On February 22nd, 1980, the U.S. Olympic Hockey team pulled off one of the greatest upsets in sports history when they defeated the Soviet team during the Winter Olympics. At a time when America was struggling under Jimmy Carter and the Soviet Union appeared to be winning the propaganda war, a group of unheralded college students brought the U.S. together in celebration as they defeated the Soviets and then went on to defeat Finland for the gold medal.
Everyone knows that the Miracle On Ice, as it was called, served as the basis of the Disney film Miracle, with Kurt Russell playing coach Herb Brooks. What is now forgotten is that the story was first recreated in 1981, with a made-for-tv movie called Miracle On Ice. Who played Herb Brooks in that movie?
Karl Malden.
Keep in mind, Herb Brooks was 42 years-old when the U.S. team defeated the Soviets and he was a former player himself. Malden was 69 when he starred in Miracle On Ice and didn’t look like he had ever worn skates in his life. Malden is convincingly grumpy and hard-nosed as Brooks but he’s still very miscast and the movie misses the point that one of the reasons why Brooks could coach the young American team was because he was still relatively young himself. The actors playing the members of the team are better cast, with Andrew Stevens playing team leader Mike Eruzione and Steve Guttenberg cast as goalie Jim Craig. A lot of time is devoted to Craig’s financial difficulties and his fear that remaining an amateur for the Olympics, instead of going pro, will continue to make life difficult for his family. On the one hand, it is messed up that the U.S., at the time, did not allow its Olympians to turn professional. On the other hand, the fact all of the players were considered to be “amateurs’ made their victory over the Soviets all the more special.
It takes a while for MiracleonIce to get to the main event. There’s a lot of scenes of Brooks dealing with everyone’s skepticism and Eurozione trying to keep the players from giving up in the face of the Soviet Union’s previous domination of the game. Once the movie does finally reach the Winter Olympics, it relies on actual footage from the game, which is actually pretty cool. Watching the real footage, you can still feel the growing excitement in both the stadium and the broadcast booth as people started to realize that the American team was going to pull it off and defeat the Soviets. It’s impossible not to be inspired by the Soviet Union getting humiliated by a bunch of American college players. The Soviets may have had the performance enhancing drugs but the Americans had the spirit!
Of the two films about America’s victory, Miracle is definitely the one to see but Miracle On Ice still pays tribute to a great moment.
Today is actor Andrew Stevens’ 70th birthday. I grew up watching Stevens in the Charles Bronson films 10 TO MIDNIGHT (1983) and DEATH HUNT (1981), the movie I’m reviewing today. I also enjoyed watching him in Brian De Palma’s THE FURY (1978). Later in his career he stepped behind the camera where he produces and directs mostly low budget films. As of this writing, he’s still going strong, and he’s built quite a nice career. And for me, my appreciation all started because he worked with Charles Bronson when he was in his twenties!
In the “based on a true story” DEATH HUNT, Charles Bronson plays trapper Albert Johnson, who lives in the Yukon Territory in the year of 1931 and just wants to be left alone. Early in the film, Johnson comes across a vicious dogfight and rescues one of the participants who’s almost dead. The problem is that the dog belongs to a piece of shit named Hazel (Ed Lauter), and even though Johnson pays him for the dog, Hazel heads to town and tells Sergeant Edgar Millen (Lee Marvin), of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, that Johnson stole his dog. Millen doesn’t have time for Hazel’s B.S., so he tells him to go on. Millen would rather drink whiskey and hang out with his friends and co-workers in town. These people include the experienced tracker Sundog, aka George Washington Lincoln Brown (Carl Weathers), a young fresh-faced constable with the RCMP named Alvin Adams (Andrew Stevens), his latest lover Vanessa McBride (Angie Dickinson), and everyone’s favorite sidepiece, the Buffalo woman (Amy Marie George). Not willing to let things slide, Hazel and his men go up to Johnson’s cabin and start some more trouble, and one of his buddies gets his scalp shot off by the more than capable Johnson. Even though the entire mess has been started by Hazel and his crew of goons, who include character actors William Sanderson and Maury Chaykin, Millen is forced to try to bring Johnson in, so they can straighten everything out. When it seems Johnson may be about to go in with Millen, one of Hazel’s dumbass men opens fire, and all hell breaks loose. In the aftermath, Johnson escapes, kicking off a massive manhunt across the mountains and wilderness of the Yukon Territory!
DEATH HUNT is an awesome film, primarily because it pairs Charles Bronson, as the tough mountain man, against Lee Marvin, as the seasoned lawman who probably has only one chase left in him. This is a match made in heaven, and even though the two stars share little screen time, the icons dominate each frame of the film. Their characters respect each other and you get the feeling the two men, who couldn’t be more different in real life, probably felt the same way about each other. The remainder of the cast is filled with so many recognizable names and faces. I’d say the the best performances outside of Bronson and Marvin come from Carl Weathers, Andrew Stevens and Ed Lauter. I like the camaraderie that Weathers shares with Marvin, and of course he’s a lot of help when the action starts. Initially, Stevens seems like he’s going to be another “new kid” who’s too inexperienced to be of much help, but he proves to be more than capable by the end of the film. And good grief is Lauter good at playing a piece of crap! Everything about Hazel is cruel, sadistic, and ignorant, and he plays the part perfectly. A scene where a bullying Hazel gets his comeuppance at the hands of the young Adams (Stevens), is a highlight of the film. Sadly, Angie Dickinson, one of the most beautiful women in the history of cinema, is somewhat wasted in her small, unimportant role. I still like seeing her though, even if the part is beneath her.
Aside from the phenomenal cast that Director Peter R. Hunt (DR. NO and THUNDERBALL) was able to assemble, there are other good reasons to watch DEATH HUNT. I love movies that are filmed outside of the city, and you can’t get much further out of the city than the Canadian Rocky Mountains. This setting provides plenty of beauty, but its frozen landscape and bitter conditions also allow for a sense of loneliness, isolation and desperation to seep in for the various characters as the manhunt stretches out over time. There is also some rugged and violent action spread out through the film. I was caught off guard the first time I watched the film by some of the more graphic violence in the action scenes. I’ve already mentioned Bronson’s character basically blowing a guy’s head off, and there’s another scene involving William Sanderson getting his arm caught in a trap. These scenes make my toes curl up just thinking about them. The action highlight occurs when the men think they have killed Johnson in an explosion, to only have him emerge from the smoke and flames of his decimated cabin with slow motion shotgun blasting. It’s an incredibly badass moment in the movie and in Bronson’s overall filmography. Finally, the story is interested in contrasting the old ways of doing things, as exemplified by Bronson and Marvin, versus the new ways of doing things, as exemplified by the young Stevens and a hotshot pilot (Scott Hylands) who is called in to help with the search. Edgar Millen is somewhat of a dinosaur who isn’t ready to truly move into the 20th century. He wants to catch Johnson through old-fashioned, out maneuvering him in the wilderness, while Stevens’ character brings in a radio and the expertise to use it, and Hylands tries to locate him and gun him down from high in the sky. These two schools of thought clash and play out to varying degrees of success and failure as the chase rushes toward its conclusion.
DEATH HUNT is not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s been one of my favorite Bronson films since I first saw it the mid to later 80’s. Just seeing Bronson and Marvin together on screen, in a rugged, violent, badass story, goes a long way with me. It’s as simple as that! See the trailer below:
In JACKIE CHAN’S FIRST STRIKE (1996), aka POLICE STORY 4: FIRST STRIKE, Jackie Chan plays Inspector Chan Ka-Kui (called “Jackie” in the dubbed version), a Hong Kong police officer tasked with helping CIA and Russian authorities track a missing nuclear warhead. His investigation leads him to Ukraine and Australia, where he discovers a conspiracy involving a rogue CIA agent named Jackson Tsui (Jackson Lui) and a criminal organization. Chan teams up with Annie (Annie Wu), a marine biologist and Tsui’s sister, to try to stop the rogue agent from selling the warhead to global terrorists.
As you might imagine, JACKIE CHAN’S FIRST STRIKE has incredible stunt work. Chan was 42 years old when he made this movie, but he still has “it!” His amazing acrobatic ability is on full display as he engages in snowy mountain top chases, ladder fights, shark tank shenanigans, all leading to a final showdown in an aquarium! Every set piece highlights Chan’s special blend of martial arts, comedy, and scary stunts. Aside from the incredible stunts, Chan brings so much charm and humor to the table. He’s so likable that you can’t help but smile as he goes from one crazy situation to the next. This is why I watch Jackie Chan movies, and this one has a lot of good stuff!
As far as the supporting performances, Bill Tung, who plays his boss “Uncle Bill Wong,” is the only real connection to the earlier “POLICE STORY” movies. He pops up at the very beginning and a couple of times during the movie, but that’s about it. Having enjoyed all the prior films in the series, it is fun seeing him here, but there is certainly no need to watch the others to be able to enjoy this one. Annie Wu was only 18 years old when she made this movie, which is her first credit, and she’s as cute as it gets! There’s nothing that special about the villains. They’re mostly here to be used as punching bags for Chan to work off of during his unique action sequences.
Overall, I really enjoy JACKIE CHAN’S FIRST STRIKE because I’m a big fan of the unique blend of action and comedy that Chan brings to his movies. It may not be his very best, but it’s a pleasant reminder of what Hong Kong cinema was like in the 90’s before the 1997 handover. I miss those days of Hong Kong cinema. There was nothing like it in the world.
Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox) heads to New York City with his business degree from the University of Kansas and the promise of an entry-level job as a financier. He arrives to discover that the company that hired him no longer exists and that Brantley is out of a job. New York is a harsh town for someone who is down on his luck and all of out of money. Brantley eventually gets a job working in the mail room of a company owned by his wealthy uncle (Richard Jordan). His uncle doesn’t even know who he is but soon, Brantley becomes just as rich and successful as he always dreamed.
What’s the secret of Brantley’s success?
Screwing his Aunt Vera (played by Margaret Whitton).
What’s the other other secret of his success?
Pretending to be named Carlton Whitfield and claiming that he’s a new executive at the corporation.
I remember when Kramer did the same thing on Seinfeld. It didn’t work out for Kramer. He got fired after turning in his first report.
“This is gibberish,” his boss said, “It’s almost as if you have no business training at all. I’m afraid we have to let you go.”
“I don’t actually work here,” Kramer replied.
“That’s what makes this so hard.”
Seinfeld, never topped.
Back to TheSecretofMySuccess, this is the most 80s film ever made, complete with montages of Brantley exploring New York and a saxophone playing on the soundtrack. Brantley’s all about TCB, taking care of business. He screws his aunt but falls in love with Christy Wills (Helen Slater). Brantley doesn’t learn anything but he gets the best office and becomes a success without actually doing any real work. It’s the ultimate fantasy and, like many fantasies, TheSecretofMySuccess is superficially appealing. Michael J. Fox is likable as Brantley. Margaret Whitton is outrageously sexy as Vera. Helen Slater is pretty and boring, traits that made her the ideal “good” girlfriend for Brantley’s story.
The Secret of My Success is your ticket to the 80s.
In the 1980’s I was a huge fan of Michael J. Fox. Alex P. Keaton was my hero, and BACK TO THE FUTURE and TEEN WOLF are two of my favorite 80’s movies. In the early 2000’s I became a huge fan of Director Peter Jackson due to his LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. Made in 1996, THE FRIGHTENERS is the only Peter Jackson film I had seen prior to the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. I saw THE FRIGHTENERS at the movie theater in 1996, and I loved it. It was different than I was expecting going in, but it has one hell of cast. I had not seen any of Jeffrey Combs’ work prior to this movie, and he totally cracked me up. Throw in a ghostly Chi McBride whose character even references Charles Bronson* at one point, and I’m hooked. Peter Jackson directing Michael J. Fox. Now that’s a match made in heaven!
*BONUS – Chi McBride as Cyrus :
“All right, man, this is it. We gotta be hard. No mercy. We’re going in like professionals, like Charles Bronson. We don’t stop till the screaming starts, you dig?”
The telegraph company has come to the frontier town of Hangtown Mesa and soon, the citizens will be connected to the rest of the world. The wealthy men who run the town don’t want that to happen because then people might discover how corrupt they are. They hire a gunman known as the Utah Kid (Hugh Prosser, not looking much like a kid) to come to town and kill the owner of the telegraph line, John Wilkins (Henry Hall). The Utah Kid steals the clothes of engineer Steve Collins (Johnny Mack Brown) and frames him for Wilkins’s murder. With the help Betty Wilkins (Helen Deverell) and traveling medicine man Dr. J. Willington Dingle (Fuzzy Knight), Steve sets out to clear his name.
This is a pretty good Johnny Mack Brown western. The plot isn’t half-bad as far as Poverty Row westerns are concerned and director Joseph H. Lewis keeps things lively. Lewis not only gets good performances from his cast but he also makes Hangtown Mesa seem like an actual, growing frontier town. Lewis even manages to create some suspense as The Utah Kid and Steve Collins switch identities. Comparing Lewis’s westerns to the ones directed by Sam Newfield shows how much difference a good director can make, even within the confines of a poverty row production. Even Fuzzy Knight is used well!
BossofHangtownMesa is one of the better Johnny Mack Brown westerns, featuring a good story and an interesting idea behind it as it shows how far the bad guys will go to keep their own private fiefdom from connecting with the rest of the world. Brown is convincing, whether he’s riding a horse or holding a gun. He’s playing an educated man here, an engineer, but Brown is still a cowboy through-and-through.
Liam Neeson is John Ottway, a sharpshooter who works for an oil company in Alaska. His job is to protect the company’s employees from dangerous wildlife in the area. He’s flying with a group of his co-workers from a remote drilling site when the plane crashes out in the middle of nowhere. There’s a small group of survivors who must now face harsh weather conditions with very little supplies. If that isn’t bad enough, a pack of hungry wolves are after them. Ottway takes charge of the group and tries to lead them out of the remote, frozen wilderness to safety. As impossible as it all seems, it turns out to be even worse, and all of those lucky enough to survive the plane crash must try to come to terms with the difficult moments that lie ahead.
I’ll go ahead and say that THE GREY is my favorite film starring Liam Neeson. When I first saw the movie in the theater back in 2012, I was expecting more of a typical “man versus nature” survival thriller. I wasn’t expecting director Joe Carnahan to deliver a powerful story that would transcend its basic premise and force me to assess the meaning of my life! When I watch THE GREY, I think about the things that make my life meaningful, and if I truly appreciate those things. I think about my own mortality, and if I am living a life that makes a real difference to anyone. I think about the need to take advantage of every moment in my life, and I’m doing this while I’m watching a movie where men are desperately trying not to be eaten by big wolves. Carnahan pulls off this feat brilliantly! With that said, if you’re looking for mindless wall-to-wall action, THE GREY is probably not the movie for you. This is a thinking person’s film, and even though I wasn’t expecting that element when I first watched it, I love it!
Liam Neeson gives an incredible performance as a man who goes from being so emotionally damaged at the beginning of the film that he considers killing himself, to a man who’s willing to go one on one with a giant black alpha male wolf for one more chance at life! For a man who played Oskar Schindler, I don’t think Neeson has ever been better than he is in THE GREY. If you don’t get misty-eyed in the scene where he holds a man’s hand as he’s dying and talks him through his fear, then you must have a heart of stone. It’s a beautifully acted scene by Neeson and actor James Badge Dale. There are other good performances in the film, mainly from Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, and Dallas Roberts as the plane crash survivors that make it deep into the story with Neeson. Each of these actors have strong moments at different times. But make no mistake, Neeson’s performance is the backbone of the story and elevates THE GREY to something special.
Throughout the story, Neeson’s character recites a poem that was written by his father:
Once more into the fray, into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day, live and die on this day.
In THE GREY, we see various characters live their lives and face their deaths in different ways. While none of them wants to die, some fight harder for life than others. At the end of the day, we have to honestly ask ourselves… are our own lives really worth fighting for?
Welcome to the year 2293. Savages known as the Brutals live in a wasteland and worship a giant stone head named Zardoz, who comes out of the sky, tells them to shoot guns and not have sex, and then dumps hundreds of firearms on them. One Brutal, Zed (Sean Connery, wearing what appears to be a big red diaper) jumps into Zardoz’s mouth and discovers that Zardoz is actually a spaceship that is piloted by Arthur Frayn (Niall Buggy). Zed shoots Arthur and then flies with Zardoz to the Vortex, where a bunch of overdressed and overaffected Immortals are having a perpetual garden party.
The Immortals, who can live forever because they’ve mentally learned how to slow the aging process, take an immediate interest in Zed. They want to know where Arthur is. Zed wants to explore the Vortex and learn what’s going on. The Immortals assign Zed to do menial tasks. Consuela (Charlotte Rampling) falls in love with Zed but keeps trying to kill him. If you could live forever, the film asks, wouldn’t you eventually want to die? I would not.
John Boorman, you nut! Boorman is one of the greatest directors ever, responsible for PointBlank, Deliverance, and Excalibur. Zardoz shows what happens when a great filmmaker falls so in love with his vision that no one can tell him that it’s not working. Zardoz is pure Boorman, obsessed with nature, curious about paganism, and cynical about religion. Boorman had something that he wanted to say about nature and humanity and he deserves a lot of credit for that. He had just directed Deliverance and could have had his pick of projects in 1974. He could have directed an action spectacular or he could have just gone home to Europe and counted his money. Instead, Boorman decided to go with a dream project that he had been trying to put together for years.
Did it work? No, it did not. A few stunning images (that stone head!) aside, the movie itself is slow and talky and Sean Connery, with his deep brogue, is miscast as Zed. (As Lisa said last night, “I’m glad to see Scotland survived the apocalypse.”) With his pony tail and his handle-bar mustache, Connery seemed like he was doing a dry run for his Highlander character. Charlotte Rampling is beautiful as Consuela and some viewers — mostly men — will appreciate her costumes, but the society of the Immortals is never as interesting as Boorman seems to think it is.
Zardoz is bad but still compelling because Boorman was so dedicated to whatever it was he thought the message of the movie was. Watch it with a bud and try to figure it out,
Hey hey!! Before you read this, know that this isn’t the only review for The Longest Day. Lisa Marie also wrote about it. Read that first, and then double back here if you like.
With June 6th being the 81st Anniversary of D-Day, I decided to write about 1962’s The Longest Day, a film often discussed in my family, but surprisingly, I don’t recall ever fully watching it until today. I’ll try to get a hold of a hard copy of this in the future. The film is currently available to watch (with ads) on YouTube. This was a film my Aunt adored, as she liked seeing the Military come to the rescue in any situation (which happened often in most classic sci-fi films). This, They Died With Their Boots On, and All Quiet on the Western Front were films she raved about.
According to the National WWII Museum, “The Allies suffered over 10,300 total casualties (killed, wounded, or missing), of which approximately 2,400 were on Omaha Beach.” it was also an incredible offensive achievement, with nations gathering together to take the fight to a common enemy.
I don’t have a whole lot to say about this. As this is a film based on actual events (which takes some movie related liberties), I can’t complain or state I loved the “story”. As my boss at my Dayjob sometimes says, “It is what it is.” In terms of presentation, however, I highly recommend it. The film never really falters, nor does it give you too much time to relax. There’s a quiet tension with all of the characters you meet (all of the Allied ones, anyway), wondering if they may make it through by the end. If nothing else, watching it reminds one of the sacrifices made and the courage of anyone deciding to run head first into battle like that.
The film is epic in scope, with a runtime of 3 hours and an all star cast that includes Robert Mitchum (Cape Fear), Eddie Albert (Dreamscape), John Wayne (The Quiet Man), Henry Fonda (Once Upon a Time in the West) Curt Jurgens (The Spy Who Loved Me), Red Buttons and Roddy McDowall (who would later work together in The Poseidon Adventure), Richard Beymer (West Side Story), Frank Findlay (Lifeforce), Gert Frobe and Sean Connery (both two years shy of working together in Goldfinger), Richard Burton (Cleopatra) and Robert Ryan (The Wild Bunch) among others.
Much like 1970’s Tora!Tora!Tora! (which my Dad often talked about), there were multiple directors for The Longest Day. Bernhard Wiki captured the German scenes, Andrew Marton handled the American ones, and Ken Annakin handled both the English and French sequences. This is all brought together in a seamless and pretty amazing tapestry. Unlike Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day only covers the time leading up to and through the Omaha Beach assault, using the bulk of the film’s 3rd hour for the event. The entire film makes wonderful use of the time with all the alternate views, and by the time the first combat starts near the start of the 2nd hour, it continues to flow from interaction to interaction. There are also some wonderful arial shots over the battles, including an classic one shot that’s pretty marvelous given the time period.
The film takes place just before the invasion. American troops are already in the water on boats. Others are ready to parachute in. The French are ready to fight, waiting for the right phrase to hit the radio to put them into action. all are waiting to hear from the Britians on when the Allied Assault should begin. The weather isn’t optimal, but with the operation already delayed once before, President Eisenhower (Henry Grace) decides the 6th is the drop date. The Germans assume nothing will happen assaults are supposedly not done in harsh weather, but this proves to be quite the mistake.
It was wonderful to see everything come together. From the French sabotaging communications, to the strange comedy of soldier toting bagpipes to lead the Scottish into battle, or the Nuns who walked right through battle to save lives, it’s quite a sight to behold.
When Johnny Hume was just a young boy, he witnessed his entire family being killed by a group of bandits led by the mysterious Cat. Johnny grows up to be a trick-shot artist but, despite his skill with a gun, he can’t stand to point it at anyone or to be near any sort of gunfights. When a fight breaks out in a saloon, he hides behind a bar and is labeled a coward.
Still, Johnny and his sidekick (Syd Saylor) somehow find the strength to run off a bunch of stagecoach robbers and save passenger Ethel Carson (Billie Seward). Johnny is offered a chance to become the new town marshal. Johnny, despite his fear of gunfights, accepts after he hears that the Cat is back in business. Johnny wants revenge but the Cat turns out to be not who he was expecting.
BrandedACoward may be a zero-budget Poverty Row western but it’s actually has an interesting story and a good (if not entirely unexpected) twist towards the end. Johnny Mack Brown was one of the better actors amongst the cowboys who starred in the westerns put out by PRC and directed by Sam Newfield. Brown does a good job portraying Johnny’s fear and also his determination to get justice for his family. Johnny proves he’s no coward but at what cost?
The plot here is a little darker than most of the westerns that were coming out at this time. Every Poverty Row western featured a comic relief sidekick but this might be the only to feature the sidekick getting killed. In the role of Oscar, Syd Saylor leaned very heavily on his fake stuttering shtick, to the extent that it actually got offensive. I wasn’t sorry to see his character go. Johnny Mack Brown didn’t need any help to get justice.
On February 22nd, 1980, the U.S. Olympic Hockey team pulled off one of the greatest upsets in sports history when they defeated the Soviet team during the Winter Olympics. At a time when America was struggling under Jimmy Carter and the Soviet Union appeared to be winning the propaganda war, a group of unheralded college students brought the U.S. together in celebration as they defeated the Soviets and then went on to defeat Finland for the gold medal.
Through the Shattered Lens 