Against the Crowd Blog-a-Thon 2021

 

It’s that time once again for the Against the Crowd Blog-a-Thon hosted by Wendell of Dell on Movies as it’s the chance for everyone to defend a movie that doesn’t get a lot of love but also bash the films that gets a lot of love. Being a participant since 2015 and contributing for the years that follow since with entries for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and last year. It’s always fun to watch yet it is getting harder to find films that are considered beloved that I don’t like very much. Here are the rules for this year’s edition:

Pick one movie “everyone” loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have score of 75% or more on rottentomatoes.com (or at least 7.5 on imdb.com). Tell us why you hate it.

Pick one movie that “everyone” hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of 35% or less on rottentomatoes.com (or 4.0 or less on imdb.com). Tell us why you love it.

Include the tomato meter scores of both movies.

Use one of the banners in this post, or feel free to create your own (just include all the pertinent details), or just mention this blogathon if using an audio or visual medium.

Let us know what two movies you intend on writing, vlogging, posting, or podcasting about in one of the following ways: Comment on this or any AtC 2021 post on this site, tweet me, or hit me up on instagram @dellonmovies, or e-mail me at dellott@yahoo.com.

Publish your post on any day from Friday, September 10 through Sunday, September 12, 2021, and include a link to this announcement. If you’re a podcaster or YouTuber that is interested in participating just talk about your chosen movies during your closest podcast and/or video to those dates and mention that you are taking part in this blogathon.

If posting on social media, use the hashtag #AgainstTheCrowd2021

I love Martin Scorsese and a lot of his films and I like the music of the Band including their collaboration with Bob Dylan as The Basement Tapes is one of my all-time favorite albums. Now I don’t hate this film as I liked a lot of the music but it’s really about the presentation of the Band’s final concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in November of 1976. Notably as the film felt more like a celebration of the band’s main songwriter and guitarist Robbie Robertson rather than the Band itself as Robertson got a producer’s credit for the film as it marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with Scorsese that is still on-going. It’s not just that some of the interviews in the film has Robertson doing a lot of the talking on not just himself but also on the Band as drummer/vocalist Levon Helm and bassist/vocalist Rick Danko do get their say while keyboardist/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Richard Manuel and keyboardist/multi-instrumental Garth Hudson barely get to say anything. While the recorded performances of the Band with the Staple Singers on The Weight and with Emmylou Harris on Evangeline are among the highlights of the film.

There’s moments during the concert that are off-putting as the presence of the now notorious anti-vaxxers in Van Morrison (in his horrendous purple suit) and Eric Clapton (on the fucking booze) are more self-serving these days as a reminder of what they used to be and what they are now. There’s also that legendary story of Neil Young appearing at the show with fucking cocaine all over his nose but it was removed in post-production though it would’ve been much cooler to see how much coke Young had. While I do like Neil Diamond, his appearance in the concert is baffling as fuck as he’s only there because Robertson produced one of his albums. The final song that is performed with Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, and everyone else has some very bad direction as there’s a part where Manuel is singing but the camera doesn’t focus on him but on the other people on stage. It’s an overrated concert documentary film that is really more about what Robertson had done when the reality is that he’s only one of five individuals that made the Band so special as it’s no surprise the remaining members reunited without Robertson in 1983 and kept going despite Manuel’s suicide in 1986 and Danko’s death in 1999 with Helm ultimately passing in 2012.

This action film is stupid as it does feature a largely terrible music soundtrack featuring the blandness that is Uncle Krackhead but it is a film that knows it’s not taking itself seriously and doesn’t apologize for it. With an ensemble cast that includes Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, Bokeem Woodbine, David Arquette, and Christian Slater as bank robbers who all dress up as Elvis impersonators as the film also features Courtney Cox, Thomas Haden Church, Jon Lovitz, Howie Long, Ice-T, Paul Anka, and Kevin Pollak. It is a film that is all action with some humor and sex appeal but it also play up some of the clichés that is often expected in these blockbuster films. You have Costner hamming it up a bit as the main villain as he seemed to be having a hell of a time in the film while also having some nice one-liners that include “tough guys gotta eat too” showing that there’s a bit of humanity in him.

Yet, the film really belongs to Kurt Russell as the criminal who got betrayed by Costner and is trying to retrieve the money as the film also play up Russell’s own history with the King. No one does a dead-on impression of the King better than Russell did where he definitely plays it straight yet manages to hold his own against Costner while also having great scenes with Courtney Cox as a woman whose young son is along for the ride. It is a film that features an over-the-top shoot-out climax that is fucking ridiculous but it is so fun to watch. Plus, it has one of the finest post-credit scenes in the film where Russell goes full-on King to sing Such a Night as it shows exactly how much fun that whole cast had in being in this film.





© thevoid99 2021