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Happy I saw this today, booked for tomorrow.

Chase of the Year
One of my staple action scene categories, Chase of the Year covers any scene where one party is pursuing another. Car chases are the most common but any set of vehicles will work, and foot chases are also a viable option. I’m also not entirely judging this by how big or how fast the chases are either, a chase can also excel because it’s doing something that’s simply unique or comedic or in defiance of convention in some invigorating way.

L.A. River – Ambulance: This is kind of a tricky movie for this category because most of the film is kind of an extended chase scene with the escaped robbers in the ambulance being pursued by police, so picking out one scene to nominate as its official competitor is a little tricky. Ultimately the scene that stuck out to me was this bit where the drive the emergency vehicle into the famed “L.A. River” that we’ve seen in many a chase scene previously. This one ups the ante a bit by having them pursued by a pair of low flying police helicopters before doing a crazy looping maneuver onto a the wrong way of a freeway. This looked like a pretty dangerous thing to shoot, and they pulled it off quite well.

Space Whaling – Avatar: The Way of Water: I’m not sure this one hundred percent fits as a “chase” but at the end of the day it’s one entity pursuing another so I think it works. In this scene we get a demonstration of how the RDA affiliated fisherman go about hunting the whale like Tulkans in the waters of Pandora. The process, which involves trackers, crablike underwater mechs, and big harpoons is displayed with a procedural detail that really shows how carefully James Cameron has considered everything in this world and what you learn from this really prepares the audience for what’s going on in the film’s final act. On top of that, you really feel for this whale once the hunt is completed and get why the Na’vi are so angry about all this.

Penguin Chase – The Batman: One of the more interesting choices made in Matt Reeves’ new Batman movie was to discard the tank-like “tumbler” featured in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy in favor of a batmobile that looked more like a modified muscle car and that vehicle gets a workout in this stylish mid-film car chase. In it Batman and his allies have tried to take down The Penguin only to have him flee in a car, undeterred Batman chases right after him even as he begins to go the wrong way onto a freeway and starts shooting at our hero with a mac-11.

FanCon Chase – Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers: This chase scene from the middle of this year’s surprisingly charming Chip ‘n Dale reboot is hardly the most accomplished scene here as a piece of action filmmaking but it makes up for it with some clever references and concepts. It features the title duo being chased through a fan convention by a CGI polar bear and a dwarf (washed up actors from bad Robert Zemeckis motion capture films). That the heroes are these tiny little rodents running through a human sized world give this chase an interesting dimension, but really this is here more for its comedic value and fun Easter eggs.

Chase up the Hill – Decision to Leave: In this brief but memorable scene from Park Chan-Wook’s Decision to Leave we see a pair of detectives try to arrest a suspect who ends up fleeing on foot and runs down the stairs of his apartment like a bull in a china shop before going out into the street and up a huge flight of outdoor stairs. Hae-Jun’s partner proves to be not so fit and collapses in exhaustion, but our protagonist is in it for the long run even though he’s running in a full business suit and both him and the suspect are completely out of breath by the time they get to the top, which affects the little skirmish that happens there. Park films this with his usual precision and includes a pair of really effective behind the head Steadicam close-ups along the way.

And the Golden Stake Goes To…

Hey, look at that! Cinema in Seconds is now hosting The Golden Stakes!

What a boon that is!