The Brooklyn Story
Settling in for the night with a violent movie and pizza and breadsticks when one of Matt's room mates Alva returns home. Alva is a transplant from Eaton Rapids, Michigan and as a converted Manhattanite, we ask his for his take on the Brooklyn gig that we skipped. 'Ah man, Brooklyn is where it's at on a Sunday night'. Huh? Everywhere else in the country...ok, the Midwest, everything is closed on Sunday. Even in Chicago, the city shuts down as people prepare for the coming week. That apparently is not so in Brooklyn where the best night is Sunday and especially around 10pm to 11pm about the time when would have been starting. Not to mention that the venue where we were booked is supposed to be one of the Brooklyn hot spots where bands like ours are discovered. Manhattan, he tells us, is where the club scene is at. Brooklyn is where indie bands are discovered and the night that we missed and went to Atlantic City, is one of the best nights to play. Salt in the wound for sure, but not the end of the world.
My Die Hard Review
As previously mentioned, before Tuesday, I had only watched Die Hard on basic cable television in snippets. That meant that classic catch-phrases that the movie is built upon never had the impact they were supposed to have. It's strange to consider how integrally important profanity can actually be in a film. Within the context of the heightened reality of Die Hard, it is essential to the awesomeness of the dialogue and in particular, Bruce Willis' character.
For anyone who has never seen Die Hard, it is your quintessential 80's one man against a bunch of baddies action movie. Bruce Willis is John McClain, an NYPD cop visiting his estranged wife in California for Christmas. This of course happens the same day that a small terrorist organization led by Alan Rickman, seeks to extort the multi-billion dollar company that Mrs. McClain happens to work for. McClain of course is the only person who can stop them because they are trained professionals from Germany. Anyway, the rest is a lot of shooting and swearing and movie references all edited into an entertaining package that sets the standard for two sequels and many similar action movies to follow.
Director John McTiernan has helmed similar projects like my favorite Tom Clancy adaptation 'The Hunt for Red October', 'The 13th Warrior', the remake of 'Rollerball', and the remake of 'The Thomas Crown Affair'. Given some of the other movies on his IMDB roster, Die Hard and Hunt for Red October are clear highlights of his career. But what makes this movie so special? This movie has everything if you are looking for that cliché action blockbuster glorifying violence starring a man with a hairy chest. Bruce Willis plays a heightened version of himself, Alan Rickman plays sinister so well, and then there are a bunch of blonde, bulky actors speaking bad German ('Macht Schnell!' 'Shiza!')who are designed to be expendable in all sorts of interesting ways. Bruce Willis could shoot them through the table, or he could shoot them as they come out of the elevator, or he could throw an exploding chair down an elevator shaft at them. The slow motion camera work is saved for critical moments, the film lightly satirizes everybody from the media to the LAPD to the FBI except for the NYPD, and it includes appearances by some 'Hey, that guy!' character actors.
If you are into the action genre and want to see the hero get bloody before he saves the day, Die Hard is your movie. Enjoy.
