Brannigan (1975)- John Wayne (3)

Director: Douglas Achickox

Stars: John Wayne, Richard Attenborough & Judy Gesson

Genre: Action/Crime

MPAA Rating: PG

Running Time: 111Mins

Tagline: "Detective-Lieutenant Brannigan is in London...God save the Queen!"

Discussion

I was sitting down watching the original True Grit and I was pondering how many actors have the tendency to be typecasted throughout their career. Wayne in my opining was such actor, typecasted as “The Duke of Westerns”.  Without a doubt he was magnificent in westerns, yet I always wanted to see him take other roles, he seemed like a versatile actor. Anyways, during the height of crime films like Bullitt and French Connection, Wayne was offered the role of Dirty Harry, unfortunately he refused the part. I believe that in many ways he worked on this film and McQ (Another Cop Themed film) as a way of regret for not collaborating on Dirty Harry.  Many actually claim that both of these movies are exact carbon copies of Dirty Harry. I beg to differ; I have yet to see Mc Q, but “Brannigan” even if it is a cop themed movie it has a completely different tone from Dirty Harry  

So into the movie, Brannigan is a cop who is on the look for a wanted criminal named Ben Larkin; wanted by the Chicago Police for extortion, bribery, prostitution, and black mail. Larkin, who knows they are on his tail is out to London hiding; little does Larkin know there is an order to get him extra dictated from the country. The order to extradite Larkin is given to Brannigan, ofcourse with pleasure he takes the case. On his arrival at London, he meets Jennifer, a young lady who works for the New Scotland Yard. She takes Brannigan to meet the Commander in charge of the extradition played by a younger Richard Attenborough. But before they can take a lead on the case they find out that Larkin has been kidnapped by some thugs. Making matters more complicated. They think at first that it could be a staged kidnapped, but when they receive one of Larkin’s fingers…they know the matter is indeed serious and not staged.  Brannigan and the Scotland yard team up to find out the reasons for the kidnapping, but Brannigan is also being targeted by a contracted killer, hired by Larkin.

I have to admit, even if I indeed wanted to see Wayne take on something different than a western, it is kind of funny/weird seeing him in another type of film that doesn’t concern to cowboys and gunslingers…still I enjoyed it. One of the best things about the movie is that is lighter in tone and quite comical, not taking itself too seriously. I found hilarious Brannigan’s entrances: “Knock, Knock” after breaking down a door. Or how he always mentions he is hungry and wants a bite, yet never gets any sort of food.  I was also cracking up how he doesn’t say “Oh Shit” he instead says “Oh Nuts” Also, not to mention the ridiculous, unnecessary yet comical bar fight scene.  Honestly, this movie wasn’t all too bad, even if it was a generic and formulaic action vehicle. For Wayne fans, you won’t be disappointed.

theatrical trailer

DVD

I got this movie pretty cheap on Amazon; you can find it there for no more than 6 dollars, got mine for $6.51. The only bad thing about this DVD is that it’s bare bones, not special features.

Video

For an older generation DVD, the picture quality wasn’t all too bad. The source material seemed to be in good shape because I can’t notice any scratches or bloats on the screen.  I did notice softness in the picture that could have been retouched.

Audio

The audio was pretty mediocre, it is the original mono. If you have a surround sound systems don’t expect any clear audio here. I had to raise my volume to 34 to get a clear range from both the dialogue and action.

Bottom Line

I would buy it, I don’t think rental stores or Netflix carry this movie, and besides the movie has John Wayne, which you honestly can’t lose.  

 

The Strangler's Wife (2002)-

Director: Michael Allosso

Stars: Sarah Huling, Ciaran Crawford and Christy Scott Cashman

Genre: Thriller

MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence and sexuality, and for language)

Running Time: 84 Mins

Tagline: "You Cant Scream If You Can't Breathe"

Discussion

It’s quite curious and funny what you run into at a flea market. I was the flea market at Opa Locka, Hialeah and there was a huge lot of obscure and semi-rare VHS tapes going for a buck. I began rummaging through the pile. In it I found this movie “The Stranglers Wife” and a couple other cheesy flicks, which I will eventually watch and review.  Now, the same night I got the VHS tape I viewed it, somehow the title and cover called my attention…don’t know why. I played the tape, and what do I get? The first thing I witness is some dude entering a random ladies house and strangling her…In we go into the credits. Very literally, it’s about strangulation.

The whole premise, aside the previous mentioned, is about a young lady who is traumatized from a previous incident with her father. She is living with a man, who seems nice and caring...but in the night he goes out and randomly follows women and just strangles them in their own home. After a couple victims disappear, including an art teacher of the wife, she becomes suspicious it could be her own husband. She finds refuge in a classmate who is kind of a slut and a lesbo too, yet nicely gives refuge to her. Though she doesn’t last long, she gets strangled too. I have to admit though either the actress who plays the wife of the strangler is dumb or its part of the act, because I was so annoyed by her performance. I was also annoyed by the husbands Irish or Scottish accent…they never even explain the accent. Actually they don’t explain the most important part: why is he strangling women? I assume it’s because he finds these women attractive and can’t get them? I did notice he tends to chose women who look slutty or ignore him.

Concluding, this was a very predictable movie, it felt like a bad episode of an oxygen movie. I mean the whole thing is just whatever, the guy is not innovative, all he does is strangle them and that’s it. I mean I’m not making myself sound like I’m sick, but in horror/thriller movies you want to see fancy shit. Like Jason: he always has a new way of killing his victims. I also like the fact that the cops never pay real attention to what the reporters have to say, especially when it is important. Man, the whole thing however was entertaining, so fort that i give it a 2. But, personally, I wouldn’t waste my time on it.

Live Wire (1992)-Pierce Brosnan (2)

Director: Christian Duguay

Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Ron Silver & Ben Cross

Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller

MPAA Rating:  R (strong violence and sensuality and for language)

Running Time: 85 Mins

Tagline: "Your body is 93% water... no one is safe"

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"Danny O'Neill is a bomb disposal expert assigned to a case where terrorists have developed an "invisible" liquid explosive which is activated within the human body. The target of the terrorists are US senators, one of which is having an affair with Danny's wife"

Discussion

So one night I was looking around my movie collection and I realized I hadn’t seen this Brosnan Oldie. So into the DVD player went “Live Wire”; a movie where intelligence is thrown out the window and replaced with lackluster action. This is one of those movies that attempts to present itself as a “smart thriller” yet fails to deliver real thrills. However I have to admit, for the entire length of the film I was entertained, even if the majority was ludicrous.   The movie was entertaining, mostly, for how unrealistic it was.

Brosnan plays Danny O’Neil: Bomb disposal expert working for the F.B.I.  His persona is of a typical cool guy who looks like a mean badass.  His day begins defusing a bomb from a woman’s car; it seems her boyfriend wanted her dead, so the guy placed the bomb below the chick’s car. O’Neil manages to quickly defuse it and give the chick a real cheesy one liner “wear panties next time” After this scenario we find out O’Neil has a restraint order from his wife (which he doesn’t obey) it seems both are going through a hard time after the passing of their daughter, that drowned in a pool. Somehow O’Neil seems more concerned about the passing of his child then his wife…I sometimes wonder if the girl is from his previous matrimony…but it wouldn’t make sense because we see the event occur in a flashback, in the house where he lives with his current wife..Mhhm

So, the real deal isn’t the wife issue, it’s “Human Bombs” that are exploding about. It seems somehow, someone has found a way to create a liquid that looks just like water, be an actual explosive. After drinking the liquid...KABOOOM! So,the man behind the chaos is Ben Cross (The Unholy), he plays the head baddie, and with him is Tony Plana (Half Past Dead) together they are extorting politicians into giving in into the sicko’s plan. One by one, a senator, a judge, and another Senator who is banging O’Neil’s dumb wife are being blackmailed, they dont obey...you know what occurs. I swear, I cannot emphasize how dumb the woman was, sleeping with both men (husband and senator) and not giving a rat’s ass about her husband’s needs or issues. Anyway, I just didn’t like the lady’s character, curious because they center on her character a lot.  So O Neil has limited time to find out what is the main component of this substance, and where is deriving from. Initially, he had no clue it was a human bomb, spend quite a time searching for a detonator that didn’t exist, at least not technically.  You know, I’m here bashing the movie, and I actually enjoyed it. It’s just that it’s all way to silly, and it takes itself serious in some instances.  Setting aside the cons, the pros the movie has to offer are: cool and Sauvé acting from Brosnan before he donned the role of 007 James Bond. Also you have a steamy sex scene that is longer if you decide to watch the unrated cut; that is the only real difference from either cut: the scene is shorter in the R Rated Cut.

DVD

I got this DVD back in the day from Amazon; I recall it was about 10 bucks, new. Now the cost would be no more than 99cents. The movie has two cuts, the theatrical (85 min) and the Unrated (87 min) no real difference from either one. Biggest difference like I said was the sex scene, nothing more. 

Video

Presented in 1:85:1 the picture quality of this DVD upconverted isn’t bad at all. I saw a pretty high contrast overall in the presentation. I’m no HD expert, but I don’t think there is a need for a Blu-Ray, the source of this DVD looks fine enough. The only complaint I have is the dark scenes had some picture noise, but that was it.

Audio

 I thought the audio was just as impressive. The 5.1 Surround sound was enough for the explosions and gunfire in the film. The thing i liked the most was the intro, which has the most exaggerating opening. In big letters we see LIVE WIRE! The sound for the letters emerging from fire is explosive...and pretty hilarious too.

Bottom Line

Personally, even if this movie was silly and overall exagerating and unrealistic....I say buy it for PIerce Brosnan, who does a very good job playing the cool FBI guy who can detonate bombs.

Absolon (2003)- Christopher Lambert (1 ½ )

Director: David DeBartolomé

Stars: Christopher Lambert, Kelly Brook and Lou Diamond Phillips

Genre: -  Sci-Fi | Action | Thriller

MPAA Rating:  (For Violence)

Running Time: 96 Mins

Tagline: "They Control Us All"

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"In a world ravaged by disease, he's the only cure... and the last hope for human-kind. "

Discussion

First of all, I love Christopher Lambert’s movies, specifically The Highlander movies (even if they are cheesy) Even if I do love his films; this one is not one of them. I am assuming 99.9% that Lambert was broke around the time of this movie. This is one f the silliest films about global virus and chaos I have ever seen. I mean it is so Goddamn unconvincing, it takes place in 2010 (we are now in 2011) and the future looks like 1999. I mean they do explain that a virus and some shit caused things to go weary; yet I have a hard time believing technology would be this bad. It even contradicts itself-in one scene we see Lambert seeing a third dimensional view of a crime see via computer…and then outside everyone has crappy cars wtf?

Ok, so let’s set aside my disclaimers and get to the flick. Lambert plays Detective Norman Scott. He is on the search of why a scientist was killed at point black in his own home. Through investigations we find out he was killed due to a cure he was working on. Which reminds me, if I have not mentioned it yet (which I have) this movie takes place in the future 2010 (ahem) and a virus called NES or something like that has ravaged humanity, and population has decreased. The only cure is ABSOLON, a drug that needs to be taken every day to prevent the virus from supposedly not spreading. I say supposedly because we find out later (spoiler alert, like it matters anyway) that the drug was being used by the government to control the population, so they can depend on the cure, which in fact was a similar form of the virus. It seemed the virus had disappeared years ago. Talking about government, it seems that in this future the president and leader lives in a black room with only one chair and a monitor.

This movie was just plain bad, sure i laughed at some unintentional things. I.e. Kelly Brook not being able to act for shit…even if she can’t act she is still hot, her boobs are huge by the way, and that is very important for me.  Also there is a scene that seems they didn’t fix in post production: Kelly Brook talks and nothing can be heard for a couple seconds…I was laughing. The other thing is also the stunts, for some reason, since the movie came out during The Matrix craze, there’s is a big deal of slow motion and fast edits to resemble that movie…yet it fails in epic proportions.  They even have the villain played by Lou Diamond Philips dress like Neo. He wears the shades, the coat, and even holds a futuristic gun, which looks like a rip-off from Robocop’s gun. I can keep going on and on about the ridiculousness that takes place in this “futuristic” film. Lastly we are supposedly being told this film perspective of a young boy who met Lambert’s character. I have a hard time believing that because he only met him for 10 min and he was merely a 12 year old…he wasn’t in the whole deal. By the end of the picture, to make matters even more hilarious, he is telling the story to his grandson. So the grandpa is either lying or he smoked a blunt…one of the two. Anyway this movie was funny, yet pretty bad. Im disappointed Lambert, I really am.

DVD

I got this DVD back in 2003 in a bin of 4 for 20 at blockbuster (yes I recall when and how I got my Movies) the thing I hate about blockbuster DVD’s though is the actual cases; I always discard them and put them in their own individual cases, or in an album…Even if they are shitty like this one. SO yeah I am not expecting this clunker to be available anytime in the future on Blu-Ray. I hope never LOL

Video

The movie is presented in 1:33:1. The aspect is for your regular non-widescreen TV, I am not surprised because this was a Sci-Fi Channel Original film…back then they didn’t bother with releasing them in widescreen. Now with the advent of HD-TV and Blu-Ray…They actually release them in that aspect. Anyway, Absolon has very low contrast, the colors never pop up. I saw this in my room, in my old TV (not HD-TV) and the whole thing had worse quality than an average VHS tape. That’s all I can say about the video.

audio

The audio is a 2 Channel surround sound. It is quite crummy and downright atrocious. The sound was very cheap. I was constantly annoyed by the cheap soundtrack that involved only a computer synthesizer. The gunfire also sounded unrealistic and mediocre. 

  

bottom line

 Bottom Line? Really? you know what to do! Avoid the turkey

The Rock (1996)- Sean Connery (4)

Director: Michael Bay

Stars: Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage and Ed Harris

Genre: Action/Adventure/Crime

MPAA Rating: R (strong violence, language and a sex scene)

Running Time: 132Mins

Tagline: "Get ready to rock!"
 

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"A renegade general and his group of U.S. Marines take over Alcatraz and threaten San Francisco Bay with biological weapons. A chemical weapons specialist and the only man to have ever escaped from the Rock attempt to prevent chaos."

Discussion

It is curious, even funny you might say, how all of Michael Bay’s movies are similar in style. The recipe for a Michael Bay movie is the following: Big Explosions, 360 degree shots over the protagnist as he gets up from an explosion, quick edits, fast cuts from important dialogue into shots of city landscapes….in all, these ingredients gives the audience the perfect recipe for a Michael Bay Trailer…ahem I mean Movie Trailer... I’m sorry, it’s that his movies at the end of the day are just a big fat 2 hour and 30 min trailer. Which brings me to another point, why are Bay’s movies always over the 2hr marker; like Bad Boys 2 ran for a total of 147 min...WTF? Anyway, To the point…The Rock is number 1 of the 3 only good Michael Bay films (the other’s being Bad Boys 1 and Armageddon) The Rock , even if it has most of the ridiculous music video edits and flashy car chase scenes, it is still perhaps one of the better action films of the 1990’s

After being discharged from the service, General Hummel (Ed Harris) decides to unite a group of soldiers and steal a deadly gas named VX Gas. A gas that when enters the nervous system, it turns it into shit. According to Nicolas Cage’s character, he describes the gas like this: “cholinesterase inhibitor. Stops the brain from sending nerve messages down the spinal cord within thirty seconds. Any epidermal exposure or inhalation and you'll know. A twinge at the small of your back as the poison seizes your nervous system,Your muscles freeze, you can't breathe, you spasm so hard you break your own back and spit your guts out. But that's after your skin melts off” In other words, you turn into shit, that simple.  The general and his men take the island of Alcatraz hostage, in the island are civilians visiting the park on tour, now they are inmates for the day (yes, that was a joke, you may laugh) The FBI decides to get its top men in biochemists: Stanley Goodspeed, an eccentric guy who works for the government diffusing bombs and other biological weapons. Assigned to the project is also Commander Charles Anderson (Michael Beihn)  who is the leader of the men who wil be sent into the island to attack the renegade soldiers/mercenaries in the island. But, there is still one guy missing: Sean Connery, the convict who escaped the prison before, he knows the island better than anyone else, so they will need his assistance, clever no?

In between the gunfire and explosions thought the flick, we find out there is an ulterior motive to the attack: money, the general talks about patriotism, defending his nation, and that he saw men die in war and not getting proper burials. But in the end it is about getting paid mula.

So what exactly makes this movie work? Well i have to say that aside the action, it is defiantly a combination of a smart plot (rare thing in a Bay film) and perfect casting; Sean Connery as the Convict who once escaped the prison and the nerdy biochemist played by Cage. I think this movie and Face Off are perhaps one of the better action packed films of the 90’s. I would also add Con Air, but haven’t seen that one yet, i have heard from many that it has the same recipe for mayhem..And that to me is just perfect. Anyone interested in showing this off on your HD-TV, read below, this is for you.  

 I have own The Rock on DVD only once, there are two versions of it on DVD. The standard non-anamorphic DVD (which I owned) and the Criterion DVD, which i believe is out of print. But no worries, most of the features on that edition are on this blu ray.

Here is a list of the special features 

Audio Commentary

The Rock world premiere

Navy SEALs on the Range

Hollywood: Humphries & Teague

Special effects for dive

Action Effects: Movie Magic

Outtakes

Secrets of Alcatraz

Jerry Bruckheimer interview

Theatrical trailers

TV spots

Video

The video presentation on this blu ray is fucking epic; the quality of the 1080p surpasses the DVD counterpart by light-years. First of all, like I said earlier, the DVD i own was non anamorphic, meaning that it looked atrocious on an HD-TV. The only way to view it on the plasma screen was to use the zoom button, which caused the actors to look out of focus, and with little to no detail. Thankfully, to the advent of blu ray, we can now see The Rock as it was intended. The transfer I must say is spot on perfect; for a movie that is 15 years old it looks spanking brand new. You can thank that to Bay’s extensive use of lighting and flashy edits and strange camera angles.  The only complaint I had with the blu ray was the darker scenes, they tended to have some artifacts here and there, but nothing too distracting. Overall this is defiantly a demo disc to show off to friends.

Audio

The sound is just as good, presented in an uncompressed 5.1 PCM Surround Sound; this mix freaking blows the roof top. I had the sound at about 45, the gunfire sounded authentic and in pristine clarity. The only issue is that in some cases the gunfire overshadows the music, in some instances that is. But aside that, the sound quality goes hand in hand with the video, epic.

 Bottom Line

Buy it, don’t hesitate, this is a winner. The best choice you will make for a blu ray movie. I got this one when it first came out, so it was a bit pricey, now it goes for as little as 10 bucks on special days in places like best buy or FYE