Nails

In the post-The Wire world we now dwell in, we are forced to look upon the action/cop thrillers of the 1980's and early 1990's with somewhat fresh eyes. We now understand how a city is run, and how bureaucracy and politics can stand in the way of, say, the police force, getting their job done. No longer can a leather-jacketed, cocktail-stick chewing cop- on-the-edge cast aside the need of a search warrant and simply kick the door down. It used to be that as long as he drags out his man either in cuffs or in a body bag, and saves the girl, nobody will care about his disregard for the law, and if they don't, I quote Rambo, "f**k 'em!". But the enlightenment set by The Wire causes something like Nails, a made-for-TV, obscure little title probably forgotten by whoever has actually seen it, to fall from 'terrible' or 'run-of-the-mill', to 'outright laughable' due to it's complete lack of procedural logic and sense.

'Good cop with a bad attitude' Harry 'Nails' Niles (Dennis Hopper) and his partner Jack (Earl Billings) are lured into a trap by some gangsters, leaving Jack dead and Harry mourning. Getting no help from his police department, of which none attend Jack's funeral, Harry decides to use his street know-how to scour the criminal underworld of L.A. in search of vengeance. He discovers a dirty trail full of conspiracy and possible police cover-up that seems to lead all the way up to rich slumlord Noah Owens (Keith David), who is helping fund a Senator's campaign run. Battling alcoholism and a very bad temper, he must also try and win back his estranged ex-wife Mary (Anne Archer) before the gangsters get to her too.

I would probably have never even been aware of this film's existence had it not been for the poster in some cinema magazine or other back in 1992. My brother and I remembered it due to the hilarious title and equally hilarious tagline, so the temptation to actually go ahead and watch this proved too much. It's not quite as bad as I was expecting, given Hopper's energetic, but hardly convincing, performance at least managing to keep me half-interested. Common in early 90's movies, the technical aspects of the film are dreadful, and the action scenes are dull, with a few car chases and machine gun fights scattered throughout. It's so full of plot holes and weird narrative twists (Harry is paying his ex-wife, who is an important member of the Senator's campaign trail, for sex) that is best experienced on full mental shut-down, or else you're in danger of throwing things at the screen. Befitting of its obscurity, and a reminder of how bad the 90's really were.

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Nails is one of those good b film's, you pass in the video shop, and not give it a fair hearing. At the advice of my half brother, I decided to rent this very good actioner, made by a director, whose films I really like, Rolling Thunder being a favorite of mine. In this wild cop tale, kick arse cop, Hopper, who like Devane, or more so Seagal, is on a trail of hot revenge. In a double hit, half gone right, thanks to Hopper's survival, where him and his late partner (Earl Billings- One False Move) are set up, a maddened Hopper vows revenge, against his slain partner, and it's his character which is beautifully and excitingly delivered, that makes this film fun. By the way he acts, it's hard to believe that he actually is a cop. Harry Niles, (Hopper) is a loose cannon, but you love em' none the less. His older veteran partner/best friend (Milan) is a Mexican food lover, like me, where I got hungry watching him eat all the type. Some actors who show up in the film, you aren't surprised to see, or to see why they were cast. Political ties are brought into the story too, bigger bad asses, higher up. Though Cliff De Young, a corrupt campaigner, didn't really do anything for me here, his idol, Keith David an ex con who's now being elected mayor was much more effective, his nasty angrily smiling, sitting profile, a haunting shot etched in my mind. where especially, in a film like this, you wouldn't expect an open ending, where there's a lot more unfinished business between Hopper and him. Hopper's wife's (Archer) life is made very difficult, as unfortunately she works (you guessed it?) for De Young and cronies. With a cool upbeat soundtrack in the end credits, Nail's is not a badly formulated movie, although it's not without faults. It's kind of smart in bits too, the ambush in the opening, for starters, but congrats really go to Hopper, for forming just a exciting, entertaining, laughable and likable character, not the first movie, where he's acted like a kid, the revenge potboiler Boiling Point, was another one that sprung to mind. His partner, Milan is another asset. Watch for a younger John Hawkes, in a small but memorably great role, as antique thief, where Hopper busts up the joint, declaring, how he loves animals to people. It'd be great in reality, if they're were more Harry Nile's in the world. Things would get done more properly.

Nails is one of those movies that since it's made for TV, then no one can see how bad two big stars can be. Dennis Hopper and Anne Archer should have known better. Hopper was in a pre-Speed slump and had I seen this stinker first, then I would've never seen Speed (What a mistake that would've been). I was suprised at the level of violence and language used in this movie. Never would I have believed that it could've made it to TV like this.

+ (GOOD THINGS) 1.) The car chases 2.) The opening credits

• (BAD THINGS) 1.) The sets (ugh!) 2.) Hopper's performance 3.) The script 4.) The direction 5.) Archer's performance

Total: 2/10

Its every single cop movie cliche in existence...but Dennis Hopper is pure entertainment here. The plot is Hopper's trying to get the guys who kill his partner in the first five minutes of the movie. There's apparently a hundred plus bad guys that Hopper has to go thru in order to find the responsible party. Along the way, you get to see Hopper do thinks like: he puts a bad guy's head into a big huge bowl of shrimp that he's gobbling down, at another point he runs to catch a bad guy who's climbed onto the back of an escaping truck and of course Hopper catches him and pulls him off the truck and beats the crap out of him. Oh and there's the scene where attacked by drive by gunfire while in the bathtub with his dog Hopper grabs his gun and runs out of his house after the bad guy while stark raving nude. (shrugs) I had fun watching it. Its a very enjoyable hour and a half if you like Hopper. (and who doesn't like Hopper come on now!!!) Also Keith David is in it and the end credits song is by Eddie Money! How can you go wrong??? You can't--He's Nails!!!!

I came by casually with this movie when I decided to watch various movies with Keith David (who has one of the best voices ever heard on film) and when I arrived to this one I thought I would have hated since it has a pathetic score of 5,1 but instead, I ended up loving it very much. And I think it's criminally underrated especially here!

Harry Nails (Dennis Hopper) is a though Los Angeles cop that when he goes investigating one night with his partner has his partner killed. Furious about what happened, he is recommended by his superiors to take a little vacation as they think that he might be stressed, but he refuses. Nails instead goes on a rampage towards all the criminals and their co-horts and he won't stop at nothing for having justice served (and he won't take a NO for an answer). He would also manage to expose the corrupted nature of his former colleague.

This is a great action movie despite it's a made for TV one. It has lots of chase scenes (including with cars), shootouts, fistfights, places trashed around... you can't get better than this one! I was surprised at how many twists and turns were as the bad guys were real jerks.

Dennis Hopper steals the show in every scene he's in as the tough cop Harry Nails, who has a ruggedness a bit reminiscent of Clint Eastwood in his prime and I really loved his performance. I thought that his treatment towards those scumbags was necessary. The supporting cast is full of then unknwon faces that soon become famous as they were more active in movies: John Hawkes, Keith David, Jay Acovone and even Danny Trejo as a barman were quite a surprise to watch. And the soundtrack was very funky in some points.

If you ever have a chance to watch this movie... watch it at all costs! It's a great action movie that fans of the genre will enjoy and it's not like your typical made for TV movie. When it was over I thought ''why they didn't released it in theaters?'' because I think that if it was released in theaters it could have today a much higher score and more reviews.