Every year, I throw in to the DVD player some annual movie favorites--films that I view no matter what happens. Besides those for the recent holidays, I will always take in L.A. Confidential, Michael Mann's Heat and Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (usually in the Spring). Come summer, it's Chinatown and Robert Towne's (under-rated) Tequila Sunrise time.There are others that I won't mention here, but yesterday I began this year's run with one that includes a favorite actor of mine: Liam Neeson. The choice was influenced by the Friday movie that I took in, the newly released Taken. It's a decent actioner, but Liam still shines. So, I had to start it with 1995's Rob Roy.
This one, released the same year as Braveheart, has a number of great things going for it. Apart from Liam (who was my pick for Best Actor for Schindler's List), it has a great story (though not very factual), cast, one of the great film villains ever, and what is arguably the best sword-fight ever lensed. And for that, I will forever see actor Tim Roth as Archie Cunningham. With regard to that sword-fight, journalist and blogger Steven Hart described it best. I can't say it any better than he, but I did have to add a comment ;-). I should note, hopefully, the studios will re-release a new, re-mastered DVD for this great work (like they did last fall for Braveheart). The current disc is long-in-the-tooth and the picture suffers some on new flat panel sets. Plus, this movie and its fans yearn for the extras that the current barebones edition so sorely lacks.
Now, what's next in the stack?
