Friday, December 27, 2013

Favorite Christmas Scene Friday! Die Hard: "Welcome to the party, pal!"

So we're here, readers, and here is the Friday after Christmas. Two full days after Christmas, in fact. But we can't really move on that quickly, right? Why pass up the opportunity to feature a Christmas movie for this week's Favorite Scene Friday? How about we compromise with a great scene from the greatest "best-Christmas-movie-that-isn't-really-a-Christmas-movie" movie?

Cult Collective via JoBlo

And, hey, Christmas may be over, but soon it'll be time to party again for New Year's Eve, and Die Hard is one big party if you think about it.  

This week's scene is great, because it's where the film goes from crazy to "Bruce-Willis-throwing-bodies-out-of-skyscrapers" insane. You see, up until this point, cop-defending-a-highrise-full-of-people John McClane (man I'm doing that hyphenating thing a lot in this post) was essentially the only good guy in the fight. The local authorities had no idea that the Nakatomi Plaza had been taken over by terrorists lead by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman). As soon as the body of a terrorist crashes into Sgt. Powell's (Reginald VelJohnson) car, the movie is in full swing.

Not only is Die Hard a great Christmas movie (and action movie, duh) it's a great '80s movie. They don't make 'em like this anymore, despite Sly Stallone's best efforts with The Expendables flicks. There was something fun about '80s action movies and Die Hard in particular. In this week's scene, McClane throws a dead body out a window and that should be horrific, (for Sgt. Powell it is) but he's able to spit out a classic quip. "Welcome to the party, pal!" Welcome indeed. Happy New Year, everybody!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Favorite Christmas Scene Friday! A Christmas Story: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."

I was pretty late to the A Christmas Story party, only watching it for the first time in recent years (it airs on TBS on Christmas Eve for 24 HOURS so it's kind of hard to avoid). The film follows Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), a young boy who really just wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. But he has to go through a heck of a lot to get it.

Wikipedia

Case in point with this week's scene*. Ralphie and his little brother are at the mall to visit "Santa". After making it through an incredibly long line, Ralphie gets to Santa's lap but...freezes. Have a look.



I don't remember seeing any mall Santas growing up and it's probably just as well. How about that trippy first person part of the scene where Santa looks like a mass murderer? I also love the way Ralphie just goes blank and goes for that football (even though he forgets what it is). He snaps back to reality as he's sliding down the exit chute but to no avail - "Santa" tells him he'll shoot his eye out - and shoves his boot in Ralphie's face.

My absolute favorite aspect of this scene - and really the whole movie - is Darren McGavin as Ralphie's dad. He's that classic 1940s dad that really doesn't exist anymore. Hard working, cantankerous, but really just worried about his family. Apparently Jack Nicholson was interested in playing the role of Mr. Parker but they wound up going with McGavin.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everybody! AVOID MALL SANTAS.

*I couldn't really pick the flagpole scene because I'd have to talk about how that kid grew up to become a porn star. Yikes.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Favorite Christmas Scene Friday! Just Friends: "She's got her toothpaste."

This week's Favorite Scene Friday was written by honorary EH Team member Lindsay Street from French Toast Sunday.

It’s very possible that most of you reading this haven’t even heard of the 2005 comedy Just Friends. It holds a measly 42% Rotten Tomatoes score and it didn’t even rank in the top five films at the box office the weekend it opened. Although my love for the film is strong, I hesitated to suggest it to Robert for a Favorite Scene Friday. That turned out to be a dumb call on my part though, because as I should have known, my movie twin responded back promptly with “That would be awesome! I love that movie.” Our bond grows stronger every day.

Wikipedia

Just Friends stars a few notable names including Amy Smart, Anna Faris, Chris Klein, and Ryan Reynolds in the lead role.  You remember early career, post-Van Wilder Reynolds, right? Where his roles were tailor made for his boyish charm and deadpan hilarious comedic timing. Well maybe audiences had grown tired of his shtick by the time Just Friends had rolled around and the actor himself certainly seemed turned off by it (Friends marked his last starring comedy role aside from The Proposal and The Change Up.)  - but I never experienced such an aversion. And while I continue to think double R is an impressive actor that winds up in shitty movies, I still yearn for the day when he will pop up, if only for a moment, as the former sardonic funnyman.

I had no intention of writing that much about Ryan Reynolds. Moving on then…

Okay, so the movie starts off following a chubby high schooler named Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds…yes…) that is stuck in friend zone hell with his best bud Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart). After an embarrassing post-graduation falling out, he abandons Jamie and moves to LA. Over the years, Brander sheds the extra pounds, works hard to gain a shiny career as a record producer and transforms his nice guy image into desirable womanizer. Now present day, Chris is tasked with traveling and watching over “star” talent Samantha James (Anna Faris), an overproduced, over sexualized, completely vapid pop star. He reluctantly does so but things are further complicated when the duo’s plane is forced to land in his New Jersey home town. While reconnecting with his family and eventually Jamie, Chris soon falls back into his old ways and learns that he may not have changed very much after all.

There are a lot of parts that I find downright hysterical in Just Friends. Most are moments or lines coming from Faris’ Samantha character but I also get a kick out of Reynolds chemistry with his younger brother Mike, played by Christopher Maquette. So when I picked a scene from the film, I skipped over my actual favorite favorite scene (a scene at a small town bar where Faris is so over the top funny I can’t handle it) for a scene that features the best of both assets. Also, the YouTuber that posted the video kind of nailed it with his title.

Setting the scene: Young bro Mike was supposed to be escorting Samantha around town when she accidentally falls over a second story banister at a mall (yes, it’s that kind of flick.) This is what Chris comes home to:



I don’t know how well the scene works out of context, but I find everyone here just too damn enjoyable. Anna Faris is completely zonked out and stupid-stupendous. Did you see the way she delivered that blueberry line? Classic. Moreover, you get to see one of my favorite interactions between the brothers. The sibling rivalry continues throughout the film to similar results but some of the noises Maquette utters during the wrestling never fails to give me the giggles. Really any time he screams during the movie, I’m on the ground.

With Just Friends, it’s not so much the jokes written on the page as much as it’s the actors performing them. It might sit with you, it might not  - but for what it’s worth, I think the movie could make for a passable substitution for the overplayed Christmas movies you might find surrounding you this holiday season. Give it a chance if you’re looking for something new.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

A Peek Through the Hatch: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

It's time to peek through the Hatch yet again and this time we're looking at The Amazing Spider-Man 2! Have a look, won't you?



So what do you guys think? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty stoked for the movie, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the first one. This sequel looks fun and seems to actually be delving into that secret Peter Parker back story that the first one was supposed to. I'm not sold on The Rhino not actually being just a guy in a rhino suit (he looks to be in some giant, four-legged mechanical thing here) but Jamie Foxx's Electro looks pretty bad ass. My main takeaway is that Dane DeHaan is a creepy MFer.

I'm sure I wasn't the only person who noticed this:


Looks like Peter's dad was a busy man...

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens on May 2, 2014.