Wesley Snipes. The name is synonymous with action, charisma and a kind of winning smile we don’t see much anymore. His issues on and off the set have led to a career outside of the spotlight but he will always be remembered for classic roles in such movies as White Men Can’t Jump, Demolition Man and of course Blade.
His turn as Blade, a half-human/half-vampire anti-hero, became the stuff of legend. I can still recall waiting in a massive line during the first weekend of Blade 2. It was an event. And this was all before the superhero wave of the early 2000s.
After the disappointing third film and the forgotten television series the character disappeared into the shadows from whence he came. Rumors persisted though. The new Marvel Cinematic Universe was rife with bigger stars and more impacting story lines. And the call for the return of Blade began quietly but grew throughout each phase. Wesley Snipes creating waves of excitement with hints of meetings at Marvel.
From there the demand only grew, reaching critical mass at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con when Mahershala Ali was announced as the new Blade. The two-time Oscar winner had pursued the role himself and the reaction was uproariously positive. Even Wesley Snipes gave his endorsement of the move.
How will Ali rank against Snipes? We’ll have to wait for that answer but we can all certainly agree that Ali has some big vampire hunting shoes to fill. Prior to BladeSnipes was coming off films like Murder at 1600 and Money Train. He was a star and after a failed attempt to get a Black Panther movie made he turned his sights towards Blade. A minor character from the comic book Tomb of Dracula, a discontinued horror book that was, at the time, a leftover for niche collectors.
It didn’t matter though. The hunt was on, so to speak, for Snipes and in 1998 Blade, a modern, slick, take no prisoners, one-liner spewing vampire killer was born. Snipes took the name from the comic but almost everything else was born out of the movie.
Snipes didn’t just make Blade a character, he made Blade an icon.
He brought charisma to a character that had no right to have any. An anti-social hermit whose only interest in life is killing vampires could have easily been a dull, empty hero but Snipes gave him a wry, dark sense of humor and an impressive physicality that included sword work, martial arts and a wide array of wrestling moves. Something I can only imagine came from Snipes.
The third film ended up being remembered more for Snipes’ bad attitude and behavior than for its merits (of which there aren’t many). And with that the franchise died but like any good vampire it wasn’t completely dead as the announcement at Comic-Con proved.
Without Snipes, without his talent and charm we would never have known about the potential of Blade nor demanded to see the character again. Will he always remain the best version of the character? Will he be the Christopher Reeves of vampire hunters? Will there be a countless string of actors attempting to top his performance or will Ali quickly overtake him? I’ll certainly be rooting for Mahershala but I’ll never forget the glory of Snipes, the way he caught a pair of sunglasses in the air or his infamous line because no matter what “some motherf**ckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill.”
The Austrian Oak, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is one the biggest action stars in the history of cinema. Since his humble beginnings in Hercules in New York he’s always been a part of the public consciousness.
He isn’t just a Hollywood cash cow; he’s also a father. Despite their divorce, he has four children with Maria Shriver: Katherine, Christina, Patrick and Christopher. Another child, Joseph, came from his affair with his then housekeeper.
Katherine (born 1989) is an author with a bibliography that includes books about positive self-image, forgiveness and a survival guide for recent college grads. She is also an animal lover. She is an Ambassador for the American Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals. In 2019 she married actor Chris Pratt. They are expecting their first child this year.
Schwarzenegger’s son, Patrick (born 1993), has followed his father’s footsteps more closely than his sister.Patrick has been acting since 2006 when he appeared in “Benchwarmers.” He’s gone to feature in films like “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” and “Daniel Isn’t Real.” He’s also a business mogul opening multiple Blaze Pizza locations and starting a clothing line.
These aren’t his only children though. Throughout the years, Schwarzenegger has been a surrogate father to many of his cinematic children. One of his earliest children was Jenny Matrix (Alyssa Milano) from the film Commando. As John Matrix, Schwarzenegger was wonderful father. He helped Jenny commune with nature by feeding deer and risked an international incident to save her from kidnappers. He even killed his one-time friend in order to ensure her survival.
He was surrogate father to John Conner during their time together in Terminator 2. He was more of a father to John than anyone else had ever been. He bonded with him over catch phrases like “Hasta la vista baby,” and their affinity for heavy weaponry. He was also willing to learn from his pseudo-son, a sign that the Terminator respected John enough to listen. That is a rare trait in a father.
Last Action Hero is another example of Arnold’s terrific sense of fatherhood. As Jack Slater, Schwarzenegger protects Danny Madigan from every kind of threat and even introduces him to all his friends and co-workers. Slater isn’t perfect though. He brings Madigan to Benedict’s (Charles Dance) doorstep. Slater has some learning to do in the father department.
Kindergarten Cop sees Schwarzenegger as Detective John Kimble. He goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to track down a dangerous criminal. He grows to love his class and especially, Dominic, the son of the criminal he’s hunting. Kimble is able to equally share his love, wisdom and disciplinary skills with his entire class. He may not be their dad but he’s pretty damn close.
He also works closely with young people through his charity work. In 1995, he created the Inner City Games Foundation, which offers cultural, educational, and community programs for local youth. He is also very involved with After-School All-Stars and founded the Los Angeles branch in 2002. The organization serves as an after-school program aimed to educate youth about health and fitness.
Throughout the years, Schwarzenegger has been father to many children both on screen and off.
A LOOK BACK AT THE ULTIMATE ACTION CAREER AND LEGACY OF JEFF SPEAKMAN IN ‘STREET KNIGHT‘ (1991).
Jake Barrett (Jeff Speakman) is a former cop who blames himself for a child’s death resulting from a tense hostage situation some time ago. Now he lives and works in the mechanic garage owned by his late father.
But Jake is connected to the social currents of his environment. The street reaches out to him from time to time, and on this occasion Jake turns down the request to help Rebecca Sanchez (Jeniffer Gati) to help her find her little brother Carlos (Richard Coca.)
But the street sends waves of hostility back to Jake. A gang war is brewing between the Latin Lords and the Blades. A third player, at the moment unknown, is making moves in the shadows. Skillfully playing both sides against each other with bloody precision for a purpose that will be revealed in the third act. Carlos’ disappearance, coinciding with the murder of fellow gang members, communicate to Jake a greater mystery brewing behind the apparently racially motivated gangland killings. He approaches Rebecca to ask some questions, and starts walking a line of clues the police cannot see. The knight in tarnished armor goes down those mean streets.
And that’s what happens in Street Knight, though I’ve considerably embellished the synopsis of this film, gave it a verbal punch the story is missing in its present cinematic form. Which doesn’t mean we couldn’t have had something that felt epic and awesome, but we might have been dealing with production ineptitude that started at the writing stage and continued through shooting and post. In addition, Speakman may have been going through an identity crisis on how to best present himself to the public. Around the first 15 minutes we are treated to a shot of Speakman’s ass that made me wonder if there was a perceived growing female demographic that wanted this. Whether this is true or not, Speakman’s screen presence was not used well, but at least he was willing to step out of his comfort zone to give the fans something extra.
Everyone else (producer, writer, director) barely tried to make something memorable out of their premise, and this leads us to the establishing of a new criteria that defines why Street Knight fails as an action film. In The Perfect Weapon we defined the Primary Criteria of effective action films.
Does the story’s structure and pacing place increasing demands on the protagonist’s abilities, forcing him to expand his skillset by engaging both his mind and body in the process?
Starting from this definition we can build the Secondary Criteria by applying the Primary to the protagonist’s polar opposite:
Is the villain/nemesis/antagonist a worthy adversary?
Like we did with the Primary Criteria, let’s develop this Secondary one on broader terms that can be applied to a story regardless of the medium or the cost.
Does the antagonist succeed in placing increasing demands on the protagonist, forcing him to increase his skill set and resourcefulness?
And though we’re discussing action films, a villain may not necessarily need to have hand to hand combat skills to be a challenge to the hero. Some good examples of physical challenges that fit the more commonly defined protagonist versus antagonist conflict:
Arnold versus The Predator
Chong Li versus Frank Dux (Bloodsport)
Bone versus James (Blood and Bone)
And now a couple of examples of conflict without (overt) physical combat:
McClane versus Hans Gruber (do I really have to say what movie?)
Batman versus Joker (Heath Ledger’s Joker, a character who is no physical match for Batman, but who throughout the film continually places increasing demands on Batman’s rigid moral code.)
Does Street Knight meet either Primary or Secondary Criteria? Unfortunately no. It overdoes the Secondary Criteria, and underused all the story elements available to make what could have been a very satisfying Primary Criteria.
You have a shadowy group of highly trained operatives led by former LA cop James Franklin (Christopher Neame), holding a grudge against the city that employed him, engineering a gang war to cover up a huge jewel robbery. The operatives are so organized that in a very short time one of them murders a gang member in front of many witnesses while dressed as Barrett, effectively framing Barrett for the killing. Another one kidnaps Rebecca while wearing a police officer’s uniform, and yet another team kills forensic expert Raymond (Bernie Casey), while Barrett reacts.
Just reacts to events without a coherent response that leads to a revelation, and to the next scene. These magnificent story elements are clumsily staged to keep Barrett in reactive mode, except for the information Raymond delivers to Barrett just before being gunned down, when he learns of Carlos’ whereabouts, and for the final showdown with Franklin. No effort is made to expand Barrett’s resources; from using Rebecca as an ally, to engaging Raymond as a partner in the hunt that develops once Barrett knows what’s happening. (Another point against the movie. A colossal waste of Bernie Casey.)
The result of keeping Barrett in reactive mode till the third act for a rushed resolution is a flatline second act with impressive fight scenes, decent action scenes, and Barrett kept in perpetual disadvantage mode till the writer and director decide that Street Knight has made feature length so let’s wrap this up. All these story elements that could have been better structured to give all characters an arc and a progressive, push-pull motivated logic between protagonist and antagonist, were wasted.
At a superficial level, Street Knight is an entertaining film, but it’s missing the careful application of the Primary and Secondary Criterias that turn an OK action film into an adrenaline thrill ride!
The Action Duo that no one asked for, but we all ultimately deserved.
Very few films in the history of cinema have truly lived up to their titles quite like Collision Course. From its humble beginnings to it catastrophic release and finally, to its vanishing legacy, the Jay Leno and Pat Morita vehicle never stood a chance. It was leased on bad credit, puttered around on its bald tires for a little while, hit a few speed bumps, and then simply ran out of gas. Instead of calling for a tow, Leno and his fellow travelers left it on the side of the road where it sits today, rusting and rotting away in a dirty forgotten alley. The sad story of the buddy-cop comedy that couldn’t reflects the decay of the powerful independent studios that brought us some of the best action movies that we cherish today.
Before the memorial service begins, let’s have a wake and remember the good times. Reminisce about that crazy ride when the former Tonight Show Host and Karate Kid’s Mr. Miyagi teamed up to fight international industrial espionage, corporate corruption, and violent gangsters.
Collision Course borrowed and stole from every action-comedy movie of the time. You could make a bingo game out of it. Each square represents your favorite trope from the genre, like this one here.
There are so many more but it’s fun coming up with your own. This recipe for crowd-pleasing entertainment was tried and true when the production wrapped in 1987 but the ingredients were well past their expiration date in 1992 when Collision Course was unceremoniously dumped on VHS. That’s right, a five-year gap, making it the last 80s action comedy ever released. More on that to come.
It may not bring anything new to the table but Collision Course delivers a heaping helping of cinematic comfort food. It has the story dynamic of Red Heat, Lethal Weapon’s character chemistry, a Police Academy sequel’s zany hijinks, Beverly Hills Cop’s Detroit, and a slice of the social commentary in Ron Howard’s Gung Ho. If you’re an action-comedy fan and grew up with these types of movies, you’ll reflexively love Collision Course.
One of the most important factors in giving movies like these the time of day is the quality of its action scenes. Again, like the rest of the film, they are slightly above adequate but highly entertaining. The underutilized rocket gun plays a critical role in jumpstarting the action and plays a significant part in the plot. The rocket gun really deserves its own standalone film. From there, mild chase scenes ensue, feeble strong-arming sorta’ intimidates, and the occasional bowl-a-rama brawl breaks out. These scenes are sprinkled throughout the movie to hold the viewer’s interest.
The emphasis is more on comedy, which plays to Leno’s and Morita’s strengths. In one scene, Morita’s character even admits that he doesn’t know how to fight or shoot despite being a seasoned police officer. The real action is saved for the third act with some motor city mayhem, a competently executed chase sequence, and one of the best games of on-screen chicken ever conceived.
This scene deserves special recognition. I suppose this is the character’s redemption after “chickening out” at the bowling alley. The ill-prepared and undertrained middle-aged man squares off against the mob boss and his speeding Buick. Man vs. machine like you’ve never seen. With a samurai scream, Morita charges at the oncoming vehicle and neutralizes his enemy with a flying double kick through the windshield. Pat really sticks the landing even if the visual effects are a bit clunky.
Aside from these highlights, the action is treated almost like an afterthought. On a technical level, the chase scenes and standoffs are fine but they lack energy and fizzle out at the end. You’re left thinking, “Ok that was fun, what’s next?” Uh oh, there goes Mr. Miyagi running around with a bag on his head, watch out!
The action adequately drives the characters from one location to the next. It’s a basic McGuffin plot. A secret prototype for a new-fangled turbo charger is stolen from a car company in Japan and the authorities believe it was smuggled into the US. Sure enough, Mr. Oshima, played by another Karate Kid veteran Danny Kamekona, plans to sell it to a crooked CEO of a US auto company. The unscrupulous businessman’s hired goons go a little too far in the negotiation process transfer the ill-gotten car part and they create an international incident: a double homicide, and with no turbo charger to show for it.
The Japanese police send a lone and defenseless Investigator Fujitsuka Natsuo, Pat Morita, to covertly recover the turbo charger. Jay Leno’s cartoonish Tony Costas quickly foils Natsuo’s efforts but the two predictability team up to uncover the scheme and solve the case.
It’s the kind of outlandish narrative you’d expect from this caliber of movie but it works to tie the characters and motivations together. The audience can easily figure out what’s going on and, generally, why the characters are reacting the way they are, albeit in ridiculous ways. The story beats are precisely timed to hold the popcorn munchers’ attention until the inevitable conclusion. The movie fittingly ends with a rare split-screen/freeze frame of our two heroes as saxophones blare through the credits.
The tight script allows moments for Leno and Morita to awkwardly bond over one glass of whiskey and driving to the next lead. Although Leno has absolutely no range, his chemistry with Morita and their riffing off each other actually work surprisingly well. To be fair, Leno has a cheesy likeable quality anyway, so you can forgive this one-note performance.
The rest of the cast is a who’s who of 80s supporting players. Ernie Hudson is Tony Costas’ third-wheel of a partner, Chris “Prince Humperdinck” Sarandon is the mob boss, Tom Noonan who we all know and love from Robocop 2 is goon #1, and goon #2 is the big loveable oaf, Randall “Tex” Cobb. All these guys deliver fine performances despite their simplistic characters. They couldn’t have found a better or more appropriate cast for the quintessential buddy-cop flick.
The one bingo square that’s missing is the disposable love interest. “Disposable love interest” is supposed to keep the lead grounded and open him up to his expository back story, adding much needed depth and insight into his character. Jay Leno harasses several women, “looking for some action” as the title song suggests, but they rightly put him off at every turn. It’s kind of refreshing actually but we never get to know the “real” Tony.
Without the lady friend/hook-up element, most writers can’t figure out how to develop characters in action movies. They don’t even bother with Leno, Morita, or anyone else for that matter. What you see is what you get.
Collision Course touches on a hot topic for 1987: the rise of Japanese and the fall of American auto manufacturing in the mid- to late 80s. The dynamic sped up Detroit’s dramatic economic decline and the rust belt’s working-class openly resented their overseas competitors.
The subject was explored more thoroughly in Gung Ho, starring Michael Keaton and Norm from Cheers. Collision Course provides a less nuanced commentary and explores the sensitive topic through a steady stream of derogatory remarks directed at Morita’s nationality and race. The bigotry is played for laughs. This was probably a big turn-off for audiences by ‘92 and much of the dialogue would be viewed as downright toxic today.
Despite the crass attitudes that make the audience wonder if any of these characters have ever seen an Asian person before, Collision Course clumsily tries its best to make a point. While featuring several shots of urban decay, Leno admits that perhaps the American worker had lost his mojo. Social messages in films like these often come across as ham-fisted but can sometimes elevate the work. Swing and a miss for this novice writing staff.
Overall, Collision Course is very watchable and holds up after a repeat viewing, especially if you’re into best-of-the-worst entertainment. The cheesy characters and dialogue coupled with modest action and decent chase scenes are as endearing as any Chuck Norris schlock or Robert Z’dar tax write-off. It’s a movie you can both laugh at and with while groaning at the cornball antics. Although it may not be the sum, it’s at least the median of all its action-comedy predecessors’ parts.
Critics weren’t as forgiving, and combined with the bungled release, Collision Course ran right into a brick wall. It was largely viewed as a tired, cash-grab aping off of far better movies in the genre. The VHS distributor even offered to give video rental customers’ money back if “you were not completely entertained by Collision Course” for one year after its release.
It effectively ended Leno’s acting career but he wasn’t complaining. He landed the Tonight Show gig in 1992 when Collision Course coincidentally went straight-to-video. He later disavowed the film and let his guests rip on him for making it. His performance and the movie itself are not exceptionally terrible, so completely trashing the production is a tad unfair. Far worse have been elevated to cult status. Ultimately, Collision Course’s failure is a result of something bigger; a showbiz calamity of which we still feel the repercussions to this day. Read part two to find out how Collision Course became intertwined with the fate of semi-independent film production in the 80s and 90s.
A look back at the unrealized vision which could have been the ultimate action franchise.
Double Dragon was a side scrolling fighting game that reveled in button mashing and muscle-bound sprites. The 1994 film it inspired could have used some of that 8-bit magic.
Billy and Jimmy Lee (Scott Wolf and Mark Dacascos) are a couple of fun-loving brothers who dabble in kung-fu and getting on each other’s nerves. It’s more likely though that they’ll get on your nerves first. Victor Guisman aka Kogu Shoku (Robert Patrick) is an incredibly cartoony villain whose only goal is combine two halves of a dragon medallion and obtain ultimate power. Marian (Alyssa Milano) features as a chipper sidekick with short bleach blonde hair. Milano’s hair and dress style reminded me a lot of Angelina Jolie in Hackers but that movie wouldn’t come out until 1995.
The Lee’s surrogate mother (Julia Nickson) is the only actor who escapes this movie unscathed. Her small role in Rambo: First Blood Part II gave Rambo some genuine humanity and this performance is no different. She sells the audience on the value of the medallion and gives some real gravitas to otherwise campy film.
Wolf, on the other hand, has to suffer struggling to sell some terrible one-liners but one of the worst comes from a henchwoman (Kristina Wagner). She snarls at Milano “Who’s the boss now,” a direct reference to Milano’s starring role on the show “Who’s the Boss?”
The casting in this movie feels very much of its time. People like Scott Wolf and Alyssa Milano seem inserted just to secure financing for the film. Wolf and Milano are given most of the one-liners. Their action is also limited to Home Alone style shenanigans. Dacascos tends to feel sidelined throughout the action. He’s clearly more adept at stunt work and has the fighting talent to carry this movie but he just wasn’t the star the studio could trust. It’s unfortunate. Dascacos’ acting ability was still green but his martial art skills are second to none in this movie and he was terribly underutilized.
This leads to some fantastically bad pacing. Fights happen with massive irregularity and end abruptly. A boat chase midway through the picture wasn’t exciting it was merely slow. The movie’s action is tepid at best. The filmmakers thought that since the video game was made for kids the movie should reflect that. The action recalled the first two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle films. The first leaned heavily into the turtles use of their preferred weapons such as katanas and staffs whereas the second film relied more on silly found objects like sporting goods to ensure a softer approach to the menace of combat.
The film’s tone suggests that the filmmakers were aliens who observed children from their spacecraft high above the earth. Jokes are mostly one-liners that lack context and the costumes are all over the place implementing colors, palettes, haircuts, and styles that would put the Village People to shame. The movie also forces in some very strange ideas that never service our heroes or the plot. There are strange futuristic cars, acid rain and digital network the gangs use to regulate finances. None of it makes sense and only gets in the way of watching Billy and Jimmy fight.
It’s worth noting how the medallion works. So each half represents either the mind or the body. The mind half (which is handled by Shuko for most of the film) allows its user to inhabit other bodies. This leads to some horrifically bad jokes among other things. The body portion allows for strength and durability. Scott Wolf uses it sparingly and never in any particularly interesting ways.
Robert Patrick’s Shoku is, at the very least, a villain with deeper subtext that isn’t explored enough. He changes his name and dresses in a way that magnifies his desire to appropriate Asian culture. This desire is exemplified by his need to control the medallion, a true Asian artifact. At point one he even tempts Julia Nickson to join him. He already has a few Asian henchmen in his service including 80s icon Al Leong (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and Rapid Fire). This cultural appropriation is fascinating but never scrutinized to its full potential. The brothers want the medallion because their good and Shoku is bad but such surface level motives don’t allow for any real character discovery.
The film’s climax is distressingly bad. Billy and Jimmy fight two demons who are conjured once Shoku combines the two halves of the medallion. The prosthetic makeup and suits stifle any potential for an interesting fight. The combatants bounce around like headless chickens until things mercifully come to an end.
Double Dragon has no teeth and burns all of its goodwill before the end of the first reel. It’s real crime is wasting Dacascos’ talent and the ripe energy found within its video game origins. It only took one movie for this franchise to be “game over.”
The Long and Winding Road: Chapter 8 – Rockstar Attitude
All was right with the world. Universal had cashed in on the Fast Franchise. Vin Diesel confirmed the eighth installment of the movies in a Jimmy Kimmel interview labeling it “Fast Eight.” Producer Neal H. Moritz added in later communications the franchise would pivot from heist films (like Fast Five through Furious 7 – sort of) to Spy Thrillers.
The Fate of the Furious would add new characters and bring back old friends. It also created an interesting pivot point for fans of the series by bringing back Jason Statham as a good guy. Chris Morgan wrote (with Vin Diesel producing) and this time F. Gary Gray (of Straight Outta Compton fame) would direct. Gray’s hand would provide a more even-keel edit that leans into its characters for emotion and deep dives into some fantastic stunts that combine practical effects and CG in more seamless manner. Without having to shoulder the emotions of losing a cast member Fate soars as a new pivot point for the franchise to be about even more action-intense genre fare (bordering on sci-fi at times) while still white-knuckle grasping at the “Family” aspect at the heart of this franchise.
While on their honeymoon Dom encounters Cipher (Charlize Theron), a hacker capable of destroying governments, with malevolent intentions. She’s holding Elena hostage and Dom must do her bidding or risk losing not only his ex-lover but also his son (whom Elena was going to wait to tell him about until after his honeymoon.) When Dom goes rogue Mr. Nobody gathers the team (sans Brian and Mia) to take on Dom and Cipher.
If they’re going to beat her, he says, they’re going to need the only two people capable of tracking Dom down: Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. Thus it is that the last movie’s Baddie joins the Family in a tentative manner. They sort of gloss over his murder of Han and keep Shaw away from really joining the team so I guess that works out. Cipher and her number two Rhodes (played by Kristofer Hivju) steal an EMP and use it to gain control of a nuclear submarine in order to… do something evil. It’s very unclear. The team will go from Cuba to New York City to Iceland to stop Dom and save the world, even if it means putting Dom down for good.
This movie steers away from overly complicated setup, instead basking in that sweet spot of raw action and impractical plans we’re so used to in action movies. Contrived or not the drama functions well in part because of it’s willingness to go along with it. Nuclear submarines? Sure! A horde of zombie cars? Why Not! Dom going rogue? Yes please. Instead of seven locations there’s three major ones. Instead of several mini-fights all the attention goes to four or five major set pieces. That concentrated attention really pays off.
Obviously the franchise’s ability to one-up itself with each successive outing makes it a huge factor in watching. This movie leans into it’s action-comedy balanced well by director F. Gary Gray. His ratio of one-liners to explosions feels way more balanced than Wan’s. Where as Wan stretched the tone into borderline hokey, Gray makes it fun. He knows the explosions are part of the deal and he takes them just as seriously as the one-liners.
Read along on the rest of our Fast Saga coverage with these articles on the other Fast & Furious installments:
The action in this movie truly rules. Even the very first street race (shot in Cuba) has Dom driving backwards with a flaming engine. In a minuscule car chase Ludacris drops a literal wrecking ball that not only swings backward but then forward to smash a large group of cars. The most noteworthy set piece belongs to the Zombie car scene. Cipher hijacks hundreds of cars in New York and sends the horde to bash the armored limousine of a Russian diplomat. Only the final chase could top such theatrics. Cipher, ghost-piloting a submarine, launches missiles at the crew while they’re being hunted by Russian separatists on ice. Every bit plays like gangbusters and it utilizes that guiltless joy you feel for watching something cool on screen
Of course all the series regulars return. Diesel takes top billing with yet another moody and gravelly performance. Tyrese and Ludacris each get their moments in the spotlight. Dwayne Johnson adds his brand of comedy to the film.
The only main part of the crew missing is Jordana Brewster and that’s largely due to her association with Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner. Brian, firmly written out in the last movie, is confirmed out of the franchise this time. At one point in the movie the gang debates what to do about Dom. Roman suggests “Brian would know what to do” to which Letty fires back “we agreed to leave him out of it.” It seems not even Dom going rogue could convince the studio to somehow sneak in a performance from Paul Walker’s hologram (thank god).
Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell, and Jason Statham all get second chances in this film. Emmanuel, the only character not qualified in racing cars, holds her own as tech savvy and new to the group. She’s much less of a sex symbol and much more practical in character. She plies her newfound status in the Family to criticize their blind loyalty to Dom. Russell and Statham both get to laugh more as they send punchline after punch line.
Deckard Shaw, finally, gets the in-depth treatment he sorely lacked in the previous installment. He goes from noiseless assassin to grumpy tracker and even gets a backstory. Turns out he’s a much more complicated guy than originally let on. While the Family still shuns him for his role in Han’s murder the true chemistry lies between Deckard Shaw and Luke Hobbs. That chemistry worked so well, in fact, that it propelled a spin-off featuring just the two men digging deeper into the lore of the Fast universe. While Deckard Shaw was wasted in Furious 7 he’s given more nuance in Fate, which really pissed fans off.
For those tracking the emotional logic of this movie it’s okay to be confused. Deckard Shaw killed Han, a member of Toretto’s family, for crippling his brother (Owen Shaw survived the plane incident.) He’s Toretto’s enemy number one. After succumbing to the rubble of Furious 7 Hobbs buries him in a supermax prison.
In Fate we learn that Cipher is the one who convinced Baby Brother Shaw to obtain the Nightshade device (thus sending the Shaw Brothers on a collision course with Toretto et al.) Naturally Deckard wants a shot at Cipher. The team still distrusts him cause he, ya know, KILLED HAN. Mr. Nobody says they need him to stop Cipher. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. In this case it’s not really true and the glossing over of this point enraged fans enough to create a hashtag: #JusticeForHan. Deckard Shaw may not be a villain anymore but he still has a lot more to answer for a theme to be addressed in later movies.
The series newcomers get an equal amount of footing to shine. Charlize Theron absolutely chews through scenes with deft cunning as the new series baddie Cipher. Her emotional distance glimmers when she’s breaking down Toretto. Kristofer Hivju menaces without saying much (something he does quite well with that bushy orange beard.)
Scott Eastwood fills in a little of the void left behind by his best friend Paul Walker, the understudy to Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody. The crew give him the moniker Little Nobody and he gets to beef with Roman much the same way that O’Conner did before. Eastwood’s straight-laced performance mirrors the audience’s questioning why everything has to be so explosive, so big, so convoluted. Over the course of the movie he learns, through many failures, that the best way to win is to simply let chaos reign.
Lastly there’s Dame Helen Mirren, who pretty much wrote herself a spot into the Fast Saga when she said she loved the movies and would enjoy playing a character in them. She plays the mother of both Shaw brothers and clearly enjoys her role. Whether she’s chastising Vin Diesel or tricking Jason Statham she’s having the time of her life and watching her enjoy herself brings me joy.
This is the first movie after the major continuity corner of Han’s death. Finally we’re in uncharted territory. This gives them leeway to come up with a series villain that will continue to engage Toretto over multiple installments. The finalization of structured continuity helps solidify what shaky bits there were before. The Shaw brothers helped tie the films storylines down but now that they surpassed the inevitable Death of Han it freed the franchise up to develop a recurring villain. Too many curtain pulls weakened the dramatic entrance of Cipher but her bone fides are restored as we watch her do some serious damage in New York.
At this point in the Fast Saga Vin Diesel rakes in millions of dollars regardless of if the movie succeeds or not. He takes strong creative control in the franchise in a way that’s difficult to spot. What can be inferred is that the level of control he has supersedes both the writer and director of the movies. This kind of power, it can also be inferred, spurred Diesel’s work method to be less work-oriented and more on-his-own schedule. That methodology of working would grate significantly against Dwayne Johnson and ignite the very ignominious “Candy-Ass Feud.”
It doesn’t directly impact the making of Fate of the Furious but it is worth noting the short feud. On the last week of filming Dwayne Johnson took to Instagram to complain about an anonymous co-star of his in which he described his on-screen rage being real rage. Tyrese Gibson responded online excusing himself from The Rock’s judgement leaving the public to imagine Diesel as the source of frustration. TMZ wrote about the two sitting down for peace talks a week or so later in which both walked away assured, if not happy.
While an article in Vanity Fair would later put the difference in work philosophies as much of the annoyance initially felt, ultimately they’d ended their feud by agreeing to disagree. Both parties have vocally supported each other later and explained that they care for each other like family. When spelled out like that it’s easy to interpret the simple argument as a franchise-altering event but it’s not.
Johnson and Diesel work together on these films often putting in grueling days. The close relationship they bear is not some special co-star capacity but rather as friends. Diesel even calls The Rock “Uncle Dwayne” in the Fast Family. Families fight. They even break up and reunite years later. It’s no different when Johnson and Diesel obliquely describe each other as “candy asses.”
The Fast Saga was one of the highest grossing franchises for Universal. Of course they’d want to milk this for a much as it’s worth. After Fate’s successful run plans for two final entries into the Fast Saga were announced as well as the spinoff Hobbs & Shaw plus an oft-forgotten female-led spinoff as well (which I have my own theories regarding.) In no way did this little beef spark the idea that The Rock should have his own Fast movie. Sure, both men had to film their scenes separate from each other but this is movies! That happens all the time regardless of melodrama.
Fate of the Furious employs electronic music to underscore its action beats while mixing in Brian Tyler’s score to finish the emotional plots. Unlike Furious 7 there was no “See You Again” to latch on to. The trailer’s usage of Bassnectar’s “Speakerbox” proved to be the biggest musical number of the franchise. Reggaeton underscores the Cuba scenes adding even more authenticity to one of the first films to ever shoot in the country. It actually eschews “Bandoleros” providing a musical transition away from past entries. No one song stands above the rest but all music services the great engine of this franchise, signaling departures from old markers.
This movie backs away from the awfully sordid eye-gazing of Furious 7 and relegates the sexy scenes to the opening street race. Following that, women are nothing but badasses. Charlize Theron embodies a new turn in female empowerment by menacing the entire crew. She’s the only one to bring Dom to heel, even briefly. Michelle Rodriguez doesn’t fight an MMA fighter in this one but instead beats down several guards at the Russian naval base while Nathalie Emmanuel counterhacks Cipher. Every woman holds her own, even Dame Helen Mirren!
This turn of agency finally gears the franchise towards rewarding its female players with just as much fighting as the boys, and by not holding them up as trophies. It’s not perfect since Roman Pearce and Tej Parker argue over who Ramsey (Emmanuel) should be with, but it demonstrates their power when she turns the tables on them by pointing out they know nothing about her. That scene typifies the major gripes of women in the Fast universe and demonstrates a new role women will play in the future of the franchise. Something Gal Gadot never got to enjoy, but very well may in a later edition (again, my own theories.)
We’re way past the days of street racing, even past the days of bank heists. This new iteration of the Fast Saga looks much more like James Bond films. It bears all the trappings of a James Bond film. The secret shadow war between Mr. Nobody and Cipher plays like a classic M versus Spectre move. The advanced technology (grappling hooks attached to cars, jetpacks that fly up to airplanes, and tracking devices embedded in necklaces.) Dom’s double cross easily fits in as a false flag operation. Arguably the inventive hacking scenes resemble modern day science fiction.
Fate of the Furious finds that blissful sweet spot where audiences suspend their disbelief without stretching it too thin. Dominic Toretto and crew provide another fun adventure in the franchise. It glosses over one or two key points (something we’re guaranteed to address later) but still delivers on key emotionality with some beautifully choreographed action scenes. This movie follows in the path of it’s greater cousin Fast Five than the movie directly before it. It never takes itself too seriously, and always delivers on a good time.
George Washing-who? America was really founded by a German action-disaster director and a mad Australian ex-pat.
Sure, you could go to school and listen in history class. Or you could spend all of thirty minutes reading through the wiki page on the American Revolution. But the most ultimate version of how these United States of America were founded are best captured in the two and half hour runtime of the Mel Gibson period action drama The Patriot. Which stars two Australian-Americans, is directed by a German action-disaster maestro, and confirms that all the bad characters from every movie from Star Wars to Harry Potter deserve to be English because they suck. USA all the way baby!
In all seriousness, The Patriot might not be anything more than a white-washed, revisionist melodramedy of what can loosely be defined as a Shakespearean mashup of characters and icons from the American Revolution, but I’d be damned if it doesn’t still stand up as a just a solid action movie. It has some great performances by its leads Gibson, Heath Ledger, Joely Richardson and Jason Isaacs. It has a solid enough script that does indeed raise the stakes as much as humanly possible (which is key for any action-drama), and under the watchful eye of Roland Emmerich’s(Universal Soldier, Independence Day, White House Down) big budget blockbuster sensibilities it fires on all cylinders.
It also just has great action. It has intense fight sequences. It has very impressive large scale battles. It has blood and explosions and cannon balls blowing people’s heads off. And it culminates in a good guy vs. bad guy showdown with the stakes of a nation resting the edge of Gibson’s tomahawk.
I find it funny reading about The Patriot today that there has been so much criticism written about it as a film overall, rather than focusing on it as just a badass summer blockbuster movie. There’s a great deal to say about the many historical decisions that went into the movie that I can guarantee were all thought about, quandaried over, and ultimately decided on in regards to accuracies, atrocities and portrayals of fact vs. fiction. And in every case, the winning side was always going to be the ones based on what hot summer theater goers were going to prefer.
While Mel Gibson’s Benjamin Martin can be seen as a composite of American Revolutionaries like Thomas Sumter, Daniel Morgan, Nathanael Greene, Andrew Pickens, and Francis Marion, he’s actually a composite of historical action heroes like Kirk Douglas, Steve McQueen and Peter O’Toole. The movie is an almost by-the-numbers action narrative where every scene serves the purpose of making Mel Gibson more of a hero, Jason Isaacs more of a villain, and the stakes for their eventual showdown as high as possible.
Anything else about the movie, by the filmmakers at least, is seen as ancillary and thrown in simply to give the rest of the world of film critics and historians enough fodder to discuss as they will. The biggest indicators of how well the film did comes directly from the box office, which could be considered a moderate success bringing back $215 million against a $100 million budget, and the fact that Mel Gibson’s continued star ascension.
As Harrison Ford surmised as why he apparently turned down the role of Benjamin Martin, it’s very much a “violent” film that “boils the American Revolution down to one guy wanting revenge.” And it most definitely is a revenge movie! You don’t want Charles Bronson on your case? Don’t murder his wife! You don’t want Liam Neeson hunting you down? Don’t kidnap his daughter! Don’t want Mel Gibson hacking your troops apart one by one? Don’t mess with his family! When will bad guys/aristocracies learn?
At a 160+ minute runtime, we get pleeeeeenty of opportunities to see Mel Gibson’s Martin turn from a peaceful retiree back into a seasoned wartime marauder. He loses not one, but two sons, one of whom has received almost as much screentime as he has up to that point, as well as having his homes burned down more often than I can even remember. We also get some of the most heartless portrayals of war crimes this side of Johnny Mad Dog, as Isaac’s Colonel Tavington plays one of the most punchable-faced bad guys of all time.
Mad Max Mel easily becomes the Mad Swamp Fox Benjamin Martin and showcases some creative brutality in some great sequences where he and his barely old enough to hold a gun kids take down an entire British company. Conveniently though in The Patriot, he’s also able to flip as needed back into the midl-manner diplomat when needed as he also is needed to represent the ideal American statesman preaching democracy and equality for all. Because if you’re a summer blockbuster you have to give your audience all of the cake and ask them to eat it too.
In some ways The Patriot is both very lucky and very unlucky to have come out when it did. With a Summer 2000 release it was able to be one of the last true action blockbusters to enjoy a full box office cycle before 9/11. It also would be one of the first mega action blockbusters to quickly have its memorability so drastically changed post-9/11 as its uber-patriotic message would undoubtedly take on, at least slightly, different meanings to audiences in these next few decades.
Now, it doesn’t feel much different than any other big summer blockbuster from its time like Independence Day or the film it obviously takes a lot of characterization and sequencing from with Gibson’s Braveheart which had come out five years prior. It’s also noteworthy to many for its breakout performance by Heath Ledger who was finally able to push past his teeny bopper roles and graduated into serious action and drama sensibilities.
Overall while The Patriot might not find its way into the digital e-learning pages of your kids junior high history books, it will always make ultimate supplemental viewing if you’d like to show off how blockbusters have helped us find new ways to enjoy the badass good guy vs. evil snotty British guy dynamics of USA Action history!
THE PERFECT WEAPON, Jeff Speakman, 1991, (c) Paramount
A look back at the ultimate action career and legacy of Jeff Speakman with his breakout role in The Perfect Weapon (1991).
It’s a very good example of the vitality of a good story shining through the bad decisions that can be made through the production of a film, both intentional and accidental. This film is also a great example that illustrates the primary criteria that defines a competent action film.
The premise: Jeff Sanders (Jeff Speakman), is a highly skilled Kenpo martial artist in exile from his town, his home, and his dojo after a failure to control his youthful rage leads to him critically injuring a jock.
Honor-bound, Jeff returns from exile years later to look into the suspicious death of his father figure, Kim (Mako), which may be connected to the increasing presence of the Korean mafia in the local Asian community.
My original intention when I first started doing these write ups was to bring attention to underseen Italian films-known variously as spaghetti cops and robbers, poliziottesco, or Eurocrime-that I strongly feel are predecessors, and had an influence on, North American action films.
And I’m still committed to that, but I’d like to expand the scope of that mission to define the criteria of what makes an effective action film by creating a standard measure system. To accomplish that I need to take a brief detour from Eurocrime to explore a fraction of the filmography of one Jeff Speakman. In the early 90s Speakman was a rising star in action films, and one of his goals was to introduce and promote the martial art of Kenpo, and in The Perfect Weapon he partly succeeds at this.
From the above stated premise Jeff arrives in town and starts asking questions, his investigation paralleling that of his younger brother, Detective Sanders. Jeff is not persuaded by threats from the police to lay off. He’s on the mythical Quest, walking the same lone path that Marlowe, The Continental Op, Lew Archer, Sam Spade, and Mike Hammer walked before him. Jeff’s Quest for the truth leads him to a dojo. After being told to buzz off, Jeff makes an offer to permanently leave them alone if the best student in the dojo can kick his ass. This offer rewards Jeff with all the students fighting him. At once. And here we’re introduced to the Primary Criteria of the effective action film:
Does the film support the hero?
Let me restate that. Though I will be writing about films specifically here, I want this criteria to apply to other forms of media, and for that we need to go back to the framework.
Does the story structure and pacing showcase the protagonists abilities without making him infallible? (By this criteria all Steven Seagal films fail, as awesome and fun as they are.)
Let me try a broader definition that is not limited to just combat:
Does the story’s structure and pacing place increasing demands on the protagonist’s abilities, forcing him to expand his skillset by engaging both his mind and body in the process?
In the case of The Perfect Weapon, the answer is an emphatic yes. In the aforementioned scene Jeff gets worked over pretty badly by the dojo students, but his Kenpo allows him to overcome the fighters in an action sequence that has a visceral, thrilling, and rough quality. It’s refreshing to see a fight scene that doesn’t feel choreographed to death and leaves room for improvisation and mistakes. Jeff also gets the information he wanted to continue his Quest.
The premise and set up are strong, but in the middle The Perfect Weapon becomes muddled. I speculate that the through-line clarity of the story clashed with the needs of the producer, writer and director. A lot of time and money was invested in a car chase that was shot awkwardly, and then ends as unintentional comedy when police officers try to arrest henchman Tanaka (Professor Tanaka), and Tasers aren’t enough to take him down. The need for “production value” gets in the way of the straightforward revenge tale to the film’s detriment.
But even through the uneven tone of the middle act, we get very satisfying moments of the Primary Criteria. Jeff walks into a club filled with angry patrons who make it very clear he’s not welcome. Jeff tries to beat some answers out of people, to be knocked unconscious and dumped in the back alley. Force has failed him, and Jeff has to resort to resourcefulness to forge ahead.
And here we could get into issues like the stated production budget for the film (10 million.) Aside from the unimpressive car chase I mentioned earlier, I don’t see where all the money went on the screen. But this is a minor point in a film that delivers visceral action in the shape of a magnetic, single-minded, driven protagonist. The purpose of establishing a Criteria of effective action films is to get away from rewarding films with high budget gloss and lack of clarity (the Mission Impossible films versus Jack Reacher), and faulting films that can’t compete with Hollywood money, but offer thrills and mind-blowing action within their restrictions. (Asian action films.)Such reviewer criteria belongs to YouTubers and podcasters who need to make a specific length of content to maintain their subscription numbers.
In The Perfect Weapon we have the flawed but determined Jeff trying and failing to keep his temper as his Quest is sidetracked by Yung (Dante Basco.) Yung uses the wall of silence running through the Asian community to deceive Jeff into believing that Kim’s killer is a local crime boss named Sam. Jeff is seething with rage. Retribution feels very close, and without wasting time he breaks into Sam’s home in a thrilling sneak and attack sequence that concludes with Jeff staring down Sam, his hands on Sam’s neck. (No gun. No knife. No equal. The movie poster promises, and it doesn’t lie.)
Jeff is saved from making a fatal mistake by Jimmy Ho (Dante Basco), Sam’s nephew. Jimmy informs Jeff that it was Yung who had Kim killed to take ownership of Kim’s antique shop and use it as a criminal front, and that the misinformation he fed Jeff was for Yung to use Jeff as a tool in removing Sam, Yung’s rival.
In the cinematic sense, Jeff is on a Quest for justice while struggling to control the temper that had him banished from his dojo, his second home. In the metaphorical (behind the scenes) sense Jeff Speakman is struggling to maintain the purity of his vision of Kenpo against the whims of the producers, the Primary Criteria that strips the action hero to its essence.
And one chance at redemption appears. Yung is planning to leave the country. Jeff finds out, and heads to the local docks, where after going through a gaggle of henchmen and lead villain Tanaka, Jeff captures Yung, and hands him over to the police, letting go of his homicidal rage, to be welcomed back to the fold of his family and his dojo.
The Perfect Weapon is a flawed and promising film. In spite of the odd detours there’s a forcefulness of purpose that makes itself felt through the movie’s runtime. It’s such a vital film that it became the standard bearer for the effective action film, and the mold of the Primary Criteria. Check it out! If you’ve already seen it, then watch it again!
Article by Melvin Cartagena – born and raised in Puerto Rico on a diet of mainstream, cult and action movies. Currently resides in Massachusetts where he writes fiction and nonfiction, and writes and draws comics. You can see his work on YouTube at RoboPulp Media.
Man, what an odd year 1998 was. I might have only been 11, so my memory isn’t quite as nuanced as someone who experienced it of age. Maybe at the time, in my head, I thought: “oh this is cool, all movies that come out in the summer are about asteroids and space heroes.” And damn, how cool would that be if that actually were the case!
But no, out of happenstance and competitive studio-ing, 1998 saw both Michael Bay’sArmageddon and Mimi Leder’sDeep Impact hit box offices. Both movies had big budgets, big stars, and big special effects, as well as some big names behind the scenes with JJ Abrams penning for Armageddon and Steven Spielberg – for a time – helming Deep Impact. And to many, they’ve been sandwiched together in memory from now until eternity as two, similar, yet slightly different versions of the same tale.
Now, not that we’re in the same exact end-times as presented by an extinction level asteroid event, it’s an interesting lens to look back at these two disaster/thriller/action movies to see what comfort, insights, and just plain entertainment they can provide. Which is just what I did! So, let’s see how they’ve stacked up.
A little more research though for ya first. Arguably, when first released, Armageddon was the initial standout at least from a box office perspective. Although, while Armageddon cost $140 million to make and eventually returned $553.7 million, and Deep Impact cost $80 million and returned $349.5 million, you could make the argument that both were solid blockbusters that resonated with audiences quite well.
Critically, Rotten Tomatoes reports scores of 39% for Armageddon and 44% for Deep Impact, and as I recall from then – as well as through the years – it’s been the talking point that Deep Impact is the more nuanced and classical film, while Armageddon is the more ridiculous, style-over-substance flick.
And you can almost trace this contradiction between Deep Impact’s centermost figure of Morgan Freeman as President Tom Beck speaking calmly and poignantly in a doomsday press conference, and Bruce Willis’ Harry Stamper chasing Ben Affleck’s A.J. Frost across an oil rig with a shotgun after catching Frost sleeping with his daughter as scenes to best paint this difference.
So, when viewing Deep Impact now, I have to say that it really is a solid disaster film that is quite enjoyable. It’s a bit familiar to me just because I’ve seen Armageddon so many times, but it also felt much fresher without much of a memory of it. Also, with so many characters and narratives, it’d be hard for anyone to recall every damn scene from this movie – especially those that don’t involve Morgan Freeman.
I get the assessment too that Deep Impact is more nuanced – or at least presented as the “thinking man’s movie”. We have a great “lead” role for Téa Leoni as aspiring reporter Jenny Lerner, and we spend probably the most time of anyone on developing her character-arc as she inadvertently leads us into a doomsday disaster flick from a rather inconspicuous journalism-careerist film.
We also have a huge list of other great actors and character performances for some big names like Robert Duvall as the “old man” comet pilot, Elijah Wood as the wide-eyed budding romantic who discovers the aesteroid, Lerner’s still-reconciling-with-their-divorce parents Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell and too many more to mention because – like I said – there are a LOT of side-narratives in this.
We also get, as many critics and those from the scientific community are quick to point out, a much more realized and rational cinematic response to what would (or “could” of course) happen if such an event were to occur. Much like Freeman’s calm and deep voice explains to us, both the viewer and the nation that he is addressing, the best minds in science are on the case and we’ll be in the best of hands.
Of course, things still go wrong. And, over the course of two hours we have all these great characters thrown against each other while we’re left with short updates from the President which basically say, “it’ll be OK, but also, we’re fucked”. And, low and behold! We’re left with the only hope being these astronauts – who have already failed at one mission – that have to save the day.
And with this ending I do have to take gripe. As great as the rest of the movie was, it leaves us grasping at straws once the narrative shifts back to Duvall and his ragtag crew, who we barely know! We’ve barely met Duvall’s character to be honest. Instead, when shit is hitting the fan I’m wondering; how will Elijah Woods’ love story save us all? How will Tea Leoni’s reconciliation with her father stop a tidal wave?
Perhaps this was the point the movie was trying to make. Which could be fair. When facing uncertain times, and up against forces greater than what society can control, it’s these human relationships that matter. Which is a beautiful sentiment, but not quite that reassuring today. Especially when we have an example of a counter-narrative where there are action heroes to save us!
Armageddon The Underlying Power of Ultimate Action
Basically, after watching Deep Impact, I had no option but to fire up the VCR and put in Armageddon. Deep Impact left me with a sinking feeling, much like Morgan Freeman’s Tom Beck must have felt when he had to address the nation for the last time, knowing, despite all his great posterizing, that we’re still all ultimately doomed – and all I could think is, man, I bet this man wishes he could have met Harry S. Stamper.
A lot of the – later – hate for Armageddon is most probably backlash for Michael Bay and his decades of Transformers movies and over-sexed, over-CGI, over-nonsensed mega-blockbusters which – along with a douchey personality – have made the director, to put it lightly, a polarizing figure. Back in 1998, though, Bay was merely seen through the lens as an up-and-coming commercial/music video director who had fresh, new ideas of how action movies should be: big, loud, obnoxious at times, but also fast, funny, and only at the last minute, sincere.
In one of the great ironies of the world, Armageddon (along with Bay’s The Rock) are both in the Criterion Collection, while Deep Impact is not. And in the DVD commentary we have the famous clip of Ben Affleck taking the film’s ridiculous premise to task over the montage of Bruce Willis’ and his rowdy roughnecks teaching NASA scientists a thing or two about how to build a space drill. Get ’em Ben!
But, in viewing Armageddon today, it really is entertaining as hell. The pacing is superb, the characters aren’t deep or exactly well-thought out, but the actors across the board seem to understand how to say their lines and then get the fuck out oughta the way so the action can continue on.
In the starkest contrast to DeepImpact, the NASA mission control scenes are lightyears apart. Both are set up to present the vast resources of the United States government and being helmed by the greatest minds in the world, yet it’s the Armageddon ones that are much more reassuring, even if the dark lights, needless instruments and an almost “war-room” like atmosphere is more reassuring science fiction than cold reality.
Narratively speaking, Armageddon also stands out with its decision to make the movie really only about three characters, while Deep Impact doesn’t quite appear able to decide on any one, or few, of its multiple. Armageddon’s leads include an “older” action star in Willis, an up-and-coming actioner-esque hero in Affleck and the completion of a father/daughter/boyfriend triangle with Liv Tyler. And, when the movie really gets going heading into the third act, it’s really all about these three and the singular focus of the narrative stakes which have been building solidly all movie: it’s time to blow up this asteroid.
Spoilers: they do! And it’s great. And all the characters fall into place from pre-asteroid death, to post-asteroid resurrection. We don’t have to have Morgan Freeman come back on-screen to reassure us that this ending will be better for humanity in the end (because he’s never been wrong about anything like this before), we don’t have to take our small solaces in our loved ones under the shadows of colossal tidal waves. Instead we get to take large, America-sized solaces under fireworks with the rest of the rowdy drill crew as everyone drives off cheering into the sunset.
Feel free to disagree with me on this, it’s an interesting time to review these two disaster-action classics. For some, comfort might come from a Bay-ification apocalypse, while others might desire an action Robert Altman-verse think-piece on how human demise is mutually shared. But, I’m pretty sure I know which one I’m going to watch when shit hits the fan.
The Long and Winding Road: Chapter 7 – A Death in the Family
The franchise was on a roll. Articles featured in The Hollywood Reporter show that Vin Diesel planned for Fast & Furious 6 and 7 to be a two-parter. From the very beginning they knew Owen Shaw would go down and Deckard Shaw would come up. Universal wanted to fast track the two films back to back requiring Justin Lin to work on pre-production for 7 while in post-production on 6. Lin declined as his work would be affected by the heavy schedule. Universal, still competing with the superhero phenomenon, hired horror director James Wan (Saw, Saw II, Insidious) to finish out this story. Chris Morgan bridged the two directors as writer for both films.
Paul Walker passed away on November 30, in the middle of filming for the seventh installment of this now-Ultimate Action franchise. Not only did the cast and crew mourn his loss but the world did as well. Producer Neal H. Moritz circled the wagons, and along with series writer Chris Morgan and director James Wan plotted a new story for Brian O’Conner, one that would respect Paul Walker’s legacy while still offering the high octane action and levity of the franchise. They had to figure out how to mourn, the Fast and Furious way.
Furious 7 picks up where Fast & Furious 6 left off: Owen Shaw is in the hospital. His big bad brother, Deckard Shaw, wants revenge. Deckard starts by killing Han during the events of Tokyo Drift thus catching us all the way up to current times in the Fast universe. Meanwhile Letty Ortiz struggles with her amnesia. As Deckard Shaw ramps up in bloodlust, car bombing the original Toretto home, and Dominic and his crew get recruited by shadowy government agent “Mr. Nobody” played by Kurt Russell.
You’ve accidentally stepped into a bigger world of pawns and knights playing amongst the shadows, he tells Dom. You’re no longer just a street criminal. You’re involved in some secret spy action that the US government does not officially sanction. Just like that, Dom and his crew become super secret agents. Remember when these movies were about street racing?
It opens by catching up to “present continuity.” Han dies. Letty and Dom go back to Race Wars, the street racing scene from the first film. Brian O’Conner drives a minivan. Luke Hobbs approves a transfer for Elena. Those touchstones of the Fast saga are all there and yet the movie quickly abandons them for its two hour plot.
If you thought Fast & Furious 6 was a soap opera just wait until you hit Furious 7. Memory loss, forced retirement, secret government agencies fighting, a mysterious assassin, and a warlord bent on murder? It sounds ludicrous (nice) but those are just some of the conceits driving this film (also nice.)
What stings in this film is the general inconsistency of the movie: Letty leaves at the beginning, then comes back for the crew later. Deckard Shaw speaks a total of like fifty words in the entire movie, even though he’s the main villain. Mr. Nobody, while cheeky, gets to play fast and loose with his world-building. Ramsey, someone completely new to the group, trusts them even though she’s never met them. There are emotional beats that could take entire movies to develop but either get bluntly addressed (like the weird scene where Ramsey types every character as if that explains why she inherently trusts them) or treated and then subsequently forgotten (in the case of Deckard Shaw.) It’s poorly balanced in terms of character development and way too forced.
Read along on the rest of our Fast Saga coverage with these articles on the other Fast & Furious installments:
One of the biggest imbalances is the movie’s villains: Deckard Shaw and oh! Djimon Hounsou as Jakande. After nearly killing Luke Hobbs (and sidelining him for most of the movie) Deckard goes after Dominic Toretto and his crew for the attempted murder of his brother. Jakande wants “God’s Eye” a mystical tech device that can hack into anything with a camera and simultaneously track any human it’s told to track around the world. It’s a privacy killer and would be perfect for a warlord to hunt down his enemies. That’s all we’re given. That’s why they’re bad.
Deckard Shaw doesn’t get the murderous monologuing of his younger brother or really any characterization past the opening scene. There’s no oral confrontation between Dom and Shaw they mostly just ram cars at each other and duke it out with wrenches.
If Shaw is underutilized then Jakande is practically nonexistent. We don’t actually know (or remember) why he wants God’s Eye other than he’s a warlord. Djimon Hounsou is a fantastic actor with a plethora of action credits but Furious 7 does the cinematic equivalent of making him an insert character. They shot scenes of him just yelling at people to fire, or track Ramsey, or use God’s Eye and spliced them into the action. We don’t know why he’s evil and thus we don’t really care about him. We barely care about Deckard Shaw. Only Jason Statham’s bona fides as an Ultimate Action star help his character retain any value whatsoever as he flips, punches, and twists his way through battles with Hobbs or Toretto.
Furious 7 gets yet another turbo boost in terms of directing style. Where Lin opts to spin his camera around subjects Wan not only spins his camera he twirls it. His lightning cuts are too fast, entirely disruptive. Where Lin would continue in the same shot Wan shows it from six different angles. Even in slower, more emotional moments the camera lifts up on a crane or tilts ever-so-dutch.
Even more so the movie trades on needle drops way too much. There’s a needle drop for every establishing scene and another needle drop for action and a final needle drop when the action starts. All of these stylistic tools are Michael Bay-esque reminding us what happens when things are TOO hyperbolic, TOO fast.
Once again newcomers join the Fast Saga. This time Jason Statham, Ronda Rousey, Tony Jaa, Djimon Housou, Kurt Russell, and Nathalie Emmanuel propel the story forward. This flood of newcomers opens the gates even wider for international audiences and fans of certain actors join the Fast family. Jason Statham’s history as an Ultimate Action hall of famer speaks for itself. Ronda Rousey brought more women’s MMA to the franchise and only as a bit player (allowing her to focus on the fighting, not the acting.) Tony Jaa (Ong Bak) picks up the martial arts torch passed on from Joe Taslim. Kurt Russell’s a true Ultimate Action hero.
Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) joins the Fast Family as Ramsey, the hacker. Her presence and addition as a techie hacker to the group shifts the dynamics of the supporting cast ever-so-slightly in several degrees. Without Gal Gadot and Sung Kang to counter the over-the-top Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris the movie feels unbalanced. Too much comedy. Too many one-liners. Too many pithy jokes.
While Emmanuel doesn’t quite provide that serious coolness the previous members did she still offers some counterbalance to the other protagonist’s. Unfortunately her character doesn’t get many scenes and her abilities as a tech genius question the importance Ludacris’ character Tej. In an odd, but still helpful rejiggering they find room for both hackers and give Tej a little fight scene to demonstrate he doesn’t only do computers. Emmanuel’s character is the only one in the crew not familiar with driving so her role falls mainly under support.
The great mystery of this movie is: How are they going to write off Paul Walker’s character? When they finally went into pre-production they had already shot plenty of scenes with him, they needed to rewrite his character to exit the franchise without dying in a car crash. Initially Australian company Weta began work on grafting Brian O’Conner into other scenes but the archive footage wasn’t thorough enough. Walker’s two brothers Cody and Caleb were used as stand-ins to fill in the gaps where he should be. This new cut becomes a sort of guessing game where the audience wonders if this is the moment where O’Conner bravely dies defending his family. Only on my third viewing of this film do I realize the methodology behind the reshoots.
Every emotional scene that Paul Walker is in are reshoots mixed with previously shot footage. Mia calls her husband Brian before the last big battle to tell him she’s pregnant. Brian replies that this last adventure may kill him. He urges to her take their child and move on if he doesn’t survive. He says goodbye and in a sad response Mia Toretto tells him: “Don’t say that. They way you said it, it’s like goodbye. Say something else.” This tees up the idea that any scene O’Conner’s in could be his last, teasing death and giving every stunt just a little extra tension. Wan carefully teases us each time: Will it be the bomb going off or the bus falling off a cliff? Which scene will require his noble sacrifice?. O’Conner’s inevitable departure from the franchise gives every stunt an extra sense of importance.
Instead, they retire O’Conner to a bleeding heart anthem. Arguably the most iconic piece of music written for the Fast Saga isn’t a rap song or latin EDM mix. It’s Charlie Puth’s soulful “See You Again (feat. Wiz Khalifa).” This potent song mixed with Diesel’s final narration gives us a satisfying conclusion. After the gang watches O’Conner play with his child on the beach they remember that nothing is more important than family. They all take a chance to say goodbye to O’Conner. Dominic, overwhelmed by emotions, takes off. Brian races after him.
Brian admonishes Toretto: “Thought you could leave without saying goodbye?” Mirroring our own words we want to impart on Paul. Vin Diesel narrates: “whether it’s a quarter mile away or halfway across the globe you’ll always be my brother.” And in that way not only do we get to say goodbye to Paul Walker but he gets to say goodbye to us. He takes a right turn where Dom goes straight and literally rides out of the franchise forever. Shoehorned or not, that scene provides closure for the world to mourn. It was so potent that actors on set reportedly cried during filming.
It feels crass to say but Furious 7 works significantly better than its predecessor in part due to Walker’s demise despite Wan’s hyperbolic directing. In much the same way that Heath Ledger’s death during The Dark Knight propelled audiences to catch the movie Paul Walker’s passing encouraged attendance for fans around the globe. The movie’s saving graces are the lingering question of writing out Brian O’Conner and the ridiculous stunts/fights.
Each movie fights to one-up its predecessor in terms of stunt work. Fast Five had the bank vault chase. Fast & Furious 6 had the airplane crash. Furious 7 has it’s airdrop. In an attempt to stop a convoy carrying Ramsey the crew drop out of the back of an airplane and parachute onto a highway deep in the Caucuses as part of their rescue. This seminal stunt piece anchors the film in its centerpoint as over-the-top as can be. Not even the “pass the football” final confrontation can top cars falling out of the sky.
The fight scenes, thankfully, go up another notch from the previous film. Michelle Rodriguez gets another nasty confrontation (this time against Ronda Rousey) in Dubai while Dominic Toretto squares off against Deckard Shaw multiple times. Brian squares off against Kiet (Tony Jaa) in a battle of speed and precision. The final fight between Dom and Shaw, while bonkers, plays fairly well. Dom wields two giant wrenches like he’s dual-wielding swords and Shaw whips around burned pieces of metal hacking and slashing.
It’s a bizarre street style sword fight with both men pounding the every-living daylights out of each other. At the very end Dominic gets another superhero moment when he stomps the ground and it opens up, swallowing Deckard Shaw, as if Dominc Toretto controls concrete. Only Shaw’s initial battle with Hobbs comes close to this kind of carnage. Dwayne Johnson employs several famous WWE moves on action legend Jason Statham. These fights keep the movie together with some down and dirty brawling.
Furious 7 doubles down on so many of its elements it even doubles down on its male gaze. Amazingly where Fast Five and Fast Six felt leery Furious 7 ups the ante entirely. Not only does the camera swoop up and over Nathalie Emmanuel’s body in a bikini, but it slows over every hip and breast it can find. While the street racing in this movie lacks the mini-skirt clad crowd (sans the flag girl and one painful cameo from rapper Iggy Azalea) a party scene in Dubai gives Wan an opportunity to leer over underwear-clad models. This time the women are painted gold, made to look like literal objects. In previous installments the penetrating eye of the camera felt intrusive this one feels downright slimy. It starts its gaze right along the hip bone, gliding up the navel, and briskly skimming over the women’s chests; an entirely uncomfortable move.
The music of the film continues in its international tradition. It brings a blend of hip-hop and EDM together. The electronic party hit “Get Low” by Dillon Francis and DJ Snake provide energy for the party scenes. “Go Hard or Go Home” by Wiz Khalifa feat. Iggy Azalea give the opening credits a strong hip-hop beat. Ironically it would be Charlie Puth’s sadboy single “See You Again” that would gain the most notoriety. Whether because of it’s association with Paul Walker or because of it’s impressive musical notation the song was nominated for Best Original Song at the 73rd Golden Globe awards and became the radio hit of the summer underscoring high school graduation season for an entire generation.
There are lots of things to enjoy about Furious 7 but careful inspection reveals a mismanagement of parts that has nothing to do with the loss of Paul Walker. Despite providing brief reasoning for the villains the movie wastes Jason Statham and Djimon Hounsou. Dwayne Johnson sits out all but the finale of the film. The stunts are bigger and rock harder, but the editing feels too quick. Needle drops abound entirely too much despite the electrifying music and the camera leers over women’s bodies in an extremely uncomfortable way.
The addition of Kurt Russell and Nathalie Emmanuel work in terms of generating more plot by pulling back the curtain even further. All told Furious 7 cost $190 million to make and earned $1.515 BILLION dollars in global box office. It found a place among the record-winning earners of the franchise industry all while helping a planet mourn the loss of the most earnest and kind underrated action stars of a generation and turn over a new chapter of the Fast Franchise.
