The Film Thugs Movie Show

The Criterion Collection, the last vestige of truly collectible DVD and Blu-Ray movies in existence. These are well produced, fancy pants editions of important and interesting films for the discerning film lover.

We continue our journey through Jim's collection of movies with...

Week 8:

The Long Good Friday

Spine Number: 26

Director: John MacKenzie

Genre: British Gangster

Gangster movies are as old as movies themselves. It makes perfect sense, if you think about it. I mean, gangsters are cool. They don't play by society's rules, they make a lot of money, and they don't take shit from anyone. Most of the movies in this genre are American, and most of those focus on La Cosa Nostra, the Italian mafia, thanks largely to the legendary Godfather movies. However, there are other types of gangster out there.

For our money there are few who can hold a candle to Bob Hoskins in "The Long Good Friday."

For Americans that last sentence might be hard to understand. Over here, we didn't really get much exposure to Mr. Hoskins before "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Hook" presented a more... family friendly version.

That being said, Bob Hoskins is a certified bad ass in this film. In this, his first major film role, he plays Harold Shand, a hard core British gangster who is on the cusp of going legit. He has ruled the London underworld for 10 years with a hard enough reputation to maintain peace between different "corporations." He returns to London from New York, where he was securing a relationship that would allow him to go completely legitimate and revitalize a part of London that had fallen on hard times, to find himself under attack from an unknown enemy who doesn't seem to play by the same rules, or any rules for that matter. Oh, and Helen Mirren plays his girlfriend, and presents one of the most powerful and in control women in the history of the genre.

Make no mistake, this is an outright classic. It was named #21on the British Film Institutes list of the top 100 British films of the 20th century.

If you haven't seen or heard of it, this is your chance to correct that. Enjoy our take on "The Long Good Friday."

Next week:

Spine Number 40: Armageddon (Yes, that Armageddon. Yes, it is a Criterion release. No, we are not joking, you can look it up.)

Also, check this out.

http://fantasymovieleague.com/
Looks like Summer Movie League has officially become Fantasy Movie League.
It looks quite fun. Here's how it works.
You have an 8 screen theater.
Every week you pick movies and have a budget/salary cap you have to stay under.
Then you compete against other theaters in your league.
It's fantasy football for movie people.

Our league is Film Thugs 2015 and the password is Porterhouse.

And remember, you can be a part of the show any time you wild like. How's that? All you have to do is call or e-mail us. If you live in the US, or any place that makes calling the US easy, just dial 512-666-RANT and leave us a voicemail. We will read the Google Voice transcript and play your message. It's both funny AND informative.

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E-mail us at thefilmthugs@gmail.com and we will read/play whatever you send us, or you can e-mail thugquestions@gmail.com to be part of  an upcoming "Ask the Film Thugs" show, where we answer questions on any subject without having heard them first.

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Also, be sure to check back often for our new endeavor The Life Masters, where we answer questions to other advice columnists.

Thanks for listening, and until next week...

Jim out.