A Grass Man, a Karate Kid, and some Dolls
This week’s Netflix haul include Johnny Knoxville in Daltry Calhoun, The Karate Kid Part II (no introduction needed), and another Takeshi Kitano film - Dolls.
Daltry Calhoun went straight to video last month, despite star Johnny Knoxville and exec producer Quentin Tarantino. Knoxville plays a small town millionaire whose golf course grass seed business is slowly collapsing. His life turns around when his terminally ill ex (Elizabeth Banks) shows up with his 14 year old daughter he never knew. If you’ve ever asked yourself what would happen if Cameron Crowe wrote and directed an Adam Sandler movie, this is the answer. No one embarrasses themselves here, even Juliette Lewis manages to be sexy for a few minutes. Unfortunately, there’s just not that much here to recommend. Knoxville barely has anything to do, and the humor is so downplayed that it’s nearly non-existant. It’s sweet-natured though, instead of the sap fest it could have been, so I’m giving it 2.5 out of 5.
For having seen as many movies as I have, there’s a large chunk of “childhood favorites” I’ve never seen. I saw the original Karate Kid only a few years ago, and saw Part III earlier this year. Part II takes Daniel-san and Miyagi to Okinawa, which is apparently located somewhere on the California coast. There, Mr. Miyagi has to settle a old feud with an ex-best friend(played by some Hawaiian guy doing his best Japanese accent). Morality and hand-holding with girls follows.
Now I didn’t miss all the kid’s movies of the 80’s, and seeing the Karate Kid sequels makes me happy that there was never a Goonies II (on celuoid). For most of my life, my only experience with the Karate Kid was on the NES. Going from kicking ass with Digital Daniel to watching the movies has only made me surer that real Daniel is the biggest pussy of all the action heroes. Ever. Even Hamlet. 2 out of 5
Upon release, Dolls was called Takeshi Kitano’s women’s film. That just means it’s about tragic relationships I guess. In America lately, a “woman’s film” is Failure to Launch. Dolls is actually Kitano’s attempt to take Japanese puppet theater (Bunraku) from the stage to the screen. Have you ever seen one of those shows? Neither have I. The cinematography was pretty and the three stories were moderately entertaining, but I don’t have the cultural background to truly appreciate it…should have added Japan Studies as a minor. 3 out of 5, I guess.
Hopefully will be back with better movies next week…I’m trying.
March 24th, 2006 at 11:00 am
Alex, add justincharlesharlan@yahoo.com to your friends and I can recommend a few for ya… and vice versa.