The Rookie (1990)

Year 2, Day 225 - 8/13/10 - Movie #591

BEFORE: Not to be confused with the Dennis Quaid baseball movie of the same name, which I watched about 3 months ago... I'm wrapping up a Clint Eastwood triple feature tonight. I guess I screwed up - it's Friday the 13th, and I'm doing nothing to mark the occasion - I maybe should have thought of serial killers, which would have led me to program "Manhunter" tonight. Oh, well.

THE PLOT: A veteran cop gets stuck with a rookie partner to chase down a German criminal.

AFTER: This one has "Grand Theft Auto" written all over it - auto theft is the main crime committed in the film - the thieves rob multiple luxury cars at a time, using a car carrier, and have multiple chop-shop locations around the city of L.A.

Clint Eastwood plays the grizzled cop - surprise, he doesn't play by the rules - who's spent months setting up the bust of the car theft ring, only to have the bust turn into a disaster. So he navigates through the L.A. underworld to find his informants, and work his way up the chain to get better intel. He's saddled with a new partner, played by Charlie Sheen (last seen in "Wall Street").

The film starts out with Eastwood's Nick Pulovski as the main character, but over the course of the movie, Sheen's character, Ackerman, takes on a more prominent role - I suppose he is the title character, after all. When Pulovksi is kidnapped, by the somehow-German (?) thieves, played by Raul Julia and Sonia Braga (I'm fairly sure neither is actually German), Ackerman has to apply all the lessons he's learned form Pulovski, and make up some new rules of his own, to track them down.

I think this one had some inventive things, it sort of rose above the average buddy-cop film for me. Plenty of action, and some cool stunts I haven't seen done before. Some are also reminiscent of "GTA 3", like driving a car out of a 2nd floor window, just as the building explodes... and any shoot-out at an airport is going to remind me of "GTA: Vice City".

Also starring Lara Flynn Boyle (last seen in "Mobsters") and Tom Skerritt.

RATING: 7 out of 10 cigars (I know, I'm going to get flack for rating this higher than "Dirty Harry"...bring it on)

Magnum Force

Year 2, Day 224 - 8/12/10 - Movie #590

BEFORE: I know there are 5 films in the "Dirty Harry" series, but I only have the first two, so that will have to do. TCM ran them on Clint Eastwood's 80th birthday, on May 31.

THE PLOT: Dirty Harry is on the trail of vigilantes who are going beyond the law to kill the city's undesirables.

AFTER: This is a film with several smaller crime "vignettes", (and no memorable quotes) and I'm not sure that the pieces add up to a coherent whole. Yes, there are vigilantes killing criminals, but while tracking them down, Dirty Harry also finds time to take out a couple of hijackers, foil a compete in a police marksmanship event, turn down the advances of his ex-partner's ex-wife, and then sleep with his upstairs neighbor. What, there were no kittens that needed to be rescued from a high tree branch? Focus, people!

Oh, I forgot, he also foils a robbery inside a store that only sells very breakable things, like china, glassware and lightbulbs. That way it looks so great when the bullets fly into the shelves...

Several of the minor characters make references to having never shot someone before - I suppose they're positioned as less manly foil characters for Dirty Harry, who's probably shot so many people he's lost count. Quien es mas macho?

No obvious connections to "Grand Theft Auto" tonight, except for a bit in the final showdown atop an aircraft carrier - come on, everyone knows you can't do stunt jumps on a police motorcycle...and maybe a car that's been taken to 8-Ball's garage, if you know what I mean.

Maybe I'm just not a "Dirty Harry" fan, but the only way to find that out was to watch the films...

Also starring Hal Holbrook (last seen in "Capricorn One"), Tim Matheson (last seen in "1941"), David Soul (last seen making a cameo in the "Starsky & Hutch" movie), Robert Urich, and a brief uncredited (and unclothed) appearance by Suzanne Somers.

RATING: 4 out of 10 bullet holes (but nice grouping!)

Dirty Harry

Year 2, Day 223 - 8/11/10 - Movie #589

BEFORE: From one iconic San Francisco cop to another - again I have to own up to never having watched a film that just about "everyone" is familiar with. It's my personal daily cycle of shame, followed by redemption.

THE PLOT: A San Francisco cop with little regard for rules (but who always gets results) tries to track down a serial killer who snipes at random victims.

AFTER: About 18 minutes in, we're treated to the immortal line, where "Dirty" Harry Callahan asks a bank robber if he'd fired six shots, or only five - and says "you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" It does NOT get any more classic than that. Like many classic movie lines, it often gets misquoted, and appears as "Do you feel lucky, punk?", in many parodies. That line from "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" about "stinkin' badges" often gets paraphrased incorrectly too...

I did a whole Clint Eastwood chain last year, but at the time I didn't have possession of this film - Turner Classic Movies ran it just a few months ago, and since I knew I had crime films coming up, I grabbed it, along with one of its sequels. That is the point of this exercise after all, to find the hidden (and not-so-hidden) gems of filmdom that I haven't seen, and this certainly qualifies.

Callahan tracks down the sniper that's terrorizing his city, but he does it without a little thing called a search warrant, so any evidence collected is ruled invalid - this goes a long way toward portraying Dirty Harry as the kind of cop who bucks the system, and gets the job done, but not always in the best way. Police procedures for the other guys, and you can't argue with results, but you've got to make the conviction stick.

I've got problems with the way that the killer is portrayed - at one point the cops point out that a criminal doesn't change his M.O., but the killer DOES show different habits throughout the film. First he's a sniper killing randomly, then he kidnaps a young woman and blackmails the city, and later in the film he's portrayed as more of a pedophile. Those are three very different types of crimes, from what I understand.

Another film which influenced the video-game "Grand Theft Auto 3" - specifically the "Payday for Ray" mission in the 2nd island of the game, which forces the player to drive a fast car between 4 ringing payphones in rapid succession, in order to meet with a police informant. The killer in this film makes Harry run between payphones before delivering a ransom payment, and the similarity is quite obvious.

Also starring John Vernon (Dean Wormer from "Animal House") as the mayor.

RATING: 5 out of 10 shell casings (the classic movie moment rates higher, but I'm not sure the surrounding movie is of the same "caliber")

Bullitt

Year 2, Day 222 - 8/10/10 - Movie #588

BEFORE: If I wanted to be cute, I'd follow "Blue Steel" with "Red Heat", and then "Heat" - no, that doesn't work for me. I want to go back to some real classic cop films of the 60's and 70's, rockin' it old school with this one, starring tough-guy actor Steve McQueen. And no, I didn't misspell the title of the film - that's the character's name. You have to figure a guy named "Bullitt" is going to become a cop, right?

THE PLOT: An all guts, no glory San Francisco cop becomes determined to find the underworld kingpin that killed the witness in his protection.

AFTER: Now there's a plot that sounds like a mission in the "Grand Theft Auto" game. Protect the witness from the mob goons that are coming to kill him, then chase off after the thugs in a fast car, and run them off the road...

Before Playstation and Rockstar Games, before Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis portrayed cops that don't play by the rules, there was Steve McQueen (last seen in "The Thomas Crown Affair"). Picture the classic 1960's cop, wearing a turtleneck and a sports jacket, driving around San Francisco in a classic muscle car (like a Ford Mustang or a Dodge Charger), and that's "Bullitt". (Wow, I actually identified the 2 cars seen in the film correctly, and that's very rare for me...IMDB confirms they are a Mustang and a Charger...it turns out that the 2001 and 2008 Ford Mustangs were designed to pay homage to McQueen's 1968 "Bullitt Fastback", I must have read about that somewhere. I don't own a car, but if I did, I'd want a green 2008 Mustang.)

I'm assuming that films like this one inspired the wave of gritty crime TV dramas in the 1970's, like "Barretta" and "Starsky & Hutch" - they all owe a debt to Steve-O. In fact, there's a car chase in this film, up and down the streets of San Fran, that probably influenced every car chase scene in a decade's worth of films. The "language" of a movie car chase is established here (minus the fruit-stand and the giant pane of glass that gets inevitably shattered). Sure, the car chase has been around almost as long as movies, and the elements are like words that have been used many times, but words arranged in the proper order can form poetry. You should watch this film just for a beautiful, 10-minute sequence with no dialogue, no music, just one car chasing another - the cadence of the shifting gears, the squealing of the tires, and the rhythmic slamming of the suspensions as the cars bounce up and down the now-famous hilly streets. Throw in the clang of the cable cars, and it's like music.

The other piece of art here is Bullitt's back-up plan, after the initial plan to protect the witness doesn't go so well. He makes the body disappear, then acts like he's got the witness stashed somewhere safe, which gives him time to track down the killers and figure out who they're working for, and where the leak came from. See, THIS is how a cop should act when there's a killer on the loose - you keep your head, you set a trap, and wait for him to show up. You do NOT go to your parents' house for dinner...

And this is real, old-school police work, before DNA testing (at one point, a body is described as "burned beyond recognition" - wouldn't be the case today...), before computerized interstate databases, cell phones, or even fax machines. I don't know what that machine was that they used to transmit a photo of a suspect between Chicago and San Francisco, but it sure made a lot of noise.

Heck, back then you could smoke indoors, or even on a plane! And apparently there were no computerized check-ins or boarding passes, everything was checked by hand! And I guess they allowed guns on planes too (?) - now, what year was the metal detector invented? Or is that a plot-hole?

Between the ambulances and the climax on the airport runway, I found this very reminiscent of the "Grand Theft Auto" games, maybe just because I was playing one over the weekend. Then again, the games were inspired by sequences in "Scarface" and other movies, perhaps there's some "Bullitt" influence in there somewhere.

Also starring Robert Vaughn (last seen in "The Magnificent Seven"), Jacqueline Bisset (last seen in "Airport"), Norman Fell (last seen in "Airport '75"), with a cameo from Robert Duvall (last seen in "Colors") as a cab driver.

RATING: 6 out of 10 passports

Blue Steel

Year 2, Day 221 - 8/9/10 - Movie #587

BEFORE: Still another week or so of cop films to go. This one was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who won the Best Director Oscar earlier this year, for "The Hurt Locker".

THE PLOT: A female rookie in the police force engages in a cat and mouse game with a pistol wielding psychopath who becomes obsessed with her.

AFTER: Damn, and I was doing so well recently...after a couple of high-scoring police films, this one just didn't measure up for me.

Jamie Lee Curtis (making her first appearance in the countdown, hmm...) plays Megan Turner, a cop who apparently didn't pay much attention in the police academy - her first encounter with a perp doesn't go well, and she gets suspended. But when her name turns up, etched into a killer's bullets, she gets put back on the force for her own protection (huh?) and for some reason, gets promoted to detective at the same time. I'm fairly sure that's NOT how people get promoted in the N.Y.P.D.

This COULD have been a realistic, in-depth look at the uphill battle faced by a female cop, always struggling and seeking acceptance from her peers, society, and herself. But by intertwining her story with that of an obsessed serial killer, her character is reduced from hero to target. What a shame. Curtis is essentially playing the same role here that she did in horror movies like "Halloween" and "Prom Night" (not that I've seen those...) - she's just a victim here, relying on help from male officers for protection.

And even when she acts, late in the film, she makes the same stupid mistakes she did early on. When a person knows that they're the target of a killer, you might think they'd act differently, maybe a little more cautious or careful? Maybe check an apartment for signs of entry, or clear a room before entering it? Maybe if a killer is tracking you, you should hide out? Not go and visit your parents the next day, because, hey, now the killer knows where your parents live! The horror-movie analogy is a good one, because I just found myself shouting at the screen, in disbelief of how stupid the main character acted - not one lick of common sense.

So I have to call "shenanigans" on this film - any points awarded will be given to the memory of Ron Silver (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), who plays crazy/evil very well here - they say it's the quiet ones with the stressful jobs that snap first, after all. You always hear a suspect's neighbors being interviewed saying "He was a quiet man, kept to himself, never caused any trouble." You almost never hear them say, "Yeah, that guy was wound WAY too tight - we always knew he'd snap one day, and we just hoped we'd be far away when it happened..."

Also starring Clancy Brown (last seen in "Dead Man Walking"), Kevin Dunn (last seen in "Only the Lonely"), Elizabeth Pena (last seen in "Batteries Not Included"), Richard Jenkins (last seen in "Step Brothers"), Louise Fletcher, and Tom Sizemore (last seen in "Devil in a Blue Dress") in his first film role, as the grocery-store robber.

RATING: 3 out of 10 rookie mistakes

The Negotiator

Year 2, Day 220 - 8/8/10 - Movie #586

BEFORE: The loose connection to last night's film? Samuel L. Jackson, who starred in "Die Hard 3". Actually I switched things up again, I'm still trying to watch "Heat", but I stayed up way too late last night (aka early this morning) playing "Grand Theft Auto 3" for the umpteenth time. I forgot how much fun that game is...

THE PLOT: In a desperate attempt to prove his innocence, a skilled police negotiator accused of corruption and murder takes hostages in a government office to gain the time he needs to find the truth.

AFTER: Irony abounds as the man who's usually counted on to defuse tense hostage situations is forced to cause one, in order to prove his innocence. Samuel L. Jackson (last seen in "Iron Man") plays Danny Roman, one of Chicago's top negotiators - so he knows all the tricks, the ins and outs of police tactics and strategies.

Fortunately Chicago has TWO top negotiators, so they call in Chris Sabian, played by Kevin Spacey (last seen in "Superman Returns") to negotiate with the negotiator. This is what's called "Hollywood logic", like hiring a thief to catch another thief, or going to see a serial killer to get advice on catching another serial killer.

Roman has been accused of murder and some financial scandal, which involves the police pension fund, or insurance fraud, or something... Note: if you can't sum up a movie crime in one sentence, then you might be making it too complicated - why not dumb it down so the people at home can follow along? Anyway, there's been some impropriety, and Roman's partner has been killed - and the masterminds behind it all are either dirty cops, or possibly dirty internal affairs cops.

The crafty nature of this film lies in the casting - in addition to the big stars like Jackson and Spacey (the concept here seems to be to throw Capital-A actors in a room and let them act their way out of it...) all of the cops, IAB cops and FBI agents are played by great character actors - the kind who have made their bones playing both good guys and villains. So, we don't know which cops are on the take - hell, it could be all of them!

There are some nice twists, but in the end perhaps there were a few too many characters, it could have been simplified. But then I guess we'd have fewer suspects to choose from...

Also starring Paul Giamatti (last seen in "The Illusionist"), David Morse (last seen in "The Rock"), Ron Rifkin (last seen in "The Sunshine Boys"), John Spencer (also last seen in "The Rock"), J.T. Walsh (last seen in "Pleasantville") and Siobhan Fallon (last seen in "Charlotte's Web"). Oh, and I almost forgot the two guys from "CSI", Paul Guilfoyle (last seen in "Air Force One") and Robert David Hall (last seen in "Deal of the Century")

RATING: 6 out of 10 flash grenades

Live Free or Die Hard

Year 2, Day 219 - 8/7/10 - Movie #585

BEFORE: While I'm finishing off movie franchises...I know these films are becoming more enjoyable, because I was filled with a desire to dust off "Grand Theft Auto 3" last night, so I did. A great action film will do that.

THE PLOT: John McClane takes on an Internet-based terrorist organization who is systematically shutting down the United States.

AFTER: Similarities to last night's "Lethal Weapon 4": Fourth (and presumably last) film in a long-running action franchise? Check. Foreign villains with unique fighting styles (martial arts, parkour)? Check. Impossible stunts, plus a ludicrous number of bullets fired? Double check.

Though there are some slight similarities to the third "Die Hard" film (thieves using terrorist-like techniques to distract from the large heist), these are easily excusable, in my view - of course there should be echoes of the previous films in the series - John McClane's wife held hostage in the first film, and his daughter kidnapped in this one, for example.

The action in this film is ramped up to near-unbelievable levels. A couple of sequences made me sit straight up, wide awake, so I wouldn't miss anything. I'm particularly referring to what can be done these days to show a fighter jet shooting missiles at a trailer truck - damn! But wouldn't the fighter pilot have thought twice about shooting at a crowded freeway, considering how much collateral damage would be done to civilians and city property? I'm quibbling, I guess.

Destruction just goes hand-in-hand with a "Die Hard" plot - though this one got a PG-13 rating, somehow, so although a lot of stuff blows up real good, you don't see a lot of bodies, and the language is toned down to "Yippee-Kai-Yay, you bad person, you..."

Bruce Willis (last seen in "The Siege", which I really should have watched next to this one...) is teamed up with Justin Long (last seen in "Walk Hard") for this one - notice that Justin's career took off in films like "Accepted" and "Dodgeball" right after I cast him in an animated feature - before that he was making horror movies like "Jeepers Creepers", so really, doesn't he owe his big-picture success to me? You're welcome, Justin...

Also starring Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q (last seen in "Mission: Impossible III"), Cliff Curtis (last seen in "Training Day"), Kevin Smith (last seen in "Clerks II"), and Zeljko Ivanek (last seen in "A Civil Action"), and a cameo from Tim Russ (Tuvok from "Star Trek: Voyager")

RATING: 8 out of 10 algorithms