![]() ![]() The main characters live stagnant lives of repetition, scarcely ever peering outside the goldfish bowl of whatever is five feet in front of them. Using repeated visual cues, camera moves, and even dialogue as motif gives entire film a sense of before-and-after of Armageddon. The result is Shaun of the Dead, itself a master class unto tight, structured writing. This paved the way for television directed Edgar Wright ( Spaced), to fulfill his dream of writing a zombie movie, his way. That started to change with mega-hits made for a pittance, like Trainspotting and The Full Monty. As such, British comedy wasn't something you went to the movie theater to see, it was something that in-the-know nerds stayed up late to watch while playing Risk and reading Garth Ennis comic books. Reruns of Absolutely Fabulous, Black Adder, and Fawlty Towers filled in the gap left by Flying Circus once Monty Python moved to the cinema. Humor imported from the UK to the States was, for most of the '90s, relegated to cult TV shows on late night Comedy Central. Thor: Ragnarok went on to become one of the most original, and enjoyable, movies of the entire MCU. Once a cerulean-eye lined Jeff Goldblum uses a melt-stick on his cousin in the first act, you can stop pretending you can guess what will happen next. The result is an Odyssey-like trek among allies and adversaries, constantly adhering to the age-old rule of filmmaking to stay ahead of the audience. Taika turned to '80s comedy classic Big Trouble in Little China, and used the advantages afforded by setting the film in space to go big with set pieces, alien characters, and even plot twists. 2014's Captain America: Winter Soldier had already found success by aping the '70s spy genre in plot, tone, and even casting. That's when they tapped Taika Waititi.Ī familiar face, even outside his native New Zealand due to his crossover comedies What We Do In The Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Taika was tasked with making a genre film out of a superhero film. With Phase 3, Kevin Feige already had a dozen or so films under the MCU banner, and was willing to take a chance with allowing one of his core superheroes to star in an anti-superhero movie. It's a lot of fun to watch.Īfter an underperforming pair of movies, it became clear to the braintrust at Marvel that Thor was their weakest Avenger. Sure, there's the casual, Street Fighter-type racial and regional stereotypes that make modern audiences cringe, but there's a reason that a Bloodsport DVD was required for college kids of multiple generations, along with a shirtless Jim Morrison poster and a bong shaped like Gandalf's pipe. Jean-Claude Van Damme is a commensurate practitioner of "martial science," to use the words of his mentor, Tanaka. Yet, Bloodsport has an undeniably Wiseau-esque charm. Yet it still misses the mark, because the film itself is a train wreck of terrible acting and amateurish filmmaking. ![]() ![]() However, in the way that Locke broke all the rules by making a real-time film about a guy just driving a car while on his cell phone, Bloodsport follows all the rules about overcoming personal obstacles, a romantic B-plot, a tragic mentor figure, and a ticking clock. Johnny Depp, the bad kind of good." -Abed, from Community But Tucker and Chan are like Phineas and Ferb, like a burger and fries, like calling in sick to work and not updating your Instagram so you don't get caught going to the movies - a perfect duo. It's formulaic, with artificial drama and, according to Jackie Chan himself, not action-heavy enough. ![]() Even outside of Chan and Tucker, the supporting cast reads like a who's who of acting darlings: Tom Wilkinson, Chris Penn, Philip Baker Hall, even a brief, memorable scene with John Hawkes. The buddy cop recipe is well known and effective, which is why this is the first of several on this list. Still, commerciality and a mass market audience had eluded them both until 1998's Rush Hour. Jackie Chan's brand of physical humor was already legendary in Hong Kong, and had even crossed over somewhat with the low budget cult favorite, Rumble in the Bronx. Director Brett Ratner already had a relationship with Def Jam circuit funnyman Chris Tucker, after their work on Money Talks. ![]()
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