One of the joys of reading a lot of books or watching a lot of movies is finding the little stories that you love to see told and retold again and again and especially the character archetypes that keep bubbling up. Sam Axe is Hawk (either one, really) is Jayne is Han Solo (well, kinda). Leia is Ripley is Mrs. Peel (rwarwwr) is Eilonwy. There are the characters that, when done very well, seem to tap into something very old indeed and you don’t mind watching The Hero’s Journey for the umpteenth time because, hey, it’s The Oldest Story In The World.
As such, I’m very, very much looking forward to The Man With The Iron Fists. Just watching the trailer (WARNING: It’s a red band trailer and, as such, may not exactly be safe for work… but this may depend very much on where you work as well. It’s got some stylized blood and some very attractive shoulders.)… where was I? Oh, yes. Just watching the trailer, I know that I’ve seen this movie before.
I can’t wait to see it again.
Check it out.
(Hat tip to Pyre who originally told me that Batista was in an upcoming movie.)
I work somewhere where they believe in academic freedom, but the rest of you probably don’t want to watch this at work.
Also, Jaybird didn’t warn me about the eyeball.
Sorry about the eyeball.
OK, now I have to watch it.
I confess, I’m looking forward to it even though I consider it really likely to be the excess taken to excess instead of the simplicity taken to excess. Such is the broadly American take action movie genre.
I’m thinking more Die Hard 4 and less Die Hard, if you know what I mean. I’m hoping for Die Hard 3, though.
I loved, loved, loved Die Hard 4. I did think the “Bruce Willis beats up a fighter jet” scene was a little over the top, but the rest of the movie was just so exuberant that I was willing to run with it where it wanted to go. (In the same way as, say, The A-Team.)
Here’s a break between the two of us where you’re clearly in crazy land and I’m standing on top of objective truth.
If Die Hard 4 came after Die Hard 2, I would have been more okay with exuberance. Die Hard 4 was the sequel to Die Hard 2, and much better than Die Hard 2.
Die Hard 3 was the sequel to Die Hard, and it was better than both 2 and 4. Which makes me not like 4 very much. Letdowns, I suppose.
I still need to watch the A-Team. There, I demand exuberance.
While it’s true that I get told that first part a lot, it’s besides the point.
Live Free Or Die Hard was the first John McClane movie since the first one. Die Hard 2 was a Bruce Willis movie (and the scene where he uses the blanks on Dennis Franz was awesome). Die Hard 3 was a Bruce Willis/Sam Jackson buddy movie and the bomb scene on the subway was awesome and Jeremy Irons did make me remember Alan Rickman.
Live Free or Die Hard? That was a John McClane movie. Yes, I know that the Mac guy was in it too. That was only to allow such interactions as:
“You killed a helicopter with a car!”
“I ran out of bullets.”
I can see that.
Okay, you’re not in crazy land. Crazy-land adjacent, maybe.
Is it wrong to think Die Hard 3 was the best? I’m a bit biased because it is the first I really saw in its entirety at a point where I could really get into it (I watched a lot of “inappropriate” movies growing up with my dad who wasn’t much for appropriateness… so I remember seeing 1 and 2 but either wandered out of the room or mentally wandered off and only remember clips; I’ve since watched them in their entirety). But it was the funnest one for me, albeit a slightly different movie than the first two.
There’s no accounting for matters of taste.
That said, yes.
“Oh, yes. Just watching the trailer, I know that I’ve seen this movie before.”
I almost Tarantino has made this movie before.
More than once.
(‘almost positive’ of course)
From reading the Wikipedia, all QT has to do with the movie is, ahem, “During the development process, Quentin Tarantino agreed to lend his name to the film with a “presented by” credit.”
This movie is directed by The RZA.
JB, as Eilonwy is an unusual name, I assume that you mean the Lloyd Alexander character?
And, as I literally know no one else besides me that read or remembers the Prydain books, I further assume, between this and ‘Thief in the Night’, that you somehow are me?
So, what archetype are we?
Yeah. The Prydain books were awesome.
I’m just this guy, you know?
This is getting ridiculous. In my Sandman intros, rather than the ‘Troy McClure’-type intros, I almost went with ‘Hi, I’m Glyph. I’m just zis guy, you know?’
STOP BEING ME ONLY FUNNIER AND MORE SUCCESSFUL!
If you’ve got a full head of hair, you’re still ahead of me.
Everything’s coming up Glyph!
Glyph-
That is one of my favorite quotes. It is one of a small handful I use and, if anyone immediately gets the reference, they gain several points in my book. If you are a stranger and you get that quote when I drop it, we’re BFFs for the rest of the night.
I should clarify… I don’t use a small handful of quotes. Nearly everything I say is a quote or reference (I’m convinced that 90% of real world interactions relate to The Simpsons and/or Seinfeld). But that particular quote is part of a subset of quotes which can be used to gain instant approval in my book.
Kazzy, I am going to go slightly geekier. I don’t know if you ever saw the Star Trek Next Generation episode where they encounter the aliens who appear to be speaking English, but cannot be understood (‘Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra’). It turns out later that their language consists entirely of metaphors from their old myths and such.
For a while, my friends and I were convinced that one day a similar language, derived entirely from Simpsons quotes, would one day rule the earth.
I’ve never seen *A* Star Trek episode let alone *A* Star Trek: Next Generation episode let alone *THAT* Star Trek: Next Generation episode.
Whew! I kind of figured that would be the case, so I simplified the plot description a bit, but then became afraid other geeks would jump on me for it (YOU FOOL, THEY WEREN’T ‘SPEAKING ENGLISH’, THEY WERE SPEAKING THEIR OWN ALIEN LANGUAGE WHICH THE FEDERATION’S UNIVERSAL TRANSLATORS *TRANSLATE* INTO ENGLISH!)
For best effect, read the above paranthetical in Comic Book Store Guy’s voice.
Weird. I’ve never seen that episode, but it was discussed in a book on MBTI that I read.
Really? In what context?
I’m sure it must have been in a “different styles and failure to communicate” section.
A language consisting of nothing but pop culture references? Inconceivable.
They Prydain books are awesome. The Mabinogion (the Welsh legends they’re loosely based on) are also awesome. I wish the Evangeline Walton novels based on the Mabinogion were awesome too, but they’re only pretty good.
For the record, Mike either had read everything, or he fakes it well enough for it not to matter.
I read ’em. I think I read every fantasy book for a while.
I really liked them when I was a kid. I bought a used hardback that collects them all, so my kids can read them when they are older. The books don’t seem that well-known (though when I look at Amazon they are still in print, and well-reviewed).
BTW, is this the commenter formerly known as ‘Kimmi’?
formerly, sometimes and always. Sorry, most folks here remember asking me repeatedly if I was Korean/Asian when I first swung by as Kim. That’s why the nick change. I also go by Kimsie.
I also read and cherished the Prydain books.
Maribou also has read everything.
I used to read. I kind of miss it.
Don’t I know it.
You know how long it takes to get through a DFW book when you can only read it in 10-minute chunks in the can each day?
this is why i love taking public transit to work. 1 hour reading chunks each day. Today’s steinbeck.
+100. If I hadn’t had that 90 minute bus commute, I would never have been able to get through all three Musketeer books.
I read them, and I suspect oldest boy will pick them up and read them all in one day. Cannot get youngest boy to pick them up, though.
I’ve never seen the movie (Disney’s “The Black Cauldron”)… could one of you “I’ve seen the movie!” people out there tell me whether that’s a good way to get someone thirsty for more?
It wasn’t very well-received when it came out, I know that. 🙁
Same question. I’ve avoided it, assuming from the monstrosity that was the Disney Sword in the Stone that they botched it.
Aw, I liked ‘Sword’ (saw it as a kid before I ever read the source). I actually caught part of it recently on TV with my son, and it still seemed pretty good. I think ‘monstrosity’ might be overstating things a bit, is all I’m sayin’.
I too read all five of them. Still have the books too.
I am looking forward to it some, but worried as well. I have only liked one Tarentino film before, so his track record for me is bad.
This is more like how he brought “Hero” to the US than anything else. He’s just lending his name to it.
Now, he also did the same with Hostel (and Eli Roth is also associated with this movie) and maybe *THAT* should be a red flag…