More summer movies….
So had an opportunity to crank through many more movies in the past few weeks, given two flights to Europe and an overnight stay in the Roma airport on the way home.
First up, was the recent Muppets movie. Having been a huge fan of the original 70s show, and the first original movie (none of the rest, however), I was looking forward to this. And despite negative nellyism from some of the original Hensonites, i thought it was pretty good, one of the highlights being the ‘muppet or a man’ song from FOTC’s Bret McKenzie, love that song!
Next up: Haywire, starring Gina Carano, a Muy Thai-trained kickboxer and not a traditional actor. Basically a spy thriller with multiple twists, and she’s essentially a female Jason Bourne – and it totally works. Great support roles from Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas (when was the last time I saw him in a movie?), Bill Paxton and Ewan McGregor. This movie kicks a** – literally. Watched it a second time on the way home! The IMDB rating is way off, this is more like a 7.5 or 8, definitely.
Next up: Rumble in the Bronx. This is one of the movies that made Jackie Chan big in the states, and as usual with his later movies, it’s a mix of crazy action, martial arts, crazy stunts and silliness at times. One of the ongoing gags is that the movie is set in ‘the Bronx’ yet was filmed in Vancouver, BC – so there are mountain ranges(?) in the backdrop at infrequent intervals, which of course makes no sense, and near the ending ‘hovercraft chase’ they simply leave them in there for about the last half hour. Oh well. As per usual, Jackie plays a sometimes-clumsy badass who protects those who need it and tries to right wrongs along the way. He’s not a cop in this one, which is good, but goes for broke in more than one action sequence, which is why we love him. What’s also a bit funny is the overuse of old 80s and even 70s cars (one of the cop surveillance vehicles is a classic 70s VW Bus – go figure – I’m sure it helped the budget aspect.
Next up, Beat Takeshi’s The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi. This is a modern interpretation of a long, long running Japanese samurai series, done by one of Japan’s most famous actors (Takeshi Kitano). It tells the story of a blind masseur who journeys from town to town earning his meager living, but reveals himself to be a brilliant sword-fighting avenger when rival gangs take over the town and exploit/extort the townspeople. So I saw this movie several years ago and wanted to rewatch it, to compare to all the recent martial arts/etc. movies I’ve been watching lately. Have to say – still excellent, very well made and not afraid to insert some laughs along the way (not unlike that of Stephen Chow‘s Kung Fu Hustle, which came out the next year in 2004) with great fight scenes but just beautiful filmmaking generally.
Finally, since I didn’t finish watching Bill Maher‘s Religulous yet – I’ll finish with the light sci-fi flick Time After Time, where H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) travels into the future (1979 San Francisco) to stop Jack the Ripper (the always dastardly David Warner). I never saw this movie back when it came out, although I always meant to. While it is a fairly predictable ‘fish out of water’ story as to Wells – David Warner’s Jack the Ripper is likely just as menacing as a real one would be, save that he’s dressed in 70’s leisure suits, which definitely makes his daytime appearance less intimidating 30+ years later, to say the least. Still, there are some twists and turns to the plot, and it’s nice to see Malcolm McDowell be the nice guy for once (he’s usually the bastard villain like Warner). Certainly far better than say, The Black Hole of the same era….!
Once I had watched all these, it was nearly time to board the plane and head back to Seattle…..a rivederci, Roma airport…..
candybowl
Tags: '10s, 00's, 70's, 80s, comedy, freaks, malevolence, martial arts, movies