Tag Archives: Michael Kirby

Insomina File #77: Rolling Vengeance (dir by Stephen Hilliard Stern)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable or streaming? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If you’re having trouble getting to sleep tonight, you can always go over to YouTube and watch 1987’s Rolling Vengeance.

Rolling Vengeance supposedly takes place in Ohio but one look at the perpetually wet weather and the misty country side leaves little doubt that this film was shot in Canada.  Joey Russo (Don Michael Paul) is a trucker who seeks revenge after the antics of Tiny (Ned Beatty) and his redneck sons lead to death of first his mother (Susan Hogan) and sisters and then his father (Lawrence Dane).  Joey’s way of getting revenge is to go down to the junkyard, collect a bunch of parts, and build his own monster truck.  Soon, Joey is tracking down Tiny’s men.  Somehow, Joey is able to sneak up on people while driving a gigantic truck.  Also, for some reason, it never occurs to anyone that the best way to escape from the path of a big, lumbering vehicle is to do anything other than run in a straight line.

It’s a bit of a stupid movie and there’s a gratiotious rape scene that is hard to sit through and which leaves a sour taste that runs throughout the final 20 minutes of the film.  Don Michael Paul makes for a blank-faced hero.  On the plus side, the truck destroys a lot of poorly constructed buildings.  Fan of vehicular mayhem will find a lot to enjoy here.  Fans of great character actors going totally overboard in genre films will enjoy watching Ned Beatty as he wears a leather jacket and talks like the leader of the Canadian Hell’s Angels.

As I watched the film, it occurred to me that, if it had been made in the 70s, it would have starred William Shatner as the good trucker and Leslie Nielsen would have played the Ned Beatty role.  Lawrence Dane would have still played the father.

Previous Insomnia Files:

  1. Story of Mankind
  2. Stag
  3. Love Is A Gun
  4. Nina Takes A Lover
  5. Black Ice
  6. Frogs For Snakes
  7. Fair Game
  8. From The Hip
  9. Born Killers
  10. Eye For An Eye
  11. Summer Catch
  12. Beyond the Law
  13. Spring Broke
  14. Promise
  15. George Wallace
  16. Kill The Messenger
  17. The Suburbans
  18. Only The Strong
  19. Great Expectations
  20. Casual Sex?
  21. Truth
  22. Insomina
  23. Death Do Us Part
  24. A Star is Born
  25. The Winning Season
  26. Rabbit Run
  27. Remember My Name
  28. The Arrangement
  29. Day of the Animals
  30. Still of The Night
  31. Arsenal
  32. Smooth Talk
  33. The Comedian
  34. The Minus Man
  35. Donnie Brasco
  36. Punchline
  37. Evita
  38. Six: The Mark Unleashed
  39. Disclosure
  40. The Spanish Prisoner
  41. Elektra
  42. Revenge
  43. Legend
  44. Cat Run
  45. The Pyramid
  46. Enter the Ninja
  47. Downhill
  48. Malice
  49. Mystery Date
  50. Zola
  51. Ira & Abby
  52. The Next Karate Kid
  53. A Nightmare on Drug Street
  54. Jud
  55. FTA
  56. Exterminators of the Year 3000
  57. Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster
  58. The Haunting of Helen Walker
  59. True Spirit
  60. Project Kill
  61. Replica
  62. Rollergator
  63. Hillbillys In A Haunted House
  64. Once Upon A Midnight Scary
  65. Girl Lost
  66. Ghosts Can’t Do It
  67. Heist
  68. Mind, Body & Soul
  69. Candy
  70. Shortcut to Happiness
  71. Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
  72. Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders II
  73. Don’t Kill It
  74. Listen To Me
  75. 300 Miles For Stephanie
  76. Hackers

Shattered Politics #47: Agency (dir by George Kaczender)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Agency

“Who are the other two lugs on this poster? And who’s the dame? Baby, I just don’t give a damn…” Robert Mitchum in Agency.

Like a lot of writers who occasionally have issues when it comes to balancing ambition with time management, I’ve discovered that it helps if I listen to music while I write.  For instance, while writing the majority of the reviews for Shattered Politics, I’ve been listening to Big Data’s Dangerous.

And that choice of music has actually turned out to be extremely appropriate.  No, not just because it’s dangerous to write about politics.  But also because the official music video for Dangerous deals with advertising and, more specifically, how sex and violence are used to sell everything from shoes to politicians.

Now, I don’t know about you but, whenever I see that video, I feel like I’m ready to put on a sports bra, running shorts, and of course my Big Data running shoes so that I can take control and headbutt my way through life!  A good commercial can do that.  (And don’t even get me started on what I’m going to do to the next person I see eating a hot dog…)

Interestingly enough, the 47th film that I’m reviewing for Shattered Politics also deals with the power of advertising.  First released in 1980, Agency stars Robert Mitchum as Ted Quinn, the mysterious new owner of a major ad company.  Out of all of the old school movie stars, Robert Mitchum is one of my favorites because he was not only a great actor but he was also a very honest one.  If he didn’t give a damn about a role, he wasn’t going to try to fool the audience otherwise.  Instead, he was going to deliver his lines and kind of smirk with his eyes, his way of subliminally asking the audience, “Are you actually watching this shit?”  And while this may have led to Mitchum giving several performances that were unworthy of his talent, it also means that if you see Robert Mitchum actually invested in a role than that means the film must be something really special.

Unfortunately, Agency is not one of those “something really special” films.  And Mitchum’s bored performance reflects that fact.

"Just try to make me care." Robert Mitchum in Agency.

“Just try to make me care.” Robert Mitchum in Agency.

Anyway, under Ted Quinn’s leadership, the ad agency is doing commercials for all the usual clients.  The movie starts with one of those commercials — a leather-themed, disco-scored short film extolling the virtues of No Sweat deodorant.  And then there’s also the big chocolate energy drink commercial.  However, copywriter Sam Goldstein (Saul Rubinek) suspects that Ted might have sinister motives.  After a right-wing  candidate comes out of nowhere to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, Sam suspects that the deodorant commercial may have contained subliminal messages…

That’s right!  It’s exactly like that episode of Saved By The Bell where Zack Morris brainwashed Mr. Belding by giving him that subliminally-spiked tape of the Beach Boys.

Well, before you can say “Zack Morris is a blonde Tom Cruise,” Sam has been murdered and it’s up to Sam’s best friend, Philip Morgan (Lee Majors), to reveal the truth about Ted’s sinister agenda…

Like many U.S.-set thrillers from the 1980s, Agency was actually a Canadian film.  Montreal stands in for an unnamed American city where it frequently snows and the supporting cast is full of actors with noticeable Canadian accents.  Mind you, that’s not a complaint.  I love Canada, I love Canadians, and I especially love Canuxploitation films.

That said, Agency is probably one of the least interesting Canadian thrillers that I’ve ever sat through.  (I should add, of course, that I saw Agency on a very low-quality DVD that was released by Miracle Pictures.  And I really do have to say that this was absolutely one of the worst transfers that I’ve ever seen.  It appears that the DVD was copied from an old VHS tape.)  It’s not so much that it’s a terrible film as much as it’s just not a very interesting one.  With the exception of Rubinek, the actors go through the motions with little enthusiasm and the story plods along.  Maybe back in 1980, the whole idea of subliminal advertising seemed exciting and relevant.  But seen today, it just all seems incredibly silly.

So, in the end, Agency did not make me want to headbutt my way through life.

Sorry.

(I still love you, Canada!)

(And you too, Robert Mitchum!)

"Baby, I just don't give a damn." Robert Mitchum in Agency.

“Baby, I just don’t give a damn.” Robert Mitchum in Agency.