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Reviews
The Hard Man (1957)
High Noon: the soap opera - but entertaining
Just the thing for a lazy Sunday afternoon - like all those TV westerns from 50s/60s which this reviewer found when perhaps more impressionable - when men were Men, spoke deep, dressed clean and drew sixguns easy fast. The story/plot in detail is (surely ?) corny ridiculous soap - to this nonAmerican anyhow - but, once that is accepted, this film can entertain as a straight "shoot 'em, cowboy" with a hero in the Hollywood tradition of the (semi-official) vigilante from the Lone Ranger to the Dark Knight. Definitely competently acted and made q well enough, this film is a nice reminder of how the fun Western used to be. Canadian Lorne Green went on to greater fame; going by this movie, Madison and French were unlucky not to do same.
The Rockford Files: Friends and Foul Play (1996)
huh (weird or wot) ?
If not an actual sly spoof, was this meant to be some sort of dark 'send up' of either the series itself, the genre or even America, albeit in keeping with Garner's most liked/successful screen persona from the original 'Maverick' TV westerns on to the original 'Rockford' series ? (Perhaps Garner never made the top tier of 'action' or 'tough guy' actors with his pals Eastwood & Willis because his humorous and gentlemanly streak/side/leanings do not quite fit the taste of filmgoing America) Otherwise, unless US civilisation was actually even sicker or weirder in the 90s than suggested by CNN, this episode/movie featuring a pill-popping black-belt gang boss, psycho sex- and crime- crazed kids, an unwordly saint and wacko cops was just too far overboard or 'over the top' and did not capture the original series premise or magic as straight detective drama with (sometimes cynical) humour; at least one crime scene was needlessly graphic too.
This (presumably absurd) episode disappointed and did not entertain this nonAmerican fan of the original 70s series
I Spy (2002)
nice 'un !!
This is an unexpectedly classy spoof, possibly the best in some while and certainly the best that Eddie M has done since Trading Places. The movie obviously spoofs the Cruise Mission Impossible as well as the superspy/secret agent genre in general, including the original TV series but is vastly more amusing than Neilson's and Atkinson's more or less contemporary offerings. The gags are not 'cookie cutter' and the action/drama actually has tension/suspense too.The support cast is fine with femme fatale Fannke (?) playing her part perfectly while Wilson entertains as the Bond wannabe; unless some FX was involved, Eddie is in amazing physical shape. The story, screenplay and direction are well done. The gods were in a sour mood indeed for this film to not have done better at the box office; ce la vie
Mission: Impossible III (2006)
mission well done
Only having watched opening and closing bits of MI1 on TV and not MI2 at all, I was unexpectedly drawn to MI3 by trailers. This is a well made film, not meant to be realistic but about impossible superagents doing impossible stuff to fight Really Bad Guys so the action had to keep and was kept going with no let up to spoil the fantasy or unreality. Given that, the action/plot was fun and coherent, yet gritty. There IS a big hole in the logic towards the end and the final scenes were plainly unreal but this IS fantasy after all ! My gripes are that some violence especially re the women were unpleasantly and too graphic while the fate of the Bad Guy in the end was way too kind. The music nicely brought back memories of the TV series too. To sum up: a well made and acted action film with just a bit too much violence for some of us and which works well on large screen
The Long Kill (1999)
unfulfilled promise
I had not realised these singers acted too until this The basic plot has a lot of promise to be a classic enjoyable straight 'action western' with possible 'feel good' or comic possibilities as well. The singers have surprising screen presence and the production runs along quite well and logically until the last shootout But the violence was generally more graphic than I like or necessary, with the usual questionable American popular romanticisation and simplification of vigilante-ism or ' a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do '. Some bits made no sense or were clearly unrealistic or fantastic so the film seemed undecided between being a straight classic western or a 'feel good' Good Guys Always Win and Are Heroes to Boot show The final scenes were rather illogical in terms of behaviour and spoilt an otherwise consistent plot. Not much more is needed to make this an 'above average' film so the unfulfilled promise is disappointing and surprising given the actors involved