Quick! Before it Expires: Six for the Price of One

I have a trio of movies for you dear readers to watch.

One good, one bad, and one ugly.

The Good
The Dirty Dozen

Of all the super specific sub-gernes in film, one of my favorites is “soldiers on a mission.” In that super specific genre, The Dirty Dozen is one of the best.

Lee Marvin stars as a reluctant Major tasked with training a group of convicted soldiers to a suicide mission into a Nazi stronghold. The movie hits all the great beats, from the “recruitment” of the soldiers, to their training sequences, to the the actual execution of the mission.

Joining Marvin are a slew of grizzled character actors. Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, and Telly Savalas. While the action hasn’t quite aged that well, it’s definitely a fun movie to watch.

The Dirty Dozen expires on February 1st, 2012.

The Bad
Mortal Kombat

During the 8-bit heyday of games, an often used device was the palette swap. Basically there would be one character model with two different color schemes. The most famous example of that is Mario and Luigi from the first Super Mario Bros. game. They had the same character model. One’s clothes were red and blue; the other was green and white.

Mortal Kombat is often considered the best video game adaptation movie. In my opinion the movie largely succeeds because it is a palette swap of Enter the Dragon.

A man gets sucked into an old and dangerous fighting tournament along with a few friends. The tournament is run by a deliciously evil villain who has ties to the hero’s past.

While Mortal Kombat’s plot isn’t terribly original, all the actors show up and give it their all. Particularly Linden Ashby who plays the narcissistic Johnny Cage. Veteran B-movie actor Christopher Lambert gives good performance as the thunder god Raiden. The fight sequences are also largely effective and memorable. They have good choreography and style.

Mortal Kombat expires on January 30th, 2012.

The Ugly
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is not a good movie. It barely, and I do mean barely, qualifies as a “so bad it’s good” movie.

So why am I recommending that you watch it before it expires from Netflix? There are a few action sequences in the movie that are bat shit insane and worth your time. Particularly in the movie when the heroes test their exo-suits in Paris.

Also, this is one of the few movies where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a bad guy. So there’s that.

Finally, the film maker’s idea of an evil underwater lair is too ridiculous not to see.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra expires on February 1st, 2012.

-Harrison

The Crying Game
The Crying Game is an amazing film. It’s hard to summarize without giving away the good bits. It’s about a member of the Irish Republican army who moves to England to combat his grief about a death he inadvertently caused. Neil Jordan is overlooked as a filmmaker. The performances in this film err on the side of the overly dramatic but it works in this film. Stephen Rea and a young Forest Whitaker give awesome performances in this film. And the ending… Well if you don’t know it and you don’t figure it out, well watch out.

The Crying Game Expires in 5 days

Tetro

Tetro is a film by written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola; his first since 1974′s the Conversation, which we all know is my favorite Coppola film. It’s not his most successful film but I would argue it’s his most personal and most interesting film he made in a long time. It’s about Italian immigrants in Argentina and more specifically, about a weird Italian Nicholsonesque family in Argentina. If you don’t know what that means you should watch this film.

Tetro Expires in 5 Days.

The Golden Child
I love this movie. I know, I’m supposed to be the snob of this board and I’m picking this weird Eddie Murphy action film. But this one along with, Big Trouble in Little China seem to be a bit different from the action films of this period. They are ahead of their time in terms of genre: both films combine comedy, action, sci-fi/horror and to some degree a western influence. Both films also feature “heroes” that aren’t exactly skillful in their pursuit of the villain. Kurt Russell is more inept while Eddie Murphy is more sardonic. It’s visual effects are dated, but it’s an enjoyable film if you keep your expectations low.

The Golden Child Expires in 5 days.

As always check QueueNoodle for more expiring title.

-Josh E.