Categorie archief: Films

Beverly Hills Cop Revisited

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

On July 1, Netflix released Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F, exactly 30 years after Beverly Hills Cop III was released. To celebrate, FilmDungeon checked out the original trilogy which was an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

Beverly Hills Cop (1984, Martin Brest)

The tune is great, his laugh is a riot, and his inventive tricks to get things done are inspiring. Eddie Murphy stars as the wise-ass Detroit cop who goes to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of his friend. He quickly makes new friends, including detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) who both return in the new movie! He makes plenty of enemies too because not everybody loves Axel’s freewheeling style. In Beverly Hills everything is done by the book, which clashes with his street smart ways. This is the basic gimmick of the first movie and it works like a charm. Murphy is in top form here, delivering funny wisecracks rapid fire style. The banana in the tailpipe is still hilarious and the traffic light gag that follows it is even better. If the new movie can capture any of this comedy magic, it will be fantastic. Let’s hope so…

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987, Tony Scott)

The second movie sees many of the cast and crew members return. Only directing duties were taken over by Tony Scott who had just delivered Top Gun (produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who also produced the first two Beverly Hills Cop movies). When his friend Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) is shot, Foley returns to Beverly Hills to help solve the so-called Alphabet Crimes, a series of expertly carried out robberies. There is a new Chief of Police, and he is the biggest asshole of all time and arguably the film’s greatest villain. Murphy still has all these ‘types’ he can play to get things done, and they are often pretty funny. Only the script is poor, and some jokes didn’t age particularly well. But the dynamics between Foley, Taggert and Rosewood is still great, and Rosewood’s development to gun-toting, Rambo-style hero, is hilarious. These are the best two things about this sequel.

Beverly Hills Cop III (1994, John Landis)

More bad guys, more guns, more violent kills, but less humor. The third film in the series was written by Steven E. de Souza, the screenplay writer of Die Hard and Die Hard 2, and he turned it into Die Hard in an amusement park. Only since many of the action scenes would be too expensive, they turned the action down and made it more about Axel’s investigation taking place in an amusement park. Boring! Worse still, Murphy told new director John Landis that he preferred to play Axel as a more mature character. Bronson Pinchot, who reprises his role of Serge from the first film here, later said Murphy was pretty depressed during the shoot. It shows on the screen: Murphy’s performance comes across as mostly joyless. The film does deliver the series most dangerous villain with Ellis DeWald, played perfectly by Timothy Carhart. Still, overall this third entry was a letdown, so let’s hope Beverly Hills Cop: Alex F rocks the house again, so the series can conclude on a high note after all.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Werner Herzog
Written by: William M. Finkelstein
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer

Year / Country: 2009, USA
Running Time: 122 mins.

Loose remake of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 cult classic. Ferrara was pretty pissed when he heard about it and said he wanted the makers to ‘die in hell’. Nicolas Cage is the deranged central character who uses his badge to do bad things.

In the aftermath of the hurricane Katrina, Terence McDonagh (Cage) saves a convict from drowning which earns him a medal and a major back injury. He starts to take huge amounts of drugs for the pain. It starts with Vicodin, but soon he turns to heroin, cocaine and crack.

After he is promoted to lieutenant, McDonagh starts investigating the murder of a Senegalese family which eventually leads him to local dope boss Big Fate. His increased drug intake in the meantime, causes him to lose grip on reality. He also has a gambling debt that is getting way out of control.

Herzog’s version is a little lighter than Ferrara’s although there are some intense scenes as well, like the one in which McDonagh withholds oxygen from an old lady in a wheelchair to get information out of her. Another difference is that Keitel’s character is terrible from the beginning, while McDonagh degenerates more gradually during the film.

Cage is in one of his more weird modes, and it is a lot of fun to watch. So are his hallucinations of lizards and the sweet interactions with his girlfriend, the prostitute Frankie (Eva Mendes). Around her, he’s a different character. Cage and Mendes have a great chemistry.

This remake was perhaps a strange choice for a renowned filmmaker such as Herzog. It is not amongst his finest works, but it does have a lot of quality. Ferrara and Herzog met years after its release at the Locarno Film Festival and made peace. Despite its sound reviews, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans was a box office flop.

Rating:

Biography: The German filmmaker Werner Herzog (1942, Munich) is considered as one of the most important directors alive. In 1961, when Herzog was 19, he started work on his first short film Herakles. He has since produced, written, and directed over 60 films and documentaries. Among his most important films are Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and the documentary Grizzly Man (2005).

Filmography (a selection): Herakles (1962, short) / Lebenszeichen (1968) / Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen (1970) / Fata Morgana (1971) / Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) / Kaspar Hauser (1974) / Herz aus Glas (1976) / Stroszek (1977) / Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) / Woyzeck (1979) / Fitzcarraldo (1982) / Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen (1984) / Cobra Verde (1987) / Echos aus einem düsteren Reich (1990) / Glocken aus der Tiefe – Glaube und Aberglaube in Rußland (1993) / Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) / Invincible (2001) / Wheel of Time (2003) / Grizzly Man (2005) / Rescue Dawn (2006) / Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) / Into the Abyss (2011) / Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016, doc)

Bad Lieutenant

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Abel Ferrara
Written by: Zoë Lund, Abel Ferrara
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderón

Year / Country: 1992, USA
Running Time: 96 mins.

Harvey Keitel is the Bad Lieutenant in Abel Ferrara’s disturbing cop drama. He’s the kind of guy who starts snorting cocaine in his car right after he has dropped his two boys off at school. LT, as he’s credited, is a hopeless addict. He’s addicted to alcohol, crack, smack and gambling. He is also a walking time bomb.

Harvey Keitel was on a roll this year. First he appeared in Reservoir Dogs and then in this, probably the most well known and appreciated movies by New York artist and filmmaker Abel Ferrara. His performance in Bad Lieutenant is very raw, angry and animallike. LT is like a whacked out version of Keitel’s Mean Streets character.

Speaking of that movie, there are some definite links there, and with Scorsese in general. New York plays a big role, and so does religion. In his most desperate moment, LT even hallucinates of Jesus.

So how bad is LT? Pretty bad. He steals illegal drugs from evidence and puts them in the market and he steals money from two guys who just robbed a store owner while he sends the poor guy over to the station to file a report. He uses his badge only to blackmail two underaged girls to perform sexual acts, and his gun is strictly for blowing out his car radio after he lost another basebal bet.

Like Ferrara’s other drug movie The Addiction, Bad Lieutenant is a very effective film about addiction as it shows the constant hunger and the madness of it. LT is just going around frantically feeding the beast, but it’s never going to be enough. We know he is never going to fill that void and his inevitable downfall draws ever nearer. The despair that Keitel expresses is very well acted. The level of self destruction and self hatred is at times hard to watch though.

Rating:

Biography: Abel Ferrara (1951, New York) is a New York artist and filmmaker. He started making amateur films on Super 8 in his teens before making his mark as independent film director with bloody underground films such as The Driller Killer. Ferrara has an independent way of working, uses low budgets, but is still able to attract Hollywood talent for his movies, such as Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel. His raw, realistic style and controversial content has earned him a position as an important voice in American cult cinema.

Filmography (a selection): Nicky’s Film (1971, short) / 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976) / Not Guilty: For Keith Richards (1977, short doc) / The Driller Killer (1979) / Ms. 45 (1981) / Fear City (1984) / Cat Chaser (1989) / King of New York (1990) / Bad Lieutenant (1992) / Body Snatchers (1993) / The Addiction (1995) / The Funeral (1996) / The Blackout (1997) / New Rose Hotel (1998) / ‘R Xmas (2001) / Mary (2005) / Go Go Tales (2007) / Chelsea on the Rocks (2008, doc) / Napoli, Napoli, Napoli (2009) / Welcome to New York (2014) / Pasolini (2014) / Alive in France (2017, doc) / Piazza Vittorio (2017, doc) / The Projectionist (2019, doc) / Tommaso (2019) / Siberia (2019) / Padre Pio (2022)

Double Bill #10: Dune: Part Two & Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

The two major blockbusters of 2024 have a lot in common: They are both sequels/prequels, are epic in scope, have huge ideas, and take place (almost) completely in deserts. Storywise, they are about the hero’s journey. In Dune: Part Two, we witness how the chosen one Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) develops his powers and fulfills his destiny as savior of the Fremen on Arrakis, while in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga we see how Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) became the legendary, one-armed warrior she is in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Furthermore, both sci-fi epics are directed by visionary directors that don’t appear to have had any studio interference. They made the films they wanted to make and both are – well there’s that word again – epic. Both movies also have fantastic villains for the heroes to stand up against. Dune: Part Two has the Harkonnens, with the psychopathic Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) as their latest addition. Furiosa sees the return of the cult leader Immortan Joe with his memorable skull mask and breathing tubes, but also introduces a new bad boy: Dementus (played by a hard to recognize Chris Hemsworth), who’s a depraved sort of father figure for the fiery Furiosa. The henchmen are similar as well: the Harkonnen’s soldiers and the War Boys are both white, bald and loyal without questioning. The production design is in both cases absolutely stunning and must be seen on cinema screens. Highlights: I thought the first showdown between Dementus and Immortan Joe at the Citadel and the attack on the war rig are Furiosa’s most mind-blowing sequences. In Dune: Part Two, Paul’s sandworm ride, Feyd-Rautha’s memorable introduction on the Harkonnen planet of Giedi Prime, and his ritualistic knife fight with Paul are my favorite moments. And there’s good news for the fans: Both movies clearly leave a door open for another sequel. In Furiosa’s case, this would be The Wasteland, another origin story about what happened to Max before we meet him at the beginning of Mad Max: Fury Road. Director George Miller is now 79, but he might still be up for it. It is already confirmed that Denis Villeneuve will return to wrap up his Dune trilogy by adapting Frank Herbert’s book sequel ‘Dune Messiah’. In both cases I say: Bring them on!