Joy - Blog

"Don't Miss!" Movies...

These are two of my all-time favorite movies and for some reason I woke up thinking about both of them and decided to share with you :)

EQUILIBRIUM

I stumbled across EQUILIBRIUM while killing time at the Century City Mall in LA with a girlfriend. We looked at the marquee and there were only two movies starting within our time frame. Naturally, we chose the Christian Bale flick (being the die-hard "Newsies" freaks that we are), even though we had never heard of it.

When the movie was over we felt like we had just discovered gold! Where the hell had this movie been!? Why was there no press about it? No billboards or commercials? It was, like, the best friggin' movie EVER! Well the story (rumor) goes something like this...

Mirimax produced the movie, directed by Kurt Wimmer. The studio too so long to release it that their contract of ownership was running out and soon they'd have to hand the film over to Wimmer who would then be free to shop it around to other studios who could release it. Instead of giving Wimmer a chance to have a box-office smash, Mirimax decided they'd rather make a little bit of money back on production and they dumped the film into theatres with no press or push.

Sucks, right? Happens all the time.

Anyway, Equilibrium stars Bale, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Angus McFayden and Sean Bean. It's better than (though similar to) The Matrix, has some of the coolest GunKata you've ever seen invented for screen, and plays off Bradburian and Orwellian themes. I'm not going to tell you what (who) those are because, if you're old enough, you know, and if you're too young, you should do some research, find out, and impress your teachers.

Next up... UNLEASHED (known in Europe as DANNY THE DOG)

Jet Li is Danny the Dog, an orphan taken in by a bad guy (Bob Hoskins)who literally raises him like an attack dog... he lives in a cage and everything. Enter Morgan Freeman, the blind piano tuner who starts to introduce Danny to to the power of love and friendship. It's the most bizarre and unlikely story, with a combination of the classical music world and the seedy, violent London underground mafia. You've never seen anything like it!

xo BJG