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Reviews
Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Ice (1996)
I've paid to see movies way worse than this one.
Say it's a lazy, dank, rainy Saturday afternoon and you have no cable nor the inclination to go outside and either rent a DVD or go to a movie. The stage is perfect then for this one. Some good casting, especially the dark, brooding, police detective, Steve. Joe Pantoliano is practicing his basic role, not half bad.
Romeo Must Die (2000)
It's not Shakespeare, but it is a great way to string together set martial art pieces.
While Romeo Must Die is not Shakespeare in scope or aim, it is a very palatable way to string together a series of engaging martial arts displays interspersed with some very attractive people (especially Russell Why-Doesn't-He-Make-More-Movies Wong) and something of a circuitous, but easily followed dysfunctional family/loyalty/corruption/NFL franchise plot.
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Mildred Pierce, hard-boiled before John Woo used the title
Mildred Pierce is an interesting movie: first, Joan Crawford--enough to scare anybody; second, melodramatic--talk about a bunch of trashy-acting people; third, not a bad movie at all. This is not noir, but rather the hard-boiled genre. Slightly sordid events take place and are taken care of in a pragmatic fashion. Not pretty, but realistically, these things do happen and life goes on. By now, you've guessed it: we're talking sex. A lot of it goes on in this movie, along with smoking, drinking, hanging out in disreputable bars, blackmail, and eventually, murder. With the movie production code firmly in place, all the sex is off-camera and all the morally bad people pay a heavy price, as required.
Phoenix (1998)
Anthony LaPaglia down and dirty. I knew he could do it.
Even though he's had many thankless, boringly bland roles, I've always thought that Anthony LaPaglia had more range than he was allowed to show us. Phoenix proves me right. Although, Mike (LaPaglia)is not the main character, he's the malignant force behind the movie that drives all the action to it's inevitable end. Mike is a foul, completely unrepentant, morally corrupt cop with a permanent stubble and a paunch that hides his physical strength. His eyes, glinting windows on his ugly world, show us that he's always calculating the odds, weighing the outcomes, checking out the angles to make situations serve his purposes. He's a keen, if cynical, judge of character and smart in an animal-like way. All this puts him at odds with his friend and fellow cop, Harry, (Ray Liotta) the main character. Harry's more of a wounded psyche type, chronic gambler with a heart of gold, haunted by his father's credo that you don't welsh on a bet and you don't rat on others, especially your friends. Once Harry states these core beliefs, you know how this is going to work out for him.
The movie is put together very well: excellent performances by all (Giancarlo Esposito, as slimy loan shark and Jeremy Piven as weak, whipped cop are standouts), well-plotted, if familiar storyline, with appropriate pacing. Angelika Huston is wasted in a small role, but the backstory that her character suggests adds significantly to Harry's characterization.
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Yes, Coop is miscast, but it's a delightfully written romance.
As a tribute from Billy Wilder to Lubitsch, this is a delightfully heartfelt confection. The writing is so true to genre: light, witty, with just a soupcon of cynicism, an underlying acknowledgement that this is a romance, not realism. Unfortunately, Gary Cooper was a touch too old, although you could see glimmers of his former self. Hepburn's performance was seamlessly in sync with the concept and her clothes were dazzlingly perfect.