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.
We’re halfway through July, which means that it’s time for me to get ready for October! (Seriously, who cares about August and September?) Here to inspire are….
4 Shots From 4 Horror Movies
Frankenstein (1931, dir by James Whale, DP: Arthur Edeson)
Night of the Living Dead (1968, dir by George Romero)
Halloween (1978, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cudney)
Inferno (1980, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Romana Albano)
In honor of Jan-Michael Vincent’s 81st birthday up there in cinema heaven, I searched Tubi to see if there were any of his films streaming that looked interesting. I came across this low-budget action movie named BODY COUNT, which apparently has also been known as CODENAME: THE SILENCER based on the poster I share above! What caught my attention is the solid B-movie cast that the film had assembled. Aside from Vincent, you also had Robert Davi, Sonny Chiba, Steven Bauer, and Brigitte Nielsen. For a guy who spent a lot of time at video rental stores in the 80’s and 90’s, I decided this movie was something I needed to investigate!
The story follows Detective Eddie Cook (Davi) and his partner Vinnie Rizzo (Bauer). After spending eight years trying to bust a couple of mobsters named the Gianelli brothers, one night the gangsters are assassinated by a hitman named Makato, played by Japanese action legend Sonny Chiba. Cook and Rizzo somehow manage to nab Makato and send him to prison. 1 year, 6 months, and 21 days later, with the help of his extremely tall and shapely partner in crime, Sybil (Brigitte Nielsen), Makato breaks out with nothing but revenge on his mind against the cops who put him behind bars.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that BODY COUNT is some kind of forgotten gem. Because it’s not. For those that remember the era, it has the unmistakable look and feel of a mid-90s direct-to-video action film. The dialogue is awkward, the pacing is uneven at best, and there couldn’t have been much in the budget, but there’s still some nostalgic fun to be had in watching all those action veterans share the screen in the city of New Orleans, one of my favorite movie towns!
As far as the action, there are definitely some good scenes… the movie opens with one of those scenes where a guy walks away from a car in slow-mo and lights a cigar, while the car behind him explodes. That was cool! The scene where the cops confront the Chiba in a strip club, with the ensuing chase by foot spilling into the surrounding shops and rooftops was a lot of fun. The scene where Nielsen shows up to Chiba’s chain gang wearing a revealing shirt and daisy dukes and then proceeds to bust him out of prison was fun. There’s a scene where Davi is in hot pursuit of the bad guys, while hanging off of a Ryder moving truck, that eventually leads to a school bus flipping and exploding, and to be honest, it’s never made clear if a whole bunch of kids just died or not. The final scene involves runaway trolley cars. The action isn’t all perfectly handled, but there’s definitely enough here to bring a smile to your face… as long as you convince yourself that no one was on the bus!
Robert Davi is pretty good in the lead role as Detective Eddie Cook. After years of always playing supporting roles, usually as a bad guy, this had to be fun for him. He even gets to make love to his beautiful co-worker, special agent Janet Hood (Cindy Ambuehl). He takes full advantage of the scene by literally sucking on her toes, which I find somewhat awkward. Sonny Chiba looks great as the bad guy, convincingly killing with both rifles and swords. He may not speak the greatest English, but he doesn’t really have to, as he owns every scene he’s in with his charisma and intensity. The rest of the cast is fine as long as you don’t expect too much. Nielsen and Ambuehl both look great and engage in a pretty nice catfight at the end. I mentioned earlier that I watched the film in honor of Jan-Michael Vincent’s birthday. (Spoiler Alert) He doesn’t have that much screen time, and he gets pushed from a tall building about halfway through the movie and splats. I’m just saying don’t watch this if your enjoyment requires JMV to be the hero.
At the end of the day, if you enjoy low budget action movies of the direct-to-video era, filled with lots of familiar faces, you just may have some fun with this one. It’s cheesy at times and unintentionally funny at others, but it also offers some game performances and crazy action. There are times when that’s just what I need!
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 90th birthday of the pioneering indie film director, Larry Cohen. It’s time for….
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.
One hundred and eight years ago today, Ingmar Bergman was born in Sweden. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Ingmar Bergman Films
Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955, dir. by Ingmar Bergman)
It’s hard for me to believe, but THE DEAD POOL was released 38 years ago on July 13th, 1988. Back in those days (and now), a 14 year old Brad was completely obsessed with action movies, especially those starring Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. I especially loved Eastwood’s portrayal of tough San Francisco detective Harry Callahan, and you can be sure that we rented this film as soon as it hit the video shelves!
Today, I’m sharing a scene that I’ve always enjoyed. It perfectly encapsulates Harry’s dry wit, his disdain for bureaucrats, and his continual desire to work alone. Happy anniversary DEAD POOL, and enjoy my friends
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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, the TSL wishes a happy birthday to Harrison Ford. It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Harrison Ford Films
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977, dir by George Lucas)
Apocalypse Now (1979, dir by Francis Ford Coppola)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, dir by Steven Spielberg)
When THE SPECIALIST came out back in ‘94, Sylvester Stallone was on a pretty good run of films, with his prior two movies being CLIFFHANGER and DEMOLITION MAN. I’m a fan of Stallone, but he wasn’t the main reason I went to see THE SPECIALIST at the movie theater. I went to see it because James Woods is in it. I’ve always been drawn to actors who are little different than your traditional Hollywood leading men. That’s why I’m especially fond of actors like Charles Bronson, Roy Scheider, and Woods. This was a point in Woods’ career where he seemed to be transitioning from a leading man to more supporting roles, but he still always brought his best to every performance. And anytime one of my favorite actors was in a movie, I was going to see it on the big screen.
Stallone plays Ray Quick, a former CIA explosives expert who now uses his unique set of skills to kill bad guys. His latest client is the extremely beautiful May Munro (Sharon Stone), who enlists his assistance in ridding the earth of Thomas Leon (Eric Roberts), a Miami mobster who murdered her parents when she was a girl. The problem… his former friend and now mortal enemy, Ned Trent (James Woods), works for the mobsters, led by patriarch Joe Leon (Rod Steiger). Nobody understands Quick like Trent, and with Munro having her own set of secrets, this job is going to be much more difficult than he imagined!
I won’t sit here and pretend that THE SPECIALIST is an incredible film. It’s very much a thriller of its time… with the humid Miami locations, oversized set pieces, lots of slo-mo, and even more double-crosses. It’s more melodramatic than I remember, but I probably appreciate that more now than I did then. It’s also impossible to look back on THE SPECIALIST and not remember where Sharon Stone was at that point in her career. Two years earlier, BASIC INSTINCT had made her one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. It felt like the pairing with Stallone was trying to recapture that magic, but it didn’t really work. There are a couple of sex scenes between the two, but director Luis Llosa is no Paul Verhoeven, so the scenes don’t share the same power.
With Stallone’s controlled, some might say comatose, performance, the movie truly belongs to James Woods. His Ned Trent is cocky, sadistic, and entertaining. He attacks every scene with so much intensity that you can’t take your eyes off him and he easily steals the film. I also enjoyed the strong supporting cast. Rod Steiger doesn’t have that much screen time, but he brings an unmistakable energy to the role of crime boss Joe Leon. Then there’s Eric Roberts, whose sleazy performance as Tomas Leon adds another layer of intensity that tries to match Woods. The scenes involving Woods, Steiger, and Roberts are some of the best of the film.
Is THE SPECIALIST one of Stallone’s action classics? Definitely not, but looking back at the kind of movies we get served these days, I’d say it’s pretty darn entertaining. Stallone and Stone could have brought more personality to their characters, but James Woods just about makes up for them by delivering one of his most delightfully over-the-top villains. And it’s just fun seeing veterans like Rod Steiger and Eric Roberts bring their own talents to the proceedings. I miss the times when movies were full of big stars and unique character actors. Whether you love it or not, THE SPECIALIST is one of those movies that you took home from the video store on a Friday night, popped in the VCR, and proceeded to have a good weekend. I miss that era of movies, and I especially miss those interesting stars!
Born in 1973, I missed the first John Travolta phenomenon. I wasn’t even five years old when movies like SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and GREASE were released. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved John Travolta as a kid. I remember watching GREASE at my cousins’ house when I was around ten, and we all loved it. Probably the movie I loved the most is Brian De Palma’s BLOW OUT from 1981. Fox 16 out of Little Rock loved to play that movie, and I thought it was so great. It was the mid-80’s when I was watching it, so his best work had been several years before.
From the mid-80’s to the early 90’s, I was obsessed with renting videos at our local rental shops. Do y’all remember the crap that Travolta was putting out then… TWO OF A KIND (1983), PERFECT (1985), THE EXPERTS (1989), CHAINS OF GOLD (1990), etc? I remember wanting to watch RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II at the movies when I was kid, and the theater in Conway, Arkansas was playing 2 movies: RAMBO and PERFECT. My mom insisted on PERFECT. So there we were, Dad, Mom, my older brother, me, and my younger sister in the theater watching PERFECT. It was an R-rated film, and Mom walked us out less than half an hour into the movie due to some guy putting his head under a woman’s skirt. I still remember the other patrons laughing at us as we walked out. This moment is burned into my psyche. Travolta did work on the hit LOOK WHO’S TALKING movies, but at the time, he got no credit because these were talking baby movies. It almost seemed like Travolta’s career had become something of a joke from the time I was a grade schooler all the way into my college years. I still loved him, but any time his name came up, the conversation was always about his good movies that were made years earlier contrasted against the crap he was in now.
And then Tarantino’s PULP FICTION was released in 1994, he was absolutely incredible, and I was all about phase 2 of the John Travolta phenomenon. I watched just about everything he did over the next five years at the movie theater. During this remarkable stretch, I saw him in GET SHORTY, BROKEN ARROW, PHENOMENON, FACE/OFF, and many others. I revisited PHENOMENON again this week, and it took me back to that time when a 22 year old college student was rediscovering what a talented actor Travolta could be with the right material.
George Malley (Travolta) is a likable “Everyman” who works as a mechanic in a small town in Northern California. On his 37th birthday, a mysterious flash of light knocks him over and changes everything. Suddenly he’s the smartest guy in town, and he can even move things with his mind. At first, his abilities amaze his friends and neighbors, but they soon begin to be afraid of him because they don’t understand him. George doesn’t understand why he’s so smart all of a sudden, but he’s falling in love with Lace (Kyra Sedgwick) anyway. The ultimate “answer” is somewhat realistic, and ultimately quite moving.
Director Jon Turteltaub (WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING, NATIONAL TREASURE) does a good job by focusing on George and his friends rather than the supernatural “mystery elements” of the plot. We may not understand exactly why George has these extraordinary abilities, but they mostly remain a backdrop in a story about love, friendship, and mortality. The film asks a simple question: How would we react if someone we’ve known all our lives is suddenly one of the most amazing people on earth? If you follow much social media these days, we know the answer. How often do we see people get torn down as soon as they show any exceptional ability? We even see this in our own families, and we see it in this movie as well. Watching the film 30 years later, that fact really sticks out to me.
I’ve been a fan of PHENOMENON for three decades specifically because I love John Travolta’s performance in the movie. He’s just so likable, so when things start to go bad for him, we’re disappointed as well. He plays George as a man whose growing genius makes him want to help people even more. He’s so sincere that we never stop pulling for him, which is a true testament to Travolta’s incredible work. Kyra Sedgwick is amazing as well. As a mother and having been hurt before, her character takes her time letting George into her life, but once she does she goes all in. I love it. Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall, and Jeffrey DeMunn all have outstanding moments that make the small-town community feel real. Their friendships specifically help provide an emotional strength that most films don’t have.
PHENOMENON isn’t a perfect film, as it’s probably a little too long, and it may linger a little too much on vague “science.” However, it is a film that’s most interested in showing us a character who uses the gifts he’s been given to make life better for those around him while he can. It’s a timeless idea that gives PHENOMENON a power that has only grown stronger with time. It’s also a reminder that John Travolta has a magnetic screen presence. Beneath all of his charisma is an actor capable of tremendous warmth and vulnerability. At the end of the day, those are the kinds of characters we end up really caring about.
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.
Tomorrow will be the 146th birthday of director is Tod Browning, who started his career during the silent era, ended it in the sound era, and was responsible for some of the most important horror and suspense films of both eras!
It’s time for….
4 Shots From 4 Tod Browning Films
West of Zanzibar (1928, dir by Tod Browning, DP: Percy Hilburn)
Dracula (1931, dir by Tod Browning. DP: Karl Freund)
Freaks (1932, dir by Tod Browning, DP: Merritt Gerstad)
The Devil-Doll (1936, dir by Tod Browning, DP: Leonard Smith)
Beginning in 2018, I fell in love with the state of West Virginia. It started because I fell in love with my beautiful wife who’s from West Virginia, but we’ve also driven across the state on multiple occasions, and I can easily say it’s one of the most beautiful states in this country.
As a movie lover, I began looking for films set in West Virginia when I came across MATEWAN (1987), which was written and directed by John Sayles. Of course, I knew about the film beforehand, but with my new interest in the state, I decided I would purchase it sight unseen from the Criterion collection and give it a spin. Based on the violent, true story of coal miners attempting to form a union in Mingo County, WV in 1920, I’ll just state here that I consider the film to be a masterpiece. I’ll probably write a full review for the movie at some point.
Chris Cooper plays the lead in the film, and interestingly, this was his film debut. Prior to MATEWAN, Cooper had only appeared in a couple of soap operas. After MATEWAN, he would steadily rise to be the Oscar-winning actor we know today. July 9th, 2026, is his 75th birthday, and I’m paying honor to him by sharing this excellent scene. Heck, I just may have to watch this movie again tonight!
Through the Shattered Lens 