John Boorman, supposedly based on a positive review from Pauline Kael for his first film Catch Us if You Can, started receiving offers to work in Hollywood, and he attracted the attention of Lee Marvin who, at the height of his fame, was offered complete creative control over the adaptation of The Hunter by Richard… Continue reading Point Blank
Category: Action
The Rookie
#30 in my ranking of Clint Eastwood's films. Obviously an attempt by Warner Brothers to replicate the success of 48 Hrs. from eight years earlier and the Lethal Weapon movies, The Rookie was the price Clint Eastwood had to pay to get the funding for White Hunter Black Heart. And you know what? I think… Continue reading The Rookie
The Dead Pool
#5 in my ranking of the Dirty Harry franchise. Where Sudden Impact felt like someone inelegantly added Harry Callahan to an unrelated script, The Dead Pool feels like some taking the most generic cop script in existence and changing the generic cop's name to Harry Callahan while still managing to get Clint Eastwood to reprise… Continue reading The Dead Pool
The Gauntlet
#32 in my ranking of Clint Eastwood's films. Clint Eastwood seemed very self-aware of his image, and The Gauntlet feels like an attempt to subvert the image he had cultivated through the Dirty Harry series of films, which he thought was over after The Enforcer. Warner Brothers would come to him a few years later… Continue reading The Gauntlet
The Enforcer
#3 in my ranking of the Dirty Harry franchise. The script for the third outing of Inspector Harry Callahan feels like several scripts smooshed together with just enough connecting tissue conjured up out of thin air to keep the thing afloat for its relatively brief running time. There are ideas about women in the police… Continue reading The Enforcer