Classic Movie Review The French Connection

The French Connection (1971) 

Directed by William Friedkin 

Written by Ernest Tidyman

Starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco 

Release Date October 7th, 1971 

Published August 11th 2023 

I don't get it. I don't get what anyone sees in The French Connection. I've tried. I've seen The French Connection a half dozen times. Each time I watch I try and see what so many others, including my idol, Roger Ebert sees in this beloved action movie. For the life of me, I just don't see it. The characters are thin, the action that is supposedly pulse-pounding feels plodding as I see it, and that car chase that has been raved about for more than 50 years is only impressive because it looks genuinely dangerous. I guess we're lucky no one was killed. That's supposed to be impressive. 

I do believe that the elements of The French Connection should work. William Friedkin is a very good director. I have recently written about his exceptional work much later in his career on a pair of outlandish but artful and exciting movies, The Hunted and Bug. I also have a great deal of love and respect for Gene Hackman. Hackman is one of the greats of 1970s cinemas, an icon who kept up his remarkable legacy of great work through to the end of his career via well-earned retirement just as Friedkin returned to the big screen. Roy Scheider, the cinematography, the dirty, grimy milieu, all add up to what should have been a really great movie. So why do I find The French Connection so mind numbingly dull? 

The French Connection tells the wide-ranging story of a drug deal. It begins in France where, presumably, an undercover cop is brutally gunned down. The opening scene of The French Connection lingers for ages as we watch the cop watch his targets, a French businessman named Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), and his henchman, Pierre (Marcel Bozzuffi). He follows them from one location to another, and then goes for a walk and buys a baguette and appears to be calling it a day. He grabs his mail, and he gets shot in the face. 

Then we head to New York City where Detective Popeye Doyle is dressed as Santa Claus and talking to some kinds. Out of the corner of his eye, Doyle is watching a bar nearby where his partner, Cloudy (Roy Scheider) is undercover and waiting for a perp to make a move. When the perp does make a movie, a chase ensues. Eventually, in a back alley, after Cloudy gets stabbed in the hand, the perp is caught, and Doyle purposefully confounds the suspect by asking him if he 'Picked his toes in Poughkeepsie. Why? Who the hell knows. It never comes up exactly why Doyle does this. I had to google it to find out that it was a nonsense phrase intended to cause confusion during an interrogation. 

Toes aside, we then watch as Doyle and Cloudy get on the scent of a new player in the local drug business. Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) is a small-time shop owner who dreams of moving up in the drug racket. He's become connected to a top guy, a money man and Kingpin named Weinstock. Having made another connection with the aforementioned French guys, Sal has positioned himself to potentially pull off the biggest international heroin smuggling operation in history. Millions of dollars of the purest heroin on the market being brought into the country via a French movie star named Devereaux (Frederic de Pasquale). 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Firm

The Firm (1993) 

Directed by Sydney Pollack 

Written by David Rabe, Robert Towne, David Rayfiel 

Starring Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Wilfred Brimley, Holly Hunter, David Straithairn, Ed Harris

Release Date June 30th, 1993 

Published July 10th, 2023 

John Grisham was a phenomenon in 1993. He owned the bestseller lists with the rapid fire releases of his easy, breezy legal thrillers. Each story bubbled with melodramatic twists and turns that you legitimately did not want to put down. For a time, Grisham's thrillers were met with the kind of frenzy that has only since been matched by the likes of Dan Brown, Stephanie Meyer, and She Who Shall Not Be Named. In 1993 alone two Grisham novels were adapted into blockbuster movies. 

While we have to wait until December for the joyous pleasure of The Pelican Brief, we first have The Firm, a potboiler of a legal drama surrounding the tumultuous tenure of a young lawyer and his job at a deeply corrupt law firm in Memphis, Tennessee. It's remarkable how easily Grisham's pulpy legalese translates to film without missing a beat. Grisham's style is remarkably detailed and yet wildly cinematic with easy to follow twists and turns that rarely get caught up in things that cannot be easily translated to another medium. It's no surprise that the author designed his thrillers with selling the movie rights in the back of his mind. 

The Firm takes on an extra dimension on the big screen as it is overseen by a masterful director. By this point, Sydney Pollack was winding down his legendary career but when he had good material he could be coaxed back behind the camera and we were lucky to have him class up the pulpy prose of Grisham, dressing it up with one of the most over-qualified casts in movie history. Seven cast-members either had or soon would have an Academy Award nomination, a true murderers row of performers brought to bear on what was already set to be a blockbuster courtesy of Grisham's own ludicrously large fanbase. 

Heading up this Yankee's circa 1932 lineup of performers, Tom Cruise stars in The Firm as Mitchell McDeere, a young lawyer fresh out of law school and highly in-demand. We watch early on as Mitch is courted everywhere from Los Angeles, to Boston, to Wall Street. Least likely among Mitch's many potential employers is a small firm out of Memphis, Tennessee. Bendini, Lambert, & Lock only has around forty lawyers on its roster, unlike the other firms which are teeming with associates. They only want Mitch among his prestigious graduating class and to say he's flattered is an understatement. 

Find my full length review linked here

Movie Review Night Moves

Night Moves (1975) 

Directed by Arthur Penn

Written by Alan Sharp 

Starring Gene Hackman, Melanie Griffith 

Release Date July 2nd, 1975

Published ? 

Night Moves is a hidden gem of 1970s neo-noir. The film stars the legendary Gene Hackman as private detective Harry Moseby. Harry is married to Ellen (Susan Clark), a fact that has a surprising prominence despite not having anything to do with the main mystery at hand in Night Moves. Director Arthur Penn cleverly smuggles a domestic drama into a missing person mystery and it's kind of great. Harry Moseby's well-founded trust issues are a significant part of how this movie plays out. 

Harry Moseby has just been given a tip about a potentially lucrative gig. A former Hollywood actress, B-Movie gal, Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward), is looking to hire someone to find her daughter, Delly (Melanie Griffith), an aspiring young actress. As unusual as Arlene is, Harry takes her money and the job and sets about his search. The trail begins with a movie studio mechanic named Quentin (James Woods). Quentin was believed to have dated Delly despite her being only 16 years old. 

Quentin points Harry in the direction of a man who had beaten him up on the set of a movie, a stunt man named Marv Ellman (Anthony Costello). Through Marv the story travels to Florida where Arlene's ex-husband, Tom Iverson (John Crawford), Delly's stepfather, lives and operates a tourist attraction, taking people out on a glass bottom boat or flying them around the area. Also with Tom is his new girlfriend, Paula (Jennifer Warren). 

Indeed, Delly is there, and she doesn't want to go home. The case appears to be closed; all Harry has to do is take Delly back to Los Angeles. If only it were that simple. Things get complicated when Harry has a brief flirtation with Paula and, while tooling around in the glass bottom boat, Harry, Delly and Paula find a dead body. At the bottom of the ocean, they spot a crashed plane with the corpse of the pilot inside. This finally causes Delly to finally go home but, again, the story doesn't end there. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: The Royal Tenenbaums

Rushmore (2001) 

Directed by Wes Anderson

Written by Wes Anderson

Starring Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Owen Wilson

Release Date December 14th, 2001 

Published December 24th, 2001 

In Rushmore, Wes Anderson took two very unique characters and used them to establish an unusual comic tone of irony and pathos that, for all it's quirks, seemed grounded in a weird sort of realty. In The Royal Tenenbaums, he applies that same unusual tone to an awesome ensemble cast to an even greater effect.

The Royal Tenenbaums is the story of a family of geniuses and the father who was the catalyst for their self destruction. Gene Hackman plays the father, the aptly named Royal Tenenbaum, a disgraced and disbarred lawyer whose luck and money have run out, and who now seeks to reconcile with the family he destroyed years earlier; not out of any emotional need for forgiveness, but rather because he just needs a place to crash.

Angelica Huston is Royal's soon-to-be-ex-wife, Etheline, a genius in her own right who is about to marry a man named Henry, played by Danny Glover. Luke Wilson is Richie Tenenbaum, a tennis prodigy washed up after a breakdown in the middle of a major match. Gwyneth Paltrow is Margot Tenenbaum (whom Royal makes a point of noting is adopted,) a genius playwright who wrote her first play at age 11 and has written nothing since. Ben Stiller is Chas, a widower who was a financial whiz at age 9, whose resentment of Royal is just one of the family's many dysfunctional aspects.

Bill Murray and Owen Wilson round out the cast in truly funny supporting roles. The whole cast is sensational, and though Stiller seems a little off key at times, everyone maintains this wondrous magical tone that makes the movie hum; never too loud, never too soft. Combine that brilliant tone with Mark Mothersbaugh's inspired score and the soundtrack of 60's tunes like the Beatles' "Hey Jude," and you have what amounts to a comedic symphony. The New York setting is as strange and wonderful as the rest of the film and when combined with the soundtrack give the film a feeling of timelessness. 

I don't know if there is a director I have higher hopes for than I do for Wes Anderson. I cannot wait to see what he does next. 

Movie Review: Welcome to Mooseport

Welcome to Mooseport (2004) 

Directed by Donald Petrie 

Written by Tom Schulman 

Starring Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, Marcia Gay Harden, Christine Baranski, Maura Tierney 

Release Date February 20th, 2004

Published February 19th, 2004 

The transition from TV to the big screen is never without its growing pains. Jennifer Aniston endured films like The Object of My Affection before finding success in The Good Girl. Helen Hunt endured Twister before her Oscar nominated role in As Good As It Gets. For comedian Ray Romano, his growing to big screen stardom begins by enduring the comedic misfire Welcome To Mooseport. On the bright side, at least he got to work with Gene Hackman.

In Mooseport, Romano plays a small-town handy man named Handy. Handy owns a hardware store where a group of local oddballs hang out. His girlfriend is a veterinarian named Sally (Maura Tierney), who he's romanced for six years without mentioning marriage. Handy has also just landed a very lucrative gig fixing the bathroom of the summer home of the now former President of the United States.

Gene Hackman is Monroe Eagle Cole, the most popular former President in history, having left office with an 80 percent approval rating. This is despite the fact that he was the first President to divorce while in office. The former first lady, played by Christine Baranski, took everything but his former title and his summer home in Mooseport.

At a party celebrating the President's arrival a group of town elders asks the President if he would like to run for mayor. The current mayor has passed on and there is apparently no one else running. The President was going to say no until he meets Sally who suggests it would be a good idea. In an attempt to impress her the President takes the gig. Unfortunately, there is one other person who has decided to run. Handy.

This sets up what should be an interesting comic idea. A small town guy running for mayor against the former leader of the free world is a rich comic idea. Throw in the President’s two aides Grace (Marcia Gay Harden) and Bullard (Fred Savage) and it gains even more potential. However, director Donald Petrie (How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Miss Congeniality) is more interested in the romantic triangle between Romano, Tierney and Hackman and misses the endless opportunity for political satire.

Ray Romano is attempting to break loose from his TV persona and forge a career on the big screen. This role sadly will not help his case. Romano is stiff and often lifeless opposite a pro like Hackman who blows him off the screen. Hackman shows once again how great and underappreciated he is as a comic actor. He was the best part of the con-woman comedy Heartbreakers and he is by far the best thing in Welcome To Mooseport. Of the actors who have played the President of the United States onscreen, Hackman may be the most credible. Hackman has the persona, the gravitas that makes it very easy to believe he's the President. Not that it really matters in a film as dull and lifeless as this one.

Director Donald Petrie is another of those directors that delivers mediocre test screened comedies that studios love because they are inoffensive and more often than not cheap to produce. Welcome To Mooseport reeks of a film that was greenlit with the hope that it might be good but if it isn't, the studio can toss it on to the February schedule and watch it die a slow death before selling it on DVD and TV to cover the expenses. I hope they got their money's worth because that is apparently all that matters.

Movie Review Runaway Jury

Runaway Jury (2003) 

Directed by Gary Fleder

Written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien, Matthew Chapman

Starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Jeremy Piven, Bruce McGill

Release Date October October 17th, 2003 

Published October 16th, 2003

John Grisham novels and the movies made from them are a guilty pleasure for millions. I say guilty pleasure because the work is often merely melodramatic potboilers that adopt legal and political stances that the author bends to his melodramatic will. Indeed, the law in a Grisham novel is often specious and more often than not inaccurate, but necessarily inaccurate to fit the story.

That said, the novels are also tightly plotted and populated by colorful Southern characters and terrific dialogue. It's easy for the non-lawyer crowd to forgive Grisham of his factual indiscretions because his work is just so damn entertaining. The latest of Grisham's work easily transplanted to the screen is Runaway Jury, a look at a trial from the jury's perspective.

John Cusack stars as Nick Easter, a seemingly normal video game store clerk. When Nick is called for jury duty, he reacts like most Americans, utter contempt and annoyance. However, that is merely a cover. Nick has been trying for jury duty and the opportunity to sit in on a huge lawsuit against gun manufacturers. Nick, along with his girlfriend Marlee (Rachel Weisz), are rigging the jury in a scam to soak either side to pay them $10 million dollars.

On one side is the noble Southern gentlemen Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), representing the wife of a stockbroker who was killed in an office shooting by a disgruntled employee with an illegally purchased semi-automatic weapon. It is Rohr's contention that gun manufacturers were aware of and rewarding the illegal sales of their guns by company owned gun stores.

On the opposing side, representing the gun manufacturers is Durrwood Cable (Bruce Davison). He however is merely the legal mouthpiece for a shady jury consultant named Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman). Fitch is the gun manufacturer’s hired gun for rigging a favorable jury by any means necessary. With the help of his team of investigators, Finch compiles blackmail information against potential jurors.

That sets the tables for a number of clever twists and turns, but not so clever that they wink at the audience. Clever in the sense that they play directly to audience expectations. The twists don't surprise the audience, but they aren't insultingly predictable. Screenwriter Brian Koppelman does a great job of adapting Grisham's tight pacing and colorful characters, even as he is forced to change the trial from Grisham's tobacco companies to gun companies. I say forced to change because lawsuits against tobacco companies aren't exactly a fresh topic.

My favorite part of Runaway Jury however is the film’s unquestionably liberal politics. Where so many films shy away from taking a stand on an issue, Runaway Jury is clearly sympathetic to the liberal cause of gun control. The gun manufacturers are the most thinly drawn characters and their smoke-filled private meetings in which all the major gun companies discuss their conspiracy is so blatantly conspiratorial you marvel at the filmmaker’s brazenly malevolent portrayal.

Director Gary Fleder is the perfect director for Grisham. His last directorial outing was the non-Grisham Grisham movie High Crimes. Both films have a mere gloss of real law and are heavy on the melodrama. Both films cleverly cast their films with actors whose audience cache get us past minor plot holes and specious legal wrangling. Fleder has the same talent for pacing as Grisham and while the story is somewhat unwieldy with a number of small supporting characters that get lost occasionally, Runaway Jury is still a very entertaining legal thriller.

Movie Review: Blood Work

Blood Work (2002) 

Directed by Clint Eastwood 

Written by Brian Helgeland

Starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Jeff Daniels, Dylan Walsh, Anjelica Huston 

Release Date August 9th, 2002 

Published August 8th, 2002

As one of our greatest living actors, Clint Eastwood can be forgiven for many things. We can concede him the indulgence of playing a codger in a space comedy like Space Cowboys. We can forgive him, and even take a little pleasure watching him, in the trashy thriller Absolute Power. However, our good faith can only go so far, and when Eastwood releases a retread cop thriller like Blood Work, even Dirty Harry can't be forgiven this indulgence.

Blood Work stars Eastwood as a famous FBI criminal profiler--a job that is not nearly as glamorous or exciting as Hollywood would have you believe--Terry McCaleb. As we join the story, McCaleb joins a pair of cops, played by Paul Rodriguez and Dylan Walsh, as they walk through a crime that has a message specifically for McCaleb. Scrawled in blood on the wall is a code and the message "Catch me McCaleb." As McCaleb is exiting the crime scene, through a throng of reporters, a piece of evidence tips him off to a man in the crowd who may be the killer. McCaleb chases the suspect until he is felled by a heart attack, but not before popping a bullet in the suspect.

Two years later, McCaleb is the beneficiary of a heart transplant. The operation saved his life but ended his career. Now living on a boat in a marina, he passes the time fixing the boat and talking to his neighbor Buddy (Jeff Daniels). Out of the blue, a beautiful woman named Graciella (Wanda De Jesus) shows up on McCaleb's boat claiming to be the sister of the woman whose heart was given to McCaleb. She tells McCaleb that her sister was murdered and implores McCaleb to use his cop connections to find out what is happening with the investigation into her sister's murder.

From there you know what is going to happen. McCaleb is drawn into investigating the crime, which will inevitably connect to other crimes; innocent people will look suspicious; and the one least likely will turn out to be the killer. If you can't figure out this movie's secrets in the first 20 minutes, turn in your moviegoer's card and never come back to the theaters. 

If you don't feel like seeing Blood Work, rent The Bone Collector with Denzel Washington; the same lame thriller minutia populates both films. Blood Work is slightly more believable, but both are police procedurals. Normally, these films appear as straight-to-video trash starring people like Jeff Fahey and Patrick Bergin.

The most disappointing thing about Blood Work is that Eastwood also directed it. How can such a skilled director as Eastwood not see the obvious cliches in the script from Joel Schumacher wannabe Brian Helgeland? 

Eastwood knows the proper camera moves and his direction is studied and logical but the story Blood Work is too predictable to be either suspenseful or entertaining. After seeing this film, one is left to wonder if Eastwood's best work is behind him, a sad thought but one you can't help entertaining. I hope that is not true. Only time will tell.