Sunday, May 17, 2009

Far Cry - Shakedown (Blue Jeans Cop)

FAR CRY (USA?. 2008)


The world’s most hated director does it again! Far Cry was never much of a story driven game (an amnesiac man fights a bunch of people on an island), but did he really have to add an entire vampire people subplot to make it interesting? The only thing in common this film has with its source material is some font and the fact that the guy wears a Hawaiian shirt. Otherwise, it’s a fairly dull action movie where a German (?) ex-special forces man takes on a bunch of genetically altered humans on an island. Nothing much happens for forty minutes, and when the action heats up all we get are some generic shootouts and punch-up’s tinged with a few nifty gore gags. I miss the old Uwe that would deliver films so bad the entertainment factor jumped tenfold. With Far Cry he just does a casual workman like job and lures the audience into a comfortable slumber.

SHAKEDOWN (USA. 1988)


“Not enough action”. That’s the biggest complaint I have when it comes to my all time favorite genre – THE ACTION FILM! The audience expects it and if the filmmakers don’t deliver, no matter how quick the pace is, people are going to leave disappointed. Blue Jeans Cop is one of those films that really needs 2-3 extra action sequences to liven up a rather straightforward courtroom drama. It’s an even bigger loss because the two action scenes that do appear in the film are fantastic (if completely unmotivated). The plot concerns attorney Ronal Dalton (A surprisingly charming Peter Weller) having to defend a drug dealer who killed a cop he swears was trying to rob him. All of this leads to a big conspiracy of involving a l crooked cops and and Sam Elliot as Weller’s grizzled (Does Elliot play any other role?) as a buddy cop. The two characters have a great repartee, but it feels more like an episode of a long standing television series then a live action film. Director/Writer James Glickenhaus is skilled when the action appears and he does keep the plot moving, but this is nothing more then a thriller that has two action scenes shoehorned in awkwardly. Keep that in mind and you won’t be disappointed.

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