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: 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: 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.