Best... Movies... Ever...?

You know those guys you see in the DVD aisles at Best Buy? They're usually just browsing, looking for a good blind buy. And the movies that they pick are inevitably things like DARK BLUE, SNAKE EYES, or EXIT WOUNDS. If they've seen a movie theatrically that they like enough to buy, it'll be something like AMERICAN GANGSTER. They're the reason why movies like THE ART OF WAR II are made.

Occasionally, these guys will see you browsing with your own stack of movies, and be like, "Hey, any suggestions?" I always try to trick them into something like SYDNEY in the hopes that it'll blow their minds and make them reconsider what it is the medium is capable of.

There are two movies which I saw trailers for over the weekend which look incredible. They are both quintessential examples of movies that these guys buy.

The first is RIGHTEOUS KILL. It stars Academy Award Winner Robert DeNiro, and Academy Award Winner Al Pacino as two cops who play by their own rules! The premise is that there's a serial killer who's killing criminals that beat the system. The twist is that he's a cop! The trailer features such lines as "We gotta find this guy. Give him a medal!" and "There's nothing wrong with a little shooting, as long as the right people get shot!" Toss in 50 Cent to add some street cred, and Carla Gugino as the voluptuous female cop, and you've got yourself a bestseller. Did I mention it's from the director of Pacino's last big hit, 88 MINUTES? One way or another, this movie's gonna be awesome!

The second movie is FAST & FURIOUS. See what they did there? It's like THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, only without the the's. See, they're kicking it old school, bringing back Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. As the tagline puts it, "New Model, Original Parts." When I saw the trailer for this before DEATH RACE, I swear to God I heard a hushed, wavering voice from the back of the theater say, "Best... movie... ever...!" And when the "Summer 2009" card came up at the end of trailer, the audience was not amused. I guarantee that if they said, "FAST & FURIOUS will be showing immediately following the conclusion of DEATH RACE," everyone in that theater would've stayed, including myself. And I don't give a shit about that series.

RIGHTEOUS KILL and FAST & FURIOUS will have record-setting blind buys from those guys at Best Buy, and it's a good thing too. Because I really can't imagine anyone buying those movies after they've seen them.