Weekly Cinemeh

Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh. This week we decided to have some fun with 80s action movies. Over the top violence is great fun every once in a while, so if you are in the mood for that, check out some of this weeks picks. Don't expect a lot of realism with these movies and you will have a good time. To the list!

1: Big Trouble in Little China
BTiLC is a movie about a trucker helping his gambling buddy get his girlfriend back after she is kidnapped by a Chinese gang. The two get involved in a gang war against a gang who uses magic and other supernatural powers. This movie is fun, and it bucks trends of popular action films while still being a competent action film. The main character is cocky and over confident, which fucks him over several times (at least until the end of the film). Kurt Russell is great at playing the overconfident doofus, so the role was made for him.The main character doesn't even get the girl in the end. The action scenes are full of wire fighting and some good special effects. I think John Carpenter is one of the best at over the top special effects and this movie is a great example of that. Its a fun flick, watch it with some friends.

Eshi: Big Trouble is the standard "white guy saves the ethnics" trope when the white guy is John Wayne after a tragic DIY lobotomy accident. I love Kurt Russel, especially as the lucky incompetent, and this role is his fucking masterpiece. James Hong is delightful, as usual, the man plays a psychotic ancient sorcerer just as comfortably as he plays an ancient kung fu wizard. Kim Cattral is a little hammy but that stops really mattering after about ten minutes on screen. This film is worthy of a Saturday night, give it a shot.

2: Escape From New York
EFNY is a lot like BTiLC. Kurt Russel plays the main character, and it is written and directed by John Carpenter, but it is a far more serious film (on the surface at the very least). Snake Plissken is a criminal who is on his way to Manhattan, which has been turned into a super-prison. While he is being processed the President of the US crashlands on the island, and out of options, the police "ask" Snake to go onto the island and save the President in exchange for a pardon. This movie has some odd tonal issues. Its serious in some parts, i.e. the world will die to nuclear war if Snake fails, but at several points it just turns silly. At one point there is a musical number on Broadway about how New York Prison is fucked up. Regardless, its a fun movie, and another movie you should watch with friends.

Eshi: Escape from NY gave Hideo Kojima his first boner, and I'm weirdly okay with that. Snake Plissken is the painfully obvious inspiration for Solid Snake, and also the conceptual father of the "batman voice". He's also the president's only hope. Well, the president and some lady named Season with two lines in a Chock Full o' Nuts, but she gets dragged into a rape basement by a bunch of subterranean hobos. Isaac Hayes makes for a pretty believable murderous warlord and Harry Dean Stanton is as bewildered and interesting as always. This is one of those movies that I'm disappointed I hadn't seen yet, watch it if for no better reason than Kurt Russel gets to fight a giant with a nailbat.

3: Predator
This is another classic of the 80's, and one of the best action movies I have seen with two governors in it. A group of commandos is behind enemy lines when they realize that they are being hunted by something, and need to escape the jungle. With the combination of an invisible enemy and a harsh environment Predator is good at building tension. The cast is largely pretty good, and you can see why Ahhnold was popular in action back in the day. Carl Weathers' part is slightly ruined for me now though because of his character on Arrested Development. Its a great movie and a cultural touchstone that everyone should see at least once, especially if you want to find out what a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus looks like.

Eshi: I've just got to get it out of the way, Jesse "The Rapidly Cooling Body" Ventura is amazing in this movie. He's got like, five lines and they are all incomprehensibly macho. He's so many in this movie it gives him brain damage. Predator is another one of the action films that really walks the line between homophobic and thinly veiled gay porn. Not anywhere near as often or as aggressively as The Expendables, but its definitely there. Carl Weathers and Arnold have a strong but awkward chemistry that plays really well with the interaction between their characters. I feel like the random Hispanic woman was unnecessary, she isn't even really a love interest, she just serves as a one line local history dump and to kinda, sorta, almost justify Arnold's needless theory that the predator wont kill unarmed prey. It is a really fun action flick and has definitely earned its place in the pop culture annals.