moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (01/20/86)
OK, let me onto a secret. This movie is *really* directed by John
Carpenter, right? It is written by Carpenter, and in the credits it says
it's directed by someone I can't remember; but it sure looks like
Carpenter's work. I have to hand it to Carpenter; he can take a premise
that the BATMAN TV show would have turned down as too preposterous and make
it enjoyable.
Briefly, we have Tommy Lee Jones as a thief who has stolen some company data
on a large corporation being investigated by the FBI. He is going to (for a
price) provide the info to the government (played by Dick ("Don't FUCK with
the government.") Butkis); however, on the lam, he drops the tape off in the
nearest hiding place: the rear of a futuristic car named the Black Moon.
Later, his attempts to get the tape back are thwarted by a car thief (Linda
Hamilton) who steals the Black Moon before he can get remove the tape. From
there on the filmakers take a fairly pedestrian plot and make it an
enjoyable film. They do this in several ways:
1) Good leads. Tommy Lee Jones has a roguish appeal I haven't seen since
Harrison Ford came around, and Linda Hamilton plays the
hard-yet-vulnerable car thief as well as anyone could, and better than
most. You get to like them (though you never see much of their
personalities) halfway through.
2) The breaking-and-entering bit: like any good movie where the audience is
supposed to be rooting for the thieves, the actual theft is extremely
complicated, interesting and not too outlandish. You know they'll make
it in (just as you know Superman will get there in time and Indiana
Jones will find the temple -- not much of a movie otherwise), so the
producers realize they have to keep you interested in *how* they get in.
They did and I was.
3) Most films, especially films with low budgets (which BMR is, I think),
have a tendancy to fill in genre movies with standard scenes, the
sequences you've seen over and over again, and know the outcome because
the film can't proceed any further plotwise unless the sequence ends in
one particular way (e.g. the hero gets away). This film, through good
cinematography, a find editor and a sparse script, never follows any
pointless chase scenes or fights unless it's darn sure that the sequence
is shot so as to keep in interesting. Only one car chase in this entire
film, and it is a doosey.
A few other things: very nice ending which I would have enjoyed more if they
hadn't shown clips to it in the previews. Also, Robert Vaughn is so
understated in this film that you begin to wonder if he's forgotten his
lines in some places. Just once I'd like to hear him raise his voice...
"Why are we importing all these highbrow plays like
`Amadeus'? I could have told you Mozart was a jerk
for nothing."
-Ian Shoales
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, sb6, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>channic@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU (01/22/86)
Being a long time Bears fan, I must correct if not take offense at the base note author's erroneous labelling of the government agent as Dick Butkis. Not only is the name spelled Butkus, BUT the agent was played by Bubba Smith. Tom Channic ihnp4!pur-ee!uiucdcs!channic