For the 32nd week of 2018 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks series hosted by Wanderer. This week’s subject is on the word siege in which characters are stuck in a place or a city as they can’t get out due to something happening beyond their control or are being forced to stay put by some bad guys. Here are my three picks:
1. This is the End
The Apocalypse has arrived in Hollywood with many celebrities being killed with a few survivors staying at James Franco’s home where there’s a lot of bad shit happening outside. That is pretty much the premise as the film feature exaggerated versions of Franco, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride as themselves where they deal with each other and get beaten up by Emma Watson in a brief cameo as she steals some of their belongings. Add some other stuff including a demon and celebrities being mean to each other and you get a solid and hilarious comedy.
2. Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino’s debut film is truly one of the best debut films ever made which is about a botched heist as much of the action takes place inside a warehouse where there’s a wounded robber nearing death and other survivors figuring out what to do. They’re hiding from the cops while one of the robbers knows the location of the diamonds they stole but there is also a wildcard in a robber who had caused a lot of trouble and had also kidnapped a cop believing that there’s a mole within the group. It’s a film that remains fresh and vital more than 25 years since its release.
3. Shaun of the Dead
From Edgar Wright comes one of the funniest films of the 21st Century so far as it revolves a zombie apocalypse where two friends try to survive with one of the guy’s mother, his ex-girlfriend, and other friends as they all hide out in a bar. Yet, there’s zombies trying to come in as they do whatever they can to survive as well as deal with the fact that there’s a jukebox that plays a song randomly for fuck’s sake. It is truly a fun film that mixes horror and comedy.
© thevoid99 2018
8 comments:
I love all three of your picks! Great choices.
Man, I love all three of these movies. Great, GREAT choices!
I haven’t seen any of these! I want to see the first one for ages and also Reservoir Dogs. I may see Shawn of the Dead because it is a comedy even though it involves zombies
I've put off seeing your first and third choices for different reasons. With This is the End I'm suffering from Franco burnout and avoid most everything with his name among the credits and with Shaun of the Dead I know its got a comic twist but its still zombies which really aren't my thing.
I have however seen Reservoir Dogs and thought it was very well done though needlessly violent for violence sake. That's a problem that plagues much of Tarantino's work.
I tried for a mini theme within the theme by using all movies with the word siege in them but could only come up with two that I've seen (I really had hoped to use Costa-Gavras's 1972 State of Siege but haven't seen it and couldn't find it anywhere!)
55 Days at Peking (1963)-In 1900 during China’s Boxer Rebellion Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi (Flora Robson) orders The Boxers, a group of Chinese secret societies to massacre foreigners within China. In the diplomatic compound a group of ambassadors, their families and staff hole up to resist the siege. Marine Corps Major Matt Lewis (Charlton Heston) aided by British Consul Sir Arthur Robertson (David Niven), devise a strategy to keep the rebels at bay until an international military relief force arrives while Lewis romances Russian baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner). A bit inflated but told on an epic scale.
Under Siege (1992)-Stop me if you’ve heard this before. A man of action (Steven Seagal) finds himself trapped in an enclosed space-in this case a nuclear battleship-when terrorists (Tommy Lee Jones & Gary Busey) take the vessel hostage and it’s up to him and an innocent bystander (Erika Eleniak) to save the day! That’s right it’s Die Hard on the open seas!! The thing that separates this from the dozens and dozens of rip-offs that followed the release of the first classic is that it’s genuinely entertaining because director Andrew Davis knows how to shoot action and make it compelling for the audience.
The Siege (1998)-After the US military abduction of an Islamic religious leader New York City becomes the target of escalating terrorist attacks. The FBI's Counter-Terrorism Task Force chief Anthony Hubbard (Denzel Washington) teams up with CIA operative Elise Kraft (Annette Bening) to hunt down the terrorist cells responsible for the attacks. As the bombings continue the government declares martial law sending troops, led by Gen. Devereaux (a deeply nuts Bruce Willis), into the streets of New York City where he starts rounding up Arab-Americans into detention centers. Appalled Hubbard & Kraft race the clock to defuse the situation as it escalates to a fever pitch.
I thought of Shaun of the Dead too...them barricading themselves in the bar is stupid and funny.
@Brittani-Thanks.
@Wendell-Thank you very much.
@Birgit-It may involve zombies but it is so funny.
@joel65913-I thought about putting Under Siege but that's too easy and I just flat out don't like Steven Seagal as I think he's just a traitorous, fat-ass, low-class woman-beating little bitch. The Siege is a film that I'm not enamored with as it took itself way too seriously for me.
@Wanderer-It is hilarious.
Shaun of the Dead totally rocks.
@vinnie harris-You goddamn right it rocks!
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