A Review of "The Defenders" Saga: Daredevil (season 1)

The release of the highly anticipated The Defenders Marvel Netflix crossover miniseries is almost upon us. (That was a mouthful).

Building up to this epic crossover of epicness are five series' that have been released periodically one after the other, starting with Marvel's Daredevil in April 2015. Following that was Marvel's Jessica Jones in late 2015, Daredevil season 2 in March 2016, Marvel's Luke Cage in September 2016, and Marvel's Iron Fist in March 2017. With Marvel's The Defenders a mere two weeks away from today, we're gonna take a look back at the series' that have come out, with my own two sense on them.

Marvel's Daredevil (season 1)
Season 1 of Daredevil was the first in The Defenders saga to be released on Netflix. It follows the story of Matt Murdock, a lawyer in Hell's Kitchen, New York that was blinded in his youth by a tragic accident involving hazardous chemicals. He grew up being trained by an old, blind ninja named Stick to fight and to utilize his condition to his advantage.

By day, he works in his own law firm with his lifelong friend and fellow lawyer, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. The first episode of the series involves them rescuing and clearing the name of Karen Page, wrongly accused for killing an employee of Union Allied. In exchange for clearing her name, Karen volunteers to work as a secretary for "Nelson & Murdock: Attorneys at Law".

By night, Matt dresses up in all black, and wears a mask over most of his face and beats criminals to a pulp. Initially, he goes without a name, and characters in the show simply refer to him as "The man in black" or "the masked man". Doesn't roll off the tongue as well. It isn't until the very end of the season that Matt is given his trademark red suit and helmet, with the devil horns, and is officially christened as "Daredevil". In terms of comparing Charlie Cox's Daredevil to Ben Affleck's Daredevil, it's kind of hard for me. I'm going to say Cox's is superior, because of the fighting choreography and the character development, but there are times Cox seems a little too dry for me. Affleck's was dry too, but it was that trademark "Affleck dryness" that seems to present in most of his movies. Just that monotone rasp he's got going on in most of his movies.

Throughout the series, Matt works by day with Foggy and by night on his own as they dismantle a Russian human trafficking ring, a heroin production operation and the organized crime syndicate run by the mysterious "Wilson Fisk". Fisk is not in the first two episodes of the show and is only referred to ominously by his right-hand man, Wesley. Together with Leland Owlsely, Nobu, Madam Gao, and the Russian brothers Anatoly and Vladimir, he runs a group partnership to smuggle humans out of the country, selling heroin on the streets and laundering the money and the group receives to build large financial statuses for all of them. As the season progresses, Matt picks off each of the members of the syndicate one-by-one until working his way to the big showdown with Fisk at the end of the season as Daredevil.

The Daredevil costume is fantastic. The helmet looks a little hammy compared to the one we get in season 2, but when they spend the whole season building up to it, it's so worth it to see it. The mixture of red and black as well as having his batons with him give him that comic book feel you wait for when you watch it. Until this happens, as I said, Matt dresses in a simple all-black attire, including a ninja mask tied over the top of his head. It's base off of Frank Miller's interpretation of a pre-red suit "Daredevil" from The Man Without Fear.

The show is noticeably violent for being something produced out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Charlie Cox, who portrays Matt Murdock / Daredevil, stated that it was "the darkest entry in the MCU at that time". The greatest, shining example of how fucking brutal this show is is the fight between the Masked Man and Nobu. Episode nine sees Matt dress up as the masked ninja and infiltrate one of Fisk's front warehouses in the docks. There, he encounters Nobu, who himself reveals to be a skilled warrior. The duel between them is epic, fast-paced and painful to watch. He dons a shoge hook and nearly eviscerates Matt in their fight. By the time Matt sets Nobu ablaze to win, he's so bloodied and weak that his fight against Wilson Fisk immediately afterwards isn't much of anything. He just gets his shit wrecked. Totally one-sided. But the fight choreography? Stellar. Absolutely stellar. Hypnotizing to watch. The end of episode two, the single-shot, single-take shot of Matt whaling on several Russians is great to watch.

Fisk is one of the greatest villains done in the MCU so far. Vincent D'Onofrio was a phenomenal choice for the role and he takes it and runs with it. You knew when they announced him as the Kingpin that he'd be badass whenever he's on screen. The only thing is the way he talks. I don't know if it's something in the comics or what but Fisk speaks with an almost autistic twitch in his words. I don't know if he was going for that or if that's just how D'Onofrio viewed the part, but sometimes it's intimidating and other times it sounds goofy. The way his face just contorts and he squeezes out syllables choked up by something is almost comical at times. Then you watch him literally kick the shit out of Anatoly and smash his head in a door frame and remember that he's a badass.

Ben Urich, famed reporter for what was originally the Daily Bugle, but had to get renamed the New York Bulletin due to Marvel not yet having the Spider-Man rights at this point. is noticeably present here in this season. He works with Karen Page about investigating the Union Allied scandal and eventually joins her, Matt and Foggy in bringing down Wilson Fisk. His is one of those "surprise deaths" that come in this season, given that he's one of the most important and popular characters in the Daredevil universe. Him and Wesley. That's right, Wesley gets the axe too, and I actually really enjoyed this interpretation of Wesley. A couple people I watched the series with didin't care for him, but I thought he was cool. Too fucking bad Karen shot him full of bullets randomly. I thought it was a dream or a hallucination, but nope! She annihilated him and he ain't coming back. Same with Urich. Fisk just randomly shows up in his house and strangles him to death. Dream? Hallucination? Fuck off!

Claire Temple becomes the only character in the Netflix MCU to appear in every show so far. Rosario Dawson does the usual job of making the character interesting, and I do enjoy her presence here in the first season of Daredevil. She seems to be a more centralized character here, often reporting to Matt when needed to patch him up when he gets messed up real bad.

Daredevil a great kick-off to the Defenders-verse and an excellent show to stand on its own. It's got the noir aspect down to a T. It's got action in boatloads with the fast-paced fight scenes and on-foot chases. With a compelling story that has several twists and turns, bumps and obstacles that change the course of events, the season is powerful in a minimal 13-episode run. Monumental storywriting, character development and, to put it bluntly, there are some scenes that are just downright bad to the bone. The bowling alley brawl, the various alley fights with Matt and the crooks, the episode with Vladimir and Matt buried in a warehouse, stuck trying to escape. Compelling dialogue between interesting characters across all thirteen episodes. It's easily come to be my favorite show on Netflix and it has cemented the character Daredevil my favorite comic-book superhero. The show is that good.

Catch me in a little while for the review of Marvel's Jessica Jones!

Ranking the Batmen

This time last year, I finished my "Ranking of the Batman Movies" Countdown, in which I named Tim Burton's 1989 classic Batman as my favorite and "the best" in my opinion. What I'd like to do now is go back over and re-hash the entire damn countdown.

*RE-HASH ALERT*

So we'll grab all of the Batmen from the motion pictures and rank them. It's your usual "Top 10" schtick, only this time we're ranking the Batmen themselves, not the movies they were in. Plus, I don't think there are actually ten of them. Obviously, there may be some you are able to guess, but we'll see! Let's bring on the Bat-ranks, as we Bat-rank the Bat-men in the Bat-top 10. Ready? Set? BAT!

...I need better jokes...

#7 - George Clooney (Batman & Robin)
You knew it was coming, didn't you? George Clooney set the standards for which all Bat-badness would be measured for all the movies coming after is. His blase, lame-ass, boring, uninspired, laid-back, non-Bat performance of Batman ranks up there with comic geeks and even movie critics as one of the most laughable comic book performances of all time. It's come out in recent years that Schumacher has apologized for making such a shit-heap comic book movie, but it's also been said that he chose to base the movie's jaw-dropping neon-nightclub presentation and goofy-ass Batman performance on that of the '66 Adam West TV series, but even that is putting it mildly. Basically speaking, when you look at Batman 1989 and then you follow the motion picture series all the way to Batman & Robin, the transition is pretty lousy. They are supposed to be the same Batman, after all. Clooney even followed in West's footsteps in not even changing his Bat-voice. He just talks like he normally does. His outfit is even really weird looking, even for a Schumacher Batfilm. The Bat-nipples are present. Sure, the first outfit throughout the movie isn't bad, but the one at the climax of the movie is just dumb to look at. Batman's supposed to be a dark, brooding figure of the night...not a celebratory nightclub aficionado who dresses in bright colors and makes public appearances. Batman & Robin is a dumbass Batman-movie, an even worse regular movie, and it isn't even remotely supported by the movie's own dark knight.

#6 - Adam West (Batman: The Movie)
Stepping up from George Clooney's performance is Adam West, the man who started it all for the live-action Batman performances. Unless you include the 1940's Batman serials, but hey, who does? Adam West is synonymous with the "campy" version of Batman. The "Bam! Zoom! Pow!" shit came from this show, and the dorky lines are here aplenty. Batman: The Movie is also home to one of my and probably a lot of people's favorite Batman moments. Batman has a bomb and needs to get rid of it. He's running through the pier and dodging several other innocent citizens. Just as he's getting ready to throw it into the river, he sees two people boating. He turns and simply utters "Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb." Always classic. So yeah, West seems to suffer from the same thing Clooney does, but seeing as how West invented the style, it doesn't feel as painful. Plus, West's over-the-top delivery's work, even if they're the corniest shit you've ever heard. West has a somewhat-reliable following on the internet, so he gets a pass.

#5 - Val Kilmer (Batman Forever)
On the other side of the Schumacher spectrum, 1995's Batman Forever gave us Val Kilmer, Top Gun's Iceman, as the caped crusader. It's an interesting performance. Kilmer does his best Keaton-impression and only mildly alters his Bat-voice while he's in the suit. It's subtle, but still intimidating. But *sigh*, I'd be lying if I said that wouldn't be affected by his surroundings. It's got that Schumacher feel to the whole thing, still. Schumacher's Gotham City is known for being dressed in neon and presented liked it's the basement of a gay bar. Batman, unfortunately, suffers because of this. His suit bares distinct Bat-nipples...you know, for some reason. Everything's still bright and shiny whereas the proper Batman universe should be dark and somewhat gritty. Even in his ailing days, Bob Kane noted that Val was the "most accurate representation to his original idea for Batman" that there was. Strong words from the man who started it all.





#4 - Christian Bale (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises)
Now we come to the internet's favorite Batman. This is a Batman that somehow has an entire legion of comic book superfans in his corner. I say "somehow", because while I enjoy the movies he's in quite a bit, The Dark Knight especially, Christian Bale is a pretty 'meh' Batman. He has that whole "ninja" thing down and if you ask me, his best Batformance was in his first outing, Batman Begins. That's where he felt very Batman. He stalked his enemies from the shadows, he used tools and gadgets to his advantage, and even fought and dispatched dozens of enemies with ease. The Dark Knight was where Bale started phoning it in. The fighting style has improved, but dressing him like a tactical Black Ops operative with a helmet that just so happens to carry pointy ears kinda just makes him stop being Batman and start being "a guy dressed like Batman". He starts losing the whole mystique of being a shadowy figure of the night and more so "a guy dressed like he's being air-dropped for a night operation in Pakistan". The feeling that he's Batman kind of returns in The Dark Knight Rises, with hints at using the darkness to sneak up on his enemy, but it once again pulls a shade over the whole thing by having him fight in broad fucking daylight. The whole "painting my suit black" thing takes a backseat to sunlight, good sir.
Plus, there's the goddamn Bale Batman voice. I talked about it a ton in my countdown of the movies last summer, and the internet has lambasted it for a decade, so I won't get too into it. Just know it sounds like Clint Eastwood giving a Shakespearean monologue while trying to deep-throat driveway gravel. It sounds like marbles, beads and Hot Wheels cars getting sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. The Bat-voice isn't so bad, again, in Batman Begins but gets worse with the other two movies. So much worse.



#3 - Ben Affleck (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Justice League, <Untitled Batman solo film>)
The guy we all thought would be the worst part of Batman v Superman that ended up being the best part. Ben Affleck's Batman portrayal was pretty great. It was moreso a violent fan-fiction version of Batman as opposed to an actual Hollywood presentation. Still, Ben Affleck's Batman has some badass moments and even created a crazy twist on coming up with the Bat-voice. Turns out a computer voice-pitch scrambler is all that was needed. Don't even need to growl or grumble, just need a computer. Affleck's outfit also got a pretty great update. A very "The Dark Knights Returns" tribute. However, maybe too much of The Dark Knight Returns played a role in Affleck's Batman. This Bruce Wayne is middle-aged, he's more bulky than streamlined, the emblem looks eerily similar, and he even has an exchange with a flamethrower henchman that's line-for-line straight out of the classic graphic novel. So, while not totally original...in fact while not very original at all, it's still a great portrayal. Batfleck is alright with me. Interested to see what his solo film is gonna look like. If it's anything like his role in this, it'll be spectacular. If it's anything like his involvement in Suicide Squad, we're in BIG trouble.




#2 - Kevin Conroy (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm)
Yes, it's true. The man who is many people's definitive Batman ranks up near the top for me. I love Kevin Conroy as Batman. When you hear his voice, his oh-so-iconic voice, you don't hear Kevin Conroy voicing Batman, you hear Batman. Batman: The Animated Series is often considered one of the greatest children's TV shows and one of the greatest overall TV shows ever created. It's dark, yet humorous tone inspired by Burton's '89 film carried over well to the 1993 film set in the same universe, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Talk about a movie that got everything about Batman right. If you want to find a movie that's the perfect adaptation of Batman, look no further than here. Batman is shown here to be struggling with having just lost his fiancee and choosing to move forward with his career as the dark knight. You can feel in the movie's entire performance that Batman is a tortured soul. He's been through dark times, obviously moreso than just his parents' death. So much so that when he falls in love with Andrea, he still feels guilty and pleads with his parents' statue that he "needs things to be different now". He has great lines, he has great action scenes, he has great dramatic scenes, Kevin Conroy accomplished all of this with just the power of his voice. For that, Mask of the Phantasm's Batman hits the #2 spot.

#1 - Michael Keaton (Batman and Batman Returns)
Yeah, you knew this was coming too, didn't you? Michael Keaton was such an unprecedented casting that he feels like he even used that to his advantage. Batman is a guy who's 6'2", 220 pounds, and built like a body-builder while also remaining slim and trim. Keaton is a man who's like...170 pounds and a mere 5'10". A man totally unassuming, but it works so well. Keaton took both Bruce Wayne and Batman and knocked them both out of the park. Keaton's Wayne is quiet, broken, and still suffering from the death of his parents. To the point where his Batman is sly, tactical, and stiff. Most Batmen you see are bouncing off walls, doing karate moves on five bad guys at once and doing so while also calculating how he'll survive the climax. The only fight training Michael Keaton had before the movie was kickboxing training. His Batman, even being shorter and less-toned, still manages to look like a Batman you don't want to fuck with. His Batsuit is so simple in the use of two colors, black and yellow, and yet is so stupid badass looking that it almost hurts. The Batman Returns cowl looks better, the '89 Batman movie's cowl looks too big and sort of droops over Keaton's face. Even Keaton's Bat-voice is stellar. He found the happy balance between normal speaking voice and monstrous growl. All Keaton had to do to sound like a badass is add a slight rasp to it and BOOM. Kick-ass. Everything all thrown into the Bat-blender, I always just simply say "Christian Bale and Val Kilmer do great Batman impressions, but Michael Keaton is Batman."

So there you have it, I ranked the Batman. I hope you enjoyed, I hope you didn't take it too seriously, and above all...I just hope you enjoyed me talking about something other than Star Wars for a change...

...you're welcome.

Movie F*ck-Ups: 15 Things That'll Screw With Your Favorite Movies

I love movies. That usually goes without saying. I've based a whole freaking blog around movies. I worship certain movies, I love movies and I love to spend time watching movies.

Sometimes, though, even the most revered of movies have the most glaring plot holes, plot inconsistencies, or just plain ol' movie goofs that make you stop, think and scratch your head over what a blind idiot viewer you've been. I'm here today to give you a taste of that. I'm even going to rip into some of my most cherished and protected movies. It's about to get bad up in here. I'm going to rip the shades open on all of you. It'll be just like that episode of How I Met Your Mother, except painful. Here are fifteen head scratchers, jaw-droppers and brain-fryers and my own two-sense on them.

Cody's Top 30 Favorite Movies of All-Time: #26 - American Pie

From 1980's cheesecake to 1990's apple pie. My favorite teen-comedy-sexploitation-raunchy-crazy-family movie of all-time, and one that still gives me the feels.

1999 was an awful year for any movie that wasn't titled "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace." Any movie coming out that summer either had its box-office debuts suffer or its entire box-office run suffer even worse. This movie's trailer promptly advertised it as "In the list of movies to see after seeing Star Wars".

Four high school seniors make an agreement with each other that they'll lose their virginity before their senior prom; Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs), Kevin "Kev" Myers (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Chris "Oz" Ostreicher (Chris Klein) and Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas). Each of the four go about their task in their own way, as Kevin also tries to make sure his girlfriend Vicki (Tara Reid) knows that he loves her and that they'll spend their prom night making sweet whoopie. Jim is tasked with attempting ti swoon Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) to the senior prom, but humiliates both him and her with an awkward sex video that gets broadcasted across the internet. He ends up settling for the "flute-toting band geek" Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan). Finch attempts to spread rumors throughout the entire school that make him look good in an effort to attract girls to asking him out to prom as opposed to him asking them. Finally, Oz decides that going for popular chicks would be too easy and he'd be the first one laid, so he decides to go to choir practice for his high school and hit-on Heather Gardner (Mena Suvari).

...but the one who takes the movie and runs with it is Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott). This is the birth of the "jock douchebag" character that's overly obnoxious and ill-equipped to handle anything with any real love and devotion. He's in it for the sex and only the sex. Stifler has all the quotable lines and even has a mother that everyone lovingly refers to as "MILF"...aww, that's so sweet.

The other character that is just downright spectacular is Noah Levenstein, Jim's father, played by Eugene Levy. He, much like Stifler, steals every scene he's in. He's so awkward in explaining sexual things to his son to the point where it becomes laughably uncomfortable. Eugene Levy is also the only character to appear in all eight American Pie films, main series and spin-offs.

There were many teen-comedramas back in the day but this one is the reigning champion of them all. This one, even though its premise sounds epicly ridiculous to base an entire movie off of, it works so well because of the emotion involved and that the kids come to learn that sex isn't everything. Jim has speil at the end that puts it all in perspective as to what high school kids pressure themselves into, even by today's standards. "I haven't even had sex and already I'm tired of talking about it. I hate sex!" The ending to the movie sees the four men rise to the occasion (which may or may not be a pun) and receiving their just-rewards.

Somehow, some way, this movie managed to touch the hearts of millions of people because it somehow spawned three main-series sequels and four spin-off movies (all of which are even more ridiculous). In my book, American Pie is a classic. I love, and you should check it out if you haven't already, but only if you're in for a wild trip back to the mind of a high-school student.

Cody's Top 30 Favorite Movies of All-Time: #27 - RoboCop

Don't worry, it's not that rinky-dink, watered down PG-13 remake either. This is that memorable, balls-to-the-wall, violent, hard-R film that kicks your ass into your throat, reaches down and pulls your ass out of your mouth, and then kicks it up your own ass again...

...okay, I don't really know where I was going with that, but let me just say that RoboCop is yet another quality chunk of 1980's pop culture that makes it into my top thirty. Peter Weller plays Alex Murphy, a police officer who transfers into a crime-ridden precinct of "old Detroit". There, he's partnered up with Officer Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen) for a grand total of ten minutes before he's obliterated by shotgun fire. The "origin story" for RoboCop isn't one for the faint-of-heart. He's literally mutilated beyond repair by shotgun fire and then rebuilt into a crime-busting cyborg for the city from Hell.

The leader of the gang of baddies is Kurtwood Smith, known to everyone as that one guy from the 70's who really likes putting feet in people's asses. Only now, he's playing a sadistic cop-murderer with a pension for just not giving a shit about anything. RoboCop soon starts to remember who he is and, one-by-one, injures and captures Clarence's gang before capturing him at a cocaine factory shootout. Clarence has some of the coolest lines in the movie, including spitting blood on the booking papers and saying "Just give me my fucking phone call."

Along with Clarence and RoboCop, there's a side-plot. Miguel Ferrera plays Bob Morton, an up-and-coming executive with OCP who's the brains behind the RoboCop program. It's the RoboCop program that OCP goes with in lieu of the ED-209 crime-fighting robot, courtesy of Dick Jones (Ronny Cox). Dick Jones is the financier of the warforce to tear Detroit apart and...

Look, I'm gonna end up ruining something major. Just know the action's awesome, the violence-and-gore are there in spades, and it's a hard-R film that was sold to kids, as were most adult films back in the day. It's brooding, it's got a very comic book feel to it, and it's one of those 1980's iconic pop culture movies that everyone should see at least once. Even the religious. I love it, and I recommend it. Ladies, it's one of those perfect date films...at least in a perfect world, it would be.

Cody's Top 30 Favorite Movies of All-Time: #28 - Masters of the Universe

I'm opening up the oven, taking out the cheesecake of the 1980's, and cutting off the cheesiest piece. We've got Mattel's most expensive toy commercial in history. You even have to look at how awesome the opening is (also see attached video):

At the center of the universe, at the border between the light and the dark stands Castle Grayskull. For countless ages the sorceress of Grayskull has kept this universe in harmony, but the armies of darkness do not rest, and the capture of Grayskull is ever-most on their minds. For to those who possess Grayskull will come...the power. The power to be supreme. The power to be almighty. The power to MASTERS of the UNIVERSE.

Masters of the Universe is one of those movies that you can both hate to love and love to hate, possibly even at the same time. From the minds of cinema's greatest schlock-salesmen, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, comes a desperate attempt to save their dying film studio. Gary Goddard directed this cheeseball with the likes of then-unknown Dolph Lundgren as He-Man and Frank Langella as Skeletor. Dolph Lundgren couldn't speak very good English at the time without his thick-Swedish accent motorboating his syllables into a realm of ridiculousness, so he chose instead to redub his lines. There's times what he says doesn't even remotely match what he says. His jaw wobbles like it's gonna fall out of his skull.

Sill, Frank Langella as Skeletor is pretty much the best part of the movie. This Skeletor isn't like the over-the-top, high-pitched children's bad-guy character from the TV show of the early 80's. This one dresses menacing, talks menacing, acts menacing and is all around...well, you get it. He's got pretty much all the cool dialogue, in the movie too. I think Frank Langella just wanted it in his contract that he had to be the badass of the film. "Do you hear? The Alpha and the Omega. Death and rebirth, and as you die...so will I be reborn."

He's joined by Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn. No contact lenses there, her eyes are really that powerful. With her, you have that-one-80's-guy-from-that-one-80's-thing who plays Kevin, the human kid with no other characteristics than he's a human kid, and...oh sweet Jesus? Do I detect a hint of F*R*I*E*N*D*S in this movie? It's Courteney Cox as Julie, Kevin's girlfriend and the one who first meets with He-Man. It's a wonder how she settled for Chandler Bing when she could've had fucking He-Man.

I think one of my favorite parts about the movie is just how ridiculous and zany it is. They didn't have enough money to shoot the whole thing in Eternia, so they decided to shoot about 0.025% of the movie in Eternia, 34.975% of the movie in Skeletor's throne room, and 65% of the thing in the suburbs of "Your typical 80's Midwestern Town". So you have crazy characters like He-Man, Man-at-Arms, Beast Man, Blade, and Evil-Lyn wandering around the same 80's town that every John Hughes teen star would.

It's corny. It's cheesy. It's got weird characters. It's got dumb dialogue. It's just one of those generic 80's sci-fi movies that I love for being bizarre. I never once realized just how weird the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toy-line was until this movie showed me as a little kid. I remember thinking "No way this is a toy line people can get behind, but low-and-behold, the toy-line came first. Then it was that 80's cartoon series that turned into so many memes, then it was this. This overlooked and underappreciated, poorly acted, badly dubbed, silly looking gem. It reeks of the decade it was made in.

Cody's Top 30 Favorite Movies of All-Time: #29 - Adventures in Babysitting

Moving up on my list of favorite movies of all time, we come to the twenty-ninth spot on the list. From 1987 starring Elisabeth Shue, we've got Adventures in Babysitting.

Elisabeth Shue plays Chris Parker, a seventeen-year-old high school student tasked with watching two kids for the night, Brad and Sarah, while their parents go to a banquet in downtown Chicago. When Chris's friend Brenda runs away from home and gets stranded in the city, Chris takes Brad, Sarah and Brad's idiot next-door neighbor and friend Daryl into the city to retrieve her. Their car breaks down on the interstate, forcing them to hitch a ride with an insane tow-truck driver that detours them to his home where he beats up a guy sleeping with his wife. The kids hide in a car to avoid that, but the car they're hiding in gets hijacked. The kids wind up in a auto-parts-ring. Daryl steals a Playboy that has illegal car part orders on it. As they flee from the strip shop, they wind up in jazz club and WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THIS MOVIE?!

No but seriously, one detour to the next, the kids have the worst night of babysitting in the world. This movie made me terrified of big cities. You see all the shitty parts of Chicago, and this is in the 80's. You see slums, you see gangs, you see trashy neighborhoods...everything.

Being an 80's comedy (somewhat), there's also some great scenes. I mentioned that fleeing from the strip-shop bad guys, the kids wind up in a jazz club where they're told by the lead singer of the band (Jazz legend Albert Collins) that "nobody leaves this place without singing the blues." Literally ON THE FLY they come up with a song called "The Babysitting Blues" and sing it to a standing ovation. It's the most ridiculous, 80's thing you'll find and it's my absolute favorite scene from the whole movie.

Speaking of "The Babysitting Blues", this movie also has other great pop and R&B songs that appear on the soundtrack. Edwin Starr's "Twenty Five Miles", Percy Sledge's "Just Can't Stop", and even that one 50's pop hit from the Crystals, "Then He Kissed Me".

There's even a scene where you see Vincent D'Onofrio play a mechanic named Dawson who's supposed to be similar-looking to the Marvel Comic's hero Thor, whom Sarah is obsessed with. It is through him that...

You know what? I don't want to spoil too much more. If you haven't seen it and are looking to kill an hour and forty-five minutes, I'd say give it a go. You may love it, you may hate it. It's cheesy because it's the 80's, but it's also pretty gritty, even for a so-called family movie. I mean, it's a family movie that has car-part-dealing-murderers chasing a group of kids with the intent of kidnapping or even killing them. You be the judge.

Just whatever you do...don't watch the crappy Disney Channel remake. They toned everything down to the point where it's laughably bad. They replaced "The Babysitting Blues" scene with a fucking rap battle. Do I even have to say more?