Wednesday 6 March 2013

Top 5 Father & Son Team-ups

So as A Good Day to Die Hard stumbles on at the box office, I thought it would be a good time to offer our Top 5 Father & Son Team-ups!

No. 5 - Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
To get things started, we have what I genuinely believe would be stiff competition for the McClane duo. As good as Jai Courtney may have been, he just can't match the menace of a swearing 11 year old thug. And Vinnie Jones was on great form here in his movie debut, playing a dirty lowlife scumbag... I reckon they would've made for a good spin-off movie. Maybe we can get them cast as decent villains for Die Hard 6.



No. 4 - Vice Versa (1988)
Who the fuck, you might ask, is Fred Savage and what's a Judge Reinhold? Well, they're human beings and damn good ones too. Once upon a time they made a movie called Vice Versa which is basically a faitytale about a father and son who swap bodies. This is a truly horrifying idea and not one worth dwelling on. That to one side, Vice Versa was one of several films to address the "inner child" notion, same as Like Father Like Son (1987) and Big (1988). Why was this one so good? Mssrs Savage and Reinhold, that's why. They are the 80's here and something about them works really well - it's probably down to the fact that they're so damn likeable.



No. 3 - Return of the Jedi (1983)
I don't think that it'll spoil anything at this stage to mention that Luke Skywalker is the fruit of Darth Vader's loins. Yes, for 1.6 films we believed that Vader was going to spell the end for young Skywalker but in true Days of Our Lives fashion, Vader dropped the bomb that he was indeed Luke's father. No need for a DNA show there, Jeremy Kyle. It was when Luke was getting his ass handed to him by The Emperor that Vader finally decides to team up with his son. The Emperor is having so much fun making Skywalker blub like a baby that he does little to stop Vader from hoisting him up and plopping him into the abyss. Shit, was that another spoiler?!



No. 2 - Shogun Assassin (1980)
You may never look at a man with a sword pushing a pram in the same way again. Ogami Itto and son Daigoro (AKA Lone Wolf and Cub) are on a mission. The local Shogun decides to send a crack squad of ninjas to wipe out Ogami Itto and his family but they only manage to kill his wife. Big mistake. The father and son hit the road for one of the greatest revenge sagas ever made, with violence so horrific it's comical and music so damn cool RZA wishes he wrote it.



No. 1 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Just when we thought Indy couldn't get any better, they went and added River Phoenix and Sean Connery to the cast. Its a tribute to Phoenix that he made his short appearance so integral to the myth of Indy, but it was the genius casting of Connery as curmudgeonly Henry Jones that set the movie as the best entry of the three. Sorry, four... (ahem). Connery was only 12 years older that Harrison Ford but they work so sublimely that its seamless. It's fun to see Indy reduced to a teenager at Henry's constant slights and reprimands while its equally fun to watch Indy's frustration at his father for being such a fuddy-duddy. Their relationship conveys some truths of a father / son relationship while being sweet and funny. All while killing Nazis.






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