Today is a Festivus for the rest of us!
Get out your aluminum pole. Gather your family around the dinner table and tell them how they have disappointed you. Air the grievances. Prepare for the feats of strength. Have a happy and joyous Festivus!
Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland
A Movie A Day #347: High-Ballin’ (1978, directed by Peter Carter)
Hey, good buddy, remember the Snowman?
The Snowman was the handle of Cledus Snow, the independent trucker who, along with his basset hound Flash, helped the Bandit escape Smokey in three different movies. Cledus was played by the country western singer, Jerry Reed. Interestingly, when Smokey and the Bandit was still in preproduction, the film’s producers envisioned a low-budget drive-in movie with Reed in the role of the Bandit. When Burt Reynolds signaled that he would be interested in playing the man in the black Trans Am, Reed was instead cast as Cledus.
The box office success of Smokey and the Bandit led to several road films being rushed into production and more than a few of them starred Jerry Reed. Several other of them starred Peter Fonda, who had already proven himself to be the king of the road with Easy Rider. However, High-Ballin’ is the only trucker film that can claim to have starred both Jerry Reed and Peter Fonda.
In High-Ballin’, Jerry Reed may be playing “Iron Duke” Boykin but he might as well just be Cledus Snow again. Once again, Reed is an independent trucker with a family at home and a love for the road. (Just as he did with Smokey and the Bandit, Reed even performed High-Ballin‘s theme song.) The local trucker’s union is putting pressure on the independent truckers and trying to intimidate them into joining. Iron Duke has no intention of doing that. Iron Duke has been hired to haul a load of liquor to an isolated lumber camp and he is not going to let the union or its thugs stop him. Helping him along the way is his friend Rane (Peter Fonda) and another independent, Pickup (Helen Shaver).
High-Ballin‘ was not as bad as I was expecting it to be. Reed, Fonda, and Shaver are likable in the lead roles and the action scenes are exciting. Fonda may have been a notoriously inexpressive actor but he was always believable whenever he was cast as a rebel or an outsider and the friendship between him and the more expressive Reed is as believable as the friendship between Cledus and the Bandit in Reed’s previous trucking film. Of course, the main reason you are going to watch a movie like High-Ballin’ is to see how many different ways that a car or a truck can be destroyed and this movie does not skimp on the vehicular destruction. It’s nothing great but, as far as 70s trucking films are concerned, High-Ballin’ is better than average.
One final note: keep an eye out for Michael Ironside in an early role.
10-4, good buddy. I’m out.
A Movie A Day #346: Closet Land (1991, directed by Radha Bharadwaj)
It has been nearly two years since the death of Alan Rickman and it is a loss that film lovers are still feeling today. When Rickman was with us, it was easy to take him for granted. It was only after his death that many started to look at the films he made, both the good ones and the bad ones, and realizing just how much Rickman brought to every role he played.
Take Closet Land, for instance. This was made early in Rickman’s film career. It is a very theatrical film, all taking place on one set and featuring only two major roles. Madeleine Stowe plays the Victim, a writer of children’s books whose latest autobiographical work deals with a girl who uses her imagination to escape from unhappiness. Alan Rickman plays the Interrogator, a government functionary who demands that the Victim confess to hiding anti-government propaganda in her books. When the Victim refuses to sign the confession, the Interrogator continually switches techniques in his attempt to break her, trying everything from physically torturing her to blindfolding her and pretending to be other people to even claiming that he abused her when she was younger.
There are many problems with Closet Land but Alan Rickman’s performance is not one of them. Rickman is hypnotically malevolent as the otherwise cultured Interrogator and the most fascinating part of the movie is watching him switch back and forth from being a harried bureaucrat just doing his job and a manipulative sociopath who views the Victim’s sanity as a trophy for him to claim. Closet Land is too stagey and heavy-handed to be effective but Rickman’s performance reminds us of what a great actor we lost when we lost Alan Rickman.
4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Jack Nance Edition (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks — The Pilot, Whore, Meatballs 4)
In honor of the late, great Jack Nance’s birthday, here are…
4 Shots From 4 Films
Eraserhead (1977, directed by David Lynch)
Twin Peaks 1.1 “The Pilot” (1990, directed by David Lynch)
Whore (1991, directed by Ken Russell)
Meatballs 4 (1992, directed by Bob Logan)
A Movie A Day #345: A Band Called Death (2012, directed by Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett)
A band called Death was one of the best bands that most people have never heard of. Formed in the early 70s by three brothers in Detroit, Death produced some of the most incendiary music ever recorded. They played fast and they played loud. They were punk before punk even existed. At a time when most black musicians were defined by the smooth Motown style, Death created their own unique sound. Led by a visionary named David Hackney, Death were trailblazers and, as so often happens with trailblazers, they would not receive the recognition that they deserved until several years after Death performed for the last time.
A Band Called Death tells not only their story but also the story of how this band was eventually rediscovered. Through extensive and insightful interviews with the surviving members of Death, A Band Called Death works as not just a history of the band but also as a tribute to three brothers who always had each other’s back. Though he passed away in 2000 and never received his due while alive, the film is dominated by David Hackney. It was David’s idea to name the band Death, not for shock value but instead to express his own deeply spiritual outlook. To an extent, it was David’s refusal to compromise on the name that kept Death from receiving the attention that it deserved. (He even turned down a record deal with Clive Davis when Davis requested a name change.) Today, of course, no one would be shocked by a band with a name like “Death.” Instead, they would just be shocked by the band’s ferocious power of the band’s music and lyrics.
A Band Called Death is a powerful and touching documentary about the power of music and family.
A Movie A Day #344: Skyscraper (1996, directed by Raymond Martino)
If you want to see a movie about somone trapped in a skyscraper and battling terrorists, the obvious solution is to watch Die Hard. After all, it’s always a good time to watch Die Hard.
If for some reason you cannot watch Die Hard, then I recommend trying Die Hard 2.
If Die Hard 2 is not available, I guess you could watch something like Skyscraper.
Skyscraper is a by-the-numbers remake of Die Hard, except that the Bruce Willis role is now played by Anna Nicole Smith. Anna Nicole is a helicopter pilot who is hired by a group of strange men to give them an aerial tour of the city. What Anna Nicole does not realize is that these men are all terrorists and she is flying them to the skyscraper that they are planning on taking over. Unlike Bruce, Anna Nicole does not get to say much during this movie. She doesn’t get to say “Yippie ki yay, motherfucker,” or anything else that might liven things up. Instead, she takes a shower, has one lame sex scene, and then spends the rest of the movie crawling through air ducts and shooting terrorists. The few times that she does have to actually speak, she is about as convincing as you would expect Anna Nicole Smith to be in the role of a tough action heroine. At one point, Anne Nicole responds to the main terrorist’s florid soliloquy by telling him that he is quoting Shakespeare and she delivers the line in such a way that you are left with little doubt that, until she showed up on the set that day, Anna Nicole Smith had never heard of this Shakespeare dude.
On second thought, if Die Hard is not available, do not watch Skyscraper. Stare at a wall for a few hours. Protect your brain cells. Skyscraper is one to avoid. If you have to resort to a Die Hard rip-off, watch Shannon Tweed and Andrew “Dice” Clay in No Contest instead.
A Movie A Day #343: Looker (1981, directed by Michael Crichton)
Someone is murdering models and trying to frame Larry Roberts (Albert Finney), a plastic surgeon. Larry suspects that the actual murderer is somehow involved with the Digital Matrix research firm, a shadowy organization that is headed by James Coburn and Leigh Taylor Young. Digital Matrix has developed a new technique where they digitally scan a model’s body and then generate a 3-D duplicate that can be used in commercials and on film. The real-life models stand to make a fortune from the royalties, assuming that they are physically perfect and they do not end up getting murdered immediately after being scanned. Larry’s girlfriend, Cindy (Susan Dey), is just the latest model to have been scanned and now Larry suspects that she might be targeted for death as well.
When I was growing up, Looker was one of those movies that always seemed to be on HBO. I don’t know why this box office bomb was so popular on cable but I do remember seeing it several times. I guarantee you that anyone who has ever came across this movie on HBO in the 80s and 90s will remember it. They might not remember the title but they will remember that the bad guys used light guns that would cause people to briefly go into a catatonic state. Everyone who has ever seen this movie remembers the model standing frozen in the doorway of her apartment.
As for the movie itself, the guns are cool and so is the scene where Susan Dey gets scanned but otherwise, Looker is not very good. Michael Crichton later said that he had conflicts with Warner Bros during the editing of Looker and, as a result, there were some important scenes that did not make it into the final cut. For instance, it is never really explained why the models are being killed. Albert Finney was in one of his periodic career slumps when he starred as Larry and he looks uncomfortable going through the motions of being an action star. Two years after Looker came out, Finney’s career would be reinvigorated when he received an Oscar nomination for The Dresser and three years later, he would give his career best performance in Under the Volcano.
As it typical of Michael Crichton’s work, Looker was ahead of its time in predicting the use of CGI in media but otherwise, it’s nothing special. If you want to see a good Crichton-directed film, stick with Westworld and The Great Train Robbery.
A Movie A Day #342: Hiding Out (1987, directed by Bob Giraldi)
Andrew Morenski (Jon Cryer) is a stockbroker in the 1980s. What could be better than handling large amount of money during the decade of excess, right? The only problem is that Andrew and two of his colleagues have gotten involved with Mafia. And now, the Mafia wants them all dead. On the run from both the FBI and the Mob, Andrew tries to change his appearance. He shaves off his beard. He gives himself a bad dye job. No sooner has Andrew traded clothes with a homeless person than he is mistaken for a high school student.
What better place could there be for Andrew to hide than a high school? Despite being 29 years old, Andrew fits right in and soon becomes one of the most popular students at the school. Andrew not only gets a girlfriend (Annabeth Gish) but he is even nominated to run for student body president. As Andrew discovers, the mob may be ruthless but they’re nothing compared to the student council.
Hiding Out may begin like a violent action thriller but it quickly reveals itself to be yet another John Hughes-influenced high school movie. Andrew starts out as a sleazy stockbroker but, by the end of the movie, he has transformed himself into Ferris Bueller. After spending his teenage years as a self-described “short, horny, hopeless dork,” Andrew is finally getting his chance to be cool. (“Well, I’m not short,” Andrew says.) The best scenes are the ones where Andrew occasionally forgets that he’s just supposed to be an apathetic teenager, like when he gets into a fierce argument with his history teacher over whether Richard Nixon should have been forced out of office or when he meets his girlfriend’s father and ends up giving him stock advice. There’s no denying that the plot is frequently dumb and features some massive plot holes but, largely due to Jon Cryer’s likable and energetic performance, Hiding Out is also a breezy and enjoyable movie.
A Movie A Day #341: Hot Pursuit (1987, directed by Steven Lisberger)
When high school student Dan Bartlett (John Cusack) is late arriving at the airport, he finds himself watching as the plane taking his girlfriend (Wendy Gazelle) and her parents (Monte Markham and Shelley Fabares) to the Caribbean takes off without him. Dan catches the next available flight and tries to track down his girlfriend and her family. Helping him out is a Ganja-smoking islander (Keith David) and a crusty sea captain (Robert Loggia). Complicating matters is that Dan’s girlfriend has been kidnapped by pirates (Jerry Stiller and his son, Ben)!
John Cusack got his start appearing in dopey 80s teen comedies and Hot Pursuit shows why he eventually declared that he would never appear in another one. Hot Pursuit relies on the idiot plot. If everyone in the movie didn’t act like an idiot, there wouldn’t be much of a movie. Cusack seems bored in his role, only waking up towards the end of the movie when he gets to pick up a machine gun and blow away the pirates’ hideout. (Cusack even gets to do a Rambo-style yell while riddling the building with bullets.) This was Ben Stiller’s film debut and he has a few funny scenes. The movie probably would have worked better if Stiller and Cusack had switched roles.
One final note; Hot Pursuit was produced by Pierre David, who also produced several of David Cronenberg’s early films. It’s probably not a coincidence that Wendy Gazzelle’s character is named Lori Cronenberg.
A Movie A Day #340: Eye of the Needle (1981, directed by Richard Marquand)
The time is World War II, shortly before D-Day. Lucy Rose (Kate Nelligan) lives on an isolated island with her crippled husband, David (Christopher Cazenove), their young son, and a sheep herder named Tom (Alex McCrindle). Embittered by the accident that left him in a wheelchair, David is abusively violent and emotionally shut off. One night, during a sudden storm, a man who says his name is Henry Faber (Donald Sutherland) turns up on the island. Henry claims that the storm caught him by surprise and left him stranded. David doesn’t trust him and it turns out that, for once, David is right. Faber is actually a semi-legendary German spy, code-named The Needle because his preferred instrument of murder is a stiletto. Faber has discovered the plans for the Allied Invasion of Normandy. He’s only on the island because he is waiting for a German u-boat to arrive and take him back to Berlin. Complicating matters is that a romance has developed between Faber and Lucy.
Based on a novel by Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle is an old-fashioned spy thriller, distinguished by Kate Nelligan’s sensual turn as Lucy and Donald Sutherland giving what might be his career best performance in the role of Henry Faber. Until he meets Lucy, Faber is a remorseless sociopath who is willing to kill anyone who discovers the truth about his identity. For the majority of the film, it is left ambiguous whether Faber loves Lucy or if he’s just using her and Sutherland plays the role as if Faber himself is not really sure. The final confrontation between Faber and Lucy is both suspenseful and exciting and will convince you to never stick your hand through a window unless you’re sure about what’s on the other side. Eye of the Needle is a World War II thriller that deserves to be better known.
Following the success of this film, Richard Marquand was hired to direct Return of the Jedi., a film that is light years away from the gloomy world portrayed in Eye of the Needle. He later directed another well-regarded thriller, Jagged Edge, before passing away from a stroke in 1987 at the age of 49.
Through the Shattered Lens 