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Guy Ritchie's latest from 2021 finds him reuniting w/his occasional go to guy Jason Statham in this potent tale of revenge & the lengths one man will go to achieve it. Told in a non-linear fashion under 4 chapter headings, we see Statham's son being killed when an armored car robbery goes bad (w/shades of the opening theft from Heat) but being a crime boss he has his men beat the bushes to find the culprits only to yield nothing so he decides to infiltrate the armored car concern to ferret out who was responsible. As the drama plays out, Statham's determination knows no bounds as we finally get a glimpse of the perpetrators (an elite military squad which consists of Jeffrey Donovan, Scott Eastwood & Laz Alonso) planning their last heist (at the armored car depot) w/Statham lying in wait to pounce. Probably Richie's most mature film to date (based on a 2004 French movie named Le Convoyeur) which initially had me worried when his predilection for his laddism (immature character nicknames) was at the fore but once the hook of the plot locks on, I was entranced. Also starring Holt McCallany, Eddie Marsan & Josh Hartnett as Statham's fellow co-workers, Post Malone as a thief in over his head & Andy Garcia in a small role as a fed in thrall to Statham.

Elaine May (Ishtar/The Heartbreak Kid) 1976 one-night odyssey involving a couple of lifelong buddies cum hoods, Oscar nominee Peter Falk & John Cassavetes, race through the night avoiding a hit man, played by Oscar nominee Ned Beatty. Playing out as a series of arguments through various venues (a movie theater, a bar, a cafe) as Falk tries to get Cassavetes to safety after he's absconded w/some ill-gotten gains. Once the reveal is made that Falk is on the kill & Cassavetes knows but still goes through the motions of putting some semblance of trust into his relationship w/Falk & May, maybe inspired by Cassavetes' own body of work but has said in interviews everything was scripted from people she knew in her neighborhood growing up, has crafted a yarn whose surprise is telegraphed so early that the follow through feels like its going through the motions leaving the finished product of 2 actors at the top of their game trying to make a meal of some meager vittles.

An ill-plotted Blum production from 2019. David Oyelowo is a cop who has a tight relationship w/his niece played by Storm Reid. Tragically one day Oyelowo is called to his niece's home to find she & her parents were murdered. At first the murders are written off as enemies from his brother's past (he had a rocky history w/gangsters) but before the investigation can get underway, Oyelowo receives a phone call from his niece, from 2 weeks before when she was still alive. Oyelowo decides to back-fill Reid's fate to avoid the current tragedy but soon enough the true killers are onto him. Will he save himself as well as Reid before she's killed? Basically this is a retread of a better film called Frequency from 2000 which starred Jim Caviezel & Dennis Quaid (in that film the time expanse was years & they communicated via a ham radio) which used a hokey time displacement device to better effect but here the film can't decide to either embrace the whimsy or wallow in unnecessary violence (Oyelowo's brother, played by Brian Tyree Henry, is shotgunned to the head) when the easier thing would've been a great female empowerment yarn, from Reid's perspective, making her the heroine in the piece but as the final grisly scenes play out, you're wishing you'd be collateral damage to put you out of your own misery. Co-starring Mykelti Williamson as Oyelow's partner & Alfred Molina as their boss.

Alex Garland's (Ex Machina/Annihilation) latest is a hot button (considering a certain ex-president's on going court cases) narrative as the United States has fallen into a fractious war after the president, Nick Offerman, now in his third term has engaged his forces to fight against separatist forces (from Texas & California) who're mounting a campaign to take back the nation. Into this fracas are a quartet of journalists; Oscar nominee Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley & Wagner Moura go on a road trip towards DC to hopefully link up w/the siege on the White House seeing the state of the nation from one puzzling & disturbing set piece after another (culminating in the much talked about stop by some soldiers led by Oscar nominee & Dunst's hubby in real life Jesse Plemons) which really will be the touchstone scene on most people's lips for some time to come. Keeping some of the details on how we got here a bit specious works wonders as we concentrate on the actions unfolding & how it could mirror, if the heated sides which exist today actually come through on their threats, become more than just a cautionary tale & enter a realm of frightening docudrama.

A 1959 biblical epic from 1959 starring Yul Brynner & Gina Lollabrigida. Taking place in the final days of King David's rule, who's on his death bed, the taking over the throne comes down to Brynner & his brother, played by George Sanders, who has opted to not be by his father's side since he's in the midst of a battle. Dismayed at Sanders effrontery, Brynner becomes king & has a good reign as one of the wisest kings in history of Judea but then Lollabrigida comes down the pike, working w/the Egyptian pharaoh, hoping to corrupt Brynner by bringing in different faiths when Israel was angling towards monotheism which spells doom for Brynner when he does in fact fall for her while his many enemies gather their forces to overthrow him. Brynner, who grew out his hair & took over after original lead Tyrone Power passed away from a heart attack, is a bit lost here playing his character as meek & understated when his roles up to this point, namely his Oscar win for the King and I & Ramses in The Ten Commandments, were justifiably over the top & enjoyable. Here, where perhaps Charlton Heston would've been better suited, Brynner seems stunted & castrated w/a lot of set pieces aping what Cecil B. Demille (the final battle has a slew of Egyptian soldiers blinded by their enemies into running off a cliff en masse) did so much better. I would only recommend this if there isn't any bible related epics on air but that's not saying much.

Eli Roth's (Hostel/Green Inferno) latest from last year which is actually a full-length version of his mock trailer he made for the 2007 Grindhouse omnibus. Taking on the haloed tradition of slasher films inspired by a theme (here a holiday), we open on a disastrous Black Friday sale opening where people are trampled & hurt (w/some unfortunates killed). Flash forward a year later & a masked killer, wearing the visage of a pilgrim forefather, starts taking revenge on the band of youths who cut the line the night of the sale along w/others the killer feels are responsible for the carnage w/each killing sticking to the edicts of a Thanksgiving spread. Pretty gruesome but tethered to an air of remove since most of the victims you wouldn't waste your time crossing the street to yell at them (something of an Achilles' heel w/Roth's writing) takes a game cast which includes Gina Gershon, Patrick Dempsey, Rick Hoffman, Karen Cliche as the adults in the room while the young'ns which include Addison Rae & Mino Manheim to name a few getting lost in the contempt the killer has for them as well as, not surprisingly, the co-writer/director.

Last year's final (for me) nominee for Best Picture is a quiet, disturbing stunner about a Nazi commandant, Christian Friedel, who runs a concentration camp & lives on its periphery in a home w/his wife, Sandra Huller (nominated for Anatomy of a Fall), children & servants like nothing is out of the ordinary. More a treatise of the banality of quiet evil, the film (feeling like something Stanley Kubrick made) is just there w/long shots detailing the comings & goings of the home's inhabitants as the horrors next door (we hear some gunfire, an occasional scream or two) continue unabated. Co-writer/director Jonathan Glazer rightfully won the Best Foreign Language Oscar for his effort (also winning for Best Sound) & in a career which has spewed films like Birth, Under the Skin & Sexy Beast, this release continues a winning streak.

Another slice of bitter life from director Ken Loach (Kes/Riff Raff) w/writer Paul Laverty from 2019. A struggling family in England (Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Katie Proctor, Rhys Stone) seem to be turning the corner when the dad gets a job as a gig driver making deliveries (shades of Amazon) but needing a truck, Hitchen forces Honeywood, a home care worker, to sell her car forcing her to get to her jobs using public transit even though her schedule is tight as it is. Meanwhile Proctor is doing really well in school but Stone has fallen in w/a band of taggers & one point is suspended from school for a fight & later caught trying to shoplift some spray cans. Hitchen works hard at his job & even given a more stringent route which makes his hard as nails supervisor, Julian Ions, content, but after Stone's arrest & a late story mugging by some toughs send him to the hospital, Ions & Hitchen butt heads. Loach/Laverty have always had the foresight to get to the heart of the social matter w/this film being no exception as our hearts catch in our throats whenever the simple ebb & flow of municipal government or the functions of the new job economy which boasts the working class can finally make it is anything but a car bumper slogan. Kudos also to Loach continued use of non-professional actors to fill out small but key roles further giving this film an authentic documentary feel to the proceedings.

A 2019 showcase for French icon Catherine Deneuve. Deneuve is an actress (I know an extreme stretch of the imagination!) who has a telltale book coming out. During an interview w/a journalist, we see Deneuve's daughter, her husband & their child are arriving for a visit. The couple played by Juliette Binoche & Ethan Hawke settle into the background as the not so heightened preparations are under way for the ensuing book tour but taking a sampling of Deneuve's magnum opus, Binoche realizes some of the truths espoused in the tome are of the made up variety. Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (Shoplifters) he elicits more quiet moments of revelation than knock down, drag out outbursts which would leave the glassware trembling in fear but by focusing on 2 of the most important French actresses of a few generations (Deneuve has been at it for more than 50 years), we get the gist of the affair rather than the melodramatic sweep. Hawke stays bemusedly in the background (probably took the role just to work w/these titans was incentive enough) as he watches from the wings.

The latest from Richard Linklater (Slacker/Dazed & Confused) is based on a well regarded novel detailing the inharmonious goings on in a family in the Pacific Northwest. Bernadette is the ultimate eccentric living in an expansive crumbling home going about her life the way she sees fit apart from her tech husband's fears & wishes. When their precocious daughter demands a promised trip to Antarctica, Bernadette, played w/prickly brilliance by Cate Blanchett, acquiesces but soon feels the need to fill up her time busying herself for the impending voyage even though she's going to bow out at the last minute (she's scheming to finally have some wisdom teeth pulled as an excuse to not go). Through a video profile on her daughter's laptop, we learn Blanchett was once the toast of the architectural world where her inspired creations were being mentioned in the same breath as some of the greats (Frank Lloyd Wright & Frank Gehry names are dropped) so we see this is not a woman of empty fancy but someone who has subsumed her creative spark to be the keeper of the home, no matter how many feathers are ruffled. When several calamities occur (their properties' surrounding greenery floods a neighbor's home during an especially heavy downpour & her virtual assistant turns out to be a nefarious Russian outfit out to filch her wealth), an intervention is convened to bring our heroine to her senses which only fuels an escape sending her out towards the families planned adventure (w/o husband & child) where the possibility arises for her to regain her creative mojo. Always an aces w/actors, Linklater allows his thespians to wallow in the skewed material w/o alienating the viewers who may find this material a little too concerned w/the foibles of the 1 percent rather than what most of us endure on a daily basis. Co-starring Billy Crudup as the husband, Kristin Wiig as an annoying neighbor, Laurence Fishburne as an old colleague & Judy Greer as the social worker who proposes said intervention.

A biopic on George Gershwin from 1945. Tracing his idyllic & humble beginnings from his parents owed businesses (the father kept trying his hand at different ventures), we see George find his calling when a used piano is delivered to their home (after we see an opening shot of George practicing on an automated player piano). From there we get the usual ups & downs (he gets a job hawking song books but wants to get his own material published, etc.) before he's discovered by a kindly agent, played by Charles Coburn, who puts him on the road to greatness where he gets strong support from his family, particularly brother Ira (also well remembered for his lyric writing) & the two women in his life, the first a singer he met at the song book house, played by Joan Leslie, & later another in Hollywood played by Alexis Smith. As essayed by Robert Alda (Alan's dad), Gershwin is the consummate nice guy w/talent who dedicated his life to his craft & his craft responded in kind. Not much is made of his own personal demons but if you love the man's music (Rhapsody in Blue is performed in its entirety) you'll appreciate the presentation. With real life luminaries playing themselves (Oscar Levant & Al Jolson) only adds to the grandiosity of this truly American genius.

Lina Wertmuller's (Swept Away/The Seduction of Mimi) 1975 tour de force about the exploits of an Italian motormouth & womanizer, played by Giancarlo Giannini who gets a taste of life when ends up in a concentration camp. Told in flashback after he & a friend are captured, we see his upbringing, the one male child among a sea of women (his sisters & mother) as he's expected to be the protector of the family. When his oldest sister is enraptured by a pimp (he convinces her to appear in a burlesque show wearing lingerie), Giannini swears vengeance (he carries a pistol w/him) but when he meets the lout, he gets the better of Giannini which in his mind is tantamount to an invitation to a duel. He does manage to confront him but kills him accidentally. His confidante counsels him to dispose of the body (he breaks up the body into 3 suitcases) & thinking himself successful, his angry sister turns him & he's found insane (actually a ploy by a lawyer under the confidante's employ) & imprisoned where he increasingly loses hope (the one sane man in an insane asylum) & becomes the disgusting creature he'd hoped to protect his woman-folk from (a particularly nasty attempted rape of a strapped down woman is seen). Upon advise from his doctor who knows his condition will worsen just by the circumstances he's found himself in, he urges Giannini to enlist. During his sojourn in the concentration camp, his demeanor worsens & he makes a decision to seduce the female commandant (a portly tank of a woman) in hopes of saving himself but irony upon ironies he only manages to become a guard of sorts (usually inmates who have been elevated to discipline status) & his first bit of business is to execute 6 random prisoners as a means of controlling the herd. At times funny, sad, harrowing but never forgetting to depict the basest instincts of survival, Giannini manages to remain resolute even when his actions are the most deplorable. Rightfully winning the Best Foreign Film Oscar that year, Wertmuller (who also became the first woman to be nominated as a director, she also got a screenplay nomination) showed the world she rightfully had the 'stuff' to deliver the goods w/Giannini's performance also netting a nom for Best Actor. Look for Luis Bunuel standby Fernando Rey (he was also Frog One in The French Connection) as a fellow camp prisoner.

One of Fritz Lang's (M/Metropolis) first American efforts from 1937 has Henry Fonda & Sylvia Sydney as a couple getting into dire straits. Fonda has just gotten out of stir & marries his best girl Sydney. Hoping to lead the straight & narrow he gets a job as a truck driver but due to his tendency to arrive late, gets fired after the couple have moved into a new residence. Distraught on how his forward motion has been throttled, Fonda falls back on his wayward ways by rejoining up w/his old gang to pull some jobs but unfortunately one job results in six people being killed & he's blamed for the deaths. Fonda returns to prison w/a death sentence over his head but then he manages to escape w/a smuggled gun reuniting w/Sydney as they become fugitives w/the authorities hot on their tails. What would've worked as a more streamlined narrative gets lost in occasional bouts of histrionics as the story heads to its lockstep conclusion draining the air out of the piece in light of better films, High Sierra w/Humphrey Bogart made four years later is one example, shows a similar yarn told in a better circumstances.

A 1990 weird & unfocused horror cum art piece set in 1950's Idaho. Taking place at a rundown house which abuts a filling station, the story unfolds from the point of view of a young son of a clan where his mother harangues his father (at some time in the past we hear he molested a child) & his brother, played by Viggo Mortensen, is off fighting in the war. A strange woman, played by Lindsay Duncan (of HBO's Rome fame), lives down the road & she intersects paths w/the boy (& his friends) & is somewhat of a pariah (she keeps to herself but occasionally invites the boy over to her home). When Mortensen does enter the picture at the nearly one hour mark, we find him to be a bit distant w/the family (maybe PTSD?) but manages to find solace in Duncan's arms. Meanwhile we have a black car filled w/young men roaming the roads abducting & killing people (one of the boy's friends is a victim), the boy's father decides to douse himself in gasoline & set himself on fire & our hero finds a baby (whether real or made from wax is up in the air) hidden in Duncan's barn which he takes a fancy to bringing it back home caring for it almost like a pet. W/an unnecessarily loud soundtrack but striking, vivid visuals, this film has a David Lynch slant to it (I would also lump in there Bernard Rose's Paperhouse made a couple of years earlier) which would be telling if this mess had anything resembling a structure to it but as it is, we have some disturbing imagery (exploding frogs, anyone?) but not much else. Get yourself an old copy of Fangoria magazine, at least the articles will keep your interest.

The epitome of 50's schmaltz ended said decade in 1959 w/the tale of requited love & their children who may be falling into the same trap. Troy Donahue & Sandra Dee (thank you Grease for keeping these two actors relevant) play the kids who have to deal w/the problems their parents have created. Infidelity & divorce is as commonplace as the corner bodega but in 1959 these subjects were taboo & the changing mores of the times were reflected in this flawed release but as a curio of the time it reflects, it still entertains w/the leads this side of visual perfection when one thinks about that particular time & place.

A sort of biopic of the famed gun maker starring James Stewart from 1952. Williams was a war veteran who upon returning home couldn't wait to get married but when he comes collecting for his piece of land from his father, who demands he put in time before getting his, decides to give up his claim & make his way while working as a manual laborer but when he hears he can make more money servicing moonshine stills (he's something of a mechanical savant) he jumps at the chance becoming so successful he opens more stills along the way. This is the time of prohibition however so when the feds come w/rifles drawn, a gun fight erupts w/one of the agents getting killed. Williams is brought to trial for the death & ever the kind of man he is who accepts his fate, he takes the sentence willingly, spending the bulk of his time in forced labor (he gained an infraction for having a knife). During his down time he begins working on a rifle (w/parts scored from the prison's workshop) which will become his legacy, w/at first skeptical support from the warden which becomes full throated seeing the revolutionary design & possible applications, which gains him an early release. The film works as a profile of a man whose determination can stand against all comers but as a study of someone who is a tinkerer (the rifle's construction is more of an internal coping mechanism after he spends time in solitary) the film is lacking but Stewart, the consummate every man, can do no wrong so the film is worth a peek just for that. Also starring Wendell Corey as the tough but fair warden, James Arness as one of Williams' brothers & Paul Stewart (he played Kane's butler in Citizen Kane) as a thug always looking to break out of prison.

A 1949 Humphrey Bogart starrer. What feels like a remake of Casablanca we have Bogart returning to the land of the rising sun hoping to reopen his old nightclub (which it turns out to be a plea for help from his old running buddy, Sessue Hayakawa). Bogart then learns the old love of his life, Florence Marly, is now remarried w/a daughter who turns out to be his. Not wanting to upset the apple cart too much, Bogart goes w/the flow becoming a partner in a transport concern w/him as a pilot but instead of picking up cargo, a strange passenger joins him & his crew for the return trip. It turns out his employer is smuggling personnel into the country who were sympathetic to the old war regime so when the US government steps in to investigate, Bogart's partner takes his daughter hostage setting up a tension filled finale as Bogart comes to the rescue. Aside from the similarities between this & Casablanca, the film ends up being a rather serviceable vehicle for Bogart (as the TCM host explained this was the first film he made under his production banner) so it makes sense for him to make a film which feels easy going & familiar to draw viewers in.

The remake of the 1989 Patrick Swayze original now playing as a Prime original starring Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal. Instead of a nomadic troubleshooting bouncer traveling from one hellpit to the next, Gyllenhaal is a former MMA fighter brought in by an aspiring bar owner, Jessica Williams, to clean up her seaside establishment which a local scion, Billy Magnussen, of a jailed businessman desperately wants. At first making waves w/the dive bar convincing some of the staff to step up to keep the calamity to a dull roar & suceeding makes Magnussen's dad decide to bring in an uber-fixer, played former MMA champ Conor McGregor, to give Gyllenhaal what's what in a lead up to a prolonged siege where Magnussen's holds Daniela Mechior (the nominal doctor/love interest originally limned by Kelly Lynch) hostage after Gyllenhaal grabs some much needed cash Magnussen's had coming for his big deal while McGregor, like a brakeless speeding train, comes barreling in for a beachfront clutch which doesn't disappoint. Much has been written about director Doug Limon's (The Bourne Identity/Mr. & Mrs. Smith) desires or belief the film was headed towards a theatrical release (which star Gyllenhaal denies wasn't the case) holds some water since the film just from its original cult status & the pedigree being brought to the remake could've been a great financial boon for Prime which I feel left money at the table but it is what it is & we're the richer for it as the film does its own thing & manages to be a great crowd pleaser w/unabashed glee in every kick, punch & neck break. Also starring Joaquim de Almeida who plays the sheriff & Melchior's dad, Beau Knapp as one of Magnussen's henchmen w/singer Post Malone humorously playing a fighter who forfeits a fight when he finds out who his opponent is.

Humphrey Bogart tries the Casablanca thing again in this effort from 1951. Bogart is a broker of items on the black market in Syria right when tensions between the controlling French is coming to a head. Enter the new military commander, Lee J. Cobb, who vows to kill any civilian sympathizers whenever soldiers are killed which culminates when a bomb goes off in a club where Bogart & Marta Toren, Cobb's woman, are frequenting. Bogart saves her life & soon develops feelings for Toren which draws Cobb's ire so much so a sting is under way when a potential client, Zero Mostel, of Bogart's wares is more a means to flush them out so they can be arrested. Bogart gets wind of the plot much too late & finds himself on the run along w/Toren, who has soured on Cobb, as the net about him soon starts to get tighter & tighter. Once caught, Bogart is forced to broker a meeting w/the head of the rebels so Cobb can capture him but finding Bogart has perhaps betrayed them, Bogart's number is soon up. The way this film shamelessly steals from Michael Curtiz' classic hurts in so many ways w/poor Bogart going through the motions (maybe a house payment was due?) as this Hollywoodized version of a foreign country, complete w/actors in what I presume to be brown face, including Citizen Kane's Everett Sloane as Cobb's superior, not making this a convincing jaunt to the Middle East.

A bouncy film noir from 1945 which runs a little over an hour. Tom Conway (George Sanders' brother in real life) wakes up stumbling along the streets where he's picked up by a kindly cabbie, Ann Rutherford (she played Andy Hardy's neighbor Polly in that series of films), who decides to become his de-facto benefactor hoping to unlock the mystery of who he is & why he lost his memory in the first place. Moving at a clip w/a cavalcade of strange & colorful characters, including future star of Out of the Past, Jane Greer, keeps us guessing until the very end even though the resolution is a bit silly.

A 1983 release of a future society where women stage a rebellion against the male dominated world they live in. More of an agitprop distillation of a dramatic 'what if' of a time to come w/the immediacy of a found footage documentary/social message screed, finds women fed up w/the status quo focusing on an outspoken gay, black woman who's a DJ who fills her airwaves w/the vitriol & anger (justified since we see men alternately trying to rape their counterparts or dismiss them from the workplace w/o a justified rationale) spurring a movement (the intended rape is thwarted by a phalanx of 10 speed riding Valkyries blowing whistles). When the DJ is arrested (the powers that be fear her power is becoming uncontrollable) she commits suicide in custody which sets the scene for a guerilla movement (replete w/automatic weapons) culminating in the destruction of the transmission antennas on top of the World Trade Center (eerily foreshadowing the '93 & 9/11 attacks). Yes, the film is rough w/all the odd ends kept in for flavor & texture but it touches on so many totems of protest (the metoo movement, Black Lives Matter, et al) one can forgive the unpolished sheen of the presentation. No big stars to remark about but genre fave, the late, great Ron Vawter shows up as a power broker out to derail the outspoken radio DJ, writer/actor Eric Bogosian has a quick scene as a TV tech & character actor Mark Boone Junior pops up as a perv accosting a woman on a train.

A 1966 problematic epic from George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid/The Sting). The late, great Max Von Sydow stars as a minister stirred by the words of a Hawaiian native about his tribulations of bringing the word of God to the islands so he volunteers his services & is married to a New England spinster, played by Julie Andrews (who would work w/Hill the following year on Thoroughly Modern Millie), as they struggle to make the Pacific crossing to the islands in the 1820's to bring religion (the true religion) & preach the savagery out of them. He has his hands full however as he finds the islanders have a panoply of gods & beliefs (they still believe in different deities & even engage in incest as evidenced by the king & queen) but instead of slowly arguing his case, Von Sydow is a battering ram of intolerance & bigotry where he fails most spiritual edicts to 'hate the sin not the sinner.' Andrews is saddled w/being the tolerant wife but according to the strictures of the story & frankly the time in which the story was set, her even keeled & compassionate ministrations mostly go unheard. A sea captain, played by Richard Harris, is also a component to the story since he was engaged to Andrews (which is dissolved by her family since all his letters to her were withheld) & he doesn't have a particular pleasant mien when dealing w/the hardheaded man of God. Hill unfortunately hadn't hit his number yet critically or financially since he was hamstrung by the confines of the Hollywood system of the 60's (which was nearing its death knell) so all the pretty photography & grandiose story elements are undone by a frankly unsympathetic protag who is dead wrong for the majority of the film's running time. Also starring Gene Hackman as a doctor, Carrol O'Connor as Andrews' father, John Cullum as a fellow clergyman, Michael Constatine (the dad from the My Big Fat Greek Wedding pics) as a sailor & Diane Sherry Case (she played Lana Lang in '78's Superman) as Von Sydow's grown daughter.

A 1950 film noir which could be considered a progenitor for many of the cop procedurals still running today on TV. Partners Edmund O'Brien & Mark Stevens are beat cops driving around in a cruiser going on calls & occasionally needing to pull their guns out to defend themselves. When they come across an Italian store owner whose shop windows were busted & stink bombs thrown through them it places a crime capo, Donald Buka, as their main suspect who they pursue & eventually arrest & jail. Meanwhile O'Brien & Stevens move into the spare apartment a fellow colleague, Gale Storm & her mother had for let w/Stevens' ulterior motive to woo Storm since he's been carrying a torch for her. Then Buka escapes & in a fit of revenge kills Stevens in a hail of bullets in a drive by pushing O'Brien & to some extent Storm to track him down at his girlfriend's, Gale Robbins, pad which sets up the final confrontation w/cops surrounding the building to squeeze him out even though Buka's holding the super's daughter hostage. Well paced at a taut 90 minutes make this jaunt seem fresh & familiar at the same time w/O'Brien his usual hard edged every man out doing God's work on the streets.

1981's Dragonslayer, Matthew Robbins' tale of a knight battling it out w/a dragon now gets a gender swapped treatment in this current Netflix original release starring Millie Bobby Brown. Brown's hand has been promised in marriage to the scion, Nick Robinson, of a neighboring & more affluent kingdom negotiated by the machinations of Robinson's queen mum, Robin Wright & Brown's king, Ray Winstone (nice to see you again!) even though Brown's stepmum, Oscar nominee Angela Bassett, has doubts about the union (being done since their own kingdom is in dire financial straits) yet Brown's younger sis, Brooke Carter, is all for it. Upon the final wedding vow (where slit palms & comingling blood seal the deal), Brown is tossed from a precipice into a series of caves where she awaits her fate to be food for the beast as a talking dragon, voiced by Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo, makes her case to be fed (we've witnessed in the film's opening salvo a king & his men tried killing her but not before destroying a trio of her eggs). Brown realizing her situation (& surrounded by victims that didn't make the grade) sets off on a lengthy battle between her & the fire breathing monster where all truths will be exposed & Brown can save her own hide in the process. Brown smartly continues to enrich her relationship w/Netflix by picking savvy projects which fit nicely into the persona she's cultivating (I wouldn't be surprised if a third installment of her Enola Holmes series is announced soon) where she wisely tapped into a genre which is very popular but not something which apes something else (like the glut of big screen fairy tales like Snow White & the Huntsman & Mirror, Mirror from a few years ago) making Brown's prospects rosy for some time to come.

A comedy from 1948. Things are tight, housing wise, for couples near a campus so when a student, William Holden & his eager beaver wife, Jeanne Crain, are about to get evicted from a friend's trailer, Crain engages a suicidal professor, Edmund Gwenn, to rent out his attic which Crain's gift for gab convinces him to even though we clearly see he never stood a chance to say 'no' in the matter. As time goes on & the unusual trio become a de facto family, Gwenn's starts to appreciate life more (Crain being preggers also helps) while Holden starts to go through a bit of inner torment as his failing grades (chemistry in particular) make him figure he should chuck his studies & just get a well paying job. Tragedy strikes when Crain loses the baby which prompts Holden to ditch school to sell cars & Gwenn becomes despondent enough to take a cache of sleeping pills he's been hoarding before the resolution at the end finds all things have worked out. Another of those weirdly plotted but thoroughly enjoyable comedies of a certain era (post WWII here) w/winning perfs all around especially Gwenn's cronies, Gene Lockhart among them, especially in a sequence where Holden is helped along to pass his courses.