After taking a short break after my " Run, Bandit, Run " series, I'm back.  This time, I'm taking aim... with a " Lethal Weapon "... 50 year old Sergeant Murtaugh has a nice home, a lovely family, a new fishing boat, and a fairly safe career... Sergeant Rigs has a motor home, memories of his deceased wife, a risky career... and a "special" bullet for a "special" occasion... When they get partnered up, it becomes a question of who'll get the "special" bullet in the end... 1987's " Lethal Weapon " helped to transform the Buddy Cop movie from a genre that was generally comedic to one that had action, humor, and depth of character. The story is pretty 1980's in that it consisted of drug cartels- which was the real hot topic back then due to Nancy Reagan's " Just Say No " campaign.  But it's really only the bones from which hangs the real "flesh" of the movie- the relationship betwe...

This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark in a movie theatre for the first time in 38 years. And I watched it in the exact cinema where I saw it as a nine-year-old boy. It was a wonderful nostalgia trip, and a great opportunity to catch one of my favourites on the big screen. It was during the famous truck chase, where Indiana Jones crawls beneath a moving vehicle, that I was struck with a sense of wonder: what I was watching was real! That was Harrison Ford, and a stuntman, on the front of a moving vehicle, then sliding/crawling beneath it. No computer-aided effects; just real people risking it all to make a movie. There are special effects in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but a large part of it is old-fashioned moviemaking and stunt work. As was also the case with classics like Lethal Weapon, The Terminator and it's brilliant sequel, and countless others. Watching the faces of moviegoers as they lapped up Raiders (many were too young to have seen i...

News dropped late last night that Landmark Cinemas is closing the Paramount Theatre in our home town of Kamloops. The theatre is a landmark indeed, having entertained moviegoers since 1955. Landmark stated that closing the theatre is a business decision, meaning attendance at the old movie house has been on the decline for a while. The last movie I caught there was Overlord back in November, and it was not well attended.

The time is now! Meaning it's time once again for Jason and Shawn to take to the Interwebs for this, the extended cut of Friday's segment on the mighty Radio NL 610 AM Morning Show. What is an extended cut, you might ask? Easy: it's extra content created for long-time fans of We Came from the Basement featuring the original duo of Jason and Shawn. The show turned eight this year, and no one in The Basement wants to disappoint those who have stuck with us since the beginning.

Like most people, I'd written off the Lethal Weapon TV series before It'd even aired. Take a classic film series that featured award worthy work by two great actors, and turn it into a network show . . . during prime time!?! Sacrilege! And, like many viewers, I was pleasantly surprised when, after giving the show a chance, I actually liked it. The more I watched, the better it got. A big part of the show's success was Clayne Crawford's performance as Martin Riggs. He came out of nowhere and made the character his own, which I didn't think was possible. His chemistry with co-star Damon Wayans, although not on par with what Mel Gibson and Danny Glover had, was still solid.

I've had an excessively tough time sitting through Iron Man 2. I loved the first movie, dig Robert Downey Jr and think Jon Favreau is the cat's ass as a director and actor. But the second film is just, well, blah. Worse than blah. Boring! Even with Mickey Rourke. What's up with that!?! But I might have to force myself to catch the entire film now that Shane Black is in final negotiations to helm Iron Man 3. Who's Shane Black? He's considered one of the best screenwriters in the business. Black wrote the first two Lethal Weapon movies, The Monster Squad, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Last Action Hero (we forgive you for that one, Shane). He also wrote and directed the brilliant Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, which starred Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer. Oh yeah, he was also one of the soldiers in Predator. The guy who told all the jokes. This is great news. Black's scripts are edgy, funny and violent. He could breathe the right amount of life back ...

That's it. Stop the world. We want off! But first, let's lob giant grenades of apocalyptic death on the creative void that is Hollywood as the remake train keeps rolling in favour of taking the time to come up with new and interesting ideas to turn into money making products. Arguably the best of the buddy-cop genre, 1987's Lethal Weapon starred Mad Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in a fun, violent and trashy tale of cops versus drug dealers. It featured great performances by the leads and had a wit and style that set the stage for a whole generation of action films. There's no way to improve upon the film, so why bother remaking it other than it's 25 years old and ripe for a cash in? Guess I just answered my own question. I'm getting to old for this shit. Also up for a remake are such greats as The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen and Westworld, which could benefit from some new special effects. Why not ask George Lucas to CGI the shit out of the original instea...