Well, here is the first movie in a while that has completely floored me. I was totally into this Canadian film from start to finish and it never ceased to interest me. The reason it has taken me so long to see it is that I thought it was going to be an arty and ambiguous "thriller" that would be hard to follow and even harder to understand. Instead what I got was a fantastic escape/survival movie that contained all the paranoia and isolation elements of films like "Alien" and "Assault On Precinct 13" as well as all the action and excitement elements of movies like "The Warriors" and "Escape From New York". I am not saying that this was by any means on the scale of these films but it evoked the same type of emotional response and interest of these films and at the end of the day, that is what we are all looking for in a film because no matter how large the sets are as in reality, they all are only as big as your TV screen. Our story involves six people being trapped in a giant 26 room by 26 room cube that is laden with traps from room to room thus resulting in a maze of sorts. The characters are forced to find a way out of the maze without dying and without going crazy (as could easily happen if one were stuck in a box with no way out). Soon the inevitable tensions mount and the story becomes even more interesting as the characters begin to conflict and both desperation and weakness grow by the minute. The great cast consists of Nicole DeBoer as the intelligent Leaven, Maurice Dean Wint as tough guy Quentin, David Hewlett as the quiet and cynical Worth, Nicky Guadagni as the conspiracy theorist Holloway, Andrew Miller as the autistic Kazan, and Wayne Robson as ex-con Rennes. There is also an appearance from Julian Richings ("Hard Core Logo") as the dicey Alderson. I loved this movie and I can practically guarantee that most of you will love it too!
Two awesome Canadian movies in a row. I am feeling pretty proud right now! This one is from David Cronenberg and stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as a video game designer about to embark on an adventure of her own making. Along for the ride is Jude Law, who plays the game along with her as they try to unravel the twists and turns that make this such an engrossing journey. There are many characters that are encountered along the way including Willem Dafoe as a strange gas station attendant, Don McKellar ("Highway 61") as a trout farm worker, Callum Keith Rennie ("Hard Core Logo") as a revolutionary, Iam Holm ("The Sweet Hereafter") as a game system surgeon, and Sarah Polley as a game company employee. Like "Cube", this movie totally floored me and is well worth buying on DVD as you may want to watch it a few times. There are many memorable sequences and settings with the most prominent being a Chinese restaurant and a country gas station. I have read many criticisms of this film being a "mess" and "having no point" but I did not find either of these problems and I thoroughly loved this movie. It is not for those of you who like to be spoon fed the plot however as this film does make you mind work on a certain level. Also, this has some nice little gore moments and some great ideas that should not be lost on fans of sci-fi or cult cinema. I highly recommend this along with most of Cronenberg's other films. If you are a Cronenberg fan, you should know what you are getting into.
There is this great still of George C. Scott in this old movie book of mine that has been engrained in my head since I was a kid. I never registered that this was the film that the still was from until the scene happened and boy was I blown away by that scene. Now the scene will be engrained in my head for another twenty years. "The New Centurions" is an early 70's look at life as a L.A.P.D. beat cop and the physical and psychological dangers of this type of job. There was a great TV show on a few years ago called "Brooklyn South" that sort of dealt with beat cops as well as the current great TV show "Third Watch" but although we have seen the lives of cops on television, it is rare that we see them on the big screen in anything other than the "Police Academy" series. I also found that this film showed much more of the psychological effects of being a cop and how the job can affect the cop as a person and those around him or her. Stacey Keach plays Roy, a new cop who learns the ropes from an old timer named Kilvinski. The two of them go through their daily routine of busting hookers and driving around but we can clearly see a distinction between the young go-getter and the calm and jaded old dog. We can also see how these men become so involved in their job and how it twists itself into their lives. I thought this was a great film and a great depiction of the life of a cop. Look for Rosalind Cash ("The Omega Man"), Clifton James ("Cool Hand Luke" and Sheriff Pepper from "Live And Let Die"), and blaxploitation veterans Carol Speed and Roger E. Mosley. You can also see Erik Estrada ("CHiPs") and James B. Sikking ("Hill Street Blues") in interesting pre-TV cop roles. This was directed by Richard Fleischer who went on to make "Soylent Green".
I didn't even know about this one until the wonderful Anchor Bay Entertainment decided to re-release it. The DVD sleeve told me that this one starred Dirk Benedict and Linda Blair and had a very similar plot line to the later made "First Blood". I was sold! The notion of Face from "The A-Team" as a Rambo-type hooking up with Linda Blair and being terrorized by rednecks until he finally snaps and exacts his revenge had me hooked. Although not nearly as violent or as menacing as my sick little mind had hoped, I was still very entertained by this film which had a number of memorable sequences including an unforgettable "falling in love on dirt bikes" montage and quite a few cool stunts (due to the fact that the director was and still is an accomplished stunt co-ordinator named Max Kleven). It was also interesting to see that "First Blood" must have ripped off at least some of the story and there are even a few shots that seem like they are duplicated. I have to say that even though this was the case, I liked the Stallone film a little better but as for just having a good time and a few laughs at the expense of some REALLY dumb redneck-types, "Ruckus" is a safe bet. Co-stars include Richard Farnsworth and Matt Clark. The music was by Willie Nelson.
Everybody who reads this site regularly knows that I am not going to have anything bad to say about a movie like "The Cannonball Run". Any movie that is about a cross country illegal car race is going to be fine by me. This is a fun early 80's movie that does not take itself seriously and has lots of great action and comedy. You simply cannot get away with making a movie like this anymore thanks to what mainstream Hollywood has managed to do to movie audiences. Burt Reynolds (in his heyday) stars as J.J. McClure who is one of many contestants in the race and who is the ultimate "guy" and plays this now trademark role of his to the hilt. The movie begins in the hotel where the race is to be launched and ends in Los Angeles and there are plenty of car stunts, laughs, and in-jokes to make for a very entertaining ride. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and am now going to pick up the recently released DVD. Some of the many stars of this flick include Roger Moore (making fun of his James Bond persona), Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie Chan, Adrienne Barbeau, Peter Fonda, Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder, Johnny Yune ("They Call Me Bruce?") as a talk show host, Rick Aviles ("Mondo New York"), and Robert Tessier ("Born Losers"). If you have not seen this already and want to see some cool cars in action and a who's who of the 70's, check out this film. Oh, one minor thing: you need to be a little patient with Dom DeLuise (and admit that him and Reynolds work really well together).
Well, this one has a really bad reputation but I can't say that I was bored. Steve Railsback ("The Stuntman", "Helter Skelter") stars as a rebel against a future society in which undesirables are placed in rehabilitation camps to make them "fit into" society better. It is your run of the mill oppressive future society plot. There is a slight twist, however, in that Railsback is chosen (along with a few others) to have an option to obtain freedom if they agree to be hunted for one day by some twisted rich people. If they survive till night fall without being captured (murdered) then they are free. Naturally, out heroes agree to this plan and proceed to run around through fields and forest trying to stay alive. This is sort of like "The Most Dangerous Game" crossed with a tame "Ilsa" movie. This was released around the time of "The Stuntman" and Railback went on to make "Lifeforce" and then a slew of B-movies. I didn't mind this film at all and although I would not place it on my top 100 movies of all time or anything, I would definitely not write it off as a total loss. There is some decent gore and a couple of shower scenes. There is also a totally bizarre werewolf character that makes absolutely no sense but keeps things interesting. Director Brian Trenchard-Smith made another post apocalyptic film entitled "Dead End Drive-In" as well as many other genre pictures.
Here is the first film in this 70's trilogy starring Cheri Caffaro as the sexy private detective who uses her body and a gun to fight crime. In this installment, Ginger is out to break up a prostitution ring run by one of the worst actors that I have ever seen. My favorite part of this movie had to be a scene where Ginger goes into a club in which one of the activities involves a woman going onto the dance floor and pointing to a man. The woman then gets the man to stand against a pole and she dances for him and tries to turn him on. Well, when Ginger does this, it is humorously unerotic and should go down as one of the classic cult movie scenes. It reminded me of what the pool scene in "Showgirls" would have been like if Nomi was really drunk. There was also a castration scene that made me wince a little and a weird lesbian scene as well. This has all the makings of a good cult movie but the acting and directing was so excessively bad that it was just not very enjoyable. Probably worth seeing if you are a fan of the genre but I will not be buying it. Director Don Schain made quite an improvement with "The Abductors".
Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
The frightening Gill-man is one of the most recognizable creatures from the classic horror movies. It is also one of the more overlooked ones as many of the horror fans of today are only familiar with Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein due to remakes and popular culture. The Gill-man has unfortunately eluded this type of status which is very unfortunate as I think that the original "Creature From The Black Lagoon" could be the best of Universal's classic monster movies. All of the films has their strengths and weaknesses but "Creature" seems to have the best pacing of them all as I have found myself losing a little bit of interest throughout the middle section of some of the other films. The plot of "Creature" involves a scientific expedition heading into the Amazon to find a legendary monster. Soon the monster finds them as he sees the beautiful Julie Adams and begins to stalk the science party. Although we do not see the creature for a good half hour of so, we get to see plenty of him throughout the rest of the film in and out of the water. Two sequels have been made entitled "Revenge Of The Creature" and "The Creature Walks Among Us" which are not supposed to be nearly as good but I will be checking them out to see what happens to our fishy friend. The underwater shots of the creature were played by Ricou Browning who went on to direct the underwater scenes in "Thunderball" and then create the TV series "Flipper". I would love to see "Creature From The Black Lagoon" in 3D as it was originally intended but I seriously doubt that that will ever happen but I can imagine that the effect was stunning. As usual, Universal has done an amazing job with the DVD and it is well worth picking up. I also want to mention the great score and it's jarring use of the repeated three note theme.
Francis Ford Coppola created an engaging story of paranoia and suspense in this tale of a surveillance expert (Gene Hackman) and an assignment he takes which involves a conversation between a man and a woman in a busy city square. This is a prime example of a classic 70's movie that one needs to go into knowing nothing about and then let themselves get thoroughly involved in the plot and the characterizations. It is also a great example of how much more suspenseful things are when films allow us to learn things with the characters as opposed to simply watching characters react to plot points that the audience is already aware of. This style of storytelling is not done nearly as well anymore with some recent exceptions being films like "Unbreakable", "The Sixth Sense", and "Stir Of Echoes". I really love it when I have to think through a movie and when things are not always as predictable as they have become. There is not much else I can say about this one without giving something away and telling you that it has a pre-"Star Wars" Harrison Ford playing a very (to me) menacing character. An interesting side note is that Hackman plays a similar character in "Enemy Of The State" (maybe that's what happened to Harry Caul). Just check it out and enjoy...
Gary Coleman's story is that of a typical child star who got screwed. He was at the top of his game with "Diff'rent Strokes" and he was becoming more and more famous but as soon as he grew up, the novelty was gone and nobody wanted to cast him. "On The Right Track" stars the Gary Coleman who was at his peak. The time was 1981 and it was the third season of "Diff'rent Strokes" and all eyes were on him. Man, I am starting to sound like "True Hollywood Story". Gary plays a 10 year old boy named Lester who lives in a train station and has a knack for picking winning horses at the horse races. It doesn't take long for greedy people to begin to exploit his talent and turn his life upside down. The only person who seems to be on his side is a cute singer named Jill (Lisa Eilbacher) who works at a video arcade. Soon, however, she begins to fall for a slimeball named Frank (Michael Lembeck) who takes advantage of Lester for his own gain. Drama and comedy ensue with many of Coleman's trademark cute faces speckled throughout. I know that I may sound a little cynical in my tone and don't get me wrong; this was an enjoyable flick. I guess I just feel bad knowing what has happened to Gary Coleman since and how he was taken advantage of in a similar way as Lester was. Both of them ended up making greedy people millions of dollars and were then forgotten when their use was no more. So I guess I just got to thinking...
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