100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 53 – The Mummy

Indiana who?

 In The Mummy Brendon Fraser proves that he can do action as well as comedy.  While it seem inevitable that you would compare this Stephen Sommers hit to the Indiana Jones movies; this movie does have plenty of original content so that is does not seem like a copy cat movie.

I think the key is pairing Brendan Fraser as the muscle and Rachel Weisz as the brains, plus it allows a level of romantic comedy that never really exists in the “other” movies.

The basic premise of the movie is explained in the trailer below, but it doesn’t spoil all of the good parts either.  This movie is fun to watch on many levels from the great special effects, to the great story and the many funny moments peppered throughout.

There is a sequel to this movie, The Mummy Returns, I would say that it is a good sequel but not as good as the original movie.  A third movie for this series is currently in pre-production.

The Mummy is rated “PG”.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 34 – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

I was never a huge fan of Asian language films, but Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is just too good not to talk about.  This movie has many of the classic features of Asian films; honor, martial arts, high flying wire work and subtitles.  The key difference is the amazing story that is worked into it.  I’m sure many people will disagree with me but I have always found that to be the lacking element with most Asian films.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was directed by Ang Lee and stars Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang.  This movie also went up against Gladiator for best picture of the year and I feel the only reason it lost was because it was a foreign language film.

The trailer below gives the basic premise for the film but there is so much more to see in it.  If you get it on DVD you can turn the English dub track on so you don’t have to read the subtitles; they do a good job with it so it’s not to distracting.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is rated “PG-13″

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 32 – Time Bandits

Time Bandits was brought to us in 1981, produced by Handmade Films (George Harrison’s movie house) and directed by Terry Gilliam.

Time Bandits is just a nice comedic romp thru history and space.  The premise is that when God created the universe he did it so quickly that there are “holes” in the universe that would allow individuals to jump thru time to get treasure and make themselves rich.  Of course with this premise and Terry Gilliam directing you can expect more hilarity than drama.

If you don’t like British humor this won’t be your favorite movie but if you do or can at least stand it I promise you’ll like this one.  Some of the stars of this movie are John Cleese and Sean Connery.

I couldn’t find a trailer so this is a clip video but it does not have any spoilers in it.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 23 – The Lord of the Rings

When I say The Lord of the Rings, I mean all 3 movies, Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Return of the King.  Since much like the books they are just smaller parts of a larger overall epic.

The Lord of the Rings movies are based on the books of the same name authored by J.R.R. Tolkien.   These books are massive tomes of information about the world that Tolkien created and while the movies have to cut much of the material you can tell that loving care was used to include as much as possible to stay true to the story.

The Lord of the Rings was an amazing series of movies.  Besides the great acting, sets, and action LOTR was an amazing effort in time management.  Directing, producing and editing three 3 hour movies in 3 consecutive years should be and was applauded by critics and fans.

The Fellowship of the Ring is my favorite of this series but all three are worth seeing.  If you have the time and opportunity I would recommend watching the extended versions of these films and if you like them enough listen to the director’s commentary on these films.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 12 – Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness or Evil Dead III (as some people know it) is the brain child of Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi.  Sam Raimi started out directing Evil Dead but it better know for directing the hugely popular Spider-man movies.

Army of Darkness stars Bruce Campbell as “Ash” a man out of time who must fight demons to save the locals and himself.  Needless to say that is so not what this movie is about, this movie is about over the top action, great one liners and some of the best fun you could have in a movie. 

You may not have seen this movie but you have seen some of the “products” of it.  If you’ve played Duke Nukem several of Duke’s lines are stolen from this movie or if you watched Hercules or Xena the camera and action style are copied.  Admittingly that is easy to figure out since Sam Raimi was a producer on Hercules and Xena.

There are about 3-4 versions of this movie available on DVD, my personal favorite is the original theatrical release but many cite the “Boomstick” edition a better version.  Either way if you are looking for a fun way to spend 2 hours this is it.

Army of Darkness is rated “R” for violence and language.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 8 – Highlander

“There can be only one!” pretty much sums up how many good movies came out of this series.

Highlander hit theatres in 1986 with an “R” rating and stared Christopher Lambert, Clancy Brown and Sean Connery.  It had a horrible reception at the theatres and instantly became a cult classic, funny how that works.

Highlander weaves a story about immortals that live among us, mainly focusing on the main protagonist Conner MacLeod (Lambert).  While a limited in screen time and dialog Clancy Brown makes the Kurgan one of the most memorable villains in movie history. This movie is half modern day fantasy and half period piece as much of the movie is told through flash backs to the past.

This movie spawned a few horrible sequels but a pretty good TV show which then spawned a pretty good movie, but the original is still considered the best of the bunch.  There are about a dozen versions on DVD the only key difference in most of them is about 8 minutes of added footage, a directors commentary and some special features.  It’s worth picking up if you like a good sword fight with some story behind it.

100 Movies in 100 Days: Day 1 – 300

300- Go see this movie.  It’s really that simple.  The tale of 300 Spartans that battled the innumerable armies of the Persians has truly been around for “ages”, but I doubt it has ever been retold in a way that looked this good.  Since this review is happening after the initial weekend figures, that have come in at 70 million plus, it’s easy to see that I’m not the only person that liked this movie. 

Gerard Butler is the only actor with any name recognition in this film but every one in it gives a great performance even if their role may seem a little limited.  Though 90% of all the sets were virtual you would be hard pressed to see it as fake.  Part of this is due to the stylized format that is used with the colors and cinematography but the other is how the director (Zack Snyder) pulls your eyes to the actors more for the gritty emotion of the scene or the raw violence. 

As much as I will enjoy watching this movie on DVD to really appreciate it you need to see it on the big screen.  This movie is rated “R” for violence, nudity and some sexuality, but unless the only movies you’ve ever seen before this point are “G” rated it’s nothing you can’t handle.

I’m reattaching the trailer to this post and I will try to attach the trailer for each of the reviews that I’m doing.

Characters you know in stories you’ve never read

Do you like a well written story?  One with well rounded characters, real story development over a broad time period and multiple, but still connected plot lines.

How about a story where the Big Bad Wolf is a good guy, the ultimate villain is the last guy you would suspect, you have the chance to see Goldilocks topless and hear Snow White drop the f-bomb?

Then you need to read “Fables” from DC comics Vertigo line (http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/).  Fables is written by Bill Willingham and drawn by following artists Mark Buckingham, Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha and Craig Hamilton. 

Don’t roll your eyes at me and say “Ugh it’s just a comic.” if something this good was on HBO you’d be all over it.

Fables tells the tales of the people and creatures that we have read about all of our lives living in exile in New York City. 

It is a mature comic because of language, violence and nudity but none of it is in excess.  I would liken it to “The Sopranos” or “Deadwood” in that it enhances the story and is not just thrown in for some sort of shock value.

One of the great aspects of Fables compared to their Superhero counterpart comics is that decisions have consequences and effect the overall time-line.

Many of the characters are accessible because you at least know their names and the basic premise of the character i.e. you’ve heard of Snow White, Little Boy Blue and Prince Charming.  The taking of the next step to why they are in exile and what they have made of their life while living in the Mundy (what they call our non-magical world) or mundane world is what will keep you coming back to this comic.

 There are currenltly 8 trade paperbacks covering about 50 issues or so of the comic.  For a much more in depth description of the plot lines involed in the series you can go to the Fables wikipedia site – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fables_%28comics%29

You can pick up these trades at your local comic shop, or major bookseller. I promise you won’t be disappointed.