Customer Reviews

Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer!: Writings on Bruce Willis, Badass Cinema and Other Important Topics

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2 star:		(1)
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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.

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.

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.

Movie reviews with comical insight. short digestable sections make for ideal bathroom reading.

I was expecting more insightful analysis linking the films to pop culture or pop psychology, for example an analysis of "Die Hard" and society's perception of american vs. european masculinity but this book does not dig that deeply.

this book was hilarious and a very worthy follow up to segalogy, his first book.( also very very funny). Vern is truly funny and i hope to read many more from him!

Seagalogy was wonderful and so is this. Vern's unique perspective gives me the sense that just by reading his reviews I am participating in a special world where action is king and the hero always kicks ass.

Vern's own declaration of badass intent is inscribed right there on page one:

"WHO'S SEEN DIE HARD?

anybody? --vern"

And, just like that, he roundhoused his way into film-writing history.

A step down from the Authors freshman book, Seagalogy. This book is sorta all over the place. Only the last small section is about Bruce Willis. The rest is full of rambling reviews of a mish-mash of different films. Some action, some not. I expected to read a book like Seagalogy but about Bruce Willis.

You get the sense that the book is a printout of a bunch of his movie reviews from aintitcool.com that were bound into a book and titled with a hip cover.

Sadly, as an action film fan. This book is a missed opportunity.