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TRANCE (2013)

Posted in 2013, Crime Films, Criminal Masterminds, Danny Boyle Movies, Enigmatic Films, Femme Fatales, Gangsters!, LL Soares Reviews, Mind Experiments!, Psychological Thrillers, Rosario Dawson with tags Danny Boyle, Hypnotism, James McAvoy, Psychological Thriller, Rosario Dawson, Trance, Vincent Cassel on April 15, 2013 by knifefighter

TRANCE (2013)
Movie Review by L.L. Soares

Danny Boyle has become a director who a lot of people equate with quality product. My favorite movie of his remains TRAINSPOTTING, which was a breath of fresh air when it came out in 1996, but before and after that he made such memorable films as SHALLOW GRAVE (1994), 28 DAYS LATER (2002), SUNSHINE (2007), SLUMDOG MILLIONARE (2008), and 127 HOURS (2010), the latter of which had James Franco memorably cutting off his own hand after a rock climbing accident. So a new Boyle movie is usually something to look forward to. But then again, this is the same guy who also made the completely awful A LIFE LESS ORDINARY (1997), so you can’t expect a home run every time.

I had mixed feelings about TRANCE when I saw it, and continue to feel ambivalent about it in retrospect. Boyle’s new movie seems brilliant at times, and ridiculous at other times, but fairly entertaining throughout. It’s one of those movies that feels the need to be overly complicated, trying to keep the audience constantly guessing what is really happening, and these kinds of movies tend to be more tedious than riveting.

When TRANCE opens, we meet Simon (James McAvoy, who most people will remember as the young Professor Xavier in 2011’s X-MEN: FIRST CLASS), who works at an auction house in London that deals in expensive paintings. We get an interesting crash course in what employees are supposed to do in the event that there’s a robbery; how to keep priceless masterpieces out of the hands of criminals. So of course, there is a robbery for real, led by criminal mastermind, Franck (the always terrific Vincent Cassel), and Simon, who was always told not to try to be a hero in such situations, decides to be a hero, and gets cracked in the head for his troubles.

He wakes up in a hospital bed, with a case of amnesia, and an angry Franck, who wants to get his hands on Goya’s “Witches in the Air” (a wonderful painting, by the way) which has gone missing. Simon knows used to know where it was, but can’t remember anymore. So Franck takes him to a hypnotist named Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson, who has been in everything from KIDS, 1995, to JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS, 2001, to SIN CITY, 2005, and Tarantino’s half of GRINDHOUSE – “Death Proof,” 2007 ).

So far, so good. This one’s got a solid cast and a compelling premise.

The bad guys wire Simon up with a microphone, so they can hear his sessions and get the painting that much quicker once they learn where it is. But something goes wrong. Elizabeth gets wise to what’s going on and wants a cut of the money the painting would bring. She also plays mind games with the bad guys, demanding that they let her hypnotize them as well, to make Simon feel “less vulnerable.” And it turns out, not everyone has all their cards on the table – various characters have hidden motivations that we are not privy to at first, and things get complicated.

By the time we get to the big reveal in the last half hour, I wasn’t sure if I liked this movie or not. It went through some highs and lows getting to the big explanation, but once we get there, I was pretty satisfied with how things ultimately unravel.

McAvoy is a decent lead character, both sympathetic and unlikable in equal turns, and Cassel (who was so terrific in movies like Gaspar Noe’s IRREVERSIBLE, 2002, and Darren Aronofksy’s THE BLACK SWAN, 2010) plays bad guys like this well. But the movie is easily stolen by Rosario Dawson in every scene she is in. Sexy, smart and electric on the screen, it is Dawson who ultimately won me over for this movie, and it is her character who I wanted to reach the end with all the marbles.

I still think that TRANCE is a little too complicated for its own good, and for a while there, you’re not sure if certain crosses or double-crosses are real or in the minds of characters that have been hypnotized. But for the most part, I liked this movie. I just don’t think it’s in the same league of Boyle’s best films.

If you’re a Boyle fan, or enjoy a good thriller, you should check TRANCE out. But be prepared for a bumpy ride getting to the answers.

I give it three knives out of five.

LL Soares gives TRANCE ~three knives.

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SPRING BREAKERS (2013)

Posted in Hot Chick Movies, Crime Films, LL Soares Reviews, VIOLENCE!, Just Plain Fun, Controverisal Films, Exploitation Films, Gangsters!, Femme Fatales, Compelling Cinema, Independent Cinema, 2013, All-Star Casts, James Franco, Bikini Girls with tags Vanessa Hudgens, James Franco, Girl Gang, Selena Gomez, Harmony Korine, Rachel Korine, Spring Breakers, Ashley Benson on March 26, 2013 by knifefighter

SPRING BREAKERS (2013)
Movie Review by L.L. Soares

If you think this is going to be just another Spring Break teen sex comedy, then you are in for a surprise. SPRING BREAKERS is another kind of animal altogether, and it’s the kind of pop/art hybrid that will be playing at your local arthouse theater, as well as the nearby multiplex. The arthouse crowd will have some idea what they’re in for, as soon as they see the director’s name, Harmony Korine. The multiplex audience will have no clue, and might just get their heads blown.

So who is Harmoney Korine, you ask? Well, when he was 19, he wrote the screenplay for the movie KIDS (1995), still probably the most notorious project he’s been associated with. But he went on to become a director in his own right, with weirdo masterpieces under his belt like 1997’s GUMMO and 1999’s JULIEN DONKEY-BOY, two movies that will seriously screw with your head. The last movie of his I saw in a theater was 2007’s MISTER LONELY, which is about a Michael Jackson impersonator who goes to live on an island populated by nothing but celebrity impersonators, and there’s Werner Herzog as a skydiving priest. I think there were five people in the audience when I saw it. In contrast, the theater was pretty packed when I saw SPRING BREAKERS.

SPRING BREAKERS is an underground film with above-ground stars, and what an interesting collection of celebs we have.

The movie begins with four girls wanting to go to Spring Break and escape from their boring lives as hard-working college students, but they don’t have enough money for the trip. Fed up with being deprived of fun, Candy (Vanessa Hudgens, who your kids might know from Disney fare like 2006’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL and the TV series THE SUITE LIFE OF ZACK AND CODY), Brit (Ashley Benson, currently playing Hanna on the ABC FAMILY series PRETTY LITTLE LIARS) and Cotty (Rachel Korine, who also happens to be Mrs. Harmony Korine, and who was in the previously mentioned MISTER LONELY, among other films), decide they are going to Florida for the time of their lives, no matter what. So they don some ski masks and rob the local chicken shack, armed with a realistic looking water pistol and a heavy duty hammer. They get enough money for the trip, and bring their virginal friend Faith (Selena Gomez, another Disney star, from the series THE WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE) along for the ride. Faith is sweet and religious and doesn’t seem like the other girls at all, but she goes along for the ride, even after she finds out how they got the money.

Once in sunny Florida, the girls go wild, and then some, everyone but Faith, who has some naïve idea of this being a chance to bond with her girlfriends, when the others are just thinking about drugs and sex and booze.

The stars of SPRING BREAKERS (from left to rigth) Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine and Vanessa Hudgens (standing). Behind them, James Franco.

When a particularly out-of-control party they are at gets busted by the cops, the girls end up in jail. Without money for bail, they are rescued by a rapper, drug dealer, and gun hoarder named Alien (James Franco, who we saw just a couple of weeks ago as OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL). With his corn rows, tattoos and mouth grille, Franco is a force of nature here, and steals every scene he is in.

Alien (“My real name is Al, but I’m out of this world”) is so much the polar opposite of OZ that it’s amazing this is the same guy, and yet Franco works his magic without having to try. Just what does he want in return for springing these cute college girls from the hoosegow? Well, Faith gets so scared thinking about that one that she takes the next bus home (no big loss, since she was the least interesting girl anyway), and the other three find that chicken shack robbery to be just the start of their life of crime, as they take part in a violent crime spree, this time with Alien leading the way.

SPRING BREAKERS is chock full of bikinis, bongs and guns. There’s also lots of Spring Break nudity (although Rachel Korine is the only one of the main girls to really let it all hang out), and violence. So if you go into the theater expecting to just see some typical drunken behavior, you’re going to be in for a surprise.

Korine’s direction (he also wrote the screenplay) is all quirky and cool, shooting some scenes in slow-motion with musical accompaniment by Skrillex (along with Cliff Martinez, they did the soundtrack). Mainstream audiences might be scratching their heads by the time the end credits roll, but I was completely hypnotized by this one. As a long time Korine fan, I would have seen this one anyway, but the added pleasure of a rip-roaring, bigger than life James Franco, and good performances by the girls, just multiplies the pleasures.

The girls turn in good performances. I really liked Rachel Korine a lot as Cotty, the most uninhibited one of the group, and Ashley Benson and Vanessa Hudgens turn in super-intense performances as the two most violent ones, a dynamic duo who even scare Franco in one scene. (Hudgens may have gained fame on the Disney Channel, but she was also in the controversial movie THIRTEEN in 2003 and was in the slightly edgy but ultimately disappointing SUCKER PUNCH in 2011. So she’s not completely new to this “edgy” thing. As for Benson, she’s my favorite of the female leads here, hands down).

By the time Alien starts taking the girls on missions to rob other college kids at gunpoint (and a wedding!), and Alien’s arch-enemy Archie (Gucci Mane) feels he needs to put Alien in his place and starts some violence that needs payback, we have reached the point of no return, and the drunken parties have become a faint memory, replaced by the barrel of an AK-47.

One especially fun (and demented) scene features the three bad girls in pink ski masks singing along with Alien (who is playing piano beside his swimming pool) as they do a group rendition of Britney Spears’ song “Everytime.”

If the Disney girls climbed aboard this project to change their images, they succeeded, and Harmony Korine succeeded in churning out his first potential hit with mainstream audiences since he wrote KIDS back in the 90s. And like KIDS, SPRING BREAKERS will probably seem like a horror flick to some parents (especially of daughters), a nightmare about what could happen during those Spring Break vacations.

SPRING BREAKERS is big and loud and out of control. And I found myself really digging it. In fact, this might just be my favorite movie of 2013 so far.

I give it three and a half knives.

LL Soares gives SPRING BREAKERS ~three and a half knives.

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DEAD MAN DOWN (2013)

Posted in 2013, Crime Films, Gangsters!, Hit Men, Killers, Michael Arruda Reviews, Revenge! with tags Colin Farrell, Dead Man Down, Dominic Cooper, Niels Arden Opley, Noomi Rapace, Terence Howard on March 12, 2013 by knifefighter

MOVIE REVIEW: DEAD MAN DOWN (2013)
By Michael Arruda

DEAD MAN DOWN might be the best film playing right now in theaters that no one is talking about.

It’s the latest thriller by Niels Arden Opley, the man who directed the original THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2009) and stars Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, who of course played the lead in Opley’s THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. It’s both an intense actioner that goes for the throat, and a love story that is as sincere as it is offbeat. I loved it.

New York City crime lord Alphonse (Terrence Howard) is not having a good week. Someone is killing his men while leaving him cryptic, yet threatening messages. He’s coming unglued. In a fiery shoot-out, Alphonse is nearly killed, but he’s saved by one of his boys, Victor (Colin Farrell), and as a result, he rather trusts Victor.

Not a good move on Alphonse’s part, as it turns out Victor is the man behind the threatening messages and deaths, as he’s seeking vengeance for the death of his family, which came at the hands of killers hired by Alphonse a while back.

Victor is one slick operator, and his meticulous plans for revenge are moving forward without a hitch, until he meets his neighbor, Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), who lives in the apartment across from his. Beatrice is a shy young woman with a scarred face, the result of a car accident in which she was struck by a drunk driver.

Victor and Beatrice go out on a date, and it’s there that she drops a bombshell on him: she knows that he’s a killer and she’s seen him kill a man. She tells him she won’t go to the police as long as she does one thing for her: kill the man responsible for her scarred face.

To further complicate matters, Victor’s best friend, Darcy (Dominic Cooper), is intent on moving up in Alphonse’s organization. To do this, he makes it his mission to find out who is terrorizing his boss, and as an investigator, Darcy is no slouch and continually creeps closer to the truth, that his best friend Victor is the culprit.

And when Victor and Beatrice begin to share genuine feelings for each other and fall in love, giving them something to live for, their “all in” attitude towards vengeance takes a hit, but with Darcy busy uncovering the truth for his boss Alphonse, there’s no going back.

DEAD MAN DOWN is an adult thriller that pushes all the right buttons. Its screenplay by J.H. Wyman tells a compelling story about intriguing characters, both good and bad, who I really cared about. The dialogue is first-rate, and the plot solid, all the way down to its riveting conclusion.

This one includes a lot of memorable scenes. From Victor and Beatrice’s poignant first date, where Beatrice says she swears when she’s drinks, and Victor says he does too, and they proceed to take turns swearing at their dinner table, to the sad scenes of Beatrice being antagonized and called a “monster” by the neighborhood kids.

There are also several explosive action sequences, including a couple of fiery shoot-outs, a car chase, and, better yet, some excellent scenes of suspense, one of which features some hungry rats. Director Niels Arden Opley operates at the top of his game here.

You may ask why Victor allows himself to be blackmailed by Beatrice in the first place, and why he doesn’t just kill her to shut her up. The fact is that Victor hates killing, which makes his quest for revenge against Alphonse all the more effective, as it shows how deeply Victor has been scarred. Beatrice has scars on her face, but Victor has scars on his soul. There’s a powerful human element in this movie that, in spite of its preoccupation with retribution, shows a value for life and love that I found refreshing. Victor and Beatrice may hate the people who hurt them, but they don’t hate the human race, and they’re saved from falling into an emotionless abyss when they fall in love with each other.

And the love story between Victor and Beatrice works. I totally bought their relationship, mostly because Farrell and Rapace share some nice chemistry together.

Beatrice lives with her mother, and these scenes reminded me of similar scenes in the recent Jason Statham actioner PARKER (2013). In PARKER, it’s Jennifer Lopez who lives with her mother, but that love story between Lopez and Statham didn’t work, mostly because strangely—what were the writers thinking? — Statham’s Parker was interested in another woman. Here, in DEAD MAN DOWN, there’s no “other woman,” leaving little doubt that Victor and Beatrice have feelings for each other.

I’ve never been a big fan of Colin Farrell, but he’s grown on me. He surprised the heck out of me with his portrayal of the vampire in the remake of FRIGHT NIGHT (2011), and while he did little for me in the remake of TOTAL RECALL (2012) he’s superb here in DEAD MAN DOWN. As a very quiet and introspective killer, his performance reminded me a lot of Ryan Gosling’s in DRIVE (2011).

And Noomi Rapace is just as strong. She makes Beatrice such a vulnerable character that you can’t help but feel for her, even when she’s coercing Victor to kill a man for her. She’s an incredibly gutsy woman, driven by her thirst for vengeance, and she has no problem standing up to a known killer like Victor and getting him to do what she wants. Rapace succeeds in making both sides of this woman believable.

Dominic Cooper, who has turned in two very memorable performance in recent years, as Iron Man’s father Howard Stark in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011), and as Abraham Lincoln’s vampire hunter teacher in ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER (2012), shines here as Victor’s buddy Darcy. It’s a gritty performance that works on more than one level. Darcy is kind of a slimy guy, yet he genuinely values his friendship with Victor and is legitimately upset when he ultimately learns the truth about his friend.

Terrence Howard, another actor with an IRON MAN connection, as he played Tony Stark’s buddy Rhodey in the first IRON MAN (2008), is solid as crime lord Alphonse, even though the character is anything but. Alphonse is not the most successful criminal, and he allows himself to be rattled and shaken a little too easily for my liking.

Isabelle Huppert adds fine support as Beatrice’s mother Valentine, and Armand Assante makes for a chilling baddie in his scene-stealing cameo as the bigger crime lord who pretty much tells Alphonse to get his ship in order or else.

If I have any complaints it’s that crime boss Alphonse crumbles too easily. I expected him to show more of a backbone. I also thought Darcy’s investigative efforts went too smoothly. Everything he does seems to turn up a lead. The guy’s a regular Sherlock Holmes, for crying out loud. And the concluding gun fight was a little far-fetched and reminded me somewhat of the overblown conclusion to DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012), only not as bloody.

But these are minor complaints.

DEAD MAN DOWN is an exciting thriller wrapped around a touching love story that is every bit as satisfying as its vengeance plot. It’s well acted by top-notch actors of the field, directed by a talented director making his American theatrical debut, and sports a screenplay that gets just about everything right.

I give it three and a half knives.

—END—

Michael Arruda gives DEAD MAN DOWN ~three and a half knives.

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Screaming Streaming Hires THE COURIER (2012)

Posted in 2013, Action Movies, Crime Films, Gangsters!, Killers, Michael Arruda Reviews, Screaming Streaming with tags Crime drama, Hany ABu-Assad, Hostages, jeffrey dean morgan, Screaming Streaming, The Courier on February 22, 2013 by knifefighter

SCREAMING STREAMING!
Streaming Video Movie Review: THE COURIER (2012)
By Michael Arruda

I decided to check out the action thriller THE COURIER (2012), now available on streaming video, because it starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan, an actor whose performances I’ve enjoyed of late in such films as WATCHMEN (2009) and THE POSSESSION (2012).

Well, the first thing I’ll tell you right now is I enjoyed Morgan much better in WATCHMEN and THE POSSESSION than in THE COURIER. Sadly, his performance in this one is uninspiring. And that’s just the beginning of what’s wrong with this clinker.

The movie starts off well. In fact, its best scene and most memorable image might be its opening one. It opens at an abandoned (or, at the very least, closed) amusement park, with two thugs holding a woman hostage at the top of a roller coaster track. The Courier (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) races through the park to reach her, climbing all the way to the top of the tracks to hand deliver the package of money to the thugs for her release. He makes it in time, but not before the kidnappers push her off the top track, but the Courier leaps to her rescue (I guess he doesn’t get paid unless the victim is returned safely) and somehow, miraculously, manages to grab onto the line tied to her and pull her to safety.

No, this Courier doesn’t work for UPS. He’s self-employed, a man hired to find people and to deliver ransom packages. Nice job. You wouldn’t think he’d be all that busy, though. How many ransom packages need to be delivered on a regular basis?

But, because he’s the best there is (of course), the Courier is sought out by a man (Til Schweiger), who forces him to find a mysterious person named Evil Sivle. If not, this man and the people he works for will kill the daughter and grandchild of the Courier’s best friend, Stitch (Mark Margolis).

The Courier searches New Orleans for Evil Sivle with the help of a young woman Anna (Josie Ho), a friend of Stitch’s, who it seems Stitch would like to set up romantically with the Courier. Nice matchmaker. Why don’t the two of you go to New Orleans on the trail of a bloodthirsty killer and go out for a couple of drinks afterwards, it might be the start of a beautiful relationship.

It seems, however, according to the information that the Courier uncovers, that Evil Sivle is dead, but that doesn’t stop a guy named Maxwell (Mickey Rourke) from trying to kill the Courier. Why? It’s all part of the mystery, I guess.

The Courier is eventually captured and tortured by a pair of married assassins, Mr. Capo (Miguel Ferrer) and Mrs. Capo (Lili Taylor). But being the best there is, the Courier escapes from their clutches to continue his quest to find Evil Sivle.

To confuse matters even more, it turns out that the man who forced the Courier to take this job is really an FBI agent. It seems the FBI are the ones who want Evil Sivle found. Why? I wish I could tell you.

In the end, the Courier proves he’s the best by finding the reclusive Evil Sivle, whose identity is revealed in one of the more ridiculous plot twists I’ve seen in a long time.

Hands down, the biggest problem I have with THE COURIER is its story stinks. It plays like a movie that started with a clever concept—a courier who gets involved with a seedy underworld full of undesirables—but couldn’t come up with a decent storyline that made any sense. And that’s the bottom line with this one, folks. It doesn’t make sense.

The Courier is forced to take this job, and it’s questionable why he would accept the job when the threat— we’ll abduct your best friend’s daughter and her child—hasn’t even happened yet. I just didn’t buy the plot point that a guy like the Courier would simply roll over and do what these guys wanted. He would have fought back. He accepts their terms way too easily.

Then there’s Evil Sivle. Nice name, but just who the hell is he? Why is he so sought after? The film never really makes its case that this guy is a legendary villain, someone the FBI would kill for just to find.

Other characters aren’t fleshed out either. The FBI agent who coerces the Courier in the first place disappears half way through the film. And Maxwell, played by Mickey Rourke in a wasted role, shows up so fleetingly that his presence in the movie is nothing more than an afterthought.

And the final plot twist is embarrassingly bad. Screenwriters Pete Dris and Brannon Coombs should have gone back to the shop with this one for a long time before calling it a final product.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, so memorable as the Comedian in WATCHMEN doesn’t impress here as the Courier. Perhaps for his next role he’ll consider a character whose name doesn’t begin with “the.” His performance as the Courier simply lacks the necessary intensity needed for the character. I didn’t really buy him in this role. He seemed too clunky to be the efficient swift-footed Courier.

Mickey Rourke is on screen so briefly as Maxwell I almost forgot he was in the movie. I did enjoy Miguel Ferrer and Lili Taylor as Mr. and Mrs. Capo, the torture couple, but they’re not in the movie much either. The other actor who stood out was Mark Margolis as Stitch. Margolis has been in a lot of movies and TV shows and always adds a sense of realism to the proceedings. His Stitch was a convincing guy in a movie full of unconvincing characters and plot points.

THE COURIER does have some interesting ideas and some curious characters, but they’re never developed to any degree of satisfaction.

Director Hany Abu-Assad seems to have handled this one with an eye on something else. It’s as if he were driving while texting or something. The action scenes, fight scenes, shoot- out scenes, all seemed rushed. None of it comes off as convincing because there isn’t much attention given to detail here. In fact, there’s something rushed about this whole production, including the script. Perhaps they were trying to make a same-day delivery.

Anyway, THE COURIER is a disappointing thriller that is too muddled to be effective. It’s about as intense as a trip to the post office.

It gets one knife.

—END—

Michael Arruda gives THE COURIER ~ one knife!

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Helps a GIRL ON THE RUN (1953)

Posted in 1950s Movies, 2013, B-Movies, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Carnival Chills, Crime Films, Dancing Girls!, Femme Fatales, Film Noir, Gangsters!, William Carl Articles with tags Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Carnival Movies, Charles Bolander, film noir, Girl on the Run, Hoochie Coochie Girls, Richard Coogan, Steve McQueen on February 14, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

GIRL ON THE RUN (1953)

Welcome to Bill’s Bizarre Bijou, where you’ll discover the strangest films ever made. If there are alien women with too much eye-shadow and miniskirts, if papier-mâché monsters are involved, if your local drive-in insisted this be the last show in their dusk till dawn extravaganza, or if it’s just plain unclassifiable – then I’ve seen it and probably loved it. Now, I’m here to share these little gems with you, so you too can stare in disbelief at your television with your mouth dangling open. Trust me, with these flicks, you won’t believe your eyes.

Film noir is one of my favorite sub-genres in the industry. With its double crossing dames, doomed heroes, dark shadowy alleys and sets, and general bad attitude, the noir genre contains the darkest mysteries in an already shrouded playing field. Films like DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), DETOUR (1945), THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946), and the amazing OUT OF THE PAST (1947) established the guidelines of noir, although pulp fiction books and magazines had been promoting such grimy, sordid tales for many years.

Along comes 1953, and with it, one of the grubbiest, sleaziest film noirs of all time – GIRL ON THE RUN. This one takes place in a traveling carnival, therefore making it – what? – carny noir? Hoochie coochie crime drama? In any case, it’s a real find, and it’s a hoot and a half if you’ve imbibed earlier in the evening. Which I highly recommend.

The titles roll over the strains of John Phillips Sousa, and we get a look at the carnival, complete with Ferris Wheel, funhouse (with a laughing clown that’ll give you nightmares for weeks), a merry-go-round, and, most important, a burlesque coochie dancer show! A hen-pecked man escapes his wife and makes for the girlie show, where they gyrate with feathers sticking out of their butts like cut-rate exotic birds, with black kitty-kat masks, and sequined bras and grandma-panties. A dwarf, Blake, (played by Charles Bolander who was also in DARK INTRUDER, 1965), runs the carnival and hangs out behind the coochie tent with the main girlie attraction, Gigi. He discovers that a vice probe on the carnival has been suspended and the reporter who instigated the investigation has been fired and is on the run from the mob. A beat cop also goes behind the curtain to keep an eye on things, making the little guy furious. Turns out, the editor in charge of the paper that called off the investigation has been murdered, and the sarge thinks the young reporter who was fired did it. The reporter, Bill Martin (played by TV’s Captain Midnight himself, Richard Coogan) and his girlfriend, Janet, luckily happen to be right behind the curtain while this conversation takes place. He needs to hide in the carnival to prove his innocence and someone named Reeves’s guilt. Janet is standing by her man, but she also needs to hide. The cops are everywhere in the carnival, so they require disguises. So, Bill becomes a boxer in the fighting tent and Janet puts on the sequined black bra and granny-panties and mask of the coochie chorus line.

The dwarf among the girls.

After the show, the dancers cackle like a bunch of hens, watched over by an older woman who smokes cigars and cracks wise. Soon, its costume changes (exposing just enough leg), and they’re out front with the barker. “All right now folks,” he shouts, “Take yer time. Don’t hurry. We don’t want ya’ to hurt yourselves. I now give you a cavity of beauty, a peerless pulchritude all set to entertain you. A treat for the lovers of real art. An exhibition to make the old feel young and the young feel better! Six tantalizing morsels of loveliness from every corner of the world” (Cut to a lip-smacking bull lesbian in the crowd watching the show enthusiastically!) “I now present to you . . . hey, this ain’t a show for boys. This is for adults only. All right boys, beat it. Come back in ten years.” We then get treated to six slightly overweight dancers trying to look exotic. Fatima of the Veils; Dolores, who shows the boys a little rumba; as well as the horsiest face ever committed to celluloid, Miss Pineapple of 1953 aka Love on the Dole! It’s actually a lot of fun to watch these time-capsule dancers who strut their stuff and bare just enough skin to earn a PG rating nowadays. We finish with the star, Gigi, from Paris (Kentucky).

Bring on the dancing girls!

Reeves visits the dwarf, who’s angry at the presence of all the cops when the whole vice investigation has been called off. Reeves is looking for Janet, who’s seen too much . . . like a murder? Reeves starts obsessing over Gigi. While the old woman, Lil, who oversees the dressing and undressing of the girls, helps Janet turn into a coochie dancer. Janet asks, “Is that all you expect me to wear?” The old woman asks, “You ain’t deformed are you? Put it on!” Turns out, Janet knows about a girl from the chorus line that Reeves “got in trouble” last year and who disappeared, so Reeves is actually in charge of running the town as well as the prostitutes out of the carnival. Lil hates Reeves as well, because she’s married to his boss, and Reeves will do anything to be Mr. Big on top of the town.

Blake the dwarf talks turkey to Boxer Bill.

The dwarf, Blake, blackmails Reeves for twenty thousand dollars, because he has a lot on Reeves, although we don’t know what. Meanwhile, Lil convinces the other girls to circle their pasties around Janet to protect her from Reeves’s prying eyes.

Bill Martin, reporter (remember him?), becomes a volunteer to fight the champ in the boxing ring, almost knocking the big galoot unconscious. He was supposed to take a dive, but instead he becomes the new champ attraction!

Gigi goes into her dance, and we see why she’s the star of the burlesque show. Yowza! Wearing bat-wing veils and a leather bikini, she gyrates to a sultry sax solo. And, hey. . . in the audience . . . is that? Steve McQueen? From THE BLOB (1958), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), THE SAND PEBBLES (1966), and BULLITT (1968)? It is! In fact, it was his first role in a feature. He doesn’t say anything, but it’s freaking Steve McQueen, so the movie just got fifty percent cooler.

The dwarf strikes an uneasy alliance with Bill, offering him a job until they get over the state line. Bill accepts, but not before Janet has to dance semi-nude in public. Oh, the shame! The horror! But she nearly pulls it off. Reeves, however, can count, and he notices there’s an extra girl in the hoochie line. Lil goes after Reeves with her fingernails, and he shouts, “After twenty years, you’re interfering with my life again!” Reeves figures out Janet is the witness, and a trap is set for Bill using Janet as bait! But the leering dwarf wants to save her . . . if she’ll do something for him. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

The double crosses and the fights keep coming until the bodies start piling up. Lil narcs on Reeves and his soiled past, Bill may be throwing Janet over for another dame, the dwarf seems to be lying to everyone in America, and Gigi has her own agenda.

The script by Arthur J. Beckhard (who previously wrote Shirley Temple movies for God’s sake! CURLY TOP and OUR LITTLE GIRL, both 1935 – shame shame shame, Mr. Beckhard!) and Cedric Worth is a muddle. The pacing is all over the place, although it never seems slow. The dialogue is mostly hateful and bitter, which makes everything better. The photography is suitably dark, and the carny atmosphere is sordid and grimy. The actors all do what they can with the material, but it’s kind of a hopeless cause.

Girls! Girls! Girls!

GIRL ON THE RUN is a really fun little carny noir that zips along for its brief 64 minute running time. You get a somewhat complicated plot with little back story, a shooting, slimy, mustache twirling villains, catfights, rescues, insane plot twists, and more double crosses that you can shake a scary clown at. Whenever things get slow, they bring out the dancing girls! And really, what’s wrong with that? One part of Gigi’s act is so good, they show it twice. Plus, a cameo by Steve McQueen and boxing and corrupt cops. Now, that’s entertainment.

And did I mention it has dancing girls?

I give GIRL ON THE RUN three coochie dancers out of four.

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BULLET IN THE HEAD (2013)

Posted in 2013, Action Movies, Buddy Movies, Cop Movies, Crime Films, Gangsters!, Intense Movies, Killers, Michael Arruda Reviews, Sylvester Stallone!, VIOLENCE! with tags Action Movies, Bullet to the Head, Christian Slater, hit men, Jason Momoa, Revenge, Sarah Sahi, Sylvester Stallone, Walter Hill on February 5, 2013 by knifefighter

MOVIE REVIEW: BULLET TO THE HEAD (2013)
By Michael Arruda

This movie earns its title and then some.

BULLET TO THE HEAD is one brutal action flick, featuring more bullets to the head than a Corleone family reunion.

James Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone) is a hit man who hates cops, mostly because he’s spent his life in and out of jail and doesn’t trust anybody, cops included, as he’s seen his share of crooked law enforcement officers in his day. After he and his partner finish a hit, they are double-crossed by the folks who hired them, who send in a hit man of their own, an ex-military beast of a man named Keegan (Jason Momoa, who was CONAN THE BARBARIAN in the 2011 reboot of that franchise), who promptly slays Bonomo’s partner—- displaying some vicious knife work— but fails to complete the job, as Bonomo turns the tables on him, sending him fleeing from the scene with his tail between his legs, at least for the time being.

It turns out that the man Bonomo and his partner killed was an ex-cop from D.C. The man’s former partner Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) arrives in New Orleans to investigate his death, and his investigation leads him to Bonomo. Kwon wants more than just Bonomo. He wants the men who hired him, because he wants to get to bottom of the whole sordid affair by taking down the men at the top. Bonomo wants these men too, because they killed his partner, tried to kill him, and never paid him his money.

Faster than you can say buddy cop movie, Bonomo and Kwon find themselves working together to find the men behind the murders. The trail leads them to a slick lawyer, Marcus Baptiste (Christian Slater), who throws huge parties where beautiful women prance around in their birthday suits, and to the man he works for, Robert Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) a baddie who went to the Lex Luthor school of villainy, as he’s obsessed with purchasing real estate.

Morel of course hires Keegan to kill both Bonomo and Taylor, and when that plan fails, he sends Keegan to kidnap Bonomo’s daughter, Lisa (Sarah Shahi), for leverage, since Bonomo and Taylor have in their possession a flash drive containing incriminating information against Morel.

As you might expect, Bonomo doesn’t like having his daughter kidnapped, setting the stage for a confrontation between Bonomo and Keegan that is worth the price of admission.

I really liked BULLET TO THE HEAD. In the triumvirate of recent action movies I’ve seen the past month— Schwarzenegger in THE LAST STAND (2013), Jason Statham in PARKER (2013), and now Stallone in BULLET TO THE HEAD, I liked BULLET TO THE HEAD the best, as it’s the most complete movie of the three. That being said, I liked Statham’s take on the character of Parker a lot, with his unique set of rules and sense of honor, and so I liked PARKER just about as much as BULLET, but in terms of sheer brutality, BULLET TO THE HEAD takes the prize.

Sylvester Stallone, at his age, 66, still makes for one convincing bad ass tough guy, and when he looks at Jason Momoa’s Keegan at the end of the film and says “I’m going to kill you,” the audience believes him. Rarely has Stallone played a colder killer than Bonomo.

The deaths are up close and personal. Director Walter Hill, a veteran of these buddy cop movies, going back to the 1980s with films like 48 HOURS (1982), with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, brings the camera in close for some jarring execution style murders that are actually quite wince-inducing. I found myself looking away a few times, and the two gentlemen in the seats in front of me, not tiny men by any means, jumped on a couple of occasions.

There are also some memorable fight scenes in this one, as again, Stallone still looks like he can really bring it. The concluding bout between Stallone and Jason Momoa is every bit as good as the clash between Stallone and Van Damme at the end of THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012). One of my gripes about the concluding hand to hand fight in THE LAST STAND was that Schwarzenegger’s opponent looked so wimpy. Not so here. Momoa looks like he could handle both Stallone and Schwarzenegger at the same time.

Speaking of Momoa, he’s quite impressive as the unstoppable killer Keegan, and he delivers one of the better performances in the movie. Often these big tough guy villain roles come off like robots, but Momoa’s Keegan is infused with personality.

Sarah Shahi is also very good as Bonomo’s daughter, Lisa. She’s a tattoo artist who moonlights as a doctor, helping her dad patch up his buddies from their various bullet and knife wounds.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Robert Morel, the guy in a suit pulling all the strings, played a similar bad guy role in KILLER ELITE (2011), making life miserable in that movie for Jason Statham and Robert De Niro. Akinnuoye-Agbaje, you might remember, played Mr. Eko on the TV show LOST.

Christian Slater is sufficiently slimy as shady lawyer Marcus Baptiste, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen Slater do before.

Perhaps the only weak link in the movie is Sung Kang as Stallone’s cop buddy Taylor Kwon. Kang’s acting is decent enough, but the clean-cut pretty boy Kwon stands out like a bright cheery light in an otherwise dark gritty movie. I would have preferred a Mark Wahlberg-type in the role.

The screenplay by Alessandro Camon is a winner. While the plot is nothing more than your standard buddy action flick, an excuse, really, to allow Sylvester Stallone to make tough guy wisecracks and beat up on the bad guys—and because Stallone is so good at this, it lifts the material above what it otherwise might have been without him— there were still some nuances to the story which I really enjoyed.

I liked the character development of the hit man Keegan. As we learn more about what makes him tick, we find out that he’s driven by a sense of honor more than the almighty dollar, and when his boss Morel shows no loyalty to the men he employs—he’s only interested in money— this doesn’t sit well with Keegan. Keegan actually cares about the men who work alongside him. Of course, he also loves killing.

The story also does a good job convincing us that Stallone and Kang want to work together. At first, I thought, no way, Stallone’s Bonomo hates cops, so there’s no way I’m going to believe he’d want to work with Kang’s Kwon, but screenwriter Camon succeeds in pulling this off. In one instance, for example, old school Bonomo is clearly impressed with the wealth of information Kwon has at his fingertips on his smart phone and realizes the advantages of working with the officer outweigh his personal disdain for his profession.

BULLET TO THE HEAD is a completely satisfying action thriller. It’s brutal, dark, and intense from its opening execution scene to its closing clash featuring Stallone and Momoa going at each other with axes.

Sure, its buddy action movie plot offers little we haven’t seen before, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in ferocity.

I give it three knives.

—END—

Michael Arruda gives BULLET TO THE HEAD ~three knives.

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PARKER (2013)

Posted in 2013, Action Movies, Crime Films, Gangsters!, Jason Statham, Michael Arruda Reviews with tags Donald E. Westlake, Heist Movies, Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Parker, Taylor Hackford on February 5, 2013 by knifefighter

MOVIE REVIEW: PARKER (2013)
By Michael Arruda

It’s all about the rules.

In PARKER (2013), the latest action flick starring Jason Statham, super thief Parker follows a strict code of rules which he expects others to follow as well. As he tells his friend Hurley, if he lets people break their promises to him, he’ll lose all credibility. In Parker’s world, if you say you’re going to do something, do it, because if you don’t, he’ll hold you accountable.

In the film’s opening sequence, Parker (Jason Statham) and his associates rob a country fair. Parker assures the hostages that if they do exactly as he says, they won’t get hurt, and he means it. He’s a thief with honor. Too bad the same can’t be said of his partners.

During the getaway, one of these partners, Melander (Michael Chiklis) informs Parker that rather than split the money they just stole as originally planned, he wants to use it to fund a bigger job, a job that will pay them millions, down in Palm Beach, Florida. Parker wants no part of this, since this wasn’t part of the original agreement. Those rules again. This doesn’t sit well with Melander and his three buddies, who are all into the job, and so they shoot Parker and leave him for dead by the side of the road.

But Parker is quickly rescued by a passing farmer and his family, who take him to a hospital. Parker regains consciousness and immediately escapes from the hospital, making his way to his friend and mentor, Hurley (Nick Nolte), to learn more about the guys who betrayed him. Hurley warns Parker to leave these guys alone, because they have powerful friends in the Chicago mob, but Parker dismisses the warning and vows to get both vengeance and his money.

Parker travels to Palm Beach in search of Melander and his goons, and he hooks up with a real estate agent, Leslie Rodgers (Jennifer Lopez), under the pretense that he’s a rich Texan looking to buy a home in Palm Beach, when in reality he’s searching for the home Melander has bought as his hideaway, where he and his men can lay low for a while after they pull off their diamond heist.

Hot on Parker’s trail is an assassin sent by the Chicago mob, a killer who also has on his hit list Parker’s girlfriend, Claire (Emma Booth), who happens to be Hurley’s daughter. Things grow more complicated when real estate agent Leslie figures out what Parker is up to, and reveals to him that she’s sick of her life, which is going nowhere, and that she wants to help him find Melander for a cut of the money.

Parker accepts her help, and together they search for Melander and try to thwart his diamond heist caper, all the while remaining a step ahead of the mob assassin.

While some of the plot points in PARKER don’t make a lot of sense, this is a case where the movie as a whole is better than the sum of its parts, and this is because of the presence of Jason Statham.

I’ve heard complaints that Statham always plays the same role, and that he lacks charisma. In terms of playing the same role, I think most action stars, from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Clint Eastwood, play variations of themselves in their movies. I don’t have a problem with this, as long I like their personalities.

Statham is colder than most, much closer to Eastwood’s persona than a guy like Schwarzenegger, but it works for me. I also find Statham believable in these roles. When he beats up the bad guys, I totally buy it. When he survives bullet wounds and knife wounds, I believe it. Why? Because he looks like the unstoppable supermen he’s portraying.

Not only don’t I have a problem with Jason Statham, but I think he’s one of the better action stars making movies today.

PARKER, directed by Taylor Hackford, a guy who’s been making movies for a long time, is a slick-looking production, easy on the eyes, and it includes some decent fight scenes, although none of them will knock your socks off. There’s one nasty bit when Parker battles the mob assassin, and a knife goes through his hand. I’m also happy to say that most of the blood in this one looked realistic, as it wasn’t the CGI style blood we’ve been seeing so much of lately.

PARKER is based on the novel by Donald E. Westlake, who wrote a series of novels featuring the Parker character. John J. McLaughlin wrote the screenplay, fresh off writing the screenplay for HITCHCOCK (2012), and it’s here where the movie runs into its share of problems. While there’s plenty of decent dialogue in the movie, the actual plot, although enjoyable, does have some issues with credibility.

For starters, when Melander first decides to kill Parker, he orders his wimpiest man to do the job, to walk to the side of the road and put a bullet in Parker’s head. This made no sense to me. Send your best guy, for crying out loud! It’s obviously just a way to have Parker survive. Worse yet, we have to believe that this shooter standing over Parker at point blank range somehow missed, or at least failed to inflict a fatal wound. This is one plot point that I didn’t buy at all.

Also, the whole storyline with the Jennifer Lopez character, Leslie, didn’t really work for me. She shows up late in the movie, and we’re asked to believe that she’s a loser in a dead end life. Really? It’s difficult to picture Jennifer Lopez as a loser, a woman desperate enough to buddy up with a violent thief, as if that’s the answer to her problems, and worse yet, we’re supposed to believe that Parker would accept the help of an amateur. Not buying any of it.

Plus, it’s a wasted relationship since Parker is clearly involved with Claire, who continuously shows up to patch up his wounds and bruises. It’s not really a love triangle because Parker is never interested in Leslie.

Then there’s the diamond heist that Melander plans. It’s so improbable, yet so bold, that I wanted to know more about it. I found myself wishing the film was more about the plans to pull off the job, because it was far more interesting than anything Parker was doing. Screenwriter McLaughlin probably avoided the details here because it was such a far-fetched impossible plan.

The cast is okay. You can’t go wrong with Statham, but Jennifer Lopez is miscast in what turns out to be a thankless role. The other drawback here is that Statham and Lopez don’t really share a lot of onscreen chemistry. Statham has more chemistry with Emma Booth as Claire, and I wish she had been in the movie more. She was a more interesting character than Lopez’s Leslie.

Michael Chiklis runs hot and cold as bad guy Melander. At times, he’s sufficiently bloodthirsty and ruthless, and other times he’s just plain dumb, like when he sends his weakest guy to kill Parker. Duh!

Daniel Bernhardt also makes for an ineffective assassin, Kroll, who’s supposed to be the best killer in the Chicago mob, yet he can’t even kill Parker’s girlfriend Claire, as she runs circles around him and easily escapes his clutches.

PARKER is one of those movies where the more you think about it, the more you realize it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but while you’re watching it, you don’t care because the film as a whole, and Jason Statham in particular, both pack a punch.

So, in spite of its flaws, I found PARKER to be a hard-hitting movie that showed some oomph and displayed an edge, even when stuck in a story that didn’t always work. I also enjoyed the character of Parker, brought to life by a convincing Jason Statham.

For me, believability is key, and when Parker says “you’ll get hurt if you don’t do what I say,” I believed him.

I give it three knives.

—END—

Michael Arruda gives PARKER ~three knives.

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THE LAST STAND (2013)

Posted in 2013, Action Movies, Cop Movies, Crime Films, Gangsters!, Schwarzenegger Movies, VIOLENCE! with tags Action Movies, Arnold, forest whitaker, Jee-woon Kim, Johnny Knoxville, Last Stand, Schwarzenegger on January 22, 2013 by knifefighter

MOVIE REVIEW: THE LAST STAND (2013)
By Michael Arruda

He’s baack.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back on the big screen in his first starring role after a ten year absence—his last one was TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) — in THE LAST STAND (2013), an action movie that teaches a valuable lesson: if you’re a drug dealer looking to make it to the Mexican border, and you need to pass through a small town to do it, don’t pick a town where the sheriff is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In THE LAST STAND, Schwarzenegger plays Ray Owens, a former LAPD special officer, who after years of seeing too much violence and too many good people die, decides to retire to the small town of Summerton Junction and enjoy a quiet life as a small town sheriff. Good luck with that!

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, FBI Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) is leading a special operation to transfer a notorious drug lord, Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), to his execution, but Cortez has help from the inside, and in a daring escape, manages to elude Bannister and his forces, making his way to the Mexican border in a specially outfitted car that can reach speeds up to 200 miles per hour.

Bannister surmises the three most logical spots for Cortez to try to cross the border. The least likely of the three is through the town of Summerton Junction, because at that spot there’s a ravine separating the borders and it would be difficult to cross. However, it’s the least guarded of the three.

Ray and his deputies discover a group of heavily armed men building a bridge across the ravine. Ray alerts Bannister that he knows that Cortez will be crossing through Summerton Junction, and he’ll be there in less than an hour. Since there’s little time for Bannister to mobilize his forces to make it to Summerton Junction in time, it’s up to Ray and his inexperienced group of small town deputies to make a last stand and stop Cortez from getting to the border.

THE LAST STAND plays out pretty much exactly the way one expects it to, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, since it ultimately is a by-the-numbers action flick tailored for the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger. In that regard, as a comeback vehicle for Schwarzenegger, it’s only moderately successful. Sure, Arnold is a strong screen presence, and he’s certainly proven in the past that he can carry a weak movie on his shoulders, and he does it again here, but in this case it’s pretty much a solo effort. He doesn’t get much help.

First off, there’s not much to get excited about in terms of its story. Before the anticipated “last stand,” the movie alternates between Sheriff Ray and his deputies, Agent Bannister’s frantic efforts to keep tabs on Cortez, and Cortez’ drive towards the border, where he and his hired thugs continually thwart the authorities’ efforts to derail him. With the exception of Ray, none of these folks are all that interesting.

The acting is fine, but the characters, especially the deputies, aren’t fleshed out enough to be the kind of quirky characters needed to make an action movie like this soar.

Luis Guzman is likeable enough as Ray’s main deputy Mike Figuerola, but the other deputies, including Jaimie Alexander, who we saw in THOR (2011), as Deputy Sarah Torrance, are all rather dull and one-dimensional. Lewis Dinkum (Johnny Knoxville), an eccentric who runs a dilapidated gun museum full of vintage firearms, is supposed to be quirky and funny, but he comes off as goofy. The problem is none of these folks have an edge, and to think that they could outlast an army of hired gunslingers on the payroll of a notorious drug lord is flat out unbelievable.

It also doesn’t help that bad guy, Gabriel Cortez, isn’t a very effective villain. He looks about as hardened and threatening as a GQ model, and throughout the film, he never really does anything worthy of his ultra-bad guy reputation. He makes a weak foil for Schwarzenegger’s Sheriff Ray.

Peter Stormare, who plays Cortez’s right hand man Burrell, actually makes a better villain in this one, except during the “last stand” itself, when he suffers from a case of the “stupids” and allows his men to fire at everything but the folks aiming guns at them. They blow up everything in sight except for the deputies. Duh!

And Forest Whitaker as FBI agent John Bannister is plain annoying. He has a right to be annoyed in the movie— everything he does fails. His attempt to move Cortez is successful for all of five seconds before the whole plan falls apart. Whitaker ‘s Bannister spends the rest of the movie playing catch-up, constantly operating from behind Cortez’s lead, continuously having to deal with one failure after another. Instead of rallying his troops, he barks and whines at them, including at Ray.

There’s no rapport between Agent Bannister and Sheriff Ray at all. Bannister snubs his nose at Ray, thinking he’s just a small town sheriff, and once that happens, Ray pretty much ignores the FBI man for the rest of the movie.

One bit of fun casting has Harry Dean Stanton as a farmer who tries to force Burrell and his men off his land with a shotgun. It’s a great scene for Stanton, even if it only lasts a couple of minutes.

But you don’t see an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie to see the rest of the cast. You see it to watch Arnold. So, just how was Arnold in his comeback movie? I thought I detected a few spots of rust in his performance during several scenes of dialogue— not that Arnold has ever been heralded for his acting abilities— where he seemed to be just saying lines as opposed to speaking for real, but for the most part, he more than held his own. As a fan, I enjoyed watching Schwarzenegger just as much as I used to, and in spite of this mediocre film, I’m looking forward to watching him in future movies as well.

He was certainly my favorite part of THE LAST STAND. And while he didn’t have any amazing one liners, he did get to spout some halfway decent ones.

And that’s because the screenplay by Andrew Knauer and Jeffrey Nachmanoff is mediocre at best. The dialogue is average, and the story routine. It also fails to include a decent build-up to the final confrontation between Ray and his deputies and Cortez and his henchmen. There’s very little suspense along the way, so by the time you get to the titled last stand, it’s just sort of there without the necessary “I can’t wait to see what happens” feeling.

Part of this is because director Jee-woon Kim—who directed the highly touted horror movie I SAW THE DEVIL (2010) —fails to include any truly memorable scenes. THE LAST STAND offers none of the hardcore edginess and creativity found in I SAW THE DEVIL. This one’s strictly by the numbers.

Gun battles are the action scene of choice, and so if you like big guns firing nonstop, this is the movie for you. It’s rated R, and there’s lots of blood, a lot of it CGI unfortunately, but there are some gruesome deaths thrown in for good measure.

The initial gun battle between Ray and his deputies and Burrell’s men who are building the bridge is one of the better scenes in the film, and it was certainly the film’s most intense scene. The concluding “last stand” sequence was a bit of a disappointment, mostly because it wasn’t believable. The villains have superior numbers and firepower on their side, yet they’re just not that smart and seem to shoot at everything rather than at their opponents. When one of your men is shot by an old lady with a shotgun, you know it’s just not your day!

Arnold returns to the big screen in THE LAST STAND.

And when Schwarzenegger roles up his sleeves for a little hand to hand combat with baddie Cortez at the end of the movie, you just know he’s going to wipe the floor with this guy’s face. It’s like John Wayne taking on Jerry Lewis.

When all is said and done, THE LAST STAND is just a mediocre return to the big screen for Arnold Schwarzenegger. While Arnold himself is as entertaining as ever, the rest of the film is not.

I give it two knives.

—END—

Michael Arruda gives THE LAST STAND ~ two knives!

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QUICK CUTS: WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE GANGSTER?

Posted in 1930s Movies, 1970s Movies, 1980s Movies, 2013, Asian Gangster Films, Classic Films, Colleen Wanglund Reviews, Crime Films, Cult Movies, Fugitives, Gangsters!, Garrett Cook Articles, Jenny Orosel Columns, LL Soares Reviews, Michael Arruda Reviews, Movie History, Nick Cato Reviews, Quick Cuts, Tough Guys!, Yakuza Films with tags Cagney, Godfather, Ichi, Little Caesar, Pacino, Public Enemy, Quick Cuts, Scarface on January 18, 2013 by knifefighter

QUICK CUTS: FAVORITE MOVIE GANGSTERS
Featuring: Michael Arruda, L.L. Soares, Nick Cato, Garrett Cook, Jenny Orosel, and Colleen Wanglund

MICHAEL ARRUDA: Welcome everyone to another edition of QUICK CUTS.

Last Friday, January 11, the slick looking gangster movie GANGSTER SQUAD opened in theaters, starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and Sean Penn. So, for today ‘s QUICK CUTS column, we asked our panel of Cinema Knife Fighters the all-important question: Who’s your favorite movie gangster?

GARRETT COOK: My favorite is one of the first and the best: Edward G. Robinson as Rico in LITTLE CAESAR (1931), an angry but vulnerable man constantly overcompensating. He’s both ruthless and heartbreaking.

Edward G. Robinson in the role that made him a star – Rico in LITTLE CAESAR (1931).

L.L. SOARES: Good one, Garrett. I like LITTLE CAESAR a lot, too. A really underrated movie.

My two favorite movie gangsters were both played by James Cagney.

The first is Tom Powers from THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931). Whether he’s pushing grapefruit halves in dame’s faces or starting a gang war, he’s still the gold standard everyone else should be compared to. And the movie still has one of the most haunting endings ever. Boy, they sure knew how to create spooky images back in the 1930s.

The notorious “grapefruit in the kisser” scene from PUBLIC ENEMY (1931). Another gangster classic.

The other one is Cody Jarrett, the mother-obsessed psychopath gangster from 1949′s WHITE HEAT. “Made it, Ma. Top of the world!” Everyone remember that one. My choices showcase Cagney’s earliest gangster with a later one.

JENNY OROSEL: I’ve never been a big gangster movie fan, but the one I do remember liking was BUGSY MALONE (1976). Sure, looking back, it was pretty horrible. But it had the most epic pie fight ever committed to film!

A scene from the pie fight in BUGSY MALONE (1976).

NICK CATO: My fave gangster is Paulie in GOODFELLAS (1990), played by Paul Sorvino. As the head of his clan, he got to sit back, fry sausages, slice garlic, and sip the best wine while his men did all the dirty work. And no one made a better ” sangwich” than him. He was THE MAN.

Paul Sorvino as Paulie in GOODFELLAS (1990).

L.L. SOARES: I’m a big fan of GOODFELLAS, too. One of the best gangster movies ever. But I prefer Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci (as Jenry Hill and Tommy DeVito, respectively). I’ve never been a big Paul Sorvino fan for some reason. DeNiro is really good in this one, too.

COLLEEN WANGLUND: Okay here’s my answer:

So I figure the first names that would come to mind are from American gangster films. Well since I am the Geisha, my favorite gangsters all come from Asian films.

1. Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) from ICHI THE KILLER (2001) directed by Takashi Miike. Kakihara is seriously one of the sickest gangsters I’ve ever seen on film.

So crazy he’s scary – Kikihara from ICHI THE KILLER (2001).

2. Matsunaga (Toshiro Mifune) from the film DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948) directed by Akira Kurosawa. He is somewhat sympathetic character but a hardened gangster just the same.

3. Lau Kin-ming (Andy Lau) from INFERNAL AFFAIRS (2002) directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Lau’s character manages to infiltrate the police department in Hong Kong for YEARS without ever getting caught. That’s pretty awesome.

L.L. SOARES: Excellent choices! I forgot how great a long of Japanese and Hong Kong gangstgers are. I would also add Takeshi Kitano (also known as Beat Takeshi), who has played several Japanese gangsters over the years, in films he directed and films by others. My favorite gangster/Yakuza role of his was probably in his 1993 film, SONATINE.

“Beat” Takeshi in SONATINE (1993).

MICHAEL ARRUDA: Wow, you’re really into the topic this time around!

L.L. SOARES: I sure am. I love classic gangster movies. They haven’t made a good one in awhile.

MICHAEL ARRUDA: Well, my favorite movie gangster would be Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in THE GODFATHER movies, specifically Parts 1 & 2. Sure, his most famous scene is the “Fredo, you broke my heart” scene, but my favorite comes in Part 1, where he’s confronted by his wife Kay (Diane Keaton) and she wants to know if he had his brother–in-law killed, and he says he won’t discuss the family business with her. He then stops and says, “Just this once. You can ask me just this once.” So she asks him again, and he says, “No, I didn’t have him killed,” and of course, he’s lying through his teeth. Great scene.

Not the most violent gangster on screen, but Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone is one of the coldest gangsters on screen. Ice runs through his veins.

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in THE GODFATHER.

L.L. SOARES: Another excellent choice. Everyone in the first two GODFATHER films is pretty terrific, but you’re right, Pacino might be the best one of all. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention Pacino’s other iconic gangster role, as Tony Montana in 1983’s SCARFACE. Some people have complained Pacino is too over-the-top in the role, but I still say it’s another iconic role that most movie gangster movies these days will be compared to. Besides, I really love SCARFACE.

Al Pacino’s other iconic gangster role – Tony Montana in SCARFACE (1983).

MICHAEL ARRUDA: And that’s it for tonight’s QUICK CUTS. Thanks for joining us everybody!

—END—

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GANGSTER SQUAD (2013)

Posted in 2013, Action Movies, Based on a True Story, Cinema Knife Fights, Crime Films, Gangsters!, Michael Arruda Reviews with tags Emma Stone, Gangster Squad, josh brolin, Mickey Cohen, Nick Nolte, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn on January 14, 2013 by knifefighter

CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT: GANGSTER SQUAD (2013)
By Michael Arruda

(THE SCENE: A ritzy jazz nightclub circa 1949. MICHAEL ARRUDA approaches a BEAUTIFUL WOMAN at the bar.)

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: So, what’s your racket?

MICHAEL ARRUDA: I’m a Bible salesman.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: You lookin’ to take me away from all this?

MA: No, ma’am. I’m just lookin’ to take you to bed.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Okay.

MA (looks at camera): This has to be a movie.

Welcome everyone to another edition of CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT. I’m flying solo tonight as L.L. Soares is off on another assignment, (looks at woman at bar) but that’s okay.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: So, what are you really doing here?

MA: I’m reviewing a movie.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Anything I’d like?

MA: Maybe. Ever hear of GANGSTER SQUAD (2013), the slick-looking gangster movie starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, and Emma Stone?

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Nope.

MA: Let me tell you about it.

It’s Los Angeles 1949, and gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is taking over the city. This doesn’t sit well with tough police Chief Parker (Nick Nolte), who is frustrated that Cohen owns half the police force and judges in L.A. So, Parker privately approaches Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin), and tells him he wants to establish a small unit, operating in secret and off the books, for the sole purpose of destroying the empire of Mickey Cohen.

O’Mara accepts the challenge and puts together a crack squad of police officers, including his friend Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), Officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Pena), and Officer Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi). These guys have as their sole goal to make Mickey Cohen’s life a living hell, as they constantly strike at his operation with guerilla-style tactics that continually catch him off guard. But Mickey Cohen didn’t reach the top of the gangster food chain by accident, and it’s only a matter of time before he figures out who is inflicting the damage on his empire, and he sets his sights on seeking some cold-blooded revenge.

Further complicating matters is Sgt. Wooter’s girlfriend Grace Faraday ( Emma Stone) also happens to be Mickey Cohen’s main squeeze. Oops!

GANGSTER SQUAD isn’t going to win any awards for most original screenplay—its story is nothing we haven’t seen before—but it does win lots of brownie points for being extremely entertaining.

First off, the film looks great. It’s colorful, the costumes and sets are dazzling, and they bring 1949 Los Angeles to life. Sure, things look a little comic book-like, in that the film doesn’t so much aim for realism as it does for pulp.

The cast also acquits itself well. Josh Brolin makes a sturdy, solid hero as Sgt. John O’Mara.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Oh, I like Josh Brolin. He’s handsome.

MA: His O’Mara is a family man, with a pregnant wife and a nice home, but with a sense, as he describes it, of not knowing what else to do but fight after his return from the war. He’s a self-proclaimed warrior, not a thinker, and he has no issues steamrolling his way through Mickey Cohen’s empire. He’s fearless, and all the more likable for it.

This just might be my favorite Josh Brolin performance. It’s certainly his most likeable. While he was dark and intense in such films as NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007), JONAH HEX (2010) and TRUE GRIT (2010), here he’s much more complete and enjoyable, as he takes a heroic character and makes him his own.

Ryan Gosling’s Sgt. Jerry Wooters offsets the intensity of Brolin’s O’Mara by exuding coolness and levelheadedness throughout.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: I like Ryan Gosling. He’s sooo sexy!

MA: He’s so cool and laid back, that in one scene where he sneaks into Cohen’s mansion to place a bugging device, and Cohen and his entourage return early, he gets discovered by Grace Faraday, yet he takes the time to kiss her before making his exit.

The rest of the team is also very agreeable. Anthony Mackie, who has been in a lot of movies lately, from THE HURT LOCKER (2008) to last year’s ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER (2012), is good here as Officer Coleman Harris, an officer who’s as quick with a knife as he is with a gun.

Then there’s Robert Patrick as Officer Max Kennard, the elder officer of the group, who comes off like a western gunslinger. He reminded me a lot of Lee Van Cleef, and was one of my favorite characters in the movie. In his younger days, Patrick, you might remember, played the T-1000 Terminator in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991).

Giovanni Ribisi plays the nerdy Officer Conway Keeler, the guy who’s responsible for coming up with all the tech-savvy ideas, like bugging Cohen’s home, and Michael Pena plays Kennard’s loyal right hand man, Officer Navidad Ramirez. Both these actors do nice jobs with these roles.

Emma Stone is sexy and stunning as Grace Faraday, and she makes for an effective 1940s femme fatale that would make Lauran Bacall proud.

(to Woman) Do you like Emma Stone?

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Of course.

MA: Me, too. I found her incredibly sexy in this movie.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Sexier than me?

MA: No one’s sexier than you, baby. (Looks at camera and shrugs)

In a supporting role, Sullivan Stapleton is memorable as Jerry’s friend Jack, a guy who plays both sides of the fence, and even though he’s not part of the gangster squad, he was one of my favorite characters in the film, and he enjoys a key scene late in the film where he defends Grace Faraday from Mickey Cohen and his thugs.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: I like him, too. He’s an attractive man.

MA (to bartender): Get her another of whatever it is she’s drinking, and bring one back for me too.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Should you be drinking when you’re working?

MA: Truth be told, in my case, it’ll just be a prop, a glass of soda water.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: But I get the real thing, don’t I?

MA: Nothing but the real thing for you, baby. (mouths silently at the camera: “I can’t help myself.”)

So, let’s get back to the movie.

And, of course, there’s Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Sean Penn is so tough. I can’t help but like him.

MA: You sure do like a lot of people, but in Penn’s case, I like him a lot too, and he makes Cohen a hardnosed and ambitious villain that is a worthy successor to Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson. And while his make-up didn’t look as fake to me as it did in the trailer, I wish he had worn less of it and relied more on the strength of his acting performance. While the make-up wasn’t a major distraction, Penn would have been scarier without it.

There are some really cool scenes in this one. There are the obligatory gun battles and lots of explosions, and there’s also a really neat car chase scene in which director Ruben Fleischer cranks up the intensity. It’s one of the more exciting sequences in the film. Fleischer also directed ZOMBIELAND (2009), and I liked GANGSTER SQUAD just as much as that gem.

There’s also a brutal and very satisfying physical fight between Brolin and Penn at the end of the movie which really rocks.

As a whole, GANGSTER SQUAD isn’t as stylish as Brian De Palma’s THE UNTOUCHABLES (1987), although at times, with its slow motion photography, it tries to be. The film scores higher when it’s being its own movie and not trying to imitate others.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: I loved THE UNTOUCHABLES!

MA: Let me guess, you love Kevin Costner because he’s so handsome.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Of course. And don’t forget Sean Connery. What a sexy man!

(SEAN CONNERY sits at bar next to BEAUTIFUL WOMAN)

CONNERY: You got that right. Anyone who says otherwise, I’ll kick him in the arse! (grabs his drink and leaves)

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (swoons): I’m in heaven.

MA: I’m in trouble. (to Woman) So, as I was saying, about GANGSTER SQUAD?

(Woman faces him again.)

MA: There are some other drawbacks as well.

First and foremost, it’s not original in the least, and the screenplay by Will Beall, based on the book “Gangster Squad” by Paul Lieberman, while inspired by a true story, isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. Bad guy owns city, cops vow to strike back, bad guy hits them even harder, and the last guy standing wins. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this formula, and the folks behind this movie do a nice job bringing it all to life, but it’s not going to lob surprises at you.

But probably the most glaring weakness of GANGSTER SQUAD is that in spite of its R rating, it’s not all that intense. It’s edited like a PG-13 movie. Sure, there’s plenty of blood and some violent scenes, but missing is the realistic human agony. The opening scene of the film is a brutal sequence where Mickey Cohen has a man tied to two cars and to send a message back to the folks in Chicago, he has the cars speed away, tearing the man’s body apart. This does happen on screen, but it’s edited so neatly to have minimal effect.

I’m not talking about the need for more gore here. I’m talking about the raw emotion of people dying. There’s very little of that in GANGSTER SQUAD. Most of what happens in the movie is neat and tidy. I would have liked it had Mickey Cohen made me feel more uncomfortable. I never really felt the ruthlessness of his character. There are plenty of opportunities for the story to take that direction, but the film chooses not to.

But overall, I liked GANGSTER SQUAD a lot. In spite of the fact that it’s not raw enough to make an honest statement about gangsters and their battles with the police, it’s a colorful, likeable production that perhaps will excite modern audiences enough to reignite the gangster movie genre.

I give it three knives.

Well, that’s it for tonight folks. Thanks for joining me, and we’ll see you again next weekend with another edition of CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT.

(to WOMAN) Want to blow this popcorn stand and go back to my room?

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (smiles): Sure.

MA (to camera): I really love Cinema Knife Fight Land!

—END—

Michael Arruda gives GANGSTER SQUAD ~ three knives!

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Archive for the Gangsters! Category

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SPRING BREAKERS (2013)

DEAD MAN DOWN (2013)

Screaming Streaming Hires THE COURIER (2012)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Helps a GIRL ON THE RUN (1953)

BULLET IN THE HEAD (2013)

PARKER (2013)

THE LAST STAND (2013)

QUICK CUTS: WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE GANGSTER?

GANGSTER SQUAD (2013)

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