Categorie archief: Films

A Special Christmas Viewing of Lethal Weapon

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Ah, wonderful Christmas time… I always love Christmas because I’m off, and I enjoy the whole atmosphere. I love Christmas trees, Christmas food, and those miniature Christmas villages. But also – of course – Christmas movies. Or simply movies set during Christmas, because they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

When I was a child, there were always great Christmas films on television. But an action movie set around Christmas time can really hit my sweet spot as well. A few Christmases ago, I discussed Die Hard and Die Hard 2, perhaps the ultimate Christmas films.

But let us not forget Lethal Weapon – written by Shane Black, produced by Joel Silver and directed by Richard Donner. Like Die Hard, it’s one of the best action movies of the late eighties and early nineties, and it can definitely be considered a Christmas movie too. So let’s take a look at all the Christmas elements the film contains.

It opens with ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ by Bobby Helms, one of the greatest Christmas tracks, and a girl in an apartment building snorting ‘snow’ (X-mas) before she jumps to her death. It’s the investigation into this death that brings detectives Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) together as a police duo, and later, as besties.

We meet Murtaugh, who’s feeling old on his 50th birthday. His house is warm and cozy, and he can’t believe how pretty his daughter looks in her New Year’s dress. His wife tells him his old Vietnam buddy Michael Hunsaker called about his daughter, who, as we soon discover, is the jumper from the opening scene.

Riggs goes undercover to bust a drug ring at a Christmas tree lot. It quickly turns into a bullet festival, and Riggs reveals just how unhinged he is, and that he apparently has a death wish. This is Riggs’ proper introduction in the theatrical version of Lethal Weapon. In the director’s cut on DVD, there’s an earlier introduction in which Riggs risks his life to take down a sniper at a school.

The suicide attempt scene… Very intense. Great acting by Gibson. He almost does it, but Bugs Bunny on TV saves the day by wishing Yosemite Sam a Merry Christmas.

Cops singing Silent Night. We meet Captain Murphy (Steve Kahan) and the police psychologist (Mary Ellen Trainor) who is evaluating Riggs.

A colleague of Murtaugh admits to crying in bed because he was lonely, and he wishes Murtaugh a Merry Christmas. Afterwards, Murtaugh jumps on Riggs because he’s carrying a gun and he doesn’t realize he’s a cop. Riggs floors him in seconds. Nice to meet you.

Meet the bad guys. In a club, main baddie General McAlister (Mitchell Ryan) proves to a customer just how loyal his men are by holding a Zippo under his henchman Mr. Joshua’s (Gary Busey) hand for eleven seconds. He then wishes the impressed drug wholesaler a Merry Christmas.

Roger talks to Hunsaker. His old friend says Roger owes him, and he wants him to find the bad guys who killed his daughter (it turns out she was poisoned, so she would have died even if she hadn’t jumped) and kill them.

The jumper scene. A santa clause is among the onlookers. And Riggs opens the conversation with the jumper with “Merry Christmas.”

Murtouch tries to get the truth out of Riggs against a Christmas background: “You wanna die?”
Riggs tells him that he’s considering eating a bullet and even has a special one for the occasion.

They follow up on a lead and a young woman invites them inside. They just warmed up to each other a little bit. “Merry Christmas”, she says as she drives off. Friendly people in L.A. The reception is less friendly (shotgun) and Riggs makes another kill.

At the shooting range, Riggs and Murtaugh are clearly closer after their dinner at Murtaugh’s place. Murtaugh jokes that if Riggs doesn’t behave, he won’t be invited for Christmas dinner. “My luck is changing by the day”, Riggs says, taking a playful dig at Murtaugh’s wife’s cooking.

“Fuck easy!”
Roger puts the screws on Hunsaker. They know it’s his illegal activities that got his daughter killed. Then Hunsaker starts spilling his guts about a heroin smuggling operation, but before he can give details he is snipered to death from a helicopter while drinking eggnog from a carton. 🙂

“The bastards got my daughter…”

“You know they’re gonna kill her, don’t you? We’re gonna get bloody on this one, Roger.”

After an intense torture session, the Lethal Weapon team breaks out and enter the club where we first met the baddies. The Christmas decorations are all there. It is time for payback.

Surprise! A note for the bad guys.

Riggs Vs. Mr. Blonde. Riggs wins of course. Then Joshua takes a gun from an officer, and they shoot him dead in response. They are one, the ultimate cop duo.

“Merry Christmas Victoria Lynn.”

A bullet as a Christmas gift…

Riggs no longer has a death wish. Murtaugh invites him in because he refuses to eat “the world’s lousiest turkey by himself.”

‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’ plays over the end credits while Sam the Dog and Burbank the Cat fight it out inside.

Dungeon Classics #40: Killing Zoe

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Killing Zoe (1993, USA, France)

Director: Roger Avary
Cast: Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hugues Anglade
Running Time: 96 mins.

Before Tarantino and co-writer Roger Avary struck gold with Pulp Fiction in 1994, both had written and directed a feature. Tarantino made Reservoir Dogs in 1992. While searching for locations for that film, its producer Lawrence Bender found a great bank in downtown Los Angeles which, although not suitable for Reservoir Dogs, seemed perfect for a movie set in a bank. Bender called every screenwriter he knew, asking if they had a script set in a bank. Roger Avary lied and said he did, then furiously wrote the first draft in under two weeks. Although the film is supposed to be set in Paris, it was shot almost entirely in L.A., with only the opening and closing road sequences filmed in the actual city. The story follows a criminal named Zed (Eric Stoltz) – two links to Pulp Fiction right there – who joins his old friend Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and his gang to pull off a robbery during Bastille Day. Beforehand, he orders a prostitute named Zoe (Julie Delpy), and the two immediately click. The night before the robbery, the crew goes out on a binge fueled by booze and heroin. This stretch of the movie drags, but once the robbery begins, the film shifts into the right gear. The heist goes spectacularly wrong, leading to a series of twisted and disturbing turns. Avary, whose filmmaking career never really went very far, proves himself a quite capable director here. Is this on the level of Tarantino? No, it’s too flawed for that, but this is still a memorable, exploitation movie known for its nihilistic tone and merciless violence.

Dungeon Classics #39: True Romance

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

True Romance (1993, USA, France)

Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper
Running Time: 119 mins.

In the early nineties, Tarantino wrote a couple of screenplays, including True Romance and Reservoir Dogs. He chose Reservoir Dogs for his directorial debut and was willing to sell True Romance. In 1993, after his debut was released, he took a date to the perfect date movie: True Romance, the film he had written. And boy, did it turn out to be a good movie; great fucking movie. Just looking at the cast members rolling by in the opening credits is astonishing; seeing so many (future) stars in one ensemble cast is rare. Director Tony Scott couldn’t deal with the screenplay’s non-chronological structure, so he changed it to a linear one. But aside from that, it’s a real Tarantino movie: the sharp dialogue, the great characters, the humor, the sudden bursts of violence; it’s all there. And then there’s an amazing sequence, one of the best he ever wrote: the famous Sicilian scene with Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. Oh man, that is legendary. Also memorable is the brutal confrontation between Alabama and the sadistic Virgil, played by James Gandolfini. The whole movie is basically a rollercoaster in which the two main characters – Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) – fall in love, get married, kill Alabama’s pimp, take off with his coke, and head to Hollywood to sell it, stumbling into one crazy situation after another while always keeping the film’s romantic core intact. True Romance is Scott’s best film and by far the best Tarantino movie not directed by Tarantino. In other words: it’s a must-see.

Sugar Hill (1993)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘He wanted power. He wanted revenge. Now he just wants out.’

Directed by:
Leon Ichaso

Written by:
Barry Michael Cooper

Cast:
Wesley Snipes (Roemello Skuggs), Michael Wright (Raynathan Skuggs), Theresa Randle (Melissa), Abe Vigoda (Gus Molino), Ernie Hudson (Lolly Jonas), Leslie Uggams (Doris Holly), Larry Joshua (Harry Molino), Sam Bottoms (Oliver Thompson), Joe Dallesandro (Tony Adamo), Steve J. Harris (Ricky Goggles)

Sugar Hill feels like Wesley Snipes revisiting his New Jack City character, but through a more somber, tragic lens. The story follows two brothers, Roemello and Raynathan, whose childhoods were shattered by heroin addiction. Now adults, they control the Harlem heroin trade; a seeming success that’s revealed from the outset to be a slow-motion catastrophe.

The film’s message is unmistakable: drugs destroy everything they touch. The narrative begins and ends on a bleak note, anchored by the trauma that set the brothers’ trajectory. Raynathan (Michael Wright), who accidentally killed their mother with a ‘hot shot’, is emotionally broken, unstable, and haunted. Roemello (Snipes), meanwhile, built a drug empire in uneasy partnership with the Italian mob, led by Gus Molino (Abe Vigoda – yes, Tessio from The Godfather).

Although Roemello was once a hardened kingpin in the mold of Nicky Barnes or Frank Lucas, by the time the film begins he’s already looking for an exit. He’s grown weary of the life, and the movie focuses more on his yearning for redemption than on gangster swagger. This shift in emphasis makes Sugar Hill more of a tragedy than a straight crime thriller.

Roemello’s relationship with Melissa (Theresa Randle) gives him hope for a way out, but Raynathan’s instability threatens to pull him back in. On top of that, a new rival – backed by the Italians – escalates tensions and violence.

Visually, the film is impressive, and the cast is stacked with talent. However, Michael Wright’s perpetually tormented performance becomes overwhelming; his intensity, effective in Oz, feels exhausting here. On the other hand, Ernie Hudson (also from Oz) shines as Lolly, the ambitious newcomer.

In the end, Sugar Hill is a flawed but intriguing companion piece to New Jack City. Strong performances and striking cinematography work in its favor, but its relentlessly grim tone and absence of humor make the viewing experience heavy and, at times, draining.

Rating:

Quote:
ROEMELLO: “C’mon Lolly. Look at Harlem, seems like someone is always dying before their time.”

Trivia:
Also known as Harlem.