"Under Fire" made me cry by taking me back to my childhood. I grew up in El Salvador during the start of its bloody civil war (1979-1992) that ended with over 50,000 Salvadorean's murdered and a sizable percentage of the population immigrating overseas, myself included. I had school buddies (two brothers) that were shot dead by death squads. My mother's fiancé, a lawyer, was gunned down the night before they publicly announced their engagement (R.I.P. Tony). If it wasn't for this civil war I wouldn't have left my homeland literally running away from bullets and RPG's, grabbing one of the last planes to leave during the offensive of Nov. '89. Time has made it clear I ended up having a better life here in the States than I would have had if I stayed (I wouldn't be on this website reviewing "UF" in English), which doesn't change the fact my mother died in 2017 (natural causes) having spent 28 years apart from me... many of those years much sooner than both of us anticipated or wanted. :'(
Anywho, despite being set during the fall of Nicaragua in 1979 the war atrocities depicted in "UF" spread over into nearby Central American countries and are almost identical to what we went through in E.S. See Oliver Stone's "Salvador" (1986) for the bloody detailed version. Despite following the dramatic structure of trying-to-be-objective international journalists observing an armed conflict with a detached perspective (as seen during last year's "Civil War" in the newest third-world nation on Earth, U.S.A. :-( ) director Roger Spottiswoode and co-screenwriter Ron Shelton make sure the local Nicaraguan citizens are properly represented and aren't just background window dressing (a rarity for this dramatic sub-genre). It's infrequent, but when war scenes happen they're intense but not as graphic as in "The Killing Fields." Gene Hackman's glorified supporting role is a meaty one, but Nick Nolte (playing against type as a weakling), Joanna Cassidy, Ed Harris and Holly Palance acquit themselves as international folks moved to their core by the plight of this particular group of brown people. 4 INEFFECTIVELY WAVED WHITE FLAGS (out of five).
Four years later another director named Roger (Donaldson) gave Hackman another meaty supporting role in his cold way/military thriller "No Way Out." I knew from pop culture parodies that Kevin Costner and Sean Young hooked-up in the back of a limo, and that Secretary of Defense Brice (Hackman, who starts strong before looking vulnerable) would use Costner's naval intelligence skills to lead a search for the unknown man that killed Susan Atwell (Young) as a cover for Brice's own crime. What I wasn't prepared for was Will Patton (as Brice's right-hand man) dominating every scene he shares with Gene, Kevin and every other acting heavyweight (George Dzundza, Fred Thompson, Howard Duff, Iman, etc.) like a boss. Seriously, if you haven't seen "NON" seek it just to see Patton walk away with a still-going-strong career. Did not see THAT ending coming, which on hindsight seems obvious but back in '87 was the Shyamalan 'what a twist!' of its day. Great movie. 4.5 SOUND-PROOF EMPTY PENTAGON GYMS (out of five).
'THE PACKAGE (1989, KINO BLU-RAY). Streaming on Netflix.
The first of director Andrew Davis' three collaborations with Tommy Lee Jones (and a dress-rehearsal for "The Fugitive" four years later, right down to the same Chicago locations/actors in slightly different roles), "The Package" finds TLJ as the on-the-run fugitive being chased by military man Gene Hackman (with ex-wife Joanna Cassidy tagging along) trying to prevent the former from an assassination attempt on either a bad George Bush-lookalike or an excellent Mikhail Gorbachev impersonator. :-P As in "NON" we're in military action/cold war thriller territory but with enough conspiracy theory fuel to give the shootouts/car chases a sense of paranoia/urgency. Dennis Franz's Chicago PD role (same year "Hill Street Blues" was cancelled) was a pleasant surprise. 4 COOKIES & MILK LAST MEALS (out of five).
I cant put my finger on it but this flick feels sort of one-of-a-kind even thou its one of many many "dude joins top secret organization to do good". Maybe its that Fred Ward feels so everyman? Not sure. Anyhoo a fun revisit of this silly 80s actioner thats got a lot of "buddy cop" vibe within. Plus the Statue of Liberty set piece is an all timer!!
That was going to be my pick too, but then I happened to see a review that said it's got Joel Grey in yellowface, and I just didn't feel like dealing with that right now, so I picked a different movie.
Spoilers ahead: An elite squad of American soldiers is sent on a secret mission in a Central American jungle. They destroy an enemy camp and rescue a captive woman, but soon realize there's a bigger threat: what they were really sent there to fight was a mysterious creature who has superior firepower, sees its surroundings via a pixelated heads-up-display, and only communicates through distorted recordings of human voices. The team keep firing their guns into the jungle at every sound they hear, but the enemy picks them off one by one, until it all comes down to a head-to-head confrontation between the creature and the squad leader, which ends with the creature triggering a self-destruct device, and the squad leader and the rescued woman are the only ones who escape the jungle. At the end, we get hero shots of all the actors before the credits roll. Sound familiar?
It's as blatant as blatant ripoffs go, they took Predator's script and changed a few small details, the main one being it's a government-built robot they're fighting instead of an alien. It's obviously also a lot cheaper-looking and doesn't have the star power (Reb Brown is no Arnold), but it's still surprisingly well-made, moves at a pace and has Italian hair metal on the soundtrack, so all in all not a bad time.
RUNNING ON EMPTY (aka Fast Lane Fever) (1982) dir. John Clark
Basic story. Incomprehensible Aussie accents. A wise and old blind master. But you really came for the street racing between the Fox-1 440-six pack 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, a chopped ‘57 Chevy, and a (literally) flaming Aussie Phase III Ford Falcon GTHO.
The final race is cool but is pretty damn short. It goes out with a whimper rather than a bang.
R.I.P. GENE HACKMAN (1930-2025)
ReplyDeleteUNDER FIRE (1983, ROKU CHANNEL)
"Under Fire" made me cry by taking me back to my childhood. I grew up in El Salvador during the start of its bloody civil war (1979-1992) that ended with over 50,000 Salvadorean's murdered and a sizable percentage of the population immigrating overseas, myself included. I had school buddies (two brothers) that were shot dead by death squads. My mother's fiancé, a lawyer, was gunned down the night before they publicly announced their engagement (R.I.P. Tony). If it wasn't for this civil war I wouldn't have left my homeland literally running away from bullets and RPG's, grabbing one of the last planes to leave during the offensive of Nov. '89. Time has made it clear I ended up having a better life here in the States than I would have had if I stayed (I wouldn't be on this website reviewing "UF" in English), which doesn't change the fact my mother died in 2017 (natural causes) having spent 28 years apart from me... many of those years much sooner than both of us anticipated or wanted. :'(
Anywho, despite being set during the fall of Nicaragua in 1979 the war atrocities depicted in "UF" spread over into nearby Central American countries and are almost identical to what we went through in E.S. See Oliver Stone's "Salvador" (1986) for the bloody detailed version. Despite following the dramatic structure of trying-to-be-objective international journalists observing an armed conflict with a detached perspective (as seen during last year's "Civil War" in the newest third-world nation on Earth, U.S.A. :-( ) director Roger Spottiswoode and co-screenwriter Ron Shelton make sure the local Nicaraguan citizens are properly represented and aren't just background window dressing (a rarity for this dramatic sub-genre). It's infrequent, but when war scenes happen they're intense but not as graphic as in "The Killing Fields." Gene Hackman's glorified supporting role is a meaty one, but Nick Nolte (playing against type as a weakling), Joanna Cassidy, Ed Harris and Holly Palance acquit themselves as international folks moved to their core by the plight of this particular group of brown people. 4 INEFFECTIVELY WAVED WHITE FLAGS (out of five).
NO WAY OUT (1987, KINO 4K UHD)
ReplyDeleteFour years later another director named Roger (Donaldson) gave Hackman another meaty supporting role in his cold way/military thriller "No Way Out." I knew from pop culture parodies that Kevin Costner and Sean Young hooked-up in the back of a limo, and that Secretary of Defense Brice (Hackman, who starts strong before looking vulnerable) would use Costner's naval intelligence skills to lead a search for the unknown man that killed Susan Atwell (Young) as a cover for Brice's own crime. What I wasn't prepared for was Will Patton (as Brice's right-hand man) dominating every scene he shares with Gene, Kevin and every other acting heavyweight (George Dzundza, Fred Thompson, Howard Duff, Iman, etc.) like a boss. Seriously, if you haven't seen "NON" seek it just to see Patton walk away with a still-going-strong career. Did not see THAT ending coming, which on hindsight seems obvious but back in '87 was the Shyamalan 'what a twist!' of its day. Great movie. 4.5 SOUND-PROOF EMPTY PENTAGON GYMS (out of five).
'THE PACKAGE (1989, KINO BLU-RAY). Streaming on Netflix.
ReplyDeleteThe first of director Andrew Davis' three collaborations with Tommy Lee Jones (and a dress-rehearsal for "The Fugitive" four years later, right down to the same Chicago locations/actors in slightly different roles), "The Package" finds TLJ as the on-the-run fugitive being chased by military man Gene Hackman (with ex-wife Joanna Cassidy tagging along) trying to prevent the former from an assassination attempt on either a bad George Bush-lookalike or an excellent Mikhail Gorbachev impersonator. :-P As in "NON" we're in military action/cold war thriller territory but with enough conspiracy theory fuel to give the shootouts/car chases a sense of paranoia/urgency. Dennis Franz's Chicago PD role (same year "Hill Street Blues" was cancelled) was a pleasant surprise. 4 COOKIES & MILK LAST MEALS (out of five).
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)
ReplyDeleteI cant put my finger on it but this flick feels sort of one-of-a-kind even thou its one of many many "dude joins top secret organization to do good". Maybe its that Fred Ward feels so everyman? Not sure. Anyhoo a fun revisit of this silly 80s actioner thats got a lot of "buddy cop" vibe within. Plus the Statue of Liberty set piece is an all timer!!
That was going to be my pick too, but then I happened to see a review that said it's got Joel Grey in yellowface, and I just didn't feel like dealing with that right now, so I picked a different movie.
DeleteRobowar (1988, dir. Bruno Mattei)
ReplyDeleteSpoilers ahead: An elite squad of American soldiers is sent on a secret mission in a Central American jungle. They destroy an enemy camp and rescue a captive woman, but soon realize there's a bigger threat: what they were really sent there to fight was a mysterious creature who has superior firepower, sees its surroundings via a pixelated heads-up-display, and only communicates through distorted recordings of human voices. The team keep firing their guns into the jungle at every sound they hear, but the enemy picks them off one by one, until it all comes down to a head-to-head confrontation between the creature and the squad leader, which ends with the creature triggering a self-destruct device, and the squad leader and the rescued woman are the only ones who escape the jungle. At the end, we get hero shots of all the actors before the credits roll. Sound familiar?
It's as blatant as blatant ripoffs go, they took Predator's script and changed a few small details, the main one being it's a government-built robot they're fighting instead of an alien. It's obviously also a lot cheaper-looking and doesn't have the star power (Reb Brown is no Arnold), but it's still surprisingly well-made, moves at a pace and has Italian hair metal on the soundtrack, so all in all not a bad time.
I encourage you to check out the Strike Commando movies if you liked this! Much of the same Mattei madness!
ReplyDeleteRUNNING ON EMPTY
ReplyDelete(aka Fast Lane Fever)
(1982) dir. John Clark
Basic story. Incomprehensible Aussie accents. A wise and old blind master. But you really came for the street racing between the Fox-1 440-six pack 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, a chopped ‘57 Chevy, and a (literally) flaming Aussie Phase III Ford Falcon GTHO.
The final race is cool but is pretty damn short.
It goes out with a whimper rather than a bang.
American Ninja (1985): You guy could've mentioned it was with the brunette from Weird Science. I missed Cannon day yesterday, so I'm catching up.
ReplyDelete