Kurt Russell

  • The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020)

    The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2021) Having Kurt Russell as Santa Claus was so nice, they had to do it twice. Of course, Netflix wanting its own slate of holiday favourites clearly helps — The Christmas Chronicles was apparently a success, and the idea of bringing in Goldie Hawn in a bigger role as Mrs. Claus (after a short glimpse at the end of the first film) must have been compelling. No matter the reason, The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two is up and streaming, giving you another opportunity to see Russell-as-Claus hamming it up by playing the saxophone. The story has to do with an attempted takeover of the Claus empire by a renegade elf and eventually involves time travel, but the point is having a big budget, big star, big director (Chris Columbus), and a big-special-effect offering as prestige counterpoint to the multiple low-budget Christmas offerings from the Netflix roster. The initial novelty of the first film is gone, but this follow-up is sufficiently independent to work without immediate knowledge of the first. It’s not that impressive, but it works relatively well and offers a few things to see that simply would not be possible in a lower-budgeted film. As of this writing, there seem to be no plans for a third film in the series, which is not necessarily a tragedy nor a promise set in stone.

  • Fools’ Parade (1971)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, October 2021) A surprisingly older James Stewart anchors Fools’ Parade, a Depression-era comic thriller in which a just-released ex-con with a sizeable check in his pocket gets involved in a number of adventures to protect his hard-earned money. Playing with his usual drawl, good-natured persona and exaggerated squint (the character is missing a glass eye), Stewart does have some company in the cast: It’s a shock to recognize a young Kurt Russell in a supporting role (meaning that you can jump from 2021’s The Fast and the Furious 9 to 1936’s Rose-Marie with this one degree of separation), or have George Kennedy play the heavy. It’s billed as a comedy for obvious reasons—it ends well, for one thing, and there’s one sequence that ends with a surprising bang—but the tone is not always jolly. Clearly shot in the muddy 1970s, it’s a film drowning in browns and blacks, which does take away from a comic atmosphere. Still, it’s reasonably entertaining: Where else can you watch Stewart with sticks of dynamite strapped to his body, genially threatening to blow up the bank if his reasonable demands aren’t met? As you may guess, Fools’ Parade doesn’t quite fit together: a bit too sombre for pure comedy, and too comic for pure thrills. But it does work, largely thanks to Stewart being so effortlessly watchable.

  • Unlawful Entry (1992)

    Unlawful Entry (1992)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, June 2020) Ray Liotta has made a career out of playing the crazy heavy, and there’s a fair case to be made that Unlawful Entry, in its caricatural ham-fisted exploitation, may feature the most Lay Liottaesque of all of Ray Liotta’s roles. He here plays opposite a young and charming couple (a young Kurt Russell and a lovely Madeline Stowe), coming into their lives as a policeman responding to a robbery call. But as seasoned Liotta fans can predict, he turns out to be dangerously obsessed with his new female friend, and violent enough to take out most obstacles in his path—including the husband. Murders and frame-ups follow, leading all the way to the usual violence-filled climax. It’s really not meant to be subtle. Watching it right as the United States is being consumed with anti-police-brutality demonstrations is a useful demonstration that rogue cops are clearly a cultural fixture. Otherwise, Unlawful Entry does have a pleasant early-1990s sheen of an L.A.-based thriller. Its decidedly Hollywoodish depiction of its antagonist as an over-the-top villain can go both ways—it’s either juvenile, or exactly the kind of over-the-top nonsense that this exploitation thriller needs.

  • Tequila Sunrise (1988)

    Tequila Sunrise (1988)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, March 2020) Considering the star-power on display in Tequila Sunrise, I was expecting quite a bit more than an overly convoluted love triangle between law, crime and a pretty woman. Writer-director Robert Towne has a history of complex plotting, of course, but penning Chinatown isn’t quite the same as the overcooked, overlong disappointment that we have here. Paradoxically, the film would have been better (or at least closer to expectations) had it not featured Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer in the main roles—their natural charisma is such that we expect a lot more from this trio than the somewhat humdrum drama that follows. (It’s technically a thriller, but there’s clearly more of an emphasis here on romantic drama rather than suspense or action.) Still, anyone will have to admit that the film occasionally has a few strong moments, and fully leans into a wonderful 1980s California noir kind of aesthetics. The plotting is complex enough to be engaging, and the re-use of noir archetypes is fun if you’re familiar with the tropes. Tequila Sunrise remains a disappointment, but at least it’s a good-looking one.

    (On Cable TV, August 2021) If I had more time and intelligence, I would probably try to poke at the notion of performative cinema – if that’s the right word for it: Movies that don’t relate to the real world as much as they take bits and pieces from other movies and then try to perform those bits as maximally as possible. Melodrama of cinema, perhaps? Suffice to say that calling Tequila Sunrise as neo-noir is putting things mildly: it lifts and tweaks and reuses entire swathes of film noir, relying on big-name actors and glossy cinematography to paper over some glaring plot issues. Prime-era Mel Gibson and Kurt Russel play old school friends who are now on opposite sides of the law, with the cop being more devious than the criminal trying to go straight. In-between them is Michelle Pfeiffer as nightclub, er, restaurant owner playing both men’s romantic affections. And then there’s a greater-scope villain hovering over everything in a way to make the cop justified and the ex-criminal more likable. Set against golden-hued (i.e.: smoggy) Los Angeles, it’s often beautiful to look at but close to nonsensical once you start taking a look at the details. Fortunately, the film makes up in charisma what it lacks in plausibility: by the time a terrific Raul Julia steps into the movie, his garrulous performance more than excuses the plotting problems that come with him. Tequila Sunrise may not make much sense, but it’s very entertaining and a truly fascinating piece of second-order cinema taking its cues from other movies. It makes perfect sense in a neo-noir retrospective – with the caveat that it may lead to an appreciation of the film largely tinged with irony and references to older cinema.

  • Captain Ron (1995)

    Captain Ron (1995)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, January 2020) As far as mid-1990s family comedy vehicles go, Captain Ron is… pretty much what you’d expect. There’s a bit of a twist here having Martin Short in the straight-man role and Kurt Russell (with a Pliskinesque eyepatch) as the tornado of chaos upending the other characters’ lives, and that generally works: Short’s everyday-man charm is an anchor, while Russell rampages from one comic set-piece to another. It’s not particularly sophisticated, but it’s well engineered, and there’s some Caribbean scenery to take in. There are a few chuckles, with the titular character not to be trusted on anything – especially given that the film plays various ambiguities to the point where nothing really matters. Otherwise, Captain Ron is your average family comedy with a more memorable than usual character—but that’s already not too bad.

  • The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

    The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2019) There are some casting calls that justify an entire movie, and I can easily imagine someone at Netflix going “Kurt Russell as Santa Claus? Here’s your budget!”  While The Christmas Chronicles is, at best, a serviceable take on Christmas movies, Russell remains the star attraction here as a gruff no-nonsense Claus explaining how it all works to our two young heroes. Easily recalling Christmas wishes for anyone over the age of four, his Claus rocks a tune, bemoans the portrayal of Santa as fat and jolly, steals a sports car (with the film missing an opportunity to use Brian Seltzer’s “Santa’s Got a Hot Rod”) and isn’t above a few subterfuges in order to teach his charges a lesson in Christmas cheer. Benefiting from mid-budget production values, The Christmas Chronicles turns terminally cute in its last half with the introduction of CGI elves as likable as they are handy (or terrifying) with power tools. It’s generally enjoyable viewing, with a lighthearted self-aware tone throughout and a love for logistical explanations that rivals Arthur Christmas and The Santa Clause. In short, it’s the kind of Christmas movie that household members may watch once they’ve seen plenty of other Christmas movies. Plus, it’s on Netflix, meaning that it’s going to be right there for many subscribers. I’ve seen much, much worse. Plus: having Kurt Russell as Santa means that you also get none other than Goldie Hawn in a late cameo as Mrs. Claus.

  • Crypto (2019)

    Crypto (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, September 2019) There’s something worth exploring in the ways Crypto uses the mechanics of a connected world to bring international intrigue to a sleepy upstate New York small town. As our protagonist (a genius financial mind) gets demoted and sent back to his hometown for “compliance matters,” he conveniently becomes embroiled again in family drama just as he discovers money laundering shenanigans close to home. Fans of cryptocurrency shouldn’t count too much on this film to give an even-handed or even insightful depiction of those here—it’s used strictly as a plot device to get dark Russian money in a small town so that heroes and villains can have an excuse to wave their guns around. It’s actually a pretty good idea for low-budget filmmakers, who can now use USB keys to heighten the drama of what can happen away from big cities. On the other hand, we’re kind of stuck with the consequent budget and reduced ambitions: Despite known actors such as Kurt Russell, Liam Hemsworth and Alexis Bledel, Crypto is nothing more than direct-to-video fare, not badly executed but lacking in the kind of added value that a great script or direction could bring to the premise. The small city setting looks bland and gray, while the actors have trouble getting the technological exposition out smoothly. The characters are a bit dull (despite the “weaponized autism” crack, the lead character feels a bit bland) and their situations feel taken out of small-town Cliché Central. Even then, Crypto is not bad, not good, somewhere in the middle with only a bit of added conceptual interest in what it attempts to do. As of now, though, the collision of global threats in small town remains a fertile ground for someone else to have a go at it. While Crypto focuses on Russian mobster operating through a Canadian intermediary on the shores of Lake Ontario, there’s clearly more to be done with the idea.

  • Overboard (1987)

    Overboard (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, September 2019) You don’t have to go back all that far in time to find movies with premises that seem unacceptable by today’s standards. With Overboard, for instance, we have a man taking revenge over a rich woman by making her believe that she’s his wife after she suffers a comprehensive case of amnesia. There are complications, and the film tries its best to not make it extra-creepy, but that’s still a film based on an extended series of lies passing itself off as a comedy. (Significantly enough, when the film was remade in 2018, the genders were swapped, and several other details were added to make less creepy.)  You can either take the premise as-is, or have a hard time with the film. If you’re the forgiving suspension-of-reality type, you’ll find that the result is a middle-of-the-road 1980s comedy, albeit once with the great good sense of having husband-and-wife Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell in the lead roles, leading to quite a bit more chemistry than usual. Considering the average nature of the film and its humour, it’s a good thing that at least the lead performances are watchable. The belligerent romantic tension works within the premise of the film, although there’s a layer of discomfort that’s also built into it. Overboard is not exactly an essential, not exactly a dud, just a film that gives its actors just enough slack to pull the film on their own shoulders.

  • Starman (1984)

    Starman (1984)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2017) I usually like Kurt Russell and I usually like John Carpenter and I usually like Science-Fiction movies and it bothers me to no end that I don’t like Starman despite how it combines those three things. The problem with Starman isn’t as much that it’s made out to be a sentimental science-fiction movie, but the way in which it’s presented: Blunt, crude and incoherent. It uses the tropes of a science-fictional thriller without committing to them or trying to make them subtler, can’t be bothered about plot holes and remains unapologetically predictable. Whatever Big Moments it has can be seen coming far in advance, with an execution that can’t really patch over the ennui with charm. Carpenter may be part of the problem in presenting a love story using the tools he knows best—helicopter chases, government conspiracies and roadside violence. Russell is generally blank in a role that asks him to play perhaps the most overused cliché in SF: the extraterrestrial grand naïf gawking at the world and trying to figure out human customs. It goes exactly as expected. While I didn’t exactly dislike Starman, I didn’t find much to like either.

  • 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)

    3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2017) I gave 3000 Miles to Graceland a pass when it first came out, discouraged by the terrible reviews and probably captivated by some other film (let me check … ah yes: Monkeybone came out that weekend, followed in the next few weeks by The Mexican, 15 Minutes, Enemy at the Gates and Memento, all of which I saw at the theatre). Sixteen years later, the film is not quite as bad as I thought it would be. Part of it, I think, can be explained by Tarantino fatigue dissipating—3000 Miles to Graceland is a very stylish, very violent road movie, and writer/director Demian Lichtenstein seems eager to work in more or less the same stylized criminal comedy subgenre that had movie reviewers burnt out by 2001. Here in 2017, the thought of an unseen Tarantino-esque film can be interesting because there are comparatively fewer of them being made. It’s no accident if 3000 Miles to Graceland is far more interesting in its first half-hour than the sometimes-grating hours and a half that follows: It’s also the most deliberately stylized act of the film, the one that most closely apes the exuberant crime comedies of the time. That casino shootout is bloody fun (helped along by a bouncy turn-of-the-century techno soundtrack) and the way some characters are abruptly dispatched gives a welcome initial sense of unpredictability to the film. Kurt Russell is instantly likable as the anti-hero, while Kevin Costner does push his persona outside his comfort zone by playing an irremediable villain. (Compare and contrast his performance in 2016’s Criminal.)  Courteney Cox is sexier than expected, while the unexpectedly good cast is rounded out by familiar faces such as Christian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Arquette, Jon Lovitz, Thomas Haden Church and Ice-T. The best moments of the film have a good rhythm to them. But then the film goes on, and on, and on, becoming steadily more ordinary along the way. The promising Elvis-themed casino heist becomes a revenge road movie with awfully convenient plotting, with the stylishness and unpredictability flying away in the distance. There is, in the end, a lot of wasted potential—and even clinging to what works or almost works in 3000 Miles to Graceland can’t quite save it from mixed feelings.

  • Escape from New York (1981)

    Escape from New York (1981)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, August 2017) I may have made a mistake in watching Escape from L.A. a few weeks ago, before seeing the original Escape from New York. Both films do run against very similar lines, after all: juvenile bad guys sent under duress in a forbidden zone to get someone back, but so anti-authority that they end up rebelling at some point. Escape from L.A. apes the first film almost plot point per point, down to the lunacy of some sequences. But while you would think that watching the first one so soon after the second would lower my appreciation of the first one, the reverse ended up happening: it only made me dislike the second one even more. I recognize that you can’t really blame the first for the excesses of the second. But more to the point, the first one is simply better-executed in the constraints of its formula. Never mind that the premise of turning Manhattan Island in a prison is nonsensical: the point here is putting up a backdrop for dystopian action. Peak-era Adrienne Barbeau is always welcome, but Kurt Russell is most remarkable as Snake Plissken, first in a series of likable rogues that he’d get to play for the rest of his career. The entire film has an edge of writer/director John Carpenter’s inspired lunacy to it, from strange set pieces to audacious set design to unconventional characters to sometimes-shocking moments (such as the president going full-crazy near the climax). Escape from New York does have its annoyances, and those do mirror those of its sequel: the oh-so-cool protagonist with an attitude that mostly appeals to teenagers; the nihilistic conclusion; the moronic elements of its premise; the tiring nature of its post-apocalyptic chic. But seeing Escape from New York at a time when (say) The Walking Dead is practically mainstream TV must be very different from seeing Escape from New York in 1981. It may not be fresh by today’s standards, but it’s easy to respect its place as a film that influenced many others. I still won’t forgive the sequel, though.

  • Tango & Cash (1989)

    Tango & Cash (1989)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, on TV, June 2017) Sometimes, we’ve grown so accustomed to the parody that we’ve forgotten what the original looked like. If your idea of 80s cop action drama dates from Last Action Hero, then go back to Tango & Cash for a look at what the pure ridiculous source material could look like. To be fair, it’s not as if Tango & Cash takes itself seriously—there’s already a bit of self-parody built in the film, and the results, as seen from nearly thirty years later, are often nothing short of ridiculous. There’s Sylvester Stallone, fooling no one by wearing glasses that don’t seem to serve any purpose. But then there’s Kurt Russell, chomping scenery as another loose-gun policeman. It takes place in Los Angeles, of course. It covers quite a bit of male bonding between two headstrong partners. It’s bonkers in the most asinine action-movie ways, such as sending two cops in jail, and them allowing them to break out. To be fair, the prison sequence is the film’s highlight—the subsequent investigation back in the world pales in comparison. Tango & Cash is a bit of a mess, which can be explained if you read about its troubled production history. Unfortunately, it’s not a particularly entertaining one, except in bits and pieces. At least Stallone and Russell are both quite good in their characters, with a showy supporting role for Jack Palance and pre-stardom Teri Hatcher. Tango & Cash is a must-see for whoever is interested in the history of buddy-cop movies, but let’s not pretend that it’s anything essential for everyone else.

  • Escape from L.A. (1996)

    Escape from L.A. (1996)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2017) I’m normally a forgiving viewer when it comes to over-the-top comic action movies like Escape from L.A. Throw in an enjoyable action set-piece and I will normally forgive most of the nonsense required to get there. For the first half-hour of the movie, I was certainly willing to play along: It was almost a relief to see Kurt Russell back in character as Snake Plissken, all attitude and tough-guy moves. Even the dodgy CGI work required to do justice to the script on a relatively modest budget didn’t bother me too much. But even as the good cameos unfolded (Bruce Campbell as a plasticized surgeon, Pam Grier as a transsexual, Peter Fonda as a surfer!), the film lost its flavour and became bitter. At some point, the adolescent thrills of relentless post-apocalyptic nihilism became tiresome. Plissken’s posturing became hollow, and a reminder that there’s only so far to go when fuelled by cynicism and anti-heroic amorality. When the anarchic ending came, I was more annoyed at the wanton destruction than overjoyed at seeing authoritarianism being kicked over along with much of civilization. I guess I’m not a brooding sixteen-year-old anymore. While writer/director John Carpenter clearly had fun poking at Los Angeles’s pretensions with Escape from L.A., the result is curiously dark and meaningless … and I’m the one not having fun with the result.

  • Tombstone (1993)

    Tombstone (1993)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, May 2017) In an ideal world, I would be writing my impressions about Tombstone in a perfect vacuum, untainted by any later film or experience. In this world, however, I waited two weeks before jotting down this capsule review … after seeing the similar Wyatt Earp. I’m unlikely to be the only one to draw comparisons between the two, as both movies came out in 1993–1994 and have been linked ever since. While Wyatt Earp tries to give a whole-life portrait of Earp, Tombstone focuses on the events immediately preceding and following the shootout at O.K. Corral. But more crucially, Wyatt Earp is dour and interminable, whereas Tombstone does have Kurt Russell with a glorious moustache shouting “You tell ’em I’m coming … and hell’s coming with me, you hear? Hell’s coming with me!” That’s everything you need to know about both movies. Game over. Go home, Kevin Costner, you’re playing a drunk. More seriously, though: While Tombstone is the better of both Earp movies, it’s hardly a perfect film. While Russell, Val Kilmer (as Doc Holliday) and Sam Elliott (among many others) make a good impression, the film does take a while to find its footing: it’s only after some tedious throat-clearing and mismatched scenes that Tombstone realizes that it can have fun with its story and truly gets going. At times, it seems as if the film (wrongly) assumes that its viewers are familiar with the O.K. Corral shootout: there seems to be some connecting narrative tissue missing, some subplots disappear into nothingness and there’s an argument to be made that the shootout is the climax—anything that follows becomes less and less interesting and isn’t shot with the same amount of intensity. Looking at the comparison between Tombstone and Wyatt Earp once more highlights that Tombstone is better because it’s more fun—so maybe had it been even more fun it would have been even better? A shorter, even more focused, even less historically accurate version may have been a stronger movie. I suspect that had Tombstone been made a few years after Wyatt Earp, it would have been quite different.

  • Stargate (1994)

    Stargate (1994)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second viewing, on TV, July 2016) I remember seeing this in theatres (opening week!) and feeling let-down by the way a first act promising the mysteries of the universe led to an underwhelming film about primitive tribes rushing into revolution with our band of heroes. Watching it again twenty years later, with adjusted expectations, I’m still disappointed. I suppose that if it’s space opera that I want, the subsequent TV series and novelizations will suffice, but it doesn’t make the original film much better. And yet, there are a few things to note here: James Spader as a likable nerd, a prime-era Kurt Russell acting tough as a military operative, an early eye-catching role for Mili Avital, and primitive CGI being used in obvious ways. The familiar triumphant-rebellion angle is guaranteed to be rousing, and director Dean Emmerich does manage one or two interesting visuals. Historically, this Emmerich/Devlin production works best as a bit of a bigger-budget rehearsal for the more accomplished madness that was Independence Day. Even with good intentions, I still feel underwhelmed by Stargate.