I’d add the first Star Wars movie. Still good fun after all these years, if you put all the Lucas BS out of your mind. The Incredibles rocks, and always will. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: First Contact are also a blast. And how could we forget Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl?
Good God, man! She was like 11 years old in that movie!
I’m not a huge fan of Bad Boys II, and I like Out of SIght but I’m not entirely sure I’d classify it as my most entertaining movie. I like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang but it misses out too.
Here’s mine:
- Raiders
- Back to the Future
- Die Hard
- Batman (Keaton)
- Tombstone (specifically Doc Holliday)
No way, dude. 35, and in the juicy peak of ripeness. Oh, shit. Now I’m a sense offender.
Shit yeah, I never get tired of Tombstone. Such a perfect “guy movie,” and one of my favorite Westerns ever. Val Kilmer is spot-on perfect as Doc.
Two other insanely entertaining movies for me are Ghostbusters and Last Man Standing. The latter is a remake/retelling of Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars, and all three are based on Dashiell Hammett’s novella Red Harvest. It is set in a dusty Texas border town during Prohibition, where Bruce Willis is a laconic mystery man who breezes into town and ends up playing two violent gangs against each other. It’s film noir, it’s a gangster movie, it has elements of a Western, it has Christopher Walken as a heavy and typical Bruce Willis badassery, and I highly recommend it.
and here’s my short list for sheer brainless entertainment:
Pirates of the Caribbean (the first, of course)
Ocean’s 11 (the remake)
Terminator 2
Pirates of the Caribbean
Red Dawn
Die Hard
Star Wars IV, V, and VI
Don’t know how, but I got her mixed up with the main guy’s little daughter.
Yes, she is hot. Yes, we’re both going to be slaughtered by Grammaton Clerics.
Shaun of the Dead!
Seconded!
It’s completely over the top and doesn’t take itself too seriously – just what you need for sheer insane entertainment.
It should be illegal to talk about “guy” movies without mentioning From Dusk 'Til Dawn, which is both a quintessential “guy” movie and insanely entertaining. I mean, come on… it’s got:
[ul]
[li]vampires[/li][li]strippers[/li][/ul]
And, honestly, what more do you need than that?
I’m not a fan of movies that blow shit up just to be blowing shit up, but the original Die Hard is an absolute jewel of an action movie; there is not one thing that happens in the setup of the film that doesn’t ultimately contribute to the plotting of the film, including the advice the salesman gives McClane on the plane (“Take off your shoes and socks, and make fists with your toes.”), and Ellis’ give of a Rolex (“It’s real.”) to Holly. Plus, the villians, from Alan Rickman on down, are all outstanding. Never mind that the film is basically an amped up version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three with Bruce Willis surveying the role that Walter Matthau played in that film; Willis owns this role, and Bonnie Bedelia is perfect as his estranged wife.
There’s nothing to be said about Raiders of the Lost Ark that hasn’t been said before and probably better (except that, claims to the contrary, that pig Ebert originally gave it a negative review). There’s no deep philosophy here, and even the fact that had Indy stayed home they would have had essentially the same result doesn’t keep the movie from being a vertiable classic.
Bad Boys II? You’re talking about the Michael Bay shitfest, right? I respect Will Smith and all, and you could put him in a long-distance phone commercial opposite Tommy Lee Jones and it would be a blockbuster, but this movie is just one string of meaningless, poorly plotted nonsense action. It’s not even fun, self-aware nonsense like Shoot 'Em Up or True Lies, it’s just crap. It doesn’t even deserve to be listed in with the first two.
“…It’s like I told my last wife, ‘Honey, you know I never drive faster than I can see, and besides, it’s all in the reflexes.’”
Big Trouble in Little China is a great film, but it’s really more of a parody of action films than an action film itself. The effects were pretty dated even in the day (it was clearly done on a Carpenter budget, even if it was a post-The Thing budget) and of course the central joke is that Jack is actually the comedic sidekick rather than the hero. Great lines, though. “What is that stuff?” “Black blood of the earth.” “You mean oil?” “No, I mean black blood of the earth!”
I don’t get it. I find the film to be a button-pushing pastiche of dystopian cliches. And the central premise–that everybody’s emotional responses have been supressed by a drug everyone takes faithfully–is a conceit beyond belief. This might work as a 20 minute short, but by the time you get to the second reel it’s just too improbable. I almost walked out when they literally started killing puppies–even Steven Speilberg doesn’t pull emotional strings as blatently as that–and wished I had because the ending made no sense whatsoever.
I think Terry Gililam’s Brazil is an utter classic of dystopian film, but of course, it’s not and doesn’t intend to be just a mindless action film. Well, not until Sid Sheinberg got is grubby talentless paws on it, anyway.
Stranger
/hijack
Somewhere up-thread, someone mentioned Monica Bellucci. I just had to stop in and say…
Probably one of the HOTTEST 43-yr-old women on the planet. rrrrrooowwrrrrrr…
/end hijack