Tag Archives: Top Gun

Tony Scott: The Last Boy Scout

20 Aug

Photo: REUTERS

Tony Scott was a maverick.  His films were frenetic and full of bristling kinetic energy and unbridled action.  Critical acclaim often eluded him despite directing genre defining classics such as Top Gun (one of my favourite films and the inspiration for this blog), True Romance and the brilliant The Last Boy Scout.

He blazed a trail for the action thriller and collaborated with some of the greatest names in cinematic history: brother Ridley, Robert Redford, Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman and famously five-time collaborator/muse Denzel Washington.  His films were raw, hectic, relentless and yes sometimes flawed, but they were undeniably Tony Scott films.

His influence is far reaching, he’s been oft imitated but rarely matched and it’s unlikely we’ll see his likes again.

For Maverick, Goose, Joe Hallenbeck & Jimmy Dix, Alabama Whitman and Drexel Spivey I salute you…

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Battleship (2012)

17 Apr

Haters will decry Peter Berg’s Battleship as a Michael Bay-esque monstrosity that panders unapologetically to the lowest common denominator, much like Bay’s heinous destruction of the good name Transformer. That would do a disservice to Berg’s picture, which whilst undeniably stupid and utterly over the top is by no means as bad as Bay’s pantheon of crap. In fact the biggest crime that can be levelled at Battleship is that it lacks one single original idea in its bloated 131 minute running time.

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