Review: Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer
Two thumbs up for movies! Who doesn’t love ‘em? Well, I guess old school reading elitists, and people who despise Hollywood idiocy … okay, I’m not making a very convincing defense of movies, but I do adore them, generally speaking. And so does Vern, Ain’t It Cool News writer and long-time moviegoer. Recently he put together and shipped off to Titan Books a new paperback that collects over eighty film reviews and essays.
Moviegoers, hold that popcorn; cinema lovers, be kind and pause; amateur and professional film critics, move over because the Seattle familiar and internet scribe popularly known as “Vern” has once again entered the literary arena, widening the scope of film studies with his intense and utterly entertaining new book.
Two years after publicizing Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal, Vern returns to Titan Books to channel his energy into another instant hit: “Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer!”: Writings on Bruce Willis, Badass Cinema, and Other Important Topics. The frequent Ain’t It Cool News website contributor packages more than a love for ’80s action movie icons like Bruce Willis and Clint Eastwood into his roughly 400-page monster, a lovechild of his movie career that spans film generations and traces genre and actor legacies. Always insightful, Vern groups his eighty-plus reviews into thematic sections, dedicated to such topics as the warrior code and masculinity, society, the near pornographic (or downright disturbing), summer blockbusters, and various other oddball trends. Sifting through little known or foreign gems (several of them still only available on VHS) and then grazing more mainstream classics, Vern’s collection offers a well-rounded film education: He focuses his attention on such titles as Enter the Ninja, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Knightriders, Brokeback Mountain, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Zoo, The Gingerdead Man, and Yojimbo, to name a handful.
Read the full review at OneMetal.
