Before They Were Stars: The Mighty Quinn

Howdy boys and girls!  Yes we are back again with Before They Were Stars and to be honest this film was deeply impressive from the story to the cast and crew.  Grab your snacks, get over that round of musical chairs and let’s kick this pig.   This is The Mighty Quinn.

Spoilers be the devil.

The 1989 film is most definitely a thriller with a pretty top notch crew, lead by TV and movie director Carl Shenkel (Graf Dracula beiBt jetzt in Oberbayern, Abwarts, Bay Coven, The Edge, Silhouette and Knight Moves) writer Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner, The Minus Man) take the thriller novel Finding Maubee based on A. H.Z. Carr’s 1982 novel .  

Police Chief Xavier Quinn (Denzel Washington of St. Elsewhere, Glory, Ricochet, Malcolm X, Much Ado About Nothing, Crimson Tide, Training Day and The Book of Eli) is called to investigate a resort hotel mogul Donald Pater (Bobby Ghisays of Club Paradise, Passion and Paradise and Popcorn) and all circumstantial evidence points to Quinn’s childhood friend Maubee (Robert Townsend of Odd Jobs, The Five Heartbeats, The Meteor Man, Bliss, Taxman and Undercover Brother) this unnamed island in the Caribbean has the typical local bureaucracy with the island governor (Norman Beaton of Black Joy, The Fosters, Empire Road and Desmond’s) and his power player Thomas Elgin (James Fox of The Servant, King Rat, The Chase, Farwell to the King, Patriot Games, Mickey Blue Eyes) seem to want this to be an open and shut case. An American representing Pater’s company Fred Miller (M. Emmet Walsh of Blade Runner, Blood Simple, The Flash, Silverfox, White Sands and Equinox) agrees with the governor.   Quinn is not satisfied with the answers he has been given for his questions.   You get the feeling that most the witnesses have been threatened or bought off.

Maubee is evading the police so well that he even drops by to visit Quinn face to face.   From chatting up the local witch to questioning Thomas Elgin’s wife Hadley (Mimi Rogers of Gung Ho, Street Smart, Someone to Watch Over Me, The Doors, Wedlock and The Rapture).  Hadley makes dreamy eyes at Xavier.  The investigation goes on, feathers are getting ruffled and Xavier is devoting so much time to defend Maubee that his wife and son feel the strain of going beyond the call of duty.  One witness claims to see Maubee take off with a 10,000 dollar bill.  Quinn knows there is no such bill so the mystery is getting stranger already.

The cause of death is pretty spot on to as Pater was found floating in a Jacuzzi tub decapitated.  *adjusts shades* Guess he just lost his head *cues Baba O Reilly*.    The islands doctor Dr. Raj (Keye Luke of The Green Hornet, Charlie Chan at the Circus, King of Burlesque, Kung Fu and The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan) indicates that Pater had a venomous snake bite prior to decapitation.  A man keeps tailing Quinn and making his own inquiries.   The plot thickens further and the entangled web reveals plots and counterplots.   As a first major movie role let alone lead role Washington knocks this one out of the ball park.  The tension ratchets up well and this film will keep you constantly guessing what is happening next.   I found this to be riveting, clever and quite devious.  This is completely worth the watch people.

Before They Were Stars: Darkman

Hey all! We travel further into Before They Were Stars week and let us focus on a fellow who started as he called it a bit actor in some impressive films such as Excalibur, Krull and The Bounty.  So I thought we would reflect on his first lead role.    So get your popcorn and soda, enjoy your comfy chair.  This is Darkman.

Spoilers operate from the shadows…

Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, The Quick and the Dead, For Love of the Game, The Gift and Spider-Man) gathers a team of writers such as: Chuck Pfarrer (The Jackal, Red Planet and Virus), Ivan Raimi (Easy Wheels, Army of Darkness, Spy Game and Spiderman 3) Daniel Goldin (Out on a Limb and Stephen King’s Dead Zone) and Joshua Goldin (Out on a Limb, Wonderful World and Outlaw Country) collaborate to create a good, decent man and break him slowly.    With the haunting composure of Danny Elfman (Batman, Beetlejuice, The Flash, Batman Returns, Army of Darkness, Batman: The Animated Series, Tales from the Crypt and Mars Attacks) a gang war is spreading over the territories and land is being snatched up left and right no matter what the cost.   To what end you may ask?   We then shoot over to Doctor Peyton Westlake’s (Liam Neeson of Excalibur, Rob Roy, Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Love Actually, Batman Begins and Taken) laboratory as he and his assistant Yakitito (Nelson Mashita of Rising Sun, Independence Day, Drive and NYPD Blue) are attempting to create an artificial skin that would replace skin graphs and deep tissue burns, the catch is they cannot seem to get it to last beyond 100 minutes of exposure to light.   

So close to this discovery that would benefit humanity he discusses the experiment with lawyer girlfriend Julie Hastings (Frances McDormand of Raising Arizona, Mississippi Burning, Hidden Agenda, Fargo, Primal Fear, Wonder Boys and Almost Famous) whose pesky need for the truth may have uncovered some unsavory acts in zoning laws for the newest construction by Louis Strack (Colin Friels of Water Rats, Dark City,The Book of Revelation, BlackJack: Dead Memory, BlackJack: At the Gates and BlackJack:Ghosts) would appear to not only Strack Industries is accountable for bribes but in league with a nefarious criminal Robert G Durant (Larry Drake of L.A. Law, Dr. Giggles, Prey, Darkman II: The Return of Durant and The Beast) on this lucrative land grab scheme to net millions.  

Durant and his boys hit Westlake’s lab, pummeling and disfiguring him as well as killing Yakitito blowing up Westlake’s lab sending him in a fireball out to sea.   He awakes in the hospital but the explosion has altered him.  40% of his body is covered in burns and to cease him from having pain the doctor( Jenny Agutter of Logan’s Run, The Man in the Iron Mask, Equus, Dominique, An American Werewolf in London and MI-5) does a procedure to block the nerve endings are greatly damaged in the fact he can hardly feel anything.   With this in mind, he feels as though he is going through sensory deprivation and is easily angered causing a huge surge of adrenaline within him giving him uncharted amounts of strength.  Little point of observation, I swear one of the visiting doctors looks like John Landis (director of Animal House, An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers and Coming to America).   

Afraid, ruined and broken, Westlake attempts to continue his research if not to be reunited with Julie but to take revenge on Durant and his cronies.   With all his equipment and synthetic skin at his abandoned factory (must be New York, the heroes and villains always find an abandoned factory) the ready he plots and schemes how to best destroy the men that took his life. 

You get the feel of a hybrid of a 1940’s radio show based on the villains’ dialogue but the seamy underbelly of a 1980’s graphic novel all jumbled together.  With influences like the Looney Tunes, Three Stooges and Marvel Comics is it any wonder this film is as insane as it is well constructed.  We get old favorite POV views as well as; Gunsight POV, Ram-o Cam and Shaky Cam as well.   Raimi of course keeps to his favorites to work with and we do get an appearance of Bruce Campbell, his brother Ted Raimi and Dan Hicks; you just gotta keep them eyes peeled. Over the top villains, a tormented hero and of course, the dame with the gams it’s a fun and bizarre ride.

Before They Were Stars: Ruthless People

Hey there boys and girls!  Back again with another series of films to bash or bask in and one film truly come to mind in 1986.  With all the Brat Pack associated, touchy feely films of this time showing us teenage to mid 20’s angst, a movie by Airplanes’ Jim Abrahams stood out.  With an amazing collective cast, wild story arcs and in general bizarre looks into the varied human psyche; this would also be Bill Pullman’s first feature length movie.   So drop your tuckus in that chair, have some bon bons and maybe a refreshing New Coke.   This is Ruthless People.

Spoilers strike without provocation….

Director Jim Abrahams (Police Squad, Airplane, Top Secret, Hot Shots and Jane Austen’s Mafia) and writer Dale Launer (Blind Date, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, My Cousin Vinny and Love Potion No. 9) team up to modernize short story novelist’s O’ Henry’s “The Ransom of the Red Chief” into a warped, fun romantic comedy drama.  

The story is thus: Sam Stone (Danny DeVito of Taxi, Romancing the Stone, Head Office, Batman Returns, Tin Men, Other People’s Money and L.A. Confidential) is a ruthless slimeball clothing manufacturer whose business is afloat in a soft market of clothing design is hell bent to do in his heiress wife Barbara (Bette Midler of The Thorn, Divine Madness, Bette Midler: Art or Bust, Outrageous Fortune, Beaches, Stella, For The Boys, Get Shorty, The First Wives Club and What Women Want) and claim the wealth entitled to his wife as the grieving husband.   Sam schemes, plots and preps for the event all the while he relays his plans to his buxom mistress Carol (Anita Morris of Maria’s Lovers, A Masterpiece of Murder, Blue City, 18 Again! and Bloodhounds of Broadway) fooling around with her in her bed.   Unbeknownst to Sam, Carol and her bumbling, inept boyfriend Earl (Bill Pullman of Spaceballs, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Accidental Tourist, Going Under, Independence Day, Lake Placid) plan to tape the murder and blackmail Sam and then it is off to Haiti.   Tahiti Carol corrects.  Oh..I knew that.  

Fate plays as strange hand as neither party gets what they want when Sam gets a call from a unanimous person who claims to have kidnapped Barbara and for the sum of 500,000 US he can have her back.  No cops’ involvement, he has a deadline and if all demands are not met Sam will find his wife in the morgue.   

Joy and rapture fills Sam’s heart that soon his wife will be out of the picture and his hands will be clean of it all.  Barbara’s evil abductors are two middle class people struggling to make ends meet after Sam had screwed them on a deal prior.  Ken Kesseler (Judge Reinhold of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins, Beverly Hills Cop, Beverly Hills Cop II, Zandalee, and Baby on Board) is a stereo salesman and his wife Sandy (Helen Slater of Supergirl, The Secret of My Succe$s, City Slickers, The Steal, and No Way Back) is a gifted designer whose creations Sam nicked given they had no proper license to them and is using them as his own.  These are the type of people that cannot cheat on their taxes, have to pay a parking ticket and simply could not conceive the notion of wrong doing and yet arrive at this slippery slope.

Here are a few quick notes on the film.  The style of cinematography is phenomenal as it is director Jan de Bont (Die Hard, Black Rain, Lethal Weapon 3,  The Hunt for Red October) for car chase scenes and fight scenes, the lighting is exquisite and double entendre is the name of the dialogue.  The humor can be a bit low brow but it is displayed well in the disgust of the cops, the endless griping of Sam and the easy corruption of innocence.  To this day I cannot say who had the best lines.  Between DeVito’s rants, Midler’s foul comments and Reinhold just being decent, it is a gem I would highly recommend.  Pullman is an absolute doofus/gigolo and his scenes are to die for.

Ridley Scott Week: Black Rain

So begins the Ridley Scott week.  Who is Ridley Scott you may ask?   From TV directing, movie director and production he has been in TV and Movie since 1967 from the ground up and into main feature length films.  So kick your shoes off and sit a spell.  This is Black Rain.

Spoilers are everywhere!!!

Diving into a thriller starring Michael Douglas (The Chyna Syndrome, Running, Romancing the Stone, Falling Down, Basic Instinct, The Game and Wonder Boys) as Nick Conklin, a hardnosed, rough and tumble cop that breaks the rules to get the job done.  He and his partner Charlie Vincent (Andy Garcia of The Untouchables, The Godfather: Part III, When a Man Loves a Woman, Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead, Desperate Measures and Ocean’s Eleven) are under investigation by Internal Affairs based on theft charges occurring in their department when they witness a high ranking Yakuza get blown away by Sato (Yusaku Matsuda of The Detective Story, Home Sweet Home, And Then and The Rage of Love) and Conklin busts him. 

This little feather under his cap allows Nick and Charlie to travel to Japan to extradite to their authorities only to be jumped by Sato’s men and freeing their leader.  Given the less than stellar standing on handling of prisoner transfer, the Japanese police department allows Conklin and Vincent to stay in Japan and assist finding Sato but they are not allowed to carry their sidearms and they get a chaperone with Masahiro (Ken Takakura of The Yellow Handkerchief, Never Give Up, Station, Antarctica and Yasha) a by the book, dots every I and crosses every T cop and the animosity ensues.  Charlie has to be a buffer between Conklin and Masahiro to calm the waters. 

Delving into the underground our heroes find out that Sato should end up taking over the main Yakuza families due to flooding the market with counterfeit his own money.  The main appeal to this film is the clash between cultures from anything of on the fallout of WWII to how Masahiro and Conklin view each others’ level perceived decadence.  Honor of course has a great precedence in the movie representing Japanese culture and the title itself is described survivors in the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki .   The film is clearly Scott due to lots of smoke filled rooms, men roaming around in trenchcoats, scenes feeling very claustrophobic streetscapes, lots of steam rising from the streets for reason and of course neon lights.  

The karaoke scene with Mas and Charlie is actually amusing and apt and didn’t feel inappropriate.  This film got a lax standing on from the audience, there was not a lot of love for this movie and I felt it got past over.  Far too many sub-characters and incoherent subplots like the nightclub owner Joyce (Kate Capshaw of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, SpaceCamp and Just Cause) as the love interest of Douglas’s Conklin.  I personally do not view this as Scott’s best work but I truly believe this is worthy to but put up with the likes of 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, The Hidden with a dash of The Lost Boy Scout.   This is a worthwhile film, folks.  Give it the once over.

The Devil's Backbone...

Hey kiddies! How about a story hellbent on despair, childhood terrors, resistance and tenacity?  So grab your crucifix, say 30 Hail Marys and be humble.  This is The Devil’s Backbone.

Spoilers is the devil!!!

Set in the background of the Spanish Civil War, this film is told through the eyes of a twelve year old boy Carlos (Fernando Tielve of The Shanghai Spell, Goya’s Ghosts and Pan’s Labyrinth) has been left at this enormous orphanage a day’s walk from any village in Spain.  His father is quite dead but Carlos is blissfully unaware of this as his mentor drops him on in his strange environment leaving him to be the new kid in a terrifying new place.  No sooner the film has opened up, Carlos sees a translucent boy in the kitchen that is in fact, yes a ghost.  As the ghost turns to him Carlos does what any twelve year old does.  Ran scared, hopped into bed and hid under the covers. Carlos discovers later on a name of Santi (Junio Valverde of Hidden Hands, Vida y color, Shiver and Tierra de lobos) carved into the locker.  Carlos and several other kids are watched over by Dr. Casares (Reoccuring del Toro actor Federico Luppi of Cronos, Martin and Pan’s Labyrinth) and the Headmistress Carmen (Marisa Paredes of Life is Beautiful, All About My Mother and The Skin I Live In), who is also fighting for the cause using a series of gold ingots to pay for food and arms.  

Most of these characters are filled with good intentions but as we all know what that road paves.  The school’s handyman Jacinth (Eduardo Noriega of Tesis, Open Your Eyes and The Method) knows of the gold and plans to steal it and run off with his fiancée Conchita (Irene Visedo of Cuentame, Los pasos perdidos and Cascabel) to make a better life for their selves in this war torn time.  The beauty of del Toro’s writing is while Jacinth has some deep psychological issues, serious flaws and in general comes off as a thug at first glance, we are privy to see into his soul and love for his woman that separates himself for the atypical bad guy of film.  The ghost child’s chalky skin and white contacts will send a shiver down your spine.  You will feel remorse for the loss of his life but will be innerved by his presence.

The terror and beauty of this movie is amalgamated into one.  The cinematography is phenomenal and really tells a horrendous tale from different points of view with subtly.   There were times in this film you could feel an influence of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist had.  The story established a tale of malice and torment all the while showing hope and optimism in the background.  Easily, this is a time-period film worth viewing and having on your shelf.  So chuck that copy of Caligula you shamefully bought, sit back and taking in this movie for its awesome brilliance and disturbing beauty.

Cronos: An Original.

Hey all.  I’m back again with a vampire movie on the platter.   Now before you all groan and chant “Seen it”, this is not your typical vampire movie and in fact is a whole other realm of magic, relics and wild happenings.  So sit back in your seat, put your feet up and gaze in disbelief.  This is Cronos.

Spoilers are made of many things…

Director/writer/producer Guillermo del Toro (The Devil’s Backbone, Mimic, Blade II, Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army) weaves a story of 1535 Mexico, an alchemist creates a golden mechanical artifact that staves off the ravages of age, allowing the wearer almost infinite life and energy so long he or she is prepared to pay the price.  Now in 1997, Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi of Martin, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth) an antiques dealer in Mexico, who comes across a beetle-shaped golden trinket found in an old statue.  While inspecting the item in question, it buzzes and whirls to life, sprouting claws and digs into his hand deep.  The next day Jesus feels stronger and more energetic than he had in years, a notion he attributes to the artifact now embedded in his flesh.  No sooner does this newly found vitality come about as does a thirst, a craving for human blood.  Methinks this gift needs a refund option.  Down this new found passage of self-discovery he learns of a malicious millionaire Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook of The Exterminating Angel, Simon of the Desert, Miroslava and Valentina) stricken with disease and old age he is obsessed with the tales and writings of the Cronos invention along with his brute of a nephew Angel (Ron Perlman of Beauty and the Beast, Absolon, Blade II, Hellboy, Mutant Chronicles, The Job, I Sell the Dead, Acts of Violence and Conan the Barbarian)  who simply wishes dear Uncle would drop dead and give him the business.  Jesus fears that he will soon be a threat to his granddaughter who he dearly loves as he is warping away from the good man he was.

And now I would like to mention a quick, few tidbits on the cinematography itself.  Toro’s usage of winding visual and clockwork title card introduction is something of a patent for him.  As most of his films are based in sci-fi fantasy, horror and the conglomerate of both, it is a unique signature as well as the need for orchestra music building momentum and suspense.  Most of the camera work is hand held and with such precision down a winding staircase and such attention to detail that you get the feeling he truly is a storyteller around a campfire rather than a director.   

How his gothic take on most of his films gets compared to Tim Burton’s work can only be attributed that Cronos was released in 1993 after Burton successes of Beetlejuice, Batman and Edward Scissorhands and therefore people feel Toro lifted the same feel for his own.  I would have to disagree and find while similar that Toro’s work unfolds with a subtle grace and is more dialogue and action driven, while Burton’s work tends to come off as kooky or obtuse.  And considering how many bloody remakes Burton has been in hand with, I am not a huge fan.    Following in the facet of Hitchcock like many other current directors, Toro appears as small bit characters in his films but never a top bill one.  He is behind the scenes if you will and frequently has actors of previous film projects to come back as often as he can get them.   To this date, Ron Perlman has done 4 films with him thus far and I dare say it is only the beginning.  So if you care for an exquisite take on an old legend with little to mild gore then I would dare say put this in your Netflix.