Only now does it occur to me... FIREFOX (1982)

Only now does it occur to me.... that Clint Eastwood basically outsourced the villains of his Cold War caper FIREFOX to the Lucas/Spielberg industrial complex.

The Russian villains you see before you are: Kenneth Colley (Ken Russell veteran and "Admiral Piett" from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK),

Ronald Lacey ("Toht" from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK),

and Wolf Kahler ("Sgt. Gobler" from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK):

To balance things out, we have John Ratzenberger (CHEERS, "Major Derlin" from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK), essentially reprising his role from EMPIRE (Rebel on an ice planet) as an American soldier fighting the Evil Empire from the North Pole.

Because I have to tip my hat to the outliers, another of the Russian villains is Klaus Löwitsch, a legitimately Great Actor who may bear some resemblance to Corbin Bernsen, but is in fact one of the most talented players to come out of the New German Cinema and a veteran of no less than five Rainer Werner Fassbinder films. It's probably not too much of a stretch for you to understand that he is completely wasted here.

Apologies, Mr. Löwitsch.

The film itself was a box office smash at the time, but today it plays like a second-tier, phoned in cold war thriller, á la Eastwood's own THE EIGER SANCTION or Peckinpah's THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND. Author Howard Hughes (AIM FOR THE HEART: THE FILMS OF CLINT EASTWOOD) probably sums it up best with, "Less a 'Firefox', it's more of a damp squib, or at best a smoldering turkey."

The opening is kind of a proto-COMMANDO, with shirtless Eastwood as a veteran in pastoral environs trying to enjoy his retirement when he's pulled out to do "one last job." In this case, the Last Job is stealing a top-secret Soviet fighter plane.

I guess there's an understated sci-fi aspect to the film with a "mind-control helmet" that pilots the Soviet plane via telepathy, but that's not even important, so you don't have to worry about it.

Also, for a Cold War actioner, there's not a lot of action. In fact, the entire plot could likely be reduced to about three scenes––therefore, I'm not sure why it runs 2 hours and 15 minutes. Ah, well.


It's also perhaps worth mentioning that the 'thrilling' dogfight is simplistic enough so as to prep us for the eventual Atari game tie-in; and despite using a superior "Reverse Blue-Screen" technology, it still looks inferior to the Battle of Hoth in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Out of the 39 completed films Clint Eastwood has directed, I have now seen 37 of them (for the curious, my only gaps are HEREAFTER and THE 15:17 TO PARIS). Only THE EIGER SANCTION, SULLY, and INVICTUS are as boring as this one. I prefer BREEZY, for godssakes. BREEZY.

Only now does it occur to me... TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING (1977)

Only now does it occur to me... that TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING (1977)––a film I hadn't even heard of until a few weeks ago––is one of the finest political thrillers of its generation. Directed by master craftsman Robert Aldrich (KISS ME DEADLY, THE DIRTY DOZEN, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, EMPEROR OF THE NORTH), it's a chamber drama of the highest order (and with the highest stakes possible), and the only contemporary film of its kind I can think of that explores the disillusionment of post-Nixon America with such magnified audacity.

The set-up is this: an Air Force General (Burt Lancaster) has threatened to spill a few inconvenient truths about the Vietnam War to the American public––and winds up in prison for his trouble.

After befriending some fellow convicts (Paul Winfield and Burt Young, in sympathetic performances),


he busts out of jail and hijacks a nuclear missile silo (!), threatening to begin WWIII unless the sitting President, who had nothing to do with Vietnam (Charles Durning, sort of standing in for Carter), publicly releases the incriminating documents. To modern audiences, it may encourage comparisons to THE ROCK (1996), from its likable, spurned, and volatile General to the ginger handling of green, gel-based chemical weapons (sarin gel) in a particularly suspenseful sequence.


Above all, it's an adult thriller, brilliantly acted and directed, that trusts its audience to understand its labyrinthine politics and moral shades of gray. It could easily be a stage play, with the nuclear bunker on stage left and the Oval Office on stage right.

Charles Durning is particularly remarkable––he's sensitive and firm in his portrayal, the kind of clearheaded President you'd want on the front lines when something heavy goes down, like Henry Fonda in FAIL-SAFE or Martin Sheen on THE WEST WING. He grapples with the idea of the presidency becoming a puppet beholden to a shadow government, wondering if said government does not trust its own people, how can the people trust it? As a Carter-figure operating under the shadow of the presidents who came before, he must determine whether or not executive opacity has already crossed its Rubicon––or does the corrupted infrastructure yet contain an exit strategy for a decent man?

There's also a great moment where a brigadier general steals Durning's scotch

and Durning reprimands him, shouting:

"That's my drink, you make your own fucking drink!"

The supporting cast is a Who's Who of Old Hollywood testosterone, featuring everyone from Melvyn Douglas to Joseph Cotten to Richard Jaeckel to Richard Widmark.
 
And because it's a thriller with so few locations, Aldrich pumps it up with a style best described as "Brian De Palma on steroids," with plenty of two-way, three-way, and four-way split screens. Unlike De Palma, the tone is slightly detached, and consequently you almost feel like you're watching different news feeds of a historical event, rather than different channels jockeying for your attention.


Finally, Jerry Goldmith's wonderful score lends it a real, melancholy, FIRST BLOOD vibe. Like that film, it paints a picture for people who aggressively love America but don't think it's above reproach. (I guess I'm saying not to expect THE GREEN BERETS.) In all, it's an underseen gem with a clear and fervent voice that suceeds both as a white-knuckle thriller and as an investigation of a sadder, wiser American people.





Also, on a more frivolous note––half of the Rebellion from STAR WARS is working for the U.S. government in this movie: Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter in STAR WARS),


William Hootkins (Jek Porkins in STAR WARS),


and John Ratzenberger (Bren Derlin in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK)


all appear in bit parts as American soldiers.

Only now does it occur to me... MOTEL HELL

Only now does it occur to me...  that John Ratzenberger (a.k.a. "Cliff Clavin" from CHEERS) was once in a quasi-folk-punk band called "Ivan and the Terribles."

Ratzenberger's on the far right, madly air-drumming.

(Alas, this wasn't in real life, but instead only in a very, very brief sequence in MOTEL HELL, a fairly creative hillbilly horror flick that fuses together tropes from PSYCHO, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and, oddly enough, DAWN OF THE DEAD.)

Film Review: HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY (1987, Ethan Wiley)

Stars: 2.5 of 5.
Running Time: 88 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Arye Gross (SOUL MAN, MINORITY REPORT), Jonathan Stark (FRIGHT NIGHT, PROJECT X), Royal Dano (THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES), Bill Maher (RATBOY, CANNIBAL WOMEN IN THE AVOCADO JUNGLE OF DEATH), John Ratzenberger (CHEERS, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK), and Kane Hodder (Jason in FRIDAY THE 13THs parts VII through X). Music by Harry Manfredini (FRIDAY THE 13TH, HOUSE). Produced by Sean S. Cunningham (FRIDAY THE 13TH, DEEPSTAR SIX, HOUSE). Written and directed by Ethan Wiley (CHILDREN OF THE CORN V, co-writer of HOUSE I). Inspired by an original story by Fred Dekker (HOUSE, THE NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, THE MONSTER SQUAD, ROBOCOP 3).
Tag-line: "It's gotten even weirder." AND "Frightening Strikes TWICE!"
Best one-liner: "Look at me. I'm a 170-year-old fart. I'm a goddamn zombie."

Compared to the greatness of HOUSE I, it's difficult to admit that HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY doesn't really hold up despite possessing one of the greatest subtitles in memory, recent or otherwise. There's also the stroke of utter genius in casting John "Cliff Clavin" Ratzenberger in a similar role to the one that George "Norm Peterson" Wendt played in HOUSE I, but unfortunately the genius sorta ends there.

"Eh, ya know Normie, it's a little known fact that the HOUSE series is so deeply interwoven with CHEERS."

Also, it really has nothing to do with HOUSE I aside from the fact that it takes place inside a "house," which I guess would make more than a few movies unofficial sequels to HOUSE. Furthermore, it Italy it was released as LA CASA 6, which means the ersatz Italian film canon considered it to be EVIL DEAD 6! (Which for the record goes like this 1. Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD, 2. Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD II, 3. Umberto Lenzi's GHOSTHOUSE, 4. Fabrizio Laurenti's WITCHERY, 5. Claudio "TROLL 2" Fragasso's BEYOND DARKNESS, 6. HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY.) So wrap your head around that for a moment.


Anyway, I didn't intend for a full review, I just recently discovered my screening notebook from five or six years ago and shall reprint the slightly downcast entry for HOUSE II:

"So I'm sitting down on the couch, getting all amped up to watch "HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY." Hey, that's a pretty good subtitle. Almost as good as "ARTHUR 2: ON THE ROCKS." Man, I am in the mood for a horror movie. Okay, I'm watching it now. I'm pretty excited. Alright, I can see this movie is going for laughs. I like some laughs in my horror. There were more than a few laughs in "HOUSE I." What the deuce?! It's turning into a Western? Well, that's okay, "HOUSE I" kinda turned into a war movie partway through. Alright, now I can just sit back and relax until William Katt shows up. What? He's not in this? Damn, I guess I should have rented "HOUSE IV: HOME DEADLY HOME." Katt is back for that one. What?! It's not available on DVD?! Now I'm sad. But I can't be too sad, cause I'm watching these two whacky dudes and their dead grandpa cause a ruckus trying to find this crystal skull in HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY."


Zombie Royal Dano wrote the book on "raisin' a ruckus."


This still might actually be better than INDIANA JONES 4.

-Sean Gill