Everett Collection
When I was 4, my older brother, Keith, hit me on the head with a hammer. I was too young at the time to have any memory of the incident (getting bonked on the melon couldn’t have helped my recall), but occasionally I’m reminded of this episode when it’s brought up at Thanksgiving. When it is, Keith has a good laugh. Now, before you jump to any conclusions — that my brother was some sort of 7-year-old sadist — I should mention that we’d been watching the Three Stooges. After cracking up when Moe brained Larry on the noggin, Keith, in a textbook case of Monkey See Monkey Do, marched to the closet, returned with a hammer, and…well, such is the cross that younger brothers have borne since the days of Cain and Abel.
If you grew up watching Eddie Murphy chomping on a cigar as Gumby or getting gunned down in a hail of bullets as Buckwheat on Saturday Night Live, or better yet, dropping F-bombs as the cool-cat star of 48 Hrs., Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop, it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that there’s a whole generation out there that has no clue just how funny and dirty he once was.When they think of Eddie Murphy — if they even think of him at all — it’s as the donkey from the kiddie franchise Shrek, or the once-dangerous comedian desperately searching for laughs in fart gags and fat suits in The Klumps.
Christmas came early last week. That’s when I finally received my advance copy of Citizen Kane on Blu-ray in the mail. For months, I’ve had its September 13th release date circled in red ink on my calendar. What can I say? Some folks have to be the first person they know with Madden 2012. Some camp out in sleeping bags to be the first to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Me, I’m a mouth-breathing drooler when it comes to Orson Welles’ 1941 classic. And if that doesn’t sound nerdy enough, then there’s this: I couldn’t wait to check it out in all of its 1080-p/hi-definition glory.
