This Week in Cinema, I Learned…Jun 9-15 2024
Written by Cameron Geiser
Welcome to This Week in Cinema, a yearlong film criticism project wherein I will be watching a new film that I haven't seen every single day.
This week in Cinema may have begun and ended with sub par comedies, but that's not what I'm going to remember in the future. What I can guarantee will stick in my mind months, maybe even years, from now are the three back-to-back-to-back knockout films watched in a row this week. The week’s films unintentionally follow a bell curve of quality with the second and sixth films rising and falling in accordance with the highs and lows due to several sets of expectations being low going in with a pleasant surprise emanating from the screen as the credits on each began to roll. Heck, three of the seven films this week are 2024 releases that all felt like they fit the summer months premise, and they were all very solid films in their own rights.
My favorite film of the week is the feature debut of one Francis Galluppi, a name that I will remember from this point going forward. It's a seriously terrific first film that gave me some early Quentin Tarantino vibes, and the last time I saw a feature film debut this fascinating it was Swiss Army Man from recent Oscar winners The Daniels. I can only hope for such a similar rise to fame and glory from Galluppi, his film rocked and I can't wait to see what he does next. The other extremely well crafted films belong to Richard Linklater and William Friedkin, both of which were thrilling in entirely different ways.
Linklater's Hit Man has one of the sharpest scripts in years and Friedkin's re-imagining of the Novel Wages of Fear, which had been adapted years prior in Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 version of the same story, has some of the most thrilling scenes of sheer, taut, hair-raising tension! Weeks like this one give me hope and optimism for the future of filmmaking, and hopefully I encourage you to check out one of the better films listed below, enjoy!
June 9th
The Longest Yard (1974)
2/5
Sometimes the remake is actually better than the original. That's the main takeaway I had from this Burt Reynolds starring flick from 1974. That was about ten minutes into the film after it was understood that the reason Burt Reynolds' character was sent to jail was because he smacked up his girlfriend, stole her car and got into a ridiculous car chase with the cops, and then disrespected the cops to their face. This gets him eighteen months in prison, but he's a coveted convict as he used to be a famous NFL star but was kicked from the association due to “point shaving”. His less than sparkling past in this regard gives him plenty of guff from the other prisoners, but he's also eyed greedily by the warden who wants him on his team of prisoners for the annual game where the inmates play against the guards.
There's a strange mean-spiritedness to the film, maybe it's just an anti-authority attitude that doesn't translate as well now, but amid the racism, lust for violence, and violence against women, the whole film left me in a state of disgust. It's not the worst film I've seen, Reynolds' speech in the third act to his fellow prisoners was well done, and most of the filmmaking is competent. However, the visual geography of the actual football game was poorly constructed and the sound design was off the whole film with brashly loud sound effects and quiet as a mouse dialogue. This one just wasn't for me folks.
June 10th
Crocodile Dundee 2 (1988)
3.5/5
After the first Crocodile Dundee film I was expecting more of the same, and while that is mostly true, I found the sequel to be a far better film overall. Sure it may just be an inverse of the first film, traveling from New York City back to Australia when things heat up in the danger department, but I found everything about the production to be better, slicker, and more entertaining than the first film. There's a better villain this time around in drug cartel leaders from Columbia that track down Dundee (Paul Hogan) and Susan (Linda Kozlowski) after they obtain evidence of the Cartels' violent crimes. Which prompts them to move back to Australia and prepare for the bad guys to follow them there. The fight scene in the subway in New York was a standout scene and I really enjoyed how Dundee was more of an active character in the sequel, working more as a detective in terms of story archetypes. Crocodile Dundee 2 is a fairly entertaining movie, and a good time, maybe a bit overlong in the second act, but it's definitely worth a watch.
June 11th
The Last Stop in Yuma County (2024)
4/5
What a ride. The Last Stop in Yuma County, besides having a banger of a title, is one of the best thrillers I've seen in years and a compelling Neo-noir Western. This is doubly bewildering when considering that it's Francis Galuppi's feature film debut. Made for about a million dollars, Galuppi crafted a master class in tension for the one location thriller that focuses deliberately on character actors and constantly adding new twists and layers upon layers of escalating unknowns. The film opens with a knife salesman (Jim Cummings) arriving at the titular gas station and diner in the barren wilderness of Arizona. He's told by Vernon the attendant (Faizon Love) that they're out of gas but waiting on the truck driver for a refill and warmly invites him to wait in the attached diner as the next stop isnt for hundreds of miles. Before entering he hears about a bank robbery that happened earlier in the day with two men escaping in a green pinto, and guess who arrives not long after? I don't want to ruin the set-up any further, but one thing that this movie did that I absolutely loved was cutting off an actor saying the title of the film mid sentence. Beautiful. I highly encourage you to watch this film- it's one of my favorite films of this year!
*When looking up several facts about this film I realized that technically it debuted in 2023 at a film festival, but it wasn't given a theatrical release in America, nor was it available on streaming sites, until 2024. So, I'm going to keep the date as 2024 for now.
June 12th
Hit Man (2024)
4.5/5
Richard Linklater knows how to do romance, so I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was when this thriller/dark comedy produced a “meet cute” under an odd set of circumstances. Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) was just a normal nerdy Psychology professor when his interest in electronics turned a side hustle for pay into a newfound passion in life. During one of the sting operations run by the police, they couldn't use their usual undercover cop as he was suddenly put on suspension- so Gary was the only available option. Watching Glen Powell take the mild mannered Gary Johnson and turn him into a surprisingly nimble improv character actor was a thing of beauty. We get some great montages as Gary figures out the best ways to tackle each new suspect, as his team only goes after people attempting to Hit Men, who of course, do not actually exist. Gary's job is to get the mark to incriminate themselves by specifically asking for him to kill their target and by providing the agreed upon cash payments.
Everything goes fine until he meets Madison (Adria Arjona), a young married woman fearful of her husband. After getting to know her in the moment, he talks her out of ordering the hit. From there the film changes entirely, but it would be criminal of me to divulge further details. However it's worth mentioning that Linklater co-wrote the film with Glen Powell. Which makes Glen Powell's rise to stardom that much more interesting in my mind. Maybe I will see that Twisters movie next month… In any case, I highly recommend this film, watch it for the script, but stay for the excellent performances!
*This is actually the same situation as The Last Stop in Yuma County regarding release dates versus their major wide releases via streaming sites and their limited theatrical runs. Since the majority of people weren't able to see these films until 2024, that's the date for now.
June 13th
Sorcerer (1977)
4.5/5
William Friedkin himself thought this film was going to be his legacy. Unfortunately for him Sorcerer was released right about the same time as a little film called Star Wars and has been buried in the dust of time ever since. I wondered why I had never heard of this film, but that definitely would do it. While this is the second adaptation of the book Wages of Fear many have called this a remake of that film (Which is also great and I highly recommend checking it out. It's in the Criterion Collection), but Friedkin didn't think of the film that way, just as an alternate take on the novel itself. The film stars Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, and Amidou as four men from different countries and backgrounds who all end up in the same South American Oil Town for various reasons.
The first hour of the film is all set-up for the second half of the film, when the four men are offered extremely dangerous work driving two massive trucks with volatile explosives across two-hundred miles of jungle terrain. The performances are all great and captivating but the magic of the film lies in the harrowing scenes of journeying over crumbling roads, narrow cliff sides, and treacherous wooden bridges. My palms were sweaty and my heart raced as the second hour trudged on with each new obstacle seemingly more impassable than the last. The bridge crossing scene alone was cinematic magic, I have no idea how they filmed it without losing multiple trucks into the river. Sorcerer is an excellent film and I highly recommend it.
June 14th
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)
3.5/5
After the third Bad Boys film left me yearning for the days when Michael Bay ran this franchise, I wasn't exactly excited for this entry in the series. That film wasn't bad, it just didn't feel like Bad Boys. The action was lackluster and the writing was only serviceable at best. I say all of this to point out just how much better this film is. While Bad Boys: Ride or Die might not reach the heights of the first two films, this one was much better than the third film and it felt like a legitimate sequel to the first two films. This time around some criminals attempt to pin all of their misdeeds on the now dead Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), thereby killing his legacy and turning the Miami Police Department against Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) in the aftermath. The comedy landed better in this film, the writing was smoother, and most importantly- the action was incredibly stepped up.
When looking into the directors, I didn't know much about the duo professionally known as Adil & Bilall, but they made both Bad Boys For Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die. I must say they gained a whole new level of skill and confidence between films because this one had a far more assured hand behind the camera. I also didn't realize that they were the ones that made the unreleased Batgirl movie that Warner Bros shelved for a tax write off, and I have to say, I really wish we could see that film now. I mean, I feel like we should have seen it by now anyways, but such is the way of Hollywood's new most hated studio executive in David Zaslav. Anyways, if you're looking for an entertaining action movie this summer, you can't go wrong with Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
June 15th
The Pink Panther (1963)
2.5/5
Forgive me, for I am about to sin all over a classic comedy. Maybe my expectations were too high for this one, having never seen the Peter Sellers Pink Panther films until now. I've come to expect greatness as I was told all my life that these films were the pinnacle of good comedy, the standard to measure every other comedy against. As for the first film in the franchise, it's mostly a drag. The story is simple, a renowned criminal known as “The Phantom” is after the world's largest jewel, the titular Pink Panther owned by Princess Dala (Claudia Cardinale). When she attends an exclusive ski resort in the Alps, The Phantom, actually an English playboy socialite named Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven), arrives to stalk her and steal the jewel. However he is followed there by Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) and his wife (Capucine) who is secretly working as a fence for The Phantom. Sir Charles Lytton’s American nephew George (Robert Wagner) also arrives and becomes another piece of the puzzle, both for the jewel, but also within the many double crossing romantic and sexual affairs of the four principal characters.
With this first film Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau wasn't officially the face of the series yet, and therefore not the main character. He's just one part of an ensemble, so his physical comedy antics were sparse and didn't always land with me anyways. If you're going to perform cartoon antics, you have to at least be better at it than the cartoons themselves. Honestly everything Inspector Clouseau did had already been done better by The Looney Tunes, Tex Avery, or Hanna-Barbera years prior. I found the majority of The Pink Panther to be unengaging, with stale comedy, and bland characters. The best part was the now legendary score that the film opens with. I wasn’t a fan, but hey maybe the Steve Martin films are better?
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.