Movies – T. G. Shepherd

Combat As Character

T.G. Shepherd — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 08:22:53 +0000

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is probably the best movie made under the umbrella of the MCU; only Black Panther can really compete for that title. One of the reasons why is that the Russo Brothers know to their bones how to direct action to convey character. The Russos are not flashy stylist directors. Their work is nearly stark in its technical plain-ness; I admit to a fondness for ‘lack of...

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30 Seconds of Wick: On Va Voir (11:11-12:25)

T.G. Shepherd — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 07:54:09 +0000

Hey. Sorry to be away so long. It’s been an astonishingly bad year for me personally, in the midst of a bad year for the planet in general. I’ll probably post about it soonish — it’s a story that needs to be told — but all the matters right now is I’m back, the blog is back and we’re going to ease in with another MCU centered post, a one-off on a single fight from Captain America: The Winter...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 23: This Isn’t A Fight (1:29:30-1:31:00 plus a bit more)

T.G. Shepherd — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This last fight isn’t really a fight. It’s a Shakespearean tragedy played out in minutes of screen time. So I’m going to do the whole thing in one post. There isn’t a great deal about it that’s interesting or sophisticated fighting, not like Wick’s desperate war with Perkins or his slaying of Kirill. This isn’t a fight. It’s fate. Things I skipped over: John taking his somewhat anticlimactic...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 22: Short and Sweet (1:12:00-1:12:35)

T.G. Shepherd — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Ninety five seconds. That’s how much screen time the second best fight of the movie takes up (I mean, give or take — that’s just my timing). This is a short, sharp, brutal battle — and as a consequence remains the most realistic of the fights, only edging the Perkins battle out because they literally have to cut away to allow him to escape from an unwinnable situation there (Perkins killed John...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 21: The Last Range is the Ground (1:11:30-1:12:00)

T.G. Shepherd — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:30:25 +0000

(Author’s Note: I’m going to try to get several chapters posted today, for release once a day for the next while, then move onto my interim one-off post 30 Seconds Without Fear about one of the most interesting fights in the Netflix Daredevil) My title for this chapter is a bit of an inside joke for MMA/combat martial artists. It’s commonly held there are four close combat ranges: kicking...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 20: Wick is Back (1:11:00-1:11:30)

T.G. Shepherd — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 07:56:32 +0000

Dichotomies are interesting in narrative. The scene I’ll be covering for the next few chapters is both one of the most technically accomplished and interesting fights in a movie packed with great fight scenes but also the most contrived. We’re in the under renovation church fight, the one that includes the iconic Keanu raging snarl of ‘yeah, I’m thinking I’m back’. I’ve always liked Keanu...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 19: John Wick Must Die (58:40-59:25)

T.G. Shepherd — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 23:55:28 +0000

Hey folks. Since my first choice dropped John Wick I’ve moved onto another streaming service for the movie, which is a fifteen seconds behind on the time codes. I’ve flipped to their timing as of now, at some point I’ll likely edit all of this to the DVD time codes. Maybe. Also, this is the climax of the fight so I’m running it a little long to get to the end, which oddly then makes it sync back...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 15 (54:00-54:30): High Kicks Are For Rockettes

T.G. Shepherd — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 07:38:19 +0000

Wick is hiding behind a pillar, chest heaving from the pain of those torso shots he took in the last thirty seconds. Keanu looks sweaty and disheveled, one would assume partially from the high fever he was running when they shot this scene, partially to show that John’s calm and control are breaking down around him. His prey has escaped. His plan has failed. Now his priority is to escape and...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 13: He’s Wearing Body Armor, He’s Not A Moron (53:30-54:00)

T.G. Shepherd — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 06:37:29 +0000

Sorry about the delay on new posts, crippling depression tends to cut my productivity. Anyhow, 53:30 opens as John Wick takes two bullets to the torso from Kirill and a goon and of course he’s wearing body armor. One thing about the Wick franchise that’s been very refreshing is its tendency to respect the physics of the weapons and environment … when they can. So Wick is knocked back...

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30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 12: That’s Certainly A Mustache (53:00-53:30)

T.G. Shepherd — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 03:19:30 +0000

I love this section of the fight, both for the nonchalant way they just let squib blood splatter across the perspex protecting the camera lens (happens multiple times throughout the movie) and for the way the stunt crew here works their asses off to make Keanu look like a god. On the strategy/tactics side of things as this section opens we see a move from the family of moves that I think is the...

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