BBC Radio has a show called
Desert Island Discs, where they have celebrities bring in 8 musical pieces that they would want if they were stuck on a desert island. So let me change it up a little. How about DVDs to get you through bad news?
Even though the Hurricane coverage is important & everyone that needs to get out needs to hear it, I need a little break because I'm dreading the destruction, flooding, $3+ gas prices, and Human misery to come. We're going to have people sitting in the same position that some had in Mississippi & Louisiana. I thought I would do something a little OT (well OK, very OT). Here's some interesting DVDs to get you through the weekend if it all becomes a little much. But after that, it'll be time to gear up to help the victims & make sure the officials do what they're supposed to do.
Some of these you've no doubt heard of, but others are B-movies and cult favorites....
Nada: I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum
The aliens are here and they're Republicans & Corporate Executives!!! Well the movie never explicitly says that, but it's implied. The world as we know it is an illusion and we all have actually been under the control of Aliens who've been exploiting & strip-mining our planet for the past 40 years. Aided by Humans who've
"sold out" in order to live the good life, every television on the planet is really broadcasting a signal to our brains that makes us succeptible to subliminal messages. One man discovers a pair of sunglasses created by a group of "rebels" who know of the aliens presence. They allow him to see the world as it really is. Every billboard, every television commercial, every magazine ad, is telling people to
"OBEY", "REPRODUCE", and
"STAY ASLEEP". He looks at the money & even it has the message
"THIS IS YOUR GOD". This movie could be seen as a precursor to
The Matrix...
Lao-Tzu: Heaven and earth are not humane, and regard the people as straw dogs.
This movie was
(& still is to some degree) very controversial. Sam Peckinpah gives you the story of a nerdy mathematician
(Hoffman) who decides to escape the violence & crime of 1970's United States by moving him & his attractive wife to her hometown in Cornwall, England. However, instead of finding peaceful relaxation, he finds a place where he & his wife are treated as outsiders & resented. This eventually leads to violence & conflict between Hoffman, his wife, & the thugs in the town. This movie has been put in the same league as
Clockwork Orange because of it's violent content, and was banned for almost 2 decades in the UK. It is a great character piece on how a man is pushed too far...
Buckaroo Banzai: Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
This movie is
SO 80's. It sort of a mix between the sensibilities of
"Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", a pinch of
"Indiana Jones", and give it the look of a new-wave early 80's video on MTV. The story is of Dr. Buckaroo Banzai who is a neurosurgeon, physicist, Musician, and all-around utlity guy who fights crime & other evils with his crew of Hong-Kong Cavaliers. In this movie, they are fighting off an alien invasion from the 8th dimension. The movie has elements that make absolutely no sense, but that's part of its charm. Jeff Goldblum
(far left above) is a doctor who's part of Banzai's crew, but no explanation is ever given for why he's wearing a Cowboy outfit & chaps...
The Duke: They sent in their best man, and when we roam out the 69th street bridge tomorrow, on our way to freedom, we're going to have their best man leading the way - from the neck up!
[cheering erupts]
The Duke: On the hood of my car!
Kurt Russel stars as Snake Plissken in what is probably the greatest B-movie ever made. Released in 1981, the premise of the film is that the United States experienced a 300% increase in crime during the late 80's. For reasons that are never explicitly stated, the city of New York was abandoned & turned into a maximum security prison. The United States has been turned into a police state, with the
United States Police Force encamped, like an army around Manhattan island, making no escape possible. Anyone convicted of a crime is sent into New York & will never return. The film is set in 1997, where a terrorist was able to hijack Air Force One, and intended to kill the President by slamming the plane into a New York skyscraper. The President survived but has been taken captive by the Prisoners & their leader, "The Duke Of New York"
(Isaac Hayes in his best non-South Park role). Snake Plissken is offered a pardon
(and not having his head explode) if he goes in & brings the President & a package that the President has with him back. The movie is great, but shocking in some ways. Nobody from the CIA or FBI must have watched this movie to see the possibility of a hijacking, New York, and slamming into a skyscraper. Supposedly the game series of
Metal Gear Solid is in part based on this movie & the main character Snake...
Walter Sobchak: I told those fucks down at the league office a thousand times that I don't roll on Shabbos!
Donny: What's Shabbos?
Walter Sobchak: Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don't work, I don't get in a car, I don't ride in a car, I don't pick up the phone, I don't turn on the oven, and I sure as shit DON'T FUCKING ROLL! SHOMER SHABBOS!
I still think this is the Coen Brothers greatest flick. Some people say
Fargo, others will tell you
Raising Arizona, but this wins for me. Where else would you get nihilists, a bowler named Jesus, and the White Russian loving "The Dude". The movie is basically what if you put a pothead in a noir-mystery. The movie revolves around a missing trophy bride, a pissed on carpet, a money drop off, and bowling. It's extremely funny.
Marion: I love you, Harry. You make me feel like a person. Like I'm me... and I'm beautiful.
Harry Goldfarb: You are beautiful. You're the most beautiful girl in the world. You are my dream.
This is an extremely thought provoking movie that makes you look at the psychology of drug addiction. The movie, from director Darren Aronofsky, revolves around the lives of 3 people. A mother, her son, and his girlfriend, and how their lives are affected by drug use. The use of a dialating eye to signify drug use became almost iconic, with even "
The Simpsons" parodying it. The final 20 minutes of the movie has the narrative moved almost entirely by images, with almost no dialogue being spoken. It's extremely well done.
Captain, Road Prison 36: What we've got here is... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it... well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men... Now, I can be a good guy, or I can be one real mean sum-bitch. You run one time, you got yourself a set of chains. You run twice you got yourself two sets. You ain't gonna need no third set, 'cause you gonna get your mind right. You gonna get used to wearin' them chains afer a while, Luke. Don't you never stop listenin' to them clinking. 'Cause they gonna remind you of what I been saying. For your own good.
Luke: Wish you'd stop bein' so good to me, cap'n.
Can a man really eat 50 eggs without puking? An oldie but a goodie, this movie could be seen as a precursor to
The Shawshank Redemption with prisoner Luke inspiring his fellow prisoner by never giving up. Luke, sent to a prison camp for cutting the tops off of parking meters, tells the prison boss
"Small town, not much to do in the evenin". Supposedly an allegory for the life of Jesus Christ, the movie is extremely moving...
Tyler Durden: Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
This is one of my favorite movies because it speaks to a very real frustration that you see in a lot people. The Narrator
(Jack) works in an office job & becomes so
"numb" to his life that he becomes an insomniac. This eventually leads to him meeting Tyler Durden, and turning to a fight club. In Fight Club, regular guys beat the living shit out of each other in order to feel alive again. One of the darkest moments of the movie comes when the Narrator beats a good looking kid into disfigurment. He tells Tyler that he
"felt like destroying something beautiful". This is part of a series of events that spiral out of control & turn Fight Club into Project Mayhem. Overall, the movie deals with modern society vs a Nietzchean view of living. Also, it has a wicked twist at the end for those that haven't seen it...
