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We here at JPFmovies pride ourselves at talking a hard, gritty look at entertainment from all over the world.

What does Bridget Fonda, a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 and Bruce Campbell Equal? Army of Darkness (1993)

13 Jun

 

Army of Darkness, also titled Evil Dead III, is a 1992 comedy-horror film and is the third installment in The Evil Dead trilogy.  The Evil Dead trilogy focuses on the protagonist, Ashley J. “Ash” Williams a manager of a store “S-Mart”, played by Bruce Campbell, who deals with “Deadites”, which are undead antagonists created by the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.  The original series comprises The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness (1992).  Army of Darkness premiered in October of 1992, and was released in the United States in February of 1993, grossing $11.503 million domestically and another $10 million outside the USA for a total gross of $21.5 million.  Thanks to video, the trilogy has developed a typical cult following.  When researching this review, I came across a blog whose author claimed to have seen the films a combined 21,000 times.  I was even more surprised that Bridget Fonda had a small part in the film briefly playing Ash’s girlfriend. 

The film begins with Ash Williams and his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 lands in 1300 AD but is captured by a chap named Lord Arthur.  Ash is taken prisoner, his gun and chainsaw confiscated, and is taken to a castle where he is thrown in a pit.  While in the pit, he has to fight a Deadite and regains his weapons from Arthur’s “Wise Man.”

According to the Wise Man, the only way Ash can return to his time is to retrieve the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.  When he arrives at the Necronomicon’s location, he finds three books instead of one and eventually finds the real one and attempts to say the magic phrase that will allow him to remove the book safely — “Klaatu barada nikto”.  However, forgetting the last word, he tries to trick the book by mumbling/coughing the missing word and grabs the book from the cradle.  An evil clone that was created en route to the site rises from his grave and unites the Deadites into the dreaded “Army of Darkness.”

Using science from the textbooks in the trunk of his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, Ash defeats the Deadites.  After his victory, he makes a potion made from the Necronomicon that transports him back to his own time.  At the end of the film, Ash is working at S-Mart telling a co-worker about his trip back in time, but then a female customer becomes possessed by a demon and starts wreaking havoc on the store, and Ash smokes the creature.

Shooting of Army of Darkness began in 1991, and it lasted for 100 days.  The film was shot on the edge of the Mojave Desert, the cast and crew endured very hot conditions during the day and very cold temperatures at night. Most of the film took place at night and the filmmakers shot most of the film during the summer when the days were longest and the nights were the shortest.

The original ending, in which Ash oversleeps in the cave and wakes up in a post-apocalyptic future, was restored to the film for the UK VHS release, which also had the cinematic ending put in as a post credit extra. This scene has been restored on the “director’s cut bootleg edition” DVD and the double disk DVD, which also featured the cinematic version of the film.

Because of money issues, though Raimi and his crew freedom to shoot the movie the way they wanted, Universal Pictures took over post-production and was not happy with Raimi’s cut because the original ending was undesirable.  A new ending was shot a month after Army of Darkness was made in a lumber store in Malibu over four nights.  Then, two months after Army of Darkness was finished, a round of re-shoots began in Santa Monica and involved Ash in the windmill and the scenes with Bridget Fonda done for very little money.  Raimi recalls, “Actually, I kind of like the fact that there are two endings, that in one alternate universe Bruce is screwed, and in another universe he’s some cheesy hero”.

The film apparently ran into rating problems as well.  With the Motion Picture Association of America over the film’s rating of NC-17.  Universal, however, wanted a PG-13 rating, so some cuts had to be made but was still stuck with an R rating.

As I said before this film has some of the best one-liners I’ve ever seen—making the clips very difficult to cut.  This is a great movie if, and only if, you take it for what it is: a slapstick horror film.  Anyone looking for some substance might as well keep on looking.  The special effects are hardly special so what does this film offer? Simple: Bruce Campbell at his finest. 

 

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Movie Reviews

 

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SS has requested a tribute! And you know our policy here at JPFmovies, requests are honored.

10 Jun

SS has asked that we salute Bruce Campbell; that is right, the star of among other films the “Evil Dead” series as well as a movie where he plays himself: “My Name is Bruce” (2007). The first of the three in our tribute will be one of my personal favorites “Army of Darkness” (1992) a film that has some of the best one-liners in movie history.

 
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Posted by on June 10, 2012 in Movie Reviews

 

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Bullitt vs. Ronin for the winner of the best car chase scene around.

02 Jun

Ronin is a 1998 crime-thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by J.D. Zeik and David Mamet.  Starring Robert De Niro and Jean Reno as two of several former special forces that team up to steal a mysterious, heavily guarded suitcase the contents of which is never revealed and as we know from SS, the film is known for its car chases through Nice and Paris.

Ronin is known for two car chases the final chase is through the streets and tunnels of Paris, and according to the DVD commentary used 300 stunt drivers.  If anyone has the credentials to put together a car chase in Hollywood it is Frankenheimer ever since his 1966 film Grand Prix, he has been an amateur racing driver.  Much to his credit, though Frankenheimer was aware of the new digital technology and special effects that have evolved over the years, all the scenes in Ronin are live for total authenticity.  Moreover, many of the shots have the actual actors in the cars.  Apparently, Skipp Sudduth virtually all of his own driving, but crashes were performed by professionals.

Ronin’s cars are on the virtual “A” list of automobiles.  Ronin has three vehicles in Car magazine’s Top 40 Coolest Movie Cars:  a BMW 535i (No. 29), a Citroën Xantia and XM (No. 24) and an Audi S8 D2 (No. 9).  Other fine vehicles that are used include a Peugeot 406, three Peugeot 605s and a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9, a very rare Mercedes-Benz W116 variant with a high-powered engine, as noted by Frankenheimer in the DVD.

So let’s take a look at the two major car chase scenes from Ronin:

And

Bullitt is a 1968 American dramatic thriller film directed by Peter Yates and starred Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Robert Duval and Jacqueline Bisset.  The film was a critical and box office hit eventually winning the Academy Award for Best Film Editing by Frank P. Keller.  Bullitt is most known for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as probably the most influential car chase sequences in movie history.

The chase scene is so well respected that in 2008, the Ford produced the Mustang Bullitt model for the 40th anniversary of the film.  A car manufacturer produced a make and model of a car that appeared in a 40-year-old movie.  If that does not resonate power, I don’t know what does.  The Bullitt nameplate on the steering wheel honored the movie that made the Mustang one of the most popular cars of the 1960s and 1970s and the specific green color was brought back for the anniversary edition.

Bullitt burning rubber in the car chase scene.

At the time of the film’s release, the car chase scene raised many eyebrows.  Emanuel Levy wrote in 2003 that, “Bullitt contains one of the most exciting car chases in film history, a sequence that revolutionized Hollywood’s standards.”  In his obituary for Peter Yates, Bruce Weber wrote “Mr. Yates’ reputation probably rests most securely on “Bullitt” (1968), his first American film — and indeed, on one particular scene, an extended car chase that instantly became a classic.”

The total time of the chase scene is almost 11 minutes.  It begins in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, followed by Midtown shooting on Hyde Street and Laguna Street, with shots of Coit Tower and locations around and on Filbert and University Streets.  The scene ends at the Guadalupe Canyon Parkway in Brisbane, out of the city.

Two 1968 390 V8 Ford Mustang Fastbacks (325 hp) with four-speed manual transmissions were used for the famed scene, both owned by the Ford Motor Company and part of a promotional loan agreement with Warner Bros.  The Mustangs’ engines, brakes and suspensions were heavily modified for the chase by veteran car racer Max Balchowsky.  The director called for speeds of about 75–80 miles per hour, but the cars (including the ones containing the cameras) reached speeds of over 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) on surface streets.  Driver’s point-of-view angles were used to give the audience the look and “feel” of the ride as the cars jumped through the hills.  Filming the chase scene took three weeks, resulting in 9 minutes and 42 seconds of film.

During this film sequence, two Dodge Charger’s lost five wheel covers and has different ones missing in different shots.  As a result of shooting from multiple angles simultaneously, and some angles’ footage used at different times to give the illusion of different streets.  The San Francisco authorities did not let the filmmakers film the car chase on the Golden Gate Bridge, but they did permit the passage to be filmed in Midtown locations including the Mission District, and in neighboring Brisbane, on the city’s outskirts.

McQueen, an accomplished driver himself, drove in the close-up scenes, about 10% of the chase in the film.  Of the two Mustangs, one was scrapped after filming due to liability concerns and the surviving backup car was sold to an employee of Warner Brothers’.  According to legend, the Mustang changed hands several times, and Steve McQueen at one point made an unsuccessful attempt to buy it.  The Mustang is rumored to have been kept in a barn in the Ohio River Valley by an unknown owner.

Much of the success of the chase sequence is credited to the work of the editor, Frank P. Keller—who took home an Academy Award for his efforts.  The film has garnered both critical acclaim and box office success.  Produced on a $5.5 million budget, it grossed over $42.3 million in the United States, making it the 5th highest grossing film of 1968.

In 2011, Time magazine listed it among the “The 15 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time”, describing it as “the one, the first, the granddaddy, the chase on the top of almost every list.”  Steve McQueen’s Mustang places number 2 (behind James Bond’s Aston Martin in Goldfinger) in Car magazine’s top 40 list.

Let’s take a look and see what all the hubbub is about:

To compare the chase scenes between Ronin and Bullitt is like saying you like a Porsche over a Ferrari; that is, objectively they are neck and neck and the winner is chosen by one’s personal preference.  Personally, I think Bullitt edges out Ronin only because the chase is the de facto standard against which all other car chases judged.

 
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Posted by on June 2, 2012 in Movie Reviews

 

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Up Next “Ronin” with Robert DeNerio–Movie Buff SS Says It Has One Of The Greatest Car Chase Scenes In Movie History. Well We WIll Just See About That.

25 May

Good friend and sterling movie viewer was emphatic that Ronin has one of the greatest car chase scenes in movie history. Naturally I am skeptical. So we will just see about SS’s statement and make him put his money where his mouth is.

 
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Posted by on May 25, 2012 in Movie Reviews

 

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Finally A Remake That Lives Up To The Original: Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai (2012).

25 May

Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai.

Takashi Miike’s “Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai” is a retelling of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 black-and-white classic “Harakiri” reviewed by JPFmovies on March 28th, 2011.  On the heels of a successful remake of “13 Assassins,” Takashi Miike looks more to storytelling than drawing blood with “Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai,”  a theatrically faithful retelling of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 black-and-white classic “Harakiri.” Anyone expecting the action packed samurai sword fighting of 13 Assassins is looking in the wrong place.  This drawn-out tragedy is a variation on the old-fashioned samurai-movie themes of honor, sacrifice and retribution and his second salute to the Japanese films of yesteryear.

In 17th-century Japan, a long period of peace has thrown most of the samurai population out on the streets making our protagonist, Hanshiro, the latest penniless ronin seeking an end to a disgraceful life through ritual suicide.

Hanshiro, an older, battle tested samurai, approaches the rich House of Li wanting to use the mansion’s courtyard to commit seppuku.  The clan’s leader, Kageyu begins telling Hanshiro the story of the unfortunate young man named Motome, who recently made the same request.  Motome, however, expected that he would be turned away with a few coins but the Li samurai called his “suicide bluff,” forcing him to cut his stomach open with a dull bamboo “sword.”  They called his bluff to so that word would get around the poor ronin circuit not to go to the House of Li for a handout.

As the story of Motome is told to Hanshiro, the viewer is faced with a downright gruesome visual of Motome’s seppuku, much longer and more detailed than in the original film, Motome’s seppuku is almost torture to watch.  Because technology has advanced in the 50 years since the original movie was made, you feel the ghastly impact of every squirt and squish as the bamboo blade tears at the flesh.  This is a hard scene even for a seasoned film veteran, but it is also the film’s sole moment of violence until the end.

As the movie progresses, Hanshiro begins to tell his story, slowly revealing that he knows all about Motome, who in fact was his son-in-law.  He then tells the crowds of samurai watching this event the tale of how Motome, the proud son of a local official and samurai, came to be struck so low as to try and get three ryo from the House for his sick wife and infant child who ultimately died.  Hanshiro also tells the clan that he has come for revenge, and throws three top-knots on the ground—the ultimate insult to a samurai.  What’s more, is that Hanshiro has acquired these top-knots without killing their owners, subjecting them to unbelievable shame.  Unlike in the original film, the viewer does not see the sword battles between Hanshiro and his prey.  Instead, the fights make a mockery of his opponent’s skills with them lasting just a few seconds.  While it fits perfectly in the remake, it may not appeal to modern audiences expecting every action sequence they see to be better than the last.

After playing with his opponents for a while, Hanshiro eventually succumbs to his wounds but not before knocking down a full suit of armor sacred to the clan, scattering its pieces all over the room.  In both films, this samurai suit of armor looms large, signifying the warrior’s life to which the clan’s retainers’ aspire.  The samurai are speechless when the armor falls and the film closes with scenes of the three samurai that have lost their topknots committing seppuku.

Like in the original film, Hara-kiri questions the “honor” of the samurai completely.  It shows them playing their parts with pomp and circumstance, despite the fact that none of these samurai have seen real combat.  When it comes to fighting Hanshiro, an older (but battle tested), dirt poor, tired ronin who makes umbrellas for a living, he exposes them up for the frauds they are.  In both films, the samurai suit of armor looms large, heralding the warrior’s life to which the clan aspires.  If anything, destroying the armor is far more powerful in the original film: that the retainers and samurai have learned nothing from this encounter and simply cover their tracks to avoid embarrassment.

I loved the original film and I am always weary of remakes.  Having said that, Miike really does an excellent job—even casting actors that are almost identical looking to the characters in the 1962 film, right down to Hanshiro’s facial hair.  Moreover, Miike makes good use of advancements in technology.  The set for the movie is immaculate and detailed to the point of seeing the pattern on the columns.  Masaki Kobayashi would probably be quite flattered if he saw this film—as he should be.  Having seen the original took much of the greatly cultivated suspense out of the film for me.  The first time viewer, however, will have the privilege of being drawn into this Shakespearean tragedy.  Commercially, Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai will not reach the box office receipts that Miike’s previous remake of 13 Assassins did.  But this movie is for a much different crowd.  To enjoy Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai you have to be patient and unfortunately 99% of the movie watchers trained by Hollywood have the attention span of a gnat—which is too bad because it is a better film than his remake of 13 Assassins.

 
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Posted by on May 25, 2012 in Movie Reviews

 

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I watched the Zero Effect with Dr. H a few days ago and came to the realization that the JPFmovies original review of this great (yet sleeper) film was piss-poor and the movie deserved better. So here we go.

16 May

To Sherlock Holmes, she is always the woman.  I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.  In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.  It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler.  All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind.  He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position.  He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer.  They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for drawing the veil from men’s motives and actions.  But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Scandal In Bohemia”

I watched the Zero Effect with Dr. H a few days ago and came to the realization that the JPFmovies original review of this great (yet sleeper) film was piss-poor and the movie deserved better.  So here we go.

The Zero Effect is one of my favorite movies probably because it is based on the great Sherlock Holmes short story A Scandal in Bohemia by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as quoted above.  The film stars Bill Pullman as Daryl Zero (Sherlock Homes), a gifted but bizarre private detective who is socially awkward and inept when he is not on the job.  His “Dr. Watson” is portrayed as Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller) a lawyer.  Zero keeps himself locked in his apartment where, like Holmes and his violin, he composes dreadful songs on his guitar and subsists on a diet of tuna, Tab, and amphetamines (Holmes’ drug use included cocaine, morphine and other narcotics).

Put succinctly, the Zero Effect starts out as a case of a tycoon who lost his keys.  The keys turn up in the place where most lost keys are found in between the cushions of the couch.  From there, the story opens up into a tale of blackmail, family secrets and a decades-old murder for hire. 

The film continues to mimic A Scandal in Bohemia.  Zero is retained by Gregory Stark (Ryan O’Neal), a wealthy man who hires Zero to investigate who is blackmailing him.  Likewise, Holmes is retained by his Majesty the King of Bohemia to find some compromising documents involving the King and his indiscretion with “the woman.”  During the investigation, Zero ventures outside of his apartment encountering Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens) the film’s Irene Adler (Adler, as we know, was the only woman who had the wit to outdo Holmes, and he loved her for it).  Sullivan is the blackmailer (like Adler) and as the film progresses, they begin to fall in love.  While in the end of the film Zero bests his Adler, but because of his love and admiration for Sullivan, he lets her go with the blackmail money to hide from Stark who alludes to killing her.

There are even more detailed similarities between the ingredients of the Zero Effect and those of A Scandal in Bohemia, featuring the sole romantic imbroglio of Holmes’ career as one can see in the above passage—and a minimal one at that.  Likewise, Daryl Zero experiences the only romantic predicament of his career with Gloria Sullivan—though significantly more explicit which can be attributed to the passage of time between the two works. 

Additionally, both the film and the story use false fires to flush out the blackmailer.  In the story, Watson tells us that “at the signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of “Fire!” The word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of spectators, well dressed and ill–gentlemen, ostlers, and servant-maids–joined in a general shriek of “Fire!”  Thick clouds of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm.”

Ryan O’Neal is instructed by the blackmailer (Sullivan) to pull the first fire alarm he sees after depositing the blackmail money at the drop point where Daryl Zero is waiting to see who emerges from the bathroom with the cash.

Written and directed by Jake Kasdan (son of the famed of Lawrence Kasdan whose career includes such works as Body Heat and Dreamcatcher) and considering the peculiar nature and tenor of the film, the Zero Effect should have a following akin to that of The Big Lebowski or Napoleon Dynamite.  Unfortunately, even though technology now allows film watcher to find virtually any movie with little or no effort thereby turning previously disregarded films into cult classics, fate seems to have passed over the Zero Effect.

 
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Posted by on May 16, 2012 in Movie Reviews

 

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