Bruce Willis – Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers

Marked For Death, 1990

Welcome back to a proper martial arts edition of Kung Fu February on Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Dion & Blake are back and taking on a cult classic, featuring the man, the myth, the legend, Steven Seagal, in his 1990 iconic film, Marked For Death!

The boys unpack the 3rd film in Steven Seagal‘s catalog, discussing his backstory and more importantly, they discuss the martial art he practices, Aikido and it’s history, and Dion‘s connection to it. They then take the way-back machine way down the alley to 1990, and analyse the movie/marital arts scene at the time, and how bad-ass Seagal was. They lay out the argument of why we need a director’s cut of this film, on this all new proper Aikido installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

EXTRAS!

Here, here and here is Dion back in 2010 when he met Seagal.

Check out the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba aka O-Sensei, doing unbelievable looking things, using his martial art.

Have a look at some early footage of Seagal before he was famous and in his prime, using some insane Aikido.

And here’s some more footage of him in Japan, in the late 80s.

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Category: Action, Classic, Crime, Gangster, Martial Arts, Thriller | 2 Comments

May 4

Color of Night, 1994

Welcome back to another exciting episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This week Dion Baia and J. Blake are tackling new ground, taking on the erotic genre, specifically the erotic thriller, and what better vehicle to discuss this topic than to cover the legendary Bruce Willis film, Color of Night, from 1994.

Color of Night

The boys attempt to set the table and lay out the era back when the erotic, the sizzler, and specifically the erotic thriller fed a need for audiences, especially to an adolescent coming to age. In the period of the early 90s, films like Basic Instinct, Sliver and Body of Evidence were big news because of the controversy they generated. Blake and Dion analyze this forgotten genre, and (while some of it may seem tame to today’s standards), they try to illustrate an era where nudity and NC-17 films attracted major stars, and why this particular genre was very important to the history of cinema. The fellas discuss the amazing ensemble cast in Color of Night, as well as the controversy it generated, and the similarities to Giallo or even Hitchcock plots. So come down memory lane as Dion and Blake reminiscence about a genre that has virtually disappeared in recent decades, in another informative and fun installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

Corrections and Amends:

(When discussing Shirley Temple, the boys referenced the 1947 film she and Cary Grant starred together in, as “Bobby and the Bobby-Soxer “, when they actually meant The Bachelor and Bobby-Soxer.)

(Also, while discussing Color of Night, Dion referred to the killer’s car as a Camaro, when it actually was a 1978 Pontiac Firebird.)

(One more: While discussing the actor Steve Railsback in the possible casting in the Lance Henriksen role, Dion (again!) mentioned “Dangerous Games“, when he was actually referring to the 1982 horror film Deadly Games.)

Extras!

Check out the original trailer for Color of Night!

Have a look at the original TV spot for Color of Night!

Here’s Blake with the man, the myth, the legend himself, Lance Henriksen!

Take a gander a this 1994 interview with Bruce Willis, while promoting Color of Night!

Have a listen to the Golden Globe nominated song, The Color of Night!

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Category: Classic, Crime, Erotic, Thriller | 2 Comments

May 12

The Fifth Element, 1997

Hello and welcome to another all new, exciting edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This go around Dion Baia and J. Blake are celebrating the 20th anniversary of a Sci-Fi film that is held in a very high regard by many and conversely disliked by many others- so much so that upon it’s release it was hailed as both the best and worst summer blockbuster of all time! Wow, how polarizing! But the fellas are talking a SNMS audience favorite this week with Luc Besson‘s iconic film The Fifth Element, from 1997.

After briefly chatting about epic hair pieces and martial-art movies, Blake and Dion get down to business and reminisce about the summer of 1997 when this film was released and all the other movies they remember that were out that season. The boys both relate their experiences of seeing The Fifth Element in the theater, and discuss director Luc Besson‘s catalog, particularly his 2008 classic Taken, and their mutual love for the director’s film prior to this one, Léon: The Professional. They go into the background in the creation of Fifth Element‘s story, and the journey Besson went on getting this to the screen. They look at the gorgeous futuristic world that was created by French artists Jean-Claude Mézières and Jean (Moebius) Giraud, and the subsequential lawsuit that was filed against Besson after the film’s release. Dion and Blake gush over their mutual love for Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman, and attempt to contrast this movie against other futuristic, Future Noir, Sci-Fi properties that are comparable to this one. They speculate on Chris Tucker‘s potential real-life influences on his Ruby Rhod character, and also note Besson‘s reoccuring theme of older men helping younger women (or even young girls as in The Professional ) and how it oddly, in his case, mimics the director’s real life to an extent. So does the pairing of CGI, miniature and Practical Effects hold up, and because of their pairing, actually help the longevity? Why is this film so darn polarizing to fans and critics to begin with? And did John Carpenter actually successfully sue Luc Besson? Well grab your Multi Passes, your Zorg Industries ZF-1 Pod Weapons Systems, and make sure you’re blocking any incoming calls from Mr. Shadow, because we’re all going to the 23rd Century this week and an all new episode of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!