100 Things I Feel Strongly About (as broken down into random categories depending on my whims)
Let's start this off with my Top Five Favorite Movies, and why I'm willing to watch them over and over and over and over again, with or without commercials.
The Replacement Killers
John Lee is a Chinese assassin ordered by his boss to kill the son of a cop, in retaliation for the cop's shooting the boss's son. The difference? The cop's son is a little boy, and the boss's son was an adult and aware of breaking the law. John refuses the hit, and is now being sought by three replacement assassins, who are also going after the little boy.
Action, adventure, gun fights, a female lead sharp enough to split hairs on, and cool, collected Chow Yun Fat - plus some snappy dialogue? So there. So very there.
Tremors
This movie. Oh, this movie. I know I didn't see it in the theater. I probably would've gone multiple times if I had. As it was, I can't remember when I first saw it, just that I thought it was about the best comedy I'd ever seen.
Val and Earl are a pair of handymen working in a canyon out west somewhere, where the amount of wildlife far outnumbers the human population. When they come across one of their few fellow inhabitants buried up to his neck in the soil, a horrified scream plastered across his face, as well as one of the other locals, sitting dead atop a power line tower, they figure someone's murdering their neighbors. But it isn't someone, it's somethings - and the creatures are mighty hungry and hunt by the sensation of footsteps on the ground.
This is like the ultimate bad monster movie and I love it because everyone seems to be having So. Much. Fun being in it. I've loved Fred Ward since he was in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, and Kevin Bacon in a role where he's not playing a psycho? Yay! Not to mention the Dad from Family Ties and Reba McIntyre as a pair of gun-toting doomsday-spouting hoarders. Just too much fun.
Speaking of too much fun, I can't forget Big Trouble in Little China.
Kurt Russell is one of my favorite actors. I know when I see his name on something, I'm going to enjoy it. In fact, I could probably make a post of 'Favorite Movies with Kurt Russell' and use up another five spaces on this list.
Big Trouble earns its reputation as a cult classic. It's got monsters! It's got magic! It's got two forces who've been dueling forever! It's got John Wayne Jack Burton, the sidekick who thinks he's the action hero!
No, seriously - though the movie focuses on Kurt Russell's character, the hero is actually Wang Chi, who is fighting to get his fiancee back from Loa Pan, an evil sorcerer, who has been searching for a 'girl with emerald green eyes' to sacrifice that he might become human again.
Full of fun special effects, spectacular fight scenes, more quips and one-liners than ought to be shaken out of one movie and some absolutely hysterical comedy, Big Trouble is one of those movies that has to be seen at least once (and preferably a lot more times than that. In fact, I feel a rewatch coming on very soon).
Tombstone
Look, it's Kurt Russell! Again! I warned you. I actually remember seeing the trailer for this movie in the theater. I was with my then-husband and our roommate, and L and I were all but jumping in the seats, saying, "THIS IS GONNA BE THE BEST SUMMER MOVIE FEST EVER!" because of the other trailer we saw just prior to Tombstone - Point Break. :D
In short: Wyatt Earp, lawman, and his brothers, Morgan and Virgil (the latter also a lawman) move their wives to Tombstone, Arizona, during the height of the silver run in said town. Unfortunately, their arrival and their way of doing things clash with the local lawman, Johnny Behan, and his compatriots, the Cowboys, a local gang who are trying to take over the territory and make it their own. When the Earps and Wyatt's friend, Doc Holliday, get further mixed up, blood is drawn, and the Cowboys won't back down from a fight, touching off a feud that can still draw out proponents of both sides to this day, despite it happening in 1881.
Beautifully cast (at least on the part of the male characters), this is an homage to friendship and brotherhood first, vengeance a very close second, oh, and there's some stuff on justice and true love and that sort of thing, too. Yeah. This movie is what re-sparked my interest in the Old West, and I've been studying it off and on ever since. However, what I've learned hasn't changed my unwavering love of this movie.
Kurt Russell might be the top star but Val Kilmer steals absolutely every scene he's in as Doc Holliday; consumptive, dying and intending to fight Death every step of the way. The chemistry between the two men is electric. Add Sam Elliot and Bill Paxton in as Virgil and Morgan; Powers Boothe and Michael Biehn in as the leaders of the Cowboys, and you have the makings for a fine, fine movie. (Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my chin.)
While I wish the movie had actually been filmed in Tombstone (reading on it says the town was very difficult to reach, due to mountains - and the scenery around the movie is very flat and open), I can't find fault with the odd bits of background that float around throughout the film. It is my understanding that Russell directed the film when the referenced director left the set, never to return. Whatever. This is a great movie, and one I point out cheerfully to anyone to watch.
The Last Boyscout
Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans team up in this movie to solve a murder - that leads to a far dangerous situation than either of them expected. The movie is about a few too many things, maybe - the tanking of a marriage and a family; the loss of a girlfriend and wasted opportunities. The corruption in big time sports. What it's got going for it is some snappy dialogue between Willis and Wayans, and I'd love for them to team up again.
Typical Willis violence threads its way through the story, as well as his known brand of 'tough(movie)love' in the way Joe deals with his wife, family and even Jimmy (Wayans), his erstwhile partner. There are some moments of sheer delight, like when Jimmy gets thrown off an overpass into traffic, raises his hands over his head and screams, "I'm a trained professional, don't try this at home!" before collapsing in a faint.
This is not a good movie by any means, but great for popcorn and razzing, and there's plenty of action and dialogue to make it forgiveable in what it lacks.
95 to go!