If you like preposterous, over-the-top action movies, Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet may just be for you. Eastwood knows how to direct action, perhaps maybe too well. While the movie is often entertaining, some of the action sequences are so unrealistic that it brings me out of the movie at points. Even though the movie doesn’t take the action too seriously, it can be jarring to watch. There are two such sequences that come to mind. The first sequence is when the characters of Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke are at a house. They are on the run from law enforcement, but it seems like the entire police force comes out to shoot the entire house down. The second sequence is perhaps the final twenty minutes of the film. Essentially, these two characters enter town in a bus with seems like the entire police force on the West Coast gunning them down. What makes everything crazy is that these characters are not even fighting back! While all of this was fun to watch, it was very hard to suspend my disbelief. That being said, the action scenes are well-staged and there is enough action to last a lifetime. As I said before, Clint Eastwood knows how to direct an action film.

In the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona, Clint Eastwood portrays an alcoholic detective named Ben Shockley. He is given the task by police commissioner Blakelock (William Prince) to escort a witness named Gus Malley (Sondra Locke) from Las Vegas for a trial. Shockley travels to Vegas to promptly discover Gus as a college-educated hooker. She warns him that the odds are against him of bringing her to trial because she is going to testify against a very powerful mobster. As they start to travel, the mafia starts to chase them down. When Shockley calls for police help, he realizes that he was betrayed by someone in the police force.

One thing that Eastwood does very well in his movies is his portrayal of female characters. He does not seem them as decorations, unlike many directors of the time period. Despite all the mayhem in the movie, there is enough time for characterization of her character. She is a prostitute, but she is intelligent, ferocious, and has a college degree. That is very uncommon for a movie hooker. Sondra Locke performs her role very, very well. No wonder why Eastwood used her in many of his early movies. As for Eastwood himself, he does his normal character portrayal. Grumpy, has his famous scowl, and good at the action. So with all the action and mayhem in the movie, the performances manage to be perhaps the most realistic thing of the movie.

So if you are a fan of action movies, The Gauntlet is a good movie. It seems like it was a fun movie for all those involved with making it. I may not like the action being too crazy and over-the-top, I can appreciate the characterization and the story Eastwood and writers Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack created. Eastwood does have a sense of humor, so he applies that to the action and the story to a somewhat successful degree. Look, Clint Eastwood has made far better movies. I wouldn’t call this a blip on the radar, but I think it’s more of his less interesting movies. It was a kind of entertaining though watching the entire police force shoot down the bus as they made their way back into Phoenix. I guess if you go over-the-top, you must embrace it. That is what Eastwood did.

My Grade: B-

I said it before and I’ll say it again, but Steven Spielberg is a freakin’ movie-making genius. Even in the infancy of his career, you could see he was destined for big things in Hollywood. Well, he struck gold with Jaws (see my review), and now he returns with his science-fiction feature Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Along with Star Wars, you can credit this movie for bringing sci-fi back into the realm of filmmaking. That is just one of the variety of reasons why I love this movie. It is an honest, mysterious movie about extraterrestrial life. The film gives off a sense of aura of mystery and wonder that will stay with you long after the movie is over. Unlike most aliens in movies, I love how Spielberg created these beings as peaceful, friendly aliens, and that Spielberg gave his human characters that sense. In other words, no one is hell-bent on annihilating these aliens. With a wonderful cast and crew behind him, Spielberg created one of cinema’s richest, influential movies about aliens.

So this movie has two important segments that are interwoven with each other. Each segment is a connective tissue for the other segment, and Spielberg (who also wrote this film) incorporates his magic very well. Our first segment has a bunch of scientists investigating mysterious objects that appear out of nowhere in the desert regions and these scientists are perplexed until French scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) uses knowledge of music as a basis of communication with these objects. The responses they get are confusing until cartographer David Laughlin (Bob Balaban) figures out the meaning of these responses. Meanwhile in the small town of Muncie, Indiana, electrician Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and single mother Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) lives are connected when they experience a bunch of flashing lights in the form of UFOS. Their lives become affected in every way as Roy starts having visions about what is occurring and is obsessed with finding out what is going on, and Jillian needs to figure out the connection between these mysterious UFOS and her three-year-old son, Barry.

The cast and the crew do a wonderful job in putting this film together. After a huge blockbuster, Spielberg gained the right to make any film he wanted , and he chose this film to do. Somewhat of a passion project for him. Not to my surprise, Spielberg did an amazing job as director. He created a tight, effective story and he leaves the audience clamoring for more. The look of the film is really good, thanks to the amazing work done by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. There are two scenes that just show the majesty of his camerawork. The first scene is where Barry opens the door to this orange flashing light of the UFOS, The use of color here is amazing, and in return we get one of the most iconic shots of the film. The final scene I want to mention is when a whole bunch of UFOS fly over the town. There is a high-angle shot of a large UFO shadow hanging over a pickup truck. Brilliant camerawork!

Now this film wouldn’t have worked as well if it wasn’t for the amazing score by John Williams. He previously worked with Spielberg on Jaws and created one of the most iconic scores ever made thanks to the use of only two notes. Well, this time he works with only five notes. These five notes is the main communication method of the mother alien ship and then Williams incorporated it into the main theme. Like many of William’s works, this score is an all-time great.

Now the film is very well-acted. I really loved Richard Dreyfuss’s performance. After his roles in American Graffiti and Jaws, I was not sure that he could have done a better performance. Well he did just exactly that. His obsession became quite enticing to watch even as it was negatively messing up his life. I liked the way he figured out clues-really loved that scene with the mashed potato sculpture of Devil’s Tower. The other performances are solid, even if they’re not exactly memorable. Sure, we have the likes of Francois Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, and Teri Garr (who played Roy’s wife), but I think this was mostly a one-man show for Richard Dreyfuss. Although the kid who played Barry did a good job.

Overall, Close Encounter of the Third Kind is a very worthy follow-up to Jaws. I love what kind of science-fiction movie this is. One that delivers a sense of awe and mystery throughout the entire film. See, I love looking up at the night sky and wondering if there is any life out there at all. This film asks that question and more. It also asks if there was life, what kind of beings would they be? Well the film’s jaw-dropping finale tells us the answer. I loved how the film introduced us to these aliens, but also how it dealt with first contact in the confines of Devil’s Tower. The ending will blow your mind away. Give credit where credit is due, but those visual effects are quite polished for a 1977 feature. I highly recommend this movie because it is one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. Not many films reach the heights this film does. Thank you for this expertly-crafted movie, Mr. Spielberg.

My Grade: A

The James Bond franchise is one of those franchises that will never die. It has been going strong since the first movie rolled out in the early 1960’s, and new James Bond movies are still produced today. What makes this series unique is they use multiple actors to play the titular character over the years. They all bring their own gravitas to the role, and each Bond is a different man when compared to each other (although the martini, shaken not stirred and the beautiful women among other things remain a constant.) So my first James Bond review for this blog is 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. This wasn’t my first look at the series, but it was my first look at the older movies. I really liked what I saw. This is an old-fashioned story that combines a spy drama and an action-packed war movie into one package. Like many of the older Bond movies, the story can get borderline preposterous. The cheesiness of the plot did come to grow on me after awhile, even if the main villain is Russian (remember, this came out during the Cold War) and wants to destroy the world. Also like older Bond (or 007 if you prefer) movies, this movie is invested in its gadgets. There is nothing quite like seeing Bond use these cool-looking devices that can do powerful things.

James Bond (Roger Moore) is back for a new mission! This mission involves finding a Royal Navy submarine holding sixteen nuclear missiles that suddenly vanished without a trace. Bond must team up with Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) to take down the mastermind of the plot named Karl Stromberg (Curd Jurgens) and his henchman named Jaws (Richard Kiel), whose biggest weapon is his metal teeth. The clock is ticking as Bond must find the nuclear weapons before they are fired.

There are two questions to ask when watching a James Bond movie. Who are the villains? Who is the Bond girl? Both very essential to a Bond movie, as they can make or break the movie. In this case, we get two (mostly) effective villains, and a good-looking Bond lady. While Stromberg is the main villain with the plan, he is not too strong of a villain. I am more interested in Jaws. Jaws is actually labeled as one of the best villains in any Bond film, and I would wholeheartedly agree. He is quite a menace. He may be a little clumsy, but goodness once you see the teeth he has, you might rather face the shark that Jaws is named after. There are scenes here that can be quite gruesome when you see the teeth come into action. As for the girl, I think Major Anya is a good Bond lady. She is an undercover Russian agent, so the political side of that was an interesting concept given the time period.

I think the film was well-acted. I believe Roger Moore is one of the weakest Bonds, but he does a solid job. He plays a little older Bond, but his sense of humor and savvy attitude fits this film very well. Richard Kiel is the man who brought Jaws to life (sorry, Spielberg) and well he was terrifying as the sharp-teethed villain. Barbara Bach does a good job as Major Anya, and I liked the rivalry she brought to Bond. Curd Jurgens was a good villain, but his goals are similar to other villains of essentially every other action movie, so his role did not move me in one way or the other.

The Spy Who Loved Me is a fun, entertaining action flick and a worthy addition to the James Bond franchise. I liked the realistic tone the film was going for, given the tone of previous films. There is still cheesy parts, but what’s a James Bond movie without the cheesiness. I am rather impressed with the visuals of the film. This was filmed on location in the ancient, majestic parts of Egypt and they had some really cool underwater sets and quite frankly, I loved the visuals of Stromberg’s lair in the middle of the ocean. There is lots of action, although I feel the final act of the film chooses to do the obligatory action conclusions that many action movies do these days. However, the fights involving Jaws is just worth watching this movie for. If you are new to the franchise, this is a good beginning.

My Grade: B+