2. Best movie ever. Or most re-watched movie. What makes it so good?
At this point in time, probably Pacific Rim. It's just such a feelgood movie: found family and connection themes intersecting with an action movie, a capable and competent female lead, great loss and sacrifice to complete the final confrontation, and even the 'asshole on the side of the heroes' of the movie redeems himself in the end.
Here's an interesting thought, though. If you'd asked me which was my most re-watched movie before Pacific Rim came out, I would have answered (perhaps rather unexpectedly) with S.W.A.T (2003). Colin Farrell, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J. I know it's panned by most critics, but I've watched that movie frequently and I still enjoy it.
Thinking it over decades later, I couldn't have explained why it was my favourite back in the day, but if I consider it now, it was for much the same reasons as Pacific Rim. It features an outcast former hero, a found family, a capable and competent female character, and the confrontation of the hero with his past as he tries to move on into the future.
The conflict in each movie is simple and straightfoward with no major twists or big betrayals (the minor betrayal in S.W.A.T at the climax of the movie doesn't feel like it counts - emotionally, for Street, the big betrayal is Gamble's decision to walk away from the cops instead of take his knocks and work his way back into grace, and that happens at the start). The connection between the male lead and the main female character can be read either romantic or platonic. I lean platonic in the case of Street and Sanchez, but romantic in the case of Mako and Raleigh.
Personally, I also really liked the portrayal of loving/caring extended families in both movies. Sanchez' daughter and her family connection and the willingness to welcome Street into that. Deke's nuclear family out doing the shopping on his day off, and his connection with the pizza parlour and affection for his cousin. And, no, Pentecost and Mako are not your touchy-feely-huggy kind of family the way the S.W.A.T characters' families are, but their care and tenderness with each other is still palpable and very much within character range.
At this point in time, probably Pacific Rim. It's just such a feelgood movie: found family and connection themes intersecting with an action movie, a capable and competent female lead, great loss and sacrifice to complete the final confrontation, and even the 'asshole on the side of the heroes' of the movie redeems himself in the end.
Here's an interesting thought, though. If you'd asked me which was my most re-watched movie before Pacific Rim came out, I would have answered (perhaps rather unexpectedly) with S.W.A.T (2003). Colin Farrell, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J. I know it's panned by most critics, but I've watched that movie frequently and I still enjoy it.
Thinking it over decades later, I couldn't have explained why it was my favourite back in the day, but if I consider it now, it was for much the same reasons as Pacific Rim. It features an outcast former hero, a found family, a capable and competent female character, and the confrontation of the hero with his past as he tries to move on into the future.
The conflict in each movie is simple and straightfoward with no major twists or big betrayals (the minor betrayal in S.W.A.T at the climax of the movie doesn't feel like it counts - emotionally, for Street, the big betrayal is Gamble's decision to walk away from the cops instead of take his knocks and work his way back into grace, and that happens at the start). The connection between the male lead and the main female character can be read either romantic or platonic. I lean platonic in the case of Street and Sanchez, but romantic in the case of Mako and Raleigh.
Personally, I also really liked the portrayal of loving/caring extended families in both movies. Sanchez' daughter and her family connection and the willingness to welcome Street into that. Deke's nuclear family out doing the shopping on his day off, and his connection with the pizza parlour and affection for his cousin. And, no, Pentecost and Mako are not your touchy-feely-huggy kind of family the way the S.W.A.T characters' families are, but their care and tenderness with each other is still palpable and very much within character range.
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