kgehebe
Joined Jun 2018
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kgehebe's rating
Based on the true story of the gruesome Wonderland murders in 1981 which police compare to the Manson murders a dozen years earlier and merely 2.5 miles from the site of the massacre. 5 people are horrifically beaten and 1 survivor left with brain damage and permanent amnesia. The victims are vile drug dealers who are completely unsympathetic to say the least. How a group of violent criminals could have gotten a lease on a nice townhouse in the upscale neighborhood of Laurel Canyon is a story in and of itself. (Most of us have to go through background and credit checks and would be thrown out if we have a loud party.) There were parties, raucous behavior at all hours along with the sale of illicit narcotics a few blocks from the home of Gov Jerry Brown and Steven Spielberg. The seedy underbelly on the periphery of America's elite class is mindblowing with a bloody, horrifying conclusion.
John Holmes is the biggest porn star of all time. A personification of an era of excess without consequences until they caught up with him. Past his prime and severely addicted to cocaine, he gets ensnared with some of the worst players in the drug world. The drug gang at the Wonderland house (the name of the street where the townhouse is located) are the only dealers left in the city that will supply Holmes' cocaine habit. Holmes has also managed to enter the world of Eddie Nash, a notorious drug lord and heavy user himself.
Along the way, Holmes pimps out his 16 year old girlfriend, Dawn and uses his wife for her car and the money she lends him. Both Kate Bosworth and Lisa Kudrow are incredibly effective as the girlfriend and wife, respectively. Why Kudrow is still married to Holmes is never explored but she manages to portray Sharon Holmes as a woman with strong moral convictions even going so far as being a surrogate mother to Dawn the teen-aged girlfriend.
Holmes sets up a robbery of Eddie Nash's house with the Wonderland gang. Nash later concludes that is was Holmes who set him up and after having him beaten he threatens to kill his whole family if he doesn't give up identities of the robbers. He then sends Holmes back to the Wonderland house with a group of thugs (whose identities are still unknown to this day) to kill everyone in the house and get back the stolen loot and drugs, which is estimated to be worth $1.5M. There is a terrifying re-enactment of the murders which is one of the most shocking moments captured on film, IMHO.
The entire movie is a collection of different witness statements which the viewer is left to decide whom to believe. In real life, Holmes was charged with the 4 murders but later acquitted as was Eddie Nash after bribing a juror. We know what happened yet there are still details that remained unsolved to this day.
The cast of supporting players are stunning including Dylan McDermott as David Lind, the surviving member of the Wonderland gang and Eric Bogosian as Eddie Nash. Josh Lucas gives a chilling performance as Ron Launius one of the Wonderland victims. But the movie belongs to Val Kilmer, who has just passed away as I write this. His portrayal of John Holmes as a glamourous anti hero past his heydey destroyed by addiction and his own devices is sleazy, tragic and unforgettable. When remembering Val Kilmer, put this one on your list, it's worth it.
John Holmes is the biggest porn star of all time. A personification of an era of excess without consequences until they caught up with him. Past his prime and severely addicted to cocaine, he gets ensnared with some of the worst players in the drug world. The drug gang at the Wonderland house (the name of the street where the townhouse is located) are the only dealers left in the city that will supply Holmes' cocaine habit. Holmes has also managed to enter the world of Eddie Nash, a notorious drug lord and heavy user himself.
Along the way, Holmes pimps out his 16 year old girlfriend, Dawn and uses his wife for her car and the money she lends him. Both Kate Bosworth and Lisa Kudrow are incredibly effective as the girlfriend and wife, respectively. Why Kudrow is still married to Holmes is never explored but she manages to portray Sharon Holmes as a woman with strong moral convictions even going so far as being a surrogate mother to Dawn the teen-aged girlfriend.
Holmes sets up a robbery of Eddie Nash's house with the Wonderland gang. Nash later concludes that is was Holmes who set him up and after having him beaten he threatens to kill his whole family if he doesn't give up identities of the robbers. He then sends Holmes back to the Wonderland house with a group of thugs (whose identities are still unknown to this day) to kill everyone in the house and get back the stolen loot and drugs, which is estimated to be worth $1.5M. There is a terrifying re-enactment of the murders which is one of the most shocking moments captured on film, IMHO.
The entire movie is a collection of different witness statements which the viewer is left to decide whom to believe. In real life, Holmes was charged with the 4 murders but later acquitted as was Eddie Nash after bribing a juror. We know what happened yet there are still details that remained unsolved to this day.
The cast of supporting players are stunning including Dylan McDermott as David Lind, the surviving member of the Wonderland gang and Eric Bogosian as Eddie Nash. Josh Lucas gives a chilling performance as Ron Launius one of the Wonderland victims. But the movie belongs to Val Kilmer, who has just passed away as I write this. His portrayal of John Holmes as a glamourous anti hero past his heydey destroyed by addiction and his own devices is sleazy, tragic and unforgettable. When remembering Val Kilmer, put this one on your list, it's worth it.
Twice in a Lifetime is about love: family love, romantic love, sibling love, love between two old friends. It has an all star cast who are unfortunately too big for the script which seems to have been written for television.
Gene Hackman is Harry MacKenzie, a man who married very young and took a job in the local steel mill which pays well but is a place where dreams go to die, at least for some. The movie opens on the occasion of Harry's 50th birthday where his adult daughters, their significant others and grandchildren are having a celebratory dinner in his honor. Its a small, working class home filled with love but has probably seen better days.
Ellen Burstyn is his wife Kate, a plain but hard working woman, who's devoted her life to her family. There's a moment where she gives Harry a kiss on the forehead at the birthday dinner and he brushes it away. It gives us the first indication that things are not as they seem.
Kate tells Harry at the birthday dinner to go meet the guys at the pub down the street for a few beers. He goes alone wearing a bow tie and dress shirt and meets his best friend, Nick (played by Brian Dennehy) where a group of friends are waiting for him. Its there he meets middle aged sexpot, Audrey, (played by Ann Margret), recently widowed and working her 1st day on the job at as a barmaid. They quickly begin an affair.
Harry realizes how unfulfilled he's been in his marriage to Kate for a long time. He's asks for a divorce and the rest of the movie is how she and his other family members deal with this life changing event.
I could really see this being a 90 minute TV pilot with Dick Van Dyke as Harry having a mid life crisis, later being developed into a weekly series in the Eight is Enough vein. Yet somehow you end up routing for everybody, with the exception of Amy Madigan who is really annoying despite having gotten an academy award nomination for the role. Burstyn plays the role of Kate with just right balance of emotional pain and spiritual growth. Hackman portrays Harry as sympathetic and relatable despite being a cad for leaving his wife after 30 years. I should hate the guy, but I ended up routing for him and Audrey.
Overall, its a bittersweet little family movie about the death of a long marriage. The characters come away changed but ultimately find a way to carry on and keep the family love going. Too much padding in certain areas and not enough character development but worth seeing.
Gene Hackman is Harry MacKenzie, a man who married very young and took a job in the local steel mill which pays well but is a place where dreams go to die, at least for some. The movie opens on the occasion of Harry's 50th birthday where his adult daughters, their significant others and grandchildren are having a celebratory dinner in his honor. Its a small, working class home filled with love but has probably seen better days.
Ellen Burstyn is his wife Kate, a plain but hard working woman, who's devoted her life to her family. There's a moment where she gives Harry a kiss on the forehead at the birthday dinner and he brushes it away. It gives us the first indication that things are not as they seem.
Kate tells Harry at the birthday dinner to go meet the guys at the pub down the street for a few beers. He goes alone wearing a bow tie and dress shirt and meets his best friend, Nick (played by Brian Dennehy) where a group of friends are waiting for him. Its there he meets middle aged sexpot, Audrey, (played by Ann Margret), recently widowed and working her 1st day on the job at as a barmaid. They quickly begin an affair.
Harry realizes how unfulfilled he's been in his marriage to Kate for a long time. He's asks for a divorce and the rest of the movie is how she and his other family members deal with this life changing event.
I could really see this being a 90 minute TV pilot with Dick Van Dyke as Harry having a mid life crisis, later being developed into a weekly series in the Eight is Enough vein. Yet somehow you end up routing for everybody, with the exception of Amy Madigan who is really annoying despite having gotten an academy award nomination for the role. Burstyn plays the role of Kate with just right balance of emotional pain and spiritual growth. Hackman portrays Harry as sympathetic and relatable despite being a cad for leaving his wife after 30 years. I should hate the guy, but I ended up routing for him and Audrey.
Overall, its a bittersweet little family movie about the death of a long marriage. The characters come away changed but ultimately find a way to carry on and keep the family love going. Too much padding in certain areas and not enough character development but worth seeing.
Sharky's Machine was released in December, 1981 in order that it would qualify for Oscar consideration that year. Timing is everything and the reason perhaps this classic has never received the recognition it deserves. It was Christmastime in 1981 and the public didn't have the interest in seeing the graphic violence in the film. Had it been released over the summer, with the kids out of school hungry for a superb action thriller, history might have been very different. Sharky's Machine received a lukewarm reception and Reynolds stuck to routine action formula after this, most of which are forgotten today, and rightly so. He might have had Clint Eastwood's career under different circumstances and we would have a wealth of material from Reynolds to remember today.
Based on William Dehl's gritty novel, Reynolds' plays an Atlanta undercover narcotics cop who's drug bust goes violently sideways in the opening scene. As a result, he is demoted to Vice, a place where good cops go to buy time until retirement with little of importance to do. We are introduced to a small rag tag group of cops supposedly past their prime, arresting cross dressers and street hookers in a the basement of police headquarters. Eventually, Sharky and his "Machine" stumble across a big time international crime syndicate with links to a gubernatorial candidate and the police department itself. When a cop and hooker are brutally murdered while in bed doing lines of cocaine together, instead of turning the case over the homicide, they wiretap the home of Dominoe played by Rachel Ward and Sharky conducts 24 hour surveillance. The scenes of Sharky growing fonder of Dominoe are done with taste and authenticity. The sex scenes are suggested as not to overpower the emotional balance Reynolds seeks to achieve.
Rachel Ward is stunning as Dominoe the call girl at the center of a dangerous racket. In lesser films, The Hero Gets the Girl storylines are thrown in like obligatory window dressing but it's much more complex here. The emotional connection to the developing love story draws the audience in. We see the nuance in each character...Dominoe the call girl who is also a dancer with a somewhat childlike essence (we later find out why)...Sharky is a tough guy who still needs to be loved. He is a guardian of innocence.
The supporting cast are top notch, Charles Durning is the lieutenant who spends a lot of time yelling to assert authority but also to remind everyone not to get to involved with anything important because he has 2 years left until retirement. Brian Keith, Bernie Casey and Richard Libertini are all gems who mix tough guy persona with humor and humanity. Burt Reynolds celebrates old school masculinity, the good, the bad and the ugly but most of all reminds us of the scruffy underdogs who cannot be bought, who get the bad guys in the end, (sometimes at a terrible cost) and take back their cities.
Henry Silva is just remarkable as a drug addicted hit man, one of the scariest killers in cinema history. The city of Atlanta is the backdrop as is the classy, unforgettable jazz score which includes Randy Crawford, Doc Severinsen, Sarah Vaughn and Joe Williams. I have the soundtrack downloaded on my phone to this day.
1981 was the year the Academy fell over themselves to honor Warren Beatty's long, boring, emotionally vacant ode to communism, Reds, yet overlooked Burt Reynolds because of his reputation as a gruff barbarian dope who was a superstar amongst the stinky unwashed. What a disservice to a great film, it's just fabulous.
Based on William Dehl's gritty novel, Reynolds' plays an Atlanta undercover narcotics cop who's drug bust goes violently sideways in the opening scene. As a result, he is demoted to Vice, a place where good cops go to buy time until retirement with little of importance to do. We are introduced to a small rag tag group of cops supposedly past their prime, arresting cross dressers and street hookers in a the basement of police headquarters. Eventually, Sharky and his "Machine" stumble across a big time international crime syndicate with links to a gubernatorial candidate and the police department itself. When a cop and hooker are brutally murdered while in bed doing lines of cocaine together, instead of turning the case over the homicide, they wiretap the home of Dominoe played by Rachel Ward and Sharky conducts 24 hour surveillance. The scenes of Sharky growing fonder of Dominoe are done with taste and authenticity. The sex scenes are suggested as not to overpower the emotional balance Reynolds seeks to achieve.
Rachel Ward is stunning as Dominoe the call girl at the center of a dangerous racket. In lesser films, The Hero Gets the Girl storylines are thrown in like obligatory window dressing but it's much more complex here. The emotional connection to the developing love story draws the audience in. We see the nuance in each character...Dominoe the call girl who is also a dancer with a somewhat childlike essence (we later find out why)...Sharky is a tough guy who still needs to be loved. He is a guardian of innocence.
The supporting cast are top notch, Charles Durning is the lieutenant who spends a lot of time yelling to assert authority but also to remind everyone not to get to involved with anything important because he has 2 years left until retirement. Brian Keith, Bernie Casey and Richard Libertini are all gems who mix tough guy persona with humor and humanity. Burt Reynolds celebrates old school masculinity, the good, the bad and the ugly but most of all reminds us of the scruffy underdogs who cannot be bought, who get the bad guys in the end, (sometimes at a terrible cost) and take back their cities.
Henry Silva is just remarkable as a drug addicted hit man, one of the scariest killers in cinema history. The city of Atlanta is the backdrop as is the classy, unforgettable jazz score which includes Randy Crawford, Doc Severinsen, Sarah Vaughn and Joe Williams. I have the soundtrack downloaded on my phone to this day.
1981 was the year the Academy fell over themselves to honor Warren Beatty's long, boring, emotionally vacant ode to communism, Reds, yet overlooked Burt Reynolds because of his reputation as a gruff barbarian dope who was a superstar amongst the stinky unwashed. What a disservice to a great film, it's just fabulous.