The Rogue's Gallery: 16 Blocks

Flashback: It's May of 1995. Little Rogue is all of 13 and a half, and a long way from gaining his titular adjective (that's a fancy way of saying I wasn't drunken yet). My small home town's movie theater had recently been bought out by another company who had turned it into a theater with the coolest ideas ever. Tickets were only a dollar (like the bargain basement theaters) but they showed new releases (like the real movie theaters). At age 13 this was about as close to heaven as I thought I could get. I must have seen literally every movie that came out that summer, most of them several times, but the one I remember most is the one I didn't go see.

Mom had dropped me off that Friday night (like almost every Friday night that summer) I found out what time my film would be over so she could pick me up, she waved goodbye and I headed in to see the Sandra Bullock movie "While You Were Sleeping". But I didn't see "While You Were Sleeping". For the first time in my young life (but not the last) I snuck into a movie I had not paid for, a movie that I wasn't supposed to see, an R rated movie. I snuck in to "Die Hard: With a Vengeance".

As a child of the eighties I didn't stand much chance not falling in love with the action superheroes of the day, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis. I'd even throw Mel Gibson in there based on the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon series'. It didn't help my action addiction that my father, while powerfully against sex and language in film, couldn't help but cheer for wholesale violence and huge explosions. Other than our late night Duck Hunt game fests, one of my favorite memories of "me and Dad time" is watching films like the original Predator and Commando. It was our only little private world. Mom wasn't interested and Sis was too young. This was "guy stuff" and we loved it. Bruce Willis, on the other hand, the whole family loved. So great was our affection for the Die Hard series that the second installment actually forced my father to break down and buy a new TV and VCR. Ours had been failing for years, but it was the low light scenes in "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" that finally sent him, grumbling, to the electronics store. How could they be surprised then when their good little boy couldn't stand to wait for video to see the further adventures of his hero, John McClane, especially when his story was being told so nearby (and for a dollar, no less)?

My love for "Die Hard" and Willis has not faltered over the years. It is a combination of newfound thrifty-ness and worry about the desecration of one of the cornerstones of my youth that has thus far kept me from seeing "Live Free or Die Hard". I'll tell you what I think about that one as soon as I get up the nerve to check it out. I had no such qualms about watching Willis' outing with Mos Def, "16 Blocks".

Like most good action movies, "16 Blocks" takes less time to explain that it does to say the title. Willis' character, Detective Jack Mosely, has to escort Mos Def's character, Eddie Bunker, just 16 blocks (where have I heard that before?) to the courthouse to testify before a grand jury. Of course what makes it interesting (and the whole reason they made a movie about this) is that most of the NYPD don't want Bunker to make it. It seems his testimony concerns crooked cops and is a crucial piece to knocking down a ring of corruption that pretty much goes all the way to the top.

Bruce Willis got famous on a little show called "Moonlighting" but what made him an action hero (and one little boy's idol) was playing a crotchety cop who complained while doing the right thing even if it was incredibly dangerous. Imagine if right after McClane saved his wife (and dropped Severus Snape off the top of that building) he had moved back to New York, developed a serious drinking habit, and gotten old and fat. That's the guy Willis is playing here.

It sounds cookie-cutter (take reluctant hero, put him up against impossible odds, cash big fat checks) but the level of acting from Willis and Def (and the superb work of Richard Donner behind the camera) make this film much more than that. Any good action movie should have a premise that's simple to relate to others, but it should also have characters that make it worth recommending, "16 Blocks" does. It won't change your world, but it won't waste an afternoon of your time either. It also won't desecrate a cornerstone of your youth, the same can't be said about every film out there.

The Rogue's Gallery: Movies I Should Have Already Seen

I don't know if you knew this, but I watch a lot of movies. More than that, I own a lot of movies, at last count somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 plus. Most of them are classics, favorite films of mine that I can't wait to share with friends or my children one day. Some of them are old friends that I like to visit when I'm feeling blue or particularly put upon by the outside world. Some were impulse buys, some were comfort purchases and some were methodically planned and budgeted.

Anytime you have a DVD shelf that big, you're bound to have a few that you haven't gotten around to watching yet. I've got a bunch. Since my new job allows me a good bit of free time (all during the day when I have the house to myself), I'm making an effort to work through these screen gems that I have thus far avoided (not intentionally of course). I thought it might be fun to throw a short review of each (or a long one if I feel like it) up here for the world to see. Maybe you haven't seen it yet either and this will be just the push you need to pick it up at Blockbuster or Wal-Mart. Whatever the outcome, I'll watch and tell you what I thought. This is MY blog after all.

Broken Flowers

Jim Jaramusch's body of work is a gaping hole in my cinematic experience. Well, that's not entirely true. I have seen the aforementioned "Flowers" now, and several years ago (on a night I'd rather forget) I saw "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai". Why Jimmy thought a slow think piece about an urban samurai played by Forest Whitaker would be a good idea I don't know, but let's suffice it to say I was not impressed. Since then, I had almost forgot that the guy existed until a little film starring Bill Murray was making the rounds last awards season. Andrei, a dear friend of mine (and avid Jarmusch fan) was as excited about this film as just about anything else coming out. He suggested that I try other great Jarmusch films like "Coffee and Cigarettes" (incidentally, Dre, I am on the lookout for "Dead Man" starring Johnny Depp after reading its synopsis). The point is Jim has been out there making these great little independent films (and some not so great ones) for some time, completely off my radar.

Bill Murray on the other hand is right in the middle of my radar. While I love his early work and consider a lot of them (Caddyshack and Ghostbusters in particular) to be some of the funniest movies ever made, it's his last decade and a half or so that have cemented him as one of the best actors of his age. From films like "Groundhog Day" to his real breakout, "Rushmore" he has been honing a persona that I can't get enough of. His performances in "Lost in Translation" and "Life Aquatic" were so perfect for me that I knew I wasn't going to let another one of his films slip by me.

But then I did. "Broken Flowers" spent about a week in our local theater (people in north Louisiana have very little patience for Bill Murray if he's not chasing ghosts or talking to groundhogs) but I picked it up on DVD almost as soon as it came out. I brought it home, put it on the shelf, and it stayed there. Months passed and the time never seemed right for it. So, a few days ago when I decided to make the effort to finally watch all these films I owned, "Broken Flowers" was at the top of the list.

It's first and foremost a beautiful film. Jarmusch has an eye for composition and most of the film would look just as good in a picture book as it does as moving images. The story concerns Murray's character, Don Johnston, (a well-off Casanova-type) being confronted with the idea that he fathered a son some twenty years ago, and deciding (truthfully, being pushed into) seeking out his old flames to find the boy. It sounds like a mystery, maybe even a neo-noire and the film implies that's what it's going to become with a beautiful soundtrack and Don's neighbor (the one doing the pushing) referencing detective stories. But this is film not about answers or mysteries, but about a journey and questions. Don doesn't know whether he's pleased with what his life has become, and until his quest to find his son begins, he hasn't even thought to ask the question.

It's not laugh out loud funny. There are no ghosts, groundhogs or obvious answers to be found here. There are wonderfully drawn characters portrayed by talented actors at the top of their games. It probably won't join "Caddyshack" in my list of favorite movies, but I'm proud to have it on the shelf, and glad I finally gave it a chance.

Getting that Stuff Out of the Basement: Rocky Balboa and the Last Hurrah

I'm a child of the eighties. I believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone (and to a lesser degree, Bruce Willis) are as close to superheroes as we are ever going to get. They are the heroes of my youth, and despite their deteriorating physical forms and occasional missteps ("Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" or "The 6th Day") I still have a fondness for them that knows no bounds. I disclose this unabashed love for my matinee idols so that there is no misunderstanding as to my state of mind before seeing the latest installment in the Rocky series.

"Rocky Balboa" is a film that almost nobody (but me and Stallone) was dying to see. There was not a building outcry demanding a further exploration of the declining years of the Italian Stallion. I don't think there were any blogs running poll questions on whether or not Adrian Balboa was still alive. While "Rocky V" was a less than satisfying entry to the series, most people believed that it WAS the final installment. Apparently Stallone thought otherwise.

"I think there's still some stuff in the basement." - Rocky Balboa to Paulie

That's the line that Rocky uses to justify his intention to fight again even though (if you do the math with the film continuity) Rocky must be in his late mid to late fifties. Paulie doesn't believe in Rocky, and his role as the voice of the dissenting and skeptical film goer is well played. Filling the film with characters from the first film (Little Marie, and Spider Rico as examples) is brilliant. Last summer, Bryan Singer and Warner Brothers released "Superman Returns" into theaters. It served as a pseudo-sequel to "Superman: the Movie" and "Superman II". It used the characters, pieces of storyline and even occasionally overtly used pieces of dialogue. "Rocky Balboa" does a better job than that film as a sequel to the series, without venturing into the territory of homage.

Rocky has "some stuff in the basement" and he needs to climb back in the ring and unload those locked up feelings on an opponent. He says he needs to "stand toe to toe and say 'I am.'" I'm so glad he did. It's not all roses and victory bows for "Rocky Balboa." Milo Ventimiglia ("Heroes" Peter Petrelli) is stiff and unbelievable as Rocky Jr., (although, thankfully he's much better than Sage Stallone would have been) and there are some obvious choices that border on cliche, but overall "Rocky Balboa" delivers exactly what you want from it: action, a little heart (say that in your best Meredith Burgess impression), and a lovable character that has transcended the flawed films he appears in to become part of the American consciousness.