Tag Archives: review

Brad reviews THE COWBOY WAY (1994), starring Woody Harrelson and Kiefer Sutherland!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Happy 59th birthday, Kiefer Sutherland!

Sutherland portrayed my favorite TV character of all time, when he spent 8 seasons playing Jack Bauer in my favorite TV series of all time, 24. Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) gave him a solid run for his money when I got around to watching the JUSTIFIED series a few years back, but I still believe Bauer edges him out. Another of my favorite shows when I was growing up was CHEERS. And a big reason for that is Woody Harrelson. CHEERS ran from 1982-1993, so when it started I was nine and when it ended I was twenty. I literally grew up on the show. I thought Harrelson’s portrayal of the dim-witted, but lovable and sweet character, Woody Boyd, was so funny. I remember being happy when he started making movies and had some solid success. I’ve always enjoyed THE COWBOY WAY, the film that teamed up Harrelson and Sutherland, so I decided to revisit the 1994 action-comedy on Kiefer’s special day. 

IN THE COWBOY WAY, Woody Harrelson plays the somewhat dim-witted and overwhelmingly carefree Pepper Lewis, while Kiefer Sutherland plays the more responsible and extremely serious Sonny Gilstrap, two lifelong friends and rodeo champions from New Mexico. The story kicks off when their long-time friend Nacho Salazar (Joaquin Martinez) disappears after going to New York City to pick up his daughter Teresa (Cara Buono), who has been smuggled into the U.S. from Cuba. Pepper and Sonny decide to head to the big city themselves to track down Nacho, and soon find themselves taking on the murderous human trafficker, John Stark (Dylan McDermott), who murdered Nacho and is forcing his daughter to work in a sweatshop. With only their country boy common sense (well at least Sonny’s), their exceptional rodeo skills, and the help of an empathetic NY cop ((Ernie Hudson), Pepper and Sonny will do whatever it takes to find out what happened to Nacho and save his daughter from a life of modern day slavery.

THE COWBOY WAY is silly and unrealistic at times, with shifts in tone that will make your head spin, but I still love it anyway. This type of action-comedy was commonplace in the 80’s and 90’s, but you don’t see movies like this much anymore. I’ll admit that my personal nostalgia, as well as my lifelong appreciation of Sutherland and Harrelson, plays into my enjoyment of the film. It’s a movie that leans into the once popular formula of outsiders from the country being looked down upon by city slickers, and then proving themselves to be more than capable. Think CROCODILE DUNDEE, but without the romance. This is the kind of movie that is trying its best to give us a good time for our box office dollars. Many in Hollywood have forgotten how to entertain, and it’s such a breath of fresh air to watch movies that exist solely for that purpose, even when they’re not perfect. 

As is often the case for me, the cast of THE COWBOY WAY plays a big factor in my enjoyment of the movie. Woody Harrelson is certainly over the top as the irresponsible New Mexico cowboy, but he’s also funny at times and more than capable of handling the action scenes. Kiefer Sutherland’s cowboy is the exact opposite, he’s serious, extremely responsible, and very capable. If nothing else, he needs Harrelson’s character in his life to help him remove the stick from his ass at times! Ultimately, it’s their relationship and banter that carries the film for me. Dylan McDermott is good as the sleazy villain, but if you’ve seen many 80’s and 90’s action movies, he’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect. As a fan of spaghetti westerns, I also enjoyed seeing the genre stalwart Tomas Milian pop up as McDermott’s soon-to-be ex-boss. It’s not a big role but this movie buff appreciated it. Finally, Ernie Hudson is just so likable as the kind-hearted and helpful horse-mounted cop. I like to think that he and Kiefer’s character kept a John McClane / Sgt. Al Powell type relationship going after the events of the movie.

Ultimately, in my opinion, THE COWBOY WAY may not be a great movie by critical standards, but it is a fun movie. If you’re in the mood for 90’s era action-comedy, featuring a great cast, fun stunts (e.g. men on horseback taking on New York City traffic), and a little Travis Tritt on the soundtrack, then you’ll probably have a good time with this one. 

Holidays On The Lens: Santa Who? (dir by William Dear)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh no!  Santa Claus has amnesia!

That’s the premise behind this 2000 Christmas movie, which features Leslie Nielsen as the amnesiac Santa.  Having fallen out of his sleigh, Santa finds himself in Los Angeles.  When a reporter (Steven Eckholdt) comes across Santa, he does a story about him.  Santa becomes a mini-celebrity and gets a job as a department store version of himself.  While his elves search for him, Santa struggles to recover his memory.

It’s a cute little made-for-TV movie.  Leslie Nielsen as Santa?  Who could resist that?

Song of the Day: I Dreamed I Saw Jack Nance Last Night by Dumb Numbers

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Eraserhead (1977, dir by David Lynch)

Today would have been the 82nd birthday of Jack Nance, the talented but troubled actor who was a favorite of David Lynch’s and who died under mysterious circumstances in 1996.  Born in Massachusetts but raised in Texas, Nance first won acclaim as a star of the stage show, Tom Paine.  The director of Tom Paine later received a fellowship to the American Film Institute where he met a young director named David Lynch and recommended that Lynch cast Nance as the lead character in his film, Eraserhead.  Lynch and Nance were kindred spirits, two all-American eccentrics with their own unique view of the world.  Lynch went to use Nance in almost every film that he made up until Nance’s death.  Nance would also appear in small roles in films from other directors, usually cast as quirky and obsessive characters.  Outside of his role in Eraserhead, Nance is probably best known for playing Pete Martell on Twin Peaks.  Pete’s discovery of Laura Palmer’s body launched the entire saga.

Twin Peaks 1.1 — The Pilot (dir by David Lynch)

 In honor of Jack’s talent and legacy, here is today’s song of the day!

Music Video of the Day: Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses (1981)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is apparently not the official video for The Waitress’s Christmas Wrapping.  Instead, it’s a video that someone else put together using other clips of the band.  I haven’t been able to find an official version so there might not be one.  Or, at the very least, if there is one, it does not appear to be on YouTube.  (If I’m wrong, let me know.)

Anyway, I like the song and tis the season.  Interestingly enough, it’s often missed that the song is more about the chaos of the season than the joy of it.

Enjoy!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 12/14/25 — 12/20/25

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Flight of the Conchords (HBOMax)

Murray books Bret and Jermaine for a concert at “Central Park,” but he insists that they tour first to prepare for it.  Bret continually causes havoc that Murray blames on Jermaine.  In the end, it turns out that the concert is at a central park not The Central Park.  Jeff and I watched that classic episode on Wednesday.  It made me cry a little.

Frasier (Prime)

Jeff and I watched three episodes of the original 90s version of Frasier on Tuesday.  The first episode featured Frasier getting into a war of words with a columnist who wrote a column about why hated Frasier’s radio show.  It almost led to an actual physical fight before the police intervened on the behest of Martin Crane.  (John Mahoney was a treasure!)

The second episode was “The Candidate,” in which Frasier endorses Phil Patterson for Congress, just to discover that Phil Patterson is convinced that he was abducted by aliens and taken into outer space.  The scene where a stunned Frasier attempted to record a commercial for Patteson (“the sane choice”) made me laugh so much that I almost fell off the couch.

Finally, we ended with a Christmas episode!  Frasier wants to get his young son a Christmas gift that will make him think.  Martin argues that Frasier should get him a gift that he’ll have fun with.  Frasier and Niles have to go to a mall.  The closing scene, with Martin revealing that he had purchased the gift that Frasier’s son actually wanted, made me cry.

What a great cast this show had!  Watching these three episodes, I was reminded why the revival didn’t work.  As good as a job as Kelsey Grammer did in the revival, no one wants to think of Frasier moving back to Boston and no longer having anything to do with his family in Seattle.

The Office (Peacock)

On Tuesday, Jeff and I watched several classic episodes of The Office.  We started with season 2’s Christmas Party.  Then, we watched Season 4’s Did I Stutter, followed by Season 6’s Scott’s Tots, and we followed it all up with Season 3’s The Convict and A Benihana Christmas.  I know I’ve been pretty critical of the direction that The Office eventually ended up going.  But the first three seasons were about as good as any sitcom that has ever aired and seasons 4-6, while uneven overall, still produced some classic episodes.  I will always enjoy the Christmas episodes, no matter how much that annoying actress from A Benihana Christmas whines about it.

Saved By The Bell: The Next Class (Prime)

Saved By The Bell: The Next Class continues to be my preferred background noise for when I’m struggling to get some sleep.

Seinfeld (Netflix)

On Tuesday, Jeff and I watched two Christmas episodes of this classic 90s sitcom.  We started with the episode where Elain was dating a communist and Kramer got fired from his department store Santa job because he was spreading propaganda.  Meanwhile, Jerry’s high school rival resurfaced and demanded a rematch on a race that Jerry won after getting a head start.  I loved this episode!  Everything from Jerry and George pretending to randomly run into each other at the coffee shop to the race at the end to the little kid yelling, “Hey, this guy’s a commie!”

We followed that episode with the Festivus episode.  I love the scene where Jerry Stiller (as George’s father) casually talks about seeing someone else grab the doll that he was planning to buy for his dolls.  “As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be a better way!”  Also, I totally would have wanted to be Submarine Captain too.  Free sub?  Give me my ticket!

Brad reviews THE HANGOVER PART II (2011), directed by Todd Phillips!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

In director Todd Phillips’ THE HANGOVER PART II, the night before his wedding, groom-to-be Stu (Ed Helms), his two best friends, Phil and Doug (Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha), Stu’s soon-to-be brother-in-law Teddy (Mason Lee) and Doug’s brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis), sit on a beach in Thailand for a toast to the bride and groom. After cracking open sealed bottles of beer in the beautiful setting, the movie screen goes black, and soon we see Phil, Stu and Alan wake up in a seedy room in Bangkok with absolutely no memory of what happened the previous night. The room is trashed, there’s a monkey wearing a denim Rolling Stones jacket, a naked Chow (Ken Jeong) is sleeping under a pile of blankets, Alan’s head is completely shaved, Stu has a face tattoo, and both Doug and Teddy are nowhere to be found! Doug calls and he’s back at the resort, but the only trace of Teddy is his severed finger, which is now in possession of the monkey. With the wedding just hours away, the three friends follow any clues they can find in a frantic search for Teddy. The search leads to the surprise discovery that Stu had intimate relations with a transsexual stripper, a tattoo parlor run by Nick Cassavetes, a dangerous and duplicitous American gangster named Kingsley (Paul Giamatti), and an arrested, ancient Buddhist monk who’s taken a vow of silence and who’s also confused for the 16-year-old, Teddy. Hell, at one point Mike Tyson shows up and sings the classic Murray Head single, “One Night in Bangkok.” Most importantly though, will the friends find Teddy alive and still have time to get back to the resort in time for Stu’s wedding?!!

A massive box office hit in the summer of 2011, THE HANGOVER PART II became the highest grossing R-rated comedy up to that time, with a worldwide gross of $586 million, against an $80 million budget. It was also the highest grossing R-Rated film to have opened over Memorial Day weekend, raking in over $118 million in its first four days. The story went to the well again with its still clever, but not quite as unique premise, comprised of a mystery-driven plot line where we follow the investigative adventures of Phil, Stu, and Alan and discover what happened the night before at the same time that they do. This allows for another series of outrageous, raunchy, surprising, and funny moments that escalate in absurdity over the course of the film’s 102-minute running time, culminating with another secret roll of pictures on Teddy’s camera that fill in the crazy events from their wild night in Bangkok. Based on the familiarity with the characters and the types of situations, I didn’t laugh out loud quite as frequently this time around, but the film still has its share of amusing moments, and I enjoyed revisiting the film again after a number of years. One of the things that I noticed about THE HANGOVER PART II is that it does not have the re-quotability factor going for it like the first film does. Alan and Chow have some funny lines, but honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever re-quoted a single one of them. I will agree with Alan on one point though, “When a monkey nibbles on a penis, it’s funny in any language.” I’d say that this film is more about mining comedy out of the extreme and absurd situations that our heroes are put in and less about clever, quotable quips. 

THE HANGOVER PART II works because of the outrageous situational comedy, as well as the exceptional chemistry between Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis. Ken Jeong has a bigger part this time around as Mr. Chow, and of course he’s hilarious. I did get some solid laughs from its combination of shock-value, sight gags and character interplay. The Bangkok we see here also makes for a seedy, raunchy and dangerous background to the crazy action. Of course the biggest negative of the film, as is the case with many sequels, is the fact that it’s practically a remake of the first HANGOVER, just set in Bangkok instead of Vegas. Think Charles Bronson’s DEATH WISH (New York) versus DEATH WISH II (Los Angeles). Also like the first two DEATH WISH films, THE HANGOVER PART II pushes the boundaries even farther, with even more graphic nudity and just overall harder material in general. Sequels always up the ante, but lose a little of what makes them so special in the process, and that’s definitely going on here.

Ultimately, while THE HANGOVER PART II was even more financially successful than the original, it’s not quite as fun because we’ve seen it before in the first film. But I loved the first film, so I enjoyed this one as well, just not quite as much. 

Holidays on the Lens: Random Acts of Christmas (dir by Marita Grabiak)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2019’s Random Acts of Christmas, journalist and single mom Sidney Larkin (Erin Cahill) is assigned to discover who has been committing random acts of Christmas kindness throughout the city.  At first, Sidney doesn’t want to investigate the identity of “Secret Santa,” but then she meets another journalist named Cole (Kevin McGarry), who is also looking into the story.  It’s a love that springs from rivalry except …. have you ever noticed that you never see Cole and Secret Santa in the same place at the same time?

Oh, come on.  We would all love to live in a city with a Secret Santa!

Holidays on the Lens: The Spirit of Christmas (dir by David Jackson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2015’s The Spirit of Christmas, Kate (Jen Lilley) is a broker who is convinced that she doesn’t have time for the good things in life.  She doesn’t have time for a boyfriend.  She doesn’t have time for Christmas.  Instead, she’s going to spend the holidays trying to sell a historic inn.  What she doesn’t know is that the inn is reported to be haunted and that the ghost, a former bootlegger named Daniel (Thomas Beaudoin), is seriously hot!  Kate helps Daniel solve his murder and, in the process, falls in love.

This film is a nice mix of holiday spirit and …. well, real spirits!

 

Holidays on the Lens: A Christmas Wish (dir by Emily Moss Wilson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s Christmas in Louisiana!

The 2019 film, A Christmas Wish, takes place in a small Louisiana town where people leave their Christmas wishes in a wooden box.  Faith (Hilarie Burton) is encouraged by her sister, Maddy (Megan Park), to wish for true love.  Myself, I wished for a Christmas movie featuring not only several actors from One Tree Hill but also Pam Grier!  And, with this film, my wish came true.