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.

Rhino

 

I like going back and watching 2000-era ECW shows in no small part due to Rhino’s rise to the top that year. He began his ECW run as Steve Corino’s unpolished rookie monster, but it was not long before he came into his own as an unstable, psychotic heel capable of committing acts of incredible violence. Rhino’s feud with the Sandman was particularly brutal. He seemed to find new ways to destroy the Sandman with each encounter, driving the ECW veteran through tables with one of the best spear tackles in the business that Rhino dubbed the Gore. Rhino even tormented the Sandman by abusing his wife Lori Fullington, repeatedly Goring her through tables and even piledriving her through one at ringside during the Hardcore Heaven 2000 PPV!

Rhino’s future looked bright at ECW’s Guilty as Charged 2001 PPV. He interrupted a tag team match between Balls Mahoney & Chilly Willy vs. Simon Diamond & Johnny Swinger, destroying everyone involved with Gores. Porn star Jasmin St. Claire even felt the Man-Beast’s wrath! Rhino piledrove her through a ringside table, claiming that doing so was a bigger turn-on than a sexual encounter with the onetime gangbang queen! Rhino continued to make his presence felt after the main event, in which the Sandman won the ECW world heavyweight championship in a hard-fought three-way TLC match against Steve Corino and Justin Credible. Sandman had been through quite a battle to regain the belt; Rhino took advantage of the brand-new champion’s beaten and bloodied state to issue an impromptu challenge and win the ECW world title. Rhino was also the ECW world television champion at the time, making the Big F’n Deal the first wrestler to hold both of ECW’s singles titles simultaneously. ECW had lost their TV deal with TNN several months before Guilty as Charged, prompting Rhino to relinquish the television title belt. “We’re not even on fuckin’ TV,” the Man-Beast growled as he tossed the championship belt to the ring canvas.

Rhino never lost the ECW world heavyweight championship—Guilty as Charged was the promotion’s last PPV and ECW’s final live event took place later that week. Rhyno would then show up in the WWF, aligning himself with Edge & Christian and assisting them in defeating the Dudleys and the Hardys for the tag team titles in a memorable TLC match at WrestleMania XVII. Most of us probably had no idea that Rhyno was part of the THUG Life stable with Edge & Christian on the Canadian indie circuit years before signing with ECW. Rhyno would become a three-time WWF hardcore champion in 2001 and showed some promise in a feud with Chris Jericho, in which the Man-Beast Gored Y2J through the stage set on an August episode of SmackDown. Unfortunately, Rhyno had to undergo cervical fusion surgery for two herniated discs in his neck in November of 2001. He would be out of action for sixteen months. Rhyno returned to WWE in February of 2003, but was never taken seriously as a main event threat again.

Personally, I never really felt like Rhyno fit in very well in the WWF/WWE. His place was most definitely in ECW where he was free to rampage through the roster in a psychotic fury. Rhyno looked smaller and less formidable in the WWE rings where he was routinely dwarfed by men standing over six feet tall. I was disappointed to see Rhyno slide down the card into irrelevance when he had been positioned as a top heel in ECW just a few years prior. WWE released Rhyno from his contract after WrestleMania XXI, freeing him up to regain some of his edge in TNA. Rhino would briefly hold the NWA world heavyweight championship while in TNA, trading it with Jeff Jarrett.

When WWE opted to bring ECW back under their umbrella, Rhino went on TNA television to make an open challenge to anyone involved with ECW’s current incarnation for the world heavyweight title that he never lost. He produced the old ECW world championship hidden in a burlap sack, stating that WWE threatened him with legal action if he showed the actual belt on TV. Rhino then proceeded to toss the sack into an oil drum, setting it on fire in disgust with the direction of the new ECW. Perhaps Rhino was saying what many of us were thinking at the time.