FILM REVIEW OF ''EASY RIDER" (1969)

Watching Dennis Hopper’s classic, counterculture, road trip “Easy Rider” (1969) co-starring Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, you may wonder what made this movie such a zeitgeist for its time.  Of course, the America of 1969 was turbulent in ways that seem a far cry from contemporary America.  The divisive Vietnam war dominated the headlines. Civil Rights activism had culminated with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and hippie movement with all its flower power had flourished. Reportedly, after Columbia Picture's chief executive Leo Jaffe saw “Easy Rider,” he observed, "I don't know what the f*&k this picture means, but I know we're going to make a f*&k of a lot of money." When you look at the film, the simple plot amounts to little more than a picaresque journey, with our protagonists on a cross-country trip from California to Florida.  They pause along the way to meet a variety of people: a rancher, a commune, hostile Southern diners, and Florida duck hunters who have a blast.  Essentially, “Easy Rider” is a fish-out-of-water fable, with Captain America (Peter Fonda of “The Victors”) and Billy (Dennis Hopper of “Rebel Without a Cause”) as the fish-out-of-water. At the time that it was made, Dennis Hopper was a noted character actor.  Peter Fonda had starred in a few American International drive-in movies, most notably “The Wild Angels,” and Jack Nicholson of “The Raven” was earning his living as a character actor, too.  “Easy Rider” made star of all three.  Arguably, Nicholson went the farthest. Indeed, Nicholson is the heart of “Easy Rider.”  Simultaneously, Nicholson’s small-time lawyer George Hanson inhabits both world: the establishment and the counterculture. Nicholson has the best lines, too.  The meditation that he provides on the meaning of ‘freedom’ are point-on, brilliant. He explains to Billy that Wyatt and he represent a threat to Americans who had pigeon-holed by society’s expectation. Sadly, when Nicholson exits “Easy Rider,” the film never recovers from his passing.  Lenser László Kovács makes everything look spectacular, with our heroes tooling through gorgeous landscapes straight out of vintage westerns.  The source music from Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Jimi Hendrix, Steppenwolf, Fraternity of Man, The Electric Prunes, Smith, and The Byrds enhance the scenes, especially Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” as our heroes hit the road.  Although American International Pictures and other low-budget film companies had exploited “The Wild One” to produce scores of yarns about violent, murderous bikers, “Easy Rider” departs from that formula.  Wyatt and Billy are unarmed and don’t go searching for trouble.  Interestingly, Hopper had filmed a chase with DEA helicopters in hot pursuit of Wyatt and Billy.  Scenes like this would had imitated past motorcycle movies and detracted from the film’s message.  Hopper lensed “Easy Rider” as if it were a documentary, with real-life locals are supporting characters.  Furthermore, he filmed everything on location, using natural light.  The jail cell that Wyatt and Billy occupy with George Hanson is the actual deal. 

Peter Fonda was no stranger to motorcycles when he made "Easy Rider" with Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. This seminal saga cost roughly $360-thousand and reaped $60-million at the box office. Basically, "Easy Rider" is all about intolerance and the Generation Gap in America during the 1960s. A couple of hippies sell cocaine to a wealthy gent (Phil Spector) and then set out for Mari Grais in New Orleans. Along the way, they pick up an alcoholic lawyer, George Hanson (Jack Nicholson of "The Terror") and rednecks ridicule them as they try to eat in a cafe.  Although the older men deride our heroes, the young, impressionable girls in another booth idolize them. Later, these evil rednecks attack our heroes in the wild, and beat the lawyer to death. "Easy Rider" is a forerunner of "Deliverance." In "Easy Rider," rednecks slaughter the angelic but stoned motorcyclists, while the rednecks rape the sportsmen in "Deliverance." Since Hollywood could not depict back rape back in the 1960s, particularly man-on-man--sadistic homosexuality, the rednecks simply beat them up. Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy encounter intolerance from traditional society and die as a consequence of being too different. This is liberal, gonzo film-making at its zenith and it exerted considerable effect on Hollywood and the industry at large. The word is that Fonda and company smoked real marijuana on the set which reflects the indie nature of this venture. Columbia Pictures didn't understand this counter-cultural masterpiece but they embraced its millions. "Easy Rider" couldn't have come at an more opportune time in Hollywood and social history. The imagery of the film influenced the cultural landscape and it appeared at a time of deep social unrest in the post-Civil Rights era. So if the marginal plot—call it existentialism—does nothing for you, the portrait of America and the intolerance displayed toward the hippies stands as an accurate barometer of the times. "Easy Rider" couldn't have been made much earlier because the Production Code Administration had only recently been dismantled in favor of a rating classification system. Fonda and Hopper don't so much deliver believable performances as they inhabit their costumes. Jack Nicholson is simply brilliant as the doomed lawyer George Hanson who understands the moral conscience of the terrain. He summarizes this when he tells Billy, "What you represent to them is freedom." The soundtrack features many tunes of the times that immortalize this picture. For the record, Billy dies from the first shotgun blast. Despite its laid-back pace and routine plot, “Easy Rider” ranks as a landmark picture and speaks volumes about bigotry in America.

A FILM REVIEW OF "BULLET TO THE HEAD" (2013)

Watching the Sylvester Stallone shoot’em up “Bullet to the Head” (**** OUT OF ****) felt like a blast from the past.  This polished but predictable anthology of action movie clichés contains several R-rated, close-quarters, combat scenes with sufficient amounts of blood splatter and gore; some high-octane, fireball explosions; lots of snappy tough guy banter; and surprising displays of frontal female nudity.  Half the scenes reminded me of producer Joel Silver’s explosive, slam-bang, white-knuckled, testosterone-laden tales, such as “Conspiracy Theory,” “Exit Wounds, “Swordfish,” and his “Lethal Weapon” franchise.  Indeed, Silver serves as one of the producers, and “Bullet to the Head” adheres to his formula.  Meanwhile, action auteur Walter Hill drew the other half from his hardboiled melodramas.  For the record, Hill helmed the two “48 Hrs” flicks with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, “Extreme Prejudice” with Nick Nolte, “Last Man Standing” with Bruce Willis, and “Red Heat” co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi.  Although “The Messenger” scenarist Alessandro Camon adapted the Alexis Nolent graphic novel "Du plomb dans la tête,” “Bullet to the Head” looks like “48 Hrs” and/or “Red Heat” clone.  Mind you, “Bullet to the Head” is Hill’s first theatrical release since his gritty 2002 prison melodrama “Undisputed” with Ving Rhames and Wesley Snipes.  During his absence from the big screen, Hill helmed the premiere episode of HBO’s “Deadwood,” and then the television mini-series western “Broken Trail” (2006) costarring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church.”  In many respects, this action-packed, largely straightforward, odd couple buddy picture compares favorably with earlier, exceptional Stallone sagas like “Assassins,” “The Specialist,” and “Demolition Man.”  Most definitely, it surpasses “Tango and Cash” and “Stop, Or My Mom Will Shoot.”

Cast as a seasoned hit-man in the Crescent City, Sylvester Stallone tangles with a mysterious cabal of Big Easy investors who have the New Orleans Police Department on their payroll.  Director Walter Hill has juggled the occupations of the protagonists from his earlier buddy picture epics.  The cop was always the lead in the combo in the “48 Hrs” movies and “Red Heat.”  This time around, world-weary, career criminal James “Bobo” Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone of “Rocky”) is the lead, while saintly, Washington, D.C. Detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang of “Fast & Furious”) behaves rather naively and relies too much on his cell phone.  Ironically, the two men want to exact vengeance for the deaths of their former partners.  They agree to form an uneasy alliance, but Kwon’s conscience prompts him to constrain Bonomo. These two don’t immediately run into each other. When the plot unfolds, Bonomo and his partner Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda of “Bad Boys 2”) masquerade as cops to snuff a cocaine-snorting thug, Hank Greely (Holt McCallany of “Fight Club”), in a motel room.  Bonomo spots a tattooed prostitute cowering in the shower, but he lets her live.  This amoral murderer draws the line at shooting women.  When he is behind the wheel on the road, he swerves to avoid stray cats in front of him.  “It’s bad luck,” he assures Louis.  These two show up at a crowded bar where they are supposed to pick up the balance of their loot for the shooting.  Before either realizes they have been double-crossed, another assassin, Keegan (Jason Momoa of “Conan”), stabs poor Louis repeatedly to death in front of everybody.  He wields a small blade to hack both of Louis’ lungs so nobody in the noisy bar knows a murder has occurred.  Keegan isn’t quite as lucky with Bonomo.  Now, Bonomo wants payback.  Our hero crosses paths with a hard-nosed, Washington, D.C. police detective who is visiting New Orleans.  As it turns out, Hank Greely was his former partner in Washington.  Kwon wants the people who ordered Hank’s demise.  Sure, neither Bonomo nor Kwon have much use for each other initially, but they kind of grow on one other as they survive back-to-back fracases. 

Hill stages some gripping shoot-out scenes that genre fans will savor, and you get to see Silver's trademark Ka-Boom explosions!  Hill never lets the narrative bog down in aimless chatter or an over elaborate plot.  Stallone’s character provides deadpan narration throughout the pyrotechnics so you never take anything seriously in “Bullet to the Head.”  “Bullet to the Head” is not unlike a Tarantino thriller.  Camon and Hill wrap up everything, but leave room for a sequel since the hero’s daughter and the D.C. cop are dating.  At 66 years of age, Sylvester Stallone appears as fit as a fiddle.  This is the kind of movie where guys shed shirts and clash muscles.  He channels a little bit of “Rocky” in his tongue-in-cheek performance.  The ax fight between beefy, muscle-bound Jason Momoa and Stallone has been carefully edited to present both to maximum advantage.  You know Stallone is going to triumph, but Momoa doesn’t make it look easy.  Momoa makes a lusty villain.  No less villainous is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as a crippled, African investor has no qualms about murder.  Christian Slater appears briefly as a smarmy swindler with a flash drive around his neck that boasts the goods of everybody.  The interrogation scene is pretty amusing.  Clocking in at a lean, mean, 97 minutes, “Bullet to the Head” doesn’t wear out its welcome.  You don’t even have to wait around to see what’s after the end credits so you can clear out early.  Were it not for the pedigree talent involved, “Bullet to the Head” would qualify at best as a three-star rather than a four-star movie.  If you still like Stallone, you'll love "Bullet to the Head" because it is worth shelling out the bucks to watch this Spartan saga.

FILM REVIEW OF ''ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER" (2012)

Rarely does the cinematic adaptation of a novel surpass its literary source. Happily, "Wanted" director Timur Bekmambetov's movie "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" proves the exception to the rule. Author Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote the epistolary bestseller, also penned the imaginative screenplay. Incidentally, Grahame-Smith forged the monster-mash-up literary genre. In 2009, he spliced elements of a zombie story into a revised version of Jane Austin's classic masterpiece "Pride and Prejudice." The result was the "New York Times" bestseller "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Afterward, he wrote "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" and added vampire slaying to Lincoln's list of accomplishments. Compared with Grahame-Smith's 2010 bestseller, the celluloid version of "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" (**** out of ****) is ten times better. Primarily, Bekmambetov's chiller dispenses with all the plodding biographical parts of Grahame-Smith's bestseller and pits the eponymous hero against a thoroughly evil chief villain. Anybody who has read the novel knows that the journal Lincoln kept about his efforts to eradicate fangsters is what prompts a 21st century writer into reassemble Lincoln's real life with his fantasy exploits. Meantime, Bekmambetov and Grahame-Smith adopt a serious approach to their bizarre subject matter. Nothing about the vampire hunting deeds of Lincoln is depicted with a wink and a nudge. If you saw director Tim Burton's abominably campy "Dark Shadows," neither Burton nor Grahame-Smith treated the venerable Gothic day-time soap opera with anything resembling either respect or sobriety. Instead, "Dark Shadows" owed more to Burton's "Beetlejuice" than Dan Curtis' soaper. Bekmambetov and Grahame-Smith didn't commit the same mistake.  They play “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” straight-up, seriously, with spectacle to spare.

"Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" unfolds in the year 1818, in Indiana. Our hero (newcomer Lux Haney-Jardine) witnesses first-hand the immorality of slavery. A slaver lashes one of young Abe's friends, William Johnson (Curtis Harris of "Touched"), with a whip and leaves a scar on his cheek for life. We learn that the youth was struggling to prevent his family from being split up and sold down river. Lincoln's father intervenes, and his boss, Jack Barts (Marton Csokas of "Æon Flux"), fires him and then demands immediate payment of his debts. The defiant Lincoln refuses to pay up. Later, that night, Barts slips into their isolated wooden house and bites Nancy Lincoln. Young Abe witnessed this murderous deed and vows to avenge his mom's demise. The legendary rails splitter has grown up considerably when he tries to kill Bart by shooting him at point blank range with a cap and ball black powder pistol. Miraculously, at least to Abe's way of thinking, his quarry survives the bullet that lodges permanently in his right eye. Barts retaliates, but another individual, Henry Sturgess ((Dominic Cooper of "Captain America: The First Avenger"), comes to Abe's rescue. Lincoln manages to escape, and Sturgess explains why Barts didn't bite the dust. Thereafter, Sturgess trains Lincoln in the art of killing vampires. Since our hero is an incredibly terrible marksman, he falls back onto his own weapon of preference—an ax. Lincoln accepts Sturgess' Vampires 101 tutelage, but the lessons come with a condition. Lincoln must kill other vampires who constitute a greater menace before Sturgess will allow him to dispatch with Barts.

Abe relocates to Springfield, Illinois, becomes a clerk in a general store and studies law in his spare time when he isn't pursuing his vampire prey. Of course, nobody can know anything about his secret.  Honest Abe's best laid plans backfire when Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead of "The Thing") enters the store with an order for him to fill. Abe doesn't classify himself as a ladies' man so he is surprised when Mary takes an interest in him. Abe's employer and best friend, Joshua Speed (Jimmi Simpson of "Zodiac"), wrangles them an invitation to a dance where Abe meets Mary again. Despite Henry Sturgess' warnings that Abe should shun companionship since it might interfere with his nocturnal hunting, Abe starts dating Mary. Meanwhile, Abe carries out Henry's orders and becomes such a proficient vampire killer, eventually slaughtering Jack Barts, that he arouses the wrath of the oldest of all vampires, Adam (Rufus Sewell of "Dark City"), who lives in the South. According to Adam, vampires have roamed the earth for 5000 years searching for a place that they can call home.  They like the south because slavery provides them with a steady flow of blood.  Adam exploits Abe's friendship with William (Anthony Mackie of "Real Steel"), who is still searching for his relatives. Adam invites Abe and William to his Louisiana Plantation, and plans to eliminate the vampire hunter. Of course, Abe thwarts Adam's plans, wipes out a number of vampires, and then marries Mary and embarks on his prestigious career as the Great Emancipator until Adam and vampires take sides with Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy.

 “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter” is the first time that Hollywood has appropriated a venerable figure such as Lincoln since the 2001 spoof “Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter.”  This ultra low-budget, Canadian-produced, musical comedy with chopsocky combat sequences paired the Messiah with Mexican wrestling sensation El Santos to battle lesbian vampires! Comparatively, Bekmambetov and Grahame-Smith take themselves and the Great Emancipator much more seriously in their radical make-over of the politician. The concept that Lincoln carried out cold-blooded executions of vampires during the 19th century would turn anybody's head, including Mr. Lincoln. The discrepancy between the real-life warrior and his audacious literary alter-ego may be more than some audiences can wrap their heads around. Mind you, "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" doesn't turn Lincoln into a figure of ridicule. Tastefully, Bekmambetov and Grahame-Smith have refrained from covering all the tragedy in Lincoln's life during his tenure in the Oval Office. Unlike the novel, the film deals only partially with everything before Lincoln accompanies his wife to the Ford Theater. The writer and the director have eliminated anything that doesn't propel the action forward, and they have replaced dull scenes with exciting ones.  Lincoln emerges as Brue Lee with an ax to grind. You won't find the flaming trestle that a munitions train must cross in the novel, and the book lacks a central villain. Happily, Rufus Sewell delivers an impeccable performance as the chief vampire villain. The vampires appear rather frightening. Bekmambetov and Grahame-Smith have conjured up some new rules that aren't universal for the genre. First, vampires can rough up other vampires, but they are not allowed to kill each other. Second, these vampires can become invisible in the blink of an eye. Third, the secret weapon that our heroes must stockpile to thwart their evil designs is silver. A human can drop a vampire stone-dead in its tracks with a silver bullet. Although it clocks in at 105 minutes, "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" never wears out its welcome.