RockyIv Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Our Favorite Montages: Rocky IV
Filed under: Classics », Sports », Fandom », Film Clips », Trailers and Clips »
Naturally, when asked to pick a favorite montage I had to be painfully obvious and choose Rocky IV. If I could program Star Trek Holodeck adventures for myself, one of them would totally be set in Hollywood's version of the Cold War, where it was better to be dead than red, and nuclear war was just five minutes away unless Stallone or Schwarzenegger stepped in. This is the culture that spawned characters like Marvel's Black Widow, and I too want to be an agent provocateur for one side or the other. Preferably Russian. They always had the cool black outfits.
That's why I dig the Rocky IV montage. It's steeped in images of what America firmly believed the Soviet Union to be -- a country of superior technology and gigantic athletes that could totally crush us. This is the stuff of my Reagan era childhood, when my teachers told us we would inevitably fall to the hammer and sickle because the Soviets were just so relentlessly ruthless and badass. No one captures this better than Ivan Drago. To gaze on him is to look into Reagan's fear of the Evil Empire. Drago's the poster child for why we needed a lot of nukes in the 1980s. Even better, this montage also captures what we believed pre-Revolutionary Russia to be, which is clearly something out of Doctor Zhivago. Like Leo Tolstoy, Sylvester Stallone obviously believed that Russia lost its way when it strayed from its peasant soul, and he embraces its hearty lifestyle of serfdom in order to achieve true victory.
Watch the video after the jump
That's why I dig the Rocky IV montage. It's steeped in images of what America firmly believed the Soviet Union to be -- a country of superior technology and gigantic athletes that could totally crush us. This is the stuff of my Reagan era childhood, when my teachers told us we would inevitably fall to the hammer and sickle because the Soviets were just so relentlessly ruthless and badass. No one captures this better than Ivan Drago. To gaze on him is to look into Reagan's fear of the Evil Empire. Drago's the poster child for why we needed a lot of nukes in the 1980s. Even better, this montage also captures what we believed pre-Revolutionary Russia to be, which is clearly something out of Doctor Zhivago. Like Leo Tolstoy, Sylvester Stallone obviously believed that Russia lost its way when it strayed from its peasant soul, and he embraces its hearty lifestyle of serfdom in order to achieve true victory.
Watch the video after the jump
The Most Outdated Films and Conventions
Filed under: Critical Thought », Fandom », Summer Movies »
Our ongoing Favorite Summers retrospective has thrown the past into a painful (but hilarious) clarity. Saying"The films of the '80s and '90s are dated!" is like pointing out the sky is blue, but I do think that the past 30 years were more awkwardly captured than the '60s and '70s were before them. Despite the clothes and typewriters, All the President's Men seems far less dated than The X-Files: Fight the Future, and I can't put my finger on why this is except for a vague notion of cultural relevance, and the fact that '70s sideburns and tight pants will always look cool.
Perhaps nothing defines this better than the '80s Cold War films. That decade took our Soviet paranoia to a level of shrillness. In my Russian history classes, we used to joke about how much we feared the Soviets and how much of our dread was fueled by the movies, films that are now nothing but pure cheese after Gorbachev. But they're pretty incredible relics because of the sheer terror they're filled with. To paraphrase my esteemed colleague Scott Weinberg, if all that remained of our civilization was Rocky IV, what the hell would archaeologists think? The only conclusion you could come to was that the Soviet Empire was something akin to the Huns, a terrifying force that had attacked the North American continent for decades. I mean, freedom's up against the ropes ... does the crowd understand? Those futuristic scholars won't, unless they find the right history book, and not a copy of Red Dawn.
So, here's your midweek Cinematical essay question -- what are some films that are terribly outdated to the point that they warp a historical outlook? What films are so dated that they're nearly unwatchable? What about archiac movie conventions? Costumes, clothing and technology are acceptable answers, but I'd love some really creative examples.
So, here's your midweek Cinematical essay question -- what are some films that are terribly outdated to the point that they warp a historical outlook? What films are so dated that they're nearly unwatchable? What about archiac movie conventions? Costumes, clothing and technology are acceptable answers, but I'd love some really creative examples.
Discuss: When Movie Music Becomes Distracting
Filed under: Music & Musicals », Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom »
This just in: Zack Snyder's use of Leonard Cohen's Hallejuah made moviegoers around the world forget they were watching Dan and Laurie get it on. I don't know where their minds were yanked to, but everyone found it distracting. I was one of the few who didn't. In fact, I would say John Cale's version in Shrek was more distracting, considering the sexual themes of the song and the movie it was playing in. Then again, Shrek was full of adult moments, and Hallejuah was probably just another thing for the parents to enjoy.
But as always, we like to take such mildly combative subjects and put them up for discussion here. Surely there's a ton of moments in movie music history that yanked you right out of the film and left you giggling, wincing, or rolling your eyes.
On the goofy end of the scale, I would offer Top Gun, with Kenny Loggins' Playing with the Boys as a bunch of shirtless hunks play volleyball, or any of the power ballads in Rocky IV. (Still, freedom was against the ropes in that movie. Maybe I'm being too harsh.)
On the "ok, but too obvious" scale is the use of U2's Pride (In the Name of Love) in Elizabethtown. Normally, Cameron Crowe's music is impeccable, but playing it while Orlando Bloom is standing outside of where Martin Luther King was assassinated? Yeah. Not good. There's tons of moments like these. Let's write the definitive list here.
(And in order to give credit where it's due -- this idea was partly inspired by a discussion I had on the /filmcast last week ... which was partly inspired by our Good Music from Mediocre Movies debate here on Cinematical. It's like a sweater that keeps on knitting and knitting.)
Cinematical Seven: When Macho Actors Go Soft
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Disney », Family Films », Cinematical Seven », Remakes and Sequels », Lists »
Another macho man has made the obligatory leap into the kiddie pool. This time it's Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who has gone and starred opposite a child in this weekend's new release The Game Plan. Could it damage his potential for further tough guy roles? Does he care? He's already signed on to another kid friendly part in Witch Mountain, so perhaps he's no longer worried about audiences accepting him as a muscle man with attitude.
The Rock, like Vin Diesel before him, may have jumped the gun on doing a Disney family film before securing an iconic place next to Schwarzenegger, Stallone and other action hero types. His movie may therefore lack that necessary extreme between the character we associate with The Rock and the character he must take on for the movie -- like the type of contrast that made Kindergarten Cop so funny.
But there are worse things he could do. Other action stars and macho actors have made some pretty terrible mistakes that had nothing to do with working with kids, and many of these mistakes were career altering. Let's just hope Dwayne Johnson never has to suffer such ideas as these:
1. Junior (1994, Ivan Reitman)
For a macho guy, finding out you have a kid is domesticating, but finding out you're pregnant is emasculating. Nothing says an action hero has gone soft like giving him a bun in the oven, and it's no wonder that Arnold Schwarzenegger had difficulty maintaining his image in action movies for the next decade -- until Terminator 3. I'm certain that if The Rock tried doing a movie in which he's with child rather than with a child, he'd cause far more problems for his career. At least Schwarzenegger had just a few months earlier released True Lies, and fans likely held onto the hope he would be back on top one day.
RIP: James Brown (1933-2006)
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Music & Musicals », Obits »
His main legacy is his music, sure, and few will be remembering him today for his contributions to cinema, but James Brown was a big part of the movies. And he will continue to be a big part of the movies for years to come despite his death from pneumonia early Christmas morning. Aside from the two blaxploitation films he scored (Black Caesar and Slaughter's Big Rip-Off), there are over 100 movies that Brown's music has been heard in. Many of the songs used for these soundtracks seem in retrospect to have been created solely for the benefit of being licensed to Hollywood. How many movies can you think of that featured "I Got You (I Feel Good)" or "It's a Man's Man's Man's World"? I think one of the first CDs I ever owned as a kid was the soundtrack to Rocky IV, which featured "Living in America", so Brown's film legacy is something that I'm always conscious of.
The "Godfather of Soul" didn't only lend a song to Rocky IV, he even appeared in the movie, as himself. He also showed up in Doctor Detroit, The Tuxedo, The Hire: Beat the Devil (one of those BMW shorts/ads), Undercover Brother, Holy Man and Ski Party. And that isn't even including documentaries. As far as getting to play roles that aren't technically himself, there is of course his character Reverend Cleophus James in The Blues Brothers, which he reprised for Blues Brothers 2000.
A new documentary called Life on the Road with Mr. and Mrs. Brown, which is about James Brown and his fourth wife, singer Tommy Rae Brown, is currently in post-production and set for release next year.
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