Prime Time: Terror At London Bridge (1985)

AKA Bridge Across Time.

When I heard there was a weird little movie that has David Hasselhoff trying to apprehend a killer who my or many not be a time-travelling Jack the Ripper then I just knew I had to see it. Don't pretend you wouldn't at least have some morbid curiosity about it.

The plot is pretty much what I've just said. It all starts with a missing stone that is recovered and then placed back on the old London Bridge that is now in Arizona. That missing stone may be very powerful, and may well bring back the famous murderer, Jack the Ripper. Who would believe such a theory though? Detective Don Gregory (Hasselhoff) would, especially when he starts to match up murders with dates that correspond to the dates of the original Ripper murders. Struggling to convince Chief Dawson (Clu Gulager) while he argues with Anson Whitfield (Lane Smith, effectively playing his character as if he's Murray Hamilton in Jaws), Gregory eventually comes up with a plan that will require the use of Angie (Stefanie Kramer), a woman he has just started a relationship with.

Director E. W. Swackhamer seems to have a large body of TV work to his name (and this was a TV movie first shown back in the mid-1980s), but there's enough canny casting and good pacing here to show him as someone who knows what they're doing in that medium. Writer William F. Nolan has a couple of better-known properties that he will be remembered for, but he is equally deserving of praise for doing what he can with something that could have been so much worse.

This is silly, especially when playing up the moments that invite comparisons to Jaws, but it's consistently entertaining.  The Hoff is a capable enough lead, delivering his usual level of charisma that somehow keeps him feeling like a bigger star than most TV actors without ever being right for lead work in theatrical features, and it's great to see Gulager and Smith in their supporting roles. Kramer is stuck with the most thankless role, but she does fine, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Adrienne Barbeau given some screentime.

If you want more serious movies that make use of Jack the Ripper then there are many to choose from. If you want some Ripper tension with some time-travel in the mix then I'd point you towards the excellent Time After Time. But if you want something that has "Saucy Jack" travelling to our time due to some mysterious bridge magic, and then causing consternation and trouble for a cop who you just know is going to eventually have to reconsider his stance of not using his gun (tied to a tragic incident in his past), well . . . this is the film for you.

6/10

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Mubi Monday: Between The Lines (1977)

I've only very recently discovered the films of director Joan Micklin Silver, having just seen both this film and Hester Street in the past week or so. While I haven't been completely won over by either film, there's something very interesting in both, helped by the fact that Silver has a knack for assembling a great cast of people who feel perfect in their roles, whether they are the leads or supporting players, or even (as is the case here) part of a large ensemble that doesn't spend too much time focusing on just one character.

What you get here is the story of a small Boston newspaper that is poised to be taken over by a big business. The writers all have various strengths and weaknesses, and various fluid relationships between one another, and some already have dreams of moving on to bigger and better things. Some have a great book waiting to be written, some have a move to another city planned, and some think that they can use their place in the paper to make themselves into a revered writer worthy of far more than the relatively meagre paycheck that the paper can afford to pay them.

Written by Fred Barron and David Helpern, two people I am even less familiar with than Silver, Between The Lines is most interested in showing newspaper work as an unglamorous and slightly shambolic. It's a lifestyle, a skewed work/life balance, that will actually feel familiar to anyone who has spent time in any industry where they made firm friendships, and substitute family units, be it a writing job, hospitality, a small boutique business, or even factory/warehouse work. The work may differ wildly, but what keeps you getting through every day is the same, it's the connections made with other people and the idea of having something else on the horizon.

Silver does well in allowing the whole thing to feel so loosely assembled and frantic, presenting the characters and story in a way that could best be described as Altman-esque (I know, I know, that's lazy, but sometimes I'm lazy . . . and you know what I mean), while always moving back to one or two characters just in time to give the feeling of a proper story arc for them. She's helped enormously by the fact that those characters are played by the likes of John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum, Jill Eikenberry, and Bruno Kirby.

I'm not going to single out any one performance, particularly when everyone works best while showing what they add and subtract from the group during any main sequence, but there's also room for performances from Stephen Collins, Lewis J. Stadlen (a bit of a standout as someone trying to keep an eye on the business side of things), Michael J. Pollard, Joe Morton, and Lane Smith, as well as a number of other familiar faces. As individual as each performer is, they make a wonderful addition, for better or worse, to the fluid group dynamic.

There's also now an undeniable romanticism about journalism that requires people to do more than scan social media for soundbites and write speculative pieces far removed from genuine news stories that result from hours of blood, sweat, and tears, and Between The Lines benefits from that romanticism. It's how you imagine the life of many writers to be, or to have been at one point, with these characters maintaining their erratic levels of energy thanks to bursts of creativity, numerous alcoholic drinks, and nicotine hits. 

7/10

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Red Dawn (1984)

Red Dawn is another film from the '80s that many people view with fondness. It could be to do with the ridiculously entertaining plot - America is invaded and a bunch of teens become formidable guerrilla warriors. It could be to do with the cast, which includes a lot of great youngsters with support from dependable old hands such as Harry Dean Stanton, Ben Johnson and Powers Boothe. Or it could just be the very, well, eighties-ness of it all. Having somehow never seen the film until now, I don't have the rosy tint of nostalgia to cloud my judgment. I can still enjoy Red Dawn and I can still see why so many would have enjoyed it more when it was released in 1984 but I can also see the many negative points.

Starting off with a laughable amount of title cards that get viewers up to speed, Red Dawn quickly gets the action started when a bunch of American schoolkids are alarmed, to say the least, by invading Soviet forces.
They head for the hills, at first just thinking of survival but soon coming up with tactics to use in a concerted effort to fight back.

It's, essentially, a war movie set on American soil with lots of young heartthrobs in the cast. Patrick Swayze is the older, brave member of the group while the likes of C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson, Darren Dalton and Brad Savage look up to him. Then there are those old hands I already mentioned in supporting roles, as well as Lane Smith, Ron O'Neal and Frank McRae, though the latter is onscreen for merely a minute or so.

This may not be the finest film from director John Milius but it's worth a watch for a number of reasons. First of all, there's the subject matter. Yes, it's dumb and gung-ho for most of the runtime but there are also a surprising number of dark moments that aren't expected in a film about teen freedom fighters. Secondly, the cast. Of course. Thirdly, this is an early film in the interesting career of Kevin Reynolds. I like Kevin Reynolds (oh yes, I liked Waterworld - a lot) and the movies that he's involved with always tend to have enough sheer entertainment in the mix to keep me happy throughout.

Red Dawn is a film that was, undoubtedly, best viewed in 1984 but you can still watch it now and, after checking that nobody else can see you, allow yourself to pump your fist in the air and shout "Go Wolverines!".

6/10

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Dark Night Of The Scarecrow (1981)

Fondly remembered by many as one of the scariest TV movies ever made, let me bring everyone crashing down to the here and now by simply saying that it's not. Dark Night Of The Scarecrow is a good little film, and it has a few nice, spooky moments but it's not up there with the likes of Don't Go To Sleep (which I can't find anywhere on DVD but can find HERE on YouTube in its entirety), Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark and, of course, Ghostwatch.

The story is all about the kindly but mentally challenged Bubba Ritter (Larry Drake), a man who spends a lot of time hanging about with a young girl called Marylee (Tonya Crowe). When Marylee is attacked by a big dog, Bubba gets the blame. There are a number of local men (stirred up by Otis P. Hazelrigg, played by Charles Durning) looking for any excuse to teach him a lesson and the harming of the young girl gives them all the impetus they need. Frightened Bubba tries to hide himself as a scarecrow but it's no good. The men discover and kill him. When they realise that they made a mistake, the little girl ends up recovering and her life was actually saved by Bubba, they begin to worry. Thankfully, the court believes the story that they concoct and they remain free men. Justice will have to be served in another way.

Directed by Frank De Felitta, and scripted by J. D. Feigelson (who wrote the story for the film with Butler Handcock), Dark Night Of The Scarecrow moves along well enough and has one or two great set-pieces but the real plus point for the movie is how dark the undercurrents are. The treatment of Bubba and the lynch-mob mentality is disturbing enough but things get even more uncomfortable as the mental state of Otis P. Hazelrigg becomes clearer.

The acting from all concerned is very good. Larry Drake doesn't have a lot of screentime but is memorable in his role. Charles Durning is a highlight, but he's matched by Robert F. Lyons, Claude Earl Jones and Lane Smith - each and every one a coward only acting brave as a gun-toting posse. Jocelyn Brando also does well as Bubba's loving mother and Tonya Crowe acquits herself capably.

It's not full of blood and guts, instead presenting itself as one of the many horror movies proving that you don't need gore to please fans of the genre. The atmosphere is nice and spooky at times and the final few minutes are great but, overall, the movie is a solid one as opposed to any kind of classic.

6/10

Fans of the film will be happy to find that this Bluray release is region-free - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Night-Scarecrow-Blu-ray-Import/dp/B005CSYQ5U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1351589437&sr=8-3

Prison (1988)

Quite a simple premise, the spirit of a dead prisoner returns for vengeance when the prison is reopened for business and full of inmates again. Directed by Renny Harlin, this is yet another enjoyable movie from a man who has very rarely done wrong by me.

It may lack the impact it wants to have, what with the story twists and turns being really rather obvious throughout, but Prison still has some good moments of tension here and there and a few fantastic death scenes.

The cast are all pretty good, too. Viggo Mortensen does well in an early feature role, Lane Smith is fantastic as a strict warden, Chelsea Field doesn't get that much screentime but holds her own in a movie overflowing with testosterone and Lincoln Kilpatrick is excellent. Support comes from Tom Everett, Ivan Kane, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister and even Kane Hodder so genre fans should be more than pleased with the assortment of faces onscreen.

The script, by C. Courtney Joyner and based on a story by Irwin Yablans, does what is needed though things quickly become far too strange to be explained away easily so that starts eroding at your suspension of disbelief from before the halfway mark.

Harlin directs as competently as ever. There are some nice camera shots and some great use of lighting which, along with a bag of practical effects, often leads in to some supernatural event. The gore on display is effective but not overexposed and the nasty deaths hold up as well today as they did back in the late 80s. It's a shame that the score, by Richard Band and Christopher L. Stone, never comes close to matching any of the visuals and weakens a lot of the atmosphere being built up.

Personally, I always felt that while Prison seemed to come and go when it was initially released the main reason for that was not because it was a bad movie but because it was quickly overshadowed by Shocker, released the following year. While the two are very different movies, there are enough similiarities in the methods of the killer and the advertising artwork to have possibly encouraged moviegoers to wait and see the "Wes Craven film". Possibly. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it, especially because I quite like Prison even if it's nothing to set the world alight (ironically enough).

6/10.

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