Actor Robert McCay (Joe Penny) decides that it would be hilarious to shoot talk show host Steve Carr (Alan Thicke) on live television. McCay thinks that the gun is loaded with blanks but, before he goes on the show, someone slips a live round into the gun. McCay kills Steve Carr and there are a million witnesses who see him do it. Time to call in Perry Mason (Raymond Burr)!
The third Perry Mason movie isn’t as good as the first two. Shooting someone on television as a joke and then leaving the studio immediately afterwards is a really stupid thing to do. As my sister pointed out while we were watching, even if Robert McCay wasn’t guilty of premeditated murder, he was probably guilty of negligent homicide for not bothering to double check whether or not there was a live round in the gun. McCay goes right back to shooting his movie, even while he’s on trial for murder. As for the trial, it was ridiculous. How many people can confess under cross examination in one trial? “Mistrial!” my sister yelled whenever Perry pulled one of his stunts and I agreed.
Paul (William Katt) teams up with a photojournalist (Wendy Crewson) and his investigation somehow leads to him playing a priest in a cheap vampire movie. For once, Perry didn’t give Paul a hard time about anything. Maybe he realized Paul’s scenes were the best part of The Case of the Shooting Star.
Mad bomber Rollo Dillon (Fred Ward) has been hired by terrorists to bomb a major American institution. Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Detective Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) know that there’s only one man who can handle this job and his name is Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen). Frank, however, has retired from Police Squad and promised his wife, Jane (Priscilla Presley), that he is through with police work.
At heart, Frank remains a cop. He even dreams of shoot-outs. When he tries to do police work without Jane noticing, it backfires on him. Even though Frank lies and claims that he’s just having an affair, Jane leaves him. Frank, with nothing better to do, goes into prison undercover to gain Rollo’s confidence. After Rollo and Frank escape, Frank discovers that Rollo and his girlfriend (Anna Nicole Smith) is planning on bombing the Academy Awards!
The Naked Gun 33 1/3 is the weakest of the original Police Squad films, which is to say that it’s still pretty funny, even if some of the jokes no longer feel as fresh as they did in the previous films. It opens with a brilliant send-up of the shoot-out from The Untouchables and it ends with a perfect parody of the Academy Awards. (Pia Zadora singing This Could Be The Start Of Something Big is funny because it’s exactly the sort of thing that used to happen at the Oscars.) It’s in the middle section that the film drags, though there are still things that made me laugh, like a flashback to Frank, Ed, and Nordberg in the 70s. David Zucker did not return to direct this installment and his absence is definitely felt.
Leslie Nielsen is as funny as ever and he’s well-matched with George Kennedy and Priscila Presley. (OJ Simpson’s presence is as awkward as ever.) Fred Ward plays his villainous role straight, a smart move. But then you’ve got Anna Nicole Smith, who was such a terrible actress that her presence in the film doesn’t even work as a joke. Whenever Smith shows up, the film grinds to a halt. It’s the worst type of stunt casting.
This was Leslie Nielsen final performance as Frank Drebin. Even in a lesser film, he was still a comedic treasure.
Jack Mason (Jack Randall) has the most important job on the frontier. He delivers the mail. After he’s chased by the members of the local Indian tribe, he learns that an uprising is imminent because a young brave has been murdered and the tribe blames the citizens of a nearby town. Of course, the murder was actually committed by a gang of counterfeiters led by saloon owner Pollini (Tristram Coffin). Pollini is not only a counterfeiter but he also lies to sweet Mary Martin (Jean Joyce), telling her that he’s hiring her to be a waitress when he’s actually looking for a dance hall girl. Jack has to bring Pollini to justice before a full scale war breaks out.
This is not a bad B-western. It’s short and quick but the story is slightly better than the average Monogram oater and Jack Randall and co-star Dennis Moore are both believable as cowboys and gunslingers. Fans of the genre will be happy to see Glenn Strange as the sheriff and Iron Eyes Cody as the chief of the tribe. I’ve always liked westerns where the heroes were just trying to keep the peace so that they could deliver the mail. We take mail for granted nowadays but in the 1800s, delivering mail was almost as dangerous as delivering money. If you’re not into westerns, Overland Mail won’t change your mind but, if you’re already a fan of the genre, Overland Mail makes for an entertaining 50 minutes.
Way back in 1960, Director John Sturges took Akira Kurosawa’s timeless classic SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) and translated its themes of honor and sacrifice into the American western THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. A classic on its own, the film stars such cinematic legends as Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Eli Wallach, and Charles Bronson. The storyline of a small group of men protecting a village from bandits proved to be an irresistible subject once again, especially the way it was handled here. Its theme music by Elmer Bernstein is one of the most instantly recognizable pieces of music in western cinema. It’s not easy translating a masterpiece without suffering quite negatively in comparison, and I’ve always admired how Sturges and his team of writers were able to create a film that both honored the source material while successfully transferring its content to a different part of the world.
The lead performances of Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen anchor the film, and the screenplay masterfully takes the time to introduce us to each of the seven men and their myriad of reasons for taking on this mission. We care about the men because we get to know them. After Brynner and McQueen, we learn James Coburn is the most badass, Robert Vaughn is the most cowardly, Brad Dexter is the most money hungry, and Horst Buchholz is the most naive. Unsurprisingly, my favorite of the characters is Bernardo O’Reilly, played by Charles Bronson. In my opinion, the character of O’Reilly represents the heart of the story. His character is as tough as it gets and great with a gun, but it’s the way he cares for the actual people, especially the children of the village, that really stands out. It’s in these small moments and exchanges between Bronson and the kids, where the film seems to transcend the genre and become something even more reflective and meaningful. So when Bronson pays the ultimate price, it’s not for some grand purpose or ideal, it’s specifically for those kids, and the moment becomes powerful. For my money, Bronson gives one of the more moving turns in classic western cinema that remains under appreciated to this day.
In 2025, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN celebrated its 65th anniversary, with many theaters around the country screening the film again. I was lucky enough to catch one of those screenings at a theater in downtown Little Rock. It was a wonderful night at the movies. Today, on what would have been his 116th Birthday, I celebrate Director John Sturges and this great film that has meant so much to me!
“You can’t keep digging if you’re still holding onto the shovel of the past.” — Clay
We Bury the Dead knows exactly what genre it’s working in and makes no qualms about it, blending zombie tropes with a refreshingly modest scale that keeps the focus tight on one woman’s personal quest amid catastrophe. Directed and written by Zak Hilditch in his first effort since These Final Hours, the film unfolds in Tasmania after the U.S. President accidentally detonates an experimental explosive device, killing 500,000 people—some from the blast, others from a pulse that shuts down their brains. Daisy Ridley stars as Ava, who joins a body retrieval unit searching for her missing husband, only to face complications when the corpses begin showing eerie signs of life.
The setup draws from familiar zombie beats but refreshes them through its grounded, intimate lens. Rather than globe-trotting stakes or worldwide pandemonium, the story stays glued to Ava’s hip as she combs the ruins, making her emotional journey the true center of gravity. Gradual flashbacks peek into Ava and her husband’s rocky relationship before the event, adding layers to her drive without overwhelming the present-tense dread. Encounters with traumatized military forces emerge as secondary antagonists, heightening tension through human flaws rather than just the undead threat.
Daisy Ridley’s reserved yet gripping performance anchors everything, deftly avoiding caricature by pulling back just enough to hint at deeper turmoil bubbling beneath Ava’s surface. She brings a quiet physicality to the role—slumped shoulders during endless retrievals, micro-expressions like a jaw tightening over a child’s toy or hands trembling before steadying—that fills the sparse dialogue scenes with unspoken pain. Ridley knows when to unleash raw emotion, as in survival scraps with reanimating bodies or a claustrophobic clash with soldier Riley (Mark Coles Smith), where her eyes convey fear, rage, and clarity in equal measure. Her restraint evolves into resolve by the end, distilling Ava’s arc into a wordless shift from numb hope to tentative agency, her face a map of acceptance and lingering sorrow.
Even amid the somber tone, Hilditch infuses energy to keep things lively: a bright pop-rock track over chilling explosion fallout imagery, retrieval crew members partying hard off-duty, or Brenton Thwaites’ Clay (a reasonably charming co-lead) masking horror with dark comedy. These beats prevent the film from dragging into pure depression, balancing Ava’s grief with flickers of messy humanity. Clay’s warmth breaks up her isolation through shared exhaustion and hesitant bonds, while his humor underscores the absurdity of survival.
The zombies themselves spark a love-hate dynamic, refusing the z-word like Shaun of the Dead but delivering undead with a standout twist: teeth grinding to shards, visually grotesque but sonically haunting in a way that crawls under the skin. They start subtle, twitching amid body bags, before ramping to aggressive charges in the final act—though their motivations stay murky, adding unease. This sound design stands as one of the film’s boldest, most horrific choices, turning every onscreen appearance into an auditory assault that lingers longer than the visuals. Violence stays blunt and quick, feeling like grim necessities in a broken world rather than showy spectacles.
Craft-wise, the modest production shines. Cinematography captures Tasmania’s vast emptiness and suffocating interiors, with dust motes and shadowed hallways amplifying emotional compression. Design sells the halted lives—scattered toys, frozen family photos—without CGI excess, grounding the pulse-induced apocalypse in tangible loss. The 95-minute runtime clocks in tight, its observational repetition mirroring grief’s grind while building to disruptive spikes of undead or human peril.
Pacing favors atmosphere over escalation, risking sluggishness in routine retrievals but fitting the theme of numbing loss punctuated by shocks. The finale embraces ambiguity, prioritizing Ava’s internal shift over tidy resolutions to the outbreak or weapon’s fallout, leaving bigger questions underdeveloped to stay personal.
Ridley’s work elevates the familiar tropes, her internalized subtlety proving ideal for this scaled-down zombie tale that prioritizes haunting sound, emotional depth, and quiet resilience over bombast. We Bury the Dead may lean on genre staples, but its fresh restraint and sonic chills make it a compelling, if divisive, mood-driven entry—perfect for those craving horror that’s more about enduring the aftermath than outrunning the horde.
I’ve always liked UNDER SIEGE. After his sudden emergence with a series of brutal action films in the late 80’s and early 90’s, like ABOVE THE LAW and OUT FOR JUSTICE, Steven Seagal entered the world of high concept action filmmaking when he starred in this “Die Hard on a Battleship.” Seagal would not be the underdog cop taking on drug dealers, coked up mafia hitmen, or crooked cops here. Rather, he emerges as a full blown movie star in a big budget studio action film. Directed by Andrew Davis, whose credits include Chuck Norris’ best movie CODE OF SILENCE (1985), Seagal’s debut ABOVE THE LAW (1988) and the next year’s global smash THE FUGITIVE (1993), this is the movie where everything came together for Seagal. I watched UNDER SIEGE at the movie theater myself in 1992 and had a great time with it. I didn’t realize at the time that this would be his career peak, with a global box office of over $156 million. No other film would really even come close.
Casey Ryback (Seagal) is a “cook” aboard the USS Missouri, a battleship that is scheduled to be decommissioned. He’s also a former badass Navy SEAL who was demoted after punching out his commanding officer when a mission in Panama had gone wrong. When a group of mercenaries led by ex–CIA operative William Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones) seize control of the ship under the guise of a birthday celebration, they overlook Ryback. In classic John McClane style, Ryback goes on to become a fly in their ointment, a monkey in their wrench, and a big-time pain in their asses! Moving through the narrow corridors of the ship, and with the assistance of Playboy Playmate Jordan Tate (Erika Eleniak), Ryback begins taking out mercenaries one by one. But will he be able to stop Strannix and his partner Krill (Gary Busey) from stealing the ship’s nuclear Tomahawks and preserve the safety and security of the world? I’ll give you one guess!
First and foremost, UNDER SIEGE is a damn good action movie. It definitely helps that a director as talented as Andrew Davis is calling the shots. His film delivers on the entertainment front, with lots of well staged shootouts, violent scenes of close quarter, hand-to-hand combat, and a cake emergence sequence that still makes my head spin! I think the battleship makes for a great “movie” setting for this type of action. With its concoction of narrow hallways, engine rooms, and mess halls, there’s all kinds of interesting places for fighting and killing. Back in 2007, I was lucky enough to take a tour of the USS Alabama battleship, the primary filming location for UNDER SIEGE, which only enhances my appreciation for the work done here. On the heels of his confident and charismatic performance in the prior year’s OUT FOR JUSTICE, this is Steven Seagal at his most watchable. He’s in peak physical condition, so he can believably kick all the ass that’s necessary for this kind of film, and he’s also likable in his role as the underestimated “cook.” He will never be mistaken for Bruce Willis, but Seagal is good here.
Great action movies will usually have great villains, and UNDER SIEGE is especially blessed in this area. Tommy Lee Jones goes way over-the-top, chewing on scenery like he’s at a Golden Corral buffet, turning Strannix into the type of irrational lunatic that I love in my early 90’s action movies. And looking back now, Gary Busey seems to do what he does best. His traitorous Commander Krill comes off as goofy, disgusting, and unstable. In other words, he’s perfect. Even though Seagal does smile more in this film, Jones and Busey do bring an energy to the movie that balances out Seagal’s more stoic character, providing the type of spark not often found in the star’s movies.
At the end of the day, I rank UNDER SIEGE as my second favorite Steven Seagal film, slightly below my preference for the more down and dirty OUT FOR JUSTICE. What it lacks in grit is more than made up with entertainment value, strong performances, and action on a scale that the star’s future films would never rise to again. If I were put in a position where I could only recommend one Steven Seagal film to a person who’d never seen one of his movies before, I’d probably go with this one. It’s an excellent, mainstream 90’s action movie.
That name may not sound all the imposing but Elmo Lincoln played a very important role in the early days of Hollywood. He was the first actor to play the adult version of Tarzan, the Lord of the Jungle. Originally from Indiana, Elmo Lincoln was a 29 year-old former sailor and boxer when he was selected to replace Stellan Windrow as the star of 1918’s Tarzan of the Apes. (A stunt man, Windrow had already filmed the majority of Tarzan’s stunts before he was drafted to serve in World War I.) Lincoln, who had already appeared in a few of D.W. Griffith’s films, would briefly find stardom as a result of playing Tarzan.
Of course, it takes a while for Lincoln to appear in Tarzan of the Apes. The film was reportedly two hours long when it was initially released but today, it only exists in a 61-minute version. (Because each municipality had its own board of censors, the version of Tarzan of the Apes that played in one city could be quite different from the version that played in another. Unfortunately, with that many censors snipping scenes from city to city, a lot of footage that was cut from the film was undoubtedly lost forever.) The first half of the film deals with the birth of Tarzan while the second half features Tarzan as an adult. Technically, the first actor to play Tarzan was the uncredited baby who appears shortly after Lord Greystoke (True Boardman) and his wife (Kathleen Kirkham) are abandoned by mutineers in Africa. After the baby is given to the Apes, child actor Gordon Griffith takes over the role. Finally, once an expedition is sent to investigate whether or not the stories about Tarzan are true, Elmo Lincoln takes over the role and saves Jane (Enid Markey) after she’s kidnapped by a group of natives. The film ends with Tarzan and Jane just starting to fall in love. (A sequel, The Romance of Tarzan, was released that same year but it’s a lost film.)
In the role of Tarzan, Elmo Lincoln is …. well, he’s okay. He’s not a great actor but he’s a good Tarzan. He’s obviously strong and athletic and he looks convincing when he’s hiding in the trees. Lincoln was not a particularly expressive actor and that natural stiffness is noticeable whenever he’s called upon to demonstrate anything other than grim determination. He has a strong physical presence and, in 1918, that was probably enough to make him a star. When he gazes at Jane and the title cards tells us that he’s saying, “Tarzan is a man and man does not force the love of a woman,” the viewer believes it. If I was lost in the jungle, I’d probably want Elmo Lincoln to help me out. We wouldn’t have much to talk about but I would have faith in his ability to take care of any problems that we ran into on the way back to civilization.
That said, the film is at its best when it depicts Tarzan’s childhood. There’s a sense of fun and wonder to those scenes that is missing from the second half of the film. Gordon Griffith did a good job as the young Tarzan. Louisiana is a surprisingly effective stand-in for the jungles of Africa. By today’s standards, Tarzan of the Apes can seem a bit creaky. (The camera barely moves at all.) But watching it, one can still understand why Hollywood fell in love with the idea of a man raised by apes. One can even understand why, for a brief period of time, Elmo Lincoln became a star.
Why is 2000’s The Alternate one of the greatest action films ever made?
Consider this: President John Fallbrook (John Beck) is scheduled to give a speech at a World Hunger Symposium, where he will be announcing legislation that will make it illegal for people not to have food. (I’m not sure how that would work but whatever. It’s a movie.) Eric Roberts is The Alternate, a former intelligence agent who has just been recruited to serve as a member of a team that is being used by Agent William (Ice-T) to test the President’s security. (Ronn Moss, of Hard Ticket to Hawaiiand Bold and the Beautiful fame, plays the fake President.) The Leader (Bryan Genesse) tells the Alternate that the CIA actually wants to abduct the President for real in order to help boost the President’s reelection campaign. The Alternate agrees to help but then it turns out that the Leader is actually just in it for the money and he’s planning on holding the President hostage until he gets paid. While Agent Briggs (Michael Madsen) watches from the outside, The Alternate makes his way through a nearly deserted hotel and attempts to defeat the bad guys.
It’s Die Hard …. with Eric Roberts!
The plot is so convoluted that it borders on self-parody but director Sam Firstenberg keeps the action moving quickly and, to its credit, this is a film that fully understands how to embrace the melodrama. When the Leader tries to take out The Alternate, he doesn’t just pursue him with a gun. Instead, he picks up a flame thrower! When The Alternate gets into a gunfight at the hotel’s pool, he doesn’t just duck behind pillars and fire his gun. Instead, he grabs a banner and swings back and forth over the water, all the while shooting his gun. When the President says that he doesn’t like heights, it isn’t just a case of him getting nervous about being on the roof of the hotel. Instead, he’s so paralyzed that he literally has to be picked up and carried from one location to the next. When The Leader calls the police and gives them his list of demands, he doesn’t just make the usual threats. Instead, he speaks in what sounds like a French accent and claims to be a infamous (and possibly fictional) terrorist. When it’s time to kidnap the President, the kidnappers don’t just use guns. Instead, they also use blow-darts to paralyze the Secret Service agents. Everything about the film is gloriously and wonderfully over the top.
(I’ve always felt that, when it comes to low-budget action films, the best ones are the ones that are willing to just be as ridiculous as possible. Bring out the flame thrower. Fly the Money Plane. Cast Joe Don Baker as your lead. Just jump off that cliff and see what happens.)
The Alternate is definitely a film that deserves to be better-known. (It was also released under the title The Replacement.) In the realm of Die Hard rip-offs, it’s in a class by itself, a totally enjoyable thrill ride that manages to get more and more excessive with each passing minute. Bryan Genesse, who also wrote the script, gets to show off some stylish martial arts moves. John Beck is the wimpiest President ever. Michael Madsen never takes off his dark glasses. And, best of all, Eric Roberts gets to be the star!
The Alternate? Why, it’s just one of the best action movies ever!
Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:
1979’s Roller Boogie opens with an impromptu parade of roller skaters rolling across the Venice Beach boardwalk. They don’t care about any stuffy people who think that they should be in school or working behind a counter. They’re young, they’re free! One of them wears rainbow suspenders and juggles while skating. (I’ve noticed that every roller skating movie seems to feature at least one juggler in rainbow suspenders. Strangely, you never see them in real life.)
This is followed by a scene of a teenage rich girl Terry Barkley (Linda Blair) getting ready for her day in her poster decorated bedroom. The camera zooms in for a close-up as she picks just the right chunky bracelet to wear.
In other words, it doesn’t get much more late 70s/early 80s than Roller Boogie.
The plot is pretty simple. Terry meets the king of the roller skaters, Bobby James (Jim Bray). Bobby is a kid from a working class background and he dreams of the day that his roller skating skills will lead to him competing in the Olympics. Terry is rich and she has a snooty best friend (Kimberly Beck) and parents (Beverly Garland and Roger Perry) who are planning on sending her to Julliard. Despite everyone saying that they’re from different worlds, Terry and Bobby enter the roller disco contest together! Cue the montage!
Unfortunately, a crooked businessman (Mark Goddard) is planning on bulldozing the skating rink. Can Bobby and the other skaters defeat the businessman and his gangster pals? Even when guns are pulled on them, Bobby and his friends refuse to give up. Myself, I’d just find another skating rink. I mean, it’s Venice Beach in 1979. It’s hard to believe that there’s only one place to go.
The gangster subplot feels out of place, a misguided attempt to bring some action to a perfectly acceptable teen romance. This was Jim Bray’s only film role and he wasn’t a particularly good actor but he and Linda Blair had enough natural chemistry to bring some charm to the film. Linda Blair, for her part, skates as if the fate of the world depended upon it and she seems to enjoy playing a relatively happy character for once. It’s totally predictable, a bit dumb at times but it’s still likable enough. Ultimately, it’s such a product of its time — look at the clothes, look at the hair, listen to the slang — that it becomes rather fascinating to watch. This is a movie that you watch and say, “So, that’s what 1979 was like!”
In the second Perry Mason movie, Perry (Raymond Burr) defends Sister Margaret (Michele Greene), who has been accused of murdering Father Thomas O’Neil (Timothy Bottoms). The D.A. (David Ogden Stiers) says that Sister Margaret was having an affair with Father O’Neil and she killed him when he tried to break it off. However, the movie shows us that, just like in the last movie, Father O’Neil was actually killed by a hitman (Hagan Beggs). Perry, Della (Barbara Hale), and Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt) have to figure out who ordered the priest’s murder.
I enjoyed the Case of the Notorious Nun, even if it wasn’t as good as the previous film. It was still entertaining and I loved watching Perry constantly give Paul a hard time about every little thing but this time, it was really obvious who the actual killer was. Paul, of course, had romantic feelings for Sister Margaret but nothing came from them, other than a chaste kiss on the cheek. Sorry, Paul. You’re charming but you’re not that charming.
Father O’Neil was far more sympathetic than the previous movie’s victim. Father O’Neil was trying to make the world a better place and his death with was a real tragedy. That made it all the more satisfying when Perry was able to get his cross-examination confession. There was an alarming scene early on in the movie where Perry checked into a hospital because he was feeling faint and I get the feeling that they framed the scene to make Raymond Burr look even heavier than he was. (This movie justified Paul Drake doing all the leg work while Perry stayed at the office.) But even if he moves a little slower than he used to, Perry Mason is still the best lawyer out there.
Through the Shattered Lens 