Synopsis
Victorious at the National Sheepdog Championship, Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) and Babe the Gallant Pig (voiced by Elizabeth Daily) receive a parade on their way back to the farm. But as The Narrator (Roscoe Lee Browne) warns us, “The first hazard for the returning hero is his fame. The adulation can spin you quite giddy.” When Babe tries to help the boss repair a well, he sets in motion a disaster that injures poor Hoggett. Facing financial ruin, Mrs. Hoggett (Magda Szubanski) accepts a “generous appearance fee” for Babe to demonstrate his sheep herding skills. The pig is hesitant to leave the comforts of home, but the sheepdogs Fly (voiced by Miriam Margolyes) and Rex (voiced by Hugo Weaving) tell him that to save the farm, he has no other choice.

Arriving by plane in Metropolis – a city whose fantastic skyline includes the Hollywood sign, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower and the World Trade Center – Babe’s conversation with an overzealous drug sniffing beagle leads to Mrs. Hoggett being detained by Customs and missing her connecting flight. Stranded in Metropolis for a week, the farmer’s wife is directed to an animal friendly hotel at the edge of a canal. The Landlady (Mary Stein) is sympathetic to Babe given that her uncle Fugly (Mickey Rooney) is a clown who uses apes in his act. But Mrs. Hoggett sets off a disaster in town and is jailed, while the Landlady also runs afoul with the law. Babe finds himself a pig alone in the city.

A pair of trained chimps (voiced by Steven Wright and Glenne Headley) advise Babe that it’s “a dog-eat-dog world and there’s not enough dogs to go around.” Accompanying them on a search for food, Babe is tricked into entering the domain of the Pitbull. In the chase that ensues, the dog plummets into the canal, but as the other animals turn their backs, Babe rescues the Pitbull from drowning, making an instant friend. He’s also reunited with Ferdinand the Duck, who hitched a ride from the farm with pelicans. When the hotel is raided by animal control and most of the animals captured, Babe, Ferdinand and a handicapped Jack Russell terrier named Flealick (voiced by Adam Goldberg) mount a rescue of their friends.

Production history
With no stars, little advance publicity and modest commercial expectations, Babe – an adaptation of Dick King-Smith’s 1983 storybook The Sheep Pig – became the surprise blockbuster film of 1995. With masterful digital effects putting words in the mouths of animals more realistically than ever before, as well as manic inventiveness and a message of courage, critics lavished the children’s film with praise. Babe received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director (Chris Noonan). It also grossed over $250 million worldwide on a budget of only $30 million. For Universal Pictures, making Babe 2 became a foregone conclusion.

The studio granted creative reign to George Miller – the visually ingenious Australian filmmaker who co-wrote and produced the original – to make a sequel. With Judy Morris & Mark Lamprell, Miller authored a script, and stepped into the director’s chair for the first time in seven years. When Babe: Pig In The City commenced filming September 1997 on soundstages at Fox Studios, Sydney – far from the scrutiny of Universal – 799 live animals were involved, from pigs to dogs to chimpanzees to mice. Most of the cast went before the cameras one animal at a time over multiple takes until their performance satisfied Miller. Once Roger Ford’s lavish production design and visual effects by Rhythm & Hues, Mill Film and Animal Logic Film were tabulated into the budget, the cost tripled – to $90 million – what was spent on the original.

Because even a rough version of the film was so dependent on the completion of the visual effects, no one got a look at Babe: Pig In The City until two weeks before its release Thanksgiving Day weekend 1998. Put before a test audience in Anaheim Hills, California on November 8, Miller found it overwhelming. “We had to remix the entire film. It was so loud, it was a complete assault on the ears.” Universal assigned six of its top sound engineers to work twenty hours a day softening the sound effects and the musical score. A test screening several days later went much better, but when studio president Ron Meyer got a look at the film, he was not happy with what he saw. Meyer contacted the owner of Universal – Edgar Bronfman Jr. – who agreed that Babe: Pig In The City was just too dark for kids.

A reviewer at the Anaheim Hills screening wrote to the website Ain’t It Cool News: “Babe 2 faithfully follows the unwritten law of sequels, in that it is much darker in tone than the original (e.g. Back to the Future 2, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). There are moments so unsettling that I would hesitate to bring a very young or sensitive child to this film. It definitely earns its PG rating.” Meyer took the unusual step of canceling the film’s premiere, which was set to benefit the Children’s Defense Fund and scrambled to suggest a kid friendly fix to George Miller. The director omitted the two uses of the word “damn” and nipped a shot of a goldfish suffocating – which was enough for the MPAA to change their rating from “PG” to “G” – but the alterations did little to change the perception that the film was too dark for kids.

For the most part, critics couldn’t have disagreed more. On Siskel & Ebert, Gene Siskel – who would rank Babe: Pig In the City #1 on his list of the 10 Best Films of 1998 – said, “This is a magnificent, towering achievement. We’re dazzled by it. You take any five, ten minute section of this picture and you think of the work that went into the construction – the physical construction – the wit of the writing, and the charm of course of Babe.” Roger Ebert agreed. “What I like about this movie is the story, the dialogue and the characters all use the effects, instead of being the victims of the effects, and every single shot in this movie is enchanting and delightful and magical in its own way. I sat there and thought, ‘It’s too bad adults are gonna stay away from this, thinking it’s some talking pig movie.’”

Peter Rainer wrote in New York Magazine, “As it turns out, the new Babe isn’t the horror show that was rumored. But it’s certainly more raucous and rough-edged than the original. Arguably, it’s even better.” The raves ended up having little impact commercially. Coming in fifth place over the holiday weekend, Babe: Pig In The City went on to gross $18.3 million in the U.S. and $50.8 million overseas. George Miller didn’t comment on the film’s disastrous reception, but his spokesman Johnny Friedkin maintained that Universal was aware of Miller’s resume and knew exactly what type of film they were getting. “You had to be mentally deficient to read the screenplay and not see what was in it. There shouldn’t have been any surprises.”

Following a string of commercial failures that also included Meet Joe Black, Out of Sight and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Universal chairman Frank Biondi Jr. resigned. Two weeks later, Ron Meyer delivered a pink slip to film division chairman Casey Silver. Writing an article titled “Studio slaughtered Babe 2” Roger Ebert commented, “Why is it bigger news that Babe 2 flopped than that Babe 2 is a great movie? Because the head of Universal got fired after the pig’s flop – by corporate bosses who thereby brilliantly made absolutely sure that the headlines about Babe 2 in its first week would be negative. Babe: Pig in the City is a magical, original, daring, wonderful movie, one of the year’s best. Take my word for it. I’ve actually seen it.”

Opinion
Babe: Pig in the City departs so majestically from the original Babe that its blueprint could be smuggled out of Hollywood and spread among rebel groups of filmmakers meeting in basements to plot the demise of the brand identity marketing empire that rewards repetition and resists originality at all costs. Never a director to retrace his steps or give moviegoers more of the same – as fans of The Road Warrior discovered with a gentler, more imaginative sequel in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – George Miller applies that visionary approach to the Babe franchise and again, ended up being way ahead of the audience. Ten years later, Babe: Pig in the City is still not Babe, but it is a classic, one of the most exciting, creative and emotionally resonant films of the last 20 years.

Along with Roger Ford’s carnivalesque set design, cinematographer Andrew Lesnie shapes the storybook world of Babe with more wonder than all three The Lord of the Rings films combined. Technical craftsmanship – and the Rube Goldberg stunt sequences Miller gleefully unwinds on the audience – aside, the story is what resonates most. Babe’s rescue of the drowning pitbull reminds us that courage and sacrifice and a beautifully told story still stand for something. Babe is a hero is because – when given every opportunity to accept the bigotry or pessimism around him – he never loses his idealism, and makes his world a more loving place. A terrific tune over the closing credits – “That’ll Do” – features the vocals of Peter Gabriel and is written by Randy Newman.

© Joe Valdez

Synopsis
Dorothy Gale (Fairuza Balk) lies in bed unable to sleep. Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) confides to Uncle Henry (Matt Clark) that it’s been six months since the tornado, and all the girl does is talk about some place that doesn’t exist. On their farm in turn of the century Kansas, Dorothy finds a key with the word “Oz” emboldened on it. Aunt Em tells her it’s just the key to the old house, but Dorothy refuses to believe it. Leaving Toto behind, Dorothy is checked into a hospital run by the pompous Dr. Worley (Nicol Williamson) and the nefarious Nurse Wilson (Jean Marsh). When a storm knocks out the clinic’s electricity, Dorothy escapes with the help of another young patient (Emma Ridley). The girls fall into a river and are swept away.

When Dorothy regains consciousness, she finds herself in the company of a talking chicken named Billina, stranded in the Deadly Desert of Oz, which turns any living thing that touches it to sand. They escape and locate the house that fell on the Wicked Witch of the East, but the Munchkins are nowhere to be found, and the Yellow Brick Road is in ruin. Walking to the Emerald City, Dorothy finds the citizens of Oz – including the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion – turned to stone. All that’s left are the bizarre Wheelers, hoodlums who have wheels for feet and hands.

Dorothy activates a mechanical soldier named Tik Tok, who grabs one of the Wheelers and learns that the Nome King conquered the Emerald City, stealing back his emeralds and imprisoning the Scarecrow. To find him, Dorothy and Tik Tok are directed to Mombi (Jean Marsh again), a witch who changes heads as easily as wigs. Imprisoned by the witch, Dorothy befriends Jack Pumpkinhead, a stick man with a pumpkin for a head, who Mombi created with a Powder of Life. Dorothy steals the powder and is able to escape by bringing to life a flying sofa with the head of a moose. Dorothy and her new friends head to the mountain of the Nome King (Nicol Williamson again) to save Oz.

Production history
In the mid-1930s, Walt Disney was searching for a follow-up to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He inquired about the first in L. Frank Baum’s best-selling fantasy series. The Baum estate had sold the film rights to Samuel Goldwyn for $60,000, and Disney just missed out being able to make an animated version of what became The Wizard of Oz. Disney never lost enthusiasm for Oz. When eleven of Baum’s books became available in 1957, Disney bought them. At one point, he intended for The Rainbow Road to Oz to become a live action musical with the Mousketeers filling many of the major roles. For a myriad of possible reasons – too expensive, too inexperienced a cast, a weak script or a lackluster book of songs – that never happened, and Oz languished.

In 1980, the studio’s young production chief Tom Wilhite contacted Walter Murch, a sound designer and film editor who won an Academy Award for Apocalypse Now. Murch recalls, “it was just a fishing expedition on both of our parts. But one of the questions he asked was, ‘What are you interested in that you think we might also be interested in?’, and I said, ‘Another Oz story.’ … And Tom sort of straightened up in his chair because it turned out, unbeknownst to me, that Disney owned the rights to all of the Oz stories. And they were particularly interested in doing something with them because the copyright was going to run out in the next five years.”

Working with Gill Dennis, Murch wrote a treatment based on Baum’s The Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz and when the studio responded favorably, the pair returned with a script in the spring of 1982. Darker than what the studio anticipated, Wilhite moved forward on what was then known simply as Oz, footing the bill for art director Norman Reynolds to begin designing sets, and work to begin on animatronic puppets. $6 million had been spent when in November 1983, Disney’s new head of production Richard Berger pulled the plug on Oz. He cited the film’s $27 million price tag, along with the failure of that summer’s dark and costly Something Wicked This Way Comes, which Disney had produced and had not gone over well with audiences. Shaving the budget down to $25 million by shooting the film on five soundstages at Elstree Studios in England – with the Salisbury Plains standing in for Kansas – Murch revived the project and filming commenced February 1984.

Murch recalls, “There were 114 days of shooting, which is a lot, and the character of Dorothy, played by Fairuza Balk, is in almost every shot. She was absolutely great, a fantastic ally in the making of the film, but there are laws in England and the United States that limit the amount of time you can shoot with a child actor, so it put great strains on how much we could do each day. Add on top of that all of the creatures she was with: puppets and claymation and animals. That old adage about never making a film with a child or an animal; we had not only a child and animals – talking chickens and dogs and all of that – but also puppets, each operated by three or four people, radio controlled devices, front projection, and claymation (for the nomes) that wasn’t there at the time of shooting.”

Return to Oz proceeded so slowly that Murch was fired after five weeks. After George Lucas guaranteed he’d step in for his friend the first time director if needed, the studio rehired Murch after a few days. But by the time the film was in post-production, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg had arrived to manage Disney. Murch recalls, “And they were not really interested in Return, probably because it was so dark, and not a musical, and particularly because it had been started by an executive two generations earlier, and so they mostly ignored it after it did not do so well in previews, which was both good and bad. The good part was that I was able to complete the film I wanted to make, the bad part was that they didn’t really get behind its release. Having said that, it was a difficult film to distribute, as we found out, given the zeitgeist of the mid-’80’s. Maybe any zeitgeist.”

Opening June 1985 with a lavish premiere at Radio City Music Hall, Return to Oz was blasted by critics. From the Los Angeles Times (Sheila Benson) to the New York Times (Janet Maslin) to At The Movies, the overwhelming consensus was that the film did not measure up to The Wizard of Oz, and was too intense for children. Gene Siskel: “Kids under six are gonna get nightmares from this picture. Kids over six, they’ll just have a bad time at the movies.” Roger Ebert: “Somebody should have thought at the very first when they were starting out with Return To Oz. somebody should have had this thought: ‘It oughta be fun, it oughta be upbeat, it oughta be sweet, it oughta be wondrous. It shouldn’t be scary.’” Return To Oz grossed a dismal $11 million in the U.S.

Murch – who would win two Academy Awards in 1996 as both the film editor and sound designer for The English Patient – never directed after Return To Oz. In 2000, he mused, “We knew going in that it was going to be risky, but it had been 45 years since the original film came out, and I thought enough time had passed for a different sensibility to have a chance, to present a somewhat more realistic view about Dorothy and her life on the farm, and have the film not be a musical … I definitely felt that if we had tried to really do a sequel, which is to say, do something in the style of an MGM musical, we would have been in even greater trouble, because there’s just no way you can reinvent that particular combination of people, technology, and attitude, which really reached a peak in the late 1930s and never recovered after the war.”

Opinion
The two components of this film’s disastrous reception were probably its title – Oz might have led to a little less buyer’s remorse among moviegoers – and the fact that Murch was simply ahead of his time here. In the 1980s, E.T. and its message of hope and reassurance were what most ticket buyers needed. Return To Oz is one dark, perilous and morally complex place to venture into. It’s also as majestically rendered a fantasy as you’re ever likely to see, grander than anything Jim Henson would produce in the same period, as textured and thrilling as the Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings franchises, but black as gunpowder. It’s the quintessential adaptation of L. Frank Baum, striking out from the lighthearted, vaudevillian approach of The Wizard of Oz and right into the heart of darkness.

Just as much – if not more – genuine love went into the making of Return To Oz as the 1939 original. The screenplay is even more inventive in the way it establishes each character Dorothy will meet in Oz; the wheel of a gurney becomes a Wheeler, a wicked nurse becomes Mombi. That’s cool. The film is peerless in terms of set design and camera movement and spares no expense in its grandeur. Fairuza Balk – nine years old at the time she was cast – does a sublime imitation of Judy Garland’s voice, while matching Baum’s vision of Dorothy when it comes to her age; Balk gives a terrific performance. David Shire’s musical score is just as enthralling. Critics condemning the movie for being scary apparently forgot all about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Return To Oz, much maligned, is just as much a classic.

Jenny Jediny at Not Coming To A Theater Near You writes, ”While it is highly emphasized in The Wizard of Oz that Dorothy is purely in the midst of a dream, the argument is more ambiguous in Return to Oz; Murch has stated he never intended for this to be a sequel, but instead a version more akin to the vision in the Frank L. Baum novels, a decision that enhances the film and sets it apart from the shadow of the 1939 classic, bringing instead an edge of terror that is found in many fairy tales, particularly those of the Brothers Grimm. Having viewed Return to Oz at least a dozen times by this point in my life, I have to express my penchant for this vision of Oz.”

Matt Gamble at Where The Long Tail Ends writes, “Return to Oz is a decidedly different children’s film, with its dark themes and horrific moments it is not the typical candy coated fare released in American theaters. But it is this unique aspect of the film that makes it both so memorable and endearing. Return to Oz is a film that challenges its viewers, both young and old, and attempts to create a fascinating fantasy world that will be both remembered and revisited by the viewer. And while some special effects driven children’s fantasy films of the 80’s haven’t held up well over time, I’m looking at you The Neverending Story, Return to Oz is a film that has not only aged well, but has become even more enjoyable with each viewing.”

© Joe Valdez

Synopsis
Making his way across a post-apocalyptic desert, the nomad Max (Mel Gibson) is attacked by a small airplane and has his camel caravan stolen. Max follows the tracks to Bartertown, a sleazy trading post attempting to preserve some form of civilization amid the wasteland. After surviving a melee with several guards, Max is taken to the town’s matriarch, Aunty Entity (Tina Turner). Aunty offers to reequip Max if he performs a service for her.

Bartertown’s energy is provided by methane gas, generated by pig shit processed in a factory under the town. The ruler of Underworld is Master Blaster, a diminutive, arrogant engineer and his invulnerable, helmeted bodyguard. The pair operates as one unit. Aunty wants to dump the body, keep the brain. With the help of a Pig Killer (Robert Grubb) sentenced to life of hard labor, Max gets close enough to Blaster to detect a weakness. He agrees to kill him.

The law of Bartertown states that men settle their disputes in one place: Thunderdome. Governed by the principle “Two men enter/One man leave”, Thunderdome is a caged arena where combatants are attached by elastic cords to the ceiling, where they can grab a variety of weapons. But Max gets a change of heart and refuses to dispatch Blaster. Aunty has the hulk killed, and banishes Max to the desert.

Out of the wasteland, a teenaged girl named Savannah rescues Max. She belongs to a tribe of children who live in an aboriginal paradise. They’ve created their own culture, mythology and slang, and believe Max to be a savior named Captain Walker, sent to lead them back to “Tomorrow Morrow Land”. When Max reveals that all of that is gone now and this is their home, Savannah and several others strike out across the desert. Max returns to Bartertown to rescue them.

Production history 
In 1979, Mad Max became the most profitable Australian film ever made – grossing $100 million worldwide on a meager $350,000 budget – while Mad Max 2 (released in the States as The Road Warrior) was even more successful. Director George Miller thought the story had nowhere left to go. Over dinner, friend and screenwriter Terry Hayes mentioned a script of his, one about a tribe of lost kids. Miller felt that was the premise for Mad Max 3.

Hayes & Miller wrote a script and in June of 1983, the director and his producing partner Byron Kennedy announced Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Their $8 million budget would be twice that of the previous installment, and twenty times that of the original Mad Max. This included salary for Mel Gibson, whose agent Ed Limato negotiated a $1 million payday for his client, a first for an Australian actor.

As co-director, Miller hired George Ogilvie, who had directed an hour of Kennedy/Miller’s mini-series The Dismissal in 1983. Miller focused primarily on choreographing the stunts, while Ogilvie worked with the actors. That summer, Byron Kennedy died when a helicopter he was piloting crashed near Sydney. Miller considered canceling the production, but ultimately felt that his producing partner would have wanted them to press on.

Gibson had starred in The Bounty, The River and Mrs. Soffel within twelve months when he reported to the boiling set of Thunderdome in September 1984. Increasing his disgust, People Magazine voted him “sexiest man alive” during this period. The star was depressed and drinking heavily throughout filming, and complained to a reporter that the movie was a piece of shit. A couple of years later, Gibson retracted his comments and apologized.

Released in the U.S. in July 1985 on a wave of publicity – including heavy rotation of pop star Tina Turner’s music video for “We Don’t Need Another Hero” on MTV – Thunderdome was praised by critics. Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert and Janet Maslin all wrote that it was the best of the trilogy. Many fans of Mad Max and The Road Warrior wasted no time hurtling popcorn at the screen. Over the years, they’ve called the sequel too Hollywood, too slow, too dumb, or all of the above.

Opinion 
In a perfect world, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome would be industrially mandated Rx for any sequel, prequel or remake. Instead of mimicking previous movies, this film dares to be visionary. It’s far more imaginative, more technically proficient, better cast, better scored and ultimately more rewarding than either Mad Max, or the much loved Road Warrior.

Terry Hayes & George Miller wove their script with a heightened sense of imagination that stands alongside the finest work of Terry Gilliam or Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Bartertown and the Crack In the Earth are as close to fully realized, alternate civilizations as you can find in a movie. This feat is accomplished not only through elaborate production design and costuming, but language as well (”He was half jumped by Mister Dead when you finded him” is one sampling).

Thunderdome is one of the greatest movie fight scenes of all time – a masterpiece of camera movement, editing and stuntwork – but if a mistake was made, it might have been that the film was sold as an action juggernaut. It’s not. The arc of Max’s character, the world he inhabits, and the various characters – with names like Scrooloose or Dr. Dealgood – are far more salient than the car crashes. Maurice Jarre composed an epic musical score, while Tina Turner contributed two excellent songs for the opening and end credits.

Matthew Foster at Foster on Film writes, “The big change that makes this film interesting is the intricate world. Miller and co-writer Terry Hayes fill it with bizarre characters, hairstyles, costumes, buildings, vehicles, and vocations. There so much going on in Barter Town that you can be entertained just by looking at the edges of the screen.”

“By adding hordes of cute children, toning down the ultraviolence that marked the previous movies and adding some Tina Turner songs (back then she was quite popular) the film tries aiming at an audience different to the ones that the first two such box office hits. The franchise stopped believing in itself – just like Conan the Destroyer and RoboCop 3 it was aimed at a much younger audience,” says James O’Ehley at Sci-Fi Movie Page.

Chris Coleman at Appreciating Great Trash writes, “People get so hung up on the children and Tina Turner that they miss out on one of the best fantasy-adventures ever made … in reality, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is no more different from Mad Max 2 than that film was from Mad Max, and to demand a sequel be nothing but a rehash is so defeatist that it warrants little consideration.”

“He was the one they called mad, but to the ones whose lives hung in the balance, he was the one they called hero.” View the 1985 theatrical trailer for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

© Joe Valdez

$150 million of ecstasy manufactured in Amsterdam is shipped to the Gulf of Mexico in coffins. Two of the bags find their way into the hands of a courier, who delivers them to a KKK rally in Miami. A “Tactical Narcotics Team” stages a raid, sending in two black detectives: Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith). In the automatic weapons mayhem that ensues, Mike accidentally shoots his partner in the ass.

Marcus is in group therapy to curb his anger. Mike dates Marcus’ sister Syd (Gabrielle Union), a DEA operative, keeping the relationship hush-hush. Neither cop knows that Syd is working undercover as a money launderer for a Russian gangster (Peter Stormare). The detectives cross paths with her while following a Haitian crew looking to rip off a drug score. A massive chase and demolition derby ensues on the MacArthur Causeway.

After being yelled at by their captain (Joe Pantoliano), the bad boys discover the Haitians were after dope being shipped out of a funeral parlor owned by drug kingpin Johnny Tapia (Jordi Mollà). Once Tapia out-muscles the Russians, he recruits Syd to do his banking. She helps Marcus and Mike build the evidence to take the kingpin down, but not before Tapia flees to Cuba with Syd. The bad boys and their unit decide to invade Cuba to rescue her.

Developing a sequel to Bad Boys, producer Jerry Bruckheimer enlisted screenwriters Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais. Their draft – titled Bad Around The World – took the Martin Lawrence/Will Smith characters to London to apprehend a chemist with ties to a drug kingpin. Todd Robinson, Dan Gordon and Gregory Allen Howard were brought in at various points to make it work, as were Marianne Wibberley & Cormac Wibberley.

Ron Shelton jumpstarted the project by writing a police procedural based on the network of Cuban, Russian and white supremacist drug smugglers operating around Miami. His script got Lawrence, Smith and director Michael Bay on board. Jerry Stahl did a rewrite, bringing an element of dark wit to the proceedings. John Lee Hancock did a rewrite as well. The WGA ruling: story by the Wibberleys and Shelton, screenplay by Shelton and Stahl.

After Pearl Harbor, Bay must have realized that he was never going to be taken seriously as a filmmaker. With nothing to lose in terms of critical accolades or awards, and $130 million at his disposal, Bay freed himself to make the most extravagant, vulgar, socially irresponsible spectacle possible. The result was Bad Boys II, and it’s the best work of Bay’s career.

The bad boys are the worst cops in movie history; violating every civil liberty on the books, they cut a swath of destruction through Miami that would make Tony Montana grin. But the movie is gloriously over the top, the way The Blues Brothers is over the top. Car crashes, cursing, gunfire and bad guys of every stripe are orchestrated at such a dizzying level, the movie transcends the mediocrity of ordinary action movies.

The demolition derby on the MacArthur Causeway is a visceral joy, blending audacious stunt driving with digital effects that maintain the illusion of cars dodging debris by inches. It may be the best movie chase in the last fifteen years. Bay also creatively employs CGI in a shootout, whipping the camera 360 degrees between two rooms. Just as cool is a gag done live with a dog, a chain, and Marcus’ cheap above ground pool.

It’s sometimes a fine line between laughing at a movie, and laughing along with it. Instead of ridiculing Bad Boys II, director Edgar Wright was inspired by its “huge fucking destruction” and made the comedy Hot Fuzz as a loving homage to this. The action is bananas, but the script is sharper and more charming than it had to be. Lawrence and Smith have terrific chemistry, while Bay is here doing what Bay does best.

Conclusion: Que milagro! She may not have had a trailer, but God was definitely present during filming, the first film of Bay’s career I can recommend.

“This is a film package wrapped for the hyperactive, sexually starved male teenager who thinks that simplistic, meaningless violence and language are the coolest things to hit the earth since porno and Hot Pockets,” says Jacob Hall at Independent Critics.

Mr. Beaks at Ain’t It Cool News says, “I’ve been very tough on Bay in the past (I think I’ve called him every euphemism for Satan that exists in the English language), but, for the first time since Bad Boys, I find myself appreciative of his respect for audiences.”

“Bay can direct action sequences like no other and thankfully he was not hampered the way he was in … Pearl Harbor. This time he gets to use blood all he wants and now he doesn’t have to worry about any messy melodramatic love scenes,” writes Mike at The Film Judge.

“Oh these dudes is off the chain!” View the demolition derby on the causeway.

This is my contribution to the Action Heroine blog-a-thon being hosted by Nathaniel over at The Film Experience.

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), lone survivor of the space freighter Nostromo, is discovered drifting through the outer reaches of space by a salvage crew. Revived after spending 57 years in hypersleep, her employer is skeptical that she scuttled the freighter because a hostile alien (with acid for blood) got on board and killed her crew.

The moon where Ripley claims to have discovered the alien is now the site of a terraformed colony, and they haven’t reported any hostile aliens. But a pencilnecked case officer with the Company named Burke (Paul Reiser) later notifies her that they’ve lost contact with the colonists. He requests Ripley accompany him and a unit of colonial Marines to investigate.

Ripley’s flight license has been revoked, her daughter has aged and died, and her ordeal in space has left her with nightmares. “I’m not going back there. And I wouldn’t be any good to you if I did.” She receives assurances from Burke that he can get her reinstated as a flight officer, and that the Marines are packing “state of the art firepower” and that there’s nothing they can’t handle.

A unit that includes the green Lt. Gorman (William Hope), quiet Cpl. Hicks (Michael Biehn), loud mouthed Pvt. Hudson (Bill Paxton), two bad ass gunners (Jeanette Goldstein, Mark Rolston) and an “artificial person” called Bishop (Lance Henriksen) wake from hypersleep and are ferried by dropship to the colony. Most of them disregard Ripley’s dire assessment of what they might be up against.

The colonists are all missing, with the exception of a traumatized little girl named Newt (Carrie Henn) found crawling through the ventilation ducts. Ripley is reminded of her daughter, and in order to find out what happened, gains Newt’s trust. “These people are soldiers, they’re here to protect you.” “It won’t make any difference,” the kid responds.

It becomes clear that the aliens Ripley warned the Marines about are here. Gorman leads the unit into an ambush that even the heavily armed Marines are ill-equipped to get out of. Reacting quickly, Ripley rescues what’s left of the unit, but bad goes to worse, and they find themselves stranded on a moon infested with hundreds of the ferocious title creatures.

James Cameron was waiting for financing to come through so he could shoot a low budget sci-fi movie he had written called Terminator. Producers David Giler and Walter Hill had read Cameron’s script and were interested in working with him. Cameron pitched several ideas, none of which went over well. As he was leaving, the producers mentioned that they were thinking of doing a sequel to Alien. That got Cameron’s attention.

Cameron submitted a 40 page treatment of ideas he’d employ for Alien II. Giler and Hill loved it and after developing the story with him, commissioned Cameron to write a screenplay. He was able to turn in 90 pages before going off to direct Terminator. Based on the quality of what he’d read so far, Walter Hill made the decision not to hire another writer, but wait until Cameron could finish.

The Terminator blew away expectations by making its budget back many times over at the box office. Cameron accepted an offer to direct Aliens, contrary to advice he was hearing. If the sequel was any good, he was told, it would only be because Ridley Scott did such a great job on the original. If it was bad, it would be Cameron’s fault. He ignored this and went off to Pinewood Studios in England to prep the film.

The shoot did not go smoothly. No one in the crew had seen The Terminator and they assumed the demanding Cameron didn’t know what he was doing. The first assistant director was so antagonistic towards Cameron’s decisions that he had to be fired, but not before instigating a mass walkout from the prickly crew.

James Remar was cast as Hicks, but Cameron replaced him less than a week into filming. Michael Biehn was offered the role on a Friday night, and by Monday, was in England working. Director of photography Dick Bush was let go a month into filming because Cameron hated the lighting. Derek Vanlint – who lit Alien – was asked to take over. Vanlint wasn’t interested, but recommended his focus puller Adrian Biddle for the job.

Aliens is one of the most exhilarating, no holds barred action pictures ever made, for starters. Cameron wrote this while also penning Rambo: First Blood Part II on assignment, and the script is not only well versed in military hardware and tactics, but filled with subtle reminders of Vietnam, with an advanced fighting force systematically cut up by a terrifying indigenous enemy in the shadows.

Cameron gets mocked for Titanic, but his script for Aliens is a work of genius. The good android and Ripley’s mistrust of it. The terraformed colony and its unfortunate ability to function as a thermal reactor. The handheld motion trackers. The alien queen. The Caterpillar loader, used brilliantly in the finale. None of that stuff had ever been conceptualized in a sci-fi movie before and it works beautifully.

The casting – particularly Henriksen, Paxton and Goldstein, who all became part of Cameron’s repertory company – is great, but until the reticent Sigourney Weaver joined the cast, no action film with a substantial budget had ever centered on a heroine. Ripley’s inner fortitude, coupled with vulnerability, maternal instinct, and the fact that she goes through a visceral wringer, stood out and earned Weaver an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

An extended version released on laserdisc in 1992 restored 17 minutes not seen in theaters. This includes the subplot involving Ripley’s deceased daughter – which Weaver was livid about being cut – as well as a terrific sequence that shows how the colony became infested with the aliens. Weaver also has a moment with Michael Biehn late where the two exchange first names that I loved. The 154-minute special edition is the one now available on DVD.

“What can I say about Weaver. The role of Ripley, at least in this film, is a once in a lifetime part and she gives it everything she’s got. Her fear oozes from every pore and muscle, as does her determination to beat these creatures. There is no option. Cameron seems to really understand how to create well-rounded, strong female characters. For that, and his obvious prowess in filming out-of-this-world action sequences, he usually gets my butt in the seat every time,” says Crazy 4 Cinema.

Ruthless Reviews raves, “Off the Hook Motherfucking Amazing!! As a film, Aliens is incredible. As an 80s Action entry, it destroys the genre.”

“Aliens also happens to be a pro-woman film. Think about it. An entire compliment of battle hardened bug hunters failed, but one strip miner from the backwaters of the galaxy manages to take out one of the most vicious and destructive creatures in the universe,” says DVD In My Pants.

View the 1:48 teaser trailer that beats up all other trailers. No dialogue, no pitchman. This is how you sell a movie, marketing knuckleheads.

While driving leisurely through Portugal, James Bond (George Lazenby) comes across a woman drowning herself in the surf. He rescues her, and is attacked by two thugs. He fights them off, but the mystery woman disappears. Bond later recognizes her at a hotel casino. She is Tracy Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) and after an evening of frolicking – and another fistfight with a thug – she vanishes on him again.

Bond is taken before a construction magnate and gangster named Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti). In a long exposition, Draco reveals that he is Tracy’s father, and that what his wild daughter needs is a man to dominate her and make her love him. Bond doesn’t feel he’s the ideal candidate for this position, but Draco insinuates that he may know the location of criminal mastermind Ernst Blofeld.

Returning to London, Bond’s superior M (Bernard Lee) tells him that after two years of hunting for Blofeld, he’s calling the operation off. Bond resigns in disgust, but with the intervention of Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), he’s given a two-month leave of absence instead. Bond returns to Portugal, and accepts Draco’s offer. Quickly and unexpectedly, he finds himself falling in love with Tracy.

Learning that Blofled has employed the College of Arms to establish claims of a royal title, Bond impersonates a genealogist and gains access to a mysterious mountain facility in the Swiss Alps. There, he discovers that Blofeld (Telly Savalas) is conducting allergy research. With the assistance of a dozen attractive female test subjects, Blofeld has hatched a biological plot to threaten the world’s agriculture.

After immortalizing Ian Fleming’s super spy in five hugely successful films, Sean Connery had grown tired of playing James Bond, particularly the constant media attention surrounding the character. Producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli initially considered casting Roger Moore – who was busy doing the TV series The Saint – and Timothy Dalton, who at age 23, felt he was too young to take Connery’s part.

Instead, an Australian model named George Lazenby – who had never played lead in a film before – was selected to assume the role of 007. During production, Lazenby’s manager convinced the actor that Bond was out of touch with the liberated ’60s, and by the time the film was released, Lazenby announced he would not return. The movie turned out to be a hit, and the studio lured Connery back for one more turn in Diamonds Are Forever.

Despite Lazenby’s notoriety as a one-hit wonder, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is noted for being one of the most faithful adaptations of Ian Fleming’s books. Director Peter Hunt and screenwriter Richard Maibaum closely adhered to the story Fleming laid out in his 1963 novel. There are no gadgets, and the twist that 007 falls in love and gets married have prompted some to suggest that if Connery had appeared, this would have been the best Bond film of all.

Relative to the spy movies of the day, this one isn’t bad. The film looks fantastic. The lighting, editing, and the second unit action directed by John Glen are all top notch. Diana Rigg – taking a role Brigitte Bardot turned down – is fun to watch, and the portions of the film set in Switzerland had a certain ambiance that I liked. There’s no title song, but Louis Armstrong provided vocals for a good love theme, “All The Time In The World.”

That said, Lazenby is stiff and uncharismatic as 007. Rigg more or less plays a trophy bride, and the speed at which Bond “falls in love” with her is unbelievable, almost as unbelievable as Blofeld’s plot to take over the world. All that may have worked in the early ’60s, but can’t help but be laughable today. The pace of the 144-minute film could be considered “leisurely” by some, but I found much of it boring. I think this for Ian Fleming purists only.

Whiskey salesman Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) takes a break from talking malt with a bartender in order to stake a sleazebag (John Turturro) $20 in a pool game. The sleaze keeps losing, and keeps borrowing until Eddie takes interest in his opponent. Played by Tom Cruise, he’s a kid named Vincent, with high energy – swinging his cue around like a ninja – and a pompadour hair style.

Vincent’ girlfriend/manager Carmen (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) asks Eddie if he wants to play him for $20 a rack. Eddie tells her $500 a rack. She doesn’t know how to react. “You should say no. You know why? It’s too much money. And I’m an unknown. He should be the unknown. I mean, that would be nice. That would be beautiful. You could play around with that. You could control that.”

Eddie takes the couple to dinner. Vincent says his areas of excellence are the arcade game Stocker, and 9-ball pool. Eddie remarks that Vincent is a natural character, but “you couldn’t find big time if you had a road map. Pool excellence is not about excellent pool. It’s about becoming someone. A student. You’ve got to be a student of human moves. That’s my area of excellence.”

Carmen reveals herself to be more business than her buffoonish boyfriend, who has a job at Baby World. Working together with Eddie, she gets Vincent to quit his job and go on the road with them for six weeks, leaving Chicago and heading toward a 9-ball tournament in Atlantic City. Along the way, Eddie tries to school his protege in human moves, and begins to regain his passion for pool as a player.

Vincent proves insecure when it comes to his girlfriend, and refuses to throw games when Eddie tells him to, scaring away big money players. Eddie is not beyond the reaches of pride himself, getting too cocky and allowing himself to be gutted by a hustler played by Forest Whitaker. Eddie quits the couple, but ends up in Atlantic City on his own, where he faces Vincent in the semi-finals.

The Color of Money was written by Walter Tevis as a sequel to The Hustler, which was made into a classic film with Newman in 1961. The new book followed Fast Eddie as he picked up a cue against his rival Minnesota Fats once again. Newman sent it to director Martin Scorsese, but neither one were thrilled about it. Scorsese brought in Richard Price to write an entirely new screenplay. Scorsese agreed to direct the Touchstone property, hoping the cache would enable him to make his dream project, The Last Temptation of Christ.

Knocking this movie has become an almost knee-jerk reaction, due to the fact Disney produced it, Tom Cruise starred in it, and Scorsese was calling “action” as a director for hire. But it’s still a good movie. Richard Price wrote a script infused with excellent tension, tension between young and old, men and women, hustler and mark. There’s a lot of good dialogue, and the characters have some depth to them.

In contrast to The Hustler, the atmosphere in The Color of Money feels like a playground. Bars have video games now, and instead of being bastions of masculinity, the stakes feel greatly reduced in them. The tournament is more Disneyland than Atlantic City; I couldn’t have cared less what happened there. But working with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, and art designer Boris Leven, Scorsese made the picture an embarrassment of riches visually.

Cruise’s showboat sequence set to Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” is as beautiful a piece of camera movement and film editing as I’ve seen. The scene where Forest Whitaker hustles Newman is brilliant, two great actors going at each other. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was nominated for an Academy Award for her strong work, as was Paul Newman, who after seven nominations finally won an Oscar, more so for his distinguished career than this film in particular.