1990 - SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT, female cops kicking butt

Another Hong Kong action film from the early 90's.  There isn't really a whole lot that's new story wise but the film's fight scenes are exciting since they were staged by the director and action choreographer Corey Yuen who was an expert at arranging this stuff and there is a lot of action in this film.

 

The plot involves a family of police officers most of whom are women with the exception of Sammo Hung who plays one of the brothers in the family and Tony Leung who plays the other brother.  When Leung marries police Inspector Mina Kao (played by Sammo Hung's wife Joyce Gondenzi) jealously rears it's head in the family.  The action in this film kicks in with a vicious gang of Vietnamese thieves during a robbery that are confronted by the family of cops.  The result, lots of gun play.

 

The story is a little absurd but it's full speed ahead for the most part with the exception of one ridiculous scene where the Vietnamese gang ambushes the cops with an elaborate series of traps reminiscent of that scene in Home Alone where the little kid assaults Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern except in this film a lot more blood and guts are spilled.

 

The big spin in this film is having these police women beat the crap out of almost all these bad guys.  Hong Kong films have had women in action roles before but I can't recall them fighting and beating up people to this extent.  As is typical with these Asian action films the actors in this case Joyce Gondenzi practically do as much stunt work as the actual stuntmen.  She Shoots Straight is a standard but entertaining action film.

The film was written by Corey Yuen, Barry Wong and Yuen Kai-chi, the running time is an efficient 94 minutes. 

1990 - SHIPWRECKED, entertaining adolescent boys adventure story

The Disney company has their name on the top of this picture but the reality is this was a Norwegian film made with a Norwegian director and a Norwegian cast.  Disney picked up the North American release and had the film dubbed into English since movie studios believe that audiences are too stupid to read subtitles.

A very entertaining adventure film aimed at the family audience but 13 year old boys were probably the intended audience.  The film was shot in Norway, the Fiji Islands, and England.

The story concerns a young boy who has signed on to a ship as a cabin boy.  He has various adventures which involve, a storm at sea, pirates, and buried treasure.  He ends up getting shipwrecked on a deserted island and finally has a confrontation with the pirates where he fights them off with a bunch of Home Alone type traps he has devised. Along the way he meets a girl who is a stowaway on the ship in need of rescuing.

 

It's all presented in a fast moving film that races from one situation to another.  The viewer doesn't have time to think about some of the plot holes and contrivances in the story.

 The film was written by Nils Gaup, Bob Foss, Greg Dinner and .  Nick Thiel.  The running time is a fast paced 93 minutes.

1990 - QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER, a sort of Western film

Tom Selleck was born to play a western hero, unfortunately for him the western film genre died out when Sam Peckinpah killed it off with the The Wild Bunch which came out in 1969. Still this old school western, Quigley Down Under has a few things to recommend it especially for fans of this genre.

Tom Selleck is Quigley a buffalo hunter with a kick ass rifle who has answered a newspaper advertisement for a hunter in the Australian Outback.  Alan Rickman, repeating his Hans Gruber character from Die Hard, is looking for a sharpshooter to kill off Aboriginal Australians who he believes are harming his ranch.  Naturally Quigley being the western hero of this film turns down Rickman.  This leads to a lot of shooting and fighting as Quigley attempts to stop Rickman's killing spree.  Throw in Laura San Giacomo as a woman from Texas who somehow ended up in Australia and you have a reasonably entertaining film.

 

The plusses for this film are the on location photography in Australia, some decent action and good performances from the main cast.  The director Simon Wincer is probably best known for filming the outstanding TV miniseries Lonesome Dove which this film has a lot in common with.  But when you get down to it most westerns are simple good vs evil morality stories and this film is no exception.

 

Quigley Down Under is an enjoyable film in a genre that had ended 20 years earlier.  

The film runs 119 minutes, it was written by John Hill.

1990 - UNDECLARED WAR, disappointing action film from Ringo Lam

 Undeclared War is a big disappointment from Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam.  The plot has something to do with a world terrorist organization trying to destroy an international conference of nations, seen that one before.  The film has the American and Hong Kong police joining forces to stop the terrorists.

The Hong Kong cop is played by Danny Lee his girlfriend is Rosamund Kwan who has shown up in some Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark films.  They deliver a lot of their dialog in English for the benefit of the American cop and  American audience and do fairly well with it although at times it's a little shaky.  I don't know how many times Danny Lee has played a Hong Kong cop but it seems like every time I see him in a film that's the character he seems to be stuck with.

 

The bad guys are played by Olivia Hussey one time star of Romeo and Juliet and Vernon Wells, the "Wez" from The Road Warrior and the chief bad guy in that Schwarzenegger classic Commando.  Olivia Hussey seems completely out of place in this film she should be playing a nun or something in a Zeffirelli film.  Vernon Wells could do these really evil bad guy parts in his sleep by this point in his career and he seems very sleepy in this film.

 

Usually Ringo Lam could rev it up with some great action stuff even in his so-so films but in this case he doesn't seem to have had the inventiveness or energy to rise to the occasion.  It's just one boring gun fight after another.  Even a speedboat chase towards the end of the film is boring.  Undeclared War is a big tiresome letdown  from a usually reliable director

The film was written by Nam Yin, Timothy Lung, Deborah Grant and Louis Roth.  Four writers for a standard action film never a good sign.  The running time is 109 minutes.

1990 - THE GODFATHER PART III, dipping into the well one more time.

 Is The Godfather Part III a good film?  The answer is yes.  Did The Godfather Part III need to be made? Probably not.  Paramount once again dipping into their Godfather franchise persuaded Francis Ford Coppola to write and direct another sequel to the original film.  Coppola's last two films, Gardens of Stone (which nobody remembers) and Tucker: The Man and his Dream had been box office flops.  The Godfather Part III was Coppola's run for cover film, something that would be guaranteed to make money.

The film is actually not bad, Michael Corleone who has now turned his family's organized crime business legitimate, has to face down one more challenge as he attempts to figure out who is trying to kill him and take over the Corleone family business.  The film has Al Pacino back as Michael, Diane Keaton as his ex wife Kaye (still a nothing part) and Talia Shire as Michael's sister Connie.

New to the cast were Andy Garcia as Vincent, illegitimate son of his deceased brother Sonny and Coppola's own daughter Sophia as Mary Corleone, Michael's daughter and Vincent's love interest.  There was a lot of criticism of Coppola for hiring his own daughter for a major role in the film.  She was an untrained performer.  But she has an interesting look and she does fairly well in a challenging role for the most part.

 

The Godfather Part III carefully follows the outlines of the first two films.  Some intimate family time, moments of violence, lots of scheming and subterfuge and once again a cathartic mass killing at the end of the film.

 

As in the first two films, Al Pacino, and this can't be emphasized enough, really holds this film together.  He has been essential to the series since the first film.  Coppola's skill in directing large scale crowd scenes and intimate family moments is still superior film making.  If you are a fan of the first two films you will probably enjoy this look into the snake pit that has become Corleone family.

The screenplay is by Coppola and Mario Puzo agian, the running time is 162 minutes.

1990 - THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE, possibly a comedy.

The comedian Andrew Dice Clay is the star of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.  But before we get into the movie a few sentences regarding Andrew Dice Clay.  Clay was a comedian who was hot for a while in the late 80's and the 1990's.  The comedic character he portrayed on stage was a persona called The Diceman.  The Diceman was basically a character who offended people by telling dirty jokes and making up dirty nursery rhymes.  In essence Andew Dice Clay was a shock comedian.  He was extremely popular for a while but his jokes about "homosexuals" and women finally wore out their welcome as public tastes began to change.

While Clay was popular, the producer Joel Silver put him in a movie where he played his Diceman character called in this case Ford Fairlane. The Adventures of Ford Fairlane is about a rock and roll detective on the trail of the murderer of a heavy metal rock star.  Ford is Mr Cool,  a man who is quick with his fists and is good a bedding the babes.  Ford Fairlane spouts a series of one liners regarding the size of his penis, the size of women's breasts and lots of offensive material about "fags."  It's all supposed to be hilarious and maybe with a better approach could have been funny.

 Er

Clearly the plan of the writers, the producer and the director Renny Harlin was to make a raunchy hip comedy.  But this kind of stuff takes a lot of skill to pull off.  You have to know the fine line between hipness and stupidity something the production team really couldn't get their minds around with their screenplay.  Andrew Dice Clay is kind of a "Johnny One Note," playing a lowlife New Jersey or Philadelphia "Guido."  After a while the sex jokes and the leering at women gets to be extremely tiresome.

 

Of note, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane has what could only be called a nightmare cast.  Wayne Newton, Priscilla Presley, Gilbert Gottfried, Morris Day and "Freddy Kruger" himself Robert Englund an amazing collection of oddballs gathered together in one unfunny movie. If anything The Adventures of Ford Fairlane is  a time capsule of a peculiar moment in popular culture in this country.

The film was written by David Arnott, James Cappe and Daniel Waters.  The running time is 102 minutes.     

1990 - DIE HARD 2, expected sequel to the first film

It's almost pointless to write something up about this film.  Die Hard made a lot of money for 20th Century Fox so of course they were going to make a sequel and this film showed up 2 years later. Most of the original cast is back, Bruce Willis as police officer John McClane or in this case they should have probably called him Superman since he defies the abilities of scores of terrorists to kill him.

Bonnie Bedelia is also back as McCane's wife in another thankless nothing part. William Atherton is the jerk reporter, Dick Thornburg.  Reginald VelJohnson is McCane's cop friend Sergeant Al Powell in what is essentially a cameo part.  The chief bad guys are Italian actor Franco Nero playing a South American General who is also a major drug dealer and William Sadler as a former army officer who is now a mercenary working to free Nero. Sadler works out in the nude but since this is a mainstream film no frontal nudity allowed.  There just aren't any great bad guy leaders in this film.  Alan Richardson from the first Die Hard film is sorely missed.

 

Die Hard 2 is essentially the same movie (duh) as the first one.  All of the major action scenes from the first film have been carefully studied and reproduced in this sequel. Willis is attacked by a lot of bad guys with machine guns and amazingly survives.  In fact they could probably have named this film "Machine Gun Porn."

 

The film is well made, the special effects and the overall production are at a high standard.  Renny Hardlin the director does a reasonable job putting this film together.  The film is in that category, decent time killer.  Die Hard 2 made lots of money as well.

Written by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson.  The running time is 124.   

1990 - THE FLASH, pilot for the earlier TV series

With the release of the expensive 2023 superhero film called The Flash it's time to take a quick look at the TV pilot for a series that ran for 22 episodes in the early 1990's.  For a TV pilot and especially a TV pilot made almost 20 years ago,  this show had a fairly decent budget.  The creators of the series Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo were basically writers and producers of "B" movies such as the Trancers series, and Zone Troopers.  They had also worked in the video game and comic book industries so they brought a comic book sensibility to the series. Their one big credit was for Disney's film of The Rocketeer.

This pilot had an above average cast for a TV show,  Tim Thomerson, Richard Belzer, Mark Hamill and M. Emmet Walsh.  The lead role of The Flash was played by John Wesley Shipp who had spent a lot of time in the daytime soap opera world. Amanda Pays is his scientist/girlfriend partner who is there to support his superhero abilities,  a typically standard and thankless character for these kinds of shows.

 

The TV pilot is decent enough.   It's your standard superhero origin story. Scientist Barry Allen gets struck by lighting and gets weird chemicals dumped on him which turns him into the fastest man alive, blah blah blah. The pilot episode has The Flash learning about his new powers and taking on an evil motorcycle gang,  blah blah blah.  Frankly the story is nothing special but the speed running special effects and actions scenes are well done and hold up well.

 The Flash TV series probably hit at the wrong time, the superhero craze didn't really take off until around 2008 with the Marvel movies. 

 

Running time, 94 minutes, written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo.

1990 - THE NARROW MARGIN, unnecessary remake

Apparently the director/writer Peter Hyams found the first version of The Narrow Margin, lacking.  He decided to remake it by opening it up.  We have expansive scenes of the train traveling through British Columbia and some action scenes not set in the train.  What Hyams lost by doing this was the sense of claustrophobia and tension that the original version captured so well.

The film has Gene Hackman who does his usual fine job as an assistant district attorney attempting to bring a star witness played by Anne Archer, back to Los Angeles in order for her to testify against a crime lord played by Harris Yulin who's part is way to small.

 

Another problem with this film is the casting of Hackman who was a major Hollywood star.  The viewer knows that nothing is going to happen to him unlike the first version where the cast was played by character actors and their survival was in serious doubt.

The film is watchable enough but rather uninspired, this is just another example of remaking an old film that didn't need remaking in the first place.  Unfortunately as long as there is a movie making business there will always be a "movie remaking business,"  apparently it's just a lot of work to find original ideas.

The running time is 97 minutes.

1990 - QUICK CHANGE, a funny crime comedy

A film tailor made for Bill Murray's deadpan comedy talents.  Quick Change tells the story of a disgruntled city employee in New York who pulls off a bank robbery with his best friend and girlfriend. As he tries to get out of New York with the loot he is pursued by a police chief played in this case by Jason Robards Jr., and thwarted at every turn by the residents of New York City

This is a funny film with clever situations and a good cast of supporting actors to play off of Murray.  Robards an actor not always known for comedy ( he performed in plays written by Eugene O'Neill for god sake) matches Murray as the harassed Chief of Police.

 

This comedic nightmare version of New York was photographed by Michael Chapman who had previously shot another nightmare film about New York, a little film called Taxi Driver.

 

Murray co-directed the film with the screenwriter Richard Franklin.  The running time is 89 minutes.  The film didn't do very well at the box office, but it is a funny film.

1990 - POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, it's all about Meryl

The third collaboration between Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols.  This is a film based on Carrie Fisher's barely fictional account of her drug addiction and relationship with her mother Debbie Reynolds played by Shirley MacLaine. 

At this point in his life Nichols was probably on the downside of career.  He was now putting together films that were slick entertainments for the most part.  But his days of making films like The Graduate, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Carnal Knowledge appeared to be behind him.  Nichols was still a very skilled filmmaker who knew how to get the best out of his actors and could get the most out of a comic situation in his films.

 

Nichols apparently had considerable input into Carrie Fisher's screenplay and his satirical scenes of the filmmaking business were at times quite funny.  Since he had a considerable reputation in the theater and Hollywood he was able to attract some major performers in this case Gene Hackman (playing a thinly disguised version of Mike Nichols),  Rob Reiner, Richard Dreyfuss and Simon Callow.  Nichols was even able to get a decent performance out of Dennis Quaid playing Meryl Streep's sort of love interest.

 

This is an entertaining film, however if you are looking for a semi serious examination of a woman attempting to overcome her drug addiction this isn't it.  What this film is actually about is a love letter to Meryl Streep who is in every scene.  Mike Nichols and Meryl Streep were admirers of each other and it certainly shows with Nichols favoring her in about every scene sometimes at the expense of the other performers.

The running time is 101 minutes.

1990 - THE FRESHMAN, Marlon Brando hams it up.

Marlon Brando parodies his Don Corleone role from The Godfather.  He's pulling the strings of a NYU film student well played by Matthew Broderick.  Brando gets Broderick involved in delivering a Komodo Dragon to an exclusive dinner group looking to eat exotic animals. 

 Matthew Broderick a very talented actor and comedian is the main focus of the film and he more than holds his own when it comes to acting with the scene stealing Brando.

The writer/director of this stuff is Andrew Bergman a talented guy who is a student of classic Hollywood comedy.  Bergman is good at creating ridiculous situations and then sticking his actors in them as they attempt to unravel themselves from an ever growing and complicated plot.

 

The film runs 103 minutes in it and has some very funny stuff which includes some nutty sight gags with the Komodo Dragon.

1990 - TEXASVILLE, sequel to The Last Picture Show

A return to the citizens of Archer City which had been the location for The Last Picture Show.  Peter Bogdanovich is once again directing this sequel to probably one of his greatest critical and popular successes.  However this time a very meandering script which Bogdanovich wrote pretty much sabotages the film.

One of Bogdanovich's strengths as a director was his ability to work with actors.  He hasn't lost his touch.  The film is well cast with some of the old gang from The Last Picture Show back in their original roles.  

 

Again, the problem is they kind of drift through a near plot-less picture.  It's hard to tell exactly what is going on half the time and it involves some knowledge of the previous film to sort of understand anything that happens. Bogdanovich seems to struggle to mix the not very funny comedy with the drama.

Another commercial disappointment for a director whose career really went downhill after Paper Moon.  This film is overlong and at over 120 minutes just goes on and on, Bogdanovich wrote the screenplay for this film.

1990 - DICK TRACY - on Blu Ray

The star/director/producer of Dick Tracy, Warren Beatty goes for the comic book look.  Staying with a minimal amount of primary colors The cinematographer, the legendary Vittorio Storato gives the film a real eye popping look.  This truly a comic book movie in the best sense of that over used term.

Trying to duplicate the legendary comic strip's very oddball villains, a lot of famous and not quite so famous actors are made up in some of the strangest makeup that has every been in a film.  The villains include names like Mumbles, Flattop, Itchy, Pruneface, Spud and Lips.  The look of their makeup corresponds to their names.  It's sometimes a little jarring to see such creatures in what already is a highly stylized film. 

Beatty also cast his current girlfriend Madonna probably for box office appeal.  She sings a few Stephen Sondheim songs and is photographed very carefully to put it mildly.  Beatty probably got as good a performance out of her as any other director could.  Also along for the ride is Al Pacino as the crime boss.  As usual with Pacino, he is completely over the top with his performance.  The makeup job on him only accents his typical hammy acting.

105 minutes.

1990 - FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND, Roger Corman's final film

Roger Corman attempted to make the same kind of film he had been directing his entire life a fast paced horror/science fiction film with a little social commentary.  Corman chose a book Frankenstein Unbound by an author Brian Aldiss, which apparently is a reinterpretation of the Frankenstein story.

The cast is certainly one of the better one's for a Corman movie.  Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda and John Hurt.  Unfortunately the script and story don't really come together. The plot is about a scientist in the future traveling back in time where he meets the real Dr. Frankentstein and his monster with the usual monster mayhem that results.

During the film there are certain scenes that remind me of the old Roger Corman but for the most part the film seems to lack his old style and panache.  Sure there's plenty of blood and guts and violence but the whole thing has a certain been there done that before quality to it

85 minutes.

1990 - A MOM FOR CHRISTMAS, No. 2 in the Christmas film series

Two films into this month's Christmas film festival.   I am wondering if I have already hit rock bottom with this piece of crap that is so bad it barely mentions Christmas and certainly doesn't evoke the spirit of the holiday.  At least The Christmas Candle had that going for it.

Olivia Newton John is a store mannequin brought to life after a little girl wishes she could have a mom for the Christmas holiday to be with her and her widower father.  Almost immediately visions of one of the plots of The Twilight Zone come to mind.  But Rod Serling never had someone as vacant as Olivia Newton John to deal with.  In fact I think it's safe to say that Olivia Newton John actually plays her character with all the personality of a mannequin.

The comedy in this film is extremely forced and after a while the film features an incredibly tasteless plot turn where the living mannequin and the father fall in love with each other. There is just something very icky about a plastic mannequin being the obsession of a workahcolic male.  It's kind of like he got himself a sex toy or something.

The little girl is played by one of the most appalling child actors I have seen in a while,  Juliet Sorci.   Sorci whimpers and simpers throughout the film when she's not having temper tantrums.  

But fear not precious viewer.  Like Pinocchio, the mannequin becomes a real boy girl thanks to the magic of Christmas.  I guess I should mention this is another Christmas film with poor dialog, acting and direction which seems to be par for the course for these films.

96 minutes, writtten by Gerald Di Pego.

1990 - I COME IN PEACE aka DARK ANGEL

 This is an entertaining B-movie in the best tradition of that frequently despised genre.  Dolph Lundgren is a tough guy Houston cop on the trail of a gang of drug dealers.  He slowly starts to realize that one of these drugs dealers is actually a drug dealer from outer space and a tough one to boot.

Dolph gets stuck with some comedy relief, in this case a reluctant partner who is an FBI agent.  The FBI agent character is played by the actor Brian Benben.  I don't want to say he is rather on the short side but next to the towering Lundgren he looks like a Munchkin.  Dolph also has a girlfriend played by Betsy Brantley who probably agreed to be in this film in order to make her house payment.  In any case Brantley seems sort of amused that she's in this crazy story. 

 

The film was directed by stunt coordinator and 2nd unit director Craig R. Bakley who had worked on The Warriors, The Long Riders, The A Team and Predator to name a few.  You can be sure that the film will have lots of fist fights, car chases, gun fights and explosions and I mean lots of explosions.

 

The whole film adds up to an entertaining 91 minutes especially for an action junkie.

The film was written by Jonathan Tydor and David Koepp (hiding under the name Leonard Maas J).

1990 - GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, is more of the same but less

 Warner Brothers wanted a sequel to Gremlins and finally lured Joe Dante back with the promise of complete control over the picture.  This was a bad idea.  Dante ran amok indulging himself with his cartoon sense of humor and let the picture get completely out of control to the point of incoherence.

 Dante crammed a lot of stuff into the picture.  It was a spoof of Die Hard, and a satire of cable TV.  He indulged himself with cartoon sequences from past his prime animator Chuck Jones and a musical sequence.  The first Gremlins was barely credible but at least it had a story.  Gremlins 2:  The New Batch doesn't even bother with a story so it is virtually impossible to get involved with the film.

 Dante brought back some of the original cast which included a rather haggard looking Phoebe Cates who was only 26 years old.  Rick Baker made the gremlin puppets for this film but even the fuzzy cuddly "Gismo" seems to have lost a lot of it's cuteness along with Phoebe Cates between the first and second film. 

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is what you get when you let an interesting cult director go nuts on a large budget.

106 minutes.

1990 - JU DOU aka The Story of Ju Dou

 I'm not big on love stories and tragic love stories in particular but this Chinese film directed by Zhang Yimou was very good.

The film was noticeable for a couple of things.  It was shot in technicolor which nobody was using.  The setting for the film was a factory that dyed silk which allowed for striking color effects.  Unfortunately the DVD I had of this film was of such a poor quality I could barely tell the film was in color much less vivid color.

The other big thing was Gong Li who was establishing her self as one of China's best and best looking actors. 

If you actually watch the film without all of this extraneous stuff this is a good film with a fascinating setting and story with some interesting variations on the traditional love story.

95 minutes.

1990 - WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART, Eastwood plays Huston

Clint's way in over his head in playing the director John Huston during the filming of The African Queen. 

Obviously attracted to the flamboyant character that John Huston supposedly was, Eastwood gives it a shot imitating Huston's famous drawl and dressing in riding outfits.  John Huston had an estate in Ireland for many years and loved to fox hunt. 

Frankly a film about a Hollywood director who would rather hunt elephants than film The African Queen was going to have an extremely limited appeal to the general public.  White Hunter Black Heart was a big flop.

To film a character study like this you have to be a good actor.  Clint Eastwood is a performer who like John Wayne was good at playing one type of character, himself.  John Huston was probably a more complicated personality than the character Eastwood was trying to interpret in this film.

Probably a film of extremely limited interest to film buffs only. 

110 minutes, screenplay by Peter Viertel, James Bridges and Burt Kennedy.\