MCW: Best Buddy Movie

It's the best movie i've seen in years. It's an unusual buddy combo, but it is exactly that. The dynamic between Vincent (Tom Cruise) and Max (Jaime Foxx) flows very naturally. It's the only movie where I've actually liked tom cruise other than his cameo as les grossman in Tropic Thunder. (And if you havent seen that dance, you really need to que up the last 4 minutes / credits of tropic thunder) The soundtrack is spectacular, if only for the inclusion of "Spanish Key" by Miles Davis, which i recently treated Moi and Boxer to while speeding toward the ATL superhub. But theres a million great tracks from Groove Armada to Audioslave. AND it was directed by Micheal Mann. And there was this quote that I loved:

while Max (Foxx) freaks out over the first target Vincent (Cruise) hits, this conversation follows:

Max: I can't drive you around while you're killing folks. It ain't my job!
Vincent: Tonight it is.

Vincent: Okay, look, here's the deal. Man, you were gonna drive me around tonight, never be the wiser, but El Gordo got in front of a window, did his high dive, we're into Plan B. Still breathing? Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.

Here's a delightful clip coming in at an economical 34 seconds!



This movie gets a 5 rottie howl rating. happy MCW!

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Movie Clip Wednesday is a game that is open to all. To Play, visit Milk RIver Madman to find each week's assignment, then post your entry by wednesday.

MCW: Best Foreign Actor: Toshiro Mifune

I don't know what modern Hollywood would have done had there not been an Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, my choice for best foreign actor. With feudal Japan as a backdrop for the rise of the warrior class, the samurai (specifically a masterless/ronin samurai) personified an archetype very familiar to us: an outsider with his own code of ethics; like Han Solo, or Eastwood's Man with No Name. The character Eastwood plays in A Fist Full of Dollars is essentially the same character Mifune plays in Yojimbo, the quiet stranger that rolls into town and unleashes some epic badassery where it is well-deserved. I can't watch Kill Bill without a million flashbacks to classic Mifune moments: sword fights in the snow; dealing with (literally) insane rivals, fights against impossible odds; betrayals by dragon ladies and so forth.

Here we have a neat little compilation (2:12) a fan made with clips from "the Sword of Doom" where Mifune's character (entering the clip at :22) battles the crazy as hell Ryunosuke (played by the excellent Tatsuya Nakadai) in a series of clips that will show you, definitively, where Quentin Tarantino developed his style.



Not only were these samurai movies big to Tarrantino, but George Lucas has said that the Hidden Fortress was a huge influence on Star Wars IV. The funny thing is how often Kurosawa, the best director paired with Mifune, drew upon western literature for his films - especially Shakespeare.

Epic struggles remain the same in every time and in every language. If you have never seen a Toshiro Mifune film, start with Yojimbo. Like all great art, it remains as cool now as the day it was made.



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Movie Clip Wednesday is a game that is open to all. To Play, visit Milk RIver Madman to find each week's assignment, then post your entry by wednesday.

Movie Clip Wednesday: Favorite Black and White Movie

I could've gone with TO Kill a Mockingbird, Dr. Strangelove, A Place in the Sun or even Manhattan; but i chose a film with themes that extend all the way into my here and now. Oh how many times have i referred to places and situations as the "Village of the Damned"! Whats worse than a band of platinum-blonde-group-think-laser-eyed kids? Implanted into the women of a small town, the children of this village are weird and scary smart even as babies. They never had the terrible twos -they were already plotting some unnamed evil. They can crash planes, or make a guy kill himself just by looking at him.

I had this friend growing up who had a cool basement at his house and a movie like this, or say, House of Wax, would play on saturday afternoon. A bunch of us would watch and it was great fun. But later, when i was alone, I was kind of scared riding my bike home. in broad daylight. Grrrrrrherhahahahah