Sperhauk picked up the BluRay of The World's End and we watched that. It's the 3rd in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. The 1st is Shaun of the Dead and the 2nd Hot Fuzz. There isn't much connection other than the popular packaged ice cream cone. Sperhauk mentioned that all three had similar fence scenes. The World's End is written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright who also directed. It's got Simon, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, and Eddie Marsan in the lead roles. Rosamund Pike, David Bradley and Pierce Brosnan all have nice parts too.
The lead guys were all chums when they were younger and one day in 1990 they tried to drink in each of the 12 pubs on the Golden Mile in the little town of Newton Haven. They failed, the guys drifted apart, and everyone left Newton Haven. Everyone grew up except for Simon who seems to be stuck in the past. He still acts and dresses like he did then we was a young lad. He's kind of sad really and not the sort of guy you'd want to hang out with. Better to watch on the telly. Now 23 years later Simon has an urge to get the guys back together and finish the pub crawl. Reluctantly they agree to come. Things start out normally and they have a drink in one of the pubs. Then another and another. The secret invasion plan is revealed when Simon knocks the head off of a human looking simulacrum. It's all rubbery and filled with blue goo. They race about trying to figure out what to do. There's some fights that don't quite seem right for near middle age men to be having. Edgar Wright explains it in a quote from GQ magazine that I lifted from the Wikipedia.
Stunts were coordinated by Brad Allen of martial arts film director Jackie Chan's team. Wright said: "In Drunken Master, Jackie Chan has to get drunk to fight, but this is more the idea of Dutch courage. You know, when you're kind of drunk and you think 'ah, I can climb up that scaffolding!' Or just that you're impervious to pain. One of the things we talked about is this idea that [the characters] become better fighters the more oiled they get."
That sure explains a lot. At one point I was thinking that they were doing drunken kung fu and sure enough. There are plenty of other gags as the story unfolds, some bit of introspection and goofy aliens. We all laughed a good bit, especially when they destroyed the world. Good job, guys. It's something I would watch again, and since Sperhauk was nice enough to pass along the DVD that came with his BluRay, I can. I'd recommend it to those that like the previous films.
Joe brought The Baytown Outlaws which seems to have been named The Baytown Disco at one point. I see a lot of posters with that name in my Google search. There's one right above this. Based on the description on the NetFlix envelope I just wasn't expecting much.
It's the Oodie boys to the rescue in this Southern-fried film about some redneck siblings hired to rescue a woman's godson from her gangster ex-hubby. Billy Bob Thornton plays bad-ass Carlo, and Eva Longoria is the ex-wife determined to thwart him.
Well, I should know you can't trust NetFlix to present a true picture of the movie and it turned out to be a much more interesting film. It's from first time director Barry Battles who does a great job with a $4 million dollar budget. He shot the movie in and around Slidell Louisiana. It looks great for the little money and there are some good actors in most of the roles. Clayne Crawford is Brick Oodie, Daniel Cudmore is Lincoln Oodie and Travis Fimmel as McQueen Oodie. Battles wrote the script with Griffin Hood and you can see that they have been heavily influenced by modern crime films like Way Of The Gun, Nude Nuns With Big Guns, Boondock Saints, and Hell Ride. All of those are worth a gander but they aren't going to appeal to everyone. Neither is this.
That's Brick at the wheel, McQueen beside him and Lincoln napping in the back seat. We meet the Oodie brothers as they blast their way into someone's house and kill every mutherfucker in the place. Turns out it's the wrong house. Oops, huh. That's their life. Their dad was a criminal and the boys take after him. Andre Braugher is the local sheriff and he's pretty much as criminal as the brothers. He had taken the brothers under his wing when they were little and now that they've grown up he pays them to wipe out local criminals. It keeps the crime down in his area. Eva hires the brothers to kidnap her godson from her ex-husband Billy Bob. He's a drug dealer with a WalMart style business plan. He treats his employees poorly and you can see why Eva is pretty clear that she doesn't want Billy Bob standing after the brothers pick up her godson. Of course the brothers are pretty incompetent and they leave Billy Bob dazed but alive. Billy Bob wakes up, gets pissed and sends a gang of female bikers after them.
The biker bitches pick up the brother's trail and find them in a bar. Michael Rappaport has a small part as the bartender. He's often makes a good job of a small part and he does ok here. Using their slutty ways the ladies divide and conqueror but it doesn't go so well for them. On the road again the brothers are attacked by some black road warrior motherfuckers in their armoured battle wagon. That's some funny shit but sadly the battle wagon guys don't fare much better than the biker chicks. Andre has been getting heat from the ATF and he tells the brothers that they are on their own for fucking up so much. Things come to a head at a closed camp of some sort. Several heavily armed Native Americans show up and start blasting. The brothers survive to get jailed, the natives do neither. Brick spins a story that keeps Eva out of it and she is reunited with her godson. She gets some revenge on Billy Bob, after all he had tried to kill her before the story started, and when the brothers get released she gives them a big ass silver pickup truck.
As I said it's not going to appeal to everyone but the people that like it seem to like it a lot. I sure liked it and felt it was worth seeing. I sure laughed a good bit. I'm not so sure that I would need to buy it, but I would watch it again sometime down the road.
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