Tony Scott, younger brother of Ridley and easily one of the most important and influential action movie directors of the last several decades (an “of all time” case could absolutely be made,) is dead from an apparent suicide. Witnesses say he jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California, his body being later retrieved from the water by LAPD officers. What may have led to this fate is, at this time, unknown. Awful, awful news.

Like his brother, Scott had a quixotic career. Originally schooled as a painter, he became a sought-after director of commercials, documentary shorts and music-videos for Ridley’s video production studio in England. He was in his forties before transitioning to features with the cult-fave modern-vampire piece “The Hunger;” but subsequently became known primarily for his action movies via collaborations with Jerry Bruckheimer. The best of these came out in an impressive run between 1986 and 1995: “Top Gun,” “Beverly Hills Cop II,” “Revenge,” “Days of Thunder,” “The Last Boy Scout,” “True Romance” and “Crimson Tide.”

Scott’s filmography can be found HERE. If there’s anything on there you’ve never seen, now would be the time.

What frustrates me most about “The Expendables” franchise (Part 2 is worse than Part 1, incidentally) – and mystifies me about people who’re still furious at me for not liking the first one – is that I WANT stuff like that to be good. I’m as big a fan of the bloated 70s/80s action aesthetic as anyone; and I don’t understand how this franchise built around the guys who invented that stuff gets it so profoundly wrong while the likes of “Hobo With a Shotgun” or “Machete” can make it work.

Case in point: This trailer for “Bullet In The Head” – Stallone’s “other” action movie this year – looks more like what I was hoping for from “Expendables:” Hardcore macho bullshit with a clear sense of it’s own genre and an emphasis on pumped-up style. The director is Walter Hill, a living legend of oldschool action (“The Warriors,” “48 Hours,” “Streets of Fire” and “Hard Times” among others,) and apart from the tiresome “LOL Rambo got OLD!” gags looks pretty choice:

Something to keep in mind the next time your thinking that this or that movie/story/whatever is just about the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard – the following actual panel from “Batman: A Death In The Family”:

This. This would be awesome.

THR reports that Marvel/Disney is seeking James Gunn, who most-recently gave the superhero genre a vicious dressing-down in “Super,” to try his hand at the real thing as director of “Guardians of The Galaxy.” Aside from how cool and “different” a move it would be to hand a big-budget space opera to a guy mostly known for niche genre flicks like “Slither” and some early Troma collaborations (and, yes, the two “Scooby Doo” movies;) I can think of some other reasons for fandom to get excited…

Gunn is simpatico with Joss Whedon, who just signed for “Avengers 2” in 2015 and is also “overseeing” the production of the other related Marvel films leading up to it. Among the things they share are recurring actor-buddies – specifically, one Mr. Nathan Fillion. So… do some math.

All just idle speculation, of course, since Gunn hasn’t signed yet (though it would be a VERY in-character move for Marvel to leak this “looking at him” info to gauge fan reaction, as they did the same thing when Chris Evans and Joss Whedon were “on the shortlists”); though it will certianly not be lost of fans that Marvel’s pitch for “Guardians” (a misfit crew of aliens having adventures on a starship) feels rather similar to “Firefly.”

In fact, I’d say the only question is whether fans will be pleading for Fillion to show up as Star-Lord (team leader, human astronaut who teams up with aliens) or as the voice of Rocket Raccoon (exactly what it sounds like.)

Go see “ParaNorman.”

“Intermission” has interview quotes from the directors.

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This week’s “Escape to The Movies” will be up in a few hours, but for those of you making weekend movie plans now, let me shoot some quick takes at ya:

“ParaNorman” is my favorite movie of the year, so far. Yes, more than “Cabin in The Woods.” Yes, more than “Avengers.” Better than “Coraline.” An absolutely perfect movie with great characters, great mystery, and it eats “Super 8’s” lunch in terms of Amblin-throwback “kid adventure” movies. Destined to be a cult hit, and will mark the point where Laika Animation dethrones Pixar as the hardcore film-geek Western animation house of choice (Pixar being “still good but too mainstream.”)

“The Odd Life of Timothy Green” is one of the most eye-poppingly bad, ill-concieved train wrecks I’ve seen in years. Well-intentioned, but legendarily-bad – destined for a future as a RiffTrax and/or Channel Awesome mainstay. Imagine an M. Night Shayamalan pitch re-concieved by Tommy Wiseau. The sort of bad movie where, halfway through, you realize with a shock that Nicholas Cage isn’t in it.

“Expendables 2” was hidden from the eyes of film critics. “Green” was not. That probably tells you something.

If “Beyond The Black Rainbow” plays near you, and you have a VERY strong affection for early-80s David Cronenberg/Ken Russell scifi/horror mindfucks; seek it out.

I wonder… Did any prescient movie journalists back during the “Arnold Era” of American action movies do any serious writing about the action stars of said era having a “bubble problem?” As in: So much of their appeal was bound up not in their performances but in their cartoonishly pumped-up “straight-dudes-can-be-gym-queens-too” physicality they were innevitably going to have much greater difficulty transitioning to the “aging hardcase” phase of their careers?

Case in point: The trailer for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (lead-role) post-Governorship comeback, “The Last Stand;” an apparent riff on “High Noon” wherein a very, very, very tired-looking Arnold plays a very, very, very tired-looking former big city cop living in very, very, very tired-looking semi-retirement as the very, very, very tired-looking Sherriff of a peaceful southwestern border town who must lead a team of local cops (plus some hastily-deputized local ruffians for comic-relief – why, hello there somehow-just-as-anachronistic-as-Arnold Johnny Knoxville!) in a last-ditch blockade against a Mexican Cartel Death-Squad looking to blow through their jurisdiction on the way back across the border.

I get the sense that “Border-Jumping Cartel Death Squads” are going to become the next omnipresent stock-villain for generic American action movies; partially because it sounds superficially relevant but mostly because it’s an effective way to exploit Middle America’s knee-jerk paranoia about the “browning” of America (aka “OH NOES! WE’RE BEIN’ INVADED BY TEH HISPANICS!!!”) without being explicitly racist or xenophobic about it.

I did a show about “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

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I am back on the Post-Movie Podcast again this week, as me and Bret Michel sit in for John Black alongside Steve Head. On the docket: ParaNorman, Jaws on Blu-ray, Bourne Legacy and some other things. Mild spoiler-warnings for just about everything, though not major in my estimation:

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Wound up giving Time Life’s big “Power Rangers” DVD set (on behalf of myself and my brother) to my kid sister as an overdue birthday/College Graduation present (good job, Catie!) shortly after it finally hit my mailbox today. I was just a little too old to be “into” MMPR when it was new (though Linkara’s fantastic “history of” videos have made into something like an after-the-fact fan), but she was a massive fangirl for it and I figured this set would be a good bet – though I was a little nervous that maybe Gen-Y maybe wasn’t as big on early-onset-nostalgia as my generation had been in it’s twenties.

Worries for not, thankfully – she was psyched enough to immediately assemble the little figure that came with it and pose it for an Instagram (pictured right.) Good vibes, all around.