Hammer - Day 16

    What if your son was in on a drug deal gone bad? That’s the premise of Hammer, a small and very intelligent Canadian thriller starring Will Patton. Ever since the 80s Patton has played a long list of heavies in movies like No Way Out and The Postman. Patton rarely gets a chance to play a leading man and show off his incredibly dynamic acting range. Here he plays Mr. Davis, a retired school teacher barely holding his marriage together, and carrying the guilt of an estranged son.  Mark O’Brian plays that son, Chris Davis, trying to get his lfe together after being busted for distributing drugs years earlier. He is drawn back into the life and when the deal goes bad, dad can’t help but get involved. 

    There’s some good tension at work here and all of the performances are first rate. The pacing is excellent and running at 82 minutes long, its a lean piece of work. The end may put some people off who expect a car chase and shootout but I enjoyed. There is a lot of emotion to go with the action and the ethical questions the movie poses make it a little bit deeper than you’d expect.

Cop Day - 15

Sometimes brutal. An 80s cop movie that feels more like an homage to the great, gritty cop movies of the 70s. There are no cheesy chase scenes, Kenny Loggins music, snappy one liners or throw away romances. Just James Woods as a slow-burning a detective investigating a serial killer in LA. The movie was criticized for being overly violent, vulgar and exploitative. They’re right. Isn’t that what crime is? The 80s would have you believe that cops were polite, told jokes and drove Ferraris. This film bridged the gap between the great independent films of the 70s and the great independent movies of the 90s. A reminder that there were some great independent movies in the 80s, if you look hard enough. The last line of the film worth waiting for; Woods at his smoldering best.

Extraction - Day 13

It's a video game movie. Looks like you’re watching someone play Call of Duty Special Ops. Chris Hemsworth is a mercenary hired to rescue a kidnapped son of a Bengali drug lord. That’s it. That’s the whole story. That being said, Hemsworth is badass. I like him as an action hero, but more like the Keanu Reeves kind. When he doesn’t talk, he’s interesting. Action sequences are well staged and somewhat clever. It’s a good Netflix time waster.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web - Day 12

A sequel to the highly regarded The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. It’s pretty bad. I loved those books and I also loved all of the film adaptations. This is stupefyingly inept. Their gigantic holes in the plot that shows main character Lisbeth Salander as more of a superhero than I troubled hacker. Here she is pitted against her long lost sister (how trite is that?) for control of software that hijacks defense satellites. Just dumb. Only watch this if you’ve never ever watched a decent film before.

Emperor of the North - Day 11

Hobos. Damn hobos! Ernest Bournine has to keep them off his train, even kill them if he has to. Lee Marvin is going to ride that train and get retribution on that hobo buster. Keith Carradine is his hobo protege. Marvin seriously says to him, “You could be a great bum.”

I didn’t expect to like a film about hobos as much as I did, but being directed by Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen) its no surprise. There’s real tension working here. A really surprising find.

Dark Waters - Day 10

Mark Ruffalo stars in one of the best lawyer movies made in years. The title sounds like a cheap thriller, but make no mistake, this is a very serious film. It’s based on the true story of how the Dupont Chemical Corporation poisoned the water in West Virginia, causing unprecedented medical problems in humans and animals. The film reminds you why lawyers are important in this country and why corporations should not be allowed to run rampant over American citizens.

Ruffalo is believably passionate as the underdog fighting the system. You can tell he wants to remind audiences that he used to be a serious actor before he became The Hulk. This movie avoids too much melodrama, and the pacing isn't rushed nor boring. Just a solid flick

Timerider - Day 9

Fred Ward is the Timerider! I love Fred Ward. He was a constant presence in films throughout my lifetime. Bad movies like Timerider, Oscar winners like The Right Stuff. Action movies like Remo Williams. And Art movies like Henry & June. Most people know him from Tremors.

Timerider is about a motocross guy who  finds himself accidentally transported back in time to the cowboy era. There, people aren’t sure  what to make of him or his bike. A chase ensues and Ward must find his way back to the future. A very interesting ending here! I think the makers of this movie should be suing James Cameron. You’ll see why if you watch it.