Man Flicks: More Than Just Bombs, Bullets and Breasts

It might seem unnecessary to talk about flicks for guys; it's no secret that males 18-34 are the target demographic for Hollywood blockbusters, which means that the majority of mainstream Hollywood flicks are intended to be at least somewhat palatable for guys. However, speaking as a man at the high end of this age bracket, I find this insulting, as most of what comes out of Hollywood is dumber than dirt...and a lot of what gets played at the cineplex anymore is so bad, mentioning it in the same breath as good old-fashioned dirt disrespects dirt.

There are films that do not insult the male, however. These films manage to be intelligent and entertaining, stories that have more to say than just "Me man, me like to look at breasts" or "Violence is fun." Don't get me wrong: I, too, enjoy seeing stuff blow up good and attractive naked women, but there really needs to be more than that to be worth watching. Give me a story, even an off-the-wall one, something to make it hang together; give me something I haven't seen before, or if I have, give me something presented with flair and style and smarts.

Really, I don't ask for much, and there are and have been lots of filmmakers capable of doing this. Off the top of my head, here's a list of filmmakers past and present who make the grade: Akira Kurosawa, Clint Eastwood, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarentino, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Michael Mann, John Boorman, William Friedkin, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Luc Besson, Guy Ritchie, Martin Campbell, Kathryn Bigelow, George Clooney, Mimi Leder, Hal Needham, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, David Fincher, Louis Leterrier, Alfonso Cuaron, the Wachowski brothers, the Coen brothers, the Hughes brothers, Alex Proyas, Darren Aronofsky, Robert Wise, P.T. Anderson...and that's just what came to mind first. I could double or triple this list within five minutes of hitting the IMdB.

Anyway, back to the point. There are films that satisfy the intellectual and the visceral, and these films are often (though not exclusively) from the male POV. One of the prime examples of a true "man flick," as opposed to stupid crap made for the adolescent with more digits in his bank account than his IQ, is the 1995 crime classic Heat. While I was prowling the stacks of DVDs at my local Best Buy, this one jumped out at me as a must-have. It's got great acting (De Niro, Pacino, Kilmer, a solid cast of supporting greats: need I say more?), a smartly plotted script, phenomenal action and something to say on a number of subjects. Sure, you can dig it for the crime; that's OK. But there's more there to be had, and it's a film that rewards repeat viewing. I've seen it about three times (this is my fourth), and I pick up on different things every time, subtexts I didn't see the last time or the time before. And, it's involving in every detail: the running length never seems excessive, even though it's damn near three hours long.

So, as you can see, I'm a fan, and it's one of those films I can enjoy on one or multiple levels any time. This is the very definition of a man flick in my book, and I wish there were a lot more like them, because for every A History of Violence or Master and Commander (both of which fit the "man flick" bill), we get five or six dunderheaded films like 10,000 B.C. or Meet The Spartans or just about anything with Uwe Boll's name on it. Anyway, think about it next time you decide to vote with your dollars at the cineplex.