Ernie Hudson

  • Battledogs (2013)

    Battledogs (2013)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, April 2021) I’m at a point where even seeing “The Asylum presents” in the opening credits of a film can be enough to make me think about shutting it off and watching something else. But the remote was too far away and I was doing something else and what was the worst that could happen, right? Well, as it turns out, Battledogs is still not a good movie… but it’s not as bad as what I was expecting. This tale of werewolves/zombies/monsters/whatever running rampant over Manhattan is executed with more skill than I expected from yet another made-for-Syfy production. There are a few known names in the production (Dennis Haysbert, Ernie Hudson, Ariana Richards and Wes Studi), but the film’s most distinguishing characteristic is the energy in which it executes its rote plotting of monster attacks and military super-soldier nonsense. Its quantity-over-quality approach to special effects is defensible (how else are you going to get an exploding helicopter on a budget?), and the actors don’t do too badly. There’s even something that looks suspiciously like non-CGI effects here. But please understand that I’m grading on a curve here, and even saying something like “this isn’t the worst Asylum/Syfy film I’ve even seen” is far from being an absolute compliment. Still, we all rate films according to expectations, and mine were exceeded in watching Battledogs.

  • Congo (1995)

    Congo (1995)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, on TV, February 2019) If Congo has any claim to fame, it’s this superb quote from co-star Bruce Campbell: “What if you were offered a chance to appear in a movie based on a Michael Crichton novel? It will be directed by veteran Frank Marshall. Stan Winston will handle the special effects and it will be a big budget Paramount production. Sounds good? Congratulations, you just made Congo.” (There are a few versions of that quote around, but they all end with the same punchline.) The point of the anecdote is to illustrate the vagaries of Hollywood projects between what sounds good on paper and what comes out in the end—and to slam the movie along the way. Of course, your take may not be as harsh: While I found the much-maligned movie quite disappointing indeed, it’s not nearly as bad as some of the critical pile-on would have you believe. I wasn’t a fan of the original novel (which crammed one incident inspired by African clichés per chapter, narrative coherency be damned), but its episodic nature translates quite naturally to the screen, where it becomes one thrill after another until we’ve stopped asking for any kind of believability. The ridiculous pileup of subplots all justifying an expedition in deep Africa makes for an entertaining premise, and that’s well before we end up with a climax in which volcanoes, diamonds, killer apes and laser weapons are all involved. Congo’s bombastic nature ensures that we never take it seriously. The ever-cute Laura Linney stars, along with a few notables such as Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry and the inimitable Bruce Campbell. As long as you keep your expectations in check, this is an old-fashioned adventure film that should satisfy roughly 51% of your cravings, even if there’s quite a lot missing to ensure that the film is fun, that it flows well and that it makes the most out of its elements. As it is, Congo does remain a disappointment: It’s inert more often than it should, can’t quite capitalize on everything at its disposal and none of the cast or crew can’t quite save it. But that’s the risk that you take on every Hollywood movie … no matter how good their pedigree.