Matt’s Week in Dork! (12/2/12-12/8/12)

    Work continues to dominate my time.  Though I’m reading a couple really good books right now.  One on the Byzantine Empire and one the autobiography of the pretty awesome Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  And Friday boosted my Dork cred with another meeting of the graphic novel club.


Lincoln:  This epic of American history manages to make many of the names from the history books seem a bit more like real people.  Though still holding Lincoln up as the wise old god, passing down justice and always on the right, it is a bit less one-sided than most portrayals.  Not nearly as maudlin as the trailers would have you believe.  But getting past the cynicism, the film is uplifting and sweeping.  The cast is excellent, and the relationship between Lincoln, his friends, his opponents, and the common man is very powerful.  An array of ‘that guy’ actors lend support to the stars, and they bring their most excellent facial hair.  Good stuff.

Anna Karenina:  Highly stylized, even more than Joe Wright’s work normally is, this lavish production is beautiful, but perhaps a bit too concerned with visual flair than with story or character.  The actors all do a good job, but at the end of the day, Anna is a horrible, flip-flooping, self-involved bitch, and her boyfriend is a vacuous pretty boy.  It’s hard to feel for them, as they crush and destroy everything and everyone around them in the name of their empty passion they mistake for love.

Hugo:  I still find this a bit odd.  It starts out as a fairly typical kids’ adventure film, set in a train station some time after World War I.  There are hints of mystery, the magic of books, that sort of thing.  But then, about a half hour in, it takes this turn, becoming a tale of movies and the love we have for them.  A broken old man in a run down old toy shop is more than he seems, and a boy with noting left is driven to find out the truth.  For any film buff, this movie is a must.

Immortal:  This movie is certainly visually interesting.  Sadly, the script is absolute garbage.  The characters make choices and say dialog that doesn’t seem to have any logic.  The world created is interesting, but so vague that it’s nearly impossible to feel grounded enough to care about anything or anyone.  Egyptian gods, alien incursions, mutant red hammerhead sharks, a girl with blue hair (got to have blue hair), and lots of CG people.  You can kind of tell that writer/director Enki Bilal used to write comics that appeared in Heavy Metal.  It has that European comic feel (beautiful but stupid).  I can’t recommend the film if you’re looking for a good story.  But if you want to turn your brain off for a while and enjoy some interesting imagery, go for it.

Men in Black 3:  “You’re distressing.  Everything about you upsets me.”  It’s the sequel that nobody was asking for.  The boys are back.  Somehow J doesn’t seem to have come to terms with the nature of his job, in spite of more than 10 years passing.  The time travel gags are actually pretty funny, though.  And the 60s aliens are cool.  The villain, Boris, is genuinely disgusting.  The script was a heck of a lot more clever and the story more interesting than the second film.  All in all, a pretty entertaining film.

Dark Shadows:  Finally, Tim Burton had a chance to redeem ten years of spitting on his early success with a franchise nearly tailor made for his style.  With Dark Shadows, he could embrace the Hammer Horror vibe he reached for in Sleepy Hollow and run with it, ramping up the Gothic dread and mystery.  Or, he could do a crappy Adams Family rip-off.  Set in “Maine” (seriously, it’s totally not the England!) in the 1970s, I genuinely think this could have been something…other than crap.

Killing Them Softly:  Ouch.  This is a collection of sad bastards, dumbasses, and scumbags.  They all get together in the ugliest city outside of OCP occupied Detroit, to screw over, smack down, or murder each other.  And all while being depressing, awful people.  And the Ray Liota beatdown has to be one of the most horrible things I’ve seen.  He’s so sad, and gets so much kicked out of him.

The Package:  The Cold War is winding down, and an old soldier gets wrapped up in a conspiracy to keep it going.  A trip to The Fugitive’s Chicago and a team of crack character actors are needed.  Everything looks good and depressing as the chess board takes shape.  There’s really nothing especially good about this movie, but it’s a fine bit of action/espionage fluff.

Life of Pi:  Wow.  If you’re looking for vacuous pap, the kind of garbage some ‘spiritual healer’ might blather on about on Oprah, then you’ve come to the right place.  This is the ultimate expression of the idiocy, ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe (what silly, made up BS, that is) so long as you believe something.’  And as that ultimate expression, it is about as vapid and useless as it gets.  Basically a kid wanders around and stuff happens; he’s on a boat with a tiger and stuff happens; then he’s not on a boat and stuff happens.  Or not.  So warm up the drum circle, pop on the Shadowfax cd, spark up a doobie, and just let the universe flow, man.  And if the mumbo jumbo chicanery of the story isn’t condescending and trite enough, you can always watch the Richard Dryfus wannabe, hipster author listen with exasperated, ironic but sensitive interest to Yoda…I mean adult Pi tell his Grandpa Simpson stories (“I was wearing an onion on my belt!”).  Twelve years ago, Ang Lee made one of my all time favorite films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  Now he’s making something worthy of latter day M. Night Shyamalan.  What happened, dude?  You used to be so beautiful.

The Campaign:  “I crapped GOLD.”  Featuring the best baby punch I’ve seen in film, this goofy political send-up has its moments.  The jealous dogs crack me up.  Everyone seems to be having a good time being silly and saying stupid stuff.  But it’s not quite as tightly scripted or consistent as I’d have liked.  Worth a watch if you’re in the mood for some stupid comedy, but it’s not amazing.

    I watched another disk of Winds of War, this one dealing with the attack on Warsaw and the aftermath.  There are some interesting characters, for sure, but most of them drift in and out of the story for only the briefest of times.  The main cast is kind of drab.  Even Mitchum’s character has little to do but stand stiffly and look disapproving.  It’s just interesting enough to keep watching, but not much more.  And I watched another disk of Magic City, which is starting to grow on me.  The characters are becoming a bit more interesting.  I’m just hoping that at least one of the big ‘problems’ gets resolved by the end of the season.  I like Danny Huston, but his snarling ogre villain is too obvious and too pointlessly evil to stick around, and I’m hoping one way or another, he’s out of the picture in the finale.  We’ll see.

    Friday night, Lisa and Brad hosted another night of the Justice League of Extraordinary Book Club.  This time up, The Avengers: Children’s Crusade.  Opinions were split, with some people really enjoying it, and others totally hating it.  I fell on the hate side, as you’ll see in my full review.  We spent a lot of time trying to figure out the massive array of characters and any motivations they might have had.  And trying to figure out the good guy/bad guy ratio.

Gambiiiiiiit!!!

-Matt

Brad's Week In Dork! (2/5/12-2/11/12)

Is it seriously possible that I watched more movies this week than I did last week?  It is!  The big highlight of the week was finally getting to see my wife in a local production of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George.  This was easily my favorite show of hers that I've seen and I thought she did a phenomenal job as Frieda.  So, way to go @VFCinema!

My Cineawesome! Western Review of the Week was The Hunting Party, and as much as I enjoyed the last batch of Black & Whites I was quite happy to tackle something extremely violent and deplorable in that post-Peckinpah wild west.  And Gene Hackman is so darn despicable in that flick and it led nicely into my viewing of Prime Cut later in the week in which Hackman puts out all his disgusting chops as the psycho Mary Ann.  And that Triple Feature I did of Prime Cut/Point Blank/The Limey was easily my favorite movie night of the week.

But I didn't get much reading done.  Just a few single issue of comics, nothing major.  Next week I'm hoping to re-enter the world of John Carter in preparation of the new Disney flick.  Bought the three volume Disney Editions set and I'm hoping to have at least the first couple of book read before the Andrew Stanton film drops early March.  And I've still got a bunch of Parker books I want to read and James Sallis' Drive novel.  It's a busy life being a dork.

TV OF THE WEEK!

Twin Peaks Episodes 19 & 20:  With the Wife working so many late nights this week we did not have as many opportunities to crank out the Twin Peaks.  Hopefully next week we'll finally get this show concluded and pop in Fire Walk With Me.  But the two eps we watched were pretty entertaining.  The Laura Palmer business appears to be pretty much wrapped up, and episode 20 seems also to have concluded the criminal dealings of Michael Parks' drug dealing, French Canadian pimp Jean Renault.  That episode also offered one of my favorite bits from the show so far when Sheriff Harry S. Truman deputized Agent Cooper with a Twin Peaks PD badge, Kyle McLaughlin stroking the badge lovingly brought me tremendous pleasure.  So, what mysteries to we have left?  There still all that crazy Don S Davis White Lodge/Black Lodge business, the owls not appearing what they seem, and Windom Earle has left a corpse puzzle piece but for Cooper.  Can't wait to get The Wife to the end, and I'm very curious to see what she thinks of Lynch's prequel film.

Justified Season 3 "The Devil You Know":  Squeee!  I love this show so much!  After last week's Devil pledge to Boyd, Kevin Rankin gets some time on his own to mull over his loyalty and surprisingly this serves to finally gel Neal McDonough's villain with the rest of the cast--Timothy Olyphant's introduction to that character was hilarious.  Plus the main Dickie/Dewey kidnapping plot was heaps of fun and it looks like that's going to tie in with some of the plot elements from Elmore Leonard's latest Raylan novel.  Can't wait to tune in next week, same Bat time, same Bat Channel.

Supernatural Season 7 "The Slice Girls":  Not as enjoyable as last week's Elliot Ness time travel episode, but The Slice Girls provides for several classic Dean moments.  While Jared Paledecki investigates a series of ritualistic killings, Jensen Ackels hooks up with yet another hottie--and impregnates her with his seed!  That's right, in this episode Jensen Ackels produces a child--a knife wielding monster child that's gonna have to be put down brutally!  It's madness like this that makes this show so much damn fun.

MOVIES OF THE WEEK!

The Hunting Party:  "I like being kicked." I hope you feel the same as LQ Jones' murderous bandit, cuz you are in for some serious punishment when you pop in this incredibly brutal (and bloody) Western. Gene Hackman is a wretched monster of a husband who thinks nothing of putting out cigars on prostitutes when he's not raping his wife. Oliver Reed is a villainous gang leader who kidnaps Candice Bergen in order to learn to read and rape her before the rest of his gang has their way with her. Fun times? No. But if you're in the mood for an unforgiving slog through a hateful Western than The Hunting Party fits the bill. Reed and Hackman are great in their perspective scumbag parts, and the unrelenting violence definitely keeps the proceedings from being anything but boring. Definitely not for everybody, but sickos like me will enjoy.  For further hyperbolic statements regarding the depravity involved read my review over at Cineawesome.

Picasso Trigger:  "I got a Black Belt in Shotgun." The third film in Andy Sidaris' loosely connected Malibu Express saga still manages to cram in as much terrible dialog and random T & A as possible, but it lacks the insanity of his previous two films. A bunch of busty super agents and a couple of goofy meatheads team up to take off their clothes and take down the villainous Picasso Trigger. Sure, there are gems like "Is that a snorkel in his pocket or is he just happy to see me" and "You know I had rug burns on my rear for a week...it was worth it" but after a while I was immune to the stilted line readings and just wanted to see more skateboarders get exploded with rocket launchers.

Savage Beach:  Donna Speir & Hope Marie Carlton are back as the DEA Super Agents charged with protecting Hawaii from nefarious treasure hunters on the hunt for lost Samurai gold...or something. Four films (and Abeline cousins) into Andy Sedaris' Malibu Express saga and the thrill seems to be slipping from the whacky T & A antics. The films feel routine by this point and Savage Beach never cranks it up to 11 with its trashy dialog or mundane action sequences. Will Sedaris reclaim the madness of his first two films? Fingers crossed.

Raiding The Lost Ark:  "It's not the years, darling. It's the mileage." DIY Geek Jamie Benning turns from Star Wars to Raider of the Lost Ark for his latest Filmumentary and it is an impressively exhaustive look into Indiana Jones' first adventure. As the film plays from the first to last frame, Benning interjects interviews, behind-the-scenes-footage, storyboards, and comic books to give you the most extensive look into one of the all time great A-Budget B-Pictures. After two hours and twenty minutes you will find new appreciation and love for a film you probably thought you couldn't love or appreciate any more than you already do. Now it's time to dive back into the whole series. And yes, even Crystal Skull.

Texas Killing Fields:  A frustratingly subpar serial killer thriller starring the generally boring Sam Worthington, the promising Jeffery Dean Morgan (who I love, love, love, love in his various Supernatural guest stars as well as The Comedian in Watchmen), and nearly unwatchable Jessica Chastain--she was solid in Tree of Life but she's playing it way too tough here and I could almost recognize Michelle Rodriguez's pretend macho face. Chloe Moretz pops up as the child in danger and the second you see Stephen Graham on screen you know what's going on with the plot. Lame.

The Mercenary:  What sets Sergio Corbucci's Spaghetti Westerns apart from Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns? How 'bout a woman dressed as Jesus Christ mowing down the Mexican Army as they prance about a parade of fireworks? Or how 'bout a knockdown dragout fight between Franco Nero & Tony Musante in which donkeys are accidentally punched, pumpkins are tossed, and a chicken is saved from becoming an instrument of death? And those are just minor moments of mental. Leone is a madman. But Corbucci is seriously crazy. And yeah, The Mercenary is whole heaps of fun, but it also doesn't touch the brilliance of The Great Silence, The Hellbenders, or Django. If you haven't checked those out yet than you best correct that situation immediately.

Road House:  The night Patrick Swayze died the movie I had to watch was Road House. And now Ben Gazzara has passed and instead of watching Capone or Saint Jack, I had to watch Road House...and force Matt to watch it with me. It's pure 80s gold. And I love this film unabashedly and not at all in an ironic way. Swayze's Dalton (a zen bruiser who holds an NYU Doctorate in Philosophy as well as in Barroom Butt Kickery) is goofy but Goofy Cool. The film bleeds with the insanity of producer Joel Silver's id, ego, and SUPER EGO. Lots of Boobs (both men & women). Lots of Blood. Lots of Neon. And I love the Western plot of a man coming to town to clean out the trash and eventually unite said town with blood fueled shotgunning. And let's not forget the Iconic Cool of Sam Elliot as Dalton's bouncer mentor. Or the crazed beast of Ben Gazzara.  And remember, Dalton can win a game of Connect Four in only three moves.

Prime Cut:  After receiving a package of hotmandogs, the remnants of the crumbling Chicago Mob send Lee Marvin down to Kansas City to fetch their money and exact some serious punishment on Gene Hackman's gutmuncher cattle goon. Prime Cut is one of the all time great crime stories of the 1970s and it doesn't get the love it deserves these days. City Slicker Mobsters descend into Middle American Hell with gawking blonde shotgun farmboys as demons. Maybe not my favorite Marvin movie (Point Blank is A No. 1, see below), but his satchel full of guns toting Devlin is my favorite Marvin character and probably the closest he's come to capturing the Parker of Richard Stark's novels. Gene Hackman's Mary Ann is sooooo vile and disgusting, a spiritual predecessor to his rich rancher from The Hunting Party and you do not want to be anywhere near him when he's 1. feasting on cow pieces 2. Wrassling with his Hotdog wielding brother. And Sissy Spacek has never been better than she is here as the girlflesh Poppy; utterly sweet & innocent while also managing to be nowhere near sweet & innocent. Prime Cut is a Great Movie, but don't make the mistake I did: eating my Chipotle Burrito Bowl dinner while the meat packing credits churned on. Unpleasant.

Point Blank:  KLACK KLACK KLACK KLACK KLACK. That's the spit-shined sound of doom coming to wrap you on the face with the butt of its gun. Lee Marvin as the wronged gangster Walker is an unstoppable force. Double-crossers John Vernon and Sharon Acker never had a chance after they stole the loot and left Marvin for dead...but someone's gotta pay. Point Blank is not only Marvin's masterpiece, but also stylishly insane director John Boorman's; possibly the greatest story of dirty money vengeance and based on Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake)'s brutal novel The Hunter. Essential Crime Viewing.

The Limey:  Stephen Soderbergh's finest hour is this dread soaked revenger starring the animal Terrance Stamp storming across the pond in an epic quest to put his mitts upon the throat of Peter Fonda. Soderbergh takes the opportunity to try-on the non-linear narrative jumps of John Boorman's Point Blank and succeeds where most other thieves fail. And Terrance Stamp is a wonder. "Tell Him I'm Fucking Coming!" I've never believed a fictional man more when he screams this promise of vengeance. Does he get the satisfaction? Revelation? Watch the damn movie. And Luis Guizman, Peter Fonda, Nicky Katt are all great as the poor saps that fall upon the beast's path.

Safe House:  As the saying goes, "Everything Old Is Old Again"...uh...Safe House has a fine cast of thankless roles performed admirably but even as I type this micro-review the plot is slipping from my memory. Can you spot the diabolical CIA mole: Sam Shepard, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson?  So obvious it's pathetic.  I will admit that there is at least one knockdown, dragout fight towards the climax that I found thrilling in that Bourne wannabe-style direction and it's amazing how one haircut can transform contemporary scruffy Denzel into young, sexy, Virtuosity Denzel.

Guns:  "Murder by Federal Officer is still Murder." Five films into the Malibu Express franchise and director Andy Sidaris has finally snagged himself some A-List talent in Erik Estrada and Danny Trejo...did I say A-List, how 'bout D-List talent. Guns is a bit of a step up in the entertainment factor from the last two Sidaris flicks with more unnecessary rocket launcher killings, running beach high fives, and plenty of boobs boobs boobs...although, strangely it takes nearly twenty minutes before the T&A randomly appears. Dona Speir is still around, but she's got a new partner in the so-so Roberta Vasquez and the Cousin Aberline is particularly dopey here. But if you're looking for that particular brand of Sidaris bonkers than Guns is a good pick from the pack.

Stone Cold:  Those Cineawesome boys were not lying, Tom Selleck's first entry in the Jesse Stone Robert Parker adaptations is shockingly enjoyable for a made-for-tv-movie. Tom Selleck continues to prove that he's better than where his career path has taken him; he shows tremendous charisma and charm as the properly brutish Sheriff on the hunt for a pair of serial killers in Paradise, MA. The plot takes the characters to some impressively dark places.  Don't expect something wholeheartedly original, but there is tremendous promise in a series centered around Selleck and I look forward to cranking out the other flicks.

COMICS OF THE WEEK!

Winter Soldier #1:  After the disappointing super heroics of Brubaker's latest Captain America arc it's nice to see him concentrate on the crazy espionage stuff with this Winter Soldier spinoff.  His Cap work seems to be Marvel dictated and this Winter Soldier story seems to be the proper continuation of what he has been working on since his original Winter Soldier arcs from 7 (?) years back.  But it's not all Cold War flashbacks and Bucky guilt.  There's Gorillas with Machine Guns too.  Reminds you that, yes, this is still the Marvel Universe.  As usual, this will probably read better in trade but I think I'll keep chugging along with the staple comics.

Lobster Johnson The Burning Hand #1:  I love Mignola's pulp creation, Lobster Johnson.  It's such a damn silly image but also somehow a seriously kickass image as well.  But outside of the Hellboy and BPRD appearances, he's never really worked as a character.  The Burning Hand starts off with some potential as mobsters fake Injun Ghost killings and a plucky reporter closes in on the vengeance of The Claw.  Hopefully, this will be the arc in which Lobster Johnson shines.

Hawken #1 & #2:  This was definitely my favorite comic of the week.  I first ran across Timothy Truman's art on the Joe R Lansdale weird ass Jonah Hex comics, and that lead me to his Scout books as well as his work on the recent Dark Horse Conan runs.  For Hawken, he teams up with his writer son Benjamin Truman and they've cranked out an incredibly entertaining and messed-up Weird Western about a scumbag Cowboy who's visited by the poor saps he's killed.  Not sure where this story is going, but it's gonna be grim.  

--Brad

A Fistful of True Stories! (Brad's Picks)

Dillinger by Gary Roberts

One of my cinematic pet peeves is the reverence we as movie goers give to films "Based on Actual Events."  Take for example, this weekend's release of Drew Barrrymore's whale movie Big Miracle.  Isn't it wonderful and heartwarming how the Soviets and Americans put down their differences to help save a couple of ice trapped whales?  Bleck.  Once a "True Story" is filmed it's about as real as Battlefield Earth. The very act of telling turns Truth into Fiction.  My favorite True Stories are the ones that are "Loosely Based..." flicks that take a Law & Order approach, steal a headline and wrap a film around it.

5.  Ed Wood:  If you've read a single word of this blog than you are well aware that Matt & I are fans of all kinds of Trash Cinema.  Roger Corman might be our favorite purveyor of junkfood, but Ed Wood is the King of Where-There's-A-Will There's-A-Film moviemaking.  And just before director Tim Burton plunged into the unholy hells of the Planet of the Apes remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland he made his masterpiece with Ed Wood.  Johnny Depp has never been better as the ignorantly optimistic director and his saga to put Plan 9 From Outer Space on the big screen is one of the most heartwarming stories I've ever experienced.  He gives all us wannabes hope--PULL THE STRINGS!

4.  Dillinger:  Man, how do you pick just one Real Life Gangster picture?  Ask me one day and I'll go with Goodfellas.  Ask me another I'll pick The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  But right now, my favorite Real Life Gangster flick has to be John Milius' Dillinger.  The film is filled with heaps of manly-ready-to-burst violence and its all personified in Warren Oates' beautifully ugly mug.  The film definitely doesn't have the budget it deserves (look to the future in Michael Mann's Public Enemies theatrics), but Oates feels like a real thug.  A charmer buried within a brute.

3.  Tom Horn:  One of Steve McQueen's last films is also his absolute best.  Based on the probably B.S. autobiography of Tom Horn, McQueen plays a former army scout hired by ranchers to hunt down and execute cattle rustlers.  But he's a little too good at his job and the ranchers eventually turn on the hired killer.  An absolute stunner of a flick and I'm gearing up to watch it again for my Cineawesome series of Western reviews.  If all you know of McQueen is The Great Escape and Bullitt than you should do yourself a favor and check out Tom Horn.  If for no other reason it's got a great exploding head gore effect.

2.  The French Connection:  Yep, The French Connection is loosely based on a series of articles and a book by Robin Moore.  Gene Hackman and Roy Schieder are a couple of brutal cops hellbent on busting up an actual drug trafficking scheme, and this little Law & Ordering provides for not only the first Epic Car Chase, but Gene Hackman's finest hour of scream acting.  For my money, all cop stories must be judged against this film.

1.  Fargo:  The film opens with a title card: THIS IS A TRUE STORY.  And it's the funniest damn thing about Fargo.  The Coen Brothers pull the wool over our eyes, "If an audience believes that something's based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept."  This was the film that exposed the nonsense of "Based on True Stories" storytelling and I'll always be grateful to the Coens for opening my teenage brain.  And once you get past the Facts, Fargo is a brilliant bit of futile crime fiction.  Oh, that wood chipper.

--Brad

A Fistful of Versus! (Brad's Picks)

With the release of The Killer Elite this weekend hopefully we'll get a pretty stellar celebrity battle between Jason Statham and Clive Owen (and not a boring suckfest battle like we saw between The Stath and Jet Li in WAR).  Fingers crossed we get some Spidey/Wolverine action like we did with these other great Vs. movies.  Sorry, no Predators, Aliens, Freddys, or Jasons can apply.

5.  Mel Gibson vs. Kurt Russell (Tequila Sunrise):  This was the first film in which I felt the presence of Badass vs Badass.  Ten year old Brad loved The Road Warrior.  Ten year old Brad loved Big Trouble in Little China.  And here was a film that smashed both Mad Max and Jack Burton against each other!??!?!?  It didn't quite live up to my self-inflicted hype, but Tequila Sunrise is still a fine bit of neo-noir.

4.  Clint Eastwood vs. John Malkovich (In The Line of Fire):  This was a scary battle.  Eastwood's Secret Service agent is to ooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllldddddddddddd for this shit but only he can stop Malkovich's madman from snuffing out POTUS.  As a kid, Malkovich scared the hell outta me.  Anarchy, man!  Nothing can stop a bad guy from doing bad things!  Except Dirty Harry.  Watching it now, it's only okay.  But back then this was an epic Versus.

3.  Liam Neeson vs. Pierce Brosnan (Seraphim Falls):  A wonderful, underrated weird Western that sees the neverending battle between North vs South stomp all over the American West.  Seraphim Falls marks the beginning of Liam Neeson's new action hero career and I am thankful.  He's is an absolute beast as the death wishing Carver and Brosnan's job is just to not fall pray to his rage-fueled shadow.

2.  Al Pacino vs. Robert De Niro (Heat):  These (former) acting titans had never appeared on screen together, despite sharing The Godfather Part II on their CV.  Michael Mann decided that injustice could not stand and pit the two hams against each other in this epic Cat & Mouse thriller.  The film is monumental for a number of reasons, but my favorite might actually be Pacino's scream, "SHE'S GOT A GREAT ASS AND YOU GOT YOUR HEAD ALL THE WAY UP IT!"

1.  Lee Marvin vs. Gene Hackman (Prime Cut):  Not enough people talk about this movie.  As much as I love  Lee Marvin flicks like Point Blank and The Dirty Dozen, it's the vile heart of Prime Cut that crawls to the top of the Frazetta-like mound of celebrity mashup corpses.  Lee Marvin's mob enforcer is sent to Kansas City to  settle a debt with Gene Hackman's sausage enthusiast.  Ground up goons and boodles of female commodity will not get in the way of the epic throwdown between these two monsters of the underworld.

--Brad