By Isaac Mills
I made a top ten list easily enough, but getting it down to five? And then ranking them? Rough stuff.
5. The Karate Kid (dir. Harald Zwart)
Though there are many that’ll argue with me, this was a remake that improved on the original. The casting of a younger kid made so much sense to me – it didn’t feel so weird when he got upset, he’s a little kid that got moved to China! Compare that to Daniel in the original: a 15 year old throwing a fit because he moved across the country. Pfft, I did that!
The litmus test for any Karate Kid movie is whether or not after it’s over you want to jump out of your seat and do a flipping side kick. Man, I was jumping all over the place, and I’m supposed to be an adult!
4. Daybreakers (dir. Michael and Peter Spierig)
When I saw the trailer for this movie, I thought this was going to rock, but it seemed to have flown under most people’s radar. And it did indeed rock! The world building and overall atmosphere really impressed me, as did the message of consumerism run amok. It had Willem Dafoe running around with a crossbow scaring vampires. Clearly it had everything.
3. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (dir. Edgar Wright)
The only movie I can think of that I saw twice in theatres this year. It’s kind of a hard movie to describe, but I can at least say it captures the energy of a generation (I know that sounds hokey), especially if you’re from Canada, but especially if you’re from Toronto. All of the fight scenes were exemplary, but a special shout out goes to the Sex Bob-omb versus the Tanaka Bros. It’s a battle of the bands fought through sheer force of will and giant music-created avatars. It gets me pretty pumped.
2. Tron: Legacy (dir. Joseph Kosinski)
Fine, yes – the story was a little light in Tron: Legacy. Everyone says that. But the very fact that I don’t care speaks volumes. Normally, weird anomalies would totally take me out of the picture, but instead I just love the thing. The other thing that you’ve heard everyone say is that the movies score is amazing, and that’s oh so true too. This film filled me with a sense of wonder the moment the camera flew down through the city in the real world, such that I could love both reality and the fantasy of the system. Man, this movie made me happy.
1. Kick-Ass (dir. Matthew Vaughn)
Okay, the issue I’ve heard from a lot of people about this movie (besides the violence and language) is that it’s actually two movies. My response is: why is that a problem? The first half of the film documents a severe dissatisfaction with the world as is, a world where no one sticks up for anyone else. That movie ends with Kick-Ass protecting a lone man who’s about to get beaten to death in front of an apathetic crowd. That was an awesome movie. And then we got a movie about an entire world being willed to become a super hero world, asking how far are you willing to go when you’ve finally got something to lose? And there was a jetpack! It was awesome!
(Super honourable mention to Hot Tub Time Machine, Iron Man 2, The Social Network, The Town, and Toy Story 3.)
I almost tagged this as an “In Defence Of…” Not that that’s a bad way to go about writing your top 5 lists, folks.
One more “especially” for Scott Pilgrim – especially if you live on the West end of Toronto. Man, Bathurst and Bloor big time.
My family doctor is just down the street from that Pizza Pizza. :P
Yeah, I can easily see this as an “in defence of” certain movies article.. that is mostly what I talked about, isn’t it?
But I had to give it up for the movies that gave me the most positive experience overall, movies I would want to sit through again… Toy Story 3 is amazing, but who wants to tell the world about how hard you had to work to fight back those tears in the theatre? Not me!
At least it wasn’t as bad as ‘Up’ was for that.
FIIIIIIIGHTT!!
Actually, I don’t have too much of a problem with your list, because it is SO different than what I’d expect, I assume you’re using a different set of criteria, sort of like how a man who could only see in x-ray vision would think a chick is super hot because she’s got excellent bone structure. I never even saw Karate Kid or Daybreakers (though i still think it should have been called Kung Fu Kid because he was doing KUNG FU, DAMMIT — you don’t see anyone filming a movie about ballet dancers and calling it ‘Jazz Hands’).
But wow, Kick Ass?? That movie was so disappointing to me, only because the first 2/3rds of it is a huge improvement on the comic, and then the last 1/3rd is so much worse. I hated the gatling gun jetpack. Hhhhaaaaaaated it. How do you do a movie that’s all ‘what-if-someone-tried-to-be-a-superhero-in-real-life’ and try to make it realistic and then fuck it all in the ear by busting out gatling gun jetpacks??
Since I’m stuck on similes right now, that’s like replacing the last third of The Expendables with a goddamn chess match.
Stallone would be all like “black knight to B4, checkmate bitches”
as far as the kung fu thing- come on, I MUST have told you by now that that was actually addressed in the movie. It’s an artifact title, called that so the audience knows what they’re going to see, but it isn’t like the characters were all “so what do we do now, Karate Kid?”
And I think I explained about Kick-Ass. I don’t judge the second half by the criteria of the first half, because I, personally, consider them two separate and awesome movies.
Yeah, I don’t really dig on the ‘two separate movies’ thing. I can see why you look at it that way but I found the transition really jarring, and thought the last third of it kind of betrayed the whole theme of the movie, you know?
And yes, I’m well aware no one calls him ‘Karate Kid’ during the course of the movie, although I find that scenario hilarious. It just irks me because it’s an obvious misnomer for the sake of marketing, which is not only unnecessary, but irritating to those of us who know the difference. Like titling a movie ‘4th Down Hail Mary Pass’ when it’s really about curling.
well, except a better analogy would be ‘4th down hail mary pass’ vs ’statue of liberty play’ (ok, I don’t know plays)- two separate ways to play the same game, where the game for this movie is martial arts.
Maybe the question I should be asking is: excepting geographical history, technique differences and potentially academic philosophic aims- what is the difference? And why shouldn’t they market it using an acceptable franchise name? It’s not exactly an unheard of practice. A slightly inaccurate title seems a small price to pay to get people in to watch an awesome movie.
Sidenote. In Korea, The Karate Kid was released as Beseuteu Kideu or “Best Kid.”
Three complete speculations as to why:
a) Koreans would see Jackie Chan and China and immediately scoff at the mention of karate, as Caesar does,
b) Lingering anti-Japanese sentiment would deter older Koreans from even checking out anything with “karate” in the title,
c) Hey, it’s a ‘Merican movie, let’s see if we can’t ‘Merica-up the title a little more.
A) and B) seem quite likely.
How many other Korean words are basically just English ones with ‘eu’ on the end? Maybe I should move there and make a killing teaching English. Step 1: take off the ‘eu.’ Step 2: bring me my paycheque.
Isaac, the title bothers me because I like fighting and accuracy and it’s just not an accurate title. It’s IMMENSELY irritating to me. Yes, they’re basically the same thing in that they’re methods of self-defense and well-being and exercise, but it’s just one of those things. If you took a dancer on a date and said, ‘let’s go see a ballet’ but instead you went to a modern dance show, she would probably be confused and annoyed and likely think you were a bit of an idiot for not knowing the difference between the two. It’s kind of like that – it’s pandering to ignorance for the sake of brand recognition (i.e. money), so it bothers me on principle.
And it’s not like nobody has ever heard of kung-fu. We all have. Not only that, if someone released a movie called ‘Kung Fu Kid’, the VERY FIRST THING that I would think would be, ‘Oh, are they releasing a sequel to the karate kid, but with kung fu instead?’ It’s not like they had to name it “Wing Chun Kid” or “Hsing-I Kid” or some other less recognizable fighting form.
Aside from the fact that “Best Kid” is a little boastful (nobody said there’d be boasting..) I can buy those reasons for title changing over there, I imagine there’s more sentiment regarding the differences between karate, kung fu, what have you, as Leo pointed out.
But I stand by the opinion (I can’t say fact for lack of actual evidence beyond my own supposition) that more people saw the movie because of the recognizable title, versus people who were turned off by the technical title inaccuracy.
Oh I’m well aware I’m in the minority on this. I understand the logic, I just hhaaaate it.
I can’t express how much I would have liked that comment attached to any of your previous comments.
Ha ha, sorry if I wasted your time Isaac, but typing is fun! In the future you can probably mentally attach that disclaimer to anything I say (with the understanding that minority opinion is probably right – the majority cannot be trusted).