TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: STREETS OF FIRE (1984)

STREETS OF FIRE (1984)

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Hot on the heels of the smash hit, Eddie Murphy debut 48 Hours, Walter Hill indulged himself with this “Rock & Roll Fable” about an up and coming rock star named Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) who is kidnaped by biker gang leader Raven (Willem Dafoe) at a concert in her home town. Her ex-soldier, ex-boyfriend Tom Cody (Michael Paré) comes to rescue her, along with her current manager/boyfriend Billy Fish (Rick Moranis) and another gruff ex-soldier McCoy (Amy Madigan). That’s kinda it, plot wise.

After a huge success with the action, buddy comedy 48 Hours, Hill took a stumble that he would never really recover from. Streets Of Fire is a bit of a mess and was a box office disappointment after the Eddie Murphy/Nick Nolte flick becoming a runaway hit. Co-written with Larry Gross, Streets is a combination 40s, 50s, 80s meets a bit of Blade Runner and never quite clicks and is definitely missing something. One of the big problems is the lack of a real story. The set-up is over within the first 40 minutes with Aim being rescued by Cody and company. The next 50 minutes is a meandering journey back home and then some soap opera level romantic melodrama when they get there. In the mean time, we wait for Dafoe’s villain to come after them, which he finally does in the last 10 minutes. Even at slightly above 90 minutes it gets tedious real fast. Another problem is that there is no energy or excitement to the action. The various fisticuffs and gunfights are very by-the-numbers and have none of the intensity of Hill’s previous films like The Warriors. On a technical level, the film looks really good, thought the time period mash-up doesn’t quite visually click either. There are some really good tunes from the music numbers on the soundtrack and Ry Cooder’s score adds some atmosphere to the proceedings. The legendary Andrew Laszlo delivers some top notch cinematography, as well. It’s that just for a “Rock & Roll Fable” there is very little “Rock & Roll” spirit in this flick and overall it’s kinda dull when all is said and done.

As for the cast they are all good enough, despite given sadly little to really do other than the lead males. Michael Paré is a solid hero. He does the smoldering intensity thing well and his loner Cody might have been more impressive in a better movie. Dafoe is also good as the slimy, somewhat androgynous Raven. His motivations for kidnapping Aim are thin, but that is the script’s fault and he is a good villain that sadly disappears for a good portion of the second half. Diane Lane is a bit bland, but again the character is little more than a damsel to be rescued and isn’t given much to do but stare with doe eyes at Cody. Rick Moranis’ douchey Billy Fish is a bit annoying, but the character is supposed to be, so we can cut him some slack. Rounding out the leads, is Amy Madigan who is fine and likable as the tough ex-solider McCoy and probably would have made even more of an impression with better material. There are supporting roles by Bill Paxton as an old friend of Cody’s, 80s icon E.G. Daily as a groupie and The Warriors‘ Deborah Van Valkenburgh as Cody’s sister Reva, who calls him when Ellen is abducted.

This is a flick that had a lot of potential, but drops the ball with a paper thin story and delivering some very by-the-numbers action from a director who was becoming known for his action flicks. It’s a self-indulgent misfire that could have been something special with a better script and it’s director not falling asleep at the wheel. There are some now classic tunes on the soundtrack…including a couple produced by Jim Steinman, who produced Meatloaf’s classic Bat OutOf Hell album…and there is some nice 80s nostalgia, but, overall, Streets Of Fire fizzles instead of blazes. This 1984 movie has developed a bit of a cult following and there was an unofficial sequel from Albert Pyun made in 2008 called Road To Hell reuniting Paré and Van Valkenburgh as “Cody” and “sister” with Anita Leeman playing “Ellen” and Lauren Sutherland as “Mc Coy”.

-MonsterZero NJ

2 bullets.

 

 

 

and the trailer to the unofficial sequel, Road ToHell…

TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: SOUTHERN COMFORT (1981)

SOUTHERN COMFORT (1981)

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Film takes place in 1973 with a national guard unit on training maneuvers deep in the Louisiana swamps. A squad of these weekend warriors goes on a recon mission and decides to steal some locals’ boats to cross the bayou. When the owners return in mid-theft, the incident quickly leads to violence and the unit commander (Peter Coyote) is killed. To make matters worse, the soldiers ‘arrest’ a local man (Brion James) and destroy his shack in retribution. Now the remaining guardsman are being hunted through the swamps and killed off one by one by the vengeful inhabitants. With only one box of live ammunition between them and miles of hostile swamp in front of them, their chances of survival seem slim, as their numbers dwindle and they start turning on each other, as well.

Southern Comfort is an action/thriller directed by Walter Hill and co-written with David Giler and Michael Kane, that sadly requires a lot of stupid behavior from it’s main characters to move the story along. Granted the leads are supposed to be a bunch of ignorant and arrogant yahoos, but even for these guys, some of their actions just don’t make sense. That and making most of the film’s principals unlikable, for the most part, doesn’t exactly evoke our sympathy much. Only Keith Carradine’s Private Spencer and Powers Boothe’s Corporal Hardin seem to have some common sense and are the only somewhat likable characters here and even that’s pushing it. The film does have atmosphere and it does seem at times like there could be danger around any tree, but it is hampered by a slow pace and the fact that these guys are more of a threat to themselves and each other, than the locals. Despite being a very flawed film, there is still somewhat of an entertainment value to it, thought. Maybe it is seeing these morons get themselves deeper into trouble and then what’s coming to them, sometimes by their own hands, and sometimes those of their pursuers. It also takes until the last act before things finally start to click on a thriller level and we get some solid action and suspense. On the positive side, there is some nice cinematography of the Louisiana Bayou by Andrew Laszlo and an atmospheric score by Ry Cooder.

I actually saw this in a theater in 1981 and remember it far more fondly than I did upon my recent revisit. It’s not terrible and there is some decent action, but I guess I was a lot more forgiving in my teens than I am now. It’s an OK flick, that’s really hampered by unlikable characters and the constant stupidity with which these trained reservists act, and the fact that they pretty much invite all that befalls them with their actions. It finally gets moving in the last act and the blurred line between good guys and bad guys is lifted for a more straightforward finale, but it’s a little late. Overall, it’s just disappointing when I initially remembered it as a much better movie. Also stars Fred Ward, The Thing’s T.K. Carter, Sonny Landham and Buckaroo Banzai’s Lewis Smith.

-MonsterZero NJ

Rated 2 and 1/2 (out of 4) bullets.

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TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: THE FUNHOUSE (1981)

THE FUNHOUSE (1981)

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The Funhouse is Tobe Hooper’s third flick and the last before he worked on Poltergeist and turned into more of a mainstream director in the 80s with his 3 picture deal at Cannon. I am not overly fond of this flick though it does have a following and many view it as a classic.

The story is fairly simple. Two young couples, including the pretty Amy (Elizabeth Berridge), go to a local carnival unknowingly followed by Amy’s little brother Joey (Shawn Carson). They plot to spend the night in the carnival funhouse after closing and once locked inside, they run afoul of a deformed and homicidal member of the Funhouse crew, Gunther (Wayne Doba). Now a harmless prank becomes a fight for survival as the four witness a murder and are pursued through the locked the carnival attraction by the deformed Gunther and the equally deranged carnival barker, Conrad (Kevin Conway who plays multiple barkers in the film). Can little Joey get help for his sister and friends or will he too meet the fiendish carnival inhabitants?

My biggest problem with this flick is that it takes so damn long to get going. It’s at least halfway through before the kids are locked inside and witness Gunther kill an older female fortune teller (Sylvia Miles) during a botched sexual encounter for money. It’s then over an hour till Gunther and Conrad are finally in pursuit of the four teens and this is only a 96 minute film including closing credits. To be honest, its only in the last ten minutes when Amy faces off with Gunther, that the film really generates the tension and thrills we came to see. I don’t mind character development but, did we need 45 minutes to get to know four blandly written teens? The film is scripted by Larry Block so, the screenplay is not director Hooper’s fault but, regardless, the film takes too long to get to the good stuff. On the positive side, Hooper’s visual style makes great use of the carnival/funhouse setting. The look of the film, shot by Andrew Laszlo, is similar to Hooper’s Eaten Alive with some bright colors and surreal visuals once inside the horror attraction. There is some really nice design work inside the funhouse and it certainly gives the film some nice atmosphere. While things take a long time to get going, there is a purveying feeling of something not quite being right at this carnival and, of course, it isn’t. The stuff inside the attraction looks great and certainly accents what is going on when the film finally cranks into gear. Other positives are the spooky score by John Beal and the cool creature design of the deformed Gunther but, they are not quite enough to make up for the fact that the first half of the film is kinda dull and what we get in the second half isn’t consistent or intense enough to completely make up for it… and it’s all rather tame compared to Hooper’s previous work.

Aside from Kevin Conway’s creepy Conrad and his various carnival barkers, the cast is fairly dull. Berridge is an OK heroine but, Cooper Huckabee, Largo Woodruff and Miles Chapin are mostly forgettable as her friends/potential victims. Shawn Carson’s Joey is a typical generic kid… though his activities in the opening scene make him a bit creepy…and, to be honest, the sub-plot of him following his sister on her double date, doesn’t really add anything to the story except some irony later on. Doba is adequate as the deformed Gunther but, anybody could have worn the mask and issued grunts and groans and shrieks. The actors portraying the carnival crew give the film a little creepiness and Amy’s parents (Jack McDermott and Jeanne Austin) are stereotypical clueless adults and are played as fairly oblivious. Nothing really special here other than Conway being solidly creepy.

Overall, a lesser effort from Hooper, though his visual style and atmosphere go a long way to making this far more watchable then it should be. The film has some very cool and spooky visuals but, the characters are fairly forgettable and it takes far too long to get to the goods and then it’s over too quickly and the action is fairly tame. There is a nice early 80s nostalgia to the film now but, it’s still not enough to make me change my mind about a movie I wasn’t impressed with when first viewed opening night in 1981 at the Fox Theater in Hackensack, N.J. A lesser effort from a director whose film’s became less and less unique the further he got from his initial masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Worth a look but, in my opinion, nothing special.

2 and 1/2 horrified heroines.