Mubi Monday: Thelma & Louise (1991)

It's very easy to remember parts of Thelma & Louise, particularly that ending that someone somewhere in Hollywood still thought could be reworked to provide people with a sequel, but it's also easy to forget a number of big positives.

Although directed by Ridley Scott, this is a film that feels impressively in tune with the female leads, helped mainly by the performances of Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, as well as the screenplay by Callie Khouri. It also has an enjoyable selection of male actors happy to provide a snapshot of the range of men that our leads deal with, and any film that has "The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan" gets a bonus point from me.

Davis is Thelma, Sarandon is Louise. The two head off on a road trip. Thelma is happy to get some time away from her uncaring and self-absorbed husband, Darryl (Christopher McDonald), and Louise wonders how her Jimmy (Michael Madsen) will cope without her around. Unfortunately, the trip takes a serious turn for the worse when Thelma becomes a victim of the abusive Harlan (Timothy Carhart). One quick decision turns both women into fugitives, soon to be pursued by a cop (Hal, played by Harvey Keitel) who senses there's something more to the story than what the evidence will tell them. Things soon become more serious, and more desperate, but Louise can at least ask Jimmy for some help. Meanwhile, Thelma makes time for some fun with a hot young hitch-hiker named J.D. (Brad Pitt)

I've always liked both Davis and Sarandon, and both have done great work throughout their entire film careers, but there's no denying that Thelma & Louise is the film that took their careers to another level. One may have continued to get more onscreen work than the other, but both women remain hugely impactful figures in the industry to this day. The fact that they both have such great chemistry here, with one another and with others they interact with, is a vital part of the film's success. I'm sure others could have made this work, but Davis and Sarandon make it all easy to believe, and be invested in. Their performances being so light and enjoyable also helps when it comes to sugar-coating the bitter pills that the film forces viewers to swallow down.

While men are very much the root of the main problems here, and many women will agree that the film reflects reality in that main thematic strand, it’s also a pleasant surprise to revisit this and remember how many of the men are shown in quite a good light. Keitel wants everything to end as quickly and safely as possible, Madsen shows, perhaps a little too late, how much he really loves Sarandon, even if that means having to watch her leave his life, and Pitt plays a real charmer who just happens to have a very bad habit that ruins any of the chemistry between himself and Davis. Carhart is suitably loathsome, and horrendous enough to make his fate feel satisfying, while McDonald is loathsome in a different way, and always does so brilliant in that kind of role that I would love to meet him in real life one day and be shocked by how nice I am sure he actually is.

No performance hits a wrong note, and there are still too few films like this to this day. Not comedic, not trying to be cool and sexy, not balanced perfectly with the good and the bad. This is just two strong women who have had enough of the crap heaped upon them by a patriarchal world, and the ending manages to be as equally uplifting and sad as anything in the rest of the film.

9/10

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Netflix And Chill: Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)

I reviewed Beverly Hills Cop quite a few years ago now. I rewatched Beverly Hills Cop II a few times, but kept forgetting to do anything more than a capsule review for it. But the time was right to finally revisit the undercooked Beverly Hills Cop III, a film that I hadn't been brave enough to revisit since it first hit the home rental market back in the mid-'90s.

The plot is quite simple. Eddie Murphy is back in the role of Axel Foley. The death of Foley’s boss leads him to investigate a crime ring that he believes is operating out of a Los Angeles amusement park. He reunites with Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), and quickly gets himself into a whole heap of trouble while trying to gather evidence that will lead to the prosecution of a bad guy that he KNOWS is the bad guy (Timothy Carhart).

This should have been another great entry in a series that was already two for two. Heroes & villains confronting one another against the backdrop of various  amusement park rides. Writer Steven E. de Souza is someone who has delivered some great action movies, but he’s also written some that were not so great. This falls into the latter category. The action isn’t good enough, the comedy not funny enough, which just leaves the whole thing as another fairly limp star vehicle for Murphy at a time when every Murphy film inevitably felt like that.

Putting John Landis in the director’s chair just have seemed like a very good idea, considering his past glories with Murphy in a leading role, but he ultimately doesn’t have a handle on the tone and what is truly needed for the series. There are the expected cameos you expect from a Landis movie, but not enough care is given to the plot (and let’s not pretend that Foley does any decent detective work here).

Murphy is still good enough in this role to make it watchable, and Reinhold is fun (although he doesn’t get any of the interplay he previously had with John Ashton’s character, notably absent here and sorely missed). Hector Elizondo is okay, but not really good enough as a replacement for Ashton’s character, and Stephen McHattie gets to come along every once in a while to lay down the law as an angry Fed. Carhart is a bit of a weak villain, commanding a small army of bland henchmen, John Saxon is someone you know must be involved somehow (due to being John Saxon), and Theresa Randle tries her best in a role that makes her a potential love interest/damsel in distress. Oh, and it’s fun to see Bronson Pinchot return for a scene or two, having moved from the world of art to the world of heavy-duty self defence.

The cast help make this more fun than it otherwise would be. It’s a bad film, but it’s a bad film that remains watchable, for the most part, if you don’t mind spending time with a likable main character on one of his lesser adventures. And it would have been even better if it had felt more in line with the previous two movies.

5/10

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Noir-vember: Red Rock West (1993)

You know your small town is about to see some shit go down when Nic Cage comes rolling in, surely, and that is how Red Rock West starts, a fantastic neo-noir from John Dahl (contender for the director with the most overlooked filmography of the past few decades, everyone goes on about The Last Seduction and forgets he has done so many other greats).

Cage is Michael, a military veteran looking for work. He has a job lined up, but that doesn't go anywhere when he tells the prospective employer about his wounded leg. So he ends up in a bar, which is being tended by a barman (Wayne, played by J. T. Walsh) who is expecting an employee. Pretending to be the expected party, Michael ends up with a job. But that job involves killing Wayne's wife (Suzanne, played by Lara Flynn Boyle). Thinking that he can warn Suzanne, run off with some money, and alert the local Sheriff, Michael finds his situation getting a whole lot worse when he finds out that Wayne is also the head authority figure in the area. And the real killer is still due to arrive soon.

Coming out a year before the film that really made movie fans sit up and take not of him, Red Rock West is a perfect mix of real thrills, tension, and lighter entertainment. The script, written by Dahl and his brother, Rick, lines up the familiar noir tropes and absolutely embraces them, even as our hero watches events unfolding around him with a mixture of disbelief and bemusement, and even a hint of wry amusement when he's resigned to his fate at the hands of various individuals who have managed to keep hold of him amidst their immoral dealings.

Cage is excellent in the lead role here, perfectly portraying someone who doesn't seem too bright, or to have too many prospects, but has a history and an intelligence that belie his outward appearance. Walsh gives yet another one of his superb performances that saw him almost steal a number of movies throughout the '90s, a nasty piece of work who tends to try a smile and a modicum of charm first, right before revealing his true nature to those who get in his way. Boyle is also just the right casting for her role, the potential victim who may have her own cunning plan at work, and there's a lot of fun to be had once Dennis Hopper appears onscreen. Can you guess which character he plays?

It's interesting that the Dahl brothers have crafted an enjoyably small film with an backstory that could easily have opened up the scope of the tale. Obviously waved away for the sake of keeping the budget and focus of the film much easier to handle, viewers are instead dropped into this maelstrom of events alongside Cage, who is teased more and more information until all becomes crystal clear in a third act that then builds to a wonderfully atmospheric finale.

The more I think about Red Rock West, the less I can find fault with it. You have the tension, you have a good measure of black comedy, and you even have a couple of decent action moments. It's not quite perfect, and I understand that some people just can't bring themselves to watch Cage in anything nowadays (their loss), but it comes surprisingly close.

9/10

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The Party Animal (1984)

Ahhhhhh the '80s, eh. It was a very different time. Nobody seemed to be all that woke. Filmes were made that focused on inappropriate central relationships, wolf whistles were considered foreplay, and many dates ended up as a battle of wills between the two main parties. In fact, most dates ended up looking very much like attempted date rape. Especially in something like The Party Animal.

It's a comedy from this era that has always stuck with me, mainly because this is a strangely twisted and dark creation that somehow managed to insert itself in amongst the more standard sex comedies of the decade. Largely forgotten nowadays, unless others have held on to the vivid memories of it that I had, it's one that deserves to be rescued from obscurity, as much for what it gets wrong as for what it gets right.

Matthew Causey plays Pondo Sinatra, a college student who rolls in on his first day like a walking hardon. And he spends most of his days that way, chasing after any and every woman close enough to him, emanating desperation like a particularly pungent scent of cheap cologne. His story is told by the one person who considers himself close enough to be considered a friend, Studly (played by Timothy Carhart).

There are many scenes in The Party Animal that will strike modern viewers as particularly unpleasant. Seeing how Pondo is with all women makes his "plight" all the easier to understand. He doesn't show any signs of charm or wit, and his only aim is getting into the knickers of any woman who will let him, by almost any means necessary. This will be easier to identify with if you've just managed to scrape through your teenage years, a time when you're still finding your own personality and thinking that others will like you more if you attempt to act like different, cooler, people. That's what the movie gets right. It just doesn't transfer well into a comedy. It also gets darker and darker as it runs through the brisk runtime (it's just under 80 minutes), heading towards an ending unlike any other I've seen in this kind of film.

I suspect that the film benefits from the fact that it is the first from director David Beaird, who also wrote the screenplay (working from an idea shaped by himself and Alan C. Fox). This explains the bizarre approach to the material that makes the first half so unappealing while the third act becomes a more unique and downbeat affair.

It's just a shame that Beaird didn't get himself a better cast. This is the only credited acting role for Causey, unsurprisingly, and he's a terrible leading man. It would be hard to imagine anyone doing much better with the material, to be fair, but getting someone with a better handle on the comedy could have helped. Carhart is the best person onscreen, and does well in his role. All of the women are disposable characters, there to reject the lead, and they're not given anything more to work with than various expressions of revulsion or attraction, depending on who they are working alongside.

I'm not going to say that The Party Animal is any kind of misunderstood classic, or that many other people will watch it and find it as fascinating as I do, but I do think it's a film that should be re-released today, especially if anyone could dig up some interesting information on the thinking behind it. Did it do well upon initial release? Did anyone expect it to? And how did they manage to put together such a great soundtrack? (featuring The Buzzcocks, The Fleshtones, and even a track from R.E.M.)

6/10

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Filmstruck Friday: Pink Cadillac (1989)

Clint Eastwood can do many things. He can squint perhaps better than anyone else in cinema. He can portray iconic characters who usually solve their problems with violence. He can direct, some of his films being much better than some others. And he can even get away with temporary embarrassments. Some may have forgotten his famous dialogue with an empty chair in an attempt to make some political points a number of years ago. I haven’t. Regardless, it was a blip. He’s allowed a blip. Because Clint Eastwood can do pretty much whatever he likes. Except comedy. No, that is not one of his strengths (unless he’s co-starring with a great ensemble – a la Kelly’s Heroes – or an entertaining orangutang – “right turn, Clyde”). Pink Cadillac is an action comedy, but it’s sadly lacking in both action and laughs.

Eastwood plays Tommy Nowak, a skip-tracer (seems to be the same as a bounty hunter) who ends up tracking down a woman named Lou Ann McGuinn (Bernadette Peters). Lou Ann was found with counterfeit money that actually belonged to her husband (Timothy Carhart) and his fellow crooks. Heading off in his prized car, the pink cadillac of the title, Lou Ann hopes to evade the law long enough to spend more of the counterfeit money and somehow turn it into real money, thanks to some good luck at casinos, that will set up a better future for her child. Nowak finds Lou Ann quite easily, but he's unsure of the best way to get things done when he hears about her dilemma, involving her child, her husband, and a group of white supremacists who were due all of the money that she drove off with.

The first film written by John Eskow (who has written some others that I have really enjoyed), this script shows an obvious unease, a lack of faith in any of the main elements. That's why the comedy is never funny enough, nor are the action moments as thrilling as they could be. That could have been an issue easier to overlook if the leads were better but Eastwood seems determined to remind viewers that he is working hard at pretending to have fun.

Director Buddy Van Horn directed three movies in total, all starring Clint Eastwood. Starting with the passable enough Any Which Way You Can, he then moved on to the disappointing The Dead Pool (which is also places Jim Carrey in a small role, his very brief cameo in this movie means that he has been in two more Clint Eastwood films than most people would think him suitable for), and finished with this one. They must enjoy working together, however, as Van Horn has spent many years doing stunt work, either performing or co-ordinating the work, for many other Eastwood movies. So it's a distinct possibility that everyone working on this film was having a blast. They just didn't manage to convey that to viewers.

Eastwood is at his worst here, and I consider myself a fan of the man. This was a role that should have been bulked up and developed for someone more naturally comedic (with some hard work, this could have been a great vehicle for someone like Chevy Chase or Eddie Murphy). The material being weak is no excuse for Eastwood being so uncharacteristically lacking in charisma throughout, and that is the biggest problem that the film has. Peters tries harder, and she's as enjoyable as usual, but isn't given enough to do. Carhart is okay as her asshole of a husband, Michael Des Barres is good as the main baddie, and I would have liked to see him be even more of a threat, and you get a fun turn from Geoffrey Lewis, as well as a fleeting bit of screentime for Bill Moseley.

What can I say to sum things up any clearer? You get a weak script, weak direction, and a weak leading turn from someone who is usually on much better form. The saving grace is Peters, but even she doesn't do enough to make this worth your time. 

3/10

You can, if you feel the need, buy it here.
Americans can get it here.

The Foreigner: Black Dawn (2005)

If Steven Seagal can barely put any energy into his onscreen activity then why should people even bother straining to write a decent review? I'm almost tempted to take the Seagal route here - get a stunt double to do most of the work, insert some badly edited nonsense and fill out the background with horribly cheap CGI.

The big man returns as Jonathan Cold, the character from The Foreigner that you never really cared to see again anyway. But that matters not one iota. Because this is Steven Seagal. And you WILL care to see him in whatever he does. This time around he is, as you might expect, out to save millions of lives and some nasty folk plan to build and explode a nuclear device in the glorious land of America. Seagal is a patriot and he's a patriot who always remembers one thing - you can't spell America without CIA (even if the letters are placed in a slightly different order).

Written by Martin Wheeler, and directed by Alexander Gruszynski, this is a movie that is inept in almost every way. We all know that Seagal isn't the best actor in the world but here he's only given decent turns from Tamara Davies (by decent I may be being kind but she's far from the worst thing in the movie) and Tmothy Carhart  among a cast full of people mangling accents, failing to convince as tough guys and generally being as weak as the material they have to work with.

This is a problem in many Seagal movies, they have become a product churned out of a conveyor belt that use some slapping action moves and a number of foreign bit players, but it's not too bad when there is some decent action to prove distracting. Nope, this movie doesn't even have that. There's no tension here, the editing is positively shocking in places, the stunt double gets plenty of screentime once again and nothing here will entertain even undemanding viewers after some lowbrow antics.

The plotting is terrible, the acting and action unconvincing, the characters uninteresting and everything here (from the opening credits to the final scenes) smacks of extreme laziness. A horrible experience.

3/10.

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