Posts Tagged ‘AARP’
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I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about this comic from the old days of my buddy Mitch Clem’s strip, San Antonio Rock City. Whenever I think of Al Pacino doing his thing from Scent of a Woman, that’s the visual I imagine.
I’m not really as critical of Righteous Kill as I depict myself to be in this comic. In fact, I’m kind of excited to see it and will probably sneak out of the house Saturday night to catch a late showing (Cami has no interest in seeing it).
But one can’t help but feel that at the age of 65 and 68 respectively, Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino might be a little long in the tooth for this kind of gritty crime drama. I mean, this movie co-stars 50 Cent. What’s up with that? Was DMX busy, or something?
I need to admit to the resentment I feel after watching Heat, which promised great things from the duo in their first on-screen meeting. I’m sorry, but a five minute exchange in a diner is not the great meeting of the minds I had hoped for. Heat’s a great movie, though. So you can’t be too mad.
My friend Joe Dunn had a good point about DeNiro and Pacino. They should have been making movies together every 5 years since 1977. But he also reserves judgment and points out the reason DeNiro and Pacino have managed to stay relevant is because they’re damn good actors.
Righteous Kill probably won’t be the movie we want it to be and it certainly won’t tarnish the careers of either actor. But it’s frustrating that the stars didn’t align earlier so audiences could enjoy these two bouncing off of each other in more movies. It’s not right that DeNiro has shared the screen with Pacino the same number of times as he has with Billy Crystal. It’s just not right.
Short blog post from me today, guys. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you here on Monday!
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Aww, what did Space Cowboys ever do to anybody? It’s just a sweet old film about launching geriatrics into orbit to teach them young whipper-snappers a thing or two!
If you’ve never seen Space Cowboys, don’t. It’ll ruin your impression of Clint Eastwood’s late career Oscar streak. Before directing movies like Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, he directed and starred in junk like Space Cowboys and Blood Work. Avoid at all costs.
As Cami ascertained in today’s comic, RED is very much like Space Cowboys in that it stars a cast of borderline-elderly actors running around, doing things they probably shouldn’t. I don’t care if it’s entering a low orbit around the planet or blowing up a pallet of C4, you have grandkids to worry about!
At least RED isn’t taking itself too seriously.
Except it kind of is.
In the way that Space Cowboys limply tried to assert the value of The Greatest Generation, RED is basically an “eff-you” thrill ride for Baby Boomers, rapidly approaching obsolescence.
I’ve ranted about this in the past. Bruce Willis is a key offender in this area. Look at Live Free or Die Hard. He can still kind of get away with it, though. Ever since he figured out he could shave his head and look like a bad-ass, audiences have kind of forgotten he is 55.
Sylvester Stallone is worse. The Expendibles was fun, but his extension of both Rocky and Rambo were a little desperate.
These guys need to let it go. Make room for the next generation. Right now, there’s really no one to take their place because the old guard won’t get out of the way.
And Bruce! Bruce… You’re dragging Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren into it with you? For shame.
RED might be a rental for me somewhere down the line if for no other reason than to see John Malkovich in full-on crazypants mode. He doesn’t play up his intensity for laughs very often, so when he does, it’s devastating.
It looks like the movie may have legs, considering it stood its ground with a $22 million opening this weekend against Jackass 3D. Johnny Knoxville and the boys raked in $50 million at the box office setting a record for a fall movie (September – October) ever seen. In fact, I nearly doubled the take from the original Jackass and its sequel Jackass Number Two.
I’m kind of lamenting the fact that I didn’t make it out to the theater this weekend to catch it. But Cami had relatives in town this weekend from Texas and we spent a lot of time hanging out with them. I don’t know if there’s a point of seeing the movie on a school night. I doubt it would generate the uproarious response it seemed to attract this weekend.
What say you? Did anyone see Jackass 3D or RED this weekend? What was your take? Did you have fun screaming at the infantile antics of the Jackass crew? Was RED a viable choice for anyone who can’t remember where they were when Kennedy was shot?
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