(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.
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.
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.
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