Tips from Chip

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Movie – Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Yes, this is a kung fu movie, but one with a silly, animated fat panda as the lead. How can this be a movie with a badass? In this case, it is the villain who is a badass. In most movies, what makes a great hero is the skill of the villain that he has to defeat. This movie is both a spoof of, and homage to, kung fu movies. The two of these things combine to create a villain that is so badass that you can’t imagine how he can be defeated.

Pitch Black is the classic “group of people caught in a dangerous situation just trying to get home.” It could have been a western with cowboys surrounded by Indians, or a contemporary movie with people trapped by criminals. In this case, it is a science fiction movie. Not unlike John Wayne becoming a star after doing Stagecoach (an example of a Western version), Vin Diesel is the breakout star of this movie.

Almost 40 years after making the original Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood came out with Gran Torino. Unlike the sometimes cartoonish Harry Callahan, in this movie Eastwood portrays a man who is a much more realistic badass. The character of Walt Kowalsky is a Korean War veteran, a retired autoworker who spent more than 40 years at Ford, a father and grandfather, and a recent widower after decades of marriage. This is a terrific movie and it is one of the best films Eastwood has ever made.

The movie Dirty Harry didn’t invent the maverick cop genre (Bullitt is an earlier example), but it sure cemented it in the public consciousness. Harry Callahan is a cop who has little patience for politics or legal procedure. Anything that prevents him from getting scum off the streets is bad in his book and he will often disregard it. He also carries a .44 magnum gun, which is much too powerful for use on the streets. After this movie came out a “Dirty Harry” moment or act became part of the language. The list of movie and TV references on IMDB is a mile long. This movie also has the famous “Do you feel lucky?” quote, which is one of the most misquoted lines in movie history.

Movies with Serious Badasses

"You don’t tug on Superman’s cape/ you don’t spit into the wind/ you don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger/ and you don’t mess around with Slim" – Jim Croce

With all the romantic movies I posted last week I felt it was time for a shot of testosterone. This set of movies is going to concentrate not just on tough guys, and not even on guys that are kind of badass. No, this set of movies is going to be about characters that lift badassery to a whole new level.

Who better to start with than Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry (1971)? Making for an interesting double feature, almost forty years later Eastwood did the movie Gran Torino (2008). Can an almost eighty year old man still be badass? If he’s Clint Eastwood he can. Switching to a newer generation, Vin Diesel had the first really good role of his career in Pitch Black (2000). The last movie I will review is Kung Fu Panda (2008). What’s that? You’re wondering how Jack Black’s panda character is badass? I’ll give you a hint – that’s not the character I’ll be writing about. Check out the posted review for the answer.

Finally, can a man be badass while playing ping pong? If he’s Bruce Lee using nunchucks he can.