Review: Sweet Revenge


Stockard Channing plays a young car thief who is trying to earn enough cash to buy her dream car, an expensive Ferrari. Sam Waterston plays the lawyer who tries his best to get through to the girl and put her onto the straight and narrow for good. But Channing is no ordinary car thief, she seems to have a compulsion for it, and can’t stop. Hell, it doesn’t even seem like she wants to. Franklyn Ajaye has a role as one of Channing’s associates.

 

The director of “Panic in Needle Park” and “Street Smart” strikes out with this dull 1976 film. Surprisingly, director Jerry Schatzberg takes what is pretty heavy subject matter, and turns what could’ve been reasonably gritty dramatic material, into a sudsy soap opera. Hell, given the main character’s involvement with cars, it could’ve even been turned into a fun exploitation film. It’s not nearly worthy of the ‘BOMB’ rating Leonard Maltin gave it- it’s too harmless for that. But it’s also completely toothless, superficial, insignificant, and frankly a bit sluggish. It’s not a terrible film, but one can easily see why it has been forgotten.

 

Stockard Channing is a fine and charismatic actress and pretty believable in the lead, but the girl can’t work miracles. It’s especially hard to sympathise with her character when she keeps fucking up, and the character doesn’t have much depth. We’re not really given any indication that she’s a Klepto or has some mental compulsion to be doing what she is doing. The romance between Channing and Sam Waterston is a bust too, because she’s unlikeable and he’s Sam Waterston. Sorry, but the guy is a block of wood and the stiffest actor around outside of a porno. Oh well, at least playing a lawyer isn’t exactly a stretch for the guy. The connection isn’t there. It’s also a shame that the multi-talented and versatile Franklyn Ajaye is wasted in a part that, although the actor is likeable, requires little more of him than to say ‘dig’ at least once per sentence.

 

Meanwhile, there aren’t even any cool cars or exciting car chases. You’d think the film would at least work on that level. But no, it’s not really a drive-in movie. No, this one’s just not worth seeing. It’s just...there. The superficial, underdone screenplay is by Marilyn Goldin (the French film “Camille Claudel”, of all films), B.J. Perla (her only significant credit), and Jor Van Kline.

 

Rating: C

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more