Movie review - "Wrong is Right" (1982) **1/2

 Charles McGarry was a spy novelist in the 1970s - this is one of his books which got a satirical treatment from Richard Brooks, not known as king of comedy but full of outrage and spirit.

Connery is a swashbuckling journalist who  gets involved in some terrorists who steal nukes. The guts of the story is a procedural - who killed Katherine Ross - but the movie is mostly done in a Strangelove style that doesn't quite work. Brooks displayed little flair for comedy in his career. 

Connery commits - it's the sort of movie you can imagine he enjoyed making because it's so random. George Grizzard is the president, Leslie Nielsen a nutbag politician, Robert Conrad a nutbag general, John Saxon a nutbag CIA op, Hardy Kruger an arms seller, Rosalind Cash the vice president, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a girl in a reality TV show who wants to kill her parents.

The movie takes a big swing though. Not dumb. Would've been better played straight I think though.

Movie review - "Black Sunday" (1977) ****

 The suits thought this was going to be bigger than Jaws and the public didn't come, at least not in the numbers they expected. Maybe audiences were awkward with an Israeli hero - driven Robert Shaw, given a scene of backstory where he explains his wife and sons are dead, after terrorist Marthe Keller, who also has a scene of backstory (raised in camps, etc).

It moves at a decent pace, there's plenty of story. Bruce Dern has a high old time as Keller's associate, Keller is very effective. They have a fascinating relationship - manipulative, doomed, twisted.

The bomb - steel projectiles - is genuinely terrifying.

Some great terrorism movie heads like Steven Keats (Shaw's offsider), Fritz Weaver (FBI man), Bekhim Femui (Keller's boss). Movie maybe lacks someone with a little warmth who is a goodie - a Roy Scheider in Jaws type. The warmest characters are Dern and Keller.

Maybe too much football stuff. But fun, rollicking movie. 

Movie review - "Bug" (2006) ***

 William Friedkin returns to his roots with a play adaptation - a piece by Tracy Letts about a woman (Ashley Judd) going a little mad, being smacked around by Harry Connick Jnr and forming a bond wth a war veteran (Michael Shannon).

There's a hot sex scene involving Judd's body double and she and Shannon go. The handling can't be faulted or the acting but the whole way through you just feel this would play better on stage.

Movie review - "Rules of Engagement" (2000) **

 The film starts strongly with two excellent battle sequences - one in Vietnam, then an embassy siege/massacre. William Friedkin directs with real flare. Then Samuel L Jackson is put on trial for war crimes and Tommy Lee Jones called in to defend him. 

The movie is set up to be an interesting account of what a war crime is. We saw what happened. The troops were shot at but Jackson went berserk. They fired into the crowd. There were other options.

But then slimy diplomat Bruce Greenwood orders tape suppressed that shows Arabs shooting at them and all complexity is thrown out the window. The fact that Jackson could have responded in different ways (shoot snipers, shoot over heads, etc) is barely explored.

This movie is just dumb. I think Friedkin was dumb down deep. I sense the original script you never saw the massacre which would've been interesting because you never knew what happened. But here we see it at the top of the film. So there's no suspense. No revelation.

I'm not sure Friedkin understood drama. 

Movie review -"The Manchurian Candidate" (2004) **1/2

 For the first half of this I found it annoying - there was no need to make it, really, and the story doens't really work outside the Cold War. I know big business is bad but they normally just buy off people instead of big conspiracies. It needed the religious fervour of the Cold War.

Meryl Streep has a high old time and Denzel Washington goes mad well - the second half where the movie forges more of its own identity is stronger.It beefs up the Janet Leigh part.

The TV pundit scenes annoyed me for some reason. 

Roger Corman has a small role! 

Book review - "Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine " by Andrew Roberts and David Petraeus

 A look at various Western conflicts after WW2 - Vietnam, Oman, Korea, Malaya. Amazing how much failure. The bits on Iraq and Aghanistan are especially upsetting because they were so pointless, and expensive. Smart book. All the conficts needed political solutions. Just depressing.

Movie review - "Navy Seals" (1990) **

 Legendary in its own way, forever screening on video and hotel TVs, mocked in Clerks, killed Lewis Teague's feature career, and Michael Biehn's attempt at stardom. Also helped kill Orion. A chaotic production, surprisingly so for what one would assume was a simple shoot em up. But it's a mess, full of plots and different films - a training film, a more authentic style movie, a boorish service comedy, (bein' hungover, playin' golf) clash between two heroes (uptight Biehn and more casual, way out Charlie Sheen), a hugely unrealistic plot where Biehn tries to get information out of journalist Joanne Whalley, endless missions, endless Arab bashing, a hackneyed funeral

Whalley has bad perm, Biehn's hair is bad too, there's always movement but no sense of momentum. Weird gear shifts - over the top melodrama when Dennis Haysbert is killed for instance, then it goes investigation with Biehen doing research on terrorists via Whalley (because "intelligence aren't doing their jobs" - it felt wrong, wrong, wrong, then there's hyuck hyuck military comedy, then strained drama about Charlie Sheen fitting in.

Teague really struggled as a director without a set script. I was disappointed to read of his behavious in Brenda Feigen's book - she accuses him of changing the script with his writer, yelling at her, losing control of the film, refusing to let her go on location (I think he did lose control of the film, Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn said they rewrote the film). 

Watching his career he was better with a low budget and a good writer and a script that wasn't changed a lot.

Movie review - "Domino" (2019) **

 Brian De Palma's last feature film to date starts off as a McBain movie set in Copenhagen. Nikloaj Coster-Waldau is McBain, basically, whose partner is killed so he goes looking for payback. Carice Van Houten is from internal affairs. Oh and her real life partner Guy Pearce pops up.

Film buffs will enjoy the occasional De Palma bursts of flair and nods to other movies like the rooftops in Vertigo. There's some interesting ideas like the killer of the partner being an ex terrorist who is blackmailed into helping it from Guy Pearce, so he's got this sympathetic dimension. and Van Houten being pregnant with the partner's kid. These aren't developed.  

The leads should be the characters played by Eriq Ebouaney and Mohammed Azaay.

Movie review - "Redacted" (2007) ***

 Brian De Palma basically remakes Casualties of War as he himself admitted, updating it for the Iraq War. It's a found footage film but it's de Palma found footage so is well done. Well, on the whole.

Some of this is very good - the death of the US officer via an explosion, an execution... actually every death. It has power. These things happened. And will happen. The final moments showing photos of real dead killed is a gut punch.

Other stuff is less good. The acting isn't crash hot. The rape sequence feels "actors playing rape". Maybe it happens like that in real life... I know horrible things happen it just felt like actors going for it. The scene where a soldier is abducted feels comic. (His death is very well done.)

The budget was $5 million, low for De Palma, but looks good. There's scenes of a military base, checkpoint, etc. Maybe they should've spent more on the actors though/

A film of flaws, and the story was told before by the same director, and the Iraqis are the ususal wailing victims. But the film also has guts and effective moments.

Movie review - "The Living Daylights" (1987) ****1/2 (re-viewing)

The Timothy Dalton Bonds look better as time has gone on - though I enjoyed them on release - smart, stylish, underplayed, very true to Fleming. This takes a little while to find its rhythm - I don't think the pre credit sequence got there though I loved Bond defending Gibraltar - but once it did, it's a lot of fun.

It has a genuine romantic core with Marym d'Abo's lovely yet inexperienced cellist, a delightful line up of villains (Joergen Krabbe and Joe Don Baker are wonderfully fun), an Aussie connection (Virginia Hey pops up), a clever story, it uses Fleming stories, the locations are pleasingly exotic (Vienna, Gibraltar, Afghanistan), Art Malik is a very likeable member of the Northern Alliance.

Movie review - "12 Strong" (2018) **1/2

Starts off strongly with the attack on September 11, the dazed first few days, the longing of troops to get on the ground... but once they arrive in Afghanistan the film gets progressively less compelling. 

It's based on a true story so you can't do anything interesting with the characters, and the fact no Americans die means the film struggles to have extra depth. It could have done with a three act structure. 

Too many of the battle scenes are people firing ammunition behind rocks - which happens, I get that, it just feels so repetitive. It's also too long, clocking in at over two hours.

TV review - "Homecoming" (2018) ***

Entertaining thriller, with enjoyable Hitchcock touches (the music, focusing) and Julia Roberts always brings it - actually all the acting is good. The story is solid, it's just rather mercilessly strung out even at 30 minute eps. This should have been a feature.

Movie review - "The Delta Force" (1986) ***

In hindsight this was a high water mark for Cannon Films and Chuck Norris. They must have thought this was a sure thing - Norris was coming off a series of successful films (Code of Silence even got good reviews), it was a rescuing-hostage drama which was pertinent and also tends to work. the director had experience in the genre making Operation Thunderbolt. So they ponied up for some big (ish) stars - they tried Charles Bronson but he turned it down (not wanting to share the spotlight?) and got Lee Marvin, who is a pretty good plan B.  The support cast includes Shelley Winters, Martin Balsam, Robert Forster, Bo Svenson (a star for a bit in the 70s), George Kennedy, Kim Delaney (very pretty as a nun), Joey Bishop (!), Lainie Kazan, and Susan Strasberg - that's pretty good.

And the film has some good moments. It's very over the top and the Arabs are caricatures. And sometimes you can't help but laugh - such as when Shelley Winters cries out to the other passengers as the terrorists take her husband away ("there's only two of them!... it's like the camps").

But the fact is this sort of thing did happen -terrorists taking out the passports of the Jews, and killing the American soldiers. It is makes for decent drama.

The real problem with the movie is that its two films. First part (after  a brief introductory sequence that is in the wake of Operation Eagle Claw in Iran 1980) is a hostage drama with what happens on the plane - Robert Forster leading the baddies, and a blonde German stewardess trying to be heroic, and George Kennedy giving himself up for Jews, and Martin Balsam giving a fine understated performance and Shelley winters playing to the back row.

The second part is cartoonish stuff with Norris, Marvin and his gang hooning around Beiruit on motorcycles, firing rockets and killing Arabs with the help of Israelis. To make things worse the terrorists have released the women and children by now lessering the stakes. Indeed at the end you kind of forget there are any hostages it's like people playing war games. Now I don't mind this sort of movie - but it's a cartoon and is based on cartoons whereas the first half is based on reality and the two sides do not mesh.

Marvin's part actually isn't that big but he still moves around a bit - he'd be dead soon. Norris isn't in the film that much either but kicks some but towards the end. They pump up the role of Norris' blonde friend played by William Wallace, so he can die and it can mean something and we can have a poignant moment as his friends stand around his corpse while the others sing "America the Beautiful".

It's a film which wears it's heart on it's sleeve, I'll say that for it.

Script review - "Vice" by Adam McKay (warning: spoilers)

Written in anger but with plenty of scholarship - a handy reminder what while Trump is running amok in the White House he's doing a lot less damage than the smarter, more covert Dick Cheney. It has some neat twists and gimmicks like being narrated by the person who ended up giving Cheney his heart. Not without empathy for its subject and all the more effective as propaganda for that fact.

TV review - "Jack Ryan" Season 1 (2018) ****

On the whole, this was fantastic. It's got impressive production values, it's very smart - the use of technology is skillful. Most importantly they nailed the character of Jack Ryan. He's a decent smart guy (maybe too smart - he never makes a mistake, only sometimes figures things out a bit too late).

He's got a super smart antagonist, and I love his relationship with Greer. Very well cast. The can't resist the temptation to have Ryan pull out his gun and do something bad ass every ep - the show needed a John Clark character to do this.

Oh and when Abbie Cornish comes in and says she's a doctor for infectious diseases, that kind of gives away what the final plan will involve.

Matt McCoy is in this!

TV review - "Bodyguard" (2018) **** (warning: spoilers)

I was completely gripped by this to start off with - exciting scenes, well written and acted, expertly staged. It had a lovely British feel with its research and acknowledgement of procedure. It doesn't reinvent any wheel - terrorists are Arabs or rogue ex soldiers, bodyguards are hot and devoted and tormented. There is enough twists to keep it fresh - there are several women in positions of power including the Minister.

The last ep or two this goes off the rails. The bomb detonation section in particular dragged because you know the guy was going to live (if he'd lived maybe it would have been worth it). I appreciate the twist of killing off the Minister but you do miss her at the end for the emotional stakes.

Movie review - "Six Days" (2017) **

Disappointing version of material that you'd assumed would be sure fire - the SAS attack on the siege at the Iranian embassy in 1980 (which inspired Who Dares Wins). Not ancient history but enough time has passed for a more accurate picture to emerge - but the treatment feels stock and rote. The initial seizing of hostages, the negotiations, even the final attack... it's so underwhelming.

I guess the final attack was alright - at least the build up to it. But it was very disappointing. You get no sense of the risks involved, the complexity of the situation. It was straight old arabs-bad-and-fighting-terrorists-good. Abbie Cornish seems to be sending up her role, with her big hair and weird voice.

Movie review - "The Special Relationship" (2010) ****

A lesser known instalment of Peter Morgan's marvellous Tony Blair series of movies starring Michael Sheen. This one is about Blair's bromance with Bill Clinton, starting when Blair was an up and comer and Clinton was at his peak. It goes through the turmoil of Clinton's rule, ending with the end of the presidency.

It's a jolt to see all these things referred to which were such a big deal at the time - Monica Lewinsky of course is still remembered but I'd forgotten what a thing Kosovo was, and that early 90s idealism that war could be put to bed. And Blair's puppy dog enthusiasm to send in troops (for good reasons but still... into a mountainous region where occupying armies have always found things hard) can, in hindsight, be seen to be a warning.

Sheen is good as ever in a layered performance. Dennis Quaid is an unexpected choice for Clinton but he does it well - the folksy southern charm, the swagger.

Intelligent and well made. It didn't have the impact of the others in this series but it's as good.

TV review - "Valor" pilot (2017) **

Okay look at the military. There's some good heat between the leads but no one really looks like they're in the military or the CIA and it all feels a little same-y.

Script review - "24: Legacy - Pilot" (2016)

Decent pilot script with plenty of twists and turns. Some things feel very familiar, like the baddies being mean Arabs. Other things feel mean, like the fact soldiers and their families were tortured. Some things are fresh, like the hero being black and having a gang king pin for a brother.