Classic Movie Review – Page 2

Classic Movie Review – ‘Friday the 13th’ (1980) – Start from Go

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham
Written by Victor Miller
Cast: Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Jeannine Taylor, Laurie Bartram, Kevin Bacon, Mark Nelson, Robbi Morgan, Peter Brouwer, Rex Everhart, Ronn Carroll, Walt Gorney, Willie Adams, Debra S. Hayes, Sally Anne Golden, Betsy Palmer, Ari Lehman
Soundtrack: Harry Manfredini

I have to admit, I have a personal affinity for Friday the 13th, because as a Boy Scout in North Jersey, I spent multiple weeks and weekends at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco where the original film was shot. So, I’ve swum, sailed, and canoed on that pond; I’ve seen black rat snakes on the grounds; and I’m pretty sure I’ve even been up where the opening murders are set (which is not a common area).

Fortunately for my psyche, I didn’t actually see the movie until after I’d dropped out of Scouting, which was probably for the best.

I’ve talked about this before, but I came to actually watching horror films later in life, because until I reached a certain age, I was simply too scared (and with good reason, because the one time I did catch a Friday the 13th marathon on FX, I was so jacked up that I had to turn on my radio just to get to sleep). And yet, I had a fascination, so I could have told you the elevator pitch for each F13 movie before I ever saw any of them, which brings us to the film at hand.

If Halloween (1978) lit the match for slasher films, then Friday the 13th (1980) was the fuse (and 1981 was the stick of dynamite).

However, for a film that at its core is little more than a cynical cash grab, Friday the 13th is pretty artfully done. I mean, just on an aesthetic level, I love the look of this movie (director of photography Barry Abrams obviously knew how to get a lot from a little, in multiple senses).

And I love how un-Hollywood it all feels, no doubt in part because it’s an East Coast production, but even with the presence of future star Kevin Bacon, the characters just look and feel like regular people, as opposed to a cast of LA models (although that can be fun, too, with the right story), which makes it more compelling. They’re not dumb kids just fooling around and waiting to be murdered, they’re ordinary people onto whom the horror is thrust, and that’s frightening.

Also, unlike almost every proceeding film in the franchise, there’s an Agatha Christie element to the original Friday the 13th that gives it a slightly different twist.

It’s not my personal favorite, but it’s undoubtedly one of the strongest in the series (despite some blatant filler).

Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)

P.S.
I’ve always associated F13 Parts I through VIII as Paramount movies, but in picking out a poster image for this post, I discovered that Warner Brothers had international distribution, which really threw me for a loop.

I ended up choosing the UK quad poster because I liked it the best, but little did I know at the time that the print Exhumed Films would show at the Mahoning Drive-In actually came from the Warner UK archive (Friday the 13th ran uncut in the UK, which is why it carried an X rating over there).

I love little details like these.

Classic Movie Review – ‘Project A’ – Always Ready

Original Release Date: December 22, 1983 (HK)

I remember picking up Project A on DVD some years ago and not being that impressed, but I know exactly why. To the shame of everyone involved (and I’m not even sure how to get around this now), the Miramax release replaced the film’s score with awful, generic synth music; and, as if that wasn’t enough, they replaced the titles with something a child would have done in Movie Maker in 1999 (also, the voice acting doesn’t seem as good).

Yuck!

Thankfully, Exhumed Films provided The Mahoning Drive-In Theater with an original English dub print, with the score and titles all intact.

Yes!

If you’re a Chan fan at all, you’re probably familiar with the big stunt from this movie, where Jackie hangs and then falls from the clock tower (a tribute to Harold Lloyd in Safety Last!), but rest assured, there’s more to enjoy than just that.

The film as a whole isn’t quite on the level of, say, Police Story, but not for lack of trying. There are some terrific fight scenes (especially with larger groups), and plenty of other fun signature Chan gags to keep your eyes on the screen (there’s one slapstick bit on a bicycle that legitimately made me laugh out loud).

Not that this film is a one man show, because it’s the first major collaboration between Jackie and Sammo Hung. They’d know each other for decades at this point, but it was the first time they were stars/directors together. Add in Yuen Biao to the mix (first of a handful of projects for this trio) and you’ve got a lethal triple pack of martial arts masters in one movie.

And, unlike many a martial arts film, the story is actually kind of interesting. I mean, the Coast Guard vs. Police rivalry is fun, but there’s a criminal apprehension scene later in the movie that’s quite clever.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are a few larger scale set-pieces that I’m not accustomed to seeing from Jackie (at least pre-Police Story).

Perhaps the most amazing thing to me though is that despite the period setting (more than a bit ambiguous in its timeframe, like Archer), Project A feels less dated than a number of other Chan movies I’ve seen.

Is Project A the best kung fu film ever? No.
Is it the best Jackie Chan movie ever? Maybe not.
Is it worth seeing? Absolutely.

Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)

Classic Movie Review – ‘RAD’ – Walking on Air

Directed by Hal Needham
Written by Sam Bernard & Geoffrey Edwards
Cast: Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire, Ray Walston, Alfie Wise, Jack Weston, Bart Conner, Marta Kober, Jamie Clarke, Laura Jacoby, H.B. Haggerty, Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, Kellie McQuiggin, Beverly Hendry, Shawna Burnett, Graeme Davies, Logan T. Wotton, Jeff Kress, Gordon Signer, Nancy MacDonald, Rick McNair, Christian Roerig
Soundtrack: James Di Pasquale

It’s no great revelation to say the world is decidedly un-rad at the moment, so I say take joy in whatever simple pleasures you can.

In that spirit, we come to Rad, a movie I could easily pick apart if I wanted to (sub-par acting, questionable stakes, boilerplate sports movie plot), but I don’t want to, because at the end of the day it is some warm, delightful Eighties comfort food, and that’s all we need it to be.

Directed by long-time stuntman (and Burt Reynolds collaborator) Hal Needham, Rad is the story of Christopher “Cru” Jones (played by a very charming Bill Allen, and stunt double Eddie Fiola): a high school upperclassman, morning paperboy, and afternoon busboy with a love for BMX (that’s Bicycle Motocross, if you didn’t know). As fate would have it, the biggest race in BMX history, HELLTRACK, comes to Cru’s small hometown of Cochrane, USA (Cochrane, Alberta, Canada in real life), bringing with it all the top professional riders, and a very pretty top amateur, Christian Hollings (played by Lori Loughlin). Thanks to pressure from local business owners, Cru and other area riders are allowed into qualifying, and, well, you can imagine where it goes from there.

Despite its title, Rad is nothing so radical. It’s not particularly groundbreaking (outside of giving BMX a spotlight, I suppose), edgy, or offensive. It’s perfectly pleasant.

But, it excels in its visuals and, perhaps more importantly, music. On the whole, the soundtrack isn’t quite at, say, Rocky IV-levels, but it comes as close as anything else from the decade, and that’s notable.

If nothing else, Rad is a nice, shiny time-capsule filled with likable heroes, disagreeable villains, and all the Eighties fashion you could ask for. Clean cut, family friendly, and just the right amount of zazz.

Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)

P.S.
This movie stars Lori Loughlin,
star of Full House along with the Olsen Twins,
stars of How the West Was Fun,
shot by Rad cinematographer Richard Leiterman and directed by Stuart Margolin,
the guy who gives Charles Bronson his gun in Death Wish.

What does it all mean?

Absolutely nothing.

Classic Twofer – ‘Death Wish’ & ‘Death Wish 3’ – Bite the Big Apple (Don’t Mind the Maggots)

You might look at these two movies and say that they’re similar, and you’d be right, but they are definitely not the same.

Much like the stories of another famous fictional vigilante (Batman), the Death Wish films exist on multiple gradient scales, namely serious to cartoonish, and feel-bad to feel-good (more like feel-alright, but you get the point).

Amazingly though, these two divergent examples have the same director (a real John Glen, if you will).

Let’s get to it.

Directed by Michael Winner
Written by Wendell Mayes, based on the novel by Brian Garfield
Cast: Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, William Redfield, Steven Keats, Stuart Margolin, Stephen Elliott, Kathleen Tolan, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Guest, Olympia Dukakis, Paul Dooley
Soundtrack: Herbie Hancock

In contrast to the set-piece driven action films that would become the hallmark of the vigilante sub-genre, 1974’s Death Wish is much more of a bona fide drama, with interesting story choices and at least a modicum of depth to its main character (I think “protagonist” is a bit of a stretch).

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) doesn’t even shoot anybody until nearly halfway through the film, and it’s a literal journey to get there: we start in Hawaii, with he and his wife on vacation; then they come back to the concrete jungle of New York; wife and daughter are assaulted by hoodlums (one played by Jeff Goldblum); wife dies, daughter is mentally destroyed; then Kersey goes to Arizona on a job and the client takes him to a gun club, where we learn one or two things about Paul; then he comes back to New York again and starts killing muggers, and the police investigate.

The point is though, we see Kersey’s transition from mild-mannered architect to cold-blooded assassin of the night, and it is unvarnished, if not downright ugly. People often criticize this movie as some sort of right-wing jingoistic manifesto, but I think the truth is a little more complicated. Death Wish asks you to understand Paul Kersey (if it even asks that much), not necessarily agree with him (that’s up to you). Maybe it’s just me, but whatever “fun” entertainment value the movie has comes much more from the police chasing the vigilante (especially Vincent Gardenia) than from the vigilante himself.

I should also mention that Death Wish, while a smaller scale movie, is decidedly a picture from a major studio. Not a huge budget, but on par with other comparable productions. For one thing, its New York City is all real (and in winter; rough), and there’s some production design (fake advertisements and such) that a shoot with less backing might find difficult to implement.

If I have one particular criticism, and I hate to disparage a dead man, but Steven Keats’ performance as Kersey’s son-in-law sticks out like a sore thumb. I’ll cut him some slack because I imagine it’s what the director wanted, but it takes me out of the movie every time.

All-in-all, Death Wish is probably more influential than actually great, and it’s certainly of its time, but it’s still a solid watch, and not without some remaining resonance today (sadly).

Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)

Directed by Michael Winner
Written by Don Jakoby, based on characters created by Brian Garfield
Cast: Charles Bronson, Deborah Raffin, Ed Lauter, Martin Balsam, Gavan O’Herlihy, Kirk Taylor, Alex Winter, Ricco Ross, Joe Gonzalez, Marina Sirtis, Barbie Wilde, Billy J. Mitchell, Manning Redwood
Soundtrack: Jimmy Page

After the feel-bad opus of Death Wish II (Want to feel just awful? Put that one on), director Michael Winner finally decided to lighten things up.

The result is 1985’s Death Wish 3.

At a time when vigilante films were already becoming live-action cartoons (Vigilante, Exterminator 2), Winner pushed the envelope even further, creating one of the ultimate “turn your brain off” action movies of the decade. Unfortunately, there’s still some of his signature sadism left in (Marina Sirtis is rightfully still bitter about it), but, compared to the previous entry, it’s downright breezy.

It’s also far more unambiguous in its storytelling than the first one: Paul Kersey comes back to New York from exile in Los Angeles; his friend Charlie gets confronted by some thugs (one played by Alex Winter) while Paul is literally on his way to visit Charlie, and so Charlie dies in Paul’s arms; Paul gets taken into police custody, but then turned loose by the police chief who knows who he is and wants him to do what he does; and before too long (end of the first act), Kersey has gone to war with the local [inexplicably multi-racial] gang.

In more contrast to the original, Death Wish 3 is (adjusted for inflation) a much cheaper movie. There’s enough actual New York City to make it plausible, but it was largely shot in London to save on costs, and thus the cast is filled with American expats (if not downright UK citizens).

Not that it matters, because while there are some minor twists and turns in the story, the most important aspect of the film is that the last fifteen minutes devolves into glorious chaos, punctuated by the fact that our protagonist is a sexagenarian.

Not the same quality as its predecessor, but entertaining in its own right.

Rating: ★★★½ (out of five)

There you have it. Two Death Wishes: one bad-good, one good-bad. And Bronson might be even more charming in the latter…