JakeStevens Blog

While I thought the cinematography was wonderful, I found myself yawning often during this Oater. But don't get me wrong - even though it's not my style, I appreciate it for what it's worth: it changed the Western as we know it forever. Never before had a "hero" been so unlikable. His wears his racism on his sleeve, and it's ugly to see. The Duke also isn't one of my favorite actors (I'd rate him pretty low, actually), but who else at that time could have altered the genre as much as he did...than him? It's an important milestone in film history...but it's just not my bag, man. Maybe another viewing will change my mind...

It's always hard when you've got a cast full of "main" characters like this to make sure each one of them gets enough screen time to get fully fleshed out for the audience to empathize with, but this one seems to work. I found myself laughing often in this underrated gem, although they were "smaller" laughs. There is no one particular moment where you'll lose it (ala the "frank and beans" scene in "There's Something About Mary"), but it's a decent rental on a weekday night when you've seen everything else, and you just want to laugh.

From the writer of "Lethal Weapon" comes this hit from 1991. Ah, the beginning of the 90's, where the 80's were still fresh in everyone's mind, the "grunge" scene was just about to burst, and butt rock was still in favor. I'd seen this a zillion times back in the day, but on my recent viewing, noticed just how forced and color-by-numbers this film is. I also noticed how misogynistic our two hero's worlds are - women are whores (quite literally in both of their cases), little girls are foul-mouthed whores in the making (uttering their crushes names in their sleep), and even when Willis and Field reconcile at the end, it's in the form of vitriolic profanity, meant, I'm sure, to be taken in a humorous context, but which I just found in bad taste. The other annoying thing was how much exposition Marcone (the bad guy) spews in the moments before he is supposed to kill one of the good guys. Kinda lame - and bad writing, in my opinion. But the reason this movie isn't a total loss is because the action is intense and Willis and Wayans have a great rapport with one another. So I'll leave it at neutral to be fair.