Raul Julia

  • The Rookie (1990)

    The Rookie (1990)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, August 2020) In retrospect, The Rookie feels stuck between the rogue-cops-thrillers of the 1980s and the overblown action movies of the 1990s. Clint Eastwood directs and stars as a veteran cop alongside a younger Charlie Sheen as his new partner investigating car thefts. While their characters are supposed to be different, there isn’t a lot separating Eastwood’s interpretation of his character here from Dirty Harry Callahan. But the buddy-cop conventions of the 1980s are complemented by a handful of spectacular stunt sequences that herald the arrival of another kind of cop movie. The car-carrier flip-over that punctuates the end of the first act could be seen as a precursor to the similar Bad Boys II sequences, while the airplane crash and explosions seem taken from the Die Hard series. The result may be an interesting mess, but it’s a mess nonetheless, and aspects of the whole have not aged well at all. The psychopathic behaviour of the so-called heroes is troubling enough (especially given that it is rewarded), and then there is the incomprehensible ethnic miscasting: Raul Julia is fantastic no matter the role, but he’s a bit difficult to accept as a German crime lord. On a similar note, Sônia Braga makes for a captivating villain, but she doesn’t quite click in an action context. (She’s also given, in an obvious ploy for controversy, a scene in which her character rapes Clint Eastwood’s character.) More interesting than your usual 1980s buddy-cop movie but still nowhere near a good movie, The Rookie is justifiably known for being a curio in Eastwood’s directorial filmography: A semi-crazy action cop movie with roughly twice as many stunt set-pieces as the rest of his movies combined.

  • The Gumball Rally (1976)

    The Gumball Rally (1976)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, May 2020) As an unlikely but steadfast enthusiast of car racing movies, films like The Gumball Rally make me happy in ways that short-circuit my usual approach as a film reviewer. It’s clearly not the only racing-across-America movie: It was inspired by the true-life Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash organized by Brock Yates in the 1970s, an event that also inspired Cannonball (also 1976), as well as the three-film series launched by the “authorized” adaptation Cannonball Run (1979). (Clearly, that “55 MP/H speed limit” thing clearly had American drivers riled up in the 1970s.) It’s not the most polished of them—Cannonball Run, under the direction of Hal Needham, clearly had better stunts and production values. But The Gumball Rally may be the most purely fun of them—not necessarily in matter of straight-up humour, but in its loose amiable celebration of eccentric characters driving fast and crashing hard. It’s a goofy comedy with plenty of stunts, although mid-1970s action filmmaking being what it was, it doesn’t have the degree of polish associated with newer racing films. A large cast of characters adds to the fun, especially in how they are juggled with some aplomb through coincidences that keep them interacting from one coast to another. Acting-wise, the film boasts of an early appearance by Gary Busey, the wonderful Colleen Camp and a hilarious Raul Julia playing a womanizing Italian driver. The mid-1970s atmosphere is quite amazing even when the film has a few lulls. Still, The Gumball Rally is a fun watch. I want more. Hollywood, make a modern version of this right now. [October 2024: In retrospect, it’s hilarious to note that it’s in May 2020, more or less when I was watching the film, that a Cannonball Run record run was completed, taking advantage of roads left empty during the pandemic lockdowns to achieve a coast-to-coast record of 25 hours and 39 minutes at an average speed of 180 km/h. That record is still standing and is not expected to be beaten any time soon.]

  • The Panic in Needle Park (1971)

    The Panic in Needle Park (1971)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2020) If you put it in a historical context, The Panic in Needle Park comes at an unsettling time in American history: fresh off the idealism of the 1960s, and yet confronting the scourges of rising violence, urban blight and increasing drug addiction. The film focuses on that last issue (with the others being not too far away), with Al Pacino in his first leading role, Kitty Winn, and a supporting role for Raul Julia in his screen debut. The story is simple and sordid, following two self-destructive drug addicts as they fight with the world and themselves. Typical of the early 1970s New Hollywood (even if entirely shot in New York City), it’s an incredibly gritty film, wallowing in the despair of Upper West Side poverty. Addiction soon turns to prostitution, violence, arrest and other problems, and the film doesn’t sugarcoat the consequences, nor does it offer much of an optimistic conclusion. It’s dated to the point of being a time capsule in terms of cinema and topic matter—almost a documentary, which is helped along by the film’s cinema-verité approach. Some of the scenes of drug injection were so shocking at the time that they earned the film an X rating not solely based on nudity or violence. Accordingly, The Panic in Needle Park is not fun at all to watch, but it’s generally less exploitative and more interesting than many of the more outlandish urban violence movies of the time.

  • Presumed Innocent (1990)

    Presumed Innocent (1990)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On Cable TV, February 2019) I miss 1990s standalone thrillers, and Presumed Innocent is a fine example of the form—adapted from a novel, it drops viewers right in the middle of a complex story and challenges them to keep up. The accumulation of subplots makes things more interesting than the rather simple core premise would suggest, with enough layering of legal system cynicism to provide the gritty atmosphere. I liked the dense beginning far more than the increasingly linear ending, which ends on a five-minute monologue that ends up sucking a lot of punch away from a striking revelation. This being said, Alan J. Pakula’s understated direction does leave full space for the focus to be on the story—this is not a film that would benefit from an overabundance of style. Harrison Ford is OK in the lead role, his stoic persona playing well with a character not prone to bursts of emotion. Elsewhere in the cast, Bonnie Bedelia is not bad as the protagonist’s wife, while Raul Julia is very cool as a top defence lawyer. Still, Presumed Innocent is a plot-driven film rather than an actor’s showcase, and at a time when so few top Hollywood movies run on pure story, it only makes me realize how much I miss it.

  • Addams Family Values (1993)

    Addams Family Values (1993)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, August 2017) Normally, I’m not too happy to report that a sequel is “more of the same,” but given my enthusiasm for 1990’s The Addams Family, I’m almost overjoyed to say that this sequel is, indeed, more of the same. The plot is just different enough to be interesting (as Fester is seduced by a gold-digging, husband-killing new character) but the atmosphere of the first film remains largely the same. Under the macabre humour lies genuine family love (although some early segments do push the limits of sibling rivalry), and the jokes are best when they’re unexpected. (I laughed far more than I ought to have at a simple “I respect that” or “Wait”) The strengths of the two Addams Family movies are the set pieces more than the plot, and this one does have one of the most honest depiction of Thanksgiving put on film, as well as a hilariously juvenile justification (with slides!) from the antagonist. Director Barry Sonnefeld has made one of his good movies here (the rest of his career … hit-and-miss), but much of the credit goes to the actors themselves. Raul Julia is fantastic as Gomez, Anjelica Huston is just as good as Morticia (while her impassible giving-birth scene is great, it took me far too long to notice the lighting effect on her eyes, but then it became hilarious to see it used in all circumstances), Christina Ricci shines as Wednesday and Joan Cusak holds up as Debbie. This sequel clicks in the same ways the original did, and yet still feels fresh enough to avoid accusations of re-threading. At this point, don’t bother seeing the first film if you don’t have Addams Family Values nearby, ready to be watched.

  • The Addams Family (1991)

    The Addams Family (1991)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, July 2017) There are times when you watch an older movie and it’s so good that you wonder why you haven’t seen it before. I’ll be the first to admit that The Adams Family isn’t a perfect film: As a macabre-themed comedy, it’s not built around a plot as much as gags and atmosphere, so it’s likely to be the kind of film that you find wonderful from beginning to end … or not. As far as I’m concerned, The Adams Family hits the right buttons in the right order. From the opening credit sequence (which features a font similar to Men in Black, also directed by Barry Sonnenfeld), it’s a ride through a darkly funny imagination. But there’s more than black comedy in play here: The appeal of The Addams Family isn’t necessarily in the macabre stuff as much as the solid family unit being demonstrated through the jokes. The lustful relationship between Morticia and Gomez is straight-up #relationshipgoals idyllic, and the film show over and over again that the Addams clan can rely on itself to take care of outsiders. And while the plot is simple, there’s some structural genius in the way it brings in an outsider to show what’s happening in that family, and to allow the intruder to be captured by the family’s charm. Otherwise, the jokes aren’t always obvious and even when they are, their delivery is perfect. (I laughed far too much at “Are they made from real Girl Scouts?”) The Addams Family does have the advantage of relying on an ensemble cast of terrific actors ideally suited to their role. Anjelica Huston has a career-best role as Morticia Adams, perfectly spooky and sexy at once. Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd both get to ham it up as brothers, while Christina Ricci got her breakout role here as Wednesday Addams. The stable of characters works well, but the production design and loopy humour is what sets this film apart. This delight-a-minute visual extravaganza may not work on everyone else equally, but as far as I’m concerned, The Addams Family is a classic that I should have seen much earlier.