Cisco Pike.

Review #2570: Cisco Pike.

Cast: 

Kris Kristofferson (Cisco Pike), Gene Hackman (Detective Leo Holland), Karen Black (Sue), Harry Dean Stanton (Jesse Dupre), Viva (Merna), Doug Sahm (Rex), Roscoe Lee Browne (Pawnshop Owner), Joy Bang (Lynn), Severn Darden (Lawyer), Antonio Fargas (Brother Buffalo), with Don Sturdy (Recording Engineer), and Allan Arbus (Sim Valensi) Directed by Bill L. Norton.

Review:  

My favoritism does ring strong for select folks, admittedly. How many people can beat Barbra Striesand at their own game in trying to be the big fish in terms of actual presence in a movie (I fondly still remember watching A Star is Born (1976) and being amazed its sheer mediocrity). The Brownsville-born nomad was prolific enough at Pomona College that there were ideas of him being a writer, complete with study at the University of Oxford. Instead, he ended up as a jack of all trades in odd jobs (okay there was stuff in the middle of that such as being in the Army), one of them being a janitor at Columbia Records as a wannabee songwriter. He did appear in his first film with the adventure from hell in The Last Movie (1971). Apparently, in the aftermath of drunkenly stumbling through being rejected for a part in Two-Lane Blacktop, he got offered the script for this film and decided against the advice of taking acting lessons for a character that he thought he related to. Inadvertently, this also is a chance to spotlight a forgotten filmmaker that had a brief flash in the sun. Bill L. Norton was the son of William W. Norton, who actually was a writer in Hollywood that ranged from television with The Big Valley to movies with White Lightning [1973]*. As for the younger Norton, he graduated from UCLA and went from writing stuff such as How to Succeed with Girls (1964) and (uncredited) camera operating on movies like The Fortune Cookie (1966). But when film producers looked for any type of "freethinkers" or "hippie" perspective in the wake of Easy Rider's success in 1969, Norton got his chance to be a director with a script (with one working title being "Dealer") that attracted producer Gerald Ayres and Columbia Pictures. Robert Towne was asked to look over the script, with his most noted contribution being the addition of Hackman's character, although he was left uncredited. Lumped in some circles to other counterculture movies such as Getting Straight [1970] and Making It [1971], the movie had its opening premiere in late 1971 before going into limited release in 1972 that resulted middling reviews and a lack of an audience. The next Norton movie was More American Graffiti (1979). While there were a few showings to theaters that still had a print, the movie wasn't available on home media such as VHS or DVD until a release in the latter format in 2006. 

I suppose it makes sense that Norton called it his rendition of La Dolce Vita but set in L.A." In the domain of the Venice neighborhood with things of yesteryear such as the Pacific Ocean Park (closed since 1967). You could consider how Kristofferson considered acting to be as one that could be "just understanding a character, and then being just as honest as you can possibly be" (as said in 1974), or, for what he thought about the movie over 50 years later, one where he mused about what exactly "gave me the audacity to think I could act." The movie coasts along with a lead character that basically is an anachronism going through a travelogue in a type of California (West L.A.) that either runs on the fumes of banality or, well, is curious enough to actually see all the way through its 95-minute runtime. Kristofferson is the drifter, the has-been, the elusive one, the guy in all of us that can't just be one thing without some smart aleck or oddball trying to get one over us (such as trying to not be a dealer). Hackman made the movie right before doing The French Connection (Cisco premiered shortly after Connection). His panicky oddness popping in every now and then (for what could generously be estimated as being less than 20 minutes) is a curious one to see when compared to the familiar comforts of the kooky Black (by this point a recent Academy Award nominee with Five Easy Pieces [1970]) or the splattering of support that comes with Viva or the withered Stanton. Any observation about the movie, positive or negative, basically can be responded to with "it depends, man". The songs from Kristofferson are delightful for those who roll with doing something for the sake of it that basically is the movie in a nutshell: you drift in and drift out and maybe figure something out by the time it all has come to pass (or not). I can't call it a great movie, but a drifting movie with likeable enough folks and music is more than enough to at least call it a possible gem for the curious.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

Next up: Fuck it, it's 20 years old: 8.18.06: SNAKES ON A PLANE

*Honestly, I have no bias against Streisand, I just...never got into watching her movies. Or her songs. I accidentally took nearly 15 years of Movie Night to actually get to a Jane Fonda movie, it isn't exactly a surprise that I've seen two Streisand movies in the span of 16 years.

*Mr. William W. Norton was a strange guy. He crapped on his contributions to movies (once stating that one would only know his films if their "I.Q" [was] low enough"), later moved to Ireland and got mad about Roman Catholic residents getting attacked to the point where he went back to the States to run guns to the Irish National Liberation Army. He got caught and served 19 months in prison. He moved to Central America only to get robbed and killed one of the robbers. He moved around before finally being smuggled back to America. He died in 2010 at the age of 85 while his son Bill still lives.

*Forgot to send a link: LIFE - Google Books

Cleopatra Jones.

Review #2511: Cleopatra Jones.

Cast: 

Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones), Bernie Casey (Reuben Masters), Shelley Winters (Mommy), Brenda Sykes (Tiffany), Antonio Fargas ("Doodlebug" Simpkins), Bill McKinney (Officer Purdy), Dan Frazer (Captain Crawford), Stafford Morgan (Sergeant Kert), Mike Warren (Miller Anderson), Albert Popwell (Matthew Johnson), Caro Kenyatta (Melvin Johnson), and Esther Rolle (Mrs. Johnson) Directed by Jack Starrett.

Review: 

Okay, I guess I should have heard of this movie earlier with a title like that. But maybe it is apt to get around to a movie made for Warner Bros. that wanted to cash in on the blaxploitation craze that came around with movies such as Shaft (or, if one wants to go with the one that came out a bit earlier, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song [1971]....or earlier with Cotton Comes to Harlem [1970]). Max Julien wrote the story (he originally wanted to a spy movie for Columbia Pictures) and co-wrote the screenplay with Sheldon Keller while also producing the film with William Tennent. At the helm as director was Jack Starrett, the sometimes actor/sometimes director behind such movies as Run, Angel, Run! (1969) and Slaughter (1972). Apparently, Julien envisioned his long-term girlfriend Vonetta McGee for the role, but the considerable casting call from Warner Bros. led to the eventual pick of former 6'2 model Tamara Dobson. The Baltimore native actually started out as a beautician in her studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art prior to being discovered, as, well, a 6'2 person who could model that later saw her involved in commercials. Rated PG, Cleopatra Jones was a decent hit with audiences and inspired a sequel with Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold in 1975. Sadly, those were Dobson's only starring roles, with her other film appearances (Norman... Is That You? [1976], Chained Heat [1983]) being supporting roles before she eventually became a commercial property owner; she died in 2006 at the age of 59.*

With big hat brims and big fur robes (apparently, the fashion was done by Giorgio di Sant' Angelo) and choices that might as well have come from someone wanting to do a James Bond movie (right down to having a climax in a junkyard), how could you not like this movie? Hell, the Corvette Stingray is modified so our leading lady's hair is not impeded to go along with a "CLEO" license plate and karate chopping people. Not bad for a "Special Agent to the President" that had to deal with all of this mainly because she got a poppy field to be destroyed via airstrike (in the intro to the film), I suppose. You know, it may not be a great movie, but I love stuff like this every now and then: a movie that just cuts loose and throws any damn thing to the screen with commitment of entertainment that shows the best of both worlds in terms of "the times" (namely in ass-kicking in the name of community). Admittedly, Dobson is more interesting for the stuff around her/action set pieces than her acting, which is pretty green. The community part is more important anyway when you've got some charm displayed by the support around her, mostly in the sheer ridiculous nature that comes with Winters, who not only has big hair (hey, wigs were cool) but also has an interesting gender balance of male henchmen and, uh, female servants. At least when one goes for hammy (hey, Winters had two Academy Awards already, you can do anything), you get some entertainment value (PG rating or not, you still get scenes featuring people being shot or thrown to their deaths). Casey makes a solidly sensible pairing for the small time you get to see him with Dobson. You get some adequate slice of life from folks such as Fargas or the Popwell/Kenyatta connection or the varying levels of "how funky is this white cop?*" from others for a movie that doesn't strain in hokum for its 89-minute runtime, which is more than can be said for lesser action films. It might not hit all of its marks, but it will do just fine winning converts on a late-night watch around the bend.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day

*Interestingly, Dobson believed that the character of Jones was not so much a "women's libber" but instead saw her as a "very positive, strong lady who knows what she has to do" (in this case defending the neighborhood from drug pushers)

*No joke, the movie ends right as the police captain mildly raises his fist to say "right on!" 

Foxy Brown.

Review #2353: Foxy Brown.

Cast: 

Pam Grier (Foxy Brown), Antonio Fargas (Lincoln "Link" Brown), Peter Brown (Stevie Elias), Kathryn Loder (Miss Katherine Wall), Terry Carter (Dalton Ford / Michael Anderson), Harry Holcombe (Judge Fenton), Sid Haig (Hays), Juanita Brown (Claudia), Bob Minor (Oscar), and Tony Giorgio (Eddie) Written and Directed by Jack Hill (#1654 - Blood Bath, #1740 - Spider Baby, and #2352 - Coffy)

Review: 

Sure, maybe one can't make a sequel to a successful hit, but they can sure make one that sounds right on the same wavelength. The resulting hit of Coffy made it easy to want to make another Grier movie involving action, albeit not as a sequel that Hill envisioned because American International Pictures apparently believed sequels did not do well with audiences.  Evidently, this was released by AIP as a double feature with Truck Turner. While it wasn't nearly as substantial a hit as Coffy (released thirteen months prior), it was generally well-liked enough and Grier continued her run in movies the following year with Sheba, Baby and Friday Foster. Evidently, Foxy Brown apparently became more of a cult curiosity than Coffy although Hill felt the earlier effort was better, particularly with the character he envisioned that could use their sexuality just as much as using down and dirty street fighting. Hill actually had two films released in 1974, with The Swinging Cheerleaders coming out a month after this movie; apparently, AIP treated Hill lousy enough to not even invite him to a screening of the film, which he shot in less than three weeks (the movie, which runs at 92 minutes, apparently was made on the same budget as Coffy at $500,000, albeit with a raise to both its director and star).

Admittedly, it is funny to make a movie that isn't quite a sequel while also not exactly having time to say the profession of the lead. She just kicks ass and seeks revenge against the scuzziness of the street (which even involved would-be politicians). Instead of a sister that fell to heroin addiction, now we have someone with a scuzzy brother and a dead government boyfriend who, interestingly enough, faces off against a couple involved in a drug/prostitute syndicate (strangely enough, it has a similar ending to the other movie in having a man get castrated). At least you get flashier wardrobe from Grier to go with plenty of violence and skin? I have to agree with Hill that Coffy was the better of the two movies, mainly because of the actual shock value that comes in a kickass lead that doesn't need to be a karate expert but instead is, well, Pam Grier. Sure, she may not get much to actually do that is particularly different from before with a little less guilt in the whole "vengeance" thing, but she still commands the screen just as well as before for obvious reasons. It is clear empowerment, and one is having fun while doing it, what more could you want? This actually was the last (of three) movies where Loder appeared, as she died of diabetes at the age of 38 in 1978. She grips the role with the right amount of chewing, at least compared with Brown (mostly known for Western roles), who dawdles a bit in showing menace. Haig actually appeared in both this and Coffy (where he played a heavy pretty well), and while he may have small time to do comedy, it works out fine I suppose. It definitely tries to up the ante in sheer audacity, whether that means a barroom fight or our lead lighting a farm (and two people) on fire after being sexually assaulted, or the appeal to a "neighborhood committee" to not only get revenge but to, well, play with a knife on a man's lower section. As a whole, it definitely is a slicker movie than Coffy that for better or worse does exactly what you would expect in shameless entertainment that will likely deliver the goods for what you want from a movie of its time.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

Review #2349: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.

Cast: 

Keenen Ivory Wayans (Jack Spade), Bernie Casey (John Slade), Ja'net Dubois (Belle Brown-Spade), Isaac Hayes ("Hammer"), Jim Brown ("Slammer"), Antonio Fargas (Flyguy), Steve James (Joe "Kung Fu Joe"), John Vernon ("Mr. Big"), Dawnn Lewis (Cheryl Spade), Kadeem Hardison (Willie), Damon Wayans (Leonard), Kim Wayans (Nightclub Singer), Nadia Wayans (Bar Patron), Chris Rock (Rib Joint Customer), Anne-Marie Johnson ("Cherry"), and Eve Plumb (Kalinga's Wife) Written and Directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans.

Review: 

Nothing really stays out of style, particularly when it comes to silly movies making light of, well, "blaxploitation movies". This was the directorial debut of Keenen Wayans. The second of ten children that grew up in New York. He actually studied engineering on a scholarship at Tuskegee University but found that entertaining his friends at college made him more interested to pursue comedy and dropped out of school. He performed on the stage in both New York and Los Angeles; in collaboration with Robert Townsend, who had helped him learn about the comedy business, the two did Hollywood Shuffle (1987), each appearing in the film along with writing it. The resulting hit got Wayans money to make what became this film. Evidently, it was Eddie Murphy who came up with the original idea (including the title) that Wayans got permission to use for what became this film (which featured the film debuts of his brothers Marlon and Shawn) that eventually became a mild success with audiences. To put it mildly, this would be the first of a handful of movies involving the Wayans family, with several Wayans members being featured on television (In Living Color, most notably) and films, with Keenan directing five further movies, most notably doing the first two Scary Movie films.

 

Some movies are better at the hit-or-miss targeting than others, particularly one that starts with an introduction to "Any Ghetto, U.S.A." It plays with the stuff you would probably already know from previous movies of the decade before (why else cast faces as familiar as Brown?) to varying effect in how much one will chuckle at silly lines and sillier situations for the most evident of setups, whether that involves a certain music choice or an early scene seeing a character be swapped out for a white person when doing a stunt involving kicks. You get the pastiches and chuckle if you like thinking about the fact that people really did just think of the most absurd scenarios for inner city mayhem (I haven't had to see Super Fly [1972], but that apparently has a cocaine dealer who used karate, and the third Shaft movie sent the hero to Africa, just for example). Wayans at least is playing a wannabee hero (i.e. he plays a veteran...secretary) rather than just a bland hero to forget about, and he does relatively well in inspiring some chuckles. You've got your three familiar faces with Casey, Hayes, and Brown that each generate a chuckle in their general timing of just rolling with routine stuff, which mostly involves straight-faced play by Brown that probably works the best among the group, although Hayes comes pretty close with one scene opposite Rock about cheapskates in "oh, yes, that is damn funny". Vernon doesn't exactly have much to do for a role that requires sitting and gruff voicework, but since I happen to like Vernon and his workmanlike precision to hard-assery, I accept it. It might not exactly compare in actual sheer audacity seen in, say, Trouble Man (1972), but it'll still play anyway in throwing gags and people on just for the hell of it. In general, the 89-minute runtime has some silly charm and sillier execution that is funny in parts in rolling with familiar attitudes and just chuckling as if the one thing that matters is just rolling without worrying about stereotypes or whatever people claim to think about for certain comedies. Silly stuff really can just work for me if it at least seems committed to the hustle, basically. It proves an adequate little comedy you might find right up your alley in familiar smooth-talking chuckling vibes, so take that for what it is worth.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Car Wash.

Review #1637: Car Wash.

Cast: 

Franklyn Ajaye (T.C./Theodore Chauncy Elcott), Sully Boyar (Leon 'Mr B.' Barrow), Ivan Dixon (Lonnie), Bill Duke (Duane / Abdullah), Antonio Fargas (Lindy), Michael Fennell (Calvin), Arthur French (Charlie), Leonard Jackson (Earl), DeWayne Jessie (Lloyd), Jack Kehoe (Scruggs), Lauren Jones (Marleen), Henry Kingi (Goody), Melanie Mayron (Marsha), Garrett Morris (Slide), Clarence Muse (Snapper), Leon Pinkney (Justin), with Richard Brestoff (Irwin Barrow), Carmine Caridi (Foolish Father), George Carlin (the Taxi Driver), "Professor" Irwin Corey (The Mad Bomber), Lorraine Gary (the Hysterical Lady), Richard Pryor (Daddy Rich), and The Pointer Sisters (The Wilson Sisters) Directed by Michael Schultz.

Review: 

"In many films, I want to tell a story everybody can understand. But more importantly, I want an audience to come out of a film with more than what they went in with—thinking, feeling, laughing, crying."

There are quite a few directors and actors who made a name for themselves within African American cinema in the 1970s, and Michael Schultz belongs in the conversation for that era. He attended the University of Wisconsin before dropping out to work in a steel mill and then moving on to study and graduate at Marquette. He made his debut as a stage manager in The Old Glory (1964) Having already been involved in theater productions in high school, he was well-suited for when he moved on to attend Princeton University, where he directed his first play in 1966 (he would manage or direct numerous performances from 1964 to 1974). His staging of To Be Young, Gifted and Black resulted in success alongside a re-staging for television two years later. Alongside entering television for several series, he also moved into films with Together for Days (1972) and Honeybaby, Honeybaby (1974), although his breakthrough would come with Cooley High (1975) with audiences that has been noted as a classic by future directors like Spike Lee. Although Schultz's career moved down a tick with the noted failure Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), he continued his work in film and television, and he can still be found in the latter category to the present day.

How many movies are there that involve a slice-of-life portrayal of a job that could be described in the same way one could say about future films about crabby lines of work? Or for that matter, how many are ones that were thought of as intended to be a musical? When the production head at Universal Pictures was pitched the play idea, he hated it, but told producers Art Linson and Gary Stromberg to just get the writer behind Sparkle and make a movie instead. Car Wash is certainly that one, a film that actually had its soundtrack recorded before the film started production in order for the actors to listen to it, complete with using a real car wash (Figueroa Car Wash in Los Angeles) for filming. The soundtrack was done by Rose Royce, and the title song became a number one hit while the soundtrack won a Grammy Award (the film has been argued to be one of the first disco-infused films). Believe it or not, the film was written by Joel Schumacher, who had just one prior writing credit (Sparkle, released the same year), having moved up from costume and set design to writing to eventually directing by 1981 (but not before writing another famed film with disco influence with The Wiz). What we have here is a trove of ensemble fun, one that settles in like a series of sketches as the day (90 minutes) goes by, with an assortment of fair highlights among a few noteworthy check-ins and an interesting closure. Those familiar with films like American Graffiti (1973) will have a fine time with an ensemble piece with radio-infused style and narration. There are some charmers in the cast when it comes to lovable crass folks, such as Ajaye (known for his brief string of comedy albums) and his carefree range of buzzy charm, which goes along with other fun-loving sly folks like Fargas or Kehoe or beleaguered ones like Boyer; on the other side of focus is Dixon (best known for his lead role in Nothing But a Man (1964) and support in Hogan's Heroes), who provides shining struggle to go with the coarse Duke (in his debut film role) that shows the reality of what they do (meager job, meager pay, but one has to do it).

And then of course there are the small bit from notable folks. Carlin (a well-known comic of the counterculture with his second film role) has an interesting time spent with wandering amusement that rambles for a short time. The same goes for Corey and his nutty small turn to set up a gag with a bottle in the air, while Gary plays hysterics to that key breaking moment. Believe it or not, Pryor (a stand-up comic in his prime) making a cameo appearance in the film was not actually planned at first. For one, it was intended to be a fellow named Reverend Ike (who would be playing a character inspired by himself), but when he turned it down, Pryor stepped in (Schultz and Pryor gave differing assessments on the performance, as the former noted the actor as doing numerous variations on one theme that a director has to guide/pick while Pryor thought he should have known better but was under the influence of cocaine at the time to notice) - for me, it's the most interesting appearance, one with a music group to make prime flim-flam benevolence. Be thankful one can see the film in its full form and not have to live in a time with edited TV versions circulating, one of which that takes out the raunchy elements alongside adding/deleting characters (Lindy out for a character played by Danny DeVito, who is all but deleted from the original version except in the background). At any rate, what we have is a deserving favorite by the audience that have warmed up to it in the four decades since its release, one that has a charm worth looking into.

Next Time: Sure, this director has been covered plenty of times before. But it is his portrayal of the life of one of the most famous jazz saxophonists that merits discussion, especially since it wasn't given its due upon release with its key lead performance from Forest Whitaker. Rock the beat for Bird (1988).

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.