Film Review: BLUE STEEL (1989, Kathryn Bigelow)

Stars: 3.9 of 5.
Running Time: 102 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Written by Eric Red (writer of THE HITCHER, NEAR DARK, BODY PARTS) and Kathryn Bigelow. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Clancy Brown (EXTREME PREJUDICE, HIGHLANDER, Kelvin on TV's LOST), Ron Silver (SILENT RAGE), Tom Sizemore, Louise Fletcher (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, THE EXORCIST II), Richard Jenkins (THE VISITOR, BURN AFTER READING), Elizabeth Peña (JACOB'S LADDER, LONE STAR). Produced by Oliver Stone and Edward R. Pressman.
Tag-line: "For a rookie cop, there's one thing more dangerous than uncovering a killer's fantasy. Becoming it."
Best one-liner: "Hey man... DO I LOOK LIKE I'M FUCKING ORDERING TAKE OUT?"

If credulity is a rubber band, then BLUE STEEL stretches it all the way from Battery Park to Washington Heights. And that's okay. As in POINT BREAK, Kathryn Bigelow is more interested in a character study that involves deep immersion in the ‘first-person adrenaline rush’ than a realistic police procedural. The film drips with style- it's full of fetishistic close-ups of revolver chambers spinning and whirring in eye-popping slow-mo.

Shafts and beams of sunlight cut and slice through tableaus like a thousand hot knives through butter. It looks great.

The acting is first-rate, as well– Jamie Lee Curtis sells her hardass cop 110%.

Ron Silver, as the Wall Street psycho, sometimes goes over the top,

but he always remains connected to the role, even when bathing himself in a hooker's steaming blood.

Clancy Brown is at once severe, classy and affable. He's the kind of cop who, while keeping tabs on Jamie Lee Curtis, breaks into her apartment and helps himself to her corn chips.

CLANCY BROWN WILL TAKE YOUR CORN CHIPS AWAY IF HE WANTS

Later, during a memorable confrontation with Silver, his steely-eyed gaze nearly bores a hole through the damn screen.

Ron Silver's intense stare: intense.

Clancy Brown's intense stare: DAMNED intense.

The always-talented Louise Fletcher (as Jamie Lee's mom), Richard Jenkins (as a skeezy lawyer), and Tom Sizemore (as himself):

are around for bit parts, too. Oliver Stone and Edward Pressman were co-producers on this film, and occasionally shifts in atmosphere remind one of WALL STREET or TALK RADIO.

Regardless, if there's a problem here, it's in the script. The deck hasn't been stacked this ludicrously since DIRTY HARRY. There's an abusive spouse subplot that is so hackneyed, it actually involves a can of beer getting popped open, followed by the line "Hey, she fell down the stairs!" The events that lead to Jamie Lee getting suspended and then earning her detective's badge within 5 minutes are appalling ("I don't like it, but we gotta give you your shield- I wish there was some other way"). Woww. But I kinda knew all this when I signed up for it, so… Nearly four stars is incredibly generous, but, hey, I'm a generous guy.

Side note: I would also cite this as a major influence on (or at least a point of departure for) Bret Easton Ellis' AMERICAN PSYCHO (1991) and the subsequent film.

-Sean Gill

Film Review: SILENT RAGE (1982, Michael Miller)

Stars: 3.9 of 5. Running Time: 103 minutes. Notable Cast or Crew: Chuck Norris, Ron Silver (TIMECOP, ROMANCING THE STONE), Steven Keats (DEATH WISH, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE), Toni Kalem (SISTER ACT, THE WANDERERS), Stephen Furst (MIDNIGHT MADNESS). Written by Joseph Fraley (GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK). Music by Mark Goldenberg (HOT DOG THE MOVIE, TEEN WOLF TOO) and Peter Bernstein (HAMBURGER THE MOTION PICTURE, EWOKS: THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR). Hmmmm. Makes you wonder. Tag-line: "Science created him. Now Chuck Norris must destroy him." Best one-liner: "I don't care if he killed 100 people! We are scientists, not moralists!" SILENT RAGE is your typical early 80's Norris flick, except for one thing: it's smattered with contemporaneously popular horror! We got long steadicam shots like HALLOWEEN, an axe-thru-door scene like THE SHINING, and a back-from-the-dead emerging-from-water scene straight out of the original FRIDAY THE 13TH. Psycho killer puts the squeeze on Chuck... ...and Stephen Furst. The plot is basically FRANKENSTEIN meets WALKER, TEXAS RANGER. Chuck is in fine form here: karate kicking bikers in the mouth (who all spew beer on impact), awkward buddy bonding with a greenhorn, overweight deputy (Stephen Furst, Flounder from ANIMAL HOUSE and the rich brat in MIDNIGHT MADNESS), and making love to a woman and then lavishing her with fruit platters and hammock-time. CHUCK WILL TALK SMOOTH TO YOU CHUCK WILL TOWEL HIMSELF DOWN CHUCK WILL BE GENEROUS WITH HIS KISSES, FRUIT PLATTERS, AND UNINSTALLED PULL-UP BARS CHUCK WILL LAVISH YOU WITH HAMMOCK-TIME AND A REPLENISHED FRUIT PLATTER The noodling synth score (courtesy of Mark Goldenberg (TEEN WOLF TOO) and Peter Bernstein (the EWOK TV movies)) is whacky and frequently inappropriate, the anti-science message is whimsical and true to Norris form, and the suspenseful scenes laboriously drag in a manner that reveals an action director's sad first attempt at horror. Look at how evil science is. Don't worry, though, science will get its comeuppance. Then we got this moody psychiatrist played by Ron Silver, who obviously watched SERPICO like twelve times right before filming began. We got two main characters (Norris and his gal) who evidently don't know how elevators work (they press the up and down arrows both, and in a crisis scenario, no less!). Are you serious? Up or down. One or the other. Please not both. We got yet another Norris character with two first names: Dan Stevens. Even the villain has two first names: John Kirby. Then the whole thing ends on a pretty sweet freeze frame as well. If you like Norris, you will like this movie. This is one of the stronger ones; as far as early Norris goes, I'd put it beneath LONE WOLF MCQUADE, but above THE OCTAGON. Four stars. -Sean Gill 2009 Halloween Countdown 31. PROM NIGHT (1980, Paul Lynch) 30. PHENOMENA (1985, Dario Argento) 29. HOUSE OF WAX (1953, André de Toth) 28. SILENT RAGE (1982, Michael Miller) 27. ...