Larry Sutton (Randolph Scott) is an engineer who has been sent to take over operations at a radium mine that is owned by the Ballard family. Previously, Larry’s bother-in-law was in charge of the mine but he has disappeared and is suspected of having murdered the foreman at the Ballard Ranch. With Jim Ballard (George F. Marion) on his deathbed and being cared for by the foreman’s wife (Caroline Dudley, credited as Mrs. Leslie Carter), Ballard’s nieces (Ann Sheridan and Kathleen Burke) and nephew (Howard Wilson) have come to the ranch to find out about their inheritance.
Soon, a cloaked figure starts to murder Ballard’s heirs, one-by-one. Working with eccentric Deputy Sheriff Tex Murdock (Chic Sale), Larry tries to discover the identity of the killer and keep the mine from falling into the wrong hands.
Rocky Mountain Mystery is unique in that it is a Randolph Scott western that takes place in what was then modern times. Even though both Larry and Tex prefer to ride horses, the murderer tries to escape in a car, people use phones, and the entire plot revolves around a radium mine. The film mixes the usual western tropes of grim heroes, eccentric lawmen, and valley shoot-outs with a dark mystery that actually holds your attention while you’re watching the film. Always ideally cast in these type of films, Randolph Scott is both tough and intelligent as Larry Sutton. He may be a cowboy but he’s a detective too. Scott gets good support from a cast of familiar faces. Ann Sheridan is especially good as the niece who knows how to handle a rifle.
These B-westerns can be a mixed bag but Rocky Mountain Mystery held my attention with a plot that was actually interesting and a strong performance from Randolph Scott. Watch it and see if you can guess who the identity of the Ballard Ranch murderer.
Adam Smasher (Jason London) is the family friendly version of Howard Stern, an obnoxious shock jock who has just been fired from his radio job and, due to nearly crashing into a cow, finds himself stranded in a small North Carolina town. He gets a job on the local radio station, co-hosting a call-in show with Eve Cassidy (Lauren Harper). At first, Adam and Eve don’t mix. Adam is cynical and Eve actually wants to help people with their relationship issues. After a few days, Adam learns to appreciate country living and Eve falls in love with him even though she’s dating the station manager, Jamel (Ian Reier Michaels). Adam shows he’s a soft touch when he buys a bunch of sandwiches for a poor family and Eve starts to loosen up and have more fun on the air. Eve is offered her own show in Chicago and has to decide between her career and Adam.
This isn’t a Hallmark film but it might as well be. I enjoyed it even though I knew everything that was going to happen, from the minute Adam first heard Eve on the radio and called in to “smash” her. (I actually had to check to see when this movie has been made because Adam’s whole act seemed to be from the 1990s.) This is one of those movies where you know what you’re getting from the start. If you’re surprised that Adam brings a carousel down to the station for Eve to ride during a commercial break, you’ve probably never seen one of these movies before. I liked the cozy small town town feel of the location and I think Jason London should be in more movies. I also think it’s funny that 99% of these movies start with someone having car trouble. If people knew how to drive, they would never fall in love.
In the late 90’s, I was all in on actor Chow Yun-Fat. Having only discovered his excellent Hong Kong film work a couple of years earlier, I was so excited to see what kind of splash he would make in American films. I loved his first American film THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS (1998), but I will admit it was an exercise in style over substance, and it really didn’t show off his acting abilities. Chow was working hard to improve his English language skills during this time, but that limited his performance the first time around. As I settled into my seat on the film’s opening weekend at the box office in March of 1999, I was hoping to see the Chow Yun-Fat I loved from his Hong Kong movies. But more on that later…
THE CORRUPTOR opens with a bomb going off in Chinatown, followed by a sidewalk assassination in broad daylight. It seems there’s a turf war being fought between a street gang called the Fukienese Dragons, led by Bobby Vu (Byron Mann), and a Chinese criminal organization called the Tung Fung Benevolence Association, led by Uncle Benny Wong (Kim Chan) and Henry Lee (Ric Young). We then meet Nicholas Chen (Chow Yun-Fat), a heroic, highly decorated NYPD cop who runs the Asian Gang Unit. His unit is tasked with trying to keep the peace in Chinatown, but with all the recent violence, they’re clearly failing. Knowing he needs more help, Chen requests additional manpower and gets the young and eager Danny Wallace (Mark Wahlberg). The two men don’t hit it off immediately as Chen had wanted a more experienced, Asian cop. Over time, however, Chen begins to trust Wallace and begins to let him into the inner workings of the unit.
We soon find out that things are much more complicated in Chinatown police work than they might have appeared at first. Chen is not quite as heroic as initially presented. He’s a morally conflicted man who wants to do good work for the people of Chinatown, but in the process, he’s compromised himself by taking sides and forming a delicate alliance with Uncle Benny and Henry Lee. And Danny isn’t quite the young, green cop he was presented as either. In fact, he’s been secretly tasked by Internal Affairs to monitor Chen and his unit. As Wallace sees what’s really going on in Chinatown, and after Chen saves his ass on multiple occasions, it becomes harder and harder for him to do his job and build a case against Chen. As the film reaches its conclusion in this world of grey, we will see if Chen and Wallace can work together and take down Henry Lee and Bobby Vu, who have formed an alliance to take over Chinatown’s criminal activities. And we will find out what Wallace will do with the information he has on Chen.
I’m a big fan of THE CORRUPTOR, and the primary reason is the excellent performance of Chow Yun-Fat. No other American made action film showed off the extraordinary charisma that made him a superstar in Asia in the 1980’s. In this film, Chow is able to play both sides of the law and still remain incredibly likable. He pulls this balancing act off in a way that appears effortless, and yet there are very few actors in the world who are capable of doing it. Mark Wahlberg had emerged as a major film star a couple of years earlier with the runaway success of BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997). I think he’s very good in this film as well, as his character must reconcile his ideals against the reality of fighting crime in such a dangerous environment. There’s a scene near the end where Chen has been informed that Wallace is internal affairs and confronts him about it. Wahlberg is incredible in the scene, setting the stage for the exciting resolution of the film.
THE CORRUPTOR has several excellent action set-pieces, beginning with a shootout at a lamp shop. This is when I knew this movie was going to present the Chow Yun-Fat I know and love. His personality is displayed in the scene, along with his two guns blazing in slow motion. There’s also an intense car chase through crowded streets and a final showdown on a cargo ship that really stood out to me. Director James Foley was probably hired based on his prior work that showed an ability to deal with moral ambiguity in films like AT CLOSE RANGE (1986) and GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1992). While he wouldn’t be my first directorial choice for an action film, he does a fine job in my opinion.
Overall, I recommend THE CORRUPTOR to any person who likes Chow Yun-Fat, Mark Wahlberg, or an entertaining action film. It’s not in the league of Chow’s best Hong Kong films, but it is his best American action film, because it actually gives him a strong character to play. That went a long way with me.
2009’s AmazingRacer is the story of a teenage girl who meets her mother and learns how to ride a horse.
Shannon Greene (Julianne Michelle) is traumatized when her father dies and, having been told that her mother died giving birth to her, she now believes herself to be an orphan. However, Dr. Rita Baker (Daryl Hannah) reveals that Shannon’s father was just a damn liar. First, he told Shannon’s mother that her baby was stillborn. Then, as Shannon was growing up, he told her that her mother was dead. This is a lot to take in for both Shannon and the viewer. Myself, I wondered not only how someone could do that but why they would do that. Making the scene in which Shannon hears the truth even more surreal was the presence of Michael Madsen and Joanna Pacula, playing Shannon’s guardians. Madsen played his good guy role in much the same way he played his bad guy in Reservoir Dogs.
Anyway, Shannon ends up living with her mother, Dr. Christine Pearson (Claire Forlani), and her mother’s boyfriend, Eric (Jason Gedrick). Understandably, considering everything that she’s been through, Shannon is initially difficult and bratty but eventually, she comes to enjoy working on Eric’s horse ranch. She even starts riding a horse and winning races! This brings her to the attention of evil Mitchell Prescott (Eric Roberts), who wants her horse for himself and even has a spy working on the ranch….
There are a lot familiar faces in this movie. Charles Durning makes his final film appearance as Floyd. Steve Guttenberg has a bizarre cameo as a guy transporting a horse trailer. Scott Eastwood and Kirsta Allen show up. When it’s time for Shannon to finally start training for the big race, Lou Gossett Jr. pops up as the trainer. The film itself a fairly predictable horse ranch movie and it’s enjoyable if you like that sort of thing. (Myself, I like ranches and I like horses so I don’t mind movies like this.) But really, most of the movie’s entertainment value comes from guessing who is going to show up next. Some of the famous faces are bit distracting. But sometimes, it really pays off. I really wish Lou Gossett, Jr.’s role had been bigger because he does a great job with what little time he has.
As for Eric Roberts, he gets a bit more screentime than usual. One gets the feeling that he may have actually spent more than two days shooting his scenes for this one. Roberts is playing a villain here and he gives a enjoyably avuncular performance as the evil Mitchell. Roberts has fun with the role and, as a result, he’s fun to watch in this movie.
I enjoyed Amazing Racer. It had horses and it has Eric Roberts. What more could you want?
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
Hello, It’s Me stars Kellie Martin as Annie, who loses her husband to a freak accident at the start of the movie. Two years later, Annie is still struggling to accept his death. She’s a baker who sells her baked goods on the beach and she tries to be a good mother to Ella (Erin Pitt) and Milo (Jack Fulton). A chance meeting with James (Kavan Smith) leads to an unexpected friendship, though James wants it to be more. James helps Annie to open her own bakery. (Why do people in Hallmark movies always want to open up a bakery?) Even though she is attracted to him, Annie cannot bring herself to move on from her husband’s death. But then she starts to get messages from her husband, encouraging her to move on. Just as Annie starts to open up to James, Ella gets angry and starts acting out. Will Annie and James’s love survive?
Hello, It’s Me was the last movie that I watched for this Valentine’s Day blogathon and it was also the best. It’s a Hallmark movie but it’s also realistic about the grieving process and Kellie Martin gave a really good performance as Annie. The movie really didn’t even need the supernatural element to be memorable and to work. I was cheering for Annie and James all the way. I could also relate to Ella and understand why she was so upset and worried to see her mother getting close to another man. Losing a loved one is never easy and I appreciated that, even at the end of the movie, Annie was still learning how to keep moving forward in her life. There is one embarrassing scene that takes place at a comic book convention, just due to some of the costumes that the movie has the background extras wearing. But it doesn’t detract from the movie’s effectiveness as a whole.
Some movies really touch your heart. Hello, It’s Me touched mine.
Want to feel old? Remember James Van Der Beek from Dawson’s Creek and how he was an aspiring film director who went to high school and thought he knew better than all of his teachers? In Backwards, James Van Der Beek is the teacher! He’s not just a teacher but he’s also the head of the school’s athletic department. He still looks and sounds like Dawson, though.
When Abi Brooks (Sarah Megan Thomas) fails to qualify for the Olympic rowing team and is instead offered a spot as an alternate for the second time in a row, she decides to take a job coaching a high school team instead. It’s not an easy transition. At first, Abi pushes her rowers too much and forgets the importance of having fun. But then she falls in love with school’s athletic director, Geoff (that would be James Van Der Beek), and she starts to loosen up. Her rowers start to win and soon, they have a chance to go to London and compete in a prestigious race!
Then, Abi is contacted by her former coach (Glenn Morshower). There’s an opening on the Olympic rowing team and he needs Abi to come to practice immediately. When Abi asks if she can come after coaching her students in London, her coach tells her that he’ll have to pick someone else if Abi isn’t at practice on Monday. Abi wants to go the Olympics but James Van Der Beek says she’ll be abandoning her students if she goes. Abi has to make a choice, her students and her love or her lifelong dream.
I liked Backwards up until everyone started to give Abi a hard time about accepting a spot on the Olympic rowing team. Abi has spent her entire life working for her chance to go to the Olympics. She’s nearly 30 so this is probably her last chance to go as a competitor. Abi took a job coaching because she was told that she wouldn’t be on the team. Now, out of nowhere, she finally has her opportunity to fulfill her lifelong dream and be a part of the Olympic tradition. Should she leave her job to start training for the Olympics? Of course, she should! Anyone in the real world would understand that this is an opportunity that Abi can’t pass up and no one would expect her to. True friends would have wished Abi luck and promised to cheer for her instead of guilting her! Dawson was always guilting Joey about something too. That’s why I liked Pacey.
Up until that point, Backwards was pretty good. Sarah Megan Thomas was believable as an athlete and Glenn Morshower had the coach thing down perfectly. I was happy with Abi and Geoff finally admitted how they felt about each other. I still think Abi should have gone to the Olympics, though.
Last night, Lisa Marie and I watched LakeLavon on Tubi, just because it was filmed in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and we wanted to see if we recognized any of the shooting locations.
An hour into the movie, there’s a scene where Bob (Vincent Charles Marquez) is reunited with his ex-girlfriend Avery (Mallory Florey). They go to Lake Lavon, which is a lake down here in Dallas. Bob tells her that, in the two years since they broke up, he’s been checking up on her by looking at her social media. “I didn’t see you carousing with any other men,” he says.
“What a jerk!” Lisa yelled.
“Red flag alert!” I said.
The weird thing about LakeLavon is that Bob isn’t supposed to be a jerk, even though he is. We’re supposed to like Bob, even though he’s a judgmental stalker who has the nerve to judge how his ex-girlfriend has been living, even though he’s the one who broke up with her. I understand that this is a faith film and it’s trying to celebrate traditional values but Bob still comes across as being smug and judgmental. Plus, who says “carousing with other men” in this day and age? Who talks like that? Serial killers, that’s who.
LakeLavon was filmed in Dallas and Lisa and I recognized almost every location in the movie. We’ve been to Lake Lavon more times than I can count! I enjoyed seeing all the familiar places while I watched the movie but I’ve never been more turned off by a love story than I was by the one in this film. Everyone in the movie acts like Bob is perfect. Everyone judges Avery because she’s had a lot of boyfriends in the past. Avery admits that she doesn’t go to church and everyone worries that Bob is getting involved with a fallen woman. Bob breaks up with Avery over a stupid misunderstanding but everyone still acts as if it was Avery’s fault. Bob and Avery get engaged but after Avery is nearly raped by her stepfather, Bob says it’s because they haven’t declared their love in front of God so even that is somehow presented as being Avery’s fault. The movie may have been filmed in Dallas but it was set in Red Flag City!
Jenna (Nicola Posener) is an actress on a detective show called Echo Park. She is dating her co-star, Trevor (Trey Warner), even though they don’t have anything in common other than being actors on the same show. When Jenna finds out the show is being canceled, she accepts her agent’s offer to stay in the family cabin until she gets things sorted out and figures out what she wants to do next. When Jenna gets to the cabin, she finds out that it’s already being used by her agent’s son, Chris (Dan Fowlks), a nature photographer. At first, Jenna and Chris don’t get along but then they discover that they misjudged each other. Jenna actually is a good actress (and a great cook) and she wants to do work that she can be proud of. Chris really isn’t as arrogant as he seems at first. They fall in love. Meanwhile, Trevor is trying to track down Jenna with the help of Roxanne (Shona Kay) and it doesn’t take 20/20 vision to see that Trevor would be happier with her than with Jenna.
Love In Focus is totally predictable but I still liked it. The scenery was gorgeous and Nicole Posener and Dan Fowlks were a really appealing couple once they stopped fighting. (People who fall in love in movies always have to start out fighting each other over something.) There’s a really sweet scene where Chris’s parents talk about how they first met and fell in love and listening to their story made me smile. The best part of the film was Trey Warner. Even though Trevor was Chris’s romantic rival, he wasn’t portrayed as being a villain or a jerk or anything like that. Everyone in the film was so nice that you really hoped everything would work out for them.
Hey, ladies! Take it from someone who has been there, if your family home is destroyed in a storm and someone offers to help you rebuild it so that you have a place to live with your adorable Siberian Husky, accept the help. I don’t care if you used to date him. I don’t care if you’re engaged to marry someone else. That person that you think you’re going to marry? Where is he? He’s not the one at your house offering to help your rebuild. The man who does show up, does he have a criminal record? Does he have a history of being an abuser? Is he a Nazi? If the answers to those three questions are all no then accept the help and be sure to say thank you every chance you get.
After the Storm is about Lauren (Madeleine Leon), who reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Colin (Bo Yokely) after a storm destroys her home. Lauren is a teacher, which is extremely cool. I like and respect teachers. And she owns an adorable dog! I liked that Lauren was as concerned about rebuilding the community as she was rebuilding her house. I could relate. Last year, our neighborhood got hit by one of the worst storms that I’ve ever seen and it took over a month for the city to clean up all the debris and ge everything back and running. I checked on my neighbors every day to see if they needed anything and a lot of very kind people helped us clean up the branches in the front and back yards. (One of them had fallen on our wooden swing, crushing it underneath.) Cleaning up wasn’t easy but we worked together and got it done and we were stronger as a community as a result.
But I got so frustrated watching this movie because Lauren kept getting upset whenever Colin tried to help her and I couldn’t understand why. She was still angry about how they broke up five years in the past but Colin had obviously grown up since then and he wanted to help both her and the community. The movie lost me whenever Lauren get angry with Colin. Her main excuse was that she was engaged but when her fiancé did show up, he turned out to be useless. Lauren’s stubbornness was hard to take.
I did like Bo Yokely as Colin. Colin was a good friend to have in a disaster and, when it came to Lauren, he had the patience of a saint. I got frustrated with Lauren but I did enjoy the scenes of her house being rebuilt once Laruen finally accepted the help and admitted that she was still in love with Colin. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to smile at Colin carrying Lauren over the threshold while that adorable dog. Love can overcome anything, even stubbornness.
Electric Dreams is a film about a love triangle between a man, his neighbor, and his personal computer.
Miles (Lenny Von Dohlen) is an architect who wants to develop a special brick that can withstand earthquakes. One of his colleagues suggests that he buy something called a — let me check my notes to make sure I got it right — com-put-er. Apparently, computers can do anything! Miles is skeptical but he decides to give it a try.
(In all fairness, this movie came out at a time when there were no iPhones or even laptops and personal computers were viewed as being strange and exotic. )
Miles get his computer and it’s basically one of those boxy computers that used to populate computer labs in high schools across the country. As soon as I saw the computer, I wanted to play Oregon Trail. After the computer overheats and Miles tries to cool it down by pouring champagne on it (!), the computer comes to life. Now voiced by Burt Cort, the computer develops a crush on Mile’s neighbor, a cellist named Madeleine (Virginia Madsen). The computer hears Madeleine playing her cello and composes its own music to play with her. Madeleine hears the music and assumes that Miles must be a great composer. Soon, Miles and Madeleine are falling in love and the computer is getting jealous. The computer composes more more music for Miles but grows angry when Miles doesn’t give the computer any credit. Even though the computer can’t move from the desk and has to be plugged in to work, it still manages to wreck havoc with Miles’s life. When this movie came out, the idea of someone’s entire life being electronically monitored and recorded probably seemed like an out-there idea. Today, that’s just a normal Tuesday for most people.
Electric Dreams is a mix of romance, comedy, and science fiction. The scenes of Miles and Madeleine falling in love are mixed with scenes of the computer basically having a nervous breakdown and conspiring to ruin Miles’s credit and even trap him in his apartment. Electric Dreams is probably the most good-natured film ever made about a computer run amuck. The computer doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, it’s just jealous and feeling neglected. It’s a weird mix but the movie is so dedicated to its premise and Lenny Von Dohlen and Virginia Madsen are so appealing as the romantic leads that it works. Electric Dreams proves that true love can conquer all, even in the Computer Age.
Larry Sutton (Randolph Scott) is an engineer who has been sent to take over operations at a radium mine that is owned by the Ballard family. Previously, Larry’s bother-in-law was in charge of the mine but he has disappeared and is suspected of having murdered the foreman at the Ballard Ranch. With Jim Ballard (George F. Marion) on his deathbed and being cared for by the foreman’s wife (Caroline Dudley, credited as Mrs. Leslie Carter), Ballard’s nieces (Ann Sheridan and Kathleen Burke) and nephew (Howard Wilson) have come to the ranch to find out about their inheritance.
Through the Shattered Lens 