side tangent - thoughts on Cobra Kai

figured I'd take a bit of a small break here to talk about something coming up - it seems as if there is going to be a Youtube Red series called "Cobra Kai" about the two main characters from the Karate Kid, what...33 years later now?

Disclaimer - I met Billy Zabka at a youth group retreat in the mid 90's and loved the Equalizer, so he always gets props with me.

but even without that I have to admit, I'm excited.

I was a preteen/teenager when The Karate Kid came out - I think at some point I even took Karate lessons on or around when it came out.   The class was much more low key at the local Athletic club though. 

But here's the thing - I was a REALLY UNCOOL kid growing up - like virtual leper/pariah - horribly nerdy and incapable of really holding down real friendships in rural redneck Montana where a bus ride with the kids who weren't going to do any better than fixing cars was hell for me until I got off the bus.  Even as I got further up in the High School chain, I barely had the respect of my peers - a few of us nerds got together and played games over lunch.   I never got in any full bore fights but I had a few assholes trip me and shit - and I was also one of the scrawniest kids around. 

To this day I'm probably more successful than 90% of my tormentors and I won't go see them at the reunions - fuck those guys

So for me, The Karate Kid was a hell of an inspirational picture - it made me happy to see it and I probably have seen it almost a half dozen times?    At the end, when Zabka's character tells Daniel Russo he's all right, there's a sort of small redemption in there for him as well - we never get to see how it plays out in the next two sequels, but what did he take of that moment.   Did it define Johnny  or did he revert back - initial indications in the teaser to me is he's old Johnny again.

(and it's probably too much to ask, but could we get Elizabeth Shue for a bit - bring that triangle back - LOL - but I haven't seen her in much lately)

We've had some bad luck lately with nostalgia coming back into fashion.  I am still disappointed in how the new Star Wars trilogy is playing out - the new Indiana Jones a few years ago - more of the same - Rocky and Rambo back - meh.

But this could really be interesting - how do our successes as young men define us as we get older - has Ralph Macchio's character turned into a sad used car salesman, trying to see his kids on the weekend while Billy traveled the world seizing the day after college?   I'm really curious to see how these two protagonists go forward at this point and what the story will be.

A movie shows us a picture of a life, but a sequel 33 years later - if done right, can paint a much bigger picture

AND we have Youtube Red here in the house...so score already!

Looking forward to it
RB

#47 - Insomnia

#47 is like film noir, but in the light instead of darkness - ain't that funny - LOL

This is a captivating thriller starring Stellan Skargard as a Swedish detective trying to solve a murder in Norway, above the arctic circle, in the middle of summer.   As such, it's the land of the midnight sun.  A number of choices and mistakes, as well as said sunlight disrupting his sleep, result in a tale of a man slowly struggling to solve a case while hiding secrets of his own all while slowly dragging down under the weight of said secrets and sleepness.

I knew this was remade - (5 years later with Al Pacino and Robin Williams) but I never saw it so I didn't know what we had going on - this was also kinda close to me as I lived in AK for a few years and even in Anchorage, you could have in the middle of summer enough light at midnight/1am to work outside if you wanted to - if you didn't pay attention you'd be up till midnight without paying attention so we def. got the blackout curtains. 

This is a great film, and it held my attention thruout - there is an interview with the Director and Stellan several years later and it has been released on blu-ray.  Being that the film is from 1997, it's a nice relief once in a while to see a film that isn't marred by 70 years of dust or obsolete film techniques

I'll get some more of these in - it's my oncall weekend and the wife is outta dodge so lots of chances to watch a few more movies

RB

# 46 - The Most Dangerous Game

Usually the first thing I do is look at the next film and see how long it is and the general plot - when I saw this one was 63 minutes I decided - "eh, fuck it" and just cranked it out

Probably me and about 200 million teenagers have read this story in Middle/High School - I remember reading it years ago.  This was a film adaptation done about 8 years (?) after it was published?

Most of the names/directors/actors escape me but of course, Fay Wray as the damsel - (added for Hollywood's sake, not in the original book) - we all know from King Kong as well as the chap playing her brother, and there's a reason for that

When I first started watching this I was struck by how Fay Wray was once again running around in a jungle just like King Kong's - and I THOUGHT in my head there was some distance between these two films but in fact, they were shot at the same time - with one of the same directors, written by one of the same screenwriters, and used some of the same sets and three of the actors from King Kong - LOL

Designed originally to be a bigger production, cost cutting and issues at RKO took it down to this deeply condensed 63 minute time frame with some fast pacing and cost cutting measures.  I listened to the Bruce Eder commentary - (I was curious and hey, it was only an extra hour - LOL) - and he stated the actual timelines for the two films shooting are kinda muddled - there's a good chance that a lot of Brian Armstrong and Fay Wray scenes, for instance, were shot during the long gap in special effects that were done after they shot some of their Kong scenes. 

The film lapsed into the public domain, but you'll want to get the good copy from Criterion with the commentary if you watch it - not that colorized shit. 

I thought of it initially as a suspense film but they're calling it a horror flick which I understand - some other interesting commentary in here about how some wardrobes/lines wouldn't have been allowed 18 months later after some movie censorship codes came in - but dat's life - I didn't walk away with the hots for Fay or anything - LOL

OK - now I gotta do some work - but then again...the next film is only 90 minutes too...hmmm

# 45 - Taste of Cherry

wife is out of town for a few days - expecting to get a few backlogged features in

This is a film I've never heard of by a director I've never heard of and may be the first film I've ever seen from Iran - in fact I'm pretty sure it is.

An interesting work by Abbas Kiarostami, it follows a man driving around on the outskirts of Tehran looking for someone to bury him after he kills himself - it took me a little while to get to this cause it, well, was a tiny bit boring for me - but I got thru it the next day - I guess Roger Ebert hated it

It was an ok film - it won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival which is no slouch.   (Some of my favorite winners are Kagemusha, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, and Farewell, my Concubine) - but it's presentation - primarily long dialogues shot from the alternate seat of a two seater, didn't leave a lot for me - there was also some interesting audio work done on here - my cats were very attentive to the sounds of some interesting birds/wildlife in Tehran - LOL

But not one I'd probably watch again in the future - there's a director's interview as a special feature - it was ok to me

#44 - The Red Shoes

Happy 2018! - took a few weeks to get to this - I sorta went down a rabbit hole with the Antoine Doinel movies - (#185-188) but we'll get to those...probably in a few years - LOL

The Red Shoes is one I've never heard of - a nice little colorized movie a couple years after WWII following a ballet dancer who is doing a production of a Hans Christen Andersen story about - wait for it - The Red Shoes.

Watching this movie, I was reminded of a very contemporary film - Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons in Whiplash - this film has the protege and the teacher and both stories have something to say about the price of art - especially excellence and what it does to a person's soul, their relationships, and the student/teacher dynamic.  Both movies are cautionary tales about not sucking so much marrow out of art you lose what gives life meaning.

This MAY be the first film even closely resembling Ballet and the backstage life that I've ever seen.   I'm sure there are some characters here who will be familiar to most backstage folks - it's an international cast, and takes place a big chunk down in the South of France.   The visuals and music are excellent, and the middle of the movie is punctuated by a central performance of the title ballet, with some excellent camera effects and stretching of the boundary between camera and stage as sometimes you are with the audience watching the stage and other times you are the world they are trying to manufacture.

This would be worth a second viewing with the commentary track, and while I only had one special feature on Filmstruck, it involved the restoration process, which if you've read this blog, you know is one of those things I really like.   The oddness of this one, involving three separate negatives, has to be seen to be appreciated - This restoration in particular came out fantastic.

Great Movie - a combination of a musical, a dance ballet, and drama - but with some sad foreshadowing of the story to come. 

#43 - Lord of the Flies

Here we go - a proper homicidal mob sorta movie

Like most people, I first read this book probably in middle or High School - the movie here is a pretty faithful rendition of the book - done by Director Peter Brook - it retains English roots, although I believe it's made by an American, and with very few exceptions or cut scenes, doesn't deviate from the source material except maybe at the very beginning.

Right off the bat I was reminded of "Night Of the Living Dead" - the opening reminds me of Night's closing, and some of the violent mob scenes in the latter half of the film remind me of the Living Dead - (side note - guess what's being released in a couple months on Criterion!) - It's a great film about the collapse of society and morals in a closed ecosystem - perhaps it loses some of it's teeth when reading it at a young age because I don't remember it hitting me like the story did this time at an older age but maybe that's the movie

Some really good use of music here - (which according to the special features was done in 5 hours) - Two melodies are dominant - one is a Choral piece sung and played at times when you get the impression that law and order are established, and some spooky stuff played when the tribe descends into the frenzy and madness around the campfire.

They really did a good job here of making these kids terrifying in the 2nd half of the film, and of course, by the end of the film their clothes are practically falling apart - There are a lot of special features and extras to this one, including a deleted scene, some scrapbooks of stuff that was shot and home video shot by the kids - (apparently to keep them busy - LOL) - it's a nice collection and if you like the movie, there's a great audio commentary as well by the director and producer.

It's a pretty good story and I liked this version a lot - I think I saw the 1990 version years ago but in my head this one feels superior - but who can say - either way, it's a classic and almost an art piece in the way it was presented and the story that was told - very good stuff

#42 - Fishing With John

I literally banged out these 6 episodes of an IFC/Bravo show at work tonight - a comedic take on fishing shows, featuring John and some celebrities he knows

The fishing is the background to put these characters together.   As a whole it works ok but there's definitely a better vibe between John and his friends William Dafoe and Dennis Hopper then there was with moody actors and directors

Not quite sure how this ended up in the collection but it's weird enough to justify being released SOMEWHERE - I won't lie - I watched some of it while doing other stuff - it's not shot on super high grade film, so it worked fine on the Ipad

special features include commentary from John - that may be more funny than the other stuff - it's fine for a couple hours though.

RB