onsdag 5 juni 2013

BULLET TO THE HEAD


I am a huge Walter Hill fan. Creator of legendary tough guy movies such as Extreme Prejudice,48 Hours, Southern Comfort and Last Man Standing.

This movie plays more into the buddyaction-genre of Hills previous efforts as 48 Hours and Red Heat, but with less emphasis on laughs and more on grit and hardedged violence.
At first I was a bit disappointed ,since the leads (Sly and Sung Kang) are both each others complete opposites, usually the outcome is some sort of enjoyable banter  between them.I don´t think that worked if it was ever meant to. The dialogue is terrible.  Perhaps I am a bit Shane Blacked by now. And by that I mean,I expect witty comebacks and one-liners out of the movie´s ass Lethal Weapon or The Last Boyscout-style.

But I realized, I liked it more than I thought I did after my watch. Shit I did not like at first was the cheap look of it, the terrible camerawork at some of the action and the whole feel of it was straight-to-dvd. But it felt gritty, unremorseful and unapologizing as a pulpy lowbrow 90-minute  b-movie. And for that it was good.

I think my expectations were a bit off the mark.when popping this motherfucker in my dvd-player. Sly has come of some seriously over the top actioners of recent and then going back for something more intimate was a bit of a change.I liked that it has pretty much the feel of a Walter Hill movie. It is macho as hell and violent as shit, but not too fancy. I would not expect large CGI-scenes in a Hill-actioner. He is about  old school action, about the characters sense of honor which they will not bend and that is why they collide and makes them special and fun to watch.

It was not one of Walter Hills greatest, but I welcome the grandfather of gritty action-movies back to the scene. We need you!

måndag 3 juni 2013

CONTEMPLATING FURIOUS 6






I was just recently converted to the juggernaut franchise that is The Fast and The Furious  and going into the theatre on a high after witnessing Fast5 for the first time ever on bluray.
Previously I dismissed the franchise as an empty excuse to showing cars and female bootys with sweat running down their legs (and possibly James Spaders cum).

Now I am convinced that the 1970´s carmovie action craze is back in style for real. I just did not get it until now. I am a slow learner. I never noticed the the stoic motifs in the previous ones until it was shouted at me with a blowhorn in the fifth installment. I feel so stupid. But there might be more than that behind this blockbuster.

The motifs of honor,brotherhood,friendship and family. A set of traditional principles and values lacking in cinema today and apparently in society as well. Call me oldfashioned, but shit like that is important. Not the paygrade you get after sucking someones dick in a closet, but the respect of friends,family and the responsibliity by owing up to whatever debt you have.  I am regrettably aware of  myself  being guilty to some of these sins, it is painfully clear to me. So it is kind of nice (and scary) to see people bringing in some of the traditional values into the douchebagcentury of alltime to enlighten us about the importance of having a set of morals.

The plot is spectacularly dumb and retarded, which may come across as a contradiction to what I said previously. And it is. And that is what makes it great. The juxtaposition of stupidity and sincerity. The ambivalence behind it  might actually work to make people to start thinking about what makes these movies so phenomanally successfull. The last two installments has been HUGE hits and instead of being a douchenozzle about it being unrealistic, you might wanna start thinking about what makes them tick amongst audiences. because if you think it is all about blowing shit up ( which is great! Contradiction alert!) you might start thinking about your own set of morals. I know I have.