Maybe these flicks are wearing me down. I watched the IMDb rated 3.4 film "Gone With The West" yesterday and I didn't think it was all that bad. I follow it up today with "Mitchell", and even though practically everyone with a review here bashes it for it's insensibility, I actually got a kick out of it. Thats' not to say I didn't use the fast forward button a few times, but I'll do that anyway through most films with senseless chase scenes and slow spots that don't make a difference.
Here's the thing - Joe Don Baker is like the Energizer bunny, he just keeps on ticking. Would you rather have a dull, boring cop without charisma, or a dull, boring cop without charisma but wearing all those groovy plaid sport coats? I can't remember the last time I saw one of those, but I might have had one back in the day.
Anyway, there's some kind of heroin deal going on, and Mitchell's assigned to the case, more or less to keep him out of the trouble he'd get into by tailing a well connected socialite gangster (John Saxon). But he tails Saxon anyway, along with drug kingpin Cummings (Martin Balsam), who's taking HIS orders from a couple of other higher ups in the heroin chain. You can't fault Mitchell for his inventiveness, I particularly liked the 'smash the goon's hand in the car door' trick; that looked pretty painful. And if I ever see another picture that features a death by dune buggy, I'll know the inspiration was born here.
Apart from Linda Evans' hooker falling for a guy like Mitchell, the way he scrapped vehicles like old pairs of socks, and the picture's goofy 'Mitchell' theme song, you know what really freaked me out? How did old Mitch know which switch in the electrical panel would have operated the front gate at the beginning of the story? Then he did it again by hitting the right one to close down the swing doors in Saxon's hallway. I open my panel about once a year when I have to shut something down, and it'll take me a few minutes just to figure out the right one.
Here's the thing - Joe Don Baker is like the Energizer bunny, he just keeps on ticking. Would you rather have a dull, boring cop without charisma, or a dull, boring cop without charisma but wearing all those groovy plaid sport coats? I can't remember the last time I saw one of those, but I might have had one back in the day.
Anyway, there's some kind of heroin deal going on, and Mitchell's assigned to the case, more or less to keep him out of the trouble he'd get into by tailing a well connected socialite gangster (John Saxon). But he tails Saxon anyway, along with drug kingpin Cummings (Martin Balsam), who's taking HIS orders from a couple of other higher ups in the heroin chain. You can't fault Mitchell for his inventiveness, I particularly liked the 'smash the goon's hand in the car door' trick; that looked pretty painful. And if I ever see another picture that features a death by dune buggy, I'll know the inspiration was born here.
Apart from Linda Evans' hooker falling for a guy like Mitchell, the way he scrapped vehicles like old pairs of socks, and the picture's goofy 'Mitchell' theme song, you know what really freaked me out? How did old Mitch know which switch in the electrical panel would have operated the front gate at the beginning of the story? Then he did it again by hitting the right one to close down the swing doors in Saxon's hallway. I open my panel about once a year when I have to shut something down, and it'll take me a few minutes just to figure out the right one.