Dragged Across Concrete ~ This was one of the most suspenseful — almost unbearably so — cop movies I’ve seen since The French Connection. And blessed with a soundtrack that, while it doesn’t surpass Don Ellis‘ seminal work on that quintessential 70’s film, did reignite my interest in the O’Jays with two haunting and pitch-perfect numbers that book-end Mel Gibson‘s latest star turn. Mel certainly knows how to pick the right scripts to stretch and challenge his astonishing gifts as director (The Passion Of The Christ, Braveheart, Apocalypto, Hacksaw Ridge) or actor. Forget that they’re not always box-office bonanza: they just stick with me long after the ending credits have rolled off. Dragged presents a depressingly dark view of humanity (sociopathic assassins without a conscience; crimes does pay; good guys finish last; politics trumps everything; ethics and integrity are for stiffs) but you stay riveted as Gibson and Vince Vaughn take the cop buddy genre to another level with crackling dialogue and total commitment. Anchovies and niggaz. Grade: A-.
Trauma Center ~ Not Breaking Bad, it’s beyond bad: plot holes so big you could drive a semi through them; the dumbest, most incompetent assassins on file; a victim who repeatedly defies the laws of physical science when she should have died or lapsed into a coma long before the ending… Bruce Willis phones in his performance and appears so jaded with the whole business of acting, it’s almost unbearable to watch him go through the motions in this turkey. A Keystone Kops kaper with sound. Do not resuscitate. Grade: F.
Now on to more of the perennial favorites I’ve watched and re-watched since my youth:
- Thunderball: James Bond arrived on the big screen in 1962 with Dr. No when I was an impressionable 8-year-old, and Sean Connery became the epitome of cool, suave, sophisticated and deadly (when he needed to be) for all time. Thunderball I put on a level slightly above my other Bond favorite, Goldfinger, because it was set in the tropics with plenty of beaches, palm trees, speed boats, water sports and Claudine Auger (see below). Grade: AAA.
