The car-chase scene : the ones featured in Bullitt and The French Connection are the most iconic; movies like the Smokey And The Bandit and Cannonball Run series, The Blues Brothers, Ronin and Death Proof are little more than a succession of them held together by the flimsiest of plots; and the ones in Die Hard 3, To Live And Die In L.A, Gone In 60 Seconds, The Hidden, The Italian Job and Colors were the set-piece highlights of their respective movies.
But there's one which puts all the others to shame as it bestrides the car-chase scene set-piece world like Dr Manhattan with that Ric Flair swagger; one featuring thrills which are just are just a tad more high-octane than any of its competitors; one which comes from a movie that, mere months away from the end of 2009, we can safely call the best action movie of the decade; that movie is Bad Boys 2 and this is that car chase in all its glory :
The best sequel of the noughties too? Let's just say that Martin Lawrence drinking water from potted plants after accidently dropping E rates higher on our classic celluloid-o-meter than Christian Bale's chalk-on-blackboard Batman voice in The Dark Knight. Sorry, chaps, but Michael Keaton will always be the definitive Batman until Bale sorts his Pete Steele from Type O Negative doing an impression of Kelly Brook reading from an autocue caped crusader tone out.
News that Bad Boys 3 is likely to happen in the next couple of years is pleasing, and not just because it's another oppurtnity for us to witness a movie with a cast including The Fresh Prince, Henry Rollins and Ralphie from The Sopranos. That, The Expendables and Rambo 5 all due before 2012? Bring it on.
So, this is the point to shoehorn some related rap song in. Uh, let's see.. There's a slight resemblance between the filled out Martin Lawrence from Bad Boys 2 and Grand Puba, isn't there? Top Shelf '88 had a handful of great tunes but this was the highlight :
Grand Puba - Let's Go
Nah, Dark Knight is the best film of the decade.
ReplyDeleteDon't get it twisted, Dark Night is great but it isn't even the best movie of 2008, which is No Country For Old Men (using the ol' 2007 movie which didn't get released in the UK until 2008 loophole i plan on exploiting again with The Wrestler being a 2009 movie even though it came out stateside last year)
ReplyDeleteI wasn't too fond of Dark Knight. The set-pieces were on the whole disappointing: hang-gliding one, truck driving one, bit at the end. And Bale's blockbuster voice is seriously annoying; it was almost the worst thing in Terminator Salvation, which was an absolute travesty.
ReplyDeleteI think we can safely say that Bale is a dull hack other than American Psycho, the Shaft remake, The Machinist and The Prestige.
ReplyDeleteHarsh Times was alright.
ReplyDeleteI watched Bad Boys 2 last night on Film4 or such. An outstanding Crap Film, I thought it was pretty much as good as the first.
The Puba song is great but the song from Masta Ace is way better!
ReplyDeletejasper
Yeah, that was a good track but Let's Go and the Smooth B joint were the highlights for me.
ReplyDelete