Sunday!

Earlier this year (like, January/February), a couple of movies came out from the ACTION! stars of the 80’s. Schwarzenegger came out with The Last Stand, a cheerfully implausible movie about a small-town sheriff (with a past? maybe!) who is the only thing in the way between a drug kingpin running away from the cops and the border. Bullets, car chases, monologues. What more could you possibly want?

Well, soon after, Stallone came out with Bullet to the Head. Now, this movie (directed by Walter Hill (![/efn_note] is less cheerful but equally implausible. Stallone and Some Dude are a team of hitmen (does Stallone call Some Dude “kid”, I don’t precisely remember but he may as well have done so) and a particular hit Goes South. You know the whole “half up front, half when the job is done” thing? Well, the half when the job is done turned into an attempt to hit the hitmen. Some Dude dies. Stallone survives… and now he has to avenge Some Dude (whom he may have called “kid”). Along the way, he makes an unlikely alliance with a policeman who may or may not be avenging someone that he cares about. Together: they fight crime. It’s pretty much by-the-numbers and never gets worse than “competent” and, at its best, it’ll have you wonder “why they don’t just make solid movies like this one anymore?”

A couple of 80’s movies starring 80’s stars playing characters who both seem to be wondering “what in the hell is the world coming to?” in their own understated way.

So… what are you reading and/or watching?