Tag Archives: review

Film Review: Out of Death (dir by Mike Burns)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The first question that one might want to ask about 2021’s Out of Death is what is going on with that title.

Out of Death?  Did they run out?  Is there an issue with the warehouse?  Is it a nationwide outage or just a regional problem?  How exactly does someone find themselves out of death?  I mean, there are plenty of shortages in the world.  There are people who can’t get clean drinking water or tasty food.  I had to wait an extra day to get my new scanner because of a supply chain issue.  These things happen.  But people never seem to run out of death.  Death is the one thing that we will always in large quantities.

As for the film itself, it is rather death-obsessed.  Shannon (Jaime King) is a photojournalist who has recently lost her father.  All she wants to do is spread his ashes in the woods.  However, when she witnesses a murder in the woods, she finds herself being pursued by a compromised deputy (Lala Kent).  Meanwhile, Jack Harris (Bruce Willis) is a retired detective who has recently lost his wife.  He wants to spend some time alone in his niece’s cabin but instead, he finds himself mixed up in Shannon’s problems.  The corrupt sheriff (Michael Sirow) wants to be mayor and he’s not going to let Shannon and Jack stand in his way, even if it means killing every possible witness.

Even though Bruce Willis gets top-billing along with Jaime King, he’s not in much of Out of Death.  Out of Death was one of the many film productions to be delayed by the COVID lockdowns.  When production finally did begin, Bruce Willis shot all of his scenes in one day.  (The entire film took 9 days to shoot.  Roger Corman, if he was still with us, would want to know why the production took 9 days when it could just as easily been done in two.)  Sadly, this is one of the films that Bruce Willis made after it became apparent that he was having serious issues with his health.  Willis delivers his lines in a halting manner, which technically works for his emotionally shattered character but which is still hard to watch now that we know that Willis was suffering from frontotemporal dementia at the time.  Producer Randall Emmett made his career by convincing big stars to appear in B-movies and he shouldn’t be faulted for that.  However, the later films he made with Willis not always easy to watch.  Say what you will about the films that Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro have made with Emmett, they all knew what they were getting into.  It’s hard to say whether the same was true with Bruce Willis.

As for Out of Death, it’s a fairly dull cat-and-mouse game but I will give it some credit for capturing the atmosphere that goes along with being isolated in the Southern wilderness.  This is a film where you could feel the humidity rising from the screen.  And Jaime King, who deserves better, gave a strong performance as Shannon.  Otherwise, the most interesting thing about Out of Death is the mystery as to what exactly the title means.

Out of Death?  It’s a nice thought.

Film Review: Setup (dir by Mike Gunther)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On the mean streets of Detroit …. really, Detroit again?

Well, anyway, Sonny (5o Cent) is a career criminal who also happens to be a really nice guy.  When his partner-in-crime, Vincent (Ryan Phillippe), worries about the survival of his imprisoned father (James Remar), Sonny is sympathetic.  When his other partner-in-crime, Dave (Brent Granstaff), won’t shut up about how much he loves his wife and his life in the suburbs, Sonny is genuinely happy for him.  Sonny may be a criminal but he’s not violent.  He’s not a killer.

Understandably, Sonny is upset when Vincent kills a guard during their latest diamond heist.  However, that’s nothing compared to how angry Sonny becomes when Vincent betrays both him and Dave, shooting them and leaving them for dead.  Dave dies but Sonny survives.  Seeking revenge, Sonny teams up with a gangster named Biggs (Bruce Willis).  Biggs demands that Sonny retrieve some money for him.  It really shouldn’t be that difficult except for the fact that every criminal in Detroit is soon revealed to be an absolute idiot.

At this point, I’ll admit that 2011’s Setup has more than a little in common with Gun.  Like that film, it takes place in Detroit and it centers on the drama that takes place in the shadows of the underworld.  50 Cent plays a criminal in both films.  James Remar has a small role in both films.  Both films feature multiple betrayals and both of them contrast the criminals on the street with the bosses behind-the-scenes.  Both films were also produced by Randall Emmett.  Indeed, this was one of the first films that Bruce Willis did with Emmett.  Emmett would go on to produce several of Willis’s final films and there’s definitely some controversy as to whether or not those films exploited Willis at a time when he was particularly vulnerable.

That said, I actually kind of liked Setup.  It’s definitely a low-budget B-flick but it still has its ambitions and it actually achieves some of them.  50 Cent is far more convincing as the well-intentioned but somewhat dumb Sonny in Setup than he was in Gun and he actually does pretty well as the film progresses and Sonny becomes more conflicted about whether or not he actually wants his legacy to be one of vengeance.  Ryan Phillippe is well-cast as Vincent and I liked the performances of Jay Karnes and Jenna Dewan, both playing low-level criminals who find themselves in over their heads.  The film did a good job of examining all of the different levels of crime in Detroit, from the wealthy Biggs all the way down to the idiots who continually screw up the simplest of plans.  Randy Courtere does an especially good job as Petey, the moron who thinks playing with a loaded gun is a good idea.

As for Bruce Willis, his role here is small and it’s a role that probably could have been played by any tough guy actor of a certain age.  But, Willis still brings his cocky charm to the role.  (Seeing Willis here really drives home just how different he was in the final films that he did for Emmett.)  Willis plays Biggs with a sense of humor and it’s just what the movie needed.

To say a movie is better than expected can sound like a backhanded compliment but it’s a compliment nonetheless.  Setup was definitely better than I expected.

Film Review: Gun (dir by Jessy Terrero)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Angel (Val Kilmer) has just been released from prison and he’s returned to the hard streets of Detroit.  Hooking up with his old friend Rich (50 Cent), Angel gets involved in a gun-running operation.

Unfortunately, it’s no longer easy or safe to sell guns in Detroit.  The police are cracking down.  Rival gun dealers are trying to take out a competition.  A raid at a club leaves a dealer dead and a huge power void in Detroit’s criminal underworld.  When it becomes obvious that the police have a snitch in Rich’s crew, Rich’s girlfriend (AnnaLynne McCord) suspects that it’s Angel.  Can Rich find the snitch without having to betray his best friend?  And does Angel have secrets of his own?

First released in 201o, Gun was the third film that Val Kilmer made with 50 Cent and it’s apparently their only collaboration that Kilmer didn’t mention in his autobiography.  It probably should be noted that Val Kilmer doesn’t look particularly happy in the movie but that actually works for his character.  Angel has just gotten out of prison, he’s mourning his wife, and he’s found himself right in the middle of the type of violent situation that could lead to him going back to prison.  In many ways, Angel feels like he could be a version of Heat’s Chris Shiherlis.  It’d easy to imagine that maybe Chris changed his name after escaping Los Angeles.  He became Angel and he found a new partner in the form of Rich.  Unfortunately, Detroit is a lot uglier than Los Angeles, Rich is no Neil McCauley, and Michael Mann’s not directing.  Kilmer’s performance is not bad.  Even in a low-budget movie like this, he still did his best.

That said, the film is centered around 50 Cent.  50 Cent plays Rich.  50 Cent provides the music.  50 Cent produced the film, along with Randall Emmett, a producer who largely made a career out of getting faded stars to appear in B-movies.  (He’s best-known for producing the many of Bruce Willis’s final films.)  As Rich, 50 Cent gives a rather stiff performance.  It’s not so much that he’s not convincing as a street smart gun dealer as he’s just not very interesting to watch.  There’s a predictability to his performance, one that is reflected in the songs that appear on the film’s soundtrack.  How many rap songs about making money and shooting people can one listen to before admitting that it all gets boring after a while?

In the end, the most interesting thing about Gun is the number of familiar faces who appear in small roles.  James Remar plays a cop.  Paul Calderon, the bartender from Pulp Fiction and the traitor from King of New York, plays a detective.  John Larroquette and, somewhat inevitably, Danny Trejo both make appearances.  Perhaps most oddly, Mike “Boogie” Malin, the winner of Big Brother All-Stars, plays an ATF agent.  I should mention that, in real life, Boogie Mike and Dr. Will Kirby (winner of Big Brother 2) had a friendship that widely mirrored the friendship between Rich and Angel.  I doubt that factored into his casting.  That would be giving Gun to much credit.

Gun was not a particularly compelling film, though it did win some authenticity points by actually being shot on location in Michigan.  That said, Val Kilmer gave a better performance than perhaps the material deserved.  Val is definitely missed.

Film Review: Edison (dir by David J. Burke)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the town of Edison, a reporter named Pollack (Justin Timberlake) is convinced that he’s uncovered evidence of massive police corruption.  His editor, Moses Ashford (Morgan Freeman), responds by firing Pollack but then rehires him on the condition that he actually do the work and interview everyone involved.  Pollack is confused until he sees that Ashford has a Pulitzer Prize in his Edison bachelor pad.

FRAT stands for First Response Assault and Tactical.  Led by Captian Tilman (John Heard) and protected by duplicitous politician Jack Reigert (Cary Elwes), FRAT has made Edison safe but at what cost?  The constitution is regularly trampled.  Drug dealers are summarily executed.  Sgt. Lazaerov (Dylan McDermott) confiscates and uses the drugs himself while the newest recruit, Detective Deeds (LL Cool J), worries that he’ll be executed when he declines to lie in court.  Deeds has reason to be worried because he witnesses the attempted assassination of both Pollack and his girlfriend (Piper Perabo).

Teaming up with Detective Leon Wallace (Kevin Spacey), Pollack and Ashford try to get Deeds to turn on FRAT and expose the trouble in Edison.

First released in 2005, Edison was produced by Randall Emmett, who is today best-known for producing (and occasionally directing) Bruce Willis’s final films.  Emmett specializes in getting name actors to play small roles in what are otherwise B-movies.  In an Emmett film, De Niro, Stallone, Travolta, or Nicolas Cage might get top billing but usually, they only have a few minutes of screentime.  Edison is unique in that Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey (who was still considered to be a big name back in 2005) both actually have fairly large roles.  Though LL Cool J and Justin Timberlake are the stars of the film, it still appears that it probably took Freeman and Spacey longer than a day to shoot their scenes and that truly does set this film apart from other Emmett productions.  I should also note that Spacey wears an incredibly tacky hairpiece while Freeman gets an extended dance scene set to Time Has Come Today by The Chambers Brothers.

Is the film itself any good?  Eh, not really.  It’s a bit disjointed.  John Heard was a good actor but this movie was made when he was at the height of his “9-11 was an inside job” nuttiness and he gives a cartoonish performance as the main bad guy.  Cary Elwes is entertaining as the crooked politician but it’s hard not to feel that the film would have been more interesting if he and Kevin Spacey had switched roles.  LL Cool J is not particularly convincing as a cop so naive that he’s shocked to discover that there’s corruption on the force.  As for Justin Timberlake, this was actually his debut as an actor.  Timberlake is always at his best playing morally shady characters, like in Alpha Dog or The Social Network.  In this film, he has to play earnest and outraged and he’s never particularly convincing.  If anything, he comes across as being a little whiny.

That said, the idea behind Edison is at least interesting.  FRAT — like countless other special police units in the country — has become untouchable by actually doing its job.  The streets are safer, as long as you don’t get on FRAT’s bad side.  Who watches the watchmen?  Edison asked this now common question in 2005, when America was still embracing the survelliance state.  Flaws and all, Edison was ahead of its time.

 

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 7.12 “Dee Dee’s Dilemma/Julie’s Blind Date/The Prize Winner”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

Come aboard, we’re expecting you….

Episode 7.12 “Dee Dee’s Dilemma/Julie’s Blind Date/The Prize Winner”

(Dir by Richard Kinon, originally aired on December 3rd, 1983)

A detective (Don Gordon) tells Isaac and Gopher that he suspects a woman named Doris will be boarding the boat.  She’s supposed to testify in a high-profile divorce case and she’s been dodging the process servers.  The detective mentions that there’s a reward for turning Doris in.  That definitely get Gopher and Isaac’s attention.

And Doris (Markie Post) is on the boat!  Except she is pretending to be a teenager named Dee Dee and she’s speaking in an annoying squeaky voice.  Jerry Howard (Clark Brandon) meets Dee Dee and develops a crush on her.  Meanwhile, Jerry’s father, Phil (Geoffrey Scott), meets Doris and develops a crush of his own!  In the end, Doris falls in love with Phil and Jerry …. well, Jerry gets his heart broken but he claims not to care.  Phil is amused.  As for the divorce case, it’s settled so Doris doesn’t have to testify after all!

(And no, there’s no reward for Isaac and Gopher.  In fact, Stubing threatens to fire them.)

While that’s going on, author Daniel Baker (Tom Poston) wants to enjoy a romantic cruise with his wife (Abby Dalton) but he’s being blackmailed by his assistant, Wendy  (Leslie Easterbrook).  Wendy knows that Daniel plagiarized sections of his book and she threatens to reveal the truth unless Daniel has an affair with her.  This is one of those storylines that would have worked better if some different casting choices had been made.  As it is, noted sex symbol Tom Poston feels miscast.

Finally, Julie has a blind date boarding the boat.  He turns out to be a nerdy, overweight guy named Leonard Gluck (Walter Olkewicz).  Julie has nothing in common with Leonard and is planning on dumping him.  But then Leonard dumps her first and Julie has a crisis of confidence.  This story had the potential to reveal a new side of Julie but, in the end, Leonard revealed that he only dumped Julie to make her like him and Julie’s confidence was restored, along with her rule about not dating fat guys.

This was not a great cruise.  It took me two minutes to get sick of Dee Dee’s voice.  Oh well — not every trip can be a winner!

 

Song of the Day: Overture (Lawrence of Arabia) by Maurice Jarre

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Lawrence of Arabia (dir. by David Lean)

Since today is David Lean’s birthday, it only seems appropriate that today’s song of the day should come from the film that is regularly acknowledged as being Lean’s masterpiece, 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia.  Composed by Maurice Jarre, here is one of the greatest film scores of all times.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Pacific Blue 3.18 “Caretakers”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Pacific Blue, a cop show that aired from 1996 to 2000 on the USA Network!  It’s currently streaming everywhere, though I’m watching it on Tubi.

This week, the bicycle cops go after pharmaceutical smugglers.

Episode 3.18 “Caretakers”

(Dir by Sara Rose, originally aired on March 8th, 1998)

This week, a drug company is smuggling and distributing black market pharmaceuticals.  Leslie Jordan plays Bo, the crazy man who lives in a storage unit and who has figured out what the company is doing.  When he gets shot in the back, Chris feels guilty because she refused to listen to his ramblings earlier.  After undergoing hypnosis to search for clues as to who shot Bo, Chris goes undercover as a potential drug buyer.  It always amuses me whenever any member of the bike patrol goes undercover.  None of them are capable of not coming across as being a cop and that’s especially true in Chris’s case.  Everything from the way they talk to the way they glare at everyone to the way they stand just a little bit too rigidly screams, “Cop!”  And yet the criminals never seem to catch on.

Meanwhile, Victor’s mother is deathly ill and needs some drugs to save her life.  Luckily, the local priest has connections.  But can Victor set aside whatever his issue is with the church?  Does anyone care?  I mean, I’m glad that Victor’s mom is alive at the end of the episode but Victor isn’t that interesting of a character.

We are three season into Pacific Blue and none of the characters are really interesting enough to carry the show.  Even the lifeguards on Baywatch had more personality than the members of the bike patrol.  The main thing that I’ll remember about this episode is that, even when they were keeping an eye on Chris working undercover, the cops all brought their bicycles.

The important thing is that Leslie Jordan survives his injuries.  At the end of the episode, TC locks Chris in the Bo’s storage unit so that she’ll be forced to listen to his conspiracy theories.  I guess TC’s okay with not getting any for a month.

I’d like this show better if the rode motorcycles.

 

Retro Television Review: Saved By The Bell: The New Class 1.8 “Belding’s Baby”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Saved By The Bell: The New Class, which ran on NBC from 1993 to 2o00.  The show is currently on Prime.

This week’s episode is so annoying.

Episode 1.8 “Belding’s Baby”

(Dir by Don Barnhart, originally aired on October 30th, 1993)

Ugh, this episode.

First off, I totally forgot that Mr. and Mrs. Belding named their son after Zack Morris.  They did this because, during the original series, Zack helped deliver his namesake when he and Mrs. Belding ended up trapped in an elevator.  While that was nice of Zack to do, I still have to wonder at the logic of naming your son after an unrepentant sociopath.

Anyway, Mr. Belding needs help looking after baby Zack.  Scott volunteers to babysit him in order to get out of detention.  Scott and the gang take baby Zack to the movies.  Scott meets a girl named Ashley (Katy Barnhill), whose mother is a baby photographer who is seeking models.  So, Scott pretends to be Zack Belding’s older brother and he and his friends try to get Baby Zack to the studio without Mr. Belding figuring things out.  But when Belding takes his son to the Maxx, Weasel and Vicki have to dress up as Mr. Belding’s parents and….

Ugh, this is stupid.

It’s not even stupid in an amusing way.  Scott lies about being Zack’s brother.  There was absolutely no reason for Scott to lie.  Ashley liked Scott from the start so Scott could have just said he was babysitting.  For that matter, Mr. Belding could have hired a babysitter instead of entrusting his baby to the least responsible students in the entire school.  This whole thing could have been straightened out by everyone not being an idiot.  That’s not funny.  It’s just annoying.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Also, we are eight episodes and Tommy D is still saying things to Scott like, “I’m impressed, kid,” as if he hasn’t known Scott for half of the school year already.  And why does it matter if Tommy’s impressed?  Tommy doesn’t ever do anything.  He’s not a schemer.  He just stands around and smiles.  I imagine everyone impresses Tommy.

Dumb, dumb episode.

Song of the Day: Main Title Theme From Bullitt by Lalo Schifrin

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

In honor of the birthday of Steve McQueen, today’s song of the day comes from his 1968 film, Bullitt.  Composed Lala Schifrin later went on to do the score for another film about a California detective with his own way of doing things, Dirty Harry.