Since today is Al Pacino’s birthday, it only seems right to share a classic scene from The Godfather.
In the scene below, which is perfectly directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Michael proves that he truly is a Corleone. Am I the only one who yelled, “Don’t forget to drop the gun!,” the first time that I saw this scene?
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
It’s Al Pacino’s birthday!
In others words, it’s time for….
6 Shots From 6 Al Pacino Films
The Godfather (1972, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, DP: Gordon Willis)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975, dir by Sidney Lumet, DP: Victor J. Kemper)
Scarface (1983, dir by Brian DePalma, DP: John A. Alonzo)
Heat (1995, dir by Michael Mann, DP: Dante Spinotti)
The Devil’s Advocate (1997, dir by Taylor Hackford, DP: Andrzej Bartkowiak)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Robert Richardson)
In the 1960s, druken Pvt. Franklin Fairchild Bean (Charlie Sheen) punches an MP in West Germany. The rebellious Bean is hoping he’ll be discharged from the Army. Instead, he’s sent to the stockade for 90 days. The stockade is run by an alcoholic tyrant named Sgt. Otis McKinney (Martin Sheen) and, shortly after arrival, Bean discovers that he’s the only white prisoner. With McKinney determined to break him, Bean befriends his fellow prisoners, including Roosevelt Stokes (Laurence Fishburne), and the two white corporals (James Marshall and Ramon Estevez) who try to protect the prisoners from McKinney’s erratic behavior.
Cadence is the only film to have been directed by Martin Sheen. Considering that it co-stars two of his sons, it’s unfortunate that Cadence isn’t a better movie. Charlie Sheen gives a one-note performance as Franklin Bean but he still does better than his father, who is such a raging monster as Sgt. McKinney that it’s difficult to take him or the movie seriously. As a director, Martin Sheen always goes for the most ham-fisted shot and it’s hard to see what he’s really trying to say about the Army or Franklin Bean’s rebellion.
The supporting cast is better, especially James Marshall and Ramon Estevez. Laurence Fishburne brings his trademark gravitas to the role of Stokes. The other prisoners are played by Michael Beach, Blu Mankuma, John Toles-Bey, and Harry Stewart and they all make a good impression. Stewart plays the most saintly and innocent of the prisoners. Guess what happens to him.
Back in the day, this movie was an HBO mainstay. Somehow, I always seemed to catch the end of it but never the beginning.
I remember the first time I ever saw the Charles Bronson western, CHINO. I was probably around 13 or 14 years old and already well known in my school for being obsessed with the actor Charles Bronson, who would have been roughly 65 years old at the time. There was this girl who I guess had a crush on me, so she invited my best friend Chad and I, along with her best friend, over to her house to watch a movie one Saturday. And the movie she chose… CHINO, AKA THE VALDEZ HORSES! I don’t think I watched the movie very close that day. CHINO was treated poorly on VHS in the 80’s, and I was more interested in the DEATH WISH 3s and MURPHY’S LAWs of the world at that time. I was also more interested in trying to make the girls laugh, which was always my main move because I was never good looking enough to smolder.
So, for many years, CHINO was nowhere near the top of my list of favorite Charles Bronson films. I watched it a few times, but I always found it hard to take seriously due to the cheap quality of the video presentation. Well in 2021, Kino Lorber released the film under THE VALDEZ HORSES title in a glorious Blu-ray. CHINO is a revelation with this new release, and I finally saw what I had been missing all these years. For the first time, I felt like I was able to watch it, and judge it, based on its own merits as a film.
CHINO opens on Jamie (15-year-old Vincent Van Patten) riding across the range as the title tune “Freedom Rainbow” plays over the credits. When he comes upon a ranch just as it’s getting dark, a tough-as-nails-looking Chino Valdez (Charles Bronson), emerges from the cabin and offers him a warm fire and a meal. Initially a little scared of Chino, Jamie is looking for work and Chino needs help, so the boy hangs around for a while. Things seem to be going well as the eager Jamie and Chino work the horses at his ranch, but soon issues start popping up. First, it’s the barbed wire that cattle baron Maral (Marcel Bozzuffi) puts up on the range that results in serious injuries for some of Chino’s wild horses. Then, it’s the fact that every time Chino goes to town for supplies, he ends up drinking, brawling, and spending a little time in jail. But those things pale in comparison to the biggest issue… Chino falls in love with the beautiful Catherine (Jill Ireland), Maral’s sister, and Maral will have no part of her falling back in love with the half breed Chino! Maral threatens to kill Chino if he doesn’t quit seeing his sister, and he means it.
Based on the award-winning 1967 novel THE VALDEZ HORSES by female author Lee Hoffman, director John Sturges crafted a movie around a role that seems tailor made for Bronson. Chino Valdez is a loner who reluctantly takes on a fatherly role towards Jamie, and then even more reluctantly falls in love with Catherine. He seemed like the kind of man who would be perfectly fine working the ranch by himself forever until Jamie rides up. A loner in real life who valued his family over anything else, who also purchased his own horse ranch in Vermont the same year of CHINO’s release, it’s hard to know where the character of Chino begins and Charles Bronson ends. This is a particularly strong performance from Bronson, one of his very best.
And you really do need to savor the film for Bronson’s incredible presence, because the film doesn’t have as much action, nor does it lead to the typical showdown that we’ve come to expect in Bronson’s movies. Chino gets into a scuffle when he goes into town, and he shoots some bad guys at the end, but this is first and foremost a character study. As a matter of fact, the film that John Sturges delivered had even less action than what we see in the final product. Disappointed in the surprising lack of action, producer Dino De Laurentiis hired director Duilio Coletti to shoot some additional action scenes for the film after Sturges had left the project. These scenes are incorporated very well into the final product, and I agree that they add value.
Without the typical Bronson action, we’re left with a perfectly cast Bronson interacting with the supporting characters in ways that are atypical for his filmography. Bronson and Vincent Van Patten work well off each other, and Van Patten is phenomenal as the teenage Jamie. I love that their relationship evolves into something meaningful as the movie progresses. Chino learns that he can trust the boy who seems to emerge as a young man right before our eyes. And then there’s the relationship between Chino and Catherine, played by Bronson’s wife Jill Ireland. Not quite as effective as the Chino / Jamie relationship, it’s still character driven and unique. Chino shows a tenderness towards her in a couple of scenes that we’re not used to seeing presented onscreen, even if one of the moments is brought on by the admittedly odd inclusion of the two watching his stud mount a beautiful wild mare. Ireland is extremely beautiful, so it’s not completely surprising that the self-sufficient Chino would fall for her. Unfortunately, while the Chino / Jamie relationship strengthens throughout the film, the Chino / Catherine relationship eventually goes the other way leading to the somewhat surprising, some might say disappointing, finale.
After watching the restored Blu-ray presentation by Kino Lorber, I can confidently say that CHINO is a good Charles Bronson film that features one of his best performances. It’s still not in my personal Bronson top ten, but if you’re a fan of Charles Bronson the actor, then this a must-watch. It’s my opinion, after having read the book and watched the movie, that no other actor could have brought the character of Chino Valdez alive in a stronger way than Charles Bronson. It was the perfect combination of actor and character, and I’ll stand by that opinion to the end.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly watch parties. On Twitter, I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday and I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday. On Mastodon, I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, I will be hosting #FridayNightFlix! The movie? 1972’s The Mechanic!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, find The Mechanic on Prime, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! I’ll be there happily tweeting. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
See you there!
From Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon, today’s scene that I love is the classic final fight between Gary Busey, Danny Glover, and Mel Gibson.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today would have been the 96th birthday of director Richard Donner. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Richard Donner Films
The Omen (1976, dir by Richard Donner, DP: Gilbert Taylor)
Superman (1978, dir by Richard Donner, DP: Geoffrey Unsworth)
Lethal Weapon (1987, dir by Richard Donner, DP: Stephen Goldblatt)
Scrooged (1988, dir by Richard Donner, DP: Michael Chapman)
My wife and I were browsing around our 10 different movie apps a couple of nights ago when we came across the psychological thriller SPEAK NO EVIL on NBC’s Peacock app. I’ve always kinda liked the actor James McAvoy, at least I did in WANTED (2008), so we decided to give it a spin.
In SPEAK NO EVIL, the vacationing Dalton family, Ben (Scoot McNairy), Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) meet Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and their son Ant (Dan Hough). The families hit it off instantly and have a great time together, but they soon say goodbye and go their separate ways back to their homes. A couple of months later, the Daltons receive a letter in the mail asking them to take a week to come visit their fast friends at their family farm. Needing a break from their normal routines, they decide to take Paddy & Ciara up on their offer. At first, everyone seems to be having a great time together. But it soon becomes apparent that Paddy & Ciara see the world radically different than Ben and Louise, whether it be their views on the environment, or much more powerfully and personally, their views on raising children. As the fun turns sour, the Dalton’s try to leave, but getting away from Paddy & Ciara isn’t as easy as it seems. Soon we’re learning why Ant can’t speak properly, and we’re seeing disturbing evidence that the Dalton’s aren’t the first family invited out to the farm. The question now is whether or not they’ll be the last?!!
SPEAK NO EVIL, which is based on a 2022 Danish film of the same name, opens up in a beautiful countryside paradise. I was blown away by the gorgeous Eastern European locations where the families were enjoying their vacations. The Dalton’s, more vulnerable than they might first appear, are taken in by the outgoing and free-spirited Paddy and Ciara. Even after they’ve gone back to their normal lives, they seem to miss the excitement that their vacation friends brought to their lives. Their vulnerability leads to a terribly shortsighted decision to spend a week at the secluded farm of a couple they barely know. While we might question their decision-making skills, I think that most of us would agree that many of our very worst decisions come from positions of weakness and vulnerability. The Daltons will most certainly soon come to regret their decision.
I was interested in watching SPEAK NO EVIL because I like psycho thrillers and James McAvoy. As far as I’m concerned, neither disappointed. This film spends the first 90% of its run-time slowly tightening its grip on us viewers prior to unleashing hell over the last 10%. McAvoy is both creepy, powerful and evil as Paddy. When we finally see him snap, we’re not terribly surprised based on his gradually more depraved behavior witnessed earlier in the film. Scoot McNairy is good in the film, even though his Ben Dalton comes across as a relatively weak husband and dad most of the time. The truth is, he’s like most normal people would be if we found ourselves in this situation. And Mackenzie Davis is good as Louise Dalton, although there are a few times when she behaves in ways that undermines her character’s perceived intelligence in order to keep the plot moving along. The children characters end up having meaningful roles in the resolution of the film, and the child actors do a fine job, which is not always the case. At the end of the day, SPEAK NO EVIL doesn’t feel like the most original of films, but I think the director and actors tell a familiar, thrilling story quite well.
The last thing I’m going to say is that I’ve never seen the original 2022 Danish film that SPEAK NO EVIL (2024) is based on. I understand that its resolution is much, much different than this version. I do plan on watching it soon, as it’s currently playing on Tubi. Regardless of how I end up feeling about the original, my wife and I watched this 2024 version and enjoyed it. No later viewing of the source material can take that away.
Honor Amongst Men?
Don’t even ask.
John Halmo (Robert Clohessy) is a veteran cop who is been on the job for so long that he wears a dinosaur pin. The film portrays one very long day on Long Island, as John deals with cocky young cops, squabbling drug addicts, his Alzheimer’s-afflicted father (Ed Asner), and a motorcycle gang war. Chuck Zito plays the the main motorcycle baddie. Joan Jett plays Stephanie, who spend a lot of time yelling. It’s cool to see Joan Jett in a movie.
Why is Chuck Zito such an unconvincing biker in this? He was a member of the Hell’s Angels for twenty-five years. He did time for the gang. If anyone should have felt authentic in this movie, it was Chuck Zito. But Zito seems lost. Maybe it’s the bad CGI that the movie uses whenever Zito shoots someone. Bad CGI and a bad performance.
Robert Clohessy is good, though. Clohessy’s been playing tough cops since the start of his career. Hill Street Blues, Oz, Blue Bloods, NYPD Blue, Homicide, Ohara (a show the featured Pat Morita as a detective), all of them featured Clohessy as a cop. Clohessy gives a great performance in Honor Amongst Men. It’s too bad that the rest of this disjointed film isn’t as good.
Honor Amongst Men is a film that wants to say something about how the world is changing and how there’s less room for honorable men like John Halmo. John is being pressured to retire. His father is losing his ability to remember the past. Even Chuck Zito is just a man looking for old-fashioned revenge. A lot of good movies have been made about honorable men suddenly finding themselves in a world where honor is disappearing and Clohessy’s performance is good enough that this movie’s message sometimes comes through. But the movie itself is disjointed and features too many scenes that just don’t work, either because everyone other than Clohessy’s is overacting or because the director lets them drag on for too long. Good intentions can only go so far.
Hi, everyone! Tonight, on Mastodon, I will be hosting the #TubiThursday watch party! Join us for Predator (1987)!
You can find the movie on Tubi and you can join us on Mastodon at 9 pm central time! (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.) We will be using #TubiThursday hashtag! See you then!
Predator (1987, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Donald McAlpine)
Through the Shattered Lens 