FILM REVIEW OF ''X-MEN: APOCALYPSE" (2016)

Although it isn’t coining the box office receipts that “Captain America: Civil War” commanded, “X-Men: Apocalypse” (**** OUT OF ****) surpasses “Captain America” with lavish spectacle, brinksmanship suspense, and fertile fantasy.  Part of the reason is that Twentieth Century Fox produces the “X-Men” movies, while Walt Disney Studios handles the “Captain America” franchise.  The “X-Men” franchise displays greater edge and paranoia than the formulaic, facetious, Disney Marvel franchises.  For example, the body count in “The Usual Suspects” director Bryan Singer’s latest Marvel Comics adventure “X-Men: Apocalypse” is double, perhaps even triple that of “Captain America.”  “Sherlock Holmes” scenarist Simon Kinberg and Singer have no problem with liquidating some X-Men characters.  Meantime, Disney produces Marvel sagas where few super-heroes suffer permanent injury.  The divide and take sides “Captain America: Civil War” concluded in a stalemate with Cap and Iron Man playing patty-cake.  The inescapable problem that Singer and Kinberg face in the ninth “X-Men” franchise entry is predictability.  The original “X-Men” trilogy charted the story of Xavier’s mutant super-heroes along chronological lines.  The second “X-Men” trilogy, starting with “X-Men: First Class” (2011), then “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014), and finally “X-Men: Apocalypse” ventures backward in time, examining the origins of various characters.  “X-Men: First Class” dealt with the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” unfolded at the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, and “X-Men: Apocalypse” transpires in the 1980s.  “X-Men: Apocalypse” makes several allusions to “X-Men: First Class” about Professor Xavier’s romance with CIA Agent Moira MacTaggert.  Since the second “X-Men” trilogy occurs before the original trilogy, we know the principal characters are in little danger of annihilation.  Nevertheless, Simon Kinberg’s screenplays for those three films have all been imaginative, audacious, with the X-Men taking things to the brink.  Clocking in at an extensive 144 minutes, “X-Men: Apocalypse” doesn’t wear out its welcome, and Singer doesn’t short-change his packed ensemble cast.  Furthermore, the malevolent Apocalypse in his first full-blown cinematic incarnation proves to be a challenging opponent.  “X-Men: Apocalypse” qualifies as a larger-than-life but slam-bang, sci-fi supernatural saga staged with considerable intellect, wit, and panache.

 

“X-Men: Apocalypse” opens during a pharaoh’s burial ceremony in ancient Egypt in 3,600 B.C. Naturally, Singer relies on spectacular CGI special effects galore to conjure up this vast, sprawling, ceremony as the first mutant, Apocalypse, finds himself betrayed by a duplicitous cabal.  They trap Apocalypse in a pyramid, and the structure vanishes into the earth for 5,600 years until the 1980s when CIA Agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne of “Bridesmaids”) stumbles onto it.  She finds a passage that leads to Apocalypse’s burial chamber.  A cult has been struggling to resurrect the notorious lord, and Apocalypse emerges from captivity to find the world greatly altered from his day.  Dark and sinister, with tubes curving out of the back of his head, Apocalypse emerges as an ominous figure in a bizarre outfit.  He saves a Cairo street thief, Ororo Munroe (Alexandra Shipp of “Straight Outta Compton”), from two vigilantes.  Eventually, Ororo will become Storm. He recruits a fallen angel, Angel (newcomer Ben Hardy), and Apocalypse transforms Angel’s wings into steel so he has the ability to hurl razor-sharp metal feathers which are comparable to machetes.  The most important recruit that Apocalypse attracts is Magneto, Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender of “Prometheus”), who is in no mood to love mankind.  Erik has suffered another great personal tragedy.  During the intervening ten years since the events in “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” Erik has maintained a low profile as a factory worker in Poland.  Sadly, he is forced to reveal his mutant ability to manipulate metal when he saves a fellow factory worker from certain death. Unfortunately, the local authorities descend on him with bows & arrows.  Magneto flees and joins Apocalypse. Apocalypse is appalled at everything that has transpired during his protracted absence, and he decides to change everything with the help of Erik, Storm, Angel, and a “Wonder Woman” lookalike warrior Psylocke (Olivia Munn of “Ride Along 2”), who boasts both telepathic and telekinetic abilities and dresses like a dominatrix. The collateral damage that Apocalypse and his henchmen create overwhelms the entire Disney Marvel Universe.  Impudently, Apocalypse prompts all of the superpowers to launch their nuclear warheads into space where the ordinance will be useless and civilization will depend on the intervention of Professor Xavier (James McAvoy of “Wanted”) and the X-Men that are a lot younger than their predecessors.  Happily, Jennifer Lawrence reprises her role as Raven, and Nicholas Hoult returns as Hank McCoy aka Beast.

 

As exemplary as “X-Men: Apocalypse” is, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” still tops it, but the two movies differ in terms of scope.  Director Bryan Singer isn’t as enamored with the 1980s in “X-Men: Apocalypse” as he was with the 1970s in “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” He cuts back and forth between the heroes and the villains as they clash.  This extravaganza serves up one good scene after another.  Two of the best occur when Peter Maximoff (Evan Peters of “Kick Ass”) aka Quicksilver and Wolverine demonstrate their respective skills. Quicksilver embarks on a rescue mission at Xavier’s School for Gifted Children after the building comes under attack. Quicksilver darts about like a wraith snatching somebody here and seizing somebody there, before the house collapses in a pile of smoking rubble.  This scene provides some genuine levity in the middle of Apocalypse’s devastating plans to renovate planet Earth. Without divulging too much information, Wolverine’s solitary scene is as savage as it is sensational. The grand finale between Charles and Apocalypse is a drawn-out, but exciting exercise that drums up white-knuckled suspense. The evil first mutant intends to freight his consciousness into Xavier's body and then appropriate Xavier's gift to connect with everybody’s mind on the planet. While Charles and Apocalypse tangle like maniacs, the X-Men have their hands full with Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen.

If you haven’t kept up with the “X-Men” cinematic universe, you may find its plot difficult to follow.

FILM REVIEW OF ''JOHN CARTER" (2012)

Oscar winning "Finding Nemo" director Andrew Stanton struggles to make Edgar Rice Burroughs' vintage cowboys and aliens epic "John Carter" (**1/2 out of ****) into a spontaneous, larger-than-life, saga about tyranny and rebellion on the Red Planet. Mind you, Asylum Entertainment beat Disney Studios to the punch with its own abysmal adaptation of the Burroughs' novel "A Princess of Mars" that recycled just about every genre cliché. Essentially, Disney and Stanton have delivered what qualifies as a synthesis of "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Star Wars." This is one of those sci-fi actioneers with a universe populated by anthropomorphic animals and mythological "Clash of the Titans" intermediaries. Burroughs penned his colorful pulp escapism about a century ago in 1912 before stories like it became commonplace. Since Hollywood lacked the computer generated technology to make the world of fantasy appear believable on celluloid, the filmmakers preoccupied themselves with Burroughs' less challenging Tarzan novels. By the time Tinsel town conjured up the technology to produce movies about similar escapades on other worlds, the studios had gone off on their own tangents. In other words, the John Carter novels languished in obscurity, while later epics like "Star Wars," "Dune," and "Avatar" emerged and appropriated similar themes. What had been groundbreaking when Burroughs wrote it now looks hackneyed, even though Burroughs forged the formula that others imitated. The cinematic "John Carter" gives new meaning to the adage about the first being last. Sadly, too, despite its imaginative special effects, this yarn amounts to another cookie cutter, sci-fi/fantasy melodrama that suffers from a sense of déjà vu.

Disillusioned Confederate cavalry officer John Carter (Taylor Kitsch of "The Covenant") is prospecting for gold in Arizona when the U.S. Seventh Cavalry tries to recruit him to combat hostile Apaches. Carter refuses not only because this isn't his fight, but also because he has already the Civil War claimed the lives of his wife and daughter. Carter escapes from the guardhouse, purloins a horse, and absconds into wilds. Our hero doesn't get far before he finds himself caught between pugnacious Apaches and trigger-happy cavalrymen. Gunfire erupts and Carter struggles to escape from the predatory redskins. Scrambling for the sanctuary of a cave that the superstitious savages refuse to enter, he surprises an ethereal alien with a supernatural medallion. Carter blasts this extraterrestrial, confiscates the pendant, and then suddenly finds himself sprawled on distant Mars. Mars resembles the desolate American southwest with its inhospitable terrain and inhabitants. He encounters tall, light-green warriors. These fellows boast an additional pair of arms, heads that resemble the Mutant Ninja Turtles, and large three-toed feet. These four-armed creatures with small tusks protruding from their jaws behave like barbarous African tribesmen and have domesticated animals to serve as their beasts of burden. When Carter isn't tangling with their garrulous giants, he contends with striking humanoid natives covered with tattoos who fly extraordinary mechanical airships which resemble Leonardo da Vinci's designs. The barbarians reside in the outlands, while the humanoids live in metropolitan cities of Helium and Zodanga.

Basically, a civil war has been raging for a thousand years between these rivals when John Carter arrives. The treacherous Sab Than (Dominic West), Jeddak of Zodanga wants to slaughter the citizens of Helium. A mysterious society of Therns, led by the villainous Matai Shang (Mark Strong of "The Green Lantern"), who serve the goddess Issus, intervenes and arms the Zodangans with a powerful weapon called the Ninth Ray. Helium has nothing to match this devastating blue laser technology. The ubiquitous Therns, however, refuse to let the Zodangans annihilate Helium. They advise Sab Than to marry the Princess of Helium, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins), to create a stronger society. The defiant Princess flees, and Sab Than pursues her. He destroys her ship, buts she falls into John Carter's arms. On Mars, our eponymous protagonist isn't the same fellow as he was in Virginia. He can leap vast distances and packs a haymaker of a punch that drops his adversaries as if they were straw. Predictably, Carter falls in love with the princess, and she reciprocates. Stanton, "Samurai Jack" scenarist Mark Andrews, and "Spider-Man 2" scribe Michael Chabon do a fair to middling job with their adaptation. Happily, this franchise inducing nonsense isn't too Disney-esque, but they have taken considerable liberties with Burroughs' book. Anybody who has seen enough sci-fi fantasies will spot the elements that inspired those who came after Burroughs to use them in their movies. Essentially, "John Carter" constitutes a "Stranger in a Strange Land." Like the quintessential adventurer, our hero embarks on a long journey and blunders into a civil war of sorts between two antagonistic factions.

 

You don't need Cliff Notes to distinguish the heroes from the villains on Mars. Incidentally, Mars isn't really Mars. Instead, the natives refer to it as Barsoom. One of the problems with any movie about an alien world is the environment as well as the natives. Everything might as well be happening on Earth for all of the difference that it makes. Since our hero is a foreigner on Mars, he learns rather painfully that his human powers enable him to do things in their atmosphere that he couldn't accomplish at home. The action often bogs down in complications, and it appears that some of the plot doesn't reach the screen. Further, the leads lack charisma. Taylor Kitsch supplies sufficient brawn, but he acts like a wooden Johnny Depp, while Lynn Collins looks like she has spent more time in the gym than a science laboratory. Dominic West fares best with his arrogant portrayal of an enemy bent on destruction, but you never really hate him with any passion. He is more of a pawn of the Therns. The enigmatic Therns are an irritating bunch of opportunists with a nasty habit of shape-shifting into other characters.

Altogether, despite it picturesque settings, "John Carter" emerges as a predictable yarn that delivers few revelations.

FILM REVIEW OF ''CAPTAIN AMERICA" (2011)

“Rocketeer” director Joe Johnston’s “Captain America” (**** OUT OF ****) amounts to a timeless David versus Goliath tale set in the Marvel Comics’ universe where good always trumps evil. Unlike “Thor” and “Green Lantern,” “Captain America” ranks as a thoroughly spectacular but larger-than-life extravaganza with a genuinely charismatic hero struggling against a marvelously malignant villain. Chris Evans’ engaging performance as the ‘First Avenger’ is something else, too! If you recall, Evans had the time of his life several years ago playing egotistical Johnny Storm, aka ‘the Human Torch,’ in the two “Fantastic Four” flicks. Make no mistake; Evans is nothing like he was in those two super heroic sagas. Indeed, “Captain America” boasts some amazing special effects, but its best special effect is the sincerity that Evans brings to the role of Steve Rogers. Whether he plays Rogers as either a scrawny, 98-pound zero or a brawny, fleet-footed hero, Evans imparts heart to this $140-million thriller. During the first half of “Captain America,” Johnston gradually builds the momentum to let us grow accustomed to Evans as a scrappy little fellow who suffers the wrath of bullies. This pathetic weakling refuses to let anybody keep him down, and it’s fun because Evans makes it look so authentic despite the obvious CGI effects. Hugo Weaving registers as the ideal villain who holds the upper hand throughout most of the supercharged shenanigans. Tommy Lee Jones and Hayley Atwell co-star respectively as Captain America’s superior and his love interest.

“Captain America” opens in the present before it reverts to the past. Typically, movies with contemporary openings and endings sacrifice any sense of suspense. After all, you know if the characters thrive in the present that they must not have suffered in the past. Basically, this constitutes nothing more than a narrative cinematic convention. The chief difference here is that we’re only given a glimpse of Captain America’s legendary star-spangled shield instead of the eponymous protagonist himself. Anyway, the film unfolds in the frozen wasteland of the Arctic Circle as a Russian oil expedition stumbles onto something buried in the ice. They contact the Americans who slice into the ice with a laser, find a commodious craft of unknown origin, and uncover a circular red, white, and blue shield with a star. The scene shifts to March 1942 as despicable Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving of “The Matrix”) and his men storm into Tønsberg, Norway, and confiscate an enigmatic tesseract. Essentially, this is a magical cube boasting incalculable power. Supposedly, the tesseract was a fabulous jeweled artifact that belonged to the legendary Norse god Odin. Once anybody lays their eyes on it, they are no longer the same.

Meanwhile, in New York City, the U.S. military brands Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) unfit for duty owing to a myriad of health problems. The resilient Rogers tries to enlist again when his buddy James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes (Sebastian Stan of “Black Swan”) takes him to a showcase of futuristic technologies. Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci of “Easy A”) eavesdrops on Rogers' conversation with Barnes about his desperate need to get into combat. Suitably impressed by Rogers’ attitude, Erskine allows him to enlist. Moreover, Erskine recruits Rogers as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under the aegis of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones of “Coal Miner's Daughter”) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell of “The Duchess”). Phillips displays considerable skepticism about Erskine's contention that Rogers qualifies as the ideal candidate for the procedure. One day during a training exercise, Phillips lobs a grenade among the recruits. Everybody but Rogers scrambles for cover, while he smothers the grenade with his frail body. Predictably, the grenade is a dummy, but Rogers’ act of self-sacrificing bravery convinces the colonel that he is the appropriate choice.

No sooner has Rogers emerged from the procedure as an entirely new man with a buffed up body than a Nazi saboteur steps in and kills Erskine. As it turns out, Erskine keep no notes except those in his head. After Erskine dies, Rogers experiences his new-found strength and captures the saboteur. The saboteur lives long enough to warn Rogers that he has to face more of his kind before he crunches on a cyanide capsule and croaks. Roger wins fame and acclaim across the country, but he suffers a setback because he is the first and only of his kind. Colonel Phillips reassigns him and Roger ends up at War Bond rallies where he acts like a cheerleader surrounded by dancing girls. Eventually, when our hero learns that his best friend has been caught, he disobeys orders and leads an inspirational rescue behind enemy lines. Now that Rogers has proven himself, he must face the Red Skull. The Red Skull is Nazi officer Johann Schmidt and he is so ambitious that he not only wants to crush America but also Adolf Hitler. Talk about a villain to end all villains!

Anybody who has read the reprints of the World War 2 era “Captain America” comic book should be thrilled with the way that “The Chronicles of Narnia” scenarists Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have handled the original material by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Of course, Johnston and his scribes have ratcheted up the hardware for the big transformation scene that turns Steve Rodgers into Captain America. In the original comic, instead of being injected with several drugs and sprawling in a large contraption, Rogers was given a vial of chemicals that he drank before he turned into the eponymous hero. Altogether, “Captain America” is a predictable but entertaining comic book movie with sensational special effects and a sympathetic hero. If you are a Marvel Comic fan, you should stick around after the lengthy end credits for a glimpse of the forthcoming “Avengers” film due for release in May 2012.

FILM REVIEW OF ''G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF THE COBRA" (2009)

“Van Helsing” director Stephen Sommers pays tribute to several Hollywood blockbusters in his latest effort “G.I. Joe, The Rise of the Cobra,” (*** out of ****)the second-live action film celebrating the legendary line of Hasbro action figures. Sommers makes allusions in “G.I. Joe” to the James Bond epics “Moonraker,” “Thunderball,” and “The Spy Who Loved Me” as well as the Clint Eastwood Cold War thriller “Firefox” and Jean-Claude Van Damme sci-fi flick “Universal Soldier. “G.I. Joe” bristles with larger-than-life heroes and villains clashing with super-charged weapons amid futuristic pyrotechnics. Not surprisingly, characterization takes a backseat to the high-octane, adrenalin-laced action sequences. Sadly, the formulaic storyline doesn’t spring as many surprises as most big action films, but Sommers keeps the action moving swiftly.

A treacherous Scottish arms dealer named James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston of "Dr. Who"), who is in league with a vast criminal organization called COBRA, has spent ten years creating a apocalyptic new weapon with NATO funding. McCullen’s Mars Weapons Company have subverted microscopic green nanomites originally used to eliminate cancer into feisty little buggers can munch their way through either the armor on an army tank or the Eiffel Tower. McCullen presents this formidable weapon to NATO, and our two heroes, U.S. Army officers Duke (Channing Tatum of “Public Enemies”) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans of “Dance Movie”), escort it via a heavily armed convoy with Apache helicopters flying overhead as escorts. Out of nowhere the military escort is ambushed. A stealthy ninja in white, Storm Shadow (South Korean superstar Byung-hun Lee), and a spectacularly sexy kick-butt babe-in-black, the Baroness (Sienna Miller of “Factory Girl”), try to steal the suitcase containing the four warheads with the deadly nano technology. Duke recognizes the Baroness as a girl that he almost married. Fortunately, our heroes manage to hang onto the warheads because the elite G.I. Joe commando team intervenes and thwarts the villains. A black-clad ninja, Snake Eyes (Ray Park of “Fanboys”), crosses swords with Shadow Storm. As we learn afterwards, these guys have a history of hate. Later, the villains manage to reprogram a homing device in the suitcase and the Baroness and her team invades the G.I. Joe headquarters—called the Pit--deep beneath the desert sands of the Sahara in Egypt. They catch the heroes off guard, wound General Hawk, and steal the warheads.

McCullen has teamed up with a malevolent scientific genius, the Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of “The Look Out”), who injects this nano serum into soldiers. We see one soldier thrust his arm into a glass case housing a venomous cobra and the snake bites him. The soldier withdraws his arm and the nano technology in his bloodstream repels the venom. You see it leak out of his wounds. We're talking some bad mothers here! McCullen wants to demonstrate to the world how lethal his cannibalistic nano technology is and dispatches his minions to Paris to destroy the Eiffel Tower. Meanwhile, Duke and Ripcord convince General Hawk (Dennis Quaid of “Vantage Point”) to let them join the team in exchange for Duke’s information about the Baroness. Duke had planned to marry her, but things got complicated when he made a promise to look after her brother during a raid in Africa. Our heroes pass all the grueling trials, including some devised by a combat instructor (Brendan Fraser of the “Mummy” movies in a cameo). Duke and Ripcord don a couple of accelerator outfits, created by the Stan Winston Studio, which enable them to hoof it around Paris at 40 miles per hour, dodge missiles streaking toward them, and hurtle cars like daredevils, as they pursue the Baroness and Shadow Storm. This qualifies as the best action scene in “G.I. Joe.”

At 118 minutes, “G.I. Joe” rarely sacrifices its momentum, except to plunge us into frequent flashbacks so we can learn important events that shaped the lives of the heroes and the villains. The Stuart Beattie, David Elliot and Paul Lovett screenplay isn't for an instant remotely believable, but the action is pretty exciting. Unfortunately, predictability sets in early, enough so that a couple of revelations lack sufficient punch. Furthermore, Sommers and his scribes shun any effort to create characters here because that would interfere with the hyper-kinetic action sequences.

Sommers directs with a sure hand, but the humor that made his previous movies so charming is conspicuously absent. The chief villain mimics the James Bond villain Drax from “Moonraker” (1979) because he steals his own weapons back from the military. Later, Ripcord pilots a state-of-the-art “Firefox” jet with a sophisticated weapons system that responds to vocal commands instead of hands-on application. He has to chase two deadly missiles before each destroys major world capitals, another cliffhanger “Moonraker” ploy, and blast them to smithereens. The massive polar ice cap base that the COBRA organization has built recalls another Bond bonanza “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Kevin J. O'Connor and Arnold Vosloo are two other “Mummy” cast members who show up here, and Vosloo gets to impersonate the President. The nanomites recall the scarabs that swarmed throughout “The Mummy.”

People who loved the “G.I. Joe” cartoon show might be in a better, more informed position to criticize this actioneer. However, it should be known that Ripcord wasn’t an African-American in the cartoon but the villains did launch an assault on the Eiffel Tower. The performances here are serviceable. Channing Tatum seems rather leaden, but then most action heroes are one-dimensional. Our heroes aren’t as flamboyant as the villains. Christopher Eccleston chews the scenery with considerable relish like his nanomites and makes a fantastic villain, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes the most of his evil doctor. Although it isn’t as audacious as “Transformers 2,” “G.I. Joe” ranks as an above-average testosterone thriller, with an ending that leaves the film open to an inevitable sequel.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE PROFESSIONALS'' (1966)

“Blackboard Jungle” director Richard Brooks produced one of the most exciting, exceptionally made western actioneers of the 1960s with his epic shoot’em up “The Professionals.” Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster headed a top-notch cast in this Columbia Pictures’ release that co-starred Jack Palance, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Robert Ryan, and Ralph Bellamy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science nominated “The Professionals” for three Oscars. Although he had already received an Oscar for Best Directing for his 1960 adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel “Elmer Gantry,” Brooks received bids for Best Directing again and Best Screenwriting, adapted from another medium, principally Frank O’Rourke’s novel, “A Mule for the Marquesa,” while ace lenser Conrad Hall got the nod for Best Cinematography. Hall went on to shoot “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” as well as “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.” The Academy nominated Hall ten times for Best Cinematography and he won three times, on “Butch Cassidy,” “The Road to Perdition” and “American Beauty.

Set in the early twentieth century, this atmospheric oater ranks as one of the best soldier-of-fortune sagas ever filmed. Primarily, Hollywood filmmakers preferred to confine their westerns to the late nineteenth century, largely between the end of the American Civil War and the official closing of the frontier in 1890. As early as 1934, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a biographical opus about the infamous exploits of rebel leader Pancho Villa, Jack Conway’s “Viva, Villa” with Wallace Beery. Indeed, many B-westerns, some starring John Wayne and Bob Steele respectively, shifted their settings back and forth from the old frontier to contemporary frontier, but Hollywood rarely made a western set between 1900 and 1920 until the 1950s. Some of the most prestigious examples include Eli Kazan’s “Viva, Zapata!” with Marlon Brando, George Sherman’s “The Treasure of Pancho Villa” with Rory Calhoun and Gilbert Roland, Richard Fleischer’s “Bandido” with Robert Mitchum, and Robert Rossen’s “They Came to Cordura” with Gary Cooper.

“The Professionals” occurs on the eve of America’s entry into World War I. By the time that “The Professionals” came out, European filmmakers like Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Leone had discovered the narrative advantages of these twentieth century outings. Chiefly, the level of violence escalated because combatants could deploy water-cooled machine guns to mow down the opposition as well as larger artillery pieces, automatic firearms, and hand grenades. Sam Peckinpah made what is probably the greatest post-frontier western in 1969 with “The Wild Bunch” starring William Holden and Robert Ryan. In director Ralph Nelson’s “The Wrath of God” (1972), Robert Mitchum played an Irishman on the run in Mexico who totes around a Thompson submachine gun in a suitcase.

Oil baron and railroad tycoon J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy of “His Girl Friday”) summons three individuals: Henry ‘Rico’ Fardan (Oscar winner Lee Marvin of “Cat Ballou”), Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan of “The Tall Men”) and Jacob Sharp (Woody Strode of “Spartacus”) and offers them $10-thousand dollars a piece to rescue his beautiful trophy wife Maria (drop-dead gorgeous Claudia Cardinale of “The Pink Panther”) from a despicable Mexican bandit chieftain Jesus Raza (Jack Palance of “Shane”) who has kidnapped her and taken her back to Mexico to a remote stronghold fortress a 100 miles into a desert hellhole. Each of these soldiers-of-fortune possesses a specific talent. Fardan is a weapons expert and tactician who fought in the Philippine campaign and rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in Cuba. Currently, Fardan earns $40 dollars a week demonstrating automatic weapons for the military. African-American Jacob Sharp is the most dependable scout and tracker in the territory who is a specialist with rifle, rope and longbow. Hans Ehrengard is an ex-cavalryman, cattle boss, bull-whacker, and pack master. He supervises the loading of the equipment. Ehrengard has a great compassion for horse flesh and this characteristic jeopardizes the mission at one point. When Grant assembles the horses and brags about them, Ehrengard explains that they will need more than speed to complete this mission. “You’ll have to make them do,” Grant states. “I can make them go, Mr. Grant, but I can’t make do.” When Grant describes their adversary as “the bloodiest cutthroat in Mexico,” Fardan reacts with faint surprise because he has “the highest respect” for Raza. As it turns out, Raza and Fardan are old friends who fought together with Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution.

Grant shows Fardan the ransom letter, and Grant’s Hispanic liaison, Ortega (Joe De Santis of “The Last Hunt”), informs Fardan that Raza has mobilized about 150 gunmen. Fardan advises Grant to pay the ransom, but Grant doesn’t think that he will get his wife back even after he pays up. Grant tries to sell Fardan and company on his audacious scheme to rescue his wife. “It’d take a battalion at least a month, but a few daring men, specialists, led by you, could do it in one bold, swift stroke.” Fardan shakes his head. “What we need is an equalizer,” Fardan points out. “Name him,” Grant demands, and Fardan shows Grant a message that he received from one of his closest pals, Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster of “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral”), who is currently stewing in jail with nothing but his Stetson and his long johns. Lancaster’s introduction early on (he’s caught in bed with another man’s wife) is amusing. Dolworth is a wizard with explosives “with a delicate touch to blow out a candle without putting a dent in the candleholder.” “Eight hundred dollars will bail him,” Fardan stipulates. “But can he be trusted,” Grant demands. “I trust him,” Fardan assures the tycoon. Grant bails out Dolworth and Dolworth appreciates Fardan’s intervention. “What’s the proposition,” he inquires as Fardan hands him a bottle of whiskey. “You won’t lose your pants, your life maybe, but what’s that worth.” Dolworth gulps some whiskey, “Hardly anything at all.” Dolworth is surprised when Fardan tells him about Raza kidnapping Grant’s wife and even more so by the ransom demand. “What makes a wife worth a hundred thousand dollars?” Dolworth muses. “Some women can turn men into boys,” Fardan observes, “and boys into men.” Dolworth grins, “That’s a woman worth saving.”

Suspicious things begin to happen no sooner than our heroes leave Grant’s headquarters. They are told to ride by night and camp out by day. They encounter a group of bandits and have to shoot it out with them. Fardan explains to his companions that he has situated in the mountains above the pass where they will meet the bandits that if the bandit leader removes his sombrero and covers his gun with it to open fire. Indeed, the lead bandit takes off his hat and passes it across his six-gun as he bids our heroes to “go with God.” Fardan and Dolworth cut loose while Jacob and Ehrengard fire away from their concealed positions in the rocks above the pass. Afterward, our heroes bury the dead bandits and Dolworth wants to shoot the horses that the desperados rode. Ehrengard objects. Fardan explains that the horses will head back to the camp, but Ehrengard opines that they will head north to the river. Fardan lets them go and they finish burying the bandits. Dolworth rides ahead to scout and runs into more bandits who know about him and his colleagues because the horses came back with empty saddles. Fardan and company rescue Dolworth just before the bandits carve him up. Not long after, they find the fortress that Raza and his small army have occupied. Raza’s men are mounting the machine guns that they took from the Mexican army train. Our heroes rendezvous with a Mexican goat herder Padilla who provides the milk that the lady, Senorita Grant, drinks at the stronghold. He is eager to help the Americans rescue Maria because he raised her on the milk of his goats when she was a child. Fardan lays out his plan. Dolworth will plant explosive charges that will simulate a French 75mm howitzer barrage and Jacob will unleash arrows with sticks of dynamite attached to them. When the bandits rush to defend the walls, Fardan and company will slip in “and rescue little red Riding Hood.” Diversion is their only plan because they cannot shoot their way in and out.

When our heroes do make their move on Raza’s stronghold, they get the surprise of their lives. Nevertheless, between Dolworth’s dynamite that blows the water tower to smithereens and Jacob’s dynamite laden arrows, our heroes manage to slip in and escape and hit the trail back to the border. They take the train that Raza’s men had hijacked, but the hard-bitten bandit and his henchmen are constantly at their heels every bit of the way back to the border. Richard Brooks doesn’t waste a moment in this splendidly staged, tightly-edited, sharply-scripted western that bristles with memorable as well as quotable dialogue, feisty performances and some provocative commentary on contemporary subjects like the emerging war in Vietnam. During one scene, while our heroes watch Raza and his men capture a government train, Dolworth and Ehrengard discuss the Mexican revolution and Fardan’s participation in it. “What were Americans doing in a Mexican revolution?” Ehrengard inquires. “Maybe there’s only been one revolution since the beginning of time,” Dolworth philosophizes, “the good guys against the bad guys. Question is who’re the good guys?” Celebrated “Doctor Zhivago” composer Maurice Jarre furnishes a lively, flavorful orchestral score that enhances the action and captures the time period. “Time” magazine in its review called “The Professionals” . . . “a thinking man’s western.” The ending is simply terrific.