July 29, 2016

July 28, 2016

From Sport to Silver Screen: Wrestlers

Wrestlers are the best at moving from sport to screen, I mean their sport is 50% acting anyway! And you know what that means... it's time for another list post!



Tyler Mane:
Better known to me as the guy who everyone hated on for being Sabertooth* in the first X-Men movie, but Tyler also got to be Michael Myers in the Halloween reboot. Which also likely got hated on a lot... (*I thought he was just fine as Sabertooth!)






Andre the Giant:
Andre was much better known as a wrestler than he was an actor, but being Fezzik in the Princes Bride will likely be what he's remembered for the longest. That and for being the image that Shepard Fairey paired with "OBEY".





Kevin Nash:
It might be pertinent to mention at this point that I know nothing of wrestling, but it seems to me that Nash is pretty legendary in the world of wrestling. Whether that means he's good or not I have no idea, but I only know him from Magic Mike and John Wick, two movies we love and love him in!








Jesse Ventura:
I was working at a Video Update the year that Ventura ran for governor and we could not keep Predator or The Running Man on the shelf. And somehow he still became our governor...





Randy Savage:
Another wrestler who'll be remembered for being a wrestler over his nominal acting run, but he'll also forever be the only part of Spider-Man that I remember.





Dave Bautista:
Before he was in Guardians of the Galaxy he was in Riddick and we can't wait to see what he does next! (Especially Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.!)
















Rowdy Roddy Piper:
They Live might be one of my all time favorite movies, but let's not forget Piper was also the star of the epically weird Hell Comes to Frog Town.






The Rock:
Oh how I love the Rock. The first thing I think I saw him in was Pain and Gain, and I never looked back. If you've not seen Pain and Gain, you should fix that. Not only is it great, it also might be the only Michael Bay movie we recommend watching because it's good.


















I could seriously go on and on! Maybe a second list is in order... Maybe.

July 27, 2016

From Sport to Silver Screen: Action Jackson

Action Jackson was allegedly born on the set of Predator through conversations between Carl Weathers and producer Joel Silver over their love of blacksploitation movies. We are so glad those conversations took place!


The plot unfolds something like this:
Someone must stop auto magnate Peter Dellaplane from systematically eliminating his competitors and also from being just generally evil. Lucky for everyone, the legendary Sgt. Jericho 'Action' Jackson is more than up for the task.

The best parts:
Aside from (almost) everyone bringing a great performance to this action classic, it was also Craig R. Baxley's directorial debut after stunt coordinating and second unit directing for the better part of 20 years, so the action in this flick is packed!


The unintended comedy:
Vanity. Whether it was how her character was written, or just that it was played by her, she is the source of most of this movie's unintended comedy. (I mean, at one point her character is supposed to be high on heroine and she proclaims that she "has the munchies". It's like no one on set had so much as read a book with drugs harder than weed illustrated in it so they assumed all drugs caused the same side effects. If you're going to write about something you don't know about, do your research people!)





The athlete:
Carl Weathers played for the NFL and CFL while obtaining a B.A. in drama from San Francisco State University. 

The That Guys:
There are many That Guys in Action Jackson, but a handful of them showed up in Die Hard later the same year, likely because both were produced by Joel Silver.

How we feel about this movie:
If it's been a while since you've seen this classic, or if you've never seen it at all, put this at the top of your list. We absolutely LOVE this film.

July 24, 2016

From Sport to Silver Screen: Plan 9 From Outer Space & Ed Wood

I did not think I was going to run into another pair of movies that strangely fit our theme so soon after the last time, but here I am. This time it's Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, and Tim Burton's Ed Wood.

Plan 9 From Outer Space:
There's little point in explaining the plot of an Ed Wood movie, but if you're unfamiliar, know that it's a disjointed sci-fi B-movie from 1959. As a director, Wood was known for a few trademarks including his casting of B-movie fave Tor Johnson. And although Tor was featured in many B-movies, his main gig was professional wrestling.





Ed Wood:
This movie is a quasi biopic of director Ed Wood and since Wood worked with Tor on three of his most infamous movies, he makes an appearance in this film as well. But Tor isn't played by just any old actor, he's played by George “The Animal” Steele who (as you might guess by his name) was also a professional wrestler. One with an uncanny resemblance to Mr Johnson.




I can't wait for to see what kind of movie turducken shows up for next month's theme!

July 21, 2016

July 6, 2016

Double Trouble: Timecop & Replicant

These two Jean-Claude Van Damme movies aren't strictly twin movies, but he does play multiples of himself in both and that's close enough for us!

Timecop plot unfolds something like this: Max Walker, is a security officer for an agency that regulates time travel. He's tasked with stopping his ex-partner from using time travel to profit off the stock market. But when Max comes back to present time, he finds he must now fend for his life against a politician who's been using time travel to make billions and become president.


JCVD's dual rolls: Now, this would be the easiest JCVD movie to talk me out of calling a twin movie. Truly, he's playing one character in multiple time lines and not in any way his twin. But I just don't care! The time lines keep changing so it's just as likely that he's no longer the same person in any of them. So there.



Additional great things about this movie: It co-stars Mia Sara and Ron Silver, and is one of two back to back JCVD movies for director Peter Hyams, as the next year they did Sudden Death together.







Replicant plot unfolds something like this: Edward Garrote (JCVD) is serial killer on the loose and Detective Jake Riley (lead detective on the case) is about to retire. To celebrate, Garrote has decided to kill the detective's mother. Riley's left with only once choice: to partner up with a secret government agency that has cloned Garrote and use the clone to hunt the killer down in the strangest buddy movie ever conceived. (Except for Dead Heat.)


JCVD's dual rolls: Here JCVD plays the killer, Edward "The Torch" Garrote, and the clone of the killer. As the killer he's dark, bruiting and smart enough to be a killer on the loose. As the replicant he's basically an adult toddler. As far as JCVD movies go, this is actually a good one and if you haven't seen some of his later stuff, you should check this one out. 


Additional great things about this movie: Michael Rooker plays the detective, and replicant JCVD is a parkour gymnast. Seriously, watch this movie.











That's a total of 4 JCVD movies that fit this month's theme, and that makes us very happy!







July 4, 2016

Third Clue: July's Screening

Clue #3: Even though this is a low-budget horror, the actor playing twins in this movie delivers a pretty convincing performance.




Tape Freaks Presents: July's Mystery Movie! at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, July 6th@  7:00pm, only $5!

Purchase advance ticket here.

Second Clue: July's Screening

Clue #2: This month's movie features the handy work of effects artist Ed French.






July 3, 2016

Double Trouble: Army of Darkness

No one is better at playing against nothing than Bruce Campbell. Whether it's just his hand or an army of tiny versions of himself, he makes you not only believe these things are happening to him, but also makes you forget whatever's happening on screen was motivated by almost nothing external.

Army of Darkness, tiny Ashes:




Evil Dead 2, Ash and his hand:










July 2, 2016

Double Trouble: Good Movie List

As bad as things can get with split screens and delivering lines to no one, there are some pretty fantastic movies were actors play their own twin, here's some to cleanse your pallet with. Two of these we've seen, one have not, and two we wrote up previously!



Adaptation: Nicolas Cage plays both a fictionalized Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin Donald Kaufman as they struggle to adapt the novel The Orchid Thief to a screenplay.




There Will Be Blood: Paul Dano plays both Paul and Eli Sunday in the epic tale of greed and morality.




Legend: Tom Hardy plays identical twin gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray, who in real life were two of the most notorious criminals in British organized crime.





Previously mentioned:

Dead Ringer: Betty Davis plays estranged twin sisters Margaret DeLorca and Edith Phillips who reunite at the funeral of Margaret's husband, whom she stole from her sister 20 years prior. Margaret's flippant attitude to her husband's death will drive Edith to murder and that's only the start of her problems.





Dead Ringers: Jeremy Irons plays Beverly and Elliot Mantle, private practise gynecologists who's barbiturate addiction (among other unnerving things) slowly undoes their sanity.











July 1, 2016

Double Trouble: Maximum Risk

Jean-Claude Van Damme plays his twin again! This time he never actually appears on camera as his twin, though his being a twin is the driving point of the plot.


The movie: Alain and his twin Mikhail were separated at birth. When Mikhail is murdered, Alain assumes his brother's identity and quickly finds out his brother was caught up in the Russian mob.

Our ranking for a JCVD twin movie: This one is pretty fun, directed by Ringo Lam and co-staring Natasha Henstridge, it's one of the better mid-90s Van Damme movies.


Other twin themed action movies directed by Ringo Lam: Replicant (though technically a clone movie) staring JCVD, and Twin Dragons staring Jackie Chan.