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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
I guess we could call this one “Christmas in the 80s.”
4 Shots From 4 Holiday Films
A Christmas Story (1983, dir by Bob Clark)
Brazil (1985, dir by Terry Gilliam)
Die Hard (1988, dir by John McTiernan)
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, dir by Jeremiah Chechik)
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.
Happy holidays!
Let’s get December started with….
4 Shots From 4 Christmas Films
The Godfather (1972, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, DP: Gordon Willis)
Lethal Weapon (1987, dir by Richard Donner, DP: Stephen Goldblatt)
Die Hard (1988, dir by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
Die Hard 2 (1990, dir by Renny Harlin, DP: Oliver Wood)
Oh, Last Action Hero.
Ever since this film was first released in 1993, it’s usually held up as an example of a Hollywood fiasco. The script was originally written to be a modest satire of action films. The screenwriters wrote the character of Jack Slater, an movie action hero who comes into the real world, for Dolph Lundgren. Instead, the film became an Arnold Schwarzenegger extravaganza and the studio ended up tossing a ton of money at it. When the film was originally released, the reviews were mixed and the box office was considered to be disappointing. (That it went up against the first Jurassic Park was definitely an underrated issue when it came to the box office.) Ever since then, The Last Action Hero has had a reputation for being a bad film.
Well, I don’t care. I like The Last Action Hero. Yes, it’s a bit overproduced for a comedy. (It breaks my own rule about how no comedy should run longer than two hours.) Yes, it gets a bit sentimental with ten year-old Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) using a magic, golden ticket to enter the film world of his hero, Jack Slater. If you want to argue that the film should have devoted more time to and gone a bit deeper into contrasting the film world with the real world, I won’t disagree with you. But I will also say that Sylvester Stallone starring as The Terminator in Jack’s world was actually a pretty funny sight gag. Danny knowing better than to trust a character played by F. Murray Abraham made me laugh. Danny’s fantasy in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played Hamlet was made all the better by the fact that his teacher was played by Laurence Olivier’s wife, Joan Plowright. Danny DeVito as Whiskers the Cartoon Cat makes me laugh as well, even if it is perhaps a bit too bizarre of a joke for this particular film. (There’s nothing else about the Jack Slater films that would explain the presence of a cartoon cat.)
When you set aside the idea of the Last Action Hero being a symbol of Hollywood bloat and just watch it as a film, it emerges as an enjoyably goofy action movie, one that captures the joy of watching movies (because who hasn’t wanted to enter a movie’s world at some point in their life), and also one that features a rather charming performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger. (Schwarzenegger, I should add, plays both himself and Jack Slater. One of my favorite jokes is when the real Schwarzenegger is at a premiere and he mistakes the evil Ripper for Tom Noonan, the actor who played him in the previous Jack Slater film.) Yeah, the golden ticket is a little bit hokey but who cares? Underneath all of the special effects and action and money spent on star salaries, Last Action Hero is an action movie and comedy with a heart. Danny meets his hero but also gets to become a hero himself. And Jack Slater turns out to be everything you would hope your movie hero would be. In the end, it’s obvious that a lot of the criticism of this film has more to do with the appeal of riding the bandwagon as opposed to what actually happens on screen.
Last Action Hero is a movie that I’ll happily defend.
Previous Guilty Pleasures
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!
The aliens are here …. or are they?
4 Shots From 4 Alien Invasion Films
It Came From Outer Space (1953, dir by Jack Arnold, DP: Clifford Stine)
It Conquered The World (1956, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Fred E. West)
Starman (1984, dir by John Carpenter. DP: Donald M. Morgan)
Predator (1987, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Donald McAlpine)
1986’s Nomads opens with anthropologist Jean-Charles Pommier being rushed into an emergency room, badly beaten and struggling for his life. Despite the best efforts of Dr. Eileen Flax (Lesley-Anne Down), Pommier dies in the ER. Flax is shocked by Pommier’s death and, naturally, she’s upset that she couldn’t save him. But, at the same time, people die in hospitals. It happens to the best of doctors.
Except soon, Flax is seeing flashes of the events that led to Pommier’s death. Pommier has somehow entered her mind and soon, she’s reliving his investigation into the origins of a group of destructive, urban nomads that Pommier witnessed causing havoc throughout Los Angeles. Pommier often felt like he was the only person who was capable of seeing the nomads and he grew to be tortured by his fear that they were specifically stalking him. We soon learn that there was reason for that….
Now, based on his name, you’re probably assuming that Pommier is meant to be French. And he is! He’s from France, though he considers himself to be a citizen of the world. He’s traveled everywhere, taking pictures of different cultural rituals across the globe. However, in Nomads, the very French Jean-Charles Pommier is played by Pierce Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan is, needless to say, not French. He’s Irish, even though a lot of people seem to be shocked when they first learn that. Brosnan normally speaks with an accent that could best be described as a mix of posh London and mid-Atlantic American. Everything about him screams the UK. In short, Pierce Brosnan is one of the least convincing French people ever seen on film and he delivers his lines in an accent that sounds like every accent other than the French accent. Watching this film, I found myself thinking about the Monty Python skit where Terry Jones and Carol Cleveland starred in a French movie. (“I see you have a cabbage.” “Oui.”) Brosnan is not a bad actor and it’s entertaining to watch him overact in Nomads. But there’s nothing French about him and every time that someone referred to him as being French, it totally took me out of the movie.
Which is a shame because Nomads may be narratively incoherent but it’s got some memorably surreal visuals and it does a good job of generating a properly ominous atmosphere. Director John McTiernan (who later went on to do Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt For Red October) makes smart use of slow motion and a handheld camera to keep the audience off-balance. At its best, Nomads achieves a dream-like intensity that makes up for the fact that the story doesn’t make the least bit of sense. The nomads themselves are a memorable and creepy. While Adam Ant plays their leader (and the scene where he smiles as Brosnan attempts to throw him off a building is truly disturbing), the most frightening of the nomads is Mary Woronov as Dancing Mary. Seriously, after I watched this film, I checked all the locks in the house. No urban nomads were going to interrupt me in my sleep!
My suggestion to everyone is to do a Nomads/Nomadland double feature. You’ll never get in another van.
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, Bruce Willis turns 70. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Bruce Willis Films
Die Hard (1988, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
Pulp Fiction (1994, dir by Quentin Tarantino, DP: Andrzej Sekuła)
12 Monkeys (1995, dir by Terry Gilliam, DP: Roger Pratt)
Last Man Standing (1996, dir by Walter Hill, DP: Lloyd Ahern II)
Predator (1987, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Donald McAlpine)
Look at how happy everyone is! Well, everyone except for Dutch. I don’t blame Dutch for not smiling. He had to deal with a lot in 1987’s Predator. Still, today’s scene that I love encourages us all to stay upbeat, even when we’re being stalked through the jungle by a fearsome extraterrestrial hunter.
If the crew of the Nostromo had smiled more, Alien would have ended on a much happier note.
Today is John McTiernan’s birthday! Obviously, McTiernan’s career has had its ups and downs but he’s still responsible for directing some of the best action films ever made.
4 Shots From 4 John McTiernan Films
Predator (1987, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Donald McAlpine)
Die Hard (1988, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
The Hunt for Red October (1990, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
The Last Action Hero (1993, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Dean Semler)
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.
It’s Christmas! Here are 4 Shots from 4 Christmas classics!
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Godfather (1972, dir by Francis Ford Coppola, DP: Gordon Willis)
Die Hard (1988, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
Goodfellas (1990, dir by Martin Scorsese, DP: Michael Ballhaus)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Larry Smith)
Today is John McTiernan’s birthday! Obviously, McTiernan’s career has had its ups and downs but he’s still responsible for directing some of the best action films ever made.
4 Shots From 4 John McTiernan Films
Predator (1987, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Donald McAlpine)
Die Hard (1988, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
The Hunt for Red October (1990, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Jan de Bont)
The Last Action Hero (1993, directed by John McTiernan, DP: Dean Semler)
Through the Shattered Lens 