Showing posts with label The Deer Hunter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Deer Hunter. Show all posts
Thursday, May 31, 2012
A Fistful of Hunters! (Brad's Picks)
Snow White is going Down! But milk bather Charlize Theron needs Chris Hemsworth's hunka hunka Huntsman to track down the raven haired beauty so she can poison apple her predestined ass. But the real question is, could Hemsworth's axe go up against these other cinematic predators? Don't think so.
5. Charles Remington (The Ghost In The Darkness): Okay. This is a rather weak attempt at a JAWS knock-off switching sharks for lions and Robert Shaw for Michael Douglas. But dammit. When I first saw this film in 1996 I was at the height of my Michael Douglas man crush. Romancing The Stone, Falling Down, Basic Instinct, Black Rain. I thought the man positively badass (and still do) Now, slap a giant elephant gun in his hands and there's no stopping that five o'clock shadow. Not even you, sniveling city slicker Val Kilmer.
4. Max Cherry (Jackie Brown): Forget Boba Fett and Jack Walsh, the coolest Bounty Hunter in cinema is Max Cherry. He might have been quicker and stronger in his youth, but his experience spent on late night couches with sneak-attack tasers has developed a formidable foe for Samuel Jackson's gun runner wannabe kingpin. All he needed was a little push from Pam Grier's foxy Brown and Max Cherry became the ultimate Hero-To-Root-For. A little Delfonics didn't hurt none either.
3. Count Zaroff (The Most Dangerous Game): Never trust a Russian Count. Shipwrecked upon a mysterious island, Joel McRea runs for his life while the wealthy madman Zaroff hunts him down for sport. The Most Dangerous Game spawned two of my favorite Homeless Prey films of the 90s (Hard Target and Surviving The Game), but neither of those films capture the dread of the hunt quite like the diabolical original.
2. Michael (The Deer Hunter): Once upon a time Michel could drop a beast without batting an eye. But then Uncle Sam came calling and Vietnam halted his trigger finger. The Deer Hunter is one of my all time favorite movies and it's really the only Vietnam flick that feels genuine to this military ignorant film geek. My grandfather came back from WWII to a similar experience, a North Dakota farmboy who could no longer take a life, even that of a deer. Maybe it's that personal connection that really sells this film for me but I would argue that it's De Niro's best performance as well (sorry Taxi Driver and Righteous Kill fans) and it's easily one of the most heartbreaking climaxes that cinema has to offer. Frickin' Christopher Walken's cold, dead staring eyes...shiver.
1. The Predator (Predator): You can't compete with this ugly mutha. Heck, even Schwarzenegger nearly met his downfall under this alien brute. And part of me wishes that the film ended with that giant Austrian skull swinging from the Predator's belt. Man might be this monster's most dangerous game but the Predator's gone up against Aliens and Superman (uh, yeah, if you haven't read that comic you're missing out on some weirdo expanded universe nonsense). And when you stack this guys trophies up against Michael, Zaroff, Max Cherry, Remington, and the Huntsman--those wimps are gonna go running.
--Brad
Monday, March 5, 2012
New Release Tuesday!!! (3/6/12)
"Bambi Hunter" by Dave McDowell
Okay. With Comic Con shockingly and quickly approaching it's time for me to start stashing away cash and not spending the green on every little dvd that comes my way. I'm determined to only pick up the essentials, no more Two-Headed Shark Attacks or blind buy TV box sets. So it's with some reservation that I don't offer up any Must Buy!s this week and contemplate only one real...
Buy!THE DEER HUNTER (BLU): Wow, it's been way tooooooo long since I've watched The Deer Hunter. But it's always been one of my favorites, and probably my favorite Vietnam War film...if you don't consider the surreal nightmare that is Apocalypse Now and I really don't see that as a 'Nam flick. The Deer Hunter is a sad, introspective movie. And one of the few films to totally deserve it's Best Picture win in 1978-to think that films like Crash, Titanic, and even The Artist (which I love) share that honor just shows the absurdity of the gold statue. But we've been ranting about that too much lately. Anyway, Robert DeNiro is great in this film, but not as great as the insane Christopher Walken and this was before he went made with caricature. His final moments on screen will destroy you. So yeah, if you haven't seen this one already than you're definitely going to want to snatch up the new Universal 100th Anniversary blu ray.
Rent!
GAME OF THRONES SEASON ONE: I read the book a long, long time ago. I remember liking it but I also remember not liking it enough to continue on with the other books. But people seemed to have lost their minds for this show last year and it's exciting to me to think of a High Fantasy HBO series. So, I'm looking forward to joining the bandwagon.
IMMORTALS: Not a great movie or anything but I enjoyed the God Fighting. Tarsem just needs to get hold of a great script, until then we just have to enjoy the pleasant visuals that accompany his simple scripts. And I'm enjoying this Blockbuster era of mythology. If I was 12 years old a film like this or the Clash of the Titans remake would have ruled my tiny brain.
FOOTLOOSE: It's a little silly, even stupid. But so was the original. And this fills the same Dance Can Save The World (of high school) vibe that was so dang important in the 1980s. Sure, I kinda expected more from Craig Brewer after Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan (two films that are not great but genuinely interesting) but I'll take a little cheesecake escape.
THE SKIN I LIVE IN: I really wanted to check this flick out before 2011 came to a close but I just couldn't make it happen. I've never really fallen in love with Pedro Almodovar's films but I oh so desperately want to for some reason. And this has Antonio Banderas doing some crazy science or something. Okay, I'm down.
Avoid!
REINDEER GAMES (BLU): I still remember seeing this in the theater. And I remember thinking to myself, "This Ben Affleck guy is supposed to be the next big thing?" Cuz Reindeer Games is utter garbage. It's not Phantoms awful but it's pretty darn close. The only thing saving it is Charlize Theron's over-the-top-crazy lady acting. And Gary Sinise's gross little goatee.
JACK AND JILL: I make a promise to never see this film. In fact, Adam Sandler will have to pull a pretty damn big rabbit out of a hat for me to care about anything he does ever again. This looks just offensively bad. And the fact that Al Pacino has sunken so low to be a part of dreck like this? Shameful.
--Brad
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