Kevin Sullivan

 

Kevin Sullivan had already been a twelve-year veteran in professional wrestling when he took advantage of the religious right's obsession with "Satanic Panic" to create the gimmick that he inhabited for the rest of his career—the Prince of Darkness, as first seen in Championship Wrestling from Florida in the early 1980s. Sullivan spoke of praying to a god named Abudadein while eating cosmic cookies and chewing the betel nut, in which he was then tied to the Tree of Woe to gain insight on how to destroy his foes without mercy. He assembled his Army of Darkness, an incredible visual spectacle of rogue wrestlers gone horribly wrong and scantily-clad slave girls who would drape Sullivan's body with boa constrictors. One can imagine how the Florida territory crowds responded to such provocative antics at that time!

Although I was unable to see Kevin Sullivan at his peak in Florida, reading about him in The Pictorial History of Wrestling was quite compelling stuff. He was embroiled in a blood feud with Dusty Rhodes, which at one point escalated to a different level when Sullivan attacked the American Dream's own sister and threw a bottle of ink in her face to blind her temporarily! Sullivan actually triumphed in his rivalry with Rhodes, declaring the American Dream dead by running him out of Florida. Black Jack Mulligan met a similar fate at the hands of Sullivan and his Army of Darkness, who repeatedly left the popular cowboy grappler a bloody mess on television and at arena events.

Satanic Panic was mostly a thing of the past by the time Kevin Sullivan came aboard with Jim Crockett Promotions (soon to be rechristened WCW) in the late '80s. He toned down his gimmick considerably, losing much of his faux-Satanic trappings to become the Taskmaster. Sullivan as the Taskmaster remained in WCW throughout the 1990s, with brief stops in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and ECW along the way before transitioning into a backstage role until WCW folded in 2001.

Movie Review: Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

DIRECTOR: Adrian Grunberg. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Genie Kim, Joaquin Cosio, Oscar Jaenada, Pascacio Lopez, Fenessa Pineda, Marco de la O, Rick Zingale, Manuel Uriza, Mirka Prieto, Sheila Shah.
Could this be the last entry in the RAMBO series? I do not know if that is the case, but RAMBO: LAST BLOOD does serve as an appropriate finale. Rambo has found peace at last. He is now kindly Uncle John, managing his late father’s horse ranch with an old friend and her granddaughter, who he considers an adopted niece. His niece sneaks off to Mexico searching for her biological father, but is kidnapped by one of the cartels and forced into a sex trafficking ring. Uncle John drives to Mexico to rescue her, but she dies of a forced overdose on the way back. Rambo then comes out of retirement to avenge his adopted niece and kill as many people as possible. He does exactly that in quite grisly fashion. Rambo’s destruction of the cartel hit men calls back to both FIRST BLOOD and amusingly enough, HOME ALONE. RAMBO: LAST BLOOD is not perfect; it is the shortest film in the series, feeling crudely assembled due to the running time. Fans probably will not complain too much, although it probably ranks second to last overall. I think all there is to do now is a prequel showing us what John Rambo was like before the Vietnam War and prior to PTSD, but I suppose we will see what happens.

Movie Review: Tightrope (1984)

 

DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood. CAST: Clint Eastwood, Genevieve Bujold, Dan Hedaya, Alison Eastwood, Jenny Beck, Rod Masterson, Marco St. John, Rebecca Perle, Regina Richardson, Randi Brooks, Jamie Rose, Margaret Howell, Rebecca Clemons, Janet MacLachlan, Graham Paul, Bill Holliday, John Wilmot, Margie O’Dair, Joy N. Houck Jr. 
Clint Eastwood departs somewhat from his Dirty Harry character for this police thriller, in which he pursues a serial rapist and murderer targeting local sex workers. Clint’s Wes Block character leads a double life of a divorced father of two who also frequents New Orleans’ red-light district to indulge his kinky sexual interests. He soon finds himself in a cat-and-mouse game through the city’s seamy underbelly, in which he realizes that his impulses are like that of the killer’s. Who is chasing who here? Genevieve Bujold is fine as the rape prevention counselor who advises Block on the case and enters a relationship with him. Dan Hedaya is on the scene and Alison Eastwood earns special mention as Block’s precocious daughter. Only the killer himself fails to provide a worthwhile performance once revealed. TIGHTROPE takes its time getting to the finish line, which is not a particularly satisfying conclusion. Descending into typical cop movie territory with a lousy villain and ending ultimately wrecks what is otherwise a decent movie. TIGHTROPE deserved better than that.

Movie Review: Gator (1976)

 

DIRECTOR: Burt Reynolds. CAST: Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Lauren Hutton, Jerry Reed, Alice Ghostley, Dub Taylor, Mike Douglas, Burton Gilliam, William Engesser, John Steadman, Stephanie Burchfield, Dudley Remus, Alex Hawkins, Don Ferguson.
Burt Reynolds makes his directorial debut with this sequel to 1973’s WHITE LIGHTNING, which means that Bobby “Gator” McKluskey is back! This time, a federal agent has roped Gator into going undercover by threatening to imprison his elderly father and turn his daughter over to foster care. Gator is to help take down a good ol’ boy mob boss who has his greedy paws in everything from extortion to drugs, underage sex trafficking, and corruption on all levels. He also meets the potential woman of his dreams along the way, but that is a given when Burt is involved. GATOR benefits from a bigger budget than its predecessor; the rather nice camera work and set designs do a decent job at almost distracting the viewer from it being a rather uneven story. Lauren Hutton’s involvement is mostly inconsequential filler while Alice Ghostley’s comic-relief role seems random and out of place. Burton Gilliam is interesting as a perversely sleazy, always-smiling creep of a gangster. However, Jerry Reed pretty much steals the show as evil small-town mob boss Bama McCall from the moment he first steps onto the screen. He digs deep into his role and plays it with gusto, enjoying every slimy second that he has onscreen. Hard to believe that he wasn’t an experienced actor. GATOR isn’t bad, it just has a hard time with what it wants to do with certain characters and deciding what kind of movie it wants to be—a slicker version of WHITE LIGHTNING or a goofy, lighthearted action comedy like the following year’s SMOKEY & THE BANDIT.

Movie Review: Blow Out (1981)

 

DIRECTOR: Brian De Palma. CAST: John Travolta, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Peter Boyden, Curt May, John Aquino, John McMartin, Robin Sherwood, Michael Tearson, Deborah Everton, J. Patrick McNamara, Missy Cleveland, Roger Wilson, Lori-Nan Engler, Cindy Manion, Missy Crutchfield, Marcy Bigelman, Ann Kelly, Dean Bennett. 
BLOW OUT is the second reinterpretation of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 classic BLOW-UP (Francis Ford Coppola’s THE CONVERSATION was the first in 1974), but with sound used instead of photography. John Travolta is Jack Terry, a horror movie sound technician who is out in a local park recording potential sound effects when he witnesses a car drive off the road and into a nearby creek. Although the male driver drowns in the accident, Jack can rescue the woman passenger and takes her to the hospital. He finds out that the dead driver was the governor, whose associates persuade Jack to sneak the women passenger out of the hospital, as she is an escort whose presence would be an embarrassment to the deceased political figure. Jack plays back his park recording and discovers that the car wreck was no accident at all—he distinctly hears a gunshot prior to the car going off the road. He becomes more interested when the media gets involved and begins to discover the truth behind an assassination attempt on the governor. BLOW OUT is a very good movie, although its box office failure was a blow to John Travolta’s career as a serious actor for years until Quentin Tarantino cast him in PULP FICTION. John Lithgow’s ability to play the creepiest of bad guys likely started here while Dennis Franz deserves special mention for an incredible performance as a slimy blackmail photographer. Some might appreciate the story’s allusions to the Watergate scandal, JFK’s assassination, and the Lake Chappaquiddick incident. Brian De Palma fans will likely see BLOW OUT as an underrated entry in his extensive filmography. They are correct.

Movie Review: White Lightning (1973)

 

DIRECTOR: Joseph Sargent. CAST: Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Bo Hopkins, Matt Clark, Jennifer Billingsley, R.G. Armstrong, Louise Latham, Diane Ladd, Conlan Carter, Dabbs Greer, Lincolm Demyan, John Steadman, Iris Korn, Stephanie Burchfield, Barbara Muller, Robert Ginnaven, Fay Martin, Richard Allin, Laura Dern.
WHITE LIGHTNING has the distinction of being the first Burt Reynolds good ol’ boy Southern car chase flick, but it is more of a serious revenge movie than one would expect after seeing better-known vehicles like SMOKEY & THE BANDIT. You can see the roots of SMOKEY & THE BANDIT, CANNONBALL RUN, and other Burt movies forming here, but WHITE LIGHTNING is a darker, grittier story that makes excellent use of its locations. Burt is Gator McKluskey (great name), a moonshine runner serving time when he finds out that his brother has been murdered by a corrupt small-town sheriff. He agrees to go undercover for the feds to catch the sheriff in the act of taking bribes from local moonshiners. Although this is tantamount to treason among whiskey bootleggers, Gator is more concerned with taking down Sheriff J.C. Connors for killing his brother. WHITE LIGHTNING’s car chases aren’t that spectacular by today’s standards, but they are fast-paced and intense. One stunt goes completely wrong and could have been much more of a legitimately life-threatening catastrophe. Fine support cast too—Ned Beatty is excellent as the corrupt sheriff while Bo Hopkins essentially plays himself as a too-cool-for-school whiskey runner. R.G. Armstrong is great as always. WHITE LIGHTNING was actually supposed to be Steven Spielberg’s feature film debut until he decided it wasn’t for him and filmed SUGARLAND EXPRESS instead. Quentin Tarantino fans will recognize bits of Charles Bernstein’s score lifted and reused in both KILL BILL VOLUME 1 and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.

Movie Review: Thief (1981)

 

DIRECTOR: Michael Mann. CAST: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Tom Signorelli, Dennis Farina, Nick Nickeas, W.R. Bill Brown, Norm Tobin, William Petersen, John Santucci, Gavin MacFadyen, Chuck Adamson, Sam Cirone, Spero Anast, Hal Frank, Patti Ross.
Underrated James Caan crime noir vehicle about a professional safecracker working his way towards a normal life. Frank gets involved with a local gangster for a big score that will allow him to retire to the life he wants as a model citizen. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done—the big-time mobster doesn’t want to let him out and has other plans to keep Frank under his thumb. He reinvests Frank’s money and schedules future scores without consulting him, telling him that he can easily destroy everything Frank has been working towards. THIEF is a great crime thriller with fine direction from Michael Mann, making his feature film debut after several years of television dramas. Mann utilizes many of his trademark filmmaking techniques to his advantage, making THIEF a visually great movie as well. James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Dennis Farina, and William Petersen all make their film debuts here. Jerry Bruckheimer also produced THIEF before joining forces with Don Simpson and becoming who he is today. Great soundtrack by TANGERINE DREAM that adds to the film’s gritty, somber tone. Watch the Criterion Blu-ray edition for the best representation of all of THIEF’s details.

Movie Review: 10 to Midnight (1983)

 

DIRECTOR: J. Lee Thompson. CAST: Charles Bronson, Lisa Eilbacher, Andrew Stevens, Gene Davis, Geoffrey Lewis, Wilford Brimley, Robert F. Lyons, Bert Williams, Iva Lane, Ola Ray, Kelly Preston, Cosie Costa, Paul McCallum, Jeana Keough, June Gilbert, Arthur Hansel, Sam Chew, Katrina Parish.
Sleazy Charles Bronson cop thriller in which ol’ Granite Face takes on a serial killer murdering beautiful women in the Los Angeles area. He has the right suspect in mind—a creepy office equipment repairman who works in the same office as two of the victims. This guy is a total incel decades before that was a thing—women frequently reject his crude sexual advances, leading him to place gross crank calls to their homes and then murder them. He kills these women while naked save for a pair of rubber gloves so there are no fingerprints to find. His alibis are sound too. DNA evidence and caller ID didn’t exist back then, so Charles Bronson’s character relies on intuition and planted evidence to frame his obvious suspect. Nothing ever happens at 11:50 PM; 10 TO MIDNIGHT is just a snappy movie title. This movie would likely be terrible if not for the talented cast and direction keeping it watchable—Gene Davis is particularly convincing as the psychotic murderer. Modern viewers who like TV cop shows like LAW & ORDER: SVU may be intrigued by the sex killer story taking place in a time before homicide detectives relied on DNA evidence to solve these crimes. Critics hated 10 TO MIDNIGHT when it was originally released—Roger Ebert referred to it as “a scummy little sewer of a movie” before going further to describe it as a “cesspool” and a “garbage disposal.” He wasn’t completely wrong. However, 10 TO MIDNIGHT is also quite possibly the best of both Charles Bronson’s and J. Lee Thompson’s ‘80s low-budget exploitation action fare.

Movie Review: Rambo (2008)

DIRECTOR: Sylvester Stallone. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Paul Schulze, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, Reynaldo Gallegos, Tim Kang, Jake La Botz, Ken Howard, Maung Maung Khin, Supakorn Kitsuwon.

John Rambo takes on the Saffron Revolution in what is arguably the darkest entry in the RAMBO series yet. He now lives in Thailand, catching snakes and providing boat rides for little money. Life is rather boring until a group of American missionaries hire him to provide transport up the Salween River into Burma to provide humanitarian aid to a village in need. Unfortunately, the Burmese junta massacres the village and takes the missionaries prisoner. Now it is up to Rambo to lead a team of mercenaries on a rescue mission in which the body count here is probably the same amount as all three previous movies combined. However, twenty years has passed since the Reagan/Bush era in which the first three RAMBO movies existed. RAMBO’s violence is not of the fun “shoot ‘em up for Ol’ Glory” variety; it is cold, brutal, and more realistic. RAMBO will exceed expectations. Fans will love this dark, nihilistic direction.