YOJIMBO (1961)

"...this town is full of men who deserve to die."

As a highly paid professional movie critic I'm required to say something profound and intelligent...wait, what? I'm doing this shit for free!? Then fuck it. YOJIMBO is awesome! Totally rad. Loosely based (in my stupid opinion) on Dashiell Hammett's brilliant "Red Harvest" and "The Glass Key", YOJIMBO tells the story of a drifter samurai who innocently wanders into a small village that's in the middle of a turf war between two equally bad gangs. He quickly accesses the situation and then takes turns going from one side to the other. Each step of the way, turning the gangs more and more on each other and secretly pushing them into mutual destruction.

Even at over 50 years old YOJIMBO is still really exciting and a lot of fun to watch. Toshiro is perfect as the nameless samurai and Tatsuya is a total badass as the main tough guy in town. Add to that the all star cast, Kurosawa at the top of his game and you have one the greatest and most influential Samurai movies of all time. I can't think of a single reason not to watch YOJIMBO and watch it often.

Highly recommended. Double feature it with it's sister film SANJURO.

MAN ON A LEDGE (2012)

Ex-copper Sam Worthington got fucked over by a super rich douchebag (played wonderfully by Ed Harris). He gets the shit beat out of him then sent to prison for supposedly stealing a rare diamond from Harris. After Sam's daring escape, he climbs out on the twenty-first story ledge of a building and just stands there. Why?

If Hitchcock was still alive (he'd probably dropkick M. Night Shyamalan in the face), but also I think he would enjoy MAN ON A LEDGE. There's plenty of action, the story is well laid out and it kinda has that Hitchcock feel to it, you got a hero to root for, the pace is excellent, it looks really nice and Genesis Rodriguez's body is incredible! Makes you wanna stand up and beg for buttermilk!

I liked MOAL quite a bit. When I rented it I didn't know what to expect, but it was a fun ride. I'm not sure about the rewatch value but it's worth a watch for sure. Make sure to check out the Special Features to see how they filmed it. Pretty impressive.