Samurai's Pick: THE KILLING (Region 1 Blu-Ray; Criterion)Kubrick is my favorite film maker and this film is close to perfect in my opinion. Great performance from Sterling Hayden and possibly one of my favorite endings of all time. Don't even hesitate, just buy...seriously!!!
Links:
Amazon Blu-Ray and DVD
Blu-Ray.com Review
Criterion.com
They Call Him Chad's Pick: DEMOLITION MAN (Region 1 Blu-Ray; Warner Home Video)Demolition Man always felt like a film a little ahead of its time. The mixture of serious hard-hitting action, satire, social commentary and self-referential narrative seemingly confused Sylvester Stallone fans back in the early 90s (not me, though -- I was a stupid kid and I just wanted to see Sly blow crap up and cuss. So, I was enthralled and couldn't spell "satirical" let alone figure it out), making the film something of a cult movie as it has gradually developed a stronger following over the years. The plot focuses on a cryogenically frozen cop, who was too reckless for his own good and received a sentence as a human popsicle, thawed out 36 years later in a much less dangerous, near pacifist-like future to apprehend an ultra-violent nemesis from his era that's escaped a similar icy hibernation to continue his killing spree.
It's odd that both Sly and Arnie tried to pull off similarly stylized films in the same year, though The Governator's Last Action Hero goes full blast in satirizing the genre and its star. As for Demolition Man, it works on all those aforementioned levels -- great action and genuinely humorous moments. The three sea shells is almost a classic bit by now, in terms of Stallone's career, at this point. This is the last great Sly film, for my money. He's bad ass, charismatic and witty as John Spartan. This is the niche that I hope The Rock could finally settle into one day. Wesley Snipes is just off-the-charts electric as Simon Phoenix. And to me, Sandra Bullock earned her Oscar for portraying officer Lenina Huxley in this film (unfortunately, they gave it to her like 15 years too late). She's honestly never been better nor more attractive. I'll say it, this is one of the great Stallone films. Check it out and maybe have yourself a Stallone double deuce with another classic Sly offering, Cobra, which is also out on Blu today (and that some here's bound to recommend)!
Links:
Amazon Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray.com Review
Large William's Pick: COBRA (Region 1 Blu-Ray; Warner Home Video)In one of the more painstaking decisions I've made for this column, I've chosen trash over class this week by taking Stallone's Cobra over Kubrick's The Killing. The Killing is essential studio noir from Kubrick, but is an incredible noir that is absolutely worth your chingoleros. Cobra, well that's a pantheon GGtMC film if there ever was one. In fact, it's my favorite non Rocky Stallone film, hands down. Quintessential 80's action featuring a too cool for school hero with a pearl inlaid handgun, an amazing batmobile with his old Merc, the most imitated knife in the history of action cinema, and perhaps the greatest improvised Italian culinary dissection in the history of cinema. If you have the disease of never seeing Cobra, then this blu ray release is most definitely the cure...
Kisses(after I remove the match from my mouth),
William Cobretti
Links:
Amazon Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray.com Review
This is an amazing week! Looks like I'm going to need to shell out some cash.
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