MARTIN SHEEN IN JOHN SCHLESINGER'S THRILLER 'THE BELIEVERS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqsoMk2VDtrq5X3YHc8_cISl8HdZWW7pmWBnfVVxcxftrC2gWBmQd2KhGrbclZw-lpL6EN7nSxPmTIKqGSEiuTTn-ps3hmvCp6S8cB0Ihg2pSsRiCb_IXXpJ2Vw8RMHoomzm7IUHeshn-8zFu_6qiufiUS-vjeSbcyJ1KrQhDzaxXv17kWb0Jb-W2SecKg/s1074/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-04%20at%204.03.23%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="636" data-original-width="1074" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqsoMk2VDtrq5X3YHc8_cISl8HdZWW7pmWBnfVVxcxftrC2gWBmQd2KhGrbclZw-lpL6EN7nSxPmTIKqGSEiuTTn-ps3hmvCp6S8cB0Ihg2pSsRiCb_IXXpJ2Vw8RMHoomzm7IUHeshn-8zFu_6qiufiUS-vjeSbcyJ1KrQhDzaxXv17kWb0Jb-W2SecKg/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-04%20at%204.03.23%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Martin Sheen and Harley Cross in THE BELIEVERS Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The last time Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger put a short and intense method actor through the relatively slow-burn, thriller-genre ringer was Dustin Hoffman in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/06/MM.html">MARATHON MAN</a>...</p><p>Which is similar to 1987's thriller-horror hybrid THE BELIEVERS in that Martin Sheen, ironically jogging at the opening of the film... playing a shrink for troubled, unhinged cops... is up against something much bigger than he had initially realized: for Hoffman it's a Neo Nazi diamond-thief and for Sheen a New York City voodoo cult are sacrificing children — and his own son could be next... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

eighties, horror, jimmy smits, john schlesinger, martin sheen, robert loggia, suspense, thriller

MARTIN SHEEN IN JOHN SCHLESINGER'S THRILLER 'THE BELIEVERS'

Martin Sheen and Harley Cross in THE BELIEVERS Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2 The last time Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger put a short a...

MEMORIAL FOR 'APOCALYPSE NOW' LEGEND FREDERIC FORREST

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3UeBvtDfWDNUtL7i0YWsYVPe5l17pz2A-Xa2o7CO0mr249sUIzb1ZXau6CDydm8HUC-KmEnyjeGimJnNEBMLOtfmGQpWqNQBC9q9-A9s3xoKwbGHE7hoOsGlwRFZLsrOx4esoMB_-sPiEpk_0S7To5YTp7JJWLp02CZEfrK5uoo209dH9M3qc_SPxyOf/s2380/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%202.47.36%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="2380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw3UeBvtDfWDNUtL7i0YWsYVPe5l17pz2A-Xa2o7CO0mr249sUIzb1ZXau6CDydm8HUC-KmEnyjeGimJnNEBMLOtfmGQpWqNQBC9q9-A9s3xoKwbGHE7hoOsGlwRFZLsrOx4esoMB_-sPiEpk_0S7To5YTp7JJWLp02CZEfrK5uoo209dH9M3qc_SPxyOf/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%202.47.36%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Memorial for Frederic Forrest as Chef in Apocalypse Now</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam epic APOCALYPSE NOW, by the time Martin Sheen's Captain Willard reveals to one of two surviving PBR-boat crewman about his secret mission to kill Marlon Brando's rogue American Colonel Kurtz, Coppola's THE CONVERSATION actor Frederic Forrest loudly rails against the insane irony of risking <i>and losing</i> lives to "kill one of our own guys"...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And yet this imperative dialogue is heard either off-screen or in a peripheral wide-shot as, from beginning to end, Forrest's Jay "Chef" Hicks provides a foreboding backbone to each intense scene like, earlier on, when he and Sheen are chased by a jungle tiger, leading to Chef's explosive breakdown that soon fades out with the scene...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

2023, dennis hopper, francis ford coppola, frederic forrest, martin sheen, memorial, sam bottoms, seventies, vietnam, war

MEMORIAL FOR 'APOCALYPSE NOW' LEGEND FREDERIC FORREST

Memorial for Frederic Forrest as Chef in Apocalypse Now In Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam epic APOCALYPSE NOW, by the time Martin S...

MARTIN SHEEN WITH KIRK DOUGLAS IN 'THE FINAL COUNTDOWN'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCO6iy6v2UMbvXWH2e0zsCSTIb19CRBFlAdJjhsw9DI2xeMy-_s98P-S6vhHvXGXIlAgWPDW6CEdcpdyEnMt0elEUaGz9jhfzRtH9i0KxPTd9N3rRX_Qv8m7K2XmV_op7FRblr6hyphenhyphenAx-9F/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+4.40.07+PM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1483" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCO6iy6v2UMbvXWH2e0zsCSTIb19CRBFlAdJjhsw9DI2xeMy-_s98P-S6vhHvXGXIlAgWPDW6CEdcpdyEnMt0elEUaGz9jhfzRtH9i0KxPTd9N3rRX_Qv8m7K2XmV_op7FRblr6hyphenhyphenAx-9F/s400/Screen+Shot+2019-09-25+at+4.40.07+PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lightning strikes upon THE FINAL COUNTDOWN Year: 1980</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> THE TWILIGHT ZONE didn't work in the hour format, and THE FINAL COUNTDOWN is basically a Zone episode that lasts two hours, yet isn't bad except for a few dated special effects when the giant aircraft carrier goes from the ocean off Pearl Harbor in 1979 and winds up right before the Japanese attack in 1941...<br> <br> While Kirk Douglas gets top billing as the captain, Martin Sheen takes the lead as an ambiguous, non-military observer whose purpose isn't entirely clear until the inevitable twist ending, and he's alongside likeable James Farentino, an intrepid flyer sharing a few intense scenes at-odds with Sheen's Lasky, actually an efficiency expert hired by a reclusive, mysterious millionaire, and at one point he's even a culprit when the weird stuff begins happening: like Jack Benny on the radio and photos from jets showing the U.S.S. Arizona fully intact... <br>

action, adventure, charles durning, don taylor, eighties, james farentino, katharine ross, kirk douglas, martin sheen, ron o'neal, science-ficiton, thriller, time travel, war

MARTIN SHEEN WITH KIRK DOUGLAS IN 'THE FINAL COUNTDOWN'

Lightning strikes upon THE FINAL COUNTDOWN Year: 1980 THE TWILIGHT ZONE didn't work in the hour format, and THE FINAL COUNTDOWN is b...

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_6hFqlqVmIRnAKW32dDcqpNycx-zoQ92bnBtlKsiBct8Z4OjUK_QH9D6iDAbt76LcE8vzu61mkFg_ERETKWdizvM6nt6ledp_oSUdIYdjeVhaMG_sDPWTO94lvaxf3Isy0FnNFWdsR-d/s1600/Amazing+Spider+Man.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_6hFqlqVmIRnAKW32dDcqpNycx-zoQ92bnBtlKsiBct8Z4OjUK_QH9D6iDAbt76LcE8vzu61mkFg_ERETKWdizvM6nt6ledp_oSUdIYdjeVhaMG_sDPWTO94lvaxf3Isy0FnNFWdsR-d/s16000/Amazing+Spider+Man.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2012 cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field rating: *1/2</td></tr> </tbody></table> In one scene, right after a spider in the Oscorp Laboratories bites Peter Parker, he falls asleep in a subway only to be awakened by a random loser who (for some strange reason) places a beer bottle on Parker’s head. A drop of water from the bottle rolls down onto Peter’s face, causing him to fling to the top of the car and stick to the ceiling – like a spider. Over a dozen people witness this spectacular feat... and what happens next? A lady gets angry because some of the beer spilled on her clothes, and, this reaction sums up how<i> amazing </i>the entire film is.<br /> <br /> After fully realizing his powers and using them to skateboard with furious bravado outside his high school, Peter Parker (much too) quickly dons the Spidey outfit that seems more like a surfer’s wetsuit than a real transformation. He seeks his uncle's murderer from the supposedly pivotal scene lacking the tragic fate of the protagonist's mentor in Sam Raimi’s version. This doesn’t perpetuate Parker into a vigilante misusing his powers, but gives him reason to fly around wielding his skills that actor Andrew Garfield never seems in any particular awe about.<br /> <br /> The SOCIAL NETWORK star, resembling Anthony Perkins had he become a melancholy hipster, doesn’t give Peter Parker the underdog value Tobey Maguire successfully conveyed – but that’s the script's fault. Parker’s not a nerd or even an outcast; having lost his parents for mysterious reasons, he’s simply not a happy camper. Other than the rushed changeling into the titular superhero, wherein Garfield acts like a cocky street-fighter behind the mask, there’s hardly any character arc for the good guy <i>or</i> the villain.<br /> <br /> Osco’s resident genius Dr. Curt Conners transforms into The Lizard so quick, running amok New York City like a raptor on steroids, there’s not much reason, or worthy motivation, for his actions. But this lack of purpose fits a movie that, when not wallowing in romantic melodrama between Parker and girlfriend Gwen Stacey… whose hard-nosed cop father is a weak replacement for the much-needed human antagonist J. Jonah Jameson…  doesn’t live up to the original film or the comic books that, for better or worse, had a good time.<br /> <br /> But the real problem is the Origin Story, so rushed and uncreative it's amazing they even went there at all.

2012, andrew garfield, blockbuster, comic book, martin sheen, marvel, sally field

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

year: 2012 cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field rating: *1/2 In one scene, right after a spider in the Oscor...

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGANrcUwPiUgoRtfKgHExp0p_gw1kgCNi6TuHGBk2Anv6ow7hyphenhyphenujMCmvNFfjlmisozD4PDZ_ky3GlIGOb1naxq5viWdQbI0DimL7euUyZBNdBqXcHoIXocZsdNSWa2j4rZbaxkayB3qswY/s1600/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGANrcUwPiUgoRtfKgHExp0p_gw1kgCNi6TuHGBk2Anv6ow7hyphenhyphenujMCmvNFfjlmisozD4PDZ_ky3GlIGOb1naxq5viWdQbI0DimL7euUyZBNdBqXcHoIXocZsdNSWa2j4rZbaxkayB3qswY/s400/image.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>FINDING A DREAM FRIEND Year: 2012 SCORE: ***1/2</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> A dark comedy usually depends on how funny we humans remain during a serious situation. Well in that case here’s the mother of all dark comedies... Planet Earth's got twenty-one days until a giant asteroid wipes out the entire population.<br /> <br /> Beginning with Steve Carell’s mellow everyman Dodge listening to a radio report – the space shuttle attempting to blow up the asteroid has failed (perhaps a nod to DEEP IMPACT and ARMAGEDDEN) and now it’s just a matter of time. Oddly enough, Dodge’s workplace insurance company is still going – there’s a few glum people dressed casually while other workers leap from the building top. And Dodge’s girlfriend just left him so he’s got a little more to sulk about. Scenes with Dodge at a party, where kids drink booze and heroin’s treated like a shot of tequila, provide visual punchlines to how society just doesn’t care anymore. Especially Dodge, waiting for death till fate gives him a personal reprieve in the form of his beautiful apartment neighbor, Penny, played by elfin beauty Keira Knightley, adds an essential spice but her daffy quirkiness gets annoying – especially during the impending road trip where, after a suspenseful scene involving a rioting mob, Dodge and Penny seek his long lost girlfriend and a plane that can get her back home. Before that we're treated with character-actor cameos by Patton Oswalt as an optimistic party animal; William Peterson as a lonely truck driver with a secret up his sleeve; Melanie Lynskey as a possible hookup for Dodge; and his sarcastic best friend played by the always-hilarious Rob Corddry: There's a point (during the final act) where the energy fades and we’re left with Penny's overlong diatribes, halting the pace. And Carell’s one-note stunned deer in headlights expression doesn’t always help matters. But as a whole, these two characters successfully represent hope in a literally dying world, and by<i> the end</i> you’ll feel fitfully vacant in the outcome that, for better or worse, couldn’t have concluded any other way.

2012, dark comedy, keira knightley, martin sheen, road movie, steve carell

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

FINDING A DREAM FRIEND Year: 2012 SCORE: ***1/2 A dark comedy usually depends on how funny we humans remain during a serious situation. ...

EMILIO ESTEVEZ DIRECTING FATHER MARTIN SHEEN IN 'THE WAY'

<p></p><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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7Nu6nRpmgb1aPqYVdZg4jZRcJXw-xiEpJp3tWRYwA56f0vNBs_rtQOeylKPQ8Axsegm5znVerA7SJudZRcYmdmY3EGBwUvukD0LNmp8Byl1HX1IfO6MxjVbckfqePozG_FpKnNMAGhSC0QZcYubRiBJlFOuLfzXMAumvSnjSMAHVx_4mJezv8C4lDap6/s1080/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-06%20at%2012.03.08%20AM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="958" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7Nu6nRpmgb1aPqYVdZg4jZRcJXw-xiEpJp3tWRYwA56f0vNBs_rtQOeylKPQ8Axsegm5znVerA7SJudZRcYmdmY3EGBwUvukD0LNmp8Byl1HX1IfO6MxjVbckfqePozG_FpKnNMAGhSC0QZcYubRiBJlFOuLfzXMAumvSnjSMAHVx_4mJezv8C4lDap6/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-06%20at%2012.03.08%20AM.png" width="284" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 2010 Rating: ***1/2</u><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>For a story about a father taking over the journey of his son, who died on the first day of the El Camino de Santiago… a spiritual-based hiking expedition from France to Spain… it’s not too bad... </p><p>But as an ensemble involving three other hikers joining the trek, THE WAY tries too hard making up for the difficulty of basing an entire movie on a long walking trip. Other than gorgeous exterior locations and peaks into various small towns along the way, what’s there to do? </p><p>Well that’s what characters are for, but other than Martin Sheen as the grieving father, the tagalongs can be annoying: including an opinionated Canadian woman (Deborah Unger from THE GAME, yet noticeably aged) who doesn't try very hard to quit smoking; a babbling Irish travelogue writer aka the token neurotic; and an overweight jovial Dutch guy taking the comic relief mantle... </p><p>The script and direction by Emilio Estevez is hit and miss – while the shots are beautiful (mostly because the location is beautiful) and the quest is heartfelt, some of the dialogue feels contrived: reminding us it's just a movie... And each problematic situation… like Sheen getting his son’s backpack and ashes stolen… are resolved way too easily (or quenched with a breezy feel-good tune). But it's the moments when we stick closely on the face of our protagonist that it seems a worthwhile journey. After all, it’s his story, and knowing his son (in the film) is not only on his mind, but is (in real life) behind the camera: that is, if anything else, what really matters.</p>

adventure, comedy, deborah kara unger, drama, emilio estevez, europe, indie, martin sheen, matt clark, new age, road movie, tens

EMILIO ESTEVEZ DIRECTING FATHER MARTIN SHEEN IN 'THE WAY'

Year: 2010 Rating: ***1/2 For a story about a father taking over the journey of his son, who died on the first day of the El Camino de Santi...