An Action Extravaganza!

There’s a movie I watched back in the late 80’s, called “Man on Fire”, starring Scott Glenn. There was a remake in 2004 starring Denzel Washington, but I’m not here to talk about that particular version - it’s that older, Scott Glenn version that brings me here today.

That 1987 version looked terrific. I remember watching the movie trailer at the beginning of another movie and thinking wow, I gotta see that!

The original movie trailer for the 1987 version of Man on Fire is just over two minutes long and contains just under 60 seconds of gunshots, car crashes and huge explosions. All the indications were that it was an action extravaganza. I got the video (yes, back then we didn’t have DVDs yet, and if someone had mentioned ‘Blue Ray’ to me I’d have thought they were talking about a science fiction comic book), plugged it into the machine and sat back to enjoy the show.

The movie itself is 92 minutes long… and contains just under 60 seconds of gunshots, car crashes and huge explosions. The rest of the film is Scott Glenn (an actor whom I normally enjoy very much) quietly seething as he holds muttered conversations.

Not exactly an action extravaganza.

The movie did, however, have one hell of a trailer.

Now, to slightly misquote The Cos, I told you about that movie so I can tell you about another one.

There is a movie available right now from RedBox, called Hugo. It’s more than available, actually; it’s in their New Releases section. It also shows up in their Family section, and that was how it caught my eye. I was looking for something to watch with Handsome last Saturday when he came to visit with me for the night. Though the description of Hugo sounded a little iffy, especially when pondering whether it would hold the attention of a 9-year old boy who just loved the movie Real Steel (but then, who didn’t?). Just to be sure, I watched the trailer they had on RedBox.com.

The trailer was 2 minutes and 18 seconds long, and had 90 seconds of chase scenes, a boy running from a police dog, something that looked like a robot, a train bearing down on a boy on the tracks, a cool-looking train wreck, trips spills and accidents. It looked like a humorous action extravaganza.

I’ll bet you see where I’m going with this.

I did, at the time, hope aloud that they weren’t simply running a man-on-fire-style trailer.

We settled down with popcorn, and Handsome just had to finish something up on the computer as I put the DVD (See? No more video tape. All modern and everything!) into the machine and pushed Play.

Hugo is 206 minutes long, and as far as I could tell contained roughly … 90 seconds of chase scenes, a boy running from a police dog, something that looked like a robot, a train bearing down on a boy on the tracks, a cool-looking train wreck, trips spills and accidents.

Not exactly a humorous action extravaganza.

I dozed off in the middle of the movie, waking to a drool-covered chin and Handsome still fiddling with his computer while keeping one eye on the movie. I eventually had to make him put the computer away and go to bed. When I asked, he wasn’t really sure what had happened in the movie. I, of course, missed about a half-hour right there in the middle due to the Sandman whacking me upside the head with extreme prejudice. Since neither of us actually saw the whole movie, I don’t feel competent to offer any kind of review… but I can tell you one thing.

It did have one hell of a trailer.

Talk to you later!

P.S. - Just as an FYI,  the 2004 remake of Man on Fire starring Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning is a much better movie. If you're a Denzel fan, and you haven't seen this flick yet, my advice is to go find it on NetFlix or something.

It's an extravaganza!