HEAT (1995) is a remake, but not of the underrated 1986 Burt Reynolds movie HEAT (which was later remade as WILD CARD) – it’s Michael Mann’s second try at the story he turned into his 1989 TV pilot L.A. TAKEDOWN. Which was good! This is better. A controversial statement, but I stand by it.
It’s possibly Mann’s best movie, and certainly ranks high among crime movies of the ‘90s (which is saying something), in my view a masterpiece of the genre. It has that rare quality of feeling like a sprawling epic and a simple, intimate story at the same time. Like a Sergio Leone movie in that one specific sense.
It is pretty simple, in the same way that MANHUNTER is. You’ve got these two men who are on opposite sides of the law, which makes their lives pretty similar. They respect each other’s professionalism but, unlike John Woo characters, would sooner shoot each other than be on the same side. Pretty early in the movie, famously – legendarily, really – they suddenly parley, have coffee together and talk about it, kind of warn each other but both seem to enjoy talking to somebody else who gets what it’s like to live that life. At the time the hype was about Robert De Niro and Al Pacino doing a scene together – two titans had not come together like this since Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT – but now that novelty has long since faded and the scene still feels monumental. (read the rest of this shit…)
This may surprise you, but I have always wanted to see ANACONDA. It’s a theatrically released, pre-SyFy Channel, early CG giant snake movie with an all star (more so now than then) cast, and I heard pretty good things about it, including a description of the best part of the movie (a famous scene involving Jon Voight) which was convincing. But somehow in all these years I never rented it. And then all the sudden last month Seattle’s S.I.F.F. Uptown screened it in a remastered DCP. The kind of thing I was hoping would happen to make up for all the theaters being forced to switch to digital. You take away our 35 mm, you better give us theatrical re-releases of ANACONDA and shit like that.
Maybe that’s why I never watched it. I was waiting for it to come back to the big screen. Maybe dreams do come true. (read the rest of this shit…)
Before seeing SAVAGES I wanted to catch up on some of the recent Oliver Stone pictures that I’d skipped. It turns out this one is 15 years old, so you could argue that I’m a little behind on Stone. Do you guys know if JFK is any good? What about PLATOON?
This is his most straight-forward crime genre picture before SAVAGES so I figured it was a good one to check out. Based on the book Stray Dogs by John Ridley (RED TAILS, UNDERCOVER BROTHER), it’s about this dirtbag Bobby (Sean Penn), an ex-tennis player in debt whose fancy-ass car breaks down in the middle of Tiny Desert Town, Hell (actually Superior, Arizona) on his way to delivering a bunch of cash to the guy who cut off some of his fingers, and then things get way worse. But he fucks Jennifer Lopez at least. (read the rest of this shit…)
Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie)’s trade is a “tomb raider,” which is like an asskicking archaelogical adventurist. It’s just like whatsisdick, the guy with the hat from that other movie that also used the word “raider” in the title – but don’t worry, that’s a coincidence. Lara’s introduced in what looks like some sort of an ancient crypt. She’s wearing short shorts, a The Phantom belt, spinning two pistols. Her crotch and her large, pointy boobs are somewhat emphasized, in my opinion. Might just be me.
Wouldn’t you fuckin know it, her search for treasure is interrupted by a large robot. Cue the electronical music and the wire-assisted acrobatics (remember we’re just two years after THE MATRIX). The fight is too forced to be very exciting in my opinion, but it ends on a nice touch: after killing the robot Lara takes a breath, then laughs to herself. (read the rest of this shit…)
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Recent commentary and jibber-jabber
Jules on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: ““Also I enjoyed their “final reckoning” at the very end when we get to contemplate whether Junior purposely made it…” May 29, 01:00
Edgard on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “Once again, fully aligned with Vern here… not the best of the series but still a lot to enjoy. Messy…” May 28, 21:26
MaggieMayPie on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “Vern, yeah that’s what I figured. It just felt like I had to dig for it through all of the…” May 28, 19:56
Skani on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “I’m Team This Was Fun. I’m more or less on the same page as Vern. It’s a self-indulgent, bloated mess,…” May 28, 17:55
VERN on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “Maggie – Her loyalty was to Gabriel, who betrayed her, believing she would betray him because Ethan spared her. A…” May 28, 16:39
Ben C. on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: ““Ethan trying to convince President Angela Bassett and company to give him an unlimited budget and carte blanche is probably…” May 28, 14:07
Jake on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “The Phelps Jr. reveal doesn’t quite land but I can understand why they wanted to at least try. Ethan losing…” May 28, 13:46
Max K. on Mindhunters (20th anniversary revisit): “I adore this movie. It’s pretty much my ideal B-picture or whatever you want to call the genre it lives…” May 28, 13:16
MaggieMayPie on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “I thought this was a big letdown. I didn’t especially like the last one, so I was worried it would…” May 28, 12:01
Danger Mouse on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “I went to a Live Q&A with the Storyboard Artist, Mark Bristol, here in Austin the night the movie opened.…” May 28, 11:32
Ben C. on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “This one surprised me – I’m a huge fan of the series overall but the advance reviews I saw ranged…” May 28, 11:26
Dtroyt on Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: “Sorry to be a downer, but outside of the airplane stunts I would say this might be (in my opinion)…” May 28, 11:13