Rotten Reelz Reviews: corrupt police

Showing posts with label corrupt police. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Grindhouse Flicks: Dolemite

Welcome back folks to Day 2 of Grindhouse Flicks. We tackle some blaxploitation this time around and well... it isn't what you would call genius but I am certain there is some entertainment value in there... somewhere. We follow the feats and talent of a fellow trying to make his way as an urban hero who has dealt with corrupt cops, pimps and street thugs. This is Dolemite.

Huggy Bear ain't got sh*t on me!

Our "hero" is a pimp that was set up by a rival pimp name of Willie Greene (D'Urville Martin of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Rosemary's Baby, Boss, Disco 9000 and Black Samurai) and two cops in his pocket that plant enough kilos of drugs, stolen furs and guns in the man's trunk it screams set-up but the frame holds and our boy Dolemite (Rudy Ray Moore of Dolemite, The Human Tornado, Disco Godfather, Shaolin Dolemite, Prank and Big Money Hustlas) is up the pokey thanks to the smokeys.

Looking down the barrel of 20 years, Dolemite get called out from his cell to visit the warden. Our first bit of dialogue from our protagonist is "What does that rat soup eating motherf**ker want now?" Charming, I know. The warden tells him that the evidence that Dolemite's madam Queen B (Lady Reed of Dolemite, The Human Tornado, Petey Wheatstraw and Disco Godfather) put together clearly shows that Dolemite is the victim in all of this and this being the 70s and no need to research how laws operate, the warden is letting him out to seek vengeance on the cops and Willie Greene. Yeah, you read that right. Apparently not only is Dolemite pardoned but allowed to operate a sting operation of his own.

Run hoes!! I cover you!!

No sooner is Dolemite out of his prison garb and in his own threads a couple of Willie Greene's boys try to smoke him and he turns the tables on them and guns them down. Out for less than an hour and two homicides. Queen B has had all the hoes in the stable learn Karate or Taekownfaux because the fight choreography is so shoddy you can clearly see the kicks and punches are missing.

Dolemite's biggest problem is the cop Mitchell (No, not Joe Don Baker!) and he is out to make sure " The Man" is constantly on Dolemite's neck, keeping him in his place and every other racist white stereotypical crap he can pull. Dolemite's main source of info on the street keeps him in the loop and is trying to place Mitchell (John Kerry of The Fall Guy, Running Hot, Murder, She Wrote, Pink Lightning and Paid to Kill) and Willie Greene in the same place. Catch them in the act and then take care of them. Our snitch "Creeper" (Vainus Rackstraw of Dolemite) is not Rondo Hatton but a jive talking, hamburger loving, leering perv that got deemed worthy of his own theme music. His information is always good and well worth the price to pay.

Can Dolemite bring down Willie Greene, Mitchell and stick it to the Mayor for allowing the frame to go down? Will his own choreography look cheesier than the girls? How many pimp outfits does one man need?

A few bits of interest on the film. I saw the damn boom mic so many times in this flick it deserves top billing. Rudy Ray Moore's comedy apparently had an impact on the following people: Quentin Tarantino, Snoop Dogg and Eddie Murphy. Eddie, keep that crap on the down low.

The New York Times found the phenomena of this film's cult following dubbing it the Citizen Kane of Blaxploitation. Instead of Shaft, Coffy, Foxy Brown, The Fix and about a dozen other titles I can think of more worthy.

Snoop was so moved and molded by Rudy Ray Moore that he asked him to star in his video Murder Was the Case as Dolemite. Rudy up to the day he died has carried this character in his act as it has been beneficial and emotionally rewarding.

Yeah he had to buy and pay for everyone of them... Poor sod.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Grindhouse Flicks: Maniac Cop

Howdy readers! Welcome to Day 1 of Grindhouse Flicks. Thought we start off with a horror/ slasher/thriller. A story of a cop that may have been a bit abusive on the streets, tough nosed and hard hitting, his deeds of good intentions caught up with him landing him right smack in prison. This is Maniac Cop.

Freddy Kruger got buff!

Written by Larry Cohen (Black Caesar, It's Alive, It Lives Again, Q, Perfect Strangers, Best Seller, A Return to Salem's Lot and Deadly Illusion) and directed by horror director William Lustig (The Violation of Claudia, Maniac, Vigilante, Maniac Cop, Hit List and Relentless) our film opens on the desolate, crime-ridden streets of New York that just happens to look like L.A. And regions of Culver City California for most of it. Ahem, the rampant street crime is pouring in as a young woman evades a couple of muggers only to find a beat cop in uniform. Pleading for his help, this mammoth sized flat foot snaps her neck like a twig and then tackles her muggers. A tad excessive? Perhaps.

With this rash of homicides Detective McCrae (Tom Atkins of The Rockford Files, The Fog, Escape from New York, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps, Lethal Weapon, Turn of Faith and My Bloody Valentine) is on the case trying to make heads or tails of this but pieces together from more than a dozen witnesses there is a big man in a cop's uniform dropping people like it is deer season.

The Commissioner (Richard Roundtree of Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, Shaft in Africa, Earthquake, Day of the Assassin, A Time to Die, Roc, Ballistic and Se7en) and the Captain (William Smith of Laredo, Any Which Way You Can, Conan the Barbarian, The Outsiders and Island of Witches) warn McCrae it is his ass on the chopping block if this gets out to the general public.

I said the damn words!...basically.

Meanwhile housewife Ellen Forrest (Victoria Catlin of Ghoulies, Slow Burn, Maid to Order, Maniac Cop, Mutant on the Bounty and Howling V: The Rebirth)thinks since her husband isn't jumping her bones and is acting all weird that maybe hubby Jack (Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead, Crimewave, Intruder, Moontrap, Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Ellen, Burn Notice and Ash vs Evil Dead) is taking extra shifts to commit macabre murders and maybe a necklace out of testicles and the like. After following him to a cheesy and sleazy hotel, it turns out Jack is actually just having an affair with another officer Theresa Mallory (Laurene Landon of ...All the Marbles, Airplane II: The Sequel, Hundra, Maniac Cop and Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance). Um...yay hubby isn't a psycho, he's an adulterer.

Ellen leaves in a huff screaming lawyer, his ass and the whole ball of wax all the while crying profusely that our "Officer McLarge" takes care of her. Jack goes on patrol only to find out his wife has been bumped off and the rest of the force is looking at Jack as a prime suspect. Yeah, right height guys but nowhere near the build. McCrae and Mallory pool their resources to prove that Jack isn't the killer when a name surfaces, Matt Cordell. A highly decorated street cop who was convicted of brutality while looking into corruption in city hall. A corrupt mayor??!!! Well now that never happens. Cordell got jumped by some prisoners, shanked a few times and allegedly died in Sing Sing. Or did he?

Can McCrae and Mallory prove Cordell is still alive? Can Jack see the "Forrest" from the trees? Can Jake stop doing stupid puns??

A few fun facts on the flick.

Director/writer Sam Raimi does a cameo as an ace reporter. Both Bruce Campbell and Robert Z'Dar (Matt Cordell) have been dubbed the title "The Chin". The body count for this slasher was 19 dead. Modest by most horror flick standards.

Umm...maybe he is also a chiropractor?

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

TV Episode: Daredevil: Into the Ring

Hello all and welcome back to the week. From the ABC Studios production team comes a different kind of hero. Streetwise, book smart and quite the fighter. Today we head to New York or more specifically Hell's Kitchen. Violence in the streets, drugs being pushed and humans trafficked in sex slaving. With the cops being bought off, people terrified to speak up and no Avengers coming to save the day, the folks of Hell's Kitchen pray for an angel... or perhaps a devil they know. This is Daredevil: Into the Ring.

Batman? I could take him.

With the partnership that is Nelson & Murdock, our young lawyers Franklin "Foggy" Nelson (Elden Henson of Cast Away, Manic, Cheats, Under the Tuscan Sun, Lords of Dogtown, Deja Vu and Smith) and his partner blind man Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox of Stardust, Stone of Destiny, Glorious 39, Boardwalk Empire and Hello Carter) have just secured their practice in Hell's Kitchen, hanging their shingle out and ready to defend those in need. No sooner have they set up a few desks, a friend on the police force, Sgt. Mahoney (No, not Steve Guttenberg but Royce Johnson of Life on Mars, Law & Order, Conspiracy X, A Magic Helmet and The Following) calls the fellas explaining a young lady is being held in custody due to being found with a dead man covered in the man's blood, found with the murder weapon and scared out of her mind.

Vampire Jessica! SHAME ON YOU!!!

Matt and Foggy are on the scene and ask the very confused and frightened Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll of Aces 'N' Eights, True Blood, Mother's Day, Seven Days in Utopia, Catch .44 and The Automatic Hate) details to the case. Genuinely scared she starts explaining how she didn't kill the man. Matt believes her and he and Foggy are going to do everything their power to get her out as she hasn't even been charged for what clearly looks like an open and shut case. As she later tells Matt that she is a whistle blower on the odds and ends of Union Allied when she finds discrepancies in the books that screams a pension embezzling.

Nelson & Murdock point out to the detectives in charge there is too many holes in the case, coupled with an attempt on her life while in their care, Karen needs be released ASAP. Karen still terrified to be in her apartment opts to stay with Matt for a few days. Matt drifts off to sleep as Karen leaves to go back to her apartment in search of her copy of the records on Union Allied. An assassin is posted at her apartment to end her, take the records and clean this mess up. Unbeknownst to the assassin, a black garbed man with a mask is there to beat the crap out of him and save the girl. With the files in hand, the information is leaked to the press and whomever was keeping this underwraps has a scandal on their hands. Is Karen safe? Is there more to this that just a money making scheme? Who pulled the strings to frame Karen?

A few points of interest now. We are introduced to a re-occuring character from the comic, such as petty crook Turk Barrett, one of Daredevil's unwilling informant. Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under and Dexter expressed interest in playing Daredevil. The real estate agent pitching the building to Matt and Foggy points out that they are lucky this spot in Hell's Kitchen is even around after the events that last summer commenting on the Battle of New York in the Avengers. Nice link up there.

You know I can't see you flipping me off, right?

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Robert Evans Week: The Godfather

Welcome to Day 3 of Robert Evans Week and baby we got a doozy for you today. With immigrants, an aging patriarch of a syndicate makes preparations to leave his legacy in the hands of his son. From the mind of brilliant writer Mario Puzo (The Dark Arena, The Fortunate Pilgrim, Fools Die, The Sicilian, The Fourth K and The Last Don) and brought to us by director/writer/producer Francis Ford Coppola ( Dementia 13, Patton, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, The Cotton Club Dracula and The Rainmaker) comes the story of power changing hands in a ten year span based around a son that was deemed an outsider to the family to becoming harden with the times and moves up the ranks. This is The Godfather.

I'm sorry!!! I'LL TIP!!!

Don Corleone: I hope you don't mind the way I keep going over this Barzini business.
Michael: No, not at all.
Don Corleone: It's an old spoiler. I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men.

Overseeing his daughter's wedding, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando of A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, On the Waterfront, Guys and Dolls, Mutiny on the Bounty, Last Tango in Paris and Superman) greets his wayward war hero son Michael (Al Pacino of Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Bobby Deerfield, Scarface, Glengarry Glen Ross, Scent of a Woman, Heat and The Insider) with his girlfriend Kay (Diane Keaton of Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Reds, Baby Boom, Father of the Bride, The First Wives Club, Plan B and Something's Gotta Give) and the Don is bombarded be requests from people in the neighborhood, one of which is this would-be crooner, his godson Johnny Fontane (Crooner and actor Al Martino) for this most coveted role in a movie and not getting his foot in the door.

Vito sends his consigilere Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall of To Kill a Mockingbird, The Chase, Bullitt, True Grit, THX 1138, The Eagle Has Landed, Apocalypse Now and The Great Santini) to negotiate with studio mogul Jack Woltz (John Marley of Faces, Love Story, Dead of Night, The Amateur, Falcon's Gold, Utilities and The Glitter Dome) for the part. Woltz is adamant about the refusal until he wakes the next morning to find his prized stallion's head in his sheets. Really hate to have seen Hagen's next counter proposal.

Early Christmas in 1945 drug czar Virgil " The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Letterieri of The Getaway, Mr. Majestyk, Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Winner Take All and The Hired Gun) backed up by rival mob the Tattaglias, asks the Don for a piece of the action in his drug and protection racket through all his political connections. Vito does not approve of drug peddlers and sends his enforcer Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana of The Funny Face of the Godfather, Patty, Contract on Cherry Street, Fingers and Defiance) to spy on these no good scumbags. Shockingly enough, things don't go smoothly for Luca as his vest is wrapped with newspaper and stuffed with fishes then sent to the Corelones.

Rise, my son. Crap, wrong flick.

Vito is shot at and lands him in the hospital making his eldest boy, Sonny (James Caan of Red Line 7000, El Dorado, Games, Slither, Rollerball, Thief, Flesh and Bone and City of Ghosts) in charge of the family. Retaliations are in motion as Sonny wants Tattaglias in the ground.
Michael plots to remove the Tattaglias' monkeys both Sollozzo and Police Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden of The Asphalt Junglem The Killing, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Venom) but when will the bloodshed end or will it escalate into out and out gang war with the Five Families? Should there be an olive branch or a clenched fist offered?

A few comments to make about the movie at this time.
Syndicate boss Joe Colombo and his organization The Italian-American Civil Rights League started a major campaign to stop the film from being made. Robert Evans got more than his fair share of death threat phone calls and letters decreeing this film is anti-Italian. Fellow producer Albert S. Ruddy met with the alleged Don who demanded the terms Mafia and Cosa Nostra be removed from the film. Ruddy agreed and allowed them to read over the script and make changes and even agreed to have League members (gunsels and leg breakers) as extras and advisers. Paramount's owner Charlie Bluhdorn sees this agreement in the New York Times was so outraged he fired Ruddy and shut down the film. Evans managed to convince Bluhdorn that this agreement looks like great PR and no more disruptions for the movie so Ruddy was hired back on.

From its amazing cinematography in 35 mm Spherical with crane work through the streets, dolly tracking with our stars and some beautiful hand held to Carlo Savina's score that sets the stage, you get the feel of what life was in this time with all the ups and downs. Shining new light on what was once deemed a blight in most theatrical releases, the family angle is what sold this film most of all and changed the face of cinema on organized crime forever.

My feet are killing me in these shoes, Lord.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

A Dash of Film Noir: The Big Heat

Hey you mugs welcome back to Day 2 of A Dash of Film Noir Week and I thought this one was a doozy but definitely a keeper. It’s got it all baby, with a torrid affair, mob involvement and cops turning a blind eye hoping to sweep it under the rug but our hero says, “Nothing doin.” So stop bumping yer gums, call in the buzzer and no chiseling allowed. This is The Big Heat.

A flatfoot with a heart of gold.

Mike Lagana: Prisons are bulging with spoilers who wonder how they got there.

Sergeant Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford of Gilda, 3:10 to Yuma, Cowboy, It Started with a Kiss, Cry for Happy and Superman) is a fair and honest guy with a badge. A straight palooka you could say. Ahem…sorry that is far too fun to get immersed in. Bannion is called in on a homicide but seems more to the point suicide of his fellow officer Tom Duncan. What appears to be an open-and-shut case due to his bad health, Bannion is contacted by the late officer’s mistress Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green of It’s a Wonderful Life, In a Lonely Place, Oklahoma!, Ride Beyond Vengeance and The Todd Killings) who claims that Duncan’s happy marriage was not so and he had a second home to go to which was out of his pay grade.

Bannion visits the widow Duncan and asks about the second home and how Tom could afford such a thing. Widow Duncan scolds Bannion and demands he leave. No sooner does he get back to squad his Lieutenant reams his butt claim he is under pressure from the higher ups who want to close the case.

Baby doll with the bedroom eyes.

Our hero tries to explain to his wife how the system he has worked so diligently is failing and most of the cops are in crime boss Mike Lagana’s back pocket but by God he is gonna uphold justice if not the law. Lucy Chapman is found at her apartment dead after being slapped around and burned with cigarette burns. Bannion bursts in on the case even though it is not his or even in his jurisdiction. Heading home from that fruitless endeavor Bannion gets threatening calls to his house and stomps over to Mike Lagana’s house and tears him a new one verbally. Lagana warns Bannion he has gone too far and he is not accustomed to be harassed in his own home.

Bannion ignores the further warnings to stay off the case and the mob dynamites his car killing his wife along with it. Feeling as though there is little justice being handled in his wife’s homicide; Bannion chucks his badge and goes on his own to handle Lagana and his lickspittle Vince Stone (Lee Marvin of, Attack, Pillars of the Sky, The M Squad, Dirty Dozen, Donovan’s Reef and The Killers) and show them a thing or two about a thing or two.

I have a few comments about this film now. Film in 35mm Spherical and of course recorded in mono the pace setting of this film is so fluid and no lag inbetween. Our hardnosed cop fits the bill and I absolutely love Lee Marvin as a cold blooded gunsel. At an hour and 30 minutes folks this is worth the viewing.

Dammit honey, you knew you couldn't drive a stick!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Philip Marlowe Week

Hello to you readers. Pin yer ears back and let me fill you in. This week is all about about a gumshoe with a heart of gold and a penchant for getting behind the 8 ball. Marlowe's his name and trouble seems to be his game. A shamus just looking to make a buck, pay some bills and put his clients at ease. The setting is Los Angles in the 1930's with all the trimmings from racketeering, Hollywood scandals and more than a few corrupt politicians. Everyone's got a price but Marlowe hasn't figured out what his is or maybe he is more of an honest joe than he is willing to admit. The truth can be detrimental, agony and sometimes not what you expect but for 75 dollars a day plus expenses Philip Marlowe will get at the truth no matter how bad it hurts.

Sitting in with my number one fan.

In a town that will stab you in the back and then arrest you for carrying a concealed weapon you have to have your wits about you. Stay tuned ya mooks.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Burt Reynolds Week : White Lightning

Welcome one and all to the week of Burt Reynolds. Now I will be going over his earliest movies as we already covered him being in Gunsmoke for 4 years. This time around we have a guanine time line movie for you. It’s all about stilling shine, bribes and a bit unorthodox police brutality. So strap on your seat belts, keep a look out of smokeys and brace yourselves. This is White Lightning.

Silly smokeys think I am gonna pull over.

You damn peanuthead, you don’t know your spoiler from second base, you know that?

Bobby”Gator” McKlusky (Burt Reynolds of Navajo Joe, Gunsmoke, Shamus, The Longest Yard, Hooper, Starting Over and City Heat) is doing a nickel stretch in Arkansas corrections for running moonshine when he finds out his younger brother Donny was murdered. He believes that the sheriff of the county he grew up in is responsible. He knows that Sheriff J.C. Conners (Ned Beatty of Deliverance, The Thief Who Came to Dinner, The Last American Hero, Gator, Superman, Midnight Crossing and Homicide: Life on the Street)is more crooked than a white fence and agrees to go undercover for the Feds to expose the sheriff for the dubious, heartless bastard that he is. To do that, the Feds outfit Gator with a ’71 LTD with a V8 big block so he can tear ass around the county and sign up to run moonshine or “White Lightning” as it is called in these here parts. Yikes, talking like that is contagious.

Ladies dig the burns, fellas. Remember that.

Gator hooks up with an ex-con mechanic name of Dude Watson (Matt Clark of In the Heat of the Night, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Back to the Future Part III) to bring Gator into the shine business. Reluctant as hell but knows when he is whipped, Dude links Gator up with Roy (Bo Hopkins of the Wild Bunch, American Graffiti, Midnight Express and Cowboy Up) a good ole boy that needs a blocker to mess with the cops between deliveries. Gator starts jotting down how much gets delivered and to whom, in the hopes this will tighten the noose around J.C.’s neck. A bit of side action from Roy’s ladyfriend Lou (Jennifer Billingsley of General Hospital, Lady in a Cage and The Thirsty Dead) who could not outwit a stuffed iguana but is easy on the eyes.

I have just a few points to make about the film. This flick was shot in 35mm Spherical and sadly recorded in Mono. Stereo was a trifle expensive. As the cops are chasing Gator down a dirt path I noticed the rear window in his car was indeed missing but prior to the chase he leapt in the car and it had a rear window. Continuity people!!!! We had a few six shooters fire more than their fare share of rounds than the revolver carried but again this tiny oversight can be ignored.

Best be good, boy or I make you squeal like me.

This film has street brawling, car chases, shoot outs and more action in just one film that I have seen in a while. Yes fellas, you get to see a fair amount of Billingsley; now move on. All in all it was a fun flick.

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