The Hit: Grade C

C
The Hit (1984)
John Hurt, Terence Stamp, Tim Roth; Director Stephen Frears.

An English gangster (Stamp) turns state’s evidence against the gang then goes on the lam in southern Spain. Eight years later, inevitably, a couple of henchmen (Hurt and Roth) come for him. They need to transport him to Paris, where he will be killed, so the rest of the movie is a long road trip north, through the Pyrenees, into France. The trio acquires a young Spanish woman to act out stereotypical scenes. There are various incidents along the way such as bar fights, car breakdowns, temper tantrums, and so forth, as the characters get to know each other and we get to know them, during their journey. The henchmen are perfect stereotypes, Hurt with his implacable face and steely gaze, Roth the labile psychopath. Stamp plays a sort of otherworldly existentialist who accepts his destiny with equanimity, talks about life and death in philosophical terms, with humor, and does not try to escape. All three of those performances are enjoyable, even if the characters are superficial, because the story is delightfully oddball. This is a recent Criterion Collection re-issue with the film all cleaned up, colors bright, sound clear. Unfortunately there is only one DVD extra, a very boring television interview with Stamp.

Wild Hogs: Grade C

C

Wild Hogs (2007)

Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy, Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei. Director Walt Becker.

Four professional men in their 40’s and 50’s are fed up with suburban life and decide on a cross-country motorcycle trip. They wear “Wild Hogs” insignia on their black leathers. Harley-Davidson obviously helped finance this movie. It’s like City Slickers on bikes, only not as funny. Disney owns Touchstone Pictures, who put out this movie, and this has the heavy hand of Disney stereotypy. The first hour is so full of lame, juvenile homophobic “jokes” that I almost quit watching. Who finds that stuff funny? I think even young kids are more sophisticated than that nowadays. But the humor picks up slightly in the last half and that saved the movie for me. Acting is completely adequate. Macy does a great job. There are some funny one-liners and a “surprise” cameo at the end is a hoot, so overall the movie made me smile even as it made me more annoyed with the pernicious social influence of the Disney corporation.

Flags of Our Fathers: Grade D

D

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

Director Clint Eastwood. Unknown (to me) actors.

I thought we were done with WWII movies. Every story that could possibly be told about that war has surely been told by now and maybe that’s why this movie is only a long string of clichés stitched crudely together. War is hell, okay, we got that. The angle in this movie focuses on the 6 Marines who raised the flag over Iwo Jima in that famous Rosenthal photograph. Three survivors of that event are shipped stateside to flog War Bonds in support of a bankrupt government and military. They are appalled at being cynically plugged into a public relations machine that paints them as heroes, but they do it anyway. The acting is cringingly bad and the characters are flat, uncreative stereotypes, right down to the drunken Indian. There is no dramatic tension. There are some photographic moments in the war scenes where the colors are just this side of b&w but that’s not good enough to sustain the first 40 minutes of this 2:12 snoozer. There are not even any redeeming DVD extras. The directing looks stagey, and the script, costumes and sets are 100% cliche. The sound engineering is abysmal, as if ear-damaging explosions will enhance your understanding of the movie. I give it a pass only for some grand photographic moments; that’s all there is to look at here.