Flick Pick: Taken

Taken
(20th Century Fox, 2008)

Another Luc Besson blockbuster. One might have thought that pushing 60 when this film was made, Liam Neeson would be too old to be an action hero. They would be wrong.
Someone might also think that if someone took his teenage daughter to sell into white slavery in any father's worst nightmare, she wouldn't stand a chance of rescue. They would also be wrong. Somebody might even think that there's no way audiences or critics would enjoy another Bessonesque masterpiece of car chases, explosions, dead bad guys by the score, and reprehensible French citizenry getting beat up on camera. They would be the wrongest of all. One can never see enough Frenchmen getting beaten up.

Flick Pick: From Paris With Love

From Paris With Love
(Lionsgate, 2010)

A Luc Besson production. In other words, an absolutely kick-ass hour and a half utterly wicked roller coaster ride, with John Travolta playing the a-hole on a mission, in this case, literally. Jonathyn Rhys Meyers as the fish out of water wannabe secret agent. With car chases, a body count shy of a hundred, several thousand gunshots, plenty of hand to hand combat, and a handful of explosions. In other words, a Luc Besson production.

Flick Pick: The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element
(Columbia, 1997)

If you're trying to find a Luc Besson film that isn't worth watching, while there probably are some, this one isn't it. It's a bit different from his usual work. This time, in the car chase, the cars fly. The evil foreigners aren't French this time, they're from Mangalore. And when something explodes, sometimes it's so big it takes all of space to contain it. Bruce Wills is the out-of-control hero, Gary Oldman is the quietly menacing villain, Ian Holm the catalyst between the two, Chris Tucker in an utterly off-the-hook send up of the deranged love child of Prince and Dennis Rodman, and Milla Jovovich as the absolutely smoking hot titular heroine. Get your multipass, buckle in, and enjoy this ride.

Flick Pick: Midnight Run

Midnight Run
(Universal, 1988)

In teaming Robert DeNiro with Charles Grodin in this flick, director Martin Brest did two things: he proved DeNiro can do comedy, and produced one of the best buddy movies of all-time. DeNiro was and is second to none in playing tough guys, so seeing how effortlessly he sends them up is worth watching alone. Teamed with Grodin, who never attempts to go toe to toe with DeNiro, just brilliantly undermines his character with a wit that's drier than toast, and the result is eminently watchable. With the players rounded out by such accomplished talents as Yaphet Kotto, Joe Patoliano, Dennis Farina, and John Ashton, this trip was definitely necessary and well worth making.

Flick Pick: Return Of The Jedi

Return Of The Jedi
(20th Cent. Fox, 1983)

The one that brought all the threads together and tied them up neatly and satisfyingly, at long last, this is still probably the weakest of the original trio, since by now all the groundwork has been laid, and it depends on action set-pieces with minimal character or story development. It's less a roller-coaster ride than a parachute drop, with everything rather predictably coming down to what happens in last bit. We do get to see Luke surpass his father, and Han spends almost no time at all flying a spaceship, while Lucas continues his personal trend of always including a new annoying character in each successive film, in this trip, Ewoks. But at least they're fun to watch, which sums up the rest of the movie as well.

For The Fallen

"If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind."

Maj. Michael Davis O'Donell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
 

Flick Pick: The Empire Strikes Back

The Empire Strikes Back
(20th Cent. Fox, 1980)

The second hardest thing to do in moviemaking, after making a good movie, is making a good sequel. Somewhat reviled at the time for being a blatant set-up for the finale, The Empire Strikes Back mostly pulled it off, advancing the story at the time in ways only hindsight would fully reveal. People tolerated it because it also expanded the view into the Lucas-verse by revealing the previously unseen Emperor, at the same time it brought in Yoda to flesh out the mystical Force a bit more, and deepened Leia's love interest without giving anything away. Totally unable to stand on its own, it's nonetheless an irreplaceable bridge in the series of films, and something you'd only miss if it suddenly wasn't there.

Flick Pick: Star Wars

Star Wars
(20th Cent. Fox, 1977)

First premiering today 37 years ago, this little $11M sci-fi flick became the biggest film ever  (for six years, until E.T. knocked it off the pedestal) and adjusted for inflation is the number three-grossing film of all time. Back when a multiplex had two or at most three screens, I stood in a line twice around the theatre to get into this one opening weekend. Based purely on word-of-mouth from being out for a day.
The soundtrack blew me away in the first 30 seconds. The villain was pure distilled evil before his third line. And by the time we got to see the twin sunset on Tatooine, everyone in that theatre knew this was not going to be like any movie we'd seen before: it was like every movie we'd seen before. Turned up to 11.
Nominated for ten Oscars, and winning six (including none for George Lucas) this wasn't a bad effort for a guy directing only his third studio pic. Not least of which by showcasing a guy Lucas had used in one of the numerous small parts in American Grafitti, talking him out of putting down his hammer and saw building custom studios for record producers and songwriters, and coming back to acting full-time. Our introduction to Han Solo (before the later monkeyization of the original) had him shooting Greedo first under the table, and it endeared Harrison Ford to audiences in a career that has become a force of nature.
Not bad for a few notebooks of scribbling done while Lucas was attending film school, which he got funded by working for scale, asking only for the rights to the ancillary merchandise.
Fox execs figured they were getting a deal, thinking that t-shirts and posters were no big loss. Lucas paid for Skywalker Ranch and starting ILM on royalty checks paid from Kenner Toys. And somewhere around the second hundred million dollars of box office, the idea of maybe making a sequel came up...

Flick Pick: MIB3

MIB3
(Columbia, 2012)

Marred by an ill-advised sequel to the original (the less said about it, the better) Men In Black 3 returned the franchise to still watchable after 15 years, chiefly by the inspired casting of adding Josh Brolin as a screamingly perfect Agent K, doing Tommy Lee Jones in his twenties probably better than TLJ himself did originally. The side characters are fun, seeing the take on NYC in the 60s is well-done, the cliff-hanging suspense is real, and the ending kills.
If they want to do another one of these this good, I'm game. If they don't, they should leave it be.

The Dog That Does't Bark

For reference, it seems that a couple of ladies in the Alpine TX (Texas?! WTF?) area were recently roughed up by the minions of HopeyDopey and BigGov recently. And their neighbor noticed it.
And documented it.

So did another blog.
And the local TV news.
And the local newspaper.
And another newspaper has more here.

What was notable here was that as a condition of bail, the victim was required to recant all statements alleging federal agents' witnessed and documented misconduct. US. v. Lipsen bail conditions.

Which, as UCLA law professor and former SCOTUS clerk Eugene Volokh has noted in the WaPo, is not only blatantly unconstitutional knavery, it isn't even within artillery range of the boundaries of allowable bail conditions.

By all accounts, the DEA has raided the establishment in question some four times to date, and failed to find so much as one illegal seed of anything. When the neighbor was complaining, they raided and searched his house too. Then got a warrant for the search after they'd already done the raid.

A suspicious-minded person might be forgiven for wondering why the DEA and CBP keeps raiding a dry hole over and over, when narcotics traffic across the border in the Big Bend region is, by all accounts, wildly out of control. And for thinking that repeated attentions to someone who's obviously Not The Problem while ignoring the actual criminals, is a bit more than convenient coincidence. Or even for suspecting that perhaps some cartel payoffs and marketing expansion by certain feds might certainly be involved. But that would be unfair, because anecdotally, the CBP and DEA are at worst only 40-70% penetrated by bribe-taking thugs on cartel payrolls, so tarring all of them with that brush is just wrong. [/sarc]

They might even start researching what level of official black-robed assclownery it takes to impeach or simply remove a federal magistrate who would issue such unconstitutional bail requirements upon a presumably innocent person, and why anyone on the federal bench would issue after-the-fact CYA warrants to federal agents who obviously just violated the law to conduct an unwarranted raid in the first place. And they should.

But what you aren't getting is the sound from the dog that isn't barking:

Sean Hannity isn't outraged.
Sarah Palin has issued no comments.
And most important of all, The entire Headless Chicken Posse and the Greater Fucktard Bundy Army aren't marching to the sound of the guns, against actual documented clear-cut federal abuses of power.

Yup, incredible as it may seem, despite actual, verified, ongoing, egregious and repeated abuse of federal law enforcement powers, none of the brilliant band of ne'er-do-wells from Bonkerville  Bunkerville is saddling up to head to Alpine TX and speak any power to The Man.

The chairborne commandos of the Internet, the Imaginary "FreeFor" Army, can't seem to saddle up and toddle off to step in when there's a plethora of actual violations of federal law going on.
Maybe they're afraid that unlike the hapless BLM rodeo clowns, the DEA may, y'know, actually shoot them.
Maybe they got lost in Vegas on their way to the turnoff.
And maybe they're all hiding in the corner and soiling themselves.

The greater point being, if that mob of fat-assed loudmouth crazies are the band of "patriots" anyone is counting on to come to their assistance, well, if that's your plan, I have some magic beans you might try too, and the price is reasonable if you have a family cow to sell.
 
Craven Cliven Bundy had cows.
The Lipsens apparently have no cows.
So no Fucktard Army will come to rescue them.

So if you don't have cows, to purchase the dubious allegiance of hordes of village idiots, it probably helps to have the law actually on your side, and be ready to, as the saying goes out here in the West, "fork your own broncs", one way or the other.

Nota bene that the Lipsens, and their neighbor, didn't go on YouTube and call for a jihad to hang all federal agents.
They went to the newspaper, the TV station, and the Internet, and stated the documented facts of the case.
They didn't allege that the world is upside down, and the feds have no jurisdiction over sovereign citizens.
They documented their actual violations of black-letter written and settled Constitutional law.

Bundy continues as a laughingstock.
The Lipsens will probably prevail at trial, and walk away with punitive damages in their pocket to boot, eventually.

Amazing how not acting like a bunch of lunatics, or depending on same, gets such a better response all the way around, i'n'it?

Flick Pick: Men In Black

Men In Black
(Columbia, 1997)

Most comic books should stay comic books, but every once in awhile, there's an exception. Even rarer, there's an exception that's smart, funny, and makes half a billion dollars profit beyond recouping budget. This would be the latter version. The fact that two such disparate actors riff so well off each other is a total treat to watch; that their last names happen to be Smith and Jones is icing on the cake. This monstrous blockbuster deserved every penny it made, entertaining audiences far and wide, while coincidentally tripling the sales of the Ray Ban sunglasses worn by the characters.

Flick Pick: The Shootist

The Shootist
(Paramount, 1976)

Few actors get to make a great last picture. John Wayne was one of those few. While he didn't know at the time it was his final screen appearance, it was a letter perfect last hurrah, with long-time friends and co-stars filling out the cast list. The entire film is one long lead-in to the final John Wayne shootout, and it's worthy of both the movie and the man, providing one of the best exclamation points at the end of anyone's screen career.

Flick Pick: True Grit

True Grit
(Paramount, 1969)

"Wow! If I'da known that, I'da put that patch on 35 years earlier!" were John Wayne's words in accepting the award for Best Actor at the 1970 Oscars for this movie. A year after the frothing hatred of liberal Hollywood for making The Green Berets, his career pinnacle was anchored in the over-the-top portrayal of the one-eyed, drunken, cantankerous s.o.b. gunslinging federal deputy marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, opposite Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, and Robert Duvall. His performance is quite simply the only one worth watching in this film, or any version of it. Accept no substitutes for the genuine article: an American legend in real life, especially from putting the reins in his teeth, twirling a carbine and a six-shooter, all the way to the closing credits, jumping his horse over the railfence himself in the final scene, at age 61.

Flick Pick: McClintock

McClintock
(United Artists,1963)

A westernized version of The Taming Of The Shrew, beyond comedy and onto farce, directed by Andrew McLaglen, son of long-time Wayne friend Victor McLaglen, starring the usual Wayne stock company of actors. It was a top-grossing film when it came out, and relieved financial woes after Batjac Prods. ate a lot of debt in making The Alamo.

Flick Pick: Big Jake

Big Jake
(Cinema Center/CBS Films, 1971)

One of my personal favorites of Wayne's westerns, from a screenplay written by the same authors of the original Dirty Harry movie script. Having received a long-overdue Best Actor Oscar for True Grit in 1969, this movie role fits Wayne's persona at this stage of his career like a glove. Much of the film was directed by Wayne (without credit, as a favor) owing to the ailing health of the primary director, Wayne's long-time friend George Sherman, who'd directed Wayne as far back as the 1930s in westerns for Republic Pictures. The film marks the fifth and final time Maureen O'Hara played opposite Wayne, giving every bit as good as she ever did when the two were paired. It was produced by Wayne's son Michael through Batjac Prods., and starred Wayne's son Patrick as his older son in the film, Christopher Mitchum playing his younger son (which close association proved the final blacklisting nail in Mitchum's stalled further career among Hollywood liberals), and Wayne's 9-year-old son Ethan Wayne playing Little Jake, his character's grandson in the movie. Wayne movie regular characters Bruce Cabot, John Doucette, John Agar, Jim Davis, Harry Carey, Jr., and Hank Worden all get time in this one, along with bad guys in this outing like Glenn Corbett and Richard Boone, the latter playing a true hiss-worthy arch-villain to match Wayne's hero.

Flick Pick: Rio Lobo

Rio Lobo
(Paramount, 1970)

Third and final re-work of this story, and probably the best of the three (Hawks and Wayne were getting pretty good at doing this story by this time through). Features Mexican cinema star Jorge Rivero, and Robert Mitchum's son Chris, along with Jack Elam in the ornery old coot role for this run through, and Jennifer O'Neal as the girl in the story. Writer George Plimpton gets a cameo as a gunslinging version of a Star Trek red-shirt, and one bit part was played by flaming 25-year-old beauty (but middling actress) Sherry Lansing, who polishes off the villain at the film's climax, then dissatisfied with her work, dropped out of acting within a year. She started working behind the camera, finishing up as the head of Paramount Pictures during its longest and most financially successful stretch, from 1992-2004, overseeing a string of features that were 80% profitable, when Paramount garnered three Best Picture Oscars, and including the then-highest grossing film in movie history, Titanic.

Flick Pick: El Dorado

El Dorado
(Paramount, 1967)

Second bite at the apple, this time nominally based on a novel by Harry Brown, with John Wayne alongside Robert Mitchum, James Caan and Arthur Hunnicutt, and Charlene Holt as the girl. This time around, there's an actual theme song, but the score was done by Nelson Riddle, which given the time frame it was made is why a lot of this one sounds an awful lot more like an episode of Batman with Adam West than it does a western.

Flick Pick: Rio Bravo

Rio Bravo
(Warner Bros., 1959)

Howard Hawks' first go-around of this western tale, based on a short story by B. H. McCampbell, with John Wayne as the sheriff, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson his deputies, Walter Brennan as his jailer, and Angie Dickinson as his girl.

Flick Pick: Stagecoach

Stagecoach
(United Artists, 1939)

In 1939, director John Ford took a short story from Collier's he'd bought the rights to, and shopped it around town. Nobody wanted to make it as a A-movie western, because everybody in Hollywood knew westerns were dead. Worse, he refused to cast Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich in the leads, insisting instead on a brawny 31 year old veteran actor who'd made a string of mediocre films, some 80 or so in all, none of them very impressive. Ford finally found someone to put up half the money, and he scrambled for the other half. After agreeing to give Claire Trevor top billing, he took the cast and crew to a desolate place that hadn't been shot much before called Monument Valley, and put her and seven other assorted actors onto an Overland stage with John Wayne.
Unseen at the beginning, Wayne's iconic intro doesn't come until nearly 1/4 of the way into the movie, hollering and twirling a Winchester. During filming, Ford told  co-star Louise Platt about Wayne that "He'll be the biggest star ever because he is the perfect 'everyman'." After this movie, and Wayne going on to dominate the US box office for the next thirty years, including seven other collaborations with Ford, almost all of which were those "dead" westerns, Ford's skill at spotting talent is undisputed.
Yakima Canutt's stunts set the standards for movies for 50 years, Thomas Mitchell's portrayal of the alcoholic frontier doc earned him an Oscar the same year he played Scarlett O'Hara's father in Gone With the Wind, and John Carradine made a memorable performance as well; Wayne's loyalty to those he befriended extended the length of his career, as when Carradine again appeared in the last movie Wayne ever made, The Shootist.
This film was so perfectly done, Orson Welles called it a textbook on moviemaking, and said he watched it 40 times during his own foray into directing on Citizen Kane. And nobody of any intelligence has ever again said that westerns were dead. So, with the Duke's birthday coming up later this month, here's the first of a few memorable performances by way of celebration, starting with that first zooming close-up that let America know a star had arrived.

Flick Pick: The Adventures Of Robin Hood

The Adventures Of Robin Hood
(Warner Bros., 1938)

If this was the only movie Warner had ever made, they would have rightfully earned a place in the pantheon of great movie studios.
Premiering 76 years ago today, in glorious Technicolor, with a stellar cast, a perfect screenplay, and a magnificent score by Erich Korngold, this movie released tomorrow would still pack theatres. It has a perfect hero in Errol Flynn, the best heroine he ever played opposite in Olivia  DeHavilland, the most hiss-worthy villains in Claude Rains' Prince John and Basil Rathbone's Guy of Gisbourne, and the best-played band of merry men ever assembled in one cast, the archtype for all time; and pitted against each other in some of the best-staged screen melees ever filmed, with the woods of NorCal and Malibu standing in for Sherwood Forest.
One look at the earlier Captain Blood, and this is clearly nothing but an epic pirate movie, set on land, and in wall-to-wall spectacular color. It won three Oscars, for the timeless score, the art direction, and film editing, and was nominated for Best Picture, along with nine other movies, all ultimately losing to Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You, which you can't even find on TCM at 3AM these days.
I think time has made it clear which movie deserved the honor.