"Be That Guy": MacGyver and The Guyver

I had the opportunity recently to watch a treasured B-movie classic. Last Saturday night around 1 a.m., I was reacquainted with The Guyver. The early 90's sci-fi flick was back in all of its grandeur of yesteryear. I watched with unbridled enthusiasm as days of my adolescence were brought to the forefront of my adulthood. While I gazed into the nostalgic window of prepubescent geekdom, I couldn't help but be reminded of another early 90's hero: MacGyver. You remember MacGyver-the leather jacket, the Swiss-army knife, and most of all, the mullet. He was the man our dad's wanted to be and our mom's wanted to be with. So as I reveled in the excellence of The Guyver (and daydreamed of MacGyver), I decided it was only fitting to honor both of these awe-inspiring "guys."

The Guyver is the tale of a college/karate student named Sean Baker (Jack Armstrong) who stumbles upon an otherworldly mechanism simply known as "the guyver." When he comes in contact with the device, it turns him into a bio-mechanical super hero. He then goes on to battle the diabolical Chronos Corporation and its alien-like creatures: The Zoanoids. The story takes off from there but I want to focus on some of the actors who appear in this great film. The head of the Chronos Corporation, Fulton Balcus, is played by former-presidential-nominee-John Kerry-look-alike-David Gale (no relation to the wack Kevin Spacey flick). David Gale of course went instant legend in the undeniably magnificent Re-Animator. Here he teams up with his Re-Animator co-star, the infamous Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs). And just like in that film, Combs plays a slightly loony scientist with a wry wit. It seems the director pays a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Herbert West because in The Guyver, Comb's name is Dr. East. The film is directed by a man simply and poetically known as Screaming Mad George. SMG (what his friends call him) was the special effects guru on films like Predator, Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Silent Night Deadly Night 4, and both Re-Animator sequels (which explains the Gale and Combs connection). Another key actor in The Guyver is none other than one Mr. Jimmie Walker aka J.J. from Good Times. Walker plays Striker, a Zoanoid henchman for the Chronos Corporation. He adds a lot of the comic relief to the film and even drops his world-renowned catch phrase.

The greatest practitioner of the fine arts to appear in The Guyver has to be Mark Hamill. Unless you've been frozen in carbonite for the last 30 years, you know that Mark Hamill gave the performance of a lifetime as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Unfortunately, his role in The Guyver is somewhat of a bit part. He plays detective Max Reed, and he is mostly there to crack "cheesy" one-liners, mostly. Even though he doesn't play the title character, Hamill somehow graces the cover of the DVD as the Guyver [pictured above]. Weird? It's like the producers felt they had to market their major star in order to profit off this cinematic tour de force. Baffling to say the least... The eclectic cast and superb acting they display, might be the main reason this is a sci-fi masterpiece. However, the direction, story-telling, special effects wizardry, and overall heart and soul, really make this a timeless must-see for everyone. That includes our children's children's children (also a Moody Blues album). May The Guyver live on forever.

Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) was the definition of cool in the mid 90's. The aforementioned leather jacket, Swiss-army knife, and mullet are like the holy trinity of coolness. Still the thing that made MacGyver so bad ass, was the way he used incredibly innovative and non-violent methods to defeat his foes. Hell, MacGyver practically invented "thinking outside the box." In fact, he built the "box" out of gum wrappers, a bar of hotel soap, and a cocktail umbrella. MacGyver was so popular his name became a verb. Example: "I had to "MacGyver" my microwave to fix it. I used a light bulb, some tinfoil, and a shoebox, now it's finally working again." But I don't need to keep going on and on about his resourcefulness, just watch for yourself.



The thing that makes MacGyver cooler and greater than other shows though, probably more than anything else is...one of the producers of the show is this "guy."

MacGyver:


The Guyver:

Summer Hits and Summer Misses

It always becomes some form of an argument about capitalism vs. socialism with me. This, in all likelihood, won't be the exception. Yesterday I managed to catch a summer movie double (more like 1.5x) feature. A friend of mine and I went to see District 9 at our local theater, and to spare you all the suspense, let me just say, it's a phenomenal movie. For me, it represented so much more than just being a movie that entertained me. It was a renaissance, of sorts. In the past, This summer, I've seen every major blockbuster hollywood has thrown at me (sans Transformers 2). I've had few regrets with this too, as Star Trek and Harry Potter were great movies. But, I've never really went out of my way to do the research to see movies I'd enjoy. I'd just sort of wait for the popular opinion and go. Having said that, I did my research and have been excited for D9 for some while now. And beyond the fact it was just a great movie, D9 may have been the first major studio movie in a loooooong time that wasn't some sort of recycled idea.

Let me explain. If you look back at the major hits this year, every single one was either a sequel, a book, a cartoon, a comic book, or tv show. We saw some repeat offenders like Transformers, X-Men, Star Trek, Angles and Demons, and Terminator, and I haven't even made it to June yet. So very rarely do we see movies that simply involve a creative guy being given the opportunity to flesh out a major movie from a story conjured up in his mind (think The Matrix). I could be dead wrong in saying this, but it just seems these days, the big studios are much more inclined to give us the familiar names in a shiner, louder, more expensive package.

After D9, we snuck into the final third or so of G.I. Joe, and while watching Marlon Waynes say 'bust a cap' and 'aww hell naw!', it made me realize something. G.I. Joe isn't supposed to be smart, it was designed to entertain me when I was 5 years old. Since then, I've endured 18 years of education, read several books, traveled the country, and ultimately just grown into a whole new educated, jaded, opinionated person. It seems like most (not quite all) of my peers have done the same. So why are these companies trying to sell us something we haven't really enjoyed since we were 5? Why do they just assume we're not up to the challenge of something totally fresh and new?

This is why it bothers me. I'm not entirely sure if a studio makes any more or less money reselling old brands, but it's probably a lot easier. These studios aren't challenging themselves, so they're sure as hell not gonna challenge me. Remember how fresh and exciting The Matrix was when it came out? What are the Wachowski brothers up to now? Putting out a Speed Racer movie.

I'll end it with this. Eventually (hopefully), hollywood will run out of graphic novels and Dan Brown books, and we'll get tired of seeing Batman and Spiderman sequels. So what then? Do the innovative, inciteful, and artistic scripts for action/adventure movies only come around once a decade? Or will the studios actually start letting guys like J.J. Abrams get a little elbow room to take a chance on something original? Only time will tell I guess.

District 9 - Smart, action packed, thought-provoking

G.I. Joe - If Marlon Waynes isn't a white girl or a baby, it must suck