Machete Review

Even though it's September, it's still fairly warm outside right now and thus I still consider it Summer.  And to me, the Summer movie season is officially over.  Why?  Because, I just saw Machete and I don't really have anything to look forward to until Jackass 3D in October (I think) and Tron: Legacy in the Winter, that's why.  So was Machete end Summer with a bang or with a whimper?  Read on to find out!

HELP! I'm Being Blaxploited!

I make no secret about my love for so-called "guilty pleasure" movies to the point that I don't even consider them a guilty pleasure.  I'm proud to like movies of shady quality and ill repute and make it quite known.  Chop-socky flicks, Grindhouse sleaze, Italian giallo and zombie gore.  Sometimes I feel like I was born a couple decades too late and I should be wandering around the seedy side of Manhattan wearing a stained trenchcoat and mirrored shades.  But no other sub-genre exemplifies this underrated time in cinematic history in the same way that Blaxploitation does.  Sure, it's easy to write such movies off as "cheese" when the bulk of the characters in them are sporting bell bottoms, afros and jheri curls while spouting off jive and even easier to condemn them as exploitative when those very same characters are almost always junkies, pushers, pimps and prostitutes.  But to me, "Blaxplotation" symbolizes everything that's real and true with moviemaking, even if the end result is usually lacking.  There's no better way for me to explain it, so I'll let Blaxploitation legend and all-around badass Fred Williamson do it better than I ever could:

“I have no idea who was being exploited. Black people loved the movies, all the actors were being paid. I mean, if you compare it to Burt Reynolds or Clint Eastwood movies of the same time, they never called them ‘white exploitation’. It was a terminology they had to use to distinguish black film, because black films with heroes didn’t exist until [the 1970's].”

The A-Team Mini-Review and Other Things I've Watched Lately

This one's going to be a bit of a quickie...well, I say that NOW but you know my tendency to ramble on about nothing in particular.  But I figured I'd get this one out of the way right away and real quick while it's still fresh on my mind. 

Anyway, I decided to check out The A-Team last night with a few friends and it was quite fun.  But as much as I liked it, there's not really a lot to talk about, which is another reason why this blog entry may run a bit short.  The A-Team is very much a "What You See Is What You Get"-type of movie.  If you've seen the trailers, you can pretty much tell whether or not you want to see it.  If you want to see it, you'll know exactly what you're in for.  And if you don't, there's nothing that's going to make you change your mind.  Simply put, if you think people shooting airplanes out of the sky from a parachuting tank is awesome, then you'll love the movie.  If you think it's dumb, then you'll hate it.  Simple as that.