The Corona Diaries

Oliver Reed wrestling naked was a pandemic experience for Dracula.

Before I forget...





I watched this, thinking it'd be some sort of Halloween appropriate thriller, but the poster misled me.

Anyway, this is the last film directed by Sam Peckinpah. That might interest Doomsday and SnoBorderZero. Maybe PG Cooper. And it's based on a book by Robert Ludlum of Bourne Identity fame.

Rutger Hauer stars as a Fox News type personality, before that was a thing, who learns that three of his friends might be KGB agents. They're played by Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper and Chris Sarandon. In that order. Dennis Hopper, surprisingly, doesn't bring his signature over-acting to the role. They could have cast anyone and it would have made no difference. I should point out that I watched the director's cut which is only available as a VHS rip. I have no clue what the theatrical cut is like. Anyway... Rutger Hauer is informed about his friends, and a CIA agent, played by John Hurt, convinces Rutger Hauer to allow them to set up surveillance cameras at his home and then invite his friends over the weekend in hopes of obtaining any incriminating evidence.

Plot is a bit shaky but it don't matter because there's more to the John Hurt character than a simple CIA ally. It's one of those. The movie is actually pretty good. Action scenes are solid. The core of it, the weekend with the friends, is pretty interesting. Rutger Hauer and Craig T. Nelson are really good in their roles and bring good tension to that section of the film. The character's wives, kids and pets are mixed in. It's not just Rutger Hauer and three KGB agents. Their families are there and it adds an extreme element to it, makes it a proper thriller. There's a good jazzy, a bit porn-like, score by Lalo Schifrin. As I said, it's pretty good. It's worth checking out.

I do like Peckinpah.

And I also like movies.

Bullshit.

Don’t even joke about that.

THE CASSANDRA CROSSING (1976)



Directed by George Cosmatos of Rambo, Cobra and Tombstone fame. Co-written by Tom Mankiewicz of James Bond, Superman and Hart to Hart fame. Starring Richard Harris, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg, Martin Sheen, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren and O.J. Simpson.

The Juice is Loose on the train!

When passengers on a train in Europe are exposed to a virus, they are ordered to quarantine at an abandoned Nazi Concentration Camp in Poland. I’m not joking. But there’s one problem. The train would have to cross a weakened section of a bridge that’s on the verge of collapse. The passengers say, “fuck that,” and attempt to take control of the train. Can they make it in time?

At the risk of spoiling it, I gotta say, next to Titanic, this has the best ending to a disaster film I’ve ever seen. My jaw literally hit the floor. I’ve experienced a lot in 2020 but I didn’t expect my face mutating into Jay Leno would be one of them. Overall, the movie is okay but that ending takes it to the next level. And there’s an excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith.

Guns are wildly illegal in Hong Kong, so packing is probably not a good idea.  It's one thing to be carrying in some poorly policed crack den shanty town, it's another to be armed at a mall.

Jackie Chan went full Michael Bay with Police Story 2. Also, the toy car bomb was similarly featured in Clint Eastwood’s the Dead Pool, released a month before this movie. Great minds think alike.

I don't expect anyone revisiting Prince of Thieves nor any huge film buff to hold that movie to very high esteem but my lord do I enjoy it. I watched it a ton as a kid and it's still so enjoyable. And the Connery cameo at the very end, come ON! What's there not to like??

I re-watched Disney's 1993 Three Musketeers yet again earlier this year, and I agree: these sorts of silly-fun swashbucklers really do need to make a comeback.