!!!

You're goddamn right we did

The Viceroy is so badass

Wish I'd worn black

Day 0 Marathon: Part I

I'm following last night's post and doing one last SoA mega-marathon in anticipation of probably going to the big flick at midnight tonight. This first entry captures my experiences with The Specialist, my first top on the August Adrenaline Tour de Force. Expect me to get a little more out of focus and jaded as the evening goes along.

I love pre-dated opening scenes to movies. They're the perfect way to say "watch out for these two, they have a history together" or "something might happen with the character involved in this scene" or, in the case of A Simple Man, "here's a story that's pretty much entirely unrelated to the rest of this very fine movie." The opening scene of The Specialist features Sly and James Woods as Army dudes who rig a bridge in Bogota to explode, thereby killing some manner of political target. Problem is, the target is driving with an innocent child- so Sly, the munitions specialist, wants to abort the mission. James Woods pulls rank though, so the best Sly can do is hope to diffuse the bombs in time. Of course this doesn't work, so Sly ends up getting exploded off a dam into some water.

Suddenly its roughly ten years later and Sly is holding up a creepy, moderately seductive relationship with a woman who, as a girl, watched her parents killed by Miami crime bosses (one of whom is Eric Roberts!). He uses the latest technology (a fancy pager which connects to the 'Weekend Warrior' BBS, minidiscs recordings of all their conversations, a bizarrely sophisticated intruder home alarm system) to carry out a distant relationship with this woman, played by Sharon Stone. Well, its distant for her but somehow he manages to basically follow her 24/7 while listening to the minidiscs to provide the backdrop of the story.

Here's whats great about the rest of the movie: Sly gets involved, and since he's an explosives expert, a lot of shit gets blown up. Here's something else that's great: Sharon Stone had pretty much no sense of personal boundaries back then, so much like in Basic Instinct she gives a glimpse of the shapely goods in The Specialist.

Here's something that's perfectly expected about the movie: Sly and James Woods (with SS in the middle) play a lot of double crosses on each other while trying to kill the other guy. But it all happens in sunny, sexy Miami so I won't complain too loudly.

Since the entire nation is finally catching Expendables fever, Bill Simmons discussed Sly at some length in a podcast earlier this week. He said he wasn't a big fan of The Specialist. As far as dumb action movies go, I disagree. This was a pretty classic edition of Sly being a bad ass and throwing around some lame dialogue. Also, I love it when James Woods gets snarky.

BEST OF THE 5Qs 2

As promised at the tail end of BEST OF THE 5Qs, the touching conclusion of Best of the Best inspired me to immediately queuuequequeqeeueueueueueueue up its imaginatively titled sequel, Best of the Best 2. It came in on the very same day that the good viceroy of West LA leant me the footage of the goings on at The Party at Kitty & Stud's. Having already expended quite a bit of energy getting all erotic'd up with Italian Stallion, I was having second thoughts about rocking another SoA double feature. However, when the netflix envelope told me this:

My fate was obviously sealed. And so I partook of the fantastical revenge of Alex and Tommy...

BEST OF THE 5Qs

Tonight: The Best of the Best

Who: Eric Roberts. You know him because Chet did such a fine job introducing him yesterday.
Also: James Earl Jones, you know him as the black dude with the awesome voice; Phillip Rhee, you know him as the guy who made his career out of "Best of the Best" movies; Chris Penn, you know him as Sean's fat younger brother, or from Reservoir Dogs, Corky Romano, Mulholland Drive, Footloose, shit I don't know it depends on your viewing habits; various Korean actors.
What: The preparations for and action of an international karate tournament between the American and Korean national teams.

Tiger Hi-Line Entertainment Review: The Pope of Greenwich Village

If you are looking for an 80s drama about guys who accidentally get themselves involved with the mafia, "The Pope of Greenwich Village" might be for you! I recently attended a screening this movie. Here is what you would be getting your self in to.

Some of you may have heard adults talk about Mickey Rourke's resurgence. You know Mr. Rourke as the big ugly guy from Sin City and also the wrestler in The Wrestler. Well, your mom and dad were right about resurgence, because once upon a time Mr. Rourke was younger and much prettier! Once upon a time he looked a little like Kiefer Sutherland (but not Kiefer Sutherland from Lost Boys. Older than that.) He will also feature in this summer's movie The Expendables. This is one of his early movies, and he plays Charlie a down-on-his-luck wannabe restauranteur with a smoking hot aerobics instructor girlfriend. She gets pregnant! That's sure to make things complicated.

But his buddy Paulie is going to make things complicated enough. Paulie is a waiter who gets Charlie fired at the start of the movie for not selling enough steak. And later, Paulie gets them in even more hot water by crossing up the mafia. Paulie is played by Eric Roberts, who was Salvatore Maroni in The Dark Knight and will also be in The Expendables. It was weird that they cast Eric and Mickey in this movie because the characters are supposed to be Italian. Except neither of them are very good at acting Italian. Especially Mr. Roberts whose facial expressions and accent would make Heath Ledger roll over in his grave. It was fun to see Mr. Roberts with a haircut my parents called a 'jerry curl' though.

The Pope of Greenwich Village suffers somewhat from being long and ambling, but it is a well made and interesting movie so you should consider watching it.

Chet Germilla is a junior at Cedar Falls High School. We are happy to have him as the official Summer of Action intern.