I have never wanted to be a hacker more in my life until I watched WarGames for the first time. I spend some time playing computer games, but I have never stumbled onto a military server in which I engage in a game called Global Thermonuclear War with an AI named W.O.R.P. Apparently Matthew Broderick was a gifted hacker in the 80s with Ferris Bueller changing his absences and then that one movie with the monkeys training for space. He was, for the brief time in my life, my idol…that was until I saw Bullitt and I wanted to be Steve McQueen.
In what dream world is there no more war and our fine killing machines like Major Payne are forced to become teachers? I would love to know what dimension that world exists in. That is basically the only gripe I have with this Bad News Bears like comedy in that the world is bullshit and war is non-existent. Give me some realism. Actually I am fucking around and this movie is probably one of the funnier Wayans family movies, that and Blank Man, that was brilliant.
Sweet Jesus Starship Troopers is one of the best, bad movie around. For a movie made in 1997, this is damn spectacle to behold. Nothing like seeing this movies in theaters and being blown away that this was a PG-13 movie and it had such excessive gore, tits and bloody violent as hell. I mean we are talking about shit that 12 year old (my age at the time) shouldn’t even be seeing until maybe 13, but then again my first R-rated movie was Predator and that was at 5. Still though, I was 5 and could only comprehend pretty lights and loud sounds.
Anyways, Starship Troopers is just the most militaristic, chest thumping movie around, but it is extremely satirical movie about militarism and does so in the most gloriously ridiculous way possible. Hit the jump if you would like to know more.
I want to buy these action figures if they really existed. Not the cheap, plastic ones that they made in conjunction with the release of the movie, but the ones that had a military chip in them that brought to life to attack their human owners. Yeah, for an upbeat trailer like that, they really didn’t tell the audience that these toys were out to kill the humans in the rudimentary way possible. Yeah, not you standard G.I. Joe’s type kid movie. But damn if wasn’t an awesome movie from 1998.
This will be the only Michael Bay movie that you will see me praise, with the highest of regards. I am sure that means dick to a lot of people, but considering the shit he has turned out time and time again, The Rock will forever be, the best Michael Bay movie ever. In fact, I even own the Criterion Collection edition of this movie. If you aren’t familiar with Criterion Collection, here is a link to their site so you can judge the sort of films that they select as the best representation of cinema. The Rock is without a doubt, my one of my favorite action films of all time. And here’s why…
I remember playing Battleship with my dad not too long ago. I remember the elegance of the strategy needed to sink the opponents ships. It is the basis for trial and error, learning from your mistakes and changing your tactics to accommodate a diverse battlefield. The movie Battleship, is nothing like the game it is supposedly based on. The antithesis of the big summer blockbuster motif, the film itself absconds with the plot, the acting, and other things that make sense to an audience to give us the most formulaic, base shot of dope to satiate our soft tissue brain and keep our eyes engaged. To say the least, Battleship sunk itself in its cinematic outing.
I wondered if I would ever decide to pick this as a movie post one day. Ever since I have seen the documentary, it has been this grim and stark reminder of this on going war. While I can sit on the sidelines like most Americans and critique the war from the safety of an arm chair and thousands of miles between me and mortar fire, it doesn’t seem fair to really just push this aside. I don’t know too many people that are in the military. It’s not that I avoid militaristic folks, but rather just never been in the situation in which I would personally interact with an officer. I only personally know of my friend Heather’s husband Luke, who has sometimes told me about things he has experienced while deployed. I can’t say that I feel his pain as it would be disingenuous to compare my civilian life with one who is serving. I try and listen and understand, but truly we don’t know what it’s like over there. We can watch all the news clips and talking points, but it doesn’t matter.
To me, being a person who watches every documentary that is available, every war movie and every facet of military presentation would be ready to watch a documentary that is about a group of soldiers in combat. While I can split the difference between reality and storytelling, seeing Restrepo is something a bit more daunting. It is about a group of soldiers, real people, being placed in a deadly location and we watch. We watch what becomes of them during a time of war. It’s real and it’s frightening.
It’s a silly comedy day at Another Plot Device. To my chagrin, I love stupid comedies. In fact I adore stupid action comedies. MacGruber is definitely in that category of dumb fun movies that is the source of much derision from people and is mainly seen by teens who only go to the movie to text during it, which is odd. I can see why this movie didn’t get a lot of business at the theater, I mean it’s based off of a 60 second skit from Saturday Night Live where Will Forte plays a MacGyver like characters who constantly dies at the end of an episode because of his idiocy. So taking that concept, which is funny in the small snippets of the show, and stretching it out to 90 minutes is bit daunting. So picking this movie up in the five dollar bin at Blockbuster (they still exist), I was, pleasantly surprised by this movie.
Now this might seem crass or tasteless to post a comedy about military service on Memorial Day. Personally, while other hoorah military movies might serve to sate those who want action oriented war movies, I am not necessarily looking to be reminded about a ragtag group of soldiers that singly handily win a war. I am not being insensitive about the actualities of war and the toll that it takes on society, but some days we need a little something different instead of being bombarded with symbolism and explosions. I get enough of those things when watching CNN or Fox.
So with my explanation on the Memorial day choice of Movie of the Day out of the way, now I can start enjoying the remainder of the weekend. What better way to spend a Monday than watching Bill Murray movies, Stripes being one of my favorite comedies. You got Ivan Reitman directing, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis acting side by side in movie reminiscent of old Sgt. Bilko shows, and multitude of side characters all versed in comedy. Let me say though, the last third of the movie is where the movie kind of falls off track, but still an enjoyable movie.
