Tuesday, Feb. 07, 2012

Recliner Reviews for February 9, 2012

Sometimes it’s a dilemma: what DVD should you rent or what movie should you stream or order-on-demand? Do you want a date flick, an action caper, or a goofy comedy? Weekly Surge is here to help with our reviews of recent at-home movie releases, which we’ve watched from the comfort of that favorite recliner.

“Blackthorn”

Conspiracies are everywhere – UFOs, political and religious cover-ups, cowboys…Wait, cowboys? Remember 20 years ago when Emilio Estevez was Billy the Kid? In “Young Guns II,” Estevez delved into the what-if possibilities of Billy surviving to be an old man. Forty years ago, a little movie was made called “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”…you may have heard of it. Well, this is not a sequel. Nor is it a remake. It is a stand alone film but the characters are the same and the tone is the same. But instead of killing off Cassidy at the end of the film, he goes on to live a new life in Bolivia and grows old as a man known as Blackthorn. There was a guy who claimed to be the actual Butch Cassidy and gave a description of how he escaped death in the famous 1908 shootout. He died in 1937 an old man. But this review isn’t all about conspiracies. It’s about a quality Western in a time when Westerns are few and far between. Sam Shepard plays Cassidy and Stephen Rea plays his nemesis - both portrayals with aplomb, like the veteran actors that they are. The story doesn’t rest on standard Western motif. There are a few twists that make it well worth a watch for the pistoleros out there.

“Tucker and Dale vs. Evil”

We all know the stereotypes exhibited by the classic horror movies: City kids go out to camp in the woods; They run into a couple of crazy rednecks; Before you know it, the crazy rednecks are chopping up the city kids and all the other rednecks that live in the mountains with these inbred maniacs, turn a blind eye. I’m from the South and even though I know some crazy rednecks, I have to say, I’m offended. Now, here’s a movie that takes a satirical slant and parodies what we’ll call, “The Hillbilly Element.” And it’s funny…really funny. The hillbillies, Tucker and Dale, are an endearing pair of easygoing dudes from West Virginia. The city kids are a bunch of paranoid crazies who keep trying to kill the cool hillbillies but end up offing themselves. This is a must-watch for horror fans and every Southerner who has had enough of horror stereotypes.

“Waiting for Superman”

This one is from Davis Guggenheim, the documentary director who educated us about global warming in “An Inconvenient Truth” and set Al Gore up for a Nobel Prize. Then he put two guitar legends and Jack White in the same room together in “It Might Get Loud.” And Guggenheim happens to be married to my teenage crush, Elisabeth Shue. Guggenheim was nominated for an Oscar last year with this film that deals with the state of public schools in America. This is the second documentary to deal with the lottery system for underprivileged kids to get into charter schools that could give them a chance to get a decent education. The other film is called “The Lottery” and both of them are important films. Guggenheim packs a punch and tugs emotionally. I guess I can’t be mad at him for stealing my Shue – worth a watch.