Not Fox News though. That can rot in hell.
After Disney’s successful acquisition of the film and TV
arms of the Fox empire, the mouse decided to drop ‘Fox’ from the name
altogether, branding the new company 20th Century Studios. This week’s new
release The Call of the Wild is the first film to be branded as such. On one
hand, it makes sense that Disney would prefer to drop the Fox brand, especially
considering some of the baggage that comes with it. But on the other, life will
NEVER be the same without the triumphant fanfare accompanying a 20th Century
Fox logo before a new release.
But alas, life moves on and for now at least, there is at
least some semblance of the studio that brought us classics like The Sound of
Music, Star Wars, and Airheads. In honor of the beloved departed, let’s take a
look back at some swell Fox films.
Die Hard
Ah, Die Hard. The perennial favorite film of Jake Peralta as
well as many other real people. John McTiernan’s Die Hard helped shape the late
80s and 90s action movies probably more than any other, so much so that it created
it’s own spin-off genre: Die Hard on a ____. While every December that rolls
around brings another argument of whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas film
(it totally is), these quibbles completely miss the point that it is a
near perfect film that can be watched any damn day of the year. It’s secondsequel is not too shabby either.
Speed
Speaking of Die Hard ...
I love Speed. I’ve made this clear before and it’s entirely
possible this entire post is just an excuse to bring it up again. I get chills
watching this scene (any scene really) or even the excellent trailer. From Jan
de Bont’s superb first-time direction to Keanu and Sandra’s great chemistry to
the awesome score by Mark Mancina, I will always watch Speed when I stumble
across it on TV. And then, probably get pissed at the commercial breaks and
start it over on Blu-ray.
Office Space
My first memory of watching Office Space was a Friday night
on HBO when I was as sick as a dog. At that point, I was probably just out of
high school without any real sense of the workforce save for my regular shifts
at Subway. But as I’ve gotten older and my career has aligned more with
Peter’s, I find more and more to love in Mike Judge’s film. Even seeing a
revival screening about 10 years ago with a rowdy crowd quoting lines cannot
dampen the hilarious, yet depressing, slice of life shown here.
While it remains to be seen exactly what the new 20th Century Studios will look like, we can remain hopeful that it will be great again. RIP in peace.
Comments
Post a Comment