A View To A Kill

Yeah this movie is a bit weird.

Roger Moore's last bow as James Bond is set amid a strange yet still kind of enjoyable movie. The plot is somewhat akin to Goldfinger, Bond is investigating an electronics tycoon with intents to level Silicon Valley and create a monopoly on the microchip, and while the story isn't half bad the devil is in the details. Even Roger said he didn't very much like this movie and felt it was way out of left field for the series at that point and I do have to agree, and said he was far too old to play the part which I sort of see. Granted yes, the stunt doubles are so prevalent you could start a drinking game, it is odd to see Roger get in bed with such young women but honestly the man could charm anything and anybody, the villains though great are just bizarre, and I feel this would have made a fantastic first Bond film for Timothy Dalton. Regardless Roger does fine work in his last installment and it is a shame to see him go but what an impact he left which is still felt even today. Tanya Roberts is...not teeth grindingly annoying as some would suggest and she does have a nice moment here or two but the character was missing something for me. Honestly I would have loved this movie ten times more if we stuck around with that Russian spy, she seemed quite fun and had some history with Bond. Now let's get to the best part, Christopher Walken as the villain and flipping Grace Jones as May Day. Oh God it is simultaneously a stroke of genius and one of the most weird casting choices in cinema. But aside from the neverending fun that is Christopher Walken, I do genuinely dig Max Zorin's backstory of a product of nazi experimentation and that he worked for the KGB is endlessy fascinating and is a pretty great origin especially for a Bond villain. Grace Jones is not out of place in the weirdness that is A View To A Kill, and is a matchmade in heaven with Walken but I just don't know what to make of this character, but I'll be lying if I said she isn't fun to watch at times. The action is okay this time around but it certainly picks up in the next few movies but I can't blame it, Moore was 57 when they were shooting and I'm not going to say he should have doubled down on the physical aspects of the role. The whole film just feels off, not bad but off, if they changed two or three aspects of the film including our main star I wouldn't mind it a bit but the way the production feels is like they just wanted to make another Bond movie and not the next best Bond movie. It doesn't feel like an appropriate end to Roger Moore's tenure, whereas Octopussy ended just right. Despite the issues it has I don't hate the movie, and would give it 2.5 stars, 6.5/10, but would only really recommend it for the hardcore Roger Moore fans or if you're having an all out marathon of the series. Tune in next time for Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights.

Wayne's World 2

Oh thank God this was good!

I didn't want it to be just as good as the first, I didn't want it to be better, I just wanted it to be good. Turns out it's just as good as the first, though I would say I prefer the first movie more. But it's close, very very close by a gnat's wing. After the surprising hit of the first movie Paramount wasted no time getting this sequel out by next year, yet it doesn't feel rushed. The production is still good arguably better, the writing and performances are still really damn good, and the story still feels like Wayne's World. So we pick up a year after the first movie and things are going well for everybody, Wayne and Garth are still running their show, Cassandra's career is going strong, and even Garth gets a lady friend. I will however concede they do the smarmy music manager is trying to steal Cassandra plot point again, apparently they wanted Rob Lowe to come back but he declined and so of course, they get Christopher Walken for the role. I'm not complaining. At all. But it's certainly a new role I've seen him in. In fact, I was stunned completely rigid at the star power in this movie. True the first movie had good ol' Al Bundy, Rob Lowe, they even got Alice Cooper which was pretty rad, but in this movie...good God I lose track. Christopher Walken, James Hong, Charlton Heston, Aerosmith, Heather Locklear, Kim Basinger, Harry Shearer, Drew Barrymore, it's absurd how many guest star cameos they got in this movie. And each part is memorable and performed well, which is never an easy thing to do in writing. The film still has it's unique style of humor which still works to great effect, but this time you can tell they had a higher budget so they could do more stuff. They did homages to Thelma & Louise, Jurassic Park, the big plot point of hosting a Woodstock style concert (complete with the bad acid reference), they even go out of their way to do almost a complete recreation of The Graduate's ending. Which believe me, I was flipping out over cause I just wasn't expecting it at all. There's so much I want to talk about but obviously can't go through the movie point by point, so speed round time! James Hong is the man and gives an incredibly fun performance with a cute tribute to absurdly choreographed martial arts films. Christopher Walken gets to tear up a dance floor and my God is it glorious, I can forgive the repeated plot beat just for that. Friggin' Jim Morrison is in the movie, not played by Val Kilmer but a fairly good potrayal nonetheless, which that in and of itself was a treat cause The Doors are easly my favorite band ever. Maybe I should review Val Kilmer's The Doors movie, it sounds interesting enough. I really had a great time with this! I wanted a good movie and I got a pretty awesome movie, it's entertainment fluff yes but when has that truly been a bad thing? If you have a good time with it, and accept it for what the movie truly is, then you got something good on your hands. 4 stars once again, 8/10, I would fully recommend buying these movies and personally can't wait to add them to my already obnoxiously large collection.

Alright, this better work. Next week, Bill & Ted. For the love of the moon and stars above I hope the movie actually gets released on time.

Pulp Fiction

Still my favorite Tarantino movie.

Pulp Fiction is a fantastic movie by Quentin Tarantino, combining very film noir-esque storytelling with a galleon of star power behind it. I mean we got Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, and of course...Christopher Walken. Oh come on, how can you turn it down now? The plot is...a bit confusing cause you see, it is told out of sequence. No lineart strict progression from start to finish you really have to piece this puzzle together which is why I call it sort of a film noir but it is not a central character in the movie, it's you. You are present for all events and you try and figure out what sequence it went down in. And the plot itself is crazy and hell I don't even think I could recount it without giving something away but it revolves around quite a crew of characters, with a hitman and his partner, a mob boss and his wife, a boxer too, the Professor and Mary Ann, you get the picture. Still awesome and very quotable dialogue, good sense of humor but can still do tension filled scenes, memorable characters, and all around just a great film. Tarantino fan or not, watch this movie if you haven't already you will enjoy it.

And thus tomorrow we will look into more of a comic book film noir, in black and white and stylized like hell. Can't freaking wait man.

Batman Returns

This is a...bad movie? All throughout my years of living, people say it's not a good film. At best it's a guilty pleasure, and I love this movie!

Maybe I'm one sick, dark, freaky bastard but I love this movie! It's a friggin' awesome Batman movie and it was the third Batman film I ever saw and I was, I'd say about 4 years old when I saw it. And it didn't scare me except for one part near the end, and the very sexual potrayal of Catwoman didn't phase me at all. I wouldn't say it is a superior succesor to the first Batman film, but still a really good sequel. Major props to the casting department in this movie! Obviously we got Michael Keaton (Yay!) and Michael Gough back, but sheer genius casting when it comes to Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito. Could not pick anyone better to play Catwoman and the Penguin, I don't know why it just seems like they were born to play these roles. Oh, and how could I forget? We got Christopher Walken in this movie too! Just as awesome as ever, and he's in the movie quite a bit too. You could tell Tim Burton had absolute free reign and could do whatever he wanted with this movie, it has his signature brand of bizzare and darkness with a backdrop of Christmas in Gotham that surprisingly fits well with it all. I just love the thought of Gotham during winter, this gothic city covered in snow and it seems lovely to me. The music done once again by Danny Elfman is great, and has that creepy Christmas thing going on very much like in Nightmare Before Christmas but still it's own original score. Now I have no doubts that this is indeed a very dark, very adult film even though I viewed it at such a young age. The plot really shows that in it's scenarios, and it goes like this, it's Christmas time in Gotham and the Dark Knight has his hands full this season. A crime gang in the style of a circus troupe is raiding the city with the Penguin as the leader, but yet he is much more than a one note villain. I greatly admire the sense of humanity they put into his character with him being abandoned by his parents because he was deformed, wants to know where he came from and what his real name is, and be incorporated back into normal society. That's amazing how much character development he has! Meanwhile a corrupt buisness man by the name of Max Shreck tries to help Penguin become part of human society and even get him in office to help further his career. Unfortuantely, he kinda...kills his assistant and she is brought back to life by cats and becomes Catwoman. It happens. So now the Batman has two villains to combat to save the city he loves, while also having a relationship albeit a love-hate relationship with Catwoman. Fantastic, took more source material from the comics, put their own spin on it, and made it genuinely entertaining! Bravo Tim Burton. Seriously how can people hate this movie? It's strange and vastly different from any other comic book movie you have ever seen in your life but it's still good! We get many more badass scenes of the Batmobile and Batman laying some serious beatings on dudes, oh and I didn't bring this up but Keaton's Batman straight up kills people. Not like every single time, but it happens. More so in this movie than the last one, it is scary although amazingly awesome. Like there's this scene where this clown goes kamikaze on Batman and he cuts the bomb off of him and knocks him out, and he sees this big bad mamajama and he tries to punch him, and it doesn't work then he pins a live bomb on him, punches him down a hole, and walks away as the bomb explodes. Sweet Jesus. That was fraking great! Hell yeah! See I told you I was a sick, twisted bastard. But tommorow, we get to THE movie that introduced me to the Batman and made me a fan ever since. Yeah, that movie was my first Batman movie and made me the die hard fan I am today.

Stand Up Guys

I hope to God when I get old I'm as badass as these guys. They're just awesome!

Yes, another Christopher Walken movie. I love the guy, he is the man! So the plot of Stand Up Guys is Al Pacino's character has just been released from prison after twenty something years, and he wants to get his old gang back together for one last gig. His best friend Doc played by Christopher Walken tells him that the last member of the gang played by Alan Arkin has been ill and placed in a retirement home so they got to go bust him out and have some fun. I don't know why but I love movies where old people go on these adventures or misadventures and they just have fun. And that is what this movie is, fun. You have a blast watching these old friends just do stuff together and kinda get into trouble. Something about it is very endearing and pleasant. And I am serious, they are the coolest old people you will ever meet. I want to do everything they do in this movie when I get old, hang out with my friends, go dancing with pretty girls, have breakfast at like 3 AM in the morning, kick some serious ass, drive around in a muscle car, all that good stuff. And the movie ends exactly the way you want it, I was so damn happy at how the movie ended. It even has emotional moments in it, and you feel what the characters feel. Bottom line, go see this movie. If you like these sort of fun, action, adventure stories with older people, I think you will very much enjoy Stand Up Guys. I aspire to be a stand up guy, and I hope some of you will too.

Seven Psychopaths

You know I really think that people who love American Psycho are going to really enjoy this film.

Seven Psychopaths is a comedy at heart, but I think very much like American Psycho you have to be a psychopath or at least someone who's not right in the head to enjoy some of the humor. I love this movie, it's very different from your normal movie which is it's strong point. It centers around a writer and his two friends who dognap a psychopath's shih tzu and they have to sort out their little problem before they all get killed. The performances in this movie are awesome, anything with Christopher Walken in it is no bad thing, in fact it's an amazing thing, and yet surprisingly Christopher Walken doesn't steal the show, it's Sam Rockwell. The humor is dark at times but it's mostly just dialogue between the characters and how their personalities bounce off of each other. It has a lot of heart and emotion in it, and I got to tell you the first time I watched it, I bawled my eyes out at one scene it was so heartbreaking, just the music and the characters in the scene....it got to me. But it also has serious moments in it and even thought provoking moments at times. It's just such a great and quirky little film that will most certainly entertain you and hopefully it will be a film you will want to see again and again. I know it is for me, so if you ever get the chance to see it by all means do. It's worth your time, it's worth your money. You'll enjoy the characters, you'll enjoy the story, you will enjoy Seven Psychopaths. I promise on my life.