Born To Be Wild

It is funny sometimes when a movie you thought was awesome in your youth actually turns out to be a movie that is just decent at best.  Ten years ago, I would have told you that Domino is one of the greatest action movies ever made.  Ten years later, I will tell you that the action in the movie is good, the performances are great, but overall Domino is not very good.  This is a shame because I have such a love and appreciation for Tony Scott's work as a director.

Domino is the story of Domino Harvey and her life as a bounty hunter.  To be honest, I found this movie to be quite slow and boring.  The performances and the action scenes, particularly the shootout at the top of the Space Needle, are what kept me invested.  In the end, I was glad for it to be over.  There are some flaws in the movie.  For some reason, every time Domino (Keira Knightley) tells us about a new character we see a flashback of that person's life.  That is not necessary at all.  Also, there are many parts of the film that are shown in slow motion.  Slow motion works when you put it in the right places, but not when it is used throughout the movie.  Also, there is part in the movie when they crash their R.V., and after they escape Domino and Choco (Edgar Ramirez) immediately start having sex right in the middle of the desert.  WHAT?!  That makes absolutely no sense at all.  Another thing is that, in the aforementioned shootout, why is it so dark at the top of the Space Needle?  How are they able to see each other, much less shoot each other?  When you add all these things to an already boring movie, the result is not very good.  However, most of the performances are stellar.

Keira Knightley electrifies the screen as Domino Harvey.  She kicks ass, has a smart mouth, and is completely fearless.  I always enjoy it when an actor/actress goes against type, and Knightley does so with such ferocity.  She disappears into this role just as she always does.

Mickey Rourke plays Ed Moseby.  He is the leader of the pack, and Rourke does not have to do much convincing to make us believe that.  He remains cool and focused even in the face of death.  This is honestly one of the best pieces of acting I have ever seen from Rourke.

Edgar Ramirez plays Choco.  Choco has a soft exterior, but that is just a cover for this wild beast of a man that will shoot your arm off without any hesitation.  Unfortunately, there is no motivation behind the character.  He is just there as Ed Moseby's sidekick, and he really has little to do throughout the movie.

The late Tony Scott is the director of Domino.  Long before J.J. Abrams started using lens flares, Tony Scott was bringing us his own signature flashy style of directing.  The camerawork, again particularly in the action scenes, is amazing.  Unfortunately, Scott gets too caught up in his own style and does too much with it which diminishes the quality of the movie.  That being said, Domino is an incredible rare misstep for the highly under-appreciated and under-rated Tony Scott.

As I said before, Domino is an average movie at best.  If you are one of those movie fans like me who collect entire collections of an actor's/director's work, then I would recommend Domino to complete your Tony Scott collection.  However, if you are a fan of Tony Scott's other films you probably will not enjoy it.

Dude, What The Hell Did I Just Watch?

I had never seen Dude, Where's My Car before and it is probably best that I never watched it at all.  The funny thing is, I had a gut feeling that I was going to hate it.  Dude, Where's My Car is so monumentally bad that it makes you want to watch an awesome movie immediately afterward.

Dude, Where's My Car is the story of two stoners who wake up after a night of partying and cannot remember what happened. To begin with, the transitions are just god-awful and make no sense.  Plus, if Jesse and Chester are so dumb, how the hell do they know how to speak Japanese?  Also, they have a dog that smokes weed?  Really?  You want to know what is dumber than that?  At one point they think their dog is dead.  Well, in one shot the dog's eyes are closed and in the next shot they are open!!  That is just terrible editing.  Also, saying variations of the same phrase over and over again is NOT....I repeat...NOT FUNNY!!!  The jokes are not funny, one of the character's voices sounds dubbed, and the twins do not even look like twins.  Their bird dies too, although we never actually see how.  There is also an awful music video in the movie, and there are labels that introduce every new character.  Also, having a blind kid swing at a baseball all by his lonesome is not funny.  It is very, very stupid.  Oh, and there is this group of gorgeous women who are looking for Jesse and Chester but every time they find them, they leave.  WHAT?!  Finally, Fabio's girlfriend from earlier in the movie attacks them at the very end which made absolutely no sense at all.

Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott play Jesse and Chester, respectively.  I have never been a fan of Kutcher, and this movie reminds me of that.  Both actors are clearly trying way too hard to be funny.  They end up coming off very stale.  I guarantee you that the only ones who think they are funny are themselves.

Danny Leiner is the director of Dude, Where's My Car.  I am not sure what was going on in his head, but it clearly was not much at all.  There is no story to this movie at all.  It is just a jumbled, garbled mess.

Dude, Where's My Car is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  It is a metaphorical punch to the brain for 80 minutes.  I cannot and will not recommend this movie to anyone.  Ever.

A Movie That Has The Key To Our Hearts

I remember seeing Robin Hood: Men in Tights when I was in high school, and I thought it was one of the funniest movies I had ever seen.  Also, for some reason it still remains to this day the only Mel Brooks movie I own in my collection.  It is a movie that hearkens back to the days when spoofs were actually good and ruled the box office.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is not only a spoof of Robin Hood, but more specifically Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner.  It is a fantastic, hilarious romp through the forest that is full of gags that never get old.  There is also a Mel Brooks cameo in the movie that is just as hilarious as the entire movie.  Come to think of it, there are a number of cameos in the movie by legendary comedians.

Cary Elwes is one of my favorite actors.  He can do comedy and drama extremely well.  I own 7 or 8 movies that he is in, and every time I watch him I smile.  He is suave, lethal and brave as Robin of Loxley.  There are a couple of sword fights in the film that, for anyone who has seen The Princess Bride, feel very nostalgic.  Elwes is perfect in the role, and his comedic timing is brilliant.

The legendary Mel Brooks is the director of Robin Hood: Men in Tights.  Mel Brooks is one of those directors that I am very familiar with even though I have not seen many of his movies.  You would think that a movie filled with gags would get boring after a while, but Brooks makes sure those gags are well-timed.  I know that Robin Hood: Men in Tights was one of the last films he directed.  I would love to see his earlier work, and maybe he will choose to direct sometime in the near future because the spoof genre definitely needs him.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a fantastic and hilarious movie.  It is one of the greatest spoofs of all time, directed by one of history's great directors.  I am so happy to own this movie, and I would recommend it to anyone.