The Cannonball Run

Remember Burt Reynolds? That fresh-faced guy from The Longest Yard; that hairy-chested guy from Deliverance, that guy with the cool name and moustache from Smokey & The Bandit. One of the world's most famous actors, like so many others, Burt experienced something of a downfall in his career in the mid to late 80s, and would not be back in the movie limelight until 1997's Boogie Night. But with all that said, when Burt is good, he's great, and today I'm going to review one of his, in my opinion, greatest films. The legendary road movie The Cannonball Run.

Released in 1981 under the direction of former stuntman Hal Needham (Smokey & The Bandit), The Cannonball Run features an all star cast including Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore, George Furth, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and many others. The movie is based on the real life

'Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash.' It has over-the-top characters, over-the-top jokes, over-the-top stunts, and over-the-top scenarios.It's so crazy it can't possibly be described, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway.

The movie opens with our main characters, J.J McLure (Reynolds) and Victor Prinzi (DeLuise), 2 mechanics preparing for the upcoming Cannonball Run, which J.J is determined to win. In order to obtain victory they need to find a vehicle that they can drive fast, doesn't look suspicious and, in the case of police trouble, will provide a good cover. After several suggestions, they settle on an ambulance. Other contestants include Jamie Blake (Martin) and Fenderbaum (David, Jr.) who dress as priests and drive a Ferrari, and Seymour Goldfarb Jr, (Moore, parodying his James Bond persona) who drives an Aston Martin, rigged up with Bond-style gadgets.

The contestants gather in Connecticut for the start of the race. With a female patient name Pamela (Fawcett) and a Doctor, Nikolas Van Helsing (Jack Elam), J.J and Victor are ready and raring to go. Unfortunately, a Safety Enforcement Unit representative, Arthur J. Foyt (Furth), finds out about the race and plans to put a stop to it, but with so many Cannonballers on his hands, the odds don't appear to be in his favour.

The film has everything you'd expect from a car movie. High speed driving, crazy stunts, carnage, and a fat man in a superhero costume. Added together, you get the epitome of cinematic excess. The scale of the movie is incredible, as you would expect from a movie that features hundreds of competitors racing across one of the world's largest countries. The performances are wonderfully eccentric, the dialogue is quirky, the jokes are wild and always hilarious, and when it's over, it truly feels like you been taken on a huge road trip with the craziest bunch of folk. It's not so much of a film, more of an epic adventure, one I could enjoy every single day.

Jackie Brown

It's time to look at another film by Quentin Tarantino, but unlike last week's movie True Romance, he both writes and directs this one. It's his follows up to the renowned movies Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, the twisting and turning crime drama Jackie Brown.

Released in 1997, Jackie Brown stars Samuel L. Jackson, Pam Grier, Robert Forster, Robert De Niro, Bridgett Fonda and Michael Keaton. Based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard, the movie pays homage to 1970s Blaxsploitation films, though the film itself is not one of these. It involves a middle aged airline stewardess who smuggles money in from Mexico for a gun runner. It has everything Tarantino has become famous for. Intelligent dialogue, an intricate storyline, and some of cinemas most memorable and original characters.

The film opens with Jackie Brown (Grier), a flight attendant for a small Mexican airline. In order to make enough money to get by, she smuggles illicit cash on her routine flights for a Compton gun runner named Ordell Robbi (Jackson). Ordell lives in his house with Melanie (Fonda), and Louis (De Niro), a former cellmate who has recently been released from prison. Ordell's activities are being monitored by the ATF, who apprehend Jackie after she arrives in the USA with some of Ordell's money, and a bag of cocaine she was unaware was in her handbag.

                                                    Don't say one more f*cking word!

Worried that Jackie may snitch on him to avoid jail time (as a previous employee had done), Ordell bails her out with the help of Bondsman Max Cherry (Forster), whom Jackie becomes close to as the film progresses. Ordell plans to kill Jackie, but instead she comes up with a plan to get $500,000 of his money, enough for him to retire, while also pretending to help the ATP agents apprehend him. One of the agents, Ray (Keaton) formulates a plan with Jackie to put Ordell and his money together, completely unaware that Jackie has made her own plans for the cash.

From there, the movie unfolds into one of the smartest crime movies in history. You are kept guessing up to the very end. The movie's tagline is 'Who's playing who'. You never know which way it's going to go. Will the money go to the agents, to Jackie, to Ordell? Even when they are doing a trial run of the hand-off you can't be sure what is occurring. On top of that, you have performances that revitalized the acting careers of both Pam Grier and Robert Forster, and garnered 2 BAFTA nominations, 1 for Grier, and 1 for Jackson.

The movie contains some of my favourite Tarantino scenes, such as where Jackson and De Niro are watching 'Chicks With Guns', and where Jackson is convincing one of his soon-to-be victims to climb into the boot of his car. In all honesty, I prefer Pulp Fiction to Jackie Brown, mainly because of the characters and the story lines, but I still love this movie. It holds up in pretty much every area. I loved it when I first saw, and I still love it years later.

True Romance

Quentin Tarantino is, without doubt, one of histories most popular filmmakers.With movies such as Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, and my personal favourite, Pulp Fiction, Tarantino has built a solid film-making reputation. In the majority of his films, including the aforementioned ones, he both writes and directs. But in today's movie, he only carries 1 of those responsibilities, the screenplay, and does a terrific job. This is my review of True Romance.

Released in 1993 under the direction of Tony Scott (The younger brother of Ridley Scott), True Romance feature an ensemble cast including Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Gary Oldman, Michael Rapaport, Dennis Hopper and Bronson Pinchot among others. It follows 2 newlyweds travelling across America to sell a stolen drugs cache. It has Tarantino's trademark witty dialogue, combined with a great story, engaging characters and some great performances to make it one of the most original and enjoyable films in history.

The movie opens in Detroit, where movie buff and Elvis Presley idolizer Clarence (Slater) meets Alabama (Arquette) at a local cinema. After watching the film and having some pie, they go back to Clarence's apartment and sleep together. The next morning, Alabama reveals she is a call girl, hired as a present by Clarence's boss. However, she claims that she has fallen in love with him. He reciprocates, and the 2 of them get hitched.

Clarence takes it upon himself to break the news to Alabama's pimp Drexl (Oldman). In the ensuing confrontation, Clarence kills Drexl, one of his henchmen, and takes a bag he thinks belongs to Alabama, which turns out to be full of cocaine. Clarence visits his father Cliff (Hopper) to find out if he is implicated in Drexl's murder, and is informed that he is in the clear.

Clarence and Alabama set out for California to visit Clarence's close friend Dick (Rapaport). Clarence plans to sell the cocaine to a film producer using one of Dick's contacts, an actor named Elliot (Pinchot). The plan seems solid, but Elliot gets caught by the police with some of the coke. Afraid of the ramifications, Elliot makes a deal with 2 detectives to give them the parties involved in the deal in return for avoiding jail time.

This film itself is, like most Tarantino movies, not of a simple structure. It is multi-layered and intricate. It does, however, play in chronological order, unlike some of his most famous work. But unlike many movies that try hard to be complex, eg The Matrix, the movie is not hard to follow, and that makes it so much more enjoyable. You don't have to analyse it to the point that you get frustrated. As a result, we are allowed to enjoy all the twists and turns that lead to it's fitting and heart-warming climax. The star-studded cast are all great in their respective roles, and we are lucky enough to have a cameo from Christopher Walken, who is brilliant in anything he does. An awesome movie, no doubt about it.

Point Break

Opinion is very divided on the acting merits of Keanu Reeves. Some say he's a straight-up action star, others say he's dull, emotionless, and dismiss his as the next Kevin Costner. Myself, I think he's pretty good. Let's face it, there are far worse actors. But whatever you think about him, there's no doubt that The Matrix films are his biggest success, and anyone who has seen them knows that they are very confused, very contrived, but still a lot of fun. So if you're looking for a much simpler thrill starring Mr. Reeves, then look no further than today's movie, Point Break.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (The Oscar-winning Director of The Hurt Locker), Point Break was released in 1991, and starts Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty and Gary Busey. A critical and commercial success, the movie follows the FBI's efforts to catch a group of bank robbers. In order to do this, Keanu Reeves has to learn how to surf. The result is one of the greatest action movies of the nineties, and one of the best in Reeves' repertoire.

The movie opens with Johnny Utah (Reeves), a new FBI recruit, who gets teamed up with veteran agent Angelo Pappas (Busey). They are tasked with apprehending a group of bank robbers known as the 'Ex-Presidents', so-called because they wear masks resembling 4 formers Presidents, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Regan. Pappas has noticed several significant things about them, such as the fact that they never rob the vault, and simply stick to the registers. His other discovery, or rather a theory, is that the 'Ex-Presidents' are actually surfers. To investigate this, Utah, with the help of surfer girl Tyler (Petty) , learns how to surf, and attempts to infiltrate the group in order to investigate them. The task proves to be more difficult than he first thought, due to him forming a complex friendship with the surf group's leader Bodhi (Swayze), and becoming emotionally involved with Tyler.

                                                                 We are not crooks!

Following up on a lead, Utah and Pappas conduct a raid on another surfer group, not only failing to find the guilty party, but also ruining a DEA undercover operation. With their attention turned back to Bodhi's crew, they notice Bohdi and Roach casing a bank, so they wait for them to make their move. When the 'Ex-Presidents' show up, Johnny chases Bodhi through the neighbourhood and over a fence into an aqueduct, causing an old knee injury to flare up. He pulls his gun on Bodhi, but is unable to pull the trigger. Anyone who has seen Hot Fuzz will immediately recognise this scene.

So that's the plot. Pretty straightforward and not especially original. It's a classic good-guy-befriends-bad-guy-and-has-to-make-a-heartfelt-choice flick. But it's all done in a very stylish and entertaining way, and we can see Bigelow's directing prowess that would eventually bag her an Oscar nearly 20 years later. There's great chemistry between Reeves and Swayze, and while the romance between Utah and Tyler is not especially developed, it weighs heavily on the later part of the story, and does make for a pretty epic climax. The final scene finishes the movie perfectly, bringing the complicated bond between our 2 main characters to a fitting conclusion. A superb end to a superb movie.