Classic Movie Review Universal Soldier

Universal Soldier 

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Written by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, Dean Devlin

Starring Jean Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker

Release Date July 10th, 1992 

Why write about something as silly and seemingly random as Universal Soldier? It goes back to being a teenager who fell in love with the movies while on an adventure with friends. When I was 16 years old on a June day in 1992, myself and three friends decided to see a movie. We intended only to see Batman Returns, the sequel to 1989’s blockbuster Batman starring Michael Keaton. Once we saw that film however, we hatched a sneaky idea.

The theater was extremely busy. Batman Returns was selling tickets fast and the staff was harried and distracted. When we finished Batman we noticed that the baseball movie A League of Their Own starring Tom Hanks was about to start. We decided, we were going to sneak in and see another movie. This sneaky teenage capering (which I am aware is akin to stealing, forgive my aimless, amoral youth) led us to try and make it three movies in a day. We chose the Eddie Murphy comedy Boomerang which had the extra benefit of being R-Rated.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Written by Quentin Tarantino

Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi

Released October 9th, 1992

It seems hard to believe now, but in the early 1990's Harvey Keitel was having a hard time finding work. While his close friends Martin Scorsese and Robert Deniro were scoring bigger and bigger films, Keitel was turning away stereotypical thug roles that played too much off his legendary character from Mean Streets. Keitel hadn't worked in a couple years when a hyperactive, young, writer-director named Quentin Tarentino accosted him. Tarentino offered Keitel the role of Mr. White in Reservoir Dogs after writing the role with Keitel in mind. What might have happened had he said no? Thankfully we will never know.

In a diner on the outskirts of Los Angeles a group of similarly dressed guys sit around a table and discuss the true meaning behind Madonna's song “Like A Virgin” and the various reasons to tip and not to tip. Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Brown (Tarantino), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) and Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), have been called together by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) to rob a jewelry store of a couple million dollars worth of uncut diamonds.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review The Crying Game

The Crying Game (1992) 

Directed by Neil Jordan 

Written by Neil Jordan 

Starring Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Forrest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson

Release Date November 27th, 1992, February 1993 (Oscar Release) 

Published February 20th, 2023 

What stands out about Neil Jordan's The Crying Game 30 years later is how remarkably sensitive the film is. While the film's lasting legacy in popular culture centers on actor Jaye Davidson's penis, the actual film, The Crying Game centers on sensitivity, intimacy and tenderness while also providing elements of a thriller and a spy movie. Neil Jordan brings forward a gay love story in The Crying Game in a way that had arguably never been explored before in this way. Using a traditional thriller narrative about warring spies, guns, and murder, Jordan tells a love story about people who are struggling to find who they really are. 

Stephen Rea stars in The Crying Game as Fergus, a member of the Irish Republican Army. History, as told by the British, would call the IRA terrorists. I truly have no idea what the actual legacy of the IRA is and I don't see a necessity to unpack the IRA here. The IRA is basically the vehicle that brings Fergus into contact with Jody (Forrest Whitaker), a young British soldier who is captured in Ireland and held for ransom. If the British will release a member of the IRA they are holding prisoner, then Fergus and is his fellow IRA members will release Jody. 

Of course, Jody, and possibly Fergus, knows that Jody is going to die. The British do not negotiate with the IRA, they work to eliminate the IRA. Jody's only glimmer of hope comes in trying to convince Fergus to let him go. Thus begins a lengthy and intimate series of conversation over a three day period from Jody's kidnapping to the day the IRA plans to execute him. In this time, Jody and Fergus bond and writer-director Neil Jordan willfully layers in visual indicators that perhaps there is more than just friendly banter going on between these two seemingly very different men. 

Knowing that his dire fate is approaching, Jody gives Fergus his wallet and with it, a photo of the woman Jody loves. Her name is Dil (Jaye Davidson) and she's a hairdresser back in Jody's home town. Jody begs Fergus to go and look in on Dil if, indeed Jody dies. What happens next will lead Fergus to Dil and the start of another complicated, deeply fraught, but genuine love story. Of course, history tells us what complicates this romance but the movie itself, is far more than that one pop culture footnote. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media