Shoot to Kill (1988).

Review #2532: Shoot to Kill.

Cast: 

Sidney Poitier (Warren Stantin), Tom Berenger (Jonathan Knox), Kirstie Alley (Sarah Renell), Clancy Brown (Steve), Frederick Coffin (Ralph), Richard Masur (Norman), Andrew Robinson (Harvey), Kevin Scannell (Ben), Michael MacRae (Fournier), Milton Selzer (Mr. Berger), Les Lannom (Sheriff Dave Arnett), and Robert Lesser (Agent Minelli) Directed by Roger Spottiswoode (#171 - Tomorrow Never Dies, #191 - The 6th Day, #1205 - Air America)

Review: 

"The movies I want to make are not people's priority. Nobody would touch them. They cost a lot of money, and studios no longer finance development, so if I didn't pay for them myself they wouldn't happen."

Admittedly, I picked this movie to clear a few obligations of mine, mainly in my director logs (as one does when "this movie or this movie?" is not enough). I came across Roger Spottiswoode and figured, why not talk about one of his movies? The Ottawa-born director was the son of a documentary filmmaker that had made films for the war effort for the National Film Board of Canada. He started his film career as an editor (once stating that his school was in the cutting room), rising from doing work on commercials to being the co-editor of Straw Dogs (1971). He was approached to direct for the first time with the horror film Terror Train (1980), which was a light success. He took over the production of the troubled The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper that came out the following year before doing Under Fire (1983) and The Best of Times (1986), which were not major successes at the time. All of this collides with the return of Sidney Poitier to the big screen, as he had not starred in a film in eleven years (having spent a good chunk of his time directing). The story was written by Harv Zimmel, who in turn co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Burton and Daniel Petrie Jr, with the latter serving as a co-producer. For whatever reason, outside of North America the movie was called "Deadly Pursuit" (one of the working titles was "Mountain King"). Over the next couple of decades, he would direct a variety of films along with ones for television to varying levels of quality such as Turner & Hooch (1989) or And the Band Played On (1993). 

 

Sure, it might be easy to call this one routine, what with it being a buddy thriller in the mountains between two people who get through a few personal disagreements to work together in pursuing one pretty obvious goal. It's a machine of familiar aspects, right down to changing the locale for the final pursuit...and I love stuff like this. It's a fun movie for the execution that it holds in its hand of entertainment, one where you can playfully ask questions about its premise and not feel the need to come up with an answer (or, "cope", if one is younger). Who cares about why just one FBI guy is present to chase a killer when it is so much fun to see the revolving door of moments that come from Poitier and Berenger. It helps that Poitier (who turned 60 in 1987) hasn't lost his touch when it comes to selling the movie with poise that is basically unshakable even when in a different element (as one does when stolen jewels turn into folks having their eyes shot out), and it pairs well with the hardened Berenger (always a charmer*, I would say) for a few chuckles in the crisscross of trying to move forward in a locale that curves on a whim, such as say, a bear encounter. It helps that the movie takes some time to actually reveal just who is the killer is (okay you already can tell by the billing) to pair along with Alley (decent, if not exactly comparable to someone like Brown) and others for a bit of smooth tension, because there is a bit of a mean streak with the body count. Seriously, you get a few people thrown off ledges to pair with an experience that eventually climaxes with shooting a gun in water, it is the kind of movie you slip on at night and just enjoy the ride. Both actors get to run the process of what they know best in their environments without underselling the other person. This was a movie made when films still liked to actually strive for a landscape to look upon with pride (it was mostly filmed in British Columbia, as one does when being set in the Northwest), suffice to say. As a whole, Shoot to Kill is a pleasant thriller for all involved, maneuvering through its 109-minute runtime with a good sense of adventure and fun that doesn't waver in its entertainment value regardless of how familiar it might seem because its charms are too good to resist.

 

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

*Berenger is a sentimental favorite of mine, I think, mainly because I re-watch Major League every year.

*By the way, this movie actually has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Seriously.

Blood and Lace.

Review #1208: Blood and Lace.

Cast: 
Gloria Grahame (Mrs. Deere), Melody Patterson (Ellie Masters), Milton Selzer (Mr. Mullins), Len Lesser (Tom Kredge), Vic Tayback (Calvin Carruthers), Terri Messina (Bunch), Ronald Taft (Walter), and Dennis Christopher (Pete) Directed by Philip S. Gilbert.

Review: 
The key tips to making a good slasher film (if there really is much of a key) is to make one that has a sense of balance, where you can find just the right amount of tension along with at least one interesting character to go along with some gore. There has to be at least something to care about for a film besides just an assortment of scenes and occasional slashes. There are plenty of slasher films out there that fit most if not all of those requirements - this is not one of them, however. This is simply a bland slasher film that coasts on a cheap narrative and characters too empty for a black hole to swallow.  The best performance is from Grahame, which was her first appearance on screen in five years. She had won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), but her career had declined in the ensuing years. She proves game to play into the trashiness of the villainous role and make it stick out, doing so to the point where the killer is overshadowed near completely (saved only because of a silly mask). Grahame is okay, but the people around her aren't too particular interesting to follow with, verging from shells (the kids) to sleazy (Selzer, Lesser, and Tayback), which I suppose distracts from the fact that the film has no true scares. It never feels unsettling or shocking at any point, reading off as just a film made on the cheap, with this being done for roughly $200,000, which I suppose one could expect from production companies named Contemporary Filmakers and Carlin Company Productions - with distribution in America coming from American International Pictures. Music and sound effects were taken from free music archives. Blood and Lace served as a drive-in regular for horror double bills, but somehow it never had a release onto VHS or DVD, with a 2015 Blu-ray release being the first home media release in North America. The opening scene with the perspective of the killer is at least a bit interesting, in that it predates Halloween (1979) and its opening POV shot - although at least that one didn't have the weapon stick out in front of the camera. The lack of a big victim count, combined with a ludicrous twist at the end serves as just another nail in the coffin. Perhaps the film was aiming to be unsettling with its tone - after all, this is a movie where Grahame and Lesser try to keep the kid count at level by just taking kids back from storage in the freezer and just pass them off as sick. Honestly, it never really seems to go anywhere - the freezer stuff comes and goes while the stuff with the kids is pretty bland. One strange thing is that this is the only directorial effort of Gilbert. Writer/producer Gil Lasky served as writer/producer for three other films in the next three years - and he hasn't done anything since. On the whole, this is a fairly bland slasher film, managing to generate only the bare minimum of actual fright, seeming more of a joke than a true expression of shock.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.