Lethal weapon

Since I liked Patton Oswalt’s voice work as the rodent hero of Ratatouille, I decided to check out one of his stand-up comedy recordings. I listened to Werewolves and Lollipops during the drive home from work and I’m surprised I didn’t end up causing a 20-car pileup on the southbound lanes of the Turnpike. The guy isn’t just hysterically funny, he’s an active menace to life and limb — when played on a car stereo, at any rate.

One of the funniest bits involves his travails as a Hollywood screenwriter and the problem of realizing one is working in an industry where money, time and talent go into making a movie called Death Bed, about a demonic bed that eats anyone who lies down on it. Oswalt challenges the audience to “IMDB it” and sure enough, the movie’s there. He gets the subtitle wrong: the movie isn’t called Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People, it’s called Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, which manages to be even worse. 

Better still (or maybe not) the cast includes Dave Marsh, the Elvis- and Bruce-obsessed rock music critic who in 1977 had just graduated from Creem to Rolling Stone. I’m almost tempted to see if Marsh does for acting what he’s done for music criticism. If so, then it’s no wonder Death Bed took three decades to see release.