Although welcomed into THE EXPENDABLES with open arms by action fans, Terry Crews is one of the cast members with the least experience in straight up action movies. He was brought in late in the game to replace 50 Cent shortly after 50 Cent was brought in late in the game to replace Forest Whitaker. (Or at least that’s how it was reported, but I thought Whitaker was supposed to be playing CIA agent Will Sands, and Crews ended up playing Expendables team member and excellent-name-haver Hale Caesar.) (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Keanu Reeves’
Street Kings
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
LikePoint Break
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007Until recently I was the guy who had never seen POINT BREAK. But the other day I busted my cherry on that matter, pardon my French, so I’m some other guy now.
I’m sure you’ve already seen it but let me refresh your memory: Keanu Reeves plays the perfectly named Johnny Utah, college football hero turned fresh-faced FBI rookie teamed with Gary Busey (in one of the first roles of his Crazy Post-Motorcycle Accident Period) to track down a gang of bank robbers who Busey (correctly) theorizes are surfers.
So Johnny Utah learns how to surf, immediately meets the group of surfers responsible for the bank robberies, and then continues his undercover work without realizing at first that these are the guys. The leader is Bodhi, played by Pat “ROADHOUSE” Swayze.
This is not one of the greats but it is surprisingly effective, and that’s because it’s got all the pieces in place. The pre-SPEED/MATRIX Keanu is actually pretty bad in the movie, even undercover as a surfer, but everyone else is perfect for their roles. Busey is at his crazy best. John C. McGinley (ON DEADLY GROUND) plays the uptight FBI chief. Lori Petty is an unorthodox choice for the surfing instructor/love interest. The director is Kathryn Bigelow, the talented but mostly forgotten badass woman director, who makes it all look real nice and knows how to shoot some good chase scenes and what not. The movie is even produced by the famed Jesus graverobber and Titaniphiliac James Cameron. So this has a pedigree.
This is also one of those action movies of the late ’80s, early ’90s that has all the ridiculous macho dialogue full of quips and boasts. They don’t really make this kind of movie too much anymore. For example, McGinley is always saying shit like, “You’re a real blue flame special, aren’t you, son? Young, dumb and full of come, I know. What I don’t know is how you got assigned here. Guess we must just have ourselves an asshole shortage, huh?” (more…)
Constantine
Wednesday, February 16th, 2005Dear Harry,
Here is a review of a movie I saw starring Keanu Reeves (guy from the Matrixes)
Okay, first I got a warning for some of you comic strip wise guys out there. If you like the comic strip this movie is based on, DON’T WATCH THE MOVIE. It’s just not worth it, man. You’re gonna be mad because, according to my sources, in the comic strip the dude is British, and even if he wasn’t British, he wouldn’t be Keanu Reeves. Hey man I’m a purist too sometimes, I understand this. I’d be pissed if they made DIE HARD into a comic strip, but they got John McClane wearing shoes or something. Or playing a guitar. It’s gonna be hard to get past what they did here so forget it man, save your time, save the stress. Go get a massage or something.
But since I don’t read that kind of business, it’s okay with me. I’m allowed to watch CONSTANTINE. For all I know Keanu Reeves actually IS John Constantine, who is (at least in this movie) some self loathing chainsmoking supernaturally gifted freelance exorcist type who finds out he has lung cancer and tries to figure out how the fuck he’s gonna get into Heaven when he tried to kill himself as a teenager. And he uses his connections with angels and knowledge of demons to try to straighten things out.
For me, the movie immediately drew me in as the studio logos rotted away like they were burning in Hell (where they probaly belong) leading into a short and perfectly executed teaser involving a biblical relic showing up in Mexico and causing some trouble. (You know how those magic spears and shit are.) Smoking is a big part of the movie, so we’re introduced to John Constantine’s cigarette before we are to him – hanging out of a car, dropping on the ground, looking cool like cigarettes like to do in movies. When Constantine strolls into an apartment building where there’s a veiny faced girl in serious need of an exorcism, he tries to leave his smoke on the edge of a table while he does the deed, so as not to waste it. (Much later, he’ll snub one out in a pool of his own blood.) (more…)
The Matrix Reloaded
Saturday, January 1st, 2005This might bother some of you but I just want to say it up front: put me in the camp of people who say the original MATRIX really is “the shit” as the kids say when they mean that it is not shit but actually the opposite of shit, which is I guess in this case THE MATRIX. Because what these boys the Wachowski Brothers did was an extremely well executed twilight zone concept for the post William Gibson days which also happened to be the perfect vehicle to combine over the top Hong Kong martial arts traditions with american actors and computer effects AND an appropriate metaphor for our times.
I love the idea that somebody like Jackie Chan or Michael Jordan who has extraordinary physical skills could actually just be a smart dude who figured out loopholes in the laws of reality. If you can understand the program well enough you can cheat and do things that a person isn’t supposed to be able to do. In the old shaw brothers movies it was just magic or shaolin wisdom but here we put those same spectacular moves in a sci-fi context and we get a whole different spin where even some jackass like Keanu Reeves can fly through the air and be so convincing that most of American can watch him as the iconic badass Neo and not even think of him as Keanu anymore.
It would be hard to exaggerate the influence THE MATRIX has had on movies in the past couple years, unless you said that all movies made after 1999 were word for word re-creations of THE MATRIX. It has been a big influence, not just on the clothes they wear and the wires they swing around on, but even the very concept of how much stuntwork an actor can be expected to do. If Keanu Reeves can do kung fu training for months and do most of his own fighting then what the fuck is Steven Seagal’s excuse? Maybe that’s why he went back to straight to video. Because the Wachowskis convinced their cast to do it and they were crazy enough to be convinced, now Charlies Angels can do it and Kill Bill can do it. Because it’s been proven possible. And people know who Yuen Wo Ping is enough to hire his brother to do Charlie’s Angels. And then of course there’s all the people copying the “bullet time” freeze framing effect which had been done before but was popularized and made easier and more flexible by the technology invented for THE MATRIX. I know that’s just a gimmick but in couple decades that will be known as one of the cliches of this era of film just like wah wah guitars are for ’70s film. It’s like what was the first movie to do a freeze frame or a split screen? It’s trivial but it’s a big effect. (more…)
