Year 8, Day 161 - 6/9/16 - Movie #2,360
BEFORE: I was going to try and go chronologically through Burt Reynolds' career, but that won't really work for my linking purposes, since I want to end on his early-ish Western films. So I'm putting all the crime films together, and I just moved this one up on the schedule, because like "Stick", it's set in Florida - so as long as we're there, I might as well organize the crime films by location.
This also allows another actor to carry over from "Stick", too.
THE PLOT: Logan McQueen, a veteran, tough cop who likes to see justice done by his own ways, is framed for murder.
AFTER: A few months back, when I knew I was going to put together a Burt Reynolds chain, I used my DVR to search for all of his movie appearances that were airing - might as well, right? And I stumbled on this series of three "Hard Time" movies, which were made for TV back in 1999-2000, but they were airing on the Encore channel as if they were regular movies, with the commercial breaks taken out, that is. So with their running times cut down to 100-110 minutes, I might as well give them a whirl - a movie is a movie, right? Regardless of where it first aired.
Well, the first one's not terrible, but it's not great, either. I can't take Charles Durning seriously, not because of his hairpiece this time, but because he was cast as a cop, Logan McQueen's partner, but the actor, and therefore the character, was much too out of shape to be a cop. Sure, there could be fat detectives or hefty squad captains, but out in the field, chasing down perps, that's no place for a fat guy. He'd either be forced by his c.o. to lose weight, or he'd have a heart attack chasing down a mugger in fairly short order.
It's easier to take Burt Reynolds seriously as a tough-guy cop, of course. One who's been reprimanded almost as many times as he's been awarded for bravery. So it's in sort of "Lethal Weapon" territory any time you have a cop who doesn't play by the rules, and it's clear that someone wants him out of the way, so the only questions are who, and why? And as with "Stick", there's a crime-boss who's now been shorted on a financial transaction and is demanding compensation.
The IMDB description didn't really get this film's plot right, McQueen doesn't have to escape from prison, but instead he gets out on bail, which gives him an opportunity to try and clear himself. The only trouble is, if a cop gets accused of murder, I'm pretty sure he shouldn't be working his own case to prove that he's innocent, even if he is. That's what we call a conflict of interest.
The district attorney also seems to want get him behind bars, but I don't think we ever find out why this is the case. Is he just part of some "law and order" political campaign, or did he have some personal vendetta against McQueen? This was pretty unclear. It's a fair NITPICK POINT to wonder why the D.A. couldn't even imagine that a cop could be framed with a pile of phony evidence. And where's the appeals process? You can probably guess where this one ends up, because it's where the next film in the series needs to begin.
Also starring Charles Durning (carrying over from "Stick"), Robert Loggia (last seen in "Lost Highway"), Mia Sara, Billy Dee Williams (last heard in "The Lego Movie"), Michael Buie (last seen in "Cedar Rapids"), Ja'net DuBois, with cameos from Roddy Piper and Alice Ghostley (last seen in "The Odd Couple II").
RATING: 4 out of 10 flamenco dancers
Year 8, Day 160 - 6/8/16 - Movie #2,359
BEFORE: Tonight Burt Reynolds has his mustache back - perhaps I should alternate the mustache films with the non-mustache films, but I'm horribly disorganized on this front. But we're getting into the crime films tonight, after a few more like this I'll get to a couple of Burt's comedies, then a little romance, and I'll finish off with a couple of Westerns. The man has just about done it all.
THE PLOT: Ernest 'Stick' Stickley returns from prison, and gets involved with his old friend in a drug-running deal that goes sour. Hired by a rich investor, he tries to walk the line, but trouble follows him throughout.
AFTER: Like the recently-watched "52 Pick-Up", this film is based on an Elmore Leonard novel, and I can see the similarities - low-level criminals trying to work their way up the chain, and the central character getting caught up in a double-cross/blackmail situation, forcing him to play all these different angles to get some leverage on the bad guys, or perhaps turn them against each other. Like crime takes place in a desert full of constantly shifting sands...tonight drug dealers become double-crossers and killers, and eventually kidnappers.
And some people have made action-thrillers out of Elmore Leonard stories, and other people have made comedies out of them, because they seem to walk that fine line between the dangerous and the ridiculous. Like Charles Durning's weird wig/hairpiece, that's very ridiculous. It looks almost like woman's hair, what were they trying to say about that character?
Unfortunately the plot feels sort of half-written - or half-directed, and Burt Reynolds also served as director here. Why did the drug deal not go down as planned, what was the reason for it failing? Why was the hit-man involved in the drug deal in the first place? Who masterminded the killings, was it Chucky or Nestor? For that matter, why did Chucky even need Stick and Raimy to deliver the money, why not have Moke the albino do it, if he was going to be there anyway?
Maybe it's the 80's setting in Florida, but this felt almost like a low-rent "Miami Vice" episode, minus the fashions and the cool music. Apparently the movie studio asked for a ton of reshoots on the second half of this film, so that could mean that it was even harder to understand at one point. The subplot with Stick reuniting with his daughter seems to be one of the late additions, which I think was a good call, because it's one of the few things that makes him a sympathetic character. Otherwise, he's just an ex-con looking to score, instead of a father trying to fly straight and re-connect with her.
I think my favorite part might have been when the film producer was trying to get investment money from a room full of mobsters, and Candice Bergen's character, who knows a thing or two about financial investments, totally calls him on his B.S. I'm sure that most movie investment opportunities are nothing but smoke and mirrors, leveraging one pile of money against another - but that guy had no intention of paying any money back. Would you double-cross the MOB when it comes to investments? You might get away with that, for all of five minutes, before they'll end up owning your entire production company.
Also starring Candice Bergen (also carrying over from "Starting Over"), Charles Durning (ditto), George Segal (last seen in "Love & Other Drugs"), José Perez, Richard Lawson (last seen in "Coming Home"), Dar Robinson, Castulo Guerra, Sachi Parker, with a cameo from Alex Rocco (last heard in "Batman: Year One").
RATING: 4 out of 10 bottles of Campari
