Mike Nelson’s Movie Megacheese
by Michael J. Nelson
Harper Collins
Mike Nelson finally gets off the Satellite of Love, ditches those damned puppets, and what does he do? He writes a book about… bad movies! Of course, he can’t be content to once again bash Robot Monster or Plan Nine from Outer Space. Nelson instead goes after the truly awful. His book, the humbly titled Mike Nelson’s Movie Megacheese, goes after the likes of Sharon Stone, Joe Eszterhas, and Marlon Brando. Movies like Wild Things, Face/Off, The Bridges of Madison County, and even Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, get sliced and diced by Nelson’s Ginsu wit and considerable film knowledge. He takes on easy targets in unconventional ways and smacks those you might not expect. He is quick to deflate pomposity, rather that sit in high judgement over micro-budget films that were never intended to be any good. He goes after the blockbusters and the Oscar winners that, well, suck. Even the small screen isn’t safe, as he lets everything from Friends to the Cartoon Network have the benefit of his opinion. The essay on the Denise Richards/Kevin Bacon/Neve Campbell opus, Wild Things, is alone worth the fifteen bucks the book costs. Well, not really, but it’s pretty funny.
