Dork Hero: Humphrey Bogart

Since I was 10 years old, Humphrey Bogart has been my number one idea of what cool is.  There have been many more men and women over the years who have helped to define cool for me, but the foundation is still Bogie.  Born on Christmas Day, 1899, he is an icon and a true Dork Hero. 

-Matt

Another Two Fistfuls of Favorites! (Brad's Picks)

For the last two years, Matt & I have been constructing a list of our Favorite Films.  My personal Top Ten came to me quick & easy; those films have ranked as my all time favorites for several years.  My Top Twenty was a little tougher to crack, but I got their after minimal struggle.  However, formulating my Top Thirty Favorite Films was downright brutal.  A couple of them sprung to mind (#s 21 & 30 were obvious), but I spent several hours over the course of this week pursuing my DVD shelves, selecting & rejecting various movies for whatever reason.  I Love All Of These Films...and so much more.  I cannot guarantee you in a week, let alone a year, that this list will remain - How can The Monster Squad not be in my Top 30 Favorite Films!?!?!  That seems ridiculous to me, but a fact nonetheless.  So take the ranking below with a grain of salt.  I love 'em, but my confidence is not as strong as it was for Movies 1-20.

30.  King Kong (Merian C Cooper & Ernest B Shoedsack, 1933):  Monster movies, this is where it all began.  Frankly, I love all three versions of this movie, as well as the crappy sequels & the Hong Kong knockoffs.  King Kong is one of those rare movies (maybe the only movie) that I'd like to see remade every decade or so, and I find myself positively giddy over the upcoming Skull Island.  It's delightfully simplistic, and eternally relevant.  "It was beauty that killed the beast." This is the ultimate Man Fucks Over Nature story.  We see something beautiful, dangerous, AWEsome and we've gotta have it - even if that means destroying it in the process.  A terribly sad movie, but also one filled with wonder and exceptional cinematic craft.  No King Kong means no Ray Harryhausen, which means no Steven Speilberg, George Lucas, Joe Dante, etc - which means one crappy childhood for this guy.

29.  In The Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter, 1995):  This was the first Horror movie I ever saw in the theater.  Hellraiser was the film that sparked an interest in the genre, and that film led me to the works of Clive Barker & Stephen King.  I remember vividly when I caught the trailer for In The Mouth of Madness on TV, and the Stephen King namecheck immediately peaked an interest.  Who is Sutter Kane?  The concept of a world driven mad by Fiction, was both terrifying & infuriating.  It's a plot spit forth from the mouths of your parents, your teachers, your politicians.  Horror will rot your brain, kids.  Sam Neil has never been better, and his journey from dismissive suit to screaming believer is utterly unsettling.  He steps into frame thinking he's Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity, a cocky insurance investigator bored of the game, but a "chance" encounter with an axe-wielding madman sends him scurrying down dark alleys populated by unnamable horrors.  If you're reading this blog post than you already know how this film had an impact on both Matt & myself.  It introduced me to John Carpenter & HP Lovecraft - after such an encounter how can one not become a full fledged horror fiend?

28.  Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988):  There is simply no better action film.  A good, but flawed man fights his way through a slew of bad men in an effort to reunite with true love.  And all set to the backdrop of the Ho-Ho-Holidays.  The 1980s were bogged down with countless bloody shoot 'em ups, but few had as much charming character as Die Hard.  Bruce Willis is exceptional as the everyman.  He's fun, witty, goofy, and absolutely badass when he's got a gun in his hand.  Yipee Ki Yay for the Energizer Bunny, the man takes a beating and keeps on ticking.  After a half dozen sequels, it's hard to find excitement for the "regular Joe," but you can't hate on the studio for trying to recapture the magic of the original.

27.  The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson, 2004):  As much as I enjoyed Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums, it was not until The Life Aquatic that Wes Anderson's mastery over his dollhouse filmmaking hit perfection.  Words like "quirky" and "whimsical" get tossed around a lot when discussing his films, and I find them to be frustratingly reductive.  Anderson does not wish to recreate reality.  He's not interested in Oscar Bait.  He strives for the artificial, for style, for the storybook.  But to say there's no truth in the artificial is absurd.  The Life Aquatic is layered in familial heartbreak.  Bill Murray is an artist soaked in despair, a man desperate to believe in fatherhood when the chance presents itself, but also incapable of expressing love.  Owen Wilson is equally adrift as the son in question, but manages to force himself into this gruesome adventure of oceanic revenge while deflecting the jealously of Zissou's crew.  Ultimately, The Life Aquatic is about getting beyond your emotional baggage, and accepting the imperfect people around you.

26.  The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966):  Last year, in the wake of The Lone Ranger, I put together a list of my Top 5 Favorite Westerns, and The Professionals ranked at number 4.  Well, as I warned above, I've changed my mind.  It now sits as my third favorite western & my 26th favorite movie.  Lists are stupid.  But I love them.  Ralph Bellamy's Texas tycoon hires Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, & Woody Strode to charge down into Mexico to rescue his wife from Jack Palance's crazed revolutionary.  But as plot demands, things are not as simple as they seem.  I've spoken about it before, but perhaps the most stunning feat about The Professionals is Lancaster's ability to steal the show from Marvin.  His rapscallion is not so much an outlaw as he is a man who let his disgust for humanity crush his own morality, and the result is a gleaming devil worth rooting for.  Lee Marvin is simply a badass...he's great at being a badass, but it's also kinda expected.  The Professionals is certainly Lancaster's show, but there are few films with as strong a cast - each man (and one lady) gets their moment.  Imagine The Wild Bunch minus the grotesque i.e. violence as Adventure!

25.  Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005):  One of my many reoccurring rants around here is my stance against Superhero Origin movies - they're boring!  Been there, done that.  'nuff said.  So, why in the world is my all time favorite Comic Book movie an origin story???  Well, because in the 75 years of Batman's time on Earth, we've never been given the full story on Bruce Wayne.  Yep, before Batman Begins even the comic books only told a partial story.  Not to mention the fact that because we've had so many incarnations of Batman over the years, an origin story was actually a fresh approach to the character.  I love The Dark Knight, I dig Rises, and I even appreciate the Clooney travesty.  The Brave & The Bold and "Holy Adam West, Batman!"  But this is Bruce Wayne's story.  No other film comes close to that kind of human focus.  Plus, the way Nolan & Goyer snake the theme of fear through the story is outstanding.  A child's fear leads to his parents' murder, that fear becomes the child's armor, and that armor becomes Gotham's Knight, it's savior from the forces of darkness.  The first time I saw Batman Begins will go down as my All Time Favorite theatrical experience.  While attending the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con, I was one of a lucky few who won tickets to see an advanced IMAX screening of Batman Begins.  I've never been more thrilled to be part of a crowd; several hundred nerds cheering, rooting, and screaming as the caped crusader finally got his story told proper.

24.  First Blood (Ted Kotchef, 1982):  The story of two generations of soldiers, the good war vs the bad war.  I know it's hard to imagine in this Expendables era, but once upon a time Sylvester Stallone was considered a Renaissance Man.  Before he got 'roided & sequeled out, Stallone made a career out of emotionally gripping character pieces.  First Blood was the last one...or at least, the last successful one.  A Vietnam vet wanders through town after discovering his last war buddy has died a lonely cancerous death.  A Korean War vet turned constable scoops him up, and attempts to shuffle him down the line so he may not soil the town scenery with his long dirty hair.  An act of disrespect that leads to rage-fueled domestic warfare that's as sad as it is understandable.  John Rambo began his career in cinema as a symbol for the lost, the disaffected, and the traumatized.  This is not the badass action film the sequels would eventually attempt.  First Blood is the story of hurt, and a damn fine one.

23.  Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943):  I only saw this film for the first time six years ago.  "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."  I'd seen all the clip shows, read all the critic's lists, and I thought I knew what Casablanca was.  Nope.  More often than not, classics are classics for a reason.  Humphrey Bogart is a lost American hiding from himself as much as the war when an old flame walks into his club, and causes all sorts of Nazi trouble.  Bogart is cold & cool in The Maltese Falcon, a cocky braggart in The Big Sleep, and the shlubbiest sadsack loser in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.  Rick, though, is Bogart's great performance.  He's a selfish jerk, a master of slick wit, a (self)forgotten patriot, and a doomed romantic.  If all you know is the soundbites, do yourself a favor, and treat yourself to one of The Great Movies.

22.  Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987):  An action film, a gorehound's delight, a Frankenstein parable, and a painfully funny satire of 1980s consumerism.  Robocop is one of the strangest bits of outsider art to sneak into mainstream cinemas.  Peter Weller does Karloff proud as a man slaughtered by criminals, and butchered further by corporate scientists.  He's given very little to emote with (a facial slit & Mr Roboto body language), but the film succeeds thanks to Weller's ability to pull the humanity from the cyborg. Then you have Kurtwood Smith & his gang of goons.  Never has there been a better collection of psychopathic villainy.  Verhoeven revels in the monstrosity of man, he takes glee in showcasing the vile & despicable, and then he projects triumph through violence.  Politically correct?  Hell no!  It's cool though.

21.  2001 - A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968):  My experience with this movie is probably like a lot of folks my age.  At 15, I didn't "get it."  At 20, I thought I liked it until it went Beyond The Infinite.  At 25, seeing it for the first time on the Uptown's Big Screen, I was in awe of the cinematography and the pulsating soundtrack.  At 35, I worship it's attempts at understanding the question of man via science fiction & metaphor.  I don't claim to understand the Star Child any better than I did at 20, but maybe in another decade or so I will.  I certainly look forward to rewatch after rewatch.  2001 is a rare event, a film that evolves as you do.  You gotta cherish that.

--Brad

Two Fistfuls of Oscars! (Brad's Picks)

Tomorrow's the big night, and I find myself really excited for the main event.  Why is that?  It probably has to do with the fact that this is the first year I've seen the most nominated films (just missing a few technical awards, one documentary feature, and most of the shorts).  And as stated in my Predictions & Desires, the 2013 Best Picture race is one of the strongest - these are some solid flicks, only a couple I really have no mind for (Les Miserables & Life of Pi) and even those flicks are not the bottom of the barrel.  I've seen worst films take home the bald gold guy -- see my Top Five least favorite Best Picture winners just below, but just when I start crying in my beer I find some hope in my Top Five favorite Best Picture winners cuz even an awards ceremony as incestuous and pretentious as The Academy Awards gets in right every once in while.

5.  The Greatest Show On Earth:  This is not a terrible film.  It's just long winded, lifeless, and empty.  This represents that era in filmmaking when if you made it long enough and packed enough stars into the frame than you had a hit on your hands.  Great gobby melodrama centering around Charlton Heston's circus manager, his trapeze artist girlfriend, and escaped convict Jimmy Stewart as Buttons the Clown - in what has to be one of his most annoying performances.  Cecil B DeMille pads the movie with endless tent raising sequences that are pornographic in their circus people enthusiasm.  Only die hard fans of Heston or Stewart need apply.

4.  Rain Man:  Another not terrible movie, but Rain Man paved the way for sentimental tripe like Driving Miss Daisy and Forrest Gump.  Tom Cruise definitely excels at playing the douche bag brother of autistic method man Dustin Hoffman, but his smiley jerkhole transformation into the kind hearted lover of Valeria Golino is eye-rollingly saccharine.  A supposed message movie?  Yeah, don't think so.

3.  Titanic:  Now here is a movie I hate.  In 1996 James Cameron was the king of genre fanboys.  The man was responsible for the brutal time travel violence of The Terminator, two of the greatest science fiction sequels (Aliens & T2), Arnold Schwarzenegger's last badass film (True Lies), and the Michael Crichtonesque CGI wizardry of The Abyss.  And I was one of his blind followers.  But by the end of 1997 the Emperor was revealed to have no clothes.  And I was lost.  Titanic might have captured the passions of teenage girls everywhere, and confused a couple of critics, but hindsight has certainly been unkind to this epic pile of Teen Beat blather.  Two appalling poor boy stereotypes con their way onto the doomed cruiser and before they meet their watery demise, the pretty kid falls madly in love with the painfully cliche snooty girl.  It's all just biding time until Cameron's magicians unleash holy hell upon the damned and the audience is granted nearly an hour of beautiful devastation...and Billy Zane stumbling about firing his limp pistol.  But somehow James Cameron would fool us all again with Avatar, but at least that Fern Gully abortion never took home Oscar.

2.  Chicago:  I don't really have much to say on this one.  I just don't get it.  Sure, musicals have never been my thing (unless we're talking The Blues Brothers), but even in 2002 when cinema seemed to be at its most bleak, there were far superior films compared to this shallow glitz.  About Schmidt.  The Quiet American.  Adaptation.  Swimfan....uh...  The only reason I can think that this took home Best Picture is because Academy voters were saddened by the previous year's failing to award Moulin Rouge - another film I don't quite get, but recognize as a far greater achievement in originality than this bland broadway adaptation.  And Richard Gere?  You must never sing again.  You too Catherine Zeta Jones.  And let's just gag Renee Zellweger while we're at it.

1.  Crash:  When I think Oscar bait, I think Crash.  A film manipulated with both literal and metaphorical crashes of humanity.  Whites.  Blacks.  Latinos.  Rich.  Poor.  All racist.  And when forced to interact with each other they must face the best and worst of themselves.  Just gross writing.  In a year that also saw nominations for Capote, Goodnight & Good Luck, Munich, and Brokeback Mountain the win for Crash was a slap in the face of good taste.  A heinous, condescending picture populated with struggling stars of yesteryear.  This win in 2005 pretty much cemented my contempt for award shows, and I stayed away from the Oscars till 2011 - the year Matt & I started this blog.

So yeah, that's the suck of Oscar.  But when you look at the previous 84 films labeled Best Picture, the majority of them are damn fine movies.  Sure, maybe not the best films of their chosen years, but most of them are not Crash.  Most of them are Out of Africa, perfectly crafted dramas worthy of attention and some of them are Lawrence of Arabia, genuine masterpieces.  Warning:  Lawrence of Arabia does not appear in my Top Five Best Picture winners, it's genius, but it's also not my personal favorite David Lean film.

5.  The Godfather:  What can I possibly add to the Godfather lovefest?  It's a brilliant picture.  Obviously.  And it's melodrama, like Titanic.  Only expertly written and brimming with traumatic surprises inflicted upon it's characters.  Some pick the sequel over the original, but for my money, the first film is just a cleaner, crisper fall from grace.  Al Pacino was never better and would never be better than he was as Michael Corleone, the youngest son desperately trying to stay free from the family business and eventually succumbing to a world of violence.

4.  The French Connection:  Gene Hackman is a bastard.  His pitbull detective nearly destroys everything and everyone around him as he chases the trail of a narcotic ring, his victory seeming meaningless next to the hunt.  It's an extremely pessimistic tale, but quintessential of 70s filmmaking and it represents an attitude sorely missed in contemporary Hollywood.  Although, fingers crossed, mean movies will retake their hold on American audiences.

3.  The Bridge on the River Kwai:  Like the age old battle between Beatles & Stones fans, you're either a Lawrence of Arabia guy or a River Kwai man.  Obviously, I appreciate the necessary destruction of pride and the jungle horrors of Japanese death camps.  William Holden is the definition of dogged determination as the escaped GI willing & ready to lead a commando deathsquad back into the horrors of Thailand.  But it's Alec Guinness' stubborn S.O.B. officer that steals the show, and I'm always struck by his righteous realization in the last few moments.  This is pain.  This is regret.  This is madness.

2.  Casablanca:  I saw Casablanca late in life.  About six years ago.  Due to its "classic" status I had always avoided the film as not possibly living up to its reputation.  I was wrong.  Casablanca is a classic for a reason.  It's a love story.  But not really.  It's a love-long-gone story.  And as such it's all about loss.  Humphrey Bogart manages to ooze anger and anguish while still looking badass in a white suit.  Claude Raines is the ultimate lackey.  And when I think Nazi I now see Conrad Veidt instead of the palm scarred Toht.   It might have spawned a dozen catchphrases, but Casablanca earns every soundbite sting.

1.  Unforgiven:  I'm not sure if Unforgiven was the first Western I ever saw, but it most certainly was the first Western I remember seeing.  I was 13 at the time.  The perfect age.  Not only does it cast off John Wayne types, but it goes for the throat on characters that Eastwood himself had portrayed - Josey Wales, The Man With No Name - these are murders, not heroes.  Unforgiven reminds us of this fact; it's a film disgusted with violence and violent characters.  It tricks you into sympathizing with a killer and pulls the rug out from you in its final saloon shootout.  Just as Reservoir Dogs sent this budding film fan into VHS stores to collect Hong Kong actioners, Unforgiven sent me diving into Howard Hawkes and Sergio Leone.  For that alone, it will remain a personal treasure.

--Brad

Two Fistfuls of Favorites! (Matt’s Picks)

    Brad and I have been talking a lot recently about or favorite movies of all time.  For a long time I just said, “I don’t know.”  But eventually, I had to at least pick a movie as my number 1.  I felt pretty secure in picking Casablanca as my favorite film.  I’ve loved it since I was about 10, I watch it a couple times a year, Bogart is probably my favorite actor of all time; so it was a safe pick.  Now, everything else in my top ten seems to shift whenever I tell someone.  So, I’m putting down my current list, to see if there’ll be any permanence to it.

10.  Raiders of the Lost Ark:  The grand traditions of movie serials and pulp adventure are given a lavish treatment in this homage to the old days of adventure.  Harrison Ford is the very essence of cool.  Karen Allen is super-cute and tough as nails.  And dang, man.  Nazis.

9.  The Fountain:  Love, loss, death and rebirth.  Beautifully filmed and with an amazing score, this love story that transcends time and reality.  It is simultaneously deeply sad and profoundly uplifting.  “Death is the Road to Awe.”

8.  Planet of the Apes:  A planet where apes evolved from man?!  A great space adventure turns into a rocking bit of social commentary as the dangers of unreasoned superstition come into conflict with facts and evidence.  It’s still timely, more than 40 years later.

7.  The English Patient:  Sweeping in scope, with a heart wrenching sense of inevitability, it uses the backdrop of a world consumed in the flame of war to explore love both ugly and magical.

6.  King Kong:  The Beauty and the Beast plot archetype is one that has always struck a chord with me, and King Kong may be its most dramatic presentation.  The beast is pure, lone (an aesthetic choice), and happy.  Then he meets Beauty, moves heaven and Earth for her, endures countless indignities and cruelties for her, and is ultimately brought low.  Been there.

5.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon:  An amazing fusion of martial arts madness and Hong Kong melodrama, the movie brought together two great tastes and made them taste great together.  A fantastic cast, stunning imagery, powerhouse action, and layered plots within plots.  Grand movie making.

4.  Commando:  Like Casablanca, every line is a classic.  Though not Arnold’s greatest film (that’s Conan the Barbarian), this film captures the essence of what made him great.  Big, stupid, loud, bloody, funny, and just a heck of a joy to watch.

3.  Lawrence of Arabia:  “No prisoners!  No prisoners!”  One of the grandest epics of all time, it captures the aloof majesty of the madman, and the simple, deadly allure of the desert.  The music is amazing, the visuals are breathtaking, and Lawrence is one of the most dynamic characters in film.

2.  Big Trouble in Little China:  Jack Burton and his Pork Chop Express roll into San Francisco’s Chinatown and all hell breaks loose.  One of the funniest, coolest, craziest movies of all time, and possibly the movie I’ve watched more times than any other.

1.  Casablanca:  For all the reasons you’d think, and so much more.

(You can now see numbers 11-20 here).
-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (2/12/12-2/18/12)

    I don’t know how I fit in so many danged movies this week, but I did.  Yikes.  And I still managed to do quite a bit.  Weird.  Capping things off with a Neveldine/Taylor triple-shot.  Oh, Crank Yeah!


A Free Soul:  An unpredictable young woman with a taste for danger upsets her stuffy family when she gets involved with a bad boy.  Conspicuous consumption of alcohol is once again at the root of everyone’s trouble, turning good folks into devils.  What those young socialites get up to when they spend too much time in the city.  Clark Gable is kind of awesome as the a-hole crook our lady is fancy for.  Booze, man.  Booze.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island:  Full of Rocky goodness, this family friendly movie is actually packed with some pretty good action and a fairly clever script.  I love this kind of movie, and this one is a surprisingly good entry.  Though I enjoyed the first film more than it probably deserved, I felt like this one earned it more.  And, if like me, you know the Rock is all kinds of awesome, you should enjoy it.

Three on a Match:  Three young women who attended public school together grow up in different worlds, only to come together again through happenstance.  As is often the case with movies of this era, drinking leads people astray, as a married woman takes up with a petty criminal.  Lots of naughty behavior later, and unlikely folks are stepping up to the plate, while others descend to the very depths.  Humphrey Bogart has an early turn as a semi-competent thug.  One of my favorite bits was Bogart’s little ‘she’s on coke’ gesture.  Nasty business.

Female:  Giving them the vote?  Letting them smoke?  For shame.  Now they’re running businesses and all hell is breaking loose.  Our leading lady chews up men and spits them out with little thought.  She’s a slave driving ice queen at work and a fiery sex-pot at her lavish home.  That is, until she meets a real man, and doesn’t know quite how to act.  Her clumsy attempts to woo him are rather amusing.  Of course, eventually she learns that being a happy woman means giving up work and becoming a mother.  Ugh.  Still, it’s a pretty funny movie, even if the message is rather…um, well, old school.

Blazing Stewardesses:  If you ever find yourself working on a research paper about the nature of humor, you can cite this film as what humor isn’t.

Black Cobra Woman:  “You know it’s fun, and…and it’s educational.”  Look, Laura Gemser is a gorgeous woman, and she seems to have a clothing allergy.  That’s groovy.  But, no matter how many filters you put on it, and no matter how much drum music you play, a naked woman dancing with a snake is nowhere near as erotic as my primitive man-brain wants it to be.  Snakes are reptiles.  What do reptiles spend most of their lives doing?  That’s right; NOTHING.  Not much of a dance partner.  The dvd looks like it was recorded from a ratty VHS that had been sitting in the sun too long.  Snake loving Jack Palance seems to be having fun, but when didn’t he?  And heck, if I was older than dirt and looked like rawhide stretched over a killer robot, I’d be glad to be teamed with a beautiful young woman too; no matter how icky it might look to anyone watching.  It’s poorly dubbed, poorly edited, and poorly paced.  But Gemser sure takes her clothes off a lot.

Casablanca:  It may be cliché to say, but this really is one of the best danged movies of all time.  The cast, the look, the crackerjack dialog.  Bogart switches from cold to sloppy to brutal and back again faster than lightening.  He is the quintessential tough guy, with just one gap in his armor.  Claude Rains is fantastic as the prowling hound dog of a policeman, always looking out for a young lady in trouble.  And of course, Conrad Veidt makes for a deadly smooth Nazi.  Like the more popular Shakespeare plays, the dialog has become so classic, it is part of our common culture, from “Maybe not today” to “We’ll always have Paris” it bristles with familiar lines, even for those who haven’t seen it yet.  And, as someone who has loved the film since childhood, I can attest that with life, love, loss and all those experiences that come with getting older, the film takes on new meaning and power.  Though I don’t think I actually have a ‘favorite film’ I still feel quite comfortable using this as my go-to answer when people ask.

The Arena:  Women in Prison meets Sword and Sandals, in this genre mix-up featuring the leads of Black Momma, White Momma, together again.  Most of the standard gladiator tropes are used, with the slight alterations needed for female fighters.  Pam Grier’s rather impressive figure, along with that of her co-stars, makes frequent appearances.  Plenty of bad dubbing and some odd editing.  But, fairly entertaining.  And worth it for Grier fans, for sure.

American Psycho:  The faceless uniformity and soullessness of 80s Wall Street culture is personified in Patrick Bateman, who has taste and panache, and a thirst for blood.  Grimly humorous and frequently clever.  Filled with great lines and memorable speeches (about Genesis and Whitney Huston, of course).  Not for everyone, what with the murder, the sex, and running around naked (except for sneakers), covered in blood and wielding a chainsaw, and the like.

Sin City:  Like panels of the comic splashed on the screen in lurid black & white, with the occasional dash of color, Sin City is a fun homage to the hard boiled novels and noir films of yesteryear (and a swell adaptation of writer/co-director Frank Miller’s graphic novels).  Brutal, violent, testosterone infused, and wild.  The acting is as stylized as the visuals; the characters larger than life.  It’s a heck of a ride.

Night Nurse:  “I’m Nick…the chauffeur.”  *POW!*  The seedy world of medicine, corruption, criminals, cover-ups, and bad medicine is exposed in this tale of a young woman of honor and courage fighting the system.  There’s also a bit of a romance.  And Clark Gable is absolutely loathsome.  The finale is kinda crazy, man.  It’s funny, because he’s dead!

Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood:  When people remember the ‘good old days’ they’re never remembering reality.  And movies embody this so well.  Before a bunch of holy rollers got their magic underwear in a bunch and decided that freedom of speech should only be for their own brand of hate (mostly anti-Semitism), movies were pretty raw, sometimes shockingly frank, often quite clever, and very entertaining.  This brief but fairly informative documentary gives a glimpse into the era before a small percentage of Americans decided they should be able to tell the rest of us what we could and could not watch (sound familiar?).  Plenty of clips and interviews.  It was a brief moment in Hollywood history, but so vibrant and energetic.  There is an argument to be made, that the censorship of the Code forced filmmakers to be more clever and creative.  And, I’d say that’s true.  But I don’t think it makes the restrictions OK.  Like so many social movements to come out of or gain strength in the mid 30s and 40s, Code enforcement is a black mark on what America should be.  The ‘good old days’ my butt.

Crank:  Did The Transporter strike you as too subtle?  Too restrained?  Well, Crank is the movie for you.  Watch the beast Statham as he wages a one man crime spree in his attempt to get his hands on the guy who poisoned him.  Popping drugs, energy drinks, electricity, and uh, other things, he moves through the world as though it wasn’t there.  This is not a deep, or meaningful film.  It’s almost completely gratuitous, and revels in the ridiculousness.  Grab on and enjoy the ride.

Crank 2: High Voltage:  They turned Crank to 11 with this shockingly over the top follow-up to one of the most whacked out, nutty movies I’ve seen.  High Voltage pushes things far beyond reason and so far beyond anything resembling good taste.  Not for the easily offended or those who wish to over analyze or rationalize.  If you enjoy extreme madness, this is a masterpiece in crazy.  And while you’re at it, get your own station wagon!

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance:  After the awful first film, with all it’s many problems, I certainly didn’t have any interest in a sequel.  But then the Crank boys, Neveldine and Taylor got their hands on it, and everything changed.  It doesn’t quite ignore the first film, but it is certainly a break from it, style-wise and quality-wise.  Far less CGI for one thing.  And when it’s used, it’s used well.  Real people doing real stunts with real vehicles.  Nice.  The story is fine.  The actors all do their thing.  Nic Cage is typically bugnuts, though slightly restrained in comparison to some recent madness.

Hell Comes to Frogtown:  Acting!  OK, so yeah, watching these folks read dialog is a bit awkward.  But, it’s a fun, goofy as hell movie.  Rowdy Roddy Piper battles frog-faced mutants and saves his seed for needy women in this low budget apocalypse.  It’s kind of funny, and has a few clever bits.  But the time and money were obviously lacking.  Still, worth a watch if you like some 80s weird.

    I also got a chance to sit down and watch a few more episodes of Primeval, which is still and interesting show, but a bit frustrating.  I really, really want it to be better than it is.

    In my continuing adventure in actually reading graphic novels, I read and reviewed a good Star Trek volume, and the wacky intro to The Myth of 8-Opus.  And I posted the next page in my webcomic.

-Matt