Movie Review: Extreme Prejudice (1987)

Genre: Modern Western  

Director: Walter Hill  

Starring: Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Maria Conchita Alonso, Rip Torn  

Running Time: 104 minutes  

Synopsis: Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte) is the Texas Ranger in El Paso. Across the border, his childhood friend Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe) is controlling the illegal drug trade, protected by an army of thugs. A shadowy group of ex-soldiers under the command of Major Hackett (Michael Ironside) arrives in town on a bank heist mission. Jack warns Cash to abandon his criminal ways, but instead Cash targets Jack's girlfriend Sarita (Maria Conchita Alonso), leading to violent showdowns.

What Works Well: Director Walter Hill transposes traditional Western fundamentals to a more modern setting, with The Wild Bunch a main source of inspiration. This is an action-packed macho-dominated world of few words and much intimidation, Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, and Michael Ironside forming an uncompromising triangle of good, bad, and ugly. The history of friendship between Jack and Cash adds a layer of regret, and Powers Boothe cuts a dashing villain in a white suit that gets increasingly soiled as his soul surrenders to evil.

What Does Not Work As Well: The emphasis on cool visuals and an elegiac definition of manhood as stripped-down willingness to engage in one-on-one death duels abandons a cluttered plot overstuffed with sweaty characters. The ex-soldiers and their plan to rob a bank consume an inordinate amount of time, and illogical incidents serve as wallpaper to the main objective of staging blood-soaked shoot-outs.

Key Quote:

Cash: You know, Jack. I got a feeling the next time we run into each other, we gonna have a killin'. Just a feeling.



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Movie Review: The Running Man (1987)

Genre: Science Fiction Thriller  

Director: Paul Michael Glaser  

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Richard Dawson  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: In 2017, America is a dystopian society run by an authoritarian government. When police officer Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) refuses to harm unarmed civilians, he is framed for the subsequent slaughter and imprisoned. Recaptured after escaping, Richards is forced to participate on The Running Man, the most popular show on state-sanctioned television where convicts are hunted down and killed by brutal "stalkers". The show's host Damon Killian (Richard Dawson) is a self-assured celebrity, but Ben is assisted by fellow-contestants including Amber (Maria Conchita Alonso), who believes in his innocence.

What Works Well: Based on Stephen King's novel (written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), this is a cheesy and self-aware science-fiction thriller intent on alleviating brutality with a steady stream of acidic humour. The bad guy "stalkers" are at cartoon levels of sophistication, Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers plenty of one-line zingers straight at the camera, and the spandex suits are iconically ridiculous. On the more serious side, the plot foreshadows computerized-control of everything, television's descent into the abyss of trash entertainment, and the opportunistic use of digital fakery.

What Does Not Work As Well: The budget limitations are apparent in the plastic-dominated and dimly-let sets. The entirety of the dystopian government's power appears to reside in and around a television studio, and the final battle featuring underground forces bursting into the open is a juvenile search for rudimentary action. In this vision of 2017, the music, outfits, hairdos, and plenty of technology (wired phones and cassette tapes) have not progressed much beyond the 1980s.

Key Quote:

Damon Killian: You bastard. Drop dead!

Ben Richards: I don't do requests.

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Movie Review: Predator 2 (1990)

A science fiction gory action thriller, Predator 2 moves the setting from the jungle to Los Angeles and loses much of the original's identity in the process.

It's the near future of 1997. On the streets of Los Angeles, heavily armed Colombian and Jamaican drug gangs battle in the open, with the police force caught in the middle, outmanned and outgunned. Lieutenant Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) and his small team consisting of Detective Danny Archuleta (Ruben Blades) and Detective Leona Cantrell (Maria Conchita Alonso) do their best, but are stunned when one gunbattle ends with the inexplicable ritual slaughter of many gang members.

A powerful alien predator is on the loose, targeting anyone with a weapon, and possessing advanced killing tools and the ability to bend light to appear invisible. With the situation on the street spiralling out of control, new recruit Detective Jerry Lambert (Bill Paxton) joins Harrigan's crew, while the federal government sends in Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) and his team to assert control. Keyes and Harrigan immediately clash, but the slaughter continues.

With Arnold Schwarzenegger passing on the sequel, the franchise loses its biggest draw. Danny Glover is an adequate replacement, but does not come close to projecting the necessary charisma or sheer physical stature and stamina needed to confront the alien hunter. As a result, Predator 2 seeps credibility the closer it trundles towards the one-on-one climax.

In the run-up to the final showdown, the film is more urban action thriller with plenty of gore than a science fiction horror film. Director Stephen Hopkins stages several high octane battle scenes as an out of control drug war grips Los Angeles, with the Predator stealthily claiming victims according to his own honourable terms of combat. Plenty of noisy energy fills the screen as the body count mounts and buckets of blood ooze onto the floor and splatter the walls, but nothing distinguishes the film from most other bullet-rich movies willing to uncork bloodshed.

The subplot of federal forces arriving on the scene to take control of the streets cues plenty of reciprocal and sweaty hissing between Glover's Harrigan and Busey's Keyes, but the tension between the two men is largely wasted.

Predator 2 is not bad at anything it does; just comprehensively undistinguished.

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Movie Review: Colors (1988)

A drive through a Los Angeles in the grips of gang warfare resembling civil war, Colors is a fragmented police drama that grinds the gears but can never quite achieve cruising speeds.

Officer Bob Hodges (Robert Duvall), a veteran member of the Los Angeles anti-gang unit, gets a new partner: officer Danny McGavin (Sean Penn) is young, aggressive and arrogant. The police force is unable to control a wave of extreme gang violence gripping the city. The gang members are heavily armed, and frequent drive-by shootings and revenge killings litter the streets with bullets and bodies.

Hodges' style is to try and establish a rapport with gang members, turning a blind eye to minor offences to gain informants in an attempt to stop more violent acts. McGavin is less patient and more prone to breaking bones and taking prisoners. He also develops a romantic relationship with waitress Louisa Gomez (Maria Conchita Alonso), whose family members are involved with the gangs.

Outnumbered and out-gunned, and despite endless patrol duty, neither Hodges nor McGavin are able to stop the violence from escalating. With gang leader Rocket (Don Cheadle) busy preparing retribution, the blood-letting will continue.

Director Dennis Hopper finds the corners of Los Angeles that rival third-world slums, and sets the world of Colors deep within the grime. The aesthetics of the film are its greatest achievement. Hodges and McGavin patrol decrepit streets, depressed businesses, and dilapidated neighbourhoods, with gang graffiti on every wall, household debris cluttering every back lane and hoodlums hanging out on every corner, looking for trouble. It's as far from the American dream as a US city can get, and a most logical place for the breakdown of law and order and the emergence of the reign of chaos.

In the face of a hopeless environment driving young men to violence, the cops are ridiculously ill-equipped to  maintain some semblance of civility, and Hodges knows this. Too wise to pick a fight with every punk, Duvall gives a performance filled with resigned caring. Hodges is not cynical or hopeless, just a realist trying to find the thin streams of humanity among the mounting garbage. McGavin still believes he can make the world better by kicking it around, but all he succeeds in doing is spilling more junk onto the already filthy streets. Penn plays McGavin with belligerence but also a basic willingness to learn, slowly, from Hodges.

Beyond the setting and the two main protagonists, Colors sputters, falling into repetitive patterns, gang members hissing at each other, routine car chases, repetitive drive-by shootings, and basic male behaviour uninfluenced by centuries of evolution. Some parts of the movie feel like a documentary, and attempts to capture the thread of a story or to humanize secondary characters fall short.

Colors mixes vivids with pastels and oil with water. Some patches of the canvass reveal talent, but the overall product is a bit of an unseemly hodgepodge.

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