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spaz47
Reviews
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Not that good.
I only give this film 6 stars. The acting is great, as is the locations and storyline...up to a point. However there are too many holes in the story that the writers want us to fill in. Sorry, but I don't get paid to do that, the writers do. The Scene at the El Paso motel was done too quick and without sufficient explanation. I understand that we were supposed to be seeing what the Sheriff saw, but it was to vague. The filmmakers had an excellent opportunity here to have a really nice gunfight scene, but left us wondering. Also the ending with the hit-man and Josh Brolin's wife was sketchy at best. This film could have been a lot better, but did not live up to it's potential. If I never see it again that's alright by me.
Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977)
Very disappointing.
In this film Billy Jack is appointed a Senator, and despite all that we've seen in the past films where he raves against the Government, he goes to Washington and discovers that politicians are crooked.(?????) There is only one real action scene where Jean is being accosted by some knife wielding black dudes and Billy shows up just in time to kick the crap out of them. Apparently Jean has had a miraculous recovery from her gunshot wounds in the previous film as she also removes her boots and helps by leaping through the air to land a wicked kick to one of her aggressors. Billy does do a lot of yelling in the Senate chambers, and finally passes out to the relief of the viewer, me. There are some notable actors in here: Sam Wanamaker, E.G. Marshal, and Luci Anaz; but even they can't save this film. All four of the Billy Jack films, the first two very good, seem to have a disjointed story line. It was as if Tom Laughlin couldn't keep it all straight. Too bad as there was a lot of potential in this film that was never realized.
Billy Jack (1971)
Storyline problems continued.
Okay, here we go. In this film Billy gets bitten by a rattlesnake a half dozen times and lives. He kicks the bad rich dude upside his head, makes the rich dude's kid drive a fancy Corvette into a lake, later killing him and two LEOs and goes to jail for it. He is driven off in a squad car with people standing along both sides of the road holding their arms up in the "power" salute while we hear the band "Coven" sing "One Tin Soldier," which is really catchy. We are still informed that Billy is an ex-Green Beret. I also liked this movie as Billy was a very charismatic character. However many things are left unexplained. Why is Billy now in Arizona, not California? Whatever happened to Vickie from "The Born Losers?" How does Billy figure out that Jean was raped by Benard? Why did Delores Taylor strip naked in the film? Was that really needed? Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. (Continued on "The Trial of Billy Jack.")
The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
Storyline problems concluded.
As pointed out elsewhere we see Billy Jack in court having a flashback to his Vietnam days. In the two previous films his character was said to have been an Ex-Green Beret, yet he is wearing the insignia of the 101st Airborne "Screaming Eagles," a completely different outfit and not as tough. The Movie starts out with Jean in the hospital where she is recovering from several gunshot wounds received in a "Kent State" type scenario with her school the target of mean cops and militia. Billy has been critically wounded and does not save the day. The local native Americans intervene and put a stop to it. Jean is seen trying to walk again and apparently makes a miraculous full recovery, as can we see in the next Billy Jack film: "Billy Jack goes to Washington." Laughlin used his Billy Jack films to show his protest of his political stance on many things as well as injustice. Here we see a "Mi Lai" type atrocity and the shooting of unarmed citizens & students by armed police and Militia at the school. I found it pretty boring.
The Born Losers (1967)
Story line problem.
I saw this film with friends and family in the theater when it 1st came out. My friend loved the soundtrack so much he bought the album. Elizabeth James, aka "Vicky," was a real "hottie." She was smooching all over Billy Jack at the end of the film. We were originally informed that Billy was an "ex-Green Beret." Now before I go any further I just want to say that I still like the film but in a different way than before. Fast Forward to the 2nd film, "Billy Jack." Both California and Vicky have disappeared without an explanation. However Billy's new love interest seems to be his real life wife Delores Taylor, who stays on in the next 2 movies as well. (Hmmm...) We still enjoyed watching Billy kick Mr. Posner in the head though. (Continued in the Billy Jack section)
The Jackal (1997)
Not that good!
This is a remake of an earlier film: "The day of the Jackal," which was far more believable and intense. The weapon used in the 1st film was very small and deadly, yet could be hidden very easily. In the 2nd film, the weapon in question looks like it belongs on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle! Also in the 1st film the detective solves the case; here we have An imprisoned Irish terrorist teaching a highly experienced FBI agent his job! A really "badly written" scene was where the 3 FBI agents have moved a family out of their house and the FBI folks are "cleaning up.(?) You actually have an FBI agent taking out the garbage! Trust me, agents don't have the time for this. Also, as soon as they noticed the 1st agent was missing and probably dead, they would have vacated the house and called for back-up! They should have also cut the speaker wires on the sound system that the Jackal was using to distract them! Yes, entertaining, but no where as good as the original...and remember that "lethal spray" that Willis used on his van to kill a "hijacker?" Nobody knows what it was. Well I'll tell you: it was "Anti-credibility spray" that destroys all credibility in any film that it's in...hooray for Hollywood!
The Master Gunfighter (1975)
A real challenge!
The challenge is to stay awake! Tom Laughlin might have come across as more menacing if his voice was an octave or two lower. The script makes no sense! Laughlin doesn't want to kill anybody so he rides right into the mess, then acts shy like he doesn't really want to hurt anybody, yet winds up shooting, dicing and slicing folks to pieces! All of this in the name of peace! I liked his 1st two films: "The Born Losers," that 1st introduced his Billy-Jack character, as well as "Billy Jack." His 3rd film, "The Trial of Billy Jack," fell down a bit and I never bothered to watch his 4th film, "Billy Jack goes to Washington." Quite frankly I think the beard was a bit much, and the story line absolutely unbelievable!