Oh my, it’s been too long since I reviewed a real piece of #^$@ movie, so I dug deep into my bag of tricks to find a really smelly film: Passenger 57. This one is agonizing to watch since it hurts on so many levels. The movie’s signature tag-ling/sound byte was Wesley Snipes saying “always bet on black.” How clever. That is what is put forth as the highlight of the movie—and even that is reaching. Even if the only thing you’re interested in when you watch an action movie is guns blazing and fight scenes, then this one still falls short because the movie repeatedly insists on descending into silliness, with a story that makes very little sense, even as action movies go.
Snipes plays John Cutter, a security expert who’s just been hired to be chief of security for Atlantic International Airlines. He boards a flight for Los Angeles not knowing that the FBI is transporting a vicious terrorist on the same flight. The opening scenes involving terrorist Charles Rane (Bruce Payne) and his attempt to escape the FBI by fleeing a plastic surgeon’s office, where he was apparently going to have his appearance changed, was so cliché and over acted it had established the nature of movie early on.
Naturally the rest of the movie is a back and forth Die Hard wannabe duel between snipes and the terrorist. So poor I can’t even recount on the site as it could be viral and affect the other reviews.
This film has one redeeming quality. It’s very short. So short, in fact, that you’re actually pleasantly surprised when it ends. Surely that can’t be it, you muse for a moment, after Snipes has dispatched the chief bad guy. But yes, in an act of euthanasia for which the producers should be highly commended, its life support system is switched off and this turkey is given the quick death it so richly deserves.
In 2006 Wesley Snipes was indicted for tax fraud and he was found guilty of willfully failing to file his tax returns. Well the charge is a bit wrong – it’s the audience who’ve been defrauded by foolish excuse for an action movie. I apologize for having put you through this but I felt I owed it to you.
After taking a look at Silver Streak, it seemed only natural to watch Stir Crazy the second of four comedies Wilder and Pryor made together. Skip Donahue (Gene Wilder) and Harry Monroe (Richard Pryor) are best friends living in New York City. Donahue is a bad amateur playwright, working a day job in department store its plain clothes security guard. Monroe is working as a catering waiter wannabe actor who has made $35.00 acting. Both fired on the same day, Wilder is canned for harassing a starlet in the department store and Pryor is fired because his marijuana “from the mother land” ends up in the food at a high table dinner, Wilder uses the occasion as the perfect opportunity to finally leave New York and go west. Neither adapt well to life outside of New York, and they end up framed for a Bank Robbery and are sentenced to 125 years in prison.
Neither one of them is handling prison very well. Then one day the warden discovers that Wilder is a natural rodeo star and wants him to participate in the prison’s event. Wilder is told that if he refuses long enough, the warden will become so desperate that he will strike a deal with Wilder and his crew creating the possibility of a jail break while at the event. Wilder is subjected to different forms of coercion but makes it look like he enjoys the torture. Eventually the warden and Wilder strike a deal and its off to the rodeo they go.
The rodeo scenes comprise about the last 30 minutes or so. Pryor leads the convict team out of the stadium just as their lawyer is en route to tell the duo that they are free legitimately. Naturally things are tied up nicely in the end.
Yes the script is thin and yes it is a corny film, but Pryor and Wilder pull it out again and manage to make another gentle comedy suitable for most viewers. Also, a couple of facts many people overlook about Stir Crazy is that it was directed by none other than Sidney Poitier and that Gene Wilder sung the opening lyrics.
Starring: Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Ned Beatty, Jill Clayburg, Ray Walston and others.
If you like movies that are set on trains then this one will be up your alley. In a day when train films are few and far between, Silver Streak is one of the better ones around. If you are a Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor fan then it’s a real treat. Wilder and his particular brand of humor are in spades in this film. In my opinion Wilder was at his best in the 70’s and early 80’s. Let’s not forget that Richard Prior joins in about a third of the way through the film and Patrick McGoohan (TV series Danger Man) is in his idiom when playing mysterious or devious characters and in Silver Streak plays the smooth but cold and ruthless Roger Devereau who’ll go to any length to get what he wants. “Jaws” (Clifton James) for all of you James Bond fans plays a small role like his characters played in the Bond movies. Also as supporting characters are Scatman Crowthers, Ray Walston and Ned Beatty with Jill Clayburgh playing the heroine.
Wilder plays George Caldwell, a boring average everyday man who decides to take Amtrak’s “Silver Streak” from LA to Chicago to do some reading. As is often portrayed in 1970s movies, within his first 15 minutes into a bar scene Wilder finds himself a woman that he gets “romantically involved” with — fellow passenger Hilly Burns (Jill Clayburg). While in Hilly’s cabin (next to his naturally) he sees a corpse thrown from the train, that turns out to be Hilly’s boss. Wilder starts to investigate this but soon finds himself way in over his head and is unceremoniously thrown off the train several times because of his meddling.
Enter Richard Pryor, who appears as a thief in a police car stolen by Wilder to get back on the Silver Streak. Prior steals the show from here on out. At the time (1976) Pryor was in the midst of a very hot career, and although this film seems to restrain some of the imagination and language of his stage presence and TV specials, (this is a PG-rated movie, after all), he still creates an indelible extended ‘cameo’ that fuses film with a hip, perfectly cool counterbalance to Wilder’s mania and confusion. When Pryor is on screen he not only steals the film, but also elevates this old-fashioned adventure-comedy concept to something otherwise original.
As you can probably guess, everything turns out just fine in the end. But that is not the true value of Silver Streak. “Silver Streak” is the first of four Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor match-ups and certainly in retrospect, one of the best. The other three being Stir Crazy (also a classic), See No Evil and Another You. The Wilder-Pryor pairing was able to take relatively formulaic movies and make them interesting.
In short Silver Streak is a very gentle but funny comedy that plays with the conventions of one of Hitch’s favorite themes, the mistaken identity of everyday man in extraordinary circumstances.
Nice work Dangerous, the number of comments you left has paid off. You have won the DVD of your choice (including Blue Ray) shipped to you anywhere in the world–I think it’s Australia for you isn’t it.
Just send me your contact information and where you want it shipped & its yours. One condition, you have to review it for the site!
Starring Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Chin Siu Ho, Fennie Yuen, Yuen Cheung Yan, Lau Shun, Yu Hai, Sun Jian Kui
Directed by Yuen Woo Ping
Expectations: High. Haven’t seen this one in years and remember really liking it.
2 1/2
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Wow. I was not prepared for the visual assault provided by Yuen Woo Ping’s Tai Chi Master. I had seen this a couple of times as a teenager, but it’s been so many years and for whatever reason, my mind was a near-empty slate in regards to this film. That being the case there wasn’t as much nostalgia as I had expected, as I remembered only very random things sprinkled throughout the film, making it almost like watching a brand new movie. In any case, Tai Chi Master is a highly entertaining kung-fu fantasy flick with a ridiculous amount of excellent wire-assisted fights.
Your enjoyment of wire-fu is essential to liking Tai Chi Master. Back in the day, I always greatly preferred your standard hand-to-hand fight to an overblown, high-flying one. These days I have softened quite a bit on that and I’ve come to fully appreciate what wirework can bring to a kung-fu film. My recent viewing of the Shaw Brothers classic Shaolin Intruders fully solidified me as a wire fan and Tai Chi Master is another great example of wirework done extremely well.
The film opens with the meeting of Tian Bao (Chin Siu Ho) and Jun Bao (Jet Li). Jun Bao is introduced as the senior student but due to his smaller size, Tian Bao bullies him into calling him senior. The two become friends and do everything together, sharing in chores, punishment and training. Tian Bao’s violent lust for power informs his every action, while Jun Bao’s focus is more on helping others and trying to be good. They are opposites but inseparable, a human yin-yang. As they age and become more rebellious, Tian Bao constantly tries to pull one over on the masters, but one day it all backfires and the two friends are thrown out of the temple.
This relationship is the heart of the film and its story. I’m not going to lie and tell you the emotional depth is anywhere on par with superior Hong Kong films like Once Upon a Time in China, Ip Man or even The Killer. The story may revolves around this brotherly relationship, but it’s all fairly superficial and not a whole lot more than excuses to have crazy fights. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the story and it works well within the context of the film, but it is more akin to your standard blockbuster style of writing that has a tendency to be a bit shallow. But the great thing about Tai Chi Master is that it knows this about itself and never tries to fool you into thinking it is more than it is. In true blockbuster form, the incredible action and sheer number of insane fights coming at you should be enough to keep you entertained. In fact, there were so many fights that I found myself as fatigued as the combatants on screen towards the end of the picture. Tai Chi Master is really a film that demands multiple viewings in order to properly take it all in, as a single run through will leave you spinning like the Tasmanian Devil.
For those not following my website and my occasional Hong Kong film reviews contained there, I have recently restarted my Hong Kong film obsession. Fans of such films are familiar with certain conventions used throughout the industry that just aren’t prevalent in Western cinema. Of course there’s the realistic stunts, the well-shot fight sequences, the oddly placed humor. Tai Chi Master has all of those in spades, but they aren’t what I speak of. The thing that I hadn’t run into in this new phase of my Hong Kong obsession was one that I knew would be inevitable. The eunuchs. Tai Chi Master marks the return of the eunuch to my film vocabulary and what a welcome return it is. The eunuch in this film, played by Sun Jian Kui, is absolutely fantastic and such fun to watch. Towards the end of the film, he has a rather gnarly swordfight with one of the heroes that is easily one of my favorite scenes in the film. Yeah! Eunuchs! I didn’t realize how much I had missed them. My teenage brain was unable to fully comprehend why a castrated man gained supernatural powers, but I accepted it. These days, I welcome it with open arms.
Tai Chi Master is a lot more comic than I remember it being, so initially it was sort of off-putting, but after I got into the groove I really enjoyed myself. Jet Li is great in his role as Jun Bao, and gets to show off his wonderful martial skill at the absolute highlight of his Hong Kong career. The scenes when he loses his grasp on reality and talks with the ducks are funny and completely different than any other role Jet has ever played. If that’s not enough to sell you on the film, Michelle Yeoh busts in with a fiery performance and proves why she is one of the top female martial artists of the silver screen. Director Yuen Woo Ping does a good job with the camera, complimenting his inspired fight choreography well. My favorite moment of choreography in the film is by far the fight between Tian Bao and Jun Bao on the log structure. I greatly enjoy fights where the stakes are constantly ratcheted up and the fighters must compensate, and this fight completely fits that bill.
I do wish that there was more actual Tai Chi in the film called Tai Chi Master. One of the few things I did remember was when Jet circled the water with his hands and noticed how it deflected the hard ball by being fluid and using the ball’s energy. These moments of martial creation are fantastic, and while I realize they happen when they do for a reason, somehow I think I would be more satisfied if they happened earlier and we got to see more on screen Tai Chi. Oh well, a minor complaint for an otherwise pleasing film. Highly recommended to wire-fu fans, as well as Jet Li fans. I wouldn’t start here if you’ve never seen a Hong Kong film though, as I think this one might be a bit too weird to win a new fan over.
Well soon it is time to give away our 2nd DVD to someone who comments on this post! Remember it is a random selection–so your chances are as good as anyone else to win.
J.P.'s I'm Outta Here Movie Thoughts 
Well Soon It’s Time To Give Away The Second DVD!
Well soon it is time to give away our 2nd DVD to someone who comments on this post! Remember it is a random selection–so your chances are as good as anyone else to win.
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Posted by JPFmovies on August 31, 2010 in Movie Reviews
Tags: comment, contest, dvd, free, random