CAAN & DUVALL UNDER PECKINPAH FOR THE KILLER ELITE

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xg8X4J_1-yM/VyUKC9vXTAI/AAAAAAAAsLE/o9zA2-d3SDwdoR58YTbN8GKcD8aBnysVwCLcB/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xg8X4J_1-yM/VyUKC9vXTAI/AAAAAAAAsLE/o9zA2-d3SDwdoR58YTbN8GKcD8aBnysVwCLcB/s400/0.jpg" width="283"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year of Release: 1975</td></tr> </tbody></table> It takes two GODFATHER actors, the, at that time, already iconic and borderline legendary James Caan and Robert Duvall, to perfectly kickstart a movie about a secret operation even "worse" than the CIA (are portrayed on screen) acting like a couple slap-happy Playboys, or, perhaps, the way they really were with each other behind the scenes, laughing with delicious inside quips, throwing dirty jokes back and forth, cracking wise and unwise about women and yet only one of them guffaws about the other's possible venereal disease... A hilarious moment indeed...<br> <br> All in a car driving over the Golden Gate bridge shot by director Sam Peckinpah in a modern setting, beginning with a building exploding and Caan and Duvall, as Mike and George, harboring a "snitch" who... Let's just say things don't go well for this man, and his future turns out much worse than a horrible, game-changing injury for Caan's Mike after a double-cross that's extremely suspenseful, in fact even more-so than most films being that, after experiencing two pals acting like they've known each other since grade school, Duvall's sudden transition, taking place fully-clothed, sitting on a toilet seat, gun in hand with an icy stare... especially contrasted to the funny guy he was minutes before... And in another minute's time, Caan's Mike winds up with a busted knee cap and one nearly dead arm, and some of the best, most personal scenes occur in the hospital thereafter.<br>

bo hopkins, burt young, james caan, robert duvall, sam peckinpah, seventies

CAAN & DUVALL UNDER PECKINPAH FOR THE KILLER ELITE

Year of Release: 1975 It takes two GODFATHER actors, the, at that time, already iconic and borderline legendary James Caan and Robert Du...

REBLOGGED McQ REVIEW ON JOHN WAYNE DAY

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SIWq-_lu-UA/UVO4Aeu6gFI/AAAAAAAAXu4/BWO9hzs4jDw/s1600/wayne-mcq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SIWq-_lu-UA/UVO4Aeu6gFI/AAAAAAAAXu4/BWO9hzs4jDw/s640/wayne-mcq.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 1974 cast: John Wayne, Diana Muldaur, Eddie Albert, Clu Gulager, Roger E. Mosely, Al Lettieri, Julie Adams</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> NOTE: THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN REBLOGGED SINCE THE RELIGION OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS HAS BANNED "JOHN WAYNE DAY." First the horrendously typically biased TRUMBO makes Wayne out to be Darth Vader, and now this crap... Just sick of an enforced "worse than Hays Code" Hollywood knee-jerks that does more to hinder Hollywood than the one belief system they are able to bag on... meanwhile while protecting those they treat as "the dumb kid in class" (who really aren't) the others have to wait for. Fuck off, mighty rule makers, and let the Duke forever reign!<br> <br> <b>MCQ REVIEW</b>: Sounding like an upbeat version of a jazzy New Orleans funeral march or a car honking to a clunky yet catchy rhythm, McQ’s main theme takes our hero, the title character played by John Wayne, through a string of mysterious and dangerous elements that starts out reminiscent of cop thrillers DIRTY HARRY and BULLITT but winds up very Film Noir, beginning with an unnamed gunman slaying several victims throughout the pre-dawn city streets, we soon realize he’s the partner of a veteran cop named McQ. When that killer’s quickly shot down, McQ has to investigate… not knowing his partner had pulled off the murders beforehand… going from an ex wife, a former lover, a reluctant ratting pimp and a notorious drug dealer to get clues, mostly red herrings which lead him (the first time round) absolutely nowhere.<br> <div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> <div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </div></div>

action, al lettieri, clu gulager, david huddleston, eddie albert, john wayne, neo noir, roger e. mosley, seventies

REBLOGGED McQ REVIEW ON JOHN WAYNE DAY

year: 1974 cast: John Wayne, Diana Muldaur, Eddie Albert, Clu Gulager, Roger E. Mosely, Al Lettieri, Julie Adams NOTE: THIS REVIEW HAS B...

MARSHALL MISDIRECTS THE ENSEMBLE MOTHER'S DAY

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pf2j8_pQnRg/VyL44s9jNrI/AAAAAAAAsKo/066_b73zjEUEqWKjiEcK1wLuXde_d-Y4gCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-28%2Bat%2B10.56.35%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pf2j8_pQnRg/VyL44s9jNrI/AAAAAAAAsKo/066_b73zjEUEqWKjiEcK1wLuXde_d-Y4gCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-28%2Bat%2B10.56.35%2BPM.png" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year Released: 2016</td></tr> </tbody></table> Before we begin and finish as quickly as possible, reviewing a movie that, following banal versions of Robert Altman style NASHVILLE, A WEDDING and SHORT CUTS ensemble pieces (but winding up closer to READY TO WEAR), it should be noted that Garry Marshall, the man who helped Generation X grow up with Fonzie, Lenny, Squiggy and... everyone from HAPPY DAYS and LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY... and entertained "The Greatest Generation" and their Baby Boomers with THE ODD COUPLE... As a television Executive Producer/Mogul, turned into an, at first, pretty good theatrical director: A great one, actually. Or perhaps THE FLAMINGO KID, starring Matt Dillon as a young Brooklyn card-shark spending the summer at a rich resort as a cabana boy, winding up boy-toy for Janet Jones and a wishbone for proud yet unapologetically stubborn blue collar plumber dad Hector Elizondo and crooked fancy car salesman Richard Crenna, was a great movie with a good director...<br>

comedy, ensemble, garry marshall, hector elizondo, julia roberts

MARSHALL MISDIRECTS THE ENSEMBLE MOTHER'S DAY

Year Released: 2016 Before we begin and finish as quickly as possible, reviewing a movie that, following banal versions of Robert Altman...

SHANNON & SPACEY IN ELVIS & NIXON

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BQ66MF1E5iw/VyA0PVUyuhI/AAAAAAAAsJ0/iMiH74uNf70dy2-5HbbZhK7Iy5DcNYk7ACLcB/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BQ66MF1E5iw/VyA0PVUyuhI/AAAAAAAAsJ0/iMiH74uNf70dy2-5HbbZhK7Iy5DcNYk7ACLcB/s320/1.jpg" width="187"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 2016</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Oh how much hope so many folks probably had for the potential of a political comedy/true life satire of epic proportions, but somehow, somewhere along the way, in a movie about a has-been legendary rocker, wanting to battle drug-taking hippies, planning and then having a secret meeting with one of the most hated Presidents ever, especially unforgotten in Hollywood, both Elvis Presley and Richard M. Nixon wind up looking... pretty damn cool, somehow...<br> <br> Perhaps it's for the opposite reason that Eric Stoltz was fired from BACK TO THE FUTURE and replaced by Michael J. Fox...<br> <br> The FUTURE makers needed a comic actor who could hit the right comic "marks." A mark is something not every actor can do in a comedic sense, and Michael Shannon, while speaking to Nixon about how the youths are really underground Communists; how television and drugs have made them hate the American flag; how he could actually disguise himself, like he did in a decade worth of films, to actually infiltrate the backstage touring with The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead and bust them right on the spot; and how he can use Kung Fu on lethal drug dealers...<br>

biopic, dark comedy, kevin spacey, michael shannon

SHANNON & SPACEY IN ELVIS & NIXON

Year: 2016 Oh how much hope so many folks probably had for the potential of a political comedy/true life satire of epic proportions, but...

CAROL REED 1940'S THRILLER DOUBLE-FEATURE

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YTwMz3zOSqk/Vx6JRexr5VI/AAAAAAAAsJg/dY1qM9Fy7MsqqqZVv4R0sdTDwl7oJuEkQCLcB/s1600/91BDRfAUvKL._SL1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YTwMz3zOSqk/Vx6JRexr5VI/AAAAAAAAsJg/dY1qM9Fy7MsqqqZVv4R0sdTDwl7oJuEkQCLcB/s400/91BDRfAUvKL._SL1500_.jpg" width="277"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 1940</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> <u>NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH</u>: By the time we're on that title train to the title location, the dialogue-driven espionage is pretty much done and, for the most part, all the confusing matter of whether our leading man Rex Harrison, as Dickie Randall a.k.a. Gus Bennett, is a Nazi, a British agent or a Nazi for the British or a Brit for the Nazis, is still in the dark, and that makes for a good performance since in any thriller genre, a touch of mystery is needed to keep things fresh, and the subtle chase, following said character, on a windswept pace, leads to more of an action/adventure at the end, though a bit too little, too late.<br> <br> As for direction, Carol Reed moves his chess pieces around nicely, including lovely first-billed Margaret Lockwood, who has to trust this dashing, talky mystery man to help her and her scientist father escape from the world-dominating villains, and there's more than a touch of dark humor being that NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH was made before World War II, right on the verge, in fact, of America's involvement, making this a journey on the edge that never goes full-out where it needs to be, not quite sure whether to satirize or despise the overall enemy. Had the same plot and, for the time, decent special effects occurred, say, in 1946, this might have been a lot stronger for the characters and audience alike. But what's there to experience is a decent visual page-turner; although it goes in one ear and out the other... The best thing about this TRAIN is the Criterion DVD cover, perhaps the best ever, ever, in their series consisting of some of the best artwork ever, ever created for collectors of vintage motion pictures.<br>

carol reed, double-feature, forties, james mason, rex harrison, thriller

CAROL REED 1940'S THRILLER DOUBLE-FEATURE

year: 1940 NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH : By the time we're on that title train to the title location, the dialogue-driven espionage is pre...

RANT FOR BRANDO KAZAN THREE: ON THE WATERFRONT

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NuGujh4fvL0/Vx2oAVwcZWI/AAAAAAAAsI8/kl0sItG_fJYtoqQAps9C5LNvv7s5QUQ-ACLcB/s1600/2275501396_6e251dc339_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NuGujh4fvL0/Vx2oAVwcZWI/AAAAAAAAsI8/kl0sItG_fJYtoqQAps9C5LNvv7s5QUQ-ACLcB/s640/2275501396_6e251dc339_b.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Marlon Brando turns in a performance of a lifetime, and many other lifetimes, in ON THE WATERFRONT</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Popular cinematic line about not being able to take it anymore and being mad as hell and all that business, but it'll be a cold day in that very same hell before another film is viewed on the big screen of the classic Golden or Silver Age nature when hosted by Robert Osbourne's Bat Faced TCM replacement, who told the audience tonight that it's up to us, we the audience, we the people, to decide whether or not so-and-so is a good movie, or not, after all we've heard during his preamble that, having to do with behind-the-scene elements of an incredible film harboring one of the greatest performances to date, one that the likes of Millennial favorites Leo and Johnny D., and many others, aspire to be... And whose attempt to equal this man's talent, frozen in time and history, is very unlikely...<br>

classic, elia kazan, fifties, marlon brando, tcm

RANT FOR BRANDO KAZAN THREE: ON THE WATERFRONT

Marlon Brando turns in a performance of a lifetime, and many other lifetimes, in ON THE WATERFRONT Popular cinematic line about not bein...

LINKLATER 70'S & 80'S THROWBACK DOUBLE-FEATURE

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3Tu2W6zxhA/VxiZXjf1VvI/AAAAAAAAsEU/Yh8hYUvtND8DG9y9Y_BtjSYDLVntzbAVgCLcB/s1600/13055486_10209473423414913_1030751757676181486_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3Tu2W6zxhA/VxiZXjf1VvI/AAAAAAAAsEU/Yh8hYUvtND8DG9y9Y_BtjSYDLVntzbAVgCLcB/s640/13055486_10209473423414913_1030751757676181486_n.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>DOUBLE FEATURE REVIEW OF DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) & EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (2016)</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> <u><b>DAZED AND CONFUSED</b>:</u> It might have been the 1980's when the tide started to reel back, and kids regarded the decade for what it was, speaking the very word in sentences like: "This is the Eighties," followed by something like, "Don't just stand there chewing on a leaf, take a pill." And that generation, in constantly reminding themselves of who they are and where they were, picking up stuff from a proverbial antique shop of former eras including the streamlined 1950's, the psychedelic 1960's (where the truly great music began), and the decade that Richard Linklater's intentionally unpretentious DAZED AND CONFUSED is set, consisting of a handful of guys and dolls during the last day and night of High School, 1976....<br>

ben affleck, matthew mcconaughey

LINKLATER 70'S & 80'S THROWBACK DOUBLE-FEATURE

DOUBLE FEATURE REVIEW OF DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) & EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (2016) DAZED AND CONFUSED : It might have been the 1980...

LIVE 2 SEE THE DAWN: PRINCE IN PURPLE RAIN

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DNGI2S9Xn6Q/VxnahZ5QT7I/AAAAAAAAsGQ/J5g0Cv0WSwoXOX-zlS7gvwu0MR8OeUvFwCLcB/s1600/13083234_10209480212704641_7675452216067803678_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DNGI2S9Xn6Q/VxnahZ5QT7I/AAAAAAAAsGQ/J5g0Cv0WSwoXOX-zlS7gvwu0MR8OeUvFwCLcB/s640/13083234_10209480212704641_7675452216067803678_n.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Price as The Kid with a spooky puppet looking like The Count and goading his poor bandmates into eerie submission</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> "Dearly beloved... We are gathered here today, to get through this thing called," well since Thursday, April 21st, 2016, what's followed that sentence is instead "this thing called" death, that of a music icon; an eclectic, eccentric, hydrogenous, brilliant and distinguished performer who was around long before hitting it big with 1999, and then, with his band THE REVOLUTION, the album PURPLE RAIN and the likewise titled motion picture put Prince into the legendary stratosphere, relatively early on...<br>

biopic, eighties, morris day, musical, prince

LIVE 2 SEE THE DAWN: PRINCE IN PURPLE RAIN

Price as The Kid with a spooky puppet looking like The Count and goading his poor bandmates into eerie submission "Dearly beloved.....

TOM HANKS STARRING IN HOLOGRAM FOR A KING

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3wrYKOBiLo/Vxm-__76y6I/AAAAAAAAsF4/Y-pIq6wwUT4pEo3_zufkiRbWcyMExbcKwCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-21%2Bat%2B11.02.23%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3wrYKOBiLo/Vxm-__76y6I/AAAAAAAAsF4/Y-pIq6wwUT4pEo3_zufkiRbWcyMExbcKwCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-21%2Bat%2B11.02.23%2BPM.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Thomas of Arabia in Hologram for a King, Release Year: 2016</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> There's a feeling of peace and tranquility when... no, not as yet another American film set in a Middle East/Arab country provides an optimistic, non-terrorist glimpse that Hollywood feels is a necessary means of diplomacy concerning a maligned religion when in fact it's another polar opposite belief-system that gets a perpetually awful rap, since the 1960's, in that place called Tinsel Town: But when a gentle, mellow film abruptly ends before you realize it's even really begun, despite having sat there for a swift ninety-minutes, there's something unique and satisfying as our main character Tom Hanks, whose world-weary company man Alan, along with a handful of employees, traveling from America to Saudi Arabia to sell a Holographic system to, you got it, The King, discovers a giant lump on his back and, eventually, like the trailers already spoiled, there's a romance between Alan and his pretty doctor (more of a "handsome" lady), Sarita Choudhury as Zahra, who has as genuine a chemistry with Hanks as comic relief driver Yousef, sans the romance. Thus, Alexander Black steals a movie that needs stealing since the beloved Tom, at this point, though still embodying that good old unique charm and a genuine ability to wield both an endearing smile and sincere pathos, resembles a cross between W.C. Fields and someone he's always been visually similar to, and who should've, at one point in his long, eclectic career, played his sister: that being GREASE starlet Stockard Channing.<br>

2016, romance, tom hanks

TOM HANKS STARRING IN HOLOGRAM FOR A KING

Thomas of Arabia in Hologram for a King, Release Year: 2016 There's a feeling of peace and tranquility when... no, not as yet anothe...

KEVIN COSTNER & RYAN REYNOLDS IN CRIMINAL

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wSjNJSwwIyo/VxcXOPe3nfI/AAAAAAAAsD4/xvo25mKdBz0EfBTZu3WqdjHqwSvXU6msACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-19%2Bat%2B10.43.59%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="381" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wSjNJSwwIyo/VxcXOPe3nfI/AAAAAAAAsD4/xvo25mKdBz0EfBTZu3WqdjHqwSvXU6msACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-19%2Bat%2B10.43.59%2BPM.png" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Costner resembling an aged Travis Bickle <u>RELEASE YEAR</u>: 2016</td></tr> </tbody></table> Lately, within private circles and treadmill conversations, Cult Film Freak has been accused of writing posts that are long. Not <i>too</i> long, mind you, just... long.<br> <br> Well that doesn't concern reviews but "articles" about old classic films since it's downright ludicrous to, at this point where any "old school" motion picture has their own dedicated following with books and websites and just about everything else, making just another review about them, just another review: But we'll keep this one, like most of the new release write-ups, short and to the point even though the movie itself doesn't seem to have a point, followable plot, or purpose. Just a few otherwise talented old actors and one young A-list star who recently got his mojo back as the sarcastic superhero DEADPOOL (while ironically, MAN OF STEEL didn't hurt a fledgling Costner). And where Ryan Reynolds fits within the Kevin Costner vehicle is as mysterious as Kevin's own role as a really bad dude, sounding a cross between Kurt Russell's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK anti-hero Snake Plissken and the man Snake's based on, Clint Eastwood. And yet, by the plot summary alone it's clear that Ryan's an FBI agent whose memories are placed into Costner's CRIMINAL mind, and from this point he and the audience slowly learn that... prepare for a shock coming from Hollywood... the CIA is as crooked as a barrel of venomous rattlers: Seriously, at what point does a Revelation become a timeworn cliché?<br>

2016, gary oldman, kevin costner, ryan reynolds, thriller, tommy lee jones

KEVIN COSTNER & RYAN REYNOLDS IN CRIMINAL

Costner resembling an aged Travis Bickle RELEASE YEAR : 2016 Lately, within private circles and treadmill conversations, Cult Film Freak...

BURTON TO SCHUMACHER: BATMAN MOVIE QUARTET

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vjrX5mPWlS0/VxKH3QDLayI/AAAAAAAAsAI/qH8WexPYOZsAj2PsMHI-Gs5Ja_piHeZDACLcB/s1600/00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vjrX5mPWlS0/VxKH3QDLayI/AAAAAAAAsAI/qH8WexPYOZsAj2PsMHI-Gs5Ja_piHeZDACLcB/s400/00.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Tim Burton and Joel Shumaker BATMAN Foursome Reviews 1989-97</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Like he was set to do APOCALYPSE THEN with the rights to Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS before switching gears into CITIZEN KANE, which made him and broke him before the age of twenty-six, Orson Welles was inspired to put BATMAN on the big screen long before Tim Burton pulled it off legitimately (director Lambert Hillyer wound up making the 1949 oldie). Orson shared with fellow director Peter Bogdanovich that at one point, he wanted to make a film where he, Welles, not only directed, but played The Joker to Gregory Peck's Caped Crusader, which would have been truly awesome, indeed. But the superhero eventually gained flight in the corny but classic POW! of a television series starring Adam West, an actor so befitting the square-jawed role he hardly turned up in anything else... except autograph shows where he reigned in Hell, as it were, thereafter.<br>

comic book, eighties, franchise, jack nicholson, kim basinger, michael gough, michael keaton, tim burton

BURTON TO SCHUMACHER: BATMAN MOVIE QUARTET

Tim Burton and Joel Shumaker BATMAN Foursome Reviews 1989-97 Like he was set to do APOCALYPSE THEN with the rights to Joseph Conrad'...

RON ELY & ROBYN HILTON IN DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N1YVB3fqFoU/VxC4zA7CABI/AAAAAAAAr_g/GFN8PC5iTJ8JdvCxyv69xuili6kV6w8swCKgB/s1600/33.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N1YVB3fqFoU/VxC4zA7CABI/AAAAAAAAr_g/GFN8PC5iTJ8JdvCxyv69xuili6kV6w8swCKgB/s400/33.png" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ron Ely in the pulpy adventure of Doc Savage YEAR: 1976</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Just when you thought you'd seen everything, up comes something you missed because of being too young at the time and then, older, you discover a curio that epitomizes lost cult phenomena...<br> <br> <div style="text-align: right;"> </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yegla-Ans5E/VxC1_cxOfWI/AAAAAAAAr90/mSdLiYg2eS08MpfCjTk_hTC7YZoAMa4fQCKgB/s1600/1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yegla-Ans5E/VxC1_cxOfWI/AAAAAAAAr90/mSdLiYg2eS08MpfCjTk_hTC7YZoAMa4fQCKgB/s200/1.png" width="157"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robyn Hilton</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> For DOC SAVAGE, the last film backed by the original WAR OF THE WORLDS producer George Pal and directed by Michael Anderson before the beloved LOGAN'S RUN and maligned MARTIAN CHRONICLES, is almost beyond words, centering on TARZAN stud Ron Ely playing a scientist just as smart as he's fit and equally tough and well-read and who, along with five partners including muscular construction developer William Lucking and young BREAKFAST CLUB detention lord and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/02/VForce.html">VIGILANTE FORCE</a> thug Paul Gleason as a few of the men under Doc's supervision that really don't do much but marvel at boss's glory, which includes gadgetry the likes of the then-popular Roger Moore James Bond films, and fight scenes trying for the Kung Fu craze and mirroring just about everything the drive-in 70's had to offer and, although theatrical, SAVAGE plays out like the pilot episode of a television series that never came to be (a sequel was mostly filmed and then scrapped following poor box office returns), with a low-voiced, antique radio SHADOW style narrator basking in what sounds like intentional camp yet Ely's ultra-serious nature within the plot-line, trying to find out how his father was killed in South America while being toyed with by an intentionally charming villain named Captain Seas, wherein the late Paul Wexler looks so much like the Stanley Kubrick and John Cassavetes stock actor (and beyond) Timothy Carey, if you narrow your eyes it's as if Carey were, actually, during the KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE era, right on board...<br>

action, camp, darrell zwirling, ensemble, janice heiden, pamela hensley, paul gleason, paul wexler, pulp, robyn hilton, ron ely, seventies, william lucking

RON ELY & ROBYN HILTON IN DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE

Ron Ely in the pulpy adventure of Doc Savage YEAR: 1976 Just when you thought you'd seen everything, up comes something you missed b...

DISNEY REBOOTS THE JUNGLE BOOK

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3oOKBQBTb9s/VxB36rPZRYI/AAAAAAAAr8k/KEh5T3BNjGM6oh_BWOmfGjaGSt4l8APJACLcB/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3oOKBQBTb9s/VxB36rPZRYI/AAAAAAAAr8k/KEh5T3BNjGM6oh_BWOmfGjaGSt4l8APJACLcB/s640/0.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Computers take place of hand-drawn animation in the reboot of the Disney classic THE JUNGLE BOOK circa 2016</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Most people will remember the original Disney JUNGLE BOOK by one character and one name and one color. A blue bear named Baloo, and here he's as brown as any big Grizzly, looking like the real deal with CGI that fits the entire canvas, only now, with the voice of Bill Murray, Baloo not only seems the most genuine of all the animals, he steals the show in a mellow, unforced fashion, providing not only comic relief but a gentle break from the routine...<br>

2016, bill murray, disney, kids

DISNEY REBOOTS THE JUNGLE BOOK

Computers take place of hand-drawn animation in the reboot of the Disney classic THE JUNGLE BOOK circa 2016 Most people will remember th...

BAD LONGER VERSION OF MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bXh60gEZ6fM/VxXZKa_y4zI/AAAAAAAAsDc/3aPyMMt75FwmYfM3tLpz962vY5C5hbrggCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-19%2Bat%2B12.04.18%2BAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bXh60gEZ6fM/VxXZKa_y4zI/AAAAAAAAsDc/3aPyMMt75FwmYfM3tLpz962vY5C5hbrggCLcB/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-19%2Bat%2B12.04.18%2BAM.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Review of the much too extended version of IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD before having seen the original</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> AN IMPORTANT NOTE before reading this review... IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD MAD WORLD was viewed, for the very first time, on the big screen in a retro theater, just last week, and it was the version that is reviewed below, which was written before even realizing there was a much. much. much, much better original version at all...<br> <br> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EWZX2HcOX1M/VxXZ7_ViVYI/AAAAAAAAsDk/rt6457nX3Yk1gUX96f2fDYhl8mYEGEbxwCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-19%2Bat%2B12.05.50%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EWZX2HcOX1M/VxXZ7_ViVYI/AAAAAAAAsDk/rt6457nX3Yk1gUX96f2fDYhl8mYEGEbxwCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-19%2Bat%2B12.05.50%2BAM.png" width="201"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"What's in the bawwwwwx?"</td></tr> </tbody></table> Thus, the film is torn apart for an abundance of flaws, and yet now, after ordering the beautiful Criterion Blu Ray/DVD package, and watching the ORIGINAL THEATRICAL CUT, it's like experiencing an entirely different motion picture, one that actually has wonderful, flowing motion instead of sinking slowly into proverbial quicksand for nearly three overlong hours...<br> <br> Getting the plot and misadventure underway in five minutes instead of twenty is one of many changes... Again, like just mentioned, yours truly had no idea there was an extended edition, and why, if playing classic old movies in theaters, would the "Director's Cut" or "Extended Edition" be shown instead of the one originally viewed on the big screen to audiences seeing it for the first time? (Same thing happened with GOOD BAD UGLY... promoting the original but instead showing the one where scenes, like Tuco with the chickens, are added with a completely different film stock). In that, newcomers to MAD WORLD should see the original theatrical version just like people did in 1963, without the Director or Studio, or whoever is responsible for this catastrophe trying to improve upon a Classic: Being too close to the material at hand, there seems to be no realization that what's left out is, in fact, shown even more clearly by not having it there at all. For this is where the viewer's imagination comes in, which is what makes a film worth watching, again and again and again. And, so, before journeying through this writeup, note that the long, long, long, long version is downright horrible while the original is absolutely fantastic... Scenes that cut to lead to others are extended to the point that when you reach the next scene you forget about why there was a last scene... And so much time's spent talking there's simply no adventure or journey happening at all... So there you have it... Alas, since the Landmark Presentation Series decided to overindulge modern audiences with a piece much different than what made it truly shine and memorable and incredible way back when, that's what this somewhat negative review is centered on... Passing the buck, but with reason... Thus the...<br> <br> <u>REVIEW OF THE EXTENDED CUT BEGINS HERE</u>: Many films have followed the heels and back bumpers of IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD... That's four MAD's for four cars, at first, whose inhabitants witness another car drive off a cliff and a whispered, dying man's secret – like a few years later would happen to Clint Eastwood against poor Elli Wallach in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY – is heard by a couple of fellas: Yet soon enough their women and a few others catch wind of a race to find a bunch of loot buried underneath a mysterious, unknown "W"...<br>

buddy hackett, car, ensemble, jonathan winters, milton berle, race, sid caesar, sixties, stanley kramer

BAD LONGER VERSION OF MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD

Review of the much too extended version of IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD before having seen the original AN IMPORTANT NOTE before ...

MELISSA MCCARTHY & KRISTEN BELL IN THE BOSS

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t458zDj6lwg/Vw3QfqaoBEI/AAAAAAAAr64/SdP7N4UBAnYrfSq3y-kMO3Yn3JJw47OjgCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-12%2Bat%2B9.50.25%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t458zDj6lwg/Vw3QfqaoBEI/AAAAAAAAr64/SdP7N4UBAnYrfSq3y-kMO3Yn3JJw47OjgCLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-12%2Bat%2B9.50.25%2BPM.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here are the only two good things about THE BOSS... Bell's breasts...</td></tr> </tbody></table> A movie that works in reverse, and yet, doesn't really work at all, THE BOSS stars Melissa McCarthy as, you got it, an overweight (though not <i>as </i>overweight) bitch who doesn't take crap from anybody. Sound familiar?<br> <br> And here, like most of her other ventures after hitting the A-list from BRIDESMAIDS, the overall punchline revolves around her title character who, in this case, after growing up in an orphanage (seen in a short prologue), McCarthy's Michelle Darnell becomes really, really rich... Something that's supposed to mean everything, and yet we only witness her reign of (abuse of) power in two relatively quick scenes, and during one she's giving a speech to a horde of fans who love her for... what exactly? Did we miss something? Is this a sequel?<br>

2016, comedy, kristen bell, melissa mccarthy, team-up

MELISSA MCCARTHY & KRISTEN BELL IN THE BOSS

Here are the only two good things about THE BOSS... Bell's breasts... A movie that works in reverse, and yet, doesn't really wor...

STRAND YOUR GROUND IN FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g8dzpHGgQNk/VwyEmzn_y5I/AAAAAAAAr6c/m55y07SrEXYiobePzfEmG8lGkUIAGUrfwCLcB/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g8dzpHGgQNk/VwyEmzn_y5I/AAAAAAAAr6c/m55y07SrEXYiobePzfEmG8lGkUIAGUrfwCLcB/s640/1.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Victor Strand playing with an empty head in FEAR THE WALKING DEAD Season One, and he's progressed in Season 2..</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Victor Strand played by Colman Domingo. Right on, bro! Is it racist to enjoy seeing an old school black dude on a series that really needed an, um, old school black dude? Seeming from the 1970's blaxploitation genre, lean and mean and swift and cool, Strand takes us back to basics and, putting color aside, his character is, so far, the best on FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, which began on pretty decent ground, at the beginning of Season Two, by simply getting off it...<br> <div> </div>

2016, cable, colman domingo, horror, TV, zombies

STRAND YOUR GROUND IN FEAR THE WALKING DEAD

Victor Strand playing with an empty head in FEAR THE WALKING DEAD Season One, and he's progressed in Season 2.. Victor Strand played...

HUGHES SANS BRATS IN SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g5AWv0SYnfM/Vwuc7sGktRI/AAAAAAAAr5A/4Br5YoWs1Gk9NHd0oTH86CBDmd6WMYtiw/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g5AWv0SYnfM/Vwuc7sGktRI/AAAAAAAAr5A/4Br5YoWs1Gk9NHd0oTH86CBDmd6WMYtiw/s640/0.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The beautiful Mary Stuart Masterson is the Master of the credit title sequence in SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> By the time SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL hit theaters, and thereafter looped on afternoon cable television, John Hughes had already been a household name, and within his wheelhouse of motion pictures, including those he didn't direct but served as producer and, most important, writer, involving awkward kids with more secret confidence than the popular jerks whose open campus stardom has to do with good looks and money, and not in that order...<br>

comedy, eighties, eric stoltz, high school, john ashton, john hughes, lea thompson, mary stuart masterson, teen

HUGHES SANS BRATS IN SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL

The beautiful Mary Stuart Masterson is the Master of the credit title sequence in SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL By the time SOME KIND OF WONDER...

CHRIS COLLET FIRSTBORN, PETER WELLER MOVING IN

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZpJkyAzEajg/VwriaXzsv7I/AAAAAAAAr4c/6xkPG6diciIMr1S73uS08u-onfbDTse6w/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZpJkyAzEajg/VwriaXzsv7I/AAAAAAAAr4c/6xkPG6diciIMr1S73uS08u-onfbDTse6w/s400/1.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter Weller doesn't trust no one and holds all the cards in FIRSTBORN</td></tr> </tbody></table> One of the best performances by an actor, soon be known as a metallic-robotic cop for the rest of his career after traveling the 8TH DIMENSION, Peter Weller downright nails it as Sam, who is MOVING IN, the original title or some kind of alternate for FIRSTBORN, with a family that has a mother, a youngest son and of course, the oldest, which the real title explains right up front: In the part of Jake, Christopher Collet seems, in a way, sort of related to his "poor me" mom's new nefarious yet at first just sneaky, "bullshit-artist" boyfriend in that both have facial expressions that don't take much dialogue to get across what becomes a similar (and perhaps overused) standoff scenario screaming "I don't like you and you don't like me!" This line, never spoken, could go either way. Both Collet and Weller are facially-intense, bubbling juicy pride and determination from the pours of their skin, with expressions that mount like ticking time bombs, again and again. And never in a film has there been so many people just kind of, standing around. Wherein, surprisingly enough, that's where much of the "action" occurs.<br>

christopher collet, corey haim, eighties, peter weller, robert downey jr., suspense, teri garr

CHRIS COLLET FIRSTBORN, PETER WELLER MOVING IN

Peter Weller doesn't trust no one and holds all the cards in FIRSTBORN One of the best performances by an actor, soon be known as a ...

CLINT EASTWOOD IN BRONCO BILLY

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_9TxfjuT59U/VwXu9ST14QI/AAAAAAAAr2Y/yhEJnLP1hQokcVYvsdOLjHYsEwac5hNZA/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_9TxfjuT59U/VwXu9ST14QI/AAAAAAAAr2Y/yhEJnLP1hQokcVYvsdOLjHYsEwac5hNZA/s1600/0.jpg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>One of Clint Eastwood's best and most underrated movies, a writeup on BRONCO BILLY co-starring Sondra Locke</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> At one time this was Clint Eastwood's favorite movie directed and starring, Clint Eastwood. Not sure if that's changed from when the statement was originally, stated, by the man who has directed plenty... But for Cult Film Freak it holds up as completely logical and legit, still...<br>

clint eastwood, eighties, sondra locke

CLINT EASTWOOD IN BRONCO BILLY

One of Clint Eastwood's best and most underrated movies, a writeup on BRONCO BILLY co-starring Sondra Locke At one time this was Cli...

SAUL AND WALKING DEAD RACE THEIR OWN DEVILS

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tc80HMdro-U/VwSyt_z1xrI/AAAAAAAAr1o/pmAloyZz9NIhUWkzA5I1gPUagEnHRTMoQ/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tc80HMdro-U/VwSyt_z1xrI/AAAAAAAAr1o/pmAloyZz9NIhUWkzA5I1gPUagEnHRTMoQ/s640/1.jpg" width="640"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Downey Bardeem has an idea, and it's probably that he's gonna be Rick's biggest WALKING DEAD foe</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> It could have been one of the best episodes of BETTER CALL SAUL last week, for the fact that Michael McKean, as super-lawyer turned super-crazy Chuck McGill, finally stops being a "human potato," really, truly, and strategically shedding that vapid foil blanket to get his big client back from Rhea Seehorn's idealistic good-lawyer Kim Wexler in a brilliant way that perhaps now we know only Michael McKean, the actor that began as one of two dumb-bells upstairs and then progressed into a fake rock god and played thereafter countless thankless roles, can...<br>

2016, cable, TV

SAUL AND WALKING DEAD RACE THEIR OWN DEVILS

Robert Downey Bardeem has an idea, and it's probably that he's gonna be Rick's biggest WALKING DEAD foe It could have been o...

GREED & MONEY RULE OLIVER STONE'S WALL STREET

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L7mHnnZW87Q/VwB3Y3sAB0I/AAAAAAAAryo/Q9sb0KpY0xIb7VOjI6EBtyzcIYmcfMVag/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L7mHnnZW87Q/VwB3Y3sAB0I/AAAAAAAAryo/Q9sb0KpY0xIb7VOjI6EBtyzcIYmcfMVag/s400/0.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of Gordon Gekko's paintings he won't take a bath on</td></tr> </tbody></table> Oliver Stone didn't win an Academy Award for writing and/or directing WALL STREET. His Vietnam opus PLATOON was the anticipated Gold Statue followup to his Best Screenplay for MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, which got the ball rolling a decade earlier. And having been an American soldier in Vietnam, PLATOON was his canvas to paint, and everyone knew it then and still does...<br /> <br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eAUK5C9GSoA/VwB4B7zIn0I/AAAAAAAAry0/DejllulSuaEwu9FNpKoeJAy21aXWH2wPg/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eAUK5C9GSoA/VwB4B7zIn0I/AAAAAAAAry0/DejllulSuaEwu9FNpKoeJAy21aXWH2wPg/s400/6.jpg" width="131" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Painting and Douglas</td></tr> </tbody></table> And yet, accolades were and still are very few concerning WALL STREET, giving props to Best Actor Winning Michael Douglas as the iconic Gordon Gekko, a Corporate Raider whose "Greed" speech was as important to his victory as, in a few years, Joe Pesci's barroom clown lecture would be. It's often that that <i>one scene</i> seems to usually nail it. But according to both Stone and Douglas, they weren't the best of friends: On the first day, the director asked the big-named actor... on a tremendous roll after ROMANCING THE STONE and FATAL ATTRACTION cleared memory of his STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO television status... if this were a motion picture or soap opera? And while it's never been disclosed exactly what scene in particular Stone referred to, it just might have had to do with playing a villain in a noticeably villainous fashion: The worst kind of cinematic bad guys (or girls) are the ones who seem like nothing else in the process, and with no pulse pumping in-between: as if instead of eating breakfast in the morning they meditate in perpetual darkness...<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CFzVwOamf2A/VwB_22O8FnI/AAAAAAAAr0U/EkSpaxCHUIYGlQpJHELzE9kLf1Z1Xx4fA/s1600/2132.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CFzVwOamf2A/VwB_22O8FnI/AAAAAAAAr0U/EkSpaxCHUIYGlQpJHELzE9kLf1Z1Xx4fA/s400/2132.jpg" width="190" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Real life father/son Sheen</td></tr> </tbody></table> In fact, Douglas's best moments are bringing a sort of genuinely "twisted" humanity to this film's first-billed star, wonderfully playing the ultimate heavy against a lightweight climber in Stone's PLATOON leading young man, Charlie Sheen as Bud Fox, who sells his soul more convincingly by, in this case, using info on his father's union/airlines, than actual Faustian-inspired tales set in the modern world, like, for instance, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE, which this is not only much better than but seems the cinematic origin/inspiration of... For Douglas, at first... instead of harboring the intensity of some demonic manipulator... he's more like a deer springing gleefully through a forest as Fox's motivation isn't to equal that impossible stride, but to follow the heels upon which is tragically predicted an unlucky outcome by dad Martin Sheen in a terrific father/son (mostly one shot) scene within a silent elevator going down as Martin plays better than he speaks, often spouting blue collar values as if Stone were kissing his typewriter with every punch of the keys. And yet, shocking for a writer/director with a heart usually soaking on his sleeves, and with all the "good greed" abounding during the Reagan era (that baby boomers preferred to call selfish instead of prosperous), this movie is, surprisingly, far more ambiguous than one might think, and that, other than the actor, is what makes Gordon Gekko so timeless... beneath all his money that never runs out, he really is a climber that only knows to move forward, without looking back – traits embracing any intrepid motion picture hero as opposed to a villain.<br /> <br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7EXZp8ByU7A/VwB4Qgd3-EI/AAAAAAAAry8/L5WM51-uZd0AzDHIUDGnKVjgGHLLMrBow/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7EXZp8ByU7A/VwB4Qgd3-EI/AAAAAAAAry8/L5WM51-uZd0AzDHIUDGnKVjgGHLLMrBow/s320/2.jpg" width="221" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bud Fox is born to be lectured/mentored</td></tr> </tbody></table> And taking a glimpse into the director's personal history, this movie was to Oliver Stone's youth what PLATOON was to his slightly older (yet still young) years; his dad was a hard-working Right Wing stockbroker and, in that, is who Hal Holbrook's friendly yet lecturing, waiting and wisely anticipating office broker Lou Mannheim is inspired: on par with Martin Sheen's "work hard without taking shortcuts" virtues and, despite having backed Nixon in the early-1970's and cruising along on a nowhere road in the same office for decades, he sees through Fox even before dad does, and also, doesn't trust money or Bud's foreknowledge of it, one bit.<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_mGBGR_OFsY/VwB_BVbfc3I/AAAAAAAAr0A/axd92VT-YnMxnJ9bsGyEs6GoopQwetESA/s1600/666.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_mGBGR_OFsY/VwB_BVbfc3I/AAAAAAAAr0A/axd92VT-YnMxnJ9bsGyEs6GoopQwetESA/s400/666.jpg" width="203" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Karen pouncing Fox</td></tr> </tbody></table> A film that never stops entertaining, the value is in the "action" of the first half as Sheen goes from put-upon cold-caller in a relatively mediocre firm, bringing you into the caged, hectic setting and, like Bud, wanting out despite the great actors and flowing dialogue; to being a crooked investigative underling, following his prime target (Terrence Stamp, dammit!) on a motorcycle while thinking up ways to cut corners to bring info and money back to his boss; while the suspense lies with equal momentum the rest of the way through, as Fox rides the tail-wind of success to what could be his own "abyss"...<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, grooving throughout the good times and bad is a non-dated yet still completely discernible 1980's soundtrack, highlighted by several David Byrne Talking Head tunes that the techno main theme plays variations of in-between, sounding as if one of those old black and green computer screens magically played music all by themselves, somehow, like a pianola for determined, workaholic yuppies in rhythmic repose. And there are corny moments, that Stone is often prone to in any of his projects, like an exhausted Fox looking out his million dollar penthouse window whispering to himself, "Who Am I?" as interior designing "trophy" girlfriend Daryl Hannah as Darien, equally vulnerable and desirable (who also butted heads with Stone), waits in a large bed, the set bathed in a sort of ominous glow, like Hell itself anticipates their every move.<br /> <br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IGEqn-G6GWY/VwCtCTbl-aI/AAAAAAAAr1Y/APEeV1tx89INtcn1zf3cozWYgCFsSjA1w/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-02%2Bat%2B10.39.30%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IGEqn-G6GWY/VwCtCTbl-aI/AAAAAAAAr1Y/APEeV1tx89INtcn1zf3cozWYgCFsSjA1w/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-02%2Bat%2B10.39.30%2BPM.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picturing Wall Street Life</td></tr> </tbody></table> And to cover some other... contrived moments: One scene shows a bum with a shopping cart, and a stalwart businessman, standing together in the rain, on a street corner, as limo-cruising Gekko makes a point, literally pointing-out to Bud about their contrast: both just happening to be standing there, like an earlier scene in a club locker room where, as Gekko tells Fox about the importance of acquiring information, a guy conveniently walks up and quietly asks Gordon for an illicit stock tip...<br /> <br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3wguF-LhiQA/VwB4nps2qJI/AAAAAAAArzM/nbajiB2hpJAVPUH6fMVfNBFWt1hB72rwA/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3wguF-LhiQA/VwB4nps2qJI/AAAAAAAArzM/nbajiB2hpJAVPUH6fMVfNBFWt1hB72rwA/s400/12.jpg" width="172" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Unfairly Unbalanced Fox</td></tr> </tbody></table> These things seem straight out of a play, or perhaps a coloring book, but somehow it's an old-fashion, dime-novel or even Film Noir approach that works. And returning to Bud's "Who am I?" moment, occurring just when hitting his stride (and literally after peaking sexually following a fantastic meal), would he realize he lost his soul so quickly and/or even care at all? Stone mentions this moment during a great commentary track on the DVD, discussing and often defending a movie that most critics saw as a potential yet pale followup to his "greatest motion picture achievement," PLATOON, which is, really, if you look closely at Charlie Sheen's duo mentors... both obvious in their agendas... is completely the reverse of within a far more subtle WALL STREET...<br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: right;"> </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L9narJxgurI/VwB4vwjzqdI/AAAAAAAArzU/uGgZTQgvlH0YFSK36RMFAxmjvc2MK506w/s1600/99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L9narJxgurI/VwB4vwjzqdI/AAAAAAAArzU/uGgZTQgvlH0YFSK36RMFAxmjvc2MK506w/s640/99.jpg" width="184" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More Smoking of Winston Cigs</td></tr> </tbody></table> Gekko is what he is the whole way through, and the genuine acting triumph lies far beyond just one of those performances that exceeds the film itself, which WALL STREET, to many, is the epitome of, and yet is very far from being. Working backwards here, from the 1980's to the 1990's, using Quentin Tarantino as a comparison: while the sublime Vietnam flick was Stone's PULP FICTION, exploding with epic grandiose while putting him on both the Hollywood and Household map, this is more of a grounded-in JACKIE BROWN, paying more laid-back attention to the devil than the details. For any fans of the John Landis comedy TRADING PLACES knows, the convoluted work going on with the actual Stock Market "Floor Traders" makes little to no sense to the audience, no matter how many times viewed: You just have to go with it, and let the characters make more sense to the story – beyond what they're actually doing.<br /> <br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-weo3A-erFR8/VwCqcs2q_bI/AAAAAAAAr1I/dUFkKaI1hvA8JD6RSVrqKuZ3e37gsSY3w/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-02%2Bat%2B10.26.32%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-weo3A-erFR8/VwCqcs2q_bI/AAAAAAAAr1I/dUFkKaI1hvA8JD6RSVrqKuZ3e37gsSY3w/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-04-02%2Bat%2B10.26.32%2BPM.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JCM Rules</td></tr> </tbody></table> <u><b>RATING</b></u>: ****1/2<br /> <b><u>TRIVIA</u></b>: Most of the information has been already mentioned, as you should see this movie on DVD or BLU RAY to hear the terrific director commentary that covers a whole lot of ground, but there are still things to take notice of: Like Oliver Stone himself in a cameo as a broker... His son, who played a young, plump, dead-Indian watching Jim Morrison later in THE DOORS, plays Gekko's son... While the usually villainous greedy yuppie type James Spader plays a nice cautious fella with no guts while the equally jerk-off casted Sal Rubinek, as Gekko's lawyer, is in his usual weenie form... And not only is Sheen returning from Vietnam in PLATOON, but scene-stealer (in both films) John C. McGinley also returns, playing Bud's best friend/partner in the cold-calling firm run by an always-watchable James Karen, the Murray Hamilton of POLTERGEIST... In another small role, this a cameo, THE SHOOTING starlet, and the first cinematic Anne Frank, that being, Millie Perkins, turns up as Bud's mom while Sean Young has an even more (or rather, less) wasted potential as Gekko's wife, and yet her scenes are intriguing and realistic, as usual with the controversial yet talented and beautiful actress... Martin Scorsese regular goon Frank Adonis plays one of the blue collar root-for characters... Franklin Cover, best known as "the white guy married to Lenny Kravitz's mom" on THE JEFFERSONS turns up in one of his few movie roles • And the eerie portrait at the very top of this article/review, that Bud says would only be worthwhile "If you're on mushrooms," is one of the many modern paintings that Hannah's character bought with either Gekko or Fox's dough.<br /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ISYtEdp9a3o/VwCnoBItntI/AAAAAAAAr0w/kLlm8-eLjqQCLBauzOD77tx071WZ80EMw/s1600/111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ISYtEdp9a3o/VwCnoBItntI/AAAAAAAAr0w/kLlm8-eLjqQCLBauzOD77tx071WZ80EMw/s640/111.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wide Shot of Gekko's War Room including a painting of the GHOST demons and what look like pinball machines</td></tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nIXcNu5Z6k4/VwCnn9WsV6I/AAAAAAAAr0s/2hXrxcLPobQQjpVqzSAm8mTCpuq9PCbRA/s1600/112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nIXcNu5Z6k4/VwCnn9WsV6I/AAAAAAAAr0s/2hXrxcLPobQQjpVqzSAm8mTCpuq9PCbRA/s640/112.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You're fired, but maybe you can talk the networks into a possible Jeffersons spin-off called... The Zebra Bunch."</td></tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FJxNuXnjd0g/VwCnn3pOkGI/AAAAAAAAr0o/xeAU76J6uyw254fEsZQX3ljYOAo5HbmJQ/s1600/113.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FJxNuXnjd0g/VwCnn3pOkGI/AAAAAAAAr0o/xeAU76J6uyw254fEsZQX3ljYOAo5HbmJQ/s640/113.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's a shot of the famous, or infamous, GREED IS GOOD scene, and to Wall Street, and Hollywood, it's Truth.</td></tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUcDTsSXltc/VwCno4v4duI/AAAAAAAAr00/47fzrtrae-oaZiMyh-rGtdSKkXQvhhQgw/s1600/114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uUcDTsSXltc/VwCno4v4duI/AAAAAAAAr00/47fzrtrae-oaZiMyh-rGtdSKkXQvhhQgw/s640/114.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very great scene between Martin & Charlie Sheen, both who <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2012/11/fifteen-main-characters-denied-top.html">starred in popular Vietnam Flicks</a></td></tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qJ0K0ZRQ7dk/VwCnpD_bNfI/AAAAAAAAr04/jBzqxhS3PX4YA54Q1aGDaPmw-UAVeKvFg/s1600/115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="346" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qJ0K0ZRQ7dk/VwCnpD_bNfI/AAAAAAAAr04/jBzqxhS3PX4YA54Q1aGDaPmw-UAVeKvFg/s640/115.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daryl, it could be worse news, believe us, wait a few years, Charlie just couldn't stop... And he's not winning.</td></tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_zb6aXyYjBs/VwB47JOzoII/AAAAAAAArzc/K80OlkrntwwHFkEcJCKNCL_wW2DE-eibw/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_zb6aXyYjBs/VwB47JOzoII/AAAAAAAArzc/K80OlkrntwwHFkEcJCKNCL_wW2DE-eibw/s640/1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice use of what was popular during the 1960's and 1970's, Split-Screen Cinematography featuring Sean Young</td></tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tL2rOuyEZi4/VwB5AVkmQFI/AAAAAAAArzg/fNc64b4LduojD-rYD8lBJnSRCUSoRFJjw/s1600/77.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tL2rOuyEZi4/VwB5AVkmQFI/AAAAAAAArzg/fNc64b4LduojD-rYD8lBJnSRCUSoRFJjw/s640/77.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Canvas that provides THE END closing credits layout and father dedication for WALL STREET</td></tr> </tbody></table>

charlie sheen, daryl hannah, eighties, michael douglas, oliver stone, oscars, stock market

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action, michael beck, michelle monaghan, quentin tarantino, quirky, robert downey jr., shane black, team-up

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