Today's selections are from the action/adventure genre. This really can touch on a lot of different subcategories: martial arts, fantasy, western, spy stories, suspense, literary interpretations and so much more. Here are some of my favorites:
1. The Mummy- 1999 Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah as the hilarious and slightly cowardly brother. This movie, based on the 1932 film of the same name (starring Boris Karloff) is about a studious and clumsy librarian and her brother who join an adventurer and inadvertently wake a mummy named Imhotep who sucks the life out of those he meets in order to rejuvenate so he can perform a ritual and awake his long dead love. Comedy, romance, mistaken identity, magic, lots of action, a handsome hero and a gross mummy. Who could ask for more?
2. Labyrinth- 1986 a young Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie as the goblin king. Sarah is left watching her baby brother Toby who won't stop crying and says that she wishes the goblins would come take him away. Bam! King Jareth of the goblins, in love with Sarah, makes her wish a reality and in order to get her brother back she must get all the way through a labyrinth to Jareth's castle by midnight. She meets different characters along the way: gentle giant Ludo, Sir Didymus the knight who aids her quest and of course Hoggle, the grumpy dwarf who ends up helping her even though he's been threatened by the goblin king. I'll never forget the Bog of Eternal Stench, the oubliette, the goblin king's song and of course the line she finally utters to Jareth to break his spell: you have no power over me. I first saw this one at a girl scout sleep over. Loved the movie, hated the sleepover. 'Nuff said.
3.Knight and Day- 2010 Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz. Roy Miller is the coolest spy. Good looking, saves people's lives, owns his own tropical island and knows how to dismantle a bomb in the pitch black with nothing but a safety pin and a Junior Mint. A woman named June gets mixed up with Roy when she gets on a flight where she's not supposed to be. While she's in the bathroom, Roy kills all the other passengers (don't worry they only number a few and all of them are bad guys) and accidentally shoots one pilot who shoots the other leaving only June and Roy alive. Roy is required to land the plane and drugs June who wakes up in her own bed. But that's not the end of the adventure, oh no! I love how calm Tom Cruise's character is about everything. My favorite moment is when June, having been drugged (again), wakes up just enough to see she's in a strange room and has been captured. Roy is swinging upside down with his hands behind his back and is assuring her calmly that everything's going to be okay, he'll get them out of there. And he's right.
4. Adventures in Babysitting- 1987 Elisabeth Shue stars as Chris, a girl who instead of going out on a date with her "so cool" boyfriend Brad, gets stuck babysitting a teen who has a crush on her, his obnoxious best friend and a young girl, Sarah, who hero worships Thor. Chris's friend Brenda calls. She's run away from home and is at the bus depot downtown with a bunch of creepy people and needs Chris to come and get her. They all pile into the car but on the way they get a flat tire. A series of misadventures happens including getting in the middle of a gang fight, being in a vehicle while it's hijacked, a man with a hook hand who scares the kids in more than one way, singing the blues at a nightclub, escaping from a chopshop by walking an iron beam high in the air, seeing Chris's boyfriend two timing her, being mistaken for a playboy bunny and Sarah being stuck outside the window of a skyscraper. Who knew babysitting was this hard? It's definitely not for wimps. Did anyone else memorize the song and dance that Chris performs in her bedroom at the beginning of the movie? I bet some of you did, even if you don't admit it!
5. True Grit- 2010 Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld who does an amazing job playing Mattie Ross, a girl who's out for vengeance for her father's murder. Based on the 1969 John Wayne movie, this one packs a lot of punch. It's an emotional roller coaster as this determined girl hires Rooster Cogburn, an alcoholic and morally questionable Marshall to help her find her father's murderer. They are joined by Matt Damon's character who is also on the trail of the same man. Neither of the men are really happy about taking a child with them but Mattie is determined to see justice done herself and will not listen when they tell her what she can and cannot do because she is a young female. Along the way the group finds a lot of obstacles and just when it seems like they'll never find their man, he kidnaps Mattie and tries to kill her. She, of course, is rescued but not without injury. It's fascinating to see the relationship of this hardened old guy and this strong young woman change over the course of their journey. A warning: this movie is PG-13 but there is a few graphic violent parts. Don't watch with young children.
6. Pirates of the Caribbean- 2003 Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly. Who can forget the sight of Captain Jack Sparrow as he sails a sinking ship into the dock? Or skeletons walking across the ocean bottom to capture a ship? Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski bring us a new (well, maybe not so new NOW) swashbuckler. Captain Jack and Will Turner search for the kidnapped daughter of the governor, Elizabeth Swan, whom Will is in love with. She's been captured by the fearsome Captain Barbossa, Jack Sparrow's former first mate who led the crew to mutiny not knowing that they had been put under a curse and would need Jack's help to undo it. Jack is only wanting his pirate ship, The Black Pearl, back in his possession. He, Will and Elizabeth defeat the pirates, break the curse and kill Captain Barbossa. Will learns about his pirate father and how to express how he feels to Elizabeth and Jack is saved from being hanged for being a pirate and sails away on the Black Pearl. What a fun movie!
7. Jason Bourne- Matt Damon. The Bourne Identity (2002) started out this series of movies about a man named Jason Bourne who is pulled out of the water with two bullets in him and wakes up with amnesia and a bank account number in his hip. Jason realizes that he possesses a very select set of skills. He meets Marie who gives him a ride to Paris. He is pursued by assassins and he finally finds out that he is a rogue operative that the CIA is trying to track down and kill. Matt Damon stars in three Bourne movies. The last installment, The Bourne Legacy, stars Jeremy Renner (who I really like) as an agent in a different program who is also pursued. Action in these movies is intense and fast paced. Lost of martial arts and car chases. People die. But not Jason Bourne. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking!
8. A Series of Unfortunate Events- 2004 Emily Browning, Liam Aiken and Jim Carrey as the horridly evil Count Olaf. This film is based on the first three books of A Series of Unfortunate Events (go figure!). The stories follow the Baudelaire orphans. Violet, the oldest is an inventor. Claus the middle child reads and remembers everything. Sunny the youngest likes to bite things. Their journeys are chronicled by the mysterious Lemony Snicket as they find out that their parents perished in a fire that destroyed their mansion. They're sent to live with Count Olaf who turns out to be after the children's money and after he tries to kill them, they are transferred to the care of Uncle Monty who is a herpitologist, and then Aunt Josephine, who has so many phobias it's insane (I mean really, who would be afraid that if you stand next to the refrigerator it will fall and crush you to death?). Each time they are placed in a new, strange home Count Olaf comes after them. It's a strange little story and I absolutely love the absurdity of some of the situations. There are some very profound lines which make you think as well.
9. Avatar- 2009 Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver. The planet Pandora has been discovered some who-knows-how-many millions of miles away and the humans have found a very useful mineral/metal that they want which is only found on this planet. Marine Jake Sully, a parapalegic, is recruited to go to Pandora in his murdered twin brother's place and is inducted into the avatar program with the understanding that he's to convince the native people to relocate so the mineral under their home tree can be mined. In exchange he will receive the ability to walk again. The native race, the Na'vi, are reticent to have much to do with the Skypeople, but Grace, the doctor in charge of the avatar program has found a way to create living bodies combining the DNA of humans with that of Na'vi to make the Avatar bodies that Jake and his fellow colleagues use to get close to the Na'vi people. Jake ends up being accepted and trained by the tribe and finds himself falling in love with Neytiri, the tribal chief's daughter and has to decide whether to be true to his own cruel race or to accept his new family and save them if he can. Stunning visual effects make you feel like you've literally traveled to Pandora with it's scary creatures and beautiful scenery. A long movie, but worth it.
10. The Italian Job- 2003 Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def and Edward Norton. Based loosely on the 1969 movie of the same name, Mark Wahlberg plays Charlie Crocker, leader of a rag tag but very skilled group of thieves who have found where the traitor of their group currently lives. Steve had stolen all the gold they took together doing the Italian job and killed their leader played by Donald Sutherland. Now that the team and Stella, the murdered leader's daughter have found him, they want to make him pay. Charlie is the idea man. There's a demolitions expert, a hacker, a safe cracker, and 'Handsome Rob' who supplies transportation. This movie brought Mini Coopers back into style. Wish I could drive like that!
11. Sneakers- 1992 Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix (could it be? yes it could!) and a cameo by James Earl Jones. Dr. Gunter Janek has found a way to break down impossibly huge codes and has wired it into a little black box. Too bad Martin Bishop and his group of misfit lawbreakers turned security specialists didn't know that before they got tricked into taking it in exchange for pardons for their past misdeeds. Now they're trying not to get killed from a group of people headed by Martin's old buddy who he let take the wrap for their hacking into government websites and was consequently sent to prison and now works for organized crime. They want the little black box, but so do other government organizations. How do they get out of this situation with their lives? This movie is 20 years old and technology has changed greatly in this time, but even though this movie is outdated, it's still good fun listening to Crease and Mother argue, hearing Martin get advice from Whistler who is blind about how to figure out (by the sounds he heard) where he was taken in the trunk of a car and laugh at Carl's desperate desire for true love. Add in Martin's old girlfriend helping the group out and it's a recipe for a good time.
12. Six Days, Seven Nights- 1998 Harrison Ford (hubba, hubba) and Anne Heche. Robin Monroe, an executive for a glamour magazine in New York is taken on a vacation with her boyfriend to a tropical Southern Pacific island flown there by Quinn Harris and his trampy but sweet assistant/sort of girlfriend. While there she gets a call from work to go to Tahiti and pays Quinn to fly her there. They do not like each other. And just their luck, a storm rolls in and they have to make an emergency landing on a deserted island where the airplane breaks a wheel and they are now stranded. As they learn to stay alive and not kill each other, they end up falling in love. Meanwhile, back at the resort their significant others have a search and rescue team looking for them and they finally give them up for dead. On the island, Robin and Quinn have different adventures including a snake swimming up Robin's pants, meeting murdering pirates and working to fix the plane to get them mobile again. They're able to escape from the pirates just in the nick of time but can they go back to the lives they led before now that they've changed? My favorite lines: 'You're a lousy pilot! I've flown with you twice and you've crashed half the time!' and 'Aren't you one of those guys? You know, those guys with skills? You send them out into the wilderness with a pocket knife and a Q-tip and the build you a shopping mall. You can't do that?'
4. Adventures in Babysitting- 1987 Elisabeth Shue stars as Chris, a girl who instead of going out on a date with her "so cool" boyfriend Brad, gets stuck babysitting a teen who has a crush on her, his obnoxious best friend and a young girl, Sarah, who hero worships Thor. Chris's friend Brenda calls. She's run away from home and is at the bus depot downtown with a bunch of creepy people and needs Chris to come and get her. They all pile into the car but on the way they get a flat tire. A series of misadventures happens including getting in the middle of a gang fight, being in a vehicle while it's hijacked, a man with a hook hand who scares the kids in more than one way, singing the blues at a nightclub, escaping from a chopshop by walking an iron beam high in the air, seeing Chris's boyfriend two timing her, being mistaken for a playboy bunny and Sarah being stuck outside the window of a skyscraper. Who knew babysitting was this hard? It's definitely not for wimps. Did anyone else memorize the song and dance that Chris performs in her bedroom at the beginning of the movie? I bet some of you did, even if you don't admit it!
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