Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Sanctioning Evil looks like my kind of ride. Deal me in.
After being dishonorably discharged from the military, a Staff Sergeant finds his way back into society through a charismatic politician with a covert military operation to eliminate an underground criminal entity on U.S soil.
Starring: Tobias Truvillion, Zach McGowan, and Taryn Manning
Directed by: Ante Novakovic
Release Date: 10/7/22
Cold in July (2014)
Director: Jim Mickle
Screenplay by: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle based on the novel, Cold in July by Joe R. Lansdale
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Vinessa Shaw, Lanny Flaherty and Wyatt Russell
Tagline: How many men can one bullet kill?
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
When Richard Dane (Hall) accidentally shoots and kills Freddy Russell, an intruder in his home, the Chief of Police assures Dane that he did nothing wrong. The intruder is a known thief who comes from a family of criminals. In fact, the intruder’s father, Ben Russell (Shepard) will be released from prison later in the week.
Ben Russell ins a real hard case. He confronts Richard about killing his son and makes a veiled threat to get retribution. When Richard goes to the police, the Chief says that until Ben does something to break the law, nothing can be done. Richard starts to storm out of the police station when he sees a wanted poster for Freddy Russell… and the photo on it is NOT the man that Richard killed!
Richard discovers that the Police Chief is lying to him and Ben Russell… but why? If he can convince Ben that they’re both being played, perhaps they can solve the mystery… if they’re not killed first.
A Cold Day in July is a great adaptation of Joe Lansdale’s novel. Hall and Shepard are excellent. Wyatt Russell has a small, but important role and nails it. Don Johnson was born to play Jim Bob Luke. I could see a movie or series based on his character. A Cold Day in July starts as one thing, morphs into a mystery of why the cops are lying and ends as a rescue mission by three men who would have never been friends.
Cold in July earns 4 of 5 stars.
Joe Lansdale is on my must-read list for ANY novel that he writes. I emphasize any because Lansdale writes in whatever genre strikes his fancy. His upcoming novel is titled The Donut Legion. Here’s the synopsis…
Edgar award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale beams a light on an East Texas town held in the grip of conspiracy.
Charlie Garner has a bad feeling. His ex-wife, Meg, has been missing for over a week and one quick peek into her home shows all her possessions packed up in boxes. Neighbors claim she’s running from bill collectors, but Charlie suspects something more sinister is afoot. Meg was last seen working at the local donut shop, a business run by a shadow group most refer to as ‘The Saucer People’; a space-age, evangelist cult who believe their compound to be the site of an extraterrestrial Second Coming.Along with his brother, Felix, and beautiful, randy journalist Amelia “Scrappy” Moon, Charlie uncovers strange and frightening details about the compound (read: a massive, doomsday storehouse of weapons, a leashed chimpanzee!) When the body of their key informer is found dead with his arms ripped out of their sockets, Charlie knows he’s in danger but remains dogged in his quest to rescue Meg.
Brimming with colorful characters and Lansdale’s characteristic bounce, this rollicking crime novel examines the insidious rise of fringe groups and those under their sway with black comedy and glints of pathos.
Pre-orders are available now. Deal me in.
I’m Still Alive by Roberto Saviano and Asaf Hanuka just came onto my radar. I’m a fan of crime stories and this is a true one.
For the first time since the publication of his internationally bestselling novel, Gomorrah, Roberto Saviano shares his early-life experience with the violence of the Neapolitan Mafia and how exposing them irrevocably changed his life.
Italian journalist Roberto Saviano was twenty-six years old when he published his first book, Gomorrah, to international acclaim. The book, which has gone on to sell 10 million copies worldwide, was a detailed exposé of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra, whose organized crime tactics have permeated all matters of industry in Naples: government, infrastructure, high fashion, and drugs. Over fifteen years after Gomorrah’s release, Saviano’s life has been under constant threat from would be assassins who forced him to leave his native Italy and to live under constant police protection. For the first time since then, Saviano shares his deepest thoughts and experiences of early life in Naples, witnessing the power and violence of Camorra firsthand, his current existence living under guard, all the while continuing to call attention to the deeply rooted crime and corruption that plagues his home. Collaborating with award-winning cartoonist Asaf Hanuka (The Realist, The Divine), both writer and artist examine a life behind armed guard whose best recourse against oppression is through old fashioned pen and paper.
I like the art style that Hanuka is using to tell the story.
I’m Still Alive drops on October 11, 2022. Pre-orders are available now.
The A Friend of the Family trailer definitely hits the creepy vibe. I like the looks of this one.
A Friend of the Family is based on the harrowing true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped multiple times over a period of years by a charismatic, obsessed family “friend.” The Brobergs — devoted to their faith, family, and community — were utterly unprepared for the sophisticated tactics their neighbor used to exploit their vulnerabilities, drive them apart, and turn their daughter against them. This is the story of how their lives were permanently altered — and how they survived.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: The Deluxe Hardcover by Quentin Tarantino
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Harper
First sentence…
The buzzer on Marvin Schwarz’s desk makes a noise.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the fictionalized account of Hollywood actor and tv star, Rick Dalton, his stuntman and best friend, Cliff Booth and the famous/infamous folks they run into in Hollywood in the late 60s. If you’ve seen Tarantino’s movie of the same name, then you know the story… or at least most of it. The novel goes into greater detail especially in regard to Cliff Booth. If you liked the movie, you should enjoy the book. If you think, I’ve seen the movie, I don’t need a rehash in a novelization, you might be surprised. There’s a different story structure in the novel than the film and time to dig a deeper into the characters.
If you haven’t seen the movie, let me get you up to speed. Rick Dalton was a rising movie star. He had a western tv series called Bounty Law. It was popular and ran for a few years. Dalton then went into feature films, but that was then. Now Dalton appears to be on his way down. He’s been regulated to guest starring in television shows and usually ends up beaten and beaten up by the star of the show. Dalton hopes he’ll get another run at feature films. Cliff Booth is a World War II decorated vet, a stuntman and Rick’s best friend. Booth may or may not have killed his wife (we find out for sure in the novel). He also went toe-to-toe with Bruce Lee in a challenge that pretty much ended Booth getting stunt work. Rick and Cliff will also have run-ins with the Charlie Manson family, Sharon Tate and others. To say more would be to say too much,
Tarantino is more of a story-teller than a writer. Someone said if the novel was better written, it wouldn’t be as good. That may sound strange, but I get the sentiment. As you read Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, there’s the feeling that we’re hearing the tale from an insider and not a writer somewhere trying to polish his prose. I loved the inside stories/legends of real life actors/actresses in Hollywood.
The Deluxe Edition also features a Rick Dalton Bounty Law episode script; Photos of lobby cards from two of Rick Dalton’s feature films, two Bounty Law stills, two Bounty Law TV Guide covers, two Bounty Law comic book covers, a Bounty Law lunchbox, Bounty Law production art, a Bounty Law board game, 8 movie posters featuring Rick Dalton and other real-life stars, and a MAD magazine Bounty Law parody featuring the cover and story by Andrew Secunda and Tom Richmond.
I enjoyed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and hope that Tarantino writes more novels. I’m a sucker for a good story.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood rates 4 of 5 stars.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: The Deluxe Hardcover
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Paperback
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Kindle
I liked the first Knives Out mystery and Glass Onion looks to be at least as good. Oh, and how about that cast!
You’re invited to put the pieces together. In the follow-up to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, Detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery involving a new cast of colorful suspects.
Starring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline with Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista.
Disturbing the Peace (2020)
Director: Chuck Hustmyre
Screenplay by: Jay Simms
Starring: Guy Pearce, Devon Sawa and Branscombe Richmond
Tagline: What Would You Give Up to Save Everything?
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
Jim Dillion (Pearce) was a Texas Ranger. He stopped carrying a gun after accidentally shooting and paralyzing his partner in a hostage situation. Now he’s Marshall Dillion. (I kid you not. If you’re old enough, you’ll recognize the name.) Like Andy Griffith, Dillion has one Deputy to assist him. They are the law in a little Texas town.
A small motorcycle gang, barely large enough to be called a crowd, plans to rob an armored truck carrying 15 million dollars to be deposited in the town’s bank. It will be up to Marshall Dillion and his deputy to stop them.
I wanted to like Disturbing the Peace. Guy Pearce is a good actor. The plot was perfect for a low budget film. I was hoping for something along the lines of Tom Laughlin in The Born Losers. What I got was a real mess.
The story goes off the rails. For a lot of the film, Marshall Dillion and his deputy are running from place to place watching the bad guys take hostages or worse. When Dillion finally decides to get a gun, he has to run home. He then stares at his pistol for an eternity before finally picking it up. Dillion captures one of the gang members and puts him in jail. Dillion learns that the gangbanger was a former marine and tells him, “So was I.” Dillion then opens the cell, hands him a rifle and turns his back on him! Just like that the former gang member is now ready to go against his motorcycle brothers.
Then when Dillion and the gang member, both armed with rifles, come up against a guy with a handgun, they retreat! It gets even worse. The gang leader, Diablo (Sawa) fires a machine gun at Dillion as he walks down the center of an empty street. Dillion isn’t even wounded. We also get the classic: Dillon on a horse exchanging gunfire with Diablo on a motorcycle and then the horse catching the motorcycle!
With all that said, you’d probably think that Disturbing the Peace would earn one star. It nearly did, Still, I made it through the film so I’m barely rating it a two.
Disturbing the Peace earns 2 of 5 stars.
The trailer for Tulsa King starring Sylvester Stallone hits all the right notes. I cannot wait to see this series!
TULSA KING follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone), just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Okla. Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a “crew” from a group of unlikely characters, to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet. The series also stars Andrea Savage (“I’m Sorry”), Martin Starr (“Silicon Valley”), Max Casella (“The Tender Bar”), Domenick Lombardozzi (“The Irishman”), Vincent Piazza (“Boardwalk Empire”), Jay Will (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), A.C. Peterson (“Superman & Lois”) with Garrett Hedlund (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”).
The series will be executive-produced by Sheridan, Winter, Stallone, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin and Allen Coulter. Braden Aftergood is also set to executive-produce.
Stream the new series on November 13, exclusively on Paramount+.
I’m diggin’ the trailer for The Enforcer starring Antonio Banderas and Kate Bosworth. Definitely deal me in!
Miami’s top mob enforcer Cuda (Antonio Banderas) sacrifices it all to tear down the criminal organization he’s spent his whole life building up when he discovers his boss Estelle (Kate Bosworth) is putting a young runaway’s life in grave danger. Now he has one last chance to make up for his past and find redemption – both for himself and his family – before the mob hunts him down for his betrayal.
Red Stone (2021)
Director: Derek Presley
Screenplay by: Derek Presley
Starring: Neal McDonough, Dash Melrose, Michael Cudlitz and Billy Blair
Tagline: None
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
Motley Adams (Melrose) witnessed his older brother killed by order of Jed Haywood (Cudlitz), a local crime boss. Now Motley is on the run from Haywood’s thugs led by a hitman named Boon (McDonough). The local sheriff and the F.B.I. are looking for Motley too. It’s just a question of time… and time is about to run out.
With McDonough and Cudlitz in the credits, I was expecting more. Although Red Stone clocks in at just 97 minutes, it felt longer. That’s never good. There’s lip service paid to a subplot about Boon’s mom that could have been totally cut for all the impact it had. Red Stone has some interesting ideas, but unfortunately the execution isn’t up to the same level.
Red Stone earns 2 of 5 stars.
Magnum Force (1973)
Director: Ted Post
Screenplay by: John Milius, Michael Cimino from a story by John Milius based on characters created by Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Mitchell Ryan, David Soul, Tim Matheson, Kip Niven, Robert Urich, Felton Perry, Maurice Argent, Richard Devon, Tony Giorgio, Jack Kosslyn and John Mitchum
Tagline: Clint Eastwood is Dirty Harry in Magnum Force
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
Someone is killing criminals who have escaped justice in court. As the dead bodies pile up, Inspector Harry Callahan (Eastwood) begins to suspect that the killer is a cop. As Harry continues his investigation, he discovers that he is now on the killer’s hit list!
Clint Eastwood returns in the second outing as his most popular character, Dirty Harry Callahan. Magnum Force is Eastwood’s favorite Dirty Harry film. It’s easy to see why. The screenplay by John Milius and Michael Cimino provides a great response to critics who said Dirty Harry is a fascist vigilante. Plus Eastwood’s supporting cast includes several stars on the verge of their breakout roles (David Soul in Starsky & Hutch, Tim Matheson in The Quest and Robert Urich in S.W.A.T.). Hal Holbrook is perfect as Lt. Briggs, Calahan’s supervising officer.
Magnum Force provides a great showcase for Eastwood doing what he does best; playing the loner who despite “the system” gets the job done. Eastwood starts and ends Magnum Force with memorable dialogue. The film opens with a repeat of the “Do you feel lucky, punk?” speech and ends with “A man’s got to know his limitations.” In between we see Harry react to situations (Eastwood has facial expressions that rival Vince McMahon’s), stop a hijacking, being hit on (in different ways) by women and bad guys and overcoming the odds win the day.
Magnum Force earns 4 of 5 stars.
Ludik – The poster and trailer are here! Ludik is already streaming. It looks good so how did it fly under the radar? I plan to check it out.
Chaos unfolds when the South African mafia discovers the true reason for his success. Who is Daan Ludik?
The poster and trailer for The Last Victim are here. Deal me in.
In this stylised western thriller, a group of modern-day outlaws and their terrifying leader are pursued by a local sheriff, played by Ron Perlman (Hellboy), after committing a horrific crime in a desolate southwest town. When a professor and her husband cross paths with the criminals, everyone is drawn into a spiral of violence and retribution where morality becomes ambiguous, and survival is the only option.
The Last Victim also stars Ali Larter (Heroes) and Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones) and is directed by Naveen A. Chathapuram.
The Gauntlet (1977)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Screenplay by: Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince and Bill McKinney
Tagline: Clint Eastwood is the man in the middle of The Gauntlet
The Overview: Beware of spoilers…
Ben Shockley (Eastwood) is a Phoenix cop who drinks too much and does just enough to get by on the job. So when Police Commissioner Blakelock (Prince) personally choses him to go to Las Vegas to extradite a “nothing witness” for a “nothing trial”, Shockley doesn’t think too much of it. Gus Malley, the “nothing witness”, turns out to be Augustine Malley (Locke).
Malley claims that she is has information on government officials with mob ties and that she’s been targeted for execution. She tells Shockley that he was chosen because no one would question him not getting her safely back. When Shockley and Malley are nearly killed, he realizes she’s right. Important people with ties to the mob and police have made it their mission to kill Shockley and Malley… and Shockley’s made it his to get her back safely to testify!
Ben Shockley is the opposite of Dirty Harry, but Eastwood is just as convincing in this role. Gus Malley is played by Sandra Locke, Eastwood’s off screen lover at the time. Pat Hingle has a small but important role as Shockley’s friend on the force. William Prince is excellent as the slimy Police Commissioner. Eastwood puts just the right amount of humor in The Gauntlet. And how about that Frank Frazetta poster?
The Gauntlet earns 4 of 5 stars.
