Movie Review: Reservoir Dogs (1992)

A violent crime drama, Reservoir Dogs introduced Quentin Tarantino to the world and unleashed stunning levels of profanity and violence in a tight independent production.

After a seriously botched off-screen jewelry store hold-up that ended in a wild shoot-out with police, a group of gang members who only know each other by pseudonyms convene at a warehouse to regroup and recriminate. Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) has been shot in the stomach and is slowly bleeding to death. The veteran Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) feels responsible for Orange taking a bullet during the getaway. The excitable Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is unhurt, having shot his way out of the chaos and then stashed the prized jewels at an unknown location. Pink is sure that an informant double crossed the group.

The cool and detached Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) is blamed for starting all the shooting, and White labels him a psychopath. In the melee Blonde has also managed to abduct a police officer (Marvin Nash), who may hold information about the double cross. The group was brought together by crime lord Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his sidekick son "Nice Guy" Eddie (Chris Penn). Now Joe and Eddie need to clean up the mess and figure out what went wrong. With emotions running high among the group of armed strangers, sorting out who is responsible for what will not be easy.

Tarantino's directorial debut is a stunning crime film, filled with sharp dialogue, intriguing characters, and a story that gradually reveals itself through clever use of flashbacks. The central heist that causes the carnage is never seen, as Tarantino prefers to make his 100 minute compact film about people rather than events. The gang members are all strangers to each other, and the film is as much about a bunch of criminals getting to know each other and not liking what they uncover, as it is about the audience enjoying the experience.

The film is mostly set at the one warehouse, and stylistically Reservoir Dogs resembles a stage play on steroids. Most of the action is through intense, threatening dialogue exchanges, with guns being drawn and bullets flying at strategically timed intervals. There are numerous highlights, including several red mist Mexican standoffs, not all of which successfully de-escalate. Tarantino's staging and choice of perspective is often audacious, never more than when a character is shot and falls to ground long seconds later, after the camera has seemingly lost interest only to catch a crucial glimpse.

Oozing Blues Brothers-type cool in black suits, thin neckties and old-fashioned shades, the cast have a blast. The performances are excellent, with Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen particularly impressing. Keitel brings surprisingly prominent principles to Mr. White and Roth delivers most of his role from the ground and flat on his back. Madsen is a vision of understated insanity, a man so far on the edge he alienates hardened criminals.

The violence and profanity are legendary. The thugs basically converse through streams of expletives and insults interspersed with a just the few non-profane words. Appropriately, Reservoir Dogs is male-only territory, and the film features no talking parts for any women.When it comes to blood and gore Tarantino also does not hold back, with messy bullet wounds and large puddles of blood literally painting parts of the set a bright red. But the peak of depravity is a torture scene not for the faint of heart, as Mr. Blonde reveals his inner derangement dancing to radio tunes while administering some impromptu butchery.

At this reservoir, the dogs bark, bite, bleed and back stab, and all are off leash.

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Movie Review: All The Right Moves (1983)

A coming of age sports drama, All The Right Moves benefits from a gritty small-town setting, excellent cinematography and a raw, unfiltered attitude towards themes of desperation and ambition. A dedicated Tom Cruise performance is an added bonus.

In tough economic times, the small steel town of Ampipe, Pennsylvania is slowly dying, with The American Pipe and Steel factory the only major employer. The high school students are mostly descendants of Eastern European immigrants, and the brighter students are anxious to secure college scholarships or face a dour future in a dwindling industry. The high school's football team is one avenue for a sports scholarship, and defensive back Stef Djordjevic (Cruise), entering his graduation year, dreams of doing enough on the football field to win the attention of a good college where his dream is to study engineering.

Others have similar ambitions, including teammate and best friend Brian (Chris Penn), while Stef's girlfriend Lisa (Lea Thompson) also wants to leave Ampipe to pursue studies in music. Even the school's football coach Nickerson (Craig T. Nelson) is angling for a better job as a college team defensive coordinator. With the football season drawing to a close and a big game against an undefeated rival coming up, Nickerson pushes his players to their limit, leading to an epic on-field performance but plenty of unintended consequences.

Directed by Michael Chapman with cinematography by Jan de Bont, All The Right Moves is an unblinking view of personal agendas in a forlorn town facing austere economic times. Beautifully filmed to capture the grit, grime bleakness and perpetual dampness of a steel town where the only certainty is a dead-end job, the film is all about individuals thinking of their own futures and plotting a lonely, anywhere-but-here course.

The Michael Kane script refuses all the easy short cuts, and indeed allows Stef to discover the many ways that he can sabotage his own prospects. The film is really about all the wrong moves, and for long stretches Stef, Brian and many of their teammates face the unappetizing prospect of staying in Ampipe for all the wrong reasons. There are unwanted surprises with girlfriends, blow-ups with the coach, relationship breakdowns, mistakes on the field, and acts of mischief and petty crime that derail the already tenuous plans to escape life in the steel factory.

The tension between Nickerson and his players is at the heart of the film, and Craig T. Nelson deserves a lot of credit for creating an unsympathetic, hard-nosed high school football coach just as desperate as his students to find something better. Nickerson pushes his players to perform and think as a team, but whether he actually cares or is using them to better his own prospects is open to interpretation. The film creates a premise where both the coach and the players are scheming beyond the collective, and yet everyone needs the team to be successful for personal reasons.

For a film set in a football milieu, there is just the one football game, and de Bont captures the action in coherent and exciting takes. Plenty of time is spent at the training field, a deglamourized place overtaken by mud where the coach cuts his players to size while injecting just enough encouragement to make his abuse barely palatable.

Released two months after Risky Business, All The Right Moves confirmed Cruise's stature as the hottest emerging star in Hollywood. As Stef Djordjevic Cruise builds on his persona as a young man more than capable of getting himself into a lot of trouble, and then having to methodically work his back into his starting position. Lea Thompson gives the girlfriend role a sharper edge than usual as she stands up for herself and avoids cliches and daydreams about happily ever after.

All The Right Moves suffers from a really dreadful 1980s music soundtrack, but otherwise makes a sharp turn towards a fulfilling story of concentrated struggles on and off the field.

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The Movies Of Christopher Penn

All movies starring Christopher Penn and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Rumble Fish (1983)

All The Right Moves (1983)

Footloose (1984)

Pale Rider (1985)

At Close Range (1986)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

True Romance (1993)

To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)

Mulholland Falls (1996)

Murder By Numbers (2002)

Starsky And Hutch (2004)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Footloose (1984)

A musical comedy-drama celebrating the healing powers of music and dance, Footloose bounces on its own giddy energy, propelled by a joyous soundtrack and a cast of talented young actors. Directer Herbert Ross assembles the film with one eye on maximizing the fun quotient and the other on maintaining the colourful characters at the centre of the drama.

Teenager Ren (Kevin Bacon) relocates from Chicago to the small rural town of Bomont. Ren is an athletic dancer with a positive outlook on life, but he finds Bomont seething under the domineering influence of Reverend Shaw Moore (John Lithgow), who delivers fire and brimstone sermons banning dancing and popular music throughout the town. The Reverend has taken it upon himself to save the soul of Bomont, after a car crash killed a group of partying teenagers, including his son.

Neither Moore's wife Vi (Dianne Wiest) nor his teenage daughter Ariel (Lori Singer) are keeping up with him. Vi is concerned that the town is taking his message to extremes, and indeed there are rumblings of impending book burnings. Ariel is in full fledged teenage rebellion mode, running wild with her group of friends, including the fun-loving Rusty (Sarah Jessica Parker), and sleeping around behind her father's back with the local no-good redneck.

Ren makes a few good friends, notably the slow but well-meaning Willard (Christopher Penn), and attracts the attention of Ariel, but otherwise finds himself a misfit in the crusty community. He decides to shake things up by organizing a school dance in defiance of the Reverend and all the town elders.

Written by Dean Pitchford, Footloose never attempts to take its superficial context too seriously. But the film does connect interesting dots on the perils of extremism, and Ren gets to use Biblical passages that support dancing to argue against the zealots running the town.

Footloose does have a few weaknesses, notably a couple of ugly fights that appear utterly contrived. Arial comes out of one brawl pretty badly bruised and battered, but her previously ultra-concerned dad does not seem to notice. However, the weak moments do not take away from an overall mood of infectious exuberance.

Ross inspires his cast to deliver terrific performances. Kevin Bacon, in one of his most memorable roles, shines as Ren, a cool cat of a character, full of optimism and bright ideas, and a refreshing, positive personality. Lori Singer smoulders as Arial, compensating with a brooding sexuality what she lacks in talent. Christopher Penn gets the most memorable supporting role as the dorky but game Willard, and the montage of Ren teaching Willard how to dance to the tune of Let's Hear It For The Boy became a much imitated classic.

The adults add substantial weight to the talent on display: both John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest bring a serious tone to their roles. As Reverend Moore, Lithgow rumbles through Footloose imposing his own version of the commandments, but gradually comes to realize that he is simultaneously losing his daughter and unintentionally driving the community to the dark alley of self-defined intolerance.

The soundtrack of Footloose displaced Michael Jackson's Thriller from the top of the charts and stayed there for 10 weeks. The title track Footloose, Let's Hear It For The Boy, Almost Paradise, and Holding Out For a Hero, among others, embedded themselves in the soundtrack of the 1980s. The music, much like the movie itself, left a lasting and upbeat impression on the cultural landscape.

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