning Being John Malkovich-esque face masks. Incidentally, 'Jai Ho' (the title of Rahman's Best Song winner) means 'may you win'. Which he did. So there you go.

And the winners are...

Sooooo... the 'leaked winners' (previous blog below) were way off the mark. In fact, Straight To Video's own predictions were more accurate. Except The Freelance Hellraiser predicted The Sun's headline would read 'Kate Wins It', but they went for 'Kate Win-A-Lot'. The Freelance Hellraiser's is loads better though isn't it. The Sun's sounds like canned dog food.

Enniooooo (that's 'anyhoo' in movie score world FYI)...

Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up, winning EIGHT awards.

Kate 'Wins It' Winslet won it and she gave a composed and endearing speech (we may have cried a bit on her behalf) with just the right amount of thank yous balanced with some personality, humour and emotion (people who take to the stage with bits of paper and read out boring lists- take note).

As anticipated, Heath Ledger received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his inspired turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight. The only real surprise came when Sean Penn beat Mickey Rourke to the Best Actor post for his role in Milk. It was a deserved win, but Mickey had the edge if you ask us.

And finally, here at Straight To Video Towers, we've been rooting for AR Rahman and the Slumdog Millionaire music all through awards season and he got the double last night - Best Score and Best Song (for the amazing film-closer, 'Jai Ho').

An amazing night for the Brits all round... in addition to the Slumdog Sweep and Kate Winalot Prime's victory, Man On Wire took home Best Documentary and The Duchess won Best Costume design. Rule Brittania etc.

Here are the winners in full:
Best Picture - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Directing - DANNY BOYLE (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Actor In A Leading Role - SEAN PENN (Milk)
Best Actress In A Leading Role - KATE WINSLET (The Reader)
Best Actor In A Supporting Role - HEATH LEDGER (The Dark Knight)
Best Actress In A Supporting Role - PENELOPE CRUZ (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Best Original Screenplay - MILK
Best Adapted Screenplay - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Cinematography - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Visual Effects - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Art Direction - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Costume Design - THE DUCHESS
Best Makeup - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Film Editing - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Original Song - JAI HO (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Score - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Sound Editing - THE DARK KNIGHT
Best Sound Mixing - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Animated Feature - WALL-E
Best Animated Short - LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES
Best Documentary Feature - MAN ON WIRE
Best Documentary Short - SMILE PINKI
Best Foreign Language Film - DEPARTURES
Best Short Film - SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)

Are these really the winners?

Zane Lowe Vs James King on Radio 1

VS

Movie critic James King finally managed to get himself on a decent BBC Radio 1 show last night. Zane Lowe invited him to be his Versus guest for a movie soundtrack Oscars special. You can listen again HERE.

And here's the tracklisting (we've corrected the spelling mistakes on Radio 1's behalf - we must look into the work of 'Tarrentino' some time...):

Round 1- Songs from an 80s movie
JK - Kenny Loggins - 'Danger Zone' (Top Gun)
ZL - Yello - 'Oh Yeah' (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

Round 2 - Song from a Tarantino movie
JK - JK - 5,6,7,8s - 'Woo Hoo' (Kill Bill)
ZL - Stealers Wheel - 'Stuck In The Middle With You' (Reservoir Dogs)

Round 3 - Tune from a comedy
JK - Dr Evil - 'Hard Knock Life' (Austin Powers)
ZL - Will Ferrell - 'Afternoon Delight' (Anchorman)

Round 4 - Song from any teen movie
JK - The White Stripes - 'We Are Gonna Be Friends' (Napoleon Dynamite)
ZL - Radiohead - 'Talk Show Host' (Romeo and Juliet)

Round 5 - Instrumental from any movie
JK - Pink Panther Theme Tune
ZL - Road To Perdition Theme

Round 6 - Song from a musical
JK - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John - 'Grease Megamix'
ZL - The Rocky Horror Show - 'The Time Warp'

Round 7 - Song from an animation
JK - Team America - 'Montage'
ZL - The Simpsons - 'Spiderpig'

Round 8 - Song from a movie you watched as a kid
JK - Bugsy Malone - 'Fat Sam's Grand Slam'
ZL - Vangelis - 'Chariots of Fire'

Round 9 - Closing track to a movie
JK - School of Rock - 'It's A Long Way To The Top'
ZL - Rage Against The Machine - 'Wake Up' (The Matrix)