Comfort Viewing: "The Karate Kid, Part Two" (1986)

Had enough of the never-ending drumbeat of negativity, identity politics, and divisive rhetoric from all fronts?  Let me recommend one of my favorite movies, now celebrating its 30th anniversary (!).  I assume that you - as properly educated humans - have already seen 1984's original The Karate Kid, yes?  Of course you have.

There is a lot of good stuff in the sequel that it manages to engage without being prissy or preachy - eternally resonant themes like honor, justice, standing up for yourself, respect, mercy, love, friendship, family (both of blood and of choice), forgiveness, and reconciliation across divides of age, race, culture, geography, and time - and I'll leave it to you to enjoy the story, along with a gloriously bombastic, cheesy soundtrack. Hey, it's the 80s! It's OK!

 

By the way, don't bother with the rebooted Karate Kid from 2010.  Look, I love Jackie Chan as much as anybody, but there's only one Mr. Miyagi, and he is the late, great Pat Morita.  Go rewatch the original Karate Kid.

DVD Review: "Pacific Rim" (2013)

Jaegermeister

The holidays are for watching all the things you never had time to watch before!  This time it's 2013's unabashedly silly summer popcorn flick Pacific Rim, which is really more entertaining than it has a right to be.  Disclaimer: I was a kid who loved Voltron and mech suits and Gundam and Godzilla and all that, so I was pretty much going to consider Pacific Rim a guilty pleasure and love it (and then feel no guilt about any of it), especially since it has a cast that includes Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, and Ron Perlman.  Anyway, the premise is simple enough: gigantic monsters called kaiju are invading the planet via a fissure in the ocean floor, and it's up to hotshot warriors in enormous mechanical suits called Jaegers to fight them.

Sure, there's plenty of nonsense and silliness in the flick, but - hey, let's be honest - I didn't care!  I was willing to let it all slide because the movie itself is so much bombastic FUN.  It's style over substance, but come on, it's hilariously entertaining.  This is a movie that features Idris Elba (!) as a commander named Stacker Pentecost, for goodness sakes!  Charlie "Jax Teller" Hunnam plays a pilot named Raleigh Becket (seriously), and he has a Jaeger called (I'm not making this up) Gipsy Danger (ex-girlfriend of Anthony Weiner perhaps?).  A trio of hoops-shooting Chinese pilots run a machine named Crimson Typhoon.  Another pilot is named (with a straight face) Hercules Hansen.  The nomenclature of everything seems to have an uproarious Engrishy twist to it.  Alessandra, watching with me, shouted, "It's pure anime!" and meant it as a compliment.

Ignore the silliness ("drift compatible" and whatever), logical pitfalls, Rinko Kikuchi's almost unintelligible Mako Mori character, and a climax that is a little too reminiscent of Independence Day and The Avengers.  Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the sight of giant robots battling giant monsters while wrecking Hong Kong with cheerful abandon.  For an hour and a half you can be a kid watching a cartoon and having a grand old time.  You can be a sensible adult before and after, but for the run time of Pacific Rim you can be a schoolboy/girl enjoying eye candy mayhem, monsters, and mechs.  Oh, and be sure to sit through the first bit of credits.

Mad Minerva gives Pacific Rim the grade of B+ for sheer enjoyable popcorn amusement.  Yes, it's ridiculous, but it's ridiculous fun ... and rather more fun than the latest Godzilla.

Pacific Rim runs 132 minutes and is rated PG-13 for monster/mech action, some disturbing images (kaiju guts are gross!), and Charlie Hunnam's abs (they could give Thor's a run for their money).

Rotten Tomatoes gives Pacific Rim the Fresh rating of 72%.

I could give you the actual trailer, but I think it'd be far more amusing to give you the Honest Trailer:

I'M BAAAACK. Here's a Movie Review, My Adoring Public!

Absence makes the heart grow fungus -- I mean, FONDER.  

Yup, I've been ludicrously busy in Nerdworld (it's conference season, my lovelies!), but I finally can catch a breath.  So here's a peace offering: Get ready for a ton of movie reviews all in a row, beginning with ...

Con-Hair

So in this Oscar-nominated 2013 movie's 1970s-era parade of brash con artists, ill-tempered Feds, corrupt New Jersey politicians, and the Mafia, just who is playing whom?  You'll spend two glorious hours trying to figure that out even as you marvel at Christian Bale's incredible comb-over, Jennifer Lawrence's bouffant, and Bradley Cooper's super-tight perm.  (Seriously, I'm surprised this flick didn't win the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Look at Amy Adams' hair!  LOOK AT IT!)

I don't want to say too much about the elaborate plot because I don't want to spoil anything.  Suffice it to say that in the hands of a lesser director and a lesser cast it could have gone badly wrong, but David O. Russell and his gloriously perfect cast (there's not a single actor out of place) turn it into one of the best movies of 2013.  The colorfully quirky, larger-than-life personalities race, rocket, and roar through the scenes, and they do it with flawless style.  You know, "style" is not the first word that I think of when I think of "1970s," but somehow the sheer confidence and zest that the cast bring to the project make even the perms and polyester seem completely plausible.

The con is on with Irving Rosenfeld (Bale) and his partner Sydney Prosser (Adams), but when they get tangled up with a Fed with ambitions of his own (Cooper), the Mafia, and a corruptible politician from Camden, New Jersey (Jeremy Renner, as far from his Hawkeye role as he can be), the action kicks into high gear.  Add Rosalyn (Lawrence), Irv's total loose cannon of an estranged wife who just might throw a wrench into every plan, and you've got yourself an Oscar-caliber caper and then some (This flick was indeed nominated for 4 Oscars.)

In short, don't miss American Hustle.  As complex and sharply intelligent as it is compellingly constructed and occasionally laugh-out-loud hilarious, it is as visually irresistible and scintillating as ... as ... must not descend into a 70's reference ... as a disco ball!  (Dang it!)

Mad Minerva gives American Hustle a grade of A.  The soundtrack alone deserves it.  So does Jennifer Lawrence's sprayed-into-oblivion hair and Christian Bale's amazing transformation from gorgeous hunk into balding, paunchy Irv Rosenfeld.

RottenTomatoes gives it the bona fide Fresh rating of 93%.

American Hustle runs 138 minutes and is rated R for language (e.g., F-bombs galore), some sexual situations, and brief violence.

Nerd Journal: With Friends Like These ...

Thor: The Dark World came out on Blu-ray yesterday, and when I got home from class, I found a copy of it waiting for me, courtesy of those evil enablers Count Chocula and La Parisienne.  I may or may not have played it 4 times in the last 48 hours while helplessly cursing Loki for being so wickedly splendid.  I'm not sure how it could possibly be any worse.

SHUT UP.

Watch This on DVD: "End of Watch" (2012)

Bad Boys.

I missed this when it was in theaters, and that was my bad, because End of Watch is a great flick (hey, it's by the writer of 2001's excellent Training Day!) rating 85% on RottenTomatoes.  Come for young hotshot LAPD officers Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Zavala (Michael Peña) as they go on duty in gang-and-cartel-ridden South Central LA, but stay for a surprising dose of humor and engaging depiction of personalities.  I was expecting a gritty crime drama with lots of action, and the flick is definitely that, but it is also, at its core, a buddy movie in the best sense of the term; it's a flick about two cops who are as much brothers as partners, and as riveting as they are when they're chasing criminals, they're even better when they're just interacting with each other (these guys have some of the best on-screen chemistry, banter, and badinage I've seen in recent memory).  Gyllenhaal is great and Peña simply superb as they create their characters as touchingly real individuals who make you care about them even through (or even because of) all their flaws and foibles and locker room language as they go out day after day into a dangerous world.  You can keep your insipid rom-coms, Hollywood marketing-to-girls department.  I would rather watch movies like End of Watch any day.  End of Watch runs 109 minutes and is rated R for violence, language, drug use, and disturbing images.

Movie Reviews: "Primary Colors" (1998) and "The Ides of March" (2011) - Democratic Dirtbaggery!

In choosing a title for this post, I'm actually not being a partisan hack (this time, anyway), because both the movies I'm reviewing do explicitly state that the politicians in the plot are all Dems.  In fact, each one comes from writing (one a play, the other a book) that arose from their authors' engagement with actual political campaigns (respectively, Howard Dean's in 2004 (Yeeeaaarrrggghhh!) and Bill Clinton's in 1992).

Now I know I've moaned about how sick I am of politics (and I am), but there is a certain perverse amusement in watching these films during a hotly contested presidential election cycle full of skulduggery since both of them are indeed set in such cycles.  Art imitates life and all that, right?  Besides, Ides of March has not one but two bona fide Hollywood heartthrobs in the cast; in fact, as they swan around in smart suits and ties, they're so very pretty you almost forget that they're supposed to be reprehensibly slimy politicians. Well, almost.  So!  let's get to watching and reviewing, shall we?  The grand organizing principle for both?  The loss of innocence and the corruption of youthful, hopeful idealism.  (If you want something more comedic, try The Campaign (2012) with Will Farrell and Zach Galifianakis.)

Reminder: Your Halloween Movie Recommendation

If you want a scary, smart flick, watch this.

DVD Movie Review: "Crazy, Stupid, Love" (2011)

"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact." 

~Shakespeare, right on target as usual

I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate romantic comedies.  I couldn't get enough of Crazy, Stupid, Love. Clearly there's something special about this film ... and there is.  In fact, this movie succeeds because of numerous somethings special (and an excellent ensemble cast) that together add up to a surprisingly charming, ultimately sweet look at the many complications of romance.  The course of true love never did run smooth ... but the bumps along the way, with their genially Horatian pokes at human foibles, make for a hilarious two hours' traffic of our stage.

DVD Movie Review: "Half Nelson" (2006)

Educating Ryan.

The "inspirational inner-city schoolteacher" subgenre of movies gets schooled in this indie film whose report card included a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Ryan Gosling's A+ performance.

DVD Movie Review: "Drive" (2011)

Clutch.

Your mileage may vary, but MM suggests you fasten your seat belts and let this uber-artistic, stylized indie film take you on a ride of striking images that will stretch your expectations of what an action film can do and be.  "Drive," helmed by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn and anchored by rising Canadian star Ryan Gosling (of Internet meme fame), is a compelling combination of arthouse and thriller.  

DVD Review: "Warrior" -- Ain't That a Kick in the Head

Rocky Road.

You'll see just about every sports-movie cliché known to man in 2011's "Warrior" ... and you'll love this flick anyway because Brit Tom Hardy and Aussie Joel Edgerton turn in knockout performances that transcend the preposterous storyline.

Watch This on DVD: "Dangerous Liaisons"

I had never really watched this Oscar-nominated 1988 adaptation of the play based on an 18th-century French novel, but the production's quite engaging even if the plot basically boils down to "pre-Revolution French aristocrats behaving badly."  As for whether they ultimately get away with it, you'll have to see the film.

Glenn Close is excellent as the scheming, heartless marquise who thinks nothing of destroying lives and reputations for her own personal entertainment, and John Malkovich is a riveting and subtly underplayed anti-hero, the notoriously depraved nobleman who plays the marquise's deadly games with her when not pursuing his own goal: seducing a noblewoman famed for her virtue (Michelle Pfeiffer) just to see if he can.  Amusing bonus: Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves looking impossibly young.  Great costuming too for everyone, even as it highlights the corruption under all that elegance and sophistication.  Here's the trailer, which itself is a lot of fun, especially at the end.

"I have this appalling reputation."

Watch This on DVD: "Glory" (1989)

I stumbled across this review recently, and I do have to say, if you've never seen "Glory," you really must.  It is, in a nutshell, one of the best movies ever made about the American Civil War (and about race relations in the US history as seen through individuals).  The cast is excellent throughout, though I would be remiss if I did not point out Denzel Washington's outstanding performance that won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.  Holding a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, "Glory" runs 122 minutes and is rated R for some graphic battlefield violence.

Nerd Journal: Research Cram With Old Movies -- "Hey, Stellaaaaaaa!"

You know the drill.  Wherever I have a pile of research and writing and nerd work to do, I put on movies for background noise.  I can't work in total silence.  It drives me crazy -- or I fall asleep on top of my books and papers.  So this time around, it's all hail the glories of streaming Netflix as we take a look at some classic films.  I was thinking I'd try to watch movies starring a particular well-regarded actor or actress, so I started off with Marlon Brando.  So here's what's up.

Watch This on DVD: "The Damned United" (2009)

Netflix is simply brilliant, and without it I would probably miss out on a lot of worthwhile films -- like the 2009 British biopic "The Damned United."  I put it on my Netflix queue to stream on my TV for no good reason other than I (a) like sports films for the most part, and (b) noticed that the lead was being played by Michael Sheen, and he had been very good in "The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon" (both also worth your time).  Can I say, I watched it last night as I was editing some papers, and I was delighted.  It's a fantastic movie.

Ostensibly it's about British soccer/football history and one of its most famous figures, football manager Brian Clough.  The movie, though, is far more than that, and much more than your standard "road-to-glory" tale.  It is a fascinating story of success and failure on the soccer pitch, but above all it is an absolutely riveting character study of Clough (brilliantly portrayed by Sheen).  And you don't have to be a soccer fan to appreciate it, which is one of the great features of the film.

The rest of the the review and the trailer below the fold:

Geek News: "Farscape" On DVD Today

YES!

This post is especially for fellow evildoer and diehard "Farscape" fan La Parisienne (who, incidentally does love to refer to the wisecracking lead character, Ben Browder playing astronaut John Crichton, as "Big Ben"). The sci-fi series is finally out on DVD, and it's on sale at Amazon. W00t! It was an imaginative, lively show, and it combined action and humor along with some fascinating character development and fun cast members (although I never did like "Granny") that included Moya, a spaceship that was actually alive.

This DVD set just might see me through the coming Valley of the Shadow of Death known as end-of-term papers and exams ...

So, for La Parisienne and all you other sci fi fans, here is a cast photo, with Big Ben front and center.

Frell yeah!

OK, the awesomely entertaining JJ Abrams' revamped "Star Trek" is also out on DVD and Blu-Ray today, and I'm all enthused about that too, but it was a mega-hit and bound to out on DVD for its adoring fans. "Farscape," though, was much smaller phenomenon, and for a long, long while, it was almost impossible to get any of it on DVD.

So, given the nerd-tastic combination of all this sci fi fun on DVD today? NERDGASM. Now I have to go to a seminar, bleagh.

DVD Movie Review: A Little Silly Nerd Fun with "Night at the Museum"

Don't know much about history . . .

Yeah, yeah, I know it only got 44% at RottenTomatoes, but I don't care. "Night at the Museum" (2006) is lighthearted, silly, fluffy, escapist nerd fun with history, and I love it. It's a nerd kid's fantasy: at night in the museum, all the exhibits come to life and wreak all sorts of merry havoc. What a great idea, no?

Besides, this flick has a lot of talent in it -- 3 generations of comic talent from Dick van Dyke and Mickey Rooney to Robin Williams to Ben Stiller and his perpetual sidekick Owen Wilson.

If you're in the mood for a little playful fun, you could do much worse than "Night at the Museum." It won't win any Oscars, and it doesn't quite live up to its great potential, but it has some fun moments and some delightful characters. Check out Steve Coogan as Octavius the tiny Roman general, Owen Wilson as Jedediah from the Old West, Robin Williams as the boisterous Teddy Roosevelt ("Bully!"), and -- of course -- Rexie the dinosaur.

MM gives this movie a solid B for fun entertainment that also encourages an interest in history. Bonus: there were a few parts of the flick that made me laugh out loud, including one hilarious throwaway line by Jedediah referring to another movie.

Nerd Note: the Carla Gugino character says that she's been working on her dissertation for four years and that it's 900 pages long. GET REAL! What kind of goofy grad school is she in? My Nerd Lords would have my head if I said I wanted four years (and 900 pages) for the diss!

Film Culture Commentary: 110 DVDs You Should Own?

Here is the list. Obviously, we're not all going to agree on the choices, but it's fun to see what 100 DVDs are included!

Sci Fi Geek Fun: Jack Bristow the Klingon

I'm looking forward to seeing this on the DVD release!

Nerd Journal: Dickens on a Saturday Afternoon

I'm currently watching BBC's "Little Dorrit" miniseries on DVD. It's pretty good! And it's also faster than reading the Charles Dickens novel, since I can't very well work on my laptop and read a book at the same time, but a little TV/DVD is fine!

(See, I actually *can* watch something that's not campy pop culture silliness, OK?)

Besides, Matthew "Mr. Darcy" MacFadyen is kind of ... um, adorable.