Penn Jillette Movies

Todd Robbins hosts this documentary directed by Nick Basile and narrated by Penn Jillette exploring the real lives of the circus sideshow and carnival performers including so called "freaks" as well as fireeaters, magicians and more. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

This film is part of an award-winning series that introduces children to the creative process. The filmmakers visit with musicians, painters, photographers, sculptors, actors, and dancers to get inside their creative minds. The featured artist is New Orleans music giant Allen Toussaint. Composer, producer, singer, and piano player in the Professor Longhair tradition, Toussaint is a musical force with 40 years of experience behind him. Honored with a Louisiana Lifetime Achievement Award and as New Orleans Entertainer of the Year, he is a regular performer at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and venues throughout the world. He brings his unique talent to this program in which he and several children work together to compose a tune at the piano. Then, with the help of fellow musicians Bobby McFerrin and Jane Ira Bloom, he leads a swinging improvisation. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide

This documentary highlights the magic and mystery of artistic expression. Hosted by magicians Penn and Teller, this award-winning series goes behind the scenes to explore the talent of many gifted artists of diversified mediums. This volume profiles painter David Hockeny, whose various works embodies painting, drawings, book illustrations, photo-collage, and even set design. Some of the finer points of this art/education video include the illusion of depth and the vanishing point as David draws a virtual walk around a chair. Produced and Directed by Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, this 30-minute magic show from First Run Features Home Video is a peek at the man/woman behind the curtain and the world they create. ~ C. Dwayne Smith, All Movie Guide

This episode of PBS's Behind the Scenes series exposes children to the crafts of live theater through the work of director Julie Taymor. Taymor describes the importance of the theater tradition, and expresses the energy she finds there. The video shows how stage sets are built, how actors learn their lines, and how costumes are prepared. Taymor also explains how the stage lighting and sound are handled by the crew. The important role of director is also discussed. This video is recommended for children age seven and older, as well as their parents. ~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide

This award-winning PBS series examines the creative process of artists in different mediums. Here, the late sculptor Nancy Graves reveals how she creates a sense of "anti-gravity" in her colorful sculpture collages, which look as if they are about to tip over. Hosts Penn and Teller offer a series of visual illusions to help explain balance, employing both tightrope walker Brian Dewhurst and a teeter-totter. They throw in some sight gags to keep the video moving. Graves' finished sculpture, a sort-of-clock, is a textbook example of the laws of physics at work, even though it looks like a prop out of Alice in Wonderland. ~ All Movie Guide

Released by the now-defunct Simitar Entertainment rather than Rhino Video, which handles the other Comic Relief videos, Comic Relief II is featured on two separate 60-minute videos. A 1987 live charity event benefiting America's homeless, part one of Comic Relief II is hosted by Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and Billy Crystal, and features comic turns by Elayne Boosler, Louie Anderson, Judy Tenuta, and Michael J. Fox. Part two of Comic Relief II is a continuation of part one, boasting an all-star lineup that includes comic luminaries Richard Lewis, Steven Wright, Steve Allen, Arsenio Hall, and Roseanne. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide

Chicago-based filmmaker Rusty Nails (Acne, The Ramones and I) takes a comprehensive look at the life and career of iconic filmmaker George A. Romero in this documentary that delves deep into the fiercely independent filmmaker's eternal obsession with all things celluliod. Featuring interviews with a diverse collection of collaborators, fans, and followers including Dario Argento, Richard Linklater, Glen Danzig, Stephen King, Penn Jillette, John Carpenter, and John Waters, Dead On: The LIfe and Cinema of George A. Romero reflects on not only the filmmaker's remarkable body of work, but also his unique directorial style and his lifelong journey to create intelligent and thought provoking cinema. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King) directed this colorful, stylized, pseudo-psychedelic $21-million adaptation of the 1971 Hunter S. Thompson classic, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey into the Heart of the American Dream, about stoned sportswriter Raoul Duke, Thompson's alter ego, on a wild drug-crazed road trip, a paranoid plummet into the belly of the beast, with his pal, lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta. Originally serialized in Rolling Stone (November 1971), the book catapulted Thompson headfirst toward the Kerouac-Mailer-Capote pantheon and jump-started the entire movement of "gonzo journalism." Carrying a suitcase of drugs, Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp with shaved pate) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) drive a red convertible across the Mojave from L.A. to Vegas, where Duke has an assignment to cover the Mint 400 desert motorcycle race. As the drugs kick in, Duke ventures into voiceover, filling in the blank spots and narrative gaps. "This is not a good town for psychedelic drugs," says Duke, but even so, they consume vast quantities, eventually escalating to ether. Duke notes that with ether "you can actually watch yourself behaving this terrible way, but you can't control it." The two trash their hotel room, and Gonzo goes back to L.A. Thinking the hotel room holocaust will lead to an arrest, Duke begins a drive back to L.A., but after an odd encounter with a highway patrolman (Gary Busey) and a telephone conversation with Gonzo, he returns to Vegas to cover the District Attorney Convention on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in the glitzy Flamingo Hotel. This time the drugged-out duo trash their Flamingo room. The crazed carnival atmosphere segues into a carney casino, Bazooko's Circus, where a barker (Penn Jillette) spiels amid aerialists, clowns, and a rotating carousel bar. Gonzo worries over runaway teen Lucy (Christina Ricci), who paints portraits of Barbra Streisand. Soon the hallucinations begin: Duke sees Gonzo transmogrify into a demon with breasts on its back, and an acid vision of a Vegas bar features large legit lounge lizards (courtesy of monster makeup man Rob Bottin). Flashbacks depicting Duke's intro to the drug scene jump back to love-Haight relationships in San Francisco's Summer of Love. Cameos and guest stars include Mark Harmon, Cameron Diaz, Flea, Lyle Lovett, Harry Dean Stanton, Ellen Barkin, Tobey Maguire, and Hunter S. Thompson himself. The film features a Geffen Records soundtrack mixing rock of the period with Vegas lounge tunes. Over the years, various script adaptations came and went as did numerous talents; people connected with past efforts to film Thompson's book include Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and writer-director Alex Cox. Shown in competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

The comedienne who shot to stardom as "the world's worst housewife" offers an intimate look at her life and career on the eve of her farewell stand-up performance. Phyllis Diller has been keeping her fans in stitches for nearly half-a-century. A gleefully self-depreciating comic whose outlandish sense of style always set her apart from the pack, Diller not only recollects her rise to stardom, but also allows viewers into her home to show just what life is like behind the scenes. A press conference leading up to her final performance showcases the quick-witted Diller at her unscripted best, with additional rehearsal and dressing room footage showing just what an incredible impact she has had on the world of show-business. Additional appearances by Rip Taylor, Don Rickles, Roseanne Barr, Red Buttons, and Lily Tomlin offer a chance for some of Diller's best known fans to reflect on their fondest memories of the star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The first thing to remember when viewing this difficult-to-believe documentary is that there really is an underground band called Half Japanese and that the stories being told about their eighteen year musical career are, for the most part true. That being said, it is almost impossible to distinguish this evidently sincere documentary from the earlier (and entirely fictional) This Is Spinal Tap, which idolizes a similarly inept and clueless group of musicians and fans. Penn Jillette (of the gore-and-magic duo Penn and Teller, acknowledges that he is such a fan of the group that he took over as their producer. It is possible that the very naivete which this film captures is the source of the group's popularity - surfacing, as it did, in the lush, overcomplex and overproduced pop music scene of the late seventies. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Put together by the same production team and network responsible for Deal or No Deal, the weekly game show Identity required its contestants to match up a group of a dozen strangers with a list of unique characteristics. Psychologist Deborah Anderson, body-language expert Mark Edgar Stephens, and FBI researcher Christopher Whitcomb kept things going by helping the contestants ascertain the identities of the 12 strangers using such guidelines as weight, age, career, shoe size, favorite color, etc. Ultimately each of the 12's identity was narrowed down to three choices, or "tridentity" -- and the dozen were obliged to stand stock still and speechless until host Penn Jilette asked each one, "Is that your identity?" Following the Deal or No Deal formula, Identity made its NBC bow on December 18, 2006, given a five-part trial run to test the series' viability as a mid-season weekly replacement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Isaac Asimov wrote the English translation for this animated sci-fi tale about the prince of the planet Gandahar, who is sent to the future in order to avenge an attack on his home world. The film is re-edited from the original French version (Ghandahar (1987), created and directed by Rene Laloux). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

From Michael Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan to the movie-making capital of the United States, director Mike Wilson's inflammatory documentary travels across the country to hold the controversial Sicko director's allegedly questionable tactics up to the light for closer examination. Wilson is a filmmaker who wants viewers to question what they see and hear in the media, and he's willing to travel thousands of miles in order to highlight why you too should remain skeptical about Moore's motivations as a filmmaker. The result is a meditation on the American Dream, and the manner in which diligence and determination can eventually pay off for the folks who aren't willing to let their dreams fade. Additionally, by speaking with such well known media figures as Penn Jilette and John Stossel as well as a host of highly respected scholars, Wilson highlights how Moore manipulates interviews and statistics to serve his own personal agenda. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide