Wolfen

Wolfen (1981)
Director: Michael Wadleigh
Cast: Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos
Memorable Quote: They kill to survive. They kill to protect.

Wolfen is a high concept horror film dressed up with an A-List actor and a decent budget. While some of the effects are dated, the plot still has some resonance.

The Plot of Wolfen
When a local industrialist and his wife are found brutally murdered, detective Dewey Wilson (Finney) and his team are called into investigate. During his investigation, discovers that the dregs of the city, living in the worst, broken down neighborhoods in the city, are disappearing but because they are on the edge of society, no one seems to notice.

He stumbles upon a small group of Native Americans who live and work the city. This small tribe believes there are supernatural forces at work and it would be best for Dewey and his crew to leave it alone, but of course, he doesn’t.

The Performances, Writing, & Direction of Wolfen
Albert Finney gives an understated performance in what could have been an over-the-top role. Hines brings some character in his supporting role. Diane Venora is somewhat bland in her portrayal of Finney’s side kick. Edward James Olmos does stand out in his supporting role.

The direction is solid throughout the movie, but loses some of it’s momentum towards the end of the movie. The special effects were cutting edge when the movie was made, but are dated by today’s standards.

Summary Judgement on the Wolfen
I fear that many viewers will discount the Wolfen because its somewhat forgotten, but there’s a solid story. So instead of watching the latest lame slasher movie, give the Wolfen a chance.

The Onion Field

The Onion Field
Director: Harold Becker
Cast: John Savage, James Woods, Ted Danson, Franklyn Seales, Ronny Cox
Memorable Quote: “A cop who gives up his gun is a coward.”

The Onion Field is movie about a policeman killed in the line of duty, and could have been a by-the-numbers police procedural but is so much more mainly due to the subtle direction and the depth of the performances by the talented cast.

The Plot of the The Onion Field
The movie is based on the true story penned by former cop Joseph Wambaugh and delves deeply into the story of the cops and criminals involved in a cold blooded shooting of the young police detective. The movie starts as a small time criminal takes on a new partner to pull off stick-ups and burglaries. The leader of the duo Greg Powell (Woods) shows sociopathic tendencies, manipulating all those around him. His new partner (Seales) is fresh-out of prison and ripe for the pickings when he comes aboard a Powell’s little crime family.

Counter-posed to the plot line of the criminals is the story of two young detectives, Hettinger (Savage) and Campbell (Danson). They both seem low-key and fresh faced as they go about their job in a workman like fashion.

The story of these two cops and criminals covers one fateful night when the cops pull over Powell and his young partner. Powell panics and abducts the two detectives, driving them into the countryside to an onion field where he shoots Campbell. In the aftermath of the shooting, Hettinger escapes into the night.

Powell’s partner deserts him and later that night, Powell is apprehended. He gives up his young partner and they both end up in jail.

The movie shifts from a story about a crime to tell the protracted story on the ensuing trials and the effect it has on those involved in the shooting.

The Performances, Writing, & Direction of The Onion Field
The Onion Field showcases several fine performances with John Savage and James Woods getting the meatiest roles. Woods, who had mostly had smaller roles in TV and films until this role, is electrifying in his role of a sociopath with enough intelligence to manipulate those around him along with the legal system. Savage is equally engaging even though he takes a low-key approach to the character. His depiction of a man coming apart a piece at a time due to the effects of the shooting is riveting.

Franklyn Seales also brings his A-game to the role of the small time hood who gets over his head when he finds himself over-matched by his conniving partner. Even Danson is good as he provides extensive depth to his character even though he has limited screen time.

The story could have been a drab police procedural, but instead takes the viewer inside the minds of the crooks and the cops. We see real people and not cardboard or stereotypes. The strength of the movie is the source material of Wambaugh’s wonderful book about the shooting. Even though Becker takes a low-key approach to the subject, he lets the actors tell the story and with that choice he allows the movie to breath and move along at a natural and organic pace.

Summary Judgement on The Onion Field
The production values on The Onion Field seem akin to a TV movie of the 70s at times, but as the movie progresses you see that director Harold Becker has decided not to get in the way of the story using a simple approach, letting the story unfold and allowing the actors to get underneath their character's skins. Woods makes the movie with his entrancing performance, engaging and repulsing us at the same time. Savage also grabs us as his character slowly becomes unhinged in the aftermath of the shooting. Some viewers might find the beginning of this movie as little slow, but if they give it a chance, they’ll discover a real gem of a movie.

The Parallax View

The Parallax View Director: Alan Pakula Cast: Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels, Paula Prentiss
Memorable Quote: “We’re in the business of reporting the news, not creating it.”

The Parallax View is one of the movies I didn’t see when it was released and I’d always felt like I had missed something. Well, I’ve finally seen it and I can say I did miss something -- an intriguing yet very uneven and somewhat clumsey movie.

The Plot of the Parallax View

Joe Frady (Beatty) is a reporter who is either in the wrong place at the wrong time or the exact opposite, but at the beginning of the movie he is present at an assassination. Being young and ambitious, he has the idea that the assassination has a great meaning and possibly a conspiracy behind it, but he quickly runs out of leads. That is until a woman (Prentiss) comes to him and points out that witnesses at the shooting are disappearing at an alarming rate. Joe sees only rational and logical explanations behind these deaths, but starts picking at the threads of the story when something happens to her.

His editor (Cronyn) tries to persuade him to stop chasing a lost cause, but Frady persist. This persistence gets him beat-up and then almost killed but he is rewarded eventually as he starts to uncover something bigger than even he could imagine.

The Performances, Writing, & Direction of the Parallax View

Initially, Beatty seems ill-fit to the role of the two-fisted investigative reporter, but he grows into it as the movie progresses. While not a one-man show, Beatty has to carry most of the picture. Both Prentiss and Cronyn are quite good in their supporting role and Prentiss stands out in the few scenes she appears in.

The story is somewhat uneven. It moves along in fits and starts and sometimes takes oblique angles that seem more to confuse than illuminate. Still, it is an intelligent script with some compelling twists and the ending is haunting.

Pakula, while a wonderful actor’s director, seems out of his element at times with this movie. Action has never been his strong suit and it is painfully evident at times here. One action scene is embarrassingly bad, covered primarily with a wide-shot that robs the entire scene of tension or suspense.

Summary Judgement on the Parallax View

I was hoping for something more because I was familiar with Pakula’s work over the years. I feel the weakness of this movie is just a case of a mismatch of the director’s style with the story. There are some very powerful intriguing moments in this movie, but they are dragged down by some of the other clunky moments which is too bad. I would recommend that people start with All the President’s Men before seeing this movie because it is truly illustrative of Pakula’s fine work.

Patton

Patton (1970)

Director: Franklin Schaffner

Cast: George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Strong, Michael Bates

Memorable Line(s): "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

Patton is an epic movie. It’s big in scale and big in personality due in large part to the character of Patton. He’s a bigger than life person with a massive ego and the spacious background of World War II to display that ego. Fortunately for the filmmakers and the viewers, George C. Scott takes on the role with such abandon that it seems like he was born to play the part.

The Plot of Patton

Patton see himself as a man of destiny. He feels as if he were created to do one thing and that is to be a warrior. In the backdrop of World War II we get to see how this man’s destiny plays out and how he made a huge difference on the battlefield.

The movie starts out during the U.S. North African campaign. General George S. Patton (Scott) is making great progress as he pushes the German forces across the continent, but he feels he is in competition with the British General Montgomery (Bates). This competition plays out as the battle moves to Italy and Patton takes some risky moves perhaps more motivated by personal ambition, rather than military objectives. In the eyes of his comrade, General Omar Bradley (Malden), Patton is more than a little reckless with the lives of his soldiers. But he does make it into the city before Montgomery.

While Patton was a brilliant military strategist and a great source of positive morale for his men, he had blunt and mostly ineffective political skills. He paid handsomely for not being better in this area. In one instance, he assaults a shell-shock young soldier and is later forced to apologize to his all of his troops.

After several other mis-steps, he finds himself on the back-bench without an Army to command. This maneuver works well for the Americans in a way because the Germans feel that Patton is the general they are most worried about and follow his movements almost to distractions.

The Ally commanders finally decide to bring Patton back into the game in Europe as the allies are pushing into France after the D-Day invasion. At one point when U.S. troops get surrounded in a German counter-attack, Patton rallies his men and moves a massive offensive across 100 miles in 48 hours to fend the Germans off the out numbered and trapped troops.

Ever the warrior, Patton makes his most critical mistake by speaking provocatively about inciting a war with Russia. This is what ultimately dooms him in the eyes of the U.S. command.

The Performances, Writing, and Direction of Patton

Patton was the big winner at the Oscars when it was released and deservedly so. It took Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor along with the award for the best screenplay.

This is George C. Scott’s movie. His bigger-than-life portrayal grabs the viewer from the word, “Go.” With his sense of destiny and intensity, it would have been easy to take the character completely over the top, but Scott walks a fine line and keeps his Patton completely real. All the supporting cast are solid including Malden as the common soldier who happens to have become a general.

The screenplay was co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and if you watch Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” you will see how he created Robert Duvall’s Colonel Kilgore.

Schaffner does a good job of balancing the epic story of the battles with the character story of Patton. Still the story is almost all Patton. Most of the war scenes are convincing, but sometimes the scale seems bit stretched some by today’s standards. Another memorable element of this movie is Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score.

Summary Judgment on Patton

I remember watching Patton many years ago and it made an impression on me, but it faded over time. In watching the movie again, I feel as if I appreciated Scott’s portrayal even more than I originally did. I also found the script does an exceptional job of editorializing on some of Patton’s actions while not judging the man. This is a movie worth watching and I suggest if you want to see an actor in the role of his life, then Patton is the movie for you.

First Blood

First Blood: (1982)
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy
Memorable Line(s): "There are no friendly civilians!"

This is the movie that spawned three sequels featuring the tortured Vietnam vet, John Rambo. Plus it made Sylvester Stallone a lot of money and gave him something to do because new ideas are so rare for him.

The Plot of First Blood
John Rambo (Stallone) is a former Vietnam veteran who goes to a small town in Washington but encounters a less than welcoming atmosphere by the local authorities led by the local sheriff (Dennehy). They go as far to incarcerate him and inflict some serious damage on him.

Being somewhat off-balanced, Rambo decides to escape and wreck some vengance on these local yokels. Only he takes it up a to higher level, taking on the sheriff and his small army of deputies. Because of his in-depth fighting skills, Rambo over-matches the posse in the woods and then in town.

Rambo’s old commander (Crenna) from Vietnam shows up, trying calm the over-heated situation down. He attempts talking sense to both Rambo and the local authorities, but the situation is too out of controlling as Rambo is beyond reason and the local authorities get more than they bargained for.

The Performances, Writing, and Direction of First Blood
This is pretty standard “one-man army” fare as Stallone takes an over the top and somewhat histrionic approach with the main character, Rambo. But he does know how to do an old fashioned butt-whipping and that’s what audience wanted.

Dennehy and Crenna provide solid performance despite having slightly over-written characters. The actors playing the local yokels are quite convincing in their supporting roles which can probably be credited to good casting.

This is a largely predictable movie as the characters and the situations are painted with big brushes. The sheriff is an over-bearing and sadistic guy. Rambo is terribly misunderstood and troubled with all the skills from his Green Beret training ready to put into action. I mean, put these two combinations together and what do you expect? A blood bath, right? Well, you got it.

The direction is competent for the day, but seems a little dated by today’s standards. The action sequences seem like they needed a little more polish.

Summary Judgment on First Blood
This movie came out in my formative years and while it hit a cord for some action-starved movie fans, I never really bought into it largely because the treatment of this story was so heavy-handed and over the top. Stallone has been able to mine this franchise and Rocky for years, but that doesn’t mean that these are good movies. I will say that this Rambo installment is probably better than all the sequels, though. If that’s not a sterling endorsement, then what else can I say?

Body Double

Body Double (1984)
Director: Brian DePalma
Cast: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Dennis Franz, Gregg Henry
Memorable Line(s): "Showtime! Jake, I'd like you to meet my favorite neighbor."

Director Brian DePalma has received much criticism for ripping off a lot of Alfred Hitchcock's techniques and themes. I used to defend him, but the evidence is in and the other critics got it right. At least on Body Double, they did.

The Plot of Body Double
Jake Scully (Wasson) is an mild mannered, small-time actor who's life and career are on a slow-downhill slide. His only acting job is a low budget horror movie in which he's bombing and his relationship just ended when he catches his girlfriend cheating on him. He ends up losing the acting job when he has an unexplained case of claustrophobia.

Jake ends up getting a housing sitting job in multi-million dollar home with a spectacular view and, oddly enough, a telescope. And Jake discovers his inner voyeur. Not having a lot to do, he takes up spying as his new avocation catching some titillating "free shows" each night.

One particular show catches Jake's interest and through coincidence, he finds himself tracking the beautiful young woman who is a part of his nightly entertainment. When she finds herself in peril, he comes to her rescue and she rewards him a few, brief passionate moments, but then she runs off.

Jake finds himself confused and conflicted. He definitely wants more time with this entrancing woman, but can't figure out how. He returns to his telescope and renews his vigil. While back on his watch, he sees an intruder in her house and he breaks into action, but he is too late.

It is now when Jake's life starts to unravel as he tries to find out why the women he's infatuated with was attacked. His investigation take him behind the scenes of the film industry as he tries to get the bottom of his obsession. His search leads him to an adult actress named Holly Body (Griffiths) because he thinks she might be the key to finding out what really happened.

The Performances, Writing, and Direction of Body Double
The derivative nature of this movie is hard to ignore. Jake's claustrophobia is just a parallel course to Jimmy Stewart's character's vertigo in Hitchcock's vertigo. Jake's voyeurism is just an extended version of Rear Window. Many of the shots have a Hitchcock feel to them. It's one thing to make an homage to someone, but it's another to just imitate so blatantly.

This script has some huge plot holes and several major contrivances that really distract the viewer from the movie. There are several moments where it's obvious what the main character should be doing, but, of course, it's the exact opposite. And his close encounter with the women of his obsessions is almost laughable in how histrionic it is.

Wasson seems ill-fitted to the role in many ways. There are times in which he should have been confident but wasn't and time when he should be the exact opposite and wasn't. Melanie Griffith is effective in her role though, but there's not a lot work with.

And lastly, there score is down-right over wrought at times. It reminded me of a parody of a Bernard Herrman score

Summary Judgment on Body Double
Body Double is just an updating of well-tread Hitchcock themes but with a more base and tawdry treatment. There are time in which this movie just plods along almost incoherently. I can say that in the final third of the movie, the story does take on some positive momentum, but that is too little, too late.

Pumpkinhead

Pumpkinhead (1988)
Director: Stan Winston
Cast: Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino, Kimberly Ross
Memorable Line(s): "All she can do is take you straight to Hell."

It's been a while since I've reviewed a scary movie and this is one I remember from a special day in which I watched six movies in one day. While it wasn't great, I can say that it did stick with me.

The Plot of Pumpkinhead
Ed Harley (Henriksen) grew up out in the sticks among poor dirt farmers. One dark night, there's a commotion at the door -- a man pleading for shelter, but Ed's father denies the man. The young and curious Ed watches in horror as something takes the man.

Years later, Ed has his own little country store, scratching out a meager existence still out in the sticks. His pride and joy in life is his cute little son.

One day, a group of young people come by the store to get supplies for a weekend in the country. They are a well meaning lot except for one of them who is a definition of a real jerk. As the others do their shopping, two the guys grab their dirt bikes with a little out door adventuring. As they hurdle the hills with their bikes they fail to notice that Ed's son is chasing his runaway dog directly into the path of their motorcycles. One of the guys avoid's the boy, the second one is unable to dodge him and the boy is struck and killed.

Grief stricken, Ed visits an old crone who is tapped into the powers of darkness. Revenge will be his as she helps him call on the powers of the demonic creature these hill people call -- Pumpkinhead.

The Performances, Writing, and Direction of Pumpkinhead
Stan Winston was long acknowledged to be a wizard with special effects and make-up and try as he might to wrap a story around this movie, it still is little more than excuse for him to show off his spectacular ability. Where he does make some headway in this area is with several of the characters, but in a movie of this vein, there's little room for actor to create characters -- but a couple of then do okay. This is not to say the acting is bad, but the roles just aren't too beefy.

Lance Henriksen leads the cast and does an adequate job. The rest of the cast are similarly adequate and some of the supporting cast actually do quite well.

Even though this movie doesn't have an A-level budget, it doesn't look cheap or shoddy. The photography shines way above the budget restraints and, of course, the monster effects are top notch

The story isn't too original, but they do manage to keep the pace up once it gets started. So, at least, it's not boring.

Summary Judgment on Pumpkinhead
You don't come into a movie called Pumpkinhead and expect a lot and this movie certainly beats that bar. Although it doesn't tread any new ground, the execution of this movie is well done and if you like monster movies, it's not a bad B-scare flick.