Disc Reviews

I was expecting a stereotypical action movie chock full of cheesy one-liners. Not quite what I got. There were one or two cheesy one-liners, such as “cleanup on aisle 3.”  However, for the most part, I’d say Stone Cold holds its own in the entertainment category. Serving as the acting debut for former NFL linebacker Brian Bosworth, I’d say the film served as a solid opening to an on-and-off acting career. In this showing, Bosworth stars as a cop with a reputation for excessive force and maverick-like methods for getting the job done. After his latest stunt lands him a three-week suspension, he finds himself at the mercy of the FBI, who want to use him for a undercover operation, which many others would consider a suicide mission. Rounding out the cast are William Forsythe of Sam McMurray, Richard Gant, and Lance Henriksen serving as the film’s big bad. For a 30-year-old movie, I’d say that the film held up well in regards to action and dialog.

Bosworth is Joe Huff, an Alabama cop frustrated with the kid-glove approach taken with criminals, an approach that he is not known for implementing himself, hence his most recent incident involving a group of robbers and his hands-on approach to detaining that his superiors deem excessive force. To my mind, this did not meet the criteria of excessive force; the men were armed and threatening patrons. Huff didn’t shoot anyone, and to my viewing, everyone he dispatched survived, albeit likely with serious injuries. Either way, Huff is placed on suspension and almost immediately summoned by the FBI, who threaten to turn his three-week suspension into a six-month one without pay unless he undertakes a task for them. Nothing like good old-fashioned legal blackmail.

“Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”

That is all that was heard when George Foreman won his first heavyweight championship. He entered that match an underdog despite his superior size and reach, and he shocked the world when he knocked the then-undefeated Frazier down six times on his way to TKO victory. However, that is just where he journey begins. Thanks to Big George Foreman, we get to see his journey in its entirety, in one of the most accurate and faithful biographical adaptations that I’ve ever seen. Key thing to know about me: I am a big boxing fan, so any opportunity I have to enjoy a movie about a boxing legend is a good day. This is no exception, as my knowledge about this hall-of-famer, such as his hard upbringing and the fact that he gave all his sons the same name, was limited; Big George Foreman, at least for me, shone a light on a boxing figure who probably doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. Particularly because not only is he a former world heavyweight champion who fought the likes of Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, and Evander Holyfield, but at 46 years, 5 months, 18 days, he is the oldest world heavyweight champion in history. Khris Davis has the honor of embodying this living legend and gives a wholesome, albeit at times corny, interpretation.

In 1986, long before Luc Besson gave us such classics as Taken, The Fifth Element, or Leon: The Professional, he helped co-write and produce the wacky sci-fi/thriller Kamikaze.  I’m a fan of Besson, and not only had I never seen this film, I had never heard of it, so I was more than happy to check it out. In my opinion Luc Besson is one of the best action filmmakers out there. Whether he is writing, directing, or producing, he manages to put out an enjoyable product on a more consistent basis than many others.  If you are unfamiliar with the guy’s work, go ahead and take a moment to check him out on IMDB, and I’m pretty sure you’ll find a few titles on his resume that you’ve enjoyed.  Now in the 80’s you can say he was still cutting his teeth and trying to make a name for himself and had some moderate success. Subway (1985) is a fun little standout, and in 1988 he had The Big Blue.  In that time he handed off the script for Kamikaze to Didier Grousset, his Assistant Director from Subway, to direct the film, and as they say, the rest is history.

The film opens up with Albert (Michel Galabru) being fired after working with the company for 30 years.  He’s a brilliant scientist and inventor, but he’s also a bit lonely and a bit nutty.  He’s bitter about how he’s been treated and decides that he’s on a permanent “vacation”.  Albert ends up staying awake and watching television virtually non-stop and develops an obsession/hatred for the reporters during the news broadcast, and this inspires him to create a unique little gizmo. This device he creates allows him to shoot at his television, and it will blast the announcer he was aiming at, causing their guts to explode.  It’s silly, it’s absurd, but it sure does make this movie a lot of fun.  Don’t think about the logic of how this is possible, because you simply can’t.

"The year: 1187 A.D. The Saracens of Asia swept over Jerusalem and the Holy Land, crushing the Christians to death or slavery."

The Crusades is the name of a 2023 comedy that was recently released, and it's a comedy in the Animal House tradition, and it's what you'll get if you try to do any quick title searches on that name. But buried beneath all of that beer and vomit, you might discover a more obscure (today) film from 1935 directed by the mythic Cecil B. DeMille. And you won't find any frat parties or beer kegs anywhere in this historical epic. The time and place are the Christian Crusades to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslim tyrant Saladin, the onetime Sultan of Islam. While this is far from DeMille's most enduring work, the fact that we're still talking about it nearly a century later says something for its lasting impression. I'm not sure the latest raunchy comedy will be remembered 100 weeks from now, let alone years. It's another in Kino Lorber's efforts to resurrect the classics and not-so-classics from a bygone era. It's the kind of cinematic history that many of us just can't get enough of. So pop the film into your modern player and find yourself transported to some other place ... and time.

This 1975 Burt Reynolds film is nothing like I expected, and for the most part I’d say that is a good thing. When I first picked up the title, I pretty much expected this to be a fun yet somewhat forgettable action film from the 70s, something in the same vein as Stick or Gator, but instead this is a more complex story that takes many strange twists and has an ending that was pretty unexpected. The film was directed by Robert Aldrich, who was fresh off of directing The Longest Yard and also to his credit directed one of my favorite war films, The Dirty Dozen.  Aldrich is one of those directors who I’d put in the same category as Don Siegel who were just fantastic at directing “tough-guy” films that just oozed testosterone in just about every frame.  In other words, directors that Hollywood would try to cancel in a heartbeat if they were working today. That being said, this is one of those films that is a product of the time it was made, and it has enough offensive moments that would make a modern audience want to stand up and protest, and, well, it’s what makes me like this film a little more than I should.

The film opens up with a bunch of kids having a trip to the beach, and they discover a dead girl has washed onto shore. Det. Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds) is put on the case that at first seems like an open-and-shut suicide case, but instead it’s only the beginning of a complicated case that delves into the seedy and corrupt underbelly of Los Angeles. When Marty Hollinger (Ben Johnson) comes in to identify his dead daughter, he’s not willing to accept that she simply committed suicide, and he then decides to embark on an “investigation” on his own.  The storyline with Marty, oddly enough, is pretty similar to the storyline of the 1979 film Hardcore, where we see a father delving into the seedy underbelly of society and uncovering a salacious career his daughter had before dying. Then there is the relationship Phil is having with a call girl, Nicole (Catherine Deneuve) and one of her clients being a corrupt mob attorney who may or may not be involved with Phil’s case.  This has plenty of the hallmarks of being a cool noir film, but it doesn’t quite deliver in that department, and that is one of the film’s problems. It suffers from a bit of an identity crisis where it simply doesn’t seem to know what kind of a film it wants to be; the tone is simply all over the place.

This remake of the 1936 screwball classic My Man Godfrey very much works as a snapshot of the time and how the wealthy as well as the social elite acted.  In many ways we can still see this behavior on display when we look at some of the modern celebrities (looking at you, Kardashian family) we can view it as harmless privilege or simply an abuse of wealth. Either way, when watching this film, though it has plenty of charm, there is plenty to cringe about when viewing the behavior of some of these characters.  When watching this, it’s best to go into it thinking of it as nothing more than a silly story and just ignore how improbable any of this could actually be. The film opens up with a chase taking place. Irene Bullock (June Allyson) is in hot pursuit of her sister, Cordelia Bullock (Martha Hyer) as they speed through the back streets of New York.  Irene is trying to catch up with her sister who has stolen a goat that she intends on using for a scavenger hunt. It’s when the pursuit is taken to a pier where the ladies encounter Godfrey Smith (David Niven) who is posing as a vagrant but in reality has illegally jumped ship when traveling from Austria in search for a new life. Irene is immediately smitten by Godfrey and how he is willing to stand up to her sister, and she decides she’s going to bring Godfrey in as her “animal” in hopes of winning the scavenger hunt. She then offers him a job, to be her butler, which he reluctantly takes, and then of course more screwball hijinks occur.

Though Irene is a bit of a spoiled brat, she is very charming at times, but my biggest problem is we never really get to see just what it is that makes her fall so easily for Godfrey other than it seems she likes the notion that she found herself a stray off the street and wants to be his savior … though it is quite obvious she needs saving from herself with her behavior when things don’t go her way. If it weren’t for Allyson in this role, I feel Irene would simply be an unbearable character. Then there is the continued feud with her sister. You can almost understand why Cordelia is frustrated with Irene’s antics, but she’s just as spoiled and really doesn’t have to face any consequences for her actions, that is until Godfrey calls her out on it.