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kestrelgrey
Reviews
The Hidden (1987)
Good film
I agree with what a lot of other reviews have written, in that this is a somewhat unknown gem, but was pretty good.
However I have to say that I found a couple of bits to be a bit unbelievable, even given the genre and plot of the film.
1. The hard bitten experienced local homicide detective is teamed up by his boss with the new-in-town FBI agent. First off, surely the cops wouldn't straight away have checked the FBI agent's credentials and discovered that in fact he was thought to have been burned up in a fire.
The detective is asked to help with a particular murder suspect - which he promptly does, informing the FBI agent that the guy is in hospital and expected to die, which duly happens.
You would think this would have been the end of the matter, but for some reason the detective then allows himself to continue to be used as a sidekick seemingly without good reason on a variety of other enquiries, starting with looking for a seriously ill guy who has suddenly gone missing from hospital. A quirky and interesting case yes, but hardly a priority for immediate homicide detective attention surely?
But even when the body count is rapidly piling up, the detective seems to just accept that he isn't going to get any sensible answers about what is going on out of the FBI guy. Remember, this is a successful and experienced homicide detective we are talking about, surely he would be very experienced at questioning people effectively and would not allow himself to be fobbed off or his questions to just be evaded in this way.
It isn't until quite late in the film and after going to about half a dozen murder scenes, and nearly getting killed himself, that he really tries to get to grips with things.
2. The ultimate weapon proves to be a flamethrower. The moment this was on screen in the police station early on in the film, being paraded for no good plot reason, I wondered when this was going to make an meaningful appearance in the film, and so it does near the end of the film.
The good guy is under heavy fire but gets into position, gets out his flamethrower from a bag he is carrying and torches the bad guy. You would think the good guy wouldn't have been able to use the flamethrower long before someone exploded the thrower's gas tanks with a bullet, but conveniently everyone stops firing at the good guy while he uses his flame thrower.
It has also to be asked, if the flamethrower was going to turn out to be this ultimate weapon, why oh why didn't the alien good guy think to use it earlier instead of trying to engage the bad guy throughout the film with a pistol which had as about as much effect as a pea shooter?
Oh, and highly creepy ending too. The detective dies of bullet wounds in hospital, so the alien inside the FBI agent decides to jump bodies and then we see him at the end of the film trying to get the detective's daughter to accept that he really is okay as her dad, or something like that.
That's creepy enough but goodness knows what the detective's wife will think when she finds out that her husband has had a total personality change; yet alone her horror and revulsion if she ever discovers that while her husband's body is still walking around, in fact he is dead and she is living and presumably sleeping with a stranger who also happens to be an alien and is controlling the functions of the dead body.
Uppdraget (1977)
Realistic but so what?
I thought this film was quite realistic in it's portrayal of a diplomat hopelessly out of his depth, singlehandedly trying to change matters in a banana republic.
Right up until the end I expected the diplomat to become an unwilling guerrilla leader. The film even seemed to be setting things up to go that way when the diplomat's team gunned down the President's only son, which I'm sure in many films would have been a plot device to give the diplomat no choice but to take up the gun and go on the run with his girl.
Even at the end, with all the rebel leaders and the diplomat's girl facing imminent execution, I was expecting the diplomat to start sorting out the problems Rambo style and save the day. Maybe this all shows that I have watched too many Hollywood style endings and in that sense, the ending, with the diplomat outmanoeuvred and impotent to change things, was very realistic.
It would have been simple enough to argue that the diplomat had been framed into making certain things happen, but actually at every turn the government of the country tried to stop him and encourage him to leave, but he was having none of it.
I thought the camera work was very good as well as the scene dressing, with the exception that while the police all seemed to have clean, modern natty looking jeeps to drive around in, the vehicles being used by both the diplomat and the chief of police were seemingly older, dirtier and uglier. I also thought all the actors played their roles and delivered their lines well and realistically, with even the broken English, as most of the cast didn't speak English as a first language, coming across as realistic for a banana republic with English being used as a lingua franca (the film was produced by Swedes, and shot in Portugal). Even the portrayal of the diplomat as usually drenched in sweat was realistic, as you might expect a man taken from Scandanavia for a pressured assignment in the tropics to be, particularly as it seems he was expected to wear a suit all the time.
THe film focused around the activity of the diplomat, played by Thomas Hellberg, and he certainly was the person who got the most screen time, but Christopher Plummer, a much better known star, got top billing as the chief of police.
However, all this said, I'm afraid that at the end of the day the film just wasn't that interesting and there was a big element of so what?
Heart Condition (1990)
"The pump action comedy" - ?????
"Pump action comedy" says the front of the video case. Yes, I get it, "pump action" as in shotguns (which the video case shows on the back cover) and heart beats - however anyone thinking it is going to be a comedy...i.e that they might laugh much, is going to be very disappointed. Oh hold on, perhaps it's a black comedy, so we are not supposed to laugh?....hmmm....the back of the video case says "hilarious story"
Frankly, I wonder if this film really needed to be made. ;and if it had been decided that it was integral to the plot that the two male leads of the racial and physical types depicted, then the producers might have been better off with people more used to making comedies, like Eddie Murphy and Danny De Vito.
The only scene that was at all well done was near the start when Jack Mooney's superior officer was chewing out for using the N-word. I've seen a similar scene in another film with Nick Nolte I think and it was done better there.
The plot had several glaring continuity errors, some of which are already on this site. But here are some more: all of which occur in the same 5 minute segment. When Jack Mooney nearly rejects Denzil Washinton's heart, Denzil is on the bed and suggests that they could play video games together. But surely not, as he would not be able to handle the controls, as earlier on in the film, Denzil revealed that he was unable to shut a door, as he could only touch Jack Mooney. Then when Jack Mooney discharges himself from hospital, he gets into a police car. Where on earth did the keys for that suddenly materialise from? And when the receptionist at the hospital makes a phone call, ALL the heart monitors she is supposed to be watching are either switched off or are flat lining. Early on in the film Jack Mooney is swigging from a bottle, which he has apparently just bought hence the bag it is in, but one swig later the bottle is 3/4 empty. The 5 kilogram cat seemingly has what appears to be a lethal dose of whisk bourbon as well, but apparently without any ill effect.
The plot, even once we accept the premise of a ghost coming back, is frankly unbelievable. Early on in the film we learn that Napoleon Stone, Denzil Washington's lawyer character has been killed just in case his hooker clients him told him anything - yet the hookers themselves are kept alive, seemingly with attempts only being made to kill them many months later, towards the end of the film.
As for the final scene, the gunfight has to be one of the most unbelievable ever seen. It is somewhat unbelievable that the bad guys didn't seem to have a look out watching for his arrival and gun him down from the front windows as he walked towards the building.
However Jack manages to enter the building without any opposition. He then decides that the ideal strategy is to use the "wizard's Eye" strategy send the ghost on ahead to scout the place out. A good idea surely. The ghost does this and reports a bad guy with a big gun waiting in the next room. So without further ado, avoids him and heads up the stairs....without getting the ghost to check the upstairs areas first. No matter, as none of the bad guys seem to be waiting for that possibility. By contrast, later on when a bad guy is coming cautiously up the stairs, Jack blows him away in an instant.
Later on in the same gunfight, Jack is trying to escape with his girl, who is severely drugged and thus unable to walk unassisted. This causes problems as Jack Mooney is barely able to stand himself. The ghost is unable to help her, but it does not seem to occur to either him or Jack, that the solution is for Jack to lean on the ghost and thus for the ghost to take the weight in that way. This solution had already been used when Jack discharged himself from the hospital and was leaning on the ghost.
Anyway despite Jack Mooney still suffering from his heart condition, being severely wounded in the chest during the early stages of the gunfight, and barely able to stand he is revealed as a supreme gunfighter and marksman. It seems that even the tear gas canister that he threw himself and then ran straight into the area of effect of, didn't have any adverse affect his stamina, eyesight or lightening quick reflexes as he killed all 5 of the baddies with just 5 shots including shots as he dived to the floor, span round to kill the guy behind him and fired one handed.
Denzil Washington was right to fire his agent after this turkey.