With so many awesome movies coming out in 1984 (Terminator, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, Beverly Hills Cop, The Last Starfighter, Nightmare on Elm Street, Splash, The Natural, Romancing the Stone, etc), it's not uncommon to forget some of the other movies that came out that year. I'm pretty sure, just from the sheer number of movies that came out that year, that if you were an actor, actress, key grip, sound technician, or special effects guy, you had a job back then. Me, I was 14 that year, just starting my freshman year in High school, and coming off an awesome final year of grammar school. I didn't have a job back then, not only because I didn't get my first job until 18, but because I didn't work in the film industry. Come to think of it, I don't have a job now, but that's not got nothing to do with what I'm talking about, so why are we discussing it? Exactly.
Police Academy (1984) is mostly about Cadet Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), a bit of a screw-up who is given a choice. He can either accept a jail term, or apply to the Police Academy. Due to recent changes in the strict requirements one has to meet to become a Police Officer, the Academy is now accepting any and all recruits, and Mahoney quickly realizes he's not the only oddball in his class of cadets. Along with him are Cadet Karen Thompson (Kim Cattrall, long before her Sex and the City fame, looking delicious as a brunette), Cadet Moses Hightower (the late Bubba Smith), Cadet Tackleberry (the late David Graf), and Cadet Larvell Jones (comedian Michael Winslow). Instructing at the Academy are Lt. Harris (G.W. Bailey, recently of 'The Closer' and 'Major Crimes') and Sgt. Callahan (Leslie Easterbrook), and the academy is run by Commandant Lassard (George Gaynes, who is amazingly still alive, according to his IMDB profile, at the age of 97). Mahoney, due to his agreement in avoiding jail time, cannot quit the Academy. However, he is allowed to be kicked out, and so immediately goes about his usual business of being a screw-up. After annoying Lt. Harris (which isn't hard to do), Mahoney develops an affection for Thompson (Kim Catrall), and decides he really does want to become a Police Officer. Which, unfortunately for him, Lt. Harris has sworn Mahoney would be a policeman only over his dead body!
No, this doesn't really qualify as a romantic comedy, and I'm not reversing my position against reviewing those sorts of movies that I just avowed in my last post. This is, however, definitely a comedy. I don't have anything against comedies, and I don't know why anyone else would. If you want to focus on the laughs in this movie, focus on Michael Winslow, and (the late) David Graf, who play Larvell Jones and Tackleberry. Pretty much every scene they are in, everything they are doing, either in front of the camera or in the background, is done for comedic effect. Winslow was a comedian before (and probably after) this movie, and I've seen him do stand-up a few times. All through this movie, he's making sound effects with his mouth, to hilarious effect. David Graf plays his comedic role more seriously, and much like every actor in Airplane (1980), his serious approach to comedy works perfectly for laughs. There's a little bit of romance between Mahoney and Thompson, so those characters aren't really comedic. I think Mahoney's pranks are kind of juvenile, which makes sense for Guttenberg's character, but he's not there to supply the comedy. Even George Gaynes provides more laughs, and you should also keep an eye on him in most of his scenes, so as not to miss the little things that you might get a giggle out of.
Overall, this movie is funny, and should be watched for the comedy, but there's also a decent plot and moderately good acting. Pretty much everyone in the movie is a veteran actor, either back then, or now. Every Cadet in the class has his or her moment in the spotlight, and I couldn't really pick out a favorite, but I think the most understated is Cadet Fackler, played by Bruce Mahler. Somehow, just by being himself, Fackler manages to not only start a city-wide riot, but blends in with the crowd so effortlessly that in one scene, one of the rioters screams something about going off to kill some cops, and runs right past Fackler, who has changed out of his riot gear and slipped on a plaid sports jacket he was admiring in the window earlier. In fact, I'm not sure if Fackler is part of the looters or the police force at that point, because he's checking out refrigerators in the background during one of the riot scenes! Too funny.
Aside from the decent acting, excellent comedic bits, and some minor action, there's even a little nudity. Which, since I saw this on Comedy Central today, was blurred out. This movie, having been filmed back in the 80's, is not politically correct, and doesn't try to be. George Gaynes even pokes fun at dotty old folks, playing an absent-minded Commandant who parks his golf cart in the bushes. This movie did spawn 6 sequels, so it must have made some sort of money at the box office. Enjoy watching it (if you can find it), then watch it again to catch the funny parts you missed. Then watch the 6 sequels, which bring back many of the major characters (except for Kim Cattrall), and go more in-depth with their characters.
Honorable mention today goes to the Giallo films on the El Rey Network. Slasher-type flicks with some bloody gore and a hint of mystery, the Giallo flicks are new to me. I suppose I might have seen them before, since the ones El Rey is showing were made variously between 1972 and 1987, but I don't recall watching them. Still, there's some horror, and some nudity, so I can't argue with that one-two combo. El Rey is playing The Black Cat, Deathdream and Opera today, and will probably play them again at some point. El Rey plays things over quite a bit, and even shows nudity, so either catch them today or see if you can find them in the lineup later this month.
In other news, it's damn cold here, and I wish it was spring. That is all. Until next weekend.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Review - Falcon Rising (2014)
I changed the look of my page again. That Halloween-y, winter-y look to the page was mostly done for the fall/winter season, and frankly, I'm already sick of snow. Yea, I know. It's January. Where I am, that's at least 4 more months of snow. At least I can change how my page looks. Also, I think this one is much easier on the eyes.
Something else that gets me through winter? Action movies. I know, a good horror movie is my bread and butter, but a change of diet now and then is good for everybody. I love horror, like action movies, and rarely, I can tolerate a sappy romantic comedy. Don't worry! I had my fill at Xmas. I won't be reviewing any romantic comedies here for some time. If ever.
Falcon Rising (2014) is the story of a man with PTSD. That's Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I can tell because I've watched a lot of movies, and the guy in this movie, John Chapman (Michael Jai White) has all the symptoms. Come to think of it, I first noticed it in the movies in Clint Eastwood's character in FireFox back in the early 80's. So, it's been around a while, now. John has all the classic symptoms of PTSD, and he's medicating himself heavily. With alcohol. Which has been used to treat many afflictions for some thousands of years now. John is making it through a typical week, downing vast quantities of liquor, when he gets a call about his sister, a volunteer working in Brazil to try and bring some aid to the poor living in the favelas. That's a brazilian word, I guess it typically refers to the low-class, box-like apartment houses people live in. If you need another look at what a favela looks like besides this movie, think The Incredible Hulk (2008 version, with Edward Norton). Bruce Banner spends the first part of the movie hiding out in Brazil, in a favela. Anywho, John Chapman's sister has been assaulted, and left for dead. John, an ex-marine martial artist (come on, you knew that was coming, right?), immediately heads down to Brazil to start kicking ass and chewing bubblegum... and he's all out of bubblegum.
I've been a fan of Michael Jai White's martial arts talent for some years now, and looking over his IMDB profile, I see he actually got his start working the Toxic Avenger films of the late 80's. He plays a big, mean, ass-kicking marine in this movie, and he does a good job at it. Since the movie is set in Brazil, you expect Capoeira to make an appearance in the fight scenes, and it does. There's also a lot of gunplay, and an explosion or two, and some downright lethal ass-kicking that I'm not sure even has a style attached to it. So, fun to watch, obviously.
There's even a guy who normally plays villains. Frankly, he has been so typecast as a villain that I was positive he was the villain throughout the entire film. I just KNEW the trail of corruption and evil villainy would lead right back to him, and then... it didn't. I was shocked. It's not often I am wrong about the bad guy in the movies, but I was here. Of course, all the OTHER bad guys? Yea, called them right off. Sometimes, it's just easy to tell.
Well, let's sum up. Acting is not bad. I mean, it's an action/martial arts flick. The acting doesn't have to be stellar. The martial arts fight scenes seemed pretty decent. Above average, even for a film of this type. The story flowed well, the action wasn't non-stop, but there was a fair amount of it scattered throughout the film, with your typical climactic fight scene at the end of the flick. Not really any nudity (there's a woman laying on a table naked, covered in food, so she doesn't really count), which is just sad, given the Brazilian setting, but meh, I guess the movie does okay without it, even though I actually expected to see some at some point. Mostly gun battles and melee brawls, with a little of the requisite villainous acts and such thrown in. All in all, a fun watch, something I might catch again for the fight scenes alone.
The only thing I can really say against this movie is, there wasn't any one thing that made the flick stand out. Sure, there was nothing really wrong with it, either (except perhaps the lack of nudity), but there wasn't any like, really cool parts that I could pass on at this point to explain just how great this movie was to watch. In most movies, there's at least one scene where you can say something like "And then the guy takes the nail file, and uses it to saw the bad guy's head clean off!" but nothing like that happens in this film. SO, a good martial arts flick, but not a GREAT martial arts flick, you know what I am saying? Still, a solid entry into the martial arts fight-flick genre, and hopefully the first of many Falcon movies. Maybe the next one will end up with some guy cutting a guy's head off with a nail file. One can only hope.
That's all I have for this week. I don't even have any other new to speak of. I think John "Falcon" Chapman sums it up in the movie as "Same shit, different pile." I hope everyone likes the new color scheme to the blog page. Frankly, I hope I like it, too. I will probably change it again come spring and summer. I like variety. Next weekend, I may even have some horror flicks to review, and an update on Agent Carter and the other series I am watching. Oh, and if you haven't already noticed, Grimm and Constantine are already back with fresh episodes, and supposedly, Flash and Scorpion, as well as Sleepy Hollow, are starting back up again soon as well. Gotham, well, i don't know if it ever stopped, though I think it did take a week off around Xmas. That's all for tonight. Still hurting from all the snow shoveling I have been doing. :-(
Something else that gets me through winter? Action movies. I know, a good horror movie is my bread and butter, but a change of diet now and then is good for everybody. I love horror, like action movies, and rarely, I can tolerate a sappy romantic comedy. Don't worry! I had my fill at Xmas. I won't be reviewing any romantic comedies here for some time. If ever.
Falcon Rising (2014) is the story of a man with PTSD. That's Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I can tell because I've watched a lot of movies, and the guy in this movie, John Chapman (Michael Jai White) has all the symptoms. Come to think of it, I first noticed it in the movies in Clint Eastwood's character in FireFox back in the early 80's. So, it's been around a while, now. John has all the classic symptoms of PTSD, and he's medicating himself heavily. With alcohol. Which has been used to treat many afflictions for some thousands of years now. John is making it through a typical week, downing vast quantities of liquor, when he gets a call about his sister, a volunteer working in Brazil to try and bring some aid to the poor living in the favelas. That's a brazilian word, I guess it typically refers to the low-class, box-like apartment houses people live in. If you need another look at what a favela looks like besides this movie, think The Incredible Hulk (2008 version, with Edward Norton). Bruce Banner spends the first part of the movie hiding out in Brazil, in a favela. Anywho, John Chapman's sister has been assaulted, and left for dead. John, an ex-marine martial artist (come on, you knew that was coming, right?), immediately heads down to Brazil to start kicking ass and chewing bubblegum... and he's all out of bubblegum.
I've been a fan of Michael Jai White's martial arts talent for some years now, and looking over his IMDB profile, I see he actually got his start working the Toxic Avenger films of the late 80's. He plays a big, mean, ass-kicking marine in this movie, and he does a good job at it. Since the movie is set in Brazil, you expect Capoeira to make an appearance in the fight scenes, and it does. There's also a lot of gunplay, and an explosion or two, and some downright lethal ass-kicking that I'm not sure even has a style attached to it. So, fun to watch, obviously.
There's even a guy who normally plays villains. Frankly, he has been so typecast as a villain that I was positive he was the villain throughout the entire film. I just KNEW the trail of corruption and evil villainy would lead right back to him, and then... it didn't. I was shocked. It's not often I am wrong about the bad guy in the movies, but I was here. Of course, all the OTHER bad guys? Yea, called them right off. Sometimes, it's just easy to tell.
Well, let's sum up. Acting is not bad. I mean, it's an action/martial arts flick. The acting doesn't have to be stellar. The martial arts fight scenes seemed pretty decent. Above average, even for a film of this type. The story flowed well, the action wasn't non-stop, but there was a fair amount of it scattered throughout the film, with your typical climactic fight scene at the end of the flick. Not really any nudity (there's a woman laying on a table naked, covered in food, so she doesn't really count), which is just sad, given the Brazilian setting, but meh, I guess the movie does okay without it, even though I actually expected to see some at some point. Mostly gun battles and melee brawls, with a little of the requisite villainous acts and such thrown in. All in all, a fun watch, something I might catch again for the fight scenes alone.
The only thing I can really say against this movie is, there wasn't any one thing that made the flick stand out. Sure, there was nothing really wrong with it, either (except perhaps the lack of nudity), but there wasn't any like, really cool parts that I could pass on at this point to explain just how great this movie was to watch. In most movies, there's at least one scene where you can say something like "And then the guy takes the nail file, and uses it to saw the bad guy's head clean off!" but nothing like that happens in this film. SO, a good martial arts flick, but not a GREAT martial arts flick, you know what I am saying? Still, a solid entry into the martial arts fight-flick genre, and hopefully the first of many Falcon movies. Maybe the next one will end up with some guy cutting a guy's head off with a nail file. One can only hope.
That's all I have for this week. I don't even have any other new to speak of. I think John "Falcon" Chapman sums it up in the movie as "Same shit, different pile." I hope everyone likes the new color scheme to the blog page. Frankly, I hope I like it, too. I will probably change it again come spring and summer. I like variety. Next weekend, I may even have some horror flicks to review, and an update on Agent Carter and the other series I am watching. Oh, and if you haven't already noticed, Grimm and Constantine are already back with fresh episodes, and supposedly, Flash and Scorpion, as well as Sleepy Hollow, are starting back up again soon as well. Gotham, well, i don't know if it ever stopped, though I think it did take a week off around Xmas. That's all for tonight. Still hurting from all the snow shoveling I have been doing. :-(
Sunday, January 11, 2015
First Glance - Marvel's Agent Carter (series, 2015), Wallander (netflix)
Well, Happy New Year, everybody! So, first post of 2015, ten days in. Nothing unusual here. Hope everyone had a nice holiday season. Haven't seen much of note of late. Winter doldrums, you can call them. No new series unless they are mid-season premieres, and typically, it's rare to stuff something in mid-season and have it be any good.
Marvel's Agent Carter is no exception. I'm not really sure why people would think focusing on a tale about a superhero, without featuring the actual superhero, is a good idea. I mean, at that point, it's just a glorified extra, right? I mean, you think, sure, where would Batman be without Commissioner Gordon? Or Superman without Lois Lane? Or Lex Luthor without Miss Tessmacher? Exactly. They'd be fine. And let's face it, Commissioner Gordon, Lois lane and Miss Tessmacher are all pretty normal, boring people, when you get right down to it.
Well, marvel's Agent Carter, is about Captain America's girlfriend. If you've seen the recent movie, Agent Carter was a pretty extra they tossed into Captain America's recent origin story remake to add a love interest. I mean, I'm sure, like most guys, Captain America, aka Steve Rogers, had a love interest. But this is the first time I've heard Agent Carter being introduced. Honestly, I get the whole "strong heroine" type thing, I really do. I love strong heroines, myself. But let's face it, guys. You're taking an extra you threw in for color, to make Captain America's story more interesting (because Cap is, well, let's face it, pretty blah as a character), and trying to make a series out of her. I mean, that's not even like taking Robin away from Batman and giving him his own series, no. What you're doing, is taking one of Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriends, who he doesn't even see anymore, and making her into some sort of secret super-agent. And she never was. But, let's sum up, and you can make your own decision.
Agent Carter, in the Captain America movie, was essentially a female field agent, basically a liaison officer, between the army, and stark enterprises. Needless to say, she falls in love with captain america, and then captain america is lost at sea for 70 years at the end of WW2. So, of course, Agent Carter actually dies of old age before Cap wakes up in the 21st century. So, she's not only an extra, but a made-up love interest that dies before Captain America's story really takes off.
Now, in the series, what she is, is a post-war agent who is basically thought of as a secretary by her male co-workers. So she moonlights for tony stark's dad, howard stark, as a sort of double agent, as he tries to clear his good name. So, she's a traitorous double-agent working for a greedy rich guy. Sheesh. Almost sounds like a villain, now.
So, let me see here. The setting, post-ww2 americana, with period-style costumes and cars. Nah, not working for me. Female heroine, good looking, kicks ass. Meh, okay. Looks like a typical 1950's era secretary while doing it? Bleh. No style. Villains? Do't know yet. Weapons dealers, perhaps? Someone who has stolen Stark industries technology. Possibly Hydra? Who knows at this point? Two episodes in and so far it's just not working for me. If it doesn't interfere with any other shows, I'll keep watching it, let you know if it gets better.
Netflix has some shows being taken off instant streaming. One is Wallander, which IS actually pretty good. Kenneth Branagh plays a detective in Sweden, I think. Luckily, none of the show is actually in swedish, otherwise, I'd be lost. But, they have some decent cast members. David Warner plays Wallander's dad, a local painter of some notoriety who is struggling with dementia. Wallander himself has so many issues that one would wonder how he manages to wake up every morning, and solve these horrific murders in his otherwise quiet region. But he does. Also, the guy who plays Loki in the avengers movies plays a fellow officer.
The writing and dialogue seem pretty good. Wallander is an effective policeman, but his life is pretty miserable most of the rest of the time. I find it funny that the man has yet to sleep in a bed. Chairs, couches, desks, once he slept in his car. No beds. Not a ton of action. More of a thriller, suspenseful, murder mystery type thing, with a bleak outlook and background to it. Sort of like Tom Selleck's Stone Cold series, is the closest thing I can think of here in the states.
I am surprised how much Kenneth branagh has aged last time I saw him. Can't quite recall what movie it was in, but he's barely recognizable as the same guy. Or, I may be thinking of someone else. It's possible. I mix up the Hemsworth brothers all the time. David Warner, who I first saw in Nightwing back in the mid-70's, has aged incredibly well. Yes, he looks older than he did in the 70's, and he should. That was 40 years ago. Frankly, I'm surprised he's still alive and acting, but he is good at his craft. Plays a dementia/alzheimers patient with great skill. Either that, or he really has dementia.
Agent Carter is on um, ABC, I think? One of the main channels. Wallander is on Netflix, but they take it off streaming on February 1st. If you want to watch it, there's currently 9 episodes, each an hour and a half long, so, like movie-length episodes. I like Wallander more than Agent Carter, so far, except, well, Agent Carter is a damn sight better looking.
That's all for tonight. It's late. When I have something good to review, you guys will be the first to know.
Marvel's Agent Carter is no exception. I'm not really sure why people would think focusing on a tale about a superhero, without featuring the actual superhero, is a good idea. I mean, at that point, it's just a glorified extra, right? I mean, you think, sure, where would Batman be without Commissioner Gordon? Or Superman without Lois Lane? Or Lex Luthor without Miss Tessmacher? Exactly. They'd be fine. And let's face it, Commissioner Gordon, Lois lane and Miss Tessmacher are all pretty normal, boring people, when you get right down to it.
Well, marvel's Agent Carter, is about Captain America's girlfriend. If you've seen the recent movie, Agent Carter was a pretty extra they tossed into Captain America's recent origin story remake to add a love interest. I mean, I'm sure, like most guys, Captain America, aka Steve Rogers, had a love interest. But this is the first time I've heard Agent Carter being introduced. Honestly, I get the whole "strong heroine" type thing, I really do. I love strong heroines, myself. But let's face it, guys. You're taking an extra you threw in for color, to make Captain America's story more interesting (because Cap is, well, let's face it, pretty blah as a character), and trying to make a series out of her. I mean, that's not even like taking Robin away from Batman and giving him his own series, no. What you're doing, is taking one of Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriends, who he doesn't even see anymore, and making her into some sort of secret super-agent. And she never was. But, let's sum up, and you can make your own decision.
Agent Carter, in the Captain America movie, was essentially a female field agent, basically a liaison officer, between the army, and stark enterprises. Needless to say, she falls in love with captain america, and then captain america is lost at sea for 70 years at the end of WW2. So, of course, Agent Carter actually dies of old age before Cap wakes up in the 21st century. So, she's not only an extra, but a made-up love interest that dies before Captain America's story really takes off.
Now, in the series, what she is, is a post-war agent who is basically thought of as a secretary by her male co-workers. So she moonlights for tony stark's dad, howard stark, as a sort of double agent, as he tries to clear his good name. So, she's a traitorous double-agent working for a greedy rich guy. Sheesh. Almost sounds like a villain, now.
So, let me see here. The setting, post-ww2 americana, with period-style costumes and cars. Nah, not working for me. Female heroine, good looking, kicks ass. Meh, okay. Looks like a typical 1950's era secretary while doing it? Bleh. No style. Villains? Do't know yet. Weapons dealers, perhaps? Someone who has stolen Stark industries technology. Possibly Hydra? Who knows at this point? Two episodes in and so far it's just not working for me. If it doesn't interfere with any other shows, I'll keep watching it, let you know if it gets better.
Netflix has some shows being taken off instant streaming. One is Wallander, which IS actually pretty good. Kenneth Branagh plays a detective in Sweden, I think. Luckily, none of the show is actually in swedish, otherwise, I'd be lost. But, they have some decent cast members. David Warner plays Wallander's dad, a local painter of some notoriety who is struggling with dementia. Wallander himself has so many issues that one would wonder how he manages to wake up every morning, and solve these horrific murders in his otherwise quiet region. But he does. Also, the guy who plays Loki in the avengers movies plays a fellow officer.
The writing and dialogue seem pretty good. Wallander is an effective policeman, but his life is pretty miserable most of the rest of the time. I find it funny that the man has yet to sleep in a bed. Chairs, couches, desks, once he slept in his car. No beds. Not a ton of action. More of a thriller, suspenseful, murder mystery type thing, with a bleak outlook and background to it. Sort of like Tom Selleck's Stone Cold series, is the closest thing I can think of here in the states.
I am surprised how much Kenneth branagh has aged last time I saw him. Can't quite recall what movie it was in, but he's barely recognizable as the same guy. Or, I may be thinking of someone else. It's possible. I mix up the Hemsworth brothers all the time. David Warner, who I first saw in Nightwing back in the mid-70's, has aged incredibly well. Yes, he looks older than he did in the 70's, and he should. That was 40 years ago. Frankly, I'm surprised he's still alive and acting, but he is good at his craft. Plays a dementia/alzheimers patient with great skill. Either that, or he really has dementia.
Agent Carter is on um, ABC, I think? One of the main channels. Wallander is on Netflix, but they take it off streaming on February 1st. If you want to watch it, there's currently 9 episodes, each an hour and a half long, so, like movie-length episodes. I like Wallander more than Agent Carter, so far, except, well, Agent Carter is a damn sight better looking.
That's all for tonight. It's late. When I have something good to review, you guys will be the first to know.
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