As far as war movies go, this is one of the best I have ever seen. Lee Marvin stars as Major Reisman who is chosen to select twelve convicts to go into Germany with him and destroy a chateau that high ranking German officials are using as a meeting area/getaway. The convicts that Reisman chooses have sentences varying from very long to death and if they pull off the mission, they are given a chance for a full pardon. The twelve are chosen and we are shown how they are trained, a war game, and the very tense and exciting final third of the film where they attempt to pull off their mission. I have always been a fan of war adventures as they usually have ensemble casts and you never know who will live and who will die. In others words, they are not as predictable as other action or adventure movies in that all of the heroes do not always make it to the closing credits. "The Dirty Dozen" contains an excellent ensemble which includes Jim Brown as the tough Jefferson, John Cassavetes as the lippy Franko, Charles Bronson as the quiet Wladislaw, Telly Savalas as the freaky Posley, Donald Sutherland as the challenged Pinkley, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Jaeckel, and George Kennedy. It doesn't get much better than that.
This was one of those films that was kind of cool to watch while it was on but that is about as far as it goes. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it just kind of was. There were some trippy drug influence sequences that always put a damper on a film for me. Margot Kidder stars as Danielle, a French model who finds a dead black man in her apartment and she does not know how he got dead. She manages to cover up the murder very well though and we are told that she is one half of a pair of siamese twins. Her ex shows up to help dispose of the body and he didn't give me a very nice feeling. Unfortunately for the murder cover-uppers, the neighbour (Jennifer Salt) saw the bleeding black man write on the window in blood and then saw young Danielle proceed to close the blinds. A stylish mystery in the usual Brian De Palma tradition with an extra bloody murder scene and the usual array of "different" characters and red herrings. Like I said, this wasn't a waste of time and Kidder held her own but I am not going to run out and try to buy a copy. Charles Durning is also in the cast as a private eye.
I was going to go on a big spiel about what has become of Wes Craven but I think I'll just leave it alone. Anyways, this was one of his early films and a great deal of this movie can be called what is considered to be in my books a "scary movie". He liked to make movies like this that elicited emotion quite well up until just after "The Serpent And The Rainbow". Many of the scenes in this flick were truly horrific and there were a number of scenes that actually made me jump and had suspense that increased my heart rate. A motor home full of a family is on its way to California but it crashes near a weird aircraft base. They are stranded in the middle of nowhere and it is too bad for them that there are a bunch of redneck, psycho, baby-eating, crazy-looking weirdos that talk on walkie talkies and are named after planets watching the family from the hills. When the night falls, the hill people strike and do all sorts of nasty things. You'll have to watch the movie to see what and what happens after. Craven has great skill in using the night and really building suspense and I really wish that these skills were as evident in his recent work. For a real horror movie check out "The Hills Have Eyes".
It is not like me to review something as mainstream as this but I think that this one deserves special mention because I really enjoyed it. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as Riggs and Murtaugh, blah blah blah. Do I really have to go over the plot? No. Anyways, what I want to say is that this flick really worked due to the excellent casting and the chemistry that developed due to the excellent casting. Gibson and Glover worked as well as they did in the first three movies in the series and Joe Pesci and Rene Russo now seem like permanent fixtures that belong in the movie. It felt as though these people had been hanging out since the last "Lethal Weapon" flick was in the theatres. The addition to the cast of Chris Rock as Detective Butters was also an addition to the fun as he has a great presence on the screen and prevented the comedy from falling flat as he is such a natural in delivering his lines. I also think that with director Richard Donner returning, everyone felt at ease and the comfort came through on the screen. Last but not least, Asian star Jet Li has got to be one of the best villains in a big budget action film that I have seen in a long, long time. He is great in his Hong Kong films as a hero and great in his American debut as a villain. If you are in the mood for a big budget Hollywood blockbuster where lots of stuff blows up, this is highly recommended.
If you do not know about this film than it probably is not for you. If you do know about it then you know that it is a Hong Kong film that tells the story of a guy who is so psychotic that no words can describe it. I can tell you an alternate title for this flick is "Human Pork Buns". That should spell it out for you. Anthony Wong ("Ebola Syndrome", "Full Contact") stars as the nutbar who also runs a restaurant that used be run by the food. Soon, the cops are investigating the disappearances of the family that used to run the restaurant. Not much more to say as that's pretty much the plot other than a few killings. This is one of the better made of the Chinese shock films that I have seen and everyone (especially Wong) gives very convincing performances. This flick contained some scenes that are truly disturbing and it is definitely neck in neck with "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" in a film that made me feel uncomfortable watching. This one is not for all tastes but if you want to see a no-holds barred serial killer flick, then this should be right up your alley. No, I am not sick and I do not have "problems".
I like this movie even though it has some cheesy moments and even though the subject matter has been covered before. Suicide is the topic and Keanu Reeves is the star in what I think is one of the best performances of his career. Sure, he is as aloof as ever but he plays his character with incredible feeling and there are some scenes that make you wonder what happened. Keanu critics that tend to say he can't act should give this movie (along with "River's Edge") a look and they may reconsider their stance. I know that he hasn't done too well lately but maybe he is just taking the wrong roles. The thing I like about this movie is that the focus is on the friends of the suicide victim and not so much on the family. I do not mean for that to sound callous but it was just nice to see someone pay attention to the pain that the teenagers are going through. We all know about how close the bonds we have with our friends are in high school and how much it would hurt if these bonds were broken by a suicide. I thought that the pain and confusion that these kids were going through was portrayed very well. Some of the co-stars include Jennifer Rubin ("The Crush"), Michelle Meyrink, Alan Boyce, and a cameo by Lou Reed.
I love these youth movies from the sixties. I can't exactly put my finger on why other than that they are simply a lot of fun and I just like the look of them. Susan Strasberg stars as Jenny, a deaf girl who travels to San Francisco in the late sixties to find her wacked-out brother (Bruce Dern). Jenny soon meets up with a band and takes a liking to it's leader Stoney (Jack Nicholson). The rest of the film is a cross between looking for the brother and a romance brewing between Stoney and Jenny. This is one of my favorites of the genre now and the laser disc I rented also contained one of my other favorites entitled "Wild In The Streets". Seeing Nicholson in this role was cool with his short ponytail and hippy clothes and he actually looked groovy leading the band in a couple of concert segments. Strasberg was quite good as Jenny although I don't think I really bought into the fact that she was supposed to be deaf. Bruce Dern was just, well, Bruce Dern. We are also treated to an earlier performance from Max Julien as the band's drummer. Fans of seventies blaxpoitation will remember Max as "The Mack" in 1973. Check this one out if you can find it.
I found an old print of this on beta and it made me decide to give away my beta machine. I am trying to blame the poor quality on the machine although a part of me knows that a very real possibility may be the movie. Oh, maybe I'm being too hard on it but I just expect much more from director Abel Ferrara (but it was his first movie). Abel also stars in this as Reno, an artist who can't seem to make ends meet and lives with two girls. None of them are happy and Abel complains an awful lot. This part of the movie was pretty good actually but then a punk band moves in the basement of their apartment and makes noise all night. This is when the movie lost it for me as Abel proceeded to buy a portable battery pack and an electric drill and he then proceeds to run around New York, leaping out of nowhere and drilling people to death for no apparent reason. Hey, I like a little film death just as much as the next guy but this was the true meaning of unnecessary violence. Like you will see a couple of guys that were not in the movie before having a conversation on the street and then all of a sudden Abel jumps out and starts drillin'. What? I love the guy and I love most of his movies but I would have to say give this one a pass unless you are a diehard Abel Ferrara completist. He followed this up with "Ms. 45", a much better movie.
The Killing Of Bobby Greene (1994)
Another excellent low budget flick by Mick McCleery. This is my favorite film from Mick that I have seen so far in that it had the best acting, story, and was very well shot. This may be due to the fact that it was not a horror movie with monsters and aliens but was a thriller that involved a high school prank gone dead wrong. McCleery directs and stars as Ray Sterling, a popular guy in high school who hates a guy named Bobby Greene as Bobby's dad put Ray's dad in jail which eventually led to Ray's dad's suicide. After Ray and his friends find an undercover cavern in a local lake, Ray convinces his friends to kidnap Bobby and hide him in the cavern as a joke. Unfortunately, Bobby drowns and Ray and his friends must keep this terrible secret as the bonds of trust slowly fray. Before you go and say that this sounds like "River's Edge", think again and reread my above summary. "River's Edge" is about friends protecting one of their own but this one is about all of the friends being guilty because of an accident. All of the actors do an exceptional job for such a low budget film and the writing by McCleery is well thought out and the story builds it's tension nicely. This is another great effort from an up and coming filmmaker that deserves a nice break so he can show what he is really capable of.
Holy smokes, what a movie! This is another one of those "I'm really embarrassed that I have never seen this" movies that I am sure glad I finally had the good sense of renting. Kirk Douglas stars as Spartacus, a slave who revolts and leads a slave army in an uprising to take on the Roman Empire. Spartacus is first seen in a work camp and is soon bought by the proprietor of a gladiator school (Peter Ustinov). While learning how to fight, Spartacus falls in love with a beautiful slave girl (Jean Simmons) who is soon bought by a high ranking Roman (Sir Lawrence Olivier). Spartacus leads his men from the school and raises an army as he crosses Italy for eventual escape by sea with the Roman army and senate becoming more and more agitated by his every move. Of course, this is an epic adventure from back in the day where we are treated to many memorable sequences from the massive final battle to the legendary duel between Kirk Douglas and Woody Strode in the gladiator ring. The only movie in recent memory that I can recall that was as "big" as this film would be "Braveheart" with it's huge battles as well as a very human story of determination, pride, and the conflicting emotions of hatred and love. "Spartacus" is also one of Stanley Kubrick's first films and I believe that it is also screen legend Charles Laughton's last. My final comment on this film is that if you are going to watch it, find a widescreen, restored version. You owe it to yourself.
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