Nighthawks (1981)

Title: Nighthawks (1981)

Director: Bruce Malmuth

Cast:  Sylvester Stallone, Rutger Hauer, Billy Dee Williams, Joe Spinell

Review:

Most of the time a films production problems are completely transparent to the audience. A film will arrive to theaters, people will embrace it and make it a blockbuster; but how the film got there, and all the troubles it went through to get made are sometimes never known to the audience. This was the case for me with Nighthawks, a film I have liked ever since I first saw it many years ago as a kid. I wasn’t aware it had gone through a couple of problems on its way to the silver screen. It was one of the first films I saw with a truly evil and memorable villain, Rutger Hauers performance as Wolfgar is one that I have never forgotten, it made an impression on my young mind. What problems did this film face? Well, for one, the films orginal director was to be Gary Nelson, the director behind The Black Hole (1979) and Allan Quartermain and The Lost City of Gold (1986), looking back at his filmology makes me happy that Gary Nelson didn’t end up directing Nighhawks. But moving on, the first problem the project faced came when Gary Nelson abandoned the project. He was then replaced him with Bruce Malmuth, a director who had worked with Stallone before. Everything seems to be running smoothly when suddenly, on the first day of filming, Malmuth failed to appear! And this was the day in which the awesome subway chase was to be filmed! What to do? What to do? Here’s what was done:  Stallone himself stepped in to direct the scene! Interestingly enough, that was my favorite scene in the whole movie, such a memorable chase! Thanks to Stallone stepping in to direct the sequence, the production didn’t fall behind schedule. Stallone was already a director himself, having directed Paradise Alley (1978) and Rocky II (1979) before, so I’m sure he would have no problems in directing the scene himself, and even though the  Directors Guild of America has strict rules about having actors directing a film they are starring in, he was given special permission to do it and so the film moved on. But you wouldn’t know any of these problems from watching the movie because the end result was such a solid film.

 Nighthawks tells the story of Deke DaSilva and Matthew Fox two street cops that work the night beat. Their job? To stop crime by working undercover, in disguise. And they are pretty good at what they do! But things change when their military backgrounds get them chosen for a special task force that is being trained to stop an international terrorist known as Wolfgar. You see, Wolfgar is the kind of terrorist that works doing other terrorist dirty work. And like Deke and Matthew, he is the best at what he does! Unfortunately, when the police in England get too close for comfort, he moves his operations to New York City where he is looking to establish himself as the best damn terrorist in town. Good enough to play with the big guys. This is a terrorist looking to prove himself as the best. And as the tagline for the film says “One man can bring the world down to its knees, and one man can stop him”. And that man is Deke Da Silva!

"You talking to me? That's what I thought!" 

 As I was watching the film, I got this feeling like I was watching The French Connection (1971) for some reason. I guess it had something to do with the films grimy look and feel; it’s not every film that can capture this grimy 'New York in the 70’s' feeling as effectively as The French Connection did. Nighthawks starts out with a sequence in which Stallone chases a criminal up the steps of a subway station, echoing a similar scene from The French Connection.  So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that Nighthawks actually started out as The French Connection III! That film was supposed to have Gene Hackman returning to his iconic Popeye Doyle character, and this time around he was supposed to have a wise cracking partner, who was going to be played by none other than Richard Pryor himself. But when Gene Hackman didn’t return to play Popeye Doyle for a third time at 20^th Century Fox, Universal Studios acquired the rights to the story and turned it into the film we now know as Nighthawks; a film that Sylvester got into as a way to get away from his Rocky character. He didn’t want to be type cast, so he was trying to play roles that were drastically different to Rocky, and that is the reason why on this film Stallone plays a cop with a beard and long hear as opposed to Rocky’s clean cut look. Stallone’s got a “hip” look on this movie, long hair, glasses, scarfs, jackets. He was looking all sorts of cool.

 Nighthawks is also special because it was Rutger Hauer’s first American film. In the opening sequences of the film he sports a beard, same as Stallone’s character does. I guess the idea was that Hauer and Stallone’s characters mirror each other. As Wolfgar points out to Deke at one point, they aren’t so different from each other, a theme that pops up through out the entire film. This mirror image idea between the hero and the villain carries itself even onto the films poster which is composed half of Stallone’s face and half of Hauer’s face. Speaking of Rutger Hauer’s performance on this film, it’s nothing short of awesome. As is to be expected from a Hauer villain, he exudes evil. I guess he was destined to play memorable characters from the get go. What makes this film special is that this is where Hauer’s long streak of memorable villains started.

"You people are never prepared, there is no security"

 Instead of Richard Pryor playing the comedy sidekick, we get Billy Dee William’s playing Matthew Fox, Deke’s partner. Matthew and Deke do sort of have a comedic back and forth between them, but it’s nothing overtly comical. They simply act as two buddy cops, I’m sure Matthew Fox would have turned out to be a completely different kind of character had Richard Pryor played it, certainly a bit more inclined towards the funny side of things. But not here, Nighthawks is a deadly serious film, the kind of movie that could have come out of the late 70’s early 80’s, where people where angrier and their anger bled into their art. Crime was certainly something that was annoying people to the max, it’s something that’s portrayed in films from this era as being a real problem. The Deathwish films are a good example of this. On Nighthawks we have Deke and Matthew dismantle a drug lab and save a woman from being raped in the first fifteen minutes of film! There is one scene in which Billy Dee Williams gets his moment to shine, where he finds these kids running a drug lab and he smacks the drug dealers around and tells them “I should kill you motherfucker! For all the lives you’re taking away with this shit!” He looks like he was going to do it too had Deke not stopped him! My only gripe with the film is that at one point they drop Matthew Fox and suddenly it’s all about Deke while Matthew is on the sidelines. It would have been cool to have them be together all through out the film, but it’s a minor hiccup in an otherwise great film. So we get a solid cast here, I mean Stallone, Hauer, Billy Dee Williams and we even get Joe Spinnell whom some of you might recognize from Maniac (1980) as the Police Lieutenant that screams and barks  orders at Deke and Matthew. So rest assured, we get a solid cast here.

 Some last words on the film: it has some great action sequences! Actually, I see this movie as going from one awesome sequence to the next. We get some cool street cop action when were introduced to Deke and Matthews every day job stopping crime on the streets, then were introduced to Hauer’s terrorist escapades in England, then we get to see him carry his terrorist work to New York City, and here’s the cool thing about this movie: it was shot entirely on location; something that adds to the realism of the film. The streets of  New York look just as grimy as they really were back in those days, nothing tops realism and shooting on location. This film was shot in 174^th Street, in the Bronx, in Queens, in Manhattan and the actual Roosevelt Island Tram System  Hell, if were going to get down to it, the film also shot scenes in England and France! So we got a film that’s infused with lots of realism to it simply because of the choice to shoot in the actual places the story takes place in. For example, there are a couple of awesome action sequences that take place in New York Subway System, wow, that whole sequence is fantastic! Deke and Matthew chase Hauer all through the subway, then the sequence carries on into a train! The whole sequence is very kinetic, very action packed. What makes these scenes special is that they where shot in an actual New York Subway with actual trains that were decommissioned, but look awesome. If you look carefully, you will notice the train they used for these sequences was so old that it had ceiling fans in it! The films most memorable sequence takes place aboard the Roosevelt Island Tram, when Wolfgar takes everyone in it as hostage! Stallone did his own stunts on those scenes where he was lowered from the Tram into a boat! Stallone was really gung-ho about doing his own stunts on this film, again showing us that the filmmakers were going for lots of realism with this film.

 So what we got here my friends is a gritty as hell cop flick with lots of realism infused into it and a solid, solid cast. I mean, this film is terribly underrated. It’s not a complex or “deep” film, but it’s a solid thriller with an extremely memorable villain. Sadly, audiences at the time didn’t accept Stallone in other roles that weren’t Rocky Balboa, which is why quickly after this one “bombed” at the box office, Stallone went straight for the safe move and did Rocky III (1982). I say “bombed” because even thought the film made its money back (it was only made with a mere 5 million dollars if you can believe it!) it still didn’t make as much money as the studio expected. Stallone himself has said that this film was ahead of its time, and that audiences weren’t really ready for it. To top things off, the studio itself didn’t believe in the film. The film has found its audience in thanks to the home video market, I consider it one of Stallone’s best films and certainly one of his most underrated ones, so if you haven’t seen it I’d recommend checking it out for a night of solid action and thrills with an extremely satisfying ending.

Rating: 4 out of 5  

       

Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

Title: Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

Director: Joseph Zito

Cast: Chuck Norris, Richard Lynch

Review:

Invasion USA is yet another dumb action film from the guys at Cannon Films; a production company that specialized in making B-films and over the top, violence filled action fare. These guys not only produced films that no other studio would produce, they took pride in it. And they thrived in this way for many years making films like The Delta Force (1986), Missing in Action (1984) and Missing in Action II: The Beginning (1985) which by the way were huge money makers back in those days when audiences where hungry for movies with muscle bound heroes that killed everyone in sight. Those where the days when the body count produced by the films hero would skyrocket! The more people the hero killed, the better the film. I’m talking about films like Commando (1985), Cobra (1986) and Above the Law (1988), films where it was almost obligatory for the protagonist to appear shooting or holding a gun in the films poster. Where did movies like these go? I know I don’t see them that often anymore. An occasional one appears, like The Expendables (2010) or The Mechanic (2011) but these days, films like these are an exception. During the 80s we had Stallone, Arnold, Van Damme, Steven Seagal and Dulph Longdren all fighting to be the number one action star. Today we only got one action star that is aiming to do what these guys did and that’s, Jason Statham; but more on that guy in the weeks ahead where I will be reviewing some of Statham’s action films. So yeah, the day and age of the blood drenched violence filled action flick is gone. Luckily we can revisit this era through dvd’s. How was Invasion U.S.A.?

Cannon, the ones responsible for all these goofy action movies

 Invasion U.S.A. was great for a laugh that’s what it was, but again, like many of these films, that’s exactly what makes it a fun watch. Story goes something like this: a terrorist organization lead by a guy named Mikhail Rostov is looking to invade the United States and destroy everything that represents the quintessential ‘American Way of Life’. This organization is composed of every nationality known for hating Americans at one point or another. So we see Russians, we see Latin Americans and Arabs amongst the members of the terrorist organization. But basically, they behave like a bunch of nazi bastards.  This organization commits random acts of violence all over town to try and destroy society as we know it. In this way, the villains in this film reminded me of the villains in Stallone’s Cobra, where all they cared about was destroying society so they could build a new one. While the bad guys in Cobra destroyed supermarkets and kidnapped famous models, the bad guys in Invasion U.S.A. blow up houses in a typical American suburb while the families are putting the star on their Christmas tree and singing Christmas carols! They destroy and attack a mall! They get people to fight amongst themselves! They attempt to blow up churches and school buses filled with children! It just so happens that the leader of this evil organization is an old arch-nemesis of Chuck Norris’s and so there is also a personal vendetta involved in this. Norris is called upon by the government to stop these guys, and while at first he refuses, when he sees it’s his old enemy Rostov who is behind the whole thing, well then Chuck makes it his business to stop him.

You mess with the best, you die like the rest!

 This movie is all sorts of idiotic and will no doubt have you laughing from beginning to end, so at least we have that. In this movie, Chuck Norris is similar to The Terminator, he kills and kills and kills and is damn near indestructible all through out the picture. Nobody messes with him! In fact, he messes with the bad guys! He’s the one that intimidates them!  Sadly, Norris’s character in this film is reduced to be an emotionless empty shell of a character who only appears to kill the bad guys. After a while the film goes on like this: bad guys try to commit an act of terrorism, Chuck appears to stop them. Repeat infinitum, till the end of the picture where Norris faces off with his Nemesis. He is an action hero with no soul and no persona. He is quite literally a stone cold killer, but he is protecting the American way of life and society so it’s okay? In Stallone’s Cobra, a news reporter asks Cobra why does he have the right to go around killing people? That even if they are bad guys, its up to the courts to decide their fate, then Cobra shows them a corpse and tells the reporter “Why don’t you tell that to his family?” So I guess, in this kind of film the mentality is the ends justifies the means. Society needs to be protected, and these guys are scumbags who deserve to die.

 In what other way will this film have you laughing? Well, take for example the titular invasion of the United States. The bad guys invade U.S.A. by waltzing in on their boats through Miami Beach! A totally incredulous feat to achieve, but on this movie it’s as easy as one two three. No one notices, no military satellite detects them, they simply arrive and continue with their evil schemes. Another laugh inducing characteristic of this film is the films female protagonist; a news reporter named McGuire. She is the equivalent of Kate Capshaw’s ‘Willie’ in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). If you remember correctly, her job was being obnoxious through out the whole film by screaming and hollering and complaining every step of the way. Same thing happens with the reporter in this film. She does absolutely nothing to move the story forward, yet there she is, tagging along through out the whole film, nagging, nagging, nagging.  It doesn’t help that she’s not a good actress at all. Extra tidbit of info: Chuck Norris wanted Whoopi Goldberg to play the role of McGuire, this was during the time when Whoopi Goldberg’s career was just taking off and she was making action/comedies like Jumping Jack Flash (1985), but the films director said “no way Jose” and so he cast Melissa Prophet instead. That was a bad move in my book. I’m sure the role would have been infinitely more watchable had Goldberg played it, but alas, she was vetoed.

 Finally, what would a movie like this one be without some tough guy one liners? Some of the gems included on this film include lines like: “If you come back in here, I’m gonna hit you with so many rights you are going to beg for a left” and “It’s time to die! Invasion USA was directed by Joseph Zito, a director that was the go to guy for producers Golan and Globus. Albert Pyun served the same purpose to them; these were directors that would get the job done. These directors didn’t exactly stamp their films with their own style, they simply made the films they were given, workman style. These films didn’t have a special look or feel to them, they simply told their story and blew shit up real good.  And speaking of blowing shit up, the film does have a couple of cool chase sequences, one of which takes place inside of a mall, it’s a pretty decent chase sequence. And that’s one thing you could count on in a Cannon Film: a decent chase sequence to let you know your getting your moneys worth of action. Joseph Zito directed many films for Cannon and many of them starred Chuck Norris, I’m going to try and get my hands on a couple more of them to include in my Revenge/Action Month thing I got going on, so look forward to that.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Cover for the films novelization

Hanna (2011)

Title: Hanna (2011)

Director: Joe Wright

Cast: Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan

Review:

Sometimes, a certain director will make only one kind of film. Let’s say for example Martin Scorcese is known for making primarily gangster films and thrillers, John Carpenter is known for making horror films and Ivan Reitman is known for making comedies, well, Joe Wright the director behind Hanna is a director primarily known for making period films like Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007). The hyper stylish Hanna isn’t exactly the kind of movie you’d associate Joe Wright with, yet here he is, taking a stab at something different and yes, even commercial. But that’s all cool in my book because to stay in the Hollywood game, you gotta make a real moneymaker every now and again to keep the studios happy and let them know you can bring in the moolah in between your artsy period films. And Hanna was a winner, so we’re sure to see more Joe Wright films in the near future. In fact he’s working on his next period film right now, Anna Karenina based on Tolstoy’s famous novel. But how was Hanna, Wright’s attempt at making something stylish, modern, hip and ‘cool’?

 I have to say it went exquisitely well! This film tells the story of Hanna (Ronan) a 16 year old girl who’s been raised entirely in the wild by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA agent. Hanna’s father wanted to raise her away from modern society. She’s read encyclopedias and famous works of literature, but she’s never faced the real world outside of the woods, she doesn’t even know what music is. So one day, when Hanna is particularly anxious to experience the real world on her own, she tells her father; his answer? He presents Hanna with a switch. If she flips the switch, they will come looking for her. And she will have to run out into the world on her own. But the question quickly arises: Just who are ‘they’? And why do they want her so badly?

 So yeah, I loved this movie for various reasons. Number one, the symbolisms. The idea of an overprotective father who wants to keep his child away from the big bad world is representative of how a parent will most of the time try and protect their child from the horrors that this world has to offer, which last time I checked are many. The parent will try and keep their child in their nest for as long as possible, teaching the child values and a way to see the world, all in preparation for when said child has grown and wants to experience the world for themselves. When that happens, and the child decides to be independent of family unit, there is definitely a ‘switch’ that gets flipped, for you are no longer under mommy and daddy’s protection, now you are facing the big bad world all on your own with only your wits and what you’ve been taught to guide you. Fortunately, Hanna was taught well. She’s an expert in all sorts of deadly fighting skills; she’s a weapon’s master and an agile killer. In fact, Hanna and her father are both so deadly that the government will stop at nothing to find them both.

 The film criticizes the modern world with all its technology and machines. Hanna is raised in a world that is void of any sort of technology, no television, no music, no phones, no Playstation, no MTV. She leads a very Amish sort of life with her dad in the woods When Hanna first goes out into the world and confronts a girl of her same age, the girl does nothing but talk about pop stars and tv shows, a language totally alien to Hanna. When Hanna enters a ‘modern’ house hold, she is bombarded with all sorts of distractions and stress inducing machines. The radio blares! The television set tries to sell you something! The alarm clock sounds! Everything hisses and beeps and squeaks at her. All these mechanical contraptions are shown to cause a great amount of stress to Hanna who is only used to the chirping of birds, or the sound the wind makes when it hits the leaves in the forest. I loved how the film criticizes this aspect of modern living, how we are so accustomed to machines as part of our lives that we don’t realize how stressful they can actually be. Immediately, the beeping of a text message came to mind.

 But my favorite thing about the film was its subversive aura. This my friends is a film that absolutely hates the governments evil doings. The villain in the film is a government operative called Marissa, played with evil glee by the always awesome Cate Blanchett. Marissa lies, kills and cheats every step of the way to achieve her governments’ goals. And like many governments, she even relies on the help of gangsters, hired killers and low lives to get things done; which reminded me of my own government in my own country. When they wanted to take over the University of Puerto Rico to make life impossible for students what did they do? The actually paid ex-wrestlers to muscle the students around and intimidate them! Ex-wrestlers got paid millions of dollars to intimidate students! Just goes to show how governments will go to any extent they have to go to get what they want; which is exactly what happens in Hanna, a film that mirrors how many governments are behaving in the world. I love it when films do this, because it shows that these are not isolated incidents in the world, and that artist’s take notice of these events and express what they see in their world through their films, through their art. Hanna is just one of an increasing number of contemporary films that portray the government and its militant force as the enemy, as evil. If you want to watch another extremely subversive film that is one hundred percent revolutionary, watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), that one surprised me with its subversive aura.

 Saoirse Ronan whom I loved in Wright’s Atonement steals the show once again. Hanna is her film, and she dominates it quite well. The character of Hanna is portrayed with a naïveté that I loved. The world is new and awesome to her, and I loved the fact that she is so ready for it. A symbolism yet again. It is so essential for a parent to truly prepare a child for what really awaits them out there in the world, for when they are out there on their own; it’s what the parents have taught them that will help them make the proper choices when the time comes. If a child has been taught well, he or she will have a better chance at making it in this big bad world. If not, he or she will have to learn the hard way. Hanna was prepared in more ways than one, and so she faces the world admirably. But aside from the parents preparing you for the big bad world, it also speaks about how rebels need to prepare themselves, arm themselves, train themselves in order to achieve a proper revolution. Also, something can be said about the fact that Hanna, the revolutionary of this film is so young. The film speaks about how the new generation needs to rise up and take matters into their own hands! Governments are afraid of young people rebelling against them, because it’s always been the newer generations that complaint, it’s always been the young that tells the old “your doing things all wrong!” This is the reason why so many governments attack college campuses and education in general. We cant have lot’s of little Hanna’s running around the world now can we? Educated and ready to take matters into their own hands if need be.   

 Finally, Hanna has two other good things going for it: its stylish look and its music. And I have to mention both of these at the same time because Joe Wright directed and edited this film in a way that visuals match perfectly with the soundtrack. The beats supplied by The Chemical Brothers for the films soundtrack match perfectly with the beats of the editing of the film, with the flashes of light, with the action. Hanna offers us a brilliant marriage of visuals and sound. There’s not a bad thing I can think of saying about this film which means only one thing, Hanna gets a perfect score from The Film Connoisseur. Now go see it!

Rating: 5 out of 5     

Cobra (1986)

Title: Cobra (1986)

Director: George P. Cosmatos

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen

Review:

Here’s the thing I respect about Sylvester Stallone, and it’s a thing that in many ways puts him above even Arnold Schwarzenegger himself: Sylvester has never stopped being a filmmaker, he’s never let go of his artistic side. While Arnold deviated from filmmaking towards politics (actually going down a couple of notches in my cool-o-meter for doing just that) Sylvester has never stopped making movies. One of the aspects of Stallone that is most intriguing is that he writes his own freaking films, and this is something that elevates Stallone above Schwarzenegger because it shows that Stallone has that creative/artistic side about him which he has never abandoned, while Arnold only seems to care about being #1 no matter what he is doing, be it politics, weight lifting or making movies. Schwarzenegger’s creative output (aside from his acting of course)  only went as far as directing a made for tv movie called Christmas in Conneticut (1992) an episode of Tales from the Crypt called “The Switch” and it was a lame episode at that. But what has Sylvester done? Good old Sylvester has written all the Rambo and Rocky films himself! He also wrote such box office smash hits like Cliffhanger (1993) and The Expendables (2010), and let’s not forget, the man has directed a couple of these films himself as well. I mean, the guy is creative, and he’s still got it as far as I’m concerned. Cobra, the film I’ll be talking about today, was another one of the films that Stallone wrote himself. How was it?

"I hate supermarkets!"

Story for Cobra is all about a gang called ‘The New World Order’ that’s terrorizing the streets of California. Their mission in life? To destroy society as we know it. They hate the way things are, and so their solution is to kill as many people as they can, to cleanse the world and start a new one. They also like shooting the hell out of merchandise displays and produce in supermarkets. But don’t worry; America has a solution for scumbags like these: Lieutenant Marion “The Cobra” Cobretti. His motto? “I don’t deal with psychos, I put them away” His favorite one liner? “You’re the decease and I’m the cure”. When the cops cant handle a certain situation what do they do? They “call the Cobra” of course! The Cobra shows up in his vintage 1950’s Mercury, his cowboy boots, his tight jeans and his sunglasses. Oh and his match! He’s always got to be munching on a match! Currently, The New World Order have their targets set on super hot model Ingrid, played by Brigitte Nielsen. Will Cobra have what it takes to protect her from these psychos?

Stallone’s script for Cobra was based on a novel called ‘Fair Game’ by author Paula Gosling. That’s right ladies and gents; this testosterone filled action fest was based on a book written by a woman! And just so you know, Paula Gosling is a highly respected author of crime novels. I’ve never read ‘Fair Game’, but I’m willing to bet that Stallone took it and changed it into the testosterone overdose that Cobra ended up being, and he did a good job at it as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know how faithful this film was to the novel, but the film itself is pretty damn entertaining. Curiously enough, there’s another film out there that was based on the very same novel called Fair Game (1995) starring William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford. I remember watching that one many years ago, it would be interesting to re-watch it now, knowing that it’s another version of the same novel. I mean yeah, Cobra is dumb, it’s silly at times and unintentionally funny, but the damn thing is explosive and fast paced, what’s not to like? According to critics at the time, apparently a lot. Back in 1986, most critics thought this was a stinker. It was crowned worst everything at the Razzie awards that year. Cobra didn’t win the worst picture award, but that’s only because it was going up against Howard the Duck (1986), which took home the Razzie for worst film of 1986. But you know what? Who the hell cares, I love the non stop action in Cobra! I love the cheesy one liners and it’s over the topness!  

Stallone’s portrayal of Marion Cobretti is hilarious, practically everything he does and says will make you laugh, starting with his tough guy one liners! Cobra is the kind of guy who gets home after work, doesn’t take off his sunglasses or his gloves and starts munching away on a cold left over pizza, cutting it in half with a pair of scissors. See what I mean about hilarious and very entertaining? One of the main influences on this film was obviously Dirty Harry (1971). Hell, the actor who plays Cobretti’s partner is Reni Santoni, the same actor who played Dirty Harry’s sidekick Chico Gonzalez in Dirty Harry (1971). My guess is that Stallone was trying to channel Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, but in the end, Stallone’s Marion Cobretti comes off all goofy and cheesy, not at all the nerves of steal, tough as nails old cop that Clint Eastwood portrayed in his films. Instead, Cobra comes off as the 1980’s MTV video version of Clint Eastwood; a Dirty Harry for the MTV generation. That makes it cool to watch in my book. I guess people in the 80’s were taking this movie way too seriously, now we can just sit back and enjoy it for what it is: a dumb yet fast paced action flick.

 And there’s lots of action alright. Film opens up with a psycho blasting away everything he sees in a supermarket. He loves blowing up supermarket carts and merchandise displays! Anything that reminds him how modern society is gets blown away! Which brings me to the crux of the film; what is it that drives the members of ‘The New World’?  Well, they enjoy getting together to bang their shinny metal axes up in the air and their mission statement is to kill the weak so the strong can survive. Their idea being that modern society can’t get rid of people like them, because all modern society does is breed people like them. Things are wrong, so that’s why they exist. They are simply the symptoms of a sick society. So they go around killing, sending out their anti-society message. Their next target is Ingrid, a super hot model played by non other than Brigitte Nielsen. I guess she represents the epitome of fakeness, one of the things I’m sure they consider to be wrong about society. So Cobra has to spend the rest of the film protecting the model from the killers. Amongst other things, an awesome car chase ensues, and it has got to be one of the coolest chase sequences ever filmed;  one for the books.

 This was another Cannon Films production, and these Cannon guys (producers Golan and Globus) specialized in cheesy/fun action films. Can you say Invasion U.S.A. (1986) anyone? Yup, these guys were on a roll with these kinds of films during the eighties and Cobra is the epitome of that era if you ask me. Funny thing about this movie: it started out as Beverly Hills Cop! Back in 1984, when Paramount Pictures had Stallone signed on to star in Beverly Hills Cop, Stallone wrote a less comedic action extravaganza that Paramount thought was too expensive to produce, so Stallone walked away, with the script that eventually ended up being Cobra. Eddie Murpy went on to portray on of his most iconic roles, and Stallone went and did his action extravaganza, which though panned by critics upon it’s release, went on to be loved by millions. This film still has legs, lovers of action films from the 80’s always bring this one up as one of the good ones, I gotta say, I totally agree.  

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Always a chance for a brewsky in between psychos

     

Afro Samurai (2007)

Title: Afro Samurai (2007)

Director: Fuminori Kizaki, Jamie Simone

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Perlman

Review:

Most, if not all Samurai films are linked to the theme of revenge somehow. I guess it’s only natural, after all, a Samurai kills for a living, and killing always has a way of coming back at ya, and revenge will always figure into the equation somehow. You choose to live that life; and death, blood, and revenge are all going to tag along. “You live by the sword, you die by the sword” and all that. And the world of Afro Samurai is all about blood, death and revenge. And hip hop music. You see the creator of Afro Samurai (Takashi Okazaki) came up with the character by mixing a few of the things he loved the most: Samurai’s, science fiction and swordplay with Hip Hop music and American Black Culture. This mixture of cultures crossed over to the actual production of the series, which brought together creative talent from both east and west. First up, the animation was done by the guys at Gonzo animation studio; these were the very same guys responsible for the ultra cool anime series Hellsing, which I loved. Then we have Afro Samurai’s actual creator, a Japanese comic book artist known as Takashi Okazaki. The voice talent is mostly made up of American actors. Afro Samurai himself and his imaginary friend known as Ninja Ninja are both voiced by non other than Samuel L. Jackson himself, who by the way is also credited as being one of the producers of the show. Ron Perlman (Yes ladies and gents, Hellboy himself) voices a character known as ‘Justice’, Afro’s #1 enemy. The music comes to us from RZA, who’s an experienced hip hop recording artist and collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on the  soundtrack for both of his Kill Bill (2003) films. So in the end, this is a project that brought together the best of many worlds.

 Story for Afro Samurai is all about headbands. That’s right my friends, headbands. The sword fighters of this world only care about wearing the #1 headband, because it means you’re the best, it means nobody can mess with you; but also because wearing the #1 headband will make you into a God. So everyone and their mother is taking a stab at this headband, problem is that only those with the #2 headband can defy the #1. And the one wearing the #2 right now, is Afro Samurai, a dude you don’t want to be messing with. You see Afro is out to avenge the death of his own father, who was decapitated by the current owner of the #1, a villain who goes by the name of ‘Justice’. Will Afro get to avenge his father’s death?

 What I liked the most about Afro Samurai is that the animation is really top notch, super stylized stuff. Afro’s Afro stands ten feet high while the wind hits it. Characters have swordfights while flying through the air, swords look ten feet long, but it’s all because of the angles. The angles that they choose, the places where they choose to put the camera, many of them are unique to the animation form, things are done on this series that can only be done on an animated feature and I loved that about it. This is the kind of film in which Afro can slice three dudes in half, at the same time with one swoop of his sword! This is a film in which Afro can end up fighting an android version of himself! After a good day of ass kicking, he then calmly takes a drag from his joint, which he is always smoking from. Maybe that’s why the dude fights so well! Point is, anything can happen on Afro Samurai.

 Some have accused this series of being the classic example of  “style over substance”, and I’d have to say that to an extent, I agree, but I’d also have to say that its not entirely true. I think a more accurate description of this film would that it does a fine balancing act between telling an involving revenge tale, and giving us some of that good old fashion hack and slash we always expect in a Samurai film. Yeah the film does concern itself with lots of cool angles, and colors and beautiful looking animation, but behind it all we have a bonafide revenge film every step of the way; and a very dramatic one at that. But it’s a safe bet to say that Afro Samurai concerns itself with being super cool, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s an empty film with only cool visuals to look at. Behind it all is a story about accepting death, about a young boys love for his father, about learning to harness what makes us unique and about learning to face ones fears. If I had to compare it to another Japanese animated film, it would have to be Ninja Scroll because it's also about a hero going up against one enemy after another. What makes Afro story evolve are the flashbacks we get in between, where we get to know who Afro is, and how he came to be in this complicated and dangerous predicament.

   

 Afro Samurai originally aired on Spike TV way back in 2007 as a five episode mini-series, I never saw it when it first aired, the version I recently watched was Afro Samurai Director’s Cut, which I think is the best way to watch it because it you watch all five episodes back to back, you’re basically watching a feature length film. The second Afro Samurai adventure is called Afro Samurai Resurrection (2009), and that one was released as a feature length film. I’ve yet to see that one, but it’s a problem I plan on resolving soon, so keep an eye out for my review of that one. For now, all I have to say about this mini-series is that hanging out with Afro-Samurai for two and a half hours was the booooommmb!

Rating: 5 out of 5