In brainstorming for the best blog post idea ever, I came across the radically mind-banteringly fascinating gun-dungaree skip hoppin’ idea of picking 5 notable movies we’ve received in the store this week. 5 flavors for 5 days, Monday through Friday or Sunday through Thursday (whatever you like, french fry).
First film. Say Anything. That’s right. Anything you want. This pretty picture features John Cusack as Lloyd Dobler, an average day teen, chillin’ in Seattle, graduating and all that. College is surely on everyone’s minds, sept for Lloyd, whose main concern regards asking out the super smart and popular Diane Court. Featuring that one scene and directed by Cameron Crowe, this movie helped set the 80s as the decade for teenage tomfoolery. Fun fact: when Lloyd drives down 45th, he passes the Guild 45th theater which happens to be playing another Cusack flick, Tapeheads. Reality just got pretty crazy in this mud!
Second film. 12 Monkeys. Originally not conceived as a TV biopic based around the casting dilemmas behind a fictionalized 1960s pop group, 12 Monkeys was eventually adapted by Terry Gilliam as a futuristic sci-fi thriller where a virus has killed millions and survivors such as Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt must live underground. A bunch of stuff happens. Fun fact: Director Gilliam gave Bruce Willis a list of “Willis acting clichés” that he was refused to use during filming (such as the “steely blue eyes look”).
Third film. Memento. Directed by one of my favorites, Christopher Nolan, this film is a crazy ride where Guy Pearce repeatedly loses his short-term memory, relying on sticky notes to remember just what the hell he’s been up to. Throw in some mystery and murder and you’ve got yourself a fascinating driller (drama-thriller… insanely clever, i know). Fun fact: Christopher Nolan originally wanted Alec Baldwin for Guy Pearce’s roll. Let me tell you, it’s a good thing they didn’t have any costumes fitted for the character beforehand… Because Alec Baldwin is pretty large and Guy Pearce isn’t. Okay, not funny. Moving on.
Fourth Film. White Chicks. Directed by Kenan Ivory Wayans, this film features his brothers Shawn and Marlon as two kind of crappy FBI agents who are told to go undercover in an abduction case by disguising themselves as the daughters of a tycoon (hence, “white chicks”). What could possibly go wrong? Fun Fact: The original title of the movie was called the Miltons, in attempts to showcase a more direct spoof of the Hilton family.
Fifth Film. No. Fifth TV Show. No. First TV Show. The Kids in the Hall: Season 1. A wonderous sketch comedy show anyone my age should recognize from reruns on Comedy Central, this Canadian sketch comedy show originally aired in 1988 under the guise of Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Most of the sketch comedy is wild and out there, reminiscent of Shakespeare, with most female roles being commandeered by the all-male cast. Great late 80s/early 90s comedy. Fun fact: The name of the troupe comes from comic personality Sid Caesar, who, when telling a joke that didn’t go over well, attributed it to “the kids in the hall”.
Used to be you could go to the movies and see a double feature for the price of one movie. Okay, that was probably a really long time ago, but let your mind drift back to those days when you’d get to go to the movies and it really was movies, plural, and not just the one. I can remember seeing The Warriors and Up In Smoke probably 5 times, for example. And The Gumball Rally and Race With The Devil. Or seeing a Beatles movie marathon once where they showed A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Yellow Submarine and Let It Be all in a row. That was a pretty big afternoon for this kid, and there wasn’t any beatings or crying or throwing up or anything.
Anyhow, we’ve got a pretty good selection of double-, triple- and even quadruple-features here in the store so I’ve gone ahead and created a showcase on the Wall O’ Cool for some of them.
Footloose/Flashdance: On the one hand, you’ve got Kevin Bacon thumbing his nose at small town morality by inciting the local kids to dance (gasp!) and on the other hand you’ve got Jennifer Beals as a welder-by-day-and-exotic-dancer-by-night who just wants to go to a prestigious dance school. Bottom line here is over three hours of 80s dance movie awesome.
The American President/Dave: In the first one, Michael Douglas is the President, a widower, who falls in love with environmental lobbyist Annette Benning. Hijinks ensue as the Secret Service attempts to give the most public person in the world a little bit of privacy. In the second one, Kevin Kline is a Presidential lookalike asked to stand in for the real deal so he can skip out on a luncheon, and maybe get into a scandalous situation with an aide. Now it’s up to Dave to continue his ruse.
I, Robot/The Terminator: Will Smith is a technophobic cop in a world where technology has run amok! Okay, that’s stretching it a bit, but there’s a dead scientist and robots everywhere and Will is just the man who can solve this mystery. And then there’s Arnold as an actual killer robot from the future come to the past to kill the one person who can stop the robot revolution if he ever makes it to the future. Never mind that later on that same guy sends more robots back to protect him from the killer robots so he can make it to the future to send robots back to … wait. What?
Alien/Species: This is actually a pretty interesting double feature. Ridley Scott’s terrifying first entry in what would become a mostly pretty good sci-fi franchise (okay, it’s a really good trilogy with a so-so fourth installment) coupled with the only really good Species film, which is about alien/human hybrid technology gone awry.
The Riddick Trilogy: Riddick is an escaped convict with super-special eyes that allow him to see in the dark, which comes in really handy in Pitch Black, where he gets to help save a group of marooned space travelers. The action continues in the animated feature Dark Fury as Riddick battles monsters and mercenaries, and then even more action happens in the sweeping adventure The Chronicles Of Riddick. Getcher Vin Diesel fix right here.
The Good Girl/The Object Of My Affection/Picture Perfect: She’s cute, she’s dissatisfied with her life, she’s fallen in love with someone she shouldn’t have, she’s Jennifer Aniston! (and yeah, that pretty well describes all three of these rom-coms)
Eraser/The Last Boyscout/Passenger 57/The Point Of No Return: Warner Brothers has put out several of these “4 Film Favorites” DVDs and this one is called Extreme Action! Arnold Schwarzenegger is a US Marshal who “erases” the past of those entering the Witness Protection program, and his latest assignment involves a super-weapon. And lots of explosions. Then there’s Bruce Willis as the has-been cop sent to protect a has-been quarterback (Damon Wayans) from the bad guys. And lots of explosions. Wesley Snipes is “an ex-cop with a bad mouth, a bad attitude and a bad seat…” who happens to be on the same plane as a bunch of bad guys. The plan: Stop them before they make lots of explosions, of course. And then, just to prove that the action genre isn’t just a man’s territory, Bridget Fonda is a hottie/assassin in this remake of La Femme Nikita. Yes, there are explosions.
Lethal Weapon Series: Another of Warner’s “4 Film Favorites”. All four Mel Gibson/Danny Glover buddy cop action comedies in one tidy package. You’re never too old for this sh*t.
We’ve been having a good time with the shelves on the Wall O’ Cool lately, devoting space to Steve Martin, Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen, Tim Burton (which morphed into a Johnny Depp shelf), Bruce Willis and John Cusack, to name just a handful. It’s always interesting to sort through the various titles we have on hand to try to put one of these shelves together as sometimes there’s only about enough to fill the shelf (like in the case of Tim Burton) and other times there’s way too much to choose from (in the case of Woody Allen).
Today’s featured artist on the Wall O’ Cool falls somewhere in the middle, with several choices to be made without being completely overwhelming. Of course, there are always titles we want to use but are currently out of stock, but that’s a different story. Anyhow, enough of my yakkin’, let’s boogie.
Ladies and gentlemen, Jackie Chan. Martial arts, slapstick comedy and at well over 3000 years old, he does his own stunts! He’s like a cross between Bruce Lee and Harold Lloyd!
First Strike is the fourth installment in Jackie Chan’s Police Story series, in which Jackie is a cop hot on the trail of stolen nukes!
In Mr. Nice Guy, Chan is a well-known TV chef who also happens to be a martial arts expert (weird, right?). He becomes involved with a news reporter who has a video tape of a shady deal involving a local drug lord and now the two of them are on the run. This is not Iron Chef!
In Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2 and Rush Hour 3, Chan teams up with the ever-annoying Chris Tucker (maybe it’s just me, but as funny as he is, I just can’t take his voice) in this trilogy of buddy cop films. The first is clearly the best of the bunch, but they are all pretty enjoyable for the action and comedy, both of which are served up in heaping helpings.
In The Tuxedo, Chan is a hapless chauffeur for a suave millionaire who has suffered and accident and lays in a hospital bed. Sent to retrieve some items from his bosses home, Chan tries on a special tuxedo that gives him super-spy powers, sending him into a world of intrigue and danger. Go go gadget tuxedo!
The Forbidden Kingdom pairs Jackie Chan and Jet Li for the first time. A young man in Boston, obsessed with kung-fu movies and Chinese culture, discovers an ancient staff in a pawn shop. After local thugs attempt to rob the pawn shop, our young hero finds himself in possession of the staff and mysteriously transported to ancient China where he embarks on a mythical quest to save the Monkey King. Not as ridiculous as it sounds, actually.
Shanghai Knights is the sequel to Shanghai Noon, which we sadly do not currently have in stock. Chan teams up with Owen Wilson in these East-meets-Old-West action comedies. In this sequel, they find themselves in England chasing after the man who murdered Chan’s father. Hilarity and wild martial arts stunts ensue!
Whatever you’re after, whether it’s laughs or martial arts wizardry, Jackie Chan delivers. And so do we! Come check us out.