August 28th - Who's the Crankiest Captain of Them All?

We've seen Dirty Harry wander the streets of San Francisco, looking tired and world-weary.   We've seen Nick Nolte play 48 HOURS like he's been on duty for ten weeks straight.   Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger... all of them had their turns portraying a detective or police officer who was looking towards retirement with one eye and a fifth of scotch with the other.  Hell, Danny Glover and Mel Gibson told us on more than one occasion that they were getting too old for this shit.

However, you know who really had had enough?   You know who truly was one foot out the door to retirement and one foot in the grave?   You know who was sick and friggin' tired of being abused by not only the system and their superiors, but by their own detectives?   You know who absolutely, one hundred percent, were ALREADY too old for this shit?

Precinct Captains.

Yes, precinct captains.  In one detective thriller/buddy cop caper/explosive police actioner after another, the hero get to fire the guns, flaunt the rules, beat the bad guys and sleep with all of the bad girls?  What do the precinct captains get?   Agita, pure and simple.   They yell, they scream, they mutter under their breath.  It's the only thing they can do.  They're never allowed to truly suspend or fire their rule-breaking hero cops (and if they do, the hero only gets re-instated after blowing up half the city to get the bad guy).  So being the precinct captain is ALMOST as bad as being the bad guy.  Possibly worse.  The bad guys at least still get to blow up some stuff.

Who are the crankiest of the captains?   Which ones scream, throw, break and shatter shit better than the rest?   Let's get into today's Top 5...

I RANK IT:

TOP 5 PRECINCT CAPTAINS IN THE MOVIES

(again, my list so my scoring is final.   However, ABSOLUTELY add names in the Comments section below.   I could have missed one.   I'm pretty damn happy with my top five, and I'm amazingly ecstatic about my winner, but I know I'm missing a lot of good ones, too.)

HONORABLE MENTION

FRANK MCRAE - (48 HOURS, LAST ACTION HERO) - McRae (who is one of my favorite character actors because of USED CARS and CANNERY ROW) gets on the list because he got to do it in two different films.

BILLY BARTY - (NIGHT PATROL) - gets on the list because he solves all of his problems with excessive farting.   And the cop he has to berate is the Unknown Comic of "The Gong Show" fame.

ANDRE BRAUGHER  - (BROOKLYN NINE NINE) - not allowed to be ranked (my rules) because it's a television show and because he often has the hand over his precinct rather than them over him, but Braugher gives the best performance as a precinct captain, and does it on a weekly basis.

And now the 5:

5.  MICHAEL KEATON - (THE OTHER GUYS) - This is one of my absolute favorite takes on how to handle the exasperated captain.  Don't let him stew in a pool of alcohol and self-regret.   Just give him a part time job at Bed, Bath and Beyond.   I'm not a huge fan of the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg action comedy, but I am a fan of Keaton's scene-stealing work in it, and I think that the recent Keaton renaissance can definitely be tied into this performance.

4.  STEVE KAHAN - (LETHAL WEAPON series) - This could have been an easy throwaway role in the original 1987 film, but there was one important piece of information to remember.  Steve Kahan is director Richard Donner's cousin, and he appears in most of Donner's film in some capacity.   The upside of this family favor was that Kahan's role as  Captain Murphy grew with each subsequent sequel with more scenes and more involvement in the action.  Of course, he always had one big scene to spar with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover after their characters had destroyed half of Los Angeles.   Kahan started as Donner family, but completely was part of the Riggs' and Murtaugh family by the end of the series.   And if you have a problem with that, Murphy has an answer in LETHAL WEAPON 2.  

Capt. Murphy: I don't give a fuck, Riggs. That's why I don't have an ulcer, because I know when to say "I don't give a fuck."

And if you have a problem with Steve Kahan at #4... well, we don't give a fuck.

3. GIL HILL - (BEVERLY HILLS COP 1 series) - Gil Hill was the real deal.  He was an actual detective in the city of Detroit.  When director Martin Brest came to town to scout locations for his upcoming police film, Hill was the one who drove him around.  Brest was so taken by Hill and his stories that he knew he wanted him for a part in the film.   Hill's Inspector Todd is a foul-mouthed, angry revelation.  He knows that Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley may very well be the best detective he has, but damn it if he's going to let Foley run amok.   Foley has respect for Todd as well, but can't help but ignore his commands and do things his way.   Hill makes Todd not only feel like you are seeing an actual police captain, but that you are witnessing the most natural of actors as well.   His performances are that lived in, and that hilarious.   

Inspector Douglas Todd: Hey Axel, I'm not takin' anymore of this shit from you. You know how much this little stunt of yours is gonna cost this city?

Axel Foley: I don't think cost is the issue here, sir. I think the issue should be my blatant disregard for proper procedure.

Inspector Douglas Todd: You damn right, wise ass! The mayor called the Chief, the Chief called the Deputy Chief, the Deputy Chief just chewed my ass out! You see I don't have any bit of it left, don't you? Where in the fuck did you get a truckload of cigarettes from anyway?

Axel Foley: From the Dearborn Hijacking.

Inspector Douglas Todd: From the Dearborn Hijacking? That fucking bust went down last week! That truck is supposed to be in the damn pound!

Inspector Douglas Todd: Listen Axel, no more of these set ups, you understand? You're a good cop, and you got great potential, but you don't know every fucking thing. And I'm tired of taking the heat for your ass. One more time and you're out on the street. Do you understand me?

Axel Foley: Look, Boss, let me tell...

Inspector Douglas Todd: [emphatically] Do you understand me?

Axel Foley: Yeah, I understand. Boss. The Chief ain't chew it all out. You still got a little ass there.

Inspector Douglas Todd: Don't fuck with me Axel! Not now! Go on. Go home.

2. CHARLES DURNING - (SHARKY'S MACHINE) - Charles Durning is a national treasure.   A man who was at home in so many parts and genres over a fifty year acting career, Durning was brilliant in basically everything he touched.   To me, however, there was no better Durning than an exasperated Durning.  Whether he was caught off-guard, confused, or downright villainous, watching Durning get played, get tricked or even get ignored was a sight to behold.  For example, check out his work in the Mel Brooks 1983 remake of TO BE OR NOT TO BE to see how magically Durning essays the continually flustered Colonel Erhardt.   

Or, for the sake of this exercise, check out Durning's bravura turn as Friscoe in the 1981 Burt Reynolds' Dirty Harry-ish thriller, SHARKY'S MACHINE.   Reynolds is the hero, Rachel Ward is the heart, but Durning provides a large dollop of comedy as the put-upon cop in charge of the Vice unit.   He is trying to retain control of his men, but Friscoe constantly finds himself at odds with their decisions, and although you can tell that the men respect Friscoe, they love to disagree with him more, either for merit or for sport.

To see why Durning is ranked second here, you can fast forward to a scene about halfway through the film, set at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (where the Atlanta Braves used to play baseball many moons ago), where Friscoe lines up his men and asks for a progress report on the case.   Watch Durning build to a slow but steady boil as he walks up and down the line.   The men make Friscoe pace back and forth, left and right as they talk.   Durning dances a circle around them as he steals the scene effortlessly.

1. PEPE SERNA - (THE ROOKIE) - Yep, this one feels like it came out of left field.   Between the ones that I've listed already and the ones that you've come up with on your own, I would not be surprised if NONE of you have the same #1 as I do.

And I'm not backing down on this one.  No way.

Simply put, the only instruction director Clint Eastwood must have given Pepe Serna before taking on the role of Lt. Raymond Garcia is: 

"Find the scenery, grab on to it with both arms, and start chewing like your life depends on it.  Then, when you think you've done all you can do, CHEW HARDER."

Pepe Serna has done fine work in many films before and after THE ROOKIE, but there is simply no way that I'll ever think of him but anything else but Raymond Garcia.  He is boldly over the top in the first scene he plays, and it only increases from there.  Then, to cap things off, we have the sequence that has made this performance stick in my brain for more than twenty-five years.   Ladies and gentlemen, I give you this.  Let me know if you still question the choice after watching THAT clip.

I have not come to knock Serna's work in THE ROOKIE at all.   You were in a period where there were a dozen or more of these films every year, and every one of these films had someone playing the exasperated captain.   If you were going to take one of these cliched roles, why not make it your own and stand out from the crowd?   I loved Serna's performance in 1990, and I love it even more now.   I will never let him be knocked off my perch in this ranking.   Long live Raymond Garcia!   Or... LONG LIVE RAYMOND GARCIA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do me a favor and take a second or two and drop YOUR votes in the Comments section.  Maybe you have someone that isn't even listed here.  

August 25th - Taimak's in the House!

(As always, thanks for stopping by.)


I SAW IT

BERRY GORDY'S THE LAST DRAGON
released 3/22/1985
Box Office Gross: $25,754,284 (#33 in 1985)
Adjusted for Inflation: $58,527,328

In New York City, a young martial arts student searches for his true master while facing battles on two fronts; trying to free his singer girlfriend from a vile music promoter and fighting a terrifying brute for the martial arts supremacy in the city.

Director Michael Schultz (COOLEY HIGH, CAR WASH) knocked out a trio of R&B/hip-hop related films in the mid-80's that, although slight and less than stellar, have stood the test of time and are still spoken of today with the utmost of nostalgic fondness.   Schultz had dipped his feet into music-inflected films several times before (SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND) and he has a good eye and ear for letting the music complement the films, rather than overpowering them.

THE LAST DRAGON was the first of this trio (followed by KRUSH GROOVE and DISORDERLIES) and it is a silly yet joyous mash-up of coming of age films, music videos, and Bruce Lee martial arts epics.  Taimak plays the lead, Leroy, the young man trying to figure out his destiny.   This puts him straight in the cross hairs of several baddies, most importantly Julius Carry as the immortally named Sho'Nuff.   

This. Movie. Is. Fun.   Always was, still is.   This was made back in the era when music-video style movies meant showing a DeBarge video behind the action in its entirety, not editing the film into frantic one second cuts.   THE LAST DRAGON is supremely silly from the first frame, and there is never a moment when it should (or COULD) be taken seriously, but it fits beautifully in the canon of mid-80's films that are made to put a smile on your face (and sell soundtrack albums!) more than anything else.  To quote the kids these days, it is adorbs.

By the way:

1.  How the hell did Taimak not build a career off of this?   Not a great actor, but he had charisma, the looks and the martial arts chops.   At the very least, Roger Corman could have given him a slate of low budget films ala Don "The Dragon" Wilson in the BLOODFIST series.    

2.  How the HELL did Julius Carry not build a resume of larger than life bad guys off of Sho'Nuff????   Two of his next three film parts?  A  CIA agent and a track coach.  Simply unforgivable.   This man should have been Sho'Nuff in every single action film in 1987 and 1988.   Does John McClane beat Sho'Nuff in the Nakatomi Building?  I don't friggin' think so!


3.   Vanity - R.I.P. forever.   Such a undeniable screen presence in all of her early films, and they always found ways to fit her singing into her parts.   Check her out in ACTION JACKSON and 52 PICKUP (which we'll DEFINITELY be covering here later down the road) to see what I mean.   Her career never prospered, she turned towards the church in the mid-90's and she was taken from us way too soon.   No talk of the 80's would be complete without a hat tip to Vanity.   

Also, if you are a LAST DRAGON fan, or if this whole thing has piqued your interest, check out the article "A Deeper Look Into How ‘The Last Dragon’ Became An ’80s Classic" here.


I HAD IT ON MY WALL

We never give enough credit to the B-movies of the 90's because they mostly went straight to video instead of playing our 42nd Street joints and drive-ins like all the cool 70's and 80's ones did.   We'd have a lot more love for Lou Bamba Phillips chasing Scott Glenn if this film had been made in 1982 instead of 1993.



CRUSH OF THE DAY

FRANCES STERNHAGEN

A fantastic, versatile actress, Sternhagen was an acting teacher even before she ever started acting in projects herself.  She has been nominated for 5 Tony Awards and won one.   She has been in such films as MISERY, STARTING OVER, THE MIST, and RAISING CAIN, as well as having recurring roles in TV series such as ER and SEX AND THE CITY.  To me, though, she is imminently crush-worthy due to two roles.   

Sternhagen took on the role of Cliff Clavin's mother on CHEERS.  She took a part that could have been written as nagging and shrill and instead (with no small help from the great team of writers) turned the character into a very lovable woman who you were always happy to see return when they would write episodes featuring her.

More essentially, however, Sternhagen is the amazing Dr. Lazarus in the 1981 sci-fi actioner OUTLAND.   Director Peter Hyams took a role written for a man and switched it up, giving it to Sternhagen.   He also didn't reconfigure the part to be a romantic partner for star Sean Connery.   Find a studio today that would cast as an action film's female lead a Broadway-trained actress in her early 50's.  I'll go get a beer and come back in a few.  I'm sure you'll come up with an answer.

Sternhagen is given a fantastic role, and she grabs onto it with all of her might.  Her Lazarus is cranky, sarcastic, and not easy to get along with it at all.  She is also smart, brave, and built with a moral compass that no one else even remotely close to Connery's character possesses.   The role, and the performance, is phenomenal, and although not nominated for an award, there was at least discussion of a possible Supporting Actress nod for Sternhagen when the film was released.  

MY TOP 5 ANTICIPATED FILMS FOR 2018

1. JFK 2 - Jim Garrison finds out that the conspiracy wasn't in who killed Kennedy.   It was in the fact that the President wasn't killed at all.   James Franco plays Garrison, and Rob Riggle takes on JFK in this gritty sequel.

2. BATMAN VS PIXELS - Kevin James goes crazy in this epic mash-up, playing the President character from Pixels, Batman, as well as directing the film and doing set design.    Here comes the boom, indeed.

3. HAL HARTLEY'S "TRANSFORMERS" REBOOT - Hartley has promised a gentle and deadpan followup to TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT, with Robert John Burke picking up the mantle as Bumblebee.   Expect fireworks.... very VERY low-key, low budget ($22,000 for the whole production!) fireworks.

4. DISNEY'S ANIMATED "ELLE" - Having converted ALL of their animated properties into live-action films, Disney strikes gold again converting OTHER studio's live-action films into animated treasures.  First up, a musical re-do of Paul Verhoeven's 2016 film, ELLE.   Featuring Selena Gomez providing the voice for the cartoon counterpart of Isabelle Huppert's Oscar-nominated role.   Over a dozen songs!  Bring the kids!

5. DEATH'S EXPANDED UNIVERSE - Yep, you didn't see it coming, but Drew Barrymore's character in SCREAM, Faye Dunaway's in CHINATOWN, Bruce Willis's in THE SIXTH SENSE (is this still a spoiler?), and Bambi's mother in BAMBI (well, duh) were all just red herrings thrown in by studios as they secretly and stealthily built a new Marvel-style expanded universe of dead people.   And next August, all four join forces to fight supervillains (and presumably, not DIE again) in the highly anticipated CORPSES: BACK IN ACTION.

Check Fandango to see when advance tickets go on sale for all of these fantastic-looking features!

I HEARD THAT

NO MERCY - MAIN TITLE (1986) - Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri had already composed the BACK TO THE FUTURE score, a full-orchestra score that I did love.  However, in the 80's, I was the biggest sucker for Silvestri's synth-and-sequencer heavy compositions.   His theme for THE DELTA FORCE even was made into a dance remix in Europe.   This title track from the '86 Richard Gere/Kim Basinger cop thriller hits all those synth notes perfectly in my opinion.



I WANT IT

I'm not going to do full slates of upcoming Blu-ray releases here, like the amazing Rupert Pupkin Speaks site does (and if you don't check that site out regularly... 1. I'm worried about you, and 2. Fix that now by clicking here.)   I will, however, spotlight a title here and there that I want in my collection RIGHT THIS DAMN SECOND, and I'll let you know when you can get it (for me, preferrably.  I'm not really worried about YOU getting a copy of it.  So let's think of what's important first... ME.)

The movie I want today is MR. MOM, which comes out on Blu September 5th.  You can order it through Amazon or wherever you dang well feel like it.  Again, if it's not going to me... don't care.  (But if you ARE buying it for me, do it through Amazon, and get me one of them neato Amazon gift cards.  And some shaving cream.  I'm getting a tad scruffy.)

MR. MOM came out in 1983 and it was a huge comedy hit that year.  Michael Keaton, coming off of his amazing debut in NIGHT SHIFT the year before (I'll have PAGES to discuss about that one down the road), plays an executive who is laid off and, when his wife (TERI GARR), finds a chance to go back to work and earn money to replace his lost wages, he decides to be a stay-at-home dad.  PG-rated hilarity ensues, and honestly, for a family film (and yes, my younger sisters ADORED this film when it came out), it is pretty damn funny.  Keaton and Garr are great, and you get great supporting work from Martin Mull, Ann Jillian and Jeffrey Tambor.  90 minutes of 80's comedy perfection.   If you haven't seen it, it'll feel mild to some compared to the raunchier fare now.  If you have seen it, beware that renegade vacuum!


That's it for now.  See you in a couple of days with more crushes, needs, wants, and more.   

Bring Forth August 23rd, 2017!

Welcome to the first day of the regular format of this blog.   Hope you find it 10% informative, 20% fun, 8% nutritious, and well I lost count of all those percentages.

I SAW IT

MIRACLE MILE (1988)

What do you do if you think you've finally found the love of your life, but a random phone call may be telling you that your life only has about 80 minutes left?   That is the concept behind Steve De Jarnatt's at times lovely, at times utterly harrowing film, MIRACLE MILE.  

Anthony Edwards has finally found his soul mate in waitress Mare Winningham.  He promises to pick her up at work one night, but he oversleeps.  When he finally wakes up and arrives at her diner, she is already gone but the pay phone outside is ringing.   With no one else around, Harry (Edwards) answers it.   It may be a practical joke, or it may be a soldier calling from a missile silo that the nuclear warheads have been launched, and that the retaliation is on the way from our enemy.

Harry then must find his girl, Julie (Winningham), convince her and others that their lives might very well be on the verge of ending, and then try to figure out a way to escape before the bombs actually hit them in Los Angeles.  The meat of the story takes place fully during the darkest of night and the very edges of dawn, when all but a few odd characters are deep in slumber.  The plot almost unravels in real time, and you never know until the last five to ten minutes whether the bombs are actually on the way or not.   Do Harry and Julie have a chance, or are all of their machinations truly futile.

MIRACLE MILE is still a very beautifully made, very haunting, and at times, very sad, film.  It keeps you guessing, and throws enough interesting, eccentric characters to make the journey to resolution ever enjoyable.   

Cool fun cast in support of Edwards and Winningham, too!   You've got John Agar, Myketi Williamson, Robert DoQui, Denise Crosby, Kelly Jo Minter, Jenette Goldstein, and, in a small but rare good guy part, Brian Thompson.  It's a cast made specifically for genre lovers.  This was Steven De Jarnatt's second film (after 1987's CHERRY 2000) and although this film is wholly succesful, De Jarnatt spent the rest of his directorial career in television.   Truly a shame, because he had a nice eye and could have found a sweet niche in science fiction-type films.

Oh, yeah.... TANGERINE DREAM!   Another great 80's score from them.  I'll hopefully touch on them a lot here.

Sadly, with our current political climate and talk of skirmishes with North Korea, the plot of MIRACLE MILE has taken on some unwanted relevance.   If you've spent anytime worrying about a nuclear holocaust in the last few weeks, this miiiiight not be the film to make you feel better.

I HAD IT ON MY WALL

Oh, Joe Dante.... you hold a place in my heart with your fun creature movies and your tongue deep in cheek.










CRUSH OF THE DAY

TOM SKERRITT

Can't lead off any better with a bio of Tom Skerritt than what is at the top of his IMDb page.  "Lean, ruggedly handsome leading man and supporting actor whose "outdoor" looks have improved with age."   He's also an actor who for the longest time looked quite a bit YOUNGER than his actual age.   When he looked to be in his early to mid 40's, he was pushing 60.   He's starting to look a little more like his 84 (84!!!) year old self now, but the dude always has been, and still is, totally badass.

An actor with over 150 credits to his name, Skerritt started his career doing the usual weave between telvision roles and smaller film ones.   He had M*A*S*H, THIEVES LIKE US and THE TURNING POINT on his resume, but Tom always had the time to show up in great genre films like BIG BAD MAMA and THE DEVIL'S RAIN or make people laugh in UP IN SMOKE.  

Skerritt's peak years start with playing "Dallas" in the iconic sci-fi/horror film ALIEN in 1979 and run for about 15 years.  He gets leads in films such as SILENCE OF THE NORTH, OPPOSING FORCE and FIGHTING BACK (more on that below), as well as snaring key supporting roles in huge hits like TOP GUN.   Skerritt moved into a television lead in 1992 with the offbeat and wonderful PICKET FENCES (which I was obsessed with during its run and severely need to purchase and rewatch), which ran for four seasons.

Skerritt still puts in solid work on a couple of projects a year, including TED, WHITEOUT, A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING, and this year he still has LUCKY with fellow ALIEN alum Harry Dean Stanton on tap.

Skerritt is a man's man, a versatile actor, and has his fingerprints on so many iconic and important films of the last five decades.  How can you NOT crush on him?

TOP 5 OF THE DAY

Let's stay on topic.


MY TOP 5 TOM SKERRITT PERFORMANCES:

5. M*A*S*H - Skerritt is good in an early performance, but if the Duke character he played wasn't good enough for the television remake, how much higher could I rank it?

4. UP IN SMOKE - Skerritt plays funny.  Skerritt plays a character named Strawberry.  Skerritt gets this film ranked #4.

3. ALIEN - Yes, he's great as Dallas, but points off for not being smart enough to know DON'T STICK YOUR HEAD UP THERE!!!!

2.  PICKET FENCES - I'm cheating with a television show, but you'll soon learn I cheat a lot, so get over it right now.

And for my top Skerritt film, we shall tie in with a segment I like to call:






I NEED IT!!!


1.  FIGHTING BACK (1982)

True Story-- Just as I was really starting to geek out on movies, my dad let me buy a blank video tape that I could use to tape movies whenever he wasn't already recording something.   FIGHTING BACK is the first film I ever taped in the wee hours of the morning.  I got up and watched it at 6:15am.   I was such a movie geek as a 15 year old.

This film ain't quite DEATH WISH.  Let's call it INJURY WISH.  Skerritt plays John D'Angelo, a Philadelphia store owner who gets fed up with the local crime element.   When the street violence hits WAY too close to home, D'Angelo decides to organize a neighborhood watch to protect all of the local stores and homeowners.

Get used to hearing this a lot from me.... this film isn't exactly great, but I love it.  It's got great local flavor for this fella who lives 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia.  It's got great supporting work from Yaphet Kotto, Patti Lupone, and Michael Sarrazin (who gets to be killed TWICE in 1982 -- here and THE SEDUCTION, which we will DEFINITELY cover at a later date in an I NEED IT!!! segment)

And anchoring the whole thing is Skerritt, who gives a supercharged lead performance.  He's likable as the store owner who loves his neighborhood and family, but he gets to snarl and yell and do mean things when everything he loves is threatened.  Think Bronson with a lot more dialogue, and you have John D'Angelo.  The film tries to look at what the media and police do when faced with vigilante violence, and that may be the thinnest, least impressive part of the plot.

There's tons of action, however, and the fight scenes and shootouts are well shot and choreographed by director Lewis Teague, who did this right after ALLIGATOR and right before CUJO.   Teague had a really nice 80's run (JEWEL OF THE NILE, too!).   The bad guys glare at and threaten Skerritt and family, and Skerritt glares at everyone.   There's a great fight in a fast food chicken restaurant, and there is fantastic use of a balloon in the film's conclusion. It's ninety minutes of B-movie badassery, and it is a glaring hole in my collection.  Paramount seems to be reissuing a lot of their films in new Blu-ray packaging, and if that is successful, I sincerely hope that they drop FIGHTING BACK in my lap very, very soon.

Okay that's it for day one.  If you read this far, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism you have.   Some days will be shorter than this, and if I get the time or the motivation, I will go longer on other days.

I'll also be dropping an I HEARD THAT section each day, which will be separate and will highlight a selection from a movie soundtrack.  Hopefully there will be some music that you have never heard before, or possibly there will be tracks you remember from scenes but hadn't heard in a while.

THANKS FOR READING!

Are You Ready for Some GLICK-Bait? (Encore Post)

(NOTE: This was carried over from my original blog, Movies are Neato.   You may have read it there.   If not, hope you enjoy!)

Quick Quiz to start things off this week... which film have I watched more times?

1. Jaws (1975)

2. Shawshank Redemption (1994)

3. Shakedown (1988)

Yep, gang... it's not even close.  This is by NO MEANS an attempt to say that SHAKEDOWN is a better movie than the other two.  Not even close.  But, rewatchability relies on so many things, and this shaggy little 97 minute mutt of an action film has it all in spades.  Let's look at this wonderful creation one point at a time.

Plot: A drug dealer (Richard Brooks) kills an undercover New York cop in a shootout.  The dealer claims it was self-defense and that the cop was dirty.  It is up to a public defender (Peter Weller) and his investigator/buddy (Sam Elliott) to find out the truth, root out a system of corrupt police officers, and save the day.   And blow some shit up.

1. Writer/director James Glickenhaus made 8 films between 1975 and 1995.  The four he made during the 1980's, while not pure gold, contain some of the wildest, most inventive action choreography and stunt work that had ever been put on celluloid at that time.  The creator of the grindhouse classic THE EXTERMINATOR, Glickenhaus then moved on to 1982's THE SOLDIER, which featured the amazing shootout chase on skiis, including the 360 degree spin and shoot stunt (I tried to find a good gif of it, to no avail.  Sorry, readers).    1985's THE PROTECTOR contains speedboat chases, a stunt man falling down through a neon sign, and Jackie Chan.   Which all leads us to SHAKEDOWN.   Glickenhaus knew what he wanted, and he knew exactly how to film it.  Pick on anything you want in these four films (and there are certainly quibbles to be made) but the action is top notch and lightning paced in all four.   

Glickenhaus made a few more films after this, mostly to spotlight his son, Jesse, before retiring to move on to the world of endurance racing, which not only seems to be his life's passion but a natural direction for the man who gave us so many great action and stunt sequences.   You can find his website here.

2. Buddy cop time, sort of-- SHAKEDOWN comes a year after LETHAL WEAPON, and can't help but feel borrowed at times.   Now, we aren't dealing with two cops.  But the pairing sure fits the buddy cop template.  Weller and Elliott crack wise with one another, share stories, know each other's moves inside and out, and they know what they have to do might get messy, but they are the only men for the job.

SHAKEDOWN is no LETHAL WEAPON, but it tries.   The action, as mentioned before, is fast and furious, but it definitely feels derivative of WEAPON and other similar police actioners.   The script (again, by Glickenhaus) attempts to hit the same degree of action, drama, and comedy that Shane Black did, and although Glickenhaus is by no means Shane Black, his lines have a quirky bounce that, despite not being the funniest comedic lines or putdowns, are actually kind of lovable.

3. Peter Weller makes this his first starring role after hitting it big the previous year with ROBOCOP.  And, as with the dialogue in the film, Weller seems to play his character just a tiny bit off, like 30 degrees off of center.  He delivers his lines with a little kick, almost like a musician improvising just the teeniest bit when playing with the band.   It was obvious after this film that Weller was never going to be the quintessential hero or leading man, and was going to retain that off-center style throughout his career, both as a lead and as a supporting actor in other projects.

4.  He's got the co-starring role, but by no means does Sam Elliott play second fiddle in SHAKEDOWN.  He had done it in a few Westerns in the early and mid-1980's, but this is the film where Sam Elliott becomes SAM ELLIOTT, scruff dog hero to the masses.   His Richie Marks is dirty, scruffy, cleans himself up in the bathroom of a grindhouse movie theatre (which seemingly plays prior Glickenhaus films all day and night long!) and generally doesn't give a shit about anything unless it's putting bad guys behind bars.  He's still a cop, but he doesn't play by the rules of the corrupt members of his precinct.   They hold a respectful distance from each other until Richie can't look away anymore.     Elliott is pure gold here; I had dreams of SHAKEDOWN sequels after this was made.  I could definitely see Weller and Elliott making lower budgeted sequels to run parallel to Warner Brothers' LETHAL WEAPON follow-ups.

If you need to see just how great Elliott is in this film, skip directly to the part where he and Weller are having a heart to heart talk, and Elliott tells the story of the great love of his life and how she got away (or if you need to, go to IMDb now and look it up under Quotes).  The story is short and very funny, but it's the way that Elliott delivers it that brings it home.   Richie Marks is one of my all-time favorite characters, and it was this film that made Sam Elliott one of my all-time favorite actors.

5.  Supporting cast-- Richard Brooks went on to be one of the original cast members of "LAW AND ORDER" after this, and he is great in what could of been a super-stereotypical drug dealer role.  Brooks has a wonderful voice for delivering dialogue and he scores here in a small but vital part.  Patricia Charbonneau, a fine actress from the mid-to-late 80's plays Weller's lawyer opponent and past (and possibly future) love interest.  Actors who went on to better things much later such as Harold Perrineau and Holt McCallany show up in small roles.   Blanche Baker comes from "SIXTEEN CANDLES" to this one.  Genre and cult standouts like Paul Bartel, Shirley Stoler, Larry Joshua, David Proval, and Thomas G. Waites appear.  PLUS you get key supporting work from both John McGinley and Antonio Fargas!  This film is absolutely stacked with great casting choices.

6.  Grungy NYC-- we are getting very close at this point (1988) to when New York City starts to get cleaned up and we lose the Grindhouse/42nd Street that had been so prevalent in the 70's and 80's.  SHAKEDOWN still captures the look, the feel, and possibly the smell of that long bygone era.   The theatres are still present and playing genre films and porn (as stated earlier, one plays nothing but Glickenhaus features all day), and SHAKEDOWN deserves its spot in the genre of crime thrillers that depicted New York as an urban hellhole that was near impossible for a good guy or girl to survive.

7.  THE STUNTS! -- no discussion of James Glickenhaus and his work can ever be done (except possibly his later family films) without discussing the stunt work that is put to film.   No less a master critic than Roger Ebert said that "with “SHAKEDOWN” Glickenhaus will now be recognized as another of the manic breed of young hotshots who will do anything to stage a sensational stunt."  Ebert's three-star review of the film praises the film's stunt work, and so do I.   Shootouts in flop houses, car chases, motorcycle (with side car chases), a fight on top of a roller coaster that ends up with loose cars, and a finale with a chase between a jet plane and a Porsche on an airport runway.   The stunts are the reason for being here, and they're just awesome.   (NOTE: now that we have hit the HD zone, although not available on Blu-Ray in the US yet, this film may be the greatest example of super-obvious stunt performers with bad hairpieces.   The Weller, and especially the Elliott, stunt doubles look so laughably unlike the stars they are doubling with a clearer HD image that it truly does distract.   I can't hold that against the film as so many 70's and 80's films suffer from the same problem.  It's just a sign of the times.  However, be prepared for it-- I started to giggle after a while.)

Having seen SHAKEDOWN over a dozen times now, I'm ready to watch it again tomorrow.  I want to see 42nd Street.  I want to hear the Hendrix riffs.  I want to watch that roller coaster go off the rails.  And I want to watch Weller and Sam Elliott walk off into the sunset together, preparing a storyline for the inevitable SHAKEDOWN 2 that still runs on repeat inside my head.