tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29805497363104727812024-03-05T10:34:42.420-05:00Soda On The Roof!Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-70315798491777803772010-08-16T14:37:00.015-04:002010-08-16T15:00:50.673-04:00Replicant (2001) - By Mark Oswald<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCFkZSkZe7nl4FQFsLowKYPvMzZXMkfHobh-sWF1LIKVqzrguXFE4sH-QlFjp2uNNBlVtC61lTAxTbnUtEwS9JRW03fcmvCpFKR85JG2gf1VDwF9YL5X0_SZlLEy3LfWJeclqSrY-uC4cl/s1600/Replicant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCFkZSkZe7nl4FQFsLowKYPvMzZXMkfHobh-sWF1LIKVqzrguXFE4sH-QlFjp2uNNBlVtC61lTAxTbnUtEwS9JRW03fcmvCpFKR85JG2gf1VDwF9YL5X0_SZlLEy3LfWJeclqSrY-uC4cl/s320/Replicant.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Once again Jean-Claude Van Damme is in a movie playing two identical characters; whether they’re twin brothers, or technically the very same person, he really seems to love this kind of shit. This fascination began in 1991 with the ‘brothers separated at birth but reunited by their parents’ former bodyguard to avenge their deaths’ picture, <em>Double Impact</em> (not to be confused with the absurd buddy movie <em>Double Team</em> starring Van Damme and Dennis Rodman). This bizarre cinematic fetish continued on in <em>Time Cop</em>, <em>Maximum Risk</em>, and the subject of today’s discussion, <em>Replicant.</em> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFhzvsRpkzJvtbQEN4L7M2yUFMrvT54MRZbLe5eD8Np99Q6JY4JUS_uHjjWgXv6VyIFqRGZu6UR4an0eXKtYervsTyKsPoq5Kr4rwyc7UJlcjjIj-zrSkQusbJ_YLhRGcklrEmoKCfXBO/s1600/rephair5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdFhzvsRpkzJvtbQEN4L7M2yUFMrvT54MRZbLe5eD8Np99Q6JY4JUS_uHjjWgXv6VyIFqRGZu6UR4an0eXKtYervsTyKsPoq5Kr4rwyc7UJlcjjIj-zrSkQusbJ_YLhRGcklrEmoKCfXBO/s320/rephair5.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>The Room 2 starring Jean-Claude Van Damme</em></div><br />
When the film starts out, we see a mother being terrorized in her apartment by an unseen assailant, but when the camera pans up to the intruder’s face, it’s Mr. Jean-Claude (with greasy chin-length hair and lame yellow-tinted sunglasses, like some Euro-pop singer/snowboarder). He proceeds to set the woman on fire, and then sing “Rock-a-Bye Baby” to her infant child before leaving it to burn along with its mother. First of all, it’s kind of a shock to see Van Damme as a cold-blooded killer, but when he makes an escape being chased by Michael Rooker, you could make the inference that you’ll be rooting for Rooker instead of Van Damme, when in actuality, you will be rooting for both, in a sense. Mind blown yet? Very good, let’s continue…<br />
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You see Michael Rooker’s character is a cop who’s been playing a game of cat and mouse with this psychopath for years. He even gets calls from him while at his retirement party. After escaping capture yet again, it is revealed that a high-level government organization has secretly cloned (replicated) JC’s character from a strand of hair left at an earlier crime scene. They’ve been growing him for some time now, in hopes that this Replicant will possess some kind of psychic link to the killer, and will in turn help in bringing him to justice (seems to me like they put an awful lot of money into the project based solely on this whole psychic connection theory, but they must have felt pretty strongly about it; and I'm no scientist, so I'm not going to judge?) The G-Men want Rooker to work with him, based on his vast knowledge and experience with the case. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMsHYu7kiCUwsWGB32ZTZdKIwVdBb3hSNFoIUEt699_y9jU9dlIhGV6eWU0s5weyeiITodxCGK66R0FKPGUX41JtUZaYnwfbOcpm4YoePXmL2v3BLnuz8V89x2tZrc1MMTximuphuFiSm/s1600/replicant16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMsHYu7kiCUwsWGB32ZTZdKIwVdBb3hSNFoIUEt699_y9jU9dlIhGV6eWU0s5weyeiITodxCGK66R0FKPGUX41JtUZaYnwfbOcpm4YoePXmL2v3BLnuz8V89x2tZrc1MMTximuphuFiSm/s320/replicant16.jpg" /></a></div><br />
If you have been following JC’s DTV timeline you may have noticed a visible enhancement of his acting ability, rather than just his “doing the splits” ability. I haven’t seen all of his DTV features, mind you, and he didn’t seem to be giving it his all in <em>The Hard Corps</em>, but I’ve been thoroughly impressed with his dramatic work in <em>Wake of Death</em>, <em>In Hell</em>, <em>Until Death</em>, and of course <em>JCVD</em>. Some of these performances have actually been hampered by the other actors around him not being nearly as good, which is weird, but overall I’m trying to say that he’s gotten a lot better. By the time he did <em>Replicant</em>, however, I don’t think he had yet reached his full potential as an actor. Here he does get to branch out though. As I said, he finally gets to play a villain, but in addition to that, he gets to play a clone/man-child/animal-boy/wannabe gymnast. Once he is created, he must be taught how to walk and talk, and overall just act like a human being. He is shown gymnastic videos which teach him to be athletic and do splits and stuff. So for once in Van Damme’s filmography, a movie actually goes out of its way to explain his penchant for doing the splits. I also thought that the martial arts wizardry of <em>Gymkata</em> was going to make a triumphant return, but I was sorely mistaken. There is a scene later on, where after forming a stronger connection to his killer other half, he starts performing martial arts moves as if from muscle memory. Both JCVDs start fighting each other with the exact same moves, but don’t seem to be making contact because they completely cancel out each other’s maneuvers. Admittedly though, the whole thing would be a lot more exciting if they would use more than only three moves. Seriously, come on guys.<br />
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Michael Rooker’s character gets the thankless job of bringing the Replicant around to different places, trying to jolt some of his memories in order to find them a lead. I’ve always liked Michal Rooker. He’s not what you’d call a handsome leading man or anything, but he’s consistently intense and always seems to be putting his best foot forward, performance-wise. He did gain some minor acclaim with his work in <em>Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer</em>, but I remember him most from his roles in <em>Mallrats</em>, <em>Cliffhanger</em>, and a random made-for-TV action movie I saw as a kid called <em>Back to Back</em>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJLEdvo74KixywbTh7rdNACmh7BprdrZr1Qecoo0Iqgty8Mso-hdb9eJXQ15_j-SrEITmnQPBfsaZotWUq6DUxyBRUunj589dvvUfIKr3bSwCu7DZGDBIjUIaI5mcbnm_ct3tBpgr6yEp9/s1600/replicant6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJLEdvo74KixywbTh7rdNACmh7BprdrZr1Qecoo0Iqgty8Mso-hdb9eJXQ15_j-SrEITmnQPBfsaZotWUq6DUxyBRUunj589dvvUfIKr3bSwCu7DZGDBIjUIaI5mcbnm_ct3tBpgr6yEp9/s320/replicant6.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Directed by Ringo Lam, who also collaborated with JC on <em>Maximum Risk</em> and <em>In Hell</em>, a good job is done with keeping the pace up while also delivering several assorted action moments differently than I have seen them done before. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why, but many times when a car crashed or a body got slammed through something, it seemed new. It could be the framing or camera placement, but a lot of the stunts came off as a lot more exciting than in other films where I’ve seen similar moves orchestrated not quite as affectively. Unlike some of Van Damme’s other DTV efforts, the budget on this one seems a little higher as well. The government facility where Replicant JCVD is grown and trained is a flashy, slightly futuristic looking area that must have taken some time and money to create. The overall look and coloring of the movie is a kind of cheap, but what is shown within obviously took some skill to produce.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnqNp6NswytDE1lUXP_uIH94afJVbhUe9GftS30ah22GI6NCGnPWhkzBCzLR_3kS-3B_HS9ucQWC4H1hbgzYz3xkC-1Sq9S8sTtGOKQm5TuWBfn37sEslqiKxjUw78O76m9MIarbqnbWpp/s1600/repjean-cleaude-van-damme.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnqNp6NswytDE1lUXP_uIH94afJVbhUe9GftS30ah22GI6NCGnPWhkzBCzLR_3kS-3B_HS9ucQWC4H1hbgzYz3xkC-1Sq9S8sTtGOKQm5TuWBfn37sEslqiKxjUw78O76m9MIarbqnbWpp/s320/repjean-cleaude-van-damme.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Jean-Claude's all tuckered out after the Jim Varney look-a-like party</em></div><br />
While the story itself is only slightly unique and the theme may seem a little low rate to non-action fans, I found <em>Replicant</em> to be an altogether enjoyable experience. It’s not as good as some of my Van Damme favorites like <em>Sudden Death</em>, or even other dual-Van Damme pictures like <em>Double Impact</em> and <em>Maximum Risk</em>, but it’s definitely better and/or less bizarre than <em>Double Team</em> and the general unenthusiasticness of <em>The Hard Corps</em>. I’d say rent this or Watch Instantly on Netflix if you get the itch. <br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Body Count - 7</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53F865BuXEvawjFx1eoFam6Y-r_QrmM5itDsJcYIS5uFSHgC6XO4-ii2OOFCfOv06EUkgpUUUZe6KMfC911z2233ZjS44g9JhFnDNdGtVUGNZ3jX-3Ema4fikQAOUQ8PkeQIFtsm2qToZ/s1600/replicant1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53F865BuXEvawjFx1eoFam6Y-r_QrmM5itDsJcYIS5uFSHgC6XO4-ii2OOFCfOv06EUkgpUUUZe6KMfC911z2233ZjS44g9JhFnDNdGtVUGNZ3jX-3Ema4fikQAOUQ8PkeQIFtsm2qToZ/s320/replicant1.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-24225359014731296822010-08-09T16:48:00.006-04:002010-08-10T09:53:55.503-04:00Special Forces (2003) - By Mark Oswald<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3qQpVHRTokYJcvjfQRg3ZeT99cCm698OV4D6dX5RUDYasrQnn_dWX7pmmmrFrDO5rK_qToaRNtoLAdH8JQvvVQVqWHizO4kxSXhi2ugQQTKRBzjHDdFGArRoSqYg5FpeB7kjoxlFgUHj/s1600/spec51B-ujLGuOL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir3qQpVHRTokYJcvjfQRg3ZeT99cCm698OV4D6dX5RUDYasrQnn_dWX7pmmmrFrDO5rK_qToaRNtoLAdH8JQvvVQVqWHizO4kxSXhi2ugQQTKRBzjHDdFGArRoSqYg5FpeB7kjoxlFgUHj/s320/spec51B-ujLGuOL.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Well I said in my review of <em>Attack Force Z</em> that I was going to be reviewing some more group-based Action films in preparation for <em>The Expendables</em>, which comes out in a few days. Now I haven’t exactly filled my quota, so to speak, but I’ve at least got a cheesy but good one here to tell you guys about, and hopefully I’ll get another one done before taking in Sly’s newest Action extravaganza this Thursday at Midnight. <br />
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<em>Special Forces</em> is the first Action/Martial Arts collaboration from Israeli DTV auteur Isaac Florentine, and ass-kicker Scott Adkins. The film actually stars Marshall Teague (<em>Armageddon</em>, some episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger”) and his merry band of Army Special Forces (!) soldiers, assigned to missions involving the infiltration/elimination of enemy targets and whatnot. The team is first introduced mid-mission by the old freeze frame on their face while the character’s name is plastered on-screen beneath them. In this first encounter, they offer an impressive display of silenced-shootings mixed with a quick martial arts move here and there and this is basically the form of combat they stick with for the remainder of the film. I also must say that regardless of a serious lack of character depth and/or development, they come across as a very tight-knit group of military bros. <br />
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</div>The main story revolves around a power-mad Russian military guy who decides to take a female journalist hostage after she and her photographer witness the slaughter of a few dozen peasant villagers. After a video tape is sent to the American government, demanding a ransom for her life, the Special Forces team is dispatched to Russia in order to rescue the girl. While there, they must rendezvous with the surviving member of a British SAS team that had been sent into the country on a previous mission. Scott Adkins (with native accent for once) plays the sole survivor as a charismatic loner who is willing to help out the SF team when needed, but is primarily interested in exacting his revenge against the evildoers responsible for the slaughter of his unit. <br />
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Adkins, of course, really steals the show from the Americans. Because like, you know, they are well trained and kick a lot of ass and everything, but it doesn’t really matter, because he’s Scott Adkins. Whenever the film goes back to the SF members fighting after watching him do his thing, it just doesn’t compare. Adkins is always impressive, but here he seems faster than ever since it was before he bulked up a little more as to not look scrawny in comparison to Michael Jai White in <em>Undisputed II</em>. I mean he’s a very muscular guy anyways, but Jai White is just fucking large. Adkins’ acting in his native voice is overall pretty decent. You can tell he’s more relaxed than in his stiffer American roles, but maybe not having as much fun as in his aggressive Russian ones. You can tell he’s more comfortable fighting than in the dialogue scenes, probably because: A) He was only 26 and less experienced at the time, and B) the actual dialogue isn’t exactly what I’d call “rich”. I also found it kind of funny how the script had him calling people “chaps” and “blokes” and stuff a non-British writer would probably think he would say, but none of that shit sounds natural coming out of his mouth for some reason, so I thought that was pretty funny.<br />
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The requisite evil Russian in this movie is played by Eli Danker, who went on the play the mystical, wheelchair-bound inmate who helps out Michael Jai White in <em>Undisputed II</em>. In that movie his character was a grumpy, but sad-eyed old man, whose subplot added some heart to the film’s third act. Here he plays the typical evil foreign military bad guy; but he’s a solid actor, so he makes a memorable role out of one that would have otherwise been cliché and forgettable. Marshall Teague, as our main heroic type, does a solid job playing the uber-patriotic squad leader who is still scarred from a devastating previous encounter with Danker’s character. He has the utmost respect for the men under his command, but doesn’t baby them when they’re feeling less than optimistic about the mission. You know; tough love and all that…<br />
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The highlight of the film was during the final battle(s), which consisted of a fight between Teague and Danker shown parallel with a fight between Adkins and Danker’s right-hand man, who it seems was the one responsible for the assassination of Adkins’ team. The juxtaposition between the two encounters works well because of the different fighting styles being used. Teague and Danker duke it out in more of a clumsy brawl; punching, kicking, and utilizing improvised weaponry whenever possible. Meanwhile Adkins and the other dude (couldn’t figure out the guy’s name from the movie’s IMDB page) go at it in a highly-stylized and excellently choreographed martial arts battle of epic proportions. It is seriously fucking awesome. I absolutely did not want it to end and I should’ve been counting the times I let out an exclamation of “Whoa!” in addition to tracking the film’s impressively high body count. I’ve enjoyed immensely the fights worked out in the <em>Undisputed</em> sequels, but when the fighters actually get to perform in an outside-the-ring capacity, able to utilize and react to objects around them in inspiring ways, it is even more captivating. <br />
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Isaac Florentine, as usual, demonstrates some of his patented directorial flair. Lots of energetic camera movements and “whoosh” sound effects whenever something is swung, thrown, etc. The editing again is stylish and fast-paced, but never convulsive or disorientating. The film’s weaker moments reside mostly in the scripting department. The dialogue is nothing special, and often very cliché, except for a few golden nuggets sprinkled throughout. The look of the film exhibits its lack of a big budget. For example, even though this film came out three years after <em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/08/proof-of-life-2000-by-mark-oswald.html">Proof of Life</a></em>, it looks like it was shot ten years prior. A lot of the acting of course fails to reach the heights of Brando, Pacino, and at times even a young Seagal, but I’ve seen a hell of a lot worse too. Another thing that might bother some people is the balls out sense of American pride on display here. The SF guys are so gung-ho and stereotypical that it might turn some people off, but I thought it was all just corny enough to work. Plus none of them talk too much so I wouldn’t let any of that stop you from seeing this thing. Also, there is more than enough action on hand to help you overlook these detractions. <br />
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Next up is probably Florentine’s<em> U.S. Seal’s II</em>. No Adkins in that one, but oh well. You can’t have it all.<br />
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Body Count – 175! (Not including the lives lost in the peasant village massacre, since there were, sadly, just too many to count)Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-77394499941376886832010-08-05T13:08:00.001-04:002010-08-05T13:08:40.064-04:00Proof of Life (2000) - By Mark Oswald<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zLiB_g_gdUYsL2owtDZMQMxzpShTSM9kJTTdJ1nq_OYfk3VIScjaSHJukynjKP-M_NeSBgUXY5b4GuMvXbipitld6Gdv0PJQ_doB32_Lv8Ae_V62kC36LIBh-x1OtEt3JUSG1r_iphbn/s1600/Proof-of-Life-hdwarez_com.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zLiB_g_gdUYsL2owtDZMQMxzpShTSM9kJTTdJ1nq_OYfk3VIScjaSHJukynjKP-M_NeSBgUXY5b4GuMvXbipitld6Gdv0PJQ_doB32_Lv8Ae_V62kC36LIBh-x1OtEt3JUSG1r_iphbn/s320/Proof-of-Life-hdwarez_com.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>If there is one thing I’ve learned during my adventures through the cinematic universe, it’s that you can’t spell “actor” without using a couple of the same letters from “action”. You see, for an Action movie, as with any other genre, you’re going to need some actors (unless it’s a Documentary); because you’re making a “film”; which usually requires someone possessing a talent for pretending to be somebody else. <a href="http://dictionary.com/">Dictionary.com</a> defines the term “actor” as a noun meaning “a person who acts in stage plays, motion pictures, television broadcasts, etc.”, or more importantly, “a person who does something.” Watching the kind of films I normally do, there are a lot of people doing things, but you have to come to the understanding that more often than not, the filmmakers tend to focus more effort on the visual pallet than the subtext beneath it. That’s precisely why these explosion-filled rollercoaster rides are populated with super-fit, muscle-bound tough guys who can convincingly tear someone’s head off, but not be required to cry on command. Russell Crowe is however someone who can credibly perform in both of these arenas. It’s probably a similar reason I’ve always enjoyed Mel Gibson’s movies. The guy can kick someone’s ass while acting circles around them at the same time. I think it is a combination prominently showcased in <em>Lethal Weapon</em>. One of the first things we see Riggs doing is crying over a picture of his dead wife, on the verge of committing suicide. Next he’s taking out a group of drug dealers in a Christmas tree farm. So Mel’s got it. Russell’s got it. Eric Bana’s got it. Maybe it’s an Australian thing. Who knows? <br />
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</div><em>Proof of Life</em>, starring Crowe and Meg Ryan, is a movie that, after watching, I feel has gotten sort of a bad rap because of the whole media uproar that happened when Ryan admitted to having an affair with Crowe during filming. Even stranger is that one of the movie’s subplots seems to stray unusually close to the real-life drama that unfolded around the same time. The plot follows Ryan and David Morse’s husband and wife characters, living in South America. Morse is working for a subsidiary of a big oil company, while Ryan is an ex-hippie, turned housewife. Soon into the movie he is kidnapped by some kind of pseudo-revolutionaries who think he’s working on the oil pipeline and the company behind its production will pay handsomely to get him back. What the rebels fail to realize and choose not to believe when he tells them, is that Morse is actually working on a large river dam that will supposedly save a bunch lives for some reason, and it’s a project that the oil guys are not really involved in and therefore could care less about his safe return. As usual, big oil guys drop the ball on admirable behavior. <br />
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</div>So it’s a tough situation. Ryan is understandably upset, with only her sister-in-law, played by Pamela Reed (Arnold’s partner in <em>Kindergarten Cop</em>); to deal with things after Crowe’s character is called in to help with the ransom demands. While working together, Crowe and Ryan’s characters become very close and obviously develop feelings for each other. On one hand, it’s kind of sweet, but on the other hand her husband is still being held captive by South American rebels, so you can’t ultimately feel right about the whole thing. I guess that actually makes it seem more realistic, since it’s a little more awkward than Hollywood tends to go for. It didn’t really bother me though, maybe in part of all the hoopla surrounding the film’s off-screen affair making what actually happens in the movie seem not nearly as bad. I figured the two characters were gonna bang out or something and it would feel all dirty and inappropriate, but that doesn’t happen. They do share a kiss, but it’s more of an emotional “thank you” kiss before Crowe and his cohorts actually go in for the rescue. <br />
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The rescue itself provides the audience with a nice cathartic and rousing finale, which was necessary I think after all the drama that preceded it. It’s kind of like one those Jack Ryan movies where all this drama and political stuff is going on, and it’s cool and all, but you’re still going to need a big ol’ action scene at the end to close things out with a bang. And as far as final action scenes go, I really enjoyed this one. Crowe, his buddy Dino, played by David “No, fuck you” Caruso and a couple other guys slip into the prison camp quietly and methodically take out one guy at a time, until the shit inevitably hits the fan. Luckily for these rescuers, David Morse ain’t no bitch hostage, either. He had been giving his captors trouble through the bulk of his captivity, and when it comes time to step up, he does a solid job.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjJruWbbr36r40EpRiE6TrYWqwtSG7F85Z_t1uSI6RYyOifuBGjM5vmngXDRA_xfXrCdcv-D7PW0Y20Zx_3d5PsbpsRqWy-3yUg-wFbBubd76XOBoe-hO5lXhJcgDjllhyOEBsSalxvY1/s1600/proof_of_life_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbjJruWbbr36r40EpRiE6TrYWqwtSG7F85Z_t1uSI6RYyOifuBGjM5vmngXDRA_xfXrCdcv-D7PW0Y20Zx_3d5PsbpsRqWy-3yUg-wFbBubd76XOBoe-hO5lXhJcgDjllhyOEBsSalxvY1/s320/proof_of_life_002.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>I guess another reason people didn’t seem to think as highly of this movie as I probably did, was because it was most likely being sold as a bigger deal film than it actually is. It had Russell Crowe fresh off his Oscar win for <em>Gladiator</em>, Taylor Hackford (<em>Ray</em>, <em>Dolores Claiborne</em>, <em>An Officer and a Gentleman</em>) directing, and Meg Ryan playing a less wholesome, more “real” character than she normally does. Here she gets to smoke cigarettes and not wear a bra and everything! So maybe it’s not a sure-fire Oscar contender, but I still found it to be an entertaining, well-made thriller with just the right amount of melodrama and a splash of action thrown in for good measure. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6E_7oQuCUcqaUjdjwHSozcanu2nWzUEhXUab-GMrQnQRrvDaf4dWxIDlEUuAnrdFcnvOJcGzfnN2M4OJB76sSnZNK3NvKk21yoaFaaSXcLcX9GPa9vA-5xo4W3x-FVlfuqgynyyrrijAf/s1600/proofPoL2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6E_7oQuCUcqaUjdjwHSozcanu2nWzUEhXUab-GMrQnQRrvDaf4dWxIDlEUuAnrdFcnvOJcGzfnN2M4OJB76sSnZNK3NvKk21yoaFaaSXcLcX9GPa9vA-5xo4W3x-FVlfuqgynyyrrijAf/s320/proofPoL2a.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>"I think you need to take it down a couple notches."</em></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">Body Count - 20</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi94tVHuhgwUeRY9i3WQ1ttz81JRQ4wXSyDTcqS6zJ35iH61ByKYbN_taesbq_fa0kmYwUAC7D2sEF5xbks_y76pX7u1ZortoOIDDUUTRGhY7zuxxmVwhvGeonNfgLE8TjBf8sOHQ-PXeTu/s1600/proof_of_life_ver1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" bx="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi94tVHuhgwUeRY9i3WQ1ttz81JRQ4wXSyDTcqS6zJ35iH61ByKYbN_taesbq_fa0kmYwUAC7D2sEF5xbks_y76pX7u1ZortoOIDDUUTRGhY7zuxxmVwhvGeonNfgLE8TjBf8sOHQ-PXeTu/s320/proof_of_life_ver1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-32130323938868500022010-07-27T13:18:00.002-04:002010-07-27T13:28:42.188-04:00Attack Force Z (1982) - By Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jBbwZAu7mvfePsYaqt1dqCAoK46S_dbtRO-EuZW-UqAElQFhQ6MlVX-6wT4FRfvvdB0LpACtJbLc_H5jk1aeuc2Ow6IwY9ZT9sxsIXtPbZfxj6syx9RPE_mOSd_bbu3gKk3RKYwq-qW_/s1600/attack_force_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jBbwZAu7mvfePsYaqt1dqCAoK46S_dbtRO-EuZW-UqAElQFhQ6MlVX-6wT4FRfvvdB0LpACtJbLc_H5jk1aeuc2Ow6IwY9ZT9sxsIXtPbZfxj6syx9RPE_mOSd_bbu3gKk3RKYwq-qW_/s320/attack_force_z.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<em>Attack Force Z</em> may sound like the title of a DTV Steven Seagal movie, but in fact it’s an early 80’s War film set in the WWII era about an elite team of Australian commandos who are tasked with the job of sneaking into Japanese-occupied China to rescue the two survivors of a downed American plane, but things are, like always, not as they appear. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv_IeiIsVRuyZoJWb-lZGUzyQz73A50dB1xsHx5r1qF2gr63UyOqD7-AP8xzSPiEgKIQ7weZENHLhJsczEZH50H81ZqcBD3Hs-KnWaOfGNjGP4EjOZzqeZzer0RnFRyCPfmEqIzNJ3dAwu/s1600/attack_force_z1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv_IeiIsVRuyZoJWb-lZGUzyQz73A50dB1xsHx5r1qF2gr63UyOqD7-AP8xzSPiEgKIQ7weZENHLhJsczEZH50H81ZqcBD3Hs-KnWaOfGNjGP4EjOZzqeZzer0RnFRyCPfmEqIzNJ3dAwu/s320/attack_force_z1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The movie is most notable for early acting performances from Mel Gibson (with accent) and Sam Neil, who most probably know from <em>Jurassic Park</em>. I know old Mel has been in the news lately for angry phone conversations and apparent threats of physical violence against his ex-wife, but regardless of how I feel about Mr. Gibson as a person, I have always respected and enjoyed his work as an actor and director. From my first viewing of <em>Lethal Weapon 3</em>, which I purchased the VHS of with ticket winnings from a local video arcade on a whim, to his recent old-school revenge throwback, <em>Edge of Darkness</em>, I’ve always appreciated his talent as an actor, as well as his intensity as an action star. So it’s nice to watch a movie like this which brings you back to the simpler days of the Gibson saga, just after <em>The Road Warrior</em> had made Mel a bigger star in the States, out comes this low-budget Australian flick about a true-life, but largely unknown group of soldiers. It’s a small story, but one that does bear re-telling. <br />
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Even though Mel and Sam Neil are given plum roles in the movie, however, it is John Phillip Law (<em>Barbarella</em>, <em>Tarzan, the Ape Man</em>) who gets first billing and a little more screen time as an American member of the group who gets separated from them for the second act of the movie, and falls in love with a native Chinese girl, whose father is helping the rest of his team find the plane they’re after. I can’t go any further without acknowledging the surprising awesomeness of the father character, whose name I don’t think was ever mentioned. Not long after the team arrives on the mainland, they come upon a small farm and are questioning the inhabitants, one being the father. When a troop of Japanese soldier enters the home, however, the father, who harbors a deep hatred for the Japanese, starts karate chopping their asses while the rest of the guys shoot it out. Then when he goes along with them afterward, he straps on a belt of throwing knives. This guy was a pleasant surprise of stoic badassness that I appreciated as a real left-field addition to the team.<br />
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One of the film’s true charms that I found was the soundtrack. It was sparse and never over-bearing, but a real-throwback to the kinds of scores being used in films of the era the story takes place in. The whole thing is shot in a more modern (for 1982) style, but the soundtrack is real old-fashioned, and I couldn’t help but enjoy it. Another plus is that even though the budget is low, the actors never waiver in their performances. The entire cast is strong, and even though one of the villainous Japanese officers hunting the commandos plays it a little over the top, it’s always in an entertaining, rather than annoying fashion. His character also has a pension for threatening people’s children to get information out of them, so he really makes you hate him, like a good villain should.<br />
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The film is well-paced with solid action scenes and interesting characters. Even though we don’t learn much about them in general, it seems like the actors have their backgrounds fleshed out in their heads. Also, the movie is not without a message about the casualties of war. What happens to the people left behind in the wake of battle? Are certain sacrifices necessary in the protection of beliefs? <em>Attack Force Z</em> seems to focus on the ugliness and futility of it all, but not so heavy-handed as not to allow room for interpretation. When I put this movie on my Netflix queue, at best I was hoping for a fun, maybe a little cheesy film about some badass military types on an action-packed and dangerous mission, but <em>Navy Seals</em> this is not. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQvXS_kwQsZeKRZdzN5BBP0ATvcA2TXkQrqGDA5oeYz1R7UbQuOafXUb5aWCE4y6l975FuhExWShA_6rmTEiT_oFufL88MDflp32m9X-xNHNS8lnqjwPqiL75q0bL6nCBtF6MMUHjcsmn/s1600/expendables_ver3_xlg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQvXS_kwQsZeKRZdzN5BBP0ATvcA2TXkQrqGDA5oeYz1R7UbQuOafXUb5aWCE4y6l975FuhExWShA_6rmTEiT_oFufL88MDflp32m9X-xNHNS8lnqjwPqiL75q0bL6nCBtF6MMUHjcsmn/s320/expendables_ver3_xlg.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>In the weeks leading up to the release of the sure-to-be epic, second coming of the Action genre, <em>The Expendables</em>, I’m going to try and take a look at other group-based Action flicks. I already have Isaac Florentine’s <em>U.S. Seals 2</em> and <em>Special Forces</em> ready and waiting, so expect reviews on those soon; But until then, good day to you all.<br />
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Body Count – 74<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Children threatened - 2</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQLew5rzSCIsoD6C-A5-EnZ8BUOypuNwLMlG_r6ylMZjEGEy-PXbnz9dcN2FhdwaPOpBHO65CMl9XYVlXnFsRtfUx6W_C16VjIYvSZdIxmA3ptPxOiAdY_oySo-ofxH9He19hMyzC5sKi/s1600/ATTACK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQLew5rzSCIsoD6C-A5-EnZ8BUOypuNwLMlG_r6ylMZjEGEy-PXbnz9dcN2FhdwaPOpBHO65CMl9XYVlXnFsRtfUx6W_C16VjIYvSZdIxmA3ptPxOiAdY_oySo-ofxH9He19hMyzC5sKi/s320/ATTACK.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><em>"A well-paced finely-acted war film that's not much short of super"</em></div><br />
Who's Mom did they get that quote from?<br />
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</div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-71343257759983516992010-07-14T11:31:00.003-04:002010-07-14T11:33:46.089-04:00Give 'Em Hell, Malone (2009) - By Mark Oswald<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ079jWYI5lEssNxTPTS6PCWfCJf9fOJ8BjLY0Xlrj3-TEDg1ub2onQ36GW9L6fxnKuwSuqxXiawhSFCA_nlh5Aw2q_YZ153Wzu_LCp9N6IGc4qtxBt_77ZXZQxAmASM1Qt0G7BB18-j7g/s1600/malone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ079jWYI5lEssNxTPTS6PCWfCJf9fOJ8BjLY0Xlrj3-TEDg1ub2onQ36GW9L6fxnKuwSuqxXiawhSFCA_nlh5Aw2q_YZ153Wzu_LCp9N6IGc4qtxBt_77ZXZQxAmASM1Qt0G7BB18-j7g/s320/malone.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<em>Give ‘Em Hell, Malone</em> is a new-school, but trying to be old-school Film Noir hardboiled detective movie. This is another one I picked up on after hearing frequent praise across the Interweb. Thomas Jane stars as the titular Malone, a hard-talking, hard-drinking, and even harder-shooting private dick on the trail of a brief case, a mysterious client, and the truth behind it all. My feelings towards Mr. Jane have shifted quite a bit in the past. I unfortunately first took notice of him in the one-two punch of <em>Dreamcatcher</em> and <em>The Punisher (2004)</em>; two movies which I had to laugh my way through in an attempt to avoid actual physical pain. It wasn’t till I saw more from his catalogue and gained additional insight into who he is as a person, that I started to really like him. I enjoyed his performances much more in <em>Stander, Boogie Nights, and The Mist</em>. He was also, as I’m sure you’re aware, in <em>Deep Blue Sea</em>, but I don’t think people are watching that one for the meaningful performances. In this movie he performs admirably and with the amount of dedication you’d wish all performers put into their work. Some of his detective babble is a little corny at times, but he’s obviously having a ball with the character, as I’m sure the rest of the cast is as well. <br />
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Speaking of the rest of the cast, you’ve got Ving Rhames (<a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/03/tournament-2009-by-mark-oswald.html"><em>The Tournament</em></a>) as a sympathetic enforcer for the main villain, Elsa Pataky (<em>Snakes on a Plane</em>) as the requisite femme fatale, and Doug Hutchison (<em>The Green Mile</em>, Horace from “LOST”) as a pyromaniac named Matchstick. Hutchison’s performance is similar to Heath Ledger’s Joker, but goofier so the similarities didn’t bother me. I couldn’t help but laugh every time he started talking about fire, because he literally did so every scene he was in, like “Fire again? Really? We get it!” Oh and um…French Stewart is also in this movie as a douchey nightclub crooner. He wasn’t quite as annoying as usual, so I didn’t mind too much. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJAQaqMS6cJ2cmjCJo-sw5kpddlS9JAwJQDs042Ih57Nfj_b6A_3wQUILt6qZqSYHYpKSkiU_gZiacDC_iRSR5LUGpRMs_4t5HZ7aVeRd5IkATQ61lUQ9JmXj40vluRc_6gRQt3mWdU1G/s1600/malone77a55658giveemhell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMJAQaqMS6cJ2cmjCJo-sw5kpddlS9JAwJQDs042Ih57Nfj_b6A_3wQUILt6qZqSYHYpKSkiU_gZiacDC_iRSR5LUGpRMs_4t5HZ7aVeRd5IkATQ61lUQ9JmXj40vluRc_6gRQt3mWdU1G/s320/malone77a55658giveemhell.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>I hate chapstick.</strong></span></em></div><br />
The film takes place in a very nondescript time-period where it’s almost as if all these characters time traveled from the 1950’s to present day, because they all dress and act like they’re living 60 years in the past, except for their knowledge of email and other modern conveniences. Things move at a pretty quick pace for the 90 minute runtime, so even the couple places where the whole thing got a little too goofy were over with before I knew it. One of the highlights for me was the opening shootout, where Malone takes on an army of henchmen in order to obtain the briefcase he had been hired to retrieve. The majority of the film’s body count was racked up in this scene alone. It was nice to see a good old-fashioned gunfight where one man takes on a seemingly endless amount of bad guys by himself, with little difficulty. Truly heartwarming. <br />
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After this awesome display of pistol work, Malone goes to visit his Mom at a retirement home, which is where he goes to get stitched up any time he is injured. This was a funny take on the usual detective story business. Usually if the main character in a movie like this is hurt, he’ll go to some seedy underground doctor for patching up, but here the guy just heads to his Mom’s place. She fixes his wounds but not before giving him a hard time about his personal life and all that stuff, like a good Mother should. I found it funny that even she calls him Malone, so I thought maybe that could be his first name, but it’s never really gone into deeper than that. <br />
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So would I recommend this to you? Well yes, I think I would. Unless you’re opposed to numerous displays of onscreen violence and sadistic behavior, you’ll probably have a good time with this. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and though I probably won’t watch it again any time soon, the memories of its tale will stay with me.<br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Body Count – 38</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Number of Deaths from the Opening Shootout Alone - 25<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQQcFYi3Itjj2JWbyq7Vqr7BK5U6NuwmwvuIBkzSVjMEWl7AZSHzdDXhDZGFWBgcD96Eqr_NnSQy4rnOMstz9H63QOsi772yNSiIC_-KTzEfZLThMLB5hRW3MSfuBBYM2IJY6_-omt9_2/s1600/malone720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQQcFYi3Itjj2JWbyq7Vqr7BK5U6NuwmwvuIBkzSVjMEWl7AZSHzdDXhDZGFWBgcD96Eqr_NnSQy4rnOMstz9H63QOsi772yNSiIC_-KTzEfZLThMLB5hRW3MSfuBBYM2IJY6_-omt9_2/s320/malone720.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-52426573449892548562010-07-02T11:47:00.002-04:002010-08-10T10:28:43.033-04:00Puppet Master (1989) - By Mark Oswald<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcHx91zxgfq7lOQrGvO3cgdnalLFlU-ai2xmRA1c30oSAwiWVMsyb8-eW7ID4h5JNagdi9CJM14QkoXhYYUzuj7OZT3eo1nAXwKr_w3NzdwIaA_-YSUNlnjv6xf08aLV4Unyxi9JJeuj4w/s1600/puppet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcHx91zxgfq7lOQrGvO3cgdnalLFlU-ai2xmRA1c30oSAwiWVMsyb8-eW7ID4h5JNagdi9CJM14QkoXhYYUzuj7OZT3eo1nAXwKr_w3NzdwIaA_-YSUNlnjv6xf08aLV4Unyxi9JJeuj4w/s320/puppet.jpg" /></a></div><br />
So when I was a young warthog, I used to enjoy sifting through a lot of the old horror franchises; the more sequels the better. Although I never made it all the way through the <em>Sleepaway Camp</em>, <em>Silent Night Deadly Night</em>, and <em>Hellraiser</em> movies, I did enjoy my adventures through the collections of <em>Friday the 13th</em>, <em>Halloween</em>, <em>Nightmare on Elm Street</em>, <em>Child’s Play</em>, <em>Candyman</em>, and even fucking <em>Trancers</em>, but there was always one that held an oddly distinct place in my heart, and that was the films of the <em>Puppet Master</em> anthology. To this day, there are apparently nine of them with a tenth on the way. In my mind though, the real franchise stopped at five. I used to re-watch these films constantly. Well actually I only re-watched numbers three through five constantly. I remember the first two leaving me totally confused for some reason. Maybe they’d make more sense now; but I’d have to catch up with them to know for sure.<br />
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Oh wait! I did just catch up with them! Well the first one anyway! I actually just moved into a new apartment with my girlfriend and my DVDs have yet to be unpacked (I do have a couple in my collection that have still gone unseen), so I decided to take a gander at the good ol’ Netflix Watch Instantly. I of course started with the action section, but didn’t find anything immediately appealing, so I switched it up and decided to take a look at what the horror picks had to offer me. If you can believe it, I ALMOST decided to watch <em>Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys</em>. The sure-to-be epic battle of two groups of Full Moon Pictures’ most terrifying little killers; but then I spotted the first <em>Puppet Master</em> and nostalgia won out over morbid curiosity. I wanted to see if this movie made any god damn sense now that I was older and (marginally) wiser. <br />
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The answer; yes, the movie makes perfect sense… well at least within its own world of movie logic. The film begins at the Bodega Bay Inn in 1939, where elderly puppet maker, Andre Toulan (William Hickey from <em>Christmas Vacation</em> and <em>The Jerky Boys</em> movie), is working lovingly on his latest creation. Painting the new marionette’s face with care and telling it how beautiful it is. There is another puppet sitting on his window sill, who appears to move around all by himself, acting as a lookout; but a lookout for what? It turns out that Toulan is being hunted by Nazi spies or something in big black trench coats and hats. They are clearly there to kill him, but he stumps their efforts by offing himself before they bust down his door. Don’t worry about the puppets though; he hid them behind a wall of his room. The film really doesn’t give you too much more info on the reasoning behind these Nazi fellows coming after him, but if you’ve seen Puppet Master III, a prequel; it actually makes a lot more sense.<br />
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</div>The story really gets going when it skips forward to “present day” (1989) where the oddest-looking bunch of psychic friends this side of the circus tent (think the older friends from <em>IT</em>) are summoned to the Bodega Bay Inn by the psychic energy of Neil Gallagher, a former colleague of theirs who, unbeknownst to them, has just died. This dude had been searching for the apparently famous secrets of Andre Toulan that deal with using Egyptian magic to bring life to inanimate objects. It is important to know, also, that when you bring something to life, its energy or life force reflects that of the life-bringer. So when Toulan gave them life, they were kind, loyal, and mostly non-threatening, but when they are brought back to life 50 years later by this asshole Gallagher, they aren’t so non-threatening anymore. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtp5LWImyQCtqcZRDBhptAnc97MALm6Cxmp_Sh_9lDIhQkCW3tRucPAPZ1ZbVoxbP3aygTgeD67WcpNP6U9kzc0IeeOBBm5MlXd28BCahU1UT1nM9ChZXrSqDaJ8aarGNLK_SSZum76UN9/s1600/puppet%2520master.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtp5LWImyQCtqcZRDBhptAnc97MALm6Cxmp_Sh_9lDIhQkCW3tRucPAPZ1ZbVoxbP3aygTgeD67WcpNP6U9kzc0IeeOBBm5MlXd28BCahU1UT1nM9ChZXrSqDaJ8aarGNLK_SSZum76UN9/s320/puppet%2520master.jpg" /></a></div><br />
So the psychics all go to the Inn, which is huge by the way and should really be reclassified as a hotel, they begin getting picked off one by one by these murderous little bastards in ways that reflect each puppet’s special ability. The puppets, as characters, are made up of a tough guy puppet name Pin Head, who has a large body but tiny head; Leach Woman, a female puppet who can manifest leaches within herself and cause them to come out of her mouth; Tunneler, who is dressed in a army uniform but has a drill on the top of his head; Jester, a puppet that spins his face around to change his expression; and finally there is the leader, Blade, with a knife for one hand, a hook for the other, and spikes that protrude through his otherwise vacant eye sockets. It’s interesting to note that Blade’s appearance seems to mimic those of the Nazi spies who were after Toulan at the beginning of the film. This is another nice little detail that is explained in the aforementioned third chapter of the series. It also may be of interest to note that none of these puppet’s names are given in the film and I only know them because I am a nerd who remembers way too much about these films, even without revisiting them.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTl8juUMviKnwYEUtOI4aHcb4xYfP96ypVSI403LI4AqFaBQdWA6tLSRJXFgNhpxjhrfUuWUOiJX8QluHkVWBXE3pM-7x4sLl3A9O-PecEu3E9QbD9aYoBwGnZ_iRXZPzUediIVDHk1QL2/s1600/puppetmaster1-leech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTl8juUMviKnwYEUtOI4aHcb4xYfP96ypVSI403LI4AqFaBQdWA6tLSRJXFgNhpxjhrfUuWUOiJX8QluHkVWBXE3pM-7x4sLl3A9O-PecEu3E9QbD9aYoBwGnZ_iRXZPzUediIVDHk1QL2/s320/puppetmaster1-leech.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Soooo hot</span></em></div><br />
As a film, there is a lot of time spent on the build up and other attempts at creating tension. This is normally an admirable aspect of a horror film, but in this one, we’ve already seen most of these puppets earlier in the movie, and so there is really no interest in waiting for a <em>Jaws</em>-like reveal to happen later on. Probably the biggest problem with the movie, though, is the human characters. They are just so unrelatable that you want them to be killed off so that more screen time can be devoted to the puppets, who manage to somehow have more personality. Also, the fact that they do little to defend themselves against the puppet attacks became very annoying. I mean seriously, don’t just sit there and scream! It’s a fucking puppet, not Leatherface! You can just grab the thing and throw it out a window! The “hero”, I guess, of the humans is Alex; a chubby dude whose hairstyle resembles a falcon’s nest. He doesn’t really do too much except be nice and then get beaten up by the surprise bad guy later on; a true savior.<br />
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I wasn’t all that excited while watching this movie, aside from some of the weirder elements that gave me a good laugh now and again, but my favorite part definitely came towards the end. There is a point where the main villain, and controller of the puppets, is getting a little too big for his britches or whatever, and starts abusing the jester puppet. He picks it up, manhandles it a bit, and then throws it down onto a chair to demonstrate his power; big mistake. You see, these puppets may be loyal to their master, but they are even more loyal to each other. You fuck with one and the rest will come after your ass with a vengeance. So I think it goes without saying that Alex, our wimpy knight in shining armor, doesn’t have to do a lot anyways, in terms of vanquishing evil. Another thing I liked with this movie was that the puppets were brought to life (cinematically) with a mix of actual puppetry skills and stop motion, which is a dated, but honorable form of seemingly giving life to the inanimate. I think the Egyptians would be proud of our American stop motion trickery. I mean I’m sure they’d still feel superior because they use real magic, but what the hell, we’d probably get some props all the same. <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I’ll have to find some time to re-watch the rest of these <em>Puppet Master</em> films in the near future and see how they hold up; especially the ones I was fonder of. Then maybe I’ll try and catch the later ones I haven’t seen yet, like <em>Retro Puppet Master</em>, and the other one about their epic battle with the Demonic Toys. Boy, the things I do so that you guys don’t have to.</div><br />
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Body Count - 6 <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZUkjQ6nrwgOwvM__SOu85O-CuYsO3gWEIlLFCxNri2oV1dzdolZmd59lWccxju-_jMuPhUVBDZkv2XYBzcDysyZyRlIms7f16EyAhDsxPsPjfMjnNiZCKTHQdHLAu-7q4nGASsLh1iVR5/s1600/puppet02_LZZZZZZZ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZUkjQ6nrwgOwvM__SOu85O-CuYsO3gWEIlLFCxNri2oV1dzdolZmd59lWccxju-_jMuPhUVBDZkv2XYBzcDysyZyRlIms7f16EyAhDsxPsPjfMjnNiZCKTHQdHLAu-7q4nGASsLh1iVR5/s320/puppet02_LZZZZZZZ.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-80363400876344568192010-06-24T12:29:00.002-04:002010-06-24T12:30:48.922-04:00One Man's Justice (1996) - By Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUONItXh0Gbprxvy2xbWlMH5pkoyeAiB5E8l9HKzCrFJKRudTdHbmDOTG-MPkRWHoAp-fWLSL8nLaqBo7RGQbQPmIuTPa16Aaml_-Bube5ZiMnEdcm8wte0qxt8Cu8atNhb9oOJkkCLy_/s1600/onemansposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUONItXh0Gbprxvy2xbWlMH5pkoyeAiB5E8l9HKzCrFJKRudTdHbmDOTG-MPkRWHoAp-fWLSL8nLaqBo7RGQbQPmIuTPa16Aaml_-Bube5ZiMnEdcm8wte0qxt8Cu8atNhb9oOJkkCLy_/s320/onemansposter.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Ex-football star, Brian “The Boz” Bosworth is back! Well I guess he WAS back…in 1996. You’d probably only be familiar with The Boz’s acting if you’ve seen <em>Stone Cold</em>, the ridiculous biker gang-related Action movie that came out a few years prior to this one. That movie is a true blast of over-the-top entertainment; with none other than the great Lance Henriksen as the villain in charge of an evil biker gang from HELL (not literally). I have a rule. Well, more of a guideline; that if you go to watch an Action movie and Lance Henriksen is playing the bad guy, then you’re probably in good hands. Don’t believe me? Well go find out for yourself. I’ve got a date with a man and his justice…I mean…um, let’s begin!<br />
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<em>One Man’s Justice</em> (aka – <em>One Tough Bastard</em>) is about model divorced dad and Army Drill Instructor, John North (solid Action movie name, there), played by Bosworth of course. His ex-wife and daughter are killed during an illegal arms deal at a convenience store where M. C. Gainey (Tom Friendly from “LOST”) is working behind the counter, but is somehow not a bad guy. Boz just happens to come across the scene on his way home from work and naturally tries to intervene, with negative results. After he recovers from the incident, he tries to get on with his life; coping with his losses via the Catholic church and charity work. OK, not really. He immediately tries to track down the sonofawitch that caused him pain by remembering the tattoo the dude had on his neck, even though his ex-wife was the one who noticed it. He wasn’t even there yet, and now she’s dead, but somehow, through the power of the psychic world, combined with the ever-popular use of the slow-motion flashback, he is able to pick it out of a sample book at a tattoo shop and he’s off on his quest for the titular justice.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFc-jgqlFHP4Jqsu7UJJ6rbuMUMe4jqOiAVlG3cSlu_ZsTqK6ZYNEEhe2WDKFbPT1-wjEnTzXPtL8pePZIHhTNSYQ0CY9sj51WLSL6ZOsZvF4RI03aiG0z2TVOOxQnvcFjWTc-NiwFtFM/s1600/one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFc-jgqlFHP4Jqsu7UJJ6rbuMUMe4jqOiAVlG3cSlu_ZsTqK6ZYNEEhe2WDKFbPT1-wjEnTzXPtL8pePZIHhTNSYQ0CY9sj51WLSL6ZOsZvF4RI03aiG0z2TVOOxQnvcFjWTc-NiwFtFM/s320/one.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Don't forget the kickstand, Boz</em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>The Director of this piece is Kurt Wimmer, who some of you may know from his work on the futuristic shoot-em-up, <em>Equilibrium</em>, starring Christian Bale. Well this film is nothing like that one. It’s got none of the Gunkata flare and probably about a third of the budget. One thing it does have, though, is a very weird vibe permeating throughout that I really couldn’t quite get a fix on. It’s tough to explain, but I feel like whatever it was, was throwing off the flow of the movie a little bit. That’s not to say I didn’t end up enjoying it as a whole, it’s just weird. I don’t think it had quite as much action as <em>Stone Cold</em>, but there’s still a decent amount. However there were a few different shots during some of the shoot-outs that cut right after a gun had been fired, but didn’t show anyone being hit, which made the Body Count tracking a tad difficult at times, but I was able to adapt and overcome regardless.<br />
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Bosworth does surprisingly well during the hand-to-hand combat scenes, especially near the beginning when he’s at work training military recruits. I’m not sure if he had completed some kind of training in the past, and I don’t remember him using such fancy moves in <em>Stone Cold</em>, but he’s very convincing here. He also looks a helluva lot more presentable in this than in <em>Stone Cold</em>. In that movie he had a long blond mullet and looked more like an 80’s wrestler than a cop, or whatever he played in that movie. Actually he looked a lot like the bad guy of this one! Here he’s got his hair cut short like a beefed-up, <em>Ghost</em>-era Patrick Swayze. So he’s looking good, but his acting has noticeably improved as well. He wasn’t the worst in <em>Stone Cold</em>, but I do remember him being pretty stiff. Here he does a surprisingly good job of emoting in a convincing manner. I doubt he got nominated for anything, but he still did a pretty good job.<br />
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I guess one of the hindrances I saw preventing this movie from becoming another instant classic was the shifting tone between Bosworth’s more realistic character dealing with the legitimate grief he felt over the loss of his family, and the over-the-top, cartoonish-looking villains. The main baddie is an FBI agent, but has long blond hair and nose rings and acts like he’s possessed or something. Or at least like he should be in a different movie where he can awkwardly recite his dialogue without getting in The Boz’s way. At first I thought he had some funny lines and was kind of amusing, but as the movie went on, he started to get on my nerves a little. Aside from that, there was this ongoing theme of the morality of vengeance, and even though I commend them for trying, I really didn’t think this flick was high-brow enough to pull it off. I just kept wanting Bosworth to put an end to these jackasses. But oh well, what are you gonna do? It’s no <em>Stone Cold</em>, but I’ll bestow credit where it’s due. Give this flick a shot and you probably won’t regret it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YI13BvhZbVzZOHXam_-mUVU_g8bsXwPUVh4dlioNDdkXYCWrL7DuHd3zWXpmxzetXor3J9mJ28yayU1Zsd5xhjgREyKnSo-LW9lSzBITr93qVoqTDWlK62jFQf38ml5UTnRB1e3omgA2/s1600/manhammer.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YI13BvhZbVzZOHXam_-mUVU_g8bsXwPUVh4dlioNDdkXYCWrL7DuHd3zWXpmxzetXor3J9mJ28yayU1Zsd5xhjgREyKnSo-LW9lSzBITr93qVoqTDWlK62jFQf38ml5UTnRB1e3omgA2/s320/manhammer.bmp" /></a></div><br />
Oh and before I forget, I wanted to mention that M.C. Hammer has a role in this as a drug kingpin or something. I’m assuming this was during his attempted foray into gangster rap, and was probably thinking that a role like this would help in building that harder image. He’s also simply credited as “Hammer” (no M.C.), which I believe is what he shortened his name to in order to sound tougher. Cuz “M.C.” is for pussies, I guess.<br />
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Body Count - 38<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJh1uqQyCiOMHq7f-eza2gxXworEeG6d-KovUHQ4v16LUyJGlcpsuB6bNbiAWI1M9ikCxEJ5LoVv-SwYiM1xJd0C-QqW4LwzVAoUbVywJwAuaopduind9PWdl2q3dLDI_71NgC_jfsk7VF/s1600/onemanscover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJh1uqQyCiOMHq7f-eza2gxXworEeG6d-KovUHQ4v16LUyJGlcpsuB6bNbiAWI1M9ikCxEJ5LoVv-SwYiM1xJd0C-QqW4LwzVAoUbVywJwAuaopduind9PWdl2q3dLDI_71NgC_jfsk7VF/s320/onemanscover.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-87759203389175397402010-06-23T13:18:00.001-04:002010-06-23T13:18:43.286-04:00Undisputed III: Redemption (2009) - By Mark Oswald<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqQl_Ev7KXYKR977qj2r-jRenW9UYSBkgzPSnf8M3YNA4Xpr_wPn5Fp-TOeNhskVaM4D86OdAmxzQOSdc5G3y2v8DB7x1GTkpNQpZJVX58f9kdfsxrhuEeaSE1hH9Ga6tuCkc-FD07w8S2/s1600/undisputed3poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqQl_Ev7KXYKR977qj2r-jRenW9UYSBkgzPSnf8M3YNA4Xpr_wPn5Fp-TOeNhskVaM4D86OdAmxzQOSdc5G3y2v8DB7x1GTkpNQpZJVX58f9kdfsxrhuEeaSE1hH9Ga6tuCkc-FD07w8S2/s320/undisputed3poster.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Well the wait is over. I’ve certainly mentioned it enough times in my other reviews, but <em>Undisputed III: Redemption</em> is finally here; and it is, in a word, awesome. In <em>Undisputed II: Last Man Standing</em>, Michael Jai White played George Chambers, an American boxer who is framed and placed in a Russian prison in order to take on the reigning champion of its one-on-one prison battles, which are televised and subsequently bet on by shady underworld figures. The champion that Chambers had to defeat in order to gain his freedom was Uri Boyka (Scott Adkins), a badass Russian dude who fancied himself “the most complete fighter in the world”. In this movie, Boyka has become the main focus point and relegated as our hero. Though I’m sure if he heard anyone call him a “hero”, he’d tear their arms off. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnWd2TSFi09Hkn-oKvpuztcsVMee6ZDpIC0pVe89KxPminCc-GrFMiXuJPQ33DMC3Y5apISg-FYhZ8ZVWmv1niWlx5x1jkLuKEd3csuzVaPq0S5IEsWm41xd8lI-_IqY1OwmI15k-rujW/s1600/undis8299-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRnWd2TSFi09Hkn-oKvpuztcsVMee6ZDpIC0pVe89KxPminCc-GrFMiXuJPQ33DMC3Y5apISg-FYhZ8ZVWmv1niWlx5x1jkLuKEd3csuzVaPq0S5IEsWm41xd8lI-_IqY1OwmI15k-rujW/s320/undis8299-03.jpg" /></a></div><br />
After his humbling defeat in the previous film, the master fighter has been relegated to cleaning up toilets. He limps around the concrete bowels of the penitentiary, mop in hand, thanks to the knee injury he sustained from his previous bout. He’s still got the urge to butt heads, though, so he trains himself the best he can and manages to get himself a spot in the biggest prison fighting tournament in the land, with competitors from all over the world flown in to participate. The winner is supposedly given their freedom, while the losers are sent back where they came from… again, supposedly.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RSa1tyLAq-b4DTb0ofqAGKqT-zeMaj-FFuEx9blzAxsVvz6OWvAGoh2TT6gfKfeQ8jjCNuGNUfUMZ4LeKJjGyAK-FC1OHOLyqRCnfD3sN7sUXvzTEEF2_LG6tTEjeoXiQiU1ltUyK91Y/s1600/Undisputed_3_84.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6RSa1tyLAq-b4DTb0ofqAGKqT-zeMaj-FFuEx9blzAxsVvz6OWvAGoh2TT6gfKfeQ8jjCNuGNUfUMZ4LeKJjGyAK-FC1OHOLyqRCnfD3sN7sUXvzTEEF2_LG6tTEjeoXiQiU1ltUyK91Y/s320/Undisputed_3_84.jpg" /></a></div><br />
That’s basically all the setup you need going into this movie. In fact, you probably don’t even have to see the second one (though you definitely should) since all you need to know about it, they show in a few quick flashbacks. The fights, once again, are nothing short of spectacular. Seriously some of the best I’ve ever seen. What’s best is that Director Isaac Florentine continues to show his love for the martial arts through long, fluent cuts, shot to maximize awesomeness. No shaky-cam, over-edited garbage here. The fisticuffs are coordinated in a manner that is high on style, but not so over the top as to seem ridiculous. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0AeA1Aro84O3LxJ8L3EZdLr8TcZZqPSFRfbKZpZIymDsPRN1Ut6YlC_-bCKy4SIrosd67_VzFa0IhScjFDbpsVBN8eJRQJ-ksLYLhiEs4zFzB12v-XIg8HNxnDloig8y-dBeET8197bO/s1600/undis11140-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0AeA1Aro84O3LxJ8L3EZdLr8TcZZqPSFRfbKZpZIymDsPRN1Ut6YlC_-bCKy4SIrosd67_VzFa0IhScjFDbpsVBN8eJRQJ-ksLYLhiEs4zFzB12v-XIg8HNxnDloig8y-dBeET8197bO/s320/undis11140-02.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">A very hands-on Director</span></em></div>Returning as Boyka, Adkins obviously gets more to do this time around, other than simply look menacing and intimidate people. Still not much for words, he forms an unlikely bond with an American fighter, who, in essence, actually forces him to exert more dialogue. It’s great to see how differently Adkins plays his characters from film to film. He’s virtually unrecognizable in appearance and sound in the <em>Undisputed</em> films when compared to his look in <a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/05/ninja-2009-by-mark-oswald.html"><em>Ninja</em></a> or <em>The Shepherd: Boarder Patrol</em>. Even in <em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/03/tournament-2009-by-mark-oswald.html">The Tournament</a></em>, his Russian character looks completely different than Boyka. I think he was even using a different type of Russian accent as well, so points to him for that! He’s also a lot more charismatic playing Russians than Americans, as I mentioned he came off a little stiff at times in <em>Ninja</em>. I’m still waiting to see how he fairs in his native voice, though. In this movie, they do a good job of making his character more sympathetic than before, but I liked how they didn’t just automatically make him likable either. He’s still kind of a grumpy asshole, but it’s his determination to be the best combined with his stubbornness and hardcore since of honor that make you root for him.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtlHkgELO17RnmEL21hTD6jHGAw79nQEPtBYHxdU2aKtLrUX8bq6NcVQsg_bKQa6cUiBDjp5AOKrsu3c-bytkqN9q29WL2WArYASmVYgHMQkrtG04EecQ1YIoFOZyLAH5l5LT8SHnBbNxD/s1600/undis9171-06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtlHkgELO17RnmEL21hTD6jHGAw79nQEPtBYHxdU2aKtLrUX8bq6NcVQsg_bKQa6cUiBDjp5AOKrsu3c-bytkqN9q29WL2WArYASmVYgHMQkrtG04EecQ1YIoFOZyLAH5l5LT8SHnBbNxD/s320/undis9171-06.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Zaror examines his competition</span></em></div><br />
Chilean Martial Artist Marko Zaror plays the bad guy this time around. I’ve heard his name mentioned before in reviews of <em>Mandrill</em> and <em>Mirage Man</em>, but never actually seen him in action until now. He plays a Columbian fighter who is the prison’s current champion. He gets a lot of perks that the other combatants do not. He sits in a lawn chair under a tarp, drinking tropical beverages and watching from upon high while the other guys do hard labor, breaking rocks all day (and this is BEFORE they’re allowed their daily hour of training). Zaror’s fighting style is very free-form and loose, and he makes a lot of goofy faces to fuck with his opponents while in the ring. Outside the ring he gives just as many, so I’m not sure if he’s fucking with us, the viewer, as well, or if that’s just the character. Like Boyka in the previous film, Zaror doesn’t get a ton of dialogue either, but he still manages to stick in your head thanks to his man-childish looks and weirdo charisma; a completely different kind of villain from the last film, which is admirable. <br />
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I’m still having a hard time figuring out which <em>Undisputed</em> sequel I like better. Both have excellent fight scenes, memorable villains, and a heart-on-their-sleeve sincerity. Neither gets weighed down with unnecessarily complicated plots either, unlike a lot of Direct to Video Action films these days. They keep it simple; real simple; like absolutely no excess baggage at all. This may be a deterrent to film-snobby people looking for some high-art cinema, but just because these films are uncomplicated, doesn’t mean they aren’t artistic. It’s a different kind of talent on display. <br />
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So in closing, <em>Undisputed III</em> may not be <em>Citizen Kane</em>, but it could very well be the <em>Citizen Kane</em> of modern fight films; and boy, how’s that for an endorsement? <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Body Count – 13</div><br />
Heads Busted – 14<br />
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Mopping Scenes – 5<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmdcdw-Lt1UgYpT81YHFREQS9_VvzOdbZomzG3OeKAyFSiTxD57w64XkYq_WLJ703lNZdGC5UhY0ZlW9HZU4cB68R4QaaZkQzriRE4fszbuG_FB7zNJC9MMIoGUJg0TgauRbaeqGgZ0hp/s1600/undisputed3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmdcdw-Lt1UgYpT81YHFREQS9_VvzOdbZomzG3OeKAyFSiTxD57w64XkYq_WLJ703lNZdGC5UhY0ZlW9HZU4cB68R4QaaZkQzriRE4fszbuG_FB7zNJC9MMIoGUJg0TgauRbaeqGgZ0hp/s320/undisputed3.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-88944406838835609952010-06-16T14:23:00.006-04:002010-06-16T14:31:05.833-04:00Heaven's Burning (1997) - By Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSBj5TMcfj1n2zMmwMSshZ-f_sCLQswsb9ttaBPDPaJHppxbkyv71UshuA3B3MN2MNexZFz-fEhWjC3P083p-XvTkY4giE2mMQ4HdKmvrEuRxBC32-fJuCV362zJUdkGtEgqIZOc0DLRKU/s1600/heaven.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSBj5TMcfj1n2zMmwMSshZ-f_sCLQswsb9ttaBPDPaJHppxbkyv71UshuA3B3MN2MNexZFz-fEhWjC3P083p-XvTkY4giE2mMQ4HdKmvrEuRxBC32-fJuCV362zJUdkGtEgqIZOc0DLRKU/s320/heaven.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Russell Crowe is back in the Soda on the Roof blog with another obscure mid-90’s flick that’s got less action than <em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/06/no-way-back-1996-by-mark-oswald.html">No Way Back</a></em>, but more production value and talent involved. So I guess that may even the two movies out. Personally I’d trade Crowe’s dumb Elvis-inspired hair-do for some more action and a little less pretentiousness, but hey, you can’t win them all. <br />
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<em>Heaven’s Burning</em> is an Australian production, but seems highly influenced by the films of Mr. Quentin Tarantino. It presents you with a series of bizarre but memorable characters in a serious situation, but filled with enough dark humor and sudden swells of violence to keep you on your toes. The story follows a young Japanese bride who ditches her husband on their honeymoon (it was an arranged marriage and the guy was sort of a douche, so it’s OK). Shortly after making her break, however, she winds up taken hostage in a failed bank robbery, where Crowe is the getaway driver. Things soon turn even more to shit when his crew wants to kill the girl, so Crowe makes a heroic stand and takes off with her in tow. The former bride is instantly taken with him and even though he initially tries to get of her, she wins him over and a connection forms between them. While on the run, Crowe and Co. are being hunted down by the gang he betrayed, the husband she left, and the police, who are looking for them both. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMoENHT0u7_wL7pn6UIVnLxqShzuS864R7_N74abqUrxuhNRZ4eILa_4T-ri7XslIt_QX8BgSZnHOJTzpBV-grnwOBdcynW7DEoN7ylK6Lprp_J3HcO77xrBz17jAGc1MWuR_8KVdnbOV8/s1600/heaven0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMoENHT0u7_wL7pn6UIVnLxqShzuS864R7_N74abqUrxuhNRZ4eILa_4T-ri7XslIt_QX8BgSZnHOJTzpBV-grnwOBdcynW7DEoN7ylK6Lprp_J3HcO77xrBz17jAGc1MWuR_8KVdnbOV8/s320/heaven0.jpg" /></a></div><br />
In case you were wondering, no, it’s not a coincidence that I’ve reviewed two obscure Russell Crowe movies within a month’s time. I got the sudden urge to catch up on some of his films that I’ve either never seen, saw a while ago and forgot about, or those that I am just hearing of now. I doubt I’ll be reviewing too many more of them on here, but you may get lucky, or unlucky, depending on your feelings towards the Aussie actor. <br />
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While we’re on the subject of all things RC, I feel the need to post a short exchange I had with a woman in the lobby of my office building several months back. Coming out of the adjacent Starbucks, I hear:<br />
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Woman: “You look just like Russell!”<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">Me: “Umm, Russell who?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Woman: “Crowe!”</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Me: “Oh, uhh thank you, I think.”</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiu5cuLHqE4omAUp06zZs9z9-xNmuCollaaaLjh02SgCHgWDqxOpYGmxfJ1uhix9NN_AZMVF11lUKuJ4nwUJLQ7DK4gBrX6ER0b4si4vukRKl_u7uGe3oWXD0AYRBYy2t3xOxtXjmdMFwC/s1600/Crowe_Me.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiu5cuLHqE4omAUp06zZs9z9-xNmuCollaaaLjh02SgCHgWDqxOpYGmxfJ1uhix9NN_AZMVF11lUKuJ4nwUJLQ7DK4gBrX6ER0b4si4vukRKl_u7uGe3oWXD0AYRBYy2t3xOxtXjmdMFwC/s320/Crowe_Me.JPG" /></a></div>Sorry, I just had to perpetuate my rugged manliness and its effect on others. End of story, consider yourselves titillated.<br />
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Compared to <em>No Way Back</em>, <em>Heaven’s Burning</em> is practically Oscar-bait, but otherwise, it’s nothing too earth-shattering. There are several good lines of dialogue and the acting is solid all around (Crowe gets to use his native accent for once). I sometimes had trouble buying into the love story portion of the film, though. It seemed like the Japanese ex-bride was really enamored with Crowe’s character, but I never really felt him giving off the same vibe. Maybe he was just playing it cool, you know? I guess he’s got to keep up his macho image to prove those muscles aren’t just for show. I also thought the ending was a tad over-dramatic. I mean looking at it in general terms, it’s pretty traumatic, but the way it’s carried out seemed a little much. All in all, it was an entertaining ride, though. I wouldn’t consider it required viewing or anything, but if you’re a big fan of the Russell, then I’d say give it a shot. After a while, you might not even notice his ridiculous side-burns anymore. Or maybe they’ll get you all hot and bothered. Probably not, though…<br />
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Body Count – 14<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkOMNP74ZhdNeiMcs3fotEVx6WSf_qT4NZvDY1vLvI6DCBijXurBSkSUDN8s4iWBqwrE6M8DTvcOSj5FtUICdwUY2MoHO8K_bx2Qs4RkdCwqrQ8M2J0MgxTQGq9a7VQdApFOFgyaNrglsP/s1600/heavenmovie11255.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkOMNP74ZhdNeiMcs3fotEVx6WSf_qT4NZvDY1vLvI6DCBijXurBSkSUDN8s4iWBqwrE6M8DTvcOSj5FtUICdwUY2MoHO8K_bx2Qs4RkdCwqrQ8M2J0MgxTQGq9a7VQdApFOFgyaNrglsP/s320/heavenmovie11255.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-41215667877500560152010-06-08T11:48:00.002-04:002010-06-08T11:50:38.416-04:00Bronson (2009) - By Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtYhQCD_U6eHK0oWRn5KASEm9Lysp479Oi0DTEU6J__dFo9OEiZP5WEG1MDBeT80b_tBYbyIUHT2XD1SLIZHfH3NrMD1o9PX5uQT1gExt8u05xK1t-Gk4pyEUSXW-innYZfAP_Ox8r8gB/s1600/bronson-tomhardy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibtYhQCD_U6eHK0oWRn5KASEm9Lysp479Oi0DTEU6J__dFo9OEiZP5WEG1MDBeT80b_tBYbyIUHT2XD1SLIZHfH3NrMD1o9PX5uQT1gExt8u05xK1t-Gk4pyEUSXW-innYZfAP_Ox8r8gB/s320/bronson-tomhardy.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The UK’s most violent/famous prisoner gets his own movie, and it sure is a weird one. I guess since the real-life subject is still alive they can’t offer a conclusive ending, so that can sometimes affect how the rest of the movie plays out, which I think is the case here. Tom Hardy plays Charles Bronson; not the actual American actor/badass Charles Bronson, but rather adapts his moniker as more of a stage name to the persona he wishes to create for himself. Born as Michael Peterson, Bronson always felt destined for great notoriety and fame, and I guess that means if you don’t possess any of the more common talents like being a great musician, or actor, or architect, or mathematician, or whatever, then you could always just be a fucking asshole. That works too, apparently. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXuTleMEyIfJJ-aQ6LRIMXmhf1c07sKgEueNnZLS6fqD_mSocTe0vMWcXby0sdgYlBsiSEZ8jv2JwqQJZgtW-Ef5u8540acHNmaOD5quTbt6IHdK1-grwVM_pKCC6VQUAW_WtcKB5RaHpk/s1600/bronson1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXuTleMEyIfJJ-aQ6LRIMXmhf1c07sKgEueNnZLS6fqD_mSocTe0vMWcXby0sdgYlBsiSEZ8jv2JwqQJZgtW-Ef5u8540acHNmaOD5quTbt6IHdK1-grwVM_pKCC6VQUAW_WtcKB5RaHpk/s320/bronson1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Bronson has earned a name for himself by being locked up in prison for over 34 years (30 in solitary) after initially being sentenced to only 7, for armed robbery. Once in prison he is constantly fighting with the guards and other inmates. He suffers beatings as awful as the ones he dishes out, but he seems to relish every violent experience. I guess you could call him crazy for all his acting out; he does in fact get sent to a mental institution for a portion of the film; but I thought to myself, “This guy must know exactly what he’s doing, or at least must have some idea”. It seems like at least a little planning goes into every outburst. Like after each intense beating, he uses his recuperation time to come up with another way to fuck with the guards and prison administration, but don't worry, I won’t spoil his brilliant little nuggets for any potential viewers here. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRvi021_u2Fqx33dO6ZwHanKhamTbwMBNRHTTnKOvm6SrKPsaW0Om7LFhw7SlvN6IfYIxRQIOLFiKzzoD2yj7UONNGh96-gAg_srW3y4XP8dLHYWc5ecFMLtY38zLl0IsFvhZ_of0GpLn/s1600/bronson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRvi021_u2Fqx33dO6ZwHanKhamTbwMBNRHTTnKOvm6SrKPsaW0Om7LFhw7SlvN6IfYIxRQIOLFiKzzoD2yj7UONNGh96-gAg_srW3y4XP8dLHYWc5ecFMLtY38zLl0IsFvhZ_of0GpLn/s320/bronson.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The film itself is almost Kubrickian in its still and tracking shots, with every piece of furniture and/or actor specifically placed to garner a particular effect. In fact I have heard a lot of comparisons to Stanley Kubrick’s <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>. You do have a maniacal central character narrating his misdeeds while the film goes through his life almost episodically, so I can see the comparison, but I also think <em>A Clockwork Orange</em> has a more concise story. It introduces you to a character, shows you what he’s all about, and then it shows you what happens to him because of the way he chooses to live. <em>Bronson</em>, on the other hand, seems a bit more meandering. You’re never quite sure where it’s going to go, and the extensive use of classical music and steady shots of him standing around staring at something tend to wear out their welcome after a while. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLPlakctgiZ6LjlwtTNdu9qGi6hYzRZZEAkS4yu_HTV9CihMnCeH8NCecVrsFjDVqr7V7oJJzw8sPee1qTMpJ6AFKeAx0umwjsaeB8tfDDIvyk2BeZMbzk3BdaUixS0mI03eW4uam0ubSu/s1600/bronson2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLPlakctgiZ6LjlwtTNdu9qGi6hYzRZZEAkS4yu_HTV9CihMnCeH8NCecVrsFjDVqr7V7oJJzw8sPee1qTMpJ6AFKeAx0umwjsaeB8tfDDIvyk2BeZMbzk3BdaUixS0mI03eW4uam0ubSu/s320/bronson2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
With that being said, however, the film still manages to be quite entertaining. Bronson isn’t really a character to sympathize with, as much of one to be fascinated by. It’s like watching a wild animal at the zoo, except this one is prone to extreme spurts of violence and narcissism. Bronson just loves fucking with people as much as he can and he doesn’t even try to hide it. He takes hostages just for fun, without having any real demands in mind. When asked what he wants, he seems confused, asking, “What do you got?” I mean he’s in prison, and seems to enjoy it quite a bit and isn’t exactly in a hurry to get out, so what else does he really desire aside from the notoriety that comes with being a hostage-taker in the first place? <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdvpnLCWe39MU52NISxnD8-Nl-RqWxNIhaPHDg9OD12uNrZF6ZphE0tDIoZRP6504pInSvyzCKkod8KYH_pz8eN4tFuZwb64JKKbs7431b3GPI9nvKg1vXBz-nRI7vCeXhzcQNyhfwyny/s1600/bronson_eabenaacp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwdvpnLCWe39MU52NISxnD8-Nl-RqWxNIhaPHDg9OD12uNrZF6ZphE0tDIoZRP6504pInSvyzCKkod8KYH_pz8eN4tFuZwb64JKKbs7431b3GPI9nvKg1vXBz-nRI7vCeXhzcQNyhfwyny/s320/bronson_eabenaacp.jpg" /></a></div><br />
So the Bronson character might be self-indulgent and showcase kind of a “HEY LOOK AT ME! LOOK HOW FUCKING CRAZY I AM!!!!” mentality, but he can’t help but be amusing to watch; unless you’re drastically opposed to on-screen violence and sadistic behavior. All in all, I found it entertaining and worth watching for a balls-out performance from Tom Hardy, who really does deserve credit for giving his all here, even if the film itself seemed a little too self-aware and showy at times. I say check it out, though. <br />
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Body Count – 0 (surprisingly)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKzmGb-DupsuR_WT4fwjXWkKgiGyCzii_puesFtdsZJrmtP_mrDIopBy6FOjldgRuLkoaC-nGGxj59SkMndeFCyxo2ZZRZv07BPP3EjJZhznQLHaAFLWKOGfma95dhJV-pNvTKfyeH8v2/s1600/bronson_1226129411_2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKzmGb-DupsuR_WT4fwjXWkKgiGyCzii_puesFtdsZJrmtP_mrDIopBy6FOjldgRuLkoaC-nGGxj59SkMndeFCyxo2ZZRZv07BPP3EjJZhznQLHaAFLWKOGfma95dhJV-pNvTKfyeH8v2/s320/bronson_1226129411_2009.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-5830776564357334572010-06-03T12:55:00.004-04:002010-06-03T13:01:56.357-04:00No Way Back (1996) - By Mark Oswald<div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYgJ4DKIc9X3T6ZHYinu5C-7CeaeGXQ_nebHtjGodRZabmNRNYNTG7X2zOGnIaBY0yywMB85iVVqch_kt-DMjl9_5yUC2cfX7fT5JV_kuju6V-hMk601tIWJlhJwLjUU2RWRr7XgGMJ9p/s1600/noway1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYgJ4DKIc9X3T6ZHYinu5C-7CeaeGXQ_nebHtjGodRZabmNRNYNTG7X2zOGnIaBY0yywMB85iVVqch_kt-DMjl9_5yUC2cfX7fT5JV_kuju6V-hMk601tIWJlhJwLjUU2RWRr7XgGMJ9p/s320/noway1.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>An obscure mid-90’s Action movie starring Russell Crowe? And it’s not <em>Virtuosity</em>? Even more obscure, you say? Well get me on in there! <br />
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The truth is; this is a pretty weird movie. Story-wise it goes in several different directions that you probably weren’t expecting. What starts as an FBI thriller, switches to road movie, then to buddy movie, and then to silly movie. Visually, it looks like a glorified student film. Yet the filmmakers still managed to secure actors like the above-mentioned Crowe, Kelly Hu (<em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/03/tournament-2009-by-mark-oswald.html">The Tournament</a></em>), recognizable “that guy” actor Michael Lerner, Francios Chau (Dr. Pierre Chang from “LOST”), and "90210"’s Ian-fucking-Ziering as a Skinhead gang leader! In case you are uncertain, yes; that is pure excitement you’re feeling. The son of Crowe’s character is played by Andrew J. Ferchland, who none of you probably know, but looked so damn familiar to me while watching that I swear he must’ve also been the young kid in like <em>Stepmom</em> or something; not that I’ve ever watched that, of course. Turns out it must have been <em>The Last Leprechaun</em> I was thinking of…<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVyD3UOQNn7FdmwaEXMzeLsvyQJq7IYStSmb0Ko2cOi1APTbD-x9UBE67iqXkbQVx1Mz5WtryIEOX-SdkBoDcSC2QBXuSikh-smgd4X8Ww39dCdPnUrxxYzIURmfUK4uMicLqtyYzeTZsY/s1600/nwbtitl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVyD3UOQNn7FdmwaEXMzeLsvyQJq7IYStSmb0Ko2cOi1APTbD-x9UBE67iqXkbQVx1Mz5WtryIEOX-SdkBoDcSC2QBXuSikh-smgd4X8Ww39dCdPnUrxxYzIURmfUK4uMicLqtyYzeTZsY/s320/nwbtitl.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Take it eeeeeeeaaasy...</span></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">So how does this thing stack up as an action film? Well, not bad. There were several points where I was unsure about whether or not someone’s bullets actually made contact with an adversary, though. It wasn’t until I didn’t see that person again that I decided they must’ve been killed, and racked up one more point for the body count. There was one part of the movie that I found really funny/interesting. There is a point where Crowe’s character is transporting a high-ranking member of the Yakuza to L.A. on a plane and when the guy gets free and hijacks the plane, Crowe acquires one of those plastic 2-shot pistols, like John Malkovich made in <em>In the Line of Fire</em>, from a surprise bad guy onboard. Then while in the cockpit, the Yakuza dude ends up getting his hands on a flare gun! I gotta say this image of two badasses going head to head with plastic guns brought a big ol' smile to my face. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvI_JGXb5_ZNUMFytG8R0RBzJeiQnl8rCBrGKwzk3Z-2aBLGs4Oo20GUVObYrDk4oC-SSWmZByCDIEvzGTR96AjFGLEu7JLplICN1xT9Y2hgTC1Iq-Jm61enZowsqYdbIfWPlCqZTsYW5/s1600/nowayback-c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvI_JGXb5_ZNUMFytG8R0RBzJeiQnl8rCBrGKwzk3Z-2aBLGs4Oo20GUVObYrDk4oC-SSWmZByCDIEvzGTR96AjFGLEu7JLplICN1xT9Y2hgTC1Iq-Jm61enZowsqYdbIfWPlCqZTsYW5/s320/nowayback-c.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">One of the main things I kept questioning during the film was why Russell Crowe had agreed to do it at all. I mean I liked the movie enough and I wouldn’t call it complete garbage or anything, but even though he hadn’t hit stardom yet, it still seemed like a pretty low-brow role to take. He had appeared in both <em>Virtuosity</em> and Sam Raimi’s <em>The Quick and the Dead</em> the year before and you’d think he would at least be moving up in the industry from there, so this role is a little perplexing. Still though, it’s always funny to see big name actors show up in B-movies before they really attained stardom. As a matter of fact, <em>No Way Back’s</em> director, Frank A. Cappello, had made his previous movie, <em>American Yakuza</em>, with none other than Viggo Mortensen in the lead! How this guy, who to this day has only directed 3 films, was able to snag these future superstars before their time is a mystery to me, but still strangely awesome as well. He did apparently write <em>Suburban Commando</em>, though. So maybe I shouldn’t be so astounded.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>So should you check out this movie? Umm…sure; if for nothing else than your own curiosity and the fact that it may continuously shake up your expectations in amusing ways. <br />
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Body Count – 31<br />
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American Flags – 2 (Yeah sorry, that was a weak one)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijAef_kAY_c-wqndIHSiddfUjGzYo4bFxBQUhDYf6EfgW2IAczYbvUC14Ib7l3Jg97uvgykGt79xSoBmi44FMV_I75y8UGIonVgHiPwSDOB4k9nm4-SvYULsSw-F9_JyUjpaXo92HIt9SF/s1600/nowayback-a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijAef_kAY_c-wqndIHSiddfUjGzYo4bFxBQUhDYf6EfgW2IAczYbvUC14Ib7l3Jg97uvgykGt79xSoBmi44FMV_I75y8UGIonVgHiPwSDOB4k9nm4-SvYULsSw-F9_JyUjpaXo92HIt9SF/s320/nowayback-a.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-82925008587589759082010-05-26T12:09:00.002-04:002010-05-26T12:18:40.691-04:00The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) - By Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkaWMsJJBVIakMxyJq7lc1n3pSZQzxXQE25COX3Md4cqrdc0oG2ULw-QvoJA2a83OHb8v2MKcYmfLd_aPyhu0Kr3eI1xiku-FQyaazpyTjc4em4UqPKvChxfUisZhBtlQYjhLaC8TvIz_N/s1600/bad_lieutenant_port_of_call_new_orleans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkaWMsJJBVIakMxyJq7lc1n3pSZQzxXQE25COX3Md4cqrdc0oG2ULw-QvoJA2a83OHb8v2MKcYmfLd_aPyhu0Kr3eI1xiku-FQyaazpyTjc4em4UqPKvChxfUisZhBtlQYjhLaC8TvIz_N/s320/bad_lieutenant_port_of_call_new_orleans.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><br />
</div>Nicolas Cage cranks the acting dial to eleven in a kind of, but not really, remake of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film, <em>Bad Lieutenant</em>, which starred Harvey Keitel. The only real similarities between the films are the titles and the very general plot thread of, “Cop tries to solve heinous crime while getting extremely fucked up on various drugs and participating in several examples of lewd behavior in the process”. This film’s Director, the legendary Werner Herzog, claims to have never even seen Ferrara’s original film and it seems pretty apparent that no one was going out of their way to remake the umm…magic of that first movie. This one is more like a companion piece, or another chapter in a possible Bad Lieutenant Anthology? In which case, sign me up for more! Here it’s a different town, different Lieutenant, and different types of “bad” going on. Things never get quite as disturbing as they do in the ’92 film, and Cage’s hijinx are a lot easier to laugh along with, but that still doesn’t mean this is the type of guy you’d want patrolling your streets everyday.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJVA1d0hfCFOULd0M1H3F1YX8hu0QwTaaPfiAxVdGP7_HxVYbCcw7UvBa8F0e5A9R9A6TlEcLJXExVV5w8zozUYRNcm25OAXTK72J95F1YbVjw2ysvlLOr3guXH-T6MhZzllFkykFVxpn/s1600/bad2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJVA1d0hfCFOULd0M1H3F1YX8hu0QwTaaPfiAxVdGP7_HxVYbCcw7UvBa8F0e5A9R9A6TlEcLJXExVV5w8zozUYRNcm25OAXTK72J95F1YbVjw2ysvlLOr3guXH-T6MhZzllFkykFVxpn/s320/bad2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Or is it? The thing that I found so, well…not admirable (but something like that) about the title character is that he just can’t help being a successful police officer. At the beginning of the movie, he seems like he may be kind of an asshole, but at the same time, he risks ruining his expensive underwear by jumping into a flooding prison cell to rescue a trapped inmate in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, so you can tell that he does not contain a callous disregard for human life like his partner (Val Kilmer), who advises him to leave the guy down there. Cage’s character actually gets a medal for his heroics, but what he also gets is a back injury sustained by his jump into the flooding area that is set to cause him intense pain for the rest of his life. In his effort to control the pain, the doctors prescribe him painkillers which unfortunately open a gateway to intense drug use and other unsavory activities.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMCFi9hSbIZEs0klLRJOcfqHyouEYVdnZHcQzybRWsR3Ziu4VR2E77xL3xdFlJ-ua_Pwv3_DkhtycaDmL59WLznuC6ARxl0SuzHbc6aiPk5ucP4w_-7DRDn8JJaCLCP7uuXIwpd0pRkxGh/s1600/Bad-Lieutenant-Port-of-Call-New-Orleans2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMCFi9hSbIZEs0klLRJOcfqHyouEYVdnZHcQzybRWsR3Ziu4VR2E77xL3xdFlJ-ua_Pwv3_DkhtycaDmL59WLznuC6ARxl0SuzHbc6aiPk5ucP4w_-7DRDn8JJaCLCP7uuXIwpd0pRkxGh/s320/Bad-Lieutenant-Port-of-Call-New-Orleans2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The main thing I heard about this movie before watching it was that Nic Cage is fucking nuts in it. After viewing the film myself, I can tell you that this is, without a doubt, a factual statement. The actor gets a lot of crap these days for slumming through paycheck roles (<em>National Treasure</em>) and sporting bizarre hairdos (<em>Bangkok Dangerous</em>) and these are all viable criticisms but in <em>The Bad Lieutenant</em>, he is completely in the zone; his eyes, so focused and intense, that you could envision him exploding at any second; figuratively or otherwise. He looks like an absolute mess of a human being, slopping around town in an oversized suit with a .44 Magnum sticking nonchalantly out of the front of his pants. He’s constantly sweating and his voice pattern seems to change up every other scene, perhaps depending on his character’s level of sobriety, but it’s all these things that make him, and the film itself, so watchable. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-iTw6MNiGutnC2qcAtgioRJkjN4V3Twj67gkW3tqQDANBumD37u55cK0OwbKfmubPulN8-d68ZQIPr9ejEktpbVkbGfbChjsDdyWVlSkqudMkETrGU6WJJZgHzXp5tdz9BPHj8bnknH2Y/s1600/Bad-Lieutenant1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-iTw6MNiGutnC2qcAtgioRJkjN4V3Twj67gkW3tqQDANBumD37u55cK0OwbKfmubPulN8-d68ZQIPr9ejEktpbVkbGfbChjsDdyWVlSkqudMkETrGU6WJJZgHzXp5tdz9BPHj8bnknH2Y/s320/Bad-Lieutenant1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Director Herzog is known for asking a lot of his cast and crew. He had Christian Bale eating maggots in <em>Rescue Dawn</em>, and his film crew pulling a steam ship over a mountain in <em>Fitzcarraldo</em>. It seems he hasn’t lost any of his tact with age; still able to display his own, ever-evolving visual style, while pulling solid performances from all of his actors at the same time. Speaking of actors, this film is chock full of them! And there are some you may even recognize! As previously stated, Val Kilmer shows up playing a sleazy fellow police officer. Then you’ve got Eva Mendes in a solid turn as Cage’s junky/prostitute girlfriend, Brad Dourif (voice of Chucky, the killer doll) playing Cage’s bookie, Fairuza Balk (<em>The Craft</em>, <em>The Waterboy</em>) as a highway patrolman, Xzibit (“Pimp My Ride”, <em>Gridiron Gang</em>) as a big-time drug dealer, Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s Mom) as Cage’s Dad’s young(er) wife, and Cage’s Dad himself happens to be Marvin The Janitor, from <em>Die Hard 2</em>!!! (Tom Bower)<br />
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Now I have to offer up another Non-Action Disclaimer (NAD? Ehh...) like I did at the end of my review for <em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/02/international.html">The International</a>.</em> Before you check this baby out (and you should), I don’t want you to be confused into thinking this is an action film or anything. Yes, Cage’s character is a Lieutenant like John McClane, and yes he is “bad” like umm…Michael Jackson? But he is in no way an action hero of any kind, and even the term “hero” is used beyond loosely. So what do you get instead of shootouts, explosions, and witty one-liners? Well you get to see a strung out mess of a character that provides more than enough entertainment by just standing around, wacked out of his skull, yet still able to get his job done in spite of himself…and in fact, there are actually some pretty good one-liners in this thing, so you shouldn’t be disappointed.<br />
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Body Count – 3 (on screen) 5 (off)<br />
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Cameos by scaled creatures – 7 (Although I’m not sure if some of these were the same reptiles in more than one scene. Sorry if that sounds racist…I couldn’t tell!!!)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ZMlxM5vl-PFdirOo2wu5Ue8DFNnN5mJI35c6DYrwrAjUY0i1gKrRBVkfpKwqbc7Lx_Kl-2kXzXGzPEV8MQyfyaoQ6lmHrh2ZiX6tHz7Byz-J9whqYjgrzz5gc871FxX1gFJ4TFBzrM80/s1600/bad_lieutenant_port_of_call_new_orleans_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ZMlxM5vl-PFdirOo2wu5Ue8DFNnN5mJI35c6DYrwrAjUY0i1gKrRBVkfpKwqbc7Lx_Kl-2kXzXGzPEV8MQyfyaoQ6lmHrh2ZiX6tHz7Byz-J9whqYjgrzz5gc871FxX1gFJ4TFBzrM80/s320/bad_lieutenant_port_of_call_new_orleans_1.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-71100183398705928952010-05-20T13:36:00.002-04:002010-05-20T13:38:51.180-04:00NINJA (2009) - by Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3cPOF3GWB9dnGKpoo3gel5EQoTcJpg3FlrhhGzc83_G3yxGEJ8WiMit_Rj6mnz2y7T-O0AdcPwFqIca9dUbk4DOL1LQVtGBwjfcFkMX24fX7uRSRJtT-nHzgnz0d06U5EQELi5n1MhkB0/s1600/ninja453898.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3cPOF3GWB9dnGKpoo3gel5EQoTcJpg3FlrhhGzc83_G3yxGEJ8WiMit_Rj6mnz2y7T-O0AdcPwFqIca9dUbk4DOL1LQVtGBwjfcFkMX24fX7uRSRJtT-nHzgnz0d06U5EQELi5n1MhkB0/s320/ninja453898.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Good news, friends. The Direct-to-Video Action renaissance continues with another joint venture by DTV auteur Isaac Florentine and rising martial arts badass, and Soda on the Roof favorite, Scott Adkins. I’ve previously mentioned these guys in my reviews for Michal Jai White’s <em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/02/blood-and-bone-2009.html">Blood and Bone</a></em> and <em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/03/tournament-2009-by-mark-oswald.html">The Tournament</a></em>. White co-starred with Adkins in Florentine’s <em>Undisputed II: Last Man Standing</em>, where Adkins played the Russian villain, Uri Boyka. In <em>Ninja</em>, however, he gets promoted to hero duty with the character of Casey, a white orphan who is raised in a Japanese dojo where the sensei teaches his students the honorable ways of the ninja. When his rival at the dojo, Masazuka, is banished and eventually comes back for revenge, Casey is tasked with transporting “The Yoroi Bitsu”, a chest containing antique weapons and tools of the original ninjas, to America where it can be properly hidden, because Americans are good at hiding things, I guess. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTkzFSopt8R0qOOYSsY4Hooeor5PLJkjuIqkM-v03FqLIonB7qv4OjoWyVg1McBEpgPhvQQ3_k9VLrbsgxDpLLTZpl_hpMDkno9MSkpmzsSR-CkAyt9dIPikHonmsifWVbB-K81wbPeeQ/s1600/NINJA-076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTkzFSopt8R0qOOYSsY4Hooeor5PLJkjuIqkM-v03FqLIonB7qv4OjoWyVg1McBEpgPhvQQ3_k9VLrbsgxDpLLTZpl_hpMDkno9MSkpmzsSR-CkAyt9dIPikHonmsifWVbB-K81wbPeeQ/s320/NINJA-076.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ninja creep</span></em></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">You see, this box of weapons is apparently the most prized possession a ninja of this dojo can ever hope to attain, and can only do so by being named Sensei, of which both Casey and Masazuka were in the running for until Masazuka loses his shit during a wooden sword fight and goes after Casey with a real one. I really liked the end of this scene because when the Sensei banishes Masazuka from the dojo for his actions, the guy doesn’t just storm off in anger. Instead, he is truly heartbroken by his banishment. He breaks down and begs for forgiveness, but his pleas go unheard. This actually sets up Masazuka as a really solid villain. The character is given a surprising amount of emotional weight considering the depth usually given to Action movie villains; which is to say, not much. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2mFYlh0pO8u1fvcZnD5VTwzBAhLMJvOr3MV3VxN87RSn5eojey-n4jTiRlh1dqF488zcWaSgOioYijfzI1Wnml9j23XRxSnW2tX3-EJgSZz9MCGzbzDDwOJVlSjAS16oVF6Tzvg7_9TX/s1600/ninja1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_2mFYlh0pO8u1fvcZnD5VTwzBAhLMJvOr3MV3VxN87RSn5eojey-n4jTiRlh1dqF488zcWaSgOioYijfzI1Wnml9j23XRxSnW2tX3-EJgSZz9MCGzbzDDwOJVlSjAS16oVF6Tzvg7_9TX/s320/ninja1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The character of Casey is unfortunately not as fleshed out. We do get a little back story about his mother leaving him at the dojo and his father committing suicide, though. I mentioned in my review of <em>The Tournament</em>, how the British Adkins rarely seems to be cast as an Englishman. He’s played Russians in the aforementioned <em>The Tournament</em> and <em>Undisputed II</em>, while playing an American in Florentine’s <em>The Shepherd: Border Patrol</em>. Well the streak of non-British characters remains unbroken here. Adkins does a commendable job of hiding his native accent, but like a lot of European actors playing Americans, he comes off a little stiff at times. That isn’t to say he gives a bad performance though. His acting is several steps above a younger Van Damme and Lundgren, and he is much better at portraying a wider range of emotions than Seagal ever was. His natural charisma makes him likeable enough in the hero role, but he has even admitted himself in an interview on his message board that he feels more comfortable portraying characters with an edge, rather than the clean-cut hero type he plays here, which is easy to see in comparison to his other, bad guy roles. Even if he couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag, though, his talent in the martial arts makes the fight scenes remarkable. His forte is being able to more convincingly take on numerous attackers at once, rather than in a lot of fight films where they seem to attack one at a time. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGO4A4oE_sCbQWv6Wo1ATkfNeHXK1ZKiSR2fIbyIwzhOHTnWwUQs7NN3O06fq5oqXvV5S-NBLmrFGBqrQqnpCo1gT5d0L-ZASBJNCQLFDGShT9FCRLHHNvBmMUIkxqnD8BBEj0JX6ThjI/s1600/ninja-still_051.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDGO4A4oE_sCbQWv6Wo1ATkfNeHXK1ZKiSR2fIbyIwzhOHTnWwUQs7NN3O06fq5oqXvV5S-NBLmrFGBqrQqnpCo1gT5d0L-ZASBJNCQLFDGShT9FCRLHHNvBmMUIkxqnD8BBEj0JX6ThjI/s320/ninja-still_051.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">As a whole, this movie is essentially an 80’s Action flick set in the modern age. Aside from the whole white ninja thing which was done to death in 80’s flicks like <em><a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/01/american-ninja-1985.html">American Ninja</a></em>, <em>Enter the Ninja</em>, etc., when the action shifts to New York City (clearly not really NY, but they get an A for effort, or A-ffort?) they seem to view it still as dirty old 80’s New York at times. When Casey and his Sensei’s daughter, Namiko, are trying to find a hotel, the one they walk into is run-down, filthy, and clearly used by rich business men for a little “side action”, if you know what I mean. I could’ve sworn I was watching an old Walter Hill production, not a movie that came out less than a year ago. Also, when Casey is captured by the police, the camera pans around the precinct where there are numerous cops walking flashy hookers around in handcuffs. This is a classic 80’s Action staple, seen in films like <em>Beverly Hills Cop</em>, <em>Robocop</em>, and other films that may or may not have “Cop” in the title. Let us also not forget the hilariously evil rich white guy and cult leader who has been hiring Masazuka to assassinate anyone who’s been going up against his oil business. I couldn’t help but smile every time this guy recited his lines with the subtlety of a battering ram. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt5Q1Ci2Nn7qB1H0DyPnAdFLgkOqgI9xpWAlxxl-IdOCUgpEoh1GmOHp4EGYhx2-HtjWBGgcsrSFzgPqy7covhAJM943C_hrYTQqsbXoQbcMLzp-P-xUzrKCM5Jvv-yoimDwTKCHnAUu8S/s1600/ninja-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt5Q1Ci2Nn7qB1H0DyPnAdFLgkOqgI9xpWAlxxl-IdOCUgpEoh1GmOHp4EGYhx2-HtjWBGgcsrSFzgPqy7covhAJM943C_hrYTQqsbXoQbcMLzp-P-xUzrKCM5Jvv-yoimDwTKCHnAUu8S/s320/ninja-1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Well, there you have it. <em>Ninja</em> is a solid throwback to 80’s Action flicks in more way than one. My only real complaint was the abundance of CGI blood that kept creeping in during a lot of the very gory ninja kills. But aside from that and a couple other instances of budget restriction, this movie was a lot of fun; a streamlined old school Action flick with great fight scenes shot so you can actually tell what is going on. Since Florentine is a former martial artist himself, he likes to make sure that his talented fighters aren’t short-changed by an abundance of quick cuts. I have to also appreciate the classic “Whoosh” sound effects whenever the characters make any dramatic movements; classic. So I proclaim this another success in the Florentine/Adkins cinematic arsenal, and I’ve already got my eyes set on <em>Undisputed III: Redemption</em>. Let’s do this…</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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Body Count – 54<br />
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Scenes where you feel the Sensei’s daughter should be a better fighter - 5<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJ3U3JOai3k7rA0pykMgB4g0yNDaOIFk_waIs0kqMtVv8Acx8uti0qhosbxQ96ljqVt0-HuCmzpCUWTNI4skmgcxa00GyI6ep7kQfJXwFFTrCQ45KHGtJBLdy74MspVYrVNd-Kbwr39G5/s1600/ninja.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghJ3U3JOai3k7rA0pykMgB4g0yNDaOIFk_waIs0kqMtVv8Acx8uti0qhosbxQ96ljqVt0-HuCmzpCUWTNI4skmgcxa00GyI6ep7kQfJXwFFTrCQ45KHGtJBLdy74MspVYrVNd-Kbwr39G5/s320/ninja.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-36416240037746746042010-05-05T11:50:00.004-04:002010-05-07T09:36:57.685-04:00Black Dynamite (2009) - By Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjss1yViSNEj8fOwWf1qr_EqMPpbWSxoT0rI5OxFRoyy_ilh9YdJdLWUdnNl2a8pJhnnoKBG3pmRY3EflOnASbcCkWKNzS6VbItfnKSW_rfzKB8ytMva1xKm90snSqQLcwZw_ym3nMFZiB1/s1600/black_dynamite_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjss1yViSNEj8fOwWf1qr_EqMPpbWSxoT0rI5OxFRoyy_ilh9YdJdLWUdnNl2a8pJhnnoKBG3pmRY3EflOnASbcCkWKNzS6VbItfnKSW_rfzKB8ytMva1xKm90snSqQLcwZw_ym3nMFZiB1/s320/black_dynamite_ver3.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div><br />
Now here we have a clever and a highly entertaining spoof of 1970’s era Blaxploitation films. Martial artist Michael Jai White breaks into a whole new repertoire with a hilarious cinematic character, whose film acts as a spoof, satire, and all-round enjoyable action comedy based on films from the 1970’s that typically starred actors like Jim Brown and Fred “The Hammer” Williamson. You’ll probably remember I mentioned Mr. Jai White in my review of his equally (but differently) impressive fight film, <em>Blood and Bone</em>. I also name dropped his other neo-action classic, <em>Undisputed II: Last Man Standing</em> in that same review. With <em>Black Dynamite</em> he very successfully completes a trifecta of awesomeness that any self-respected ass kicker could be proud of.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZ7DAfoVToP-6gGDOX9fL1WOsUu70L8lPIImX1nmafD1FJmd7hLzCUSOZH1XYA4kihohLxc7bpGRLHa43nuyc7hGgLUnl5daJypSyPRsNAUyKH2vF0MV2zGeFTNcORHxyb5nmBb3nUkIw/s1600/black_dynamite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDZ7DAfoVToP-6gGDOX9fL1WOsUu70L8lPIImX1nmafD1FJmd7hLzCUSOZH1XYA4kihohLxc7bpGRLHa43nuyc7hGgLUnl5daJypSyPRsNAUyKH2vF0MV2zGeFTNcORHxyb5nmBb3nUkIw/s320/black_dynamite.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div><br />
Is it possible to pay homage to a genre of film while also making a competent and enjoyable example of it at the same time? Well yes, it is. It’s been done before, too, and you don’t even have to go too far back to find them. Director Edgar Wright’s one-two punch of <em>Shaun of the Dead</em> and <em>Hot Fuzz</em> were both immensely enjoyable genre films that knew exactly how to poke fun at the clichés that have bombarded Zombie and Buddy Cop films since their inception, while reigning in the satire to a level that allowed the films to take themselves just seriously enough to actually make you care about the characters portrayed therein. Let’s also not forget about the highly underappreciated <em>Galaxy Quest</em>, which was not only a funny and clever send up of the "Star Trek" phenomenon, but a sincere and heart-filled one as well. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqRhTYTP8MOHFAGJulUYMc1W63C4tBwDMCM4l0YoWBqp_6pdgQvJ35zLZvgnYRVdgy1pUZ8TqIQymKmUdzLbWZ0vm88yP7Gp_lugR7L1Zg4BhlJfjUq8jAGJgilP7g-Brr-5Xq-nZd_0f/s1600/black-dynamite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUqRhTYTP8MOHFAGJulUYMc1W63C4tBwDMCM4l0YoWBqp_6pdgQvJ35zLZvgnYRVdgy1pUZ8TqIQymKmUdzLbWZ0vm88yP7Gp_lugR7L1Zg4BhlJfjUq8jAGJgilP7g-Brr-5Xq-nZd_0f/s320/black-dynamite.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div><br />
<em>Black Dynamite</em> works for the very same reasons that these other films do. It’s made by people who understand and respect the Blaxploitation genre, while also recognizing that it holds a veritable goldmine of satire. In the Special Features section of the DVD, the filmmakers talk about how a lot of actual Blaxploitation films are in reality, kind of boring outside of the classic individual scenes that they are remembered for. So with <em>Black Dynamite</em>, they wanted to basically cut out all of the filler that would normally accompany those types of movies, and go straight for the gold, so to speak. And speaking of cutting out the filler; the running time here is only 84 minutes, so they certainly don’t leave any time to waste on slow ass bullshit...or whatever.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGNJ8CvLqnqitSMw1zNBOFbL3ButlYfx3_qjrXu1CM7GA5GWMZybmmannq_3XejmzehNHE0HdclB6XbuuRMfhFdpdugtoaxGWKq-BqTldMgE7Ca6d3_yzc5_PaKj5HjcKgI_dQfnCQXCrg/s1600/black+dynamite1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGNJ8CvLqnqitSMw1zNBOFbL3ButlYfx3_qjrXu1CM7GA5GWMZybmmannq_3XejmzehNHE0HdclB6XbuuRMfhFdpdugtoaxGWKq-BqTldMgE7Ca6d3_yzc5_PaKj5HjcKgI_dQfnCQXCrg/s320/black+dynamite1.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div><br />
Now admittedly, Blaxploitation has never been an area of expertise for me, but I am familiar enough with the genre to appreciate what was going on. When it comes down to it, I think the reason this film worked so well (for me, at least) was because of all the more modern (or post-modern?) humor thrown in as well. It allowed the film to escape its own mould and elevate to a level that would appeal to fans of good comedy as well as true purists of the genre who no doubt will probably pick up on about 100 more sprinkles of Blaxploitation references that I missed. I know this because in the Making-of Featurette, they give off a lot of examples, which I’m sure will help me to enjoy the film even more the next time I watch it; and let me tell you… <br />
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There will be a next time.<br />
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Body Count – 56<br />
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Donuts Killed in the Name of Righteousness – 1<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9q7v48h5YWNZo9exC16NSnsN700-LVfEeVBvWf7raqAsnMT77JMK8zam9Lqb0gkA5A4nA2GwOpX3eP1fyXpQXGBMwBPhpYeEJdYDh334kVQdTPM1CYj_nN7_LUzk0H2F0P8muRGxZaNBa/s1600/black_dynamite_poster_wall_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9q7v48h5YWNZo9exC16NSnsN700-LVfEeVBvWf7raqAsnMT77JMK8zam9Lqb0gkA5A4nA2GwOpX3eP1fyXpQXGBMwBPhpYeEJdYDh334kVQdTPM1CYj_nN7_LUzk0H2F0P8muRGxZaNBa/s320/black_dynamite_poster_wall_002.jpg" tt="true" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-64563947689430646432010-04-02T15:55:00.001-04:002010-04-02T15:55:51.050-04:00Samurai Cop on Suite101.com<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4n3RB2-vtmC7sv1tjTCe1mM1BdW5V-iDgqf8O30IoNdJFsppD1lW_kmRK3FdCnumqJ5SU7tNA29VYm12pCUWmd2DStds9WX8raVj7DiDs9VATa0fOKkzMnq4A3xrsBQTuDoYEfayeGnuj/s1600/Samurai%2520Cop%2520DVD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4n3RB2-vtmC7sv1tjTCe1mM1BdW5V-iDgqf8O30IoNdJFsppD1lW_kmRK3FdCnumqJ5SU7tNA29VYm12pCUWmd2DStds9WX8raVj7DiDs9VATa0fOKkzMnq4A3xrsBQTuDoYEfayeGnuj/s320/Samurai%2520Cop%2520DVD.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Hello again!<br />
<br />
I got another review up on Suite101 that I wanted to share with everyone. It's for the trash classic, Samurai Cop. Yes, you're right. That totally sounds like a movie I would review on this blog, but I figured I'd give Suite101 a taste of the weird as well. <br />
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Go please go read my review by clicking <a href="http://actionfilmscomedies.suite101.com/article.cfm/samurai-cop">here</a>, or the link off to the right! And as always, DO NOT forget to click on all the add links on the page afterward, so I can earn a few extra green backs!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhszSVOTZyyv6ipBjc7Lzy6sgZHVqFCkWu8HCENg8HkeMF7qEVjz0-1zGrH-8Pmjc0gju892E4FSPn04Cp1CwUHgWl2Eu_KvtQ3n5w6mSDgy3karjmtjDIcB1dUWpOD9mPUA5XeiWzzt-U0/s1600/samuraicop01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhszSVOTZyyv6ipBjc7Lzy6sgZHVqFCkWu8HCENg8HkeMF7qEVjz0-1zGrH-8Pmjc0gju892E4FSPn04Cp1CwUHgWl2Eu_KvtQ3n5w6mSDgy3karjmtjDIcB1dUWpOD9mPUA5XeiWzzt-U0/s320/samuraicop01.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauRoRpuzOJbJ3d6gZ4jTWpSgxfHRxO2RSJ_u3OptJ3HRmPbgmjBuyTAKuqsH3onU1dS9kuOnJirzYVmVPDB0nGoTMHf3GgkpwMt0OXbcsf0piFxkXz_OIcqslRnkYPZ8P6_dxdz_50447/s1600/samuraicop1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauRoRpuzOJbJ3d6gZ4jTWpSgxfHRxO2RSJ_u3OptJ3HRmPbgmjBuyTAKuqsH3onU1dS9kuOnJirzYVmVPDB0nGoTMHf3GgkpwMt0OXbcsf0piFxkXz_OIcqslRnkYPZ8P6_dxdz_50447/s320/samuraicop1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- Mark Oswald</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-40759901453451095252010-03-26T11:38:00.001-04:002010-03-26T11:39:02.645-04:00My Bullitt Review Posted at Suite101.com<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6usp8UC0CK7YkFgx0g4G8tM6MFZQ_DSQSFrwLaPO1HtuQ-ei0yW1MxMO2am13pXKQSZWYT-FSYceeF8rp8j04aCxN0fTQcz9lBguHGdCkbvKSJ77jtSIUIbAhP0XC1FcctEBsBGOh072w/s1600/Bullitt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6usp8UC0CK7YkFgx0g4G8tM6MFZQ_DSQSFrwLaPO1HtuQ-ei0yW1MxMO2am13pXKQSZWYT-FSYceeF8rp8j04aCxN0fTQcz9lBguHGdCkbvKSJ77jtSIUIbAhP0XC1FcctEBsBGOh072w/s320/Bullitt.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Hello all,<br />
<br />
I've just posted my review of the Steve McQueen classic, BULLITT, over at Suite101.com. Go check it out by clicking <a href="http://action-films-thrillers.suite101.com/article.cfm/bullitt-speeds-on">here</a> or over to the right! <br />
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Thanks!<br />
<br />
- MarkSoda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-57385132100925196362010-03-25T12:22:00.001-04:002010-03-25T12:25:21.719-04:00A New Endeavor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX2J4kENRyHf2Aqf4Ae90FleZw6nYjMJaXQN7GMXGnvjTPLMJpK-mDlOXmNlsBJTtBEJYCUbIF_AnbeArmfNF4hus-Xes-sx16Z9iehOPQ22GJdFKKYgYfn3BPXOtQQkzG01K04RqHixyn/s1600/myimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX2J4kENRyHf2Aqf4Ae90FleZw6nYjMJaXQN7GMXGnvjTPLMJpK-mDlOXmNlsBJTtBEJYCUbIF_AnbeArmfNF4hus-Xes-sx16Z9iehOPQ22GJdFKKYgYfn3BPXOtQQkzG01K04RqHixyn/s320/myimage.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Hello everyone,<br />
<br />
I must appologize for the lower number of reviews I've been doing lately, but I've recently begun reviewing films for Suite101.com, as well as this wonderful blog you are visiting now. There, I am writing about movies that I feel have aquired certain reputations since their releases. My mission is to see whether or not the film lives up to the reputation it has earned. I have began posting links to these articles at the top of the Soda on the Roof sidebar, located to the right of this entry, here. So I ask you to please check out those aritcles and don't be afraid to click on the respective advertisements located on their pages, for I gain a certain amount of monetary income depending on who visits these sites from my articles.<br />
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Also, fear not, I will continue to be writing about all things badass on Soda on the Roof, for the action film is where my heart truly lies. <br />
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Your's with respect and gratitude,<br />
Mark OswaldSoda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-48930058964975355002010-03-09T15:20:00.000-05:002010-03-09T15:20:13.242-05:00The Tournament (2009) - By Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQJ7L-SdmUWN_lB1Dd4buS2z7Vw0uaf4gNPfMHjAE9xU4CmHK1MiHeCtfjtC_TBrA473taKjyLUCSCF7YeSg5NG-MelyNHYBNn9pl8Jp4gIP0C678iELxfAbPpOCDvpeeUDgMEDblvLMK/s1600-h/tourn2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPQJ7L-SdmUWN_lB1Dd4buS2z7Vw0uaf4gNPfMHjAE9xU4CmHK1MiHeCtfjtC_TBrA473taKjyLUCSCF7YeSg5NG-MelyNHYBNn9pl8Jp4gIP0C678iELxfAbPpOCDvpeeUDgMEDblvLMK/s320/tourn2.jpg" vt="true" /></a></div><div align="center"><br />
</div>24 hours, 30 assassins, and 346 explosions (rough estimate); sadly this is not what my upcoming weekend has in store for me, but rather it’s a loose rundown of a newish Direct-to-Video gem called The Tournament. This is another instant DTV action classic that, like Blood and Bone and Undisputed II, caught my attention via the Internet. Man, what an invention the Internet is; did you know you can find information on just about every movie ever made on this thing? It’s wild, I’m telling you. God Bless Al Gore! Creator of the Internet and savior of our planet! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwMQheqBtaIyG-q5PKrTi-M6QCZXW8SIMbT0kr-_94983X464cU9g35xpVcu_KjMCVgwyAWwrXzEVQH6mSeeKAebIeEIztPzVKNueb-b17bA0M-pVU0VuWofOZ8NLYkvGR08zuZ0EPRLw/s1600-h/tourn6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwMQheqBtaIyG-q5PKrTi-M6QCZXW8SIMbT0kr-_94983X464cU9g35xpVcu_KjMCVgwyAWwrXzEVQH6mSeeKAebIeEIztPzVKNueb-b17bA0M-pVU0VuWofOZ8NLYkvGR08zuZ0EPRLw/s320/tourn6.jpg" vt="true" /></a></div><br />
If ever there were a film to singularly exemplify the term, “non-stop action”, it could be this one. While I’m not ready to give it said title just yet, it’s definitely a contender. The premise is that every seven years a competition (The Tournament) is held in a random city, wherein 30 of the world’s top assassins proceed to kill each other off until there is only one standing. The winner is then given a large cash prize and declared “World’s Greatest Assassin”, at least for seven years. Then they’ll have to compete again in order retain their title. Each player has a tracking device surgically implanted in them before they begin so that they can all be tracked by each other on the iphone-like devices that have been provided for them. For us at home, it’s basically like watching a full-scale multiplayer videogame, with real people instead of animated characters. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibbgrWUwo05ww3E9lmkdYF_YvyKunzYkfif6xSoI_iGbKoGlgMSYzezLQ75opbymy9AzHG93Uznu8sGluhE8Slz5JwoftPEI1c1_gT4Lia4utAS2AJuYJC1Bfr9VEVB3KyQzVVNzu1MBt2/s1600-h/tourn4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibbgrWUwo05ww3E9lmkdYF_YvyKunzYkfif6xSoI_iGbKoGlgMSYzezLQ75opbymy9AzHG93Uznu8sGluhE8Slz5JwoftPEI1c1_gT4Lia4utAS2AJuYJC1Bfr9VEVB3KyQzVVNzu1MBt2/s320/tourn4.jpg" vt="true" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Devil's got his sights on you, Father...</span></em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>At the beginning of The Tournament, the head honcho, Powers, who is in charge of everything gives an ultra cheesy speech to the underworld slime balls who will be making bets on which assassins they think will win. He only highlights 5 of the 30, so you don’t have to think too hard about, “Oh I wonder which ones will be the last ones standing! I mean he only showed us these five, but there could always be a wild card contestant who could come from behind and win it all, right?” Wrong. I wonder what the non-highlighted contestants would think about not being mentioned like this. Do you think they would just realize, “Ahh fuck, they didn’t show any footage of my past assassinations, caught on tape because this organization obviously has thousands of secret video cameras all over the world, so I must not have a chance”, or would they try to defy the odds? Well this movie isn’t that deep, so I won’t even pretend to tell you that they thought of anything like that. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKaHptoLXrabPo87hHpoPXC69L7CUOMSH19Gqi0ccfstZUm0ehQd-3E8nEFa96_oRifI5BYfeCoWv0I7UJQgAR4-T-Bspl4CFxa74RCfy6SYy2oxMvQSEJhRA9X4z5soAshI7XSepPMdO1/s1600-h/tourn5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKaHptoLXrabPo87hHpoPXC69L7CUOMSH19Gqi0ccfstZUm0ehQd-3E8nEFa96_oRifI5BYfeCoWv0I7UJQgAR4-T-Bspl4CFxa74RCfy6SYy2oxMvQSEJhRA9X4z5soAshI7XSepPMdO1/s320/tourn5.jpg" vt="true" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Who you callin' eye candy?</span></em></div><br />
The main stars of the film are veteran screen tough guy Ving Rhames, the winner of the previous Tournament, back again because he heard one of this year’s players killed his pregnant wife; Martial artist/actor Kelly Hu (X2, The Scorpion King), who wants to win enough money to get out of the killing business for good; and Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, Ravenous) as an alcoholic priest/non-assassin who accidentally ingests one of the tracking bugs that another player cut out of them and threw into a coffee pot. He and Hu team up when she realizes what happened to him and takes pity because of how fucked up his situation is. So that’s the main crew, but there’s also appearances from former LOST star, Ian Somerhalder, playing a psychotic Texan killer as opposed to the pretty boy he played on the aforementioned TV show; Sebastien Foucan, the free-running bad guy from the beginning of Casino Royale, and one of the creators of Parkour; and last but certainly not least, my boy Scott Adkins (Undisputed II, The Shepherd) makes an appearance as well, albeit a shorter one. This guy is from England but for some reason i've only seen him play Russians or Americans. I think it'd be great if he could use his native accent in a movie because in real life he sounds so proper and dignified, like he would invite you over for some tea, but then kick your ass for spilling it on his new rug.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8rhzBDi66UXXzx1zF99-PAecFfblYOTSn5VfchLPE41E-VgfOPQd_dM9hoKYLtfziU2xxSALrJCPnThot1-eMeylZ1CAMWzIcByBMLd3eQFMrWlQekORb1tZnhjjI7cQYQPMCtfuLBdj/s1600-h/tourn3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8rhzBDi66UXXzx1zF99-PAecFfblYOTSn5VfchLPE41E-VgfOPQd_dM9hoKYLtfziU2xxSALrJCPnThot1-eMeylZ1CAMWzIcByBMLd3eQFMrWlQekORb1tZnhjjI7cQYQPMCtfuLBdj/s320/tourn3.jpg" vt="true" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Who's callin' Boone a pussy?!?!</span></em></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
As you can tell from above, the movie was able to put together a pretty solid cast, and even better than that is fact that it was able to secure itself a surprisingly big budget for a DTV action movie. It’s because of the budget that the movie works so well. It looks a lot better than the average DTV production and the action/gore does not hold back whatsoever. Without the money that was thrown into this thing, it might not have worked so well. You see, this may be an action-packed movie, but it sure as hell isn’t the brightest one. There are several oversights in logic that you’ll need to just go with in order to enjoy this thing. Like, why would any assassin actually take part in The Tournament anyways? Odds are they’re not going to make it out alive, so why don’t they just stay out of it altogether and continue to be a high-paid killer, as well as a living one? I mean they have to be making some serious dough in their normal line of work, so why would any of them partake in this nightmare if money was the only motivator? There had better be a damn good reason if you ask me; more than just the arrogance of wanting to be the best.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBr8ucCm4kerayKSQKS470KPVuqpCyonxqnkVsQ_MPZWbcvdj6eWciuWKgxbYJlnw-PUXzRKID0BIBVu6dIk3lYpYvOOy5NLYsjjXMNw8S1tl6rNHuUJWx0ltW2nvF0TdxfADgclZ3o9oy/s1600-h/tourn7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBr8ucCm4kerayKSQKS470KPVuqpCyonxqnkVsQ_MPZWbcvdj6eWciuWKgxbYJlnw-PUXzRKID0BIBVu6dIk3lYpYvOOy5NLYsjjXMNw8S1tl6rNHuUJWx0ltW2nvF0TdxfADgclZ3o9oy/s320/tourn7.jpg" vt="true" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">When the hell do I get to play an English character??</span></em></div><br />
Well all that aside, this movie still kicks a lot of ass and if you’re willing to look past those little leaps in logic, odds are you’ll be having a great time taking in all the mayhem. Especially since there are so many “Oh Shit” moments sprinkled throughout that you’ll likely forget what you were questioning in the first place.<br />
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Body Count – 42 + 1 dog<br />
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Times one assassin is about to kill another but is interrupted at the last second – 9<br />
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Times someone says, “The Tournament” – Sadly, only 4<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEjwsfx9w2kTynrqXT18hvlaHNtc-qJzpcskLBdRuiDry3LhsNns6ynFsRG5tEZXBTY6gu93wGOKEgAXzCCZrMHfghX5Cz02WwUT2UUZIcJBeAggRJhCBbfRdRy-tjCtNtsMWrIUYdPxYN/s1600-h/tourn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEjwsfx9w2kTynrqXT18hvlaHNtc-qJzpcskLBdRuiDry3LhsNns6ynFsRG5tEZXBTY6gu93wGOKEgAXzCCZrMHfghX5Cz02WwUT2UUZIcJBeAggRJhCBbfRdRy-tjCtNtsMWrIUYdPxYN/s320/tourn.jpg" vt="true" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">C'mon Poster, you know it's every SEVEN years...</span></em></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-87919839922773047862010-02-26T10:26:00.003-05:002010-03-02T16:04:06.430-05:00The International (2009) - By Mark Oswald<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeD5m_xnSedLqnKBVRcNEfuTva2TdBcijvsgycGkRmzhuBXk4SmyeHwqeYqAKerihhRn8LW1IGUzHsRbq7Dof0ouIJJhNWIVPB2BUE9pTM45_XALaYJz97zwlLB4uWb9fWnjRvHPYSKpj/s1600-h/inter3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbeD5m_xnSedLqnKBVRcNEfuTva2TdBcijvsgycGkRmzhuBXk4SmyeHwqeYqAKerihhRn8LW1IGUzHsRbq7Dof0ouIJJhNWIVPB2BUE9pTM45_XALaYJz97zwlLB4uWb9fWnjRvHPYSKpj/s320/inter3.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><br />
</div>Ok, story time again…A few years ago I was touring the good ole’ US of A with my band at the time, and we had arrived in Ventura, CA to play this music festival we performed at the year before. While we were in town, our guitarist told us that his uncle, an actor, wanted to take us out to breakfast one day. “Who is your uncle,” we asked. “Jack McGee”, he responded. Once we realized who that was, we were pretty fucking stoked! <br />
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<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitA6MzrhiGT8tXTKFUWZ_zgxdn833VgvYF6Gt_m2__iwLZw37HfijqoytwgNIUd9R8aGXRInCwukPXXLA1OEMyWKrR2iw5o7mtKjqiUJ0ncPGGU1vBaq1AggkBS0qld40xX8hXs809k83a/s1600-h/inter6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitA6MzrhiGT8tXTKFUWZ_zgxdn833VgvYF6Gt_m2__iwLZw37HfijqoytwgNIUd9R8aGXRInCwukPXXLA1OEMyWKrR2iw5o7mtKjqiUJ0ncPGGU1vBaq1AggkBS0qld40xX8hXs809k83a/s320/inter6.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>McGee upholding the law (right)</em></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>For those of you not in the know, Jack McGee is a respected “that guy” actor (i.e. - someone who pops up in movies all the time, causing you to go, “Hey, it’s that guy!”). You may not know their name, but you can always rely on them to perform valiantly in a supporting role. For example, if you’ve seen Scrooged, Lethal Weapon 2, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Backdraft, Basic Instinct, Lethal Weapon 3 (Director’s Cut), Miracle on 34th Street (Remake), Jury Duty, Showgirls, The Quest, Jungle 2 Jungle, Breakdown, The Prophecy 3, Coyote Ugly, Thirteen Days, Legally Blonde 2, Crash, 21, a certain episode of Seinfeld, or the first couple seasons of Rescue Me, then you’re sure to recognize Jack McGee. So when he met us outside our hotel, I was, needless to say, pretty excited. Long story short, he was awesome, and one thing he mentioned was that he was about to fly out somewhere to start shooting a movie called The International with Clive Owen. I made a mental note of that at the time, but totally forgot until he popped up about halfway through this movie. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOoUbZ8lXlwSvwO926DgjsASxzl2ZZGDXDU_wsbIu8i8HuZLSyB4opTGpQopSnhr2zwKByaXHndPgyH-DGU7OTx6pFNFwIvhhZPO810pe7i8LJbnoLVwY7JqKVg1W1aCJrXskggBLcLCdN/s1600-h/inter2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOoUbZ8lXlwSvwO926DgjsASxzl2ZZGDXDU_wsbIu8i8HuZLSyB4opTGpQopSnhr2zwKByaXHndPgyH-DGU7OTx6pFNFwIvhhZPO810pe7i8LJbnoLVwY7JqKVg1W1aCJrXskggBLcLCdN/s320/inter2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Moving on to the film itself…The International is a political/big business thriller that almost seems like it should’ve come out in the late 90’s. Clive Owen plays Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent who’s hot on the trail of an evil bank. Yes you read that right; an evil bank. I don’t mean “evil” like they’re a bunch of devil worshiping sadists or anything, but they’re a lot worse than JP Morgan Chase charging you double the fee for using a non-Chase ATM. Anyway, if I remember correctly they were brokering weapons deals between a European mafia syndicate and foreign military powers…or something. I don’t know; this was a complicated ride. There were a lot of intense exchanges of dialogue about this bank and their underhanded dealings.<br />
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I suppose that before I go any further, I feel I should mention that even though I’m reviewing this film, and I have a tendency to review Action films, this is not really an Action film. It does contain ONE very cool Action SCENE within its 118 minute running time, but a violent free-for-all, this is not. Clive Owen does get to exercise some legitimate badassitude, though. For one, he looks like shit. He hasn’t been sleeping much lately and his appearance is kind of sloppy. These traits, as you know, are genuine badass characteristics. He doesn’t carry a gun, but he knows how to use one from his time on the London police force, and fortunately for us, he does not hesitate grabbing the weapons of others and jumping into action when needed. What I’m trying to say is that he’s not the ridiculous cartoon hero that he played in Shoot ‘Em up. Think more Children of Men instead. <br />
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Wife of Sabertooth, Naomi Watts, is also in this but she doesn’t do anything particularly badass, so I’ll end that train of thought before it begins. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpnVc2TwrmkrfbRznru2BXucO6WBEgKLjNfoDlYEaYuDy5whbOsLDehMLwt9SaZJAbejbhhvWGDE15hQQyJSMahKQhcwG__a80lfdFh4P6ssIa7GpMdN91Eeheh4k0O2OROzx_l_babl4o/s1600-h/inter5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpnVc2TwrmkrfbRznru2BXucO6WBEgKLjNfoDlYEaYuDy5whbOsLDehMLwt9SaZJAbejbhhvWGDE15hQQyJSMahKQhcwG__a80lfdFh4P6ssIa7GpMdN91Eeheh4k0O2OROzx_l_babl4o/s320/inter5.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Cool tough guy walk #817</span></em></div><br />
One thing I found really interesting is that the filmmakers were always shooting around these elaborate structures, both natural and man-made, in most of the outdoor scenes. They almost became a character of their own, and gave the film a certain feel of complexity; and complexity defines this movie quite well. As I mentioned, Owen’s character here is not the same as in Shoot ‘Em Up, just as The International’s plotline is not nearly as simplistic. All I can say is that if you choose to watch this movie, make sure you’re sober and that it isn’t too late at night, because if you stop paying attention for even a few seconds, you may completely lose track of what is going on. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC0KwNHj9VaQCesOZg1kUWRdeiXB8LeKdEARUWIOxlTu9s_zHJUb7ex6SjJ_MG0uNGxv7NbSyObhXbA2scKTrjhzpdgJdpcJwaBcYFIvA5IZUzP0RUbeJmDhI45dRWb-itfyP-1Xi9gonh/s1600-h/inter8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC0KwNHj9VaQCesOZg1kUWRdeiXB8LeKdEARUWIOxlTu9s_zHJUb7ex6SjJ_MG0uNGxv7NbSyObhXbA2scKTrjhzpdgJdpcJwaBcYFIvA5IZUzP0RUbeJmDhI45dRWb-itfyP-1Xi9gonh/s320/inter8.jpg" /></a></div><br />
So are you a fan of complicated political thrillers, high on intrigue and discourse, but low on action? Maybe you’re someone who used to love action movies, but now you feel that you’ve “outgrown” them? Well first of all, you can suck it…second of all, you may like this movie. I thought it was pretty good.<br />
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Body Count – 14<br />
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Times I slapped myself into paying more attention – At least 5<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkk8Wy3Y-68m98dNp0eLWLg2OJsL4nFkMY93_bxPrh_6UJbgWPPvnw7iJdb9szKSh4KYtyttA1SMxH2yj2mqWOkpeBf-m8xxyqhqUnOdOb1m3XnSUYxZznpMSQ7dbVMdqA6y8z3cCyRVl/s1600-h/inter7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrkk8Wy3Y-68m98dNp0eLWLg2OJsL4nFkMY93_bxPrh_6UJbgWPPvnw7iJdb9szKSh4KYtyttA1SMxH2yj2mqWOkpeBf-m8xxyqhqUnOdOb1m3XnSUYxZznpMSQ7dbVMdqA6y8z3cCyRVl/s320/inter7.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-28338379362785828042010-02-11T14:43:00.003-05:002010-06-25T15:17:29.115-04:00Chato's Land (1972) - by Mark OswaldAlright, quick back story here…I discovered this one while searching through Charles Bronson movies on Netflix to add to my Queue. Shortly after adding it, I found it at a Blockbuster Video that was going out of business in my home town of Nashua, NH. It was $3.99. I purchased it. The End. Good story. Thank you.<br />
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<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN49IytT5kItygdQmgn10QGbYdAdza8zFHeCKSqCCKlPwji_PKB-GWAytRGnmZpNFbsDrfZOS6pqf6wYKI-H4CKputZeRB4knN1v23lG2XPsYfwN6L6s2G-Fh63AJjQlg5pbJMxL2m-3V0/s1600-h/chato.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN49IytT5kItygdQmgn10QGbYdAdza8zFHeCKSqCCKlPwji_PKB-GWAytRGnmZpNFbsDrfZOS6pqf6wYKI-H4CKputZeRB4knN1v23lG2XPsYfwN6L6s2G-Fh63AJjQlg5pbJMxL2m-3V0/s320/chato.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Bronson's Land</strong></span></em></div><br />
Chato’s Land, directed by Bronson’s Death Wish 1 – 3 helmer, Michael Winner, turned out to be more interesting than I had originally expected. From the descriptions I had read, it seemed to be about a half-breed Apache named Pardon Chato (Charles Bronson) who killed an asshole town sheriff in self-defense and then escaped only to be hunted through the desert by a posse, thrown together when word of the killing got out. There’s a lot more going on in this story, though. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjudXljfXSA7eT_12eDmoMSYPLE9EGRI7-NqMAvFj3nTmCAHTCfJ-ixiVE6OOf2cse8dKdmDmbEPo3gIh633SdLov8vTxXci70ylKODU0r-SGY8SwWEMtm276p0ViuxgyiNYtm-XGkKkYfN/s1600-h/Chato3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjudXljfXSA7eT_12eDmoMSYPLE9EGRI7-NqMAvFj3nTmCAHTCfJ-ixiVE6OOf2cse8dKdmDmbEPo3gIh633SdLov8vTxXci70ylKODU0r-SGY8SwWEMtm276p0ViuxgyiNYtm-XGkKkYfN/s320/Chato3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>One of the first things I noticed is that Bronson’s character doesn’t even get the majority of the screen time here. He only speaks a few lines of dialogue in English, with the rest being in Apache (no subtitles either). Most of the scenes and dialogue belong to the gang that’s after him; lead by Quincy Whitmore (Jack Palance), a former Captain in the Confederate Army. At first I thought this character was going to be a slightly psychotic killer-type with delusions of the Civil War still raging on, which I deduced when he pulled out his old military uniform immediately after being informed of the situation. It could’ve also been because he was played by Jack Palance, but who knows. In truth though, he is the most level-headed of the bunch, and seems to be leading the mission in order to regain some of his pride lost after the Union’s victory of the war. He is a bit of a sad character, but intelligent and noble. You can clearly see his disgust towards some of the other members of the posse as the film goes on. His men are a motley crew of cowboys, some looking to avenge a death, others wanting to quench their thirst for bloodshed.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HxOSPEbf36ibQV-HoRrLubnBwOsdZLUXE37vymMwnxBfQgV8nH9BDDRrE0jaFCcB6XGqj2N3OAOXlHF94S7z_PIOvPIod22Z-jabhb-sBQqukAczK2nKVaM-V1VKZXgtr90D4LGbBR3T/s1600-h/chato7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HxOSPEbf36ibQV-HoRrLubnBwOsdZLUXE37vymMwnxBfQgV8nH9BDDRrE0jaFCcB6XGqj2N3OAOXlHF94S7z_PIOvPIod22Z-jabhb-sBQqukAczK2nKVaM-V1VKZXgtr90D4LGbBR3T/s320/chato7.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>As the films goes on, we see the deterioration of these characters caused by such an arduous journey through some seriously rough territory; “The Badlands” as they call it. We get glimpses as to the evil that men can do when pushed too far by the elements as well as their supposed prey. I say “supposed” because let’s face it; their hunting Charles Bronson, as a half Apache, expert survivalist, and total all-around badass. He constantly gets the upper hand on them; setting false trails, draining their already-dwindling water supply, and taking shots at them in the middle of the night, just so they know he’s still around. Things are going pretty well for him until the posse comes upon his home and attack it in a way that won’t surprise you if you’re familiar with some of the other Bronson/Winner pictures. Needless to say that after this, Chato is done fucking around with these men and things get real serious. You can tell because he ditches his normal white-man clothes in favor of a loin cloth and head band; the uniform of a serious man.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXfC7YV-LPI5bySiZN4NxaBjSVZ5kjrEd5ph2rgdAKrCTIrjwrycfLD0oKOq6m3LNAY8YdHxfgE9bTVFoXtOP0oWHgK7hsnpkw6ERKoucQimHHpZh6s_3bbNrb2t3zCSI4LaTyVuRxxCx2/s1600-h/chato5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXfC7YV-LPI5bySiZN4NxaBjSVZ5kjrEd5ph2rgdAKrCTIrjwrycfLD0oKOq6m3LNAY8YdHxfgE9bTVFoXtOP0oWHgK7hsnpkw6ERKoucQimHHpZh6s_3bbNrb2t3zCSI4LaTyVuRxxCx2/s320/chato5.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chuck = Ripped</span></strong></em></div>The final section of the movie reminded me of a more methodically paced version of when Stallone goes hunting for evil Vietnamese soldiers after they kill his woman in Rambo: First Blood Part II. Except this is all made more interesting here by the fact that it is done over a longer period of time, as the men are continuing to turn on each other while also being picked off one by one. I found it interesting that as their stress levels escalate through the film, you start to realize that maybe the guys you didn’t think were so bad in the beginning, are really the worst of all when pushed to the limit. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ZbCBMh_LHiQ_m1P8MhSMKkS34HWlyCECs_ZLzGXHPS85y1jXtZKOEytH0oZZDgUOvEKaYt3rLDoN2nlQbeLsJqpK0TrWvuv-wliJkVfDSyn3sYv5k8RCDzBfr4ukYKdw99MUVBETbBLw/s1600-h/Chato4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ZbCBMh_LHiQ_m1P8MhSMKkS34HWlyCECs_ZLzGXHPS85y1jXtZKOEytH0oZZDgUOvEKaYt3rLDoN2nlQbeLsJqpK0TrWvuv-wliJkVfDSyn3sYv5k8RCDzBfr4ukYKdw99MUVBETbBLw/s320/Chato4.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Don't make fun of my headband"</span></em></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>I’d definitely recommend this to fans of Bronson, as well as any fans of the Western genre. It’s not the all-out action fest like some of the other films I’ve covered in this blog, but it’s definitely a lot more interesting. There’s a lot of good noble/deep cowboy talk in this thing as well, which I always love to hear. So in closing, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite bits of dialogue from Palance’s character to his men when talking about their surroundings, their adversary, and their situation in general. <br />
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“To you this is so much bad land - rock, scrub, desert, and then more rock. A hard land that the sun has sucked all the good out of. You can't farm it and you can't carve it out and call it your own... so you damn it to hell and it all looks the same. That's our way. To The Breed (Chato), now, it's his land. He don't expect it to give him much and he don't force it none. And to him, it's almost human - a living thing. And it will give him a good place to make his fight against us.”<br />
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Body Count - 12<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmnqOIJZ_ZV1RT1Wa9aNCF2GX9lAu73alyrFk4tjGJqYdkqA5TWggJOpFVPyu4llch0JXtUKDxGH4V49gI4gCBUoaU2At1SNNTF8W2Z98ZPTcU-Oj1dN2jrrNRM50e4VX3LYzIQJY7bvJ/s1600-h/Chato2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtmnqOIJZ_ZV1RT1Wa9aNCF2GX9lAu73alyrFk4tjGJqYdkqA5TWggJOpFVPyu4llch0JXtUKDxGH4V49gI4gCBUoaU2At1SNNTF8W2Z98ZPTcU-Oj1dN2jrrNRM50e4VX3LYzIQJY7bvJ/s320/Chato2.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-90451509358464240562010-02-08T14:19:00.009-05:002010-06-25T15:27:57.680-04:00Blood and Bone (2009) - by Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeuVPLeotkzYbB_OXTsc7xrAVJOayB2Flh3Cs17DVZ7sLyWwwSH1hyGi-QoBz5BZcB9qaE13e5GOV37SyL2lVLqi9Do_KLL5UNIPjaG4vvif8sBZ3o07RIIWBUta_GGd6BOQwMtGLsOkwz/s1600-h/blood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeuVPLeotkzYbB_OXTsc7xrAVJOayB2Flh3Cs17DVZ7sLyWwwSH1hyGi-QoBz5BZcB9qaE13e5GOV37SyL2lVLqi9Do_KLL5UNIPjaG4vvif8sBZ3o07RIIWBUta_GGd6BOQwMtGLsOkwz/s320/blood.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">"I want you to tell every mother fucker behind these walls, that if they get the notion to fuck with me—don’t."</span></em></div><br />
What two things do the following films have in common? <br />
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Spawn<br />
Universal Soldier: The Return<br />
Exit Wounds<br />
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Give up? Ok.<br />
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1 – They’re all pretty crappy action movies<br />
2 – They all feature Actor/Martial Artist, Michael Jai White<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9jKBlSxHePDh5wDKMi0I3SmrVGqrsr1wFxwFXSzx1iPgMV-kD81taMw9d7I621I7MIbdOoALzJwBZt-vWip7UIHrkEWz2Y0hIRk3Mb7KN2GJzKyIr2fC1fLF-1IDzH1P435sSCjfQbSI/s1600-h/blood8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim9jKBlSxHePDh5wDKMi0I3SmrVGqrsr1wFxwFXSzx1iPgMV-kD81taMw9d7I621I7MIbdOoALzJwBZt-vWip7UIHrkEWz2Y0hIRk3Mb7KN2GJzKyIr2fC1fLF-1IDzH1P435sSCjfQbSI/s320/blood8.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Now this is not a dig at Mr. Jai White, but rather an example of how a truly talented ass-kicker can go from sub-standard junk like the aforementioned films above to the realm of top shelf awesomeness like Undisputed II: Last Man Standing and the subject of today’s column, Blood and Bone, in just over a decade. It might have something to do with the fact that before, he was playing smaller roles in other action stars' films (US: The Return and Exit Wounds), and he was bogged down by a terrible script and even worse CGI in Spawn. The good news though? All that is behind us now…<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmQ5Cb3_VPUeMALM0bHJMNXBOuExrLPg1ft9FABDl9pUBTwX7QCcKST8wzd_VrYG4TdxoYUaw5na8U9UjQK2FvUNKvWpt48Agj2byH_dv_36UGDAETZyScnQlI36IPx9PbDD6fdfhkcW1/s1600-h/undisputed2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPmQ5Cb3_VPUeMALM0bHJMNXBOuExrLPg1ft9FABDl9pUBTwX7QCcKST8wzd_VrYG4TdxoYUaw5na8U9UjQK2FvUNKvWpt48Agj2byH_dv_36UGDAETZyScnQlI36IPx9PbDD6fdfhkcW1/s320/undisputed2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">MJW vs. Adkins in Undisputed II</span></em></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I had heard some really good things about Undisputed II, so despite having never seen the first one (which apparently doesn’t have much to do with its sequel anyways) I checked it out; and boy was I glad I did. It was a gritty, action-packed testosterone fest from beginning to end that wasn’t without a little bit of heart either. MJW was a charismatic and fun-to-watch lead who was sent to a Russian prison, only to butt heads with the equally impressive <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0012078/">Scott Adkins</a>, who played the institution’s top fighter. Adkins is also making a nice little name for himself these days after playing smaller roles in The Bourne Ultimatum and Van-Damme’s The Shepherd: Border Patrol, as well as filling in for Ryan Reynolds as Weapon XI in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He’s got the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182921/">Ninja</a> coming soon to DVD, as well as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156466/">Undisputed III: Redemption</a> shortly after that, where his character from the second is given the lead treatment.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0nRa4pTNcSSNWkxyA36ul258IiKxl5al_kHgOpKZHDnXT7PzLqPcoo37yY5awABa8P9A6QcUPv_Gm3RJNMjF2g-B0PeZBSkpAnK5JOILUW4amPQIBIyj26HTlOXHG0vgiowi6hZW19gz2/s1600-h/blood5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0nRa4pTNcSSNWkxyA36ul258IiKxl5al_kHgOpKZHDnXT7PzLqPcoo37yY5awABa8P9A6QcUPv_Gm3RJNMjF2g-B0PeZBSkpAnK5JOILUW4amPQIBIyj26HTlOXHG0vgiowi6hZW19gz2/s320/blood5.png" /></a></div><br />
But back to the topic at hand…Blood and Bone, like Undisputed II, features a plethora of rock solid ass beatings, the majority of which are delivered by MJW himself. He plays a character named Bone (hence the title) who is damn near untouchable in these fights. There’s even an impromptu shoot-out where he proves himself just as deadly with a gun as he is with his fists, which is pointed out by his Manager, Pinball, played by Dante Basco, or “Rufio” from Hook. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ZIvGVAMIKHFPQWPboYUtJ0mRx7wxFbiMrmkv4-PWze8nMU7lNigp7XHgx6Dmxta8jxaEPDaatHRn8V44YAHuDjDoGK5SFsQG6B-bNYFfGlaWV-x1HYM_uRMZfWANogWPfoDyfmdat7KF/s1600-h/blood7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ZIvGVAMIKHFPQWPboYUtJ0mRx7wxFbiMrmkv4-PWze8nMU7lNigp7XHgx6Dmxta8jxaEPDaatHRn8V44YAHuDjDoGK5SFsQG6B-bNYFfGlaWV-x1HYM_uRMZfWANogWPfoDyfmdat7KF/s320/blood7.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bang-a-whaaaat?</span></em></div><br />
There’s a lot to appreciate in this movie for fans of martial arts and action films. The camera work is not overly stylized or showy (i.e., you can actually tell what the hell is going on). The direction in general is fairly minimalistic. Most scenes are kept to just a few angles, which tells me that the director wanted to present people with an entertaining movie without flash getting in the way of telling the story. That last observation is also a good way to look at this entire film. Nothing contained within is more complicated than it needs to be. I could go into more detail, but I recommend watching it for yourself instead. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7lHer6SVqFVmTgfsY8FuQMYADXytiYyouIMUYQyYt8Q5JQgcB1HpLaADUgU1HE2F1YD0LHYZ92AMNZw3Cig_I_L30nb1fu_p368ao68oRXPovcszy3co-KDWZxD1As6OVMaOgdRVPSwi9/s1600-h/bloodeamonn2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7lHer6SVqFVmTgfsY8FuQMYADXytiYyouIMUYQyYt8Q5JQgcB1HpLaADUgU1HE2F1YD0LHYZ92AMNZw3Cig_I_L30nb1fu_p368ao68oRXPovcszy3co-KDWZxD1As6OVMaOgdRVPSwi9/s320/bloodeamonn2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I also enjoyed the villain, James (Eamonn Walker), who was played as a reasonably complex character instead of a one-dimensional A-hole or cartoonish wacko. He doesn’t like swearing in his home, he is a seemingly well-educated lover of animals and classical art, and all he really wants is to get into the big leagues of the underground street fighting elite, populated by snobby old white guys who would rather keep him as a second tier gangster than except him as one of their brethren. So James would be a pretty stand-up character if not for the fact that underneath all his posturing and panache, he is truly a cold-blooded killer. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0nRa4pTNcSSNWkxyA36ul258IiKxl5al_kHgOpKZHDnXT7PzLqPcoo37yY5awABa8P9A6QcUPv_Gm3RJNMjF2g-B0PeZBSkpAnK5JOILUW4amPQIBIyj26HTlOXHG0vgiowi6hZW19gz2/s1600-h/blood5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEcb6zMRGQ1MeLySVDRmdxr0h9iJcqgYDX7WOdu1cCUcO-my9Gd5noj25uF2Kvr0u0tUgsCyg-0359sO-HyqYasC5cZocr64HB-DUx-ePHr6r4qTWm7Jmm6G9YQGKva2k3T4It3OAw0dG/s1600-h/blood4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEcb6zMRGQ1MeLySVDRmdxr0h9iJcqgYDX7WOdu1cCUcO-my9Gd5noj25uF2Kvr0u0tUgsCyg-0359sO-HyqYasC5cZocr64HB-DUx-ePHr6r4qTWm7Jmm6G9YQGKva2k3T4It3OAw0dG/s320/blood4.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Six against one? Not a problem.</span></em></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">So I would definitely recommend this to old school action fans as well as anybody else looking for quality badass entertainment. It’s got an honorable lead, great fight scenes, a few interesting touches reminiscent of 70’s Blaxploitation films, and an ending that reminded me a little of Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter. Feel free to disagree however, that’s just the feeling I got. Now all I have to do is find myself a copy of MJW’s forthcoming Blaxploitation spoof, Black Dynamite, which Ben has told me is quite good.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKrorcmgTlT9ZD1T6R-MtxOHCyLQC6acu1DhHr2dPqBxr5mEsvEY_AbDVnMd-RHTg_a9lgvKB23SnAXyM-YRJw09YXltMaahLhx6GcA3exTHGcUfp7GLV3dClNZAaJRIhoVZ7WZ0mUBHJr/s1600-h/blood6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKrorcmgTlT9ZD1T6R-MtxOHCyLQC6acu1DhHr2dPqBxr5mEsvEY_AbDVnMd-RHTg_a9lgvKB23SnAXyM-YRJw09YXltMaahLhx6GcA3exTHGcUfp7GLV3dClNZAaJRIhoVZ7WZ0mUBHJr/s320/blood6.png" /></a></div><br />
Body Count – 9 (The lucky few)<br />
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Times MJW "destroys his enemy" – Any chance he gets.<br />
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<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPeH2-suS5rJMj2pwJ1dQzBRo4FZg2GizZWW18YGIBaHVslSUluWBXXK75UBqghF7nGQ2Ik_2-fHBjnYR6U8ZWZNRZ6YwWQUcVnigjV9WFutNoDMxRO21AtRSNSSDLqm5mDESqobK196Qy/s1600-h/blood2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPeH2-suS5rJMj2pwJ1dQzBRo4FZg2GizZWW18YGIBaHVslSUluWBXXK75UBqghF7nGQ2Ik_2-fHBjnYR6U8ZWZNRZ6YwWQUcVnigjV9WFutNoDMxRO21AtRSNSSDLqm5mDESqobK196Qy/s320/blood2.jpg" /></a></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-76353867893111061622010-01-26T15:54:00.003-05:002010-02-12T08:52:07.975-05:00Red Dawn (1984)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcgNB4rzsldkTMmqhH-83jpWOvQMh2DOTHfS6wLXiUKhifUx8VPFm_KIi-BVuiCXcfI4aaryBIfSi7puERzmZjXIaJ3iGi6nSiWJ8AaJya81MFDwFw_LMU8q-yoZskzmV5ZDeFkYFoiW6g/s1600-h/red_dawn+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcgNB4rzsldkTMmqhH-83jpWOvQMh2DOTHfS6wLXiUKhifUx8VPFm_KIi-BVuiCXcfI4aaryBIfSi7puERzmZjXIaJ3iGi6nSiWJ8AaJya81MFDwFw_LMU8q-yoZskzmV5ZDeFkYFoiW6g/s320/red_dawn+poster.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <i><b>An accurate portrayl of everything this movie has to offer</b></i></div><br />
Red Dawn is a "What If" story about what it might have been like if America was invaded in the 1980's by Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan armies. I had never seen this movie and passed it up hundreds of times in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart, but when I saw it as a 2-pack with Navy Seals in the very same $5 bin, I had to get it. I even bought a copy for Mark as a late Christmas present (breaking our old tradition of buying eachother only edible gifts). I don't know why, but I never had enough interest in this movie to even read the description, so I had no idea what I was in for. And what <i>was</i> I in for? Maybe the most violent movie I've seen in my adult life (for some reason I saw some horribly violent movies as a kid... I came out alright though). The story focuses around a group of young high school kids (most importantly <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000221/">Charlie Sheen</a> as Matt and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001367/">C. Thomas Howell</a> as Robert) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000664/">Patrick Swayze</a> who plays Charlie Sheen's older brother, Jed. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjatxXs1ucb15g4r16I486I6K1wi2U7r-QYIi6rUWsT2uu4pfSJiNy6VErOQ4Fu9Rogr148YMTySg1-Rj4Nm7hAHWM_Yf9bL09gdHKSUXyJQzdwz2DDn0Maru2hZ-mc1jdnxudoH1d_eTb8/s1600-h/reddawn+cast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjatxXs1ucb15g4r16I486I6K1wi2U7r-QYIi6rUWsT2uu4pfSJiNy6VErOQ4Fu9Rogr148YMTySg1-Rj4Nm7hAHWM_Yf9bL09gdHKSUXyJQzdwz2DDn0Maru2hZ-mc1jdnxudoH1d_eTb8/s320/reddawn+cast.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Not the Brat Pack</b></span></i></div><br />
What I appreciated about this movie is that it didn't waste any time getting into the action. Jed drops off his little brother at school and before he can even get out of the parking lot, the Soviets have parachuted and opened fire on a history teacher, interrupting his foreshadowing lecture on the wars of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghengis_Khan">Genghis Khan.</a> The shit storm has started. The troops open fire on the unsuspecting kids and even fire rockets down the hallways. Amidst all the gunfire and confusion, Matt and Robert are able to run fast to the parking lot where Jed is waiting to give them a ride in his pickup <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">They are lucky to escape town, which has been completely taken over by enemy troops, and make their getaway to the mountains where they will spend the next couple of months learning how to shoot guns and be men. And how exactly do you become a man? Well, for starters you could kill a deer and then drink its blood. That's what C. Thomas Howell does anyway. Matt and Jed apparently already did that when they were younger and hunted with their father, so they think that it's normal and that everyone should do it. Matt says, "<b>Once you do that, there's going to be something different about you... always!</b>" Well if that ain't the truth! He sure must have the "<b>spirit of the deer</b>" in him, because from this point on, he is a killing machine with no remorse (you know, like a deer). He'd rather wear the scalp of his dead enemies than ever be caught wearing his Star Wars hat with flipped up visor ever again. He honestly becomes too tough for his own good, but has a new sense of school pride when he starts yelling out "Wolverines" (his school's mascott) when he kills people. If school ever re-opens and they make a new sport that involves blowing shit up with rockets, he could totally be the captain.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkMCffJSxfCLrG5aN9-xasbd3_6qp7fOddttwC-7YCxsemg2X0_ASLtLPi4SLt-tqkZoBts7m-0lex5hY8REv4DxfiE0Srf8_aA1oSZqjvyd96qzbp2xLhIbYMp6D6vGLlYlDo-u9b_8R1/s1600-h/wolverines!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkMCffJSxfCLrG5aN9-xasbd3_6qp7fOddttwC-7YCxsemg2X0_ASLtLPi4SLt-tqkZoBts7m-0lex5hY8REv4DxfiE0Srf8_aA1oSZqjvyd96qzbp2xLhIbYMp6D6vGLlYlDo-u9b_8R1/s320/wolverines!.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>"Wolverines!"</b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuIBc3lDx58rt2GMeWvOKsq-ykBY2PtS9zlcJrq4TvC6SjXCnUAyVVT8BYzKGpQXLdGIep6mi0iuJzxDWQbJeGGibWfyHBiTQ2DxKTFJfXs24MTM_HkLXlVxaMnoLkOvEtwU1PVZqtmXhC/s1600-h/wolverine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuIBc3lDx58rt2GMeWvOKsq-ykBY2PtS9zlcJrq4TvC6SjXCnUAyVVT8BYzKGpQXLdGIep6mi0iuJzxDWQbJeGGibWfyHBiTQ2DxKTFJfXs24MTM_HkLXlVxaMnoLkOvEtwU1PVZqtmXhC/s320/wolverine.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>"A Wolverine!"</i></b></span> </div>Towards the begining of the film, Jed says "It's World War Three down there", but we're not sure if it actually is WWIII until <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000959/">Powers Boothe</a> comes parachuting in to confirm that yes, it is in fact World War Three down there. I'm pretty sure the only point of his character, who's name is Andy, is to give the viewer all the exposition that, up until this point, was missing. He describes how horriffic the war has been and how much of the country has been invaded, blah blah blah. He delivers his lines the same way he later does in <a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/01/rapid-fire-1992.html">Rapid Fire</a>, like a hard boiled detective and much like in that movie, he makes it work. It's like Mark said to me the other day. "It's like he's just too grizzled and badass for reality." But maybe that's just the way he talks.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5Q6_WSE5jn70ngZSNXX2PaQuoDuHefO_JmB5LY2JJzi2q68ivdMotjX09cGavddsQPP34CEKls2AH2Bs9aZr-GbWZvBaabMosYb3vaxB1lXFoifWdbb-rqkuqZLz4DsQkb5nLDFKAr3-/s1600-h/powers+boothe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5Q6_WSE5jn70ngZSNXX2PaQuoDuHefO_JmB5LY2JJzi2q68ivdMotjX09cGavddsQPP34CEKls2AH2Bs9aZr-GbWZvBaabMosYb3vaxB1lXFoifWdbb-rqkuqZLz4DsQkb5nLDFKAr3-/s320/powers+boothe.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><b>Everybody's dead!</b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>So far I've mentioned two people that are pretty badass in this movie, C. Thomas Howell and Powers Boothe. Swayze doesn't quite reach the standards set by his fellow castmates even though at one point he does tell everyone to "Never cry again!", but then breaks his own rule by sneaking off into the woods to weep like a little girl. That's not to say that little girls can't be badasses though. Take <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000426/">Jennifer Grey</a> for example. She's a small girl, but manages to be the toughest person in this movie by far. She doesn't say much, but she manages to blow up a tank and a building filled with soldiers. Who needs rockets when you can hand deliver bombs? She even takes a bullet from a helicopter like a champ.<br />
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The movie is a little dated based on the fact that the entire story hinges on the audience believing that the Soviets would invade the US. I was born the year this movie came out, so I barely lived in a world where there was a Soviet Union (they dissolved in 1991). All I know is that when I was second grade, our classes got new maps and people started calling it Russia. But even if it was a completely fictional idea that involved a made-up country, the idea of WWIII taking place in the United States is still terrifying. Apparently they are remaking this movie for a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234719/">2010</a> release and instead of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War">Cold War</a> scare, they are using the terror of a Post 9/11 world. Shouldn't they change the title? I thought the "Red" part of Red Dawn was in reference to the color of the Soviet flag? <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYE5vuQCyCTkrsXgiwH_p0_l7aCr_iCcF0YogtWdp5SkeAt6sy90oF_G2lmL7MHUNRSxE54W8UH77yiLIO5-cC9N_xUIOST8vEufdsGjouzHPrt_kVaZAIKEzd1gyOUzRO0PVzQOwPcscv/s1600-h/avenge+me%21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYE5vuQCyCTkrsXgiwH_p0_l7aCr_iCcF0YogtWdp5SkeAt6sy90oF_G2lmL7MHUNRSxE54W8UH77yiLIO5-cC9N_xUIOST8vEufdsGjouzHPrt_kVaZAIKEzd1gyOUzRO0PVzQOwPcscv/s320/avenge+me%21.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><b>Best Quote: </b>Jed and Matt's dad, Mr. Eckert, played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001765/">Harry Dean Stanton</a>, yelling to his sons from behind a fence at the local Drive-In turned Prison Camp "Avenge Me!... AVENGE ME!!! <br />
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<b>Body Count:</b> Honestly there is no way to keep track of all of them. I tried, I really really tried, but even with pausing the movie and counting the piles of bodies I couldn't keep track. Here's what a 1984 article from the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/04/arts/red-dawn-condemned-as-rife-with-violence.html">New York Times</a> has to say:<br />
"<i>The National Coalition on Television Violence has condemned the summer hit ''Red Dawn'' as the most violent movie ever made. The fantasy about third-world troops invading a small Colorado town averages 134 acts of violence an hour...</i>"<br />
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<b>Point Blank Kills: </b>Again, too many to count. Everyone does it though like it ain't no thang to shoot a guy in the face.<br />
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-by Ben StumpfSoda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-83880676706750221782010-01-26T12:00:00.006-05:002010-02-12T10:24:27.718-05:00Navy Seals (1990) - by Mark Oswald<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFzGtnD0-MbKUdoGGPUaVyCxb6W4Md69z-qB5_2lCUTN7P2xA3YYwd3WIJc1AUrfo0Iiar0n1auywI3uZ9Yfn3IVRKgEZ7-7hiTo8-hI_snIh4Xbz2-7lCu0rFnwJiujcpGfPaltBG58-/s1600-h/navyseals4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFzGtnD0-MbKUdoGGPUaVyCxb6W4Md69z-qB5_2lCUTN7P2xA3YYwd3WIJc1AUrfo0Iiar0n1auywI3uZ9Yfn3IVRKgEZ7-7hiTo8-hI_snIh4Xbz2-7lCu0rFnwJiujcpGfPaltBG58-/s320/navyseals4.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Navy fuckin’ Seals, man. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">These guys are out of control and truly outrageous judging by this 1990 action film by <em>Cujo</em> and <em>Jewel of the Nile</em> director, Lewis Teague. Okay, so maybe they’re just slightly outrageous, but the needle is tipped into the TK red zone by the antics of hot shot Charlie Sheen. Don’t believe me? You want proof? Well fine. His shenanigans include, but are not limited to, jumping out of a car and off a bridge on his way to a fellow Seal’s wedding, riding a bike after a tow truck that snatched his convertible for being parked on the green at a golf course, and then liberating it once he catches up. AND before any of this, he is introduced waking up on the beach, and he may or not have been wearing a Hawaiian shirt…like I said, out.rageous. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div align="center"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiynlYLIamnfwocTmEmxgIDQa97JEwelKTCG7IKBxlIfV5FBvivmFukbHdHzvMfxPjIXh3Q0KauBAgYXeMi_8yuDU0-rF9uQqbhg5C74shX8afgJn4Q8d0_fk6skV5ymt2PlWhaT-EKXOo/s1600-h/navyseals2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiynlYLIamnfwocTmEmxgIDQa97JEwelKTCG7IKBxlIfV5FBvivmFukbHdHzvMfxPjIXh3Q0KauBAgYXeMi_8yuDU0-rF9uQqbhg5C74shX8afgJn4Q8d0_fk6skV5ymt2PlWhaT-EKXOo/s320/navyseals2.bmp" /></a></div></div><div align="center" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dammit Sheen, what don't you get about "ALIENS reunion photo shoot"?!</span></em></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">I’ve heard about this movie for a while, and it had (in my head at least) been built up to a <em>Road House</em> level of entertainment. I’m sorry to say, that such perilous heights were not quite reached. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it though. I actually found it to be a solid action movie that might as well have doubled for an actual Navy Seals recruitment campaign. I mean, if I had only this film to go on, I’d be signed up already. They look like they’re having a great freakin’ time! Drinking, shooting, jumping out of helicopters, scaring the shit out of commie left wing journalists, and my personal favorite, homoerotic golf montages set to “The Boys Are Back in Town.” Again, count me in! And don’t worry; I’ll bring the neon shorts. Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say there may be just a tad of embellishment going on. </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-7HyiJilaT04qiPMOHPV_yBTN6FvED2ywdxg0osr3Q9eSaZcklxlgKC5Ek4e-UFqzH9hr9WaSvQj6toHMLfWFusLNeQN9qGRcTwVtG1FCYRoRl5lQBFb4ToRko0YjTHRLQ_MmufBwX1Se/s1600-h/navyseals5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-7HyiJilaT04qiPMOHPV_yBTN6FvED2ywdxg0osr3Q9eSaZcklxlgKC5Ek4e-UFqzH9hr9WaSvQj6toHMLfWFusLNeQN9qGRcTwVtG1FCYRoRl5lQBFb4ToRko0YjTHRLQ_MmufBwX1Se/s320/navyseals5.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Biehn says, "Stay frosty"</span></em></div><br />
I mentioned Charlie Sheen before, but he’s technically not the “Lead” in this. That honor goes to the “Hero of the 80’s” himself, Michael Biehn. I’ve always loved this guy, probably due to his performances in The <em>Terminator</em> and <em>Aliens</em>, which were of course both directed by James Cameron. He also appeared in Cameron’s <em>The Abyss</em>, (but I didn’t see that till a few years ago). Sadly, outside of the 80’s his career didn’t quite blossom like he and I presumed it would (should). The only other things I’ve really seen him in have been supporting roles in <em>Tombstone</em>, <em>The Rock</em>, and more recently, the <em>Planet Terror</em> half of Rodriguez/Tarantino’s <em>Grindhouse</em> double feature, which he was awesome in. I loved his interaction which Jeff Fahey as his brother in that film, and I’d love to see a film based just around those two characters; great stuff. Going back to <em>The Rock</em>, though, his character in that film and Navy Seals could’ve been the same one for all I know, apart from having different names, of course. He was simply born to play these stern military badasses. Give him a gun and a com-link and he’s good to go. Other members of the team include Biehn’s <em>Aliens</em> co-star, Bill Paxton in a less jokey and less…um…big role, as the squad’s sniper, and Dennis Haysbert who you would all probably recognize as President David Palmer from <em>24</em>, or at least those All State Insurance commercials (“Are you in good hands?”). <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikjT5pwdnZZMPueAYrt5WGB7LS2uMiG4GR-aLhV2nTVUqfVhKMt1MV8aTw3kdQa0GC_tqih5rWQjb_ku_hxDFMHNuRYRwehmxkykMF6TgqZZcPnliQkOHQBGmBfloUwnEAmBuNAE0KUJPz/s1600-h/navyseals3.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikjT5pwdnZZMPueAYrt5WGB7LS2uMiG4GR-aLhV2nTVUqfVhKMt1MV8aTw3kdQa0GC_tqih5rWQjb_ku_hxDFMHNuRYRwehmxkykMF6TgqZZcPnliQkOHQBGmBfloUwnEAmBuNAE0KUJPz/s320/navyseals3.bmp" /></a></div><br />
One thing I really liked about the final confrontation in this film is that I felt it had a real sense of danger to it. The Seal team was in enemy territory, outnumbered like you wouldn’t believe, having to run from cover to cover, and I really got the feeling that any of these characters could bite it at any time.<br />
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As I mentioned before though, the movie didn’t quite fill up the ridiculous cheese quota I had prematurely assigned to it. Maybe this was my fault, or maybe its reputation simply preceded it; regardless I enjoyed it as a solid bit of 80’s action cinema (And yes, I know it came out in 1990, but in terms of action movies, early 90’s is still technically late 80’s).<br />
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I’ve been informed by my Soda on the Roof cohort, Ben, that this film is not as good as <em>Red Dawn</em>, which he purchased along with this as one of those two movies in one case deals, but I have yet to see that one, so until then…stay tuned.<br />
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<br />
Body Count – 47<br />
<br />
Lame Charlie Sheen one-liners – 17<br />
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Times Sheen is outrageous – 10 (Though I could’ve missed one…or 12, who knows; he’s crazy!)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Zc2B-h2laW2neBobpMmlA3kGLSkoo0RH0lf_8506Z077X9PjmCisvL2UXbO29Qn2lPQgn43Tf_OdJCPlnodPqFIFliRvm108kqEK-B_Cw168a3ZdBDKkfk1242B4hv7TgyfoGhlbKFOZ/s1600-h/navyseals1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Zc2B-h2laW2neBobpMmlA3kGLSkoo0RH0lf_8506Z077X9PjmCisvL2UXbO29Qn2lPQgn43Tf_OdJCPlnodPqFIFliRvm108kqEK-B_Cw168a3ZdBDKkfk1242B4hv7TgyfoGhlbKFOZ/s320/navyseals1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-26952678678512708172010-01-12T16:01:00.004-05:002010-02-12T08:53:07.819-05:00Rapid Fire (1992)<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLTrAQb7mlMCXqAj0kLnwPJj2od2pBzP7k5H8lqcmmvdmT-GSKlTjCrf8ynDT8FmY4GUM4o6jxvgWzzUW_bASynfL6AhnlayLAGISD9MPkQCHxD-ePQyz8eiV6Wh-BR23jzfksH_nUwMI/s1600-h/Rapid_fire_ver1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLTrAQb7mlMCXqAj0kLnwPJj2od2pBzP7k5H8lqcmmvdmT-GSKlTjCrf8ynDT8FmY4GUM4o6jxvgWzzUW_bASynfL6AhnlayLAGISD9MPkQCHxD-ePQyz8eiV6Wh-BR23jzfksH_nUwMI/s320/Rapid_fire_ver1.jpg" /></a> </div>Brandon Lee plays Jake Lo, a pissed off art student studying in L.A. The source of his anger? He watched his father get flattened by a tank in Tiananmen Square. The last thing he wants to talk about is what happened to his dad that night, so when he is asked by a fellow student to attend a Tiananmen benefit dinner to share his story and raise awareness of what happened there, he declines. It seems that all he wants to do is draw and maybe find a nice girl and it looks like things are going his way when the nude model from his drawing class asks him out on a date. When he goes to meet her that night, he realizes that this girl tricked him and he's actually at the Tiananmen benefit. What a bitch.<br />
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At the benefit Jake witnesses a murder and starts his long series of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If ever there were a film genre "wrong place, wrong time" this movie would be the poster child. They even say it a few times. Anyway, the murder is committed by one of our two major villains, Tony Serrano<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0541576/"></a> (played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0541576/">Nick Mancuso</a> who plays a dirty DEA agent in <a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2009/12/today-you-die-2005.html">Today You Die</a>. Tony is an Italian American (they make this clear by showing him eating pasta constantly and saying things like "bada bing") The murder starts a war between him and his former friend Tommy, an Asian drug lord who refuses to give Tony a bigger cut of his heroin business. Now Tony wants the witness, Jake, dead and the Feds want to bring Jake to Chicago, Tony's home base, to help take Tony down.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9-5PuTQHmqSxm_WpUfWE6dA64q67NAa84_H1dnJSneiOcDxLhSJIZf7lC-D_nTx7oyZ4ArqIpHsrI-Q7a3KzY_vvraZUwkBVyMel0KOcfOYBRp756scT2x_4txOhi3wPxuRS1mOgSj1i/s1600-h/hasselhoff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9-5PuTQHmqSxm_WpUfWE6dA64q67NAa84_H1dnJSneiOcDxLhSJIZf7lC-D_nTx7oyZ4ArqIpHsrI-Q7a3KzY_vvraZUwkBVyMel0KOcfOYBRp756scT2x_4txOhi3wPxuRS1mOgSj1i/s320/hasselhoff.jpg" /></a></div> When I bought this movie, I had never seen it, but was wishing for a non stop action ride. Wish granted. The action is easy to come by and really well done. Brandon Lee is excellent in the fight scenes and not too bad when required to act. I especially like his relationship with ultra good cop Mace Ryan, played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000959/">Powers Boothe</a>. Boothe delivers every line as if he were a 1930's hard boiled detective, but he makes it work. He's as tough as nails, but has a heart of gold and is more worried about getting the job done than his own health. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZX2Ot5W_3IaidSp-lV4bHzrZt7cBt4DqWAT9SKKjxwMVYC3fMiSf5FweT6XZmnMNCi1_jwnpZcU5rmUjpirUUQNCs3QY8svexnNnA6AgXpTfJvxGKINVkNYdS0bxd4TGSny6lCcGuWrX/s1600-h/rapiad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZX2Ot5W_3IaidSp-lV4bHzrZt7cBt4DqWAT9SKKjxwMVYC3fMiSf5FweT6XZmnMNCi1_jwnpZcU5rmUjpirUUQNCs3QY8svexnNnA6AgXpTfJvxGKINVkNYdS0bxd4TGSny6lCcGuWrX/s320/rapiad.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The film's tag line is "Unarmed And Extremely Dangerous", but this isn't entirely true. There are plenty of instances where Jake has either a gun or knife or metal rod, but something happens to him every time he uses one of these things. Jake seems to be disgusted by weapons and always throws them away after using them even when he needs them most (this is usually done in slow motion). Perhaps Jake prefers to fight hand-to-hand. We already know he is highly trained in martial arts as we are shown in the the slow motion fighting scene in the opening that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie.<br />
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Overall the movie is a lot of fun and the acting is decent all around. The plot isn't anything new, but the film makers at least do a decent job of making it somewhat logical, unlike most action movies I've watched recently. It has its cheesy moments and over the top scenes, but for me, those are things that make these kinds of movies so entertaining.<br />
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It's worth mentioning that this film, like Death Warrant (see <a href="http://sodaontheroof.blogspot.com/2010/01/death-warrant-1990.html">Mark's review from 1/4/10</a>) also features Al Leong. I never knew his name until Mark mentioned it, but I recognized him as that guy that was in some movie, or was it some other movie? Turns out he's both "some movie" and "some other movie" and about 100 others.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQdXi_WL9zEhszLXA5qIdtdRp-uz-mdtVfzmMmTJOE37SqzFmoMZF7b-E_AwCSG0TRJ8gAHdhBrxY9R2xcOg1APB1P_wt8DMHj5i8Gk9oZ6QN7NDsTo3ZbH7yhxNSiBTteSit_kbT1QCiq/s1600-h/al+leong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQdXi_WL9zEhszLXA5qIdtdRp-uz-mdtVfzmMmTJOE37SqzFmoMZF7b-E_AwCSG0TRJ8gAHdhBrxY9R2xcOg1APB1P_wt8DMHj5i8Gk9oZ6QN7NDsTo3ZbH7yhxNSiBTteSit_kbT1QCiq/s320/al+leong.jpg" /></a></div>Included on the DVD is a short promo shot by Fox during the making of this movie that starts out introducing Brandon Lee as "The Action Hero of the 90's". Unfortunately Lee died soon after this during the making of "The Crow", but had he lived, he would definitely have been at least as big as Van Damme or Seagal and I would most likely be collecting his Direct to Video releases. <br />
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Body Count: 34<br />
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People who have been on "Lost": 2 <br />
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000855/">Raymond J. Barry</a> who played Ray Shephard (Jack's uncle) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0154236/">Francois Chau</a>, who plays Dr. Pierre Chang aka Dr. Marvin Candle (Miles' dad)<br />
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References to Bruce Lee: 1<br />
Boothe says to Lee "Why don't you take those <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067824/">Fists of Fury</a> outside?"<br />
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-By Ben StumpfSoda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2980549736310472781.post-23112566775700374762010-01-11T23:08:00.000-05:002010-01-11T23:08:00.244-05:00Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt Energy Drink<object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IId64OJdCKM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IId64OJdCKM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Soda On The Roof!http://www.blogger.com/profile/16038357295476514769noreply@blogger.com0