The film isn’t a mainstream cult classic. Still, you need not search the far corners of the internet to find appreciation for this nifty genre twist. And followers of this blog will notice some familiar creatives at work here.

The film is from (mostly) the same braintrust as Trancers, written by the duo of Danny Bilson (also directing) and Paul De Meo (the duo behind my beloved trashy monster beatdown film Arena.)

And if you need more low-budget credentials, it’s produced by Charles Band’s Empire Pictures (Re-Animator).

But even solid creators miss the mark from time to time.

Zone Troopers boasts stamps of approval from card-carrying VHS generation members. Yet it has a woeful 43% audience score (at time of writing) on film site Rotten Tomatoes. 

This dichotomy is no death sentence for an unheralded film scraper like myself but no happy omen.

So is Zone Troopers a good movie?

The Plot of Zone Troopers:

Sergeant Patrick “The Sarge” Stone (Tim Thomerson) and what’s left of his men are stuck behind enemy lines.

The squad includes young comic book reader Joey Verona (Timothy Van Patten), veteran George “Mittens” Minnensky (Art LaFleur), and journalist Dolan (Biff Manard).

While the soldiers try to find a way out, they stumble into the crash site of an alien spacecraft.

As the Nazis roll in, will the squad escape? And do the mysterious alien beings come in war or peace?

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes: 

• William Paulson as Alien
• Peter Boom as Col. Mannheim
• Max Turili as Sgt. Zeller

The Good Things:

Casting +3 Points

Coming straight off Trancers, the filmmakers didn’t cast a wide net, bringing back Thomerson, LaFleur, and Manard.

It’s an easy leap for Thomerson to fill the shoes of the hardcase Sarge. The character lacks the nuance and quiet cool of Trancers’s Jack Deth. Still, thanks to Thomerson’s grace in the boots, you sense a bit more heart in this one-note character.

LaFleur hams it up as Mittens. He brings charisma to a classic grizzled vet. The rugged heavy of the group puffs his cigarettes and dreams of blonde dames. He affectionately names his machine gun after a girl back home (Velma) and doesn’t bend under the torture of interrogation.

We buy into Tim Van Patten’s wild-eyed, enthusiastic young Joey, ever the optimist in the face of peril.

And Manard improves on his Trancers showing as the daring and curious Dolan.

Setup and Tone, + 2 Points

The campy tone is refreshing.

While there are WW2 action films, dramas, and even monster movies, I can’t think of another that mixes friendly retro aliens (spoilers, I’m sorry) into the mix.

And trapped behind enemy lines with only their wits and the grit of The Sarge to get the squad through, the film sets out a straightforward narrative for us to slip into the drama.

The Not-as-Good Things:

Sleepwalking Middle, -4 Points

**Some Plot Spoilers Here**

This film dies at the hands of that cinema mass murderer known as Act II.

The first act jumps right into the action and moves okay, but it downshifts into slow plodding that deflates any momentum.

After a skirmish with Nazis and some character-introducing scenes, it’s time for the movie to show us the goods – the crash-landed spaceship. We get there right when you’d expect, ~22 minutes in.

Yet what could be a compelling reveal trends boring. 

The team has split into pairs. While Mittens and Dolan discover the spaceship through the Nazi documents….documenting it, Joe and The Sarge explore the fallen, sputtering space cruiser.

The film cross-cuts between the two groups for a staggering ~20 minutes combined (I’m not exaggerating – I checked the runtime).

Cuts had to be made here, and I’d trim to the bare seconds Dolan and Mittens at the Nazi camp. The audience already knows there’s a spaceship because The Sarge and Joey are walking around one. It’s a double exposition for the audience. 

From here, we’re locked in more exposition about the aliens, the Nazis doing nothing meaningful with one in a crate. 

Then it’s an interrogation scene – a trope almost as worn as references to “not being in Kansas anymore” (though the film may have liked the opportunity to punch Hitler in the face). 

Altogether, these sequences last from minute ~22 to minute ~50 (of an ~83-minute film).

The movie finally starts doing action things most of the way through Act II, which is far too long for us to care. It should be out of exposition and delivering by then.

Combat, -2 Points

You wish the film was the War of the Worlds lies it’s telling with its Blu-Ray cover (those flying ships don’t come).

The movie teases juicy pulp action. Instead, it settles for the concentrated OJ out of the freezer (that shit that inevitably gets watered down when you mix it with liquid and swirl the hell out of it with your best wooden spoon, trying to melt that floating orange turd into juicedom).

This isn’t Band of Brothers. Realism isn’t the goal. The picture had the freedom to go wild. 

You could imagine our heroes mowing down hordes of Nazis video-game style. It could turn slapstick with comically bullet-diving heroes and villains and over-the-top moments.

Instead, it just portrays stale combat. Our heroes take cover behind untactical spots, like three men and one log, as their untactical foes slowly march into their weak ambushes.

Blargh.

The film adds a tame truck escape. It’s about two to three minutes long. Its game is running over unoccupied Nazi tents, though I guess it explodes one with a grenade. It plays a trick card when a Nazi tries to blow the truck up with a rocket, only for the alien to make the truck glow red in some kinda defense that vanishes the missile.

Even without the budget for large-scale battles, creativity could have salvaged something here.

Grab-Bag Production, -2 Points

The production design is an unhealthy mix of wins and sins. It’s like the costume and set designers at Empire Pictures were forced to raid other movies’ props.

Not being a historian, the Nazi and U.S. Army uniforms/equipment are capable period representations, especially for a low-budget assembly. Some weapons look like they’re firing without visual muzzle flashes popping off, but that’s getting into the weeds.

The crash-landed alien ship, mostly buried, is one impressive piece. Hissing various pots of steam and exhaust, its scale makes the moment.

And expecting it to be locked in the background, I was surprised the characters boarded it to explore it in more detail.

Yet later in the film, there’s a second alien craft (apologies – the glowing photo is all I could find) with no continuity. The yellow space cruiser of the first is replaced with a blue vertical-landing dome top like a Byzantine-influenced building.

As we’re led to believe this is the same alien race, it’s confusing.

And that brings us to the aliens. The first is a hairy bug monster, a Predator you could smack in the face with a run-of-the-mill fly swatter. It’s a creature so dull that even the on-screen characters ask why it just sits there.

But to make things worse, when a ship comes to rendezvous with the bug alien, we get unimaginative humanoid creeps – apparently from the same race. Maybe these WASP aliens are supposed to be Nazis from another dimension, come back to right the wrongs of their previous sins?

Vanilla Scenes, -4 Points

Zone Troopers gets the tone and spirit locked in but doesn’t sail because its scenes are bland. 

Similar to how a book must incentivize the reader to turn each and every page, a film must do the same with its scenes.

While you wouldn’t say the movie’s moments are poorly written, they lack surprise or ingenuity.

Mittens stands up to interrogation because he’s a tough guy. It’s boring because he’s just getting punched in the jaw. The audience expects it; the film delivers it. Nobody wins.

The Sarge carries a mythos for being unkillable. But this is set up by a Nazi clearly shooting him and just being unharmed for no concrete reason until he says his helmet saved him. It’s shrug-worthy.

The pale-faced aliens aren’t interested in helping the soldiers. In their plain jumpsuits and humanoid appearance, the audience isn’t interested in them.

It’s strange from this writing team as Trancers is the complete opposite – full of quirks and catchy lines that catch you off balance.

Let’s Not Watch Zone Troopers

Total Arbitrary Points Score: -7 Points

Zone Troopers reunites the writing team of the sci-fi cult classic Trancers and some of its cast members. 

But this time around, the same creative well poured out muddier waters. 

Despite a playful setup for a creative romp blending WW2 action and 1950s aliens, the movie unceremoniously staples the two genres together.

The cast was capable. Yet they aren’t given too much to entertain, especially in Act II. 

And we plod through scenes rather than get entertained by them. The film never gives us the delightful pockets of joy audiences crave.

I stand behind other works from these creative folks, and I don’t like being harsh. Still, while this movie is far from trash, this effort is too tame.

Zone Troopers is directed by Danny Bilson and rated PG.

You can rent it from Amazon Prime Video.

You can watch the trailer here. (For unknown reasons, it paints the movie as dark.)

Disclaimer:

This review’s factual information was gathered from online sources, such as Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.

The post Zone Troopers (1985) Review: A Self-Aware Pulpy Postcard from the Trancers Crew appeared first on The Antenna.

Curiously, the infamous moviemaking wildcard Cannon films (Bloodsport, Death Wish 3) distributed it in the United States, branding it a horror show. 

You can see why. Check out the lurid image of a wolf crawling from a throat on this film poster or the nudity and blood on this more provocative version. 

But scares are part of the film’s means, not its ends. 

So while there are many things you can blame Cannon films for (like Over the Top), this low-budget entry isn’t straightforward to pitch to the public.

It’s a gothic fairy tale for adults. This somewhat surrealist nightmare explores the erotic teenage undertones of Little Red Riding Hood.

The film did ~breakeven business, and only thanks to the time capsule that is the internet did I hear the howling of Wolves as some audiences’ forgotten gem.

I was drawn in thanks to screencaps like this.

But if prosthetic wolf-headed people dining with the elite doesn’t immediately tease your fancy – the film is adapted from heralded British magical-realism author Angela Carter’s short story of the same name. And the picture is directed by Neil Jordan, who has a solid track record in alluring fantasy literature adaptations (Interview with a Vampire).

And the film received four BAFTA nominations (costume design, special visual effects, best makeup and hair, and best production design). 

But there’s more to a film than biting imagery.

So is The Company of Wolves a good movie?

The Plot of The Company of Wolves:

A young girl dreams that she is Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson), a peasant living with Mother (Tusse Silberg) and Father (David Warner) in a small 18th-century English village.

After her sister, Alice (Georgia Slowe), is killed by wolves, Rosaleen develops a fear and fascination for the creatures, which prey on the town at night.

Meanwhile, as neighbor Amorous Boy (Shane Johnstone) courts her, Rosaleen becomes curious about love and attraction.

And she listens to stories spun by Granny (Angela Lansbury) that warn about the desires of wolves and men.

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• Micha Bergese as Huntsman
• Brian Glover as Amorous Boy’s father
• Graham Crowden as Old Priest
• Kathryn Pogson as Young Bride
• Stephen Rea as Young Groom
• Susan Porrett as Amorous Boy’s mother
• Dawn Archibald as Witch Woman
• Richard Morant as Wealthy Groom
• Danielle Dax as Wolfgirl
• Jim Carter as Second Husband
• Terence Stamp as The Devil

The Good Things:

Surreal Images and Symbolism, + 2 Points

As the film is an adolescent’s dream, it plays like one. Yet all of its surrealism is for the sake of artistry, never overindulgent or odd just for the sake of it. 

Moments that could be gory realities shift into dream pieces. A head is lopped off and shatters like a clay pot instead of a stringy pile of blood things.

Events can be unrealistic, creating a compelling mystery in the film. When Rosaleen climbs a tree and finds blue bird’s eggs, they begin to hatch. Yet where we’d expect a hungry chick to emerge, there are human dolls.

The cinematography creates captivating compositions, like when a delicate white bird rests in the foreground and could-be young lovers stand in the background.

And there’s a visual motif with white and red – perhaps innocence lost. 

In close-up, a white flower blooms until red blood drips upon it, slowly dying it crimson. A wolf eats in the snow, drops of blood falling over the dove-white ice. 

The playfulness of the symbols and the blocking of the actors creates erotic undertones. We visually understand this is a young girl coming of age, warned about the beastliness of men and her attraction to the werewolf’s seduction. 

Mighty Morphin Power Wolves, +2 Points

I’m not a gorehound. Still, the grotesque werewolf transformations are deliciously horrifying. The film could fail without the disgusting human-to-beast sequences of the wolves who are “hairy on the inside.”

While things don’t reach The Thing levels of sickening nasty, there’s enough here to kick the young kids out of the home theater.

The brilliance is in the imaginative direction they unfold. Werewolf films like Teen Wolf or An American Werewolf in London have excellent transition scenes that run with a time-lapse of the appendages — the expanding feet, the slow-growing hair, and the extension of claws.

Here, things get more down and dirty as a wolf living beneath the human emerges, not a human turning into a wolf.

The first transformation is a horrifying flesh ripping to reveal the wolf beneath, all red sinews and bloodied. 

In the second, as in the poster, a wolf painfully slips straight from its human-form mouth.

Yet with all the terror-inducing visuals, you feel sympathy for the werewolves in much pain. The audience’s compassion for the werewolves helps us understand Rosaleen’s fascination and pity for them.

Tales Within the Tale, +3 Points

The film has an unorthodox structure. Rosaleen, our stand-in for Little Red Riding Hood, only makes her fabled journey to Grandma’s in the third and final act (and don’t be mad at me for spoiling that — you know it’s going here).

The rest of the narrative follows her day-to-day. Then multiple tales, also written by Angela Carter, fill in the themes. Moralistic stories and warnings, these dark anecdotes of Granny’s fill out the cultural values thrust on young Rosaleen.

There’s a story about a woman who unknowingly married a werewolf; a boy who makes a bargain with the Devil; a pregnant, bitter sorceress who crashes a wedding party; and a young wolf girl who ventures into a village.

The film does not meander. It builds her character toward the inevitable confrontation with the werewolf.

This structure most likely came from necessity, adding to Carter’s short story because it wasn’t long enough for a feature length. But these additional tales sew themes together while standing alone as darkly gripping.

Performances, +2 Points

Angela Landsbury, as Granny, brings needed levity. Ms. Murder, She Wrote trades in her typewriter for sewing needles. The old curmudgeon tells Rosaleen nightmarish stories before bed and demands a kiss on the cheek as reward.

But of all Granny’s little wisdoms, her best is to never trust a man whose eyebrows meet (the sign of a werewolf). 

Micha Bergese, in his first feature film role, plays it hungry like the wolf with aplomb. A gaunt dancer with streaks of hair, he’s an easy physical match. But his rakish, smooth turn as the confident, forward Huntsman delights.

And young Sarah Patterson, also in her first role, is our wide-eyed belle of innocence. At just ~13, the actress may have been too young to understand some of the film’s themes. But her subtle performance depicts the quiet contemplation of a bubbling mind.

And an honorable mention to Stephen Rea as the werewolf of Granny’s fable. Note his bent, creaturelike posture on his return to his wife, leaning into the anger of a jealous wolfsband (wolf husband).

Dark Forest Village, +4 Points

The film’s award-nominated production values set the fairy-tale tone. It depicts peasant life as nasty, brutish, and short, all right; but somewhere lurks hints of hopeful magic.

A low-budget at work, director Neil Jordan described the film’s whole forest as about 12 trees on rollers. Yet somehow they’ve created a magic land. 

Everything looks grimy and worn. Tarantulas fall from the ceiling. Light barely touches the dreary village. And yet occasional rainbows of brilliant color run through it, oversized mushrooms dotting the foreground.

The costumes look cumbersome. Cotton corsets and gowns are tied by strings, each outfit representing the heft and weight of a hand-sewn era. None is more brilliant than Rosaleen’s essential scarlet cloak. The houses are complete with family stewpots and antique dishware of people who scrape by long winters.

As you’d expect, the production used dogs with dye as stand-ins for wolves. But at times there were legit canes lupi on hand (apparently without incident).

The Not-As-Good Things:

That’s Not Your Wolf, it’s a Dog, Baby! -0 Points

The film gets by generally doubling dogs as wolves. But in the final shots, as “wolves” tear down a hallway in close-up – yeah, you lose the illusion.

I won’t remove points for it. It’s not like this low-budget 1980s production had access to CG, nor would a pack of actual wolves conceivably be safe for cast and crew (and potentially an animal rights issue).

Still, the film loses some luster when it’s just canis lupus familiaris crashing through your window. 

Go Watch The Company of Wolves

Total Arbitrary Points Score: 13 Points

The Company of Wolves is a just-right fantasy for fans of provocative filmmaking. Visually brilliant, even if at times horrific, it is a darkly magic story of a young girl’s journey to womanhood and the desires of men.

Far more than a grown-up Little Red Riding Hood, the award-nominated production excels at transporting you to a mysterious atmosphere, a peaceful village haunted by the threat of sinister packs of large-bred wolves.

With spot-on performances and an unconventional structure, the film is perfect for fans of atmospheric movies such as The Green Knight. 

I’ve long considered unibrows a threat to humanity. Thanks to The Company of Wolves, I have proof.

The Company of Wolves was directed by Neil Jordan.

You can watch it free with ads on YouTube or rent it from Amazon Prime Video or other streaming sites.

You can watch the trailer here.

Disclaimer:

This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources, like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.

The post The Company of Wolves (1984) Review: a Gothic Fantasy Seduction Where Unibrows Signal Danger appeared first on The Antenna.

Its misleading movie poster leans cyberpunk. It’s like you will follow this helmeted hero into a netherweb of blue hexagons and triangles of a cyborgian future that must be tamed.

Instead, we’re off to the future only to turn back time. 

The film follows a Humphrey-Bogart-style detective from a waterlogged 23rd century who comes to the 1980s to stop a telepath (I think) and his could-be-zombie followers. 

And did I mention it’s a Christmas movie?

Known in some regions as “Futurecop“ (not to be confused with 1994’s Timecop), the film is like a mishmash of Terminator and Blade Runner.

But this is the Full Moon Features version of those masterpieces – made on a shoestring budget and with hardly the cinematic quality. 

This should be just another of the many Terminator fake-out cash-ins, but the Trancers fanbase has lasted decades.

And though praise was far from unanimous, even credible reviewers like Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times or then-critic, now lowercase author god Neil Gaiman enjoyed the picture at release.

So is Trancers a good movie?

The Plot of Trancers:

In the 23rd century, Angel City Trooper Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) has defeated his all-time nemesis, Martin Whistler (Michael Stefani) – a cult leader with the power to turn people into zombie-like followers known as Trancers.

But when an Angel City Chairman is murdered, it’s revealed that Whistler is behind it. Having traveled back to 1985, Whistler is prepared to find and murder the ancestors of the two remaining city council members, wiping them from history.

Can Deth go to 1985 and stop Whistler before the rest of the council is killed?

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• Helen Hunt as Leena
• Art LaFleur as Detective McNulty (as Art La Fleur)
• Biff Manard as Hap Ashby
• Telma Hopkins as Ruthie Raines, The Engineer
• Richard Herd as Chairman Spencer
• Anne Seymour as Chairman Margaret Ashe
• Alyson Croft as “Baby McNulty” (as Allyson Croft)
• Peter Schrum as Santa Claus
• Barbara Perry as Mrs. Santa Claus
• Richard Erdman as Drunken Wise Man
• Wiley Harker as Dapper Old Man
• Miguel Fernandes as Officer Lopez

What’s Working Well Here:

Near-Camp Tone and Fun Strange Things, + 5 Points

Trancers oozes with an enjoyable near-camp strangeness. It lives up to the billing of a film with a main character named Jack Deth. 

Nearly every scene makes itself watchable, popping a clever line of dialogue or unexpected quirky event.

Five minutes into the film, Deth punches an old lady in the face (it’s okay – she’s a trancer trying to kill him). 

There’s a duel to the death in the middle of the mall against an Evil Santa Claus.

For some reason, the film is a Christmas movie, complete with a good-bad punk rock cover of Jingle Bells.

Deth’s supervisor, McNulty, returns to the past to give him an earful. Yet he’s comically forced to lecture him in the body of the only ancestor he could find — a young girl.

And there’s a Moped chase, including a silly escape down a flight of stairs.

The film’s could-be cinema sins turn into assets thanks to its playful screwiness. Many things stop making sense, but you won’t care because it’s Trancers. 

Performances, +4 Points

Tim Thomerson and Helen Hunt’s performances in the lead roles are a glue that wraps itself around the film’s leaks. As the film batters you with strangeness, their chemistry holds it together.

Hunt’s Lena flicks back her blue-streaked hair and hotwires things. A supposed punk rocker, she can handle a little danger but carries herself cute and feather-graceful – able to drive a motorcycle through an older man’s window and courteously ask to be let out the front door.

And Thomerson just eats this role for breakfast. His posturing and delivery make the most of his goofy lines. Like Bruce Campbell’s comedy in the first three Evil Dead films, you can’t see the film working without Thomerson’s shoulders in the trench coat.

Art LaFluer chips in as Deth’s well-dressed supervisor, Detective McNulty, constantly disapproving of the Trooper’s methods.

And young Alyson Croft steals her scenes as McNulty’s little-girl ancestor, a blonde pint-sized pixie berating Deth.

Blue Future and Cool Lights, + 2 Points

This film is so into cobalt vibes they went with a blue-on-blue color scheme for the opening credits (warning – the clip is the first five minutes of the movie).

The cyberpunk/Blade Runner mood kicks into high gear as Deth parks outside Mom’s No. 3 cafe. Yet despite the future cool, the interior is throwback cool. 

In his trenchcoat, the wrinkle-browed Deth is ready to pay for his hard-earned cigarettes and non-synthetic coffee.

The mix of neon future and hardboiled past is unique. Unfortunately, it falls out of the film early since Deth goes “down the line” to 1985.

Still, there are occasional bits where the lighting or set design stays otherworldly. There’s the world’s strangest tanning booth or the red glow as a Trancer gets “singed,” its body melting into nothing.

And I enjoyed the minimalist makeup on the trancers, simple spooky faces of menace.

Time Travel and Gadgets, +1 Point

The film has fresh time-travel game. 

And that’s good. I was concerned Deth’s eyebrows were too thick for time warping, and he’d be forced to shave them down Olympic-swimmer style for less time-travel resistance. 

But he was spared the grooming because, rather than a portal or doorway you step through, a medication transports your consciousness back to that of an ancestor, inhabiting their body. Meanwhile, your parts remain suspended in the future, supported by a technician.

Deth’s main weapon is a boilerplate laser pistol or 0.38 Special revolver. Still, the film compensates for that lack of imagination by busting out a prehistoric bullet-time.

Deth is packing a James-bond-style trick watch dubbed “The Long Second.” When pushed, it slows time for everyone around him, giving him ten seconds where the real world has one.

It looks like false advertising because the effect lasts much longer than ten seconds. Deth can complete a quarter of a hero’s shopping list of tasks before anybody can move again. 

But, again, it’s Trancers; so you’ll go with it.

Soundtrack, +1 Point

At first, I didn’t like Mark Ryder and Phil Davies’s soundtrack, dismissing it as passable boilerplate 80s upbeat synth. 

But giving it a listen, it’s grown on me. 

“Cafe Trancer” or “Deth vs. Santa” mirrors the goofy not-terror of fights on display, little hits of silly scare sounds echoing. 

Tracks like “Lost Angeles” pop with silly intrigue more than revel in genuine despair. And “Long Second Escape” slows us down mystically.

The goodness lies in the many drum fills, refreshing in what could be just repetitive drum machining, hitting their apex in “Confrontation on the Roof.”

Pacing, +2 Points

The film’s rapid-fire pacing is essential. 

With a 76-minute runtime, every scene advances the story, even if they must rely on happenstance or hokiness.

And the speed covers for the potholed plot. Before you can process the latest story puncture, the movie has already zipped five steps ahead.

What’s Not Working So Well Here:

Desolate Warehouses, -3 Points

You need to grant low-budget films some leeway to play fair. It’s not like Trancers had the funds for dazzling locations and probably shot their wad with the set of the opening sequence.

Still, you can only blame a weird script choice for what plunges the movie into a brief slog.

One of the ancestors Deth must track down is a former professional baseball player who seems to have lost everything and become homeless.

This sends the movie into a weird, literally dark stage as Deth and Lena quiz singing homeless people and prowl around deserted warehouses.

With the freedom to write this ancestor any way they wanted, it’s an odd choice.

Slapdash Ending, – 3 Points

**Heavy Spoilers Here **

The movie launches straight into a head-scratching ending, leaving you wondering if the production ran out of money.

First, Deth picks up his phone and calls Whistler to strike a deal, like an instant end-the-movie button. 

Sans a lasting transition or establishing shot, we’re on a rooftop, and Lena has been taken hostage by Whistler.

Things proceed predictably, with Deth using The Long Second to get the upper hand on Whistler. But Deth can only use that moment to save Lena, who Whistler threw from the building. 

Instead, it’s Hap, the former professional baseballer, who saves the day. From a dumpster, the resourceful vagrant gathers some glass bottles and chucks them at Whistler, knocking the arch-villain from the roof.

Groan. Baseball has irritated me many times in life, but I didn’t see this one coming.

You can understand the writers not wanting things to get anti-climactic, Deth using The Last Second and just ending Whistler. But a minor character winning the day with his pitching talent and street-prowling nous? Even for a comedy, it’s weak.

And to keep the irritations going, the last shot shows McNulty in his young ancestor’s body, seemingly overjoyed that Deth is staying behind to live with Lena. It’s completely out of character.

The film gets away with so much, but you can’t ignore this shoddy climax.

Wait, Guy – That’s Your Grandma! – 0 Points

**More Spoilers Here**

Time-traveling characters seem to run into trouble with incest (Back to the Future). 

Whistler reveals that Lena marries Deth’s ancestor, Phil, whom he has been inhabiting. That means Deth is happily doing it with his great-to-the-power-of-six-or-eight grandma.

Incest is the type of crime you’d remove all points for in a review, but because this is Trancers, and nothing matters, I’ll settle for grossed out without consequences.

Toned to Death, -5 Points. 

Trancers is dumb and probably by design. That can work (Dumb and Dumber, Zoolander), but it only flies so high here. 

There aren’t jokes that truly had me bursting with laughter or wanting to see again, set pieces that were unbelievable for better or worse. After a while, the novelty of Deth and his universe begins to wear off.

One culprit is Whistler, who barely matters in the film. It gives Jack nobody vile to play off for dramatic or comedic effect. 

A few trancers come along, but they are quickly dealt with and not playing up any personality.

Jack’s mild sauce adventure, even if enjoyably odd, never reaches a boil.

Should I Watch Trancers?

Total Arbitrary Points Score:  4 Points

I waffle on Trancers.

It’s a sci-fi pastiche of odd choices that pan out beautifully, and I can understand how this made it into a franchise (Thomerson returning until things devolved into Deth gloriously on horseback for entry 5 and Hunt bugging out at part 3).

Yet it’s only a broadly amusing affair without the sharp execution of a true standout comedy or sci-fi, one capable of unforgettable scenes.

Still, this unique film survives almost purely on tone and acting performances, breezing into its next charm attack before you realize its plot crimes.

I’m glad I saw Trancers, but I recommend it only to retro science fiction and/or B movie fans.

Trancers is rated PG-13 and was directed by Charles Band.

You can stream it on Peacock or watch it for free with ads on YouTube or TubiTV.

You can watch the trailer here (note – that’s a fan trailer because the official shows the whole movie).

Disclaimer:

This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.

The post Trancers (1984) Review: Blade Runner Meets Terminator for Sci-Fi Christmas Shenanigans appeared first on The Antenna.

With my weak stomach and proclivity for powerful childlike nightmares (I have a diagnosable reaction to zombies), I only started exploring the horror genre in recent times.

Yet the film is old news to horror buffs. The fanbase has been large enough to prompt a franchise of five pictures to date (the most recent entry, 2016’s Phantasm: Ravager). And the movie’s villain, The Tall Man, holds iconic status.

And luckily for me, Phantasm is scary but reached cult status for its cinematic imagination, not gore or body count (though later entries may up the gross factor).

But don’t be fooled – there are humble origins here.

The film is a lesser-known entry in the under-budget horror masterpiece tradition of movies like Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), and Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981).

It’s the third feature-length film of celebrated indie director Don Coscarelli (Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep). Still, he was far from seasoned and only 25 at the time. 

The film’s $300,000 budget was scraped together from family and other contributors. 

And the picture’s cast and crew were mainly aspiring professionals. These included Coscarelli’s mother, who helped design some costumes, makeup, and special effects (what a mom!).

According to Coscarelli’s memoir, the making was sometimes flat-out dangerous. The movie’s car chase was unpermitted and shot guerilla, relying on amateurs where professional stuntmen were needed. Coscarelli himself, at one point, was nearly decapitated during shooting.

Yet within that organized chaos, Coscarelli, cast, and crew managed to execute a vision – and not an exploitation film squirting a lot of blood for easy bucks (though Coscarelli had turned to horror after his first two films didn’t make much money). 

An underdog success, the film grossed $22 million worldwide – quite an achievement for a makeshift production.

But we don’t grade on a curve here. 

So let’s set the sentiment aside and ask: is Phantasm a good movie today?

Please Note: This review is for the 2016 Bad Robot remaster.

The Plot of Phantasm:

After the death of their friend Tommy (Bill Cone), Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) and Reggie (Reggie Bannister) attend his funeral.

Meanwhile, Jody’s younger brother, Mike Pearson (A. Michael Baldwin), observes suspicious behavior from the Morningside Mortuary mortician (Angus Scrimm) and hears strange noises in the graveyard.

As Mike further investigates, he is drawn into a deadly game against the mortician, known only as “The Tall Man.”

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• Kathy Lester as Lady in Lavender
• Mary Ellen Shaw as the fortune-teller
• Terrie Kalbus as the fortune-teller’s granddaughter
• Lynn Eastman as Sally

What’s Working Well Here:

Creepy High-Art Visuals, +6 Points

At the movie’s release, critics like Marc Salic of the Austin Chronicle likened the film’s brand of strangeness to the works of Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo) and Luis Buñuel (Un Chien Andalou).

Though idiosyncratic, I wouldn’t say the picture’s visual language goes into those depths of obscurity. But it’s certainly vibrating on an off-kilter frequency.

The film choreographs its scares with aplomb, relying on atmosphere over gross-out gore. It gives us moments of paused, near surrealism.

There’s the slow, indulgent moment where Mike sees The Tall Man in town, the sound of his steps fading into echoes as he seems to either enjoy the cold or the smell of ice cream.

Mike awakens from a nightmare in his bed. But the camera zooms out, and he’s lying in a graveyard, The Tall Man above him, the undead suddenly grabbing him from the dirt.

And when Mike meets The Tall Man in the mortuary, he tries to think of a way out but gives up, The Tall Man mirroring his steps as they come toward one another.

Still, the most beautiful thing in the film may be Jody’s all-black ’71 Plymouth Barracuda.

Unreality, +3 Points

Coscarelli based the picture on his nightmare about a spinning orb chasing him and the mystery of after-dead processes in American mortuaries.

And that’s about where the clarity ends. He has called the script “barely linear,” often rewritten during filming.

After watching the film for a mesmerizing and disorienting ~30 minutes, I realized it would just be this way the whole time.

At first, I wanted to knock the film for not doing what it “should” be doing – setting dominoes to topple and making character arcs. But I rolled into the joy of a blurred reality you can float with instead.

The picture rarely offers explanations, finally revealing The Tall Man’s origin and game in about two lines of exposition. 

And somewhat along the lines of a David Lynch vehicle (Mulholland Drive), the unreality becomes its own continuity instead of the plot. Not knowing what’s a dream and what’s a reality, why the Tall Man hangs out with dwarves or can shapeshift into a woman stops mattering.

Instead, the movie’s most grounded moment is a realistic detail left out of most films – when a dead body dribbles pee all over the floor.

Sound Mix and Soundtrack, +4 Points

The soundtrack was influenced by Goblin (Suspiria) and Mike Oldfield (whose Tubular Bells is The Exorcist’s theme).

Made with synthesizers, the John Carpenter-esque vibes are immediate.

But the rocking drumbeat separates Phantasm’s theme from other synthy horror tunes, like a badass pulse beating under an eerie refrain.

Another one for your Halloween playlist, no doubt.

And when you watch the film, be sure to crank up the sound in your home theater. With scuttling sounds and odd vibrations, the sound design welds together the audience’s immersion.

Pacing and Spreading Scares Out, +3 Points

The film is well cut and paced, not wasting any time plopping you into the mystery of The Tall Man.

And there’s a good balance of action. Unlike films that bookend the conflict, making acts one and three the fun parts and just building all of act two, there are little conflagrations and scares all throughout the movie.

What’s Not Working So Well:

Repeating Cycle, -2 Points

You could argue the picture’s events get repetitive.

There’s a cycle of confronting The Tall Man, escaping and regrouping, and confronting him again because that’s the film’s A-game.

There is a car chase, some other drama in a different car, and short trips to a bar and antique shop for variety.

But since Mike, Jody, and Reggie know where to find The Tall Man and vice-versa, we largely flip back and forth between the Pearson home and the Morningside Mortuary for cat-and-mouse games.

Due to budget, locations were likely hard to come by. But more variety in the flow of events could have helped freshen it up.

I Think I Saw this in Dune? -0 Points

Criticizing movies for borrowing from other films or works is tricky territory because it happens all the time. Intentional tips of the hat, similar camera angles, or even sneaky lifted scenes are common (and it’s a whole article where that line is crossed or not crossed).

But in this film, there’s a blind, fortune-telling grandma who is surely a Bene Gesserit (Dune). 

Speaking through her granddaughter, she reveals Mike’s fortune. Then she orders him to shove his hand in a box and tells him not to fear because “fear is the killer,” Mike grimacing in pain.

Neither the David Lynch nor Denis Villeneuve film adaptations with “the box” scenes were released yet. But considering Dune’s status as a landmark sci-fi novel, I’m surprised this moment is in the film as, complete with that dialogue, it’s a little too close to be anything but suspicious.

This could be a parallel idea, and the scene has so little to do with the film’s plot. But for me, this context of lifting, if that’s what’s here, still draws a frown.

Go Watch Phantasm

Total Arbitrary Points Score: 14 Points

Phantasm is a dark journey into a childlike nightmare.

A visually provocative film with a surreal sensibility, its low body count and gore factor (at least for this initial entry in the series) make it accessible to non-horror fans.

It falls into a cycle of confrontation and retreat from the monster. But you’ll be spellbound by its witchy creepery, bopping along to its spooky synth theme and crisp pacing.

Despite the odds against them, Coscarelli, cast, and crew created a monster – The Tall Man.

Phantasm is directed by Don Coscarelli.

You can stream it on Peacock or rent it from other streaming sites.

You can watch the trailer here.

Disclaimer:

This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources, like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.

The post Phantasm (1979) Review: The Other Other Low-Budget Classic Horror Art Show appeared first on The Antenna.

In the mid-80s through the 90s, anime/cartoons like Robotech and ExoSquad (reviewed here) leaked onto kids’ programming, and video games like Mechwarrior made the joystick a household gaming mainstay.

In these halcyon days of mech mania infiltration to America, I was a young super fan. 

My brothers and I memorized the captivating twists and turns to complete the metamorphosis of our Transformers.

And we were lucky enough to visit a BattleTech center in Colorado, sit in a real-life cockpit, and fire away at our family members (my dad toasted me because I had no idea what the hell all the different throttles and triggers did).

My passion for mechs has eroded over the last ~34 years. Yet I’ve come across Robot Jox’s fiery cover now and again. Each time a blurred image of human pilot avatars walking into metal-clad machine combat would filter back in, washing me in a hint of nostalgia for tech and mech.

Now that the picture is streaming on Tubi, could the film’s oddball charm, which worked well for a kid, still captivate an older millennial man approaching his middle years?

Let’s find out.

The Plot of Robot Jox:

Fifty years after a nuclear war, two nations have consolidated power – the U.S-influenced Market and the Soviet-Russian-like Confederation.

Because nobody wants to repeat the nuclear holocaust, traditional war is banned in favor of something (apparently) more civilized.

To settle disputes, both nations agree to fight for territories in one-on-one battles between Robot Jox – human pilots inside giant mechanized robots.

When Market pilot Achilles (Gary Graham) squares off against Alexander (Paul Koslo) for the territory of Alaska, a deadly accident occurs. Hundreds of spectators are killed. The match is ruled a draw, and a rematch is set.

But put off by the deadly events of the last match, Achilles retires from fighting.

As a public outcry against Achilles begins and Alexander taunts him, will he be coaxed back into the fold for a rematch?

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• Anne-Marie Johnson – Athena
• Robert Sampson – Commissioner Jameson
• Danny Kamekona – Dr. “Doc” Matsumoto
• Hilary Mason – Professor Laplace
• Michael Alldredge – Tex Conway
• Jeffrey Combs – Spectator/Prole #1
• Michael Saad – Spectator/Prole #2
• Ian Patrick Williams – Phillip
• Jason Marsden – Tommy
• Carolyn Purdy-Gordon – Kate
• Thyme Lewis – Sargon
• Gary Houston – Sportscaster
• Russel Case – Hercules
• Stuart Gordon (uncredited) – Bartender

The Good Things

Walking that Tone, +6 Points

Directed by the eclectic creator Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, Honey I Shrunk the Kids), the film is self-aware, effectively balancing its cartoonish plot and characters with the subtlest of sci-fi societal commentaries.

Under a director like Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers), this movie could have dipped into more overt sci-fi satire (and in Verhoeven’s case, left a trail of bodies and blood behind).

Instead, Gordon, the cast, and the crew play it straight, but they’re all walking in a crooked world.

Posters encourage women to have babies and help raise the population. There’s a mild celebration at a family gathering to have “actual meat” (one lone sausage). And everyone must wear filtration masks or stay inside, presumably from some kind of fallout.

But the rest of the film focuses on the pilots’ drama. This Cold War warning, a dystopian failed world still repeating its mistakes, idles in the background.

Still, this isn’t a morality tale. There’s ham and cheese in the performances. 

Villain Alexander (at left) of the Confederation is all too happy to taunt or kill his opponents with over-the-top relish. 

Seasoned, semi-cynical vet Achilles is Alexander’s opposite. The Market’s best, he fights for the cause but carries the air of wondering what convinced him to sign up for all this in the first place. 

The cheesiness, combined with the lower-budget sets and props (at one point, one paper-thin wall is pulled down), fits.

Working together, this all-important tone matches Gordon’s intention – to make a kids’ movie that plays for adults.

Fun Robot Designs, +4 Points

You can’t have a mech arena film without fun battlebots, and the picture delivers them with help from the legendary Ron Cobb.

Hero Achilles’s Market fighter is a red-and-white tower of jingoism. The bright battlebot looks like a defender of honor, with shoulder jetpacks and tank treads on the back of its legs for alternate stances.

Villain Alexander’s dark gray spider-like machine walks on four legs, presumably for better balance and intimidation. It has giant claws, machine guns in the middle, and a special surprise: a phallic chainsaw that folds out between its legs.

Neato designs aside, how the pilots manage the combat is the fun part.

The robots mimic the pilots’ movements. Pilots walk in place on a metal platform to move the robot forward or lift their arms to extend that of their robots’. They fire weapons from triggers, but that natural movement adds human skin to the game. It justifies why you couldn’t remotely control these mechanical monsters.

Opening ~25 Minutes, +3 Points

The film’s first act is a fluid section of filmmaking. A tight script meets solid camera and editing decisions.

The opening sequence’s cinematography pairs narration with gripping imagery. As the narrator gives us the backstory, we ride over the Siberian battlefield, broken pieces of fallen robots littered about. 

The camera pauses as one piece of junk still flashes and sparks, not old debris but new. It’s a fallen fighter in a current battle.

With this sequence, the film has shifted us straight into the movie. It has walked us over the past with visual and voiceover exposition and into the present as Alexander slays yet another Market fighter.

In minutes, we learn the details of Achilles’s reputation, the backstory of the intelligently designed “tubies” (fighters bred from DNA), and side characters like Tex Conway and Dr. Matsumoto.

Outside, a few urchins, ventilator masks on hand, take bets on who will win the fight. The spectators clamor for the action.

And there are some lovely shots, like the score rising in heroic tones as Achilles moves up the elevator and into his bot, giving us a grand sense of the machine’s scale.

The Not-as-Good Things

Silly Training, -1 Point

It may be a product of a low-budget production, but Achilles and the Tubies don’t train with any robot simulation. Instead, they don skin-tight suits and spar with each other.

Even if the film couldn’t afford a simulator, some shots of the Jox and Tubies jogging around the robots to stay combat-fit would have been better than this, as fistfighting doesn’t seem to have any bearing on being a Jox pilot.

Later in the film, things get absurd. When it’s time to decide which Tubie is the strongest for a fight, they don’t test their skills behind the controls of a bot or reveal who has the highest scores during training exercises.

Instead, they have a race, presumably to the death, to the top of a booby-trapped pyramid (which is funny because it reminds you of that Kurt Russell movie Soldier, where engineered soldiers 1.0 and 2.0 had to fight on a rope climb). The Tubies climb what looks like the tallest children’s jungle gym, trying to reach an escape at the top, with pieces that break off or get too hot to touch. 

It’s a bizarre, brutal sideshow, and getting to the top of the pile has nothing to do with fighting in a robot.

Weak Plot, -2 Points

Achilles and Alexander taunt each other because Alexander loves his job way too much and Achilles is his best opponent. As simplistic as that is, it works.

But there could have been more here for as large a part in the film as Athena and the Tubies get. Achilles could have revealed more about his character, which would have been more for the audience to bond with, had he been invested in training this next generation of fighters. Instead, he’s attracted to Athena, and that’s about it.

You wish there was more of a small, ongoing competition between him and the Tubies or an arc in which they gain mutual respect with him as their mentor. Any of this would help the payoff by the film’s end.

There’s also a tiny who-is-the-spy subplot, but other than a bit of tension and a silly death scene, it doesn’t add much.

Lackluster Combat, -3 Points

The movie’s showpiece, as billed, is robot arena combat. But the bot vs. bot showdowns are less than exhilarating. They’re like iffy roller coaster rides at the county fair instead of the grand designs of an actual theme park. 

You could argue the film bumps against the limits of a lower budget and older effects technology. Still, special-effects and set-piece heavy films like the original Star Wars trilogy had already come and gone, putting down rails a film like this, to an extent, could follow.

Much like we admire old-school muscle cars for their carbureted ear-tickling menace, even if electric vehicles of today can outpace them, the novelty of these practical and stop-motion effects adds something charming.

It’s the choreography that fails here. The robots hit each other once or twice, fire off a laser or two, and that’s about it. It hardly takes an expert Jox to handle this sort of combat, as who can have the edge in this walk-forward-and-push-button warfare.

But an even bigger flaw is that there are only two robot battles in the whole thing, bookending the opening and closing acts, where a minimum of three were due. There’s no thrilling plot in Act Two to hold your interest, and another clash of machines should have been slotted in.

Is Robot Jox a Good Movie?

Total Arbitrary Points Score: 7 Points

Robot Jox is a dumb ride, but that’s by design.

A film for kids that can work for adults, it’s worth revisiting.

It nails its cartoonish storytelling tone, giving you a sarcastic science-fiction experience high on color and personality with a little twist of social commentary.

And it will surprise you, as there are some neat bits of cinematography. And, of course, if mechs are your things, it’s a wack to your nostalgia zone.

But you’ll need to overlook the film’s flaws to stay in the joy zone. The combat isn’t special, and it doesn’t compensate with impressive character or world-building.

So for those of you with nostalgia for Transformers or the like, give your throwback itch a go.

For more on director Stuart Gordon, you can read my review for his B-movie film Space Truckers here.

Robot Jox was directed by Stuart Gordon.

It is rated PG.

You can watch the trailer here.

Disclaimer:

This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.

The post Robot Jox (1990) Review: Tongue-In-Cheek Low-Budget Post-Apocalyptic American Mech Battles appeared first on The Antenna.

That man is Walter Hill. Seeking insights into his creativity, I began to go down farther and farther into the rabbit hole of his career.

And since finding an excuse to watch movie after movie is one of my leaks as a person, I’ve now seen every one of his films.

So let’s put those hours to use. We’re going to do what fans love to do and just what Hill does with his characters: pit the films against each other and see which ones come out on top.

For fun, this article ranks every film directed by Walter Hill, released from 1975 to 2022, from least entertaining/accomplished to most entertaining/accomplished.

All lists like this create controversy, and that’s the fun of having an opinion! If you disagree, feel free to share why in the comments below. I’d love to read your (respectful) case for why I could reconsider.

This is a 2024 ranking. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to recreate some of these films’ impact in their own moment. But we do our best.

And after the rankings are revealed, I’ll hand out some awards, such as best onscreen action, and highlight some things any creative can learn from Hill’s work.

But Wait…Who is Walter Hill?

Feel free to skip this introduction, if you don’t need it.

If you’re a millennial or older, you’ve likely watched a film or television show that has something to do with Walter Hill as a screenwriter, producer, or director (and sometimes all three).

Known for his stripped-down, “haiku” screenplay writing style, he’s written several films, including director Sam Peckinpah and actor Steve McQueen’s classic, The Getaway.

Along with his longtime business partner David Giler, they were the producers (and uncredited rewriters, which is a messy story) of the landmark sci-fi film Alien. 

The pair also produced and had creative/story involvement with its sequels Aliens and Alien 3 (he is listed as a producer of every film in the franchise since but has clarified it’s in name only).

In television, he was an executive producer on the EC Comics-inspired Tales from the Crypt (directing three episodes). He won a Directors Guild of America award for his work on HBO’s original series Deadwood and Broken Trail.

He’s branched out recently, releasing the spoken-word western The Cowboy Iliad and the comic book Triggerman.

Just that creative output would make him a memorable figure, but we’re here for what he’s most well-known for: as a longtime film director.

Hill’s film directing career began in the mid-1970s, operating primarily in the action genre. He cemented the often-imitated modern buddy-cop formula with the angle that, as he’s put it, “The jokes are funny, but the bullets are real.”

He has also worked within his favorite genre, the western, and many of his films dip into throwback noir.

But enough with the man, let’s get on with the film battle royale.

Walter Hill Film Rankings:

Not Ranked – Supernova (2000)

Genre: Science Fiction

Budget: $60-$90 Million

Box Office: $14.8 Million

Plot: Don’t worry about it. Read on.

Supernova is only a Walter Hill movie in technicality and shouldn’t be held against him. He disowned the film, credited as “Thomas Lee.”

The short of it is, after a troubled production, tensions between Hill and the studio rose to a finale when the studio elected to screen a test cut for audiences WITHOUT the special effects, despite it being a science-fiction movie.

Hill, exasperated, decided he’d had enough and quit the project.

After director Jack Sholder came in to save the film but couldn’t get things working, Mr. Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) made the final cut, attempting to restore the movie more to what Hill would have wanted.

But since sources claim very little of Hill’s original footage was actually in the final cut, I’m comfortable excluding this entry from consideration.

Oh, and it sounds like a bat-shit crazy film anyway. It’s the type of movie where a zero-gravity sex scene between characters played by Robin Tunney (The Craft) and Peter Facinelli (Can’t Hardly Wait) was digitally altered to look like James Spader and Angela Bassett instead.

Can you imagine being part of the special effects team that clocked in for the day and read that change order?

No doubt that’s the strategic screwing around (pun fully intended) that will help you earn back $14.8 million of your $60-$90 million budget.

It’s too bad, as it would have been Hill’s first directed science-fiction film.

21 – The Assignment (2016)

Chronological Order: 20

Genre: Action Crime Thriller

Budget: ~$3 Million

Box Office: ~388,789

Plot: After a betrayal, hitman Frank Kitchen (Michelle Rodriguez) is kidnapped by underground physician Dr. Rachel Jane (Sigourney Weaver). Jane performs a sex-change operation on Kitchen.

When Kitchen, now a “she” , wakes up and seeks her revenge, she learns the truth of why she was attacked.

With: Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPaglia, and Caitlin Gerard

Here were two female leads for a director whose canon is male-dominated movies.

Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez looked capable casting for the mad-scientist-like Dr. Rachel Jane and the sex-changed hitman Frank Kitchen.

And the story involved two parallel narratives colliding to see who comes out on top – very Hill territory.

But this twisted revenge tale flubbed into a weak version of Old Boy.

What could be a sophisticated production with a B-movie vibe fails to walk the line and comes across straight-to-video.

Hill has had success with these EC Comics-like stories before (Tales from the Crypt), but I wish this film could borrow some of that series’ light-hearted fun.

A lot of people die by gunfire, but only because Frank Kitchen walks around unceremoniously, pointing a gun at them and squeezing a trigger. No doubt the budget limited the capabilities for extravagant set pieces, but Hill has worked much more impact into low budgets before (The Warriors).

And the film fails to craft likable characters. 

Doctor Jane, fond of quoting Edgar Allen Poe, is a trite evil schemer but not one you can be fascinated/disgusted by, like Hannibal Lechter (Silence of the Lambs).

Frank Kitchen is the most basic hitperson, one who seems to have had a hard life but does nothing to make us root for them as an antihero.

You can find greatness in vehicles like this. A film like John Woo’s Face-Off, as over-the-top ridiculous as it was, demanded outstanding performances. 

That movie presented the acting challenge of Nicholas Cage and John Travolta to play roles like a villain pretending to be the good guy in his body and vice versa (or even depicting moments when the good guy trapped in the villain’s body has to be a convincing bad guy for the characters around him yet get visibly sick over his actions for the audience).

Here, Rodriguez is challenged to play both the man and a man-turned-woman. Still, it only feels like slapping a prosthetic penis on (yes, they go there, and apparently, she picked the biggest one she could find) for 25% of the film.

So while Hill’s creative mind dreamed up a sleeper-hit vehicle, it’s got no power under the hood.

Is The Assignment a Good Movie Today?

I want to recommend it for the outrageous concept it was trying to fly, but I can’t endorse spending the time with it.

20 – Bullet to the Head (2012)

Chronological Order: 19

Genre: Action/Thriller

Budget: $55 Million

Plot: After his partner, Louie (Jon Seda), is murdered by ex-mercenary Keegan (Jason Momoa), hitman James “Jimmy Bobo” Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone) teams up with unlikely partner Detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) to track down Keegan. 

Bobo and Kwon’s search leads them head-on into the scheme of real-estate developer Robert Nkomo Morel (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

Bobo’s daughter, Lisa (Sarah Shahi), is dragged into the fray.

With: Christian Slater

It’s a surprise that an action star like Stallone and a vaunted genre director like Hill took this long to join forces. 

And that lag in collaborating could be what hurt this film, which had Stallone’s worst box-office opening in 32 years.

It’s a familiar playground for Hill. Like 48 Hrs., the story smashes together two protagonists who don’t like each other to work for a common goal.

The script is based on the French graphic novel Du plomb dans la tête, and Hill aimed to freshen things up by being self-aware, a fun homage to 70s or 80s action films.

But while the creative intent was there, the result is a thinner version of a product we’re already familiar with.

The white loose cannon cop and slick black criminal partnership of 48 Hrs. is swapped for Asian cop with brains vs. dumb white criminal with muscles.

When Detective Kwon shows off the sophisticated police reporting and information he gets from his smartphone, making it like a weapon, Bobo quips he could kill the detective with an apple.

And unfortunately the racism of 48 Hrs. is alive and well, with Bobo all too happy to nonchalantly mix up different Asian cultures as he insults Kwon.

Bobo’s daughter, Lisa, walks into the movie as a paper-light love interest for Kwon. 

Instead of a clever courtship, the film gracelessly crashes Kwon into her – first with a bullet wound she has to remove, second with him accidentally walking in on her naked because, for all his skills, knocking on doors isn’t one of them.

But the biggest surprise is that a movie that cost this much money and was shot by Hill and crew could carry a straight-to-video look and feel. 

The villain’s wacky real estate scheme isn’t worth contemplating. And the movie is complete with a final showdown (as Richard Roeper pointed out) at an abandoned warehouse because of course.

But what can we expect from a film that is OK with naming someone “Jimmy Bobo.”

I will give this film one nugget: It was shot on location in New Orleans rather than the now-boilerplate LA, Chicago, Boston, or New York tough-cop haunts.

Another point is that even in 2012, Stallone was physically intimidating enough to make the part work. And the movie didn’t skirt around his age, with his mature daughter.

Jason Momoa and Christian Slater play their (silly) parts well, though I’m not sure if the writing was so bad or if Sung Kang (Fast & Furious) had an off-day the length of the shoot. Despite being a lead character, I might have forgotten him if he wasn’t on screen so much.

Keegan and Bobo play out a very Walter Hill thing as they battle it with fire axes to settle things.

But the film falls into the no-man’s land of sagging competence: not good enough to entertain or bad enough to inadvertently delight.

Is Bullet to the Head a Good Movie Today?

Not in a world of so much content you can watch instead.

19 – Red Heat – (1988)

Chronological Order: 11

Genre: Action/Comedy

Budget: ~$29 million

Box Office: $34.9 Million

Plot: When no-nonsense Russian Police Captain Ivan Danko (Arnold Schwarzenegger) tracks drug dealer Viktor Rosta (Ed O’Ross) to Chicago, he joins forces with mouthy Detective Sergeant Art Ridzik (James Belush) to capture him.

With: Peter Boyle, Larry (Laurence) Fishburne, and Gina Gershon

Wow. 

Hill helms a vehicle written for Arnold himself, in his full 80s pomp, and a soundtrack from James Horner, yet we’re still near the bottom of these rankings.

Unlike many movies capitalizing on Arnold’s larger-than-life size and persona, Hill wanted to normalize it.

Thinking about a rational explanation for Arnold’s accent, Hill came up with the idea of him being a Russian cop in the United States (though Arnold is Austrian/American).

Before a script was penned, Arnold signed on for the film. He had been impressed with Hill’s success with 48 Hrs., the concept of this picture, and a scene Hill wanted to work into the movie (from a script by writer Harry Kleiner) where the policeman rips off a henchman’s leg to reveal it’s a wooden one packed full of cocaine. 

Although, I think Arnold’s $8 million fee may have had something to do with him coming aboard.

But the movie, though opening number one at the box office, was an overall disappointment. 

And when you revisit it today, it has moments but isn’t special.

“Ahnald’s” romp in a Russian bathhouse that turns into a snow fight was promising. He knocks some hardcore baddies out, the Foley sound effects working overtime.

The comedy of the leg rip scene is excellent. You feel the imminent horror, hearing the gasps for air in the room, that this large officer is about to crush this man’s leg. He proceeds to rip it off, but there’s strangely no blood, just ounces of powder. It’s a delightful turn.

Since it’s the 1980s and because Hill didn’t think Arnold fit well in cars, there’s an amusing bus vs. bus game of chicken.

Then there’s the muscular one’s performance. For all Arnold’s meme-tastic career has given us, he is much more of an actor than I think we give him credit for. His delivery of a joke about the Russians handling stress with simple vodka exemplifies his excellent timing.

But like the movie below it in these rankings, this film milks the 48 Hrs. formula. It’s a movie so recycled that even James Horner is said to have lifted pieces of the 48 Hrs. soundtrack into it. 

The hard case Russian Danko pairs up with Chicago PD Sergeant Ridzik. As in other Hill movies, talkative Ridzik makes up for Danko’s silence. The Russian and American methods clash, but the characters go on to gain a friendship.

Watching the movie today, I don’t laugh at anything Belushi does. Comedy is so of its time that it rarely ages well, and I don’t mean it as a shine on the actor. But it really hurts the film’s appeal.

The film is interesting because it attempts to normalize Arnold. Had it worked, it could have been a unique moment in Schwarzenegger’s career. So many of his other movies are let’s take this big tough guy and exaggerate him (The Running Man, Commando) or let’s take this big guy and play directly against it (Kindergarten Cop, Twins).

Here, he was normalized into a stranger in a strange land, but it didn’t particularly fly.

Surprisingly, there’s no political angle. A Russian in America in the 1980s is just a plot device, a window dressing. There’s no animosity, and nothing is done with that. Perhaps the film feared controversy, but even a cash-in sequel like Rocky IV wasn’t scared to go there.

Is Red Heat a Good Movie Today?

If you love Arnold and haven’t seen it, the shootouts and his good lines might entertain you.

Otherwise, while it’s far from bad, it’s a boilerplate 1980s actioner that’s no classic.

18 – Wild Bill – (1995)

Chronological Order: 16

Genre: Acid Western

Budget: $30 Million

Box Office: ~$2,200,000

Plot: His health declining, James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickock (Jeff Bridges) arrives in Deadwood, South Dakota. 

As Bill self-reflects on his past deeds, he remembers leaving his lover, Susannah Moore (Diane Lane), his many gunfights, and his travels with William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody (Keith Carradine) and Martha Jane “Calamity Jane” Cannary (Ellen Barkin). 

Meanwhile, young card player Jack McCall (David Arquette), bitter over a grudge, announces his intention to kill Wild Bill.

Will McCall shoot Bill?

With: John Hurt, Christina Applegate, Bruce Dern, James Gammon, Marjoe Gortner, and James Remar

Wild Bill lost a lot of money, with audiences and critics destroying it. The movie left the box office with a deflating ~$2 million take, not 10% of its reported budget.

Still, I had high hopes that, with time, this unorthodox western would gain some appreciation. 

As a fan of Jim Jarmusch’s polarizing acid western entry Dead Man, surely something redeeming was bound to be here – differently crafted, if not even to all our tastes.

Starring Jeff Bridges and with credible supporting actors like Bruce Dern, John Hurt, and Ellen Barkin, it seemed Hill’s chance to right the poor box-office performance of Geronimo and pull off an epic.

And since Hill is a fan of history and capable of action direction, these were fitting hands for the story of legendary gunfighter Hickock.

But instead of pulp confrontations and gunpowder, Hill went for demurred poetry. It’s a film littered with flashbacks and dream sequences, drinking binges and opium smokes. 

In theory, I appreciate Hill’s structural approach. It gets to the heart of a deeper story. 

Young antagonist Jack McCall, seeking vengeance for his mother, sets out to find a legendary outlaw. Instead, he discovers a weary Hickok contemplating the worth and meaning of his life. 

The picture doesn’t deconstruct the western myth like Unforgiven. Still, it asks questions, as heavy is the crown of king gunfighter.

But for all its gravitas, we’re dragged through this movie rather than mystified by it. We don’t feel the solid weight of the emotional impact of these flashbacks, and its finale drops like a dud.

While I admire Hill’s artful approach, I wonder what the straight version of this movie, sans Dutch camera angles and black-and-white sequences, could have been like.

When the film does kick Bill into action, the shootouts are impressive. Despite being in real-time, Bill draws faster and aims better.

And true to Walter Hill’s style, one of Wild Bill’s face-offs is particularly novel. Facing Bruce Dern’s Will Plumber, who’s stuck in a wheelchair, Hickock evens things out by tying himself to his own chair.

But despite this incredible cast and artistic approach, the movie doesn’t pull you in.

Is Wild Bill a Good Movie Today?

I doubt you’ll find treasure, but go for it if you want to see an ambitious attempt.

17 – Another 48 Hrs. (1990)

Chronological Order: 13

Genre: Action/Comedy

Budget: $50 Million

Box Office: $153.5 Million

Plot: Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) is trying to capture a mercurial drug dealer known as “The Iceman.” 

When Cates kills a criminal in self-defense, internal affairs don’t see it as an accident, nor do they believe in the existence of the mysterious villain.

Jack must uncover The Iceman’s identity to prove his innocence and stay out of jail. Lucky for him, his old pal and ex-convict Reggie (Eddie Murphy) can identify The Iceman.

Meanwhile, to keep his identity a secret, the Iceman hires a biker gang to kill Reggie.

Can Jack and Reggie stay alive long enough to find The Iceman?

With: Brion James, Kevin Tighe, Ed O’Ross, David Anthony Marshall, Andrew Divoff, Bernie Casey, Brent Jennings, Ted Markland, Tisha Campbell, Felice Orlandi

Jack and Reggie are back. After the runaway success of the first installment, Paramount Pictures and Hill were happy to cash in on a sequel. 

This time, Eddie Murphy gets top billing over Nick Nolte (and apparently a crazy pay rise from $200,000 for the original up to $12 million, plus a percentage of the gross).

While Hill’s sequel seems to have crushed the box office by a more significant margin than the original, the film was so expensive that profits were minimized.

The original was trendsetting. But by the sequel, imitators had sparked a 1980s buddy-cop movie takeover of action cinema. Films and franchises like Lethal Weapon, Running Scared, Tango & Cash, Stakeout, Dragnet, Beverly Hills Cop (a second Murphy vehicle), Midnight Run, and more had been launched into cinematic orbit.

It got so ridiculous that human and DOG buddy cop clones competed for the king of the same sub-niche (Turner & Hooch, K-9).

The lazy but accurate way to review Another 48 Hrs. is to say its title is literal – absolutely another 48 Hrs. film.

Still, while this sequel is a definitive cash-in, it’s not slipshod.

Murphy himself was hot for the project. With his then-superstardom, he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to. The story evolved from his idea (written by Fred Braughton, screenplay by John Fasano, Jeb Stuart, and Larry Gross) and picks up a few years after we left off.

The film found a way to extend the original’s story rather than use a hackneyed tactic of putting Jack and Reggie back to square one of needing each other’s help again. While Jack has a new case to solve, the film continues the original’s plot and players.

And Jack and Reggie have changed as people since we last saw them, though not too much. For example, Jack has wisened up from some of his bad health habits, but he’s still got that taste for crap cars.

But it inevitably tries to return to the same well of the first experience with so-so results.

The picture recycles jokes from the first film, like Reggie’s overly loud singing. While winking at the first movie’s funny bits would have been OK, relying on them again comes up short.

And the film plays out like a black-out drinking binge. It gets loud, shatters a lot of glass, and fires many bullets. A day after it’s over, you might not remember why it was doing that in the first place.

Is Another 48 Hrs. a Good Movie Today?

If you like the first one, go for the second. Though a lesser sequel, it’s still a wholly competent entry in the buddy-cop genre.

If you’re just interested in its technical or historical qualities, to see why these films had so many imitators, the original is all you need.

17 – Brewster’s Millions (1985) 

Chronological Order: 8

Genre: Comedy

Budget: $15 Million

Box Office: $45.8 Million

Plot: Minor-league baseball pitcher Montgomery Brewster (Richard Pryor) learns that his great-uncle Rupert (Hume Cronyn) has left him a $300 million estate—with a few conditions.

Wanting him to get the urge to spend money out of his system, Uncle Rupert has written out that Brewster has 30 days to spend $30 million, or he won’t inherit the rest of the dough.

To add to the difficulty, along with stipulations about how much can be given to charity and the fact that he must have only the shirt on his back by the end, Brewster cannot tell anyone the truth about his Uncle’s will.

Will Brewster, much to the confusion of his friends and the public, be able to blow $30 million in 30 days?

With: John Candy, Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins

I was shocked to realize this is the seventh adaptation of the 1902 novel of the same name (and in worldwide cinema, it looks like the 13th!).

A straight comedy, this film has nothing in common with Hill’s other filmography except an appearance by Torchy’s Bar (a Hill staple or inside joke that appears in 48 Hrs., The Driver, Streets of Fire, and maybe a few others).

Hill said he made this film to improve his bank account and success quotient. 

Critics didn’t like it, thinking it tamed Pryor’s comedy. But the movie returned with ~$45 million in box office money, tripling its budget.

Having seen pieces of this movie as a child (it was rerun on cable channel Comedy Central many times), I never bothered to sit down for all of it. Today, I expected a dull watch, but the absurdity of it mildly held my interest. 

It’s refreshing to watch it now when comedies are rare. This happy throwback is never concerned with taking itself seriously or tackling societal themes.

And it glides at a robust pace, never hitting an outright lull.

But other than Brewster’s hilarious intentionally money-wasting mayoral campaign, “none of the above” (encouraging voters to avoid choosing him or any other corrupt candidate), I can’t say I laughed.

Another negative is the abrupt, anti-climactic ending. You’d think we’d get more fanfare after all the stress and pressure Brewster has been through. Perhaps he’d reveal to his best friend, Spike Nolan (John Candy), why he’s been bat-shit crazy spending money for 30 days. Yet the film avoids wrapping things up like it ran out of budget or tossed those bits to the cutting room floor.

Its biggest fail is not taking greater advantage of its premise’s freedom. Brewster spends a lot, but there’s much hiring at inflated salaries, parties, and redecorations when expensive pranks and ill-advised parades could have done.

Is Brewster’s Millions a Good Movie Today?

If you have a nostalgia for 1980s comedies, you could do worse (but also better).

16 – The Long Riders (1980)

Chronological Order: 4

Genre: Western

Budget: $8 Million

Box Office: ~$15,800,000

Plot: Former Confederate soldiers, the James-Younger gang robs banks and trains throughout the Midwestern United States. 

A Pinkerton detective, Mr. Rixley (James Whitmore Jr.), is charged with bringing the criminals to justice.

Can the James-Younger gang avoid the Pinkertons?

With: David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Robert Carradine, James Keach, Stacy Keach, Dennis Quaid, Randy Quaid, Christopher Guest, Nicholas Guest, Pamela Reed, Savannah Smith Boucher, Kevin Brophy, Harry Carey Jr., Shelby Leverington, Felice Orlandi , Lin Shaye, Amy Stryker, James Remar

The Long Riders stands out in a genre we associate with dusty plains or deserts pockmarked with dry brush and cacti.

A “green western,” a midwestern, the film, shot in places like Parrot, Georgia, is transporting. 

And on top of its striking scenery, the movie often evokes a dreamlike state.

The picture is famous for casting four sets of real-life brothers as the James-Younger gang. While that sounds like a gimmick, it adds chemistry and quality to the film, as historical figures look alike.

The film’s highlight is the Northfield Bank robbery gone wrong, a gruesome ~four-minute slow-motion nightmare. It culminates in lovely, never-again shots of horses and riders jumping through glass not once but twice in slow motion.

But the film could be faster. And if audiences space out for a bit, they’ll need help with its serpentine, plodding story. 

While it tries to build upon the interrelationships of the gang members, it doesn’t find anything mildly or profoundly moving – more a portrayal than a commentary. Our best explanation for this historical group is the gang’s excuse that the war made them who they are.

David Carradine’s Cole Younger and Pamela Reed’s Belle Star impress. Their flirtatious romance is a dominance game of who can string the other along more powerfully. Still, the rest of the romantic or antagonistic pairings fail to spark.

You can read my full review of The Long Riders here.

Is The Long Riders a Good Movie Today?

If you like classic westerns and can be patient, check it out. Casual audiences could look elsewhere.

15 – The Driver (1978)

Chronological Order: 2

Genre: Action/Crime Thriller

Budget: $4 Million

Box Office: ~$4.9 Million

Plot: The enigmatic Driver (Ryan O’Neal) is skilled behind the wheel. For a price, he pilots criminals like bank robbers to safety.

The Detective (Bruce Dern) is a rule-bending cop ready to go to extremes to bring him to justice.

When The Detective sets The Driver up in a sting operation, The Driver will need help from The Player (Isabelle Adjani) to win.

With: Ronee Blakley

Let the controversial rankings begin.

While critics and audiences back in 1978 didn’t take to The Driver’s stylistic choices, directors Edgar Wright, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Quentin Tarantino are serious fans.

And though I’m just a movie fan and not an acclaimed director, you can see why.

The Driver, with its night-time car chases, opens up the engine. Oozing with style, the film’s look was influenced by painter Edward Hopper. The distressed back alleys and empty warehouses of Los Angeles come alive in a green-hued cement jungle.

But despite a sizzling plot of double-crosses and shaky allegiances, it deliberately plays out in a quiet, minimalist style. 

The characters become more like archetypes of what they’re supposed to be than vibrant crooks and crook nabbers. Some barely speak, as if the film is afraid to provide a shred of detail about who they might be.

A quiet, understated style has been successful in films like Frenchman Jean-Pierre Melville’s excellent Le Samourai. Perhaps Hill wanted to take that European influence into America, but the style, for me, fell flatter here.

Though Hill had initially written the title role for as straight a casting as you could imagine, Steve McQueen, the part found its way to drama and comedy vet Ryan O’Neal.

While O’Neal’s performance gives what Hill wanted, a bonafide action star like McQueen could have given this film the gravitas it needed to make its bold choices work.

You can read my full review of The Driver here.

Is The Driver a Good Movie Today?

If you’re an aspiring writer, director, or fan of classic movies, look into this. Its bold, stylistic direction might appeal to you.

Kickback audiences may want to try the latest fare.

14 – Undisputed (2002)

Chronological Order: 18

Genre: Sports Drama Film

Budget: $15-20 Million

Box Office: $14.9 Million

Plot: When world heavyweight champion George “The Iceman” Chambers (Ving Rhames) is sentenced to prison, he gets to fight his way out. 

Inmate Mendy Ripstein (Peter Falk), a gangster and boxing aficionado, offers Iceman a deal. Ripstein will use his connections to arrange his parole if he can defeat reigning prison boxing champ Monroe “Undisputed” Hutcheon (Wesley Snipes). 

Can Monroe pull off the impossible and upset The Iceman?

With: Michael Rooker, Jon Seda, Wes Studi, Fisher Stevens, Master P

Why does a new prison in the Mojave desert have a built-in cage (lined with barbed wire) with a boxing ring in the middle?

Because the most suitable thing to do with a bunch of rowdy, highly dangerous inmates you’re allegedly trying to rehabilitate is let them duke it out in sanctioned boxing matches, I guess.

You can believe in the human corruption that would allow men to box in jail, but I’d love to have been there when the architect proposed their designs to county planners.

But if you can roll along with the absurdity of this film, there’s an exciting thought behind this tale.

Coming off the failed Supernova experience, which almost caused Hill to quit the film industry, he and his pal producer David Giler discussed Mike Tyson’s trip to prison. 

They mused how interesting it was that no studio had ever taken the idea of the baddest heavyweight in the world being flung into the dangers of the prison environment.

And from that tiny seed, the idea germinated into a full-on film script.

Our stand-in for Tyson’s experience (the character doesn’t imitate “Iron Mike”) is George “The Iceman” Chambers. 

And before we can go further – yet again, it’s an Iceman! What’s up with characters named Iceman? Iceman in Another 48 Hrs. Iceman in Top Gun. Iceman in this movie. Can screenwriters make a pact not to name any more characters Iceman?

But getting back to the review – full of pride, the champ is well-known to all the prisoners but walks around making damn sure they know exactly who he is anyhow. And Chambers brings a lot of trouble down on himself by refusing to take allegiances, disrespecting gangs that offer.

Then we have the man we know he’s destined to square off against, Monroe “Undisputed” Hutchen. Undefeated within the prison system boxing ring for ten years, Monroe would rather build sculptures out of toothpicks than waste his energy on Iceman’s taunts.

I was ho-hum about this film, but as the conflict and contrast between the two boxers takes shape, it carries you along to see who wins.

Rhames, Snipes, and Falk are comfortable and turn in solid performances.

And while Undisputed is a straight action/boxing genre piece that’s nothing more, that also means it’s nothing less. 

It didn’t do too well at the box office but is said to have found success on the home video market (and has spawned three sequels).

Still, I wish Hill and Giler’s premise was put into a deeper movie. You can imagine a character-driven, more dramatic than genre piece on the meanest fighter going to the worst environment and dealing with those emotional and physical challenges. 

But while the film takes that novel concept in a straight boxing direction, it’s far from bad and perfectly watchable.

Is Undisputed a Good Movie Today?

If you like Rocky for the boxing matches, not the moving story (a Rocky III and IV person instead of a I and II person), this is your kind of picture.

13 – Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)

Chronological Order: 15

Genre: Historical Western

Budget: $35 Million

Box Office: $18.6 Million

Plot: When the Apache agree to peace and life on a reservation, General George Crook (Gene Hackman) sends a small detachment, including 1st Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood (Jason Patric) and 2nd Lieutenant Britton Davis (Matt Damon), to accept Geronimo’s (Wes Studi) surrender.

But after Gatewood and Davis escort Geronimo to the reservation, he and many other Apache grow restless and fail to embrace their new farming way of life.

Soon a brutal murder kickstarts Geronimo’s newest rebellion.

With: Robert Duvall

As westerns were in a revival in the early 90s (Unforgiven, Dances with Wolves, Tombstone, Last of the Mohicans), Geronimo seemed like a film poised to join the moment.

But Hill and his accomplished cast couldn’t get this historical epic to find fire. The movie fared poorly at the box office, and the critics were mixed.

It was challenging to market this film. It does not tell a love story, has few female characters, and has more somber tones than adventure flair.

But for those who have taken the plunge, there are some good bits here.

The horseriding and action scenes, with Peckinpah-esque flair, will impress you.

Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall bring charisma, and Wes Studi, in the title role, is quietly magnificent. The film’s surprise is Jason Patric, who turns in perhaps the most accomplished performance.

And the picture, shot with an uncommon mix of telescopic and widescreen lenses, is gorgeous.

The movie pulls at the emotions, as it intelligently puts the plight of the Apache and the understanding of that plight by the soldiers who had to intern them front and center. Any triumph in the film is honorless, wrecked by the sad reality of the soldiers’ duty.

But Geronimo’s big flaw is its meandering story, which lurches the film into mediocrity rather than gliding into excellence. It’s light on levity or entertainment value.

While the movie is far from bad, it’s unfortunate it doesn’t soar as it was yet another chance for Hill to make a standout classic western.

You can read my full review of Geronimo here.

Is Geronimo a Good Movie Today?

Fans of dramatic westerns might like it. For casual audiences, the world of content is large enough to find something else.

11 – Johnny Handsome (1989)

Chronological Order: 12

Genre: Neo-noir Crime Thriller

Budget: $20 Million

Box Office: $7 Million

Plot: John “Johnny Handsome” Sedley (Mickey Rourke) is a criminal with a disfigured face.

After a double cross lands him in jail, he meets Dr. Steven Fisher (Forest Whitaker) and enters his surgical rehabilitation program.

Dr. Fisher’s operations and speech program successfully gives Sedley a new face and a chance on parole as “Johnny Mitchell.”

But while Mitchell holds down a job and courts coworker Donna McCarty (Elizabeth McGovern), police Lieutenant A.Z. Drones (Morgan Freeman) is certain Johnny’s desire for revenge against Sunny Boyd (Ellen Barkin) and Rafe Garrett (Lance Henriksen) will draw him back to a life of crime.

Will Johnny make a new life for himself with Donna or get even with Sunny and Rafe?

With: Scott Wilson

Johnny Handsome is based on a novel by John Godey and Hill’s third film shot in New Orleans.

As the director puts it, the picture is a “moral choice” movie over the blazing action pieces it’s surrounded by in his filmography.

Hill thought getting this neo-noir crime thriller to play with American audiences could be challenging, and he was correct. The film didn’t rake in the dollars domestically.

But Hill and the producers had eyes on the European markets when casting Mickey Rourke. The actor was a big star overseas thanks to films like Angel Heart and 9 ½ Weeks. And while 1980s Americans may have been lukewarm to neo-noirs, Europeans of the day could be keen.

And today, the story of a seemingly doomed, Shakespearean star-crossed protagonist could put off some. But for those who hunger for throwback noir, it’s a fitting piece for the genre.

Rourke (The Wrestler, Sin City) was well-cast. He impressively wears massive makeup and alters his voice for the film’s first section as the disfigured Johnny. And his performance gives us just enough sympathy, avoiding overplaying it, so we gain a sense of a man bound by a sad destiny he can’t crawl out of without betraying the code he lives by. 

Morgan Freeman’s Detective A.J. Dronez is a police officer almost like a devil on Johnny’s shoulder. Like The Joker blaming Batman for his villainy, you wonder if the officer’s unshakeable belief that Johnny will return to crime reinforces Johnny’s decisions.

Ellen Barkin and Lance Henriksen play the crooked and nasty Sunny and Rafe, who know better than to even trust each other. The dangerous duo are not overtly menacing. But like a nasty cut from the rusted top edge of a tin can that could carry tetanus, they’ll mess you up bad.

And as all Hill films are secret westerns, the final confrontation holds plenty of tension, releasing it in a face-off.

It’s a bleak tale. But Hill, cast, and crew purposefully pulled away from a trip into melodrama, giving the film a grounding, effective gravity.

Is Johnny Handsome a Good Movie Today?

If you are into neo-noir, you’ve found a good one.

10 – Dead for a Dollar (2022)

Chronological Order: 21

Genre: Western

Budget: Unknown

Box Office: $81,403 (released mainly on streaming)

Plot:  Teacher Rachel Kidd (Rachel Brosnahan) is abducted by Elijah Jones (Brandon Scott), an army deserter. Her husband, Martin (Hamish Linklater), hires reputable bounty hunter Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz) to track them down.

Borlund heads into Mexico with Sergeant Alonzo Poe (Warren Burke) to the displeasure of local gangster Tiberio Vargas (Benjamin Bratt). To make things worse, Borlund’s old nemesis, gunslinger Joe Cribbens (Willem Dafoe), is in town and eager to settle their vendetta.

When Borlund learns the abduction isn’t what it seems, will he complete his mission or change his allegiances?

With: Luis Chavez, Fidel Gomez, Guy Burnet , Alfredo Quiroz, Scott Peat, Jackamoe Buzzell

I’m going against the tide of opinions throwing Dead for a Dollar up to number ten.

But above all else, a movie sets out to entertain. And despite this picture having heavier flaws than films I’ve ranked lower, I’m rewarding it for its entertaining spirit.

The movie, which looks like it didn’t cost an awful lot, was dedicated to a director of many low-budget westerns, Budd Boetticher. 

The film’s trick is that it’s all setups and payoffs. It skillfully brings together many parties to the table of trouble, and I admire how it balances its many moving parts. 

It’s nowhere near colliding characters with the skill of a good Guy Ritchie crime film (Snatch; Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels), but it moves its main characters and bit-part players along to one big confrontation.

And in true Hill fashion, the ending is a multi-party showdown/shootout to determine who comes out on top.

While the movie is a Hill film, the type that throws in a mano-a-mano bullwhip fight, it stands out from most of his others. 

From a director accused of ignoring female characters (though rewriting a male character into Alien’s Ripley), this time he puts the story of a progressive, abused woman at the center of the film’s conflict. Rachel Kidd is ahead of her time but in a heap of trouble, not a silly damsel in distress. 

For a director at the latter end of a ~50-year career, I loved that he found new stories to tell. 

But the disappointment many audiences have expressed is also valid.

The mouthwatering leading cast for a western of Dafoe, Waltz, and Brosnahan play their parts well. Still, it’s like they’re overqualified for their positions. The film’s simplicity doesn’t wring quite enough from their star power to make them as useful as their talents could have been. 

Much of the dialogue became boringly expository to keep the pacing as swift as this film moves.

And two characters meet their ends with far less bravado than I’d have hoped Hill could write it.

Due to cracks like these, the film wraps up flatter than you’d hope they’d been building toward. It could have been something if the movie had been tuned a little differently — a little more campy, serious, or over-the-top. As is, I found it only so-so.

But this brightly-lit, sandy-town, gunfights and standoffs western still carries an enjoyable throwback tone.

Is Dead for a Dollar a Good Movie Today?

Not everything is a museum piece. It’s a fun kickback watch.

9 – Last Man Standing (1996)

Chronological Order: 17

Genre: Action

Budget: $67 million

Box Office: $47.3 Million

Plot: During prohibition, John Smith (Bruce Willis) drives into the lowly town of Jericho, Texas.

When Smith learns the town is caught up in a war between an Irish and Italian gang, he figures he can make a lot of money by playing both sides.

With: Christopher Walken, Alexandra Powers, David Patrick Kelly, Karina Lombard, Bruce Dern, William Sanderson, Ned Eisenberg, Michael Imperioli, R.D. Call, Ken Jenkins, Ted Markland, Leslie Mann, Patrick Kilpatrick

This Bruce Willis actioner seems largely forgotten, but I remembered it nearly beat for beat, having rented it on video in the mid-90s. I watched it multiple times before returning it (and no doubt rewinding that VHS first). The movie can transfix a teenager, but an adult may demand more.

The picture is an authorized remake of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai classic Yojimbo (which makes it a distant cousin of the unauthorized Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western remake, A Fistful of Dollars). 

To separate the film from the source material, Hill chose to take the movie into a neo-noir aesthetic, landing on a prohibition-era gangster war.

The film’s bleak angle didn’t delight critics, and it returned sagging box office numbers.

In a film where 0.45 rounds push people back like they’re being attacked by invisible Sumo-wrestling ghosts, Hill was influenced by or had a parallel thought to John Woo’s bullet ballets.

Scenes like the hotel shootout scatter many bodies in a short period and are masterful bits of mayhem.

There’s Smith and the blaring clatter of his dual 1911 pistols, the ridiculous amount of debris kicked into the air, and the POV cams as Smith points and clicks—his speed and aim just 100% better than those of his opponents. If you look carefully, you’ll see a few frames of white edited into the mix, like muzzle flashes taking over the screen.

Some films throw everything at you in a haze, hoping you’ll believe that mess means action. Despite the ferocity of these mythical shootouts, they’re edited so we can still understand what’s happening. 

Then there’s Ry Cooder’s dragging, chug-chug score. It’s almost a neo-noir version of the Jaws shark coming to get you with hints of the doomlike waltz found on the excellent Sin City soundtrack.

And the cinematography from Lloyd Ahern, Hill, and Crew dazzles. The dusty town of Jericho, coated in orange sepia, transports us. Like a western, there are many close-ups and bits of faded lighting.

The cast was pitch-perfect. Willis slides into its mysterious gun-toting lead; his counterpart is an imposing Christopher Walken. Hill regulars David Patrick Kelly, Bruce Dern, and William Sanderson (Deadwood) fill supporting roles.

But the film remains an ever-impressive eggshell sans the yolk.

The opposing gangs need more character. The Italians are stereotyped to the point of vast dinners of meatballs, spaghetti, and garlic bread. And other than their leader’s last name, I don’t know what makes Doyle’s gang Irish.

Between the ferocious action, the rest of the screentime is Smith knocking back bits of whiskey, mean-mugging between different gangs, and little escalations in the plot you care little about. As a young man, I could put up with it to get to the action scenes; as an adult audience, I make more demands.

Like its protagonist, it’s a film that is better than its reputation, yet its flaws will never be fully redeemed.

Is Last Man Standing a Good Movie Today?

If you’re a Willis or action noir fan, you might dig the dark vibes as I do. General audiences may prefer something lighter.

8 – Trespass (1992)

Chronological Order: 14

Genre: Action

Budget: $14 Million

Box Office: ~$13,750,000

Plot: Arkansas firefighters Vince (Bill Paxton) and Don (William Sadler) learn of a hidden cache of gold inside an abandoned East St. Louis warehouse. Telling no one, the men set out to recover the fortune.

But when Vince and Don stumble upon a murder by crime boss King James (Ice-T) and his gang, including the ambitious Savon (Ice Cube), a deadly standoff begins. 

Trapped inside the building, can Vince and Don escape?

With: Art Evans, De’voreaux White, Bruce A. Young, Glenn Plummer, Stoney Jackson, T.E. Russell, Tommy Lister Jr., John Toles-Bey, Byron Minns, Tico Wells

I came into Trespass with zero expectations, having never heard of it.

But today, you can still find it streaming or on Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray through Shout! Factory, and now I know why it has its fans.

The script is a reworked 1970s story by none other than Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale (Back to the Future). However, the film takes an entirely different tone than we usually associate with the two.

The picture faced a tricky 1992 release. It was initially known as “The Looters” and set to open during the L.A. Riots. Like hell the studio was going to bring up that controversy. Retitled Trespass, it was pushed back for a Christmas release.

But even with the new title, its subject matter still raises questions of social issues.

You can’t ignore that the film pits two southern white firefighters against an all-black street gang. Still, Hill has described it as not intentionally political, though acknowledging that “white and black attitudes spill into the movie because of the attempt to create some kind of social reality out of the situation.”

Had it been a more popular movie, I wonder if the public would have engaged in a larger discussion of its optics.

But moving on to the picture itself, many have seen the plot as a loose reinterpretation of the Humphrey Bogart classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

And it’s a movie that features both Ice-T and Ice Cube (though, sadly, not Vanilla Ice), two leads Hill says were chosen not for their rap careers but based on their actual acting chops. 

Both turned in excellent performances, especially because they were given creative license to improvise or alter dialogue as they saw fit.

But Trespass’s greatest strength is its pacing. Not a moment is wasted here as trouble begins the film, and there’s always something to up the ante as the two everyman fireguys plot their next escape attempt. 

A straightforward thriller, it makes a lot of drama from basic moving parts. The film takes place over a short period, principally in one location, with clear motivations. Bradley, a character trapped in the middle, keeps you guessing what part he will play.

The criminals act logically, trying to cut off escape routes and outwit their foes. It keeps things from getting dull.

And the visuals get creative. One of the gangsters carries around an old-school camcorder, and its footage turns into a POV cam. There are a lot of Dutch angles and handheld cameras throughout the film to increase the volatile, tense atmosphere.

If you wanted to pick at it, surprisingly, the bickering gangsters are more vivid, realistic characters than firefighters Vince and Don.

Don’s intensity puts you off. Even before the maelstrom of the movie-long standoff, he acts like he’s a driven serial killer in his spare time. Had he started out grounded, I could have been more interested in his descent into madness and greed.

But the big flaw is its ending. Without giving it away, one of our protagonists is out of the action for the final confrontation, which I found strange. 

And without spoiling it, the final scenes involve bitterness and trickery that fall flat. It’s hard to give audiences satisfaction in a film where you’ve kept them wondering about the outcome of a prolonged stalemate, and the results don’t necessarily take us somewhere brilliant.

But that’s mostly nitpicking. 

While any higher moral message Gale and Zemeckis may have written into their script about the price of greed is missing, this is an excellent setup for an action film and unfolds into a tense, good time.

Is Trespass a Good Movie Today?

It won’t change your life, but for fans of thrillers, absolutely.

7 – Crossroads (1986)

Chronological Order: 7

Genre: Drama

Budget: Unknown

Box Office: ~$5,800,000

Plot: Juilliard student and aspiring musician Eugene Martone (Ralph Macchio) strikes a deal with old blues man Willie Brown (Joe Seneca): if Martone takes Brown back to Mississippi, he’ll teach him the lost song of famous guitarist Robert Johnson.

With: Jami Gertz, Steve Vai, Tim Russ, Joe Morton, Robert Judd, Dennis Lipscomb, Harry Carey Jr., John Hancock, Allan Arbus

Crossroads whiffed with audiences. With Ralph Macchio in the lead and an older man mentoring him, many saw the film as a cash-in rehash of The Karate Kid. 

But as that type casting has faded, the movie has been given its flowers, especially by musicians.

The ending guitar showdown, like a gunfight, is infamous. Lead character Eugene Martone and the Devil’s proxy, Jack Butler (played by guitar legend Steve Vai), square off in a bluesman vs. shred-head battle for souls. And in guitar forums, there’s much appreciation for Ry Cooder’s blues score.

Despite Hill mostly directing action movies, this picture effectively weaves comedy into a dramatic (but not melodramatic) coming-of-age tale. 

Macchio and Joe Seneca click in the roles of mentor and mentee. Both Macchio and Seneca paint false tough shells around their characters. Willy’s is the stern facade of false scorn; Eugene’s is the overconfidence of youth. Yet we can see right through each. The two characters gain a begrudging respect that evolves into a friendly partnership by the film’s end.

Despite the use of black-and-white flashbacks and some off-kilter dream sequences peppered into the movie for hints, the shift into straight folklore feels like a departure from the rest of the film.

But besides this minor incongruency, there’s much to like about this picture.

You can read our full review for Crossroads here.

Is Crossroads a Good Movie Today?

Yes. It’s a good time, and may play a little romantic for aspiring musicians.

6 – 48 Hrs. (1982)

Chronological Order: 6

Genre: Comedy/Action

Budget: $12 Million

Box Office: $78.9 Million

Plot: To stop criminal Albert Ganz (James Remar), uncouth San Francisco Police Officer Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) pulls convict Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy), one of Ganz’s former associates, out of prison to help him.

Will Cates and Hammond stop bickering long enough to track Ganz down?

With: Frank McRae, Annette O’Toole, David Patrick Kelly, Sonny Landham, Brion James

Admittedly, this film’s legacy bumped it up several places in the list. I wouldn’t recommend it to friends and family nowadays, but its genre importance can’t be sidestepped.

It’s not entirely the film’s fault. Successful comedy is always of its time, and what’s fresh and edgy in that moment rarely lasts.

But there’s certainly a lot going for 48 Hrs. that needs acknowledging.

While not the first “buddy cop” movie, you can tell by the absolute rash of them that followed that this is the film that, as Youtuber Minty puts it, defined the modern formula.

And it’s an accomplished film in its own right.

There’s a gliding pace to all exposition, like Jack’s time in the police precinct, complete with his now stereotypical yelling captain (Frank McRae, who parodied himself in genre spoof Last Action Hero).

Shot on location in San Francisco, the film will always be of its era. It is expertly paced and handles the compression of time well. 

Hill regulars James Reymar and David Patrick Kelly (The Warriors) bring flavor to supporting roles, and James Horner (Titanic) donates a score.

But let’s remember that it launched quite a film career.

Before he willingly hopped into fatsuits (The Nutty Professor, Norbit) and landed in vehicles that lost nearly $100 million (The Adventures of Pluto Nash), Eddie Murphy really could entertain.

Despite being just a raw ~19-20 years old and in his first movie, you can see the exact scene Murphy made himself into a star – when he pretends to be a cop and turns over a redneck bar. 

Looking lost and out of his depth, Murphy turns the power right around when he shatters a glass. The energy is sucked from the room, leaving him free to go apeshit on the stunned patrons Popeye Doyle style (The French Connection).

In truth, I don’t know what’s more unbelievable about the scene – Murphy’s performance or the idea that there’s a confederate-flag-flying, cowboy honkey-tonk bar in the middle of San Francisco. But it’s fun.

This is a pure tough guy film full of Hill things. There are the walloping gunshots, fistfights and standoffs, and cynical Jack’s diet of alcohol, cigarettes, and candy bars.

But the unobscured racism is what surprised me the most. Late in the film, Jack apologizes to Reggie for the many times he has called him the N-word or just about worse. But it’s shocking to me that a cop unafraid to get racist is a feature, not a bug, in the programming.

It’s hard to go back to the original film that germinated what are now many boilerplate cliches still used in cop films and have it feel fresh. While I can admire a lot of this movie, I can’t say I enjoy it. 

Number six on this list is a worthy compromise.

Is 48 Hrs. a Good Movie Today?

To a general audience, no, I would not recommend it. It’s hard for comedy to age well.

But if you’re interested in the classic action genre or studying movies, this is a bedrock many films followed.

5 – Extreme Prejudice (1987)

Chronological Order: 10

Genre: Neo-western Action Thriller

Budget: $22 Million

Box Office: $11.3 Million

Plot: Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte) and drug dealer Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe) grew up as friends but have taken different moral paths.

As the two men gear up for a collision course, Sarita Cisneros (María Conchita Alonso) struggles to take sides between former lover Cash and current boyfriend Jack.

Meanwhile, mysterious special operatives known as the Zombie Unit, led by Major Paul Hackett (Michael Ironside), plot a bank robbery with ties to Bailey.

With: Rip Torn, Clancy Brown, William Forsythe, Matt Mulhern, Larry B. Scott, Dan Tullis, Jr., John Dennis Johnston, Marco Rodríguez, Luis Contreras, Tommy “Tiny” Lister, Mickey Jones, Thomas Rosales Jr., 

This film is so neglected I could only rent a fullscreen version on streaming (a crime against cinema but the best I could do).

But it’s curious how this movie didn’t take off or become more appreciated today. 

It’s riddled with bullets and peppered with the full-throttled action of many other 1980s blastaways. 

According to the internet, the film has a kill count of 46, and it belongs to that time when whoever manufactured bloody squibs for cinema was rolling in the dollars (think Robocop, Rambo II, etc.).

But perhaps the film was just too smartly executed for its place and landed in the no-man’s land of competence – not over-the-top silly like The Running Man or Total Recall but inferior to the plucky personality of Die Hard.

Still, fans upvote this film in online forums, and you can see why. 

Apparently a loose homage to The Wild Bunch, Extreme Prejudice has many excellent performances. 

Actors like Rip Torn (Men in Black), Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption), and William Forsythe (Once Upon a Time In America) bring a presence to could-be forgettable sidekicks.

Michael Ironside (Total Recall) does his exact Michael Ironside hardman stuff in a good way. 

Lead Nick Nolte trained with a Texas Ranger and lost weight before the film. And his leaned-down, tall, noble sheriff with a moral conflict is at the forefront of his performance. 

And let’s not forget native Texan Powers Boothe (Tombstone), who never seems to turn in an off performance. From the moment his Cash Bailey comes on screen and lets a scorpion crawl over his hand just to crush it in his palm, he reeks of a cold-hearted, bloodthirsty but cool charisma. It’s a hell of a way to set up a character, uttering no words but saying a lot.

The Texas setting is refreshing, stepping out of the 1980s big-city cop-and-robber films of San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, or Boston.

But the movie’s talent is balancing its split narrative. We follow lead character Jack Benteen’s day-to-day, the zombie units’ operations, and Jack’s personal issues with Sarita and Cash. 

Most film scripts keep it simple and don’t introduce another set of potential protagonists. Yet the characters of the Zombie Unit are almost as prominent in the film as Jack, and the writing manages them as neither ancillary nor dominating the screen time.

Then we get to the movie’s third act, which takes place in Mexico. Things get wild, many bullets fly, and we see much more Cash vs. Jack, Boothe playing off of Nolte. 

Double-crosses come to light. And to the confusion of Cash’s troops, he agrees to a duel to settle their differences. It’s not a samurai moment, but both men seem obliged to follow a code of Texas honor.

Is Extreme Prejudice a Good Movie Today?

If you’re a fan of 1980s action films, it fits right into that mix.

4 – Hard Times – (1975)

Chronological Order: 1

Genre: Action Drama Sport Film

Budget: ~$2.7-$3.1 Million

Box Office: $26.5 Million

Plot: In Depression-era New Orleans, new partners Chaney (Charles Bronson), Speed (James Coburn), and Poe (Strother Martin) are on their way to heaps of money in the underground fighting arenas.

But Chaney will face his strongest opponent when the trio comes against major player Chick Gandil (Michael McGuire).

With: Jill Ireland, Margaret Blye, Felice Orlandi, Edward Walsh, Bruce Glover, Robert Tessier, Nick Dimitri, Frank McRae

You wonder how directors would react to their fans ranking their first effort as one of their best. Any creative would like to think they grew in talent over their careers and outclassed their initial outputs.

But Hard Times’s best quality is how it breezes by, easy to enjoy and difficult not to like.

Bronson’s incredible physique, despite the actor being over 50, and his tough, quiet charisma shine. 

Hardman Chaney is paired with James Coburn’s loose-lipped and unapologetic Speed, a man who lives far too fast for his own good and, in another life, is the greatest salesman that ever walked a floor.

The film’s pace never stalls, giving out fistfights and a couple of laughs along the way. 

While the script is as tight as anything modern, fistfight scenes from ~50 years ago show their age. 

And you wonder if the film could have put some more personal grudges between Chaney and his opponents for added tension.

But the ending is a little more poignant than you’d have figured, and it is a better watch than I expected. 

This classic hustler film is a must-study for any aspiring screenwriter looking to nail dialogue and pacing.

You can read my full review for Hard Times here.

Is Hard Times a Good Movie Today?

If you like classic action/hustler films, go for it. However, if you’re used to today’s CGI bullet fests, you might find it too mild.

3 – Streets of Fire – (1984)

Chronological Order: 7

Genre: Action/Crime/Neo-Noir

Budget: $14.5 Million

Box Office: $8.1 Million

Plot: Pop star Ellen Aim (Diane Lane ) returns to her hometown city district of Richmond for a concert. 

Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe) and his biker gang interrupt the performance, storming the stage and kidnapping Aim, to the chagrin of her manager, Billy Fish (Rick Moranis).

With the police not up to the task, Reva Cody (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) telegrams her brother and Aim’s former lover, Tom (Michael Paré), for help.

Teaming up with ex-soldier McCoy (Amy Madigan), can Tom rescue Ellen?

With: Richard Lawson, Rick Rossovich, Bill Paxton

Streets of Fire dared to be different. That’s probably why it crashed out of the box office yet struck a strong chord with some and has found an appreciation in time.

The film plays like a distant cousin of Hill’s The Warriors. But if Warriors stretched reality, Streets went farther and built one of its own. Rather than dress up L.A. or Chicago, the film crew constructed unique city sets and locations for many scenes.

Hill conceived of the idea as a comic book world, though not based on any particular source material, hoping to launch an all-new lead action hero franchise with main character Tom Cody.

He wanted to tuck all his teenage fascinations into it – custom cars, neon signs, trains in the night, rumbles, rock stars, motorcycles, and more.

And then-current influences worked their way into the film. 

With the recent success of Flashdance, Hill and Co. decided it would be partly a musical. 

Inspired by Star Wars’s “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” Hill and crew created their own quick tagline for alt-world, dubbing the film in the credits as “a rock and roll fable.”

And as John Hughes’s films became popular, elements of teen dramas were tossed in as the final spice in an otherworldly movie chili.

Shot by Warriors’s cinematographer Andrew Laszlo, the film captures the green-night elegance of rough-and-tumble city streets. And it’s edited into a rapid-fire format.

But any malice is toned down into that teen-movie vibe – a fantasy. There’s an upbeat, good time here as 80s pop stars and fashion collide with 50s bikers covered in grease.

The music performed by Fire, Inc., written by the legendary Jim Steinman (Bat Out of Hell), is operatic numbers that open and close the film with pump-it-up joy and curtain-calling grandiose.

You’ll know many cast members, including Moranis, Madigan, Lane, and Paxton. Willem Dafoe is excellent as the biker gang’s gothic, potentially kinky king.

And the final showdown, a sledgehammer fight, is straight out of Hill’s playbook. 

Though the supporting characters are fun, they are seemingly pissed off at all moments, making for some iffy dialogue.

The crux of the movie’s action doesn’t spark in a way that makes the hero memorable. 

Some have lamented lead actor Michael Pare’s performance, believing it keeps this film’s wheels on the ground (I disagree).

Yet the movie’s sheer boldness, blending many different times and places without going entirely off the rails, makes it worthwhile.

You can read my full review of Streets of Fire here.

Is Streets of Fire a Good Movie Today?

This is Hill’s other cult classic, and if you like them, you should check it out. 

2 – Southern Comfort – (1981)

Chronological Order: 5

Genre: Action Thriller Film

Budget: $7.6 Million

Box Office: $2.9 Million

Plot: Nine Louisiana Army National Guard members, including Corporal Charles Hardin (Powers Boothe) and Private First Class Spencer (Keith Carradine), get lost in a sunken bayou.

After discovering a local Cajun camp, the squad uses pirogues (canoe-like boats) to reach the swamp’s other side and return to the mission.

But the Cajuns immediately return. And when they see the soldiers with their boats, a misunderstanding escalates into a deadly chase.

With: Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales, Lewis Smith, T. K. Carter, Peter Coyote, Crawford Poole, Les Lannom, Carlos Brown, Brion James, Sonny Landham as Hunter

Southern Comfort was an absolute worldwide bomb. Yet this forgotten thriller reminds fans of Deliverance, Predator, and The Thing.

Still, it’s no imitation and features its own calling cards, raising questions of toxic masculinity and treatment of other cultures.

But this is no contemplative museum piece. A straight watch will be more than enough to draw you into its engrossing horror.

This film gets so much right about its setup – pitting part-time soldiers against a native, nimble enemy; arming them mostly with blanks; and embedding them in a trap-littered, murky swamp.

And its characters behave realistically. Clicks form, rivals bloom, and differences of opinion lead to mental fraying, infighting, and violence.

As they portrayed frustrated and stressed-out characters, the actors didn’t have to look deep inside for inspiration. The film was challenging to make (its camera tripods sinking into the swamp, its actors struggling to find their marks in several feet of water).

A film rife with tension, you never get the feeling any character is safe, especially as it’s absent a big-name star no doubt plot armored to the end.

And whether or not you love the movie, stick around for its final act. A masterclass in editing for dramatic tension, it cross-cuts its audience to death. It may be the finest ~20 minutes of filmmaking in Hill’s career so far. He does what he always sets out to do—draw two uncomplicated parties together and see who comes out on top. 

The cast, led by the celebrated Powers Boothe (Sin City, Deadwood), Keith Carradine (Dexter, Deadwood), and a haunting Brion James (Blade Runner), nail the subtleties of each shift in the film’s direction.

You can read our full Southern Comfort review here.

Is Southern Comfort a Good Movie Today?

It’s a shame this movie has not been consumed by a wider audience, and I encourage any fans of thrillers and/or horror to give it a shot. Some critics argue it is Hill’s best film.

1 – The Warriors (1979)

Chronological Order: 3

Genre: Action Thriller

Budget: $4 Million

Box Office: $22.5 Million

Plot: Under a flag of truce, every street gang in New York gathers for a speech by idealist leader Cyrus (Roger Hill).

As Cyrus lays out his vision to unite the gangs and push the police for control of the city, Luther (David Patrick Kelly) assassinates him with a revolver.

Chaos erupts as the police arrive, and in the mad scramble, Coney Island gang The Warriors are mistakenly blamed for Cyrus’s death.

In retaliation, major gang The Riffs spread the word on the streets – get The Warriors.

Can The Warriors run the gauntlet of gangs in their way and make it back to Coney Island?

With: Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Marcelino Sánchez, David Harris, Tom McKitterick, Brian Tyler, Dorsey Wright, Terry Michos, Edward Sewer as Masai, Lynne Thigpen, Thomas G. Waites

Going into this review, The Warriors was the easy favorite for the top spot. And while there are some interesting Hill films, rewatching it today, nothing else in his filmography can lay a glove on it.

Admittedly it’s one of my all-time favorites, discovered in my youth – always difficult ties to separate from and remain objective.

But the more behind-the-making specials you watch, the more you can appreciate the many creative and/or risky decisions that went right for the whole vehicle to click.

Barry De Vorzon’s funky rock main theme, mixing synthesizers and distorted guitar (uncommon in its time), adds to the mystery-land, surreal feel.

Cinematographer Andy Laszlo was delighted to get a New York summer downpour during filming, giving him an excuse to wet down the streets for dazzling light interplay and atmosphere.

Actor David Patrick Kelly, given the space by Hill to improvise, tapped into his childhood bullying experience (and some bottles he found under the pier) for its most well-known moment, the come-out-to-play scene.

Roger Hill played gang leader Cyrus with fine theatrical quality. His grandstanding speech’s refrain of “Can you dig it?” became a generational catchphrase. Yet he was a substitute, only stepping in because a real-life gangster hired to play the part failed to show.

And there’s Hill’s very big (and deliberate) decision to take the movie into a fantasy direction (which seems to have evolved out of The Studio’s command to mix white and black characters into the gangs for commercial reasons, but that seems like its own article).

It’s an intoxicatingly masculine and provocative film, of its time and unrepeatable, as it was shot on location in late 1970s New York.

And the movie is edited to be entirely kinetic. 

The opening was originally a standard roll call scene. Warriors leader Cleon addresses his troops before the gathering, introducing us to each member and their job in the delegation.

But it was slow and boring. So it was cut and reimagined in media res.

The opening sequence cross-cuts between moving trains, expositional shots of the train map, one-on-one conversations between Warriors members, and other gangs rolling to the big meeting. It clocks in at only ~6:30, yet even squeezes in the credits.

Even on-set problems couldn’t stop the film’s momentum.

Hill and the actor who played Fox, Thomas G. Waites, reportedly had a fallout over creative differences during the shoot. But even that only ended the character and not the movie, as they found a way to kill off Fox without disrupting the story (a cop throws him into a moving train).

Lastly, some have pointed out how the film is anchored around train stations. With The Warriors battling to get to the next stop, it literally puts rails on the movie, keeping it grounded. 

While that sounds like a given, several films I’ve looked at since starting this site fail to clearly establish an objective the characters and the audience know they’re working toward. That simple goal helps create tension and stabilizes the fantasy from riding off with the story.

The rest of the standard wonderful reactions audiences have apply: the stylish costumes and the colorful gangs. Michael Beck, James Reymar, and all the rest of the cast nailing it; the hard-hitting action.

I have only the minorest of nitpicks.

Joe Walsh and Barry De Vorzon’s “In The City” closes the film. It’s a solid listen, but it doesn’t fit the tone. It holds far too much of a “have a beer and relax now” vibe after the wild, otherworldly journey.

This helluva night should not wash away so easily. I’d have preferred something sans lyrics, more in line with the synthesizer and rock opening theme (to be fair, “Nowhere to Run” fits the film perfectly, iconic enough to be referenced in John Wick 4).

The Warriors remains one of my favorite films of all time. I was magnetized to it as a youth, and you grow closer to it when you step back and appreciate the intelligence and, in a few cases, luck that made it what it is.

Fun Fact: While I had thought the film was riffing on Homer’s Odyssey, Sol Yurick’s novel, which the film is based on, is inspired by the troubles of Xenophon in Anabasis (his Greek soldiers stuck in the enemy territory of Persia and fighting to return home).

Is The Warriors a Good Movie Today?

Yes, it’s still a cult classic for any action fan. Even as films are increasingly shot digitally, this one still looks fantastic on film.

Bonus Awards:

Most Surprising/Underrated Film: Southern Comfort

Some would spring for Streets of Fire here, but the internet has shined enough light on that film in recent years that I don’t consider it underrated.

Honorable mentions to Extreme Prejudice and Trespass, but Southern Comfort has to walk away with this.

Most Disappointing Film: Wild Bill

This one’s easy. Armed with a substantial budget, a vaunted action director who loves westerns teams up with the celebrated, multi-Oscar-nominated (and winner) Jeff Bridges and a more-than-capable supporting cast.

Hill took the film in ambitious directions, but it just wasn’t to be.

Best Action Sequence: The Warriors

Car chases (The Driver), western shootouts (The Long Riders), underground and prison ground boxing (Hard Times, Undisputed), and over-the-top 80s blastaways (Extreme Prejudice) – Hill has covered the spectrum of action direction.

I don’t think a single director can better orchestrate a gunfight, but if you’re asking me to pick one specific sequence and say, “That’s a Walter Hill action scene,” I’m going with The Warriors’s bathroom brawl against rollerskating gang The Punks.

The chase and battle with the Baseball Furies, arguably the film’s most memorable gang, is more iconic (and is set to a rehash of that spectacular main theme).

But the bathroom battle is a fluid demonstration of everything Walter Hill action sequences do – build anticipation, hit hard, and toss in some Peckinpah-style slow motion. As others have pointed out, there are a lot of cuts, but you can fluidly tell what’s going on.

In Closing: My Key Takeaways from Walter Hill’s Films

While directors like Tony Scott, John McTiernan, and James Cameron have been synonymous with the rise in American action films over the last ~40 years, Walter Hill holds a chair on any directors’ panel of genre players.

His pure longevity in a business known for being hard to survive in is admirable. 

For a guy you could stereotype as a boilerplate macho movie maker, it’s not the case. Hill has had a unique creative angle for each film, even in cases where it didn’t pan out. 

Four Things:

1 -Hill usually ends his films with a clean, western-like showdown between easy-to-understand characters. It’s simple but dramatic.

2 – When writing, a winning formula for Hill has been pairing a character who can’t resist talking to compensate for a strong silent type (Hard Times).

3 – Hill loved to team up a duo with entirely different attitudes so there would always be conflict in the film (48 Hrs.)

4 – You can start a story with a character (I want to write about a lawyer with insomnia) and put them into a dramatic situation or begin with a dramatic incident (I want to write about a news clipping I saw) and invent your characters to fill it out.

Hill’s scripts went both routes. 

For example, Undisputed went incident – what happens when the toughest guy on the planet goes to prison.

Dead for a Dollar (based on a historical European bounty hunter in America) and Red Heat (about normalizing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent) went character first.

Too often in my amateur writing I’ve only gone for character first and am interested to try incident first. I think it’s important to consider both approaches.

Thanks for Reading

Good on you for reading to the end of this article. 

I hope you picked up something useful and/or enjoyed my thoughts on the films of Walter Hill so far.

If you agree or disagree, please let me know (respectfully) in the comments below.

And if you love to read filmography deep dives, check out my ranking of all John Carpenter’s films here.

The post Walter Hill Movies Ranked: From Hard Times to Dead for a Dollar appeared first on The Antenna.

But I enjoy the hell out of this movie.

Why? Because it captures a throwback spirit millennials like me (and Gen Xers) want to reconnect with. 

Browsing Max or Netflix today, the production values look damn good and oh-so polished. Clean, lit, and perfectly budgeted, even the most basic streaming “TV drama” or genre film has seemingly stunning cinematography and designer props.

I should be rejoicing. My streaming cup runneth over with quality watch options.

But I bow to no algorithm. Who said quality is what I crave?

Arena harkens back to those glorious 80s and 90s when schlocky sci-fi was everpresent and goddamn fantastic.

Do you want to see a human step into a boxing ring, kick a poor man’s imitation of the rancor (Return of the Jedi) in the thighs, and punch it across the snout? Oh, you do.

Do you care if the dialogue is plain and uninventive? Normally, yes; in this case, no.

Despite looking like it was shot at some convention center over some weekends, ignoring that futuristic costumes become a matter of putting shiny on everything, there’s an excellent vehicle for enjoyable sci-fi here.

What is the Plot of Arena?

Thanks to a handicapping computer system, fighters from all over the galaxy compete in sanctioned Arena matches.

Steve Armstrong (Paul Satterfield) stumbles into the competition. With help from his friend Shorty (Hamilton Camp) and trainer Quinn (Claudia Christian), Steve is the first human in 50 years to compete for the championship.

But the conniving Rogor (Marc Alaimo) and his fighter, cyborg/alien Horn (Michael Deak), stand in Steve’s way.

Can Steve defeat Horn and become champion?

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• Shari Shattuck as Jade
• Armin Shimerman as Weezil
• Charles Tabansi as Troy
• Brett Porter as Wayne
• William Butler as Skull
• Jack Carter as Announcer
• Dave Thompson as Doctor
• Grady Clarkson as Commissioner Dent
• Ken Clark as Marcus Diablo
• Diana Rose as Space Lady In Nightclub

Why Should I Watch This?

If Arena’s Japanese movie poster can’t sell you on this film, you can stop reading now and return to your quality entertainment.

For the intrigued, let’s continue.

The film sets up a future so exotic its lead character is named Steve Armstrong.

I am curious to know what strategic advantage Armstrong gets from fighting in kneepads, an adult diaper, and a man-bra. 

Still, Armstrong has the muscles and bravado for the big time, but there’s no way he’ll get there without silly streetwise sidekick Shorty. 

Shorty is an alien. You know this because he’s a human/hobbit guy with four hands. This mind-bending effect most likely came to reality by someone standing behind the actor’s back, shielding their body from view, and extending their arms/hands into the frame.

Villain Rogor is so evil and dedicated to winning that he’ll loan out his girlfriend, Jade, to seduce and disable Armstrong. 

The criminal mastermind’s sidekick is such a hairy-faced, twisted weasel that they just went ahead and named him that. 

But these delightfully silly characters aren’t what you came for.

Arena depicts combat between a human (or sometimes two aliens) fighting in a boxing ring. 

The sight of a grown-ass man beating down on a poor performer in a rubber suit (or are they puppets?) isn’t quite as comical as I wished it was, but it still gets me in a happy place inside.

The creature and makeup effects land somewhere near an episode of a Star Trek knock-off, but they grace the film with B-movie charm. 

Horn, like Weezil, is literal. He looks like a cyborg hellspawn that wasn’t scary enough for the Doom video game franchise.

Other aliens took a reptile inspiration or, like Rogor, that human-with-a-different-colored skin approach, but it works.

But the film’s true strength is its go-for-fun setup. These days, fewer vehicles are willing to bare their flaws and bite down on the fun factor. 

We step right inside the movie, a clear goal in mind, with a dopey hero who has to overcome conniving baddies.

Many modern screenplays get bogged down in overreach. They try to set up deep, long-winded character arcs. They go for the throat with shock value; they have many artistic things to say within a generic vehicle.

It’s another essay, but part of that problem could be from so many directors and writers wanting to say something more profound in the pieces they are actually given.

But Arena’s only goal is to entertain, and it gets there and nowhere else.

Go Watch Arena

Arena is set in the year 4038, but it’s so late 80s that it commits to the era’s ultimate action staple: tossing someone through a glass window.

It is capable of cringeable scenes and odd moments. It’s nowhere near brilliant cinema.

But it’s a just-right production for those who want to return to classic second-billing sci-fi.

Even if it has a hokey delivery, the spirit of a fantastic fight to the finish will entertain you.

Arena is rated PG-13 and directed by Peter Manoogian.

You can stream it free with commercials on Tubi.

You can watch the trailer here.

Disclaimer:

This review’s factual information was gathered from online sources like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

The post Arena (1989) Review: When a Man Dropkicks a Rancor appeared first on The Antenna.

But any rock and roll fantasy melts down into a sobering portrait of far too much sex and a disastrous amount of drugs.

The film centers on the intense relationship between Simon John Ritchie, better known as “Sid Vicious,” bass player for British punk pioneers The Sex Pistols, and his American groupie-turned-girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

The couple is infamous because of Spungen’s mysterious and unsolved death, at just 20 years of age, in a room in New York’s famous Chelsea Hotel.

The crux of the movie isn’t whether or not Vicious murdered Nancy, though the film offers its own explanation for what happened. And it’s not a documentary about the band’s rise to fame or a commentary on the punk music scene of the late 1970s.

It’s an elegant cautionary tale, an anti-drug statement, of young and destructive beings like two black holes whose dooming gravity neither could escape.

While disappointing at the box offices, Sid and Nancy’s unorthodox cinematic style received much critical praise, and the film has been given Criterion releases.

Take a look at its creators, and you’ll understand more about why.

It was the second punk-rock subject film by the movement’s observer Alex Cox (Repo Man). The legendary Sir Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049) provided the cinematography. And none other than a young Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight) played Vicious.

But even with all this talent, is Sid and Nancy a good movie?

Let’s find out.

The Plot of Sid and Nancy:

After exploding into popularity in England, punk rockers The Sex Pistols head out for a United States tour.

To the rest of the bands’ dislike, erratic bass player Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) wants to bring his irascible girlfriend, Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), with them.

Sid and Nancy’s drug troubles and co-dependency become more of a distraction to the band, especially lead singer “Johnny Rotten” John Lydon (Andrew Schofield). 

As Sid and Nancy slip deeper into addiction, can they find a way to crawl out?

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• David Hayman as Malcolm McLaren
• Debby Bishop as Phoebe
• Xander Berkeley as Bowery Snax
• Tony London as Steve Jones
• Perry Benson as Paul Cook
• Edward Tudor-Pole as U.K. Hotelier
• Courtney Love as Gretchen
• Kathy Burke as Brenda Windzor
• Sara Sugarman as Abby National
• Graham Fletcher-Cook as Wally Hairstyle
• Sy Richardson as Methadone Case Worker
• Mark Monero as Jah Clive
• Anne Lambton as Linda
• Biff Yeager as Detective
• Michele Winstanley as Olive McBollocks
• Andy Bradford as Dick Bent
• Peter Lee-Wilson as Duke Bowman
• Gloria LeRoy as Grandma
• Milton Selzer as Grandpa
• Barbara Coles as Reporter
• Iggy Pop as Prospective Guest

What’s Good About This Film

Underplayed, +2 Points

The film never gets heavy-handed. It doesn’t take a detached, documentary-style perspective but portrays its events and characters in a plainer light.

When it comes to Sid and Nancy’s love story, musical cues are subtle; dialogue stays away from moments of “I love yous.” Sid will tear a hole in her stocking and kiss Nancy’s feet or revel in the chain and lock she gifts him around his neck (Sid’s mother gives Oldman the real-life one to wear in the film).

And when the film portrays The Sex Pistols concerts or practice sessions, it gets urban and raw. Those pieces unfold like a chronicle of a movement of mayhem and raw energy that had nowhere else to go, firing itself off in many indiscriminate directions. 

Before and during their fame, Sex Pistols members and friends spray paint red letters across the walls or loot through discarded belongings on the sidewalk.

But there’s the balance where none of this is glorified nor downplayed, no message implying punk attitudes are what people should or should not have.

That in and of itself captures what many think is the true spirit of punk – making people think.

Deakins Delivers, +2 Points

Sir Roger Deakins and crew give us some masterful camera shots, such as the striking cinematics of Sid and Nancy getting off the boat.

As the Sex Pistols play a rowdy concert on a ship on the water, the police arrive to shut them down. 

When the boat lands, a scuffle breaks out. As the cops fight against the punks, Sid and Nancy, arm-in-arm and seemingly untouchable, walk through the chaos. The camera gracefully falls back, back, and back up the dock’s ramp.

Without a word, it shows us they’re like the king and queen of this crazy world.

And then there’s the hotel fire scene. 

A blaze rises after Nancy flicks a cigarette into the trash littering their hotel room. The couple just lay dreamily in bed, unalarmed, keeping warm. Things slow down and get hazy when the fire department rushes in to stop it.

It’s a provocative scene of downward spiraling.

Surreal Stuff, +2 Points

Though grounded in a narrative reality, the film floats in and out of fantasy.

There’s the surreal moment when Sid, no longer part of the Sex Pistols, performs a cover of My Way solo in a theater. 

The lights behind him on the steps are white and vibrant. Vicious slurs his words, offering no apology for his actions. But what makes it all the weirder is the approval of many well-dressed older patrons who toss flowers at the stage. 

And as if suddenly giving up on the performance, Vicious pulls out a pistol, shooting people in the crowd, fake blood spraying (though this did happen in the real-life version).

**Spoiler Alerts Here**

And the ending (which you can watch here if you want to) becomes entirely figurative. We’re not sure whether this is Sid in a drug dream or stepping into the afterlife. 

He enjoys a last meal at a pizza joint but has to walk over heaps of debris to reach it as if it’s by the world’s end. He dances with little children to disco. Then, from nowhere, his dead love, Nancy, wearing what could be a wedding dress, rolls up in a taxicab. He joins her, and off they float into the distance.

You can read the YouTube comments of the clip for various symbolic takes on the scene. 

For me, it’s an intelligent way to end the movie. Depicting the truth, Sid overdosing to death, would have been so downbeat. This fever dream lets it fade out to a little piece of happiness – that for a time, they were together, and that’s all that mattered to them.

Oldman and Webb’s Performances, +4 Points

Since he’s Sid Vicious, not viscous, Gary Oldman ate nothing but steamed fish and lots of melons to cut the rocker’s squirmy figure (a decision that hospitalized Oldman). 

Oldman didn’t believe he portrayed Vicious very well. Still, critics hailed his performance, with some believing only his playing an unlikeable character prevented him from receiving Academy Award nominations.

It’s said his performance of Viscious is like a man-child overwhelmed with his sudden fame. 

Whether he’s dragging a razor blade lightly across his chest and drawing blood (ewww) or barely cognizant on-stage, you do feel pity for this kid. He’s less angry and provocative than sad and misguided. And to Oldman’s talent, it’s all under the surface but brought to life in his mannerisms.

Webb finds the ear-screeching pitch to craft an abrasive Nancy, always in Sid’s ear as much as she is by his side. You can tell why other characters speak out against her, yet you feel, from her tenderness to Sid, why he would feel different. That dichotomy is hard to execute.

And the two have definite chemistry, which peaks in the climactic scene leading to Nancy’s death. 

Cox let the actors improvise their dialogue, and Oldman and Webb based it on as many pieces of interviews they could find to give them clues about the couple’s conflicts. 

The scene is moving and challenging to watch. Sid and Nancy are at their breaking points from drugs and despondency; they argue and crash together in a moment that stops both their lives.

What’s Not So Good About This Film:

The Fall Without the Rise, the Peaches Without the Cream -4 Points

Though the rise of the Sex Pistols isn’t the movie’s focal point, I wish we saw more of it in the film. We see concert performances, but the band’s success is second-billing.

Sid has bits of humanity, as we know he wants to but can’t pull himself out of his addictions. 

There are also a few bits of humor. Sid tries to wash dishes and clean up while donning a leopard-printed man-thong. His argument with Nancy takes his barely-covered butt out to the open street.

But the film needs more levity.

It is a tricky line to walk, as the movie didn’t want to glorify drug use or a rock-star persona.

But watching so many hotel rooms strewn about with buckets of old KFC Chicken or Whopper Jr. wrappers while sweaty all-white younglings stare in drug-induced hazes is incredibly morose. 

More light-heartedness to balance this out would improve the film’s watchability.

Should I Watch Sid and Nancy?

Total Arbitrary Points Score: 6 Points

Despite Alex Cox’s unique direction of the film, I have mixed feelings about my time with Sid and Nancy.

I found a film about two lovers falling tragically to drugs repetitive at times and flat-out hard to watch at others, though that’s harsh as that’s the game here. The movie had to balance not romanticizing its subject yet not depressing you with its reality.

But this movie has a dark beauty, and its unexpected surrealism is captivating. There are scenes the mind will hang onto, and the strong performances of Oldman and Webb hold everything together.

The picture didn’t hand out neat little dramatic arcs and nicely bring them all to sappy conclusions. The film is, almost in that punk rock spirit, content to do whatever it pleases. That’s a trick few movies can manage.

It’s certainly a film that feels very authentic to Cox’s vision, and that’s why it deserves an audience.

So if you’re in the mood for something different, give it a go. 

And for more of director Alex Cox, check out our reviews for his highly-acclaimed cult favorite Repo Man and obscure punk musician spaghetti western Straight to Hell.

Sid and Nancy is rated R and directed by Alex Cox.

You can stream it free (with commercials) on Plex.

You can watch the trailer here.

Disclaimer:

This review’s factual information about the film was gathered from online sources, such as Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

The post Sid and Nancy Review: Alex Cox’s Punk-Rock Cautionary Tale with Gary Oldman and Sir Roger Deakins appeared first on The Antenna.

Today, you question if the monster movie all-stars that made it could swim through saturated genre waters and come out with something lean, clean, and new.

The film is part of the strange 1989-1990 underwater movie craze that saw no less than FIVE releases (this picture joining Deepstar Six, Lords of the Deep, The Abyss, and The Rift). 

Leviathan only trod water in ticket sales, hitting ~$19 million on a $21 million budget and promptly sinking into the forgotten movie bin.

But the long arms of the internet seemed to have wrapped themselves around the sobbing, lonely Leviathan. They’ve hugged it and told it no, no — you’re a discarded gem.

And the fan love is not just loyalty to the film’s star, cult movie icon Peter Weller (Robocop, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai). It’s hard to call this a cheap rip-off, the under-the-sea Alien or The Thing targeting easy bucks when you see its crew.

A joint project of De Laurentis Productions and longtime producers Larry and Charles Gordon, it’s directed by George Cosmatos (Tombstone, Rambo II), with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Alex Thomson as director of photography.

None other than all-time great Stan Winston (Predator, Aliens) was on board for special effects, with legend Ron Cobb (Alien, Star Wars) on production design.

The venerable Jerry Goldsmith composed the score (Alien, Chinatown), and it was written by David Peoples (Unforgiven) and Jeb Stuart (Die Hard).

How’s that for ingredients?

<iframe src=”https://giphy.com/embed/9fBAJu8PJMV4Q” width=”480″ height=”270″ frameBorder=”0″ class=”giphy-embed” allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href=”https://giphy.com/gifs/mrw-season-development-9fBAJu8PJMV4Q”>via GIPHY</a></p>

So is Leviathan a good movie? And how many undersea references can I write into this? Let’s find out.

The Plot of Leviathan:

You don’t need story instructions for a creature feature, but due diligence demands I let you know the more specifics of this one’s wiles.

When a Tri-Oceanic Corp. underwater mining crew, led by geologist Steven Beck (Peter Weller) and supported by Dr. Glen “Doc” Thompson (Richard Crenna), finds a sunken Russian ship, the miners bring back some of the dead crew’s belongings.

Unbeknownst to the group, the Russian crew’s things are tainted with a potent mutagen – and not the groovy Ninja Turtles super strength kind.

As some crew are turned into deadly half-sea-life things, a battle for survival begins.

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• Amanda Pays as Elizabeth “Willie” Williams
• Ernie Hudson as Justin Jones
• Daniel Stern as Buzz “Sixpack” Parrish
• Héctor Elizondo as G.P. Cobb
• Michael Carmine as Tony “DeJesus” Rodero
• Meg Foster as Ms. Martin
• Lisa Eilbacher as Bridget “Bow” Bowman
• Eugene Lipinski as Russian Captain
• Tom Woodruff Jr. as Lead Creature

What’s Good About This Movie:

Lived-in Sci-Fi Interiors? Check, + 4 Points

There’s nothing second-rate about the quality of the sets and props, which capture that all-important “lived-in sci-fi” aesthetic of films like Alien or Outland.

Like a rundown steel palace, the crew constructed a claustrophobic playspace for monster mayhem. It’s complete with a slow-moving, occasionally stalling hydraulic entry/exit platform, the elevator gate to the water, which comes in handy for scary moments.

Props like the diving suits have the clunky bulk and weight of believability, with nifty little light-up screens that tell the audience each diver’s name.

Monsters? Check, +3 Points

While the creatures aren’t sublime people digesters that will haunt you for years, they’re not out of the shabby props shack out back.

There’s a combination of eel-like terrors and tentacles and some body horror, as some have pointed out, with a Lovecraftian vibe.

But it’s not A-game stuff; we can only give these props so many…points. 

After looking the part for most of the film, the big guy stalking the crew proves to be just a Grumpy Gus when it’s out of the water. It’s more fitting as a ridiculous enemy in an episode of Power Rangers than a horror movie.

And the monsters lack defining tactics or features to give them personality (think the protruding mini-mouth and scuttling of a xenomorph in Aliens).

Beck and Willie, + 1 Point

Beck and Willie are the movie’s little love interest. 

The downside is you know their attraction is giving them plot armor, but it’s written less contrived than you’d think.

Their flirting is set up when Willie asks Beck just what the hell a geologist is doing down in the depths of the ocean managing a mining crew. And while the remaining blue-collar group sees Beck as a wimp out of his depth, Willie, on her way to astronaut training school, sees his qualities and empathizes with his situation.

It’s a well-written scene carried out by Weller and Pays’s chemistry.

What’s Not-So-Good About This Movie:

They Call Him Six-Pack, but Thankfully He’s Just a Single, -2 Points

**Spoiler Alert Here**

Six-Pack (a nickname presumably not for his stunning abs but for gulping down the movie’s choice product placement of Pepsi) is the all-too-obvious patient zero of the movie. 

As you witness Six-Pack’s antics, you only wish they’d killed him off sooner.

This time, actor Daniel Stern plays a different sort of wet bandit (Home Alone) – a pervert stuck at the bottom of the ocean. 

Six-Pack’s nastiness hovers over the first ~25 minutes of the film like a toxic KY cloud. He busies himself openly staring at his coworkers’ breasts or quipping about the sex-like implications of pipes entering holes as they work.

But just in case you didn’t pick up on these not-so-subtle clues, greasy Six-Pack proudly shows up in his boxers and robe. Wishing the rest of the crew a good night, he retrieves one of his porno magazines (strangely stored in the common area instead of his room) for his obvious pre-bedtime spank session.

Sex jokes can work, like Shane Black’s Rick Hawkins in Predator, but the character is mind-numbingly juvenile here.

Like that Eternal Wait for the Pizza Guy, -3 Points

When you’re a sophisticated, wait this is like an art-house film like Alien, you can afford to take your time, build your characters, and get to the monster without losing your audience.

Leviathan doesn’t have that privilege, and it sins by shipping its monster priority mail over same-day express.

Where is Your High Point? -2 Points

Ripley in a power loader vs. the alien queen (Aliens). The defibrillator or blood test scene of The Thing. Dutch’s showdown with the Predator.

Great scenes and sequences make movies. And while I wouldn’t expect this film to live up to all-time great sci-fi, there was enough budget to make you think a memorable set piece or two could happen. 

But it doesn’t.

There’s a moment where the crew gears up with cutters and axes, shot and edited like an action film montage. But since they’re not, say, waiting behind a pounding door and ready to face down whatever comes through it, you don’t see the point of the anticipation.

We Make Side Characters, but We Don’t Use Them, -2 Points

When you sidestep Six-Pack, you see dramatic potential in the crew. 

Miners Jones, Cobb, and DeJesus are disgruntled with Beck’s leadership while Willie is on his side. Doc is a disgraced former medical innovator blocklisted into underwater tours of duty, ripe for redemption.

But absolutely none of that, which the first act and a half set up, goes anywhere.

Even a film like Gremlins 2 breaks from its pure mania and, as RedLetterMedia has pointed out, circles back to knock down all the little character arc dominoes it set up. Here, those character points are gobbled up and forgotten.

Wait, We Didn’t Do Jaws Yet! – 1 Point

**Spoiler Alerts Here**

Many horror films seemingly end only for the monster to return for an encore, and Leviathan can’t resist the trick.

And that’s great. Like a crowd at a concert, we know it’s coming but appreciate that it’s coming. 

But this finale makes a sudden slip into B-Movie territory.

After blowing up the mining operation, rising to the surface, and signaling a rescue helicopter, it looks like the day is saved. Even the sharks circling around our three remaining survivors – Beck, Willie, and Jones – can’t seem to stop them.

But inexplicably old monster eyes is back.

First, the aquabeast slays Ernie Hudson’s Jones, or at least you think Jones died, because the editing is so awful you can barely tell if the monster is drowning him or was just needing a cuddle that has gone wrong.

But then we get the apex of the movie’s schlocky turn. As if the writers realized they made a horrific water movie and didn’t reference Jaws, they give Weller’s Beck a “Smile, you son of a bitch” moment. 

Beck, suddenly the action hero, tells monster eyes to “Say ah, motherfucker!” and explodes him with what I think is a flare or small explosive.

And there’s just enough runtime for Beck to punch Ms. Martin to a pounding sound effect fit for a Schwarzenneger vehicle, not the jab she takes.

For a meek geologist, Beck sure became an 80s action stud.

You can understand the filmmakers may have wanted to complete Beck’s journey from timid manager to man of the moment. Still, the wheels come off in these last segments. Whatever serious and scary bits the creators were going for earlier in the movie are out of touch with this cheeseball ending.

Let’s Not Watch Leviathan

Total Arbitrary Points Score: -2 Points

Leviathan’s producers put top-tier science fiction horror talent together and paired them with a capable cast.

But while the set designs and creature effects are sturdy, its plodding story and lack of exciting scenes sink the ship.

Though derivative, a popcorn version of Alien under the sea would have been welcome.

But as a sex-crazed degenerate dances his way over your eyes and monsters shrink from scary to silly in the light of day, this is a wet mess that thankfully flushes down the memory drain.

Despite the Peter Weller factor in full flow, I can’t recommend Leviathan.

Leviathan is rated R and was directed by George P. Cosmatos.

You can stream it free on Max.

You can watch the trailer here.

Disclaimer:

The factual information about the film in this review was gathered through online sources, such as Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

The post Leviathan (1989) Review: Can a Watered-Down Alien and The Thing Be Its Own Classic? appeared first on The Antenna.

But this is nobody’s stepping stone. The pulpy, blood-spattering, heart-in-mouth revenge tale carries an inimitable cinematic swagger and plenty of kickass.

And whatever its influence on future works, its roots are manga royalty. 

Lady Snowblood is adapted from the manga of the same name, illustrated by Kazuo Kamimura and written by the Kazuo Koike. 

For the unaware, Koike is the author of the legendary, it belongs in a museum, once-a-generation epic manga Lone Wolf and Cub (also adapted into the celebrated films that together are credited with helping to spread Japanese culture globally).

But street cred and a hype machine aren’t why the folks over at Criterion and Janus Films added the movie to their collections. You don’t get film’s most reliable rubber stamps with eye-catching letters of rec – you need your own creative feats.

Still, like Walter Hill’s The Driver, some classic films enchant directors but set modern audiences yawning. 

Yet this film’s artistry transcends its simple boiling vendetta into a vicious spectacle that works on either end of the audience spectrum – those after kickback fun and those who want to stick around and discuss.

So what makes Lady Snowblood a good movie?

The Plot of Lady Snowblood:

In 1874, in a women’s prison, inmate Sayo Kashima (Miyoko Akaza), near death, gives birth to a baby girl, Yuki (Meiko Kaji). 

As Sayo passes, she reveals how she ended up in prison: the dark tale of her attempted revenge against a group that raped her and killed her husband. 

With her dying words, she demands the child be raised to take vengeance on the three remaining assailants.

Now 20, can the demon child Yuki finish her parents’ revenge?

Note: Yuki translates to “Snow” in English

The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:

• Kō Nishimura as Dōkai the priest
• Toshio Kurosawa as Ryūrei Ashio
• Masaaki Daimon as Gō Kashima
• Sanae Nakahara as Okono Kitahama
• Eiji Okada as Gishirō Tsukamoto
• Mayumi Maemura as young Yuki
• Noboru Nakaya as Banzō Takemura
• Hitoshi Takagi as Matsuemon
• Takeo Chii as Shokei Tokuichi
• Akemi Negishi as Tajire no Okiku
• Yoshiko Nakada as Kobue Takemura
• Rinichi Yamamoto as Maruyama

The Good Things:

Imagery to Die to, + 10 points

The cinematography has those distinctly Japanese film and manga flavors. 

In the opening sequence, we get a shot above Yuki’s parasol, building the mystery of who could be beneath it.

As she walks, we get a close-up of her sandals stopping suddenly, crunching in the snow. We pause as she slips into silent concentration, a group approaching as she steadies herself for battle.

And the film uses plenty of snap zooms (when the camera starts out but rapidly flies way, wayyyy in).

These fun genre staples maximize little moments, but the film leaves room for more inventive pieces. 

There’s a shot Kill Bill fans will recognize, Sayo’s point of view of her four attackers looming over her. But the film edits them into the frame later, fading the assailants in with a coat of sepia, reminding us what’s on Yuki’s mind at a pivotal moment.

But if this film has a distinct visual approach, it’s the intimacy of this revenge tale. 

There’s a lot of handheld camera, keeping the audience’s point of view amid the conversation or fighting.

Like a samurai or gunslinger flick, there are many close-ups of the film’s MVP,  Meiko Kaji’s wild eyes (blazing with the intensity of a mother-in-law who just discovered her daughter is taking back up with that no good, jobless sonuva bitch again).

And to add atmosphere, plenty of tantalizing snow is in the air, twinkling mystically about like her calling card.

As blood spatters, limbs topple, and eyes glare, there’s an elegance, a living painting quality, to this spectacle of revenge.

Theatrical Flavor, +8 points 

A Jidaigeki (period drama) film, the movie is set in 1874-94, Japan’s early Meiji period. 

I think of Japanese action period movies as I do our American Wild West fantasies. Though it’s blades, not bullets, that win the day.

The film stands within that mythical spirit, never straying into wacky territory. But the exaggerated nature of its performances and staging delights.

From her opening hit job to the masquerade party of the final act, we’re never standing in flat reality. A group is felled by one lone, agile woman; a target and assassin play out a secret cat-and-mouse game amongst the partygoers.

But even in what could be its dull moments, the film finds more than flat exposition. 

Yuki goes to meet the lord of the beggars, Matsuemon. We follow her as she walks among the street urchins cowling around her. Her elegant white outfit and poise are contrasted by the dingy, crawling men at her feet. She is like the beautiful demon – not from here, nor anywhere.

Then we have the fountains of bordering-on-silly blood. The liquid is all-too red in cartoony, Kool-Aid colors, bursting from squibs. Every death is a gradual fading from the light, not a quick passing.

A Simple Plot that Expands, +2 Points

The film is a basic revenge tale, but it finds a few more layers than just rolling down the curtains when Yuki checks off every name on her hit list in red.

Without spoiling things, I picked up a loose thread that later expanded into something much more meaningful between the characters, helping to deepen things as Yuki’s quest continues.

And we’re not without a twist or two before the credits roll.

The Dark Buddha, + 1 Point

In what strikes me as a small meditation on Buddhism, the movie contemplates the merits of revenge.

Yuki was born a demon, but is it her obligation to carry out her mother’s vendetta if it destroys her?

And in taking her revenge, she knowingly harms the loved ones of her targets, bringing consequences. 

Is she securing justice or just spreading more harm?

Spicy Killing Shows, +3 points 

The battles are not samurai sword duels between evenly matched opponents going out honorably. They are killings, Yuki striking down her opponents with a long knife.

But the drama surprised me. The villains, waiting for Yuki, have a few tricks to pull. They don’t stand in an open field, welcoming her advance. Like the treacherous lot they are, they get crafty, which changes the game.

And the final battle, which I refuse to ruin, becomes downright Shakespearian.

Fitting Theme, +1 Point

Being a singer, lead actress Meiko Kaji also sang the moody theme from the film, Shura no Hana, “Flower of Carnage.” 

It’s a theme like Yuki: beautiful and majestic but with a cutting edge.

The Not-as-Good Things:

Master of Barrels, -2 points

**Minor Spoiler Alert**

Rocky had to catch a chicken to increase his agility, but they go harder in Japan. 

It’s seemingly obligatory that a samurai or martial arts film includes a training sequence with a no doubt harsh and uncompromising master (unless he’s the Mr. Rodgers of masters, Mr. Miyagi of Karate Kid). 

You can count on these teachers to push their pupils hard with sessions bordering on child abuse. Still, this movie’s brand of toughening up the student is comically bizarre.

It starts out low-key. We watch Yuki, 8, wandering around beating the shit out of flowers with a stick, presumably to improve her aim. Watching the little girl take her anger out on the buds is cute.

Another test is when she squares off naked and unarmed against her master, Dōkai, who pokes at her with a sharp sword. These little skirmishes are dangerous. Dōkai isn’t afraid to land a scratch on Yuki that draws blood. But you imagine this is her way to put aside her fears and evolve a determined spirit.

But then there’s Yuki’s ultimate test: the barrel roll (no, not the Starfox kind).

Dōkai demands Yuki tuck her prepubescent body into a wooden barrel and, by pressing hard against the sides, stay in no matter what. He kicks the barrel down a steep slope, aiming for the large rocks in the way. When the barrel smacks one of them, she’s flung out hysterically, flying for several feet.

But things get more laughable when she levels up in this game of Donkey Kong-style punishment.

Dōkai stands determined at the bottom of the slope, sword drawn, as Yuki literally barrels toward him. He slices the barrel in half, presumably chopping her in two. But before she’s diced, Yuki inexplicably pops out, flying through the air and, like a spring-loaded gymnast, sticks her landing. 

I’ve no clue how this live-action jack-in-the-box game prepares her to swordfight, and it nearly plunges the film into camp. 

But in hindsight, this may not be a negative, as I (almost) enjoy the film more for these bizarre minutes.

Early Pacing, -2 points

Chapters one and two (there are four total), up to about the first ~50 minutes of runtime or so, can’t match the forward momentum of three and four.

The first two parts are at a disadvantage here. A lot of exposition is needed, which can’t be cut (and does pay off later). And there’s some action mixed in to keep your interest.

But there’s a definitive forward energy to the movie’s second half over the first.

Go Watch Lady Snowblood

Total Arbitrary Points Score: 21 Points

You can enjoy Lady Snowblood as a straightforward Japanese period piece of swashbuckling revenge, but this on-paper genre film smacks higher.

With its striking cinematic quality and theatrics, each scene’s composition is an arresting photograph – one it’s all too happy to spray gallons of cartoon blood over.

Its plot finds more gears than you’d think, and it quietly contemplates the cyclical nature of violence. Its fight scenes are more vengefully stylistic than pulse-pounding, and its theme glides you straight into the broody mood.

You must be patient as the film gets moving, and a short training sequence is laughable.

But if you’re a fan of classic Japanese movies or martial arts films, you’ll be like me when it’s over: absolutely ready to hunt down the sequel (Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance).

Lady Snowblood is not rated (but full of graphic violence) and directed by Toshiya Fujita

You can stream it on Max.

You can watch the trailer here.

Disclaimer:

The factual information about the film in this review was gathered through online sources, such as Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.

The post Lady Snowblood (1973) Review: From Manga with Blood appeared first on The Antenna.