Film Freak Central

Heat (1995) - DVD

***½/**** Image A Sound A- Extras B
starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd
written and directed by Michael Mann

by Vincent Suarez Michael Mann's Heat is a rare Hollywood action film, indeed. In an era in which the standard studio actioner consists of loosely-motivated bits of plot and character development that merely link one set-piece to the next, the explosive action sequences in Heat fittingly punctuate moments of genuine drama enacted by a wealth of interesting characters. Further, while today's action films are invariably vehicles for the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Willis, et al, Heat is the rare studio action picture that, despite its own heavyweight stars, is truly an ensemble piece, cast and acted to perfection. And in an age when the standard Hollywood epic spends three hours glossing over the "major events" in its characters' lives, Heat confines its three hours to perhaps a few weeks of "real" time, allowing Mann (who produced, wrote, and directed) to present a drama that is epic in its emotional depth, if not in years.

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner - Books

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner
FFC rating: 10/10
by Paul M. Sammon

by Bill Chambers Ridley Scott's Blade Runner took two years to complete, while Paul M. Sammon's exhaustive document of its inception was finished over a period of one-and-a-half decades. The author admits that his book, like its subject, is "compulsively detailed." Future Noir's appendices alone--which include a thorough interview with Scott, fussy comparisons of Blade Runner's multiple video incarnations, confirmed continuity slip-ups, soundtrack information, a directory of related websites, and a full credits listing--occupy 66 pages! In fact, the only information Sammon fails to provide is his own credentials. A journeyman in the best way, he's a film journalist and documentarian who, as an inveterate producer of electronic press kits, was eyewitness to some legendary (and legendarily troubled) genre productions, such as Dune and RoboCop. 

Killer Instinct - Books

Killer Instinct: How Two Young Producers Took on Hollywood and Made the Most Controversial Film of the Decade
FFC rating: 7.5/10
by Jane Hamsher

by Jarrod Chambers Why do we enjoy Killer Instinct so much more than other Hollywood tell-all books? It has all the same elements--booze, drugs, adultery, politics and backstabbing, production nightmares, and boneheaded executives--that a hundred other stories of La-La land contain. So why did I find myself gobbling this book like popcorn during the opening trailers?

Arlington Road (1999)

*½/****
starring Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Hope Davis
screenplay by Ehren Kruger
directed by Mark Pellington

by Bill Chambers Wrote Josh Young, in issue #493 of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: "With studios now viewing the mid-level, Oscar-nominated directors as a luxury they can no longer afford, established auteurs...are facing increasingly stiff competition from slick young music-video turks who'll work for a mere pittance." From its galling opening sequence, I wondered what Arlington Road would look like had it been sired by someone more established in movies than the director of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" clip. Director Mark Pellington is so mindful of 'the image' that writer Ehren Kruger's plotting eventually drops off the tightrope of credibility. Could a veteran filmmaker, comparable in status to the late Alan J. Pakula, swindle us more successfully with the same screenplay?

Wild Wild West (1999)

*/****
starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek
screenplay by Brent Maddock, S.S. Wilson, Peter S. Seaman, and Jeffrey Price
directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

by Bill Chambers If you don't think Kevin Kline in drag is funny, wait 'til you see Will Smith in drag--it's even less funny. By the time Jim West (Smith) had disguised himself as a belly dancer to retrieve his captured comrade Artemus Gordon (Kline) from the clutches of evil Dr. Loveless (Kenneth Branagh), I was unequivocally bored with Wild Wild West, the new summer action-comedy from Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld. Is the Old West really a breeding ground for slapstick, anyway? If your answer is yes, you're probably thinking of Blazing Saddles, but Blazing Saddles was a parody of the western genre that also satirized the social climate of 1974, not a nineteenth-century romp in and of itself.