Tagarchief: Mel Gibson

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.

Double Bill #09: Apocalypto & Mad Max: Fury Road

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Apocalypto (2006) opens with a little quiet before the storm; a tribe of Indians hunting a tapir, capturing it and having a pleasant night around the campfire. Then an evil tribe attacks and their harmonious lives soon descend into violent madness. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) immediately throws you into the action and doesn’t give you a breather for at least 45 minutes. Both movies explore culture gone bad. The Indian tribes are working on destroying their culture from within, but their environment is still beautiful and rich with life. In Fury Road, civilization has already collapsed and all that is left is a desolate wasteland (it was filmed in the Namibian desert). They are both great settings for some of the most spectacular chase scenes ever committed to celluloid. In Apocalypto, it is a grueling foot chase through the deadly jungle (filmed in Mexico’s Catemaco rain forest) and a fight to the death. Mad Max throws in spectacular war machines and a stunningly visualized ride to mayhem. Both feature outrageous custom design, kinetic editing and ‘die hard’ violence along the way. Thematically, the films are very similar. In both stories, the men are the insane ones, and the (pregnant) women carry the greatest hope for humanity in these desperate times. But in both stories, at least one man is sane enough to take on the crazies and help the women, and their offspring, towards a better future. A connection between the two classics you may have missed at this point, is that Apocalypto is directed by none other than Mel Gibson, the original road warrior, who was too old to play Max in 2015. I must admit I enjoyed Apocalypto more than Mad Max: Fury Road. The latter features shots that are just mind boggling, but I didn’t feel much for the characters. In Apocalypto, I did. As a Double Bill, this works fantastically.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: George Miller, George Ogilvie
Written by: Terry Hayes, George Miller
Cast: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence, Adam Cockburn

Year / Country: 1985, Australia
Running Time: 107 mins.

Mel Gibson returns for one last turn as Max Rockatansky, although he doesn’t need his last name anymore. Bruce Spence returns as well as pilot Jedediah. New in the cast is Tina Turner who also sings the opening song. In Mad Max, society was collapsing. In Mad Max 2, we were looking at a full blown apocalypse. In Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, civilization is trying to re-establish itself. Aunty Entity (Turner) has founded Barter Town, a desert town that runs on a new energy source: methane producing pigs.

Max finds himself vehicle-less, so he walks to Barter Town where he is forced to participate in a bloody cage fight. After surviving, he is marooned in the desert where he is found by a tribe of children who believe he is a sort of Messias. They go looking for salvation in the wrong direction (Barter Town), and eventually we get the massive desert pursuit we’ve been waiting for. This time it involves a train and an airplane and it’s quite a spectacular finale.

Unfortunately, the preceding three quarters of the movie are disappointing. Visually, it is well done, but somehow I didn’t really connect with the characters. In the first two films, the character building was not that strong either, but there it was compensated with a fantastic atmosphere and amazingly shot action scenes. In Beyond Thunderdome, there is only the final chase scene, but there is not enough ‘good stuff’ in the hour and a half leading up to it.

One image I want to praise though, which is the shot of the children climbing on a deserted airplane in the desert. This feels like a very accurate vision of where the world is currently heading. Yet, what Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome also makes clear at the end is that there is always hope to be found.

Rating:

Biography: George Miller (1945) is an Australian filmmaker, best known for his Mad Max franchise. In 1971, George attended a film workshop at Melbourne University where he met Byron Kennedy, with whom he formed a friendship and production partnership, until Kennedy’s death in 1983 (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is dedicated to him). Together they made the first Mad Max movie in 1979 for a budget of 400.000 Australian dollars. It earned 100 million dollars at the box office worldwide and became the most profitable film of all time (the record was not broken until The Blair Witch Project 20 years later). Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) earned Oscar nominations for best film and director. The latest entry in the series – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – will be released in May 2024.

Filmography (a selection): Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022), Mad Max: Fury Road (12015), Happy Feet 2 (2011), Happy Feet (2006), Babe: Pig in the City (1998), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983, segment), The Dismissal (1993, TV episode), Mad Max 2 (1983), Mad Max (1979), The Devil in Evening Dress (1975, short)

Biography: George Ogilvie (1931 – 2020) was born on 5 March 1931 in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. He was a director and actor, known mostly for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), He died on 5 April 2020 in New South Wales, Australia.

Filmography: The Dismissal (1983, TV), Bodyline (1984, TV), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985, co-dir), Short Changed (1986), The Place at the Coast (1987), The Shiralee (1987, TV-episodes), Touch the Sun: Princess Kate (1988, TV-movie), The Australians (1988, TV-episode), The Crossing (1990), The Battlers (1994, TV), The Feds: Deception (1995, TV-movie), The Feds: Seduction (1995, TV-movie), The Last of the Ryans (1997, TV-movie), The Blue Healers (2002-2006, TV-episodes)

Mad Max 2

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: George Miller
Written by: Terry Hayes, George Miller, Brian Hannant
Cast: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Vernon Wells

Year / Country: 1981, Australia
Running Time: 96 mins.

Mad Max 2 also known as The Road Warrior is the high-powered sequel to the 1979 Australian cult classic Mad Max. The apocalypse that was still taking shape in the first movie is now complete. The country has turned into a desolate wasteland in which the few survivors scavenge for food and fuel.

Lone warrior Max and his Australian cattle dog (one of the great cinema pets!) are two of these wanderers, but unlike others he’s not part of a punk gang or local community. A gyrocopter pilot (Bruce Spence) leads him to a group that has a huge amount of fuel, but they are under constant attack by a gang of outlaws led by the savage Humungus. Max, who has lost his wife and child in the first movie, is out of touch with humanity. By aiding the desert people, he eventually finds some of his human feelings again.

The second movie in the series is the most critically acclaimed of the original trilogy and justly so. The budget was clearly higher after the box office success of the first one and the filmmakers have spent this money well on kick-ass costumes and apocalyptic vehicles. It takes some time before the action gets going, but when it does – oh man – it is really great stuff. Better even than the first one in terms of insane car wreckage, stunts and brutal deaths.

The final chase in which Max attempts to drive a rig to a safe haven – what would essentially be the entire plot of Mad Max: Fury Road is a delicious, irresistible piece of action cinema.

Rating:

Biography: George Miller (1945) is an Australian filmmaker, best known for his Mad Max franchise. In 1971, George attended a film workshop at Melbourne University where he met Byron Kennedy, with whom he formed a friendship and production partnership, until Kennedy’s death in 1983 (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is dedicated to him). Together they made the first Mad Max movie in 1979 for a budget of 400.000 Australian dollars. It earned 100 million dollars at the box office worldwide and became the most profitable film of all time (the record was not broken until The Blair Witch Project 20 years later). Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) earned Oscar nominations for best film and director. The latest entry in the series – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – will be released in May 2024.

Filmography (a selection): Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022), Mad Max: Fury Road (12015), Happy Feet 2 (2011), Happy Feet (2006), Babe: Pig in the City (1998), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983, segment), The Dismissal (1993, TV episode), Mad Max 2 (1983), Mad Max (1979), The Devil in Evening Dress (1975, short)