Posts by Gino Sassani

I’ve never really thought of Josh Duhamel as an action star. I know that he’s done a few action movies, with the most notable being the Transformers franchise, and one could consider his 2003 NBC television series as an action drama. However, for whatever reason, the idea of John Duhamel and action star has just never been synonymous with me. That has officially changed, and interestingly enough, it’s because of a film that I suspected was going to be cheesy and full of tropes. And yet, it surprisingly turned out to be a movie that managed to be a balance of fast-paced action and emotional depth. Color me shocked. London Calling represents a first-time foray into the comedic side of filmmaking for director Allan Ungar, who typically creates biographical and psychological thrillers. He and Duhamel have chemistry, having previously worked together on the film Bandit. The film was also my first introduction to Jeremy Ray Taylor, Duhamel’s unlikely partner in crime, as the two endeavor in what can only be called a hitman ride-along.

Duhamel plays down-on-his-luck hitman, Tommy Ward, an ex-pat working for London’s biggest crime lord. After a job goes sideways resulting in him mistakenly killing a relative of his boss, he goes on the run, taking refuge in Los Angeles. Forced to sever contact with his son when he went on the run, Tommy reluctantly accepts an offer from his new employer, who offers to facilitate his safe passage to the UK in exchange for him teaching his socially awkward son Julian how to become a man. This “man” training takes the form of Tommy bringing Julian along on his latest assignment to toughen him up.

"If you live long enough, you can see your dreams die a slow death. Young people don't know how good they have it. Not 'cause they can, uh, touch their toes and screw all night. They haven't learned that most things just don't work out. Most times, you just mess it up, so it's easier not to try. We're all just looking for some hope. But at my age, hope is hard. Hope's not enough."

Song Sung Blue is a remake, of sorts. The film was first made as a documentary on a couple who called themselves Lightning & Thunder, and they made a pretty big splash in the music business as a Neil Diamond tribute band. It was written and directed by Greg Kohs. What's ironic here is that he didn't want to do a documentary. He wanted to do a feature film, but no studio would take it because they thought the idea was a bit too crazy for fiction. He even had trouble getting Neil Diamond to allow him to use the music. He ended up going through Eddie Vedder, because Lightning & Thunder  once opened for Pearl Jam. The film was presented at a Memphis film festival, where Craig Brewer saw the film and immediately approached Kohs to option the rights for that feature film that was never made.  Brewer wrote the screenplay for the feature film, which shares it's name with the documentary, which was named after a Neil Diamond song: Song Sung Blue. Now you can check out the film everyone thought was too crazy except Craig Brewer, because it's out now on Blu-ray .

"This is a true story. Whenever possible the dialog has been based on official documents."

The very idea of a serial killer is very much an American one. Around the globe it's considered somewhat of an American affectation. While that may be the reputation, of course that's not true at all. One of the earliest and most documented cases of the serial killer is Jack the Ripper from London's 19th century. John Christie was also a British serial killer. He never received the kind of notoriety and lasting fame as Jack, but that's likely because Christie was caught and Jack never was. With Jack we can speculate and contrive all kinds of "truths" because there's no way to prove or more importantly disprove any of it. In 1971 director Richard Fleischer took on Christie's story in the thriller 10 Rillington Place. The film gets its name from the book about the case written 10 years earlier by Ludovic Kennedy. Kennedy also made himself available to the film as a technical advisor, as did London's long-time hangman Albert Pierrepoint, who did Christie's execution. The film had to wait a bit before it could be made, because English law prohibited films about real-life murders until 50 years after the events actually unfolded. Thanks in part to Kennedy's book, the death penalty was abolished in England, and the prohibition against such films was also abolished. All of this opened the way for Richard Fleischer to tackle his second film based on a real-life strangler.  Fleischer directed The Boston Strangler with Tony Curtis in the titular role just nine years prior. While 10 Rillington Place never gained the same kind of enduring classic status as several of his previous films, it remains one of the more interesting. Now the film is out on Blu-ray, and you have another chance to check out one of the better films you likely didn't see when it was first released.

I was kind of excited about this one. Starring Gene Wilder and directed by Sydney Poitier, plus it had a funny title. I thought this was going to be just the thing to kick off my weekend. However, after viewing, I have to say that I don’t think this film aged well. It didn’t hold my attention, and I found several of the character interactions to be subpar. The story took a while to fully form, as several events played out before Wilder’s character is even introduced. And it’s even longer before Gilda Radner’s character comes into play. I give the story credit for trying to establish an intricate plot, but in my opinion too much time in the beginning was dedicated to characters that aren’t are primary protagonists. To it’s credit, the plot did get slightly more interesting when  Wilder’s and Radner’s characters eventually meet, and we start to get some answers about the fine mess they find themselves in. It would have been nice to get that point quicker, as it seems we wasted valuable time investing in characters that were not crucial to the story.

Wilder stars as Michael Jordon, a architect in New York on business. When a beautiful stranger runs into the taxicab he's using, he volunteers to put a package into the mailbox for her after she hastily addresses the envelope. Unbeknownst to him, the woman is being watched, and that simple kind gesture lands him in in a whole heap of trouble with some very dangerous and mysterious types. When these dangerous and mysterious types catch up to the woman, she ends up dead, and he ends as suspect number one. His only ally is Kate Hellman (Radner), who has secrets of her own. To clear his name, they have to find out what was in the package, who wants it, and why.

"Take your voltage, coming in the main power station in Canoga Park. Now, the electric company will tell you that it's running smooth and steady. That's a lie. I mean, you put that thing under a magnifying scope, that smooth, steady line starts to look like King Kong's EKG. Ninety-volt drop-offs, 130 volt spikes. Pulses, they're called."

I'm old enough to have known relatives who were born before Thomas Edison started to wire America with his great new electric generators. In less than three generations we are completely dependent on that sweet 120-volt juice coming through our lines. When it's not there, we panic and complain about having to deal with things like darkness and uncomfortable temperatures, not to mention how the heck are we going to cook dinner? We need it. We want more of it, because we keep buying more things that require it. We not only let it into our homes, but we demand it stays on. Now what if that electric current we feed on like it's mother's milk, what if it were an evil force trying to kill us off? That's the premise behind director Paul Golding's 1988 thriller Pulse. It's now out on Blu-ray, so if you managed to miss this one, you have a chance to add it to your collection. Of course, you're going to need a steady supply of that current in order to watch it. On second thought ...

“From the studio that watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey.”

Having never watched Downton Abbey, I can’t speak to any parallels between this film and the television series turned movie. However, the good thing about a parody is that you don’t have to be familiar with the source material to enjoy it. Which is exactly what I did with Fackham Hall. This aristocratic parody which showcased the comedic talents of Damian Lewis (Billions), Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts), and Ben Radcliffe (The Witcher) gave shades of iconic parodies such as Airplane and the Naked Gun. Even the title, which also serves as the setting of the film, is in on the joke (say it aloud and you’ll understand). Speaking of the classic mystery parody, Fackham Hall has a mystery of its own weaved into the plot, which serves as the main driving force of the film as a prominent member of the family is found murder and suspicion falls on everyone.