A Blast From The Past: Ace Hits The Big Time (dir by Robert C. Thompson)

Posted on September 15, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Made in 1985 for CBS, Ace Hits The Big Time is a seriously strange little film.

It tells the story of Horace Hobart (Rob Stone, a likable actor), a 16 year-old kid from New Jersey who has just transferred to a new high school in New York. He’s paranoid about going to his new school because it’s supposedly populated by gang members. The school is so notorious for gang activity that the members of the gang even make an appearance on the front page of the paper of record, The New York Freaking Times! Looking at the newspaper makes Horace Hobart so paranoid that he has musical fantasies in which the members of a gang known as the Purple Falcons surround him, start singing, and then beat him up while doing an interpretive dance.

Horace does eventually find the courage to go to his new high school but he insists on calling himself “Ace,” he wears a jacket with a fearsome dragon embroidered on the back of it, and he wears an eye patch because he’s got …. ewwww …. pink eye. (Remember when Bob Costas got pink eye at the Olympics and traumatized thousands of viewers by insisting on going on the air every night and talking about snowboarding while struggling to keep his eye from popping out of its socket? Those were crazy times!) Ace looks so tough that the real Purple Falcons mistake him for being an associate of a notorious New Jersey gang (no, not the Sopranos) and they recruit him to be a member of their gang. Ace is so convincing as a tough guy that a film crew decides to use him and his friends as extras in a movie! (Interestingly, the director is really involved in picking and working with the extras. There’ll be no second unit crap for Ace and the Purple Falcons!) Unfortunately, another gang insists on trying to make the Purple Falcons look bad. Fortunately, Ace is able to defuse the tension by baking a cake. What?

This is like the dorkiest version of West Side Story ever made and I can’t really figure out what the message is supposed to be. On the one hand, Ace is totally paranoid about any sort of gang violence and goes out of his way to try to prevent a gang war. On the other hand, even before Ace shows up and starts quoting John Lennon, neither one of the show’s gangs are particularly violent or even intimidating. The Purple Falcons are pretty much impossible to take seriously because they’re called “the Purple Falcons.” (They all wear purple, as well. I guess some other gang had already claimed all the cool falcon colors.) They really don’t do any sort of “gang” stuff. Instead, they eat a lot of pizza and appear in a movie. That sounds like a pretty good deal, actually. With its mix of dorky humor, random dance numbers, and “tough” gang talk, this is one of those old time capsules that simply has to be seen to be believed.

And here it is!

Retro Television Review: The Astronaut (dir by Robert Michael Lewis)

Posted on September 10, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1972’s The Astronaut! It can be viewed on YouTube!

NASA has successfully landed a man on Mars! The entire world watches as Col. Brice Randolph (Monte Markham) makes his way across the Martian surface. However, suddenly, the signal goes out. Viewers are assured that this is the sort of thing that happens all the time with interstellar travel. What they don’t know is that the signal went down because Brice suddenly died. While the surviving members of the mission return to Earth, NASA tries to figure out how to keep anyone from finding out what happened to Brice. NASA director Kurt Anderson (Jackie Cooper) knows that the President wants to cut the budget and the death of an astronaut would probably provide the perfect excuse for taking money away from NASA and canceling the Mars program.

Anderson’s solution is to recruit a substitute. Eddie Reese (Monte Markham) has a slight resemblance to Brice, one that can be perfected through plastic surgery. While the mission returns from Mars, Eddie goes through a crash course to teach him how to talk, walk, and think like Col. Brice Randolph. Eddie is told that he’ll have to be Brice until the NASA scientists can figure out what led to Brice’s death. Once they do know what went wrong with the mission, Eddie will have to go into NASA’s version of the witness protection.

Eddie proves to be a quick learner and it helps that he, like so many others, looked up to Brice. However, while Eddie can fool almost everyone else, he cannot fool Brice’s wife, Gail (Susan Clark). When Eddie actually treats Gail with kindness and shows sympathy for her nervous condition, she realizes that there’s no way that Eddie is actually her husband. Apparently, Brice was not quite the saintly figure that the public believed him to be. Eddie and Gail soon fall in love for real but when NASA finally discovers what led to Brice’s death, it looks like their new life together might be over as abruptly as it begun.

The Astronaut is a low-key conspiracy …. well, I hesitate to call it a thriller. There’s little of the things that one typically associated with a conspiracy thriller. There’s no black helicopters. There’s no shadowy assassins. There’s no army of men walking around in black suits. Instead, there’s just a bunch of nervous bureaucrats who are desperate to keep the rest of the world from discovering just how much they screwed up. As played by Jackie Cooper, the head of NASA isn’t so much evil as he’s just way too devoted-to-his-job for his own good. In many ways, this is probably one of the most realistic conspiracies ever portrayed on film.

In the end, The Astronaut is a portrait of two lonely people who find love in the strangest of circumstances. Susan Clark and Monte Markham make for a likable couple and the viewer really does hope that things will work out for them. What this film lack in conspiracy thrills, it makes up for in human drama. It appealed to both my romantic and my rabid anti-government sides. What more could one ask?

Guilty Pleasure No. 62: Backtrack (dir by Dennis Hopper)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Sometimes, you see a film that is just so weird and incoherent that you can’t help but love it.

Of course, it also helps if the film has a once-in-a-lifetime cast of actors who you would never expect to see acting opposite each other.

For me, that’s certainly the case with 1990’s Backtrack. Directed by Dennis Hopper, Backtrack is a film about an artist (Jodie Foster, channeling Jenny Holzer) who witnesses a mob murder committed by Joe Pesci, Dean Stockwell, Tony Sirico, and John Turturro. An FBI agent played by Fred Ward suggests that the artist should go into the witness protection program but she doesn’t want to give up her life as a New York sophisticate who creates challenging LED displays and who can eat Sno Balls whenever she gets the craving for one. (Yes, this is a plot point.) Turturro and Sirico break into the artist’s apartment and kill her boyfriend, who is played by a wide-eyed Charlie Sheen. The artist puts on a blonde wig and goes on the run, eventually getting a job in advertising.

Realizing that his men can’t get the job done, mob boss Vincent Price decides to hire a legendary hitman played by Dennis Hopper (who also directed this film) to track down the artist. However, the hitman becomes fascinating with the artist’s work, finds pictures of her posing in black lingerie, and immediately falls in love with her. Not only does he wants to save her life but he wants her to wear the same lingerie exclusively for him. (Yes, this is a pretty big plot point.) At first, the artist refuses and views the hitman as being some sort of pathetic perv. But then she discovers that he’s covered her bed with Sno Balls….

Meanwhile, a young Catherine Keener shows up as the girlfriend of a trucker who briefly considers giving the artist a ride to Canada.

And then Bob Dylan shows up, handling a chainsaw.

And there’s Helena Kallianiotes, the outspoken hitch-hiker from Five Easy Pieces, yelling at Joe Pesci!

And there’s Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie co-star, Julie Adams! And there’s Toni Basil! And there’s director Alex Cox!

Dennis Hopper not only starred in Backtrack but he also directed and it’s obvious that he placed a call into just about everyone he knew. In fact, one could argue that the only thing more shocking than Vincent Price showing up as a mob boss is that Peter Fonda, Karen Black, Elliott Gould, Robert Walker Jr., and Kris Kristofferson are nowhere to be found in the film. Hopper’s first cut of Backtrack was reportedly 3 hours long but the studio cut it down to 90 minutes, renamed it Catchfire, and Hopper insisted on being credited as Alan Smithee. Later, Hopper released a two-hour version with the Backtrack title and his directorial credit restored.

Regardless of which version you see, Backtrack is an odd film. It’s hardly the first film to be made about a hit man falling for his target. What distinguishes this film is just how bizarre a performance Dennis Hopper gives in the role of the hitman. It’s as if Hopper gave into every method instinct that he had and the end result was a mix of Blue Velvet‘s Frank Booth and the crazed photojournalist from Apocalypse Now. Jodie Foster’s cool intelligence makes her the ideal choice for a conceptual artist but it also makes it hard to believe that she would fall for a jittery hitman and, in her romantic scenes with Hopper, Foster often seems to be struggling to resist the temptation to roll her eyes. Somehow, their total lack of romantic chemistry becomes rather fascinating to work. They are two talented performers but each appears to be acting in a different movie. What’s interesting is that I think a movie just about Hopper’s spacey hitman would be interesting (and, if you’ve ever seen The American Friend, it’s hard not to feel that such a movie already exists) but I think a movie about just about Foster’s artist and her life in New York would be just as fascinating. Taken as individuals, the artist and the hitman are both compelling characters. Taken as a couple, they don’t belong anywhere near each other.

But let’s be honest. This is a film that most people will watch for the parade of character actors delivering quirky dialogue. Even if one takes Hopper and Foster out of this mix, this is an amazingly talented cast. One need only consider that John Turturro did Do The Right Thing before appearing in this film while Joe Pesci and Tony Sirico did Goodfellas immediately afterwards. This film features a once-in-a-lifetime cast, made up of actors who were apparently told to do whatever they felt like doing. Turturro plays up the comedy. Sirico plays his role with cool menace. Stockwell barely speaks above a whisper. Fred Ward plays the one sane man in a world of lunatics. Vincent Price delivers his line as if he’s appearing in one of Roger Corman’s Poe films and somehow, it makes sense that, in the world of Backfire, an Italian gangster would have a snarky, mid-Atlantic accent.

It’s an odd little film, an example of 80s filmmaking with a 70s sensibility. While it’s not touched with the lunatic genius that distinguished Hopper’s The Last Movie, Backtrack is still something that should be experienced at least once.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Film Review: The Old Way (dir by Brett Donowho)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

“Oh my God! A Nicolas Cage western!? This is going to be great!”

That was my initial reaction when I heard about The Old Way, a film in which Nicolas Cage plays a former gunslinger who returns to his old ways while seeking revenge for the murder of his wife. Who knew which Nicolas Cage would show up for The Old Way? Would we get the wild, unpredictable Cage? Would we get the soulful and haunted Cage? Would this be one of the films that Cage cared about or would this be one of the films that Cage clearly just made for the money? Hearing that Nicolas Cage walked off the set because of an accident with one of the guns did not fill me with confidence. (The armorer who worked on The Old Way was the same one who went on to work on Rust and again, that did not exactly fill me with confidence.) Still, I was definitely curious to see The Old Way for myself.

Unfortunately, The Old Way is neither Cage at his best nor Cage at his most eccentric. Instead, Cage gives a quiet and emotionally restrained performance as Colton Briggs. When Briggs is first seen, he’s taking part in an extrajudicial execution and then coldly killing a man who first shoots him in the back. Jump forward 20 years and, much like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, Colton Briggs is now a married man and a somewhat uptight shop owner who rarely shows a hint of emotion. His 10 year-old daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is as rebellious as Colton once was and she has no idea about Colton’s past. However, when the nephew of the man that Colton killed at the start of the film, murders Colton’s wife, Colton sets out for revenge. His daughter follows him, along with Marshal Jarret (Nick Searcy, giving the film’s best performance). Jarret is a former friend of Colton’s but both men make it clear that they will kill the other if they have to. That’s the old way.

It’s a typical western and, on a purely technical level, it’s not a bad one. The cinematography is frequently gorgeous and the members of the rival gang are made up of memorable character actors like Clint Howard and Abraham Benrubi. Obviously, a certain amount of care went into recreating the old west. As I said before, Nick Searcy is ideally cast as Marshal Jarret and he gives a performance that will keep you guessing as to whether or not Jarret should be trusted. Nicolas Cage is adequate in the lead role, even if he’s never quite as eccentric as most of his fans would probably prefer him to be. When he first shows up, he’s wearing an obviously fake mustache but that’s about as odd as his performance gets.

But, in the end, The Old Way just isn’t a particularly memorable film. It’s one of those films that you watch with the hope that it will suddenly spring an unexpected detail or a bizarre moment on the audience but it never happens. The Old Way is way too formulaic for its own good, borrowing liberally from True Grit and Unforgiven without ever really establishing its own identity.

The Eric Roberts Collection: Enemies Among Us (dir by Dan Garcia)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Normally, I’d never celebrate the idea of the hero of a movie being wrongly sent to prison in a state that is rather aggressive in its use of the death penalty but Devin Taylor (Griffin Hood), the hero of 2010’s Enemies Among Us, was so annoying that I found myself hoping he would never get out of jail.

Enemies Among Us is a low-budget film about many different things. Sen. Fred Edmonds (Steven Bauer) of North Carolina is about to accept his party’s presidential nomination and most of the polls show him far in the lead. Senator Edmonds is planning on naming Louisiana Governor Chip Majors (James DuMont) as his running mate because this film takes place in a world where presidential nominees don’t try to balance their ticket by picking someone from a different region or from a swing state. When we see Sen. Edmonds, he’s being interrogated by a journalist named Gretna (Tammi Arender), who is upset over campaign finance laws. We’re meant to dislike Edmonds but Gretna is written and performed as being such a caricature of a shrill left-winger that we actually start to feel bad for Sen. Edmonds. LEAVE HIM ALONE, GRETNA!

Meanwhile, Gov. Majors has just murdered the prostitute that he was visiting in the same hotel where, in a few hours, he’s supposed to host a major fundraiser. The prostitute tried to kill the governor first but still, murder is murder. However, the governor offers to pay off two members of his security details, Devin and Cobbs (Eric Roberts). Cobbs is enthusiastic about the idea and seems to find them whole thing to be rather amusing. Devin is conflicted but he goes with the plan …. for a while.

Meanwhile, Cobb’s ex-wife Goloria (Robin Givens) is a CIA interrogator who is torturing a terrorist named Jassim (Armando Leduc) in an effort to lean when the next big terrorist attack is planned. Jassim taunts her, saying that Americans don’t understand why the rest of the world hates them. The torture leads Jassim to have a bizarre hallucination, in which he makes out with Gloria and rambles on about the sorry state of humanity.

Meanwhile, Agent Graham (Billy Zane) hangs out in bars and …. well, he really doesn’t do much beyond act like Billy Zane.

Wow, what an annoying movie. Enemies Among Us is one of those films that wants to tackle all of the important subjects but it approaches politics with all of the nuance and imagination of a college freshman who has just read Howard Zinn for the first time and is now convinced that he has all the answers. There’s not a subtle moment to be found in Enemies Among Us and the scene where Devin starts yelling about how Americans deserve honesty is so clumsily handled that you’ll find yourself laughing more than nodding along.

That said …. Eric Roberts is in this! Roberts doesn’t get a lot of screentime and his character is given an unceremonious exit from the film but he’s still the film’s highlight. Roberts spends the entire film smiling. Even the discovery that the governor has murdered the prostitute cannot wipe that smile off of Roberts’s face. It’s a bizarre performance but at least it’s entertaining. It’s the type of performance that will remind viewers of why they love Eric Roberts, even in films like this.

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

Icarus File No. 10: 88 (dir by Eromose)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Femi Jackson (Brandon Victor Dixon) is a recovering alcoholic with a pregnant wife and a past-due mortgage who totally and completely believes in a presidential candidate named Harold Roundtree (Orlando Jones). A former baker-turned-politician, Roundtree is running for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination on a platform of small government and personal responsibility. That really doesn’t sound like a platform for success in a Democratic primary but whatever. Let’s just go with it.

Femi has been hired as financial director for a SuperPAC that is raising money for the Roundtree campaign. Femi notices that many of the donations are being submitted in numbers that add up to 88. When he takes this news to his friend Ira Goldstein (Thomas Sadoski), Ira reveals that 88 is a code that Neo-Nazis use to identify each other. Femi and Ira do more digging and they discover that, throughout his entire life, Roundtree has been receiving financial aide from various rich men, all of whom sent Roundtree’s sums of money that all add up to 88. Femi questions why Neo-Nazis would do something that makes it so easy to identify them. Ira replies that they’re marking their territory.

While Howard Roundtree records an interview with a left-wing commentator (William Fichtner), Femi tracks down and meets with an elderly and repentant Neo-Nazi (Jonathan Weir), who now needs an oxygen tank to breathe and who lives in an isolated house with his black wife. Femi is later approached by a volunteer in the SuperPAC’s office, who informs him that the only way that White Supremacy can survive is by latching onto a black politician like Harold Roundtree. Femi and Ira prepare to meet with Rountree, with Femi still convinced that he has no idea who is secretly funding his campaign.

While this is going on, Femi’s wife (Naturi Naughton) tries to help an ex-con achieve a bank loan despite the opposition of her sister (who also works for the bank) while Femi’s son, Ola (Jeremiah King), gets in trouble at school for showing his classmates a video of a school shooting. It turns out that Femi’s brother-in-law is not only a cop but he’s also white and he agrees to drive Ola to school so that Ola can see that not all cops are bad. Ola’s obvious fear as he walks out to the squad car indicates that the experiment, no matter how well-intentioned, is probably not going to work.

88 is certainly an ambitious film and the opening minutes, which features Femi’s wife explaining why Black Panther is not the empowering and progressive film that Femi believes it to be, suggest that the film has the potential to be interesting. And throughout the film, there are little moments that do work, like the scene where Femi tells his son how to react if he’s ever pulled over by a cop. Unfortunately, the majority of the film is a clumsily-acted and talky mix of melodrama and heavy-messaging, one that tries to duplicate the style of Spike Lee’s agitprop but instead ends up feeling more like a secular and politically progressive version of the God’s Not Dead films than anything else. The film drags on for 2 full hours with Brandon Victor Dixon’s nerdy blandness failing to provide the narrative momentum to keep the action interesting. As well, Orlando Jones is perhaps the least convincing presidential front runner that I’ve ever seen in a film, speaking a cadences that appear to be specifically patterned on Barack Obama but suggesting none of the charisma that would be necessary to captivate a nation. Again, the film deserves some praise for having the ambition to actually be about something more than just selling toys and comic books but, in the end, it’s earnest dullness and heavy-handed messaging fails to hold one’s attention.

Previous Icarus Files:

The Unnominated: Office Space (dir by Mike Judge)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences claim that the Oscars honor the best of the year, we all know that there are always worthy films and performances that end up getting overlooked. Sometimes, it’s because the competition too fierce. Sometimes, it’s because the film itself was too controversial. Often, it’s just a case of a film’s quality not being fully recognized until years after its initial released. This series of reviews takes a look at the films and performances that should have been nominated but were, for whatever reason, overlooked. These are the Unnominated.

The other night, Erin and I started a new Labor Day weekend tradition of watching the 1999 comedy, Office Space.

As we watched Mike Judge’s first live-action film, it occurred to me that Office Space is a film that unites all of my friends. It doesn’t matter whether they work in an office like Peter (Ron Livingston), Samir (Ajay Naidu), or Michael Bolton (David Herman) or if they work in a restaurant like Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) or even if they’re an independent contractor like Peter’s loud neighbor, Lawrence (Diedrich Bader). It doesn’t matter if they would rather be fishing like Peter or watching reruns of Kung Fu like Joanna. Everyone that I know has said that they can relate to Office Space. Everyone has had to deal with a passive-aggressive jerk of a boss like Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). Everyone has known a crazy co-worker like the red stapler-obsessed Milton (Stephen Root). Everyone dreads the arrival of consultants like the Bobs (John C. McGinely and Paul Willson). Everyone resents being told that doing the bare minimum is not enough, whether it’s just sitting in your cubicle or wearing 15 pieces of flair. Everyone dreams of sleeping late and not stressing about TPS reports. Everyone dreams of screwing over their company in a way that’s so clever that they’ll never be caught. (And I think everyone secretly knows that they would screw it up by putting a decimal point in the wrong place.) Everyone wants to destroy the oldest and least reliable piece of equipment at work. Everyone wants to feel like they can just announce that they’re going to quit and spend the rest of their life doing what they would do if they had a million dollars.

Considering the fact that the film has now become universally beloved, it’s interesting that Office Space opened to mixed reviews and middling box office. The studio wasn’t sure how to sell a live action film from the director of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill and many critics focused on the film’s rather loosely-constructed, episodic narrative and overlooked the fact that the film captured all of the small details that drive people crazy about their work. Audiences, though, discovered the film on video and undoubtedly enjoyed watching it after a long day of dealing with their own annoying boss. The film’s star, Ron Livingston, has said that many people have approached him and told him that he inspired them quit their jobs. “That’s kind of a heavy-load to carry.”

For a film that centers around office workers updating data so that computer systems don’t cash in 2000, Office Space has aged remarkably well. Ron Livingston, David Herman, and Ajay Naidu are an instantly sympathetic and likable trio of nerdy heroes. Stephen Root’s panic as he realizes that he will be the only employee not to get a piece of cake remains both poignant and funny. Gary Cole is still the boss from Hell. I still laugh at John C. McGinley’s rage when his praise of Peter as a “straight-shooter with upper management potential” is dismissed by Peter’s boss. We can all relate to Jennifer Aniston’s dislike of flair and her hatred for Brian (Todd Duffey). The jump to conclusion mat would probably be even more popular today than back in 1999.

Of course, Office Space was not nominated for any Oscars. That’s not really a shock. It’s an episodic comedy that was directed by a Texas filmmaker who was, at the time, best-known for a cartoon about two brain-dead teenagers. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be nominated for anything, even though I think more people have probably watched Office Space over the past few days than have watched American Beauty. Oscars aren’t everything, though. Office Space remains both a great work film and a great Texas film.

Previous entries in The Unnominated:

Film Review: Creed III (dir by Michael B. Jordan)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Creed 3 opens with Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan) on top of the world.

He has just retired, as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, from boxing. Unlike other boxers (like Big George Foreman or Rocky Balboa or Creed’s father, Apollo), Donnie is not retiring because he’s been defeated or because his health is at risk. Donnie is retiring because he has apparently worked out his anger and his issues with with his father’s legacy and now, he wants to spend some quality time with his wife (Tessa Thompson) and his daughter (Mila Davis-Kent). Donnie, however, does remain in the world of boxing by managing the new world champion, Felix (Jose Benavidez, Jr.), and setting up a title fight between Felix and Donnie’s former rival, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu). However, when Viktor is attacked by a mysterious assailant and left too injured to fight, Donnie has to find a new opponent for Felix and he has to do it quickly!

Interestingly enough, Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors) has just returned to town. Donnie and Dame were childhood friends. When they were kids, Dame was the aspiring boxer who dreamed of going to the Olympics, turning pro, and then eventually becoming the world champion. However, those plans changed when Dame went to prison. While Donnie was becoming world champion, Dame was serving hard time and writing letters to Donnie, all of which were hidden from Donnie by Donnie’s well-meaning mother (Phylicia Rashad). When Dame returns home, a guilt-stricken Donnie gives Dame a job as Felix’s sparring partner and even promises to help Dame out with his late-in-life boxing career. (As just about everyone points out, boxing is a young person’s sport and Dame is even older than Donnie.) When Dame asks Donnie to give him the title shot against Felix, Donnie ignores everyone else’s advice and gives it to him. Donnie justifies his decision by reminding everyone that Apollo gave Rocky a shot.

Directed by Michael B. Jordan, Creed III is an exciting and intelligent sports film that also works as a deconstruction of some of the genre’s most beloved clichés. Donnie himself points out that everyone loves an underdog story and that’s certainly true, from Rocky to this year’s Champions. Dame uses the world’s love for the underdog to his advantage, just to turn out to be a vicious and self-destructive fighter. This is the film that answers the question, “What if Rocky Balboa wasn’t such a nice guy?” Dame also uses Donnie’s guilt about the past to his advantage. If the previous two films were all about Donnie coming to peace with the legacy of Apollo Creed, this film is about Donnie (and, to an extent, Dame) coming to peace with the legacy of Adonis Creed.

And yet, Dame himself is not a one-dimensional villain. For much of the film, he’s actually more likable than Donnie and, even after he nearly kills Felix in the ring, he still seems to be incapable of understanding why everyone’s so upset. While the other characters treat boxing as a sport and ignore the violence at the center of it, Dame understands that boxing is just a fight with a bigger audience. After twelve years in prison, the system has dumped Dame on the streets and ordered him to make something of his life without bothering to help him develop any of the skills necessary to do so. Dame fights because that’s what he’s had to do his entire life. Since he went to jail for a fight that Donnie could have just as easily been arrest for, Dame is who Donnie easily could have become. While his performance has since been overshadowed by his own legal issues, Jonathan Majors is never less than compelling as Dame, perfectly capturing both Dame’s bitterness and his own need for approval.

This film is Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut. There are a few moments when Jordan falls victim to the first-time director’s trap of trying too hard to show off his artistic bona fides. A sequence, during the final match, when the audience vanishes and Donnie and Dame dance around the ring and roar at each other like animals is occasionally effective and occasionally silly. That said, Creed III is a hundred times more compelling and visually interesting than the more conventionally-directed Creed II. Jordan gets good performances from his entire cast and shows himself to be a strong story teller. I look forward to seeing what he does next as a director.

Finally, as everyone knows, Sylvester Stallone does not return as Rocky in this film, though the character is mentioned several times. Stallone’s absence isn’t really felt. That’s not a slight against Stallone, an actor who has gotten considerably more likable in his later years. It’s just that there’s really not a place for Rocky Balboa in this film. (Arguably, there really wasn’t much of a place for Rocky in the second film as well.) Rocky Balboa has earned his retirement and hopefully, is still visiting his grandson in Canada. This film belongs to Donnie and Dame.

Film Review: Creed II (dir by Steve Caple, Jr.)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, in anticipation of finally watching Creed III, I decided that I should first rewatch 2018’s Creed II. I actually did see Creed II when it was originally released in theaters and I seem to remember that I enjoyed it but, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t remember much more about it.

In Creed II, Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan) finally becomes heavyweight champion of the world and immediately finds himself being taunted by Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). To be honest, Donnie really does have more to think about then some other boxer demanding that Donnie give him a fight. Donnie has finally married his girlfriend, Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson), and she’s pregnant. However, Donnie cannot get Viktor out of his mind because Viktor is the son of the man who killed Donnie’s father in the ring. Ivan Drago has not only raised his son to be a fearsome fighter but he’s also Viktor’s trainer.

Have you ever wondered if Ivan Drago ever felt guilty about causing the death of Apollo Creed? This film suggests that he does not and that he instead blames Apollo’s friend, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), for not stopping the fight. In Creed II, Ivan and Viktor fly to Philadelphia to try to get their fight with Donnie. Ivan goes to Rocky’s restaurant by himself and he explains that, after losing to Rocky in Russia, he lost everything. Rocky went home a hero while Ivan went home with nothing. By turning his son into a fearsome boxer, Ivan is vicariously getting the career that he feels he deserved. Ivan wants Donnie to fight Viktor and Donnie wants to fight Viktor. However, Rocky wants nothing to do with it and, when you consider how big Viktor is compared to Donnie, it’s easy to understand why.

Donnie recruits Little Duke (Wood Harris, who co-starred with Jordan on The Wire) to serve as his new manager and trainer. The fight between Donnie and Viktor is a disaster, with Donnie letting his emotions get the better of him. Donnie is nearly killed in the ring but Viktor proves to be such an aggressive fighter that he loses by disqualification. Will Donnie survive the inevitable rematch with Viktor and will that rematch be fought in Moscow? Will Rocky finally agree to train Donnie and also find the courage to travel up to Canada to see his son and meet his grandson? Will Ivan realize that he’s pushing his son too hard? Even if you haven’t seen the film, you can probably guess the answers to all of those questions.

As opposed to the first film, there aren’t many surprises to be found in Creed II. It’s a well-made but thoroughly conventional boxing movie and it lacks both the grit and the attention to detail that Ryan Coogler brought to the first Creed. Running over two hours, Creed II has a few too many slow spots and even the big training montage drags a bit. That said, Creed II works wonderfully well as an epilogue to Rocky IV. The most ridiculed of the Rocky sequels actually provides a poignant backdrop to this film as both Donnie and Viktor struggle to both live up to and make peace with the complicated legacies of their fathers. Donnie finally feels worthy of his family name while Viktor shows the same type of raw courage that Rocky Balboa showed in his earlier films. Perhaps most surprisingly, Ivan Drago finally reveals his humanity. The scene where Ivan finally realizes that he’s turning his son into a machine who will not stop fighting until he is thoroughly broken is surprisingly powerful and Dolph Lundgren truly seems to be happy to have the chance to finally show that Ivan Drago is a human being after all.

Interestingly enough, Rocky Balboa spends much of the film sidelined and, even more so than in the first film, the emphasis is on Donnie’s emotional growth. It’s always good to see Stallone and he’s as likable as always as Rocky but, re-watching this film, it was easy to understand how a sequel could be made without the character’s presence. In the end, the best thing about the Creed films is that Donnie himself is a strong enough character that he can be compelling both with or without Rocky Balboa’s help.

The TSL’s Grindhouse: The Toxic Avenger (dir by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1984, The Toxic Avenger takes place in Tromaville, New Jersey, which is perhaps the ugliest city in …. well, honestly, it’s probably the ugliest city in the world. The streets are strewn with trash. The walls are covered in graffiti. The majority of the citizens are either bullies or idiots. The mayor is corrupt and totally willing to sell out his city to anyone willing to cut him a big enough check. Is it a surprise that Tromaville is also the “toxic waste capitol of the world?”

(“Forget it, Lisa. It’s New Jersey.” Hey, I hear you, Paulie.)

Tromaville is also the home of Melvin Ferd Junko III (Mark Torgl), who is so nerdy that even I was immediately annoyed by him. Melvin has a job working as a janitor at the local health club. Melvin doesn’t want to bother anyone but four members of the gym still decide to trick him into wearing a pink tutu and nearly having sex with a sheep. In typical Troma fashion, this leads to Melvin falling out of a second story window and into a vat of toxic waste. Melvin bursts into flames and jumps into a bathtub to douse the fire. However, when he emerges from the bathtub, he is no longer Melvin. Now, he is a grotesque and muscular mutant (and he’s now played by Mitch Cohen).

It’s time to get some justice!

Of course, since this is a Troma film, Melvin’s idea of justice may not be everyone’s idea of justice. Yes, Melvin does stop a lot of muggings and he does break up a drug ring. Of course, he does that by killing those criminals and allowing their guts to graphically splatter all over the street. (Cheap as this film is, it’s obvious that some care was put into creating the gore.) However, Melvin also stalks the bullies who were responsible for transforming him into the Toxic Avenger and he murders them with a sadism that is equal to their own. And again, it’s not like the bullies don’t deserve to suffer. I mean, one of the bullies is actually named Slug and he lives up to the name! (That said, you’re kind of dooming your child to a certain fate when you give him a name like Slug.) But still, it’s hard not to notice that The Toxic Avenger is a super hero who is as destructive as the villains he’s taking down. It’s a good thing that Tromaville seems to be exclusively populated by scumbags.

Actually, there are two good people in Tromaville. One is Marisa Tomei, who appears for a split second in one of her earliest roles. I simply can’t imagine that Marisa Tomei would have supported bullying Melvin. The other good person is Sara (Andree Maranda), who is blind. After the Toxic Avenger saves her from a rapist, she falls in love with him. Eventually, Sara even touches his deformed face and declares him to be beautiful. The city may be worshipping their new hero and the corrupt mayor (played by Pat Ryan Jr.) may be desperately trying to take the Avenger down but ultimately, The Toxic Avenger just wants to escape the city and be with Sara. Indeed, the saving grace of The Toxic Avenger is that Sara and the former Melvin really are a sweet couple and you really do hope things work out for them.

The Toxic Avenger, with its mix of comedy, horror, and gore, was one Troma’s first big hits and it remains one of their most popular films. (Macon Blair has directed a remake, which should be opening soon.) Personally, for me, the film is a bit too repetitive and the humor is pretty much hit-and-miss. There’s a lot of scenes, especially in the health club, that were obviously only included to pad out the film’s running time and, as such, the film takes a while to really get going. It may better than the average Troma film but that’s not exactly a hard bar to clear. That said, I did like the relationship between Sara and The Toxic Avenger. For all the crudeness and gore, the movie works best when its sentimental.