Kenneth Mars Obituary

On Sunday, February 12^th 2011 we lost a true legend of stage and cinema acting. The great Kenneth Mars passed away due to the truly despicable disease known as Cancer, Pancreatic to be precise. However, I prefer not to think about the way in which he died, but the way that he lived.

Mars was born April 14^th 1936 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Calumet Heights, where he studied at Caldwell Elementary School and then Bowen High School. From here he went onto Northwestern University before making his acting debut in 1962, when he portrayed a book publisher on the NBC comedy series Car 54, Where Are You? which ran from 1961-1963. This was the beginning of a successful career which would span five decades, where he worked alongside Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in The Producers (1968), and also featured in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969) with Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

Throughout his life, Mars performed a range of roles, such as 'Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp' in Mel Brook's 1974 classic, Young Frankenstein, ranging right up to 'King Triton' from Disney's Little Mermaid, a role which he reprised for the video game series Kingdom Hearts. But it is for his role as Franz Liebkind in Mel Brooks' 1968 masterpiece, The Producers, where he plays a Hitler-obsessed play-write and author of Springtime for Hitler that he is most remembered for. He played this character on stage, as well as in the film version, and this exaggerated german accent would become an element of Mars' characters in other performances, such as his role of 'Otto Mannkusser' in Malcolm and the Middle. The last project Mars worked on in his illustrious acting career was the TV series, The Land Before Time, which was very similar to the film series and featured him as 'Grandpa Longneck', and before this he played 'Gunther the Inn Keeper' in Hannah Montana, which again made use of his broad German-accent.

With a glorious career such as this, it is easy to see how the exquisite Kenneth Mars achieved his legendary status and this is where we will take most comfort as legends never truly die.

Kenneth Mars: April 14th 1936 - February 12th 2011

Mean Machine Review

So here we are in the year 2011 and I have decided to get all anniversary up in here by celebrating the tenth year of one of the world's most recent legends. No I am not referring to The Strokes debut album This Is It (2001), I am of course referring to Mean Machine (2001), directed by Barry Skolnick.

This pound of piss sees Vinnie Jones playing fictitious footballing legend Danny Meehan as he attempts to triumph over the adversity of being a once beloved, now despised, celebrity in a supposedly realistic prison environment. As this festering turd of a narrative drags it's way towards conclusion like a tapeworm-ridden dog towing itself across a new carpet, we see Vinnie Jones tackle the gruesome side of prison as he fights some twat, receives solitary confinement for saving a fellow prisoner from the onslaught of racial discord, witnesses Omid Djalili portray a prat-falling Iranian, nearly gets penetrated in the bathroom by Scotsman's friend (of course, I mean his knife) and bang the fit one from Smack The Pony (Sally Philips), who, in this role, looks like she fell out of the whore tree and banged every guy on the way down.

However the film does possess some good points, such as the stereotypical yet wonderfully appropriate and even hair-raising commentary of the wardens vs. cons match provided by the two bobs (Jake Abraham and Jason Flemyng), or the nostalgia-inducing scene in which we see the great John Forgeham, playing Charlie Sikes, put 'the frighteners' on the shit-bag governor, played by David Hemming, vaguely reminiscent of scenes from Performance, or even Minder (both of which feature the superb Anthony Valentine).

Despite the film's positives, it is a bad film and I love it with every fibre of my being. I love the bad acting, such as when Rocky Marshall acts as referee to an organised fight between prisoners where he essentially caterwauls until red in the face. I love the fact that Vas Blackwood (Lennox Gilbey from Only Fools And Horses, episode: The Longest Night) is in the film as well as the exquisite David Kelly (you know, O'Riley from Fawlty Towers). I love the fact that Ralph Brown is in the film as the 'noble bobby' because all I can ever picture him saying is his most memorable line of dialogue from Wayne's World, "we had to beat them to death with their own shoes" (I know he is a prison warden put the point still stands).

Most of all, I adore this film because it can make me feel happy, sad and every emotion in between, which is what any good film should be able to do and it does all of this by celebrating the actors of British Film and Television, therefore making Mean Machine a damn good film.

P.S. The Strokes new album is scheduled for release this year.