Quote:
Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline  The Border (1982)
Jack Nicholson stars alongside Harvey Keitel and Warren Oates in an early 80's gritty thriller about the Border police keeping law enforcement on the Mexican border. Nicholson was still actual acting at this point in his career instead of just shouting and doing that Jack Torrance grin he perfected on Batman.While trying to keep his wife happy (Valerie Perrine) Nicholson relocate to the Texas border with U.S. Border Patrol and finds the grass is not always greener.Corruption is rife within the border patrol and Nicholson reluctantly gets in on the act with partner Keitel. Its not until he befriends a young Mexican girl (Elpidia Carrillo) and her brother that Nicholson decides to help her find her missing baby. A slow burner of a thriller and certainly a underrated Nicholson film,it's definitely one of his better performances and one of the better thrillers of the early 80's before all the blockbusters started killing off any intelligence in the cinema by constantly blowing shit up.
Busting (1974)
Elliott Gould and Robert Blake are two vice cops trying to bring down vice kingpin Carl Rizzo but unfortunately, Rizzo seems to have friends in high places. Another in the buddy cop movie genre, Gould and Blake make a credible pair of cops who are both eager to rid the streets of crime yet feel they may just be pissing in the wind.Gould'ss character is especially getting more worn down by the corruption and incompetence of his fellow officers.While not as raucous and over the top as Freebie and The Bean. Busting is still a top notch cop thriller with both Gould and Blake making very likeable characters doing an extremely dirty job in very hostile environment.Gould exudes with his usual laid back schtick that you may be familiar with from his chain smoking Marlowe from The Long Goodbye (1973) although he is bearing a remarkable familiar look of that other undercover cop Serpico.
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Robert Altman delivers a delicious slice of 1970's neo noir,with the ever laid-back Elliot Gould as the sleuth Marlowe,a private investigator who can't even convince his pet cat that the cat food he has bought him is his favourite brand and not the cheap stuff he really has bought. You do have to feel sorry for Marlowe,he is used and abused by pretty much everyone including his so called best friend Jim Bouton as Terry Lennox ,wanted for the murder of his wife and stealing money from gangster Marty Augustine. There is so many cracking scenes in Altman's thriller its is no surprise that Long Goodbye has become the cult hit it rightly deserves . The two scenes that stand out in most people's minds both include Mark Rydell as Marty Augustine,the first is genuinely chilling as Marty proves how ruthless he is when he smashes a bottle into his girlfriends face while explaining "Now, that's someone I love! And you I don't even like! " . The other standout moment has Marty and his fellow gang members stripping naked with the original beef cake Arnold Schwarzenegger making an early screen appearance. Like any good thriller from the 1970's it has a rather nihilistic ending but one which is also satisfying and rather fitting. |
Love TLG. One of Tinseltown's bleakest offerings and my favourite Altman to boot.
Watched that new XXX at mates. High grade piffle. Jaa is Tekken personified. Would recommend it more if there had actually been any acting in it
. Don't get me wrong ... some jaw dropping set pieces. I just felt it to be far too smug for its own good.
