Friday, January 25, 2013

Favorite Scene Friday! Young Guns: Billy and the Bounty Hunter

Happy Friday, everybody! Doing the FSF honors for us this week and kicking off your weekend with a bang is Pax from Cavalcade of Awesome!

Yes, Pax is that fella that blogs about movies, books, TV, and music - basically any pop culture with a pulse. Check out his recent posts on the Oscar nominations and his top books of 2012.

And oh yeah, Pax does a little podcasting in his spare time! Check him out on the Nerd Lunch Podcast and the Cult Film Club Podcast!

You can also bother Pax on Twitter - @paxtonholley.


When Robert asked me to do this, it took me a while to decide what movie scene I wanted to talk about. CT went ahead and picked Back to the Future. Which is unfortunate because anyone that has read my blog knows that Back to the Future is kinda my thing. So I now have to pick something else (thanks, CT).

I went back and forth. Do I pick the opening scene in the Titty Twister in Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn? No. Do I pick the restaurant scene in The Shadow between Lamont Cranston and Shiwan Khan?  No, still not right. Then it hits me. 

Young f**king Guns

I'm a huge fan of both Young Guns movies.  I'm also a huge fan of the mythology of Billy the Kid. I've talked extensively about both on my blog during my semi-regular Billy the Kid Weeks. And I know the exact scene I want to pick, it's right in the middle of the first movie.  Billy and the boys have stopped in a bar while Charlie visits a hooker and Billy hears a boastful bounty hunter talk about how he's going to kill Billy the Kid.

Here's the scene.



I love that after the guy hands the gun over to Billy, he says "...that gun there killed Ed Rollins," and Billy looks over to Doc and the boys and whispers, "Bullsh*t!" And check out the look on Billy's face just as he's about to shoot the guy. Calm, cool and collected. All kinds of awesome, my friends.

There is no other scene in the movie that more succinctly sums up Emilio Estevez's portrayal of Billy than this one scene. I'm almost sad the clip cuts off before he asks Doc, "Doc, how many does that make? 25?" Doc replies, "Five." Billy answers, "Let's make it ten. How that be?"

Both of the Young Guns movies are fantastic and I try to watch them as often as possible. 

This may be cheating, but if I had to pick out one other scene that personifies the Young Guns Billy the Kid, it would be Billy's escape from the Lincoln County Courthouse in the sequel. The infamous "Best dollar eighty I ever spent," scene.



I tell you what, reliving these scenes makes me want to watch the movies again.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Music Video Monday! Baby Blue: Scanners

Happy Monday, folks. I'm baaaaaack! You may (or may not) have noticed that I've been off the blog for a while. I've been taking a sabbatical to address global water shortage issues. Actually...not really. As much as I wish that were true, it's not nearly as interesting as that. And I don't even know what a "sabbatical" is...I just like to use that word. Really, I've just been away. Not writing much, not really "tuned in" to anything. But now I'm back and I'm excited to re-enter the blogosphere with a post about a song that I'm pretty painfully in love with.

Scanners' Myspace
For those who do not know, I tend to be a very possessive music lover. This is because anytime I hear a song I love, whether it's the sound of the song or maybe lyrics that moved me, I declare it mine. As in, "this is MY song." I have a lot of songs that are "mine," and once they become mine, they certainly cannot be claimed by anyone else. Today's song is a perfect example. I first heard it during an episode of the American version of the show Shameless (which I highly recommend for anyone who hasn't seen it). The show played just a small part of the song, but as soon as I heard it, I knew I had to find it and hear it all the way through.

"Oh Baby Blue...never think of home..."
 
The song is, in a word, beautiful. It's pretty and sad and touching, and I'm a sucker for all of those things wrapped into one soul-changing track. Before seeing the Shameless episode, I had never heard it or even heard of the band. After finding it...I don't know if I've ever heard a song that felt more like something meant for me.

The video is nothing more than just watching the band sing the track on stage, but it certainly looks to be a good show. I'm looking into their full music catalogue now. In the meantime, I've got Baby Blue on repeat. And I hope after you hear it, you will too.


"All of your hope, all of your heart
All of your heat, all of your dark,
Secrets you keep, all to be part,
Of the love that you keep, I would just try to,
Drag you from deep, wake you from sleep,
Bring you back home,
There I would keep you safe."


Friday, January 18, 2013

Favorite Scene Friday!: No Country for Old Men

"You can't stop what's coming."

For today’s Favorite Scene Friday, I thought about going funny and even briefly thought about going romantic, but one movie, no, one man kept eerily creeping back into my head. He wouldn’t stop his relentless pursuit of making his way into the nightmares of all who visit The Hatch and there was no way in hell I could continue to evade him. This ruthless bounty hunter is none other than Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, in the 2007, Academy Award winning movie No Country for Old Men.

Chigurh has to be one of the most chilling and fear inducing villains of all time. He’s cold, unforgiving, and heartless. He is the ultimate hitman. In my opinion the most frightening type of villain, because he could or better said, he probably does exist in real life.  Freddy, Jason, Michael and Candy Man are all good for a scare, but Anton Chigurh makes you question if you are really safe at night when you turn out the lights. 

Today’s scene is a prime example of this monster’s toughness. We see Chigurh driving away after serving his most recent death warrant when he is t-boned by another car. He staggers out, badly wounded, but with still enough wits and strength to patch himself up and walk away. If there are really Chigurh(s) out there, I pray that I never get on their shit lists. I hope you all have a great Friday and if any of you stumbles across a bag full of money this weekend, put it back where you found it and walk away as fast as you can. 


Escape By Picking Up A Hitchhiker: Texas Chainsaw 3D

**spoiler alert!**

What The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series lacks in quality it makes up for in oddities. You’ve got the well-respected 1974 original film. Then you’ve got the incredibly weird sequel that didn’t come out until 1986, followed by two more sequels that feature Viggo Mortensen, Matthew McConaughey, and Renee Zellweger before they made it big. After those are the 2003 remake followed by the 2006 prequel. That brings us to Texas Chainsaw 3D, which not only ignores all of the films after the original but, in a way, ignores the original itself.

Wikipedia
You see, while Texas Chainsaw 3D picks up pretty much right after the original film, it retcons that 1974 flick so that it takes place much closer to 2012. The heroine of the film, who is revealed to have been an infant at the time of the original, appears to be in her twenties in 2012 (actress Alexandra Daddario is 26 years old at the time of this writing).

Here’s the thing: it’s fine that the filmmakers changed the year of the original film (the Friday the 13th reboot did the same thing). They just should have come right out with it. The film makes a big deal out of the date of the original film’s events, but goes to great lengths to not mention the actual year. I found myself wondering when the film was set for a lot of its running time and it proved to be kind of distracting.

So. When our film begins, the Sawyer clan (Leatherface’s family) is holed up in their house of horrors after the local police and a posse of angry townsfolk find out about young Leatherface’s crimes. After a brief standoff, the Sawyer elders decide to give their murderous youngster up. Before they can offer him, however, the posse shoots the Sawyer clan and sets fire to the house.

One of the family members - a young woman - survives, but only long enough for one of the posse members to kill her and take her baby to raise with his wife.

Cut to a number of years later after the baby has grown into a pretty, incredibly skinny, large-chested butcher/deli worker (yeah). She gets a letter that she’s inherited her grandmother’s house. After picking up a hitchhiker (yeah), she and her friends travel to Texas to claim the house. Little do they know that Leatherface - having survived the fire years ago - is part of the inheritance...

The script is troublesome. For example, one minute our characters crash their car out in the middle of nowhere. Heather escapes and runs through a scary forest for a few minutes. Suddenly she's at a brightly lit carnival with dozens of people around. A lot of the dialogue is laughably bad. At one point early in the film, Heather returns home to her boyfriend, having visited her "adoptive" parents and receiving the news that she's not their daughter.  “I’m adopted,” she says. He hugs her. It reminded me of the “I definitely have breast cancer,” line from The Room.

All of the characters were too stupid to live. Heather falls down so much that it's hard not to laugh. She even gets hit by a car! For the most party, all of the actors were just passable, serving only as eye candy (the film likes to point out that Daddario has breasts and the camera is no stranger to Tania Raymonde's ass) and/or chainsaw fodder.

The film isn't all bad and it's clear that the filmmakers wanted to make a decent horror flick with a few unique twists. The movie has an acceptable level of atmosphere and dread and isn't afraid to show you people getting chainsawed in half. I also liked that the film started with scenes from the original movie. It was a nice connection to Massacre. Also, take note of this film's sheriff. You might just recognize his name.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Robert's Top 10 Films of 2012

How 'do, folks? The year 2012 was a great one for film. Join me as I count down my favorites and don't forget to tell me yours!

10. Chronicle

The first cinematic found footage film? I loved that as the characters’ powers grew and the movie progressed the style of filmmaking and the point of view changed as well. I was quite impressed and I wasn’t really expecting much to begin with.

Wikipedia

 9. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

A worthy addition to the Tolkien/Jackson collection filled with great effects and great acting, although I doubt I’ll ever consider it an equal to the original Lord of the Rings trilogy.

8. Argo

This film has one of the most tense opening scenes I’ve ever witnessed. The fascinating true story about a CIA agent's quest to rescue a group of Americans from Iran in the 1970s is brought to life by director/star Ben Affleck and a very talented team of actors and filmmakers.

7. Silver Linings Playbook

This film almost shouldn’t work (a family drama, a tale about mental instabilities, a dancing competition) but director David O. Russell pulls it off and then some. The cast is phenomenal and Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence particularly shine. I didn’t know Robert De Niro still had it in him.

6. Looper

One of the best time travel movies ever and it doesn’t even have that much time travel. The film features a very unique sci-fi story and engaging performances.

Full review here.

5. John Carter

John Carter is just a big, fun spectacle of a movie. A throwback to thrilling sci-fi/space escapism, the film offers great effects, a story that spans planets, and an old-fashioned sense of fun.

Wikipedia
  
4. Skyfall

Daniel Craig’s third outing as 007 is so great and so, well, Bond, I feel like it really should have been his first. The best Bond movie ever? Let’s leave it at that for now.

3. Moonrise Kingdom

A fantastic, escapist fairy tale of a film. Very much a Wes Anderson flick, this movie boasts great acting (even from its young stars), fun characters, and an excellent story. “What kind of bird are you?”

2. The Dark Knight Rises

A solid story, powerful acting, an incredible villain in the form of Tom Hardy’s Bane - what more could you ask for from the conclusion of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale’s Dark Knight series? How good is this film? It’s better than The Dark Knight, and that’s saying a lot.

Wikipedia

1. The Avengers

What can be said? It’s not just an incredible movie and the culmination of years of films and stories, it’s something that’s never really been done before. It was one thing for it to not be terrible (because it had a lot of potential to be terrible) but another for it to be as great as it is.

Full review here.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Music Video Monday!: Let's Have a Snow Day

“Half of my life, I’ve been watching. Half of my life, I’ve been waking up.”

It’s one of the most beautiful songs The Walkmen have ever released and the video is visually breathtaking as well. When you watch, you can almost feel the snowflakes falling softly upon your shoulders as you walk along the chilly river. It’s days like these (80* in Jacksonville today) that I miss the cold and the snow, especially the first snow of the year. It’s fresh, unblemished and picturesque.  I always loved looking out the window, warm hot chocolate in hand, as the white flakes danced through the air like feathers quickly covering the frozen ground. Of course the winter has a harsh bite to it, but those peaceful, quiet moments alone with my thoughts somehow more than made up for the bone chilling bite. Today’s MVM is called “While I Shovel The Snow”. The track comes from the hugely underrated 2010 album Lisbon and I hope it puts you in the same wintry mood that it does me. Have a great Monday and remember to always live your soundtrack out loud.


Friday, January 11, 2013

Favorite Scene Friday! The Departed: Something Just Came Off The Building

**spoilers ahead!!!**

This week’s scene is one of my favorites from The Departed, Martin Scorsese’s epic about cops and crooks in Boston. It’s a brief scene but it’s powerful. The entire film is a web of fantastic performances and a story filled with violence and lies.

Here’s a little background for the scene. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), an undercover cop infiltrating Frank Costello’s (Jack Nicholson) criminal organization, has just met with Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), one of the only men that knows he’s actually a cop. Colin Sullivan, (Matt Damon) Costello’s mole inside the Massachusetts State Police, has sent a team of officers to tail Queenan, under the guise he suspects he is actually the mole.

Our scene is a study in violence, the kind that crescendos to a brutal finish. Costello’s men also follow Queenan to his meeting with Costigan. Once our heroes realize they’ve been followed, Queenan sends Costigan down the fire escape and stays to face Costello’s thugs. This is where our scene begins and it's also where the shit hits the fan. There’s something about the moments afterwards. Reality literally landing at Costigan’s feet. The confusion among the cops waiting outside (“Sarge, something just came off the building!”). And at 1:15, Sullivan, listening on his walkie talkie from afar, realizes it’s all gone to shit.

The best part of the scene is the last few moments. Sullivan, realizing the extent of what’s just happened, turns off his radio and his lights and just sits in the dark.


P.S. There’s a slightly longer (and lower quality) version of the scene here. We get to see Queenan in the moments before his death. “One of you mugs got a light?” he asks. They most definitely do not, but I absolutely love that line.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Music Video Monday! Schoolhouse Rock! "Conjunction Junction"

I was listening to NPR yesterday - as bad ass playboys often do - and the particular program that was on featured Bob Dorough, he of Schoolhouse Rock! fame. Remember Schoolhouse Rock? The series began in the early 1970s but has stuck around ever since (I remember watching it as a kid in the early ‘90s).

Wikipedia
The program - a series of short, musical Saturday morning cartoons that aimed to teach kids about math, grammar, and other subjects - is turning forty (40!).

I thought I’d help celebrate this milestone by sharing one of my favorite Schoolhouse Rock! tunes - "Conjunction Junction". Let the nostalgia wash over you:


Feel good? Now get cleaned up and tell me what your favorite Schoolhouse Rock! song is.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Favorite Scene Friday: The Texas Franklin Massacre



HAPPY NEW YEAR, Escape Artists!!!  

In honor of the release of the latest installment in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, Texas Chainsaw 3D (yes, I will be watching it in full, bloody 3D action), today’s Favorite Scene Friday comes to us courtesy of the original 1974 classic.  It’s nothing scary, so if you’re not into the horror thing, you have no reason to stop reading/watching.  It’s actually quite hilarious and I had to hold a hand over my mouth to keep from attracting any of my office co-workers into an unwork-related investigation.  

Though it has nothing to do with the movie, the scene (which is more of a compilation of scenes) begins with a bit of the god awful Jaws’ Revenge . . . I still can’t believe studio exec’s signed off on a roaring shark . . . I mean, why?  Anyway, what the bit is leading us up to is the “Worst Horror Characters Top 5” and included in that list is none other than wheelchair-bound pessimist, Franklin Hardesty.  The character is awful, which is sad, because you never want to admit that a person in a wheelchair is an awful person, but Franklin is, and when he dies in the movie (not a spoiler, every audience member in the history of the viewing of this movie breathes a sigh of relief once it’s all been said and done) it is glorious, as you’ll soon find out.  In all honesty, comedy aside, Franklin’s death is my favorite part of the original.  It scared the shit out of me when I was a kid and it’s still pretty freaky to this day (to understand my meaning, watch the actual movie and not just this scene).  Rest assured though, there is nothing freaky about this scene (which includes his death) except for the things Franklin does with his arms and tongue.  Absolutely hideous it is.  Enjoy the scene folks and if you’re watching at work, keep the volume down kinda low just in case the boss wants in on the joke.  Have an Awesome Year and keep Escaping!