The Dead Pool

The final chapter poster.

It’s 1988 and San Francisco detective Harry Callahan had had a long career in keeping his city clean. This was part 5 in the franchise and his last appearance as the law enforcer that was too quick for his enemies. By the end of the first half hour, Harry has disposed of at least eight bad guys, and that was only the start, a good sign of what’s to come of Harry Callahan’s final battle against organized San Francisco crime.

Watch it, it is not a let down.A funny thing is that many San Francisco protested against a new Dirty Harry movie being filmed on their city, as they sort of felt he was a violent character that had nothing to do with the actual procedures of the real San Francisco police department. A contradiction, cause the original Dirty Harry movie, of international fame, did make some money for San Francisco due to foreign tourists interested in sightseeing the places that became legend due to Clint Eastwood’s immortal character.

Do I look old to you punk?

Go ahead, Make my day!

So, after the filmmakers got permission to film in San Francisco, it was all set for the closing adventure of a timeless character that will never be a bygone hero. On The Dead Pool, Harry is the target for having put away Lou Janero, a mob bastard, who ran all kinds of criminal activities in the city. The man has sworn to get Harry by all means. For that he engages his men to try to get rid of his enemy in any way they can.

At the same time, something is going on in the set of a new crime movie being shot in the city. Peter Swan who has specialized in gore and blood, is at it again. Strangely, things are happening in the locations he uses. Swan has attracted the attention of the media that convene like vultures to get any sensational item they can get to show their viewers on the nightly news. Samantha Walker, is one of them, although she proves to be a bit more intelligent than her fellow journalists.

Harry is asked by his superior to be nice to the press because his image is not exactly what the force would like to see. He clicks with Samantha in many ways, but their dinner date ends up with them trapped in an elevator, being attacked by machine guns from the outside. That brings them even closer. After all, the department wanted to appear to be more cooperative with the press to deliver a friendly image on the idiot box.

Fuck you fucking fuck, I'm Dirty Harry and you can fucking burn in hell you shithead.

Before Slash played the guitar, he played the harpoon.

The Harry Callahan saga was rewarding for Clint Eastwood, who went to make a name for himself as a tight lipped detective who could outsmart and out shoot anyone getting in his way, or interfering with his job. This final installment was directed by Buddy Van Horn. Different men had been in charge in the other Harry pictures, Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood even tried their hand at them. The film is full of action for those fans that went to see it because of it. On the other hand, Harry remains an enigma in other aspects, which probably was the intent all along.

An original promo still.

The recently released blu-ray collection.

Clint Eastwood's Harry was a man of few words and a lot of action. As the stone faced detective, he never changed, but we kind of expected it from him. The wonderful Patricia Clarkson is Samantha Walker the television reporter that happens to catch Harry's attention. Liam Neeson plays the sinister film director Swan. Also David Hunt has some good moments as the man behind some nasty incidents around the set.

Here’s the movie trailer:

Sudden Impact

At It Again.

Dirty Harry our man is back on the road for the fourth time, and it is a rather different film, sort of trying to get away from the comic book hero feeling the late effort (The Enforcer) delivered. Sudden Impact is one of those cases, where Clint Eastwood as star/producer/director shows when he can be at his best, or at his lessor of times when dealing with a crime/mystery/detective story in his Dirty Harry fame. We get that 'make my day' line, and un-like in the first film where his 'do I feel lucky' speech was playful and cool the first time and the second time at the end tough as nails, here it's switched around. He gets into another shamble with the department, as usual, when he tries to fight crime 'his' way, in particular with a diner robbery (inspiration for Pulp Fiction?) and with a high speed pursuit with a senior citizen bus. He's told to 'take a vacation', and that's the last thing on his mind. This whole main plot isn't very convincing aside from the expectancy of the story and lines, which just adds to the frustration. But soon his story merges with the sub-plot that Eastwood develops from the start and things start to look and feel a lot better than expected in the early minutes of the film where we sort of feel a bit disappointed.

Go ahead, make my day creep.

Do you feel lucky punk?

Enter Sandra Locke's character, Jennifer Spencer, whom we soon learn after some (appropriately) mysterious scenes that she and her shy sister were victims of a cruel, unfair sexual assault, and is sleekly, undercover-like, getting revenge. Her scenes and story are the strongest parts of the film, the most intense, and finally when it goes into Callahan's storyline (he's getting facts in the same small town she's in on a murder), the film finally finds a focus between Eastwood's classic form of clearly defined good vs. evil. Eastwood films the flashbacks, not to say too much about them, expertly, in a fresh, experimental style; the trademark Lalo Schifrin score is totally atmospheric in these scenes and in others. It almost seems like a couple of times an art-house sensibility has crept into Eastwood's firmly straightforward storytelling style, which helps make the film watchable and way better than its predecessors.

Legally Blonde.

Two Sisters.

It's a shame, though, that in the end it goes more for the rather usual expectable points, and until the third act Callahan doesn't have much to do except his usual 'it's smith...Wesson...and me' shtick. However, with Locke he gets out of her a very good performance (more subtle and touching than the one in the Gauntlet) and an exciting climax at an amusement park. In a way I do and don't agree with Ebert's remark that it's like a 'music video' in Eastwood's style here. I admit there are comparisons with the simplicity of both, the directness, but the scenes where Eastwood does break form are superior to those of any music video. It's cheesy, it's hard-edged, it's not up to par with the first two 'Harry' pictures, but hey, there could be worse ways to spend a couple hours with the master of the 44 magnum.

Happiness Is a Warm Gun.

Say, How about some Whiskas?

I'd like to order a Pizza please.

Doesn't Harry have a signal as my former pal Batman?

Verdict? Definitely worth watching compared to the thousands of B movies that I reviewed so far as decent flicks, in fact if you don’t watch the prequels before you will find this film a very good action film, though the truth is you probably have at least seen the original Dirty Harry and know about how as being the first film has been considered as the best, and that makes me wonder why do we always prefer the earlier films, as in Star Wars, The Matrix, Alien, Terminator, The Toxic Avenger and a thousand other franchises. I guess is the freshness of something new, after that we only get repetition with slight changes which is just like listening to Iron Maiden, a classic band which I love, but to be honest their albums all sound the same trying to recover the old glory of The Number of The Beast, Piece of Mind & Powerslave.

Anyways, here’s the movie trailer:

The Enforcer

Harry's back as The Enforcer.

Continuing with what was promised, today we set our minds in 1976’s The Enforcer, which is also set in San Francisco & starts as a terrorist organization known as “the People's Revolutionary Strike Force” that break into an arms warehouse & steal a load of rocket launchers & various other weapons, homicide cop Frank DiGiorgio (played by John Mitchum) catches them in the act but is shot by the gang. DiGiorgio dies in hospital the next day & his pal Harry Callahan (yes, our man Clint Eastwood) doesn’t like it, very & together with his trusty Magnum 44 sets himself out to bring the People's Revolutionary Strike Force down single handedly if necessary. Things get complicated though when he gets a new rookie female partner Inspector Kate Moore (played by the famous Tyne Daly) and so the People's Revolutionary Strike Force decide to kidnap the mayor (played by John Crawford) and as you might have guessed;  they gang obviously hold him to ransom.

Yes, I'm back.

The third installment of the franchise was directed by James Fargo and lacks some of the elements that made the original flick so popular in 1971, yet is not bad enough to be skipped from your 70’s must watch list. The fairly routine script by Stirling Silliphant & Dean Riesner takes itself pretty seriously & just isn't that good I'm afraid, it's well short on action & set-pieces, the story is dull & turns out to be nothing more than a simple kidnapping & as a whole it never got me going. The bad guys are also underused here, they barely feature at all & after the first few minutes they completely disappear until near the end, the main bad guy Bobby Maxwell has to be one of the weakest on screen baddies ever, he doesn't get any decent lines, he doesn't get much of an opportunity to be evil & he puts up virtually no resistance at the end as Harry blows him away. The one aspect of the film I did like was Harry's partner, I did think The Enforcer was going to turn into a mismatched cop buddy type flick as he is paired up with a woman but it doesn't quite work out that way & while there's mutual respect by the end it never falls into the established clichés. In a way The Enforcer could be described as the very first mismatched partner action movie, but I guess it was worth the try.

Hands up motherfucker!

Harry's got a new partner.

Director Fargo’s job is average enough but the film is pretty bland, a bit lifeless & the action scenes are low key to say the least. There's no car chases, very few shot outs, one fight & little in the way of anything spectacular or particularly memorable including a rushed ending. The Enforcer has a somewhat sedate pace & I just found myself losing interest at various points, the whole film just feels lackluster & like no-one had any enthusiasm apart from Tyne Daly who is pretty good in this a full 6 years before her stint as New York cop Lacey in the famous TV series Cagney & Lacey (which run several seasons from 1982 to 1988)

Technically the film is alright, there's nothing here that stands out as being particularly good or bad although the film itself looks and feels as it if was based only on the idea of earning some extra bucks due to the popularity of part 1 & 2, in fact this third film feels very much as if it was an exploitation film in all its terms if you know what I mean: You have Harry Callahan, and yet he’s the only good element you have in the film. The film was actually shot in San Francisco & on Alcatraz this definitely has a somewhat gritty 70's feel to it. The acting is decent but nothing in the award winning style other flicks do have if we want to compare.

One of the few action scenes.

Harry's wife.

I love this poster.

The Enforcer is an average 70's cop thriller, it doesn't really have enough action for modern audiences’ tastes & the story itself isn't anything to shout about either. It's OK but nothing special. Despite all of that, movie producers made two sequels Sudden Impact (1983) & The Dead Pool (1989) which tried to recover the original impact from the original Dirty Harry movie.

Is The Enforcer worth watching? Yes, definitely as it represents quite well the 70’s vibes many police flicks had in those days, just  don’t expect too much, after all is just a movie.

Here’s the movie trailer:

Magnum Force

Dirty Harry returns.

Remember our entry on Dirty Harry? Well, it just so happens that I totally dig the Harry Callahan saga, he’s the cop we deserve, his way or the highway.

If I was asked which movie is the one that defines Clint Eastwood career I would definitely answer the Dirty Harry saga, though some may disagree, as my dad for instance. He would say “son you’re wrong his tour de force is definitely Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo.  Of course Eastwood had done some very popular movies in his early years as well as his late years being not only in front of the camera, but also behind it. Clint Eastwood being on his 70’s can still kick plenty of asses, and his 50 years career is his actual Magnum 44. All. Be that as it may, when you play the character of Harry Callahan five times over an 18 year period it's hard for fans not to associate him with the part, though he’s managed to avoid becoming a single character like many actors that will pass away being remembered for their one hit wonder character.

Cool promo art.

MAGNUM FORCE might actually be a tad better than DIRTY HARRY as well as being the strongest of all the sequels. Not only do we learn a bit more about Inspector Callahan but also it's a more interesting and compelling story as well as having a better all round cast. Well, at least it seems that way as time has gone by, because the supporting cast of David Soul, Tim Matheson and Robert Urich who play the easy-going traffic cops would go on to be well known stars in their own right through the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's. In addition they are backed up by the brilliant Hal Holbrook playing the impatient and easily irritated lieutenant Briggs.

We're cool, we wear cool sunglasses, no fags allowed.

Tough street wise cops were not a new thing to Hollywood, but because of the civil rights movements in the 1960's and 70's there were a lot of new rules that the police had to adhere to and their methods came under greater judicial scrutiny. If there was a whiff of wrong doing, the judge would instruct that critical testimony should be dismissed and vital evidence rendered inadmissible thus making the DA's prosecution impossible and an acquittal or a dismissal of a case a certainty. They had rights! As a consequence it seemed that the courts became a sanctuary or a get out of jail card for the criminals! Also, rather than having some dopey public defender the criminals gained access to the new breed of wise-guy smarmy lawyers who would use all forms of court room trickery to gain acquittals for their clients. Whether it was organized crime, pimps, murderers, rapists and muggers, unfortunately the system seemed to work in their favor, and believe me, it still does.

This is a cool wallpaper.

Also, politicians became sensitive to the minority communities complaints of police strong armed tactics leaned on local police forces to ease off. All this coincided with an explosion of violent crime in the early 1970's where the public particularly in the big cities became anxious and frustrated at this. Therefore just like the super heroes from Comic Books and movies such as DIRTY HARRY sort of impersonated the daily frustrations of innocent bystanders who could do nothing against crime, nothing but to rely on their imagination. In the follow up, MAGNUM FORCE explored the possibility of vigilante cops acting as judge, jury and executioner because the system seemed not to be working.

Check my iPhone earphones.

Inspector Callahan is not impressed by these new methods and shrugs off pressure from above. The beginning of the movie sets the tone, from his indifference towards the gunned down thugs as well as the way he tackled the hijacked plane only demonstrated the way he wanted to do his job. When it appears that someone is trying to put the courts out of business as the body bags that are piling up in the cities morgue are San Francisco's dregs of the earth, Callahan has the unenviable task of finding out who is responsible for this? Harry at first thinks that it is some rouge cop acting out of impulse that might be the one responsible for these revenge killings but as things progress it appears that this is not just a random or a spur of the moment act, in fact is a way deeper issue.

Yeah, my cock is  as lethal as my magnum.

Callahan becomes suspicious towards a well-disciplined team of rookie cops who he knows are expert marksmen. It appears that they are highly motivated and are a product of a well organized shadow police force who have support much higher up the known chain of command. Although Callahan has no empathy towards the people who are being killed and to a large extent understands why somebody might carry out such a deed, he is much happier catching them in the act and blowing them away in a shootout. He is uneasy at the blatant execution style of these killings and is way beyond what he thinks is right! As his investigation unfolds, he too becomes a target and when his partner gets rubbed out it seems that he may have crossed more than just the mayor and the chief of police! Now with nobody watching his back, can he get to the bottom of this before he becomes a victim, and more importantly who the hell can he trust? His spare partners? You know the answer: His own, and his beloved magnum 44.

Stop the fucking car!

Is it ketchup? If so it better be Heinz!

There are obvious plot holes but it is more than compensated by great cinema photography with great shots of San Francisco, shoot outs, an easy going back ground score and of course a very smooth Clint Eastwood to boot. The sparing between Briggs and Callahan is entertaining and produces some great dialog, it's well worth a watch and I'd highly recommend this not only to Clint Eastwood fans, but also to every 70’s stuff lover, as yours truly is.

Here’s the movie trailer:

Yes, within the next days I'll review the remaining films that complete the saga. Keep it real!

Baise Moi

English movie poster.

Europeans most certainly have a taste for movies that are extremely raw, some like to call them shocking, some others call them porn & violence, and some others call them as raw as reality. Examples of explicit exploitation films can be found in the earliest decades of the genre up to our 21st century.

Baise-Moi, AKA, Rape Me; though the accurate translation is Fuck Me;  is a 2000 movie that shows us how bad is doing our society, and instead of doing something about it we prefer to sit comfy in our sofa and say "this movie is shocking, the guy who did it was a total wacko"

This movie delivers the worst of human kind, violence, drug abuse, rapists, prostitutes and a neverending feeling of discontent with our miserable lives.

The Girl got reasons.

"Doy you wanna mess with me asshole?"

The story follows Nadine (Karen Lancaume aka Karen Bach) and Manu (Raffaella Anderson) are two girls that routinely endure violation both in word and deed on an almost daily basis as prostitutes and part-time porno actresses respectively. The gang rape of Manu and her drug-addicted friend shown here is totally different from the clichéd they-may-protest-at-first type of rape scene encountered in some adults only features. While the other girl cries and screams throughout (and is ever more horribly abused because of it), Manu adopts a facade of indifferent resignation, cleverly robbing her rapists of their sadistic thrill. Rest assured that the scene goes on a lot longer than anyone would want it to and that it is very painful to watch, which is the whole point of it, the filmmaker wants you to feel uncomfortable, dirty and shocked with it; though this isn’t the first attempt at filming the darkest side of the human side; it does offer us an up to date version of earlier releases such as the hated classic I Spitin Your Grave, Aka Day of the Woman reviewed here some time ago. 

Sex is a tool, an escape to reality.

There is no pleasure, only pain.

When Manu and Nadine meet and embark on their violent road trip, fully aware that they ultimately can't 'get away with it', sex becomes a source of liberation to them. Like so many guys on the lam in any criminal buddy movie you can think of, they take what they want, when and how they want it, casually discarding (not always violently) their casual partners post-orgasm. One of the most common accusations at porn's address is that the explicit sex scenes dehumanize the people performing them, but here that could not be further from the truth, at least porn is supposed to get watchers horny, here you’re supposed to get sick with the sex scenes.

Former hardcore actresses Lancaume and Anderson are both terrific in their parts and the sex they have (yes, real sex for the cause of the storyline) enhances their characterizations, rendering them more complete. The 'cinema vérité' rawness of the digital video format in which it was shot, interrupted by sudden flashes of style when violence erupts (an artistic decision to give the viewer a feel for the power and pleasure the women derive from their acts as an escape route from their lost souls in pain), draws the viewer uncomfortably close to the action. Again, that seems to be the point. 

These girls do what they want, not what you want.

This film displays the truth  we have to admit it, there's shit around us, feel happy dude.

So don't let the negative publicity fool you. BAISE-MOI is a rare film that utterly achieves what it sets out to do and it bodes well for debut cinéastes Despentes (author of the sulfurous source novel) and ex-porn star Coralie. You may like it  or you may hate it, but this is an important film that no one is likely to ever forget, no matter how hard they might try, besides after its release French director Gaspar Noé, directed Irreversible in 2002, which was in a way the opposite of this movie, cause we had a love story that was abruptly transformed and turned into a desperate revenge, yes I will review some time, but give me time, I own that flick and it was quite hard to swallow.

Here’s the movie trailer:

  

One final thought: be happy with your life, help the ones unhappy, do it now.

Cave Girl

The perfect woman from the past?

Yes! I know I've been an infidel posting about movies that are considered true masterpieces by award winning standards. I hope with today's entry I get your  forgiveness.

Today's entry has been made available in the DVD format in the Millcreek Entertainment 12 movie pack collection Too Cool For School, and follows the story of a man looking for the perfect woman, how original isn't it? 

1985's Cave Girl is is not an entertaining film, believe it or not it even lacks the 'so-bad-it's-entertaining' elements which similar 80's films did provide.

The storyline follows Rex, a nerd high-school student (bad choice for the actor cause he looks way old to be a teen) who happens to be an incredibly annoying main character, charmless. On a field trip he manages to find some kind of ancient power crystal which transports him back to the stone-age. Here he meets and falls in love with a curly blonde hot chick that looks more like an 80’s girl than an actual cave girl as the film title suggests.

These scene features good stuff.

Rex meets Eva.

The stupid stone age folks.

I almost invariably find something to like in these 1980's teen comedies, but Cave Girl is dire from start to finish. The attempts at humour are stupid failures, usually revolving around Rex nervously trying to introduce Eva to the delights of pre-adolescent fumbling. The other prehistoric people are a bunch of grunting, idiotic, down-and-outs with straggly hair and fur waistcoats that honestly look like background ornaments instead of being an actual support cast. In fact they only serve to pad out the narrative which runs out of ideas after the first 20 minutes and wanders aimlessly around until finally things stagger to a faltering conclusion.

When a fart joke and a sight-gag featuring blowing up a condom, provoke not the slightest response on yours truly, well you just know the movie fails miserably. Just when things seem to have reached their lowest, new depths are plunged into with a dire love song a la 80’s style on the soundtrack, as Rex loses Eva and wanders around forlornly trying to find her in the stone age.

Dude, this movie really is rubbish of the worst kind, the only features with any merit are the movie poster featuring the scantily clad Eva posing with a club over her shoulder; and the obvious exploitation early scene when Rex goes into the wrong changing rooms and is chased out by a group of topless girls; and the brief couple of seconds when Eva finally gets completely nude.

This is it.

Tits.

Curly Blonde and her tits.

Extra Tits.

Rex makes an immediate entry into my hit-list of the most irritating characters in film.

Overall, this like many B movies are a complete disrespect to the genre, but, If you think about it, on the positive side of things, this film can be watched while you’re having a party with your friends where you use your TV to display background images. I’m still wondering why many great B movies haven’t been re-released and yet we’re being fed with thousands of shitty movies screwing up movie packs and eventually screwing up our well-deserved entertainment on the idiot box.

Here’s the movie trailer:

That's it for today and remember, I watch this awful flicks to help you on choosing the worth watching B movies.

Ying Xiong

This movie bleeds art,

Tonight's movie is a work of art, a personal favorite of both my wife and I but, before we get down to business I think there should be an introduction to the return of the Asian mystique martial arts movies to the big screen. We do know that martial arts flicks were considered mostly action films that weren't anything else but that. The 70's spawned lots of martial arts films mostly, based on the Bruce Lee success and later, or at the same time on the Chuck Norrris among others golden era. All of these flicks were part of a trend in the exploitation genre, ergo they were always considered at most as good B movies. After these stories of martial arts became a parody of themselves in the 80's they mostly faded into obscurity and the newer releases where mostly directly made to the home video format.

Now, all of that changed with  2,000's Ang Lee Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That film was a masterpiece, the acting, the fighting coreographies, the plot, the photography, the scenery and the amazing soundtrack made this film an instant classic. So, what does Ang Lee's tour de force flick has to do with today's film? well, it has a lot to do with it! The whole martial arts mystique was brought back to life in a way every movie goer (the freaks, the average, all audiences if you know what I mean)  could enjoy it. 

Ying Xiong, AKA Hero is not a copy of Ang Lee's, in fact I would say it is a much improved vision of what the Asian ancient culture mystique is all about. Despite that, the film had to be introduced to the dumb world of fat asses with the smart hand of Quentin Tarantino and distributed by Miramax, now had it not being by Tarantino's interference with the movie director Zhang Yimou, we probably wouldn't have had the pleasure of enjoying this masterpiece. Why was Tarantino needed? honestly I don't know, the answer is beyond yours truly. 

Honestly, rarely have I been so amazed by such a brilliant, inspiring film. If you have not yet seen this masterpiece of Chinese cinema then you have nothing to do but to kill yourself, sincerely. Hero is by far the best Chinese film I have ever seen, along with Shi Mian Mai Fu AKA House of the Flying Daggers, also directed by the limitless talent of Zhang Yimou.

Nameless, our hero.

One of the many amazing fighting scenes.

The imagery is unparallelled, simply jaw dropping perfect scenes, with bold and vibrant use of colour for each of the fight scenes, plenty of symbolism and scenery that would make many photographers quit their jobs. The fluent stream of the storyline, the delicate direction of the sword slicing action (unlike many films that insist on gushing blood), the Chinese cultural concepts and the emotionally charged scenes between characters combine to produce a simply remarkable achievement. This film has a few elements from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but as stated above it is far, far superior in every way. 

Colors have meaning in this film.

A true beauty.

The sleek direction from Zhang Yimou is so perfectly done, just imagine two martial arts experts ensuing in battle against each other, defying the laws of physics as we know it, and yet following them in 360 degrees in slow motion as one deflects a droplet of rain from one sword to the other, at the same time spinning and leaping over water... simply beautiful. The attack sequences are also superbly set, with hundreds of thousands of the King's warriors in formation, simultaneously firing enough arrows into the city which literally cover the sky, in addition to the viewer being able to watch the journey of a single arrowhead aimed during this event. The build up to the attack along with the unnerving tune of a Chinese stringed instrument help you, as the audience, to become firmly engrossed in your seat. The individual martial arts is also second to none.

Awesome.

Martial ARTS.

The water fight is beyond beatiful.

Jet Li shows he is truly the current grand master of martial arts. I cannot stress enough how much you need this film in your life. The colourful imagery imposed by the director will take your breath away with luscious, vivid, bright, wind-blown,draped backgrounds as the setting for the important progression of the story. Even the story itself is brought to the audience in such a way which ensures your undivided attention, as there are twists in the tales and hidden plots which do not develop until the end of the film.Even short individual scenes are memorable due to their sheer awesome display of skill and speed. This film even holds a political message which is relevant to all times, especially in today's American-lead world dominance. This film has absolutely everything - including an extremely sexy young Ziyi Zhang who simply is the biggest art import from China. This film was released in 2002, but this is certainly one of my all time favourites extended neverending list.

Overall, this is visionary piece of martial arts filming, that will leave you speechless for sure.

 Here's the movie trailer:

I'll dedicate this entry to my wife, I love her, she's everything and beyond.