8/21/07 WEEKEND FARE
Here is your update. Because you really want to know what movies I watch.
This weekend and this week seem to be all about 80's action. A few weeks ago I couldn't get enough slashers ... And then, well, I guess I found out that I *could* get enough. So to get away from the killing and awfulness, I went into a period of standup comedy. Comics watched include: Dave Attel, Patton Oswalt, Lewis Black, Joe Rogan, Doug Stanhope (the inheritor of the throne of Bill Hicks), and unfortunately, Dane Cook, who is a spastic meathead and isn't funny.
Somewhere in here I decided it would be a good idea to see RAMBO 3, as I don't recall having seen it since it came out. Its a bit of a mess with a lot of good bits but no "flow." Most of it seemd kinda pieced together and sure enough, I looked it up and discovered that the original director was fired early on, and the movie was finished by, you guessed it, the 2nd unit director. IT REALLY SHOWS. At the very least, its Eisensteinian in its editing.
Next up was ROCKY IV, mostly just for Dolph Lundgren, who I am rather fond of. So on the same day I also watched UNIVERSAL SOLDIER and I COME IN PEACE, which is so damn good they are waiting for a format better than DVD to release it on. I made do with an old VHS tape that promised it was "Digitally Remastered!"
With Dolph out of the way (but nagging urges to spin RED SCORPION still lingering), I caught RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II again, and OH MY GOD, this is an amazing film. I realize I am stating the obvious, but something hit me about the sheer genius of Rambo re-fighting, and winning, The Vietnam Do-Over. What an amazing character for the 80's and Reagan, to re-address our military shame, shift the blame, kick ass, then nutsack the wimp bureacrats who "wouldn't let us win" the first time. Fucking RAD. Plus, Rambo goes it ALONE, a solo hero borne of the "me" 70s, rescuing the 80's ... From the 60's. Utterly incredible. Although I am still trying to figure out how Rambo was able to fire the door guns and the missile pods while still keeping the chopper aloft. I guess the same way he was able to drive the tank at the end of RAMBO III while also steering, turning the turret, firing the forward machine gun, and firing the cannon. And then reloading. All while in motion! You'd HAVE TO BE a hero to be able to do this stuff.
So with Stallone in a string of all-winners, I figured now's the time to catch COBRA, another one I've not seen since it was cable when i was a teenager. What a goofy movie. And let me tell you, it is SO 80'S. Oh. My. God. Maverick cop who "bucks the system but gets results?" Check! Lead female a vain model? Check! Poses with robots? Check! Hero has idiosyncratic period fashion but no uniform? Check! Viewer wonders "how's this guy still a cop?" Check! Now, I'm not one to point the "suck" finger at a movie with STALLONE on the cover from the EIGHTIES that I rented VOLUNTARILY. And to be fair, it didn't really suck, so much as it was just kinda cliched and silly. I could have stood a lot more of Cobra pushing random street thugs around and tearing their clothes and telling them to "clean up their act" and a lot less of Cobra looking at stuff through mirrored sunglasses and taking Brigitte Nielsen on dates. I admit it, I think its funny when the hero cop exceeds his authority and abuses his power to enforce the status quo. I mean, THAT'S COMEDY.
Oh yeah, pretty good car chase in this one. And the villain seems like he's from some horror movie, not an action flick, and dies the most spectacularly sadistic death since Seagal threw that guy with a broken back down an elevator shaft in MARKED FOR DEATH!
This weekend and this week seem to be all about 80's action. A few weeks ago I couldn't get enough slashers ... And then, well, I guess I found out that I *could* get enough. So to get away from the killing and awfulness, I went into a period of standup comedy. Comics watched include: Dave Attel, Patton Oswalt, Lewis Black, Joe Rogan, Doug Stanhope (the inheritor of the throne of Bill Hicks), and unfortunately, Dane Cook, who is a spastic meathead and isn't funny.
Somewhere in here I decided it would be a good idea to see RAMBO 3, as I don't recall having seen it since it came out. Its a bit of a mess with a lot of good bits but no "flow." Most of it seemd kinda pieced together and sure enough, I looked it up and discovered that the original director was fired early on, and the movie was finished by, you guessed it, the 2nd unit director. IT REALLY SHOWS. At the very least, its Eisensteinian in its editing.
Next up was ROCKY IV, mostly just for Dolph Lundgren, who I am rather fond of. So on the same day I also watched UNIVERSAL SOLDIER and I COME IN PEACE, which is so damn good they are waiting for a format better than DVD to release it on. I made do with an old VHS tape that promised it was "Digitally Remastered!"
With Dolph out of the way (but nagging urges to spin RED SCORPION still lingering), I caught RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II again, and OH MY GOD, this is an amazing film. I realize I am stating the obvious, but something hit me about the sheer genius of Rambo re-fighting, and winning, The Vietnam Do-Over. What an amazing character for the 80's and Reagan, to re-address our military shame, shift the blame, kick ass, then nutsack the wimp bureacrats who "wouldn't let us win" the first time. Fucking RAD. Plus, Rambo goes it ALONE, a solo hero borne of the "me" 70s, rescuing the 80's ... From the 60's. Utterly incredible. Although I am still trying to figure out how Rambo was able to fire the door guns and the missile pods while still keeping the chopper aloft. I guess the same way he was able to drive the tank at the end of RAMBO III while also steering, turning the turret, firing the forward machine gun, and firing the cannon. And then reloading. All while in motion! You'd HAVE TO BE a hero to be able to do this stuff.
So with Stallone in a string of all-winners, I figured now's the time to catch COBRA, another one I've not seen since it was cable when i was a teenager. What a goofy movie. And let me tell you, it is SO 80'S. Oh. My. God. Maverick cop who "bucks the system but gets results?" Check! Lead female a vain model? Check! Poses with robots? Check! Hero has idiosyncratic period fashion but no uniform? Check! Viewer wonders "how's this guy still a cop?" Check! Now, I'm not one to point the "suck" finger at a movie with STALLONE on the cover from the EIGHTIES that I rented VOLUNTARILY. And to be fair, it didn't really suck, so much as it was just kinda cliched and silly. I could have stood a lot more of Cobra pushing random street thugs around and tearing their clothes and telling them to "clean up their act" and a lot less of Cobra looking at stuff through mirrored sunglasses and taking Brigitte Nielsen on dates. I admit it, I think its funny when the hero cop exceeds his authority and abuses his power to enforce the status quo. I mean, THAT'S COMEDY.
Oh yeah, pretty good car chase in this one. And the villain seems like he's from some horror movie, not an action flick, and dies the most spectacularly sadistic death since Seagal threw that guy with a broken back down an elevator shaft in MARKED FOR DEATH!
posted by figurebuilder at 1:16 PM
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