On this date, 40 years ago, Top Gun was released and the movie changed forever.
From the opening shot, Top Gun captured the attention of audiences who understood that, though the film’s script may have been full of cliches and though the movie was basically just a remake of the old service moves of the late 30s and 40s, it didn’t matter because jets are freaking cool.
And that opening scene is today’s scene that I love!
Happy Top Gun Day!
Unknown Artist
Eyes up, buddy. This cover is from 1963.
At an Oregon high school, Rich Donato (Lou Diamond Phillips) is the most popular adult on campus. He defies the school’s no music rule by dancing in the cafeteria. He keeps discipline in the hallways and he counsels the school’s most troubled students. He’s the adult that all the students come to for advice. He’s the adult who everyone looks to as being a life coach. However, Rich is not a teacher or a guidance counselor. Instead, he’s just a custodian and handyman. Rich is smart but he never graduated high school. He doesn’t even have a G.E.D.
That becomes a problem when the school board announces that all employees of the district are now required to have, at the very least, a GED. If Rich can’t take and pass the GED test in 30 days, Rich will lose his job. Rich fails the test the first time he takes it but wife and the students at the school come together to try to help him pass. Along the way, the special education teacher (Joan Chen) diagnoses Rich as having both ADD and dyslexia, helping to explain why Rich always had trouble in school. Even though their parents say that Rich is just a janitor and not worth the trouble, the school’s students never stop believing in him.
Made for television, In A Class Of His Own is based on a true story. It takes a typical “inspiring” approach to the material, which means there’s nothing surprising about this movie. Everyone likes Rich, even the principal (Tom McBeath) who wishes that Rich would stop dancing in the cafeteria. Luckily, Lou Diamond Phillips is likable as Rich and his performance suggests that he truly cared about the film’s message. And it’s a good message! If you have a dream, don’t give up. And don’t be afraid to ask for help.
by Rowena Morrill
Someone call St. George!
If you’re looking for a good “dirty cops” movie to pass the time, I ran across an entertaining one today called THE COPS ARE ROBBERS (AKA – GOOD COPS, BAD COPS). It’s currently playing on Amazon Prime and Tubi. The film is a 1990 TV movie based on the real life robbery of the Boston Depositors Trust bank over Memorial Day weekend in 1980 by a group of corrupt cops. I first became aware of the film when I took part in an interview with Robert F. Lyons about his career on the This Week in Charles Bronson podcast. Lyons specifically mentioned this film as containing a role that he really enjoyed.
THE COPS ARE ROBBERS features an incredible cast, and this is what ultimately sets the movie apart for me. The movie opens as top cop Kirkland, played by George Kennedy, assigns Jake Quinn (Ed Asner), to lead a notoriously corrupt law enforcement agency in Massachusetts. No sooner does Quinn take over, when the Boston Depositors Trust is hit over Memorial Day weekend with over $25 million in cash and jewels taken. The crew of criminals includes current cops Jerry Clemente (Ray Sharkey) and Jimmy Donnelly (Steve Railsback), ex-cop Frank Moran (James Keach), and safe expert Benny Brown (Lyons). Over the next 5 years, with the assistance of officers Brill (James Morrison) and Kellogg (Franc Luz), Jake Quinn does every thing he can to bring Clemente and his crew down!
Ed Asner, Ray Sharkey and Robert F. Lyons are the real standouts of the film. Asner brings a toughness and honesty to his role honed by decades of playing such roles. In other words, the part fits him like a glove. Sharkey plays his part as a man who’s so arrogant and corrupt that he doesn’t seem to realize that using his position of trust in the community for his own selfish gain is a problem. He seems to think he deserves whatever he can steal, and it’s fun to see the pressure squeeze in on him as the film moves along. After watching the film, I can see why Lyons enjoyed playing this part, as he is excellent in his role as the safe expert. He is one of the most important parts of the robbery, he doesn’t trust cops, and he eventually gets the opportunity to give them a reason not to trust him. It’s a nice showcase for his talents.
At the end of the day, if you like the cast, enjoy movies based on true stories, or appreciate TV movies from the late 80’s and early 90’s, I definitely think you’ll enjoy THE COPS ARE ROBBERS. Veteran Director Paul Wendkos (CANNON FOR CORDOBA, THE BAD SEED) brings a professional touch to the proceedings, and for me, watching his film was a fun way to spend an evening.
Today I finished my 26th tax season as a certified public accountant who specializes in tax preparation services. For the last 3 months, my life has been all taxes, all the time. That ends today and now my love of my family and movies can once again take center stage! Tonight I’m watching YOJIMBO simply because seeing Toshiro Mifune makes me feel good. Happy Tax Day my friends!
In Rated X, two real-life brothers play another set of real-life brothers.
Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen play, respectively, brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell. Two pot-smoking entrepreneurs who found fame and fortune during the so-called Golden Age of Pornography (Behind the Green Door was their most famous film), Jim and Artie owned the O’Farrell Theater in San Francisco and became famous for their numerous legal troubles and their advocacy for freedom of speech. While Jim became a semi-respectable figure who hobnobbed with the city’s elite, Artie became known for his consumption of cocaine. In 1991, Jim drove over to Artie’s house and shot him twice. Jim, who claimed Artie had threatened to kill him, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison. Jim was released after serving three years. (He died in 2007, long after this film aired on Showtime.)
Rated X tells the story of the Mitchell Brothers in a flat and perfunctory manner. Emilio Estevez not only plays Jim but he also directs. He doesn’t bring much visual style or storytelling style to the film, despite a few scenes that appear to have been cribbed from Boogie Nights. Estevez doesn’t seem to be sure what he wants to say about the Mitchell Brothers and they come across as being the most boring pornographers in history. What’s really strange is that Estevez and Sheen are not believable as brothers, despite both wearing matching bald caps. There’s nothing about their performances that would lead you to believe that they grew up with each other. Casting Sheen as an out-of-control drug addict seems like a no-brainer but he’s not even believable when he’s snorting coke and handing out cheerleader uniforms. In fact, the film probably would have worked better if Sheen and Estevez had switched roles. Estevez was always better at showing emotion than Charlie. In Rated X, Jim is always intense while Artie always has the wide-eyed stare that Oliver Stone made such good use of in Platoon.
I can understand the casting, though. Jim and Artie were brothers so it makes sense to cast brothers to play them. Because Charlie has always been best-known for his flamboyant life off-screen, it probably seemed to the obvious decision to cast him as the wild brother while Estevez, who has always come across as being a stable guy offscreen, seemed right for Jim. But onscreen, Estevez is always better as an unpredictable outlaw and Charlie is always better as someone who tries to keep his real emotions bottled up. This film was cast based on Estevez and Sheen’s off-camera personas and they’re both miscast as a result.
There’s an interesting movie to be made about the Mitchells. Their rise and fall mirrored the rise and fall of the 6os counterculture. (A year before he killed his brother, Jim even tried to launch a Ramparts-style magazine for the 90s.) Unfortunately, the Showtime-produced Rated X is not it.
Small town boxer Charlie Davis (Ray Mancini) travels to Reno with his best friend and manager, Tiny O’Toole (Michael Chiklis). Charlie wants to become a professional and he has the support of Tiny and Gina (Jennifer Beals), a saintly hitchhiker that they pick up on the way to Nevada. Charlie managers to impress a legendary trainer (Rod Steiger) but, as Charlie moves up the ranks, he comes under the influence of a corrupt promoter (Joe Mantegna). Seduced by a bad girl (Tahnee Welch) and allowing his success to go to his head, Charlie alienates Tiny just when he needs him the most. A chance to become the champion is coming up and the promoter expects Charlie to throw the fight.
There’s not a boxing cliche that goes unused in this movie. Simple-minded by talented boxer? Check. Loyal best friend? Check. Overwrought narration? Double check because merely calling this film’s narration overwrought doesn’t begin to do it justice. Saintly good girl? Check. Dangerous bad girl? Check. Gruff trainer? Check. Corrupt promoter? Another double check. It’s not that the cliches are necessarily unwelcome. Most boxing movies follow the same basic plot. Instead, the problem here is that the film neither has the direction or the performances to make the cliches compelling.
You would think that casting Ray Mancini as a boxer would give this film some authenticity but Mancini looks as uncomfortable in the ring as he does when he’s having to actually act. As bad as Mancini is, his performance is nowhere near as desultory as Michael Chiklis’s. Chiklis not only plays Tiny but he also narrates the movie and watching and listening to him, you would be hard pressed to believe that he would someday star in The Shield. Meanwhile, Rod Steiger and Jennifer Beals are wasted in underwritten roles.
If there is one thing that redeems the film, it’s Joe Mantegna as the crooked promoter. Using his Fat Tony voice, Mantegna at least seems to have a sense of humor about the film.
I always appreciate a good boxing movie but this ain’t it.
The three Bantam Brothers (Walker Boone, Tony DeSantis, and Dave Mucci) have just gotten out of prison and they’ve all already stolen several pounds of explosives. Pretending to be international terrorists, they try to blackmail banker Adam Beardsley (John Vernon) into paying them off. Deputy Police Commissioner Ray Melton (Robert Vaughn) wants to go by the book but his superior, Thad Evans (Leslie Nielsen), realizes that this case is going to require a cop who is willing to break all the rules. It’s time to call in Jack Calhoun (Bruce Fairbairn).
When this movie started, I assumed that it was a comedy. The title sounded like a double entendre and Leslie Nielsen’s name was right there in the opening credits. The opening heist scene also felt like a comedy, up until the Bantam brothers started shooting people. That was when I realized that this movie was supposed to be a drama. Why would you cast a post-Airplane! Leslie Nielsen in a serious cop film? This film did come out before The Naked Gun but it was still after Nielsen sent up every cop show ever made with the original Police Squad television series. .And then, on top of Nielsen, the film gives us Robert Vaughn and a very grumpy John Vernon. All it needed was OJ Simpson as Calhoun’s partner.
Even though the movie was a drama, it still felt like a comedy. Bruce Fairbairn wasn’t much of a cop but luckily, the three Bantam brothers weren’t that much of a group of criminals. Jack Calhoun had a girlfriend (Kerrie Keane) who constantly reminded him that he could have been having sex with her if he wasn’t constantly searching for the Bantam brothers. “I can’t be in two places at once,” Calhoun said with a sigh. I’m still not convinced this wasn’t a comedy.
Nightstick was originally made for Canadian television. When it first aired, it was called Calhoun. The name was changed to Nightstick for the video release, even though no one in the movie uses a nightstick. Calhoun uses a gun and, at one point, a binder but he doesn’t carry a nightstick. Maybe his character should have been named Jack Nightstick to make the title work.
Did I hallucinate this movie? I’m pretty sure it was a comedy.
Bruise Brubaker (Mr. T) spends his nights as a bouncer at a club owned by his best friend (Dennis Dugan) and his days running a center for at-risk youth. Bruise is a former Marine drill sergeant who is now determined to make Chicago a better place. He’s so cool that his name is Bruise and he even has his own theme song, which plays whenever he patrols the streets and alleys of Chicago. But when it looks like the youth center is going to get closed down unless it can quickly raise some money, Bruise faces the challenge of a lifetime when he enters a competition to prove that he’s the toughest man in the world!
Is Mr. T the toughest man in the world? I pity the fool who even has to ask.
This made-for-TV movie is exactly what you think it is. Mr. T barks out his dialogue with his signature growl but he still seems utterly sincere when he orders the kids to say in school and stop trying to mug old men in the alleys. At first, it seems like Bruise should be able to easily win the Toughest Man competition but it turns out to be tougher than he thought. There’s an extended sequences in which Bruise tries to learn how to box and it turns out that he’s no Clubber Lang. There’s also an extended subplot about some broadly-played mobsters who are hoping that can drug Bruise so he’ll lose the contest.
Probably the funniest thing about the movie is the idea that everyone in Chicago would stop what they were doing so that they could gather around the television and watch the Toughest Man contest. The second funniest thing is Dennis Farina showing up in a small role and reminding us that it takes all types of actors to make a movie.
Mr. T was never a good actor but he was a great personality and that personality is on full display here. The Toughest Man In The World will make you nostalgic for a more innocent time.
Through the Shattered Lens 