If you google "best trilogies" you'll get the usual. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Godfather... A friend of mine recently sent me a photo message of her 55" television and on it was a map of Middle Earth. She was tucking into the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was so jealous as I don't seem to have that kind of time these days and it made me think of movie sessions I'd done and enjoyed. Obviously Lord of the Rings has been done several times. But there was also "theme days", like creature features or Spielberg only or Christmas movies... you get the idea. In the spirit of this I think the Kurt Russell/John Carpenter collaboration is a worthy addition to the list. Contrary to the title, they've worked on five projects together but the middle three are an exercise in movie making perfection and should be watched by anyone with a shred of cinematic dignity (and you know, the time).
Escape From New York
I'm a bit freaked out by the start of this movie now. A bunch of militant assholes hijack Air Force One and crash it into the heart of New York. Bear in mind, this movie was made 20 years before the attacks on 9/11. Anyway, for the uninitiated: As mentioned above Air Force One has been crashed into the heart of New York. That's bad enough but what's worse is, due to a continued spike in crime, The Big Apple is now a maximum security prison. Walls have been built up around it and are manned by police. Mines have been placed on bridges and anyone hoping to get out on a raft will be blown out of the water (literally) by a lurking helicopter. You'd assume there's boats out there too... So, the President (Donald Pleasance) has managed to escape in a pod and with him is a tape which he needs to bring to a summit involving USA, China and Russia in order to restore world peace.
Enter the coolest anti hero in the history of cinema, Snake Plissken. Snake is a gun fighter, thief and all round badass! He wears an eye patch. I've been told it's because his eye is sensitive to light but I always assumed he only had the one. Either way it matters not because it's fucking COOL! Snake has finally been captured by the establishment and is being transported to New York Prison to serve out his life sentence... When the President's plane goes down, Hauk, played by the amazing Lee Van Cleef, helicopters into the prison city to try to negotiate with one of the inmates. He's given one of the President's fingers and told, "if you're not up in the air in 30 seconds he dies"...
Optionless, Hauk dangles freedom in front of Plissken. All he has to do is sneak into New York and rescue the president using any means necessary and deliver him within 24 hours. Snake reluctantly accepts (see clip below) As you can imagine hi-jinks ensue. Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins are all excellent additions and what a genius piece of casting it was to get Ernest Borgnine in as the eccentric "Cabbie".
However, the biggest piece of genius in a movie riddled with it must go to Kurt Russell who decided to play Snake like Clint Eastwood because Lee Van Cleef was Eastwood's enemy in The Good The Bad and The Ugly. To say that decision paid off is a huge understatement. Snake's quiet sibilance is extremely effective and only adds to his coolness. As for the movie itself. It is a quiet riot. Fast paced but not without moments to gather yourself. And, apart from the inferior sequel, there really isn't anything else quite like this. Just bad character imitations. Riddick enthusiasts have EFNY to thank for paving the way. I'll leave you with a Plissken quote, "I don't give a fuck about your war or your president". Still relevant? Oh hell yes. Great way to start the trifecta!
The Thing
The Thing is that rare beast. A remake that is not only good but improves upon the original. Oddly enough, as good as the movie is, when it was released in 1982 nobody went to see it. Why not? ET. That's why. Spielberg's favourite alien was winning the hearts of movie goers all over the world and when The Thing came out, nobody wanted to watch a movie about a shape shifting alien that becomes a copy of the person it infects. They missed out. The Thing is a powerhouse of performances, special fx, pace and story telling all under the watchful eye of a director at the very top of his game.
Russell plays MacReady as a tough pilot who doesn't say anything unless it's worth saying and doesn't do anything unless it's worth doing. Unfortunately for "Mac" shit gets real in a big way in this movie and from the moment an infected dog arrives at their base in the Antarctic, his gruff and tough ways are called upon. From flying a helicopter out to the nearby Norweigian camp in high winds to torching aliens left right and centre, Mac is kept pretty busy. It all leads to the now legendary "petri-dish scene". Mac takes everyone hostage and demands a blood sample from the remaining crew. Each are assigned their own petri-dish. He dips a hot needle into each dish and if there's a reaction, they'd be able to identify who the "thing" is. It's pure brilliance! If Spielberg or any of the "top men" wrote this scene, they'd still be banging on about it. It's not just the special fx (which are spectacular) it's not just the acting (also top notch) but the way the camera moves. The way it leads you into every incident in the scene. It's easy to miss how smooth a job Carpenter does because the shocks come fast and furious but when you've watched it for the umpteenth time, you start to grasp just how much of a genius Carpenter was...
The music by Ennio Morricone is predictably excellent. Not what you'd expect but it really fits. Rob Bottin (picture) was 21 when he did the fx for this movie. He got a little help from Stan Winston who took over for the famous dog kennel scene. The fact that Winston's scene which is horrifically brilliant, isn't the best fx scene in the movie says a lot about Bottin's work. The movie is not for everyone. It has dollops of humour for those of a darker disposition but everyone else may find it all a bit too grim. It's extremely shocking and that's too much for some. But the talent involved is too big to ignore and the class of the movie overcomes the idiotic reviews it initially received. Time has also been really good to the movie: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1021244-thing/ and it's an excellent "middle movie" in this trilogy. Where do we go from here? Bonkers town!
Big Trouble In Little China
When you've just watched The Thing and you've another movie to go you need something different. You need something special. You need something, dare I say it, happy. Big Trouble In Little China is described as "A mystical action adventure comedy kung-fu monster ghost story". It's all those things and more... so much more. For this is the movie of Jack Burton! And Jack Burton means hilarity to those of us who get him. Sadly, we live in a world where not everybody gets him. As heroes go, Jack is a guy who thinks he is the absolute bollocks but in actual fact doesn't succeed because of himself but succeeds in spite of himself and the size of his delusions are matched only by the size of his truck which he lovingly calls "The Pork Chop Express". All aboard!
Did I mention that Kurt Russell is a genius? Having played Snake Plissken like Clint Eastwood he decided to play Jack Burton as a full on John Wayne piss take and it's wondrous! We meet Jack Burton on his way to San Francisco, Chinatown in the Pork Chop Express and he's "talkin' to whoever is listening out there" gabbing pearls of Burton wisdom out through his CB radio. None of it making any sense, all of it immensely quotable. So he meets up with his buddies and they immediately start gambling. Jack comes out on top (for once) but his good friend, Wang, has no money so they go to the airport together to pick up Wang's girlfriend after which he'll pay Jack his dues (ahem).
Anyway, Wang's green eyed lady gets kidnapped and shit escalates.... big time. Turns out Jack and Wang have stumbled into a battle that's been raging for thousands of years. David Lo Pan (played hilariously by James Hong) is a demon cursed to walk the earth as a kind of ghost and the only way he can lift the curse is to marry a green eyed Chinese girl and then kill her... hence the kidnapping. If he does this he then intends to rule the world because, ya know... demon. Good guys come together to fight him and with Jack Burton leading them, what can go wrong? Well lots actually and all of it is hilarious. Thanfully Egg Shen (Victor Wong also superb) is on hand to give aid. You find out as the movie progresses that he has been fighting Lo Pan forever... If you don't know what's happening in the movie don't worry about it. It's kind of the point. Jack Burton has no idea either. Take a look:
There's an abundance of joy in this movie for those who give it a chance. There's serious re-watch value too. It has nothing in common with the previous movies in this trifecta and it feels utterly original. It's another Carpenter movie that nobody went to see but did well with audiences years later. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/big_trouble_in_little_china/
Ahead of its time? I don't know. I just think there's a sense of humour in here that isn't for everyone. I put it to you like this, if you can't see the humour in a centuries old demon using phrases like "now this really pisses me off to no end" then this movie probably isn't for you.
So there you have it. A trifecta of movies that should be savoured by all. If you find yourself with a spare 6 hours, you could do an awful lot worse.
Cheers,
G.
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