Scott_Mercer Glad to see that Eric Jonrush's "The Spoils of Babylon" has finally gotten out to the wider public. Sure, it's been available for years on the collectors' circuit, on shabby VHS dubs from shady dealers at shadier fan conventions, but now, finally, it can be seen in its original fidelity and quality.Which really isn't that much better.There's a reason why certain projects get released, and others remain on the shelf, whether that shelf be in an air-conditioned film vault in a major movie studio or in a pawn shop. SOB is a case in point. And apparently, Eric Jonrush has reached that point; desperate, pining for former glories. A sad, obese old man draped in tent-like garb, swilling mid-priced wine and flirting with waitresses one-third his age. We see this much in the recorded introductions to the episodes of this mini-series.I actually had not ever bothered to track down any of those low fidelity bootleg tape versions, usually made from a single, unauthorized broadcast on an Indonesian cable channel in 1987. But, I must admit, I was curious.Though I had not read any of Jonrush's source novels, I had seen several of his potboiler films. Those were all much better than SOB.I frankly wallowed in the cheesiness of "The Barbarian Hordes," his Roman A Clef expose of his time working in the advertising industry on Madison Avenue, in retrospect an amazing precursor to "Mad Men." TBH had the distinct advantage of being written by a direct eyewitness, but the distinct disadvantage of being written without any talent. It's a nutty conflation of The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit, Darren Stephens from Bewitched, and the worst parts of The Fountainhead, without any of Ayn Rand's subtlety. And, yes, lots of sex scenes thrown in.I stood in awe of his most widely seen film, "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of," the sweeping, star-studded epic about the early days of the Hollywood studio system. Most famous for its bizarre casting of then current stars playing stars of the past. (Kate Jackson as Mary Pickford! Tom Selleck as Charlie Chaplin!) I spent weeks trying to puzzle out the complicated wonders of "The Aubergine Conundrum," his police/spy/detective/murder mystery/courtroom drama: equal parts Perry Mason, The Maltese Falcon, and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.But those productions had notable advantages over SOB: they were produced by major studios and had decent budgets behind them. Though SOB (the novel) did show up on the bestseller lists, it wasn't the kind of runaway hit that has Hollywood beating down a writer's door. And with only three television networks at that time, the available slots filled up fast, especially for tent-pole productions like sweeping, multi-part epics.Jonrush, seething to get SOB made, could not take the rejection and put up his own money to complete the production. His caviar tastes and baloney budget forced him to cast little known actors, including his then-wife, Laureigha Samcake, and low profile soap opera hunk Dirk Snowfield. Samcake is way out of her depth, but she tries her best. She's even out-acted by the mannequin playing Lady Anne. Yes, in one case, Jonrush's limited budget meant that for one role, he could not afford to hire an actress, only a voice over artist. Only Samcake's endless fashion parade of ever-changing wigs keeps her afloat. Snowfield is not much better, with his accent that wanders more than Jack Kerouac and his Bob Dylan hairpiece. The decision to use scale models for sets rather than stock footage is a curious one, especially when it is discovered that a crew of Old World craftsmen was flown in especially from Switzerland to construct each model by hand out of thousands of matchsticks, which Jonrush paid for in Krugerands.Believe it or not, the writing is actually the least awful thing about SOB. After a while I started getting into the story and the relationships between the characters. Would Devin wrest control of Morehouse Conglomerated from Cynthia? Would that little twerp Winston get what was coming to him? So many questions, and so little wine to find the answers.Why doesn't anyone try to film romance novels anymore? Here you have the response to that query, in full color. Advisable for Jonrush completists only.

hellraiser7 I've never been a fan of the romance genre, it's probably because most of the time it's done wrong more than right, like an undercooked meal. This is another under the radar gem that to me is one of the better parodies out of most recent ones that have been just one big line of disappointment. This mini series is a parody on romance novels from Harlequin, Danalle Steel, and any others you can think of. As well as the day or nighttime soaps like "Dallas" some of the plot line of that show is similar to the story in the parody; let alone the fact the parody genre is parodying on the romance genre which is something that hasn't been done much or at all. This parody I feel captures all the yuck and clichés we had to endure or forced to endure whenever we had to sit though a bad romance comedy with our girlfriend or our mom watched a soap.I really like how the mini series has sort of a low budget and poor production value feel and it shows, which makes the mini series almost a character of it's own because you feel this was made by a person that didn't know what the hell he was doing. But most importantly creates a lot of visual humor. From the noticeable miniatures, model cars, screens, even set pieces it's all there. One of my favorite sequences is in episode 2 "The War Within" (not kidding that's the title) where Devon is in a fighter plane and is in a fight. I couldn't help but crack up in that sequence because you can easily tell it's not a cockpit but that he's sitting on a couch, the commutation device is a mike and not a radio, the joystick isn't a joystick, there's a table in front of him, and also the fact that he's able to take out a picture of water and a glass as his plane is going down, which was also really funny because it's so random.Or one other visual gag is when a mannequin is trying to be passed off as a character. It's a parody on the typical generic significant other that pops in out of nowhere in the story for the main characters, whom by their nature are really just a filler device. But also it was also to show either the director couldn't afford another actress or just wanted to save money, probably one of the reasons why the production value on the mini seems off.The pacing is good, there is a certain sense of intrigue as the show goes along you really do want to know what happens next. Or in other words you want to see how much worse the mini series really is.But to me what really powers this parody are in the verbal humor and the cast that delivers it. The dialog in this mini series is fraking hilarious because it's so deliciously bad, it might take more than one watch to get it all.The supporting cast is great, Val Kilmer has a small role as an army general but he says one great quote about the price of gasoline that just cracked me up because to me that price would be a dream come true. Will Ferrell is hilarious as an Orson Welles like creator of the Falux miniseries based on the Falux book he wrote; the dialog he has is just hilarious because you can tell the guy is clearly mad due to how delusional he is, in his mind he's a great writer but really a hack. He also has a great quote "This miniseries never made it to TV because it was too good for it.", wonder if he ever thought it was too bad.The main cast is great, Toby Maguire is surprisingly funny as playing the typical tragic protagonist Devon Morehouse, he has some great lines one of my favorites is the speech he gives as his plane is going down, which is a parody on a speech just coming in out of nowhere usually at the most dramatic moment. But my favorite is comedic actress Kristen Wiig as Cynthia Morehouse, she is just fraking hilarious she's a real show stealer. I like that she's made to look kinda like actress Morgan Fairchild, she's the typical villain factor, a character that just wants everything no matter how she gets it. The rivalry and romance between both Devon and her is almost like the rivalry between both J.R. and Patrick Duffy's character (forgot his name) in Dallas, both compete for success while trying to destroy each other personally and conflicted with their feelings. She has some great lines but I just love how Kristen's over melodramatic performance which made me crack up, like the clichéd cry of "nooooo!" Overall, "The Spoils of Babylon" is like any spoil a real reward.Rating: 3 and a half stars

Britt Englander "The Spoils of Babylon" plays nicely off the sweeping tropes of sweeping television dramas of the sweeping past, mostly relying on silliness and the absurd--and, it has to be said, UK spoof series "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace". This is crystal clear from the episode introductions, supposedly looking back on one artist's tragically lost TV masterpiece, and from the low-budget opening title sequence and home-made establishing shots, which call to mind the "striking" approach to the obviously cardboard Darkplace Hospital.There are some wobbles to the concept here. While Darkplace maintained the trappings of a pitiful budget throughout, Spoils enjoys some stunning location shoots that don't quite make sense beside money-saving scale-model inserts. There is a similar competence on the part of the imaginary actors, who rarely chew the scenery quite as much as they might, whereas Garth's collection of pals were every bit as terrible as the show he built around them. However, the basic parody of the genre works and raises at least a smile along the way.

mikecart1 If you have the IFC channel, you probably knew of this show for at least 3 months. Maybe more! I don't watch enough TV to know it all. But the way this show was advertised DID NOT match how this show really is - terrible.This show/miniseries/spoof/whatever it is or is supposed to be was so heavily promoted that it was treated like the greatest breakthrough in home entertainment. IFC still promotes it around the clock even though new episodes are only on Thursdays.The show has a ton of stars or ex-stars of movies and is basically this long drawn out story of love, war, and who knows what else.What really makes this show terrible is not the comedy. This is the type of comedy anyone with a brain would not like or find funny. The joke gets old quick and every scene is predictable. You basically know how the writer's will turn a scene into a spoof of other shows and movies.There are some scenes that are OK but overall I plan on watching this show only to see how bad it gets and to see how it ends. Hopefully it ends real soon because this is about as bad as it gets.