To get better value for money, deleting most Blu-Rays and replacing them with ordinary DVDs:
Avatar
Up
Doubt
Cloverfield
Persepolis
Waltz with Bashir
I've Loved You So Long
Shooter
The White Ribbon
Harry Brown
Paranormal Activity
Jennifer's Body
Public Enemies
Moon
Blade Runner
Men Who Stare at Goats
The Road
Star Trek Next Generation Box Set
3:10 to Yuma (both versions)
Rescue Dawn
American Graffiti
Capitalism - A Love Story
Mesrine Parts 1+2
Che
Sex and the City
Star Trek
The Pursuit of Happyness
American Gangster
A Prophet
The Reader
The Queen
A Clockwork Orange
Barbarella
Boogie Nights
The Savages
Nil By Mouth
Highlander
Police Story
Sex Drive
Franklyn
Death Wish
Robin Hood
Sunday 19 September 2010
Sunday 12 September 2010
The Expendables (2010)
Saw yesterday morning with sis, after a long while!
Quite funny, for all the wrong reasons. A very narcissistic movie for Stallone, the central ex-80s action star, who's pairing himself with the Stath (Jason Statham) as his equal! If you can accept that initial concept for the main protagonists, you could then begin to accept this movie, warts and all of which there are many!
The moral of the story/main message? As long as the cause is saving a 'hot' Mexicana, you can justify mass genocide, and a total and blatant ignorance of what's going on in the world. And innocuously bombastic episodes of brutal and explicit violence.
For me, the film in it's entirety can be framed by five 'key scenes':
1. Mickey Rourke's crying scene. (Even worse than in Iron Man 2, light years away from The Wrestler, but funny all the same.)
2. Stath and Stallone using an animal welfare cargo ship to eviscerate an entire South American army!
3. The Godfather car chase scene culminating in Jet Li's fight with Dolph Lungren
4. The 6-min random bomb deployment scene! (So funny for it's pointlessness)
5. The in-your-face 'All vs All' fight scene at the end (using guns, knives, diamond-tipped machine-guns, and explosives), with the typical 'oil-barrel-in-water-exploding' to top it off!
It sort of makes me think: they probably started with this as a template, and added everything else around it for extra padding/insulation to inflate the running time (brief as it was)!
Commendable: this is an idea that will make heap loads of money. However it's almost disrespectful for all those concerned. This motivation ultimately compromises respect and artistic integrity. If this is supposed to be a throw-back movie evoking the spirit of the 80s action movie, it doesn't say much about what the main cast think in retrospect, or what they represent (if anything at all). This totally vindicates Jean Claude Van Damme's very public decision to turn down a role, following a personal call from Sly himself. Thought he was an arrogant tit at first, just a bit of fun... But any serious actor still wanting to be taken seriously in the movie-world would not have gone for this. And I sympathise. Stallone know's he's in the twilight of his career - the biceps can only bulge so far (like Rourke's belly) - and he intends to go out with a loud explosive atom bomb.
If the budget was as expendable as the collective acting, more effort on story and characterisation (over explosions, locations and set-pieces) would have been a more welcome outcome. Originality, inventiveness, and creativity (bar a few moments of insanity) this is not.
That the movie unites some of the major stars of that particular genre is reason enough to watch it. Like Jet Li's fight with Jackie Chan in 'The Forbidden Kingdom': poo film, but what a fight! I suspect that's the reason for most critic's compulsion (mine included) to commend the film beyond its numerous and various flaws and deficiencies. Nostalgic sympathy.
For what it lacks in expectation it tries to compensate with 'Sly' lines of dialogue, brief vignettes, excessive guns, violence and explosions. A notable example of the former include Schwarzeneggar's Terminator-esque entrance as a potential rival to Stallone (The Last Action Hero), and his reference to "My friend likes to play in the jungle" (Rambo). Stallone ripostes: "He wants to be President!" no doubt a cheeky jibe for the Governator's political aspirations.
Of particular attention are Dolph Lungren and Eric Roberts' characters. There feels like a genuine malevolence and maliciousness that adds to the obligatory 'villain' role. These characters are two of the focal assets of the movie, despite Stallone's attempts to trump everyone as main lead. This is in stark contrast to the General's dictator character ('An-ghell' off Dexter), a decortated Teddy Bear that no one really takes seriously.
The most annoying thing about this movie is that it really leaves you wanting more... I really wanted to see more of Jason Statham and Jet Li displaying their awesome fighting skills of movies past. (I was thankful for Cory Yuen's choreography for Jet Li - the Director of Stathams debut, The Transporter - a saving grace for the movie, when it occurs to me that Stallone and Statham just improvised themselves, on the spot their own fight scenes). You wanted to see more of Stallone's vulnerability from his first ever movie, Rocky. You wanted to see a more intimidating robotic automaton from Dolph Lungren (Universal Soldier, and Rocky IV). You wanted to see something more substantial from Randy Couture (essentially an accessory to the cast) showing off more about what he's famous for (Mixed Martial Arts) beyond someone who's flippantly and artificially affected with 'psychological issues'. And for that reason alone - for wanting more - you would anticipate and look forward to watching a sequel, and the numerous others after it no matter how bad they were!...
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of them all was the lack of the main advertising theme tune! (But that's a minor quibble!)
Quite funny, for all the wrong reasons. A very narcissistic movie for Stallone, the central ex-80s action star, who's pairing himself with the Stath (Jason Statham) as his equal! If you can accept that initial concept for the main protagonists, you could then begin to accept this movie, warts and all of which there are many!
The moral of the story/main message? As long as the cause is saving a 'hot' Mexicana, you can justify mass genocide, and a total and blatant ignorance of what's going on in the world. And innocuously bombastic episodes of brutal and explicit violence.
For me, the film in it's entirety can be framed by five 'key scenes':
1. Mickey Rourke's crying scene. (Even worse than in Iron Man 2, light years away from The Wrestler, but funny all the same.)
2. Stath and Stallone using an animal welfare cargo ship to eviscerate an entire South American army!
3. The Godfather car chase scene culminating in Jet Li's fight with Dolph Lungren
4. The 6-min random bomb deployment scene! (So funny for it's pointlessness)
5. The in-your-face 'All vs All' fight scene at the end (using guns, knives, diamond-tipped machine-guns, and explosives), with the typical 'oil-barrel-in-water-exploding' to top it off!
It sort of makes me think: they probably started with this as a template, and added everything else around it for extra padding/insulation to inflate the running time (brief as it was)!
Commendable: this is an idea that will make heap loads of money. However it's almost disrespectful for all those concerned. This motivation ultimately compromises respect and artistic integrity. If this is supposed to be a throw-back movie evoking the spirit of the 80s action movie, it doesn't say much about what the main cast think in retrospect, or what they represent (if anything at all). This totally vindicates Jean Claude Van Damme's very public decision to turn down a role, following a personal call from Sly himself. Thought he was an arrogant tit at first, just a bit of fun... But any serious actor still wanting to be taken seriously in the movie-world would not have gone for this. And I sympathise. Stallone know's he's in the twilight of his career - the biceps can only bulge so far (like Rourke's belly) - and he intends to go out with a loud explosive atom bomb.
If the budget was as expendable as the collective acting, more effort on story and characterisation (over explosions, locations and set-pieces) would have been a more welcome outcome. Originality, inventiveness, and creativity (bar a few moments of insanity) this is not.
That the movie unites some of the major stars of that particular genre is reason enough to watch it. Like Jet Li's fight with Jackie Chan in 'The Forbidden Kingdom': poo film, but what a fight! I suspect that's the reason for most critic's compulsion (mine included) to commend the film beyond its numerous and various flaws and deficiencies. Nostalgic sympathy.
For what it lacks in expectation it tries to compensate with 'Sly' lines of dialogue, brief vignettes, excessive guns, violence and explosions. A notable example of the former include Schwarzeneggar's Terminator-esque entrance as a potential rival to Stallone (The Last Action Hero), and his reference to "My friend likes to play in the jungle" (Rambo). Stallone ripostes: "He wants to be President!" no doubt a cheeky jibe for the Governator's political aspirations.
Of particular attention are Dolph Lungren and Eric Roberts' characters. There feels like a genuine malevolence and maliciousness that adds to the obligatory 'villain' role. These characters are two of the focal assets of the movie, despite Stallone's attempts to trump everyone as main lead. This is in stark contrast to the General's dictator character ('An-ghell' off Dexter), a decortated Teddy Bear that no one really takes seriously.
The most annoying thing about this movie is that it really leaves you wanting more... I really wanted to see more of Jason Statham and Jet Li displaying their awesome fighting skills of movies past. (I was thankful for Cory Yuen's choreography for Jet Li - the Director of Stathams debut, The Transporter - a saving grace for the movie, when it occurs to me that Stallone and Statham just improvised themselves, on the spot their own fight scenes). You wanted to see more of Stallone's vulnerability from his first ever movie, Rocky. You wanted to see a more intimidating robotic automaton from Dolph Lungren (Universal Soldier, and Rocky IV). You wanted to see something more substantial from Randy Couture (essentially an accessory to the cast) showing off more about what he's famous for (Mixed Martial Arts) beyond someone who's flippantly and artificially affected with 'psychological issues'. And for that reason alone - for wanting more - you would anticipate and look forward to watching a sequel, and the numerous others after it no matter how bad they were!...
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of them all was the lack of the main advertising theme tune! (But that's a minor quibble!)
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