Jerry Saravia on cinema and pop culture (1970-present)

Loving God more than Elvis

2013-05-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

GOD IS THE BIGGER ELVIS (2012)

Reviewed By Jerry Saravia

I always wondered what happened to Dolores Hart. She a brief acting career that lasted six years, starring along side Elvis Presley in "Loving You" (where she had her first onscreen kiss) as well as working with other distinguished actors such as Anthony Quinn and Montgomery Clift. Dolores quit the business and fulfilled a higher calling she had ignored once already - she became a Benedictine nun at The Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Conn. "God is the Bigger Elvis" attempts to enlighten us on that transition but it never quite does.

Dolores was a Hollywood starlet and a fine actress, so what was this higher calling to Jesus? Hard to say because all she can say is she wanted to devote her life to God. Other nuns at the abbey speak of "making love to God" - something which I cannot quite comprehend. The rituals of the abbey are fascinating - the nuns cannot talk to each other while eating a meal and observations of silence and prayer are daily. But this documentary never probes Dolores' reasons for making such a startling change in her life - stripping herself of individuality and connecting to God in a remote (and beautiful) area of Connecticut. The other nuns speak of the same calling, as if escaping from modern society makes one, more pure of heart?

Most startling is Dolores, or should I say Mother Prioress Dolores Hart, and her meeting with another devoted Catholic, Don Robinson, an architect who was engaged to marry Dolores before she became a nun. It is a tough, emotional reunion, or so we think until he tells us that he has been visiting the abbey once every year since she joined. What is even sadder is that he never married despite dating several women, and still aches for her love. After their meeting, she walks away in tears. It is hard to know if she is unsure she made the right choice or sees a life she never had- those tears say so much and yet so little.

As a short introduction to Dolores Hart and her way of life, "God is the Bigger Elvis" is beguiling and fascinating. But no tough questions are asked, and the answers are only implied. Her silence can speak volumes, her love of God says much about her vocation but precious little about her as an individual apart from her union with God.

Tuskegee Airmen, Episode I?

2013-05-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

RED TAILS (2012)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Producer George Lucas has spoken for several years about making smaller, more artistic films after the last "Star Wars" film, Episode III to be precise. That was ten years ago. Since then, he supervised the "Star Wars: Clone Wars" animated series and feature film, a fourth Indiana Jones film and then he retired. Or did he? Nope, he is back in Star Wars land with an upcoming Episode VII. So much for retirement. Sandwiched in between animated Star Wars and live Star Wars was a passion pet project of his about the Tuskegee Airmen called "Red Tails." The only problem is that rather than dramatizing these brave heroes of WW II, the movie reduces everything they stood for to the level of a far too simple-minded comic book.

The Tuskegee Airmen were the African-American pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (the 332d Fighter Group) who had the dubious task of circling the air in zones where no Nazis were to be found. Of course, in the opening sequence, the Tuskegee Airmen spot a Nazi-occupied train and blast away with tremendous glee, destroying the train and its armaments in glorious fashion. The top brass at the Pentagon do not want to engage these pilots in fighting the Nazis - white pilots will do because blacks are not seen as equal. Meanwhile, a mission is fast approaching that will require the 332d, with the stipulation that they will assist and protect the Allied landings at Anzio, Italy without actually engaging the enemy. Naturally, orders are not followed as the Tuskegee Airmen destroy an entire German airfield, once again in glorious fashion. I question the movie's authenticity in the air pilots' behavior, specifically their insatiable need for violently shooting down the enemy. I went along with it but I don't know how many people will believe it.

"Red Tails" has some superb special-effects in detailing how these planes fly in formation and shoot to kill. Most of the effects, however, look like effects and part of the blame must go to the undernourished characters. Squadron leader "Easy" Julian (Nate Parker), a heavy drinker, has Denzel Washington's cool factor but little personality. Same with Joe "Lightning" Little (David Oyelowo), who develops a romance with an Italian woman whom he first meets when he waves to her while flying (only in the movies). These two characters are supposed to lend a little substance to the proceedings but they exist as cliches you have seen a million times before (It is hard to muster any enthusiasm for cliched pilots in cliched situations, especially an escape from a German fortress from one pilot that leaves a lot to be desired). Terrence Howard is the colonel who fights for these men to be taken seriously - you wish you saw more of him in the movie. Same with Cuba Gooding Jr. as a major who mostly nods and stares at his men - why leave this actor out in the cold?

"Red Tails" is wrapped in nobility and various cliches. I am fine with seeing a movie about the Tuskegees crossed with a John Wayne bravado but this mediocre movie is a snoozer with vapid characters who do not make us care for their plight except in the most arbitrary sense. These historic, brave men deserve something more. And I do expect a lot more from George Lucas.

Linda Lovelace minus hardcore truths

2013-05-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

INSIDE DEEP THROAT (2005)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Deep Throat," the most famous porn film ever made, is a film I've only seen in sections. Maybe the bad acting or the bad cinematography dulled my interest in it. Who knows. But who goes to see a porn film for quality filmmaking anyway? You are there for the explicit sex scenes, not the story. Perhaps in the 1970's, it was more than just the sex. "Inside Deep Throat" attempts to find out the hardcore truth (pardon the pun) but it never climaxes (pardon the pun).

"Deep Throat" is not the first porn film but it is the first one to have mainstream success. Gerard Damiano produced and directed the film, correctly thinking that such a film could be seen by couples in an actual movie theatre. Thus, with a budget of $25,000 dollars and an actress named Linda Lovelace, who apparently had a talent for oral sex, "Deep Throat" was born. As many of you probably know, Linda stars as a woman with an anomalous genetic function - her clitoris is in her mouth. I don't think I have to say much more.

Most of "Inside Deep Throat" details the fringes of porn filmmaking and how the mob helped finance most of it. "Deep Throat" grossed $600 million, though box-office statistics might be slightly off due to the money laundering (the same problem plagued the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre.") We see interviews with the cast of the film (including Damiano and Harry Reems, the male lead), moviegoers eager to see the film, protesters picketing, and luminaries such as Dick Cavett, Larry Flynt, Hugh Hefner, Al Goldstein, and many more. Almost anyone who was a celebrity at that time saw "Deep Throat." I remember reading that Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma saw it and wondered at the screening why there were so many couples and sophisticates and no one in trenchcoats. It was a cultural phenomenon that was amplified by the Nixon administration who tried to censor it and almost succeeded. Of course, porn was never the same again, and now the censors are back trying to ban porn.

The problem with "Inside Deep Throat" is that it doesn't go deep enough (pardon the pun, again). We learn about a time and place that seems strangely more innocent, but there is no true insight into what made "Deep Throat" so phenonemal. And the issue of free speech doesn't seem to infuse the controversy much - the film could still be seen in theaters and it certainly made its money back leading to more porn films and even a sequel. Perhaps the real issue is that a blowjob became mainstream and acceptable long before Bill Clinton, and this frightened the Nixon administration. You are having sex and you are enjoying it! What a threat to the national order!

The late Linda Lovelace famously said that every time she had sex in "Deep Throat," she was actually being raped. There is no disputing that her boyfriend abused her but if Lovelace really felt that way, why did she make two more porn films? I remember seeing Lovelace at the Chiller Theatre convention in Meadowlands, NJ, where she signed VHS copies of "Deep Throat." I suppose she decided to accept the fact that she would be always be remembered for "Deep Throat." That acknowledgment might have lended some poignancy to "Inside Deep Throat."

Jason Voorhees in old-fashioned 3-D

2013-05-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3, 3-D (1982)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Seen one Friday the 13th flick, seen them all. I have not had the pleasure of seeing all ten sequels to the original 1980 shocker which also had its own remake. Jason Voorhees has not been my favorite psycho killer either. "Friday the 13th Part 3" has the distinction of being the only sequel in the series to be in 3-D. That is a bit of a blessing because it has its shock value when you see bats, axes and other weapons thrust at the audience in three dimensions. Other than that, same old, same old.

Aside from a brief recap of Part 2 where poor Amy Steel survived the throes of the hooded Jason, this sequel finds more hormonal teens at Camp Crystal Lake. There are some hijinks of the low grade variety involving some old drifter who holds a severed eyeball, and the teens smoking weed and eating it after assuming that the cops are going to stop them. The most memorable character of this bunch is Shelly (Larry Zerner), a Seth Rogen-crossed-with-Jeff-Ross lookalike, who scares people because he is unable to communicate in any other way. He has a goalie mask and this is where we discover the advent of Jason's most iconic visage. And one of the other sympathetic teen characters is Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell), who had survived Jason's attacks once before.

This "Friday the 13th" flick has its laundry list of slasher film ingredients. Axes, pitchforks, hot pokers and knives are thrust into bellies and heads. Sometimes someone is attacked in showers and in barns with plenty of haystacks cued with that creepy Jason Voorhees instrumental score. Best moment has Jason firing a spear from a spear gun at one unlucky victim. The ending is a creepy reprise of the original and it works as a shock moment yet "Part 3," which has got shocks galore and some gore, has little to differentiate it from the norm. The 3-D process is more of a tactic to make couples embrace each other and turn away from the screen, or at least the girl so she can be shielded from the screen as long as the cardboard 3-D glasses are not crushed.

I am not easily recommending this flick to anyone but it has an, albeit extremely slight, innocence to it. It is not the torture porn of the 2010 horror flicks, and it is hardly as gory as any of the other Friday the 13ths. It is not boring but it is also not much of anything other than using humans as slaughter slabs in more than three dimensions with two dimensional characters. I saw this on video back in 1983 in 2-D, and it is fun seeing it in 3-D and for that reason alone, it is hard to resist for Friday the 13th completists. Interestingly enough, this was supposed to have been the last installment but you can't keep a blood-stained goalie mask down for long.

Connery's Frank Buck in the Amazon

2013-05-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

MEDICINE MAN (1992)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

John McTiernan's "Medicine Man" is another one of those giddy pleasures at the movies - a good/bad movie that is reasonably entertaining and offers little else except the grand Sean Connery. Connery's presence and his thick Scottish brogue often enhance such good/bad movies like "Highlander 2: The Quickening" and "Cuba." Sometimes they do little except annoy me like "Entrapment" or "First Knight" or the original "Highlander." And sometimes he matches the material for all its worth such as "The Anderson Tapes," "The Terrorist," James Bond, etc. Yes, I am a huge Connery fan but I still wonder what could've been done with the potentially ambitious "Medicine Man."

Connery is Dr. Robert Campbell, a gray-haired, ponytail-wearing biochemist living in the Amazonian forest. He is searching a cure for the greatest plague of the twentieth century - in a word, cancer. And he's found it. It has to do with ants and a specific kind of flower but, lo and behold, this is an ecological adventure movie (yep, Spielberg made his own several years later with "The Lost World"). You see there are mercenaries who are burning down the rainforests, a continuing ecological and environmental disaster, to build a road. As Campbell explains, "No rain, no rainforests!" Thank you Dr. Campbell.

And in the great tradition of the Kate Capshaw role of Irritable Female Characters comes Dr. Crane (Lorraine Bracco), nicknamed Dr. Bronx by Campbell, a research assistant from a pharmaceutical company who has come to investigate Campbell. Has the man completed any kind of research and can he prove it? Yes, of course. Even I learned that in General Science in high school - if you have proposed a theory, prove it with samples and notes.

Naturally, we get lots of truly scenic vistas, lots of rope climbing, a nasty spill into the river and down a hillside, scenes of comic relief involving some bark that is more potent than caffeine, lots of natives, a lot of native womens' breasts, lots of dancing in the night by a bonfire, a disturbing nightmare, and no chance at all of seeing Bracco's breasts (hey, this is a PG-13 movie).

Of course, "Medicine Man" is occasionally a little too humorous, intentional or not, and some scenes play off as being a little too campy (Connery in a headdress for one). But this is marginally better than the average good/bad movie. Connery is in full command and dominates every scene he's in. Lorraine Bracco, who only has a handful of moments where she is restrained, may make you want to scratch your fingernails on a blackboard. Still, Connery and Bracco do make a good team. The ending is almost too good for what precedes it, and there is a stunning confrontation with a real medicine man that depicts a far more serious movie than the one we are watching.

Basically, "Medicine Man" is a 1930's adventure movie with an ecological theme upgraded to modern sensibilities. If it had been made in the 30's, Frank Buck would've been cast in the Campbell role. Connery gives it the prestige to differentiate it slightly from the norm.

The Bounty Hunter From Nowhere

2013-05-14T12:07:00.001-07:00

DOMINO (2005)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I have reviewed the frenetic, souped-up style of "Domino" before so, frankly, anything I say about it has been said countless times. "Domino" is a loud, obnoxious, brash, excessive affront to anyone's good senses - an anti-cinematic style where there is no style. Director Tony Scott is not my cup of tea (though his best work might still be "Crimson Tide") and this movie is something of a bore.

Domino Harvey (Kiera Knightley) is based on the real-life bounty hunter who died of a drug overdose at the age of 35. Domino was also Lawrence Harvey's daughter, the late actor who died the year Domino was born. Why this rich girl from the school of 90210 decided to become a bounty hunter is never fully explained. She is a tough girl who defies sororities with solid punches to the mouth and basically defies everyone. She is amoral, sexy, relentless, kind of like the movie itself. She joins a bounty hunter team led by Ed Mosbey (Mickey Rourke), a hardened bounty hunter who's seen it all. His partner is Choco (Edgar Ramirez) who insists on speaking Spanish at all times, though Domino never understands one word. They all work for a bail bondsman, Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo), who organizes a course on bounty-hunting that turns out to be a scam (or so I thought considering one scene shows Domino winning a Bounty Hunter of the Year award but I suppose that is part of the scam.)

There is a plot here involving a double-cross where Mob money is laundered and we get thieves wearing First Lady masks. There is some attempt at social commentary about the "Jerry Springer show," some attempt at seeing how corrupt DMV is, and a comical attempt at seeing the insatiable need for reality TV programming with Christopher Walken making a welcome appearance. In other words, excepting the DMV angle, nothing new.

"Domino" has a lot up its sleeve but it never draws any cards. The movie is so hyperkinetic that it is a chore to illustrate what the movie is trying to say. If you title a movie with the main character's name, then it should be about the character. Domino Harvey, as written by Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko"), is given no real insight and no real shadings of a character worth spending time with. Mostly we get loud shootouts, loud music, all intercut into an overloaded, overlong music video. And yes, we get the customary jump cuts, switch of film stocks every few seconds, scenes that are speeded-up then rewound with a different result, flashes of white dissolved from grainy, washed-out colors to brighter ones - basically, everything that you see in TV shows and commercials. It's not so much that Tony Scott's filmmaking techniques are grandiose - his editing is. It is a pumped-up, drug-addled, airless affair of a movie, but not really a movie. In the end, you'll ask, who was that chick masquerading as a bounty hunter anyway?

Are you a Bearcat?

2013-05-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

THE IDES OF MARCH (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Running a presidential campaign during the primaries must be the most exhausting and time-consuming work there is. If you are the presidential candidate, you are trusting your campaign manager and all the interns to do the best they can for you, assuming they believe in you. With "The Ides of March," the assumption is more honestly cynical - it may have nothing to do with ideals and more to do with career advancement.

Take Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling), the smarter-than-thou and quick-on-his-feet press secretary to Governor Morris (George Clooney), the Democratic candidate running for a seat in the Oval Office. Stephen may or may not pretend to be an idealist but that is what he sells. It is what Stephen sells to a zealous New York Times journalist (Marisa Tomei), whom he pretends to be friends with though he will not reveal information that could damage the candidate, no matter how trivial. Stephen has to be cautious but things get messy when he talks to a rival campaign manager named Duffy (Paul Giamatti) who works for Senator Pullman, Morris's opponent. Stephen should never talk to Duffy in a secret meeting but word gets out. And one of Morris's interns (Evan Rachel Wood) might have a questionable black mark on the campaign that could ruin Morris's chances.

Clooney himself co-wrote and directed this film, based on the 2008 Off-Broadway play "Farragut North." Clooney has proven to be a true actor's director and he also has a surefire way of getting all the tension he needs for this evolving story to give it maximum impact. From the long take of a campaign manager entering a vehicle and then exiting after being told something secretive to Gosling's brilliant last scene where his face, no longer the smiling careerist we see earlier, gives us goosebumps, Clooney can definitely handle this material with complete assurance (he has already proven to be quirky with "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and to give a historical event a dose of vitality with "Good Night, and Good Luck"). But the script loses a little momentum when a damaging secret is revealed that is resolved a little too cheaply for my tastes. I will not say it is the cheap exploitation of fictitious political crises like Clint Eastwood's over-the-top thriller "Absolute Power" but it felt a little crass and it is handled with a complete lack of sympathy. That is all I can say, and I expected more from writer-director Clooney who looks for an easy way out.

The cast is uniformly excellent, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman as a disgruntled campaign manager who is as much a careerist as Gosling's Stephen. Gosling is exceptionally good and reveals layers that run the gamut from deceitful and charming with a sly smile to feeling as if he has been cheated. And Clooney, who has fewer scenes than almost anyone else, handles his presidential role with aplomb - he's got the smile and the smoothness down pat. The movie though left me feeling cheated, despite an ambiguous final shot that could have used more of an even structure. Still, in an era of Hollywood movies that recycle and reboot everything, it is a breath of fresh air to see a political movie with more brains than CGI. A little more empathy would have been nice to.

Donal Logue eliminates his desire

2013-05-06T18:01:00.001-07:00

THE TAO OF STEVE (2000)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Original review from 2000)

Romantic comedies continue to multiply in Hollywood and the independent scene (the last couple of good ones I can recall on an independent scale are "Chasing Amy" and "The Brothers McMullen".) "The Tao of Steve" is harmless time filler, likely to provoke some light laughs on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Its major selling point is the casting of the sweet Donal Logue at its center.

Logue does not play Steve, in fact the title is a philosophy carried around by Dex. Logue plays Dex, a sweet, likable slacker with a prominent gut who has his own agenda on how to seduce women. No, it is not seduce and destroy but rather do not let on you are seducing, then let them go after you have sex. First rule is to eliminate your desire. Second rule is to be excellent at something in their presence (camping is not an option). Third rule is to withdraw. This philosophy, known as the Tao of Steve, is based on the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu whom Dex reads avidly. The name "Steve" is used because it is the coolest name, and its claim to fame is from the coolest of all movie stars, Steve McQueen. The least coolest name is Stu (ironically the name of the coolest character in "Scream" but that is a moot point).

The film begins at a ten-year college reunion where Dex was once known as Elvis, hence the most popular of all the students. He chuckles as he mentions that now he is a fat Elvis. At the reunion, he meets Syd (Greer Goodman), a set designer for the Santa Fe Opera whom Dex has literally forgotten about, including their own tryst years ago. Most uncool for Dex and so anti-Steve. Dex naturally falls in love with Syd, and does not eliminate the desire - he makes it plainly known, even telling her he is falling in love with her.

"The Tao of Steve" has some measured moments of truth about Dex's nature and about relationships in general, but it peters out to a hasty resolution that seems false and predictable. Let's just say that it is the kind of ending more attributed to Hollywood than an independent film of this kind. There are also frequent pop-culture references to "Hawaii Five-O," "Six-Million Dollar Man" and other TV shows of yesteryear, complete with music from said shows. It all feels contrived and unnecessary, simply marking time. And the cinematography is a little too muddy for my tastes considering the beautiful location - Santa Fe, New Mexico may be a bit overcast at times but it is ripe for high contrasts in terms of cinematography.

Still, there is a genial warmth to the film thanks to Donal Logue (who won the Special Jury Prize Award for Best Actor at Sundance). He could be a mean-spirited, viciously verbal macho male yet, as written by director Jenniphr Goodman and co-writers Greer Goodman and Duncan North, the screenplay opts for gentler tones of body language and a sensitivity in Dex that makes him instantly likable. He is so damn sweet that it becomes infectious - how can a woman resist the temptations of a philosophical male who speaks of lust as a primary way of living? So what if he works part-time and smokes marijuana daily for breakfast!

"The Tao of Steve" is not a total success because it travels on safer terrain rather than truly exploring what motivates someone like Dex. He is the kind of guy that can surprise you, lead you to think he's less clever than he looks. The film's homespun philosophy is that love rules the day over lust, and a lover like Don Giovanni would eventually come to realize this. I feel Dex is a unique enough character that he would only make you think he has realized this. Sometimes those who see the error of their ways continue making the same errors.

Footnote: The opening sequence of "The Tao of Steve" is set at a supposedly four-year college where a ten-year reunion is taking place. Actually, it is Santa Fe Community College, a two-year school that would not likely have a reunion. The setting looks familiar enough since I attended that very same school for two-and-a-half years!

'Tell the Court I love my wife'

2013-05-05T17:10:00.000-07:00

THE LOVING STORY (2011)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

It is extraordinary how the Lovings managed to keep their composure in the face of ridiculous scandal. The Lovings, Richard and Mildred Loving, were arrested and almost spent a year in jail. They did not commit murder or larceny. Nope, their crime was being married to each other. How could this be? Richard was a white man married to a black woman, or in the parlance of its Civil Rights day, a colored woman.

One night, late at 4 a.m., the Lovings were arrested in their own bedroom by the sheriff! The charge was violating Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924 (the anonymous tip sent to the sheriff was that an interracial couple was having sex, also a crime). The married couple is sentenced to one year in prison, with the sentence suspended for 25 years on condition that the couple leave the state of Virginia. The hope is that the state's anti-miscegenation laws will be changed so they can remain in their own piece of Virginia land (Central Point) that they call home. Though they were married in Washington, D.C. which carried no anti-miscegenation laws, they prefer to live near their family. It takes a letter to Senator Robert Kennedy, the support of the ACLU and an eventual Supreme Court decision to right all wrongs. Meanwhile, Virginia Klansmen and other bigots spouse their lack of support - they want to keep America white and bright. Even a Circuit Court Judge makes the alarming generalization that God intended all races to be from different continents with no integration. Ouch! My eyes hurt just from reading that statement - I am afraid I will go blind if I read it again.

Most of "The Loving Story" is told through 16mm film footage by filmmaker Hope Ryden and cinematographer Abbot Mills as they capture the Lovings in their home and catering to their children. We also see the two bright, enthusiastic lawyers who take their case to the Supreme Court, Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop - both are nervous about this landmark court case that can either make or break their careers. It is important to note that the defense lawyers do not share any of this animosity or racism that others carry - they do not understand how these laws can still exist.

"The Loving Story" is a remarkable, honest and bittersweet documentary, shifting from some poignant photographs and film footage to the lawyers' own backbreaking work of defining and defying all odds to alter ancient laws. The film is really a close examination of two people in love who defied the authorities to stay close to home to be together. A tragedy did occur that resulted in the death of Richard due to a drunk driver's collision with their vehicle - they were living together legally only 8 years after the Supreme Court decision prior to this car crash. Mildred survived, losing an eye, until she passed in 2008.

Ultimately,The Lovings didn't set out to change the world. They just wanted what everyone else had - family, home and hearth and a future. Director Nancy Buirski proves in a revelatory and touching manner that marriage is indeed color blind.

Once Upon a Time when Afghanistan was our ally...

2013-05-05T15:25:00.001-07:00

RAMBO III (1988)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Back in 1988, the musclebound superman John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) fought the Russians in good old Afghanistan. This was prescient prior to the release of the film because an actual war was being fought between Afghanistan and the Russians. The people of Afghanistan were considered our friends. But when "Rambo III" was released that summer, the war was over and the U.S. completely deserted that country. How times have changed, and how clearly one can view "Rambo III" as one of the most idiotic action movies ever made.

Now I was hardly a fan of "Rambo: First Blood Part II" but at least it moved with spurts of kinetic energy, no matter how wholly unbelievable it was. The original "First Blood" was a decent film showing Rambo resorting to guerrilla tactics against the police who employed brutal methods of torture against Vietnam Vets. Though both films were largely implausible in terms of action setpieces, Rambo was at least seen in the original film as a human being who was simply wronged by society. But as soon as "Rambo III" opens, we are treated to one of those stick fights you often find in kung-fu movies where the sounds of body blows sound more like cannon blasts. Rambo is hit so hard in the abdomen and in other parts of the body that you sense he can't possibly win this fight. But no, he rises and strikes and finally his opponent gives up. Um, the man should be battered and bruised and left for dead but, hey, it's only a movie! A vapid, cartoonish bore of a movie but a movie nonetheless.

Next, Rambo and his red bandana are reluctantly sent to Afghanistan. Well, the mission is met with reluctance until his Colonel and life-long mentor (Richard Crenna) is kidnapped and held prisoner by the Soviets. Before long we are treated to explosions galore, machine-gun fire ad infinitum, knives thrust in bellies, throats, eyes, etc. Rambo is severely wounded by a piercing bullet on his side, which he coats with gunpowder and lighter fluid. Rambo keeps fighting, wounded on the leg, but he keeps getting up and doing it all over again. He is the superhuman hulk who can withstand any abuse because he is, after all, Rambo and for better or worse, he is America. I shudder at the thought.

Sylvester Stallone never quite recovered his superstar status, though he did one notably decent action picture called "Cliffhanger" in 1993. Otherwise, if you are a fan of interminable action with no sense of direction or sweep, and if you like sweat glistening on your favorite barbaric hero as he stares menacingly at his villains before firing his last round of bullets, then this movie is for you. I fell asleep.

Rambo fights the War in America

2013-05-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

FIRST BLOOD (1982)

Reviewed By Jerry Saravia

(Originally viewed in 1982, revised review from 2003)

The notion that Vietnam vets were not welcomed in their own homeland because of what they did and what they represent may seem like an antiquated issue nowadays but it doesn't make it less resonant. As of now in glorious 2003, anti-war protesters still exist and decry the use of violence for any kind of interest, even in the interest of the war on terrorism. In 1982, a long-haired Vietnam Vet wearing a green jacket with the American flag symbol and entering a harmless town still seemed odd. Where was the harm and why would the small-town police chief see someone like that as a threat? To whom? Reminds me of Jack Nicholson's comment in "Easy Rider" that long-haired hippies would have their hair cut with rusty razor blades. That was in 1967, and this movie's setting is the early eighties.

Moving along, "First Blood" is the first film to feature the human-killing machine known as John J. Rambo (Sylvester Stallone), a man tortured by his memories of having fought that infamous war. He comes in to a small town (known as Hope) where he is less than welcomed. His intention was to visit a war buddy whom he learns died of cancer from that Agent Orange stuff. As soon as the police chief (Brian Dennehy) sees this Green Beret, he immediately asks him to leave town and go to the nearest diner, which is thirty miles away (oh, and he tells him to take a bath). Rambo is stubborn and decides to walk back into town. Before you know it, the Vietnam vet is taken to a police station and physically abused with clubs and water hoses. Rambo breaks free and escapes into the mountains, builds booby traps and plays a game of cat-and-mouse with the police, the National Guard and a bunch of Dobermans. All hell breaks loose, as if Rambo is fighting the Vietnam War all over again.

The opening scenes of "First Blood" are genuinely exciting and suspenseful, featuring the kind of physical violence that often places you on the edge of your seat. There is a moment, highly implausible, where Rambo jumps from the top of a cliff to a tree and merely makes it through with a bad cut on his arm (which he later stitches up). He is now a fugitive who is wanted for killing a police officer (though it was purely accidental), and survives mostly by using a serrated knife with a compass. Later, Rambo's own Green Beret commander, Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna), asks to bring in Rambo alone and bring him to justice on his own terms. That the chief would not comply to such demands is hardly a surprise - he wants Rambo dead.

Seeing the film again for the first time in almost twenty years, I was amazed to see how much physical abuse Rambo has to take in those startling opening sequences. I was also amazed that Rambo doesn't actually kill anyone (well, except for that one police officer he hurls through an office window). He is hardly the killing machine that he became in the atrocious "First Blood Part II" or "Rambo III" - he is more like a wounded animal in need of some counseling. The film does get bogged down with the Trautman character and a later speech by Rambo about what he has suffered since returning from the war - all of this is merely didactic without being insightful. The best scenes involve Rambo's survival methods and his ability to fool the authorities into thinking he's dead. It is these sections of the film, not to mention the opening sequence, that makes "First Blood" half of a terrific movie.

The mind is the best weapon

2013-05-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

John Rambo was never designed to be a jingoistic Vietnam hero for the Reagan era. But, there goes the grace of blood-stained heroics of the 1980's and we got stuck with one of the most ridiculous, brainless action films ever made, "Rambo: First Blood Part II." It is Sylvester Stallone in full commando mode, shooting every enemy with his high-powered machine guns and explosive-tipped arrows. I just laughed and snored at this picture in 1985, and I still do today.

Stallone's Rambo is doing hard time for his crime of nearly destroying the Pacific Northwest (which by the way did not include killing anybody). His boss, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), asks Rambo to go on a mission - find out if there are still POW's in Vietnam. Sweaty Marshall Murdock (Charles Napier), who loves his Cokes from an open vending machine (ah, our government at work), asks Rambo to photograph the POW's but do not get involved with the enemy and do not rescue any of them. Naturally, a musclebound hero who is, and I quote, "Joined the army 8/6/64. Accepted, Special Forces specialization, light weapons, cross-trained as medic. Helicopter and language qualified, 59 confirmed kills, two Silver Stars, four Bronze, four Purple Hearts, Distinguished Service Cross, Congressional Medal of Honor," just can't use a still camera without breaking it. Things get awry when Rambo arrives in Vietnam. We are talking mass casualties, serrated knives thrown against foreheads, explosive arrows that destroy most of the countryside, etc. I suppose anyone watching a movie like this knows what they are in for. But why does it have to be boring and with no discernible sense of humor?

Stallone merely appears like a stoic action figure - a noble hero who is doing the right thing. The government has no interest in rescuing these POW's, however, because it would mean they would have to admit to wrongdoing to a very unpopular war (they also did not obligate their debt of 4.5 billion in war reparations to the Viet Cong). My question is: if it is intended as a cover-up, why even bother with this mission in the first place and why send someone like Rambo? This is hardly the same character shown in "First Blood" - he is mad as hell and somehow is shoved with pious platitudes at the end of this film that nearly negate the whole experience.

"Rambo: First Blood Part II" has many explosions, many killings, heavy-duty tortures, and incredulous moments that make one shake their head in disbelief. Rambo jumping out of the water to grab on to a helicopter! Rambo camouflaging himself with mud and telepathically knowing where to stand exactly where the enemy will be in the thick of the jungle! None of it makes much sense nor should it taken seriously, nor is this jingoistic hero someone who I identify with or root for. But for some unknown reason, Rambo was taken seriously and became a pop culture sensation up until the release of the moronic "Rambo III." Consider viewing something else or read a book because, as Rambo says, "the mind is the best weapon." It is the best weapon, to use against pro-carnage swill like this.

Real Talk with Jesse and Celine

2013-05-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

BEFORE SUNSET (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Original review from 2005)

Who would have guessed that it would take the reunion of director Richard Linklater and actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy to make a truly blissful, bittersweet romantic comedy? Well, I am happy to report that "Before Sunset" is a lovely, melancholy and disarmingly sweet surprise - a fascinating sequel to "Before Sunrise" that left me swooning and on a happy high note of bliss. I normally don't say such things but I respect a solid romantic film when I see one.

Ethan Hawke is back as Jesse, an unhappily married author who is promoting his newest book in Paris. The story of his novel dictates the brief romantic fling he had nine years earlier with Celine (Julie Delpy) in Vienna, which is the basic story of "Before Sunrise." Lo and behold, at a bookshop where he's promoting his book, a beaming Celine turns up. Jesse is distracted yet smitten all over again. They talk as they parade one end of Paris to another, discussing a wide variety of topics such as marriage, politics, age, looks, books and, inevitably, their own blissful fling. They were supposed to have met back in Vienna a mere six months after meeting each other, and only Jesse made it for this encounter.

Wait a minute, so this is all just mere conversation? No sex, drugs, rock and roll? No plot? I would say yes to all three questions, but are we forgetting that this is a sequel to a movie that was just about two people talking? Think of it this way: About ten years ago, I found myself wandering the streets of King's Point, NY after getting out of class from Queens College, thinking foolishly that I'd find a way to get to my Port Washington home on foot. No such luck. The point is that I wish someone had been walking with me for those three long hours, preferably of the opposite sex. If you understand that notion, "Before Sunset" will work miracles for you.

It has been nine years since I saw "Before Sunrise." I respected the film and found it was entrancing in its own conceit of just following two people who met on a train to Venice. The sequel has them all grown up and in their thirties, and I'd be remiss if I didn't feel like I had seen the original just the other day. It is like seeing two friends and playing catch-up - are they the same? Do they have the same interests? Are they are as romantic as they were in their twenties?

It is not fair to say much more. "Before Sunset" is all dialogue but never boring (Hawke and Delpy co-wrote the screenplay). This is not simply a travelogue of Paris either as director Richard Linklater uses the Steadicam to follow our two wanna-be lovers from one street and canal to another. Scenes in a coffee bar are accomplished with traditional close-ups and they work because they are used appropriately. It also helps that Ethan Hawke's Jesse and Julie Delpy's Celine are such engaging, three-dimensional characters - you want to follow them forever. The film's ending has an implied sense of regret as their lives took on different routes. One wonders if they wish they could rejuvenate their love or if they accept their standing in life. The fact that they question it and discuss it makes this one of the more romantic and bittersweet films of our times. If you're sick of prefab romantic claptrap with J. Lo and company, observe "Before Sunset."

I Heard Scorsese Will Paint Houses Again

2013-04-30T10:43:00.001-07:00

SCORSESE'S RETURN TO GOODFELLAS' TERRITORY

By Jerry Saravia

It has been 19 years since director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro have worked together. Their last project was the vastly underrated "Casino," a sprawling, hardcore, deeply unsettling and definitely entertaining Mafia movie - a sort of "GoodFellas Goes West" where Las Vegas becomes the playground of greed and excess for the wiseguys. Since then, Scorsese has not dealt with the Mafia per se, with the exception of "The Departed" which features an underworld element that has little to do with "GoodFellas" or "Casino." The news had arrived well over a year ago that Scorsese had his eye on "I Heard You Paint Houses," a 2004 book by author Charles Brandt that deals with real-life figure, Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran.

In the book, it is stated that Pennsylvanian-born Sheeran had served in World War II for 411 days, participating in the Dachau concentration camp massacre (interestingly, this event also signaled one of the more powerful scenes in Scorsese's "Shutter Island"). After leaving the service, he worked as a trucker and became a hitman for the Bufalino crime family, working for crime boss Russell Bufalino. Sheeran also claimed to have been a hitman for Jimmy Hoffa, involved in more than 25 murders (Sheeran also worked as a labor union official for Hoffa). Sheeran also claimed support for anti-Fidel Castro forces involved in the Bay of Pigs disaster, as well as claiming that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was a Mafia hit (Sheeran allegedly transported rifles to the alleged assassins). There is also the claim that Sheeran killed Jimmy Hoffa (this would contradict the late Richard Kuklinsi's claims that he had killed Hoffa, according to the book "The Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer.)"

The planned adaptation of this book is called "The Irishman." So what are my thoughts on this? This is a great idea for a film and I certainly hope Scorsese makes it. It is not an average story of a Mafia contract killer or "GoodFellas" redux simply because a lot of history is attached to it, or historical footnotes as it were. Robert De Niro claimed earlier this year that he was going play Sheeran and Al Pacino would play Hoffa. My only quibble is Pacino's casting - this man is in his 70's, playing a 62-year-old man who was very animated and passionate about his Teamsters Union (check out the interrogations by the late Robert Kennedy for proof). Not that Pacino can't animate himself to extremes but he does a look little too old to play Hoffa (it might end up being better than Nicholson's cartoon Hoffa with a prosthetic nose in the film of the same name). And since the story is told from the point-of-view of an old man, De Niro can definitely do the latter but who is going to play the role when it comes to the depictions of WW II and the Hoffa Years? De Niro is a very talented actor, able to change his body language to suit any character, but he can't make himself look too young. There are also claims that Harvey Keitel and Joe Pesci are cast, though no word on what roles they will play.

When "The Irishman" will commence filming is unclear. Scorsese recently said it wouldn't be till 2014, and it seems his long-gestating passion project "Silence" is finally becoming a reality. Either way, this is one fascinating story I look forward to from one of the greatest film directors of all time.

A Western in Your FACE!

2013-04-27T17:07:00.001-07:00

COMIN' AT YA! (1981)

Reviewed By Jerry Saravia

The title says it all - everything on the screen comes at yah, in 3-D. Only the 3-D effects are not what they are nowadays - we are talking about cardboard glasses with red and cyan filters. That means anything red and cyan really popped out of the screen. "Comin' at Ya!" was a return to 3-D back in 1981, throwing everything at the audience except the kitchen sink. Is it a good movie? Heck, no! Is it another one of those good-bad movies? Heck, yes!

Oh, no!!! A Baby's bare ass in 3-D!

The movie directed by Ferdinando Baldi is a low-rent spaghetti western that begins with H.H. Hart (Tony Anthony) at his wedding ceremony which is interrupted by two villainous, gun-toting brothers. They kill the priest and kidnap Hart's bride who is sold as a prostitute. Hart is assumed to be dead but no - in a pure knockoff of Clint Eastwood's Man of No Name and Few Words, he is very much alive and intends to find the brothers and kill them and save his bride. That is the plot which is merely a springboard for endless 3-D effects that include flying bats, flying flaming arrows, characters who toss beans, coins and yo-yos at the audience from low-angle shots, hungry rats, snakes, guns that poke out of the screen, and there is a baby's bare ass as it sits on us! Oh, and I enjoyed the nifty opening credits which are emblazoned on several objects in a room.

On the plus side, "Comin' at Ya!" has some beautiful widescreen western landscapes (though this is the first western I've seen where palm trees show up in shots that look like they were filmed in Palm Springs). The movie is somewhat fun and has a simple-minded sense of humor, though it does drag on for a while until it gets to do the good stuff - the 3-D climax in particular is quite effective. "Comin at Ya! is not really a movie - it is just a test reel to prove that 3-D was back in major way (all the 3-D effects are repeated at the end in case you didn't notice how cool they were). They are cool effects, but a more charismatic hero and something called a story might have been nice too.

A Killer Smile

2013-04-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

THE STEPFATHER (1987)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The Stepfather (1987) Fan-Made trailer

I first saw The Stepfather on late-night TV back in 1989 (at that time, there were TV spot ads for "Stepfather 2"). My initial reaction was that I had seen one of the more suspenseful, frightening thrillers in many years. The truth still holds today for what is regarded as a cult thriller with one of the most compelling, ambiguous psychopaths in a long time. The very notion that "a daddy may not be a daddy," a quote attributed to film critic David Edelstein, is certainly a scary thought. This is not a slasher flick nor is it a typical thriller. It is certainly not a monster movie or anything akin to the slasher routines of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. "The Stepfather" is along the lines of a story torn right out of today's headlines. In the 1980's, the headliner was John List, convicted murderer of his family who went on the run and adopted a pseudonym (story was later made into a TV movie with Robert Blake). List was later found and apprehended thanks to America's Most Wanted. The cinematic daddy Jerry is simply a tale of madness where a daddy can go nuts with a glinting knife if his wife and kids disappoint him.

The film opens and closes with the same image: a newspaper-delivering boy on a bicycle tossing newspapers at every house on the tree-lined street. One newspaper is flung at a particular house where the camera suddenly tracks into, slowly pushing in to the second floor bathroom window. A bearded man is seen with blood on his face and hands. He washes his bloody hands in the sink and mutters to himself. Slowly, he takes a suit from the suitcase, cuts his hair, shaves his beard and, presto, he looks like a new man! We see him leave the bathroom while framed photos of his family are shown on the wall. He finds a toy in the hallway and deposits it in the toy chest - still establishing order. This man descends to the main living room where we witness a savagely bloody scene - family members are left for dead and furniture is toppled over (the overwhelming music and the busy dial tone of a phone receiver sends chills, nicely foreshadowing the thrilling climax). One grisly sight is of a dead little girl on the floor still clutching her teddy bear. The man leaves the house, whistles Camptown Races, grabs a newspaper and leaves while other people are seen leaving for work - it is interesting how nobody seems to acknowledge his presence since he appears to be a normal Everyman going to work. So we shift from shadowy angles and morbid sights to the overcast morning light of day as life goes on. This sequence sets up the rest of the movie perfectly, aligning murder as a hidden reality in everyday modern suburbia. Though the alignment of such phenomenon is not entirely new (exposed with more visual panache in David Lynch's Blue Velvet one year earlier), it is still an unsettling image knowing that our own parents may have secrets that we can only dream about. His adjustment to normalcy in modern America is also fittingly disturbing - he has none of the distinguishing characteristics of a serial killer. Only his forced smile can be an indicator.

We shift one year later to a teenage girl on a bike named Stephanie (Jill Schoelen). She is on her way home when she is greeted with dried leaves flung at her by her mother, Susan (Shelley Hack). They start throwing more leaves at each other and finally reach a truce. Their friendly game is interrupted by a car honk. "Oh, Jerry is home. Come on honey" says Susan, though we see Stephanie is obviously disappointed ("Jerry is home. Heeeyaa.") Now we know the name of the man we saw in the opening sequence (though it surely can't be his real name). Jerry kisses Susan and presents Stephanie with a mutt. She is delighted though she is oblivious to his reference to TV's Rin-Tin-Tin. Jerry asks her if they can give the dog a new home and she agrees. "That's my girl," says Jerry. Stephanie leaves hastily and we sense that she does not get along with this new man in her life. As she gets in the house, we see that the screen door does not close properly. Jerry says he has to fix it someday and thinks the puppy was a mistake. Susan's reply is, "The puppy is perfect. You are perfect."

This family life is far from perfect, and it is the first indication that Susan is blind to the man she has brought to her home. Jerry is a top-notch realtor for American Eagle Realty and firmly believes that he is really selling the American Dream (it isn't just some con). In the meantime, Stephanie sees a psychiatrist from time to time (with Jerry seen outside waiting by the car). This relationship with the psychiatrist, Dr. Bondurant (Charles Lanyer), is a far healthier one than the one Stephanie has with Jerry. She can confide in Bondurant of her problems with the new stepfather and with skipping and being suspended from school, blaming her own father who died a year earlier. When we see Stephanie in the car with Jerry, he tells her to stop butting heads with him and improve their relationship. He also tells her to stop screwing up in school. Next we see Stephanie engaged in a fight with another girl and getting expelled. Mr. Jerry will not stand for this nor will he see her in a boarding school as an alternative. Thus, Jerry becomes the Everyman, the one who can set things straight and solve any problem. He convinces the school principal that Stephanie is a "lost cause" who can be helped. Then we are back in the psychiatrist's office as Stephanie continues to whine about Jerry. "He scares me Dr. Bondurant. I am afraid of him." This confession startles the good doctor.

The film shifts from Stephanie's growing suspicions to the investigation of a prior murder by Jerry (the murder we see at the beginning). Jim Ogilvie (Stephen Shellen) was the brother of Jerry's formerly slain wife and now he wants to exact revenge. The police can't do much since there are no witnesses - it doesn't help that Jerry is so clever in his escape from one house to the next leaving not one shred of evidence. The newspapers will not run the photographs along with the articles. Despite a lack of support, Ogilvie persists and goes back to the crime scene to dig up something, anything, to find the family killer.

In the meantime, Stephanie is more and more convinced that Jerry is not whom he says he is. A barbecue party convinces her even more. Jerry overhears a group discussing a newspaper article of a family killer. He reads the paper, is understandably shocked and says that there is only one reason why a man would murder his family - "Maybe they disappointed him." This scene alone is a classic, showcasing Jerry's dual side perfectly. He expresses shock, disgust, and then he arches his eyebrows as he makes a telling statement. However, we do not see the group's reaction. Instead we see Stephanie's shocked reaction. Suddenly, his arching eyebrows turn to a smile worthy of Ward Cleaver. He changes the newspaper into a captain's hat and gives it to a kid, making references to Scotty's voice from Star Trek. The final nail in the coffin is when Jerry goes to the basement and yells, screams, and smashes things. He begins muttering to himself that there should be some order. He is more upset at being found out by the authorities. "We are going to keep this family together. You had better believe it!" screams Jerry. Unfortunately, he is unaware of Stephanie's presence since she went to the basement to get ice cream. Jerry says that sometimes he needs to let off some steam. Stephanie walks away and goes back to the party. After the party has ended, she finds the newspaper and decides to find out who the murderer was. She calls the newspaper and asks for a photo, claiming she is doing a paper on mass murderers. When the photo arrives in the mail, we find it in Jerry's hands, not Stephanie's. He goes to a local photo shop and gets a new photo print. When Stephanie finally gets the mail, she is quite disappointed that it didn't turn out to be Jerry after all. Interestingly, Stephanie has come closer to ID'ing the killer than Ogilvie...which makes me wish somebody had the foresight to cast Jill Schoelen as an older Stephanie in a future sequel, possibly as an FBI agent or a smart detective pursuing serial killers. Alas, it was not to be (she was reportedly offered a role in the sequel but a deal was not reached).

Yet another brief investigation takes place, this one involving the good doctor. Dr. Bondurant suggests to Stephanie that he try to talk to Jerry. She hopes that the doctor will be on her side. He calls the house but Jerry refuses to talk to him. Dr. Bondurant tries another alternative - he will pretend to buy a house. The doctor sets up an appointment and they meet. Jerry senses right away that this guy is not interested in buying a house - he is interested in talking to Jerry. Thus, a scene of unsettling violence ensues involving a 2X4. This is the first moment of pure violence we have witnessed in almost an hour of running time. Jerry wraps the doctor's corpse in plastic and fakes an automobile accident. A problem solved quickly for Jerry who uses the incident to win some love and support from Stephanie. She cries over the doctor and hugs Jerry for support. The next day, Stephanie offers to help Jerry with one of his birdhouses and then tells him that she is sorry for her behavior. "Well, why don't we just bury the hatchet," says Jerry. He also advises Stephanie not to grow old too fast considering her interest in boys. After the birdhouse is situated, he wonders if a family of birds could live in there. Let's hope those birds don't disappoint him. (At this point, by the way, the screen door has been fixed).

Now we have a family that couldn't be happier and more homely. A Thanksgiving dinner is treated with great reverence by Jerry. "Until this moment, I never knew what Thanksgiving was really all about," says Jerry with real emotion and a butcher knife that glints. Looks like Jerry's American Dream has become a reality. For the moment. Stephanie hangs out with her friend, Paul (Jeff Schultz), who gives her a ride in his motorbike (they have an earlier scene where they mock a boxing match in one of the most tender and honest scenes depicting teenagers in the entire movie). Paul drops her off at her house. He kisses her goodnight. A pleasant moment until Jerry opens the door and lashes at Stephanie and Paul. He accuses Paul of rape and Stephanie tells him he is all crazy and hung-up about sex. Susan slaps her in the face for disrespecting Jerry. She runs off while Susan berates Jerry for throwing away all the progress they have made. He stares menacingly and walks to the street and, at this precise moment, we see that Jerry is disappointed by his family. He is now ready to move on.

"The Stepfather" has all the hallmarks of your average slasher film or thriller. It does have a brutal psychopath and the customary victims and the occasional flashes of the traditional violence and gore. But what distinguishes "The Stepfather" from others of its ilk is its protagonist and the family values it tries to bestow on the audience. Jerry Blake aka Henry Morrison is not a psychopath devoid of personality wearing a hockey mask and armed with a machete. He is a seemingly ordinary man who believes and promotes family values, and is always smiling and being kind to others. His love for Susan seems genuine, and he tries to make peace with Stephanie by giving her a puppy. This guy really does try but is continually disappointed. His disappointment gives way to an uncontrollable rage for murder. Stephanie sees something abnormal in Jerry whereas her mother Susan just doesn't see. Stephanie sees how Jerry acts in the basement "making faces to himself." She also sees his evil glances at the barbecue masked by his smile that could light up a room. Stephanie is simply not interested in smiling all the time and behaving as if she were in an episode of Leave it to Beaver - "I swear to God, it is like having Ward Cleaver for a dad." The tense relationship between Stephanie and Jerry is at the core of "The Stepfather," a relationship that has a cinematic equivalent in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. In the latter, Teresa Wright was the niece to Uncle Charley (Joseph Cotten), a similarly meek-looking counterpart to Jerry Blake who could also explode with rage. Their relationship was fraught with tension, just like Stephanie and Jerry's.

What is really at the core is what "The Stepfather" ultimately says about the importance of family in an age where old-fashioned values are ignored. Jerry Blake is the kind of man who marries widows with children. His thought process is to search for perfection - to make a family as perfect as a sitcom would from the 1950's. That he is unrealistic about such demands is barely the problem - he assumes whatever flaws exist can be eradicated to the point where they are nonexistent. If any outside forces come in to destroy the perfection, they can and will be nicely dispatched of. The most telling examples are: the newspaper account of his murderous history; the psychiatrist who assumes another identity to discover Jerry's other side; Stephanie's boyfriend who just wants to kiss her goodnight; Stephanie's attitudinal urges and her violent fights in school; and, most importantly, Ogilvie, the brother-in-law from one of Jerry's former marriages. A subtle example of dispatching any threats to the family is conveyed through dialogue. Jerry watches Mr. Ed on television while Susan seductively brushes her hair. She comes to bed and wonders why Jerry doesn't talk about his past. He says it did not exist until he met her. Then he tells her that the past is not important, what is important is the present, here and now. They make love and all talk of the past is forgotten. Nothing can intrude upon the past and nothing can get in the way of family.

One of the criticisms of "The Stepfather" is that it allows almost no insight into Jerry Blake. As New York Times critic Janet Maslin commented, "It's disappointingly thin and no full account of Jerry Blake's psychosis is ever explored." One can agree with Maslin that we have no idea who Jerry Blake is or where he comes from. Any insights into his personal background is virtually lacking (originally, the screenplay was to have flashbacks of Jerry's younger days where he was physically abused). Just before the violent climax, Jerry forgets who he is: "Wait a minute. Who am I here?" That line still gives me goosebumps. Basically, we only get hints into Jerry's psychology. Dr. Bondurant assumes that Jerry had a strict upbringing based on his family needs and upholding traditions. We see that Jerry has a love for 50's television, including references to "Star Trek," "Mr. Ed," and "Rin Tin Tin." A deleted scene I caught when the film was televised in 1989 showed Jerry talking to Susan about meeting Dr. Bondurant. Susan asks him if he is afraid of psychiatry and if he has something to hide. Jerry jokes and tells her, "One of these days Susan. Bang! Zoom! Right to the Moon!," an obvious reference to "The Honeymooners." When he later makes love to Susan, we see a passionless reaction, as if he gets no pleasure from lovemaking. I love these hints and they do speak volumes, even if we still have no real clue why Jerry murders the families he marries into outside of the most casual disappointments.

"The Stepfather" was badly marketed back in 1987, advertised more as a slasher flick with Jerry brandishing a knife in silhouette. Though it did well in some markets, it fared poorly overall since it had no major stars (this was after all an independent film). Unless you were a film fan, you had no idea who Terry O'Quinn was, a journeyman actor who has appeared in a string of films in largely small roles (lately he has appeared in the X-Files film and Primal Fear and of course, TV's Lost). Jill Schoelen acquired some attention as the newest scream queen, later appearing in mildly diverting schlock like "Cutting Class" and classier, smarter horror pics like "Popcorn" before actually leaving the business altogether to raise a family (of course, I became a big fan of hers as a result of this film). Only Shelley Hack remained something of a known personality at that time for having appeared in TV's "Charlie's Angels." These factors were not enough to induce any mainstream appeal. You have to remember that anything remotely resembling a slasher film in the 80's was quickly written off as a failure. Horror became synonymous with slasher films or splatter films. Amazingly, 1987 also produced "Fatal Attraction," a hugely popular psychological thriller that ends with a bloodier ending than most slasher flicks (and admittedly left one too many loopholes). Of course, the latter had brand name actors and a director with a stronger tracking record but as intense as the film was, it was not the sleeper of the year that "The Stepfather" was.

But I certainly can't think of a better cast for "The Stepfather." O'Quinn gives a wonderful performance, one that shows how a psycho can mask his origins by pretending to be an all-American father with smiles and gifts of love (he would have been at home in "The Stepford Wives" or for that matter on TV's "Leave it to Beaver"). Schoelen shows a strong sympathetic side, and her clever intuitions as a Nancy Drew type show that smart, alert teenagers are more interesting than dumb ones. Shelley Hack has a thankless role but she has her own mask - her naivete. When it is finally exposed and she sees for the first time who Jerry Blake really is, we see that her love was blind and wish she would have caught the warning signs sooner. Also the underlying moral (and not just to women) seems to be a clear warning: do not marry hastily until you know who you are marrying. The fact that she married so quickly after losing her husband within a year might stretch credibility for some, but it is very apparent nowadays.

Crisply written by the late crime novelist Donald E. Westlake, photographed with autumnal colors and a subtle TV look by cinematographer John Lindley ("Pleasantville") and directed with the flair and style of a Hitchcockian student by Joseph Ruben, "The Stepfather" is one of the classiest, scariest and most suspenseful thrillers since Hitch's own "Psycho." Its shock is never knowing when family man Jerry Blake may crack under pressure if his family does not meet his standards. When he utters the words, "Whom am I here?," it sends a chill to the bone. The sequels never did it justice. "The Stepfather" is in a class all by itself.

SOURCES: Edelstein, David. 1987. "Review of the Stepfather." Village Voice, May 8.

Maslin, Janet. 1987. "Review of the Stepfather." N.Y. Times, May 8.

Hitchcock's Last Hurrah

2013-04-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

FAMILY PLOT (1976)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Whenever the last film of a great director's career comes forth, one reacts with trepidation due to one's unfairly great expectations. This may be why I avoided Alfred Hitchcock's last hurrah, known as "Family Plot," for so many years. I have long admired and become influenced by Hitch's work. We are talking about a career that spans 54 films in its output, producing such classics as "Psycho," "North By Northwest," "Rear Window," "Shadow of a Doubt," "Vertigo" and several more. During the 1970's, Hitch was less prolific with one exceptionally thrilling and graphic thriller, "Frenzy" in 1972, and "Family Plot" in 1976. Strangely, I must say I was pleasantly surprised: "Family Plot" may not be one of Hitch's finest but it is one of his few light comedies that has a few laughs and fine performances. It is light on its feet and quietly good fun.

Barbara Harris stars as a phony psychic named Blanche Tyler (she calls herself a "spiritualist") whose latest client, Mrs. Rainbird, is trying to locate her sister's long-lost son. The trouble is that he may be dead but it hardly matters - Mrs. Rainbird wants Blanche to find him for a ten-thousand dollar fee since he stands to be the heir of a million dollar fortune . This naturally excites Blanche and her cab driver boyfriend, George Lumley (Bruce Dern), who masquerades as a private eye and a lawyer. His act, which doesn't fool anyone, is to smoke a pipe, and he stands out like a true amateur.

This whole search somehow involves another couple, in this case a rich married couple (William Devane and Karen Black - both ably cast) who are involved in kidnappings for rare diamonds. But I would not dream of giving away the connection between these two couples except to say that it is fairly foreseeable if you have seen other suspense thrillers.

The fun in "Family Plot" is in the clues and the gradual tension and suspense involved in finding this missing Rainbird man. We have cemetaries with strange plots, tremulous psychics, bishops kidnapped for ransom, Karen Black wearing a blonde wig, secret compartments in garages, and so on.

What is especially interesting about "Family Plot" is how laid-back and involving it is. There are a few great scenes told with Hitchcock's mastery of letting long-takes unfold without dialogue. Two stand out in particular: overhead shot of George walking through the cemetery dirt trails as he pursues an elderly woman; and a quietly effective sequence where George enters the rich couple's house through a garage window (shades here of Cary Grant entering a rich man's home in "North By Northwest"). There is also a very good chase scene where George and Blanche drive while unable to stop their car due to faulty brakes.

The performances are also low-key and intriguing. William Devane (who sounds like a smoother Jack Nicholson) does some of his best work here as a jeweler whose mind is always at work creating dangerous schemes. I also love Karen Black, who has one greatly funny scene where she tries to warn Devane at his jewel shop of danger while pretending to be a customer. Bruce Dern is snappy and fitfully engaging as the somewhat dim-witted George, who's disinterested in Blanche's sexual pleas. Only Barbara Harris tends to go a bit over-the-top as Blanche, especially her seance scenes which provoke more groans rather than laughter.

All in all, "Family Plot" is genial, lighthearted, clever nonsense - probably just a walk in the park for Hitch who was near the end of his health. All I can imagine is that Hitch must have been all sunny smiles while making essentially a parody of the suspense genre he helped create and perfect.

God in B-Movie Form

2013-04-25T09:17:00.001-07:00

GOD TOLD ME TO (1976)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Along with the king of low-budget horror Roger Corman, Larry Cohen has made some of the cheesiest horror pictures imaginable. There is the absurdity of "It's Alive" and the pointlessness of "The Stuff," one of the worst films of the 1980's. "God Told Me To" (also known as "Demon") is one of those rarities, a crude but continually engaging thriller that remains original in conception, if silly in overall execution.

A series of unmotivated and unrelated killings have been occurring in New York City. The killings involve either a sniper randomly shooting people on the streets, a cop who suddenly smiles and starts shooting passerby in a parade, a family man who quietly shoots his entire family, and so on. The connection between all these killers is their motivation: God told them to do it. This raises the ire of Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco), a cop with religious beliefs who goes to church every Sunday. How could God tell these people to kill? Is this God's way of letting the world know He exists? Or did these sudden killers just snap?

Nicholas is convinced that something weird is going on in New York but the police force does not support his harebrained theory (though he is able to predict a killing in a parade from a tip). His wife (Sandy Dennis) fears for him, though they do not live together. His supportive girlfriend (Deborah Raffin) fears for Nicholas as well. And then Nicholas discovers that a blonde-haired, Christ-like figure had appeared to each of the killers prior to the actual murders. Is this mysterious figure the Son of God, or an alien force?

"God Told Me To" has lots of surprises in store and its documentary-like staginess, a hand-held camera is used in almost every scene at street level, enhances the plausibility. Perhaps due to a meager budget, Larry Cohen does not show special-effects of any kind (though one FX sequence has been reportedly stolen from the television show "Space:1999"). Cohen's strength lies in the superb, formidable cast, including Sylvia Sydney as a formerly abducted woman who bore a child though she was a virgin, Richard Lynch as the soft-spoken Christ-like figure, Andy Kaufman's brief creepy turn as a smiling cop, Deborah Raffin's compassionate girlfriend of Nicholas, and finally, Lo Bianco's slow burn as a frazzled cop who is shaken by the religious implications of these murders.

There is a lot to admire in "God Told Me To" but it does conclude with a fire-and-brimstone finale, echoing "Carrie's" similar ending, that does little to stir the imagination. And some of the scenes where Lo Bianco seems to go nutty inside apartment corridors and noirish-lit pool rooms also jettisons the philosophical nature of the material. Often thrilling, funny, exciting and tense, "God Told Me To" is one hell of a ride for a B movie. It's just that its aspirations seemed to be emanating from an A movie.

Terrorism in our front yard

2013-04-24T17:29:00.001-07:00

ARLINGTON ROAD (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Original review from 1999)

The threat of terrorism is as alive as one can imagine. From the recent tragedies at Ruby Ridge and Oklahoma to the World Trade Center bombings, terrorism hangs like a pall of death in our everyday existence. "Arlington Road" makes claim that terrorists may be our own next-door neighbors, ready to pounce at any given moment.

Jeff Bridges stars as a professor of terrorism at George Washington University, who teaches his students that the perpetrators of terrorism are wrongly personified by the media - they are not acts done by one man but by a group. He is obsessed by the mere act of terrorism itself, mainly due to his late wife, an FBI agent, who died at the hands of alleged terrorists. Bridges also thinks that his next-door neighbor (Tim Robbins, with a steely stare) may be a terrorist. At the beginning of the film, Bridges rescues a child in the streets (played by Mason Gamble), who is bleeding profusely from what appears to be a firecracker accident. The child belongs to Robbins and his wife, played by Joan Cusack.

"Arlington Road" is a strange, sometimes effective film that begins as a character study and quickly becomes an all too fast-paced thriller dependent on far too many implausibilities. Once the shocking ending comes into play, we rethink how the terrorist group managed to fulfill their actions and it becomes all too neat and tidy to have any credence.

Jeff Bridges, one of our most unsung and underappreciated actors, gives a fine, empathetic performance and he gives us a complex view of a man at war with his inner anxieties who can't separate the obsession from his personal life. It is Tim Robbins who overacts, simply staring like a wild-eyed fool making offbeat gestures that undermine any credibility or understanding - what does his character stand for when he commits these atrocious acts? What is he rebelling against? There is mention of how the government screwed with his father, a farmer. At times, Robbins seems to have drifted in from a cartoon. It doesn't help that his kids appear like aliens from "Village of the Damned."

The female actors are not any better and are vastly underused. Joan Cusack appears more suited to a demented "Addams Family" role than the one given here - her close-ups hinder rather than help. And I am not a big fan of Hope Davis, who nearly ruined the often funny "The Daytrippers" with her blandness and forced smile. Here, she has not improved much playing a bland housewife with a forced smile.

"Arlington Road" has its moments of suspense and tension but not enough to overcome a wholly implausible scenario dependent on contrivance rather than plot coherence. The dark ending gives it some weight, but it all rings very hollow. At the end of the road lies an exploitative and shallowly misconceived dead end.

George Lucas has turned to the Dark side, he has

2013-04-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (2008)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Many have accused George Lucas of directing his actors to deliver wooden performances in the "Star Wars" prequels. Nothing could be further from the truth than in the animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," which not only contains wooden performances but animated figures who seemed to have been carved out of wood.

Sandwiched in between "Star Wars: Episode II" and "Episode III," this Star Wars adventure finds Anakin Skywalker training a smart Padawan pupil named Ahsoka Tano while his mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, continues helping the Rebellion fight the Separatists. Meanwhile, the slimy old Jabba the Hutt is tricked by Jedi Master Count Dooku and others to join the Separatists while trying to find his baby son, a slimy little version of Jabba himself. Anakin and Ahsoka are asked to help rescue Jabba's son since Master Yoda hopes that forging an alliance with the giant slimy weasel will help protect Jabba's trade routes or some such thing (we can thank the prequels for dwelling on political mumbo-jumbo). Unfortunately, since Jabba is tricked by the Dark Siths into believing that the Jedi kidnapped Jabba Jr., a war involving thousands of dumb droids and clone troopers escalates. Oh, are the droids ever so dumb. I did like one moment where a droid is thrown from a cliff and it screams, "Whyyyyyyyyyy?"

This is the first "Star Wars" flick I've seen that is boring. B-O-R-I-N-G. There is no real exposition - the narrative is framed by one lightsaber battle and laser blast sequence after another. Simple platitudes are exchanged and then it is off to war. Baby Jabba is missing and sliding away, followed by another battle. The action sequences are well-done and well-staged but there is no thrust to them because the characters are zilch in terms of personality or even the slimmest of shadings. Where is the slow simmering madness of Anakin? Here, he is just some annoying twentysomething who doesn't even know Ahsoka might be flirting with him. Master Kenobi is the same old, same old but by animating him without any real expression (like all the other characters), one misses the live-action performance of Ewan McGregor. Only Ahsoka Tano has humor and some measure of a dimension beyond looking or appearing stoic. The rest of these characters look like blank automatons from "Final Fantasy", and they are saddled with dialogue that seems to have been written on the back of a napkin and carved into a piece of wood. When Yoda appears to a dim clone of his once sprightly self, it is clear that George Lucas is not even trying anymore.

Establishment of two different Beats

2013-04-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

HEART BEAT (Hollywood - 1980) THE LAST TIME I COMMITTED SUICIDE (Independent- 1997):

THE BEAT MOVEMENT - CONTRAST BETWEEN TWO FILMS

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The Beat generation started in the early 1950's with the advent of Jack Kerouac's groundbreaking novel "On the Road" - the story of Jack's wild adventures on the roads of America with his untamed friend Neal Cassady. "Heart Beat" is the first film to truly focus on Jack's relationship with Neal and his wife, and it is a semi-successful portrait. "The Last Time I Committed Suicide" is the superior work, which focuses on Neal Cassady's life and times before meeting Jack Kerouac. One film says more about Beat poetry or Beatniks than the other, yet they both have a sense of time and place.

"Heart Beat" has the miscast John Heard as the shy outcast Jack Kerouac, who tries to shake his Establishment origins by embarking on a journey from New York to San Francisco with the ex-convict and troublemaker Neal (Nick Nolte). Together, they drink, fight, hitchhike, smoke pot, and share Neal's society girlfriend, Carolyn (Sissy Spacek). While living in San Francisco, Jack starts to write "On the Road" using his friends, especially Neal, as models for his improvisational, rambling story.

"Heart Beat" has the right look, the right clothes, the right cars, the 
perfect atmosphere, but not the right attitude. The film is too 
conventionally directed and scripted by John Byrum allowing for little 
pizzazz or energy. It's hard to tell that the film is about the birth of the 
Beat movement because we barely hear or see anything relating to the Beat 
period.

The actors don't help much. John Heard is adrift and unconcerned throughout - 
a far cry from the book's depiction of a lusty, charismatic individual who 
learned to strip away his introverted side. Heard exacts the same deadening 
tone through the whole film. Nick Nolte is a little out of his element 
playing the cocky, flirtatious Neal - he just acts like a funny pretty boy. 
Sissy Spacek is not allowed to do much except exude sunny smiles. Only the 
late Ray Sharkey brings any energy or enthusiasm as the Allen Ginsberg-type, 
Ira.

"The Last Time I Committed Suicide" is a big improvement on every level; a lively lark of a film about the early life and times of Neal Cassady. The charismatic, perfectly cast Thomas Jane plays the wild, frantic Neal who works a night job at a tire company, and begins to get ideas about an archetypal, rebellious character who supersedes all "intellectual" men. In the meantime, Neal hangs around with his drunk friend, Harry (Keanu Reeves) at the pool hall with various girls. Neal also has a troubling relationship with Joan (Claire Forlani), a secretary prone to suicidal tendencies.

The beauty of "Last Time I Committed Suicide" is that it not only has an authentic sense of time and place, but it also contains a great performance by Thomas Jane (the drug dealer in "Boogie Nights") combining humor and pathos. Jane brings the cocky, arrogant side of Neal alive, and is pitch-perfect on Neal's pseudo-intellectual babble speeches about life and love ("It's a metaphor, man!").

I know I'm in the minority on this one but Keanu Reeves remains one of our most underrated actors; he delivered powerful performances in films such as "Permanent Record," "Much Ado About Nothing and "My Own Private Idaho," if anyone cares about his talent. Here he delivers one of his best, surliest characters in the form of the drunk, bloated Harry who reminds Neal that marriage doesn't figure in his equation. Also worth noting is the underused Claire Forlani ("Basquiat") who shimmers each time she appears on screen in a largely underdeveloped role.

"The Last Time I Committed Suicide" is briskly directed by Stephen Kay, and he employs jump cuts, black-and-white and color cinematography, freeze frames, zooms and slow-motion to emphasize the rambling, inconsequential, and languid sense of Neal's life. The Beats considered themselves beatific and weary (or beaten) from trying to shield themselves from the Establishment. "Suicide" comes a lot closer to capturing that movement than the dull, Hollywood fluff of "Heart Beat."

Trekking Where We Have Gone Before

2013-04-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

FREE ENTERPRISE (1999)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Obsessions can be treated with care, as they don't run your life. Pop-culture obsessions, a staple of 90's cinema and Generation-X, can ruin one's hope to connect with people unless you find that special someone that shares your obsession. In "Free Enterprise," the obsession is over "Star Trek" (the original series only). You have heard of Trekkies and how William Shatner famously told them to get a life. Now we get to see how Trekkies really act, more or less.

There's Mark (Eric McCormack) who is pushing thirty and is a successful low-grade exploitation screenwriter. He is so low-grade that he has a pitch meeting where he pushes a movie called "Bradykiller," about a killer who kills any girl resembling the girls from the "Brady Bunch." Mark's friend is Robert (Rafer Weigel), an editor for those same low-grade movies who is fairly lax. He is such a Trekkie that he rather spend money on laser discs than on the rent, thus enabling the breakup with his current girlfriend. He clearly has mixed up his priorities. Of special note is the fact that this movie was made in 1999 when laser discs were a minor big deal despite the advent of DVD's.

All Mark and Robert can do is wallow in their own miseries. Mark is more sensible with money yet he is afraid of commitment with another woman. Robert only wants a woman who shares his passion for "Star Trek" and "Star Wars," yet he is also afraid of commitment. One day, they inadvertently run into William Shatner at a bookstore. By Shatner, I do mean the real Shattastic, the real McCoy, Captain Kirk himself, who is in a bit of a creative slump. He is trying to make the play "Julius Caesar" into a musical where he will play all the characters! Shatner hopes that through Mark, his vision can become reality.

"Free Enterprise" has a nice set-up for a fun-filled comedy but it loses its footing and goes into territory that simply marks time. We get too many scenes of Mark and Robert regurgitating the same conversation in one diner scene after another. There is a love story in here somewhere between Robert and his potential true love, Claire (Audrey England), who loves science-fiction and comic books but is also looking for a man that can take care of her. That may be too much to ask of Robert, but what on earth does this have to do with the central story revolving around William Shatner? Such personal relationships could've mixed in nicely with Shatner saying, "Hey, get a life you Trekkies! There is more to life than make-believe!" Interestingly, Shatner himself is shown as a middle-aged, bashful man who has trouble with the ladies. Unfortunately, Shatner has too few scenes to make a stronger connection to the narrative.

I liked "Free Enterprise" enough for its sincere performances and for Shatner's quick-witted scenes. It's just that it really falls short of going where we haven't gone before.

Leave your VHS sex tape at the door

2013-04-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

DROP BOX (2006)

Reviewed By Jerry Saravia

I never thought that I'd see a movie featuring a character as sneaky, duplicitious and as mischievous as Randal from "Clerks." For those of you who know what I am referring to, Randal was an obnoxious, though affable video store clerk who unapologetically humiliated customers and his own small circle of friends. Well, Tom in the film "Drop Box" is twice as obnoxious, to the point that you are unsure how he can still have a job as a video store clerk.

"Drop Box" is a day in the life of Tom (David Cormican) working at a video store. He is the slacker type with no pretense of ever moving forward in life, and no real ambitions except to make customers angry. He opens the store late, forces customers to pay late fees they don't owe (though at least one does), deletes customer accounts without blinking an eye and, in short, makes no real money for the store (he even gives away twist endings to movies like "The Sixth Sense"). Of course, the customers are not the most understanding so who can blame Tom for his casual mean-spiritedness.

One customer can be more pushy than others. Her name is Mindy (Rachel Sehl), who turns out to be a spoiled, Britney Spears pop diva-type who wants to re-rent a certain Mariah Carey vehicle. Only this VHS tape is not actually the movie ("Glitter" by the way) but rather some nifty lesbian porn she shot and mistakenly returned. Tom says he doesn't recognize this pop diva who's sold 2 million albums. Of course, after Mindy pleads again and again, Tom decides to help this star if she exposes her breasts and watches the tape with him, and in front of customers! If not, he stands to make a killing selling it on ebay.

Okay, so you see that Randal might never have gone that far. Tom is unlikable but not without some measure of charm or humor, and you can see how Mindy begins to like him. These characters can get on your nerves yet thanks to newcomers David Cormican and Rachel Sehl, they make them human and empathetic enough to forgive their endless banter.

"Drop Box" is a Canadian independent film that deserves a chance to be seen in theatres. Though it has a limited setting (it all takes place in video store) and inexperienced actors, who cares? So did Kevin Smith's debut film "Clerks," which "Drop Box" only shares a slight kinship with. Though "Drop Box" is not quite as shrewdly funny as "Clerks," it can stand head and tails above most comedies that try too hard to make us laugh. Thanks to the writer-director team, Anesty and Spiros Carasoulos, "Drop Box" is a major pleasure and a genuine find, not unlike what you may find on a video store shelf hidden behind "Glitter."

Jay Leno's Car Wreck of a Movie!

2013-04-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

COLLISION COURSE (1989)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

So what we have here is a car wreck of a movie. We have "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno (in his thankfully sole leading role) as Tony Costas, a Detroit undercover cop who does his job badly. We have another cop, Fuji Natsuo (Pat Morita) from Tokyo, who is sent to Detroit to track down a Japanese engineer who stole some sort of turbocharger prototype. Costas and Natsuo are the buddy-buddy cop team who don't really want to work together, though the screenplay refuses to acknowledge this. Instead Costas thinks Natsuo is not a cop and so we have one endless scene after another where Costas chases him, sometimes in disguise.

The introduction to the villains is so slipshod that we assume they are villains because they tell us they are. Chris Sarandon and Tom Noonan are the bad guys, and in it for the slim paychecks. Same with Ernie Hudson of "Ghostbusters" fame as another undercover cop.

For what it is worth, "Collision Course" is strictly amateur night in every department. There are no laughs, mostly flat lines and flat characters. There is no energy, no enthusiasm, no urgency, and it also contains a silly synthesizer score that is pure 80's. To say this movie belongs in a garbage dump is to still give it justice. No, it belongs on a Detroit sidewalk where people can stomp on it endlessly.

YOU'RE FIRED!

2013-04-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

THE TEMP (1993)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Original review from 1993)

"The Temp" is a ridiculously stupid, unscary thriller, so how can I possibly recommend it? Well, it has a sense of goofiness to it, and it is full of surprises and twists.

The titled vampish temp is played by the ideally cast Lara Flynn Boyle - a temp secretary for a disorganized boss (Timothy Hutton) - a junior exec for Mrs. Appleby baked goods company! Boyle eventually works her way up by getting promotions to other positions. Murder and sex are her primary rules of engagement to ascend to the top of the corporate ladder - she even tries to seduce Hutton, who's trying to reconcile with his wife (an early performance by long-haired Maura Tierney, who has since appeared in TV's "E.R."). What is a boss to do in this situation? Sexual Harassment pleas? Fire the secretary? Kill the secretary?

"The Temp" is downright silly, but it is never boring and it keeps moving. Lara Flynn Boyle exudes ample sexual energy as the villainous temp. Hutton is as bland as three-day old bread but he does have some nice confrontation scenes with the campy Faye Dunaway. It is an often tempestuous flick...good for a late night rental. Do not watch this with your boss!