"KEEP BUSTIN'."

Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Kline’

Silverado

Thursday, May 24th, 2018

SILVERADO is Lawrence Kasdan’s upbeat 1985 western about some cowboys and, you know… they meet up and ride together and there’s guns and a jail and a saloon and a guy trying to steal land and all that. I don’t know, it’s a western.

This was Kasdan’s third time directing, after BODY HEAT and THE BIG CHILL. But consider that in the half decade before this he co-wrote THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and RETURN OF THE JEDI. This is his rare directing job that has some of the vibe of those George Lucas productions. He wrote SILVERADO with his brother Mark (CRIMINAL LAW) and all these decades later he wrote SOLO with his son Jonathan (who had a bit part in SILVERADO at the age of 14) so I thought it would be a good time to write about this one.

(read the rest of this shit…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Reviews, Western | 39 Comments »

Wild Wild West

Tuesday, July 18th, 2017
a survey of summer movies that just didn’t catch on

Big Willie Weekend, 1999

Two summers after their hit film MEN IN BLACK, director Barry Sonnenfeld (d.p. of BLOOD SIMPLE) and star Will Smith (SUICIDE SQUAD) tried to bring a similar comedy/special-effects/adventure mix to the old west. It’s like a western in that there are cowboy hats, guns, railroads and occasional horses, but also not really because it’s about two top agents for the president going undercover and then having a big battle against a giant mechanical spider that’s on a rampage and headed for the White House. Not a type of story I’ve seen done with John Wayne or Clint or anybody.

The basis is The Wild Wild West, a western-meets-spies TV show that lasted four seasons, ending thirty years prior to the movie. It was actually cancelled not due to a lack of popularity, but controversy over violence on television, and did have two followup TV movies. But the last of those was in 1980, and nineteen years later it was at best a cult show, and not yet available on DVD. So this is another expensive blockbuster based on characters that most of its intended youthful audience had never seen, or in this case even heard of.

But they didn’t have to know it was based on anything. Waning interest in westerns may have been a bigger problem, but that could’ve been overcome by the popularity of Smith, or the fun gimmick of the gadgets and steampunk type robotics, or the energetic style and cartoonish humor of the director of the ADDAMS FAMILY movies.

But that didn’t happen. (read the rest of this shit…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Comedy/Laffs, Reviews, Science Fiction and Space Shit, Western | 38 Comments »

Ricki and the Flash

Wednesday, January 6th, 2016

tn_rickiBefore we get back into the Lucas-Minus-Star-Wars series I wanted to play a little catch up. Here’s one of my favorite movies of last year, and I bet most of you haven’t considered seeing it.

In RICKI AND THE FLASH Meryl Streep (BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY) plays the broke-ass leader of a California bar band who’s on an unlikely mission to Indianapolis to cheer up her daughter Julie (Streep’s real daughter Mamie Gummer), because her husband left her. One thing is, Ricki abandoned the family years ago to follow her rock and/or roll dream, and they never forgave her for it and rarely talk to her. But Julie’s gotten so bad that her dad Pete (Kevin Kline) gets desperate enough to break that emergency glass. It’s a fish-out-of-water story where the fish has no money and has to stay in your guest room and you don’t want her there but you try to be polite and also you have to pay for her cab.

Ricki is a rare and precious thing, a lead role for an actress – an older actress, even – that gets to be complex and flawed and also funny (not to mention sing and play guitar!). She’s a strong personality and also a mess and possibly racist and hates Obama and also it turns out she knows how to be a good mother and friend. I mean, now she does, but where the hell was she before? Will this cause healing, or only increase resentment? Streep, not surprisingly, goes to town with the role and seems to be having a great time. (read the rest of this shit…)

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Comedy/Laffs, Drama, Reviews | 22 Comments »

  • Hey bud, thanks for reading.

    Don't feel obligated, but here are some

  • WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHIT OUT OF VERN & OUTLAWVERN.COM

    if that's your thing:

  • 1. Patreon

    Toss me a couple bucks a month, support the good shit, also get access to a bunch of exclusive writing. This is my primary source of writing money that has allowed me to cut down to part time at the day job. Thank you!

  • 2. Buy my books from your local bookseller or somebody

    click here for my Amazon author page

    (NOTE: My ten year contract has passed on the Titan books, so I don't get residuals on them like I do WORM ON A HOOK and NIKETOWN, but I would love for you to read them because I'm proud of them)

    EXTRA CREDIT: Review them on Amazon! That would really help me out. Unless you didn't like them, in which case forget I said anything.

  • 3. If you ever buy from Amazon, go through my links or search engines



    (you pay the same amount you were gonna pay anyway they cut me a little slice)

  • I also have an Amazon UK one:

    (I can't get the search box widget to work anymore, so click on MOONWALKER and then search for what you want.)

  • 4. My exciting line of fashion and leisure products

    (I get a couple bucks per item, you get a cool t-shirt, mug or lifestyle item)

  • 5. Spread the word

    Tell your friends about my reviews and my books and everything. Only cool people though please, we don't need a bunch of suckers and/or chumps around here.

    THANKS EVERYBODY. YOUR FRIEND, VERN

    * * * *

  • Recent commentary and jibber-jabber

    • Kaplan on The Black Phone: “Totally off-topic, but I don’t like Michael Myers being in the new Blumhouse logo. I know you’ve put out some…” Jun 28, 17:27
    • Jack Thursby on Stepfather II: “Yeah this is a super solid sequel. I quite enjoyed the third one as well. Quinn doesn’t return but they…” Jun 28, 10:28
    • solongyoubastard on Stepfather II: “I’m a fan of this one, but a friend of mine gave it a thumbs down based solely on the…” Jun 28, 08:49
    • Steven E on The Black Phone: “(sorry about my profile picture – wordpress playing up and can’t change it!) I really enjoyed this and felt it…” Jun 28, 04:16
    • VERN on The Black Phone: “STU – SPOILER – – – Yeah, I felt that way about the brother, too. I think the reveal that…” Jun 27, 21:55
    • Mr. Majestyk on The Black Phone: “A kid in my school died too. Older brother of a kid in my class. Right around the corner from…” Jun 27, 16:25
    • Franchise Fred on The Black Phone: “Holy shit, there was a kid who died at my school too. He was younger than me and it was…” Jun 27, 16:05
    • Jeffg on The Black Phone: “Loved this. Spend time building good characters the audience cares for at the start of you horror movie. That always…” Jun 27, 15:38
    • Mr. Majestyk on The Black Phone: “I got no problem with the aesthetic, but a good trailer needs to be more than just an aesthetic, and…” Jun 27, 15:28
    • dreadguacamole on The Black Phone: “Mr. M: I think the director would be offended if you insulted the 90s alt-metal aesthetic – this is the…” Jun 27, 15:22
    • Mr. Majestyk on The Black Phone: “The Dread Pirate Guac: The trailer was awful, wasn’t it? I’d been hearing about and getting mildly pumped up about…” Jun 27, 15:04
    • dreadguacamole on The Black Phone: “Just came to from seeing this one. I tend to like Derrickson’s movies, and am a pretty big fan of…” Jun 27, 14:54
    • Stu on The Black Phone: “Really liked this one for being a solid, pretty direct story but also an inspirational one like you said, with…” Jun 27, 14:36
    • Mr. Majestyk on The Black Phone: “Vern, you’ve done a much better job of explaining what’s appealing about this movie than any of the promotional materials…” Jun 27, 11:36
    • Mr. Majestyk on The Mummy (1999): “I’m just gonna have to take everybody’s word for it. In my experience, Fraser is either the wrong fit for…” Jun 27, 08:56

  • VERN’S “I RECOMMEND THE SHIT OUT OF THIS PRODUCT” CORNER:

  • Recent Commented on Posts

  • Most Comments

  • Meta