The Negotiator: "Crazy is on the bus...."

Right ok doke here is another movie review on this blog and this one harks back to 1998 as it will cover the action thriller, The Negotiator, which stars Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey in the lead roles.  And with that let's get the bullet proof vests on and have a look... (well not literally of course) ;-).

So the film is set in Chicago and starts with top hostage negotiator, Danny Roman (Jackson) who manages to defuse a hostage crises at the start of the film involving a man who holds his daughter hostage.  Later on Danny at a party for one of the fellow officers, meets with his partner, Nathan Roenick (Paul Guilfoyle) who warns that large amounts of money have been taken from the department's disability fund.  Danny is also a member of the board to do with the fund and Nate warns him that other members may be involved too and that he has an informant but he keeps quiet about who it is.  Danny agrees to meet Nate later on, but when he does he finds Nate has been murdered and the police arrive quickly afterwards.  And from here things go from bad to worse for Danny as Internal affairs take over the investigation of the murder, which is lead by Inspector Niebaum (J.T. Walsh).  Niebaum's investigations soon uncover that Nate was murdered by a gun recovered from a case that Danny had previously worked on, also as they search Danny's house they find evidence of an offshore account, which has amount of money that matches an amount embezzled from the fund.  After this comes to light, most of Danny's fellow officers refuse to believe his innocence and his police chief, Al Travis (John Spencer) asks for Danny's gun and badge.

Danny is soon faced with serious charges, which leaves him little choice but to go and question Niebaum at his office about the fund and the possibility of his being set up.  Niebaum however refuses to listen and as Danny is about to be turfed out the office, Danny takes Niebaum hostage along with his admin assistant, Maggie (Siobhan Fallon), police commander Grant Frost (Ron Rifkin) and a con-man Ruddy Timmons (Paul Giamatti).  The building is soon put into lockdown with the police (which includes his own police unit) and the FBI securing the area.  Danny then contacts the police to inform them of his conditions, which include finding Nate's informant and to summon another top hostage negotiator, Chris Sabian (Spacey).  Danny requests Sabian as he is outside the whole matter and is also known to negotiate as long as possible without using force.  As Sabian arrives on the scene a long night lies ahead for everyone as Danny tries to get to the bottom of who set up him and do what he can to try and clear his name before his own people try to take him out....

The Negotiator to this day is a still a very effective thriller and it features a fine cast as well as two great performances from the leads.  And while it isn't the most probable of storylines the fact it is so well paced and put together is what helps The Negotiator be an engrossing film.  The hostage setting also allows for the action set pieces to be effectively set in the one place and it almost has the feel of a Die Hard film (except with the cop being the terrorist, well sort of!) especially there is a slightly claustrophobic feel given that everything is centred around Niebaum's office.  The story itself was said to be partly based on the pension fund scam that took place in the early 90's at St Louis Police Department.  Although for me the pension fund scam is the least most interesting aspect of the film and its action and set pieces are what really make the film work in the end.

So moving onto the performances everything is top notch as the film has a great cast, starting with Samuel Jackson, who is terrific in his role as Danny Roman, a top negotiator who is framed for a murder he did not committ and he ends up having to take drastic measures to try and clear his name.  Jackson has quite a few highlights in the film such as the scene where he questions Niebaum once he has taken him hostage and he can tell instantly that Niebaum is lying.  And in the scene Danny says "I know you're lying cos I'm reading your eyes.  A quick lesson in lying, see this is what us real cops do!  And what neurophysiology tells us if your eyes go up to the left then your accessing the visual cortex, which means you are telling the truth.  So if your eyes go up and right then you are acccessing the brain's creative centres and we know you're full of shit!".  Samuel's scenes with Kevin Spacey are also riveting as they both work really well off each other and their scene is very good together.  And Samuel has a great line where he tells Sabian why brought him here and says "When you're friends betray you, sometimes the only people you can trust are strangers".  And in the scene where he talks to one of his own unit's members, Farley, who becomes nervous when he tries to talk Danny down, eh toys with Farley and asks him "Now did you ever dress up as a little school girl and get your ass spanked??!".  And as he threatens to kill someone if Farley say no again, which he does, Danny yells "NO?! You just cost someone their life, Farley!  Game over!" and he fires his gun and then shouts into his radio "You can't talk me down!  You can't make me change the deadline.  NOW GET ME SABIAN!!!".  Also in the scene where he talks to his wife, Danny tells her he promises he won't pull anymore crazy stuff as a negotiator and he says to her as he takes her hand "You see this?  That is the bus.  You see the bus?  That's crazy on the bus!".   

Kevin Spacey is also terrific as the other hostage negotiator, Chris Sabian, who tries his best to defuse the crisis.  Spacey's best scenes come with his one to one encounters with Jackson or when they talk on the radio.  Their first scene as they talk to each other on the radios sets the tone of their relationship very well, when they talk about Shane and how Sabian reads biographies and Danny says "Well you shouldn't believe everything you read in books" and Sabian replies "Well I don't just read one book on a subject.  I try to read different books to get the facts and decide for myself".  Spacey's first scene in the film is quite amusing as he tries to talk his wife out of the bathroom who takes offence at a remark her daughter said, and Sabian sighs saying "You know I once talked a man out of blowing up the Sears tower but I can't talk my wife out of the bedroom or get my kid off the phone!".  And Spacey shares another good scene with Jackson after the police attempt to make their first assault and fail, and he says to Danny "Oh I'm sorry did you want something?!  Do you think killing a man gives you the power to negotiate with me?  That it will give you time?  Don't you fuckin count on it!  Right now I'm the only thing between you and a whole army just itching to walk in here and take you out!  So you tell me something, Danny.  Why should I get in their way?!  Make me believe why I should deal with you ever again??!".

The supporting cast are also great which includes J.T. Walsh who gives a rather sinister performance as the Internal affairs investigator, Niebaum, who Danny captures and questions during the seige.  This was one of J.T. Walsh's last performances of his career as he sadly passed away in 1998, the year of the film's release.  Paul Giamatti is also really good in his role as Ruddy Timmons, the con-man who is one of Danny's hostages.  Giamatti also get's some good dialogue in the film such as the scene where after he has been taken hostage, he sits on the floor, handcuffed and he says to Danny "Once you familiarise yourself with the chains of bondage you prepare your own limbs to wear them.  Abraham Lincoln said that and I believe him.  So you have gotta get me the fuck out! NOW!!".  And also later on when Danny tells them that they have apparently found Nate's informant, Ruddy yells in relief and says to Niebaum "Yes! Inspector, fuck you very much!".  Ron Rifkin is also very good in his role as Commander Frost, who Danny takes hostage and Danny asks him what he thinks and Frost says "I don't know what to think, Danny.  But I'll tell you this, Danny boy.  What you're doing isn't helping".

David Morse is also good in his role as the gruff and hotheaded Commander Beck, who is in full favour of taking Danny out.  And he get's some good moments such as when he attempts to make an assault on Danny and he tells one of his sniper men to take a shot if he get's Danny in view and one of snipers say he has a shot, but is reluctant to take it and Beck yells "Don't tell me copy!  Just pull the fucking trigger!".  And he also raises his concerns to Sabian over how Danny will manipulate the situation as he is one of them, and he says "He's gonna fuck with every single fuckin one of you, cos he knows how YOU work!!".  And finally John Spencer is also very good in his role as the police chief Al Travis, who is forced to give up Danny as the charges of murder are filed against him.

As for the pointing people to their spots and telling them what to say guy (i.e. the director!) F Gary Gray does an excellent job here as he skillfully builds up the suspense as the film progresses.  And despite the film clocking in at 2 hours and 20 minutes it never really drags and Gray also manages to keep the pacing fairly tight as well as doing a fine job with the film's action scenes.  The film's music score is also very worthy of note as it was done by Graeme Revell and its a very good score which is both suspenseful and dramatic and is perfectly suited to the film's intense tone.

So getting onto the flaws and niggles bit of the review: does The Negotiator have any worth moaning about???  Well yeah it does have one or two.  The main problem with The Negotiator is simply once again having to suspend your disbelief as to how improbable the whole situation is, as while Danny is innocent of murder, he IS guilty of taking hostages and creating a hostage crisis!  Although this is even acknowledged at one point in the film by Sabian who says "There are ways to prove your innocence.  This is hardly one of them".  No shit!  And despite Danny having created a hostage situation and his old police buddies went even as far as trying to take him out during the film, after Danny has cleared his name at the end, they are still willing to sweep the whole hostage crisis under the carpet as though it never really happened as far as Danny was concerned!  And trust is almost immediately re-established between Danny and his fellow police officers, which is pretty silly and far fetched to say the least!

I also thought the film's ending was a bit lame (PLOT SPOILER AHEAD!!) with the showdown at Niebaum's house and the corrupt cops showing up, as Danny taunts them he in effect get's them to admit their own culpability in the scam.  And Sabian's bluff with Frost at the end is also pretty daft and I don't believe for a second that Frost would accept that Sabian has become a turncoat as well, and surely he must know that Sabian is bluffing, as the man is a negotiator after all!  Yet somehow Frost doesn't twig this and he ends up getting caught and arrested by his own men.  Also there is a misconception in film's that if you shoot a computer that you won't be able to retrieve data off it from the hard drive, which is what Frost does to Niebaum's computer in an effort to destroy any of the wiretaps he was alleged to have on it.  When in the fact I'm sure you could open up the computer and take out the hard drive and probably put it in another computer and it will work (or in any case the data is retrievable, which is my point).

But despite all those niggles aside, The Negotiator is still a very entertaining and gripping thriller which is certainly worth watching, especially as it has a great cast, good action scenes and even a good soundtrack.

So on that bit right there, I shall say byee for now.

See no evil, hear no evil: Fuzzy wuzzy was a woman???!

Ok to make up for some lost ground this month here is another post and its a moovie and for this I went back to the vaults of 1989 (well not literally!) and have chosen to do a review on the comedy film, See no evil, hear no evil starring one of the best American comedy duos of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.  So let's take a look.....

So the story begins as it is set in New York city with a blind man Wally Karew (Pryor) is looking for a job and he applies for one at a concession shop where he meets a deaf man, Dave Lyons (Wilder).  At first the two of them argue with one another given their conditions, however they soon put that aside and become friends.  Later after Wally is hired by Dave, they meet in a bar where they unintentionally start a fight when Dave stands on a belligerent man's jacket and Dave guides Wally and tells him when to punch the man by using clock directions.  After the fight they bond and share how they became deaf and blind and Dave confesses he has a terrible fear of making a fool of himself, but Wally says he can solves his problems in 10 seconds and dumps his ice cream cone on David's head.

One day, Wally who is now working at the concession store is waiting for the day's papers and a man walks into Dave's store and he buys for time when he sees a beatiful woman named Eve (Joan Severance) enter the building, he asks Dave to read the label on a box of antacid pills, and the man quickly puts a gold coin from his suitcase into a collection box of coins on the store counter.  Eve pulls a gun on the man and she threatens him saying he has to go with her and she wants the gold coin, the two of them struggle which results in Eve shooting the man dead and she takes his suitcase and leaves.  Dave naturally being deaf is unaware of the shooting and as he finishes reading the label he sees Eve's legs as she walks out of the building.  Wally having heard the gunshot wanders in and he falls over the man's body and Dave kneels by the body and picks up the gun, just as the police quickly arrive they are arrested and taken to the police station.

At the station they are interrogated by a cynical middle aged detective, Captain Braddock (Alan North) who takes an instant disliking to them and has them charged as the prime suspects.  Meanwhile Eve and her accomplice Kirgo (Kevin Spacey) hope to recover the missing coin turn up at the police station, posing as solicitors to allegedly release both men on bail.  However just after Eve and Kirgo leave, Dave recognises her legs and Wally recognises her perfume and then Dave twigs that she is the killer and he tries to tell Braddock who refuses to listen.  Wally then convinces Dave to escape from the police station and they do so in order to avoid being captured by Eve and Kirgo.  However Eve and Kirgo both soon catch up with them and as Eve phones her employer, Mr Sutherland (Anthony Zerbe) for instructions and with Dave's ability to lip read he catches what she is saying on the phone.  After Eve leaves the men, Wally knocks out Kirgo before he has a chance to kill them and Wally and Dave manage to escape in an unattended police car.  And between them they work the pedals and the steering wheel and they successfully evade the police and the criminals but they accidentally end up driving the car onto a rubbish barge which is moving out to sea.  Later on Wally and Dave ditch the police car and with the help of Wally's sister, Adele (Kirsten Childs) they set about to try and locate the killers so they can foil their activities and clear their names from the police.

While it wasn't a critical success on its release, for me See no evil, hear no evil is Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor's finest comedy and its where they best gelled together as a comedy duo.  And while the premise of the story is hardly original it does allow for a slightly different spin on things with the two protagonists both having visual and hearing impairments.  Wilder and Pryor's natural onscreen chemistry also works wonders and is what makes the film work so well and their characters are also oddly endearing as they are simply two guys who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Wilder and Pryor also nicely use the deaf and blind angle to create some really funny moments in the film that combine moments of misunderstanding, but at the same time they never patronise or in any way mock people with such impairments in their portrayals of Dave and Wally.  

Getting onto the performances things are pretty good with both the leads in excellent form, starting with Gene Wilder as the mild mannered and genial Dave Lyons, a deaf man who befriends Wally and from here his whole life is turned upside down.  Wilder has plenty of highlights in the film such as in the scene where Dave and Wally both first meet at the store and as Wally tells Dave that he is blind, Dave asks "Are you really blind?" and Wally snaps back "Yeah I'm really blind, what are you, fuckin deaf?!" and Dave yells "YES! I'M FUCKING DEAF!!".  Wilder's scene in the bar with Pryor is also funny when Dave guides Wally around when they fight an unruly man and Dave keeps giving out instructions on where to move and when to hit "Circle right, circle right!  Eight o'clock!  Ten!  Five to three! Oohh, I got confused!" and so on.  Wilder's funniest lines also include when he is at the station and Braddock asks him quickly "Alright no bullshit, was there or wasn't there a woman?!" and Dave asks if him if he is serious and Braddock replies "Yes I'm goddamn serious" and Dave says "Fuzzy wuzzy was a woman?!".  Another funny moment is when Dave and Wally are at the police station, a lab specialist enters the room and tells Braddock that both men had the "Men's Rhea" and as the man turns his back on him, Dave is left in horror thinking this is a sexually transmitted disease and he is dragged screaming out of the room "MEN'S RHEA!!! OH GOD NO!!!!".  Wilder also has another funny moment in the scene where Dave is repeatedly told to face the camera by a female police officer when taking their mug shots, but he keeps turning to Wally at the wrong moment and the police woman eventually goes off her nut screaming "shit" over and over.  And Dave asks Wally "Is she saying shit or ship??".  And probably my favourite moment of Wilder's is when Wally asks him if he can't hear even if he screams in his ear and Dave asks him to try it and afterwards Wally thinks its worked but Dave turns angrily to him and says "NO, SCHMUCK!!! I'M DEAF!! NOW D'YA GET IT???!!".

Richard Pryor is also great and he has numerous highlights as the blind man, Wally Karew, who ends up unwittingly getting himself and Dave into trouble with the killers.  Pryor pretty much get's all the best dialogue in the film and he delivers great lines such as in the scene when Eve grants a last request to both men and Wally asks "I suppose a fuck is out of the question?".  Another funny moment is where Wally and Dave make their getaway in a police car, with Wally at the wheel he turns to Dave at one point, who says "Don't look at me, keep your eyes on the road!" and Wally says "OK, if it'll make you feel better!".  And he also shares a nice moment with Wilder when they have driven the police car into a rubbish barge going out to sea and Dave says "Right now I'm overwhelmed by the STINK of the seven tonnes of garbage you drove us into!" and Wally replies "Is that what it is?!  I thought you let one go!".  Another one of my favourite scenes is where Wally poses a Swedish psychiatrist at a conference and they ask his thoughts on geriatric sexual practice and he says "Well some of my patients prefer walking, some of them prefer bicycling.  But for best results, to guarantee satisfaction, most of them like fucking!  You know poonta-poonta-poonta, I like it myself!  One in the morning and late at night!".  Also later on as Wally and Dave try to foil the criminals getaway, Wally dives onto Eve and as they struggle he grabs at her breasts in the process, and she yells "What do you think you are doing?!" and Wally replies "I don't know, I'm blind.  But this is what they tought us at Braille school, to just feel around and see what's happening!".  And later on as the whole business is resolved and Braddock arrives on the scene Wally smiles and says to him "Captain Braddock.  You're a dickhead!".  And lastly there is the scene where he is on the subway with his sister, Adele, and he attempts to read newspaper which is upside down and he sister says its ridiculous like he was trying to pass for being white and Wally suddenly jumps in alarm and says "You mean I'm not white???!  Does dad know???!".  

The supporting cast are also pretty good starting with Alan North who is hilarious as the cynical and weary Captain Braddock who has a short fuse and is convinced Dave and Wally are the guilty ones.  North's best moments come in his first scene where he interrogates Dave and Wally, and later on when he says to his second in command, Gatlin "Thirty two years on the force, a wife and three kids and a blind guy and a deaf guy are making me look like a complete asshole!" and Gatlin absent mindedly says "You got that right".  And lastly North's funniest moment is after Wally insults him at the end and he says to Gatlin who restrains him "Let me shoot em, I wanna shoot them!  Why can't I shoot them?!".  Joan Severance, who we've hardly heard from since is also quite good in her role as the seductive and deadly Eve and she has a rather good shower scene where Dave pretends he has a gun in his pocket (which is actually his erection!) and get's her to drop her towel and we see her very nice naps (although on the DVD they are out of shot! Boo! (perv!)).  Kevin Spacey also makes a noteworthy appearance as Kirgo, Eve's smarmy English accomplice, although it has to be said his English accent isn't that convincing!  But Spacey does have a funny moment after he is knocked out by Wally that he soon get's back up and he says "I hate it when that happens!".  And lastly Anthony Zerbe is also good in his role as the mastermind behind the criminal operation, Mr Sutherland, who as it turns out is also blind and he and Wally have a face off later on.

Getting onto the director, Arthur Hiller (who also directed a previous Pryor and Wilder film, Silver Streak) who does a fine job here with the pacing of the film and also keeps the tone nice and light throughout.  And the Stewart Copeland formerly of The Police also provides a fine, upbeat and jaunty music score, which is quite synth heavy but it still works pretty well and overall its quite catchy and it suits the comedic tone of the film perfectly.

So moving to flaws (yep this is always the same structure!) does See no evil, hear no evil have any worthy of mentioning???  Well it has to be said that the film's simple biggest weakness is its plot, which is very thin and it is hardly original, with two guys on the run from the police and the killers and are wanted for a murder they didn't committ, the only difference here being one is blind and the other deaf.  Its also pretty silly and far fetched to say the least that a blind man and a deaf man could escape the police, evade their captors and later on go on and foil the criminals.  I mean I'm sure that sort of thing would happen everyday!  And I'm not discriminating against anyone with visual or hearing impairments as I can hardly even imagine two people without these impairments do the same thing on their own.  But again it is just a film and you have to suspend disbelief for an hour and a half or so.  Another stupid aspect of the film is also why is the gold coin so valuable and in the end Mr Sutherland claims it is a superconductor of sorts which is very valuable, but it is hardly explained at all why it really is so useful!  In the end the whole gold coin thing is just a bit of a red herring and it feels like a last minute slapped on piece of scripting, which again highlights the flaws in the wafer thin plot.  And despite the good efforts of the cast, the supporting characters such as Eve, Kirgo and Sutherland are also pretty bland and one dimensional and as villains they are not really that effective, so in the end you don't really care that much whether or not they get their comeuppance, but we know its coming anyway.  

There is also the odd lapse in continuity as well as there are one or two moments in the film where you actually do get the impression that Dave can hear Wally, as there is one scene when Wally and Dave have just escaped the police and Dave leaves Wally behind briefly to check out for the police nearby and Wallys calls out his name and Dave turns back to him as if he actually heard him!  But for the most part both actors play out and deal with their parts of being deaf and blind really well despite that odd lapse now and then.   

So that all put aside, See no evil, hear no evil is still a very enjoyable comedy after 25 years, which is still as funny as it was when it was released and if you want a good laugh its definitely worth a shot.

And so I will depart and leave you there. 
  

Cliffhanger: Hang on!

Right its time for another post as I've been busy blogging on my tennis blog because of the Australian open, which is now over.  So..... this post will be on another movie and I've plumped for Sylvester Stallone's action flick, Cliffhanger, which after a streak of crap films saw him come back well with this one.  So with that let's get the hiking gear on and have a look.....

So the film begins with the main character, Gabriel "Gabe" Walker (Stallone) a mountain rescuer who is sent to pick up his friend and fellow mountain ranger, Hal (Michael Rooker) who is stranded with his girlfriend up on a narrow peak in the Rocky mountains.  Hal manages to transfer himself on a steel cable line over to a rescue helicopter piloted by Jessie (Janine Turner) who is also Gabe's girlfriend.  When Gabe fixes the harness for Hal's girlfriend Sarah as she transfers over the line, the harness begins to break and she is left dangling on the line.  Gabe goes to rescue her and he grabs just as her harness breaks off but he loses her grip as her glove falls, Sarah falls to her death 4000 feet below.  After this the story shifts to eight months later and Gabe returns to town since Sarah's funeral, and he is now racked with guilt and no longer climbs.  Gabe asks Jessie if she will come with him but she refuses to leave town as she says this is her home and she is annoyed at Gabe's insistance on feeling guilty over Sarah's death as she feels he did all he could.

Meanwhile the story moves to the US Treasury Department where treasury agent Richard Travers (Rex Linn) is assigned the task of transporting three suitcases of 30 million dollars via plane.  On the plane however Travers turns out to be a turncoat as he kills two of the other agents and wounds an undercover agent who twigs what Travers is up to.  Travers then get's in contact with another plane which is manned by a team of thieves lead by a former military intelligence member, the pyschotic Eric Qualen (John Lithgow).  Travers arranges to transfer the cases by a zip line between the two planes and he goes over himself onto the other plane, however before the cases can be transferred (by Travers pilot who is in on it as wel) the undercover agent shoots the pilot and at the thieves plane.  The agent is soon killed however as Travers has rigged explosives on the plane to blow, however as a result the zip line is broken and the thieves lose the cases which fall among the mountains.  The plane makes a crash landing and three of the group die as a result of the crash.

In the meantime as Gabe is about to leave, Jessie informs him of a distress call, which soon turns out to be from the thieves.  Gabe relucantly agrees to go and help find them and he meets up with Hal while climbing up the mountains, who is still angry at Gabe over Sarah's death for which he blames Gabe, but despite that they move on to the thieves location.  On arriving at the plane crash, Qualen and Travers force Gabe and Hal to help them find the cases which they agree to, however as Gabe helps them find the first one, they attempt to kill him but he manages to escape by cutting the rope he was tied to, just as one of the thieves causes a landslide by using a grenade launcher, one of their party is killed.  Gabe then continues to use his skill and knowledge of the mountain areas to try and keep ahead of them as he rejoins with Jessie they work together to try and find the remaining two cases.  Meanwhile Hal is forced to help Qualen's men and Travers find the remaining two cases, although unbeknownst to them he takes them the long way round to by Gabe some time.  And from here its up to Gabe and Jessie to try and save Hal and find a way to stop Qualen's men and Travers from getting what they want.

After making some medicore films during the late 80s and very early 90s such as "Over the top", "Cobra", "Tango and Cash", and "Stop or my mom will shoot!" Sly returned to form here with Cliffhanger, which is still a very entertaining and suspenseful action thriller.  It also sees a nice change from the cocky action heroes that Stallone had played previously to this as Gabe is morely an everyday good guy, who has to overcome his own guilt at failing to help save his best friend Hal's girlfriend from dying as well as confront his own fears and get back into climbing.  The setting of the film in the Rocky mountains in Colorado also allows for some spectacular scenery (in reality it was shot in the Dolomites mountain range in Cortina, Italy) and the high altitude sequences also add much suspense to the film and its a nice contrast to the city based action films so overly used today and even of the time.

Performance wise things are pretty good in Cliffhanger, with Stallone giving a pretty good account of himself in his role as Gabe Walker, the guilt ridden mountaineer who is forced into a situation where he must fight against a group of ruthless thieves.  Stallone also get's some good dialogue in the film and despite his character being less cocky and flashy then what we've seen from Stallone before, he still get's some good quips.  An example being in the scene where he tells Qualen to meet him at the highest point of the mountain range in the helicopter and Qualen flies up there he sees Gabe and says to him on the radio "I must admit you are some piece of work" and Gabe says "Yeah and I must admit you're a real piece of shit!".  Also in the scene where he is getting the shit beat out of him by one of Qualen's men, Kynette (Leon Robinson, credited as "Leon") who asks him where the money is, he weakly relies "Sissy!  You hit like a sissy!".  And in the scene where Gabe finds the first suitcase of money he burns the money around a camp fire and he says to Jessie "It costs a fortune to heat this place!" and later when Kynette asks where it is, Gabe says "I burned it!  I never could save anything!".

John Lithgow is excellent in his role as the ruthless Eric Qualen, the leader of the thieves, even though he hams it up and puts on a rather questionable English accent, he is quite effective and creepy as the main villain.  Lithgow's most potent scenes comes when he actually kills his own girlfriend, one of the thieves, Kristel (Caroline Goodall) in an attempt to force Travers to help them find their money (with the use of a tracking device).  And in the scene he grabs Kristel and whispers in her ear "Do you know what real love is, Kristel?  Sacrifice!" just before he shoots her and throws away her corpse like a rag dog as he says to a shocked Travers "Now take your toy and find our money!".  Lithgow also get's some other good lines of dialogue such as when he first meets Gabe and Hal who ask what is the suitcases and he says "Suits, socks, 30 million dollars, the usual stuff!".  And after Qualen has his men gun down two young skydivers who Hal knows of he says to Hal "Kill a few people they call you a murderer.  Kill a million and you're a conqueror.  Go figure!".  And when Travers attempts to radio in his own people for a chopper, Qualen grabs him and says "You don't get it, do you?!  We're in bed now, joined at the hip, partners in crime!  You've crossed over, Travers, and there's no turning back".  But my favourite line is near the end when Qualen get's a surprise radio call from Gabe and he says "Walker!  You resilient bastard, so you are still alive!" and as Qualen holds Jessie hostage in the helicopter he says to Gabe "You get the picture, Walker.  I wan't my money, or else I'll find it this little angel of yours can fly!" followed by "Love's a killer isn't it?".

Michael Rooker also puts in a good performance as Gabe's good friend, Hal, who at first holds a grudge against him, but he quickly put his differences aside as he tries to help Gabe escape whenever he can, by slowing down the thieves as he guides them to their cases.  And its good to see Rooker, who usually plays the bad guys in his films, play a good guy for once.  Rooker's best scene in the film comes when he faces off against one Qualen's thugs, Delmar (Craig Fairbrass) who is about to shoot, but when Hal goads him to, Delmar instead kicks his ass and yaks on about soccer.  And in the scene Hal says "Hey Delmar, from me to you, you're an asshole!" and later "In a minute I'll be dead and YOU will always be an asshole!".  And as Delmar is about to kick him off the cliff, Hal manages to surprise Delmar by quickly grabbing a knife he had in his trousers and stabbing it into Delmar's leg and Hal grabs the thug's shotgun and says "Season's over asshole!" just before he blasts him off the cliff.  And as Hal deliberately misleads Qualen and Travers by taking them the long way round, Travers nearly twigs it at one point and Hal says "The fastest way to the case is up the east face.  Of course there's only about twelve guys in the world who can do it. You wanna try it?!".  And lastly Rooker has another good moment when Hal confronts Gabe for the first time since his girlfriend's funeral.  In the scene Gabe angrily says "You didn't love her and you didn't have to explain to her family!" and Gabe says "And you didn't have to look into her eyes when she was falling!  Now drop it!" and Hal grabs him and very nearly pushes him over a cliff edge and he says "No, buddy!! It was YOU who dropped it!". 

Rex Linn is also pretty good in his role as the corrupt treasury agent, Travers, who is in cahoots with Qualen albeit somewhat relucantly, as they both despise one another.  Linn also has some good moments in the film such as in the scene where he transfer between planes to Qualen's plane, but he does it before he sends the money and Qualen angrily asks "Why didn't you send the money first?!" and Travers replies "Somehow I didn't think you would wait for me if I sent it first!".  And Linn's best moment comes when he finally snaps as he tries to locate the last case but instead he finds a bunny rabbit has the transponder device on it and he goes bananas with his machine gun and contacts Qualen and berates him on the radio.  And Linn get's some good dialogue in the scene where he says to Qualen "They beat us!  A couple of fuckin montain rangers beat us!  And I'm finding that pretty fuckin hilarious, Qualen!" and later he says "I gotta go.  I'm goin on my last official manhunt.  Adios motherfucker!!".

The supporting cast are also very good including Janine Turner as Gabe's girlfriend, Jessie, who helps Gabe out in trying to find the cases of money and to try and reach Hal as well as fight off the baddies.  Turner has some good moments in the film, and her funniest line comes when she flies the chopper at the start of the film up the mountains and she sees Gabe climbing and she says "I don't recognise him, but the butt looks familiar!".  Leon Robertson is also good as the brutal henchman, Kynette who in his best scene beats up Gabe and demands where the money is and as he is about to finish off Gabe he get's the film's best line which is "It amazes me in this day and age that a man would put money before the personal safety of himself and his btich!  I want you to go to your grave knowing, I'm gonna treat the bitch RIGHT!".  Craig Fairbrass (who was known in Britain for his role in Eastenders) also makes a decent impression as one of Qualen's thugs, Delmar and his best scene comes when he kicks the crap out of Hal and he says to him "You're a loud mouth punk slag, who is about to die!" followed "Do you like socceer?  Its a great sport!  I was a fucking good striker!".  Ralph Waite also puts in a nice performance as the rescue team's search and rescue pilot, Frank, and he has an amusing scene where he does a painting of what appears to be a banana and he says to Hal "This is a banana eating a monkey!  Nature in reverse!".  Caroline Goodall is also good in her role as Qualen's girlfriend and as she rigs a mountain bridge with explosives, and as Qualen watches her he says "You'll make someone a fine wife some day" and she replies "You should see me bake a cake!".  And lastly Paul Winfield makes a good brief appearance in the film as a treasury agent, Walter Wright who later uncovers Qualen's plot to rob the US Treasury.

Getting onto the direction paragraph (or directing to it!) Renny Harlin, who directed Die Hard 2, does a fine job with Cliffhanger and he skillfully films the spectacular climbing sequences as well as handling the film's violent action and suspense very well.  He also some interesting visual shots such as the scene where we see a distant shot of the mountain where Hal leads the thieves and thousands of feet above we can see Gabe and Jessie work their way toward finding the remaining cases.  The film's music score is also pretty good which was written and composed by Trevor Jones, and it has several tense and dramatic passages which work very well and the film's main theme is also memorable.

As for flaws does Cliffhanger have any?????  Yeah it does have one or two.  To begin with I felt that the story in itself is pretty flimsy and there's nothing really new there, as its just another cliched story of bad guys wanting money, and the hero trying to overcome his own demons and adversity.  I also thought some of the sequences in the film were a bit daft such as the scene where Gabe climbs up the mountain face having just escaped Qualen's men in the harsh freezing snowy conditions, wearing only a T-shirt on top, yet somehow he doesn't freeze to death in the process!  And when Gabe finally reaches the top and the shack where Jessie is waiting and she gives him a jumper as soon as he puts it on he almost stops shivering immediately, which marks a pretty quick recovering from a man who almost certainly would have died from hypothermia due to the exposure of such cold temperatures with only wearing a T-shirt! 

The film's violence is also pretty strong and there are one or two moments that could leave an audience cold (no pun intended) such as the scene where Qualen shoots Kristel or the young skydivers being mercilessly gunned down by Qualen's men.  The censors were also pretty strict on the violence in the film and in America they made several trims to the film's violent scenes and the initial DVD release over here was also heavily censored.  The main cuts to the DVD release in the UK included the scene where Kynette beats up Gabe and where Delmar kicks Hal's ass.  The film also on some levels could also be accused of being a little racist, especially in its depiction of the character of Delmar, who in one scene (also initially edited in the British DVD release) harbours a grudge toward Leon (who threatened him with a knife earlier on) and he says to Kristel "Good, and blow up that black bastard while you're at it.  Save me the time of doing it myself!".  This scene and all the others cuts were of course restored in the UK Blu-ray release of Cliffhanger which is still uncut and rated as a 15, even though at the time those cuts were made in order for the film to prevent it from receiving an 18.   

I also thought the film had a pretty stupid climax with Gabe fighting with Qualen in the mountain rescue helicopter which has crashed and gone over the edge of the cliff and is hanging by the remaining rungs of the  ladder (which Gabe wrapped around the helicopter's landing skids (i.e. the helicopter's feet, I had to look it up!) which are steadily coming loose because of the weight of the helicopter.  And the sudden ending (PLOT SPOILER) with Gabe having dealt with Qualen, they receive a call from the Treasury agents who are enroute to save them and Paul Winfield's character says "Just sit tight for now" and the credits role.  So in this regard you wish you kind of saw some sort of aftermath for the characters having made it safely down, rather than, pardon the pun, just leave them hanging!

But despite all that Cliffhanger is still a very entertaining and suspensful action film which has some spectacular visuals and some good action in it as well, and its well worth a watch if you haven't seen it in a while (or ever for that matter).

So until the next post I shall leave yee there.

Sam Fisher's conviction

Right since its time for another post and I've already done one on Splinter cell I thought I would do another on another game from the SC series and this one is on Splinter Cell: Conviction which was released in 2010 and was the last game to feature Michael Ironside as a voice of Sam Fisher (alas).  Anyway let's kit up and turn on those night vision goggles...

The story is set three years after the events of Double Agent and Sam Fisher is following a lead in Malta that his daughter's hit and run death was not an accident.  During his investigation Sam is called up by Anna "Grimm" Grimsdottir (Claudio Besso) who warns that there are hitman on there way to kill him, however Sam manages to kill them and escape.  Sam then goes after their contractor, Andriy Kobin who was responsible for the death of Sarah, his daughter.  Sam manages to infiltrate Kobin's mansion and he interrogates him but then Sam is captured by Third Echelon before he can get anything from Kobin.  Sam is then moved to an airfield in Virginia where he is interrogated by Grimm, who then kills the guard on post and tells Sam she is working for President Caldwell (Lynne Adams).  Grimm tells Sam that she is investigating events concerning Third Echelon director, Tom Reed, Black Arrow and Russian EMP technology.  Grimm also tells Sam that Sarah is in fact alive and she helps him escape the airfield.  After escaping, Sam meets with Victor Coste (Howard Siegel) an old friend of his and a former Navy SEAL who helps him out in trying to uncover the conspiracy involving Black Arrow "clean up" group owner, Lucius Galliard (voiced by Tyrone Benskin) and Third Echelon director Tom Reed as they plan to use the EMPs to do some serious damage on American soil, which at the same time try and discover the truth behind his daughter's death....

Splinter cell conviction continues its departure from the norm of the series as Sam while he is still an operative for the government, he is now acting more like a freelance agent rather than anything else.  The story in Conviction however is very compelling and takes you in and it also involves a nice twist regarding Sam's daughter, especially after the emotional dispair he suffered at the hands of learning of her death in Double Agent.  The story also allows for some really good moments in the gameplay as well such as when Sam infiltrate the Whitebox technologies plant and also where he gains entry to Third Echelon, especially where he goes up to the reception desk and asks the reception to see Tom Reed and he then promptly detonates explosives he had set.  It also features a nice dynamic between Sam and his good friend Victor Coste and it has some flashback moments where they went on a mission together in the middle east.  And of course one of the series main characters, Ann Grimmsdottir or "Grimm" makes another appearance although she is a different operative from the behind the scenes analyst we knew, as she is now very much in the field calling the shots for Sam and trying to get to the root of the events involving Black Arrow and Third Echelon. 

In terms of the gameplay in Conviction things have changed a bit as the game is now more about action than stealth as in many situations Sam must fight his way through different evnironments and engage in gunfights.  The stealth of the game still does exist though and it most notably is used in the scenes such as where Sam sneaks around the Washington monument to interrogate some enemies or when Sam infiltrates Third Echelon, where he used to work.  The gameplay also has some new features such as mark and execute in which Sam can mark several targets at once and then executive them in succession, although this can only be utilised once Sam peforms a hand to hand takedown.  Another feature is the last known position feature, where Sam leaves a silhouette of himself as the position where the enemy has last spotted him.  And another nifty new feature involves Sam's interrogation techniques where he can use objects to beat up his enemies with when he interrogates them, or he can slam them against walls, doors, cars, tree trunks (yep!) or TV equipment (yep that as well, as it features in the Washington monument level) or anything else near Sam's interrogation range.  Another interesting feature in the game is the use of the visual representation of the mission objectives as they are now projected onto walls within the game environment to make the experience more interactive for the player.

Unlike the last games however Sam has acccess to more weapons and ammo than before as the game is far more action orientated, Sam can at certain points access weapons caches where he can restock his ammo.  Sam can now access weapons such as sub-machine guns, shotguns, assault rifles, silenced handguns, as well as frag grenades, smoke grenades and other devices.  Movement wise things are fairly similar as before with Sam doing all the usual crouching, running, shimmying, sneaking, only this time he can no longer sneak up on his enemies and knock them out or though he can utilise what's known as "death from above" as he can pounce on an enemy froma an elevated position.  The game also incorporates some of the action seamlessly in certain sequences as well, an example being where he is being chased by an armed helicopter and dives out of its line of fire.

Graphics wise the game actually looks pretty good although in comparison to the same of the releases of the time it probably doesn't stack up in comparison to the very best visuals of that year in 2010.  The character models are a little unsophisticated looking right enough however the game environments are still pretty impressive and once again they are pretty varied in design as Sam covers different areas such as the Washington monument, Third Echelon headquarters, the Middle East in flashbaack sequences, and of course the Whitehouse. 

Voice acting wise Conviction excels as the cast are all top notch with Michael Ironside providing his last performance as Sam Fisher and he does a great job once again as his deep voice lends to the character's intimidating manner yet he also provides a dry wit in the role.  Claudio Besso also makes her final contribution to the Splinter cell series as Grimm and she also gives a fine performance as Grimm takes on a far more pragmatic role than before as she leads from the front and helps Sam escape from the hands of Black Arrow and tells him the truth about his daughter.  The supporting voice acting cast are also excellent which includes Howard Siegel as Sam's friend Victor Coste, Tyrone Benkins who is great as Lucius Galliard, the owner of Black Arrow and also Don Jordan makes a brief reappearance as Sam's now deceased friend and ex-superior officer, Irving Lambert.  Also briefly the game's music score is also pretty good as it was composed by Kaveh Cohen and Michael Nielsen and it also features some additional tracks by the ever quirky Amon Tobin, who provided a truly unique and excellent score for Chaos Theory, and here if you are familiar with his work then I'm sure you can spot when his tracks are used!

As for the game's flawsssssssss..... well the game isn't quite perfect it has to be said there are one or two niggles with Conviction, first off Sam can no longer hide the bodies of someone he has killed as he just has to leave them where they fall.  This is pretty frustrating when it comes to Sam trying not to be spotted, especially in the Third Echelon level as Sam has to rely on the dark shadows and hope that the body falls conviently into that shadow rather than out in the light.  It also appears that Sam can no longer knock out or incapacitate his enemies anymore as it appears to be straight kills, which also kind of makes the game's action feel a bit more cold and clinical than before, although its not really a big issue as they are all bad guys anyway!  But I mean even in Hitman, 47 has the opportunity to knock out his enemies rather than just do flat out kills and he's way more cold blooded than Sam Fisher.  And perhaps the decision to have made Conviction more action orientated, while its gives the game a faster pace, it takes away from what made the series work so well in the first place in its stealth. 

Another annoyance for me is the profanity in the game and the rather inane chatter of the Black arrow bad guys as they keep taunting Sam by saying things like "Nice try, motherfucker!" and "you better come out of there, asshole!" and "Die, Fisher! Die die die!!" and "It won't be like it was at the airfield, Fisher!".  And more and more games nowadays have loads of swearing in them which while its not always a bad thing, it does at times feel a bit unecessary and in the case of Conviction it feels forced on to give the game some edge, but it doesn't really need it.  The single player campaign while its really good, it also is probably bit on the short side as alot of the campaigns are nowadays on perhaps there is probably six or seven hours gameplay in there tops.  There are of course co-op and multiplayer modes which will add more hours onto the game, but if you are like me, a single player oritentated gameplayer who can't be arsed with multiplayer gaming, then why bother play them, but they are there of course for the masses that do, and each to their own. 

Howeverrrrr all that put to one side, Splinter Cell Conviction is still a very entertaining and worthy addition to the game series and it also added a fresh new visual slant to the proceedings as well as providing some thrilling action sequences as well, and a top notch voice cast.  And if you haven't played Conviction and you liked the other games, you just might want to give it a try.

And with that I shall leave it there.  

Sam Fisher Double Agent

Right so time for a quick change from the movie reviews as this post will be on a video game and the one I've gone for is one of the Splinter Cell game series, Double Agent, which covers the adventures of stealth agent Sam Fisher who in this edition of the series goes rogue.  So let's grab the night vision goggles and give it a look....

Well an interesting thing about Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (to use its full name!) is that on its release there were two different versions of the game with some variations on the plot as well as different levels.  So the version I will cover is the Xbox 360 release version, as opposed to the PS2 version which features the alternate one.  So to start with a look at the plot the story starts with Sam Fisher (voiced by Michael Ironside) who embarks on a mission with a rookie agent to Iceland to investigate suspicious activities at a geophermal plant.  During the mission however, the rookie dies and Sam narrowly manages to avert a missile strike from being launched.  After Sam is extracted he is told by his good friend and superior, Colonel Irving Lambert (Don Jordan) that Sam's only daughter was killed in a hit and run incident, leaving Sam overwhelmed with grief, he pulls out of active service.

Later on Lambert offers Sam as a way of getting back on track, an NOC post (non-official operative cover) where he get's Sam to infiltrate a terrorist organisation called John Browns Army (JBA).  Sam is placed in Ellsworth prison in Kansas where he is put in a cell next to a member of the JBA, Jamie Washington.  After a while in prison, Jamie offers Sam a place in the JBA if he can help them escape from the prison to which Sam agrees.  Jamie causes a diversion as he and other prisoners create a rucus while Sam tunnels his way out of his cell and he eventually manages to access the prison's security systems and disables the prison cell door locks, after which the prisoners are released and a riot ensues.  Sam then manages to get to the prison roof and along with Jamie he escapes as he jumps onto the news helicopter nearby.  Sam is then taken to the JBA by Jamie where he meets their leader, Emile Dufraisne (voiced by Keith Szarabajka) who orders him to kill the pilot of the helicopter they hijacked to escape.  This is where the gameplayer has to make the decision to either kill the pilot or not, if Sam does, he will gain the JBA's trust, if not then he will gain the NSA's trust and the JBA will lose a little trust in him.  And from here Sam is utilised by Emile to go on different missions for the JBA where Sam has to make some tough choices in keeping his loyalties to the NSA while playing the JBA in order to try and bring them down from the inside should he choose to....

Splinter Cell Double Agent for me is one of the best of the game's series and it makes a nice change of pace in the franchise as although Sam is still working for the NSA he is working with them on a deep undercover basis.  And the fact that there were two different versions released of the game also provides a different spin on things, as each version was for the different generation of video game consoles, e.g. the PS2 and the Nintendo Gamecube were generation six and the Xbox 360 and PS3 were generation seven.  So naturally the later generation had a more customised and streamlined look to the game whereas the older generation game had a more traditional look to it as the previous Splinter Cell game did.  The game also introduces a new option for gamers in which at key moments in the gameplay Sam must make a decision which will have consequences that will influence the ending of the game, as the game itself has three different endings.   The trust theme also makes things more interesting as throughout the game Sam has to try and gain the trust of the JBA as well as try and keep on good terms with his superiors at the NSA, so in the end Sam is forced to play a tightrope act with both groups, which also adds to the game's suspense as well.

As for the actual gameplay, Double Agent is great and the movement and combat system is pretty straightforward.  Sam can make all the usual moves such as run, jump, shimmy, crouch, sneak, slide up and down poles, use a rope to rappel down to the ground, and he can also dangle from the ceiling (as he does in one mission when he has to plant a bug in a room to record a meeting between Emile and terrorist leaders).  A new addition to the movement however is now that Sam can while swimming underwater grab people and pull them under, and in some levels, such as in the mission where Sam tries to capture a Russian tanker, when Sam swims under ice, he can use his knife to stab at it and punch out a hole to pull down an enemy after which he can either stab them or break their neck (lovely!).  Sam can also use his usual interrogative techniques to question enemies to get information out of them by grabbing them at knifepoint and from there he can either kill them or apply a chokehold to render them unconscious. 

In regards to the game's weaponary and stealth equipment there are some new additions as well and with the new customisation menus, Sam can also access new gear which becomes unlocked as you complete missions.  There are also the usual weapons available such as a silenced handgun, an assault rifle, as well as the add-ons for the rifle such as airfoil rounds and sticky shockers which Sam can use to make non-lethal takedowns.  Sam can also use some customised NSA equipment in the levels which are based at the JBA base where Sam has to sneak about and gather intelligence on the JBA for the NSA, and he can use the gear to record voice and finger prints of the JBA members so he can access restricted areas.  Sam also wears a device on his back which is a stealth meter when people are near by and it lights up red, yellow or green to rate the different levels of awareness (red being rumbled, green safe and yellow caution).

There is also a trust bar which shows the level of trust for JBA and the NSA and if you carry out drastic actions in the JBA base, such as use an NSA gadget you instantly lose their trust and the game is over (in fact this is good fun to do) or you could lost a small amount of trust if you are caught in a restricted area in the HQ.  There are also missions based purely in the JBA HQ where Sam must carry out certain mission objectives such as cracking a safe for Emile, assembling mines, decrypting messages, as well as sneaking around to gather intel for the NSA, which can include hacking into the JBA's servers, sneaking into their offices to take a peek at personnel files.   

And if you think the thermal vision goggles are gone well you are mistaken as while Sam no longer dons his black stealth suit, he does use googles in some missions, such as where he captures the Russian tanker and also where he goes to Shanghai and he sneaks in and tries to obtain a sample of red mercury (an explosive material that has potential power of a thermonuclear device on detonation) for the NSA.  Sam also additionally has a computer wrist watch which is combined into the in-game menu where Sam can review his mission objectives.  And lastly Sam also has access to smoke grenades, wall mines, and in the level where he escapes from prison he also briefly uses a non-lethal shotgun (although it only appears in that mission).       
  
Graphics wise Double Agent looks great for its time as the Xbox 360 had been just out for a year by then in 2006 so the HD graphics in the game are still fairly impressive by today's standards even if the technology has moved on since then.  The character models are also pretty good although perhaps not as sophisticated in comparison to the latest game releases for the Xbox One and PS4 as well as PC gaming.  The evnironments in the game are also pretty varied as Sam travels to various locations in the world such as Iceland, Russia, Shanghai, Kinshasha, Cozumel in the Caribbean sea, as well as New Orleans were the JBA base is set.

Voice acting wise Double Agent is also excellent as the cast all put in very good performances starting with Michael Ironside who is perfect as the deep gravely voice of Sam Fisher and he delivers Sam's dialogue effortlessly well and he plays the part with the usual mix of menace and dry wit.  Don Jordan is also excellent as Lambert, Sam's superior officer who places him in to infiltrate the JBA to gather intel and to eventually try and stop them.  Keith Szarabajka also provides a sinister voice over for Emile Dufrainse, the leader of the JBA and he delivers some threatening lines well such as when you are exposed as being an agent and he says things such as "You betrayed the trust that was given to you, now you are out of chances!" and "Whatever I need you to do you aren't doing it!  We're through, Fisher!".  Dwight Schultz (who played Mad Murdock in the A-Team hit TV show) also provides a good turn as the JBA sub-leader, Carson Moss, who takes an instant disliking to Sam, and as Sam deliberately calls him "Moose" Moss snaps back "Its Moss!  Get it right or pay the price!".  And he get's some good quips such as later when he Moss argues with Jamie, Jamie calls Moss a jackass and Moss sarcastically replies "And they arrested you for being a dumb ass!".  And lastly Rachel Reenstra is very good in her voice over role as Enrica Villablanca, one of the JBA team whom Sam becomes briefly involved with in a romantic way, as he seduces just as she catches him in her room, although Sam later has to choose to either frame her for jamming the bomb on the cruiser going off or let her off the hook.

Also briefly Michael McCann provides a fine music score for the game which is quite tense and atmospheric and suits the tone of the game perfectly and it neatly get's louder in the moments where Sam sneaks closely past his enemies.  Although the only thing I'd say about the score is it is a bit more conventional than Amon Tobin's funky, dark and stylish score for Chaos Theory before it.   

As for the game's flaws well there aren't that many that let's Double Agent down.  Perhaps with the Xbox 360 version of Double Agent perhaps the cut scenes tend to generally skip over some of the details that are covered more so than in the PS2 and original Xbox versions and in that regard the two versions allow for some unwanted discrepancies in the plot.  There are also one or two quirks in the game's AI such as where enemies can spot you way too easily at times, which can become quite frustrating, especially in the level where Sam goes after the Russian tanker, as he tries to not be spotted when he lands on a snowy mountain tops and later when he infiltrates the Russian's camp.  Also some of the movement can be a bit quirky, such as when Sam knocks out an enemy when he picks them up and carries them on his back and then puts them down, rather than do it carefully, the body tends to just messily drop on the floor, which makes concealing the bodies a bit more tricky.  The randon game saving checkpoints can also be a bit annoying as well on the Xbox 360 version as the gameplay stops temporarily while the game is saved, which stops the flow of the game in its tracks briefly and just long enough to irk your enjoyment in those moments.  And perhaps one of the worst parts in any mission is the mine assembly which Sam does at JB army's HQ which is a real pain in the ass to get right as you have to assemble 10 mines on a machine, but you only get a max of 15 goes then if you mess up you start all over again!  And lastly I also felt while the script is well written for the game, it does somewhat lack the level of wit and humour the previous Splinter cell games had and that for me is certainly one of the games negative points.

But apart from that Splinter Cell Double Agent is still one of the best games in the series as the stealth gameplay is a good as ever, the graphics are excellent for their time, the voice acting is top notch and it also has a tense and involving story.  So if you haven't checked it out before now and like the series, its definitely worth playing.

And so I shall leave it there.

Road House: "I thought you would be bigger!"

Right time for my second post of the year which is another movie and this one goes back to the 80s again (well the tail end of the decade that is) as it will be on the classic action movie, Roadhouse.  So let's give it a looksee....

The film starts with well known professional bouncer or "cooler" Dalton (Patrick Swayze) who is recruited by businessman Frank Tighlman (Kevin Tighe) who owns a bar/club called the Double Deuce in Jasper Missouri.  Frank is having problems in cleaning out the unwanted element in the bar as fights break out every night and he intends to invest money in the place to renovate it so he needs Dalton's help keep the place running trouble free.  When Dalton arrives in town, he takes a lodging at a local farm and he soon finds out the town is under control of the local business magnate, Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara).  As Dalton starts work in the double deuce he dismisses some of the unruly employees, which soon causes unrest with Wesley as several of them were connected through him, one in particular being his cousin, who was the bartender.  Wesley then sends some of his henchman to intimidate him into giving the former bartender's job back, but Dalton fights them off and sustains a knife wound.  Later Dalton goes to the hospital where he meets a doctor, Elizabeth "Doc" Clay (Kelly Lynch) who gives him stitches and after they talk they develop a friendship and soon become romantically involved.

Wesley later invites Dalton to his mansion where he offers him to work for him but Dalton refuses, after this Wesley then punishes the club's business by preventing the liquor from being delivered as he sends his thugs, whom Dalton manages to fight off with help from his friend and mentor, the aging cooler, Wade Garrett (Sam Elliott) who arrives on the scene.  Meanwhile Wesley also as part of his intimidation tactics decides to punish the local businessmen in town, who all owe money to Wesley as part of his extortion rackets, and he does this in an effort to try and sicken Dalton into leaving town.  Wesley one evening shows up at the double deuce with his men, including his main henchman, Jimmy (Marshall Teague) and he has them fight Dalton and his bouncer staff along with Wade for his own amusement, but then he calls it off after a while and he warns Dalton things aren't working out.  The following night, Dalton who is now enraged by Wesley's muscling tactics to get him to leave town, argues with Elizabeth who shows up at his place at the farm and during their row there is a loud explosion as the farm house is destroyed, but Dalton manages to rescue the owner, Emmett (Sunshine Parker) just in time.  Dalton then spots Jimmy fleeing the scene on a motorcycle and he jumps him and they engage in an intense fist fight, which ends with Dalton killing Jimmy by ripping his throat out with his bare hand.

The following day Dalton while at the bar receives a call from Wesley, who gives him an ultimatum that either Wade or Elizabeth will die and he must choose who and he hangs up on him.  At this point Wade stumbles into the bar who has been badly beaten by Wesley's men, at this point Dalton decides to give in and leave town with Wade and take Elizabeth with him.  As Dalton goes to the hospital to convince Elizabeth to leave she refuses as she is sickened by Dalton's own violent behaviour and that he is no better than Wesley.  Dalton then goes back to the bar to find Wade has been murdered as he has been stabbed with a knife in his chest, which Dalton tearfully removes and he sets off in a vengeful rage to confront Wesley for the last time.....

There is no doubt that while Roadhouse is incredibly cheesy it is also a very entertaining film as well and its also perhaps because it dares to be so cheesy that it actually works really well as a film.  The story is of course nothing original, as its basically like a good old fashioned western (sorry that should be modern!) with the new cowboy (i.e. Dalton) coming to town to sort out the bad sherriff (i.e. Wesley) with his girl, Elizbaeth at his side.  Dalton of course is a far more intellectual and sophisticated cowboy so to speak in that he is also a philosophy graduate and he uses his brains as well as his brawn to resolve situations.  Wesley on the other hand is more like a childish bully who insists on having everything his own way and he takes great sadistic pleasure in toying with townsfolk and the local businessmen as well.  And Wade Garrett is the good old fashioned, charming and genial cooler, who is old but still has a few teeth left and knows how to fight.  The film while it wasn't a big success on its release and it wasn't criticallty well received it has over time become more popular and it has gained a cult following since.  And to this day Road House even pops as references in popular culture and in television shows such as in Family Guy, as the main character Peter Griffin is often shown in some scenes where he will kick someone and say "Road House!".    

Performance wise Roadhouse isn't too bad, with Patrick Swayze giving a likeable performance as the cool headed tough guy, Dalton who goes to town to clean things up.  Swayze has several highlights in the film and he does really well in the film's fight scenes, especially the fight scenes in the bar and the main fight he has with Wesley henchman, Jimmy.  Swayze also get's some good lines as well such as the scene where he first briefs the bar staff on how he will run things and he says to them "If someone get's in your face and calls you a cocksucker I want you to be nice" and one of the staff asks "Isn't being called a cocksucker personal?" and Dalton says "No its two nouns combined to illicit a prescribed response!".  And one of the other bouncers ask "What if someone calls my mother a whore?" and Dalton says sardonically "Is she?!".  Another good line comes later when Dalton confronts some of Wesley's thugs as they try to enter the bar and he says to them "Sorry we're closed" while a band plays in the background and the placed is filled up with people, and the thug says "Well what are all these people doing here?" and Dalton replies "Drinking and having a good time" and the thug says "Well that's why we are here" and Dalton grabs his boot, which has a concealed knife and says "You're too stupid to have a good time!!".  And one of Swayze's best moments is when he talks to Elizabeth in a heated exchange where he tells her "I've seen Wesley's type a dozen times, he keeps taking and taking until someone takes him!  And when Brad Wesley hired me he fucked up!  I'm only good at one thing, Doc and I never lose!".  Swayze also nicely deals with Dalton's weary but good humoured attempts at hearing the same thing being said about him that for the line of work he is in that "I thought you would be bigger!".   

Ben Gazarra is also really good in his role as Brad Wesley, the town's leader who controls all the business and he tries to intimidate Dalton into leaving.  Ben also has some good moments in the film, such as in the scene where he invites Dalton around to his mansion and we hear some cheesy 80s music play in the background as his girlfriend does aerobics, and he yells "Will someone shut that shit of???!  I can't listen to that crap!  Its got no heart."  Another good scene is where his men come back having failed to intimidate and beat up on Dalton, and he punches one of them in the face and knocks him down "You know what I don't like about you? You're a bleeder!  You are a messy bleeder!  You have no endurance for pain!" and as he is helped back up he says "You know what you're gonna be fine and you know why?  Because I like you" and then he punches the man in the face again, knocking him to the ground and he says "Get this piece of shit coward out of here!".  Ben has another good scene where Wesley has his thugs demolish one of the town's businessman's car dealership business, and he says to Elizabeth "Well Elizabeth you better get Dalton out of here, because if you don't he's goin down, and I won't lose a second's sleep over it!".

Sam Elliott is also really good in his role as Wade Garrett, the charming, aged cooler, who despite his age still can throw his fists.  Elliott has some good moments in the film, such as in the scene where he arrives at the double deuce to find Dalton being beat up by Wesley's men, and one of them says to Wade "You wanna fight dickless?!" and Wade says "Well I sure ain't gonna show my dick!" after which he hits the thug in the balls and says "I bet that hurts don't it?!".  Another funny line he has is when Wade dances with Elizabeth and after she leaves to go to the toilet, he watches her fine bottom wiggle as she goes and he says "That girl has entirely too many brains to have an ass like that!".  And in the same scene Elliott shares a good moment with Swayze when Wade confronts Dalton over the guilt he feels of his past when he had to kill someone in self defence.  And Wade says to him "When you got a guy sticking a gun in your face you got two choices, you can either die or you can kill the motherfucker!  Why don't you be a little more philsophical about it and cut it the fuck loose?!".

The supporting are also fine as well, which includes Kelly Lynch as Elizabeth, the doctor who falls for Dalton and she was also a former lover of Wesley's.  Kelly's best scene comes when Elizabeth argues with Dalton about staying in town and she says "You think you're gonna save these people from Brad Wesley?!  Well who's gonna save them from you?!".  Their first scene together is also quite a nice one when Elizabeth gives Dalton his stitches for his knife wound and she says as he leaves "You know for this line of work I thought you would be bigger!" and Dalton smiles and says "Gee! I never heard that before!".  Kevin Tighe is also good in his role as the rather meek but ambitious businessman, Frank Tilghman who hires Dalton, and he get's a good line where he says to Dalton at the start of the film "I own a club called the Double Deuece.  It used to be a real sweet deal, but now its the sort of place where they sweep up the eyeballs at closing time!".  Red West as the character Red Webster also has some good witty moments in the film such as in the scene where after Red's auto parts business is trashed by Wesley's men, Dalton asks how much Wesley takes and does everyone pay and Red says "Does a hobby horse have a wooden dick?!".

Marshall Teague while he hardly gives the film's best performance as he essentially just plays the film's main henchman, Jimnmy, and as such just kicks ass and sets fire to things, he does provide some good moments as well.  And Teague's fight scene with Swayze in the Dalton vs Jimmy showdown remains one of the film's highlights, and Teague delivers a few priceless line such as:

Jimmy: (to Dalton) Prepare to die!
Dalton: You are such an asshole!

And later during the fight Jimmy makes the hilarious confession that during their fight that "I use to fuck guys like you in prison!" and later as he starts to kick Dalton's ass he says "Damn boy!  I thought you were good!" and Dalton says "Go fuck yourself!" and they fight on.

And lastly I will mention Jeff Healey, who provides a nice little performance as the blind guitarist Cody, who's band plays at the double deuce most nights.  Healey also get's some good lines in the film such as when Dalton first goes up to meet with Cody after their gig at the deuce and he quietly hands him a towel and says "You don't play too bad for a blind boy" and Cody quips back "Yeah and I thought you would be bigger!".  And also slightly later as one of the hotheaded bouncers, Morgan (played by Terry Funk) asks what the story with Dalton is, Cody says "The story is, you fuck with him and he'll seal your fate!".  Jeff Healey who had been blind for most of his life, sadly died years later from cancer in 2008.   

Moving quickly onto the techy side (well kind of!) and the director Rowdy Herrington does a good job here in keeping the pace nice and tight and the action pretty thick and fast, and while its a no brainer of a film, he still knows how to keep the audience engaged in the action.  And Michael Kamen provides a good score for the film which is akin to his score from Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, but it suits the film's sleazy and dramatic tone pretty well.

So flaws, how flawed is Road House?????  Well how harsh do you want to be??  You could argue of course that Road House is a load of utter tosh and is basically a brainless lot of fist fighting, which features some nice boobs in it as well! ;-)  And in both instances you would be absolutely right!  Road House is also hardly original or in any sense innovational, but then again why would it be as it attains to be nothing more than an action movie.  And the action in the film is fun but serves to also highlight the film's lack of overall plot and there are also one or two cringeworthy moments in the film as well such as the scene where Denise, Wesley's girlfriend performs a corny strip tease in the double deuce or the scene where Wesley has a loud house party where he invites girls back and some numpty who he loves because he dances like a complete dick!   

I also thought the film's ending is pretty farcical and OTT (but again what do you expect I guess!) with (PLOT SPOILER) Dante ready to kill Wesley at his mansion but he let's him off the hook only to have the local businessman including Kevin and Red, shoot him dead, and they conveniently stash the shotguns away in time before the police arrive!  Not only that but the men all deny any knowlegde of anything that happened that would cause Brad Wesley to lie on the floor in a pool of his own blood, with mutliple shotgun wounds in his chest and we can imagine that its a film the police will just sweep it all under the carpet and probably say "Aww forget it, he was an asshole anyway!".  And again its the Hollywood machine producing another happy ending where logic, reason and all common sense go out the window and we are left with an ending that really insults an audience's intelligence.  Or perhaps I shouldn't look into it that deeply??? ;-)

Anyway despite all that, Road House is still one of the most corny and purely enjoyable action films of the 1980s and to this day its still a fun film which is worth a watch every now and then.

And so with that I shall leave ye there.  Road House!        

The Blues Brothers "We're on a mission from God!"

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrright well its a new year, its 2014, and I thought I would start off by saying a happy new year to everyone out there.  So as this first post of the year I've decided to go fer a movie and this one goes back to 1980 as its the musical comedy, The Blues Brothers.  So let's get the shades and the hats on, and give it a look....

So the film begins with "Joliet" Jakes Blues (John Belushi) being released from prison having served a three year sentence for armed robbery.  Jake is picked up outside the prison by his brother, Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) in a battered police car, which is their Blues mobile.  Shortly after they stop off and visit their former childhood home, an orphange where they meet with Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman) who tells them that the orphanage is due to close down unless they pay a property tax of $5,000.  Jake says they can get they money quickly, however the Sister refuses to accept any money they would rip off from anyone, and she chastises them when they start cursing and tells them to get out and not come back until they redeem themselves.  They then meet with Curtis (Cab Calloway) who also helps out at the home and has known the brothers since their childhood, and he tells them to go to church.  And they both reluctantly go to an evangelical church where Jake has a revelation that they can get the money they need by getting their back together.

Elwood afterward that night is pulled over by the police for failing to stop at a red signal, and the two police troopers check his licence and see that it is currently suspended and when they officers ask him to step out the car, he speeds off.  Elwood then in an effort to escape the police crashes through a shopping mall and eventually shakes them off and arrives at his temporary abode, which is a broken down motel, when all of a sudden a mysterious woman (Carrie Fisher) fires a rocket launcher at them both and drives off, they both survive unscathed and enter the hotel.  The next morning the woman comes back and sets off explosives which destroy the building but again the brothers are left not injured they simply leave to locate their band members.  And enroute they stop off at different places to recruit the band, which includes Trombonist, Tom "Bones" Malone, the drummer Willie "Too Big" Hall, rythyhm guitarist Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn, trumpeter Alan Rubin, "Blue Lou" Marina the saxophinist, and lastly Matt "Murph" Murphy the lead guitarist.

However as they progress they begin to make more enemies, not just the police, but also a group of Illinois Nazis, and they play in a country bar, posing as the country and western group "The Good Ole Boys" only to be confronted by them when they leave and they drive off leaving the owner Bob without paying the beer tab.  Next up Jake and Elwood meet up with Maurie Sline (Steve Lawrence) their old booking agent and they manage to persuade him to book a gig for them at the Palace Hotel ballroom, near Chicago.  However as the brothers go around the city advertising the gig, they run out of gas and they eventually get there late and perform their set, after a slow start they win over the audience.  But the venue is also filled with police officers waiting to arrest Jake and Elwood and during their set the two of them dance off the stage, where a record producer waits for them and offers them a recording contract deal and $10,000 upfront, which they accept as it will be more than enough to pay the debt for the orphanage, and they both leave quietly, leaving the band to play on.  And from here Jake and Elwood have a massive challenge ahead of them in trying to get to the Cook county assessor's office to hand in the money as they chased by the Illinois Nazis, the Good Ole Boys, and dozens of police cars in an effort to apprehend them.....

The Blues Brothers still to this day is a very entertaining comedy and for me is one of the very few musical comedies that works really well and the tracks don't annoy or interfere with the pacing of the film, but its also helped by the fact the choice of blues song are excellent.  The characters themselves originally appeared in the Saturday night live show as a musical sketch.  The film itself wasn't a huge commercial success on its release although it was critically well received and later gained a cult following, especially when it was released on VHS video.  It was also up to that point in time one of the most expensive films ever made as well as the budget was in excess of 30 million dollars, which is certainly shown in the film's hectic car chase scenes where Elwood wrecks a shopping mall and where an army of police and military hunt down the brothers toward the end of the film.  However part of this cost was also attributed to Belushi's partying and drug abuse, which caused significant delays in filming when the actor would spend hours partying and on cocaine, resulting in many hours and days wasted in the schedule.

Performance wise The Blues Brothers is pretty good, with the late John Belushi providing his career defining role as Joliet Jake Blues, the charismatic conman, who get's his band back together to help raise the money to save the orphanage.  Belushi has plenty of good lines and highlights in the film, such as the scene where Jake and Elwood dine at a fancy restaurant where Mr Big, the trumpeter is the maitre'd who they try to recruit for the band.  And Jake turns to the table next to their as he spies a wealthy family and he teases the father by saying "How much for the little girl? How much for your children! Sell me you're daughters!".  Also in the scene where they arrive at the orphanage at the beginning and Elwood says to him "You told the penguin the day you got out you would visit her" and Jake says "Yeah, so I lied to her" and Elwood says "You can't lie to a nun.  We gotta go in there and visit the penguin." and Jake defiantly says "No fucking way!".  Another funny moment is where they play at Bob's country bunker and after the audience boo them for playing their blues set, they are forced to play "Rawhide" and Jake crosses him arms in a huff, but soon finds a whip and casually sings the Rawhide chorus with Elwood and uses the whip and accidentally whips the cigarette out a girl's mouth!  And another funny scene is where he finally faces Carrie Fisher's character, who was a bride he jilted at the altar in the muddy tunnel after they leave the Palace Hotel ballroom gig, and he tells her "It wasn't my fault.  I had a flat tyre, my car ran out of gas, there was an earthquake!  A terrible flood!  Locusts! Look it wasn't my fault I swear to GOD!!!".  And he takes off his shades for the first time in the film and woos Carrie into kissing her and he casually drops her into the mud and says to Elwood "Let's go!".  And one of my favourite lines from Belushi is when he is at the gospel church and James Brown asks him "Do you see the light?!" as a holy light bathes the church and covers Jake and he remembers the band and he says "YES! YES! JESUS H. TAPDANCING CHRIST I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!!!".  Belushi later on sadly died only aged 32 from a drug overdose.

Dan Ayrkroyd is also excellent as Elwood Blues, Jake's cool headed brother who get's Jake into a heap load of trouble by getting the entire Chicago police force on their asses, after failing to stop at a red light and also for trashing a shopping mall.  Aykroyd shares the limelight with Belushi and he too has his share of highlights such as the scene where he spots the police tailing them and he and Jake share a brief but classic exchange:

Elwood: Shit!
Jake: What?
Elwood: Rollers!
Jake: No!
Elwood: Yeah!
Jake: Shit!

Also during the sequence where they advertised the Palace Hotel ballroom gig whilst driving out in their car and he says over a megaphone, which is strapped to the hood of their car "You on the motorcycle!  You two girls!  Tell your friends!".  Aykroyd also has a nice double act moment with Belushi when they enter the restaurant where Mr Big works, and they eat expensive food and as Elwood drinks his champange he sips it noisly and they throw food into each other's mouths!  And in the scene where they are chased by the police troopers and they go into a shopping mall car park and Jake says "You got us into this parking lot, pal, you get us out!" and Elwood says "You want out of this parking lot?? OK!" and he proceeds to crash the car through a toy store in the mall!  Another funny moment is when Elwood tells a sceptical Jake that he traded the old Bluesmobile "for a microphone" and convinces Jake that his police car would make the perfect Blues mobile as he ramps it up over a gap of a drawbridge and he says "Its gotta cop engine, cop shocks, it was a model that was made before catalytic converters so it will run on regular gas.  Would do you say is it the new Bluesmobile or what?".  And when he goes to the address of a lead on two of the bandmembers, the woman who owns the boarding house asks them "Are you the police?" and Elwood says "No ma'am, we're musicians".  Dan also has a funny line after so many attempts on their life by the mystery woman, where she confronts them in the muddy tunnel he finally asks Jake "Who IS that girl???".  And Akryoyd's most memorable line in the film is the one he uses the most when he says to the band members as he recruits them "We're on a mission from God!" and my favourite probably is "its 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark and we're wearing sun glasses".

And in addition to the various musicians in the film, which I will get to I will also mention a few of the supporting performers such as John Candy, who provides a good performance as Elwood's parole officer, Burton Mercer.  And he has a good scene where he is in the police troopers car and they crash into a moving truck, and he takes the radio and says to them "This is car 55. We're in a truck!".  And in the scene where the police officers arrive at the Palace Hotel ballroom, he says "Wait a minute!  I want to hear these boys sing!".  Carrie Fisher also puts in an amusing performance as Jake's crazed bride to be whom he left at the altar, and her repeated attempts to kill the brothers are hilarious, which include her using a flamethrower which sets fire to and ignites a fuel tank next to the call booth Jake and Elwood are in, which sends the booth sky high!  And in her last scene with Jake she explains the situation and says to Jake "And now for the good of my family, I will now kill you and your brother!".  Henry Gibson is also great in his part as the leader of the Neo-Nazi party, and his best line is when he gathers his men at Wrigley Field (the false address Elwood has given) and he says "Mr Blues is gonna fuck up, and when he does, he better pray the police get to him before we do!".  Charles Napier is also funny in his brief role as the leader of the Good Ole Boys, Tucker McElroy, who threatens Jake by saying "You're gonna look funny chewing on the cob with no fuckin teeth!".  And lastly Twiggy, the model and singer who rose to fame in the 1980s also provides a brief but noteworthy role as a girl who stops off at the garage where Elwood and Jake are waiting for fuel to be delivered, and he chats her up, and even offers her to meet up at a nearby motel, when she considers and later on waits for Elwood at the motel, as he sighs impatiently.

As for the film's soundtrack and star musicians they provide a key part of the film's success and appeal starting with James Brown who provides a charismatic turn as the Rev. Cleophus James and a catchy number in the gospel church scene.  Ray Charles also provides a good cameo as himself, as well as the owner of a music exchange store and he has a funny moment where he fires a gun near a young boy trying to sneakily grab a Fender Stratocaster off the wall, and he says "Breaks my heart, a boy that young goin bad!".  And later after he plays the music number "Shake a tail feather" Jake and Elwood says they will buy some of his gear and Ray says "Naturally I will have take an IOU!".  Aretha Franklin also puts in a good performance as the wife of Matt Murphy who owns a diner, as she breaks into a musical number of "Think!" but Matt walks out on her and she simply exclaims "Shit!".  And John Lee Hooker provides a catchy number as he puts in a brief cameo and plays his own track "Boom boom".  And last but not least Cab Calloway provides an excellent performance as Curtis and he has some good scenes, particularly his first scene where he tells Jake and Elwood about their light with the orphanage, and Jake says "They wouldn't turn you out would they??" and Curtis says "Shit!  What's one more old nigger to the board of education!".  And he also provides a near show stopping performance of "Minne the Moocher" at the Palace Hotel ballroom gig where he delights the audience with his scat singing. 

And lastly I will quickly mention the Blues Brothers band as they also get some good moments in the film such as Wille Hall, the band's drummer first meets with the brothers he says to Jake "So you're, you're free, you're rehabilitated?  So what's happenning?  What are you gonna do?  You got the money you owe us, motherfucker?!".  And Alan Rubin as Mr Big also has some good moments such as when he speaks to Jake and Elwood at the restaurant and says to them "Come on guys, seriously the food is really expensive.  The soup is fucking ten dollars!" and later when they arrive at the Palace Hotel ballroom he says "its a fucking barn, we'll never fill it!".  And Donald Dunn, the bass player also provides some funny and bizzare lines such as "We had band that could turn goat piss into gasoline!" and later "If the shit fits wear it!".

Moving onto the direction John Landis does a fine job with the film, although it was a rather turbulent production due to the problems with John Belushi's drug abuse and heavy partying, which partly conrtibuted toward the film going way overbudget from $17.5 million up to £30 million, as the production schedule suffered as a result.  But Landis nonetheless handles the film's comedy and musical sequences very well.  The film's soundtrack is also terrific as you would expect for a blues musical, and there many tracks from different artists such as Aretha Franklin's "Think", Sam and Dave's "Hold on, I'm coming", "Shake a tailfather" featuring Ray Charles, "Peter Gunn Theme" performed by the Blues Brother's band.  As well as tracks performed by the band and sung by the brothers themselves such as "Everbody needs somebody to love", "Jailhouse rock" and "Sweet home Chicago".

As for The Blues Brother's flaws does it have any at all???? Yep it does, although because the film is such a fantasy based musical comedy you can almost forgive them.  But yes it has to be said the film is ridiculously preposterous and one thing that struck me right away is how the police never pulled up Elwood for driving a police car in the first place!  Surely the authorities would have spotted that before he even did any speeding!  Or perhaps people can just drive police cars for their own personal use in the US (well wouldn't surprise me!).  The car chases themselves while they are skillfully shot they also last a bit too long and feel a bit drawn out and its only really where the Blues Brothers trash the shopping mall that adds any new dimension to something that is mundane as can be in a film anyway, as car chase scenes tend to be pretty boring.  And let's not forget about how daft and how much Elwood's driving skills are as he can defy the laws of gravity by making his car do a backflip and fly over a bridge as well as jump a big gap in a drawbridge.  Its fun but it really is pretty daft.  I also wondered what happened with the band at the end of the film as they perform the "Jailhouse rock" number, are they prisoners aswell?  Or did they just dress up in prison clothes for the number???  Perhaps the band are held as accomplices to what the brothers are doing, but that's hardly right as they were kept largely in the dark about what they were brought back together for in the first place.  But again it is a comedy so logic and common sense go out the window I guess.

Right so that's it for my look at The Blues Brothers, which is still a very entertaining comedy with a great soundtrack.

And with that I shall leave you there.