Over The Top
Directed by Menahem Golan
93 min.
What Am I Doing With This Movie
I’m a Stallone fan. I think he’s a cool guy, and very good in interviews. The Q&A’s he’s done with Ain’t It Cool News are particularly great. I love or like all the Rambo and Rocky movies. Because people love ranking them, here’s my ranking:
- Rocky
- Rocky III
- Rocky II
- Rocky V
- Rocky IV
- Rambo
- Rambo: First Blood Part II
- First Blood
- Rambo III
And just for fun, I’ll rank the other series people love to rank:
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
And the other one:
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Being Stabbed In The Face
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
But back to Over The Top. Stallone + arm wrestling championship + my favorite episode of Dexter’s Laboratory parodying it to a certain extent = movie I need to see. I picked up for like $6 a while back, but never ended up watching it. I think I was working through The Wire at the time, and was too deeply engrossed in that.
What’s Good About It
- Great soundtrack, if you’re into that sorta thing. Will be excruciating for those who aren’t, but I love these kinds of 80’s soundtracks. I’m not even going to describe the soundtrack further than that, because it’ll take the fun out of hearing the first song in the movie.
- Even though this is a pretty formulaic father and son tale, there are a few twists and turns you don’t expect that make it stand out from others.
- The arm wrestling tournament is fun and exciting. I’m a sucker for tournaments in movies though, so I’m biased.
- Stallone is very good. He’s not playing a particularly deep character, but his performance really makes you feel like this guy has had a past where he’s been through some shit. The amount of his past that’s left to the imagination really puts you into the shoes of his son, making the emotional impact of this film a lot stronger.
- Really funny unintentional pedophilic undertones. Like the soundtrack, I don’t wanna ruin the moments for you, but you’ll know them when they arrive.
What’s It Lack
- The actor playing the kid isn’t that great, and the lines he’s given aren’t so hot either. It’s not distracting per se, it’s just noticeably weak.
- Some scenes toward the beginning involving the kid’s grandfather feel unnecessary and drag. Would have liked those scenes shortened, and more scenes of Stallone and the kid on the road.
What Did You Learn
- Stallone can be a good actor in things other than Rocky and Rambo. Previously, I’d only seen him in Cobra and Cliffhanger besides those, and both are pretty bad.
- The move “over the top” in arm wrestling. I can’t wait to try it out on people.
- Truckers sleep in the front seats, not on cots in the back of the truck. Weird. There’s so much space back there! Silly truckers.
What Else
If you’re in the mood for this kind of thing, you’ll enjoy yourself. I can’t see this movie exciting anyone who doesn’t already dig the premise, though.
6 comments:
I think you should review Lupin the Third next.
I really wanna crack into some anime, it's just daunting having all the DVD's of these series in front of me. When I do, Lupin will be first though.
Yeah, it's quite a collection you've amassed. Having said that, is it the Lupin TV series or one of the full-length movies?
I haven't seen the series much but I think the movies [especially Secret of Mamo & Castle of Cagliostro] are really entertaining even for people who don't watch much anime.
I'm also looking forward to a review of Ghost Chase, if it's the 1987 movie, because when I rented it the VHS tape was twisted and it rendered the movie unwatchable (MORE unwatchable?)
Thanks! One day I'll post all the DVD's I own, I'm quite proud of my full collection.
I have the whole Lupin series, plus Secret of Mamo, but no Castle of Cagliostro. Would you suggest I watch Secret of Mamo before starting the series, sometime during, or after I've finished it?
I'm looking forward to Ghost Chase, too. I'm a big Jason Lively fan, he's my favorite 'Why is this guy even in movies?' star of the 80's. He made Night of the Creeps half of what it is. Anyway, I was lucky enough to nab a copy of Ghost Chase for like $15 before it got really rare ($60+) Sadly though, the DVD is pan & scan, and a video transfer. I watched like the first 10 minutes, and the quality isn't that terrible though. Just feels like you're watching a clean VHS tape.
I think I kinda like that 'clean VHS tape' feel that some '80s movie DVDs have. It definitely adds to the late-night movie atmosphere. Especially on shlocky horror movies like the Friday the 13th series, or Night of The Creeps as you mentioned [sadly not available on DVD for some reason].
As far as Lupin goes, all the movies are self-contained stories independent of the TV series and the franchise doesn't seem to have any kind of timeline.
The only real constant is the small main cast and their character traits, so watching Secret of Mamo before the series should be pretty much the same as watching it afterwards.
Also the intro scene to Mamo is a complete non sequitur with Lupin living in a castle as a fake vampire and it makes no sense either way!
Just as a note, I've always prefered the English dubs of Lupin movies than the original Japanese voice tracks because they tend to get the humour across better than directly-translated subtitles can, but that's just me.
Unfortunately Secret of Mamo has been dubbed in English 4 different times so the version you watch is more than likely different to my old VHS copy, which in turn is different to the DVD re-release that's coming out in August. *shakes fist at anime in general*
Yeah, it's always fun to see movies like that, for the nostalgic experience. I also find that VHS sound compression is pretty friendly to horror and kung fu. The clean, quiet dialogue/loud music mix on a lot of DVD releases of classic 80's horror movies tend to take me out of the experience.
Thanks for the information on Lupin, and I'll make sure to try the english dub.
Post a Comment