Showing Tag: " cop" (Show all posts)

REVIEW: Frank Serpico, A Man of Integrity, Has Surfaced to Air the NYPD's Dirty Laundry

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, May 3, 2014, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
Serpico





Directed By: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young, Cornelia Sharpe, and Tony Roberts


"The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry - it just gets dirtier."
-Frank Serpico (Al Pacino)

Since Al Pacino turned 74 recently, I’ve been reflecting on all the cinematic memories this storied veteran of the screen and stage has given us.  Whether telling Fredo to never take sides against the family, telling the crooks of Miami to say hel...

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REVIEW: With 30 Seconds of the Clash Between Cop Vincent Hanna & Robber Neil McCauley, You Know the Flip Side of the Coin Has Just as Much Heat

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, February 16, 2014, In : 0.00% Water 
Heat





Directed By: Michael Mann

Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Tom Sizemore, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Jon Voight, Val Kilmer, and Natalie Portman

"A guy told me one time, 'Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.'  Now, if you're on me and you gotta move when I move, how do you expect to keep a... a marriage?"
-Neil McCauley (Robert De N...

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REVIEW: With Oppressive Capitalist Pigs, Rehabs, & Splatter Punks, RoboCop 3 Finds Itself Completely Outdated

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, February 15, 2014, In : 0.12% Hard Liquor 
RoboCop 3





Directed By: Fred Dekker


Starring: Robert John Burke, Nancy Allen, Rip Torn, John Castle, Jill Hennessy, Mako, and C. C. H. Pounder


If I thought RoboCop 2 was outdated when it arrived in theaters, you can probably guess what I think about Murphy's third outing in Detroit.  By the time RoboCop 3 arrived in theaters, the science fiction genre had changed forever.  All I need to make my case is that the Tyrannosaurus Rex had already roared on the big screen and elevated our expectations f...

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REVIEW: With Nuke on the Streets & A Kid Running the Drug Scene, RoboCop 2 Is No Lethal Response to Its Predecessor

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, February 9, 2014, In : 0.09% Cocktails 
RoboCop 2





Directed By: Irvin Kershner

Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan, and Gabriel Damon


As I revisit the RoboCop series, I have mixed feelings.  I loved the original movie, but I have no love whatsoever for its two sequels.  In the case of RoboCop, Hollywood butchered yet another blockbuster series with these sequels.  The proof is in the pudding.  Just look at the second RoboCop movie.  Lacking consistency, coherence, and creativity, RoboCop 2 is a...

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REVIEW: Old Detroit Cleaned Up by OCP Product RoboCop, I'd Buy That for a Dollar Over Delta City

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, January 25, 2014, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 
RoboCop





Directed By: Paul Verhoeven

Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferrer

Machines are synonymous with science fiction movies.  Where would John Connor be without The Terminator?  What would the Star Wars saga be like without our beloved droids C-3PO and R2-D2?  Who would send chills down our spines in Alien if not the slippery android Ash?  I could go on and on.  This is just a small slice of the role machines play in sci-fi.  Despite t...

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REVIEW: Brian & Roman Are Definitely Hungry in 2 Fast 2 Furious, But Their Pockets Ain't Empty

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, May 4, 2013, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
2 Fast 2 Furious





Directed By: John Singleton


Starring: Paul Walker, Tyrese, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Thom Barry, and James Remar

While The Fast and the Furious was just a good racing movie, it made more than its fair share of cheddar.  That's why it's no surprise that studio execs had its sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious in cinemas in just two short years.  They were hungry for some more easy money.  That being said, the curious thing about this second installment in the franchi...

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REVIEW: In Live Free or Die Hard, the Fire Sale Pushes Bruce Willis to Once Again Be That Guy

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, February 3, 2013, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 

Live Free or Die Hard





Directed By: Len Wiseman

Starring: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Jonathan Sadowski, Maggie Q, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kevin Smith, and Cliff Curtis

"It's a three-step systematic attack on the entire national infrastructure.  Okay, step one: take out all the transportation.  Step two: the financial base and telecoms.  Step three: You get rid of all the utilities.  Gas, water, electric, nuclear.  Pretty much anything that's run by computers which... which ...


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REVIEW: In Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Simon Says Two Pigeons Hold Fort Knox Down

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, January 27, 2013, In : 0.03% Wine Coolers 

Die Hard: With a Vengeance





Directed By: John McTiernan

Starring: Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson, Larry Bryggman, Graham Greene, and Colleen Camp

The first two Die Hard movies were all about Bruce Willis going up against all odds to defeat formidable criminals reigning terror down on his wife and other innocent victims.  While the first Die Hard perfected this formula, I can't say the same for the second one.  When Die Hard: With a Vengeance was in the works, the life and times...


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REVIEW: In Die Hard 2, John McClane is the Wrong Guy in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time All Over Again

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, January 26, 2013, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 

Die Hard 2





Directed By: Renny Harlin

Starring: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, William Sadler, Art Evans, Dennis Franz, Reginald VelJohnson, and John Amos

What are the chances that the same thing would happen to the same guy twice?  That's the question we end up asking ourselves in Renny Harlin's Die Hard 2, the follow-up to the 1988 smash hit starring a young Bruce Willis.  While this sounds awesome on paper, I wish the same guy would have directed the film.  As you may know, Die Hard directo...


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REVIEW: In Die Hard, Roy Rogers and Some Not-So-Common Thieves Tear Nakatomi Plaza to Shreds

Posted by James Brown on Thursday, January 10, 2013, In : 0.00% Water 

Die Hard





Directed By: John McTiernan

Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, Bonnie Bedalia, Reginald VelJohnson, and Paul Gleason

"Yippee kai yay, motherfucker!".  It's hard to believe that it's been a quarter century since a young Bruce Willis uttered these words to Alan Rickman and forever changed the face of action movies.  These aren't just the words of some older generation of cowboy, gun-loving Americans.  These are the words that symbolize an entire generation of act...


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REVIEW: Riggs is a Daddy-To-Be & Murtaugh is a Granddaddy-To-Be. Lethal Weapon 4 Proves That It's Time for the Original Buddy Cops to Retire

Posted by James Brown on Sunday, April 22, 2012, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Lethal Weapon 4





Directed By: Richard Donner

Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock, and Jet Li

By the time Lethal Weapon 4 came rolling into theaters in 1998, the focus of the films had changed a bit.  The 90s had been good to Mel Gibson.  Because of the success of films like Braveheart, Gibson was unquestionably the main attraction of any film in which he starred at that time.  That's why Lethal Weapon 4 was the Mel Gibson Show featuring guest stars Danny Glover, ...
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REVIEW: Riggs May Be Chaos & Murtaugh May Be Mayhem, But Lethal Weapon 3 Has Lost A Little Bit of Its Edge

Posted by James Brown on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, In : 0.06% Beer or Wine 
Lethal Weapon 3





Directed By: Richard Donner

Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Rene Russo, Stuart Wilson, and Joe Pesci

By the time 1992 came rolling around, Lethal Weapon was well-established as the premier buddy cop franchise.  After the successes of Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2, Richard Donner, Mel Gibson, and Danny Glover had nothing to prove.  Nonetheless, Lethal Weapon 3 happened.  To make things interesting in this third time around, we have a new cast member in Rene Russo.

Riggs (Gi...
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REVIEW: Riggs and Murtaugh Bring the House Down in Lethal Weapon 2...Literally

Posted by James Brown on Saturday, April 14, 2012, In : 0.00% Water 
Lethal Weapon 2





Directed By: Richard Donner

Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Joss Ackland, Derrick O'Connor, and Patsy Kensit

The first Lethal Weapon film set such a high standard for the modern action thriller that Lethal Weapon 2 had quite an unenviable task.  Following up a future classic is always a tall order.  As history tells us though, Richard Donner, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and others rose to the occasion and delivered another great action thriller that has stood the tes...
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