French Connection II.

Review #2490: French Connection II.

Cast: 

Gene Hackman (NYPD Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle), Fernando Rey (Alain "Frog One" Charnier), Bernard Fresson (Inspector Henri Barthélémy), Philippe Léotard (Jacques), Ed Lauter (General William Brian), Charles Millot (Miletto), Jean-Pierre Castaldi (Raoul Diron), Cathleen Nesbitt (Old Lady), and André Penvern (André) Directed by John Frankenheimer (#559 - Grand Prix, #985 - The Manchurian Candidate)

Review:

"I like the script, I like the characters, I like the Hackman character in France and not speaking a word of French. It's a very difficult film because we want in no way to rip off the first one, which is one of the best films I've ever seen. I want to make a movie that stands on its own as a movie"

Sure, why not do a sequel to The French Connection (1971)? To reiterate, the film took influence in atmosphere and style from films such as Le Samouraï (1967) and Z (1969). You probably remember that the film had a handful of characters based on real-life people in terms of distribution of heroin, which was turned into books such, as, well, The French Connection in 1969 (as written by Robin Moore) that detailed Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso trying to figure out the drug ring (oddly enough, there was another film based on the exploits of Egan in Badge 373 [1973], with Robert Duvall as the star). One of those people was based on Jean Jehan, who really never did get extradited from France and apparently did die peacefully in old age. But hey, screw reality, right? Sometimes you really want to make some money and sometimes audiences will want to watch a sequel that gives you more of what you think you want, so screw it, French Connection II, complete with only Hackman and Rey returning from the first film. Friedkin had no interest in doing the second film and apparently never watched it. The story was written by Robert and Laurie Dillon, who worked on the screenplay with Alexander Jacobs (in his penultimate film credit as a writer), although apparently Pete Hamill provided an uncredited remake for nearly all of the dialogue shortly before production started (apparently Hackman had "nothing to act" with the lack of Roy Scheider in the cast*). John Frankenheimer signed on to direct the movie because he wanted to do a movie that audiences would see. Made on a budget of over $4 million, the movie made nearly three times its budget back (for comparison, the first film made over $70 million).

Admittedly, a movie that features the lead character getting addicted to heroin - he gets kidnapped about 40 minutes into the film, gets injected with heroin not long after, gets dumped back to the cops and eventually gets through the cold turkey treatment by about the 80-minute mark so he can torch a place (and call the cops and no I'm not joking about any of that). It surely is a curious one. Doyle isn't nearly as abrasive as he was in the first film because this time around, he spends more time trying to understand (miserably) the French people around him in one of those "fish out of water" scenarios. Hackman was appreciative for the role of Doyle but he also went on record for stating he never actually re-watched the first film after 1971. He is still pretty offbeat and still pretty entertaining in that certain type of gritty rage that could only come from someone like Hackman. He just has the knack in making a guy like Doyle seem more than just a blowhard or one that could vanish into thin air in the action. Fresson makes for a quality counterpart in capturing the restrained nature of authority that probably fares best in the sequences when having to confront Hackman trying to go cold turkey. Rey is the same type of elusive presence as before, mainly because he doesn't really have to do much besides slide in and slide out of the background that is mostly convincing in nebulous drug dealing*. Regardless of its fictional nature in following up such a hard-nosed first film, there is a worthy sense of danger and entertainment that comes through for engagement that at least makes you care about most of the 119-minute runtime, even with the amusement that arises in straight up fading to black right after the pivotal moment of the whole thing. You get a nice foot chase and even a burning building sequence to see havoc, some sequels don't even try to give you that even when they aspire to top the original. As a whole, French Connection II doesn't do anything particularly great when compared to the long shadow cast by the first film, but it is a solid enough film in its general execution of thrills to go along with enough from Hackman and company to make the trip at least seem like one worth going through once. 

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Hackman and Rey had interesting paths to being cast in the first film, by the way. Rey was cast because Friedkin had wanted the small performance of a Spanish actor that had been in Belle de Jour (1967)...which was Francisco Rabal. Hackman on the other hand came about because they couldn't get the people Hackman or the studio envisioned for Doyle: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Peter Boyle, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, James Caan, Robert Mitchum, Rod Taylor, and...Jimmy Breslin!

*Hey, fuck drugs. Sure, you can try weed, but in general, well, fuck heroin. Hell, cigarettes give you cancer, fuck them too. Don't even get me started on alcohol or vaping.

Death Hunt.

Review #2423: Death Hunt.

Cast: 

Charles Bronson (Albert Johnson), Lee Marvin (Sergeant Edgar Millen), Andrew Stevens (Constable Alvin Adams), Carl Weathers (George Washington Lincoln "Sundog" Brown), Ed Lauter (Hazel), Scott Hylands (Captain Hank Tucker), Angie Dickinson (Vanessa McBride), Henry Beckman (Bill Luce), William Sanderson (Ned Warren), Jon Cedar (Constable Hawkins), and James O'Connell (Hurley) Directed by Peter R. Hunt (#279 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service)

Review: 

In 1931, there was quite a ruckus with a man of unknown origin that had arrived in the northern parts of Canda. He wasn't a licensed trapper, but people thought he was a fishy type. A visit from constables eventually resulted in one being shot and a posse being formed that came with dynamite for his cabin. In January of 1932, the posse surrounded him, and Johnson killed a constable (actually named Edgar Millen). The posse grew and grew as Johnson, not being able to just leave for the Yukon without being blocked, simply climbed a 7,000 ft peak. The Mounties responded by hiring Wilfrid "Wop" May to scout the area with a monoplane that tracked him pretty well and on February 17, 1932 at the Eagle River, the constables confronted and shot Johnson dead. It may interest you to know that several photos of Johnson's corpse were taken because of the curiosity in trying to figure out who Johnson really was, but nobody truly knows when he was even born. There had been movies based on the tale of Johnson, such as The Map Trapper (1972, TV) and Challenge to Be Free (1975), but here we have a movie made with the efforts of Hong Kong-based company Golden Harvest that was sold to 20th Century Fox (it was once to be called "Arctic Rampage"). This was the fifth feature film by Hunt as director (as Robert Aldrich was ditched by the filmmakers) who you might remember as the guy who directed On Her Majesty's Secret Service, probably the best Bond movie of, well, the period of 1969-1987*; he previously directed Marvin in Shout at the Devil (1976). This was written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor, who had one hell of a rebound with their next writing assignment: they co-wrote 1982's Poltergeist. Even was the film was being released, the producers and Marvin were already going with the "it's not a documentary" thing. Even with a budget reported to being around $10 million, the movie was not a major success at the time of release.

Eh, it's a decent little adventure when your expectations of its 97-minute runtime is a good ol' time with familiar people and a relatively casual approach to respect for one's counterpart. Sure, it isn't anybody's idea of a history lesson (there are other stories that have been treated worse). Sure, it is incredibly familiar if you think about any character that has their actions get misconstrued (so yes, it would make an interesting double feature with First Blood [1982]). And yet it is the kind of movie you either are all the way in for a nice time with familiar enjoyment in seeing Marvin and Bronson face off in a neat battle of steel-willed people in a changing time. The landscapes may be nice to view but things can change in the blink of an eye for even the most determined lone wolf, I suppose. There is beauty to be found in the wilderness but there also can be plenty of desolate isolation. In that regard, Bronson makes the obvious choice to play the lead focus for a movie that decides to find curiosity in a lone wolf that you can only gleam the surface of someone forced to action rather than just a straight killer. Marvin merely is a burnt-out guy thrust into an unenviable situation: wise-ass constables and wise-ass tag-alongs on, well, a "death hunt". All he knows in his landscape is that keeping headquarters happy is the goal more than combating every single crime possible and Marvin plays it with the usual wiry charm that I can appreciate. Weathers is his usual charming self even in a cursory supporting role while Stevens makes a fine match in seeing that young Mountie idealism meet the real world and Lauter makes a solid adversarial presence. Others come and go, whether that is Beckman and his odd nature or a not-exactly important Dickinson, but the movie balances its action with a worthwhile look at two people who would rather be anywhere else in the wilderness than being forced to take the other down. Rugged, violent and altogether a movie fit for a bored night looking for familiar faces, my kind of average movie. As a whole, it probably won't rank highly among the people that starred in it or its director, but it is an enjoyable feature for those who like familiar adventures that are committed to having a good Western time.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*Seriously, go watch On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I have watched it annually on December 18 for the past few years.

Born on the Fourth of July.

Review #2031: Born on the Fourth of July.

Cast: 

Tom Cruise (Sergeant Ron Kovic; Bryan Larkin as Young Ron), Willem Dafoe (Charlie), Kyra Sedgwick (Donna; Jessica Prunell as Young Donna), Raymond J. Barry (Mr. Kovic), Jerry Levine (Steve Boyer), Frank Whaley (Timmy), Caroline Kava (Mrs. Kovic), Cordelia Gonzalez (Maria Elena - Villa Dulce), Ed Lauter (Legion Commander), John Getz (Marine Major - Vietnam), Beau Starr (Man #2 - Arthur's Bar), and Michael Wincott (Vet #3 - Villa Dulce) Directed by Oliver Stone (#095 - Wall Street, #1090 - Platoon, #1265 - Natural Born Killers, #1523 - Any Given Sunday, and #1595 - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps)

Review: 

“I’m puzzled by life, horrified by the daily newspaper. The only sane response is re-creation, drama . . . an ordered series of events that arouse pity and terror, to paraphrase Aristotle. Making movies is my way of exorcising demons, of creating an ethos, a philosophy of life. I’d go crazy without fantasy.”

Every so often, I am reminded that my father was a war veteran. I don't have many memories of him talking about his service in Vietnam, aside from once seeing his dog tags and remembering his burial a couple of years ago at a cemetery for veterans. But men are not defined only by if they served for their country or not, they are served by who they are for those who end up alive to talk about it. One such man who found meaning in the (difficult) time that came after his service was Ron Kovic. After he graduated from Massapequa High School in New York (where he was raised to a family of Croatian & Irish ancestry), he quickly volunteered to serve in Vietnam in 1965. He was a member of the United States Marines, for which he made two tours of duty. It was on January 20, 1968, that he was shot and severely wounded that resulted in him being paralyzed from the waist down. After intensive recovery led to his arrival back home, Kovic found curiosity within peace demonstrations, starting in 1970. This happened not long after the events of May 1970 that had seen numerous student protests in universities such as Kent State University and Jackson State University, for which each saw anti-war demonstrators killed (the former by Ohio National Guard, the latter by local patrolmen). Kovic wrote Born on the Fourth of July in the span of over a month in 1974 that was published in 1976 that he stated was written to show people about the "hospitals and the enema room, about why I had become opposed to the war, why I had grown more and more committed to peace and nonviolence." Not long after, Kovic gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention, four years after him and other members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War had protested the Republican Convention (the war did not end until 1975). Even now, with his 77th birthday, Kovic serves as a constant anti-war presence. Cruise, Stone, and Kovic were each nominated for Academy Awards that year for this film (Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Picture), with Stone winning for his efforts in direction (don't ask who won Best Picture). Stone would do one further film in what was later called his trilogy of Vietnam War films with Heaven & Earth (1993).

Relating to all of this is the production struggle to get things moving, as there had been interest in doing a film from the very moment Kovic spoke at the DNC, specifically Al Pacino. Oliver Stone, who had served in the United States Army with service from 1967-68, was brought in to try and write for the screenplay in 1977. Incidentally, Kovic served as a consultant on Coming Home (1978), a film involving a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran left in a wheelchair. It was not until the success of Platoon (1986) that Stone could get the chance to write (alongside Kovic) and direct this film. With Platoon, one would find that it argued most that the first casualty in war was innocence. With this film, now one finds how it goes for those who have arrived home after said innocence was lost, not to a hero's welcome but a state of indifference. The illusion of going off to a just war to fight for your country has been shattered into one of unimaginable agony, one where a love of country is warped by some into the idea that they somehow don't love it just because they want to speak up (of course, there are many perspectives when it comes to returning home from war that would shudder at folks who seem to toil in "self-pity" or other characteristics, but that is a different can of worms). As Kovic once said, you aren't meant to avoid conflict and pain in life but instead shape it into something beneficial. So, one minute you may be on the side of wanting to yell folks to "love it or leave it" and the next you may find yourself looking along with Abbie Hoffman (he appears in the film for a moment in a film released months after his suicide at the age of 52). This is conveyed in a mostly factual tale (the character played by Sedgwick is a composite, for example) that is carried near wholesale by the performance of Cruise. The 145-minute runtime is his to carry alone in the odyssey from idealism to the road back from hell, one that requires an actor who can convey the gravity of the situation, and he does a tremendous job here, never striking a false note in those human moments. The burrowing of idealism is handled with honesty with such commitment that Kovic gave Cruise his Bronze Star Medal after filming. The rest of the cast do reasonably well in support from the bits and pieces that arise from before and after time of war, whether that involves protest in Sedgwick or familiarity with Whaley and vulnerable parenting in Barry and Kava. Dafoe actually doesn't show up in the film until the last third of the film (set in Mexico with prostitutes), but he is on point in those moments of animus that only he could bring in a scene where he and Cruise are bickering on a dirt road. As a whole, the movie is a general triumph in communicating what it means to see a person go through the fight of their lives in terms of withering innocence and conscience for what it all means when back home and not "out there". There is no one solution fit for all, but a level of understanding for who one is a virtue that all people can see as worthwhile, American or not. As such, it is a tough sit for audiences in the ways that matter, thanks to the efforts of Cruise, Stone & Kovic.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Happy Independence Day, folks.

The Longest Yard (1974).

Review #778: The Longest Yard.

Cast
Burt Reynolds (Paul "Wrecking" Crewe), Eddie Albert (Warden Rudolph Hazen), Ed Lauter (Captain Wilhelm Knauer), Michael Conrad (Nate Scarborough), James Hampton (Caretaker), Harry Caesar ("Granny" Granville), John Steadman (Pop), Charles Tyner (Unger), Mike Henry (Rasmussen), Jim Nicholson (Ice Man), Bernadette Peters (Miss Toot), Pepper Martin (Shop steward), Robert Tessier (Connie Shokner), Richard Kiel (Samson), Anitra Ford (Melissa), and Ray Nitschke (Bogdanski) Directed by Robert Aldrich (#105- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?)

Review
Yes, I'm aware of the timing to be back. In any case, The Longest Yard is a movie I had wanted to review, but I only had recently got the chance to finally watch the film, and what better way to do it on Sunday? In any case, The Longest Yard has a gallery of characters that generate a good deal of laughs, especially Reynolds, who seems to be perfectly at home with this character, filled with that expressionist grin. It's a movie that pulls all the punches, having a good deal of fun, with its own edge of football violence that anyone can associate with the sport. One of my favorite scenes is where Reynolds and another inmate exchange pleasantries (if you'd call it that) of stacking mud onto their pants, with the two getting into a mud-fight. Somehow, seeing the Captain coming out of the car gets them all laughing (even the guards laugh), and I can't help but crack up at everybody having a good laugh in the middle of a swamp. I do love the introduction to the football game, complete with split images of multiple shots. This is a movie for anyone looking for a good time with Burt Reynolds and a bunch of inmates who while being pretty criminal (including at least one murderer), are at least interesting to watch try to play some football, which is fine by me. It's a brutal film, but it is a movie that knows what its doing, and it knows how to make you laugh.

Football players in this movie (because why not?): Joe Kapp, Ray Nitschke, Mike Henry, Pervis Atkins, Ernie Wheelwright and Ray Ogden.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

King Kong (1976)

Review #726: King Kong.

Cast
Jeff Bridges (Jack Prescott), Charles Grodin (Fred S. Wilson), Jessica Lange (Dwan), John Randolph (Captain Ross), Rene Auberjonois (Roy Bagley), Ed Lauter (Carnahan), Julius Harris (Boan), and Jack O'Halloran (Joe Perko) Directed by John Guillermin.

Review
If you want to promote your remake of a 1933 classic (#283), here's a good tag line: The most exciting original motion picture event of all time. Granted, this movie is about as original as a baloney sandwich trying to call itself a ham sandwich, but it certainly has a good ring to it, especially when produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Let me make this perfectly clear from the beginning: If it's between this and the original film, stick to the original film. But it could be argued that this film knows that going in, so it tries to do something different, with a campier tone, 130 minutes, and actual filming locations instead of stages. Carlo Rambaldi designed the effects for this film, and he helped construct a 40 foot mechanical version of Kong, which shows up (briefly) near the end of the movie. It's clear that the movie wants to show the technical aspect and then build characters around that. In a way, it works, although the end product is not exactly as grand as it could've been. The motivations and plot are updated into a quest for oil, which I suppose is creative, though it ends the same way as the original...At least they include Kong's heartbeat before he dies, so that's something new. How the cast does depends on what you (the viewer) want: If you like the idea of campy infused people interacting around the main attraction (Kong), go for it. For me, they're okay. They just seem to get in the way half of the time, though Bridges and Grodin (all fashion and hair aside) seem to do okay. Bridges' character cheering for Kong taking down the helicopters is strange, considering he's seen Kong throw people off a log into a pit, crush people on the ground, and throwing debris towards people. And yet, he cheers him as if he's done nothing wrong. If you don't want Lange's character to be eaten, then that's a good thing for you. Like the original, this film's effects are a product of their time, and for most of the movie, Kong looks relatively good, without much light shown, anyway. Near the end it looks a little more fake, but the movie doesn't linger too much on that. No, it lingers more on just about everything else, from the oil to Bridges-Lange, etc. John Barry's music is a highlight. Take this movie for what it is: A jumbled flow of effects and 70's style filmmaking that can be hit or miss. For me, it's sometimes enjoyable, but other times it's just okay.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Youngblood.

Review #397: Youngblood.

Cast
Rob Lowe (Dean Youngblood), Patrick Swayze (Derek Sutton), Cynthia Gibb (Jessie Chadwick), Ed Lauter (Murray Chadwick), Keanu Reeves (Heaver), and George Finn (Carl Racki) Directed by Peter Markle.

Review
Sports films aren't exactly my fortay, but I figured I might as well do one, so why not a hockey film since hockey's still going on with the Finals. That, and I haven't reviewed much of Rob Lowe, or Patrick Swayze. Is this film any good, or is just an 80s relic? Mostly the latter. It has it's weird moments, trying to be comedic that ends up getting in the way of the drama the film also tries to set, being a bit unbalenced. That goes for the hockey as well, which can be good, and Lowe does skate well, but the film then switches to fighting mode, which reminds me an awful lot of Rocky, which doesn't work well. Even though fighting in hockey is commonplace, having good hockey plays is more common, and combined the two just don't mesh. The acting's okay, mostly reminiscent of usual sports film acting. Lowe is allright, not too bad. The film spirals, it has its allright moments but it clunks where it doesn't need it, being disjointed, but mildly entertaining. Countdown to 400 Reviews: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3...

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.