My Top Ten Favorite....

As the title suggests,
these are my top 10 favorite....





.... movies that feature a dancin' Travolta in 'em (Yep.
Believe it or not, there are actually ten of 'em):


10. Lucky Numbers

A movie so forgettable, that I have nothing in my memory banks that would enable me to caption this.

9. Look Who's Talking Too

Yep.
The baby's still talking.
And Travolta's still dancing.

8. Hairspray

Remember.....
these two "guys" were in Pulp Fiction.

7. Looks Who's Talking


6. Stayin' Alive

A testosterone Stallonesque dream-seeking fairy tale of Flashdanciveness.
These days, I use my torn sweat-shirts to wash the car. And I don't even know what the hell ever became of my sweatband & leg-warmers.

5. Be Cool

I kinda miss the Bat-toosi moves.

4. Urban Cowboy

Not since spaghetti westerns have we seen the concept of Italians & the idea of cowboys merged so.

3. Grease

This is a prime example of how
conventionality belongs to yesterday.

2. Pulp Fiction
.
Is it my imagination, or at one point of this dance sequence, does Travolta actually bust a few moves of the Bat-toosi?
(This is probably the only movie on this list that I would actually recommend watching.)


1. Saturday Night Fever

Mannn.....
back in the day,
polyester was the sh#t.






.....great movies that followed up with the worst sequels:

10. The Exorcist / The Exorcist 2 : The Heretic

This is one of my favorite high school teenage horror movies ever. 23 years later, a sequel.
Twenty three years later.
And the film flops & is critically panned on a universal level. The moral of this story:
if you're gonna wait twenty years to make the 2nd chapter of a classic, you better hope for the best
but prepare for the worst.


9. Carrie/ The Rage: Carrie 2

Okay, maybe the non-musical parts of the Kid's debut film leave something to be desired. But the concert performances are some of the most energetic & charismatically maneuvered dance moves caught on film & the songs culminate into one of the best movie soundtracks ever recorded. This 1984 rock 'n' roll anomaly featuring the Minneapolis funk acts Prince, the Revolution, the Time & Apollonia-6 was followed 6 years later by a 1990 sloppy piece of absolute sh#t, with an after-taste of eighties over-indulgence that would make anyone glad that the decade responsible for spawning the jerri-curl was finally over.


8. Purple Rain/ Grafitti Bridge

Satan takes over a little girl & makes her behave in a manner so vile, even the sickest adult mind would feel a shiver run down their spine. The Heretic, while initially an honest effort, was just too explanitory to provide the expected nightmares that is expected from standard horror-fare, let alone, from probably the scariest story ever produced on the silver screen.


7. The Dirty Dozen/ The Dirty Dozen

To this day, I still think that this is a hoax. A movie follow-up without the Redford/ Newman team? Even with a great story ( which this movie substantially lacks) would've bombed without that duo. Hell, that's logic enough not to make this movie in the first place. But, not only was it made, look at who they did actually cast in the lead roles: Jackie Gleason & Mac Davis.
Yep.
You heard right.
Simply,
a "WTF?!" moment in it's most purest form.


6. Mask/ Son Of The Mask

As a big fan of the Mask comic-book series, & I knew that logistically it would be impossible to translate the surrealistic distortion of the Loki-mask with the hardcore violence of the printed series. However, the film adaptation, rather than even trying to do that, it took the basest part of the concept & was able to come up with a movie that made the character of the Mask all it's own.
The sequel on the other hand, took the idea of the first movie, & sunk it down to levels of a new low which no movie would want to call it's own.


5. Saturday Night Fever / Staying Alive

Okay, at least some effort was put into trying not only to repeat the success of the original, but also an updated version to fit into the new decade at the time the sequel was embarked. However, just as the 80's were quickly to become an exercise into excessive superficiality, so too did Staying Alive quickly abandon the gritty realism of Fever & go into a testosterone Stallonesque dream-seeking fairy tale of Flashdanciveness.
These days, I use my torn sweat-shirts to wash the car. And I don't even know what the hell ever became of my sweatband & leg-warmers.


4. The Whole Nine Yards / The Whole Ten Yards

In the first Nine Yards, it was Matthew Perry, Bruce Willis & Amanda Peet in all their comedic glory. Move ahead forward to a sequel, down the field an extra yard, & all three are now in a unlaughingly boring follow-up story that makes absolutely no sense.
Seriously....
did anyone involved in the second "effort" even try?
Oh what a difference one yard makes.


3. Ghostbusters / Ghostbusters 2

A perfect example of a movie that was so self-contained in it's moment of glory, that you know that the only thing that inspired it's sequel was the ringing sound of the ol' ka-ching-arolla.
Damn.


2. Dumb & Dumber / Dumb & Dumberer

One of the funniest movies in the history of cinema followed up by one of the biggest voids of humor in the history of comedy. I'd rather sit thru an entire career's worth of Dane Cook's stand-up routine than ever again have to sit thru this torturous pile of doodoo balls.
Damn.


1. The Sting / The Sting 2

To this day, I still think that this is a hoax. A movie follow-up without the Redford/ Newman team? Even with a great story ( which this movie substantially lacks) would've bombed without that duo. Hell, that's logic enough not to make this movie in the first place. But, not only was it made, look at who they did actually cast in the lead roles: Jackie Gleason & Mac Davis.
Yep.
You heard right.
Simply,
a "WTF?!" moment in it's most purest form.






....martial arts movies.

10. Game Of Death

Even though Enter The Dragon & Fist Of Fury qualify to make this list, I put ythis one on b'cuz since it actually remains unfinished (let's face it, the post-Lee parts don't count... ) it leaves plenty of room for interpretation on what could have been.
After Lee's death, martial arts genre took a real nose dive as far as the kind of quality & especially the kind of integrity that Bruce seemed to be striving for.
And while lately, the genre has taken many strides forward as far as being taken more seriously as a cinematic artform, watching the ideas that Bruce set upon this early "kung fu flick" always make me wonder about the potential that the original Dragon must have dreamed about & hoped for.



9. Heroic Trio

At first glance, this looked like a B-style action-flick that was just too goofy for me. But as I watched it, it became more like a movie that seem to sufficiently balance between the lines of well-crafted high-fantasy creditability & a comicbook-like storyline. And also at the same time, between epic wuxia style battle moves & cheesy yet energetically fun kung-fu camp.
And at the center, tying all these almost conflicting themes together are three high-flying colorful female warriors whose chemistry made it impossible for me not to fall in love with each one of them. This trio of hot asian super-heroines who fight crime with such cool moves & kick-ass sultry outfits are so sexy, that it makes my pimp-ass want to do sumthin villainous just for the spanking.
Plus, I defy any one not to "loose their head" over the villianous Kau & his throwing "skull-cage" on a chain.
While I realize that this isn't really considered a maverick of this field,for me, the charisma between these well-rounded & distinct characters was enuff to hook me into this non-guilty guilty pleasure.



8. Drunken Master

Now while I agree with most people that (Legend Of The) Drunken Master II was technically a better & more "tightly woven" movie, this film is the first, not to mention, my favorite one featuring Jackie Chan's comedic style of "combat". There are still times when I watch the action scenes of DM & they still seem as energetic, cool & creatively crazy today as back when this kung fu classic first came out.
The combat moves in this flick are so inspired, that sometimes, I feel like I could probably fight like that too.
That is, if I was drunk.
Like really drunk.



7. Iron Monkey

Monkey see, monkey fu.



6. Kill Bill

Only two words can be used to describe this movie: Bad ass.
Not only is this Quentin's homage to martial arts flix, but it also includes homage's to anime & those funky, grainy 70's Bruce Lee's wannabe's that made us laugh with their unsynchronized voice-overs, jagged camera movements & b-level musical sound effects. And yet, he was able to combine all this in a manner that was just plain...
well....
... bad-ass.
Oh, & by the way,
out of sheer curiosity, I just performed the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart technique on myself, just to see if it works. Now, as I post this, I have just finished taking the 5 steps forward, to see if anything will actually happ