75 - Josie and The Pussycats

Connection To SIN CITY - Rosario Dawson

I feel like I should put this bit first before I go any further - I have so much affection for this movie. When I first saw this movie it was love at first sight.

The fact that the IMDB rating is 5.3 and a 53% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (which I guess is the exact same score) makes me think only a small number of people will think it's average will some would have gave it a poor score, whilst others have give it a high score.

I know I heard of the Hanna Barbara cartoon before seeing the film for the first time I can't really remember if I ever saw it, me thinks it must have been on Cartoon Network or similar at one point in the UK and I have seen it (but to be fair certain Hanna Barbara cartoons can merge together).

While the film takes digs at advertising and the like, you could make an argument that it would have hit the nail right on the head if they didn't use actual real companies but still I guess it adds a sense of realism in the film that's not really there otherwise.

The film opens with the boy band Dujour (featuring Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison) performing Backdoor Lover, which does indeed sound like a genuine boyband song from around the time the film was made in 2001, on a plane ride to Riverdale, the boys tell their manager Wyatt (Alan Cumming) that they noticed an hidden message strange in their recording, Wyatt decides to parachute out the plane and let the plane crash, in which he lands in Riverdale's home town and needs a new group to latch on, it's then he comes across the girl band then called The Pussycats and begins use them as the new vehicle for doing sublime messages to youngsters.

The pussycats are played by Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie, Rosario Dawson as Val and Tara Reid as Melody - and Say what you want about Reid and the subsequent decade plus but she's absolutely adorable here as the air-headed Melody, I am not saying the makers of Victorious took the character for Cat but you can't certainly see the similarities. I liked the relationship between the three girls and the jealousy of Val towards Josie is built up well throughout the film.

The film villains are Cumming and Parker Posey, I enjoyed them and it seems like there was having a lot of funny going a bit OTT, though the film is usually better when the Pussycats are the screen, Posey has an awesome scene with a Senator. The best Pussycat related scene is probably the TRL scene.

Overall, the songs are catchy (I really like Pretend To Be Nice) and it's very funny even now after multiple viewings, the girls are pretty too look at and like I said have great chemistry, it's just a shame it didn't set the box-office alight and we got a sequel. I still love this film some 12 years after first seeing it.

74 - Sin City

Connection To THE FACULTY - director Robert Rodriguez (also actors Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett) but the director is the one I'm going with.

I thought since this was the year the long awaited Sin City - A Dame To Kill For is released I thought it was worth revisiting a film I really dug when I first saw it back in 2005, I think I've seen it once again in the extended form in 2006 but this is a revisit to the original cinematic cut.

I didn't really talk about the director Robert Rodriguez (co-directing with the comic creator Frank Miller here) on the entry for The Faculty and I mean't too say something on my opinion of him. My opinion on him is that a lot of his films there is something holding them back from being truly great - From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado, Machete films like that on paper sound a touch better then the execution, these are not bad films, though he's made them as well, I think my genuine opinion is Sin City is the only film that as reached it's potential as far as I am concerned, and that's why I'm excited for it's belated sequel.

I don't read many comic books (or graphic novels) really, but I do enjoy films based on them, from the superhero to stuff like Ghost World I've loved numerous films that have started life there, so I never know how closely something follows to the comic, but Sin City moreso then many more I am under the impression is the closest you'll get to a shot by shot remake of a comic, Rodriguez purposely co-directed with the creator Miller to get this and he stuck to using the comic panels as storyboards.

I enjoy films with multiple stories (though the previous film that Robert Rodriguez did with 3 other directors including Quentin Tarantino who guest directed here - Four Rooms - was a film I didn't think too highly of) because I think said it in the write up to Nightmares that stories don't necessary out stay there welcome, there's really 3 stories here plus bookends featuring Josh Hartnett (who I said I wasn't a big fan of as an actor but this the 4th film I've watched this month with him in).

Firstly, we get the makings of the final story with Bruce Willis, a good cop saving a little girl from a vile rapist who he shoots both the weapons of (his hand with a gun in and his genitals), but he ends up getting framed and put in prison while the girl grows up to be Jessica Alba and the guy he shot - The Big Yellow Bastard (Nick Stahl) though she's a little old for him wants to put a notch on the bad post. In the first full story Mickey Rourke is Marv who wakes up next to a dead hooker (Jaime King) and vows to get revenge for her since she showed him love when nobody else would because of looks (even other hookers) and in the second story Clive Owen faces of with Brittany Murphy's psycho ex-Benicio Del Toro which could end up causing a war between the hookers, the gangsters and the cops.

The all star cast is pretty darn great, the stand outs including Mickey Rourke, who it's weird they said The Wrestler was his big comeback because he was so awesome here, also stands out are creepy as hell we have Elijah Wood and of the female cast - Brittany Murphy... I miss you so much, I had such a soft spot for you starting with Clueless (rollin' with my homies) I just love how she plays her role the way she speaks it, and among others Rosario Dawson also shines and Jessica Alba is pretty darn good as Nancy.

It's probably been said multiple times by people before but it's such a benefit to the movie that it literally looks like a live action comic-book, I loved the colour scheme of the movie, mostly black and white except for flashes of colour including blood, clothing and The BYB. Going back to the actors there was some fun minor roles in there as well.

Overall, while it features an lot of violence that might turn people off but I really liked it, I am really looking forward to the sequel. I was glad to revisit after so long.

72 - Taken

Connection To POISON IVY 2 - Xander Berkley

"I don't know who you are, I don't know what you want...", this speech that Liam Neeson delivers to his daughter's kidnapper in Taken as in six shorts years already reached iconic status and single handedly change Neeson into an action star.

Taken for me was a thrill ride, the beginning is pretty much just to set up a non-stop revenge thriller, Neeson goes around beating up or killing the people responsible for taking his daughter (Maggie Grace), which is not personal they just picked the wrong girl with the wrong father.

Whether you except this premise I think can alter your enjoyment, the idea might be far-fetched - she happens to be on the phone with her highly trained dad the moment they come into get her, his ex-wife's new mister happens to have a private jet that can clear and get him to Paris quickly, and little things like the reflection on a photo helps him in his quest - 

I always assumed his daughter's friends death (who is taken the same time), was just death by plot convenience, she dies so you don't have to worry about her after her scene, because after all it's not her story. Things that didn't really work for me is the sub-plot at the beginning of Neeson doing security for a singer played by Holly Vallance that is randomly picked up at the end and I don't know I felt like the finale could have been something better.

Overall very enjoyable if perhaps relies on things like coincidence a little too much, Neeson is cool as fuck here though and he's on screen a good percent of the time.