“Backdraft”

CATEGORY – NEW AND NOTABLE

The Movie: “Backdraft” IMDB

Release Year: 1991 – Directed by: Ron Howard – Starring: Kurt Russell, Robert DeNiro

Tell me now, baby, is he good to you, can he do to you the things that I do, oh yeah…Oooh, ooh, ooh, Chicago’s on fire.

Pardon the Bruce Springsteen-paraphrasing, but it’s hard not to be in an I’m on Fire-mood after watching Backdraft, with some of the most astonishing glimpses of the hot stuff ever captured on film. In this movie, it’s a living, breathing thing–hiding behind doors, lying in wait for victims, bleeding up and down walls like water.

It’s funny, because it’s clearly the star, even in such a star-laden, ensemble movie like this one. Kurt Russell and William Baldwin are, ostensibly, the leads–playing rival firefighting brothers in Chicago. Brian McCaffrey (Baldwin) comes back to town, years after their legendary fireman father is killed on a call (in an amazing opening sequence).

Brian has just graduated from the fire academy, after dropping out once before and wandering the world, a polar opposite to his masterful brother Stephen “Bull” McCaffrey (Kurt Russell), a hard-charging hero firefighter whose personal life is a mess. With amusement, Stephen gets him assigned to his fire district–in the midst of a spate of deadly, targeted “backdrafts”–planned, controlled fires that are taking out individuals and firefighters across the city.

The younger McCaffrey can’t hack it at the district, so he soon gets himself assigned to arson investigator Donald “Shadow” Rimgale (Robert DeNiro) who is looking into the backdrafts. Also floating around are a slimy, influential alderman (J.T. Walsh) and his pretty assistant Jennifer (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and old flame of Brian’s (pardon the pun).

It’s a story about brothers as well–Stephen and Brian are still wounded from their father’s death, but too thick-headed to ever really knock out their emotions. It’s soured Stephen’s relationship with his wife (Rebecca DeMornay) and knocked Brian off course. Howard gives a good punch to the McCaffery’s scenes, matching them up to the violence and beauty of the fire calls.

The family story and the fire scenes make the movie, since the plot involving the fire-bombing conspiracy doesn’t really take hold. But it’s secondary to the majesty of the fire, and Howard pulls these scenes off with gusto, especially an amazing finale in a chemical-works plant. Helping out, too, is the majesty of stars paraded by–Scott Glenn, always a welcome addition, has a great role as the district’s chief, and Donald Sutherland makes the most out of his scenes as a psycopathic firebug. Russell is his usual rugged, humorous self, and Baldwin makes a solid case for being the second-most-talented brother in his acting clan (behind Alec and ahead of Stephen).

I first saw this movie when I was about eight, sitting cross-legged in front of the television at my uncle’s apartment in Woodstock, Vermont. When I got home after that trip, I became Fire Marshal Bill from In Living Color, checking all the batteries in every fire detector in the house. If nothing else, the movie leaves you with a tremendous amount of respect for the stuff we can get so easily with a flick of the thumb.

RATING: 8.0/10

THE DVD: There’s a bunch of featurettes and a few deleted scenes. The featurettes, exposing the construction of the fire-fighting scenes, are enlightening, while the deleted scenes are nothing special.

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RATING 9.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day: “Everybody’s sin is nobody’s sin, and everybody’s crime is no crime at all.”

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“Escape from New York”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS – HIDDEN TREASURES

The Movie: “Escape from New York” IMDB

Release Year: 1981 – Directed by:  John Carpenter – Starring: Kurt Russell, Donald Pleasance

There are certain collaborations between actors and directors that just click–the perfect merging of performer and overseer. Think Scorcese and DeNiro (and lately, DiCaprio) or Spielberg and Hanks.

One of the most overlooked is the fruitful 80’s team of John Carpenter and Kurt Russell. At the onset of their working relationship, Carpenter–who had made his bones with Halloween–was a pulpy horror / thriller director equally competent in action films (watch the original Assault on Precinct 13 for some context) during the decade. Russell, a former child star, was just establishing himself as a bankable star after playing The King in Carpenter’s TV-movie of Elvis.

1981’s Escape from New York was their first of three 80’s action collaboration (The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China were the others) and its arguably their best: a high-concept, entertaining dystopian action film, with Russell’s tongue-in-cheek bad-ass Snake Plissken at its comic heart.

It’s sometime in the future, and America’s been ripped apart by crime and war, leaving the country a near police state. New York City has become a giant, waterborne prison, the inmates running the asylum–shut off and cordoned by police helicopters and soldiers, a modern Alcatraz.

The U.S. president (Donald Pleasance) is on his way to Hartford for a conference (confession: I grew up near Hartford, and I don’t see why anyone would ever go there for a conference, not even in this kind of apocalyptic future) when his plane gets hijacked by terrorists. He gets blasted out of the plane and straight into the Big Apple, teeming with criminals and roughnecks, and is held captive by big boss The Duke (a pre-Chef Isaac Hayes).

Enter Snake Plissken (Russell), a former war hero and outlaw, all set to be deported out to New York for a prison sentence. He’s shanghaied into saving the president for a full pardon, and dropped onto the roof of the World Trade Center on a glider to infiltrate the criminal world.

From the landing on, it’s a nightmarish world of ghoulish, vicious criminals and spacey characters, including a demented cabbie (Ernest Borgnine) a criminal scrounger (Harry Dean Stanton) and his girlfriend (Adrienne Barbeau) that Plissken has to deal with in order to get to the president. There’s another issue–an bomb implanted in his neck by the authorities that will explode in twenty-four hours, an incentive to get the head of state back alie.

Plissken, a patch over one eye and a scowl permanently on his face, is a wonderful, likable action hero, played perfectly by  Russell and supported by a versatile supporting cast, especially Lee Van Cleef (the “Bad” in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) as a police chief. Carpenter’s eye for apocalyptic design and horror set pieces serves the film well, making New York into a barren wasteland while keeping some of the city’s flair (a burned-out Chock Full O’Nuts restaurant, for example).

Some of the film seems a bit dated, naturally, twenty-five years after its release; still, though, Escape from New York remains an entertaining, smart action collaboration between a pair of extremely talented people.

RATING: 8.0/10

THE DVD: Loaded, and pretty cheap, too. Carpenter and Russell do an entertaining, informative commentary, and there’s a good retrospective featurette included on a second disc. There’s also a Snake Plissken comic book in the really cool packaging. A great, great release.

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RATING 9.5/10

Movie Quote of the Day:
“I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I’d rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS F–ING COUCH! ”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

“Commando”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS – HIDDEN TREASURES

The Movie: “Commando” IMDB

Release Year: 1985 – Directed by: Mark L. Lester – Starring: The Honorable Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dan Hedaya

Of all the cookie-cutter action films Arnold Schwarzenegger made in the eighties, Commando remains the most enjoyable–a laughably bad but enormously entertaining film boasting a huge count of both bodies and cliches. He made some superb movies during this era–The Terminator is a classic, Predator remains one of the best action films ever, and even The Running Man has a kind of sly charm. Commando doesn’t reach the level of those films but

Oh, the mysteries of this film. One wonders (and wants to acquire) just what the writers were smoking when they christened Arnie’s character with the name of “John Matrix” for this film. Anyways, Matrix and his adorable moppet of a daughter (a very young Alyssa Milano) are living an idyllic life in the mountains somewhere when his ex-commanding officer drops by with a dire warning: the members of Matrix’s old commando squad are being knocked off.

“We don’t know who could be after you, John,” his ex-CO says, in all seriousness. “It could be the Russians, the Iranians, the South Americans.”

You heard that right, folks. John Matrix must be the biggest bad-ass of all time. He not only has the Russians and the Iranians after him, he’s got AN ENTIRE CONTINENT pissed off at him.

Well, it’s not the South Americans, as it turns out. Mere minutes after the general leaves, a few bad guys show up and capture Matrix and his daughter. As it turns out, a slimy deposed ex-dictator of some unnamed Caribbean country, Arias (Dan Hedaya) wants Matrix to kill the leader of said country so he can go back and do various bad-guy things.

Well, ha-ha, joke’s on them–Matrix escapes from a plane (in a sequence awesome in its unbelievability) and sets off on a one-man campaign of destruction against Arias and his heavy, Bennett, a disgruntled ex-member of Matrix’s commando team. We’ve also got the requisite babe who helps out (Rae Dawn Chong) and the massive ex-Green Beret (there’s a lot of ex’s here, I see) assistiant heavy (Bill Duke) tossed in along the way.

The movie quickly devolves into a series of battles pitting Matrix against the enormous private army, with a series of Arnie’s trademark quips after every gunfight. A final showdown on Arias’ private island is astonishing for the sheer number of armaments Arnie uses (shotgun-Uzi-AK47-M16-Colt .45-hand grenade-rocket launcher-land mine-KBAR knife-circular saw-machete-PVC pipe) and the amazing inaccuracy of the army opposing him, in true A-team fashion.

Of course, the final showdown between Matrix and Bennett is a spectacular mano-a-mano showdown, climaxing with a hilarious projectile death and even funnier one-liner. There’s even one of those wicked awesome/bad 80’s pop songs as the credits roll, just to leave everyone AMPED as they leave the theater.

Whatever, it’s all in great fun. Commando is pure cheese, but what a sharp, delicious slice of cheddar it is.

RATING: 8.0/10

THE DVD: Booo, nothing at all. Though I don’t know what more Arnie or the filmmakers could say about this.

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RATING: 1.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day:
“Now, here’s the sum total: One gang could run this city! One gang. Nothing would move without us allowing it to happen. We could tax the crime syndicates, the police, because WE got the streets, suckers! Can you dig it?”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

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“The Goodbye Girl”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS – HIDDEN TREASURES

 

 

The Movie: “The Goodbye Girl” IMDB

Release Year: 1977 – Directed by: Herbert Ross – Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason

There are some movies that are so bright, so filled with life, so eternally optimistic they could easily be used for therapy, in the same way those cute little dogs are brought around to seniors and sick kids. Think Field of Dreams, The Sandlot, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Shawshank Redemption, It’s a Wonderful Life, all those movies that left you with a big fat smile on your face after the reel has run out or the disc has stopped spinning.

 

The Goodbye Girl belongs way, way up on that list. A cheerful romantic comedy–not of the cloying, formulaic Pretty Woman-knockoff 90’s type, but razor-sharp and bitingly funny, the best film the legendary Neil Simon (he also did The Odd Couple and Biloxi Blues) ever wrote. It also cemented the star power of Richard Dreyfuss–making him the youngest man ever (to that point) to win the Academy Award for Best Picture–who, at the time, was in the midst of an incredible run of films, making Close Encounters and Jaws right before this film.

 

Dreyfuss’ well-deserved Oscar came for playing Elliot Garfield, a Chicago actor who comes to New York City to star as Richard III in an off-Broadway play. When he gets to his sublet apartment, he discovers it to be populated by ex-dancer Paula McFadden (Marsha Mason) and her daughter Lucy (Quinn Cummings), staying there after Paula’s boyfriend unceremoniously dumped her to fly off for an acting part.

 

Paula and Elliot are both broke and desperate, and in-between insults and fights they work out a deal to allow Paula and Lucy to stay in the apartment. The harried Paula is horrified by Elliot’s foibles (health food, naked guitar playing, late-night work sessions with the actress playing Lady Anne) but the wise-beyond-her-years Lucy takes an immediate shine to him.

 

Elliot’s got his own problems. The psychotic director of his Richard III production wants him to make the character quite unique–turning him into a flaming, lisping gay stereotype with the traditional hunchback and limp. Dreyfuss’ performance as Richard, within the film, is remarkable. It’s only in a few scenes, but it’s some of most cringe-worthy (and funniest) theater you’ll ever see.

 

Elliot and Paula eventually, of course, get tired of fighting with each other, and bolstered by mutual affection for Lucy they begin to fall for each other. A rooftop meeting between the two–with Elliot dressed up as Rick from Casablanca is simply wonderful, as is a hysterical scene when Elliot and Lucy visit her mother at her car-show convention center gig.

 

Dreyfuss won the Oscar for his performance, but it’s amazing that Cummings didn’t (she lost to Vanessa Redgrave for Julia). She shows a maturity and professionalism in her role that eludes most younger actors and actresses. Dreyfuss is perfect in his role, and Mason, also Oscar-nominated (who was married to Simon at the time) is just as good.

 

Smart, funny and utterly charming, The Goodbye Girl is absolutely what any good romantic comedy should aspire to be. Watch this the next time you find yourself a little down.

RATING: 9.5/10

THE DVD: Nothing at all but a list of awards it won. Come on, studios–this one needs a SE.

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RATING: 1.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day: “Too many guys think I’m a concept, or I complete them, or I’m gonna make them alive. But I’m just a f—ed-up girl who’s lookin’ for my own piece of mind; don’t assign me yours.”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

“Empire of the Sun”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS – HIDDEN TREASURES

The Movie: “Empire of the Sun” IMDB

Release Year: 1987 – Directed by: Steven Spielberg – Starring: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson

Like every director, Steven Spielberg’s had his share of flops–go ahead, raise your hand if you saw Always or 1941–and Empire of the Sun was one of them. Unlike the other two, though, it didn’t deserve to fail. Twenty years after its release, the movie remains one of Spielberg’s best films–a gripping, sprawling period piece bolstered by the beyond-his-years performance of its young star, the future Batman himself, Christian Bale.

Bale was picked after a long search to star as Jim Graham, the young son of rich British parents living in pre-World War Two Shanghai, on the cusp of falling to the Japanese. The opulence of his lifestyle is contrasted sharply with the looming conflict–personal servants and swank parties, as gunfire and artillery explodes in the distance.

The Japanese army takes the city, and Jim and his parents try to escape. In a heartbreaking scene, Jim is lost in the massive crowd of Chinese refugees and fleeing westerners, separated from his parents and forced to survive on his own. The siege and destruction of Shanghai is astonishingly re-created by Spielberg–his talent for capturing human confusion and terror on a massive scale (seen in Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List) is unparalleled.

Jim is thrown into a Japanese internment camp, populated by scores of other western refugees. Drawing on a wealth of personality, resourcefulness and charm, he bounces amongst the different camp cliques–a group of Americans led by Basie (John Malkovich), the English schoolteacher who tries to keep him in line (Miranda Richardson), a doctor vainly trying to hold off the multitude of infections and diseases that plague the camp (Nigel Havers).

Bale is magnificent as Jim, a younger version of the character Roberto Begnini played in Life is Beautiful. He puts across Jim’s inherent optimism and intelligence, even in the face of astonishing tragedy and violence–his showdown with the camp’s brutal commander is remarkable. Malkovich, always a good actor, is superb here as the slimy American Basie, keeping an iron grip on his cronies (including Ben Stiller and Joe Pantoliano in early roles).

It feels like a David Lean movie (he did Bridge on the River Kwai) and there’s little surprise that he was originally intended to direct the film. Spielberg pulls off some marvelous images–the aerial bombing of the camp, glimpsed by Jim at night through his window, a pilot waving from a P-51’s cockpit as he flies by. The final, brutal death-march, as the prisoners are forced to flee the camp, is gripping, ending in a darkly beautiful shot of Jim watching one of the seminal events of our time.

Strangely enough, another Chinese-themed epic made the same year (The Last Emperor) won the 1988 Oscar for Best Picture, but some will argue that this is the better film–and it’s an argument to make. Empire of the Sun remains one of Spielberg’s best movies, and is by far his most underrated work.

RATING: 9.5/10

THE DVD: Spielberg doesn’t do commentary, but there’s a good making-of documentary in its stead. Not much else.

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RATING: 6.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day: “He’s finishing his senior thesis. Pigman is trying to prove the Caine-Hackman theory. No matter what time it is, 24 hours a day, you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie playing on TV.”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

“Crimes and Misdemeanors”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS -HIDDEN TREASURES

The Movie: “Crimes and Misdemeanors” IMDB

Release Year: 1989 – Directed by: Woody Allen – Starring: Woody Allen, Martin Landau, Alan Alda

Crimes and Misdemeanors is Woody Allen’s most serious, contemplative film. There’s nary a classic Allen one-liner tossed into the mix, and when there is (like an odd Statue-of-Liberty joke at the end) it sticks out like a sore thumb. The subject matter is deathly real–murder, adultery, loyalty, guilt–tossed in with his traditional examinations of love, marriage, relationships and New York City.

Like all of Allen’s movies, it’s got a sprawling, efficient cast. There’s Allen himself, playing a documentary filmmaker trapped in a failing marriage to his wife (Joanna Gleason) while shooting a movie about his arrogant brother-in-law Lester, a television director (Alan Alda). He, in turn, falls in love with his brother’s producer (Mia Farrow) who is also the object of Lester’s affections.

At the same time, ophthalmologist Judah (Martin Landau) is tormented by his one-time mistress Dolores (Anjelica Huston) who threatens to expose the affair to his wife if he does not come back to her. He suffers a crisis of conscience as he contemplates hiring his brother Jack (Jerry Orbach) to kill Dolores, talking through his problems with Ben (Sam Waterston).

The two stories run parallel in the movie, not really meeting until Judah engages Cliff in a fascinating rooftop discussion after they meet at a party. In between, there’s plenty of thought-provoking discussion in the two stories about the nature of life, death, and love–especially in some well-made flashback scenes that recall Judah’s Jewish upbringing, bringing childhood lessons into his current quandary. At the end, it’s surprising to see how the two main characters view their respective problems after they have been resolved. It sticks with you long after the movie has ended.

Like all his films, it’s well-acted–Landau got an Oscar nomination, and even Allen’s traditional idiosyncrasies are turned down to make for an effective performance. Orbach (best known for years as the Law and Order star) is also good in his small role.

It’s a smart movie, and in truth, it holds up a lot better than most of his earlier work–it’s impossible to view Annie Hall or Manhattan now without being struck at how in-the-moment they were. In another decade, people will still be watching Crimes and Misdemeanors and Match Point and marveling at Allen’s darker, more serious work, an underrated aspect of his sterling career.

RATING: 9.0/10

THE DVD: Booo. Nothing at all. Special edition, please.

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RATING: 0.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day: “That’s Vietnam music… can’t we get our own music?”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

“Lost in America”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS – HIDDEN TREASURES

The Movie: “Lost in America” IMDB

Release Year: 1985 – Directed by: Albert Brooks – Starring: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty

Lost in America is Little Miss Sunshine, minus twenty years and with a gigantic Winnebago taking the place of a barely-starting puke-yellow VW bus. It retains the same sly, sharp satirical bent of its future little brother—targeting the early-eighties yuppie culture with the same wicked crosshairs that Sunshine used on our celebrity- and fashion-obsessed order today through the same fashion: a calamity-filled road trip.

The family’s a little smaller and considerably less dysfunctional than the one in Sunshine. Here, it’s only David (Albert Brooks) and Marie (Julie Hagerty), an upwardly mobile L.A. couple. He’s in advertising, she’s a curator, and they’re both disillusioned in some way—him with his job, her with the marriage.

Denied a promotion, David throws an office temper tantrum (one of the movie’s funniest scenes) and gets canned. Feeling liberated, he enlists the suddenly invigorated Marie into a plan to liquidate their assets, buy an RV and travel cross-country. Of course, the master-plan only gets them to Las Vegas, where Marie’s heretofore-unknown gambling problem results in a quick bankruptcy (leading to the movie’s famous “Nest Egg” scene).

Brooks, who wrote and directed the film, shapes it into a killer commentary on the inherent stuffiness and squelched emotions of the early-eighties Yuppie culture as the shocked two deal with the sudden loss of their financial protection. David lamely compares their quest to Easy Rider—with a enormous RV and Member’s Only jacket replacing a Harley and leather American-flag jacket. Hagerty’s repressed Marie only tosses off her stoic exterior at the roulette table, where she turns into a shrieking, hysterical creature, tossing their last few dollars onto the wheel as David tries to coax the number of their losses out of her.

It’s a low-key, intelligent movie, nicely designed by Brooks. He had an excellent run through the eighties—Defending Your Life, for example, remains one of the most underrated films of all time—but this may be his sharpest film. It’s never found much of an audience (nowhere near what Sunshine did last year, for example) but it deserves one. One wonders what it may have done in this era, where these type of sly, smart comedies are finding a bigger audience and receiving awards by the boatload. See, Hollywood can change for the better. Sometimes.

RATING: 8.5/10

THE DVD: Ugh. Nothing at all, no commentary, no deleted scenes, no nothin’. A special edition is sorely needed.

RATING: 0.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day: “Those things are always waiting for something to die so they can eat it. What a weird job. ”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

 

 

 

“Biloxi Blues”

The Movie: “Biloxi Blues” IMDB

Release Year: 1988 – Directed by: Mike Nichols – Starring: Matthew Broderick, Christopher Walken, Penelope Ann Miller

SYNOPSIS: Wisecracking New Yorker Eugene Jerome (Broderick) tries to survive basic training in World War Two-era Biloxi, Mississippi, with psychotic D.I. Toomey (Walken) breathing down his neck. From the Neil Simon play.

DVD GRADES

THE MOVIE: God, playing a Drill Instructor must be great for an actor. Just think of all the controlled, righteous rage, bluster and profanity that needs to be expressed when playing one–it’s practically an invitation to steal the movie. Who really remembers anything about Full Metal Jacket after R. Lee Ermey meets his demise? Wasn’t the most memorable performance in An Officer and a Gentleman Lou Gossett Jr.’s DI? And let’s not forget Sgt. Hulka from Stripes (our big toe!) and Jack Webb in The D.I.

In Biloxi Blues, Matthew Broderick’s wisecracking New York recruit Eugene Jerome is ostensibly the star, but its Christopher Walken’s insane drill instructor Merwin J. Toomey steals the picture.  Walken usually doesn’t need any help to make an impact (quick–what’s the first scene you think of when you think of Pulp Fiction?) but his meaty supporting role, written to a T by Neil Simon (The Goodbye Girl and The Odd Couple) works wonderfully for his off-kilter, sightly mad persona.

The Second World War is winding down, and a batch of young, new recruits is headed down to Biloxi, Mississippi (described by Jerome, in one of the movie’s funniest lines, as “Africa-hot”) to join in the fight. Jerome (played ably by Broderick) is the hesitant, logical Jewish New Yorker, quick-witted and intelligent, with aspirations to become a writer. He immediately clashes with Toomey, who introduces himself to the platoon by making light of the war-wound plate installed in his skull.

Mike Nichols’ direction and Simon’s screenplay spend a lot of time developing the personalities of the men in Jerome’s platoon. There’s a couple of goonlike meatheads (Matt Mulhern and Mark Evan Jacobs) Jerome’s sensitive friend Carney (Casey Siezmaszko) a fellow New York intellectual, Epstein (Corey Parker) and Hennessey (Michael Dolan), with a tragic secret that drives the second half of the movie.

The movie follows Jerome as he is tortured by Toomey (with Walken stealing every scene he’s in) and through a series of misadventures in and around camp, including a hilarious visit to a prostitute and his tender romance with a lovely local girl (Penelope Ann Miller). Broderick is wonderful as Jerome, and Simon’s strong, funny screenplay gives him some killer lines. It’s a Woody Allen-like role, without the distracting neuroses.

Still, though, it’s Walken’s film. His drunken showdown with Jerome is darkly hysterical, and he possesses as quick a wit as his nemesis.

“You would need three promotions to be an a–hole,” he snarls at a young recruit who hesistates to cross a creek in full gear. You can make any kind of war movie you want, but if you include a D.I. in it, he’s going to end up the star. Especially if that D.I. is played by Walken. The man has lapsed into self-parody with his most recent roles, but go back in time to his great seventies-eighties films (The Deer Hunter, The Dead Zone) and you’ll remember what a capable actor he is.

RATING: 9.0/10

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THE DVD: Next to nothing. This movie is one of those just begging for a special edition.

RATING: 1.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day: “Hi. How are you? My name’s Elliot, and I’m with the Cub Scouts of America. We’re… we’re selling uncut cocaine to get to the jamboree.”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

“Miller’s Crossing”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS – HIDDEN TREASURES

 

 

 

The Movie: “Miller’s Crossing” IMDB

Release Year: 1990 – Directed by: Joel Coen – Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Marcia Gay Harden, Jon Polito

SYNOPSIS: A prohibition-era gangster (Gabriel Byrne) navigates between loyalties in a street fight between an Irish boss (Finney) and his Italian rival (Polito).

DVD GRADES

THE MOVIE: The formidable brother duo of Joel and Ethan Coen have created some of the most uniquely entertaining movies of the past twenty years or so–Fargo, Raising Arizona, O Brother, Where art Thou?, The Hudsucker Proxy–but their early masterpiece Miller’s Crossing is their lost treasure, a noir-ish gangster flick that retains the same quirky features that made the Coen’s other films so wonderful.

It’s an atypical gangster film. There’s no massive body count, although there are plenty of violent scenes, and little focus on tradition and detail like The Godfather or Goodfellas. Instead, its focus is on one man–Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) a lieutenant to amiable Irish boss Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney) in a Prohibition-era city (never mentioned, but it sure seems like Chicago). Reagan is a smooth, cool professional, his voice never rising above his crisp Irish monotone as he helps O’Bannon wage war against rising Italian boss Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito).

Complicating things, though, is Reagan’s affair with vampish Verna Bernbaum (Marcia Gay Harden) O’Bannon’s lover and sister of Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) a fellow mob-hanger targeted by both sides. It’s a complex situation, and Reagan tiptoes on the line between Irish and Italian, jumping between allegiances and loyalties just trying to survive.

The Coens also draw a delicate line between their own idosyncratic filmaking and the violent gangster world. O’Bannon is portrayed wonderfully by Finney as a nice, likable mob boss–and then brutally guns down a band of attacking thugs with a tommy gun, set to the strains of “Danny Boy.” Caspar’s most brutal scene is a brutally hilarious encounter with his overweight sun. And Reagan is shown to be an unflappable, decent and merciful drifter in the mob war–before a shocking reversal of personality.

The script demands a lot of attention, but it is smart and darkly comic.  It’s shot in Barry Sonnenfeld’s (later to become the director of Men in Black) usual inventive style, best shown in a beautifully-filmed outdoor scene between Reagan and Bernbaum, the same one recalled by Brad Pitt and Elliott Gould in Ocean’s Twelve. 

Six years after Miller’s Crossing, the Coens created one of the iconic films of the nineties (and redefined woodchipper use forever) with Fargo. Any discussion of their best films, though, needs to include this film. Highly recommended.

RATING: 9.0/10

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THE DVD: Pretty disappointing. There’s nothing but a brief featurette with the Coens’ director of photography (Barry Sonnenfeld, better known as the director of Men in Black) and some ancient cast interviews.

RATING: 3.0/10

Movie Quote of the Day: “You’re not going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe? It should be more natural, brother. It shouldflow out, like this – “Look, man, I ain’t fallin’ for no banana in my tailpipe!” See, that’s more natural for us. You been hanging out with this dude too long.”

Where’s this from? Click HERE to find out.

“The Dead Zone”

CATEGORY: REVIEWS-HIDDEN TREASURES

 

 

 

The Movie: “The Dead Zone” IMDB

Release Year: 2006 – Directed by: David Cronenberg – Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerrit, Martin Sheen

SYNOPSIS: After a car accident puts ordinary schoolteacher Johnny Smith (Walken) into a coma for five years, he awakens with the ability to glimpse people’s secrets through simple physical contact.

DVD GRADES

THE MOVIE: Adaptations of Stephen King novels run the gamut–from sweeping, dramatic masterpieces (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) to classic horror fare (The Shining) to enjoyable, b-movie classics (Apt Pupil, Pet Semetary) to effective TV miniseries (The Stand) and to utter crap (just about everything else).

When paired with a great director–see Darabont, Frank or Kubrick, Stanley–King’s intelligent, pulpy prose can translate to the big screen. The Dead Zone is one of those collaborations, pairing a talented director (David Cronenberg) with a great story–it’s one of King’s best books–to make it one of the best King adaptations put to celluloid.

Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) is a mild-mannered, popular Maine (surprise!) teacher, in a relationship with colleague Sarah Bracknell (Brooke Adams), when he is put into a coma after a vicious car crash. In true King fashion, he snaps out of his slumber five years later, and weird things start happening. Simply touching another person brings Smith glimpses of past, present and future–the tragic World War Two experience of his doctor (Herbert Lom), a fire at the home of his nurse, the secrets of an arrogant reporter who tries to make a showcase out of him.

Trying to return to his previous life, he re-connects, briefly, with Bracknell, now married with a child, but the ability still lingers. He’s lassoed into helping a local sherrif (Tom Skerrit) catch a murderer, and gets an apocalyptic glimpse of the future when he grips the arm of rising young politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) at a rally.

No one plays the slightly-offbeat, creepy character better than Walken, and he gives the modern Rip-Van-Winkle-like Smith a touching humanity and apprehension towards his “gift.” Cronenberg makes effective use of the Smith’s flashes back and forward–especially in a creepy scene involving a youth hockey team and a not-nearly-frozen-enough ice-skating pond.

There’s also a very strong supporting cast at work here, especially Sheen as Stillson. As a demonic, Mussolini-esque reversal of the honorable Jeb Bartlett he played so well for years on The West Wing, he’s absolutely chilling.

Cronenberg doesn’t show any of the gory, goopy horror of The Fly here, creating a smart, intelligent horror film driven by Walken’s creepy performance and the strong, straighfortward script by Jeffrey Boam. It’s one of the best Stephen King adaptations, and one of the best horror-suspense thrillers of the modern era.

RATING: 8.5/10

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THE DVD: No commentary, but a host of pretty-good featurettes on the DVD. Cronenberg participates in some excellent discussion (about the film’s production and flashback sequences) and there’s a good bet about the locations and wardrobes. The best feature is a fascinating discussion on the poltical aspect of the film.

RATING: 6.0/10

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Movie Quote of the Day: “Chicks dig me, because I rarely wear underwear and when I do it’s usually something unusual. But now I know why I have always lost women to guys like you. I mean, it’s not just the uniform. It’s the stories that you tell. So much fun and imagination.”

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