DVDs I’ve managed to finish….so far

 

I was finally able to finish Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam’s much-underrated adaptation of the long-thought-unfilmable novel by Hunter S. Thompson . If you think Johnny Depp’s unrecognizable as a near-balding Raoul Duke, you should check out Tobey Maguire’s cameo turn as a hitchhiker where he looked less like Peter Parker (annoying, particularly since going through the last Spider-Man flick)  and more like a long-lost fourth Hanson brother (circa their “MmmBop” years)  

  

I also got to finish Hot Fuzz, the Shaun of the Dead team’s salute to high-testoterone US cop flicks.  In this film, Simon Pegg’s Nicholas Angel finds himself exiled to “peaceful” Salford after his single-minded zeal costs him not only the love of his life but also – nearly - his career as an urban London cop.   I love the way co-writer Edgar Wright uses American action film conventions to his advantage here, particularly their weakness for hooky quips.

Nicholas Angel: What’s the situation?
DS Andy Wainwright: Two blokes and a fuck-load of cutlery!                                    Nicholas Angel: …Idea!!!  (looks at supermarket trolleys)

 Great cameos from erstwhile James Bond Timothy Dalton as an untrustworthy  shop owner and even Edward “The Equalizer” Woodward as Weaver, the town pastor who -along with everyone else in the film – gets to pack heat in the slam-bang finale.

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I also finally got myself a copy of Afro Samurai – the entire 6 episode run (shorter even than FLCL).  In this series, Samuel L. Jackson is “Number Two”, who roams a re-feudalized, post-apocalyptic Japan seeking out the head of “Number One”, in particular the headband symbolizing “Number One”’s rank.  Along the way, he meets various sundry characters, particularly those voiced by genre vets like Ron Perlman (Vincent the “Beast”, Hellboy, “Slade” aka Deathstrike the Terminator in the Teen Titans animated series) and Kelly Hu (Lady Deathstroke in X-Men II).   More flying heads and blood geysers abound than The Bride (Uma Thurman)’s tea-house scene with the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill vol. 1!!!!   Even the music is waay off the hook, with madder beats than all of Samurai Champloo (all in a day’s work for Wu-Tang Clan’s The RZA). 

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On the big screen….

I managed to catch both Blades of Glory (which local filmgoers would be sore disappointed to find out that it has nothing to do with Japanese samurai, inspite of a title that alludes so) & Surf’s Up (I’m finding this whole CGI-’toon “mockumentary” thingy concept quite radical, pardon the cliche) one Sunday night at the SM Southmall multiplex.  I’ve always sworn myself off SM cinemas as a movie-going venue because of the owner’s reported intolerance over the exhibition of R-rated fare.  Nevertheless, I felt myself in rather safe hands even if  Blades of Glory did manage to get to the precipice with its PG-13.  

                                 Will Ferrell is at his usual manic element here, gool ol’ American machismo at its most paranoid (who else but his Chazz Michael Michaels would boast of his custom-made limited-edition hairbrush) while Jon Heder is fuzzily enjoyable as manufactured icerink prodigy Jimmy McElroy.   

                                                                   Cameo appearances by Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, Brian Boitano and even Sasha Cohen (not that Ferrell would jump on her thinking he was the gay French racer from “Talladega Nights”)  crank up the sparkle quotient even more.    

   

On the other hand, Surf’s Up is buoyed by the enjoyable, unaffected voice performances of Shia LaBoeuf and Jon Heder (yup, him again) as Cody Maverick and Chicken Joe, outcasts from their respective communities (Shiverpool, Antarctica and Sheboygan, Wisconsin exactly) who find themselves at home among the surfing penguins of Pen Gu Island.   As Cody manages to win the island community with his skills, he also gets a chance to meet his childhood hero, Zeke “The Big Z” Topanga (voiced by Jeff Bridges channeling The Big Lebowski’s Dude with less inebriation and more deadpan); his determination eventually gets the latter to break his self-imposed exile.  The directors of this effort manage to pull off the somewhat incongrous juxtaposition of CGI animation and documentary filmmaking without a hiccup, while the interplay between the celebrity voice talents comes off as refreshing.  Cameo appearances by real-life surfers Kelly Slater and Rob Machado and even E!’s The Daily 10 co-presenter Sal Masekela liven up the vibrant cast big-time.