The first one was ok, not seen the other two..

Fucking hated the first two movies, and despite Russell Mulcahy (HIGHLANDER) as director of #3...sorry, but producer/writer Paul W.S. Anderson is just a toxic hack mother fucker for me.

You didn't just hate it, you fucking hated it. And Anderson isn't just a hack, he's a mother fucker. (Yours, perhaps? )

You have a way with words, my literate friend. The way you paint a picture with words is truly remarkable.

You hated the 3 Resident Evil films. Is Godfather 3 better then all 3?

The Sci Fi channel has shown both Resident Evil 1 & 2 (don't know about 3). By reading the description, I have been tempted, but never did watch it. I like the idea of the Sci Fi Channel, but a lot of their movies are dumb. Although they do show some good ones from time to time.


TIS

TIS, I don't know what TCM schedule you're on (if it's the same as the east coast), but if you're able to watch "Bridge to the Sun" on it tonight, do so!! It's an excellent movie and I think you'd enjoy it.

SC,

To get an idea of any time difference or IF we have the same movie scheduled on the West Coast as the East. It is 7:47 here and right now on TCM is China Doll, followed at 9:00 with Sayonara with Brando and The World Of Suzy Wong at 10:00. Are any of these movies playing now on your TCM? Or, maybe they are two totally different schedules.

TIS

OK... we're seeing the same movies at the same time. The movie I recommended would have been on by you at 5:00 (your time).

How about this instead: "He's like Michael Bay, but never given more than $30 million for a movie. Just as useless, annoying, and irrelevant for popcorn cinema, but at least he's not seen by misguided folks as the definition of the genre."

How about that?

*Thump*

Sunshine, how about it?

Yeah...at least GF3 was decent at least, if a movie made by someone who really had no interest in it, and given a total of a year from writing/scouting/budgeting/casting/shooting/editing/mixing...it shows all that, but at least I was never bored with it as the first two RE pictures have been in general.

For better or for worse, the Sci-Fi Channel does honor the "B" tradition of the sci-fi and horror genres.....or "Z-grade," to be technical with Internet jargon.

I mean, what other channel would make a movie about a Special Forces Army unit going to war with the Headless Horseman? Not LIFETIME, thats for sure.

RR,

Many times they run trilogys: Gator 1, 2,3; or Shark 1,2,3; Phython......you get my drift. Oh, and Stargate is on a lot, but I have never been into that.

On the other hand, they run occasional good flicks from time like Final Destination (I really get a kick out of that movie, even the sequels), The Thing (with Kurt Russell), and a few others. I do check out what's showing just in case.


TIS

The only two reasons I watch Sci-Fi Channel for is on friday nights: Britain's own DOCTOR WHO at 9, and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA at 10. The latter is one that's better enjoyed having seen the complete series (its currently airing its last season) but the WHO revival is stand-alone episode fun.

In fact, this week's WHO episode is a perfect time to check it out...the first of a two parter involving a haunted library. Watched it the other day on YouTube (that episode aired some weeks ago back in UK)...I say check it out TIS.

THE ENFORCER (1976) - ***1/2

One thing about the DIRTY HARRY movies I'll never understand really is how Detective Harry Callahan was never kicked off the San Francisco police force, much less locked up in jail. I'm not just talking about his lack of commitment to uphold a criminal suspect's civil rights, but how he tells his department superiors to kiss his ass.

I mean after the original DIRTY HARRY, in real life he probably would have been prosecuted not just because he blew away the mass murderer, but because the city government would have wanted to make an example of him. As critic Roger Ebert once noted, "Harry has solved all of his cases while on suspension."

Then again, why is John McClane from the DIE HARD movies still a lowly cop and not been recruited by Department of Homeland Security to handle terrorists? Why does the U.S. government still not believe Jack Bauer whenever he brings up undisputed evidence of a terrorist plan? How did an crying emo bitch like Anakin Skywalker grow up to become the baddest man in the galaxy in Darth Vader? I guess some logic lapses must be accepted for the greater good.

Yet, maybe they keep Harry around because despite the fact that he'll never lick boot, and his expensive property damages are a constant headache, but he is the sort of mean bastard you need to get the job done. From icing the Scorpio Killer to going to war for the corrupt system against vigilante cops, and with the action-packed climax of THE ENFORCER, he and his new female partner Tyne Daly storm Alcatraz to free the kidnapped Mayor from SLA-esque terrorists. (You know, back when extremist American leftists were actually threatening?)

In every DIRTY HARRY flick, you have an early sequence where the man displays his kickass credentials. There's a liquor store robbery, and he goes in to negotiate. The crooks made him drop his .44 Magnum revolver canon on the street, and promptly rough him up as they throw him out the door, demanding a getaway car. That twitch look on Clint Eastwood's face afterwards is just classic, and you know what's gonna happen.

Anyway, he's knocked down to Personel as punishment for his stopping the robbery, and he's being an asshole in examining desk jockey Daly, but the guy does have a point. Why should someone without any street or arrest experience be made an Inspector simply to fill out a quota? So of course he's just thrilled[i] when she's made his partner.

Daly has never done much besides this movie and CAGNEY & LACEY, but she really does strike up good chemistry with Eastwood in a pretty good "buddy cop" movie relationship six years before Walter Hill's 48 HRS. Besides the fact that she's a nervous rookie taking a crash course on police work, no men at the precinct takes her seriously...including Eastwood initially. But I must say, he does give her a [i]chance to earn her badge, and she ends up getting his respect. Harry may be a sexist violent Neanderthal cop, but at least he admits when he's wrong.

Too bad the filmmakers of THE ENFORCER decided to make Daly carry a purse around. A purse! I mean Jesus Christ, I've never seen a female cop, uniform or detective, ever lug one around. Besides, with America these days, its more likely that it would be the man with the "man purse" strapped around the shoulder.

What's interesting though about THE ENFORCER is how early on, his superiors get on Eastwood for targeting hoods based on their race, but later on, the same higher-ups arrest a local black militant group as the terrorists, despite the terrorist group being white. But its interesting how the police bureaucracy is just as guilty in racial profiling as they accused Eastwood of being.

With THE ENFORCER, I'm reminded that part of the success of the Dirty Harry franchise isn't just Eastwood being a badass, but the humor from him being calm with the bullshit around him. From destroying the Mayor's perfect photo-op moment when wrongly given credit for a bust, to crashing in on a porno shoot, and what he gets at the Whore House for his $75. What's classic though is this dialogue exchange when he's demoted by his Captain:

"Personnel? That's for assholes!"
"I was in Personnel for ten years."
"Yeah."

Having finally gotten around to seeing THE ENFORCER, its a pretty good shoot-em-up/buddy cop action yarn with some laughs, but I really dig how unlike such fare produced from Hollywood in the 1980s and onward, ENFORCER oddly for its genre has a surprisingly bitter ending. No epilogue, no plot tie-ups, just a perfect moment when someone can be both victorius and defeated at the same time.

Hey RR,

I understand your point about Dirty Harry Callahan never getting kicked off the SF police force. Call it a sign of the times in move making, or the temperment of the nation at that time, or whatever, but the rogue, "me against the system" type cop was very big in the 70's and nobody personified that more than Eastwood IMHO. He was the top box office draw quite a few years in a row if I remember correctly.

I was a young newlywed in the 70's and whenever there was a new Eastwood movie out, my husband and I and friends were there. The tag lines from the Dirty Harry flicks were known by everyone..."Make my Day"...."Do you fell lucky punk? Do ya?" Everybody loved to see Eastwood kick ass. And damn, he looked so good too. I don't know, maybe coming out of the Viet Nam war that many felt unjust made us all in the mood to be defiant to the so-called "authority" figures. Hard to tell, but even though DH was a fictional character, he did speak to the times. For what it's worth, I like Eastwood's spaghetti westerns, but have always been partial to the Dirty Harry flicks, even if a little outdated now.

I saw Dirty Harry not too long ago and still enjoy watching it. I enjoyed The Enforcer and until I saw it on TV a few years ago, forgot that Tyne Daly was in it. I do remember her with the purse. The enjoyed all of them. The first three (DH, Magnum Force, Enforcer) are the best. Sudden Impact was my least favorite, if I recall, but I did enjoy Dead Pool (loved the remote control car). The first three though are the best

TIS


Dirty Harry (1971)
Magnum Force (1973)
The Enforcer (1976)
Sudden Impact (1983)
The Dead Pool (1988)

Ok, I'm probably not right on with this quote but here goes:

"I know what you're thinking. Did he fire 5 shots or 6 shots? To tell you the truth, in all the excitement I kind of forgot myself. So, you need to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do you punk?"



TIS

Yeah, SUDDEN IMPACT doesn't sound exactly thrilling, but its plot does fit in line with the franchise.

If Harry went vigilante at the finale of DIRTY HARRY, then he had to fight cops who went vigilante in MAGNUM FORCE, then SUDDEN IMPACT is Harry having to contend with someone trying to be vigilante in her need for her own revenge. Vigilantism is a door that swings both ways, though with Harry, he simply blows it away with his Magnum.

While we're talking pre-HARRY Eastwood, while his spagetti westerns were great, I enjoyed his solid directorial debut PLAY MISTY FOR ME*, but my personal favorite of pre-HARRY Eastwood was probably WHERE EAGLES DARE, which was his biggest hit until DIRTY HARRY.

*=Or, the smart version of FATAL ATTRACTION.

The reason why I probably didn't see Where Eagles Dare is because I'm not real big on war movies and that's a war movie no???? I did see whowever,Kelly's Heroes.

And yes, I loved Play Misty For Me. A really different type roll (at the time) for Eastwood. And Jessica Walter, wow, how convincingly creepy she was. Many may or may not remember that the hit song "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" was from that movie. Ok, ans speaking of different roles, Paint Your Wagon was totally different.


TIS

GC is gone. Sorry, can't think about some obsure movie at the moment,.. I"m actually a bit upset... :{

J Geoff, come give me a hug! I promise not to bite!!

Bitch... next time promise to bite! Then I might think about it

How about DOGMA, where Carlin was the Archbishop that threatens the apocalypse?

Dogma was blasphemy! (But still funny )

I thought Dogma was ok, I really only watched it for Damon and Affleck.

Ohh okay...And Salma Hayek too!!! I'm only a man!!!!!

Carlin is Blasphemy...and Awesome.

Its either DOGMA or BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE.

JUMPER (2008) - **

What if you could transport to any place on Earth within a second? What if you could go at any time with great ease? What if JUMPER actually had a plot beyond that?

Six years ago, Director Doug Liman shot the most influential Hollywood action movie of this decade in the blockbuster hit THE BOURNE IDENTITY, and that genre has been his bread & butter since then. But after the unsatisfying MR. & MRS. SMITH and now the pretty mediocre JUMPER, I wonder if Liman is just simply bored now with the normal-who-really-are-extraordinary-on-the-run plot template, or perhaps BOURNE was a fluke.

JUMPER opens up with a prologue that's painfully Emo. You know, the hero is a scrawny guts-less punk that gets pushed around; the parents are mean, blah blah. Jesus, I'm shocked he wasn't carrying around a razor blade. While drowning in a frozen lake, he accidentally "jumps" to the library. When he comes back years later to the town, nobody there is fazed that someone presumed dead is alive and kicking. Huh?

Don't worry; the nonsense in JUMPER is just getting started.

Try another scene when he takes his drunk Dad to the hospital, and the medical staff gets onto a gurney.....and making NO reaction at all to the crater that he created in the lobby. I guess Michigan hospitals have regular Jumper business or something. Still, I did sorta like how the immature young boy's first reaction to discovering his little trick, is to rob a bank. "Wouldn't you?"

Yeah I would.

We cut to him years later, as Hayden Christensen is super-duper-wealthy with a New York City penthouse, and he whines about how he never told his best friend. I thinking, "Well jackass, why didn't you?" I mean, if this guy held such low self-esteem in high school, wouldn't he have stroked his ego by showing off his secret power to a would-be girlfriend? Sorry dude, but its your fault that you abandoned her. Don't blame it off on insecurity or whatever CW Network crap. At worst, she freaks out and dumps you...which would arguably make her the jerk of this situation. Man Up!

So already, I don't give two shits about this guy, nor his situation, and It doesn't help that this is Christensen here. I tried to somewhat defend the guy years ago after the nerds crucified him with the STAR WARS prequels, of how maybe his performance, like the rest of the cast, was screwed by George Lucas' writing. But no, they were right. The guy lacks any charisma power to compel us, to capture our short attention spans and make us care. Compare him with Matt Damon in THE BOURNE IDENTITY. He captivated us not just because he could open up a can of whoop ass, but as well carry the sympathetic eyes of someone who doesn't know what he is, and thus rather damn afraid.

I guess Liman's great idea with the Hayden casting was that the guy has an arrogant face, and considering his carefree playboy jumper lifestyle....alright, I can understand that. But damn, we the audience is supposed to want to fantasize about being him, even if he's a dick, and not dreaming up ways to beat his ass. Look at Dennis Quaid in the 1980s B-classic DREAMSCAPE, where he uses his psychic powers to score on and off the racetracks. You may not agree with how he uses his power, but at least you enjoy him doing it.

JUMPER is one of those movies where the filmmakers concentrated their time, money, and energy solely on the visual effects, but probably spent more on the set lunches than they did on the script. Why did that girlfriend keep hanging around with Hayden despite all the fishy incidents around them? Girls, wouldn't you have slapped Hayden silly on the spot to know what the hell is going on? How did Hayden know how to transport a whole building if he didn't learn why a previous attempt fail? Why did the rival Jumper stalk the hero in the first place? How come we couldn't have gotten a real relationship, good or bad, between someone on the run for his whole life, and one that just started?

Better yet, how does this "Jump" gift even work? JUMPER can't decide whatever its by looking at a picture of a location, or from memories, or your emotions...make up your own damn mind movie!

Then there is the villain Samuel L. Jackson, who's part of some secret brotherhood of religious extremists out to exterminate all these Jumpers. Why? "Because only God should have this power." But what if God was the one who gave Anakin Skywalker this ability in the first place? Why you telling the Big Man up there how to do his job? Let the Vatican do that. Also, how do these guys even track Jumpers in the first place?

By the ending when Hayden confronts his mother, you don't give a damn at all why Diane Lane abandoned him as a child, and you're already trying to figure out why you rented this instead of MAGNUM FORCE. JUMPER has some splendid VFX that is wasted on a story (more like a glorified premise) that never starts, with people who never gets us involved, nor they ever thrill us. God help us that they improve with the inevitable sequel, or else I'll become comatose from disinterest.

Liman once shot the indie classic SWINGERS, the solid GO, and of course THE BOURNE IDENTITY, so I have hope that JUMPER was simply a misstep, but I fear that at this rate the man is now threatening to become the new Michael Bay.

Mr. Liman, please don't make me jump off a bridge.

THE ITALIAN JOB (2003) - ***

"Robber," aka The Heist Movie - Basically the "Squad" movie, but for the crime genre. This film formula revolves around a team attempting to heist something of financial or personal value from an impregnable location using slick wits and gadgets. Two members never share the same specific skill, and the roster may be ethnic/gender/nationality diverse with conflicting archetypes (The Nerd, the Muscle, the Rookie, etc.) We have scenes where they scout out the location, the whole team is briefed on the detailed plan which they rehearse step by step, and the crew has to deal with unexpected twists and turns along the way that complicate their perfect scheme. - RRA's Cinema Dictionary

I'm simply a sucker for two types of movies: People trying to get revenge on somebody, and People trying to steal from somebody. With THE ITALIAN JOB, we get both. We open with a brood of crooks pulling of a thrilling $35 million gold heist in Venice. I must say, there is a good fake-out moment that regarding the operation that fooled me, which is nice for a cinephile like me. Anyway, one of their own (Edward Norton) screws them out of their money, and leaves them for dead. A year later, they regroup when they discover where this rat bastard is, and resolve to make him pay by taking back their money.

I've never seen the original ITALIAN JOB from the 1960s, but I do know that Sir Michael Caine may have had top billing, but the real star was the Mini-Cooper. With the 2003 remake, it's practically a car commercial for the current fleet of Mini-Coopers, but I appreciated how the filmmakers actually created an impressive action sequence uniquely suited for these fast little buggers that involves trying to out race a subway train(!) to get ahead in a tunnel, with no margin for error. Now that's good product placement.

I even liked how they casted the great Donald Sutherland, because he was part of arguably the most iconic "Squad" flick ever produced in THE DIRTY DOZEN. Yeah that was a "Men on a Mission" war movie, but so was technically KELLY'S HEROES, which itself was also a robber that Sutherland starred in. He also appeared in the rather underrated fun robber THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY shot by Michael Crichton. Too bad you know what's gonna happen when he says he's working his "last job." He might as well be the old cop who's just a day away from retirement.

Anyway, I liked this version of THE ITALIAN JOB, even though its more like THE AMERICAN JOB because it mostly takes place in Los Angeles, if simply for two reasons: The instantly-appealing junk pulpy hook premise, and good actors as the avengers. You have the leader (Mark Wahlberg), the safecracker (Charlize Theron), the exploder (Mos Def), the electronics geek (Seth Green), the engineer (Franky G) and the getaway driver (Jason Statham).

But right there is the source of my biggest complaint with JOB, in that these people fit their slots well, but aren't given any real meaty scenes to really stand out special this side of PREDATOR. I mean, you have Wahlberg and Statham, arguably today's Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson at the movies, men who can be really good with action material, but here they're functional at best, at worst uninspired. Hell, the movie's best line isn't from this crew, but from a fat gangster:

"If there's one thing I know, it's never to mess with mother nature, mother in-laws and, mother freaking Ukrainians."

My point is especially true with Norton, who was forced by contractual obligations to Paramount to do this film. The dude is just bored with what he's given to work with, and I hate that because he really could have been great fun as a total prick. Still, I dug how ITALIAN JOB has the baddie not know what to buy with his blood money, so he spent it on the dream gifts of his ripped-off co-workers.... for himself. A nice asshole touch, if you ask me.

This is a random story, but it was reported back in the day that the studio tried to smooth their rocky relations with Norton by buying him an expensive sports car, which he promptly had returned, with a note saying "Kiss My Ass." I don't know if that really happened or not, but its funny anyway.

I take myself back, Statham does have a cool scene when he's stuck in traffic and sees one of those billboards counting up how many people die of smoking. He's puffing his cigarette up real good, with his eyes saying Fuck You Sign.

The dude is just a natural badass, but imagine if Statham was working his TRANSPORTER persona here. He would have left his partners at the hotel, went to the villain's mansion, pull some martial artists on the guards, break Norton's neck, and drive back with the gold, all within 30 minutes. Then afterwards, maybe kick Wahlberg's ass out the window for THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE.

I also wish this movie had gone for a good old fashion R-rating instead of the wussy PG-13, because this set-up is just asking for a nasty and brutal Parker novel treatment. The flirting subplot between Wahlberg and Theron is filler, Norton had a cartoonish evil goatee, the Velvet Revolver's cover of Pink Floyd's "Money" was ass, and the action cinema of director F. Gary Gray was at times borderline-forgettable.

However, I was never bored. I was thrilled by the snatching, pumped by the car chasing (and by the nice stand-off between helicopter and Mini under a bridge), and laughed quite fine, thanks mostly to Green, who later created the hilarious Adult Swim program ROBOT CHICKEN. Plus after OCEAN'S 11, it was nice to have a Hollywood robber without trying to be terminally hip.

What can I say? They got the JOB done.

I thought this one was wicked.

A fantastic cast and perfect stunts.

Damn, you're up early (or late)!

I just got up, was really tired last night!