SPOILERS!
It is
time for another movie showdown. This time we have Marky Mark with a
high-powered sniper rifle in one corner, and George Clooney and a handful of
pissed off Mexican vampires in the other. Which movie should you see? Well
don't stress too much about making the decision, because I'm here to make the
decision for you, like one of those helpful ladies in a jewellery store who
just sort of roll their eyes, nod, and tell you which ring you should get your
girl.
Shooter (2007)
At the
beginning of Shooter, I couldn't help
but feeling like I was watching a K-Mart Jason Bourne movie. The mid-to-late
00s was the era of the intellectual spy movie. The last instalment of the
aforementioned Bourne saga was released, James Bond had done away with
invisible cars, and villains with diamonds embedded in their face in exchange
for gritty realism, and (some would say) poorly written dialogue (there, I said
it!). So I was expecting Shooter to
be filled with a few weighty moral conundrums, as well as some deep protag
anxiety and existential angst.
In this
respect, I was pleasantly surprised. Marky Mark has no business questioning the
pointlessness of life, and he doesn't in Shooter.
Instead he gets angry at corrupt political figures and shoots stuff (some
strong anti-Republican stuff here). Shooter is a fun action movie to watch.
It's not as outlandish as White House
Down, but I suppose you could say it's going for the same sort of vibe-- the 'this is an action movie, and
action movies are supposed to be fun!' vibe.
I would
have liked a few more sniper sequences. There are only really two major ones in
the movie, and the former is far too short. The final sequence (set in the
snowy fields of Alaska(?)) is pretty cool, but I'm afraid it's a case of too
little too late.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
I've
seen From Dusk Till Dawn multiple times. I watched it again last night and all
I can say is Wow! What a fucking movie! If you haven't seen it and don't want
things spoiled (trust me, this is the kind of movie that spoiler warnings were invented
for), then turn back now.
The first
half of this opens like a typical Quentin Tarantino gangster film (typical is
not synonymous with boring-- I'd rather watch a 'typical' Tarantino movie than
most other movies), and then it mutates into a genre vampire movie. This
mutation is so insanely left-field that it puts many viewers off. The mate I
watched it with commented that he was really into the film for the first half,
but the second half lost him. This is a problem that I'm guessing a lot of
people have. However, if you're the type of person that digs genre cinema, and
likes the idea of writers/directors experimenting with genre, then you really
have to watch From Dusk Till Dawn.
Tarantino
confirms his status as the absolute king of dialogue. The opening sequence presents
us with one of the funniest, richest bit characters of cinema, Sheriff Earl
McGraw, who is utterly offensive and utterly engaging. He drops pearlers like:
"When you gonna learn that that microwave food will kill you faster than a
bullet? I mean, them damn burritos ain't good for nothin' but a hippy-- when
he's high on weed." His subsequent rant about allowing mentally disabled
people work in fast-food restaurants is pure, highly offensive gold.
From Dusk Till Dawn culminates in a frenzy of
vampire slaying that is packed with crazy characters. There's a Vietnam veteran
who regales the main characters with stories of fighting Charlie in the jungle.
There's also a leather-clad biker named Sex Machine who know his way around a
whip. It's good fun, and it just oozes fucking cool.
You
should see:
From
Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
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