One of the great things about having a 14 year-old son is that you can introduce him to an entire canon of movie history that you have found significant over the years. It’s been the perfect opportunity to re-watch Blade Runner, Delicatessen, Brazil, 2001… the Arnie classics, and the entire Tarantino oeuvre…
But last night we watched a couple of films that could not have been more targetted to his specific age in this specific time. A double feature: Transformers and DOA:Dead or Alive.
You’ll be familiar with Transformers, Michael Bay’s big Hollywood mega-buck, hyper-tech explosion-fest, featuring Shia LaBeouf and some vehicles that could have come from Professor Rubik’s laboratory. It was way better and far less kid-orientated than I would have imagined. Not actually ‘good’ in any sort of quality sense, but serious blockbuster fun. I really enjoyed it.
You might not be familiar with DOA, and for good reason. It’s crap.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s great crap. It has all of the ingredients: action fighting super characters in a video arcade game style knock-out tournament, sexy spies, a Japanese princess with an American accent, a Daisy Duke character with Hulk Hogan action moves, Eric Roberts as a high-tech supervillain who steals the fighters’ powers and transfers them to himself by way of special cyber-sunglasses (which are, of course, made available for sale to the world’s rogue states), a spot of beach volleyball, mud wrestling and more bikini close-ups than an entire season of Baywatch.
Bobbie and I groaned at every cliche as it went past, but we were grinning like idiots. This was like riding a rollercoaster after way too much sugar and food colouring.
“How was that?” we asked, once the credits were rolling, expecting an enthusiastic response.
Jake snored and shifted in his chair. He’d slept through the last half.
I think tonight we’ll watch Withnail and I.
Tagged: Personal