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The boxing match between Mickey O’Neil (Brad Pitt) and Horace Anderson (Scott Welch – A real professional boxer) during the finale of Snatch is a marvel of inspired editing, excellent song selection and stylish shots that make the fight seem hyper-kinetic. Director Guy Ritchie did an excellent job creating an atmosphere that feels alive and violent, and he intelligently built towards a fight with massive stakes that turn the tension to 11. It’s a badass brawl, that looks excellent, and features iconic moments (Brad Pitt in the air after an uppercut). that will linger in your memory. Enjoy!
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John’s Horror Corner: The Hitcher (1986), creepy, intense and sinister… but not very graphic.
MY CALL: An 80s classic in considering the great, sinister, unmasked slashers, and boasting a very creepy and intense performance by a most unnerving Rutger Hauer. But if it’s gore and death scenes you seek, this isn’t your movie. MORE MOVIES LIKE The Hitcher: Looking for more horror on the road? Maybe schedule some detours for Jeepers Creepers (2001), Joyride (2001), The Hills Have Eyes (1977, 2006) and the remake of The Hitcher (2007).
A bit weary from a long day on the road, Jim (C. Thomas Howell; The Hitcher II, Kindred: The Embraced) picks up a hitchhiker by the name of John Ryder (Rutger Hauer; Bleeders, Salute of the Jugger) for some company. Just one problem, John is suspiciously quiet and wastes no time before threatening Jim when he’s asked to leave the car. Quite a lot happens in the first 15 minutes of the movie, and its inertia builds fast.
Within minutes of entering Jim’s car, John’s menace emanates powerfully even if quietly. He threatens Jim’s life and Jim manages to eject him from the car and escape. But he’s not free of John for long…
Jim’s murderous cop-killing hitchhiker follows him across the southwest and frames him for several violent crimes. I guess that’s suitable punishment for denying a hitchhiker a free ride, right? Our villain is just plain sadistic, and he basks in his own evil. I imagine this inspired Joyride (2001) in the best of ways.
Director Robert Harmon (They, Nowhere to Run) delivers more of a creepy, intense crime-action thriller than a horror movie. As a horror movie, I find it quite tame. A lot happens, so there’s nothing wrong with the pacing. I just find the events that transpire dull and uncompelling. Only when John sharpens his toothy personality on screen do enjoy the film—purely for Hauer’s performance and Howell’s wonderfully tortured and hopeless reactions. Now with that said, most of the cast did well. But Hauer shined brightest as a sociopath lacking any fear of death or remorse, and who thrived on the entropy he brought about. This movie was extremely mean-spirited… but surprisingly, not particularly graphic.
I find myself yearning for more 80s gore. The trailer hitch damsel (Jennifer Jason Leigh) death scene didn’t feel as intense as I recall… that is, until the scene abruptly ended. That was my single “gasp” of the movie. I just wish they showed us what happened even though we could easily imagine.
Fans of 80s and retro horror really ought to check this out. I may not be a big fan, but this film holds a special place in my heart. However, the real reason to see this is simply for Rutger Hauer’s performance. The man secretes villainy from every pore and delights in his sins like a demon pig wallowing in his own sinister filth.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast #275: Escape From New York, Kurt Russell and Movies Featuring Snakes
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275 episodes! This week we’re celebrating 275 episodes by discussing the Kurt Russell classic Escape From New York. Directed by John Carpenter, this 1981 science fiction film focuses on a criminal named Snake Plissken (Russell) being sent to Manhattan (now a prison) to rescue the the President of the United States after his plane is hijacked. In this episode, we discuss the excellence of Kurt Russell, creepy henchmen, and how to stretch a tiny budget. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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Listen to the MFF Final Fights podcast on Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean or Google Podcasts (or wherever you listen to podcasts)!
Please make sure to rate, review and subscribe!
The final fight between Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and King Orm (Patrick Wilson) in Aquaman is a super stylized brawl that features spinning tridents, superhero landings, and property destruction. It’s a fun fight that takes place after one of the most insane battles ever put on film (a Kaiju potentially rips through the earth’s core), and I appreciate how director James Wan makes it look completely different from the rest of the film. In this episode, we discuss how far errant tridents would fly, satellite imagery, and villains forgetting how to fight.
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The Trip franchise is an absolute delight and it was a pleasant surprise to hear that Director Michael Winterbottom and stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon were headed to Greece for more food shenanigans. Watching Rob and Steve bicker, argue, and annoy each other in beautiful locations has been thoroughly enjoyable since 2010’s The Trip, and it’s always a pleasure to spend time watching them. I’m pleased to announce that The Trip to Greece is a delight, and their fourth film keeps things fresh, and doesn’t feel like microwaved leftovers.
Steve and Rob’s fourth trek across the world has them recreating the steps that Odysseus took on his journey from Troy to Ithaca. Their posh journey sees them singing Grease songs, eating delicious food and recreating the death of Socrates. As always, Steve drives, while Rob sits in the passenger seat and does his best to annoy Steve by challenging his acting credentials, and beating him in swimming races (which is a great moment. Rob is a legit swimmer). What I like the most about The Trip to Greece is how their six day “work assignment” is less antagonistic than their prior trips, and it’s unique how it takes a turn towards melancholy when Steve learns that his father has fallen ill.
There’s something comforting about watching Steve and Rob impersonate Robert De Niro while eating at Michelin-starred restaurants that serve delicious looking food. Their friendship has evolved since 2010, as it’s now on a more level relationship as Rob’s career has been boosted by his The Trip appearances. He’s no longer the second fiddle on the trips, and it’s forced Steve to change his behavior towards him. This allows the two of them to be more relaxed around each other and be more willing to support each other’s nonsense (the cave singing scene is sublime).
The Trip to Greece is a lot of fun, and I totally recommend you go along on Steve and Rob’s journey.
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John’s Horror Corner: Fantasy Island (2020), where your wildest dreams twist the Monkey’s Paw.
MY CALL: Fun first half, painful second half. I was hoping for Inception (2010) meets Saw (2004), but what I got was Jumanji (1995) meets Wishmaster (1997) with a dark moral lesson, a few casualties, and a dash of Escape Room (2019). MORE MOVIES LIKE Fantasy Island: Looking for more recreational horror? Try Escape Room (2019).
Contest winners Gwen (Maggie Q; Live Free or Die Hard, Priest), Melanie (Lucy Hale; Truth or Dare, Scream 4), Patrick (Austin Stowell; Swallow), Brax (Jimmy O. Yang; Crazy Rich Asians, The Happytime Murders), JD (Ryan Hansen; Friday the 13th) are flown to a remote island with no cellular service and goon-like bell hops to live out whatever fantasy they dare to dream or request. If that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably because it is. Owned and operated by Mr. Roarke (Michael Peña; Narcos: Mexico, Extinction, The Vatican Tapes), the island’s fantasy-fulfilment is rumored to be facilitated by holograms, virtual reality and hallucinogens.
Just as soon as we land on the island’s crystal blue waters, the setting is bright and gorgeously shot, and the tone is peaceful yet comedic as we meet our fantasy contestants. JD and Brax bring a twenty-turned-thirtysomething college comedy vibe complemented by Melanie’s out-on-the-prowl forwardness. Gwen and Patrick feel like the only mature contestants of the five. And Melanie just seems petty and shallow.
Their fantasies are all quite different; as different as their personalities. Our man-child party-boys Brax and JD enjoy their fantasy of a wild pool rave; Gwen seeks a second chance at happiness with a lost love; Patrick wants to enlist like he never did in his youth; and Melanie wants revenge on a childhood nemesis (Portia Doubleday; Carrie, Mr. Robot).
I love Michael Peña… but this role doesn’t fit him well—or, more appropriately, he doesn’t fit the role at all. Peña never felt like the wealthy, mysterious type who would own such an establishment and actualize people’s fantasies. He just lacks that air about him; the debonair mannerism falls flat. He felt more like one of Steve Martin’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) playing a smooth part on short notice, lacking the savoir faire mastery of Michael Caine. Still, Peña doesn’t fail to entertain or convince us of his role in this game. Likewise, Michael Rooker (Slither, The Belko Experiment, The Dark Half) felt very out of place playing a very unnecessary character, and Kim Coates (Resident Evil: Afterlife, Skinwalkers, Innocent Blood) was equally squandered.
Director Jeff Wadlow (Cry Wolf, Kick-Ass 2, Truth or Dare) brings us a mean wish-gone-wrong twist on the popular television series Fantasy Island (1977-1984). Much like Escape Room (2019), this starts out strong and then doesn’t know what to do with itself. The first half of this movie was very engaging and interesting. But after that it all fell apart in its own Monkey Paw theme, breaking its own rules and disappointing left and right. The writing felt shallow; in fact, the second half felt like it had different writers entirely. It even wanders into idiotically corny territory. The stakes feel no more real than they did in Jumanji (1995). And that’s just it… I was hoping for Inception (2010) meets Saw (2004), but what I got was Jumanji (1995) meets Wishmaster (1997) with a dark moral lesson and a few casualties. Meh.
If you liked Escape Room (2019), you’ll probably like this. And if you didn’t, you probably won’t. Using a single-movie comparison isn’t the best guidance, but it’s honestly all I can think up. That’s my best advice on whether or not you should see this.
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about Hobbs and Shaw, the ninth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise. We love this film and couldn’t get enough of Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham insulting each other while trying to stop Idris Elba from unleashing a virus that will end the world. In this episode, we pitch new Fast movies, discuss henchmen, rave about Vanessa Kirby, and ponder how many calories Johnson consumed during the breakfast scene.
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
We here at MFF love the Fast & Furious franchise, and wanted to fill the gap left by the delay of Fast & Furious 9 (it originally was scheduled for May 22nd, 2020, it was pushed to 2021). So, Adam Hodgins, Megan Hofmeyer, David Cross (of the Award Wieners Movie Review Podcast) and I got together to draft our favorite Fast & Furious characters. We each picked our five favorite characters, and our lists are extremely funky and unique. In this episode, we discuss badass truck drivers, hungry characters, and NOS. Enjoy.
If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the episode!
You can download the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean,or Spreaker.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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I love the Fast & Furious franchise, and I can still clearly remember nearly blowing up my four-cylinder Dodge Shadow while driving home after watching The Fast and the Furious in 2001 (it wasn’t a 10-second car). Ever since that slightly fast & furious night in which I watched some Corona loving street racers attempt to steal DVD players, I’ve enjoyed watching the franchise evolve into a globe-trotting blockbuster series that’s grossed billions at the worldwide box office.
In honor of Fast X on the horizon, I decided to see which Fast movie is the most Fast & Furious. Basically, I wanted to know which of the Fast films has the most races, fights, NOS, corona, BBQ, property destruction, gratuitous party shots, and mentions of family. I rewatched the movies and recorded an insane amount of stats, and used insanely detailed articles from Bloomberg (excellent resource – whoever did this is excellent – stats mostly hold up when I rewatched the films and compared data) and Insure the Gap to score 23 categories (Thanks again Bloomberg).
- Racing time
- NOS usage
- Is there a BBQ? – Fun article about why the Furious 6 BBQ is the best
- Fastest finale (cars driving fast)
- Best Fight
- Engine Revving Time
- Time spent talking about cars
- Time spent where cars are worked on
- Gear shifts
- Tachometer/speedometer shots
- Explosions
- Time a gun is wielded
- Hand-to-hand combat time
- Time spent riding outside of vehicles
- Time spent at social gatherings
- Male biceps time
- Gratuitous party shot time
- Hugs
- Mentions of Family
- Roll ups with team
- Corona consumption
- Property destruction
- Does a main character die?
I ranked each of the nine installments (1-10) according to where they placed in each category. Or, I gave them a one or a zero for Yes/No questions (If there is a BBQ it gets a 0). The film that’s the most Fast & Furious has the least amount of points. How did I add up the points? The Fate of the Furious features 17 mentions of “Family,” so it got 1 point. In 2 Fast 2 Furious, not one person says the word “family,” so it got the most points.
Here’s a couple more examples – The Fate of the Furious features billions of dollars of property damage (Nuclear submarine, thousands of cars, that massive facility that’s blown up in the beginning) so it got 1 point. The Fast & the Furious (2001) features a few destroyed cars and some property damage, so it got 10 points.
Tokyo Drift has over 15 minutes of racing so it gets 1 point. Hobbs and Shaw has no “official” races, so it received 10 points.
Here are the results (lowest amount of points wins)
- Fast & Furious 6 – 71 points – WINNER!
- 2 Fast 2 Furious – 85 points
- Furious 7 – 86 points
- F9 – 87 points
- The Fast and the Furious – 92 points
- Fast Five – 96 points
- Fast and Furious – 102 points
- The Fate of the Furious – 103 points
- Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift – 105 points
- Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw – 118 points
I’ve included some videos to show you why Fast and Furious 6 is the most fast and furious of the franchise.
Family is said 11 times (start at :30 seconds)
There is a BBQ that features Corona
Roman and Brian have a great bro-mance (3:00 in clip)
Brian beats the crap out of Braga and some prisoners (furious fight)
There’s a classic team meeting
Dom gets shot, then completely forgets about it.
Grappling hooks are aided by NOS (grappling hooks are used a lot in franchise).
There you have it! Fast and Furious 6 is the most fast and furious film of the franchise. It features street races, corona, BBQ, family, planes blowing up, grappling hooks, fist fights and everything that makes a Fast movie great.
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John’s Horror Corner: Hell Fest (2018), lame killer and kills yet perfectly entertaining.
MY CALL: Lame killer, weak kills, momentary gore… but it’s so much jumpy fun. I guess this was okay. I enjoyed it, but I’ll never revisit it. Despite all the things I wanted that it completely lacked and all the things I felt it should have had, I found myself consistently entertained by the situations, delivery and character dynamics. Not a bad popcorn flick. MORE MOVIES LIKE Hell Fest: Looking for more recreational horror, try Funhouse (1981), Ghoulies 2 (1988), Hell House LLC (2015), Escape Room (2019) and Fantasy Island (2020).
A group of college friends get VIP tickets to a traveling “horror night” amusement park much like if Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights was more amped-up and less family-friendly.
Hoping for a night of jovial flirtations and jumpscares, Brooke (Reign Edwards; The Bold and the Beautiful), Natalie (Amy Forsyth; We Summon the Darkness, A Christmas Horror Story), Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus; The Last Witch Hunter, 13 Reasons Why), Gavin (Roby Attal), Quinn (Christian James; Dollface) and Asher (Matt Mercurio; Sleepy Hollow) enter with high expectations. But when Natalie witnesses a scared girl in the funhouse get murdered by a masked killer, the evening’s entertainment turned out to be more than she’d bargained.
The horror takes a while to build its inertia, but that’s typical of the first 30-40 minutes of most horror movies. And, as a pleasant surprise, the first act was quite enjoyable just for watching the main characters whose relationship shenanigans (typically insufferable in horror movies) was actually entertaining. This movie clearly takes its time and hopes we embrace its impishly playful nature on this jumpy journey as our characters navigate one interactive haunted house after another. And fans of the Final Destination franchise (2000-2011) should recognize the voice of the announcer/barker as Tony Todd (Final Destination, Hatchet, Wishmaster).
The death scenes are okay. Nothing special, just okay. Really, some were even boring. A syringe to the eye might have been the least hard-to-watch eye stab I’ve seen. A head gets brutally hammered, yet its existence on screen is fleeting in a blink. It doesn’t linger on screen long enough to be awed or winced upon. As for our villain—credited as The Other (Stephen Conroy)—his presence was definitely menacing, but his disposition and actions were otherwise flat. A boring bad guy with no personality and no good kills in a slasher movie… that’s not good. So clearly, slashers and gore aren’t this movie’s strength. Shenanigans are. And while that may sound like a cheap defense to a goreless flick, the shenanigans are exciting. This is rated-R, but I’d treat this as a solid PG-13 horror; great for beginners (i.e., adult beginners) to the genre who can stand brief brutality.
I didn’t recognize any of these actors, so I had hesitated to see this for a long time. Thankfully, my expectations were happily proven wrong by the acting, photography and general production value of this movie. Director Gregory Plotkin (Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension) did alright. But whereas “fun horror” and likable characters are his clear strengths, the “meaner” gore was basically absent and the story was as basic as they come.
I guess this was okay. I enjoyed it, but I’ll never revisit it. Despite all the things I wanted that it completely lacked and all the things I felt it should have had, I found myself consistently entertained by the situations, delivery and character dynamics. Not a bad popcorn flick.
Movies, Films & Flix 