Black Snake (blacksnake2)

Rough Riders Unrated

Includes the Black Cavalry, Indians & Mexican participants commonly whitewashed out of Spanish-American War history; with John Milius at the helm (Dirty Harry, Dillinger, Red Dawn) you know "blood & thunder" action is going to be done right!. Tom Berenger's portrayal of Teddy Roosevelt, warts and all, is so well done you suspend disbelief after a few minutes. Cast is heavy with skilled experienced character acting stalwarts such as Illeana Douglas, Sam Elliot, R.Lee Ermey, George Hamilton, Chris Noth, Dale Dye, Gary Busey, Brian Keith, Geoffry Lewis, Marshall R. Teague, Brad Johnson, Rafael Castillo and many more are a delight to watch (If you blink you will miss an uncredited Ashton Kutcher also). Historically accurate setups with weapons, equipment, etc and the "muscular patriotism" of the era and dedicated Utopians, yet showing how the manly virtues were cynically used for the gain of egotistic frauds (Hamilton as Hearst being an obvious example), Milius gives a well rounded canvas with no lack of excellently staged combat scenarios. A "thinking man's" entry for aficionados of the "rugged all the way" genre of western flavored action films, this one delivers the goods in spades. Stirring musical score by veteran genius Elmer "Magnificent 7" Bernstein. For the record, I should note that as Teddy went to the top in politics, he downplayed his high praise for the Buffalo Soldiers given at the time of the war, reportedly to appease the southern (racist "dixe-crat") vote. A bit of dishonor from one who constantly claimed honor to be such a high virtue. One should also note a similar trend with "Black Jack" Pershing, also portrayed in the film, who made his career on the shoulders of regular army Black Troops, yet when he rose to become commanding general of the American Expeditionary force in World War 1, treated his Black units less than fairly to say the least.

Law Abiding Citizen R

High concept starts out great but eventually degenerates into cliche' near the end, but it could have been far worse overall. Butler carries the film with his twisted obsessive character portrayal and gratuitous ripped abs shots. Foxx's lack of true acting skills slips up a few scenes. Stalwart character actors Colm Meaney and Bruce McGill come to the rescue. Leslie Bibb and Regina Hall provide the overly sanitary sexless incidental girl-candy, they are mere props here, while Viola Davis is just downright scary to look at and is in fact the real villain in this film as a fascist politician with no regard for citizens civil-rights, a vile combination of Idi Amin & Oprah in a skirt. Fans of the thriller genre will be able to wring some enjoyment out of this, but will come away with a nagging feeling they have seen it all before. The take-away message of this film? Never answer your front door without your pistol filling your hand behind your back. Special note to classic rockers: Pete Townshend (The Who) and Grand Funk Railroad tunes turn up in the soundtrack...

Bullitt PG

I was there..Best US Police procedural ever made even to this day...Famous for the extreme car chase through San Francisco's hills, McQueen did his own stunt driving. A solid cast, gorgeous Jacqueline Bisset is the hesitant girlfriend and Robert Vaughn plays against type as an evil politician and carries the part off flawlessly. The director was such a stickler for realism, actual SFPD crime scene murder photos were used as references for camera setups and FX work. Combining 1968 "modern" style with "Dragnet" pacing. Although this film has action, it is not an "action" film but a police procedural in the same vein as the similar San Francisco film "The Laughing Policeman", which also used real SFPD Officers and locations. Awesome music here by Lalo "Mission Impossible" Scifrin. Notable for including Black Actor Georg Stanford Brown (TV Show "The Rookies" w/Kate Jackson, Ex-Husband of Tyne Daly) when Black Actors in serious roles were uncommon on screen. Still worth the time for those interested in a hardboiled cops vs. hitmen story with great location exteriors and an actual story (based on the book "Mute Witness") where you actually have to use your brain, rather than mere mindless action (i.e. the dimwitted short attention span crowd need not apply)...

The Lost Command Unrated

This story is based on real people and events, from the first Vietnam/Indochina war to the Algerian quagmire, the multicultural French Colonial Paratrooper "Maroon Beret" units & Foreign Legionnaires (many of them ex-WW2 German SS Nazi "anti-Partisan" fighters unable to go home for fear of war crimes trials. Entire units enlisted en mass in the Legion...) fought and died bravely "Mort De La France". Although a "Hollywood version" of events, this film is unique, and has been used in military training classes to show examples of combat tactics, the accuracy is that good, with actual army troops as extras adding to the excellently directed action. The story stays close to the book ("The Centurions" By Jean Larteguy) and is about the all too real pride & prejudice lurking in the backstabbing politics of the French military. Dashing Colonel Raspeguy (Quinn) is not a "real" Frenchmen, but a looked-down-upon minority Basque of peasant stock, who has only advanced to such a high rank by being a hardened (as his lover calls him), "Beautiful Beast of War". His men love him because they know he is looking out for them at all times and that he is "of" them, no pretentious political officer type A-hole. Raspeguy loses his command in the wake of the withdrawal from Indochina/Vietnam (Burt Kwouk, known as "Kato" from the "Pink Panther" series, turns up as an arrogant but hapless Viet Officer here), but with behind the scenes politics, get a last chance for glory (and a General's star) by being given command of the newly formed group of hard cases, criminals, & miscreants of the "10th Parachute Regiment"(known as "The Lizards" due to their special camouflage pattern uniforms and billed caps), being sent in to the "dirty war" breaking out in French colonial Algeria. The film details both the heroic and shameful actions that ensue. Raspeguy recruits many of his former Vietnam comrades to stiffen up his new unit, all bored with the calm life in metro France & still looking for adventure. Captain Esclavier (Delon) is the soulful but naive intellectual & conscience of the group, while Cpt. Boisfeuras (Ronet) is his evil avatar, a sadistic vietnam raised french war-lover with psychopathic killer tendencies and a love of the knife. Unusual for the day, there is featured a strong & silent Black Officer as the unit Doctor. Lt. Mahidi (Segal in dark makeup) is their comrade gone wrong who snaps and joins the terrorists after returning home from Nam' and sees what has become of his family. Actress Claudia Cardinale stands out as the college girl sister of Mahidi who dons high-heels and tight skirts as a faux-hooker to help the terrorists by manipulating the gullible Esclavier. Cardinale makes the most of her role as the innocent but sexy "It" girl here, while Michele Morgan as Countess De Clairefons, is the war-widow who beds and helps Rapseguy get his new command. Her ice-queen aristocratic beauty and style intrigue here. Despite these diversions of sex & politics, this is at heart an action film, and succeeds on that level. The film has an excellent and stirring soundtrack arranged by Franz Waxman. There is an "evil twin" of this film, Pontecorvo's "Battle of Algiers", that unlike "Command", blatantly takes the side of the terrorists, showing them as the heroes of the piece, and significantly was used as a "training film" for 1960's Red radicals such as the Black Panthers, Puerto Rican separatists & murderous Weather Underground radicals, all who killed people in real life terror attacks in the USA. (The serious filmhead should see both of these and decide for themselves). All this is particularly interesting considering current events in the Middle East (and the descendants of these 1950's Algerians transplanted to France that are now fighting the Police and rioting in the streets of Paris as criminals & Terrorist sympathizers). The now independent Algerians are still fighting and dying in the continuing war against their own anti-government fanatical fundamentalist Muslim terrorists even today. Things did not turn out as expected from the hopes for "peace" after the French, who lost so many brave warriors in the fight, de-colonized and left Algeria...With this in mind, One can only reiterate the french canard "Ce'st La Vie, Ce'st La Guerre"...Grab the buttered popcorn and check it out!...