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The Wraith (1986)
An Evil Spirit and it Ain't Cool!
Cult classic, guilty pleasure or cheesy waste of time? You make the call. Yes, the premise is ridiculous, and you have to seriously suspend disbelief, but hey, you have to do that for Star Wars and a host of entertaining action movies. Not that this one rates with them, but it's great for what it is. A cheesy 80s thriller with a supernatural (anti?)hero and a villain so vicious I really wanted to see him eat it at the end. Spoiler: He does, as do the other scumbags in his gang.
Set in a small town in the Arizona desert, said gang of freakish and murderous cretins follow their evil and insane leader, Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes), in stealing cars. They lie in wait on a lonely road for a car they want to commandeer, then surround the vehicle and force the driver into a "race" (in the opening scene they do this by holding his g/f hostage). Of course, Packard cheats to win (tries to kill the other driver by running him off the road).
But Walsh and his gang are even lower than car thieves and bullies. Packard is obsessed with a girl named Keri (Sherilyn Fenn), so much so that he and his gang brutally murdered her boyfriend Jamie (you see this in flashbacks).
One of the (many) unbelievable aspects of this flick is that since he murdered her boyfriend, Packard has been essentially forcing Keri to act as his g/f, but to that point not literally forcing himself on her, which makes no sense. An evil sociopath like Walsh would have forced himself on her repeatedly (in fact he probably would have done so the night he murdered Jamie), not just made her ride with him in his car.
The "Wraith" (Charlie Sheen) is the spirit of Jamie, taking on a slightly different appearance. He keeps appearing in this mysterious black "Turbo Interceptor" (you don't see his face while he's driving it), challenging each gang member to race on the outlying roads in the desert near this small town, and each time brutally killing them one by one (he/it destroys their cars in these "races," but it's actually uglier than that). In between killing off members of Packard's crew, he's romancing Keri.
Keri works with Jamie's brother Billy at Big Kay's Burgers (there always has to be that one place where all the kids congregate..along with the local sheriff Loomis (Randy Quaid)). Two of the social rejects who do Packard's dirty work are Skank, who likes to get high drinking hydraulic fluid and sniffing WD40, and Gutterboy, who has the mind of a child, (which doesn't stop him from participating in the aforementioned murder). And Clint Howard (yup, Ron's brother) plays the mechanical engineer/electronics expert who soups up Packard's cars (also the only gang member who didn't participate in Jamie's murder).
Bottom line is The Wraith is a fun escapist flick, and great nostalgia for people like me who really miss the 80s.
Body Heat (1981)
R Rated Attempt to Copy Double Indemnity
As indicated in the subject line, much of the plot for Body Heat was lifted from the classic film noir Double Indemnity, only this one had nudity and more overt sexual situations. Nothing against that. The problem I have with Body Heat is that not only are the characters really unlikeable (except for Teddy Lewis, a con played by Mickey Rourke), but they aren't even that interesting. Kathleen Turner (trying her best to impersonate Lauren Bacall) plays Matty Walker, the femme fatale who seduces and manipulates Ned Racine (William "Mr. Intense" Hurt), a lazy and not-too-bright attorney, into killing her dirtbag husband (Richard Crenna) so she can cash in on her inheritance, made even bigger because she and Ned manipulated the writing of the will so it was null and void, giving her everything in probate. Then, of course, she sets up her new idiot lawyer boyfriend to take the fall. There's also a plot twist at the end..something that really impressed Siskel and Ebert, but by the time I got to the end I just didn't care. In fact I didn't care what happened to any of these people, which brings us back to my problem with Body Heat. It's not necessary to LIKE the characters, but you at least need to be interested in what happens to them, and I was not. And as actors, Turner and Hurt don't hold a candle to Stanwyk and MacMurry (which I believe is a fair comparison since, again, this was a pretty obvious update of Double Indemnity..even though Turner's character was more of an attempt to copy Bacall..Turner's performance doesn't hold up next to Bacall either). The one thing interesting about the end is that you get the idea that Matty had been planning what ultimately went down for years, and was just waiting for the right patsy to come along to do her dirty work, which was pretty damned diabolical.
St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
Brat Packers in Their 20s
There have been a few "brat pack" movies done during the 80s which were worth seeing. This ain't one of 'em. Basically we the viewers are subjected to the post-college trials and tribulations of a bunch of self absorbed young adults (using the latter word loosely), including an aspiring politician (Judd Nelson) who repeatedly screws around on his girlfriend (Ally Sheedy), his chain-smoking friend who's a writer for the Washington Post (Andrew McCarthy), who's secretly in love with aforementioned girlfriend, a party boy and sometime musician (Rob Lowe) who has a wife and kid but takes no responsibility for taking care of them, a coke addict (Demi Moore) who keeps putting on a facade of being "fabulous," etc. Etc. Rounding out the list of brat packers are Emilio Estevez and Mare Winningham.
Bottom line was that I didn't care what happened to any of the characters in St. Elmo's Fire, who are generally a bunch of spoiled self-absorbed narcissists without much in the way of redeeming qualities. I also didn't care about the story, and I didn't even much care for John Parr's theme song (this was another one of those made-for-MTV kind of movies, with all the characters appearing in the music video).
Star Trek: All Our Yesterdays (1969)
Most Trek-Heads LIKED It...
..... WHY???!!!
OK, actually I know the answer. They like this for the same reason they like This Side of Paradise, The Naked Time, Amok Time, etc. Trek-heads LOVE to see Spock flipping out and not only acting human, but like an emotional basket case. He doesn't disappoint here, if that's what you're into (I'm not..I always liked the fact that Spock kept his cool while everyone ELSE was losing it). At least he finally stops taking crap from McCoy, but he goes completely off the deep end for this Zarabeth chick (Mariette Hartley, whom I liked much better in those Polaroid commercials with James Garner in the 70s).
This episode has two common elements from two other episodes on my Star Trek $h!+ list. First, like in the Empath, the reason for visiting the planet in the first place is because its star is about to supernova. And like The Paradise Syndrome, their predicament is the result of sheer idiocy, and this time it wasn't just Kirk. Spock and McCoy were just as stupid. All three inadvertently ran through this time portal to different periods in the planet's history (this is how the planets' inhabitants, who knew their star was dying, escaped). Mr. Atoz, the curator of this "library" to the planets' past, is also a complete moron, as he can't get it through his head that Kirk and company aren't from there.
Kirk runs through the portal when he hears a woman scream, and Spock and McCoy follow, not realizing they're being sent to a different time period..it's all determined by whichever picture disc the person happens to be looking at (Kirk gets sent to this planet's version of medieval Earth..where naturally he gets accused of being a witch, and Spock and McCoy are whisked 5,000 years back to the planet's ice age..this is ostensibly why Spock becomes an emotional wreck, as his ancestors were still barbarians then).
Another episode where the premise was stupid, the dialog was beyond insipid, and this time it's Nimoy who over acts.
I hated this episode. Hated it hated it hated it HATED IT!!!
Wow, that felt good...
Star Trek: The Paradise Syndrome (1968)
I Am Kirock!!!
I'll admit it..right now I'm exacting a little revenge on all the episodes of Star Trek that I hate, and this one ranks right up (down) there with the worst.
The subject line is just one example of the lame dialogue in this episode (one of three penned by one of Trek's worst writers, Margaret Armen). Of course, Shatner's over acting doesn't help much either. The premise is stupid from the get-go, as Kirk, in one of his more idiotic moments, falls into this obelisk then proceeds to get his memory zapped by some ray or electric charge looking thing while inside it, then ends up hanging out with the planet's natives (who look suspiciously like Native Americans from the 18th and 19th centuries..guess you can't call them that here, since, well, they're off on some far off planet). The natives think Kirk is a god because he appeared from the obelisk, and Kirk doesn't know that he isn't because his memory's been wiped out by the ray-thingy. He also does mouth to mouth on a kid who'd been drowning (for some reason he remembers how to do that). He also remembers the first syllable of his name..then the chief calls him KiROCK (surprised they didn't throw in a couple of "hows").
Meanwhile, there's an asteroid heading for the planet that's going to wipe out everything and everyone, so Spock and McCoy leave (despite McCoy's protests) and Spock tries to use the Enterprise's puny deflector to divert the asteroid, then when that doesn't work they try to use the phasers to destroy it. Of course that doesn't work either, it cripples the ship, and with the Enterprise's warp drive gone, they spend the next two months limping back to the planet on impulse power, with the asteroid four hours behind them. And all the while, McCoy is giving Spock no end of grief for his decision (a running joke on Star Trek by the time they got to season 3. Spock should have charged McCoy with insubordination long before). Oh, and "Kirock," his memory still gone, marries the chief's beautiful daughter while Spock's off asteroid-chasing.
The premise of the episode was dumb, the dialogue sucked, and the episode in general was boring (Kirock and his new wife getting pounded with stones by the supposedly peaceful tribespeople at the obelisk notwithstanding). Paradise never found..
Star Trek: The Empath (1968)
Nothing to Like Here
There are some reviews from people who love this episode. To each his own. I hated it for a number of reasons, first and foremost the torture scenes (injuries depicted were very graphic for the time). Also, the way the whole episode is portrayed is like a surreal nightmare..and a pointless one. Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be about Kirk, Spock and McCoy teaching a mute with empathic abilities about self sacrifice (her people have the ability to heal other people's injuries..at great risk to themselves). The objective of the two zoo keepers of this underground menagerie (the Vians) is to see if our mute empath, and by extension the people on her planet, are "worthy" of being saved from impending doom (the star in the system is about to go nova). Problem is, given the fact that until the very end they'd been killing and torturing the subjects of their experiments without mercy, the Vians were in no position to make any moral judgements about anyone..or anything. And the fact that they saved McCoy at the end, (whom they'd been spending hours brutalizing while they hung him by his wrists) really didn't make sense, given the fact that up to that point they'd displayed zero compassion towards anyone - certainly not to the research team that they tortured and murdered. All that mattered to them was their experiment. Add to that the fact that the budgetary constraints of season 3 were never more evident than with this episode, and what you're left with is a dark, brooding, pointlessly violent and cheesy waste of time. Least favorite episode of the original series run.
Star Trek: Plato's Stepchildren (1968)
My 2 Rating Would Be a 1 if it Weren't for Michael Dunn
This is one of the very worst episodes from the worst season of the original series run. Kirk and company receive a distress signal from a planet called Platonius (they dress like Greeks, get it?), and encounter a bunch of vain, lazy, depraved and downright evil people who have telekinetic powers..and use them to torture and humiliate anyone who doesn't have them. They had been tormenting little Alexander (Michael Dunn), the only Platonian with any humanity in him, for eons, and now they have some new subjects to amuse themselves with. After Dr. McCoy saves the leader's life, they repay their benefactors by torturing Kirk and Spock and forcing them into performing humiliating acts, in an effort to break Dr. McCoy and coerce him to stay behind (the Platonians' plan is to keep the doctor, whom they need, then kill Kirk and Spock when they're done tormenting them..along with destroying the Enterprise). There is nothing redeeming here..not even the first ever on-screen interracial kiss (which Kirk and Uhura are forced to do). These people are so evil and sadistic that the episode had already lost me by the time Kirk was able to turn the tables. And the torture extends to we, the viewers, when we're subjected to Leonard Nimoy SINGING. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Even Michael Dunn's sympathetic portrayal of Alexander can't save this turkey.
Basic Instinct (1992)
Soft Porn Passed Off as a Whodunnit
Nothing against soft core porn, but that's what this movie is. The plot, such as it is, is an excuse for the sex scenes, of which there are many.
Said plot involves Nick Curran (Michael Douglas), a San Francisco police detective with a borderline personality and a history of substance abuse problems. Curran is on probation and mandatory psychiatric observation after having been involved in a questionable shooting. He's been assigned to a bizarre murder case involving a retired rock star who was brutally stabbed to death with an ice pick while engaging in carnal activities (the scene where this occurs is graphic. We don't see the murderer's face, but we do see her generously displayed body, and the fact that she's a blonde).
The prime suspect is Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), an author whose stories have a strange way of coming true (the murder in the beginning of the movie followed one of her books verbatim). She has a background in psychology and is very bright and manipulative. She toys with Nick's mind from the moment he meets her. Curran knows she's playing with his head, yet even though she's the main suspect in the murder, he's attracted to Catherine..an attraction which crosses the line into obsession. You get the idea that at least part of that obsession is with the danger itself. Another angle to the story, which angered a number of gay activist groups, is that Catherine is bisexual.
Meanwhile, Nick has been having an affair with Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), the police psychologist assigned to him after the aforementioned shooting. It turns out that there's more to Beth's story. We find that out Beth has a history with Catherine..and might also be messing with Nick's head. Jeanne Tripplehorn is my favorite part of the movie. She is SMOKING hot in this. Sharon Stone has nothing on her.
Between the sex scenes, mind games and brutal killings there isn't that much time for the actual plot. The movie does keep you guessing as to who the murderer is until the very end. Problem is that the ending is completely arbitrary. There's no real explanation given. It's just boom, here it is. Unfortunately it's not the first time that writer Joe Eszterhas has taken the lazy way out. He did the same with Jagged Edge, toying with the viewer before just saying at the end that person X did it (though Jagged Edge was a much better film).
Alas, what could have been a great thriller too often just settles for cheap thrills. Again, nothing against cheap thrills, but they prevent Basic Instinct from being the truly great film noir it had the potential of being.
...And Justice for All (1979)
I Just Completed My Opening Statement!
I first saw .. And Justice for All decades ago, and had always thought of it as a stinging indictment of the American legal system. In hindsight, I was wrong. Not that it doesn't point out the gross injustices of American jurisprudence. It does, and in ways that are, at times, really hard to watch. But the central theme is much more basic. It's about a sane man trying to make some degree of sense out of an insane world. It uses the legal system as its vehicle, but it really could have used anything. Gene Siskel thought it was an indictment of the legal system done badly (he hated it) while Roger Ebert thought the movie had too many things going on and couldn't decide what it wanted to be (despite that he liked it). Both were looking at it from the wrong perspective. Yes, at first glance the movie looks like it can't make up its mind whether or not it's a serious drama or more of a black comedy. But when you realize it's about the sheer craziness that the movie's protagonist, defense attorney Arthur Kirkland (Al Pacino in what I still believe is his best performance) finds himself surrounded with daily, both the intense drama and warped comedy, and all the other seemingly disparate elements in the movie make perfect sense in the big picture.
And the crazies Kirkland is surrounded with run the gamut, from wacky defendants to unhinged partners to even judges. Two judges personify this. On the one hand there's Kirkland's friend Judge Rayford (Jack Warden), who's generally decent and fair in the courtroom, but away from it is a certifiable nut job who loves to flirt with death (in one scene he takes Arthur out for a helicopter ride over water, and deliberately takes it past the halfway point in his fuel tank just to see if they can make it back). Then there's the evil, hang 'em Judge Fleming (played all too convincingly by John Forsythe). Kirkland hates Fleming's guts (at the start of the movie Kirkland is in jail for assaulting him) because he won't grant a new trial to an innocent client who's rotting in prison for a crime he did not commit..all because Kirkland presented exculpatory evidence three days late. Then, when Fleming is accused of rape, he essentially extorts Kirkland into defending him, lest Kirkland be disbarred for once betraying a client's confidence. The movie's climax is the opening statement Kirkland gives at Judge Fleming's trial, which I maintain is Al Pacino's finest hour as an actor (he should have won the Oscar that year). This is where all the insanity and callousness he's been dealing with throughout the movie (which, among other things, results in two dead clients) finally gets to him.
The performances are great all around. In addition to Pacino, Warden is perfect as the nutty Judge Rayford (there's a great scene where he brings order to the court, not with his gavel, but with a pistol). Jeffrey Tambor is also terrific as Jay Porter, Kirkland's law partner, who was already kind of a borderline personality (something Tambor does really well), then goes completely nuts when gets a killer off on a technicality, then the killer murders two kids that evening; Lee Strasburg (yup, the guy behind the method acting school) plays Kirkland's grandfather, who is suffering from dementia. Craig T. Nelson portrays prosecutor Frank Bowers, who's more concerned with wheeling and dealing than with justice. Christine Lahti is Arthur's girlfriend, who, although sympathetic with him, at the same time tends to put more importance on legalisms and precedents than on people (until the end). And John Forsythe turns in what may have been the best performance of his distinguished career, playing totally against type as the evil, sick Judge Fleming (Forsythe doesn't go over the top in his portrayal..if anything he underplays Fleming, which makes him even more menacing; He says at least as much with a sneer as with any of his lines of dialog).
.. And Justice for All is a great movie with fantastic performances, and it begs a question. In today's world, are the honorable and decent among us the ones who are truly crazy?
The Enemy Below (1957)
My All Time Favorite War Movie
The Enemy Below is a classic battle between two very good navy commanders, one being the captain of an American destroyer, the other commanding a German U boat. Both characters are portrayed flawlessly by Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens, respectively.
Early on we find out that Captain Murrell (Mitchum) had recently had his ship torpedoed and had spent three weeks on a raft..followed by just a few weeks in the hospital before being promptly reassigned to another ship. He'd been asleep in his cabin since he got the assignment. He was also a skipper who had previously been a civilian, which concerns the crew (one whiney sailor in particular repeatedly called the new captain a "feather merchant"). The U boat appearing on the ship's radar leads to a fast recovery. This is where the chess game between the two captains begins, and the crew finds out quickly that their new captain knows exactly what he's doing. Von Stolberg (Jurgens), the submarine commander, is a career navy man, who had served on the U boats going back to WWI. At this point he's become war weary and wants to go home. We also find out he's no fan of the Nazis, and doesn't hide his irritation with a gung ho junior officer. Not only are both captains very good at their jobs, but neither of them holds ill will toward the other (in one telling exchange, when asked by the ship's doctor what kind of man he thinks the U boat commander is, Murrell replies, "I don't want to know about the man I'm trying to destroy").
David Hedison (credited as "Al" Hedison in this movie) and Theodore Bikel both put on terrific performances as the executive officers on the respective sea vessels. But it's Mitchum and Jurgens that carry the day. Despite being enemies, both captains are good men and sympathetic characters, and there's a mutual respect between the two. And in the Enemy Below there's about as eloquent a message as you'll find against waging war.
North Dallas Forty (1979)
If You Didn't Hate The Dallas Cowboys Before..
..there's a good chance you would after seeing North Dallas Forty, a stinging indictment of the NFL in general and the Tex Schramm/Tom Landry era Dallas Cowboys in particular, the way their management callously and ruthlessly used and manipulated their players. Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated pointed out that what was promoted as a raunchy football comedy is, in reality, far from it (except for a few isolated moments). Although fiction, said fiction is supposedly a VERY thin disguise of actual people and events..an expose of the dark side of pro football.
As Phil Elliott, the protagonist in the story (based on the author, former Dallas Cowboys receiver Peter Gent), explains late in the film to his girlfriend Charlotte (Dayle Haddon), he puts up with being used and playing the owner's game all for that high he gets when catching the football. All Elliott and the rest of the players want to do is play football, but they have to do it according to the rules made up by the owners and the league, and deal with the harsh reality that the game they love is, in fact, a business. Team management doesn't give a damn about their players. They don't even see them as people..only cogs in a machine. And troublemakers are not tolerated. As Elliott points out toward the end of the film, gesturing to team management, "We're not the team! THEY'RE the team! We're the equipment!"
Even the raunchy comedy that was promoted for North Dallas Forty was decidedly dark. There's one sequence where two players are fighting over a woman at a party, then one player gives the other a kiss and then all three start dancing. Elliott (to Charlotte, attempting to explain their behavior), "See, alcohol and fear makes for a good combination." Charlotte (incredulous) "What are they afraid of?" Elliott (dead serious) "Falling on their asses in Chicago."
The movie also is the first to really slam home just how brutal the game of pro football really is (and especially was back then). The opening sequence sets everything up. Elliott wakes up the morning after a game in pain all over his body. He can barely get up out of bed, can barely walk, he downs a handful of painkillers (chased down with a beer), fires up a joint and sits in his tub smoking weed, trying to get even some of the edge off the pain from all those hits he's taken. And as you see Elliott forcing his way out of bed and making his way to the bathroom to get in the tub, you see him wincing in pain in various places, each time cutting to a flashback of the play where he got that particular injury. The editing in that sequence is masterful, and makes it all the more gut wrenching, as you see the sheer violence and brutality of the game close up.
The performances are great top to bottom, a lot of them from actual pro football players (John Matuszak in particular). Nick Nolte turns in a great performance as Elliott (he deserved an Oscar nomination for his all-too-real portrayal of a broken athlete in pain in the opening scene alone..a scene with no dialogue). Mac Davis is terrific as the fun loving quarterback Don Meredith..ummm, I mean Seth Maxwell. GD Spradlin is great as the cold hearted all-business head coach to who puts more value in the team's computer evaluations than his players. The ever-reliable Charles Durning also puts in an all-too-convincing performance as the mean spirited and manipulative assistant coach.
North Dallas Forty is a great movie..one of those rare flicks that manages to be entertaining and thought provoking at the same time. This is probably because a lot of the stuff in it, even though it was fiction, is based on events that, according to people not looking to protect the Cowboys organization and the NFL, actually happened.
Rollercoaster (1977)
Underrated Thriller
The producers of Rollercoaster were apparently trying to capitalize on the disaster movie craze of the 70s, so the movie was advertised that way. But Rollercoaster is actually a psychological thriller, and a good one, with a compelling story and interesting characters.
The story starts off with a horrific accident on a Rollercoaster..or was it an accident? Harry Calder (George Segal) of Standards and Safety, who had just inspected the amusement park rides 3 months earlier, arrives to investigate. Then a fire breaks out at an amusement park on the other side of the country. It turns out to not be a coincidence. Both the rollercoaster crash and the fire were deliberately staged by a terrorist (Timothy Bottoms), a mad demolition/electronics expert who is out to extort the top 5 companies who own amusement parks. If they do not pay his ransom, he'll stage more disasters and kill more people. Calder finds himself caught in the middle when he barges his way into a meeting with the executives of the aforementioned 5 companies, which the Bottoms character has bugged. The bomber decides he likes Calder and insists that Calder be the bag man carrying the ransom. A game of cat and mouse follows..through an amusement park where the bomber has another explosive device planted. The movie climaxes with a thrilling final confrontation at Magic Mountain.
Both Segal and Bottoms are terrific in their respective roles, Segal as the standards and safety inspector whose brutally honest mouth has a tendency to get him into trouble, and Bottoms as the icy cool sociopath bomber. The back and forth between him and Calder over the phone and radio is the best part of this movie. Also, Richard Widmark does his usual fine job as Hoyt, the cynical hard ass from the FBI. Hoyt is a pompous know-it-all who blows off Calder at first, repeatedly berating him before begrudgingly realizing that he needs him to stop the terrorist.
You also get some background on Calder himself. He's divorced, with a middle school-aged daughter (played by a middle school-aged Helen Hunt), and a pretty new girlfriend (Susan Strasberg). He's a government inspector who has trouble advancing because of his propensity to antagonize his superiors. And he's trying to quit smoking, and having a terrible time because it seems like EVERYONE around him is lighting up.
All in all, a fine, well acted 70s thriller and definitely worth a look.
A Few Good Men (1992)
Gripping Courtroom Drama
OK, the plot is pretty predictable..and has a few holes in it. What saves A Few Good Men are the performances, and boy, are there some good ones. Tom Cruise is at his very best here, as Daniel Kaffey, a wisecracking apparent slacker of a young navy JAG lawyer with a record for striking plea deals (and who lives in the shadow of his legendary father), before he's ordered to defend two marines stationed at GITMO who are accused of murdering another member of their platoon. Jack Nicholson also gives what may be the finest performance of his career as Col. Jessup, the Commanding Officer of GITMO, an arrogant marine officer who isn't about to allow Kaffey and Lt. Commander Galloway from Internal Affairs to tell him how to run his unit. Jessup is looking at a career in politics and wants the entire matter swept under the rug quickly and quietly (Nicholson is actually only in three scenes, but he makes them count). Demi Moore plays Galloway, the lawyer from IA who is overseeing Kaffey. She's a constant thorn is his side, and insinuates herself into the case as second counsel, despite her incompetence as a trial lawyer (she had initially requested to be appointed as defense counsel and was rejected by Division).
There's no fall off with the supporting characters either. Wolfgang Bodison and James Marshall are terrific as Dawson and Downey, the two marines accused of murder, who would rather go to prison for life than take a deal and admit that they did something wrong (their defense was that they were ordered to give Santiago, the marine who died, a "code red," which is essentially hazing for the purpose of getting a member of their platoon who's screwing up to get back in line). Kevin Pollak plays Kaffey's co counsel Sam Weinberg, who believes the defendants are bullies and does not sympathize with them. Kevin Bacon plays the the somewhat arrogant but generally honorable prosecutor, Captain Jack Ross. JT Walsh is Lt. Col. Markinson, the weak willed 2nd in command at GITMO who believes that the hazing Jessup intends to order for Santiago is wrong, but won't stand up to him. And Kiefer Sutherland portrays Lt. Kendrick, the junior officer at GITMO who epitomizes every nasty gung-ho stereotype you can think of about marines. There is not a weak performance among any of them.
This is good thing, because without giving all of it away, suffice it to say there is some pretty incompetent lawyering that goes on here, and not just on the part of Galloway. Nonetheless, the final courtroom scene, which is a face off between Kaffey and Jessup, would be worth sitting through the movie even if the rest of it was terrible..which it isn't. Yeah, that scene really is that good..and Cruise and Nicholson were never better.
Star Trek: The Alternative Factor (1967)
Should Have Been One of Trek's Best, Alas..
The Alternative Factor had the makings of one of the best and most suspenseful episodes in the original series run. While in orbit around an unnamed planet, the ship encounters massive turbulence. Even Spock is in a state of near disbelief..he describes what happened as a "winking out" phenomenon..essentially the entire universe blinked..twice. For a nanosecond everything within sensor range was in a state of non existence.
Upon beaming down to the planet, Kirk and company come across a mysterious man..a seemingly borderline psychotic named Lazarus. When they take him back to the ship to question him, Lazarus tells Kirk that the cosmic winking out was caused by what he described as a "murdering monster" who he was bound and determined to track down..but he gets evasive when Kirk presses him for specifics.
We later find out that Lazarus is in fact two men..one from our universe, the other from a universe where everything is anti matter (connected by a corridor..what the Lazarus from the other universe, who ends up being the sane one, calls an "alternative warp")..and when identical particles meet (in this case two men who are counterparts), it's the end of everything in both universes (there's a really good scene midway where Kirk and Spock are figuring this all out).
OK, early on it becomes evident that this cosmic winking out phenomenon centers around Lazarus..so does Kirk keep him in the brig? Does McCoy at least watch him to make sure he stays in the sick bay? Nope, this guy who may hold the key to the complete destruction of the universe is allowed to freely roam about the ship. This results in two sets of their dilithium crystals getting swiped (a pair taken by each "Lazarus'). This is what's known as a major plot hole (or is it a "door?").
Unfortunately, the above bungling of the plot takes a lot of impact out of what should have been one of the most powerful episodes of the series..where the fate of the universe literally hangs in the balance. It's still a watchable episode, but it was not well put together. Nonetheless, Robert Brown puts in a fine performance as both versions of Lazarus.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
No Ewoks, No Jar Jar, No Kidding
Note: Even though I checked "might contain spoilers," for the benefit of those who haven't seen this yet (which was me until today), I'm going to try not to give too much away here.
Wow..after 38 long years, they finally got it right. Yes, I know I'm in the minority in that I liked the first Star Wars better than Empire, and to be fair, Empire was also a very good movie. But since then, Star Wars movies had lost their way..introducing those gawd awful little fuzzy muppets in Jedi, and those even worse CGI/cartoon characters in the "prequels"(i.e. Jar Jar Binks, the single worst character in Star Wars history). George Lucas had forgotten (or maybe never really understood) what made the first two Star Wars movies so good. This was painfully evident in the three "prequels," where the story, dialogue, and characters took a backseat to all those dazzling effects and CGI coming out of Skywalker Ranch. In a recent interview Lucas revealed that he saw the Star Wars saga as a soap opera..which sums up nicely why I didn't like the last 3 Star Wars flicks in particular (didn't much care for Jedi either). Behind all those neat special effects, that's exactly what those movies were: Episodes of a bad soap opera, with bad writing and bad acting. Thankfully, JJ Abrams captured..masterfully..what was great about Star Wars in the first place (I was actually concerned about what Abrams would do with Star Wars, since I did NOT like what he did with Star Trek, but boy, does he get it right here).
The Force Awakens not only brings back the familiar characters we already liked (Harrison Ford does an especially good job as the older Han Solo), but the new characters are likable too. The story is the best since the early days as well. I think it's supposed to be set 30 odd years after Jedi. You get glimpses of what has happened since, but you don't get everything..I have a feeling there will be more bits and pieces revealed in the next two installments. But the dark side has re-emerged..personified by the character of the evil..yet conflicted..Kylo Ren (in a terrific performance by Adam Driver..Hayden Christenson should take some notes). The Empire has been replaced by the evil "First Order," and standing in their way is the "Resistance." The First Order has an ultimate weapon even more horrifying than the original Death Star, and they ain't afraid to use it. The young character on the "light" side of the force is Rey, played well by Daisy Ridley. By the end, she's still a bit of a mystery..you're left wondering exactly how she figures into all this. Again, I think we'll get the answers in subsequent movies.
What I loved about the original Star Wars movie was that it was the quintessential illustration of what I believe movies should be..a 2+ hour escape from reality. This latest edition of Star Wars also epitomizes this. Yes, there are a few small plot continuity inconsistencies from the previous flicks. Do yourself a favor and don't worry about them. Just sit back and enjoy.
I'm glad it's back. :-)
The Odd Couple: Pilot (2015)
Been There Done That
This latest version of Neil Simon's classic isn't ALL bad. Matthew Perry is OK portraying Oscar as kind of a Chandler/Oscar hybrid (there's some Chandler in pretty much everything he does, alas), and Thomas Lennon does a credible Felix, playing everyone's favorite neat freak pretty close to Tony Randall's rendition. That's one problem..he's TOO close to Randall (including the bad sinuses). Reboots are most interesting when they do something DIFFERENT with the characters. Otherwise, you get what you get here: an idea that's been done before and done better. There are a couple of new angles, but it's pretty much the same premise. Oscar's a slob living by himself after getting kicked out by his wife, his college friend Felix shows up at his door after his wife throws him out, the two are polar opposites, etc. etc. Instead of being a sportswriter, Oscar is a sports/talk host, which actually makes sense. We also get introduced to Oscar's co workers, friends and neighbors, which is also a bit awkward..there were too many characters introduced too soon. The writing is so-so..a few jokes hit the mark, but most fall flat. When you put it all together, everything just seems forced..like everyone involved is trying too hard. If things don't measurably improve, don't expect this show to last more than half a season.
Road House (1989)
THE Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made
I wonder if Joe Bob Briggs ever reviewed this one. If he didn't, he should have. OK, it's not exactly a monster or slasher flick, but it's every bit as stupid and action packed. I LOVED it!
First, you've got Dalton (Patrick Swayze), a bouncer (OK, technically he's called a "cooler"..a guy who travels from nightclub to nightclub training bar bouncers to deal with various punks who want to cause trouble, but it really doesn't matter). At the start of the movie he's been recruited by a guy named Tilghman (Kevin Tighe) to clean up his little rat hole of a club called the Double Deuce in this equally crappy little town of Jasper, MO (supposedly outside of Kansas City..just how far "outside" they don't say).
Not long after he arrives, Dalton sets out to rid the DD of all kinds of criminal riff raff, and in the process steps on the toes of Brad Wesley, the town kingpin (Ben Gazzara) who's been extorting every business in town and wants to keep things just as they are.
Now you would think that Dalton, upon realizing that Tilghman didn't tell him the whole story about the criminal element of Jasper, would have taken his advance and high-tailed it out of that little dump of a town, right? Wrong! He's befriended some of the locals there, so he sticks around, and has confrontation after confrontation with Wesley's various goons, including his psychotic enforcer named Jimmy. It makes for some great fight scenes, with Dalton and the rest of the bouncers in his charge beating up the punks and sending them on their way (this is a "guy" movie to its very core). Of course all of this is predictably leading up to the final, bloody (it IS rated R) confrontation between Dalton and Wesley.
OK, meanwhile Dalton falls in love with the local doctor (Kelly Lynch) who he meets when she staples together a knife wound from one of his many run-ins. You also meet Dalton's mentor and buddy, Wade Garrett (Sam Elliott in the single coolest role he's ever played). You think Dalton is cool until you meet Garrett. There's a great scene where Garrett ever-so-nonchalantly beats up four guys who were beating up on Dalton behind the DD.
I could get into the stupidity of the story along with all the plot inconsistencies and how unrealistic parts of this movie are, but what would be the fun of that? You get to see guys getting beaten up, Patrick Swayze and Sam Elliott being super cool while they're beating guys up, the Jeff Healey Band (the house band at the DD) playing the tunes, and a little gratuitous T&A thrown in for good measure. What more could you possibly want?
If Joe Bob were reviewing this, he'd probably say 12 1/2 breasts (you only get a side shot of Kelly Lynch's). Monster Truck Fu. Drive in academy award nominations going out to Marshall Teague (Jimmy) for the line (to Dalton), "I used to f*** guys like you in prison!" (honorable mention for his evil laugh after blowing up Dalton's landlord's house). Also, Julie Michaels (Denise, Wesley's live-in hooker) for (again, to Dalton), "would you be shocked if I said let's go to my place and...f***?
I think I can safely say that Joe Bob would give it four stars out of four, and recommend that you check it out!
Bachelor Party (1984)
THE Funniest Movie I've Ever Seen
I often compare Bachelor Party to the Hangover movies to illustrate the right way and the wrong way to do a raunchy comedy. Then again, the Hangover movies did a lot more box office biz, so what do I know? The Hangover is a crude and raunchy attempt to be funny. Bachelor Party was also crude and raunchy..along with being infinitely more clever and laugh out loud funny. The first time I watched it all the way through I wondered if it was physiologically possible to literally bust a gut from laughing so hard.
Rick Gassko (Tom Hanks, who was never funnier), a wise cracking bus driver for a Catholic school, is about to get married to rich girl Debbie (Tawny Kitaen), and her parents are none too thrilled about it. Neither is her anal-retentive, rich ex boyfriend Cole, who's still obsessed with her (at one point he ultimately offers Rick his new Porsche in exchange for Debbie). Rick's hard partying friends don't much like that their buddy is settling down either. They want to make sure Rick "goes out in style," and throw him the bachelor party to end all bachelor parties at a super swank hotel, complete with hookers. This prospect doesn't sit too well with Debbie, and she forces Rick to promise he won't cheat on her. All kinds of wild stuff ultimately ensues..including an outing to Chippendales (where the gals in his fiancée's bridal shower end up showing up..and the guys subsequently pull a prank on them), a donkey that arrives in disguise, a hilarious exchange with a Hindu pimp, and Cole taking pot shots at Rick with a crossbow from an adjacent hotel.
A number of things work in Bachelor Party, starting with a really funny script (supposedly this was at least partially based on the real life bachelor party of one of the writers). Something else this movie achieved was that it drew me right into what was going on. I actually felt like I was right in the middle of this epic bachelor party with Rick and his wacky friends, for whom depravity and debauchery are virtues. But the centerpiece is Hanks, who took what could have easily been a shallow character and made him three dimensional. Rick shows genuine worry about the prospect of perhaps cheating on his fiancée, and also shows concern over Brad, one of his friends at the party, who believes in better living through chemistry..while at the same time is suicidal over the breakup of his own marriage. But mostly he's an irrepressible wise ass (i.e. picking up the school kids: Sister, you look terrific today! What have you done with your hair? Later, over the bus intercom: Attention passengers, we are now leaving nun central on our journey to hell and beyond. The captain has turned off the no smoking sign, and you may now move about the cabin freely. Thank you for being Catholic, and for choosing the St. Gabriel school bus).
The guys who round out Rick's motley bunch of friends are perfect in their respective parts, particularly Adrian Zmed, who plays Rick's best buddy O'Neil and is damn near as funny as Hanks. The female characters (along with Debbie's father and the aforementioned Cole) are overall a humorless bunch..which makes the guys' antics that much funnier.
Some pretty raunchy and potentially dark stuff happens in this movie, which might have even offended my sensibilities had it been handled wrong, from Brad's suicidal tendencies (which had the potential to not be funny at all) to what happened with the aforementioned donkey. But even the really crude stuff was handled deftly, in a way that left me laughing rather than cringing (conversely the Hangover mostly made me cringe).
Again, it's Hanks' flawless comic timing which ultimately makes this film. There are one or two scenes where I'm sure he improvised dialog. Warning: This movie is raunchy..lotta nudity and graphic sexual references, and definitely deserving of its R rating. And there are elements about it which by today's standards are a bit dated. But this is one funny movie..they don't make 'em like this anymore, alas.
Serendipity (2001)
OK, the Premise is Stupid, But..
.. I liked this movie anyway. The two main reasons are Kate Beckinsale (this is the movie where I got the crush on her I still have to this day), and Jeremy Piven.
I like John Cusack in just about everything I've seen him in, and he does fine here as Jonathan Trager, who's obsessing over whether he let Sara (Beckinsale), the woman who could be the love of his life, get away from him by letting her talk him into this stupid idea of leaving their future to chance after fate brought them together in the first place. They have a chance meeting at a department store, which leads to an amazing evening. But then Sara wants to leave things to chance AGAIN by marking their information on a 5 dollar bill and a book and putting both out in circulation (there's also a ridiculous scene where they get on two elevators..if they end up on the same floor, they're supposed to be together). It's like..duh..fate already brought them together..after that you've got to do some of the work on your own.
Fast forward to a few years later. Jonathan and Sara are both getting married (to different people, naturally), but neither can get that chance meeting out of their minds, and both set out on a last ditch effort to find each other. The lengths that Jonathan in particular goes to, with the help of his best friend Dean (Piven, the straw that stirs the drink in this), make for a couple of priceless scenes, including one with an anal retentive clerk at the department store (Eugene Levy).
Piven is perfect as Dean, who helps Jonathan in his search despite the fact that he thinks his soon-to-be married buddy is off his rocker (what best friends do). Toward the end, when it looks like all is lost, Dean marvels at what Jonathan has gone through to find Sara. He laments about how the passion which Jonathan put into his search is something he let slip away in his own marriage.
It's this, plus the chemistry between Cusack and Beckinsale, that make this movie worth seeing despite the ridiculously silly premise..and predictable ending. Yes, it's a quintessential chick flick..perfect to watch with your spouse or significant other.
Duel (1971)
Spielberg's Tale of Road Rage Run Amok
Want to know the mark of a good director? See what he does when he has no budget. Steven Spielberg has an incredible body of work, but his well known movies also had lots of cash from the studios behind them. Not so with Duel, one of Spielberg's first projects, which was originally shot as a TV movie (I'm guessing the slight bit of swearing was added later). You notice little things right away, like the camera angle from inside the car as David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is backing out of his garage.
You find out early in the movie, from a conversation with his wife while at the gas station, that Mann is basically a wimp who doesn't handle confrontations well, and is completely henpecked by his wife. He thinks he's heading off to a routine business appointment. Little does he know he's about to get thrust into a nightmare.
Things start innocuously enough when he gets stuck behind an old rusty big rig tanker belching smoke. He passes the rig to get away from the fumes. The rig then passes back by him and cuts in front. It goes back and forth for a while..but ultimately this seems to set off the driver of the big rig (whose face we never see). The big rig deliberately drives slowly when in front of him..then seemingly tries to run Mann off the road when driving behind him. There are various situations where you see the driver of the rig toying with Mann..like when Mann was attempting to call the police from a phone booth at a gas stations in the desert. At first the rig is sitting there..the driver watching..then suddenly it swoops in and runs over everything in site (including the phone booth where Mann was making his call..and some terrariums with rattlers).
The game of cat and mouse goes on for the rest of the movie. Again, with virtually no budget, Spielberg pulls you in and keeps you riveted throughout the movie. When I first saw Duel, as soon as the back and forth started between Mann and the truck I couldn't stop watching. The movie was as frightening as it was riveting. David Mann is someone a lot of us can identify with..a somewhat weak-willed everyman who's suddenly thrust into a situation where he has to fight for his life..against a huge, fearsome, faceless enemy. Spielberg handles all of this masterfully. This is better than Hitchcock.
Spielberg has achieved great fame for his big budget productions, but Duel stands out as my favorite Spielberg movie of them all..which is saying a lot. It's a suspenseful, terrifying thrill ride that never slows down.
Starsky and Hutch: The Fix (1975)
The Girl Was Not Worth It
This is the first of many episodes where Hutch hooks up with the wrong girl. In this case the girl Hutch is in love with is Jeannie, who used to be the girlfriend of a psychotic gangster named Forest (Robert Loggia). She's hiding from him and makes Hutch swear not to tell anyone, not even Starsky, the location of the beach house where she's staying. Hutch is planning on spending his vacation with her, but before he can get there he's kidnapped by Forest's men at his place. They spend the next few days getting Hutch hooked on heroin, then they cut him off to get him to talk (pretty evil stuff).
Meanwhile, Hutch is late getting back from his vacation and nobody seems to know where he is. You would think that if this girl really cared about Hutch that she would have told, oh, maybe Starsky that Hutch never showed up, right? Nope.
She never says anything. Ultimately Hutch breaks from the pain from the withdrawals and tells Forest where to find Jeannie, and given her inaction after Hutch was a no show, she got what she deserved.
The episode does a good job depicting heroin addiction and David Soul portrays the pain of withdrawals in a way that's all too real. It also shows how tight S&H really are as partners and friends. But it's so unpleasant to watch, and pointlessly so, given how useless this girl is.
It should be no surprise that in a future episode Hutch unknowingly falls for a hooker.
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Brilliant 80s Film Noir
William Friedkin gives film noir a decidedly 80s sensibility in this grim, violent, and at times disturbing story of how far seemingly "good" people will compromise their ethics in chasing criminals..even to the point when their actions result in people getting killed.
William (CSI) Peterson plays Richard Chance, a secret service agent who already plays fast and loose with the rules. His partner is on the trail of a counterfeiter named Masters (Willem Dafoe), and while investigating the building in the middle of nowhere where Masters is cranking out his funny money, he gets killed (two days before he's supposed to retire) by Masters and his goon.
Chance vows to get Masters for murdering his partner, and to do "whatever it takes" to accomplish this. His new younger partner, John Vukovich (John Pankow) doesn't like what he sees when he realizes just how far Chance is willing to go to avenge the death of his former partner..literally becoming just as bad as the man he is pursuing..and in the process forcing Vukovich to compromise his own morals. Vukovich, who ultimately becomes the central character, is stuck in a no-win situation: He can either rat out his partner or end up just as dirty as he is (at this point he's already well on his way).
The performances are good all around. Peterson plays his role as a secret service agent who ultimately becomes unhinged with credibility (he's not wooden at all, despite what some other reviewers seem to think). Dafoe is spot on as his psychotic adversary. He's evil, to be sure, but he never becomes a cartoon character..none of the players here do. Pankow is convincing as the conflicted agent looking for a way out of his dilemma. John Turturro makes the most of his screen time as Carl, a confederate of Masters who gets screwed over and sent to jail..and is pressuring Masters to get him out. Darlanne Fluegel and Debra Freuer play Ruth and Bianca, the women in the lives of Chance and Masters. Their relationships are complicated to say the least. Both men have a hold over them, forcing them to not only act as their lovers but to help them in their schemes.
This movie is not for everyone. It's very violent and bloody in some scenes, even by today's standards. But it's a very well crafted thriller, highlighting the all-too-human failings of the characters involved. Another reviewer pointed out..correctly in my opinion..that in this movie, when people sworn to uphold the law go rogue and compromise their beliefs, bad things happen to them. This contrasts with action movies like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, where the good guys are celebrated and there are no real repercussions..regardless how far they go out of police policy and how many innocent people are endangered (of course, in those movies, nothing that the heroes do ever gets innocent people killed..then again, in To Live and Die in LA there are no real innocents). There's also a car chase sequence which in my opinion not only out-does the legendary car-el train chase in Friedkin's The French Connection, but is second only to the one in Bullitt as the greatest of them all; it ends up on a crowded freeway..AGAINST traffic (talk about an amazing piece of stunt choreography).
Only negative is a couple of scenes that didn't need to be dragged out as long as they were..especially one sequence showing Masters' process of counterfeiting bills. But in general To Live and Die in LA is taut from start to finish.
Bullitt (1968)
The King of Cool at his Coolest
Whether tearing around the streets of San Francisco in that Mustang fastback or dealing with slimy politicians, Bullitt is arguably the coolest character Steve McQueen ever played.
A smarmy dirtbag of a politician named Chalmers (played to nasty perfection by Robert Vaughan), calls on Lt. Frank Bullitt and his men to guard a mob witness who has ostensibly run from Chicago and is hiding out in San Francisco, holed up in a hotel near the wharf. During the night, what should be a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, as two hit men get into the room and shotgun both the witness and the officer Bullitt assigned to guard him. The officer, though badly wounded, is out of danger, but the witness is in critical condition and ultimately dies. Fearing that Chalmers will shut down the case, Bullitt, with the help of the doctor, "loses" the witness' body, making Chalmers believe he's still alive so Bullitt can find out who killed him. Bullitt's pursuit of the hit men culminates in that legendary car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco. But as Bullitt continues to investigate, he finds out that not everything is as it seems regarding that witness (among other things, said witness unchained the door and let the killers in himself). Bullitt discovers yet another murder, which leads to the other big chase scene (this one on foot), which takes place at SFO.
This was the first of the "loner rogue cop" movies (a la Dirty Harry) which became the standard during the 70s. But Steve McQueen is much more low key in his performance as Frank Bullitt than Clint Eastwood was as Harry Callahan..there is no "bravado" or sarcasm in McQueen's portrayal. McQueen, often underrated as an actor, is at his best here, saying as much with a look as with any of his (very few) lines. Case and point: When Chalmers reads Bullitt the riot act for failing to protect his witness, Bullitt quietly tells him, "You work your side of the street, and I'll work mine." It's not the line, which is pretty mundane. What makes it so effective is the look of sheer contempt McQueen gives when he delivers it.
Like McQueen, director Peter Yates takes a minimalist approach overall in this movie..even for that famous car chase scene (i.e. once the two vehicles kick it into high gear, the music stops completely..all you hear is the roar of those throaty V8 engines). I will admit that I love a good car chase sequence, and the one in the middle of Bullitt, with two muscle cars flying around those twists and hilly streets in SF at over 100 MPH in places, is still the greatest of them all.
The supporting cast is strong as well. In addition to Vaughan, Simon Oakland does his usual solid job as Bullitt's captain, who despite Bullitt's stunts continues to try and support him. Robert Duvall (with hair!) makes the most of his supporting role as a cab driver. And Jacqueline Bissett shows sensitivity as Bullitt's somewhat naive girlfriend, who gets a rude awakening at one of his crime scenes, discovering that there's a side of her boyfriend..the hard boiled detective who seems unfazed by horrific acts of violence..that she doesn't know and maybe doesn't want to.
There's one negative: In between action sequences the movie does get a bit slow in places (the scene at SF General Hospital in particular didn't need to be dragged out that long). But Bullitt in many ways was truly groundbreaking, and to this day it's probably McQueen's best work overall. Although McQueen doesn't receive any kind of production credit, from the documentary on Bullitt (which is included with the DVD), you can tell he was heavily involved with the production of the movie from start to finish.
Vanishing Point (1971)
Fast Cars, Misfits and Freedom
This is a revised review.
I'll admit I wasn't sure quite what to make of this one when I first saw it. What drew me to Vanishing Point in the first place was that it was a road flick featuring a fast car..and I LOVE movies with fast cars.
The premise at the beginning seems simple enough. Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a speed freak (as in drugs AND driving) who makes his living delivering cars. He's just arrived back in Denver, to the place that employs him, after a delivery, and wants to head right back out on the road again to deliver a Dodge Challenger to San Francisco. His boss pleads with him to get some rest, as does his drug dealer, but Kowalski is determined. He bets his dealer the price of the speed he just bought that he can deliver the car in 15 hours (I figured it up..he would have to average 84.5 MPH with NO stops if he drove in a straight line).
Where the movie gets interesting..and disturbing..is when it gets into WHY Kowalski is so determined to go on this ride. While he's tearing down the roadway in that waaay cool white Challenger, with police hot on his tail, we see flashes of his past, including his time as a war hero in Vietnam, his stint as a police officer who stops his partner from raping a teenage girl they'd picked up (and getting kicked off the force for it); also we see that for a time he raced cars and motorcycles (crashing more than once), and he even spent a period of time as a hippie/counterculture type (where he watched his girlfriend drown in the ocean).
Two dynamics emerge: First, and this was brought up in another review, Kowalski is a guy who couldn't fit in anywhere, be it the "establishment" or the "counterculture." Second, and more important, in the flashbacks we see one bad thing after another happen to him, regardless of what he was doing or who he was with. This is what his life has come down to, and it's as if this pedal-to-the-metal trip to SF, come hell or high water, is all he has left.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the other main player in this, a blind disc jockey who goes by "Super Soul" (Cleavon Little in what may be the finest performance of his career). Super Soul feels an instant connection with Kowalski..calling him "the last American hero" as he races from police on his trek. In between songs he talks to Kowalski over the airwaves as if he can sense what the doomed driver is thinking. In the midst of this a bunch of redneck bullies break into the radio station and give Super Soul a horrific beating, and the movie doesn't really explain why. Maybe it's because they didn't like what Kowalski was doing and Super Soul being sympathetic to him, aggravated by the fact that they already hated Super Soul because he was black.
Vanishing Point has been compared, erroneously in my opinion, to Easy Rider. Whereas the latter is clearly a movie centering on 60s counterculture, Vanishing Point is a character study, both of Kowalski and Super Soul, two misfits..yet both honorable and decent men (perhaps that's what makes them misfits)..who seem doomed to never really belong anywhere. I guess I always kind of knew what the central theme to Vanishing Point was, and the initial review I wrote a few years back does hint at it, but doesn't say it flat out. The underlying theme to Vanishing Point is, in a word, freedom. As screwed up as Kowalski's life has been, he's living whatever he has left of it on his own terms (this is why Super Soul called Kowalski the last American hero). It's also a sort of requiem for the days gone by for fast cars and open roads in America. This is not a pleasant movie..it's dark, depressing and surreal (very 70s)..but interesting. And Kowalski drives one VERY cool..and fast..car.
Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966)
2nd Pilot Hits a Home Run
I've never been able to understand the mentality behind the NBC studio execs who chose to air this, the 2nd Star Trek pilot, as episode 3 in the regular series run (the continuity issues are painfully obvious, from the uniforms, to the differing gadgets, to Spock's eyebrows et al). No Man is really a mini movie. Gene Roddenberry compromised with the network after the initial pilot, The Cage, was rejected, combining the commentary about the human condition that he wanted with the action and adventure that the network execs demanded (which Roddenberry had promised them in the first pilot but didn't deliver), and the result was a vastly superior effort.
Trek fans know the story well. The Enterprise is on a mission to leave the galaxy. When nearing the galaxy's edge, they encounter a disaster recorder from the SS Valiant from 200 years prior. After only getting bits and pieces of information from its badly burned tapes, Captain Kirk gives orders to go ahead. The ship encounters an energy barrier at the rim of the galaxy, which not only causes severe damage to the ship, but attacks several members of the crew. Nine of them are killed immediately, but two recover; Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman), a psychiatrist newly assigned to the Enterprise, and Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood), Kirk's first officer and best friend. You see the change in Mitchell immediately in his eyes..which have become shiny and reflective. It turns out that every member of the ship who was attacked by the energy from the barrier rated high in ESP abilities..Mitchell's being the highest of all. Then Mitchell quickly develops super human powers, and it immediately becomes apparent to Spock that Mitchell is mutating into a vastly superior and dangerous being who could and would destroy the crew long before the ship could reach an earth base.
Meanwhile, the only chance at repairing the Enterprise is Delta Vega, an automated planet nearby which has a "lithium cracking station." But the other purpose for going there is to get Mitchell off the ship by stranding him there (Spock advises Kirk that he either needs to maroon Mitchell or kill him while he still can). Using power packs on Delta Vega, Kirk and company are able to repair the ship, but Mitchell becomes so powerful he escapes from the security force field that is holding him. Then we see that Dr. Dehner's eyes now look like Mitchell's; it just took a little longer for her to start to mutate. Both of them take off, and Kirk sets out after them, catching up with Dr. Dehner and persuading her to help him stop Mitchell, while she still has a bit of humanity left in her.
Star Trek had its share of tragic episodes, but this one nears the top. Kirk literally has to watch his best friend mutate into a monster. Kirk points out at the end that Mitchell didn't ask for what happened to him. You see what happens when a normal human being gets super powers (we also saw this in "Charlie X" among other episodes). Mitchell becomes so arrogant that he fancies himself as a "god." But as Kirk points out, a "god" still driven by human frailty. He accurately tells Dr. Dehner, "There will only be one of you left in the end. One jealous god, if all this makes a god, or is it making him something else?" This is not a pleasant episode, but once again, it's a fine exploration of the human condition and an excellent adventure. The networks gave Roddenberry a chance to get it right the 2nd time, and he did.