Movie Review: Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)

A neo-noir crime thriller, Devil In A Blue Dress enjoys exquisite period details and a suitably convoluted mystery.

The setting is Los Angeles in 1948. Recently unemployed machinist Easy Rawlings (Denzel Washington) is desperate to keep up with his mortgage payments. He accepts a seemingly simple job from DeWitt Albright (Tom Sizemore) to locate a missing woman called Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals), who is known to frequent Black nightclubs. Daphne is the girlfriend of politician Todd Carter, who dropped out of the mayoral race when she disappeared.

Easy connects with nightclub regular Coretta, who informs him Daphne is hanging out with a thug called Frank Green. Soon thereafter Coretta is found dead and Easy is a prime murder suspect. His life gets more complicated when Daphne surprisingly contacts him and together they visit the home of the sleazy Richard McGee. Easy also has an unsettling encounter with Matthew Terell (Maury Chaykin), the other candidate for mayor. As the dead bodies start accumulating, Easy calls upon his Texas-based friend Mouse (Don Cheadle) to join him in LA.

Evoking Raymond Chandler's sordid stories, Devil In A Blue Dress adds racial tensions to the familiar mix of sex, blackmail, and murder most foul. Writer and director Carl Franklin dreams up an almost-impossible-to-follow but still captivating story where power, politics, exploitation, and sleaze intermingle, every minor character matters, and everyone is corrupt at heart and working hard to hide it. Action, mood, seductiveness, and hints of humour maintain equilibrium.

In this world Black and white coexist uneasily. Albright specifically hires Easy because Daphne is known to frequent Black clubs. The police pester Easy more than necessary because of his colour, and the difficulties experienced by a Black man trying to ease into post-war middle class prosperity are never far from the surface. More subtle racial prejudices emerge as the layers of the mystery are peeled.

The plot is strong, but the film is also a visual treat. Franklin creates a bustling Los Angeles teeming with activity, the energy palpable in both the exterior and interior scenes. Era wardrobes and autos dress up the sets with impeccable taste, yellow-browns dominating the palette as a reminder of the always nearby desert.

Despite the narrative strength and stellar production design, weaknesses are also on display. A lot of the dialogue is mumbled, and too many key actions take place off-screen and are described rather than displayed. Everyone is willing to pay Easy plenty of money to locate Daphne, but she never seems that difficult to find. Jennifer Beals does not settle in the central femme fatale role, and is rarely able to project the necessary allure.

As an average but resourceful army veteran turned detective, Denzel Washington grounds the action, his acting better than the zing-free narration. Don Cheadle enters proceeding quite late, but leaves a wacky impression as the trigger-happy but none-too-bright Mouse. Devil In A Blue Dress is filled with oddballs up to no good, and looking good doing it.



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Movie Review: Big Trouble (2002)

A madcap comedy, Big Trouble overloads the screen with wild characters and ridiculous events hurtling at an insane pace. A lot of it does generate big laughs, but the entertainment remains breathlessly shallow.

In Miami, former journalist Eliot Arnold (Tim Allen) runs a one-man advertising business. Eliot's teenaged son Matt (Ben Foster) attempts to drench classmate Jenny Herk (Zooey Deschanel) with a water gun, but instead interferes with the real attempted assassination of Jenny's father Arthur (Stanley Tucci) by hitmen Henry (Dennis Farina) and Leonard (Jack Kehler). Miami cops Monica (Janeane Garofalo) and Walter (Patrick Warburton) try to sort out the mess, while Eliot is immediately attracted to Anna (Rene Russo), Arthur's long suffering wife.

The events of the night result in wandering free spirit Puggy (Jason Lee), who likes to live in trees, meeting Arthur's housekeeper Nina (Sofia Vergara), and the two develop an immediate attraction.

Arthur is embezzling funds from a mobster-linked organization, and to seek revenge on his would-be killers he attempts to purchase a mysterious weapon in a steel case from Russian criminals. But his plans are foiled by Snake (Tom Sizemore) and Eddie (Johnny Knoxville), two sleazeball incompetent petty thieves. FBI agents Pat Greer (Heavy D) and Alan Seitz (Omar Epps) are trying to recover the missing weapon, resulting in a frenzied chase across Miami.

There is no doubt that Big Trouble contains some big laughs. Director Barry Sonnenfeld adapts the Dave Barry book of the same name with an eye to achieving a nutty spectacle at a breakneck pace, and often hits his targets within a compact 85 minutes of pure insanity.

Despite the numerous characters and events, Sonnenfeld manages to keep a hold of the material and generates a steady stream of laughs, quickly moving away from any sense of normal and into the realm of the absurd where anything goes. The scenes involving the Russian arms traders pretending to be seedy bar operators tend to work best, and the hitman character of Henry gets the sharpest lines and some funny gems.

The hapless duo of Snake and Eddie are effective as victims of Darwinian certainty surely awaiting their hour of extinction. Meanwhile a herd of goats makes a late appearance and gets right into the action, as does a mall cop, Eliot's cigar-chomping client and the Herk family dog.

Less effective is the airy subplot involving the ethereal Puggy being lifted along with events, while Nina is the most notable victim of the overstuffed script. Tim Allen is supposed to be in the middle of the mess but only achieves middling success, his suburban doofus Dad persona not quite finding a home in the edgy material. Stanley Tucci goes the other way with his over-the-top bagman, cussing up a storm.

Ultimately what Big Trouble lacks is any sense of genuine soul or caring. The film is about a large number of people running around engaged in cartoon-like behaviour and stirring up crazy funny antics; none of them come close to being real characters worth knowing or caring about. Big Trouble is really funny while it lasts, but has big trouble leaving a lasting impression.

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Movie Review: Heat (1995)

A contemporary crime drama, Heat unites legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in a masterful story of two men on either side of the law willing to do anything to achieve success in their chosen professions.

In Los Angeles, crime boss Neil McCauley (De Niro) and his gang execute their latest score: an audacious robbery of bearer bonds out of an armored truck. Neil's regular and dependable gang members include Chris (Val Kilmer), Michael (Tom Sizemore) and Trejo (Danny Trejo). The unstable Waingro (Kevin Gage) is a late addition to the team, and he perpetuates a bloodbath that results in three security guards being killed. Neil's fence and outlet to the legitimate world is Nate (Jon Voight), and he tries to arrange a buy-back deal for the stolen bonds. But the victim, corrupt businessman Roger Van Zant (William Fichtner), decides that severe revenge is the best response.

The robbery brings Neil gang to the attention of Los Angeles Police Department Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and his crew of investigators, and they place Neil's men under surveillance. Neil meets and starts a relationship with Eady (Amy Brenneman), although his personal philosophy is to never get emotionally involved with anyone. Vincent's marriage to Justine (Diane Venora) is in trouble thanks to his obsession with work, and his stepdaughter Lauren (Natalie Portman) is feeling the strain. Meanwhile Chris has a gambling problem and fritters away his crime proceedings, much to the disgust of his wife Charlene (Ashley Judd).

Vincent attempts to nab Neil's gang as they strike against a precious metals depository. But Neil is half a step ahead, and a dangerous chase game ensues, both men determined to continue doing what they do best.

Directed and written by Michael Mann, Heat is a dark, complex, and character-driven crime story, inspired by real events and delivered by a superlative cast in top form. For the first on-screen pairing of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (they both starred in Godfather Part II but in different time eras), Heat conjures up an existential duel suitable for two of the all-time finest actors to sink their teeth into. The film runs for a mammoth 170 minutes, but never drags. Mann injects enough texture, human emotion and deep character interactions to keep the drama humming along at a steady clip.

Heat never betrays its character motivations. At the centre of the film are two professionals who care deeply about what they do and will sacrifice everything to achieve their objectives. Vincent is on his third marriage, and fully understands that his home life is doomed to suffer as his real attachment is to the task of bringing scum to justice. Neil is dedicated to the craft of high-stakes heists, and has simplified his life down to the principle of being ready to abandon absolutely everything and flee in 30 seconds or less. Neither man will yield, and they admit as much to each other in a seminal meeting over coffee about halfway through the film.

Mann surrounds Neil and Vincent with a memorable group of hoods with their own stories and motivations, elevating Heat into a multi-faceted crime epic. Chris has a sizable gambling problem undermining his marriage. Michael has managed his finances much better, and can call it quits whenever he likes. Waingro is a nutcase, and his unpredictable behaviour will play a key role in the story. Van Zant is the wolf in expensive clothing, a tailored suit hiding a monstrous ego and murderous ambitions for bloody revenge. Despite most of the men being despicable criminals, Heat does not forget that they are all also human beings.

The women serve to humanize the men, and the key characters are grounded by domestic fronts that serve as reminders that there may be more to life than crime, investigation and violence. Justine is aching to reclaim her man but is also not beyond hurting him, while her daughter Lauren is in a lot of emotional trouble. Eady unexpectedly eases her way into Neil's heart, adding a reason for him to question whether tangling with the dogged Vincent is worth the risk. And Charlene suffers the cruelest fate, having to contend with all her husband's risk-taking but enjoying none of the rewards, as he gambles away his cut from every score.

And when it's time for the action set-pieces, Mann delivers some astounding beauties. The initial armored truck assault is short, sharp, vivid and ultimately brutal. An ambush in an abandoned drive-in parking lot follows, revealing the depth of treachery among thieves. The highlight is a jaw-dropping and prolonged street shootout after a botched bank hold-up, Neil and his men attempting to fight their way out of Vincent's suddenly tightening noose, Mann turning a section of Los Angeles into a harrowing war zone complete with blazing assault rifles. And the climax works its way through a series of score-settling punctuation marks, ending with a tense one-one-one showdown on the LAX tarmac.

Heat adds a smooth aesthetic augmented by atmospheric music. The Dante Spinotti cinematography is cool and crisp, often making use of the city lights by night to punctuate dark blue hues with glittering gold. Elliot Goldenthal provides a moody and evocative music score.

Ambitious in scale yet taut in execution, Heat shines at a white hot temperature.

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Movie Review: Black Hawk Down (2001)

Based on real events, Black Hawk Down is a stellar war movie. The depiction of the Battle of Mogadishu is a stirring story of a mission gone wrong, and the men who had to subsequently rescue each other and limit the damage.

It's October 1993, and US forces including Army Rangers and elite Delta Force troops are stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia. Initially deployed on a famine relief mission, the US military is getting embroiled in a local civil war among squabbling warlords who do not hesitate to use starvation as a weapon. Powerful militia leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid is designated as the worst of the bad guys. Delta Force operators do capture arms dealer Osman Ali Atto (George Harris), but are no closer to shutting down Aidid's operation.

Based on sketchy intelligence, Major William Garrison (Sam Shepard) hurriedly cobbles together a mission to try and capture Aidid and his top aides while they meet at a safe house. American troops backed by helicopters leave the safety of their airport headquarters and delve into the dense Aidid stronghold of Bakaara Market within the labyrinthine confines of Mogadishu. Intended to last less than an hour, everything that can go wrong on the mission does go wrong, with thousands of militiamen taking up arms against the small American extraction team and shooting down two Black Hawk helicopters. The American forces get caught in a nightlong quagmire, incurring heavy losses while they try to rescue fallen soldiers and escape from a city filled with countless enemies.

Directed by Ridley Scott and based on the best-selling book by Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down is an exhilarating war movie. After a slowish start to establish the premise, the film explodes into an unrelenting two hours of non-stop intensity as the battle is covered from several angles. As far as representing the grim agony of street warfare in third world cities against overwhelming opposing forces, the film stands a class apart. Scott and cinematographer Sławomir Idziak capture the chaos, confusion and danger-around-every-corner that characterizes modern urban warfare.

Soldiers are separated from each other, seemingly straightforward tasks like getting to the crash sites and rescuing the pilots turn into cascading disasters, with the rescuers needing rescue. Every block is a battleground, every window, doorway and rooftop a source of danger. Soldiers perform impromptu surgery, while others push ahead despite wounds and exposure to comrades killed under horrific circumstances. The film rams home both the insanity of war and the courage of the men who make it their profession.

Black Hawk Down does get a few things wrong. The Somalis are all faceless hordes, the definition of a blood thirsty enemy presented with no context. Back in the early 1950s Hollywood started to humanize natives in Westerns and then Germans in World War II movies. To produce a 2001 film without a modicum of perspective on what the other side is willing to die for is quite myopic.

Also relatively poor is the lack of distinction among the American fighting men. Josh Harnett, Tom Sizemore and Eric Bana emerge as individuals due to defined character traits, but the rest of the men are effectively interchangeable, and once bulked up in equipment and helmets, they all look the same. The large cast includes Orlando Bloom, Ewan McGregor, Tom Hardy, Jeremy Piven and William Fichtner.

But the objective of the film is to celebrate the armed forces, and to snatch a moral victory out of an astounding defeat which carried huge local tactical and overall strategic resonance. After the Mogadishu humiliation the US was seen as weak, defeatable, and quick to cut and run. But at the level of the fighting men, Black Hawk Down does reinforce the one-for-all and all-for-one ethos of the military, the heroic sacrifices, and no-man-left-behind principles. Against overwhelming odds the street battles feature countless examples of men risking their lives to help others, a band of brothers mentality that turns individuals into an army.

Loud, severe and imperfect, Black Hawk Down passionately captures the ugly realities of war as waged in hostile cities.

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Movie Review: True Romance (1993)

A stylishly violent crime misadventure, True Romance is joyously out of control. The story of a newlywed couple who stumble onto a bag full of cocaine is crazy fun.

In Detroit, Clarence (Christian Slater), a big fan of Elvis, meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette) at a movie theatre. Although she is a call girl sent by Clarence's boss as a birthday gift, Alabama genuinely falls in love with Clarence, and he reciprocates. They get married almost immediately. Clarence is not afraid of violence, and decides to eliminate Alabama's psychotic pimp Drexl (Gary Oldman) to prevent him from re-emerging in Alabama's life. In the bloody confrontation that ensues, Clarence does kill Drexl, and inadvertently also steals a briefcase full of uncut cocaine worth millions.

After a quick visit to his dad Clifford (Dennis Hopper), Clarence and Alabama head to Los Angeles, where they connect with Clarence's buddy Dick (Michael Rapaport). Dick arranges a meeting with fellow actor Elliott Blitzer (Bronson Pinchot), who may be able to arrange for big-shot movie producer Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek) to buy the drugs. But mobster types including Don Vincenzo (Christopher Walken) and enforcer Virgil (James Gandolfini) want their drugs back, and they are hot on the tail of Clarence and Alabama, and don't care who they hurt to get their hands on the merchandise.

Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino, True Romance was Tarantino's first involvement with a major studio, big budget production. Scott rearranged the story into a linear structure and altered the ending, but otherwise kept Tarantino's vision intact. The result in a madcap, ultra-violent adventure, insanely enjoyable but just lacking the laser sharp edge that would emerge one year later with Pulp Fiction.

After a somewhat stuttering start, once Clarence and Alabama get their hands on the illicit drugs the film takes off on a dizzying, fast-paced trip into a world of unimagined opportunity, bloodshed and larger than life characters. Everything about True Romance is hyper-intense, and the film creates a vortex of wild activity that demands attention. Scott amplifies all the film's elements, from Clarence's oversized Cadillac to the garish colours of the Los Angeles hotel where he holes up, to the stomach-churning rollercoaster ride that serves as a negotiations venue with Elliott. The shoot-outs, villains and attitudes are no less magnified.

Tarantino conjures up two exceptional face-off scenes. In the first Don Vincenzo has Clifford tied up and is demanding to know the whereabouts of Clarence. Instead Clifford launches into a history lesson about the ethnic origins of Sicilians that will do his chances of surviving the ordeal no good at all, but then that's Clifford's point. The second scene features Alabama having to survive the brutal henchman Virgil without giving up the location of the briefcase. Both scenes are playful, savage and ingenious in celebrating sacrifice for a cause.

With a cast that also includes Christopher Penn and Tom Sizemore as police detectives; Brad Pitt as Dick's zoned-out roommate; Samuel L. Jackson as Big Don (a random thug); and Val Kilmer as the spirit of Elvis, True Romance boasts an incredible cast, with committed performers in almost every role. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette make for an engaging and ridiculously cute couple in the middle of the mayhem, while Rapaport, Pinchot and Rubinek form an often hilarious triangle of self-obsessed Hollywood types tilting into dangerous territory.

And of course the film ends with Tarantino's traditional over-the-top showdown, a multi-pronged hotel room battle with plenty of ferocious firepower and precious few survivors. The romance is true, but it's just a spark for what proves to be true pandemonium.

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The Movies Of Tom Sizemore

All movies starring Tom Sizemore and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Born On The Fourth Of July (1989)

Point Break (1991, uncredited)

Where Sleeping Dogs Lie (1991)

Passenger 57 (1992)

True Romance (1993)

Striking Distance (1993)

Wyatt Earp (1994)

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)

Heat (1995)

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Enemy Of The State (1998, uncredited)

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Big Trouble (2002)

Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down The White House (2017)

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Movie Review: Where Sleeping Dogs Lie (1991)

A bungled suspense thriller about a writer drawing inspiration from a spooky house, Where Sleeping Dogs Lie never finds the right tone and fades into dreary insignificance.

In Los Angeles, Bruce Simmons (Dylan McDermott) is a struggling and broke writer. His agent Serena Black (Sharon Stone) prods him to come up with something original to publish, but Bruce is drawing a blank. As a side job he is asked to help sell a long abandoned Hollywood mansion. But the recently evicted Bruce has a better idea: he takes up residence in the mansion to try and gain some inspiration.

He soon learns that an entire family was murdered in the house, and the crime was never solved. Bruce starts to write his book as the diary of the murderer. This excites Serena, who sees a potential best-seller, as long as the diary can be passed off as the true confession of the killer. To help pay the bills, Bruce welcomes the mysterious and tentative Eddie Hale (Tom Sizemore) as a roommate at the mansion. Gradually Eddie and Bruce become friends, and Eddie starts to contribute ideas for Bruce's book.

Directed by Charles Finch and co-written by Finch and Yolande Turner, Where Sleeping Dogs Lie is filled with derivative and incomplete ideas. The story is weak and very little ever actually happens. Bruce and Eddie are underdeveloped and consequently shallow characters, while Sharon Stone provides plenty of sizzle in her few scenes but her over-sexed, high-fashion book agent defies belief. Serena slumming with Bruce is an incongruous relationship that shines an unfortunate spotlight on a destitute script.

The attempts at moments of suspense are of the childish bumps-in-the-night, blood-on-the-wall variety, and the injection of a layer of religious-driven violence is never adequately explored. Even the supposed big reveal, which occurs way past the point of anyone caring, is yawn-inducing in its predictability. Dylan McDermott and Tom Sizemore struggle manfully against the limp material, but are crushed by the dominating ineptitude.

Where Sleeping Dogs Lie is no mystery: the answer is a dull, fetid corner.

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