Happy Birthday Clint!

Makes drinking beer and standing around holding a shotgun look like so much fun.

Magnum Force 1973

 The success of Dirty Harry catapulted Clint Eastwood to super stardom as well as launching an action movie franchise for Warner Brothers so said sequel was inevitable.  Since Harry was a Malpaso production Clint was in complete control of where he wanted to go with this character and hired some of the best young writers available at the time in John Milius and Michael Cimino.  These two wrote a very good follow up here and went on to nice careers of their own in the industry, writing and directing flicks like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Conan the Barbarian.

Someone is taking the law into their own hands by killing off the city's criminals.  Harry and his new partner get assigned to the case and befriends some rookie motorcycle cops for some help along the way.  Turns out the bike cops are the very guys he is searching for and once he turns down a chance to join them the war is on.  Can Harry take them and their leader on?   Is the forty-four magnum the most powerful handgun in the world?  Give it a spin and find out.  Very nice cast here with Hal Holbrook, David Soul, a very young Suzanne Sommers, and the late great Robert Urich.  The Highest of Recommendations.

It's Eastwood week here at Harry's

Friday Night Videos

Hot Rod 2007

I have not watched Saturday Night Live regularly in over a decade and I have never cared for any other of Lorne Michaels movie productions but I have a genuine like for Hot Rod.  Andy Samberg stars as Rod Kimble who is a self proclaimed stuntman who has to raise a lot of money for his step father's heart operation.  Funny story and hilarious stunts supported by a great, primarily Saturday Night Live cast.

Highly recommended, give it a spin.  This title is out of print on blu, hence the high price.

That rug really tied the room together.

The Dude comes to Blu Ray on August 16.  About time Universal.  I still wonder if Bridges and the Coens ever talked about a Dude sequel while filming True Grit.

I have plans on August 17, 2012

Stallone gets a Headshot

Sly continues his triumph comeback with a new movie called Headshot directed by the great Walter Hill (48 Hours, Red Heat, The Long Riders) and also stars Thomas Jane (The Punisher).  Sly plays a hitman that has to team up with Jane who is a cop to investigate some grisly murders.  Shooting starts soon in New Orleans and then Sly moves right on in to production of the Expendables 2.

Arnolds Projects on Hold. Even the Terminator may not survive this.

No Soliciting means no soliciting!

New Release Tuesday

No new releases came out today worth watching but we did score a couple of classic Steve McQueen flicks to enjoy.

Papillon- The late, great McQueen stars as a petty criminal who is wrongly accused of murder and is sentenced to a French Penal Colony in South America.  All Papillon wants to do is escape and spends the next several years trying to do so and is recaptured every time and serves some serious solitary time as punishment. Dustin Hoffman co-stars as a fellow inmate who runs into Papillon from time to time.

Le Mans- Steve McQueen loved to race anything on wheels and jumped on the chance to make a racing movie that is based on the Le Mans endurance car race in France.  This movie is more like a documentary and the word has always been that McQueen and the director shot hundreds of hours of film before settling on the 106 minutes you see on the screen.  I recall there is hardly a word spoken in the film for the first half hour or so during the opening race sequence.  Really good racing footage here.

Still on Dexter Season 2 and Sons of Anarchy Season 3.  I need to wrap these up, True Blood Season 3 comes out next week.

The Rangers still cling to first place as they have had some pretty good pitching performances of late and just received the shot in the arm they need with the return of Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz last night who both homered in their return.

Get Low 2009

Everybody knows who my favorite actor is but when someone asks me who is the best actor in the biz I always proclaim Robert Duvall.  He may be limited by his age now but back in his prime he could do it all: Mob family attorney, a cowboy, a Vietnam Colonel, a reporter, stock car pit boss, and of course a country and western singer.

Duvall plays Felix Bush a hermit that lives out in the sticks in the 1930s.  He rarely goes into town and when he does people just stare at him and tell stories of him that have been passed on from the previous generation.  Felix is told of one of his friend's death "because he was old" and comes to terms that he will not be around much longer either and he has a story he needs to share with everyone else.  He recruits Bill Murray who is the local funeral director and his assistant Lucas Black (the kid in Sling Blade) to throw him a funeral party for everyone from four surrounding counties to come.  Will people come see him?  If so will Felix tell his story?

Highly recommended, give it a spin.

Dark Kinght Rises: Bane

Fistful of Dollars Prologue

This was shot and shown once on an ABC tv broadcast of Dollars.  They network did not want Clint to appears as the cold blooded killer he is so they created this scenario with the great Harry Dean Stanton in it.  It is quite ridiculous on many levels.  It is an obvious stand in, the do not even give him the correct gun at the end, and Clint rides into town on a mule not a horse he receives here.  It is worth a watch though if you are a fan of the movie.  This reminds of of Kurt Russell and Lee Van Cleef in the beginning of Escape from New York.

I remember having this.

Stop or My Mom Will Shoot 1992

I am doing this partial movie review by request.  Yes, I guess I do them.  In the late eighties Stallone ran his Rocky and Rambo franchises into the ground and was trying to distance himself from these flicks and try something different.  Comedy.  This career move resembled what Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds did in the late seventies by switching gears a bit and doing some comedy movies themselves with Every Which Way but Loose and Smokey and the Bandit.  It worked great for them but not so well for Sly.  Sly and Arnold ruled the eighties and created the ultimate alpha male with muscles, guns, and explosions.  I just did not want to see these guys in a comedy movie; it does not seem right.  I remember being in the theater and seeing the trailer for this and condemning it before the reel was even finished.  Sly with a Golden Girl?  Rubbish.  I think I have watched maybe five minutes of this on TBS and still will not waste the 87 minutes to watch this trash.  Luckily Sly had Cliffhanger after this slop heap to make an action comeback.  Definitely not recommended.

No need for explaining

Really Arnold? Really?!?!?!

Did I fire six shots or only five?

New Release Tuesday

 Well, finally some new stuff worth watching today.

The Mechanic- Jason Statham stars in this Charles Bronson remake about an assassin that trains his eventual replacement only to find out he may be next on the hit list.  Co stars the fantastic Ben Foster from 3:10 to Yuma and the always reliable Donald Sutherland.





Thor :Tales of Asgard: With the release of Thor a couple of weeks ago you knew there would be some sort of animated feature to come out.  The boy and I are all over this one.

I am still on Dexter Season 2 and Sons of Anarchy Season 3 thanks to Amazon.

The Rangers begin today in first place by a half game thanks to Cobra Lewis and his excellent pitching performance last night.  Josh Hamilton will start a rehab assignment in Frisco this week and should be back soon.

Now this one looks good.

I am not sure abouth this one. Big shoes to fill...

New Release Tuesday

The new release schedule continues its weak trend this week. 
Justin Beiber dominates the new releases this week and I am sure that excites my girl.

Aliens- Fox was really fast at splitting up the Alien movies and selling them individually.  The Box set was running at $100 and that is pretty steep for 2 really good movies and 2 mediocre at best flicks.  Director James Cameron really flexed his movie muscles with this sequel and showed that girls can be just as tough as the Terminator in this action packed sci fi adventure.  Sigourney Weaver  was nominated for her role as Ripley who does not take any crap from Aliens.  Terminator co-stars Michael Biehn, Lance Henrickson, and Bill Paxton fill out the cast to this classic.

Finished up Justified Season 2 last week so I am on to Dexter Season 2 and thanks to Amazon they have Sons of Anarchy Season 3 available for download.  Nice.

The Rangers are playing some pretty weak ball right now and plans changed last night when Tommy Hunter tweaked his groin in a AAA start so his return to the rotation will be delayed which means the bullpen will continue to struggle.  Hopefully they hang in there and make some trades for some bullpen relief soon.  Josh Hamilton should be back within three weeks.

Justified Season 2

FX's Justified just finished up season 2 last week and what a fantastic show.  I was certainly glad that it was renewed for a third season but a little disappointed they could not incorporate a bit of a cliffhanger to the season finale. The last three minutes of the show were gripping.  I usually do not talk to the TV, I leave that to my beautiful wife, but I was squeezing a pillow and talking back this time.  Good stuff.  Any way Justified has many paths to take and we will probably have to wait until February 2012 to see where Raylan and company end up.

From the Han Solo files...

It was Hammer Time this past weekend to the tune of 66 million.

Here is the guy that took out Bin Laden. I sure miss him.

Starts Friday!

New Release Tuesday

The weak new release schedule continues today.

Sony's The Green Hornet was supposed to be a big summer movie but was delayed until this year and that is never good news for any movie.  Re-shoots and re-editing can rarely save a bad movie but the word is that this flick is quite descent.  I will give it a rental sometime.

Super Hero Squad Vol. 4- I hate when they release all of these episodes in volumes, what wrong with season sets?  Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and the rest of the Squaddies continue their battle against Dr. Doom and his buddies.

The Office lost boss Michael Scott last week and I hear Jim Carrey will be in the season finale.


Justified wraps up season 2 tomorrow and it looks to be a thriller.  Let's hope Raylan shoots a lot of bad guys.  It will be a long wait for season 3 next year.

The Rangers continue to cling to first place but as of today it is in a tie with the LA Anaheim California Angels.

Sharky's Machine 1981

Burt Reynolds was one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 70s and the early 80s and and next to Deliverance Sharky's Machine may be his best performance as an actor and director.  I always thought that this flick was a rejected Dirty Harry screenplay, Clint had put the character to bed in 1977 until his resurrection in 1984, but this was based on a novel of the same name.  The story goes that since Clint ( Every Which Way But Loose) was treading onto Burt's territory of comedy (Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run) that Burt was going to take Dirty Harry to Atlanta.  Burt turned in a fantastic film.

Sharky is an Atlanta cop that is demoted to vice squad after a botched homicide bust and catches onto a case when busting some ladies of the night.  It seems the mob is running a high end prostitute ring and when one of them wants out it it leads to her murder.  Or does it?  Sharky assembles his "Machine" to help the girl and bring down the operation.

Burt assembles a good cast with Charles Durnning, Brian Keith, Bernie Casey, and the great psycho killer Henry Silva in this great cop action movie.  Burt does his finest directing job here and that of course means fantastic stunts as well.

Warner Brothers has produced an awful DVD of this, it is in Full Screen, Full Screen I tell you.  This movie is in desperate need of a proper wide screen, anamorphic release.  Bring it on Warner's!

So who is #1 on the list now?