Thankfully, quality films weren’t just relegated to my favorite movie season either. Despite fewer Oscar contenders than I expected to turn up at year’s end, 2008 ended strong nevertheless, with various stories of love and loss working to perfection and comeback attempts like that of Mickey Rourke’s, Harrison Ford’s, and to some degree even Tom Cruise, showing us why we loved these actors in the first place. Even periods that usually don’t feature a single passable film, like January or September, months usually reserved for also-rans and Oscar bait holdovers, got a big boost this year with films like the return of Rambo or fun features like Cloverfield and Burn After Reading.

2008 just simply turned out to be a great year to be a movie fan. The biggest stars shined bright, and most of the movies you expected to be great turned out to be just that or even better. To be honest, it was kind of hard to whittle this list down to just 10, with plenty like Rambo or Speed Racer that could have slipped in there, but these represent the movies that I’d most like to remember from this year. Hopefully, 2009 can try to come somewhere close to bringing me as much fun at the movies as I had this year.

10. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - When I looked at the lineup of Comedies that were coming out in 2008, I didn’t expect Forgetting Sarah Marshall to end up being my favorite. The trailer looked only kind of funny, and I wholly expected one of the big Summer Comedies (Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, Step Brothers) to be the one I’d really remember, but all these months later its still Forgetting Sarah Marshall that makes the biggest impression on me. Not only did the movie make me laugh harder than any other movie that came out in 08, but the flick also had maybe the biggest heart and had me almost in tears in several places. Stars Jason Segel and Mila Kunis showed a “Bogie and Bacall”-like chemistry that few comedy teams could even dream of matching, and the movie’s love story always felt genuine, avoiding a lot of the usual Rom-Com clichés while still working the Judd Apatow crass humor/genuine emotion formula to perfection. Overall, nothing Comedy-wise even ended up coming close to this one.

9. (Tie)The Forbidden Kingdom/Kung Fu Panda - Alright so maybe having both of these films on this list is cheating, but I still couldn’t include just one of these pictures without the other. For me, both of these movies represent the same thing; they’re both gateway films to a genre that I hold very dearly to my heart, the classic Chopsocky flick. Just like Big Trouble in Little China, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and The Karate Kid did for me in the 80’s, I believe these movies can do the same thing for youngsters of this era, which is open a door to the masterpieces of a genre that is loved by millions of film fans around the world, but one that often gets little respect from many critics.

First up, not only is The Forbidden Kingdom the first time that Hong Kong movie legends Jackie Chan and Jet Li have worked together onscreen, but this movie also represents the best work done stateside by either of them. Honestly, the pairing seems to bring out the best in both performers, as they both seem to be having more fun than I’ve seen either of them have in a long time. As a Kung Fu movie fan, few pleasures this year could top watching Li and Chan go at it, in a scene choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/ Fist of Legend/The Matrix), being shot by Cinematographer Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon/The Killer). If John Woo or Tsui Hark had actually directed the movie, my head might have exploded from all the excitement.

Surprisingly, Kung Fu Panda works just as well as a gateway, if not even a little better. Utilizing many of the elements of classic Kung fu pictures, Panda is an effort by its film makers to pay serious homage to the genre instead of making a spoof, and this goes a long way to really making this a wonderful picture. Jack Black does his best work in a long time as the goofy Po, who must learn the ways of Kung fu in order to save his village, and along the way you get a terrific adventure leading up the final glorious battle, gorgeously and hilariously staged and executed by Directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson.

8. Valkyrie - I don’t exactly know what happened along the way when it came to United Artists finally releasing Bryan Singer’s tremendous WWII Thriller. Constant release date changes and Tom Cruise’s current career slump seemed to give this movie a reputation as a failure even before it came out, but that was all until the movie actually hit theaters. Turns out Valkyrie is a pretty terrific genre yarn, with Singer doing a fine job of melding his Usual Suspects roots to his current epic, saga-type film-making to create a tense assassination movie with incredible performances and a wonderful and real historical back drop.

While the performances of one of the year’s best casts are all amazing, one of the things I really love is the look of this movie, as Singer and Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel give us the Nazi Germany that you would believe it to be in our minds’ eye. Huge bannered swastikas, buildings of stone and steel, and brilliantly realized uniforms all craft this ultimate picture of this period in time, and not the war-torn ravaged Berlin you often see in movies about this era. All while giving you this gorgeous setting, Singer and company craft a nail biting story that mesmerizes you even as the ending of the film becomes more inevitable. No cute camera tricks or stylistic overload here; this is old school storytelling and editing, keeping you on the edge of your seat until the film’s final moments.

7.Iron Man - It’s hard to think of a way that the summer could have blasted off better than with Director John Favreau’s breakout picture. Leaving Marvel’s 2007 failures in the dust, Iron Man simply takes off and never looks back, riding the shoulders of Robert Downey Jr. to the finish with style and humor. From its incredible action set pieces to it’s very Thin Man-like comedy, the movie is simply a winner from top to bottom, giving us the fun that we’ve missed from Comic Book adventures for a while as they either got grimmer or campier in 2007. Iron Man showed us how to have a blast again with these pictures, without having to check our brains at the door.

6.Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - I know fandom is really split on this one, but there’s a simple emotion that this movie gives me that made me include it on this list; joy. Nostalgia is a tough thing to beat down if it’s really working right, and with me I felt that engine of it running on all cylinders for most of this picture, making me a 5 year-old again while I watched Indy punch those Commies in the face time and again. The biggest part of that feeling may have just been watching one of my heroes really do his thing at least one more time, as it’s been a long while since Harrison Ford has really been Harrison Ford up on the big screen. Instead of some aging has-been, Ford is full-on the Indiana Jones we’ve needed, and that’s a special thrill that no special effect could ever replicate onscreen.

5.Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Is Guillermo del Toro the only guy working in film today with this much imagination? I’m talking about the same imagination that used to give us scenes like the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars or films like Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. That’s the type of mad genius that seems to be running all the way through Hellboy II, as Director del Toro builds on everything that worked in the first movie and ditched everything that didn’t to give us an adventure halfway between the pulp of Indiana Jones and the fantasy of The Lord of the Rings. More so, he just gave us worlds that we’ve never seen before, as the movie’s “Troll Market” and finale sequences showed us incredible creativity and ingenuity on about half the budget of Hancock or The Incredible Hulk.

4.The Wrestler - As a lifelong Hulkamaniac, there’s this weird guilt that pops up when watching The Wrestler. Even though Mickey Rourke’s Randy “The Ram” Robinson is a fictional character, you can’t help but feel that he’s a real person, in part because of the baggage brought about by Rourke’s real life past, but also because of the documentary style used by Director Darren Aronofsky, which makes you feel like you’re watching a real life account of this once great star’s later years of tragedy. Like so many actual professional wrestlers, The Ram is just a broke has-been always looking for his one last shot at glory, or maybe just some personal redemption. Again, that guilt keeps coming around as Robinson lets his body fall victim to hardcore matches and drug use in order to keep us entertained, and somehow you can’t help but feel culpable in his fall from grace.

You really can’t say enough about Rouke’s performance here, as its raw intensity absolutely never seems to let up as the movie keeps rolling to its conclusion. There’s never a fake moment in this film, which is saying something considering this a movie telling a story about an industry that prides itself on its ability to create an illusion for its audience. Thankfully, Aronofsky lets this story make its own power. The director has always been heavy on style and flashiness in his previous works, but his style here is that all of that is absent. He simply tells this story and lets his amazing cast do their thing, and the result is one of the most heart-wrenching movies of the year.

3.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - There’s almost too much stuff going on in this movie to able to do it justice in just a few sentences. There’s just magic here. David Fincher is working at the top of his game, using all of the Hollywood wizardry at his disposal to create an movie that’s as personal as The Wrestler and as epic as Gone with the Wind. There’s been times when film makers have tried this type of film before, such as Big Fish and Forrest Gump, but Benjamin Button simply outshines them on every level.

I honestly can’t wait to see this movie again, and to take it all in, from the amazing nuanced performances from Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett to every minute detail of this magical world that Fincher has created. It just seems like nothing is impossible when you watch this film for the first time, and everything is so finely crafted that you can’t process it all on first viewing. This is big thinking, big budget Hollywood at its absolute best.

2.WALL•E - To say that it shocked me with just how good it is upon first viewing is an understatement when it comes to WALL•E. Coming from the most consistently entertaining studio in the world right now in PIXAR, you just expected WALL•E to be great, and it was…and then some. As a huge Incredibles fan, I would have thought it impossible to displace Brad Bird’s superhero awesomefest as my favorite film from the studio, but I was wholly wrong. Wrapping me up in its whimsy, messages, look, and amazing love story, WALL•E is near perfection and I have no doubt that soon it will be named a classic, not only of its various genres of Animation, Science Fiction and Romance, but of all films in general.

This is film making on its very highest level. From its opening dystopian minutes to humanity’s intergalactic triumph at film’s end, WALL•E simply never stops with its amazing sights and sounds, conveying storytelling and emotion that 99% of live action films never even come close to. This isn’t just a great animated film, WALL•E is a great film period.

1.The Dark Knight - You know when you watch a film and fall in love with it, and then after months of hype you watch it again somehow the movie just can’t hold up to your original opinion of it? Well with The Dark Knight that isn’t the case at all. After all of the hoopla and hullabaloo over it, you would think that there’s no way that this movie can be as good as you remember, and then you come to discover that somehow it’s even better. It would make it a lot easier to talk about it, if there was just one element of this movie that made it great above all others this year, but there just isn’t.

You could try to pinpoint Heath Ledger’s Joker for the movie’s success, but even great villains don’t work without a worthy adversary, and could you say that Christian Bale or Aaron Eckhart’s work in the picture wasn’t spot on as well? The Dark Knight is the culmination of a great director, writing team, cast, and crew all trying to make a movie that dared to defy the expectations for it, and then make something even better. There’s a pattern with Superhero and popular entertainment that leads a path right to up this movie’s creation, and that path may just lead up to this film being declared the film of the decade.

A sequel to a reboot of Comic book franchise shouldn’t be up for Best Picture consideration, but that’s exactly what’s happened here. Finally after several attempts, Hollywood got exactly why we’ve always loved Batman as much as we’ve loved any superhero that’s ever been created. As a movie, The Dark Knight also represents exactly what was so great about this year; a director with Independent film roots showing the same power at $180 million as he did with $1 million without having to water down his vision one bit. The Dark Knight is without question the movie of the year, and will a film that all others like it will be compared to from now on.

RBC will return after the New Year on it’s new day, Wednesday, as the Popcorn Junkies is undergoing a slight overhaul in its lineup.

–Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz, PJ Editor in Chief and Inside Pulse Associate Content Editor–

Speaking of death, I’m also turning 30 this week, and as usual my buddies took me out for a movie to celebrate. This year, my devotion to Garth Ennis’ run on The Punisher forced me to pick the new movie as my viewing selection, with visions of pouty Dolph Lungdren and Thomas Jane performances giving me as much trepidation as the movie’s bad reviews. Even so, I thought Punisher: War Zone was a ton of fun. Mind you, its not a “good” movie per se, but there’s tons of gore and Ray Stevenson is no question the best Frank Castle ever.

It’s just nice to watch a Punisher movie where the hero doesn’t pussyfoot around with goofy fake fire hydrants and stupid plans. He kills people, and likes doing it too. Like the best movies of Paul Verhoven, this is violence with reckless abandon, as Stevenson’s Punisher punches through heads (I’m not exaggerating) and turns bad guys into Pez dispensers. Hats off to Lionsgate for giving 2008 bookend bad asses with hardcore bloodletting, starting off with the return of Rambo and then finishing off the year with War Zone’s insanity.

With that, I bring you the rest of my favorite hired killers.

Here’s the list so far:

20. The Professor, played by Clive Owen - The Bourne Identity
19. Alex, played by William H. Macy - Panic
18. Terry Tsurugi, played by Sonny Chiba - The Streetfighter
17. Maguire, played by Jude Law - Road to Perdition
16. Hanada Goro, played by Jo Shishido - Branded to Kill
15. El Mariachi, played by Antonio Banderas - The Mariachi Trilogy
14. Jaws, played by Richard Kiel - The Spy Who Loved Me
13. The Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator
12. Red Grant, played by Robert Shaw - From Russia with Love
11. Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon - The Bourne Trilogy
10. Jules, played by Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction
9. Martin Q. Blank, played by John Cusack - Grosse Pointe Blank
8. Vincent, played by Tom Cruise - Collateral
7. Ghost Dog, played by Forest Whitaker - Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
6. The Bride, Played by Uma Thurman - Kill Bill

And without further ado, the final five…

5. Leon, played by Jean Reno - Leon: The Professional

“No women, no kids.”

There was a time when The Professional seemed to be the “in” bad ass Hitman movie. Luc Besson was kind of a hot director, and his visual operatic flourishes shine the brightest here in this tale of principled hired killer vs. mad dog cop. Of course, a lot of the reason people loved this movie was because of Gary Oldman’s awesome Stansfield, the rogue, murderous police officer who seems to destroy all in his path, which Oldman absolutely plays for the cheap seats. Upon further reflection though, it’s Reno’s quiet hitman who ends up being the rock for this movie.

This is a terrific example of an actor playing a character so unassuming, that when the Hyde portion of his personality comes out you can’t believe it. I love little character ticks, like Leon’s penchact for milk, and those goofy glasses and highwater pants that he wears that make him look more like a nerdy librarian than a hired killer. Reno even kind of gives him a weird little shuffle step that makes him look meek and helps to keep this distance from others.

Then again, even when pushed against the wall, Reno keeps the character as low key as possible. Leon says little and never moves without purpose, but when he is on screen you can’t take your eyes off of him. He kills with efficiency rather than brutality, which makes him a fascinating character to watch. As he passes his skills off to little Mathilda (Natalie Portman), you feel like it’s the only real connection he’s ever had with another person. Then again, it probably is, because everyone else he’s ever met has ended up dead.

4. Ogami Itto, played by Tomisaburo Wakayama - The Lone Wolf and Cub (AKA: Shogun Assassin Series)

“They shall pay. With rivers of blood!”

In Writer Kazuo Koike and the Artist Goseki Kojima original Lone Wolf and Cub Manga series they had a vision for Ogami Itto as a dashing Samurai who was an unparalleled killer. Itto is the Shogun’s personal executioner who is betrayed and sent on the run by the very Government he served, and along with his son forms the assassination team from the title of the book While Itto has been played several times on screen, even kind of by Tom Hanks in one instance, and by much more handsome men, it is Tomisaburo Wakayama’s stone-faced killer that is the definitive version of this character for the screen.

The tagline for the original release of Shogun Assassin read “Meet the greatest team in the history of mass slaughter!” and you know what…they earn it! Wakayama’s Itto and his son Diagoro are nearly unstoppable onscreen, wiping out scores of ninjas and contracted targets by the dozen. Try not to howl with excitement as Itto cuts off limbs and splits heads in half with lightning speed, all while seemingly not even breaking a sweat. If there are Kill Bill fans that dug watching the Bride slaughter the Crazy 88 with blood geysers galore, then check this entire series out immediately!

3. Jef Costello, played by Alan Delon - Le Samouraï

“I never lose. Never really.”

When talking about hitmen, there are few things that are better than watching a killer who is just so damn cool, and let me tell you, they don’t get much cooler that Alan Delon’s Jef Costello. Sure, he’s an awesome killer who is incredibly precise, pulling off nearly the perfect kill each time out, but even if Jef were just going to plan out the perfect sandwich instead of the perfect hit, he’d still be mesmerizing on screen, just because of Delon’s slow burn. Honestly, you’d swear Delon probably says four words the entire running time of this movie, and you wouldn’t be far off, because Jef is the type of guy that doesn’t need to say anything to get his point across.

Delon’s Costello is a killer cut out of a classic mold. He’s like a cat that is silent until he finally strikes, not even revealing himself to the audience at times unless you look very closely. Its this coolness that makes him such an amazing killer, and its what earns him this spot on this list.

2. Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men

“Call it…”

It’s not often that you get to come across a character as stunning as Anton Chigurh. There’s the moment in No Country when Woody Harrelson’s Carson Welles is asked how dangerous Chigurh is and he responds “Compared to what? The bubonic plague?” Well, this is about an apt description of Javier Bardem’s character as you could get. He’s more like a force of nature than he is a hitman. There’s simply no stopping him, whether its squads of gangsters or other hired killers or the film’s “heroes” you just kind of know that there’s no way that Chigurh is going to be stopped in the end.

The character is so overwhelming that the entire point of the movie is about him simply overtaking the life of Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Ed Tom Bell to the point where Bell has to quit being a lawman entirely. Like Hannibal Lector, Chigurh is just going to go down as one of those immortal characters who become part of the cinematic landscape, and like they say in the movie itself, “You can’t stop what’s coming.” There’s no stopping Chigurh either.

1. Ah Jong, played by Chow Yun Fat - The Killer

“I always leave one bullet, either for myself or for my enemy.”

It’s hard to really decide how to pick a #1 when it comes to a list like this. All of these killers are exceptional at what they do, whether they like it or not. They kill by the hundreds and do it with style. What you want to do, is choose the one that completely distills all of your criteria at once. Cool as a cumber? Check. Says more with his actions that he does with his words? Check. An unstoppable killing machine who destroys all he sets his sights on? Check!

It’s just hard to picture any screen killer other than Chow Yun Fat’s Ah Jong being at the top of this list for me. John Woo’s leading man has as much screen charisma as I’ve seen on screen in the last two decades, and this is one of his finest performances, infusing this hitman with as much humanity as I’ve ever seen as he blows away scumbags by the hundreds. With his double fisted .45’s going, there’s just no stopping him, as gangster after gangster finds out.

This is the assassin that nearly every screen killer has tried to emulate since this movie’s release, (look at Timothy Oliphant from Hitman as an example) but none has come close to really matching Ah Jong’s coolness, humanity or ferocity. This is a screen actor in one of his signature roles, and a director at the top of his game for an explosive mix that’s hard to replicate. The Killer is as good as it gets in this category, and Chow Yun Fat is the assassin at its center.

Honestly, it just feels so good to have a supremely bad ass movie in theaters right now. Sure, the summer was pretty great on this front, with a ton of ass kickers showing their stuff during the blockbuster season, but since then the trail has gone cold again. Nicolas Cage, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Mark Wahlberg all disappointed with gun-toting performances that seemed to put us to sleep more than they thrilled us. Max Payne was so bad that it rivaled The Happening for the worst film I’ve seen all year, only he didn’t talk to any plants this time out.

Hopefully, the year is going to end strong through. Quantum of Solace has gotten the ball rolling, and hopefully this Twilight fad will be over with kind of quickly. We’ve still got Transporter 3 coming out this coming week, Valkyrie may still surprise us with how good it can be, and Clint Eastwood’s final screen performance in Gran Torino promises at least one good beat down from one of the greatest, if not the greatest, screen bad asses of all time. Still, even on top of that we’ve got longshots in Punisher: War Zone, which will at least be super brutal, The Spirit, which could be a train wreck, and David Fincher looks to have a really elegant movie up his sleeves with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and it even re-teams him with his star from Seven and Fight Club to finish the year out.

Even if none of these work out though, its still been a pretty decent year on the action movie front. Our boys John J. Rambo, Indiana Jones, Batman, The Incredible Hulk, and James Bond all made appearances, in theaters and made bad guys wish they’d never even been born. We’ve even gotten some new blood out there like the cast of Wanted and Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark. So yeah, its been a fun year for me, and I can’t wait to put together my “Bad Asses of the Year” list really soon. In fact, if you’ve got your own nominations for the list, let me know and I’ll see if they’re up for consideration.

If nothing else, Bond is in theaters right now, and few times ever has he been more of a killing machine.

Quantum of Solace Starring Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, and Giancarlo Giannini. Directed by Marc Forster.

As I said last week, most of the reason I like this movie is because of Craig’s Bond. He’s a wrecking ball, taking down bad guys with the precision of a Louisville Slugger. There’s a moment early on when he just wants to question a bad guy, and gets attacked, and instead of subduing the man, he throws him through a glass door and ends up killing the man brutally. What really punctuates the scene though isn’t a one-liner or a smirk though, it’s the fact that Bond sits there as the man dies and holds his arm, watching him as the lights go out. It’s a crazy scene that gives you another moment of Craig’s Bond being no-nonsense when it comes to the violence that’s inherent in his life. Taking life doesn’t preclude a pithy comeback, and that’s the biggest difference with this 007.

I think that really goes back to the Fleming character quite a bit. His Bond was moody and reflective at times, which through the first 20 films we never really got that much. You’d get little moments from Moore or Dalton every so often, but it would just be a footnote to the giant body counts. Here, with the staging of some of Marc Forster’s scenes, such as the end of the boat chase or after the climactic finale, we’re shown a 007 that doesn’t seem to take death lightly.

That’s not to say that Craig’s Bond is all business. Like I said last week, I love the scene where 007 seems to steamroll Agent Fields into doing what he wants to do. More so, I love how defiant Bond is when confronting a villain or Judi Dench’s M. He’s just such an overwhelming presence that not even Dench seems to be a match for his wits and forceful nature. It’s that sheer force of will that seems to make Craig so much fun to watch.

Having less fun is Olga Kurylenko as Camille, who doesn’t have time for love or amusement because she’s out for revenge. Her performance is actually a lot like Carole Bouquet’s Melina Havelock from From Your Eyes Only and she carries herself really well throughout this picture. There’s something very unglamorous about her, which I kind of found refreshing, and besides, Bond is supposed to be so driven and hurt after the events of the previous film that he doesn’t have much time for love here anyway. At any rate, I wouldn’t mind seeing this character again at some point in Craig’s tenure. I feel like there’s some really great moments between the two of them, especially near the film’s closing and I wouldn’t mind seeing them together when there aren’t nearly as many explosions around.

I really think this movie comes down to what you really want out of a Bond movie. Do you prefer Moonraker or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service? If it’s the latter you prefer, then this movie might still be for you, and for the others, there’s still a lot of Bond-isms. I especially love the update of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. with Quantum, the new villainous organization that will hopefully run through at least the next few of these movies. I’ve been saying for years that its been time to bring a S.P.E.C.T.R.E.-like organization back and I couldn’t be happier that its finally happened, and not only that, they seem to have a terrific cast of villains.

I’m absolutely loving Jesper Christensen as Mr. White, the deliciously smarmy guy who Bond captured at the end of the last picture. If he gets screen time in the next say, four 007 movies at least, I‘ll be perfectly happy. We’re growing so accustomed to hating him, he could end up a terrific nemesis for Bond if they let him be, and its been so long since there‘s been a Blofeld-type villain for Bond to pursue. Just let him work behind the scenes and then let Bond finally have his showdown. Wait, and it could be an amazing pay off for this series in a way that it hasn’t had since You Only Live Twice.

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. though, always had a villain for Bond to tangle with while Blofeld did his dirty work. This time out Quantum gives us Dominic Greene, played with a sly charm by Mathieu Amalric. I think Amalric really looks the part, and there’s something about a heavy with a thick foreign accent who really knows how to say “Mr. Bond…”, but he doesn’t really have the menace of someone like Adolfo Celi’s Emilio Largo or even Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre from the last picture. Now, I’m of the opinion that Bond Villains don’t necessarily have to have a deformity, especially in these new pictures, and I do like how Amalric handles himself when 007 isn’t in the room, but he’s simply outclassed by Bond, which is too bad. We’ve got to feel like there’s some chance the villain has of winning, and overall I don’t ever feel like that in this picture.

Still, there’s a lot more here to be admired. Too little attention has been paid to Giancarlo Giannini’s Mathis in this picture, who gives one of the best performances in this movie, and maybe one of the best in any Bond picture, even with the small amount of screen time he’s given. (Note: the rest of this paragraph is pretty spoilerish) There’s a real kinship with Bond, despite how things ended up in the last picture. Their scenes together have a genuine sadness, bringing out real reflection in 007, especially in Mathis’ last scene together with Bond, which is one of the most emotional scenes ever in any 007 picture.

All of this character work is a testament as to why Marc Forster was hired to do this picture, and its too bad that all most people will remember from the picture is that he used this rough editing style to hide that he’s a bit of a novice when it comes to action. He even does some clever staging, as I love the final showdown in the remote hotel, which is a nice meld of the modern and more fantastic motifs of this series. This picture tries to have it both ways at times, and while its not as successful as Casino Royale, I think it gets it right here. Just look at the last fight with Greene and Bond on a catwalk while a giant explosion consumes the hotel around them. If that’s not Bond, then I don’t know what is.

Quantum of Solace isn’t the best of the 007 series and isn’t a masterpiece like Casino Royale, but it’s a solid picture that outclasses any Action film since the end of the summer. With Action stars like Mark Wahlberg and Nic Cage stinking up the joint recently, this Bond is a breath of fresh ass kicking air. Hopefully, this isn’t the last bad ass that’s worth anything this year.

There’s just something that feels right about the leaves turning colors, the weather getting a little colder, everybody talking about getting together and eating turkeys, and watching James Bond blowing stuff up but good. Seriously, as much as I love seeing family around this time of year, I’m usually the unsocial bastard who ends up sitting in the living room with the TV on taking advantage of some relatives’ 500 HD channels. And you know what I usually end up on? More than likely, I have an almost Pavlovian response to the inevitable 24 hour marathon of James Bond movies on those days, which usually ends up with me explaining who the heck George Lazenby is.

Then again, it’s seems quite fitting to watch those films around the holidays. In a lot of ways seeing Bond, M, Moneypenny, and Q is like seeing members of your own family every year, only their stories are more exciting and their not judgmental. Seriously though, seeing those movies is fun because of the familiarity they bring. Every time we get a one liner or Q yells at 007 for messing with one of his gadgets, you get that warm feeling of nostalgia that few series have hung on to with such ferocity over the years.

I think it’s with that warm feeling in mind, that a lot of people have seemingly turned their backs a bit on Quantum of Solace. Sure, the movie did monster business over the weekend, but I do wonder if it will keep up, especially with Twilight premiering this weekend. Also, the critical reception has been less than warm for Bond’s new outing, with many critics voicing a similar sentiment of missing the extravagance of the past 007 adventures which has been replaced by a hard hitting style in the new entry. Well, like it or not, this new Bond seems to be here to stay for the time being, at least until the series feels the need for that same warm feeling of nostalgia back.

Quantum of Solace Starring Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, and Giancarlo Giannini. Directed by Marc Forster.

I’m a little torn myself to be honest when it comes to this new Bond. While I can see the point of taking the series into the 21st century and showing 007 can mix it up action-wise with the best of the modern series like Bourne or whoever, there’s always going to be a part of me that relishes the hollowed out volcanoes, invisible cars, and the Pussy Galores of the series. I think Bond has got to be Bond, and when I went into this new movie after hearing all the reviews, I was probably as frightened of seeing the new movie as I’ve ever been before seeing a 007 movie in the theater, and mostly because I didn’t want the series to lose all those familiar parts of itself.

I mean, I think a lot of those elements are part of the reason why Casino Royale worked so well as a movie. Seeming to put those childish elements away, Bond’s last time out still presented us with classic 007 fixtures like gadgets, and the opening gun barrel, it just did them in a clever way. What might be the big problem with Quantum of Solace, is that a lot of those things are still there, they’re just hidden under another layer of crazy action, and a lot of the things that seem like heavy departures really aren’t all that different from what has come before.

I think what people are lashing out against the most with this movie is its editing, and I can kind of see the point with that. I tell ya, I love Saving Private Ryan. It’s battle scenes were awesome and shaky-cam gave us action scenes in a way that I’ve never seen before, but then directors and editors seemed to realize you could use the heavy style and crazy editing to give us what we think is R-rated action at a PG-13 rating because we don’t actually see any of the violence. Well, I absolutely hate that. Yes, I like the Bourne films a lot, but really it’s the only series where that sort of film making actually works.

Most of the time, it makes for a frustrating time at the movies, and unfortunately, that’s the case a lot of times here. I mean, I know that this series has always kind of borrowed from whatever is popular at the time. During the Connery years, the Bond series was actually in the lead and everyone else copied it, so it just kept getting bigger and bigger with each new movie until You Only Live Twice when the ceiling finally burst. Then in the 70’s exploitation movies were big, so we got Live and Let Die, and Bond fought redneck sheriffs and gangsters from Harlem. Martial Arts movies then hit with audiences, so The Man with the Golden Gun has a very Asian feel to it, complete with Martial Arts schools. The Spy Who Loved Me was huge, but then Star Wars was bigger, so audiences got Bond in space with Moonraker. In the 80’s people loved Joel Silver’s R-rated Cop heroes, so in License to Kill, 007 was after drug dealers in his most violent movie yet.

So now we’re at Quantum of Solace and the Bourne franchise is king these days in the Action realm. Unfortunately, imitating some of Bourne‘s action seems to have caused Quantum to lose what makes a Bond action sequence a Bond action sequence. I mean, the first car chase is pretty cool (when you can make out what’s going on), but it seems to be a little short, and that’s never ever been a problem before with this series. The worst offender of the movie is a boat chase in which 007 saves Olga Kurylenko’s Camille, which has a conclusion to it, which is trying to get across this type of agony that Bond has just taken out on his enemies, but on the other hand I’m still not even 100% sure what he did to defeat his enemies.

This frustrates me all the more because with Casino Royale’s action sequences you managed to get a grittier Bond flick at times with real emotions and brutal fight scenes, but you could always see what was going on. Because of its clear cut style and wonderful use of cinematography, everything felt a little more modern and grittier, but it always still felt like a 007 film in the classic sense. Plus, you still got loads of the glamour and glitz you expect with one of these movies without ever becoming ridiculous.

Still, I think these problems are very minor ones overall with Quantum of Solace. Overall, I think the movie is completely kick ass and any fan of the series should get out there and support this one, if for one reason alone; his name is Daniel Craig. Wow, this guy is a monster. His take on Bond is at once like nothing we’ve seen before and yet still familiar. Talking with my girlfriend, who has watched all of these movies with me before, she personally thinks that Craig is the combination of all the previous 007’s before him, combining Connery’s swagger, Lazenby’s emotional quotient, Moore’s stylishness, Dalton’s ferocity, and Brosnan’s physicality. The guy just knows how to be James Bond.

You completely buy him, no matter what he’s able to do, whether taking down a bad guy, ripping off a door handle, or cleverly seducing a woman. The man just simply owns the role, and I know that some day he won’t be Bond anymore, and I already feel sorry for whomever it is that’s going to have to fill his tuxedo. There’s a generational thing with the Bond movies to some degree, where your affections often lie with the Bond that you grew up watching, hence my love for the Roger Moore movies, but this generation’s
Bond will definitely be this guy. This is the dude 20 years from now where the kids growing up today will be like “This new guy isn’t Bond, Daniel Craig is the real Bond”.

Now admittedly, I do wish he got to play a little more. I wish there was a card game in this movie somewhere and he got to flirt with at least a Moneypenny-type character, but he still cuts loose a little when he’s not cutting throats. There’s a female character named Fields (Gemma Arterton), who is another British Intelligence Agent, with strawberry hair (get it?) who absolutely is a classic Bond Girl. She’s initially cold and all business, but ends up giving in to 007’s charms. I love nearly every scene they’re in together because the interplay between them is devilishly clever and Craig gets his funniest moment as Bond in either of his films.

Alright, I’m going to stop here, because I’ve got plenty of stuff left to write about with this one, and I think I’m going to let it stew for another week. I’m probably going to be checking it out again this weekend anyway and I can’t wait to see how the picture changes in my mind after my initial impression. Honestly people, Bond is back, and we should be happy regardless. Maybe this isn’t the Bond you’ve always known, but there’s still a lot here to love.

Before I finally get to this portion of this list though, lets get some Bond out of the way. This coming weekend marks the release of Quantum of Solace, the 22nd official James Bond film and in preparation, some of you out there might be marking the occasion with marathons of 007 awesomeness. That’s at least what I’m doing this week. Considering there are 21 films to get through though, and you may have trouble deciding which films to watch, here are just a few suggestions as to the movies that I’d try to get through before week’s end and try to get you into the right mindset…

1. Casino Royale - This is a pretty obvious one. For really the first time in its history, the Bond series is trying some good, old fashioned continuity, and the events of Casino Royale apparently pick up straight into this new 007 adventure. Also, it might be nice to remind yourself just how awesome Daniel Craig is as Ian Fleming’s unforgettable hero, and also how easy it would be to fall in love with Eva Green.

2. Thunderball - Bond takes on S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in this epic adventure with the proceedings getting too ridiculous. This is a hardcore Connery with the actor at his swaggering best and the women in this one are both vicious and delicious. Come for the incredible undersea battle that finishes the picture, stay for Connery at his most bad ass.

3. License to Kill - Well, I usually don’t recommend Timothy Dalton Bond pictures, but seeing as how Quantum of Solace is a Revenge movie of sorts, the themes of this picture seem to match those of the new film somewhat. Here Bond is tracking down some drug smugglers who tried to take out his CIA contact and friend Felix Leiter. Sure Dalton is the worst of the 007’s, and there’s something about him here that makes him look older than he even looked in last year’s Hot Fuzz, but this one still has some entertainment value if you’re just looking for Bond to be really mean, and get down and dirty as he’s taking out the bad guys.

4. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Bond at the most human that he ever was in this series. Sure, most people forget about George Lazenby’s one time as 007, but this one has really aged as well as any of the other Bond films have over the years. In fact, Bond has to be so believably human in this movie and has to convey so much emotion that I wonder if Connery’s forceful Bond would even fit this movie in the end. All in all, this one is the most underrated Bond of them all.

5. For Your Eyes Only - Roger Moore’s films were usually less about subtlety and more about how ridiculously entertaining his movie’s could be. Fortunately, after Moonraker, the Bond producers decided that they couldn’t top 007’s space adventure and decided instead to try and bring him down to Earth. The way they did it was to strip away his gadgets and put Moore in a hardcore Spy adventure where the Russians try desperately to get their hands on some English Intelligence equipment. The result is a rock solid Moore entry with the most bad ass moment of his entire run; cold bloodedly kicking over a car teetering off the side of a cliff, bad guy wishing he’d taken the day off.

6. Die Another Day - Alright, so the end of this one is pretty over the top, with invisible cars and fortresses of ice, but what I really like about Die Another Day is that this 20th Bond Adventure was like a celebration of 007, starting out like a low-key Bond film, ala From Russia with Love or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and then ending huge like Moonraker or You Only Live Twice. Brosnan to me was always like a combination of Connery and Moore, and here he gets to show off his stuff like never before.

7. From Russia with Love - Connery’s best acting performance as Bond, with 007 having to face off against a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. plot without the army behind him, but instead having to rely solely on his wits and gusto.

8. Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me - I’m recommending these two Bond pictures simply because they are as awesome as 007 gets on screen. Seriously, these two are near perfection and are as fun to watch as any pop masterpieces ever committed to celluloid.

Alright, now that’s a pretty decent lineup for those getting ready for some Bond goodness at the end of the week. Lets hope the movie is even half as awesome as Casino Royale, and we should be ok.

Now back to the hitlist, and here’s what we’ve got so far.

20. The Professor, played by Clive Owen - The Bourne Identity
19. Alex, played by William H. Macy - Panic
18. Terry Tsurugi, played by Sonny Chiba - The Streetfighter
17. Maguire, played by Jude Law - Road to Perdition
16. Hanada Goro, played by Jo Shishido - Branded to Kill
15. El Mariachi, played by Antonio Banderas - The Mariachi Trilogy
14. Jaws, played by Richard Kiel - The Spy Who Loved Me
13. The Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator
12. Red Grant, played by Robert Shaw - From Russia with Love
11. Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon - The Bourne Trilogy
10. Jules, played by Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction
9. Martin Q. Blank, played by John Cusack - Grosse Pointe Blank
8. Vincent, played by Tom Cruise - Collateral

And without further ado,

7. Ghost Dog, played by Forest Whitaker - Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai

“The Way of the Samurai is found in death. Meditation on inevitable death should be performed daily. Every day, when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles, spears, and swords, being carried away by surging waves, being thrown into the midst of a great fire, being struck by lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake, falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And every day, without fail, one should consider himself as dead. This is the substance of the Way of the Samurai.”

There have been many instances of hitmen on screen who have taken to the Samurai code to find their inspiration (a few of them have appeared on this list and are still yet to come), but few have taken this mantra as literally as Ghost Dog does in this movie. Though he didn’t win many accolades, this is my favorite Whitaker performance, a totally self sufficient bad ass; part Samurai, part Terry Malloy from On the Waterfront, and all dedicated to the will of the Mafioso who once saved his life. This is a quirky flick from Jim Jarmusch (big surprise), but there’s a real heart here, and we get to see the film maker tell this story as if he were looking at the Samurai pictures of 1960’s and 70’s much in the same way that Tarantino does with Kill Bill, just through a lens that’s more geared toward an urban setting.

6. The Bride, Played by Uma Thurman - Kill Bill

“Looked dead, didn’t I? But I wasn’t. But it wasn’t from lack of trying, I can tell you that. Actually, Bill’s last bullet put me in a coma - A coma I was to lie in for four years. When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a ‘roaring rampage of revenge.’ I roared. And I rampaged. And I got bloody satisfaction. I’ve killed a hell of a lot of people to get to this point, but I have only one more. The last one. The one I’m driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I am gonna kill Bill.”

Remember last week when I said that performer benefited more form Quentin Tarantino’s scripts than Samuel L. Jackson? Well, if there’s a second place finisher, I’d say its probably Uma Thurman. In fact, unlike Jackson, who’s been in some pretty high profile hits and had some pretty memorable performances outside of QT’s universe, Uma’s filmography can be downright miserable when you get outside of her Tarantino work. Batman and Robin or Be Cool anyone?

Still, no matter what she does from now on, she’ll always have this film under her belt. What I‘d like see is a Kill Bill prequel, where we get to see the D.I.V.A.S. killing fools on Bill’s orders, because just getting to watch the Bride kick ass like she does in these movies, you know a team of these bad asses would be awesome to watch. As for the Bride herself, to sort of borrow a line from J.T. Walsh in Blade Runner, she’s a goddamned one-woman slaughterhouse, taking out other super assassins as she wills to do so, usually in spectacular fashion, such as a one on 88 sword fight, or by making it more personal, like using the five point palm-exploding heart technique.

Aside from the bad-assery too, is a nuanced performance from Thurman who gives us equal parts cold-blooded killer and meditative scorned lover and mother. This is one of the best female turns of the decade and the best kick ass one since Sigourney Weaver in Aliens. In fact the Bride is so awesome, that you actually forget at times that she is a woman, she’s just killer and one that you can’t help but get behind.

Alright, while I plan on finally finishing the list next week, there is a Bond film coming out, so who knows. At any rate, see you next week.

But, I do on occasion have a penchant for some tenacity, and so this week we’re finally getting back to the list, and we’ll just try to play this by ear. Maybe we’ll end up having to get back to this list once a month or something, but who knows? At any rate, with Halloween behind us and some bad ass killers on the way, like Bond and Tom Cruise in Valkyrie, it seems like the right time to keep on with this particular list.

So, so far on the we’ve had,

20. The Professor, played by Clive Owen - The Bourne Identity
19. Alex, played by William H. Macy - Panic
18. Terry Tsurugi, played by Sonny Chiba - The Streetfighter
17. Maguire, played by Jude Law - Road to Perdition
16. Hanada Goro, played by Jo Shishido - Branded to Kill
15. El Mariachi, played by Antonio Banderas - The Mariachi Trilogy
14. Jaws, played by Richard Kiel - The Spy Who Loved Me
13. The Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator

And without further ado…

12. Red Grant, played by Robert Shaw - From Russia with Love

“The first one won’t kill you; not the second, not even the third… not till you crawl over here and you KISS MY FOOT!”

Robert Shaw’s Red Grant may actually be the most underrated of all of Bond’s villains. It’s funny, because when you watch From Russia with Love, you’re absolutely transfixed with him as a bad guy. The problem is, when you’re thinking about Bond Villains as a whole for the series, I feel like Grant kind of gets lost in the shuffle because the series’ over the top villains, such as Jaws and Oddjob. It’s too bad, because seemingly everywhere he goes in his 007 appearance, Shaw’s Grant leaves a wake of death and destruction. It’s scary really when you think about Grant’s death toll in this movie, as no one on either side of the Cold War seems safe from his wrath.

Despite his stature not really matching up with Connery’s, he’s completely imposing when the two meet up also. You’ve seen Grant dispatch so many victims up to this point, that it seems wholly plausible that he could take out Bond here, and the two have what is probably the best fight of the entire series. Shaw’s best work though, is throughout the early portions of the movie, as Grant shadows Bond through Istanbul, killing all in his path without saying a single word.

11. Jason Bourne, played by Matt Damon - The Bourne Trilogy

“She wouldn’t want me to… That’s the only reason you’re alive.”

I think that if I was just doing a list of Action heroes, especially modern ones, I think that Jason Bourne might actually be a little higher on this list. Here’s the thing, by the time we actually get to meet Jason Bourne, he’s a former assassin, instead an actual hitman. That’s not to say that he’s not completely awesome at killing folks, he just has to be put against the wall to do so. I still felt like he needed to be included though, because he really is a supremely bad ass efficient killer. Apparently no amount of bad guys, security or government funds can actually stop Jason Bourne from doing exactly what he wants to do whenever he wants to do it, and at the end of the series, we get someone that’s too human to get higher on this list, but someone so bad ass I couldn’t completely keep him off either.

10. Jules, played by Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction

“There’s a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.

I been sayin’ that sh** for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherf***** before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some sh** this mornin’ made me think twice. Now I’m thinkin’: it could mean you’re the evil man. And I’m the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here, he’s the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you’re the righteous man and I’m the shepherd and it’s the world that’s evil and selfish. I’d like that. But that sh** ain’t the truth. The truth is you’re the weak. And I’m the tyranny of evil men. But I’m tryin’, Ringo. I’m tryin’ real hard to be a shepherd”

Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules may actually be the most often quoted killer in the history of cinema. Thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s brilliant, movie-changing script, characters such as Jules, Vincent, Butch and Marcellus Wallace are all pop culture icons now, and Jackson’s Jules may just be the most iconic of the whole bunch. I think despite John Travolta’s Oscar Nomination, its really Jules that people remember more than any other character from the movie, probably because Tarantino gives him the best lines in the entire flick, and would continue to do so for Jackson in QT’s Pulp Fiction follow-up, Jackie Brown as well.

Seriously, no one probably benefits more from a Tarantino script more than Samuel L. Jackson does, and the actor plays it up completely to the hilt here. We’ve seen hitmen have crisis of faith before, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one be more philosophical about it. Sure, at first its all just stuff he says to be cool before smokes some fool, but when we actually see Jules start to believe in miracles and doubt his life path, we get drawn deeper and deeper into this movie, and it never really lets go.

9. Martin Q. Blank, played by John Cusack - Grosse Pointe Blank

“Oh, the reason I called… Could you find out who else is in town? I’ve made two spooks and a ghoul already, so if they’ve double-booked the job, and/or they’re going to kill me, I’d like to know. If you could find that out, that’d be great.”

Speaking of crisis of faith, what we’ve got here is the standard issue, awesome John Cusack down on his luck and love character, he just so happens to be a hitman. We get to see Blank do his thing early on, and it doesn’t go as well as he’d like, mostly because he’s starting to doubt his occupation and grow a conscience. At the behest of his secretary and his psychiatrist, he goes back to his home town to attend his high school reunion, work some things out emotionally, and also try and fulfill a job while he’s at it. All conscience problems aside though, when the chips are down and another killer comes after Blank and his new love interest, we get to see probably the most bad ass side of John Cusack ever to be onscreen. Well, except maybe the Tim Robbins killer in High Fidelity.

8. Vincent, played by Tom Cruise - Collateral

“Okay, look, here’s the deal. Man, you were gonna drive me around tonight, never be the wiser, but El Gordo got in front of a window, did his high dive, we’re into Plan B. Still breathing? Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, sh** happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.”

Yes, Tom Cruise is crazy, but other than last year’s Lions for Lambs, the man has been the most consistently entertaining mega star of the last decade. The guy has absolutely been on fire, and one of the best roles he’s had is professional killer, Vincent in Michael Mann‘s Collateral. The man is supremely efficient, even changing his plans on the fly and never missing his intended target, whether its on the run or in a crowded nightclub. It helps that Mann puts him in sequences that absolutely make him look like a juggernaut when it comes to taking down dudes, whether he’s breaking the necks of hoods or shooting muggers, two in the heart, one in the head. Despite being a soldier, a samurai, and secret agent, Cruise has maybe never looked this bad ass, and maybe never will again.

See you guys next week with our finale…

Before I go on with the rest of the lineup I got to this month, I’d first like to talk a little bit about watching Halloween this year. I’ve recently switched to Blu-ray, and I haven’t gone totally crazy or anything, but I have tried to pick up a few discs that I thought I would probably watch over and over, things like Superman and Terminator 2. Knowing that Carpenter’s premiere Slasher is an annual tradition in the Sutton household, I went ahead and picked it up on BD, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.

I’ve actually owned several different versions of Halloween over the years. I remember the first ever Halloween party that I and my girlfriend threw a few years back and I ended up buying the movie on VHS. Since then I think I’ve seen every version of the movie that Anchor Bay has ever put on DVD and still own the initial release on the format, but this new Blu-ray of the film absolutely blows every other version of this movie away. First of all, I can’t imagine the film has ever looked better, and that includes its initial release in theaters. The image is spectacular, and even better is the sound. The thunderstorm that Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) is driving through at the beginning of the film seems to absolutely surround you. I couldn’t believe that I could actually hear and understand the conversation between Michael’s ill-fated sister and her boyfriend at the very beginning of the movie, and Carpenter’s original score has never been more chilling.

This is really the amazing thing about Blu-ray; while I’ve loved DVD from its inception, the amount of clarity and detail on BD is absolutely insane. It’s like watching these movies for the first time. While you might not notice the real difference for some newer movies, because this will be the first time you watch them in your home, checking out movies that you’ve seen a thousand times on TV and home video in various formats over the years can become a very a rewarding experience in High Definition. Now, let’s bring on Suspiria in Blu-ray!

At any rate, I’ve had a pretty full slate on Horror flicks in the last month, especially with Friday the 13th flicks this year, so here‘s a look at the ones I got to this year. Now, these will be spoilerish in some areas, so you’ve been warned ahead of time.

Friday the 13th Part 2 Starring Amy Steel, John Furey, Adrienne King, Kirsten Baker, Stuart Charno, Warrington Gillette. Directed by Steve Miner.

While Friday the 13th is known as the best film of the series and is really solid overall, I don’t think that Part 2 gets enough love. Overall, this entry is really just as important both to the series and to Horror films in general. It’s also just as solid in its scares and just as much fun overall.

The best reason to see the movie is that it introduces Jason Voorhees (Warrington Gillette) as the “all grown up” killer that would henceforth be the slayer of sexually promiscuous, pot smoking teens. He doesn’t have the hockey mask yet (just a burlap sack), but I really like this portrayal of Voorhees. The zombie Jason of the later Friday the 13th sequels, played by Kane Hodder and others, is formidable and really unstoppable, but this portrayal can be just as fun and to some degree just as frightening because he seems more “real”. Even the burlap sack works because its has this sort of backwoods, Texas Chainsaw-quality to the costume.

The movie was also able to really establish the template for Horror movie sequels. While released the same year as Halloween II, the Friday the 13th follow-up is a little more consistent that works a little better overall because it really seems to know its audience. First is the practice of killing off the previous film’s final girl, which is really too bad, because Adrienne King again shows how good she is in this series. Upping the body count and the sexuality from the first movie, the film plays like a Slasher sequel should play, and was good enough to get another sequel, which upped the ante in several ways. It simply does its thing and is a lot more fun than some of the ones that came after this one.

Friday the 13th Part III Starring Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka, Nick Savage, Rachel Howard, David Katims, Larry Zerner, Tracie Savage, Jeffrey Rogers Richard Brooker. Directed by Steve Miner.

Part III is the series at both its worst and its cheesy best. To be honest, this is the series entry that I like to watch most, and why is that? Because initially the movie was shot in 3-D, so its filled every few seconds with ridiculous shots of people throwing stuff or poking objects into camera, and this includes Jason killing people with harpoons and squeezing a dude so hard his eye pops out. Thing is, you can’t get the 3-D version of the movie on DVD, so all you’re left with is a movie that just has characters doing absolutely ridiculous things for no reason whatsoever. Now, if this bothers you, I’d avoid this movie at all costs. Then again, if you’ve got friends over and want to watch a truly “bad” Horror movie, then this definitely fit’s the bill.

Seriously, this one has some ridiculous kills and ridiculous characters to go along with them. There’s the grind house-style biker gang which gets decimated by Voorhees, but not before being completely embarrassed by the movie’s super bitch and goofy nerd. There’s a guy whose gimmick is that he loves doing handstands (guess how he dies), the aforementioned nerd who loves to pretend he’s been killed with the use of some effects (guess why people don’t try to help him after his throat has been slashed), and then there’s a character so like Tommie Chong, that the famous comedian could probably sue this movie for likeness rights. All in all, this Friday is super fun and super goofy at the same time.

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning Starring Anthony Barrile, Suzanne Bateman, Dominick Brascia, Todd Bryant, Curtis Conaway, Juliette Cummins. Directed by Danny Steinmann.

Now Part V is infamously known as the worst of the Friday the 13th movies. The confusing part of that, is that A New Beginning is actually one of the funniest, most ridiculous, most violent, most nudity filled entry of the entire series, which actually makes it one of the best ones on those levels. In fact, the movie had to be submitted to the MPAA nine different times before actually getting an “R” rating because of those exploitable elements. Apparently 16 different scenes had to be cut. (Writer’s note: I’d love to see this original version, and if you know where to get a copy, let me know.)

Here’s the big problem with the movie, and the reason why this one is shunned by the fans of the series (and we got more spoilers here). After the events of Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter(?), where Jason faces off with Corey Feldman and loses, Feldman’s character Tommy, now played by karate fighting John Shepherd, goes to a psychiatric facility that’s like a farm where patients can work out their problems by growing plants and tending the earth. Well, when a dude in a hockey mask starts killing the other patients at the farm, the local rednecks, and any famous pop stars that just happen to be in the neighborhood using outhouses, you assume its Jason Voorhees rising from the grave. You’d be wrong.

The culprit is actually an EMT who loses his cool after his son, another patient at the facility, is hacked to pieces by one of the patients early on in the film. Distraught and seeking revenge on the farm’s staff, he starts his hockey mask rampage. At the end of the film, a mentally broken Tommy puts on the mask himself and seemingly starts his own rampage, an ending that’s actually quite similar to 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

Now to be honest, I can actually kind of see where filmmakers were trying to go with this, and its really not that bad an idea. They’d killed Voorhees for real in the last picture (still just a regular dude at this point, albeit a deformed, deranged one that just didn’t want to die) and the filmmakers were trying to think of a way of continuing the series, even though they’d killed off their main villain. Well, apparently they learned their lesson and decided to scrapped the idea, and sort of act like this one absolutely never happened at the beginning of Part VI: Jason Lives.

Well, that’s pretty much it for now. Hope you guys have an awesome Halloween and I’ll see you guys back next week so we can finally get back to my Hitman list, and then after that, it’s my second annual Bad Asses of the Year list!

Editor’s Note: It seems more appropriate to run this column on Halloween, as opposed to Rob’s usual Monday morning slot, hence the delay in publication. Rob will be back on Monday November 3rd with an all new column — Scott “Kubryk” Sawitz

Also though, I got to check out what I think will end up the best Horror film of 2008 on Friday night. At a midnight show with about twelve people in attendance I got to see a movie which got a real shaft from its distributor, but a movie I think that’s going to have a real life once Horror movie audiences discover it on DVD. That film is the American debut of Japanese Cult sensation Ryuhei Kitamura, and his movie is The Midnight Meat Train. I’ve written up Kitamura in the past in this column talking about two of his major Japanese features, his ultra-low budget, ultra-awesome-Zombie-Samurai-Yakuza Movie Versus, and one of the best Manga to Live Action Motion Pictures ever made, Azumi. I’ve also seen Godzilla: Final Wars, which is a movie with a lot of problems, but also with a lot of energy, which is something that Kitamura always manages to bring to his projects.

This would especially go for The Midnight Meat Train, which is a film that should have been his ultra-stylistic breakout film for American audiences. Unfortunately, distributor Lionsgate, who like New Line Cinema in the 80‘s and Dimension films a decade later, made its reputation mostly on the backs of Horror films such as the Saw series and to a lesser degree the Hostel films, for some reason decided to shun this movie. It’s baffling that a studio who gave us The Descent which in my opinion may just be the Horror film of the decade, would totally relegate such a stylish, over the top picture to 106 “Dollar Theaters” on its initial release is completely beyond me.

Again, shame on you Lionsgate. You’re about to make another killing at the box office this October with yet another Saw sequel, but how about some love for a film maker that goes out of his way to bring some real style to this violence. You could have just ushered in the next big Horror movie director, but instead you’ve told him that you don’t have as much respect for his movies as you do the bankable Saw movie factory.

I left the theater the other night not disgusted by horrible violence I witnessed, but by the tons of fans who’ll never get the same experience.

The Midnight Meat Train Starring Bradley Cooper Leslie Bibb Brooke Shields, Roger Bart, Vinnie Jones. Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura

Now, before I get started, I’d like to mention that despite its title, this is in no way an adult film, though I’m sure there has probably been one with this title or something similar made before. What this movie is, is a brutal, brutal movie that gorehounds will undoubtedly embrace, but one that doesn’t feature the elongated torture of a Saw film. You see, while I’ve actually seen all the Saw films and I feel like there’s probably a bit too much hype surrounding them, I can also see why so many people still don’t like to watch them. I mean, they’re sick. They’re really, really sick.

Now, the problem with the movies isn’t necessarily the gore, because I’m basically fine with gore, but I think to some degree its about how the movies deal with the gore. Gore is one thing, but where the Saw films and they’re ilk tend to get into trouble is how they decide to elongate the experience. Unlike, say, the Slasher films of the 1980’s, who tended to have big body counts, but made their kills brutal but very quick, this new wave of Horror makes their victims’ torture an experience that lasts and lasts. This is where the line is really drawn with many Horror fans.

I didn’t ever really feel that way with Midnight Meat Train at all. Yes, the movie is absolutely horrific and I would not recommend it to those who are the least bit squeamish or if you like seeing Ted Raimi last more than five minutes in the movies he appears in. In fact if you don’t like watching Ted Raimi die at all on screen, or more specifically by having his eyes pop out by getting hit in the head with a Meat Tenderizer, then I would avoid the movie at all costs. Me personally, I’m indifferent to watching Raimi die onscreen or not. I mean, I like Raimi and all, he’s a pretty funny guy, but whether he dies or not on screen has no bearing in whether I’ll catch a flick. Ok, now that that’s out of the way.

As I was saying the movie is horribly graphic, but at the same time, I never felt kind of dirty like I do when I’m watching a Saw flick (Note: this is not an indictment on Saw or its fans), and the movie is so stylish instead I think this movie managed to tap into the sort of exhilarating type of experience you’d get by watching the type of batsh!t crazy Cult Horror that you mostly don’t get to see these days, such as an Evil Dead 2 or Dario Argento‘s Phenomena or maybe even Phantasm. Kitamura just simply goes absolutely for broke here with his very signature style that I hope will get to have more and more exposure as he gets to do more movies.

Now, while Kitamura is a Japanese director, don’t fear that he’s just another J-Horror clone. While I give credit where it’s due to creators like Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu, Kitamura’s films stray away from the usual “pasty girl with long hair” villains that are the norm within the genre. Taking his queues from 80’s Cult directors like Sam Raimi, his movies tend to be kinetic pictures with action infused into them as much as horror. All the swooping cameras and crazy angles are all still here, and to be honest I haven’t seen something quite this stylish in some time.

I’d have to go back to Dario Argento’s Trauma to remember the last time I saw the point of view from a severed head, and with the help of special effects Kitamura gets to do things like have that point of view blink and then change angles to reveal the blinking face. Another shot has the point of view of a victim hanging upside down, opening their eyes just in time to see their throat get slit, and then looking down to see their own reflection in a pool of their own blood. It’s that type of visual flourish that I used to love from film makers like Dario Argento and Don Coscarelli, and that Kitamura is using now. He’s just the next in a long line of independent Horror directors that eventually try to find their foothold, and I hope that’s what’s happening now.

I think the director even compares well with Neil Marshall, who’s the other Horror film maker I’ve got my eye on at the moment. With Descent and Dog Soldiers under his belt, Marshall’s doing some terrific genre work at the moment. In the end though, I’d give the edge to Kitamura as far as American debuts go. Comparatively with Doomsday, which I liked but didn’t really love, Meat Train comes out on top.

One of the big problems with Doomsday was that despite having Malcolm McDowell in the cast, the movie really didn’t have a strong enough villain. With this film that isn’t a problem. Vinnie Jones could melt faces with how scary he is in this picture, using all body language and ferocity as Mahogany, the man who rides the subways late at night in search of victims. Jones is just scary as hell, using his Charles Bronson-style “good looks” to be able to drain as much blood out of you with a look as much he can with his meat tenderizer.

Jones is that rare screen performer that can really back up just how bad ass he is on screen, and while I think his collaborations with Guy Ritchie are still his best work, he hasn’t gotten a role this good in a while. He’s up to the task too, even able to elicit an odd sympathy at times. Workmanlike is hardly ever a good way to describe a performance, but there is a sort of blue collar aspect to what he’s doing here, killing these people. It’s just what he does, and that comes across on screen.

Also very good is Bradley Cooper as Leon Kauffman, the photographer who is constantly trying to catch Mahogany in the act, and is becoming increasingly obsessive about doing it. It would be easy to make this role unlikable, as Kauffman starts to forsake friends and even his fiancé for his obsession, but I think Cooper keeps us on the right side of the character. It helps that he completely commits to the role in the end, and we buy all the things that end up happening to him. Fortunately, he never plays the role over the top, so even as horrible things start to go down, its still easy to identify with him.

The whole thing really just goes back to Kitamura though. While the movie is based on a short story by Clive Barker, and you can tell it’s a Clive Barker story, there’s still so much of the Kitamura here that you never question it’s his movie. This is an amazingly horrific studio debut for the director, and I hope this gets a big enough cult following that he gets another project together really soon. While Lionsgate really screwed the pooch this time, perhaps clearer heads will prevail his next time out.

Kid, the next time I say, “Let’s go someplace like Bolivia,” let’s GO someplace like Bolivia.

Also, before I get to the rest of the column, I’d just like to pay my respects to Paul Newman. I mean, there are just some actors that simply towered over everyone else, and along with Brando and Steve McQueen, Paul Newman was always right there when it came to screen actors of the latter half of the 20th Century. The guy just always made you stand up and take notice, no matter what he was doing. Even better than those guys though, you always got the sense of just how impossibly likable Paul Newman always was. You never got that air about Newman that he acted like he was better than anyone else, just that he was one of the guys. Newman was that super handsome, popular guy in school that was just so personable you couldn’t help but like him. He always had so much energy and enthusiasm on screen that you wished he would just keep on acting and acting for another few decades.

Like a lot of people, I think that it was Cool Hand Luke that really got my attention when it came to Newman’s charisma. I know that now its chic to consider The Shawshank Redemption the best Prison movie ever made (though I’m also fond of Rikki-O and The Big Doll House), but Luke just absolutely sings to you when you’re watching it, and there’s this sense of grittiness that comes through in every bead of sweat and every Southern Prison guard we hear speak. The movie is just such a terrific introduction to “Great” cinema and I hope for the next generation to have that same experience that I did when I first got to see it.

Pound for pound my favorite Newman movie may be Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. While this one fights with The Sting for the best reputation amongst his collaborations with Robert Redford, I think this one wins on point simply for its fun factor. This may actually be the most quotable Western ever made. “If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbing him, I’d stop robbing him,” is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the quotable lines, and really when it comes down to it, this one may actually be one of the few movies that can actually compete with Casablanca for one of the most quotable movies ever. The interplay between Newman and Redford is just ridiculously awesome, and I wish they could have just had one more movie together.

Newman would finally win his Oscar after 8 nominations for his reprisal of The Hustler‘s Fast Eddie in The Color of Money, but honestly, the actor was just gold every time out. From Brick Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to his final Academy nod for 2002’s Road to Perdition, Newman was never anything less than brilliant. Even movies that should just be blips on other actor’s resumes, such as The Towering Inferno and the immortal Slap Shot, ended up being enduring classics thanks to Newman’s likeability.

It is with great sadness we say goodbye Mr. Newman, but thanks for everything.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

I know in past columns I’ve mentioned our local art-house theater, The Kentucky, and my buddy Shaun Stidham, who is, without question the biggest Horror movie fan that I’ve ever known in my whole life. Well recently The Kentucky decided to run a midnight show of the original Friday the 13th, a movie I hadn’t actually seen in a while, and a flick that I figured would be an awesome experience with a crowded theater. Besides, had I not wanted to go, I’m sure Shaun would have somehow made it my legal obligation to attend the screening. So with Shaun and even my girlfriend Erin in tow, we went down to the screening hopeful that my nostalgia for the film would stand up, and to our surprise we discovered…a huge line!

This was actually something that I hadn’t to deal with in some time to be honest. Believe it or not, to be the size that it is Lexington Kentucky has a pretty terrific lineup of multiplexes to choose from, enough that I don’t actually remember the last time I had to fight for a ticket or a good seat, even for a huge blockbuster like Iron Man or The Dark Knight. Needless to say, we were a little anxious about the turn of events, when we were suddenly hit with another surprised that ended up shaping the rest of the weekend.

Turns out, the line was actually not just because the theater was showing the Slasher classic, but because there was actually a Horror movie convention in town called Scarefest, and Cult movie icon Tom Savini was going to do a Q &A before the screening even started! That’s right, Sex Machine was in town and he was going to watch Friday the 13th with us that night! Not only that, we learned that the convention would actually still be going on the next day and that there would be more Horror Icons we could mingle with.

I’ll go back to the movie in a later column, but let me just say that the Q & A and getting to attend Scarefest the next day was an absolute blast. Savini was terrific for the crowd, especially considering that there was this contingent of middle-aged women, who had obviously thrown a few back that night, who were persistently trying to hit on Savini over and over. Fortunately, there were still plenty of Horror geeks who had plenty to ask about the Friday the 13th production as well as hit other exploits in the genre as well. He also got to the speak a little bit about the passing of Stan Winston, and how it was such a blow to those in the community who love and worked with physical effects. It seemed like a really heartfelt moment, especially after the barrage of Cougar antics.

Even for a person like myself, who loves Horror movies but doesn’t consider them a religion like Shaun does, it was pretty awe inspiring for me on the convention floor the next day. I really only had a vague idea of who was actually going to be at the event, so I was ecstatic when I got there and saw Savini was sitting next to Tony Todd (Candy Man, Final Destination), Sid Haig (The Devil’s Rejects, a million other cult movies), Bill Moseley (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), Tom Towles (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), P.J. Soles (Halloween), Adrienne King and Betsy Palmer from Friday the 13th and former Jason Voorhees, Kane Hodder.

Now, you have to take into account that we live here in the sticks of Lexington, KY and celebrities of any sort are pretty few and far between, so to see this many cult figures all in a row was pretty mesmerizing. Also, there’s a mystique about these guys from their films, so its tough not to be completely intimidated by them. You spend an entire lifetime being completely scared out of your mind by these guys, so it’s an incredible experience to find out that guys like Tom Towles, Sid Haig, and Kane Hodder are some of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. When he asked me my name, it was difficult to fight the reaction that Tom Towles was gonna bash my face in, but he just shook my hand instead.

Tony Todd was absolutely fantastic and personable, even asking us to take a picture of him as he posed with a zombie on stilts that was walking around. I even got some footage of him and Savini screwing around as Savini admired an Obama shirt the former Candyman had on. Again, there’s just something surreal about seeing guys that are usually decapitating zombies or eviscerating unsuspecting teenagers, and instead they’re just walking by with a plate of sandwiches or just mingling with fanboys that are worshipping them.

Our favorites were P.J. Soles and Kane Hodder, both were gracious and completely approachable. Hodder’s a powerhouse, but a totally pleasant guy. He’s pretty much the preferred Jason Voorhees these days and if you meet him you’ll probably wish he was still playing the dude behind the mask. It’s funny because he posed for a picture with Shaun, and it looks like Hodder’s strangling Shaun because to some degree, he is. Worse yet, I couldn’t get the camera to take the picture for the longest time, so Stidham said he was blacking out by the time I actually got the picture. Still, getting choked out by Jason Voorhees was pretty much a dream come true for Shaun, so I’m sure he was fine with it.

The best of the best though, was P.J. Soles, as she’s a total sweethheart. She even took note about how Shaun was really nervous to meet her (Halloween is one of his all time favorite movies), and tried desperately to calm him down. Just talking to her for a few minutes, she’s an absolute delight and, if you’re a Halloween fan, and you see that she’s going to be in the area, I’d very much recommend you meet her. While my exposure to celebrities is kind of limited, she’s the most down to earth I’ve ever met, and again I just can’t say enough about how nice she is.

Sometimes its just really good to be a geek. This was one of those days. To be able to just hang out with men and women that have worked on MOST of my favorite Horror movies, hug P.J. Soles, talk politics with Tony Todd and listen to Sid
Haig make fun of the events announcer is just an extraordinary experience, and an incredible amount of fun. Fantastically, Scarefest was such a success that apparently the plan is to have everyone back next year, and to try to add to the guest list as well, with perhaps even a Nightmare on Elm Street reunion possibly in the works. So to everyone at Scarefest and all the Horror Icons that made it to our remote neck of the wood, thanks and see you guys next year.