toastedslipers

I'm one of those people who asks a lot of my entertainment media and I don't often become seriously engaged with them, but every once in a while an opportunity presents itself and I become engrossed. Bliss is one of those movies. One of the things that I often say is that "there is always a good story in a movie and it's up to the director as to whether or not it's told bad or good". Bliss' story is not a particularly complex one, but it's told well, exceptional well. It focuses on a man named Harry Joy, an advertising agent who's celebrating his birthday, who out of the blue has a heart attack. When he's eventually revived, he becomes an entirely different person, believing his immediate family to be sinister mimics after a grim afterlife encounter which Harry believes to have been "hell".

Thereafter he seeks redemption by undoing everything wrong that is within his control and meets Honey Barbra, a granola street walker who lives in the sticks and adores fresh honey. Harry and Honey Barbra later fall in love and I think that's about as much the movie as I can discuss without delving too heavily into spoilers.

Bliss is just that, a Blissful movie-going experience that deserves far more attention than it gets as an "Ozploitation" film

After an unbelievably engrossing pilot, Mr. Robot hurls us deeper into the rabbit hole that is the life and tribulations of Elliot Alderson. This episode, while having the very simple premise of "choices", expounds on it in a way that almost mirrors some of the greatest linguistic poets of our time. Everything merely tricks us into believing that there is more to the shades of "black and white" that consume our everyday lives. Coke and Pepsi, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, McDonalds and Burger King I love the direction this show is headed in and I applaud USA for picking up such a daringly different and bold series

During the better half of 1980's and 1990's, action movies were huge, and even that can be considered a vast understatement. Full of explosions, cheesy one liners, and over the top characterizations, this genre was just BEGGING for a parody. While "Hot Shots! Part Deux" did an admirable job, Last Action Hero is the absolute "last word" on the subject of "action movie parodies" as it takes an already takes an established "beefcake" action star like good ol' Arnie and thrusts him into the spotlight as the mega-hit cop hero, Jack Slater.

The film centers around a delinquent kid named Danny who skips school constantly so he can watch movies (namely Jack Slater Films) in a rundown theater run by a kindly old man. The old timer offers to show Danny an advance screening of the latest Jack Slater film provided he attends school. And he does so after being mugged in his own home and having day dreams of Arnold (who also plays himself along with Jack Slater) starring in a much more action oriented version of the film adaptation of Hamlet during class. When Danny arrives at the cineplex, he's given a magical ticket by the old man who says that it was given to him by Harry Houdini. Later on, while Danny is enjoying the movie, the ticket sparkles and he's instantly thrust into the celluloid world of Jack Slater who's hot on the case of Tony Vivaldi. And Jesus, this film plays "homage" to so many action film tropes that it is quite honestly INSANE. Cops dying three days before retirement, the henchmen double crossing his incompetent boss. the hero getting his badge revoked during an important case, etc, etc, etc The tropes are openly mocked as well as celebrated and I feel is the biggest underlying theme of this movie: the celebration, not mockery, of action movies. And what's strange is how many people see Arnold's other film "Commando" (1985) as a parody movie (namely Doug Walker, alias "The Nostalgia Critic") and view "Last Action Hero" as some shlocky mess of a film that can only be laughed at "ironically".

Bottom line: If you like Action Movies and a good bit of satire, get Last Action Hero