"Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer" - Writings on Bruce Willis, Bad...
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Review
'A scathingly irreverent but sure-footed challenge to snooty critics [...] Vern's distinctive style, masking merciless wit with foul-mouthed faux-naivete, is consistently amusing.' --Total Film
'Vern's tone is conversational but informative, funny and refreshing. His lengthy commentary on movies many critics often dismiss brightens the corners of pop culture.' --USA Today
'This is a book that's full of genuine enthusiasm and love. It's infectious' --Cinematical
'Vern's tone is conversational but informative, funny and refreshing. His lengthy commentary on movies many critics often dismiss brightens the corners of pop culture.' --USA Today
'This is a book that's full of genuine enthusiasm and love. It's infectious' --Cinematical
Product Description
With the hilarious 'instant cult classic', "Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal", Vern wrote a book that shook the very foundations of film criticism, broke their wrists, and then threw them through a window. Now he's back, and this time he's got all of 'the films of badass cinema' in his sights...From "Die Hard" to "The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie", "Transformers" to "Mary Poppins", Vern has an opinion on everything, and he's not shy about sharing them.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
vern is a genius.He loves movies like die hard and knightriders-and so will you if you dont already after reading this book.He writes like you would imagine he would speak to someone,and his reviews are always interesting and more often than not laugh-out-loud-funny.I would recommend this to anyone-although i am only giving it 4 stars out of five because it should have had a photo section.but no problem.It is still better to read than a book of reviews by some boring academic who believes they stopped making good films after citizen kane.And that did not even have a group of terrorists holding a skyscraper hostage in it either.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ok,like lots of you out there I like movies,I go to the cinema,I rent them,buy them,you get the jist. I also like reading about them but I don't want to read about 'Satyricon' because,frankly,it is one of the worst films i have ever seen.I'm never fussed about oscar winners or so called classics, often they're really not that good.However when someone tells you that Die Hard is the greatest American action movie they've ever seen,then I'm listening.The person who said that wrote this book.Vern....
So basically Vern reviews the films that most folk go to see i.e the summer blockbusters,he watches films that we've probably seen and wish we hadn't i.e Garfield and films that we've seen and don't really know why(Action Jackson,Stone Cold)The reviews often give away plot and often go off at tangents.One look at the review of Brokeback Mountain shows what I'm trying to say....'It's not about gay cowboys.It's about gay shepherds.They herd sheep...'
Anyway,you won't always agree with Vern and surely that's the point of reviews,but you will have an enjoyable time reading his text and you just might want to dust off your collection of 80's action movies. Now where is my signed photo of Brian Bosworth.......
So basically Vern reviews the films that most folk go to see i.e the summer blockbusters,he watches films that we've probably seen and wish we hadn't i.e Garfield and films that we've seen and don't really know why(Action Jackson,Stone Cold)The reviews often give away plot and often go off at tangents.One look at the review of Brokeback Mountain shows what I'm trying to say....'It's not about gay cowboys.It's about gay shepherds.They herd sheep...'
Anyway,you won't always agree with Vern and surely that's the point of reviews,but you will have an enjoyable time reading his text and you just might want to dust off your collection of 80's action movies. Now where is my signed photo of Brian Bosworth.......
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Funny, irreverent, and sometimes surprisingly thoughtful movie reviews
3 July 2010
Format:Paperback
Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer isn't so much a book about Bruce Willis as it is a collection of Vern's reviews from years past, but aside from the slightly misleading title (it does say "And Other Important Topics"), I really enjoyed the heck out of this book. Vern's reviews and rants are funny, irreverent at times, reverent at other times (or at the same time), and are often surprisingly insightful.
I love pop culture. Back in the ivory tower of academia, I tried my hardest to work in pop culture whenever I could, and I was lucky enough to have a department that was very openminded about that sort of thing. My film studies professor would grumble about my choices of films in his classes, but by god, I wanted to talk about Serenity and Sleepy Hollow and the first two X-Men movies.
So I read Vern's reviews with that unfortunately tendency of recent grad students to pick them apart. To my surprise, the vast majority of them passed my film geek litmus test. His rant about Michael Bay's Transformers was not only hilarious in its righteous indignation but also very, very true. Vern makes solid arguments about why Bay's quick-cut-can't-tell-what-you're-looking-at directing style is crap and why Hollywood shouldn't go down that path when it comes to action. I'll admit that I often enjoy movies that don't require any kind of brain-engagement, but Vern makes a damn good point. Summer blockbuster does not equal stupid movie with explosions, and it's time for moviegoers to stop buying into that idea. Let's get back to smart action films like Die Hard and Aliens.
If you're a stickler for proper grammar and spelling, you might need to take a valium before reading this book. Vern's writing style is not terribly polished, and he often misspells characters' names (reading Hans Solo made something inside of me shrivel up and die), but at the same time, that style is part of his charm. He doesn't give a crap if his reviews pass muster with a picky writer like me. He just wants to talk about movies, dang it.
And talk he does. One of my favorite reviews is for They Live, a movie I've never actually seen but have heard of. Specifically, I've watched the five minute long fight scene in the alley, the whole purpose of which was for our mulleted hero to get his buddy to put on a pair of glasses so he could see the aliens. My friends and I watched that scene and laughed at it. But Vern's review made me actually want to watch the whole thing to see if his point about the movie's representation of the Reagan-era US is right. Whether it is or not, it's definitely a thoughtful review of a movie most people wouldn't even bother watching.
I think that's the thing I appreciate most about this book. The majority of the movies he reviews are ones that people don't take seriously. They're action films and horror films and what have you, and many people think those aren't worth talking about. I'm of a mind, though, that pretty much everything our culture produces is worth looking at and talking about (which is probably why I liked grad school so much, hehe), and so it was really great to be both enlightened and entertained by Vern's reviews. Good stuff.
I love pop culture. Back in the ivory tower of academia, I tried my hardest to work in pop culture whenever I could, and I was lucky enough to have a department that was very openminded about that sort of thing. My film studies professor would grumble about my choices of films in his classes, but by god, I wanted to talk about Serenity and Sleepy Hollow and the first two X-Men movies.
So I read Vern's reviews with that unfortunately tendency of recent grad students to pick them apart. To my surprise, the vast majority of them passed my film geek litmus test. His rant about Michael Bay's Transformers was not only hilarious in its righteous indignation but also very, very true. Vern makes solid arguments about why Bay's quick-cut-can't-tell-what-you're-looking-at directing style is crap and why Hollywood shouldn't go down that path when it comes to action. I'll admit that I often enjoy movies that don't require any kind of brain-engagement, but Vern makes a damn good point. Summer blockbuster does not equal stupid movie with explosions, and it's time for moviegoers to stop buying into that idea. Let's get back to smart action films like Die Hard and Aliens.
If you're a stickler for proper grammar and spelling, you might need to take a valium before reading this book. Vern's writing style is not terribly polished, and he often misspells characters' names (reading Hans Solo made something inside of me shrivel up and die), but at the same time, that style is part of his charm. He doesn't give a crap if his reviews pass muster with a picky writer like me. He just wants to talk about movies, dang it.
And talk he does. One of my favorite reviews is for They Live, a movie I've never actually seen but have heard of. Specifically, I've watched the five minute long fight scene in the alley, the whole purpose of which was for our mulleted hero to get his buddy to put on a pair of glasses so he could see the aliens. My friends and I watched that scene and laughed at it. But Vern's review made me actually want to watch the whole thing to see if his point about the movie's representation of the Reagan-era US is right. Whether it is or not, it's definitely a thoughtful review of a movie most people wouldn't even bother watching.
I think that's the thing I appreciate most about this book. The majority of the movies he reviews are ones that people don't take seriously. They're action films and horror films and what have you, and many people think those aren't worth talking about. I'm of a mind, though, that pretty much everything our culture produces is worth looking at and talking about (which is probably why I liked grad school so much, hehe), and so it was really great to be both enlightened and entertained by Vern's reviews. Good stuff.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Yippee Ki-Yay indeed.
29 April 2010
Format:Paperback
Vern is one of the few writers out there who approaches popular movies with the same kind of enthusiasm and attention that highbrow critics lavish on "important" films. He makes reading about action films almost as much fun as watching them. I'm only halfway through Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer, and I can't wait to get down to my local (independently owned) video store so that I can catch up on some classics.
Funny as Seinfled's hell!
18 Dec 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is much better that I thought it could really be. Recommended for people with open mind, sense of humor and love for action (even bizarre) films.
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