MY PREROGATIVE
Off-the-radar personal favorites
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Fade to Black —
The Principal —
Flash Gordon —
My Bodyguard —
A Killer in the Family —
Man on Fire —
Zulu —
One on One Summer Screening List [Home] |
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Fade to Black
(1980) |
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CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY
MOVIE GUY Eric Binford is your ordinary film freak until the day a mental frame jumps a sprocket and the loner starts exacting revenge on each of his tormentors while made-up as several of his favorite screen icons. Stars a post-Breaking Away Dennis Christopher and Linda Kerridge as a kind Australian transplant who happens to look exactly like Marilyn Monroe. Mickey Rourke is an exquisite jerk as Richie in one of his earliest screen roles. Late night fare. ... ... ... ... ... My Bodyguard (1980)  CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY MOVIE GUY ... .... ... ... ... ... .The Principal (1987)  CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY MOVIE GUY A better than average entry in the blackboard jungle genre. Jim Belushi reluctantly takes a position as principal in a rough inner-city high school where he and security dean Louis Gossett, Jr. oscillate between fighting-off thugs and inspiring those kids who really want to learn; all this two years before Morgan Freeman’s Joe Clark did the same in Lean on Me. Rae Dawn Chong and Esai Morales co-star. B+ ... ... ... ... ... Flash Gordon (1980)  CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY MOVIE GUY ... ... ... ... ... ... A Killer in the Family (1983)  CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY MOVIE GUY Iconic for his foreboding presence, I’ve always thought actor Robert Mitchum the epitome of righteousness. Which makes his role as real-life murderer Gary Tison that much more unsettling in the 1983 made-for-TV-movie A Killer in the Family. The film opens with an idyllic picnic — Tison’s wife and three sons (then heartthrob Lance Kerwin and rising hunks James Spader and Eric Stoltz) on prison grounds where the elder Tison is serving consecutive life sentences. He secretly claims to the boys that his life is in danger and coerces them to break-out him and loose cannon Randy Greenawalt (normally comical Stuart Margolin but here, creepy AF). On the outside, and on the run, the men, holding the boys effectively hostage, return to their savage ways. So raw was it that several TV stations, including Minnesota’s KSTP, refused to broadcast it because it contained scenes of “uncommon violence.” It’s no Reservoir Dogs, but for 80’s TV, it was too much. ... ... ... ... ... One on One (1977)  CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY MOVIE GUY ... ... ... ... ... ... Man on Fire (2004)  CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY MOVIE GUY With apologies to half of his body of work, this is Denzel Washington’s best film.
Washington plays a washed-out special forces expert eking out a living in Mexico. He reluctantly takes on a gig protecting little Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning who is as adept here as she is adorable) in a climate where kidnapping is more than just a side hustle, it’s a leg in the dark economic stool of the country. It goes like this: the wealthy take-out large policies against abduction, professionals snatch insured victims, corrupt police ostensibly investigate albeit half-assed. In actuality, they facilitate ransom payments for a share. It’s a symbiotic relationship that is usually safe and profitable unless things go malo as they do here. Your basic redemption/comeuppance plot; but gritty, appropriately gratuitous and presented with a cool Soderberghesque vibe though it’s actually helmed by Top Gun and Crimson (OMG another masterpiece) Tide director Tony Scott. Most remarkable is the bond forged, and genuine on-screen chemistry, between Washington and Fanning. Co-stars Christopher Walken, Mickey Rourke and Latin crooner Marc Anthony (I kid you not) as Pita’s not-so-doting father. Favorite line: “It's off to the next life for you.” Not to be confused with Scott Glenn’s 1987 version, which oddly I’ve haven’t felt compelled to screen. ... ... ... ... ... Zulu (1964)  CHRIS MIKSANEK - THE MED CITY MOVIE GUY ...
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