FanFiltration said:
"Licence to Kill"
This is one of my top five favorites. I know it has it's cheesy moments, but this film feels much more like an Ian Fleming flavored James Bond then any of the Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert, or other John Glenn entrees. Bond is at his gritty best, and he has a great personal motivation for his revenge. The action is realistic, and most of the bad guys don't feel like they are out of a comic book. They have some real nasty objectives with the drug trade plot, and I love how Franz Sanchez comes completely unglued by Bond's psychological manipulations. The story moves at a decent pace, and I really enjoyed the Milton Crest character and his roll in the overall drug operation. His fate was amusing, and I almost could find myself feeling sorry for him. How Bond set him up, was brilliant story telling. The call back to earlier Bond gags (like the duck disguise from "Goldfinger") was pulled off very well this time around. The Manta Ray disguise was so much more realistic here, than the use of a crocodile disguise done in "Octopussy". The Truck chase was a bit over the top, but it beats Bond fighting in front of a rear projection screen, or fighting on a airplane yet again. Yes, I like this film a lot. Too bad Dalton did not get another go as Bond. Oh, and I have to add that Wane Newton was excellent in his roll of the greedy and overly sex obsessed Televangelist.
"Bless your heart!" ;)
Really? You like LTK over everything besides Young's three and OHMSS?
Smart Money
The only pairing of Robinson and Cagney is an odd movie, which is better for being Pre-Code and stuffed with innuendos than for its plot. Watch for these two playing off of each other and for Boris Karloff.
2 balls out of 4 cigars.
Scarface (1932)
Of all the classic gangster pictures, this is the most disappointing one. Howard Hawks directed, Ben Hecht wrote it and damn it if this doesn't drag on with little to no interest in the main character. Paul Muni comes across as more of a dope than a grand master of crime and it is actually George Raft who makes the star turn as the murderous supporting gangster who says little but habitually flips his coin in the background without looking at it.
3 balls out of 4 overly protected sisters.
Bullets or Ballots
Essentially G-Men 2, with Robinson as a cop going undercover to crush the rackets once and for all. Worthwhile primarily for Eddie getting some great one-liners and Bogie's cold Gangster No.2 who exists only to antagonize and die in the penultimate reel.
3 balls out of 4 fedoras.
San Quentin
One of the classic prison films, SQ is more a character study that is most hampered by it's short run time and inherent goody two shoes quality. An army man is brought in to help make the prisoners truly reform while doing time. He just happens to develop feelings for a nightclub singer (Ann Sheridan) (Swoon!) who just happens to be the sister of newly arrested Bogie. See where this is going? See this for another early big part for Bogie despite it not being any comparison to Black Legion, and because it's one of those short classics that doesn't inspire adoration or hatred but merely a welcome time filler.
2.5 balls out of 4 big houses.
If you want to see a real prison film, there is a WB 30's picture that was far truer to life and delved deeply into the black that eventually became noir. Cold, tough, brutal and ultimately a tragedy this is the great forgotten American classic I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.