The 16 Best Movies of 2008

 

2008 saw the debut of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the middle of the best comic book movie trilogy in history, the best G*dzilla update and the first direct sequel in the James Bond saga. The year also included two of the slickest entries in the found-footage genre.





16. Adulthood

This direct follow-up to Kidulthood picks up six years later and examines the consequences of the decisions made in the opening chapter of the story. As the title suggests, Adulthood catches up with the former London teens from the first film and follows what's become of their lives. 

15. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

14. Cocaine Cowboys 2

If you happened to see 2006's Cocaine Cowboys, then you know that "Miami Vice" and 1983's Scarface barely scratched the surface of what really took place in Florida's largest city during the 1980s cocaine trade. While true, the sequel is just as hard to believe. This follow-up details the dangerous liaisons between a small-time African-American drug dealer and a Colombian drug baroness.

After hearing about Griselda Blanco's (who was covered to a lesser extent in the first Cowboys) story, Oakland, California-native Charles Cosby boldly wrote a letter to the incarcerated cocaine supplier. Captivated, Blanco fell for Cosby and within months installed him as the head of her $40 million a year drug empire. It's only then that he learns that her nickname is "The Black Widow". Narrated by Cosby himself and complete with photos and interviews with law enforcement officials, hitmen and journalists that were there, this is a story that you have to see -- and hear -- to believe.









13. Quarantine

Quarantine brings zombies into the found-footage genre and leap-frogs way over The Blair Witch Project. After an outbreak of a weaponized version of rabies, an entire Los Angeles apartment building is placed under quarantine while the residents and first-responders fall victim one-by-one. And a local reporter and cameraman are there to document it all.









12. Slumdog Millionaire

How far would you go to reconnect with the one that got away? Eighteen-year-old Jamal Malik decided that his best bet to get that old thang back was to compete on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, the most popular game show in the world, because if he could manage to stay on long enough she'd eventually see him. Right? Plus, if he won he'd also be rich. So, you know, win-win.









11. A Good Year

10. Iron Man

Iron Man is the very first installment of the MCU. Understanding that most non-comic book readers are completely unfamiliar with the character, Marvel Studios wisely presented the movie as an origin story -- establishing the precedent for the initial solo film of nearly every Marvel hero to come. Billionaire genius Tony Stark's (the man inside the Iron Man suit) motivations and inner-demons play a pivotal role in a couple of the later movies -- and the fate of the world -- and this one gives you an idea of what kind of guy he is.

While the movie's primary importance lies in its presentation of background information, what you'll love most is seeing Iron Man flying -- and crashing. However, Stark reveals his previously secret identity to the world during a press conference at the end of the movie. As a result, S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division)-director Nick Fury approaches him and lets him know that his organization is considering him for "the Avengers Initiative".









9. Valkyrie

When this movie was released, my old roommate scoffed, "Nazis didn't look like Tom Cruise." He was only half-right. As unlikely as it may seem, Valkyrie's star, Cruise, bore an uncanny resemblance to its central character, real-life German army colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. While von Stauffenberg wasn't a Nazi, he was a German war hero. The film details a little-known aspect of WWII history -- the failed 1944 German assassination plot against Hitler.









8. Love for Sale

7. The Express

6. Let the Right One In

If you saw the 2010 movie Let Me In and thought it was original and inventive -- you were dead wrong. That movie is an unnecessary American remake of a truly innovative 2008 Swedish film. Let the Right One In, in turn, is an adaptation of the 2004 novel of the same name.

The focus of the story is Oskar, a 12-year-old loner and misfit who's largely ignored at home and bullied at school. 

This eerie horror masterpiece, with its early 1980s, snow-filled setting, steady pace and theme of isolation renders The Shining completely obsolete. 









5. Cloverfield

Watch the events unfold by way of surviving footage from a hand-held video camera taken by 20-something party-goer Hud, who found himself in an all-night run for his life, along with a group of friends, during what turned out to be a colossal monster's rampage through Manhattan. You can't help but notice that the combined might of the Army National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division and a U.S. Air Force bomber is no match for the seemingly invincible creature. 

Oh yeah-- after the group retreats to the relatively safe confines of the subway system, they find out the hard way that the monster is crawling with parasites that aggressively pursue life-forms small enough for them to eat (like people).

4. Bachna Ae Haseeno

Bachna Ae Haseeno (Watch Out, Ladies in English) is a Bollywood feature about an Indian player and tech whiz who looks back on his three most memorable relationships: His first, a brief teen romance while on vacation; his first long-term relationship, with the woman whom he leaves at the altar; and the time he spent with the one who got away.

Raj Sharma's love life begins innocently enough when he meets naive and equally inexperienced Mahi on a train to Switzerland. When Mahi misses her train after a stop, Raj offers to get her to the airport, which gives the two teens an opportunity to get to know one another and consequently allows them to discover first love and share a first kiss. Unfortunately, this fling leads to heartbreak for sheltered Mahi.

Raj then recounts that he'd achieved the perfect life years later: a job as a videogame designer for Microsoft and a live-in model girlfriend (Radhika). Life soon gets even better. He's offered a job working on "Halo". However, accepting the job, in Sydney, Australia, means leaving India -- and Radhika -- behind. And though Radhika volunteers to give up her career in order to follow her man, Raj isn't as committed to the relationship. After the two quickly become engaged, Raj catches a flight to the land down under while Radhika waits for him in her wedding dress at City Hall.

Five years later, Raj meets part-time cab driver and full-time business school student Gayatri. Though Gayatri's aversion to marriage mirrors his own, Raj falls hard and proposes. And the ladies' man catches the love boomerang squarely in the chest when his lady-love says no. He then puts himself through his own 12-step program in order to recover from the heartbreak and decides to seek forgiveness from both Mahi and Radhika -- no matter the cost. 

Bachna really is a relatable look at relationships in different stages of life, complete with an examination of the emotional toll that comes with being careless with other people's feelings. It's a treat for those unfamiliar with Indian cinema and Bollywood connoisseurs alike.

3. WALL-E

Nemo? Nope. Frozen? Get the hell outta here. WALL-E represents the zenith of Disney Pixar films. In fact, Entertainment Weekly named it the greatest animated film ever. WALL-E is an example of one of the rare times that the AMPAS got it right when the film earned the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

Like many space stories, our hero endures more than his share of isolation and loneliness. At its core, WALL-E is about an unassuming guy living in a desert wasteland, stuck doing menial labor, who travels to outer space for the first time in order to rescue a sophisticated female clad in white. Said female also happens to be pretty handy with a gun. He soon realizes that he, and she, are part of something much bigger than he ever imagined. Sound familiar? The difference is that instead of ending up in one, the hero is a trash compactor.

He barely talks, he looks like he belongs in the landfill in which he resides, and yet, you can't stop watching him. If he were a person, that little dude would be a great one. 

Believe it or not, WALL-E is also among the number of films in which a significant amount of its hero's woes can be traced to either an artificial intelligence or a huge corporate conglomerate. In this case, it's both. 

There are quite a few barely-veiled Christian themes at work here too: Imagine the spaceship, the Axiom, is Noah's Ark and Eve is the dove who brings back an olive branch. All that and Sigourney Weaver, too.  

2. The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight's importance cannot be overestimated. I'm not referring to the film's impact on Academy Awards policy, wherein it's failure to receive an Oscar nomination resulted in the immediate expansion of the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten. Knight's most significant contribution -- to not only comic book films, but to comic books themselves -- is the explanation it provides for the existence of Gotham City's many flamboyant supervillains. Though only the Joker, Two-Face and the Scarecrow make their presences known (and never use those names, thankfully), the film suggests that the members of the Caped Crusader's infamous Rogue's Gallery were inspired by one thing: the Batman himself.

The Dark Knight embraces the precedent set by Batman Begins in respecting the fact that some moviegoers and comics readers have brains.









1. Quantum of Solace

Just as 2009's Star Trek was criticized for being too Star Wars-esque (the yang to Trek's yin), Quantum of Solace was similarly condemned for taking on qualities more closely associated with a Jason Bourne film. And just as Trek benefited from loosening up a little and moving a little faster, 007 was vastly improved by a little sobering (but not when it comes to vodka, of course). It was high time that the one-liners and comic book villains were retired. The continued absences of "Q", Miss Moneypenny, invisible cars and jet packs are much-appreciated as well.

The truth is, the gadgets and spymobiles did all of the work in the majority of the movies in the franchise. For a long time, any guy with a British accent could've slipped on a tuxedo (including guys who looked as though they'd never been in a fight in their entire lives -- Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan), flashed his "license to kill" and driven his submarine car straight to the bank. Beginning sometime in the 1970s until 2006's Casino Royale, the guy wearing the tux hardly mattered -- and didn't seem the least bit dangerous. The unintended moral of most James Bond movies: The clothes make the man.

Quantum is the first true sequel in the decades-old series and, in fact, picks up mere hours after the end of its predecessor, Casino Royale. The film's main theme is the very real and primal desire for vengeance. 007 isn't on an assignment to dismantle a plot to poison the world's hot sauce supply, he's working independently of MI6 on a quest to personally murder the people responsible for the death of the love of his life. The film shows that superguns don't kill people -- pissed-off, rigorously-trained assassins kill people. Bond as a human works even better than the cartoon version.

Originally Posted 11/2/18

"King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" is Less Than Fantastic

 

by Robert Zenoni

Alright, Here. We….Go. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. Directed by Guy Richie, this film is good but not fantastic. I’m a little more biased because it has a few of my favorite actors in it (Charlie Hunnam, Eric Bana and, of course, Jude Law). Their acting skills aren’t really tested in this film and it seems like an easy day for them all considering the subject matter is Camelot and the sword pulled from the stone. We’ve heard it a lot. However, this is with the twist that rather than Arthur just becoming king after a war, the throne and his parents are simply stolen from him by his power hungry uncle. And also, Arthur himself isn’t the power but the sword gives him power. I do warn: this film has some funny/clever scenes that require you to pay attention to understand what’s happening because even for a 2 hour movie you need to pay attention to understand everything. I noticed myself paying attention to my phone for too long a few times and missed some important pieces of dialoge. This movie is entertaining with a bunch of familiar faces. And CGI is used but it’s very good and like I said, with the caliber of actors included, they’re all easily believable and are great in their roles. I’d recommend it personally. Tomorrow I’ll watch Clive Owen's King Arthur and review it and decide which I like more and which I think fits the subject matter better. Till then...adieu.

The 16 Best Movies of 2007

 

Originally Posted 5/10/17

2007 was a pretty good year for movies. Hell, judging by the upcoming schedule, it was a better year than this one'll be. We got a Decepticon movie, the best throwback gangster film since Casino, the first great Western in over a decade, a realistic vampire flick, the last decent Jason Bourne movie we'll probably ever see, a human Terminator and the return of John McClane after a 12-year hiatus. Not bad at all.

16. Sunshine

Sunshine revolves around an international crew of specialists on a mission to reignite the dying Sun with a mega-ton nuclear bomb in the year 2057. Director Danny Boyle was obviously heavily influenced by both Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but this movie stands on its own. The bad news is that it transitions to a slasher movie near the end. It sort of went from "sugar to shit."

I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Evans, who portrays the spacecraft's engineer, Mace, got the role of Captain America based solely on his performance in Sunshine. He's focused, self-sacrificing, heroic, morally uncomplicated, stalwart, calm under pressure, take-charge and sincere -- everything the Captain is, minus 60 pounds of muscle.

15. Atonement

Don't let the beginning of Atonement fool you. It starts off like some epic love story. But the good times don't roll for long. It just goes to show how much damage false accusations can do to the lives of the people involved. By comparison, the Duke Lacrosse team and Tupac got off easy. 

14. Beowulf

Beowulf is close to what the Thor movies should've been. Thor himself almost is Beowulf -- an arrogant, Scandinavian warrior son of another great warrior. 

The movie is the absolute best adaptation of the Old English epic poem of the same name about a guy hiring himself out as a monster-hunter in order to make a name for himself. 

We covered Beowulf back in school and lemme tell you...the most impressive thing about the movie is that it's an actual story that makes sense. The poem's not so much a story as just series of a bunch of sh#t that happens. It's sorta like: This happens...then this happens...and then 30 years later this happens.

The film version changes a couple things and straight up makes up at least one key aspect of the story. But it seems like those things were done in order to tie everything together. This is also (probably) Angelina Jolie's best movie.








13. 28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later is not the least bit uplifting. It's probably the bleakest film of 2007. And that was a year that included a movie about the last man on Earth (I Am Legend); a film about 299 warriors who never return from a suicide mission (300); and a film in which no one is safe from a hired killer, including a Vietnam veteran, a sheriff's deputy, a seasoned bounty hunter and other sicarios (No Country for Old Men). You may wanna watch a Pixar feature afterwards just to restore your sense of hope.

28 Days Later ended on an optimistic note and accordingly, the ensuing seven months have yielded a return of a measure of order to Great Britain. And then the trouble starts... 








12. Shooter

Believe it or not, Shooter is based on a novel -- 1993's Point of Impact. The movie, like the book, is about Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger. And Swagger is loosely based on real-life Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock. 

Swagger gets caught up in a government conspiracy in which he's framed for a presidential assassination attempt and not even FBI agents are safe.

It's probably the second-best movie about snipers -- second to Enemy at the Gates. 









11. I Am Legend

Will Smith is a huge step up from Charlton Heston (Charlton starred in the 1971 version, The Omega Man) in this 3rd movie adaptation of the 1954 book of the same name. Army scientist Will/Robert Neville, the last man alive, spends his nights trying not to be noticed by the packs of nocturnal mutants that prowl the streets after dark. He spends his days attempting to develop a cure for the virus that spawned these creatures who used to be human.

10. No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is basically The Terminator without the science-fiction. It's a real world nightmare. There are plenty of comedies about guys finding drug money and calling "Finders, keepers!" (like Meet the Blacks). But if you tried that in real life the aftermath might not be so funny.









9. 3:10 to Yuma

3:10 to Yuma is an unassailable argument for the value of remakes. If you've ever wondered how things would turn out if a classic shoot-em-up was re-done in color, this is the answer -- provided you fill the roles with great actors and crank the action up a few notches. But not so far that the violence is mindless. It also wouldn't hurt if you pumped up the realism.

Yuma is Russell Crowe's second chance at cowboy greatness and he nailed it (It's also his best turn as a villain -- You're better off skipping Virtuosity). Apparently, The Quick and the Dead, Crowe's first American movie, was just a rehearsal. Like his co-stars, Gene Hackman and Leonardo DiCaprio, his Western do-over is Hall of Fame-ready. 

Like High Noon, timing is everything. But instead of awaiting a dangerous outlaw's imminent arrival on a train, the point in Yuma is to ensure that a dangerous outlaw departs on a train. The black hat is Ben Wade, the murderous leader of a gang of stagecoach robbers. Wade gets himself captured by the law in the Arizona town of Bisbee (23 miles southeast of Tombstone), but the locals don't have the resources to stop the killer's gang from liberating him. So, the idea is to get him on the afternoon train and off to the Yuma Territorial Prison in none other than the town of Yuma (duh). No stranger to Westerns, the prison is also referenced in The Wild Bunch, Hombre and The Comancheros. An outlaw is even put on a train to the facility in Once Upon a Time in the West.  Anyway, Civil War veteran-turned-rancher (he fought for the Union) Dan Evans is deputized and hired for $200 to escort Wade to the locomotive. He needs the money because his landlord is threatening to evict him and his family from his land. But he also wants to teach his son that doing the right thing is worth any risk.









8. The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum's title is derived from a novel of the same name written by Bourne creator Robert Ludlum. It's the last book about the assassin written by the author, and fittingly, the film is the last to star the man who personifies him onscreen -- Matt Damon. At least, that was the original plan and had been the case for nine years -- until 2016's Jason Bourne. Like The Bourne Supremacy before it, Ultimatum bears no resemblance to the novel for which it's named, and contrary to the old maxim, is better than the book.

Ultimatum fills in the gap between the final two moments of Supremacy: Bourne's apology to Irena Neski (he murdered her parents) and his conversation with CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy in New York. We finally get to see how he actually made it out of Russia -- battered, but alive. For the first time in the series he leaves the foreign locales behind and brings his skills to bear on New York City -- amidst the post-9/11 heightened security. 

The final scene of the film mirrors the very beginning of the series, the opening scene of The Bourne Identity, in which Bourne lies motionless and face-down in a body of water. 








7. American Gangster

I'm just gonna come out and say it: I don't like movies set in the 1970s. I hate the style. The muscle cars and the music was pretty good but I hate the fashion, the home decor and the anorexic look. But American Gangster is so good I went to see it twice -- 70s clothes and all.

American Gangster is something you hardly ever see -- a big Hollywood biopic about an African-American crime boss. The boss is Frank Lucas, a North Carolina native who moved to Harlem and became one of NYC's biggest heroin kingpins. 

The movie looks great but the bonus is that the score's so good you could close your eyes for the whole 2 1/2 hours and you'd still love it.

Ridley Scott's directed some pretty wack movies lately (like Exodus and Prometheus) but once upon a time he called the shots (literally) on classics such as Alien, Gladiator and this movie.  








6. 300

300 was popular as hell from Day One and, not insignificantly, received a standing ovation at it's premiere. The popular opinion is that it's director Zack Snyder's best film. As everyone who's read the graphic novel from which it's adapted (or learned about the Battle of Thermopylae in History class) is aware, 300 is a story of martyrdom and self-sacrifice as all but one of the story's heroes are killed by the end. 








5. There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood was robbed stuck-up at gunpoint and pistol-whipped at the 80th Academy Awards when it lost the Best Picture Oscar to No Country for Old Men.

Beginning in 1898 and spanning a little over a quarter of a century, There Will Be Blood is a poetically titled character study set against the backdrop of California during the oil boom. The story centers around Daniel Plainview, a silver miner with unlimited ambition and an equally boundless distrust of other people to match. When Daniel switches his sights from silver to oil his cynicism and hatred grows almost as quickly as his fortune. His affection it seems is reserved exclusively for his adopted son and his half-brother, with whom he is soon reunited. For awhile anyway. Plainview goes on to match wits with a young preacher, other oil tycoons and the earth itself in his relentless pursuit of more power and wealth. He allows nothing and no one to stand in his way and he forgives nothing and no one who defies him. The eerie score is the perfect compliment to the increasingly more sinister main character.

Loosely based on the 1927 novel Oil!, which itself is loosely based on real life oil baron Edward L. Doheny, the movie provokes an inevitable second glance at  such legendary business titans as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and John Jacob Astor. You have to wonder, Is this the kinda guy who built modern America? Is this really what capitalism is all about? And just how much blood was there in real life? Try not to think about the Gulf Coast or the gigantic corporations that may or may not be responsible for the current state of the economy as you watch.

Daniel Day Lewis was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award in 2008 for his masterful portrayal of misanthropic magnate, Plainview. The film itself received numerous awards including 8 Academy Award nominations, winning two.

For you diehard hood or gangster movie fans, rest assured this story is all about greed, ambition, hate, violence, murder, money, power and respect. Don’t miss one of the most abrupt endings in cinema and keep your ears open for when Plainview utters the film’s iconic line, “I drink your milkshake!” Though There Will Be Blood is an epic drama, it is worthy of its title. Serial killer Jigsaw from the Saw movies made it a hot line and director Wes Anderson made it a hot film.

4. 30 Days of Night

There's nothing romantic about these vampires and no teenage girl on the planet would fall in love with them. They don't turn into bats, run from crucifixes or sleep in coffins. All they do is kill. This movie, more than any other, shows why they're in the monster category. Imagine being stuck in a small Alaskan town full of vampires where the sun doesn't shine for a whole month. It's like a local version of The Walking Dead - including the fact that a sheriff is the hero. It's also Josh Hartnett's second-best movie.






 

3. Eastern Promises

The same way that zombies scooped vampires as the most popular Hollywood monsters, Russians replaced the Italian mob as the go-to movie criminals (Like in The Equalizer, Training Day, The 25th Hour, The Drop and John Wick). Eastern Promises isn't even the only 2007 movie to feature what's called the Russian Bratva. We Own the Night was the other one. The difference between Eastern Promises and all of those other movies is that it goes past the tattoos and accents and explains the culture a little bit. Also, it takes place in London instead of the U.S.









2. The Transformers

Back in the day, Transformers movies weren't just big-budget pieces of sh#t. The first, and best, was 1986's animated Transformers: The Movie. 21 years later, the first, and best, live-action Transformers movie hit theaters and shocked the hell outta me with how good it was. It never occurred to me that Michael Bay, of all people, could be up to the challenge of respecting the source material and making giant robots disguised as cars look legit next to real people. Megatron, Optimus Prime, Starscream, Bumblebee -- they were all there. And they were all impressive. 

Since 2007, Bay has taken the franchise from sugar to sh@t. But this first in the series achieved greatness. They really don't make 'em like they used to.

1. Live Free or Die Hard

You might think Die Hard would be played out by the 4th movie but you'd be wrong (the only one that sucks is #5 - A Good Day to Die Hard). Nineteen years after the original, John McClain was still killing it. McClain had to merc a bunch of terrorists to save his wife in the first two movies. This time his daughter Lucy's life is on the line. 

The Most Overrated Movies of 2007




7. Hot Fuzz


6. Freedom Writers

5. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

4. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

3. Are We Done Yet?

2. Planet Terror

1. Spider-Man 3

The Shame of "West of Shanghai"

 

by Daniel White

"I am Fang, I speak most dang bad English." With this dubious line, Boris Karloff introduces himself to the rest of the cast in West of Shanghai, a 1937 Warner Brothers action adventure flick that offers little of either. I am a huge fan of Karloff's, and like his fright film pal, Bela Lugosi, he could do little wrong in my book. Unfortunately in this movie, he gives such a bad performance it's impossible to overlook.

Yellowface, the practice of white actors playing Asian roles in film was common in Hollywood during the Golden Age. Probably the most famous case is The Good Earth, MGM's filming of the Pearl Buck novel, released the same year as West of Shanghai. I am not interested in debating the wrongness of yellowface. Like the way other minorities were treated in Tinseltown's hey day, it is embarrassing and unfortunate.

Mr. Karloff, wherever he is, might wish to have this movie removed from his oeuvre. The great man lays a great big egg here, astonishing in it's awfulness.

A group of Americans are traveling through China, eager to reach an isolated outpost where oil has been discovered. They reach the site, about the same time General Fang arrives, and that's when the sparks fly. Or are supposed to fly, but a lackluster script defeats everyone, and despite being helmed by the capable, competent, John Farrow the whole thing falls flat. Maybe that's why Karloff was over-acting so ridiculously. Trying to create a little fun where none was to be had.

West of Shanghai may have failed as entertainment, but it excels in another way: it shows us the illusion in movies, the trickery and artifice that existed in Hollywood during those years. William Henry Pratt, an Englishman, who was part Indian, is transformed into Boris Karloff, one of the original kings of horror. Ricardo Cortez, who also stars, started out life as Jacob Krantz, a Jewish kid from the Bronx. But Hollywood needed him to be a Latin Lover so he became Ricardo Cortez. Finally Beverly Roberts, the female lead, had a brief career as a leading lady at Warner Brothers in the late thirties, playing opposite, among others, Pat O''Brien and Humphrey Bogart. Dissatisfied with her film roles, she quit the movies, worked on stage, radio and TV, eventually becoming a union organizer in the theater. While at Warner's, she met actress Wynne Gibson, and began a 50 year love affair that ended only upon Gibson's death in 1987. Three individuals, who are not exactly what they seem, whose paths crossed while traveling, West of Shanghai.

With Sheila Bromley, Richard Loo, and Gordon Oliver (the poor man's Fred MacMurray), West of Shanghai is available on YouTube.

The 5 Best Films of 1984

 

Originally Posted 8/12/19

Killer robots, midwestern musicians, vengeful cobras, greedy archaeologists and vengeful spirits made the cinema one helluva place to be in 1984.

5. Purple Rain

Minneapolis band leader the Kid has a volatile home life, a fierce rivalry at the club at which he regularly performs and a new love-interest. After his girlfriend, Apollonia, gets a little too close to his archnemesis, Morris, Kid begins to exhibit the same behavior that has caused him to resent his estranged father. Making matters worse, his self-absorption is threatening to destroy his band just as their position at their regular club grows shaky.

This quasi-autobiographical film catapulted rocker Prince, who had absolutely no acting experience, into the show-business stratosphere and made him a global superstar. Combining his own experiences with (reportedly) Marvin Gaye's family dynamics and irresistible music was exactly the formula that moviegoers didn't even know that they wanted.

4. Ghostbusters

Four poltergeist hunters try to prevent Armageddon when a seismic amount of paranormal activity threatens to consume New York City.

3. The Karate Kid

The Karate Kid was conceived as "the new Rocky" with the hope that it would be at least half as successful. The similarities aren't hard to spot. Both Rocky Balboa and Daniel LaRusso are Italian-American; Rocky's from Philadelphia, Daniel hails from nearby Newark; Rocky's a boxer, Daniel's a martial-artist; each fighter is trained by an elderly expert after having already learned the basics elsewhere; both Rocky and Daniel are trained by unconventional means; they each fall in love during the film; and both are poor. Fortunately, the "Great White Hope" storyline wasn't included in The Karate Kid. 

Rocky was the highest-grossing movie of 1976 at $55 million. Eight years later, The Karate Kid snagged over $100 million. 

2. The Terminator

The Terminator is aptly named. Though you root for them, none of the film's human characters manage to even come close to stealing the spotlight away from the hulking cyborg in its posters.

In the year 2029, mankind is at war with an army of robots under the command of a self aware  artificially intelligent defense network called Skynet that initiated a nuclear holocaust in an attempt to eradicate humanity. Concluding that the human resistance is on the verge of defeating the machines, Skynet uses time travel technology to send one its T-800 Model 101 cyborgs to 1984 to assassinate unassuming waitress Sarah Connor. As it turns out, Sarah is due to conceive John Connor, who will lead the human resistance, in the next few days. Discovering the plot, John sends one of his soldiers back in time as well in the hopes of preventing the murder.

Before the soldier, Kyle Reese, arrives, the cyborg, which appears to be a competitive bodybuilder due to a layer of flesh over its metallic endoskeleton, racks up quite a body-count. The robot kills thugs for the clothing, dusts off a gun store salesman for weapons and systematically goes through the Los Angeles phone book bumping off residents who happen to be named Sarah Connor.

After Reese locates Sarah in time to rescue her from the literal killing machine, he's arrested and Sarah's taken along to the police station in order to give a statement. Undeterred by its target's now seemingly impenetrable level of security, the Terminator mows through 17 police officers and her mom in another attempt to take her out.

Because the film has one of the slickest twists in sci-fi movie history, I won't spoil the ending or give any more details.

1. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Though The Temple of Doom is the second Indiana Jones film to be released, it's actually a prequel to the original Indy adventure: Raiders of the Lost Ark. A year before Dr. Jones tangled with Nazis, a double-cross in Shanghai landed him, his sidekick Short Round and gangster moll Willie Scott in northern India, where they infiltrate a homicidal cult that's enslaved a village full of children.

Though The Temple of Doom has often been cited as an example of a white
savior film, Indiana Jones' pint-sized Asian partner Short Round is the ultimate hero of the story. At one point Indy actually poses a threat to both Short Round and Willie, which endangers the mission. Short Round has to rescue him from the church of the poisoned mind effects of the Thuggee blood. He also saves the
Maharaja, who in turn tells him how to escape the tunnels and alerts the
British Indian Army, which sends rifleman who save Indy from certain death
at the hands of the remaining Thuggee cult members. While Indy certainly
contributes to the success of the mission -- helping to free the local village's
children alongside Short Round and Willie and returning its stone -- he's by no means a savior.

"Downstairs" Review

 

by Daniel White

1932's Downstairs is notable for being one of the last films of John Gilbert, an immensely popular star from the silent era whose career began unraveling at the advent of sound. In it he plays Karl, an unscrupulous chauffeur who wreaks havoc in an Austrian manor. The myth that his voice was inadequate for talkies is dispelled here; he speaks well, acts with conviction, and commands the screen convincingly. He is equal to Paul Lukas, who plays Albert, the husband of Anna (Virginia Bruce), one of the woman he seduces. And Mr. Lukas was a very successful actor in film, winning an Oscar for 1943's Watch on the Rhine.

Gilbert's decline as an actor has more to do with the changing tastes of the public than anything else. He was too closely associated with the parts he played in the twenties, that of the smoldering, romantic pursuer of women. Audiences would not allow him to morph into the quick talking wise guy they demanded. His image was too closely associated with the "soft", self-indulgent Mad Decade. Standing in Breadlines, not boudoir lovemaking was the order of the day. John Gilbert and his ardent wooing was passe, Jimmy Cagney with a grapefruit in Mae Clarke's puss was what people wanted.

Downstairs (the story is attributed to Gilbert), appears to be an attempt to toughen him up, to "Gableize" him. His chauffeur is an unrepentant scoundrel, who uses every women he encounters for his own pleasure. Blackmail, chicanery, false flattery, and theft are all in a day's work for Karl. And if you're waiting for a scene of redemption or contrition, you won't find it here. As a Pre Code anti hero, Karl is one of the coldest. Gilbert's portrayal is shocking. He's almost saying, "Fuck You" to MGM, the public, and his peers. It's admirable in a perverse way. He refuses our pity and throws himself upon the pyre.

The movie has some racy Pre Code moments: Gilbert getting his flour dusted derriere "cleaned" by the cook (Bodily Rising) is an eye popper. Another scene where Anna reveals to Albert that she has slept with Karl is extraordinary. She frankly reveals to him Karl is a better lover than he ("There is a kind of making love that drives you mad and crazy"). It's an amazing speech from a woman telling her husband she strayed because, "he couldn't cut the mustard" in the bedroom. Wow, this was radical stuff, subversive, and contrary to the way society wanted it's women to behave.

John Gilbert is one of the more fascinating figures from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Few have risen so high, then crashed completely in such short a time (a heart attacked brought on by chronic alcoholism would have him dead at the age of 38). Powerless to control his declining career and failing personal life, he opted for self immolation. Sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

With Reginald Owen, the vile Hedda Hopper, and the legendary Olga Baclanova of Freaks fame, Downstairs is available on YouTube.

The 11 Best Movies of 1995

 

Originally Posted 1/20/20

A quarter-century later and these flicks are still well worth the watch. From South Central to Brooklyn and from New Jersey to the deep sea, 1995 offered enough various locales and fascinating characters to keep any movie buff happy. Spike Lee tried his hand at the crime genre, Ice Cube officially became a screenwriter (in one of two high-profile releases) and John McClane finally went home.





11. Higher Learning

To this day, Higher Learning is one of the few films to explore the tensions created -- and intentionally fueled -- by the various politically-minded groups on college campuses. With African-Americans fighting discrimination, women protesting sexual assault and even white supremacists whining about "making America great again", the movie also serves as a microcosm of the country nearly a quarter-century after its premiere. Perhaps most tragically, Higher Learning examines the now-commonplace phenomenon of school shootings.

10. Othello

Laurence Fishburne brings the title role to life in the first cinematic adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy to be released by a major studio. Othello, a Venetian general and military prodigy, becomes the target of envy and malice not only because of his status as the only Moor in such a high-ranking position in Italy, but also due to his interracial marriage to a powerful senator's daughter.

9. Bad Boys

1995's Bad Boys was a smash hit, bringing in seven times its budget at the box office. The partnership between Will Smith's Detective Mike Lowery and Martin Lawrence's Detective Marcus Burnett was unheard of; buddy-cop movies featuring an African-American police officer and a white counterpart (the Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon series, Running Scared and Die Hard) were revolutionary at the time. But two Black cops at the center of a high-profile action movie was one-of-a-kind.









8. A Walk in the Clouds

7. Devil in a Blue Dress

Though Denzel Washington has portrayed a police officer in seven of his films and a current or former federal agent in five, Devil in a Blue Dress features his one and only turn as a private investigator, which is a shame because his
performance as Ezekiel "Easy" Rollins rivals legendary movie detectives
John Shaft, Philip Marlowe(The Big Sleep) and Sam Spade (The Maltese
Falcon). Blue Dress features all of the hallmarks of film noir (the genre most
commonly-associated with detective thrillers, including: murder;
conspiracy; a femme-fatale; first-person narration; and, of course, mystery) and owing to its 1940s California setting -- a not-so-rosy look at race relations.

The story, adapted from Walter Mosley's 1990 debut novel of the same name,
involves the aforementioned Ezekial "Easy" Rollins, a WWII vet who decides
to become a private eye after being fired from his job as an aircraft
manufacturer at Champion Aircraft. In the summer of 1948, when segregation
was aggressively enforced, Easy is offered $100 per day ($1,000 in today's
money) by a white man, DeWitt Albright, to track down a white woman, Daphne
Monet. He's told that Daphne is the girlfriend of Todd Carter, who was a
lock to win the LA mayoral race before dropping out. Easy's investigation
takes him on a tour of the African-American side of LA, including juke
joints and underground clubs.









6. Seven

5. Clockers

Anyone who was disappointed upon discovering that Chi-Raq wasn't a gritty, straight-forward look at urban crime should watch Clockers. While both films center on how a young drug dealer affects and is affected by his inner-city community, you won't find any musical numbers, synchronized dance routines, rhyming dialogue or forced comedy in the latter.

Clockers follows Ronald "Strike" Dunham, a career criminal, who, after entering the crack trade at a young age, has worked his way up to street-level dealer. And as they say, with more power comes more responsibility. But Strike dreams of a different life and has a minor obsession with trains, as they represent a path to a new life far away from his Brooklyn housing project. When Strike's boss and father figure, Rodney Little, learns that another dealer, Darryl Adams, is skimming off the top, Strike is tasked with murdering him. Not having the stomach for it, both literally and figuratively (he constantly guzzles Pepto-Bismol), Strike goes to his older brother, Victor, to talk it over. The brothers couldn't be more different. While Strike is a flashy crack-dealer, Victor is a humble family man with two jobs and no criminal record. However, after Darryl turns up dead, 

Meanwhile, Strike has taken Tyrone Jeeter, a teen resident of his housing project, under his wing.

After Darryl is found shot to death, Victor confesses to the police that he killed him in self-defense. However, NYPD homicide detective Rocco Klein doesn't believe Victor's story and sets out to bring the real shooter to justice -- whom he believes to be Strike. Klein's not Strike's only problem. Housing Authority officer Andre "the Giant" is growing tired of Strike's influence on Tyrone. And after Klein frames Strike as an informant in order to pressure him into confessing his guilt, Rodney sends his chief enforcer, Errol Barnes, to ensure that Strike is unable to fulfill any agreement he may have made with law enforcement. 

Tyrone, however, shoots Errol to death with Strike's handgun and subsequently confesses to the police, prompting Andre to savagely beat Strike in front of a crowd of onlookers. Rodney, having been recently released from custody, pulls up during the commotion, causing Strike to drive to the local police precint, where Klein is waiting with an arrest warrant for him. Just as Klein attempts to pressure him into confessing, Strike's mother and sister-in-law arrive and reveal that Victor's confession was true -- and disown Strike.

Klein releases him, only to discover that Rodney has destroyed his car outside of the police station. Desperate, Strike asks the detective for a ride to Penn Station. Klein obliges, threatening to arrest and detain him with Rodney if he ever sees him again.

4. Crimson Tide

Crimson Tide is all about clashes: blue-collar versus white-collar; young versus old; education versus experience; instinct versus logic; old school versus new school; and black versus white.

The simplest way to describe Crimson Tide is: Mutiny on the Bounty in a submarine. Captain Frank Ramsey is a nightmare of a boss: a bigoted dickhead who thinks he knows everything and has access to nuclear launch codes. Fortunately for the planet, his new executive officer isn't a kiss-ass but rather a smart guy who isn't afraid to challenge authority when he knows it's wrong -- and a threat to the fragile peace between two superpowers.









3. Friday

After 20 years on top, Cheech and Chong had no choice but to abdicate their stoner thrones and make room for Smokey and Craig. But co-writer and star Ice Cube didn't forget to pay homage. Check out Big Worm's ice cream truck. there are plenty of Cypress Hill posters on the bedroom wall too, by the way. Who knew Cube was so funny? Prior to this movie he mostly just scowled and talked gangsta ish. This is the movie that showed that even a boy n the hood can have a sense of humor. Everybody knew Chris Tucker was hilarious but Friday is Chris at his best -- not to mention the movie that turned the Def Comedy Jam stand-up into a certified movie star. Dead Presidents, The Fifth Element, Money Talks, Jackie Brown and, of course, the Rush Hour movies were right around the corner.

Friday is a celebration of that first time -- the one you'll always remember (Probably the only one you'll remember). That magical time when you had virgin lungs and somebody convinced you to take that very first pull -- and you probably pulled too hard, felt like your chest was on fire and coughed your head off. In this case, newly-fired Craig is the first timer and his boy Smokey, a straight-up pothead, gives the rationale that because he has no responsibilities and no other plans, he might as well.

Friday's almost the inverse of Seinfeld. Instead of a couple of rich, weird, white New Yorkers and their friends sitting around drinking coffee at a diner in between crazy adventures, you've got a couple of broke African-American dudes from southern California and their friends sitting around smoking on the front porch in between crazy adventures. You know what though? Maybe Seinfeld and Friday aren't that different after all. Kramer only had a job for a few days and George was outta work for a good bit himself.

Anyway, this is one of the most quoted comedies of all time:

"Bye, Felicia."

"Don't you ever, ever, ever, ever come around here no more."







2. New Jersey Drive

1. Die Hard with a Vengeance

While Die Hard with a Vengeance is the final film in the series to feature
John McClane working with an African-American partner, it's also the only
one to directly address race.

Minutes after they meet -- and escape a group of angry Harlemites, incensed
by the racist sign Mcclane was forced to wear -- John tells African-American Harlem native Zeus to chill out. The response that he gets is, "Chill out? What the %&#@?! Are you trying to relate to me? Talk like a white man!"

Zeus reveals that he helped McClane escape imminent death at the hands of a
group of Harlem kids because he realized that if a white cop were killed in
the predominantly African-American neighborhood, "A thousand cops with
itchy trigger-fingers" would be sent down here...

When McClane explains that he was temporarily famous due to an event in LA,
Zeus quips, "Lemme guess -- Rodney King?"

When McClane incredulously observes Zeus' ignorance when it comes to
firearms, the latter exclaims, "All brothers don't know how to use guns,
you racist mother------!"

Not only did Vengeance foreshadow the September 11th attacks, the film even
references the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. McClane and
Zeus are even framed with the Twin Towers behind them in one scene.

Though Vengeance is the first Die Hard film that doesn't take place at
Christmas -- it's actually set during the summer -- the holiday gets a
couple of references nonetheless: When McClane catches a kid shoplifting
junk food, the pint-sized thief explains, "Look around, man. All the cops
are into something. It's Christmas! You could steal City Hall!" Also, NYPD
explosives specialist Charlie Weiss sings a portion of "The Twelve Days of
Christmas" -- "and a partridge in a pear tree" -- while attempting to
diffuse a bomb. To top it all off, McClane tells two of the terrorists (while pretending to be a member of "Aqueduct Security", " Hey, listen. We got a report of a guy coming through here with eight reindeer. Yeah, it was a jolly old fat guy with a snow white beard and a cute little red-and-white suit. I'm surprised you didn't see him."