Author: Ian D.

Every two years we are blessed with a new Fast & Furious movie (you’re welcome America) and each time I still marvel at the miracle of it all.  A little franchise that started with little fanfare in 2001 and was left for dead after its third time around the track in Tokyo in 2006 has somehow become one of the largest franchises in the history of cinema.  We are on #8 for god’s sake – The Fate of the Furious (easily the worst, laziest name yet)

The infamous dive into the toilet.  The baby on the ceiling.  The foot chase through Edinburgh, culminating in the most famous movie smile of the 90’s.  Danny Boyle’s breakthrough Trainspotting roared into the pop-culture lexicon in 1996 and remains just as relevant today.  Boyle’s classic combines his now ubiquitous style (quick cuts, freeze frames, oddly placed subtitles) with the travails of a group of heroin addicts in the hellscape port of Leith.

Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film ever to be nominated for Best Picture.  In 1991 it was considered ahead of its time – featuring a heroine who was into BOOKS and LEARNING (mouths agape.)  Sure, she fell in love with her captor but it sort of seemed by her own volition… and he had adorable singing furniture so, ya know.  But above the normal trappings of plot soared one (if not the most) iconic soundtracks in the history of cinema.  One by one the songs of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken swept over you, leaving their indelible print in your memory.  It’s Disney at its most powerful and memorable.

Count me as a fan of Peter Jackson’s 2005 love letter to one of his inspirations, King Kong.  It was self-indulgent, way too long and entirely dated – but I found much of it inspired.  Jackson could never capture the poetry of the 1933 original but his homage was admirable (not to mention the state of the art effects that brought Kong to life.)  Every few decades the King returns, for better or worse to wreak havoc on unsuspecting humanoids.

Anyone who has read even a modicum of my superhero coverage on DrunkSunshine knows I’m not particularly fond of the recent output from the Marvel or DC Universe.  Over the last 3+ years I’ve come to mostly loathe the cookie cutter nature of each plot, the dull character developments and predictable action beats.  There have been exceptions (Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool) that haven’t exactly broken the mold but at least messed with the playdough.