Director Walter Hill’s The Warriors (1979) is a contemporary urban drama with all the traits of a western. Hill adapted the screenplay from the novel written by Sol Yurick in 1965. The film follows a group of nine gang members from Coney Island who trek up to the Bronx where thousands of other rival gang members have gathered for a summit held by a man known as Cyrus, the head of the most powerful gang in the city who plans to unite all the New York City gangs together as a crime syndicate.

The opening of the film is a series of montages that follow the Warriors as they take numerous subways from Coney Island to the Bronx. Other gangs are also shown as they too make their way to the meeting. Once the Warriors arrive at Van Cortlandt Park, the Warriors make their way to the front where Cyrus delivers a speech where he plans to unite all the gangs in an attempt to control New York. Cyrus demands that all the gangs put aside their differences and secure each city borough, and then create a collective organization that can battle not only the police, but the mafia as well.

Continue Reading →

In salute of this weekend’s debut of Marvel Comic’s The Avengers, it’s time to rediscover another Marvel character who’s had three different film versions and hopefully one of these days, they’ll get it right. Dolph Lundgren stars in the first adaptation of The Punisher (1989).

The Punisher was always my favorite Marvel character because he didn’t have superhuman strength, he couldn’t shoot webs out of his wrists, or defeat evildoers with a metal alloy suit; he was nothing more than a badass vigilante who went out and wasted criminal scumbags left and right. He was one of the darkest characters that ever came out of the Marvel universe. So with this first film version, the writers decided to take some extra crappy liberties and change the story around.

In the comics, Captain Frank Castle was a decorated U.S. Marine whose family was killed by gangsters. Broken, disillusioned by the corrupt justice system, Castle decided to take the law into his own hands and became the Punisher who over the years forged some uneasy alliances with other Marvel heroes like Spiderman, Daredevil, and many others.

Continue Reading →

High above the East River in a cable tram, an international terrorist has taken several U.N. delegates hostage and has declared war on New York City. Only one cop stands in the way of this madman’s insidious plot. This is the premise behind the action thriller Nighthawks (1981), which stars Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, and in his American film debut Rutger Hauer as Wulfgar.

Sylvester Stallone stars as Detective Sergeant Deke DaSilva, a tough NY street cop who is about to be pitted against one of the world’s most deadly terrorists. The film opens up in NYC on New Years Eve as both DaSilva and his partner Sgt. Matt Fox (Williams), members of a street crime unit that targets scumbags and pickpockets, ring in the New Year after they arrest three men in a sting operation. DaSilva chases one of the muggers onto the platform of the 174^th street station in the Bronx, where he apprehends the man after he resists arrest.

On the very same day across the Atlantic Ocean in London, England, Heymar Wulfgar (Hauer) targets a department store in another terrorist bombing which is a statement against British Imperialism. He warns the press that he will strike again and that there is nothing anyone can do to stop him. Being so well known in Europe, and after the killing of a terrorist contact, Wulgar undergoes plastic surgery in order to clandestinely sneak across international borders and to continue his terrorist plots.

Continue Reading →

This week’s pick is The Andromeda Strain (1971) that was adapted from Michael Crichton’s best selling novel. Director Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) brings this sci-fi thriller to the big screen.

A small group of scientists are brought together at the request of the U.S. government to investigate a crashed satellite that has killed the inhabitants of a small New Mexico town. It’s unclear as to the cause of death, but it is quickly discovered that the satellite, which returned to earth, managed to pick up an organism from space, which has proven fatal for the small town’s inhabitants.

The team of scientists is headed by doctor Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) who is the first to be called in by members of the U.S. Air Force and The White House. Stone understands the severity of the situation and wastes no time gathering the other three members of the team who will help to identify, isolate, and cure this new disease from space.

Continue Reading →

Westworld (1973) marks the feature film debut of Sci-fi writer Michael Crichton who had recently met success in Hollywood with the film adaptation of his famed novel The Andromeda Strain. Westworld stars Richard Benjamin (Peter Martin) James Brolin (John Blane) and Yul Brynner (The Gunslinger).

Westworld is set in the near future (now passé) where a resort known as Delos, comprised of three resort communities gives its adult patrons the opportunity for $1000 a day to live out their fantasies as either an old west desperado, a medieval knight, or a hedonist in the pre-Christian Roman Empire. The park is also home to human like androids that are engineered to look, talk, and react just like humans.

Peter Martin (Benjamin) accompanies his best friend John Blane (Brolin) who has visited Westworld before. Peter begins asking John how the theme park operates and most importantly, what can they expect while enjoying their two week stay as wild west outlaws. After their orientation and then being equipped with authentic old west clothing and pistols, Peter and John arrive at the Westworld theme park by stagecoach where Peter is in awe of the park’s authenticity.

Continue Reading →

Repo Man (1984), not to be confused with the movie about two guys who go around repossessing people’s internal organs when they miss a payment, is a Punk Rock classic starring Emilio Estevez as a clean cut kid in the dirty business of repossessing cars in the seedy underworld of Los Angeles.

Otto Maddox (Estevez) has just been fired from his job as a supermarket stock boy due to his lack of respect for authority. Later that night at a Punk Rock house party, he also finds out that his girlfriend Debbie is cheating on him with his best friend Duke. To make matters worse, Otto also finds out that his hippie parents gave away money that was promised to Otto for finishing college to a sleazy televangelist. What’s a broke, depressed punker supposed to do now?

After a long night of drinking and wandering the streets, Otto runs into Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) who pleads with Otto to help get his pregnant wife’s car out of a bad area and deliver it to the hospital where she’s going into labor. Otto initially refuses to take the job for less than $20 and finds out that he has been suckered into stealing a car.

Continue Reading →

Enemy Mine (1985) is one of those great, lost treasures of sci-fi from the mid 1980s. The film stars Dennis Quaid as a fighter jock who becomes marooned on a distant planet with an alien being known as a Drac, a humanoid, reptilian creature who perceive humans as a threat since humans have begun colonizing the far reaches of space.

Quaid’s narration opens up the film and explains that by the late twenty first century, humans put aside their differences and worked together to begin colonizing outer space in search of worlds and resources. The Drac race had colonized the universe a thousand years prior to man’s arrival and went to war to preserve their claim in the galaxy. During a surprise attack launched by the Dracs, pilot Will Davidge (Quaid) and his shipmate crash-land on the planet Fyrine IV, a hunk of rock in outer space that has a breathable atmosphere.

Davidge’s partner Joey (Lance Kerwin) dies due to internal injuries and Davidge is left all alone. After Davidge buries his friend, he looks off into the distance and sees smoke from the crashed Drac ship that was responsible for him being marooned. Davidge sets off to find the ship and to kill its pilot if it isn’t already dead.

Continue Reading →

Not to be confused with the upcoming remake, this week’s pick is Paul Verhoeven’s classic sci-fi action film Total Recall (1990). It is based on Phillip K. Dick’s novel We Can Remember it for You Wholesale and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a man trying to piece together who he really is on Mars in the year 2084. Noted for his unique blend of violence, extreme sexual situations, and gore, Verhoeven pulls no stops with Total Recall.

In the film Schwarzenegger stars as Doug Quaid, an everyday guy who has nightmare visions concerning the planet Mars that for some time has been colonized by humans. Disenfranchised with his work and everyday grind, Doug decides to visit a company called Rekall that sells memory implantations that makes you feel as if you have really taken a vacation without actually going anywhere.

While at Rekall, Doug is persuaded by the manager to purchase what is referred to as an “ego trip” where you assume the role of a particular individual. Quaid is intrigued and selects the persona of a secret agent who is on a mission to save Mars.

Continue Reading →

This week’s Monday Pick is the 1987 Sci-fi action film Robocop, directed by master filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Starship Troopers, Flesh & Blood, Soldier of Orange, The Black Book). Peter Weller stars as slain police officer Alex Murphy who is brought back to life by corporate scientists to become the ultimate law enforcement weapon in the crime-ridden Detroit of the near future.

Robocop is not only a well made solid blend of sci-fi and action, Verhoeven and writers Ed Neumeier and Michael Miner splendidly poke fun at many institutions in American culture like the media, corporate greed, privatization, capitalism, and even masculinity.

OCP (Omni Consumer Products) is a vast corporation that specializes in space exploration, civilian and Military technology, and government intervention. OCP enters into an agreement to run and finance the Detroit police force in order to serve its needs, one being that OCP plans to turn Detroit into the city of tomorrow known as Delta City due to rampant crime and that the city is on the verge of financial collapse.

Continue Reading →

This week’s Monday pick is Manhunter (1986), Michael Mann’s film adaptation of Thomas Harris’s classic novel Red Dragon. The film stars William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang, and Tom Noonan.

Manhunter is one of Mann’s best and it was the first film to introduced the world to psychotic killer Dr. Hannibal Lecktor who would go on to great acclaim five years later in the Academy Award winning Best Picture Silence of the Lambs.

William Petersen stars as FBI profiler Will Graham who is pulled out of semi-retirement by his old boss Jack Crawford (Farina) when a series of grizzly murders occur a month apart from one another. Graham is considered one of the best profilers in the Bureau and Crawford is reluctant to ask him to come back after Graham was viciously attacked and almost killed several years earlier when he apprehended Dr. Lecktor.

Continue Reading →

This week’s pick is the adventure-comedy classic The Goonies (1985). Richard Donner (Superman I, II, Lethal Weapon series) and Steven Spielberg craft this cult classic, which has entertained countless fans for over twenty-five years.

The Goonies centers around a group of seven outcast teens from Astoria, Oregon whose homes are about to be demolished due to a real estate venture to expand the ritzy Astoria country club into their neighborhood. Facing their last weekend together, Mike Walsh (Sean Astin) and the rest of his friends rummage around his father’s attic and uncover a map, and a Spanish doubloon.

Mikey begins to tell the story of a Seventeenth Century Pirate known as One-Eyed Willie who stole a large assortment of treasure from the English back in 1632, and it was rumored to have been buried somewhere along their coastline. At first, Mikey’s friends seem reluctant to go on one last Goonie adventure but change their minds when they realize that if they were to find One-Eyed Willie’s treasure, they and their families wouldn’t have to leave Astoria.

Continue Reading →

This week’s pick is yet another John Carpenter classic. Kurt Russell stars as the first ever action hero of the 1980s in Escape From New York (1981). After success with Halloween and the horror classic The Fog, Carpenter’s next project would be a unique blend of science fiction, action, noir and a western. The result is one of the finest multi genre classics of its time.

Set in a dystopian future (now the past) the United States’ crime rate rises to an astonishing four hundred percent in 1988. To combat the growing crime rate, the United States becomes a totalitarian police state and the great city of New York is turned into the one prison for the whole country. A fifty-foot containment wall is erected around all of Manhattan Island, all the bridges and waterways are mined, and the United States Police Force patrols the wall perimeter to insure no one escapes. Once you go inside the prison, you never come out.

Continue Reading →