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June 02, 2008
SON OF RAMBOW
SON OF RAMBOW is rad. I mean, seriously: really great. It's the story of two kids who decide to make their own version of Rambo, but it's really a celebration of growing up in the 80s (albeit in England) and it effectively recycles and reinvents about a hundred 80s cliches and fashions. It is strange to believe that we can get nostalgic about the 80s, a period I have very cogent memories about. If anything, unlike that dumb WEDDING SINGER movie, RAMBOW manages to effectively remove the 80s from the land of pastiche and kitsch.
The directors are "Hammer and Tongs," although it's more or less a dude named Garth Jennings. His last movie was THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, whose prominently featured George W. Bush imitation as Zaphod Beeblebrox went unliked by me. But RAMBOW restores the pseudonyms.
Whoever is distributing this quirky, charming little film is flubbing it big time. I saw it at the Stage movie theater with six other people on a Sunday night. It should be selling out the Studio on the Square. Anyone who grew up in the 80s and had a kid on their block whose Mom let them rent PREDATOR will love this, and since that's my generation, that's a lot of people. I expect it will become a major hit on DVD, which only will prove how much the distributors (Paramount Vantage) botched it. After a quick look at the Wikipedia, P.V. looks to be pretty good at distributing big-ticket indie films with big stars and Oscar potential (THERE WILL BE BLOOD, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, BABEL), but fail pretty consistently at putting out smaller quirkier pieces that need good word of mouth and a well-thought-out release strategy to find the faithful audiences they deserve (THE MACHINIST, INTO THE WILD, and now RAMBOW). MACHINIST found its cult following on DVD, and I predict INTO THE WILD will become the FIGHT CLUB for the generation about 10 years younger than me. RAMBOW should spawn its own cult and perhaps (sadly) high-budget imitators.
So see it while you can.
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On another note, how about last week's LOST? Pretty wild, eh?
| By Andytown | 10:26 AM
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Comments
It was skill.
Shouldn't you be working on that thesis?
Posted by: Summer at June 2, 2008 11:15 AM