Christian and Bruce In: The Advancing Case of Butthurt

“Advancing” having the disease-related meaning. See, I think Bruce Willis and Christian Bale both suffer from a similar career ailment.

I was dicking around on Youtube and happened upon the entire pilot of “Moonlighting”. Not to narc (WACHUN THINGS FO FREE IS WRANG), but for those of you who are unfamiliar, “Moonlighting” was the big break of Bruce Willis. What's shocking is that he doesn't play a beleaguered lone wolf cop, he doesn't play a cop who plays by his own rules, he doesn't even play a police officer who routinely disregards the procedures of his department. He plays a smarmy, charming private detective, who will mug at any opportunity and sounds like he walked out of His Girl Friday. And he's a god-damned revelation. He's hilarious, and you wonder what the hell happened to that side of him. I'll tell you: Hudson Hawk happened.

This Movie's Underrated: George Romero's "Day of the Dead"

Chances are that most of you have seen at least one type of zombie movie whether its tone tended towards actual horror, like 28 Days Later, comedy, like Shaun of the Dead, or ruining good things like World War Z. Given that variety, it's surprising that essentially the entire zombie genre as we know it today can be traced to one film: George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. This film established literally every rule about the modern conception of a zombie, as well as the modern conception of a zombie apocalypse: they shamble about, their heads are their only killing zone, they crave human flesh. Even the idea of a zombie as an exclusively undead creature (as opposed to voodoo zombies, which are basically brainwashed people) owes its existence to Night. Night's sequel, Dawn of the Dead, went even further, exploring the breakdown of society and government in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak, and codified basically all of the tropes you usually see in zombie apocalypse movies. Hence, it's easy to see why Night and Dawn are undisputed classics, even though the effects in Dawn have aged about as well as DOMA.

TOPICAL!

Help Me I Don't Even What Is This: “Full Metal Jacket”

Memorial Day just came and went, and usually I watch war movies to celebrate. But specifically war movies that convey the idea that war is hell, even if it is sometimes justified. In past years I've watched “Paths of Glory”, “A Bridge Too Far”, and “Saving Private Ryan”, but this year I thought I'd pop in a war movie that's constantly referenced and considered a “classic” but that I hadn't seen yet, and that's Full Metal Jacket.

So do the prostitutes, as the movie makes abundantly clear.

Iron Man 3: The Last Alien

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Video Game Review: "Star Trek"

You know, I wasn't even going to finish this shit. I was fully intent on never thinking about this piece of electronic sod again. It was a transient horror, and I could take solace in the fact that I only rented it, and returned it with weapons-grade satisfaction. But I can't avoid it, because an innocent girl handed me a poster advertising it today at Free Comic Book Day. And that girl told me, not knowing my horribly unsatisfactory experience in renting it, that I could try out the game in the trailer parked outside the comic book shop. I cannot possibly replicate the noise I made in print.

Help Me I Don't Even What Is This: "Neon Genesis Evangelion"

So I'm starting a new column. I think of myself as a film person, but there are plenty of “classic” film and TV series that I haven't seen. Lawrence of Arabia, The West Wing, The Adventures of Ford McFarlane: never seen 'em. So, as a combination personal journey/excuse to write, I'm going to watch, every week or so, a “classic” and review it.

Now, if you read this blog, you know I loves me some giant robots. I'm all about that Gundam shit, and I love Macross too, as well as more obscure stuff like Dragon's Heaven. But I'd never seen Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Which is weird, because I love schoolgirls!

Neon Genesis Evangelion is arguably the most influential anime of all time, next to Mobile Suit Gundam. If MSG is Japan's Star Trek, NGE is its Twin Peaks, a mindfuck series full of dense symbolism. Superficially, it's about a teenage boy who is coerced by his distant and emotionally abusive father into piloting a giant bioengineered cyborg to defeat aliens known as “Angels” that are attacking what's left of humanity. And for the first half of the series, that's all it is. Every episode is a different battle against whatever weird abomination is coming for humanity this week. But around the halfway point, the series begins to turn inescapably depressing and intense. Monster-of-the-Week battles give way to a razor-sharp deconstruction of the mecha genre and a brutal dismantling of the psyches of the main characters as their every flaw and trauma are analyzed.

This Movie's Underrated - "2010: The Year We Make Contact"

Awwww jyeah, son. Barring Outland, basically every movie I've reviewed in this column has been seen as indefensible by a number of people. But this is a whole other animal. 2001: A Space Odyssey isn't just a classic, isn't just a great movie. It's a turning point in the sci-fi genre. It's a cultural touchstone. It practically created the media trope of a computer gone mad, and its effects can be felt today, even down to its production design. Apple based the aesthetics of damn near every product it's ever released on the clean, sterile white and black of the Discovery, and even named the iPod after the globular rides of Bowman and Poole.

2001 is nebulous, dense, sparing, and does a tango over the line between style and substance. It asks the biggest questions of all: are we alone in the universe? Who made us what we are? And where the hell are we going next?

And what the HELL is a "bush baby"!?