Movie Monday #20: Drive

"I don't sit in while you're running it down. I don't carry a gun. I drive."

--Ryan Gosling as Driver, Drive 

When I first saw Drive, it was on my computer screen as a glitchy screener rip that someone posted on BT Junkie.  I'm not proud that I downloaded the movie first, but when all of the rental stores have closed in your town, downloading becomes your renting.  My impression from that first viewing was that the film was a masterpiece, so much so that after it was done, I watched it all over again (something I rarely do).  The 80's-influenced electro-pop soundtrack, the superb acting, and the subtleties in the script made this one of my top ten favorite films of all time.

Recently I finally acquired a Blu-Ray player and a HD-TV and needed a cool movie to test them out on.  I headed down to my local Dollar General and found a DVD copy of Drive for eight bucks.  Knowing that my Blu-Ray would up-convert the anamorphic widescreen print to 1080p, I popped it into the player and sat back with a Sprite and a McChicken to experience this masterpiece again, the way I should have seen it the first time.

Ryan Gosling plays a nameless Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a wheelman for crooks.  He also works at a car garage run by Shannon (Bryan Cranston), an overly-friendly guy who has taken "Driver" under his wing and affectionately calls him "kid."  Driver lives in the same apartment building as Irene (Carey Mulligan), a waitress whose Latino husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), is serving time.  Driver makes quick friends with Irene's son, Benicio, and soon a romance blossoms between Driver and Irene, only to be thwarted by Standard's release from prison.

One night while returning from a drive, Driver spots two rough-looking characters in the parking lot of his building.  Exploring a little, he finds Standard beaten to a pulp and Benicio cowering in fear.  According to Standard, he's behind on protection money he paid some toughs while he was in prison, and every time they come asking, the amount doubles.  They also want him to rob a pawn shop that reportedly has the money that will pay off his debt.  Driver agrees to be Standard's wheelman...but when the heist goes to hell, Driver's life--and everyone else's--falls into jeopardy.

The first thing you'll notice about Drive is its electro-pop soundtrack.  Featuring the likes of Kavinsky, Desire, College, and a mesmerizing number by The Chromatics called "Tick of the Clock," the music just drips coolness.  Add to this the astounding visuals of Los Angeles and Driver cruising the streets at night, and you've got yourself a winning combination.  The musical score by Cliff Martinez (who I've loved since Steven Soderbergh's "Solaris") is an astounding electronic mixture that captures all the moods, emotions, and tragedies of the film perfectly and compliments the electro-pop numbers on an even level.

The second thing you'll notice is Ryan Gosling as "Driver."  This was the first time I'd ever seen him in a film, and I was supremely impressed.  He doesn't say very much, but each line is delivered with the appropriate inflection and meaning, like he was born to play this role.  Sometimes he doesn't say anything at all, and a twist of the head or a shift of the weight sufficed (watch his conversation with Standard in the bathroom for evidence of this), and even that carried the necessary gravity to get the point across.  And even when Gosling had to show Driver's anger, it was also measured and proportioned, like he was holding it all back in case he needed it again.  This is one of the best performances I've seen in modern film, and I can't recommend it enough.

Carey Mulligan plays Irene, Standard's wife and Driver's love interest.  This was the first time I'd ever seen her in a film, and I instantly fell in love with her.  She looks so sweet and innocent, but plays Irene as a woman who's struggling between her duty to her husband and her feelings for Driver.  Bryan Cranston totally owns the role of Shannon, and evokes such sympathy for the character when his plans go down the tubes.  Oscar Isaac fleshes out the role of Standard and even makes you feel sorry for the guy, who gets caught up in circumstances beyond his control.  Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks, and Albert Brooks round out the cast, but it should be noted here that Albert Brooks turns in one chilling performance as the lead villain, Bernie Rose, proving once again that he can play anybody.

The script by Hossein Amini was refined by director Nicolas Winding Refn after the project was purchased from Universal, where it had sat in development hell for six years.  Both Amini and Refn create something unique--a movie that starts out still and quiet and slowly spirals into chaos.  It's very reminiscent of the 80's crime thrillers Thief and To Live and Die in L.A., which are two of my favorite 80's movies and some of the best crime thrillers I've ever seen.  Director Refn worked with Newton Thomas Sigel as his director of photography, and Sigel captures all of Los Angeles, both day and night, in such beautiful and subtle ways that even florescent lighting in a parking lot looks alluring and vivid.  Add to this the unique production design by Beth Mickle, the superb editing by Mat Newman, and the awesome costume designs by Erin Benach (including Driver's white-and-gold scorpion jacket), and you have yourself a masterpiece.  

Drive was the sleeper hit of 2011, but for me, it's the perfect film.  It has everything I love about movies--drama, romance, cars, crime, and a great soundtrack.  If you love those same elements, then you're going to love "Drive" as well...and don't be surprised if you find yourself cruising around the streets of your town at night, windows down, blasting some electro-pop of your own. 

Movie Monday #18: Infernal Affairs

“Do all undercover cops like rooftops?”

--Andy Lau as Lau, Infernal Affairs 

I am not that hip when it comes to the Hong Kong movie scene, and for good reason -- I just don’t get the pacing and the plotting of most Chinese films.  I guess I’m too used to Hollywood car chases and explosions that, admittedly, my favorite Hong Kong film for years was John Woo’s Hard Boiled, mostly because of Tony Leung’s performance in the film.  Last Saturday night, I had the pleasure of taking in another great Tony Leung performance, and a terrific film altogether -- Infernal Affairs, directed by the upcoming team of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak.

The basic story behind this crime thriller is simple -- two cadets rise up quickly through the ranks of the Hong Kong police force, but end up taking separate paths.  Yan (Tony Leung) is “thrown out” of the academy so he can become an undercover cop within the Triads, China’s form of organized crime.  What he and the other cadets don’t know is that Lau (Andy Lau), an ace cadet with perfect marks, is a plant within the police department with loyalties to the Triads.

I was a little surprised that the movie let the big secret out from the get-go, but then I realized just how smart that was.  It screwed up the tension and the anxiety ten times more than they already were, and from that point, the movie proceeds to embellish the characters a bit.  Yan has been undercover for ten years and has been arrested three times for assault of an officer, and his boss, Superintendent Wong (the great Anthony Wong in a stone-cold serious role for a change), orders him to see the department shrink.  Lau, on the other hand, finds himself ordered to locate the mole that’s recently been discovered within the department (which is, naturally, Lau himself) and work directly for Internal Affairs, while still helping Sam (Eric Tsang), the Triad boss he’s loyal too, get his criminal enterprises underway.

If this sounds familiar, it should -- Martin Scorsese ripped off the story of this film to make his cop thriller The Departed, with none so much as a credit to Andrew Lau and Alan Mak as the originators of the story.  But the similarity between the two films pretty much ends at the whole mole here/mole there point in the story.  Yan starts to fall in love with the department psychiatrist, while Lau has one of his underlings tail Superintendent Wong to a meeting with Yan.  This results in the turning point of the story -- the Triads invade the building, and Yan and Wong are trapped.  Yan escapes, but Wong is thrown from the roof and onto the top of a taxicab, some twenty-five floors below.

And like some of my other reviews, I’m going to stop before I get ahead of myself and reveal the entire movie to you.  This is one Hong Kong thriller I’m very proud to say isn’t out to disgust you with gut-punching violence, confuse you with some symbolism that only the director understands, and offend you with gratuitous language and nudity.  Infernal Affairs, despite it’s name and the sexy Chinese woman who appears on the cover of the DVD (who isn’t even in the movie, I came to discover), is a very clean and crisp film that keeps you on the edge of your seat and includes some definitive jaw-dropping moments.

Andy Lau and Tony Leung are the standout performances in this film, though I felt that Lau’s was stronger, because his character goes through the most change.  Leung was still enjoyable and affable as always (that scene when he says he dreams of the psychiatrist and she responds with the sweet ‘I dream of you too’ was extremely well-played), but I felt like the directors were setting him up for a fall throughout the film and not giving him a chance to even try and be a hero.

This film also guest-stars one of my new favorite Hong Kong actors, Edison Chen, who I first saw as Ryousuke in the Initial D live-action film.  Edison plays the young version of Lau’s character, and many of the flashbacks to his cadet days feature Chen.  In my opinion, this is a bright young man with a bright future in cinema, whether it be foreign or domestic.

The production design, in combination with the lighting, is just superb in this film.  The use of white, black, gray, green-gray, blue-gray, and natural lighting really set this off as something that says, “Take notice of me.  I am not to be ignored.”  There are a lot of rooftop scenes in this film, and how they covered and lit them when there’s really nothing around to mount a camera on or plug a camera into is a testament to the Hong Kong film industry’s ingenuity in getting things done.

Overall, this is one film I’m proud to have in my collection, and I found it at the local Blockbuster store in the clearance section of their previously viewed movies for $3.99.  If I can find it there, surely you can find it through similar means.  I encourage you to do so, even if you’re not a fan of Hong Kong cinema, because this film just might change your mind -- it did mine.

Movie Monday #13 -- Breakaway

I know this is a really late update, but I thought I'd get a review in before the year was up.  *sigh*  Time has escaped my grasp once again and prevented me from updating on a regular basis like I would have wanted to.  Anyway, here's a review of the 2002 film, Breakaway.

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“What’s the matter, slick? You out of ammo?”


--Dean Cain as Cornelius Morgan, Breakaway

As far as Christmas action movies go, there are very few that exist. John Frankenheimer’s Reindeer Games comes to mind as one of them, but most people would like to forget that one was ever made. I’d like to review one here that is simply good entertainment--the 2002 made-for-TV movie Breakaway, starring Dean Cain, Erika Eleniak, and one of my favorite villains of all time, Eric Roberts.

The movie opens with the dramatic music of John Debney (more on that in a minute) and shows various angles of shoppers inside Chicago’s busiest mall, Chicago Place. With Roberts’ narration running over this, he explains to his crew of thieves that on Christmas Eve, there will be twelve million dollars in untraceable cash in Chicago Place’s basement vault...and they’re going to take it.

Enter Cornelius Morgan (Dean Cain), a lieutenant on the Chicago P.D. who can’t afford to give his wife Cat (Erika Eleniak) what she wanted for Christmas. His attention is soon diverted to the Lotus Flower Society in Chinatown, where a group of Triad gangsters attempt to rob the club. In the ensuing shootout, Morgan accidentally wings the head of the Lotus Flower Society, who is sort-of like the Mayor of Chinatown, and this pompous ass decides to sue the city of Chicago for forty million dollars in damages...and personally lists Morgan as a co-defendant.

With all this hanging over their heads, Morgan and Cat attend a children’s Christmas concert, which features both Morgan’s daughter and Jimmy Scalzetti’s (Eric Roberts) son. In a brief scene after the performance, Morgan sees Scalzetti speaking to his wife about his son Anthony, who has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. The operation will cost in the upwards of millions of dollars (since ex-cons can’t get insurance, something I had never thought of), which explains why Scalzetti and his crew are taking down Chicago Place.

Unfortunately, Cat works at a jewelry store at said mall, and is staying late with an indecisive customer on Christmas Eve. Morgan, feeling that a recent fight with Cat needs to be settled before the sun goes down, buys her flowers five minutes before the mall closes...and spots Jimmy Scalzetti’s crew stepping through a security door. With only a few moments to make a decision, Morgan decides to tail them back into the labyrinth behind the mall and just misses them taking a service elevator to the basement.

Morgan’s response to all this is a hearty “Retired my ass...” as he prepares himself for what is the craziest, most action-packed TV movie I have ever seen. Breakaway has things that just aren’t done on a TV movie budget, and I really wish there was some kind-of behind the scenes material available for this, because it would explain how they did the stunts and gunfire and explosions on such a limited budget and without too many stuntmen.

In the gun battle between Morgan and Petreovich, a taller-than-tall Russian thug with some kind of combat shotgun for a weapon, Morgan is running behind payphone bays (which are exploding brilliantly), the railing of the mall’s upper floor (which is sparking brightly), and a snowman statue (which detonates into shards of confetti and cardboard that always make me proclaim “Blow up the snowman, blow up the snowman!”). All of this is filmed in John Woo-like slow motion, adding to the agonizing brutality of what Morgan is enduring not only during this gunfight, but throughout the entire film.

My dad, after watching this movie, described it as “Die Hard in a shopping mall,” and that’s exactly what it is, because Morgan has to use all of his wits and anything available to him in order to take down Scalzetti’s crew and Scalzetti himself. One of the more interesting things this film brought to light was pioneering the use of shampoo as a deterrent to your foes. This may sound hilarious to you, but when Morgan is facing Simulus in the upscale department store, he spreads shampoo near an escalator exit. When Simulus comes running up with guns blazing, he goes sliding through several displays and ends up shooting the head of a mannequin (another moment that made me happy; mannequins freak me out).

There are also several twists and turns in this movie that surprised me and raise it one notch above your average action film. One thug that the movie leads you to believe is dead actually comes back to attack Morgan a second time; apparently his injury was not that serious. Additionally, Scalzetti takes some hostages, including Morgan’s wife Cat, which can only ramp up the tension about ten thousand notches for our hero.

As for the acting, it’s about what you’d expect from a TV action movie, but the absolute stand-out roles here are Erika Eleniak as Cat Morgan and Eric Roberts as Jimmy Scalzetti. For Erika, here was a role that was not asking her to be half-naked all the time or to show her breasts (can we say Under Siege, anyone?). She really got to show that she can act and make it be believable, and make herself be sympathetic to the audience. Hats off to Erika for a job well done.

As for Eric Roberts, the casting couldn’t have been better. He pulls off Jimmy Scalzetti with the right amounts of wit, sarcasm, and cold-blooded criminal that I have come to expect from this very talented actor. And while I have previously complained that he tends to play very one-dimensional villains, here was a villain that was two-dimensional--he wasn’t taking down Chicago Place without a reason (he needs the money for his son’s bone marrow transplant, remember?), and it wasn’t like he hadn’t tried other avenues (ex-cons can’t get insurance, remember?). This character was a desperate man with desperate means to take down an impossible score...and whether he makes it or not is up to you to find out.

The music was composed by two different musicians--the main theme was done by John Debney, which is a name I remember from other TV projects and action films. The rest of the music was done by Louis Febre, who did an awesome job accenting the adrenaline-pumping action scenes in this film.

There is one quibble I had with Breakaway, and it’s that the film suffers from “one-liner” syndrome. This happens with two of the lines that are repeated at least three times by different characters throughout the film. In the first instance, Morgan says to one of the Triad gangsters, “Now there’s an easy way and there’s a hard way. Do the right thing.” His own partner, Rich, says it the second time. The third time comes once again from Morgan when he has Scalzetti in his sights near the end of the film. Now do you see what I mean by “one-liner syndrome?” This is something that, oftentimes, first-time writers and directors suffer from, because they think they’re being cool. To me, it just comes off as bad writing.

The other instance of “one-liner syndrome” came with the line, “You’re a class act, (insert character name here).” I caught that three times as well--first with Morgan, then with Rich, then with Scalzetti. This sort-of thing happened a lot in 80’s action movies too, of which I am a fan, but merely for the stunts and production design--not for the cheesy dialogue. Something tells me this might have been an older script that was hastily updated when it was called into production, and they overlooked the “one-liner syndrome” that often plagued its 80’s cohorts.

If you’re able to put this aside, you’ll find a very decent Christmas action movie that doesn’t scrimp on the effects and the stunts just because it’s a TV movie. If you’re a fan of Dean Cain, you won’t be disappointed either, because he pulls of a very strong performance in this film as the cop that just won’t quit. And if you’re a guy looking for some testosterone-fixin’ this holiday season, and you stumble on Breakaway, then lucky you--you’re in for a holly-jolly good time.

Movie Monday #12 -- Risk

“Let me put this in words you can understand--fuck off!”

Bryan Brown as Kreisky, Risk

I am a huge fan of Australian film. The entire industry seems to have crumbled over there lately, which is a huge disappointment, but when I saw Risk peeking out from behind another DVD in the bargain rack at my local grocery store and spotted Bryan Brown’s picture on the front, I figured I’d at least give it a look. When I discovered that it was an Australian film, I bought it without another thought, and that was an easy thing to do because of its low $3.99 price.

Risk starts off slow, centering on the first day of Ben Madigan’s new job as an insurance adjuster. He thinks he’ll be helping people by granting them money they deserve. What he learns is that the insurance company is only out to protect its money and its own interests; the rookies are taught to pay out the minimum amount of money and use any excuse they can to knock the total down as far as it will go.

Ben is really too innocent for this kind of job, but he does have a knack for convincing people that taking the insurance money is the right thing to do--a skill he learns when senior adjuster John Kreisky takes him under his wing in a little “experiment.” Kreisky proposes that Ben will close disputed claims at an eighty percent payout, thereby leaving the company twenty percent and still making them money.

Ben eventually learns that he’s very good at this, but that Kreisky has covered his tracks with this experiment by initiating a scam to rip off the insurance company. While Ben proposes that he isn’t “doing anything wrong,” Kreisky and his lover Louise work out a deal that involves fake insurance claims posing as real ones, and all three of them get paid nicely for it.

Unfortunately, Ben starts to catch wind of an internal investigation in the company about someone absconding with company funds. When the Australian police come in and launch a full-scale investigation, Ben realizes that it’s high time he developed an exit strategy--and what a doozy it is.

Risk showcases the talents of its three main actors to the hilt. Tom Long is perfectly cast as Ben, the innocent adjuster who gets in over his head in this scam and can’t find a way out. Bryan Brown is the perfect manipulator as Kreisky, always steering Ben back on the path he wants Ben to travel on, not the path that Ben knows he should be on. Claudia Karvan is beautiful, sassy, serious, and downright one of the sexiest Australian actresses put to film as Louise, the woman who is seeing both Ben and Kreisky and is headed to Heartbreak City by the end of the film.

The production design by Murray Picknett was the standout element in this film. Everyone is dressed in warm, dark colors, and so are their surroundings. Even the cars are in coordinating colors, so they don’t clash with the amazing wardrobe by Margot Wilson. I have never been very impressed with the “stylized reality” that some films go for, but Risk pulls this off flawlessly and with seemingly no effort.

The music by Don Miller-Robinson reflected the source music used in the film, something that is becoming rare these days. The musical score included a synthesized Hammond organ, which is a sound I just love from the days of 3 Dog Night, and it worked great in this film to compliment the on-screen events and the other songs used to emphasize various key points.

The lighting by Simon Duggan was not fancy or heavily stylized--it was efficient and to the point, illuminating when it had to, and leaving things dark and mysterious when they needed to be. When you’re trying to accomplish “stylized reality,” sometimes the lighting can be too stylized or too real, but Simon got the balance just right for Risk. Hats off to you, mate.

The script by John Armstrong was tight, poignant, and nerve-racking at the tension-grinding moments. There was a strange lack of humor in this film, with the exception of two or three deliberate jokes, which come off as a little out-of-place but nevertheless funny. Other than that little quibble, I have very few complaints about the writing of the film--it was totally spot-on.

The direction by Alan White (a name I’ve heard before from somewhere) was terrific, never calling for any “independent movie-maker shake” shots (i.e. Paul Greengrass’s hand-held gunfight mayhem in the Bourne films). The shots were steady, the camera moved only to emphasize or stylishly capture a certain tense moment, and never lost its sense of pace. This guy knew what he was doing, and it shows.

Overall, Risk is a terrific thriller that ends on a chilling note (I won’t spoil it for you, though). If you’re up for a film that will entertain as well as make you think about the insurance industry in general, then you’re ready to take in the Australian gem Risk.

Movie Monday #11: Give 'Em Hell Malone

Last Friday I stopped by Blockbuster Video at Windsor Commons in Red Lion, PA, looking for something different to add to my movie collection.  I found Give 'Em Hell Malone, an action film by Russell Mulcahy (of Highlander fame) that I enjoyed immensly.  I payed $9.99 for a previously viewed copy that didn't have a single scratch, fingerprint, or mark on it, so I had to ask myself--was the movie so bad that nobody was watching it?  Let's find out!

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“In my world, you have to knife before you’re punched and shoot before you’re knifed, because there’s one golden rule that can never be broken -- once you’re dead, you stay that way.”


--Thomas Jane as Malone, Give ‘Em Hell Malone

Along with all the other things I love about movies, I love it when a movie pays homage to film noir and gangster-era themes. My favorite movie of all time, L.A. Confidential, pays homage to hardboiled detectives and crime novels of the 1940’s and 1950’s, which are quickly becoming the only books I read.

So when a movie comes along that pays homage to film noir, hardboiled crime fiction, and yet creates something new entirely, what do you expect me to do? Sit on my hands and let it slip under the radar? To be truthful, I almost did, if it weren’t for a recent trip to Blockbuster Video at Windsor Commons in Red Lion, PA, where I found Give ‘Em Hell Malone, previously viewed, for ten bucks.

The film opens with a massive, visceral shootout between Malone and at least twelve guys in an empty hotel. Malone (Thomas Jane) narrates over this with wry, period-appropriate dialogue, informing us of his personal opinion of getting shot at, bullets (and their many uses), thugs, and some vital personal information.

Malone has been hired to retrieve a case from the safe in the hotel. After getting shot, having the case stolen from him by a thug named Pencil Stache, chasing this guy down in his resto-rod, shooting out his tires with a shotgun, and letting Pencil’s van smash through several parked cars, Malone visits his mother, Gloria, at the retirement home.

Apparently Malone only visits her when he’s been shot, stabbed, or is in desperate need of medical attention. Gloria doesn’t use anesthesia, so Malone’s screaming can be heard inside (and outside) the nursing home. After getting fixed up, Malone opens the case and finds a blue toy elephant inside.

Returning to his handler’s home with an empty case, Malone wants to know who his client was. Enter Evelyn (Elsa Pataky), a femme fatale in a red coat who claims she must trade the case and its contents for her brother, Sam, or he will die.

And to top everything off, we have Boulder (Ving Rhames), a tough-as-nails hood working for Whitmore (Gregory Harrison), the crime boss of this city. Boulder needs Whitmore’s money to keep his wife’s life-sustaining equipment running, so Boulder goes to track down Malone and get the case back, with a little help from the psychopathic pyromaniac Matchstick (Doug Hutchison).

Along the way, Matchstick sets things on fire, Malone’s mom gets drunk, Evelyn seduces Malone, and Malone runs out of bullets (a rare thing for an action movie). There’s plenty of humor, plenty of action, plenty of surprises, and plenty of nods to the hardboiled heroes of yesteryear to keep any movie fan pleased.

Thomas Jane was born to play Malone. The cadence in his voice, his swagger, the way he uses that huge revolver--everything about Malone--seems effortless for Jane. He makes these kinds of parts look easy. He also makes you cheer for Malone, laugh with Malone, and feel sorry for Malone, sometimes all at once. If there were ever a guy to recreate Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, it would be Thomas Jane.

Elsa Pataky is smoking hot as Evelyn, the woman who twists Malone from love to hate and back again. The shower scene in the motel room (where Malone can see half of her taking a shower in the bathroom mirror) stood out to me as being very Raymond Chandler and Donald Westlake, and her whole attitude and demeanor were dead on the money for a film with hardboiled themes. Any actress can be easy on the eyes, but it helps if you’ve got the talent to back it up. Pataky is the full package.

Ving Rhames showed flashes of his brief but memorable turn as Kojak in this film. Boulder is a man who used to work with Malone, but turned to a life of crime in order to keep his dying wife alive. Repeating throughout the movie “She’s gonna pull through” to almost every character, Rhames shows that this is a guy who doesn’t really believe in what he’s doing anymore. Does he make the right choice come the end of the film? I’ll leave that for you to decide, but you’re in for a treat with Rhames’s deadpan humor and gangster swagger whenever he steps on screen.

Writer Mark Hosack scribed a terrific script that hits all the action-lover and noir-lover notes just right. Director Russell Mulcahy (of Highlander and Resident Evil fame) put his years of experience to good use in Give ‘Em Hell Malone, pulling off some great stunts, lighting, sets, and special effects on a low budget. Cinematographer Jonathan Hall did a terrific job as well, getting all the film noir trademarks in there--silhouettes, slat lighting, and shadows.

The music, however, is the real treat in this film. The musical score by David Williams features a slow, saxophone love theme that evokes shades of the opening credit music to Basic Instinct and Body Heat, but he didn’t stop there. He added synthesizers, mini-moogs, and crazy drum beats to the action and chase scenes to show the modern side of the production, while keeping the old film noir sound. I’ve never heard music done like that before, and Williams is now my favorite movie composer because of it. Watch out for this guy, folks--he’s going to go places.

So, with all of this going right for Give ‘Em Hell, Malone, what could possibly be wrong with it? Not much, but I did find it a little confusing near the end of what screenwriters call Act Two (the middle section of the film), because there were one or two twists that twisted a bit too fast. You also have to take into account that this is a Russell Mulcahy film, and that means logic can sometimes go out the window.

Other than those two quibbles, I enjoyed Give ‘Em Hell Malone a ton. It had laughs, action, and suspense, and the whole homage to the hardboiled era only enhanced the fun factor for me. This was worth every penny of the ten dollars I spent on it, and I’m looking into some of the other titles that its distributor, National Entertainment Media, has available. I wish they made more movies like this and in this style, but for now, I will sit back and watch Give ‘Em Hell Malone till they discover a way to bring Chandler and Westlake back to life...and that could be a while.

Movie Monday #10: Night Train

Last Friday I spent some time looking through the bins at Tom's Music Trade for some cheap movies to add to my collection.  One of the movies I ran across was Night Train, M. Brian King's 2008 noir mystery vehicle, which I snagged for $1.99.  The original Blockbuster Video price tag was still on the case, which listed the price as $14.99.  Sure, I got the movie for a song...but was it worth it?

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“Who hasn’t chopped up a corpse from time to time?”

--Steve Zahn as Pete, Night Train

The concept of a movie on a train has been done to death.

There. I said it. I got it off my chest.

But there hasn’t been a movie on a train in a long time, and the genre seems to have disappeared altogether from Hollywood. So when an independent thriller comes along that takes place on a train traveling to nowhere on Christmas Eve, I was intrigued...and now that I’ve seen Night Train, I can say that the genre hasn’t been done like this in a long time.

Miles (Danny Glover) is a veteran train conductor who merely wants to get home to his ailing wife by Christmas morning. At the first stop for his train, a strange man comes on board carrying a Christmas present. He takes a seat in the rear car, where washed-up salesman Pete (Steve Zahn) and pre-med student Chloe (Leelee Sobieski) are trying not to be weirded out by the new guy.

As the train gets under way, Miles stops by the rear car to see the stranger again. It seems the guy didn’t pay for a ticket, but that’s not going to be a problem--he’s dead. As Miles, Pete, and Chloe investigate this incident, Pete opens the Christmas present and finds a small, wooden box inside...and inside the box are five million dollars worth of white diamonds.

Miles thinks they should report the dead man to the authorities. Pete thinks they shouldn’t. Chloe points out that they can dump the stranger’s body from the train and into an upcoming river without anyone being the wiser...and soon, everything starts to snowball out of control as Chloe gets more and more manipulative, Miles starts to regret that he ever found the box, and Pete is too scared to think straight, which all leads to a smashing climax aboard the runaway train.

Danny Glover is someone who, after Lethal Weapon was said and done with, has really supported the independent film community with his work. He gives a performance here that’s as solid as I’ve ever seen from him. Everything about the character of Miles--his gait, his limp, his voice, and the way greed twists at his heart--really made me admire Glover as a terrific actor, and not just a straight man to Mel Gibson.

Leelee Sobieski is something of an enigma to me. I’d only seen her in Joyride before this, and while I thought she was gorgeous and definitely had talent, I didn’t know what else she brought to the table. Miss Sobieski proves that she has the acting chops to compete with some of the best out there in Night Train. Her turn as the manipulative and slightly psychotic Chloe is one of the better and more realistic femme fatale portrayals I’ve seen in recent years, and the more horror-oriented elements of the film played to her strengths quite well. I’ll be looking for more of her work from now on.

Steve Zahn (who co-starred with Sobieski in Joyride) has been redefining himself lately as someone who can take on dramatic roles (see his turn in A Perfect Getaway for evidence of this) as well as comedic ones. His character, Pete, slowly develops over the period of the film into the audience’s guilty conscience, since he’s the one who wants to run away with the box and never come back, and ends up getting killed by his own greed. A good lesson to be learned by anyone who wants to pursue a life of crime, and a lesson well-acted by Steve Zahn.

Writer/director M. Brian King confesses a childhood love for trains in an interview on the DVD, and it shows in every frame of Night Train. The entire movie takes place on the train (say for the last few minutes), and while the exterior train shots were all done with CGI, that didn’t seem to bother me very much--King clearly knew how he wanted his film to look, to sound, and to feel, and he brought every bit of that to the table.

Production Designer John Welbanks is the kind of guy I’d hire if I were making a movie. He had to design a wooden six-car train setup inside a studio in Yugoslavia and get it done on a budget. The results speak for themselves. The train itself looks like an old model that’s ready for retirement. The interior has a 40’s-style wood finish. There are Christmas decorations and twinkle lights everywhere. And the best part of it all was the baggage cart, a cold, wrought-iron place where Chloe “improvises” with how to dispose of the dead stranger. Kudos to John for creating a gorgeous and believable backdrop for the film to take place in.

My only real complaint about the film was the lighting by Christopher Popp. I don’t know if it was a style choice or if it was M. Brian King’s choice, but for the majority of the movie, everything is fully lit, all the time. I realize it takes place on a train, and that trains are fully lit the majority of the time, but a little mood lighting wouldn’t have hurt in certain spots. The only real lighting change was in the baggage cart scenes with the florescent bulbs, which was absolutely gorgeous, but the soft, happy lighting downplayed the dark, noir-like themes going on on-screen. Somebody needed to do their homework on what noir lighting is all about, but as to whose flub it was will remain a mystery.

If you watch Night Train, be prepared for a Hitchcock-like noir thriller that takes an unexpected sci-fi twist, and get ready for lots of other twists along the way too. While it’s not the best film I’ve ever seen, it certainly grabbed my attention with the mystery of the dead man and his mysterious box, and the things the characters do for the box’s contents are believable and keep your interest. If you like your movies a little on the darker side and with a touch of the macabre, then you’ll love Night Train.

Movie Monday No. 8 - Big Trouble

Well, two weeks in a row for the month of March, people! Let's keep this streak going with a review of the Barry Sonnenfeld comedy, Big Trouble, which I picked up at Tom's Music Trade here in Red Lion, PA for four bucks. Wondering what store I'm talking about? Read on and find out for yourself!

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"This is Miami? They can keep it."
--Dennis Farina as Ness, Big Trouble

Cue the Cheers theme song, people, ‘cause I’m going to jabber on about one of my favorite places to go. No, it isn’t La-La Land; I can go there any time I want (and some people claim I live there daily, which I’m not conceding or denying). It’s a trade store located on North Main Street in the town I live in, Red Lion, Pennsylvania, called Tom’s Music Trade, and it’s the best place to find anything you’re looking for.

Feeling a bit blue last Wednesday, I went to Tom’s (it’s, like, five minutes from my apartment) and traded in some older DVDs I had and acquired some new ones for my collection. Tom, the owner, is a British guy who hasn’t lost his accent yet, likes watching UFC fights on his laptop by the cash register, and never seems to be in a sour mood, no matter what the weather may be like outside. When I visited his store on Wednesday, I told him about my blog, and that I’d mention his store in it someday.

Well, that time has come, since on my visit there I picked up the 2001 Touchstone Pictures comedy Big Trouble, based on Pulitzer-prize winning humorist Dave Barry’s first novel. I’ve never read the novel, but there were definite "Barry-isms" carried over from the book to the script, which is always a good sign that the writers actually cared about the material (and it wasn’t just another paycheck to them).

This film begins with Jason Lee playing a hippie addicted to Fritos named Puggy. Everyone keeps mistaking him for Jesus because of his long hair and goatee, which I thought was actually kind-of funny. The movie begins full-force with Tim Allen playing Elliot Arnold, a former columnist who quit his job after having a meltdown at his former boss who tried to assign him ‘serious’ work. If this isn’t a Barry-ism, then I don’t know what is.

The story in this film follows Arnold as his son, Matthew, attempts to go to a female classmate’s house and squirt-gun her so he can "score points" for a game played in school. Simultaneously, Dennis Farina arrives in town and at this girl’s house to kill her father, who has been skimming money from his company. The company had ordered him dead, and Farina and his partner, who always responds with the same line -- "You said it" -- end up botching the job when Elliot’s son Matthew enters the scene and tries to ‘kill’ the poor girl with his squirt gun.

When the girl’s mother (Rene Russo) and Matthew’s father Elliot meet for the first time, there’s some chemistry that can’t be denied...and when she stops by Elliot’s office the next day, they end up doing this hilarious sex scene where Elliot is trying to kiss her, take her clothes off, balance himself, and keep from spilling a cup of coffee, all to a Mexican samba in the background. This had me rolling, and that was a very good sign.

The girl’s father (Stanley Tucci) acquires a nuclear bomb from some Russian arms dealers who use a crappy bar as a front for their operation. That’s when two knuckleheads, led by Tom Sizemore, storm the bar to rob it, but instead take the nuclear device and the so-called "drug kingpin in the fag Jag" back to his house, where Elliot, his son, and the "kingpin’s" daughter and wife have arrived after finding out that another one of these squirting games has gone on, and end up getting tangled up in the heist with the nuclear device (that everyone keeps remarking looks like a garbage disposal).

If the comedy in this doesn’t keep you watching the movie, this is the point where it kicks into high gear and everything gets cranked up ten notches. I won’t ruin it for you -- you have to see it for yourself as every character gets what’s coming to them, and then some.

A movie would be nothing without its script, and this movie had a great one. The direction by Barry Sonnenfeld, who also directed Get Shorty and Men In Black before this film, was top-notch. There weren’t what I call frat-boy shots in it -- shots down women’s dresses, extreme close-ups of breasts and ass -- you get what I mean. It was a very clean movie in terms of that. The acting was top-notch, but that’s what happens when you have comedy greats like Stanley Tucci, Jason Lee, Rene Russo, and of course Tim Allen working with material from Dave Barry -- you’re bound to have something funny.

The music for this film was great as well, performed by James Newton Howard, who gets very little recognition for his work. The jazzy themes he came up with for Big Trouble matched the film perfectly, and even in the suspenseful last minutes, the score lived up to the action on the screen. Industrial Light and Magic even did some great plane effects here that still hold up well.

Overall, Big Trouble is simply a tightly-plotted and very funny movie, and I haven’t even mentioned half of what goes on. I’m saving it for you, the viewer, to find out when you watch it, because this is one movie I’d recommend to just about anybody, even my grandmother (if you’re reading this Grammy, go rent Big Trouble before the day’s through). If you’re looking for big laughs with a great cast that will not disappoint, then Big Trouble is the movie for you. And if you don’t laugh even once, then you are not human.

Movie Monday 04: Blood Simple

It's still cold here in PA, but at least there's no ice freezing my rastafaran' neh-nehs off. In the meantime, enjoy this review of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, a movie I recently sampled with some not-so-hard-earned Christmas money.

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“Well, ma’am, if I see him, I’ll sure give him the message.”
--M. Emmet Walsh as Loren, Blood Simple

If there was ever a movie I had heard so much about and never had a chance to see, it was Blood Simple. The first film by the Coen Brothers, who would later go on to do Fargo, Intolerable Cruelty, and more recently No Country For Old Men, was recently released onto DVD in a director’s cut edition by MGM, and I was able to purchase it in the independent film section of Target for about ten dollars.

Blood Simple was made in Austin, Texas in 1985, and follows a seemingly simple story. Ray (John Getz) has it bad for his boss’s wife, Abby (Frances McDormand). When Loren (M. Emmet Walsh), a private detective, photographs them together doing the nasty in a motel room on a stormy night, he gives the pictures to Abby’s husband, Marty (Dan Hedaya), the owner of a backwoods bar.

Ray and Abby make plans to leave town together, while Marty decides he can’t live with his wife’s infidelity anymore and agrees to pay Loren $10,000 to kill both Abby and Ray. Typical of most characters M. Emmet Walsh gets to play, Loren has an ulterior motive--he fakes the death photographs of Ray and Abby and then shoots Marty, thereby collecting his fee and leaving the only person who could implicate him looking rather dead.

Ray, not wanting to run off with Abby poor, heads to the bar that night to get two weeks worth of pay that’s owed to him. When he opens the door to Marty’s office, he stumbles onto the crime scene...the blood...Marty’s safe standing open...and, oddly enough, Abby’s revolver lying on the floor, still smoking. Ray can only assume that Abby has killed her husband for her and Ray’s future, and does the only thing he knows to do--clean up the mess and get rid of the body.

And I’m stopping right here, because if I tell you readers anything else about this tightly scripted and tightly-wound southern suspense noir, I’d be ruining what is probably one of the best debut films I’ve ever seen from any writer/director, whether they be brothers or not (and that is taking how much I loved El Mariachi into account).

I had never seen John Getz or Dan Hedaya in a film before, and I feel terrible about that, because now I know what I was missing out on. Getz is the stoic strongman who simply can’t live with what he did to his old boss, or what he thinks Abby did to her husband, and he pulls it off with tens across the board. Dan Hedaya is a natural villain, but it’s not entirely clear why Abby and Marty’s marriage is so bad in the beginning of the film. Whatever the circumstances, you actually start to feel sorry for Marty as his perfect plan to get rid of his wife and his wife’s lover unravels around him, and ends up putting him into an early grave.

Frances McDormand is one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood. I had seen her previously in Darkman, which was not really the most becoming of roles for her (I mean, let’s face it, folks--Darkman wasn’t really becoming for anybody), and it made me wonder what she was truly capable of. I found out by watching Blood Simple. She plays all the angles of Abby’s personality pefectly--the cheating, confused wife; the woman in love with another man; and the woman determined to get to the bottom of who killed her husband. Her reactions in her dream sequence with Dan Hedaya are particularly poignant to me, and are really the standout pieces of acting in the film.

M. Emmet Walsh is one of my favorite character actors, because he’s usually playing these low-life scumbags that you just love to hate. I first saw him in MGM’s Denzel Washington/Robert Townsend vehicle The Mighty Quinn, and I was like “Who is this guy? He’s freakin’ great!” Seeing him in this earlier role solidifies for me that he is one of the most underrated character actors in Hollywood (last time I saw him was in Surviving Christmas, I believe), and seeing him sweating like a pig in that awful yellow suit in Blood Simple with that slightly retarded southern accent was like finding a pot of gold.

The look of this film is true independent style. It represents life as life is, not the color-coordinated hyper-realism that Hollywood often portrays. While that hyper-realism can be fun at times, it wouldn’t have suited Blood Simple. This is a movie where everything was real and practical--the barely furnished studio apartment Abby and Ray move into; the backwoods bar that Marty owns with the statue of a brown bull outside; the field where Ray does the deed to Marty for his ladylove. All of it was real, making it almost surreal, like we’re peeking in on these people’s lives in a voyeuristic fashion.

What I’ve always loved about the Coen Brothers is their offbeat sense of humor. Here in their first film, they were still developing it, but the signs are there of something great. Two particular scenes feature the same joke--Ray’s house is on a dead end street that isn’t labeled as such, and everyone squeals tires as they drive off, then shove it into reverse as they hit the dead end, turn around, and drive back up the street. Even Abby comments on it the first time it happens--“Would have liked to have seen his face when he saw the dead end.” The use of The Four Tops’ tune “It’s The Same Old Song” throughout the movie to juxtapose against certain actions was also a nice example of their offbeat, quirky humor as well.

You might think I’m going to recommend Blood Simple as a great movie for everyone to see, but in actuality, I’m not. I believe that everyone should at least give it a chance, as you should with most things in life, but this movie is for the true fan of tightly-wound thrillers and independent films. Everyone else who doesn’t fall under that category would probably be out to lunch after the first ten minutes (I know most of my colleagues would). So, unless you’re a die-hard Coen Brothers fan and want to see how they got their start, or you’re in the mood for some murderous, double-crossing southern hospitality, then Blood Simple will satisfy that mood nicely.

Movie Monday 03: El Mariachi

Well folks, I only have two episodes left to go on that Beast King Go Lion box set I got as an early Christmas gift, so I decided to head to Borders and see if any more of them existed. What I got instead was Robert Rodriguez's first flick, El Mariachi, on sale for $7.99. Was it worth it? Read on...
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"All I wanted was to be a mariachi, like my ancestors. But the city I thought would bring me luck brought only a curse."
--Carlos Gallardo as The Mariachi, El Mariachi

The very first independent film I ever saw was Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi. It was on a stuffy August night about three years ago when I was still living with my parents. I lived in an apartment attached to their house, and I was restless--no job, barely any money, and really no friends to speak of. I needed some serious cheering up.

I went down to my local Lackluster (oh, I’m sorry, did I say that? I meant Blockbuster) store and went scouring through the action DVDs, looking for something to take my mind off my current life situation. What I found was El Mariachi, which I had heard about online and read some reviews of. Everyone was praising it as "a triumph" and "a movie miracle," which probably meant that I was going to hate it.

Boy, was I ever wrong. El Mariachi is one hell of a movie, and don’t you let anyone tell you any different.

The setup is simple: a nameless mariachi, or musician in Spanish, comes to a town near the Mexican border, hoping to find work playing the guitar. He wants to be a mariachi, like his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather before him; it’s the only desire he’s ever known. Simultaneously, a gangster named Azul has just been busted out of prison on the edge of town after his old boss, Moco, tried to rub him out.

What do Azul and the Mariachi have in common? They both carry guitar cases, only Azul’s is full of weapons. Azul goes around town, killing Moco’s boys. Meanwhile, the Mariachi is two steps behind him, trying to get a job. It’s on one of these junkets that he meets Domino, a sexy bar owner who finds him odd and doesn’t know what to make of his desire to be nothing more than a guitar player.
When the Mariachi tries to get a hotel room, the hotel clerk makes the connection between the guitar case and assumes that the Mariachi is Azul. He calls Moco’s men, and luckily, the Mariachi escapes with his guitar intact...but he has to kill four men to do it.

The Mariachi returns to Domino’s bar and confesses to her what has just happened, and after convincing her not to call the police, they seem to reach an understanding--the Mariachi will play in her bar for room and board, and she has some new nighttime entertainment. Meanwhile, Azul and Moco keep going back and forth over some owed money, and Moco’s men keep trying to track down Azul...but they keep mistaking the Mariachi for the hitman, mostly because they both carry guitar cases.

Have I mentioned yet that this movie is not even in English? It’s in Spanish, available subtitled in English. And if this sounds absolutely stupid to you and something that deserves to be in the bargain bin, then shame on you, because you’re missing out on a simple yet very entertaining movie.

Because there are no major stars in this film, and director Rodriguez was the only real crew on hand, the performances are very natural, very real, almost like we’re spying on these peoples’ lives. Carlos Gallardo, Rodriguez’s best friend since high school who had aspirations of being an actor, clocks in as The Mariachi, and he probably gives the best performance out of all the actors. You can tell that he’s comfortable and in control throughout the entire film, and even though it’s in a foreign language, a lot can be told from the expression on someone’s face, and Carlos’s speaks volumes.

Consuelo Gomez, who played Domino, was the only one who had any kind of acting experience, according to Rodriguez. She’s also the only actor on this gig who got paid any kind of money during filming. Consuelo had a great challenge here--she had to act like she wasn’t interested in The Mariachi, and really sell it, so that when she says that she’s staying on his side near the end of the film, the moment has real meaning and cements their relationship. It’s very subtle, but she pulls it off. As an added note, her off-base humor during the bathtub scene was very entertaining.

Peter Marquardt, who Rodriguez met in a medical testing facility while trying to raise money to shoot El Mariachi, plays Moco, the main bandido gangster in this film. Dressed perpetually in white and always wearing his sunglasses, Peter didn’t know any Spanish at all--he was fed his lines phonetically off a cue card by Carlos, The Mariachi. The result is nothing short of an iron clad, mean-as-all-hell villain, and when he finally gets his, it really does make you want to cheer.

The film itself is really something to marvel at. The editing and pacing are matched so well to the acting that you wonder how Rodriguez pulled it off. Well, here’s the clincher: he had made about 40 short films with his friends on video and film cameras before he made El Mariachi, so it was truly a case where the guy just knew what he was doing. The plot may leave something to be desired for the more high-class crowd of "indie" film viewers, but Rodriguez certainly didn’t skimp when it came to fun and entertainment.

You might notice some slight mistakes in here as well. One guitar case had a wooden top; you’ll catch it sometimes when the cuts aren’t as quick. In one instance, Domino is looking off-axis (she’s looking to her right, and The Mariachi is looking to his right). A Playboy sign on the wall in Azul’s bachelor pad suddenly disappears a few scenes later. And of course, the biggest mistake (which was not really a mistake at all) was having the actors dress in the same clothes throughout the entire shoot. By the end of the movie, The Mariachi should have bought a new shirt, not a new guitar.

Rodriguez explains in his book Rebel Without A Crew: The Making of El Mariachi that he used a borrowed 16mm camera to do a two-week shoot and ended up with an 81-minute film. He edited the film on videotape using a dual-deck VCR. He shot without sound, or what they call MOS in the film business, and recorded all the sound effects and dialogue afterwards and edited it back in from his single-track tape recorder. He then submitted it to the Sundance film festival, where it won the audience award and was picked up by Columbia Pictures for theatrical distribution.

El Mariachi went on to make $2,000,000 domestically.

It was made for only $6,000.

A movie miracle indeed.