Recorded Live

Not much you can really say about this HBO short film other than it was short and rather effective as it had that 1970's horror vibe to it. You can read what it is basically about in the summary and yes that as they say sums it up nicely. The only thing I can really add is to say as a kid this one creeped me out a bit even though there was a light heartiness about it in certain areas. The end though is not light hearted as there is a struggle that is rather disturbing. Thankfully there are no more reel to reels eh? All in all though it is a fairly good effort, it makes one pine for the days they showed shorts on HBO and shorts were not simply crappy movies done on a video camera and posted on youtube.

A man gets a letter from a small TV station telling him he has a job. When he goes to the station to begin work, there are no people.... but the magnetic recording tape that has all the shows on it comes alive and tries to kill him.

It's a nice bit of sardonic stop-motion animation with, perhaps a small amount of subtextual message about how people aren't needed when everything is already available on rewind. That's the way to get a message sent. You don't always have to use Western Union -- which, come to think of it, is effectively out of that business -- you just have to make it interesting enough to make it worth while to pay attention.

Ahhh, the good old days of HBO when they only showed movies, and therefore had lots of time to fill to get to the next half hour before the next one would start. The days of HBO's Video Jukebox, Braingames, and Short Takes. I never thought I would see this short film again until I read in a magazine that it was included on the Tremors 4 DVD. So I immediately went out and bought the DVD just for this movie. (I am a huge Tremors fan, but not so much the last two.) I was not disappoint. Definitely brings me back to the day of hanging out at my friends house watching Flash Gordon at 9:00 AM, and then again at 2:00 PM and again at 8:00 PM with Recorded Live thrown in afterwards. Then waiting 2-3 days until Flash Gordon came back on to watch it again.

I wish HBO would bring back Short Takes to some degree. But I guess there is more money in running promos for upcoming movies. (Hey, HBO..we already are paying for HBO! You don't need to sell us on the channel!) Maybe they should put it on Cinemax since they boast that it is nothing but movies. Whatever channel it may be, even IFC, some station should bring this back, with both old and new short films. Most may be terrible, but some will be memorable, like this.

(Granted, this movie is not all that spectacular. Mostly a parody of The Blob. But anyone in their mid 30s or older who had HBO or knew someone that did will love it.)