John's Talk

Lymelife

Auf der Anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven) (On the Other Side)

Julia

Hallam Foe (Mister Foe)

Sunshine Cleaning

Searching for Bobby Fischer

Morvern Callar

Jesus' Son

Romeo Is Bleeding

The Way of the Gun

I don't know how this flew beneath my radar for the last 9 years, but I have the denizens of the IMDb message boards to thank for bringing it to my attention. If you're a fan of The Usual Suspects, you probably know that Christopher McQuarrie wrote the screenplay for that film. Well, he not only wrote the screenplay for The Way of the Gun, it's also his directorial debut, and he comes out swinging for the fences. The film stars Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro as two criminal drifters named Parker and Longbaugh, and right from the opening scene when they walk out of a night club into a parking lot full of trouble, you get the feeling that this is not going to be your garden variety action flick. Sarah Silverman has a cameo in the scene as Raving Bitch, and the profanity-laced diatribe she spews at Longbaugh for sitting on her boyfriend's car has to be heard to be believed. Of course, she has no idea she's dealing with two 'don't give a shit' sons of bitches who would just as soon punch your lights out as look at you, but she soon discovers this. And even though Parker and Longbaugh end up getting the shit kicked out of them by the whole parking lot crew, it shows us something about their nature. They back down from no one and nothing. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the plot, since one of the joys of the movie is discovering all the twists and turns, and surprises that unfold along the way. Suffice it to say that Parker and Longbaugh overhear a conversation that leads them into what they believe is their one-in-a-million, chance of a lifetime shot at striking it rich. This involves a plan to kidnap a surrogate mother named Robin (Juliette Lewis), who is carrying a baby for the wife of a rich and powerful man named Hale Chidduck (Scott Wilson, In Cold Blood). During the kidnap attempt, they come up against two bodyguards named Jeffers (Taye Diggs) and Obecks (Nicky Katt) who would 'rather die than lose', and later they have to deal with fixer/bagman Joe Sarno (James Caan) and suicidal hitman Abner Mercer (Geoffrey Lewis, real-life father of Juliette). At almost every opportunity, McQuarrie takes conventional thriller situations and turns them upside down to create something fresh and unexpected, including what has to be the slowest car chase in movie history. And I'm still not sure how Robin winds up alone in the hotel room holding a shotgun, with Parker and Longbaugh outside. I'll have to pay closer attention next time. The thing I love most about the film, other than the great performances and the fact that it has a climax that does Sam Peckinpah proud, is that none of the characters are mere cardboard cutouts. They're all considered to be important, they all have their fair share of screen time, and they all have their own plans about how to handle the situation they've been thrown into. Unfortunately for most of them, they weren't present to hear Parker's pearl of wisdom that "a plan is just a list of things that don't happen".

The Way of the Gun

I don't know how this flew beneath my radar for the last 9 years, but I have the denizens of the IMDb message boards to thank for bringing it to my attention. If you're a fan of The Usual Suspects, you probably know that Christopher McQuarrie wrote the screenplay for that film. Well, he not only wrote the screenplay for The Way of the Gun, it's also his directorial debut, and he comes out swinging for the fences. The film stars Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro as two criminal drifters named Parker and Longbaugh, and right from the opening scene when they walk out of a night club into a parking lot full of trouble, you get the feeling that this is not going to be your garden variety action flick. Sarah Silverman has a cameo in the scene as Raving Bitch, and the profanity-laced diatribe she spews at Longbaugh for sitting on her boyfriend's car has to be heard to be believed. Of course, she has no idea she's dealing with two 'don't give a shit' sons of bitches who would just as soon punch your lights out as look at you, but she soon discovers this. And even though Parker and Longbaugh end up getting the shit kicked out of them by the whole parking lot crew, it shows us something about their nature. They back down from no one and nothing. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the plot, since one of the joys of the movie is discovering all the twists and turns, and surprises that unfold along the way. Suffice it to say that Parker and Longbaugh overhear a conversation that leads them into what they believe is their one-in-a-million, chance of a lifetime shot at striking it rich. This involves a plan to kidnap a surrogate mother named Robin (Juliette Lewis), who is carrying a baby for the wife of a rich and powerful man named Hale Chidduck (Scott Wilson, In Cold Blood). During the kidnap attempt, they come up against two bodyguards named Jeffers (Taye Diggs) and Obecks (Nicky Katt) who would 'rather die than lose', and later they have to deal with fixer/bagman Joe Sarno (James Caan) and suicidal hitman Abner Mercer (Geoffrey Lewis, real-life father of Juliette). At almost every opportunity, McQuarrie takes conventional thriller situations and turns them upside down to create something fresh and unexpected, including what has to be the slowest car chase in movie history. And I'm still not sure how Robin winds up alone in the hotel room holding a shotgun, with Parker and Longbaugh outside. I'll have to pay closer attention next time. The thing I love most about the film, other than the great performances and the fact that it has a climax that does Sam Peckinpah proud, is that none of the characters are mere cardboard cutouts. They're all considered to be important, they all have their fair share of screen time, and they all have their own plans about how to handle the situation they've been thrown into. Unfortunately for most of them, they weren't present to hear Parker's pearl of wisdom that "a plan is just a list of things that don't happen".

Surveillance

I don't know if this is supposed to be funny or not. I hope so. But even if it's supposed to be, it's not. I like Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond, and Pell James was good in The King, but their talents are wasted in this pathetic excuse for a movie from writer/director Jennifer Chambers Lynch (daughter of David). She tries very hard to inject this movie with a weirdness similar to that made famous by her father, and it starts out looking promising. But, as soon as we are introduced to the two police officers played by French Stewart and Kent Harper, the film loses all credibility. I don't believe there are policemen who would be so stupid as to perform the outrageous acts that these two engage in. Admittedly, there are corrupt police officers in the world, but the behaviour of these two is so reprehensible and so easily traced back to them (through ballistics, etc.) that suspension of disbelief just isn't an option for the viewer. And if you can't believe the actions of the characters in a film, at least on some level, if you can't see them as believably human, then how can you care what happens to them? You can't, and in this film I didn't. The only character that was remotely sympathetic was the young girl Stephanie (Ryan Simpkins), but the film has been so poisoned by the other characters that it's impossible to care what happens to anyone in it. You just want it to be over as quickly as possible, so you can go find a good movie to watch to take away the bad taste that this one has left in your mouth.

Extreme Prejudice

I hadn't seen this since back in the bad old VHS days, but it holds up pretty well 22 years later. Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (a long, lean Nick Nolte) is one tough, steely-eyed hombre who don't take no shit from nobody. He is all bidness and all BADASS all the time. I don't think he cracks a smile in the entire 104 minutes. His boyhood buddy Cash Bailey (charming-like-a-snake Powers Boothe) is now a bigtime drug kingpin, running dope from across the border in Mexico. Benteen doesn't like it and means to shut his old friend down by whatever means necessary. Of course, Bailey has no intention of being shut down so a clash of the two titans appears inevitable. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that both men have a 'thing' for the same Mexican hot tamale (Maria Conchita Alonso). Throw into that volatile mix an army unit led by a ceratin Major Paul Hackett (Michael Ironside) and made up of officially dead men, which appears to be planning a bank heist in the area, and you have the recipe for a testosterone drenched action flick par excellence from director Walter Hill (48 Hrs.). He doesn't disappoint. I love Nolte's tough-as-nails character, and I've always loved William Forsythe, especially in Raising Arizona and City by the Sea. Here his character Sgt. Buck Atwater, a greasy-haired, cigar-chomping good-ole-boy, is the definite standout among the soldiers. I've never been a big fan of Michael Ironside, but here he basically plays a cold-blooded killer, which is really the perfect part for him since he doesn't have to show any emotion. There's lots of hard-bitten dialogue and some serious gunplay before we arrive at the final showdown, and what a showdown it is. Hill is obviously paying homage to one of his favourite directors Sam Peckinpah, as the final shootout borrows liberally from the bloodbath that ended Peckinpah's classic The Wild Bunch. Well, I say if you're gonna steal, you might as well steal from the best. The film has its share of cheesy moments, most notably when the soldiers start commiserating about one of their lost compadres. And I've never been to Mexico, but if you have to walk around drenched in the amount of sweat shown on the characters in this film, I hope to God I never end up there. But those are not serious complaints. My only serious complaint is that the version I watched was in Full Screen. Overall, this is pretty good entertainment for us action fans.