Here’s a brief look at what I’ve been watching recently:
When you’re in the mood for a cheesy 80s martial arts movie, you can’t go wrong with Best of the Best. Starring James Earl Jones, Christopher Penn and pretty much no one else memorable, Best of the Best tells of the US National Karate Team’s match against the Korean team. I watched this film many times in my youth and every time I see it, I realize just how corny the 80s really were. However, the finale of the film stands the test of time and remains one of my favourite movie-endings. If you enjoy a good martial arts flick, or if you just want to see what I’ll be able to do when I get my black belt, check out Best of the Best.
Last Sunday I watched my first Christmas movie of the season, Die Hard 2: Die Harder. This is the delightfully charming tale of John McClane, a New York police officer who must dodge the merry Christmas crowds of a Washington airport while attempting to stop the holly, jolly antics of several terrorists intent on causing mischief on Christmas Eve. With cheerful gun fights, magically beautiful explosions and language that makes the child in all of us laugh with joy, Die Hard 2: Die Harder is an endearing Christmas classic that could even put a smile on old Scrooge’s face. If you’re looking for that one, special holiday film that the whole family can watch together, look no further than Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Yippy-kai-ay!
Pixar Animation Studios has done it again. With the success of Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Toy Story and others, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that their latest feature-length film, Cars, would be equally entertaining. That being said, I was surprised. I don’t know why but for some reason I was expecting Cars to be a let-down. With every film they release, Pixar continues to set the bar higher and higher. Except for Dreamworks’ Shrek franchise no other studio has come close to producing the same quality films that Pixar has been creating since the beginning of computer animation. I think it’s that extremely high standard that has made me so sceptical of each new film they reveal. Well it’s time to start giving Pixar the benefit of the doubt; Cars is a fantastic film. Set in a world where all the characters are cars, all the restaurants are gas stations and the shoe stores are tire shops, Cars takes us on a wonderfully entertaining journey with Lightning McQueen, a world-class racing car who finds himself in a backwater town. I could reveal many aspects of the plot, characters, music and animation but it all boils down to one fact; if you enjoyed any of Pixar’s films, you’ll enjoy Cars. They make great movies. Period.
When you’re in the mood for a cheesy 80s martial arts movie, and you’ve already watched Best of the Best, you can’t go wrong with The Karate Kid. I’m sure it’s my own interest in karate that ultimately made me want to own it, but you certainly don’t need a black belt, or a white one for that matter, to enjoy this classic film. Daniel-san finds himself in trouble when the local karate experts start using him as their punching bag. The ever-wise Mr. Myagi agrees to train Daniel-san in the ways of karate in preparation for the big tournament where the young student hopes to finally prove himself. Oh who am I kidding? Is there anyone reading this who hasn't seen The Karate Kid? We all remember ‘Wax-on, wax-off’ and the unbeatable Crane-style kick. Despite a healthy portion of fromage, The Karate Kid is still a great movie and well worth another look.
We started off this past weekend’s movie marathon with Lucky Number Slevin. I wrote a full-length review of the film on this site a few weeks ago, which you can check out here. Slevin is a terrific little noir caper with some very interesting characters, portrayed by a host of well known actors: Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci, Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu, to name a few. In fact virtually every piece of this film is a character, from the sets to the costumes to the music. It all comes together in one intriguing plot that twists and turns to a powerful finale. You’ll find a lot more detail in my full-length review, but suffice it to say that Lucky Lumber Slevin is an intelligent film that entertains on all levels.
The second film of our noir/caper movie marathon was Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. To try and sum up the plot of this film would be like trying to explain how a gas engine works; there’s a lot more going on than you realize and even though you have a general understanding of the process, it’s still very complex. But don’t let that turn you off this fantastic British film. Some very witty dialogue, quirky characters and comedy-of-errors plot will keep you interested from start to finish and will have you laughing out loud throughout. This film fit in perfectly with the theme of our movie-day and I strongly recommend it to anyone.
The last film of our movie-marathon was another Guy Ritchie creation, Snatch. Banking on the success of his pervious flick, Ritchie gives us another terrific, mostly-British film that focuses on an 84-carot diamond, illegal boxing promotion and a “pikey” (Brad Pitt) with the most unintelligible accent you’re likely to ever hear. With character names like Franky Four Fingers, Cousin Avi, Boris the Blade and Bullet Tooth Tony, Snatch is a crazy, twisted, delightful piece of filmmaking. It can be hard to follow exactly what’s going on at all times, but I think that’s part of the idea. You’ll find yourself swept up in the plot with your mind reeling from the bizarre turn of events that makes Snatch so much fun to watch. Excellent cinematography and great music round out this entertaining movie. It was a great wrap-up to our Caper-a-thon.All in all I would say the movie-marathon was a success. We laughed. We cried. Well ok, only Vince cried. But he tends to get choked up whenever he sees a Desert Eagle .50 on-screen. Many thanks to Dave, Vince and Chris, who share my obsession with movies and joined me for these wonderful films. I’m still trying to plan the Star Trek Ridiculathon but I find more and more that these movie-marathons are a lot harder to coordinate than you would think. I might have to quit my job and organize Ridiculathons full time. Now who would pay me…?
