|
|
|---|
This list of 50 films, is a set of films that I have decided that will be my "Criterion Collection" of films. A set of movies that I use to describe who I am, my ideas and what I think are the best movies. You may not agree and that's ok, but these are my movies. And as always, "THARR BE SPOILERS! YE BE WARNED!"
#50: LAST ACTION HERO
Now, I understand what you may be thinking. "Zortt, I thought you would open your regular segment with a blockbuster. Not this embarrassing dud of a film that probably set Arnold on his path to the 5 dollar movie bin at Walmart. Come on dude."
Well, tough shit. I'm not going to start at the movie that means THE most to me. I mean its a list of 50. Where's the suspense there? The argument I'm trying to establish is that these movies shaped me as a person and there are some possible clunkers that you may not think as good, but I'll justify this the best I can. Technically, this was a blockbuster, but it...well...I'll talk about that in a second.
Basically, the film is about a New York City kid, named Danny, who goes to the movies a lot. A LOT. To the point where he misses school all the time and is just a highly distracted kid in a city of hundreds of theaters. They often show him walking down a street that is literately theater after theater. He becomes friends with the elderly projectionist, who is just as big as a movie buff. He also has really great fantasies featuring Arnold doing amazing things: like being in Hamlet.
It should be noted here, that the projectionist is the late great Art Carney in, I believe, his last screen role. Art Carney was a fantastic stage and screen actor. One of out of his many rolls was a merchant who sells Lumpy his holo-porn in the Star Wars Holiday Special.
Anyway, the projectionist lets the kid come late and night to see the latest incarnation of action hero Jack Slater (who is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), however on this special occasion he gives Danny a magical movie ticket that literally puts him in the movie. He is transported into the movie world, hangs out with Jack Slater trying to convince him that he is in a movie while at the same time helping him break the case. At one point they escape the film world back to the movie world, Slater meets the actual Schwarzenegger, and they mention Planet Hollywood a couple times.
Everything in the movie happens with a tongue firmly planted in cheek, because everything that happens in the movie world is an action movie cliche or a nod to other popular movies (such as F. Murray Abraham is in the film as a backstabbing FBI agent, however Danny keeps referring him to his Oscar winning role in Amadeus, a trip to the blockbuster video store in the film world finds Sly Stallone as the Terminator, and the best cameo in the movie has Sir Ian McKellan as Death from Ingrid Bergman's The Seventh Seal.) . Its all in good fun and a great way to poke fun of the action film genre. Here's the video store scene, a fun fact about it first. The woman who's at the checkout is Angie Everhardt, swimsuit/playboy model and quite possibly the sexiest red head I've ever seen (she was at Wizard World Chicago) super sexy. :)
Heck, the film was directed by action screen legend, John McTiernan. This is the man who brought you Die Hard, Predator, and The Hunt for Red October. I looked through his IMDB and couldn't really find another comedic movie. I guess you could say that Die Hard with a Vengeance could be a comedy, but its still a big old action film.
So, if all these cool people were involved, and even though the acting is really cheesy in some parts the movie is actually entertaining, why in 1993 did this movie get sent to the land of clunkers? A little movie called Jurassic Park took a large bite out of it. They came out weeks of each other and people were still clamoring to see Jurassic Park instead of Arnold poking fun at himself. This film was also one of Sony's first films they produced after they had bought Columbia Pictures. When developing the film, they did their now classic ideas of picking a release date before the movie was finished and hoping the film will do spectacularly (Sound familiar? They did that to Spider-Man 3 and look how that turned out.) However, no one knew at the time when Jurassic Park was going to be released and when Spielberg and Universal picked the weekend before this came out (deliberately) there was nothing Columbia/Sony could do about it. It made a good amount of money, but again was way overshadowed by Jurassic Park, so no one cared.
The reason this movie is on my list, is the pure fantasy that this movie brings out. Danny was able to use a magical movie ticket and transport himself into the movie world. He became a character in the film and got to hang out with Arnold. Now who wouldn't want to do that??? I'm a huge movie buff, so that very idea always gets me excited. To travel into the greatest films and have an adventure with your favorite characters, how exciting!
Arnold, Stallone, and other over the top action films have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. (Yes, I did love The Expendables) And for this movie to turn that on its head and take a fun poke at itself is always fun. Having said that, I'm not really a fan of spoof movies (unless its Airplane or Airplane 2: The Sequel) this isn't really a spoof movie, just extremely meta about things. I think Arnold actually says a funny line and turns to the camera to "see" a reaction to his buffoonery.
Does it have flaws? Oh my, yes. Yet, the reason I keep coming back to it is because it always reminds me of my love of movies and the escape that movies provide when you go see it in the theater. The movie does this literally, but I often find myself doing that through the power of my imagination. Its one of those movie that defines the idea that if you shut your brain off, you'll enjoy it better. That's true to an extent, but an astute film buff can have fun with all the great movie/tv/pop culture references that gets you through the film and makes you love the idea of movies again.
Here's the trailer:
So that's number 50 in the list. Trust me, it gets better from here. :)
#50: LAST ACTION HERO
Now, I understand what you may be thinking. "Zortt, I thought you would open your regular segment with a blockbuster. Not this embarrassing dud of a film that probably set Arnold on his path to the 5 dollar movie bin at Walmart. Come on dude."
Well, tough shit. I'm not going to start at the movie that means THE most to me. I mean its a list of 50. Where's the suspense there? The argument I'm trying to establish is that these movies shaped me as a person and there are some possible clunkers that you may not think as good, but I'll justify this the best I can. Technically, this was a blockbuster, but it...well...I'll talk about that in a second.
Basically, the film is about a New York City kid, named Danny, who goes to the movies a lot. A LOT. To the point where he misses school all the time and is just a highly distracted kid in a city of hundreds of theaters. They often show him walking down a street that is literately theater after theater. He becomes friends with the elderly projectionist, who is just as big as a movie buff. He also has really great fantasies featuring Arnold doing amazing things: like being in Hamlet.
It should be noted here, that the projectionist is the late great Art Carney in, I believe, his last screen role. Art Carney was a fantastic stage and screen actor. One of out of his many rolls was a merchant who sells Lumpy his holo-porn in the Star Wars Holiday Special.
Anyway, the projectionist lets the kid come late and night to see the latest incarnation of action hero Jack Slater (who is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), however on this special occasion he gives Danny a magical movie ticket that literally puts him in the movie. He is transported into the movie world, hangs out with Jack Slater trying to convince him that he is in a movie while at the same time helping him break the case. At one point they escape the film world back to the movie world, Slater meets the actual Schwarzenegger, and they mention Planet Hollywood a couple times.
Everything in the movie happens with a tongue firmly planted in cheek, because everything that happens in the movie world is an action movie cliche or a nod to other popular movies (such as F. Murray Abraham is in the film as a backstabbing FBI agent, however Danny keeps referring him to his Oscar winning role in Amadeus, a trip to the blockbuster video store in the film world finds Sly Stallone as the Terminator, and the best cameo in the movie has Sir Ian McKellan as Death from Ingrid Bergman's The Seventh Seal.) . Its all in good fun and a great way to poke fun of the action film genre. Here's the video store scene, a fun fact about it first. The woman who's at the checkout is Angie Everhardt, swimsuit/playboy model and quite possibly the sexiest red head I've ever seen (she was at Wizard World Chicago) super sexy. :)
Heck, the film was directed by action screen legend, John McTiernan. This is the man who brought you Die Hard, Predator, and The Hunt for Red October. I looked through his IMDB and couldn't really find another comedic movie. I guess you could say that Die Hard with a Vengeance could be a comedy, but its still a big old action film.
So, if all these cool people were involved, and even though the acting is really cheesy in some parts the movie is actually entertaining, why in 1993 did this movie get sent to the land of clunkers? A little movie called Jurassic Park took a large bite out of it. They came out weeks of each other and people were still clamoring to see Jurassic Park instead of Arnold poking fun at himself. This film was also one of Sony's first films they produced after they had bought Columbia Pictures. When developing the film, they did their now classic ideas of picking a release date before the movie was finished and hoping the film will do spectacularly (Sound familiar? They did that to Spider-Man 3 and look how that turned out.) However, no one knew at the time when Jurassic Park was going to be released and when Spielberg and Universal picked the weekend before this came out (deliberately) there was nothing Columbia/Sony could do about it. It made a good amount of money, but again was way overshadowed by Jurassic Park, so no one cared.
The reason this movie is on my list, is the pure fantasy that this movie brings out. Danny was able to use a magical movie ticket and transport himself into the movie world. He became a character in the film and got to hang out with Arnold. Now who wouldn't want to do that??? I'm a huge movie buff, so that very idea always gets me excited. To travel into the greatest films and have an adventure with your favorite characters, how exciting!
Arnold, Stallone, and other over the top action films have always been a guilty pleasure of mine. (Yes, I did love The Expendables) And for this movie to turn that on its head and take a fun poke at itself is always fun. Having said that, I'm not really a fan of spoof movies (unless its Airplane or Airplane 2: The Sequel) this isn't really a spoof movie, just extremely meta about things. I think Arnold actually says a funny line and turns to the camera to "see" a reaction to his buffoonery.
Does it have flaws? Oh my, yes. Yet, the reason I keep coming back to it is because it always reminds me of my love of movies and the escape that movies provide when you go see it in the theater. The movie does this literally, but I often find myself doing that through the power of my imagination. Its one of those movie that defines the idea that if you shut your brain off, you'll enjoy it better. That's true to an extent, but an astute film buff can have fun with all the great movie/tv/pop culture references that gets you through the film and makes you love the idea of movies again.
Here's the trailer:
So that's number 50 in the list. Trust me, it gets better from here. :)
