Review: "S.W.A.T." is by the Book Crime Thriller

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 126 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

S.W.A.T. (2003)
Running time:  117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, language and sexual references
DIRECTOR:  Clark Johnson
WRITERS:  David Ayer and David McKenna; from a story by Ron Mita and Jim McClain (based upon characters by David Hamner)
PRODUCERS:  Dan Halsted, Chris Lee, and Neal H. Moritz
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Gabriel Beristain
EDITOR:  Michael Tronick
COMPOSER:  Elliot Goldenthal

ACTION/CRIME/DRAMA

Starring:  Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Josh Charles, Jeremy Renner, Brian Van Holt, Olivier Martinez, Reginald E. Cathey, Larry Poindexter, and James DuMont

The subject of this movie review is S.W.A.T., a 2003 action-thriller and crime film.  The film is based on the short-lived television series, “S.W.A.T.”  This ABC action-crime drama (Feb. 1975 to April 1976) was created by Robert Hamner and Lee Stanley.  In S.W.A.T. the movie, S.W.A.T. tries to prevent an imprisoned drug kingpin from breaking out of police custody.

When the law gets a hold of Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez), billionaire drug lord and arms dealer, Montel offers 100 million dollars (say it in a heavy Al Pacino/Tony Montana accent to get the full effect) to anyone who can free him.  Who you gonna call?  How about the Los Angeles Police Department’s finest – S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons and Tactics)?

Led by a legendary S.W.A.T. veteran, Sgt. Dan “Hondo” Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson), the group includes LAPD’s best, brightest, and toughest: Jim Street (Colin Farrell) a disgraced S.W.A.T. officer Hondo gives a second chance; Chris Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez), repeatedly denied admission into the S.W.A.T. program because she is a female; and David “Deke” Kay (LL Cool J), a tough street cop who can run down you and yo mama.

S.W.A.T. is a by the book action thriller that correctly presses all the right buttons except those bothersome story and character buttons.  But the fireworks, explosions, gunshots, and machismo all work, and that’s pretty much all that’s needed to make an successful action movie – one that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve wasted your money as soon as you leave the theatre.  The plot is simple and straight, and the script contains familiar American archetypes:  Jackson’s Hondo is the black mentor to Farrell’s Street, the dangerous young white stud.  Hollywood seems intent on making Farrell a matinee idol whether the matinee wants him or not.

The movie was fun, a pleasant distraction, pleasantly intense, not manically and obscenely intense like Bad Boys II, but intense in a way that lets us get excited about overwrought gun battles.  There’s even an ultra hilarious segment in which an L.A. street gang tries to liberate Montel for his 100 meeeeell-yon dollerz!  There’s no meaningful drama in the story, nothing to make you really care for the characters other than the fact that you’d like to see Street show the department it was wrong for disgracing him.  But this is good film popcorn, one I’d heartily recommend to fans of hardcore action films and one I’ll see again.

Of course, if you want a gritty cop film, something with meat on the bones, there’s always Joe Carnahan’s Narc.

5 of 10
B-

NOTES:
2004 Black Reel Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Film” (Christopher Lee, Neal H. Moritz, and Dan Halsted)

2004 Image Awards:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Samuel L. Jackson)

Updated:  Wednesday, August 07, 2013

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Christopher McQuarrie to Direct "Mission: Impossible" 5

Editor's note:  I'm excited about this news, especially because I liked Cruise and McQuarrie's recent film collaboration, Jack Reacher - a lot.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND SKYDANCE PRODUCTIONS TAP CHRISTOPHER McQUARRIE TO DIRECT THE NEXT MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions announced today that Christopher McQuarrie will direct the next “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE” film.

McQuarrie will direct from a screenplay by Drew Pearce, with Tom Cruise reprising the iconic role of Ethan Hunt, who was first introduced to moviegoers in 1996.  The project will be produced by Cruise through Tom Cruise Productions, Paramount and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, who served as producers on previous films in the hit series.  Skydance Productions, who served as co-financers and executive producers of the last installment, will work closely with the team in the development and production process.

“I am thrilled to reunite with Chris for the latest installment in the Mission series," said Cruise. “I began producing the films with the goal that a different director with his own vision would make each one.  Chris is an extraordinary filmmaker who will deliver the heart-pounding action and thrills that audiences around the world have come to expect from the Mission: Impossible franchise.”

Added Adam Goodman, President of Paramount Film Group: “The Mission series is special for its signature directors; Chris McQuarrie keeps this tradition thriving.”

McQuarrie recently wrote and directed “JACK REACHER” for Paramount and Skydance, with Cruise in the title role, based on the novels by New York Times bestselling author Lee Child.  His screenwriting credits include the upcoming “EDGE OF TOMORROW” and 2008’s “VALKYRIE,” both starring Cruise, as well as “THE USUAL SUSPECTS,” for which he earned an Academy Award® for best screenplay in 1995.

“MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL,” the 4th installment in the globally successful franchise, earned nearly $700M around the world and became Cruise’s highest grossing film to date in his storied career.

The “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE” franchise has earned more than $2B at the worldwide box office, making it one of the most successful franchises in movie history.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

About Bad Robot
Bad Robot was formed by filmmaker J.J. Abrams in 2001. The company has produced television series such as ALIAS, LOST, FRINGE, PERSON OF INTEREST and REVOLUTION, and feature films such as CLOVERFIELD, STAR TREK, SUPER 8, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, and this summer's STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. Bad Robot is based in Los Angeles and can be followed at twitter.com/bad_robot.

About Skydance Productions
Skydance Productions creates and produces elevated event-level commercial entertainment.   Skydance’s recent releases include WORLD WAR Z, starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster; J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS, starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, and G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, starring Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson.  Skydance’s next film, JACK RYAN, from director Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Pine, is set for release on December 25, 2013.   Skydance projects currently in development include the reboot of the TERMINATOR franchise, to be released on June 26, 2015, the racy high concept comedy, BAD IN BED, written by Pamela Falk and Michael Ellis and a disaster film on a global scale titled GEOSTORM written by Dean Devlin and Paul Guyot with Devlin also directing.  Skydance’s previous projects include the award-winning Coen Brothers film TRUE GRIT, starring Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon; MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL, starring Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner and Christopher McQuarrie’s JACK REACHER, starring Tom Cruise.

Review: New "Evil Dead" Just Another Scary Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 52 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Evil Dead (2013)
Running time:  91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence and gore, some sexual content and language
DIRECTOR:  Fede Alvarez
WRITERS:  Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues (based on the motion picture, The Evil Dead, written by Sam Raimi)
PRODUCERS: Sam Raimi, Robert G. Tapert, and Bruce Campbell
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Aaron Morton
EDITOR: Bryan Shaw
COMPOSER:  Roque Baños

HORROR

Starring:  Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore, and Randal Wilson with Bruce Campbell

Evil Dead is a 2013 horror movie.  A loose remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 movie, The Evil Dead, this is the fourth film in the Evil Dead movie franchise, serving partly as a continuation of the series and partly as a reboot of the franchise.  The new Evil Dead focuses on five friends in a remote cabin where they fight off an evil presence that is determined to possess them all.

Mia Allen (Jane Levy) has a severe drug addiction.  Her best friends, Olivia (Jessica Lucas) and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), have arranged a getaway to an old remote cabin in the woods that apparently belongs to Mia’s family.  There, they hope that Mia can be forced to get clean or “detox.”  An important member of this intervention is Mia’s estranged brother, David (Shiloh Fernandez), who brings his girlfriend, Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), with him.

The five young people arrive at the cabin to find that someone has previously broken into it.  While searching the cabin, they find the remains of a bizarre ritual and also a strange old book.  This book, which is entitled the “Naturom Demonto” (Book of the Dead), leads them to unwittingly summon up demons hiding in the woods surrounding the cabin.

Evil Dead is just a remake – plain and simple.  It is not an exceptional horror film, except for the fact that there is no CGI used in creating the effects (as the director claims).  The Evil Dead was a comic horror film that was shocking, horrifying, comical, and defiantly original.  Evil Dead, the new thang, replaces the comical aspects and trades for family history – both melodramatic and dysfunctional.  I did find myself wishing that Mia could beat her demons and that her brother could reconcile with her, but as the movie went along, I cared less and less.

Director Fede Alvarez and his co-screenwriter Rodo Sayagues offer bloody violence and gore aplenty.  No matter how much of that they offer, however, this movie comes from the same old horror movie wheelhouse that has been the birth canal for many of the horror flicks going back a decade.  Evil Dead is merely torture porn reconfigured as self-torture porn.  It is sometimes shocking, thrilling, scary, and creepy.  However, I think the only people who will find this movie to be a bold, fresh thing are those who never saw the original, The Evil Dead.

5 of 10
B-

Sunday, August 04, 2013

"The Conjuring" Crosses $100 Million Box Office Mark

New Line Cinema’s “The Conjuring” Crosses $100 Million at the Domestic Box Office

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One of the most talked about hits of the summer, New Line Cinema’s “The Conjuring” has surpassed $100 million at the domestic box office on only its third weekend in theatres, it was announced today by Dan Fellman, President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures. The film crossed the $100 million mark on Saturday, August 3, and has earned an estimated $108.6 million domestically to date, and still climbing.

“The Conjuring” is also off to a great start internationally, opening in just 13 markets thus far. The film opened in the UK this weekend, taking the #1 spot on Friday and Saturday, and it is also holding extremely well in other early release markets, particularly in Australia and Spain. The international total to date is an estimated $28.6 million, with many major markets yet to open, including France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Mexico.

The terrifying supernatural horror thriller, from director James Wan, opened to rave reviews from critics, as well as audiences, a fact that was reflected in the film’s A- CinemaScore—an extremely rare mark for the genre. “The Conjuring” had an extraordinary $41.9 million opening weekend at the domestic box office, the largest opening ever for an original horror film.

In making the announcement, Fellman said, “James Wan has created a film that stays with moviegoers long after they leave the theatre, resulting in terrific word-of-mouth that should carry it through the rest of the summer. Surrounded by tentpole summer movies, ‘The Conjuring’ has become the must-see film of the season.”

Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures, added, “‘The Conjuring’ is performing beyond all expectations, breaking barriers as not just a great genre film, but a great film of any genre. The phenomenal results in the U.S. are also starting to be seen globally as ‘The Conjuring’ expands its reach, with tremendous worldwide potential. We congratulate James Wan, the remarkable cast and everyone involved in the film.”

New Line Cinema President and COO Toby Emmerich stated, “We’re excited that ‘The Conjuring’ continues to have such a big impact on fans and that they are sharing their enthusiasm with friends and family. James Wan made a fantastic movie and audiences clearly agree, as is evident in the film’s great CinemaScore, social media engagement and theatre attendance.”

Based on the true life story, “The Conjuring” tells the tale of how world renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren were called upon to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most horrifying case of their lives.

From New Line Cinema comes a feature film drawn from the case files of married demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. “The Conjuring” stars Academy Award® nominee Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air,” TV’s “Bates Motel”) and Patrick Wilson (“Insidious”) as the Warrens, and Ron Livingston (“The Odd Life of Timothy Green”) and Lili Taylor (TV’s “Hemlock Grove”) as Roger and Carolyn Perron, residents of the house. Joey King, Shanley Caswell, Hayley McFarland, Mackenzie Foy and newcomer Kyla Deaver play the Perrons’ five daughters, and Sterling Jerins is the Warrens’ little girl, Judy. Rounding out the cast are Marion Guyot, Steve Coulter, Shannon Kook, and John Brotherton.

James Wan (“Saw,” “Insidious”) directed the film from a screenplay by Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes (“The Reaping”). The film is produced by Tony DeRosa-Grund, Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, with Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter serving as executive producers.

New Line Cinema presents a Safran Company / Evergreen Media Group Production of a James Wan Film, “The Conjuring.” The film is being distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

This film has been rated R for sequences of disturbing violence and terror.

www.theconjuring-movie.com

Review: Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray Still Heat Up "Bus Stop" (Remembering Marilyn Monroe)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bus Stop (1956)
Running time:  96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Joshua Logan
WRITER:  George Axelrod (based on the plays of William Inge)
PRODUCER:  Buddy Adler
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Milton Krasner (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  William Reynolds
COMPOSERS:  Cyril J. Mockridge and Alfred Newman
Academy Award nominee

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring:  Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray, and Hope Lange

The subject of this movie review is Bus Stop, a 1956 romantic comedy and drama from director Joshua Logan.  Bus Stop is based on two plays, People in the Wind and Bus Stop (1955), by American novelist, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, and Oscar-winning screenwriter, William Inge.  Bus Stop the movie focuses on a naive but stubborn cowboy (he’s a virgin) and a saloon singer whom the cowboy tries to take against her will back to his ranch in Montana.

An innocent (and infantile) rodeo cowboy named Beauregard “Bo” Decker (Don Murray) temporarily leaves his Montana ranch to attend a rodeo in Phoenix, Arizona.  His surrogate father Virgil (Arthur O’Connell), who travels with him, thinks it time for the sexually inexperienced 21-year old to find a wife.  What Virgil didn’t have in mind was for Bo to fall in love with Cherie (Marilyn Monroe), an abused bar singer with a lot of man mileage on her.  Bo, used to having his way and naively regarding women as if they were nothing more than life stock, stalks and kidnaps Cherie in order to bring her back to the ranch.  It’s at the titular bus stop where Bo finally gets him comeuppance, but does love still bloom?

Many people consider Bus Stop, based upon a well-known stage play of the time, to be the film in which Marilyn Monroe showed that she could act and that she wasn’t just a hot, blond tart.  Although her performance is a bit over the top (wildly over the top in some places to the point of giving a performance that verges on hysteria), she seems to really fit this film.  Don Murray, however, steals Bus Stop, in his first movie role after getting recognition for his stage work.  He earned an Oscar® nomination as a supporting actor for Bus Stop, but he is really the lead, as the film and story revolves around Murray’s Bo and Arthur O’Connell’s Virgil.  The thoroughly handsome Murray is a lightning bolt and a ball of boundless energy.  He really does sell the notion that he is a virginal cowboy who knows nothing about women, and he also makes the father-son relationship with O’Connell feel real.

Bus Stop is an odd and quirky film that is equally parts romance and comedy, more of a comic romance than a romance comedy.  Joshua Logan (Picnic, 1955) does a fine job with what could have been a curious film disaster by keeping the pace fast, never letting us focus on the story’s logical missteps.  He makes the audience laugh with the characters, and he turns up the romance just at the proper moments.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1957 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Don Murray)

1957 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Most Promising Newcomer to Film” (Don Murray-USA)

1957 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy” and “Best Motion Picture Actress - Comedy/Musical” (Marilyn Monroe)

Updated:  Monday, August 05, 2013

Johnny Knoxville Returns in "Bad Grandpa"

Real people. Real reactions. Real messed up.

Johnny Knoxville is back as Irving Zisman in JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA

Watch now: http://youtu.be/_MSrAwfagG4

Make your own GIFs using the Bad Grandpa GIF Creator: www.BadGrandpa.com (You know you’re going to.)

ABOUT THE FILM: 86 year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companions, his 8 year-old Grandson Billy in "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.” This October, the signature Jackass character Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicoll) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on camera.

Along the way Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places and situations that give new meaning to the term childrearing. The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens.

Real people in unreal situations, making for one really messed up comedy.

In theaters everywhere October 25th, 2013.

Official website: www.BadGrandpa.com

Facebook : www.facebook.com/jackass

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jackassworld

Happy Birthday, President Barack Obama

Happy 52nd from Negromancer. Still looking good.