A while back on this lovely site, I wrote about how Shoot 'Em Up was one of the most misunderstood action movies of the last twenty years. If you read the thread of comments below that piece, you will see the article brought two types of people out. The people who adored the film, and the people who hated it. But either way, they came. The piece took on legs of its own, and within six months, I was talking casually to Shoot 'Em Up's writer/director Michael Davis, who thanked me for writing it. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had as a writer, and one I am hoping to duplicate again by talking up Hot Rod.
It's fun to be scared. No, really, it is one of the few emotions that remind us we still have a heartbeat. That feeling of anxiousness growing in your chest when you know something f*cked up is about to happen in a movie is the same feeling you get when that massive roller coaster you are on is slowly climbing up to its first drop. You know it's coming, you know it is going to be intense, but you also know there is nothing you can do but buckle in and enjoy the ride.
Dragons are awesome. I am sure there are countless other ways I could have opened this article, but come on, why dance around a subject when we can just jump right to the heart of it? At some point, someone saw a lizard and thought to themselves: if that thing was huge and could breathe fire, it would be fucking terrifying. And thus, dragons were born.
Twist endings often seem to be credited as some later invention in the last 50 years of fiction, but such is not the case. You go back to plays in Shakespeare's day (and LONG before) and you will see that the twist ending has existed since writing and storytelling has existed. Yet, it seems to have a different impact in each of the mediums it is represented in.
Half of us who are already comic book fans just go to these movies secretly waiting for geek moments. Those are the moments when a comic book movie drops in an Easter egg or a reference that just make the nerds and fanboys go crazy. While most of us are blissfully aware that comic book movies rarely do the source material justice, the little geek moments that pop up in these films make it well worth it for us geeks. These movies don't need to be perfect re-tellings of the comic book. Just give us a nod and at least let us know that you "get it."
The Joker might just be the best villain in all of fiction. I know that is a stretch, and some people may have some issues with that statement, but think about it. From his first appearance in the comics, to his debut on the campy show, to his most recent representation by the late Heath Ledger, he is a wildly varying villain.
Have you ever punched anyone in the face? I know that seems like a very Fight Club-ish way to open this article, but it is a fair question for the territory we are about to tread in.
F*ck tight spaces. No, really, f*ck them. For some people, just the idea of a tight space is enough to cause them to break out in a sweat and start to panic. The idea of being buried alive or trapped in rubble is one of those thoughts that is so awful, you try to keep your mind from even imagining it. But that is where film steps in. You see, for many of us, we like going to see a movie that lets us live through an experience we may fear in real-life.
There was a time when imagining a villain as a lead on a TV show was unheard of. Shows just did not do that. Sure, there were always bad guys, but they were usually in the background, behind the protagonist. Then, The Sopranos changed that with a lead who could very well be called a bad guy. Those lines only blurred even further with shows like Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy, where it seemed that even the good guys we were were tuning in to watch were becoming the bad guys.
I think I have made it clear through a lot of my articles here at We Got This Covered that I am a fan of animated Disney films. It is a love I have carried with me since childhood. However, I have always heard rumors of Disney hiding some pretty messed up stuff in their cartoons. But in an era before the internet, it was quite hard to prove.
