FIREFOX – not the cinematic adaptation of the popular web browser, but the spy thriller – was the Clint Eastwood movie I chose to watch on Veteran’s Day. It’s not a war movie, but Clint’s character is a Vietnam vet who suffers from PTSD and has flashbacks during stressful moments. This wasn’t really the best choice of an Eastwood movie to watch, it turns out. Unfortunately it’s a pretty dull one.
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Posts Tagged ‘Clint Eastwood’
Firefox
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Hereafter
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
My man Clint’s new directorial work HEREAFTER hit the home video this week, and it’s some creepy timing. The movie opens with vacationing TV reporter Cecile de France (from HIGH TENSION and MESRINE but once again I didn’t recognize her) leaving a Thai beach hotel one beautiful morning to shop for souvenirs in an open air market. Something about the filmatism here reminds me of JAWS, it’s just that heightened sense of sight and sound, you can hear voices and tones from every direction and almost feel the warm breeze on your neck. It’s so beautiful and peaceful but you know something horrifying is rumbling in the distance. (more…)
Where Eagles Dare
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
In Act I, Scene III of Richard III, Shakespeare wrote that there are places up so high that only eagles got the balls to go up there (exact quote). Schloβ Adler up in the Alps is not one of those places. It’s all Nazis and undercover MI-6 operatives in this joint. No birds at all as far as I noticed.
Loosely based on Disneyland’s Skyway and Matterhorn rides, WHERE EAGLES DARE is the story of a team of British commandos (Richard Burton, others) and one American (Clint) sent on a mission to infiltrate the Nazi-infested castle and rescue a captured general before he’s enhanced-interrogationed into giving up the Allied war plans or something. So they have to skydive, go on a snow trek, mountain climb, sneak in wearing Nazi uniforms, fit in, drink German beer (which Clint was against in THE ROOKIE, saying it has no aftertaste), and all kinds of dangerous shit. (more…)
Mystic River
Saturday, January 1st, 2005When I saw the first trailer for MYSTIC RIVER I practically flipped out. I guess not like one of those “geek-gasms” my bud Harold Knowles talks about but more like getting goose-shivers or the hair standing up on your balls or whatever the saying is. I already knew it had cleaned up at the Whatsisdick Film Festival over there in wherever it was, and that it was directed by my man Clint, who actually did the narration for this trailer. There was no scenes from the movie, just a helicopter shot of the town with the narration and then the credits start telling me, okay: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney… and then it says, “A Film by Clint Eastwood.” It gives you no clue what it’s about really, just shows you the setting and tells you the players and figures that if that’s not enough for you then you must be an asshole. “That’s all I need to know,” I said, but really I already knew more – that it was written by oscar winner Brian Helgeland, director of outlaw award winner PAYBACK.
I mean I was very excited for this picture so naturally what I did was, I put off seeing it for months and then when I finally did see it I was kind of disappointed.
Don’t get me wrong though, it’s a pretty good one. Just not by Clint standards. The whole cast is great, especially Mr. Penn as the ex-con who has to deal with his daughter being murdered and then with the suspicion that it might’ve been a childhood friend that did it. Pretty depressing, of course, but especially since it all stems back to a childhood incident where Tim-Robbins-as-a–kid gets kidnapped and molested. I always say, any movie that starts out with child molesting is gonna be kind of a bummer, in my opinion. (more…)
Blood Work
Saturday, January 1st, 2005This latest directorial work by our greatest Badass Laureate, Mr. Clint Eastwood, didn’t go over too well in theaters. It was barely advertised and it disappeared about as fast as Mr. De Palma’s great FEMME FATALE. I figured how could you go wrong – starring Clint, directed by Clint, written by Brian Helgeland who wrote the Outlaw Award winning picture PAYBACK. But everyone told me it wasn’t too hot, kind of boring, with a predictable plot twist.
Well now I’ve finally caught up with it and although it’s not an outstanding new high for Clint like FEMME FATALE is for Brian DePalma, there is nothing wrong with it at all. In fact any fan of Badass Cinema owes it to themselves to see it as one of the only american pictures relevant to our genre this year. It’s an old school cop thriller but for some reason it reminded me most of IN THE LINE OF FIRE. I think one reason Clint has stayed relevant (well, up until now I guess since nobody saw this one) is because he acts his age. He doesn’t pretend to be a young man even if he’s kissing gals who are younger than him. He is very conscious of being an old man.
So like IN THE LINE OF FIRE his age and health is a big part of the story. It’s based on a novel and apparently Clint had Helgeland write in more health troubles than in the book in order to fit his age better. Chasing down some asshole serial killer, Clint collapses. We cut to a couple years later and he is recovering from a heart transplant. So he’s retired.
But wait! You know he’s going to have to get back in the game somehow. What happens is a young gal tracks him down at his houseboat and shows him a picture of her murdered sister. The sister was an organ donor and this gal has figured out from articles that Clint had to have received her sister’s heart. So she guilts him into looking into this dormant case and seeing if he can solve it. (more…)
Absolute Power
Saturday, January 1st, 2005Okay, so everybody in their right mind loves the old Clint Eastwood pictures, and most people and critics love the Serious Clint Eastwood Pictures like Unforgiven, Mystic River and now Million Dollar Baby. But the period between Unforgiven and Mystic River is kind of an ignored period. The in between period is not as Serious or Important as those movies and they usually get mixed reviews. Well I was busy at the time so I missed most of these but now I decided to catch up starting with 1997’s Absolute Power.
Now this is a suspense thriller and the way it unfolds, it almost reminds me of a less flashy Brian DePalma. It even has the old DePalma voyeurism. But what I’m talking about is it takes its time setting up all the pieces and giving you the information you need a chunk at a time.
See, first Clint is in a museum sketching a painting. Right off the bat we know something is wrong because aren’t you supposed to make up your own picture, not copy somebody else’s painting? What the shit. Still, this is a clear indication that Clint agrees with me on my Theory of Badass Juxtaposition, giving his character a love of art.
Then we see Clint’s house, where he has a lot of art hanging on the walls. But some pretty fucking fancy art. Old stuff. Hmmm.
Then he drives out to a rich guy’s house and breaks in. This is when we learn that he is a burglar. Because of the fact that he is currently burgling. (more…)
