Shameless Self Expression

Morgan Freeman plays the easy-going manager of a Palm Springs resort with a mostly retired clientele. He rules the roost with a band of cronies that includes Joe ‘Joey Pants’ Pantoliano, Graham Beckel, and George Wallace. However, two people walk into the resort who will provide great discomfort to Freeman’s cushy little existence: 1) Rene Russo as a representative of the resort’s owner looking into how Freeman has been running things, and 2) Retired FBI hard-arse Tommy Lee Jones, soon to be Freeman’s rival in just about every pursuit, including romantic. This means the two idiot geriatric males competing for the affections of the likes of Elizabeth Ashley, Glenne Headly, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and eventually even Russo. Jane Seymour turns up as a mobster’s wife who has it in for former mob lawyer Freeman. Johnny Mathis briefly plays himself and sings.   Writer-director Ron Shelton ( “Bull Durham” , “Tin Cup” ) must be a heck of a nice guy, because there’s no other reason why any of...

The true rise-and-fall story of Joe Hunt (Ansel Elgort) who along with his even more unscrupulous pal Dean Karny (Taron Egerton, with a fairly convincing American accent) and other likeminded youngsters starts a Ponzi scheme that results in two murders when the investment scam goes to shit. Kevin Spacey turns up as flamboyant Wall Street con artist Ron Levin, Emma Roberts is an artsy-type, whilst Rosanna Arquette and Judd Nelson play parents, and Cary Elwes has a cameo as Andy Warhol (!).   The off-screen ‘issues’ involving a certain ‘persona non grata’ in the cast saw this fact-based James Cox (writer-director of the 2003 John Holmes biopic “Wonderland” ) film shelved until 2018 despite being in the can by early 2016. It’s not a bad film, but it’s an overly familiar California “Boiler Room” (a more apt comparison than “The Wolf of Wall Street” in my view). It’s ultimately it’s just shy of getting a recommendation from me, but there’s some fine elements here.   Altho...

Tom Atkins plays a police detective who thinks a recent spate of grisly killings are the work of a former cop gone to seed. He’s right, although philandering husband and cop Bruce Campbell is wrongly pegged for the crimes when his wife turns out to be one of the victims. The real culprit is a former gun-happy rogue ‘hero’ cop (played by Robert Z’Dar), who was imprisoned for extreme over-zealousness. He was supposedly killed by prison inmates though, so good luck trying to convince the police commissioner (Richard Roundtree) of that. Sheree North plays a veteran cop now disabled, William Smith plays Campbell’s superior officer, Laureen Landon plays Campbell’s mistress, a fellow cop who tries to help Atkins clear Campbell’s name and find the real killer. Ken Lerner plays the cowardly and corrupt local mayor, Leo Rossi is his off-sider.   I’m rather late to the party with this 1988 schlock favourite from C-grade director William Lustig ( “Maniac” , “Vigilante” , “Uncle Sam” ) and ...

Charles Bronson is a former assassin living a peaceful life in the Cayman Islands, when he’s visited by an old acquaintance (Jose Ferrer!) with a job offer. An old friend of Bronson’s has been killed, supposedly a victim of a quasi-Nazi torturer known as The Doctor (Joseph Maher), AKA British-accented Dr. Clement Molloch. This ‘Doctor’ is a real piece of work, teaching his sadistic torturing trade to all manner of foreign generals and corrupt leaders, particularly in South America. He’s even blackmailed the slimy U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala (John Glover, natch), where The Doctor is currently operating unsanctioned. Bronson is retired, but meeting the dead man’s widow (Theresa Saldana), he realises that it’s an assignment he simply must take up and he agrees to go to Guatemala to rub ‘The Doctor’ out. He and Saldana head for Guatemala posing as a couple, with Rene Enriquez as Bronson’s local contact. Raymond St. Jacques plays a rather brutal thug on the payroll of ‘The Doctor’, whilst ...