Licence to Kill (1989)

Timothy Dalton's second and final entry into the Bond series improves upon his first. When Felix Leiter is injured and his wife murdered by the drug lord Sanchez (Robert Davi) on the day of their wedding, Bond resigns MI6 so that he may get revenge. He is aided by an ex-Army pilot (Lowell) and Sanchez' girlfriend (Talisa Soto). Both Bond girls (especially Lowell's character) are more active and more intelligent than most of the girls during Moore's reign, and the other supporting cast members (Cary-Hiroyuki "Shang Tsung" Tagawa, Benicio Del Toro, Wayne Newton) were a welcome sight. Q gets some field operative work, but unfortunately he's relegated to chauffeuring. The production quality was very polished, and the technical work was top-notch. For a film that takes place on boats and coastal cities, I was pleasantly surprised the producers decided to skip out on the trademark snack-break underwater fight scenes. The weakest link was Kamen's score which basically sounded like generic 80s action music does Bond. Licence to Kill is grittier and darker than its predecessors, but still without its moments of wit and class. It doesn't quite jump out at you like the best films of the series, but it is well-made and entertaining.

7/10

From Beyond (1986)

Hot off of Re-Animator (1985), Stuart Gordon and crew sought to make another Lovecraft hit with From Beyond. While the film has an interesting premise--a scientific device called the Pretorious Resonator allows interaction with a parallel dimension via stimulation of the pineal gland, causing the death of its creator and the suffering of other witnesses--the script had too many flimsy moments. At the center of the film is Jeffrey Combs, wonderfully playing his neurotic scientist character. The supporting cast is hit and miss: Ken Foree and Ted Sorel both give solid performances as Bubba the cop and Dr Pretorious, respectively. On the other hand, Barbara Crampton's psychiatrist character was irritating and inconsistent. She's unrealistically rash and irresponsible, even with the film's attempts to explain. The subplot involving her rivalry with the head psychiatrist at the Miskatonic Hospital was painfully unprofessional and a chore to witness. Additionally, I felt many of the elements of the film, especially those involving sex and bondage, were juvenile. What I did enjoy was the color aesthetic--saturated neon pinks and purples--harkening back to the Corman days of yore and the Thing-inspired special effects, with a generous supply of gibbering, shape-shifting masses and 80s lightning.

6/10

Devil Rides Out, The (1968)

Christopher Lee stars in this enjoyable little witchcraft chiller. Lee plays Duc de Richelieu, an older man who discovers that a young friend of his has become involved with the black arts, his coven led by Mocata (Charles Gray between Bond films). He takes it upon himself to prevent this young man (Patrick Mower) and an associated young woman (the lovely Nike Arrighi) from their unholy Baptism into Satanism. Charles Gray plays a serviceable villain in this, while Christopher Lee excels as the dreadfully serious no-nonsense doomsayer and protector. The only other noteworthy member of the cast is Nike Arrighi as Tanith. She's one of the more irresistible actresses I've seen in a Hammer film--it's a shame she retired from acting so early. I wish I could figure out what kind of accent she has. With several fun sets considering the budget and a couple tense, exciting scenes involving magic, The Devil Rides Out is one of the better Hammer thrillers from the late 60s (although still not as excellent as Quatermass and the Pit). Definitely worth a watch. Good occult thrillers are not easy to come by.

7/10

A Note on the Restoration: The version I watched was the recent restoration in which Hammer chose to "fix" some of the effects left unfinished by either lack of funds or time. While the improvements are mostly unnoticeable to someone unfamiliar with the film and done tastefully (The only effect that was obviously digital a strike of lightning--don't they know lightning never looked like that in the 60s?), it does bring up the question of what level of alteration is acceptable if at all. I'm not sure I can provide a clear answer. The improvements didn't seem to be for stupid reasons like "to update the film to younger generations," or needlessly adding garbage to fulfill some delusional director's vision, but rather because they wanted to put a finishing touch on effects that were obviously unfinished due to circumstance. It's kind of like Harryhausen colorizing Merian C. Cooper's 1935 film She because their original intentions were to shoot in color, so he colorized it as a gesture of appreciation for the film. Does that justify the alterations? I'm not sure. Regardless, they should at least provide the original unaltered version for the purists.

Living Daylights, The (1987)

The Living Daylights takes the Bond series far away from the la-la land of shoddy rear projection and abundant stunt doubles and grounds it back into realism. Timothy Dalton's Bond is grim but not bad and not without a few moments of dry wit. The plot is standard grade spy stuff: defections, back stabbings, decoys, and other sneaky tricks. They throw in a subplot involving Afghan rebels, but it's not noteworthy. Actually, the story was pretty boring. I'm a big fan of both Jeroen Krabbe and John Rhys-Davies, but neither actor managed to develop their characters enough to stand out. They seem kind of half-hearted about the whole thing. The Bond girl, Maryam d'Abo, also seemed bored. She just didn't seem into it. Fortunately, the filmmakers decided against the tasteless wordplay and cheesy visual puns that plagued the Moore films and instead favored a more From Russia with Love-flavored tone that was lighter on gadgets and jokes. The stunt-work was impressive and there's a noticeable improvement in the limited rear projection work. The Living Daylights isn't a great film, but it's a huge improvement over its immediate predecessors. I don't understand all the hate towards Dalton's Bond. I thought he was pretty good despite the lackluster film surrounding him.

6/10

Dredd (2012)

Not quite a remake since the 1995 Judge Dredd was such a notorious misfire, Dredd delivers a solid and entertaining, if not somewhat limited, action film to fans waiting for a Dredd film done right. I've never read the Dredd comics, but I know one of the big issues with the 1995 film is that Stallone took his helmet off. Well, rejoice fans, Karl Urban keeps his on the entire time. The film's story is not much more than a standard video game plot, a sort of sci-fi Die Hard where Judge Dredd and rookie sidekick have to fight their way through a locked-down building complex full of obstacles and enemies to get to the boss-woman at the top. It's not particularly original or special, but the visual flair and the execution of the action saves it from the heap-pile of generic re-dos. While I didn't think the film was mind blowing, it did whet my appetite for more Mega City and has me hoping for a sequel where budget constraints won't limit them to a single (albeit large) location. Dredd reminded me those mid-grade 80s action films that didn't really push the genre, but were well-made enough to keep you watching.

7/10

Red Dawn (2012)

Chris "Thor" Hemsworth and Josh "Drake and Josh" Peck star in this substandard remake of John Milius's paranoid Cold War propaganda film. The film starts off on the wrong foot by trying to give Josh Peck a legitimate, "serious" character (hot-head high school football player). The problem is that not only is Josh comically bad at acting, he looks way too old to be a senior in high school. He is so comically bad that he pulled everyone watching out of the picture every time he was on screen! Just one split-second cut-away to Josh would send all those viewing into fits of laughter. Hemsworth does a decent job, but he doesn't deserve any special treatment for being the only competent actor in the film. The supporting cast is annoying at best, irritating at worst, and the plot just doesn't quite work without the Russians being the main threat. North Koreans are lame. The villains have no shred of humanity like in the '84 film--they are just generic action movie automatons that are there to get shot and blow up for cheap thrills. The remake is stripped of the darker themes of war and the attempts at muddying up the lines of morality. Red Dawn 2012 is another pathetic entry in the unending line of generic remakes designed to cash in on the original's reputation.

4/10 

China Syndrome, The (1979)

The China Syndrome stars Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, and Jack Lemmon in a conspiracy thriller about a nuclear power plant mismanaged by its corporate heads for the sake of reputation and a quick buck. Fonda and Douglas give good performances as an ambitious news anchor and her independent cameraman as they battle against the money trail for the truth about an accident that they capture on film during a visit to the plant for a routine story. The best performance and the heart of the film is Jack Lemmon's as the shift manager and begrudging whistle-blower. I guess I've never really gave him much credit as a dramatic actor, but he was fantastic. The film could have easily become an anti-nuclear PSA, but it didn't stray very far into that territory at all. Rather, it was about technological hubris, corruption, and human error. As Lemmon's character, Jack Godell insists, "the system works," and it does. The higher-ups chose to ignore the warning, and then the human system kicked in--against Jack Godell. For some reason I thought the film was going to be slow, but it's an engaging, slick, and chilling ride.

8/10