My Latest Obsession- part 5

I’m back with the final piece to my Karl Urban obsession. Just checking but… you’ve read 1, 2, 3, and 4, right? Well, then… let’s just dive in, shall we?

Red

There is something really fun about these recent action films starring aging action heroes as, well, aging take action guys. The Expendables series has entertained me. And now I can say that I’ve found another again hero movie enjoyable. I missed this one at its release due to being a broke grad student. Again. But let me tell you… now that I’ve seen it… I really enjoyed it!

bang bang!

Essentially, a retired CIA operative gets dragged back into CIA-esque work (information gathering, kicking ass, and I’m sure something else imperative). He can’t do it alone. So he recruits his former colleagues. Oh, and there’s a lady he’s flirted with on the phone that he kidnaps and woos (sorta) til she stops fighting him and joins the team. Oh, and he’s being hunted by another CIA agent who has been given some bad info. Oh, that might be a spoiler. And Urban plays “Wiliam Cooper”, the CIA agent sent to kill Bruce Willis. Err… Willis’s character “Frank Moses”. Once again… a badass.

Some awesome fights. I mean… the fight between Urban and Willis in the CIA office… eeeee fun!

And you get a full arc from Urban’s character. Which is nice- a character who can change is full of depth. Which makes him fun to watch. No evidence that Cooper will be in Red 2, which makes me sad.

LOTR: Two Towers & Return of the King

So… In order to complete this series, I had to watch the LOTR trilogy again. I mean, I could’ve just watched the two that were relevant but… while the main arc of the first piece was remembered, the details were not. Thus, I had to watch the entire thing. Again.

Most of my family and friends would be excited to do this but… it’s not my favorite trilogy. It is a great set of movies- don’t get me wrong!- but I find it a little slow and waaaaaaaaay too long. I have a bad back and so I know when a movie has hit the point where it is too long because my spine will start shrieking at me. Now try to marathon all three movies with that happening… Kill me now.

doesn’t he just scream hero? *swoon*

And because of how major these movies are/were I won’t go into details about them. Instead let me just tell you that for the purposes of this series of posts there was not nearly enough Karl Urban. However, his character (Eomer) plays an interesting arc. The brother to Eowyn, and nephew to a king, Eomer leads soldiers in battle against impossible odds. His army gets banished by the king- while the king is under a spell- and in their journeys they meet up with Legolas, Gimli, and Aragon. Eomer is a grumpy bastard. They part ways. And then come to join the final battles in the third film. I mean, there’s a lot more too it- some wonderful scenes and lines, in fact- but there’s just so much that happens in the series that the only thing I can tell you is to go watch it (again).

While I enjoyed the character and storyline, I’m a fan of Sam (not Frodo, though- he’s pretty much a waste as far as I’m concerned) and Merry & Pippin. Aragon is pretty badass too. So I was much more invested in them. Probably that investment stems from them being in all three films and being such central characters. Eomer is relegated to the second and third character and doesn’t get nearly as much development. In any case, it’s a good role and performance from Urban. And who wouldn’t want to be rescued by him? Hot damn!

OK… here’s where you get mad at me… I totally lied. This won’t be my last piece. I have two films to watch still but I’ve had this internal issue where I don’t want this obsession to end and have instead been rewatching things. Yes, I know I could just postpone this piece and watch them… but I want to get it out there.

I’ll be back with-

Out of the Blue

Heaven (thanks, Valerie!)

“Cure for an obsession: get another one.” ~Mason Cooley

 

Tags: Actors, FanGirl Squee, Geekery, Karl Urban, Lord of the Rings, Movies, Nerdtastic Ramblings, Red, Reviews